• -' r f^?: MORRISON DAVIDSON. THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY From the collection of James Collins, Drumcondra, Ireland. Purchased, 1918. 941.5 D26b Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. University of Illinois Library m ■-' % m HARa^igef t mi: L161 — t)-10'v6 THE IIBMRr OF THE wnmm of illimis •' When it is evening, ye say, it will be lair weather ; for the sky is re d And in the morning, it will be foul weather to-day ; tor the sky is red and lowring O ye hypocrite?, ye can discern the face of the sky ; but can ye not discei a tba signs of the times ? " Maithdv, xvi., 2, 5. THE BOOK OF ERIN OR IRELAND'S STORY TOLD TO THE NEW DEMOCRACY. BY J. MORRISON DAVIDSON OF THE MIDDLE TLMi';^Ki BA R R I STER-AT-L A \n , Author of ''Eminent Radu'a'.sr "Th? Sen Book cf Kvigs,' "The B90h of Lords. ' v.^-"."., 6-r. " In the Twentieth Century War will be dead ; Ro}al:N \>\\\ be dead; Dogmas will be dead ; but Ma:i will live. For all there will be but one Country— that Cuu ntr\ the whole Earth , for all there will be but one Hope— the who:-.- Heaven. All liail then to the noble Twentieth Ontury which shall own our ci il .rer. ar: j which our children shall inherit V.::.'7 li-^; WILLIAM REEVES, 185, Fleet Street. E.C« mmmm " When it is evening, ve ^av, it will be lai; weatlicr , lor the sky ir- ic d An J in the morning, it will be 'or.l'weather to-dav , tor the sky is red and lownng O ye hypocrit.es, ye can discern the face ot the sky ; but can ye not di^ct: a ii:3 signs of the'times? " Mat:l:f:i', xvi., 2, 5. THE BOOK OF ERIN OR IREUHD'S STORY TOLD TO THE HEW DEMOCRACY, BY J. MORRISON DAVIDSON, OF THK MIDDLF. ThMiLtj B A R R I ST E R-A T -LA \\ , Author of "Eminent R^idu-^s:' ■■'I'ii' A'r;: Book cf Kin^s, "The b9oh of Lcrd^. ' J-'."., Oi". " In the Twentieth Century War wii: be dead ; rvo>a:;> ■.>il! be dead; Dogmas will be dead ; but ^La- \\A\ hve. b.-r ad ir.-r- will be but one Country — that Cuu ntr\ the whole Larth . for ad there will be but one'Hope— the \\ i.od/ lieaver. Adi ;.:.d th:-:i to the noble Twentieth 'deatars wd.c!^. -had o\sa our C: ;'. nr. a- j which our children shad inherit y-'- ' ^•". WILLIAM REEVES, 1S5, Fleet Street. E.G. f AUTHOR'S NOTE. In the preparation of this volume two literary friends, Mr. George Stirling Hume (of the Middle Temple and Melbourne, Australia) and Mr. James S. Rose (North British Daily Mail, Glasgow), have rendered very valuable aaeistance — assistance for which I take this opportunity of expressing my sincere gratitude. J. M. D. N.B. — For Contents, Authorities, &c., see end of book. CONTENTS. INTROD UCTORY. CHAPTER I. PrimitiYe Ireland. Situation, Size and Configuration — Race — Ancient Irish Consti- tution and Customs — The Brehons — Money — Saer Stock and Daer Stock — Habits of the Pagan Irish. CHAPTER II. St. Patrick and Early Irish Christianity. Christ and Odin — The Vikings and the Field of Contarf — Brian of the Tributes. CHAPTER III. The Bull Laudabiliter and the Anglo-Norman Invasion. Effects of Contarf— The Norsemen — The Bull Laudabiliter— The Pretext for Invasion —Tanistry and Gavelkind — No Estate of Inheritance — Partitions of Tribal Land — Effects of Frequent Partition — Position of Daughters and of Bastard Sons — Strong-bow and the Normans — Henry II. in Ireland, CHAPTER IV. Plantagenet Rule in Ireland. Synod of Cashel — Treaty of Windsor — Deaths of Derniod, Strongbow, and Henry II. — King John in Ireland — Subsidies Levied on the Pale — I^nnockburn and its Effects on Ireland — The- Hiberno-Scottish Alliance — Effects of the Scottish Expedition. CHAPTER V. Mediaeval Ireland. State of Irelaad at the Accession of Henry VII. — Art MacMur- rough — Parties Within the Pale — Absenteeism — Subdivision of Clans — Early Irish Parliaments — Penal Laws of Race, — their Results. CHAPTER VI. ^' Poynings' Law," and the " Defender of the Faith." The First Tudor's Policy — Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck — Attainder of Kildare — The Defender of the Faith's Adminstra- tion — Capture of Maynooth Castle. CHAPTER VII. The Protestant Devastation. Archbishop Cranmer — Sharing' the Spoils — Effect of the Dissolu- tion of the Monasteries. CHAPTER VIII. The First English King of Ireland. Civil Policy and Government of Henry VIII. — The Cost of the Pale to England — St. Leger's Parliament of 1541— Indentures of O'Xeil and O'Donnell — Irish Revenues — Statute of Absentees. * * CHAPTER IX. Reformation, Counter Reformation, and Plantation. Reign of Edward VI. — The Reign of Queen Mary — Reign of Queen Elizabeth — Shane O'Xcil— Queen Eli;iabeth and the Pope — Sir James Fitzmaurice. CHART 1:]^ X. Massacres and Plantations by the " Virgin Queen " and the '* British Solomon." The Desmond Rebellion — Battle of Glenmalure — English Atrocities — Sharing the Spoil — Tyrone's Rebellion and the Plan- tation of Ulster — Battle of Beal-an-athy-buy — The Essex Campaign — More English Atrocities. CHAPTER XL Rule of " Thorough." Plantation of Ulster — Ulster Tenant Right — The Plantation of Leinster— Agrarian Outrages — James's Irish Parliament Summoned (1613) — Martyrdom — Catholic Education Prohibited — " Squeezing " Connaught — " The Graces" — " Black Tom." CHAPTER XIL The " Curse of (Protector) Cromwell." 'Forty-one (1641) — Erin in Exile — The Rising — Sir Phehm O'Nei — Ouen Roe O'Neil — Massacres and Marvels — The Cathohc Confederacy — Nuncio Rinucini — Battle of Benburb — Rounhead Jones — Rout at Rathmines— Oliver and his Ironsides — Carte's Account of the "Great Mercy" — Clarendon's Account. CHAPTER XIII. The Act of Settlement and the " Blessed Restoration." Sack of Wexford — Deputy Ireton — Effects of the War — Deporta- tion of Rebels — Religious Persecution — Protestant Atrocities — Division of the Plunder — The " Blessed Restoration " — The Bill of Settlement. CHAPTER XIV. The Jacobite Campaign in Ireland. Restraints on Irish Trade — The Titus Gates' Imposture — Perse- cution of the Presbyterians — Accession of James II. — The Irish ParHament of 1689 — The Campaigns of 1689 and 1690 — William of Orange in Ireland — Defence of Limerick — The Campaign of 1691 — The Treaty of Limerick. CHAPTER XV. The Penal Code. The Exiles — Confiscations — The Broken Treaty of Limerick — Priest- Hunting — War on Education — War on Marriage — War on Commerce — Swift's " Modest Proposal " — The Penal Laws — The Famine of 1740 — Whiteboys, Oakboys, Steelboys, Peep-o'-day Boys — The Squire of the Period — The Patriots — Wood's Halfpence. CHAPTER XVI. « Eighty-Two " and " Ninety-Eight." Corruption— Constitution of the Irish Pariiament— Henry Flood — Ireland and the American Revolution — Home Rule— The Con- vention of Dungannon— The Effects of the Convention of Dun- gannon— The Act of Renunciation — Parliamentary Reform— The- United Irishmen — The insurrection of '' Ninety-eight "—" Scotch Beasts "—The Spy System— The Risingof '98— Deathof Wolfe Tone. CHAPTER XVII. How they passed the Union and After. Lord Cornwallis's Viceroyalty— Pitt the Bottomless— Testimony of Sir Jonah Barrington— Corruption of the Irish Legislature — The Price of the Union — Purchased Votes— Corruption of the Irish Bar — Testimony of Lord Grey in the British House of Commons — Last Session of the Irish PaVliament— Grattan to the Rescue- Articles of Union— Grattan's Anti-Unionist Climax— Grattan's Duel with Corry— The Closing Scene— Financial Effects of the Union — Economic Effects of the Union. CHAPTER X.VIII. Rebellion and Emancipation. Robert Emmet's Insurrection— Maynooth— The Regium Donum —Emancipated but not Relieved— O'Connell and Emancipation— The Liberator and the "First Gentleman in Europe"— Disfranchise- ment of the Freeholders- The Poor Law— The Tithe Law— Muni- cipal Law — Father Matthew and the Temperance Crusade. CHAPTER XIX. Repeal, Famine, and " Forty-Eight." Repeal— The Famine— Fifty Years of National Progress— How they Died— Sa/ws Populi Suprema Lex — The Encumbered Estates Act— The Tenant League — The Famine of 1877-79 — The Land League— Young Ireland— James Fintan Lalor— Iransporta- tion of Mitchel— The " Irish Brigade " alias the " Pope's Brass Hand "— Fenianism— " The Manchester Martyrs "—The Clerken- well Outrage — God save Ireland ! CHAPTER XX. Uprooting the Upas Tree. Church Disestabhshment— Education— Origin oi Home Rule— " The Best of the Cut-throats "— " The Three F's "—Solution of the Land Problem— Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule and Land Purchase Bills— Solution of the Usury Problem— Solution of the Home Rule Problem. TO t*THE MASSES'* OF ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND AND WALES, FOUR NATIONS-ONE PEOPLE, FREELY FEDERATED— NOT FORCIBLY INCORPORATED, "THE BOOK OF ERIN" IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. •* Mother Earth ! Are the heroes dead ? Do they thrill the soul of the years no more? Are the gleaming snows and the poppies red All that is left of the brave of yore ? Are there none to fight as Theseus fought Far in the young world's misty dawn ? Or to teach as the grey-haired Nestor taught, Mother Earth ? Are the heroes gone ? Gone ? In a grander form they rise ; Dead ? We may clasp their hands in ours ; And catch the light of their clearer eyes, And wreathe their brows with immortal flowers. Whenever a noble deed is done, "Tis the pulse of a hero's heart is stirred ; Wherever right has a triumph won, There are the heroes' voices heard. Their armour rings on a fairer field Than the Greek and the Trojan fiercely trod For freedom's sword is the blade they wield ; And the light above is the smile of God. So in his isle of calm delight Jason may sleep the years away ; For the heroes live, and the sky is bright, And the world is a braver world to-day," THE BOOK OF ERIN. INTRODUCTORY. " If I were an Irishman I would be a rebel." — Sib John Moore. " I di%'ide you into four sections. The first is the ordinary mass, rush- ing from mere enthusiasm to battle. Behind that mass stands another, whose only idea in this controversy is Sovereignty and the flag. Next to it stands the third element, the People — the broad surface of the People, who have no time for technicalities, who never studied law, who never had time to read further into the Constitution than the first two lines, • Establish Justice and secure Liberty.' They have waited long enough ; and now they have got their hand on the neck of a rebellious aristocracy, and in the name of the People mean to strangle it. Side by side with them stands a fourth class — small, but active — the Abolitionists, who thank God that He has let them see His salvation before they die.'' — Wendell Phillips. These sentences define my feelings with regard to our ceaseless Irish troubles with great exactness. Sir John Moore, the stainless coldier, who fell at Corunna, was a Scotsman, who saw a great deal of service in Ireland — a service which filled his sensitive soul with shame and the bitterest indignation. About twelve years ago, before affairs assumed their present acute form, I had occasion to travel over a con- siderable portion of Ireland, and when I left the Green Isle the one overmastering sentiment in my heart was, If I were an Irishman I would he a rebel — a rebel at all hazards and at any cost. Since then the tragical course of events in Ireland, the spread of historical and economic knowledge in England and Scotland, and the parliamentary death-bed repentance of Mr. Gladstone, have quickened the conscience of the British people, and I am now inspired with the hope that war — the ultima ratio of peoples as of kings — may no longer be necessary. 4 THE BOOK OF ERIN. Yet much will depend on the conduct of " the Classes.* It is not their habit to yield aught to justice which they can retain by the unscrupulous exercise of power, and that they are still possessed of " the resources of civilization" in great abundance is undeniable. Theirs is the foul fetish of Royalty ; theirs is the House of Landlords; theirs is the Squirearchy; theirs is the Magis- tracy ; theirs is the State Church ; theirs are the Universities ; and theirs " the Services," civil, military and naval. Theirs, moreover, are the strong forces of superstition and ignorance in which large sections of "the masses" are still, unhappily, through no fault of their own, steeped to the lips. But if there is to be an appeal to blood and iron, the responsibility will not rest with "the masses." The blood will be on the heads of the privileged classes, led on to red ruin by such cold-blooded patrician Coriolanuses as Salisbury and Balfour. The " four sections" into which the illustrious American orator, Wendell Phillips, divided his countrymen at the out- break of the great Civil War are well represented among us Britons to-day. "The ordinary mass, rushing from mere enthusiasm to battle," is the thick and thin partisans of both sides, more particularly the men of the Liberal Caucuses, who are one day charmed with the Gladstonian " resources of civilization," and the next, at the word of command, stand horrified at the somewhat milder Salisburian attempt at "resolute government." This "section" like Hamlet's "groundlings," "are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise." The second "section," the "Sovereignity and flag" devotees, are persons like Mr. Bright and Mr. Chamberlain, whose minds are haunted by spectres of " conspiracy," " separation," and such like fantasies. True, there is a conspiracy in Ireland — a conspiracy of seven hundred years' standing — a diabolical conspiracy of alien landlords to torment, harry, and exterminate an interesting, industrious, brave, and gifted race ; but other conspiracy there is none. That conspiracy against humanity has got to be put down, and put down, if need be, with an iron hand. The real "conspirators" are the Brights and the Chamberlains, who INTRODUCTION. 5 shamelessly desert the cause of the oppressed in the hour of their direst necessity, and give aid and comfort to their relentless, hereditary foes. As for '* separation," such an event is an utter chimera and bogey. Irishmen are anything but fools, and they would obviously lose ten times more by dismemberment of the mighty commonwealth — which they have so largely helped, in camp and senate, to build up — than would England and Scotland. The third "section" — the People — "the Masses" who " have apologized for bankrupt statesmen, ' Liberal and Conservative, far too loitg, their day of authority and power has at last dawned. The Giant of Democracy is slowly awaking from the stupor of long centuries. As yet he is merely rubbing his eyes, and does but see men as trees walking. Presently, however, he will stand erect on his feet, and then woe betide "the rebellious aristocracy." The stern fiat will goforthtoallwhomit may concern, " Establish Justice and secure Liberty " in Ireland and elsewhere, should the heavens fall ! None of your technicalities ! None of your pretended statecraft ! Strike off the fetters from Ireland once and for all, and frame a federal constitution for these Islands on the lines of the American Union, but with improvements in favorem lihertatis. The fourth " section," the AboHtionists, the Root and Branch party, the Levellers, the Socialists, the John Browns, the Lloyd Garrisons, the Wendell Phillipses — call them what you will, to them belongs the future. In the Irish question this Sacred Band of Humanity discern a profounder meaning than all the others. "When j^ou see a people," said Lamennais, " loaded with irons and delivered to the executioner, be not hasty to say this people is an unruly people that would trouble the earth, for, peradventure, it is a martyred people which suffers for the salvation of humanity." Ireland, the Niobe of the Nations, has suffered and is suffering for the salvation of all mankind from two scourges, more terrible in their combined effects than slavery itself — land- lordism and usury. The landlord and the usurer (^mortgagee) between them silently ate out the very heari of the Roman world. Latifundia (great estates), and cent, per cent, were D THE BOOK OF ERIN. the true Goths and Vandals that destroyed ancient Rome. For centuries they silently sapped and mined within her gates, and when their work culminated, her ruin was complete. And cognate barbarians are within the gates of every so- called civilized Power to-day, not excepting those of the Great Republic of the West, ceaselessly producing starvation, home- lessness, overcrowding, ignorance, dissipation, immorality, brutality, theft, and murder. It is the inevitable tendency of Rent and Usury to debase human nature itself by teaching and enabling one man to live in idle luxury on the toil and wretchedness of his fellow-man. The visible rack-renter, with his " crowbars," and the invisible mortgagee with his " bonds," have long had their most strongly entrenched camp in Ireland, and it is the unsurpassed merit of the Irish that they have, with invincible fortitude and rare skill, withstood the assaults of these two fell enemies of humanity, and exposed to the reflecting world the infamies of their operations. Already "fair rents" have been "fixed," and "fair interest" on bonds has been mooted, to be followed, doubt- less, by "fair profits," "fair wages," and fair everything. In point of fact, Ireland has fairly raised the greatest of all possible questions ; viz., whether the three vaunted pillars of modern society — Rent, Interest, and Profit — ought not rather to be regarded as inevitable engines of social destruction. For my own part, I have no doubt that they are, and Ireland has abimdantly proved them to be so in her own sad experience. Fair rent, fair interest, fair profits, fair wages — suppose them all decreed to-morrow by competent tribunals — would, after all, be mere legislative palliatives, at the best only approximations to justice. They tolerate the existence of instrumentsof robbery and oppression which ought to be hurled bodily into a Gehenna where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. There should be nought left of the cement or mechanism of modern society but "fair wages;" that is to say, the worker should receive the whole of that which he produces. " The produce of labour,'' said Adam Smith, " is th6 natural reward or wages of labour'' — the whole produce and not INTRODUCTION. 7 a mere fraction of it, rescued from the rapacious maws of Rent-monger, Interest-monger, and Profit-monger. This signifies the close of this epoch of brutal competition, and the commencement of that of fraternal co-operation. We must look to Irishmen to save humanity by showing the world how to establish the Co-operative Commonwealth, the true Civitas Dei of the future. It is a function worthy of a martyr people, and I believe, with an unshackled legislature of her own, Ireland will be found equal to the task. " My service," said Christ, " is perfect Freedom." Ireland imparted to Scotland and, in a great measure, to England and Northern and Central Europe, the elements of Christian civilisation. May she again have the high, nay, highest, honour of bestowing on us and the whole world that service of perfect freedom which, in my opinion, can have no probable, or, indeed, possible, existence outside of organistd Christian Socialism* 8 CHAPTER I. PRIMITIVE IRELAND. "The case of historical writers is hard, for if they will tell the truth they offend man; if they write what is false, they offend God."— Matthew Paris. " History is the torch of truth, the witness of the ages, and the oracle of life." — Cicero. " The politics are base The letters do not cheer, And 'tis far in the deeps of history The voice that speaketh clear." — Embr»on. Situation, Size, and Configuration.— Ireland lies to the west of Britain, in the North Atlantic. It is less than one half the larger adjacent island. It has been aptly compared to a heraldic shield, with the provinces of Ulster, Connaught, Leinster and Munster for quarterings. Its mountain ranges for the most part fringe the coast line, while the interior generally presents a flat, low-lying surface. According to the highest testimony, past and present, its natural fertiHty is very great. Lord Bacon declared that its '' dowries of nature " and its " race and generation of men '* are so superior, that it would be hard to find anywhere <* such confluence of commodities, if the hand of Man did join with the hand of Nature. '' An important State Paper of the reign of Henry VIII. sets forth " that if this lande were put once in order, it would be none other but a paradise, delicious of all pleasaunce, to respect of any other lande in this world." Speaking of Limerick and Tipperary, Arthur Young observes : — " It is the richest soil I ever saw." ** In PRIMITIVE IRELAND Q. elements of fertility, says Mr. McCombie, the renowned agriculturist, late M.P. for Aberdeenshire, ** only the richer parts of England, and very exceptional parts of Scotland, approach to it." Sir Robert Kane (*' Industrial Resources of Ireland ") held that, under proper cultivation, Ireland could maintain in comfort a population of 20,000,000; M. De Beaumont says 25,000,000, and Arthur Young ("Tour in Ireland") 100,000,000 ! How it comes to pass that this magnificent island can at present barely support 5,000,000 souls in a condition of semi-starvation, it is the object of this historical retrospect to show. Race. — We are often told by hasty and prejudiced generalizers that race is at the root of Irish woes. What is race? According to Holy Writ, "God hath made of one blood all the nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth." And for once science, ethnological and physiological, is in all but complete agreement with revelation. Pritchard, pursuing purely scientific methods of investigation, never doubted the entire unity of the human family, whether the first couple were man or monkey. Even Letourneau, in the introduction to his " Sociology," while diffidently suggesting a multiple origin of mankind, has to content himself with the obviously superficial classification, both anatomically and sociologically, of (i) black men ; {2) yellow men ; (3) white men. Well, Irishmen at all events, like Englishmen and Scots- men, are white men. Moreover, as Celts they are on all hands admitted to belong to an important branch of the Aryan race, to which that very " superior person," the noble " Anglo-Saxon," is so proud to belong. Truth to tell, the Englishman is somewhat of a purse-proud upstart, who, like upstarts in general, is apt to look down with contemptuous pity on his poor and less lucky relations. Mr. E. A. Freeman notwithstanding, it is certain the English people are at least one-third Celtic. It is not the habit of pirates, like the Saxons, to bring their wives and sweethearts with them. And that these freebooters, in large numbers, became united to Celtic or Romanized-Celtic wivea 10 THE BOOK OF ERIN. wherever they settled in Britain is proved by the fact that most of the names of domestic utensils and things in common use are not of Saxon but of Celtic origin. Ask Dr. Latham — ask Dr. Charles Mackay. Besides, there is every reason to believe that most of the Roman municipia and coloniae, by some means or other, contrived to weather the hurricane of war, and to conciHate or even absorb their barbarian conquerors. England, in point of fact, is not Anglo-Saxon, but Celto-Saxon. As for Scotland, which EngHshmen can scarcely venture, for many reasons, to scorn, its population is racially about as Celtic as that of Ireland. The Picts, who made up the great mass of the people at the departure of the Romans from North Britain, it is now agreed by all the most competent authorities, were neither more nor less than non- Romanized Cymric, or Welsh Celts, while the Scots (the modern Highlanders) were Gaehc or Irish Celts. These latter gave Christianity and Letters to their Pictish kinsmen, and though comparatively few in number, contrived, in consequence, to call Pictavia after their own name. Scotsmen are Anglo-Celtic, and Irishmen are much the sanie. There were Picts in Ireland (Cruithne) as there were in Scotland, though we hear less of them than of the Scots, As for the Scots or Gaels, whether in Ireland or Scotland, their late appearance on the historic scene is a well-nigh insoluble puzzle. The name was not known outside of Ireland till the third century, and Ptolemy, who in his geography gives a very tolerable account of Ireland and its various tribes, as matters stood at the beginning of the second century, evidently never heard of the Scoti, yet that was unquestionably the title by which the Irish were commonly known in the fourth century. Ireland was called Scotia, and the little colony of Dalriadic Scots in Argyleshire Scotia Minor. This is all the more surprising, as we know from Tacitus and other authorities that the ports of the country were frequently visited by merchants, and that the approaches to the coast were well known. Indeed, there is every reason to believe that though no foot of Roman invader ever sullied the Irish shore, Hibernia A^'as better known in very early days to the Mediterranean PRIMITIVE IRELAND. II traders than Britain. About 500 years before Christ, it is believed, took place the voyages of the two famous Cartha- ginian navigators, Hanno and Hamilco, beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Hanno bore to the south, along the African coast ; while Hamilco skirted the Spanish shore, and reached Ireland, "the Sacred Island." On his return to Carthage, he deposited a journal of his expedition in one of the temples, and this Punic record, or a copy of it, was perused by Festus Avienus in the fourth century. Avienus was a poet, and he turned Hamilco's information to account in a geographical poem, in which he describes the Island, called by the ancients "Sacred," as "two suns " (two days' sail) from the -^strumnides (Scilly Isles), and lying near the " Island of the Albiones." He does not, like our Gallic neighbours, add the epithet "perfidious" Albiones; but his knowledge of us was limited. By " the ancients ' (prisci) he presumably meant the Phoenician merchants, who, it is not improbable, visited Ireland when Solomon the Wise was in long clothes. But these are small matters to which I should not refer but for the fact that every Irishman, and everyone w-ho, as I do, loves Ireland, seems irresistibly drawn to escape from her miserable present by taking refuge in her auroral golden- tinted past. We may not fathom how Ireland came to be called Scotia in the fourth century, a.d. ; but it is some con- solation to know that Hibernia was Insula Sacra long before B.C. 500. Ancient Irish Constitution and Customs. — At the dawn of authentic, or partially authentic, history, we hnd the Irish in the tribal stage of political development, a stage through which every people, uninfluenced by strong external pres- sure, almost certainly passes on its way to true nationhood. A wide survey of human affairs shows — if it shows anything — that at all times, in all places, and among all races the order of religious, social, and political evolution is smgularly uniform. What we call race is nothing more than human nature retarded or accelerated in its development by causes which it is, in a great measure, within the power of true philosophy to ascertain and control. The history of Ireland is one long record of blunders, diversified by sanguinary crimes. " I have often heard him '* 12 THE BOOK OF ERIN. (Agrlcola), says Tacitus, "remark that Ireland could be con- quered and occupied by a single legion and a few auxiliaries, and that the work in Britain would be easier if the Roman arms could be made visible on all sides." If he had made the attempt, I have no doubt that, Hke all the other invaders of Ireland, he would have found out his mistake when it was too late. Foreign intervention has, from first to last, been the ruin of Ireland and the torment of those who have essayed it. All the more need, therefore, that we should understand the actual Home Rule which she did enjoy before Dane or Norman rudely crossed her onward and upward path. The Tuaih (tribe) was the enlarged patriarchal family of the Abraham and Lot type. A common descent was always assumed by every tribesman. The office of Chief was not hereditary, but elective. The choice, however, was restricted to the family of the Chief, his sons, legitimate, or illegitimate, brothers, cousins, or, if need were, more distant kindred, even to the ninth degree. The selection was made in the lifetime of the Ri, Righ, or Chieftain, and the chosen was designated the Tanist, or Heir-Elect. His qualifications are thus quaintly set forth in the Senchus Mor or " Brehon Laws," a code of very high antiquity and great historical value: — "The body of every Head (Chief) is his tribe, for there is no body without a head* The head of every tribe should be the man of the tribe who is the most experienced, the most noble, the most wealthy, the wisest, the most learned, the most truly popular, the most powerful to oppose, the most steadfast to sue for profits and to be sued for losses." In addition to the Chief and the Chief-elect, or Tanist , there were the Bard, the Physician, and the Brehon, who were all, like the Tanist, similarly eligible from given families. Besides this tribal organisation, there was the ATor Tuathy or tribal confederacy, formed by treaty or by subjec- tion, with its Ri M'or Tuatha, or Great Chief. Over all stood — always in theory, but seldom in practice — the Ard-Ri or Lord Paramount of the whole island, chosen from the Hy-Nial family, who were supposed to be descended from the Grand Ancestor of all the tribes of Erin. PRIMITIVE IRELAND. I3 The land of each tribe belonged to the whole tribe, and not to the chief, who was in no sense a landlord, but an elected executive officer, as was the Ard-Ri himself. There was ng absolute private O'v^ership, though for the convenience of cultivation allotments might be made. Each tribesman was allowed private possession of his house and curtilage ; but both his pasture land and his tillage land were held in common. Reserved tribal land was set apart for the suitable main- tenance of the Chief, the Tanist, the Bard, the Doctor, and the Brehon, like the Crown Lands of England in former times. Similarly, the nation set apart the small principality of Meath and the royal residence at Tara to support the dignity of the Ard-Ri and the Roy damna, or Royal Tanist. Between the Irish or Scotic institutions of this period and those of Saxon England there was a very striking analogy. The one was a Pentarchy and the other a Heptarchy. The Irish clann was the Saxon inacgth, with most of its consequences and peculiarities. TheBrehons. — These jurisprudents enjoyed high considera- tion in the tribal community, but they were not judges in the modern sense. Rather they were official arbitrators. They could not compel attendance of civil litigants or even of criminals. Indeed, the true State being as yet unborn, the distinction between "torts" and ** crimes" did not exist. Murder itself could be atoned for by an eric or fine, after the manner of the Saxon wiregild or the Swedish kinhote. It was the business of the avenger of blood to vindicate justice. But the law, or rather custom, of distress affiDrded a pretty effective instrument for bringing culprits to book. Wealth consisted almost exclusively in cattle, sheep, and pigs, and these could generally be driven off and impounded. In the case of very hardened or powerful offenders recourse was had to other means. The plaintiff proceeded to starve himself for days at the defendant's door — to "sit dikma'' as it was calleci and from time immorial practised in India. The parties once before him, the Brehon gave judgment, taking care to compensate himself for his trouble by claiming a fixed proportion of the award. "When the wrong-doer 14 THE BOOK OF ERIN. himself neglected or was unable to pay the eriCf two courses were open to the members of his family. They might either pay the amount among themselves 05 deliver up the culprit with all his goods to the injured party. The offender might then be put to death, but not by the hand of a third party. Money. — Of coined native money there was none in Ireland down to the Anglo-Norman invasion in 11 70. The circulating medium was live-stock, especially cows. The Gaels were thus strict etymologists in pecuniary matters ; but it was not so with the Ostmen. There are coins of a Norse King of Dublin as early as the ninth century, and other interesting specimens have been discovered, both in the Isle of Man and in Denmark. In Stockholm there are preserved 20,000 Arabic coins found in Ireland, taken from more than a thousand dies. But though the kings and chiefs struck no coinage, they understood usury perfectly well, and practised it, to the great injury of the people, in the very form which Henry George so erroneously pronounces legitimate in *' Progress and Poverty." They could not charge rent for land, but they made up for the deprivation by exacting exorbitant increase for cattle. Let us learn from the SencJms Mor how this was done. Saer-Stock and Daer-Stock. — In Saer-Stock tenure, the chief gave, without security, animals, in consideration of re- ceiving an annual return for seven years of one-third the stock advanced. The tenant might pay in labour or military service, as well as in kind. The King but not the Chief could compel acceptance of Saer-Stock, and so secure, if wealthy^ abundant Saer-Stock troops. In Daer Stocky the principal Irish tenure, the tenant gave security for the stock supplied. This consisted of two parts, one in proportion to the " honour price," or dignity of the chief, and the other in proportion to the ** food-rent" or interest to be received in return. The former were chiefly tillage-horses, oxen, "returnable 'seds'" — i.e,^ property;. while the latter included cows, sheep, pigs, &c. Six cows, for example, given in stock entailed on the tenant a " food-rent " to the chief of a calf of the value of three sacks of wheat, a salted pig, three sacks of malt, half a sack PRIMITIVE IRELAND. 1$. of wheat, and a handful of rushlight candles. Twenty-four cows given in stock yielded the chief a "food-rent" of a cow of prescribed size and fatness, a salted pig, also of prescribed size, eight sacks of malt, a sack of wheat, and three handfuls of rushlight candles of prescribed length. The rents were "fixed," but then, as now, they were not "fair." This curious glimpse into the everyday life of remote pagan Ireland is instructive in several ways. It shows that where no land-rent exists, and where even coined money is un- known, human avarice can invent ingenious methods of exploiting the labour of the poor. The Irish cattle-capita- lists anticipated our modern machinery capitalists in their robberies of the workers by more than two thousand years. Here is a fine lesson, if they had the trick to see it, in elemen- tary economics for Arthur Arnold and his followers, who imagine that when they have secured '* free land " (i.e., free landlord) tenure they have successfully emancipated the toilers and spinners. There is, moreover, a serious blot on the doctrinal escutcheon of St. Patrick if there were any feasible means of bringing the matter home to him. He was supposed to have carefully expurgated from the Senchus Mor, (438 — 441, A.D.), whatever was found repugnant to the Christian faith he professed. Here is how responsibility is fixed on him in the preface to the Senchus itself: — "How the judgment of true nature which the Holy Ghost has spoken through the mouths of the Brehons and just poets of the men of Erin from the first occupation of the island down to to the reception of the faith (440) were all exhibited by Dubhtach (chief Brehon) to Patrick. What did not clash with the Word of God in the written law, and in the New Testament, and with the consciences of the believers, was confirmed in the law of the Brehons by Patrick, and by the ecclesiastics and chieftians of Erin. For the law of nature had been quite right except the faith and its obligations, and the harmony of the Church and the people." Clash with the word of God in the written law and the New Testament ! Did ever the saint read, did ever any of our present official exponents of Christianity read, the following passages? l6 THE BOOK OF ERIN. ** If thy brother be waxen poor and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt reHeve him ; yea, though he be a stranger or a sojourner with thee that he may Hve with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury nor lend him thy victuals upon increase." — Leviticus xxv., 35-37. " Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother ; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury." — Deuteronomy xxiii., 19. "If ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye ? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. " But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the children of the Highest." — Luks vi., 34» 35- Had St Patrick, like St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and the other great fathers of the Church, fathomed the mystery of iniquity involved in the operations of usurers of every species and degree, and set himself resolutely to expel them from Ireland, he would have achieved a miracle ten times more beneficent than his extermination of the com- paratively harmless snakes. The names of the Saint's co-codifiers of the Brehon Laws are thus embalmed : — " Laeghaire, Core, Dairi, the Hardy, Patrick, Benen, Cairnech, the Just, Rossa, Dubhtach, Ferghus, with Science ; These were the Nine Pillars of the Senchus Mor." Habits of the Pagan Irish. — The houses of the common tribesmen were built of dressed wood, with conical roofs, through which the smoke ascended. A single apartment sufficed, the fire being placed in the middle. The abodes of the chiefs and other cattle-capitalists were more pretentious. They often contained seven or eight rooms, besides a separate banqueting-hall, which was in frequent occupation. The famous Round Towers^ whose use can only be surmised, are built of stone and mortar. The use of mortar came into Britain with the Romans ; hence it has been argued that these singular structures are of no great antiquity after all, whatever may have been their purpose. The under-clothing of both sexes consisted of a single tight PRIMITIVE IRELAND. \J fitting garment — stockings, trousers, and vest all in one. In addition to this, wealthy men affected a long mantle, and their wives and daughters skirts reaching below the knee. The material consisted of black sheep's wool trimmed with cloth of brilliant dye. The feet were protected by leather sandals, and the heads of the men by Phrygian caps. While the arts of shooting, fishing, riding, singing, versify- ing, harping, and fighting chiefly engaged the attention of the Scotic lads, the lasses learned to spin, to weave, and to cook. Their food consisted of flesh, fish, and bread, baked in the ashes, with accompaniments of cheese, butter, milk, honey, watercress, shamrock, and other vegetables. Their feasts were beguiled by chess, draughts, music, songs, and bardic recitations. On the whole, from what we can gather respecting the habits and characteristics of the ancient Pagan Hibernians, they were a rude but not a barbarous people, honest, just, and hospitable, chaste, imaginative, and joyous, intimidated as little by the cares of the visible as by the terrors of the invisible world. " They came from a land beyond the sea, And now o'er the western main Set sail in their good ships gallantly From the sunny land of Spain. * Oh, where's the isle we've seen in dreams, Our destined home or grave ? ' Thus sung they as, by the morning's beams, They swept the Atlantic wave, •• And, lo ! where afar o'er ocean shines A sparkle of radiant green, As though in that deep lay fimerald mines Whose; light through the wave was seen. ' 'Tis Innisfail — 'tis Innisfail ! ' Rings o'er the echoing sea ; While bending to heaven the warriors hail That home of the brave and free. " Then turned they unto the eastern wave, Where now their Day-God's eye A look of such sunny omen gave As lighted up sea and sky. Nor frown was seen through sky or sea, Nor tear o'er leaf or sod. When first on our Isle of Destiny Our brave forefathers trod." z8 CHAPTER II. CHRIST AND ODIN. " He comes, he comes, with shaven crowiii From off the storm-tossed sea, His garment piercing at the neck, With crook-like staff comes he I Far in his house, at its east end His cups and patens lie ; His people answer to his voice, ' Amen ! ' ' Amen ! ' they cry." — Ancient Scolium on St. Fiech's Hymr. •• I travelled its fair Provinces round, And in everyone of the five I found, Alike in Church, in palace, and hall, Abundant apparel and food for all. Gold and silver I found and money ; Plenty of wheat and plenty of honey ; I found God's people rich in pity, Found many a feast and many a city." — King Alered of Northumbria's " Itinerary " (7TH cent) •' The children born of thee are sv^rord and flame, Red ruin and the breaking up of laws, The craft of kindred and the godless hosts of Heathen Swarming o'er the Northern Seas." — Tennyson. St. Patrick and Early Irish Christianity. Where and precisely when St. Patrick, the reverend Apostle of the Irish, was born it is hard indeed to say. Incredible ingenuity and learning have been expended in the endeavour to fix the actual place of the good man's nativity, but in vain. Happily, the question is, after all, not of over- whelming importance to any except incurable Dryasdusts. The Saint left two compositions behind him, which are ST. PATRICK AND EARLY IRISH CHRISTIANITY IQ almost certainly genuine, -a "Confession" and an expostu- latory " Letter to Carotocus," presumably a British or Cornish prince of piratical tendencies. The former was transcribed into the '* Book of Armagh," circa 8io a.d., and in it are written these words : — " Thus far the volume which St. Patrick wrote with his own hand." In the " Confession " he says : — " I, Patrick, a sinner, the meanest of the faithful, had for my father Calpurnius, a deacon, son of the late Potitus, a Presbyter, who was of the town of Bonavem Taberniae, for he had a farm in the neighbourhood where I was made captive. I was then nearly sixteen years old. I was carried into Hibero with many thousands of men, according to our deserts, because we had gone back from God, and had not kept his Command- ments, and were not obedient to the priests who used to warn us for our salvation." The Annals of the Four Masters and FiecWs Hymn both tell us that Nempthor had the honour of giving birth to St. Patrick ; but that information avails us little. The names Bonavem Taberniae and Nempthor are equally unknown to geographers, past and present. The Scholiast of Fiech's Hymn — Fiech was a disciple of St. Patrick's and Scholiast was almost, if not altogether, contemporary — however, vouchsafes some light on the subject, real or illusory. He notes that Nempthor is Alcluaid, Irish for the Roman- British Caer-Britton, the modern Dumbarton in Scotland. For reasons which certainly do not lie on the surface, most Irish historians make out St. Patrick to have been a Gaul, and identify the mysterious Bonavem Taberniae with the modern Boulogne. A measure of circumstantiality is given to this hardy assumption by the fact that not a few events in the life of St. Palladius, Archdeacon of Rome, emissary of Pope Celestine, and immediate predecessor of St. Patrick in the Irish Apostolate, have been transferred bodily to the Saint of Nempthor. Furthermore, in a fit of longing to revisit the home of his childhood, the venerable man of God uses language which must be held almost to exclude the possibility of his being other than of British origin : " Whence also, though I should wish to leave them and go into the Britains (in Britanmas) B 2 20 THE BOOK OF ERIN. though I should readily go as to my own country and parents, and, not only so, but even as far as the Gauls, should visit my brethren that I might see the face of the saints of my Lord," &c. By <* the Britains"and "the Gauls," he, of course meant the different provinces, Prima, Secunda, and the like, into which the Romans divided their British and Gaelic conquests. Now there are but two ways out of this in Britannias difficulty for the advocates of St. Patrick's foreign parentage. They must either deny the authenticity ol the Confession (which they do not), or they must be prepared to affirm that there were two Britains at least in the modern French Brittany, which certainly no one as yet has demonstrated. Moreover, there are other and, though circumstantial, even stronger reasons for believing that the Saint was, at all events, a true-born Briton. According to himself, his father was a Decurio of his municipality — that is to say, a Roman magistrate, whence presumably his own name of Patricius, or noble. Notwithstanding, St. Patrick, we know, was ignorant of Latin till late in life, and when he did acquire it it was assuredly none of the best. It is inconceivable that the son of a Gallic Decurio should have been brought up in total ignorance of Latin, but it is quite possible that the offspring of a remote British Decurio living at the furthest outpost of Roman civilization might have had that luck. At the same time, Dumbarton was an important Roman station for about two hundred years, and like other Roman castra, or towns, all over the empire, it doubtless had its unrecorded Christian missionaries long before St. Patrick's day. The famous St. Columbkill was not even the first " Apostle of the Picts," St. Nennius having borne that honourable title many years before. It is besides noteworthy that Antrim, where Patrick was enslaved in his youth, and where he subsequently commenced his apostolate, is that region in the north-east of Ireland which is most adjacent to the Scottish shore. A plausible attempt made to identify Bristol with the Nempthor of St. Patrick's birth has been made by the official editors of the Senchus Mor ; but it does not seem to me seriously to invalidate the ancient testimony of the Scholiast. ST. PATRICK AND EARLY IRISH CHRISTIANITY. 21 For six years did the captive Patrick tend his master Milcho's flocks on the mountain called Slemish, in Antrim, eating the bitter bread of the bondsman as best he might. Then he planned and effected his escape, and happily found his way back to the friends and scenes of his jocund boyhood. As a son his relatives received him, and begged " that, after enduring so many tribulations, he should not depart any- where." But this was not to be. The *' holy youth " must, like his Great Master, be about his Father's business. In the solitudes of Slemish he had often, doubtless, pondered many things, and felt, as do most noble natures in adolescence — " That song and silence in the heart, That in part are prophecies, and in part Are longings wild and vain." In visions of the night his day-dreams came back to him, and banished sleep from his eyes. *' In the dead of the night I saw a vision coming to me as from Hibero, whose name was Victorious, bearing innumerable epistles. And he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of it, which contained the words, " The Voice of the Irish." And while I was repeating the beginning of the epistle, I imagined that I heard in my mind the voice of those who were near the wood Folcut, which is hard by the Western Sea, and thus they cried : -* We pray thee, O holy youth, to come and henceforth walk amongst us ! ' And I was greatly pricked in my heart, and could read no more, and so I awoke." And he awoke up to some purpose. He qualified zealously for the Christian ministry, and set sail, circa 440 (whence we know not), in the character of a Christian bishop, for the north-east coast of Ireland, being then, it is supposed, in his forty-fifth year. Almost from the outset his success was unequivocal. He knew the people, their language, customs, and institutions, and his genius was commanding. He was a great states- man as well as a great ecclesiastic. He never needlessly antagonized popular customs or prejudices. In matters not essential he was an adapter, not a destroyer. He had learned well the full significance of St. Paul's wise tolerance, ♦* For 22 THE BOOK OF ERIN. when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves." He converted the heathen holidays into Church festivals, and both the Smchus Mor and the Book of Rights are monuments of his political sagacity. From Saul in Down, where the Saint first said Mass in a barn, and made a few converts, he proceeded to Tara in Meath, the palatial residence of Laeghaire, the Ard-Ri of Ireland. There, by his tact, eloquence, and courage he made a deep impression on all who heard him. The king, it is true, was not convinced, continuing to the last to swear by *' the Sun, and the Wind, and all the Elements." But he handsomely encouraged the Saint in every way, and the fortune of Christianity was made. Everywhere crowds flocked to hear a teacher so authorita- tive. Throughout Connaught, Ulster, Munster, and Leinster his progress was a long series of triumphs. Everywhere churches were founded by him, priests ordained, bishops (350 it is said) consecrated, and converts baptized in astonishing numbers. On ''The Plain of Prostration" in Leitrim the Sacred Monolith of Pagan worship was overthrown without protest, and by the liberality of the chiefs and princes the Saint was, to say the least, enabled latterly to indulge in a good deal more worldly display than ever fell to the lot of Him who had not where to lay His head. Twenty-four persons, spiritual and secular, attended him in his journeys, including a bell-ringer, a psalmist, a cook, a brewer, a chamberlain, three smiths, three artificers, three embroi- derers, a scribe, a shepherd, and a charioteer. At last, full of years, labours, and honours, this paladin of the Cross gave " His body to that pleasant country's earth, And his pure soul unto his Captain Christ, Under whose colours he had fought so long." His death is said, but on indifferent authority, to have occurred in the monastery of Saul, erected on the site of the barn where he had first said Mass. It is also added that he was buried with imposing ceremonials in the neighbouring church of Armagh, on which he had bestowed a general primacy. ST. PATRICK AND EARLY IRISH CHRISTIANITY. 2$ St. Patrick's marvellous success was, in a great measure, attributable to the weakness of the superseded cultCy which, for want of a better name, has been called Druidical, from the Greek drusy an oak. What the so-called Druids really taught, and what sacred rites they performed, are almost entirely unknown to us. They have not left a shred of mj^hology behind them, probably for the best of reasons, that they had no mythology. They seeni, if any- thing, to have been simple Nature-worshippers, adoring "the sun and moon, and all the hosts of heaven." They were probably merely "the medicine men" of the tribes, who had nothing better to oppose to the new faith from the East than a few childish incantations and charms. A yet more powerful reason, however, determined the triumph of Christianity in Ireland, the only country in Europe bloodlessly converted to the faith. St. Patrick gave it a form exactly suited to the tribal institutions of the people. Every new religion, in order to succeed in a given country, must adapt itself to the political and social forms existing in that country. The organization of the Church of Rome was, and, is, almost the exact counterpart of that of Imperial Rome. The Pope is the ecclesiastical Imperator or Caesar ; the archbishops the great provincial governors ; the bishops, or suffragans of the archbishops, the governors of individual cities or rural sub-divisions, &c. Similarly with Presby- terianism. It was closely modelled on the Republican Oligarchy of Geneva, and to this day it bears the Geneva image and superscription. And so with the Irish Church. Its organization long differed from that of Rome, because Ireland had never been subjugated by the arms of the Cassars. In his missionary efforts, St. Paul invariably set himself first to conquer the great centres of intelligence of the Roman world, the large cities. With equal sagacity, St. Patrick in Ireland always applied himself first to the kinglets and chiefs, knowing well that their conversion would be speedily followed by that of their tribesmen. Hence arose a Church in Erin that for long possessed centres of motive and action almost, if not altogether, independent of Rome and her Bishop. The peculiar constitution of this Church, as will be seen 24 THE BOOK OF ERIN. hereafter, had not a little to do with the iniquitous BuH of Pope Adrian IV., which handed over Ireland to the tender mercies of Henry II. and his Anglo-Norman cut-throats. In the primitive Church of Ireland the monastic element dominated every other. The Monasteries were centres from which artificial ecclesiastical tribes, consisting of monks and tribesmen, were ruled both in things spiritual, and temporal. The original saintly founder was (i) temporal Chief of the Clan, (2) Abbot of the Monks, and (3) Bishop of the Community. These offices might be divided, but the Coarb or ecclesi- astical Tanist always succeeded to the abbacy and all the chief administrative functions. Consequently, the bishops found themselves possessed of a sort of spiritual degree 'to which no diocesan prerogatives attached. In many instances they became episcopi vagantes (wandering bishops), much to the disgust and annoyance of territorial prelates, into whose domains on the Continent they did not hesitate to intrude themselves. Rome frequently expostulated and fulminated, but to small purpose. It was not, indeed, till the historic Councils of Rath Breasil (11 18), Kells (1151), and Cashel, a few years later, that Ireland became ecclesiastically Romanized. At the Synod of Rath Breasil, Guilebert of Limerick, an Ostman or Dane, presided as the first Papal Legate to Ireland, and at the Council of Kells, John Paparo, Legate of Pope Eugenius III., produced four papal palls for the Archiepiscopal Sees of Armagh, Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam. At the Council of Cashel parishes were first formed and priests appointed, independent of the great monastic houses. It is curious to note how ecclesiastical nonconformity moves even the greatest saints to unseemly wrath. The great St. Bernard was never tired of defaming the Irish nation for the most inadequate reasons. Writing of the good St. Malachy, a zealous Romanizer, who died in St Bernard's Monastery at Clairvaux, en route for Rome, he observes : — *' Our friend, Malachy, was born of a barbarous people in Ireland. There he was educated; there he was taught literature ; but from his native barbarism he has drawn nothing, no more than the fish of the sea retains the salt of the ocean." ST. PATRICK AND EARLY IRISH CHRISTIANITY. 2$ When this was written, the dreadful ravages of the Ostmen or Danes had doubtless told their tale on the Irish character, but even then *' the Island of the Saints " was not without the halo of many brilliant exemplars of piety and scholarship among her sons. In the interval between her conversion to Christianity and the first Norse invasion, she had done an intellectual service to Europe and to mankind, second only in importance to that rendered by Ancient Greece in her palmiest days. Her monasteries were not merely retreats for pious meditation and prayer, but free universities for the instruction of earnest seekers after knowledge from all lands and nationalities. A perfect cloud of unimpeachable witnesses testifies to the reality of Erin's golden age ere yet the invading foot of Dane or Norman had polluted her strand. Writes the Venerable Bede . — "Thither came pilgrims in search of learning from the forests of Germany, from the cities of the north, as well as from England and Scotland." Camden : — *' At that age our Anglo-Saxons repaired on all sides to Ireland as a general mart of learning." Thierry: — "The poetry and literature of ancient Ireland were the most cultivated, perhaps, of all Western Europe." Spenser (the poet) : — '* It is certain that Ireland hath had the use of letters very anciently, and long before England. The Saxons are said to have their letters, learning, and learned men from the Irish ; for the Saxon character is the same as the Irish." Lacroix : — "The Irish scholars were among the most distinguished men in Europe. Their schools were flocked to by scholars from all parts ; their monasteries were densely populated with students, and their country was the very Athens of the age." But Ireland did not confine her civilizing efforts within her own narrow island confines. With a sort of noble rage she carried the torch of letters and learning into many lands. In kindred Scotland her missionaries founded 13 monasteries; in England, 12; in France, 19; in Burgundy, 11; in Belgium, 9; in Alsace-Lorraine, 20; in Bavaria, 16; in Italy, 6 ; and in Rhetia, Helvetia, and Servia, 15 ; not to mention many others of less note. 26 THE BOOK OF ERIN. Everywhere Irishmen figure as patror, saints in astonishing numbers. Of these Scotland has 76 ; England, 44 ; the Isle of Man, 6; Germany, 152; Fipjice, 47; Belgium, 30; Italy, 13 ; and distant Iceland, 9. Let us now see, in literal translation, how the effects of Irish Home Rule twelve centuries ago impressed the exiled Saxon King of Northumbria, Alfred, already quoted in part : — I found in the fair Innisfail, In Ireland, while in exile. Many women, no silly crowd — Many laics — many clerics. In found in each province, Of the five provinces of Ireland, Both in Church and State, Much of food— much of raiment. I found gold and silver, I found honey and wheat, I found affection with the people of God, I found banquets and cities. I found in Armagh the splendid Meekness, wisdom, circumspection. Fasting in obedience to the Son of God, Noble, prosperous Sages. I found in each great church — Whether internal, on shore, or island- Learning, wisdom, devotion to God, Holy welcome, and protection. I found the lay monks Of alms the active advocates ; And, in proper order with them, The Scriptures without corruption. I found in Munster, without prohibition, Kings, queens, and royal bards In every species of poetry well skilled — Happiness, comfort, pleasure. I found in Conach, famed for justice, Affluence, milk in full abundance. Hospitality, lasting vigour, fame. In this territory of Croghan of heroes. I found in the country of Connall (Tyrconnell), Brave, victorious heroes ; Fierce men of fair complexion, The highest stars of Ireland. ST. PATRICK AND EARLY IRISH CHRISTIANITY. 2J I found in the province of Ulster, Long-blooming beauty, hereditary vigour ; Young scions of energy, Though fair, yet fit for war, and brave. I found in the territory of Boyle, • •««** (M.S. effaced; Brehons', Erenachs' palaces, Good military weapons, active horsemen. I found in the fair-surfaced Leinster, From Dublin to Sleivmargy, Long living men, health, Drosperity, Bravery, hardihood, and traffic. I found from Ard to Gle. In the rich country of Ossory, Sweet fruit, strict jurisdiction, Men of truth, chess-playing. I found in the great fortress of Meath Valour, hospitality, and truth, Bravery, purity, and mirth — The protection of all Ireland. I found the aged of strict morals. The historians recording truth ; Each good, each benefit, that I have sung. In Ireland I have seen. The Yikings and the Field of Clontarf .— What then, was the ruin of this splendid nascent civilisation ? There may have been other contributory causes of a secondary character ; but beside the fierce onslaughts of the Norsemen, continued with little interruption from their first inroad in 795 to the great battle of Clontarf in 1014, they shrink into utter insignificance. The very virtues of the Irish, in a great measure, disqualified them from resisting effectually the furious assaults of the Scandinavian sea-wolves. A nation, one-third of whose manhood, it is estimated, had at one time or other led a monastic life, could hardly be expected to rival in arms the fiercest and most stalwart warriors of which the human race has preserved any record. War was their religion, their business in this life and the next. Unlike the Druids, the Norsmen had a very real and terrible mythology. The worshippers of Odin and of the' White Christ were at complete variance on every article of belief, whether affecting the life here or hereafter. The Norse 28 THE BOOK OF ERIN. Valhalla and the Christian Heaven were conceptions that did not shade into each other at any single point. Hence the destructive frenzy which invariably seized the Norse rovers of the deep at the sight of any Christian fane or sanctuary. Nor was their comparative refinement of manners and pacific habits the only drawback with which the Irish had to contend in the long and bloody struggle on which they were now compelled reluctantly to enter. Their organization from the national point of view was exceedingly defective. There were four great confederacies of tribes, each of which had a royal family of its own. In Ulster ruled the O'Niels ; in Connaught the O'Connors ; in Munster the O'Briens, and in Leinster the M'Murroughs. All these nominally recog- nised the Over-lordship or Ard-Riship, as it was called, of a branch of the Ulster O'Niels, who had the royal demesne of Meath as the appanage of their national sovereignty. Meath, however, occasionally ranked as a fifth kingdom, and Munster, which was divided into the two demi-provinces of Desmond and Thomond, was ruled alternately by a Desmond M'Carthy and a Thomond O'Brien. Here surely were all the elements of internal dissension to to give advantage to the foreign foe ; yet it must be confessed the Irish Celts showed a far more determined front to their Norse and Norman aggressors than ever did the vaunted Anglo-Saxons, whom the loss of a single battle was wont completely to prostrate. Danish Canute and Norman William both had easy work in England compared with that which their congeners encountered in Ireland. From 795, the date of their first recorded onslaught, onward, the Norsemen in Ireland experienced many vicissi- tudes of fortune, In 802, and again in 806, they plundered and burned lona, then the greatest seat of learning in the world. Its intellectual influence far exceeding at the time that of the Eternal City itself. In 824 they destroyed utterly the great religious community at Bangor in Down. In 830 a certain leader named Targeis, unrecognisable in the Norse Sagas, made a determined effort to bring the whole island under subjection. He burned Armagh, and even succeeded in establishing piratical flotillas on the internal loughs. But ST. PATRICK AND EARLY IRISH CHRISTIANITY 29 he was defeated at last, and drowned in Lough Owel (845) by Malachy, King of Meath. It is bootless to attempt to follow the blood-stained Norse track in detail till we come to the decisive battle of Clontarl ; but it may not be amiss to quote briefly the impression of their doings, circa, 916, made on the mind of a faithful chronicler of the time: — "Until the sand of the sea, the grass of the field, or the stars of heaven are counted, it will not be easy to recount or enumerate or relate what the Gaedhil, all without distinction, suffered from ; whether men or women, boys or girls, laics or clerics, freemen or serfs, young or old, indignity, outrage, injury, and oppression. In a word, they killed the kings, and chieftains, the heirs to the crown, and the royal princes of Erin. They killed the brave and the valiant, the stout knights, champions, soldiers and young lords, and most of the heroes and warriors of all Ireland, they brought them under tribute, and reduced them to bondage and slavery. Many were the blooming, lively women ; the modest mild, comely maidens ; the pleasant, noble, stately blue-eyed women : the gentle, well brought-up youths ; and the intelligent, valiant champions, whom they carried into oppression and bondage over the broad, green sea. Alas ! many and frequent were the bright eyes that were suffused with tears and dimmed with grief and despair at the separation of son from father, daughter from mother, and brother from brother, and relatives from their race, and from their tribe. " There was a tax-gatherer in every petty district ; a receiver to intercept the dues of every church ; a soldier billeted in every house, so that none of the men of Erin had power to give the milk of his cow, nor as much as the clutch of eggs of one hen in succour or in kindness to an aged man or to a friend, but was forced to preserve them for the foreign steward, or bailiff, or soldier. And if there was but one milk-giving cow in the house, she durst not be milked for an infant one night, nor for a sick person, but must be kept for the steward, bailiff, or soldier of the foreigner. And however long he might be absent from his house, his share or his supply durst not be lessened ; although there was in the house but one cow, it 30 THE BOOK OF EKIN. must be killed for the meal of the night, if the supply could not otherwise be procured. Brian of the Tributes was the only King or Ard-Ri of Ire- land who attained to something like European fame. All the rest, either before his time or after his death, in 1014, down to the Norman invasion in 11 70, are mere shadowy forms, whose deeds, real or apochryphal, can have no living interest — no, not even for the most patriotic of Irishmen. I cannot so much as feel any human relationship to the heroic Malachy, who — "Wore the Collar of Gold That he won from the proud invader." The wars of the Irish Pentarchy were very much like those of the Saxon Heptarchy, which Milton aptly compares to skirmishes between kites and crows. It is next to impossible to say which are the kites and which are the crows. But with Brian Borumha it is different. He was un- doubtedly a great personality for good and for evil. He was a man of the Cromwell stamp, who allowed none to abuse his country except himself. He was the younger brother of Mahon, Thomond, or Dalcassian, King of Munster, according to the aforesaid rule of alternate succession to the throne of Cashel. From motives of jealousy, Molloy, Prince of Des- mond, sided with Ivar, the local Danish chief, against Mahon. A pitched battle was fought at Solloghead, near Tipperary, in which the Danes and their Irish allies were defeated, and Danish Limerick burned. Subsequently Mahon was treacherously assassinated by a conspiracy of Molloy and Ivar, and Brian's soul was filled with uncontrollable rage and grief. Seizing his harp, he wildly chanted — " My heart shall burst within my breast Unless I avenge this great King ; They shall forfeit life for this foul deed, Or I must perish by a violent death." He was as good as his word. Both Molloy and Ivar were slain in battle, and Brian, contrary to the established rule of succession, usurped the throne — if throne it may be called — of Munster. He next subdued Leinster, and in a few years was supreme in the southern half of Ireland. Nor was he less politic than warlike. He aspired to the ST. PATRICK AND EARLY IRISH CHRISTIANITY. 3I Ard-Riship then held by Malachi II., a prince of no mean parts. In order to accompHsh his object, he married Kormlada, mother of Sitric, Norse King of DubHn, and sister of Maelmordha, King of Leinster. His own daughter he married to Sitric, and thus matrimonially fortified he was able to dictate terms to the legitimate Ard-Ri Malachi, who reluctantly resigned his office in Brian's favour. He then governed all Ireland with great vigour, exacting enormous tributes, chiefly in live-stock, from all the provinces of Ireland except his own. He was not loved by any except his faithful Dalcassians, but he was feared by all. Howbeit, mischief was not long in brewing. Brian repudiated Kormlada, who had previously been divorced, first by Olaf, Sitric's father, and secondly by the deposed Ard-Ri Malachi, and married the daughter of the King of Connaught. This enraged Kormlada beyond measure, who, in the words of the Norse Saga, "was so grim against King Brian after their parting that she would gladly have him dead, and egged on her son Sitric to kill him." Kormlada was not a person to be trifled with. Says the Saga; "she was the fairest of all women, and best gifted in everything that was not in her power ; but it was the talk of all men that she did all things ill over which she had any power." Mael- mordha, her brother, the King of Leinster, revolted, and Sitric solicited Norse aid against Brian far and wide. The Burnt Njal thus quaintly describes one of Sitric's negotiations with the most distinguished of the Norse leaders : — '* The King Sitric stirred in his business with Earl Sigurd (the great Orkney jar/), and bade him go to the war with him against King Brian. " The earl was long steadfast ; but the end of it w^as that he let the king have his way, but said he must have his mother's hand for his help, and be king in Ireland if they slew Brian. But all his men besought Earl Sigurd not to go into the war, but it was no good. "So they parted on the understanding that Earl Sigurd gave his word to go ; but King Sitric promised him his mother and the kingdom. " It was settled that Earl Sigurd was to come with all his host to Dublin by Palm Sunday. 32 THE BOOK OF ERIN. '* Then King Sitric fared south to Ireland, and told his mother, Kormlada, that the earl had undertaken to come, and also what he had pledged himself to grant him. " She showed herself well pleased at that, but said they must gather greater force still. '* Sitric asked whence this was to be looked for ? " She said there were two Vikings lying off the west of Man, and they had thirty ships, and, she went on, 'They are men of such hardihood that nothing can withstand them. The one's name is Ospak, and the other's Brodir. Thou shalt fare nothing to find them, and spare nothing to get them into thy quarrel, whatever pine they ask.' " Now King Sitric fares and seeks the Vikings, and found them lying outside of Man. King Sitric brings forward his errand at once, but Brodir shrank from helping him until King Sitric promised him the kingdom and his mother, and they were to keep it such a secret that Earl Sigurd should know nothing about it ; Brodir, too, was to come to Dublin on Palm Sunday. *' So King Sitric fared home to his mother, and told her how things stood. " After that those brothers, Ospak and Brodir, talked together, and then Brodir told Ospak all that Sitric had spoken of, and bade him fare to battle with him against King Brian, and said he set much store on his going. " But Ospak said he would not fight against so good a king. " Then they were both wroth, and sundered their bands at once. Ospak had ten ships, and Brodir twenty. " Ospak was a heathen and the wisest of all men. He laid his ships inside in a sound, but Brodir lay outside him. " Brodir had been a Christian man, and a mass-deacon by consecration ; but he had thrown off his faith and become God's dastard, and now worshipped heathen fiends, and he was of all men most skilled in sorcery. He had that coat of mail which no steel could bite. He was both tall and strong, and had such long locks that he tucked them under his belt. His hair was black. "It so hapened one night that a great din passed over Brodir and his men, so that they all awoke, and sprang up and put on their clothes. ST. PATRICK AND EARLY IRISH CHRISTIANITY. 33 " Along with that came a shower of boihng blood. *' For two nights followed other portents. ** On the fourth night they all went to sleep first of all ; but when Brodir woke up he drew his breath painfully, and bade them put off the boat, 'for,' he said, * I will go to see Ospak.' " Then he got into the boat, and some men with him ; but when he found Ospak he told hira of the wonders which had befallen them, and bade him say what he thought they boded. " Ospak would not tell him before he pledged him peace, and Brodir promised him peace, but Ospak still shrank from telling him till night fell. "Then Ospak spoke and said: 'When blood rained on you, therefore shall you shed many men's blood, both of your own and others ; but when ye heard a great din, then ye must have been shown the crack of doom, and ye shall all die speedily ; but when weapons fought against you, that must forbode a battle ; but when ravens pressed you, that marks the devils which ye put faith in, and who will drag you down to the pains of hell.' "Then Brodir was so wroth that he could answer never a word, but he went at once to his men. " Ospak saw all their plan, and then he vowed to take the true faith, and go to King Brian, and follow him till his death day. ** Then Ospak told King Brian all that he had learned, and took baptism, and gave himself over into the King's hands." At the appointed time Earl Sigurd set sail, and drafting into his galleys all the Norse fighting-men he could secure in the Hebrides, entered Dublin Bay, flying at his masthead the Raven Banner, wrought by magic spells. Hither, too, came also the apostate Deacon, Brodir,and Maelmordha, with the men of Leinster. At dawn on Good Friday, 23rd April, 1014, the allies issued forth from Dublin, and Brian, who had for some time been awaiting this movement in close vicinity to the town, with a well-appointed army, estimated at 20,000, at once gave them battle. The Norsemen were inferior in numbers,, but their swords were of better temper, and among them 34 THE BOOK OF ERIN. were no fewer than one thousand ring-mailed warriors, whose armour was at once pliant and well-nigh impervious. Dark forebodings, however, filled their souls, already half-subdued by what many of them had learned of the wondrous works of the White Christ. Two bearers of the Raven Banner were slain in succession. "Then Earl Sigurd called on Thorstein, son of Hall of the Side, to bear the banner, and Thorstein was just about to lift it, when Asmund the White said, * Don't bear the banner ; for all they who bear it get their death ! ' '"Hrafn the Red,' called ou.t Earl Sigurd, * lift thou the banner ! ' " * Bear thine own devil thyself! * answered Hrafn. *'Then the earl said, ' 'Tis fittest that the beggar should bear the bag ! ' and with that he took the banner from the staff, and put it under his cloak." Steadily, notwithstanding prodigies of valour, the fight went against the Norsemen, who were at last driven towards their ships, a miserable remnant. But nearly every chief of note on both sides had fallen, including the great Brian of the Tributes himself. He had remained, being eighty years of age, at what was supposed to be a safe distance in the rear, to implore the divine blessing on the arms of the Christian host. But his guards negligently left him to- wards the close of the deadly conflict, and exposed him to the blood-stained brand of the Viking Brodir. Disdaining flight, Brodir had fought his way through the Irish array, and with only two attendants was seeking the shelter of the woods. " * There are people coming towards us here!' said Brian's attendant. " ' Woe is me ! What manner of people are they ? ' said Brian. * Blue, stark naked people,' said the attendant. » Alas ! ' said Brian, ' they are foreigners of the army. It is not to do good to us they come.' As Brodir, in haste, passed by without seeing the king, one of his attendants plucked him back, crying, * The king ! the king ! this is the king ! ' * No,' cried Brodir, *a priest! a priest!' * No, no!' said the soldier. Then Brodir turned back and slew Brian, and was himself speedily slain." ST. PATRICK AND EARLY IRISH CHRISTIANITY. 35 With Brian perished four sons and a gallant grandson, and the roll of the dead included, even from distant Caledonia, such chiefs of note as the lords of Mar and Lennox, who lost their lives fighting for Ireland and the White Christ. But Odin it was that lost the day. For the last time the Weird Sisters were seen to weave their fatal woof, which they tore up, to signify that the old gods of the North were discomfited, and a new order of conquerors was about to bear sway in Erin. " Now new-coming nations That island shall rule, Who on outlying headlands Abode ere the fight. I say that king mighty To death now is done, Now low before spear-point The earl bows his head." 36 CHAPTER III The Bull Laudabiliter and the Anglo-Norman Invasion. ''In every organism the parts exist for the sake of the whole ; not the whole for the sake of the parts. The parts have no meaning except in their relation to the whole." — Aristotle. " Robbery and taxes ever follow conquest; the nation that loses her liberty loses her revenues." — Grattan. " The lesson which I have learned from the past history of my country is that the great and first danger an Irishman has to avoid is the danger of division." — John Dillon. " Every civilised country is entitled to settle its internal affairs in its own way, and no other country ought to interfere with its discretion, because one country, even with the best intentions, has no chance of properly understanding the internal affairs of another."— John Stuart " The sad and singular fate which weighs alike upon the old and the new inhabitants of the Isle of Erin has for its cause the vicinity of England, and the influence which its Government has continually exercised, since the Conquest, over the internal affairs of that country."— Augustin Thierry. "The moment Ireland is mentioned, English politicians bid adieu to common sense, and act with the barbarity of tyrants and the fatuity of idiots." — Sydney Smith. Effects of Clontarf.— The memorable field of Clontarf was a great turning point in the history of Ireland. It was practically a struggle between Scandinavian paganism and Christianity, in which the latter signally triumphed. In other respects, the fruits of the victory were mostly baneful. None of Brian Borumha's work endured. The deposed Malachi II, again became Ard-Ri, and the years of THE BULL LAUDABILITER. 37 his rule are made by the annahsts to embrace the reign of Brian, just as those of the EngHsh Commonwealth and Pro- tectorate are included in that of Charles II. Donogh, his son by Kormlada, could not even secure the submission of all Munster, the men of Thomond truly alleging that their tlirn at king-making had been wrongfully passed over by Brian. Indeed, Brian, according to long-established usage, had been doubly a usurper — a usurper in Munster and in the Ard-Riship — and his example formed a precedent for every bold, ambitious princeling who appeared on the scene for many unborn generations. The Norsemen. — It is quite a mistake to suppose that the victory of Clontarf was tollowed by the expulsion of these masterful buccaneers. King Sitric even managed to hold his own in Dublin ; and Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and other strongholds of less note, remained in their hands. It might be rash to assert, as has often been done, that the Irish possessed no cities till the Norsemen came. Ptolemy mentions ten towns, three of which were "illustrious" — to wit, Ivernis, Roeba, and Nagnata. Still, to these rovers must, in justice, be ascribed the credit of locating with unerring judgment, the chief maritime cities of Ireland. They were traders as well as pirates ; and when once they became Christians, and melted gradually into the native population, they were a very valuable factor indeed in the formation of the national character. But hardly anything could make up for the terrible injury the Norse had inflicted on the enlightened Church of St. Patrick, St. Bridget, and St. Columbkill. The differences between that Church and the Church of Rome have been studiously minimised by zealous Catholic writers ; but they were important, not administratively merely — which is admitted — but doctrinally also. St. Patrick had either never heard of the ironclad dogmas formulated by the CEcumenical (meaning Imperial) Councils of Nicaea, 325 a.d. ; Sardica, 347; and Ephesus, 431, or he disregarded them with very little compunction. St. Patrick and St. Columbkill had almost nothing in common with the assembly of furious fanatics who at Nicaea tore to pieces creed after creed, and came to blows in their 38 THE BOOK OF ERIN. effort to determine whether the Son was hotnooiisian, i.e., of the same substance as the Father,' or homoiousian, of like substance. In his creed or confession of faith, the founder of the Irish Church makes no mention of the resurrection of the body, nor of the descent into hell. He attributes the creation of all things to the Son — the Word made flesh. He teaches that the Second Person of the Trinity infuses into men the Hol}^ Spirit. In a word, it is evident that St. Patrick must have imbibed his Christian faith at an independent fountain, and that the attempt to connect him with a Roman mission stands almost self-condemned. In its palmy days, before the first Scandinavian invasion, the Irish or Scotic Church, from the centre of its influence, lona, acted not as the handmaiden, but as the compeer, not to say the antagonist, of Rome. Its piety was more fervid and practical, its learning greater and more liberal, and its missionary zeal more active and successful. Its free schools accommodated from one thousand to seven thousand students each. Latin, Greek and Hebrew ; the logic of Aristotle and physics, as then understood ; mathematics, music and poetical composition, made up the by no means despicable curriculum of learning of those " dark ages." As early as the middle of the eighth century Vergilius, or Feargal, who was subsequently raised to the bishopric of Saltzburg, taught the sphericity of the earth, and was denounced to Pope Zachary by St. Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, as one who maintained that there was another world below the earth, inhabited by men not of the race of Adam, nor included among those for whom Christ died. The Pope was at first much alarmed at an alleged heresy so astounding, but Vergilius contrived to establish to his satisfaction the solidarity of the Antipodeans with other human beings, and was finally canonized by Pope Gregory IX. in 1233. But a much more genuine heretic was the renowned John Scotus Erigena, who appeared at the court of Charles the Bald of France about the year 845. He taught pantheistic doctrines that might indeed well alarm the Church. " The soul," he said, " will finally pass into the primordial causes THE BULL LAUDABILITER. 39 of all things, and these causes into God ; so that as before the existence of the world there was nothing but God, and the causes of all things in God, so there will be after its end nothing else than God and the causes of all things in God. All things are God, and God all things. God is the maker of all things, and made in all." Compare: "And when all things shall be subdued unto him(Christ ) , then shall the Son also be subject unto Him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all " (i Corinthians xv. 28). Thus defining God, Erigena could not but assail the doctrine of the predestination of the damned as maintained by St. Augustine, and subsequently by Calvin. All things being God, it was impossible for him to admit of permanent pain or eviLin the universe without making the Supreme Being a sharer in them. Hence the prescience of God could only extend to the election of the blessed, since He could not foresee that of which He was not the author. Consequently, a time was in store for mankind when the blessed and the unblessed would alike dwell in endless happiness, differing only in degree, and when even "the puir deil " himself would have a chance. Erigena was a forerunner of Burns \yhen the immortal bard of Scotland wrote his famous lines : — " But fare ye weel, Auld Nickie Ben, O, wad ye tak' a thocht and men,' Ye aiblins might, I dinna ken. Still hae a stake ; I'm wae to think upon yon den Even for your sake." But,^ for good or for evil, the distinctive features of Irish Christianity were nearly effaced during the long and exhausting struggle with the fierce Norsemen. The monas- teries were almost completely ruined, and Irish scholars soon found themselves despised fugitives and mendicants on the Continent, where before they had been revered missionaries and the guides, philosophers, and friends of princes. What wonder that, in the circumstances, lona gradually succumbed to Rome, and that Henry II. of England should have found Pope Adrian IV. so willing to aid him in his nefarious designs against the liberties of the Irish people ? 40 THE BOOK OF ERIN. The Bull Laudabiliter. — The authenticity of this famous bull of Pope Adrian IV., otherwise Nicholas Breakspeare, the only English occupant of the chair of St. Peter, has been denied by not a few Irish scholars of eminence. Nor is this to be wondered at. It must be very difficult, indeed, for an Irish patriot, who is at the same time a good Catholic, to conceive of the Father of Christendom doing anything so heinous as to hand over Ireland bodily to Norman rapine and outrage. And yet, everything considered, such a transac- tion was the most natural occurrence in the world. Ireland had for centuries been guilty of administrative clerical noncon- formity, if not of actual doctrinal heresy, and the cruel, crafty Normans were the pet janissaries of the Holy See. In Naples, in Sicily, and in England they had obtained the sanction and blessing of Rome for deeds of violence and foul wrong not a whit less abominable than the invasion of Ireland. William the Conqueror not merely held a com- mission from the Pope to carry fire and sword into England, but he brought with him a pontifically consecrated banner, to be carried at the head of his felon horde. To impugn the genuineness of Adrian's bull is entirely to misunderstand the spirit of that age, and to miss the very trend of history. At the same time, it is not to be supposed that Adrian had the smallest malice prepense against the Irish people. He held the Papal See during the years 1155-1159, and appears to have been a thoroughly well-meaning, if not very able. Pontiff. Henry II. had just come to the throne, and Adrian could not be expected to foresee what a cruel, crafty, impious scoundrel he would prove himself to be. Henry's emissary, John of Salisbury, chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, told him a grievous tale of Irish wickedness and lawlessness, and represented young King Henry as consumed by a burning desire to purify religion and morals, and to restore " law and order " in the Isle of Saints. What could be more laudable ? The popes were ridiculously supposed to enjoy the patri- mony of all Christian islands as a gift from the Emperor Constantine. Adrian, accordingly, armed Henry's agent with a splendid emerald-set ring of investiture and the feJlowing bull. — * Hadrian the Bishop, Servant of Servants of God, to his THE BULL LAUDABIUTER. 4I very dear son in Christ, the illustrious King of the English, health and apostolic benediction. "Your magnificence praiseworthily and profitably takes thought how to increase a glorious name on earth, and how to lay up a reward of everlasting happiness in heaven ; for- asmuch as you intend, like a Catholic prince, to enlarge the bounds of the Church, to declare the truth to unlearned and rude peoples, and to uproot the seedlings of vice from the Lord's field. The better to attain that end, you have asked counsel and favour of the apostolic see. In which action we are sure that, with God's help, you will make happy progress, in proportion to the high design and great discretion of your proceedings, inasmuch as undertakings which grow out of ardour for the faith and love of religion are accustomed always to have a good end and upshot. There is no doubt, and your nobility acknowledges, that Ireland, and all islands upon which Christ, the sun of justice, has shone, and which have received the teachings of the Christian faith, rightfully belong to the blessed Peter and the most holy Roman Church. We have, therefore, the more willingly made a plantation among them, and inserted a bud pleasing to God, in that we foresee that it will require a careful internal watch at our hands. However, you have signified to us, my dear son in Christ, that you wish to enter the island of Ireland, in order to reduce that people to law, and to uproot the seedlings of vice there, and to make a yearly payment of a denarius to the Blessed Peter out of each house, and to preserve the rights of the churches of that land whole and undiminished. " We, therefore, seconding your pious and laudable desire with suitable favour, and giving a kindly assent to your petition, do hold it for a thing good and acceptable that you should enter that island for the extension of the Church's borders, for the correction of manners, for the propagation of virtue, and for increase of the Christian religion, and that you should perform that which you intend for the honour of God and for the salvation of that land, and let the people oi that land receive you honourably, and venerate you as their lord ; the ecclesiastical law remaining whole and untouched, and an annual payment of one denarius being reserved 42 THE BOOK OF ERIN. to the blessed Peter and to the most holy Roman Church. But if you shall complete the work which you have conceived in your mind, study to mould that race to good morals, and exert yourself personally and by such of your agents as you shall find fit in faith, word and living, to honour the Church there, and to plant and increase the Christian faith, and strive to ordain what is for the honour of God and the safety of souls, in such a manner that you may deserve at God's hands a heap of ever- lasting treasure, and on earth gain a glorious name for ages yet to come. Given at Rome, &c., &c." Here, then, we have Henry's mandate for the Conquest of Ireland, granted in 1155, and fully confirmed in 11 70, by Adrian's successor, Pope Alexander HI., who was in the best position to judge whether the original document was genuine or not. The Pretext for Invasion. — Henry II. was a very busy tryant, and it was long before he found a decent pretext for putting Laudahiliter to its destined use. At last, however, the auspicious moment arrived. Dermod MacMurrough, King of Leinster, was an unbearable savage of gigantic frame and enormous strength, whose manifold sins had found him out. In league with Donogh O'Melaghlin, King of Meath, " the Common pest of the Country," he had as early as 1152 abducted the Irish Helen, Devorgil O'Melaghlin, wife of Tiernan O'Rourke, Prince of Brefny, and sister of the " Common pest," Donogh, under circumstances which brought down on him all but universal condemnation and social ostracism. A Paris of sixty-two and an Helen of forty-four could scarcely expect to enlist much sympathy ; yet great are the sinuosities of the human heart. Antony at fifty-three refused to outlive Cleopatra, who was thirty-nine. But Dermod was no Anthony. Devorgil had a very large dowry, chiefly in live-stock, and that seems to have been the chief attraction in the eyes of her mature lover. The outraged husband called upon Tirlogh O'Connor of Connaught — himself, by the way, a notorious ruffian — titular King of Ireland, to redress his wrongs, and O'Connor laudably complied with the request. Dermod was compelled to abandon Devorgil, who lived THE BULL LAUDABILITER. 43. to a great age, devoting herself, like Queen Guinivere of Arthurian legend, to works of charity and devotion. She died in 1 193 on a pilgrimage to Mellifont Abbey. Proceeding from bad to worse, Dermod subsequently carried off by force the Abbess of Kildare, compelling her to marry one of his followers, and put out the eyes of eighteen men of rank who had fallen into his hands. These and other atrocities made him so universally odious, that Roderick O'Connor, son of Tirlogh, now Ard-Ri and his old enemy, O'Rourke, eventually effected his expulsion from Leinster, and transferred his kingship to the next-of-kin. The aged monster, still replete with energy, burned down his Castle of Ferns, and fled to Acquitaine to obtain succour from that " uprooter of the seedlings of vice from the Lord's field," Henry II. Dermod and Henry were a thoroughly well-matched couple. For the sake of her large Continental possessions, Henry had married a notoriously lewd divorcee, Queen Eleanor, the most mischievous w^oman of her age. She is credibly reported to have compelled the Fair Rosamond of Woodstock, Henry's mistress, to drink poison, b}^ holding a dagger to her throat. She encouraged her sons to make war on their father, and frequently drove him into frenzies indistinguishable from madness. Such ability as Henry possessed lay in the exercise of unscrupulous craft. His religion, or rather, superstition, was mere ** other-worldli- ness " of the most grotesque and contemptible character. Henry could not start on his pontifical crusade at the moment, but he supplied the evangelizer, Dermod, with the following comprehensive letter of marque: — " Henry, King of England (he could not speak a word of EngHsh), Duke of Normandy and Acquitaine, and Count of Anjou, to all the faithful English, Norman, Welsh, and Scots, and to all nations subject to his jurisdiction, greeting : " When these present letters reach you, you will know that we have received into the bosom of our grace and favour Dermod, Prince of the Leinstermen. If anyone, therefore, within the ample bounds of our power, wishes to help his restoration as our man and liege subject, let him know that he has our license and favour for the purpose." 44 THE BOOK OF ERIN. With this filibustering licence as his warrant, Dermod took up his head-quarters at Bristol, where communication with Leinster was easy, and began diligently to recruit for his enterprise all manner of desperadoes who could handle a a lance or draw a long bow. To all he was profuse in his promises of rewards. To Richard Fitz-Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Chepstow, he promised his only legitimate child, Eva, to wife, and with her the succession to the kingship. This compact, which was subsequently fulfilled, was typical of hundreds of similar transactions which for centuries desolated, and are still desolating, the fair land of Erin. It inaugurated the internecine conflict between the feudal and tribal systems of land tenure, which will never be closed till the latter becomes again substantially the law of the land. According to Norman law, the lands of Leinster would pass with Eva to her husband and children. According to Celtic or Brehonic law, it would do nothing of the kind. The kingship of Leinster was not hereditary, but .elective ; and the lands, as has been explained, were vested in the tribes as an inalienable common possession. Neither Eva nor Dermod, nor any king or prince in Ireland, could convey a title to what never belonged to them. The absurd and iniquitous rule of primogeniture was wholly repugnant to Celtic custom and notions of right. To give the non-legal reader some idea of the native Irish land system I can hardly do better than quote the terse analysis of Sir John Davies, Attorney-General to James I. (1606- 1618), one of the ablest (though almost necessarily prejudiced) statesmen who ever attempted to diagnose the maladies of Ireland. It is not accurate in some particulars, but for general purposes it will suffice. *' Septs. — First, be it known that the lands possessed by the mere Irish in this realm were divided into several territories or countries, and the inhabitants of each Irish country were divided into several septs or lineages. •* Lord and Tanist. — Secondly, in every Irish territory there was a lord or chieftain, and a tanist, who was his successor apparent ; and of every Irish sept or lineage there was also a chief, who was called canfinny, or head of a ' cognatio,* THE BULL LAUDABILITER. 45 "Tanistry and Gavelkind. — Thirdly, all possessions in these Irish territories — before the common law of England was established through all the realm as it now is — ran at all times in course of tanistry, or in course of gavelkind. Every lordship or chiefry, with the portion of land that passed with it, went without partition to the tanist, who always came in by election, or by the strong hand, and never by descent. But all the inferior tenancies were partible among the males in gavelkind. " No Estate of Inheritance. — Again, the estate which the lord had in the chiefry, or that the inferior tenants had in gavelkind, was no estate of inheritance, but a temporary or transitory possession. For, just as the next heir of the lord or chieftain would not inherit the chiefry, but the eldest or worthiest of the sept (as was before shown in the case of tanistry), who was olten removed and expelled by another who was more active or stronger than he : so lands in the nature of gavelkind vfere not partible among the next heirs male of him who died seised, but among all the males of his sept, in this manner. " Partitions of Tribal Land. — The canjinny, or chief of a sept (who was commonly the most ancient of his sept), made all the partitions at his discretion. This canjinny y after the death of each tenant holding a competent portion of land, assembled all the sept, placed all their possessions in hotch-potch, and made a new partition of the whole, in which partition he did not assign to the sons of the deceased the portion which their father held, but allotted the better or larger part to each one of the sept according to his antiquity. ** Effect of Frequent Partition. — These portions being thus allotted and assigned, were possessed and enjoyed accordingly until the next partition, which, at the dis- cretion or will of the canfinny^ might be made at the death of each inferior tenant. " Position of Daughters and of Bastard Sons. — Also by this Irish custom of gavelkind, bastards took their shares with the legitimate ; and wives, on the other hand, were quite excluded from dower, and daughters took nothing, even if their father died without issue male." 46 THE BOOK OF ERIN. It may here be noted that where the husband and the wife had each property of their own, neither could contract without the consent of the other. The lady was "the wife of equal dignity." How essentially such a system of land tenure as is above described differed from feudalism, with its grants to a man and the heirs of his body, or more extensively still to a man and his heirs, will be seen at a glance. Differences of language and of race might be composed, but here was introduced a ■difference of fundamental conceptions of meum and tuum, which not even the elapse of long centuries has been able to eradicate. To-day the Irish peasant justly regards his land- lord as a robber ; and his landlord, true to feudal traditions, treats the tenant as a rebellious serf or villein. Strongbow and the Normans. — But to return to Dermod and his Anglo-Norman recruits. In addition to Earl Richard de Clare, better known as Strongbow, the hoary traitor speedily managed to enlist quite a small fraternity of illustrious swashbucklers. A frail beauty, Nesta, daughter of Rice ap Tudor, Prince of South Wales, was the progenitrix of not a few of the best known, if not the most reputable families in Irish story. By Henry I. she had two sons, through the younger of whom she had two grandsons, Robert and Meiler Fitz- Henry, who were captains of note in the invading force. By Gerald of Windsor she had several sons and daughters, from whom are descended the Fitz-Geralds, Barrj^s, Carews, and Cogans. After Gerald's death she had a son by Stephen, Castellan of Abertivy, known in history as Robert Fitz-Stephen. To Fitz-Stephen and his half-brother, Maurice Fitz-Gerald, Dermod promised Wexford and two cantreds — that is, two hundred homesteads — of land. They were all desperate men of broken fortunes, and they readily closed with Dermod's offers. The first of the adventurers to reach Ireland were led by Fitz-Stephen. They landed safely in Bannow Bay, in May, 1 169, numbering thirty knights, sixty men-at-arms, and three hundred picked archers. Next day Maurice de Prendergast arrived with ten knights and a band of archers. Dermod, who was already lurking in the neighbourhood, sent his son to THE BULL LAUDABILITER. 47 Donald with five hundred men to join them, and a small effective force was thus formed. Wexford was captured with very little difficulty, and Fitz- Stephen then marched into Ossory. The men of Ossory were routed. A personal foe of Dermod's was among the slain, and it is related of that amiable monarch, who now aspired to the Ard-Riship, that, " lifting up the dead man's head by hair and ears, he cruelly and inhumanly tore away the nostrils and lip with his teeth. Meanwhile Earl Richard still lingered in Wales, doubtin the issue. Writing to him, the impatient Dermod who, be it noted, kept a " Latiner," imaginatively remarked, *'We have observed the storks and swallows ; the summer birds have come, and with the west wind have re- turned. Neither Favonius nor Eurus has brought us your much-desired and long-expected presence." Howbeit, Strongbow at last landed near Waterford in August, 1170, and the town was speedily captured. The Earl then married Dermod's daughter Eva, and an advance on Dublin was speedily executed. The city succumbed with surprising celerity, and Henry II. began to fear that a new independent Norman kingdom was about to be established by his vassal Strongbow in the Island of the Saints. Henry II. in Ireland. — Henry accordingly set sail from Milford Haven in October, 1171, to look after his own interests. He landed near Waterford with 4,000 men, 500 of whom were knights. He wintered in Dublin, and nearlj' all the princes and chiefs of Ireland, with the exception of Roderic the Ard-Ri, and the Ulster reguliy paid him homage. The clergy, in particular, eflfusively re- cognised his papal credentials. At first his policy was to leave the titular King of Ireland, Roderick O'Connor, and most of the other kinglets, in undisturbed possession of their tribal jurisdictions; but this considerate policj' was suddenly reversed for one of wholesale confiscation. His tactics became similar to those of William the Conqueror in England, with one important difference He granted away to a few great Anglo-Norman vassals almost the whole territory of Ireland, without reserving to the Crown any sources of armament or revenue, which might 48 THE BOOK OF ERIN. enable himself and his successors effectually to curb these grand feudatories, should they prove, as they so frequently did, tyrannical and refractory. There were some redeeming features in the feudal system, but these Henry was careful completely to eliminate in his dealings with Ireland. To De Lacy he gave Meath, the appanage of the Ard-Ri (some 800,000 acres), at a feudal service of fifty knights, without any reservation of judicial or other legal powers. Leinster he bestowed on Richard de Clare, pretty much in terms of Strongbow's original compact with Dermod. To John De Courcy fell the province of Ulster (about one- sixth of all Ireland), on the same terms as the Meath con- cession. The Cork district was bestowed on the adventurers Mylo de Cogan and Robert Fitz-Stephen. But Henry's attempt to feudalise Ireland was perfectly illusory. The native chiefs might feign a show of submission in the presence of overwhelming military force, but the moment that was withdrawn the old tribal customs reasserted them- selves with renewed vigour. All through the reigns of Henry II., Richard I., John, Edward I., and Edward II, the history of Ireland is a pitiable record of almost incessant conflict between " the mere Irish " and the Anglo-Normans, between foreign feudalism and native tribalism, between a polished but savage aristocracy and a rude, struggling democracy. 49 CHAPTER IV. PLANTAGENET RULE IN IRELAND. Prom Henry II. to Richard III. Inclusive (1172-1485). "The hostile power, planted in the heart of the nation, destroyed all possibilities of central government, while it was itself incapable oi fulfilling that function. Like a spear-point embedded in a living body, it inflamed all around it, and deranged every vital funcdov." — Leckv. "Are Catholics filled with perplexity at the sight of infallibility sanctioning rapine ? They can scarcely be less perplexed by the title which infallibility puts forward to the dominion of Ireland, the subject ol its gracious grant. The Pope proclaims himself Lord of Ireland, because it is an island, and " all islands on which Christ, the Sun of Righteous- ness, hath shone, undoubtedly belong to the See of St. Peter." But this perplexity arises entirely from the assumption which may be an article of faith, but is not an article of history, that the infallible morality of the Pope hks never been changed. The infallibility of the Pope, morally speaking, must be said by history to consist in this, that though he changes, he does not repent." — Goldvvin Smith " English pride might mingle with sacerdotal ambition in the boon of a new kingdom to his native Sovereign. The language of the grant developed principles as yet unheard of in Christendom." — Millm.an. " The right of private property in land is a political, not a natural institution." — Judge Longfield. " They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, their inward thought is that their honour shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-place to all generations ; they call their lands after their own name. This, their way, is their folly ; yet their posterity approve of their sayings." — Psalms. Synod of Cashel— **He" (Henry II.), says Sir John Davies, "departed out of Ireland without striking one blow, or building one castle, or planting one garrison among the Irish ; neither left he one true subject more than those that D 50 THE BOOK OF ERIN. he found there at his first coming over, wh^ich were only the EngHsh adventurers." That was so ; but Henry's duties, it should be remembered, lay chiefly in another direction. He had been commissioned by Pope Adrian IV. " to extirpate the seedlings of vice from the Lord's field," and he had yet to appease the just wrath of Adrian's successor, Pope Alexander III., for the shocking murder of Thomas-a-Becket. Ac- cordingly, in 1 1 72, he summoned a Synod of the Church, which was attended b}' all the chief prelates. Christian, Bishop of Lismore, the apostolic legate, presided, and it is interesting to note what chief ** seedlings of vice " the reverend reformers set themselves to '• extirpate." Root I. — Church property to be freed from all taxation, or " erics," in coin or kind. ,, 2. — Regular payment of tithes decreed. ,, 3. — Regular public baptism and catechising of children to be enforced. „ 4. — Prohibition of marriage with deceased husband's brother or wife's sister. „ 5. — One-third of a deceased man's chattels to be set apart " for the good of his soul." It is but fair to add that, under the fifth head, were included provisions of one-third of the deceased's personalty for his legitimate offspring and another for his widow. But, in any case, the character of the abuses here struck at is an instructive commentary on the unmeasured in- vectives of St. Bernard, St. Anselm, and other reverend libellers of the Irish race who diligently paved the way for Henry's unhallowed aggression. '* They were Christians in name, pagans in deed," cried St. Bernard. Ki\d.Ecce Signum! ** They paid neither tithes nor first fruits ! " *' A most vile nation ; a nation that wallowed in every vice ; a nation that of all nations was most uncultivated in the rudiments of the faith ! " — such was the description of the Irish given by Giraldus Cambrensis, the contemporary historian of the invasion — a writer who, if he had been alive to-day, could have afforded to give points in mendacity even to the Dublin correspondent of the Times. Yet Giraldus' chief specific charges against the laity are that they were lax in the pay- ment of tithes and first-fruits ; that they were indifferent FROM HENRY II. TO RICHARD III. 5I church-goers, and that they married the wives of their deceased brothers. As for the clergy, he admits that they were admirable in many things, especially in continence and fasting, and that it was only at night, after such exemplary conduct all day, that they had a tendency to get drunk. The Synod over, the prelates sent off a report to the Pope. It was supplemented by another from the Archdeacon of Landaff, Henry's assessor in the Synodical deliberations. They extolled the royal efficacy in the correction of abuses, the gravity of which must be judged of by the remedies applied. Thereafter Alexander amply confirmed Adrian's bull, complimented Henry on his proceedings, and commended "the kings and princes of Hibernia " for their "prudent" submission to his will. Replying to the four archbishops and their suffragans, the Pope strictly commanded them to inculcate allegiance to so magnanimous a Prince in his pious efforts to extirpate " the enormous vices with which the Irish people were infected," " barbarous, rude, and ignorant of the divine laws" as was their condition. Was ever a nation so unmercifully slain in the house of its friends ? Howbeit, swift retribution overtook the clergy. Writing shortly afterwards, the invading eye-witness, Giraldus himself, observes : — " The miserable clergy are reduced to beggary in the island. The cathedral churches mourn, having been robbed by the aforesaid persons (the leading Normans), and others along with them, of the lands which had formerly been granted to them faithfully and devoutly. And thus the exalting of the Church has been changed into the despoiling or plundering of the Church." Again : — " While we (the Normans) conferred nothing on the Church of Christ in our new principalit}-, we not only did not think it worthy of any important bounty or of due honour, but even, having immediately taken away the lands and possessions, have exerted ourselves either to mutilate or abrogate its former dignities and ancient priviliges." The First Irish Parliament.— About the same time (1172) was held at Lismore a Curia Regis^ or King's feudal Court, the rudiments of the first Irish Parliament, or rather the first Parliament in Ireland. An Executive Colonial Govern- D 2 52 THE BOOK OF ERIN. ment was formed, De Lacy being appointed Constable ; Strongbow, Marshal ; Sir Bertram de Vernon, Steward ; and Sir Theobald Walter, King's Butler — whence the family name of the Earls of Ormonde). It was decided to introduce the Anglo-Norman laws and customs for the use of the settlers, and subsequently for the benefit of the privileged ^^ Five Bloods'' — viz., the royal O'Neils of Ulster, the O'Melaghlins of Meath, the O'Connors of Connaught, the O'Briens of Thomond, and the MacMurroughs of Leinster. The Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer were instituted. It was not till the reign of James I., however, that English law was extended to Ireland in general. Treaty of Windsor (1175). — On Easter Monday, 1172, Henry sailed from Wexford, never to see Ireland again, But his interest in the country did not cease. In October^ 1 1 75, he made a treaty at Windsor with Roderic O'Connor,. Ard-Ri of Ireland, his complete violation of which, only four years afterwards, can only be compared with the broken Treaty of Limerick, five centuries later. Roderic sent three represen- tatives to Windsor — viz., Catholicus, Archbishop of Tuam, the Abbot of Ardfert, and his Brehon, or, as Giraldus calls him, his " Chancellor." St Lawrence O'Toole the devoted Archbishop of Dublin, was one of the witnesses to an instrument by which Henry granted "to his liege man Roderic, King of Connaught, so long as he should serve faithfully, to be king under him {rex sub eo)^ ready to serve him as his man, and to hold his land well and peacefully, as he held it before the King of England's entry into Ireland, paying him tribute." The tribute was to consist of one out of every ten marketable hides of cattle killed annually. The regions to be exempted from Roderic's rule were what was subsequently known as the English ** Pale," derived from the phrase, "pale in," occurring in one of the enact- ments of Poynings' historic parliament. The "Pale" shrank or expanded, according to circumstances ; but at this date it embraced Meath and Leinster, along with Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, and Dungarvan, and their appurtenances. Two-thirds at least of Ireland remained to Roderic and the native Irish by express treaty, and yet in 11 79, without any reason assigned except the will of the tyrant, the whole FROM HENRY II. TO RICHARD III. 53 3oil was gifted away to rapacious alien marauders. Of these the chief was Fitz Adelm to whom Connaught was bodily gifted. He was a base, cunning tool of Henry's who had not even Ithe common merit or demerit of military audacity to recommend him. Says Sir John Davies, *' All Ireland was by Henry H. cantonized among ten of the English nation, and though they had not gained possession of one-third of the kingdom, yet in title they were owners and lords of all, so as nothing was left to be granted to the natives." Such, then, was the nominal conquest by Henry H. and his Norman freebooters of a nation which kept the field with indomitable courage for more than four hundred years after their time, and which, even at this moment, in spite of all the " resources [of civilization " and all the might of the greatest empire on earth, remains unsubdued and un- subduable. It is impossible that such a people should ultimately fail to realize its ideal of national life. " Truth for ever on the scaffold, Wrong for ever on the throne ; Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown Standeth God, within the shadow, Keeping watch above his o-;vn. Deaths of Dermod, Strongbow, and Henry II. — The three chief actors in the Anglo-Norman invasion all came to an evil end. Dermod, the traitor, or Dermod-na-Gall, that is, Dermod of the Foreigners, died in May, 1171, of a loathsome disease, the virulence of which made him rage with the fury of a madman. He has left behind him a name of hate and scorn almost unrivalled in human annals. He is thus described by Giraldus Cambrensis, who, if anything, was a friendly critic: " He was tall and huge ; warlike and daring, with a voice hoarse from shouting in battle ; desiring to be feared rather than loved ; an oppressor of the noble, a raiser up of the low ; tyrannical to his own people and detested by strangers; one who had his hand against every man and every man's hand against him." Strongbow expired at Dublin in 11 76. An ulcer in the foot spread upwards till the whole body became a mass of putrescence. Giraldus, as was to be expected, gives him a 54 THE BOOK OF ERIN. good character so far : — ** He was gentle and courteous in his manners ; what he could not gain by force he gained by address ; in peace he was more ready to obey than command ; when not in battle was more a soldier than a general, in battle more a general than a soldier; always took his com- panions into counsel, and undertook no enterprise without their advice ; in action was the sure rallying point of his troops ; and of unshaken constancy in either fortune of war^ neither to be disturbed by adversity nor thrown off his balance by success." Yet more terrible, in 1 189, was the closing scene in the eventful life of Henry H, Hunted from his beloved birth- place, Le Mans, by his unnaturally rebellious sons, Henry, Richard, and John, he passed into the unknown invoking frightful maledictions on his own offspring. His last words were : — Maudit soit le jour ou j& suis ne ; et maudits de Dieu soientlesfilsquijslatsse. — "Accursed be the day on which I was born, and accursed of God be the sons I leave behind me. Nor did a sad fatality wait on Dermod, Strongbow, and Henry alone. With more than his usual penetration Giraldus observes : — " The four great pillars of the Conquest — Fitz-Stephen, Hervey, Raymond, and John de Courcy — by the hidden but never unjust judgment of God — were not blessed with any legitimate offspring." And this to a Norman freebooter, who desired above all to be the founder of a hereditary family of nobles, was an unspeakable heartsore. King John and Ireland. — In 1177, John (of Magna Charta fame), still a child, was proclaimed " King of Ireland," at a Council held at Oxford ; but the assumption of the title was a harmless exhibition of paternal partiality which bore no fruit. No Catholic King of England ever ventured to dub himself other than Domimis Hihcmia; (Lord of Ireland), and even this title the Scottish kings, after the election of Edward Bruce to the Irish throne, were disposed to dispute. James IV. and James V. of Scotland each wrote himself down Donmms Hibernice^ and even contemplated an expedition into the country to vindicate his claims. Ireland,, according to the theory announced in Pope Adrian's Bull> FROM HENRY II. TO RICHARD III. 55 remained the patrimony of St. Peter and the Holy Roman See, and when Henry VHI. renounced his allegiance to that authority his legitimate title to any jurisdiction in the island was forfeited as a matter of course. John twice visited Ireland ; once in his father's lifetime, and once in his own reign, On the former occasion he and his roystering companions, mortally offended the Irish chiefs who came to do him homage, by plucking their long beards. On the latter (1210), he divided Leinster and Munster into twelve counties, but, as Sir John Davies observes, "these counties stretched no further than the lands of the English colonists extended. In them only were the English laws published and put in execution ; and in them only did the itinerant judges make their circuits, and not in the countries possessed by the Irish, which contained two-thirds of the kingdom at least." Subsidies Levied on the Pale. — In 12 17 tallage was first imposed in Ireland by Henry III., but it yielded almost nothing, and Pope Innocent IV. was scarely more fortunate in 1254. The Supreme Pontiff then tried hard to raise money for the liberation of the Holy Land, but the chief collector, Lawrence Summercote, pronounced the achieve- ment impossible. "He would rather," he said, *' be imprisoned than crucified any longer in Ireland for the business of the Cross." Edward I., politic as he was, did much to weaken the Anglo-Norman colony by drawing from Ireland both men and stores for his Scottish wars. In 1296, 310 men-at-arms, 266 light-armed horsemen, and 2,600 foot, with a multitude of archers, followed his standard into Scotland. In 1298, Edward requisitioned in the Pale 8,000 quarters of wheat ; 10,000 quarters of oats; bran, bacon, salt beef, salt fish in abundance, with 10,000 casks of wine. Such heavy exactions drove successive viceroys to their wits' end. To preserve the colony from ruin they had to stir up bloody feuds among the "mere Irish." Robert D'Ufford, the justiciary, was summoned to England by Edward I. to purge himself of this heinous offence. He pleaded that unless one knave could be made to cut off another, the King's coffers would soon be empty. 56 THE BOOK OF ERKN. " Whereat," it is recorded, " the King smiled, and bade him return to Ireland." Bannockburn and its Effects in Ireland. — But a catastrophe was at hand which was not to be smiled away. In 1314 was fought in Scotland the decisive battle of Bannockburn, which gave the death-blow to the notion hitherto entertained throughout Christendom that the iron- clad knighthood of the Anglo-Normans was invincible. On that hard-fought field the Scots demonstrated to the world that an army of simple burghers and peasants, with spears in their hands, could, if skilfully led, rout a fully equipped feudal force, outnumbering them as three to one. Every- where *' peoples rightly struggling to be free" plucked up courage. It was impossible that the Irish should escape the contagion of their Scottish kinsmen's heroic example. They entered into negotiations with King Robert Bruce, who readily consented not merely that his brother Edward should endeavour to possess himself of the crown of Ireland, but that he himself should assist in the laudable enterprise of expelling the English from Ireland. For the first time since the victory of Clontarf over the Danes something like a genuine national feeling was evoked, of which the celebrated letter of the native Irish chiefs to Pope John XXII. — one of the most important documents in all Irish history — affords the best possible evidence. Even now some of the clauses, seemingly drawn up in the heat of conflict, will help to throw light on the wrongs of Ireland, which are nothing if not historical: — National Appeal to the Pope. *' To our most Holy Father in Christ, Lord John, by the grace of God Supreme Pontiff, his attached children Donald O'Neyl, King of Ulster, and rightful hereditary successor to the throne of all Ireland, as well as the princes and nobles of the same realm, with the Irish people in general, present their humble salutations, approaching with kisses of devout homage to his sacr d feet. " Lest the bitter and venomous calumnies of the English, and their unjust and unfounded attacks upon us, and all v/ho support our rights, may in any degree influence your mind FROM HENRY II. TO RICHARD III. 57 •(though Heaven forbid it should be so !), or lest circumstances unknown to you, and made by them the subjects of misrepresentations, may seem to require some correction at your hands, as though their statements were fully in .accordance with the truth, with loud and imploring cry we would convey to your holy ears, in the contents of the present appeal, an account of our first origin and of the condition in which our affairs at this moment stand ; and also of the cruel injuries to us and our forefathers, inflicted, threatened, and to the present hour continued, by successive kings of England and their wicked ministers, and Anglican barons of Irish birth ; that so you may have it in your power to examine into the particulars of the case at issue, and thus to discern for yourself which party it is that has been compelled by real grievances to raise a clamour. And then shall it be for your judgment, after careful and satisfactory inquiry into the matter, to determine, according to the •character of the evidence brought before you, what punish- ment or correction should visit the offences of the delinquent party. *' For the territories of the Church are so curtailed, narrowed, and mutilated by them, that some cathedral churches have been plundered of a moiety, and more than that, of their lands and property, while ecclesiastical privi- leges of every kind are, for most part, entirely abolished by these individuals here spoken of, and our bishops and prelates are indiscriminately summoned, arrested, seized upon, ^id imprisoned by the ministers of the King of England in Ireland ; and though suffering as they do such constant and serious injuries, they are yet so strongly influenced by such slavish timidity that they never venture to bring before your Holiness any representations concerning them. In consequence of such scandalous silence on their part we are also disposed to refrain from any further observa- tion on this topic. " They have also deprived them of their written laws, according to which they have been governed for the most part in preceding times, and of every other law excepting that with which they could not be forced to part ; introducing meanwhile, with a view to the extermination of our people, 58 THE BOOK OF ERIN. infamous laws of the most abandoned and unprincipled character, some of which, by way of example, are here ' inserted ; and those which we subjoin are inviolably observed in the Court of the King of England in Ireland, viz : — " ' I. That permission is given to every person who is not Irish to summon at the law any Irish person in any sort of action whatsoever. But every Irishman, whether he be clerk or layman, the prelates alone excepted, is ipso facto excluded from commencing any action whatsoever. *' ' 2. Further, as it very constantly happens whenever any Englishman, by perfidy or craft, kills an Irishman, however noble or however innocent, be he clerk or layman, be he regular or secular — nay, even if an Irish prelate were to be slain — there is no penalty or correction enforced in the said court against the person who may be guilty of such wicked murder ; but, rather, the more eminent the person killed, and the higher the rank which he holds among his own people, so much the more is the murderer honoured and rewarded by the English ; and not merely by the people at large, but also by the religious and bishops of the English race ; and, above all, by those on whom devolves officially the duty of inflicting on such malefactors a just reward and equitable correction for their evil deeds. " ' 3. Furthermore, every Irish woman, whether of noble rank or otherwise, who marries any Englishman, is deprived, on her partner's death, merely because she is an Irish woman, of the third part of the landed property and other effects which belonged to her deceased husband. "'4. Again, these English, whenever they can "compass the destruction of an Irishman by violent means, will not by any means allow such Irishman to dispose of his own property by his last will or testamentary arrangement of any kind. But, on the contrary, they make their own of all his goods, depriving the Church of her just rights, and by their violence reducing, on their own authority, to a state of bondage, the blood which flowed in freedom from the days of old. " ' It is ordained that all the religious who dwell in the land of peace among the English are prohibited from receiving into their order or form of religion any excepting such as are of the nation of the English. FROM HENRY II. TO RICHARD III. 59* ** * For they have kept up ever since the days of old this wicked and unprincipled usage, which is not even yet falling into disuse amongst them, but, on the contrary, gaining every day new strength, and becoming more inveterate — viz., that when they invite to an entertainment some of the nobles of our nation, at the very time of repast, or during the hours devoted to rest, they will shed, without mercy, the blood of unsuspecting guests whom they have invited, terminating in this way their abominable feasts. *' ' For it is not merely their lay and secular persons, but even some of the religious among them, too, who are asserting the heretical doctrine that it is no more sin to kill an Irishman than a simple dog or any other brute animal. And in con- firmation of this heretical opinion, some of their monks audaciously affirm that if it were to happen that they should kill an Irishman, they would not for this refrain from the cele- bration of the mass even for a single day. And accordingly what they preach in words is unhesitatingly and shamelessly put in practice in their deeds, by the monks of the Cistercian order of Granard in the diocese of Armagh and also by those of Down. For, making their appearance publicly in arms, they invade and slaughter the Irish people, and yet celebrate their masses notwithstanding. ** ' In order to effect our object in this behalf with more promptness, and in a dignified manner, we are inviting to our aid and assistance Edward de Bruce, the illustrious Earl of Carrick, brother german of the most illustrious Lord Robert, by the grace of God King of the Scots, and descendant of some of the most noble of our own ancestors. . . . May it please thee, therefore, most Holy Father, out of a regard for justice and the public peace, mercifully to sanction our proceedings relative to our said lord the King, prohibiting the King of England and our adversaries aforesaid from further molestation of us ; or, at least, be graciously pleased to enforce for us from them the due requirements of justice. No answer seems to have been returned by the Pope to this vigorous appeal; but the original document, with a copy of Pope Adrian's Bull, was forwarded by the Pontiff to Edward II., together with a letter containing the following v60 THE BOOK OF ERIN. passage: — ** We, therefore, by these presents, earnestly beg of your royal excellency that you will take these matters into your calm, deliberate consideration, and confer upon them with your discreet council, and in this way proceed to command and enforce a just and speedy correction and reform of the gnievance aforesaid, so that those Irish people, following more wholesome counsels, may render you the obedience due to their lord, or if (which Heaven forbid !) they shall be disposed to foolish rebellion, they may convert their cause into a matter of open injustice, while you stand excused before God and man." The Pope then promj5tly issued bulls to the Irish arch- bishops, desiring them to excommunicate all who had taken up arms for the Bruces, and all who, either openly or secretly, had furnished them with counsel, weapons, horses, money, or any other aid in their opposition to the Pope's most dear son, Edward, the illustrious King of England. All such persons should be shunned, as under the ban of the Church. The clergy of Ireland were commanded to read these precious -decrees of excommunication every Sunday and festival, with lighted candles and tolling of bells, in such places as they should deem expedient, but more especially in the seaports. Thus again Rome proved herself Ireland's worst foe at the supreme crisis of her fate. The Hiberno- Scottish Alliance. — In May, 1315, Edward Bruce reached the coast of Antrim with three hundred transports conveying 6,000 Scottish veterans, led by officers of renown. He was speedily joined by O'Neill, and the allies, without difficulty, twice defeated the Earl of Ulster, and occupied the chief strongholds of Down and Antrim. In the spring. Sir Edward Butler, the Viceroy, was defeated at Ardscull. Edward Bruce was, subsequently joined by his brother Robert at Carrickfergus with reinforcements. They marched about without molestation wherever they p>leased, and Robert Bruce is said to have heard mass at Limerick on Palm Sunday, 13 17. By this time Edward Bruce, with considerable pomp, had assumed the crown of Ireland, and about half the clans jrecognised his sway. Victory followed victory, notwithstanding very heavy odds, but an unforeseen calamity was at hand. A FROM HENRY II. TO RICHARD III. 6j desolating famine decimated and demoralized the Bruces' troops, and nothing but the prestige of the Bruce name could have saved the allied forces from extermination. A well- appointed Anglo- Irish army, 30,000 strong, barred retreat to Ulster, yet dared not this great host risk a pitched battle, five Englishmen at that time, according to the knightly chronicler Froissart, thinking it no shame to flee before a single Scot. Ultimately the shattered remnant of the Hiberno-Scottish army in May reached Ulster, whence King Robert sailed for Scotland, promising faithfully to return to his brother's aid whenever it should be possible again to take the field. That aid arrived just two days too late. As soon as a fairly abundant harvest had been gathered in, in 13 18, King Edward, ever impatient for battle, encountered a vastly superior torce at the hill of Faughard, within two miles of Dundalk. He would wait for no reinforcements, Irish or Scottish, declaring that he had overthrown the English in eighteen successive battles with inferior forces, and that he would do so again. He was slain in a headlong charge against the enemy. His body was afterwards found beneath a heap of slain. The chivalrous Anglo-Normans cut off his head, salted it, and sent it off to England to console Edward II. for his defeat at Bannockburn. What a contrast was there here to the noble courtesy exhibited to the vanquished by the victor of that famous field ! King Robert Bruce just arrived in time to- carry back in safety to their own land the relics of his brother's gallant band, which at the beginning of the fight had not exceeded 2,000 strong. Effects of the Scottish Expedition. — These were not what might have been expected. The Scots had by their marked courage and discipline dispelled the delusion that the Anglo- Normans possessed any inherent superiority in arms, and the very severity of the Scottish forays, of which the Irish annalists bitterly complain, had reduced the resources of the settlers to a very low point. Accordingly, although during the next 200 years the native Irish showed as little capacity for combination as ever, the power of the aliens steadily dwindled. About the beginning of the eleventh century, by command '62 THE BOOK OF ERIN. of Brian Borumha, it is said, surnames first came into use. Everyone had to take the name of a common ancestor, and prefix to it a "Mac" or an ♦* O," '*of"or "son of," as a patronymic. This fashion the proud scions of Norman houses now began extensively to imitate. The Stauntons became MacAvele3's ; the D'Exeters, Macjordans; the Barrets, MacAndrews ; the Prendergasts, MacMaurices ; the Fitzgeralds, MacThomases, and so on. And with change of name came change of language, change of clothing, customs and habits. The Norman barons became chiefs, and had their Brehons and their Bards like Celts to the manner born. This process of assimilation, by which the Normans were said to become Hihernis ipsis Hiberniores (more Irish than the Irish) ; the constant drain of men for the civil wars in England, and a variety of other causes — causes which the most stringent adverse laws only served to aggravate — gradually reduced the Pale to a mere strip of territory around Dublin, Kilkenny, and a few other places of less note. At the accession of Henry VII., the first of the Tudors (1485), the soldiers of the Pale numbered 200 all told! The slightest well-directed effort might have driven the once proud Anglo-Norman into the sea. 63 :hapter \. MEDIAEVAL IRELAND. "The ruin or prosperity of a State depends so much on the adminis- tration of its Government, that to be acquainted with the merit of a Ministry we need only observe the condition of the people. . . The multitude, in all countries, are patient up to a certain point. Ill-usage may rouse their indignation or hu^ry them into excesses, but the original fault is in the Government." — Junius, Letter I. "No colonial or foreign community in a foreign land can properly and for the general benefit of the world con«;ider the questions of the State. The leading idea is how they will benefit thetnselvcs." — General '; Chinese " Gordon. "The English seem never to have understood the art of governing their provinces, and have always treated them in such a manner as either to put them under the necessity, or subject them to the temptation of casting oflF their government whenever an opportunity offered. It was a series of this impolitic conduct which lost them Normandy, Poictou, Anjou, Guyenne, and all the dominions which they formerly had in France. When Rochelle Saintes, Engousleme, and other towns in these provinces, submitted to the kings of France, they took particular care to insert in their capitulations an express article that in any circumstances or distress of the afifairs of France, they should never be delivered back into the power of the English. It is not a little sarprising that a thinking people, as the English are, should not grow wiser by any experience, and after losing such considerable territories abroad by their Ojpressive treatment of them, should go on to hazard the loss of Ireland, and endeavour the ruin of the colony of their own countrymen planted in that kingdom." — Carte's " Life of Ormonde." " The conveniency of ports and havens, which nature hath bestowed so liberally on this kingdom (Ireland), is of no more use to us than a beautiful prospect to a man shut up in a dungeon." — Dean Swift. State of Ireland at the Accession of Henry (YII.) Tudor [1485). — For a period of two hundred and twenty years, from :he Scottish Campaign of the Bruces in 1315 down to 1535, in 64 THE BOOK OF ERIN. the reign of Henry VIII., the history of Ireland is an almost unbroken record of helpless impotency on the part of the Pale authorities, and of incessant, unintelligible, internecine warfare among the native Irish. The Celtic population seemingly lost the idea of nationality while the Anglo- Normans abandoned that of conquest. With the exception of two powerful but perfectly futile expeditions, the one in 1394, the other in 1399, led by the imbecile monarch, Richard II., the policy of England was in reality all these years one of defence rather than of defiance or attack. Art MacMurrough. — The celebrated Art MacMurrough, one of Ireland's most heroic mediaeval chiefs, with a slender force of 3,000 men, completely baffled a magnificent feudal host more than 30,000 strong, and defied the King of England to his face. Invited to bow his neck to the yoke as other chiefs had done, Art made answer, " For all the gold in the world I will not submit myself, but will continue to war and endamage the King in all that I can." And he was as good as his word till his death in 1417. A French chronicler, Creton, who took part in Richard's second Irish campaign, gives us the following casual glimpse of Art when, on a certain occasion, he condescended to meet the English King's Commissioner, the Earl of Gloucester, in an abortive conference: — "From a mountain between two woods not far from the sea, we saw MacMurrough descend- ing, accompanied by multitudes of the Irish, and mounted on a horse without a saddle, which cost him, it was reported, four hundred cows. His horse was fair, and in his descent from the hill to us ran as swiftly as any stag, hare, or the swiftest beast I have ever seen. In his right hand he bore a long spear, which, when near the spot where he was to meet the Earl, he cast from him with much dexterity. The crowd that followed him then remained behind while he advanced to meet the Earl near a small brook. He was tall of stature, well composed, strong, and active; his counte- nance fierce and cruel." In truth, the time had come when " the mere Irish," like the Scots, had begun to look on the once formidable Anglo- Norman chivalry with a certain measure of disdain. In no way inferior to the invaders in courage, strength, or agility^ MEDIJEVAL IRELAND 65 the Celts had been taught by experience how to overcome the undeniable superiority of their foes in warlike equip- ments. At the Court of Richard II., in 1395, Sir John Froissart, the chivalrous French scholar-knight, met an English gentleman, Henry Castide, who had, for years, been a prisoner among " the Irish enemies," and this was Castide's testimony regarding them to Sir John : — *' To tell you the truth, Ireland is one of the worst countries to make war in or conquer, for there are such impenetrable and extensive forests, lakes, and bogs, there is no knowing how to pass them. It is so thinly inhabited " (at this time, say, 800,000) "that whenever the Irish please they desert the towns, and take refuge in these forests, and live in huts made of boughs, like wild beasts, and whenever they perceive any parties advancing with hostile disposition, and about to enter their country, they fly to such narrow passes it is impossible to follow them. And no man-at-arms, be he ever so well mounted, can overtake them, so light are they of foot. Some- times they leap from the ground behind a horseman, and embrace the rider (for they are very strong in the arms) so tightly that he can no way get rid of them." Parties within the Pale. — Even within the Pale, whose boundaries generally contracted and but rarely expanded, antagonistic elements existed. In a letter to his Council, Richard II. classifies the inhabitants into ** wild Irish or Irish enemies," "Irish rebels," and " Enghsh subjects." The " Irish rebels" weretheHibernicised English or "English by descent," as distinguished from the " English subjects," or " English by birth." How to prevent " English subjects " from " degenerating" first into " Irish rebels," and next into positive " Irish enemies," was the grand legislative problem of this era, so far as the rulers of the Pale were con- cerned. Statute of Kilkenny (1367).— Much cruel legislative ingenuity — cruel in effect, perhaps, rather than in intention — was exercised with this object. In order to preserve the shadow of power, not to speak of a modicum of stated plunder, it became necessary to pass a penal statute of ract. Accordingly the famous, or, to be accurate, the infamous E 66 THE BOOK OF ERIN. ** Statute of Kilkenny " was enacted by order of Viceroy Lionel, Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III. How this Parliament of Kilkenny was made up is not fully known, but the hierarchy, it is certain, was well represented. Pope John XXII. had dealt so severely by rescript with Adam, Bishop of Ferns, and the Friars Minor of the Franciscan order, who had ventured to countenance King Edward Bruce's efforts to make Ireland an independent State, that no tincture of national spirit seems to have remained in the order. There were present the Archbishops of Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam, and the Bishops of Waterford and Lismore, Killaloe, Ossory, Leighlin, and Cloyne. Of these dignitaries, however, it is but fair to record that only the Archbishops of Cashel and Tuam, and the Bishop of Killaloe, were Irishmen, the others being Englishmen by birth or descent. The Statute itself was a monument of human folly. It declared marriage, concubinage, fosterage (a most sacred tie), and gossiprid (sponsorship), with the Irish, high treason. To supply horses or arms to the Irish at any time, or provisions during war ; to submit to the Brehon laws ; ta entertain minstrels; to adopt Irish names, customs, clothing, or language ; to ride in the Irish fashion ; to permit Irish cattle to pasture on English lands ; to retain Irish kerne ; to present Irishmen to Church livings, or to admit them into religious houses in the Pale — all these were acts punishable by the severest penalties. Strictly to enforce such a law was of course beyond the power of mortal man ; but what its framers did succeed in doing was to separate the two races more completely than ever, and to keep alive national enmities till 1494, in the reign of Henry VII., when the Statute was, in a great measure, revived and confirmed. Whoever broke it was declared by the assembled prelates excommunicated in advance. The Statute of Kilkenny was the prolific parent of a series of the same inhuman character. For example, in 141 1 it was enacted that none of the " Irish enemy " should leave Ireland without permission under the great seal, the penalty annexed being entire loss of goods. MEDIiCVAL IRELAND. 67 In 1417 it was decreed that no bishop of the Irish nation, under pain of forfeiting his temporaHties, should present any "mere Irishman" with a benefice, or so much as bring an Irish attendant with him to Parhament or Synod. In 1432 an unique Act was passed which declared any EngHsh merchant a felon who should sell merchandise among " the Irish enemies " either in time of peace or war. In 142 1, a zealous Parhament, held at Dublin, prayed King Richard that, inasmuch as the Irish " had long since taken arms against the Governmentj notivithstanding their recognisances payable in the Apostolic Chamber, his High- ness the King would lay their conduct before the Pope, and prevail on the Holy Father to publish a crusade a/gainst them^ to follow up the intention of his predecessor's grant to Henry II.!" In 1465, the fifth year of Edward IV., it was enacted : — "That it shall be lawful to all manner of men that find any thieves robbing by day or by night, or going or coming to rob or steal, in or out, having no faithful man of good name in their company in English apparel, upon any of the liege people of the King, that it shall be lawful to take and kill those and to cut off their heads, without any impeachment of our Soverign Lord the King, his heirs, officers, ministers, or any others." A more convenient statute than, this for any Englishman predisposed to cut off Irishmen's heads could hardly be imagined. If the Irishman was not robbing or coming from robbing, who could say that he was not going to rob — " in or out ? " After this, need we wonder that an Irish "enemy" or " rebel " who neglected to shave his upper-lip for more than a fortnight was fined, imprisoned, and put to ransom ? Absenteeism. — Severe laws were made from time to time to compel possessors of estates within the Pale to remain in the country to fight the Irish enemy. Such persons were commanded to do one of three things — either reside in Ireland themselves, appoint an efficient substitute, or forfeit two-thirds of their revenues. Most elected to find substitutes or "seneschals," who employed native " gallow-glasses ' ^ (men-at-arms) and "kerne" (light-armed retainers). These* troops were much less costly than Anglo-Norman soldiers; E2 68 THE BOOK OF ERIN, but their common use was perhaps the chief cause why so many of the haughty invaders became in time "rebels" and Hihernis ipsis Hibcyniorcs. When Lionel, son of Edward III., landed in Ireland in 1560, with an army of 1,500 men, the pay of the officers and rank-and-file of his little force was such as to make the mouths of modern soldiers water. The commander himself received 6s. 8d. per diem; each knight, 2s.; each esquire, is.; and each archer, 6d. Multiply these sums respectively by sixteen — the purchasing power of money was then sixteen times greater than now — and we find that a colonel's pay was £1 I2S. a-day ; a subaltern's, i6s. ; and a private's 8s., or £2 1 6s. a- week. Here, assuredly, one would suppose was there an outlet for the energies of the unemployed of those days ! Subdivisions of Clans. — The loss of the national ideal with the declension of external foreign pressure, was followed by the disintegration even of the great Clan Confederacies. The time had come when it could be more truly said of Ireland than of Ancient Rome in her sorest troubles, "Antony has his party, Octavian has his party, but the Commonwealth has none." In 1384, the O'Connors, to settle a case of disputed succession, divided Connaught between rival claimants, and from that moment an O'Connor Don and an O'Connor Roe vied with each other in scourging the western province with feuds as bloody as meaningless. In a few generations the fatal example of the O'Connors was copied north and south. The O' Neils of Clandeboy separated from the O' Neils of Tyrone ; the O' Parrels set up two chiefries in Annally ; the McDonaghs two in Tirerril. There was McDermott of the Wood and McDermott of the Rock ; O'Brien of Ara as well O'Brien of Thomond. And so far did this bewildering process of clan subdivision and consequent clan war go that one can only wonder how any Irish flesh survived the ordeal. An analysis of the Annals of the Four Masters from 1500 to 1534, gives the following results, in Connaught and Ulster chiefly, and without reference to conflicts with the forces of the Pale: — Battles, raids, &c., 116; leaders of note slain in MEDI/EVAL IRELAND. 69 fair fight, 102 ; ditto brutally murdered, 168 ; with uncon- sidered kerne innumerable. Irish Towns. — At the time of Henry II.'s invasion, the Ostmen or Old Norse still predominated in the chief towns of Ireland. On their submission to the Normans they were admitted, along with the Five Royal Celtic Bloods (Quinque Sanguines) to the same legal privileges as the invaders. Dublin received its first charter in 11 71 or 11 72 from Henry H. Drogheda was incorporated in 1229, and Cork in 1242, by Henry HI. Limerick was chartered in 1197, and Waterford in 1206, by John. Kilkenny, New Ross, Clonmel, Youghal, Kinsale, and places of less note, all, sooner or later, received charters royal or baronial. But the history of Galway has an interest peculiar to itself. It was a stronghold of the O'Connors before the Norman invasion. It was regularly incorporated in 1396; but the names of its chief magistrates are extant from 1274 to 1485. From 1485 to 1654 every mayor, with one doubtful exception, was chosen from " the Tribes of Galway," which consisted of fourteen English families, who monopolized civic power. In 15 18 the Corporation decreed that no inhabitant should receive into his house " at Christmas, Easter, nor no feast else, any of the Burkes, MacWilliams, the Kellys, nor no Sept else, without license of the Mayor and Council, on pain to forfeit ;^5, so that neither O nor Mac shall strut through the streets of Galway." The following distich preserves the names of the Galway tribes : — '•Athy, Blake, Bodkin. Browne, Deane, Darcy, Lync>, , Faunt, Kirwan, Martin, Morris, Skerrett, French." Early Irish Parliaments. — It is indisputable that, in a certain sense, Ireland had a Home Rule Parliament almost from the landing of Henry II. Its modifications followed closely those of the English legislature, and the limits of its authority, of course, varied with the varying fortunes of the Pale. In 1204 the three estates of Ireland — clergy, barons, and burgesses — were appealed to by King John for an "aid," in precisely the same manner as the three estates of England. In 1228, Henry III. commanded Magna Charta to be read to the same bodies. It is hardly to be expected that representatives would attend Parliament from purely 70 THE BOOK OF ERIN. Celtic and tribal Ireland, but from most parts of the country it is pretty certain that the dignitaries of the Church did from time to time make an effort to obey the writs of summons. In 1265, the illustrious Simon de Montfort summoned together the first complete English Parliament, embracing burgesses of towns as well as knights of shires ; but it was not till 1295 that the Legislature of the nation settled down into much its present form. Similarly, it is not till 1300 that we find Irish Justiciary Hogan issuing writs, not merely to counties for the election of three or four members of Parliament, but to cities and boroughs also, for the return of two or three. In 131 1 Justiciary Hogan issued writs for a parliament to be held at Kilkenny. The sheriffs were ordered to summon two knights from every county, and two citizens from every municipality, to consult with the magnates, lay and clerical. In 1360 writs for the election of two knights were issued for what remained of the Pale — viz., for the counties of Dublin, Carlow, Louth, Kildare, Waterford, Limerick, and Cork , while the mayor and bailiffs of Dublin, Drogheda, Cork, Waterford, and Limerick, were commanded to return two members each. The members for Drogheda not appearing, they were summoned before the Council under a penalty of ;^40. In the Parliament of March, 1374, the representative meml)crs were only forty in number ; in November of the same year they were fifty-four; in 1377, sixty-two; in 1382, fift\'-eight ; say, at the end of the fourteenth century, sixty. The spiritual and temporal peers in the Irish Parliament were at first a numerous body. Of the former there were four archbishops, twenty-six bishops, thirteen mitred abbots of the Ci;;tcrcian order, ten mitred priors of Augustinian canons, and others. Of the latter eighty-eight were summoned to the Kilkenny Parliament of 1311, but for a hundred years previous to the accession of Queen Elizabeth in 1559 they tiad never exceeded thirty m number. The Viceroys in Ireland were at first styled Justiciaries. The first regularly-dubbed Lord-Lieutenant was Lionel, Duke of Clarence, 1361. Royal princes frequently held the Dfiice without fulfilling the duties as is the fashion of royal MEDIvEVAL IRELAND. 7I princes. They generally ruled through a Lord Deputy, and so it came to pass that there were frequently deputies appointed without any Lord-Lieutenant intervening between them and royalty. Lord Capel (1695) was the last Deputy. Since then the head of the Irish Government has always been a Lord-Lieutenant, represented in his absence by one or more of the Lords Justices appointed by the Irish Privy Council. Before leaving the subject of Irish Mediaeval Parlia- ments, it may not be amiss to note the first attempt on the part of England to supersede Home Rule in Ireland. In 1376 Edward III. summoned the representatives of the Pale to meet him in London to consult about the affairs of the colony. They met in Ireland, and formulated a protest. The Great Council of the Kingdom, they said, could not be lawfully convened outside of Ireland ; but for once, to con- venience the King, they would do so, saving the rights of their heirs and successors. The proposal was at once wisely dropped, and Dene and Stapolyn, the delegates of the Irish Parliament, were ordered to be paid ten pounds out of the Exchequer for their expenses. Penal Laws of Race and their Results. — The Statute of Kilkenny, and the Acts subsidiary to it, did, indeed, succeed in perpetuating hostility of race ; but it was the English race that suffered most. The " wild Irish" became, unquestionably wilder still ; but they tamed the proud spirits of the Normans to an incredible degree. The Pale shrank to a mere skeleton of its former self, and when the first Tudor ascended the throne in 1485, and even down to 1535, late in the reign of Henry VIII., this was the normal condition of affairs. The four Pale Shires were allowed a precarious respite on the payment of an annual tribute. O'Neil levied ;^2o blackmail on the barony of Lecale, and £\o on County Louth ; O'Connor, of Offaly, £^0 on County Meath, and £10 on County Kildare. McMurrough, of Leinster, exacted eighty marks from the Viceroy. Even the fortified towns had to buy protection from the Celtic chiefs. Dundalk *' attorned" to O'Neil; Limerick to O'Brien of Thomond ; Cork to Cormac McTeig ; and Kilkenny and Tipperary to O'Carrol of Ely. So much for Norman fraud and force ! So much for papal bulls and anathemas ! 7a CHAPTER VI. " Pojmings' Law " and the " Defender of the Faith." (1485-1547.) of all the fatal gifts which we bestowed on our unhappy possession' (Ireland), was the gift of the English system of owning land. Land, properly speaking, cannot be owned by any man — it belongs to all the human race. In Ireland, as in all primitive civilizations, the soil was divided among the tribes. Each tribe collectively owned its own district." — Froude. " Landlords are, perhaps, the only great body of men whose interest is- diametrically opposed to the interest of the nation." — Buckle. "The lord is an absolute tyrant, and the tenant a very slave and villein^ and in one respect more miserable than bond-slaves. For, commonly, the bond-slave is fed by the lord ; but here (Ireland), the lord is fed by his bond-slave." — Sir John Davies (1612). " It is the nature of the human disposition to hate him whom you havs- injured." — Tacitus. " The special end and raison d'etre of government should be that the people should have the constant direction and effectual control of their own government, and should be ruled, not according to abstract principles, but according to wants generated by their own special circumstances." — GUIZOT. " We have tried to govern Ireland by the Army, by the Church, and by the Landlords. All these agencies have failed, and brought us only shame and humiliation. Let us now try to rule her by her own people." — Joseph Cowen. "There is nothing impossible, only that men's minds are not deter- mined." — Confucius. The First Tudor's Policy. — The accession of Henry VI L (1485) to the throne of England marks a distinct turn in the tide of Irish affairs. This turn was at first almost impercep- tible ; but in the last decade of his memorable son, the- *' Defender of the Faith," it assumed an aspect unwontedly favourable to the invaders. POYNINGS LAW," I485-I547. 75 The limits of Henry's jurisdiction did not exceed a strip of territory fifty miles long by twenty, in the vicinity of DubHn. Consequently, to chronicle the events of the Pale is, in no true sense, to write the history of Ireland at this period. Dane, Norman, and Pope had done their fell work, and rendered that history for ever unnarrateable. Who could write or read a treatise on universal anarchy ? But the general condition of the people may be suggested, if not described. In 1515, an Englishman, calling himself Panderus, wrote " A Report of the State of Ireland " which casts a sombre light on the situation. Says the Pander: — "There be sixty regions in Ireland, inhabited by the King's Irish enemies. Some regions there be as big as a shire, some more, some less, where reigneth more than sixty Chief Captains, whereof some calleth themselves kings, some king's peers, some princes, some dukes, that liveth only by the sword, and obeyeth no other temporal person save only to him that is strong. And every one of the said Captains maketh war and peace for himself, and holdeth by the sword, and hath imperial jurisdiction, and obeyeth no other person, English or Irish, except only such persons as may subdue him by the sword. Also, in every of the said regions there be divers petty Captains, and every of them maketh war and peace for himself without license of the Chief Captain, And there be more than thirty of the English noble folk that follow the same Irish order and keepeth the same rule." Ireland had thus come to be ruled by some ninety or a hundred brigand chiefs, whose daily occupation was mutual slaughter and outrage. " For there is no land in the world of so continual war, nor of so great shedding of Christian blood, nor of so great robbery, spoiling, preying, and burn- ing, nor of so great wrongful extortion continually, as Ireland." Need we wonder, then, that the author of this Report continues : — " What common folk in all the world is so poor, so feeble, so evil be seen in town and held, so bestial, so- greatly oppressed and trodden under foot, fares so evil, with so great misery, and with so wretched life, as the common folk of Ireland ? What pity is here, what ruth is to report, there is no tongue that can tell, no person that can write^ "74 THE BOOK OF ERIN. It passeth far the orator and muses all to show the order of the nobles, and how cruel they entreateth the poor common people. What danger is it to the King against God to suffer his land, whereof he bears the charge and the care temporal, to be in the said misorder so long without remedy. It were more honour to surrender his claim thereto, and to make no longer prosecution thereof, than to suffer his poor subjects always to be so oppressed, and all the nobles of the land to be at war within themselves, always shedding of Christian blood without remedy. The herd must render account for his fold, and the King for his." The exactions of Irish chiefs were a compound of those inflicted on " the poor common people " by the old French noblesse and the ruffianly mediaeval barons of Scotland. Besides " black-rent," the miserable toilers were oppressed by — (i.) " BonagJtf," a tax imposed to support in idleness mercenary gallow- glasses and kerne. (2.) " Sorohen," a tax to entertain at stated times the chief and his train for twenty-four hours. (3.) " Coshcry," the right of a chief, with his retainers, to sponge on his personal vassals whenever he pleased. (4.) " Cuddies," or " night-suppers," a custom by which the chief and his followers might quarter themselves for four days four times a-year on certain lands. ^5.) " Shycigh and Mart," indefinite yearly exactions in kine and money, imposed at the chiefs' discretion. (6). "Coyne and Livery," originally a system of " requisitioning " the enemy in time of war, but latterly indulged in at all seasons by the great at the expense of the poor common people. More diabolical methods of crushing the life-blood out of a much-enduring race it is impossible to imagine. And between the Celtic and Anglo-Irish chiefs there was but little to choose. They seemed to rival each other in their efforts to brutalise the people. The two branches of the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Desmond and Earls of Kildare, and the Butlers, Earls of Ormonde, were the leading scourges of the latter set. In the Wars of the Roses, the Butlers had been Lancastrians, the Fitzgeralds Yorkists. This being so, Henry would naturally have sided with the Butlers, the friends of his house, but policy — and he was a Louis XI. in "POYNINGS' LAW." I485-I547. 75 craft — forbade him. He found Kildare governor, and he retained him in office because he well knew it would be dangerous to depose him. A better way, he reckoned, was to invite him to London; but this honour the Earl, knowing that there was such a place as the Tower in the great city, cautiously declined. Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck.— Immediately afterwards we find Kildare in revolt. With rare excep- tions, the Anglo-Irish were Yorkists, and ready to espouse the cause of any White Rose pretender. The first to claim their fealty was Lambert Simnel, a youth of engaging manners, whom Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV., declared to be Earl of Warwick, and last of the Plantagenets. Henry had the real W^arwick in close custody in the Tower; but the Anglo-Irish would not believe him. Accordingly, with much pomp, they crowned the Oxford shoemaker's son in Christ's Church, Dublin (141 7), as Edward VI., and much satisfaction did he give to all his supporters in that capacity. And why not? He could scarcely have been a worse king than any one of his predecessors, from Willian the Norman downwards ; and, as for the fraud of which he was probably ignorant, it was a venial offence compared with tlie bloody crimes by which most of the English monarchs have attained to royal sway. As it was, King Lambert suffered signal defeat at the battle of Stoke, in Nottinghamshire, where most of his leading Anglo-Irish adherents, including Lords Thomas and Maurice Fitzgerald, were slain. Simnel was made prisoner, and subsequently raised from kitchen turnspit to the dignity of falconer in the royal household. But Margaret of Burgundy was not yet done with the hated Henry. She had another arrow m her quiver — the mysterious Perkin W'arbeck, whom she declared to be Duke of York (second son of Edward IV., murdered in the Tower by Richard III.), and "White Rose of England." Three times in his career Warbeck landed at Cork, where he was enthusiastically received. He is believed by many to have been an illegitimate son of Edward IV., to whom lie bore a striking personal resemblance. In 1409 he was executed 76 THE BOOK OF ERIN. at Tyburn, his devoted adherent, John Waters, ex- Mayor of Cork, sharing his fate. Poynings' Acts. — These formidable assaults on his throne determined Henry to pursue a more vigorous policy in Ireland. In 1494 he sent over as his representative a trusted councillor and administrator, Sir Edward Poynings, with certain legal assessors and a force of 1,000 men. Having speedily executed some successful military operations. Sir Edward convoked the memorable Parliament of Drogheday which at a blow reduced the Irish legislature to a virtual nullity for the long period of 288 years — till 1782. The Statute of Kilkenny, the Penal Statute of Race, was confirmed with insignificant exceptions. But " Poynings' Acts " proper were two in number. The one enacted that no legislation whatever should be proceeded with in Ireland until the Bills to be pro- posed should first be approved by the English Privy Council and returned to the Irish Council certified under the Great Seal of England. By the other it was decreed that all acts then in force in England should in future have full effect in Ireland. Poynings' Administration did not last for more than two years, but its effects endured for centuries. They were worse than the loss of several bloody battles. Irish projects of law very frequently came back from London to Dublin altered and mutilated beyond recognition. Howbeit, they must be accepted or rejected in toto. Attainder of Kildare. — The Drogheda Parliament, among its many acts of rigour, attainted the Earl of Kildare on several alleged counts of disloyalty. He was sent a prisoner to London to await the King's own judgment thereon. His defence w^as a masterpiece of happy Hibernian audacity One of the heaviest charges against him was that he had set fire to the Cathedral of Cashel to avenge himself on the Archbishop, who was friendly to the Butlers. " I would never have done it," replied Kildare, " had I not thought the Archbishop was within." This plea was so novel and startling that Henry decided to give the Earl further time 10 prepare his defence, and added that he might choose his own counsel. "I doubt," observed the culprit, reflectively, ** if I will be allowed to choose the good fellow I wish to select." 76 THE BOOK OF ERIN. at Tyburn, his devoted adherent, John Waters, ex-Mayor o£ Cork, sharing his fate. Poynings' Acts. — These formidable assaults on his throne determined Henry to pursue a more vigorous polic}* in Ireland. In 1494 he sent over as his representative a trusted councillor and administrator, Sir Edward Poynings, with certain legal assessors and a force of 1,000 men. Having speedily executed some successful military operations, Sir Edward convoked the memorable Parliament of Drogheda^ which at a blow reduced the Irish legislature to a virtual nullity for the long period of 288 years — till 1782. The Statute of Kilkenny, the Penal Statute of Race, was confirmed with insignificant exceptions. But " Poynings' Acts " proper were two in number. The one enacted that no legislation whatever should be proceeded with in Ireland until the Bills to be pro- posed should hrst be approved by the English Privy Council and returned to the Irish Council certified under the Great Seal of England. By the other it was decreed that all acts then in force in England should in future have full effect in Ireland. Poynings' Administration did not last for more than two years, but its effects endured for centuries. They were worse than the loss of several bloody battles. Irish projects of law very frequently came back from London to Dublin altered and mutilated beyond recognition. Howbeit, they must be accepted or rejected in toto. Attainder of Kildare. — The Drogheda Parliament, among its many acts of rigour, attainted the Earl of Kildare on several alleged counts of disloyalty. He was sent a prisoner to London to await the King's own judgment thereon. His defence was a masterpiece of happy Hibernian audacity One of the heaviest charges against him was that he had set fire to the Cathedral of Cashel to avenge himself on the Archbishop, who was friendly to the Butlers. " I would never have done it," replied Kildare, " had I not thought the Archbishop was within." This plea was so novel and startling that Henry decided to give the Earl further time 10 prepare his defence, and added that he might choose his own counsel. " I doubt," observed the culprit, reflectively, " if I will be allowed to choose the good fellow I wish to select." 78 THE BOOK OF ERIN. followed, as a matter of course. The Silken Lord and his two uncles, Oliver and John, were anathematized by name. Leprosy, madness, hunger and thirst in this life, with eternal damnation in the next, were invoked on them. No house should shelter them ; no church afford them sanctuary ; na Christian give them a morsel of bread or a cup of cold water in their direst need, on pain of being held accessory to their crime. This curse, it is said, Kildare read in the Tower, and died of grief in consequence. Capture of Mayncoth Castle. — But more potent thunder even than the major excommunication soon fell on the ears of Silken Thomas. Sir William Skeffington sat down before Maynooth Castle, the great Fitzgerald stronghold, with a powerful siege-train, which speedily brought the garrison to reason. Christopher Paris,. Kildare's foster-brother, was commandant, and he in the last extremity shamefully betrayed his trust. When all was over, Paris came confidently forward to claim from Skeffington the price of his treachery.' The Deputy, with seeming in- nocence, inquired what benefits Kildare had bestowed on him. Paris incautiously enumerated them. " And couldst thou, then," thundered Skelffngton, " find in thine heart to betray his castle who has been so good to thee? Truly, thou that art so hollow to him will never be true to us." Then, turning to his ofiicers, he gave orders that the stipulated price should be instantly paid down, and the faithless caitiff executed on the spot. Heavy ordnance was new in the history of Irish warfare,, and its introduction counts for much in the subsequent history of the island. Silken Thomas and his best supporters were soon convinced by it of the inequality of the struggle. He surrendered, " comfortable words being spoken to allure him to yield." He was conveyed to that ancient slaughter- house, the Tower of London, where he was confined in a condition of the greatest wretchedness. There he was eventually joined by his five uncles, three of whom, though entirely innocent, had been treacherously arrested by Deputy Grey at his own dinner-table at Kilmainham. They were all executed at Tyburn, and the Geraldine star sank beneath the horizon — for a time. 79 CHAPTER VII. The Protestant Devastation. " Tantum religio pvtuit suadire wa/cr.vm. "Lucretius. "Beware of the Scribes who love to go in long clothing, and love Salu- tations in the market places. " And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts. Who devour widows' houses and for a pretence make long prayers. These shall receive greater damnation." — Jesus Christ. " And as He went out of the temple, one of the disciples saith unto Him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here ! And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings ? " There shall not be one stone left upon another that shall not be thrown down." — Ibid. " And when He was demanded of the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God should come He answered them, and said, The Kingdom of God Cometh not with observation : " Neither shall they say, Lo here ! or, lo there ! for, behold the kingdom of heaven is within you." — Ibid. " My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." — Ibid. "The woman saith unto Him, Sir, our fathers worshipped in this moun- tain ; and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. "Jesus saith unto her. Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father " But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. " God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." — Ibid. " And he (the lawyer), answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength and with all thy mind ; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he (Jesus) said unto him, " Thou hast answered right ; this do, and thou shalt live (inherit eternal life)." — Ibid. " Pure religion and undetiled before God and the Father is this ; To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." — St. James. " Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. ^O THE BOOK OF ERIN. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though Ihave all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." — St. Paul. To understand the " Reformation " of religion in Ireland, two preliminaries are essential. First, we must know something of the movement in England before it reached the Pale ; secondly, we must endeavour, in some measure, to realise the condition of the island generally in regard to religion at the time when the " Defender of the Faith" •determined to involve the people in his anti-Papal quarrel. Henry's Quarrel with the Pope.— Circumstances had made Henry VIII., the offspring of the Roses, White and Red, the most powerful, as he was unquestionably the ablest, tyrant that ever sat on the throne of England. The *' Old Nobility," whose strong right arms in battle had so often braved the wrath and curbed the will of the most imperious monarchs, were now almost extinct. They had perished, root and branch, in the fell dynastic Wars of York and Lancaster, and the Tudors seized the opportunity to establish, on the ruins of their restraining power, the most crushing system of *' one-man government." The old feudal barons were succeeded by a base, ignoble herd of creeping, fawning, parchment-made peers, past- masters in every species of villany, adepts in every imagin- able vice, great and small. Their servility was at all times sickening and Oriental, rather than Occidental, in its iibasement. To obtain a nod ot royal approval, they would plot, lie, forge, and even poison, as if plotting, lying, forging, and poisoning were among the fine arts. Need we wonder, then, that when Henry found it desirable, for the gratification of his unbridled lusts, to make himself Pope as well as King of England, his monstrous project met with general approval? His councillors and courtiers were such a pack of whipped curs and mercenary wretches that he might just as well have turned Caliph of Bagdad, or Llama of Thibet, for any opposition they were likely to offer. But though Henry could make himself Pope of England without difficulty, he could not, singularly enough, turn THE PROTESTANT DEVASTATION. 8 1 Protestant. He was an absolute King, but he had also had the temerity to claim a place in the Republic of Letters. " O that mine enemy would write a book ! " exclaimed Job. And luckily for Henry's enemies he had in his time written a book against the great heresiarch, Luther. Luther had begun as early as 15 17 to write in favour of salvation by " faith " alone — assuredly his "■ works," even by his own confession, needed the justification of a very ample measure of such saving grace — and Henry, in 1521, had rashly ventured to break a controversial lance with the redoubtable heretic. For his pains, Luther called the Defender of the Faith^ among other choice names, " a pig, an ass, a dunghill, the spawn of an adder, a basilisk, a lying buffoon dressed in a king's robes, a mad fool with a frothy mouth and a whorish face," and added, " You lie, you stupid and sacrilegious King." This was worse than blasphemy, and Henry, in con- sequence, never became a full-blown Protestant heretic. He never got beyond schism ; but if Luther had appeared on the scene about a dozen years later than he did, the chances are ten to one that Henry would have embraced the German ^' Reformer's " heresy with avidity. As it was. Pope Leo X., *' servant of the servants of the Lord," addressing his " most dear son, King Henry of England, Defender of the Faith," officially declared : " We, sitting in this Holy See, having with mature deliberation considered the business with our brethren, do, with their unanimous counsel and consent, grant unto your Majesty, your heirs and successors, the title of Defender of the Faith ; which we do by these presents confirm unto you, commanding all the faithful to give your Majesty this title." In 1509, the year of his accession, Henry had married Catherine of Arragon, who was eight years his senior. She had been previously married to his elder brother Arthur, a sickly youth, who died in his fifteenth year, before the consummation of his nuptials. Queen Catherine was, therefore, nominally the widow of Henry's brother, but the necessary papal dispensation had been readily granted, and it was seventeen long years before the Defender of the Faith suddenly discovered that he was " living in sin." 83 THE BOOK OP IRIN. He had now, however, cast his eyes on Anne Boleyn, one of his wife's maids of honour, and had resolved to repudiate the faithful Catherine and make the sprightly Anne his wife. The Pope righteously refused to divorce the Queen, and hence came on our land what Cobbett has not unjustly called the "Protestant Devastation." Archbishop GranmeF. — In this business, Henry's chief adviser was one Thomas Cranmer, an execrable hypocrite whom Henry subsequently made Archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer was steeped to the lips in every species of perfidy and impiety. With such a vile tool the lustful tyrant could do whatever he pleased. The first difficulty, how to get the shameless creature duly consecrated Archbishop, was surmounted in this way. Before going to the altar to take the oath of obedience to the Pope of Rome, he entered a little chapel, and swore that such obedience should in no way limit his allegiance to •' Pope " Henry of England. Christ had said, " Ye cannot serv^e two masters ; " but Thomas Cranmer, Thomas the Protestant archiepiscopal martyr, knew how the thing was to be done and did it. Nay, he could, with a qualified measure of success, serve two mistresses also. " Before he became a priest." says Cobbett, "he had married. After he became a priest and had taken the oath of celibacy^ he married another wife while the first was still alive. Being the primate of Henry's Church, which still forbade the clergy to have wives, and which held them to their oath of celibacy, he had his wife brought to England in a chest, with holes bored in it to give her air. As the cargo was destined for Canterbury, it was landed at Gravesend, where the sailors, not apprized of the contents of the chest, set it up on end, the wrong end down- wards, and had nearly broken the neck of the poor frow. Here was a pretty scene ! A German frow with a litter of half-German, half-English young ones, kept in hugger- mugger on the spot which had been the cradle of Christianity! '^ In April, 1533, Archbishop Cranmer became seriously alarmed for the safety of the King's soul. To live in " incestuous intercourse" longer was perilous in the extreme. He therefore, besought the Defender of the Faith in writing to permit him to try the question of the divorce. Permission THE PROTESTANT DEVASTATION. 83 was, of course, granted by the Head of the Church. Catherine was promptly divorced from her husband, who was solemnly admonished by the Primate to submit himself with resigna- tion to the will of God. He successfully submitted, and Cranmer held another Court, at which he declared that Anne Boleyn, who was with child, had been lawfully wedded to the royal sufferer several months before. That child — afterwards Queen Elizabeth — the Primate, in due course, helped to bastardize, having first pronounced her mother's marriage null and void ab initio / On 15th May, 1536, Anne was condemned to death as the King's wife; on the 17th, Cranmer declared officially that she had never been his wife at all ; and on the 19th she was executed as the King's unfaithful wife ! Assuredly, if ever there was an institution conceived in sin and born in iniquity, it is the Church of England as by law (outrage) established. No human institution ever had an origin more infamous. But it is not my task to write the shameful history of the English '* Reformation." Suffice it to say that it originated in royal lust, and was fed on public plmider. The spoils of 645 monastic institutions, 90 colleges, no hospitals, and 2,374 chantries and free chapels were divided among Pope Henry's chief aiders and abettors in Council and in Parlia- ment. Salisbury and Hartington, the heads of the Tory and Whig sections of the aristocracy to-day, are appropriately enough the direct spawn of the "Devastation," the *' reforming" Cecils and the Cavendishes having contrived to secure enormous slices of the conventual estates for services the most infamous. So great was the rapacity of scoundrels such as these, that Henry complained to his Vicegerant and Vicar-General (!) Cromwell : " By our Lady, the Cormorants, when they have got the garbage, devour the dish." The Vicar-General obsequiously observed that the work of plunder was incom- plete. " Tut, man," said the King, ** the whole realm would not staunch their maws." As it was, they devoured a good third of the realm, and were ever ravenous for more. The consequences were terrible in the extreme. One-third, F 2 84 THE BOOK OF ERIN. at least, of that third was the patrimony of the poor, and the monks were, moreover, beyond cavil the most lenient landlords, and the most enlightened horticulturists and agriculturists in the kingdom. The "Reformation" found England a land of contentment and universal plenty : it left it seething with strife, and plunged in pauperism. It is not of the plunder of the Catholic Church that one complains so much. It is of the robbery of the widow, the orphan, the indigent, and the stranger, whose^sacred rights the Catholic Church had so faithfully safe-guarded for ages. Even the tithes of the secular clergy of the old faith were not theirs to use as they had a mind. The following episcopal canon may be taken as a fair specimen of the general practice : — " Let the priests receive the tithes of the people and keep a written account of all that have paid them ; and divide them, in the presence of such as fear God, according to canonical authority. Let them set apart the first share for the repairs and ornaments of the Church ; let them distribute the second to the poor and the stranger with their own hands m mercy and humility ; and reserve the third for themselves." Do our Anglican priests distribute a third of their incomes among the poor and the stranger in mercy and humility ? No, " by our Lady, the Cormorants, when they have got the garbage, will devour the dish " sooner. To the " Reforma- tion " we owe directly or indirectly four of the greatest curses that can afflict a nation — curses which may peradventure be our final and irretrievable ruin as a state — Pauperism, Usury, a National Debt, and a Standing Army. As the "Reformation" developed its true character, a vast scheme of aristocratic loot became more and more apparent. So long as there was booty to share. Parliament was ever ready to undo to-morrow what it did to-day. Henry's position as an English Catholic Pope was peculiar, but it did not stagger his ministers or legislators. He sent Papal Catholics and Protestant heretics to the stake on the same hurdles, bound back to back. His courtier creatures applauded. Like beaten hounds they were ever ready to lick the hand that smote. The merciless, ** Vicar-General " THE PROTESTANT DEVASTATION. 8^ himself, when his own turn came to be immolated, besought his inexorable master to permit him " to kiss his balmy Jiand once mon that the fragrance thereof might make him fit for heaven.'' In Henry's reign the nobles were royalist Catholics. In Edward the Sixth's they became Protestant heretics. In Queen Mary's they returned with a rush to the Papal fold, on condition that they should not be asked to restore any of the stolen property. In Queen Elizabeth's time they again with un- approachable effrontery renounced the errors of Rome at the bidding of the virgin Queen. So much for the English ** Reformation " and its promoters. Compare the conduct of these monsters of iniquity with the wise and gentle methods of conversion pursued by St. Patrick and St. Columbkill, and, great heavens I what a contrast ! Condition of the Irish Church before the Devastation.— By the 13th section of the inhuman Statute of Kilkenny, the race feud between Anglo-Norman and Celt was carried into every department of clerical life. The Anglo-Irish clergy and the native Irish clergy, though at one in creed, had no more dealings with each other than the Jews of old with the Samaritans. They hated each other as cordially as the lay members of their flocks. Consequently there were not, and could not, be any national ecclesiastical councils or convoca- tions. Ireland was divided religiously by a practical schism of race. In the Pale, and at times beyond it, the Crown nominated to vacant episcopal sees ; but generally, where the King's writ did not run, the Pope appointed the bishops. The clergy, as elsewhere, were either secular or regular — that is, parochial or monastic. Both ranks were at this time in a deplorable condition. The hand of the spoiler was everywhere, and (Carew MSS.) neither " archbishop nor bishop, abbot nor prior, parson nor vicar, nor any other person of the Church, higli or low, great or small, cared aught for the temporal or spiritual welfare of the people, save only the t>oor begging friars.'' In the Pale, and beyond it, clerical deeds of violence were of everyday occurrence. As samples, the following entries of the Four Masteis (1500- 1530) are instructive: — "1500 a.d. Barry Moore killed by his cousin, the Archdeacon of Cloyne, who was himself hanged by Thomas Barry. 1505 a.d., ^6 THE BOOK OF ERIN. Donald Kane, Abbot of Macosquin, hanged by Donald O'Kane, who was himself hanged. 1506 a.d., John Burke was killed in the monastery of Tubberpatrick. 1508 a.d., Donaghmoyne Church was set on fire by McMahon during niass. 1526 A.D., Hugh Maguinness, Abbot of Nevvry, was killed by the sons of Donald Maguinness. 1530 a.d., the Prior of GaJlen was murdered by Turloug Oge Maclouglilin. 1530 A.D., O'yuillan was murdered, and the Church of Dunbol burned by O'Kane." Until shortly before the Anglo-Norman invasion, the episcopo-parochial system was unknown in Ireland, and even down to the period of the "Reformation" the monastic institutions exercised disproportionate influence. At the date of their dissolution they were some 400 in number, including 285 houses of the Augustinians (220 for regular canons and 65 for nuns) ; 70 monasteries and 20 nunneries of the Arvasians, or reformed Augustinians ; 7 houses of the canons of St. Victor; 7 of the Premonstratencians ; and 10 of the Benedictines. Of ihe mendicant orders, the Dominican, or Black Friars, had 40 establishments ; the Franciscans, or Gray Friars, 114; the Carmelites, or White Friars, 20; and the Austin and Crutched Friars (subject to the same rule), 36. There were, besides, the ecclesiastico-military Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, whose Grand Prior of Ivilmainham was the leadin*:^ baron of the Pale. To make a long story short, the English "Reformation" found ecclesiastical Ireland, like lay Ireland, in a state of wretched decay and demoralisation. The parochial system was in ruins, the churches without roofs, and the secular clergy, where they existed, unlettered and unpaid. In some of the monasteries the light of learning still flickered dimly. They supplied vicars for about one- third of the parochial churches, and no serious attempt has ever been made, as in other countries, particularly Scotland, to impugn the general morality of the inmates. They afforded some refuge for the more sensitive victims of all- prevailing anarchy, and they did somewhat to mitigate the intolerable sufferings of the poor. Hence the dissolution of these institutions by the Govern- THE PROTESTANT DEVASTATION. 8^ ment of schismatic aliens was another disastrous blow, added lo many rueful predecessors, thoughtlessly — nay, criminally^ Struck at the welfare of the Irish people. The Parliament of 1536.— The Irish Parliament of the Pale rivalled the EngHsh legislature of which it was but the shadow, in its haste to do the behests of the Defender of the Faith. It forbade appeals to Rome, and vested first-fruits in Pope Henry. In 1537, after several prorogations, it was enacted that King Henry, " Lord of Ireland, his heirs and successors, shall be acccepted, taken, and reputed the only Supreme Head on Earth of the whole Church in Ireland." A subsequent statute, levelled expressly '* against the authority of the Bishop of Rome," made it high treason in anyone to refuse to take the oath of royal supremacy if called upon to do so by anyone commissioned to exact it. The payment of Peter's pence was prohibited. As head of the Church in Ireland, Henry possessed a sort of inherent right to confiscate monastic property ; but lest there should be any doubt on the subject. Parliament was not slow to enact several statutes expressly conferring on him most ample powers of dissolution and appropriation. The chattel property of the monasteries was valued at jf 100,000, and the annual revenue from real estate at ;f 32,000 in the currency of the day. Sharing the Spoils. — Differing in many respects from the aristocracy of England, the Anglo- Irish and Celto- Irish chiefs had yet one notable characteristic in common. They were creedless and raceless when it came to be a question of dividing the booty — the plunder of their Church and of their poor retainers and tribesmen. Abbeys were (State Papers) to be granted to them, " as the means to make them rather glad to suppress them." And right glad were Celts, Saxons, and Normans, Protestants and Papists, alike to be in at the death. Brabazon, St. Leger, Sir John Allen, Chief Justice Luttrell, Edmund Sexton, Sir Thomas Cusack, Robert Dillon, and Prime- Serjeant Barnewell, the chief agents in the suppression of the religious houses, of course shared proportionately in the spoils. Barnewell denied the King's right of dissolution, but clutched greedily at the proceeds. 88 THE BOOK OF ERIN. To O'Brien were granted the abbey lands of Thomond ; to O'Brien, Baron of Ibrackim, the Abbey of EUengrave and the moiety of the Abbey of Clare ; to Fitzpatrick, Lord of Upper Ossory, ihe Abbeys of Hackmackart and Haghevoo. In the Bishop of Clonfert's bishopric was included the envied Abbey de Porto Puro Clonfert-Brendaw ; while on McWilliam, Earl of Clanricarde, were bestowed the Abbey de Via Nova and the patronage of all such parsonages and vicarages within the compass of his lands as were in the gift of the Crown : And so on. Effect of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. — Mr. ^jjchey, in his admirable " Lectures on Irish History," thus sums up the results of this grievous rapacity: — "The immediate effect of the dissolution of the monasteries was two-fold. It destroyed the sole institutions in the country which were professedly peaceful, and where hospitality and education could be obtained. Secondly, it deprived a large proportion of the parishes, (between one-third and one-fourth), in the island of the means of supporting a resident clergy, and left the country districts without any religious ministra- tion or instruction." So much for the Christian achievements of the leprous royal miscreant whom the Pope had honoured with the unique distinction, " Fidei Defensor." S9 CHAPTER VIII. The First English King of Ireland. •• A titled nobility is the most undisputed progeny of feudal barbarism. Titles had in all ages denoted offices ; it was reserved for Gothic Europ©- to attach them to ranks." — Sir James Mackintosh. " A people, therefore, that sets up kings, dictators, consuls, praetors, or emperors, does so, not that these may be great, glorious, rich or happy, but that it may be well with themselves and their posterity." — Algernon Sydney. " Human beings are only secure from evil at the hands of others, in proportion as they have the power of being and are self-protecting, and they only achieve a high degree of success in their struggle with nature in proportion as they are self-dependent, relying on what they themselves can do either separately or in concert, rather than on what others do for them.''— J. S. Mill, "The whole system of right to power, property, and everything else in society, must be regulated by the same decisive question : What is it that the good of the community requires ?" — Dr. Priestly. "The consideration of riches and power, however acquired, must be entirely set aside when we come to first principles. The very idea of property or of right of any kind, is founded on a regard to the general good of society, under whose protection it is enjoyed, and nothing is properly a man's own but what general rules, which have for their object the general good of the whole, give to him." — Bentham, " You may point if you will to hereditary rulers, to crowns coming down through successive generations of the same family, to thrones based on prescription or on conquest, to sceptres wielded over veteran legions and subject realms — but to my mind there is nothing more worthy of reverence and obedience, and nothing more sacred than the authority of the freely chosen magistrate of a great and free people; and if there be on earth and amongst men any right divine to govern, surely it rests with a ruler so chosen and so appointed." — John Bright. "Go on ! until this land revokes The old and chartered lie, The feudal curse whose whips and yokes Insult humanity. Lonfpellow. CfYil Policy and GoYernment of Henry YIII. — The pre- ceding chapter of this narrative dwelt specifically with the ^ THE BOOK OF ERIN. ecclesiastical policy of Henry's reign. It is now necessary to resume the thread of general political events and designs. Having, as has been seen, made himself Pope of England, and, so far as the phantom Parliament of the Pale could help him. Pope of Ireland as well, Henry set his heart on three main subjects. Firstly, he would be King of Ireland independently of the Pope's gift ; secondly, Ireland must be made, if possible, a subject of profit instead of incessant loss to the Crown ; thirdly, the Irish laws, customs, and institu- tions must be completely assimilated to those of England. Were these ends to be achieved by conciliation or coercion, by gradually converting the natives into Anglicised taxable subjects, or by exterminating them, and " planting " English settlers in their stead, was the great problem for Henry and his councillors. Between these alternatives English policy fluctuated for generations, and may even now, in a measure, be said to fluctuate. The Cost of the Pale to England. — To give some notion of the constant loss of revenue involved in maintaining the nominal, supremacy of England, it may be stated, by way of illustration, that the suppression of Silken Thomas's insurrection alon*5 cost ;f40,ooo, more than ten years' entire Crown income from Ireland. In these circumstances the King and his English Council kept incessantly dunning the Irish Council and Parliament for increased subsidies ; but the process w^as necessarily fruitless. The Pale was taxed and blackmailed beyondall endurance. In i542theCrownsubsidies, both spiritual and temporal, did not exceed ;^563 8s. 3d. On one point all true-born Englishmen were agreed. The languaj^^e, laws, customs, religion, and institutions of the native Irish must be remorselessly rooted out, and those of civilized (!) England substituted. In a word, the destruction of Irish nationality in every essential was what was aimed at by English statesmanship. On this life-and- death struggle the Irish people — as distinguished from their selfish, unprincipled hyaenas of nobles and chiefs— now entered. Unconsciously at first they began to tread the long, blood-stained path, which is destined before long to end in the complete autonomy of Ireland and the blissful «mancipati( n of her toilers. FIRST ENGLISH KING OF IRELAND. 9I To give Henry — to give the devil — his due, it must be admitted that he had the sagacity to count the cost, if not to repudiate the inhumanity, of the ''plantation " schemes advocated by most of his advisers, and barbarously pursued by several of his successors. Wxiting to Deputy Surrey in the autumn of 1520, the King recommends the practice of " sober ways, politic drifts, and amiable persuasions, founded on law and reason rather than rigorous dealing, comminations, or other enforcement by strength or violence." And he justly adds : — " For realms without justice be but tyrannies and robberies, more consonant to beastly appetites than to the laudable life of reasonable creatures." The whole document is very remarkable for its wisdom and moderation. Therefore, in justice to the man of whom it has not unjustly been said that " He spared no man in his anger, and no woman in his lust," I add as follows, hoping that Lord Salisbury and Mr. Balfour, will mark, read and inwardly digest: — " Howbeit our mind is not that you shall impress upon them by fearful words that ye intend #to expel them from their lands and dominions, lawfully possessed, but to conserve them in their own, and use their advice, aid, and assistance as of faithful subjects, to recover their rightful inheritance ; nor yet that we be minded to constrain them precisely to observe our laws ministered by our justices there, but under good manner to show unto them, that of necessity it is requisite that every reasonable creature be governed by law. And, therefore, if they shall allege that our laws there used be too extreme and rigorous, and that it should be very liard for them to observe the same, then you may further ensearch of them under what manner and by what laws they will be ordered and governed ; to the intent that if their laws be good and reasonable, they may be approved, and the rigour of our laws, if they shall think them too hard, be mitigate and brought to such moderation as they may conveniently live under the same." The Earl of Surrey, Alen, Master of the Rolls, Robert Cowley, Clerk to the Crown, and, indeed, the whole " Castle ring" of the day, protested as loudly as they dared against this humane royal instruction. Surrey wrote : — "After my 92 THE BOOK OF ERIN. poor opinion, this land shall never be brought to good order and due subjection, but only by conquest. One way is if your Grace will one year set on hand to win one country, and another year another country, till at length all be won. The least number of men that your Grace must occupy can be no less than 2,500 ; for it is not to be doubted that whensoever the Irishmen shall know that your Grace intendeth a conquest they will all combine together and withstand the same to the best of their power. If your grace will, in more brief time, have your purpose brought to pass, and to set upon the conquest in divers places at one time ; then after my poor opinion, 6,000 is the least number that your grace must occupy. But to advertise your Grace in how many years either the one number or the other should accomplish and perfect the conquest, the matter is so high and uncertain that I dare not meddle therewith." Alen meant the same thing, but, courtier-like, deferred somewhat to the known clemency of the royal opinion: — *' It might be gathered hereupon that my meaning is here that your Grgce should banish all the wild Irish out of their lands» Although I would it were so, yet that is not mine intent ; for I do not doubt that the inhabitants of their lands might be made good subjects, the heads being subdued, and, if they might be all banished, I think it were not a little difficulty to inhabit the lands again." Cowley, who succeeded Alen as Master of the Rolls, had a diabolical scheme of "Thorough" of his own. "The very living of the Irishry doth clearly consist in two things, and take away the same from them, and they are past for ever to recover. Take first from them their cows, and as much as cannot be husbanded into the hands of such as shall dwell in their lands, to burn and destroy the same, so as the Irishry shall not live thereupon. . . . And most of all,, when all the great number of the Irishry, so being in exile, by taking their corn and other victual, shall have no manner of sustenance, but only the residue of the same cattle, if there shall be any ; whereby their said cattle must in short time be consumed, and then they shall be - /ithout corn, victual or cattle, and therefore shall ensue the putting in effect of all these wars against them." FIRST ENGLISH KING OP IRELAND. 93 Both schemes were based on the same fandamental •error, and both failed ignominiously. Both schemes ignored the existence of the mass of the tribesmen, and sought only by conversion or destruction to master the chiefs and their retainers. The very existence of the Irish people was not suspected till Henry's attempt to transform the elective heads of clans into hereditary feudal nobles brought the distinctively democratic element in Celtic society into relief. St. Leger's Parliament of 1541. — The composition and -enactments of this Parliament afford the strongest proofs of the enormous strides taken in the last decade of Henry's reign towards the seeming pacification of the whole of Ireland by the English power. The capture of Maynooth, in 1535, and the tragical fall which it heralded of the over- shadowing house of Fitzgerald, had a moral eflfect unequalled by any previous events in the Anglo-Norman occupation. Against the most powerful strongholds of chief or baron the Lord Deputy's seige-guns were all powerful. In July, 1536, Desmond's Castle of Loughgyr, the Maynooth of Munster, was taken without difficulty. The ^reat fortress of O'Brien, Carrick-Ognunnel on the Shannon, speedily shared the same fate. The famous fortified bridge across the Shannon, between Killaloe and Limerick, known as ** O'Brien's Bridge," was, moreover, successfully stormed and broken down. It had long exposed tlie English possessions in Munster to native Irish inroads from Thomond. The two 'Chief strongholds in the O'Connor's country, Braghnoll and Dengin, likewise succumbed, while the capture of the Castle •of Athlone gave the English, in a great measure, the <:ommand of Connaught. The Chiefs of Ulster, undismayed by these victories, rose in arms, and devastated the Pale ; but their forces were •overtaken by Deputy Lord Leonard Grey at Bellahoe, and •disastrously defeated, the O'Neill himself escaping from the field with difficulty. So many reverses, embittered by the non-arrival of •expected succours from Scotland and France, broke the -confidence of the chiefs. One after the other they began to ■**come in," and to accept Henry's (for them) very easy Jterms of submission. They had already, as has been seen, 94 THE BOOK OF ERIN. parted among them the spoils ot the Church ; now they were ready at the call of the tempter to appropriate the lands of their tribesmen. Henry offered them patents of nobility and hereditary estates in the whole clan lands in exchange for life rents in the limited portions attached to the chiefries. With less excuse than the Scottish nobles whose names adorn the Ragman Roll, they took the bait almost to a man^ thereby covering themselves and their posterity with indelible infamy. Indenture of O'Neil. — The submission of O'Neil, claiming to represent the ancient legitimist Ard-Ris of Ireland, and of the Chief of the powerful sept of the O'Donnells, may be taken as favourable specimens of such "indentures: " — " (i.) He (O'Neil) utterly forsakes the name of O'Neyle. ** (2.) He and his heirs shall use the English habits, and to their knowledge the English language. •'(3.) He shall keep and put such of the lands granted to him as are meet for tillage in manurance and tillage of husbandry. *' (4.) He shall not put any cess or charge on the King's subjects of the said lands other than their yearly rent, but such as the Deputy shall be content with. ** (5.) He shall be obedient to the King's laws, and answer to his writs, precepts, and commandments, in the Castle of Dublin, or in any other place where his courts shall be kept. " (6.) He shall go with the King's Deputy to all hostings^ rides, and journeys with such a company as the Marches of the County of Dublin do. " (7.) He shall not maintain or succour any of the King's enemies, traitors, or rebels. " (8.) He shall hold his land for whole knight's fees." O'Donnell's indenture is as follows : — Indenture of 0'Donnell.—"( I.) He (O'Donnell) will re- cognise and accept the King as his liege lord and king. " (2.) He will not confederate with the rebels of the King,, but persecute them to the utmost in his power. *'(3.) He will renounce the usurped primacy and authority of the Roman Pontiff. " (4.) Whenever he shall be called upon by letters of the FIRST ENGLISH KING OF IRELAND. 95 Lord Deputy and Council to come to any great hosting, he will come in his own person, with 70 horsemen, 120 kerne, and as many Scots, or send one of his most powerful men with the same number, for one month at his own expense. " (5.) He will appear in the next great Parliament in Ireland, or send to the same some discreet and trusty person authorised by his writing, sealed with his seal. " (6.) He will faithfully perform the articles contained in the King's letters sent to him at the time of his receiving pardon. " (7.) He will receive and hold his lands of the King, and take such title as the King shall give him. " (8) He offers to send one of his sons into England, to the presence of his Majesty, to be there reared and educated according to English manners. '* (9.) The Lord Deputy and Council promise to assist and defend O'Donnell and his heirs against all who injure him or invade his country." What was the net result of all such compacts ? This : that the hitherto common property of the Irish people in the land should be unscrupulously wrested from them, and divided between the alien English King and their own elected chiefs, the King to enjoy all the valuable "incidents" c^ feudal superiority, and the chiefs to acquire the baneful privileges of the rackrenter and the evictor. Luckily, it has never been possible to convince the Irish people that this theftuous compact of Kings and aristocrats is binding on them, otherwise the vital problems of Federal Home Rule and Land Resumption would not be so near a rational democratic solution as they are to-day. The memorable Parliament of 1541, which conferred on Henry the kingship of Ireland in place of the old modest Papal lordship, was the first assemblage of the kind m which Anglo- Irish barons and Celto- Irish chiefs appeared in about equal proportions. There were seen, for the first time, side by side, the Earls of Desmond and Thomond ; Lords Barry, Roche, and Bermingham ; thirteen barons of the Pale ; O'Brien, Tanist of Thomond ; the O'Reilly, O'Moore, and McWilliam ; Kavanagh of Leinster, and Fitzpatrick of Ossory. ^ 96 THE BOOK OF ERIN. Both Houses, by Bill, unanimously proclaimed Henry and his heirs Kings of Ireland — "no less," St. Leger wrote off, in post haste, to Henry, "to my comfort than to be risen again from death to life, that I, so poor a wretch, should, by your excellent goodness, be put to that honour that in my time your Majesty should most worthily have another im- perial crown." For the first time the arms of Ireland were quartered with those of England. The new Ard-Ri proclaimed a general pardon throughout all his dommions, and those who had thus feloniously bartered away, so far as they could, both the soul and earthly habitation of the Irish nation, rejoiced and were exceeding glad. In a State document of the year 1541, styled the " King's Title to Ireland," seven reasons are assigned for the claim. All of them are obviously invalid, while most of them are simply childish. Henry's best title was the Pope's Gift ; but ihat, according to his own showing, must be classed among the other " usurpations of the Bishop of Rome." Yet the "King's Title to Ireland" hardily concludes: — ** Therefore, from the beginning to the end good is our King's right to the lordship of Ireland, and therefore hold they them still to shame that thereof the contrary will say." Finally, the royal style was settled thus : — " Henr^' VIII., by the grace of God, King of England, France, and Ireland, Defender ot the Faith, and of the Church of England and also of Ireland, in Earth the Supreme Head." Henry did nothing by halves. The Celtic chiefs who had submitted their necks to the yoke were speedily induced to repair to the Court at London to be formally metamorphosed into feudal barons. They were received with great pomp, be-robed, be-chained, banqueted, and generally be-fooled to their hearts' content. But the intoxicating draught was speedily dashed from their lips. The hearts of the clansmen were sound, if those of their chiefs were rotten. The true significance of the Act of Royal Election was slowly but surely apprehended, and the tribesmen proceeded to choose other headsmen in room of the traitors. O'Donnell's son rose against his father. A rival, FIRST ENGLISH KING OF IRELAND. 97 McWilliam, confronted the " Earl of Clanricarde." O'Neil, * 'Earl of Tyrone," was imprisoned by his son, John the Proud. O'Brien, '' Earl of Thomond," returned from Court only to find his territory in open insurrection against him. Hence arose " King's O D(~)nnells" and " Irish O'Doimells"; *' King's McWilliams " and '' Irish McWilHams " ; •* King's O'Briens" and "Irish O'Briens," &c. The great clan con- federacies had been disrupted ; now the septs themselves were pulverised. Yet eventually out of that perfectly amorphous society was slowly evolved that inspiring conception of national unity which burns with such a quenchless flame in every true Irish heart to-day. Of the Irish patriot well may it be said : — This is he who, felled by foes, Sprang harmless up, Refreshed by blows. Irish ReYenues. — But Henry found it easier to manu- facture feudal barons out of Celtic chiefs than to stop that ** consumption of the purse " of which Falstaff complained. No conquest was ever yet a subject of profit to the conquer- ing nation at large, any more than to the conquered. The conquering class or caste is enriched, but that is all. It can be shown, for example, by irrefutable figures that India, " the brightest gem in her Majesty's diadem," is a serious annual loss to the workers of Great Britain. So has it at all times been with Ireland. On the tablets of nature every crime against humanity is registered, or, rather, registers itself for retribution, and so Henry found it. " A great sort of you (we must be plain)," he once wrote to the Lord Deputy and Council, "desire nothing else but to reign in estimation, and to fleece from time to time all that you may catch from us." They protested their perfect integrity, of course, but the facts were against them, the system, or both. In 1542, after the plunder of most of the monasteries, and with every farthing of spiritual and temporal " subsidy " that could be got in, the nett revenue from Ireland did not exceed ;f 4,877 ; while the expenditure amounted, m time of peace, to ;^7,982 6s. 8d. In time of war — and war was the G 98 THE BOOK OF ERIN. rule — expenditure readily doubled itself, and many desperate- methods of replenishing the royal purse were resorted to. Statute of Absentees. — Of these, one of the most justifiable — nay, commendable — was the Statute of Absentees. There were several previous Acts on the Statute Book levelled at this abuse ; but they seem only to have affected minor malefactors. In 1537, how- ever, Henry flew at the highest aristocratic game, and bagged a splendid quarry of alien landlords. His Act set forth that the offenders had so neglected their duties in respect of their lands by n»n-residence, that the King had been forced ta incur great military expenditure. To recoup himself, there- fore, it was enacted that the Crown should forthwith resume the estates of Carlow, Old Ross, etc., belonging to the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Barkley ; the seigniory of Wexford, held by the Earl of Waterford and Salop ; various lands claimed by the heirs general of the Earl of Ormonde ; and sundry ecclesiastical domains vested in the Abbots of Furness, Bristol, Osney, and Bath, and the Priors of Canter- bury, Lanthony, Cartmel, and Keynsham. Here was something like reasonable land legislation I Let tlue Government enforce the Statute of Absentees to-day, and it will at once find itself possessed of a fund of ^6,000,000 per annum, with which to stimulate the prosperity of Irish industries. 99 CHAPTER IX. Reformation, Counter-Reformation, and Plantation. " This land is a common heritage. When have -c-e ever yielded our rights in this paternal inheritance ? Who can show ns the contract bj which we have given it up ? Never listen to those men who prove to you out of the gospel that you are free and end by exhorting you to bow your head in slavery. Curses on the false priests who have never understood the essence of Christianity." — Munzer. " If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him ; the name maketh not the bishop, but the life. Good people, affairs can only go well in England (Ireland) when there shall be neither serfs nor nobles, and when all shall be equal." — Wyclif. " When we have broken our God of tradition, and ceased from our God of rhetoric, then may God fire the heart with his presence. It is the doubling of the heart itself — nay, the infinite enlargement of the heart with a power of growth to a new infinity on every side He who has not the conviction but the sight that the best is the true, may in that thought easily dismiss all particular uncertainties and fears, and adjourn to the sure revelation of time, the solution of his private riddles," — Emerson '* It is wrong to say God made rich and poor, He made only male and female, and He gave them the earth for their inheritance. Instead of preaching to encourage one part of mankind in insolence, it would be better that the priests employed their time to render the condition of men less miserable than it is. Practical religion consists in doing good, and the only way of serving God is that of endeavouring to make His creation happy. All preaching that hais not this for its object is nonsense and hypocrisy." — Paink. " Your very Governments are the cause of the evib they {jretend to remedy. Ye sceptres of iron ! Ye absurd laws ! Ye we reproach for our inaU>ility to fulfil our duties upon earth." — Kol-'sseau, " Religion ought to direct society towards the great end of amehorating us rapidly as possible the condition of the most nuinerotis and least wealthy class." — St. Simoh. "Forget Nationality; think only of Humanity. I*rinces only have diverse interests. The peoples ot all cotin tries arc frieaxivs,"— Victor Hugo. " Country is duty, acknowledged, recognised, axid folt. Your country is the idea of a mission to be fulfilled. Your coaatry is a liait, a communion, a visMe evangel of lore." — Mazzini. lOO THK BOOK OF ERIN, " The Earth belongs in usufruct to the living. The dead have no rights over those who now exist." — Jhfkkkson. " Tyranny is not government, and allegiance is only due to protection." Bishop of Derrv (1782). ■' He's true to God who's true to man ; wherever wrong is done To the humblest and the weakest 'neath the all-beholding sun, That wrong is also done to us, and they are slaves most base ; Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for all their race. God works for all. Y3 cannot hem the hope of being free With parallels of latitude, with mountain-range, or sea. Put golden padlocks on Truth's lips, be callous as ye will, From soul to soul, o'er all the world, leaps one electric thrill.' — Lowell. Reign of Edward YI. -Henry VIII., as has been seen, was a schismatic, not a heretic. In doctrine he practically remained a CathoHc to the last. It was differeat with the Council of Regency who ruled in the name of his son, " the sainted youn^; Solomon,'" Edward. They were, without exception, a clique of vile unprincipled intriguers, gorged with the spoils of the Church, who dreaded nothing so much as a Catholic restoration, which might strip them of their ill- gotten gains. To prevent such a catastroi)he was their sole study. They naturally looked to Geneva as a counterpoise to Rome, and Calvin was not slow to offer his intolerant advice. *'You have," he wrote to Prot'ctor Somerset, ** two kinds of mutineers against tlu: Kin^ and the estates of the realm. The one are fanatical people, who, under colour of the gospel, would set all in confusion ; the others are stubborn people in the superstition of the Antichrist of Rome." And against both Somerset was solemnly admonished not to bear the sword in vain. In England there was a small but active Protestant party in favour of great doctrmal changes, and that party the Government tacitly supported whenever occasion offered. In Ireland, on the contrary, there were no genuine Pro- testants. The Reformation was, in the main, an academic protest in favour of the rationalistic habit of thought culti- vated by the philosophic thinkers of ancient Greece and Rome, and there was not a single university in or out of the Pale. The Anglo- Irish had no quarrel with Rome, because REFORMATION. lOt her thunderbolts had always been conveniently launched, at their behest, against the "mere" Irishry. As for the Celto- Irish, they, naturally enough, regarded the Reformation as little more than a fresh proof of the depravity of their oppressors. Nevertheless, the earlier attempts to acclimatize Reforma- tion doctrines in Ireland were conducted on both sides with a courtesy and good sense unknown elsewhere. Edward the Sixth's first English Prayer Book was made binding on the Irish Archbishops and Bisliops, at a Synod specially convoked by Deputy Sir Anthony St. Leger in 1551. The occasion was remarkable, the orthodox Primate Dowdall and St. Leger, in person, being leading disputants : — Dowdall: "Then shall every illiterate fellow read mass? St. Leger: "Your Grace is mistaken, for we have too many illiterate priests among us already, who neither can pronounce the Latin, nor know what it means, no more than the common people who hear them ; but" when the people hear the liturgy in English (this could only apply to the Pale) they and the priest will then understand what they pray for." Dowdall: " Beware the Church's curse." St. Leger : " I fear no strange curse so long as I have the blessing of that Church which I believe the true one." Dowdall : " Can there be a truer Church than the Church of St. Peter, the Mother Church of Rome ? " St. Leger: " I thouglit we had all been of the Church of Christ, for He calls all true believers in Him Plis Clmrch, and Himself the head thereof." Dotudall : " And is not St. Peter's Church the Church of Christ ? " St. Leger : " St. Peter was a member of Christ's Church ; but the Church was not St. Peter's, neither was St. Peter, but Christ, the head thereof." At this point in the discussion the Primate rose, and left the conference, followed by all the Bishops, except those of ?^Ieath, Kildare, and Limerick. The Protestant Arclibishop of Dublin — Brown — a reptilic creature of Henry the Eighth's, then stood up, and received the English Service Book from the Deputy, with these words: — ''This order, good brethren. 102 THE BOOK OF ERIN. is from onr gracious King and the rest of our brethren, the fathers and clergy of England, who have consulted thereon, and compared the Holy Scriptures with what they have done, and to whom I submit, as Jesus did to Caesar, in all things just and lawful, making no question why or wherefore, as we own him our true and lawful King." A few months later, Sir John Crofts, who had been appointed Deputy, made a fresh attempt to reconcile Caesar and the hierarchy. The chief disputants now were Dowdail, the Primate, and Staples, Bishop of Meath : — Doudall : *' Was not the Mass from the Apostles' days? How can it be proved that the Church of Rome has altered it?" Staples : •* It is easily proved by our records of England ; for Celestinus, Bishop of Rome, in the fourth century after Christ, gave the hrst introit of the Mass which the clergy were to use for preparation, even the psalm, Judica pu, Dens, etc., Rome not owning the word Mass till then." Dowdail : " Yes, long before that time; for there was a mass called St. Ambrose's Mass." Staples : " St. Ambrose was before Celestinus ; but the two prayers, which the Church of Rome had foisted and added unto St. Ambrose's works, are not in his general works, which hath caused a wise and a learned man lately to write that these two prayers were forged, and not to be really St. Ambrose's." DQZL'd-all : " What writer dares write or doth say so ? " Staples : " Erasmus, a man who may well be compared to either of us or the standers-by. Nay, my lord, no disparagement if I say so to yourself; for he was a wise and a judicious man, otlierwise I would not have been so bold as to parallel your lordship with him." Loyd Deputy : " As for Erasmus's part, would I were such another ; lor his parts may parallel him a companion for a prince." Doa'dall: " Nay, my lord, do not hinder our discourse, for I hive a question or two to ask Mr. Staples." Loi'd Deputy : " By all means, reverend father, proceed." Dowdail: " Is Erasmus's writings more powerful than the precepts of the Mother Church ? " REFORMATION. IO3 Staphs : ** Not more than the Holy Catholic one, yet more than the Church of Rome, as that Church hath run into several errors since St. Ambrose's days." Dowdall : *' How hath the Church erred since St. Ambrose's days ? Take heed that you be not excommuni- cated." Staples : ♦• I have excommunicated myself already from thence." How a theological controversy conducted in such excellent spirit on both sides became gradually embittered beyond precedent remains to be seen. In a few days after the last conference Primate Dowdall disappeared, and the Primacy was transferred to the See of Dublin, the occupant of which, Brown, claimed and received the office with indecent haste. He and the other bishops of the Reformed Faith only discovered the weakness of their positionJwhen the boy King, Edward, died, and was succeeded by nis Catholic sister, Mary. The Reign of Queen Mary. — The bishops had preached as the chief article of the new creed the supremacy of Caesar, and now Caesar was a devoted Papist. They could not in decency resist, nor did they. They were deprived of their Sees, but nothing worse befell them. There were so few Protestants in Ireland that it was not worth while, as in England, lighting the fires of martyrdom. Besides, Mary, in her own way, was hardly less a stickler for the prerogatives of the Crown than her father, the Defender of the Faith. The arrangement come to was this. Ireland was erected by the Pope into a kingdom, and Mary, on her part, had an Act of Parliament passed repealing all enactments made against the Holy See since the twentieth year of her father's reign. This statute, however, expressly retained in the hands of the laity all ecclesiastical possessions that had been conveyed to them. Indeed, nothing was restored to the Catholic Church except the Roman ritual, and when Mary died the Church was materially and morally a heap of ruins. In point of fact, in Mary's reign Avas begun that dreadful system of ^' plantations " by English colonists, which in years to come bore such bitter and poisonous fruit. The first I04 THE BOOK OF ERIN. Plantation Act is that, of 3 and 4 Philip and Mary, Chapters I and 2 ; confiscating the lands of Liex and Offally, and providing for their apportionment among settlers, chiefly English, who were expected to wage a war of extermination on the lawful occupants. The struggle thus begun was long and desperate. " The mere Irish " sank to the level of savage banditti, and after a series of tragedies, of which the "Massacre of MuUahmast " was perhajos the most terrible, were eventually wiped out of existenc(^, their ancient tribe- land being named King's County and Queen's County, in honour of their most Catholic Majesties, Philip and Mary. This atrocious Act of Philip and Mary empowered Royal Commissioners to declare the tribe lands shirelands. The consequence of this was to feudalise the territory, and to convert at a blow the mass of the land-owning tribesmen into mere tenants-at-will, if not something worse. It justly alarmed the whole people, constituting as it did a precedent of universal robbery and extermination. Reign of Queen Elizabeth. — Three great Irish wars are among the memorabilia of the "Virgin Queen." The first was waged against Shane O'Neil, or John the Proud, Chief of Ulster ; the second, against the Earl of Desmond ; and the third against Hugh O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone. Each of these deadly conflicts had its root in the dread inspired among the native chiefs and tribesmen by the English policy of feudalis- ation and plantation. Eor sufficient reasons the clansmen declined to permit their chii.'fs to become feudal barons, because they well knew that that meant for themselves tenancy-at-will, rack-rent, and eviction. It was their ancient right to elect their chiefs from the fittest of the ruling family, and they exercised it without regard to royal patents of nobility. To act otherwise was to sacrifice their own birthright, and that of their posterity. To surrender their common rights in the soil they well knew signified the loss of the essential elements of personal independence and public freedom. Tribal patriotism it is hard for modern politicians to understand, but it was patriotism all the same. In these Elizabethan wars, it is true, the element of religion came in, but it was an afterthought, and not a primary motive* REFORMATION. IO5 Rome and the Catholic powers of Europe, towards which the strugghng Irish looked for aid, hardly mistook the true character of the appeals from time to tiiijc made to them ; othe:w se it is inconceivable that their response should, at all times, have been so half-liearted and ineffectual. Shane O'Neil — At all events, John the Proud would assuredly have made a strange Defender of the Faith — stranger even than the first recipient of that title. He was the legitimate son of Con O'Neil (created Earl of Tyrone b\' Henry the Eighth), and duly elected Tanist of the tribe in liis father's lifetime. Old Con, tor some reason best known to himself, induced Henry to put a certain Matthew O'Neil, reputed to be Con's son, into the Tyrone patent of nobility as Baron of Dungannon and heir to the Earldom. The Baron was really, there can be little or no doubt, the son of a blacksmith in Dun- dalk, without a drop of O'Neil blood in his veins; but, as he frankly observed. Con O'Neil "being a gentleman, never denied any child that was sworn to him, and he had plenty of them." The Baron and Shane O'Neil were naturally, in these circumstances, sworn foes, and the Baron had the worst of it. He was murdered, or, as Shane himself contended, slain in fair hght, through Shane's instrumentality. In consequence, John the Proud, on his father's death, was able to take up the chieftaincy of the North in earnest and almost without opposition. He was a vigorous and by no means unintelligent ruler. He subdued the former native tributaries of the O' Neils, and defied and oftener than once decisively defeated the forces of the Pale. His personal morality was indefensible. He took j)risoner the Chief of the O'Donnells, whose wife, sister to tlie Earl of Argyll, became his mistress, and bore him several children. The horror of this transaction was heightened by the fact tliat the lady, an accomplished woman for lier time, was the step-mother of O'Donnell's daughter, Shane's wife. Shane must be judged, however, by the licentious code of his own day rather than by a later standard. The "Virgin Queen," for example, had no reason to cast stones at her semi-civilised foe. In the thirteenth year o£ lo6 THE BOOK OF ERIN. /ler reign she took out, so to speak, a licence for unlimited personal profligacy by Act of Parliament ! Statute 13 Eliz., chap. I, sec. 2, secured the Crown to any "natural issue" she mi^ht have by anybody, and made it high treason to challenge the succession of such offspring to the throne ! As it was, Shane was personally a favourite with " Good Queen Bess," and unmistakeably touched her susceptible virgin heart when he paid his celebrated visit to the Court of London, attended by his large-limbed and picturesque- looking galloglasses. Shane's enormous muscularity, his magnificent, unkempt locks, his garish saffron-coloured shirt, his formidable broad-bladed battle-axe, and, above all, his undaunted bearing and evident astuteness, filled the minds of the courtiers with mingled admiration and amusement. The wits proclaimed him — " Shane O'Neil, Lord of the North of Ireland, Cousin of St. I'atrick, Friend of the Queen of England ; Enemy of all the world besides." Shane returned home with the title of " Captain of Tyrone," the dignity of Earl being reserved for the yet more distinguished Hugh O'Neil, grandson of the Dundalk black- smith. When he got home, the " Captain " was rallied by his friends for having made his j^eace with the Queen. *' Yes," replied the unabashed chief, " in her own bed- chamber." But he did not long, nay, he coukl not, remam at peace with the authorities of the Pale, who hungered and thirsted after his destruction and the plantation of his territory. Three difttinct attempts were abortively made by the Deputy ■ — once, at least, with the full privity of the Queen — to murder him by dagger and poison-cup ; but he was not to perish in that way. The battle which decided his fate was one fought with his old enemies, the O'Donnells, near Litford. There his army was completely routed. At his wits' end, he took the desperate resolve of seeking refuge among tlie warlike Scots of Antrim, whom, to please Elizabeth, he had, in an evil hour, grievously and ungratefully injured. He was received with apparent cordiality ; but at a subsequent banquet, where the wine flowed freely, high words arose, and he and his followers REFORMATION. I07 were hacked to pieces by the broadswords of his hosts. These had oftener than once been Shane's right arm in v.ar, and his treacherous slaughter of their compatriots was not to be forgiven. The exultation of the Government over the fall of the last genuine Celtic Irish leader was unbounded. The cost to England of retaining Ireland had become intolerable. For a dozttn years at least there had been an annual Irish deficit of ;^23,i7g, which, in the then meagre currency, had to be wrung from the English people. Queen Elizabeth and the Pope. — In 1569, Pope Pius the Fifth, after serious deliberation, excommunicated and, so far as lay in his power, deposed Queen Elizabeth. That royal Virgin never was a Protestant except in name. She hovered between Catholicism and sheer Paganism. During her -ister Alary's reign, when suspected of leaning towards the l>ieformed Faith, she had loudly called upon the earth to open and swallow her if she were not a devotee of the Holy Roman See. But being conceived out of wedlock, her title to the throne was a purely parliamentary title, and she had no confidence in the support of the Catholic population, who naturally looked to her beautiful cousin, the Q^een of Scots, as the legitimate heir to the throne. She became a nominal Protestant sorely against her will, and thereby compelled the Pope against his to play a decided part. The counter Reformation, of which the indefatigable Society of Jesus was the mainspring, was now busily at work, and waverers were everywhere constrained to take sides. Sir James Fitzmaurice. — Now that the Queen was excommunicated, Catholics must render obedience either to Ca3sar or to God. Even Shane O'Neil, in his last extremity, appealed to the Catholic Powers for aid. Henceforward, therefore, the Celto- Irish party put forward more and more the religious aspect of their quarrel with the alien English Government. It was distinctly in the role of Champion of the Church that Sir James Fitz-i\Iaurice, the next great antagonist of England, played his part. Sir Henry Sidney, the Lord Deputy, prototype of the Earl of Strafford, had arbitrarily seized the Earl of Desmond on the plea of turbulencv, io8 THE BOOK OF ERIN. and conveyed him to London, where, to save his Hfe, he was compelled to surrender the whole of his ancestral estates to the Crown. An audacious adventurer, named Sir Peter Carew, aggravated this high-handed proceeding by claiming a vast neighbouring territory for "plantation" purposes, south of a line drawn between Limerick and Cork. Carew's claim, which had lapsed, if ever it had any validity, for about three centuries at least, was utterly preposterous, but the Deputy and Council supported him in his blood-stained efforts to dispossess the native population. The above-mentioned Sir James Fitz-I\Iaurice, the Earl of Desmond's cousin, flew to arms, and was joined by several members of the rival house of Ormond. For two years Fitz- Maurice resolutely defied the forces of the Crown in the Galtee Hills. He then marched into Ulster, burnt Athlone, helped the two sons of Lord Clanricarde, the Mac-an-Earlas, to waste Galway, and ultimately returned in triumph to Tipperary. Eventually, however, he was constrained to come to terms with Sir John Perrot, (reputedly a son of Henry the Eighth's,) the President of Munster — the provinces had now been divided into military presidencies — kissed that v/orthy knight's sword in token of submission, and sailed away to the continent to solicit from the Catholic Powers men and the munitions of war to combat the forces of the heretic Queen. In due course he returned to initiate the great Desmond Rebellion, which ended in the first extensive English plantation of Ireland — " the Plantation of Munster." I09 CHAPTER X. Massacres and " Plantations " by the " Virgin Queen " and the " British Solomon." " True liberty only exists where there is cheerful obedience to wise and just laws." — Bacon. "When Government and the People quaaTel, Government is generally in the wrong." — Burke. " It is only by making the ruling few uneasy that the oppressed many can obtain justice." — Bentham. "Unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations" — - J. A. Garfield. " The land question is the bottom question. Man is a land animal.' — Henry George. " This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you : — " He will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give them to his officers and to his servants. " And he v/ill take your fields and your vineyards and your olive-yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. " And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you ; and the Lord will not hear you in that day." — Samuel. " That which the palmer-worm hath left the locust hath eaten; and that which the locust hath left the canker-worm hath eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left the caterpillar hath eaten." — Joel. " Whi^reas it has been long known and declared that the poor have no right to the property of the rich, I wish it also to be known and declared that the rich have no right to the property of the poor." — Ruskin. " The En^-rlish law of real property is the most unmitigated nonsense ever put together by the perverted ingenuity of man." — Pollock. " There should be but one tax, and that upon land." — Von Humboldt " All the old abuses of society, universal and particular, all unjust accumulations of property and power, are avenged in the same manner. Fear is an instructor of great sagacity, and the herald of all revolutions. One thing he teaches, that there is rottenness when he appears. He is a carrion-crow, and though you see not well what }ie hovers for, there is death somewhere. Our property is timid. Fear for ages has boded and gibbered over governments and property. The obscene bird is not there f nothing. He indicates great wrongs that must be revised." — Emersok. no THE BOOK OF ERIN. The Desmond Rebellion. — Queen ElizaC>eth*s second great Irish war, the Desmond RebelHon, was not long suspended by the withdrawal of Sir James FitzMaurice, the Earl's highly capable and heroic cousin, to the Continent. There he unweariedly solicited aid from the Catholic Powers, and, in 1578, he was enabled to return to Ireland with an insignificant force of Italians and Spaniards. He landed at Dingle, accompanied by Dr. Nicholas Saunders, the devoted Papal legate, and bearing a banner specially consecrated by Pope Gregory XIII. Presently he was joined by two brothers of the Earl, John and James Fitzgerald ; but Desmond himself hesitated, and wrecked the cause. The gallant Sir James, the only master- mind in the movement, perished in an obscure encounter at " Barrington's-bridge," a spot six miles east of Limerick, His assailants were Theobald and Ulick Burke, relatives of his- own, with whom he was trying to expostulate when a fatal shot struck him. He did not, however, at once drop from the saddle, but dashing into the thick of the fight, cleft the head of Theobald Burke to the chin, and mortally wounded his brother. Their retainers fled, but in a few hours Fitz- Maurice was himself a dead man. Of him might it well be said as of the Douglas in the famous ballad of "Chevy Chase :" — " For sure a more undaunted knight Mischance did never take." At last, when it was too late, Desmond himself was com- pelled to take the field, literally in defence of the " ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods." His relentless foes ruthlessly wasted his lands up to the walls of his stronghold,. Askeaton, burning down the neighbouring abbey, and defacing the tombs of generations of Desmond Geraldines. The war which followed abownded with unspeakable horrors. Sir William Pelham, the Deputy, and Ormond, the hereditary foe of the Desmonds, vied with each other in every conceivable atrocity. " We passed through the rebel countries," writes Pelham, " in two companies, burning with fire all habitations, and executing the people where\'er we found them." FoT the year 1580, Ormond thus sumrwarises his services : THE "VIRGIN QUEEN." Ill — " slain 88 captains and leaders, with 800 notorious traitors and malefactors, and above 4,000 other people." Whoever should hope for pardon must deserve it by murdering their relations. Accordingly sackfuls of heads were brought daily into camp. In a letter to Philip of Spain, Desmond explained that "every town, castle, village, farmhouse, belonging to him or his people, had been destroyed, and not a roof left standing in Munster to shelter him." Battle of Glenmalure. — Now, however, the Pale took alarm, and Lord Baltinglass and the O'Byrnes, led by the renowned Feagh McHugh, ** the firebrand of the Mountains," betook themselves to the fastnesses of the Wicklow steeps. There, in the pass of Glenmalure, the new Deputy, Lord Gray de Wilton, attacked them, and paid the penalty of his rashness b)^ suffering a crushing defeat. The circumstances of the conflict closely resembled those of the more famous Scottish battle of Killiecrankie : — " Judge how looked the Saxons then, When they saw the rugged mountain Start to life with armed men !" Cosby, the treacherous butcher of Mullaghmast, and Sir Peter Carew were among the slain. The Deputy and his stafif escaped to Dublin by the swiftness of their steeds. But the lack of preconcerted action made even this opportune victory of small account. Eight hundred auxiliar}' ^aniards and Italians had reached Smerwick, and occupied a dismantled fort, Oihn-an-oir (Gold Island), in the bay. Thither Gray furiously posted, and, along with Ormond, laid siege to the enemy. After three days' cannonade, the garrison were fain to surrender at discretion. Writing to the Queen, "from the camp before Smerwick," Gray observes : — •* Morning came. I presented my forces in battaile before the forte. The colonel, with ten or twelve of his chiet gentlemen, came trayling their ensigns rolled up, and presented them to me with their lives and the forte . . . I sent streighte certyn gentlemen to see their weopens and armoires laid down; then 1 sent in certeyne bandes, which streighte fell to execution. There were 600 slayne ! " RiJeigh and Spenser in Ireland. — Three notable person- 112 THK BOOK OF ERIN. ages took part in this seiGje — Sir Walter (Captain) Raleigh, Spenser the poet, and Hugh O'Neil, afterwards Earl of Tyrone. To the eternal disgrace of letters, Raleigh was the leading executioner of the disarmed foreigners ; while Spenser, who looked on, coolly relates : — " The Spaniard did absolutely yield himself and the fort and all therein, and only asked mercy." But mercy " it was not thought good to show them. The}' were accordingly all slaughtered in cold blood, a few women and priests w^io were with them hanged, the ofiiccrs being reserved for ransom. There was no other way but to make that end of them which was done." To add to the infamy of this act, if that were possible, the Irish annalists declare, and probably correctly, that the garrison were promised their lives. The splendid mental endowments of the leading men of the Elizabethan era only served to render them greater criminals than their fellows. Instead of softening their hearts, their rare gifts and accom- plishments seem only to have helped to harden them. English Atrocities. — Presently both Munster and the Pale were at the Deputy's feet, and, as Sir Henry Sydney said of his administration, " Down they went at every corner ! " At Kildimo, after the capture of a castle, 150 women and children were butchered. In the Pale nineteen of the most prominent men were tried, convicted, and hanged. Saunders, the Papal N uncio, died of exposure in winter. Desmond's two brothers, James and John, were successfully cut off, and event- ually the wretched Earl himself, after endii'-ing innumerable hardships, was hunted down in the vSlievnish Mountains and decapitated. The Queen was at great pains to have the head properly exposed on London- bridge. The bloody deeds, done in this deliberately provoked rebellion, harrow the soul and make us ready to renounce with loathing the very name of ICnglishman. A few well- authenticated and not toosickc;ning illustrations will suffice: — " After Desmond's death, great companies of the provincials, men, women, and children, were often forced into castles and other houses, which were then set on fire ; and if any of them attempted to escape from the flames, they were shot or stabbed by the soldiers who guarded them. It was a THE "virgin queen." II3 diversion to these monsters to take up infants on the points of their spears and whirl them about in their af^ony, apologizmg for their cruelt}- by saying that ' if they sulTered them to hve to grow up they would become Popish rebels.' Many of their women were found hanging on trees, with their children at their breasts, strangled with their mother's hair." — Hist. Reviei:', Cuny. " They performed that service effectually, and brought the rebels to so low a condition that tlie}' saw three children eating the entrails of their dead mother, upon whose flesh they had fed many days, and roasted it by a slow fire." — Cox. " Touching my manner of proceeding, it is thus : I give the rebels no breath to relieve themselves ; but by one of your" (' Good Queen Bess's') "garrisons or the other they be continually hunted. I keep them from their harvest, and have taken great preys of cattle from them, l:)y which it seeineth the poor people that lived upon labour and fed by their milch-cows are so distressed, as they follow their goods and offer themselves, with their Vv-ives and children, rather to be slain by the army than to suffer the famine that now beginneth to pinch them." — Deputy Sir Wiliiam Pclham. " They " (the " mere" Irish) " were not only driven to eat horses, dogs, and dead carrions, but also did devour the carcases of dead men, whereof there be sundry examples — namely, one in the county of Cork, where, wlien a malefactor was executed and his body left upon the gallows, certam poor people did secretly come, took him down, and did eat him ; likewise in the Bay of Smeereweeke there happened to be a ship there lost through foul weather, and all the men being drowned were then cast on land. The common people, who had along time lived on limpits, orwads, and such shell- fish as they could find, and which were now spent, as soon as they saw these bodies, they look them up and most greedily did eat and devour them : and, not long after, death and famine did consume them. The land itself, which before these wars was populous, well inhabited, and rich in all the good blessings of God, is now become waste and barren, yielding no fruits, the pastures no cattle, the air no birds. the seas (though full of fish) to them yielding nothing. Pinally, every way the curse of God (man ?) was so great 114 THE BOOK OF ERIN. and the land so barren of man and beast, that wliosoever did travel from the one end to the other of all Munster, even from Waterford to tlie head of Snieereweeke, which is about six score miles, he would not meet any man, woman, or child, saving in towns and cities ; nor }-et see any beast but the very wolves, the foxes, and other like ravening beasts. Many of them la}' dead, [)eing famished, and the residue gone elsewhere." — Ilollnislicad. " Notwitlistanding that the same (Munster) was a most rich and plentiful couiitr\', full of corn and cattle, yet ere one year and adialf tiie\' were brought to such wretchedness as that any ston}- heart would rue the same. Out of ever)- corner of the woods and glens the\- came creeping forth on. their hands, for their legs could not bear them ; they looked like anatomies of death ; tlicy spoke like ghosts crying out of their graves ; they did eat the dead carrions, happy when they could find them ; yea, and one another soon after ; insomuch as the very carcases they spared not to scrape out of their graves, and if they found a plot of watercresses or shamrocks, there the\' Hocked as to a feast for the time ; yet not able to continue these withal ; that in short space there was none almost left, and a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left void of man and beast. — Spenser. Sharing the Spoil. — At this time the whole population of Ireland had been reduced, b}' famine and the sword, to some 600,000 souls, about one-eighth that of England. Writing from Cork, in 15S2, the Deputy St. Leger observes : — " Tliis coun- try (Munster) is so ruined, that it is well near unpeople':! by the murders and spoils done by the traitors on the one side^ and by the killing and spoil done by the soldiers on the other side, together with the great mortality in town and country, which is such as the like hath never been seen. There has died by famine only not so few as 30,000 in this province in less than half-a-year, besides others that are hanged and killed." Having thus made a desert and called it peace, now was the time for the murderers to di\ide the booty. Deputy Sir John Perrot accordingly convoked a Parliament, which promptly confiscated the lands of Desmond, Baltinglass, and one hundred and forty of their estated followers. In Munster alone 574,628 acres were forfeited to the Crown. THE "virgin queen." II5 The inalienable rights of the tribesmen in the soil were completely ignored. Throughout England proclamation was made inviting " younger brothers of good families " to undertake — the\' were known as ''Undertakers" — the "plantation" of Munster. Each planter was to receive so many acres on condition of settling so many English families thereon — "none of the native Irish to be admitted" among the tenantry. In Limerick and Kerry the quit-rent to the Crown was to be threepence per acre, and in Cork and Waterford twopence — in all, ;^23,ooo per annum. About fifty Undertakers received assignments, the largest being made to prominent actors in the war ; but nearly one- half of the confiscated territory was eventually restored to such of the original holders as were able to secure pardons. This leniency, this deviation from " thorough," combined with the fact that English tenants could not be found in sufficient numbers to risk their lives in a neighbourhood which soon swarmed with dispossessed " Robin Hoods," in a short time changed the entire character of the Plantation. In order that the soil might not lie untilled, the Undertakers, in spite of their covenants, were obliged to admit the native Irish as tenants-at-will. The latter multiplied, and the former relati\'ely dwindled. In a word, the INIunster native extirpa- tion project was a total failure.* Tyrone's Rebellion and the* Plantation of Ulster. — We must now leave the South and turn to the North of Ireland, between which, though their interests were the same, there was at all times singularly little concerted action. Sir Thomas Smith, Secretary of State, or, rather his natural son Thomas, and Walter Devereux, the first Earl of Essex, had both essayed to ''plant" a portion of Ulster possessed by the Antrim Scots and the O'Neils. Essex, a man of the most exemplary — shall I say Pecksnillian ? — piety, stained his name by deeds of abominable treachery and almost fiendish cruelty, but obtained liardly a foothold in the long run. Ulster, now the most Anglicised of the lour provinces, had for centuries been the impregnable refuge of * For list of original planters in Munster, see Appendix A, H 2 Il6 THE BOOK OF ERIN. the Celt. It was an everlasting eyesore to the greedy vultures at Dublin Castle, and it was not long before they contrived to drive Hugh O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone, as they had driven Gerald Fitzgerald, sixteenth Earl of Desmond, into rebellion. Hugh O'Neil's father, Matthew O'Neil, Baron of Dun- gannon, as has been said, was the son of a Dundalk black- smith. Con O'Neil, hrst Earl of Tyrone, subsequently married the said Matthew's mother, and secured to him in remainder the Earldom of Tyrone. That Hugh was not an O'Neil at all was well enough understood at the Court of London ; but it was thought profoundly politic to keep a " Queen's O'Neil " as well as an '' Irish O'Neil " in the field, so as to weaken the authority and paralyze the power of the legitimist Ard-Ris of Ireland. However, by a strange freak of fortune, it came to pass that the obscure smith's grandson became the most distin- guished man who ever bore the name of O'Neil. Educated at the Englisli Court, he excelled in every accomplishment, civil and militarv. He was a favourite with Queen Elizabeth, and when he returned to his native Tyrone, he had every inducement to persevere in his allegiance had that been possible. But it was not possible. The Privy Council at Dublin never did believe in the *' dulce ways" and "politic drifts" recommended by Henry VIII. Robbery by violence was their one grand recourse then, as now. Being an English courtier by training, Hugh O'Neil was better able than any one of the previous champions of the Irish cause to foresee latent peril and to provide against it. Some Irish historians have professed to discover in Hugh O'Neil's career evidence of a profound patriotism. But tlie proofs, to say the least, do not lie on the surface. That he was a very able and, for his time, an honourable man, there is almost no dispute. But his brilliant victories in the field were won in the cause of self-preservation rather than in the vindication of Irish nationality. He was another Desmond without a trace of that ill-starred Chiefs vacillation and incapacity. Hugh O'Neil's brother-in-law, Hugh O'Donnell, or Red THE "virgin queen. llj Hugh, had been shamelessly decoyed on board a Government vessel by order of Deputy Sir John Perrot, and rigorously immured for years, as a hostage, in Dublin Castle. He eventually contrived to escape, and reached his paternal home in Ulster after suffering the severest privations. His just resentment was abiding, and The O'Neil not unnaturally shared it. Moreover, Red Hugh, who became chiof of the O'Donnells, was second only to the Earl of Tyrone in ability and influence, and the ties of such a friendship were not to be undervalued on their own account. Deputy Sir William Fitzwilliam, from motives of pure avarice, had alarmed every chief in Ulster for his personal safety. Sir Owen McToole and Sir John O'Doherty he had flung into the prison-cells of Dublin Castle because they could not reveal to him treasure alleged to have been secreted by survivors of the Spanish Armada. Hugh McMahon, Chief of Monaghan, he tried by court-martial and executed for the forcible collection of certain rents two years before. The jurors were private soldiers. McMahon's lands were divided between Sir Henry Bagnall, a small group of English officers, and a few Dublin lawyers. Such high- handed acts created universal alarm throughout the North of Ireland. All eyes were, therefore, turned towards the Earl of Tyrone for light and leading, nor, as will be seen, were they turned in vam. The Earl of Tyrone, who eventually became " The O'Neil," on the death of the aged Chief, Turlough Luinagh O'Neil, was by far the most powerful native leader that had appeared in Ireland for centuries. He was shrewd, politic, and skilful. He fully appreciated the might of England, and had little faith in aid from Spain. Nevertheless, with his eyes open to the probable consequences of the step, he was at last compelled to follow the example of the rcbeilious Desmond, whose rising he had helped to suppress. He did his utmost to extend his influence all over Ireland, and his efforts were crowned with a verv large measure of success. The kindred O'Neils and O'Donnells were, of course, the backbone of the insurrection ; but the patriotic league, which was formed, soon embraced the McGuires of Fermanagh, the McMahons of Monaghan, the Il8 THE BOOK OF ERIN. O'Rorkes of Brefny, the McGuinnesses of Down, the Scots of Clandeboy, and the tribes of the North generally. In Connaught, Burkes, O'Dowds, O'Kellys, McDermots, and O'Connors of Sligo rallied to the banner of The O'Neil. In Meath there were not lacking "degenerate English" — Nugents and others— to take the held, aided by the O'Byrnes of Glenmalure and remnants of the tribes of wasted Leix and Offaly. Tyrone, moreover, appealed for succour to the Pope and the Catholic princes of Europe. Battle of Beal-an-athy-buy. — Hostilities were not long delayed. Tyrone seized the fort of the Blackwater, commanding the passage into his own territory, while O'Donnell successfully raided the English settlements in Connaught. i\Iuch desultory fighting ensued, with varying success. In a subsequent struggle for possession of the Blackwater stronghold, between Tyrone and Lord Deputy Burgh, the latter was mortally wounded, and Tyrone's deadly enemy, the Lord-]^Iarshal Bagnal, took the command in the North. O'Neil, on the death of his wife, O'Donnell's sister, had made a sort of runaway match with Bagnal's sister, and both men in consequence entertained for each other the bitterest personal animosity. Ba^-;:ial advanced to withm two miles of Armagh, where he found his foe entrenched on the banks of the rivulet Callan. The forces on either side were about equal in number, but the advanta'T^e in equipments and discipline naturally lay with the English. Nevertheless, the latter were completely routed (1598) and Bagnal slain. O'Neil's generalship was admirable, and resulted in a victory, of w^iich Camden says : — " It was glorious for the rebels and of special advan- tage ; for hereby the\' got both arms and provisions, and Tyrone's name was cried up all over Ireland as the author of their liberty." The Enghsh left on the field of Beal-an-atha-buy (Mouth of the Yellow h^ord) 23 officers, 1,700 rank and file, and nearly the whole of their artillery and baggage. The moral effects of this signal triumph were very great. From Malin Head to Cape Clear the revolt became general. The Englisli possessions dwindled down to Dublin and a few other walled towns and military fortresses. THE "VIRGIN QUEEN." II9 The Essex Campaign. — In London the magnitude of the disaster was fully recognised, and for once Queen Elizabeth forgot parsimony, and equipped a splendid avenging force of 20,000 infantry and 1,300 horse, regardless of expense. These she entrusted to her youthful. Quixotic favourite, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, with instructions to invade Tyrone, the heart of the insurrection, from the south-eastern approaches of Newry and Dundalk, while the formidable English fleet should make descents in the enemy's rear m the North. The plan was as good as could have been devised, but the Earl, for some unaccountable reason, bent his steps in the direction of Limerick, and frittered away time, stores, and troops in storming and garrisonmg unimportant fortresses in the South and South-West. When he eventually directed his march towards Ulster, his efTective forces had been reduced to 8,000, and 2,000 more had to be despatched from England. No sooner did the two generals come within striking ■distance on the banks of the Lagan than O'Neil demanded a parley. This was granted, and the Earls met at a ford of the stream in personal conference. What passed will never be known, but there is every reason to believe that treason was hatched. The announcement of the Queen's death must have been constantly expected by Essex, and it may well be that some wild project of mutual self-interest was agreed on between the two ambitious nobles, who were old acquaint- ances. At all events, the upshot of the business was that Essex assented to an armistice, and undertook to lay Tyrone's by no means palatable terms of submission before his royal mistress. Elizabeth was furious, and declared that " to trust this traitor (Tyrone) upon oath is to trust a devil upon his religion," The unfortunate Essex returned to London without leave of absence, to end his romantic career on the scaffold. Essex's successor in command was Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy. He was a cast-iron man, without a spark of chivalry in his nature. He knew nothing of war but its terrors. He preferred famine to the sword, as a more 120 THE BOOK OF ERIN. effective means of subjugation. In Ulster were now re- enacted all the horrors of the Desmond campaign related in the last chapter. Spanish Aid. — Gradually the brilliant promises of the earlier period of the rising were falsified one by one, and the end of the movement was within measurable distance, w^hen the re-inspiring news of the arrival at Kinsale of fifty Spanish ships, with ample stores and over three thousand auxiliaries on board, readied the despairing Earl of Tyrone. But the intelligence had reached Mountjo}- also, and he was nearer to what now became the inevitable scene of action. Every available English soldier was liurried south to beleaguer the dangerous- foreigner. This was (^iTectually done, and when Tyrone and O'Donnell reached Kinsale they found the town completely invested. They proceeded to besiege the besiegers, and but for the impatience of the Spanish commander, Don Juan d'Aguilar, who vehemently urged the Irish to attack the English lines, it might have gone hard with the royal army. As it was, a surprise was reluctantly attempted, with the most disastrous results. Twelve hundred of Tyrone's men^ it is stated, w^ere slain. The Spanish garrison thereupon surrendered on honourable terms, and were accompanied, on their lionieward voyage, by O'Donnell, who went to beg further aid from Philip III. The gallant chief was unwearied in his solicitations, but the many hardships of imprisonment and of war hnd shattered his health bevond recovery. He sickened and died at Simancas in September, 1602, at the early age of t\\ enty-nine^ leaving behind him a name of high, not to sa\- highest, honour in his country's annals. The fall of Kinsale did not quite finish the war in Kerry. Dunboy Castle, standing on a projecting headland in Bantry Bay, was defended by a garrison of 143 combatants, with unparalleled desperation. They perisiicd to a man ;. Mageoghegan, their commander, sorely wounded, making a desperate effort with dying hand to blow up the magazine. The retreat of O'Sullivan Beare from the wilds of Glengariffe to Leitrim recalls the exploit of Xenophon with his Ten Thousand Greeks. One thousand souls, all told, started — THE *• VIRGIN QUEEN." 121 four hundred soldiers, and six hundred women, children, and sutlers. They' literally fought the whole way, and when they finally reached a place of safety, there survived only eighteen fighting men, sixteen sutlers, and one woman. As for Tyrone, he made his way back to Ulster as best he could with what slender remains of his army he could collect by the way. He was followed by Mountjoy, who^ eventually, after committing many unspeakable atrocities, hemmed him closely round in his last great fastness at the extremity of Lough Erne. More English Atrocities. — The O'Neil had now the sense to perceive that the countr\' was exhausted, and that further resistance was next to impossible. In a letter to Cecil, Elizabeth's chief adviser, Mountjoy had claimed, "by the grace of God, as near as he could, to have utterly wasted the country of Tyrone." In another dispatch he says : — " We found every wliere men dead of famine, insomuch that O'Hagan protested to us that between Tullaghoge and Toome there lay unburied i,ooo dead, and that, since our first drawing this year to the Biackwater, there were about 3,000 starved in Tyrone." And these appalling boasts — for boasts they really are — are fully corroborated by Fynes i\Ior)'son, the historian, the Deputy's secretary. Says he : — " Because 1 have often made mention formerly of our destroying the rebel's corn, and using all means to famish them ; let me now by two or three examples, show the miserable estate to which they were thereby reduced." He then relates how Sir Artliur Chichester, Sir Richard Morrison, and other commanders in Ulster, beheld " a most horrible spectacle of three children (whereof the oldest was not above ten years old) all eating and gnawing with their teeth the entrails of their dead mother, upon whose flesh they had fed twenty days past." And he adds ; — " No spectacle was more frequent in the ditches of towns, and especially in wasted countries, than to see multitudes of these poor people dead, with their moutlis all coloured green, by eating nettles, docks, and all things they could rend up above ground." Another example of Moryson's " unspeakable extremities "^ "will suffice, and more than suffice, most readers. " Some old 122 THE BOOa. OF ERIN. women about Newry used to make a fire in the fields, and divers little children, driving out the cattle in the cold mornings, and coming thither to warm themselves, were by these women surprised, killed, and eaten ; which was at last discovered by a great girl breaking from them by the strength ■of her body : and Captain Trevor, sending out soldiers to know the truth, they found the children's skulls and bones, and apprehended the old women, who were executed for the fact." The English, or rather their rulers, ascribe to themselves great clemency and goodness of heart. Tliey are, in point of fact, the most cruel and brutal, in the treatment of the weak and unfortunate, of all tlie nations — savage, barbarous, or civilised — of which the human race has preserved any record. They ma\- not be wantonly inhuman, but the prospect of gain or of undisguised plunder has been sufficient at all times to make them raven like wild beasts. The Munster atrocities, as was seen, were promptly followed up by "plantations." Those of Ulster, barely glanced at above, had, of course, the same sequel and the same cause — the old Anglo-Norman earth-hunger. Tyrone came to honourable terms with ]\Iountjoy, while the odious " Virgin Queen," to the last more a tigress at heart than a woman, was in her deatli-agony. He was ostensibly reinstated, as h^arl of Tyrone, by "the British Solomon," James Stuart, King of Scots, while Rory O'Donnell, the nev/ chief of Red Hugh's sept, was created Lord Tyrconnel. I'.ut their lands, or ratlier their tribesmen's lands, had from the first been marked out lor prey, and tlie division of ihe spoil was not long delayed. The "Adventurers" got clamorous, and, to escape a false charge of conspiracy deliberately trumped up against them, the Earls fled to the Continent. Forfeiture of their estates followed as a matter of course. 123 CHAPTER XI. Rule of "Thorough." < " I do not believe with the Rochefoucaulds and Montaignes that fourteen out of fifteen men are rogues, I believe a great abatement from that proportion may be made in favour of general honesty. But I have always found that rogues would be uppermost, and I do not know that the proportion is too strong for the higher orders, and for those who, rising above the multitude, always contrive to nestle themselves into the places of power and profit." — Jefferson " I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government, enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live underthe European Governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, and restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of government, they have divided their nations into two classes — wolves and sheep. I do not exaggerate, '^his is a true picture of Europe (Ireland)." — Ibid. " There is no Government, however restricted in its power, that may not, by abuse, under pretext of exercise of its constitutional authority, drive its unhappy subjects to desperation." — John Randolph. " It is a delusion to suppose that because a Government is representative it must therefore be free." — Ibid. " When a Government ceases to answer the purposes for which it was created, submission on the part of the people is no longer a question of obligation and duty, but simply a question of prudence." — Buckle. "Government being constituted for the common benefit, the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind."— Con- stitution OF Tennessee. " Would anyone d.-r^i to say thai, after having established the laws of propertv.justice.and liberty, there was nothing yet to do for the most nunier- ous class of the citizens ? What do your laws of property, ihey might was despatched, by the Confederates, to Scotland to succour the celebrated Marquis of Montrose in his brilliant Royalist campaign in the Highlands. Under '-the gallant Graham " the force performed prodigies of valour and miracles of endurance that have rarely if ever been surpassed in the most arduous warfare. As for Charles, he desired nothing better than to employ Irish troops to crush his English rebels; but the Confederates, naturally enough, stood out for terms to which the bitter opposition of the Protestant Royalists made it hazardous for liim to accede. In proportion, moreover, as the King's CURSE OF CROMWELL. Ijg. affairs became desperate in England, the demands of the Irish rose. At first a free Irish Paliament, freedom of worship, and an Act of Obhvion were asked for. Eventually,, the readjustment of the plantation lands by an Irish Parliament, and the recovery for Catholic use of all unoccupied churches were claimed, and, by secret treaty with Lord Glamorgan on behalf of the King, granted. The Confederates, on their part, promised an army 10,000 strong to ^ fight for the King in England or Scotland, together with a sub] sidy for three years of two-thirds of the revenues of the Church. A copy of this treaty was found on the body of the Archbishop of Tuam, slain in battle before Sligo, and despatched to London. The Blessed Martyr got out of the dilemma, in so far as he could, by what his father, the British Solomon, called "kingcraft" — that is to say, by the hardiest possible lying. He was ** amazed that any man's folly and presumption should carry him to such a degree of abusing our trust ! " Glamorgan, who had been collusively arrested by Vicero}'^ Ormonde for treason, himself professed amazement in order to save his royal master's credit ; but the time had now come when it .iJ^fts impossible longer to keep up appearances. Nuncio Rinucini. — Rinucini had but one idea, to reinstate the Roman Catholic faith in all its pristine privileges. He cared neither for King nor Viceroy, and openly strove to stimulate the growth of a national party in the councils of the Confederacy. And he succeeded so well that the "Moderates" or Ormondists in the General i\ssembly, which met at Kilkenny in January, 1646, no longer hesitated to conclude a peace of thirty articles with the Viceroy in the highest degree distasteful to the Nuncio and his supporters. In so far as religion was concerned it was merely provided (Article I.) '' that the professors of the Roman Catholic religion in this kingdom of Ireland be not bound to take the oath of supremacy expressed in the Second of Queen Elizabeth." All the same, the treaty was one of superlative importance, for Article VI., in 1646,. anticipated full}^ the demand for home rule in 1888. It raa "that the independency of the Parliament of Ireland on the kingdom of England shall be decided by declaration of both. 140 THE BOOK OF ERIN. Houses, agreeable to the laws of the kingdom of Ireland." Against this peace the Nuncio induced nine of the bishops to sign a protest, and as for the King, it came too late to be of any service to him. He was now in the hands of the Scots, who sold him to the English for what he would fetch — the most rational thing they could do with him. He had put them to great expense by his tyranny, and the opportunity had •come to reimburse themselves. Battle of Benburb. — In June of this year (1646) wasfought the battle of Benburb between Owen Roe O'Neil and the Scottish Covenanting General, Monro, in which the latter was beaten, with heavy loss. O'Neil's strategy was admirable, and the conduct of his troops that of veteran legionaries. Three thousand Scots and English were left dead on the field. Lord "Montgomery and tweny-one officers were taken prisoners ; while abundant guns, tents, provisions, and thirty-six standards were the spoils of the victors. Monro himself, who was no craven, fled precipitately from the field, leaving hat, sword, and cloak behind him. He escaped to Lisburn, where he wrote : — "The Lord of Hosts hath rubbed shame on our faces till once we be humbled." The Nuncio was transported with this victory. He excommunicated the Commissioners who negotiated the treaty, he imprisoned the Supreme Council of the Confederacy, and himself became the President of a new Ultramontane Council. With united forces, O'Neil and Preston, who joinpd the Rinucinists from the South, threatened Dublin. Ormonde was now desperate. He was devoted to the King ; but he was a Protestant, and the Butlers had ever been faithful to the English interest. He determined to hand over Dublin to the Parliament of England, and himself to jcin the Royalist refugees at Versailles. This he accordingly did on July 28, 1647. Roundhead Jones. — Colonel Michael Jones, an officer of great distinction, now commanded for the Parliament in Dublin. He boldly marched out from the city, and encoun- tered Preston — from whom O'Neil had separated his force, the Moderate and the Ultramontane not being able to agree — and defeated him at Dungan Hill, with the loss of five thousand men and all his guns and baggage. CURSE OF CROMWELL. I4I: In the South, Lord Inchiquin — " Panther Inchiquin " — who always fought on the side of promotion, without the least regard to principle, completely routed the Confederate troops under Lord Taffe at Knocknanop, near Mallow. Consequ enly^ the cause of Parliament began unexpectedly to brighten^ But an almost incredible transformation scene was at hand. The victorious " Panther " suddenly changed sides. He came to terms with Preston and the Moderate Catholics,, who coalesced with the Royalist Protestants of Munster. Inchiquin and Preston then marched against O' Neil's camp at Maryborough. This w^as strange enough, but the com- bination was faced by one still more astonishing. O'Neil and the Nuncio formed a coalition with Colonel Michael Jones and his Roundheads! Such was the singular posture of aifairs when • news of the King's execution reached Ireland, where Ormonde was once more acting in the name of royalty.. The Viceroy lost no time in proclaiming Charles II., to whom now adhered the Scots of Ulster. Before this formidable Royalist combination of Moderate Catholics, chiefly of the old Pale, Protestant Royalists of Munster, and Covenanting Scots of the Northern Province, the insignificant forces of Parliament necessarily recoiled. With the exception of Derry, the Northern fortresses successively fell, and Ormonde laid siege to Dublin. Rout at Rathmines. — This step Ormonde had good cause to rue. From his camp at Rathmines he sent a detachment of 1,500 men to surprise the garrison ; but the vigilant Jones was not to be caught napping. He gave battle to his Confederate assailants, drove them in on their camp, and routed them^ with the loss of 4,000 men. Ormonde hastily withdrew to Kilkenny, where the eventual adhesion of O'Neil to the Royalist cause in some measure consoled him for the disaster at Rathmines. Puritan and Ultramontane had found it impossible to hunt together in leash. Oliver and his Ironsides. — But now appeared on the distracted scene an actor of a different character and a more terrible purpose than had ever visited the shores of Erin. On the 15th of August, 1649 Oliver Cromwell reached Dublin with a picked army of 8,000 foot, 4,000 horse^ 142 THE BOOK OE ERIN. and an unusually powerful train of artillery. Among his •officers were names of imperishable renown, Blake, Ireton, Ludlow, Monck, Jones, Waller, Sankey, Hardress, and his by no means incapable second son, Henry Cromwell. "We are come," announced this unparalleled compound of craft, cruelty, cant, courage, and capacity, '* to ask an account of the innocent blood that hath been shed, and to endeavour to bring to an account all who by appearing in arms shall justify the same." His first endeavour was made at Drogheda, on which his batteries began to play on Monday, September 9th. The fortifications were regarded by the Royalists as almost impregnable, and it was defended by a gallant garrison of 3,000 men, commanded by Sir Arthur Aston, an officer of high repute. Extracts from Cromwell's own despatch to the Speaker of the English House of Commons will, perhaps, best recount the sequel: — " Sir, — It has pleased Gcd to bless our endeavours at Drogheda. After battering, we stormed it. The enemy was about 3,000 strong in the town. " I believe we put to the sword the whole number of the defendants. I do not think thirty of the whole number escaped with their lives, and ~those that did are in safe custody for the Barbadoes. " This hath been a marvellous great mercy. The enemy not being willing to put an issue upon a field of battle, had put into this garrison almost all their prime soldiers, being about 3,000 horse and foot, under the command of their best officers, Sir Arthur Aston being made Governor. There were some seven or eight regiments, Ormonde's being one, under the command of Sir Edward Verney. I do not believe neither, do I hear, that any officer escaped with his life, save only one lieutenant. " I wish that all honest hearts may give the glory of this to God alone, to whom, indeed, the praise of this mercy belongs. For instruments they were very inconsiderable to the work throughout. "O. Cromwell." Cromwell having thus done his part of the business, it remained for Parliament to show becoming gratitude to the God of pity for such " a marvellous great mercy." The following is extracted from the Journal of the House of Commons : — '• 1649. October 2nd. This day the House received despatches from the Lord Lieutenant Cromwell, dated Dublin, September 17th, giving an account of the taking of -Drogheda. For this important success of the Parliament's CURSE OP CROMWELL. I43 forces in Ireland the House appointed a thanksgiving day to "be held on ist November ensuing throughout the nation. They likewise ordered that a declaration should be prepared and sent into the several counties, signifying the grounds for setting apart that day of public thanksgiving. A letter of thanks was also voted to be sent to the Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland ; and to be communicated to the officers there, in which notice was to be taken that the House did approve of the execution done at Drogheda, as an act both of justice to them and mercy to others who may be warned by it." But Oliver's despatches revealed only a very small part of this ** marvellous great mercy." There is the best evidence to show that the massacre raged for five days, and extended indiscriminately to the young and old of both sexes, in spite of a distinct promise of quarter. Carte and Clarendon were both contemporaries, and their testimony is not to be lightly set aside. Carte's Account of the " Great Mercy." — Says Carte : — ** All the officers and soldiers of Cromwell's army promised •quarter to such as would lay down their arms and performed it as long as the place held out, which encouraged others to yield. But when they had once all in their power, and feared no hurt that could be done them, Cromwell being told by Jones that he had now all the flower of the Irish army in his hands, gave orders that no quarter should be given. So that his soldiers were forced, many of them, against their will to kill their prisoners. The brave Sir A. Aston, Sir Edward Verney, the Colonels Warren, Fleming and Byrne were killed in cold blood ; and indeed all the officers -except some few of the least consideration that escaped by miracle. The Marquis of Ormonde, in his letters to the King and Lord Byron, says that on this occasion Cromwell ■exceeded himself and anything he had ever heard of in breach of faith and bloody inhumanity, and that the cruelties •exercised there for five days after the town was taken would make as many pictures of inhumanity as the * Book of Martyrs ' or the ' Relation of Amboyna.' " Clarendon's Account. — Lord Clarendon is almost equally •explicit : — ** The whole army having entered the town, they exercised all manner of cruelty, and put every man that 144 THE BOOK OF ERIN. related to the garrison and all the citizens who were Irish, man, woman, and child, to the sword ; and there being three or four officers of name and of good family, who had found some way, by the humanity of some soldiers of the enemy, to conceal themselves for four or five days, being afterwards discovered, they were butchered in cold blood." One of Cromwell's officers, Thomas Wood, was brother to Anthony Wood, the Oxford historiographer, and Anthony in his diary gives us a vivid glimpse of an incident in his belligerent brother's achievements on this memorable occa- sion. A multitude of helpless women had taken refuge in the crypts of St. Peter's Church, where they were all ferreted out and ruthlessly butchered. Anthony relates how Thomas found in the vaults under the choir "the flower and choicest of the women and ladies belonging to the town, amongst whom a most handsome virgin arrayed in costly and gorgeous apparel kneeled down to him with tears and prayers to save her life." The Cromwellian saint was moved to compassion, and took her out of the church, '*with the intention to put her over the works to shift for herself.'^ But while he was thus humanely engaged a soldier plunged his sword into the fair creature's body, and Mr. Wood,. *' seeing her gasping, took awa}' her money, jewels, &C.,. and flung her down over the works ! " Another interesting episode of the assault related by the good Anthony is this : " When they were to make their way up to the lofts and galleries of the church, and up to the tower where the enemy had fled, each of the assailants would take up a child and use it as a buckler of defence when they ascended the steps, to keep themselves from being shot or brained." Such details are mere samples of the general horrors of Cromwell's proceedings in Ireland. If they are apparently needlessly enlarged on now, it is merely to save the gentler reader sickening repetition. »45 CHAPTER XIII. The "Act of Settlement" and the "Blessed Restoration." " I have no sympathy with a policy which improves a country by getting rid of its people. It is a policy of despair. It is like the theory of Dr. Sangrado, of Gil Bias fame, for the curing of disease by blood-letting, the life of the body. I cannot accept the policy of making a solitude and calling it political economy. I am entirely against pressing people out of their own country." — Sir William Harcourt. " Neither is the population to be reckoned only by the number, for a smaller number that spend more and earn less do wear out an estate sooner than a great number that live lower and gather more." — Bacon. "The sword of extermination had passed over the land, and the soldier sat down to banquet on the hereditary possessions of the natives." — O' Curry. •• Among the many acts of baseness branding the English character in their blundering pretence of governing Ireland, not the least was the practice of confiscating the land, which by real law belonged to the people, and giving it not to honest resident cultivators, which might have been a polite sort of theft, but to cliques of greedy and grasping oligarchs, who -did nothing for the country they had appropriated, but suck its blood in the name of land-rent, and squander its wealth under the name of fashion and pleasure in London." — John Stuart Blackie. "The Russian Government has been called despotism, tempered by assassination. In Ireland landlordism has been tempered by assassination. Every circumstance combined in that country to exasperate the relations between landlord and tenant. The landlords were for the most part aliens in blood and religion. They represented conquest and confiscation, and they had gone on from generation to generation with an indifference for the welfare of the people, which would not have been tolerated in England or Scotland.' ' — Froude. " How shall I translate this word (tenant-at-will) ? Shall I say serfs ? No ; in feudal times the condition of the serfs was to be attached to the soil, and in no wise to be driven off it, A vassal of those times would be a lord compared with the tenant-at-will of Ireland, to whom the law affords no protection. Why not call him the ' hunt -off-able ' (Wegjagdbare) ? There is even here a difference, which lessens the analogy, for the Game* laws prevent the hunting of hares, stags, and does during certain seasons of the year, while tenants-at-will are lawful game the whole year round And if one of them was disposed to defend his farm — whilst the fox and K 140 THE BOOK OF ERIN. the badger are disposed to defend their cover — that would be termed •rebellion.'" — F. Von Raumer. " Woe to the land on whose judgment seat a stranger sits, at whose gate a stranger watches." — Holy Writ. " With desolation is the land laid desolate, for there is none that thinketh in their hearts." — Ibid. Saok of Wexford. — Reeking from the shambles of Drogheda, Cromwell and the Puritan army next laid siege to Wexford. The place was well fortified, and would, doubtless, have been stoutly defended, but for the base treachery of Captain James Stafford, the governor of the castle, whom Cromwell succeeded in corrupting. As it was^ another ghastly massacre followed, to the cry of " Jesus and no quarter! " A determined but unavailing rally was made by the garrison in the market-place, which was filled with carcases. Three hundred of the citizens, in an attempt to reach the opposite side of the harbour in boats, were drowned. Cromwell's dispatch on the occasion to the Speaker of the House of Commons is sufficiently characteristic. He had pur- posed saving Wexford, but unfortunately "God would not have it so." As for himself, humble instrument as he was in the hand of Omnipotence, he had "thought it not good nor just to restrain off the soldiers from their right of pillage, nor from doing of execution upon the enemy." For " this other mercy," to be sure, he adds, " we pray God may have all the glory." The massacred Cromwell reckons at only two thousand, but in recommending Parliament to send over godly Protestants to occupy the town he gives the significant assurance that " of the former inhabitants, not one in twenty could be found to challenge any property in their own houses," At this unpropitious moment died Owen Roe O'Neil, the victor of Benburb, the only Irish commander capable of meeting Oliver Cromwell in the field on something like equal terms. In the Spanish service he had brilliantly defended Arras against three Marshals of France — De Chatillon, De Chaulnes, and De la Meilleraye — and even his bitterest foes admitted his conspicuous humanity, fidelity of purpose, and general elevation of character. Kilkenny succumbed to the arms of Cromwell chiefly by THE "act of settlement." I47 reason of a frightful pestilence which reduced the garrison from 1,200 men to 400. Clonmel was next assailed, but there, as Oliver phrased it, he "had like to bring his noble to a ninepence." The garrison, commanded by Hugh Duv O'Neil, Owen's cousin, made the most desperate resistance, and finally, under cover of darkness, after completely exhausting their ammunition, withdrew to Waterford. Before Clonmel the Republican army, by pestilence and the sword, lost upwards of 2,000 men. Cromwell's presence was now urgently needed in England. He accordingly sailed from Youghal on May 29th, 1650, after a campaign of nine months unmatched for atrocity even in the bloodstained annals of Ireland. He was not permitted to complete the subjugation cf the island, but he left able and willing hands behind him for the purpose. Deputy Ireton. — Of these, his son-in-law, the morose and inexorable Ireton, was the chief. His influence with Cromwell was great, and it was always exerted in favour of rigour. He captured Waterford after a gallant resistance, which com- pelled him reluctantly to concede to the garrison, on surrender, all the honours of war. The ** Tories," or Irish guerillas, he hunted down with much energy, and in the beginning of 165 1 he was in a position to invest Limerick. By October 27, plague and treachery together had done their work. The town surrendered, and as many as could be found out of twenty-four persons exempted from quarter by the articles of capitulation were hanged. Among them was Turlough O'Brien, the heroic Bishop of Emly, who, addressing Ireton, solemnly summoned him, within a few days, to appear before the tribunal of God to account for his many bloody deeds. Eight days after Ireton caught the plague, and (Hibernica Dominicana) died, " raging and raving of this unfortunate prelate, whose unjust condemna- tion he imagined hurried on his death." The command-in-chief then devolved on General Edmund Ludlow, a sincere and inflexible Republican, who proceeded to aid the execrable monster. Sir Charles Coote, in the reduction of Ireland's last important stronghold, Galway. It capitulated in May, 1652, and the long eleven years' war was at an end. Viceroy Ormonde had already once more K 2 148 THE BOOK OF ERIN. quitted the island. He was now followed by his deputy, Lord Clanricarde, who was permitted to transport himself to the Continent with 3,000 of his followers. Effects of the War. — According to Sir WiUiam Petty, founder of the Lansdowne family, an " Undertaker" no lesf able than unprincipled, there perished by the sword, b}. plague, and artificially produced famine, 616,000 souls out of an entire population of 1,466,000. Of these, 504,000 were of Irish and 112,000 of English extraction. This is held by competent authorities to be an under-estimate of the havoc, but, in any case, a clear third of the inhabitants had been swept away. Live stock, valued at the beginning of the year at ;f4,ooo,ooo had sunk to ;f5oo,ooo. It became necessary to import cattle from Wales. Colonel Lawrence, who was himself an efficient officer of the "Jesus and no quarter" party, in his Interest of Ireland, thus depicts the awful miseries of the time : — ''About the year 1652 and 1653, the plague and famine had so swept away whole counties that a man might travel twenty and thirty miles and not see a living creature, either man, beast, or bird, they being either all dead or had quit those desolate places. Our soldiers would tell stories of the place where they saw a smoke, it was so rare to see either smoke by day, or fire or candle by night. And when we did meet with two or three poor cabins, none but very aged men with women and children, and those like the prophet might have complained, * We are become as a bottle in the smoke, our skin is blg,ck like an oven because of the terrible famine.' I have seen these miserabtc creatures plucking stinking carrion out of a ditch, black and rotten, and been credibly informed that they digged corpses out of the grave to eat But the most tragical story I ever heard was from an officer commanding a party of hcise, who, hunting for Tories in a dark night, discovered a light, which they supposed to be a fire, which the Tories generally made in those waste countries to dress their provisions and warm themselves ; but drawing near, they fouind it a ruined cabin, and besetting it round, some of them di^ alight, and peeping at the window, where they saw a greul fire of wood, and a company of miserable old women aad children sitting round about it. THE "ACT OF SETTLEMENT. I49 and betwixt them and the fire a dead corpse^ lay broihng, which as the fire roasted, they cut off coUops and ate." Deportation of " Rebels." — The war over, various methods of rooting out the Irish race were tried, with more or less success. " Cromwell [Dairy mple^ Mem. of Great Britain), in order to get free of his enemies, did not scruple to transport 40,000 Irish from their own country, to fill all the armies of Europe with complaints of his cruelty and admiration of their own valour." But the question how to provide for the wives and children of the gallant exiles remained. Press-gangs were formed to scour the country in quest of defenceless women and children, to be shipped chiefly for the West Indies. Over 60,000 Irish slaves, it is credibly asserted, were made in this way. In Secretary Thurloe's correspondence a lurid light is thrown on this nefarious business. After the conquest of Jamaica in 1655, the Protector, in order to people it, pro- posed to transport ''a stock of Irish girls and Irish young men " to the island. At first young women only were wanted. " The Castle made reply ; " — " Although we must use force in taking them up, yet it being so much for their own good, and likely to be of so great advantage to the public, it is not in the least doubted that you may have such a number of them as you shall think fit." It was indis- pensable " for their own good" that they should "not be past breeding." In other words, they were destined to be the slave-mistresses of their brutal planter-masters. Again, Henry Cromwell, as Lord Lieutenant, writes : — " I think it might be like advantage to your affairs there (Jamaica) and ours here (Dublin) if you should think fit to send 1,500 or 2,000 young boys of twelve or fourteen years to the place afore-mentioned. We could well spare them, and they would be of use to you. And who knows, it might have been a means to make them Englishmen — I mean, rather Christians." Thurloe responds : " The Committee of the Council have voted two thousand girls, and as many youths, to be taken for that purpose.' Religions Persecution. — In 1652 the persecution of Irish Papists was undertaken in grim earnest. It was resolved to exterminate the priesthood. With this object a procla- mation was published at Dublin, signed by Charles 150 THE BOOK OF ERIN. Fleetwood, Edmund Ludlow, and John Jones, Commis- sioners for the Parliament of England, enforcing in Ireland the penalties of the 27th Elizabeth, in all their diabolical rigour. By this Act {Curry s Review) "every Romish priest so found was deemed guilty of rebellion, and sentenced to be hanged until he was half dead ; then to have his head taken off, and his body cut in quarters ; his bowels to be drawn out and burned, and his head fixed upon a pole in some public place." Again (Curry) : — " The punishment of those who enter- tained a priest was by the same Act confiscation of their goods and chattels, and the ignominious death of the gallows. This edict was renewed the same year, with the additional cruelty of making even the private exercise of the Roman Catholic religion a capital crime ; and again repeated in 1,657, with the same penalty of confiscation and d^ath to all those who, knowing where a priest was hid, did not make discovery to the Government. "The same price (five pounds) was set by these Com- missioners on the head of a Romish priest as on that of a wolf, the number of which latter was then very considerable in Ireland ; and although the profession or character of a Romish priest could not, one would think, be so clearly ascertained as the species of a wolf, by the mere inspection of their heads thus severed from their bodies, yet the bare asseveration of the beheaders was, in both cases, equally credited and rewarded by these Commissioners."' During the brief period of the Protectorate "three .bishops and three hundred ecclesiastics" were cruelly done to death. Not a prelate was left in the whole island to bless, ordain, or confirm. The Catholic faith seemed on the brink of absolute destruction. Well might " a contemporary writer and eye-witness" (Morrison's Threnodia) exclaim: "Neither the Israelites were more cruelly persecuted by Pharaoh, nor the innocent infants by Herod, nor the Christians by Nero, or any other of the Pagan tj^ants, than were the Roman Catholics of Ireland, at that fatal juncture, b}' the savage Commissioners." From generals let us next descend to a few authentic particulars, taken from Morrisoni Threnodia Hiberno-Catkolica. THE "act of settlement." I5I * Protestant Atrocities. — '* I do not here enumerate," says Morrison, " any person slain in battle, although he might have fallen in the cause of his religion, nor do I give the tenth part of the persons of quality who were murdered, but only the most illustrious, being chiefly those who were received into allegiance by the Protestants, after the amnesty had been made and actually entered on ; a treachery which barbarians and infidels themselves would abhor and deem detestable. ** I. Lord Hugh MacMahon, the chief of his illustrious race, a brave and noble military leader, was, after two years* imprisonment in London, half hanged, and, ere life was extinct, quartered ; his head was then placed on an iron spike on London-bridge to feed the ravenous fowls of the air; his four quarters were placed over four of the gates of London. ** 2. Cornelius Maguire, Lord Viscount Inniskillen, a most devout and holy man, sole companion in captivity of the aforesaid Hugh MacMahon, underwent the same butchery about two months after the execution of MacMahon. " 3. The illustrious Felix O'Neill (captured by Protestant device) was half hanged in Dublin, a.d. 1652, and, while yet alive, was quartered. His head was stuck upon a great spike at the western gate of Dublin, and his quarters were kent to be stuck on spikes in four different parts of the kingdom. "4. Henry O'Neill, son of Eugene O'Neill, taken prisoner in battle, and notwithstanding plighted faith, slaughtered in Ulster, A.D. 1651. " 5. Thaddaeus O'Connor (Sligo), from the royal race of the Jast and most powerful monarchs of Ireland, a man of great goodness and innocence, hung in the town of Boyle, in Connaught. " 6. Constantius O'Ruairk, taken prisoner in battle, mur- dered in 1652, notwithstanding plighted faith. " 7. Theobald De Burgo, Lord Viscount Mayo, after truce had been made with all such persons in the kingdom as were actually in arms against the Protestants, and a general amnesty promised, was shot in Galway in 165 1. '* 8. Charles O'Dowd, of a most high and noble race, hanged 1651. 152 THE BOOK OF ERIN. *' 9. The illustrious Donat O'Brien, descended of the f«yal race of the O'Briens, a most generous man, and of surpassing hospitality. After the Protestants had plighted to him their faith, and given him safe conduct in order that he might become their tributary, an attack being made one day by the Protestants against the Catholics, he (O'Brien), relying on his having been received into their friendship, approached, when a certain Protestant knight shot him through the body^ Unsatisfied with this cruelty, when the venerable old man (then aged about sixty four years) had entered a hut, half dead, that he might, in penitence, commend himself to God^ a soldier followed, set fire to the hut, and burned this noble old man, in Thomond, a.d. 1651. *' 10. James O'Brien, of illustrious lineage, a maternal nephew of the aforesaid Donatus O'Brien, a youth of high hopes and prospects, was murdered at Nenagh by the Ormonds. They cut his head off, and sent it to his uterine brother, Moriarty O'Brien, then their prisoner. ** II. Bernard O'Brien, of the same noble family, a youth of equally fair prospects, was hanged in 1651. " 12. Daniel O'Brien, iirst cousin of the said Bernard, was hanged, and his head cut off at Nenagh, 1651. *' 13. The illustrious Colonel John O'Kennedy, a man of the utmost integrity, was slain by the swords of the Protestants, after their faith had been pledged to him in battle. His head was then cut off, and fastened on a spike in the town of Nenagh, a.d. 1651. " 14. James 0'Kennedy,''son of the aforesaid illustrious gentleman, a youth of great hopes, being deluded with a similar pledge of good faith, was hanged in Nenagh, a.d* 1651. *' 15. The illustrious Sir Patrick Purcell, Vice-General of all Munster, noble-hearted and a most accomplished warrior (renowned for his services in Germany against Sweden and France, under Ferdinand III. of Augustan memory), was hanged after the taking of Limerick, his head cut off and exposed on a stake over the southern gate (called John's Gate) of the city of Limerick, a.d. 1651. "16. The illustrious and most generous Sir Godfrey Barron, a sincere Catholic, of the highest fidelity, and of THE " ACT OF SFTTLEMENT." 1$^ singular eloquence, who had been deputed by the confeder- ated Catholics of Ireland as their envoy to his Most Christian Majesty, was also hanged at Limerick. " 17. The noble Sir Godfrey Galway was likewise hanged at Limerick, 1651. "18. The noble Thomas Stritch, Mayor of Limerick and alderman, was, with the like cruelty, hanged at the same time with the rest. His head was then cut • off and fastened to the city gate. ** 19 The noble Dominicus Fanning, ex-Mayor of Limerick and alderman, a well known man, and of the highest integrity, who had been of great service *o the Confederated Catholics, and had laudably conferred much benefit on the kingdom, as well as on the cit)'^, was hanged at Limerick, along with the rest, a.d. 165 i. His head was cut off and affixed to the gate. " 20. Daniel O'Higgins, medical doctor, a wise and pious man, was hanged at the same time at Limerick, a.d. 165 i. "21. The illustrious and Right Reverend Terence O'Brien^ Bishop of Raphoe (of whom I have already spoken), was hanged at the same time, and his head cut off. He went gloriously to heaven, a.d. 1651. " 22. The illustrious John O'Connor, Lord of Kerry and Iracht, on account of his adhesion to the Catholic party,, and his efforts to draw to it not only his personal followers, but all with whom he had friendship, was, after having been seized upon by stratagem by the Protestants,, brought to Tralee in that country, and there half hanged and then beheaded, a. d. 1652. " 23. The illustrious Lord Edward Butler, son of Lord Mountgarret, an innocent man, who had never taken arms,, was hanged at Dublin after the truce had been commenced, and amnesty promised throughout the whole kingdom,. A. d. 1652. ** 24. The illustrious and Reverend Bernard Fitzpatrick,. priest, and descended from the illustrious lineage of the Barons of Ossory, who, flying for refuge from the fury of the Protestants to a cave, was pursued by them ; who there cut off the head of this most holy man, who was equally re- nowned throughout the kingdom for his life, his doctrine^ 154 "^^^ BOOK OF ERIN. and his lineage. They affixed his head to a spike over the town gate, to be meat for the fowls of the air, and left his flesh to be devoured by the beasts of the field." Division of the Plunder. — Ireland being now, to all intents, a tabula rasa^ the English Parliament lost no time in "settling" it. It was accordingly resolved by the Act of Settlement (August i2th, 1652) : — ist, that all Romanist ecclesiastics and Royalist landowners should forfeit both life and estate ; 2nd, that all Royalist commissioned officers should be banished, and two-thirds of their property confiscated, the remaining third being set apart for the support of their families ; 3rd, that those who — although they had never borne arms against Parliament — had not manifested a "constant good affection" towards it, should be offered two-thirds of the value of their estates in Connaught ; and 4th, that " mercy and pardon, both as to life and estate," should be extended to all " husbandmen, ploughmen, labourers, artificers, and others of the inferior sort not possessed of lands or goods exceeding the value of ;f lo." As for the rest — peer and commoner, gentle and simple, squire and burgess — they were told to transport themselves to mere subsistence allotments in barren Connaught by May ist, 1654, on penalty of death at sight, be they man, woman, or child. Once across the Shannon, which was lined with forts, they were, on no pretext whatever, to approach within four milf^s of the river or two of the sea-shore. "To Hell or Connaught!" was the expressive phrase which has crystallised for ever the barbarous policy of the Puritan Parliament of England towards the Sister Island. The transplantation beyond the Shannon of all the Irish and old Anglo-Irish population of Ulster, Leinster, and Munster, with the exception of an indispensable remnant of hewers of wood and drawers of water, was not accomplished without unspeakable sufferings. Even the remorseless Re- publican Commissioners were fain to grant to the banished a brief respite beyond the day of doom. The first batch of the exiles was relegated to " the Burren," in North Clare, a district so desolate that one of the trans- planter Commissioners emphatically declared that it did not possess " water enough to drown a man, trees enough to hang THE ** ACT OF SETTLEMENT." I55 a man, or earth enough to bury a man." Rather than face the hardships of such a lot many resolutely turned back to -encounter almost certain death. Slowly, however, the inhuman work was accomplished. Family group after group, with their scanty household and other effects, straggled across the Shannon, the sick and infirm being carried in litters. Among the victims was a grandson of the poet Spenser. Roads were then almost non-existent, and when at last the miserable beings did reach their destination it was only to be shamelessly robbed by the agents of the Govern- ment appointed to set out their allotments. The Coles, Bing- hams. Kings, Gores, and Lloyds would do nothing except foi money, or, more generally, land bribes. In this way they contrived to appropriate many thousands of acres of the Connaught reservation, and to fill to the brim the cup of woe of the allottees. Nor was banishment the fate of the landholding class alone. The enterprising merchants — nearly all of English origin — of such chartered towns as Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny, and Galway were likewise expelled from their busy marts. They carried their enterprise to Ostend, Rochelle, and Cadiz, and even to distant Mexico. Their destiny closely resembled that of the French Huguenots after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Meanwhile, Dr. William Petty, Physician to the Forces, had been busy surveying Ireland for purposes of confisca- tion. The surface of the country he estimated at 10,500,000 Irish acres (an Irish acre is 7,840 square yards ; an English 4,840). Of these 3,000,000 acres were waste, or " unprofit- able." The remaining 7,500,000 were, previous to the rising of 1641, held thus: by the Church, 300,000 acres; by the Protestant planters settled by Elizabeth and James, 2,000,000, and by the Roman Catholics, 5,200,000. Under the Cromwellian settlement, the Government reserved for itself the Church lands, and confiscated the 5,200,000 acres held by Paptists and sequestered Protestants. The latter immense area was almost wholly divided between the Puritan soldiery in lieu of arrears of pay and among the " adventurers " who had contributed to the military chest. 156 THE BOOK OF ERIN. The claims of the " adventurers " were satisfied first by a lottery held at Grocers' Hall, London, in 1653. For the protection of the unwarlike speculators, they were distri- buted in alternate baronies with the soldier settlers. The regiments next drew lots for localities, and similarly each man received his own section of the soil by ballot. By the end of 1655 the last regiment had been disbanded, and the Protestant occupation of the three fair provinces was pro- nounced complete. Cromwell, if Clarendon is to be believed,. *' had reserved for himself the whole province of Tipperary as a demesne for the State in which no adventurer or soldier should demand his lot to be assigned, and no doubt intended both the State and it for making great his own family. And yet the Confiscators were not happy. They were afflic- ted, they complained, by " three burdensome beasts — the first a wolf, the second a priest, and the third a Tory," that gave them no peace. Moreover, they scandalously failed to " extirpate the heathen," whose daughters, the children of their own Papist labourers, they began to marry, in so much that their offspring in less than forty years were in many instances unable to speak a word of English ! Human nature triumphed. " We owe allegiance to the State; but deeper, truer, more To the sympathies that God hath set within our spirits core ; Our country claims our fealty ; we grant it so, but then Before man made us citizens great Nature made us men." The "Blessed Restoration." — On September 3rd, 1658, his " fortunate day," died Oliver Cromwell, and, after a brief period of distraction, Charles the Second, our Merry Monarch, " enjoyed his own again." In Ireland the Restoration was mainly the work of the two most consum- mate scoundrels in the country — Broghill, President of Mun- ster, and Coote, President of Connaught. Broghill, son of the infamous, upstart Earl of Cork, had been one of the Protector's most intimate confidants. He was cruel, treacherous, and generally unprincipled beyond measure, so much so that he even distanced the odious Coote in the race of villany. He was the Monck of Ireland, a character to which the unblushing renegade laid claim by producing a letter from Coote, in which the latter acknow- THE "ACT OF SETTLEMENT. I57 Jedged that the first suggestion of a Royalist Restoration had come from him (Broghill). In any case, Charles acted on the cynical advice of Clarendon, *' Make much of your enemies, for your friends will do you no harm," and richly rewarded both malefactors. Broghill was made Earl of Orrery, and Coote Earl of Mountrath, while ** the estates of the Irish, who had fought for the King, and followed his fortunes in exile, were con- firmed to drummers and sergeants who had conducted his father to the scaffold." The Catholics and ''delinquent " Protestants who had had to choose between " Hell and Connaught " naturally looked to enjoy their own again on the restoration of the monarchy, but their hopes were doomed to sore disappointment. During the Protectorate thirtylrish members had sat at Westminster, •Oliver being an Anti-Home Ruler of the most approved pattern. He was the real author of administrative centrali- sation, in whose gigantic footsteps the petty Salisburys and JBalfours of to-day essay to tread. In May, 1661, however, an Irish Parliament assembled, after an interval of nearly twenty years, and the persecuted people flattered themselves that the alien yoke would at last be removed from their necks. They were speedily undeceived by the composition of the Houses, which were packed with " undertakers," "" adventurers," and Puritan fanatics from boroughs exclusively Protestant. The Ascendancy Party, or Protestant Interest, in the Commons numbered 259 representatives to a solitary Catholic ; in the Lords, seventy- two Protestants faced twenty-one Catholic peers. The Bill of Settlement. — The great business of this Parliament was to pass a " Bill of Settlement," confirming generally the claims of the " New Interest "' — that is to say, the Cromwellian confiscators. It passed both Houses, the Upper with much difficulty. However, not to incense the Catholics too much, it was tesolved to appear to do justice. Accordingly, a Court of •Claims was set up to try individual cases of gross hardship. From its precincts were repelled all who had joined " the rebels " before '48, all who had clung to the party of Nuncio 158 THE BOOK OF ERIN. m Rinucini after the split of the Confederates, and all who had accepted lands in Connaught. Nevertheless, there was a throng of applicants, and out of some two hundred cases heard by the commissioners within the first three months of the court's existence only nineteen were quashed. The others were pronounced valid, and restoration of estates was decreed. The ♦* New Interest " was furious, and threatened to appeal to the God of Battles. This had the desired effect. By the ** Black Act " the Court of Claims was summarilj^ closed within the year, three thousand entered suits remain- ing unheard. Thus was ** settled " for a time the land question, after twenty- one years of ceaseless and bloody turmoil. In 1675, fifteen years after the Restoration, the Roman Catholics possessed 2,500,000 acres, or just one-third of what had been theirs before the rising of 1641. 15^ CHAPTER XIV. The Jacobite Campaign in Ireland. •• Did the mass of men know the actual selfishness and injustice of their rulers not a government would stand a year ; the world would ferment with revolution." — Theodore Parker. " The greatest of all injustice is that which goes under the name of law ; and of all sorts of tyranny, the forcing of the letter of the law against equity is the most insupportable." — L'Estrange. " I cannot countenance the reverence paid by the people to those who oppress, grind them down, and scourge them. I hope the day will come when they will throw oflf the burden by which they are oppressed by the aristocracy, and stand forth, the bravest, the freest, ,and the most virtuous people on the face of the earth." — John Bright. '* The power of kings and magistrates was, and is, originally the people's and by them conferred, in trust only, to be employed to the common peace and benefit, with liberty, therefore, and right remaining ia them to resume to themselves, if it be abused, or to dispose of it by any alteratioo as they shall judge most conducing to the public good." — Milton. " It is useless to govern Ireland by laws made in England. The Irish could be easily and happily governed by laws made at home." — Earl of Carlisle (Viceroy, 1790). " A great empire and little minds go ill together." — Burke. •' Inequality is the source of all revolutions, for no compensation can make up for inequality." — Aristotle. " The best state of human nature is that in which, while no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor has any reason to fear being thrust back by the efforts of others to push themselves forward." — J. S. Mill. "The law does not create right; right must dictate the law." — Laveleye. " No mortal cares twopence for any king, except through compulsion; and society is not a ship of war. Its government cannot always be a press-gang. The ' divine right ' of squires is equal to the divine right of kings, and not superior. A word has made them, and a word can unmake them." — Carlyle. Restraints on Irish Trade. — These began in earnest, in 1663, ill the reign of the Merry Monarch, when the word " Ireland " was first omitted from the Navigation Act, and l6o THE BOOK OF ERIN. the prospects of her colonial trade were annihilated, in order that wealthy England might have one poor competitor the less. In a subsequent measure (1666) the importation of Irish cattle intoEnglanditself was explicitly declared " a publick and com- mon nuissance," while traffic in Hibernian beef, pork, bacon, butter, and cheese was strictly forbidden, as tending to lower rent. In debating the Bill, the English House of Commons chequer in favour of Annesley was reversed bj' the Irish House of Lords. Thereupon Annesley appealed to the English House of Lords, which decided in his favour, and to leave no doubt on the minds of Irish legislators as to their ab'.olute ** subjec- tion unto the imperial Crown of this realm," it was promptly decreed (6 Geo., c, 5), "That the King's Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spintual and tem- poral and Commons of Great Britian in Parliament assembled, had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of suincient force and validity to bind the people of Ireland." Ey the same statute the appellate jurisdiction of the Irish House of Lords was expressly denied or taken away. Yet ten years did not pass by before a far more powerful Home Rule champion than Molyneux stood forth to vindicate the cause of Ireland's legislative independence. In his fourth Drapier letter. Swift, addressing Irishmen, tells them, " By the laws of God, of nature, of nations, and of your country, you are and ought to be as free a people as your brethren in England." Wood's Halfpenoe. — Dean Swift was at once a High Churchman and a misanthrope, and doubts have been cast on the sincerity of his Irish patriotism. But about the solidity of the services he rendered to the cause of Ireland there can be no doubt whatever. He made the country everlastingly his debtor by a stroke of genius, which for the first time unified men of all parties, creeds, and interests. The occasion was in a measure whimsical, but one of deeper import would not have served his purpose half as well. A certain William Wood, by a corrupt arrangement with the Duchess of Kendal, mistress of George I., obtained a patent for supplying Ireland with a copper coinage of halfpence and farthings, to the amount of ;^i 08,000. Sir Isaac Newton, then Master of the Mint, assayed specimens of Wood's coppers, and pronounced them conformable to the terms of the patent. But this mattered nothing. The Drapier announced that the coin was so base that elevenpence would be lost in the THE PENAL CODE. 185 shilling; and everybody, rightly or wrongly, believed him. ■** Your newsletter says that an assay was made of the coin. How impudent and insupportable is this ! Wood takes care to coin a dozen or two of halfpence of good metal, sends them to the Tower, and they are 'approved,' and these must answer all that he has already coined, or shall coin for the future. I have heard of a man who had a mind to sell his liouse, and therefore carried a piece of brick in his pocket, which he showed as a pattern to encourage purchasers ; and this is directly the case in point with Mr. Wood's assay." Swift then proceeded to draw a dismal picture of the state of the country after swindler Wood's copper should have •driven all the silver and gold out of it. A lady going out shopping would require to take a waggon-load of the vile halfpence along with her ! A landlord would require teams of horses to draw home his rents, and spacious vaults in ivhich to stow them away! And worse and worse: — ** It would ruin even our beggars ; for when I give a beggar a halfpenny it will quench his thirst or go a good way to fill his belly ; but the twelfth part of a halfpenny will do him no more service than if I should give him three pins out of my sleeve ! " These representations prevailed. A thrill of horror went through the whole framework of Irish society. The patent, was, perforce, withdrawn (1725), and the dean rose to a pitch of unprecedented popularity. For the first time in history had the Irish people, by purely constitutional •agitation, completely worsted the alien Goverment by cordial union on a false issue ! It was only incidentally — nay, almost furtively — that Swift ventured to assign the true Home Rule ground of objection to the Wood patent : — *• Your paragraph relates further that Sir Isaac Newton reported an assay, taken at the Tower, of Wood's metal, by which it would appear that Wood had, in all respects, per- formed his contract. His contract ! With whom ? Was it with the Parliament or people of Ireland ? Are not they to be the purchasers ? But they detest, abhor, and reject it as corrupt, fraudulent, mingled with dirt and trash." i86 CHAPTER XVI. "Eighty-Two" and " Ninety-Ei^ht." " The spirit of nationality is at once the bond and safeguard of king^^- doms ; it is something above laws and beyond thrones, the impalpable element, the inner life of States ; but anti-nationality is the confusion and downfall of kingdoms ; it is a blight and a mildew on the heritage of the people." — Burke. " To recognise the Irish nation — that is the one indispensable thing to keep in view. Ireland is a nation by every test that England is a nation. Ireland, I say, is quite a typical organism. The man who cannot see that has no eye for politics at all." — Frederick Harrison. " The principle I state, and mean to stand upon, is this, that the entire ownership of Ireland, moral and material, body, land, and soul, up to the sun and down to the centre, is vested of right in the people of Ireland. The entire soil of a country belongs of right to the entire people. I will put Ireland in the van of the world and set her aloft in the blaze of the sun." — ^James Fintan Lalor. " A landlord of straw can grind to powder a tenant of steel." — Lord Clare. " Sir ! I love the Irish nation. There is not one feature more pre- dominant than gratitude and sensibility to kindness. Change your system towards that country, and you will find them another sort of men. Let impartiality, justice, clemency, take the place of prejudice, oppres- sion, and vengeance, and you will not want the aid of martial law." — Charles James Fox. " It is but too true that there are many whose whole scheme of freedom is made up of pride, perverseness and insolence. They feel themselves in a state of thraldom ; they imagine their souls are cooped and cabined in, unless they have some men, or some body of men, dependent on their mercy. This desire of having someone below them descends to those who are the very lowest of all ; and a Protestant cobbler, debased by his poverty, but exalted by his share of the ruling Church, feels a pride in knowing it is by his generosity alone that the peer whose footman's step he measures is able to keep his chaplain from a gaol." — Burke. «, " The elements of Irish nationality are growing confluent in our minds — such nationality as merits a good man's help and wakens a true man's ambition — as could stand against internal faction and foreign intrigue — as would make the Irish hearth happy and the Irish name illustrious. It must contain and represent the races of Ireland. It must not be Celtic, it must not be Saxon, it must be Irish." — Thomas Davis. " EIGHTY-TWO " AND " NINETY-EIGHT." iS^- •* A voice from America shouted • Liberty ! ' and every hill and valley of this rejoicing Ireland answered ' Liberty ! ' " — Flood, " Every proposal for the advantage of Ireland was held a direct attack, on the interests of England." — Wolfe Tone. "Their good, ill, health, wealth, joy or discontent, Being, end, aim, religion — rent, nnt, rent ! " — Byron. Corruption — The sting of Swift's inimitable Drapier Letters went home and greatly strengthened the hands of the little band of '* Patriots " inside the House. And sore indeed was the need. The malversation of public moneys rose by leaps and bounds. In 1723 the Pension List was ;f 30,000 per annum ; in 1733 it was ;^69,ooo. In 1763 it had risen to ;f 72,000 with an addition of ;^75,ooo for the pay of the officers of ten regiments which were never raised.- Thirteen years later, at the outbreak of the American War of Independence, the Pension List stood at ;f 90,000 — a charge exceeding that of the entire Civil Administration. Still, despite every effort, the enormity increased. In 1784 pensions entailed an expenditure of ;^86,ooo ; in 1786 of ;f 95,000; in 1788 of ;f 97,600 ; and in 1790 of ;f 100,800. " The system," said Grattan, v/ithout any of the rhetorical exaggeration which often marred his grandest utterances,. " was a conspiracy against the laws of the land, and had established instead of a limited monarchy, a corrupt despotism." King after king quartered his mistresses and his- illegitimate progeny on the Irish establishment. Among the former may be noted Catherine Sedley, ;f 5,000 ; the Duchess of Kendal, ;^3,ooo; the Countess of Leinster ;f 2,000; Lady Darlington, ;f 1,500; and Madame de Walmoden, ^'3,000. At no time were aught but the paltriest sums awarded on the score of merit. Conspicuous dem.erit carried all before it. The royal Dukes of Cumberland and Gloucester had pensions of ;f 3,000 each, the Princess Augusta ;f 5,000, and the Princess Amalie ;f 1,000 for services rendered to the Irish people ! To the Duke of Brunswick were assigned ;f 5,200 ; to the Countess of Yarmouth's representatives £"4,000; to Lord Percy ;f 3,000; to the Countess of Bellamount ;f 1,500; to " Single Speech " Hamilton ;f 2,500 ; to Lord Mayo ;f 1,033 ^ 188 THE BOOK OF ERIN. and SO on. Eventually the Irish Pension List exceeded the English in amount, not merely relatively but absolutely. In a word, the English Privy Council assumed the right of granting any pensions they pleased out of the revenues of Ireland, with the result that the ranks of the ^* Patriots " themselves were from time to time thinned and broken in a manner inexpressibly disheartening to the most sanguine and incorruptible. On this honourable roll must be inscribed the name of Dr. Charles Lucas, who, though far inferior in talent and acquirement to Molyneux and Swift, yet faithfully watered the fair tree of national independence which they had planted. For assailing the constitution of Parliament and similar offences the House pronounced him **an enemy of his country," which he had to flee, in 1749, to escape arrest. Eventually he returned to renew the war on corruption in his Freeman's Journal^ and to enter the Parliament of 1768, the first summoned under the Octennial Act. Constitution of the Irish Parliament. — How any good 'Could have come out of the unreformed Protestant Ascend- ancy Parliament of Ireland is a marvel. Previous to the passing of the Octennial Act it had sat during the life of the monarch, or till a dissolution. George the Second's reign lasted for thirty-three years, and so did his Irish Parliament. The House of Commons consisted of 300 members ; that is to say, sixty-four knights of thirty-two counties ; fourteen citizens of seven cities ; 220 burgesses of no boroughs ; and two representatives of Dublin University. Of the boroughs eighty-six were " close," the property of a few wealthy peers and landlords, who sold them like any other marketable •commodity. In many instances the voters did not exceed ten in number. In Bannow and Harristown there was not a single inhabitant. No fewer than 116 seats were at the disposal of twenty-five owners. These were generally let to the Government by the "patrons" for titles, pensions, and places. With difficulty could the regular Anti-Castle or Patriotic Party muster eighty votes. Yet out of this political Nazareth, into which no Catholic might enter, and for whose members no Catholic might vote, some good things did "eighty-two" and "ninety-eight." i8^ undoubtedly come. Could there be a better commentary on the text, " Corruption wins not more than honesty ? " Parliamentary and other Reforms. — The first of these that need be mentioned was the aforesaid Octennial Act, which the English Privy Council allowed after thrice rejecting an Irish Septennial Bill. Viceroy Townshend desired it for his own purposes, and hence the concession. A hardly less important popular advantage was gained about the same time by the Irish Commons in regard to the control of the public purse. Notwithstanding Poynings*^ Act, they successfully contested the claim set up by the Privy Council, whether English or Irish, to originate Money Bills. The Viceroy (Townshend) retaliated by indignantly proroguing Parliament. In a future session, in spite of wholesale corruption, he again failed in his object, chiefly through the exertions of the celebrated Henry Flood, who shortly afterwards, however, to the deep regret, and even scandal, of all good men, accepted the sinecure office of Vice- Treasurer, worth ;f 3,500. Henry Flood. — It is hard to account for this step on the part of one of Ireland's greatest sons. He had not even the poor excuse of impecuniosity to plead. He was the son of the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and his professional income was large. He had troops of powerful friends. Perhaps he took office, like a Radical statesman of our own day, in order to ** permeate " less liberal-minded colleagues I Be that as it may, unlike that unlucky politician, he was not himself permanently ** permeated " by them. After seven years of unendurable silence, he burst his official fetters, and once more essayed to lead the Patriots. But his old post was now occupied by Henry Grattan, morally, if not also intel- lectually, a greater man than himself. Not unnaturally, but deplorably, rivalry soon embittered the relations of these two gifted leaders. As a tactician, however. Flood, it seems to me, had clearer insight than Grattan, whose very goodness of heart disposed him, as will be seen, to excessive optimism. Henry Grattan. — "The highest attainments of human genius were within his reach, but he thought the noblest occupation of a man was to make other men happy and free ; and in that straight line he kept for fifty years, without one 390 THE BOOK OF ERIN* ^ide look, one yielding thought, one motive in his heart which might not have been laid open to the view of God and Man." 'Such is the testimony of Sydney Smith, the wittiest, the wisest, and the most humane Englishman that ever lifted pen •on behalf of Ireland. And who that has studied Grattan's career, however superficially, or looked into his noble homely face, even on canvas, can form any other judgment ? He entered the Irish House of Commons in 1775 — Flood took his seat in 1759 — and through every vicissitude of his country's fortunes lie remained the devoted and unshaken advocate of her nationhood. His formula was true now as then : '* The two countries, from their size must stand together — united qtwad nature, distinct quoad legislation." Eventually both Grattan and Flood found seats in the English Parliament, but the heart of neither was in the 'business. The pleasures of memory exceeded those of hope, and as Grattan finely said of Flood, he was " an oak of the forest too great and old to be transplanted." Ireland and the American Revolution. — The attempt of Great Britain to tax the American Colonies, regardless of the representative principle in l^islation was naturally watched in Ireland with the deepest interest. After eleven years of wordy warfare, the inevitable recourse was had to arms in 1775. ^^ 1777 General Burgoyne surrendered a British army 6,000 strong at Saratoga, and in 1788 France acknow- ledged the independence of the revolted States, and declared war on '* perfidious Albion." The effect on the Irish policy of the British Government was magical. In brief space fear wrung from it concessions which, so far as sense of justice or motive of humanity went, might have been withheld for ever. One after another the more monstrous of the penal laws vanished from the statute book. In 1788 Romanists were permitted to hold leases for 999 years. Their lands were made descendable and devisable like those of Protestants. Protestant heirs lost their peculiar privileges. The Volunteers. — The country being now almost denuded -of troops, and the coasts helplessly exposed to the ravages of the famous Scoto- American privateer, John Paul Jones, the Protestants demanded to be armed in self-defence, and the Government reluctantly complied with their request. Before ** EIGHTY-TWO " AND "NINETY-EIGHT." IQI longioo,ooo volunteers sprang to arms — a splendid force,no less formidable to the foreign invader than to the domestic tyrant. Free Trade. — In October, 1779, Mr. Grattan moved an amendment to the Address in favour of ^^ free export and import,^* which words, at Flood's instance, were changed to "free trade." This amendment was carried, with a single dis- sentient, and served on the Viceroy, at the Castle, the Commons forming a procession, and passing through long lines of Volunteers, with the Duke of Leinster at their head. Two field-pieces, labelled " Free Trade or this," were con- spicuous in front of King William's statue on College-green, where the Volunteers were reviewed on the " pious and immortal's " birthday. In substance. Lord North's Adminis- tration speedily yielded, prudently preferring " Free Trade " to "this." By " free trade" was meant the exercise of such rights of commerce as Englishmen then enjoyed. Home Rule. — The' concession of free trade filled the Irish people with joy unspeakable, and the Castle party with <:orresponding dismay. Stimulated by the English Privy 'Council, the latter attempted to recover lost ground, and by reason of their superior numbers in the House they succeeded in beating the patriots on several important issues by two to -one. This was not to be tolerated by brave men, well-armed, and conscious of their strength. The Ulster Volunteers but, alas ! too sanguine, words : — " EIGHTY-TWO AND " NINETY-EIGHT." I93 " I am now to address a free people. Ages have passed awaj^ and this is the first moment in which you could be distinguished by that appellation. I have only to admire by what Heaven- directed steps you have proceeded until the whole faculty of the nation is braced up to the act of her own deliverance. " I found Ireland on her knees ; I watched over her with an eternal solicitude; I have traced her progress from injuries to arms, and from arms to liberty. Spirit of Swift ! Spirit of Molyneux ! Your genius has prevailed ! Ireland is now a nation ! In that new character I hail her I and bowing to her august presence, I say, Esto perpetua ! *' Lord North's disastrous Ministry was now at an end. America was lost, and England, exhausted by the struggle, ■was in no humour to resist tfie Irish ultimatum. Accordingly, it was promptly resolved by both Houses of the British Parliament to repeal 6th George I., entitled, " An Act for the better securing the Dependency of Ireland upon the Crown of Great Britain." When, therefore, the Irish Parliament reassembled, after a brief adjournment, on 27th May, Viceroy Portland announced that the Rockingham Ad- ministration had unconditionally acceded to Grattan's terms. The intimation was received with unbounded gratitude. The Irish Legislature was now at liberty to annul Poynings* Law, and generally to enact whatever it pleased without any referfince to the Privy Council of England. For the first time Ireland got the benefit of the Habeas Corpus Act, and judges were appointed during good behaviour instead of during the King's grace. On behalf of Ireland, it was confidently announced to the Viceroy that "no constitutional question any longer existed between the two countries." Fox and the English Whigs were equally satisfied that now Ireland's independence " was fixed and Ascertained for ever." •• When Grattan rose, none dared oppose The claim he made for freedom ; They knew our swords, to back his words, Were ready did he need them. Then let us raise to Grattan's praise A proud aad joyous anthem ; And wealth, and grace, and length of daySt May God in mercy grant him I ' X94 TVtE BOOK OF ERIN. •• Remember still through good and ill How vain were prayers and tears — How vain were words, till flashed the swords Of the Irish Volunteers. By arms we've got the rights we sought Through long and wretched years ; Hurrah ! — 'tis done — our freedom's won ! Hurrah for the Volunteers ! " The Act of Renonoiation. — Serious differences now began to divide the two illustrious leaders, Grattan and Flood. Flood less impulsive and confiding than Grattan, was not satisfied with the simple repeal of 6th Geo. I. Alive to the habitual dishonesty and bad faith of British statesmen, he wisely demanded ** express renunciation " of the claim to legislate for Ireland, and moved to bring in an Irish Bill of Rights, affirming *' the sole and exclusive right of the Irish Parliament to make laws in all cases whatsoever, external and internal,** Grattan vehemently maintained the sufficiency of simple repeal, and both Irish Houses almost unanimously sided with him. The Volunteers, on the other hand> generally recognised the wisdom of Flood's contention, which subsequent events abundantly justified. This was the position of affairs when the English Parliament unexpectedly, in 1783, passed an explicit Renunciation Act, setting forth that " the right claimed by the people of Ireland, to be bound only by laws enacted by his Majesty and the Parliament of that kingdom, and to have all actions and suits at law and in equity instituted in that kingdom decided in his Majesty's courts therein finally and without appeal from thence, shall be and it is hereby declared to be established and ascertained for ever, and shall at no time hereafter be questioned or questionable." Parliamentary Reform. — On this vital subject likewise Flood and Grattan were curiously divided. Flood was a Radical reformer, so lar as the Protestant population went ; but there he drew the line. Grattan, on the other hand, while dreading Flood's '* French principles " in parlia- mentary representation, was perfectly ready to admit qualified Catholics to all existing Protestant privileges. In the autumn of 1783, however, a Reform Bill obtained the approval of a powerful Volunteer Convention, sitting in " EIGHTY-TWO " AND " NINETY-EIGHT," I95 the Rotunda, Dublin, and Flood lost no time in bringing it before Parliament. It was good, so far as it went, and Grattan did not oppose it. It extended the franchise to Protestant " freeholders," (t.^., be it noted leaseholders for life, or lives, whose holdings, after deducting rent charge, were of the annual value of forty shillings) it embraced adjacent populous places in ** rotten boroughs ; " it confined the voting to a single day; it deprived Crown pensioners of the right to sit ; it subjected office-acceptors to re-election ; it exacted a bribery oath from candidates-elect, and finally it made Parliaments triennial. The corrupt Government majority put forth all its strength and this wholesome measure was defeated by a majority of 80(157—77).- Intimidation by the Volunteers was the alleged ground of rejection. These, or rather their delegates, weakly accepted the rebuff, and the Convention adjourned sine die. In 1875 the regular army was increased to 15,000 men, and a sum of /"20,ooo was voted to clothe an anti-popular force, the " militia." Grattan, it is lamentable to relate, among others, supported this fatal grant. The Volunteers, he complained, " had originally been the armed property of the kingdom ; were they to become the armed beggary ? " Truth to tell, he was alarmed at the spread of revolutionary ideas, and exerted his influence to extinguish the remnants of the once splendid force which, from the church at Dungannon, had dictated the terms of Irish independence to the Parliaments, both of Dublin and London. Yet no man realized more fully than Grattan the utility — nay, the necessity — oi force majeure, when objects within the range of his own sympathies had to be compassed : — *' Ireland is strength ; she has acquired that strength by the weakness of Britain, for Ireland was saved when America was lost. When England conquered, Ireland was coerced ; when she was defeated, Ireland was relieved ; and when Charleston was taken, the Mutiny and Sugar Bills were altered. Have you not all of you, when you heard of a defeat, at the same instant condoled with England, and congratulated Ireland ? " The United Irishmen. — This famous association had for its founder Theobald Wolfe Tone, a young Protestant N2 296 . THE BOOK OF ERIN. barrister, a man of the highest integrity, liberality of sentiment, and executive talent. He was the true father of revolutionary Irish Nationalism or Fenianism, just as Grattan was the parent of Constitutional Home Rule or Parnellism. In October, 1791, Tone visited Belfast, and there and then started the ' Society of United Irishmen.' Presbyterian Ulster had steadily supported the revolt of the American colonists, and among its ultra- Protestant and Deistical population Republican principles were spreading fast. At first, however, the bases of the United Irishmen Society were altogether constitutional. They were thus laid down : — '* ist. That the weight of English influence in this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain the balance which is essential to the preservation of our liberties and the extension of our commerce. '* 2nd. That the sole constitutional mode by which this influence can be opposed is by a complete and radical reform of the representation of the people in Parliament. *' 3rd. That no reform is just which does not include every Irishman of every religious persuasion." Returning to Dublin, Tone, aided by the Catholic Com- mittee, speedily founded a powerful branch of the society in the capital. The Hon. Simon Butler, a brother of Lord Montgarret, was elected chairman, and James Napper Tandy, a Protestant merchant of strong Republican principles and fervid eloquence, became secretary. Edmund Burke, then all-powerful in the counsels of the Government, was, however, insanely devoted to monarchy ; so much so that Grattan, himself a monarchist, observed: "Burke was so fond of arbitrary power he could not sleep upon his pillow unless he thought the King had a right to take it from under him." Nevertheless, Burke was honestly friendly to Catholic emancipation, and for several years his influence, though remote, sufficed greatly to moderate the counsels of the Catholic Committee, of which John Keogh was the most prominent figure. This committee, whose secretary was the Protestant Tone, ultimately gave birth to a Catholic Convention, which despatched a deputation to London to place in the hands of "eighty-two" and ** ninety-eight." 197 King George III. personally a Catholic Petition of Rights. The delegateSjwho were accompanied by Burke,were " received very graciously." The upshot wasa^atholic Relief Bill, intro- duced by the Chief Secretary, and vigorously supported by Grattan, Curran, and other patriots. It became law on the 9th April, 1793, and in a considerable degree alleviated the yoke of Protestant ascendancy. It opened to Catholics the universities, the professions, the jury-box, and the election- booth; but it removed neither their legislative nor their judicial disabilities. To counterbalance, as it were, this unwonted official liberality the Convention A ct was speedily passed, prohibiting the assemblage of popular representative delegations. In vain Grattan energetically protested : '* If this Bill had been law, the independence of the Irish Parliament, the emancipa- tion of the Catholics, and even the English Revolution of 1688 could never have taken place!" Grattan's following numbered twenty-seven all told ! Characteristically enough, Major Wellesley, member for Trim, afterwards Duke of Wellington, was teller for the Bill — *' the boldest step that ever yet was made to introduce military government." Events of the greatest significance now come to be recorded. Taylor's Hall, the rendezvous of the United Irishmen in Dublin, was seized by the police and the organization suppressed. It became in consequence a secret society, bent on the erection of Ireland into an independent republic. Wolfe Tone was implicated in treasonable pro- ceedings and exiled to America. A yet more important event was the brief viceroyalty of Lord Fitzwilliam. On 4th January, 1795, he arrived in Dublin to put the copestone on the fabric of Catholic emancipation, as he himself imagined, and as Grattan, Burke, and all the best friends of Ireland had been induced firmly to believe. On 25th March he was recalled, having been shamelessly used, as a mere pawn on the chessboard of Pitt's unprincipled statecraft, to further that Minister's secretly formed design of suppressing the Irish Parliament altogether by incorporating it with that of Britain. In the interval, Grattan, as leader of the Irish House, pro- moted a Bill completely emancipating the Roman Catholics igS ' THE BOOK OF ERIN. from every legislative and judicial disability ; but his efforts were wholly unavailing. As soonas 20,000 men had been voted for the navy, and ;f 1,800,000 to meet the cost of the French war, all the Government dogs of pension and place were set to bay at the measure and its supporters. The Bill was rejected by 155 votes to 55. In the sessions of 1796 and 1797 the current of reaction ran still more strongly, till at last, on a motion to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, only seven members in a house of 164 could be found to vote in the negative. One more despairing effort to obtain reform, and the patriots ceased to struggle with the inevitable. Pitt's Government was resolute to force on an immature insurrec- tion, and its efforts, as will be seen, were crowned with ample success. In May, 1797, Mr. George Ponsonby moved his customary proposals for the reform of Parliament. They were rejected by a majority of eighty-seven, in a house of 147 members. In anticipation of this result, Grattan, after solemnly warning the venal herd of place-hunters and bigots what inevitable ruin they were bringing on the country and its dearly-bought constitution, concluded : — '* We have offered you our measure — you will reject it ; we deprecate yours — you will persevere ; having no hopes left to persuade or dissuade, and having discharged our duty, we shall trouble you no more, and after this day shall not attend the House of Commons." How sadly must Grattan, in the sombre shadow of coming events, have reflected on the vanity of his ^^ Esto perpettm'^ invocation ! How deeply must he have mourned the pre- mature disbandment of the valiant Volunteers, which the more sagacious Flood, gone to his rest at Kilkenny in 1791, had so strongly deprecated ! Grattan was a great and a noble-minded man, but one un- varying trait in the character of the English oligarchy he could never be made fully to appreciate. It is this : Never since the Norman Conquest ttll now has that oligarchy hesitated to do wrong if it could accomplish it by force or fraud ; and never has it^ and never will itj be induced to do right except at the mandate of superior force. "eighty- two AND "NINETY-EIGHT." I99 The Insurrection of " 'Ninety-eight."— With the recaU of the lamented Viceroy, Lord Fitzwilliam, in 1795, Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform both received their quietus, and a rising of the justly exasperated multitude becarne inevitable. Early in 1796, Mr. Arthur O'Connor, member for Philipstown, nephew of Lord Longueville, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald, member for County Kildare, brother of the Duke of Leinster, joined the ranks of the United Irishmen. Both were men of honesty, talent and influence, and ready to make any sacrifice for their country's cause. Fitzgerald had held a commission in the British army, from which he had been dismissed, along with Lord Semple, for attending a banquet of Englishmen in Paris, at which the toast of " a speedy abolition of all hereditary and feudal distinctions ! " had been drunk. In May the two friends crossed over to the Continent to solicit succour from the French Republican Directory ; but they were not the first in the field. Wolfe Tone, the tireless, had, according to promise, reached Paris from America in February, and had already well-nigh persuaded Camot, grandfather of the present President of the French Repubhc, known in the tragic story of the Revolution as " the Organizer of Victory," to attempt the liberation of Ireland from the yoke of perfidious Albion, The brilliant young General Hoche was devoted to Tone, and impatient to win renown on Irish soil. In these circumstances obstacles disappeared with celerity, and on December i6th a powerful French fleet of forty-three sail, carrying 15,000 picked troops and an abundant supply of field and seige guns, and other munitions of war, bore off, without molestation, for the coast of Munster. Unfor- tunately, the elements, "England's only unsubsidized allies," stood the tyrant Power in good stead. A furious tempest drove the invaders' vessels back to Rochelle and Brest, and Erin, "England's back door," remained unopened. But for the winds and the waves it is hard to see how it could have been possible at the time to prevent Ireland from becoming a repubhc under the protection of France. A subsequent attempt, made by the fleet of the Batavian Republic, ended in the great naval disaster of Camperdown. Martial Law. — Thoroughly alarmed at the prospect of a 2CX3 THE BOOK OF ERIN. renewed attempt at invasion by the Directory, the Govern- ment now handed over all the more disaffected districts of Ireland to the tender mercies of an incomparably brutalized soldiery. Orange yeomanry and English militia regiments,. as full of cruel fanaticism as destitute of the very elements of military discipline, revelled in every conceivable form of rapine and outrage. To extort confessions recourse was had to "half-hanging," " pitch-capping," and " picketing." The half-hanged wretch underwent all the horrors of strangulation, but was cut down while some breath still remained in his body. " Pitch- capping" was, if possible, still more inhuman. Hot pitch was poured on the victim's head. There having cooled^ it was allowed, to form a " cap." The cap was then violently torn off, bringing with it hair, scalp, and all. ** Picketing" was an exquisitely painful form of torture. ** Pickets," or stakes with sharp points uppermost, were driven into the ground, and on these the suspect was compelled to stand, resting the whole weight of his body on his bare soles. In vain did Lord Moira, in the English House of Lords,, bewail such horrors and predict their consequences. "These," said he, "were not particular acts of cruelty, exercised by men abusing the power committed to them, but they formed a part of our system. They were notorious, and no person could say who would be the next victim of this oppression and cruelty which he saw others endure. . . .. He had known a man in order to extort confession of a supposed crime, or that of some of his neighbours, ' picketed * till he actually fainted, ' picketed ' a second time till he fainted again, and as soon as he came to himself * picketed ' a third time until he fainted once more, and all upon mere suspicion ! " ^'Scotch Beasts." — In December, 1797, the veteran Sir Ralph Abercromby — " that soul of honour, that star of England's glory" — became commander-in-chief. He was horrified at Castle policy, and still more so at the licence of the soldiery.. Writing in confidence to his son he declared : — ** The abuses of all kinds I found here can scarcely be believed or enumerated." In February, 1798, the General issued an order of the " EIGHTY-TWO " AND " NINETY-EIGHT." 20I: most stringent character, in which he pronounced " the army in a staie of licentiousness which must render it formidable to everyone but the enemy;" and added: "It becomes necessary to recur and most pointedly to attend to the standing orders of the kingdom, which, at the same time that they direct military assistance to be given at the requisition of the civil magistrate, positively forbid the troops to act (but in case of attack) without his presence and authority ; and the most positive orders are to be given to officers commanding for this purpose." This order maddened the Castle Caucus beyond measure Their object was to drive the people into rebellion, and here was the most illustrious officer in the British army actually bent on thwarting their design ! It was seriously proposed to^ impeach Sir Ralph in the Irish House of Commons ; but of this the junto thought better. As it was, they denounced him a " sulky mule" and a " Scotch beast," and finally drove him to resignation. Another ** Scotch beast," who subsequently won immortal laurels at Corunna, was likewise engaged in this abominable service. When the rebellion was at its height in Wicklow, Sir John Moore declared that " moderate treatment by the generals, and the preventing of the troops from pillaging and molesting the people, would soon restore tranquillity ; the latter would certainly be quiet if the yeomanry would behave with tolerable decency, and not seek to gratify their ill- humour and revenge on the poor." The whole soul of the gallant Scot revolted against the infamies of his calling. He,, too, ultimately tendered his resignation. His conscience was on the side of the insurgents, and he did not hesitate to announce to all whom it might concern : — " // / were an Irishman I would he a rebel J" _i The Spy System. — But, in the words of the infamous Castlereagh, still more damnable "means had to be taken ta make it (the insurrection) explode." A horde of abandoned spies was let loose upon the people. Among the most execrable of these were Reynolds, a landlord: Captain Armstrong; Colonel Magin; McNally, a barrister; McGucken, a solicitor; and Hughes, a bookseller. The- records of these scoundrels are diabolical beyond all belief. -202 THE BOOK OF ERIN. Reynolds, who betrayed the United Irishmen Executive •Committee, fourteen strong, and all men of mark, in Oliver Bond's house in Dublin, received the following wages of iniquity : — Pension for 37 years at £920 ;{'34,040 Gratuities at different times 5? 500 Consulship at Lisbon 5,600 Consulship in Iceland 600 ;^45,740. Colonel Magin, of Saintfield, shared all the secret counsels of the leaders of the United Society for a whole year and a half and as regularly betrayed them through intermediaries to Castlereagh. McNally, their counsel, had a secret life- pension of ;f 300 a year from the Government. McGucken,their solicitor, received at various times ;f 1,400 for espionage. Hughes was in some respects the basest villain of the set. The insurgent leaders feed him well to arrange for the defence of many prisoners. He was all the while in the pay x)f the Castle ! By such means nearly every leader of note was arrested before any actual rising took place. Arthur O'Connor was seized at Margate. Thomas Addis Emmett, Samuel Neilson, Sampson, a barrister; the brothers Sheares, T^arristers ; and Dr. McNevin were likewise captured. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, on his hiding-place in Thomas Street being entered, defended himself with desperate bravery. He was shot in the shoulder, and died in durance. He was a good officer, and the military plans and combinations Tcvealed by his papers proved how great a loss to the insurgent cause was his sad, untimely fate. " He was (Madden) about five feet seven inches in height, had a very interesting countenance, beautiful arched eyebrows, fine :gray eyes, handsome nose, high forehead, and thick, dark- coloured hair — was as playful and humble as a child, as mild and timid as a lady ; and, when necessary, as brave as a lion. Peace to his name ! " In his Memoirs of the Whig Party Lord Holland pays decided tribute to the "rebellious Geraldine's" worth : — "More than twenty years have passed away, many of my opinions are softened, my predilections for some men are weakened, my prejudices against others removed ; but my "eighty-two" and ♦* ninety-eight." 203 Approbation of Lord Edward Fitzgerald's actions remains unaltered and unshaken. His country was bleeding under one of the hardest tyrannies that our times have witnessed. He who thinks that a man can be even excused in such •circumstances by any other consideration than that of despair from opposing by force a pretended government, 5eems to me to sanction a principle which would ensure impunity to the greatest of all human delinquents, or at least to those who produce the greatest misery among mankind." The Rising. — The rising had been timed for May 23rd, and it took place accordingly. But intelligent direction there was none. All the leaders of mark were in prison or in flight over sea. Hence it came to pass that the rebellion assumed not a few of the odious features of a purposeless jacquerie. Many gallant deeds were nevertheless achieved by the insurgents — deeds of sheer daring unmatched by any on the part of Government troops. As heroic, extemporized leaders of men who unexpectedly found themselves leader- less, Father Michael Murphy, Father John Murphy, and Father Philip Roche could scarcely have been surpassed. In Wexford, where the licence of the soldiers had been most unbridled, the insurrection was naturally the most obstinate and prolonged. At Oulart-hill, Father John Murphy, having ■defeated the military, took possession successively of Ferns, Enniscorthy, and Wexford. A desperate attack on New Koss was less successful. The disappointment of the infuriated multitude was hideously marked by the massacre at ScuUabogue of a hundred and eighty helpless Protestant prisoners. Bagenal Harvey, a Protestant gentleman now in command, was shocked beyond measure at the deed, but was powerless to prevent it. Arklow was stormed by Father Michael Murphy at the head of thirty thousand insurgents. They displayed the most intrepid valour, and, but for the fall of their doughty leader, who was believed to be invulnerable, they would probably have succeeded. At Vinegar Hill was fought the decisive battle of the war. The fight was fierce and bloody, the insurgents struggling to overcome the heavy odds of discipline and science by the unmeasured energy of despair. Their efforts availed not. The field was lost, and with it the cause of the Irish 204 "^"^ BOOK OF ERIN. Republic. Father Roche, by order of the flinty-hearted victor, General Lake, was hanged over the bridge at Wexford. Father John Murphy was likewise caught and hanged at Tallow. Bagenal Harvey shared a similar fate. The noble-hearted brothers Sheares, Henry, and John,, perished on the scaffold hand in hand. Oliver Bond died in Newgate; whilst Thomas Addis Emmett, Arthur O'Connor,, and McNevin were banished. Of insurgents of less note the courts-martial made quick work. They were handed over to the hangman in large batches on the flimsiest evidence. Death of Wolfe Tone. — Yet all was not quite over with the rebels. Omnia devicta sunt prceter atrocem animmn Catonis. The unconquerable Wolfe Tone had yet to be accounted for. Vinegar Hill had not dismayed him : his friend Hoche was dead of a galloping consumption, and Bonaparte had cruelly deceived him. J upiter Scapin had taken the * * army of England ' '^ with him to Egypt, and the day of small things had clearly come. Still Tone persevered. InAugust,i798,GeneralHumbert landed in Killala Bay with a force of one thousand men, leaving General Hardi to follow from Brest with reinforce- ments. With this insignificant force, supported by some Irish peasants whom he armed, he signally routed General Lake at the " Castle Bar Races," but was soon afterwards compelled, in the face of overwhelming numbers, to surrender at discretion. - Meanwhile, Hardi and Tone were not inactive. On October loth, the Hoche (a seventy-four), two frigates, and a schooner lay outside Lough Swilly. Next morning they were attacked by Admiral Warren and a strong English squadron. For six mortal hours the Hoche engaged four men-of-war of as heavy burden as herself. Tone commanded a battery, and recklessly exposed himself to every missile that flew. In vain. He was taken alive with the other French ofiicers, and conveyed ashore. There, at Lord Cavan's hospitable board, his identity was cruelly aflirmed by Sir George Hill, an old college friend, and his doom was sealed. He was sentenced by a court-martial to be hanged, despite his French commission, in virtue of which he demanded to be shot. On the morning of the fatal day he cut his throat in prison. The wound was not immediately mortal, and Curraa " EIGHTY-TWO " AMD " NINETY-EIGHT." 20$ managed to rescue this " noblest Roman of them all " from the dreaded ignominy of the gallows. The great advocate successfully moved for a writ of Habeas Corpus — a delay which enabled his illustrious client to breathe his last in his cell. Peace to his ashes ! " Then since the colour we must wear is England's cruel red, Sure Ireland's sons will ne'er forget the blood which they have shed. You may take the shamrock from your hat and cast it on the sod, But 'twill take root and flourish there, though under foot 'tis trod. When law can stop the blades of grass from growing as they grow, And when the leaves in summer-time their verdure dare not show, Then I will change the colour that I wear in my caubeen, But till that day, please God, I'll stick to wearing of the green.** 206 CHAPTER XVII. How they Passed the Union and After. " Do not unite with us, sir ; it would be the union of the shark witfe his prey ; we should unite with you only to destroy you." — Dr. Samuel Johnson. " If it must be called a union, it is the union of a shark with his prey ; the spoiler swallows up his victim, and they become one and inseparable^ Thus has Great Britain swallowed up the Parliament, the Constitution^ the Independence of Ireland." — Lord Byron. "Where one Commonwealth unites with another, in such a manner that one keeps its Government and States, and the subjects of the other change their country and are taken into the privileges and rights of a foreign Common we>tlth, it is evident that one is swallowed up and lost in the Oth er . ' ' — PUFFENDORF . •' Such an act (Union) in the Parliament, without the authority of the people, is a breach of trust. Parliament is not the proprietor, but the trustee, and the people the proprietor, not the property. Parliament is called to make laws, not to elect law makers ; assembled to exercise the functions of Parliament, not to substitute another Parliament for the dis- charge of its own duty." — Grattan. "The delivery of a people into the subjection of a foreign power is a change of legislators, and therefore a dissolution of Government. The legislature acts against the trust reposed in it, when it makes an arbitrary disposal of the lives and fortunes of the country." — Locke. " The Prince cannot alienate or transfer his kingdom." — Grotius. " The collective body of the people delegate, but do not give up ; trusty but do not alienate their right and power. There is something which a parliament cannot do ; a parliament cannot annul the constitution. The legislature is a supreme but not an arbitrary power." — Bolingbroke " It (union) would be the emigration of every man of consequence from Ireland. It would be the participation of British taxes without British trade. It would be the extinction of the Irish name as a people. We should become a wretched colony, perhaps leased out to a company of Jews, as was formerly in contemplation, and governed by a few tax gatherers and excisemen . ' * — Curran. •• The manner in which, and the terms upon which Mr. Pitt effected the Union, made it the most fatal blow ever levelled against the peace aad prosperity of England." — S. T. Coleridge. HOW THEY PASSED THE UNION AND AFTER. 10J " I know of no blacker or fouler transaction in the history of man than tke making of the Union between England and Ireland." — William EwART Gladstone. " I met Murder on the way : He had a masque like Castlereagh ; Very smooth he looked, yet grim, Seven bloodhounds followed him." —Shelley. Lord Cornwallis's Yiceroyalty. — On June 20th, 1798^ Lord Cornwallis assumed the duties of Viceroy, the very day before the capture of Vinegar Hill. He had, in his time, witnessed many deeds of bloody outrage, both in India and America; but he was naturally just and humane, as his extant correspondence testifies. His administration had twa objects: to stamp out the embers of the rebellion, and feloniously to incorporate the Parliament of Ireland with that of Great Britain. He succeeded, at the bitter sacrifice of his own better self. Writing to Lord Portland a few days after his arrival in what Lord Clare called "the damnable country," Cornwallis observes: — "The accounts that you see of the numbers of the enemy destroyed in every action are, I conclude, greatly exaggerated. From my own knowledge of military affairs I I am sure that a very small proportion of them only could be killed in battle, and I am much afraid that any man in a brown coat who is found within several miles of the field of action is butchered without discrimination." Again : — " The Irish militia are totally without discipline^ contemptible before the enemy when any serious resistance is made to them, but ferocious and cruel in the extreme when any poor wretches, either with or without arms, come within their power — in short, murder appears to be their favourite pastime,'' To his old and trusted companion in arms, Major-General Koss, the Viceroy was even more explicit. On the 9th July he wrote : — "There is no enemy in the field to oppose our troops. We are engaged in a war of plunder and massacre." On the 31st the same correspondent is despairingly told : — ** Our war is reduced to a predatory system in the mountains of Wicklow." 208 THE BOOK OF ERIN. Further addressing General Ross, the unfortunate Lord- Lieutenant bewails : — " The conversation of the principal persons of the country all tends to encourage this system of blood, and the conversation even at my own table, where you will suppose I do all I can to prevent it, always turns on hanging, shooting, burning, &c., &c. ; and if a priest has been put to death, the greatest joy is expressed by the whole company. So much for Ireland and my wretched situation." As late as November, 1799, on the eve of the Union, this inhuman dragonnade was in full swing. On the i6th General Ross is told : — " The vilest informers are hunted out from the prisons to attack, by the most barefaced perjury, the lives of all who are suspected of being, or of having been, disaffected; and, indeed, every Roman Catholic is in great danger. I attempt to moderate that violence and cruelty, which has once driven, and which, if tolerated, must agam drive, this wretched country into rebellion." Pitt the Bottomless. — How a rising, notoriously Protestant inits origin and organization, shouldcometo take the shapeof a notorious Papist dragonnade was a standing puzzle to the somewhat simple-minded Viceroy. With the knowledge that •out of 162 recognised leaders of the '98 movement 106 were Protestants, what wonder that Cornwallis should marvel at *'the folly which has been prevalent of regarding Catholicism as the foundation of the present rebellion." The man who could, if he had been so minded, have explained to him the whole mystery of the insurrection, ab initio, was the renowned '* pilot who weathered the storm," — William Pitt. This prince of criminal politicans — facile princeps — was, perhaps, taking him all in all, the most unscrupulous statesman, the most malevolent genius, not excepting the first Napoleon, to whom the eighteenth century gave birth. His exemption from the more venial failings of human nature merely served to cloak the abysmal depravity of the monster's heart. Conscience he had none, only a will remorseless as fate, and seldom or never exerted for any good purpose. From first to last there is nothing in his career to show that he had the least regard for the consequences of his actions. " His devil," said Grattan, **went forth. He destroyed liberty and HOW THEY PASSED THE UNION AND AFTER, 209 property; he consumed the press; he burned houses and villages; he murdered, and he failed " — failed the most when his unprincipled triumph seemed most complete. It is Pitt's " law and order " in Ireland that every genuine democrat in these islands is strenuously combatting to-day. In dealing with Ireland, "the heaven-born Minister" had two courses open to him. He might either grant Catholic emancipation and Parliamentary reform, or he might, by terror and corruption, induce the Protestant Parliament of the English colony to efface itself and Irish nationality. Standing at the parting of the ways, he deliberately adopted the latter alternative, and, by striking into the left-hand path, inflicted, in the words of Coleridge, '* the most fatal blow ever levelled against the peace and prosperity of England," as well as of Ireland. His policy of legislative incorporation had not even the merit of originality. It was but a base resuscitation of the long-discredited experiment of Oliver Cromwell. Testimony of Sir Jonah Barrington. — ** Mr. Pitt's end was answered. He raised the Catholics to the height of expectation, and by suddenly recalling their favourite Viceroy, he inflamed them to the degree of generating the commotions he meditated, which would throw the Protes- tants into the arms of England for protection, whilst the horrors would be aggravated by the mingled conflict of parties. Having sent Lord Fitzwilliam to Ireland with unlimited powers to satisfy the nation, Mr. Pitt permitted him to proceed until he had unavoidably committed himself, both to the Catholics and to the country, when he suddenly recalled him. The day Lord Fitzwilliam arrived peace was proclaimed throughout all Ireland. The day he quitted it she prepared for insurrection. Within three months Lord Clare had got the nation into full training for military execution. Mr. Pitt decided upon forcing a premature insurrection for a particular object, and did not calculate the torrents of blood that would be shed, and the inveterate hatred that might be perpetuated against the British Government. Testimony of Mr. Lecky. — "The steady object of his (Pitt's) later Irish policy was to corrupt and degrade, ia o 210 THE BOOK OF ERIN. order that he ultimately might destroy the legislature of the country. Had Parliament been a mirror of the national will, had the Catholics been brought within the pale of the constitution, his policy would have been defeated. By raising the hopes of the Catholics almost to certainty, and then dashing them to the ground ; by taking this step at the very moment when the inflammatory spirit engendered by the (French) Revolution had begun to spread among the people, Pitt sowed in Ireland the seeds of discord and bloodshed, of religious animosities and social disorganization, which paralyzed the energies of the country, and rendered possible the success of his machinations. The rebellion of 1798, with all the accumulated misery it entailed, was the direct and predicted consequence of his policy. Having suffered Lord Fitzwilliam to amuse the Irish people by the prospect of emancipation, he blighted their hopes by recalling him, and thus produced the rebellion," CorFnption of the Irish Legislature. — As early as 25th September, 1798, " the terror" had fairly done its Unionist work, for at that date we find Cornwallis writing to Pitt as follows: — ** The principal people here are so frightened that they would, I believe, readily consent to a union ; but then it must be a Protestant union ; and even the Chancellor (Lord Clare), who is the most right-headed politician in the country (!), will not hear of the Roman Catholics sitting in the united Parliament." This being so, the time had come for the free use of Castlereagh's pmnum mobile, gold or its equivalents. " Grattan's Parliament " was, after all, an independent legislature only in name. No Bill could well be introduced without the sanction of the Viceroy. That potentate might not merely intrigue against measures obnoxious to his own patrons in London, but even employ in abundance the State money and patronage to secure their rejection. If actually passed, they were not even then out of danger. The King, advised by his London Council, might refuse his assent to them. Moreover, as was seen in a previous chapter, the Irish Parliament was, for the most part, repre- sentative only in name. Indeed, the marvel is, everything con- sidered, how so many of its members did actually come through the seductive ordeal of bribery with their honour unstained. HOW THEY PASSED THE UNION AND AFTER. 211 4< Itis,"saysMr.Lecky, "a simple and unexaggerated statement of fact, that in the entire history of representative govern- ment there is no instance of corruption having been applied on so large a scale and with such audacious eiBfrontery." One at least of the instruments of this shameless demorali- jzation felt the ignominy of his position acutely. Writing at different times, Lord Cornwallis observes : — " My occupation is now of the most unpleasant nature, negotiating and jobbing with the most corrupt people under heaven. I despise and hate myself every hour fbr engaging in such dirty work." " Sincerely do I repent that I did not return to Bengal." " How I long to kick those whom my public duties oblige me to court ! " " God only knows how this business will terminate, but it is so hard to struggle against private interests, and the pride and prejudices of a nation, that I shall never feel confident of success until the Union is actually oarried." " The nearer the great event approaches (letter to General Ross, i8th April, 1800) the more are the needy and interested senators alarmed at the effects it may possibly have on their interests, and the provision for their families, and I believe that half of ouv majority would be at least as much delighted as any of our opponents if the measure could be defeated." When it was impossible to gratify the unreasonable demands of the politicians, Cornwallis tells Ross he often recalled certain lines of Swift's : — " So, to effect his monarch's ends, From hell a Viceroy devil ascends, His budget with corruption crammed, The contributions of the damned, "Which with unsparing hand he strews Through Courts and i^enates as he goes, And then, at Beelzebub's black hall. Complains his budget is too small. The Price of the Union.— The first attempt to induce the Irish Parliament to commit suicide was made in January, 1799. The result was discouraging, the Government obtaining, with difficulty, a majority of one (106 to 105). This was regarded as equivalent to a defeat, and the Executive at once redoubled its efforts to corrupt and intimidate. ;f 1,275,000 were spent in the purchase of -"patronage " or *• pocket " boroughs. Over ;f 1,000,000 were 212 THE BOOK OF ERIN. * 9 9*9 £52,500 >• • • • 45,000 1 • •• • 14,000 > • ••• 14,000 i • • • • 13,862 *• •• • 13,800 »• •• • 12,300 • ••• 7»5oo • •• • 7»5oo 7.500 • • ••• 6,850 > • • • • 15,000 spent in direct bribes. A single vote cost £8,000 down, or an appointment to an office worth ;^2, 000 a-year if ready money was not wanted. Twenty peerages, ten bishoprics, one chief justiceship, six puisne judgeships, and many appoint- ments, military, naval, and civil, were showered on traitors or their relations. The following are a few of the more important pickings for the sale of '* patronage " seats : — Lord Downshire iL#OxCl JtlriV*** ••• ••• ••• ••• Earl of Carrick' Lord Clanmorris Sir Hercules Langrishe Duke of Leinster Lord Lismore ... ... ... Earl of I.udlow Earl of Shannon X^Or^Cl X CI IcL ••• ••• •«« ••• Hon. E. Massey Earl of Massareene and three brothers Purchased Votes. — The names and prices of 140 bought Members of the Irish Parliament have come down to us. The following may be taken as specimens of the infamous crew : — J. Bingham, created a peer, Lord Clanmorris ; got /8,ooo for two seats, and ;f 15,000 compensation for Tuam. First offered himself for sale to the Anti-Unionists. Joseph H. Blake, created a peer, Lord Wallscourt. Sir J. G. Blackwood, created a peer. Lord Dufiferin. Sir John Blaquiere, created a peer. Lord de Blaquiere, with offices and pensions. Lord Boyle, son of Lord Shannon ; father and son got immense sums for their seats and boroughs — ;^i5,ooo for each. Charles H. Coote, a peerage, Lord Castlecote a regiment, patronage of Queen's County, and £'j,soo in cash. James Cuffe : his father made Lord Tyrawley, Lord Fitzgerald, a pension and a peerage. Luke Fox, made judge of Common Pleas. William Fortescue, a pension of ;f3,ooo a year. J. Galbraith, a baronetcy. Richard Hare, made Lord Ennismore, with patronage. Colonel B. Heneker, a regiment, and /3,5oo a year for his seat. Hon. J. Hutchinson, made Lord Hutchinson, and a general. Hugh Howard, made Postmaster-General. William Handcock, an extraordinary instance. He made and sang HOW THEY PASSED THE UNION AND AFTER. 2I3 -songs against the Union in 1799 at a public dinner ; and made and sang songs /oy it in 1800, for which he got a peerage as Lord Castlemaine, a title which seems to have been selected as a badge of peculiar infamy, having been before given by Charles II. to one Palmer, for the debauchery of his wife. Hon. G. Jocelyn, promotion in the army, and bis brother made Bishop of Lismore. William Johnson, returned, as he himself said, " by Lord Castlereagh to Parliament, to put an end to it," a judgeship. Right Hon. H. Langris got ;;^i5,ooo for his patronage of Knoctopher, and a commissionership of revenue. T. Lingray, /i,5oo, and a commissionership of stamps. T. Lindsay, jun., ;if 1,500, and usher at the castle. J. Longfield, made a peer, Lord Longueville. Lord Loftus, ;f 30,000 for boroughs ; and made an English marquis. H. D. Massey, ;^4,ooocash. Right Hon. Lodge Morris, a peer. Sir R. Musgrave, made Receiver of Customs, with /i,200 a year. James McCland, Baron of Exchequer. Sir W. G. Newcomen, bought, and a peerage for his wife. F. H. Prittie, made Lord Dualley. Sir Richard Quin, a peerage. Hon. H. Skeffington, made a clerk of Paper Ofl&ce at the Castle, and 5^7,500 for his patronage. H. M. Sandford, made Lord- Mount Sandford. John Stewart, Attorney-General and a baronet. Hon. B. Stratford, /yooo as half compensation for Baltinglass. Hon. J. Stratford £7,500 for the other half of Baltinglass, and pay- master of foreign troops, with ;^i,3oo a year. Right Hon. J. Toler, a peerage, and Chief Justiceship. Hon. R. Trench, made a peer and ambassador, CoFPuption of the Irish Bar. — Both Lord Chancellor dare and Chief Secretary Castlereagh determined, if at all possible, to enlist the support of this powerful body in behalf of Pitt's Union project. Clare doubled the number of the Bankruptcy Commissioners, and created thirty-two county- court judgeships, at salaries ranging from ;f 600 to ;f 700 per annum each. Castlereagh tempted the junior bar with extra-professional bait. Writing for a fresh supply of secret service money, 2nd January, 1799, he says : — " We cannot give that activity to the press which is requisite. Already we feel the want, and, indeed, the absolute necessity of the primiim mobile. We have good materials among the young barristers, but we cannot expect them to waste their time and starve into the bargain. I 214 THE BOOK OF ERIN. know the difficulties, and shall respect them as much as possible in the extent of our expenditure ; but, notwithstand- ing every difficulty, I cannot help most earnestly requesting to receive /^5,ooo in bank-notes by the first messenger." Nevertheless, to the lasting praise of a calling generally reputed to be anything but insensible to ^^ primum mobile^** it was with the greatest difficulty that perverts could be obtained. At a full deliberative meeting of the bar, convened by requisition of its most eminent members, Mr. Goold expressed the prevailing sentiment of the profession when he declared : — " The Almighty has, in majestic characters, signed the great charter of our independence. The Great Creator of the world has given our beloved country the out- lines of a kingdom. The God of Nature never intended that Ireland should be a province, and by God she never shall ! " The division was : — Against the Union i66 In favour of 32 Majority against 134 The rewards of iniquity subsequently showered on the base minority were as follow : — Per Annum. Charles Osborne, made a judge of the King's Bench ... ;^3»30o St. John Daly ,, ,, ,, „ 3»30O William Smith, made a baron of the Exchequer 3,300 Mr. McCleland „ ,, ,, 3,300 R. Johnson, made a judge of Common Pleas 3'300 William Johnson, „ „ „ 3»300 Mr. Torens, „ ,, ,, Sii^o Mr. Vandaleur, „ King's Bench 3,300 Thomas Mansell, made a County Court judge 600 William Turner, „ ,, ,, „ 60a John Scholes, „ „ „ „ Goo Thomas Vickers, „ „ ,, ,, 600 John Houran, „ „ „ „ 600 Thomas Grady, „ „ „ „ 600 John Dwyer, „ „ „ „ 600 George Leslie, „ ,, „ „ 600 Thomas Scott, „ „ „ „ 600 Henry Brook, „ „ „ „ 600 HOW THEY PASSED THE UNION AND AFTER. 21$ lames Geraghty, made a County Court judge 600 Richard Sharkey „ „ ,, „ 600 William Stokes „ „ ,, „ Coo William Roper, ,, „ ,, „ (^00 vy* vjarii6xx, ), ,, ,9 ,9 ••• ••• ••• ••• (yoo Mr. Jemison, for distributing ;^ 1,500,000 Union conipcn-a- LlL/liXJXiJiJlCV ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ij mCL/ Fitzgibbon Henchy, Bankruptcy Commisioner 400 J. Keller, officer in Court of Chancery 500 P. W. Fortescue, a secret pension 400 W. Longfield, an officer in the Customs 500 Arthur Brown, commission of inspector 800 Edward Stanley, ,, ,, 800 Charles Ormsby, counsel to Commissioner 5,000 William Knott, M. P., Commissioner of Appeals Soo Henry Deane Grady, counsel to Commissioners 5,000 Testimony of Lord (then Mr. Charles) Grey in the British Honse of Commons, 1800. — '* If the Parliament of Ireland was left to itself, untempted, unawed, unintimidated, it would without hesitation have rejected the resolutions. There are 300 members in all, and 120 of these strenuously opposed the measure, amongst whom were two-thirds of the county members, the representatives of the City of Dublin, and of all the towns which it is proposed shall send members to the Imperial Parliament ! One hundred and sixty-two voted in favour of the Union, and of these 116 were place- ment some of whom were English generals on the staff, without a foot of ground in Ireland, and completely dependent upon Government. . . . Let us reflect upon the arts which have been used since the last session of the Irish Parliament to pack a majority of the House of Commons. All persons holding offices under the Govern- ment, even the most intimate friends of the Minister, if they hesitated to vote as directed, were stript of all their employ- ments. Even this step was found ineffectual, and other arts were had recourse to, which, though I cannot name in this place, all will easily conjecture. A Bill (the Place Bill) framed for preserving the purity of Parliament, was likewise abused, and no less than sixty-three seats were vacated by their holders having received nominal offices " (the Escheator- ships of Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connaught, the Irish Chiltern Hundreds). 8l6 THE BOOK OE ERIN, " Twenty-seven counties have petitioned against the measure (Union). The petition from the County of Down is signed by upwards of 17,000 respectable, independent men, and all the others are in a similar proportion. Dublin petitioned under the great seal of the city, and each of the corporations in it followed the example. Drogheda petitioned against the Union, and almost every other town in the king- dom in like manner testified its disapprobation. Those in favour of the measure possessing great influence in the country obtained a few counter petitions ; 3^et though the petition from the County Down was signed by 17,000 persons, the counter petition was signed only by 415. Though there were 707,000 who had signed petitions against the measure the total number of those who declared themselves in favour of it did not exceed 3,000, and many even of them only prayed that the measure might be discussed ! If the facts I state are true — and I challenge any man to falsify them — could a nation in more direct terms express its disapprobation of a political measure than Ireland has of a legislative Union with Great Britain ? In fact, the nation is nearly unanimous, and this great majority is composed not of fanatics, bigots, or Jacobins, but of the most respectable of every class of the community." Last Session of the Irish Parliament. — On 15th January, 1800, the last session of the last Irish Parliament began. Minister Pitt, Viceroy Cornwallis, Lord Chancellor Clare, Chief Secretary Castlereagh, and Under-Secretary Cooke had all zealously done their loathsome parts, and the national life of Ireland was ready to be sacrificed. The Viceroy's Speech contained nothing really debateable, and the Address was correspondingly vague. But the Opposition was •vigilant, and Sir Lawrence Parsons moved an amendment ** that* the house should maintain intact the Constitution of 1782, and that Ireland should retain its absolute right of self-government for ever." This was applying a match to the tinder, and a vehement debate ensued — a debate perhaps unmatched in the annals of parliamentary eloquence. Charles Kendal Bushe put the case for the Anti- Unionists in words that still scorch and burn as when they came molten from the glowing chamber of his brain : — HOW THEY PASSED THE UNION AND AFTER. 217 ** You are called on to give up your independence and to whom are you to give it up ? To a nation which for six hundred years has treated you with uniform oppression and injustice. The Treasury bench startles at the assertion — Non metis hie sermo est. If the Treasury Bench scold me, Mr. Pitt will scold them. It is his assertion, in so many words, in his speech. Ireland, sa5rs he, has always been treated with injustice and illiberality. Ireland, says Junius, has always been plundered and oppressed. This is not the slander of Junius or the candour of Mr. Pitt ; it is history. For centuries has the British nation and Parliament kept you down, shackled your com- merce, paralysed your exertions, despised your character, and ridiculed your pretentions to any privileges, commercial or constitutional. She never conceded a point to you which she could avoid, or granted a favour which was not reluc- tantly distilled. They have been all wrung from her like drops of her heart's blood, and you are not in possession of a single blessing, except those which you derive from God, that has not either been purchased or extorted by the virtue of 3^our own Parliament from the illiberality of England." Grattan to the Rescue. — At seven o'clock, on the morning of the i6th, a strange, emaciated figure. attired in the blue and scarlet Volunteer unuorm •of '82 entered the jaded House. It was Henry Grattan, Since his memorable withdrawal from Parliament nearly three years had elapsed, and during that period he had suffered acute agony, both of mind and body. As a •Constitutionalist, the Republican rising of '98 had brought him only grief unspeakable. But now he had a duty to perform which no man could discharge half as well, and he set about his task with an energy of will which astounded friend and foe. Castlereagh, among his other Unionist feats, had established among the corrupted Ministerialists a duelling club of twenty members pledged to "call out" any anti-Unionist daring to speak "immoderately" against the Government policy. Grattan was well aware of this, ^nd so was his heroic wife Henrietta. Here is that truly admirable woman's narrative : — " Unable to bear noise, we avoided hotels, and went to 2l8 THE BOOK OF ERIN. Mr. Austen's, in Dublin, to await the election (a death vacancy had occurred at Wicklow^, which, the sheriff being friendly, was managed after twelve o'clock on the night of the 15th of January, 1800, the last session of the Dublin Parliament. At five o'clock in the morning' Mr. Tighe arrived on horseback in Dublin, and we heard loud knocking. Grattan was ill in bed, and said, * Why will you not let me die in peace ? ' He grew quite wild. I told him he must go to the House, and helped him down-stairs, when he went into the parlour and loaded his pistols, for he apprehended assassination b}'^ the Union party. We wrapped a blanket round him in the sedan-chair, and I stood at the door un- certain whether I should ever see him again. Mr. M'Can said that Grattan's friends had determined to come forward, if he were attacked. I said, ' My husband cannot die better than in the defence of his country.' " The defence of his country which Grattan, though unable to stand upright, now addressed to the house, held every ^oul spell-bound for the space of two hours : — " Ireland considers the British empire a great western barrier against invasion from other countries. She hears the ocean protesting against separation, but she hears the sea likewise protesting against Union. " The Constitution the Minister destroys is the condition of our connection: he destroys one of the pillars of the British empire — the habitation of Irish loyalty. I say of her loyalty as well as of her liberty, her temple of fame as well as of freedom, where she has seated herself, as she vainly thought, in modest security and a long repose. " Well, the* Minister has destroyed the Constitution. To destroy is easy. The edifices of the mind, like the fabrics of marble, require an age to build, but ask onlj'^ minutes to precipitate ; and as the fall of both is of no time, so neither is it a business of any strength. A pickaxe and a common labourer will do the one : a little lawyer, a little pimp, and a wicked Minister the other. ** I have done with the pile which the Minister batters, i come to the Babel which he builds, and as he throws down without a principle, so does he construct without a founda- tion. This fabric he calls a Union. It is no union, for it HOW THEY PASSED THE UNION AND AFTER. 219 excludes the Catholics. It is an extinction of the Constitu- tion, and an exclusion of the people. He has overlooked the people as he has overlooked the sea. ** I affirm that the blessings procured by the Irish Par- liament in the last twenty years are greater than all the blessings aflforded by the British Parliaments to Ireland for the last century, greater even than the mischiefs inflicted by the British Parliaments. *' He, the Minister, 'his budget with corruption crammed, proposes to you to give up the ancient inheritance of your country, to proclaim an utter and blank incapacity to make laws for your own people, and to register their proclamation in an Act which inflicts on this ancient nation an eternal dis- ability, and he accompanies these monstrous proposals by undisguised terror and unqualified bribery." At ten a.m. the House divided on the amendment to the Address — majority against, 42 (138 — q6). This was fatal. Majorities at subsequent stages of the Union Bill followed as matters of course. Artioles of Union. — The following were the heads of the Articles of Union : — " I. The two kingdoms are henceforth to be styled *The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.' "2. The succession to the Imperial Crown shall continue in the same manner as before the Union. "3. There shall be one Parliament representing the United Kingdom. " 4. Four spiritual Peers by rotation of sessions, twenty- eight temporal Peers elected for life by the Peers of Ireland, and one hundred Commoners (afterwards, by the first Reform Bill, increased to one hundred and five) are appointed to represent Ireland in the Imperial Parliament. "5. The established Churches in England and Ireland- shall be formed into one Protestant Episcopal Church, with the same doctrine, worship, and discipline. All members of the united parliaments shall take the oath, excluding Roman Catholics. " 6. Irish subjects of the United Kingdom shall be entitled to full privileges as to trade, navigation, and foreign commerce. 220 THE BOOK OF ERIN. (< 7. The taxes and expenditure of the United Kingdom are to be levied and defrayed according to a fixed proportion, Ireland to furnish two-fifteenths. '* 8. All the laws and courts of each kingdom are to remain as before, subject to any alteration which Parliament may enact, the final Court of Appeal being the House of Lords of the United Kingdom." In February, 1800, the House went into committee on the Articles of Union, already sanctioned in substance by •enormous majorities in the British Parliament, and, after desperate resistance by Grattan, Parnell, Plunkett, Ponsonby, Saurin, and other Nationalists, they were duly carried. " How did they pass the Union ? By perjury and fraud ; By slaves who sold their land for gold, As Judas sold his Lord. By all the savage acts that yet Have followed England's track, The pitch-cap and the bayonet, The gibbet and the rack. And thus was passed the Union, By Pitt and Castlereagh ; Could Satan send, for such an end, More worthy tools than they ? " Grattan's Anti-Unionist Climax. — "The constitution may be for a time so lost, the character of the country cannot be lost. The Ministers of the Crown will find that it is not so easy to put down for ever an ancient and respectable nation by abilities, however great, and by power and by corruption, however irresistible. Liberty may repair her golden beams, and with redoubled heat animate the country. The cry of loyalty will not long continue against the principles of liberty. Loyalty is a noble, judicious, and a capacious principle, but in these countries loyalty distinct from liberty is corruption, not loyalty. '' The cry of the connection will not in the end avail against the principles of liberty. Connection is a wise and a profound policy ; but connection without an Irish Parliament is connection without its own principle, without analogy of condition, without the pride of honour that should attend it ; is innovation, is peril, is subjugation, not connection. HOW THEY PASSED THE UNION AND AFTER. 22 1 " The cry of disaflPection will not in the end avail against the principles of liberty. ** Identification is a solid and imperial maxim, necessary for the preservation of freedom, necessary for that of the empire ; but without union of hearts, with a separate Government and without a separate Parliament, identification is extinction, is dishonour, is conquest, not identification. ** Yet I do not give up my country. I see her in a swoon, but she is not dead. Though in her tomb she lies, helpless and motionless, there is on her lips a spirit of life, and on her cheeks a glow of beauty. " ' Thou art not conquered ; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag is not advanced there," Grattan's Duel larith Corry.— In one of these oratorical encounters Grattan was for the fourth time wantonly vitu- perated by the bully, Corry, Chancellor of the Exchequer^ chief of Castlereagh's Unionist " Shooting Club." Grattan replied with unmeasured scorn : — " I have returned to protect that Constitution of which I was the parent and the founder from the assassination of such men as the right honourable gentleman and his un- worthy associates. They are corrupt, they are seditious, and they at this moment are in a conspiracy against their country. ... I dare accusation. I defy the honourable gentleman. I defy the Government. I defy their whole phalanx. Let them come forth. I tell the Ministers I will neither give them quarter nor take it." A hostile challenge followed almost as a matter of course. Grattan would hear of no delay. The combatants accord- ingly having met at early dawn, Corry was shot in the hand, and thus was brought to a premature end the Castlereagh vendetta for "fighting down the Opposition." Plunkett on the Incompetency of Parliament to Yotft Away Irish Independence. — " I, in the most express terms, deny the competency of Parliament to do this act. I warn you ; do not lay your hands on this Constitution. I tell you that if, circumstanced as you are, you pass this Act, it will be a mere nullity, and no man in Ireland will be bound to obey it. I make the assertion deliberately. I 322 THE BOOK OF ERIN, lepeat it. Call on every man who hears me to take down my words. You have not been elected for this purpose. You are appointed to make laws, not legislatures — you are appointed to exercise the functions of legislators and not to iransfer them — you are appointed to act under the Constitu- tion, and not to alter it; and if you do so, your act is a dis- solution of Government. You resolve society into its original elements, and no man in the land is bound to obey you. Sir, I state doctrines which are founded on immutable laws and reason. I state not merely che opinions of the ablest and wisest men who have written on the science of Government ; but I state the practice of our Constitution, as settled at the era of the Revolution ; and I state the doctrine under which the House of Hanover derives its title to the throne. Has the King a right to transfer his crown ? Is he competent to annex it to the crown of Spain, or any other country ? No ; but he may abdicate it, and every man who knows the Constitution knows the consequence : the right reverts to the next in succession. If they all abdicate, it reverts to the i>eople. The man who questions this doctrine, in the same breath must arraign the sovereign on the throne as an usurper. Are you competent to transfer your legislative rights to the French Council of Five Hundred ? Are you competent to transfer them to the British Parliament ? I answer, no. If you transfer, you abdicate, and the great original trust .reverts to the people from whom it issued. Yourselves you may extinguish, but Parliament you cannot extinguish. It is enthroned in the hearts of the people, it is enshrined in the sanctuary of the Constitution, it is as immortal as the island which it protects. As well might the frantic suicide liope that the act which destroys his miserable body would extinguish his immortal soul ! Again I therefore warn you, do not dare lay your hands on the constitution. It is above your power." The Closing Scene. — On the 25th May, 1800, the Union Bill was introduced into the Irish House of Commons. On 7th June, following, that House met for the last time. On August 2nd the royal sanction was given, and on ist January, 1801, the hated Act began to operate. HOW THEY PASSED THE UNION AND AFTER. 22$ Sir Jonah Barrington's account of the last moments of the Irish Legislature have often been quoted, but cannot be bettered : — "The situation of the Speaker on that night was of the most distressing nature. A sincere and ardent enemy of the measure, he headed its opponents ; he resisted it with all the power of his mind, the resources of his experience, his influence, and his eloquence. *' It was, however, through his voice that it was to be proclaimed and consummated. His only alternative (resignation) would have been unavailing, and could have added nothing to his character. His expressive countenance bespoke the inquietude of his feelings ; solicitude was perceptible in every glance, and his embarrassment was obvious in every word he uttered. " The galleries were full, but the change was lamentable ; they were no longer crowded with those who had been accustomed to witness the eloquence and to animate the debates of that devoted assembly. A monotonous and melancholy murmur ran through the benches ; scarcely a word was exchanged among the members; nobody seemed at ease ; no cheerfulness was apparent, and the ordinary business for some time proceeded in the usual manner. " At length the expected moment arrived ; the order of the day for a third reading of the Bill for a * legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland ' was moved by Lord Castlereagh. Unvaried, tame, cold-blooded, the words seemed frozen as they issued from his lips, and as if, a simple citizen of the world, he seemed to have no sensation on the subject. At that moment he had no country, no God but his ambition. He made his motion, and resumed his seat with the utmost composure and indifference. " Confused murmurs again rang through the House. It was visibly affected. Every character seemed involuntarily rushing to its index — some pale, some flushed, some agitated. There were few countenances to which the heart did not despatch some messenger. Several members withdrew before the question could be repeated, and an awful momen- tary silence succeeded their departure. The Speaker rose 224 THE BOOK OF ERIN. slowly from that chair which had been the proud source of his honours and his high character ; for a moment he resumed his seat, but the strength of his mind sustained him in his duty though his struggle was apparent. With that dignity which never failed to signalise his official actions, he held up the Bill for a moment in silence. He looked steadily around him on the last agony of the expiring Parliament. He at length repeated, in an emphatic tone, ' As many as are of opinion that this Bill do pass, say aye.' The affirmative was languid, but indisputable. Another momentary pause ensued ; again his lips seemed to decline their office ; at length, with an eye averted from the object which he hated, he proclaimed with a subdued voice, ' The ayes have it.' The fatal sentence was now pronounced. For an instant he stood statue-like, then indignantly, and with disgust, flung the Bill upon the table, and sank into the chair with an exhausted spirit. An independent country was thus degraded into a province; Ireland, as a nation, was extinguished." " Oh, Ireland, my country, the hour Of thy pride and thy splendour is past ; And the chain that was spurned in thy moment of power Hangs heavy around thee at last. •* Thou art doomed for the thankless to toil, Thou art left for the proud to disdain. And the blood of thy sons and the wealth of thy soil Shall be wasted, and wasted in vain." Financial Effects of the Union.— These were speedily found to be of the most disastrous character. In 1793 the National Debt of Ireland amounted to only ;f 2,219,694. At the Union in 1800 it was set down at the enormous sum of ;f 26,841, 219. How was this effected? By charging the Irish Exchequer with the cost of all the bayonets and bribes by which the Union had been procured I " It was strange," O'Connell justly observed, " that Ireland was not afterwards made to pa}- for the knife with which Lord Castlereagh twenty-two years later cut his own throat." The total cost of the Union, at the lowest estimate, was as follows : — HOW THEY PASSED THE UNION AND AFTER. 225 Esmenses of the military (137,000 men) eni.'a?(ed in first fomenting and then suppressiug the Rebellion (i797~^^^) ;^i6,ooo,ooo Pa3rment to suJQfering Loyalists 1,500,000 Purchase of Parliament • 1,500,000 Secret service money (1797-1804) 553,000 Union pensions, &c ••• 1,000,000 Removing Departments to London 500,000 ;f2i,053,ooo But this was only the beginning of Ireland's financial sorrows under the Union. By that Act her debt was to remain separate from that of Great Britain (then ^'450,504,984) till (i) the two should bear to each other the ratio of two to fifteen, and (2) till the circumstances of the respective countries should admit of uniform taxation. In 1817 these conditions were declared to be fulfilled. The Irish debt then stood at ;f 112,704,773 (!) and the British at ;f 734,522, 104. Thus, in sixteen years the debt of Ireland had jbeen quadrupled, while that of England had been increased by less than one-half — ** as if Ireland had a double interest in crushing France ! " The exchequers of the two countries were accordingly amalgamated, and Ireland was thenceforth fraudulently saddled with a proportionate share of the vast Anti- Union Debt of Great Britain. Economic Effects of the Union. — Nor was this the worst that befel luckless Erin. Industrial prosperity was hopelessly blighted by ** the union of the shark with his prey." The economic bane of the Act was, of course, of slower develop- ment than the financial, but eventually it was infinitely more pernicious. Summing up the situation in 1843, the Great Liberator of his race and religion, Daniel O'Connell, said with truth: — " The Union was a profitable compact for one of the parties. England found a market for her fabrics, a recruit- ing field for her army, a partner in her public burdens, and by making absenteeism a necessity for members of Parliament and their train, she drew from Ireland an annual tribute of five or six millions rent. " But for the other partner it was a disastrous compaqt. Before the Union, Ireland was the seat of flourishing woollen p 226 THE BOOIC OF ERIN. and silk manufactories. The woollen trade had taken root prior to the Revolution of 1688 ; but on the demand of the English Parliament, though in the hands of Protestants, it nearly disappeared. A hundred years later, when Grattan had established legislative independence, the trade sprang up under the care of a free parliament, and at the period of the Union the cloth-loom was at work in Dublin, Kilkenny, Limerick, Carrick-on-Suir, Roscrea,and several smaller towns. *' The population of Ireland was then only 4,000,000, of whom 150,000 were employed in silk and woollen manu- factures. In 1 841 the population had increased to 8,000,000* and 9,000,000, but the number of these artisans had shrunk to a handful — fewer than 8,000. The mills in the provincial towns were all closed ; in Dublin, where ninety master manufacturers had given employment to 5,000 artisans, the former had diminished to twelve, and the latter to less than 700. The fate of the remainder might be learned from the Mendicity Society." " Let us see," says Mr. J. A. Fox (* Whj' Ireland wants- Home Rule '), what was the effect of Pitt's measure on manufactures. In 1800 there were in Dublin, 90 woollen manufacturers, employing 4,918 hands ; 30 wool-combers, employing 230 hands; 13 carpet-combers, employing 230- hands; 2,500 silk-loom weavers. In Cork there were i,ooO' braid weavers; 2,000 worsted weavers; 3,000 hosiers; 700 wool-combers ; 2,000 cotton-weavers ; 600 linen-check weavers ; in Wicklow, 1,000 hand-loom weavers; in Kilkenny,. 57 blanket manufacturers ; in Balbriggan, 2,500 calico-looms. at work. " To-day not a vestige of these industries remains, while of new works to take their place there is practically none. .. . . All over the country may be seen roofless factories, idle mill-wheels, and empty store-houses." Now, whatever may have been the faults of ** Grattan's Parliament " — and from its constitution they were many and grievous — it is not to be gainsaid that during its brief existence it quickened the commercial life of Ireland in a remarkable degree. There is a cloud of unimpeachable witnesses on the subject : — Judge Jebb (1798) : " In the course of fifteen years our HOW THEY PASSED THE UNION AND AFTER. 22/ agriculture, our commerce, and our manufactures have swelled to an amount that the most sanguine friends of Ireland would not have dared to prognosticate." Lord Plunket (1799): "Her (Ireland's) revenues, her trade, her manufactures, thriving beyond the example of any other country of her extent — within these few years advanc- ing with a rapidity astonishing even to herself — not com- plaining about deficiency in these respects, but enjoying and acknowledging her prosperity." The Bankers of Dublin* (rygS) : '* Resolved, that since the renunciation of the Power of Great Britain in 1782 to legislate for Ireland, the commerce and prosperity of this kingdom have eminently increased." Earl Grey in the British Parliament : ** Since the abolition of the heritable jurisdictions, the prosperity of Scotland has been considerable ; but certainly not so great as that of Ireland within the same period." Mr. Foster (1799) : ** Has Scotland advanced in prosperity since the Union as much as Ireland ? Mr. Dundas, her great advocate, states the progress of her linen manufacture, to show her increase in prosperity. It was 1,000,000 yards in 1706, and 23,000,000 in 1796. How does the linen manufacture of Ireland stand in comparison ? Export in Yards. Value. 1706 530.838 .... ^22,750 1783 .... 16,039705 . . . /i,o69,3i3 1796 .... 46,705,319 . . . ;^3,ii3,687 That is, 88 times greater as to quantity and 137 times greater as to value in 1796 than in 1706. And thus that manufacture which is the staple of both kingdoms, and which Mr. Dundas very properly brought forward to rest his arguments on, rose from i to 88 in Ireland — in separate and ununited Ireland — under the nurture and protection of Ireland's Parliament ; while during the same period, it rose in united Scotland, without a resident Parliament, from i to 23 only." Lord Chancellor Clare, the most imperious of Unionists (1798) : " There is not a nation on the face of the habitable globe which has advanced in cultivation, in manufactures, with the same rapidity in the same period (Grattan's Parliament) as Ireland." P2 228 THE BOOK OF ERIN. If any further evidence be needed that Ireland's golden age in modern times and *' Grattan's Parliament " were con- temporaneous, let the following excerpts from Mr. T. M. Healy, M.P.'s admirable A Word for Ireland suffice : — ** From 1785 to 1800 the consumption of luxuries increased in Ireland even to a greater extent than in England. Thus ;— Increase per cent, in Ireland. In England Tea 84 45 Coffee .... 600 75 Tobacco . . . 100 ,,,,,,, 64 Wine .... 74 ....;.. 52 Sugar .... 57 53 "Let us compare the sales at Ballinasloe in 1799 with 1884, and then contrast the exports of live stock to England from all Ireland in the same years. 1799. Cattle. Sheep. Sold at Ballinasloe 9,900 77 900 Exported to England 14,000 80c 1884. Sold at Ballinasloe 12,101 37. 318 Exported to England 715.843 533 285 ** There was nearly the same population in the country both years, and Mr. (Isaac) Butt asks, if the same number of live stock were raised in 1799, what became of the beef and mutton ? * There was then an Irish population,' he says, * eating meat and paying for it. Now it goes to England. It is only the market that has changed.' Some persons quote these increased exports as a proof of prosperity ; but the character of the exports makes all the difference, especially when they go to pay for imports of articles which were then all made at home by the artisans and merchants who ate the beef and mutton that is now shipped out of the country. Mr. Butt argued that the very exportations which are the result and proof of our poverty are paraded as the evidence of that Irish prosperity of which the English ministers and Irish placemen are so proud. ** The Lords and Commons of Ireland, who were the great landed proprietors of the country, had up to this (the Union) to a considerable extent resided in the Irish capital; but HOW THEY PASSED THE UNION AND AFTER. 229 after 1800 their business and their pleasure took them across to LfOndon, and permanent residence in Ireland was no longer fashionable." D' Alton, in his " History of the County Dublin," p. 85, gives a comparative table, compiled from the most approved authorities, of the amount of absentee rental : — XOQX ••• •■• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• j^X^O^OIo X7x(^ ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• 027)7^^ xyO^ ••« ••■ ••« ••« ••• ••• ••• ••• 2)22^^222 lyO^ ••• ••• ••• ••# ••• ••• ••• ••• 1. jOO(j ^Q^2^ I o(j^ «•• ••• ••« ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ^fOC/Of 000 1830 ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• 4?^^^^^^^^ XOjO ••• ••• •«• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• S jCaJL/^C.K_/0 Prior to the Union, ninety-eight peers and a proportionate number of wealthy commoners resided in the city of Dublin. In 1825 it was found that the number of resident peers did not exceed twelve, and even discriminating English Con- servatives began to be staggered at the untoward conse- quences of Pitt and Castlereagh's statesmanship. In 1829 Mr. Sadler, Tory, M.P., for Newark, pertinently asked in his * Ireland and its Evil : " — " Is a system which can only be supported by brute force, and is kept up by constant bloodshedding, to be perpetuated for ever ? Are we still to garrison a defenceless country in behalf of those whose property was, generally speaking, originally conferred on the special conditio^ of residence, but whose desertion occasions all the evils under which she has groaned for centuries — property so treated that it would not be worth a day's purchase were the proprietors its sole pro- tectors ? But they are aware that their absence is balanced by the presence of a body of military and police which enables them to conduct themselves with as little apprehen- sion as remorse. The possessions of the entire empire would be lost were such conduct general." • Well, 1888 is not ** for ever," but it is truly heart-breaking to reflect that the situation to-day is substantially unchanged. The Clanricardes, it is estimated, are draining Ireland annually of ;f 6,000,000 out of a total rental of ;^i 3,000,000, " with as little apprehension as remorse." And the workers of England, Scotland, and Ireland slavishly pay for the requisite ** mihtary and police ! " 230 CHAPTER XVIII. Kfebellion and Emancipation. " Can agitators light fire without fuel, or sustain a revolution without reason ? It never was done. It never will be done To convict the people is to condemn the Government." — Joseph Cowen. " Link repeal to the land, hke a railway carriage to its engine ; ages have prepared it. Thus repeal will carry itself, like a cannon.ball downhill." — James Fintan Lalor. " If the Union had not been carried, Ireland would have long since paid oflf her national debt, and been now almost entirely free from taxation." — Daniel O'Connell. " A landlord of straw can grind to powder a tenant of steel." — Lord Clare. " I desire these four facts to be remembered : — ist. '' hat the Irish representatives turned the scale of victory, and carried the English Parliamentary Reform Bill. 2nd. They equally, and by the same act. carried the Scottish Reform Bill. 3rd. They equally and by inevitable consequence, carried the English Municipal Reform Bill. 4th. They equally carried the Scottish Municipal Reform Bill." — Danibl O'CONNELL. " I would trust any people with the custody of its own liberty. I would trust no people with the custody of liberty other than its own." — Henry Grattan. " A natural and cheerful alliance is a more secure link of connection than subordination borne with grudging and discontent." — Edmund BUKKE. " Thee is not a more clear axiom in the science of politics than that a man is his own natural governor, and that he ought to legislate for himself. We ought not to presume to legislate for a nation in whose feelings and affections, wants and interests, opinions and prejudices, we have no sympathy." — Charles James Fox. " The Union (United States) is as happy and as free as a small people and as strong as a great nation." — De Tocqueville. " With the absolute unity which reigns in France, the same agitation seizes the whole country, and puts everything in danger. All have the same fever at the same time; neither against a despot nor against a revolution is there any refuge anywhere. With local autonomies it is not so. Each province has its particular crisis, 'which does not distract the REBELLION AND EMANCIPATION, 2^1 Others. Thus it is that Switzerland and the United States can resist so steadily all the storms of democracy. A Unitarian Republic must succumb to them quickly. Local autonomies are the necessary adjuncts •of the parliamentary regime. The parliament having too much to do, does it badly. The entanglement, the opposition of interests, bring about incessant ministerial crises, which reduce the Government to impotency. One of the greatest faults of the Revolution was the destruction of the Provincial Assemblies, and I doubt if France can ever obtain the possession •of true liberty till she has re-established them." — Emile de Laveleye. Robert Emmet's InsuFFection. — ** Emmet's Rebellion," as it has been called, was the after-clap of '98. It was planned with remarkable secrecy, but totally inadequate means. The end was correspondingly deplorable. In 1798, Robert Emmet, younger bi'other of Thomas Addis Emmet, was expelled from Trinity College, Dublin, with nineteen fellow students, for Republican disaffection. He was then in his twentieth year. His moral worth and intellectual superiority were even then marked. He went to the Continent, and there shared the intimate councils of the «xiled United Irishmen, of whom his brother Thomas and Arthur O'Connor were the chief. Napoleon, then First Consul, encouraged the formation of an Irish Committee in Paris. He suggested for the flag of the Irish Republic a tricolour background with a green centre, lettered R. I. — Republique IrlandaisCj the legend was to be: U Independence •de rirlande — Liberie de Conscience, In October, 1802, Emmet returned to Dublin perilously commisioned, and at once set to work to resuscitate the famous society which owed its birth to the devotion of Wolfe Tone. Emmet was an adept in disguises, and his sincerity and enthusiasm were difficult to resist. He got together ■considerable stores of arms, and on the 23rd July, 1803, he made a daring attempt to capture Dublin Castle with less than a hundred followers. The failure was complete ; and what was even more deplorable, it was stained by a hideous •crime. Some drunken wretches murdered Chief Justice Lord Kilwarden, whose carriage chanced to be passing at the time. Emmet was horrified at the deed. He might have escaped abroad, but he inadvisedly lingered to obtain a last interview with his lady-love, Sarah Curran, the accomplished daughter of the distinguished advocate, John Philpot Curran. 232 THE BOOK OF ERIN« He was captured, tried, and executed on the spot where the Chief Justice perished. Emmet's speech, after sentence of death had been passed on him, was, and remains, one of the masterpieces of EngHsh oratory. How vast the possibilities of such an intellect ! " Let no man," said he, ** write my epitaph ; for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let no prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me rest in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed and my memory in oblivion until other times and other men do justice to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done." Immediately before his execution he wrote a letter to Richard Curran, Sarah's brother, full of the tenderest pathos : — " If there was anyone in the world in whose breast my death might be supposed not to stifle every spark of resentment, it might be you. I have deeply injured you. I have deeply injured the happiness of a sister that you love, and who was formed to give happiness to everyone about her, instead of having her own mind a prey to affliction. Oh, Richard ! I have no excuse to ofler but that I meant the reverse. I in- tended as much happiness for Sarah as the most ardent love could have given her. I never did tell you how much I idolized her. It was not with a wild or unfounded passion, but it was an attachment increasing every hour, from an admiration of the purity of her mind and respect for her talents. I did dwell in secret upon the prospect of our union. I did hope that success, while it afforded the oppor- tunity of our union, might be the means of confirming an attachment which misfortune had called forth. I did not look to honours for myself — praise I would have asked from the lips of no man : but I would have wished to read in the glow of Sarah's countenance that her husband was respected. My love ! — Sarah, it was not thus that I thought to have requited 3'our affection. I had hoped to be a prop round which your affections might have clung, and which would never have been shaken ; but a rude blast has snapped it» and they have fallen over a grave." REBELLION AND EMANCIPATION. 23J His fellow- Student, Tom Moore, who greatly loved him^ re-echoed his dying, ** Let no man write my epitaph : " — " Oh ! breathe not his name ; let it sleep in the shade, Where cold and unhonoured his relics are laid, Sad, silent, and dark be the tear that is shed, Like the night dew that falls on the grass o'er his head. " But the night dew that falls, though in secret it weeps, Still freshens with verdure the grave where he sleeps ; So the tear that is shed, while in secret it rolls. Shall long keep his memory green in our souls ! '' Maynooth. — In paving the way for the Union, Pitt, Corn- wallis, and Castlereagh had left no stone unturned to secure every form of ecclesiastical support. The Episcopalians had been told that incorporation with the English Establishment could alone secure them permanent ascendancy, and not a few of them became Unionists in consequence. " A royal license " had been given to establish seminaries for Catholic clerical education. Revolutionary ideas were prevalent in France, and it was found that not a few of the numerous young clerics educated there came back tainted with republican doctrines. Pitt thought a native school of priests would be less dangerous to * law and order,' and hence was passed 35 George II I i c. 21, on the 15th of June, 1795. Maynooth was accordingly founded and a grant of ;f 8,000 unanimously voted. This was the thin end of the wedge. On the 31st January, 1799, Mr. Pitt, in introducing "Union resolutions" between Great Britain and Ireland into the English Parliament, affirmed: — *' No man can say that in the present state of things, while Ireland remains a separate kingdom, full concessions can be made to the Catholics without endangering the State, and shaking the constitution to the centre." The wily Minister thus gave the Catholics to understand that they could no more be " emancipated " without union than the Episco- palians could be saved from disestablishment. Almost simultaneously the Maynooth trustees met at Dublin " to deliberate on a proposal from Government for an indepen- dent provision for the Catholic clergy of Ireland, under Certain regulations not incompatible with their doctrine,, discipline, or just influence." The "certain regulations" 234 '^^^^ BOOK OF ERIN. were to give to the Government a '* veto ** on bishops elect, and to this proposal the four Archbishops, and the Bishops of Meath, Cork, Kildare, Elphin, Ferns, and Ardagh, signified their assent. Luckily the Government failed to seize this golden opportunity of putting the bit of the State into the mouth of the Catholic priesthood, and though the project was revived in 1815 and the sanction of Pope Pius VII. obtained, it came to nothing. The voice of O'Connell -and of the Irish people was irresistably raised against it. In 1 808 the prelates had reviewed their offer, and unanimously withdrawn it. The Regium Donum. — The history of this royal gift teaches, if anything in history does, how " a gift corrupteth the heart." It was originally a grant of ;^6oo of Secret Service money made by Charles II to certain Scoto-Presby- terian ministers for professed acts of Presbyterian loyalty. In 1690 the gift stood at ;^i,2oo;in 1723, George I. aug- mented it ; in 1784 it reached ;^2,2oo; and in 1792, ;^5,ooo. Throughout the Union negotiations th6 Presbyterian clergy were as vigilant as a cat with a mouse. Their flocks were very largely Republican and Separatist, and they had to act with caution. In 1802, Lord Castlereagh wrote a long confi- dential letter to Prime Minister Addington, which gives a clue to Orange loyalty that may be followed up for years. Referring to *'our Union friends," he points out "how much may be done by an efficient protection and support of the State against a democratic party in the Synod, several of whom, if not engaged in the rebellion, were deeply infected with its principles. Such a body as the Presbyterians of Ireland, though consequently a branch of the Church of Scotland, have partaken deeply, first of the popular, and since of the democratic politics of that country, so as to be an object much more of jealousy than of support to the Government. You will, therefore, infer that my opinion still continues strongly in favour of coupling regulation with the propo=5ed increase of the Regium Donum. The distribution and government of the fund is a natural engine of authority. It has hitherto been exclusively in the Synod. *' Let it (now) be an annual grant by the State to indi* viduals by name, and not from the body of its members. REBELLION AND EMANCIPATION. 235 Upon the appointment of a minister, proper certificates of his character, &c., should be laid before the Lord Lieu- tenant, praying that his Majesty's accustomed bounty may be granted to him. The above requires that he shall not be entitled as of right, to derive a provision from the State without furnishing Government with satisfactory testimonials of his being a loyal subject. Though many bad men might find their way into the body, yetthe impression thatGovernment might withdraw the provision would in time have a material influence on their conduct. This, together with the income itself making them less dependent on their congregations for subsistence, are the only means which suggest themselves to my mind for making this important class of dissenters better subjects than they have of late years proved themselves." Alexander Knox (shade of Reformer John !) representing * this important class of dissenter,' thus acknowledged Castlereagh's generous foresight : — " Government will have done more to promote peace and union in this grand outpost of the empire (Ulster) than ever was yet achieved, or could be achieved by any other conceivable means. I speak from deep conviction when I make this assertion. I say more — this is, perhaps, a more favourable moment for forming a salutary connection between Government and the Presbyterian body of Ulster than may again arrive. The Republicanism of that part of Ireland is checked and repressed by the cruelty of Roman Catholics in the late rebellion, and by the despotism of Bonaparte. They are, therefore, in a humour for acquiescing in the views of Government beyond what they ever were or (should the opportimity be missed) may be here- after. How much, then, is it to be wished that while the tide of their wrong passions is so unusually low, a mound should be raised that will for ever be a safe restraint to them." The "Ministers' Money" eventually reached the annual sum of ;f 40,000, and no better or cheaper "mound" was ever erected against democratic aspirations. Castlereagh was thus the worthy Father of Ulster Loyalty. Emancipated, but not Relieved. — The ecclesiastical intrigues by which the Union was preceded aroused hopes in the Catholics which Pitt made no subsequent effort to 2^& THE BOOK OF ERIN. satisfy. He had known all along that the obdurate lunatic, George III., would never assent to Catholic emancipation. How, then, the Union being now passed, was the " Heaven- born minister" to retain some reputation for honour and consistency? Nothing simpler. His foreign policy had been disastrous, and the Peace of Amiens was impending. Let someone else bear the ignominy of the negotiations. He, incorruptible patriot (!), was immovable for emancipa- tion, so it was whispered by his friends. Accordingly the first United Parliament was not many days old when Pitt resigned office. The Catholics were struck dumb with astonishment, as well they might be. A document had, however, opportunely come to light which " a Sincere Friend to the Catholic Claims," (Lord Cornwallis,) had desired should be " discreetly communicated to the Bishops and principal Catholics, hut not inserted in the newspapers'' Its contents were such that after Pitt's resignation Mr. Grey said in the House of Commons : — '* If Catholic freedom were offered to the Irish as the price of their support of the Union, if the faith of the Government were pledged on that occasion, it forms the highest species of criminality on the part of the Ministers : because I am confident if such were the case, it was so pledged without the authority of the King ; for I know his Majesty is superior to the idea of swerving in the slightest degree from the observance of his word. This, then, was a crime of the highest denomination in Ministers, and calls for inquiry. I ask if such promise were made, were Lord Clare and the Protestant Ascendancy Party made acquainted with it ? If so, they were a party to the delusion that was intended to be practised on the unhappy Catholics, the delusion of ' havings' in the words of the promise, ^ so many characters of eminence (i.e., Pitt and the Ministry) pledged not to embark in the service of Government except on the terms of the Catholic privileges being obtained.' " Here was a fine dilemma for the Heaven-born, but, need- less to say, he was equal to the occasion : — '* He had no part in the wording of that paper. It was drawn up by Lord Castlereagh. To the sentiments it contained, when properly interprded, he, however, subscribed ; further he would neither avow nor explain. As to the particular expressions in the REBELLION AND EMANCIPATION. 2^7 : paper, he knew nothing of them, having never seen it before it was published. He denied that any pledge had been ^iven to the CathoHcs, either by himself, Lord Cornwallis, or the noble lord near him. Lord Castlereagh. The Catholics might very naturally have conceived a hope, and he himself liad always thought that in time that measure would be a consequence of the Union, because the difficulties would be fewer than before." Well played, Mr. Pitt ! Our "Old Parhamentary Hand" was about equally convincing when not so very long ago he told us, after the destruction of Alexandria by the British fleet, that "we were not at war with anybody," only inno- cently " engaged in the operations of war ! " Mr. Pitt's ** in time" meant a delay of twenty-nine years. In 1804 he resumed office, having first promised the King never again to raise the question of Catholic emancipation in the royal Hfetime. For once he kept his word. In 1805, Fox, in presenting to the House a great Catholic petition, raised the whole question of the Catholic claims. His motion was negatived by a majority of 212, the Heaven-born intimat- ing that " he should act contrary to all his sense of duty, and inconsistently with the original line he had marked for his conduct, were he to countenance that petition in any shape, •or to withhold giving his negative to the proposition for ^oing into committee !" In January, 1806, this unprincipled juggler — this bravo of the aristocrac}^ — went to his account, and a Grenville-Fox Ministry took office. The hopes of the Catholics rose high with tne event. But again they were rudely dashed. Within the year Fox followed Pitt to the tomb. " Fox ! o'er whose corse a mourning world must weep. Whose dear remains in honoured marble sleep ; For whom at last even hostile nations groan, While friends and foes alike his virtues own." He was, on the whole, a just and capable man, who, in '€vil times, fought a good fight, and kept the faith, Requiescat in pace, O'Connell and Emancipation. — For the next generation or more the Titanic figure 01 Daniel O'Connell ** the Liberator," lowers high over afl his contemporaries. O'Connell is the 338 THE BOOK OP ERIN* Brian Borumha of modem Irish story. If Shakspere is " all men's epitome," O'Connell was, as Balzac has said, " the incarnation of an entire people." His virtues and his vices were those of the Irish character, manifolded and accentuated in an extraordinary degree. Nearly all the more illustrious Irish Nationalist leaders have been of Saxon race and of the Protestant faith. Witness Molyneux, Swift, Grattan, Flood, Tone, Emmet, Davis, Mitchell, Martin, Butt, Parnell. O'Connell alone personifies in massive proportions the innate grandeur of the Catholic Hibernian Celt. In these circumstances, I prefer (being an alien)that Mr. W. A. O'Conor {''History of the Irish PeopW), a very capable and appreciative compatriot, should briefly delineate for the reader " the Uncrowned King of Ireland : " — " O'Connell made his country potentially a nation. He gave it the power of rising to the voice of one man. He infused the spirit that keeps the pulses of Irishmen in all parts of the globe beating to one measure. He took the cause of independence out of the hands of a faction, and made it the life of the country. " A constitutionalist by nature, and shocked in the dawn of his manhood by the excesses of France, where he was educated, O'Connell chose moral agitation for his country's deliverance. But his peaceful struggle was conducted with shout and onset of the warrior. He roused, united, and informed his countrymen. He inspired one soul into Ireland* He taught the people their power, and lifted them to a height of courage and consentaneous action from which they have never fallen. He made them one mass, inspired by one mind, and capable of following one chief. At the same time he powerfully appealed to the reason and sympathy of Englishmen, and contributed to the growth of English liberties. The tyrants of both nations he dared and defied • His gait as he trod the streets was a challenge to those who demanded servile demeanour. We can scarcely now estimate his towering character, as he stood alone in the valley, white with the skeletons of centuries, and prophesied upon them till they stood on their feet an exceeding great army. The magic of his sonorous voice, pealing over pk REBELLION AND EMANCIPATION. 23^ desert, is lost to us who know of him only when his accents are drowned in the million echoes they have created. Emancipation was made not a sectarian question^ O'Connell, with the mind and voice of the people, pro- claimed a universal principle, and demanded for every religion absolute spiritual freedom." As a youthful barrister, O'Connell had vehemently denounced the Union in 1800; but now the fulness of time was at hand. He had two courses open to him. He might either agitate for Catholic emancipation or for repeal of the Union. He resolved to begin with emancipation — a very grave error of judgment, as he himself lived to acknowledge^ Had repeal been placed before emancipation, Orangeman and Papist would have had a common object to battle for,, and the habit of good fellowship once established would have made emancipation of easy attainment in a restored Irish Parliament. As it happened, before the Emancipation Bill could be got through the London legislature, the " Na Popery " bogey had begun to terrify the Ascendency Party, and many Englishmen had come to confoimd " repeal of the Union " with " dismemberment of the empire." In 1817, died Curran, and in 1820, Grattan, ardent, and,, according to his lights — somewhat old-fashioned lights — faithful to the last. Let a true man sp>eak in this true man's well-merited praise. " Thank God," said Sydney Smith,. " that all is not profligacy or corruption in the history of that devoted people, and that the name of Irishman does not always carry with it the idga of the oppressor or the oppressed — the plunderer or the plundered — the tyrant or the slave ! Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time. What Irishman does not feel proud that he has lived in the days of Grattan ? Who has not turned to him for comfort from the false friends and open enemies of Ireland ? Who did not remember him in the days of its burnings, and wastings, and murders ? No Government law dismayed him ; the world could not bribe him. He thought only of Ireland, lived for no other object, dedicated to her his beautiful fancy, his elegant wit, his manly courage, and all the splendour of his astonishing eloquence. He was so bom and so gifted that :240 THE BOOK OF ERIN. poetry, forensic skill, elegant literature, and all the highest attainments of human genius, were within his reach ; but he thought the noblest occupation of a man was to make other men happy and free. And in that straight line he went on for fifty years, without one side look, without one motive in his heart which he might not have laid open to the view of ■God and man." The Liberator and the " First Gentleman in Europe." — With the disappearance of the venerable Grattan from the troubled scene, the authority of O'Connell became supreme. The gifted Richard Lalor Sheil was, at first at least, his aide-de-camp rather than his rival. For a strategist of the constitutionalist order only Wilkes or Bradlaugh can be compared with O'Connell. He boasted that he " could •drive a coach and six through any Act of Parliament," and he very frequently succeeded. Proclaim his " Catholic Com- mittee," and it would at once reappear as the " Catholic Board." Suppress the " Catholic Board," and it became nebulous in the form of " Aggregate Meetings." The Liberator often used strong and even coarse language of invective ; but this he did rather to inspire courage in his dispirited countrymen than from any innate discourtesy of soul. In 1 815 he stigmatized the close Protestant Corpora- tion of Dublin as '* beggarly," and one of its members, a fire- eater named D'Esterre, in consequence, challenged him. They met, and D'Esterre was unfortunately killed. O'Connell was greatly shocked, and from that moment his horror of bloodshed tinged his whole conduct, public and private. In 1821, King George IV., the " First Gentleman in Europe," honoured Ireland with a visit. Before his accession he had been a most promising emancipationist ; but when he became Regent and was reminded of his pledges, it was discovered that the salt of his reputed Liberalism had strangely lost its savour. The Marchioness of Hertford was then his chief spiritual advisg:, and she declared herself -quite unable to find it in her conscience to concede any right to persons who believed in seven sacraments ! O'Connell's conduct on the occasion of the royal visit was, to say the least, facile. I leave it to his unbending com- REBELLION AND EMANCIPATION. 24I patriot and contemporary, John Mitchel, to say " gratuitously crouching and crawling." The Catholics undertook "not to obtrude their grievances " on the First Gentleman. They were to open their mouths and shut their eyes, and have faith in the beneficence of Brunswick royalty. But that was not the worst. O'Connell publicly presented the dis- graceful voluptuary with a huge bunch of shamrocks ; and, at a banquet at Morrison's, where the leaders of both parties drank eternal amity, the Liberator actually toasted that King William of " pious, glorious, and immortal memory," whom he more frequently and correctly stigma- tised as "the Dutch Adventurer." Byron's stern reproof is a scorchmg hiss from the hot heart of a man who knew well whereof he wrote : — '• Is it madness or meanness that clings to thee now? Were he God, — as he is but the commonest clay, With scarce fewer wrinkles than sins on his brow,— Such servile devotion might shame him away. "Wear, Fingal, ihy trapping ! O'Connell proclaim His accomplishments ! His ! ! ! And thy country convince. Half an age's contempt was an error of fame, And that ' Hal was the rascaliest, sweetest, young prince.' " Will thy yard of blue riband, poor Fingal, recall The fetter from millions of Catholic limbs ? Or has it not bound them the fastest of all The slaves, who now hail their betrayer with hymns } " Shout, drink, feast, and flatter! O Erin, how low Wert thou sunk by misfortune and tyranny, till Thy welcome of tyrants hath plunged thee below The depth of thy deep in a deeper gulf still." Ireland was once more betrayed by a pretended friend. ** The Irish Catholics (^Mitchel) were once more cheated, and it is not saying much for their perspicacity, for they were twice cheated by the same cheat. "The senseless gala of 1821 passed away; the horrible famine of 1822 immediately followed." In that year Castlereagh obligingly cut his own throat. He was buried for his almost supernuman sins in West- minster Abbey, amid yells of execration from an infuriated mt>b which surged around the hearse of the " wretch " who : — 342 THE BOOK OF ERIN. *• Without one single ray of her genius, without The fancy, the manhood, the fire of her race, The miscreant who well might plunge Erin in doubt If she ever gave birth to a being so base. •• If she did, let her long-boasted proverb be hushed, Which proclaims that from Erin no reptile can spring ; See the cold-blooded serpent, with venom full flushed, Still warming its fold in the breast of a king." In 1823 O'Connell founded the " Catholic Association.*' Its members paid one guinea, and its associates one shilling a year each. Next year " Catholic Rent " at the rate of a. penny per head per month was subscribed by the Associates. This rent ultimately brought in the astounding sum of £$00 a- week. In alarm, Parliament in 1825 suppressed the Catholic Association. It immediately revived as the ** New Catholic Association." In 1826 no fewer than 800,000, Catholics magnanimously petitioned in favour of the re peal of the Test and Corporations Acts, and in 1828 the civil chains of the Protestant Dissenters dropped from their limbs. In this same auspicious year (1828) a vacancy occurred in the representation of county Clare, and by a happy inspira- tion O'Connell came forward in the novel character of a candidate. O'Connell was proposed by the evergreen O'Gorman Mahon, M.P., still miraculously spared to fight his country's battles, and by Mr. Steele, both gentlemen of the county. At the close of the poll the votes stood thus : — O'Connell ... ... ... ... ... 2,057 Fitzgerald h^S7 Majority for O'Connell ... 982 This was the beginning of the end. Exception was taken to O'Connell's return, on the ground that he was ineligible as a Catholic ; but it was correctly held that it rested with Parliament alone, on the oath being tendered and refused, to exclude a duly elected representative of the people. Wellington and Peel at once recognised the handwriting on the wall, and began to prepare both King, Lords and Commons for the inevitable. Emanoipation at Last. — The Wellington-Peel Ministry could hardly have been surpassed in the intensity of its REBELLION AND EMANCIPATION. 243 Toryism ; yet it had the sense to recognise that resistance to the righteous claims of the Irish Catholics was now no longer possible. Peel told the Commons that they must pass a Relief Bill if they would " avoid greater dangers," and Wellington bluntly admonished the Lords that they had promptly to choose between concession and "civil war." In such circumstances, the Tories, as is their wont, laudably resolved to *' dish the Whigs." After a series of bitter debates in Parliament and much anti-Catholic petitioning by the more bigoted Protestants of the realm. Emancipation passed the Commons and Lords by majorities of 36 and 104 respectively. On 13th April, 1829, the Bill was presented to the First Gentleman in Europe for his royal signature. Lady Coyngham was now his leading spiritual adviser, and the multiplicity of sacraments did not alarm her as they had done the conscience'of her of Hertford. George went through the formality of trampling on the pen handed to him to sign with, but signed all the same. By this Act, legislative and judicial offices were, nominally at least, thrown open to Catholics, and the freedom of municipalities, the commutation of tithes, and the abolition of insulting proselytising schools speedily followed. DisfFanchisement of the " Freeholders." — But the boon, as was to be expected, was accompanied by a blow. Peel, one of the most cold-blooded and unscrupulous tools of oli- garchy that ever breathed, was a man who was never known to do anything because it was right. Only when wrong-doing had ceased to be humanly possible was it his shallow artifice to become a convert to rectitude, in order cheaply to acquire the character of a wise and beneficent statesman. And, alas, he is not without his pupils and imitators to-day. By political descent Gladstone is nothing if not a graduate in the school of " Orange Peel." Peel insisted on signalizing emancipation by the disfran- chisement of some seven-eighths of the Irish electors ! They had of late gone astray in voting for O'Connell as well as for several Protestant advocates of Catholic emancipation, and it was, therefore, necessary to read them a lesson. In 1793 an Act had been passed giving the franchise to all forty- 02 244 '^^^ BOOK OF ERIN shilling freeholders." This class of voters it had hitherto been the policy of the landlords indefinitely to multiply. But the moment they ceased to be politically subservient, they and the Government turned on them and rent them. The parliamentary electors of Ireland were reduced at a blow from 200,000 to 26,000, by the simple expedient of raising the voters' qualification from two pounds to ten, the English forty-shilling franchise meanwhile remaining unchanged. This glaring act of injustice worked a world of harm, and it was not, indeed, till the Household Suffrage Act of 1885 that Great Britain and Ireland were ultimately put on a footing of complete electoral equality. The Emancipation Act, moreover, by specially excluding Catholics from exercising the functions of Lord Lieutenant and Lord Chancellor, cunningly retained the substance of Protestant ascendancy, in spite of all appearances to the contrary. The former has nearl}' every important State appointment in his gift, while the latter, having control of the magistracy, exercises superlative authority in the administration of justice. What is the result to-day ? Out of 80 Stipendiary Magistrates, 55 are Protestants, and all are landlord sympathisers. Of the Justices of the Peace, 3,826 are Protestants and only 1,229 ^^^ Catholics, although the Catholics constitute at least four-fifths of the population. Moreover, 2,737 landlords and 448 land agents are to be found in the ranks of these " Great Unpaid." And this is Catholic emancipation nearly sixty years after the event ! The Poor Law. — Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne in 1837, and during the first three years of her reign the important subjects of poor law, tithe law, and municipal reform, were legislatively dealt with. The inhuman Poor- • Forty-shilling freeholders in Ireland and in England were quite different. In England, by an Act bearing date 1429 (8 Henry VI., Cap 7) freeholders are " people dwelling and resident in the counties, who should have freeland or tenement to the value of forty shillings by the year at least, above all charges." In Ireland, on the other hand, every tenant having a lease for a life was a freeholder, and entitled to a Parliamentary vote, provided he swore that his farm was worth forty-shillings annual rent more than the rent reserved in bis lease. REBELLION AND EMANCIPATION. 245 law of England, which came in with the "Protestant Devastation," it was now resolved to introduce for the first time into Catholic Ireland. A Scotsman named Nicholl was sent to report on the economic condition of the Irish people, and his tale was sufficiently appalling. During half the year there were 580,000 able-bodied persons, with 2,300,000 dependants, in a state of utter destitution ! In spite of O'Connell, in spite of the Catholic bishops, the island was speedily cut up into Poor-law " Unions," and adorned with frowning workhouse bastiles, where Christian men and women were treated like social lepers, and, alas! came to feel like lepers. The Tithe Law.— This Act (1838) abolished (?) Church tithes in Ireland by the singular process of converting them into tithe-rent charges, payable by the landlords to the parsons, but distrainable on the tenants along with the rent. The peasants were assured that they were now completely *' relieved " of the exactions of the relentless " tithe-proctor " and "tithe-farmer," but they perversely remained incredulous, and transferred their enmity to the new tithe- collectors, the landlords. Municipal Law. — The great Municipal Reform Act of 1835, which gave the cities and towns of provincial England the inestimable boon of self-government, was found to be very unsuitable in the latitude of Ireland. An Irish Municipal Bill was indeed passed in 1840, but a ;^io rating franchise was insisted on, and special care was taken to hold the appointment of the sheriffs in the safe keeping of ** the Castle." In England the sheriffs are elected by the town councils, but in Ireland such a practice was declared to be fraught with the utmost peril to the State. Why? Because the sheriffs have charge of the jury-lists; and without their connivance, or rather contrivance, ''jury-pack- ing " and Castle thraldom would alike cease to be possible, under a normal administration of the law. Father Matthew and the Temperance Crnsade. — In 1838, Theobald Matthew, a young Capuchin monk, became a convert to total abstinence, with the most notable results. He was little of an orator, but so great was the moral fascination of his character and presence that he almost 246 THE BOOK OF ERIN. rivalled O'Connell in the magnetic influence which he exercised. Millions, Protestant as well as Catholic, became his ardent disciples. In six years' time the drink traffic, and with it crime, sank to a very low ebb. In 1839 there were 12,000 committals and 64 capital convictions; in 1845 the committals had fallen to 7,000 and the death-sentences to 14. This vast social reformation was in a great measure undone by the demoralising effects of the great famine which soon after, like a mighty python, enfolded the whole island in its deadly embrace. Wherever the Government established relief works there also the grop-shop sprang up, and what wonder if in their unutterable misery many cried out, ** Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die 1 " H7 CHAPTER XIX. Repeal, Famine, and " Forty-Ei^t." «< Despotism consists in putting in force against the people a will in opposition to theirs. " It is the first duty of governments to obey the call of the friendless, and the unfortunate, for they are above all the powers of the earth. " Obey the law ? That is not so clear, for the law is often naught else bnt the will of those who impose it. The name of the law does not sanction despotism, and all men have the right to resist oppressiTe laws. "When legislation rivets a chain to the feet of a free citizen, enslaving him in spite of the rights of nature, eternal justice rivets the last links of that cham around the tyrant's neck. " Liberty is bom of storm and tears, as our earth rose out of chaos, and as man comes wailing into the world. An insufficiency of space for the people by no means shows an excess of population, but points distinctly to sterility in the administration, and the people cannot be contented until the land is so divided that all may have a share of property. •' We hear a great deal of over-population, but if the truth were told, the world as we see it, is almost depopulated. The population of the earth may, perhaps, encircle, but never cover the earth. It would be difficult to guess what enormous numbers of human beings could be sustained opon it. Mother Nature never brings more children into existence than she can nourish." — Aphorisms of St. Just. \ " Famine is in thy cheeks, Need and oppression stareth in thine eyes, Upon thy back hangs ragged misery ; The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law; The world a£k>rds no law to make thee rich ; Then be not poor, but break it." — Shakspere. Repeal. — Having achieved emancipation, such as has been described, 0*Connell next bent all the energies of his powerful mind to obtain by constitutional agitation the repeal of the Union. He utilised the benign influence of Father Matthew for this purpose, and every other influence of which he cotdd avail himself. But ke soon discovered ^S THE BOOK OF ERIN. how irreparably he had miscalculated in putting emancipa- tion before repeal. The Orangemen, who had been the bitterest foes of the Union, now declared that they preferred imperial rule to an Irish Parliament largely composed of Catholics. In vain O'Connell protested that he would willingly forego emancipation, confidently entrusting the lives, liberties, and estates of his Catholic co-religionists to his Protestant fellow countrymen, if by doing so the native parliament of Ireland should be restored. But too many of his Protestant fellow countrymen were victims of a conscience ill at ease. They feared retribution for the injuries of centuries, and took refuge in blatant imperialism, conditioned by the menace of ** kicking the Queen's crown into the Boyne " the moment Orange ascendancy should in any way be questioned. O'Connell was no hard and fast repealer. He was a Fossibilist, or even somewhat of an Opportunist. At one time he was ready to test how far " Justice to Ireland " might be secured under the Union. At another, and later date, he went a long way towards adopting a scheme of Federal Union, which must always appear to the student of constitutional democracy by far the best, if not indeed the only solution of the Irish governmental problem. His ** Pre- cursor Society," with its two million members, had a mere *' Justice to Ireland " aim. His " Friend of Ireland '* organisation was for repeal, pure and simple. It was sup- pressed, and the " Anti-Union Association " took its place. That also was proclaimed, and to it succeeded the ** Irish Volunteers for the Repeal of the Union." The Volunteer Repealers were likewise outlawed, and O'Connell arrested. He offered no defence, knowing the jury was packed, and consequently impervious to any consideration of reason, justice or even law. He was never, however, called up for sentence, for a very sufficient reason. His presence was needed in England. The Whigs could not pass the great middle-class Reform Bill of 1832 without the aid of his un- equalled voice and inexhaustible energy and resource. O'Connell, like many more sanguine natures, was among the dupes of the Reform Act of 1832. He had toiled for it like a Hercules, and when it was obtained, its first REPEAL, FAMINE AND " FORTY-EIGHT. 24^ fruit (almost was a peculiarly savage Coercion Act for Ireland ! The Whigs rested, but were not thankful. The Liberator in consequence redoubled his efforts on behalf of Home Rule. His Repeal Association and the Irish nation^ outside of Orangeism became practically one. His monster meetings were miracles, in numbers, order, and enthusiasm. The Tara gathering mustered, it was credibly asserted^ 400,000 souls ; and a yet more gigantic assemblage was^ convoked for Sunday, October 5th, 1843, on the glorious field of history, legend, and song — Clontarf. But here the tide fatally turned, and the ebb of O'Connell's fortunes began. " The year 1843," O'Connell had told his followers, '* is and shall be the great repeal year." He had also said, " No political reform is worth the spilling of one drop of human blood." The former of these propositions, Peel — " Orange Peel " — had determined to falsify by putting it to the severest test possible. ** I am prepared," the Minister had observed, ** to make the declaration which was made, and nobly made by my predecessor. Lord Althorp, that, deprecating, as I do, all war, but, above all, civil war, yet there is no alternative which I do not think preferable to the dis- emberment of the empire." Accordingly, in the afternoon of the Saturday previous to October 5, the Irish Executive proclaimed the Clontarf demonstration, and O'Connell, true to his anti- bloodshed tenet, by a supreme effort, successfully counter- manded all the arrangements. The military, in consequence had the trysting-ground of the Repealers all to themselves. Many Irishmen of mark severely censured the conduct of the Liberator on this momentous occasion. "John Mitchel" (Mr. T. P. O'Connor's '' Parnell Movement''), " one of the Young Irelanders, writing many years after O'Connell's death, and in another land, deliberately repeated the opinion he held at the time as to O'Connell's duty on the day of the Clontarf meeting. ' If I am asked,' he writes, *what would have been the very best thing O'Connell could do on that day at Clontarf, I answer — to let the people of the country come to Clontarf, to meet them there himself, as he had invited them ; but, the troops being almost all drawn out of the city, to keep the Dublin Repealers at home, ta :250 THE BOOK OF ERIN. give them a commission to take the castle and all the barracks, and to break down the canal bridge and barricade the streets leading to Clontarf. The whole garrison and police were 5,000. The city had a population of 250,000. The multitudes coming in from the country would probably have amounted to almost as many. There would have been horrible slaughter of the unarmed people without, if the troops would fire on them — a very doubtful matter — and O'Connell himself might have fallen. . . It were well for his fame if he had ; and the deaths of five or ten thousand that day might have saved Ireland the slaughter by famine of a hundred times as many." Such was the opinion of an exceptionally intrepid and unflinching patriot, and man of genius, whose virtues, like those of Wolfe Tone, were far more Roman than Christian. But O'Connell, who was nothing if not pugnacious, had yet come to regard the sword of the spirit as the only weapon which the religion in which he sincerely believed permitted him to use in civil strife. ** Resist not evil." *' He that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword." These are hard sayings for flesh and blood to interpret literally, but that they ought to be so understood, and that O'Connell did so accept them, I see no reason to doubt. In this respect his righteousness far exceeded that of popes and councils, and is comparable only with the action of the more consistent members of the Society of Friends. But where this great man was clearly wrong it is easy to see. He habitually used language which friends and foes alike regarded, and were justified in regarding, as the language of menace. For example : '* In the midst of peace and tranquility they are covering our land with troops. Yes, I speak with the awful determination with which I commenced my address in consequence of news received this day. There was no House of Commons on Thursday, for the Cabinet were considering what they should do, not for Ireland, but against her. But, gentlemen, as long as they leave us a rag of the constitution we will stand by it. We will violate no law, we will assail no enemy ; but you are much mistaken if you think others will not assail you." (A voice : " We are ready to meet them i ") " To be sure REPEAL, FAMINE AND ** FORTY-EIGHT." 25I you are. Do you think I suppose you to be cowards or fools ? . , , Are we to be trampled under foot ? Oh ! they shall never trample — at least " (" No, no ! ") "I say, they may trample me, but it will be my dead body they will trample on — not the living man ! " In proclaiming the Clontarf meeting, Wellington and Peel risked without cause, if, indeed, they did not positively intend, a " Peterloo Massacre " on a vast scale. O'Connell threatened them with impeachment. As well have menaced the Atlantic with a broomstick. They replied by arresting him, his son John, and all his leading associates. They were tried — by a packed jury, of course — and convicted, , And so it came to pass, in the bitter words of Mitchel, that " the Repeal Year conducted, not to a parliament in College-green, but to a penitentiary in Richmond." Eventually, on appeal to the House of Lords, the sentence was quashed. Chief Justice Denman pronouncing the flagrant jury-packing by which it had been procured ** a mockery, a delusion, and a snare." All the same, it did its^odious work. O'Connell was loved and revered as ever, but his unique power and authority were broken. Gradual softening of the brain supervened. The horrors of the great famine broke his heroic heart. ** Aghast," says the late A. M. Sullivan, a knight sans peur et sans reproche if ever I met one such, *' O'Connell gazed on the ruin of the cause, the destruction of the people he had given his life to serve. In the agony of his soul he flung himself into one supreme effort to save them. No more he thundered defiance. He wept ; he prayed ; he cried aloud, * Oh God, Thy faithful people perish ! ' The struggle was too much. The great heart and the grand brain gave way. Mournfully, despairingly, the old man sank into the tomb. He had lived too long ; he had seen the wreck of all he loved. To Rome, to Rome he would bend his way ; he would see the Successor of St. Peter, and visit the shrines of the Apostles before he might die. Not so God willed that it should be. At * Genoa the Superb ' he halted on the way, * to rest a little,' he said. The attendants saw that his great rest was at hand. On 15th of May, 1847, all was ov«r ; the * Irish Liberator' was no more." Peace to his mighty shade ! The Famine. — In 1841 the population of Ireland numbered 252 THE BOOK OF ERIN. 8,175,124 souls. In 1845 when the potato blight — the effect,, it is believed, of peculiar electric conditions of the atmosphere — began i it was probably not under 9,000,000. Of these, 3,000,000 fed on potatoes alone, as being the very cheapest of human food ; while the " dirty root " of Cobbett's- antipathy was the staple diet of 2,000,000 more. In these circumstances the failure of the potato crop, which was very general, had a dread significance for Ireland peculiar to itself. There was no lack of warning. On 20th June, 1845 (Healy's A Word for Ireland), the Times wrote : — " The facts of the Irish destitution are ridiculously simple. The people have not enough to eat. They are suffering a real^ though an artificial, famine. Nature does her duty. The land is fruitful enough. Nor can it be fairly said that man is wanting. The Irishman is disposed to work. In fact, man and nature together do produce abundantly. The island is full and overflowing with food. But something ever interposes between the hungry mouth and the ample banquet. The famished victim of a mysterious sentence stretches out his hands to the viands which his own industry has placed before his eyes, but no sooner are they touched than they fly. A perpetual decree of Sic vos non vohis condemns him to toil without enjoyment. Social atrophy drains oflf the vital juices of the nation." Where went the " vital juices '' during thejfamine years, as after and before them ? The Times of Feb. 25, 1847, tells us mo^t truly: — "Property ruled with savage and tyrannical sway. It exercised its rights with a hand of iron, and renounced its duties with a front of brass. ' The fat of the land, the flower of its wheat,' its * milk and its honey' flowed from its shores, in tribute to the ruthless absentee, or his less guilty cousin, the usurious lender. It was all drain and no return. . . . England stupidly winked at this tyranny. Ready enough to vindicate political rights, it did not avenge the poor. It is now paying for that connivance." One is almost tempted to think the writer of these sentences must have graduated on the staff of Reynolds's Newspaper or the Irish World. Now for a concrete illustration. On 4th March, 1848 [A Word for Ireland), commenting upon an inquest held on a REPEAL, FAMINE AND " FORTY-EIGHT. 253 family named Boland, who tilled a farm of twenty acres, and died of starvation, John Mitchel exclaims in his United Itish- man (for editing which he was transported two months later) : — " Now what became of poor Boland's twenty acres of crop ? Part of it went to Gibraltar, to victual the garrison ; part to the South of Africa, to provision the robber army ; part went to Spain, to pay for the landlords' wine ; part to London, to pay the interest of his honour's mortgage to the Jews. The English ate some of it ; the Chinese had their share ; the Jews and the Gentiles divided it amongst them ; and there was none for Boland ! " The extent to which the " vital juices " of Ireland were drained from her during the period of her bitterest agony is almost incredible. There was no real famine in Ireland at any time from '41 to '51. But for the rent-tribute, there was abundance of every kind of produce, minus the '* dirty root," to feed twice the population. According to a revenue return for the three famine years ending 5th January, 1849, there were paid by the starving people in taxes to the British ex- chequer, ;f 13,293,681. In the same year they exported to England as rent-tribute to absentees 595,926 head of cattle, 839,118 sheep, 698,021 pigs, 959,640 quarters of wheat flour, and 3,658,875 quarters of oats and meal. And this estimate of exports, the report significantly adds, ** is of necessity defective." '* It was only the potato that rotted," comments Mr. Healy. "There was plenty of other produce in the country if the people had only eaten it ; hut they paid their rents arid died !** John Stuart Mill thus luminously summed up the situation : — ^* Returning nothing to the soil, they (the landlords) consume its whole produce, minus the potatoes strictly necessary to teep the inhabitants from dying of famine." Had they even had the grace to consume less than one-half of their accustomed superfluities, in the famine years, the lives of more than amillionvictims of starvation might have been preserved. But, as a rule, they were deaf to the most melting appeals of humanity ; and the Castle Government, which could only act "at long range," through the dilatory and ill-informed channel e. He was sentenced to fourteen years transportation. Addressing the court, he exclaimed : ** My lords, I knew I was setting my life on this cast. The course which I have opened is Oidy commenced. The Romar who saw his hand burning to ashes before the tyrant prom-Sed that three himdred should follow out his enterprise. Can I not promise for one, for two, for three — ay, for hundreds? " He pointed to Martin^ Meagher and others in court, and was hurried from the dock to the cells below amid frenzied cries of " Promise for me» Mitchel — promise for me! " With the utmost expedition, this Irish Scaeveola, heavily manacled, was thrust into a prison- van and escorted by a Strong squadron of dragoons, with drawn sabres, to Dublia FORTY-EIGHT. 76f Harbour. There lay the war sloop Shearwater, drawn up- close to the north wall jetty, with steam up ready to receive her certain freight. The moment the fettered captive touched the deck the paddles moved, and John Mitchel was on his way to Bermuda. Nor did he depart alone. All the reasonable hopes of the revolutionists went with him. The conviction of Mitchel virtually killed " Young Ireland," just as the suppression of O'Connell's Clontarf meeting killed "Old Ireland." A vigorous attempt to rescue Mitchel might have succeeded, but the Confederation Chiefs, at the last moment, decided to postpone insurrection till autumn. This was fatal. The Government suddenly suspended the Habeas Corpus Act, and forced them into a premature rising, which, as all the enemies of Ireland have been careful to trumpet, ended ingloriously ia a scuffle with the police in a cabbage garden at Ballingarry, in Tipper ary. The subsequent fortunes of the young Ireland Chiefs were as remarkable as were the men themselves ; but they belong rather to thedomainof biography than of histCMry* " The Irish Brigade,*' alias the '' Pope's Brass Band."-^ After honour, dishonour ; after noble devotion, base treachery. The next men who found, to a limited extent, a misplaced comer in the heart of the Irish people were a set of scoimdrels whom Mr. T. P. O'Connor has pourtrayed to the nauseous- life in his chapter in The Parnell Movement entitled " The Great Betrayal." They professed ardent Catholicism^ and conjured with Tenant Right when they meant nothing but place and plunder. And to place did they attain in the Administration of Lord Aberdeen, though all men of ordinary discernment cciuld readily read their true characters. John Sadlier was Chief of the Band, his principal aides being his brother James, William Keogh, and Edmund O'Flaherty, John Sadlier was made a Lord of the Treasury ; Kec^h Irish Solicitor-General, and O' Flaherty Commissioner of Income-tax. In time, retribution came. John Sadlier, through embezzlement, fraud, and forgery, was* found to be a defaulter to the extent of more than ;f 1,250,000. He committed suicide. His brother was expelled the House of Commons. O' Flaherty escaped to Denmark, and thence ta America. Keogh, in many respects the most infamous of a68 THE BOOK OF ERIN. the quadrilateral was made a judge — a position which he scandalously prostituted to gratify his antipathy to those he had betrayed. At last he went mad. ** An Englishman {Parnell Movement) was lamenting, a short time ago, to a brilliant Irishman who had formerly «at in parliament the disagreeable contrast between the Irish members of former days and the unpleasant specimens of the present hour. The Irishman surprised his interlocutor by admitting the contrast, but not after the same fashion. Then he put thus tersely the story which has just been told : — * There were four members of parliament, personal intimates and political associates. One was a forger, and committed suicide ; the other was a forger, and was expelled from parliament ; the third was a swindler, and fled ; and the fourth was made a judge.' " Fenianism. — The father of Fenianism, as is well known, was the dubious James Stephens. He acted as Smith O'Brien's second in command in the unlucky cabbage garden affair, at Ballingarry. On that occasion he was severely wounded in the leg, but managed, nevertheless, after many risks, to reach Paris. There, in the society of cosmopolitan con- spirators, he learned to perfection the arts of secret propa- gandism. After a time he returned to Ireland, and engaged in the unsuspicious avocations of a tutor. In 1858 Stephens visited the neighbourhood of Skibbereen, and there he formed the acquaintance of Jeremiah Donovan, who, with proper racial pride, styled himself Jeremiah O'Donovan, Rossa — i.e,j from Ross, — abbreviated into the familiar O'Donovan Rossa. Between them Stephens and Rossa, in a month's time, had banded together by secret oath no fewer than ninety out of one hundred young men whose names were on the members' list of the local club or reading-room, called the Phoenix National and Literary Society. Such was the modest origin of the Fenian Brotherhood, which eventually caused the ruling classes of these islands so much disquietude and so many " scares." Inlreland up to 1 864the process of Fenian enrolment was com- paratively slow ; but in that year there came a mighty change. From the first, the Brotherhood had commended itself to the Irish- Americans who swarmed in the armies of the victorious FORTY-EIGHT. 269 North. At the close of the war it is not too much to say that there were in America, at least potentially, both an army and a military chest not inadequate, in favourable circum- stances, to the task of striking the fetters from off the limbs of Erin by an appeal to the God of Battles. But the tide had to be taken at the full before the troops resumed the avocations of civilians, and it was unfortunately not so taken. Both the Irish " Head Centre " Stephens and the American ** Head Centre " O'Mahony showed themselves, to put the matter very mildly, wholly unequal to the grave respon- sibilities of their posts. Still, Fenianism was not without a bright gleam of success. At the risk of disrupting the organisation^ O'Mahony was deposed, and Colonel William R. Roberts, a thoroughly upright man, put in his place. It was resolved to invade Canada as the most immediately vulnerable portion of the British empire. Accordingly, in May, 1866, the order was given to the various •* circles" throughout the Union to despatch their contingents to the Canadian frontier. The command was obeyed with alacrity ; but the American Executive, contrary to expectation, acted with the utmost promptitude and vigour. It marched a powerful intercepting force to the frontier. Its cruisers, moreover, patrolled the lakes. Colonel Roberts and his chief officers were arrested. Nevertheless, one small Irish contingent, under Colonel John O'Neil, managed to reach British soil close to Fort Erie, which was captured. Near the village of Ridgeway a sharp encounter took place between the Irish and an Anglo- Canadian force, under Colonel Barker. At a critical moment the Irish charged with impetuosity. The British were seized with panic and precipitately fled, leaving several of their standards in the hands of the Irish veterans. The victory^ however, availed nothing. O'Neil, finding his supplies coip- pletely cut off, had no help for it but surrender to the United States naval commander. The "Manchester Martyrs." — Early in 1S67 the scene p£ active Fenian operations was transferred from the Can Vidian frontier to Ireland and England. But misfortune dogged the movements of the Brotherhood at every step. The 5th March was fixed for a general rising all over the island. ,A simultaneous attack on Chester Castle, containing 20,000 370 THE BOOK OF ERIN. rstand of arms, was planned by the Lancashire " Circles,* There was no lack of numbers or determination, but the ** informer " was at work. This loathsome personage is not absolutely unknown in the history of other " peoples rightly struggling to be free," but assuredly in Ireland he has ever had his head-quarters. Both he and the " approver" are, to me, characters totally Inexplicible. They are the staggering reverse of the splendid shield of Irish patriotism. "Let no Irishman" (Mr. W. A. O' Conor's History of the Irish People) "ever inveigh against English tyranny or English bad faitn. Let •every Irishman, to whom the honour of his country is dear, store his indignation and reserve his maledictions for Irish treachery to Ireland and Irishmen. An Irishman abandons his country and betrays his compatriots so readily that a t)ribe seems rather a pretext than a motive. He is as ^enthusiastic in his betrayal of his country as an Englishman is in his fidelity to his. There is no hope for Ireland till this fire of hell is extinguished. Liberty would only ventilate it ; prosperity would only give it fuel." This is a iiaithful saying, which could hardly come from a better source. In America, Stephens, in spite of repeated warnings, took into his confidence three men — ^J. J. Corydon, Godfrey Massey and Pierce Nagle — who were enough to ruin a thousand brotherhoods, however resolute and efficient. 'Corydon, deep in the pay of the Government as in the con- fidence of the conspirators, betrayed every projected move- iment. The rebellion was consequently an unmitigated fiasco. But the end was not yet. Colonel Kelly and Captain J!)easy, two Fenian leaders of note, were captured by the Manchester police. A rescue was resolved upon, and •executed with an audacity which could hardly have been surpassed. Thirty powerfully- built young men suddenly attacked the police van in which the prisoners were being f.. " Tour in Ireland." APPENDIX A. List of Original Planters in Mnnster. Cork. Arthur Bobios ... Fane Beeoher ... , Hngh Worth ... , 6ir Arthur Hyde ... Arthur Hyde ... Sir W. St. Leger ... Hugh Cuffe ... ... Sir Thomas Norris ... . Thomas Say Sir Richard Beacon ... . Sdmnnd Spenser ... . Sir Greorge Bouchier Sir Edward Fitton ... Francis Fitton Thomas Fleetwood Marmaduke Edmunds Sir John Stowell Sir John Clifton Core and Waterford. Sir Walter Raleigh Waterford. Sir Christopher Hatton ... Sir Edward Fitton Sir R. Beacon Tipperary. Earl of Ormonde Sir Edward Fitton ACRES. 18,000 12,000 12,000 5,574 11,766 6,000 6,000 6,000 5,775 1,600 3,028 1,300 16,902 3,780 42,000 10,910 600 4,400 3,000 Limerick. Sir George Bouchier William Trenohard ... Sir Henry Billingsley Sir William Courtenay Francis Barkly ... Ed. Main waring ... Richard ) ,,.. .^ Alexander ] ^^*^*°° "• Sir Edward Fitton ... William Carter ... Sir Greorge Thornton Robert Ajinesley ... Sir Henry Ughtred ... Robert Strowde ... Robert Collum ... Rowland Stanley Kerry. Sir William Herbert Charles Herbert ... Sir Valentine Brown Sir Edward Denny ... John Hollis ... ... Captain Conway ... John Champion ") George Stone 3 *** John Crosbie Captain Thomas Spring Stephen Rice Luke Momce ... ... ... 12,880 12,000 11,800 10,500 7,260 8,747 3,026 11,500 3,661 1,500 2,599 2,000 10,000 2,500 13,276 3,768 6,560 6,000 4,422 5,260 1,434 u« APPENDIX. APPENDIX B. List of Original Planters in Ulster. (ENGLISH.) Armagh. Earl of Worcester Lord Say Powell Sacheverel John Heron Stanhawe John Dillon Brownlowe Machett Bolleston ••• •tt ••• ••• ••• ••• ••« ••• Tyrone. Earl of Salisbury Sir Thomas Ridgway Thomas Roch Francis Willoufjhbie Sir John Aehborneham Captain and Thomas Edney George Ridgway William Parsons William Turvine .,, Tyrone, Lord Audley ... Sir Mervin Audley Fernando Audley Sir John Davis William Blunt Donegal. Lord Ohamberlaine William Wilson ..« Sir Norris Barkley ... Sir Bobert Remington ACRES 3,000 2,000 2,000 2,1 >00 1,500 1,500 1,000 1,000 1,000 16,500 ft* 2,000 t • • 2.000 • • • 2,000 • •• 2,000 ey i,500 . • • 1,000 ..• 1,000 ... 1,000 12,500 ••• 3,000 ..• 2,000 *.• 2,000 ••t 2,000 ••• 2,000 t** • •• («• 11,000 2,000 2,000 2,000 Sir Thomas Cornwall Sir William Barnes .. Sir Henry Clare .. Captain Coach .. Edward Russell .. Captain Mansfield .• ••• ... CAVAN. Earl of Northampton Richard Waldron ... John Fish ... ... Stephen Butler ... Sir Nicholas Lusher Sir Hugh Wirrall ... John Taylor W. Lasher ... ... Total *•• • •• • •• • •• • •• • •• • •• ACRES 2,000 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 15,000 Fermanagh. Earl of Shrewsburie Sir Edward Blennerhasaett 2,000 Thomas Blennerhassett • * • 2,000 Sir Hugh Woorrall ... ... 1,000 5,000 FERMANAGH. Earl of Shrewsburie Thomas Flowerden ... .*• 2,000 Edward Ward .*« 1,000 Henrj Hunings ... •.. 1,000 Thomas B)irron ... •*• 1,000 John Ledborough ... ... 1,000 Kob^rt Calvert ... ... 1,000 Robert Bogwras ... ••• 1,000 John Archdale ,„ ••• 1,000 9,000 2,000 2,000 2,000 2,000 1,500 1,500 1,500 12,500 81,600 APPENDIX. Ill* (SCOTTISH.) ARMAGH ••• • •• • •• • •• • •• Sir James Douglass Claude Hamilton . William Lander James Craig Henrj Acheson Tyrone. Lord Uohiltrie Sir Robert Hepburne L. Lochnories Barnard Lyndsey Robert Stewart of Hilton Robert Lindsey Robert Stewart of Rotton Tyrone. Earl of Abercome Sir Claude Hamilton James Clapen Sir Georg« Hamilton Sir Thomas Boyd James Haig Sir John Drumond of Bord- land George Hamilton Donegal. Duke of Lennox Lord of Minto John Stewart Alex McAulla of Durling .. L. Glengarnock John Cuningham of Cran field Cathbert Cunningham L. DundufiE James Cunningham , L. Bomby L. Brougham • •• • •• ACRES 2,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 6,000 3,000 1,500 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 9,500 3,000 2,000 2,000 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,000 1,000 13,500 3,000 l,OuO 1,000 1,000 2,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 2,000 1,500 William Stewart Sir Patrick McKee ... Alexander Cuningham James McCullfx^k Alexander Dombar ... Patrick Wans Fermanagh. L. Barley L. Pitiarre L. Mountwhany, jun. L. Kinkell ... ... James Traill ... G«orge Smelhome ... Fermanagh. Sir John Home Robert Hamilton William Fowler Jeimes Sibb ... Jehue Lyndsey Alexender Home John Dombar t •• • •• • • • • •• • • « • •• • «• • •• • •• • •• • •• • • • • •• Cavan. Sir Alexander Hamilton John Auchmootie Alexander Auchmootie Sir Claude Hamilton John Broune Cavan. L. Obignyo ... William Dowmbar William Baylie John Ralston Total acres 1,500 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 22,000 3,000 1,500 1,^00 1,000 1,000 1,000 9,000 2,000 1,500 1,500 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 9,000 2,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 6,000 3,0CO 1,000 1,000 ... 1,000 6,000 81,000 acres IV. (SERVITORS.) Abmagh. Sir Gerald Moore Sir Oliver St. John Lord Audley , 8ir Thomas Williams .„ Captain Bourchier Captaia Cooke ... ... Lieutenant Pomes ... Harmadake Whitchurch ... Captain Atherton ... ... APPENDIX. Fbbmanagh. ACRKS 1,000 Sir Henry Folliott ... 1,500 Captain Atkinson .„ 500 Captain Coale 1,000 Captain Goare ... 1,000 1,000 200 Cavan. 120 300 Sir George Greame and • •• • •• • •• • •• Sir ACRES 1,500 1,000 1,000 l,00f> 4,500 Tyrone. Sir A. Chichester Sir Thomas Ridgway Sir Richard Wingfield Sir Toby Canlfield ... Sir Francis Roe ... Fermanagh. Sir John Davis Captain Samuel Harrison Piers Moetyn Donegal, Captain Stewart Captain Craffoord ... Captain John Vaughan Captain Kinsmell ... Captain Brookes Sir Richard Hansard Lieutenant Parkins Ensign Hilton Sir Thomas Chichester Captain Hart Sir Raffe Binglie Lieutenant B * lyes . . . Cpatain Henry Vaughan Captain Richard Bingley Lieutenant Grale Charles Grimsditch lieutenant Browne ••• ••« ... ... ... and • •• • •• • •• • •« • •• 6,620 1,320 2,000 2,000 1,000 1,000 7,320 1,500 500 246 2,246 1,000 1,000 ],000 1,000 1,000 1,000 300 500 1,000 1,128 400 1,000 500 100 240 400 11,568 Richard Greame ... Captain Coolme and Walter Talbott Captain Pinner Lieutenant Rutlidg ... Serjeant Johnes ... ... ... ... Cavan. Sir Thomas Ashe and John .^800 ••« ••• §•• Archibald More and Brent More ... ... ... Captain Tirrell 2,000 1,600 1,000 300 150 Cavan. 4,950 Sir Oliver Lambart ... Captain Lyons and Joseph Jones ... ... Lieutenant Atkinson and Lieutenant Russell .«• 2,000 1,500 1,000 Cavan. 4,500 Sir John Elliott Captain John Ridgeway Sir VViUiam TaH€f ... Lieutenant Garth ... Sir Edmond Fetiplace ... 1.. ... ... 400 1,000 1,000 500 1,000 3,960 750 1,600 2,000 Total 4,263 49,914 acres APPENDIX. APPENDIX C. Coercion Acts of the Century. 1800 c to ] 1805 C Habeas Corpus Suspession. Seven Coercion Acts. r ist February, Coercion Act. 1807 < Habeas Corpus Suspension. (.2nd August, Insurrection Act. 1808-9 Habeas Corpus Suspension. -Q S Habeas Corpus Suspension. »8i6 I Insurrection Act. tRtt f H^b^^s Corpus Suspension. ' (. One Coercion Act. 1822 r Habeas Corpus Suspension. to j Two Coercion Acts in 1822, 1830 (. and one in 1823. 1830 Importation of Arms Act. 1 83 1 Whiteboy Act. 1831 Stanley's Arms Act. 1832 Arms and Gunpowder Act. 1833 Suppression of Disturbance. 1833 Change of Venue Act. 1834 Disturbances Amendment and Continuance. 1834 Arms and Gunpowder Act. 1835 Public Peace Act. 1836 Another Arms Act. 1838 Another Arms Act. 1839 Unlawful Oaths Act. 1840 Another Arms Act. 1841 Outrages Act. 1 84 1 Another Arms Act. 1843 Another Arms Act. 1848 Act Consolidating all Previous Coercion Acts. 1844 Unlawful Oaths Act. 1845 Additional Constables near Public Works Act. 1845 Unlawful Oaths Act. 1846 Constabulary Enl^irgement. 1847 Crime and Outrage Act. 1848 Treason Amendment Act. 1848 Removal of Arms Act. 1848 Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 1848 Another Oaths Act. 1849 Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 1850 Crime and Outrage Act. 1851 Unlawful Oaths Act. 1853 Crime and. Outrage Act. 1854 Crime a«d Outrage Act. 1855 Crime and Outrage Act: 1856 Peace Preservation Act. 1858 Peace Preservation Act. i860 Peace Preservation Act. 1862 Peace Preservation Act. 1862 Unlawful Oaths Act. 1865 Peace Preservation Act. 1866 Suspension of Habeas Corpus Act (August). 1866 Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 1867 Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 1868 Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 1870 Peace Preservation Act. 1 871 Protection of Life and Property. 1871 Peace Preservation Con. 1873 Peace Preservation Act. 1875 Peace Preservation Act. 1875 Unlawful Oaths Act. t88i "^ / Peace Preservation Act (sus 1 882- J P®"^^°S Habeas Corpus). 188O to > Arms Act 1886) 1882 to 1885 Crimes Act. 1886 to 1887 Arms Act. 1887 "Jubilee " Coercion Act. VI. APPENDIX. APPENDIX D. The Cost of Coercion. To control less than P,000,000 of people in Ireland it is fonnd necessary to maintain : — 1. — An army of 30,000 Soldiers — the chief element of the Handcuff Union (not one of whom would be wanted under Home Rule), costing annually about... £2,250,000 2. — An army of 14,000 Military Police — the other great element of the Handcuff Union (only the third of whom would bo wanted under Home Rule), costing annually about ... ... ... ... £1,500,000 3. — " The Castle," with its hosts of officials, who direct the movements of the police and the military, cost- ing annually more than... ... ... ... £ 70,000 4. — A host of judges and judges' staffs (one half of whom would be enough under Home Rule), costing annually more than ... ... ... ... £ 250,000 5. — Several irresponsible Public Boards (half of which would be enough under Home Rule), costing annually about ... ... ... ... £ 250,000 6. — A corps of Stipendiary Magistrrtes (one-quarter of whom would not be required under Home Rule), costing annually over ... ... ... ... £ 40,000 7. — An army of soldiers, police, and prison and other officials, engaged in carrying out evictions and Coercion Acts (none of whom would be wanted under Home Rule), coasting annually about ... £ 150,000 8. — A host of Crown Prosecutors and Crown Solicitors (one-quarter of whom would not be required under Home Rule), costing annually about ... ... £ 80,000 9. — An army of Spies and Informers (for some of whom an " Informers' Home " is actually kept up in Dublin ; but the occupation of all of whom wonld be gone under Home Rule), costing annually about £ 50,000 10. — Public Buildings for use of Castle and other officials, costing annually about ... ... ... £ 200,000 X Ol8»1 ••• ••• •■• ••• »•• ••• Xr4}04!wj\/v\/ Bat this is not all, for no account is taken in the foregoing table of the sums paid for education, which amount ta over a million ponnds sterling a- year ; or of the sums paid for other useful local purposes — all of which must now be defrayed out of the Imperial Treasury, because the Irish people are not allowed to have any voice in the management of their own local affairs. APPENDIX. VIU Alfil clearer idea of the cost of maintaining Dublin Castle despotism in Ireland may be gained by comparing the cost of governing Ireland with the cost of governing Great Britain. Here is Mr. Gladstone's estimate : — CIVIL CHARGES OF GOVERNMENT PER HEAD OF THE POPULATION. In Great Britain. In Ireland. 8s. 2d. 16s. That is to say it costs under the " Union " twice as much to carry on the civil government of Ireland as it does to carry on that of Great Britain ; and the cost in Ireland is increasing every year. It has increased 68 per •cent in the last 15 years. Now regarding this expenditure the following facts are clear : 1. It mainly comes out of the pockets of British taxpayers ; 2. Most of it is wasteful and demoralising ; 3. It is all incurred to maintain the ascendancy of a small and expiring faction in Ireland, and to force on the Irish people a system of Grovernment which they detest. 4. The Irish people will relieve Great Britain of every penny of -this expenditure, if only they are allowed to manage their own affairs in their way. [See Irish Press Agency Leaflet — No. 13.] PRINTED BY WILLIAM REEVES, PRINTER AND PUBLISHER 185, FLEET ST., LONDON, B.C. .-gf EN Tl