A Popular History of Ireland: from the EarliestPeriod 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 alwaysreported John O'Neil as "the only strong man in Ireland. "Before his rout at Lough Swilly, he could commonly callinto the field 4, 000 foot and 1, 000 horse; and his twoyears' revolt cost Elizabeth, in money, about 150, 000pounds sterling "over and above the cess laid on thecountry"--besides "3, 500 of her Majesty's soldiers" slainin battle. The removal of such a leader in the very primeof life was therefore a cause of much congratulation toSidney and his royal mistress, and as no other "strongman" was likely soon to arise, the Deputy now turned withrenewed ardour to the task of establishing the Queen'ssupremacy, in things spiritual as well as temporal. Withthis view he urged that separate governments, with largethough subordinate military as well as civil powers, should be created for Munster and Connaught--with competentPresidents, who should reside in the former Province atLimerick, and in the latter, at Athlone. In accordancewith this scheme--which continued to be acted upon fornearly a century--Sir Edward Fitton was appointed firstPresident of Connaught, and Sir John Perrott, the Queen'sillegitimate brother, President of Munster. Leinster andUlster were reserved as the special charge of the LordDeputy. 

About the time of O'Neil's death Sidney made an officialprogress through the South and West, which he describesas wofully wasted by war, both town and country. Theearldom of the loyal Ormond was far from being wellordered; and the other great nobles were even lessfavourably reported; the Earl of Desmond could neitherrule nor be ruled; the Earl of Clancarty "wanted forceand credit;" the Earl of Thomond had neither wit to govern"nor grace to learn of others;" the Earl of Clanrickardewas well intentioned, but controlled wholly by his wife. Many districts had but "one-twentieth" of their ancientpopulation; Galway was in a state of perpetual defence. Athenry had but four respectable householders left, andthese presented him with the rusty keys of their oncefamous town, which they confessed themselves unable todefend, impoverished as they were by the extortions oftheir lords. All this to the eye of the able Englishmanhad been the result of that "cowardly policy, or lack ofpolicy, " whose sole maxims had been to play off the greatlords against each other and to retard the growth ofpopulation, least "through their quiet might follow"future dangers to the English interest. His own policywas based on very different principles. He proposed tomake the highest heads bow to the supremacy of the royalsword--to punish with exemplary rigour every sign ofinsubordination, especially in the great--and, at thesame time, to encourage with ample rewards, adventurers, and enterprises of all kinds. He proposed to himselfprecisely the part Lord Stafford acted sixty years later, and he entered on it with a will which would have wonthe admiration of that unbending despot. He prided himselfon the number of military executions which marked hisprogress. "Down they go in every corner, " he writes, "anddown they shall go, God willing!" He seized the Earl ofDesmond in his own town of Kilmallock; he took the sonsof Clanrickarde, in Connaught, and carried them prisonersto Dublin. Elizabeth became alarmed at these extrememeasures, and Sidney obtained leave to explain his newpolicy in person to her Majesty. Accordingly in Octoberhe sailed for England, taking with him the Earl and hisbrother John of Desmond, who had been invited to Dublin, and were detained as prisoners of State; Hugh O'Neil, asyet known by no other title than Baron of Dungannon; theO'Conor Sligo, and other chiefs and noblemen. He seemsto 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 CardinalStatesman of Henry VIII. Were to give way to thatremorseless struggle in which the only alternative offeredto the Irish was--uniformity or extermination. Of thispolicy, Sir Henry Sidney may, it seems to me, be fairlyconsidered the author; Stafford, and even Cromwell werebut finishers of his work. One cannot repress a sigh thatso ferocious a design as the extermination of a wholepeople should be associated in any degree with theillustrious 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 turnedhis steps southwards in full assurance that this chiefof Tyrone was not another "strong man" like the last. Anew Privy Council was sworn in on his arrival at Dublin, with royal instructions "to concur with" the Deputy, and20, 000 pounds a year in addition to the whole of the cesslevied in the country were guaranteed to enable him tocarry out his great scheme of the "reduction. " A Parliamentwas next summoned for the 17th of January, 1569, thefirst assembly of that nature which had been convenedsince Lord Sussex's rupture with _his_ Parliament nineyears before. 

The acts of this Parliament, of the 11th of Elizabeth, are much more voluminous than those of the 2nd of thesame reign. The constitution of the houses is also ofinterest, as the earlier records of every form of governmentmust always be. Three sessions were held in the firstyear, one in 1570, and one in 1571. After its dissolution, no Parliament sat in Ireland for fourteen years--sounstable was the system at that time, and so dependentupon accidental causes for its exercise. The firstsittings of Sidney's Parliament were as stormy as thoseof Sussex. It was found that many members presentedthemselves pretending to represent towns not incorporated, and others, officers of election, had returned themselves. Others, again, were non-resident Englishmen, dependenton the Deputy who had never seen the places for whichthey claimed to sit. The disputed elections of allclasses being referred to the judges, they decided thatnon-residence did not disqualify the latter class; butthat those who had returned themselves, and those chosenfor non-corporate towns, were inadmissible. This doubledecision did not give the new House of Commons quite thedesired complexion, though Stanihurst, Recorder of Dublin, the Court candidate, was chosen Speaker. The oppositionwas led by Sir Christopher Barnewall, an able and intrepidman, to whose firmness it was mainly due that a moresweeping proscription was not enacted, under form of law, at this period. The native Englishmen in the House wereextremely unpopular out of doors, and Hooker, one oftheir 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 firstsession were a subsidy, for ten years, of 13 shillings4 pence for every ploughland granted to the Queen; anact suspending Poyning's act for the continuance of_that_ Parliament; an act for the attainder of JohnO'Neil; an act appropriating to her Majesty the lands ofthe Knight of the Valley; an act authorizing the LordDeputy to present to vacant benefices in Munster andConnaught for ten years; an act abolishing the title of"Captain, " or _ruler_ of counties or districts, unlessby special warrant under the great seal; an act forreversing the attainder of the Earl of Kildare. In thesittings of 1570 and '71, the chief acts were for theerection of free schools, for the preservation of thepublic records, for establishing an uniform measure inthe sale of corn, and for the attainder of the WhiteKnight, deceased. Though undoubtedly most of these statutesstrengthened Sidney's hands and favoured his policy, theydid not go the lengths which in his official correspondencehe advocated. For the last seven years of his connectionwith Irish affairs, he was accordingly disposed to dispensewith the unmanageable machinery of a Parliament. Ordersin council were much more easily procured than acts oflegislation, even when every care had been taken to packthe House of Commons with the dependents of the executive. 

The meeting of Parliament in 1569 was nearly coincidentwith the formal excommunication of Elizabeth by PopePius V. Though pretending to despise the bull, the Queenwas weak enough to seek its revocation, through theinterposition of the Emperor Maximilian. The high toneof the enthusiastic Pontiff irritated her deeply, andperhaps the additional severities which she now directedagainst her Catholic subjects, may be, in part, tracedto the effects of the excommunication. In Ireland, thework of reformation, by means of civil disabilities andexecutive patronage, was continued with earnestness. In1564, all Popish priests and friars were prohibited frommeeting in Dublin, or even coming within the city gates. Two years later, _The Book of Articles_, copied from theEnglish Articles, was published, by order of "theCommissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical. " The articlesare twelve in number:--1. The Trinity in Unity; 2. TheSufficiency of the Scriptures to Salvation; 3. TheOrthodoxy of Particular Churches; 4. The Necessity ofHoly Orders; 5. The Queen's Supremacy; 6. Denial of thePope's authority "to be more than other Bishops have;"7. The Conformity of the Book of Common Prayer to theScriptures; 8. The Ministration of Baptism does not dependon the Ceremonial; 9. Condemns "Private Masses, " anddenies that the Mass can be a propitiatory Sacrifice forthe Dead; 10. Asserts the Propriety of Communion in BothKinds; 11. Utterly disallows Images, Relics and Pilgrimages;12. Requires a General Subscription to the foregoingArticles. With this creed, the Irish Establishment startedinto existence, at the command and, of course, with allthe aid of the civil power. The Bishops of Meath andKildare, the nearest to Dublin, for resisting it werebanished their sees; the former to die an exile in Spain, the latter to find refuge and protection with the Earlof Desmond. Several Prelates were tolerated in theirsees, on condition of observing a species of neutrality;but all vacancies, if within the reach of the Englishpower, were filled as they occurred by nominees of thecrown. Those who actively and energetically resisted thenew doctrines were marked out for vengeance, and we shallsee in the next decade how Ireland's martyr age began. 

The honour and danger of organizing resistance to theprogress of the new religion now devolved upon the noblefamily of the Geraldines of Munster, of whose principalmembers we must, therefore, give some account. Thefifteenth Earl, who had concurred in the act of Henry'selection, 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 firstwife, from whom he had been divorced on the ground ofconsanguinity. This son disputed the successionunsuccessfully, retired to Spain, and there died. EarlGerald, though one of the Peers who sat in the Parliamentof the second year of Elizabeth, was one of those whostrenuously opposed the policy of Sussex, and still morestrenuously, as may be supposed, the more extreme policyof Sidney. His reputation, however, as a leader, sufferedseverely by the combat of Affane, in which he was takenprisoner by Thomas, the tenth Earl of Ormond, with whomhe was at feud on a question of boundaries. By order ofthe Queen, the Lord Deputy was appointed arbitrator inthis case, and though the decision was in favour ofOrmond, Desmond submitted, came to Dublin, and wasreconciled with his enemy in the chapter house of St. Patrick's. A year or two later, Gerald turned his armsagainst the ancient rivals of his house--the McCarthysof Muskerry and Duhallow--but was again taken prisoner, and after six months' detention, held to ransom by theLord of Muskerry. After his release, the old feud withOrmond broke out anew--a most impolitic quarrel, as thatEarl was not only personally a favourite with the Queen, but was also nearly connected with her in blood throughthe Boleyns. In 1567, as before related, Desmond wasseized by surprise in his town of Kilmallock by Sidney'sorder, and the following autumn conveyed to London on acharge of treason and lodged in the Tower. This was thethird prison he had lodged in within three years, and byfar the most hopeless of the three. His brother, Sir Johnof Desmond, through the representations of Ormond, wasthe same year arrested and consigned to the same ominousdungeon, from which suspected noblemen seldom emerged, except when the hurdle waited for them at the gate. 

This double capture aroused the indignation of all thetribes of Desmond, and led to the formidable combinationwhich, in reference to the previous confederacy in thereign of Henry, may be called "the second GeraldineLeague. " The Earl of Clancarty, and such of the O'Briens, McCarthys, and Butlers, as had resolved to resist thecomplete revolution in property, religion, and law, whichSidney meditated, united together to avenge the wrongsof those noblemen, their neighbours, so treacherouslyarrested and so cruelly confined. Sir James, son of SirMaurice Fitzgerald of Kerry, commonly called JamesFitz-Maurice, cousin-germain to the imprisoned noblemen, was chosen leader of the insurrection. He was, accordingto the testimony of an enemy, Hooker, member for Athenry, "a deep dissembler, passing subtile, and able to compassany matter he took in hand; courteous, valiant, expertin martial affairs. " To this we may add that he hadalready reached a mature age; was deeply and sincerelydevoted to his religion; and, according to the eulogistof the rival house of Ormond, one whom nothing coulddeject or bow down, a scorner of luxury and ease, insensibleto danger, impervious to the elements, preferring, aftera hard day's fighting, the bare earth to a luxuriouscouch. 

One of the first steps of the League was to despatch anembassy 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 thismission, of which Sidney was no sooner apprised than heproclaimed the confederates traitors, and at once preparedfor A campaign in Munster. The first blow was struck bythe taking of Clogrennan Castle, which belonged to SirEdmond Butler, one of the adherents of the League. Theattack was led by Sir Peter Carew, an English adventurer, who had lately appeared at Dublin to claim the originalgrant made to Robert Fitzstephen of the moiety of thekingdom of Cork, and who at present commanded the garrisonof Kilkenny. The accomplished soldier of fortune anticipatedthe Deputy's movements by this blow at the confederatedButlers, who retaliated by an abortive attack on Kilkenny, and a successful foray into Wexford, in which they tookthe Castle of Enniscorthy. Sidney, taking the field inperson, marched through Waterford and Dungarvan againstDesmond's strongholds in the vicinity of Youghal. Aftera week's siege he took Castlemartyr, and continued hisroute through Barrymore to Cork, where he establishedhis head-quarters. From Cork, upon receiving the submissionof some timid members of the League, he continued hisroute to Limerick, where Sir Edmond Butler and his brotherswere induced to come in by their chief the Earl of Ormond. From Limerick he penetrated Clare, took the Castles ofClonoon and Ballyvaughan; he next halted some time atGalway, and returned to Dublin by Athlone. Overawed bythe activity of the Deputy, many others of the confederatesfollowed the example of the Butlers. The Earl of Clancartysued for pardon and delivered up his eldest son as ahostage for his good faith; the Earl of Thomond--moresuspected than compromised--yielded all his castles, with the sole exception of Ibrackan. But the next year, mortified at the insignificance to which he had reducedhimself, he sought refuge in France, from which he onlyreturned 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 characterfor which he had obtained credit. Castle after castlebelonging to his cousins and himself was taken by thepowerful siege trains of President Perrott; Castlemaine, the last stronghold which commanded an outlet by sea, surrendered after a three months' siege, gallantlymaintained. The unyielding leader had now, therefore, noalternative but to retire into the impregnable passes ofthe Galtees, where he established his head-quarters. Thismountain range, towering from two to three thousand feetover the plain of Ormond, stretches from north-west tosouth-east, some twenty miles, descending with many agentle undulation towards the Funcheon and the Blackwaterin the earldom of Desmond. Of all its valleys Aharlowwas the fairest and most secluded. Well wooded, and wellwatered, with outlets and intricacies known only to thenative population, it seemed as if designed for a nurseryof insurrection. It now became to the patriots of theSouth what the valley of Glenmalure had long been forthose of Leinster--a fortress dedicated by Nature to thedefence of freedom. In this fastness Fitzmaurice continuedto maintain himself, until a prospect of new combinationsopened to him in the West. 

The sons of the Earl of Clanrickarde, though releasedfrom the custody of Sidney, receiving intimation thatthey were to be arrested at a court which Fitton, Presidentof Connaught, had summoned at Galway, flew to arms andopened negotiations with Fitzmaurice. The latter, withdrawing from Aharlow, promptly joined them in Galway, and during the campaign which followed, aided them withhis iron energy and sagacious counsel. They took anddemolished the works of Athenry, and, in part, those ofthe Court of Athlone. Their successes induced the Deputyto liberate Clanrickarde himself, who had been detaineda prisoner in Dublin, from the outbreak of his sons. Onhis return--their main object being attained--theysubmitted as promptly as they had revolted, and this hopealso being quenched, Fitzmaurice found his way back again, with a handful of Scottish retainers, to the shelter ofAharlow. Sir John Perrott, having by this time no furthersieges to prosecute, drew his toils closer and closerround the Geraldine's retreat. For a whole year, thefidelity of his adherents and the natural strength ofthe place enabled him to baffle all the President'sefforts. But his faithful Scottish guards being at lengthsurprised and cut off almost to a man, Fitzmaurice, withhis son, his kinsman, the Seneschal of Imokilly, and theson of Richard Burke, surrendered to the President atKilmallock, 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 Earlof Desmond and his brother, Sir John, were released fromthe Tower, and transferred to Dublin, where they weretreated as prisoners on parole. The Mayor of the city, who was answerable for their custody, having taken themupon a hunting party in the open country, the brothersput spurs to their horses and escaped into Munster (1574). They were stigmatized as having broken their parole, butthey asserted that it was intended on that party to waylayand murder them, and that their only safety was in flight. Large rewards were offered for their capture, alive ordead, but the necessities of both parties compelled atruce during the remainder of Sidney's official career--which terminated in his resignation--about four yearsafter the escape of the Desmonds from Dublin. Thus werenew 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 ANDDEATH OF SIR JAMES FITZMAURICE. 

Queen Elizabeth, when writing to Lord Sussex of a rumouredrising by O'Neil, desired him to assure her lieges atDublin, that if O'Neil did rise, "it would be for theiradvantage; for there will be estates for them who want. "The Sidney policy of treating Ireland as a discoveredcountry, whose inhabitants had no right to the soil, except such as the discoverers graciously conceded tothem--begat a new order of men, unknown to the historyof other civilized states, which order we must now be atsome pains to introduce to the reader. 

These "Undertakers, " as they were called, differed widelyfrom the Norman invaders of a former age. The Normangenerally espoused the cause of some native chief, andtook his pay in land; what he got by the sword he heldby the sword. But the Undertaker was usually a man ofpeace--a courtier like Sir Christopher Hatton--a politicianlike Sir Walter Raleigh--a poet like Edmund Spencer, ora spy and forger like Richard Boyle, first Earl of Cork. He came, in the wake of war, with his elastic "letterspatent, " or, if he served in the field, it was mainlywith a view to the subsequent confiscations. He was adroitat finding flaws in ancient titles, skilled in all thefeudal quibbles of fine and recovery, and ready to employthe secret dagger where hard swearing and fabricateddocuments might fail to make good his title. Sometimesmen of higher mark and more generous dispositions, alluredby the temptations of the social revolution, would enteron the same pursuits, but they generally miscarried fromwant of what was then cleverly called "subtlety, " butwhich plain people could not easily distinguish fromlying and perjury. What greatly assisted them in then:designs was the fact that feudal tenures had never beengeneral in Ireland, so that by an easy process of reasoningthey could prove nineteen-twentieths of all existingtitles "defective, " according to their notions of thelaws of property. 

Sir Peter Carew, already mentioned, was one of the earliestof the Undertakers. He had been bred up as page to thePrince of Orange, and had visited the Courts of France, Germany, and Constantinople. He claimed, by virtue ofhis descent from Robert Fitzstephen, the barony of Idrone, in Carlow, and one half the kingdom of Desmond. Sir HenrySidney had admitted these pretensions, partly as a menaceagainst the Kavanaghs and Geraldines, and Sir Peterestablished himself at Leighlin, where he kept greathouse, with one hundred servants, over one hundred kerne, forty horse, a stall in his stable, a seat at his boardfor all comers. He took an active part in all militaryoperations, and fell fighting gallantly on a memorableday to be hereafter mentioned. 

After the attainder of John the Proud in 1569, Sir ThomasSmith, Secretary to the Queen, obtained a grant of thedistrict 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 hehad come to found a lordship. A higher name was equallyunfortunate in the same field of adventure. WalterDevereux, Earl of Essex (father of the Essex still moreunfortunate), obtained in 1573 a grant of one moiety ofFarney and Clandeboy, and having mortgaged his Englishestates to the Queen for 10, 000 pounds, associated withhimself many other adventurers. On the 16th of August, he set sail from Liverpool, accompanied by the LordsDacre and Rich, Sir Henry Knollys, the three sons of LordNorris, and a multitude of the common people. But as hehad left one powerful enemy at court in Leicester--so hefound a second at Dublin, in the acting deputy, Fitzwilliam. Though gratified with the title of President of Ulsterand afterwards that of Marshal of Ireland, he found hisschemes constantly counteracted by orders from Dublin orfrom England. He was frequently ordered off from hishead-quarters at Newry, on expeditions into Munster, until those who had followed his banner became disheartenedand mutinous. The O'Neils and the Antrim Scots harassedhis colony and increased his troubles. He attempted bytreachery to retrieve his fortunes. Having invited thealliance of Con O'Donnell, he seized that chief and senthim prisoner to Dublin. Subsequently his chief opponent, Brian, lord of Clandeboy, paid him an amicable visit, accompanied by his wife, brother, and household. As theywere seated at table on the fourth day of then--stay, the soldiers of Essex burst into the banquet hall, putthem all, "women, youths and maidens, " to the sword. Brian and his wife were saved from the slaughter only toundergo at Dublin the death and mutilation inflicted upontraitors. Yet the ambitious schemes of Walter of Essexdid not prosper the more of all these crimes. He died atDublin, two years afterwards (1576), in the 36th year ofhis age, as was generally believed from poison administeredby the orders of the arch-poisoner, Leicester, whoimmediately upon his death married his widow. 

It is apparent that the interest of the Undertakers couldnot be to establish peace in Ireland so long as war mightbe profitably waged. The new "English interest" thuscreated was often hostile to the soundest rules of policyand always opposed to the dictates of right and justice;but the double desire to conquer and to convert--toanglicize and Protestantize--blinded many to the lawlessmeans by which they were worked out. The massacre of 400persons of the chief families of Leix and Offally, whichtook place at Mullaghmast in 1577, is an evidence of howthe royal troops were used to promote the ends of theUndertakers. To Mullaghmast, one of the ancient raths ofLeinster, situated about five miles from Athy in Kildare, the O'Moores, O'Kellys, Lalors, and other Irish tribeswere 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 theneighbouring territory were invited to meet them. Oneof the Lalors, perceiving that none of those who enteredthe rath before him emerged again, caused his friends tofall back while he himself advanced alone. At the veryentrance he beheld the dead bodies of some of hisslaughtered kinsmen; drawing his sword, he fought hisway back to his friends, who barely escaped with theirlives to Dysart. Four hundred victims, including 180 ofthe name of O'Moore, are said to have fallen in thisdeliberate butchery. Rory O'Moore, the chief of his name, avenged this massacre by many a daring deed. In rapidsuccession he surprised Naas, Athy, and Leighlin. Fromthe rapidity with which his blows were struck in Kildare, Carlow, and Kilkenny, he appeared to be ubiquitous. Hewas the true type of a guerilla leader, yet merciful asbrave. While Naas was burning, he sat coolly at themarket cross enjoying the spectacle, but he suffered nolives to be taken. Having captured Cosby, he did not, as might be expected, put him to death. His confidencein his own prowess and resources amounted to rashness, and finally caused his death. Coming forth from a woodto parley with a party of the Queen's troops led by hisneighbour, the Lord of Ossory, a common soldier ran himthrough the body with a sword. This was on the last dayof June, 1578--a day mournful through all the midlanddistricts for the loss of their best and bravest captain. 

While these events occupied the minds and tongues of menin the North and East, a brief respite from the horrorsof war was permitted to the province of Munster. The Earlof Desmond, only too happy to be tolerated in the possessionof his 570, 000 acres, was eager enough to testify hisallegiance by any sort of service. His brothers, thoughless compliant, followed his example for the moment, andno danger was to be apprehended in that quarter, exceptfrom the indomitable James Fitzmaurice, self-exiled onthe continent. No higher tribute could be paid to thecharacter of that heroic man than the closeness withwhich all his movements were watched by English spies, specially set upon his track. They followed him to theFrench court, to St. Malo's (where he resided for sometime with his family), to Madrid, whence he sent his twosons to the famous University of Alcala, and from Madridto Rome. The honourable reception he received at thehands of the French and Spanish Sovereigns was dulyreported; yet both being at peace with England, his planselicited no open encouragement from either. At Rome, however, he obtained some material and much moral support. Here he found many zealous advocates among the Englishand 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 enlistedat 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 underthe 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 himto Rome. On the strength of some remote or pretendedrelationship to the McMurroghs, Stukely obtained fromthe Pope the titles of Marquis of Leinster and Baron ofIdrone and Ross; at Fitzmaurice's urgent request--so itis stated--he was named Vice-Admiral of the fleet. Thewhole expedition was fitted out at the expense of thePope, but it was secretly agreed that it should besupported, after landing in Ireland, at the charge ofPhilip 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 thecoast of Kerry. So with the Papal benediction gladdeninghis heart, and a most earnest exhortation from the HolyFather to the Catholics of Ireland to follow his banner, this noblest of all the Catholic Geraldines departed fromRome, 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 beenrecalled at his own request; Sir William Drury was actingas Lord Justice; and Sir Nicholas Malby as President ofMunster. Expectation of the return of Fitzmaurice, atthe head of a liberating expedition, began to be rifethroughout the south and west, and the coasts were watchedwith the utmost vigilance. In the month of June, threepersons having landed in disguise from a Spanish ship, at Dingle, were seized by government spies, and carriedbefore the Earl of Desmond. On examination, one of themproved to be O'Haly, Bishop of Mayo, and another a friarnamed O'Rourke; the third is not named. By the timid, temporizing Desmond, they were forwarded to Kilmallockto Drury, who put them to every conceivable torture, inorder to extract intelligence of Fitzmaurice's movements. After their thighs had been broken with hammers, theywere hanged on a tree, and their bodies used as targetsby the brutal soldiery. Fitzmaurice, with his friends, having survived shipwreck on the coast of Galicia, enteredthe same harbour (Dingle) on the 17th of July. But notidings had yet reached Munster of Stukely and Pisano;and his cousin, the Earl, sent him neither sign offriendship nor promise of co-operation. He thereforebrought 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 theshipwreck at that point of one of Martin Forbisher'svessels, laden with golden quartz, some years before. Here he was joined by John and James of Desmond, and bya band of 200 of the O'Flaherties of Galway, the onlyallies who presented themselves. These latter, on findingthe expected Munster rising already dead, and themuch-talked-of Spanish auxiliary force so mere a handful, soon withdrew in their own galleys, upon which an Englishship and pinnace, sweeping round from Kinsale, carriedoff the Spanish vessels in sight of the powerless littlefort. These desperate circumstances inspired desperatecouncils, and it was decided by the cousins to endeavourto gain the great wood of Kilmore, near Charleville--inthe neighbourhood of Sir James' old retreat among theGaltee Mountains. In this march they were closely pursuedby the Earl of Desmond, either in earnest or in sham, and were obliged to separate into three small bands, thebrothers of the Earl retiring respectively to the fastnessesof Lymnamore and Glenfesk, while Fitzmaurice, with "adozen horsemen and a few kerne, " made a desperate pushto 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 longday's ride he was compelled to seize some horses fromthe plough, in the barony of Clanwilliam, in order toremount his men. These horses were the property of hisrelative, Sir William Burke, who, with his neighbour, Mac-I-Brien of Ara, pursued the fugitives to within sixmiles of Limerick, where Fitzmaurice, having turned toremonstrate with his pursuers, was fired at and mortallywounded. He did not instantly fall. Dashing into themidst of his assailants he cleft down the two sons ofBurke, whose followers immediately turned and fled. Thenalighting from his saddle, the wounded chief receivedthe 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 afterwardsdiscovered, carried to Kilmallock, and there hung up fora target and a show. This tragical occurrence took placenear the present site of "Barrington's bridge, " on thelittle river Mulkern, county of Limerick, on the 18thday of August, 1579. In honour of his part in thetransaction William Burke was created Baron ofCastleconnell, awarded a pension of 100 marks per annum, and received from Elizabeth an autograph letter ofcondolence on the loss of his sons: it is added by somewriters that he died of joy on the receipt of so manyfavours. Such was the fate of the glorious hopes of SirJames Fitzmaurice. So ended in a squabble with churlsabout cattle, on the banks of an insignificant stream, a career which had drawn the attention of Europe, andhad inspired with apprehension the lion-hearted Queen. 

As to the expedition under Stukely, its end was even moreromantic. His squadron having put into the Tagus, hefound the King of Portugal, Don Sebastian, on the eve ofsailing against the Moors, and from some promise of afteraid was induced to accompany that chivalrous Prince. Onthe fatal field of Alcacar, Stukely, Pisano, and theItalians under their command shared the fate of thePortuguese monarch and army. Neither Italy nor Irelandheard of them more. 

Gregory XIII. Did not abandon the cause. On the receiptof all these ill-tidings he issued another Bull, highlylaudatory of the virtues of James Fitzmaurice "of happymemory, " and granting the same indulgence to those whowould fight under John or James of Desmond, "as thatwhich was imparted to those who fought against the Turksfor the recovery of the Holy Land. " This remarkabledocument is dated from Rome, the 13th of May, 1580. 

CHAPTER VI. 

SEQUEL OF THE SECOND GERALDINE LEAGUE--PLANTATIONOF MUNSTER--EARLY CAREER OF HUGH O'NEIL, EARL OFTYRONE--PARLIAMENT OF 1585. 

We must continue to read the history of Ireland by thelight of foreign affairs, and our chief light at thisperiod is derived from Spain. The death of Don Sebastianconcentrated the thoughts of Philip II. On Portugal, which he forcibly annexed to the Spanish crown. Theprogress of the insurrection in the Netherlands alsooccupied so large a place in his attention, that hisprojects against Elizabeth were postponed, year afteryear, to the bitter disappointment of the Irish leaders. It may seem far-fetched to assert, but it is not the lesscertainly true, that the fate of Catholic Munster wasintimately involved in the change of masters in Portugal, and the fluctuations of war in the Netherlands, The "Undertakers, " who had set their hearts on havingthe Desmond estates, determined that the Earl and hisbrothers should not live long in peace, however peaceablythey might be disposed. The old trick of forging letters, already alluded to, grew into a common and familiarpractice during this and the following reign. Such aletter, purporting to be written by the Earl of Desmond--at that period only too anxious to be allowed to livein peace--was made public at Dublin and London. It wasaddressed to Sir William Pelham, the temporary LordJustice, and among other passages contained this patentinvention--that he (the Earl and his brethren) "had takenthis matter in hand with great authority, both from thePope's holiness and King Philip, who do undertake tofurther us in our affairs, as we shall need. " It isutterly incredible that any man in Desmond's positioncould have written such a letter--could have placed inthe hands of his enemies a document which must for everdebar him from entering into terms with Elizabeth or herrepresentatives in Ireland. We have no hesitation, therefore, in classing this pretended letter to Pelhamwith those admitted forgeries which drove the unfortunateLord Thomas Fitzgerald into premature revolt, in thereign of Henry VIII. 

Sir John of Desmond had been nominated by the gallantFitzmaurice in his last moments as the fittest person torally the remaining defenders of religion and propertyin Munster. The Papal standard and benediction werealmost all he could bequeath his successor, but the energyof John, aided by some favourable local occurrences, assembled a larger force for the campaign of 1579 thanhad lately taken the field. Without the open aid of theEarl, he contrived to get together at one time as manyas 2, 000 men, amongst whom not the least active officerwas his younger brother, Sir James, hardly yet of man'sage. Drs. Saunders and Allen, with several Spanishofficers, accompanied this devoted but undisciplinedmultitude, sharing all the hardships of the men, and thecounsels of the chiefs. Their first camp, and, so tospeak, the nursery of their army, was among the inaccessiblemountains of Slievelogher in Kerry, where the rudimentsof discipline were daily inculcated. When they consideredthe time ripe for action, they removed their camp to thegreat wood of Kilmore, near Charleville, from which theymight safely assail the line of communication betweenCork and Limerick, the main depots of Elizabeth's southernarmy. Nearly half-way between these cities, and withina few miles of their new encampment, stood the strongtown of Kilmallock on the little river Lubach. This famousold Geraldine borough, the focus of several roads, wasthe habitual stopping place of the Deputies in theirprogress, as well as of English soldiers on their march. The ancient fortifications, almost obliterated byFitzmaurice eleven years before, had been replaced bystrong walls, lined with earthworks, and crowned bytowers. Here Sir William Drury fixed his head-quartersin the spring of 1579, summoning to his aid all theQueen's lieges in Munster. With a force of not less than1, 000 English regulars under his own command, and perhapstwice that number under the banner of the Munster"Undertakers" and others, who obeyed the summons, he madean unsuccessful attempt to beat up the Geraldine quartersat Kilmore. One division of his force, consisting of300 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 theircamp at Athneasy, a ford on the Morning Star River, fourmiles east of Kilmallock. For nine weeks Drury continuedin the field, without gaining any advantage, yet soharassed day and night by his assailants that his healthgave way under his anxieties. Despairing of recovery, hewas removed by slow stages to Waterford--which would seemto indicate that his communications both with Cork andLimerick were impracticable--but died before reachingthe first mentioned city. The chief command in Munsternow devolved upon Sir Nicholas Malby, an officer who hadseen much foreign service, while the temporary vacancyin the government was filled by the Council at Dublin, whose choice fell on Sir William Pelham, anotherdistinguished military man, lately arrived from England. 

Throughout the summer and autumn months the war wasmaintained, with varying fortune on either side. In thecombats of Gortnatibrid and Enagbeg, in Limerick, thefinal success, according to Irish accounts, was with theGeraldines, though they had the misfortune to lose CardinalAllen, Sir Thomas Fitzgerald and Sir Thomas Browne. Retiring into winter quarters at Aharlow, they had athird engagement with the garrison of Kilmallock, whichattempted, 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 conferenceby the Lord Barry, was entrapped by an English forceunder Captain Zouch, in the woods surrounding CastleLyons, and put to death on the spot. The young Sir Jameshad previously been captured on a foray into Muskerry, and executed at Cork, so that of the brothers there nowremained but Earl Gerald, the next victim of themachinations which had already proved so fatal to hisfamily. Perceiving at length the true designs cherishedagainst him, the Earl took the field in the spring of1580, and obtained two considerable advantages, one atPea-field, against the English under Roberts, and a secondat Knockgraffon against the Anglo-Irish, under the brothersof the Earl of Ormond, the recusant members of the originalleague. Both these actions were fought in Tipperary, andraised anew the hopes of the Munster Catholics. Anunsuccessful attempt on Adare was the only other militaryevent in which the Earl bore a part; he wintered inAharlow, where his Christmas was rather that of an outlawthan of the Lord Palatine of Desmond. In Aharlow he hadthe misfortune to lose the gifted and heroic Nuncio, Dr. Saunders, whose great services, at that period, takentogether with those of Cardinal Allen, long endeared thefaithful English to the faithful Irish Catholics. 

The sequel of the second Geraldine League may be rapidlynarrated. In September, 1580, the fort at Smerwick, whereFitzmaurice had landed from Galicia, received a garrisonof 800 men, chiefly Spaniards and Italians, under DonStephen San Joseph. The place was instantly invested bysea and land, under the joint command of the new Lieutenant, Lord Grey de Wilton, and the Earl of Ormond. Among theofficers of the besieging force were three especiallynotable men--Sir Walter Raleigh, the poet Spenser, andHugh O'Neil, afterwards Earl of Tyrone, but at this timecommanding a squadron of cavalry for her Majesty QueenElizabeth. San Joseph surrendered the place on conditions;that savage outrage ensued, which is known in Irishhistory as "the massacre of Smerwick. " Raleigh andWingfield appear to have directed the operations by which800 prisoners of war were cruelly butchered and flungover the rocks. The sea upon that coast is deep and thetides swift; but it has not proved deep enough to hidethat horrid crime, or to wash the stains of such wantonbloodshed from the memory of its authors!

For four years longer the Geraldine League flickered inthe 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 fromforeign assistance, the condition of Desmond grew moreand more intolerable. On one occasion he narrowly escapedcapture by rushing with his Countess into a river, andremaining concealed up to the chin in water. His dangerscan hardly be paralleled by those of Bruce after thebattle of Falkirk, or by the more familiar adventures ofCharles Edward. At length, on the night of the 11th ofNovember, 1584, he was surprised with only two followersin 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 fancyof the traveller to that tragical scene. Cowering overthe embers of a half-extinct fire in a miserable hovel, the lord of a country, which in time of peace had yieldedan annual rental of "40, 000 golden pieces, " was despatchedby 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 trunkflung out upon the highway; the head was transported overseas, to rot upon the spikes of London Tower. 

The extirpation of the Munster Geraldines, in the rightline, according to the theory of the "Undertakers" andthe Court of England in general, vested in the Queen the570, 000 acres belonging to the late Earl. Proclamationwas accordingly made throughout England, inviting "youngerbrothers of good families" to undertake the plantationof Desmond--each planter to obtain a certain scope ofland, on condition of settling thereupon so manyfamilies--"none of the native Irish to be admitted. "Under these conditions, Sir Christopher Hatton took up10, 000 acres in Waterford; Sir Walter Raleigh 12, 000acres, partly in Waterford and partly in Cork; Sir WilliamHarbart, or Herbert, 13, 000 acres in Kerry; Sir EdwardDenny 6, 000 in the same county; Sir Warham, St. Leger, and Sir Thomas Norris, 6, 000 acres each in Cork; SirWilliam Courtney 10, 000 acres in Limerick; Sir EdwardFitton 11, 500 acres in Tipperary and Waterford, and EdmundSpenser a modest 3, 000 acres in Cork, on the beautifulBlackwater. The other notable Undertakers were the Hides, Butchers, Wirths, Berklys, Trenchards, Thorntons, Bourchers, Billingsleys, &c. , &c. Some of these grants, especiallyRaleigh's, fell in the next reign into the ravening mawof Richard Boyle, the so-called "_great_ Earl ofCork"--probably the most pious hypocrite to be found inthe long roll of the "Munster Undertakers. "

Before closing the present chapter, we must present tothe reader, in a formal manner, the personage whose careeris to occupy the chief remaining part of the presentBook--Hugh O'Neil, best known by the title of Earl ofTyrone. We have seen him in the camp of the enemies ofhis country, learning the art of war on the shores ofDingle Bay--a witness to the horrors perpetrated atSmerwick. We may find him later in the same war--in1584--serving under Perrott and Norris, along the Foyleand the Bann, for the expulsion of the Antrim Scots. Thefollowing year, for these and other good services, hereceived the patent of the Earldom originally conferredon his grandfather, Con O'Neil, but suffered to sink intoabeyance by the less politic "John the Proud, " in thedays when he made his peace with the Queen. The next yearhe obtained from his clansmen the still higher title ofO'Neil, and thus he contrived to combine, in his ownperson, every principle of authority likely to ensurehim following and obedience, whether among the clansmenof Tyrone, or the townsmen upon its borders. 

O'Neil's last official act of co-operation with the Dublingovernment may be considered his participation in theParliament convoked by Sir John Perrott in 1585, andprorogued till the following year. It is remarkable ofthis Parliament, the third and last of Elizabeth's longreign, that it was utterly barren of ecclesiasticallegislation, if we except "an act against sorcery andwitchcraft" from that category. The attainder of the lateEarl of Desmond, and the living Viscount of Baltinglass, in arms with the O'Byrnes in Glenmalure, are the onlymeasures of consequence to be found among the Irishstatutes of the 27th and 28th of Elizabeth. But thoughnot remarkable for its legislation, the Parliament of1585 is conspicuously so for its composition. Within itswalls with the peers, knights, and burgesses of theanglicized counties, sat almost all the native chiefs ofUlster, Connaught, and Munster. The Leinster chiefsrecently in arms, in alliance with the Earl of Desmond, generally absented themselves, with the exception ofFeagh, son of Hugh, the senior of the O'Byrnes, and oneof the noblest spirits of his race and age. He appearsnot to have had a seat in either House; but attended, onhis own business, under the protection of his powerfulfriends and sureties. 

CHAPTER VII. 

BATTLE OF GLENMALURE--SIR JOHN PERROTT'S ADMINISTRATION--THE SPANISH ARMADA--LORD DEPUTY FITZWILLIAM--ESCAPE OFHUGH ROE O'DONNELL FROM DUBLIN CASTLE--THE ULSTERCONFEDERACY FORMED. 

In pursuing to its close the war in Munster, we wereobliged to omit the mention of an affair of considerableimportance, which somewhat consoled the Catholics forthe massacre at Smerwick and the defeat of the Desmonds. We have already observed that what Aharlow was to thesouthern insurgents, the deep, secluded valley of Glenmalurewas to the oppressed of Leinster. It afforded, at thisperiod, refuge to a nobleman whose memory has been mostimproperly allowed to fall into oblivion. This was JamesEustace, Viscount Baltinglass, who had suffered imprisonmentin the Castle for refusing to pay an illegal tax of afew pounds, who was afterwards made the object of aspecial, vindictive enactment, known as "the Statute ofBaltinglass, " and was in the summer of 1580, on hiskeeping, surrounded by armed friends and retainers. Hisfriend, Sir Walter Fitzgerald, son-in-law to the chiefof Glenmalure, and many of the clansmen of Leix, Offallyand Idrone, repaired to him at Slieveroe, near the modernvillage of Blessington, from which they proceeded to forma junction with the followers of the dauntless FeaghMcHugh O'Byrne of Ballincor. Lord Grey, of Wilton, onreaching Dublin in August of that year, obtained informationof this gathering, and determined to strike a decisiveblow in Wicklow, before proceeding to the South. All thechief 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 neighbouringhighlands. The Catholics, they knew, were concentratedin the valley, on one of the slopes of which Lord Greyconstructed a strong camp, and then, having selected thefittest troops for the service, gave orders to attackthe Irish camp. Sir William Stanley, one of the officersin command, well describes the upshot, in a letter toSecretary Walshingham: "When we entered the glen, " hewrites, "we were forced to slide, sometimes three or fourfathoms, 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 ofloose stones, which we were driven to Cross divers times* * * before we were half through the glen, which isfour miles in length, the enemy charged us very hotly* * * it was the hottest piece of service that ever Isaw, for the time, in any place. " As might have beenexpected, the assailants were repulsed with heavy loss;among the slain were Sir Peter Carew, Colonel FrancisCosby of Mullaghmast memory, Colonel Moor, and otherdistinguished officers. The full extent of the defeatwas concealed from Elizabeth, as well as it could be, inthe official despatches; but before the end of Augustprivate letters, such as we have quoted, conveyed thepainful intelligence to the court. The action was foughton 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 leaveof absence--the summer of 1582, that "most populous andplentiful country, " to use the forcible language of hiseloquent Secretary, Edmund Spenser, was reduced to "aheap of carcasses and ashes. " The war had been truly awar of extermination; nor did Munster recover her dueproportion of the population of the island for nearlytwo centuries afterwards. 

The appointment of Sir John Perrott dates from 1583, though he did not enter on the duties of Lord Deputy tillthe following year. Like most of the public men of thatage, he was both soldier and statesman. In temper heresembled his reputed father, Henry VIII. ; for he wasimpatient of contradiction and control; fond of expenseand magnificence, with a high opinion of his own abilitiesfor diplomacy and legislation. The Parliament of 1585-6, as it was attended by almost every notable man in thekingdom, was one of his boasts, though no one seems tohave benefited by it much, except Hugh O'Neil, whosetitle of Earl of Tyrone was then formally recognized. Subordinate to Perrott, the office of Governor of Connaughtwas held by Sir Richard Bingham--founder of the fortunesof the present Earls of Lucan--and that of President ofMunster, by Sir Thomas Norris, one of four brothers, allemployed in the Queen's service, and all destined to losetheir lives in that employment. 

The most important events which marked the four years'administration of Perrott were the pacification of Thomondand Connaught, the capture of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, andthe wreck of a large part of the Spanish Armada, on thenorthern and western coasts. The royal commission issuedfor the first-mentioned purpose exemplifies, in a strikingmanner, the exigencies of Elizabeth's policy at thatmoment. The persons entrusted with its execution wereSir 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 MurroghO'Flaherty. The chief duties of this singular commissionwere, to fix a money rental for all lands, free andunfree, in Clare and Connaught; to assess the taxationfairly due to the crown also in money; and to substitutegenerally the English law of succession for the ancientcustoms of Tanistry and gavelkind. In Clare, from fortuitouscauses, the settlement they arrived at was never whollyreversed; in Connaught, the inhuman severity of Binghamrendered it odious from the first, and the successes ofHugh Roe O'Donnell, a few years later, were hailed bythe people of that province as a heaven-sent deliverance. 

The treacherous capture of this youthful chieftain wasone of the skilful devices on which Sir John Perrott mostprided himself. Although a mere lad, the mysteriouslanguage of ancient prophecy, which seemed to point himout for greatness, give him consequence in the eyes ofboth friends and foes. Through his heroic mother, adaughter of the Lord of the Isles, he would naturallyfind allies in that warlike race. His precocious prowessand talents began to be noised abroad, and stimulatedPerrott to the employment of an elaborate artifice, which, however, proved quite successful. A ship, commanded byone Bermingham, was sent round to Donegal, under pretenceof being direct from Spain. She carried some casks ofSpanish wine, and had a crew of 50 armed men. This shipdropped anchor off Rathmullen Castle on Lough Swilly, inwhich neighbourhood the young O'Donnell--then barelyfifteen--was staying with his foster-father, McSweeny, and several companions of his own age. The unsuspectingyouths were courteously invited on board the pretendedSpanish ship, where, while they were being entertainedin the cabin, the hatches were fastened down, the cableslipped, the sails spread to the wind, and the vesselput to sea. The threats and promises of the astonishedclansmen as they gathered to the shore were answered bythe mockery of the crew, who safely delivered their prizein Dublin, to the great delight of the Lord Deputy andhis Council. Five weary years of fetters and privationthe young captives were doomed to pass in the dungeonsof the Castle before they breathed again the air of theirnative North. 

But now every ship that reached the English or Irishports brought tidings more and more positive of theimmense armada which King Philip was preparing to launchfrom the Tagus against England. The piratical exploitsof Hawkins and Drake against the Spanish settlements inAmerica, the barbarous execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the open alliance of Elizabeth with the Dutchinsurgents, all acted as stimulants to the habitualslowness of the Spanish sovereign. Another event, thoughof minor importance, added intensity to the nationalquarrel. Sir William Stanley, whose account of the battleof Glenmalure we lately quoted, went over to Philip with1, 300 English troops, whom he commanded as Governor ofDaventer, and was taken into the counsels of the Spanishsovereign. The fleet for the invasion of England was ona scale commensurate with the design. One hundred andthirty-five vessels of war, manned by 8, 000 sailors, andcarrying 19, 000 soldiers, sailed from the Tagus, andafter encountering a severe storm off Cape Finesterre, re-assembled at Corunna. The flower of Spanish braveryembarked 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 wellknown. A series of disasters befell it on the coasts ofFrance and Belgium, and finally, towards the middle ofAugust, a terrific storm swept the Spaniards northwardthrough the British channel, scattering ships and menhelpless and lifeless on the coasts of Scotland, and evenas far north as Norway. On the Irish shore nineteengreat vessels were sunk or stranded. In Lough Foyle, one galleon, manned by 1, 100 men, came ashore, and someof the survivors, it is alleged, were given up by O'Donnellto the Lord Deputy, in the vain hope of obtaining inreturn the liberation of his son. Sir John O'Doherty inInnishowen, Sir Brian O'Ruarc at Dromahaire, and HughO'Neil at Dungannon, hospitably entertained and protectedseveral hundreds who had escaped with their lives. Onthe iron-bound coast of Connaught, over 2, 000 men perished. In Galway harbour, 70 prisoners were taken by the Queen'sgarrison, and executed on St. Augustine's hill. In theShannon, the crew of a disabled vessel set her on fire, and escaped to another in the offing. On the coasts ofCork and Kerry nearly one thousand men were lost or castaway. 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. Amore calamitous reverse could not have befallen Spain orIreland in the era of the Reformation. 

It is worthy of remark that at the very moment the fearof the armada was most intensely felt in England--thebeginning of July--Sir John Perrott was recalled fromthe government. His high and imperious temper, not lessthan his reliance on the native chiefs, rather than onthe courtiers of Dublin Castle, had made him many enemies. He was succeeded by a Lord Deputy of a differentcharacter--Sir William Fitzwilliam--who had filled thesame office, for a short period, seventeen years before. The administration of this nobleman was protracted tillthe year 1594, and is chiefly memorable in connectionwith the formation of the Ulster Confederacy, under theleadership of O'Neil and O'Donnell. 

Fitzwilliam, whose master passion was avarice, had nosooner been sworn into the government than he issued acommission to search for treasure, which the shipwreckedSpaniards were supposed to have saved. "In hopes to fingersome of it, " he at once marched into the territory ofO'Ruarc and O'Doherty; O'Ruarc fled to Scotland, wasgiven up by order of James VI. , and subsequently executedat London; O'Doherty and Sir John O'Gallagher, "two ofthe most loyal subjects in Ulster, " were seized andconfined in the Castle. An outrage of a still moremonstrous kind was perpetrated soon after on the newlyelected chieftain of Oriel, Hugh McMahon. Though he hadengaged Fitzwilliam by a bribe of 600 cows to recognizehis succession, he was seized by order of the Deputy, tried by a jury of common soldiers, on a trumped up chargeof "treason, " and executed at his own door. Sir HarryBagnal who, as Marshal of Ireland, had his head-quartersat Newry, next to Fitzwilliam himself, profited most bythe consequent partition and settlement of McMahon's vastestates. Emboldened by the impunity which attended suchhigh-handed proceedings, and instigated by the Marshal, Fitzwilliam began to practise, against the ablest as wellas the most powerful of all the Northern chiefs, who hadhitherto been known only as a courtier and soldier ofthe Queen. This was Hugh O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone, anotherof Sir Henry Sidney's "strong men, " with the additionaladvantage of being familiar from his youth with thecharacter of the men he was now to encounter. 

O'Neil, in the full prime of life, really desired to livein peace with Elizabeth, provided he might be allowed togovern Ulster with all the authority attached to hisname. Bred up in England, he well knew the immenseresources of that kingdom, and the indomitable characterof its queen. A patriot of Ulster rather than of Ireland, he had served against the Desmonds, and had been a lookeron at Smerwick. To suppress rivals of his own clan, tocheck O'Donnell's encroachments, and to preserve aninterest at the English Court, were the objects of hisearlier ambition. In pursuing these objects he did nothesitate to employ English troops in Ulster, nor toaccompany the Queen and her Deputy to the service of theChurch of England. If, however, he really believed thathe could long continue to play the Celtic Prince northof the Boyne, and the English Earl at Dublin or London, he was soon undeceived when the fear of the Spanish Armadaceased to weigh on the Councils of Elizabeth. 

A natural son of John the Proud, called from thecircumstances of his birth "Hugh of the fetters, "communicated to Fitzwilliam the fact of Tyrone havingsheltered the shipwrecked Spaniards, and employed themin opening up a correspondence with King Philip. This soexasperated the Earl, that, having seized the unfortunateHugh of the fetters, he caused him to be hanged as acommon felon--a high-handed proceeding which his enemieswere expert in turning to account. To protect himselffrom 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 theCeltic title of O'Neil; to allow the erection of gaolsin his country; that he should execute no man without acommission from the Lord Deputy, except in cases ofmartial law; that he should keep his troop of horsemenin the Queen's pay, ready for the Queen's service, andthat Tyrone should be regularly reduced to shire-ground. For the performance of these articles, which he confirmedon reaching Dublin, he was to place sureties in the handsof certain merchants of that city, or gentlemen of thePale, enjoying the confidence of the Crown. On such hardconditions his earldom was confirmed to him, and he wasapparently taken into all his former favour. But we maydate the conception of his latter and more national policyfrom the period of this journey, and the brief imprisonmenthe had undergone in London. 

The "profound dissembling mind" which English historians, his cotemporaries, attribute to O'Neil, was now broughtinto daily exercise. When he discovered money to be themaster passion of the Lord Deputy, he procured hisconnivance at the escape of Hugh Roe O'Donnell from DublinCastle. On a dark night in the depth of winter the youthfulchief, with several of his companions, succeeded inescaping 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 heirof 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. Inthe street they found O'Hagan, the confidential agent ofTyrone, waiting to guide them to the fastness of Glenmalure. Through the deep snows of the Dublin and Wicklow highlandsthe prisoners and their guide plodded their way. Aftera weary tramp they at length sunk down overwhelmed withfatigue. In this condition they were found insensibleby a party despatched by Feagh O'Byrne; Art O'Neil, onbeing raised up, fell backward and expired; O'Donnellwas so severely frost-bitten that he did not recover formany months the free use of his limbs. With his remainingcompanion he was nursed in the recesses of Glenmalure, until he became able to sit a horse, when he set out forhome. Although the utmost vigilance was exercised by allthe warders of the Pale, he crossed the Liffey and theBoyne undiscovered, rode boldly through the streets ofDundalk, and found an enthusiastic welcome, first fromTyrone in Dungannon, and soon after from the aged chief, his father, in the Castle of Ballyshannon. Early in thefollowing year, the elder O'Donnell resigned the chieftaincyin favour of his popular son, who was, on the 3rd of May, duly proclaimed the O'Donnell, from the ancient mound ofKilmacrenan. 

The Ulster Confederacy, of which, for ten years, O'Neiland O'Donnell were the joint and inseparable leaders, was now imminent. Tyrone, by carrying off, the yearprevious to O'Donnell's escape, the beautiful sister ofMarshal Bagnal, whom he married, had still further inflamedthe hatred borne to him by that officer. Bagnal complainedbitterly of the abduction to the Queen, charging, amongother things, that O'Neil had a divorced wife still alive. A challenge was in consequence sent him by his newbrother-in-law, but the cartel was not accepted. Everyday's events were hastening a general alliance betweenthe secondary chieftains of the Province and the twoleading spirits. The O'Ruarc and Maguire were attackedby Bingham, and successfully defended themselves untilthe Lord Deputy and the Marshal also marched againstthem, summoning O'Neil to their aid. The latter, feelingthat the time was not yet ripe, temporized with Fitzwilliamduring the campaign of 1593, and though in the field atthe head of his horsemen, nominally for the Queen, heseems to have rather employed his opportunities to promotethat Northern Union which he had so much at heart. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE ULSTER CONFEDERACY--FEAGH MAC HUGH O'BYRNE--CAMPAIGNOF 1595--NEGOTIATIONS, ENGLISH AND SPANISH--BATTLE OFTHE YELLOW FORD--ITS CONSEQUENCES. 

In the summer of 1594 the cruel and mercenary Fitzwilliamwas succeeded by Sir William Russell, who had served theQueen, both in Ireland "and in divers other places beyondsea, in martial affairs. " In lieu of the arbitrary exactionof county cess--so grossly abused by his predecessor--theshires of the Pale were to pay for the future into theTreasury of Dublin a composition of 2, 100 pounds perannum, out of which the fixed sum of 1, 000 pounds wasallowed as the Deputy's wages. Russell's administrationlasted till May, 1597. In that month he was succeeded byThomas, Lord Borough, who died in August following ofthe wounds received in an expedition against Tyrone;after which the administration remained in the hands ofthe Justices till the appointment of the Earl of Essex. 

On the arrival of Russell, Tyrone for the last timeventured to appear within the walls of Dublin. Hisinfluence in the city, and even at the Council table, must have been considerable to enable him to enter thegates of the Castle with so much confidence. He came toexplain his wrongs against the previous Deputy, to defendhimself against Bagnal's charges, and to discover, ifpossible, the instructions of Russell. If in one respecthe was gratified by a personal triumph over hisbrother-in-law, in another he had cause for serious alarm, on learning that Sir John Norris, brother of the Presidentof Munster, a commander of the highest reputation, wasto be sent over under the title of Lord General, with2, 000 veterans who served in Brittany, and 1, 000 of anew levy. He further learned that his own arrest had beendiscussed at the Council, and, leaving Dublin precipitately, he hastened to his home at Dungannon. All men's mindswere now naturally filled with wars and rumours of wars. 

The first blow was struck at "the firebrand of themountains, " as he was called at Court, Feagh Mac HughO'Byrne. The truce made with him expired in 1594, andhis application for his renewal was not honoured with ananswer. On the contrary, his sureties at Dublin, Geoffrey, son of Hugh, and his own son, James, were committed toclose custody in the Castle. His son-in-law, Sir WalterFitzgerald, had been driven by ill-usage, and his friendshipfor Lord Baltinglass, to the shelter of Glenmalure, andthis was, of course, made a ground of charge against itschief. During the last months of 1594, Mynce, Sheriff ofCarlow, informed the Lord Deputy of warlike preparationsin the Glen, and that Brian Oge O'Rourke had actuallypassed to and fro through Dublin city and county, asconfidential agent between Feagh Mac Hugh and Tyrone. InJanuary following, under cover of a hunting party amongthe 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 theflight, 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 strongforce was quartered in his former mansion to observe hismovements. In April, his son-in-law, Fitzgerald, wastaken prisoner, near Baltinglass, in a retreat where hewas laid up severely wounded; in May, a party under theDeputy's command scoured the mountains and seized theLady Rose, who was attainted of treason, and, likeFitzgerald, barbarously given up to the halter and thequartering 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 vigorousprotest against the onslaught made on his friend O'Byrne. Without waiting for, or expecting any answer, he surprisedthe fort erected on the Blackwater which commanded thehighway into his own territory. This fort, which wassituated between Armagh and Dungannon, about five milesdistant from either, served, before the fortification ofCharlemont, as the main English stronghold in that partof Ulster. The river Blackwater on which it stood, fromits source on the borders of Monaghan to its outlet inLough Neagh, watered a fertile valley, which now becamethe principal theatre of war; for Hugh O'Neil, andafterwards for his celebrated nephew, it proved to be atheatre of victory. General Norris, on reaching Ireland, at once marched northward to recover the fort latelytaken. O'Neil, having demolished the works, retreatedbefore him; considering Dungannon also unfit to stand aregular siege, he dismantled the town, burnt his owncastle to the ground, having first secured every portablearticle of value. Norris contented himself withreconnoitring the Earl's entrenched camp at some distancefrom Dungannon, and returned to Newry, where he establishedhis head-quarters. 

The campaign in another quarter was attended with evenbetter success for the Confederates. Hugh Roe O'Donnell, no longer withheld by the more politic O'Neil, displayedin action all the fiery energy of his nature. Under hisbanner he united almost all the tribes of Ulster notenlisted with O'Neil; while six hundred Scots, led byMacLeod of Ara, obeyed his commands. He first descendedon the plains of Annally-O'Farrell (the present countyof Longford), driving the English settlers before him:he next visited the undertaker's tenants in Connaught, ejecting them from Boyle and Ballymoate, and pursuingthem to the gates of Tuam. On his return, the importanttown and castle of Sligo, the property of O'Conor, thenin England, submitted to him. Sir Richard Binghamendeavoured to recover it, but was beaten off with loss. O'Donnell, finding it cheaper to demolish than defendit, broke down the castle and returned in triumph acrossthe Erne. 

General Norris, having arranged his plan of campaign atNewry, 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'Neiland O'Donnell proceeded to lay siege. While lying beforeMonaghan they received overtures of peace from the LordDeputy, who continually disagreed with Sir John Norrisas to the conduct of the war, and lost no opportunity ofthwarting his plans. He did not now blush to address, asEarl of Tyrone, the man he had lately proclaimed a traitorat Dublin, by the title of the son of a blacksmith. TheIrish leaders at the outset refused to meet theCommissioners--Chief Justice Gardiner and Sir HenryWallop, Treasurer-at-War--in Dundalk, so the latter werecompelled to wait on them in the camp before Monaghan. The terms demanded by O'Neil and O'Donnell, includingentire freedom of religious worship, were reserved bythe Commissioners for the consideration of the Council, with whose sanction, a few weeks afterwards, all theUlster chiefs, except "the Queen's O'Reilly, " were formallytried 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 thattown he found himself unexpectedly in presence of O'Neil'sarmy, advantageously posted on the left bank of the littlestream which waters the village of Clontibret. Norrismade two attempts to force the passage, but withoutsuccess. Sir Thomas Norris, and the general himself, werewounded; Seagrave, a gigantic Meathian cavalry officer, was slain in a hand to hand encounter with O'Neil; theEnglish retreated hastily on Newry, and Monaghan wasagain surrendered to the Irish. This brilliant combat atClontibret closed the campaign of 1595. General Norris, who, like Sir John Moore, two centuries later, commandedthe respect, and frankly acknowledged the wrongs of thepeople against whom he fought, employed the winter monthsin endeavouring to effect a reconciliation between O'Neiland the Queen's Government. He had conceived a warm andchivalrous regard for his opponent; for he could not denythat he had been driven to take up arms in self-defence. At his instance a royal commission to treat with the Earlwas issued, and the latter cheerfully gave them a meetingin an open field without the walls of Dundalk. The sameterms which he had proposed before Monaghan were repeatedin his _ultimatum_, and the Commissioners agreed to givehim a positive answer by the 2nd day of April. On thatday they attended at Dundalk, but O'Neil did not appear. The Commissioners delayed an entire fortnight, addressinghim in the interim an urgent remonstrance to come in andconclude their negotiation. On the 17th of the month theyreceived his reasons for breaking off the treaty--theprincipal of which was, that the truce had been repeatedlybroken through by the English garrisons--and so thecampaign of 1596 was to be fought with renewed animosityon both sides. 

Early in May the Lord Deputy made another descent onBallincor, which Feagh Mac Hugh had recovered in theautumn to lose again in the spring. Though worn withyears and infirm of body, the Wicklow chieftain held hisdevoted bands well together, and kept the garrison ofDublin constantly on the defensive. In the new chieftainof the O'Moores he found at this moment a young and activecoadjutor. In an affair at Stradbally Bridge, O'Mooreobtained a considerable victory, leaving among the slainAlexander and Francis Cosby, grandsons of the commanderin the massacre at Mullaghmast. 

The arrival of three Spanish frigates with arms andammunition in Donegal Bay was welcome news to the NorthernCatholics. They were delivered to O'Donnell, who wasincessantly in the field, while O'Neil was again undergoingthe forms of diplomacy with a new royal commission atDundalk. He himself disclaimed any correspondence withthe King of Spain, but did not deny that such negotiationsmight be maintained by others. It is alleged that, whilemany of the chiefs had signed a formal invitation to theSpanish King to assume their crown, O'Neil had not gonebeyond verbal assurances of co-operation with them. However this may be, he resolved that the entire seasonshould not be wasted in words, so he attacked the stronggarrison left in Armagh, and recovered the primatialcity. According to the Irish practice, he dismantled thefortress, which, however, was again reconstructed by theEnglish before the end of the war. Some other skirmishes, of which we have no very clear account, and which we mayset down as of no decisive character, terminated thecampaign. 

In May, 1597, Lord Borough, who had distinguished himselfin the Netherlands, replaced Russell as Lord Deputy, andassumed 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 freeman. O'Neil, who was warmly attached to the Wicklow chief, immediately despatched such succour as he could spare toFeagh's sons, and promised to continue to them thefriendship he had always entertained for their father. Against Tyrone the new Lord Deputy now endeavoured tocombine all the military resources at his disposal. Towards the end of July, Sir Conyers Clifford was orderedto muster the available force of Connaught at Boyle, andto march into Sligo and Donegal. A thousand men of theAnglo-Irish were assembled at Mullingar, under the commandof young Barnewell of Trimbleston, who was instructed toeffect a junction with the main force upon the bordersof Ulster. The Lord Deputy, marching in force fromDrogheda, penetrated, unopposed, the valley of theBlackwater, and entered Armagh. From Armagh he moved tothe relief of the Blackwater fort, besieged by O'Neil. At a place called Drumfliuch, where Battleford Bridgenow stands, Tyrone contrived to draw his enemies into anengagement on very disadvantageous ground. The resultwas a severe defeat to the new Deputy, who, a few daysafterwards, died of his wounds at Newry, as his secondin command, the Earl of Kildare, did at Drogheda. SirFrancis Vaughan, Sir Thomas Waller, and other distinguishedofficers, fell in the same action, but the fort, the mainprize of the combatants, remained in English hands tillthe following year. O'Donnell, with equal success, heldBallyshannon, compelled Sir Conyers Clifford to raisethe siege with the loss of the Earl of Thomond, and alarge part of his following. Simultaneously, CaptainRichard Tyrrell of West-Meath--one of O'Neil's favouriteofficers--having laid an ambuscade for young Barnewellat the pass in West-Meath which now bears his name, theMeathian regiment were sabred to a man. Mullingar andMaryborough were taken and sacked, and in the North, SirJohn Chichester, Governor of Carrickfergus, was cut offwith his troop by MacDonald of the Glens. 

These successes synchronize exactly with the expectationof a second Spanish Armada, which filled Elizabeth withher old apprehensions. Philip was persuaded again totempt the fortune of the seas, and towards the end ofOctober his fleet, under the Adelantado of Castille, appeared off the Scilly Islands, with a view to securethe Isle of Wight, or some other station, from which tooperate an invasion the ensuing spring. Extraordinarymeans were taken for defence; the English troops in Francewere 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 theEnglish ships into their ports, but scattered those ofSpain over the Bay of Biscay. In this second expeditionsailed Florence Conroy, and other Irish exiles, who hadmaintained for years a close correspondence with theCatholic leaders. Their presence in the fleet, theexistence of the correspondence, and the progress of therevolt itself, will sufficiently account for the apparentvacillations of English policy in Ulster in the lastmonths of 1597. Shortly before Christmas, Ormond, nowLord Lieutenant, accompanied by the Earl of Thomond, attended only by their personal followers, visitedDungannon, and remained three days in conference withO'Neil and O'Donnell. The Irish chiefs reiterated theirold demands: freedom of worship, and the retention ofthe substantial power attached to their ancient rank. They would admit Sheriffs, if they were chosen from amongnatives of their counties, but they declined to givehostages out of their own families. These terms werereferred to the Queen's consideration, who, after muchprotocoling to and fro, finally ratified them the followingApril, and affixed the great seal to O'Neil's pardon. But Tyrone, guided by intelligence received from Spainor England, or both, evaded the royal messenger chargedto deliver him that instrument, and as the late truceexpired the first week of June, devoted himself anew tomilitary preparations. 

In the month of June, 1598, the Council at Dublin werein a state of fearful perplexity. O'Neil, two days afterthe expiration of the truce, invested the fort on theBlackwater, and seemed resolved to reduce it, if not byforce, by famine. O'Donnell, as usual, was operating onthe side of Connaught, where he had brought back O'Ruarc, O'Conor Sligo, and McDermot, to the Confederacy, fromwhich they had been for a season estranged. Tyrrell andO'Moore, leading spirits in the midland counties wereravaging Ormond's palatinate of Tipperary almost withoutopposition. An English reinforcement, debarked at Dungarvan, was attacked on its march towards Dublin, and lost 400men. In this emergency, before which even the iron nerveof Ormond quailed, the Council took the resolution ofordering one moiety of the Queen's troops under Ormondto march south against Tyrrell and O'Moore; the otherunder Marshal Bagnal, to proceed northward to the reliefof the Blackwater fort. Ormond's campaign was brief andinglorious. After suffering a severe check in Leix, heshut himself up in Kilkenny, where he heard of thedisastrous fate of Bagnal's expedition. 

On Sunday, the 13th of August, the Marshal reached Newrywith some trifling loss from skirmishes on the route. Hehad with him, by the best accounts, six regiments ofinfantry, numbering in all about 4, 000 men and 350 horse. After resting a day, his whole force marched out of thecity in three divisions; the first under the command ofthe Marshal and Colonel Percy, the cavalry under SirCalisthenes Brooke and Captains Montague and Fleming;the rear guard under Sir Thomas Wingfield and ColonelCosby. The Irish, whose numbers, both mounted and afoot, somewhat exceeded the Marshal's force, but who were notso 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 ofAntrim--all approved leaders beloved by their men. O'Neilhad neglected no auxiliary means of strengthening theposition. In front of his lines he dug deep trenches, covered over with green sods, supported by twigs andbranches. The pass leading into this plain was lined by500 kerne, whose Parthian warfare was proverbial. He hadreckoned on the headlong and boastful disposition of hisopponent, and the result showed his accurate knowledgeof character. Bagnal's first division, veterans fromBrittany and Flanders, including 600 curassiers in completearmour, armed with lances nine feet long, dashed intothe pass before the second and third divisions had timeto come up. The kerne poured in their rapid volleys; manyof the English fell; the pass was yielded, and the wholepower of Bagnal debouched into the plain. His artillerynow thundered upon O'Neil's trenches, and the cavalry, with the plain before them, were ordered to charge; butthey soon came upon the concealed pitfalls, horses fell, riders were thrown, and confusion spread among thesquadron. Then it was O'Neil in turn gave the signal tocharge; 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 victorymost eventful. The Marshal, 23 superior officers, withabout 1, 700 of the rank and file fell on the field, whileall the artillery baggage and 12 stand of colours weretaken: the Irish loss in killed and wounded did notexceed 800 men. "It was a glorious victory for therebels, " says the cotemporary English historian, Camden, "and of special advantage: for hereby they got arms andprovisions, and Tyrone's name was cried up all overIreland as the author of their liberty. " It may also beadded that it attracted renewed attention to the Irishwar at Paris, Madrid, and Rome, where the names of O'Neiland O'Donnell were spoken of by all zealous Catholicswith enthusiastic admiration. 

The battle was over by noon of the 15th of August; andthe only effort to arrest the flight of the survivorswas made by "the Queen's O'Reilly, " who was slain in theattempt. By one o'clock the remnant of the cavalry underMontague were in full career for Dundalk, closely pressedby the mounted men of O'Hanlon. During the ensuing weekthe Blackwater fort capitulated; the Protestant garrisonof Armagh surrendered; and were allowed to march south, leaving their arms and ammunition behind. The panic spreadfar and wide; the citizens of Dublin were enrolled todefend their walls; Lord Ormond continued shut up inKilkenny; O'Moore and Tyrrell, who entered Munster byO'Neil's order, to kindle the elements of resistance, compelled the Lord President to retire from Kilmallockto Cork. O'Donnell established his head-quarters atBallymoate, a dozen miles south of Sligo, which he hadpurchased from the chieftain of Corran for 400 poundsand 300 cows. The castle had served for thirteen yearsas an English stronghold, and was found staunch enoughfifty years later to withstand the siege trains of Cooteand Ludlow. From this point the Donegal chieftain wasenabled to stretch his arm in every direction over lowerConnaught. The result was, that before the end of theyear 1598, nearly all the inhabitants of Clanrickardeand the surrounding districts were induced, either frompolicy or conviction, to give in their adhesion to theNorthern Confederacy. 

CHAPTER IX. 

ESSEX'S CAMPAIGN OF 1599--BATTLE OF THE CURLIEUMOUNTAINS--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 spokenof in a previous chapter as the "undertaker" of Farneyand Clandeboy. Born in 1567, the Earl had barely reachedthe age of manhood when he won the heart of his royalmistress, already verging on threescore. Gifted by naturewith a handsome person, undoubted courage, and manygenerous qualities, he exhibited, in the most importanttransactions of life, the recklessness of a madman andthe levity of a spoiled child; it was apparent to theworld that nothing short of the personal fascinationwhich he exercised over the Queen could so long havepreserved him from the consequences of his continualcaprices and quarrels. Such was the character of theyoung nobleman, who, as was afterwards said, at theinstigation of his enemies, was sent over to restore theascendancy 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, 000horse; three-fourths of the ordinary annual revenue ofEngland (340, 000 pounds out of 450, 000 pounds) was placedat his disposal, and the largest administrative powers, civil and military, were conferred on him. A new plan ofcampaign in Ulster was decided upon at the royal counciltable, and Sir Samuel Bagnal, brother of the late Marshal, and other experienced officers, were to precede oraccompany him to carry it into execution. The main featureof this plan was to get possession by sea and stronglyfortify Ballyshannon, Donegal, Derry, and the entranceto the Foyle, so as to operate at once in the rear ofthe northern chiefs, as well as along the old familiarbase of Newry, Monaghan, and Armagh. 

Essex, on being sworn into office at Dublin, on the 15thof April, 1599, immediately issued a proclamation offeringpardon and restoration of property to such of the Irishas would lay down their arms by a given day, but veryfew persons responded to this invitation. He next despatchedreinforcements to the garrisons of Wicklow and Naas, menaced by the O'Moores and O'Byrnes, and to those ofDrogheda, Dundalk, Newry, and Carrickfergus, the onlynorthern strongholds remaining in possession of the Queen. The principal operations, it had been agreed before heleft England, were to be directed against Ulster, butwith the waywardness which always accompanied him, hedisregarded that arrangement, and set forth, at the headof 7, 000 men, for the opposite quarter. He was accompaniedin this march by the Earls of Clanrickarde and Thomond, Sir Conyers Clifford, Governor of Connaught, and O'Conorof Sligo, the only native chief who remained in theEnglish ranks. In Ormond he received the submission ofLord Mountgarrett, son-in-law to Tyrone, and took thestrong castle of Cahir from another of the insurgentButlers. After a halt at Limerick, he set out againstthe Geraldines, who the previous year had joined theNorthern league, at the instance of Tyrrell and O'Moore. Although the only heir of the Earl of Desmond was aprisoner, or ward of Elizabeth in England, James Fitzgerald, son of Thomas Roe, son of the fifteenth Earl by thatmarriage which had been pronounced invalid, assumed thetitle at the suggestion of O'Neil, and was recognized asthe Desmond by the greater portion of the relatives ofthat family. Fitzmaurice, Lord of Lixnaw, the Knight ofGlynn, the White Knight, the Lord Roche, Pierce Lacy ofBuree and Bruff, the last descendant of Hugh de Lacy andthe daughter of Roderick O'Conor, with the McCarthys, O'Donohoes, O'Sullivans, Condons, and other powerfultribes, were all astir to the number, as Carew supposes, of 8, 000 men, all emulous of their compatriots in theNorth. Issuing from Limerick, Essex marched southward tostrengthen the stronghold of Askeaton, into which hesucceeded, after a severe skirmish by the way, in throwingsupplies. Proceeding to victual Adare, he experienceda similar check, losing among others Sir Henry Norris, the third of those brave brothers who had fallen a victimto these Irish wars. In returning to Dublin, by way ofWaterford and Kildare, he was assailed by O'Moore at adifficult defile, which, to this day, is known in Irishas "the pass of the plumes" or feathers. The Earl forceda passage with the loss of 500 lives, and so returnedwith little glory to Dublin. 

The next military incident of the year transpired in theWest. We have spoken of O'Conor Sligo as the only nativechief who followed Essex to the South. He had been latelyat the English Court, where he was treated with thehighest distinction, in order that he might be used toimpede O'Donnell's growing power in lower Connaught. Onreturning home he was promptly besieged by the Donegalchief in his remaining castle at Colooney, within fivemiles of Sligo. Essex, on learning this fact, orderedSir Conyers Clifford to march to the relief of O'Conorwith all the power he could muster. Clifford despatchedfrom Galway, by sea, stores and materials for therefortification of Sligo town, and set out himself atthe head of 2, 100 men, drafted from both sides of theShannon, under twenty-five ensigns. He had under him SirAlexander Radcliffe, Sir Griffin Markham, and otherexperienced officers. Their rendezvous, as usual, wasthe old monastic town of Boyle, about a day's march tothe south of Sligo. From Boyle, the highway led into theCurlieu mountains, which divide Sligo on the south-eastfrom Roscommon. Here, in the strong pass of Ballaghboy, O'Donnell with the main body of his followers awaitedtheir approach. He had left the remainder, under hiscousin and brother-in-law, Nial Garve (or the _rough_), to maintain the siege of Colooney Castle. O'Ruarc andthe men of Breffni joined him during the battle, buttheir entire force is nowhere stated. It was the eve ofthe Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and the firstanniversary of the great victory of the Yellow Ford. Thenight was spent by the Irish in fasting and prayer, theearly morning in hearing Mass, and receiving the HolyCommunion. The day was far advanced when the head ofClifford's column appeared in the defile, driving in abarricade erected at its entrance. The defenders, accordingto orders, discharged their javelins and muskets, andfell back farther into the gorge. The English advancedtwelve abreast, through a piece of woodland, after whichthe road crossed a patch of bog. Here the thick of thebattle was fought. Sir Alexander Radcliffe, who led thevanguard, fell early in the action, and his divisionfalling back on the centre threw them all into confusion. O'Ruarc arriving with his men at the critical momentcompleted the rout, and pursued the fugitives to thegates of Boyle. The gallant Clifford, scorning to fly, was found among the slain, and honourably interred byhis generous enemies in the monastery of Lough Key. Onhis head being shown to O'Conor at Colooney, he at oncesurrendered to O'Donnell, and entered into the NorthernConfederacy. Theobald Burke, the commander of the vesselssent round from Galway to fortify Sligo, also submittedto O'Donnell, and was permitted to return to the portfrom which he had lately sailed, with very differentintentions. 

Essex, whose mind was a prey to apprehension from hisenemies in England had demanded reinforcements before hecould undertake anything against Ulster. It seems hardlycredible that the 15, 000 regular troops in the countryat his coming should be mostly taken up with garrisonduty, yet we cannot otherwise account for theirdisappearance from the field. He asked for 2, 000 freshtroops, and while awaiting their arrival, sent a detachmentof 600 men into Wicklow, who were repulsed with loss byPhelim, son of Feagh, the new Chief of the O'Byrnes. Essex was thrown into transports of rage at this newloss. The officers who retreated were tried bycourt-martial, and, contrary to his usually generoustemper, the surviving men were inhumanly decimated. 

Early in September, the reinforcement he had asked forarrived 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 seemto have drawn out the whole force at his disposal. FromNewry he proceeded northward towards Carrickfergus, withonly 1, 300 foot and 300 horse. On the high ground to thenorth of the river Lagan, overlooking Anaghclart Bridge, he found the host of O'Neil encamped, and received acourteous message from their leader, soliciting a personalinterview. Essex at first declined, but afterwards acceptedthe invitation, and at an appointed hour the two commandersrode down to the opposite banks of the river, whollyunattended, the advanced guard of each looking curiouslyon from the uplands. O'Neil spurred his horse into thestream up to the saddle girth, and thus for an hour, exposed to the generous but impulsive Englishman, thegrievances of himself and his compatriots. With all theart, for which he was distinguished, he played upon hisknowledge of the Earl's character: he named those enemiesof his own whom he also knew to be hostile to Essex, heshowed his provocations in the strongest light, anddeclared his readiness to submit to her Majesty, oncondition of obtaining complete liberty of conscience, an act of indemnity to include his allies in all the fourProvinces; that the principal officers of state, thejudges, and one half the army should in future be Irishby birth. This was, in effect, a demand for nationalindependence, though the Lord Lieutenant may not haveseen it in that light. He promised, however, to transmitthe propositions to England, and within presence of sixprincipal officers of each side, agreed to a truce tillthe 1st of May following. Another upbraiding letter fromElizabeth, which awaited him on his return to Dublin, drove Essex to the desperate resolution of presentinghimself before her, without permission. The short remainderof his troubled career, his execution in the Tower inFebruary, 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 receivedfrom Spain. Philip II. , the life-long friend of theCatholics, had, indeed, died the previous September, butone of the first acts of his successor, Philip III. , wasto send envoys into Ireland, assuring its chiefs that hewould continue to them the friendship and alliance ofhis father. Shortly before the conference at Anaghclart, a third Armada, under the Adelantado of Castile, wasawaiting orders in the port of Corunna, and England, forthe third time in ten years, was placed in a posture ofdefence. The Spaniards sailed, but soon divided intotwo squadrons, one of which passed down the BritishChannel unobserved, and anchored in the waters of theSluys, while the other sailed for the Canaries to interceptthe Hollanders. At the same time, however, most positiveassurances were renewed that an auxiliary force mightshortly be expected to land in Ireland in aid of theCatholics. The non-arrival of this force during thefortunate campaign of 1599 was not much felt by theCatholics; and was satisfactorily explained by Philip'senvoys--but the mere fact of the existence of the Spanishalliance gave additional confidence and influence to theconfederates. That fact was placed beyond all questionby the arrival of two Spanish ships laden with storesfor O'Neil, immediately after the interview with Essex. In the summer or autumn ensuing, Mathew of Oviedo, aSpaniard, consecrated at Rome, Archbishop of Dublin, brought over 22, 000 crowns towards the pay of the Irishtroops, and a year afterwards, Don Martin de la Cerdawas sent to reside as envoy with Tyrone. 

The year 1600 was employed by Hugh O'Neil, after themanner of his ancestors, who were candidates for theKingship of Tara, in a visitation of the Provinces. Havingfirst planted strong garrisons on the southern passesleading into Ulster, he marched at the head of 3, 000 meninto West-Meath, where he obliged Lord Delvin and SirTheobald Dillon to join the Confederation. From Meath hemarched to Ely, whose chief he punished for a late actof treachery to some Ulster soldiers invited to hisassistance. From Ely he turned aside to venerate therelic of the Holy Cross, at Thurles, and being there hegranted his protection to the great Monastery built byDonald More O'Brien. At Cashel he was joined by theGeraldine, whom he caused to be recognized as Earl ofDesmond. Desmond and his supporters accompanied himthrough Limerick into Cork, quartering their retainerson the lands of their enemies, but sparing their friends;the Earl of Ormond with a corps of observation moving ona parallel line of march, but carefully avoiding acollision. In the beginning of March the Catholic armyhalted at Inniscarra, upon the river Lee, about fivemiles west of Cork. Here O'Neil remained three weeks incamp consolidating the Catholic party in South Munster. During that time he was visited by the chiefs of theancient Eugenian clans--O'Donohoe, O'Donovan, and O'Mahoney:thither also came two of the most remarkable men of thesouthern Province, Florence McCarthy, Lord of Carberry, and Donald O'Sullivan, Lord of Bearehaven. McCarthy "likeSaul, higher by the head and shoulders than any of hishouse, " had brain in proportion to his brawn; O'Sullivan, as was afterwards shown, was possessed of military virtuesof a high order. Florence was inaugurated with O'Neil'ssanction as McCarthy More, and although the rival houseof Muskerry fiercely resisted his claim to superiorityat first, a wiser choice could not have been made hadthe times tended to confirm it. 

While at Inniscarra, O'Neil lost in single combat one ofhis 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, issuedout of Cork with a company of soldiers, probably on asimilar mission. Both were in advance of their attendantswhen they came unexpectedly face to face. Both were famousas horsemen and for the use of their weapons, and neitherwould retrace his steps. The Irish chief, poising hisspear, dashed forward against his opponent, but receiveda pistol shot which proved mortal the same day. He, however, had strength enough left to drive his spearthrough the neck of St. Leger, and to effect his escapefrom the English cavalry. Saint Leger was carried backto Cork where he expired; Maguire, on reaching the camp, had barely time left to make his last confession, whenhe breathed his last. This untoward event, the necessityof preventing possible dissensions in Fermanagh, andstill more, the menacing movements of the new Deputy, lately sworn in at Dublin, obliged O'Neil to return homeearlier than he intended. Soon after reaching Dungannonhe had the gratification of receiving a most graciousletter from Pope Clement VIII. , together with a crown ofphoenix feathers, symbolical of the consideration withwhich 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. Thiswas Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, afterwards Earl ofDevonshire, a nobleman now in his 37th year. He had beenthe rival, the enemy, and the devoted friend of theunfortunate 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 ofsoldier-statesmen, peculiar to the second half ofElizabeth's reign, who affected authorship and thepatronage of letters as a necessary complement to themanners of a courtier and commander. On the 2nd of April, Mountjoy, still at Dublin, wrote to her Majesty that thearmy had taken heart since his arrival, that he had nofear of the loss of the country, but was more anxiousfor Connaught than any other Province. He deplored thecapture of Lord Ormond by the O'Moores, but hoped, ifGod prospered her arms during the summer, either "to bowor to break the crooked humours of these people. " Thethree succeeding years of peace granted to England--interrupted only by the mad _emeute_ of Essex, and thesilly intrigues of the King of Scotland--enabled Elizabethto direct all the energies of the State, which had soimmensely increased in wealth during her reign, for thesubjugation of the Irish revolt. 

The capture of Ormond by the O'Moores took place in themonth of April, at a place called Corroneduff, in aninterview between the Earl, the President of Munster, and Lord Thomond, on the one part, and the Leinster Chiefon the other. Ormond, who stood out from his party, hadasked to see the famous Jesuit, Father Archer, then withO'Moore. The Priest advanced leaning on his staff, which, in the heat of a discussion that arose, he raised onceor twice in the air. The clansmen, suspecting danger tothe Jesuit, rushed forward and dragged the Earl from hishorse. Lord Thomond and the President, taking the alarm, plied their spurs, and were but too glad to escape. Ormondremained a prisoner from April to June, during whichinterval he was received by Archer into the Church, towhich he firmly adhered till the day of his death. Onhis liberation he entered into bonds for 3, 000 poundsnot to make reprisals, but Mountjoy took vengeance forhim. The fair, well-fenced, and well-cultivated land ofLeix was cruelly ravaged immediately after Ormond'srelease--the common soldiers cut down with their swords"corn to the value of 10, 000 pounds and upwards, " andthe brave chief, Owny, son of Rory, having incautiouslyexposed himself in an attack on Maryborough, was, on the17th of August, killed by a musket shot. 

CHAPTER X. 

MOUNTJOY'S ADMINISTRATION--OPERATIONS IN ULSTER ANDMUNSTER--CAREW'S "WIT AND CUNNING"--LANDING OF SPANIARDSIN THE SOUTH--BATTLE OF KINSALE--DEATH OF O'DONNELLIN 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, havingon board 4, 000 foot and 200 horse, under the command ofSir Henry Dowcra, with abundance of stores, buildingmaterials, and ordnance. At the same moment, the Deputyforced the Moira pass, and made a feigned demonstrationagainst Armagh, to draw attention from the fleet in theFoyle. This feint served its purpose; Dowcra was enabledto land and throw up defensive works at Derry, which hemade his head-quarters, to fortify Culmore at the entranceto the harbour, where he placed 600 men, under the commandof Captain Atford, and to seize the ancient fort ofAileach, at the head of Lough Swilly, where Captain EllisFlood was stationed with 150 men. The attempt againstBallyshannon was, on a nearer view, found impracticable, and deferred; the Deputy, satisfied that the lodgmenthad been made upon Lough Foyle, retired to Dublin, afterincreasing the garrisons at Newry, Carlingford, andDundalk. The Catholic chieftains immediately turnedtheir attention to the new fort at Deny, appeared suddenlybefore it with 5, 000 men, but failing to draw out itsdefenders, and being wholly unprovided with a siege trainand implements--as they appear to have been throughout--they withdrew the second day, O'Donnell leaving a partyin hopes to starve out the foreigners. This party wereunder the command of O'Doherty, of Innishowen, and NialGarve O'Donnell, the most distinguished soldier of hisname, after his illustrious cousin and chief. On the 28thof June, a party of the besieged, headed by Sir JohnChamberlaine, made a sally from the works, but were drivenin with loss, and Chamberlaine killed. On the 29th ofJuly, O'Donnell, who had returned from his annual incursioninto Connaught and Thomond, seized the English cavalryhorses, and defeated the main force of the besieged, whohad issued out to their rescue. From this affair Dowcrawas carried back wounded into Deny. 

But treason was busy in the Irish camp and country amongthe discontented members of the neighbouring clans. Theelection of chiefs for life, always a fruitful source ofbickering and envy, supplied the very material upon which"the princely policie" of division, recommended by Baconto Essex, might be exercised. Dowcra succeeded in thesummer in winning over Art O'Neil, son of Turlogh, theearly adversary of the great Hugh; before the year wasover, by bribes and promises, he seduced Nial Garve, inthe absence of his chief in Connaught, and Nial, havingonce entered on the career of treason, pursued it withall the dogged courage of Ms disposition. Though hiswife, sister to Red Hugh, forsook him, though his namewas execrated throughout the Province, except by hisblindly devoted personal followers, he served the Englishduring the remainder of the war with a zeal and abilityto which they acknowledged themselves deeply indebted. By a rapid march, at the head of 1, 000 men, supplied byDowcra, he surprised the town of Lifford, which his newallies promptly fortified with walls of stone, andentrusted to him to defend. Red Hugh, on learning thisalarming incident, hastened from the West to invest theplace. After sitting before it an entire month, with noother advantage than a sally repulsed, he concluded togo into winter quarters. Arthur O'Neil and Nial Garvehad the dignity of knighthood conferred upon them, andwere, besides, recognized for the day by the Englishofficials as the future O'Neil and O'Donnell. In likemanner, "a Queen's Maguire" had been raised up in Fermanagh, "a Queen's O'Reilly" in Cavan, and other chiefs of smallerdistricts were provided with occupation enough at theirown doors by the "princely policie" of Lord Bacon. 

The English interest in Munster during the first year ofMountjoy's administration had recovered much of its lostpredominance. The new President, Sir George Carew, afterwards Earl of Totness, was brother to that knightly"undertaker" who claimed the moiety of Desmond, and methis death at Glenmalure. He was a soldier of the newschool, who prided himself especially on his "wit andcunning, " in the composition of "sham and counterfeitletters. " He had an early experience in the Irish wars, first as Governor of Askeaton Castle, and afterwards asLieutenant General of the Ordnance. Subsequently he wasemployed in putting England in a state of defence againstthe Spaniards, and had just returned from an embassy toPoland, when he was ordered to join Mountjoy with therank of Lord President. He has left us a memoir of hisadministration, civil and military, edited by his naturalson and Secretary, Thomas Stafford--exceedingly interestingto read both as to matter and manner, but the documentsembodied in which are about as reliable as the speecheswhich are read in Livy. Some of them are admitted forgeries;others are at least of doubtful authenticity. Afterescaping with Lord Thomond from the scene of Ormond'scapture, his first act on reaching Cork was to concludea month's truce with Florence McCarthy. This he did, inorder to gain time to perfect a plot for the destructionof O'Neil's other friend, called in derision, by theAnglo-Irish of Munster, the _sugane_ (or straw-rope) Earlof Desmond. 

This plot, so characteristic of Carew and of the turnwhich English history was about to take in the next reign, deserves to be particularly mentioned. There was, in theservice of the Earl, one Dermid O'Conor, captain of 1, 400hired troops, who was married to lady Margaret Fitzgerald, daughter to the late, and niece to the new-made Earl ofDesmond. This lady, naturally interested in the restorationof her young brother, then the Queen's ward or prisonerat London, to the title and estates, was easily drawninto the scheme of seducing her husband from his patron. To justify and cloak the treachery a letter was writtenby Carew to the _sugane_ Earl reminding him of _his_engagement to deliver up O'Conor; this _letter_, aspre-arranged, was intercepted by the latter, who, watchinghis opportunity, rushed with it open into the Earl'spresence, and arrested him, in the name of O'Neil, as atraitor to the Catholic cause! Anxious to finger hisreward--1, 000 pounds and a royal commission for himself--before giving up his capture, O'Conor imprisoned theEarl in the keep of Castle-Ishin, but the White Knight, the Knight of Glynn, Fitzmaurice of Kerry, and PierceLacy, levying rapidly 2, 000 men, speedily delivered himfrom confinement, while his baffled betrayer, crest-fallenand dishonoured, was compelled to quit the Province. Theyear following he was attacked while marching throughGalway, and remorselessly put to death by Theobald Burke, usually called Theobald of the ships. 

Another device employed to destroy the influence ofO'Neil's Desmond was the liberation of the young son ofthe late Earl from the Tower and placing him at thedisposal of Carew. The young nobleman, attended by aCaptain Price, who was to watch all his movements, landedat Youghal, where he was received by the Lord President, the Clerk of the Council, Mr. Boyle, afterwards Earl ofCork, and Miler Magrath, an apostate ecclesiastic, whohad been the Queen's Archbishop of Cashel. By his influencewith the warders, Castlemaine, in Kerry, surrendered tothe President. On reaching Kilmallock, he was receivedwith such enthusiasm that it required the effort of aguard of soldiers to make way for him through the crowd. According to their custom the people showered down uponhim from the windows handfuls of wheat and salt--emblemsof plenty and of safety--but the next day, being Sunday, turned all this joy into mourning, not unmingled withanger and shame. The young lord, who had been bred up aProtestant by his keepers, directed his steps to theEnglish Church, to the consternation of the devotedadherents of his house. They clung round him in the streetand endeavoured to dissuade him from proceeding, but hecontinued his course, and on his return was met withhootings and reproaches by those who had hailed him withacclamations the day before. Deserted by the people, andno longer useful to the President, he was recalled toLondon, where he resumed his quarters in the Tower, andshortly afterwards died. The capture of the strong castleof Glynn from the knight of that name, and the surrenderof Carrigafoyle by O'Conor of Kerry, were the otherEnglish successes which marked the campaign of 1600 inMunster. On the other hand, O'Donnell had twice exercisedhis severe supremacy over southern Connaught, burningthe Earl of Thomond's new town of Ennis, and sweepingthe vales and plains of Clare, and of Clanrickarde, ofthe animal wealth of their recreant Earls, now activelyenlisted against the national confederacy. 

The eventful campaign of 1601 was fought out in almostevery quarter of the kingdom. To hold the coast line, and prevent the advantages being obtained, which thepossession of Derry, and other harbours on Lough Foylegave them, were the tasks of O'Donnell; while to defendthe southern frontier was the peculiar charge of O'Neil. They thus fought, as it were, back to back against theopposite lines of attack. The death of O'Doherty, earlyin this year, threw the succession to Innishowen intoconfusion, and while O'Donnell was personally endeavouringto settle conflicting claims, Nial Garve seized on thefamous Franciscan monastery which stood at the head ofthe bay, within sight of the towers of Donegal Castle. Hugh Roe immediately invested the place, which his relativeas stoutly defended. Three months, from the end of Junetill the end of September, the siege was strictlymaintained, the garrison being regularly supplied withstores and ammunition from sea. On the night of the 29thof September an explosion of gunpowder occurred, and soonthe monastery was wrapped in flames. This was the momentchosen for the final attack. The glare of the burningAbbey reflected over the beautiful bay, the darkness ofnight all round, the shouts of the assailants, and theshrieks of the fugitives driven by the flames upon thespears of their enemies, must have formed a scene ofhorrors such as even war rarely combines. Hundreds ofthe besieged were slain, but Nial Garve himself, withthe remainder, covered by the fire of an English ship inthe harbour, escaped along the strand to the neighbouringmonastery of Magherabeg, which he quickly put into astate of defence. All that was left to O'Donnell of thatmonastery, the burial place of his ancestors, and thechief school of his kinsmen, was a skeleton of stone, standing amid rubbish and ashes. It was never re-inhabitedby the Franciscans. A group of huts upon the shore servedthem for shelter, and the ruined chapel for a place ofworship, while they were still left in the land. 

While Hugh Roe was investing Donegal Abbey the war hadnot paused on the southern frontier. We have said thatMountjoy had made a second and a third demonstrationagainst Armagh the previous year; in one of these journeyshe raised a strong fort at the northern outlet of theMoira pass, which he called Mount Norris, in honour ofhis late master in the art of war. This work, stronglybuilt and manned, gave him the free _entree_ of the fieldof battle whenever he chose to take it. In June of thisyear he was in the valley of the Blackwater, menacedO'Neil's castle of Benburb, and left Sir Charles Danverswith 750 foot and 100 horse in possession of Armagh. Hefurther proclaimed a reward of 2, 000 pounds for thecapture of Tyrone alive, or 1, 000 pounds for his head. But no Irishman was found to entertain the thought ofthat bribe. An English assassin was furnished withpassports by Danvers, and actually drew his sword on theEarl in his own tent, but he was seized, disarmed, andon the ground of insanity was permitted to escape. Laterin the summer Mountjoy was again on the Blackwater, wherehe laid the foundation of Charlemont, called after himself, and placed 350 men in the works under the command ofCaptain Williams, the brave defender of the old fort inthe same neighbourhood. There were thus quartered inUlster at this period the 4, 000 foot and 400 horse underDowcra, chiefly on the Foyle, with whatever companies ofKerne adhered to Arthur O'Neil and Nial Garve; withChichester in Carrickfergus there were 850 foot and 150horse; with Danvers in Armagh, 750 foot and 100 horse;in Mount Norris, under Sir Samuel Bagnal, 600 foot and50 horse; in and about Downpatrick, lately taken by theDeputy, under Moryson, 300 foot; in Newry, under Stafford, 400 foot and 50 horse; in Charlemont, with Williams, 300foot and 50 horse; or, in all, of English regulars inUlster alone, 7, 000 foot and 800 horse. The position ofthe garrisons on the map will show how firm a graspMountjoy had taken of the Northern Province. 

The last scene of this great struggle was now about toshift to the opposite quarter of the kingdom. Thelong-looked for Spanish fleet was known to have left theTagus--had been seen off the Scilly Islands. On the 23rdof September the Council, presided over by Mountjoy, wasassembled in Kilkenny Castle: there were present Carew, Ormond, Sir Richard Wingfield, Marshal of the Queen'stroops, uncle to Carew, and founder of the family ofPowerscourt; also Chief Justice Gardiner, and othermembers less known. While they were still sitting amessage arrived from Cork that the Spanish fleet was offthat harbour, and soon another that they had anchored inKinsale, and taken possession of the town withoutopposition. The course of the Council was promptly taken. Couriers were at once despatched to call in the garrisonsfar and near which could possibly be dispensed with forservice in Munster. Letters were despatched to Englandfor reinforcements, and a winter campaign in the Southwas decided on. 

The Spanish auxiliary force, when it sailed from theTagus, consisted originally of 6, 000 men in fifteen armedvessels and thirty transports. When they reached Kinsale, after suffering severely at sea, and parting company withseveral of their comrades, the soldiers were reduced to3, 400 men--a number inferior to Dowcra's force on theFoyle. The General, Don Jaun del Aguila, was a brave, but testy, passionate and suspicious officer. He has beenseverely censured by some Irish writers for landing inthe extreme South, within fourteen miles of the Englisharsenal and head-quarters at Cork, and for his generalconduct as a commander. However vulnerable he may be onthe general charge, he does not seem fairly to blame forthe choice of the point of debarkation. He landed in theold Geraldine country, unaware, of course, of the eventsof the last few weeks, in which the _sugane_ Earl, andFlorence McCarthy, had been entrapped by Carew's "witand cunning, " and shipped for London, from which theynever returned. Even the northern chiefs, up to thisperiod, evidently thought their cause much stronger inthe South, and Munster much farther restored to vigourand courage than it really was. To the bitter disappointmentand disgust of the Spaniards, only O'Sullivan Beare, O'Driscoll, and O'Conor of Kerry, declared openly forthem; while they could hear daily of chiefs they had beentaught to count as friends, either as prisoners or alliesof the English. On the 17th of October--three weeks fromtheir first arrival--they were arrested in Kinsale bya mixed army of English and Anglo-Irish, 15, 000 strong, under the command of the Deputy and President, of whomabove 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 triumphof England. The harbour was blockaded by ten ships ofwar, under Sir Richard Leviston, and the forts at theentrance, Rincorran and Castlenepark, being taken bycannonade, the investment on all sides was complete. DonJuan's messengers found O'Neil and O'Donnell busilyengaged on their own frontiers, but both instantly resolvedto muster all their strength for a winter campaign inMunster. O'Donnell _rendezvoused_ at Ballymote, fromwhich he set out, at the head of 2, 500 men, of Tyrconnelland Connaught, on the 2nd day of November. O'Neil, withMcDonnell of Antrim, McGennis of Down, McMahon of Monaghan, and others, his suffragans, marched at the head of between3, 000 and 4, 000 men, through West-Meath towards Ormond. Holy Cross was their appointed place of meeting, wherethey expected to be joined by such of the neighbouringCatholics as were eager to strike a blow for liberty ofworship. O'Donnell reached the neighbourhood first, andencamped in a strongly defensible position, "plashed onevery quarter" for greater security. Mountjoy, anxiousto engage him before O'Neil should come up, detached anumerically superior force, under Carew, for that purpose:but O'Donnell, evacuating his quarters by night, marchedover the mountain of Slieve Felim, casting away much ofhis heavy baggage, and before calling halt was 32 _Irish_miles distant from his late encampment. After thisextraordinary mountain march, equal to 40 of our presentmiles, he made a detour to the westward, descended onCastlehaven, in Cork, and formed a junction with 700Spaniards, who had just arrived to join Del Aguila. Aportion of these veterans were detailed to the forts ofCastlehaven, Baltimore, and Dunboy, commanding three ofthe best havens in Munster; the remainder joined O'Donnell'sdivision. 

During the whole of November the siege of Kinsale waspressed with the utmost vigour by Mountjoy. The placemounted but three or four effective guns, while 20 greatpieces 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 wasbravely 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 Spanishgunners, on the shore. The lines were advanced closertowards the town, and the bombardment became more effective. But the English ranks were considerably thinned by diseaseand desertion, so that on the last day of December, whenthe united Irish force took up their position at Belgoley, a mile to the north of their lines, the Lord Deputy'seffective force did not, it is thought, exceed 10, 000men. The Catholic army has generally been estimated at6, 000 native foot and 500 horse; to these are to be added300 Spaniards, under Don Alphonso Ocampo, who joinedO'Donnell at Castlehaven. 

The prospect for the besiegers was becoming exceedinglycritical, but the Spaniards in Kinsale were far frombeing satisfied with their position. They had been fullythree months within walls, in a region wholly unknown tothem before their allies appeared. They neither understoodnor made allowance for the immense difficulties of awinter campaign in a country trenched with innumerableswollen streams, thick with woods, which, at that season, gave no shelter, and where camping out at nights wasenough to chill the hottest blood. They only felt theirown inconveniences: they were cut off from escape bysea by a powerful English fleet, and Carew was alreadypractising indirectly on their commander his "wit andcunning, " in the fabrication of rumours, and the forgingof letters. Don Juan wrote urgent appeals to the northernchiefs to attack the English lines without another day'sdelay, and a council of war, the third day after theirarrival at Belgoley, decided that the attack should bemade on the morrow. This decision was come to on themotion of O'Donnell, contrary to the judgment of the morecircumspect and far-seeing O'Neil. Overruled, the latteracquiesced in the decision, and cheerfully prepared todischarge his duty. 

A story is told by Carew that information was obtainedof the intended attack from McMahon, in return for abottle of _aquavitae_ presented to him by the President. This tale is wholly unworthy of belief, told of a chiefof the first rank, encamped in the midst of a friendlycountry. It is also said--and it seems credible enough--that an intercepted letter of Don Juan's gave theEnglish in good time this valuable piece of information. On the night of the 2nd of January, new style (24th ofDecember, O. S. --in use among the English), the Irish armyleft their camp in three divisions, the vanguard led byTyrrell, the centre by O'Neil, and the rear by O'Donnell. The night was stormy and dark, with continuous peals andflashes of thunder and lightning. The guides lost theirway, and the march, which, even by the most circuitousroute, 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 insight of the English lines, and, to his infinite surprise, found the men under arms, the cavalry in troop posted inadvance of their quarters. O'Donnell's division wasstill to come up, and the veteran Earl now found himselfin the same dilemma into which Bagnal had fallen at theYellow Ford. His embarrassment was perceived from theEnglish camp; the cavalry were at once ordered to advance. For an hour O'Neil maintained his ground alone; at theend of that time he was forced to retire. Of Ocampo's300 Spaniards, 40 survivors were, with their gallantleader, taken prisoners; O'Donnell at length arrived, and drove back a wing of the English cavalry; Tyrrell'shorsemen also held their ground tenaciously. But the routof the centre proved irremediable. Fully 1, 200 of theIrish were left dead on the field, and every prisonertaken was instantly executed. On the English side fellSir Richard Graeme; Captains Danvers and Godolphin, withseveral others, were wounded; their total loss they statedat 200, and the Anglo-Irish, of whom they seldom madecount in their reports, must have lost in proportion. The Earls of Thomond and Clanrickarde were activelyengaged with their followers, and their loss could hardlyhave been less than that of the English regulars. On thenight following their defeat, the Irish leaders heldcouncil together at Innishanon, on the river Bandon, where it was agreed that O'Donnell should instantly takeshipping for Spain to lay the true state of the contestbefore Philip III. ; that O'Sullivan should endeavour tohold the Castle of Dunboy, as commanding a most importantharbour; that Rory O'Donnell, second brother of Hugh Roe, should act as Chieftain of Tyrconnell, and that O'Neilshould return into Ulster to make the best defence inhis power. The loss in men was not irreparable; the lossin arms, colours, and reputation, was more painful tobear, and far more difficult to retrieve. 

On the 12th of January, nine days after the battle, DonJuan surrendered the town, and agreed to give up at thesame time Dunboy, Baltimore, and Castlehaven. He had lost1, 000 men out of his 3, 000 during a ten weeks' siege, and was heartily sick of Irish warfare. On his return toSpain he was degraded from his rank, for his too greatintimacy with Carew, and confined a prisoner in his ownhouse. He is said to have died of a broken heart occasionedby these indignities. 

O'Donnell sailed from Castlehaven in a Spanish ship, onthe 6th of January, three clays after the battle, andarrived at Corunna on the 14th. He was received with allthe honours due to a crown prince by the Conde de Caracena, Governor of Galicia. Among other objects, he visited theremains of the tower of Betanzos, from which, accordingto Bardic legends, the sons of Milesius had sailed toseek for the Isle of Destiny among the waves of the west. On the 27th he set out for the Court, accompanied as faras Santa Lucia by the governor, who presented him with1, 000 ducats towards his expenses. At Compostella theArchbishop offered him his own palace, which O'Donnellrespectfully declined: he afterwards celebrated a SolemnHigh Mass for the Irish chief's intention, entertainedhim magnificently at dinner, and presented him, as thegovernor had done, with 1, 000 ducats. At Zamora he receivedfrom Philip III. A most cordial reception, and was assuredthat in a very short time a more powerful armament thanDon Juan's should sail with him from Corunna. He returnedto that port, from which he could every day look outacross the western waves that lay between him and home, and where he could be kept constantly informed of whatwas passing in Ireland. Spring was over and gone, andsummer, too, had passed away, but still the exigenciesof Spanish policy delayed the promised expedition. Atlength O'Donnell set out on a second visit to the SpanishCourt, then at Valladolid, but he reached no further thanSimancas, when, fevered in mind and body, he expired onthe 10th of September, 1602, in the 29th year of his age. He was attended in his last moments by two FranciscanFathers who accompanied him, Florence, afterwards Archbishopof Tuam, and Maurice Donlevy, of his own Abbey of Donegal. His body was interred with regal honours in the Cathedralof Valladolid, where a monument was erected to his memoryby the King of Spain. 

Thus closed the career of one of the brightest andpurest characters in any history. His youth, his earlycaptivity, his princely generosity, his daring courage, his sincere piety won the hearts of all who came incontact with him. He was the sword as O'Neil was thebrain of the Ulster Confederacy; the Ulysses and Achillesof the war, they fought side by side, without jealousyor envy, for almost as long a period as their prototypeshad spent in besieging Troy. 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE CONQUEST OF MUNSTER--DEATH OF ELIZABETH, ANDSUBMISSION 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 sheoften predicted, she was not to live to receive hissubmission. She was accustomed to send for her godson, Harrington, who had served in Ireland, to ask him questionsconcerning Tyrone; the French ambassador consideredTyrone's war one of the causes that totally destroyedher peace of mind in her latter days. She received thenews of the victory of Kinsale with pleasure, but, eventhen, she was not destined to receive the submission ofTyrone. 

The events of the year, so inauspiciously begun for theIrish arms, continued of the same disastrous character. Castlehaven was surrendered by its Spanish guard, accordingto Del Aguila's agreement. Baltimore, after a momentaryresistance, was also given up, but O'Sullivan, whoconsidered the Spanish capitulation nothing short oftreason, threw a body of native troops, probably drawnfrom Tyrrell's men, into Dunboy, under Captain RichardMageoghegan, and Taylor, an Englishman, connected bymarriage with Tyrrell. Another party of the same troopstook possession of Clear Island, but were obliged toabandon it as untenable. The entire strength of the Dunboygarrison 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 besiegeDunboy. Sir Charles Wilmot moved on the same point fromKerry, with a force of 1, 000 men, to join Carew. In thepass near Mangerton Wilmot was encountered by DonaldO'Sullivan and Tyrrell, at the head of then remainingfollowers, but forced a passage and united with hissuperior on the shores of Berehaven. On the 1st of Junethe English landed on Bear Island, and on the 6th openedtheir cannonade. They were 4, 000 men, with every militaryequipment necessary, against 143. After eleven days'bombardment the place was shattered to pieces; the garrisonoffered to surrender, if allowed to retain their arms, but their messenger was hanged, and an instant assaultordered. Over fifty of this band of Christian Spartanshad fallen in the defence, thirty attempted to escape inboats, or by swimming, but were killed to a man while inthe water. The remainder retreated with Mageoghegan, who was severely wounded, to a cellar approached by anarrow stair, where the command was assumed by Taylor. All day the assault had been carried on till night closedupon the scene of carnage. Placing a strong guard on theapproach to the crypt, Carew returned to the charge withthe returning light. Cannon were first discharged intothe narrow chamber which held the last defenders ofDunboy, and then a body of the assailants rushing in, despatched the wounded Mageoghegan with their swords, having found him, candle in hand, dragging himself towardsthe gunpowder. Taylor and fifty-seven others were ledout to execution; of all the heroic band, not a soulescaped alive. 

The remaining fragments of Dunboy were blown into theair by Carew on the 22nd of June. Dursey Castle, anotherisland fortress of O'Sullivan's, had fallen even earlier;so that no roof remained to the lord of Berehaven. Stillhe held his men well together in the glens of Kerry, during the months of Summer, but the ill-news from Spainin September threw a gloom over those mountains deeperthan was ever cast by equinoctial storm. Tyrrell wasobliged to separate from him in the Autumn, probably fromthe difficulty of providing for so many mouths, andO'Sullivan himself prepared to bid a sad farewell to theland of his inheritance. On the last day of December heleft Glengariffe, with 400 fighting men, and 600 women, children, and servants, to seek a refuge in the distantnorth. After a retreat almost unparalleled, the survivorsof this exodus succeeded in reaching the friendly roofof O'Ruarc, at Dromahaire, not far from Sligo. Theirentire march, from the extreme south to the almost extremenorth-west of the island, a distance, as they travelledit, of not less than 200 miles, was one scene of warfareand suffering. They were compelled to kill their horses, on reaching the Shannon, in order to make boats of thehides, to ferry them to the western bank. At Aughrim theywere attacked by a superior force under Lord Clanrickarde'sbrother, and Captain Henry Malby, but they fought withthe courage of despair, routed the enemy, slaving Malby, and other officers. Of the ten hundred who left the shoresof Glengariffe, but 35 souls reached the Leitrim chieftain'smansion. Among these were the chief himself, with Dermid, father of the historian, who at the date of this marchhad reached the age of seventy. The conquest of Munster, at least, was now complete. In the ensuing January, OwenMcEgan, Bishop of Ross, was slain in the midst of aguerilla party, in the mountains of Carberry, and Mschaplain, being taken, was hanged with the other prisoners. The policy of extermination recommended by Carew waszealously 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, marchingout of Derry, pressed O'Neil from the north and north-east. In June, Mountjoy was at Charlemont, which he placedunder the custody of Captain Toby Caufield, the founderof an illustrious title taken from that fort. He advancedon Dungannon, but discovered it from the distance, asNorris had once before done, in flames, kindled by thehand of its straitened proprietor. On Lough Neagh heerected a new fort called Mountjoy, so that hiscommunications on the south now stretched from that greatlake round to Omagh, while those of Dowcra, at Augher, Donegal, and Lifford, nearly completed the circle. Almostthe only outlet from this chain of posts was into themountains of O'Cane's country, the north-east angle ofthe present county of Derry. The extensive tract soenclosed and guarded had still some natural advantagesfor carrying on a defensive war. The primitive woods werestanding in masses at no great distance from each other;the nearly parallel vales of Faughan, Moyala, and theriver Roe, with the intermediate leagues of moor andmountain, were favourable to the movements of nativeforces familiar with every ford and footpath. There wasalso, while this central tract was held, a possibilityof communication with other unbroken tribes, such asthose of Clandeboy and the Antrim glens on the east, andBreffni O'Ruarc on the west. Never did the genius of HughO'Neil shine out brighter than in these last defensiveoperations. In July, Mountjoy writes apologetically tothe Council, that "notwithstanding her Majesty's greatforces, O'Neil doth still live. " He bitterly complainsof his consummate caution, his "pestilent judgment tospread and to nourish his own infection, " and of thereverence entertained for his person by the nativepopulation. Early in August, Mountjoy had arranged whathe hoped might prove the finishing stroke in the struggle. Dowcra from Derry, Chichester from Carrickfergus, Danversfrom Armagh, and all who could be spared from Mountjoy, Charlemont, and Mount Norris, were gathered under hiscommand, to the number of 8, 000 men, for a foray intothe interior of Tyrone. Inisloghlin, on the borders ofDown and Antrim, which contained a great quantity ofvaluables, belonging to O'Neil, was captured. Magherlowneyand Tulloghoge were next taken. At the latter place stoodthe ancient stone chair on which the O'Neils wereinaugurated time out of mind; it was now broken intoatoms by Mountjoy's orders. But the most effective warfarewas made on the growing crops. The 8, 000 men spreadthemselves over the fertile fields along the valleys ofthe Bann and the Roe, destroying the standing grain withfire, where it would burn, or with the _praca_, a peculiarkind of harrow, tearing it up by the roots. The horsementrampled crops into the earth which had generouslynourished them; the infantry shore them down with theirsabres, and the sword, though in a very different sensefrom that of Holy Scripture, was, indeed, converted intoa sickle. The harvest month never shone upon such fieldsin any Christian land. In September, Mountjoy reportedto Cecil, "that between Tulloghoge and Toome there layunburied a thousand dead, " and that since his arrival onthe Blackwater--a period of a couple of months--"therewere about 3, 000 starved in Tyrone. " In O'Cane's country, the misery of his clansmen drove the chief to surrenderto Dowcra, and the news of Hugh Roe's death having reachedDonegal, his brother repaired to Athlone, and made hissubmission to Mountjoy, early in December. O'Neil, unableto maintain himself on the river, Roe, retired with 600foot and 60 horse, to Glencancean, near Lough Neagh, themost secure of his fastnesses. His brother Cormac McMahon, and Art O'Neil, of Clandeboy, shared with him the wintryhardships of that last asylum, while Tyrone, Clandeboy, and Monaghan, were given up to horrors, surpassing anythat 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 theditches of towns, and especially in wasted countries, than to see multitudes of these poor people dead, withtheir 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 rumouredthat O'Neil was disposed to surrender on honourable terms. Mountjoy and the English Council long urged the agedQueen to grant such terms, but without effect. Her prideas a sovereign had been too deeply wounded by the revoltedEarl to allow her easily to forgive or forget his offences. Her advisers urged that Spain had followed her own coursetowards the Netherlands, in Ireland; that the war consumedthree-fourths of her annual revenue, and had obliged herto keep up an Irish army of 20, 000 men for several yearspast. At length she yielded her reluctant consent, andMountjoy was authorized to treat with the arch-rebel uponhonourable terms. The agents employed by the Lord Deputyin this negotiation were Sir William Godolphin and SirGarrett Moore, of Mellifont, ancestor of the Marquis ofDrogheda--the latter, a warm personal friend, though nopartizan of O'Neil's. They found him in his retreat nearLough Neagh early in March, and obtained his promise togive the Deputy an early meeting at Mellifont. Elizabeth'sserious illness, concealed from O'Neil, though well knownto Mountjoy, hastened the negotiations. On the 27th ofMarch he had intelligence of her decease at London onthe 24th, but carefully concealed it till the 5th ofApril following. On the 31st of March, he receivedTyrone's submission at Moore's residence, the ancientCistercian Abbey, and not until a week later did O'Neillearn that he had made his peace with a dead sovereign. 

The honourable terms on which this memorable religiouswar was concluded were these: O'Neil abjured all foreignallegiance, especially that of the King of Spain; renouncedthe title of O'Neil; agreed to give up his correspondencewith the Spaniards, and to recall his son, Henry, whowas a page at the Spanish Court, and to live in peacewith the sons of John the Proud. Mountjoy granted him anamnesty for himself and his allies; agreed that he shouldbe restored to his estates as he had held them beforethe war, and that the Catholics should have the freeexercise of their religion. That the restoration of hisordinary chieftain rights, which did not conflict withthe royal prerogative, was also included, we have thebest possible evidence: Sir Henry Dowcra having complainedto Lord Mountjoy that O'Neil quartered men on O'Cane, who had surrendered to himself, Mountjoy made answer--"MyLord 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 hiscommands. " That the article concerning religion wasunderstood by the Catholics to concede full freedom ofworship, is evident from subsequent events. In Dublin, sixteen of the principal citizens suffered fine andimprisonment for refusing to comply with the act ofuniformity; in Kilkenny the Catholics took possession ofthe 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 oldChurches restored to their ancient rites, and enthusiasticproclamation made of the public restoration of religion. These events having obliged the Lord Deputy to make aprogress through the towns and cities, he was met atWaterford by a vast procession, headed by religious inthe 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 arenot surprised to learn that, in the rural districts, almost exclusively Catholic, the people entered upon theuse of many of their old Churches, and repaired severalAbbeys--among the number, Buttevant, Kilcrea, and Timoleaguein Cork; Quin Abbey in Clare; Kilconnell in Galway;Rosnariell in Mayo, and Multifarnham in West-Meath. Soconfident were they that the days of persecution werepast, that King James prefaces his proclamation of July, 1605, with the statement--"Whereas we have been informedthat our subjects in the kingdom of Ireland, since thedeath of our beloved sister, have been deceived by afalse rumour, to wit, that we would allow them libertyof conscience, " and so forth. How cruelly they were thenundeceived belongs to the history of the next reign; herewe need only remark that the Articles of Limerick werenot more shamefully violated by the statute 6th and 7th, William III. , than the Articles of Mellifont were violatedby this Proclamation of the third year of James I. 

CHAPTER XII. 

STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING DURING THE REIGNOF ELIZABETH. 

During the greater part of the reign of Elizabeth, themeans relied upon for the propagation of the reformeddoctrines were more exclusively those of force and coercionthan even in the time of Edward VI. Thus, when Sir WilliamDrury was Deputy, in 1578, he bound several citizens ofKilkenny, under a penalty of 40 pounds each, to attendthe English Church service, and authorized the AnglicanBishop "to make a rate for the repair of the Church, andto distrain for the payment of it"--the first mention ofChurch rates we remember to have met with. Drury's methodof proceeding may be further inferred from the fact, thatof the thirty-six executions ordered by him in the samecity, "one was a blackamoor and two were witches, whowere condemned by the law of nature, for there was nopositive law against witchcraft [in Ireland] in thosedays. " That defect was soon supplied, however, by thestatute 27th of Elizabeth, "against witchcraft andsorcery. " Sir John Perrott, successor to Drury, trod inthe same path, as we judge from the charge of severityagainst recusants, upon which, among other articles, hewas recalled from the government. Towards the end of thesixteenth century, however, it began to be discovered bythe wisest observers that violent methods were worse thanuseless with the Irish. Edmund Spenser urged that "religionshould not be forcibly impressed into them with terrorand sharp penalties, as now is the manner, but ratherdelivered and intimated with mildness and gentleness. "Lord Bacon, in his "Considerations touching the Queen'sService in Ireland, " addressed to Secretary Cecil, recommends "the recovery of the hearts of the people, "as the first step towards their conversion. With thisview he suggested "a toleration of religion (for a timenot definite), except it be in some principal towns andcities, " as a measure "warrantable in religion, and inpolicy of absolute necessity. " The philosophic Chancellorfarther suggested, as a means to this desired end, thepreparation of "versions of Bibles and Catechisms, andother works of instruction in the Irish language. " Inaccordance with these views of conversion, the Universityof Trinity College was established by a royal charter, in the month of January, 1593. The Mayor and Corporationof Dublin had granted the ancient monastery of All Hallowsas a site for the buildings; some contributions werereceived from the Protestant gentry, large grants ofconfiscated Abbey and other lands, which afterwardsyielded a princely revenue, were bestowed upon it, andthe Lord Treasurer Burleigh graciously accepted the officeof its Chancellor. The first Provost was Archbishop Loftus, and of the first three students entered, one was theafterwards illustrious James Usher. The commanders andofficers engaged at Kinsale presented it with the sum of1, 800 pounds for the purchase of a library; and at thesubsequent confiscations in Munster and Ulster, theCollege came in for a large portion of the forfeited lands. 

Although the Council in England generally recommendedthe adoption of persuasive arts and a limited toleration, those who bore the sword usually took care that theyshould 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 memberswere ordered to proceed cautiously after the UlsterConfederacy became formidable, and their powers laydormant in the last two or three years of the century. Essex and Mountjoy were both fully convinced of the wisdomof Bacon's views; the former showed a partial toleration, connived at the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, evenin 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 asdealt in it for a time to hold a restrained hand therein. ""The other course, " he adds, "might have overthrown themeans of our own end of a reformation of religion. " Thisconditional toleration--such as it was--excited theindignation of the more zealous Reformers, whose favouritepreacher, the youthful Usher, did not hesitate to denounceit from the pulpit of Christ Church, as an unhallowedcompromise with antichrist. In 1601, Usher, then but 21years of age, preached his well-known sermon from thetext of the forty days, in which Ezekiel "was to bearthe iniquity of the house of Judah--a day for a year. ""From this year, " cried the youthful zealot, "will Ireckon the sin of Ireland, that those whom you now embraceshall be your ruin, and you shall bear their iniquity. "When the northern insurrection of 1641 took place, thisrhetorical menace was exalted, after the fact, into thedignity of a prophecy fulfilled. After the victory ofKinsale, however, the Ultra Protestant party had lesscause to complain of the temporizing of the civil power;the pecuniary mulct of twelve pence for each absence fromthe English service was again enforced at least in Dublin, and several priests, then in prison, were, on variouspretences, put to death. Among those who suffered in thecapital was the learned Jesuit, Henry Fitzsimons, son ofa Mayor of the city, the author of _Brittanomachia_, withwhom, while in the Castle, Usher commenced a controversy, which was never finished. But the terms agreed upon atMellifont, between Mountjoy and Tyrone, again suspendedfor a short interval the sword of persecution. 

Notwithstanding its manifold losses by exile and thescaffold, the ancient Church was enabled, through theabundance of vocations, and the zeal of the ordained, tokeep up a still powerful organization. Philip O'Sullivanstates, under the next reign that the government hadascertained through its spies, the names of 1, 160 priests, secular and regular, still in the country. There musthave been between 300 and 400 others detained abroad, either as Professors in the Irish Colleges in Spain, France, and Flanders, or as ecclesiastics, awaiting majororders. Of the regulars at home, 120 were Franciscans, and about 50 Jesuits. There are said to have been butfour Fathers of the Order of St. Dominick remaining atthe time of Elizabeth's death. The reproach of Cambrensishad long been taken away, since every Diocese might nowpoint to its martyrs. Of these we recall among theHierarchy the names of O'Hely, Bishop of Killala, executedat Kilmallock hi 1578; O'Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, burned at the stake in Dublin in 1582; Creagh, Archbishopof Armagh, who died a prisoner in the Tower in 1585;Archbishop McGauran, his successor, slain in the act ofministering to the wounded in the engagement at Tulsk, in Roscommon, in 1593; McEgan, Bishop of Ross, who methis death under precisely similar circumstances in Carberryin 1603. Yet through all these losses the episcopalsuccession was maintained unbroken. In the early part ofthe next reign O'Sullivan gives the names of the fourArchbishops, Peter Lombard of Armagh, Edward McGauran ofDublin, David O'Carny of Cashel, and Florence Conroy ofTuam. On the other hand, the last trying half centuryhad furnished, so far as we can learn, no instance ofapostacy among the Bishops, and but half a dozen at mostfrom all orders of the clergy. We read that Owen O'Conor, an apostate, was advanced by letters patent to Killalain 1591; that Maurice O'Brien of Ara was, in 1570, bythe same authority, elevated to the See of Killaloe, which he resigned in 1612; that Miler Magrath, in earlylife a Franciscan friar, was promoted by the Queen tothe Sees of Clogher, Killala, Anchory and Lismoresuccessively. He finally settled in the See of Cashel, in which he died, having secretly returned to the religionof his ancestors. For the rest, "the Queen's Bishops"were chiefly chosen out of England, though some fewnatives of the Pale, or of the walled towns, educated atOxford, may be found in the list. 

Of the state of learning in those troubled times thebrief story is easily told. The Bardic Order stillflourished and was held in honour by all ranks of thenative population. The national adversity brought out inthem, as in others, many noble traits of character. TheHarper, O'Dugan, was the last companion that clung tothe last of the Desmonds; the Bard of Tyrconnell, OwenWard, accompanied the Ulster chiefs in their exile, andpoured out his Gaelic dirge above their Roman graves. Although the Bardic compositions continued to be chieflypersonal, relating to the inauguration, journeys, exploits, or death of some favourite chief, a large number ofdevotional poems on the passion of our Lord and the gloriesof the Blessed Virgin are known to be of this age. Thefirst forerunners of what was destined to be a numerousprogeny, the controversial ode or ballad, appeared inElizabeth's reign, in the form of comparisons betweenthe old and new religions, lamentations over the ruin ofreligious houses, and the apostacy of such persons asMiler Magrath and the son of the Earl of Desmond. Thetalents 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 andrebellion rather than of virtue and loyalty. He recommendedthem for correction to the mercies of the Provost Marshal, whom he would have "to walk the country with half adozen or half a score of horsemen, " in quest of thetreasonable poets. 

As this was the age of the general diffusion of printing, we may observe that the casting of Irish type for theuse of Trinity College, by order of Queen Elizabeth, iscommonly dated from the year 1591; but as the Collegewas not opened for two years later, the true date mustbe anticipated. John Kearney, Treasurer of St. Patrick'sChurch, who died about the year 1600, published a ProtestantCatechism from the College Press, which, says O'Reilly, "was the first book ever printed in Irish types. " In theyear 1593, Florence Conroy translated from the Spanishinto Irish a catechism entitled "Christian Instruction, "which, he states in the preface, he had no opportunityof sending into Ireland "until the year of the age ofour Lord 1598. " Whether it was then printed we are notinformed, but there does not seem to have been any Irishtype in Catholic hands before the foundation of the IrishCollege at Louvain in 1616. 

The merit of first giving to the press, in the nativelanguage of the country, a version of the Sacred Scriptures, belongs clearly to Trinity College. Nicholas Walsh, Bishopof Ossory, who died in 1585, had commenced, with theassistance of John Kearney, to translate the GreekTestament 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. Thistranslation, dedicated to King James, and published byO'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 ofparticular passages as his imperfect knowledge of thelanguage enabled him to suggest, though completed in thereign of Charles I. , was not published before the year1680. It was Bedel, also, who caused the English liturgyto be recited in Irish, in his Cathedral, as early as 1630. 

Ireland and her affairs naturally attracted, duringElizabeth's reign, the attention of English writers. Ofthese it is enough to mention the Poet Spenser, Secretaryto Lord Grey de Wilton, Fynes Moryson, Secretary to LordMountjoy, and the Jesuit Father, Campian. Campian, earlydistinguished at Oxford, was employed as Cambrensis hadbeen four centuries earlier, and as Plowden was twocenturies later, to write down everything Irish. Hecrossed the Channel in 1570, and composed two booksrapidly, without accurate or full information as to thecondition or history of the country. The nearer view ofCatholic suffering and Catholic constancy exercised apowerful influence on this accomplished scholar; he becamea convert and a Jesuit. For members of that order therewas 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 ArchbishopUsher, went through precisely the same experiences ashis friend Campian, except that he died, a quarter of acentury later, Chaplain to the Archdukes at Brussels, instead of expiring at the stake. His English hexametersare among the curiosities of literature, but hiscontributions to the history of his country, especiallyhis allusions to events and characters in and about hisown time, are not without their use. Stanihurst wrotehis historical tracts, as did Lombard the Catholic andUsher the Protestant Primate, O'Sullivan, White, O'Meara, and almost all the Irish writers of that age, withoutexception, in the Latin language. The first Latin bookprinted in Ireland is thought to be O'Meara's poem inpraise of Thomas, Earl of Ormond and Ossory, publishedin 1615. The earliest English books printed in Irelandare 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 thereign of Elizabeth. 

As to institutions of learning, if we except TrinityCollege, which increased rapidly in numbers and reputationunder the patronage of the Crown, and the College ofSaint Nicholas, at Galway--protected by its remotesituation on the brink of the Atlantic--there was nofamous seat of learning left in the island. In the nextreign 1, 300 scholars are stated to have attended thatwestern "school of humanity, " when the EcclesiasticalCommissioners despotically ordered it to be closed, because the learned Principal, John Lynch, "would notconfirm to the religion established. " But the greaternumber of the children of Catholics, who still retainedproperty 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 proclamationissued by Lord Deputy Chichester, in 1610, alludes tothe same custom, and commands all noblemen, merchants, and others, whose children are abroad for educationalpurposes, to recall them within one year from the datethereof; 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 wasmainly to guard against this danger that "the School ofWards" was established by Elizabeth, and enlarged byJames I. , in which the great Duke of Ormond, Sir PhelimO'Neil, Murrogh, Lord Inchiquin, and other sons of noblefamilies, were educated for the next generation. Earlyin the reign of James there were not less than 300 ofthese Irish children in the Tower, or at the LambethSchool, --and it is humiliating to find the great name ofSir Edward Coke among those who gloried in the successof this unnatural substitution of the State for the Parentin 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 heascended the throne under the title of "James the First, King of Great Britain and Ireland. " His accession naturallyexcited the most hopeful expectations of good governmentin the breasts of the Irish Catholics. He was son of MaryQueen of Scots, whom they looked upon as a martyr to herreligion, and grandson of that gallant King James whostyled himself "Defender of the Faith, " and "_DominusHiberniae_" in introducing the first Jesuits to the UlsterPrinces. His ancestors had always been in alliance withthe Irish, and the antiquaries of that nation loved totrace their descent from the Scoto-Irish chiefs who firstcolonized Argyle, and were for ages crowned at Scone. Hehimself was known to have assisted the late Catholicstruggle as effectually, though less openly than the Kingof Spain, and it is certain that he had employed Catholicagents, like Lord Home and Sir James Lindsay, to excitean interest in his succession among the Catholics, bothin the British Islands and on the Continent. 

The first acts of the new sovereign were calculated toconfirm the expectations of Catholic liberty thusentertained. He was anxious to make an immediate andlasting peace with Spain; refused to receive a specialembassy from the Hollanders; his ambassador at Paris wasknown to be on terms of intimacy with the Pope's Nuncio;and although personally he assumed the tone of an AnglicanChurchman, on crossing the border he had invited leadingCatholics to his Court, and conferred the honour ofKnighthood on some of their number. The imprudentdemonstrations in the Irish towns were easily quieted, and no immediate notice was taken of their leaders. InMay, 1603, Mountjoy, on whom James had conferred thehigher rank of Lord Lieutenant, leaving Carew as LordDeputy, proceeded to England, accompanied by O'Neil, Roderick O'Donnell, Maguire, and other Irish gentlemen. The veteran Tyrone, now past threescore, though hootedby the London rabble, was graciously received in thatcourt, with which he had been familiar forty years before. He was at once confirmed in his title, the Earldom ofTyrconnell was created for O'Donnell, and the Lordshipof Enniskillen for Maguire. Mountjoy, created Earl ofDevonshire, retained the title of Lord Lieutenant, withpermission to reside in England, and was rewarded by theappointment of Master of the Ordnance and Warden of theNew Forest, with an ample pension from the Crown to himand 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 theseriches and honours; at the age of 44, wasted withdissipation and domestic troubles, he passed to his finalaccount. 

The necessity of conciliating the Catholic party inEngland, of maintaining peace in Ireland, and prosecutingthe Spanish negotiations, not less, perhaps, than hisown original bias, led James to deal favourably with theCatholics at first. But having attempted to enforce thenew Anglican Canons, adopted in 1604, against the Puritans, that party retaliated by raising against him the cry offavouring the Papists. This cry alarmed the King, whohad 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 publisheda proclamation banishing all Catholic missionaries fromthe country. All magistrates were instructed to enforcethe penal laws with rigour, and an elaborate spy systemfor the discovery of concealed recusants was set on foot. This reign of treachery and terror drove a few desperatemen into the gunpowder plot of the following year, andrendered it difficult, if not impossible, for the Kingto return to the policy of toleration, with which, to dohim justice, he seems to have set out from Scotland. 

Carew, President of Munster during the late war, becameDeputy to Mountjoy on his departure for England. He wassucceeded 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. Thisnobleman, 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 toendow the Donegal peerage out of the spoils of Ulster, as richly as Boyle endowed his earldom out of theconfiscation of Munster. Both were Puritans rather thanChurchmen, in their religious opinions; Chichester, apupil of the celebrated Cartwright, and a favourer allhis life of the congregational clergy in Ulster. But theycarried their repugnance to the interference of the civilmagistrate in matters of conscience so discreetly as tosatisfy the high church notions both of James and Elizabeth. For the violence they were thus compelled to exerciseagainst themselves, they seem to have found relief inbitter and continuous persecution of others. Boyle, asthe leading spirit in the government of Munster, as LordTreasurer, and occasionally as Lord Justice, had ampleopportunities, during his long career of forty years, toindulge at once his avarice and his bigotry; and nosituation was ever more favourable than Chichester's fora proconsul, eager to enrich himself at the expense ofa subjugated Province. 

In the projected work of the reduction of the wholecountry to the laws and customs of England, it isinstructive to observe that a Parliament was not calledin the first place. The reformers proceeded byproclamations, letters patent, and orders in council, not by legislation. The whole island was divided into 32counties and 6 judicial circuits, all of which werevisited by Justices in the second or third year of thisreign, and afterwards semi-annually. On the NorthernCircuit Sir Edward Pelham and Sir John Davis wereaccompanied by the Deputy in person, with a numerousretinue. In some places the towns were so wasted by thelate war, pestilence, and famine, that the Viceregalparty were obliged to camp out in the fields, and tocarry with them their own provisions. The Courts wereheld in ruined castles and deserted monasteries; Irishinterpreters were at every step found necessary; sheriffswere installed in Tyrone and Tyrconnell for the firsttime; all lawyers appearing in court and all justices ofthe peace were tendered the oath of supremacy--the refusalof which necessarily excluded Catholics both from thebench and the bar. An enormous amount of litigation asto the law of real property was created by a judgment ofthe Court of King's Bench at Dublin, in 1605, by whichthe 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 forcein England. Very evidently this decision was not less aviolation of the articles of Mellifont than was the King'sproclamation against freedom of conscience issued aboutthe same tune. 

Sir John Davis, who has left us two very interestingtracts on Irish affairs, speaking of the new legalregulations of which he was one of the principalsuperintendents, observes that the old-fashioned allowancesto be found so often in the Pipe-Rolls, _pro guidagio etspiagio_, into the interior, may well be spared thereafter, since "the under sheriffs and bailiffs errant are betterguides and spies in time of peace than they were foundin tune of war. " He adds, what we may very well believe, that the Earl of Tyrone complained he had so many eyesupon him, that he could not drink a cup of sack withoutthe government being advertised of it within a few hoursafterwards. This system of social _espionage_, sorepugnant to all the habits of the Celtic family, wasnot the only mode of annoyance resorted to against theveteran chief. Every former dependent who could be inducedto dispute his claims as a landlord, under the newrelations established by the late decision, was sure ofa judgment in his favour. Disputes about boundaries withO'Cane, about the commutation of chieftain-rents intotenantry, about church lands claimed by Montgomery, Protestant Bishop of Derry, were almost invariably decidedagainst him. Harassed by these proceedings, and alluncertain of the future, O'Neil listened willingly tothe treacherous suggestion of St. Lawrence and Lord Howth, that the leading Catholics of the Pale, and those ofUlster, should endeavour to form another confederation. The execution of Father Garnet, Provincial of the Jesuitsin 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 EnglishParliament--all events of the year 1606--were calculatedto inspire the Irish Catholics with desperate councils. A dutiful remonstrance against the Act of Uniformity theprevious year had been signed by the principal Anglo-IrishCatholics for transmission to the King, but their delegateswere seized and imprisoned in the Castle, while theirprincipal agent, Sir Patrick Barnwell, was sent to Londonand confined in the Tower. A meeting, at Lord Howth'ssuggestion, was held about Christmas, 1606, at the Castleof Maynooth, then in possession of the dowager Countessof Kildare, one of whose daughters was married toChristopher Nugent, Baron of Delvin, and her granddaughterto Rory, Earl of Tyrconnell. There were present O'Neil, O'Donnell, and O'Cane, on the one part, and Lords Delvinand Howth on the other. The precise result of thisconference, disguised under the pretext of a Christmasparty, was never made known, but the fact that it hadbeen held, and that the parties present had entertainedthe project of another confederacy for the defence ofthe Catholic religion, was mysteriously communicated inan anonymous letter, directed to Sir William Usher, Clerkof the Council, which was dropped in the Council Chamberof Dublin Castle, in March, 1607. This letter, it isnow generally believed, was written by Lord Howth, whowas thought to have been employed by Secretary Cecil, toentrap the northern Earls, in order to betray them. InMay, O'Neil and O'Donnell were cited to attend the LordDeputy in Dublin, but the charges were for the time keptin abeyance, and they were ordered to appear in Londonbefore the feast of Michaelmas. Early in September O'Neilwas with Chichester at Slane, in Meath, when he receiveda 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 hisjourney to London, he made some stay with his old friend, Sir Garrett Moore, at Mellifont, on parting from whosefamily he tenderly bade farewell to the children and eventhe servants, and was observed to shed tears. At Dungannonhe remained two days, and on the shore of Lough Swillyhe joined O'Donnell and others of his connexions. TheFrench ship, in which Maguire had returned, awaited themoff Rathmullen, and there they took shipping for France. With O'Neil, in that sorrowful company, were his lastcountess, Catherine, daughter of Magenniss, his threesons, Hugh, John, and Brian; his nephew, Art, son ofCormac, Rory O'Donnell, Caffar, his brother, Nuala, hissister, who had forsaken her husband Nial _Garve_, whenhe forsook his country; the lady Rose O'Doherty, wife ofCaffar, and afterwards of Owen Roe O'Neil; Maguire, OwenMacWard, chief bard of Tyrconnell, and several others. "Woe to the heart that meditated, woe to the mind thatconceived, woe to the council that decided on the projectof that voyage!" exclaimed the Annalists of Donegal, inthe next age. Evidently it was the judgment of theirimmediate successors that the flight of the Earls was arash and irremediable step for them; but the informationon which they acted, if not long since destroyed, has, as yet, never been made public. We can pronounce nojudgment as to the wisdom of their conduct, from theincomplete statements at present in our possession. 

There remained now few barriers to the wholesaleconfiscation 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 Knighthoodwhile a mere lad, fighting by the side of Dowcra, in analtercation 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. Theyouthful chief--he was scarcely one and twenty--was drivenalmost to madness by this outrage. On the night of the3rd of May, by a successful stratagem, he got possessionof Culmore fort, at the month of Lough Foyle, and beforemorning dawned had surprised Derry; Paulett, his insulter, he slew with his own hand, most of the garrison wereslaughtered, 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 forthree months he kept the field, hoping that every galemight bring him assistance from abroad. But those samesummer months and foreign climes had already proved fatalto many of the exiles, whose co-operation he invoked. InJuly, Rory O'Donnell expired at Rome, in August, Maguiredied at Genoa, on his way to Spain, and in September, Caffar O'Donnell was laid in the same grave with hisbrother, 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 ofthe Marshal Wingfield and Sir Oliver Lambert, Governorof 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 inthe Tower for life. In those dungeons, Cormac, brotherof Hugh O'Neil, and O'Cane also languished out theirdays, victims to the careless or vindictive temper ofKing James. Sir Arthur Chichester received, soon afterthese 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 districtof Fercullan near Dublin, with the title of ViscountPowerscourt; Lambert was soon after made Earl of Cavan, and enriched with the lands of Carig, and other estatesin that county. 

To justify at once the measures he proposed, as well asto divert from the exiles the sympathies of Europe, KingJames issued a proclamation bearing date the 5th ofNovember, 1608, giving to the world the English versionof the flight of the Earls. The whole of Ulster was thensurveyed in a cursory manner by a staff over which presidedSir William Parsons as Surveyor-General. The surveysbeing completed early in 1609, a royal commission wasissued to Chichester, Lambert, St. John, Ridgeway, Moore, Davis, and Parsons, with the Archbishop of Armagh, andthe Bishop of Derry, to inquire into the portions forfeited. Before these Commissioners Juries were sworn on eachparticular case, and these Juries duly found that, inconsequence of "the rebellion" of O'Neil, O'Donnell, andO'Doherty, the entire six counties of Ulster, enumeratedby baronies and parishes, were forfeited to the Crown. By direction from England the Irish Privy Council submitteda scheme for planting these counties "with colonies ofcivil men well affected in religion, " which scheme, withseveral modifications suggested by the English PrivyCouncil, was finally promulgated by the royal legislatorunder the title of "Orders and Conditions for the Planters. "According to the division thus ordered, upwards of 43, 000acres were claimed and conceded to the Primate and theProtestant Bishops of Ulster; in Tyrone, Derry, andArmagh, Trinity College got 30, 000 acres, with sixadvowsons in each county. The various trading guilds ofthe city of London--such as the drapers, vintners, cordwainers, drysalters--obtained in the gross 209, 800acres, including the city of Derry, which they rebuiltand fortified, adding _London_ to its ancient name. Thegrants to individuals were divided into three classes--2, 000, 1, 500, and 1, 000 acres each. Among the conditionson which these grants were given was this--"that theyshould not suffer any labourer, that would not take theoath of supremacy, " to dwell upon their lands. But thisdespotic condition--equivalent to sentence of death ontens of thousands of the native peasantry--was fortunatelyfound impracticable in the execution. Land was littleworth without hands to till it; labourers enough couldnot be obtained from England and Scotland, and theHamiltons, Stewarts, Folliots, Chichesters, and Lamberts, having, from sheer necessity, to choose between Irishcultivators and letting their new estates lie waste andunprofitable, it is needless to say what choice they made. 

The spirit of religious persecution was exhibited notonly in the means taken to exterminate the peasantry, todestroy the northern chiefs, and to intimidate theCatholics of "the Pale" by abuse of law, but by manycruel executions. The Prior of the famous retreat ofLough Derg was one of the victims of this persecution;a Priest named O'Loughrane, who had accidentally sailedin the same ship with the Earls to France, was takenprisoner on his return, hanged and quartered. ConorO'Devany, Bishop of Down and Conor, an octogenarian, suffered martyrdom with heroic constancy at Dublin, in1611. Two years before, John, Lord Burke of Brittas, was executed in like manner on a charge of havingparticipated in the Catholic demonstrations which tookplace at Limerick on the accession of King James. Theedict of 1610 in relation to Catholic children educatedabroad has been quoted in a previous chapter, _apropos_of education, but the scheme submitted by Knox, Bishopof Raphoe, to Chichester in 1611 went even beyond thatedict. In this project it was proposed that whoever shouldbe found to harbour a Priest should forfeit all hispossessions to the Crown--that quarterly returns shouldbe made out by counties of all who refused to take theoath of supremacy, or to attend the English Churchservice--that no Papist should be permitted to exercisethe function of a schoolmaster; and, moreover, that allchurches injured during the late war should be repairedat the expense of the Papist inhabitants for the use ofthe Anglican congregation. 

Very unexpectedly to the nation at large, after a lapseof 27 years, during which no Parliament had been held, writs were issued for the attendance of both Houses, atDublin, on the 18th of May, 1613. The work of confiscationand plantation had gone on for several years without thesanction of the legislature, and men were at a loss toconceive for what purpose elections were now ordered, unless to invent new penal laws, or to impose freshburdens on the country. With all the efforts which hadbeen made to introduce civil men, well affected inreligion, it was certain that the Catholics would returna large majority of the House of Commons, not only inthe chief towns, but from the fifteen old, and seventeennew counties, lately created. To counterbalance thismajority, over forty boroughs, returning two memberseach, were created, by royal charter, in places thinlyor not at all inhabited, or where towns were merelyprojected on the estates of leading "Undertakers. " Againstthe issue of writs returnable by these fictitiouscorporations, the Lords Gormanstown, Slane, Killeen, Trimbleston, Dunsany, and Howth, signed an humbleremonstrance to the King, concluding with a prayer forthe relaxation of the penal laws affecting religion. TheKing, whose notions of prerogative were extravagantlyhigh, was highly incensed at this petition of the Catholicpeers of Leinster, and Chichester proceeded with his fullapprobation to pack the Parliament. At the elections, however, many "recusant lawyers" and other Catholiccandidates were returned, so that when the day of meetingarrived, 101 Catholic representatives assembled at Dublin, some accompanied by bands of from 100 to 200 armedfollowers. The supporters of the government claimed 125votes, and six were found to be absent, making the wholenumber of the House of Commons 232. The Upper Houseconsisted of 50 Peers, of whom there were 25 ProtestantBishops, so that the Deputy was certain of a majority inthat chamber, on all points of ecclesiastical legislation, at least. Although, with the facts before us, we cannotagree with Sir John Davis that King James I. Gave Irelandher "first free Parliament, " it is impossible not toentertain a high sense of admiration for the constitutionalfirmness of the recusant or Catholic party in thatassembly. At the very outset they successfully resistedthe proposition to meet in the Castle, surrounded by theDeputy's guards, as a silent menace. They next contendedthat before proceeding to the election of Speaker theCouncil should submit to the Judges the decision of thealleged invalid elections. A tumultous and protracteddebate was had on this point. The Castle party arguedthat they should first elect a Speaker and then proceedto try the elections; the Catholics contended that therewere persons present whose votes would determine theSpeakership, but who had no more title in law than thehorseboys at the door. This was the preliminary trialof strength. The candidate of the Castle for the Speakershipwas Sir John Davis; of the Catholics, Sir John Everard, who had resigned his seat on the bench rather than takethe oath of supremacy framed by Archbishop Abbott. TheCastle party having gone into the lobby to be counted, the Catholics placed Sir John Everard in the Chair. Ontheir return the government supporters placed Sir JohnDavis in Everard's lap, and a scene of violent disorderensued. The House broke up in confusion; the recusantsin a body declared their intention not to be present atits deliberations, and the Lord Deputy, finding themresolute, suddenly prorogued the session. Both partiessent deputies to England to lay their complaints at thefoot of the throne. The Catholic spokesmen, Talbot andLutrell, were received with a storm of reproaches, andcommitted, the former to the Tower, the other to theFleet Prison. They were, however, released after a briefconfinement, and a Commission was issued to inquire intothe alleged electoral frauds. By the advice of Everardand others of their leaders, a compromise was effectedwith the Castle party; members returned for boroughsincorporated after the writs were issued were declaredexcluded, the contestation of seats on other grounds ofirregularity were withdrawn, and the House accordinglyproceeded to the business for which they were calledtogether. The chief acts of the sessions of 1614, '15, and '16, beside the grant of four entire subsidies tothe Crown, were an act joyfully recognizing the King'stitle; acts repealing statutes of Elizabeth and Henry VIII. , as to distinctions of race; an act repealing the 3 and 4of Philip and Mary, against "bringing Scots into Ireland, "and the acts of attainder against O'Neil, O'Donnell, andO'Doherty. The recusant minority have been heavily censuredby 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 preventtheir passage, even if they had been unanimous in theiropposition; but they had influence enough, fortunately, tooblige the government to withdraw a sweeping penal lawwhich it was intended to propose. An Act of oblivion andamnesty was also passed, which was of some advantage. Onthe whole, both for the constitutional principles whichthey upheld, and the religious proscription which theyresisted, the recusant minority in the Irish Parliament ofJames I. Deserve to be held in honour by all who valuereligious and civil liberty. 

CHAPTER II. 

LAST YEARS OF JAMES--CONFISCATION OF THE MIDLANDCOUNTIES--ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. --GRIEVANCES AND"GRACES"--ADMINISTRATION OF LORD STRAFFORD. 

From the dissolution of James's only Irish Parliament inOctober, 1615, until the tenth of Charles I. --an intervalof twenty years--the government of the country was againexclusively regulated by arbitrary proclamations andorders in Council. Chichester, after the unusually longterm of eleven years, had leave to retire in 1816; hewas succeeded by the Lord Grandison, who held the officeof Lord Deputy for six years, and he, in turn, by HenryCarey, Viscount Falkland, who governed from 1622 till1629--seven years. Nothing could well be more fluctuatingthan the policy pursued at different periods by theseViceroys and their advisers; violent attempts at coercionalternated with the meanest devices to extort money fromthe oppressed; general declarations against recusantswere repeated with increased vehemence, while particulartreaties for a local and conditional toleration werenotoriously progressing; in a word, the administrationof affairs exhibited all the worst vices and weaknessesof a despotism, without any of the steadiness or magnanimityof a really paternal government. Some of the edicts issueddeserve particular notice, as characterizing theadministrations of Grandison and Falkland. 

The municipal authorities of Waterford, having invariablyrefused to take the oath of supremacy, were, by an orderin Council, deprived of their ancient charter, which waswithheld from them for nine years. The ten shilling taxon recusants for non-attendance at the Anglican servicewas rigorously enforced in other cities, and was almostinvariably levied with costs, which not seldom swelledthe ten shillings to ten pounds. A new instrument ofoppression was also, in Lord Grandison's time, invented--"the Commission for the Discovery of DefectiveTitles. " At the head of this Commission was placed SirWilliam Parsons, the Surveyor-General, who had come intothe kingdom in a menial situation, and had, through along half century of guile and cruelty, contributed asmuch to the destruction of its inhabitants, by theperversion of law, as any armed conqueror could have doneby the edge of the sword. Ulster being already applotted, and Munster undergoing the manipulation of the new Earlof Cork, there remained as a field for the ParsonsCommission only the Midland Counties and Connaught. Ofthese 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 archivesof Dublin and London, with such good success, that in avery short time 66, 000 acres in Wicklow, and 385, 000acres in Leitrim, Longford, the Meaths, and King's andQueen's Counties, were "found by inquisition to be vestedin 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 Wicklowcase, courts-martial were held, before which unwillingwitnesses were tried on the charge of treason, and someactually put to death. Archer, one of the number, hadhis flesh burned with red hot iron, and was placed on agridiron over a charcoal fire, till he offered to testifyanything that was necessary. Yet on evidence so obtainedwhole baronies and counties were declared forfeited tothe Crown. 

The recusants, though suffering under every sort ofinjustice, and kept in a state of continual apprehension--a condition worse even than the actual horrors theyendured--counted many educated and wealthy persons intheir ranks, besides mustering fully ninety per cent, ofthe whole population. They were, therefore, far frombeing politically powerless. The recall of Lord Grandisonfrom the government was attributed to their direct orindirect influence upon the King. When James Usher, thenBishop of Meath, preached before his successor from thetext "He beareth not the sword in vain, " they weresufficiently formidable to compel him publicly to apologisefor his violent allusions to their body. Perhaps, however, we should mainly see in the comparative toleration, extended by Lord Falkland, an effect of the diplomacythen going on, for the marriage of Prince Charles to theInfanta of Spain. When, in 1623, Pope Gregory XV. Granteda dispensation for this marriage, James solemnly sworeto, a private article of the marriage treaty, by whichhe bound himself to suspend the execution of the Penallaws, to procure their repeal in Parliament, and to granta toleration of Catholic worship in private houses. Butthe Spanish match was unexpectedly broken off, immediatelyafter his decease (June, 1625), whereupon Charles marriedHenrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. Of France. 

The new monarch inherited from his father three kingdomsheaving in the throes of disaffection and rebellion. InEngland the most formidable of the malcontents were thePuritans, who reckoned many of the first nobility, andthe ablest members of the House of Commons among theirchiefs; the restoration of episcopacy, and the declarationby the subservient Parliament of Scotland, that no GeneralAssembly should be called without the King's sanction, had laid the sure foundations of a religious insurrectionin the North; while the events, which we have alreadydescribed, filled the minds of all orders of men inIreland with agitation and alarm. The marriage of Charleswith Henrietta Maria gave a ray of assurance to theco-religionists of the young Queen, for they had not thendiscovered that it was ever the habit of the Stuarts "tosacrifice their friends to the fear of their enemies. "While he was yet celebrating his nuptials at Whitehall, surrounded by Catholic guests, the House of Commonspresented Charles "a pious petition, " praying him to putinto force the laws against recusants; a prayer which hewas compelled by motives of policy to answer in theaffirmative. The magistrates of England received ordersaccordingly, and when the King of France remonstratedagainst this flagrant breach of one of the articles ofthe marriage treaty (the same included in the terms ofthe Spanish match), Charles answered that he had neverlooked on the promised toleration as anything but anartifice to secure the Papal dispensation. But the King'scompliance failed to satisfy the Puritan party in theHouse of Commons, and that same year began their contestwith the Crown, which ended only on the scaffold beforeWhitehall 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 lulleddown it was never wholly allayed on either side. 

Irish affairs, in the long continued suspension of thefunctions of Parliament, were administered in general bythe Privy Council, and in detail by three special courts, all established in defiance of ancient constitutionalusage. These were the Court of Castle Chamber, modelledon the English Star Chamber, and the Ecclesiastical HighCommissioners Court, both dating from 1563; and the Courtof Wards and Liveries, originally founded by Henry VIII. , but lately remodelled by James. The Castle Chamber wascomposed of certain selected members of the Privy Councilacting in secret with absolute power; the High CommissionCourt was constituted under James and Charles, of theprincipal Archbishops and Bishops, with the Lord Deputy, Chancellor, Chief Justice, Master of the Rolls, Masterof the Wards, and some others, laymen and jurists. Theywere armed with unlimited power "to visit, reform, redress, order, correct and amend, all such errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, offences, contempts and enormities, " ascame under the head of spiritual or ecclesiasticaljurisdiction. They were, in effect, the Castle Chamber, acting as a spiritual tribunal of last resort; and wereprovided with their own officers, Registers and Receiversof Fines, Pursuivants, Criers and Gaolers. The Court ofWards exercised a jurisdiction, if possible, more repugnantto our first notions of liberty than that of the HighCommission Court. It retained its original power "tobargain and sell the custody, wardship and marriage, " ofall the heirs of such persons of condition as died inthe King's homage; but their powers, by royal letterspatent of the year 1617, were to be exercised by a Masterof Wards, with an Attorney and Surveyor, all nominatedby the Crown. The Court was entitled to farm all theproperty of its Wards during nonage, for the benefit ofthe Crown, "taking one year's rent from heirs male, andtwo from heirs female, " for charges of stewardship. Thefirst master, Sir William Parsons, was appointed in 1622, and confirmed at the beginning of the next reign, witha salary of 300 pounds per annum, and the right to ranknext to the Chief Justice of the King's Bench at thePrivy Council. By this appointment the minor heirs ofall the Catholic proprietors were placed, both as toperson and property, at the absolute disposal of one ofthe most intense anti-Catholic bigots that ever appearedon the scene of Irish affairs. 

In addition to these civil grievances an order had latelybeen issued to increase the army in Ireland by 5, 000 men, and means of subsistence had to be found for that additionalforce, within the kingdom. In reply to the murmurs ofthe inhabitants, they were assured by Lord Falkland thatthe King was their friend, and that any just and temperaterepresentation of their grievances would secure hiscareful and instant attention. So encouraged, the leadingCatholics convoked a General Assembly of their nobilityand gentry, "with several Protestants of rank, " at Dublin, in the year 1628, in order to present a dutiful statementof their complaints to the King. The minutes of thisimportant Assembly, it is to be feared, are for ever lostto us. We only know that it included a large number oflanded proprietors, of whom the Catholics were still avery numerous section. "The entire proceedings of thisAssembly, " says Dr. Taylor, "were marked by wisdom andmoderation. They drew up a number of articles, in thenature of a Bill of Rights, to which they humbly solicitedthe royal assent, and promised that, on their beinggranted, they would raise a voluntary assessment of100, 000 pounds for the use of the Crown. The principalarticles in these 'graces, ' as they were called, wereprovisions for the security of property, the dueadministration of justice, the prevention of militaryexactions, the freedom of trade, the better regulationof the clergy, and the restraining of the tyranny of theecclesiastical courts. Finally, they provided that theScots, who had been planted in Ulster, should be seemedin their possessions, and a general pardon granted forall offences. " Agents were chosen to repair to Englandwith this petition, and the Assembly, hoping for the bestresults, adjourned. But the ultra Protestant party hadtaken the alarm, and convoked a Synod at Dublin tocounteract the General Assembly. This Synod vehementlyprotested against selling truth "as a slave, " and"establishing for a price idolatry in its stead. " Theylaid it down as a dogma of _their_ faith that "to grantPapists a toleration, or to consent that they may freelyexercise their religion and profess their faith anddoctrines, was a grievous sin;" wherefore they prayedGod "to make those in authority zealous, resolute, andcourageous against all Popery, superstition, and idolatry. "This declaration of the extreme Protestants, includingnot only Usher, and the principal Bishops, but Chichester, Boyle, Parsons, and the most successful "Undertakers, "all deeply imbued with Puritan notions, naturally foundamong their English brethren advocates and defenders. The King, who had lately, for the third time, renewedwith France the articles of his marriage treaty, wasplaced in a most difficult position. He desired to savehis own honour, he sorely needed the money of the Catholics, but he trembled before the compact, well organizedfanaticism of the Puritans. In his distress he had recourseto 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 hissubsequent title of Earl of Strafford, a statesman bornto be the wonder and the bane of three kingdoms. Strafford(for such for clearness we must call him) boldly advisedthe King to grant "the graces" as his own personal act, to pocket the proposed subsidy, but to contrive that thepromised concessions he was to make should never go intoeffect. This infamous deception was effected in thiswise: the King signed, with his own hand, a schedule offifty-one "graces, " and received from the Irish agentsin London bonds for 120, 000 pounds, (equal to ten timesthe amount at present), to be paid in three annualinstalments of 40, 000 pounds. He also agreed that Parliamentshould be immediately called in Ireland, to confirm theseconcessions, while at the same time he secretly instructedLord Falkland to see that the writs of election wereinformally prepared, so that no Parliament could be held. This was accordingly done; the agents of the GeneralAssembly paid their first instalment; the subscribersheld the King's autograph; the writs were issued, but onbeing returned, were found to be technically incorrect, and so the legal confirmation of the graces was indefinitelypostponed, under one pretext or another. As evidence ofthe national demands at this period, we should add, thatbeside the redress of minor grievances, the articlessigned by the King provided that the recusants should beallowed to practise in the courts of law; to sue thelivery of their lands out of the Court of Wards, on takingan oath of civil allegiance in lieu of the oath ofsupremacy; that the claims of the Crown to the forfeitureof estates, under the plea of defects of title, shouldnot be held to extend beyond sixty years anterior to1628; that the "Undertakers" should have time allowedthem to fulfil the conditions of their leases; that theproprietors of Connaught should be allowed to make a newenrollment of their estates, and that a Parliament shouldbe held. A royal proclamation announced these concessions, as existing in the royal intention, but, as we havealready related, such promises proved to be worth no morethan the paper on which they were written. 

In 1629 Lord Falkland, to disarm the Puritan outcryagainst him, had leave to withdraw, and for four years--an unusually long interregnum--the government was leftin the hands of Robert Boyle, now Earl of Cork, and AdamLoftus, Viscount Ely, one of the well dowered offspringof Queen Elizabeth's Archbishop of Dublin. Ely held theoffice of Lord Chancellor, and Cork that of Lord HighTreasurer; as Justices, they now combined in their ownpersons almost all the power and patronage of the kingdom. Both affected a Puritan austerity and enthusiasm, whichbarely cloaked a rapacity and bigotry unequalled in anyformer administration. In Dublin, on Saint Stephen's Day, 1629, the Protestant Archbishop, Bulkley, and the Mayorof the city, entered the Carmelite Chapel, at the headof a file of soldiers, dispersed the congregation, desecrated the altar, and arrested the officiating friars. The persecution was then taken up and repeated whereverthe executive power was strong enough to defy the popularindignation. A Catholic seminary lately established inthe capital was confiscated, and turned over to TrinityCollege as a training school. Fifteen religious houses, chiefly belonging to the Franciscan Order, which hadhitherto escaped from the remoteness of their situation, were, by an order of the English Council, confiscated tothe Crown, and their novices compelled to emigrate inorder to complete their studies abroad. A reprimand fromthe King somewhat stayed the fury of the Justices, whosesupreme power ended with Stafford's appointment in 1633. 

The advent of Stafford was characteristic of his wholecourse. The King sent over another letter concerningrecusants, declaring that the laws against them, at thesuggestion of the Lords Justices, should be put strictlyin force. The Justices proved unwilling to enter thisletter on the Council book, and it was accordingly withheldtill Stafford's arrival, but the threat had the desiredeffect of drawing "a voluntary contribution" of 20, 000pounds out of the alarmed Catholics. Equipped partlywith this money Stafford arrived in Dublin in July, 1633, and entered at once on the policy, which he himselfdesignated by the one emphatic word--"THOROUGH. " He tookup his abode in the Castle, surrounded by a Body Guard, a force hitherto unknown at the Irish Court; he summonedonly a select number of the Privy Council, and, havingkept them waiting for hours, condescended to address themin a speech full of arrogance and menace. He declaredhis intention of maintaining and augmenting the army;advised them to amend their grants forthwith; told themfrankly he had called them to Council, more out of courtesythan necessity, and ended by requiring from them a year'ssubsidy in advance. As this last request was accompaniedby a positive promise to obtain the King's consent tothe assembling of Parliament, it was at once granted;and soon after writs were issued for the meeting of bothHouses in July following. 

When this long-prayed-for Parliament at last met, theLord Deputy took good care that it should be little elsethan a tribunal to register his edicts. A great manyofficers of the army had been chosen as Burgesses, whilethe Sheriffs of counties were employed to secure theelection of members favourable to the demands of theCrown. 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 didnot dare to reject, and treated them invariably with thesupreme contempt which no one knows so well how to exhibittowards a popular assembly as an apostate liberal. "Surely, " he said in his speech from the throne, "sogreat a meanness cannot enter your hearts, as once tosuspect his Majesty's gracious regard of you, andperformance with you, once you affix yourselves upon hisgrace. " His object in this appeal was the sordid andcommonplace one--to obtain more money without renderingvalue for it. He accordingly carried through four wholesubsidies of 50, 000 pounds sterling each in the sessionof 1634; and two additional subsidies of the same amountat the opening of the next session. The Parliament, havingthus answered his purpose, was summarily dissolved inApril, 1635, and for four years more no other was called. During both sessions he had contrived, according to hisagreement with the King, to postpone indefinitely theact which was to have confirmed "the graces, " guaranteedin 1628. He even contrived to get a report of a Committeeof the House of Commons, and the opinions of some of theJudges, against legislating on the subject at all, whichreport gave King Charles "a great deal of contentment. "

With sufficient funds in hand for the ordinary expensesof the government, Strafford applied himself earnestlyto the self-elected task of making his royal master "asabsolute as any King in Christendom" on the Irish sideof the channel. The plantation of Connaught, delayed bythe late King's death, and abandoned among the new King'sgraces, was resumed as a main engine of obtaining moremoney. The proprietary of that Province had, in thethirteenth year of the late reign, paid 3, 000 pounds intothe Record Office at Dublin, for the registration oftheir deeds, but the entries not being made by the clerkemployed, the title to every estate in the five westerncounties was now called in question. The "Commissionersto Inquire into Defective Titles" were let loose uponthe devoted Province, with Sir William Parsons at theirhead, and the King's title to the whole of Mayo, Sligoand Roscommon, was found by packed, bribed, or intimidatedjuries; the grand jury of Galway having refused to finda similar verdict, were summoned to the Court of CastleChamber, sentenced to pay a fine of 4, 000 pounds each tothe Crown, and the Sheriff that empanelled them, a fineof 1, 000 pounds. The lawyers who pleaded for the actualproprietors were stripped of their gowns, the sheriffdied in prison, and the work of spoliation proceeded. The young Earl of Ormond was glad to compound for aportion of his estates; the Earl of Kildare was committedto prison for refusing a similar composition; the Earlof Cork was compelled to pay a heavy fine for his intrusioninto lands originally granted to the Church; the O'Byrnesof Wicklow commuted for 15, 000 pounds, and the LondonCompanies, for their Derry estates, paid no less than70, 000 pounds: a forced contribution for which thosefrugal citizens never forgave the thorough-going Deputy. Bythese means, and others less violent, such as bounties tothe linen trade, he raised the annual revenue of the kingdomto 80, 000 pounds a year, and was enabled to embody forthe King's service an army of 10, 000 foot and 1, 000 horse. 

These arbitrary measures were entirely in consonance withthe wishes of Charles. In a visit to England in 1636, the King assured Strafford personally of his cordialapprobation of all he had done, encouraged him to proceedfearlessly in the same course, and conferred on him thehigher rank of Lord Lieutenant. Three years later, onthe first rumour of a Scottish invasion of England, Strafford was enabled to remit his master 30, 000 poundsfrom the Irish Treasury, and to tender the services ofthe Anglo-Irish army, as he thought they could be safelydispensed with by the country in which they had been thusfar recruited and maintained. 

CHAPTER III. 

LORD STRAFFORD'S IMPEACHMENT AND EXECUTION--PARLIAMENTOF 1639-'41--THE INSURRECTION OF 1641--THE IRISH ABROAD. 

The tragic end of the despot, whose administration wehave sketched, was now rapidly approaching. When hedeserted the popular ranks in the English House of Commonsfor a Peerage and the government of Ireland, the fearlessPym prophetically remarked, "Though you have left us, Iwill not leave you while your head is on your shoulders. "Yet, although conscious of having left able and vigilantenemies behind him in England, Strafford proceeded inhis Irish administration as if he scorned to conciliatethe feelings or interests of any order of men. By thehighest nobility, as well as the humblest of the mechanicclass, his will was to be received as law; so that neitherin Church, nor in State, might any man express even themost guarded doubt as to its infallibility. LordMountnorris, for example, having dropped a casual, andaltogether innocent remark at the Chancellor's table onthe private habits of the Deputy, was brought to trialby court martial on a charge of mutiny, and sentenced tomilitary execution. Though he was not actually put todeath, he underwent a long and rigorous imprisonment, and at length was liberated without apology or satisfaction. If they were not so fully authenticated, the particularsof this outrageous case would hardly be credible. 

The examples of resistance to arbitrary power, which forsome 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, Hampdenhad resisted the collection of ship money, Cromwell hadbegun to figure in the House of Commons, the Solemn Leagueand Covenant was established in Scotland, and the Scotshad twice entered England in arms to seal with theirblood, if need were, their opposition to an episcopalestablishment of religion. It was in 1640, upon theoccasion of their second invasion, that Strafford wasrecalled from Ireland to assume command of the royalforces in the North of England. After a single indecisivecampaign, the King entertained the overtures of theCovenanters, and the memorable Long Parliament havingmet in November, one of its first acts was the impeachmentof Strafford for high crimes and misdemeanors. The chiefarticles against him related to his administration ofIrish affairs, and were sustained by delegates from theIrish House of Commons, sent over for that purpose: thewhole of the trial deserves to be closely examined byevery one interested in the constitutional history ofEngland and Ireland. 

A third Parliament, known as the 14th, 15th and 16thCharles I. , met at Dublin on the 20th March, 1639, wasprorogued till June, and adjourned till October. Yieldingthe point so successfully resisted in 1613, its sittingswere held in the Castle, surrounded by the viceregalguard. With one exception, the acts passed in its firstsession were of little importance, relating only to theallotment of glebe lands and the payment of twentieths. The exception, which followed the voting of four entiresubsidies to the King, was an Act ordaining "that thisParliament shall not determine by his Majesty's assentto this and other Bills. " A similar statute had beenpassed in 1635, but was wholly disregarded by Strafford, who no doubt meant to take precisely the same course inthe present instance. The members of this Assembly havebeen severely condemned by modern writers for passing ahigh eulogium upon Strafford in their first session andreversing it after his fall. But this censure is not wellfounded. The eulogium was introduced by the Castle partyin the Lords, as part of the preamble to the Supply Bill, which, on being returned to the Commons, could only berejected _in toto_, not amended--a proceeding in the lastdegree revolutionary. But those who dissented from thatingenious device, at the next session of the House, tookcare to have their protest entered on the journals anda copy of it despatched to the King. This second proceedingtook place in February, 1640, and as the Lord Lieutenantwas not arraigned till the month of November following, the usual denunciations of the Irish members are altogetherundeserved. At no period of his fortune was the Earl moreformidable as an enemy than at the very moment the Protestagainst "his manner of government" was ordered "to beentered among the Ordinances" of the Commons of Ireland. Nor did this Parliament confine itself to mere protestationsagainst the abuses of executive power. At the veryopening 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 ofPoyning's law, another enabling them to originate billsin Committee of their own House, a right taken away bythat law, and to ask the King's consent to the regulationof the courts of law, the collecting of the revenue, andthe quartering of soldiers by statute instead of by Ordersin Council. On the 16th of February the House submitteda set of queries to the Judges, the nature of which maybe inferred from the first question, viz. : "Whether thesubjects of this Kingdom be a free people, and to begoverned only by the common law of England, and statutespassed in this Kingdom ?" When the answers received weredeemed insufficient, the House itself, turning the queriesinto the form of resolutions, proceeded to vote on them, one by one, affirming in every point the rights, theliberties, and the privileges of their constituents. 

The impeachment and attainder of Strafford occupied thegreat part of March and April, 1641, and throughout thosemonths the delegates from Ireland assisted at the pleadingsin Westminster Hall and the debates in the EnglishParliament. The Houses at Dublin were themselves occupiedin a similar manner. Towards the end of February articlesof impeachment were drawn up against the Lord Chancellor, Bolton, Dr. Bramhall, Bishop of Derry, Chief-JusticeLowther, and Sir George Radcliffe, for conspiring withStrafford to subvert the constitution, and laws, and tointroduce an arbitrary and tyrannical government. InMarch, the King's letter for the continuance of Parliamentwas laid before the Commons, and on the 3rd of April, his further letter, declaring that all his Majesty'ssubjects of Ireland "shall, from henceforth, enjoy thebenefit of the said graces [of 1628] according to thetrue intent thereof. " By the end of May the Judges, notunder impeachment, sent in their answers to the Queriesof the Commons, which answers were voted insufficient, and Mr. Patrick Darcy, Member for Navan, was appointedto serve as Proculator at a Conference with the Lords, held on the 9th of June, "in the dining-room of theCastle, " in order to set forth the insufficiency of suchreplies. The learned and elaborate argument of Darcy wasordered to be printed by the House; and on the 26th dayof July, previous to their prorogation, they resolvedunanimously, that the subjects of Ireland "were a freepeople, to be governed only by the common law of England, and statutes made and established in the kingdom ofIreland, and according to the lawful custom used in thesame. " This was the last act of this memorable session;the great northern insurrection in October having, ofcourse, prevented subsequent sessions from being held. Constitutional agitators in modern times have been aptto select their examples of a wise and patrioticparliamentary conduct from the opposition to the Act ofUnion and the famous struggles of the last century; butwhoever has looked into such records as remain to us ofthe 15th and 16th of Charles First, and the debates onthe impeachment of Lord Chancellor Bolton, will, in myopinion, be prepared to admit, that at no period whateverwas constitutional law more ably expounded in Irelandthan in the sessions of 1640 and 1641; and that not onlythe principles of Swift and of Molyneux had a triumph in1782, but the older doctrines also of Sir Ralph Kelly, Audley Mervin, and Patrick Darcy. 

Strafford's Deputy, Sir Christopher Wandesford, havingdied 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 inEngland compelled him in a short time to remove Dillonand substitute Sir John Borlace, Master of the Ordnance--a mere soldier--in point of fanaticism a fittingcolleague for Parsons. The prorogation of Parliament soongave these administrators opportunities to exhibit thespirit in which they proposed to carry on the government. When at a public entertainment in the capital, Parsonsopenly declared that in twelve months more no Catholicsshould be seen in Ireland, it was naturally inferred thatthe Lord Justice spoke not merely for himself but forthe growing party of the English Puritans and ScottishCovenanters. The latter had repeatedly avowed that theynever would lay down their arms until they had wroughtthe extirpation of Popery, and Mr. Pym, the Puritan leaderin England, had openly declared that his party intendednot to leave a priest in Ireland. The infatuation ofthe unfortunate Charles in entrusting at such a momentthe supreme power, civil and military, to two of thedevoted partizans of his deadliest enemies, could notfail to arouse the fears of all who felt themselvesobnoxious to the fanatical party, either by race or byreligion. 

The aspirations of the chief men among the old Irish forentire freedom of worship, their hopes of recovering atleast a portion of their estates, the example of theScots, who had successfully upheld both their Church andnation against all attempts at English supremacy, thedangers that pressed, and the fears that overhung them, drove many of the very first abilities and noblestcharacters into the conspiracy which exploded with suchterrific energy on the 23rd of October, 1641. The project, though matured on Irish soil, was first conceived amongthe exiled Catholics, who were to be found at that dayin all the schools and camps of Spain, Italy, France andthe Netherlands. Philip III. Had an Irish legion, underthe command of Henry O'Neil, son of Tyrone, which, afterhis death was transferred to his brother John. In thislegion, Owen Roe O'Neil, nephew of Tyrone, learned theart of war, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. The number of Irish serving abroad had steadily increasedafter 1628, when a license of enlistment was granted byKing James. An English emissary, evidently well-informed, was enabled to report, about the year 1630, that therewere in the service of the Archduchess Isabella, in theSpanish Netherlands alone, "100 Irish officers able tocommand companies, and 20 fit to be colonels. " The namesof many others are given as men of noted courage, goodengineers, and "well-beloved" captains, both Milesiansand Anglo-Irish, residing at Lisbon, Florence, Milan andNaples. The emissary adds that they had long beenproviding arms for an attempt upon Ireland, "and had inreadiness 5, 000 or 6, 000 arms laid up in Antwerp for thatpurpose, _bought out of the deduction of their monthlypay_. " After the death of the Archduchess, in 1633, anattempt was made by the Franco-Dutch, under Prince Mauriceand Marshal Chatillon, to separate the Belgian Provincesfrom Spain. In the sanguinary battle at Avien victorydeclared for the French, and on their junction with PrinceMaurice, town after town surrendered to their arms. Thefirst 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 ColonelPreston, of the Gormanstown family, greatly distinguishedthemselves. 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 againhonourably conspicuous, and yet more so in the successfuldefence of Arras, the capital of Artois, three yearslater. Not yet strengthened by the citadel of Vauban, this ancient Burgundian city, famous for its cathedraland its manufactures, dear to the Spaniards as one ofthe conquests of Charles V. , was a vital point in thecampaign of 1640. Besieged by the French, under MarshalMillerie, it held out for several weeks under the commandof Colonel Owen Roe O'Neil. The King of France lying atAmiens, within convenient distance, took care that thebesiegers wanted for nothing; while the Prince-Cardinal, Ferdinand, the successor of the Archduchess in thegovernment, marched to its relief at the head of his mainforce with the Imperialists, under Launboy, and the troopsof the Duke of Lorrain, commanded by that Prince inperson. In an attack on the French lines the Allies werebeaten off with loss, and the brave commander was leftagain unsuccoured in the face of his powerful assailant. Subsequently Don Philip de Silva, General of the Horseto the Prince Cardinal, was despatched to its relief, but failed to effect anything; a failure for which hewas court-martialed, but acquitted. The defenders, afterexhausting every resource, finally surrendered the placeon honourable terms, and marched out covered with glory. These stirring events, chronicled in prose and verse athome, rekindled the martial ardour which had slumberedsince the disastrous day of Kinsale. 

In the ecclesiastics who shared their banishment, themilitary exiles had a voluntary diplomatic _corps_ wholost no opportunity of advancing the common cause. AtRome, their chief agent was Father Luke Wadding, founderof Saint Isidore's, one of the most eminent theologiansand scholars of his age. Through the friendship ofGregory XV. And Urban VIII. , many Catholic princes becamedeeply interested in the religious wars which the Irishof the previous ages had so bravely waged, and whichtheir descendants were now so anxious to renew. CardinalRichelieu--who wielded a power greater than that ofKings--had favourably entertained a project of invasionsubmitted to him by the son of Hugh O'Neil, a chief who, while living, was naturally regarded by the exiles astheir future leader. 

To prepare the country for such an invasion (if the returnof men to their own country can be called by that name), it was necessary to find an agent with talents fororganization, and an undoubted title to credibility andconfidence. This agent was fortunately found in the personof Rory or Roger O'Moore, the representative of theancient chiefs of Leix, who had grown up at the SpanishCourt as the friend and companion of the O'Neils. O'Moorewas then in the prime of life, of handsome person, andmost seductive manners; his knowledge of character wasprofound; his zeal for the Catholic cause, intense; hispersonal probity, honour, and courage, undoubted. Theprecise date of O'Moore's arrival in Ireland is not givenin any of the cotemporary accounts, but he seems to havebeen resident in the country some time previous to hisappearance in public life, as he is familiarly spoken ofby his English cotemporaries as "Mr. Roger Moore ofBallynagh. " During the Parliamentary session of 1640, hetook lodgings in Dublin, where he succeeded in enlistingin his plans Conor Maguire, Lord Enniskillen, PhilipO'Reilly, one of the members for the county of Cavan, Costelloe McMahon, and Thorlogh O'Neil, all persons ofgreat influence in Ulster. During the ensuing assizes inthe Northern Province he visited several country towns, where in the crowd of suitors and defendants he could, without attracting special notice, meet and converse withthose he desired to gain over. On this tour he receivedthe important accession of Sir Phelim O'Neil of Kinnaird, in Tyrone, Sir Con Magennis of Down, Colonel Hugh McMahonof Monaghan, and Dr. Heber McMahon, Administrator ofClogher. Sir Phelim O'Neil, the most considerable man ofhis name tolerated in Ulster, was looked upon as thegreatest acquisition, and at his castle of Kinnaird hisassociates from the neighbouring counties, under a varietyof pretexts, contrived frequently to meet. From Ulster, the indefatigable O'Moore carried the threads of theconspiracy into Connaught with equal success, findingboth among the nobility and clergy many adherents. InLeinster, among the Anglo-Irish, he experienced thegreatest timidity and indifference, but an unforeseencircumstance threw into his hands a powerful lever, tomove that province. This was the permission granted bythe 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 disciplinedCatholics, but several of their officers, under theinspiration of O'Moore, kept their companies together, delaying their departure from month to month. Among thesewere Sir James Dillon, Colonel Plunkett, Colonel Byrne, and Captain Fox, who, with O'Moore, formed the firstdirecting body of the Confederates in Leinster. 

In May, 1641, Captain Neil O'Neil arrived from theNetherlands with an urgent request from John, Earl ofTyrone, to all his clansmen to prepare for a generalinsurrection. He also brought them the cheering news thatCardinal Richelieu--then at the summit of his greatness--had promised the exiles arms, money, and means oftransport. He was sent back, almost immediately, withthe reply of Sir Phelim, O'Moore and their friends, thatthey would be prepared to take the field a few days beforeor after the festival of All Hallows--the 1st of November. The death of Earl John, the last surviving son of theillustrious Tyrone, shortly afterwards, though it grievedthe Confederates, wrought no change in their plans. Inhis cousin-germain, the distinguished defender of Arras, they reposed equal confidence, and their confidence couldnot have been more worthily bestowed. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE INSURRECTION OF 1641. 

The plan agreed upon by the Confederates included fourmain features. I. A rising after the harvest was gatheredin, and a campaign during the winter months, when suppliesfrom England were most difficult to be obtained by theirenemies. II. A simultaneous attack on one and the sameday or night on all the fortresses within reach of theirfriends. III. To surprise the Castle of Dublin, whichwas said to contain arms for 12, 000 men. IV. Aid inofficers, munitions, and money from abroad. All thedetails of this project were carried successfully intoeffect, except the seizure of Dublin Castle--the mostdifficult as it would have been the most decisive blowto strike. 

Towards the end of August, a meeting of those who couldmost conveniently attend was held in Dublin. There werepresent O'Moore and Maguire, of the civilians, and ColonelsPlunkett, Byrne, and McMahon of the army. At this meetingthe last week of October, or first of November, was fixedupon as the time to rise; subsequently Saturday, the 23rdof the first named month, a market day in the capitalwas selected. The northern movements were to be arrangedwith Sir Phelim O'Neil, while McMahon, Plunkett, andByrne, with 200 picked men, were to surprise the Castleguard--consisting of only a few pensioners and 40halbediers--turn the guns upon the city to intimidatethe 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 theday approached, the arrangements went on with perfectsecrecy but with perfect success. On the 22nd of Octoberhalf the chosen band were in waiting, and the remainderwere expected in during the night. Some hundreds ofpersons, in and about Dublin, and many thousands throughoutthe country, must have been in possession of that momentoussecret, yet it was by the mere accident of trusting adrunken dependent out of sight, that the first knowledgeof the plot was conveyed to the Lords Justices on thevery eve of its execution. 

Owen O'Connolly, the informant on this occasion, was oneof those ruffling squires or henchmen, who accompaniedgentlemen of fortune in that age, to take part in theirquarrels, and carry their confidential messages. That hewas not an ordinary domestic servant, we may learn fromthe fact of his carrying a sword, after the custom ofthe class to which we have assigned him. At this periodhe was in the service of Sir John Clotworthy, one of themost violent of the Puritan Undertakers, and had conformedto the established religion. Through what recklessness, or ignorance of his true character, he came to be invitedby Colonel Hugh McMahon to his lodgings, and there, onthe evening of the 22nd, entrusted with a knowledge ofnext 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 theCastle, he pretended an occasion to withdraw, leavinghis sword in McMahon's room to avoid suspicion, and thatafter jumping over fences and palings, he made his wayfrom the north side of the city to Sir William Parsonsat the Castle. Parsons at first discredited the tale, which O'Connolly (who was in liquor) told in a confusedand rambling manner, but he finally decided to consulthis colleague, Borlase, by whom some of the Council weresummoned, the witness's deposition taken down, ordersissued to double the guard, and officers despatched, whoarrested McMahon at his lodgings. When McMahon came tobe examined before the Council, it was already the morningof the 23rd; he boldly avowed his own part in the plot, and declared that what was that day to be done was nowbeyond the power of man to prevent. He was committedclose prisoner to the Castle where he had hoped to command, and search was made for the other leaders in town. Maguirewas captured the next morning, and shared McMahon'scaptivity; but O'Moore, Plunkett, and Byrne succeeded inescaping out of the city. O'Connolly was amply rewardedin 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 wasnow beyond the power of man to prevent. In Ulster, bystratagem, surprise, or force, the forts of Charlemontand Mountjoy, and the town of Dungannon, were seized onthe night of the 22nd by Sir Phelim O'Neil or hislieutenants; on the next day Sir Conor Magennis took thetown of Newry, the McMahons possessed themselves ofCarrickmacross and Castleblaney, the O'Hanlons Tandragee, while Philip O'Reilly and Roger Maguire razed Cavan andFermanagh. A proclamation of the northern leaders appearedthe same day, dated from Dungannon, setting forth their"true intent and meaning" to be, not hostility to hisMajesty the King, "nor to any of his subjects, neitherEnglish nor Scotch; but only for the defence and libertyof ourselves and the Irish natives of this kingdom. " Amore elaborate manifesto appeared shortly afterwards fromthe pen of Rory O'Moore, in which the oppressions of theCatholics for conscience' sake were detailed, the King'sintended "graces" acknowledged, and their frustration bythe malice of the Puritan party exhibited: it alsoendeavoured to show that a common danger threatened theProtestants of the Episcopal Church with Roman Catholics, and asserted in the strongest terms the devotion of theCatholics to the Crown. In the same politic and tolerantspirit, Sir Conor Magennis wrote from Newry on the 25thto the officers commanding at Down. "We are, " he wrote, "for our lives and liberties. We desire no blood to beshed, but if you mean to shed our blood, be sure we shallbe as ready as you for that purpose. " This threat ofretaliation, so customary in all wars, was made on thethird day of the rising, and refers wholly to futurecontingencies; the monstrous fictions which were afterwardscirculated of a wholesale massacre committed on the 23rdwere not as yet invented, nor does any public documentor private letter, written in Ireland in the last weekof October, or during the first days of November, so muchas allude to those tales of blood and horror, afterwardsso industriously circulated, and so greedily swallowed. 

Fully aroused from their lethargy by McMahon's declaration, the Lords Justices acted with considerable vigour. Dublinwas declared to be in a state of siege; courts martialwere established; arms were distributed to the Protestantcitizens, and some Catholics; and all strangers wereordered to quit the city under pain of death. Sir FrancisWilloughby, Governor of Galway, who arrived on the nightof the 22nd, was entrusted with the command of the Castle, Sir Charles Coote was appointed Military Governor of thecity, and the Earl, afterwards Duke of Ormond, was summonedfrom Carrick-on-Suir to take command of the army. AsCoote played a very conspicuous part in the opening scenesof this war, and Ormond till its close, it may be wellto 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 inConnaught, where he filled the offices of Provost-Marshaland Vice-Governor in the reign of James I. His successas an Undertaker entitles him to rank with the fortunateadventurers we have mentioned; in Roscommon, Sligo, Leitrim, Queen's, and other counties, his possessionsand privileges raised him to the rank of the richestsubjects of his time. In 1640 he was a colonel of foot, with the estates of a Prince and the habits of aProvost-Marshal. His reputation for ferocious crueltyhas survived the remembrance even of his successfulplunder of other people's property; before the campaignsof Cromwell there was no better synonym for wanton crueltythan the name of Sir Charles Coote. 

James Butler, Earl, Marquis, and Duke of Ormond deservedlyranks amongst the principal statesmen of his time. Duringa public career of more than half a century his conductin many eminent offices of trust was distinguished bysupreme ability, life-long firmness and consistency. Asa courtier of the House of Stuart, it was impossible thathe should have served and satisfied both Charleses withoutparticipating in many indefensible acts of government, and originating some of them. Yet judged, not from theIrish but the Imperial point of view, not by an abstractstandard but by the public morality of his age, he willbe found fairly deserving of the title of "the greatDuke" bestowed on him during his lifetime. When summonedby the Lords Justices to their assistance in 1641, hewas in the thirty-first year of his age, and had so faronly distinguished himself in political life as the friendof the late Lord Strafford. He had, however, the goodfortune to restore in his own person the estates of hisfamily, notwithstanding that they were granted in greatpart to others by King James; his attachment to the causeof King Charles was very naturally augmented by the factthat the partiality of that Prince and his ill-fatedfavourite had enabled him to retrieve both the hereditarywealth and the high political influence which formerlybelonged to the Ormond Butlers. Such an ally wasindispensable to the Lords Justices in the first panicof the insurrection; but it was evident to near observersthat Ormond, a loyalist and a churchman, could not longact in concert with such devoted Puritans as Parsons, Borlase, and Coote. 

The military position of the several parties--there wereat least three--when Ormond arrived at Dublin, in thefirst week of November, may be thus stated: I. In Munsterand 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 otherof the midland counties, the gentry, Protestant andCatholic, were relied on to raise volunteers for theirown defence; in Dublin there had been got together 1, 500old troops; six new regiments of foot were embodied;and thirteen volunteer companies of 100 each. In theCastle were arms and ammunition for 12, 000 men, witha fine train of field artillery, provided by Staffordfor his campaign in the north of England. Ormond, asLieutenant-General, had thus at his disposal, in onefortnight after the insurrection broke out, from 8, 000to 10, 000 well appointed men; his advice was to take thefield at once against the northern leaders before theother Provinces became equally inflamed. But his judgmentwas overruled by the Justices, who would only consent, while awaiting their cue from the Long Parliament, tothrow reinforcements into Drogheda, which thus becametheir outpost towards the north. II. In Ulster therestill remained in the possession of "the Undertakers"Enniskillen, Deny, the Castles of Killeagh and Crohanin Cavan, Lisburn, Belfast, and the stronghold ofCarrickfergus, garrisoned by the regiments of ColonelChichester and Lord Conway. King Charles, who was atEdinburgh endeavouring to conciliate the Scottish Parliamentwhen news of the Irish rising reached him, procured theinstant despatch of 1, 500 men to Ulster, and authorizedLords Chichester, Ardes and Clandeboy, to raise newregiments from among their own tenants. The force thusembodied--which may be called from its prevailing elementthe _Scottish_ army--cannot have numbered less than 5, 000foot, and the proportionate number of horse. III. TheIrish in the field by the first of November are statedin round numbers at 30, 000 men in the northern countiesalone; but the whole number supplied with arms andammunition could not have reached one-third of thatnominal total. Before the surprise of Charlemont andMountjoy forts, Sir Phelim O'Neil had but a barrel ortwo of gunpowder; the stores of those forts, with 70barrels taken at Newry by Magennis, and all the armscaptured in the simultaneous attack, which at the outsidecould not well exceed 4, 000 or 5, 000 stand--constitutedtheir entire equipment. One of Ormond's chief reasonsfor an immediate campaign in the North was to preventthem having time to get "pikes made"--which shows theirdeficiency even in that weapon. Besides this defect therewas one, if possible, still more serious. Sir Phelim wasa civilian, bred to the profession of the law; RoryO'Moore, also, had never seen service; and althoughColonel Owen O'Neil and others had promised to join them"at fourteen days' notice, " a variety of accidentsprevented the arrival of any officer of distinction duringthe brief remainder of that year. Sir Phelim, however, boldly assumed the title of "Lord General of the CatholicArmy in Ulster, " and the still more popular title withthe Gaelic speaking population of "The O'Neil. "

The projected winter campaign, after the first week'ssuccesses, did not turn out favourably for the northernInsurgents. The beginning of November was marked by thebarbarous slaughter committed by the Scottish garrisonof Carrickfergus in the Island Magee. Three thousandpersons are said to have been driven into the fathomlessnorth sea, over the cliffs of that island, or to haveperished by the sword. The ordinary inhabitants couldnot have exceeded one-tenth as many, but the presence ofso large a number may be accounted for by the suppositionthat they had fled from the mainland across the peninsula, which is left dry at low water, and were pursued to theirlast refuge by the infuriated Covenanters. From this dateforward until the accession of Owen Roe O'Neil to thecommand, the northern war assumed a ferocity of characterforeign to the nature of O'Moore, O'Reilly and Magennis. That Sir Phelim permitted, if he did not sometimes inhis gusts of stormy passion instigate, those acts ofcruelty, which have stained his otherwise honourableconduct, is too true; but he stood alone among hisconfederates in that crime, and that crime stands alonein his character. Brave to rashness and disinterested toexcess, few rebel chiefs ever made a more heroic end outof a more deplorable beginning. 

The Irish Parliament, which was to have met on the 16thof November, was indefinitely prorogued by the LordsJustices, who preferred to act only with their chosenquorum of Privy Counsellors. The Catholic Lords of thePale, who at first had arms granted for their retainersout of the public stores, were now summoned to surrenderthem by a given day; an insult not to be forgiven. LordsDillon and Taafe, then deputies to the King, were seizedat Ware by the English Puritans, their papers taken fromthem, and themselves imprisoned. O'Moore, whose clansmenhad recovered Dunamase and other strongholds in hisancient patrimony, was still indefatigable in his propagandaamong the Anglo-Irish. By his advice Sir Phelim marchedto besiege Drogheda, at the head of his tumultuous bands. On the way southward he made an unsuccessful attack uponLisburn, where he lost heavily; on the 24th of Novemberhe took possession of Mellifont Abbey, from whose gatethe aged Tyrone had departed in tears, twenty-five yearsbefore. From Mellifont he proceeded to invest Drogheda;Colonel Plunkett, with the title of General, being thesole experienced officer as yet engaged in his ranks. Astrongly walled town as Drogheda was, well manned, andeasily accessible from the sea, cannot be carried withoutguns and engineers by any amount of physical courage. Whenever the Catholics were fairly matched in the openfield, they were generally successful, as at Julianstown, during this siege, where one of their detachments cutoff five out of six companies marching from Dublin toreinforce the town; but though the investment was complete, the vigilant governor, Sir Henry Tichburne, successfullyrepulsed the assailants. O'Moore, who lay between Ardeeand Dundalk with a reserve of 2, 000 men, found time duringthe siege to continue his natural career, that of adiplomatist. The Puritan party, from the Lord Justicedownwards, were, indeed, every day hastening that unionof Catholics of all origins which the founder of theConfederacy so ardently desired to bring about. Theiravowed maxim was that the more men rebelled, the moreestates there would be to confiscate. In Munster, theirchief instruments were the aged Earl of Cork, stillinsatiable as ever for other men's possessions, and thePresident St. Leger; in Leinster, Sir Charles Coote. LordCork prepared 1, 100 indictments against men of propertyin his Province, which he sent to the Speaker of the LongParliament, with an urgent request that they might bereturned to him, with authority to proceed against theparties named, as outlaws. In Leinster, 4, 000 similarindictments were found in the course of two days by thefree use of the rack with witnesses. Sir John Read, anofficer of the King's Bedchamber, and Mr. Barnwall, ofKilbrue, a gentleman of threescore and six, were amongthose who underwent the torture. When these were theproceedings of the tribunals in peaceable cities, we mayimagine what must have been the excesses of the soldieryin the open county. In the South, Sir William St. Legerdirected a series of murderous raids upon the peasantryof Cork, which at length produced their natural effect. Lord Muskerry and other leading recusants, who had offeredtheir services to maintain the peace of the Province, were driven by an insulting refusal to combine for theirown protection. The 1, 100 indictments of Lord Cork soonswelled their ranks, and the capture of the ancient cityof Cashel by Philip O'Dwyer announced the insurrectionof the South. Waterford soon after opened its gates toColonel Edmund Butler; Wexford declared for the Catholiccause, and Kilkenny surrendered to Lord Mountgarret. InWicklow, Coote's troopers committed murders such as hadnot been equalled since the days of the Pagan Northmen. Little children were carried aloft writhing on the pikesof these barbarians, whose worthy commander confessedthat "he liked such frolics. " Neither age nor sex wasspared, and an ecclesiastic was especially certain ofinstant death. Fathers Higgins and White of Naas, inKildare, were given up by Coote to these "lambs, " thougheach had been granted a safe conduct by his superiorofficer, Lord Ormond. And these murders were taking placeat the very tune when the Franciscans and Jesuits ofCashel were protecting Dr. Pullen, the Protestant Chancellorof that Cathedral and other Protestant prisoners; whilealso the Castle of Cloughouter, in Cavan, the residenceof Bishop Bedell, was crowded with Protestant fugitives, all of whom were carefully guarded by the chivalrousPhilip O'Reilly. 

At length the Catholic Lords of the Pale began to feelthe general glow of an outraged people, too long submissiveunder every species of provocation. The Lords Justiceshaving summoned them to attend in Dublin on the 8th ofDecember, they met at Swords, at the safe distance ofseven miles, and sent by letter their reasons for nottrusting themselves in the capital. To the allegationsin this letter the Justices replied by proclamation, denying most of them, and repeating their summons toLords 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 ofthen own summons, Coote was let loose upon the flourishingvillages of Fingal, and the flames kindled by his menmight easily be discovered from the round tower of Swords. On the 17th, the summoned Lords, with several of theneighbouring gentry, met by appointment on the hill ofCrofty, in the neighbouring county of Meath; while theywere engaged in discussing the best course to be taken, a party of armed men on horseback, accompanied by a guardof musketeers, was seen approaching. They proved to beO'Moore, O'Reilly, Costelloe McMahon, brother of theprisoner, Colonel Byrne, and Captain Fox. Lord Gormanstown, advancing in front of his friends, demanded of thenew-comers "why they came armed into the Pale?" To whichO'Moore made answer "that the ground of their comingthither was for the freedom and liberty of theirconsciences, the maintenance of his Majesty's prerogative, in which they understood he was abridged, and the makingthe subjects of this kingdom as free as those of England. "Lord Gormanstown, after consulting a few moments withhis 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 generalconditions of then: union having been unanimously agreedupon, a warrant was drawn out authorizing the Sheriff ofMeath to summon the gentry of the county to a finalmeeting at the Hill of Tara on the 24th of December. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE CATHOLIC CONFEDERATION--ITS CIVIL GOVERNMENT ANDMILITARY ESTABLISHMENT. 

How a tumultuous insurrection grew into a nationalorganization, with a senate, executive, treasury, army, ships, and diplomacy, we are now to describe. It may, however, be assumed throughout the narrative, that thesuccess of the new Confederacy was quite as much to beattributed to the perverse policy of its enemies as tothe counsels of its best leaders. The rising in themidland and Munster counties, and the formal adhesion ofthe Lords of the Pale, were two of the principal stepstowards the end. A third was taken by the Bishops of theProvince of Armagh, assembled in Provincial Synod atKells, on the 22nd of March, 1642, where, with theexception of Dease of Meath, they unanimously pronounced"the war just and lawful. " After solemnly condemning allacts of private vengeance, and all those who usurpedother men's estates, this provincial meeting invited anational synod to meet at Kilkenny on the 10th day ofMay following. On that day accordingly, all the Prelatesthen in the country, with the exception of Bishop Dease, met at Kilkenny. There were present O'Reilly, Archbishopof Armagh; Butler, Archbishop of Cashel; O'Kealy, Archbishopof 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 dignitariesand heads of religious orders--in all, twenty-nine prelatesand superiors, or their representatives. The most remarkableattendants were, considering the circumstances of theirProvince, the prelates of Connaught. Strafford's reignof terror was still painfully remembered west of theShannon, and the immense family influence of Ulick Burke, then Earl, and afterwards Marquis of Clanrickarde, wasexerted to prevent the adhesion of the western populationto the Confederacy. But the zeal of the Archbishop ofTuam, and the violence of the Governor of Galway, SirFrancis Willoughby, proved more than a counterpoise forthe authority of Clanrickarde and the recollection ofStrafford: Connaught, though the last to come into theConfederation, was also the last to abandon it. 

The Synod of Kilkenny proceeded with the utmost solemnityand anxiety to consider the circumstances of their ownand the neighbouring kingdoms. No equal number of mencould have been found in Ireland, at that day, with anequal amount of knowledge of foreign and domestic politics. Many of them had spent years upon the Continent, whilethe French Huguenots held their one hundred "cautionarytowns, " and "leagues" and "associations" were the ordinaryinstruments of popular resistance in the Netherlands andGermany. Nor were the events transpiring in the neighbouringisland unknown or unweighed by that grave assembly. Thetrue meaning and intent of the Scottish and Englishinsurrections were by this time apparent to every one. The previous months had been especially fertile in events, calculated to rouse their most serious apprehensions. InMarch, the King fled from London to York; in April, thegates of Hull were shut in his face by Hotham, itsgovernor; and in May, the Long Parliament voted a levyof 16, 000 without the royal authority. The Earl of Warwickhad been appointed the Parliamentary commander of thefleet, and the Earl of Essex, their Lord General, withCromwell as one of his captains. From that hour it wasevident the sword alone could decide between Charles andhis subjects. In Scotland, too, events were occurring inwhich Irish Catholics were vitally interested. The contestfor the leadership of the Scottish royalists between theMarquises of Hamilton and Montrose had occupied the earlymonths of the year, and given their enemies of the Kirkand the Assembly full time to carry on their correspondencewith the English Puritans. In April, all parties inScotland agreed in despatching a force of 2, 500 men, under"the memorable Major Monroe, " for the protection of theScottish settlers in Ulster. On the 15th of that monththis officer landed at Carrickfergus, which was "givenup to him by agreement, " with the royalist ColonelChichester; the fortress, which was by much the strongestin that quarter, continued for six years the head-quartersof the Scottish general, with whom we shall have occasionto meet again. 

The state of Anglo-Irish affairs was for some months oneof disorganization and confusion. In January and Februarythe King had been frequently induced to denounce byproclamation his "Irish rebels. " He had offered theParliament to lead their reinforcements in person, hadurged the sending of arms and men, and had repeatedlydeclared that he would never consent to tolerate Poperyin 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 tohis person or family. Parsons and Borlase were stillcontinued in the government, and Coote was entrusted bythem, on all possible occasions, with a command distinctfrom that of Ormond. Having proclaimed the Lords of thePale rebels for refusing to trust their persons withinthe walls of Dublin, Coote was employed during Januaryto destroy Swords, their place of rendezvous, and toravage the estates of their adherents in that neighbourhood. In the same month 1, 100 veterans arrived at Dublin underSir Simon Harcourt; early in February arrived Sir RichardGrenville with 400 horse, and soon after Lieutenant-ColonelGeorge Monk, afterwards Duke of Albemarle, with LordLeicester's regiment, 1, 500 strong. Up to this periodOrmond had been restrained by the Justices, who were astimid as they were cruel, to operations within an easymarch of Dublin. He had driven the O'Moores and theirAllies out of Naas; had reinforced some garrisons inKildare; he had broken up, though not without much loss, an entrenched camp of the O'Byrnes at Kilsalgen wood, onthe borders of Dublin; at last the Justices felt secureenough, at the beginning of March, to allow him to marchto the relief of Drogheda. Sir Phelim O'Neil had investedthe place for more than three months, had been twicerepulsed 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-soldierwas obliged to retire, and on the 8th of March, hearingof 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 HenryTichburne and Lord Moore were despatched with a strongforce, on the rear of the Ulster forces, and drove themout of Ardee and Dundalk--the latter after a sharp action. The march of Ormond into Meath had, however, been productiveof offers of submission from many of the gentry of thePale, who attended the meetings at Crofty and Tara. LordDunsany and Sir John Netterville actually surrendered onthe Earl's guarantee, and were sent to Dublin; LordsGormanstown, Netterville, and Slane, offered by letterto follow their example; but the two former were, onreaching the city, thrust into the dungeons of the Castle, by order of the Justices; and the proposals of the latterwere rejected with contumely. About the same time theLong Parliament passed an act declaring 2, 500, 000 acresof the property of Irish recusants forfeited to the State, and guaranteeing to all English "adventurers" contributingto the expenses of the war, and all soldiers serving init, grants of land in proportion to their service andcontribution. This act, and a letter from Lord Essex, the Parliamentarian Commander-in-Chief, recommending thetransportation of captured recusants to the West IndianColonies, 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 menand women and 2 priests were put to death. Magennis wasobliged to abandon Down, and McMahon Monaghan; Sir Philemwas driven to burn Armagh and Dungannon, and to take hislast stand at Charlemont. In a severe action with SirRobert and Sir William Stewart, he had displayed hisusual courage with better than his usual fortune, which, perhaps, we may attribute to the presence with him ofSir Alexander McDonnell, brother to Lord Antrim, thefamous _Colkitto_ of the Irish and Scottish wars. Butthe severest defeat which the Confederates had was inthe heart of Leinster, at the hamlet of Kilrush, withinfour miles of Athy. Lord Ormond, returning from a secondreinforcement of Naas and other Kildare forts, at thehead, by English account, of 4, 000 men, found on the 13thof April the Catholics of the midland counties, underLords Mountgarrett, Ikerrin, and Dunboyne, Sir MorganCavenagh, Rory O'Moore, and Hugh O'Byrne, drawn up, byhis report, 8, 000 strong, to dispute his passage. WithOrmond were the Lord Dillon, Lord Brabazon, Sir RichardGrenville, Sir Charles Coote, and Sir T. Lucas. The combatwas 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 LongParliament, in a moment of enthusiasm, voted theLieutenant-General a jewel worth 500 pounds. If anysatisfaction could be derived from such an incident, theviolent death of their most ruthless enemy, Sir CharlesCoote, might have afforded the Catholics some consolation. That merciless saberer, after the combat at Kilrush, hadbeen employed in reinforcing Birr, and relieving theCastle of Geashill, which the Lady Letitia of Offallyheld against the neighbouring tribe of O'Dempsey. On hisreturn from this service he made a foray against a Catholicforce, which had mustered in the neighbourhood of Trim;here, on the night of the 7th of May, heading a sally ofhis troop, he fell by a musket shot--not without suspicionof being fired from his own ranks. His son and namesake, who imitated him in all things, was ennobled at therestoration by the title of the Earl of Mountrath. InMunster the President St. Leger, though lately reinforcedby 1, 000 men from England, did not consider himself strongenough for other than occasional forays into theneighbouring county, and little was effected in thatProvince. 

Such was the condition of affairs at home and abroad whenthe National Synod assembled at Kilkenny. As the mostpopular tribunal invested with the highest moral powerin the kingdom, it was their arduous task to establishorder and authority among the chaotic elements of therevolution. By the admission of those most opposed tothem they conducted their deliberations for nearly threeweeks with equal prudence and energy. They first, on themotion of the venerable Bishop Rothe, framed an oath ofassociation to be publicly taken by all their adherents, by the first part of which they were bound to bear "truefaith and allegiance" to King Charles and his lawfulsuccessors, "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 boundthemselves never to accept or submit to any peace "withoutthe consent and approbation of the general assembly ofthe said Confederate Catholics. " They then proceeded tomake certain constitutions, declaring the war just andlawful; condemning emulations and distinctions foundedon distinctions of race, such as "new" and "old Irish;"ordaining an elective council for each Province; and aSupreme or National Council for the whole kingdom;condemning as excommunicate all who should, having takenthe oath, violate it, or who should be guilty of murder, violence to persons, or plunder under pretence of thewar. Although the attendance of the lay leaders of themovement at Kilkenny was far from general, the exigenciesof the case compelled them, to nominate, with theconcurrence of the Bishops, the first Supreme Council ofwhich Lord Mountgarrett was chosen President, and Mr. Richard Belling, an accomplished writer and lawyer, Secretary. By this body a General Assembly of the entireNation was summoned to meet at the same city, on the 23rdof October following--the anniversary of the Ulsterrising, commonly called by the English party "LordMaguire's day. " The choice of such an occasion by men ofMountgarrett'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, thatnone of the alleged atrocities were yet associated withthe memory of that particular day. 

The events of the five months, which intervened betweenthe adjournment of the National Synod at the end of May, and the meeting of the General Assembly on the 23rd ofOctober, may best be summed up under the head of therespective provinces. I. The oath of Confederation wastaken with enthusiasm in Munster, a Provincial Councilelected, and General Barry chosen Commander-in-Chief. Barry made an attempt upon Cork, which was repulsed, buta few days later the not less important city of Limerickopened its gates to the Confederates, and on the 21st ofJune 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), andthe command devolved on his son-in-law, Lord Inchiquin, a pupil of the school of Wards, and a soldier of theschool of Sir Charles Coote. With Inchiquin was associatedthe Earl of Barrymore for the civil administration, buton Barrymore's death in September both powers remainedfor twelve months in the hands of the survivor. The gainof Limerick was followed by the taking of Loughgar andAskeaton, but was counterbalanced by the defeat ofLiscarroll, when the Irish loss was 800 men, with severalcolours; Inchiquin reported only 20 killed, includingthe young lord Kinalmeaky, one of the five sons whom theEarl of Cork gave to this war. II. In Connaught, LordClanrickarde was still enabled to avert a general outbreak. In vain the western Prelates besought him in a patheticremonstrance to place himself at the head of its injuredinhabitants, and take the command of the Province. Hecontinued to play a middle part between the President, Lord Ranelagh, Sir Charles Coote the younger, andWilloughby, Governor of Galway, until the popularimpatience burst all control. The chief of the O'Flahertysseized Clanrickarde's castle, of Aughrenure, and theyoung men of Galway, with a skill and decision quiteequal 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 thecitadel. Clanrickarde hastened to extinguish this sparkof resistance, and induced the townsmen to capitulate onhis personal guarantee. But Willoughby, on the arrivalof reinforcements, under the fanatical Lord Forbes, atonce set the truce made by Clanrickarde at defiance, burned the suburbs, sacked the Churches, and during Augustand 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 thePresident of the Province, Lord Ranelagh, shut himselfup in the castle of Athlone, where he was closely besieged. III. In Leinster, no military movement of much importancewas made, in consequence of the jealousy the Justicesentertained of Ormond, and the emptiness of the treasury. In June, the Long Parliament remitted over the paltrysum of 11, 500 pounds to the Justices, and 2, 000 of thetroops, which had all but mutinied for their pay, weredespatched under Ormond to the relief of Athlone. Commissioners arrived during the summer, appointed bythe Parliament to report on the affairs of Ireland, towhom the Justices submitted a penal code worthy of thebrain of Draco or Domitian; Ormond was raised to the rankof Marquis, by the King; while the army he commanded grewmore and more divided, by intrigues emanating from thecastle and beyond the channel. Before the month of October, James Touchet, Earl of Castlehaven, an adventurousnobleman, possessed of large estates both in Ireland andEngland, effected his escape from Dublin Castle, wherehe 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 threefrigates and several transports, containing a few siegeguns, field pieces, and other stores, 500 officers, anda number of engineers. IV. In Ulster, where the firstblow was struck, and the first hopes were excited, theprospect had become suddenly overclouded. Monroe tookDunluce from Lord Antrim by the same stratagem by whichSir Phelim took Charlemont--inviting himself as a guest, and arresting his host at his own table. A want of cordialco-operation between the Scotch commander and "theUndertakers" alone prevented them extinguishing, in onevigorous campaign, the northern insurrection. So weakand disorganized were now the thousands who had risen ata bound one short year before, that the garrisons ofEnniskillen, Deny, Newry, and Drogheda, scoured almostunopposed the neighbouring counties. The troops of Cole, Hamilton, the Stewarts, Chichesters, and Conways, foundlittle 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, " withina circuit of a few miles from Enniskillen. The disheartenedand disorganized natives were seriously deliberating awholesale emigration to the Scottish highlands, when aword of magic effect was whispered from the sea coast tothe interior. On the 6th of July, Colonel Owen Roe O'Neilarrived off Donegal with a single ship, a single companyof veterans, 100 officers, and a considerable quantityof ammunition. He landed at Doe Castle, and was escortedby his kinsman, Sir Phelim, to the fort of Charlemont. A general meeting of the northern clans was quickly calledat Clones, in Monaghan, and there, on an early day afterhis arrival, Owen O'Neil was elected "General-in-Chiefof the Catholic Army" of the North, Sir Phelim resigningin his favour, and taking instead the barren title of"President of Ulster. " At the same moment Lord Lievenarrived from Scotland with the remainder of the 10, 000voted by the Parliament of that kingdom. He had knownO'Neil abroad, had a high opinion of his abilities, andwrote to express his surprise "that a man of his reputationshould be engaged in so bad a cause;" to which O'Neilreplied that "he had a better right to come to the reliefof his own country than his lordship had to march intoEngland against his lawful King. " Lieven, before returninghome, urged Monroe to act with promptitude, for that hemight expect a severe lesson if the new commander oncesucceeded in collecting an army. But Monroe proved deafto this advice, and while the Scottish and English forcesin the Province would have amounted, if united, to 20, 000foot and 1, 000 horse, they gave O'Neil time enough toembody, 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 ofthe Confederacy, was favourably placed for the directionof the war in Leinster and Munster. Nearly equidistantfrom Dublin, Cork, and Limerick, a meeting place for mostof the southern and south-western roads, important initself both as a place of trade, and as the residence ofthe Duke of Ormond and the Bishop of Ossory, a betterchoice could not, perhaps, have been made, so far asregarded the ancient southern "Half-Kingdom. " But itseems rather surprising that the difficulty of directingthe war in the North and North-West, from a point so farsouth, did not occur to the statesmen of the Confederacy. In the defective communications of those days, especiallyduring a war, partaking even partially of the characterof civil strife, it was hard, if not impossible to expect, that a supervision could be exercised over a general oran army on the Erne or the Bann, which might be quitepossible and proper on the Suir or the Shannon. A similarnecessity in England necessitated the creation of thePresidency of the North, with its council and head-quartersin the city of York; nor need we be surprised to findthat, from the first, the Confederate movements combinedthemselves into two groups--the northern and the southern--those which revolved round the centre of Kilkenny, andthose which took their law from the head-quarters of OwenO'Neil, at Belturbet, or wherever else his camp happenedto be situated. 

The General Assembly met, according to agreement, on the23rd of October, 1642, at Kilkenny. Eleven-bishops andfourteen lay lords represented the Irish peerage; twohundred and twenty-six commoners, the large majority ofthe 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 chosenas chancellor, and everything was conducted with thegravity and deliberation befitting so venerable anAssembly, and so great an occasion. The business mostpressing, and most delicate, was felt to be theconsideration of a form of supreme executive government. The committee on this subject, who reported after theinterval of a week, was composed of Lords Gormanstownand Castlehaven, Sir Phelim O'Neil, Sir Richard Belling, and Mr. Darcy. A "Supreme Council" of six members foreach province was recommended, approved, and elected. The Archbishops of Armagh, Dublin, and Tuam, the Bishopsof Down and of Clonfert, the Lords Gormanstown, Mountgarrett, Roche, and Mayo, with fifteen of the mosteminent commoners, composed this council. It was providedthat the vote of two-thirds should be necessary to anyact affecting the basis of the Confederacy, but a quorumof nine was sufficient for the transaction of ordinarybusiness. A guard of honour of 500 foot and 200 horsewas allowed for their greater security. The venerableMountgarrett, the head of the Catholic Butlers, (son-in-lawof the illustrious Tyrone, who, in the last years ofElizabeth, had devoted his youthful sword to the samegood cause, ) was elected president of this, council; andSir Richard Belling, a lawyer, and a man of letters, thecontinuator of Sir Philip Sydney's _Arcadia_, was appointedsecretary. 

The first act of this Supreme Council was to appointGeneral O'Neil as Commander-in-Chief in Ulster; GeneralPreston, in Leinster; General Barry, in Munster; and SirJohn Burke as Lieutenant-General in Connaught; the supremecommand in the West being held over for Clanrickarde, who, it was still hoped, might be led or driven into theConfederacy. We shall endeavour to indicate in turn theoperations of these commanders, thus chosen or confirmed;leaving the civil and diplomatic business transacted bythe General Assembly, or delegated to the Supreme Council, for future mention. 

Contrary to the custom of that age, the Confederate troopswere 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 someloss; but before the close of December he had reducedBirr, Banagher, Burris, and Fort Falkland, and foundhimself master of King's county, from the Shannon to theBarrow. In February, however, he sustained a seriouscheck at Rathconnell, in endeavouring to intercept theretreat of the English troops from Connaught, under thecommand of Lord Ranelagh, and the younger Coote; and inMarch, equal ill success attended his attempt to interceptOrmond, in his retreat from the unsuccessful siege ofthe town of Ross. Lord Castlehaven, who was Preston'ssecond in command, attributes both these reverses to theimpetuosity of the general, whose imprudence seems tohave been almost as great as his activity was conspicuous. In April and May, Preston and Castlehaven took severalstrongholds in Carlow, Kildare, and West-Meath, and theGeneral Assembly, which met for its second session, onthe 20th of May, 1643, at Kilkenny, had, on the whole, good grounds to be satisfied with the success of the warin Leinster. 

In the Southern Province, considerable military successesmight also be claimed by the Confederates. The Munstertroops, under Purcell, the second in command, a capablesoldier, who had learned the art of war in the armies ofthe German Empire, relieved Ross, when besieged by Ormond;General Barry had successfully repulsed an attack on hishead-quarters, the famous old Desmond town of Killmallock. In June, Barry, Purcell, and Castlehaven drove the enemybefore them across the Funcheon, and at Kilworth broughttheir main body, under Sir Charles Vavasour, to action. Vavasour's force was badly beaten, himself captured, withhis cannon and colours, and many of his officers and men. Inchiquin, who had endeavoured to form a junction withVavasour, escaped to one of the few remaining garrisonsopen to him--probably Youghal. 

In Connaught, the surrender of Galway, on the 20th ofJune, eclipsed all the previous successes, and they werenot a few, of Lieutenant-General Burke. From the day LordRanelagh and the younger Coote deserted the Westernprovince, the Confederate cause had rapidly advanced. The surrender of "the second fort in the Kingdom"--asea-port in that age, not unworthy to be ranked withCadiz and Bristol, for its commercial wealth andreputation--was a military event of the first importance. An English fleet appeared three days after the surrenderof Willoughby, in Galway harbour; but nine long yearselapsed before the Confederate colours were lowered fromthe towers of the Connaught citadel. 

In the North, O'Neil, who, without injustice to any ofhis contemporaries, may certainly be said to have made, during his seven years' command, the highest Europeanreputation among the Confederate generals, gathered hisrecruits into a rugged district, which forms a sort ofnatural camp in the north-west corner of the island. Themountain plateau of Leitrim, which sends its spursdownwards to the Atlantic, towards Lough Erne, and intoLongford, 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, inwhich to collect and organize his forces. In the beginningof May--seven months after the date of his commission, and ten from his solitary landing at Doe Castle--we findhim 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, fromCarrickfergus. Having effected that immediate object, heagain retired towards the Leitrim highlands, fighting bythe way a smart cavalry action at Clonish, with a superiorforce, under Colonels Stewart, Balfour, and Mervyn. Inthis affair O'Neil was only too happy to have carriedoff his troop with credit; but a fortnight brought himconsolation for Clonish in the brilliant affair ofPortlester. He had descended in force from his hills andtaken 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 MeathianConfederates, under Sir James Dillon, he resolved to riskhis first regular engagement in the field. Taking advantageof the situation of the ground, about five miles fromTrim, he threw up some field works, placed sixty men inPortlester mill, and patiently awaited the advance ofthe enemy. Their assault was overconfident, their routcomplete. Lord Moore, and a large portion of the assailantswere slain, and Monk fled back to Dublin. O'Neil, gatheringfresh strength from these movements, abandoned his mountainstronghold, and established his head-quarters on theriver Erne between Lough Oughter (memorable in his lifeand death) and the upper waters of Lough Erne. At thispoint stood the town of Belturbet, which, in "thePlantation" of James I. , had been turned over exclusivelyto British settlers, whose "cagework" houses, and fouracres of garden ground each, had elicited the approvalof the surveyor Pynnar, twenty years before. The surroundingcountry was covered with the fortified castles andloop-holed lawns of the chief _Undertakers_--but few werefound of sufficient strength to resist the arms of O'Neil. At Belturbet, he was within a few days' march of thevital points of four other counties, and in case of theworst, within the same distance of his protective fastness. Here, towards the end of September, busied with presentduties and future projects, he heard, for the first time, with astonishment and grief, that the requisite majorityof "the Supreme Council" had concluded, on the 13th ofthat month, a twelve-months' truce with Ormond, thusputting in peril all the advantages already acquired bythe bravery of the Confederate troops, and the skill oftheir generals. 

The war had lasted nearly two years, and this was thefirst time the Catholics had consented to negotiate. Themoment chosen was a critical one for all the threeKingdoms, and the interests involved were complicated inthe extreme. The Anglo-Irish, who formed the majority ofthe Supreme Council, connected by blood and language withEngland, had entered into the war, purely as one ofreligious liberty. Nationally, they had, apart from thecivil disabilities imposed on religious grounds, noantipathy, no interest, hostile to the general body ofEnglish loyalists, represented in Ireland by the King'slieutenant, Ormond. On his side, that nobleman gave allhis thoughts to, and governed all his actions by theexigencies of the royal cause, throughout the threeKingdoms. When Charles seemed strong in England, Ormondrated the Catholics at a low figure; but when reversesincreased he estimated their alliance more highly. Afterthe drawn battle of Edgehill, fought on the very day ofthe first meeting of the General Assembly at Kilkenny, the King had established his head-quarters at Oxford, inthe heart of four or five of the most loyal counties inEngland. Here he at first negotiated with the Parliament, but finally the sword was again invoked, and while theKing proclaimed the Parliament rebels, "the solemn leagueand covenant" was entered into, at first separately, andafterwards jointly, by the Puritans of England andPresbyterians of Scotland. The military events duringthat year, and in the first half of the next, were uponthe whole not unfavourable to the royal cause. The greatbattle of Marston Moor, (July 2nd, 1644, ) which"extinguished the hopes of the Royalists in the Northerncounties, " was the first Parliamentary victory of nationalimportance. It was won mainly by the energy and obstinacyof Lieutenant-General Cromwell, from that day forth theforemost English figure in the Civil War. From his courtat Oxford, where he had seen the utter failure ofendeavouring to conciliate his English and Scottishenemies, the King had instructed Ormond--lately createda Marquis--to treat with the Irish Catholics, and toobtain from them men and money. The overtures thus madewere brought to maturity in September; the Cessation wasto last twelve months; each party was to remain inpossession of its own quarters, as they were held at thedate of the treaty; the forces of each were to unite topunish any infraction of the terms agreed on; the agentsof the Confederates, during the cessation, were to havefree access and safe conduct to the King; and for theseadvantages, the Supreme Council were to present hisMajesty immediately with 15, 000 pounds in money, andprovisions 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 majorityof the old Irish, lay and clerical; still more violentlydenounced by the Puritan Parliament as favouring Popery, and negotiated by Popish agents; beneficial to Ormondand the Undertakers, as relieving Dublin, freeing thechannel from Irish privateers, and securing them in thegarrisons throughout the Kingdom which they still held;in one sense advantageous to Charles, from the immediatesupplies it afforded, and the favourable impression itcreated of his liberality, at the courts of his Catholicallies; but on the other hand disadvantageous to him inEngland and Scotland, from the pretexts it furnished hisenemies, of renewing the cry of his connivance withPopery, 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 memorableMonroe, with all his men, were taking the covenant, ontheir knees, in the church of Carrickfergus, at the handsof the informer O'Connolly, now a colonel in theParliamentary army, and high in the confidence of itschiefs. Soon after this ceremony, Monroe, appointed bythe English Parliament Commander-in-Chief of all theirforces in Ulster, united under his immediate leadership, of Scots, English, and Undertakers, not less than 10, 000men. With this force he marched southward as far as Newry, which he found an easy prey, and where he put to thesword, after surrender, sixty men, eighteen women, andtwo ecclesiastics. In vain the Confederates entreatedOrmond to lead them against the common enemy in the North;pursuing always a line of policy of his own, in whichtheir interest had a very slender part, that astutepolitician neither took the field, nor consented thatthey should do so of themselves. But the Supreme Council, roused by the remonstrances of the clergy, ordered LordCastlehaven, with the title of Commander-in-Chief, tomarch against Monroe. This was virtually supersedingO'Neil in his own province, and that it was so felt, evenby its authors, is plain from their giving himsimultaneously the command in Connaught. O'Neil, nevergreater than in acts of self-denial and self-sacrifice, stifled his profound chagrin, and cheerfully offered toserve under the English Earl, placed over his head. Butthe northern movements were, for many months, languidand uneventful; both parties seemed uncertain of theirtrue policy; both, from day to day, awaited breathlesslyfor tidings from Kilkenny, Dublin, London, Oxford, orEdinburgh, to learn what new forms the general contestwas to take, in order to guide their own conduct by theshifting phases of that intricate diplomacy. 

Among the first consequences of the cessation were thedebarkation at Mostyn, in Scotland, of 3, 000 well providedIrish troops, under _Colkitto_ (the left-handed, ) AlexanderMcDonnell, brother of Lord Antrim. Following the bannerof Montrose, these regiments performed great things atSaint Johnstown, at Aberdeen, at Inverlochy, all whichhave been eloquently recorded by the historians of thatperiod. "Their reputation, " says a cautious writer, "morethan their number, unnerved the prowess of their enemies. No force ventured to oppose them in the field; and asthey advanced, every fort was abandoned or surrendered. "A less agreeable result of "the cessation, " for the courtat Oxford, was the retirement from the royal army of theEarl of Newcastle, and most of his officers, on learningthat such favourable conditions had been made with IrishPapists. To others of his supporters--as the Earl ofShrewsbury--Charles was forced to assume a tone of apologyfor that truce, pleading the hard necessities whichcompelled him: the truth seems to be, that there werenot a few then at Oxford, who, like Lord Spencer, wouldgladly have been on the other side--or at all events ina 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 ofgreat significance--the appointment of Ormond as Viceroy, in January, and the execution at Tyburn, by order of theEnglish Parliament, of Lord Maguire, a prisoner in theTower since October, 1641. Maguire died with a courageand composure worthy of his illustrious name, and hisprofoundly religious character. His long absence had noteffaced his memory from the hearts of his devoted clansmenof Fermanagh, and many a prayer was breathed, and manya vow of vengeance muttered among them, for what theymust naturally have regarded as the cold-blooded judicialmurder of their chief. 

Two Irish deputations--one Catholic, the other Protestant--proceeded this year to the King, at Oxford, with theapproval of Ormond, who took care to be represented byconfidential agents of his own. The Catholics found azealous auxiliary in the queen, Henrietta Maria, who, asa co-religionist, felt with them, and, as a Frenchwoman, was free from insular prejudices against them. The IrishProtestants found a scarcely less influential advocatein the venerable Archbishop Usher, whose presence andcountenance, as the most puritanical of his prelates, was most essential to the policy of Charles. The Kingheard both parties graciously--censured some of thedemands of both as extravagant, and beyond his power toconcede--admitted others to be reasonable and worthy ofconsideration--refused to confirm the churches they hadseized to the Catholics--but was willing to allow themtheir "seminaries of education"--would not consent toenforce the penal laws on the demand of the Protestants--but declared that neither should the Undertakers bedisturbed in their possessions or offices. In short, hepathetically exhorted both parties to consider his caseas well as their own; promised them to call together theIrish Parliament at the earliest possible period; and sogot rid of both deputations, leaving Ormond master ofthe position for some time longer. 

The agents and friends of the Irish Catholics on theContinent were greatly embarrassed, and not a littledisheartened by the cessation. At Paris, at Brussels, atMadrid, but above all at Rome, it was regretted, blamed, or denounced, according to the temper or the insight ofthe discontented. His Catholic Majesty had some timebefore remitted a contribution of 20, 000 dollars to theConfederate Treasury; one of Richelieu's last acts wasto invite Con, son of Hugh O'Neil, to the French Court, and to permit the shipment of some pieces of ordnance toIreland; from Rome, the celebrated Franciscan, FatherLuke Wadding, had remitted 26, 000 dollars, and the NuncioScarampi had brought further donations. The facility, therefore, with which the cessation had been agreed upon, against the views of the agents of the Catholic powersat Kilkenny, without any apparently sufficient cause, had certainly a tendency to check and chill the enthusiasmof those Catholic Princes who had been taught to look onthe insurrection of the Irish as a species of Crusade. Remonstrances, warm, eloquent, and passionate, were pouredin upon the most influential members of the SupremeCouncil, from those who had either by delegation, or fromtheir own free will, befriended them abroad. Theseremonstrances reached that powerful body at Waterford, at Limerick, or at Galway, whither they had gone on anofficial visitation, to hear complaints, settlecontroversies, and provide for the better collection ofthe assessments imposed on each Province. 

An incident which occurred in Ulster, soon startled theSupreme Council from their pacific occupations. GeneralMonroe, having proclaimed that all Protestants withinhis command should take "the solemn league and covenant, "three thousand of that religion, still loyalists, met atBelfast, to deliberate on their answer. Monroe, however, apprised of their intentions, marched rapidly fromCarrickfergus, entered the town under cover of night, and drove out the loyal Protestants at the point of thesword. The fugitives threw themselves into Lisburn, andMonroe appointed Colonel Hume as Governor of Belfast, for the Parliaments of Scotland and England. Castlehaven, with O'Neil still second in command, was now despatchednorthward against the army of the Covenant. Monroe, whohad 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 throughLouth and Armagh, to his original head-quarters; Castlehaventhen returned with the main body of the Confederate troopsto Kilkenny, and O'Neil, depressed, but not dismayed, carried his contingent to their former position atBelturbet. 

In Munster, a new Parliamentary party had time to formits combinations under the shelter of the cessation. TheEarl of Inchiquin, who had lately failed to obtain thePresidency of Munster from the King at Oxford, and theLord Broghill, son of the great Southern Undertaker--thefirst Earl of Cork, --were at the head of this movement. Under pretence that the quarters allotted them by thecessation had been violated, they contrived to seize uponCork, Youghal, and Kinsale. At Cork, they publicly executedFather Mathews, a Friar, and proceeding from violence toviolence, they drove from the three places all the Catholicinhabitants. They then forwarded a petition to the King, beseeching him to declare the Catholics "rebels, " anddeclaring their own determination to "die a thousanddeaths sooner than condescend to any peace with them. "At the same time they entered into or avowed theircorrespondence with the English Parliament, which naturallyenough encouraged and assisted them. The Supreme Councilmet these demonstrations with more stringent instructionsto General Purcell, now their chief in command, (Barryhaving retired on account of advanced age, ) to observethe cessation, and to punish severely every infractionof it. At the same time they permitted or directed Purcellto enter into a trace with Inchiquin till the followingApril; and then they rested on their arms, in religiousfidelity 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 toeffect a renewal of the treaty. Accordingly, at hisrequest, Lord Muskerry, and five other commissioners, left Kilkenny on the last day of August for Dublin. Between them and the Viceroy, the cessation was prolongedtill the first of December following; and when that daycame, it was further protracted, as would appear, forthree months, by which time, (March, 1645, ) Ormond informedthem that he had powers from the King to treat for apermanent settlement. 

During the six months that the original cessation wasthus protracted by the policy of Ormond, the SupremeCouncil sent abroad new agents, "to know what they hadto trust to, and what succours they might really dependon from abroad. " Father Hugh Bourke was sent to Spain, and Sir Richard Belling to Rome, where Innocent X, hadrecently succeeded to that generous friend of the CatholicIrish. Urban VIII. The voyage of these agents was notfree from hazard, for, whereas, before the cessation, the privateers commissioned by the Council, shelteredand supplied in the Irish harbours, had kept the southerncoast clear of hostile shipping, now that they had beenwithdrawn under the truce, the parliamentary cruisershad the channel all to themselves. Waterford andWexford--the two chief Catholic ports in that quarter--instead of seeing their waters crowded with prizes, nowbegan to tremble for their own safety. The strong fortof Duncannon, on the Wexford side of Waterford harbour, was corruptly surrendered by Lord Esmond, to Inchiquinand the Puritans. After a ten-weeks' siege, however, andthe expenditure of 19, 000 pounds of powder, the Confederatesretook the fort, in spite of all the efforts made forits relief. Esmond, old and blind, escaped by a timelydeath the penalty due to his treason. Following up thissuccess, Castlehaven rapidly invested other southernstrongholds in possession of the same party, Cappoquin, Lismore, Mallow, Mitchelstown, Doneraile and Liscarrollsurrendered on articles; Rostellan, commanded by Inchiquin'sbrother, was stormed and taken; Boghill was closelybesieged in Youghal, but, being relieved from sea, successfully defended himself. In another quarter, theParliament was equally active. To compensate for the lossof Galway, they had instructed the younger Coote, on whomthey had conferred the Presidency of Connaught, to withdrawthe regiment of Sir Frederick Hamilton, and 400 othertroops, from the command of Monroe, and with these, SirRobert Stewart's forces, and such others as he couldhimself raise, to invest Sligo. Against the force thuscollected, 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 adjoiningcountry. Lord Clanrickarde, the royal president of theprovince, as unpopular as trimmers usually are in timesof crisis, was unable to make head against this newdanger. But the Confederates, under Sir James Dillon, and Dr. O'Kelly, the heroic Archbishop of Tuam, moved bythe pitiful appeals of the Sligo people, boldly endeavouredto recover the town. They succeeded in entering the walls, but were subsequently repulsed and routed. The Archbishopwas captured and tortured to death; some of the noblestfamilies of the province and of Meath had also to mourntheir chiefs; and several valuable papers, found orpretended to be found in the Archbishop's carriage, wereeagerly given to the press of London by the Parliamentof 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 fora permanent peace and settlement, from spring tillmidsummer, when Charles, dissatisfied with these endlessdelays, despatched to Ireland a more hopeful ambassador. This was Herbert, Earl of Glamorgan, one of the fewCatholics remaining among the English nobility; son andheir to the Marquis of Worcester, and son-in-law to HenryO'Brien, Earl of Thomond. Of a family devoutly attachedto the royal cause, to which it is said they had contributednot less than 200, 000 pounds, Glamorgan's religion, hisrank, his Irish connections, the intimate confidence ofthe King which he was known to possess, all marked outhis embassy as one of the utmost importance. 

The story of this mission has been perplexed and darkenedby many controversies. But the general verdict of historiansseems now to be, that Charles I. , whose many good qualitiesas a man and a ruler are cheerfully admitted on all hands, was yet utterly deficient in downright good faith; thatduplicity was his besetting sin; and that Glamorgan'sembassy is one, but only one, of the strongest evidencesof that ingrained duplicity. 

It may help to the clearer understanding of the negotiationsconducted by Glamorgan in Ireland, if we give in thefirst 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 wereagreed to and signed by the Earl on behalf of the King, and by Lords Mountgarrett and Muskerry on behalf of theConfederates. It was necessary, it seems, to get theconcurrence of the Viceroy to these terms, and accordinglythe negotiators on both sides repaired to Dublin. Here, Ormond contrived to detain them ten long weeks indiscussions on the articles relating to religion; it wasthe 12th of November when they returned to Kilkenny, witha much modified treaty. On the next day, the 13th, thenew Papal Nuncio, a prelate who, by his rank, his eloquence, and his imprudence, was destined to exercise a powerfulinfluence on the Catholic councils, made his public entryinto that city. 

This personage was John Baptist Rinuccini, Archbishop ofFermo, in the Marches of Ancona, which see he had preferredto the more exalted dignity of Florence. By birth aTuscan, the new Nuncio had distinguished himself fromboyhood by his passionate attachment to his studies. AtBologna, at Perugia, and at Rome, his intense applicationbrought him early honours, and early physical debility. His health, partially restored in the seclusion of hisnative valley of the Arno, enabled him to return againto Rome. Enjoying the confidence of Gregory XV. AndUban VIII. , he was named successively, Clerk of theChamber, Secretary of the Congregation of Rites, andArchbishop of Fermo. This was the prelate chosen by thenew Pope, Innocent X. , for the nunciature in Ireland: aman of noble birth, in the fifty-third year of his age, of uncertain bodily health, of great learning, especiallyas a canonist, of a fiery Italian temperament, --"regularand even austere in his life, and far from any taint ofavarice or corruption, "--such was the admission of hisenemies. 

Leaving Italy in May, accompanied by the Dean of Fermo, who has left us a valuable record of the embassy, hisother household officers, several Italian noblemen, andSir Richard Belling, the special agent at Rome, theNuncio, by way of Genoa and Marseilles, reached Paris. In France he was detained nearly five months, in afruitless attempt to come to some definite arrangementas to the conduct of the Catholic war, through QueenHenrietta Maria, then resident with the young Prince ofWales--afterwards Charles II. --at the French court. TheQueen, like most persons of her rank, overwhelmed withadversity, was often unreasonably suspicious and exacting. Her sharp woman's tongue did not spare those on whom heranger fell, and there were not wanting those, who, apprehensive of the effect in England of her negotiatingdirectly with a papal minister, did their utmost to delayor to break off their correspondence. A nice point ofcourt etiquette further embarrassed the business. TheNuncio could not uncover his head before the Queen, andHenrietta would not receive him otherwise than uncovered. After three months lost in Paris, he was obliged toproceed on his journey, contenting himself with an exchangeof complimentary messages with the Queen, whom even thecrushing blow of Naseby could not induce to waive a pointof etiquette with a Priest. 

On reaching Rochelle, where he intended to take shipping, a further delay of six weeks took place, as was supposedby the machinations of Cardinal Mazarin. Finally, theNuncio succeeded in purchasing a frigate of 26 guns, the_San Pietro_, on which he embarked with all his Italiansuite, Sir Richard Belling, and several Franco-Irishofficers. He had also on board a considerable sum inSpanish gold, (including another contribution of 36, 000dollars from Father Wadding, ) 2, 000 muskets, 2, 000 cartouchbelts, 4, 000 swords, 2, 000 pike heads, 400 brace ofpistols, 20, 000 pounds of powder, with match, shot, andother stores. Weighing from St. Martin's in the Isle ofRhe, the _San Pietro_ doubled the Land's End, and stoodover towards the Irish coast. The third day out theywere chased for several hours by two Parliamentarycruisers, but escaped under cover of the night; on thefourth morning, being the 21st of October, they foundthemselves safely embayed in the waters of Kenmare, onthe coast of Kerry. 

The first intelligence which reached the Nuncio on landing, was the negotiation of Glamorgan, of which he had alreadyheard, while waiting a ship at Rochelle. The next wasthe surrender by the Earl of Thomond, of his noble oldcastle of Bunratty, commanding the Shannon within sixmiles 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 itsgates to the Confederates. The loss of Bunratty was morethan compensated by the gaining of one of the finest andstrongest towns in Munster, and to Limerick accordinglythe Nuncio paid the compliment of his first visit. Herehe received the mitre of the diocese in dutiful submissionfrom the hands of the Bishop, on entering the Cathedral;and here he celebrated a solemn requiem mass for therepose of the soul of the Archbishop of Tuam, latelyslain before Sligo. Prom Limerick, borne along on hislitter, such was the feebleness of his health, he advancedby 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 theCatholic capital was a striking spectacle. The previousnight he slept at a village three miles from the city, for which he set out early on the morning of the 13th ofNovember, escorted by his guard, and a vast multitude ofthe people. Five delegates from the Supreme Councilaccompanied him. A band of fifty students mounted onhorseback met him on the way, and their leader, crownedwith laurel, recited some congratulatory Latin verses. At the city gate he left the litter and mounted a horserichly housed; here the procession of the clergy and thecity guilds awaited him; at the Market Cross, a Latinoration was delivered in his honour, to which he graciouslyreplied in the same language. From the Cross he wasescorted to the Cathedral, at the door of which he wasreceived by the aged Bishop, Dr. David Rothe. At thehigh altar he intonated the _Te Deum_, and gave themultitude the apostolic benediction. Then he was conductedto his lodgings, where he was soon waited upon by LordMuskerry and General Preston, who brought him to KilkennyCastle, where, in the great gallery, which elicited evena Florentine's admiration, he was received in statelyformality by the President of the Council--LordMountgarrett. Another Latin oration on the nature of hisembassy 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 atRome, praying that they might be included in the termsof any peace which might be made by their Irishco-religionists with the King. Nothing could be morenatural than that the members of the same persecutedchurch should make common cause, but nothing could bemore impolitic than some of the demands made in theEnglish memorial. They wished it to be stipulated withCharles, that he would allow a distinct militaryorganization to the English and Irish Catholics in hisservice, under Catholic general officers, subject onlyto the King's commands, meaning thereby, if they meantwhat they said, independence of all parliamentary andministerial control. Yet several of the stipulations ofthis memorial were, after many modifications anddiscussions, adopted by Glamorgan into his originalarticles, and under the treaty thus ratified, theConfederates bound themselves to despatch 10, 000 men, fully armed and equipped, to the relief of Chester andthe general succour of the King in England. Towards theclose of December, the English Earl, with two Commissionersfrom the Supreme Council, set forth for Dublin, to obtainthe Viceroy's sanction to the amended treaty. But inDublin a singular counterplot in this perplexed dramaawaited them. On St. Stephen's day, while at dinner, Glamorgan was arrested by Ormond, on a charge of havingexceeded his instructions, and confined a close prisonerin the castle. The gates of the city were closed, andevery means taken to give _eclat_ to this extraordinaryproceeding. The Confederate Commissioners were carriedto the castle, and told they might congratulate themselveson not sharing the cell prepared for Glamorgan. "Go back, "they were told, "to Kilkenny and tell the President ofthe Council, that the Protestants of England would flingthe King's person out at his window, _if they believedit possible_ that he lent himself to such an undertaking. "The Commissioners accordingly went back and deliveredtheir errand, with a full account of all the circumstances. Fortunately, the General Assembly had been called for anearly day in January, 1646, at Kilkenny. When, therefore, they met, their first resolution was to despatch SirRobert Talbot to the Viceroy, with a letter suspendingall negotiations till the Earl of Glamorgan was set atliberty. By the end of January, on the joint bail, for40, 000 pounds, of the Earls of Clanrickarde and Kildare, the English envoy was enlarged, and, to the still furtheramazement of the simple-minded Catholics, on his arrivalat Kilkenny, he justified rather than censured the actionof Ormond. To most observers it appeared that thesenoblemen understood each other only too well. 

From January till June, Kilkenny was delivered over tocabals, intrigues, and recriminations. There was an "oldIrish party, " to which the Nuncio inclined, and an"Anglo-Irish party, " headed by Mountgarrett and themajority of the Council. The former stigmatized the latteras Ormondists, and the latter retorted on them with thename of the Nuncio's party. In February came news of aforeign treaty made at Rome between Sir Kenelm Digby andthe Pope's Ministers, most favourable to the English andIrish Catholics. On the 28th of March, a final modificationof Glamorgan's articles, reduced to thirty in number, was signed by Ormond for the King, and Lord Muskerry andthe other Commissioners for the Confederates. Thesethirty articles conceded, in fact, all the most essentialclaims of the Irish; they secured them equal rights asto property, in the Army, in the Universities, and atthe Bar; they gave them seats in both Houses and on theBench; they authorized a special commission of Oyer andTerminer, composed wholly of Confederates; they declaredthat "the independency of the Parliament of Ireland onthat of England, " should be decided by declaration ofboth Houses "agreeably to the laws of the Kingdom ofIreland. " In short, this final form of Glamorgan's treatygave the Irish Catholics, in 1646, all that was subsequentlyobtained either for the church or the country, in 1782, 1793, or 1829. Though some conditions were omitted, towhich Rinuccini and a majority of the Prelates attachedimportance, Glamorgan's treaty was, upon the whole, acharter upon which a free church and a free people mightwell have stood, as the fundamental law of their religiousand civil liberties. 

The treaty, thus concluded at the end of March, was tolie as an _escroll_ in the hands of the Marquis ofClanrickarde till the 1st of May, awaiting Sir KenelmDigby with the Roman protocol. And then, not withstandingthe dissuasions of Rinuccini to the contrary, it was tobe kept secret from the world, though some of itsobligations were expected to be at once fulfilled, ontheir side, by the Catholics. The Supreme Council, evereager to exhibit their loyalty, gathered together 6, 000troops for the relief of Chester and the service of theKing in England, so soon as both treaties--the Irish andthe Roman--should be signed by Charles. While so waiting, they besieged and took Bunratty castle--already referredto--but Sir Kenelm Digby did not arrive with May, andthey now learned, to their renewed amazement, thatGlamorgan's whole negotiation was disclaimed by the Kingin England. In the same interval Chester fell, and theKing was obliged to throw himself into the hands of theScottish Parliament, who surrendered him for a price totheir English coadjutors. These tidings reached Irelandduring May, and, varied with the capture of an occasionalfortress, lost or won, occupied all men's minds. But thefirst days of June were destined to bring with them avictory of national--of European importance--won by OwenO'Neil, in the immediate vicinity of his grand-uncle'sfamous battle-field of the Yellow Ford. 

During these three years of intrigue and negotiation, the position of General O'Neil was hazardous and difficultin the extreme. One campaign he had served under astranger, as second on his own soil. In the other two hewas fettered by the terms of "cessation" to his ownquarters; and to add to his embarrassments, his impetuouskinsman Sir Phelim, brave, rash, and ambitious, recentlymarried to a daughter of his ungenerous rival, GeneralPreston, was incited to thwart and obstruct him amongsttheir mutual clansmen and connections. The only recompensewhich seems to have been awarded to him, was the confidenceof the Nuncio, who, either from that knowledge of characterin which the Italians excel, or from bias received fromsome other source, at once singled him out as the man ofhis people. What portion of the Nuncio's supplies reachedthe Northern General we know not, but in the beginningof June, he felt himself in a position to bring on anengagement with Monroe, who, lately reinforced by bothParliaments, had marched out of Carrickfergus into Tyrone, with a view of penetrating as far south as Kilkenny. Onthe 4th day of June, the two armies encountered at Benburb, on the little river Blackwater, about six miles north ofArmagh, and the most signal victory of the war came torecompense 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 thechoice of ground seems to have been a first consideration--the Irish, for four hours, received and repulsed thevarious charges of the Puritan horse. Then as the sunbegan to descend, pouring its rays upon the opposingforce, O'Neil led his whole force--five thousand menagainst eight--to the attack. One terrible onset sweptaway every trace of resistance. There were counted onthe field, 3, 243 of the Covenanters, and of the Catholics, but 70 killed and 100 wounded. Lord Ardes, and 21 Scottishofficers, 32 standards, 1, 500 draught horses, and allthe guns and tents, were captured. Monroe fled in panicto Lisburn, and thence to Carrickfergus, where he shuthimself up, till he could obtain reinforcements. O'Neilforwarded 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 PopeInnocent, sent to Rome. _Te Deum_ was chanted in theConfederate Capital; penitential psalms were sung in theNorthern 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 withthe Red Hand of Ulster, and openly resumed the titleoriginally chosen by his adherents at Clones, "theCatholic Army. "

CHAPTER IX. 

FROM THE BATTLE OF BENBURB TILL THE LANDING OFCROMWELL AT DUBLIN. 

The Nuncio, elated by the great victory of O'Neil, towhich he felt he had personally contributed by hisseasonable supplies, provoked and irritated by Ormond'sintrigues and the King's insincerity, rushed with allthe ardour of his character into making the war anuncompromising 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 ofLimerick, Killalla, Ferns, and Clogher; the Procuratorof Armagh; nine Vicars-general, and the Superiors of theJesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians. Thepeace party, on the other hand, were not without clericaladherents, but they were inconsiderable, as to influenceand numbers. They were now become as anxious to publishthe Thirty Articles agreed upon at the end of March, asthey then were to keep them secret. Accordingly, withOrmond's consent, copies of the treaty were sent earlyin August to the sheriffs of counties, mayors of cities, and other leading persons, with instructions to proclaimit publicly in due form; upon hearing which, the Nuncioand 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 wouldnot, "to any peace, " that did not grant "further, surer, and safer considerations for their religion, king, andcountry, " according to the original oath of the Confederacy. 

The rupture between the clergy and the laymen of theCouncil was now complete. The prelates who signed thedecree of Waterford, of course, thereby withdrew fromthe body whose action they condemned. In vain the learnedDarcy and the eloquent Plunkett went to and fro betweenthe two bodies: concord and confidence were at an end. The synod decided to address Lord Mountgarrett in futureas President of "the _late_ Supreme Council. " The heraldswho attempted to publish the Thirty Articles in Clonmeland Waterford were hooted or stoned; while in Limerickthe mayor, endeavouring to protect them, shared thisrough usage. Ormond, who was at Kilkenny at the criticalmoment of the breach, did his utmost to sustain theresolution of those who were stigmatized by his name;while the Nuncio, suspicious of Preston, wrote urgentlyto O'Neil to lead his army into Leinster, and remove theremnant of the late council from Kilkenny. All that thosewho 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 forRinuccini. Lord Digby appeared at Dublin as a specialagent from the King, to declare his consent to Glamorgan'soriginal terms; but Ormond still insisted that he had noauthority to go beyond the Thirty Articles. Charleshimself wrote privately to Rinuccini, promising to confirmeverything which Glamorgan had proposed, as soon as heshould come into "the Nuncio's hands. " Ormond, after afruitless attempt to convert O'Neil to his views, hadmarched southward with a guard of 1, 500 foot, and 500horse, to endeavour to conciliate the towns, and to winover the Earl of Inchiquin. In both these objects hefailed. He found O'Neil before him in his county palatinateof Tipperary, and the Mayor of Cashel informed him thathe dared not allow him into that city, for fear ofdispleasing the northern general. Finding himself thusunexpectedly within a few miles of "the Catholic Army, "10, 000 strong, the Viceroy retreated precipitately throughKilkenny, Carlow, and Kildare, to Dublin. Lord Digby, who had accompanied him, after an unsuccessful attemptto cajole the Synod of Waterford, made the best of hisway back to France; the Marquis of Clanrickarde, who hadalso been of the expedition, shared the flight of Ormond. Towards the middle of September, O'Neil's army, aftercapturing Roscrea Castle, marched to Kilkenny, and encampednear that city. His forces had now augmented to 12, 000foot, and 1, 500 horse; on the 18th of the month, heescorted the Nuncio in triumph into Kilkenny, where theOrmondist members of the old council were committed toclose custody in the castle. A new council, of fourbishops and eight laymen, was established on the 26th, with the Nuncio as president; Glamorgan succeededCastlehaven, who had gone over to Ormond, as commanderin Munster; while O'Neil and Preston were ordered tounite their forces for the siege of Dublin. The sanguineItalian dreamt of nothing less, for the moment, than thecreation of Viceroys, the deliverance of the King, andthe complete restoration of the ancient religion. 

O'Neil and Preston, by different routes, on which theywere delayed in taking several garrisoned posts, unitedat Lucan in the valley of the Liffey, seven miles westof Dublin, on the 9th of November. Their joint forcesare represented at 16, 000 foot, and 1, 600 horse--of whichPreston had about one-third, and O'Neil the remainder. Preston's head-quarters were fixed at Leixlip, and O'Neil'sat Newcastle--points equi-distant, and each within twohours' march of the capital. Within the walls of thatcity there reigned the utmost consternation. Many of theinhabitants fled beyond seas, terrified by the fanciedcruelty of the Ulstermen. But Ormond retained all hispresence of mind, and readiness of resources. He entered, at first covertly, into arrangements with theParliamentarians, who sent him a supply of powder; hewrote urgently to Monroe to make a diversion in hisfavour; he demolished the mills and suburbs which mightcover the approaches of the enemy; he employed soldiers, civilians, and even women, upon the fortifications, --Lady Ormond setting an example to her sex, in renderingher feeble assistance. Clanrickarde, in Preston's tent, was doing the work of stimulating the old antipathy ofthat general towards O'Neil, which led to conflictingadvices in Council, and some irritating personalaltercations. To add to the Confederate embarrassment, the winter was the most severe known for many years; fromtwenty to thirty sentinels being frozen at night at theirposts. On the 13th of November, while the plan of theConfederate attack was still undecided, commissioners ofthe Parliament arrived, with ample stores, in Dublin Bay. On the next day they landed at Ringsend, and entered intonegotiations with Ormond; on the 16th the siege wasraised, 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 GeneralAssembly. The attendance in the great gallery of OrmondCastle was as large, and the circumstances upon the wholeas auspicious as could be desired, in the seventh yearof such a struggle. The members of the old council, liberated from arrest, were in their places. O'Neil andPreston, publicly reconciled, had signed a solemn engagementto assist and sustain each other. The Nuncio, the Primateof Ireland, and eleven bishops took their seats; thepeers of oldest title in the kingdom were present; twohundred and twenty-four members represented the Commonsof Ireland, and among the spectators sat the ambassadorsof France and Spain, and of King Charles. The main subjectof discussion was the sufficiency of the Thirty Articles, and the propriety of the ecclesiastical censure promulgatedagainst those who had signed them. The debate embracedall that may be said on the question of clericalinterference in political affairs, on conditional andunconditional allegiance, on the power of the Pontiffspeaking _ex cathedra_, and the prerogatives of thetemporal sovereign. It was protracted through an entiremonth, and ended with a compromise, which declared thatthe Commissioners had acted in good faith in signing thearticles, while it justified the Synod of Waterford forhaving, as judges of the nature and intent of the oathof Confederation, declared them insufficient andunacceptable. A new oath of Confederacy, solemnly bindingthe associates not to lay down their arms till they hadestablished the free and public exercise of religion asit had existed in the reign of Henry VII. , was framedand taken by the entire General Assembly; the ThirtyArticles were declared insufficient and unacceptable byall but a minority of twelve votes; a new Supreme Councilof twenty-four was chosen, in whom there were not knownto be above four or five partisans of Ormond's policy. The church plate throughout the kingdom was ordered tobe coined into money, and a formal proposal to co-operatewith 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 andother 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 moredecisive than its politics. Glamorgan still commanded inMunster, Preston in Leinster, and O'Neil in both Ulsterand 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 secondsaw the garrisons of Dundalk, Drogheda, and Dublin, reinforced by fresh regiments of Covenanters, and fed byParliamentary supplies from the sea; the latter was inthe heart of Connaught, organizing and recruiting andattempting all things within his reach, but hampered formoney, clothing and ammunition. In Connaught, O'Neil wassoon joined by the Nuncio, who, as difficulties thickened, began to lean more and more on the strong arm of thevictor of Benburb; in Munster, the army refused to followthe lead of Glamorgan, and clamoured for their old chief, Lord Muskerry; finally, that division of the nationaltroops was committed by the Council to Lord Taafe, apolitician of the school of Ormond and Clanrickarde, wholly destitute of military experience. The vigorousInchiquin had little difficulty in dealing with such anantagonist; Cashel was taken without a blow in its defence, and a slaughter unparalleled till the days of Droghedaand Wexford, deluged its streets and churches. At Knocknos, later in the autumn (Nov. 12th), Taafe was utterly routed;the gallant _Colkitto_, serving under him, lamentablysacrificed after surrendering his sword; and Inchiquinenabled to dictate a cessation covering Munster--far lessfavourable to Catholics than the truce of Castlemartin--to the Supreme Council. This truce was signed atDungarvan, on the 20th of May, 1648, and on the 27th theNuncio published his solemn decree of excommunicationagainst all its aiders and abettors, and himself madethe best of his way from Kilkenny to Maryboro', whereO'Neil then lay. 

The military and political situation of O'Neil, duringthe latter months of 1647 and the whole of 1648, was oneof the most extraordinary in which any general had everbeen placed. His late sworn colleague, Preston, was nowcombined with Inchiquin against him; the royalistClanrickarde, in the western counties, pressed upon hisrear, and captured his garrison in Athlone; theParliamentary general, Michael Jones, to whom Ormond hadfinally surrendered Dublin, observed rather than impededhis movements in Leinster; the lay majority of the SupremeCouncil proclaimed him a traitor--a compliment which hefully returned; the Nuncio threw himself wholly into hishands; finally, at the close of '48, Ormond, returningfrom France to Ireland, concluded, on the 17th of January, a formal alliance with the lay members, under the titleof "Commissioners of Trust, " for the King and Kingdom;and Rinuccini, despairing, perhaps, of a cause sodistracted, sailed in his own frigate, from Galway, onthe 23rd of February. Thus did the actors change theirparts, alternately triumphing and fleeing for safety. The verdict of history may condemn the Nuncio, of whomwe 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 andreligious equality to the Roman Catholics--Ormond wasonce more placed at the head of the government and incommand of the royal troops. A few days after the signingof that treaty, news of the execution of Charles I. Havingreached Ireland, the Viceroy proclaimed the Prince ofWales by the title of Charles II. , at Cork and Youghal. Prince Rupert, whose fleet had entered Kinsale, causedthe same ceremony to be gone through in that ancientborough. With Ormond were now cordially united Preston, Inchiquin, Clanrickarde, and Muskerry, on whom the leadof the Supreme Council devolved, in consequence of theadvanced age of Lord Mountgarrett, and the remainder ofthe twelve Commissioners of Trust. The cause of the youngPrince, an exile, the son of that Catholic queen fromwhom they had expected so much, was far from unpopularin the southern half of the island. The Anglican interestwas strong and widely diffused through both Leinster andMunster; and, except a resolute prelate, like Dr. French, Bishop of Ferns, or a brave band of townsmen like thoseof Waterford, Limerick, and Galway, or some remnant ofmountain tribes, in Wicklow and Tipperary, the national, or "old Irish policy, " had decidedly lost ground fromthe hour of the Nuncio's departure. 

Owen O'Neil and the Bishops still adhered to that nationalpolicy. The former made a three-months' truce with GeneralMonck, who had succeeded Monroe in the command of allthe Parliamentary troops in his province. The singularspectacle was even exhibited of Monck forwarding suppliesto O'Neil, to be used against Inchiquin and Ormond, andO'Neil coining to the rescue of Coote, and raising forhim the siege of Londonderry. Inchiquin, in rapidsuccession, took Drogheda, Trim, Dundalk, Newry, and thenrapidly countermarched to join Ormond in besieging Dublin. At Rathmines, near the city, both generals were surprisedand 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 Puritanaccounts, above 5, 000 men. This action was the virtualclose of Ormond's military career; he never after madehead against the Parliamentary forces in open field. The Catholic cities of Limerick and Galway refused toadmit his garrisons; a synod of the Bishops, assembledat Jamestown (in Roscommon), strongly recommended hiswithdrawal from the kingdom; and Cromwell had arrived, resolved to finish the war in a single campaign. Ormondsailed again for France, before the end of 1649, to returnno more until the restoration of the monarchy, on thedeath of the great Protector. 

CHAPTER X. 

CROMWELL'S CAMPAIGN---1649-1650. 

An actor was now to descend upon the scene, whose characterhas excited more controversy than that of any other personageof those times. Honoured as a saint, or reprobated as ahypocrite, worshipped for his extraordinary successes, oranathematized for the unworthy artifices by which herose--who shall deal out, with equal hand, praise and blameto Oliver Cromwell'? Not for the popular writer of Irishhistory, is that difficult judicial task. Not for us tore-echo cries of hatred which convince not the indifferent, nor correct the errors of the educated or cultivated: thesimple, and, as far as possible, the unimpassioned narrativeof facts, will constitute the whole of our duty towardsthe Protector's campaign in Ireland. 

Cromwell left London in great state, early in July, "ina coach drawn by six gallant Flanders mares, " and madea sort of royal procession across the country to Bristol. From that famous port, where Strongbow confederated withDermid McMurrogh, and from which Dublin drew its firstAnglo-Norman colony, he went on to Milford Haven, atwhich he embarked, arriving in Dublin on the 15th ofAugust. He entered the city in procession, and addressedthe townsfolk from "a convenient place. " He had with himtwo hundred thousand pounds in money, eight regiments offoot, six of horse, and some troops of dragoons; besidesthe divisions of Jones and Monck, already in the country, and subject to his command. Among the officers werenames of memorable interest--Henry Cromwell, second sonof the Protector, and future Lord Deputy; Monck, Blake, Jones, Ireton, Ludlow, Hardress Waller, Sankey, and othersequally prominent in accomplishing the King's death, orin raising up the English commonwealth. 

Cromwell's command in Ireland extends from the middle ofAugust, 1649, to the end of May, 1650, about nine monthsin all, and is remarkable for the number of sieges ofwalled towns crowded into that brief period. There was, during the whole time, no great action in the field, likeMarston Moor, or Benburb, or Dunbar; it was a campaignof seventeenth century cannon against mediaeval masonry;what else was done, was the supplemental work of mutualbravery on both sides. Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry, andCarlingford fell in September; Arklow, Enniscorthy, andWexford in October; Ross, one of the first seaports inpoint of commerce, surrendered the same month; Waterfordwas attempted and abandoned in November; Dungarvan, Kinsale, Bandon, and Cork were won over by Lord Broghillin December; Fethard, Callan, and Cashel in January andFebruary; Carrick and Kilkenny in March; and Clonmel, early in May. Immediately after this last capitulation, Cromwell was recalled to lead the armies of the Parliamentinto Scotland: during the nine months he had commandedin Ireland, he had captured five or six county capitals, and a great number of less considerable places. The terrorof his siege-trains and Ironsides was spread over thegreater part of three Provinces, and his well-reportedsuccesses had proved so many steps to the assumption ofthat 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, intruth, a spirit of hatred and fanaticism, altogetherbeyond the control of the revolutionary leader. AtDrogheda, the work of slaughter occupied five entiredays. Of the brave garrison of 3, 000 men, not thirty werespared, and these, "were in hands for the Barbadoes;"old men, women, children and priests, were unsparinglyput to the sword. Wexford was basely betrayed by CaptainJames Stafford, commander of the castle, whose midnightinterview with Cromwell, at a petty rivulet without thewalls, 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 theircommerce. "There are, " Cromwell writes to SpeakerLenthall, "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 hundredcannon in the fort and elsewhere in and about the town. Here is likewise some very good shipping; here are threevessels, one of them of thirty-four guns, which a week'stime would fit for sea; there is another of about twentyguns, very nearly ready likewise. " He also reports twoother frigates, one on the stocks, which "for herhandsomeness' sake" he intended to have finished for theParliament, and another "most excellent vessel forsailing, " taken within the fort, at the harbour's mouth. By the treachery of Captain Stafford, this strong andwealthy town was at the mercy of those "soldiers of theLord and of Gideon, " who had followed Oliver to his Irishwars. 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 ofOwen O'Neil's death went abroad, palsying the Catholicarms. By common consent of friend and foe, he wasconsidered the ablest civil and military leader that hadappeared in Ireland during the reigns of the Stuart kings. Whether in native ability he was capable of coping withCromwell, 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 thatirresistible cannonade of the walled towns and cities ofLeinster and Munster. O'Neil had lately, despairing ofbinding the Scots or the English, distrustful alike ofCoote and of Monck, been reconciled to Ormond, and wasmarching southward to his aid at the head of 6, 000 chosenmen. Lord Chancellor Clarendon assures us that Ormondhad the highest hopes from this junction, and the utmostconfidence in O'Neil's abilities. But at a ball at Derry, towards the end of August, he received his death, it issaid, in a pair of poisoned russet leather slipperspresented 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--HughO'Neil--to form a junction with Ormond in Munster withoutdelay. In the chancel of the Franciscan Abbey of Cavan, now grass-grown and trodden by the hoofs of cattle, hisbody was interred; his nephew and successor did honourto his memory at Clonmel and Limerick. It was nowremembered, even by his enemies, with astonishment andadmiration, how for seven long years he had subsistedand kept together an army, the creature of his genius;without a government at his back, without regular supplies, enforcing obedience, establishing discipline, winninggreat victories, maintaining, even at the worst, a nativepower in the heart of the kingdom. When the archives ofthose years are recovered (if they ever are), no namemore illustrious for the combination of great qualitieswill be found preserved there than the name of this lastnational leader of the illustrious lineage of O'Neil. 

The unexpected death of the Ulster general favoured stillfarther Cromwell's southern movements. The gallant, butimpetuous Bishop of Clogher, Heber McMahon, was the onlynorthern leader who could command confidence enough tokeep O'Neil's force together, and on him, therefore, thecommand devolved. O'Ferrall, one of Owen's favouriteofficers, was despatched to Waterford, and mainlycontributed to Cromwell's repulse before that city; HughO'Neil covered himself with glory at Clonmel and Limerick;Daniel O'Neil, another nephew of Owen, remained attachedto Ormond, and accompanied him to France; but within sixmonths from the loss of their Fabian chief, who knew aswell when to strike as to delay, the brave Bishop ofClogher sacrificed the remnant of "the Catholic Army" atthe pass of Scariffhollis, in Donegal, and, two daysafter, his own life by a martyr's death, at Omagh. Atthe date of Cromwell's departure--when Ireton took commandof the southern army--there remained to the Confederatesonly some remote glens and highlands of the North andWest, the cities of Limerick and Galway, with the countyof Clare, and some detached districts of the province ofConnaught. 

The last act of Cromwell's proper campaign was the siegeof Clonmel, where he met the stoutest resistance he hadanywhere encountered. The Puritans, after effecting abreach, made an attempt to enter, chanting one of theirscriptural battle-songs. They were, by their own account, "obliged to give back a while, " and finally night settleddown upon the scene. The following day, finding the placeno longer tenable, the garrison silently withdrew toWaterford, and subsequently to Limerick. The inhabitantsdemanded a parley, which was granted; and Cromwell takescredit, and deserves it, when we consider the men he hadto humour, for having kept conditions with them. 

From before Clonmel he returned at once to England, wherehe was received with royal honours. All London turnedout to meet the Conqueror who had wiped out the humiliationof 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 beraised, 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 endeavouredto follow the most important events, opened upon theremaining Catholic leaders, greatly reduced in numbersand 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 othernotables during this year (1650), at Limerick, at Loughrea, and finally at Jamestown, in the neighbourhood of OwenO'Neil's nursery of the first "Catholic Army. "

The Puritan commander was now Henry Ireton, son-in-lawof Cromwell, by a marriage contracted about two yearsbefore. The completion of the Protector's policy couldhave devolved upon few persons more capable ofunderstanding, or more fearless in executing it; and intwo eventful campaigns he proved himself the able successorof the Protector. In August following Cromwell's departure, Waterford and Duncannon were taken by Ireton; and thereonly remained to the Confederates the fortresses of Sligo, Athlone, Limerick, and Galway, with the country includedwithin the irregular quadrangle they describe. The youngerCoote making a feint against Sligo, which Clanrickardehastened to defend, turned suddenly on his steps, andsurprised Athlone. Sligo, naturally a place of no greatstrength after the invention of artillery, soon afterfell, so that Galway and Limerick alone were left, atthe beginning of 1651, to bear all the brunt of Puritanhostility. 

Political events of great interest happened during thetwo short years of Ireton's command. The Assembly, whichmet at Jamestown in August, and again at Loughrea inNovember, 1650, made the retirement of Ormond from theGovernment a condition of all future efforts in the royalcause, and that nobleman, deeply wounded by this condition, had finally sailed from Galway, in December, leaving toClanrickarde the title of Lord Deputy, and to Castlehaventhe command of the forces which still kept the field. The news from Scotland of the young king's subscriptionto the covenant, and denunciation of all terms with IrishPapists, came to aid the councils of those, who, likethe eloquent French, Bishop of Ferns, demanded a nationalpolicy, irrespective of the exigencies of the Stuartfamily. An embassy was accordingly despatched to Brussels, to offer the title of King-Protector to the Duke ofLorraine, or failing with him, to treat with any "otherCatholic prince, state, republic, or person, as theymight deem expedient for the preservation of the Catholicreligion and nation. " A wide latitude, dictated bydesperate circumstances. The ambassadors were BishopFrench and Hugh Rochfort; the embassy one of the mostcurious and instructive in our annals. 

The Duke expressed himself willing to undertake anexpedition to Ireland--to supply arms and money to theConfederates--on the condition of receiving Athlone, Limerick, Athenry and Galway into his custody, with thetitle of Protector. A considerable sum of money (20, 000pounds) was forwarded at once; four Belgian frigatesladen with stores were made ready for sea; the Canon DeHenin was sent as envoy to the Confederates, and thislast venture looked most promising of success, had notClanrickarde 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, anddefeated by intrigue and correspondence their hopefulenterprise. 

The decisive battle of Worcester, fought on the 3rd ofSeptember, 1651, drove Charles II. Into that nine years'exile, from which he only returned on the death ofCromwell. It may be considered the last military eventof importance in the English civil war. In Ireland thecontest was destined to drag out another campaign, beforethe walls of the two gallant cities, Galway and Limerick. 

Limerick was the first object of attack. Ireton, leavingSankey to administer martial law in Tipperary, struckthe Shannon opposite Killaloe, driving Castlehaven beforehim. Joined by Coote and Reynolds, fresh from the siegesof Athenry and Athlone, he moved upon Limerick by theConnaught bank of the river, while Castlehaven fled toClanrickarde in Galway, with a guard of forty horse, allthat remained intact of the 4, 000 men bequeathed him byOrmond. From the side of Munster, Lord Muskerry attempteda diversion in favour of Limerick, but was repulsed atCastleishen, by "the flying camp" of Lord Broghill. Thebesiegers were thus not only delivered of a danger, butreinforced by native troops--if the "Undertakers" couldbe properly called so--which made them the most formidablearmy that had ever surrounded an Irish city. From earlysummer till the last week of October, the main force ofthe English and Anglo-Irish, supplied with every speciesof arm then invented, assailed the walls of Limerick. The plague, which during these months swept with suchfearful mortality over the whole kingdom, struck downits defenders, and filled all its streets with desolationand grief. The heroic bishops, O'Brien of Emly, andO'Dwyer of Limerick, exerted themselves to uphold, byreligious exhortations, the confidence of the besieged;while Hugh O'Neil and General Purcell maintained thecourage of their men. Clanrickarde had offered to chargehimself with the command, but the citizens preferred totrust in the skill and determination of the defender ofClonmel, whose very name was a talisman among them. Themunicipal government, however, composed of the men ofproperty in the city, men whose trade was not war, whosereligion was not enthusiastic, formed a third party, --aparty in favour of peace at any price. With the Mayor attheir head, they openly encouraged the surrender of oneof the outworks to the besiegers, and this betrayal, onthe 27th of October, compelled the surrender of the entireworks. Thus Limerick fell, divided within itself bymilitary, clerical, and municipal factions; thus gloryand misfortune combined to consecrate its name in thenational veneration, and the general memory of mankind. The Bishop of Emly and General Purcell were executed astraitors; the Bishop of Limerick escaped in the disguiseof a common soldier, and died at Brussels; O'Neil's lifewas saved by a single vote; Sir Geoffrey Gabney, AldermenStritch and Fanning, and other leading Confederates, expiated their devotion upon the scaffold. 

On the 12th of May following--seven months after thecapture of Limerick, Galway fell. Ireton, who survivedthe former siege but a few days, was succeeded by Ludlow, a sincere republican of the school of Pym and Hampden--ifthat school can be called, in our modern sense, republican. It was the sad privilege of General Preston, whose nameis associated with so many of the darkest, and with someof the brightest incidents of this war, to order thesurrender of Galway, as he had two years previously givenup Waterford. Thus the last open port, the last considerabletown held by the Confederates, yielded to the overwhelmingpower of numbers and munitions, in the twelfth year ofthat illustrious war which Ireland waged for her religiousand civil liberties, against the forces of the twoadjoining kingdoms, sometimes estranged from one another, but always hostile alike to the religious belief and thepolitical independence of the Irish people. 

With the fall of Galway, the Confederate war drew rapidlyto a close. Colonels Fitzpatrick, O'Dwyer, Grace, andThorlogh O'Neil, surrendered their posts; Lords Enniskillenand West-Meath followed their example; Lord Muskerryyielded Ross Castle, on Killarney, in June; Clanrickardelaid down his arms at Carrick, in October. The usualterms granted were liberty to transport themselves andfollowers to the service of any foreign state or princeat peace with the commonwealth; a favoured few werepermitted 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 alreadyaccounted for, terminated their days under many differentcircumstances. Mountgarrett and Bishop Rothe died beforeGalway fell, and were buried in the capital of theConfederacy; Bishop McMahon of Clogher, surrendered toSir Charles Coote, and was executed like a felon by onehe had saved from destruction a year before at Derry;Coote, after the Restoration, became Earl of Mountrath, and Broghill, Earl of Orrery; Clanrickarde died unnoticedon his English estate, under the Protectorate; Inchiquin, after many adventures in foreign lands, turned Catholicin his old age, and this burner of churches bequeathedan annual alms for masses for his soul; Jones, Corbet, Cook, and the fanatical preacher, Hugh Peters, perishedon the scaffold with the other regicides executed byorder of the English Parliament; Ormond having sharedthe evils of exile with the King, shared also the splendourof his restoration, became a Duke, and took his place, as if by common consent, at the head of the peerage ofthe empire; his Irish rental, which before the war wasbut 7, 000 pounds a year, swelled suddenly on the Restorationto 80, 000 pounds; Nicholas French, after some sojourn inSpain, where he was coadjutor to the Archbishop of SaintJames, returned to Louvain, where he made his firststudies, and there spent the evening of his days in thecomposition of those powerful pamphlets which kept alivethe Irish cause at home and on the continent; a Romanpatrician did the honours of sepulture to Luke Wadding, and Cromwell interred James Usher in Westminster Abbey;the heroic defender of Clonmel and Limerick, and thegallant, though vacillating Preston, were cordiallyreceived 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 amongthe last to suffer the penalties of defeat. For a moment, towards the end, he renewed his sway over the remnant ofOwen's soldiers, took Ballyshannon, and two or threeother places. Compelled at last to surrender, he wascarried to Dublin, and tried on a charge of treason, acommittee closeted behind the bench dictating theinterrogatories to his judges, and receiving his answersin reply. Condemned to death, as was expected, he wasoffered his life by the Puritan colonel, Hewson, on thevery steps of the scaffold, if he would inculpate thelate King Charles in the rising of 1641. This he "stoutlyrefused to do, " and the execution proceeded with all itsatrocious details. Whatever may have been the excessescommitted under his command by a plundered people, attheir first insurrection--and we know that they havebeen exaggerated beyond all bounds--it must be admittedhe died the death of a Christian, a soldier, and agentleman. 

CHAPTER XII. 

IRELAND UNDER THE PROTECTORATE--ADMINISTRATION OFHENRY 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 heldat first the title of Lord General; but, on the 16thDecember, 1653, he was solemnly installed, in WestminsterHall, as "Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. " He was then in his fifty-fourthyear; his reign--if such it may be called--lasted lessthan five years. 

The policy of the Protector towards Ireland is even lessdefensible than his military severities. For the barbaritiesof war there may be some apology, the poor one at leastthat such outrages are inseparable from war itself; butfor the cold-blooded, deliberate atrocities of peace, nosuch defence can be permitted before the tribunal of afree posterity. 

The Long Parliament, still dragging out its date, underthe shadow of Cromwell's great name, declared in itssession of 1652, the rebellion in Ireland "subdued andended, " and proceeded to legislate for that kingdom asa conquered country. On the 12th of August, they passedtheir Act of Settlement, the authorship of which wasattributed to Lord Orrery, in this respect the worthyson of the first Earl of Cork. Under this Act, there werefour chief descriptions of persons whose status was thussettled: 1st. All ecclesiastics and royalist proprietorswere exempted from pardon of life or estate. 2nd. Allroyalist commissioned officers were condemned to banishment, and the forfeit of two-thirds of their property, one-thirdbeing 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 "aconstant, good affection" to the war, were to forfeitone-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, "notpossessed of lands or goods exceeding the value of 10pounds, " were to have a free pardon, on condition alsoof transporting themselves across the Shannon. 

This last condition of the Cromwellian settlementdistinguished it, in our annals, from every otherproscription of the native population formerly attempted. The great river of Ireland, rising in the mountains ofLeitrim, nearly severs the five western counties fromthe rest of the kingdom. The province thus set apart, though one of the largest in superficial extent, had alsothe largest proportion of waste and water, mountain andmoorland. The new inhabitants were there to congregatefrom 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 milesof the Shannon or four miles of the sea. A rigorouspassport system, to evade which was death without formof trial, completed this settlement, the design of whichwas to shut up the remaining Catholic inhabitants fromall intercourse with mankind, and all communion with theother inhabitants of their own country. 

A new survey of the whole kingdom was also ordered, underthe direction of Dr. William Petty, the fortunate economist, who founded the house of Lansdowne. By him the surfaceof the kingdom was estimated at ten millions and a halfplantation acres, three of which were deducted for wasteand water. Of the remainder, above 5, 000, 000 were inCatholic hands in 1641; 300, 000 were church and collegelands; and 2, 000, 000 were in possession of the Protestantsettlers of the reigns of James and Elizabeth. Under theProtectorate, 5, 000, 000 acres were confiscate; thisenormous spoil, two-thirds of the whole island, went tothe soldiers and adventurers who had served against theIrish, or had contributed to the military chest, since1641--except 700, 000 acres given in "exchange" to thebanished in Clare and Connaught; and 1, 200, 000 confirmedto "innocent Papists. " Such was the complete uprootingof the ancient tenantry or clansmen, from their originalholdings, that during the survey, orders of Parliamentwere issued to bring back individuals from Connaught topoint out the boundaries of parishes in Munster. It cannotbe imputed among the sins so freely laid to the historicalaccount of the native legislature, that an Irish parliamenthad any share in sanctioning this universal spoliation. Cromwell anticipated the union of the kingdoms by ahundred and fifty years, when he summoned, in 1653, thatassembly over which "Praise-God Barebones" presided;members for Ireland and Scotland sat on the same bencheswith the commons of England. Oliver's first deputy inthe government of Ireland was his son-in-law, Fleetwood, who had married the widow of Ireton; but his realrepresentative was his fourth son, Henry Cromwell, Commander-in-Chief of the army. In 1657, the title ofLord Deputy was transferred from Fleetwood to Henry, whounited the supreme civil and military authority in hisown person, until the eve of the restoration, of whichhe became an active partisan. We may thus properly embracethe five years of the Protectorate as the period of HenryCromwell's administration. 

In the absence of a Parliament, the government of Irelandwas vested in the Deputy, the Commander-in-Chief, andfour commissioners, Ludlow, Corbett, Jones, and Weaver. There was, moreover, a High Court of Justice, whichperambulated the kingdom, and exercised an absoluteauthority over life and property, greater than evenStrafford's Court of Castle Chamber had pretended to. Over this court presided Lord Lowther, assisted by Mr. Justice Donnellan, by Cooke, solicitor to the Parliamenton the trial of King Charles, and the regicide, Reynolds. By this court, Sir Phelim O'Neil, Viscount Mayo, andColonels O'Toole and Bagnall, were condemned and executed;by them the mother of Colonel Fitzpatrick was burnt atthe stake; and Lords Muskerry and Clanmaliere set atliberty, through some secret influence. The commissionerswere not behind the High Court of Justice in executiveoffices of severity. Children under age, of both sexes, were captured by thousands, and sold as slaves to thetobacco planters of Virginia and the West Indies. SecretaryThurloe informs Henry Cromwell that "the Committee ofthe Council have authorized 1, 000 girls and as manyyouths, to be taken up for that purpose. " Sir WilliamPetty mentions 6, 000 Irish boys and girls shipped to theWest Indies. Some cotemporary accounts make the totalnumber of children and adults so transported 100, 000souls. To this decimation, we may add 34, 000 men offighting age, who had permission to enter the armies offoreign powers, at peace with the commonwealth. The chiefcommissioners, sitting at Dublin, had their deputies ina commission of delinquencies, sitting at Athlone, andanother of transportation, sitting at Loughrea. Undertheir superintendence, the distribution made of the soilamong the Puritans "was nearly as complete as that ofCanaan by the Israelites. " Whenever native labourers werefound absolutely necessary for the cultivation of theestates of their new masters, they were barely tolerated"as the Gibeonites had been by Joshua. " Such Irishgentlemen as had obtained pardons, were obliged to weara distinctive mark on their dress under pain of death;those of inferior rank were obliged to wear a round blackspot on the right cheek under pain of the branding ironand the gallows; if a Puritan lost his life in any districtinhabited by Catholics, the whole population were heldsubject to military execution. For the rest, whenever"Tory" or recusant fell into the hands of these militarycolonists, or the garrisons which knitted them together, they were assailed with the war cry of the Jews--"Thatthy feet may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and that the tongues of thy dogs may be red with thesame. " Thus penned in between "the mile line" of theShannon, and "the four mile-line" of the sea, the remnantof the Irish nation passed seven years of a bondageunequalled in severity by anything which can be found inthe annals of Christendom. 

The conquest was not only a military but a religioussubjugation. The 27th of Elizabeth--the old act ofuniformity--was rigorously enforced. The Catholic lawyerswere disbarred and silenced; the Catholic schoolmasterswere forbidden to teach, under pain of felony. Recusants, surrounded in glens and caves, offering up the holysacrifice through the ministry of some daring priest, were shot down or smoked out like vermin. The ecclesiasticsnever, in any instance, were allowed to escape. Amongthose who suffered death during the short space of theProtectorate, are counted "three bishops and three hundredecclesiastics. " The surviving prelates were in exile, except the bedridden Bishop of Kilmore, who for yearshad been unable to officiate. So that, now, that ancienthierarchy which in the worst Danish wars had stillrecruited its ranks as fast as they were broken, seemedon the very eve of extinction. Throughout all the islandno episcopal hand remained to bless altars, to ordainpriests, or to confirm the faithful. The Irish church aswell as the Irish state, touched its lowest point ofsuffering and endurance in the decade which intervenedbetween the death of Charles I. And the death of Cromwell. 

The new population imposed upon the kingdom, soon splitup into a multitude of sects. Some of them became Quakers:many adhered to the Anabaptists; others, after theRestoration, conformed to the established church. Thatdeeper tincture of Puritanism which may be traced in theIrish, as compared with the English establishment, tookits origin even more from the Cromwellian settlement thanfrom the Calvinistic teachings of Archbishop Usher. 

Oliver died in 1658, on his "fortunate day, " the 3rd ofSeptember, leaving England to experience twenty monthsof republican intrigue and anarchy. Richard Cromwell--Lambert--Ludlow--Monck--each played his part in thisstormy interval, till, the time being ripe for arestoration, Charles II. Landed at Dover on the 23rd ofMay, 1660 and was carried in triumph to London. 

BOOK X. 

FROM THE RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. TOTHE ACCESSION OF GEORGE I. 

CHAPTER I. 

REIGN OF CHARLES II. 

Hope is dear to the heart of man, and of all her votariesnone have been more constant than the Irish. Half acentury of the Stuarts had not extinguished their blindpartiality for the descendants of the old Scoto-Irishkings. The restoration of that royal house was, therefore, an event which penetrated to the remotest wilds ofConnaught, lighting up with cheering expectation the mostdesolate hovels of the proscribed. To the Puritans settledin Ireland, most of whom, from the mean condition ofmenial servants, common soldiers and subaltern officers, had become rich proprietors, the same tidings broughtapprehension and alarm. But their leaders, the Protestantgentry 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 threatentheir ruin, to their advantage and greater security. Thechief of these greater leaders was the accomplished LordBroghill, whom we are to know during this reign underhis more famous title of Earl of Orrery. 

The position of the Irish as compared with the EnglishPuritans, was essentially different in the eyes of Ormond, Clarendon, and the other counsellors of the king. Thoughthe former represented dissent as against the church, they also represented the English as against the Irishinterest, in Ireland. As dissenters they were dislikedand ridiculed, but as colonists they could not be disturbed. When national antipathy was placed in one scale andreligious animosity in the other, the intensely nationalfeeling of England for the Cromwellians, as Englishmensettled in a hostile country, prevailed over every otherconsideration. In this, as in all other conjunctures, ithas been the singular infelicity of the one island to besubjected to a policy directly opposite to that pursuedin the other. While in England it was considered wiseand just to break down the Puritans as a party--throughthe court, the pulpit, and the press; to drive the violentinto exile, and to win the lukewarm to conformity; inIreland 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 Settlementand Explanation. These acts were hailed as "the MagnaCharta of Irish Protestantism, " but so far as the vastmajority of the people were concerned, they were ascruelly unjust as the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, or the edicts which banished the Moors and Jews from theSpanish peninsula. 

The struggle for possession of the soil inaugurated bythe confiscations of Elizabeth and James was continuedagainst great odds by the Catholic Irish throughout thisreign. Though the royal declaration of Breda, whichpreceded the restoration, had not mentioned them expressly, they still claimed under it not only the "liberty totender consciences, " but that "just satisfaction" tothose unfairly deprived of their estates, promised inthat declaration. Accordingly, several of the old gentryreturned from Connaught, or places abroad, took possessionof their old homes, or made their way at once to Dublinor London, to urge their claims to their former estates. To their dismay, they found in Dublin, Coote and Broghillestablished as Lords Justices, and the new Parliament--thefirst that sat for twenty years--composed of an overwhelmingmajority of Undertakers, adventurers, and Puritanrepresentatives of boroughs, from which all the Catholicelectors had been long excluded. The Protestant interest, or "ascendancy party, " as it now began to be commonlycalled, 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, andthe able but curiously intricate and quaint discoursesof the ancient colleague of Kelly and Darcy in theassertion of Irish legislative independence, shows howdifferent was the spirit of Irish Protestantism in 1661as compared with 1641. The Lords chose Bramhall, thelong-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 ofOrmond, voted him the sum of 30, 000 pounds, and thenproceeded to consider "the Bill of Settlement, " in relationto landed property. The Catholic bar, which had beenapparently restored to its freedom, presented a strikingarray of talent, from which their co-religionists selectedthose by whom they desired to be heard at the bar of theHouse. The venerable Darcy and the accomplished Bellingwere no longer their oracles of the law; but they hadthe services of Sir Nicholas Plunkett, an old confederate, of Sir Richard Nagle, author of the famous "CoventryLetter, " of Nugent, afterwards Lord Riverston, and otherable men. In the House of Lords they had an intrepidally in the Earl of Kildare, and in England an agentequally intrepid, in Colonel Richard Talbot, afterwardsEarl of Tyrconnell. The diplomatic and parliamentarystruggle between the two interests, the disinherited andthe new proprietory, was too protracted, and the detailsare too involved for elucidation in every part; but theresult tells its own story. In 1675--in the fifteenthyear of the restoration--the new settlers possessed above4, 500, 000 acres, to about 2, 250, 000 still retained bythe old owners. These relative proportions were exactlythe reverse of those existing before the Cromwelliansettlement; a single generation had seen this greatrevolution accomplished in landed property. 

The Irish Parliament having sent over to England theheads of their bill, according to the constitutional ruleestablished by Poyning's Act, the Irish Catholics sentover Sir Nicholas Plunkett to obtain modifications ofits provisions. But Plunkett was met in England with suchan outcry from the mob and the press as to the allegedatrocities of the Confederate war, and his own formernegotiations on the continent, that he was unable toeffect anything; while Colonel Talbot, for his too warmexpostulations with Ormond, was sent to the Tower. Anorder of Council, forbidding Plunkett the presence, anddeclaring that "no petition or further address be madefrom the Roman Catholics of Ireland, as to the Bill ofSettlement, " closed the controversy, and the Act soonafter received the royal assent. 

Under this act, a court was established at Dublin, totry the claims of "nocent" and "innocent. " Notwithstandingevery influence which could be brought to bear on them, the judges, who were Englishmen, declared in their firstsession, one hundred and sixty-eight innocent to nineteennocent. Proceeding in this spirit "to the great loss anddissatisfaction of the Protestants, " the latter, greatlyalarmed, procured the interference of Ormond, now LordLieutenant (1662), in effecting a modification of thecommission, appointing the court, by which its durationwas limited to an early day. The consequence was, thatwhile less than 800 claims were decided on when the fatalday arrived, over 3, 000 were left unheard, at least athird of whom were admitted even by their enemies to beinnocent. About 500 others had been restored by name inthe 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 ofexpectation, were extinguished for ever for the sons anddaughters of the ancient gentry of the kingdom. 

The religious liberties of this people, so crippled inproperty and political power, were equally at the mercyof the mob and of the monarch. To combat the war ofcalumny waged against them by the Puritan press andpulpit, the leading Catholics resolved to join in anofficial and authentic declaration of their true principles, as to the spiritual power of the Pope, their allegianceto the prince, and their relations to their fellow subjectsof other denominations. With this intention a meetingwas held at the house of the Marquis of Clanrickarde, inDublin, at which Lords Clancarty, Carlingford, Fingal, Castlehaven, and Inchiquin, and the leading commoners oftheir faith, were present. At this meeting, Father PeterWalsh, a Franciscan, and an old courtier of Ormond's, as"Procurator of all the Clergy of Ireland, " secular andregular, produced credentials signed by the survivingbishops or their vicars--including the Primate O'Reilly, the Bishops of Meath, Ardagh, Kilmore, and Ferns. RichardBelling, the secretary to the first Confederate Council, and Envoy to Rome, submitted the celebrated documentknown as "The Remonstrance, " deeply imbued with the spiritof the Gallican church of that day. It was signed byabout seventy Catholic peers and commoners, by the Bishopof Kilmore, by Procurator Walsh, and by the townsmen ofWexford--almost the only urban community of Catholicsremaining in the country. But the propositions it containedas to the total independency of the temporal on thespiritual power, and the ecclesiastical patronage ofprinces, were condemned at the Sorbonne, at Louvain, andat Rome. The regular orders, by their several superiors, utterly rejected it; the exiled bishops withdrew theirproxies from Father Walsh, and disclaimed his conduct;the Internuncio at Brussels, charged with the affairs ofthe British Isles, denounced it as contrary to the canons;and the elated Procurator found himself involved in acontroversy from which he never afterwards escaped, andwith which his memory is still angrily associated. 

The conduct of Ormond in relation to this whole businessof the Remonstrance, was the least creditable part ofhis administration. Writhing under the eloquent pamphletsof the exiled Bishop of Ferns, keenly remembering hisown personal wrongs against the former generation ofbishops, of whom but three or four were yet living, heresolved "to work that division among the Romish clergy, "which he had long meditated. With this view, he connivedat a meeting of the surviving prelates and the superiorsof regular orders, at Dublin, in 1666. To this synod safeconduct was permitted to the Primate O'Reilly, banishedto Belgium nine years before; to Peter Talbot, Archbishopof Dublin, John Burke, Archbishop of Tuam, PatrickPlunkett, Bishop of Ardagh, the vicars-general of otherprelates, and the superiors of the regulars. This venerablebody deliberated anxiously for an entire week, FatherWalsh acting as ambassador between them and the Viceroy;at length, in spite of all politic considerations, theyunanimously rejected the servile doctrine of the"Remonstrance, " substituting instead a declaration oftheir own dictation. Ormond now cast off all affectationof liberality; Primate O'Reilly was sent back to hisbanishment, the other prelates and clergy were drivenback to their hiding-places, or into exile abroad, andthe wise, experienced, high-spirited duke, did not hesitateto avail himself of "the Popish plot" mania, which soonafter broke out, to avenge himself upon an order of menwhom he could neither break nor bend to his purposes! Of1, 100 secular priests, and 750 regulars, still left, onlysixty-nine had signed the Clanrickarde House Remonstrance. 

An incident of this same year--1666--illustrates moreforcibly than description could do, the malignant feelingwhich had been excited in England against everythingIrish. The importation of Irish cattle had long beenconsidered an English grievance, it was now declared bylaw "a nuisance. " The occasion taken to pass this statutewas as ungracious as the act itself was despicable. Inconsequence of "the great fire, " which still glows forus in the immortal verse of Dryden, the Irish had sentover to the distressed, a contribution of 15, 000 bullocks. This was considered by the generous recipients a merepretence to preserve the trade in cattle between the twokingdoms, and accordingly both Houses, after some sharpresistance in the Lords', gravely enacted that theimportation of Irish beef into England was "a nuisance, "to be abated. From this period most probably dates thefamous 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 Irishindustry, that the Puritan party became almost asdissatisfied as the Catholics. They maintained a closecorrespondence with their brethren in England, and beganto speculate on the possibilities of another revolution. Ormond, to satisfy their demands, distributed 20, 000stand of arms among them, and reviewed the LeinsterMilitia, on the Curragh, in 1667. The next year he wasrecalled, and Lords Robarts, Berkely, and Essex, successively appointed to the government. The first, aPuritan, and almost a regicide, held office but a fewmonths; the second, a cavalier and a friend of toleration, for two years; while Essex, one of those fair-minded butyielding 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 nineyears--from Ormond's removal till his reappointment--were the surprise of Carrickfergus by a party of unpaidsoldiers, and their desperate defence of that ancientstronghold; the embassies to and from the Irish Catholicsand the court, of Colonel Richard Talbot; and theestablishment of extensive woollen manufactories atThomastown, Callan, and Kilkenny, under the patronage ofOrmond. 

CHAPTER II. 

REIGN OF CHARLES II. (CONCLUDED. )

For the third time, the aged Ormond, now arrived at theperiod usually allotted to the life of man, returned toIreland, with the rank of Viceroy. During the ensuingseven years, he clung to power with all the tenacity ofhis youth, and all the policy of his prime; they wereseven years of extraordinary sectarian panic andexcitement--the years of the Cabal, the Popish plot, andthe Exclusion Bill, in England--and of fanaticalconspiracies and explosions almost as dangerous in Ireland. 

The Popish plot mania held possession of the Englishpeople much longer than any other moral epidemic of equalvirulence. In the month of October, 1678, its allegedexistence in Ireland was communicated to Ormond; in July, 1681, its most illustrious victim, Archbishop Plunkett, perished on the scaffold at Tyburn. Within these twopoints of time what a chronicle of madness, folly, perjury, and cruelty, might be written?

Ormond, too old in statecraft to believe in the existenceof these incredible plots, was also too well aware ofthe dangerous element of fanaticism represented by TitusOates, and his imitators, to subject himself to suspicion. On the first intelligence of the plot, he instantly issuedhis proclamation for the arrest of Archbishop Talbot, ofDublin, who had been permitted to return from exile underthe rule of Lord Berkely, and had since resided with hisbrother, Colonel Talbot, at Cartown, near Maynooth. Thisprelate was of Ormond's own age, and of a family asancient; while his learning, courage, and morality, madehim an ornament to his order. He was seized in his sickbed at Cartown, carried to Dublin in a chair, and confineda close prisoner in the castle, where he died two yearslater. He was the last distinguished captive destined toend his days in that celebrated state prison, which hassince been generally dedicated to the peaceful purposesof reflected royalty. 

Colonel Talbot was at the same time arrested, but allowedto retire beyond seas; Lord Mountgarrett, an octogenarian, and in his dotage, was seized, but nothing could be madeout against him; a Colonel Peppard was also denouncedfrom England, but no such person was found to exist. Sofar the first year of the plot had passed over, and provednothing against the Catholic Irish. But the example ofsuccessful villainy in England, of Oates idolized, pensioned, and all-powerful, extended to the sisterkingdom, and brought an illustrious victim to the scaffold. This was Oliver Plunkett, a scion of the noble family ofFingal, who had been Archbishop of Armagh, since thedeath of Dr. O'Reilly, in exile, in 1669. Such had beenthe prudence and circumspection of Dr. Plunkett, duringhis perilous administration, that the agents of LordShaftesbury, sent over to concoct evidence for theoccasion, were afraid to bring him to trial in the vicinageof his arrest, or in his own country. Accordingly, theycaused him to be removed from Dublin to London, contraryto the laws and customs of both Kingdoms, which had firstbeen violated towards state prisoners in the case of LordMaguire, forty years before. 

Dr. Plunkett, after ten months' confinement without trialin Ireland, was removed, 1680, and arraigned at London, on the 8th of June, 1681, without having had permissionto 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 considerationof justice. A "crown agent, " whose name is given asGorman, was introduced by "a stranger" in court, andvolunteered testimony in his favour. The Earl of Essexinterceded with the King on his behalf, but Charlesanswered, almost in the words of Pilate--"I cannot pardonhim, because I dare not. His blood be upon your conscience;you could have saved him if you pleased. " The Jury, aftera quarter of an hour's deliberation, brought in theirverdict of guilty, and the brutal Chief-Justice condemnedhim to be hung, emboweled, and quartered on the 1st dayof July, 1681. The venerable martyr, for such he may wellbe called, bowed his head to the bench, and exclaimed:_Deo gratias!_ Eight years from the very day of hisexecution, on the banks of that river beside which hehad been seized and dragged from his retreat, the lastof the Stuart kings was stricken from his throne, andhis dynasty stricken from history! Does not the blood ofthe innocent cry to Heaven for vengeance?

The charges against Dr. Plunkett were, that he maintainedtreasonable correspondence with France and Rome, and theIrish on the continent; that he had organised aninsurrection in Louth, Monaghan, Cavan, and Armagh; thathe made preparations for the landing of a French forceat Carlingford; and that he had held several meetings toraise men for these purposes. Utterly absurd and falseas these charges were, they still indicate the troubledapprehensions which filled the dreams of the ascendencyparty. The fear of French invasion, of new insurrections, of the resumption of estates, haunted them by night andday. Every sign was to them significant of danger, andevery rumour of conspiracy was taken for fact. The reportof a strange fleet off the Southern coast, which turnedout to be English, threw them all into panic; and theCorpus Christi crosses which the peasantry affixed totheir doors, were nothing but signs for the Papistdestroyer to pass by, and to spare his fellows in thegeneral 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 Catholicsfrom entering the Castle of Dublin, or any other fortress;from holding fairs or markets within the walls of corporatetowns, and from carrying arms to such resorts. By another, he declared all relatives of known _Tories_--a Gaelicterm for a driver of prey--to be arrested, and banishedthe kingdom, within fourteen days, unless such Torieswere killed, or surrendered, within that time. Wherethis device failed to reach the destined victims--as inthe celebrated case of Count Redmond O'Hanlon--it is tobe feared that he did not hesitate to whet the dagger ofthe assassin, which was still sometimes employed, evenin the British Islands, to remove a dangerous antagonist. Count O'Hanlon, a gentleman of ancient lineage, asaccomplished as Orrery, or Ossory, was indeed an outlawto the code then in force; but the stain of his cowardlyassassination must for ever blot and rot the princelyescutcheon of James, Duke of Ormond. 

The violence of religious and social persecution began tosubside during the last two or three years of Charles II. Monmouth's banishment, Shaftesbury's imprisonment, theexecution of Russell and Sidney on the scaffold, markedthe return of the English public mind to political pursuitsand objects. Early in 1685, the king was taken mortallyill. In his last moments he received the rites of theCatholic church, from the hands of Father Huddleston, who was said to have saved his life at the battle ofWorcester, and who was now even more anxious to savehis soul. 

This event took place on the 16th of February. King Jameswas immediately proclaimed successor to his brother. Oneof his first acts was to recall Ormond from Ireland andto appoint in his place the Earl of Clarendon, son ofthe historian and statesman of the Restoration. Ormondobeyed, not without regret; he survived his fall aboutthree years. He was interred in Westminster in 1688, three months before the landing of William, and the secondbanishment of the Stuarts. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING IN IRELAND DURINGTHE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Before plunging into the troubled torrent of the revolutionof 1688, let us cast a glance back on the century, andconsider the state of learning and religion during thosethree generations. 

If we divide the Irish literature of this century bysubjects, we shall find extant a respectable body, bothin quantity and quality, of theology, history, law, politics, and poetry. If we divide it by the languagesin which that literature was written, we may consider itas Latin, Gaelic, and English. 

I. Latin continued throughout Europe, even till this lateday, the language of the learned, but especially oftheologians, jurists, and historians. In Latin, the greattomes of O'Sullivan, Usher, Colgan, Wadding, and White, were written--volumes which remain as so many monumentsof the learning and industry of that age. The chiefobjects of these illustrious writers were, to restorethe ancient ecclesiastical history of Ireland, to rescuethe memory of her saints and doctors from oblivion, andto introduce the native annals of the kingdom to theattention of Europe. Though Usher differed in religion, and in his theory of the early connection of the Irishwith the Roman Church, from all the rest, yet he standspre-eminent among them for labour and research. TheWaterford Franciscan, Wadding, can only be named withhim for inexhaustible patience, various learning, anduntiring zeal. Both were honoured of princes andparliaments. The Confederates would have made Wadding acardinal; King James made Usher an archbishop; oneinstructed the Westminster Assembly; the other was sentby the King of Spain to maintain the thesis of theImmaculate Conception at Rome, and subsequently wasentrusted by the Pope to report upon the propositions ofJansenius. O'Sullivan, Conde de Berehaven, in Spain, and Peter White, have left us each two or three Latinvolumes on the history of the country, highly prized byall subsequent writers. But the most indispensable ofthe legacies left us in this tongue, are Colgan's "ActaSanctorum"--from January to March--and Dr. John Lynch's"Cambrensis Eversus. " Many other works and authors mightbe mentioned, but these are the great Latinists to whomwe are indebted for the most important services renderedto our national history. 

II. In the Gaelic literature of the country we countGeoffrey Keating, Duald McFirbis, and "the Four Masters"of Donegal. Few writers have been more rashly judgedthan Keating. A poet, as well as a historian, he gave aprominence in the early chapters of his history to bardictales, which English critics have seized upon to damagehis reputation for truthfulness and good sense. But thesetales he gives as tales--as curious and illustrative--ratherthan as credible and unquestionable. The purity of hisstyle is greatly extolled by Gaelic critics; and theinterest of his narrative, even in a translation, isundoubted. McFirbis, an annalist and genealogist byinheritance, is known to us not only for his profoundnative lore, and tragic death, but also for the assistancehe rendered Sir James Ware, Dr. Lynch, and RoderickO'Flaherty. The master-piece, however, of our Gaelicliterature of this age, is the work now called "The Annalsof the Four Masters. " In the reign of James I. , a fewFranciscan friars, living partly in Donegal Abbey andpartly in St. Anthony's College, at Louvain, undertookto collect and collate all the manuscript remains ofIrish antiquity they could gather or borrow, or be allowedto copy. Father Hugh Ward was the head of this group, and by him the lay brother Michael O'Clery, one of thegreatest benefactors his country ever saw, was sent fromBelgium to Ireland. From 1620 to 1630, O'Clery travelledthrough the kingdom, buying or transcribing everythinghe could find relating to the lives of the Irish saints, which he sent to Louvain, where Ward and Colgan undertookto edit and illustrate them. Father Ward died in theearly part of the undertaking, but Father Colgan spenttwenty years in prosecuting the original design, so faras concerned our ecclesiastical biography. 

After collecting these materials, Father O'Clery waited, as he tells us, on "the noble Fergall O'Gara, " one ofthe two knights elected to represent the county of Sligoin the Parliament of 1634, and perceiving the anxiety ofO'Gara, "from the cloud which at present hangs over ourancient Milesian race, " he proposed to collect the civiland 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 FranciscanConvent of Donegal, which still stood, not more than halfin ruins. 

On the 22nd of January, 1632, they commenced this digest, and on the 10th of August, 1636, it was finished--havingoccupied them four years, seven months and nineteen days. The MS. , dedicated to O'Gara, is authenticated by thesuperiors of the convent; from that original two editionshave recently been printed in both languages. 

These annals extend to the year 1616, the time of thecompilers. Originally they bore the title of "Annals ofthe Kingdom of Ireland, " but Colgan having quoted themas "The Annals of the Four Masters, " that name remainsever since. The "Four Masters" were Brother MichaelO'Clery, Conary and Peregrine O'Clery, his brothers, bothlaymen and natives of Donegal, and Florence Conroy ofRoscommon, another hereditary antiquary. 

The first edition of the New Testament, in the Gaelictongue, so far as we are aware, appeared at Dublin, in1603, in quarto. The translation was the work of a nativescholar, O'Cionga (Anglicized King). It was made at theexpense and under the supervision of Dr. William O'Donnell, one of the first fellows of Trinity, and published atthe cost of the people of Connaught. Dr. O'Donnell, anamiable man, and an enemy of persecution, becamesubsequently Archbishop of Tuam, in which dignity hedied, in 1628. A translation of the Book of Common Prayer, by O'Donnell, appeared early in the century, and towardsits close (1685), a translation of the Old Testament, made for Bishop Bedell by the Gaelic scholars of Meathand Cavan, was published at the expense of the famousRobert Boyle. Bedell had also caused to be publishedGaelic translations of certain homilies of Saint Leo andSaint John Chrysostom, on the importance of studying theholy Scriptures. The only other Gaelic publications ofthis period were issued from the Irish colleges at Louvainand Rome. Thence issued the devotional tracts of Conroy, of Gernon, and O'Molloy, and the Irish grammars of O'Cleryand Stapleton. The devotional tracts, with their fancifultitles, of "Lamps, " and "Mirrors, " were smuggled acrossfrom Ostend and Dunkirk with other articles of contraband, and did much to keep alive the flame of faith and hopein the hearts of the Gaelic-speaking population. 

The bardic order also, though shorn of much of theirancient splendour, and under the Puritan _regime_ persecutedas vagrants, still flourished as an estate of the realm. The national tendency to poetic writing was not confinedto the hereditary verse-makers, but was illustrated bysuch men as the martyred Plunkett, and the Bishops ofMeath and Kerry--Dr. Thomas Dease, and Dr. John O'Connell. But the great body of Gaelic verse of the first half ofthis century is known under the name of "The Contentionsof the Bards, " the subject being the relative dignity, power, and prowess of the North and South. The gauntletin this poetic warfare, was thrown down by McDaire, theBard of Donogh O'Brien, fourth Earl of Thomond, and takenup on the part of Ulster by Lewy O'Clery. Reply led torejoinder, and one epistle to another, until all thechief bards of the four provinces had taken sides. Halfa dozen writers, _pro_ and _con_, were particularlydistinguished; McDaire himself, Turlogh O'Brien, and ArtOge O'Keefe on behalf of the Southerners; O'Clery, O'Donnell, the two McEgans, and Robert McArthur on theside of the North. 

An immense mass of devotional Gaelic poetry may be tracedto this period. The religious wars, the calamities ofthe church and of the people, inspired many a priest andlayman to seize the harp of David, and pour forth hishopes and griefs in sacred song. The lament of Mac Wardover the Ulster princes buried at Rome, the odes of DermodConroy 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 ofChristianity, became, through adversity and affliction, its greatest supporter. 

III. Our Hiberno-English literature is almost entirelythe creation of this century. Except some few remarkablestate papers, we have no English writings of any reputationof an earlier period. Now, however, when the language ofthe empire, formed and enriched by the great minds ofElizabeth's era, began to extend its influence at homeand abroad, a school of Hiberno-English writers appeared, both numerous and distinguished. This school was as yetcomposed mainly of two classes--the dramatic poets, andthe pamphleteers. Of the latter were Bishop French, SirRichard Nagle, Sir Richard Belling, Lord Orrery, FatherPeter Walsh, and William Molyneux; of the former, LudowickBarry, Sir John Denham, the Earl of Roscommon, and RichardFlecknoe, --the Mac Flecknoe of Dryden. It is true thereappeared as yet no supreme name like Swift's; but asindicating the gradual extension of the English languageinto Ireland, the popular pamphlets and pieces writtenfor the stage, are illustrations of our mental life notto be overlooked. 

Of the ancient schools of the island, after the finalsuppression of the college at Galway in 1652, not oneremained. A diocesan college at Kilkenny, and the DublinUniversity, were alone open to the youth of the country. But the University remained exclusively in possession ofthe Protestant interest, nor did it give to the worldduring the century, except Usher, Ware and Orrery, anygraduate of national, not to say, European reputation. In the bye-ways of the South and West, in the Irishcolleges on the continent of Europe--at Paris, Louvain, Lisle, Salamanca, Lisbon, or Rome--the children of theproscribed majority could alone acquire a degree inlearning, human or divine. It was as impossible twocenturies 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 itscentury and a half of existence, it was as far from thehearts of the Irish as ever. Though the amiable Bedelland the learned O'Donnell had caused the sacred Scripturesto be translated into the Gaelic tongue, few convertshad been made from the Catholic ranks, while the spiritof animosity was inflamed by a sense of the cruel andundeserved disabilities inflicted in the name of religion. The manifold sects introduced under Cromwell gave a keeneredge to Catholic contempt for the doctrines of thereformation; and although the restoration of the monarchythrew the extreme sectaries into the shade, it addednothing to the influence of the church, except the fatalgift of political patronage. For the first time, the highdignity of Archbishop of Armagh began to be regarded asthe inheritance of the leader of the House of Lords; thenBrahmall and Boyle laid the foundation of that primatialpower which Boulter and Stone upheld under another dynasty, but which vanished before the first dawn of Parliamentaryindependence. 

In the quarter of a century which elapsed from therestoration to the revolution, the condition of theCatholic clergy and laity was such as we have alreadydescribed. In 1662, an historian of the Jesuit missionariesin Ireland described the sufferings of ecclesiastics asdeplorable; they were forced to fly to the herds of cattlein remote places, to seek a refuge in barns and stables, or to sleep at night in the porticoes of temples, lestthey should endanger the safety of the laity. In thatsame year, Orrery advised Ormond to purge the walledtowns of Papists, who were still "three to one Protestant;"in 1672, Sir William Petty computed them at "eight toone" of the entire population. 

 "So captive Israel multiplied in chains. "

The martyrdom of the Archbishop of Dublin, in 1680, andof the Archbishop of Armagh in 1681, were, however, thelast of a series of executions for conscience' sake, fromthe relation of which the historian might well have beenexcused, if it was not necessary to remind our emancipatedposterity 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 flightfrom Ireland, in July, 1690, there elapsed an intervalof five years and five months; a period fraught withconsequences of the highest interest to this history. The new King was, on his accession, in his fifty-secondyear; he had served, as Duke of York, with credit bothby land and sea, was an avowed Catholic, and married toa Catholic princess, the beautiful and unfortunate Maryof Modena. 

Within a month from the proclamation of the King, Ormondquitted the government for the last time, leaving PrimateBoyle, and Lord Granard, as Justices. In January, 1686, Lord Clarendon, son of the historian, assumed thegovernment, in which he continued, till the 16th of March, 1687. The day following the national anniversary, ColonelRichard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell, a Catholic, and theformer agent for the Catholics, was installed as LordDeputy. Other events, connecting these with each other, had filled with astonishment and apprehension theascendancy party. 

James proceeded openly with what he hoped to make acounter-reformation of England, and to accomplish whichhe relied on France on the one hand, and Ireland on theother. In both cases he alarmed the fears and woundedthe pride of England; but when he proceeded from oneillegality to another, when he began to exercise adispensing power above the laws--to instruct the judges, to menace the parliament, and imprison the bishops--thenobility, the commons, and the army gradually combinedagainst him, and at last invited over the Prince ofOrange, as the most capable vindicator of their outragedconstitution. 

The headlong King had a representative equally rash, inTyrconnell. He was a man old enough to remember wellthe uprising of 1641, had lived in intimacy with Jamesas Duke of York, was personally brave, well skilled inintrigue, but vain, loud-spoken, confident, and incapableof a high command in military affairs. The colonelcy ofan Irish regiment, the earldom of Tyrconnell, and a seatin the secret council or cabinet of the King, were honoursconferred on him during the year of James's accession. When Clarendon was named Lord-Lieutenant at the beginningof 1686, Tyrconnell was sent over with him asLieutenant-General of the army. At his instigation, aproclamation was issued, that "all classes" of hisMajesty's subjects might be allowed to serve in the army;and another, that all arms hitherto given out should bedeposited, for greater security, at one of the King'sstores provided for the purpose in each town or county. Thus that exclusively Protestant militia, which for twentyyears had executed the Act of Settlement and the Act ofUniformity in every quarter of the kingdom, found themselvessuddenly disarmed, and a new Catholic army rising ontheir ruins. The numbers disbanded are nowhere stated;they probably amounted to 10, 000 or 15, 000 men and verynaturally they became warm partisans of the Williamiterevolution. The recriminations which arose between thenew and the old militia were not confined to the nicknames, Whig and Tory, or to the bandying of sarcasms on eachothers' origin; swords were not unfrequently drawn, andmuskets discharged, even in the streets of Dublin, underthe very walls of the Castle. 

Through Tyrconnell's influence, a similar revolution hadbeen wrought in the exclusive character of the courts ofjustice, and the corporations of towns, to that whichremodelled the militia. Rice, Daly, and Nugent, wereelevated to the bench during Lord Clarendon's time; theCorporation of Dublin having refused to surrender theirexclusive charter, were summarily rejected by a _quowarranto_, issued in the exchequer; other towns weresimilarly treated, or induced to make surrender, and anew series of charters at once granted by James, entitlingCatholics to the freedom of the boroughs, and the highestmunicipal offices. And now, for the first time in thatgeneration, Catholic mayors and sheriffs, escorted byCatholic troops as guards of honour, were seen marchingin open day to their own places of worship, to the dismayand astonishment of the ascendancy party. Not that allProtestants were excluded either from town councils, themilitia, or the bench, but those only were elected orappointed who concurred in the new arrangements, andwere, therefore, pretty certain to forfeit the confidenceof their co-religionists in proportion as they deservedthat of the Deputy. Topham and Coghill, Masters inChancery, were deprived of their offices, and the ProtestantChancellor was arbitrarily removed to make way for BaronRice, a Catholic. The exclusive character of TrinityCollege was next assailed, and though James did notventure to revoke the charter of Elizabeth, establishingcommunion with the Church of England as the test offellowship, the internal administration was in severalparticulars interfered with, its plate was seized in theKing's name under plea of being public property, and theannual parliamentary grant of 388 pounds was discontinued. These arbitrary acts filled the more judicious Catholicswith apprehension, but gained the loud applause of theunreasoning multitude. Dr. Macguire, the successor ofthe martyred Plunkett, who felt in Ulster the rising tideof resistance, was among the signers of a memorial tothe King, dutifully remonstrating against the violentproceedings of his Deputy. From Rome also, disapprobationwas more than once expressed, but all without avail;neither James nor Talbot could be brought to reason. TheProtestants of the eastern and southern towns and countieswho could contrive to quit their homes, did so; hundredsfled to Holland to return in the ranks of the Prince ofOrange; thousands fled to England, bringing with themtheir tale of oppression, embellished with all the bitterexaggeration of exiles; ten thousand removed from Leinsterinto Ulster, soon to recross the Boyne, under verydifferent auspices. Very soon a close correspondencewas established between the fugitives in Holland, England, and Ulster, and a powerful lever was thus placed in thehands of the Prince of Orange, to work the downfall ofhis uncle and father-in-law. But the best allies ofWilliam 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 ofEngland, and still further exasperated the hatred andcontempt which his majesty's English regiments had begunto feel for their royal master. 

Tyrconnell, during the eventful summer months when therevolution was ripening both in Holland and England, hadtaken, unknown even to James, a step of the gravestimportance. To him the first intelligence of thepreparations of William were carried by a ship fromAmsterdam, and by him they were communicated to theinfatuated King, who had laughed at them as too absurdfor serious consideration. But the Irish ruler, fullybelieving 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 theevent of the Prince of Orange succeeding to the Britishthrone. No proposition could more entirely suit theexigencies of Louis, of whom William was by far the ablestand most relentless enemy. The correspondence which hascome to light in recent times, shows the importance whichhe attached to Tyrconnell's proposition--an importancestill further enhanced by the direct but unsuccessfuloverture made to the earl by William himself, on landingin England, and before embarking in the actual invasionof Ireland. 

William Henry, Prince of Orange, now about to enter onthe scene, was in 1688 in the thirty-seventh year of hisage. Fearless of danger, patient, silent, impervious tohis enemies, rather a soldier than a statesman, indifferentin religion, and personally adverse to persecution forconscience' sake, his great and almost his only publicpassion was the humiliation of France through theinstrumentality of a European coalition. As ananti-Gallican, as the representative of the most illustriousProtestant family in Europe, as allied by blood andmarriage to their kings, he was a very fit and properchief for the English revolutionists; but for the twoformer of these reasons he was just as naturallyantipathetic to the Catholic and Celtic majority of theIrish. His designs had been long gradually maturing, whenJames'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 theNetherlands were encamped at Nimeguen, where 6, 000 recruitswere added to their numbers. On the 5th of November, theanniversary of the gunpowder plot, "the Deliverer, " ashe was fondly called in England, landed at Torbay; onthe 25th of December, James, deserted by his nobles, hisarmy, and even his own unnatural children, arrived, afugitive and a suppliant, at the court of France. 

A few Irish incidents of this critical moment deservemention. The mania against everything Irish took inEngland forms the most ludicrous and absurd. Wharton'sdoggerel refrain of Lillibullero, was heard in everycircle outside the court; all London, lighted with torches, and marshalled under arms, awaited during the memorable"Irish night" the advent of the terrible and detestedregiments brought over by Tyrconnell; some companies ofthese troops quartered in the country were fallen uponby ten times their numbers, and cut to pieces. Others, fighting and inquiring their way, forced a passage toChester or Bristol, and obtained a passage home. Theypassed at sea, or encountered on the landing-places, multitudes of the Protestant Irish, men, women andchildren, flying in exactly the opposite direction. Tyrconnell was known to meditate the repeal of the Actof Settlement; the general rumour of a Protestant massacrefixed for the 9th of December, originated no one knewhow, was spread about no one knew by whom. In vain theLord Deputy tried to stay the panic--his assurance ofprotection, and the still better evidence of their ownexperience, which proved the Irish Catholics incapableof such a project, could not allay their terrors. Theyrushed into England by every port, and inflamed stillmore the hostility which already prevailed againstKing James. 

In Ulster, David Cairnes of Knockmany, the Rev. JohnKelso of Enniskillen, a Presbyterian, and Rev. GeorgeWalker of Donaghmore, an Anglican minister, were activeinstruments of the Prince of Orange. On the 7th of Decemberthe gates of Derry were shut by "the youthhood" againstthe Earl of Antrim and his Highlanders. Enniskillen wasseized by a similar impulse of the popular will, and anassociation was quickly formed throughout Ulster inimitation of the English association which had invitedover William, under the auspices of Lord Blaney, SirArthur Rawdon, Sir Clotworthy Skeffington, and others, "for the maintenance of the Protestant religion and thedependency of Ireland upon England. " By these associates, Sligo, Coleraine, and the fort of Culmore, at the mouthof the Foyle, were seized for King William; while theTown Council of Derry, in order to gain time, despatchedone ambassador with one set of instructions to Tyrconnell, and another, with a very different set, to "the Committeefor Irish Affairs, " which sat at Whitehall, under thepresidency of the Earl of Shrewsbury. 

CHAPTER V. 

KING JAMES IN IRELAND--IRISH PARLIAMENT OF 1689. 

A few days after his arrival in France, James despatcheda messenger to Tyrconnell, with instructions expressinggreat anxiety as to the state of affairs in Ireland. "Iam sure, " wrote the fugitive monarch, "you will hold outto the utmost of your power, and I hope this king willso press the Hollanders, that the Prince of Orange willnot have men to spare to attack you. " All the aid hecould obtain from Louis at the moment was 7, 000 or 8, 000muskets, which were sent accordingly. 

Events succeeded each other during the first half of theyear 1689 with revolutionary rapidity. The conventionsof 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 crownsof both kingdoms. In February, they were proclaimed asking and queen of "England, France, and Ireland, " and inMay, the Scottish commissioners brought them the tenderof the crown of Scotland. The double heritage of theStuart kings was thus, after nearly a century of possession, transferred by election to a kindred prince, to theexclusion of the direct descendants of the great championof "the right divine, " who first united under his sceptrethe three kingdoms. 

James, at the Court of France, was duly informed of allthat passed at London and Edinburgh. He knew that he hadpowerful partizans in both conventions. The first feverof popular excitement once allayed, he marked withexultation the symptoms of reaction. There was much inthe circumstances attending his flight to awaken popularsympathy, and to cast a veil over his errors. The patheticpicture drawn of parental suffering by the great dramatistin the character of King _Lear_, seemed realized to thelife in the person of King James. Message followed messagefrom the three kingdoms, urging him to return and placehimself at the head of his faithful subjects in a waragainst the usurper. The French king approved of theserecommendations, for in fighting James's battle he wasfighting his own, and a squadron was prepared at Brestto carry the fugitive back to his dominions. Accompaniedby his natural sons, the Duke of Berwick and the GrandPrior Fitzjames, by Lieutenant-Generals de Rosen and deMaumont, Majors-General de Pusignan and de Lery (orGeraldine), about a hundred officers of all ranks, and1, 200 veterans, James sailed from Brest, with a fleet of33 vessels, and landed at Kinsale on the 12th day ofMarch (_old style_). His reception by the Southernpopulation was enthusiastic in the extreme. From Kinsaleto Cork, from Cork to Dublin, his progress was accompaniedby Gaelic songs and dances, by Latin orations, loyaladdresses, and all the decorations with which a popularfavourite can be welcomed. Nothing was remembered by thateasily pacified people but his great misfortunes and hissteady fidelity to his and their religion. Fifteenchaplains, nearly all Irish, accompanied him, and addedto the delight of the populace; while many a long-absentsoldier, now came back in the following of the king, tobless the sight of some aged parent or faithful lover. The royal entry into Dublin was the crowning pageant ofthis delusive restoration. With the tact and taste forsuch demonstrations hereditary in the citizens, the tradesand arts were marshalled before him. Two venerable harpersplayed on their national instruments near the gate bywhich 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 ofTyrconnell, lately raised to a dukedom, the judges, themayor and corporation, completed the procession, whichmarched over newly sanded streets, beneath arches ofevergreens and windows hung with "tapestry and cloth ofArras. " Arrived at the castle the sword of state waspresented to him by the deputy, and the keys of the cityby the recorder. At the inner entrance, the primate, Dr. Dominick Macguire, waited in his robes to conduct him tothe chapel, lately erected by Tyrconnell, where _Te Deum_was solemnly sung. But of all the incidents of thatstriking ceremonial, nothing more powerfully impressedthe popular imagination than the green flag floating fromthe main tower of the castle, bearing the significantinscription--"_Now or Never--Now and Forever_. "

A fortnight was devoted by James in Dublin to daily andnightly councils and receptions. The chief advisers whoformed his court were the Count d'Avaux, Ambassador ofFrance, the Earl of Melfort, principal Secretary of State, the Duke of Tyrconnell, Lieutenant-General Lord Mountcashel, Chief Justice Nugent, and the superior officers of thearmy, French and Irish. One of the first things resolvedupon at Dublin was the appointment of the gallant ViscountDundee as Lieutenant-General in Scotland--and the despatchto his assistance of an Irish auxiliary force, whichserved under that renowned chief with as much honour astheir predecessors had served under Montrose. Communications were also opened through the Bishop ofChester with the west of England Jacobites, always numerousin Cheshire, Shropshire, and other counties nearest toIreland. Certain changes were then made in the PrivyCouncil; Chief Justice Keating's attendance was dispensedwith as one opposed to the new policy, but his judicialfunctions were left untouched. Dr. Cartwright, Bishop ofChester, and the French Ambassador were sworn in, andwrits were issued convoking the Irish Parliament for the7th day of May following. 

Intermitting, for the present, the military events whichmarked the early months of the year, we will follow theacts and deliberations of King James's Parliament of1689. The Houses met, according to summons, at theappointed time, in the building known as "the Inns ofCourt, " within a stone's throw of the castle. There werepresent 228 Commoners, and 46 members of the Upper House. In the Lords several Protestant noblemen and prelatestook their seats, and some Catholic peers of ancientdate, whose attainders had been reversed, were seen forthe first time in that generation in the front rank oftheir order. In the Lower House the University and a fewother constituencies were represented by Protestants, but the overwhelming majority were Catholics, either ofNorman or Milesian origin. The King made a judiciousopening speech, declaring his intention to uphold therights of property, and to establish liberty of consciencealike for Protestant and Catholic. He referred to thedistressed state of trade and manufactures, and recommendedto the attention of the Houses, those who had been unjustlydeprived of their estates under the "Act of Settlement. "

Three measures passed by this Parliament entitle itsmembers to be enrolled among the chief assertors of civiland religious liberty. One was the "Act for establishingLiberty of Conscience, " followed by the supplemental actthat all persons should pay tithes only to the clergy oftheir own communion. An act abolishing writs of errorand appeal into England, established the judicialindependence of Ireland; but a still more necessarymeasure repealing Poyning's Law, was defeated throughthe personal hostility of the King. An act repealing theAct of Settlement was also passed, under protest fromthe Protestant Lords, and received the royal sanction. A bill to establish Inns of Court, for the education ofIrish law students, was, however, rejected by the King, and lost; an "Act of Attainder, " against persons in armsagainst the Sovereign, whose estates lay in Ireland, wasadopted. Whatever may be the bias of historians, it cannotbe denied that this Parliament showed a spirit worthy ofthe representatives of a free people. "Though Papists, "says Mr. Grattan, our highest parliamentary authority, "they were not slaves; they wrung a constitution fromKing James before they accompanied him to the field. "

The King, unfortunately, had not abandoned the arbitraryprinciples 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 mostdevoted adherents. But he proceeded from obstructive toactive despotism. He doubled, by his mere proclamation, the enormous subsidy of 20, 000 pounds monthly voted himby the Houses. He established, by the same authority, abank, and decreed in his own name a bank restriction act. He debased the coinage, and established a fixed scale ofprices to be observed by all merchants and traders. Inone respect--but in one only--he grossly violated hisown professed purpose of establishing liberty of conscience, by endeavouring to force fellows and scholars on theUniversity of Dublin contrary to its statutes. He evenwent so far as to appoint a provost and librarian withoutconsent of the senate. However we may condemn theexclusiveness of the College, this was not the way tocorrect it; bigotry on the one hand, will not justifydespotism on the other. 

More justifiable was the interference of the King forthe restoration of rural schools and churches, and thedecent maintenance of the clergy and bishops. Hisappointments to the bench were also, with one or twoexceptions, men of the very highest character. "Theadministration of justice during this brief period, " saysDr. Cooke Taylor, "deserves the highest praise. With theexception of Nugent and Fritton, the Irish judges wouldhave been an honour to any bench. "

CHAPTER VI. 

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR--CAMPAIGN OF 1689--SIEGESOF DERRY AND ENNISKILLEN. 

When Tyrconnell met the King at Cork, he gave his Majestya plain account of the posture of military affairs. InUlster, Lieutenant-General Richard Hamilton, at the headof 2, 500 regular troops, was holding the rebels in check, from Charlemont to Coleraine; in Munster, Lieutenant-GeneralJustin McCarthy, Lord Mountcashel, had taken Bandon andCastlemartyr; throughout the four provinces, the Catholics, to the number of fifty regiments (probably 30, 000 men), had volunteered their services; but for all these volunteershe had only 20, 000 old arms of all kinds, not over 1, 000of which were found really valuable. There were besidesthese, regiments of horse, Tyrconnell's, Russell's, andGalmony's, and one of dragoons, eight small pieces ofartillery, but neither stores in the magazines, nor cashin the chest. While at Cork, Tyrconnell, in return forhis great exertions, was created a Duke, andGeneral-in-Chief, with De Rosen as second in command. 

A week before James reached Dublin, Hamilton had beatenthe 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 crippledall King James's movements at this period. One partystrenuously urged that the King himself should marchnorthward with such troops as could be spared; that hispersonal appearance before Derry, would immediatelyoccasion the surrender of that city, and that he mightin a few weeks, finish in person the campaign of Ulster. Another, at whose head was Tyrconnell, endeavoured todissuade his Majesty from this course, but he at lengthdecided in favour of the plan of Melfort and his friends. Accordingly, he marched out of Dublin, amid torrents ofApril rain, on the eighth of that month, intending toform a junction with Hamilton, at Strabane, and thenceto advance to Derry. The march was a weary one througha country stripped bare of every sign of life, and desolatebeyond description. A week was spent between Dublin andOmagh; at Omagh news of an English fleet on the Foylecaused the King to retrace his steps hastily to Charlemont. At Charlemont, however, intelligence of fresh successesgained 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 impassableroads, and on the eighteenth reached the Irish camp atJohnstown, within four or five miles of Derry. 

It was now four months since "the youthhood" of Derryhad shut the Watergate against Lord Antrim's regiment, and established within their walls a strange sort ofgovernment, including eighteen clergymen and the towndemocracy. The military command remained withLieutenant-Colonel Lundy, of Mountjoy's regiment, butthe actual government of the town was vested, first, in"Governor" Baker, and afterwards in the Reverend GeorgeWalker, rector of Donaghmore, best known to us as _Governor_Walker. The Town Council had despatched Mr. Cairnes, andsubsequently Captain Hamilton, founder of the Abercornpeerage, to England for succour, and had openly proclaimedWilliam and Mary as King and Queen. Defensive works wereadded, where necessary, and on the very day of the affairof Cladyford, 480 barrels of gunpowder were landed fromEnglish ships and conveyed within the walls. 

As the Royalist forces concentrated towards Derry, thechiefs of the Protestant Association fell back beforethem, each bringing to its garrison the contribution ofhis own followers. From the valley of the Bann, overthe rugged summits of Carntogher, from the glens ofDonegal, and the western sea coast round to Mayo, troopsof the fugitives hurried to the strong town of the Londontraders, as to a city of refuge. Enniskillen alone, resolute in its insular situation, and in a courage akinto that which actuated the defenders of Derry, stood asan outpost of the main object of attack, and delayed thejunction of the Royalists under Mountcashel with thoseunder Hamilton and De Rosen. Coleraine was abandoned. Captain Murray, the commander of Culmore, forced his wayat the head of 1, 500 men into Derry, contrary to thewishes of the vacillating and suspected Lundy, and, fromthe moment of his arrival, infused his own determinedspirit into all ranks of the inhabitants. 

Those who had advised King James to present himself inperson before the Protestant stronghold, had not actedaltogether, upon presumption. It is certain that therewere Jacobites, even in Derry. Lundy, the governor, eitherdespairing of its defence, or undecided in his allegiancebetween James and William, had opened a correspondencewith Hamilton and De Rosen. But the true answer of thebrave townsmen, when the King advanced too near theirwalls, 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 thisunexpected reception, returned to Dublin, to open hisParliament, leaving General Hamilton to continue thesiege. Colonel Lundy, distrusted, overruled, and menaced, escaped over the walls by night, disguised as a commonlabourer, and the party of Murray, Baker, Walker, andCairnes, reigned supreme. 

The story of the siege of Derry--of the heroic constancyof its defenders--of the atrocities of De Rosen andGalmoy--the clemency of Maumont--the forbearance ofHamilton--the struggles for supremacy among itsmagnates--the turbulence of the townsfolk--the joyfulraising of the siege--all these have worthily employedsome of the most eloquent pens in our language. The reliefcame by the breaking of the boom across the harbour'smouth on the last day of July; the bombardment hadcommenced on the 21st of April; the gates had been shuton the 7th of December. The actual siege had lasted abovethree months, and the blockade about three weeks. Thedestruction of life on both sides has never been definitelystated. The besieged admit a loss of 4, 000 men; thebesiegers of 6, 000. The want of siege guns in the Jacobitecamp is admitted by both parties, but, nevertheless, thedefence of the place well deserves to be celebrated, asit has been by an imperial historian, "as the mostmemorable in British annals. "

Scarcely inferior in interest and importance to the siegeof Derry, was the spirited defence of Enniskillen. Thatfine old town, once the seat of the noble family ofMaguire, is naturally dyked and moated round about, bythe waters of Lough Erne. In December, '88, it had closedits gates, and barricaded its causeways to keep out aJacobite garrison. In March, on Lord Galmoy's approach, all the outlying garrisons, in Fermanagh and Cavan, haddestroyed their posts, and gathered into Enniskillen. The cruel and faithless Galmoy, instead of inspiringterror into the united garrison, only increased theirdetermination to die in the breach. So strong in positionand numbers did they find themselves, with the absolutecommand of the lower Lough Erne to bring in their supplies, that in April they sent off a detachment to the reliefof Derry, and in the months of May and June, made severalsuccessful forays to Ballincarrig, Omagh, and Belturbet. In July, provided with a fresh supply of ammunition fromthe fleet intended for the relief of Derry, they beat upthe Duke of Berwick's quarters at Trellick, but wererepulsed with some loss. The Duke being soon after recalledto join De Rosen, the siege of Enniskillen was committedto Lord Mountcashel, under whom, as commander of thecavalry, served Count Anthony Hamilton, author of thewitty but licentious "Memoirs of Grammont, " and otherdistinguished officers. Mountcashel's whole force consistedof three regiments of foot, two of dragoons, and somehorse; but he expected to be joined by Colonel Sarsfieldfrom Sligo, and Berwick from Derry. The besieged haddrawn four regiments of foot from Cavan alone, and wereprobably twice that number in all; and they had, inColonels Wolseley and Berry, able and energetic officers. The Enniskilleners did not await the attack within theirfortress. At Lisnaskea, under Berry, they repulsed theadvanced guard of the Jacobites under Anthony Hamilton;and the same day--the day of the relief of Derry--theirwhole force were brought into action with Mountcashel'sat Newtown-Butler. To the cry of "No Popery, " Wolseleyled them into an action, the most considerable yet fought. The raw southern levies on the Royalist side, were routedby the hardy Enniskilleners long familiar with the useof arms, and well acquainted with every inch of theground; 2, 000 of them were left on the field; 400 prisonerswere taken, among them dangerously, but not mortallywounded, was the Lieutenant-General himself. 

The month of August was a month of general rejoicing forthe Williamites of Ulster, De Rosen and Berwick hadretreated from Deny; Sarsfield, on his way to joinMountcashel, fell back to Sligo on hearing of his defeatat Newtown-Butler; Culmore, Coleraine, and Ballyshannon, were retaken and well supplied; fugitives returnedtriumphantly to their homes, in Cavan, Fermanagh, Tyrone, and Armagh. A panic created by false reports spread amonghis troops at Sligo, compelled Sarsfield to fall stillfurther back to Athlone. Six months after his arrival, with the exception of the forts of Charlemont andCarrickfergus, King James no longer possessed a garrisonin that province, which had been bestowed by his grandfatherupon the ancestors of those who now unanimously rejectedand resisted him. 

The fall of the gallant Dundee in the battle ofKillicrankie, five days before the relief of Derry, freedKing William from immediate anxiety on the side ofScotland, and enabled him to concentrate his wholedisposable force on Ireland. On the 13th of August, anarmy of eighteen regiments of foot, and four or five ofhorse, under the Marshal Duke de Schomberg, with CountSolmes as second in command, sailed into Belfast Lough, and took possession of the town. On the 20th, the Marshalopened a fierce cannonade on Carrickfergus, defended byColonels McCarthy More and Cormac O'Neil, while the fleetbombarded it from sea. After eight days' incessantcannonade, the garrison surrendered on honourable terms, and Schomberg faced southward towards Dublin. Brave, andlong experienced, the aged Duke moved according to thecautious maxims of the military school in which he hadbeen educated. Had he advanced rapidly on the capital, James must have fallen back, as De Rosen advised, on theline of the Shannon; but O'Regan, at Charlemont, andBerwick, at Newry, seemed to him obstacles so serious, that nearly a month was wasted in advancing from Belfastto Dundalk, where he entrenched himself in September, and went into whiter quarters. Here a terrible dysenterybroke out among his troops, said to have been introducedby some soldiers from Derry, and so destructive were itsravages, that there were hardly left healthy men enoughto bury the dead. Several of the French Catholics underhis command, also, deserted to James, who, from hishead-quarters at Drogheda, offered every inducement tothe deserters. Others discovered in the attempt weretried and hanged, and others, still suspected of similardesigns, were marched down to Carlingford, and shippedfor England. In November, James returned from Droghedato Dublin, much elated that Duke Schomberg, whose fatalcamp at Dundalk he had in vain attempted to raise, hadshrunk from meeting him in the field. 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR--CAMPAIGN OF 1690--BATTLE OFTHE BOYNE--ITS CONSEQUENCES--THE SIEGES OF ATHLONEAND LIMERICK. 

The armies now destined to combat for two kings on Irishsoil were strongly marked by those distinctions of raceand religion which add bitterness to struggles for power, while they present striking contrasts to the eye of thepainter of military life and manners. King James's troopswere chiefly Celtic and Catholic. There were fourregiments commanded by O'Neils, two by O'Briens, two byO'Kellys, one each by McCarthy More, Maguire, O'More, O'Donnell, McMahon, and Magennis, principally recruitedamong their own clansmen. There were also the regimentsof Sarsfield, Nugent, De Courcy, Fitzgerald, Grace, andBurke, chiefly Celts, in the rank and file. On the otherhand, Schomberg led into the field the famous blue Dutchand white Dutch regiments; the Huguenot regiments ofSchomberg, 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. Someimportant changes had taken place on both sides duringthe winter months. D'Avaux and De Rosen had been recalledat James's request; Mountcashel, at the head of the firstFranco-Irish brigade, had been exchanged for 6, 000 French, under De Lauzan, who arrived the following March in thedouble character of general and ambassador. The reportthat William was to command in person in the next campaign, was, of itself, an indication pregnant with other changesto the minds of his adherents. 

Their abundant supplies of military stores from England, wafted from every port upon the channel, where James hadnot a keel afloat, enabled the Williamite army to takethe initiative in the campaign of 1690. At Cavan, BrigadierWolseley repulsed the Duke of Berwick, with the loss of200 men and some valuable officers. But the chief incidentpreceding William's arrival was the siege of Charlemont. This siege, which commenced apparently in the previousautumn, had continued during several months, till thegarrison were literally starved out, in May. The famishedsurvivors were kindly treated, by order of Schomberg, and their gallant and eccentric chief, O'Regan, wasknighted by the King, for his persistent resistance. Amonth from the day on which Charlemont fell, (June 14th), William landed at Carrickfergus, accompanied by PrinceGeorge of Denmark, the Duke of Wurtemburg, the Prince ofHesse-Darmstadt, the second and last Duke of Ormond, Major-General Mackay, the Earls of Oxford, Portland, Scarborough, and Manchester, General Douglas, and otherdistinguished British and foreign officers. At Belfast, his first head-quarters, he ascertained the forces athis disposal to be upwards of 40, 000 men, composed of "astrange medley of all nations"--Scandinavians, Swiss, Dutch, Prussians, Huguenot-French, English, Scotch, "Scotch-Irish, " and Anglo-Irish. Perhaps the mostextraordinary element in that strange medley was theDanish contingent of horse and foot. Irish tradition andIrish prophecy still teemed with tales of terror andpredictions of evil at the hands of the Danes, whilethese hardy mercenaries observed, with grim satisfaction, that the memory of their fierce ancestors had not becomeextinct after the lapse of twenty generations. At theBoyne, and at Limerick, they could not conceal theirexultation as they encamped on some of the very earthworksraised by men of their race seven centuries before, andit must be admitted they vindicated their descent, bothby 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 andIrish, to meet him. On the 22nd, James was at Dundalkand William at Newry; as the latter advanced, the Jacobitesretired, and finally chose their ground at the Boyne, resolved to hazard a battle, for the preservation ofDublin, and the safety of the province of Leinster. 

On the last day of June, the hostile forces confrontedeach other at the Boyne. The gentle, legendary river, wreathed in all the glory of its abundant foliage, wasstartled with the cannonade from the northern bank, whichcontinued through the long summer's evening, and wokethe early echoes of the morrow. William, strong in hisveteran ranks, welcomed the battle; James, strong in hisdefensive position, and the goodness of his cause, awaitedit with confidence. On the northern bank near to the fordof Oldbridge, William, with his chief officers, breakfastingon the turf, nearly lost his life from a sudden dischargeof cannon; but he was quickly in the saddle, at all pointsreviewing his army. James, on the hill of Donore, lookeddown on his devoted defenders, through whose ranks rodeTyrconnell, lame and ill, the youthful Berwick, theadventurous Lauzan, and the beloved Sarsfield--everywherereceived with cordial acclamations. The battle commencedat the ford of Oldbridge, between Sir Neil O'Neil, andthe younger Schomberg; O'Neil fell mortally wounded, andthe ford was forced. By this ford, William ordered hiscentre to advance under the elder Schomberg, as the hourof noon approached, while he himself moved with the leftacross the river, nearer to Drogheda. Lauzan, withSarsfield's horse, dreading to be outflanked, had gallopedto guard the bridge of Slane, five miles higher up thestream, where alone a flank movement was possible. Thebattle was now transferred from the gunners to theswordsmen and pikemen--from the banks to the fords andborders of the river, William, on the extreme left, swamhis horse across, in imminent danger; Schomberg andCallimotte fell in the centre, mortally wounded. Newswas brought to William, that Dr. Walker--recentlyappointed to the See of Derry--had also fallen, "Whatbrought him there?" was the natural comment of thesoldier-prince. After seven hours' fighting the Irishfell back on Duleek, in good order. The assailants admittedfive hundred killed, and as many wounded; the defenderswere said to have lost from one thousand to fifteenhundred men--less than at Newtown-Butler. The carnage, compared with some great battles of that age, wasinconsiderable, but the political consequences weremomentous. The next day, the garrison of Drogheda, onethousand three hundred strong, surrendered; in anotherweek, William was in Dublin, and James, terrified by thereports which had reached him, was _en route_ for France. It is hardly an exaggeration to say, that the fate ofEurope was decided by the result of the battle of theBoyne. At Paris, at the Hague, at Vienna, at Rome, atMadrid, nothing was talked of but the great victory ofthe Prince of Orange over Louis and James. It is one ofthe strangest complications of history that the vanquishedIrish Catholics seem to have been never once thought ofby Spain, Austria, or the Pope. In the greater issues ofthe 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 placesof less importance, surrendered within six weeks. Theline of the Shannon was fallen back upon by the Irish, and the points of attack and defence were now shifted toAthlone and Limerick. What Enniskillen and Derry hadbeen, in the previous year, to the Williamite party inthe north, cities of refuge, and strongholds of hope, these two towns upon the Shannon had now become, by thefortune of war, to King James's adherents. 

On the 17th of July, General Douglas appeared beforeAthlone, and summoned it to surrender. The veterancommandant, Colonel Richard Grace, a Confederate of 1641, having destroyed the bridge, and the suburbs on theLeinster side of the Shannon, replied by discharging hispistol over the head of the drummer who delivered themessage. Douglas attempted to cross the river atLanesborough, but found the ford strongly guarded by oneof 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 underLauzan, as utterly indefensible. That gay intriguerdesired nothing so much as to follow the King to Prance, while Tyrconnell, broken down with physical sufferingand mental anxiety, feebly concurred in his opinion. Theyaccordingly departed for Galway, leaving the city to itsfate, and, happily for the national reputation, to boldercounsels than their own. De Boisseleau did not underratethe character of the Irish levies, who had retreatedbefore twice their numbers at the Boyne; he declaredhimself willing to remain, and, sustained by Sarsfield, he was chosen as commandant. More than ten thousand foothad gathered "as if by instinct" to that city, and onthe 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 ofan easy victory, appeared before the town, but more thantwelve months were to elapse before all his power couldreduce those mouldering walls, which the fugitive Frenchambassador had declared "might be taken with roastedapples. "

An exploit, planned and executed by Sarsfield the daysucceeding William's arrival, saved the city for anotheryear, and raised that officer to the highest pitch ofpopularity. Along the Clare side of the Shannon, undercover of the night, he galloped as fast as horse couldcarry him, at the head of his dragoons, and crossed theriver at Killaloe. One Manus O'Brien, a Protestant ofClare, who had encountered the flying horsemen, andlearned enough to suspect their design, hastened toWilliam's camp with the news, but he was at first laughedat for his pains. William, however, never despising anyprecaution in war, despatched Sir John Lanier with 500horse to protect his siege-train, then seven miles inthe rear, on the road between Limerick and Cashel. Sarsfield, however, was too quick for Sir John. The dayafter he had crossed at Killaloe he kept his men _perdu_in the hilly country, and the next night swooped downupon the convoy in charge of the siege-train, who werequietly 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 togetherto a convenient place, where, planted in pits withammunition, they were, with two exceptions, successfullyblown to atoms. Lanier arrived within view of the terrificscene in time to feel its stunning effects. The groundfor miles round shook as from an earthquake; the glareand roar of the explosion were felt in William's camp, and through the beleaguered city. On the morrow, all wasknown. Sarsfield was safely back in his old encampment, without the loss of a single man; Limerick was in anuproar of delight, while William's army, to the lowestrank, felt the depression of so unexpected a blow. A weeklater, however, the provident prince had a new siege-trainof thirty-six guns and four mortars brought up fromWaterford, pouring red-hot shot on the devoted city. Another week--on the 27th of August--a gap having beenmade in the walls near Saint John's gate, a stormingparty of the English guards, the Anglo-Irish, Prussians, and Danes, was launched into the breach. After an actionof uncommon fierceness and determination on both sides, the besiegers retired with the loss of 30 officers, and800 men killed, and 1, 200 wounded. The besieged admitted400 killed--their wounded were not counted. Four dayslater, 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 hisprincipal adherents. Tyrconnell, labouring with theillness of which he soon after died, took advantage ofthe honourable pause thus obtained, to proceed on hisinterrupted voyage to Prance, accompanied by the ambassador. Before leaving, however, the young Duke of Berwick wasnamed in his stead as Commander-in-Chief; Fitton, Nagle, and Plowden, as Lords Justices; sixteen "senators" wereto form a sort of Cabinet, and Sarsfield to be second inmilitary command. His enemies declared that Tyrconnellretired from the contest because his early spirit andcourage had failed him; he himself asserted that hisobject was to procure sufficient succours from King Louis, to give a decisive issue to the war. His subsequentnegotiations at Paris proved that though his bodily healthmight be wretched, his ingenuity and readiness of resourcehad not deserted him. He justified himself both withJames and Louis, outwitted Lauzan, propitiated Louvois, disarmed the prejudices of the English Jacobites, and, in short, placed the military relations of France andIreland on a footing they had never hitherto sustained. The expedition of the following spring, under command ofMarshal Saint Ruth, was mainly procured by his ablediplomacy, and though he returned to Ireland to survivebut a few weeks the disastrous day of Aughrim, it isimpossible from the Irish point of view, not to recallwith admiration, mixed indeed with alloy, but still withlargely 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 exaggeratethe extent of William's losses before Athlone and Limerick. The national susceptibility was consoled by the readyreflection, that if the beaten troops were partly English, the commanders were mainly foreigners. A native hero wasneeded, and was found in the person of Marlborough, acaptain, whose name was destined to eclipse every otherEnglish reputation of that age. At his suggestion anexpedition was fitted out against Cork, Kinsale, andother ports of the south of Ireland, and the command, though not without some secret unwillingness on William'spart, committed to him. On the 23rd of September, at thehead of 8, 000 fresh troops, amply supplied with allnecessary munitions, Marlborough assaulted Cork. Afterfive days' bombardment, in which the Duke of Grafton, and other officers and men were slain, the Governor, McEligot, capitulated on conditions, which, in spite ofall Marlborough's exertions, were flagrantly violated. The old town of Kinsale was at once abandoned as untenablethe same day, and the new fort, at the entrance to theharbour, was surrendered after a fortnight's cannonade. Covered with glory from a five weeks' campaign, Marlboroughreturned to England to receive the acclamations of thepeople and the most gracious compliments of the prince. 

Berwick and Sarsfield on the one side and Ginkle andLanier on the other, kept up the winter campaign till anadvanced period, on both banks of the Shannon. About themiddle of September, the former made a dash over thebridge of Banagher, against Birr, or Parsonstown, thefamily borough of the famous _Undertaker_. The English, in great force, under Lanier, Kirke, and Douglas, hastenedto its relief, and the Irish fell back to Banagher. Todestroy "that convenient pass" became now the object ofone party, to protect it, of the other. After someskirmishing and manoeuvring on both sides, the disputedbridge was left in Irish possession, and the English fellback to the borough and castle of Sir Lawrence Parsons. During the siege of the new fort at Kinsale, Berwick andSarsfield advanced as far as Kilmallock to its relief, but finding themselves so inferior in numbers toMarlborough, they were unwillingly compelled to leaveits brave defenders to their fate, Although the Duke of Berwick was the nominalCommander-in-Chief, his youth, and the distractionsincident to youth, left the more mature and popularSarsfield the possession of real power, both civil andmilitary. Every fortunate accident had combined to elevatethat gallant cavalry officer into the position of nationalleadership. 

He was the son of a member of the Irish Commons, proscribedfor 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 asEnglish, was brave, impulsive; handsome, and generous toa fault, like the men he led. In Tyrconnell's absenceevery sincere lover of the country came to him withintelligence, and looked to him for direction. Early inNovember he learned through his patriotic spies theintention of the Williamites to force the passage of theShannon in the depth of winter. On the last day ofDecember, accordingly, they marched in great force underKirke and Lanier to Jonesboro', and under Douglas toJamestown. At both points they found the indefatigableSarsfield fully prepared for them, and after a fortnight'sintense suffering from exposure to the weather, were gladto get back again to their snug quarters at Parsonstown. 

Early in February Tyrconnell landed at Limerick with aFrench fleet, escorted by three vessels of war, and ladenwith provisions, but bringing few arms and noreinforcements. He had brought over, however, 14, 000golden louis, which were found of the utmost service inre-clothing the army, besides 10, 000 more which he haddeposited at Brest to purchase oatmeal for subsequentshipment. He also brought promises of military assistanceon a scale far beyond anything France had yet afforded. It is almost needless to say he was received at Galwayand Limerick with an enthusiasm which silenced, if itdid not confute, his political enemies, both in Irelandand France. 

During his absence intrigues and factions had been riferthan ever in the Jacobite ranks. Sarsfield had discoveredthat the English movement on the Shannon in December waspartly hastened by foolish or treacherous correspondenceamong his own associates. Lord Riverston and his brotherwere removed from the Senate, or Council of Sixteen--fourfrom each province--and Judge Daly, ancestor of theDunsandle family, was placed under arrest at Galway. Theyouthful Berwick sometimes complained that he was tutoredand overruled by Sarsfield; but though the impetuoussoldier may occasionally have forgotten the lessonslearned in courts, his activity seems to have been thegreatest, his information the best, his advice the mostdisinterested, and his fortitude the highest of any memberof the council. By the time of Tyrconnell's return hehad grown to a height of popularity and power, whichcould not well brook a superior either in the cabinetor the camp. 

On the arrival of the Lord Lieutenant, who was alsoCommander-in-Chief, the ambition of Sarsfield was gratifiedby the rank of Earl of Lucan, a title drawn from thatpleasant hamlet, in the valley of the Liffey, where hehad learned to lisp the catechism of a patriot at theknee of Anna O'Moore. But his real power was muchdiminished. Tyrconnell, Berwick, Sir Richard Nagle, whohad succeeded the Earl of Melfort as chief secretary forKing James, all ranked before him at the board, and whenSaint Ruth arrived to take command-in-chief, he mightfairly have complained that he was deprived of the chiefreward to which he had looked forward. 

The weary winter and the drenching spring months woreaway, and the Williamite troops, sorely afflicted bydisease, hugged their tents and huts. Some relief wassent by sea to the Jacobite garrison of Sligo, commandedby the stout old Sir Teague O'Regan, the former defenderof Charlemont. Athlone, too, received some succours, andthe line of the Shannon was still unbroken fromSlieve-an-iron to the sea. But still the promised Frenchassistance was delayed. Men were beginning to doubt bothKing Louis and King James, when, at length at the beginningof May, the French ships were signalled from the cliffsof Kerry. On the 8th, the Sieur de Saint Ruth, withGenerals D'Usson and De Tesse, landed at Limerick, andassisted 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 enteredeagerly upon the discharge of his duties as generalissimo, while Sarsfield continued the nominal second in command. 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR--CAMPAIGN OF 1691--BATTLEOF AUGHRIM--CAPITULATION OF LIMERICK. 

Saint Ruth, with absolute powers, found himself placedat the head of from 20, 000 to 25, 000 men, in the fieldor in garrison, regular or irregular, but all, with hardlyan exception, Irish. His and Tyrconnell's recent supplieshad sufficed to renew the clothing and equipment of thegreater part of the number, but the whole contents ofthe army chest, the golden hinge on which war moves, wasestimated in the beginning of May to afford to eachsoldier only "a penny a day for three weeks. " He hadunder him some of the best officers that France couldspare, or Ireland produce, and he had with him the heartsof nine-tenths of the natives of the country. 

A singular illustration of the popular feeling occurredthe previous August. The Milesian Irish had cherishedthe belief ever since the disastrous day of Kinsale, thatan O'Donnell from Spain, having on his shoulder a redmark (_ball derg_), would return to free them from theEnglish yoke, in a great battle near Limerick. Accordingly, when a representative of the Spanish O'Donnells actuallyappeared at Limerick, bearing as we know many of hisfamily have done, even to our day, the unmistakable redmark of the ancient Tyrconnell line, immense numbers ofthe country people who had held aloof from the Jacobitecause, obeyed the voice of prophecy, and flocked roundthe Celtic deliverer. From 7, 000 to 8, 000 recruits weresoon at his disposal, and it was not without bitterindignation that the chief, so enthusiastically received, saw regiment after regiment drafted from among hisfollowers, and transferred to other commanders. Bred upa Spanish subject--the third in descent from an Irishprince--it is not to be wondered at that he regarded the_Irish_ cause as all in all, and the interests of KingJames as entirely secondary. He could hardly considerhimself as bound in allegiance to that king; he was inno way indebted to him or his family, and if we learnthat when the war grew desperate, but before it was ended, he had entered into a separate treaty for himself andhis adherents, with William's generals, we must remember, before we condemn him, that we are speaking of anHiberno-Spaniard, to whom the house of Stuart was no moresacred than the house of Orange. 

The Williamite army rendezvoused at Mullingar towardsthe end of May, under Generals De Ginkle, Talmash andMackay. On the 7th of June, they moved in the directionof Athlone, 18, 000 strong, "the ranks one blaze of scarlet, and the artillery such as had never before been seen inIreland. " The capture of Ballymore Castle, in West-Meath, detained them ten days; on the 19th, joined by the Dukeof Wurtemburg, the Prince of Hesse and the Count ofNassau, with 7, 000 foreign mercenaries, the whole satdown before the English town of Athlone, which SaintRuth, contrary to his Irish advisers, resolved to defend. In twenty-four hours those exposed outworks abandoned bythe veteran Grace the previous year, fell, and thebombardment of the Irish town on the opposite or Connaughtbank, commenced. For ten days--from the 20th to the 30thof June--that fearful cannonade continued. Storey, theWilliamite chaplain, to whom we are indebted for manyvaluable particulars of this war, states that the besiegersfired above 12, 000 cannon shot, 600 shells and many tonsof stone, into the place. Fifty tons of powder were burnedin the bombardment. The castle, an imposing but loftyand antique structure, windowed as much for a residenceas a fortress, tumbled into ruins; the bridge was brokendown and impassable; the town a heap of rubbish, wheretwo men could no longer walk abreast. But the Shannonhad diminished in volume as the summer advanced, andthree Danes employed for that purpose found a ford abovethe bridge, and at six o'clock on the evening of the lastday of June, 2, 000 picked men, headed by Gustavus Hamilton'sgrenadiers, dashed into the ford at the stroke of a bell. At the same instant all the English batteries on theLeinster side opened on the Irish town, wrapping theriver in smoke, and distracting the attention of thebesiegers. Saint Ruth was, at this critical moment, athis camp two miles off, and D'Usson, the commandant, wasalso absent from his post. In half an hour the Williamiteswere masters of the heap of rubbish which had once beenAthlone, with a loss of less than fifty men killed andwounded. For this bold and successful movement De Ginklewas created Earl of Athlone, and his chief officers werejustly ennobled. Saint Ruth, over-confident, in a strangecountry, withdrew to Ballinasloe, behind the river Suck, and prepared to risk everything on the hazard of a pitchedbattle. 

De Ginkle moved slowly from Athlone in pursuit of hisenemy. On the morning of the 11th of July, as the earlyhaze lifted itself in wreaths from the landscape, hefound himself within range of the Irish, drawn up, northand south, on the upland of Kilcommodan hill, with amorass on either flank, through which ran two narrowcauseways--on the right, "the pass of Urrachree, " on theleft, the causeway leading to the little village ofAughrim. Saint Ruth's force must have numbered from 15, 000to 20, 000 men, with nine field-pieces; De Ginkle commandedfrom 25, 000 to 30, 000, with four batteries--two of whichmounted six guns each. During the entire day, attackafter attack, in the direction of Urrachree or of Aughrimwas repulsed, and the assailants were about to retire indespair. As the sun sank low, a last desperate attemptwas made with equal ill success. "Now, my children, "cried the elated Saint Ruth, "the day is ours! Now Ishall drive them back to the walls of Dublin!" At thatmoment he fell by a cannon shot to the earth, and stayedthe advancing tide of victory. The enemy marked thecheck, halted, rallied and returned. Sarsfield, who hadnot been entrusted with his leader's plan of action, wasunable to remedy the mischief which ensued. Victoryarrested was converted into defeat. The sun went down onAughrim, and the last great Irish battle between theReformed and Roman religions. Four thousand of theCatholics were killed and wounded, and three thousand ofthe Protestants littered the field. Above five hundredprisoners, with thirty-two pairs of colours, elevenstandards, and a large quantity of small arms, fell intothe hands of the victors. One portion of the fugitivesurvivors fled to Galway, the larger part, including allthe cavalry, to Limerick. 

This double blow at Athlone and Aughrim shook to piecesthe remaining Catholic power in Connaught. Galwaysurrendered 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 regimentsinto Flanders to fight on the side Spain and Rome hadchosen to take in the European coalition. Sligo, the lastwestern garrison, succumbed, and the brave Sir TeagueO'Regan marched his 600 men, survivors, southward toLimerick. 

Thus once more all eyes and all hearts in the BritishIslands were turned towards the well-known city of thelower Shannon. There, on the 14th of August, Tyrconnellexpired, stricken down by apoplexy. On the 25th, DeGinkle, reinforced by all the troops he could gather inwith safety, had invested the place on three sides. Sixtyguns, none of less than 12 pounds calibre, opened theirdeadly fire against it. An English fleet ascended theriver, hurling its missiles right and left. On the 9thof 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 nightof the 15th, through the treachery or negligence ofBrigadier Clifford, on guard at the Clare side of theriver, a pontoon bridge was laid, and a strong Englishdivision crossed over in utter silence. The Irish horse, which had hitherto kept open communications with thecountry on that side, fell back to Six Mile Bridge. Onthe 24th, a truce of three days was agreed upon, and onthe 3rd of October the memorable "Treaty of Limerick"was signed by the Williamite and Jacobite commissioners. 

The _civil_ articles of Limerick will be mentioned fartheron; 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 beyondseas, except England and Scotland; that they might departin whole bodies, companies, or parties; that if plunderedby the way, William's government should make good theirloss; that fifty ships of 200 tons each should be providedfor their transportation, besides two men-of-war for theprincipal officers; that the garrison of Limerick mightmarch out with all their arms, guns and baggage, "coloursflying, drums beating, and matches lighting!" It was alsoagreed, that those who so wished might enter the serviceof William, retaining their rank and pay; but though DeGinkle was most eager to secure for his master some ofthose stalwart battalions, only 1, 000 out of the 13, 000that marched out of Limerick filed to the left at King'sIsland, Two thousand others accepted passes and protections;4, 500 sailed with Sarsfield from Cork, 4, 700 with D'Ussonand De Tesse, embarked in the Shannon on board a Frenchfleet which arrived a week too late to prevent thecapitulation; in English ships, 3, 000 embarked withGeneral Wauchop; all which, added to Mountcashel's brigade, over 5, 000 strong, gave an Irish army of from 20, 000 to25, 000 men to the service of King Louis. 

As the ships from Ireland reached Brest and the ports ofBrittany, James himself came down from Saint Germain toreceive them. They were at once granted the rights ofFrench citizenship without undergoing the forms ofnaturalization. Many of them rose to eminent positionsin war and in diplomacy, became founders of distinguishedfamilies, or dying childless, left their hard-won goldto endow free bourses at Douay and Louvain, for poorIrish scholars destined for the service of the church, for which they had fought the good fight, in anothersense, on the Shannon and the Boyne. The migration ofecclesiastics was almost as extensive as that of themilitary. They were shipped by dozens and by scores, from Dublin, Cork, and Galway. In seven years from thetreaty, there remained but 400 secular and 800 regularclergy in the country. Nearly double that number, deportedby threats or violence, were scattered over Europe, pensioners on the princes and bishops of their faith, orthe institutions of their order. In Rome, 72, 000 francsannually were allotted for the maintenance of the fugitiveIrish clergy, and during the first three months of 1699, three remittances from the Holy Father, amounting to90, 000 livres, were placed in the hands of the Nuncio atParis, for the temporary relief of the fugitives in Franceand Flanders. It may also be added here, that till theend of the eighteenth century, an annual charge of 1, 000Roman crowns was borne by the Papal treasury for theencouragement 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 ofpounds sterling, and with the other wars of that reign, laid the foundation of the English national debt. As tothe loss of life, the Williamite chaplain, Storey, placesit "at 100, 000, young and old, besides treble the numberthat are ruined and undone. " The chief consolation ofthe vanquished in that struggle was, that they had wrungeven from their adversaries the reputation of being "oneof the most warlike of nations"--that they "buried thesynagogue with honour. "

CHAPTER X. 

REIGN OF KING WILLIAM. 

From the date of the treaty of Limerick, William wasacknowledged by all but the extreme Jacobites, at least_de facto_--King of Ireland. The prevailing party inUlster had long recognized him, and the only expressionof 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 ofhis government. 

Though the history of William's twelve years' reign inIreland is a history of proscription, the King himselfis answerable only as a consenting party to suchproscription. He was neither by temper nor policy apersecutor; his allies were Spain, Austria and Rome; hehad thousands of Catholics in his own army, and he gavehis confidence as freely to brave and capable men of onecreed as of another. But the oligarchy, calling itselfthe "Protestant Ascendancy, " which had grown so powerfulunder Cromwell and Charles II. , backed as they once againwere by all the religious intolerance of England, provedtoo 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 anelement of calculation. He abandoned, therefore, notwithout an occasional grumbling protest, the vanquishedCatholics to the mercy of that oligarchy, whose history, during the eighteenth century, forms so prominent afeature of the history of the kingdom. 

The civil articles of Limerick, which Sarsfield vainlyhoped might prove the _Magna Charta_ of his co-religionists, were thirteen in number. Art. I. Guaranteed to membersof that denomination, remaining in the kingdom, "suchprivileges in the exercise of their religion as areconsistent with the law of Ireland, or as they enjoyedin the reign of King Charles II. ;" this article furtherprovided, that "their majesties, as soon as their affairswill permit them to summon a Parliament in this kingdom, will endeavour to procure the said Roman Catholics suchfurther security in that particular as may preserve themfrom any disturbance on account of their said religion. "Art. II. Guaranteed pardon and protection to all whohad served King James, on taking the oath of allegianceprescribed in Art. IX. , as follows:

"I, A. B. , do solemnly promise and swear that I will befaithful 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 ofArts. I. And II. To merchants and other classes of men. Art. VII. Permits "every nobleman and gentleman compromisedin the said articles" to carry side arms and keep "a gunin their houses. " Art. VIII. Gives the right of removinggoods and chattels without search. Art. IX. Is as follows:

"The oath to be administered to such Roman Catholics assubmit to their majesties' government _shall be the oathaforesaid, and no other_. "

Art. X. Guarantees that "no person or persons who shallat any time hereafter break these articles, or any ofthem, shall thereby make or cause any other person orpersons to _forfeit or lose the benefit of them_. "Arts. XI. And XII. Relate to the ratification of thearticles "within eight months or sooner. " Art. XIII. Refers to the debts of "Colonel John Brown, commissaryof the Irish army, to several Protestants, " and arrangesfor their satisfaction. 

These articles were signed before Limerick, at the wellknown "Treaty Stone, " on the Clare side of the Shannon, by Lord Scravenmore, Generals Mackay, Talmash, and DeGinkle, and the Lords Justices Porter and Coningsby, forKing William, and by Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, ViscountGalmoy, Sir Toby Butler, and Colonels Purcell, Cusack, Dillon, and Brown, for the Irish. On the 24th of Februaryfollowing, royal letters patent confirmatory of the treatywere issued from Westminster, in the name of the Kingand Queen, whereby they declared, that "we do for us, our heirs, and successors, as far as in us lies, ratifyand confirm the same and every clause, matter, and thingtherein contained. And as to such parts thereof, forwhich 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 thatshall be passed by our two Houses of Parliament to thatpurpose. And whereas it appears unto us, that it wasagreed between the parties to the said articles, thatafter the words Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Mayo, orany of them, in the second of the said articles; whichwords having been casually omitted by the writer of thearticles, the words following, viz. : 'And all such asare under their protection in the said counties' shouldbe inserted, and be part of the said omission, was notdiscovered till after the said articles were signed, butwas 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, itbeing within the intention of the capitulation, andinserted in the foul draft thereof: Our further will andpleasure is, and we do hereby ratify and confirm the saidomitted words, viz. , 'And all such as are under theirprotection in the said counties, ' hereby for us, ourheirs and successors, ordaining and declaring that alland every person and persons therein concerned shall andmay have, receive, and enjoy the benefit thereof, in suchand the same manner as if the said words had been insertedin their proper place in the said second article, anyomission, defect, or mistake in the said second articlein any wise notwithstanding. Provided always, and ourwill and pleasure is, that these our letters patent shallbe enrolled in our Court of Chancery, in our said kingdomof Ireland, within the space of one year next ensuing. "

But the Ascendancy party were not to be restrained bythe faith of treaties, or the obligations of the Sovereign. The Sunday following the return of the Lords Justicesfrom Limerick, Dopping, Bishop of Meath, preached beforethem at Christ's church, on the crime of keeping faithwith Papists. The grand jury of Cork, urged on by Cox, the Recorder of Kinsale, one of the historians of thosetimes, returned in their inquest that the restoration ofthe Earl of Clancarty's estates "would be dangerous tothe Protestant interest. " Though both William andGeorge I. , interested themselves warmly for that noblefamily, the hatred of the new oligarchy proved too strongfor the clemency of kings, and the broad acres of thedisinherited McCarthys, remained to enrich an alien andbigoted aristocracy. 

In 1692, when the Irish Parliament met, a few Catholicpeers, and a very few Catholic commoners took their seats. One of the first acts of the victorious majority was toframe an oath in direct contravention to the oath prescribedby the ninth civil article of the treaty, to be taken bymembers of both Houses. This oath solemnly and explicitlydenied "that in the sacrament of the Lord's supper thereis any transubstantiation of the elements;" and as solemnlyaffirmed, "that the invocation or adoration of the VirginMary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the mass, as they are now used in the church of Rome, are damnableand idolatrous. " As a matter of course, the Catholicpeers and commoners retired from both Houses, rather thantake any such oath, and thus the Irish Parliament assumed, in 1692, that exclusively Protestant character which itcontinued to maintain, till its extinction in 1800. TheLord Justice Sydney, acting in the spirit of his originalinstructions, made some show of resistance to theproscriptive spirit thus exhibited. But to teach him howthey regarded his interference, a very small supply wasvoted, and the assertion of the absolute control of theCommons over all supplies--a sound doctrine when rightlyinterpreted--was vehemently asserted. Sydney had thesatisfaction of proroguing and lecturing the House, butthey had the satisfaction soon after of seeing him recalledthrough their influence in England, and a more congenialViceroy in the person of Lord Capel sent over. 

About the same time, that ancient engine of oppression, a Commission to inquire into estates forfeited, wasestablished, and, in a short time, decreed that 1, 060, 792acres were escheated to the crown. This was almost thelast fragment of the patrimony of the Catholic inhabitants. When King William died, there did not remain in Catholichands "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 assuredhis delighted auditors that the King was intent upon afirm settlement of Ireland upon a Protestant interest. Large supplies were at once voted to his majesty, andthe House of Commons then proceeded to the appointmentof a committee to consider what penal laws were alreadyin force against the Catholics, not for the purpose ofrepealing them, but in order to add to their number. Theprincipal penal laws then in existence were:

1. An act, subjecting all who upheld the jurisdiction ofthe See of Rome, to the penalties of a _premunire_; andordering the oath of supremacy to be a qualification foroffice of every kind, for holy orders, and for a degreein the university. 

2. An act for the uniformity of Common Prayer, imposinga fine of a shilling on all who should absent themselvesfrom places of worship of the Established Church onSundays. 

3. An act, allowing the Chancellor to name a guardian tothe child of a Catholic. 

4. An act to prevent Catholics from becoming privatetutors in families, without license from the ordinariesof their several parishes, and taking the oath of supremacy. 

To these, the new Parliament added, 1. An act to depriveCatholics of the means of educating their children athome or abroad, and to render them incapable of beingguardians of their own or any other person's children;2. An act to disarm the Catholics; and, 3. Another tobanish all the Catholic priests and prelates. Having thusviolated the treaty, they gravely brought in a bill "toconfirm the Articles of Limerick. " "The very title ofthe bill, " says Dr. Cooke Taylor, "contains evidence ofits injustice. " It is styled "A Bill for the Confirmationof Articles (not _the_ articles) made at the Surrenderof Limerick. " And the preamble shows that the little word_the_ was not accidentally omitted. It runs thus:--"Thatthe said articles, or _so much of them as may consistwith the safety and welfare of your majesty's subjectsin these kingdoms_, may be confirmed, " &c. The parts thatappeared to these legislators inconsistent with "thesafety and welfare of his majesty's subjects, " were thefirst article, which provided for the security of theCatholics from all disturbances on account of theirreligion; those parts of the second article which confirmedthe Catholic gentry of Limerick, Clare, Cork, Kerry, andMayo, in the possession of their estates, and allowedall Catholics to exercise their trades and professionswithout obstruction; the fourth article, which extendedthe benefit of the peace to certain Irish officers thenabroad; the seventh article, which allowed the Catholicgentry to ride armed; the ninth article, which providesthat the oath of allegiance shall be the only oath requiredfrom Catholics; and one or two others of minor importance. All of these are omitted in the bill for "The confirmationof Articles made at the Surrender of Limerick. "

The Commons passed the bill without much difficulty. TheHouse of Lords, however, contained some few of the ancientnobility, and some prelates, who refused to acknowledgethe dogma, "that no faith should be kept with Papists, "as an article of their creed. The bill was strenuouslyresisted, and when it was at length carried, a strongprotest against it was signed by Lords Londonderry, Tyrone, and Duncannon, the Barons of Ossory, Limerick, Killaloe, Kerry, Howth, Kingston, and Strabane, and, totheir eternal honour be it said, the Protestant bishopsof Kildare, Elphin, Derry, Clonfert, and Killala!

The only other political incidents of this reign, importantto Ireland, were the speech from the throne in answer toan address of the English Houses, in which William promisedto discourage the woollen and encourage the linenmanufacture in Ireland, and the publication of the famousargument for legislative independence, "The Case ofIreland Stated. " The author of this tract, the brightprecursor of the glorious succession of men, who, oftendefeated or abandoned by their colleagues, finallytriumphed in 1782, was William Molyneux, member for theUniversity of Dublin. Molyneux's book appeared in 1698, with a short, respectful, but manly dedication to KingWilliam. Speaking of his own motives in writing it, hesays, "I am not at all concerned in wool or the wooltrade. I am no ways interested in forfeitures or grants. I am not at all concerned whether the bishop or thesociety 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 headvanced these six propositions, which lie supported withincontestible ability. 

"1. How Ireland became a kingdom _annexed_ to the crownof England. And here we shall at large give a faithfulnarrative of the first expedition of the Britons intothis country, and King Henry II. 's arrival here, such asour best historians give us. 

"2. We shall inquire whether this expedition and theEnglish settlement that afterwards followed thereon, canproperly be called a _conquest_; or whether any victoriesobtained by the English in any succeeding ages in thiskingdom, upon any rebellion, may be called a _conquest_thereof. 

"3. Granting that it were a _conquest_, we shall inquirewhat _title_ a conquest gives. 

"4. We shall inquire what _concessions_ have been fromtime to time made to Ireland, to take off what even themost rigorous asserters of a conqueror's title do pretendto. And herein we shall show by what degrees the Englishform of government, and the English statute laws, cameto be received among us; and this shall appear to bewholly by the _consent_ of the people and the Parliamentof Ireland. 

"5. We shall inquire into the precedents and opinions ofthe learned in the laws relating to this matter, withobservations thereon. 

"6. We shall consider the reasons and arguments that maybe further offered on one side and t'other; and we shalldraw some general conclusions from the whole. "

The English Parliament took alarm at these bold doctrines, seldom heard across the channel since the days of PatrickDarcy and the Catholic Confederacy. They ordered the bookto 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 Englandto bind the kingdom and people of Ireland, and thesubordination and dependence that Ireland had, and oughtto have, upon England, as being united and annexed tothe imperial crown of England. " They voted an address tothe King in the same tone, and received an answer fromhis majesty, assuring them that he would enforce the lawssecuring the dependence of Ireland on the imperial crownof Great Britain. 

But William's days were already numbered. On the 8th ofMarch, 1702, when little more than fifty years of age, he died from the effects of a fall from his horse. Hisreign over Ireland is synonymous to the minds of thatpeople of disaster, proscription and spoliation; ofviolated faith and broken compacts; but these wrongs weredone in his name rather than by his orders; often withouthis knowledge, and sometimes against his will. Rigid asthat will was, it was forced to bend to the anti-Poperystorm which swept over the British Islands after theabdication of King James; but the vices and follies ofhis times ought no more be laid to the personal accountof 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 to1714. The new sovereign, daughter of James by his firstmarriage, inherited the legacy of William's wars, arisingout of the European coalition. Her diplomatists, and hertroops, under the leadership of Marlborough, continuedthroughout her reign to combat against France, in Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands; the treaty of Utrecht beingsigned only the year before her majesty's decease. Indomestic politics, the main occurrences were the struggleof the Whigs and Tories, immortalized for us in the pagesof Swift, Steele, Addison, and Bolingbroke; the limitationof the succession to the descendants of the ElectressSophia, in the line of Hanover; and the abortive Jacobitemovement on the Queen's death which drove Ormond andAtterbury into exile. 

In Ireland, this is the reign, _par excellence_, of thepenal code. From the very beginning of the Queen's reign, an insatiate spirit of proscription dictated the councilsof the Irish oligarchy. On the arrival of the secondand last Duke of Ormond, in 1703, as Lord-Lieutenant, the Commons waited on him in a body, with a bill "fordiscouraging the further growth of Popery, " to which theduke having signified his entire concurrence, it wasaccordingly introduced, and became law. The followingare among the most remarkable clauses of this act: Thethird clause provides, that if the son of an estatedPapist shall conform to the established religion, thefather shall be incapacitated from selling or mortgaginghis estate, or disposing of any portion of it by will. The fourth clause prohibits a Papist from being theguardian of his own child; and orders, that if at anytime the child, though ever so young, pretends to be aProtestant, it shall be taken from its own father, andplaced under the guardianship of the nearest Protestantrelation. The sixth clause renders Papists incapable ofpurchasing any manors, tenements, hereditaments, or anyrents or profits arising out of the same, or of holdingany lease of lives, or other lease whatever, for any termexceeding thirty-one years. And with respect even to suchlimited leases, it further enacts, that if a Papist shouldhold a farm producing a profit greater than one-third ofthe amount of the rent, his right to such should immediatelycease, and pass over entirely to the first Protestantwho should discover the rate of profit. The seventh clauseprohibits Papists from succeeding to the properties orestates of their Protestant relations. By the tenthclause, the estate of a Papist, not having a Protestantheir, is ordered to be gavelled, or divided in equalshares between all his children. The sixteenth andtwenty-fourth clauses impose the oath of abjuration, andthe sacramental test, as a qualification for office, andfor voting at elections. The twenty-third clause deprivesthe Catholics of Limerick and Galway of the protectionsecured to them by the articles of the treaty of Limerick. The twenty-fifth clause vests in her majesty all advowsonspossessed 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 generationsof scholars and orators, Sir Stephen Rice, one of themost spotless characters of the age, formerly chief-justiceunder King James, and Sir Theobald Butler, were heardagainst the bill. The argument of Butler, who stood atthe very head of his profession, remains to us almost inits entirety, and commands our admiration by its solidityand dignity. Never was national cause more worthilypleaded; never was the folly of religious persecutionmore forcibly exhibited. Alluding to the monstrous fourthclause of the bill, the great advocate exclaimed:--

"It is natural for the father to love the child; but weall know that children are but too apt and subject, without any such liberty as this bill gives, to slightand neglect their duty to their parents; and surely suchan 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 prospectof an estate, when once he arrives at the age of one andtwenty, to think the old father too long in the waybetween him and it; and how much more will he be subjectto it, when, by this act, he shall have liberty, beforehe comes to that age, to compel and force my estate fromme, without asking my leave, or being liable to accountwith me for it, or out of his share thereof, to a moietyof the debts, portions, or other encumbrances, with whichthe estate might have been charged before the passing ofthis act!

"Is not this against the laws of God and man? Againstthe rules of reason and justice, by which all men oughtto be governed? Is not this the only way in the world tomake children become undutiful? and to bring the greyhead 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 myplunderer, to rob me of my estate, to cut my throat, andto take away my bread, is much more grievous than fromany other, and enough to make the most flinty hearts tobleed to think on it. And yet this will be the case ifthis bill pass into a law; which I hope this honourableassembly will not think of, when they shall more seriouslyconsider, and have weighed these matters. 

"For God's sake, gentlemen, will you consider whetherthis is according to the golden rule, to do as you wouldbe done unto? And if not, surely you will not, nay, youcannot, without being liable to be charged with the mostmanifest injustice imaginable, take from us our birthrights, and invest them in others, before our faces. "

When Butler and Malone had closed, Sir Stephen Rice washeard, not in his character of council, but as one ofthe petitioners affected by the act. But neither theaffecting position of that great jurist, who, from therank of chief baron had descended to the outer bar, northe purity of his life, nor the strength of his argument, had any effect upon the oligarchy who heard him. He wasanswered by quibbles and cavils, unworthy of record, andwas finally informed that any rights which Papists"pretended to be taken from them by the Bill, was intheir own power to remedy, by conforming, which in prudencethey ought to do; and that they had none to blame butthemselves. " Next day the bill passed into law. 

The remnant of the clergy were next attacked. On the 17thof March, 1705, the Irish Commons resolved, that "informingagainst Papists was an honourable service to thegovernment, " and that all magistrates and others whofailed to put the penal laws into execution, "werebetrayers of the liberties of the kingdom. " But eventhese resolutions, rewards, and inducements wereinsufficient to satisfy the spirit of persecution. 

A further act was passed, in 1709, imposing additionalpenalties. The first clause declares, that no Papistshall be capable of holding an annuity for life. Thethird provides, that the child of a Papist, on conforming, shall at once receive an annuity from his father; andthat 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 suchconforming child or children, and for securing such ashare of the property, after the father's death, as thecourt shall think fit. The fourteenth and fifteenthclauses secure jointures to Popish wives who shall conform. The sixteenth prohibits a Papist from teaching, even asassistant to a Protestant master. The eighteenth givesa salary of 30 pounds per annum to Popish priests whoshall conform. The twentieth provides rewards for thediscovery of Popish prelates, priests, and teachers, according to the following whimsical scale:--For discoveringan archbishop, bishop, vicar-general, or other person, exercising any foreign ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 50pounds; for discovering each regular clergyman, and eachsecular clergyman, not registered, 20 pounds; and fordiscovering each Popish schoolmaster or usher, 10 pounds. The twenty-first clause empowers two justices to summonbefore them any Papist over eighteen years of age, andinterrogate him when and where he last heard mass said, and the names of the persons present, and likewise touchingthe residence of any Popish priest or schoolmaster; andif he refuse to give testimony, subjects him to a fineof 20 pounds, or imprisonment for twelve months. 

Several other penal laws were enacted by the sameParliament, of which we can only notice one; it excludedCatholics from the office of sheriff, and from grandjuries, and enacts, that, in trials upon any statute forstrengthening the Protestant interest, the plaintiffmight challenge a juror for being a Papist, which challengethe judge was to allow. 

By a royal proclamation of the same year, "all registeredpriests" were to take "the oath of abjuration before the25th of March, 1710, " under penalty of _premunire_. Underthis 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 themost successful of these traffickers in blood was aPortuguese Jew, named Garcia, settled at Dublin. He wasvery skilful at disguises. "He sometimes put on the mienof a priest, for he affected to be one, and thus worminghimself into the good graces of some confiding Catholicgot 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 threethousand dollars of American money. To such an excesswas this trade carried, that a reaction set in, and aCatholic bishop of Ossory, who lived at the time theseacts were still in force, records that "the priest-catchers'occupation became exceedingly odious both to Protestantsand Catholics, " and that himself had seen "ruffians ofthis calling assailed with a shower of stones, flung byboth Catholics and Protestants. " But this creditablereaction only became general under George II. , twentyyears after the passage of the act of Queen Anne. 

We shall have to mention some monstrous additions madeto the code during the first George's reign, and someattempts to repair and perfect its diabolical machinery, even so late as George III. ; but the great body of thepenal law received its chief accessions from theoligarchical Irish Parliament, under Queen Anne. Hitherto, we have often had to point out, how with all itsconstitutional defects--with the law of Poynings, obligingheads of bills to be first sent to England--fetteringits freedom of initiative;--how, notwithstanding alldefects, the Irish Parliament had asserted, at manycritical periods, its own and the people's rights, withan energy worthy of admiration. But the collective bigotsof this reign were wholly unworthy of the name of aparliament. They permitted the woollen trade to besacrificed without a struggle, --they allowed the boldpropositions of Molyneux, one of their own number, to becondemned and reprobated without a protest. The knottedlash of Jonathan Swift was never more worthily applied, than to "the Legion Club, " which he has consigned to suchan unenviable immortality. Swift's inspiration may havebeen mingled with bitter disappointment and personalrevenge; but, whatever motives animated him, his fearlessuse of his great abilities must always make him the firstpolitical, as he was certainly the first literary characterof Ireland at that day. In a country so bare and nakedas he found it; with a bigotry so rampant and unitedbefore him; it needed no ordinary courage and capacityto evoke anything like public opinion or public spirit. Let us be just to that most unhappy man of genius; letus proclaim that Irish nationality, bleeding at everypore, and in danger of perishing by the wayside, foundshelter on the breast of Swift, and took new heart fromthe example of that bold churchman, before whom theParliament, the bench of Bishops, and the Viceroy, trembled. 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE IRISH SOLDIERS ABROAD DURING THE REIGNS OFWILLIAM AND ANNE. 

The close of the second reign from the siege of Limerickimposes the duty of casting our eyes over the map ofEurope, in quest of those gallant exiles whom we haveseen, in tens of thousands, submitting to the hardnecessity of expatriation. 

Many of the Meath and Leinster Irish, under their nativecommanders, the Kavanaghs and Nugents, carried theirswords into the service of William's ally, the Emperorof Austria, and distinguished themselves in all thecampaigns of Prince Eugene. Spain attracted to herstandard the Irish of the north-west, the O'Donnells, the O'Reillys, and O'Garas, whose regiments, during morethan one reign, continued to be known by flames of Ulsterorigin. In 1707, the great battle of Almanza, whichdecided the Spanish succession, was determined by O'Mahony'sfoot and Fitzjames's Irish horse. The next year Spainhad five Irish regiments in her regular army, three offoot and two of dragoons, under the command of Lacy, Lawless, Wogan, O'Reilly, and O'Gara. But it was in Francethat the Irish served in the greatest number, and madethe most impressive history for themselves and theirdescendants. 

The recruiting agents of France had long been in thehabit of crossing the narrow seas, and bringing back thestalwart sons of the western Island to serve theirambitious kings, in every corner of the continent. AnIrish troop of horse served, in 1652, under Turenne, against the great Conde. In the campaigns of 1673, 1674and 1675, under Turenne, two or three Irish regimentswere in every engagement along the Rhine. At Altenheim, their commander, Count Hamilton, was created a major-generalof France. In 1690, these old regiments, with the sixnew ones sent over by James, were formed into a brigade, and from 1690 to 1693, they went through the campaignsof Savoy and Italy, under Marshal Catinat, against PrinceEugene. Justin McCarthy, Lord Mountcashel, who commandedthem, died at Bareges of wounds received at Staffardo. At Marsiglia, they routed, in 1693, the allies, killingDuke Schomberg, son to the Huguenot general who fell atthe Boyne. 

The "New" or Sarsfield's brigade was employed underLuxembourg, against King William, in Flanders, in 1692and 1693. At Namur and Enghien, they were greatlydistinguished, and William more than once sustained heavyloss at their hands. Sarsfield, their brigadier, forthese services, was made mareschal-de-camp. At Landen, on the 29th of July, '93, France again triumphed to thecry, "Remember Limerick!" Sarsfield, leading on the fiercepursuers, fell, mortally wounded. Pressing his hand uponthe wound, he took it away dripping with blood, and onlysaid, "Oh, that this was for Ireland!"

In the war of the Spanish succession, the remnants ofboth brigades, consolidated into one, served under theirfavourite leader, the Marshal Duke of Berwick, throughnearly all his campaigns in Belgium, Spain and Germany. The third Lord Clare, afterwards Field-Marshal CountThomond, was by the Duke's side at Phillipsburg, in 1733, when he received his death-wound from the explosion ofa mine. These exiled Clare O'Briens commanded for threegenerations their famous family regiment of dragoons. The first who followed King James abroad died of woundsreceived at the battle of Ramillies; the third, withbetter fortune, outlived for nearly thirty years theglorious day of Fontenoy. The Irish cavalry regiments inthe service of France were Sheldon's, Galmoy's, Clare's, and Killmallock's; the infantry were known as the regimentsof Dublin, Charlemont, Limerick, and Athlone. There weretwo other infantry regiments, known as Luttrel's andDorrington's--and a regiment of Irish marines, of whichthe Grand Prior, Fitzjames, was colonel. During the latteryears of Louis XIV. , there could not have been less, atany one time, than from 20, 000 to 30, 000 Irish in hisarmies, and during the succeeding century, authenticdocuments exist to prove that 450, 000 natives of Irelanddied in the military service of France. 

In the dreary reigns of William, Anne, and the two firstGeorges, the pride and courage of the disarmed anddisinherited population abiding at home, drew new lifeand vigour from the exploits of their exiled brethren. The channel smuggler and the vagrant ballad-singer keptalive their fame for the lower class of the population, while the memoirs of Marlborough and Eugene, issuing fromthe Dublin press, communicated authentic accounts oftheir actions, to the more prejudiced, or better educated. The blows they struck at Landen, at Cremona, and atAlmanza, 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 doomof the penal code was pronounced. 

The high character of the famous captains of these brigadeswas not confined to the field of battle. At Paris, Vienna, and Madrid, their wit and courtesy raised them to thefavour of princes, over the jealousy of all their rivals. Important civil and diplomatic offices were entrusted tothem--embassies of peace and war--the government ofprovinces, and the highest administrative offices of thestate. While their kinsmen in Ireland were declaredincapable of filling the humblest public employments, orof exercising the commonest franchise, they met Britishambassadors abroad as equals, and checked or counterminedthe imperial policy of Great Britain. It was impossiblethat such a contrast of situations should not attractthe attention of all thinking men! It was impossible thatsuch reputations should shine before all Europe withoutreacting powerfully on the fallen fortunes of Ireland!

BOOK XI. 

FROM THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE I. TO THE LEGISLATIVEUNION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

CHAPTER I. 

ACCESSION OF GEORGE I. --SWIFT'S LEADERSHIP. 

The last years of Queen Anne had been years of intrigueand preparation with the Jacobite leaders throughout thethree kingdoms. At their head stood Ormond, the secondand last _Duke_ of his name, and with him were associatedat 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 thedeath of the Queen, and proclaimed James III. (or "thePretender, " as he was called by the partisans of the newdynasty), the Act of Succession might have remained adead letter, and the Stuarts recovered their ancientsovereignty. But the partisans of the elector were thefirst in the field, and King George was accordinglyproclaimed, on the 1st of August, at London, and on the6th of August, at Dublin. 

In Dublin, where serious apprehensions of a Jacobiterising were entertained, the proclamation was made bythe 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 Deanwas thought by his friends to be in some danger. But itwas not correct to say, as many writers have done, thathe found it necessary to retire from Dublin. The onlyinconvenience he suffered was from the hootings andrevilings of the Protestant rabble in the street, and abrutal threat of personal violence from a young nobleman, upon whom he revenged himself in a characteristic petitionto the House of Lords "for protection against the saidlord. " Pretending not to be quite sure of his assailant, he proceeds to explain: "Your petitioner is informed thatthe person who spoke the words above mentioned is of yourLordships' House, under the style and title of LordBlaney; whom your petitioner remembers to have introducedto Mr. Secretary Addison, in the Earl of Wharton'sgovernment, and to have done him other good offices atthat time, because he was represented as a young man ofsome hopes and a broken fortune. " The entire document isa curious picture of the insolence of the ascendancyparty of that day, even towards dignitaries of their ownchurch who refused to go all lengths in the only politicsthey permitted or tolerated. 

It was while smarting under these public indignities, and excluded from the society of the highest class inhis own country, with two or three exceptions, thatSwift laid the foundations of his own and his country'spatriotism, among the educated middle class of the Irishcapital. From the college and the clergy he drew Dr. Sheridan--ancestor of six generations of men and womenof genius! Doctors Delaney, Jackson, Helsham, Walmsley, Stopford (afterwards Bishop of Cloyne), and the threereverend brothers Grattan. In the city he selected ashis friends and companions four other Grattans, one ofwhom was Lord-Mayor, another physician to the castle, one a schoolmaster, the other a merchant. "Do you knowthe Grattans?" he wrote to the Lord-Lieutenant, LordCarteret; "then pray obtain their acquaintance. TheGrattans, my lord, can raise 10, 000 men. " Among the classrepresented by this admirable family of seven brothers, and in that of the tradesmen immediately below them, ofwhich we may take his printers, Waters and Faulkner fortypes, Swift's haughty and indignant denunciations ofthe 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 andpublic characters. Questions of currency, of trade, ofthe administration of justice and of patronage, wereearnestly discussed in the press and in society, and thusby slow but gradually ascending steps, a spirit ofindependence was promoted where hitherto only servilityhad reigned. 

The obligations of his cotemporaries to Swift are not tobe counted simply by what he was able to originate or toadvocate in their behalf--for not much could be done inthat way, in such times, and in such a position as his--but rather in regard to the enemies and maligners ofthat people, whom he exposed and punished. To understandthe value of his example and inspiration, we must readover again his castigations of Wharton, of Burnet, ofBoulter, of Whitshed, of Allan, and all the leaders ofthe oligarchy, in the Irish Parliament. When we have doneso, we shall see at once how his imperial reputation, his personal position, and every faculty of his powerfulmind were employed alike to combat injustice andproscription, to promote freedom of opinion and of trade, to punish the abuses of judicial power, and to cultivateand foster a spirit of self reliance and economy amongall classes--especially the humblest. In his times, andin his position, with a cassock "entangling his course, "what more could have been expected of him?

The Irish Parliament met in 1715--elected, according tothe then usage, for the lifetime of the King--commencedits career by an act of attainder against the Pretender, accompanied by a reward of 50, 000 pounds for hisapprehension. The Lords-Justices, the Duke of Graftonand the Earl of Galway, recommended in their speech tothe Houses, that they should cultivate such unanimityamong themselves as "at once to put an end to all otherdistinctions in Ireland, but that of Protestant andPapist. " In the same speech, and in all the debates ofthat reign, the Catholics were spoken of as "the commonenemy, " and all who sympathized with them, as "enemiesof the constitution. " But far as this Parliament was fromall our ideas of what a national legislature ought tobe, it was precisely at this period, when the administrationcould not be worse, that the foundation was laid of thegreat contest for legislative independence, which was tocontinue through three generations, and to constitutethe main staple of the Irish history of this century. 

In the year 1717, the English House of Lords entertainedand decided, as a court of last resort, an appeal fromthe 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 protestedagainst in the English House at the time by the Duke ofLeeds, and in the Irish, by the majority of the wholeHouse. But the British Parliament, not content withclaiming the power, proceeded to establish the principle, by the declaratory act--6th George I. --for securing thedependence of Ireland on the crown of Great Britain. Thisstatute, even more objectionable than the law of Poynings, continued unrepealed till 1782, notwithstanding all thearguments and all the protests of the Irish patriot party. The Lords of Ireland, unsupported by the bigoted andunprincipled oligarchy in the Commons, were shorn oftheir appellate jurisdiction, and their journals for manyyears contain few entries of business done, beyond servileaddresses to successive Viceroys, and motions ofadjournment. 

In their session of 1723, the ascendancy party in theCommons proceeded to their last extreme of violenceagainst the prostrate Catholics. An act was introducedfounded on eight resolutions, "further to prevent thegrowth of Popery. " One of these resolutions, regularlytransmitted to England by the Viceroy-proposed that everypriest, arrested within the realm, should suffer thepenalty of _castration_! For the first time, a penal lawwas rejected with horror and indignation by the EnglishPrivy Council, and the whole elaborate edifice, overweightedwith these last propositions, trembled to its base. Butthough badly shaken, it was yet far from coming down. 

"Do not the corruptions and villainies of men, " saidSwift to his friend Delaney, "eat your flesh and exhaustyour spirits?" They certainly gnawed at the heart of thecourageous Dean, but at the same time, they excited ratherthan exhausted his spirits. In 1720 he resumed his pen, as a political writer, in his famous proposal "for theuniversal use of Irish manufactures. " Waters, the printerof this piece, was indicted for a seditious libel, beforeChief-Justice Whitshed, the immortal "_coram nobis_" ofthe Dean's political ballads. The jury were detainedeleven hours, and sent out nine times, to compel them toagree on a verdict. They at length finally declared theycould not agree, and a _nol. Pros_. Was soon afterentered by the crown. This trial of Swift's printer in1720, is the first of a long series of duels with thecrown lawyers, which the Irish press has since maintainedwith as much firmness and self-sacrifice as any pressever exhibited. And it may be said that never, not evenunder martial law, was a conspicuous example of civiccourage more necessary, or more dangerous. Browne, Bishopof Cork, had been in danger of deprivation for preachinga sermon against the well-known toast to the memory ofKing William; Swift was threatened, as we see, a fewyears earlier, with personal violence by a Whig lord, and pelted by a Protestant rabble, for his supposedJacobitism; his friend, Dr. Sheridan, lost his Munsterliving for having accidentally chosen as his text, onthe anniversary of King George's coronation, "sufficientfor the day is the evil thereof. " Such was the intoleranceof the oligarchy towards their own clergy. What must ithave been to others!

The attempt to establish a National Bank, and theintroduction of a debased copper coinage, for which apatent had been, granted to one William Wood, next employedthe untiring pen of Swift. The halfpenny controversy, was not, as is often said, a small matter; it was nearlyas important as the bank project itself. Of the 100, 000pounds worth coined, the intrinsic value was shown to benot more than 6, 000 pounds. Such was the storm excitedagainst the patentee, that his Dublin agents were obligedto resign their connection with him, and the royalletters-patent were unwillingly cancelled. The bankproject was also rejected by Parliament, adding anotherto the triumphs of the invincible Dean. 

During the last years of this reign, Swift was the mostpowerful and popular person in Ireland, and perhaps inthe empire. The freedom with which he advised Carteretthe Viceroy, and remonstrated with Walpole, the Premier, on the misrule of his country, was worthy of the ascendancyof his genius. No man of letters, no churchman, nostatesman of any country in any age, ever showed himselfmore thoroughly independent, in his intercourse with menof office, than Swift. The vice of Ireland was exactlythe other way, so that in this respect also, the patriotwas 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 legislativeindependence. Alluding to the pamphlet of Molyneux, published thirty years before, he pronounced its argumentsinvincible, and the contrary system "the very definitionof slavery. " "The remedy, " he concludes, addressing theIrish people, "is wholly in your own hands, and thereforeI have digressed a little, in order to refresh and continuethat spirit so seasonably raised among you, and to letyou see, that, by the laws of God, of nature, of nations, and of your country, _you are, and ought to be, as freea people as your brethren in England_. " For this letteralso, the printer, Harding, was indicted, but the Dublingrand jury, infected with the spirit of the times, unanimously ignored the bill. A reward of 300 pounds wasthen issued from the castle for the discovery of theauthor, but no informer could be found base enough tobetray him. For a time, however, to escape the ovationshe despised, and the excitement which tried his health, Swift retired to his friend Sheridan's cottage on thebanks of Lough Ramor, in Cavan, and there recreatedhimself with long rides about the country, and thecomposition of the Travels of the immortal Gulliver. 

Sir Robert Walpole, alarmed at the exhibition of popularintelligence and determination evoked by Swift, committedthe government of Ireland to his rival, Lord Carteret--whomhe was besides not sorry to remove to a distance--andappointed to the See of Armagh, which fell vacant aboutthe time of the currency dispute, Dr. Hugh Boulter, Bishopof Bristol, one of his own creatures. This prelate, apolitician by taste and inclination, modelled his policyon his patron's, as far as his more contracted sphereand inferior talents permitted. To buy members in marketovert, with peerages, or secret service money, was hischief means of securing a Parliamentary majority. AnEnglishman by birth and education; the head of theProtestant establishment in Ireland, it was inevitablethat his policy should be English and Protestant, inevery particular. To resist, depress, disunite, anddefeat the believers in the dangerous doctrines of Swiftand Molyneux, was the sole rule of his nearly twentyyears' political supremacy in Irish affairs. (1724-1742. )The master of a princely income, endowed with strongpassions, unlimited patronage, and great activity, hemay be said to have reigned rather than led, even whenthe nominal viceroyalty was in the hands of such ableand accomplished men as Lords Carteret, Dorset andDevonshire. His failure in his first state trial, againstHarding the printer, nothing discouraged him; he had comeinto Ireland to secure the English interest, by uprootingthe last vestiges of Popery and independence, and hedevoted himself to those objects with perseveringdetermination. In 1727--the year of George the First'sdecease--he obtained the disfranchisement of Catholicelectors by a clause quietly inserted without notice ina Bill regulating elections; and soon after he laid thefoundations of those nurseries of proselytism, "theCharter 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 noconsiderable changes, either in England or Ireland. SirRobert Walpole continued supreme in the one country, andPrimate Boulter in the other. The Jacobites, disheartenedby their ill success in 1715, and repelled rather thanattracted by the austere character of him they calledKing James III. , made no sign. The new King's first actwas to make public the declaration he had addressed tothe Privy Council, of his firm resolution to uphold theexisting constitution "in church and state. "

The Catholic population, beginning once more to raisetheir heads, thought this a suitable occasion to presenta humble and loyal address of congratulation to the LordsJustices, in the absence of the Viceroy. Lord Delvin andseveral of their number accordingly appeared at theCastle, and delivered their address, which they beggedmight be forwarded to the foot of the throne. No noticewhatever was taken of this document, either at Dublin orLondon, nor were the class who signed it permitted bylaw to "testify their allegiance" to the sovereign, forfifty years later--down to 1778. 

The Duke of Dorset, who succeeded Lord Carteret as Viceroyin 1731, unlike his immediate predecessor, refrained fromsuggesting additional severities against the Catholics. His first term of office--two years--was almost entirelyoccupied with the fiercest controversy which had everwaged in Ireland between the Established Church and theProtestant Dissenters. The ground of the dispute wasthe sacramental test, imposed by law upon the members ofboth Houses, and all burgesses and councillors of corporatetowns. By the operations of this law, when rigidlyenforced, Presbyterians and other dissenters were aseffectually excluded from political and municipal officesas Catholics themselves. Against this exclusion it wasnatural that a body so numerous, and possessed of so muchproperty, especially in Ulster, should make a vigorousresistance. Relying on the great share they had in therevolution, they endeavoured, though ineffectually, toobtain under King William the repeal of the Test Act ofKing Charles II. Under Queen Anne they were equallyunsuccessful, as we may still read with interest in thepages of Swift, De Foe, Tennison, Boyse, and King. Swift, especially, brought to the controversy not only the zealof a churchman, but the prejudices of an Anglo-Irishman, against the new-comers in the north. He upbraids them in1708, as glad to leave then--barren hills of Lochaberfor the fruitful vales of Down and Antrim, for theirparsimony and their clannishness. He denied to them, with bitter scorn, the title they had assumed of "BrotherProtestants, " and as to the Papists, whom they affectedto despise, they were, in his opinion, as much superiorto the Dissenters, as a lion, though chained and clippedof its claws, is a stronger and nobler animal than anangry cat, at liberty to fly at the throats of truechurchmen. The language of the Presbyterian championswas equally bold, denunciatory, and explicit. They broadlyintimated, in a memorial to Parliament, that under theoperation of the test, they would be unable to take uparms again, as they had done in 1688, for the maintenanceof the Protestant succession; a covert menace ofinsurrection, which Swift and their other opponents didnot fail to make the most of. Still farther to embarrassthem, Swift got up a paper making out a much strongercase in favour of the Catholics than of "their brethren, the Dissenters, " and the controversy closed, for thatage, in the complete triumph of the established clergy. 

This iniquitous deprivation of equal civil rights, accompanied with the onerous burthen of tithes fallingheaviest on the cultivators of the soil, produced thefirst 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 Milesianand Anglo-Irish of the other provinces, preferred toencounter the perils of an Atlantic flitting rather thanabide under the yoke and lash of such an oligarchy. Inthe year 1729, five thousand six hundred Irish landed atthe single port of Philadelphia; in the next ten yearsthey furnished to the Carolinas and Georgia the majorityof their immigrants; before the end of this reign, severalthousands of heads of families, all bred and married inIreland, were rearing up a free posterity along the slopesof the Blue Ridge in Virginia and Maryland, and even asfar north as the valleys of the Hudson and the Merrimac. In the ranks of the thirteen United Colonies, thedescendants of those Nonconformists were to repeat, forthe benefit of George III. , the lesson and example theirancestors had taught to James II. At Enniskillen andat Derry. 

Swift, with all his services to his own order, disliked, and was disliked by them. Of the bishops he has recordedhis utter contempt in some of the most cutting coupletsthat even he ever wrote. Boulter he detested; NarcissusMarsh he despised; with Dr. King of Dublin, Dr. Boltonof Cashel, and Dr. Horte of Tuam, he barely kept upappearances. Except Sterne, Bishop of Clogher, Berkely, Bishop of Cloyne, and Stopford, his successor, heentertained neither friendship nor respect for one ofthat order. And on their part, the right reverend prelatescordially reciprocated his antipathy. They resisted hisbeing made a member of the Linen Board, a Justice of thePeace, or a Visitor of Trinity College. Had he appearedamongst them in Parliament as their peer, they would havebeen compelled to accept him as a master, or combineagainst him as an enemy. No wonder, then, that successiveViceroys shrank from nominating him to any of the mitreswhich death had emptied; "the original sin of his birth"was aggravated in their eyes by the actual sin of hispatriotism. No wonder the sheets of paper that litteredhis desk, before he sunk into his last sad scene ofdotage, were found scribbled all over with his favouritelines--

 "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 thesower, were not dead, nor undergoing decay. With somethingof the prudence of the founder, "the Patriot party, " asthe opposition to the Castle party began to be called, occupied themselves at first with questions of taxationand expenditure. In 1729, the Castle attempted to makeit appear that there was a deficit--that in short "thecountry owed the government"--the large sum of 274, 000pounds! The Patriots met this claim, by a motion forreducing the cost of all public establishments. This wasthe chosen ground of both parties, and a more popularlyintelligible ground could not be taken. Between retrenchmentand extravagance, between high taxes and low, even theleast educated of the people could easily decide; andthenceforward for upwards of twenty years, no sessionwas held without a spirited debate on the supplies, andthe whole subject of the public expenditure. 

The Duke of Devonshire, who succeeded the Duke of Dorsetas Viceroy in 1737, contributed by his private munificenceand lavish hospitalities to throw a factitious popularityround his administration. No Dublin tradesman could findit in his heart to vote against the nominee of so liberala nobleman, and the public opinion of Dublin was as yetthe public opinion of Ireland. But the Patriot party, though unable to stem successfully the tide of corruptionand seduction thus let loose, held their difficult positionin the legislature with great gallantry and ability. New men had arisen during the dotage of Swift, who reveredhis maxims, and imitated his prudence. Henry Boyle, speaker of the House of Commons, afterwards Earl ofShannon; Anthony Malone--son of the _confrere_ of SirToby Butler, and afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Edward O'Brien, member for Clare, and his son, SirLucius, member for Ennis, were the pillars of the party. Out of doors, the most active spirit among the Patriotswas Charles Lucas, a native of Clare, who, from hisapothecary's shop in Dublin, attempted, not without bothtalents, zeal and energy, to play the part of Swift, atthe press and among the people. His public writings, commenced in 1741, brought him at first persecution andexile, but they afterwards conducted him to therepresentation of the capital, and an honourable nichein his country's history. 

The great event which may be said to divide into twoepochs the reign of George II. Was the daring invasionof Scotland in 1745, by "the young Pretender"--CharlesEdward. This brave and unfortunate Prince, whose adventureswill live for ever in Scottish song and romance, wasaccompanied from France by Sir Thomas Sheridan, ColonelO'Sullivan, and other Irish refugees, still fondly attachedto the house of Stuart. It is not to be supposed thatthese gentlemen would be without correspondents in Ireland, nor that the state of that country could be a matter ofindifference to the astute advisers of King George. Inreality, Ireland was almost as much their difficulty asScotland, and their choice of a Viceroy, at this criticalmoment, showed at once their estimate of the importanceof the position, and the talents of the man. 

Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, a greatname 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 theobject of his ambition, and he could hardly have attainedit at a time better calculated to draw out his eminentadministrative abilities. By temper and conviction opposedto persecution, he connived at Catholic worship underthe very walls of the Castle. The sour and jaundicedbigotry of the local oligarchy he encountered with _bonmots_ and raillery. The only "dangerous Papist" he hadseen 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 allclasses, and seeing justice done, he was enabled to sparefour regiments of troops for the war in Scotland, insteadof demanding additions to the Irish garrisons. Butwhether to diminish the influence which his brilliantadministration had created in England, or through themachinations of the oligarchy, still powerful at Dublin, within ten days from the decisive battle of Culloden, hewas recalled. The fruits of his policy might be alreadyobserved, as he walked on foot, his countess on his arm, to the place of embarkation, amid the acclamations ofall ranks and classes of the people, and their affectionateprayers 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 bringsnaturally with it another reference to the history ofthe Irish soldiers in the military service of France. This year was in truth the most eventful in the annalsof that celebrated legion, for while it was the year ofFontenoy and victory on the one hand, it was on the otherthe year of Culloden and defeat. 

The decisive battle of Fontenoy, in which the Franco-Irishtroops bore so decisive a part, was fought on the 11thof May, 1745. The French army, commanded by Saxe, andaccompanied by King Louis, leaving 18, 000 men to besiegeNamur, and 6, 000 to guard the Scheldt, took a positionbetween that river and the allies, having their centreat the village of Fontenoy. The British and Dutch, underthe King's favourite son, the Duke of Cumberland, were55, 000 strong; the French 45, 000. After a hard day'sfighting, victory seemed to declare so clearly againstFrance, that King Louis, who was present, prepared forflight. At this moment Marshal Saxe ordered a final chargeby the seven Irish regiments under Counts Dillon andThomond. The tide was turned, beyond expectation, to thecry of "Remember Limerick!" France was delivered, Englandchecked, and Holland reduced from a first to a second-ratepower upon that memorable day. But the victory was dearlybought. One-fourth of all the Irish officers, includingCount Dillon, were killed, and one-third of all the men. The whole number slain on the side of France was set downat 7, 000 by English accounts, while they admitted forthemselves alone, 4, 000 British and 3, 300 Hanoveriansand Dutch. "Foremost of all, " says the just-minded LordMahon, "were the gallant brigade of Irish exiles. " Itwas this defeat of his favourite son which wrung fromKing George II. The oft-quoted malediction on the lawswhich deprived him of such subjects. 

The expedition of Prince Charles Edward was undertakenand conducted by Irish aid, quite as much as by Frenchor Scottish. The chief parties to it, besides the oldMarquis of Tullibardine and the young Duke of Perth, werethe Waterses, father and son, Irish bankers at Paris, who advanced one hundred and eighty thousand livresbetween them; Walsh, an Irish merchant at Nantz, who puta privateer of eighteen guns into the venture; Sir ThomasGeraldine, the Pretender's agent at Paris; Sir ThomasSheridan, the prince's preceptor, who, with ColonelsO'Sullivan and Lynch, Captain O'Neil, and other officersof the brigade, formed the staff, on which Sir JohnMcDonald, a Scottish officer in the Spanish service, wasalso placed. Fathers Kelly and O'Brien volunteered inthe expedition. On the 22nd of June, 1745, with sevenfriends, the prince embarked in Walsh's vessel, theDoutelle, at St. Nazaire, on the Loire, and on the 19thof July, landed on the northern coast of Scotland, nearMoidart. The Scottish chiefs, little consulted or consideredbeforehand, came slowly and dubiously to the landing-place. Under their patriarchal control there were still in thekingdom about a hundred thousand men, and about one-twelfthof 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 atGlenfinin, where that evening twelve hundred men--theentire army so far--were formed into camp, under theorders of O'Sullivan. From that day until the day ofCulloden, O'Sullivan seems to have manoeuvred the prince'sforces. 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'sson with an honourable fidelity which defied despair. 

Charles, on his part, placed full confidence in his Irishofficers. In his proclamation after the battle of Preston, he declared it was not his intention to enforce on thepeople of England, Scotland, or Ireland, "a religion theydisliked. " In a subsequent paper, he asks, "Have youfound reason to love and cherish your governors as thefathers of the people of Great Britain and Ireland? Hasa family upon whom a faction unlawfully bestowed thediadem of a rightful prince, retained a due sense of sogreat a trust and favour?" These and his other proclamationsbetrayed an Irish pen; probably Sir Thomas Sheridan's. One of Charles's English adherents, Lord Elcho, who kepta journal of the campaign, notes, complainingly, theIrish influence under which he acted. "The prince andhis old governor, Sir Thomas Sheridan, " are especiallyobjected to, and the "Irish favourites" are censured ina body. While at Edinburgh, a French ship, containingsome arms, supplies, and "Irish officers, " arrived; atthe same time efforts were made to recruit for the princein Ireland; but the agents being taken in some cases, the channel narrowly watched, and the people not veryeager to join the service, few recruits were obtained. 

The Irish in France, as if to cover the inaction of theircountrymen at home, strained every nerve. The Watersesand O'Brien of Paris were liberal bankers to the expedition. Into their hands James "exhausted his treasury" to supporthis gallant son. At Fontainebleau, on the 23rd of October, Colonel O'Brien, on the part of the prince, and theMarquis D'Argeusson for Louis XV. , formed a treaty of"friendship and alliance, " one of the clauses of whichwas, that certain Irish regiments, and other Frenchtroops, should be sent to sustain the expedition. UnderLord John Drummond a thousand men were shipped fromDunkirk, and arrived at Montrose in the Highlands aboutthe time Charles had penetrated as far south as Manchester. The officers, with the prince, here refused to advanceon London with so small a force; a retreat was decidedon; the sturdy defence of Carlisle, and victory of Falkirk, checked the pursuit; but the overwhelming force of theDuke 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 toconcentrate in the western Highlands, with Inverness forhead-quarters. The town Charles easily got, butFort-George, a powerful fortress, built upon the site ofthe castle where Macbeth was said to have murdered Duncan, commanded the Loch. Stapleton and his Irish, capturedit, however, as well as the neighbouring Fort-Augustus. Joined by some Highlanders, they next attemptedFort-William, the last fortress of King George in thenorth, but on the 3rd of April were recalled to themain body. 

To cover Inverness, his head-quarters, Charles resolvedto give battle. The ground chosen, flanked by the riverNairn, was spotted with marsh and very irregular; it wascalled Culloden, and was selected by O'Sullivan. BrigadierStapleton and Colonel Kerr reported against it as a fieldof battle; but Charles adopted O'Sullivan's opinion ofits fitness for Highland warfare. When the preparationsfor battle began, "many voices exclaimed, 'We'll giveCumberland another Fontenoy!'" The Jacobites were placedin position by O'Sullivan, "at once their adjutant andquarter-master-general, " and, as the burghers of Prestonthought, "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. Fourpieces of cannon flanked each wing, and four occupiedthe centre. Lord George Murray commanded the right wing, Lord John Drummond the left, and Brigadier Stapleton thereserve. They mustered in all less than five thousandmen. The British formed in three lines, ten thousandstrong, with two guns between every second regiment ofthe first and second line. The action commenced aboutnoon of April 16th, and before evening half the troopsof Prince Charles lay dead on the field, and the restwere hopelessly broken. The retreat was pell-mell, exceptwhere "a troop of the Irish pickets, by a spirited fire, checked the pursuit, which a body of dragoons commencedafter the Macdonalds, and Lord Lewis Gordon's regimentsdid similar service. " Stapleton conducted the French andIrish remnant to Inverness, and obtained for them bycapitulation "fair quarter and honourable treatment. "

The unhappy prince remained on the field almost to thelast. "It required, " says Mr. Chambers, "all theeloquence, and, indeed, all the active exertion, ofO'Sullivan to make Charles quit the field. A cornet inhis service, when questioned on this subject at the pointof death, declared he saw O'Sullivan, after using entreatiesin vain, turn the head of the prince's horse and draghim away. "

From that night forth, O'Sullivan, O'Neil, and a poorsedan carrier of Edinburgh, called Burke, accompaniedhim in all his wanderings and adventures among the Scottishislands. At Long Island they were obliged to part company, the prince proceeding alone with Miss Flora McDonald. Hehad not long left, when a French cutter hove in sightand took off O'Sullivan, intending to touch at anotherpoint, and take in the prince and O'Neil. The same nightshe was blown off the coast, and the prince, after manyother adventures, was finally taken off at Badenoch, onthe 15th of September, 1746, by the L'Heureux, a Frencharmed vessel, in which Captain Sheridan (son of SirThomas), Mr. O'Beirne, a lieutenant in the French army, "and two other gentlemen, " had adventured in search ofhim. Poor O'Neil, in seeking to rejoin his master, wastaken prisoner, carried to London, and is lost from therecord. O'Sullivan reached France safely, where, withStapleton, Lynch, and the Irish and Scotch officers, hewas welcomed and honoured of all brave men. 

Such was the last struggle of the Stuarts. For yearsafter, the popular imagination in both countries clungfondly to Prince Charles. But the cause was dead. As ifto bury it for ever, Charles, in despair, grew dissipatedand desponding. In 1755, "the British Jacobites" sentColonel McNamara, as their agent, to induce him to putaway his mistress, Miss Walsingham, a demand with whichhe haughtily refused to comply. In 1766, when James III. Died at Avignon, the French king and the Pope refused toacknowledge the prince by the title of Charles III. Whenthe latter died, in 1788, at Rome, Cardinal York contentedhimself 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 thebrigade on all sorts of service from Canada to India, there were many of the exiled Irish in France, who didnot yet despair of a national insurrection against thehouse of Hanover. In the year 1759, an imposing expeditionwas fitted out at Brest under Admiral Conflaus, andanother at Dunkirk, under Commodore Thurot, whose realname was O'Farrell. The former, soon after putting tosea, was encountered at Quiberon by the English underHawke, and completely defeated; but the latter enteredthe British channel unopposed, and proceeded to theappointed _rendezvous_. While cruising in search ofConflaus, the autumnal equinox drove the intrepid Thurotinto the Northern ocean, and compelled him to winteramong the frozen friths of Norway and the Orkneys. Oneof his five frigates returned to France, another wasnever heard of, but with the remaining three he emergedfrom the Scottish Islands, and entered Lough Foyle earlyin 1760. He did not, however, attempt a landing at Derry, but appeared suddenly before Carrickfergus, on the 21stof February, and demanded its surrender. Placing himselfat the head of his marines and sailors, he attacked thetown, which, after a brave resistance by the commandant, Colonel Jennings, he took by assault. Here, for the firsttime, this earlier Paul Jones heard of the defeat of hisadmiral; after levying contributions on the rich burgessesand proprietors of Carrickfergus and Belfast, he againput to sea. His ships, battered by the wintry stormswhich they had undergone in northern latitudes, fell innear the Isle of Man with three English frigates, justout of port, under Commodore Elliott. A gallant actionensued, in which Thurot, or O'Farrell, and three hundredof his men were killed. The survivors struck to thevictors, and the French ships were towed in a sinkingstate, into the port of Ramsey. 

The life thus lost in the joint service of France andIreland, was a life illustrative of the Irish refugeeclass among whom he became a leader. Left an orphan inchildhood, O'Farrell, though of a good family, had beenbred in France in so menial a condition that he firstvisited England as a domestic servant. From that conditionhe rose to be a dexterous and successful captain in thecontraband trade, so extensive in those times. In thiscapacity he visited almost every port of either channel, acquiring that accurate knowledge which, added to hisadmitted bravery and capacity, placed him at length atthe head of a French squadron. "Throughout the expedition, "says Lord Mahon, "the honour and humanity of this braveadventurer are warmly acknowledged by his enemies. " "Hefought his ship, " according to the same author, "untilthe hold was almost filled with water, and the deckcovered 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 ofthe new Archbishop of Armagh, Dr. George Stone, whosecharacter, if he was not exceedingly calumniated by hiscotemporaries, might be compared to that of the worstpoliticians of the worst ages of Europe. Originally, theson of the jailer of Winchester, he had risen by dint oftalents, and audacity, to receive from the hands of hissovereign, the illustrious dignity of Primate of Ireland. But even in this exalted office, the abominable vices ofhis youth accompanied him. His house at Leixlip, was atonce a tavern and a brothel, and crimes, which arenameless, were said to be habitual under his roof. "Maythe importation of Ganymedes into Ireland, be soondiscontinued, " was the public toast, which disguisedunder 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, " willneed no further key to the horrible charges commonlyreceived on both sides of the channel, against PrimateStone. 

The viceroyalty of Ireland, which had become an objectof ambition to the first men in the empire, was warmlycontested by the Earl of Harrington and the Duke ofDorset. The former, through his Stanhope influence andconnections, prevailed over his rival, and arrived inIreland, warmly recommended by the popular Chesterfield. During his administration, Primate Stone, proceeding fromone extreme to another, first put forward the dangeroustheory, that all surplus revenue belonged of right tothe 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 ofher land tenures, and her recent losses by emigration, Ireland found herself in possession of a considerablesurplus revenue. 

Like wounds and bruises in a healthy body, the sufferingsand deprivations of the population rapidly disappearedunder the appearance even of improvement in the government. The observant Chesterfield, who continued through lifewarmly attached to the country in which his name wasremembered with so much affection, expresses to hisfriend, Chevenix, Bishop of Waterford, in 1751, hissatisfaction at hearing "that Ireland improves daily, and that a spirit of industry spreads itself, to thegreat increase of trade and manufactures. " This new-bornprosperity the Primate and politicians of his schoolwould 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 surpluswas naturally regarded, by the Patriot party, in thelight of so much national capital; they looked upon itas an improvement fund, for the construction of canals, highways, and breakwaters, for the encouragement of thelinen and other manufactures, and for the adornment ofthe capital with edifices worthy of the chief city of aflourishing kingdom. 

The leader of the Patriot party, Anthony Malone, wascompared at this period, by an excellent authority, to"a great sea in a calm. " He was considered, even by thefastidious Lord Shelburne, the equal, in oratory, ofChatham and Mansfield. He seems to have at all times, however, sunk the mere orator in the statesman, and tohave used his great powers of argument even more inCouncil than in the arena. His position at the bar, asPrime Sergeant, by which he took precedence even of theAttorney-General, gave great weight to his opinions onall questions of constitutional law. The roysteringcountry gentlemen, who troubled their heads but littlewith anything besides dogs and horses, pistols and claret, felt secure in their new-fledged patriotism, under thebroad aegis of the law extended over them by the mosteminent lawyer of his age. The Speaker of the Commons, Henry Boyle, aided and assisted Malone, and when leftfree to combat on the floor, his high spirit and greatfortune gave additional force to his example and confidenceto his followers. Both were men too cautious to allowtheir adversaries any parliamentary advantage over them, but not so their intrepid coadjutor out of doors, ApothecaryLucas. He, like Swift, rising from local and municipalgrievances to questions affecting the constitution ofParliament itself, was in 1749, against all the effortsof his friends in the House of Commons, declared by themajority 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 hereturned, to celebrate in his Freeman's Journal thehumiliation of the primate, and the defeat of the policyboth of Lord Harrington, and his successor, the Duke ofDorset. 

This nobleman, resolved to cast his predecessor into theshade by the brilliancy of his success, proceeded to takevigorous measures against the patriots. In his firstspeech 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 theannual supply bill in the English Council, containingthe same obnoxious word, "consent. " On this occasion, not feeling themselves strong enough to throw out thebill, and there being no alternative but rejection oracceptance, the Patriots permitted it to pass underprotest. But the next session, when a similar additionwas made, the Commons rejected the supply bill altogether, by a majority of 122 to 117. This was a measure of almostrevolutionary consequence, since it left every branch ofthe public service unprovided for, for the ensuing twelvemonths. 

Both the advisers of the King in England, and the Viceroyin Ireland, seemed by their insane conduct as if theydesired to provoke such a collision. Malone's patent ofprecedence as Prime Sergeant was cancelled; the speakerwas dismissed from the Privy Council, and the surplusrevenue was withdrawn from the Vice-Treasurer, by a King'sletter. The indignation of the Dubliners at these outragesrose to the utmost pitch. Stone, Healy, Hutchinson, andothers of the Castle party, were waylaid and menaced inthe streets, and the Viceroy himself hooted wherever heappeared. Had the popular leaders been men less cautious, or less influential, the year 1753 might have witnesseda violent revolutionary movement. But they plantedthemselves on the authority of the constitution, theyunited boldness with prudence, and they triumphed. ThePrimate and his creatures raised against them in vainthe cuckoo cry of disloyalty, both in Dublin and London. The English Whigs, long engaged themselves in a similarstruggle with the overgrown power of the crown, sympathizedwith the Irish opposition, and defended their motivesboth in society and in Parliament. The enemies of theDorset family as naturally took their part, and the dukehimself was obliged to go over to protect his interestat court, leaving the odious Primate as one of theLords-Justices. At his departure his guards were hardlyable to protect him from the fury of the populace, tothat waterside to which Chesterfield had walked on foot, seven years before, amid the benedictions of the samepeople. 

The Patriots had at this crisis a great addition to theirstrength, in the accession of James, the twentieth Earlof Kildare, successively Marquis and Duke of Leinster. This nobleman, in the prime of life, married to thebeautiful 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 everaddressed to a sovereign by a subject. After recitingthe past services of his family in maintaining the imperialconnection, he declared himself the organ of severalthousands of his Majesty's liege subjects, "as well thenobles as the clergy, the gentry, and the commonalty ofthe kingdom. " He dwells on the peculation and extravaganceof the administration, under "the Duumvirate" of theViceroy and the Primate, which he compares with the leagueof Strafford and Laud. He denounces more especially LordGeorge Sackville, son to Dorset, for his intermeddlingin every branch of administration. He speaks of Dr. Stoneas "a greedy churchman, who affects to be a second Wolseyin the senate. " This high-toned memorial struck withastonishment the English ministers, who did not hesitateto hint, that, in a reign less merciful, it would nothave passed with impunity. In Ireland it raised the hardyearl to the pinnacle of popular favour. A medal was struckin his honour, representing him guarding a heap of treasurewith a drawn sword, and the motto--"Touch not, saysKildare. " At the opening of the next Parliament, he wasa full hour making his way among the enthusiastic crowd, from his house in Kildare street to College Green. Inlittle more than a year, the Duke of Dorset, whom Englishministers had in vain endeavoured to sustain, was removed, and the Primate, by his Majesty's orders, was struckfrom the list of privy counsellors. 

Lord Harrington, now Duke of Devonshire, replaced thedisgraced and defeated Dorset, and at once surroundedhimself 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 ofthe popular family of the Ponsonbys, and Mr. Malone, werecalled to the Privy Council. Lucas, exalted rather thaninjured by years of exile, was elected one of the membersfor the city of Dublin, and the whole face of affairspromised a complete and salutary change of administration. 

After a year in office, Devonshire returned to Englandin ill-health, leaving Lord Kildare as one of the Justices, an office which he continued to fill, till the arrivalin September, 1756, of John, fourth Duke of Bedford, asLord-Lieutenant, with Mr. Rigby, "a good four bottleman, " as chief secretary. 

The instructions of the Duke of Bedford, dictated by thegenius and wisdom of Chatham, were, to employ "allsoftening 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 theEnglish Whigs. Consistently with this design, lie wishedwell to the country he was sent to rule, and was sincerelydesirous of promoting measures of toleration. But hefound the Patriots distracted by success, and disorganizedby the possession of power. The Speaker, who had struggledso successfully against his predecessors, was in theUpper House as Earl of Shannon, and the chair of theCommons was filled by John Ponsonby, of the Bessboroughfamily. The Ponsonby following, and the Earl of Kildare'sfriends were at this period almost as much divided fromeach other in their views of public policy, as eitherwere from the party of the Primate. The Ponsonby party, still directed by Malone, wished to follow up the recentvictory on the money bills, by a measure of Catholicrelief, a tax upon absentees, and a reduction of thepension list, shamelessly burthened beyond all formerproportion. Lord Kildare and his friends were not thenprepared to go such lengths, though that high spiritednobleman 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 listento the overtures of the, obsequious Primate, to restorehim to the Council, and to leave him, together with hisold enemy, Lord Shannon, in the situation of jointadministrators, during his journey to England, in 1758. The Earl of Kildare, it should be remarked, firmly refusedto be associated with Stone, on any terms, or for anytime, long or short. 

The closing of this important reign is notable for thefirst Catholic meeting held since the reign of QueenAnne. In the spring of 1757, four hundred respectablegentlemen attended by mutual agreement, at Dublin, amongwhom were Lords Devlin, Taafe, and Fingal, the antiquary, Charles O'Conor, of Balanagar, the historian of the _CivilWars_, Dr. Curry, and Mr. Wyse, a merchant of Waterford, the ancestor of a still better known labourer in the samecause. The then recent persecution of Mr. Saul, a Dublinmerchant, of their faith, for having harboured a younglady whose friends wished to coerce her into a change ofreligion, gave particular significance to this assembly. It is true the proceedings were characterized by cautionamounting almost to timidity, but the unanimous declarationof their loyal attachment to the throne, at a moment whenFrench invasion was imminent, produced the best effect, and greatly strengthened the hands of the Clanbrassils, Ponsonbys, Malones, Dalys, and other advocates of anenlarged toleration in both Houses. It is true no immediatelegislation followed, but the way was prepared for futureameliorations by the discretion and tact of the Catholicdelegates of 1757. They were thenceforth allowed at leastthe right of meeting and petitioning, of which they hadlong been deprived, and the restoration of which marksthe first step in their gradual recovery of their civilliberties. 

In 1759 a rumour broke out in Dublin that a legislativeunion 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 stoppedthe carriages of members, and obliged them to swearopposition to such a measure. Some of the Protestantbishops, and the Lord Chancellor were roughly handled;a privy counsellor was thrown into the river; the AttorneyGeneral was wounded and obliged to take refuge in thecollege; Lord Inchiquin was abused till he said his namewas O'Brien, when the rage of the people "was turned intoacclamations. " The Speaker, Mr. Ponsonby, and the ChiefSecretary, Mr. Rigby, had to appear in the porch of theHouse of Commons, solemnly to assure the citizens thatno union was dreamed of, and if it was proposed, thatthey would be the first to resist it. Public spirit hadevidently grown bold and confident, and we can wellbelieve Secretary Rigby when he writes to the elder Pitt, that "the mob" declared, "since they have no chance ofnumbers in the House, they must have recourse to numbersout of doors. "

CHAPTER V. 

ACCESSION OF GEORGE III. --FLOOD'S LEADERSHIP--OCTENNIAL PARLIAMENTS ESTABLISHED. 

George III. , grandson of the late king, commenced, inOctober, 1760, at the age of two and twenty, the longestreign in British history. Including the period of theregency, he reigned over his empire nearly sixty years--an extraordinary term of royal power, and quite asextraordinary for its events as for its extreme length. 

The great movement of the Irish mind, at the beginningof this reign, was the limitation of the duration ofParliament, hitherto elected for the King's life. Thisreform, long advocated out of doors, and by the moreprogressive members within the House, was reserved forthe new Parliament under the new reign. To this Parliamentwere returned several men of great promise, men of a newgeneration, nurtured in the school of Swift and Malone, but going even beyond their masters in their determinationto liberate the legislature of their country from theundue influence of the crown and the castle. Among thosenew 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 ofthe Beresfords, was only in his 28th year when firstelected member for Kilkenny; but, in point of genius andacquirements, he was even then the first man in Ireland, and one of the first in the empire. For a session or twohe silently observed the forms of the House, preparinghimself for the great contest to come; but when at lasthe obtained the ear of his party he was heard to somepurpose. Though far from advocating extreme measures, he had abundant boldness; he was not open to the objectionlevelled 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, andLord Halifax took his place. In the first parliamentarysession, Dr. Lucas introduced his resolutions limitingthe duration of Parliament to seven years, a projectwhich Flood afterwards adopted and mainly contributed tocarry. The heads of the bill embodying these resolutionswere transmitted to London by the Lord-Lieutenant, butnever returned. In 1763, under the government of theMarquis of Hertford, similar resolutions were introducedand carried, but a similar fate awaited them. Again theywere passed, and again rejected, the popular dissatisfactionrising 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 tooctennial, and with this alteration it passed into law, in February, 1768. A new Parliament the same year waselected under the new act, to which all the friends ofthe measure were triumphantly returned. The faithfulLucas, however, survived his success little better thantwo years; he died amid the very sincere regrets of allmen who were not enemies of their country. At his funeralthe pall was borne by the Marquis of Kildare, LordCharlemont, Mr. Flood, Mr. Hussey Burgh, Sir LuciusO'Brien, and Mr. Ponsonby. 

Lord Halifax, and his chief secretary, Mr. Hamilton (knownto us as "the single-speech Hamilton, " of literaryhistory), received very graciously the loyal addressespresented by the Catholics, soon after his Majesty'saccession. In a speech from the throne, the Viceroyproposed, but was obliged to abandon the proposition, toraise six regiments of Catholics, under their own officers, to be taken into the service of Portugal, the ally ofGreat Britain. His administration was otherwise remarkableneither for its length nor its importance; nor is thereanything else of consequence to be mentioned of hislordship, except that his nephew, and chief secretary, had the honour to have Edmund Burke for his privatesecretary, and the misfortune to offend him. 

During the government of the Marquis of Hertford, andhis successor, Lord Townsend (appointed in 1768), thePatriot party contended on the ground of rendering thejudges independent, diminishing the pension list, andmodifying the law of Poynings, requiring heads of billsto be sent into England, and certified by both PrivyCouncils, before they could be passed upon by thelegislature. The question of supply, and that of theduration of Parliament, being settled, these reforms werethe next objects of exertion. When we know that the lateKing's mistresses, the Queen Dowager of Prussia, PrinceFerdinand, and other connections of the royal family, equally alien to the country, were pensioners to theamount of thousands of pounds annually on the Irishestablishment, we can understand more clearly the bitternessof the battle Mr. Flood and his colleagues were calledupon to fight in assailing the old system. But they foughtit resolutely and perseveringly. Death had removed theirmost unscrupulous enemy, Primate Stone, during the Hertfordadministration, and the improved tone and temper of publicopinion would not tolerate any attempt to raise up asuccessor of similar character. Lord Townsend, an oldcampaigner and _bon vivant_, was expressly chosen as mostcapable of restoring the old system of government bycloseting and corruption, but he found the Ireland ofhis day very materially altered from the defencelessprovince, which Stone and Dorset had attempted to cajoleor to coerce, twenty years before. 

The Parliament of 1769--the first limited Parliamentwhich Ireland had seen since the revolution--proved, inmost 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 thecastle, but on its return from England was found to bealtered--15, 000 men, among other changes, being chargedto 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 theLord Lieutenant, protesting in the House of Lords againsttheir conduct, ordered them to be prorogued. Prorogationfollowed prorogation, till February, 1771, the intervalbeing occupied in closeting and coquetting with membersof the opposition, in the creation of new places, andthe disposal of them to the relatives of those capableof being bought. No one was surprised, when the Housesreassembled, to find that a bare majority of the Commonsvoted a fulsome address of confidence to the LordLieutenant. But this address, Speaker Ponsonby indignantlyrefused to present. He preferred resignation to disgrace, and great was the amazement and indignation when hisfriend, Mr. Perry, elected by a bare majority, consentedto take the post--no longer a post of honour. In justiceto Mr, Perry, however, it must be added, that in thechair as on the floor of Parliament, he still continuedthe patriot--that if he advanced his own fortunes, itwas not at the expense of the country--that some of thebest 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 spiritand combined the ranks of the Irish opposition. The pressof Dublin teemed with philippics and satires, upon hiscreatures and himself. The wit, the scholarship, theelegant fancy, the irresistible torrent of eloquence, aswell as the popular enthusiasm, were against him, and in1772, borne down by these combined forces, he confessedhis failure by resigning the sword of state into thehands of Lord Harcourt. 

The new Viceroy, according to custom, began his reign bytaking an exactly opposite course to his predecessor, and ended it by falling into nearly the same errors andabuses. He suggested an Absentee-tax, which was introducedby Flood, but rejected through the preponderating influenceof the landed aristocracy. In preparing the tables ofexpenditure, he had caused arrears amounting to 265, 000pounds, and an annual increase of 100, 000 pounds, to beadded to the estimates. Moreover, his supply bill wasdiscovered, at the second reading, to extend over _twoyears_ instead of one--a discovery which occasioned thegreatest indignation. Flood raised his powerful voice inwarning, not unmingled with menace; Burgh declared, thatif any member should again bring in such a bill, he wouldhimself move his expulsion from the House; while GeorgeOgle, member for Wexford, proposed that the bill itselfshould 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 tomake it burn the better. It was not thought politic totake notice of this revolutionary retort. 

CHAPTER VI. 

FLOOD'S LEADERSHIP--STATE OF THE COUNTRY BETWEEN1760 AND 1776. 

England was engaged in two great wars during the periodof Flood's supremacy in the Irish Parliament--the sevenyears' war, concluded by the peace of Paris in 1763, andthe American war, concluded by the treaty of Versailles, in 1783. To each of these wars Ireland was the secondlargest contributor both as to men and money; and by bothshe was the severest sufferer, in her manufactures, herprovision trade, and her general prosperity. While armycontracts, and all sorts of military and naval expenditurein a variety of ways returned to the people of Englandthe produce of their taxes, the Irish had no suchcompensation for the burdens imposed on their more limitedresources. The natural result was, that that incipientprosperity which Chesterfield hailed with pleasure in1751, was arrested in its growth, and fears began to beseriously entertained that the country would be drivenback to the lamentable condition from which it had slowlyand laboriously emerged during the reign of George II. 

The absence of employment in the towns threw the labouringclasses more and more upon the soil for sustenance, whilethe landlord legislation of the period threw them ashelplessly back upon other pursuits than agriculture. Agrarian injustice was encountered by conspiracy, andfor the first time in these pages, we have to record theintroduction of the diabolical machinery of secretoath-bound associations among the Irish peasantry. Ofthe first of these combinations in the southern counties, a cotemporary writer gives the following account: "Somelandlords in Munster, " he says, "have let their lands tocotters far above their value, and, to lighten theirburden, allowed commonange to their tenants by way ofrecompense: afterwards, in despite of all equity, contraryto all compacts, the landlords enclosed these commons, and precluded their unhappy tenants from the only meansof making their bargains tolerable. " The peasantry ofWaterford, Cork, and other southern counties met intumultuous crowds, and demolished the new enclosures. The oligarchical majority took their usual cue on suchoccasions: they pronounced, at once, that the cause ofthe riots was "treason against the state;" they evenobtained a select committee to "inquire into the causeand progress of the Popish insurrection in Munster. "Although the London Gazette, on the authority of royalcommissioners, declared that the rioters "consistedindiscriminately of persons of different persuasions, "the Castle party would have it "another Popish plot. "Even Dr. Lucas was carried away by the passions of thehour, and declaimed against all lenity, as cowardly andcriminal. 

A large military force, under the Marquis of Drogheda, was accordingly despatched to the south. The Marquisfixed his head-quarters at Clogheen, in Tipperary, theparish priest of which was the Rev. Nicholas Sheehy. Themagistracy of the county, especially Sir Thomas Maude, William Bagnel, John Bagwell, Daniel Toler, and ParsonHewitson, were among the chief maintainers of the existenceof 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 inFrance, young, popular, eloquent and energetic, a sterndenouncer of the licentious lives of the squires, and ofthe exacting tithes of the parsons, he was particularlyobnoxious. In 1763 he was arrested on a charge of hightreason, for drilling and enrolling Whiteboys, but wasacquitted. Towards the close of that year, Bridge, oneof the late witnesses against him, suddenly disappeared. A charge of murder was then laid against the priest ofClogheen, and a prostitute named Dunlea, a vagrant ladnamed Lonergan, and a convicted horse stealer calledToohey, were produced in evidence against him, after hehad lain nearly a year in prison, heavily fettered. Onthe 12th of March, 1765, he was tried at Clonmel, on thisevidence; and notwithstanding an _alibi_ was proved, hewas condemned, and beheaded on the third day afterwards. Beside the old ruined church of Shandraghan, his well-worntomb remains till this day. He died in his thirty-eighthyear. Two months later, Edward Sheehy, his cousin, andtwo respectable young farmers, named Buxton and Farrell, were executed under a similar charge, and upon the sametestimony. All died with religious firmness and composure. The fate of their enemies is notorious; with a singleexception, they met deaths violent, loathsome, andterrible. Maude died insane, Bagwell in idiocy, one ofthe jury committed suicide, another was found dead in aprivy, a third was killed by his horse, a fourth wasdrowned, a fifth shot, and so through the entire list. Toohey was hanged for felony, the prostitute Dunlea fellinto a cellar and was killed, and the lad Lonergan, afterenlisting as a soldier, died of a loathsome disease ina Dublin infirmary. 

In 1767, an attempt to revive the plot was made by theMunster oligarchy, without success. Dr. McKenna, Bishopof Cloyne, was arrested but enlarged; Mr. Nagle, ofGarnavilla (a relative of Edmund Burke), Mr. RobertKeating, and several respectable Catholic gentlemen, werealso arrested. It appears that Edmund Burke was chargedby the ascendancy party with having "sent his brotherRichard, recorder of Bristol, and Mr. Nagle, a relation, on a mission to Munster, to levy money on the Popish bodyfor the use of the Whiteboys, who were exclusivelyPapists. " The fact was, that Burke did originate asubscription for the defence of the second batch ofvictims, who, through his and other exertions, werefortunately saved from the fate of their predecessors. 

Contemporaneous with the Whiteboys were the northernagrarians, called "Hearts of Steel, " formed among theabsentee Lord Downshire's tenants, in 1762; the "OakBoys, " so called from wearing oak leaves in their hats;and the "Peep o' Day Boys, " the precursors of the OrangeAssociation. The infection of conspiracy ran through allIreland, and the disorder was neither short-lived nortrivial. Right-boys, Defenders, and a dozen otherdenominations descended from the same evil genius, whoeverhe was, that first introduced the system of signs, andpasswords, and midnight meetings, among the peasantry ofIreland. The celebrated society of United Irishmen wasthe highest form which that principle, in our politics, ever reached. In its origin, it was mainly a Protestantorganization. 

From the first, the Catholic bishops and clergy strenuouslyopposed these secret societies. The Bishop of Cloyneissued a reprobatory pastoral; Father Arthur O'Learyemployed his facile pen against them; the Bishop of Ossoryanathematized them in his diocese. Priests in Kildare, Kilkenny, and Munster, were often in personal danger fromthese midnight legislators; their chapels had beenfrequently nailed up, and their bishops had been oftenobliged to remove them from one neighbourhood to anotherto prevent worse consequences. The infatuation was notto be stayed; the evil was engrafted on society, and manya long year, and woeful scene, and blighted life, andbroken heart, was to signalize the perpetuation of secretsocieties among the population. 

These startling symptoms of insubordination and lawlessness, while they furnished plausible pretexts to the advocatesof repression, still further confirmed the Patriot partyin their belief, that, nothing short of a free trade inexports and imports, and a thorough system of retrenchmentin every branch of the public service, could save thenation from bankruptcy and ruin. This was Flood's opinion, and he had been long recognized as the leading spirit ofthe party. The aged Malone, true to his principles ofconciliation and constitutionalism to the last, passedaway from the scene, in the midst of the exciting eventsof 1776. For some years before his death, his formerplace had been filled by the younger and more vigorousmember for Kilkenny, who, however, did not fail to consulthim with all the deference due to his age, his services, and his wisdom. One of his last official acts waspresiding over the committee of the whole House, whichvoted the American contingent, but rejected the admissionof German troops to supply their place. 

CHAPTER VII. 

GRATTAN'S LEADERSHIP--"FREE TRADE, " AND THE VOLUNTEERS. 

The revolt of the American colonies against the oppressivelegislation of the British Parliament, was the nextcircumstance that deeply affected the constitutionalstruggle, in which the Irish Parliament had so long beenengaged. The similarity in the grievances of Ireland andthe colonies, the close ties of kindred establishedbetween them, the extent of colonial commerce involvedin the result, contributed to give the American Declarationof 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 Irishlegislature, was in Lord Townsend's message in 1775, calling for the despatch of 4, 000 men from the Irishestablishment, to America, and offering to supply theirplace by as many foreign Protestant (German) troops. Thedemand was warmly debated. The proposition to receivethe proffered foreign troops was rejected by a majorityof thirty-eight, and the contingent for America passedon a division, upon Flood's plea that they would go outmerely as "4, 000 armed negotiators. " This expression ofthe great parliamentary leader was often afterwards quotedto his prejudice, but we must remember, that, at the timeit was employed, no one on either side of the contesthad abandoned all hopes of accommodation, and that thesignificance of the phrase was rather pointed againstLord North than against the colonies. The 4, 000 men wentout, among them Lord Rawdon (afterwards Lord Moira), LordEdward Fitzgerald, and many others, both officers andmen, who were certainly no enemies of liberty, or thecolonies. 

Some slight relaxation of the commercial restrictionswhich operated so severely against Irish industry weremade during the same year, but these were more thancounterbalanced by the embargo on the export of provisionsto America, imposed in February, 1776. This arbitrarymeasure--imposed by order in Council--was so near beingcensured by the Parliament then sitting, that the Housewas dissolved a month afterwards, and a new electionordered. To meet the new Parliament it was thoughtadvisable to send over a new Viceroy, and accordinglyLord Buckinghamshire entered into office, with Sir RichardHeron as chief secretary. 

In the last session of the late Parliament, a young_protege_ of Lord Charlemont--he was only in histwenty-ninth year--had taken his seat for the borough ofCharlemont. This was Henry Grattan, son of the Recorderof Dublin, and grandson of one of those Grattans who, according to Dean Swift, "could raise 10, 000 men. " Theyouth of Grattan had been neither joyous nor robust; inearly manhood he had offended his father's conservatism;the profession of the law, to which he was bred, he foundirksome and unsuited to his tastes; society, as thenconstituted, was repulsive to his over-sensitive spiritand high Spartan ideal of manly duty; no letters aresadder to read than the early correspondence of Grattan, till he had fairly found his inspiration in listeningenraptured to the eloquent utterances of Chatham, orcomparing 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 fouroccasions, briefly, modestly, and with good effect; therehad been no sitting during 1776, nor before October ofthe following year; it was, therefore, in the sessionsfrom '78 to '82 inclusive, that this young member raisedhimself to the head of the most eloquent men, in one ofthe 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 theranks of the opposition--for Burgh, Daly, and Yelvertonwere there; but for a supreme spirit like Grattan--whoseburning tongue was ever fed from his heart of fire--thereis always room in a free senate, how many soever ableand accomplished men may surround him. 

The fall of 1777 brought vital intelligence from America. General Burgoyne had surrendered at Saratoga, and Francehad decided to ally herself with the Americans. The effectin England and in Ireland was immense. When the IrishHouses met, Mr. Grattan moved an address to the King infavour of retrenchment, and against the pension list, and Mr. Daly moved and carried an address deploring thecontinuance of the American war, with a governmentalamendment assuring his Majesty that he might still relyon the services of his faithful Commons. The secondCatholic relief bill, authorizing Papists to loan moneyon mortgage, to lease lands for any period not exceeding999 years--to inherit and bequeath real property, solimited, passed, not without some difficulty, into law. The debate had been protracted, by adjournment afteradjournment, over the greatest part of three months; themain motion had been further complicated by an amendmentrepealing the Test Act in favour of Dissenters, whichwas, fortunately, engrafted on the measure. The vote inthe Commons, in favour of the bill so amended, was 127_yeas_ to 89 _nays_, and in the Lords, 44 _Contents_ to28 _Noncontents_. 

In the English House of Commons, Lord Nugent moved, inApril, a series of resolutions raising the embargo onthe Irish provision trade; abolishing, so far as Irelandwas concerned, the most restrictive clauses of theNavigation Act, both as to exports and imports, with theexception of the article of tobacco. Upon this themanufacturing and shipping interest of England, takingthe alarm, raised such a storm in the towns and citiesthat the ministry of the day were compelled to resistthe proposed changes, with a few trifling exceptions. But Grattan had caught up, in the other island, the cryof "free trade, " and the people echoed it after theirorator, until the whole empire shook with the populardemand. 

But what gave pith and power to the Irish demands wasthe enrolment and arming of a numerous volunteer force, rendered absolutely necessary by the defenceless stateof the kingdom. Mr. Flood had long before proposed anational militia, but being in opposition and in theminority, he had failed. To him and to Mr. Perry, as muchas to Lord Charlemont and Mr. Grattan, the militia billof 1778, and the noble army of volunteers equipped underits provisions, owed their origin. Whether this forcewas to be a regular militia, subject to martial law, orcomposed of independent companies, was for some monthsa subject of great anxiety at the castle; but necessityat length precipitated a decision in favour of volunteercompanies, to be supplied with arms by the state, butdrilled and clothed at their own expense, with power toelect their own officers. The official announcement ofthis decision once made, the organization spread rapidlyover the whole kingdom. The Ulster corps, first organized, chose as their commander the Earl of Charlemont, whilethose of Leinster elected the Duke of Leinster. Simultaneously, resolutions against the purchase ofEnglish goods and wares were passed at public meetings, and by several of the corporate bodies. Lists of theimporters of such goods were obtained at the customhouses, and printed in handbills, to the alarm of theimporters. Swift's sardonic maxim, "to burn everythingcoming from England, _except the coals_, " began tocirculate as a toast in all societies, and the consternationof the Castle, at this resurrection of the redoubtableDean, was almost equal to the apprehension entertainedof him while living. 

While the Castle was temporizing with both the militaryand the manufacture movement, in a vague expectation todefeat both, the press, as is usual in such nationalcrises, teemed with publications of great fervour andability. 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 thisdepartment of patriotic duty. Cheered, instructed, restrained within due bounds by these writings and thereported debates of Parliament, the independent companiesproceeded with their organization. In July, 1779, afterall the resources of prevarication had been exhausted, arms were issued to the several recognized corps, andthe Irish volunteers became in reality a national armyfor domestic protection and defence. 

When this point was reached, Mr. Grattan and his friendstook anxious council as to their future movements. Parliament was to meet on the 12th of October, and inthat sweet autumnal month, Grattan, Burgh, and Daly, metupon the sea-shore, near Bray, in view of one of theloveliest landscapes on earth, to form their plan forthe session. They agreed on an amendment to the addressin answer to the royal speech, demanding in explicitterms "free export and import" for Irish commerce. WhenParliament 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 undergovernment, would vote for it. Flood suggested to substitutethe simple term "free trade, " and with this and one otherverbal alteration suggested by Burgh, the amendment passedwith a single dissenting voice. 

The next day the Speaker, Mr. Perry, who was all alongin 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 tothe castle. The streets were lined with volunteers, commanded in person by the Duke of Leinster, who presentedarms to the patriotic Commons as they passed. Most ofthe leading members wore the uniform of one or other ofthe national companies, and the people saw themselves atthe same moment under the protection of a patrioticmajority in the legislature, and a patriotic force inthe field. No wonder their enthusiastic cheers rangthrough the corridors of the castle with a strangelyjubilant and defiant emphasis. It was not simply thespectacle of a nation recovering its spirit, but recoveringit with all military _eclat_ and pageantry. It was thedisarmed armed and triumphant--a revolution not only innational feeling, but in the external manifestation ofthat feeling. A change so profound stirred sentimentsand purposes even deeper than itself, and suggested tothe ardent imagination of Grattan the establishment ofentire national independence, saving always the rightsof the crown. 

The next day, the Houses, not to be outdone in courtesy, voted their thanks to the volunteers for "their just andnecessary exertions in defence of their country!"

CHAPTER VIII. 

GRATTAN'S LEADERSHIP--LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIALINDEPENDENCE ESTABLISHED. 

The task which Mr. Grattan felt called upon to undertake, was not _revolutionary_, in the usually accepted senseof the term. He was a Monarchist and a Whig in generalpolitics; but he was an Irishman, proud and fond of hiscountry, and a sincere lover of the largest religiousliberty. With the independence of the judiciary and thelegislature, 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 thediscouragements incident to the early stages of greatconstitutional reforms. 

Without awaiting the action of the English Parliament, in relation to free trade, a public-spirited citizen ofDublin, Alderman James Horan, demanded an entry at thecustom house, for some parcels of Irish woollens, whichhe proposed exporting to Rotterdam, contrary to theprohibitory enactment, the 10th and 11th of William III. The commissioners of customs applied for instructions tothe Castle, and the Castle to the Secretary of State, Franklin's friend, Lord Hillsborough. For the moment acollision similar to that which had taken place at Boston, on a not dissimilar issue, seemed imminent. A frigatewas 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 toremain on the custom house files. It had served itspurpose of bringing home practically to the people, thevalue of the principle involved in the demand for freedomof exports and imports. At the same time that thispractical argument was discussed in every circle, Mr. Grattan moved in the House of Commons, in amendment tothe supply bill, that, "At this time it is inexpedientto grant new taxes. " The government divided the House, but to their mortification found only 47 supporters; forGrattan's amendment there were 170. A subsequent amendmentagainst granting duties for the support of the loan fund, was also carried by 138 to 100. 

These adverse votes were communicated with greattrepidation, by the Lord Lieutenant, to the Britishadministration. At length Lord North thought it essentialto make some concessions, and with this view he broughtin resolutions, declaring the trade with the Britishcolonies in America and Africa, and the free export ofglass and woollens, open to the Irish merchant. A weeklater, similar resolutions were passed in the IrishCommons, and in February, 1780, "a free trade" in thesense in which it had been demanded, was established bylaw, placing Ireland in most respects, as to foreign andcolonial commerce, on an equality with England. 

In February, the Viceroy again alarmed the Britishadministration, with the reported movement for the repealof "Poyning's law, "--the statute which required heads ofbills to be transmitted to, and approved in England, before they could be legislated upon. He received inreply, the royal commands to resist by every means inhis 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, " betweenthe two kingdoms. But the Patriot Commoners were not tobe so deterred. They declared the repeal of Poyning'sact, and the 6th of George I. , to be their ultimatum, and notices of motion to that effect were immediatelyplaced on the journals of the House of Commons. 

In the early days of April, Grattan, who, more than anyof our orators, except perhaps Burke, was sensitive tothe aspects of external nature, and imbued with the poetryof her works, retired from the city, to his uncle DeanMarlay's house, Cellbridge Abbey, formerly the residenceof Swift's ill-fated Vannessa. "Along the banks of thatriver, " he said, many years afterwards, "amid the grovesand bowers of Swift and Vannessa, I grew convinced thatI was right; arguments, unanswerable, came to my mind, and what I then presaged, confirmed me in my determinationto persevere. " With an enthusiasm intensified andrestrained--but wonderful in the fire and grandeur ofits utterance--he rose in his place, on the 19th of themonth, to move that "the King, Lords, and Commons ofIreland, are the only power competent to enact laws tobind Ireland. " He was supported by Hussey Burgh, Yelverton, and Forbes; Flood favoured postponement, and laid thefoundation of his future estrangement from Grattan; Dalywas also for delay; Fitzgibbon, afterwards Lord Clare, Provost Hutchinson, and John Foster, afterwards LordOriel, resisted the motion. The Castle party moved inamendment that "there being an equivalent resolutionalready on the journals of the House"--alluding to oneof the resolutions against Stafford's tyranny in 1641--anew resolution was unnecessary. This amendment was carriedby 136 to 79, thus affirming the formula of independenceadopted in 1641, but depriving Grattan of the honour ofputting it, in his own words, on the record. The substantialresult, however, was the same; the 19th of April wastruly what Grattan described it, "a great day for Ireland. ""It is with the utmost concern, " writes the Viceroy nextday to Lord Hillsborough, "I must acquaint your Lordshipthat although so many gentlemen expressed their concernthat the subject had been introduced, the sense of theHouse _against_ the obligation of _any statutes_ of theParliament of Great Britain, within this kingdom, isrepresented to me to have been almost unanimous. "

Ten days later, a motion of Mr. Yelverton's to repealPoyning's law, as far as related to the Irish privycouncil's supervision of heads of bills, was negativedby 130 to 105. 

During the remainder of the session the battle ofindependence was fought on the Mutiny Bill. The Viceroyand the Chief Secretary, playing the game of power, wereresolved that the influence of the crown should not bediminished, so far as the military establishments wereconcerned. Two justices of the peace in Sligo and Mayo, having issued writs of _habeas corpus_ in favour ofdeserters from the army, on the ground that neither theBritish Mutiny Act, nor any other British statute, wasbinding on Ireland, unless confirmed by an act of itsown legislature, brought up anew the whole question. LordNorth, who, with all his proverbial tact and good humour, in the House of Commons, always pursued the most arbitrarypolicy throughout the empire, proposed a perpetual MutinyBill for Ireland, instead of the Annual Bill, in forcein England. It was introduced in the Irish House ofCommons by Mr. Gervase Parker Bushe, and, by a vote oftwo to one, postponed for a fortnight. During the interval, the British authorities remained obdurate to argumentand remonstrance. In vain, the majority of the Irishprivy counsellors advised concession; in vain, Flood, who was consulted, pointed out the futility of attemptingto force such a measure; it was forced, and, under thecry of loyalty, a draft bill was carried through bothHouses, and remitted to England in June. Early in Augustit was returned; on the 12th it was read a first time;on the 16th, a second; and it was carried through Committeeby 114 to 62. It was at this emergency the Volunteersperformed the second act of their great drama of Ireland'sliberation. A series of reviews were held, and significantaddresses presented to Lord Camden (then on a visit tothe country), Lord Charlemont, Mr. Flood, and Mr. Grattan. On the re-assembling of Parliament in August, when thebill was referred to, Mr. Grattan declared that he wouldresist it to the last; that if passed into law, he andhis friends would _secede_, and would appeal to the peoplein "a formal instrument. " A new series of corporationand county meetings was convened by the Patriot party, which warmly condemned the Perpetual Mutiny Act, and aswarmly approved the repeal of Poyning's Act, and the 6thof George I. : questions which were all conceived to beintermixed together, and to flow from the assertion ofa common principle. Parliament being prorogued in September, only threw the whole controversy back again into thefurnace of popular agitation. The British Governmenttried a lavish distribution of titles and a change ofViceroys, --Lord Carlisle being substituted in Decemberfor Lord Buckingham--but the spirit abroad was too generaland too earnest, to be quelled by the desertion ofindividuals, however numerous or influential. With LordCarlisle, came, as Chief Secretary, Mr. Eden, afterwardsLord Auckland; he had been, with his chief, a peacecommissioner to America, two years before, and had failed;he was an intriguing and accomplished man, but he provedhimself as unequal as Heron or Rigby to combat the movementfor Irish independence. 

Parliament was not again called together till the monthof October, 1781; the interval being busily occupied onboth 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, whichwas lost; a little later, Mr. Flood himself introduceda somewhat similar motion, which was also outvoted twoto one; and again, during the session, Mr. Yelverton, having abandoned his promised motion against Poyning'slaw, on news of Lord Cornwallis's surrender reachingDublin, Flood took it up, moved it, and was defeated. Afurther measure of relief for Roman Catholics, introducedby Mr. Gardiner, author of the act of 1778, and warmlysupported by Grattan, was resisted by Flood in the oneHouse, and Lord Charlemont in the other. It miscarried, and left another deposit of disagreement between theactual and the former leader of the Patriot party. 

Still no open rupture had taken place between the twoPatriot orators. When the convention of the volunteerswas called at Dungannon for the 15th of February, 1782, they consulted at Charlemont House as to the resolutionsto be passed. They were agreed on the constitutionalquestion; Grattan, of his own generous free will, addedthe resolution in favour of emancipation. Two hundredand forty-two delegates, representing 143 corps, unanimouslyadopted the resolutions so drafted, as their own, and, from the old head-quarters of Hugh O'Neil, sent forthanew an unequivocal demand for civil and religious liberty. The example of Ulster soon spread through Ireland. Ameeting of the Leinster volunteers, Mr. Flood in thechair, echoed it from Dublin; the Munster corps endorsedit unanimously at Cork; Lord Clanrickarde summoned togetherthose of the western counties at Portumna--an historicspot, suggestive of striking associations. Strengthenedby these demonstrations of public opinion, Mr. Grattanbrought forward, on the 22nd of February, his motiondeclaratory of the rights of Ireland. An amendment infavour of a six months' postponement of the question wascarried; but on the 16th of April, just two years fromhis first effort on the subject (the administration ofLord North having fallen in the meantime), the oratorhad the satisfaction of carrying his address declaratoryof Irish legislative independence. It was on this occasionthat he exclaimed: "I found Ireland on her knees; Iwatched over her with a paternal solicitude; I have tracedher progress from injury to arms, and from arms to liberty. Spirit of Swift! Spirit of Molyneux! your genius hasprevailed! Ireland is now a nation! in that new characterI 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 tenderlylifted up and restored! The Houses adjourned to giveEngland time to consider Ireland's _ultimatum_. Withina month it was accepted by the new British administration, and on the 27th of May, the new Whig Viceroy, the Dukeof Portland, was authorized to announce from the thronethe establishment of the judicial and legislativeindependence 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 leadingLords of the Whig party. The nobleman selected to thisoffice was William Henry, third Duke of Portland, afterwardstwice prime minister; then in the prime of life, possessedof a very ample fortune, and uniting in his own personthe two great Whig families of Bentinck and Cavendish. The policy he was sent to represent at Dublin wasundoubtedly an imperial policy; a policy which looked asanxiously to the integrity of the empire as any Torycabinet could have desired; but it was, in most otherrespects, a policy of conciliation and concession, dictatedby the enlarged wisdom of Burke, and adopted by themagnanimous candour of Fox. Yet by a generous people, who always find it more difficult to resist a liberalthan an illiberal administration, it was, in reality, apolicy more to be feared than welcomed; for its almostcertain effects were to divide their ranks into twosections--a moderate and an extreme party--between whomthe national cause, only half established, might rungreat danger of being lost, almost as soon as it was won. 

With the Duke of Portland was associated, as ChiefSecretary, Colonel Fitzpatrick, of the old Ossory family, one of those Irish wits and men of fashion, who form sostriking a group in the middle and later years of KingGeorge III. As the personal and political friend of Flood, Charlemont, and Grattan, and the first Irish secretaryfor several administrations, he shared the brilliantovation with which the Duke of Portland was received, onhis 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 successesand great personal popularity of the new secretary. 

The critical months which decided the contest forindependence--April and May--passed over fortunately forIreland. 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 byletter, the new Viceroy and Secretary in person, hadurged every argument for adjournment and delay, butGrattan's _ultimatum_ was sent over to England, andfinally and formally accepted. The demands were _five_. I. The repeal of the 6th of George I. II. The repeal ofthe Perpetual Mutiny Act. III. An Act to abolish thealteration or suppression of Bills. IV. An Act to establishthe final jurisdiction of the Irish Courts and the IrishHouse of Lords. V. The repeal of Poyning's Law. Thiswas the constitutional charter of 1782, which restoredIreland, for the first time in that century, to the rankand dignity of a free nation. 

Concession once determined on, the necessary bills wereintroduced in both Parliaments simultaneously, and carriedpromptly into law. On the 27th of May, the Irish Houseswere enabled to congratulate the Viceroy that "noconstitutional question any longer existed between thetwo countries. " In England it was proclaimed no lessexplicitly by Fox and his friends, that the independencyof the two legislatures "was fixed and ascertained forever. " But there was, unfortunately, one ground fordispute still left, and on that ground Henry Flood andHenry Grattan parted, never to be reconciled. 

The elder Patriot, whose conduct from the moment of hisretirement from office, in consequence of his Free Tradevote and speech in '79, had been, with occasionalexceptions, arising mostly from bodily infirmity, asenergetic and consistent as that of Grattan himself, sawno sufficient constitutional guarantee in mere acts ofParliament repealing other acts. He demanded "expressrenunciation" of legislative supremacy on the part ofEngland; while Grattan maintained the sufficiency of"simple repeal. " It is possible even in such noble naturesas these men had--so strangely are we constituted--thatthere was a latent sense of personal rivalry, whichprompted them to grasp, each, at the larger share ofpatriotic honour. It is possible that there were other, and inferior men, who exasperated this latent personalrivalry. Flood had once reigned supreme, until Grattaneclipsed him in the sudden splendour of his career. Inscholarship and in genius the elder Patriot was, takenall in all, the full peer of his successor; but Grattanhad the national temperament, and he found his way morereadily into the core of the national heart; he was theman of the later, the bolder, and the more liberal school;and such was the rapidity of his movements, that evenFlood, from '79 to '82, seemed to be his follower, ratherthan his coadjutor. In the hopeful crisis of the struggle, the slower and more experienced statesman was for themoment lost sight of. The leading motions were all placedor left in the hands of Grattan by the consent of theirleading friends; the bills repealing the Mutiny Act, the6th George I. , and Poyning's law, were entrusted to Burgh, Yelverton, and Forbes; the thanks of the House were votedto Grattan alone after the victory, with the substantialaddition of 50, 000 pounds to purchase for him an estate, which should become an enduring monument of the nationalgratitude. 

The open rupture between the two great orators followedfast on the triumph of their common efforts. It was stillthe first month--the very honeymoon of independence. Onthe 13th of June, Mr. Grattan took occasion to notice inhis place, that a late British act relating to theimportation of sugars, was so generally worded as apparentlyto include Ireland; but this was explained to be a mereerror of the clerk, the result of haste, and one whichwould be promptly corrected. Upon this Mr. Flood firsttook occasion to moot the insufficiency of "simple repeal, "and the necessity of "express renunciation, " on the partof England. On the 19th, he moved a formal resolution onthe subject, which was superseded by the order of theday; but on the 19th of July, he again moved, at greatlength, and with great power of logical and historicalargument, for leave to bring in an Irish Bill of Rights, declaring "the sole and exclusive right of the IrishParliament to make laws in all cases whatsoever, _externaland 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 thatany person who shall, by writing or otherwise, maintainthat a right in any other country, to make laws forIreland, _internally_ or _externally_, exists or can berevived, _is inimical to the peace of both kingdoms_. "This extreme proposition--pointing out all who differedfrom 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 thesole and exclusive right of legislation in the IrishParliament 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 todivide the House, so it passed without a division. 

But the moot point thus voted down in Parliament disquietedand alarmed the minds of many out of doors. The volunteersas generally sided with Flood as the Parliament had sidedwith 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 owncorps, in a respectful address, urged him to give hisadherence to the views of "the best informed body of menin the kingdom, "--the lawyers' corps. Just at that momentLord Abingdon, in the English House of Lords, gave noticeof a mischievous motion to assert the external supremacyof the English Parliament; and Lord Mansfield, in theKing's Bench, decided an Irish appeal case, notwithstandingthe recent statute establishing the judicial independenceof the Irish courts. It is true the case had been appealedbefore the statute was passed; and that Lord Abingdonwithdrew his motion for want of a seconder; but the alarmwas given, and the popular mind in Ireland, jealouslywatchful of its new-born liberties, saw in these attemptsrenewed cause for apprehension. In opposition to allthis suddenly awakened suspicion and jealousy, Grattan, who naturally enough assumed his own interest in preservingthe new constitution to be quite equal to those who castdoubts on its security, invariably held one language. The settlement already made, according to his view, wasfinal; it was an international treaty; its maintenancemust depend on the ability and disposition of the partiesto uphold it, rather than on the multiplication ofdeclaratory acts. Ireland had gone to England with acharter, not for a charter, and the nation which wouldinsist upon the humiliation of another, was a foolishnation. This was the lofty light in which he viewed thewhole transaction, and in this light, it must be added, he continued to view it till the last. Many of the chiefEnglish and Irish jurists of his time, Lord Camden, LordKenyon, 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. " Butalthough these are all great names, the instinct ofnational self-preservation may be considered in suchcritical moments more than a counterpoise to the mostmatured opinions of the oracles of the law. Such musthave been the conviction also of the English Parliament, for, immediately on their meeting in January, 1783, theypassed the _Act of Renunciation_ (23rd George III. ), expressly declaring their admission of the "exclusiverights of the Parliament and Courts of Ireland in mattersof legislature and judicature. " This was Flood's greatesttriumph. Six months before his doctrine obtained butthree supporters in the Irish Commons; now, at hissuggestion, and on his grounds, he saw it unanimouslyaffirmed by the British Parliament. 

On two other questions of the utmost importance theseleading spirits also widely differed. Grattan was infavour of, and Flood opposed to, Catholic emancipation;while Flood was In favour of, and Grattan, at that moment, opposed to, a complete reform of parliamentaryrepresentation. The Catholic question had its next greattriumph after Flood's death, as will be mentioned furtheron; 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 ofthe popular success of 1782. They were composed of allbut a few of the more aristocratic corps of the volunteers, of the townsmen, especially in the seaports andmanufacturing towns, of the admirers of American example, of the Catholics who had lately acquired property andrecognition, but not the elective franchise, of the gentryof the second and third degree of wealth, overruled andovershadowed by the greater lords of the soil. Thesubstantial grievance of which they complained was, thatof the 300 members of the House of Commons, only 72 werereturned by the people; 53 Peers having the power tonominate 123 and secure the election of 10 others; while52 Commoners nominated 91 and controlled the choice of4 others. The constitution of what ought to have beenthe people's house was, therefore, substantially in thehands of an oligarchy of about a hundred great proprietors, bound together by the spirit of their class, byintermarriage, and by the hereditary possession of power. To reduce this exorbitant influence within reasonablebounds, was the just and wise design to which Flooddedicated all his energies, after the passage of the _Actof Renunciation_, and the success of which would certainlyhave restored him to complete equality with Grattan. 

In the beginning of 1783, the famous coalition ministryof Lord North and Mr. Pox was formed in England. Theywere at first represented at Dublin Castle, for a fewmonths, 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 earlyin July. A general election followed, and the reformparty made their influence felt in all directions. Countymeetings were held; conventions by districts and byprovinces were called by the reforming Volunteers, inJuly, August, and September. The new Parliament was tobe opened on the 14th of October, and the Volunteersresolved to call a convention of their whole body atDublin, for the 10th of November. 

The Parliament met according to summons, but thoughsearching retrenchment was spoken of, no promise was heldout of a constitutional reform; the limitation of theregular troops to a fixed number was declared advisable, and a vote of thanks to the Volunteers was passed withoutdemur. But the proceedings of the Houses were soon eclipsedby the portentous presence of the Volunteer Convention. One hundred and sixty delegates of corps attended on theappointed day. The Royal Exchange was too small toaccommodate them, so they adjourned to the Rotunda, accompanied by mounted guards of honour. The splendidand eccentric Bishop of Derry (Earl of Bristol), had hisdragoon guards; the courtly but anxious Charlemont hadhis troop of horse; Flood, tall, emaciated, and solemnto sadness, was hailed with popular acclamations; therealso marched the popular Mr. Day, afterwards Judge; RobertStewart, father of Lord Castlereagh; Sir Richard Musgrave, a reformer also, in his youth, who lived to confoundreform with rebellion in his old age. The Earl of Charlemontwas elected president of this imposing body, and for anentire month Dublin was divided between the extraordinaryspectacle of two legislatures--one sitting at the Rotunda, and the other at College Green, many members of eachbeing members of the other; the uniform of the volunteersparkling in the Houses, and the familiar voices of bothHouses being heard deliberating and debating among theVolunteers. 

At length, on the 29th of November, after three weeks'laborious gestation, Flood brought before Parliament theplan of reform agreed to by the Convention. It proposedto extend the franchise to every _Protestant_ freeholderpossessed of a lease worth forty shillings yearly; toextend restricted borough constituencies by annexing tothem neighbouring populous parishes; that the votingshould be held on one and the same day; that pensionersof the crown should be incapable of election; that membersaccepting office should be subject to re-election; thata stringent bribery oath should be administered tocandidates returned; and, finally, that the duration ofParliament should be limited to three years. It was, indeed, an excellent Protestant Reform Bill, for thoughthe Convention had received Father Arthur O'Leary withmilitary honours, and contained many warm friends ofCatholic rights, the majority were still intolerant of_religious_ freedom. In this majority it is painful tohave to record the names of Flood and Charlemont. 

The debate which followed the introduction of this proposedchange in the constitution was stormy beyond all precedent. Grattan, who just one month before (Oct. 28th) had thatfierce vituperative contest with Flood familiar to everyschool-boy, in its worst and most exaggerated form, supported the proposal. The law officers of the crown, Fitzgibbon, Yelverton, Scott, denounced it as an audaciousattempt of armed men to dictate to the House its ownconstitution. The cry of privilege and prerogative wasraised, 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 bitterindignation of some, and the scarcely concealed reliefof others. Two days later they met and adopted a strikingaddress to the throne, and adjourned _sine die_. Thiswas, in fact, the last important day of the Volunteersas a political institution. An attempt a month later tore-assemble the Convention was dexterously defeated bythe President, Lord Charlemont. The regular army was nextsession increased to 15, 000 men; 20, 000 pounds were votedto clothe and equip a rival force--"the Militia"--andthe Parliament, which had three times voted them itsthanks, now began to look with satisfaction on theirrapid disorganization and disbandment. 

This, perhaps, is the fittest place to notice the fewremaining years of the public life of Henry Flood. Afterthe session of 1785, in which he had been outvoted onevery motion he proposed, he retired from the IrishParliament, and allowed himself to be persuaded, at theage of fifty-three, to enter the English. He was electedfor Winchester, and made his first essay on the new scene, on his favourite subject of representative reform. Buthis health was undermined; he failed, except on one ortwo occasions, to catch the ear of that fastidiousassembly, and the figure he made there somewhat disappointedhis friends. He returned to Kilkenny to die in 1791, bequeathing a large portion of his fortune to TrinityCollege, to enrich its MS. Library, and to found apermanent professorship of the Irish language. "He wasan oak of the forest, " said Grattan, "too old to betransplanted at fifty. " "He was a man, " said one who alsoknew him well, Sir Jonah Barrington, "of profound abilities, high manners, and great experience in the affairs ofIreland. He had deep information, an extensive capacity, and a solid judgment. " In his own magnificent "Ode toFame, " he has pictured his ideal of the Patriot-orator, who finds some consolation amid the unequal struggle withthe enemies of his country, foreign and domestic, in aprophetic vision of his own renown. Unhappily, the worksof this great man come down to us in as fragmentary astate as those of Chatham; but enough remains to enableus to class him amongst the greatest masters of ourspeech, and, as far as the drawbacks allowed, among theforemost statesmen of his country. 

It is painful to be left in doubt, as we are, whether hewas ever reconciled to Grattan. The presumption, fromthe silence of their cotemporaries, is, that they nevermet again as friends. But it is consoling to rememberthat in his grave, the survivor rendered him that tributeof justice which almost takes the undying sting out ofthe philippic of 1783; it is well to know, also, thatone of Grattan's latest wishes, thirty years after thedeath of Flood, when he felt his own last hours approaching, was, that it should be known that he "did not speak thevile abuse reported in the Debates" in relation to hisillustrious rival. The best proof that what he did saywas undeserved, is that that rival's reputation forintegrity and public spirit has survived even his terribleonslaught. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE ERA OF INDEPENDENCE--SECOND PERIOD. 

The second period of the era of independence may be saidto embrace the nine years extending from the dissolutionof the last Volunteer Convention, at the end of 1784, tothe passage of the Catholic Relief Bill of 1793. Theywere years of continued interest and excitement, both inthe 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 previousperiod. 

The session of 1785 was first occupied with debatesrelating to what might be called the cross-channel tradebetween England and Ireland. The question of trade broughtwith it, necessarily, the question of revenue; of theduties levied in both kingdoms; of the conflict of theircommercial laws, and the necessity of their assimilation;of the appropriations to be borne by each, to the generalexpense of the army and navy; of the exclusive right ofthe English East India Company to the Indian trade;--inshort, the whole of the fiscal and commercial relationsof the two countries were now to be examined and adjusted, as their constitutional relations had been in previousyears. 

The first plan came from the Castle, through Mr. ThomasOrde, then Chief Secretary, afterwards Lord Bolton. Itconsisted of eleven propositions, embracing every divisionof the subject. They had been arrived at by consultationwith Mr. Joshua Pim, a most worthy Quaker merchant, thefounder of an equally worthy family; Mr. Grattan, Mr. Foster, and others. They were passed as resolutions inIreland, and sent by Mr. Orde to England to see whetherthey would be adopted there also, the second Pitt, thenChancellor of the Exchequer, gave his concurrence, butwhen he introduced to the English Parliament _his_resolutions--twenty in number--it was found that inseveral important respects they differed from the Irishpropositions. On being taken up and presented to theIrish Parliament, in August, the administration foundthey could command, in a full House, only a majority ofsixteen for their introduction, and so the whole arrangementwas abandoned. No definite commercial treaty between thetwo kingdoms was entered into until the Union, and therecan be little doubt that the miscarriage of the Conventionof 1785 was one of the determining causes of that Union. 

The next session was chiefly remarkable for an unsuccessfulattempt to reduce the Pension List. In this debate, Curran, who had entered the House in 1783, particularlydistinguished himself. A fierce exchange of personalitieswith Mr. Fitzgibbon led to a duel between them, in which, fortunately, neither was wounded, but their publichostility was transferred to the arena of the courts, where some of the choicest _morceaux_ of genuine Irishwit 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 thethrone, in which the usual paragraph in favour of theProtestant Charter Schools was followed by another advisingthe establishment of a general system of schools. Thisraised the entire question of education, one of the mostdifficult to deal with in the whole range of Irishpolitics. On the 10th of April, Mr. Orde--destined tobe the author of just, but short-lived projects--introducedhis plan of what might be called national education. Heproposed to establish four great provincial academies, a second university in some north-western county, toreform the twenty-two diocesan schools, so richly endowedunder the 28th Henry VIII. , and to affiliate on TrinityCollege two principal preparatory schools, north andsouth. In 1784, and again in this very year, the humaneJohn Howard had reported of the Irish Charter Schools, then half a century established, that they were "a disgraceto all society. " Sir J. Fitzpatrick, the Inspector ofPrisons, confirmed the general impression of Howard: hefound the children in these schools "puny, filthy, illclothed, without linen, indecent to look upon. " A seriesof resolutions was introduced by Mr. Orde, as the basisof better legislation in the next session; but it is tobe regretted that the proposed reform never went fartherthan the introduction and adoption of these resolutions. 

The session of 1788 was signalized by a great domesticand a great imperial discussion--the Tithe question, andthe Regency question. 

The Tithe question had slumbered within the walls ofParliament since the days of Swift, though not in thelonely lodges of the secret agrarian societies. Veryrecent outbreaks of the old agrarian combinations againstboth excessive rents and excessive tithes, in the Leinsteras well as in southern counties, had called generalattention to the subject, when Grattan, in 1787, movedthat, if it should appear, by the commencement of thefollowing session, that tranquillity had been restoredin the disturbed districts, the House would take intoconsideration the subject of tithes. Accordingly, veryearly in the next ensuing session, he moved for a committeeon the subject, in a three hours' speech, which ranksamong the very highest efforts of his own or any otherage. He was seconded by Lord Kingsborough, one of themost liberal men of his order, and sustained by Curranand 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, wasequally unsuccessful, except for the moral effect producedout of doors by another of those speeches, which it isimpossible to read even at this day, without falling intothe attitude, and assuming the intonation, and feelingthe heartfelt inspiration of the orator. 

The Regency question was precipitated upon both Parliamentsby the mental disorder, which, for the second or thirdtime, attacked George III. , in 1788. The question was, whether the Prince of Wales should reign with as fullpowers as if his father were actually deceased; whetherthere should be restrictions or no restrictions. Mr. Pittand his colleagues contended successfully for restrictionsin England, while Mr. Fox and the opposition took thecontrary position. The English Houses and people wentwith Pitt, but the Irish Parliament went for anunconditional regency. They resolved to offer the crownof Ireland to him they considered _de_ facto theirSovereign, as freely as they had rendered their allegianceto the incapable king; but the Lord Lieutenant--theMarquis of Buckingham--declined to transmit theirover-zealous address, and by the time their joint delegationof both Houses reached London, George III. Had recovered!They received the most gracious reception at CarltonHouse, but they incurred the implacable enmity of WilliamPitt, and created a second determining cause in his mindin 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 Grattancarried, by 105 to 85, a two months', in amendment to atwelve-months' supply bill. Before the two months expiredhe brought in his police bill, his pension bill, and hisbill to prevent officers of the revenue from voting atelections, but ere these reforms could be passed intolaw, the old King recovered, the necessary majority wasreversed, and the measures, of course, defeated or delayedtill better times. The triumph of the oligarchy was inproportion to their fright. The House having passed avote of censure on Lord Buckingham, the Viceroy, forrefusing to transmit their address to the Regent, a threatwas now held out that every one who had voted for thecensure, holding an office of honour or emolument inIreland, would be made "the victim of his vote. " In replyto this threat, a "Round Robin" was signed by the Dukeof Leinster, the Archbishop of Tuam, eighteen peers, allthe leading Whig commoners--the Ponsonbys, Langrishes, Grattan, Connolly, Curran, O'Neil, Day, Charles FrancisSheridan, Bowes Daly, George Ogle, etc. , etc. --declaringthat they would regard any such proscription as an attackon the independence of Parliament, and would jointlyoppose any administration who should resort to suchproscription. But the bold and domineering spirit ofFitzgibbon--the leader of the Castle party, then, andlong afterwards--did not shrink before even so formidablea phalanx. The Duke of Leinster was dismissed from thehonorary office of Master of the Rolls; the Earl ofShannon, from the Vice-Treasurership; William Ponsonbyfrom the office of Postmaster-General; Charles FrancisSheridan, from that of Secretary at War, and ten or twelveother prominent members of the _Irish_ administrationlost places and pensions to the value of 20, 000 poundsa year, for their over-zeal for the Prince of Wales. Atthe same time, Mr. Fitzgibbon was appointed Lord Chancellor, a vacancy having opportunely occurred, by the death ofLord Lifford, in the very midst of the prescriptivecrisis. This elevation transferred him to the UpperHouse, where, for the remaining years of the Parliament, he continued to dogmatize and domineer, as he had donein the Commons, often rebuked, but never abashed. Indeed, the milder manners of the patrician body were ill suitedto resist this ermined demagogue, whose motto throughlife was _audacity, again audacity, and always audacity_. The names of Wolfe, Toler, Corry, Coote, Beresford, andCooke, are also found among the promotions to legal andadministrative office; names familiar to the last generationas the pillars of the oligarchical faction, before andafter the Union. To swamp the opposition peers, the Earlsof Antrim, Tyrone, and Hillsborough were made Marquisesof Antrim, Waterford, and Downshire; the ViscountsGlenawley, Enniskillen, Erne, and Carysfort, were createdEarls of Annesley, Enniskillen, Erne, and Carysfort. ThenJudge Scott became Viscount Clonmel; then the Lordshipsof Loftus, Londonderry, Kilmaine, Cloncurry, Mountjoy, Glentworth, and Caledon, were founded for as many convenientCommoners, who either paid for their patents, in boroughs, or in hard cash. It was the very reign and carnival ofcorruption, over which presided the invulnerableChancellor--a true "King of Misrule. " In reference tothis appalling spectacle, well might Grattan exclaim--"Ina free country the path of public treachery leads to theblock; but in a nation governed like a province, to thehelm!" But the thunders of the orator fell, and werequenched 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 chiefsigners of the "Round Robin, " and gained many adherents. It exercised very considerable influence in the generalelection of 1790, and for the few following years, untilit fell to pieces in the presence of the more ardentpolitics which preceded the storm of 1798. 

Backed though he was by Mr. Pitt, both as his relativeand principal, the Marquis of Buckingham was compelledto resign the government, and to steal away from Dublin, under cover of night, like an absconding debtor. TheChancellor and the Speaker--Fitzgibbon and Foster, Irishmenat least by birth and name--were sworn in as Justices, until the arrival of the Earl of Westmoreland, in theensuing January. 

The last two Viceroys of the decade thus closed, form amarked contrast worthy of particular portraiture. TheDuke of Rutland, a dashing profligate, was sent over, itwas thought, to ruin public liberty by undermining privatevirtue, a task in which he found a willing helpmate inhis beautiful but dissipated Duchess. During his threeyears' reign were sown the seeds of that reckless privateexpenditure, and general corruption of manners, whichdrove so many bankrupt lords and gentlemen into the marketovert, where Lord Castlereagh and Secretary Cooke, adozen years later, priced the value of their parliamentarycattle. Lord Rutland died of dissipation at little overthirty, and was succeeded by the Marquis of Buckingham(formerly Lord Temple), the founder of the Irish Orderof Chivalry, a person of the greatest pretensions, as areformer of abuses and an enemy of government by corruption. Yet with all his affected superiority to the base artsof his predecessor, the Marquis's system was still moreopposite to every idea of just government than the Duke's. The one outraged public morals, the other pensioned andennobled the betrayers of public trusts; the one naturalizedthe gaming-table and the keeping of mistresses as customsof Irish society; the other sold or allowed the highestoffices and honours of the state--from a weighership inthe butter market to an earl's coronet--to be put up atauction, and knocked down to the highest bidder. Howcheering in contrast with the shameful honours, flauntedabroad in those shameful days, are even the negativevirtues of the Whig patricians, and how splendid theheroic constancy of Charlemont, Grattan, Curran, andtheir devoted minority of honest legislators!

With Lord Westmoreland was associated, as Chief Secretary, Mr. Hobart, formerly in the army, a man of gay, convivialhabits, very accomplished, and, politically, very unprincipled. These gentlemen, both favourites of Pitt, adopted the counsellors, and continued the policy of the late Viceroy. Inpursuance of this policy, a dissolution took place, and thegeneral election of 1790 was ordered. We have alreadyexhibited the influences which controlled the choice of membersof the House of Commons. Of the one hundred and five greatproprietors, who owned two-thirds of the seats, perhaps afourth might be found in the ranks of the Whig club. Theonly other hope for the national party was in the boroughs, which possessed a class of freemen, engaged in trade, toonumerous to be bought, or too public spirited to be dictated to. Both influences combined might hope to return a powerfulminority, 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 thewhole 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 othersdestined 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 histwenty-second year, and, next to Lord Edward Fitzgerald, lately elected for Athy, the most extreme reformer among thenew members. Arthur O'Conor, on the other hand, commencedhis career with the Court by moving the address inanswer to the speech from the throne!

The new Parliament, which met in July, 1790, unanimouslyre-elected Mr. Foster, Speaker; passed a very loyaladdress, and, after a fortnight's sitting, was proroguedtill the following January. The session of '91 was markedby no event of importance, the highest opposition voteseems to have been from 80 to 90, and the ministerialmajority never less than 50. The sale of Peerages, theEast India trade, the Responsibility (for money warrants)Bill, the Barren Lands Bill, and the Pension Bill, werethe chief topics. A committee to inquire into the bestmeans of encouraging breweries, and discouraging the useof spirituous liquors, was also granted, and some curiousfacts elicited. Nothing memorable was done, but much thatwas memorable was said--for the great orator had stilla free press, and a home audience to instruct and elevate. The truth is, the barrenness of these two sessions wasdue to the general prosperity of the country, more eventhan to the dexterous management of Major Hobart and theCabinet balls of Lord Westmoreland. There was, moreover, hanging over the minds of men the electric pressure ofthe wonderful events with which France shook the Continent, and made the Islands tremble. There was hasty hope, oridle exultation, or pious fear, or panic terror, in thehearts of the leading spectators of that awful drama, according to the prejudices or principles they maintained. Over all the three kingdoms there was a preternaturalcalm, resembling that physical stillness which in otherlatitude 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 spreadof French revolutionary opinions in Ireland, it isnecessary to exhibit the new and very important positionassumed by the Roman Catholic population at that period. 

The relief bills in 1774 and 1778, by throwing open toCatholics the ordinary means of acquiring property, whether moveable or immoveable, had enabled many of themto acquire fortunes, both in land and in trade. Of thisclass were the most efficient leaders in the formationof the Catholic Committee of 1790--John Keogh, EdwardByrne, and Richard McCormick. They were all men who hadacquired fortunes, and who felt and cherished theindependence of self-made men. They were not simplyCatholic agitators claiming an equality of civil andreligious rights with their Protestant fellow-countrymen;they were nationalists, in the broadest and most generousmeaning of the term. They had contributed to the ranksand expenses of the Volunteers; they had swelled thechorus of Grattan's triumph, and borne their share ofthe cost in many a popular contest. The new generationof Protestant patriots--such men as the Hon. Simon Butler, Wolfe Tone, and Thomas Addis Emmet, were their intimateassociates, shared their opinions, and regarded theirexclusion from the pale of the constitution as a publiccalamity. 

There was another and a smaller, but not less importantclass--the remnant of the ancient Catholic peerage andlanded gentry, who, through four generations, had preferredcivil death to religious apostasy. It was impossible notto revere the heroic constancy of that class, and thepersonal virtues of many among them. But they were, perhaps, constitutionally, too timid and too punctiliousto conduct a popular movement to a successful issue. Theyhad, after much persuasion, lent their presence to theCommittee, but on some alarm, which at that time seemsto have been premature, of the introduction of Frenchrevolutionary principles among their associates, theyseceded in a mass. A formal remonstrance against whatremained, pretending to act for the Catholic body, wassigned by Lord Kenmare and sixty-seven others, whowithdrew. As a corrective, it was inadequate; as apreventive, useless. It no doubt hastened in the end theevil it deprecated in the beginning; it separated theCatholic gentry from the Catholic democracy, and thrustthe latter more and more towards those liberal Protestants, mainly men of the middle class like themselves, who beganabout this time to club together at Belfast and Dublin, under the attractive title of "United Irishmen. " Whateverthey were individually, the union of so many hereditaryCatholic names had been of very great service to thecommittee. So long as they stood aloof, the committeecould not venture to speak for _all_ the Catholics; itcould only speak for a part, though that part might benine-tenths of the whole: this gave for a time a doubtfuland hesitating appearance to their proceedings. So lowwas their political influence, in 1791, that they couldnot get a single member of Parliament to present theirannual petition. When at last it was presented, it waslaid on the table and never noticed afterwards. To theirfurther embarrassment, Mr. McKenna and some others formed"the Catholic Society, " with the nominal object ofspreading a knowledge of Catholic principles, throughthe press, but covertly, to raise up a rival organization, under the control of the seceders. At this period JohnKeogh's talents for negotiation and diplomacy saved theCatholic body from another term of anarchical imbecility. 

A deputation of twelve having waited this year on theChief 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 thesecircumstances, the Committee met at Allen's Court. "Itwas their determination, " says Keogh, "to give up thecause as desperate, lest a perseverance in what theyconsidered an idle pursuit might not only prove ineffectual, but draw down a train of persecution on the body. " Keoghendeavoured to rally them; proposed a delegation toLondon, to be sent at the expense of the Committee;offered, at last, to go at his own charge, if theyauthorized him. This proposal was accepted, and Keoghwent. "I arrived in London, " he adds, "without anyintroduction from this country, without any support, anyassistance, any instructions. " He remained three months, converted Mr. Dundas, brought back with him the son ofBurke as Secretary, and a promise of four concessions:1st. The magistracy. 2nd. The grand juries. 3rd. Thesheriffs of counties. 4th. The bar. It was in thisinterview that Keogh, after obtaining Mr. Dundas's expresspermission and promise not to be offended, said to him, according to Charles Butler's account, "Since you giveme this permission, and your deliberate promise not tobe offended, I beg leave to repeat, that there _is_ onething 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, withperfect good humour, told Mr. Keogh that he believedthis was not the case; it was true that he never had beenin Ireland, but he had conversed with many Irishmen. "Ihave drunk, " he said, "many a good bottle of wine withLord Hillsborough, Lord Clare, and the Beresfords. " "Yes, sir, " said Mr. Keogh, "I believe you have; and that youdrank many a good bottle of wine with them before youwent to war with America. "

On the return of Keogh to Dublin, a numerous meeting washeld to hear his report. At this meeting, the fair promisesof the English ministers were contrasted with the hostilityof the Castle. The necessity of a strong organization, to overcome the one and hasten the other, was felt byall: it was then decided to form the Committee into aConvention. By this plan, the Catholics in each countyand 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 meetingat Dublin, on the 3rd day of December following. Acircular, signed by Edward Byrne, Chairman, and RichardMcCormick, Secretary, explaining the plan and the modeof election, was issued on the 14th of January, and theCatholics everywhere prepared to obey it. 

The corporations of Dublin and other cities, the grandjuries of Derry, Donegal, Leitrim, Roscommon, Limerick, Cork, and other counties, at once pronounced most stronglyagainst the proposed Convention. They declared it"unconstitutional, " "alarming, " "most dangerous;" theydenounced it as a copy of the National Assembly of France;they declared that they would "resist it to the utmostof their power;" they pledged "their lives and fortunes"to suppress it. The only answer of the Catholics was thelegal opinion of Butler and Burton, two eminent lawyers, Protestants and King's counsellors, that the measure wasentirely legal. They proceeded with their selection ofdelegates, and on the appointed day the Convention met. From the place of meeting', this Convention was popularlycalled "the Back Lane Parliament. " Above 200 members werepresent. 

The Convention proceeded (Mr. Byrne in the chair) todeclare itself the only body competent to speak for theCatholics of Ireland. They next discussed the substanceof the proposed petition to the King. The debate on thissubject, full of life and colour, has been preserved forus 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, Bellewof Galway, McDermott of Sligo, Devereux of Wexford, SirThomas French, and John Keogh. These gentlemen contended, and finally carried, without a division, though notwithout a two-days' debate, a petition, asking completeand unrestricted emancipation. With the addition of theChairman and Secretary, they were appointed as deputiesto proceed to London, there to place the Catholic ultimatumin the hands of King George. 

The deputies, whether by design or accident, took Belfaston their way to England. This great manufacturing town, at the head of the staple industry of the north, had beenin succession the head-quarters of the Volunteers, theNorthern Whigs, and the United Irishmen. Belfast haddemanded in vain, for nearly a generation, that its 20, 000inhabitants should no longer be disfranchised, while adozen burgesses--creatures of Lord Donegal--controlledthe representation. Community of disfranchisement hadmade the Belfastians liberal; the Catholic deputies werepublicly received with bonfires and ringing of bells, their expenses were paid by the citizens, and theircarriage drawn along in triumph, on the road toPort-Patrick. 

Arrived at London, after much negotiation and delay withministers, a day was fixed for their introduction to theKing. It was Wednesday, the 2nd of January, 1793; theywere presented by Edmund Burke and the Home Secretary toGeorge III. , who "received them very graciously;" theyplaced 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 theattention of Parliament in the next royal speech, andso, leaving one of their number behind as "charged'affaires, " they returned to Dublin highly elated. 

The Viceroy, on their return, was all attention to theCatholics; the Secretary, who, a year before, would notlisten to a petition, now laboured to fix a limit toconcession. The demand of complete emancipation, was notmaintained in this negotiation as firmly as in the Decemberdebates of "the Back Lane Parliament. " The shock of theexecution of the King of France; the efforts of the secretcommittee of the House of Lords to inculpate certainCatholic leaders in the United-Irish system, and aspatrons of the Defenders; the telling argument, that topress all was to risk all, --these causes combined toinduce the sub-committee to consent to less than theConvention had decided to insist upon. Negotiation wasthe 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 resistedin the Lower House by Mr. Speaker Foster, Mr. Ogle, andDr. Duigenan, an apostate, who exhibited all the bitternessof his class; and in the Upper House, by the Chancellor, the son of an apostate, and the majority of the lordsspiritual. On the 9th day of April, 1793, it became thelaw of Ireland. "By one comprehensive clause, " says Tone, "all penalties, forfeitures, disabilities, and incapacitiesare removed; the property of the Catholic is completelydischarged from the restraints and limitations of thepenal laws, and their liberty, in a great measure, restored, by the restoration of the right of electivefranchise, so long withheld, so ardently pursued. Theright of self-defence is established by the restorationof the privilege to carry arms, subject to a restraint, which does not seem unreasonable, as excluding none butthe very lowest orders. The unjust and unreasonabledistinctions affecting Catholics, as to service on grandand petty juries, are done away; the army, navy, and allother offices and places of trust are opened to them, subject to exceptions hereafter mentioned. Catholics maybe masters or fellows of any college hereafter to befounded, subject to two conditions, that such college bea member of the University, and that it be not foundedexclusively for the education of Catholics. They may bemembers of any lay body corporate, except Trinity College, any law, statute, or bye-law of such corporation to thecontrary notwithstanding. They may obtain degrees in theUniversity of Dublin. These, and some lesser immunitiesand privileges, constitute the grant of the bill, thevalue of which will be best ascertained by referring tothe petition. "

It is true, Catholics were still excluded from the highoffices of Lord Lieutenant, Lord Deputy, and LordChancellor. What was much more important, they wereexcluded from sitting in Parliament--from exercisinglegislative and judicial functions, Still the franchise, the juries, the professions, and the University, wereimportant concessions. Their first fruits were DanielO'Connell and Thomas Moore!

The Committee having met to return thanks to theparliamentary supporters of the bill, their own futureoperations came also under debate. Some members advisedthat they should add reform to their programme, as theremnant of the penal laws were not sufficient to interestand attract the people. Some would have gone much furtherthan reform; some were well content to rest on theirlaurels. There were ultras, moderate men, and conservatives, even in the twelve. The latter were more numerous thanWolfe Tone liked or expected. That ardent revolutionisthad, indeed, at bottom, a strong dislike of the Catholicreligion; he united himself with that body because heneeded a party; he remained with them because it gavehim importance; but he chiefly valued the position as itenabled him to further an ulterior design--an Irishrevolution and a republic on the French plan. The exampleof France had, however, grown by this time rather a terrorthan an attraction to more cautious men than Tone. EdwardByrne, Sir Thomas French, and other leading Catholics, were openly hostile to any imitation of it, and the dinnerat Daly's, to celebrate the passage of the act, wasstrongly anti-Gallican in spirit and sentiment. Keogh, McCormick, and McNevin, however, joined the UnitedIrishmen, and the two latter were placed on the Directory. Keogh withdrew, when, in 1795, that organization becamea secret society. 

The Bishops, who had cheered on, rather than participatedin the late struggle, were well satisfied with the newmeasure. They were, by education and conviction, conservatives. Dr. Plunkett of Meath, Dr. Egan ofWaterford, Dr. Troy of Dublin, and Dr. Moylan of Cork, were the most remarkable for influence and ability atthis period. Dr. Butler of Cashel, and his opponent, Dr. Burke of Ossory, the head of the resolute old ultramontaneminority, were both recently deceased. With the exceptionof Dr. James Butler, Bishop of Cloyne and Ross, whodeserted his faith and order on becoming unexpectedlyheir to an earldom, the Irish prelates of the reign ofGeorge III. Were a most zealous and devoted body. LordDunboyne's fall was the only cause of a reproach withintheir own ranks. That unhappy prelate made, many yearsafterwards, a death-bed repentance, was reconciled tohis church, and bequeathed a large part of his inheritedwealth to sustain the new national college, the foundingof which, ever since the outbreak of the French revolution, the far-seeing Burke was urging upon Pitt and all hisIrish correspondents. 

In 1794, the Irish Bishops, having applied for a "royallicense" to establish academies and seminaries, weregraciously received, and Lord Fitzwilliam's governmentthe next session brought in the Act of Incorporation. Itbecame law on the 5th of June, 1795, and the college wasopened the following October with fifty students. DrHussey, afterwards Bishop of Waterford, the friend ofBurke, who stood by his deathbed, was first President;some refugee French divines were appointed toprofessorships; and the Irish Parliament voted the veryhandsome sum of 8, 000 pounds a year to the new foundation. Maynooth, whatever its after lot, was the creation inthe first instance of the Irish Parliament. We have thus, in the third century after the reformation, after threegreat religious wars, after four confiscations, afterthe most ingenious, cruel, and unchristian methods ofoppression 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 andreligious liberties of a people! So powerless againstconscience is and ever must be coercion!

CHAPTER XII. 

THE ERA OF INDEPENDENCE--EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONIN IRELAND--SECESSION OF GRATTAN, CURRAN, AND THEIRFRIENDS, FROM PARLIAMENT, IN 1797. 

The era of independence which we have desired to markdistinctly to the reader's mind, may be said to terminatein 1797, with the hopeless secession of Grattan and hisfriends from Parliament. Did the events within and withoutthe House justify that extreme measure? We shall proceedto describe them as they arose, leaving the decision ofthe question to the judgment of the reader. 

The session of 1793, which extended into July, was, besides the Catholic Relief Bill, productive of otherimportant results. Under the plea of the spread of Frenchprinciples, and the widespread organization of seditiousassociations--a plea not wanting in evidence--an ArmsAct was introduced and carried, prohibiting the importationof 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, bravelybut vainly opposed by Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and theopposition generally, the surviving Volunteer corps, inDublin and its vicinity, were disbanded, their arms, artillery, and ammunition taken possession of either byforce or negotiation, and the very wreck of that oncepowerful patriot army swept away. In its stead, by nearlythe same majority, the militia were increased to 16, 000men, and the regulars from 12, 000 to 17, 000--thus placingat the absolute control of the Commander-in-Chief, andthe chiefs of the oligarchy, a standing army of 33, 000men. At the same period, Lord Clare (he had been made anearl in 1792), introduced his Convention Act, againstthe assemblage in convention of delegates purporting torepresent the people. With Grattan only 27 of the Commonsdivided against this measure, well characterized as "theboldest step that ever yet was made to introduce militarygovernment. " "If this bill had been law, " Grattan added, "the independence of the Irish Parliament, the emancipationof the Catholics, and even the English revolution of1688, could never have taken place!" The teller in favourof the Convention Act was Major Wellesley, member forTrim, twenty years later--Duke of Wellington! It becameand still remains the law of Ireland. 

Against this reactionary legislation we must credit thesession of '93, besides the Catholic Relief Bill and theEast India Trade Bill, with Mr. Grattan's Barren LandsBill, exempting all newly reclaimed lands from the paymentof tithes for a period of seven years; Mr. Forbes'sPension Bill, limiting the pension list to 80, 000 poundssterling per annum, and fixing the permanent civil listat 250, 000 pounds per annum; and the excellent measureof the same invaluable member, excluding from Parliamentall persons holding offices of profit under the crown, except the usual ministerial officers, and those employedin the _revenue service_. This last salvo was forced intothe bill by the oligarchical faction, for whose juniorbranches the revenue had long been a fruitful source ofprovision. 

Parliament met next, on the 21st of January, '94, andheld a short two-months' session. The most remarkableincidents 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, andall but seven or eight of their friends, in favour ofthe war against the French republic. Mr. Ponsonby proposed, in the spirit of Flood's plan ten years earlier, to uniteto the boroughs four miles square of the adjoining country, thus creating a counterpoise to the territorial aristocracyon the one hand, and the patrons of boroughs on the other;he also proposed to extend the suffrage to every tradesmanwho had served five years' apprenticeship, and gave eachcounty _three_ instead of two members, leaving intact, of course, the forty-shilling freehold franchise. Notmore than 44 members, however, divided in favour of thenew project, while 142 voted against it! Had it passed, the parliamentary history of the next six years couldnever have been written. 

It was on this Reform bill, and on the debate on theaddress, that Grattan took occasion to declare his settledand unalterable hostility to those "French principles, "then so fashionable with all who called themselves friendsof freedom, in the three kingdoms. In the great socialschism which had taken place in Europe, in consequenceof 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 inevery circle, among every order of men; in all thechurches, workshops, saloons, professions, into whichmen were divided. Among publicists, most of all, theshock was most severely felt; in England it separatedBurke and Windham from Fox, Erskine, Sheridan, and Grey;in Ireland it separated Grattan and Curran from LordEdward Fitzgerald, Arthur O'Conor, Addis Emmet, WolfeTone, and all those ardent, able, and honest men, whohailed the French, as the forerunner of a complete seriesof European republics, in which Ireland should shine out, among the brightest and the best. 

Grattan, who agreed with and revered Burke, looked uponthe "anti-Jacobin war, " as a just and necessary war. Itwas not in his nature to do anything by halves, and hetherefore cordially supported the paragraph in the addresspledging Ireland's support to that war. He was aconstitutionalist of the British, not of the French type. In the subsequent Reform debate he declared that he wouldalways and ever resist those who sought to remodel theIrish constitution on a French original. He asserted, moreover, that great mischief had been already done bythe advocates of such a design, "It"--this design--"hasthrown back for the present the chance of any rationalimprovement in the representation of the people, " hecried, "and has betrayed a good reform _to the hopes ofa shabby insurrection_. " Proceeding in his own condensed, crystalline antithesis, he thus enlarged on his ownopinions: "There are two characters equally enemies tothe reform of Parliament, and equally enemies to thegovernment--the leveller of the constitution, and thefriend of its abuses; they take different roads to arriveat the same end. The levellers propose to subvert theKing and parliamentary constitution by a rank andunqualified democracy--the friends of its abuses proposeto support the King and buy the Parliament, and in theend to overset both, by a rank and avowed corruption. They are both incendiaries; the one would destroy governmentto pay his court to liberty; the other would destroyliberty to pay his court to government; but the libertyof the one would be confusion, and the government of theother would be pollution. "

We can well understand that this language pleased aslittle the United Irishmen as the Castle. It was knownthat in private he was accustomed to say, that, "thewonder was not that Mr. Sheares should die on the scaffold, but that Lord Clare was not there beside him. " He stoodin the midst of the ways, crying aloud, with the wisdomof his age and his genius, but there were few to heedhis warnings. The sanguine innovator sneered or pitied;the truculent despot scowled or menaced; to the one hisauthority was an impediment, to the other his reputationwas a reproach. It was a public situation as full ofconflict as man ever occupied, and we are not astonished, on a nearer view, that it led, after three years hopingagainst hope, to the despairing secession of 1797. 

A bright gleam of better things shot for an instant acrossthe gloomy prospect, with which the year '94 closed forthe country. Lord Westmoreland was recalled, and LordFitzwilliam, largely connected with Ireland by property, and one of the most just and liberal men in England, wasto be his successor. The highest expectations wereexcited; the best men congratulated each other on thecertain promise of better times close at hand; and thenation, ever ready to believe whatever it wished tobelieve, saw in prospect, the oligarchy restrained, thepatriots triumphant, and the unfinished fabric ofindependence completed, and crowned with honour. 

This new reign, though one of the shortest, was one ofthe most important Ireland ever saw. Lord Fitzwilliam, the nephew of Lord Rockingham, the first to acknowledgethe constitution of 1782, had married a Ponsonby; he wasa Burke whig--one of those who, with the Duke of Portland, Earl Spencer, and Mr. Windham, had followed the "greatEdmund, " in his secession from the Fox-and-Sheridanmajority of that party, in 1791. Pitt, anxious to conciliatethese new allies, had brought them all into office in1794--Earl Fitzwilliam being placed in the dignifiedposition of President of the Council. When spoken offor the Viceroyalty he wrote to Grattan, bespeaking hissupport, and that of "his friends, the Ponsonbys;" thisletter and some others brought Grattan to London, wherehe had two or three interviews with Pitt, the Duke ofPortland, and Lord Fitzwilliam. Better still, he made apilgrimage to Beaconsfield, and had the benefit of thelast advice of the aged Burke. With Pitt he was disappointedand dissatisfied, but he still hoped and expected greatgood from the appointment of Lord Fitzwilliam to theoffice of Viceroy. It seems to have been fully understoodthat the new Lord Lieutenant would have very full powersto complete the gracious work of Catholic emancipation:with this express understanding, Mr. Grattan was pressedto accept the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, but steadilydeclined; he upheld in that position Sir Henry Parnell, an old personal, rather than political friend, one of afamily of whom Ireland has reason to retain a gratefulrecollection. He was, however, with Ponsonby, Curran, and others of his friends in both Houses, added to thePrivy Council, where they were free to shape the measuresof the new administration. At the King's levee, on the10th 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 asto draw towards him particular attention; Mr. Pitt, theDuke of Portland, and other ministers, were present. Alltook and held the tone that complete emancipation was athing settled: Burke congratulated Grattan on the event, and the new Viceroy was as jubilant and as confident asanybody, that the great controversy was at length to befinally closed under his auspices. 

On the 4th of January, Lord Fitzwilliam reached Dublin;and on the 25th of March he was recalled. The history ofthese three months--of this short-lived attempt to governIreland on the advice of Grattan--is full of instruction. The Viceroy had not for a moment concealed his intentionof thoroughly reforming the Irish administration. On hisarrival at the Castle, Mr. Cooke was removed from theSecretaryship, and Mr. Beresford from the Revenue Board. Great was the consternation, and unscrupulous the intriguesof the dismissed. When the Parliament met at the end ofJanuary, Grattan assumed the leadership of the House ofCommons, and moved the address in answer to the speechfrom the throne. No opposition was offered--and it passedwithout a division. Immediately, a bill granting theCatholics complete emancipation--rendering them eligibleeven to the office of Chancellor, withheld in 1829--wasintroduced by Grattan. Then the oligarchy found theirvoices. The old cry of "the Church in danger" was raised, delegations proceeded to London, and every agency ofinfluence was brought to bear on the King and the Englishcabinet. From the tenor of his letters, Lord Fitzwilliamfelt compelled in honour to tell Mr. Pitt, that he mightchoose between him and the Beresfords. He did choose--butnot till the Irish Parliament, in the exuberance of itsconfidence and gratitude, had voted the extraordinarysubsidy of 20, 000 men for the navy, and _a million, eighthundred thousand pounds, towards the expenses of the warwith France!_ Then, the popular Viceroy was recalled amidthe universal regrets of the people. The day of hisdeparture from Dublin was a day of general mourning, except with the oligarchical clique, whose leaders hehad so resolutely thrust aside. To them it was a day ofinsolent and unconcealed rejoicing; and, what is not atall uncommon under such circumstances, the infatuatedpartisans of the French revolution, rejoiced hardly lessthan the extremest Tories, at the sudden collapse of agovernment equally opposed to the politics of both. Grattan, than whom no public man was ever more free fromunjust suspicion of others, always remained under theconviction that Pitt had made merely a temporary use ofLord Fitzwilliam's popularity, in order to cheat theIrish out of the immense supplies they had voted; andall the documents of the day, which have since seen thelight, accord well with that view of the transaction. Lord Fitzwilliam was immediately replaced by Lord Camden, whose Viceroyalty extended into the middle of the year1798: a reign which embraced all that remains to us tonarrate, of the Parliamentary politics of the era ofIndependence. 

The sittings of Parliament were resumed during April, May, and June, but the complete emancipation bill wasrejected three to one--155 to 55; the debates were nowmarked, on the part of Toler, Duigenan, Johnson, andothers, with the most violent anti-Catholic spirit. Allthis tended to inflame still more the exasperated feelingwhich already prevailed in the country between Orangemenand Defenders. Thus it came, that the High Court ofParliament, which ought to have been the chief school ofpublic wisdom--the calm correcting tribunal of publicopinion--was made a principal engine in the disseminationof those prejudices and passions, which drove honest mento despair of constitutional redress, and swelled theranks of the secret political societies, till they becameco-extensive with the population. 

The session of 1796 was even more hopeless than theimmediately preceding one. A trade motion of Grattan'son the address commanded only 14 votes out of 140; inthe next session his motion in favour of equal rights topersons of all religious creeds, obtained but 12 votesout of 160! From these figures it is clear that above athird of the members of the House no longer attended;that of those who did attend, the overwhelming andinvariable majority--ten to one--were for all the measuresof repression and coercion which marked these two sessions. The Insurrection Act, giving power to the magistrates ofany county to proclaim martial law; the Indemnity Act, protecting magistrates from the consequences of exercising"a vigour beyond the law;" the Riot Act, giving authorityto disperse any number of persons by force of arms withoutnotice; the Suspension of the _habeas corpus_ (againstwhich only 7 members out of a House of 164 voted)--allwere evidences to. Grattan, that the usefulness of theHouse of Commons, as then constituted, was, for the tune, lost or destroyed. It is quite clear that he came tothis conviction slowly and reluctantly; that he struggledagainst it with manly fortitude through three sessions;that he yielded to it at length, when there was no longera possibility of resistance, --when to move or to dividethe House, had become a wretched farce, humiliating tothe country, and unworthy of his own earnest andenthusiastic patriotism. 

Under these circumstances, the powerless leader and hisdevoted staff resolved to withdraw, formally and openly, from further attendance on the House of Commons. Thedeplorable state of the country, delivered over to anirresponsible magistracy and all the horrors of martiallaw; the spread among the patriotic rising generation ofFrench principles; the scarcely concealed design of theCastle to goad the people into insurrection, in order todeprive them of their liberties; all admonished thefaithful few that the walls of Parliament were no longertheir sphere of usefulness. One last trial was, however, made in May, 1797, for a reform of Parliament. Mr. GeorgePonsonby moved his usual motion, and Curran, Hardy, SirLawrence Parsons, Charles Kendall Bushe, and others, ablysupported him. The division was 30 to 117. It was on thisdebate, that Grattan, whose mournful manner contrastedso strongly with his usual enthusiasm, concluded a solemnexposition of the evils the administration were bringingon the country, by these affecting words:--"We haveoffered you our measure--you will reject it; we deprecateyours--you will persevere; having no hopes left to persuadeor to dissuade, and having discharged our duty, we shalltrouble you no more, _and after this day shall not attendthe House of Commons_. " The secession thus announced wasaccomplished; at the general election, two months later, Grattan and his colleague, Lord Henry Fitzgerald, refusedto stand again for Dublin; Curran, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Arthur O'Conor, and others, followed his example. A fewpatriots, hoping against hope, were, however, returned, a sort of forlorn hope, to man the last redoubt of theConstitution. Of these was William Conyngham Plunkett, member for Charlemont, Grattan's old borough, aconstitutionalist of the school of Edmund Burke, worthyto be named among the most illustrious of his disciples. 

In the same July, on the 7th of the month, on which theIrish elections were held, that celebrated Anglo-Irishstatesman expired at Beaconsfield, in the sixty-seventhyear of his age. His last thoughts--his last wishes, likehis first--were with his native land. His regards continuedfixed on the state of Ireland, while vision and facultyremained. His last efforts in writing and conversationwere to plead for toleration, concession and conciliationtowards Ireland. The magisterial gravity of Burke wasnot calculated to permit him to be generally popular withan impulsive people, but as years roll on, and educationextends its dominion, his reputation rises and brightensabove every other reputation of his age, British or Irish. Of him no less truly than powerfully did Grattan say inthe Imperial Parliament, in 1815: "He read everything, he saw everything, he foresaw everything. His knowledgeof history amounted to a power of foretelling; and whenhe perceived the wild work that was doing in France, thatgreat political physician, intelligent of symptoms, distinguished between the access of fever and the forceof health; and what other men conceived to be the vigourof her constitution, he knew to be no more than theparoxysm of her madness; and then, prophet-like, hedenounced the destinies of France, and in his propheticfury, admonished nations. "

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 

Half measures of justice may satisfy the generation whichachieves them, but their successors will look with othereyes, as well on what has been won as on that which iswithheld. The part in possession will appear to theiryouthful sense of abstract right and wrong far lessprecious than the part in expectancy, for it is in thenature of the young to look forward, as it is of the oldto turn their regards to the past. The very recollectionof their fathers will stimulate the new generation toemulate their example, and will render them averse tobeing bound by former compromises. So necessary is itfor statesmen, when they yield to a just demand longwithheld, to yield gracefully and to yield all that isfairly due. 

The celebrated group known to us as "the United Irishmen, "were the birth of a new generation, entering together onthe public stage. With few exceptions, the leadingcharacters were all born within a few years of each other:Neilson in 1761, Tone, Arthur O'Conor and Lord EdwardFitzgerald in '62, McNevin in '63, Sampson and ThomasAddis Emmet in '64, and Russell in '67. They had emergedinto manhood while the drums of the Volunteers werebeating victorious marches, when the public hopes ranhigh, and the language of patriotism was the familiarspeech of every-day life. 

In a settled state of society it would have been naturalfor the first minds of the new generation to carry theirtalents, gratefully and dutifully, into the service ofthe first reputations of the old; but Irish society, inthe last years of the last century, was not in a settledcondition; the fascination of French example, and thegoading sense of national wrongs only half-righted, inflamed the younger generation with a passionate thirstfor speedy and summary justice on their oppressors. Wemust not look, therefore, to see the Tones and Emmetscontinuing in the constitutional line of public conductmarked out by Burke in the one kingdom, and Grattan inthe other. The new age was revolutionary, and the newmen were filled with the spirit of the age. Their actionsstand apart; they form an episode in the history of thecentury to which there may be parallels, but a chapterin 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 28thyear, a native of Kildare, a member of the bar, and anexcellent popular pamphleteer, on a visit to his friendThomas Russell, in the northern capital, was introducedto Samuel Neilson, proprietor of the _Northern Star_newspaper, and several other kindred spirits, all staunchreformers, or "something more. " Twenty of these gentlemenmeeting 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 acounterpoise to that influence; and that such a reformto be just should include Irishmen of all religiousdenominations. On Tone's return to Dublin, early inNovember, a branch society was formed on the Belfastbasis. The Hon. Simon Butler, a leading barrister, waschosen Chairman, and Mr. Napper Tandy, an active middle-agedmerchant, with strong republican principles, was Secretary. The solemn declaration or oath, binding every member "toforward a brotherhood of affection, an identity ofinterests, a communion of rights, and a union of poweramong Irishmen of all religious persuasions, " was drawnup by the Dublin club, and became the universal bond oforganization. Though the Belfast leaders had been longin the habit of meeting in "secret committee, " to directand control the popular movements in their vicinage, thenew society was not, in its inception, nor for threeyears afterwards, a secret society. When that radicalchange was proposed, we find it resisted by a considerableminority, who felt themselves at length compelled toretire from an association, the proceedings of which theycould 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 discussionhad been repeatedly and frequently violated before theyabandoned the original maxims and tactics of their body, which were all open, and above-board. 

In 1792, Simon Butler, and Oliver Bond--a prosperousDublin merchant of northern origin--was summoned to thebar of the House of Lords, condemned to six months'imprisonment, and a fine of 500 pounds each, for havingacted as Chairman and Secretary of one of the meetings, at which an address to the people, strongly reflectingon the corrupt constitution of Parliament, was adopted. In '94, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, one of the purest andmost chivalrous characters of any age, was convicted, bya packed jury, of circulating the famous "UniversalEmancipation" address of his friend, Dr. William Drennan, the poet-politician of the party. He was defended byCurran, in the still more famous speech in which occurshis apostrophe to "the genius of Universal Emancipation;"but he atoned in the cells of Newgate, for circulatingthe dangerous doctrine which Drennan had broached, andCurran had immortalized. 

The regular place of meeting of the Dublin society wasthe Tailors' Hall, in Back Lane, a spacious building, called, from the number of great popular gatherings heldin it, "the Back Lane Parliament. " Here Tandy, in theuniform of his new National Guard, whose standard borethe harp without the crown, addressed his passionateharangues 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 the4th of May, 1794, the Dublin society found themselvessuddenly assailed by the police, their papers seized, their officers who were present arrested, and theirmeeting dispersed. From that moment we may date the newand _secret_ organization of the brotherhood, though itwas not in general operation till the middle of thefollowing year. 

This new organization, besides its secrecy, had otherrevolutionary characteristics. For "reform of Parliament"was substituted in the test, or oath, representation "ofall the people of Ireland, " and for petitions andpublications, the enrolment of men, by baronies andcounties, and the appointment of officers, from the leastto the highest in rank, as in a regular army. The unitwas a lodge of twelve members, with a chairman andsecretary, who were also their corporal and sergeant;five of these lodges formed a company, and the officersof five such companies a baronial committee, from whichagain, in like manner, the county committees were formed. Each of the provinces had its Directory, while in Dublinthe supreme authority was established, in an "ExecutiveDirectory" of five members. The orders of the Executivewere communicated to not more than one of the ProvincialDirectors, and by him to one of each County Committee, and so in a descending scale, till the rank and file werereached; an elaborate contrivance, but one which provedwholly insufficient to protect the secrets of theorganization from the ubiquitous espionage of thegovernment. 

In May, 1795, the new organization lost the services ofWolfe Tone, who was compromised by a strange incident, to a very serious extent. The incident was the arrestand trial of the Rev. William Jackson, an Anglicanclergyman, who had imbibed the opinions of Price andPriestley, and had been sent to Ireland by the FrenchRepublic, on a secret embassy. Betrayed by a friend andcountryman, named Cockayne, the unhappy Jackson tookpoison in prison, and expired in the dock. Tone had beenseen with Jackson, and through the influence of hisfriends, was alone protected from arrest. He was compelled, however, to quit the country, in order to preserve hispersonal liberty. He proceeded with his family to Belfast, where, before taking shipping for America, he renewedwith his first associates, their vows and projects, onthe summit of "the Cave Hill, " which looks down upon therich valley of the Laggan, and the noble town and portat its outlet. Before quitting Dublin, he had solemnlypromised Emmet and Russell, in the first instance, as hedid his Belfast friends in the second, that he would makethe United States his _route_ to France, where he wouldnegotiate a formidable national alliance, for "the UnitedIrishmen. "

In the year in which Tone left the country, Lord EdwardFitzgerald, brother of the Duke of Leinster, and formerlya Major in the British Army, joined the society; in thenext year--near its close--Thomas Addis Emmet, who hadlong been in the confidence of the promoters, joined, asdid, about the same time, Arthur O'Conor, nephew of LordLongueville, and ex-member for Phillipstown, and Dr. William James McNevin, a Connaught Catholic, educated inAustria, then practising his profession with eminentsuccess in Dublin. These were felt to be importantaccessions, and all four were called upon to act on "theExecutive Directory, " from time to time, during 1796 and1797. 

The coercive legislation carried through Parliament, session after session--the Orange persecutions in Armaghand elsewhere--the domiciliary visits--the militaryoutrages in town and country--the free quarters, whippingand tortures--the total suppression of the public press--the bitter disappointment of Lord Fitzwilliam'srecall--the annual failure of Ponsonby's motion forreform--finally, the despairing secession of Grattan andhis friends from Parliament--had all tended to expandthe system, which six years before was confined to a fewdozen enthusiasts of Belfast and Dublin, into the dimensionsof a national confederacy. By the close of this year, 500, 000 men had taken the test, in every part of thecountry, and nearly 300, 000 were reported as armed, eitherwith firelocks or pikes. Of this total, 110, 000 alonewere returned for Ulster; about 60, 000 for Leinster, andthe remainder from Connaught and Munster. A fund, ludicrously small, 1, 400 pounds sterling, remained inthe hands of the Executive, after all the outlay whichhad taken place, in procuring arms, in extending theunion, and in defending prisoners arrested as members ofthe society. Lord Edward Fitzgerald was chosenCommander-in-Chief; but the main reliance, for munitions, artillery, and officers, was placed upon the FrenchRepublic. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE AND HOLLAND--THE THREEEXPEDITIONS NEGOTIATED BY TONE AND LEWINES. 

The close of the year 1795 saw France under the governmentof the Directory, with Carnot in the cabinet, and Pichegru, Jourdain, Moreau, Hoche, and Buonaparte at the head ofits armies. This government, with some change of persons, lasted from October, 1795, to November, '99, when it wassupplanted by the Consular Revolution. Within the compassof those four years lie the negotiations which werecarried on and the three great expeditions which werefitted out by France and Holland, at the instance of theUnited Irishmen. 

On the 1st of February, 1796, Tone, who had sailed fromBelfast the previous June, arrived at Havre from NewYork, possessed of a hundred guineas and some usefulletters of introduction. One of these letters, writtenin cipher, was from the French Minister at Philadelphiato the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Charles Lacroix;another was to the American Minister in France, Mr. Monroe, afterwards President of the United States, bywhom he was most kindly received, and wisely advised, onreaching Paris. Lacroix received him courteously, andreferred him to a subordinate called Madgett, but afternearly three months wasted in interviews and explanations, Tone, by the advice of Monroe, presented himself at theLuxembourg Palace, and demanded audience of the "Organizerof Victory. " Carnot also listened to him attentively, asked and obtained his true name, and gave him another_rendezvous_. He was next introduced to Clarke (afterwardsDuc 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 frankand winning manner, introduced himself. At first theDirectory proposed sending to Ireland no more than 5, 000men, while Tone pleaded for 20, 000; but when Hoche acceptedthe command, he assured Tone he would go "in sufficientforce. " The "pacificator of La Vendee, " as the younggeneral was called--he was only thirty-two, --won at oncethe heart of the enthusiastic founder of the UnitedIrishmen, and the latter seems to have made an equallyfavourable impression. He was at once presented withthe commission of a _chef de brigade_ of infantry--a rankanswering to that of colonel with us--and was placed asadjutant on the general's staff. Hoche was all ardourand anxiety; Carnot cheered him on by expressing hisbelief that it would be "a most brilliant operation;"and certainly Tone was not the man to damp suchexpectations, or allow them to evaporate in merecomplimentary assurances. 

During the autumn months the expedition was busily beingfitted out at Brest, and the general head-quarters wereat Rennes. The Directory, to satisfy themselves that allwas as represented by Tone, had sent an agent of theirown to Ireland, by whom a meeting was arranged on theSwiss frontier between Lord Edward Fitzgerald, ArthurO'Conor, Dr. McNevin, and Hoche. From this meeting--thesecret of which he kept to himself--the young generalreturned in the highest spirits, and was kinder than everto his adjutant. At length, early in December, all wasready, 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 Armyof the Ocean, " and abundance of artillery and munitionsof war. Tone was in the _Indomptable_, 80 guns, commandedby a Canadian, named Bedout; Hoche and the Admiral inthe frigate _Fraternite_; Grouchy, so memorable for thepart he played then and afterwards, was second in command. On the third morning, after groping about and losing eachother in Atlantic fog, one-half the fleet (with the fatalexception of the _Fraternite_) found themselves close inwith the coast of Kerry. They entered Bantry Bay, andcame to anchor, ten ships of war, and "a long line ofdark hulls resting on the green water. " Three or fourdays they lay dormant and idle, waiting for the Generaland Admiral; Bouvet, the Vice-Admiral, was opposed tomoving in the absence of his chief; Grouchy was irresoluteand nervous; but at length, on Christmas day, the councilof war decided in favour of debarkation. The landing wasto take place next morning; 6, 500 veterans were preparedto step ashore at daylight, but without their artillery, their military chest, and their general. Two hours beyondmidnight Tone was roused from sleep by the wind, whichhe found blowing half a gale. Pacing the gallery of the_Indomptable_ till day dawned, he felt it rising louderand angrier, every hour. The next day it was almost ahurricane, and the Vice-Admiral's frigate, running underthe quarter of the great 80-gun ship, ordered them toslip anchor and stand out to sea. The whole fleet wassoon driven off the Irish coast; that part of it, inwhich Grouchy and Tone were embarked, made its entranceinto Brest on New Year's day; the ship which carriedHoche and the Admiral, only arrived at La Rochelle onthe 15th. The Directory and the General, so far frombeing discouraged by this failure, consoled themselvesby the demonstration they had made, of the possibilityof a great fleet passing to and fro, in British waters, for nearly a month, without encountering a single Britishvessel of war. Not so the Irish negotiator; on him, light-hearted and daring as he was, the disappointmentfell with crushing weight; but he magnanimously carriedGrouchy's report to Paris, and did his utmost to defendthe unlucky general from a cabal which had been formedagainst him. 

While Tone was reluctantly following his new chief tothe Meuse and the Rhine--with a promise that the Irishexpedition was delayed, not abandoned--another, and noless fortunate negotiator, was raising up a new ally forthe same cause, in an unexpected quarter. The Batavianrepublic, which had risen in the steps of Pichegru'svictorious army, in 1794, was now eager to imitate theexample of France. With a powerful fleet, and an unemployedarmy, its chiefs were quite ready to listen to any proposalwhich would restore the maritime ascendancy of Holland, and bring back to the recollection of Europe the memoryof 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 beensent abroad with very general powers, to treat withHolland, Spain, France, or any other government at warwith England, for a loan of half a million sterling, anda sufficient auxiliary force to aid the insurrection. During two months' stay at Hamburg, the habitual routein those days from the British ports to the continent, he had placed himself in communication with the Spanishagent there, and had, in forty days, received an encouraginganswer from Madrid. On his way, probably to Spain, tofollow 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, headdressed himself to the Directors, who consulted Hoche, by whom in turn Tone was consulted. Tone had a highopinion of Lewines, and at once proceeded with him tothe Hague, where they were joined, according to agreement, by Hoche. The Dutch Committee of Foreign Affairs, theCommander-in-Chief, General Dandaels, and the Admiral, De Winter, entered heartily into the project. There werein the Texel 16 ships of the line and 10 frigates, victualled for three months, with 15, 000 men and 80 fieldguns on board. The only serious difficulty in the waywas removed by the disinterestedness of Hoche; the FrenchForeign Minister having demanded that 5, 000 French troopsshould be of the expedition, and that Hoche should commandin chief; the latter, to conciliate Dandaels and theDutch, undertook to withdraw the proposal, and gracefullyyielded his own pretensions. All then was settled: Tonewas to accompany Dandaels with the same rank he had inthe Brest expedition, and Lewines to return, and remain, as "Minister-resident" at Paris. On the 8th of July, Tonewas on board the flagship, the _Vryheid_, 74 guns, inthe Texel, and "only waiting for a wind, " to lead anothernavy 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 inwhich that mighty fleet could make an offing. Sometimesfor an hour or two it shifted to the desired point, thesails were unclewed and the anchors shortened, but then, as if to torture the impatient exiles on board, it veeredback again and settled steadily in the fatal south-west. At length, at the end of August, the provisions beingnearly consumed, and the weather still unfavourable, theDutch Directory resolved to land the troops and postponethe expedition. De Winter, as is known, subsequentlyfound an opportunity to work out, and attack Lord Duncan, by whom he was badly beaten. Thus ended Irish hopes ofaid from Holland. The indomitable Tone rejoined his chiefon the Rhine, where, to his infinite regret, Hoche diedthe following month--September 18th, 1797--of a rapidconsumption, accelerated by cold and carelessness. "Hoche, "said Napoleon to Barry O'Meara at Saint Helena, "was oneof 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. Hewas accustomed to civil war, had pacified La Vendee, andwas well adapted for Ireland. He had a fine, handsomefigure, a good address, was prepossessing and intriguing. "The loss of such a patron, who felt himself, accordingto Tone's account, especially bound to follow up theobject of separating Ireland from England, was a calamitygreater and more irreparable than the detention of onefleet or the dispersion of the other. 

The third expedition, in promoting which Tone and Lewinesbore the principal part, was decided upon by the FrenchDirectory, immediately after the conclusion of peace withAustria, in October, 1797. The decree for the formationof "the Army of England, " named Buonaparte Commander-in-Chief, with Desaix as his second. Buonaparte consultedClarke as to who he most confided in among the numerousIrish refugees then in Paris--there were some twenty orthirty, all more or less known, and more or less incommunication with the Directory--and Clarke answeredat once, "Tone, of course. " Tone, with Lewines, the onein a military, the other in an ambassadorial capacity, had frequent interviews with the young conqueror of Italy, whom they usually found silent and absorbed, alwaysattentive, sometimes asking sudden questions betrayinggreat want of knowledge of the British Islands, andoccasionally, though rarely, breaking out into irresistibleinvectives against Jacobinism and the English system, both of which he so cordially detested. Every assurancewas given by the General, by the Directors, by Merlin duDouai, Barras, and Talleyrand especially, that theexpedition against England would never be abandoned. Tone, in high spirits as usual, joined the division underthe command of his countryman, General Kilmaine, and tookup his quarters at Havre, where he had landed withoutknowing a soul in France two years before. 

The winter wore away in busy preparations at Havre, atBrest, and at La Rochelle, --and, which seemed mysteriousto the Irish exiles--at Toulon. All the resources ofFrance, now without an enemy on the Continent, were putforth in these preparations. But it soon appeared theywere 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 allthat expedition for Alexandria, and "the Army of England"became, in reality, "the Army of Egypt. "

The bitterness, the despondency, and desperation whichseized on the Irish leaders in France, and on the rankand file of the United Irishmen at home, on receivingthis intelligence are sufficiently illustrated in thesubsequent attempts under Humbert and Bompart, and thepartial, ineffectual risings in Leinster, Ulster, andConnaught, during the summer and autumn of 1798. Afterall their high hopes from France and her allies, thiswas what it had come to at last! A few frigates, withthree or four thousand men, were all that could be sparedfor the succour of a kingdom more populous than Egyptand Syria combined; the granary of England, and the keyof her Atlantic position. It might have been some comfortto the family of Tone to have read, thirty years afterwards, in their American asylum, or for the aged Lewines to haveread in the Parisian retreat in which he died, thememorable confession of Napoleon at Saint Helena: "Ifinstead of the expedition to Egypt, I had undertaken thatto Ireland, what, " he asked, "could England do now? Onsuch chances, " he mournfully added, "depend the destiniesof empires!"

CHAPTER XV. 

THE INSURRECTION OF 1798. 

It is no longer matter of assertion merely, but simplematter of fact, that the English and Irish ministers ofGeorge III. Regarded the insurrectionary movement ofthe United Irishmen as at once a pretext and a means foreffecting a legislative union between the two countries. Lord Camden, the Viceroy who succeeded Lord Fitzwilliamin 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, inunmistakable terms, so early as 1793; and all the officialcorrespondence published of late years, concerning thatperiod of British and Irish history, establishes the factbeyond the possibility of denial. 

Such being the design, it was neither the wish nor theinterest of the Government, that the insurrection shouldbe suppressed, unless the Irish constitution could beextinguished with it. To that end they proceeded in thecoercive legislation described in a previous chapter; tothat end they armed with irresponsible power the militaryofficers and the oligarchical magistracy; with that viewthey quartered those yeomanry regiments, which were knownto be composed of Orangemen, on the wretched peasantryof the most Catholic counties, while the corps in whichCatholics or United Irishmen were most numerous, weresent over to England, in exchange for Scotch fenciblesand Welsh cavalry. The outrages committed by all thesevolunteer troops, but above all by the Orange yeomanryof the country, were so monstrous, that the gallant andhumane 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, withouttaking sides. Yet the choice was at best a hard andunhappy one. On the one side was the Castle, hardlyconcealing its intention of goading on the people, inorder to rob them of their Parliament; on the other wasthe injured multitude, bound together by a secret systemwhich proved in reality no safeguard against traitors intheir own ranks, and which had been placed by its Protestantchiefs under the auspices of an infidel republic. Betweenthe two courses men made election according to their biasor their necessities, or as they took local or general, political or theological views of the situation. BothHouses of the legislature unanimously, sustained thegovernment against the insurrection; as did the judges, the bar, and the Anglican clergy and bishops. ThePresbyterian body were in the beginning all but unanimousfor a republican revolution and the French alliance; thegreat majority of the Catholic peasantry were, as thecrisis increased, driven into the same position, whileall their bishops and a majority of the Catholicaristocracy, adhered to that which they, with the naturaltendency of their respective orders, considered the sideof religion and authority. Thus was the nation sub-dividedwithin itself; Protestant civilian from Protestantecclesiastic, Catholic layman from Catholic priest, tenantfrom lord, neighbour from neighbour, father from son, and friend from friend. 

During the whole of '97, the opposing parties were in aferment of movement and apprehension. As the year woreon, the administration, both English and Irish, began tofeel that the danger was more formidable than they hadforeseen. The timely storm which had blown Grouchy outof Bantry Bay, the previous Christmas, could hardly bereckoned on again, though the settled hostility of theFrench government knew no change. Thoroughly well informedby their legion of spies both on the Continent and inIreland, every possible military precaution was taken. The Lord Lieutenant's proclamation for disarming thepeople, issued in May, was rigorously enforced by GeneralJohnstone in the South, General Hutchinson in the West, and Lord Lake in the North. Two hundred thousand pikesand pike-heads were said to have been discovered orsurrendered during the year, and several thousand firelocks. The yeomanry, and English and Scotch corps amounted to35, 000 men, while the regular troops were increased to50, 000 and subsequently to 80, 000, including threeregiments of the Guards. The defensive works at Cork, and other vulnerable points were strengthened at animmense cost; the "Pigeon House" fort, near Dublin, wasenlarged, for the city itself was pronounced by GeneralVallancy, Colonel Packenham, and other engineer authoritiesdangerously weak, if not wholly untenable. A system oftelegraphic signals was established from all points ofthe coast with the Capital, and every precaution takenagainst the surprise of another French invasion. 

During the summer assize, almost every considerable townand circuit had its state trial. The sheriffs had beencarefully selected beforehand by the Castle, and thejuries were certain to be of "the right sort, " under theauspices of such sheriffs. Immense sums in the aggregatewere contributed by the United Irish for the defence oftheir associates; at the Down assizes alone, not lessthan seven hundred or eight hundred guineas were spentin 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 penaltyof 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 whomthe informer pointed his finger, were taken out, andsummarily executed. Ghastly forms hung upon the thick-setgibbets, not only in the market places of country towns, and before the public prisons, but on all the bridges ofthe metropolis. Many of the soldiers, in every militarydistrict were shot weekly and almost daily for real oralleged complicity with the rebels. The horrid tortureof picketing, and the blood-stained lash, were constantlyresorted to, to extort accusations or confessions. Overall these atrocities the furious and implacable spiritof Lord Clare presided in Council, and the equallyfurious and implacable Luttrel, Lord Carhampton, asCommander-in-Chief. All moderate councils were denouncedas nothing short of treason, and even the elder Beresford, the Privy Counsellor, was compelled to complain of theviolence of his noble associates, and his inability torestrain 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 destructiveas ever animated the Councils of Sylla or Marius in OldRome, or prompted the decrees of Robespierre or Marat inFrance, that the genius and courage of one man redeemedthe lost reputation of the law, and upheld against allodds the sacred claims of personal liberty. This man wasJohn Philpot Curran, the most dauntless of advocates, one of the truest and bravest of his race. Although apolitician of the school of Grattan, and wholly untaintedwith French principles, he identified himself absolutelywith his unhappy clients, "predoomed to death. " The geniusof patriotic resistance which seemed to have withdrawnfrom the Island with Grattan's secession from Parliament, now re-appeared in the last place where it might havebeen expected--in those courts of death, rather than ofjustice--before those predetermined juries, besides thehopeless inmates of the crowded dock, personified in theperson of Curran. Often at midnight, amid the clash ofarms, his wonderful pleadings were delivered; sometimes, as in Dublin, where the court rooms adjoined the prisons, the condemned, or the confined, could hear, in theircells, his piercing accents breaking the stillness ofthe early morning, pleading for justice and mercy--pleadingalways with superhuman perseverance, but almost alwaysin vain. Neither menaces of arrest, nor threats ofassassination, had power to intimidate that all-daringspirit; nor, it may be safely said, can the whole libraryof human history present us a form of heroism superiorin kind or degree to that which this illustrious advocateexhibited during nearly two years, when he went forthdaily, with his life in his hand, in the holy hope tosnatch some human victim from the clutch of the destroyerthirsting for his blood. 

In November, '97, some said from fear of personalconsequences, some from official pressure in a highquarter, Lord Carhampton resigned the command of theforces, and Sir Ralph Abercromby was appointed in hisstead. There could not be a more striking illustrationof the system of terror patronized by government thanwas furnished in the case of Sir Ralph as Commander-in-Chief. That distinguished soldier, with his half centuryof services at his back, had not been a week in Dublinbefore he discovered the weakness of the Viceroy, andthe violence of his principal advisers, the Chancellor, the Speaker, Lord Castlereagh and the Beresfords. Writingin confidence to his son, he says, "The abuses of allkinds I found here can scarcely be believed or enumerated. "The instances he cites of such abuses are sufficientlyhorrible to justify the strong language which broughtdown on his head so much hostility, when he declared inhis proclamation of February '98, that the Irish armywas "formidable to every one but the enemy. " Thesewell-known opinions were so repugnant to the Castlepolicy, that that party held a caucus in the Speaker'sChambers, at which it was proposed to pass a vote ofcensure in Parliament on the General, whom they denouncedas "a sulky mule, " "a Scotch beast, " and by other similarnames. Though the Parliamentary censure dropped, theyactually compelled Lord Camden to call on him to retracthis magnanimous order. To this humiliation the veteranstooped "for the sake of the King's service, " but at thesame time he proffered his resignation. After two months'correspondence, it was finally accepted, and the soldierwho was found too jealous of the rights of the people tobe a fit instrument of their destruction, escaped fromhis high position, not without a profound sentiment ofrelief. His verdict upon the barbarous policy pursued inhis time was always expressed, frankly and decisively. His entire correspondence, private and public, bears oneand the same burthen--the violence, cruelty, and tyrannyof Lord Camden's chief advisers, and the pitiful weaknessof the Viceroy himself. Against the infamous plan ofletting loose a lustful and brutal soldiery to live at"free quarters" on a defenceless and disarmed people--anoutrage against which Englishmen had taken perpetualsecurity at _their_ revolution, as may be seen in "theBill of Rights, " he struggled during his six months'command, but with no great success. The plan, with allits horrors, was upheld by the Lord-Lieutenant, and morethan any other cause, precipitated the rebellion whichexploded at last, just as Sir Ralph was allowed to retirefrom the country. His temporary successor, Lord Lake, was troubled with no such scruples as the gallant oldScotsman. 

Events followed each other in the first months of 1798, fast and furiously. Towards the end of February, ArthurO'Conor, Father James Quigley, the brothers John andBenjamin Binns, were arrested at Margate on their way toFrance; on the 6th of March, the _Press_ newspaper, theDublin organ of the party, as the _Star_ had been theUlster organ, was seized by Government, Lord EdwardFitzgerald and William Sampson being at the time in theoffice. On the 12th of March, on the information of thetraitor, Thomas Reynolds, the Leinster delegates wereseized in conclave, with all their papers, at the houseof Oliver Bond, in Bridge Street, Dublin. On the sameinformation. Addis Emmet and Dr. McNevin were taken intheir own houses, and Sampson in the north of England:of all the executive, Lord Edward alone escaping thosesent in search of him. This was, as Tone notes in hisjournal, on the ill news reaching France, "a terribleblow. " O'Conor's arrest in Kent, Sampson's in Carlisle, and the other arrests in Belfast and Dublin, proved tootruly that treason was at work, and that the much-prizedoath of secrecy was no protection whatever against thedevices of the Castle and the depravity of its secretagents. The extent to which that treason extended, thenumber of associates who were in the pay of their deadlyenemies, was never known to the United Irish leaders;time has, however, long since "revealed the secrets ofthe prison-house, " and we know now, that men they trustedwith all their plans and hopes, such as McNally andMcGucken, were quite as deep in the conspiracy to destroythem as Mr. Reynolds and Captain Armstrong. 

The most influential members of the Dublin Societyremaining at large contrived to correspond with eachother, or to meet by stealth after the arrest at Bond's. The vacancies in the Executive were filled up by thebrothers John and Henry Sheares, both barristers, sonsof a wealthy Cork banker, and former member of Parliament, and by Mr. Lawless, a surgeon. For two months longerthese gentlemen continued to act in concert with LordEdward, who remained undetected, notwithstanding all theefforts of Government, from the 12th of March till the19th of May following. During those two months the newdirectors devoted themselves with the utmost energy tohurrying on the armament of the people, and especiallyto making proselytes among the militia, where the gainof one man armed and disciplined was justly accountedequal to the enlistment of three or four ordinary adherents. This part of their plan brought the brothers Sheares intocontact, among others, with Captain John WarnefordArmstrong, of the Queen's County Yeomanry, whom theysupposed they had won over, but who was, in reality, abetter-class spy, acting under Lord Castlereagh'sinstructions. Armstrong cultivated them sedulously, dinedat their table, echoed their opinions, and led thecredulous brothers on to their destruction. All at lastwas determined on; the day of the rising was fixed--the23rd day of May--and the signal was to be the simultaneousstoppage of the mail coaches, which started nightly fromthe 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, aftera desperate struggle with Majors Swan and Sirr, andCaptain Ryan, in his hiding-place in Thomas Street; thebrothers Sheares were arrested in their own house on themorning of the 21st, while Surgeon Lawless escaped fromthe city, and finally from the country, to France. Thus, for the second time, was the insurrection left withouta head; but the organization had proceeded too far to beany longer restrained, and the Castle, moreover, to usethe expression of Lord Castlereagh, "took means to makeit explode. "

The first intelligence of the rebellion was received inDublin on the morning of the 24th of May. At Rathfarnham, within three miles of the city, 500 insurgents attackedLord Ely's yeomanry corps with some success, till LordRoden's dragoons, hastily despatched from the city, compelled them to retreat, with the loss of some prisonersand two men killed, whom Mr. Beresford saw the next day, literally "_cut to pieces_--a horrid sight. " At Dunboynethe insurgents piked an escort of the Reay Fencibles(Scotch) passing through their village, and carried offtheir baggage. At Naas, a large popular force attackedthe garrison, consisting of regulars, Ancient Britons(Welsh), part of a regiment of dragoons, and the ArmaghMilitia; the attack was renewed three times with greatbravery, but finally, discipline, as it always will, prevailed over mere numbers, and the assailants were repulsedwith the loss of 140 of their comrades. At Prosperous, where they cut off to a man a strong garrison composed ofNorth Cork Militia, under Captain Swayne, the rising wasmore successful. The commander in this exploit was Dr. Esmonde, brother of the Wexford baronet, who, being betrayedby one of his own subalterns, was the next morning arrestedat breakfast in the neighbourhood, and suffered death atDublin on the 14th of the following month. 

There could hardly be found a more unfavourable fieldfor a peasant war than the generally level and easilyaccessible county of Kildare, every parish of which iswithin a day's march of Dublin. From having been theresidence of Lord Edward, it was, perhaps, one of themost highly organized parts of Leinster, but as it hadthe misfortune to be represented by Thomas Reynolds, ascounty delegate, it laboured under the disadvantage ofhaving its organization better known to the governmentthan any other. We need hardly be surprised, therefore, to find that the military operations in this county wereall over in ten days or a fortnight; when those who hadneither surrendered nor fallen, fell back into Meath orConnaught, or effected a junction with the Wicklow rebelsin their mountain fastnesses. Their struggle, though sobrief, had been creditable for personal bravery. Attackedby 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 fromLimerick, under Sir James Duff, they showed qualities, which, if well directed, would have established for theirpossessors a high military reputation. At Monastereventhey were repulsed with loss, the defenders of the townbeing in part Catholic loyalists, under Captain Cassidy;at Rathangan, they were more successful, taking andholding the town for several days; at Clane, the captorsof Prosperous were repulsed; while at Old Killcullen, their associates drove back General Dundas' advance, withthe loss of 22 regulars and Captain Erskine killed. SirJames Duff's wanton cruelty in sabring and shooting downan unarmed multitude on the Curragh, won him the warmapproval of the extermination party in the Capital, whileGenerals Wilford and Dundas narrowly escaped beingreprimanded for granting a truce to the insurgents underAylmer, and accepting of the surrender of that leaderand his companions. By the beginning of June the sixKildare encampments of insurgents were totally dispersed, and their most active officers in prison or fugitiveswest or south. 

By a preconcerted arrangement, the local chiefs of theinsurrection in Dublin and Meath, gathered with their menon the third day after the outbreak, at the historic hillof Tara. Here they expected to be joined by the men ofCavan, Longford, Louth and Monaghan; but before thenortherners reached the trysting place, three companies ofthe Reay Fencibles, under Captain McClean, the Kells andNavan Yeomanry, under Captain Preston, (afterwards LordTara, ) and a troop of cavalry under Lord Fingal, surroundedthe royal hill. The insurgents, commanded by Gilshine andother leaders, intrenched themselves in the graveyard whichoccupies the summit of Tara, and stoutly defended theirposition. Twenty-six of the Highlanders and six of theYeomanry fell in the assault, but the bullet reached fartherthan the pike, and the defenders were driven, after a sharpaction, over the brow of the eminence, and many of themshot or sabred down as they fled. 

Southward from the Capital the long pent-up flame ofdisaffection broke out on the same memorable day, May23rd. At Dunlavin, an abortive attempt on the barrackrevealed the fact that many of the Yeomanry were thoroughlywith the insurgents. Hardly had the danger from withoutpassed over, when a military inquiry was improvised. Bythis tribunal, nineteen Wexford, and nine Kildare Yeomanry, were ordered to be shot, and the execution of the sentencefollowed immediately on its rending. At Blessington, thetown was seized, but a nocturnal attack on Carlow wasrepulsed with great loss. In this last affair, the rebelshad _rendezvoused_ in the domain of Sir Edward Crosbie, within two miles of the town. Here arms were distributedand orders given by their leader, named Roche. Silentlyand quickly they reached the town they hoped to surprise. But the regular troops, of which the garrison was chieflycomposed, were on the alert, though their preparationswere made full as silently. When the peasantry emergedfrom Tullow Street, into an exposed space, a deadly firewas opened upon them from the houses on all sides. Theregulars, in perfect security themselves, and abundantlysupplied with ammunition, shot them down with deadlyunerring aim. The people soon found there was nothingfor it but retreat, and carrying off as best they couldtheir killed and wounded, they retired sorely discomfited. For alleged complicity in this attack, Sir Edward Crosbiewas shortly afterward arrested, tried and executed. Therewas not a shadow of proof against him; but he was knownto sympathize with the sufferings of his countrymen, tohave condemned in strong language the policy of provocation, and that was sufficient. He paid with the penalty of hishead for the kindness and generosity of his heart. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE INSURRECTION OF 1798--THE WEXFORD INSURRECTION. 

The most formidable insurrection, indeed the only reallyformidable one, broke out in the county of Wexford, acounty in which it was stated there were not 200 swornUnited Irishmen, and which Lord Edward Fitzgerald hadaltogether omitted from his official list of countiesorganized in the month of February. In that brief interval, the Government policy of provocation had the desiredeffect, though the explosion was of a nature to startlethose who occasioned it. 

Wexford, geographically, is a peculiar county, and itspeople are a peculiar people. The county fills up thesouth-eastern corner of the island, with the sea south-east, the river Barrow to the west, and the woods and mountainsof Carlow and Wicklow to the north. It is about fortymiles long by twenty-four broad; the surface undulatingand rising into numerous groups of detached hills, twoor more of which are generally visible from each conspicuoussummit. Almost in the midst flows the river Slaney, springing from a lofty Wicklow peak, which sends down onits northern slope the better known river Liffey. On theestuary of the Slaney, some seventy miles south of Dublin, stands the county town, the traveller journeying to whichby the usual route then taken, passed in successionthrough Arklow, Gorey, Ferns, Enniscorthy, and otherplaces of less consequence, though familiar enough inthe fiery records of 1798. North-westward, the only roadin those days from Carlow and Kilkenny, crossed theBlackstairs at Scollagh-gap, entering the county atNewtownbarry, the ancient Bunclody; westward, some twentymiles, on the river Barrow, stands New Ross, oftenmentioned in this history, the road from which to thecounty 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 hyperbolicallycalled "the _mountain_ of Forth. " South and west of thetown, towards the estuary of Waterford, lie the baroniesof Forth and Bargy, a great part of the population ofwhich, even within our own time, spoke the languageChaucer and Spenser wrote, and retained many of thecharacteristics of their Saxon, Flemish, and Cambrianancestors. Through this singular district lay the roadtowards Duncannon fort, on Waterford harbour, with branchesrunning off to Bannow, Ballyhack, and Dunbrody. We shall, therefore, speak of all the localities we may have occasionto mention as on or near one of the four main roads ofthe county, the Dublin, Carlow, Boss, and Waterford roads. 

The population of this territory was variously estimatedin 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 thefarmers held under them by long leases and reasonablerents. There were in the country few great lords, butthere was little poverty and no pauperism. In such asoil, the secret societies were almost certain to fail, and if it had not been for the diabolical experiments ofLord Kingsborough's North Cork Militia, it is very probablethat that orderly and thrifty population would have seenthe eventful year we are describing pass over their homeswithout experiencing any of the terrible trials whichaccompanied it. But it was impossible for human natureto endure the provocations inflicted upon this patientand prosperous people. The pitch-cap and the trianglewere resorted to on the slightest and most frivolouspretexts. "A sergeant of the North Cork Militia, " saysMr. Hay, the county historian, "nicknamed, _Tom theDevil_, was most ingenious in devising new modes oftorture. Moistened gunpowder was frequently rubbed intothe hair cut close and then set on fire; some, whileshearing for this purpose, had the tips of their earssnipt off; sometimes an entire ear, and often both earswere completely cut off; and many lost part of theirnoses during the like preparation. But, strange to tell, "adds Mr. Hay, "these atrocities were publicly practisedwithout the least reserve in open day, and no magistrateor officer ever interfered, but shamefully connived atthis extraordinary mode of quieting the people! Some ofthe miserable sufferers on these shocking occasions, orsome of their relations or friends, actuated by a principleof retaliation, if not of revenge, cut short the hair ofseveral persons whom they either considered as enemiesor suspected of having pointed them out as objects forsuch desperate treatment. This was done with a view thatthose active citizens should fall in for a little experienceof the like discipline, or to make the fashion of shorthair so general that it might no longer be a mark ofparty distinction. " This was the origin of the nickname"Croppy, " by which, during the remainder of theinsurrection, it was customary to designate all who weresuspected or proved to be hostile to, the government. 

Among the magistracy of the county were several personswho, whatever might have been their conduct in ordinarytimes, now showed themselves utterly unfit to be entrustedwith those large discretionary powers which Parliamenthad recently conferred upon all justices of the peace. One of these magistrates, surrounded by his troops, perambulated the county with an executioner, armed withall the equipments of his office; another carried awaythe lopped hands and fingers of his victims, with whichhe stirred his punch in the carousals that followed everyexpedition. At Carnew, midway between the Dublin andCarlow roads, on the second day of the insurrection, twenty-eight prisoners were brought out to be shot at astargets in the public ball alley; on the same dayEnniscorthy witnessed its first execution for treason, and the neighbourhood of Ballaghkeen was harried by Mr. Jacob, one of the magistrates whose method of preservingthe peace of the county has been just referred to. Themajority of the bench, either weakly or willingly, sanctioned these atrocities, but some others, among thema few of the first men in the county, did not hesitateto resist and condemn them. Among these were Mr. BeauchampBagenal Harvey of Bargy Castle, Mr. Fitzgerald of Newpark, and Mr. John Henry Colclough of Tintern Abbey; but allthese gentlemen were arrested on Saturday, the 26th ofMay--the same day, or more strictly speaking, the eveof the day on which the Wexford outbreak occurred. 

On the day succeeding these arrests, being Whitsunday, Father John Murphy, parish priest of Kilcormick, the sonof a small farmer of the neighbourhood, educated in Spain, on coming to his little wayside chapel, found it laid inashes. To his flock, as they surrounded him in the openair, he boldly preached that it would be much better forthem to die in a fair field than to await the torturesinflicted by such magistrates as Archibald Jacob, HunterGowan, and Hawtrey White. He declared his readiness toshare their fate, whatever it might be, and in response, about 2, 000 of the country people gathered in a few hoursupon Oulart Hill, situated about half-way betweenEnniscorthy and the sea, and eleven miles north of Wexford. Here they were attacked on the afternoon of the same dayby the North Cork Militia, Colonel Foote, the ShilmalierYeoman cavalry, Colonel Le Hunte, and the Wexford cavalry. The rebels, strong in their position, and more generallyaccustomed to the use of arms than persons in theircondition in other parts of the country, made a braveand successful stand. Major Lambert, the Hon. Captain DeCourcy (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 thetop of their speed, galloped back to the county town. 

The people were soon thoroughly aroused. Another popularpriest 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, whohad gathered on Kilthomas hill, near Carnew. Signal firesburned that night on all the eminences of the county, which seemed as if they had been designed for so manywatch-towers; horns resounded; horsemen galloped far andnear; 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 takenby the insurgents; the latter, after an action of fourhours, in which a captain, two lieutenants, and eightyof the local yeomanry fell. The survivors fled to Wexford, which was as rapidly as possible placed in a state ofdefence. The old walls and gates were still in goodrepair, and 300 North Cork, 200 Donegal, and 700 localmilitia ought to have formed a strong garrison withinsuch ramparts, against a mere tumultuous peasantry. Theyeomen, however, thought otherwise, and two of the threeimprisoned popular magistrates were sent to Enniscorthyto exhort and endeavour to disperse the insurgents. Oneof them only returned, the other, Mr. Fitzgerald, joinedthe rebels, who, continuing their march, were allowed totake possession of the county town without striking ablow. Mr. Bagenal Harvey, the magistrate still in prison, they insisted on making their Commander-in-Chief; agentleman of considerable property, by no means destituteof courage, but in every other respect quite unequal tothe task imposed upon him. After a trial of his generalshipat the battle of Ross, he was transferred to the morepacific office of President of the Council, which continuedto sit and direct operations from Wexford, with theco-operation of a sub-committee at Enniscorthy. CaptainMatthew Keogh, a retired officer of the regular army, aged but active, was made governor of the town, in whicha couple of hundred armed men were left as his guards. An attempt to relieve the place from Duncannon had utterlyfailed. General Fawcett, commanding that importantfortress, set out on his march with this object on the30th of May--his advanced guard of 70 Meathian yeomanry, having in charge three howitzers, whose slower movementsit was expected the main force would overtake long beforereaching the neighbourhood of danger. At Taghmon thisforce was joined by Captain Adams with his command, andthus reinforced they continued their march to Wexford. Within three miles of the town the road wound round thebase of the "three rock" mountain; evening fell as theroyalists approached this neighbourhood, where the victorsof Oulart, Enniscorthy, and Wexford had just improviseda new camp. A sharp volley from the long-shore-men'sguns, and a furious onslaught of pikes threw the royaldetachment into the utmost disorder. Three officers ofthe Meathian cavalry, and nearly one hundred men wereplaced _hors de combat_; the three howitzers, elevengunners, and several prisoners taken; making the thirdconsiderable success of the insurgents within a week. 

Wexford county now became the theatre of operations, onwhich all eyes were fixed. The populace gathered as ifby instinct into three great encampments, on VinegarHill, above Enniscorthy; on Carrickbyrne, on the roadleading to Ross, and on the hill of Corrigrua, sevenmiles from Gorey. The principal leaders of the firstdivision were Fathers Kearns and Clinch, and Messrs. Fitzgerald, Doyle, and Redmond; of the second, BagenalHarvey, and Father Philip Roche; of the last, AnthonyPerry of Inch, Esmond Kyan, and the two Fathers Murphy, Michael, and John. The general plan of operations wasthat the third division should move by way of Arklow andWicklow on the Capital; the second to open communicationwith Carlow, Kilkenny, and Kildare by Newtownbarry andScollagh-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 divisionmarching upon Gorey, then occupied in force by GeneralLoftus, were encountered four miles from the town, anddriven back with the loss of about a hundred killed andwounded. On the 4th of June, Loftus, at the instance ofColonel Walpole, aid-de-camp to the Lord Lieutenant, whohad lately joined him with considerable reinforcements, resolved to beat up the rebel quarters at Corrigrua. Itwas to be a combined movement; Lord Ancram, posted withhis militia and dragoons at the bridge of Scaramalsh, where the poetic Banna joins the Slaney, was to preventthe arrival of succours from Vinegar Hill; Captain McManus, with a couple of companies of yeomanry, stationed atanother exposed point from which intelligence could beobtained and communicated; while the General and ColonelWalpole, marched to the attack by roads some distanceapart, which ran into one within two miles of Corrigruacamp. The main body of the King's troops were committedto the lead of Walpole, who had also two six-poundersand a howitzer. After an hour-and-a-half's march hefound the country changed its character near the villageof Clogh (_clo'_), where the road descending from thelevel arable land, dips suddenly into the narrow andwinding pass of Tubberneering. The sides of the pass werelined with a bushy shrubbery, and the roadway at thebottom embanked with ditch and dike. On came the confidentWalpole, never dreaming that these silent thickets wereso soon to re-echo the cries of the onslaught. The 4thdragoon guards, the Ancient Britons, under Sir WatkynWynne, the Antrim militia, under Colonel Cope, had allentered the defile before the ambuscade was discovered. Then, at the first volley, Walpole fell, with several ofthose immediately about Ms person; out from the shrubberyrushed the pikemen, clearing ditch and dike at a bound;dragoons and fencibles went down like the sward beforethe scythe of the mower; the three guns were captured, and turned on the flying survivors; the regimental flagstaken, with all the other spoils pertaining to such aretreat. It was, in truth, an immense victory for a mobof peasants, marshalled by men who that day saw theirfirst, or, at most, their second action. Before forty-eighthours they were masters of Gorey, and talked of nothingless than the capture of Dublin within another week orfortnight!

From Vinegar Hill the concerted movement was made againstNewtonbarry, on the 2nd of June, the rebels advancing byboth banks of the Slaney, under cover of a six-pounder--the only gun they had with them. The detachment in commandof the beautiful little town, half hidden in its leafyvalley, was from 600 to 800 strong, with a troop ofdragoons, and two battalion guns, under command of ColonelL'Estrange; these, after a sharp fusilade on both sides, were driven out, but the assailants, instead of followingup the blow, dispersed for plunder or refreshment, wereattacked in turn, and compelled to retreat, with a reportedloss of 400 killed. Three days later, however, a still moreimportant action, and a yet more disastrous repulse fromthe 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 of1, 400 men--Dublin, Meath, Donegal, and Clare militia, Mid-Lothian fencibles, and English artillery. GeneralJohnson, a veteran soldier, was in command, and the place, strong in its well preserved old walls, had not heard ashot fired in anger since the time of Cromwell. Harveywas reported to have with him 20, 000 men; but if we allowfor the exaggeration of numbers common to all suchmovements, we may, perhaps, deduct one-half, and stillleave 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 bya sentinel, and the attack began. The main point ofassault was the gate known as "three bullet gate, " andthe hour, five o'clock of the lovely summer's morning. The obstinacy with which the town was contested, may bejudged from the fact, that the fighting continued fornearly ten hours, with the interruption of an hour ortwo at noon. This was the fatal interruption for therebels. 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 comradestreble the number had fallen. Still the town, an objectof the first importance, was theirs, when worn out withheat, fatigue, and fasting since sunrise, they indulgedthemselves in the luxury of a deep unmeasured carouse. The fugitive garrison finding themselves unpursued, haltedto breathe on the Kilkenny bank of the river, were ralliedby the veteran Johnson, and led back again across thebridge, taking the surprised revellers completelyunprepared. A cry was raised that this was a fresh forcefrom Waterford; the disorganised multitude endeavouredto rally in turn, but before the leaders could collecttheir men, the town was once more in possession of theBang's troops. The rebels, in their turn, unpursued bytheir exhausted enemies, fell back upon their campingground of the night before, at Corbet hill andSlieve-kielter. At the latter, Father Philip Roche, dissatisfied with Harvey's management, established aseparate command, which he transferred to a layman of hisown name, Edward Roche, with whom he continued to actand advise during the remainder of this memorable month. 

The summer of 1798 was, for an Irish summer, remarkablydry and warm. The heavy Atlantic rains which at allseasons are poured out upon that soil, seemed suspendedin favour of the insurgent multitudes, amounting to30, 000, or 40, 000 at the highest, who, on the differenthill summits, posted their nightly sentinels, and threwthemselves down on turf and heather to snatch a shortrepose. The kindling of a beacon, the lowing of cattle, or the hurried arrival of scout or messenger, hardlyinterfered with slumbers which the fatigues of the day, and, unhappily also, the potations of the night rendereddoubly deep. An early morning mass mustered all theCatholics, unless the very depraved, to the chaplain'stent--for several of the officers, and the chaplainsalways were supplied with tents; and then a hasty mealwas snatched before the sun was fairly above the horizon, and the day's work commenced. The endurance exhibited bythe rebels, their personal strength, swiftness and agility;their tenacity of life, and the ease with which theirworst wounds were healed, excited the astonishment ofthe surgeons and officers of the regular army. The truthis, that the virtuous lives led by that peaceful peasantrybefore the outbreak, enabled them to withstand privationsand hardships under which the better fed and better cladIrish yeomen and English guardsmen would have sunkprostrate in a week. 

Several signs now marked the turning of the tide againstthe men of Wexford. Waterford did not rise after thebattle of Ross; while Munster, generally, was left toundecided councils, or held back in hopes of anotherFrench expedition. The first week of June had passedover, and neither northward nor westward was there anymovement formidable enough to draw off from the devotedcounty the combined armies which were now directed againstits camps. A gunboat fleet lined the coast from Bannowround to Wicklow, which soon after appeared off Wexfordbar, and forced an entrance into the harbour. A few daysearlier, General Needham marched from Dublin, and tookup his position at Arklow, at the head of a force variouslystated at 1, 500 to 2, 000 men, composed of 120 cavalryunder Sir Watkyn Wynne, two brigades of militia underColonels Cope and Maxwell, and a brigade of English andScotch fencibles under Colonel Skerrett. There were alsoat Arklow about 300 of the Wexford and Wicklow mountedyeomanry raised by Lord Wicklow, Lord Mountnorris, andother gentlemen of the neighbourhood. Early on the morningof the 9th of June the northern division of the rebelsleft Gorey in two columns, in order if possible to drivethis force from Arklow. One body proceeding by the coastroad hoped to turn the English position by way of thestrand, the other taking the inner line of the Dublinroad, was to assail the town at its upper or inlandsuburb. But General Needham had made the most of his twodays' possession; barricades were erected across theroad, and at the entrance to the main street; the graveyardand bridge commanding the approach by the shore road weremounted with ordnance; the cavalry were posted where theycould best operate, near the strand; the barrack wallwas lined with a _banquette_ or stage, from which themusketeers could pour their fire with the greatestadvantage, and every other precaution taken to give therebels a warm reception. The action commenced early inthe afternoon, and lasted till eight in the evening--fiveor six hours. The inland column suffered most severelyfrom the marksmen on the _banquette_, and the gallantFather Michael Murphy, whom his followers believed to beinvulnerable, fell leading them on to the charge for thethird time. On the side of the sea, Esmond Kyan was badlywounded in the arm, which he was subsequently obliged tohave amputated, and though the fearless Shilmaliers drovethe cavalry into and over the Avoca, discipline andordnance prevailed once again over numbers and courage. As night fell, the assailants retired slowly towardsCoolgreney, carrying off nine carloads of their wounded, and leaving, perhaps, as many more on the field; theirloss was variously reported from 700 to 1, 000, and even1, 500. The opposite force returned less than 100 killed, including Captain Knox, and about as many wounded. Therepulse was even more than that at Ross, dispiriting tothe rebels, who, as a last resort, now decided toconcentrate all their strength on the favourite positionat Vinegar Hill. 

Against this encampment, therefore, the entire availableforce of regulars and militia within fifty miles of thespot were concentrated by orders of Lord Lake, theCommander-in-Chief. General Dundas from Wicklow was tojoin General Loftus at Carnew on the 18th; General Needhamwas to advance simultaneously to Gorey; General Sir HenryJohnson to unite at Old Ross with Sir James Duff fromCarlow; Sir Charles Asgill was to occupy Gore's bridgeand 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 variousmovements ordered on the 16th, were to be completed bythe 20th, on which day, from their various new positions, the entire force, led by these six general officers, wasto surround Vinegar Hill, and make a simultaneous attackupon the last stronghold of the Wexford rebellion. 

This elaborate plan failed of complete execution in twopoints. _First_, the camp on Carrickbyrne, instead ofwaiting the attack, sent down its fighting men to Foulke'sMill, where, in the afternoon of the 20th they beat upSir John Moore's quarters, and maintained from 3 o'clocktill dark, what that officer calls "a pretty sharp action. "Several tunes they were repulsed and again formed behindthe ditches and renewed the conflict; but the arrival oftwo fresh regiments, under Lord Dalhousie, taught themthat there was no farther chance of victory. By thisaffair, however, though at a heavy cost, they had preventedthe junction of all the troops, and, not withoutsatisfaction, they now followed the two Roches, the priestand the layman, to the original position of the mountainof Forth; Sir John Moore, on his part, taking the samedirection, until he halted within sight of the walls ofWexford. The other departure from Lord Lake's plan wason the side of General Needham, who was ordered to approachthe point of attack by the circuitous route of Oulart, but who did not come up in time to complete the investmentof the hill. 

On the morning of the appointed day, about 13, 000 royaltroops were in movement against the 20, 000 rebels whomthey intended to dislodge. Sir James Duff obtainedpossession of an eminence which commanded the lower lineof the rebel encampment, and from this point a briskcannonade was opened against the opposite force; at thesame time the columns of Lake, Wilford, Dundas, andJohnson, pushed up the south-eastern, northern and westernsides of the eminence, partially covered by the fire ofthese guns, so advantageously placed. After an hour anda half's desperate fighting, the rebels broke and fledby the unguarded side of the hill. Their rout was complete, and many were cut down by the cavalry, as they pressedin dense masses on each other, over the level fields andout on the open highways. Still this action was far frombeing one of the most fatal as to loss of life, foughtin that county; the rebel dead were numbered only at 400, and the royalists killed and wounded at less than halfthat number. 

It was the last considerable action of the Wexford rising, and all the consequences which followed being attributedarbitrarily to this cause, helped to invest it with adisproportionate importance. The only leader lost on therebel side was Father Clinch of Enniscorthy, who encounteredLord Roden hand to hand in the retreat, but who, whileengaged with his lordship whom he wounded, was shot downby a trooper. The disorganization, however, which followedon the dispersion, was irreparable. One column had takenthe road by Gorey to the mountains of Wicklow--anotherto Wexford, where they split into two parts, a portioncrossing the Slaney into the sea-coast parishes, andfacing northward by the shore road, the other fallingback 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 theweek, Bagenal Harvey, Father Philip Roche, and Kelly ofKillane, had surrendered in despair, while Messrs. Groganand Colclough, who had secreted themselves in a cave inthe great Saltee Island, were discovered, and conductedto the same prison. Notwithstanding the capitulationagreed to by Lord Kingsborough, the execution anddecapitation of all these gentlemen speedily followed, and their ghastly faces looked down for many a day fromthe iron spikes above the entrance of Wexford Court House. Mr. Esmond Kyan, the popular hero of the district, asmerciful as brave, was discovered some time subsequentlypaying a stealthy visit to his family; he was put todeath on the spot, and his body, weighted with heavystones, thrown into the harbour. A few mornings afterwardsthe incoming tide deposited it close by the dwelling ofhis father-in-law, and the rites of Christian burial, sodear to all his race, were hurriedly rendered to thebeloved remains. 

The insurrection in this county, while it abounded ininstances of individual and general heroism, was stainedalso, on both sides, by many acts of diabolical cruelty. The aggressors, both in time and in crime were the yeomanryand military; but the popular movement dragged wretchesto the surface who delighted in repaying torture withtorture, and death with death. The butcheries of Dunlavinand Carnew were repaid by the massacres at Scullabogueand Wexford bridge, in the former of which 110, and inthe latter 35 or 40 persons were put to death in coldblood, by the monsters who absented themselves from thebattles of Ross and Vinegar Hill. The executions atWexford bridge would probably have been swelled to doublethe number, had not Father Corrin, one of the priests ofthe town, rushing in between his Protestant neighboursand the ferocious Captain Dixon, and summoning all presentto pray, invoked the Almighty "to show them the samemercy" they showed their prisoners. This awful supplicationcalmed even that savage rabble, and no further executiontook place. Nearly forty years afterwards, Captain Kellet, of Clonard, ancestor of the Arctic discoverer, and otherswhom he had rescued from the very grasp of the executioner, followed to the grave that revered and devoted ministerof mercy!

It would be a profitless task to draw out a parallel ofthe crimes committed on both sides. Two facts only needbe recorded: that although from 1798 to 1800, not lessthan _sixty-five_ places of Catholic worship were demolishedor burned in Leinster, (twenty-two of which were inWexford county), only _one_ Protestant Church, that ofOld Ross, was destroyed in retaliation; and that althoughtowards men, especially men in arms, the rebels acted onthe fierce Mosaic maxim of "an eye for an eye and a toothfor a tooth, " no outrage upon women is laid to theircharge, even by their most exasperated enemies. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE INSURRECTION ELSEWHERE--FATE OF THE LEADINGUNITED IRISHMEN. 

On the 21st of June, the Marquis Cornwallis, whose nameis so familiar in American and East Indian history, arrived in Dublin, to assume the supreme power, bothcivil and military. As his Chief Secretary, he recommendedLord Castlereagh, who had acted in that capacity duringthe latter part of Lord Camden's administration inconsequence of Mr Pelham's illness; and the Pitt-Portlandadministration appointed his lordship accordingly, because, among other good and sufficient reasons, "he was so unlikean Irishman. "

While the new Viceroy came to Ireland still more resolutethan his predecessor to bring about the long-desiredlegislative union, it is but justice to his memory tosay, that he as resolutely resisted the policy of tortureand provocation pursued under Lord Camden. That policyhad, indeed, served its pernicious purpose, and it wasnow possible for a new ruler to turn a new leaf; thisLord Cornwallis did from the hour of his arrival, notwithout incurring the ill-concealed displeasures of theCastle cabal. But his position gave him means of protectionwhich Sir Ralph Abercromby had not; he was known to enjoythe personal confidence of the King; and those who didnot hesitate three months before to assail by every abusiveepithet the humane Scottish Baronet, hesitated long beforecriticising with equal freedom the all-powerful Viceroy. 

The sequel of the insurrection may be briefly related:next to Wexford, the adjoining county of Wicklow, famousthroughout the world for its lakes and glens, maintainedthe chief brunt of the Leinster battle. The brothersByrne, of Ballymanus, with Holt, Hackett, and other localleaders, were for months, from the difficult nature ofthe country, enabled to defy those combined movements bywhich, as in a huge net, Lord Lake had swept up the campsof Wexford. At Hacketstown, on the 25th of June, theByrnes were repulsed with considerable loss, but atBallyellis, on the 30th, fortune and skill gave them andtheir Wexford comrades a victory, resembling in manyrespects that of Clough. General Needham, who had againestablished his head-quarters at Gorey, detached ColonelPreston, with some troops of Ancient Britons, the 4thand 5th dragoons, and three yeomanry corps, to attackthe insurgents who were observed in force in theneighbourhood of Monaseed. Aware of this movement, theByrnes prepared in the ravine of Ballyellis a well-laidambuscade, barricading with carts and trees the fartherend of the pass. Attacked by the royalists they retreatedtowards this pass, were hotly pursued, and then turnedon their pursuers. Two officers and sixty men were killedin the trap, while the terrified rear-rank fled for theirlives to the shelter of their head-quarters. AtBallyraheene, on the 2nd of July, the King's troopssustained another check in which they lost two officersand ten men, but at Ballygullen, on the 4th, the insurgentswere surrounded between the forces of General Needham, Sir James Duff, and the Marquis of Huntley. This was thelast considerable action in which the Wicklow and Wexfordmen were unitedly engaged. In the dispersion whichfollowed, "Billy Byrne of Ballymanus, " the hero of hiscounty, paid the forfeit of his life; while his brother, Garrett, subsequently surrendered, and was included inthe Banishment Act. 

Anthony Perry of Inch, and Father Kearns, leading a muchdiminished band into Kildare, formed a junction withAylmer and Reynolds of that county, and marched intoMeath, with a view of reaching and surprising Athlone. The plan was boldly and well conceived, but their meansof execution were deplorably deficient. At Clonard theywere repulsed by a handful of troops well armed andposted; 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 upin twos and threes to seek any means of escape. FatherKearns and Mr. Perry were, however, arrested, and executedby martial law at Edenderry. Both died bravely; the priestsustaining and exhorting his companion to the last. 

Still another band of the Wexford men, under Father JohnMurphy and Walter Devereux, crossed the Barrow at Gore'sbridge, and marched upon Kilkenny. At Lowgrange theysurprised an outpost; at Castlecomer, after a sharpaction, they took the town, which Sir Charles Asgillendeavoured, but without success, to relieve. Thence theycontinued their march towards Athy in Kildare, but beingcaught between two or rather three fires, that of MajorMathews, from Maryboro', General Dunne, from Athy, andSir Charles Asgill, they retreated on old Leighlin, asif seeking the shelter of the Carlow mountains. AtKillcomney Hill, however, they were forced into actionunder most unfavourable circumstances, and utterly routed. One, Father Murphy, fell in the engagement, the other, the precursor of the insurrection, was captured threedays afterward, and conveyed a prisoner to General Duff'sheadquarters at Tullow. Here he was put on his trialbefore 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 thehigh-spirited rebel answered with a blow. The Commissionthought him highly dangerous, and instantly ordered himto execution. His body was burned, his head spiked onthe market-house of Tullow, and his memory gibbeted inall the loyal publications of the period. On his person, before execution, were found a crucifix, a pix, andletters from many Protestants, asking his protection; asto his reputation, the priest who girded on the swordonly when he found his altar overthrown and his flockdevoured by wolves, need not fear to look posterity inthe face. 

Of the other Leinster leaders, Walter Devereux, the lastcolleague of Father Murphy, was arrested at Cork, on theeve of sailing for America, tried and executed; Fitzgeraldand Aylmer were spared on condition of expatriation;months afterwards, Holt surrendered, was transported, and returned after several years, to end his days wherehe began his career; Dwyer alone maintained the life ofa Rapparee for five long years among the hills of Wicklow, where his adventures were often of such a nature as tothrow all fictitious conceptions of an outlaw's life intocommonplace by comparison. Except in the fastnessesfrequented by this extraordinary man, and in the wood ofKillaughram, in Wexford, where the outlaws, with the laststroke of national humour, assumed the name of _The Babesin the Wood_, the Leinster insurrection was utterlytrodden 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 anddevotion can accomplish!

In Ulster, on the organization of which so much time andlabour had been expended for four or five years preceding, the rising was not more general than in Leinster, andthe actual struggle lasted only a week. The two countieswhich moved _en masse_ were Down and Antrim, the originalchiefs of which, such as Thomas Russell and Samuel Neilson, were unfortunately in prison. The next leader on whomthe men of Antrim relied, resigned his command on thevery eve of the appointed day; this disappointment andthe arrest of the Rev. Steele Dickson in Down, compelleda full fortnight's delay. On the 7th of June, however, the more determined spirits resolved on action, and thefirst movement was to seize the town of Antrim, which, if they could have held it, would have given them commandof the communications with Donegal and Down, from bothof which they might have expected important additions totheir ranks. The leader of this enterprise was Henry JohnMcCracken, a cotton manufacturer of Belfast, thirty twoyears of age, well educated, accomplished and resolute, with whom was associated a brother of William Orr, theproto-martyr of the Ulster Union. The town of Antrim wasoccupied by the 22nd light dragoons, Colonel Lumley, andthe local yeomanry under Lord O'Neil. In the first assaultthe insurgents were successful, Lord O'Neil, five officers, forty-seven rank and file having fallen, and two gunsbeing captured; but Lumley's dragoons had hardly vanishedout of sight, when a strong reinforcement from Blariscamp arrived and renewed the action, changing prematureexultation into panic and confusion. Between two andthree hundred of the rebels fell, and McCracken and hisstaff, deserted by their hasty levies, were arrested, wearied and hopeless, about a month later, wanderingamong the Antrim hills. The leaders were tried at Belfastand executed. 

In Down two actions were fought, one at Saintfield onthe 7th of June, under Dr. Jackson--where Colonel Stapletonwas severely handled--and another and more important oneat Ballynahinch, under Henry Munro, on the 13th, whereNugent, the district General, commanded in person. Here, after a gallant defence, the men of Down were utterlyrouted; their leader, alone and on foot, was capturedsome five or six miles from the field, and executed twodays afterwards before his own door at Lisburn. He diedwith the utmost composure; his wife and mother lookingdown, on the awful scene from the windows of his own house. 

In Munster, with the exception of a trifling skirmishbetween 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 attackedthem on the 19th of June, on the road from Clonakilty toBandon, there was no notable attempt at insurrection. But in Connaught, very unexpectedly, as late as the endof August, the flame extinguished in blood in Leinsterand Ulster, again blazed up for some days with portentousbrightness. The counties of Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon andGalway had been partially organized by those fugitivesfrom Orange oppression in the North, who, in the years'95, '96, and '97, had been compelled to flee for theirlives into Connaught, to the number of several thousands. They brought with the tale of their sufferings the secretof Defenderism; they first taught the peasantry of theWest, who, safe in their isolated situation and theiroverwhelming numbers, were more familiar with povertythan with persecution, what manner of men then held swayover all the rest of the country, and how easily it wouldbe for Irishmen once united and backed by France, toestablish under their own green flag, both religiousand civil liberty. 

When, therefore, three French frigates cast anchor inKillalla Bay, on the 22nd of August, they did not findthe country wholly unprepared, though far from being asripe for revolt as they expected. These ships had onboard 1, 000 men, with arms for 1, 000 more, under commandof General Humbert, who had taken on himself, in thestate of anarchy which then prevailed in France, to sailfrom La Rochelle with this handful of men, in aid of theinsurrection. With Humbert were Mathew Tone and BartholmewTeeling; and immediately on his arrival he was joined byMessrs. McDonnell, Moore, Bellew, Barrett, O'Dowd, andO'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, enrollingrecruits, and sending out parties of observation. Onthe 4th, (Sunday, ) Humbert entered Ballina withoutresistance, and on the same night set out for Castlebar, the county town. By this time intelligence of his landingwas spread over the whole country, and both Lord Lakeand General Hutchinson had advanced to Castlebar, wherethey had from 2, 000 to 3, 000 men under their command. The place could be reached only by two routes from thenorth-west, by the Foxford road, or a long desertedmountain road which led over the pass of Barnagee, withinsight of the town. Humbert, accustomed to the long marchesand difficult country of La Vendee, chose the unfrequentedand therefore unguarded route, and, to the consternationof the British generals, descended through the pass ofBarnagee, 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, anddecisive; the yeomanry and regulars broke and fled, someof them never drawing rein till they reached Tuam, whileothers carried their fears and their falsehoods as farinland as Athlone--more than sixty miles from the sceneof action. In this engagement, still remembered as "theraces, " 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 at600. Fourteen British guns and five stand of colourswere also taken. A hot pursuit was continued for somedistance 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 pursuersat French Hill. Immediately after the battle a ProvisionalGovernment was established at Castlebar, with Mr. Mooreof Moore Hall, as President; proclamations addressed tothe inhabitants at large, commissions to raise men, and_assignats_ payable by the future Irish Republic, wereissued in its name. 

Meanwhile the whole of the royalist forces were now inmovement toward the capital of Mayo, as they had beentoward Vinegar Hill two months before. Sir John Mooreand General Hunter marched from Wexford toward the Shannon. General Taylor, with 2, 500 men, advanced from Sligotowards Castlebar; Colonel Maxwell was ordered fromEnniskillen to assume command at Sligo; General Nugentfrom Lisburn occupied Enniskillen, and the Viceroy, leaving Dublin in person, advanced rapidly through themidland counties to Kilbeggan, and ordered Lord Lake andGeneral Hutchinson, with such of their command as couldbe depended on, to assume the aggressive from the directionof Tuam. Thus Humbert and his allies found themselvessurrounded on all sides--their retreat cut off by sea, for their frigates had returned to France immediately ontheir landing; three thousand men against not less thanthirty 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 themountains of Leitrim, and open communications with Ulster, and the northern coast, upon which he hoped soon to seesuccour arrive from France. With this object he marchedfrom Castlebar to Cooloney (35 miles), in one day; herehe sustained a check from Colonel Vereker's militia, which necessitated a change of route; turning aside, hepassed rapidly through Dromahaine, Manor-Hamilton, andBallintra, making for Granard, from which accounts of aformidable popular outbreak had just reached him. Inthree days and a half he had marched 110 miles, flinginghalf his guns into the rivers that he crossed, lest theyshould fall into the hands of his pursuers. At Ballinamuck, county Longford, on the borders of Leitrim, he foundhimself fairly surrounded, on the morning of the 8th ofSeptember; and here he prepared to make a last desperatestand. The end could not be doubtful, the numbers againsthim being ten to one; after an action of half an hour'sduration, two hundred of the French having thrown downtheir arms, the remainder surrendered, as prisoners ofwar. For the rebels no terms were thought of, and thefull vengeance of the victors was reserved for them. Mr. Blake, who had formerly been a British officer, wasexecuted on the field; Mathew Tone and Teeling wereexecuted within the week in Dublin; Mr. Moore, Presidentof the Provisional Government, was sentenced to banishmentby the clemency of Lord Cornwallis, but died on shipboard;ninety of the Longford and Kilkenny militia who had joinedthe French were hanged, and the country generally givenup to pillage and massacre. As an evidence of theexcessive thirst for blood, it may be mentioned that atthe re-capture of Killalla a few days later, four hundredpersons were killed, of whom fully one-half werenon-combatants. 

The disorganization of all government in France in thelatter half of '98, was illustrated not only by Humbert'sunauthorized adventure, but by a still weaker demonstrationunder General Reay and Napper Tandy, about the same time. With a single armed brig these daring allies made adescent, on the 17th of September, on Rathlin Island, well equipped with eloquent proclamations, bearing thedate "first year of Irish liberty. " From the postmasterof the island they ascertained Humbert's fate, andimmediately turned the prow of their solitary ship inthe opposite direction; Reay, to rise in after times tohonour and power; Tandy, to continue in old age thedashing career of his manhood, and to expiate in exilethe crime of preferring the country of his birth to thegeneral centralizing policy of the empire with which hewas united. Twelve days after the combat at Ballinamuck, while Humbert and his men were on their way throughEngland to France, a new French fleet, under AdmiralBompart, consisting of one 74-gun ship, "the Hoche, "eight frigates, and two smaller vessels, sailed fromBrest. On board this fleet were embarked 3, 000 men underGeneral Hardi, the remnant of the army once menacingEngland. In this fleet sailed Theobold Wolfe Tone, trueto his motto, _nil desperandum_, with two or three otherrefugees of less celebrity. The troops of General Hardi, however, were destined never to land. On the 12th ofOctober, after tossing about for nearly a month in theGerman ocean and the North Atlantic, they appeared offthe coast of Donegal, and stood in for Lough Swilly. Butanother fleet also was on the horizon. Admiral Sir JohnBorlase Warren, with an equal number of ships, but a muchheavier armament, had been cruising on the track of theFrench during the whole time they were at sea. After manydisappointments, the flag-ship and three of the frigateswere 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 frigatesshared the same fate on the same day; another was capturedon the 14th, and yet another on the 17th. The remainderof the fleet escaped back to France. 

The French officers landed in Donegal were received withcourtesy by the neighbouring gentry, among whom was theEarl of Cavan, who entertained them at dinner. Here itwas that Sir George Hill, son-in-law to CommissionerBeresford, an old college friend of Tone's, identifiedthe founder of the United Irishmen under the uniform ofa French Adjutant-General. Stepping up to his oldschoolmate he addressed him by name, which Tone instantlyacknowledged, inquiring politely for Lady Hill, and othermembers of Sir George's family. He was instantly arrested, ironed, and conveyed to Dublin under a strong guard. Onthe 10th of November he was tried by court-martial andsentenced to be hanged: he begged only for a soldier'sdeath--"to be shot by a platoon of grenadiers. " Thisfavour was denied him, and the next morning he attemptedto commit suicide. The attempt did not immediately succeed;but one week later--on the 19th of November--he died fromthe results of his self-inflicted wound, with a complimentto the attendant physician upon his lips. Truth compelsus to say he died the death of a Pagan; but it was aPagan of the noblest and freest type of Grecian and Romantimes. Had it occurred in ancient days, beyond theChristian era, it would have been a death every wayadmirable; as it was, that fatal final act must alwaysstand between Wolfe Tone and the Christian people forwhom he suffered, sternly forbidding them to invoke himin their prayers, or to uphold him as an example to theyoung men of their country. So closed the memorable year1798, on the baffled and dispersed United Irishmen. Ofthe chiefs imprisoned in March and May, Lord Edward haddied of his wounds and vexation; Oliver Bond of apoplexy;the brothers Sheares, Father Quigley, and William MichaelByrne on the gibbet. In July, on Samuel Nelson's motion, the remaining prisoners in Newgate, Bridewell, andKilmainham, agreed, in order to stop the effusion ofblood, to expatriate themselves to any country not atwar with England, and to reveal the general secrets oftheir system, without inculpating individuals. Theseterms were accepted, as the Castle party needed theirevidence to enable them to promote the cherished schemeof legislative Union. But that evidence delivered beforethe Committees of Parliament by Emmet, McNevin, andO'Conor, did not altogether serve the purposes ofgovernment. The patriotic prisoners made it at once aprotest against, and an exposition of, the despotic policyunder 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 byall the kind attentions his instructions permitted himto show these unfortunate gentlemen. At the peace ofAmiens, (1802), they were at last allowed the melancholyprivilege of expatriation. Russell and Dowdall werepermitted to return to Ireland, where they shared thefate of Robert Emmet in 1803; O'Conor, Corbet, Allen, Ware, and others, cast their lot in France, where theyall rose to distinction; Emmet, McNevin, Sampson, andthe family of Tone were reunited in New York, where themany changes and distractions of a great metropolitancommunity have not even yet obliterated the memories oftheir virtues, their talents, and their accomplishments. 

It is impossible to dismiss this celebrated group of men, whose principles and conduct so greatly influenced theircountry's destiny, without bearing explicit testimony totheir heroic qualities as a class. If ever a body ofpublic men deserved the character of a brotherhood ofheroes, so far as disinterestedness, courage, self-denial, truthfulness and glowing love of country constituteheroism, these men deserved that character. The wisdomof their conduct, and the intrinsic merit of their plans, are other questions. As between their political systemand that of Burke, Grattan and O'Connell, there alwayswill be, probably, among their countrymen, very decideddifferences of opinion. That is but natural: but as tothe personal and political virtues of the United Irishmenthere can be no difference; the world has never seen amore 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 partialuprising; of the Irish people in 1798 was a rebellion ofthis class, and the use of such a failure to an able andunscrupulous administration, was illustrated in theextinction of the ancient legislature of the kingdom, before the recurrence of the third, anniversary ofthe insurrection. 

This project, the favourite and long-cherished design ofMr. Pitt, was cordially approved by his principalcolleagues, the Duke of Portland, Lord Grenville, andMr. Dundas; indeed, it may be questioned whether it wasnot as much Lord Grenville's design as Pitt's, and asmuch George the Third's personal project as that of anyof his ministers. The old King's Irish policy was alwaysof the most narrow and illiberal description. In hismemorandum on the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam, he explainshis views with the business-like brevity which characterizedall his communications with his ministers while he retainedpossession of his faculties; he was totally opposed toLord Fitzwilliam's emancipation policy, which he thoughtadopted "in implicit obedience to the heated imaginationof Mr. Burke. " To Lord Camden his instructions were, "to support the old English interest as well as theProtestant religion, " and to Lord Cornwallis, that nofurther "indulgence could be granted to Catholics, " butthat he should steadily pursue the object of effectingthe union of Ireland and England. 

The new Viceroy entered heartily into the views of hisSovereign. Though unwilling to exchange his Englishposition as a Cabinet Minister and Master-General ofOrdnance for the troubled life of a Lord-Lieutenant ofIreland, he at length allowed himself to be persuadedinto the acceptance of that office, with a view mainlyto carrying the Union. He was ambitious to connect hisname with that great imperial measure, so often projected, but never formally proposed. If he could only succeed inincorporating the Irish with the British legislature, hedeclared he would feel satisfied to retire from all otherpublic employments; that he would look on his day asfinished, and his evening of ease and dignity fullyearned. He was not wholly unacquainted with the kingdomagainst which he cherished these ulterior views; for hehad been, nearly thirty years before, when he fell underthe lash of _Junius_, one of the Vice-Treasurers ofIreland. For the rest he was a man of great information, tact, and firmness; indefatigable in business; tolerantby temperament and conviction; but both as a general anda politician it was his lot to be identified in Indiaand in Ireland with successes which might better havebeen failures, and in America, with failures which weremuch more beneficial to mankind than his successes. 

In his new sphere of action his two principal agents wereLord Clare and Lord Castlereagh, both Irishmen; theChancellor, the son of what in that country is called a"spoiled priest, " and the Secretary, the son of anex-volunteer, and member of Flood's Reform Convention. It is not possible to regard the conduct of these highofficials in undermining and destroying the ancientnational legislature of their own country, in the samelight as that of Lord Cornwallis, or Mr. Pitt, or LordGrenville. It was but natural, that as Englishmen, theseministers should consider the empire in the first place;that they should desire to centralize all the resourcesand all the authority of both Islands in London; that tothem 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 appearan obstacle and a hindrance to the unity of the imperialsystem. 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 evenin the eyes of Irishmen; but with Lords Clare andCastlereagh the case was wholly different. Born in theland, deriving income as well as existence from the soil, elected to its Parliament by the confidence of theircountrymen, attaining to posts of honour in consequenceof such election, that they should voluntarily offertheir services to establish an alien and a hostile policyon 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 anotherState, will always place the names of Clare and Castlereaghon the detested list of public traitors. Yet though insuch treason, united and identified, no two men could bemore unlike in all other respects. Lord Clare was fiery, dogmatic, and uncompromising to the last degree; whileLord Castlereagh was stealthy, imperturbable, insidious, bland, and adroit. The Chancellor endeavoured to carryeverything with a high hand, with a bold, defiant, confident swagger; the Secretary, on the contrary, trustedto 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 chiefagencies by which the union was effected--Force and Fraud. 

The Irish Parliament, which had been of necessity adjournedduring the greater part of the time the insurrectionlasted, assembled within a week of Lord Cornwallis'arrival. Both Houses voted highly loyal addresses tothe King and Lord-Lieutenant, the latter seconded in theCommons by Charles Kendal Bushe, the college companionof Wolfe Tone! A vote of 100, 000 pounds to indemnifythose who had suffered from the rebels--subsequentlyincreased to above 1, 000, 000 pounds--was passed _unavoce_; another, placing on the Irish establishment certainEnglish militia regiments, passed with equal promptitude. In July, five consecutive acts--a complete code ofpenalties and proscription--were introduced, and, aftervarious debates and delays, received the royal sanctionon the 6th of October, the last day of the session of1798. These acts were: 1. The Amnesty Act, the exceptionsto which were so numerous "that few of those who tookany active part in the rebellion, " were, according tothe Cornwallis' correspondence, "benefited by it. " 2. AnAct 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 "hisinstructions from the grave, " pleaded at the bar of theHouse of Lords, but pleaded in vain. (This act was finallyreversed by the Imperial Parliament in 1819. ) 4. An actforbidding communication between persons in Ireland andthose enumerated in the Banishment Act, and making thereturn to Ireland, after sentence of banishment by acourt-martial, a transportable felony. 5. An act to compelfifty-one persons therein named to surrender before 1stof December, 1798, under pain of high treason. Among thefifty-one were the principal refugees at Paris andHamburg-Tone, Lewines, Tandy, Deane Swift, Major Plunkett, Anthony McCann, Harvey Morres, etc. On the same day inwhich the session terminated, and the royal sanction wasgiven to these acts, the name of Henry Grattan was, asignificant coincidence, formally struck, by the King'scommands, from the roll of the Irish Privy Council!

This legislation of the session of 1798, was fatal tothe Irish Parliament. The partisans of the Union, whohad used the rebellion to discredit the constitution, now used the Parliament to discredit itself. Under theinfluence of a fierce reactionary spirit, when all mercifuland moderate councils were denounced as treasonable, itwas not difficult to procure the passage of sweepingmeasures of proscription. But with their passage vanishedthe former popularity of the domestic legislature. Andwhat followed? The constitution of '82 could only beupheld in the hearts of the people; and, with all itsdefects, it had been popular before the sudden spread ofFrench revolutionary notions distracted and dissipatedthe public opinion which had grown up within the era ofindependence. To make the once cherished authority, whichliberated trade in '79, and half emancipated the Catholicsin '93, the last executioner of the vengeance of theCastle against the people, was to place a gulf betweenit and the affections of that people in the day of trial. To make the anti-unionists in Parliament, such as theSpeaker, Sir Lawrence Parsons, Plunkett, Ponsonby andBushe, 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 handand foot, to the mercy of the minister in '98, to aidthem against the machinations of that same minister in'99. The last months of the year were marked besides byevents already referred to, and by negotiations incessantlycarried on, both in England and Ireland, in favour ofthe Union. Members of both Houses were personally courtedand canvassed by the Prime Minister, the Secretaries ofState, the Viceroy and the Irish Secretary. Titles, pensions and offices were freely promised. Vast sums ofsecret service money, afterwards added as a charge tothe public debt of Ireland, were remitted from Whitehall. An army of pamphleteers, marshalled by Under-SecretaryCooke, and confidentially directed by the able butanti-national Bishop of Meath, (Dr. O'Beirne, ) and byLord Castlereagh personally, plied their pens in favourof "the consolidation of the empire. " The Lord Chancellor, the Chief Secretary and Mr. Beresford, made journeys toEngland, to assist the Prime Minister with their localinformation, and to receive his imperial confidence inreturn. The Orangemen were neutralized by securing amajority of their leaders; the Catholics, by theestablishment of familiar communication with the bishops. The Viceroy complimented Dr. Troy at Dublin; the Duke ofPortland lavished personal attentions on Dr. Moylan, inEngland. The Protestant clergy were satisfied with theassurance that the maintenance of their establishmentwould be made a fundamental article of the Union, whilethe Catholic bishops were given to understand that completeEmancipation would be one of the first measures submittedto the Imperial Parliament. The oligarchy were to beindemnified for their boroughs, while the advocates ofReform were shown how hopeless it was to expect a Houseconstituted of _their_ nominees, ever to enlarge or amendits own exclusive constitution. Thus for every descriptionof people a particular set of appeals and arguments wasfound, and for those who discarded the affectation ofreasoning on the surrender of their national existence, there were the more convincing arguments of titles, employments, and direct pecuniary purchase. At the closeof the year of the rebellion, Lord Cornwallis was ableto report to Mr. Pitt that the prospects of carrying themeasure were better than could have been expected, andon this report he was authorized to open the matterformally to Parliament in his speech at the opening ofthe following session. 

On the 22nd of January, 1799, the Irish legislature metunder circumstances of great interest and excitement. The city of Dublin, always keenly alive to its metropolitaninterests, sent its eager thousands by every avenuetowards College Green. The Viceroy went down to the Houseswith a more than ordinary guard, and being seated on thethrone in the House of Lords, the Commons were summonedto the bar. The House was considered a full one, 217members being present. The viceregal speech congratulatedboth Houses on the suppression of the late rebellion, onthe defeat of Bompart's squadron, and the recent Frenchvictories of Lord Nelson; then came, amid profoundexpectation, this concluding sentence:--"The unremittingindustry, " said the Viceroy, "with which our enemiespersevere in their avowed design of endeavouring to effecta separation of this kingdom from Great Britain, musthave engaged your attention, and his Majesty commands meto express his anxious hope that this consideration, joined to the sentiment of mutual affection and commoninterest, may dispose the Parliaments in both kingdomsto provide the most effectual means of maintaining andimproving a connection essential to their common security, and of consolidating, as far as possible, into one firmand lasting fabric, the strength, the power, and theresources of the British empire. " On the paragraph ofthe address, re-echoing this sentiment, which was carriedby a large majority in the Lords, a debate ensued in theCommons, which lasted till one o'clock of the followingday, above twenty consecutive hours. Against the suggestionof a Union spoke Ponsonby, Parsons, Fitzgerald, Barrington, Plunkett, Lee, O'Donnell and Bushe; in its favour, LordCastlereagh, the Knight of Kerry, Corry, Fox, Osborne, Duigenan, and some other members little known. Thegalleries and lobbies were crowded all night by the firstpeople of the city, of both sexes, and when the divisionwas being taken, the most intense anxiety was manifested, within doors and without. At length the tellers madetheir report to the Speaker, himself an ardentanti-Unionist, and it was announced that the numberswere--"for the address 105, for the amendment 106, " sothe 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 hadattempted to follow his victory by a solemn pledge bindingthe majority never again to entertain the question, butto this several members objected, and the motion waswithdrawn. The ministry found some consolation in thiswithdrawal, which they characterized as "a retreat aftera victory, " but to the public at large, unused to placemuch stress on the minor tactics of debate, nothingappeared but the broad, general fact, that the firstoverture for a Union had been rejected. It was a day ofimmense rejoicing in Dublin; the leading anti-Unionistswere escorted in triumph to their homes, while theUnionists were protected by strong military escorts fromthe popular indignation. At night the city was illuminated, and the patrols were doubled as a protection to theobnoxious minority. 

Mr. Ponsonby's amendment, affirmed by the House of Commons, was in these words:--"That the House would be ready toenter into any measure short of surrendering their free, resident and independent legislature as established in1782. " This was the _ultimatum_ of the great party whichrallied in January, 1799, to the defence of the establishedconstitution of their country. The arguments with whichthey sustained their position were few, bold, andintelligible to every capacity. There was the argumentfrom Ireland's geographical situation, and the policyincident to it; the historical argument; the argumentfor a resident gentry occupied and retained in the countryby their public duties; the commercial argument; therevenue argument; but above all, the argument of theincompetency of Parliament to put an end to its ownexistence. "Yourselves, " exclaimed the eloquent Plunkett, "you may extinguish, but Parliament you cannot extinguish. It is enthroned in the hearts of the people--it isenshrined in the sanctuary of the constitution--it is asimmortal as the island that protects it. As well mightthe frantic suicide imagine that the act which destroyshis miserable body should also extinguish his eternalsoul. Again, therefore, I warn you. Do not dare to layyour hands on the Constitution--it is above your powers!"

These arguments were combated on the grounds that theislands were already united under one crown--that thatspecies of union was uncertain and precarious--that theIrish Parliament was never in reality a nationallegislature; that it existed only as an instrument ofclass legislation; that the Union would benefit Irelandmaterially as it had benefited Scotland; that she wouldcome in for a full share of imperial honours, expenditureand trade; that such a Union would discourage all futurehostile attempts by France or any other foreign poweragainst the connection, and other similar arguments. Butthe division which followed the first introduction ofthe subject showed clearly to the Unionists that theycould not hope to succeed with the House of Commons asthen constituted; that more time and more preparationwere necessary. Accordingly, Lord Castlereagh was authorizedin March, to state formally in his place, that it wasnot the intention of the government to bring up thequestion again during that session; an announcement whichwas hailed with a new outburst of rejoicing in the city. 

But those who imagined the measure was abandoned weresadly deceived. Steps were immediately taken by the Castleto deplete the House of its majority, and to supply theirplaces before another session with forty or fifty newmembers, who would be entirely at the beck of the ChiefSecretary. With this view, thirty-two new county judgeshipswere created; a great number of additional inspectorshipsand commissioners were also placed at the Minister'sdisposal; thirteen members had peerages for themselvesor for their wives, with remainder to their children, and nineteen others were presented to various lucrativeoffices. The "Escheatorship of Munster"--a sort of ChilternHundreds office--was accepted by those who agreed towithdraw from opposition, for such considerations, butwho could not be got to reverse their votes. By thesemeans, and a lavish expenditure of secret service money, it was hoped that Mr. Pitt's stipulated majority of "notless than fifty" could be secured during the year. 

The other events of the session of '99, though interestingin themselves, are of little importance compared to theunion debates. In the English Parliament, which met onthe same day as the Irish, a paragraph identical withthat employed by Lord Cornwallis in introducing thesubject of the Union, was inserted in the King's speech. To this paragraph, repeated in the address, an amendmentwas moved by the celebrated Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and resisted with an eloquence scarcely inferior to hisown, by his former _protege_ and countryman, GeorgeCanning. Canning, like Sheridan, had sprung from a lineof Irish literateurs and actors; he had much of the witand genius of his illustrious friend, with more worldlywisdom, and a higher sentiment of personal pride. In veryearly life, distinguished by great oratorical talents, he had deliberately attached himself to Mr. Pitt, whileSheridan remained steadfast to the last, in the ranks ofthe Whig or liberal party. For the land of their ancestorsboth had, at bottom, very warm, good wishes; but Canninglooked down upon her politics from the heights of empire, while Sheridan felt for her honour and her interests withthe affection of an expatriated son. We can well credithis statement to Grattan, years afterwards, when referringto his persistent opposition to the Union, he said, hewould "have waded in blood to his knees, " to preservethe Constitution of Ireland. In taking this course hehad 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 discussionthese just minded Englishmen stood boldly forward forthe rights of Ireland, and this highly honourable conductwas long remembered as one of Ireland's real obligationsto the Whig party. 

The resolutions intended to serve as "the basis of union, "were introduced by Mr. Pitt, on the 21st of January, andafter 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 followingare the resolutions:--

1st. "In order to promote and secure the essentialinterests of Great Britain and Ireland, and to consolidatethe strength, power, and resources of the British empire, it will be advisable to concur in such measures as maytend to unite the two kingdoms of Great Britain andIreland into one kingdom, in such manner, and in suchterms and conditions as may be established by acts ofthe 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 saidkingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall, on a day tobe agreed upon, be united into one kingdom, by the nameof 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 imperialcrown of the said United Kingdom, shall continue limitedand settled, in the same manner as the imperial crown ofthe said Great Britain and Ireland now stands limitedand settled, according to the existing law, and to theterms of the union between England and Scotland. 

4th. "For the same purpose it would be fit to proposethat the said United Kingdom be represented in one andthe same Parliament, to be styled the Parliament of theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and thatsuch a number of Lords, spiritual and temporal, and sucha number of members of the House of Commons, as shall behereafter agreed upon by the acts of the respectiveParliaments as aforesaid, shall sit and vote in the saidParliament on the part of Ireland, and shall be summoned, chosen, and returned, in such manner as shall be fixedby an act of the Parliament of Ireland previous to thesaid union; and that every member hereafter to sit andvote 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 declarationsas are required by law to be taken, subscribed, and madeby the members of the Parliaments of Great Britain andIreland. 

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 bepreserved 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 timesbe entitled to the same privileges, and be on the samefooting in respect of trade and navigation in all portsand places belonging to Great Britain, and in all caseswith respect to which treaties shall be made by hisMajesty, his heirs, or successors, with any foreign power, as his Majesty's subjects in Great Britain; that no dutyshall be imposed on the import or export between GreatBritain and Ireland, of any articles now duty free, andthat on other articles there shall be established, fora time to be limited, such a moderate rate of equal dutiesas shall, previous to the Union, be agreed upon andapproved by the respective Parliaments, subject, afterthe expiration of such limited time, to be diminishedequally with respect to both kingdoms, but in no case tobe increased; that all articles which may at any timehereafter be imported into Great Britain from foreignparts shall be importable through either kingdom intothe 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 manufactureof either kingdom, are subject to an internal duty inone kingdom, such counter-vailing duties (over and aboveany duties on import to be fixed as aforesaid) shall beimposed as shall be necessary to prevent any inequalityin that respect; and that all matters of trade andcommerce, other than the foregoing, and than such othersas may before the Union be specially agreed upon for thedue encouragement of the agriculture and manufactures ofthe respective kingdoms, shall remain to be regulatedfrom 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 interestsor sinking fund for the reduction of the principal ofthe debt incurred in either kingdom before the Union, shall continue to be separately defrayed by Great Britainand Ireland respectively; that, for a number of years tobe limited, the future ordinary expenses of the UnitedKingdom, in peace or war, shall be defrayed by GreatBritain and Ireland jointly, according to such proportionsas shall be established by the respective Parliamentsprevious to the Union; and that, after the expiration ofthe time to be so limited, the proportion shall not beliable to be varied, except according to such rates andprinciples, as shall be in like manner agreed upon previousto the Union. 

8th. "For the like purpose, that all laws in force atthe time of the Union, and all the courts of civil orecclesiastical jurisdiction within the respective kingdoms, shall remain as now by law established within the same, subject only to such alterations or regulations as mayfrom time to time as circumstances may appear to theParliament of the United Kingdom to require. "

Mr. Pitt, on the passage of these resolutions, proposedan address stating that the Commons had proceeded withthe utmost attention to the consideration of the importantobjects recommended in the royal message, that theyentertained a firm persuasion of the probable benefitsof a complete and entire Union between Great Britain andIreland, founded on equal and liberal principles; thatthey were therefore induced to lay before his Majestysuch propositions as appeared to them to be best calculatedto form the basis of such a settlement, leaving it tohis wisdom in due time and in proper manner, to communicatethem to the Lords and Commons of Ireland, with whom theywould be at all times ready to concur in all such measuresas might be found most conducive to the accomplishmentof that great and salutary work. 

On the 19th of March, Lord Grenville introduced the sameresolutions in the Lords, where they were passed aftera spirited opposition speech from Lord Holland, and thebasis, so far as the King, Lords, and Commons of Englandwere concerned, was laid. In proroguing the Irish Houseson the 1st of June, Lord Cornwallis alluded to theseresolutions, and the anxiety of the King, as the commonfather of his people, to see both kingdoms united in theenjoyment of the blessings of a free constitution. 

This prorogation was originally till August, but in Augustit was extended till January, 1800. In this long intervalof eight months, the two great parties, the Unionistsand the anti-Unionists were incessantly employed, throughthe 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 allthe zeal and warmth of men who felt that on one side theywere labouring for the country, on the other for theempire. Two incidents of this interval were deeply feltin the patriot ranks, the death at an advanced age ofthe venerable Charlemont, the best member of his orderIreland had ever known, and the return to the kingdomand to public life of Lord Charlemont's early friend and_protege_, Henry Grattan. He had spent above a year inEngland, chiefly in Wales and the Isle of Wight. Hishealth all this time had been wretched; his spirits lowand despondent, and serious fears were at some momentsentertained for his life. He had been forbidden to reador write, or to hear the exciting news of the day. Soothedand cheered by that admirable woman, whom Providence hadgiven him, he passed the crisis, but he returned tobreathe his native air, greatly enfeebled in body, andsorely afflicted in mind. The charge of theatricalaffectation of illness has been brought against Grattanby the Unionists, --against Grattan who, as to his personalhabits, was simplicity itself! It is a charge undeservingof serious contradiction. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

LAST SESSION OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT--THE LEGISLATIVEUNION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

When the Irish Parliament met for the last time, on the15th of January, 1800, the position of the Union questionstood thus: 27 new Peers had been added to the House ofLords, where the Castle might therefore reckon with safetyon a majority of three to one. Of the Lords spiritual, only Dr. Marlay of Waterford, and Dr. Dixon of Down andConor, had the courage to side with their country againsttheir order. In the Commons there was an infusion of some50 new borough members, many of them general officers, such as Needham, and Pakenham, all of them nominees ofthe Castle, except Mr. Saurin, returned for Blessington, and Mr. Grattan, at the last moment, for Wicklow. Thegreat constitutional body of the bar had, at a generalmeeting, the previous December, declared against themeasure by 162 to 33. Another powerful body, the bankers, had petitioned against it, in the interest of the publiccredit. The Catholic bishops, in their annual meeting, had taken up a position of neutrality as a body, butunder the artful management of Lord Castlereagh, theArchbishops of Dublin and Tuam, with the Bishop of Cork, and some others, were actively employed in counteractinganti-Union movements among the people. Although the vastmajority of that people had too much reason to be disgustedand discontented with the legislation of the previousthree years, above 700, 000 of them petitioned againstthe measure, while all the signatures which could beobtained in its favour, by the use of every means at thecommand of the Castle, did not much exceed 7, 000. 

The Houses were opened on the 15th of January. The Viceroynot going down, his message was read in the Lords, bythe Chancellor, and in the Commons, by the Chief Secretary. It did not directly refer to the basis laid down inEngland, nor to the subject matter itself; but the leadersof the Castle party in both Houses, took care to supplythe deficiency. In the Lords, proxies included, LordClare had 75 to 26 for his Union address: in the Commons, Lord Castlereagh congratulated the country on theimprovement which had taken place in public opinion, since the former session. He briefly sketched his planof Union, which, while embracing the main propositionsof Mr. Pitt, secured the Church establishment, bid highfor the commercial interests, hinted darkly of emancipationto the Catholics, and gave the proprietors of boroughsto understand that their interest in those convenientconstituencies would be capitalized, and a good roundsum given to buy out their perpetual patronage. Inamendment to the address, Sir Lawrence Parsons moved, seconded by Mr. Savage of Down, that the House wouldmaintain _intact_ the Constitution of '82, and the debateproceeded 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 hoursof the winter's night the eloquent war was vigorouslymaintained. One who was himself a distinguished actor inthe struggle, (Sir Jonah Barrington, ) has thus describedit: "Every mind, " he says, "was at its stretch, everytalent was in its vigour: it was a momentous trial; andnever was so general and so deep a sensation felt in anycountry. Numerous British noblemen and commoners werepresent at that and the succeeding debate, and theyexpressed opinions of Irish eloquence which they hadnever before conceived, nor ever after had an opportunityof appreciating. Every man on that night seemed to beinspired by the subject. Speeches more replete with talentand energy, on both sides, never were heard in the IrishSenate; it was a vital subject. The sublime, the eloquent, the figurative orator, the plain, the connected, themetaphysical reasoner, the classical, the learned, andthe solemn declaimer, in a succession of speeches so fullof energy and enthusiasm, so interesting in their nature, so important in their consequence, created a variety ofsensations even in the bosom of a stranger, and couldscarcely fail of exciting some sympathy with a nation whichwas doomed to close for ever that school of eloquence whichhad so long given character and celebrity to Irish talent. "

At the early dawn, a special messenger from Wicklow, justarrived in town, roused Henry Grattan from his bed. Hehad been elected the previous night for the borough ofWicklow, (which cost him 2, 400 pounds sterling), and thiswas the bearer of the returning officer's certificate. His friends, weak and feeble as he was, wished him to godown to the House, and his heroic wife seconded theirappeals. It was seven o'clock in the morning of the 16thwhen he reached College Green, the scene of his firsttriumphs twenty years before. Mr. Egan, one of thestaunchest anti-Unionists, was at the moment, on somerumour, probably, of his approach, apostrophising warmlythe father of the Constitution of '82, when that strikingapparition appeared at the bar. Worn and emaciated beyonddescription, he appeared leaning on two of his friends, Arthur Moore and W. B. Ponsonby. He wore his volunteeruniform, 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, hebegged permission from his seat beside Plunkett, toaddress the House sitting, which was granted, and thenin a discourse of two hours' duration, full of his ancientfire and vigour, he asserted once again, by the divineright of intellect, his title to be considered the firstCommoner of Ireland. Gifted men were not rare in thatassembly; but the inspiration of the heart, theuncontrollable utterance of a supreme spirit, not lessthan 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 hiscotemporaries, 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; forthe amendment there appeared 96, for the address 138members. The Union majority, therefore, was 42. It wasapparent from that moment that the representation of thepeople in Parliament had been effectually corrupted; thatthat assembly was no longer the safeguard of the libertiesof the people. Other ministerial majorities confirmedthis impression. A measure to enable 10, 000 of the Irishmilitia to enter the regular army, and to substituteEnglish militia in their stead, followed; an inquiry intooutrages committed by the sheriff and military in King'scounty, 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 abasis of Union was received from his Excellency, anddebated for twenty consecutive hours--from 4 o'clock ofone 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 to117--majority 43. On the 17th of February, the House wentinto Committee on the proposed articles of Union, andthe Speaker (John Foster) being now on the floor, addressedthe House with great ability in review of Mr. Pitt'srecent Union speech, which he designated "a paltryproduction. " But again, a majority mustered, at the nodof the minister, 161 to 140--a few not fully committedshowing some last faint spark of independence. It was onthis occasion that Mr. Corry, Chancellor of the Exchequer, member for Newry, made for the third or fourth time thatsession, an attack on Grattan, which brought out, on theinstant, that famous "philippic against Corry, " unequalledin our language, for its well-suppressed passion, andfinely condensed denunciation. A duel followed, as soonas there was sufficient light; the Chancellor was wounded, after which the Castlereagh tactics of "fighting downthe opposition, " received an immediate and lasting check. 

Throughout the months of February and March, with anoccasional adjournment, the Constitutional battle wasfought on every point permitted by the forms of the House. On the 25th of March, the Committee, after another powerfulspeech from the Speaker, finally reported the resolutionswhich were passed by 154 to 107--a majority of 47. TheHouses then adjourned for six weeks, to allow time forcorresponding action to be taken in England. There waslittle difficulty in carrying the measure. In the UpperHouse, Lords Derby, Holland, and King only opposed it;in the Lower, Sheridan, Tierney, Grey, and Lawrencemustered on a division, 30 votes against Pitt's 206. Onthe 21st of May, in the Irish Commons, Lord Castlereaghobtained leave to bring in the Union Bill by 160 to 100;on the 7th of June the final passage of the measure waseffected. That closing scene has been often described, but never so graphically, as by the diamond pen of JonahBarrington. 

"The galleries were full, but the change was lamentable. They were no longer crowded with those who had beenaccustomed to witness the eloquence and to animate thedebates of that devoted assembly. A monotonous andmelancholy murmur ran through the benches; scarcely aword was exchanged amongst the members; nobody seemed atease; no cheerfulness was apparent; and the ordinarybusiness, for a short time, proceeded in the usual manner. 

"At length, the expected moment arrived: the order ofthe day for the third reading of the bill for a 'legislativeunion between Great Britain and Ireland' was moved byLord Castlereagh. Unvaried, tame, cold-blooded, the wordsseemed frozen as they issued from his lips; and, as ifa simple citizen of the world, he seemed to have nosensation on the subject. 

"At that moment he had no country, no God, but hisambition. He made his motion, and resumed his seat, withthe utmost composure and indifference. 

"Confused murmurs again ran through the House. It wasvisibly affected. Every character, in a moment, seemedinvoluntarily rushing to its index--some pale, someflushed, some agitated--there were few countenances towhich the heart did not despatch some messenger. Severalmembers withdrew before the question could be repeated, and an awful, momentary silence succeeded their departure. The Speaker rose slowly from that chair which had beenthe proud source of his honours and of his high character. For a moment he resumed his seat, but the strength ofhis mind sustained him in his duty, though his strugglewas apparent. With that dignity which never failed tosignalize his official actions, he held up the bill fora moment in silence. He looked steadily around him onthe last agony of the expiring Parliament. He at lengthrepeated, in an emphatic tone, 'As many as are of opinionthat THIS BILL do pass, say _ay_! The affirmative waslanguid, 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 fatalsentence was now pronounced. For an instant he stoodstatue-like; then indignantly, and with disgust, flungthe bill upon the table, and sank into his chair with anexhausted spirit. An independent country was thus degradedinto a province. Ireland, as a nation, was extinguished. "

The final division in the Commons was 153 to 88, nearly60 members absenting themselves, and in the Lords, 76 to17. In England all the stages were passed in July, andon the 2nd of August, the anniversary of the King'saccession, the royal assent was given to the twofoldlegislation, which declared the kingdoms of Great Britainand Ireland one and inseparable!

By the provisions of this statute, compact, or treaty, the Sovereignty of the United Kingdom was to follow theorder of the Act of Succession; the Irish peerage was tobe reduced by the filling of one vacancy for every threedeaths, to the number of one hundred; from among these, twenty-eight representative Peers were to be elected forlife, and four spiritual Lords to sit in succession. Thenumber of Irish representatives in the Imperial Parliamentwas fixed at one hundred (increased to one hundred andfive); the churches of England and Ireland were unitedlike the kingdoms, and declared to be one in doctrineand discipline. The debt of Ireland, which was less than4, 000, 000 pounds in 1797, increased to 14, 000, 000 poundsin '99, and had risen to nearly 17, 000, 000 pounds in1801, was to be alone chargeable to Ireland, whoseproportionate share of general taxation was then estimatedat 2-17ths of that of the United Kingdom. The Courts ofLaw, the Privy Council, and the Viceroyalty, were toremain at Dublin, the cenotaph and the shadows ofdeparted nationality. 

On the 1st day of January, 1801, in accordance with thisgreat Constitutional change, a new imperial standard wasrun up on London Tower, Edinburgh Castle, and DublinCastle. It was formed of the three crosses of St. Patrick, Saint Andrew, and Saint George, and is that popularlyknown to us as "the Union Jack. " The _fleur de lis_, andthe word "France, " were struck from the royal title, which was settled, by proclamation, to consist henceforthof the words _Dei Gratia, Britanniarum Rex, Fidei Defensor_. 

The foul means by which this counter revolution wasaccomplished, have, perhaps, been already sufficientlyindicated. It may be necessary, however, in order toaccount for the continued hostility of the Irish peopleto the measure, after more than sixty years' experienceof its results, to recapitulate them very briefly. Ofall who voted for the Union, in both Houses, it was saidthat only six or seven were known to have done so onconviction. Great borough proprietors, like Lord Ely andLord Shannon, received as much as 45, 000 pounds sterlingin "compensation" for their loss of patronage; whileproprietors of single seats received 15, 000 pounds. Thatthe majority was avowedly purchased, in both Houses, isno longer matter of inference, nay, that some of themwere 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, franklysays: "The majority, which has been bought at an enormousprice, must be bought over again, perhaps more than once, before all the details can be gone through. " His lordshiphimself, and the order to which he belonged, and thosewho aspired to enter it, were, it must be added, amongthe most insatiable of these purchased supporters. TheDublin _Gazette_ for July, 1800, announced not less thansixteen new peerages, and the same publication for thelast week of the year, contained a fresh list of twenty-sixothers. Forty-two creations in six months was a stretchof prerogative far beyond the most arbitrary of theStuarts or Tudors, and forms one, not of the leastunanswerable evidences, of the utterly corruptconsiderations which secured the support of the Irishmajority in both Houses. 

It was impossible that a people like the Irish, disinterested and unselfish to a fault, should ever cometo respect a compact brought about by such means andinfluences as these. Had, however, the Union, vile aswere the means by which it was accomplished, proved tothe real benefit of the country--had equal civil andreligious rights been freely and at once extended to thepeople of the lesser kingdom--there is no reason to doubtthat the measure would have become popular in time, andthe vices of the old system be better remembered thanits benefits, real or imaginary. But the Union was neverutilized for Ireland; it proved in reality what SamuelJohnson had predicted, when spoken of in his day: "Donot unite with us, sir, " said the gruff old moralist toan Irish acquaintance; "it would be the union of theshark with his prey; we should unite with you only todestroy you. "

In glancing backward over the long political connexionof Ireland and England, we mark four great epochs. TheAnglo-Norman invasion in 1169; the statute of Kilkennydecreeing eternal separation between the races, "theEnglish pale" and "the Irish enemy, " 1367; the Union ofthe Crowns, in 1541, and the Legislative Union, in 1801. One more cardinal event remains to be recorded--theEmancipation of the Catholics, in 1829. 

BOOK XII. 

FROM THE UNION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND TO THEEMANCIPATION 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 obligesus to sketch for some years farther on, the politicaland religious annals of the Irish people. Having describedin what manner their distinctive political nationalitywas at length lost, it only remains to show how theirreligious liberties were finally recovered. 

The first striking effect of the Union was to introduceCatholic Emancipation into the category of imperialdifficulties, and to assign it the very first place onthe list. By a singular retribution, the Pitt administrationwith its 200 of a House of Commons majority, its absolutecontrol of the Lords, and its seventeen years' prescriptionin its favour, fell upon this very question, after theyhad used it to carry the Union, within a few weeks ofthe consummation of that Union. The cause of this crisiswas the invincible obstinacy of the King, who had takeninto his head, at the time of Lord Fitzwilliam's recallfrom Ireland, that his coronation oath bound him inconscience to resist the Catholic claims. The suggestionof this obstacle was originally Lord Clare's; and thoughLord Kenyon and Lord Stowell had declared it unfoundedin law, Lord Loughborough and Lord Eldon were unfortunatelyof a different opinion. With George III. The idea becamea monomaniac certainty, and there is no reason to doubtthat he would have preferred abdication to its abandonment. 

The King was not for several months aware how far hisPrune Minister had gone on the Catholic question inIreland. But those who were weary of Pitt's ascendancy, were, of course, interested in giving him this importantinformation. The minister himself, wrapped in his austereself-reliance, did not volunteer explanations even tohis Sovereign, and the King broke silence very unexpectedly, a few days after the first meeting of the ImperialParliament (January 22nd, 1801). Stepping up to Mr. Dundasat 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? Themost Jacobinical thing I ever heard of! Any man whoproposes such a thing is my personal enemy. " Mr. Dundasreplied respectfully but firmly, and immediatelycommunicated the conversation to Mr. Pitt. The King'sremarks had been overheard by the bystanders, so thateither the minister or the Sovereign had now to give way. Pitt, at first, was resolute; the King then offered toimpose silence on himself as regarded the whole subject, provided Mr. Pitt would agree to do likewise, but thehaughty minister refused, and tendered his resignation. On the 5th of February, within five weeks of theconsummation of the Union, this tender was most reluctantlyand regretfully accepted. Lord Grenville, Mr. Dundas, and others of his principal colleagues went out of officewith him; Lord Cornwallis and Lord Castlereagh followingtheir example. Of the new Cabinet, Addington, the Speaker, was Premier, with Lord Hardwicke as Lord-Lieutenant ofIreland. By the enemies of Pitt this was looked upon asa mere administration _ad interim_; as a concertedarrangement to enable him to evade an unfavourablepeace--that of Amiens--which he saw coming; but it isonly fair to say, that the private letters of the period, since published, do not sanction any such imputation. Itis, however, to be observed, _per contra_, that threeweeks after his formal resignation, he had no hesitationin assuring the King, who had just recovered from one ofhis attacks brought on by this crisis, that he wouldnever again urge the Catholic claims on his Majesty'snotice. On this understanding he returned to office inthe spring of 1804; to this compact he adhered till hisdeath, in January, 1806. 

In Ireland, the events immediately consequent upon theUnion, were such as might have been expected. Many ofthose who had been instrumental in carrying it, weredisappointed and discontented with their new situationin the empire. Of these, the most conspicuous and theleast to be pitied, was Lord Clare. That haughty, domineering spirit, accustomed to dictate with almostabsolute power to the Privy Counsellors and peerage ofIreland, experienced nothing but mortification in theImperial House of Lords. The part he hoped to play onthat wider stage he found impossible to assume; heconfronted there in the aged Thurlow and the astuteLoughborough, law lords as absolute as himself, who soonmade him conscious that, though a main agent of the Union, he was only a stranger in the united legislature. TheDuke of Bedford reminded him that "the Union had nottransferred his dictatorial powers to the ImperialParliament;" other noble Lords were hardly less severe. Pitt was cold, and Grenville ceremonious; and in thearrangements of the Addington ministry he was not evenconsulted. He returned to Ireland before the first yearof the Union closed, in a state of mind and temper whichpreyed upon his health. Before the second session of theImperial Parliament assembled, he had been borne to thegrave amid the revilings and hootings of the multitude. Dublin, true to its ancient disposition, which led thetownsfolk of the twelfth century to bury the ancestor ofDermid McMurrogh with the carcass of a dog, filled thegrave of the once splendid Lord Chancellor with everydescription of garbage. 

On the other hand, Lord Castlereagh, younger, suppler, and more accommodating to English prejudices, rose fromone Cabinet office to another, until at length, in fifteenyears from the Union, he directed the destinies of theEmpire, as absolutely, as he had moulded the fate ofIreland. To Castlereagh and the Wellesley family, theUnion 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 ofEurope; while the son of Flood's colleague in the Reformconvention of 1783, was destined to give law to Christendom, at the Congress of Vienna. 

A career very different in all respects from those justmentioned, closed in the second year of Dublin's widowhoodas a metropolis. It was the career of a young man offour-and-twenty, who snatched at immortal fame and obtainedit, in the very agony of a public, but not for him, ashameful death. This was Robert, youngest brother ofThomas Addis Emmet, whose _emeute_ of 1803 would longsince have sunk to the level of other city riots, butfor the matchless dying speech of which it was the preludeand the occasion. This young gentleman was in his 20thyear when expelled with nineteen others from TrinityCollege, in 1798, by order of the visitors, Lord Clareand Dr. Duigenan. His reputation as a scholar and debaterwas already established within the college walls, andthe highest expectations were naturally entertained ofhim, by his friends. One of his early college companions--Thomas Moore--who lived to know all the leading menof his age, declares that of all he had ever known, hewould place among "the highest of the few" who combinedin "the greatest degree pure moral worth with intellectualpower"--Robert Emmet. After the expatriation of hisbrother, young Emmet visited him at Fort-George, andproceeded from thence to the Continent. During the yearthe Union was consummated he visited Spain, and travelledthrough Holland, France, and Switzerland, till the peaceof Amiens. Subsequently he joined his brother's familyin Paris, and was taken into the full confidence of theexiles, then in direct communication with Buonaparte andTalleyrand. It was not concealed from the Irish by eitherthe First Consul, or his minister, that the peace withEngland was likely to have a speedy termination; and, accordingly, they were not unprepared for the newdeclaration of war between the two countries, which wasofficially made at London and Paris, in May, 1803--littlemore than twelve months after the proclamation of thepeace of Amiens. 

It was in expectation of this rupture, and a consequentinvasion of Ireland, that Robert Emmet returned to Dublin, in October, 1802, to endeavour to re-establish in somedegree the old organization of the United Irishmen. Inthe same expectation, McNevin, Corbet, and others of theIrish in France, formed themselves, by permission of theFirst Consul, into a legion, under command of Tone'strusty aid-de-camp, McSheehey; while Thomas Addis Emmetand Arthur O'Conor remained at Paris, the plenipotentiariesof their countrymen. On the rupture with England Buonapartetook up the Irish negotiation with much earnestness; heeven suggested to the exiles the colours and the mottounder which they were to fight, when once landed on theirown soil. The flag on a tricolour ground, was to have agreen centre, bearing the letters _R. I. --RepubliqueIrlandaise_. The legend at large was to be: _L'independencede l'Irlande--Liberte de Conscience_; a motto whichcertainly told the whole story. The First Consul alsosuggested the formation of an Irish Committee at Paris, and the preparation of statements of Irish grievancesfor the _Moniteur_, and the semi-official papers. 

Robert Emmet seems to have been confidently of opinionsoon after his return to Dublin, that nineteen out ofthe thirty-two counties would rise; and, perhaps, if asufficient French force had landed, his opinion mighthave been justified by the fact. So did not think, however, John Keogh, Valentine Lawless (Lord Cloncurry), and otherclose observers of the state of the country. But Emmetwas enthusiastic, and he inspired his own spirit intomany. Mr. Long, a merchant, placed 1, 400 pounds sterlingat his disposal; he had himself, in consequence of therecent death of his father, stock to the amount of 1, 500pounds converted into cash, and with these funds heentered actively on his preliminary preparations. Hischief confidants and assistants were Thomas Russell andMathew Dowdall, formerly prisoners at Fort-George, butnow permitted to return; William Putnam McCabe, the mostadventurous of all the party, a perfect Proteus indisguise; Gray, a Wexford attorney; Colonel Lumm ofKildare, 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 remainedsince '98 uncaptured in the mountains. 

In the month of March, when the renewal of hostilitieswith France was decided on in England, the preparationsof the conspirators were pushed forward with redoubledenergy. The still wilder conspiracy headed by ColonelDespard in London, the previous winter, the secret andthe fate of which was well known to the Dublin leaders--Dowdall being Despard's agent--did not in the leastintimidate Emmet or his friends. Despard suffered deathin February, with nine of his followers, but his Irishconfederates only went on with their arrangements witha more reckless resolution. Their plan was the plan ofO'Moore and McGuire, to surprise the Castle, seize theauthorities and secure the capital; but the Dublin of1803 was in many respects very different from the Dublinof 1641. The discontent, however, arising from the recentloss of the Parliament might have turned the city scalein Emmet's favour, had its first stroke been successful. The emissaries at work in the Leinster and Ulster countiesgave besides sanguine reports of success, so that, judgingby the information in his possession, an older and coolerhead than Robert Emmet's might well have been misled intothe expectation of nineteen counties rising if the signalcould only be given from Dublin Castle. If the blow couldbe withheld till August, there was every reason to expecta French invasion of England, which would drain away allthe regular army, and leave the people merely the militiaand the volunteers to contend against. But all the Dublinarrangements exploded in the melancholy _emeute_ of the23rd of July, 1803, in which the Chief-Justice, LordKilwarden, passing through the disturbed quarter of thecity at the time, was cruelly murdered; for which, andfor his cause, Emmet suffered death on the same spot onthe 20th of September following. For the same cause, the equally pure-minded and chivalrous Thomas Russellwas executed at Downpatrick; Kearney, Roche, Redmond andHowley also suffered death at Dublin; Alien, Putnam, McCabe, and Dowdall escaped to France, where the formerbecame an officer of rank in the army of Napoleon; MichaelDwyer, who Lad surrendered on condition of being allowedto 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, hisfaithful emissary, were both permitted to end; theirdays in Ireland. 

The trial of Robert Emmet, from the wonderful death-speechdelivered at it, is perfectly well known. But in justiceto a man of genius equal if not superior to his own--anIrishman, whose memory is national property, as well asEmmet's, it must here be observed, that the latter neverdelivered, and had no justification to deliver the vulgardiatribe against Plunkett, his prosecutor, now constantlyprinted in the common and incorrect versions of thatspeech. Plunkett, as Attorney-General, in 1803, had nooption but to prosecute for the crown; he was a politicianof a totally different school from that of Emmet; heshared all Burke and Grattan's horror of Frenchrevolutionary principles. In the fervour of his accusatoryoration he may have gone too far; he may have, and inreading it now, it is clear to us that he did press toohard upon the prisoner in the dock. He might have performedhis awful office with more sorrow and less vehemence, for there was no doubt about Ms jury. But withal, he gaveno fair grounds for any such retort as is falsely attributedto Emmet, the very style of which proves its falsity. Itis now well known that the apostrophe in the death-speech, commencing "you viper, " alleged to have been addressedto Plunkett, was the interpolation many years afterwardsof that literary Ishmaelite--Walter Cox of the _HibernianMagazine_, --who through such base means endeavoured toaim a blow at Plunkett's reputation. The personal reputationof the younger Emmet, the least known to his countrymenof all the United Irish leaders, except by the crowningact of his death, is safe beyond the reach of calumny, or party zeal, or time's changes. It is embalmed in theverse of Moore and Southey, and the precious prose ofWashington Irvine. Men of genius in England and Americahave done honour to his memory; in the annals of his owncountry his name deserves to stand with those youthfulchiefs, equally renowned, and equally ready to seal theirpatriotism with their blood--Sir Cahir O'Doherty andHugh 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 Viceroyof Ireland, the _habeas corpus_ remained suspended, andthe Insurrection Act continued in force. These were theyears in which the power of Napoleon made the mostastonishing strides; the years in which he remodelledthe German Empire, placed on his head the iron crown ofLombardy, on his sister's that of Etruria, and on hisbrother's that of Holland; when the Consulate gave placeto the Empire, and Dukedoms and Principalities were freelydistributed among the marshals of the Grand Army. Duringall these years, Napoleon harassed England with menacesof invasion, and excited Ireland with corresponding hopesof intervention. The more far-seeing United Irishmen, however, had so little faith in these demonstrations thatEmmet and McNevin emigrated to the United States, leavingbehind them in the ranks of the French Army, those oftheir compatriots who, either from habit or preference, had become attached to a military life. It must howeverbe borne in mind, for it is essential to the understandingof England's policy towards Ireland, in the first twelveor fourteen years after the Union, that the wild hope ofa French invasion never forsook the hearts of a largeportion of the Irish people, so long as Napoleon Buonapartecontinued at the head of the government of France. Duringthe whole of that period the British government were keptin constant apprehension for Ireland; under this feelingthey kept up and increased the local militia; strengthenedgarrisons, and replenished magazines; constructed a chainof Martello towers round the entire coast, and maintainedin 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 intothe suspected counties, who sentenced to death with aslittle remorse as if they had been so many hydrophobicdogs. Ten, twelve, and even twenty capital executionswas no uncommon result of a single sitting of one ofthose murderous commissions, over which Lord Norburypresided; but it must be added that there were otherjudges, who observed not only the decencies of everydaylife, but who interpreted the law in mercy as well as injustice. They were a minority, it is true, but there weresome such, nevertheless. 

The session of the Imperial Parliament of 1803-'4, waschiefly remarkable for its war speeches and war budget. In Ireland 50, 000 men of the regular militia were underarms and under pay; 70, 000 volunteers were enrolled, battalioned, and ready to be called out in case ofemergency, to which it was proposed to add 25, 000sea-fencibles. General Fox, who it was alleged hadneglected taking proper precaution at the time of RobertEmmet's _emeute_, was replaced by Lord Cathcart, asCommander-in-Chief. The _public_ reports at least of thisofficer, were highly laudatory of the discipline andconduct of the Irish militia. 

In May, 1804, Mr. Pitt returned to power, as Chancellorof the Exchequer and Prime Minister, when the whole Pittpolicy towards Ireland, France, and America, was of courseresumed; a policy which continued to be acted on duringthe short remainder of the life of its celebrated author. 

The year 1805 may be called the first year of the revivalof public spirit and public opinion after the Union. Inthat year Grattan had allowed himself to be persuaded byFox, into entering the Imperial Parliament, and his oldfriend Lord Fitzwilliam found a constituency for him, inhis Yorkshire borough of Malton. About the same time, Pitt, or his colleagues, induced Plunkett to enter thesame great assembly, providing him with a constituencyat Midhurst, in Sussex. But they did not succeed--if theyever attempted--to match Plunkett with Grattan. Thosegreat men were warm and close friends in the Imperial asthey had been in the Irish Parliament; very dissimilarin their genius, they were both decided anti-Jacobins;both strenuous advocates of the Catholic claims, and bothproud and fond of their original country. Grattan hadmore poetry, and Plunkett more science; but the heart ofthe man of colder exterior opened and swelled out, inone of the noblest tributes ever paid by one great oratorto another, when Plunkett introduced in 1821, in theImperial Parliament, his allusion to his illustriousfriend, then recently deceased. 

Preparatory to the meeting of Parliament in 1805, themembers of the old Catholic Committee, who had not metfor any such purpose for several years, assembled inDublin, and prepared a petition which they authorizedtheir chairman, Lord Fingall, to place in such hands ashe might choose, for presentation in both Houses. Hislordship on reaching London waited on Mr. Pitt, andentreated him to take charge of the petition; but hefound that the Prime Minister had promised the King onething and the Catholics another, and, therefore, declinedacceding to his request. He then gave the petition intothe charge of Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox, and by themthe subject was brought accordingly before the Lords andCommons. This debate in the Commons was remarkable inmany respects, but most of all for Grattan's _debut_. A lively curiosity to hear one of whom so much had beensaid in his own country, pervaded the whole House, asGrattan rose. His grotesque little figure, his eccentricaction, and his strangely cadenced sentences rathersurprised than attracted attention, but as he warmed withthe march of ideas, men of both parties warmed to thegenial and enlarged philosophy, embodied in the interfusedrhetoric and logic of the orator; Pitt was seen to beattime with his hand to every curiously proportioned period, and at length both sides of the House broke into heartyacknowledgments of the genius of the new member forMalton. But as yet their cheers were not followed bytheir votes; the division against going into Committeewas 336 to 124. 

In sustaining Fox's motion, Sir John Cox Hippesley hadsuggested "the Veto" as a safeguard against theencroachments of Rome, which the Irish bishops would notbe 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 pamphletform. This brought up directly a discussion among theCatholics, which lasted until 1810, was renewed in 1813, and not finally set at rest till the passage of the billof 1829, without any such safeguard. Sir John C. Hippesleyhad modelled his proposal, he said, on the liberties ofthe Gallican Church. "Her privileges, " he added, "dependedon two prominent maxims: 1st. That the Pope had noauthority to order or interfere in anything in which thecivil rights of the kingdom were concerned. 2nd. Thatnotwithstanding the Pope's supremacy was acknowledged incases purely spiritual, yet, in other respects, his powerwas limited by the decrees of the ancient councils ofthe realm. " The Irish Church, therefore, was to besimilarly administered, to obviate the objections of theopponents of complete civil emancipation. 

In February, 1806, on the death of Pitt, Mr. Fox cameinto power, with an uncertain majority and a powerfulopposition. In April, the Duke of Bedford arrived, asViceroy, at Dublin, and the Catholics presented, throughMr. Keogh, a mild address, expressive of their hopes that"the glorious development" of their emancipation wouldbe reserved for the new government. The Duke returnedan evasive answer in public, but privately, both at Dublinand London, the Catholics were assured that, as soon asthe new Premier could convert the King--as soon as hewas in a position to act--he would make their cause hisown. No doubt Fox, who had great nobleness of soul, intended to do so; but on the 13th of September of thesame year, he followed his great rival, Pitt, to thevaults of Westminster Abbey. A few months only hadintervened between the death of the rivals. 

Lords Grey and Grenville, during the next recess, havingformed a new administration, instructed their IrishSecretary, Mr. Elliot, to put himself in communicationwith the Catholics, in relation to a measure making themeligible to naval and military offices. The Catholicsaccepted this proposal with pleasure, but at the openingof the session of 1807, in a deputation to the Irishgovernment, again urged the question of completeemancipation. The bill in relation to the army and navyhad, originally, the King's acquiescence; but early inMarch, 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 atfirst so important as he afterwards found it; he intimatedthat it could not receive his sanction; he went farther--he required a written pledge from Lords Grey andGrenville never again to bring forward such a measure, "nor ever to propose anything connected with the Catholicquestion. " This unconstitutional pledge they refused togive, hurried the bill into law, and resigned. Mr. SpencerPerceval was then sent for, and what was called "theNo-Popery Cabinet, " in which Mr. Canning and LordCastlereagh were the principal Secretaries of State, wasformed. Thus, for the second time in six years, had theCatholic question made and unmade cabinets. 

The Catholics were a good deal dispirited in 1805, bythe overwhelming majority by which their petition of thatyear was refused to be referred to a committee. In 1806, they contented themselves with simply addressing the Dukeof Bedford, on his arrival at Dublin. In 1807, the"No-Popery Cabinet, " by the result of the elections, wasplaced in possession of an immense majority--a fact whichexcluded all prospects of another change of government. But the Committee were too long accustomed todisappointments to despair even under these reverses. Early in the next session their petition was presentedby Mr. Grattan in the Commons, and Lord Donoughmore inthe Lords. The majority against going into committee was, in the Commons, 153; in the Lords, 87. Similar motionsin the session of 1808, made by the same parties, wererejected by majorities somewhat reduced, and the question, on the whole, might be said to have recovered some ofits 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 wassaid to include "all the talents, " had been full ofnothing but disappointment to his Irish supporters. TheDuke of Bedford was, indeed, a great improvement on LordHardwicke, and Mr. Ponsonby on Lord Redesdale, asChancellor, and the liberation of the political prisonersconfined 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, whoseprofessional claims to advancement were far beyond thoseof dozens of men who had been, during the past ten years, lifted over his head, was neglected, and very naturallydissatisfied; Grattan, never well adapted for a courtier, could not obtain even minor appointments for his oldestand staunchest adherents; while the Catholics found theirWhig friends, now that they were in office, as anxiousto exact the hard conditions of the Veto as Castlereaghhimself. 

In truth, the Catholic body at this period, and for afew years subsequently, was deplorably disorganized. Theyoung generation of Catholic lawyers who had grown upsince the Relief Act of '93 threw the profession open tothem, were men of another stamp from the old generationof Catholic merchants, who had grown up under the ReliefAct of 1778. In the ten years before the Union, theCatholic middle class was headed by men of business; inthe period we have now reached, their principal spokesmencame from "the Four Courts. " John Keogh, the ablest, wisest and firmest of the former generation, was nowpassing into the decline of life, was frequently absentfrom the Committee, and when present, frequently overruledby younger and more ardent men. In 1808, his absence, from illness, was regretted by Mr. O'Connell in an eloquentspeech addressed to the Committee on the necessity ofunited action and incessant petitions. "Had he beenpresent, " said the young barrister, "his powers ofreasoning would have frightened away the captiousobjections" to that course, "and the Catholics of Irelandwould again have to thank their old and useful servantfor the preservation of their honour and the support oftheir interests. " It was a strange anomaly, and one whichcontinued for some years longer, that the statesmen ofthe Catholic body should be all Protestants. A moregenerous or tolerant spirit than Grattan's never existed;a clearer or more fearless intellect than Plunkett's wasnot to be found; nobler and more disinterested friendsthan Ponsonby, Curran, Burroughs and Wallace, no peopleever had; but still they were friends from without; menof another religion, or of no particular religion, advisingand guiding an eminently religious people in their strugglefor religious liberty. This could not always last; itwas not natural, it was not desirable that it shouldlast, though some years more were to pass away beforeCatholic 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 ofBedford, as Viceroy, in April, 1807, with Lord Mannersas Lord Chancellor, John Foster, Chancellor of theExchequer--for the separate exchequer of Ireland continuedto exist till 1820--and Sir Arthur Wellesley as ChiefSecretary. Of these names, the two last were alreadyfamiliar to their countrymen, in connection with thehistory of their own Parliament; but the new ChiefSecretary had lately returned home covered with Indianlaurels, and full of the promise of other honours andvictories to come. 

The spirit of this administration was repressive, anti-Catholic and high Tory. To maintain and strengthenBritish power, to keep the Catholics quiet, to getpossession of the Irish representation and convert itinto 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 mosthigh, mighty and noble prince, " whom all England andnearly all Europe delighted to honour, he defended theIrish administration of which he had formed a part, forits habitual use of corrupt means and influence, inarguments which do more credit to his frankness than hismorality. He had "to turn the moral weakness of individualsto good account, " such was his argument. He stoutly deniedthat "the whole nation is, or ever was corrupt;" but as"almost every man of mark has his price, " the ChiefSecretary was obliged to use corrupt influences "tocommand a majority in favour of order;" however theparticular kinds of influence employed might go againsthis grain, he had, as he contended, no other alternativebut to employ them. 

With the exception of a two months' campaign in Denmark--July to September, 1807--Sir Arthur Wellesley continuedto fill the office of Chief Secretary, until his departurefor the Peninsula, in July, 1808. Even then he wasexpressly requested to retain the nominal office, withpower to appoint a deputy, and receive meanwhile the veryhandsome salary of 8, 000 pounds sterling a year. In thewonderful military events, in which during the next sevenyears Sir Arthur was to play a leading part, thecomparatively unimportant particulars of his IrishSecretariate have been long since forgotten. We havealready described the general spirit of that administration:it is only just to add, that the dispassionate and resolutesecretary, though he never shrank from his share of thejobbery done daily at the Castle, repressed with as muchfirmness the over-zeal of those he calls "red-hotProtestants, " as he showed in resisting, at that period, what he considered the unconstitutional pretensions ofthe Catholics. An instance of the impartiality to whichhe was capable of rising, when influenced by partisansor religious prejudices, is afforded by his letterdissuading the Wexford yeomanry from celebrating theanniversary of the battle of Vinegar Hill. He regardedsuch a celebration as certain "to exasperate party spirit, "and "to hurt the feelings of others;" he, therefore, inthe name of the Lord-Lieutenant, strongly discouragedit, and the intention was accordingly abandoned. It isto be regretted that the same judicious rule was not atthe same tune enforced by government as to the celebrationof the much more obsolete and much more invidiousanniversaries of Aughrim and the Boyne. 

The general election which followed the death of Fox, inNovember, 1806, was the first great trial of politicalstrength under the Union. As was right and proper, Mr. Grattan, no longer indebted for a seat to an Englishpatron, however liberal, was returned at the head of thepoll for the city of Dublin. His associate, however, thebanker, La Touche, was defeated; the second member electbeing Mr. Robert Shaw, the Orange candidate. The Catholicelectors to a man, under the vigorous prompting of JohnKeogh and his friends, polled their votes for theirProtestant advocate; they did more, they subscribed thesum of 4, 000 pounds sterling to pay the expenses of thecontest, but this sum Mrs. Grattan induced the treasurerto return to the subscribers. Ever watchful for herhusband's honour, that admirable woman, as ardent apatriot as himself, refused the generous tender of theCatholics of Dublin. Although his several electionshad cost Mr. Grattan above 54, 000 pounds--more than thewhole national grant of 1782--she would not, in thiscase, that any one else should bear the cost of his lasttriumph in the widowed capital of his own country. 

The great issue tried in this election of 1807, in thoseof 1812, 1818, and 1826, was still the Catholic question. All other Irish, and most other imperial domestic questionswere subordinate to this. In one shape or another, itcame up in every session of Parliament. It entered intothe calculations of every statesman of every party; itcontinued to make and unmake cabinets; in the press andin every society, it was the principal topic of discussion. While tracing, therefore, its progress, from year toyear, we do but follow the main stream of national history;all other branches come back again to this centre, orexhaust themselves in secondary and forgotten results. 

The Catholics themselves, deprived in Ireland of aParliament on which they could act directly, were drivenmore and more Into permanent association, as the onlymeans of operating a change in the Imperial legislature. The value of a legal, popular, systematic, and continuouscombination of "the people" acting within the law, bymeans of meetings, resolutions, correspondence, andpetitions, was not made suddenly, nor by all the partyinterested, at one and the same time. On the minds of themore sagacious, however, an impression, favourable to suchorganized action, grew deeper year by year, and at lastsettled 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 itwas agreed that the Catholic lords, the surviving delegatesof 1793, the committee which managed the petitions of1805 and 1807, and such persons "as shall distinctlyappear to them to possess the confidence of the Catholicbody, " do form henceforth the General Committee. It wasproposed by O'Connell, to avoid "the Convention Act, ""that the noblemen and gentlemen aforesaid are notrepresentatives of the Catholic body, or any portionthereof. " The Committee were authorized to collect fundsfor defraying expenses; a Treasurer was chosen, and apermanent Secretary, Mr. Edward Hay, the historian ofthe Wexford rebellion--an active and intelligent officer. The new Committee acted with great judgment in 1810, butin 1811 Lord Fingal and his friends projected a GeneralAssembly of the leading Catholics, contrary to theConvention Act, and to the resolution just cited. O'Connellwas opposed to this proposition; yet the assembly met, and were dispersed by the authorities. The Chairman, LordFingal, and Drs. Sheridan and Kirwan, Secretaries, werearrested. Lord Fingal, however, was not prosecuted, butthe Secretaries were, and one of them expiated by twoyears' imprisonment his violation of the act. To getrid of the very pretext of illegality, the CatholicCommittee dissolved, but only to reappear under a lessvulnerable 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 ofpolicy, suited to the circumstances of the present century, and the first appearance of a group of public men, capableof maintaining and enforcing that policy. Not that theancient leaders of that body were found deficient, informer times, either in foresight or determination; butnew times called for new men; the Irish Catholics werenow 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 theirbonds at the good will and pleasure of benevolentProtestants, it was now to be tested whether they werecapable of contributing to their own emancipation, --whetherthey were willing and able to assist their friends andto punish their enemies. 

Though the Irish Catholics could not legally meet inconvention 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 andthe younger set of leading spirits this was a machinerycapable of being worked with good effect. No longerconfined to a select Committee, composed mainly of a fewaged and cautious, though distinguished persons, thefearless "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 habitualplace of meeting in Dublin, and there, in 1811 and 1812, the orators met to criticise the conduct of the Duke ofRichmond--to denounce Mr. Wellesley Pole--to attackSecretaries of State and Prime Ministers--to return thanksto Lords Grey and Grenville for refusing to give theunconstitutional anti-Catholic pledge required by theKing, and to memorial the Prince Regent. From thosemeetings, especially in the year 1812, the leadership ofO'Connell must be dated. After seven years of wearisomeprobation, after enduring seven years the envy and thecalumny of many who, as they were his fellow-labourers, should have been his friends; after demonstrating forseven years that his judgment and his courage were equalto his eloquence, the successful Kerry barrister, thenin his thirty-seventh year, was at length generallyrecognized as "the counsellor" of his co-religionists--as the veritable "Man of the People. " Dangers, delaysand difficulties lay thick and dark in the future, butfrom the year, when in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, thevoice of the famous advocate was recognized as the voiceof the Catholics of Ireland, their cause was taken outof the category of merely ministerial measures, andexhibited in its true light as a great national contest, entered into by the people themselves for complete civiland religious freedom. 

Sir Arthur Wellesley had been succeeded in 1810 in theSecretaryship by his brother, Mr. Wellesley Pole, whochiefly signalized his administration by a circularagainst conventions, and the prosecution of Sheridan andKirwan, in 1811. He was in turn succeeded by a much moreable and memorable person--_Mr_. , afterwards Sir RobertPeel. The names of Peel and Wellington come thus intojuxtaposition in Irish politics in 1812, as they will befound hi juxtaposition on the same subject twenty andthirty 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 precipitatedon the country. In the government which followed, LordLiverpool became the chief, with Castlereagh and Canningas members of his administration. In the general electionwhich followed, Mr. Grattan was again returned for Dublin, and Mr. Plunkett was elected for Trinity College, butMr. Curran was defeated at Newry, and Mr. ChristopherHely Hutchinson, the liberal candidate, at Cork. Uponthe whole, however, the result was favourable to theCatholic cause, and the question was certain to haveseveral additional Irish supporters in the new Houseof Commons. 

In the administrative changes that followed, Mr. Peel, though only in his twenty-fourth year, was appointed tothe important post of Chief Secretary, The son of thefirst baronet of the name--this youthful statesman hadfirst been elected for Cashel, almost as soon as he cameof age, in 1809. He continued Chief Secretary for sixyears, from the twenty-fourth to the thirtieth year ofhis age. He distinguished himself in the House of Commonsalmost as soon as he entered it, and the predictions ofhis future premiership were not, even then, confined tomembers of his own family. No English statesman, sincethe death of William Pitt, has wielded so great a powerin Irish affairs as Sir Robert Peel, and it is, therefore, important to consider, under what influence, and by whatmaxims he regulated his public conduct during the timehe filled the most important administrative office inthat country. 

Sir Robert Peel brought to the Irish government, notwithstanding his Oxford education and the advantagesof foreign travel which he had enjoyed, prejudices themost illiberal, on the subject of all others on which astatesman should be most free from prejudice--religion. An anti-Catholic of the school of Mr. Perceval and LordEldon, he at once constituted himself the principalopponent of Grattan's annual motion in favour of CatholicEmancipation. That older men, born in the evil time, should be bigots and defenders of the Penal Code, washardly wonderful, but a young statesman, exhibiting atthat late day, such studied and active hostility to solarge a body of his fellow subjects, naturally drew uponhis head the execrations of all those whose enfranchisementhe so stubbornly resisted. Even his great abilities weremost absurdly denied, under this passionate feeling ofwrong and injustice. His Constabulary and his StipendiaryMagistracy were resisted, ridiculed, and denounced, asoutrages on the liberty of the subject, and assaults onthe independence of the bench. The term _Peeler_ becamesynonymous with spy, informer, and traitor, and the ChiefSecretary was detested not only for the illiberal sentimentshe had expressed, but for the machinery of order he hadestablished. After half a century's experience, we maysafely say, that the Irish Constabulary have shownthemselves to be a most valuable police, and as littledeserving of popular ill-will as any such body can everexpect to be, but they were judged very differently duringthe Secretaryship of their founder; for, at that time, being new and intrusive, they may, no doubt, have deservedmany of the hard and bitter things which were generallysaid of them. 

The first session of the new Parliament in the year 1813--the last of the Duke of Richmond's Viceroyalty--wasremarkable for the most important debate which had yetarisen on the Catholic question. In the previous year, a motion of Canning's, in favour of "a final andconciliatory adjustment, " which was carried by an unexpectedmajority of 235 to 106, encouraged Grattan to prepare adetailed Emancipation Bill, instead of making his usualannual motion of referring the Catholic petitions to theconsideration of the Committee. This bill recited theestablishment of the Protestant succession to the crown, and the establishment of the Protestant religion in theState. It then proceeded to provide that Roman Catholicsmight sit and vote in Parliament; might hold all offices, civil and military, except the offices of Chancellor orKeeper of the Great Seal in England, or Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Deputy, or Chancellor of Ireland; another sectionthrew open to Roman Catholics all lay corporations, whilea proviso excluded them either from holding or bestowingbenefices in the Established Church. Such was theEmancipation Act of 1813, proposed by Grattan; an actfar less comprehensive than that introduced by the samestatesman in 1795, into the Parliament of Ireland, butstill, in many of its provisions, a long stride in advance. 

Restricted and conditioned as this measure was, it stilldid not meet the objections of the opponents of thequestion, in giving the crown a Veto in the appointmentof the bishops. Sir John Hippesley's pernicioussuggestion--reviving a very old traditional policy--wasembodied by Canning in one set of amendments, and byCastlereagh in another. Canning's amendments, as summarisedby the eminent Catholic jurist, Charles Butler, were tothis effect:--

"He first appointed a certain number of Commissioners, who were to profess the Catholic religion, and to be laypeers of Great Britain or Scotland, possessing a freeholdestate 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 faithfuldischarge of their office, and the observance of secrecyin all matters not thereby required to be disclosed, withpower to appoint a Secretary with salary (proposed to befive hundred pounds a year), payable out of the consolidatedfund. The Secretary was to take an oath similar to thatof the Commissioners. 

"It was then provided, that every person elected to thedischarge of Roman Catholic episcopal functions in GreatBritain or Scotland should, previously to the dischargeof 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 'thatthey did not know or believe anything of the personnominated, which tended to impeach his loyalty or peaceableconduct;' unless they had knowledge of the contrary, inwhich case they should refuse their certificate. Personsobtaining such a certificate were rendered capable ofexercising episcopal functions within the United Kingdom;if they exercised them without a certificate, they wereto be considered guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable tobe sent out of the kingdom. 

"Similar provisions respecting Ireland were thenintroduced. "

"The second set of clauses, " says Mr. Butler, "wassuggested by Lord Castlereagh, and provided that theCommissioners under the preceding clauses--with theaddition, as to Great Britain, of the Lord Chancellor, or Lord Keeper, or first Commissioner of the Great Sealfor the time being, and of one of his Majesty's principalSecretaries of State, being a Protestant, or such otherProtestant member of his Privy Council as his Majestyshould appoint--and with a similar addition in respectto Ireland--and with the further addition, as to GreatBritain, of the person then exercising episcopal functionsamong the Catholics in London--and, in respect to Ireland, of the titular Roman Catholic Archbishops of Armagh andDublin, --should be Commissioners for the purposesthereinafter mentioned. 

"The Commissioners thus appointed were to take an oathfor the discharge of their office, and observance ofsecrecy, similar to the former, and employ the sameSecretary, 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, withinsix weeks, send a copy of it, signed with his name, tothe Secretary of the Commissioners, who should transmitthe same to them. 

"But with a proviso, that if the person receiving thesame should deliver to the Secretary of the Commission, within the time before prescribed, a writing under hishand, certifying the fact of his having received such abull, dispensation, or other instrument, and accompanyinghis certificate with an oath, declaring that 'it related, wholly and exclusively, to spiritual concerns, and thatit did not contain, or refer to, any matter or thingwhich did or could, directly or indirectly, affect orinterfere with the duty and allegiance which he owed tohis Majesty's sacred person and government, or with thetemporal, civil, or social rights, properties, or dutiesof any other of his Majesty's subjects, then theCommissioners were, in their discretion, to receive suchcertificate and oath, in lieu of the copy of the bull, dispensation, or other instrument. 

"Persons conforming to these provisions were to be exemptedfrom all pains and penalties, to which they would beliable under the existing statutes; otherwise, they wereto be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor; and in lieuof 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 timeto be specified, the Commissioners were to meet andappoint their Secretary, and give notice of it to hisMajesty's principal Secretaries of State in Great Britainand Ireland; and the provisions of the act were to be inforce from that time. "

On the second reading, in May, the Committee of Parliament, on motion of the Speaker, then on the floor, struck outthe clause enabling Catholics "to sit and vote in eitherHouse of Parliament, " by a majority of four votes: 251against 247. Mr. Ponsonby immediately rose, and, observingthat, as "the bill without the clause, " was unworthy bothof the Catholics and its authors, he moved the chairmando 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, whichhad originated in the House of Commons, was extended tothe Catholic body at large. Several of the noblemen, members of the board, were not averse to granting somesuch power as was claimed to the crown; some of theprofessional class, more anxious to be emancipated thanparticular as to the means, favoured the same view. Thebishops at the time of the Union, were known to haveentertained the idea, and Sir John Hippesley had publishedtheir letters, which certainly did not discourage hisproposal. But the second order of the clergy, the immensemajority of the laity, and all the new prelates, calledto preside over vacant sees, in the first decade of thecentury, were strongly opposed to any such connexion withthe head of the State. Of this party, Mr. O'Connell wasthe uncompromising organ, and, perhaps, it was his courseon this very subject of the Veto, more than anythingelse, which established his pretensions to be consideredthe leader of the Catholic body. Under the prompting ofthe majority, the Catholic prelates met and passed aresolution declaring that they could not accept the billof 1813 as a satisfactory settlement. This resolutionthey formally communicated to the Catholic Board, whovoted 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 theirabsence from the Board meetings than by open opposition. 

Mr. O'Connell's position, from this period forward, maybe best understood from the tone in which he was spokenof in the debates of Parliament. At the beginning of thesession of 1815, we find the Chief Secretary (Mr. Peel)stating that he "possesses more influence than any otherperson" with the Irish Catholics, and that no meeting ofthat body was considered complete unless a vote of thanksto Mr. O'Connell was among the resolutions. 

CHAPTER IV. 

O'CONNELL'S LEADERSHIP--1813 TO 1821. 

While the Veto controversy was carried into the pressand the Parliamentary debates, the extraordinary eventsof the last years of Napoleon's reign became of suchextreme interest as to cast into the shade all questionsof domestic policy. The Parliamentary fortunes of theCatholic 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 rejectedby a majority of 228 to 147; in 1816, on Mr. Grattan'ssimilar motion, the vote was 172 to 141; in 1817, Mr. Grattan was again defeated by 245 to 221; in this sessionan act exempting officers in the army and navy fromforswearing Transubstantiation passed and became law. The internal condition of the Catholic body, both inEngland and Ireland, during all those years, was far fromenviable. In England there were Cisalpine and Ultramontanefactions; in Ireland, Vetoists and anti-Vetoists. Thelearned and amiable Charles Butler--among jurists, theornament of his order, was fiercely opposed to the noless learned Dr. Milner, author of "The End of Controversy, "and "Letters to a Prebendary. " In Ireland, a very youngbarrister, who had hardly seen the second anniversary ofhis majority, electrified the aggregate meetings with anew Franco-Irish order of eloquence, naturally enoughemployed in the maintenance of Gallican ideas of churchgovernment. This was Richard Lalor Shiel, the author oftwo or three successful tragedies, and the man, next toO'Connell, who wielded the largest tribunitian power overthe Irish populace during the whole of the subsequentagitation. Educated at Stoneyhurst, he imbibed fromrefugee professors French idioms and a French standardof taste, while, strangely enough, O'Connell, to whom hewas at first opposed, and of whom he became afterwardsthe first lieutenant, educated in France by Britishrefugees, acquired the cumbrous English style of theDouay Bible and the Rheims Testament. The contrast betweenthe two men was every way extreme; physically, mentally, and politically; but it is pleasant to know that theirdifferences never degenerated into distrust, envy ormalice; that, in fact, Daniel O'Connell had throughoutall his after life no more steadfast personal friend thanRichard Lalor Shiel. 

In the progress of the Catholic agitation, the nextmemorable incident was O'Connell's direct attack on thePrince Regent. That powerful personage, the _de facto_Sovereign of the realm, had long amused the Irish Catholicswith promises and pledges of being favourable to theircause. At an aggregate meeting, in June, 1812, Mr. O'Connell maintained that there were four distinct pledgesof this description in existence: 1. One given in 1806, through the Duke of Bedford, then Lord-Lieutenant, toinduce the Catholics to withhold their petitions for atime. 2. Another given the same year in the Prince'sname by Mr. Ponsonby, then Chancellor. 3. A pledge givento Lord Kenmare, _in writing_, when at Cheltenham. 4. Averbal pledge given to Lord Fingal, in the presence ofLords Clifford and Petre, and reduced to writing andsigned by these three noblemen, soon after quitting thePrince's presence. Over the meeting at which this indictmentwas preferred, Lord Fingal presided, and the celebrated"witchery" resolutions, referring to the influence thenexercised on the Prince by Lady Hertford, were proposedby his lordship's son, Lord Killeen. It may, therefore, be fairly assumed, that the existence of the fourth pledgewas proved, the first and second were never denied, andas to the third--that given to Lord Kenmare--the onlycorrection ever made was, that the Prince's message wasdelivered verbally, by his Private Secretary, ColonelMcMahon, and not in writing. Lord Kenmare, who died inthe autumn of 1812, could not be induced, from a motiveof delicacy, to reduce his recollection of this messageto 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 hisother promises. Much difference of opinion arose as tothe wisdom of attacking a person in the position of thePrince; but O'Connell, fully persuaded of the utterworthlessness of the declarations made in that quarter, decided for himself that the bold course was the wisecourse. The effect already was various. The English Whigs, the Prince's early and constant friends, who had followedhim to lengths that honour could hardly sanction, andwho had experienced his hollow-heartedness when latelycalled to govern during his father's illness; they, ofcourse, were not sorry to see him held up to odium inIreland, as a dishonoured gentleman and a false friend. The Irish Whigs, of whom Lord Moira and Mr. Ponsonby werethe leaders, and to whom Mr. Grattan might be said to beattached rather than to belong, saw the rupture withregret, but considered it inevitable. Among "the Prince'sfriends" the attacks upon him in the Dublin meetings wereregarded as little short of treason; while by himself, it is well known the "witchery" resolutions of 1812 wereneither forgotten nor forgiven. 

The political position of the Holy See, at this period, was such as to induce and enable an indirect Englishinfluence to be exercised, through that channel, uponthe Irish Catholic movement. Pope Pius VII. , a prisonerin France, had delegated to several persons at Romecertain vicarious powers, to be exercised in his name, in case of necessity; of these, more than one had followedhim into exile, so that the position of his representativedevolved at length upon Monsignor Quarrantotti, who, early in 1814, addressed a rescript to Dr. Poynter, vicar-apostolic of the London district, commendatory ofthe Bill of 1813, including the Veto, and the EcclesiasticalCommission proposed by Canning and Castlereagh. Againstthese dangerous concessions, as they considered them, the Irish Catholics despatched their remonstrances toRome, through the agency of the celebrated WexfordFranciscan, Father Richard Hayes; but this clergyman, having spoken with too great freedom, was arrested, andsuffered several months' confinement in the Eternal City. A subsequent embassy of Dr. Murray, coadjutor to theArchbishop of Dublin, on behalf of his brother prelates, was attended with no greater advantage, though the envoyhimself was more properly treated. On his return toIreland, at a meeting held to hear his report, severalstrong resolutions were unanimously adopted, of whichthe spirit may be judged from the following--the concludingone of the series--"Though we sincerely venerate thesupreme Pontiff as visible head of the Church, we do notconceive that our apprehensions for the safety of theRoman Catholic Church in Ireland can or ought to beremoved by any determination of His Holiness, adopted orintended to be adopted, not only without our concurrence, but in direct opposition to our repeated resolutions andthe very energetic memorial presented on our behalf, andso ably supported by our Deputy, the Most Reverend Dr. Murray; who, in that quality, was more competent to informHis Holiness of the real state and interests of the RomanCatholic Church in Ireland than any other with whom heis said to have consulted. "

The resolutions were transmitted to Rome, signed by thetwo Archbishops present, by Dr. Everard, the coadjutorof the Archbishop of Cashel, by Dr. Murray, the coadjutorof 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, werecommissioned to carry this new remonstrance to Rome, andthe greatest anxiety was felt for the result of theirmission. 

A strange result of this new _embroglio_ in the Catholiccause was, that it put the people on the defensive fortheir religious liberties, not so much against Englandas against Home. The unlucky Italian Monsignor who hadvolunteered his sanction of the Veto, fared scarcelybetter 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 takinghis name from a lucky lottery ticket of that number, wasdeclared to be no better than a common Orangeman, and ifthe bitter denunciations uttered against him, on theLiffey and the Shannon, had only been translated intoItalian, the courtly Prelate must have been exceedinglyamazed at the democratic fury of a Catholic population, as orthodox as himself, but much more jealous of Stateinterference with things spiritual. The second order ofthe clergy were hardly behind the laity, in the fervourof their opposition to the rescript of 1814. Then--entirebody, secular and regular, residing in and about Dublin, published a very strong protest against it, headed byDr. Blake, afterwards Bishop of Dromore, in which it wasdenounced as "pregnant with mischief" and entirely"non-obligatory upon the Catholic Church in Ireland. "The several ecclesiastical provinces followed up thesedeclarations with a surprising unanimity, and althougha Vetoistical address to His Holiness was despatched bythe Cisalpine club in England, the Irish ideas of Churchgovernment triumphed at Rome. Drs. Murray and Milnerwere received with his habitual kindness by Pius VII. ;the illustrious Cardinal Gonsalvi was appointed by thePope to draw up an explanatory rescript, and MonsignorQuarrantotti was removed from his official position. Thefirmness manifested at that critical period by the Irishchurch has since been acknowledged with many encomiumsby all the successors of Pope Pius VII. 

The Irish government under the new Viceroy, Lord Whitworth(the former ambassador to Napoleon), conceiving that thetime had come, in the summer of 1814, to suppress theCatholic Board, a proclamation forbidding his Majesty'ssubjects to attend future meetings of that body issuedfrom Dublin Castle, on the 3rd of June. The leaders ofthe body, after consultation at Mr. O'Connell's residence, decided to bow to this proclamation and to meet no moreas a Board; but this did not prevent them, in the followingwinter, from holding a new series of Aggregate meetings, far more formidable, in some respects, than the deliberativemeetings which had been suppressed. In the vigorous andsomewhat aggressive tone taken at these meetings, LordFingal, the chief of the Catholic peerage, did not concur, and he accordingly withdrew for some years from theagitation, Mr. Shiel, the Bellews, Mr. Ball, Mr. Wyse ofWaterford, and a few others, following his example. WithO'Connell remained the O'Conor Don, Messrs. Finlay andLidwell (Protestants), Purcell O'Gorman, and other popularpersons. But the cause sustained a heavy blow in thetemporary retirement of Lord Fingal and his friends, andan attempt to form a "Catholic Association, " in 1815, without their co-operation, signally failed. 

During the next five years, the fortunes of the greatIrish question fluctuated with the exigencies of Imperialparties. The second American war had closed, if notgloriously, at least without considerable loss to England;Napoleon had exchanged Elba for St. Helena: Wellingtonwas the Achilles of the Empire, and Castlereagh itsUlysses. Yet it was not in the nature of those freeIslanders, the danger and pressure of foreign war removed, to remain always indifferent to the two great questionsof domestic policy--Catholic Emancipation and ParliamentaryReform. In the session of 1816, a motion of Sir JohnNewport's to inquire into the state of Ireland, wassuccessfully resisted by Sir Robert Peel, but the conditionand state of public feeling in England could not be aswell ignored by a Parliament sitting in London. Inreturning from the opening of the Houses in January, 1817, the Regent was hooted in the street, and his carriageriddled with stones. A reward of 1, 000 pounds, issuedfor the apprehension of the ringleaders, only gaveadditional _eclat_ to the fact, without leading to theapprehension of the assailants. 

The personal unpopularity of the Regent seems to haveincreased, in proportion as death removed from him allthose who stood nearest to the throne. In November, 1817, his oldest child, the Princess Charlotte, married toLeopold, since King of Belgium, died in childbed; in1818, 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 formerPrincess of Wales, long separated from her profligatehusband, returned from the Continent to claim her rightfulposition as Queen Consort. The disgraceful accusationsbrought against her, the trial before the House of Lordswhich followed, the courage and eloquence of her counsel, Brougham and Denman, the eagerness with which the peoplemade her cause their own, are all well remembered events, and all beside the purpose of this history. The unfortunatelady 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 theundying verse of Moore and Byron. 

Two other deaths, far more affecting than any among themortalities of royalty, marked the period at which wehave 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, in1812, had never again attempted public life. He remainedin his office of Master of the Rolls, but his healthbegan to fail sensibly. During the summers of 1816 and'17, he sought for recreation in Scotland, England andFrance, but the charm which travel could not give--thecharm of a cheerful spirit--was wanting. In October, 1817, his friend, Charles Phillips, was suddenly calledto his bed-side at Brompton, near London, and found himwith one side of his face and body paralyzed cold. "Andthis was all, " says his friend, "that remained ofCurran--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. Onthe evening of the 14th of October, he expired, in the68th year of his age, leaving a public reputation as freefrom blemish as ever did any man who had acted a leadingpart, 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 hisashes 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 longbefore--"The last duties will be paid by that country onwhich they are devolved; nor will it be for charity thata little earth will be given to my bones. Tenderly willthose 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 wholelife. As the session of 1820 progressed, though sufferingfrom his last struggle with disease, he was stirred byan irresistible desire to make his way to London, andpresent once more the petition of the Catholics. Sincethe defeat of his Relief Bill of 1813, there had beensome estrangement between him and the more advancedsection of the agitators, headed by O'Connell. This hewas anxious, perhaps, to heal or to overcome. He thought, moreover, that even if he should die in the effort, itwould 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 berendered immortal by some great national artist. Allpresent felt that the aged patriot was dying, but stillhe would go once more to London, to fall, as he said, "at his post. " In leaving Ireland he gave to his oldestfriends directions for his funeral--that he might beburied in the little churchyard of Moyanna, on the estatethe people gave him in 1782! He reached London, by slowstages, at the end of May, and proposed to be in hisplace in the House on the 4th of June. But thisgratification was not permitted him: on the morning ofthe 4th, at six o'clock, he called his son to his bed-side, and ordered him to bring him a paper containing his lastpolitical opinions. "Add to it, " he said, with all hisold love of antithesis, "that I die with a love of libertyin my heart, and this declaration in favour of my country, in my hand. "

So worthily ended the mortal career of Henry Grattan. Hewas interred by the side of his old friend, Charles JamesPox, in Westminster Abbey; the mourners included thehighest imperial statesmen, and the Catholic orphanchildren; his eulogium was pronounced in the House ofCommons by William Conyngham Plunkett, and in the Irishcapital by Daniel O'Connell. 

CHAPTER V. 

RETROSPECT OF THE STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNINGDURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 

Before relating the decisive events in the contest forCatholic Emancipation, which marked the reign of George IV. We may be permitted to cast a glance backward over thereligious and secular state of Ireland, during the sixtyyears' reign of George III. 

The relative position of the great religious denominationsunderwent a slow but important revolution during thislong reign. In the last days of George II. , a Chief-Justicewas bold enough to declare that "the laws did not presumea Papist to exist in the kingdom;" but under the sway ofhis 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, onthe very steps of the throne. In the towns and cities, the Catholic laity, once admitted to commerce and theprofessions, rose rapidly to wealth and honour. A DublinPapist was at the head of the wine trade; another wasthe wealthiest grazier in the kingdom; a third, at Cork, was the largest provision merchant. With wealth camesocial ambition, and the heirs of these enfranchisedmerchants were by a natural consequence the judges andlegislators of the next generation. 

The ecclesiastical organization of Ireland, as describedin 1800 by the bishops in answer to queries of the ChiefSecretary, was simple and inexpensive. The four archbishopsand twenty bishops, were sustained by having certainparishes 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 orcoadjutors was at least equal to that of the parishpriests; while of regulars then returned the number didnot exceed 450. This large body of religious--24 prelates, nearly 3, 000 clergy--exclusive of female religious--werethen, and have ever since been, sustained by the voluntarycontributions of the laity, paid chiefly at the two greatfestivals of Christmas and Easter, or by customaryofferings made at the close of the ceremonies of marriages, baptisms, and death. Though the income of some of thechurches was considerable, in the great majority of casesthe amount received barely sufficed to fulfil the injunctionof St. Patrick to his disciples, that "the lamp shouldtake but that wherewith it was fed. "

The Presbyterian clergy, though in some respects moredependent on their congregations than the Catholics were, did not always, nor in all cases, depend on the voluntaryprinciple for their maintenance. The Irish Supply Billcontained an annual item before the Union of 7, 700 poundsfor the Antrim Synod, and some other dissenting bodies. The _Regium Donum_ was not, indeed, general; but that itmight be made so, was one of the inducements held out tomany of that clergy to secure their countenance for theLegislative Union. 

The Established Church continued, of course, to monopolizeUniversity honours, and to enjoy its princely revenuesand all political advantages. Trinity College continuedannually to farm its 200, 000 acres at a rental averaging100, 000 pounds sterling. Its wealth, and the uses towhich it is put, are thus described by a recent writer:"Some of Trinity's senior fellows enjoy higher incomesthan Cabinet ministers; many of her tutors have revenuesabove those of cardinals; and junior fellows, of a fewdays' standing, frequently decline some of her thirty-onechurch livings with benefices which would shame thepoverty of scores of continental, not to say Irish, Catholic archbishops. Even eminent judges hold herprofessorships; some of her chairs are vacated for theEpiscopal bench only; and majors and field officers wouldacquire increased pay by being promoted to the rank ofhead porter, first menial, in Trinity College. Apart fromher princely fellowships and professorships, her seventyFoundation, and sixteen non-Foundation Scholarships, herthirty Sizarships, and her fourteen valuable Studentships, she has at her disposal an aggregate, by bequests, benefactions, and various endowments, of 117 permanentexhibitions, amounting to upwards of 2, 000 pounds perannum. " The splendour of the highest Protestant dignitariesmay be inferred from what has been said formerly of theBishop of Derry, of the Era of Independence. The statemaintained by the chief bishop--Primate Robinson, whoruled Armagh from 1765 to 1795--is thus described by Mr. Cumberland in his _Memoirs_. "I accompanied him, " saysCumberland, "on Sunday forenoon to his cathedral. Wewent in his chariot of six horses attended by threefootmen behind, whilst my wife and daughters, with SirWilliam Robinson, the primate's elder brother, followedin 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 couldbe seen) entered, like another Archbishop Laud, in highprelatical state, preceded by his officers and ministersof the church, conducting him in files to the robingchamber, and back again to the throne. It may well beconceived with what invidious eyes the barely toleratedPapists of the city of Saint Patrick must have looked onall this pageantry, and their feelings were no doubtthose in some degree of all their co-religioniststhroughout the kingdom. "

The Irish Establishment, during the reign of George III. , numbered among its prelates and clergy many able andamiable men. At the period of the Union, the two mostdistinguished were Dr. O'Beirne, Bishop of Meath, anex-priest, and Dr. Young, Bishop of Clonfert, a formerfellow of Trinity College. As a Bible scholar, Dr. Youngranked deservedly high, but as a variously accomplishedwriter, Dr. O'Beirne was the first man of his order. Hispolitical papers, though occasionally disfigured withthe bigotry natural to an apostate, are full of a vigoroussagacity; his contributions to general literature, suchas his paper on _Tanistry_, in Vallency's _Collectanea_, show how much greater things still he was capable of. Itis not a little striking that the most eminent bishop, as well as the most celebrated Anglican preacher of thatage, in Ireland (Dean Kirwan), should both have beenordained as Catholic priests. 

The national literature which we have noted a centuryearlier, 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 sungin 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 asexquisite; but the glory of the Gaelic muse was past. He, too, unpromising as was his exterior, was to be oneof the bright harbingers of another great era ofHiberno-English literature. When, within two generations, out of the same exceedingly restricted class of educatedIrishmen and women, we count the names of Goldsmith, Samuel Madden, Arthur Murphy, Henry Brooke, CharlesMacklin, Sheridan, Burke, Edmund Malone, Maria Edgeworth, Lady Morgan, "Psyche" Tighe, and Thomas Moore, it isimpossible not to entertain a very high opinion of themental resources of that population, if only they werefairly wrought and kindly valued by the world. 

One memorable incident of literary history--the Ossianicoutbreak of 1760--aided powerfully though indirectly inthe revival of the study of the ancient Celtic historyof Scotland and Ireland. Something was done then, by theRoyal Irish Academy, to meet that storm of Anglo-Normanincredulity and indignation; much more has been donesince, to place the original records of the Three Kingdomson a sound critical basis. The dogmatism of the unbelieversin the existence of a genuine body of ancient Celticliterature has been rebuked; and the folly of the theoristswho, upon imaginary grounds, constructed pretentioussystems, has been exposed. The exact originals ofMacPherson's odes have not been found, after a centuryof research, and may be given up, as non-existent; butthe better opinion seems now to be, by those who havestudied the fragments of undoubted antiquity attributedto the son of the warrior Fion, that whatever the moderntranslator may have invented, he certainly did not inventOssian. 

To the stage, within the same range of time, Ireland gavesome 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 theGeorgian era won the highest and most various triumphswas the art of Oratory, What is now usually spoken of as"the Irish School of Eloquence, " may be considered tohave taken its rise from the growth of the Patriot partyin Parliament, in the last years of George II. Everycontemporary account agrees in placing its first greatname--Anthony Malone--on the same level with Chatham andMansfield. There were great men before Malone, as beforeAgamemnon; such as Sir Toby Butler, Baron Rice, andPatrick Darcy; but he was the first of our later successionof masters. After him came Flood and John Hely Hutchinson;then Grattan and Curran; then Plunkett and Bushe; thenO'Connell and Shiel. In England, at the same time, Burke, Barre, Sheridan, and Sir Phillip Francis, upheld thereputation of Irish oratory; a reputation generouslyacknowledged by all parties, as it was illustrated inthe 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 ofsimilar qualities in their Emancipation allies. 

Nothing can be less correct, than to pronounce judgmenton the Irish School, either of praise or blame, in sweepinggeneral terms. Though a certain family resemblance maybe traced among its great masters, no two of them willbe found nearly alike. There are no echoes, no servileimitators, among them. In vigorous argumentation andsevere simplicity, Plunkett resembled Flood, but thetemperament of the two men--and Oratory is nearly as mucha matter of temperament as of intellect--was widelydifferent. Flood's movement was dramatic, while Plunkett'swas 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 thatgreat orator. Burke and Sheridan are as distinguishableas any other two of their contemporaries; Curran standsalone; O'Connell never had a model, and never had animitator who rose above mimicry. Every combination ofpowers, every description of excellence, and every varietyof style and character, may be found among the masterpiecesof this great school. Of their works many will live forever. Most of Burke's, many of Grattan's, and one or twoof Curran's have reached us in such preservation aspromises immortality. Selections from Flood, Sheridan, Canning, Plunkett and O'Connell will survive; Shiel willbe more fortunate for he was more artistic, and morewatchful of his own fame. His exquisite finish will do, for him, what the higher efforts of men, more indifferentto the audience of posterity, will have forfeited for them. 

It is to be observed, farther, that the inspiration ofall these men was drawn from the very hearts of the peopleamong whom they grew. With one or two exceptions, sonsof humble peasants, of actors, of at most middle classmen, they were true, through every change of personalposition, to the general interests of the people--to thecommon weal. From generous thoughts and a lofty scorn offalsehood, fanaticism and tyranny, they took theirinspiration; and as they were true to human nature, sowill mankind, through successive ages, dwell fondly ontheir 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 theIrish people who have established themselves in foreignstates have always clung to their native country; theactive sympathy they have personally shown for theirrelatives at home; the repeated efforts they have madeto assist the Irish in Ireland, in all their publicundertakings, requires that, as an element in O'Connell'sfinal and successful struggle for Catholic Emancipation, we should take a summary view of the position of "theIrish abroad. "

While the emigrants of that country to America naturallypursued the paths of peace, those who, from choice ornecessity, found their way to the European Continent, were, with few exceptions, employed mainly in twodepartments--war and diplomacy. An Irish Abbe, liked thecelebrated preacher, McCarthy--or an Irish merchant firm, such as the house of the same name at Bordeaux, might bemet with, but most of those who attained any distinctiondid so by the sword or the pen, in the field or thecabinet. 

In France, under the revolutionary governments from '91to '99, the Irish were, with their old-world notions ofGod and the Devil, wholly out of place; but under theConsulate and the Empire, they rose to many employmentsof the second class, and a few of the very first. Fromthe ranks of the expatriated of '98, Buonaparte promotedArthur O'Conor and William Corbet to the rank of General;Ware, Alien, Byrne, the younger Tone, and Keating, tothat of Colonel. As individuals, the Emperor was certainlya benefactor to many Irishmen; but, as a nation, it wasone of then: most foolish delusions, to expect in him adeliverer. On the restoration of the Bourbons, the Irishofficers who had acquired distinction under Napoleonadhered generally to his fortunes, and tendered theirresignations; in their place, a new group of Franco-Irishdescendants of the old Brigades-men, began to showthemselves in the _salons_ of Paris, and the Bureaus ofthe Ministers. The last swords drawn for "the legitimatebranch" in '91, was by Count Dillon and his friend CountWall; their last defender, in 1830, was General Wall, ofthe same family. 

Though the Irish in France, especially those resident atParis, exercised the greatest influence in favour oftheir original country--an influence which met alltravelled Englishmen, wherever the French language wasunderstood--their compatriots in Spain and Austria hadalso contributed their share to range Continental opinionon 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 AlexanderO'Reilly Governor of Cadiz, or the diplomatist who methim as Spanish ambassador, at the Court of Louis XVI. , could hardly look with uninstructed eyes, upon the lotof his humblest namesake in Cavan. This family, indeed, produced a succession of eminent men, both in Spain andAustria. "It is strange, " observed Napoleon to thosearound 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 intreaty and in intercourse with the respectable CountO'Reilly. " Napoleon had other reasons for rememberingthis officer; it was his dragoon regiment which savedthe remnant of the Austrians, at Austerlitz. In theAustrian army list at that period, when she was the allyof England, there were above forty Irish names, from thegrading of Colonel up to that of Field-Marshal. In almostevery field of the Peninsula, Wellington and Anglesealearned the value of George the Second's imprecation onthe Penal Code, which deprived him of such soldiers asconquered at Fontenoy. It cannot be doubted that eventhe constant repetition of the names of the Blakes, O'Donnells, and Sarsfields, in the bulletins sent hometo England, tended to enforce reflections of thatdescription on the statesmen and the nation, and toinspirit and sustain the struggling Catholics. A powerfulargument for throwing open the British army and navy tomen of all religions, was drawn from these foreignexperiences; and, if such men were worthy to holdmilitary commissions, why not also to sit in Parliament, and on the Bench?

The fortunes of the Irish in America, though less brilliantfor the few, were more advantageous as to the many. Theywere, during the war of the revolution, and the war of1812, a very considerable element in the American republic. It was a violent exaggeration to say, as Lord Mountjoydid in moving for the repeal of the Penal laws, "thatEngland lost America by Ireland;" but it is very certainthat Washington placed great weight on the active aid ofthe gallant Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Southern Irishtroops, and the sturdy Scotch-Irish of New Hampshire. Franklin, in his visit to Ireland, before the rupture, and Jefferson in his correspondence, always enumeratesthe Irish, as one element of reliance, in the contestbetween the Colonies and the Empire. 

In the immediate cause of the war of 1812, this peoplewere peculiarly interested. If the doctrines of "theright 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 protectionof--an American citizen. It was, therefore, natural thatmen of that origin should take a deep interest in thewar, and it seems something more than a fortuitouscircumstance, when we find in the chairman of the SenatorialCommittee of 1812, which authorized the President toraise the necessary levies--an Irish emigrant, JohnSmilie, and in the Secretary-at-war, who acted under thepowers thus granted, the son of an Irish emigrant, JohnCaldwell Calhoun. On the Canadian frontier, during thewar which followed, we find in posts of importance, Brady, Mullany, McComb, Croghan and Reilly; on the lakes, Commodore McDonough, and on the ocean, Commodores Shawand Stewart--all Irish. On the Mississippi, another sonof Irish emigrant parents, with his favourite lieutenants, Carroll, Coffee, and Butler, brought the war to a closeby their brilliant defence of New Orleans. The moral ofthat victory was not lost upon England; the life of AndrewJackson, with a dedication "to the People of Ireland"was published at London and Dublin, by the most generallypopular writer of that day--William Cobbett. 

In the cause of South American independence, the Irishunder O'Higgins and McKenna in Chili, and under Bolivarand San Martin in Colombia and Peru, were largely engaged, and honourably distinguished. Colonel O'Conor, nephew toArthur, was San Martin's chief of the staff; GeneralDevereux, with his Irish legion, rendered distinguishedservices to Bolivar and Don Bernardo. O'Higgins was hailedas the Liberator of Chili. During that long ten years'struggle, which ended with the evacuation of Carraccasin 1823, Irish names are conspicuous on almost everyfield of action. Bolivar's generous heart was warmlyattached to persons of that nation. "The doctor whoconstantly attends him, " says the English General, Miller, "is Dr. Moore, an Irishman, who had followed the Liberatorfrom Venezuela to Peru. He is a man of great skill inhis profession, and devotedly attached to the person ofthe Liberator. Bolivar's first aide-de-camp, ColonelO'Leary, is a nephew of the celebrated Father O'Leary. In 1818, he embarked, at the age of seventeen, in thecause of South American independence, in which he hasserved with high distinction, having been present atalmost every general action fought in Colombia, andhas received several wounds. He has been often employedon diplomatic missions, and in charges of greatresponsibility, in which he has always acquitted himselfwith great ability. "

That these achievements of the Irish abroad produced afavourable influence on the situation of the Irish athome, we know from many collateral sources; we know italso from the fact, that when O'Connell succeeded infounding a really national organization, subscriptionsand words of encouragement poured in on him, not onlyfrom France, Spain, and Austria, but from North and SouthAmerica, not only from the Irish residents in thosecountries, but from their native inhabitants--soldiersand statesmen--of the first consideration. The servicesand virtues of her distinguished children in foreignclimes, stood to the mother country instead of treatiesand alliances. 

CHAPTER VII. 

O'CONNELL'S LEADERSHIP--THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION--1821 TO 1826. 

At the beginning of the year 1821, O'Connell, during theintervals of Ms laborious occupations in court and oncircuit, addressed a series of stirring letters to "thePeople of Ireland, " remarkable as containing some of thebest and most trenchant of his political writings. Hisobject was to induce the postponement of the annualpetition for Emancipation, and the substitution insteadof a general agitation for Parliamentary reform, inconjunction with the English reformers. Against thisconclusion--which he ridiculed "as the fashion for January, 1821"--Mr. Shiel published a bitter, clever, rhetoricalreply, to which O'Connell at once sent forth a severeand rather contemptuous rejoinder. Shiel was quite contentto have Mr. Plunkett continue Grattan's annual motion, with all its "conditions" and "securities. " O'Connelldeclared he had no hope in petitions except from a reformedParliament, and he, therefore, was opposed to such motionsaltogether, especially as put by Mr. Plunkett, and theother advocates of a Veto. Another session was lost inthis controversy, and when Parliament rose, it wasannounced that George IV. Was coming to Ireland "on amission of Conciliation. "

On this announcement, Mr. O'Connell advised that theCatholics should take advantage of his Majesty's presenceto assemble and consider the state of their affairs; buta protest against "connecting in any manner the King'svisit with Catholic affairs, " was circulated by LordsFingal, Netterville, Gormanstown, and Killeen, Messrs. Baggott, Shiel, Wyse, and other Commoners. O'Connellyielded, as he often did, for the sake of unanimity. TheKing's visit led to many meetings and arrangements, insome of which his advice was taken, while in others hewas outvoted or overruled. Nothing could exceed thepatience he exhibited at this period of his life, whenhis natural impetuous temperament was still far frombeing subdued by the frosts of age. 

Many liberal Protestants at this period--the King's briefvisit--were so moved with admiration of the judiciousand proper conduct of the Catholic leaders, that a newbut short-lived organization, called "the ConciliationCommittee, " was formed. The ultra Orange zealots, however, were not to be restrained even by the presence of theSovereign for whom they professed so much devotion. Inthe midst of the preparations for his landing, theycelebrated, with all its offensive accompaniments, the12th of July, and at the Dublin dinner to the King--thoughafter he had left the room--they gave their charter toastof "the glorious, pious, and immortal memory. " TheCommittee of Conciliation soon dwindled away, and, likethe 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, asLord-Lieutenant, and at its close, for the assaultcommitted on him in the theatre by the Dublin Orangemen. Though the Marquis had declined to interfere in preventingthe annual Orange celebration, he was well known to befriendly to the Catholics; their advocate, Mr. Plunkett, was his Attorney General; and many of their leaders werecordially welcomed at the Castle. These proofs weresufficient for the secret tribunals which sat upon hisconduct, and when his Lordship presented himself, on thenight of the 14th of December, at the theatre, he wasassailed by an organized mob, one of whom flung a heavypiece of wood, and another a quart bottle, towards thestate box. Three Orangemen, mechanics, were arrestedand tried for the offence, but acquitted on a technicaldefect of evidence; a general feeling of indignation wasexcited among all classes in consequence, and it isquestionable if Orangeism, in Dublin, ever recovered thedisgust occasioned by that dastardly outrage. 

The great and fortunate event, however, for the Catholics, was the foundation of their new Association, which wasfinally resolved upon at an Aggregate Meeting held in"Townsend Street Chapel, " on the 10th of May, 1823. Thismeeting had been called by an imposing requisition signedwith singular unanimity by all the principal Catholicgentlemen. Lord Killeen presided. Mr. O'Connell movedthe formation of the Association; Sir Thomas Esmondeseconded the motion; Mr. Shiel--lately and sincerelyreconciled to O'Connell--sustained it. The plan was simpleand popular. The Association was to consist of memberspaying a guinea a year, and associates paying a shilling;a standing committee was to form the government; theregular meetings were to be weekly--every Saturday; andthe business to consist of organization, correspondence, public discussions, and petitions. It was, in effect, tobe a sort of extern and unauthorized Parliament, actingalways within the Constitution, with a view to themodification of the existing laws, by means not prohibitedin those laws themselves. It was a design, subtle inconception, but simple in form; a natural design for alawyer-liberator to form; and for a people stronglyprepossessed in his favour to adopt; but one, at the sametime, which would require a rare combination ofcircumstances to sustain for any great length of time, under a leader less expert, inventive, and resolute. 

The Parliamentary position of the Catholic question, atthe moment of the formation of the Association, hadundergone another strange alteration. Lord Castlereagh, having attained the highest honours of the empire, diedby his own hand the previous year. Lord Liverpool remainedPremier, Lord Eldon Chancellor, Mr. Canning became ForeignSecretary, with Mr. Peel, Home Secretary, the Duke ofWellington continuing Master-General of the Ordnance. Tothis cabinet, so largely anti-Catholic, the chosen organof the Irish Catholics, Mr. Plunkett, was necessarilyassociated as Irish Attorney General. His situation, therefore, was in the session of 1823 one of greatdifficulty; this Sir Francis Burdett and the radicalreformers at once perceived, and in the debates whichfollowed, pressed him unmercifully. They quoted againsthim his own language denouncing cabinet compromises onso 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, whenhe sat down, broke into an uproar of confusion. Partyspirit ran exceedingly high; the possibility of advancingthe question during the session was doubtful, and a motionto adjourn prevailed. A fortnight later, at the firstmeeting of the Catholic Association, a very cordial voteof thanks to Plunkett was carried by acclamation. 

The new Catholic organization was labouring hard to meritpopular favour. Within the year of its organization wefind the Saturday meetings engaged with such questionsas church rates; secret societies; correspondence withmembers of both Houses; voting public thanks to Mr. Brougham; the penal laws relating to the rights ofsepulture; the purchase of a Catholic cemetery nearDublin; the commutation of tithes; the admission ofCatholic freemen into corporations; the extension of theAssociation into every county in Ireland, and other moreincidental subjects. The business-like air of the weeklymeetings, at this early period, is remarkable: they werecertainly anything but mere occasions for rhetoricaldisplay. But though little could be objected against, and so much might be said in favour of the labours ofthe Association, it was not till nearly twelve monthsafter its organization, when O'Connell proposed andcarried his system of monthly penny subscriptions to the"Catholic Rent, " that it took a firm and far-reachinghold on the common people, and began to excite the seriousapprehensions of the oligarchical factions in Irelandand England. 

This bold, and at this time much ridiculed step, infusednew life and a system hitherto unknown into the Catholicpopulation. The parish collectors, corresponding directlywith Dublin, established a local agency, co-extensivewith the kingdom; the smallest contributor felt himselfpersonally embarked in the contest; and the movementbecame, in consequence, what it had not been before, aneminently popular one. During the next six months thereceipts from penny subscriptions exceeded 100 poundssterling per month, representing 24, 000 subscribers;during the next year they averaged above 500 pounds aweek, representing nearly half a million enrolledAssociates!

With the additional means at the disposal of the FinanceCommittee of the Association, its power rose rapidly. Amorning and an evening journal were at its command inDublin; many thousands of pounds were expended in defendingthe people in the courts, and prosecuting their Orangeand other enemies. Annual subsidies, of 5, 000 poundseach, were voted for the Catholic Poor schools, and theeducation of missionary priests for America; the expensesof Parliamentary and electioneering agents were alsoheavy. But for all these purposes "the Catholic Rent, "of a penny per month from each associate, was foundamply sufficient. 

At the close of 1824, the government, really alarmed atthe formidable proportions assumed by the agitation, caused criminal informations to be filed against Mr. O'Connell, for an alleged seditious allusion to theexample of Bolivar, the liberator of South America; butthe Dublin grand jury ignored the bills of indictmentfounded on these informations. Early in the followingsession, however, a bill to suppress "Unlawful Associationsin Ireland, " was introduced by Mr. Goulburn, who hadsucceeded Sir Robert Peel as Chief Secretary, and wassupported by Plunkett--a confirmed enemy of all extra-legalcombinations. It was aimed directly at the CatholicAssociation, and passed both Houses; but O'Connell foundmeans "to drive, " as he said, "a coach and six throughit. " The existing Association dissolved on the passageof the act; another, called "the _New_ CatholicAssociation, " was formed for "charitable and otherpurposes, " and the agitators proceeded with theirorganization, with one word added to then--title, andimmensely additional _eclat_ and success. 

In Parliament, the measure thus defeated was followed byanother, the long-promised Relief Bill. It passed in theCommons in May, accompanied by two clauses, or as theywere called, "wings, " most unsatisfactory to the Catholicbody. One clause disfranchised the whole class of electorsknown as the "forty-shilling freeholders;" the otherprovided a scale of state maintenance for the Catholicclergy. A bishop was to have 1, 000 pounds per annum; adean 300 pounds; a parish priest 200 pounds; a curate 60pounds. This measure was thrown out by the House of Lords, greatly to the satisfaction, at least, of the IrishCatholics. It was during this debate in the Upper Housethat the Duke of York, presumptive heir to the throne, made what was called his "ether speech"--from his habitof dosing himself with that stimulant on trying occasions. In this speech he declared, that so "help him God, " hewould never, never consent to acknowledge the claims putforward by the Catholics. Before two years were over, death had removed him to the presence of that Awful Beingwhose name he had so rashly invoked, and his brother, the Duke of Clarence, assumed his position, as next insuccession to the throne. 

The Catholic delegates, Lord Killeen, Sir Thomas Esmonde, Lawless, and Shiel, were in London at the time the Dukeof York made his memorable declaration. If, on the onehand, they were regarded with dislike amounting to hatred, on the other, they were welcomed with cordiality by allthe leaders of the liberal party. The venerable EarlFitzwilliam emerged from his retirement to do them honour;the gifted and energetic Brougham entertained them withall hospitality; at Norfolk House they were banqueted inthe room in which George III. Was born: themillionaire-demagogue Burdett, the courtly, liberal LordGrey, and the flower of the Catholic nobility, wereinvited to meet them. The delegates were naturally cheeredand gratified; they felt, they must have felt, that theircause had a grasp upon Imperial attention, which nothingbut concession could ever loosen. 

Committees of both Houses, to inquire into the state ofIreland, 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 evidenceof the latter--the eminent Prelate of Kildare andLeighlin--attracted most attention. His readiness ofresource, clearness of statement, and wide range ofinformation, inspired many of his questioners with afeeling of respect, such as they had never beforeentertained for any of his order. His writings had alreadymade him honourably distinguished among literary men;his examination before the Committees made him equallyso among statesmen. From that period he could reckon theMarquises of Anglesea and Wellesley, Lord Lansdowne andMr. 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 groundin Ireland by his London journey. He had, unquestionably, given his assent to both "wings, " in 1825, as he did tothe remaining one in 1828, and thereby greatly injuredhis own popularity. His frank and full recantation ofhis error, on his return, soon restored him to the favourof the multitude, and enabled him to employ, with thebest effect, the enormous influence which he showed hepossessed at the general elections of 1826. By him mainlythe Beresfords were beaten in Waterford, the Fosters inLouth, and the Leslies in Monaghan. The independence ofLimerick city, of Tipperary, Cork, Kilkenny, Longford, and other important constituencies, was secured. Theparish machinery of the Association was found invaluablefor the purpose of bringing up the electors, and thepeople's treasury was fortunately able to protect to someextent 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 wasvery great. When, early in the following spring, LordLiverpool, after fifteen years' possession of power, diedunexpectedly, George IV. Sent for Canning and gave him_carte blanche_ to form a cabinet without excepting thequestion of Emancipation. That high spirited and reallyliberal statesman associated with himself a ministry, three-fourths of whom were in favour of granting theCatholic claims. This was in the month of April; but tothe consternation of those whose hopes were now so justlyraised, the gifted Premier held office only four months;his lamented death causing another "crisis, " and one morepostponement of "the Catholic question. "

CHAPTER VIII. 

O'CONNELL'S LEADERSHIP--THE CLARE ELECTION--EMANCIPATIONOF THE CATHOLICS. 

A very little reflection will enable us to judge, evenat this day, the magnitude of the contest in whichO'Connell was the great popular leader, during the reignof George IV. In Great Britain, a very considerablesection of the ancient peerage and gentry, with the EarlMarshal at their head, were to be restored to politicalexistence, by the act of Emancipation; a missionary, andbarely tolerated clergy were to be clothed, in their owncountry, with the commonest rights of British subjects--protection to life and property. In Ireland, seven-eighthsof the people, one-third of the gentry, the whole of theCatholic clergy, the numerous and distinguished array ofthe Catholic bar, and all the Catholic townsmen, taxedbut unrepresented in the corporate bodies, were to enteron a new civil and social condition, on the passage ofthe act. In the colonies, except Canada, where that churchwas protected by treaty, the change of Imperial policytowards Catholics was to be felt in every relation oflife, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, by all personsprofessing that religion. Some years ago, a bishop ofSouthern Africa declared, that, until O'Connell's time, itwas impossible for Catholics to obtain any considerationfrom the officials at the Cape of Good Hope. Could therebe a more striking illustration of the magnitude of themovement, which, rising in the latitude of Ireland, flungits outermost wave of influence on the shores of theIndian ocean?

The adverse hosts to be encountered in this great contest, included a large majority of the rank and wealth of bothkingdoms. The King, who had been a Whig in his youth, had grown into a Tory in his old age; the House of Lordswere strongly hostile to the measure, as were also theuniversities, both in England and Ireland; the Tory party, in and out of Parliament; the Orange organization inIreland; the civil and military authorities generally, with the great bulk of the rural magistracy and themunicipal authorities. The power to overcome this powershould be indeed formidable, well organized and wiselydirected. 

The Lord Lieutenant selected by Mr. Canning, was theMarquis of Anglesea, a frank soldier, as little accustomedto play the politician as any man of his order anddistinction could be. He came to Ireland, in many respectsthe very opposite of Lord Wellesley; no orator certainly, and so far as he had spoken formerly, an enemy ratherthan a friend to the Catholics. But he had not beenthree months in office when he began to modify his views;he was the first to prohibit, in Dublin, the annual Orangeoutrage on the 12th of July, and by subsequent, thoughslow degrees, he became fully convinced that the Catholicclaims could be settled only by Concession. Lord FrancisLeveson Gower, afterwards Earl of Ellesmere, accompaniedthe Marquis as Chief Secretary. 

The accession to office of a prime minister friendly tothe Catholics, was the signal for a new attempt to raisethat "No-Popery" cry which had already given twenty yearsof political supremacy to Mr. Perceval and Lord Liverpool. In Ireland, this feeling appeared under the guise of whatwas called "the New Reformation, " which, during the summerof 1827, raged with all the proverbial violence of the_odium theologicum_ from Cork to Derry. Priests andparsons, laymen and lawyers, took part in this generalpolitico-religious controversy, in which every possiblesubject of difference between Catholic and Protestantwas publicly discussed. Archbishop Magee of Dublin, theRev. Sir Harcourt Lees, son of a former English placemanat the Castle, and the Rev. Mr. Pope, were the clericalleaders in this crusade; Exeter-Hall sent over to assistthem the Honourable and Reverend Baptist Noel, Mr. Wolff, and Captain Gordon, a descendant of the hero of the Londonriot of 1798. At Derry, Dublin, Carlow, and Cork, thechallenged agreed to defend their doctrines. FatherMaginn, Maguire, Maher, McSweeney, and some others acceptedthese challenges; Messrs. O'Connell, Shiel, and otherlaymen, assisted, and the oral discussion of theologicaland historical questions became as common as town talkin every Irish community. Whether, in any case, thesedebates conduced to conversion is doubtful; but theycertainly supplied the Catholic laity with a body offacts and arguments very necessary at that time, andwhich hardly any other occasion could have presented. The Right Rev. Dr. Doyle, however, considered them farfrom beneficial to the cause of true religion; and thoughhe tolerated a first discussion in his diocese, hepositively forbade a second. The Archbishop of Armaghand other prelates issued their mandates to the clergyto refrain from these oral disputes, and the practicefell into disuse. 

The notoriety of "the Second Reformation" was chieflydue to the ostentatious patronage of it by the lay chiefsof the Irish oligarchy. Mr. Synge, in Clare, Lord Lorton, and Mr. McClintock at Dundalk, were indefatigable intheir evangelizing exertions. The Earl of Roden--to showhis entire dependence on the translated Bible--threw allhis other books into a fish pond on his estate. LordFarnham was even more conspicuous in the revival; hespared neither patronage nor writs of ejectment to converthis tenantry. The reports of conversions upon his lordship'sestates, and throughout his county, attracted so muchnotice, 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 hadbeen much exaggeration on the part of the reformers, thatsome hundreds of the peasantry had, by various powerfultemptations, been led to change their former religion. The bishops received back some of the converts, and ajubilee established among them completed their reconversion. The Hon. Mr. Noel and Captain Gordon posted to Cavan, with a challenge to discussion for their lordships; ofcourse, their challenge was not accepted. Thomas Moore'sinimitable satire was the most effective weapon againstsuch fanatics. 

The energetic literature of the Catholic agitationattracted much more attention than its oral polemics. Joined to a bright army of Catholic writers, includingDr. Doyle, Thomas Moore, Thomas Furlong, and CharlesButler, there was the powerful phalanx of the _EdinburghReview_ led by Jeffrey and Sidney Smith, and the Englishliberal press, headed by William Cobbett. Thomas Campbell, the Poet of Hope, always and everywhere the friend offreedom, threw open his _New Monthly_, to Shiel, andWilliam Henry Curran, whose sketches of the Irish Barand Bench, of Dublin politics, and the county electionsof 1826, will live as long as any periodical papers ofthe day. The indefatigable Shiel, writing French asfluently as English, contributed besides to the _Gazettede France_ a series of papers, which were read with greatinterest on the Continent. These articles were theprecursors of many others, which made the Catholic questionat length an European question. An incident quiteunimportant in itself, gave additional zest to theseFrench articles. The Duke de Montebello, with two of hisfriends, Messrs. Duvergier and Thayer, visited Irelandin 1826. Duvergier wrote a series of very interestingletters on the "State of Ireland, " which, at the time, went through several editions. At a Catholic meeting atBallinasloe, the Duke had some compliments paid him, which he gracefully acknowledged, expressing his wishesfor the success of their cause. This simple act exciteda great deal of criticism in England. The Paris presswas roused in consequence, and the French Catholics, becoming more and more interested, voted an address andsubscription to the Catholic Association. The BavarianCatholics followed their example, and similar communicationswere received from Spain and Italy. 

But the movement abroad did not end in Europe. An addressfrom British India contained a contribution of threethousand 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 asDublin. In 1826 and 1827, associations of "Friends ofIreland" were formed at New York, Boston, Washington, Norfolk, Charleston, Augusta, Louisville, and Bardstown. Addresses in English and French were prepared for thesesocieties, chiefly by Dr. McNevin, at New York, andBishop England, at Charleston. The American, like theFrench press, became interested in the subject, andeloquent allusions were made to it in Congress. On the20th 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 prevailsover the broad bosom of our extensive continent. Associations similar to ours are everywhere starting intoexistence--in our largest and wealthiest cities--in ourhamlets and our villages--in our most remote sections;and at this moment, the propriety of convening, atWashington, delegates of the friends of Ireland, of allthe states, is under serious deliberation. A fund willerelong be derived from American patriotism in the UnitedStates, which will astonish your haughtiest opponents. "

The Parliamentary fortunes of the great question were atthe same time brightening. The elections of 1826, had, upon the whole, given a large increase of strength toits advocates. In England and Scotland, under the influenceof the "No-Popery" cry, they had lost some ground, butin Ireland they had had an immense triumph. The death ofthe generous-hearted Canning, hastened as it was byanti-Catholic intrigues, gave a momentary check to theprogress of liberal ideas; but they were retarded onlyto acquire a fresh impulse destined to bear them, in thenext few years, farther than they had before advanced inan entire century. 

The _ad interim_ administration of Lord Goderich gaveway, by its own internal discords, in January, 1828, tothe Wellington and Peel administration. The Duke wasPremier, the Baronet leader of the House of Commons; withMr. Huskisson, Lord Palmerston, in the cabinet; LordAnglesea remained as Lord Lieutenant. But this coalitionwith the friends of Canning was not destined to outlivethe session of 1828; the lieutenants of the late Premierwere doomed, for some time longer, to suffer for theirdevotion to his principles. 

This session of 1828, is--in the history of religiousliberty--the most important and interesting in the annalsof the British Parliament. Almost at its opening, theextraordinary spectacle was exhibited of a petition signedby 800, 000 Irish Catholics, praying for the repeal of"the Corporation and Test Acts, " enacted on the restorationof Charles II. , against the non-Conformists. Monsterpetitions, both for and against the repeal of these acts, as well as for and against Catholic emancipation, soonbecame of common occurrence. Protestants of all sectspetitioned for, but still more petitioned against equalrights for Catholics; while Catholics petitioned for therights of Protestant dissenters. It is a spectacle tolook back upon with admiration and instruction; exhibitingas it does, so much of a truly tolerant spirit in Christiansof 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 seatin the Cabinet--Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, member for Clare--issued his address to his electors, asking a renewal oftheir confidence. Out of this event grew another, whichfinally and successfully brought to an issue the century-oldCatholic question. 

The Catholic Association, on the accession of theWellington-Peel Cabinet, had publicly pledged itself tooppose every man who would accept office under thesestatesmen. The memory of both as ex-secretaries--butespecially Peel's--was odious in Ireland. When, however, the Duke had sustained, and ensured thereby the passageof the repeal of "the Corporation and Test Acts, " Mr. O'Connell, at the suggestion of Lord John Russell themover of the repeal, endeavoured to get his angry anduncompromising resolution against the Duke's governmentrescinded. Powerful as he was, however, the Associationrefused to go with him, and the resolution remained. Soit happened that when Mr. Fitzgerald presented himselfto the electors of Clare, as the colleague of Peel andWellington, the Association at once endeavoured to bringout an opposition candidate. They pitched with this viewon Major McNamara, a liberal Protestant of the county, at the head of one of its oldest families, and personallypopular; but this gentleman, after keeping them severaldays in suspense, till the time of nomination was closeat hand, positively declined to stand against his friend, Mr. Fitzgerald, to the great dismay of the associatedCatholics. 

In their emergency, an idea, so bold and original, thatit was at first received with general incredulity by theexternal public, was started. It was remembered by SirDavid De Roose, a personal friend of O'Connell's, thatthe late sagacious John Keogh had often declared theEmancipation question would never be brought to an issuetill some Catholic member elect stood at the bar of theHouse of Commons demanding his seat. A trusted few wereat first consulted on the daring proposition, thatO'Connell himself, in despite of the legal exclusion ofall men of his religion, should come forward for Clare. Many were the consultations, and diverse the judgmentsdelivered on this proposal, but at length, on the receptionof information from the county itself, which gave strongassurance of success, the hero of the adventure decidedfor himself. The bold course was again selected as thewise course, and the spirit-stirring address of "thearch-Agitator" to the electors, was at once issued fromDublin. "Your county, " he began by saying, "wants arepresentative. I respectfully solicit your suffrages, to raise me to that station. 

"Of my qualification to fill that station, I leave youto judge. The habits of public speaking, and many, manyyears of public business, render me, perhaps, equallysuited with most men to attend to the interests of Irelandin Parliament. 

"You will be told I am not qualified to be elected; theassertion, my friends, is untrue. I am qualified to beelected, and to be your representative. It is true thatas a Catholic I cannot, and of course never will, takethe oaths at present prescribed to members of Parliament;but the authority which created these oaths (theParliament), can abrogate them: and I entertain a confidenthope that, if you elect me, the most bigoted of ourenemies will see the necessity of removing from thechosen representative of the people an obstacle whichwould prevent him from doing his duty to his king andto his country. "

This address was followed instantly by the departure ofall the most effective agitators to the scene of thegreat contest. Shiel went down as conducting agent forthe candidate; Lawless left his Belfast newspaper, andFather Maguire his Leitrim flock; Messrs. Steele andO'Gorman Mahon, both proprietors in the county, werealready in the field, and O'Connell himself soon followed. On the other hand, the leading county families, theO'Briens, McNamaras, Vandeleurs, Fitzgeralds and others, declared for their old favourite, Mr. Fitzgerald. He waspersonally much liked in the county; the son of a venerableanti-Unionist, the well-remembered Prime Sergeant, anda man besides of superior abilities. The county itselfwas no easy one to contest; its immense constituency (the40-shilling freeholders had not yet been abolished), werescattered over a mountain and valley region, more thanfifty miles long by above thirty wide. They were almosteverywhere to be addressed in both languages--Englishand Irish--and when the canvass was over, they were stillto be brought under the very eyes of the landlords, uponthe breath of whose lips their subsistence depended, tovote the overthrow and conquest of those absolute masters. The little county town of Ennis, situated on the riverFergus, about 110 miles south-west of Dublin, was thecentre of attraction or of apprehension, and the hillsthat rise on either side of the little prosaic river soonswarmed with an unwonted population, who had resolved, subsist how they might, to see the election out. It ishardly an exaggeration to say that the eyes of the empirewere turned, during those days of June, on the ancientpatrimony of King Brian. "I fear the Clare election willend ill, " wrote the Viceroy to the leader of the Houseof Commons. "This business, " wrote the Lord Chancellor(Eldon), "must bring the Roman Catholic question to acrisis and a conclusion. " "May the God of truth andjustice protect and prosper you, " was the public invocationfor O'Connell's success, by the bishop of Kildare andLeighlin. "It was foreseen, " said Sir Robert Peel, longafterwards, "that the Clare election would be the turningpoint of the Catholic question. " In all its aspects, andto all sorts of men, this, then, was no ordinary election, but a national event of the utmost religious and politicalconsequence. Thirty thousand people welcomed O'Connellinto Ennis, and universal sobriety and order characterizedthe proceedings. The troops called out to overawe thepeasantry, infected by the prevailing good humour, joinedin their cheers. The nomination, the polling, and thedeclaration, have been described by the graphic pen ofShiel. At the close of the poll the numbers were--O'Connell, 2, 057; Fitzgerald, 1, 075; so Daniel O'Connell was declaredduly elected, amidst the most extraordinary manifestationsof popular enthusiasm. Mr. Fitzgerald, who gracefullybowed to the popular verdict, sat down, and wrote hisfamous despatch to Sir Robert Peel: "All the greatinterests, " he said, "my dear Peel, broke down, and thedesertion has been universal. Such a scene as we havehad! Such a tremendous prospect as is open before us!"

This "tremendous prospect, " disclosed at the hustings ofEnnis, was followed up by demonstrations which bore astrongly revolutionary character. Mr. O'Connell, on hisreturn 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 escortedthrough Meath and Monaghan by a multitude estimated at100, 000 men, whom only the most powerful persuasions ofthe Catholic clergy, and the appeals of the well-knownliberal commander of the district, General Thornton, induced to disperse. Troops from England were orderedover in considerable numbers, but whole companies, composedof Irish Catholics, signalized their landing at Waterfordand Dublin by cheers for O'Connell. Reports of thecontinued hostility of the government suggested desperatecouncils. Mr. Ford, a Catholic solicitor, openly proposed, in the Association, exclusive dealing and a run on thebanks for specie, while Mr. John Claudius Beresford, andother leading Orangemen, publicly predicted a revival ofthe scenes and results of 1798. 

The Clare election was, indeed, decisive; Lord Anglesea, who landed fully resolved to make no terms with those hehad regarded from a distance as no better than rebels, became now one of their warmest partisans. His favouritecounsellor was Lord Cloncurry, the early friend of Emmetand O'Conor; the true friend to the last of every nationalinterest. For a public letter to Bishop Curtis, towardsthe close of 1828, in which he advises the Catholics tostand firm, he was immediately recalled from the government;but his former and his actual chief, within three monthsfrom the date of his recall, was equally obliged tosurrender to the Association. The great duke was, oraffected to be, really alarmed for the integrity of theempire, from the menacing aspect of events in Ireland. A call of Parliament was accordingly made for an earlyday, and, on the 5th of March, Mr. Peel moved a committeeof the whole House, to go into a "consideration of thecivil disabilities of his Majesty's Roman Catholicsubjects. " This motion, after two days' debate, wascarried by a majority of 188. On the 10th of March theRelief Bill was read for the first time, and passedwithout opposition, such being the arrangement enteredinto while in committee. But in five days all the bigotryof the land had been aroused; nine hundred and fifty-sevenpetitions had already been presented against it; thatfrom the city of London was signed by more than "anhundred thousand freeholders. " On the 17th of March itpassed to a second reading, and on the 30th to a third, with large majorities in each stage of debate. Out of320 members who voted on the final reading, 178 were inits favour. On the 31st of March it was carried to theLords by Mr. Peel, and read a first time; two days later, on the 2nd of April, it was read a second time, on motionof the Duke of Wellington; a bitterly contested debateof three days followed; on the 10th, it was read a thirdtime, and passed by a majority of 104. Three days laterthe bill received the royal assent, and became law. 

The only drawbacks on this--great measure of long-withheldjustice, were, that it disfranchised the "forty-shillingfreeholders" 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 waslittle difficulty for him, but much petty spleen in theframers of the measure. 

While the Relief Bill was still under discussion, Mr. O'Connell presented himself, with his counsel, at thebar of the House of Commons, to claim his seat as memberfor Clare. The pleadings in the case were adjourned fromday to day, during the months of March, April, and May. A committee of the House, of which Lord John Russell wasChairman, having been appointed in the meantime to considerthe petition of Thomas Mahon and others, against thevalidity of the election, reported that Mr. O'Connellhad been duly elected. On the 15th of May, introduced byLords Ebrington and Duncannon, the new member enteredthe House, and advanced to the table to be sworn by theClerk. On the oath of abjuration being tendered to him, he read over audibly these words--"that the sacrifice ofthe 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 ofthe 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 notbelieve 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 enteredinto a very animated discussion on the Solicitor General'smotion "that Mr. O'Connell, having been returned a memberof this House before the passing of the Act for the Reliefof the Roman Catholics, he is not entitled to sit or votein this House unless he first takes the oath of supremacy. "For this motion the vote on a division was 190 against116: majority, 74. So Mr. O'Connell had again to seekthe suffrages of the electors of Clare. 

A strange, but well authenticated incident, struck witha somewhat superstitious awe both Protestants and Catholics, in a corner of Ireland the most remote from Clare, butnot the least interested in the result of its memorableelection. A lofty column on the walls of Deny bore theeffigy of Bishop Walker, who fell at the Boyne, armedwith a sword, typical of his martial inclinations, ratherthan of his religious calling. Many long years, by dayand night, had his sword, sacred to liberty or ascendancy, according to the eyes with which the spectator regardedit, turned its steadfast point to the broad estuary ofLough Foyle. Neither wintry storms nor summer rains hadloosened it in the grasp of the warlike churchman'seffigy, until, on the 13th day of April, 1829--the daythe royal signature was given to the Act of Emancipation--the sword of Walker fell with a prophetic crash uponthe ramparts of Derry, and was shattered to pieces. So, we may now say, without bitterness and almost withoutreproach, so may fall and shiver to pieces, every code, in every land beneath the sun, which impiously attemptsto shackle conscience, or endows an exclusive caste withthe rights and franchises which belong to an entire People!

End of Volume 2 of 2.