OAK ST. HDSF 
 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY , 
 
 From the collection of 
 James Collins, 
 Drumcondra, Ireland. 
 Purchased, 1918. 
 
 941.5 
 
 ~T4-2.e. 
 
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 
 
 
 43SS 
 
 
 
 CD 
 
 to 
 
 
 IWc 
 
 
 
 APR 2 
 
 8 1968 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 L161— 0-1096 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/englandirelandOOthur 
 
€nglanO an D Erelanft 
 
 HIGHWAYS OF HISTORY 
 
HIGHWAYS OF HISTORY 
 
 Edited by 
 
 LOUISE CREIGHTON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF “A FIRST HISTORY OF ENGLAND,” 
 
 “STORIES FROM ENGLISH HISTORY,” ETC. 
 
 Small 8vo. 
 
 The aim of this series is to give consecutive treatment to certain 
 important subjects in English History. A strictly chronological 
 arrangement of history distracts the reader’s attention from one 
 subject to another. Though England’s progress has to be 
 studied by reading her history as a whole, yet clearness is gained 
 in many points by a separate survey of some important line of 
 advance. The treatment of the subjects in this series will be 
 adapted for the use of students who have already mastered the 
 general outline of English History, but wish for more connected 
 information with regard to some special point. Each part will 
 be complete in itself, and will treat of its own subject without 
 reference, except where necessary, to the general course of 
 events. 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND, is. 6d. 
 
 THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF RELIGION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONNECTION BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES, is. 6d. 
 
 THE RELATIONS OF ENGLAND WITH FOREIGN POWERS. 
 
HIGHWAYS OF HISTORY 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND 
 
 A £'■ 
 
 EMILY THURSFIELD 
 
 RIVINGTONS 
 
 WATERLOO PLACE , LONDON 
 
 MDCCCIjXXXIV 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 PAGH 
 
 I. The Anglo-Norman Kingdom in Ireland . 9 
 
 II. Ireland in Tudor Times. The Wars of Eliza- 
 beth . . . . 23 
 
 III. The Plantation of Ulster. The Wentworth 
 
 Scourge . . . . 53 
 
 IY. The Cromwellian Settlement . . 67 
 
 V. The Wars of William III. . . . 75 
 
 YI. The Penal Laws . . . 84 
 
 YII. The Yolunteers . ... 102 
 
 VIII. The Independent Irish Parliament . . 109 
 
 IX. The Rebellion of 1798. The Union . . 116 
 
 X. Ireland in the Nineteenth Century . .125 
 
9 < 3 - 1.5 
 T4£e 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ANGLO-NORMAN KINGDOM IN IRELAND. 
 
 Introduction . — The two islands of Great Britain and 
 Ireland are separated by a channel so narrow as to 
 compel their political association, and yet so wide as 
 always to have prevented their complete union. Eng- 
 land was conquered by Rome, and received the impress 
 of Roman civilization; but the Romans never at- 
 tempted to gain a footing in Ireland. England became 
 Protestant at the Reformation ; Ireland remained 
 Catholic. England has gradually acquired liberty by 
 the constitutional progress of her people; the consti- 
 tutional development of Ireland has been controlled 
 and arrested by the jealousy of England. England has 
 become commercial and industrial by the force of her 
 natural resources and her geographical position ; Ireland 
 has remained almost wholly agricultural, partly because 
 her mineral resources are inferior, partly because her 
 efforts at domestic manufacture and foreign trade have 
 in former times been sternly repressed by England. 
 
 Early Ireland . — Of ancient Ireland we know very 
 little with certainty. Like Great Britain itself, Ireland 
 was peopled by successive waves of Celtic immigra- 
 tion; but in the greater island invaders of Teutonic 
 race have proved the stronger, and have overmastered 
 
 435883 
 
2 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND . 
 
 and absorbed the Celts. In Ireland the contrary has 
 taken place. All Teutonic invaders — the Ostmen, the 
 Anglo-Normans, and the countless streams of English 
 — have given way to the subtle Irish spell, and have 
 either disappeared or put on a Celtic face. The phrase 
 ipsis Hibernis Hiberniores has been applied from 
 time immemorial to English settlers, and it indicates 
 an important and abiding historical fact. Our chief 
 concern is with the English in Ireland, but there are 
 two points in the history of the early Irish which must 
 be considered before we can rightly approach our sub- 
 ject. These are (1) The land system; (2) The system 
 of the laws. 
 
 The Land System . — The early Irish lived in tribes 
 or “ septs, ” each headed by an elective chief. The 
 method whereby the successive chiefs were elected was 
 known as Tanistry . In the lifetime of the ruling 
 chief the strongest or the most worthy adult member 
 of his family was chosen to succeed him, and called 
 the Tanist . The tribes held land, a great part of 
 which was common and chiefly used for grazing, while 
 part was appropriated to individuals. 
 
 The appropriated land was held on the tenure of 
 gavelkind; that is, when a landowning member of 
 a sept died its chief redistributed all the lands of the 
 sept among the surviving households. The chief, as 
 well as the other members of the tribe, possessed a 
 private portion of land, but the chief had no rights 
 over the common land ; his authority was over the men 
 of the tribe, but not over their land. This state of 
 things was never quite understood by the English, and 
 was the cause of much confusion and fighting. When 
 the English first approached Ireland to conquer it the 
 
ANGLO-NORMAN KINGDOM IN IRELAND. 3 
 
 feudal system had taken firm root in England, and 
 feudal ideas prevailed among the invading English. 
 The characteristic feature of the feudal system was that 
 all land had a lord, and that the lord granted lands to 
 his vassals in return for certain services. Erom time 
 to time, when the Irish chiefs submitted to their con- 
 querors, the English king and his lords believed that 
 the submission of the people and the surrender of the 
 land followed as a matter of course. They attempted 
 to deal with the land as in feudal England, and 
 were startled when the common folk sprang up to 
 claim it ; it was as if the very clods dared to 
 protest. 
 
 The Laics.— The ancient Irish laws are those 
 known as the “Brehon” laws; that is, laws admin- 
 istered and interpreted by the “ Brehons,” or judges, 
 one at least of whom was attached to each tribe. These 
 laws had prevailed in the form of tradition and custom 
 from time immemorial. In all criminal matters their 
 underlying principle was compensation; a man paid 
 an “eric ’’-fine, as it was called, of so many cows, 
 according to the greatness of his crime ; even a mur- 
 derer only paid a fine. The Irish clung to these laws, 
 but the English hated them ; an English Act of Par- 
 liament called them “ wicked and damnable.” Yet the 
 laws of our forefathers were very like these old Irish 
 laws, which indeed embody only the ancient customs 
 of all peoples of the Aryan race. 
 
 Introduction of Christianity , circa 432. — We have 
 little authentic information as to the religion of the 
 ancient Irish; but it seems to have been a form of 
 Druidism, similar to that practised by the Celts of 
 Gaul and Britain, and described by Caesar. Christianity 
 
4 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 came to Ireland in the middle of the fifth century. 
 Patrick, a youth of unknown country, was carried into 
 Ireland as a slave ; there he stayed for six years, hut 
 at last escaped, and went hack to his home. It was 
 the voice of God in a dream which called him again to 
 the land of his captivity. He says : “ In the dead 
 of the night I saw a man coming to me as if 
 from Hiberio, whose name was Yictoricus, 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; 7 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 Foclut, which is near the western sea, and 
 thus they cried, 4 We pray thee, 0 holy youth, to come 
 and henceforth walk amongst us;' and I was greatly 
 pricked in heart, and could read no more, and so I 
 awoke.” He journeyed all over Ireland, winning over 
 first the chiefs, and then the clansmen, to the rage and 
 despair of the Druids. He ordained many priests, and 
 set them together in groups, which afterwards became 
 monasteries. He also made many bishops; but these 
 Irish bishops were not like the bishops of other 
 countries. They had no districts to rule over, but 
 roved about the world, preaching and teaching where 
 they liked : they were much disliked by foreign 
 bishops because of their interfering ways. Yet Irish 
 missionaries did much good work, being men of great 
 earnestness. The Irish schools of learning became 
 very famous, and men came to them from all lands. 
 The Irish Church was long very independent, and 
 pursued ways of its own; but in the middle of the 
 eleventh century St. Malachy, an Irishman and a 
 
ANGLO-NORMAN KINGDOM IN IRELAND . 5 
 
 friend of the great St. Bernard, tried to bring his 
 native Church into union with and subjection to 
 Borne, and to some extent he succeeded. 
 
 The Ostmen , circa 795. — At the end of the eighth 
 century Ireland, like the rest of Western Europe, was 
 invaded by Norsemen. The heathen host swarmed 
 into the country, ravaging, burning, slaying, and 
 carrying away captives. The invaders attacked with 
 special fury the churches and monasteries, the 
 monastery of Armagh being ten times destroyed and 
 rebuilt. They settled down at the mouths of the 
 great rivers, and built towns which grew and flourished, 
 and traded with the towns of the Continent. Erom 
 these towns they sallied forth upon the Irish, stirring 
 up strife between the tribes, and oppressing them 
 greatly. So there was constant fighting in the land 
 between the Irish and their oppressors ; but when two 
 hundred years had passed the afflicted nation took 
 heart, and led by King Brian, the greatest of the old 
 Irish kings, rose up and fought fiercely against the 
 strangers. Inch by inch the Irish king contested and 
 won. What land he won he kept, and ruled over 
 with a strong hand. His last fight was at Clontarf, by 
 Dublin Bay. There, on Good Friday, in the year of 
 our Lord 1014, “the last heathen viking, and the 
 only king of Ireland, fell by each other’s hands.” For 
 the century and a half that elapsed between “Brian’s 
 Battle” and the coming of Strongbow, Ireland was 
 a chaos. The Church occasionally exercised a moder- 
 ating influence for a time ; but it was not powerful 
 enough to effect a real union. No single tribe, and no 
 individual ruler, succeeded as in England in establish- 
 ing a permanent supremacy. It would be useless to 
 
6 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 chronicle these years of tribal war, the only effect of 
 which was to pave the way for a new conqueror. 
 
 Description of Ireland . — Unlike most islands, Ireland 
 is low in the centre and hilly round the edge. The 
 central plain is of limestone, and is intersected by chains 
 of lakes and wasted by acres of bog. The narrow seas 
 which divide Ireland from England are comparatively 
 shallow, but the west coast is worn and fretted by the 
 deep Atlantic, from which rise the great mountains of 
 primaeval rock. All round the coast the mountains 
 form a belt, save where the rivers push through, and 
 in the south-west the river estuaries form very fine 
 harbours. The climate is warm and very damp ; the 
 excessive moisture makes the harvest late, but gives 
 Ireland splendid pastures. The boggy interior is little 
 fitted for habitation ; hence the chief towns are on the 
 coast, especially the east coast, facing England. The 
 division of Ireland into four provinces is of very ancient 
 date, and belongs to tribal times ; but the counties are 
 of English make. Munster and Leinster were divided 
 into twelve counties, much as they stand now, by 
 John; Henry VIII. cut Westmeath out of Meath; 
 Mary made King’s County and Queen’s County. 
 The county divisions of Connaught and Ulster date 
 from the reign of Elizabeth, though Antrim and 
 Down are older. 
 
 The Anglo-Norman Conquest , 1170. — In the year 
 1170 the conquest of Ireland by the Anglo-Uormans 
 began. It had long been meditated. There was a 
 theory of Christian sovereignty encouraged by Kome, 
 and expressed in a Bull of Adrian IV., that “ Ireland 
 and all the other islands on which the light of the 
 gospel of Christ has dawned ... do of right belong 
 
ANGLO-NORMAN KINGDOM IN IRELAND. 7 
 
 and appertain to St. Peter and the holy Roman 
 Church.” Henry II. had sought and obtained from 
 Pope Adrian IV., in 1155, permission “to enter the 
 land of Ireland in order to subdue the people.” But 
 he had been busy with other matters, so Ireland had 
 enjoyed a respite. At last Dermot MacMurrough, 
 the elective chief or king of Leinster, who had 
 for his crimes been driven out by his people, fled 
 to Henry to beg for help. Henry, who was then 
 in Aquitaine, was busy, as usual. He could not 
 go to Ireland himself, yet he did not like to let 
 slip the opportunity of beginning the work he had 
 at heart ; so he gave Dermot letters authorizing him to 
 recruit adventurers throughout the Anglo-Norman do- 
 minions who should help him to recover his crown. 
 In return for this grace Dermot did him homage, and 
 this in the end caused strange confusion ; for Dermot, 
 the dispossessed chief, had no longer a shadow of right 
 to his former sovereignty, yet he swore to Henry to 
 hold the lands he professed to claim on terms of feudal 
 service. Armed with the King's letter of recommen- 
 dation Dermot proceeded to gather together a band of 
 warlike adventurers. Richard de Clare, Earl of Pem- 
 broke, known as “ Strongbow,” agreed to join the force 
 on condition that he should marry Dermot’s daughter 
 Eva, and succeed Dermot on his throne. This agree- 
 ment, though entirely in accordance with the recognized 
 principles of feudal tenure, was alien to the Irish tribal 
 customs, which allowed no hereditary transmission of 
 royal rights. Dermot made almost as strange an agree- 
 ment with Robert Eitz-Stephen, the real leader of the 
 expedition. This knight was the grandson of Nesta, 
 the Princess of South Wales, whose numerous descen- 
 
8 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 dants are known as the “ Geraldines.” He persuaded 
 most of his cousins to join in this enterprise. To one 
 of them, Maurice Fitzgerald, and to Fitz-Stephen him- 
 self, Dermot granted the town of Wexford to he held 
 in fee. As Wexford was in the hands of a Danish 
 colony, the Geraldines had to conquer it for themselves. 
 This they did, and settled down there, while Strong- 
 bow conquered Waterford, and married the Princess 
 Eva. The Irish outside Leinster grew much alarmed at 
 the success of the strangers. The clergy gathered to- 
 gether in trembling, and the Synod of Armagh solemnly 
 declared that this evil had come upon the nation 
 because Englishmen had been held in bondage. All 
 the English slaves in Ireland were accordingly set free, 
 yet the tide of conquest did not roll back. 
 
 Henry II. 7 s Jealousy of Strongbow . — Hot only the 
 Irish were alarmed ; the English king began to fear, 
 but for another reason. He saw Strongbow and the 
 Geraldines forming in Ireland a Horman state for 
 themselves, and he feared they might forget that 
 he was their feudal lord, so he called their followers 
 back to England, and prepared himself to head an 
 army of invasion. Strongbow, whatever dreams he 
 might have had of independent sovereignty, saw that 
 he had no chance of freeing himself from the yoke 
 of Henry II. ; he sent a humble letter to the King, 
 reminding him that it was by the royal leave he under- 
 took the Irish business, and assuring his liege lord that 
 what lands he had acquired he should hold at the King’s 
 free disposal. Henry delayed a while to answer this 
 letter, and in the meantime Strongbow and his friends 
 were assailed fiercely — first by the Danes of Dublin, 
 and then by the native Irish, under King Eoderic. 
 
ANGLO-NORMAN KINGDOM IN IRELAND . 9 
 
 The Norman soldiers proved stronger than their enemies; 
 Danes and Irish alike were routed and slain. Then 
 came a letter from the King summoning Strongbow to 
 England. At Gloucester a stormy interview took place 
 between Henry II. and his over-powerful vassal, but in 
 the end the King’s wrath was appeased. Strongbow 
 was pardoned on condition of giving up Dublin and 
 the great ports to Henry II., and of holding the rest 
 of his conquests in fee. 
 
 Henry II. goes to Ireland , 1172.— At last the King 
 himself set out for Ireland, and landed at Waterford in 
 October, 1172, with a great army and much pomp. 
 The Irish chiefs did not attempt to resist, but flocked 
 from all parts to his camp, and did homage. Henry 
 marched in royal state to Dublin, and there entertained 
 his new vassals, who were overawed by his splendour. 
 Even Koderic, otherwise Rory O’Connor, the recognised 
 King of Connaught, and in some sort overlord of the 
 whole country, submitted humbly to the conqueror. 
 But his submission, and that of the tribal chiefs, must 
 not be taken too seriously. It was “ their light sub- 
 mission only, wherewith in all ages they have mocked 
 and abused the state of England.” Henry won over 
 the great Irish churchmen to his side, and then 
 returned to England, having apparently secured his 
 new conquest. He sent over his son John to rule 
 Ireland, but J ohn did not know how to govern, and his 
 insolent ways angered the Irish. No sooner was the 
 strong hand of Henry II. removed than the strife began 
 again. Henry saw that his policy of conciliation 
 towards the Irish chiefs was useless ; he changed his 
 tactics, and planned and executed stern measures of 
 conquest. Only bearing in mind his former fears of 
 
IO ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 Strongbow’s ambition, he worked not through the first 
 settlers, but by new men, hoping to play them off one 
 against the other, and so reign supreme himself. 
 
 The Political Settlement of Henry II . — Henry II. 
 aimed at making Ireland the counterpart of England. 
 He began to divide the land into counties; he gave 
 charters to the chief towns ; he appointed sheriffs and 
 judges ; he set up courts at Dublin. The Lord Deputy 
 was made the chief person in the land, and he was helped 
 by a council composed of judges, officers of state, and 
 lords spiritual and temporal. Courts grew up as in 
 England — Chancery, King’s Bench, Common Pleas, 
 and Exchequer. The Irish Parliament, when it was 
 formed, in the last years of the thirteenth century, was 
 but a greater council, to which more distant members 
 were summoned. In 1295 knights of the shire were 
 summoned ; the burgesses probably did not make their 
 appearance before the time of Edward III., being 
 spoken of as summoned in 1341. An ordinance of 
 1359 speaks of the Commons as an essential part of 
 Parliament. The earliest recorded statutes are of the 
 year 1310, after which we possess none earlier than 
 1429, all intervening records having been lost. 
 
 Grants to the first Settlers . — Henry II. affected to 
 plant the feudal system in Ireland, and under him and 
 his successors all the land was parcelled out to English- 
 men. These were the chief grants : 
 
 1. Meath, the old royal demesne of the overlord, 
 was granted to Hugh de Lacy in 1172. De Lacy had 
 to oust its Irish ruler before he could take possession. 
 It afterwards passed into the female line, and vested in 
 the Crown in the reign of Edward IY. 
 
 2. Leinster, claimed by Strongbow in right of his 
 
ANGL 0-N ORMAN KINGDOM IN IRELAND . 1 1 
 
 wife, the Princess Eva, was confirmed to that earl by 
 Henry II. It also passed into the female line, and was 
 cut up, being divided among the five granddaughters 
 of Strongbow. 
 
 3. Ulster was granted by Henry II. to John de 
 Courcy. This earldom was afterwards regranted to 
 Hugh de Lacy, passed by inheritance to the Earl of 
 March, and finally vested in the Crown in the time of 
 Edward IV. 
 
 4. Connaught was at the first assured to King 
 Eoderic and his heirs, of course on terms of feudal 
 tenure ; but, regardless of his promise, Henry gave up 
 this province to Eitz Aldelm, and John, following 
 in his father’s footsteps, granted it to William de 
 Burgo. 
 
 5. Cork and its surrounding territory being granted 
 by Henry to Mylo de Cogan and Bobert Fitz-Stephen, 
 two of the Geraldines, remained in the hands of that 
 great family. 
 
 These seignories were at different times erected 
 into “ counties palatine;” that is, their lords were like 
 kings, holding courts and exercising sovereign power. 
 So that Ireland was not ruled by one king, but by 
 many : at one time there were nine of these indepen- 
 dent princes. This state of things in itself would have 
 been bad enough, but when we consider that these 
 feudal lordships were superimposed on the Irish tribal 
 organization, which was utterly disregarded, it is almost 
 impossible to overrate the confusion. 
 
 Conflict of English and Irish Laiv . — The English 
 law was administered (as well as might be, considering 
 the divers jurisdictions) among the English in the land. 
 The Irish were under their own old laws, the “ Brehon ” 
 
12 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND . 
 
 laws, and could not claim the king’s justice. There 
 were indeed five families who for some reason or other 
 were admitted to the English laws. These were the 
 O’Neils, O’Molaghlins, O’Connors, O’Briens, and 
 M’Murroughs. They were known as “ the five bloods.” 
 But the rest of the Irish were outside the law, though 
 they often begged to be admitted within its pale. 
 
 The English Conquest of Ireland incomplete , and 
 ivhy . — Thus the Irish and the Anglo-Normans lived 
 for a century and a half after the Conquest, keeping 
 each other at arms’ length and contending in vain and 
 never-ending struggles ; for this so-called Norman con- 
 quest of Ireland was unlike other conquests. The 
 Normans did not exterminate the natives, as the white 
 man is crushing out of existence the Red Indian of 
 North America. They did not drive them into a terri- 
 tory apart and there keep them, as the English did to 
 the Celts of Britain, whom they pushed into Wales and 
 Cornwall. Nor, on the other hand, did they coalesce 
 with them and become one people, as happened to the 
 Normans and the English in England, and the Nor- 
 mans and Italians in the kingdom of Naples. The 
 Irish, on their part, were never strong enough or united 
 enough to rebel successfully to fling off the English 
 yoke, nor were they submissive enough to bow to it 
 except when held down by main force ; so the struggle 
 was hopeless. Let us try to find out why the battle 
 was always drawn, and why the English did not make 
 short work of it. 
 
 1. The colonists, not lying together in one district, 
 but being scattered about, were not able to unite and 
 show a firm front. They were moreover much given 
 to quarrelling with each other and with the English 
 
ANGLO-NORMAN KINGDOM IN IRELAND. 13 
 
 Government, and in these quarrels they made use of the 
 Irish as allies. 
 
 2. The Norman armour and mode of fighting, so well 
 adapted to the open plains and the pitched battles of 
 France, were worse than useless in the woods and bogs 
 where the Irish guerilla warfare was waged. 
 
 3. The colonists were not free to employ their re- 
 sources in quelling the Irish ; for the kings of England 
 required from them money and men for other wars— 
 English, Scotch, and foreign. 
 
 4. Absentee landlords were common then as now, 
 and in their absence the native Irish clutched at their 
 lands and kept them. 
 
 5. The settlers who did remain on their estates forgot 
 that they were English, and took Irish names and lived 
 in the Irish way. They intermarried with the Irish, 
 and sent out their children to nurse in the families of 
 their dependents, a custom known as fosterage, whereby 
 the family relations both of the Irish themselves and 
 of the English families settled in Ireland came, accord- 
 ing to English notions, to be greatly confused. The 
 English could not understand or allow that the same 
 mothers milk might produce in Ireland the same close 
 affections as common paternity produced in England. 
 The system of “gossipred” or spiritual relationship, 
 based on sponsorship, was equally unintelligible and 
 equally distasteful to the English lawgivers, and 
 attempts were made to discourage both fosterage and 
 gossipred, as will be seen when we come to the period 
 of the Statute of Kilkenny. The settlers employed 
 Irish mercenaries to fight for them, quartering them 
 out on the wretched people, and they let out their 
 lands to Irish tenants; for the English did not find 
 
14 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND . 
 
 it worth their while to be earth-tillers in the unsettled 
 land. 
 
 6. The English population was to a certain extent 
 fleeting. Mere adventurers would come over, seize 
 land on some pretext, despoil and take to themselves 
 what they could, then depart again across the sea, and 
 this process was never-ending. 
 
 The Rebellion of Edivctrd Bruce, 1315. — From the 
 Anglo-Norman Conquest of Ireland to the beginning 
 of the Tudor rule in 1534, the most noteworthy 
 event is the rebellion of Edward Bruce, which is, as 
 it were, a turning point. Up to that time, 1315, the 
 English power and dominion seemed to be on the 
 increase ; but the structure was hollow, and collapsed 
 under the blow of the Scotch invasion. Within fifty 
 years after the death of Edward Bruce the policy of 
 the English in Ireland became purely defensive, and 
 from year to year their dominions decreased, tribal 
 land reappearing, until at length the Pale, as the 
 land subject to English jurisdiction was called, meant 
 little more than Dublin. 
 
 At the beginning of the fourteenth century Bobert 
 the Bruce was King of Scotland, and looking round 
 for ways to harass the English king, saw his oppor- 
 tunity in Ireland. He planned to set up his brother 
 on the throne of that country. The Irish chiefs were 
 as usual disaffected. They wrote to the Pope, John 
 XXII., and in strong and outspoken terms set forth 
 their miserable state of oppression, their hatred of 
 their English tyrants, and their determination to rise 
 for their freedom. They had asked Edward de Bruce, 
 “ brother german of the most illustrious Lord Robert,” 
 to lead them, and help them to get rid of the detestable 
 
ANGLO-NORMAN KINGDOM IN IRELAND . 15 
 
 yoke, and they sued for the Pope's sanction to their 
 enterprise. The Pope did not answer this appeal, 
 except by excommunicating all who took up arms 
 with the Bruce against his “most dear son Edward, 
 the illustrious King of England." Thus the rebellion 
 began under the ban of the Church. 
 
 Edward Bruce landed, in May, 1315, at Carrick- 
 f erg us, with a great army. He was met on the river 
 Bann by a force under De Burgo, the “ Bed Earl" of 
 Connaught and Ulster, which force he utterly defeated. 
 Then he proceeded to take Dundalk and Carrickfergus, 
 and to be crowned King of Ireland. King without a 
 kingdom he set out to win the land. As in those 
 days winter was not a time for fighting he rested 
 awhile, and in the spring of 1316 marched southwards 
 to meet the Deputy, whom he defeated at Ardscull, 
 Kildare county; then he journeyed throughout Leinster 
 victorious, fighting and destroying. In the spring of 
 1317 he held a regal court in the wasted land. His 
 brother came over to help him, and the two going 
 south strove to annihilate the English settlers. 
 
 The Story of John Clyn . — One John Clyn, a friar, 
 tells this tale of their doings : “ Item, in the same year 
 (1316), about Christmas, arrived Lord Bobert le Brus, 
 who pretended to be king of the Scotch, passing across 
 through the whole land of Ulster, where he landed, 
 almost to Limerick, burning, slaying, plundering, sack- 
 ing towns, castles, and even churches, going and re- 
 turning." The Lord Bobert, after this great march, 
 went back to Scotland, leaving his brother to finish his 
 own business. Then the English colonists gathered 
 themselves together with a desperate resolve to oust 
 the invader. They encamped at the mouth of a 
 
16 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 pass between Faughared and Dundalk, under Jean 
 de Birmingham. They were far superior in numbers 
 to the army of the Bruce, whose advisers were strongly 
 opposed to an engagement. But the Scot, flushed with 
 his eighteen victories, would not listen to prudence ; he 
 fought and fell, and his soldiers fled back into Scotland. 
 But in his fall he shook the English kingdom in Ireland 
 to its foundations. “ He was slain,” says Friar Clyn, 
 “ to the great joy and comfort of the whole kingdom in 
 general; for there was not a better deed that redounded 
 more to the good of the kingdom since the creation of 
 the world, and since the banishment of the Fine 
 Fomores out of this land, done in Ireland than the 
 killing of Edward Bruce ; for there reigned scarcity of 
 victuals, breach of promises, ill performance of cove- 
 nants, and the loss of men and women throughout the 
 whole kingdom for the space of three years and a half 
 that he bore sway, insomuch that men did commonly 
 eat one another for want of sustenance during his 
 time.” 
 
 Decay of the Anglo-Norman State . — The Irish chiefs, 
 seeing how feeble were the colonists to resist Edward 
 Bruce, grew bolder and bolder, and began to win back 
 the land. By degrees the English lands shrank up, and 
 as they lessened the tribal occupation of land reappeared, 
 and the face of things was again changed. 
 
 The Statute of Kilkenny , 1367. — Fifty years from 
 the landing of Edward Bruce the famous Statute of 
 Kilkenny was passed, which marked the abandonment 
 of the scheme for conquering the whole island, and 
 aimed only at ordering the ways of the English in 
 Ireland who yet were loyal, and preserving them from 
 the contamination of the mere Irish, and the degenerate 
 
ANGL O’NORMAN KINGDOM IN IRELAND. 17 
 
 Anglo-Normans. This statute was passed in a parlia- 
 ment held at Kilkenny in 1367 by Lionel, Duke of 
 Clarence, son of Edward III., titular Earl of Ulster and 
 Lord-Lieutenant. By it the colonists were forbidden to 
 wear the Irish dress, speak the Irish tongue, and ride bare- 
 hack like the Irish. They were to have nothing to do 
 with the Brehon law, nor with the practice called coyne 
 and livery, of exacting from the people food and fodder 
 for soldiers and their horses. They were forbidden to 
 intermarry with the Irish ; fosterage and gossipred were 
 to he abandoned. Creditors were to claim their rights 
 from the debtors alone, and not, after the Irish tribal 
 custom, from all the family. The Irish hards, being 
 often spies, were forbidden to come into the English 
 land, and the colonists were ordered not to employ 
 Irish mercenaries. 
 
 Law against Absentees , 1369. — In 1369 a law was 
 passed ordering absentees to return to their estates 
 on pain of forfeiting them to the Crown. These 
 Acts were stringent in word, hut in deed they were 
 of no effect. The like had been enacted before, 
 and have been enacted since, but the government 
 in Ireland has rarely been strong enough to enforce 
 them. 
 
 Richard IV s View of Ireland . — The decay of the 
 English kingdom in Ireland was very rapid. Bichard II. 
 thus speaks of the Ireland of his time. “ In our land 
 of Ireland there are three kinds of people — wild Irish 
 our enemies, Irish rebels, and obedient English. To 
 us and our Council it appears that the Irish rebels have 
 rebelled in consequence of the injustice and grievances 
 practised toward them, for which they have been 
 afforded no redress, and that, if not wisely treated and 
 c 
 
18 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 given hope of grace, they will most likely ally them- 
 selves with our enemies.” 
 
 The Irish enemies were ubiquitous and ceaselessly 
 active ; at every point they attacked the English land, 
 and so fierce and active were they that in a very short 
 space a great portion of it was again tribal land. The 
 Irish rebels — as the original English settlers, degenerate 
 through intermarriage and fosterage, were termed — were 
 almost at one with the “enemies.” “A very little more 
 oppression and they would become enemies,” said 
 Richard II., and his prophecy was fulfilled. The 
 obedient English might almost be counted; they in- 
 cluded few besides the feeble lords of the Pale, and 
 the three great earls — Kildare and Desmond (both 
 Geraldines) and Ormond. These three earls were 
 virtually independent and were much more powerful 
 than the Government, which they only occasionally 
 condescended to recognise. The Desmond was almost 
 an Irishman in habit and feeling, and his cousin of 
 Kildare only one degree less. The earls of Ormond, 
 whose vassals dwelt in Kilkenny and Tipperary, were 
 the most civilized and faithful supporters of the Govern- 
 ment. But on this account they had far less power in 
 the land than the Geraldines. 
 
 The weak English Government struggled on, though 
 the lack of an army prevented it from really accom- 
 plishing its work of repelling the Irish, and of keeping 
 in order the few loyal subjects left. Instead of cherish- 
 ing this remnant the Government continually harassed 
 it with demands for men and money to carry on useless 
 raids in the enemy’s country. Some sort of order 
 might have been obtained if the great earls had been 
 allowed to act as independent princes, but this was pre- 
 
ANGLO-NORMAN KINGDOM IN IRELAND. 19 
 
 vented by the jealousy of the Government, which, far 
 from strengthening the earls, stirred up and encouraged 
 strife between them and the chiefs, in order that none 
 should be strong enough to overset its weak and totter- 
 ing edifice. The last years of the fourteenth century are 
 full of the attacks of the Irish chiefs, and the black 
 mail paid by the English. 
 
 Richard II' s doings in Ireland , 1395-1399. — 
 In 1395 Richard II. landed at Waterford with a 
 great army. He marched with some difficulty along 
 the coast to Dublin, and summoned the Irish chiefs 
 to meet him. The more crafty ones, knowing that 
 the King's force was too strong for them, gathered 
 together, seventy-five in all, among them MacMurrough, 
 O’Brien, O’Connor, and even The O’Keil, and did 
 homage. “ With these humilities,” says the chronicler, 
 “ they satisfied the young King, and by their bowing 
 and bending avoided the present storm, and so brake 
 that army which was purposed to break them.” The 
 King once over the sea again, the “ trick and imposture” 
 was revealed. “ Those Irish lords laid aside their 
 masks of humility, and, scorning the weak force which 
 the King had left behind him, began to infest the bor- 
 ders, in defence whereof the Lord Roger Mortimer, 
 being then the King’s lieutenant and heir-apparent of 
 the crown of England, was slain. . . . Whereupon the 
 King, being moved with a just appetite of revenge, came 
 over again in person, in the twenty-second year of his 
 reign, with as potent an army as he had done before, 
 with a full purpose to make a full conquest of Ireland.” 
 The purpose was not fulfilled. Wandering about in the 
 hill country between Waterford and Dublin, “his great 
 army was much distressed for want of victuals and 
 
20 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 carriage,” and he accomplished nothing. Then came 
 the news of Bolingbroke’s landing at Bavenspur, and 
 the unlucky King hastened hack to England, “where 
 shortly he rendered both his reign and his life.” 
 
 The Brotherhood of St. George , 1480. — The English 
 land in Ireland during the fifteenth century was of 
 small extent, being parts only of the counties of Dub- 
 lin, Meath, Kildare, and Louth. The colonists flocked 
 hack to England in such numbers that an Act was 
 passed to thrust them hack into Ireland again. What 
 colonists remained disliked the restrictions of the 
 Statute of Kilkenny, and constantly asked for and ob- 
 tained licenses to evade it. The Pale was in a wretched 
 state, being constantly oppressed and pillaged. It 
 was walled round with a strong wall, and this for a 
 time was a protection to the unhappy colonists. The 
 Government was entirely powerless to keep order ; an 
 Act was passed empowering the colonists themselves to 
 seize and kill all marauders or intending marauders. 
 Accordingly the English formed themselves into an 
 armed defensive hand, called the Brotherhood of St. 
 George. Thirteen gentlemen from the four English 
 counties chose a captain, and supplied 120 archers, 40 
 horsemen, and 40 pages. This constituted the armed 
 force of England in the land. The Parliament, which 
 in the palmy days of the Anglo-Norman state met with 
 tolerable regularity, and did a fair amount of business, 
 dwindled into a mere assembly of the Pale ; the three 
 great earls and all distant folk got leave to absent 
 themselves because of the extreme difficulty of travelling 
 through the “ enemy’s ” country. 
 
 Ireland and the Wars of the Roses . — Ireland was 
 involved to a certain extent in the wars of the Eoses. 
 
ANGLO-NORMAN KINGDOM IN IRELAND. 21 
 
 Bichard, Duke of York, was sent over as Deputy in 
 the reign of Henry VI., to be out of the way. He 
 became very popular. Exiled from England, and at- 
 tainted in 1459 after the battle of Bloreheath, he re- 
 turned to Ireland, and made himself Deputy again. 
 The Irish Parliament warmly supported him, and took 
 the opportunity of stoutly asserting its independence 
 of the Parliament of England. Many Irish lords 
 followed the Duke back to England, and died fighting 
 for the White Eose. The Yorkist pretenders all found 
 friends in Ireland, and the displeasure of Henry VII. 
 rested on the colonists. He bound the Irish Parliament 
 with a chain, which fettered it for three centuries; 
 this was Poynings’ law. 
 
 Poy mugs' Law , 1494. — This celebrated Act, named 
 from the Deputy of the time, Sir Edward Poynings, so 
 runs : “Ho Parliament be holden hereafter in the said 
 land (of Ireland), but at such season as the king’s 
 lieutenant and council there first do certify the king, 
 under the great seal of that land, the causes and con- 
 siderations, and all such acts as to them seemeth should 
 pass in this same Parliament ; and such causes, con- 
 siderations and acts affirmed by the king and his 
 council, to be good and expedient for that land, and 
 his license thereupon, as well in affirmation of the said 
 causes and acts, as to summon the said Parliament 
 under his great seal of England had and obtained. 
 That done, a Parliament to be had and holden after 
 this form and effect before rehearsed ; and if any 
 Parliament be holden in that land hereafter, contrary 
 to the form and provision aforesaid, it be deemed void 
 and of none effect in law.” At the same time it was 
 enacted, as Bacon says, that “all the statutes of 
 
22 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND . 
 
 England were made to be of force in Ireland; for 
 before they were not, neither are any now of force in 
 Ireland which were made in England since that time.” 
 The chief castles were at the same time placed in 
 the hands of Englishmen, and a determined effort was 
 made to govern by means of English officials. 
 
 Ireland for the Irish , 1496. — This utterly failed, 
 and the King then adopted the opposite course, and 
 attempted to rule Ireland through the most turbulent 
 of the Irish. The doubtful story of the royal saying 
 illustrates a certain fact. The Bishop of Meath, re- 
 hearsing in the King’s ear the enormities of the Earl of 
 Kildare, wound up by saying that all Ireland could 
 not rule this earl. Whereupon the King replied, 
 “Then in good faith shall the Earl rule all Ireland.” 
 At any rate the Geraldines became virtual kings in 
 Ireland, and ruled until 1534, when a fresh change was 
 wrought in the conduct of Irish affairs. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 IRELAND IN TUDOR TIMES, THE WARS OF 
 ELIZABETH 
 
 The Power of the Geraldines begins to wane . — 
 
 Henry VIII. for many years attempted to rule Ireland 
 by “ sober ways, politic drifts, and amiable persuasions, 
 founded on law and reason ; ” but by repeated experi- 
 ence he found out that these were not the ways of the 
 Geraldines, and he began to be stern with those unruly 
 lords. Thrice was the Earl of Kildare summoned to 
 London to answer for his sins — his trafficking with the 
 Irish enemies. On his first visit he appeared at court, 
 married the Lady Elizabeth Grey, and triumphantly 
 returned to Ireland as Lord-Deputy. Obeying the second 
 summons, he was thrown into the Tower ; but he freed 
 himself by craft and returned to his office. On his 
 third visit he was again thrown into the Tower, and 
 gravely charged outright with treason. This led to 
 the downfall of the Geraldines. 
 
 The Silken Lord's Rebellion , 1534.— By a trick they 
 were forced into rebellion. Kildare had left his son, 
 “ Silken Thomas,” as Vice-Deputy. A report was spread 
 in Dublin that the Earl had been executed, whereupon 
 his son in rage determined to fling off his allegiance to 
 the English. He raised the standard of revolt, and the 
 
24 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 armed followers of the Geraldines flooded the Pale. 
 The English were prompt to respond ; an army under 
 Skeffington landed. This force was strengthened by a 
 train of artillery. The artillery carried the day, and 
 the castles of the rebels were soon battered down. 
 Silken Thomas surrendered and was sent to the Tower, 
 but not to join his father ; for the old Earl died of grief 
 at his son’s mishaps. Five more Geraldines were 
 treacherously captured and sent also to the Tower. A 
 year afterwards they and the Silken Lord were hanged 
 at Tyburn. There remained a child-heir to the noble 
 house, and he was carried to Rome, where, under the 
 care of Cardinal Pole, he was brought up to be no 
 faithful subject of England, as Elizabeth found out. 
 
 Lord L. Grey Deputy , 1536. — The strong Tudor 
 hand was making itself felt. Lord Leonard Grey, 
 brother of the Marquis of Dorset, and brother-in-law 
 of the Earl of Kildare, was made Deputy. He was an 
 active and resolute man and a tried soldier. His first 
 work was to quell the west, which was up in arms 
 under the Earl of Desmond and O’Brien, the self- 
 styled Prince of Thomond, the pest of the South by 
 reason of his bridge. “ O’Breene’s Bridge,” a massive 
 structure, protected by two castles, one “ very strong, 
 builded all of hewn marble,” spanned the Shannon at 
 Castle Connell, and was the highway by which the 
 wild chieftain overran Munster at his will. 
 
 He takes O Brier! s Bridge , 1537. — Lord Leonard, 
 after one or two small successes, attacked this bridge. 
 For a whole day his gunners assailed it, but in vain, so 
 strong was it. Then the soldiers, forsaking the use of 
 artillery, by sheer courage and strength scaled and 
 stormed the bridge, and the Irish fled. The mayor and 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH, 
 
 25 
 
 aldermen of Limerick came out in great joy to see the 
 dreaded bridge. They crowded on it, and curiously 
 examined the castles. Then the work of the big guns 
 showed itself ; the bridge cracked and fell, and the city 
 worthies were plunged into the river, to be igno- 
 miniously fished out. Lord Leonard wished to follow 
 after O’Brien and dare him to fight in his own country, 
 but money failed him, and his soldiers flatly declined 
 to go further without pay. They condescended to take 
 a neighbouring castle ; then the Deputy returned dis- 
 pirited to Dublin, to enter into hopeless and bitter 
 struggles with his council. 
 
 His Doionfall , 1539. — Influenced by his relations 
 with the Geraldines, Lord Leonard conceived a hatred 
 for their hereditary foe, the Earl of Ormond, and grew 
 dangerously Irish in his sentiments. Throughout the 
 land the enemies of England were stealthily forming 
 themselves into a league. The primary object of this 
 confederation was to restore to his inheritance of Kil- 
 dare the young Gerald Fitzgerald, Cardinal Pole’s 
 pupil; but it speedily grew bolder, and with foreign 
 aid planned to crown the representative of the house 
 of O’Neil King of Ireland on Tara Hill. Desmond 
 “ began the dance,” but the clash of arms aroused 
 Lord Leonard from his dream of treason. He went 
 into the field, and, defeating The O’Neil, broke for the 
 present the prospects of the league. Then, the King 
 being made acquainted with his doubtful loyalty, he 
 was flung into the Tower on charge of treason. He 
 pleaded guilty, and was beheaded. 
 
 Sir A. St Leger Deputy , 1540. — Sir Anthony St. 
 Leger, a wise and prudent man, succeeded as Deputy. 
 In his time Ireland was comparatively at peace. The 
 
26 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND . 
 
 Irish chiefs, as well as the Norman-Irish nobles, sat in 
 his Parliaments, and were gladdened by the gifts of the 
 Church lands, in return for which in 1541 they made 
 Henry YIII. king of Ireland. His ancestors had only 
 been styled lords of the island. 
 
 Act of Supremacy passed in Ireland , 1537. — The 
 Church lands had not been surrendered to Henry YIII. 
 without a struggle. The Reformation, so-called, began in 
 Ireland in the year 1537, when, in a Parliament called 
 by Lord Leonard Grey, the Act of Supremacy had 
 been passed, the mouths of the procters, or clerical 
 members of the Parliament, having first been stopped. 
 In the same Parliament appeals to Rome were for- 
 bidden, first-fruits were allotted to the King, and 
 certain abbeys were suppressed. Pive years later the 
 remaining religious establishments fell, all the for- 
 feited lands became the property of the Crown, and 
 Henry YIII. granted them to those whom he wished 
 to propitiate. For the last five years of his reign the 
 Irish were quiet, under the rule of St. Leger. 
 
 Ireland under Edward VI., 1547-1553. — But no 
 sooner was Henry YIII. dead than strife began again, 
 with the new element of religious animosity embittering 
 the warfare. “ If the Lords of the Council/ 7 sighed a 
 later Deputy, “ had letten all things alone in the order 
 King Henry left them, and meddled not to alter 
 religion, the hurley-burleys had not happened.’ 7 St. 
 Leger’s gentle hand was unavailing in this new state of 
 things; he was replaced by Sir Edward Bellingham, 
 one of the most remarkable rulers ever sent to 
 Ireland. 
 
 Sir Edioard Bellingham Lord Justice , 1548. — He 
 made his strong hand felt during his two years 7 rule in 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 27 
 
 Ireland, and none dared to lift their voices against him 
 in any dispute religious or agrarian. But unluckily 
 he died, and the disorder returned. St. Leger came 
 over again, and, by orders of Cranmer and the Earl of 
 Northumberland, brought with him the new service 
 book of the English Church, which he attempted to 
 bring into use, with but little success. St. Leger was 
 much troubled by the captains whom he found in 
 command : they endeavoured to continue the stern rule 
 of Sir Edward Bellingham, and this did not suit the 
 mild ways of St. Leger. 
 
 The Currency Troubles . — Money matters too were a 
 great trouble to this Deputy ; he could get no money 
 from the Home Government, and the Irish mints, by a 
 bad device of the English Council, issued only base 
 money, which the Irish despised. St. Leger was 
 recalled, and Sir James Crofts succeeded him. 
 
 Sir James Crofts Lord Justice , 1551. — The new ruler, 
 distressed at the misery caused by the base money, 
 entreated that its manufacture should cease, and that 
 what “ silvered brass ” had already been issued should 
 be depreciated to its true value. The English Council 
 declared that they saw no necessity for such action, and 
 bade Crofts devote himself to planting in Ireland the 
 Christian — that is the Protestant — religion; then would 
 all troubles cease. The Deputy clung to his own 
 opinion, and held a council of trade in Dublin, which, 
 after long discussion, concluded that there was no remedy 
 for the public distress but to reduce the value of the 
 base money, and addressed an earnest entreaty to that 
 effect to the English Council. For some time longer 
 nothing was done until the enormous rise in prices 
 brought “ slaughter, famine, and all kinds of misery.” 
 
28 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 At length Northumberland gave way, the base coin 
 was reduced, and bought in, and new was issued. 
 
 Many , 1553. — A little quiet came to Ireland with 
 the accession of Mary. Her views about religion suited 
 her Irish subjects; under her Gerald Fitzgerald was 
 restored to his earldom of Kildare. 
 
 Elizabeth , 1558. — Elizabeth for the first eighteen 
 months of her reign avoided Irish affairs, till the rebel- 
 lion of Shan O’Neil called for her attention. 
 
 Shan O'Neil rises in Rebellion , 1559. — The province 
 of Ulster contained two great and strong families, both 
 claiming to be royal — the O’Neils and the O’Donnells. 
 The O’Neils were descended from the ancient overlords 
 of Ireland, and in general triumphed over their rivals ; 
 but the O’Donnells during the reign of Mary had made 
 great headway, having become closely allied to the Scots 
 of the western isles, who had settled in thousands on 
 the coasts of Antrim and Down. The Irish O’Donnells 
 and the Scotch M’Connells alike had to bend before 
 Shan O’Neil. He was the son of Con O’Neil, one of 
 the chiefs who had surrendered their tribal lands to 
 Henry VIII., to receive them back on terms of feudal 
 tenure. Con received from the King the title of Earl 
 of Tyrone, and he chose as his heir one of his illegiti- 
 mate sons, Matthew Kelly, who took the title of 
 Baron of Dungannon. This angered the lawful heir 
 Shan, who caused the baron’s death, though whether 
 by craft or in open warfare is uncertain. He then 
 deposed his father and drove him out into the 
 Pale, and, despising the English title, got himself 
 elected chief in the old tribal way. He set aside the 
 son of the murdered baron, and with his foot on the 
 stone was proclaimed “ The O’Neil.” Shan lorded it 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 29 
 
 in Ulster, but his ambition looked further afield than 
 his native province. During the absence of the Deputy, 
 Lord Sussex, in England, Sir William Eitz william was 
 in command, and certain tidings of widespread disaf- 
 fection reached him. Shan, the Geraldines, and O’Brien 
 of Inchiquin, were all in secret league against the 
 English Government, and only waited for help from 
 France and Spain to rebel openly. Foreign help failed, 
 and the southern earls returned to their allegiance; but 
 Shan stood somewhat aloof, and his mind could not be 
 known. He was summoned to England to explain to 
 Elizabeth his action with regard to his father’s posses- 
 sions, though his deeper plots were ignored in the 
 summons. He affirmed his utmost willingness and 
 even his eager desire to appear before the Queen; he 
 wrote a letter to her himself, saying that nothing hin- 
 dered him from starting but the lack of money. He 
 asked for a loan of £3,000 in English money, promis- 
 ing to repay the Queen in the base Irish money. He 
 asked also for a safe-conduct, and for an English wife, 
 and many other favours. A long correspondence be- 
 tween Shan and the Government in Dublin ensued, 
 and Sussex, now again at his post, gathered troops and 
 secured allies to attack the troublesome chief. The 
 Deputy himself and the Earl of Kildare were to move 
 up from the south, O’Donnell was to swoop down from 
 the north-west, and the Hebridean Scots were to close 
 in on Shan from the east ; thus was the great rebel to 
 be surrounded and overthrown. But this plan was not 
 to be carried out. Before the allies had time to attack 
 Shan was upon them. He captured O’Donnell and his 
 wife, and through the influence of the captive lady, 
 who was the Earl of Argyle’s sister, he gained the 
 
30 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 Scots to his side. The Deputy, hereft of his northern 
 allies, advanced with the forces of the Pale strength- 
 ened from England, and invaded Ulster, only to he 
 utterly defeated and disheartened. Then Lord Sussex 
 shamefully trafficked with one Neil Gray and with 
 Shan’s seneschal, to induce them to murder the proud 
 rebel ; but the plan was not carried out, as Shan dis- 
 covered it. Some desultory fighting took place, but at 
 length a peace was patched up, a safe-conduct was given 
 to The O’Neil, and money for his journey was sent. 
 
 He goes to England , 1561. — Then he set out for 
 England to make his submission to the Queen. The 
 submission was duly made on the 6th of January, 1652, 
 and the Queen forthwith began to indulge in the craft so 
 dear to her. Shan’s safe-conduct stated that he should 
 be allowed to return to Ireland, but fixed no limit to 
 his stay in England. Elizabeth and her advisers 
 meant to keep him at court till his affairs should be 
 settled according to their will. He demanded to be 
 recognized as his father’s heir, and was told that his 
 case must be fully considered before English judges, 
 and that his nephew and rival, the young Baron of 
 Dungannon, must come over and state his own claim, 
 that all things might be done in order. The young 
 baron was ostensibly sent for, but private orders 
 reached Eitz william not to allow him to leave 
 Ireland. The winter passed away, and nothing de- 
 finite was done. Shan constantly appealed to the 
 Queen to confirm him in his father’s earldom, pro- 
 mising on his side to uphold her power throughout all 
 Ulster. His professions of loyalty did not, however, pre- 
 vent him from intriguing with the Spanish ambassador. 
 As the baron did not appear, Shan grew alarmed, and 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 3i 
 
 determined to free himself from the net of the English 
 Queen. He tried with all his Irish wit and flattery to 
 persuade Elizabeth to set him free, but the honeyed 
 words were of no avail ; the Queen would not let him 
 go. Then news came that the boy Baron of Dungannon 
 was murdered by “the bank of a deep river” in the 
 North. There was no evidence to connect Shan with 
 the murder, yet it happened at a strangely lucky time. 
 
 He returns to Ireland, 1562. — It was hard to delay 
 the acknowledgment of Shan as heir to his father’s 
 possessions when no rival barred the way. The baffled 
 Queen let him go almost on his own terms. He 
 promised indeed to take the oath of allegiance before 
 the Deputy ; but oaths to him had little meaning. He 
 was styled Captain of Tyrone, and allowed to exercise 
 feudal jurisdiction over the northern counties. A 
 wider range than the northern province was opened to 
 his power. He was permitted to call upon the Deputy 
 to fight for him against any chief or lord who wronged 
 him. If the Deputy failed to take action in twenty 
 days Shan might raise an army and fight himself. A 
 small pretext sufficed to start him in his old career of 
 fighting. He invaded Tyrconnel, “killing, robbing, 
 and burning in the old style,” with a view to force the 
 O’Donnells to submit to him. The Deputy, casting 
 about in his mind how to deal with this terrible 
 captain, for the second time betook himself to treachery. 
 He summoned Shan to meet him at Dundalk in order 
 to swear allegiance, and sent him a safe-conduct so 
 craftily worded as to leave him the power of arresting 
 The O’Neil. Shan, however, suspected treachery, and 
 stayed away, whereupon complaints of his obstinacy 
 were sent to England. A third trap was then laid for 
 
32 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 Shan by Sussex. The Deputy had with him in 
 Dublin a fair sister. Shan, who had not succeeded in 
 carrying off a wife from the English court, thought 
 that this lady might suit him, and sent proposals to 
 Sussex, who in return invited Shan to come to 
 Dublin and make acquaintance with the lady, but 
 The O’Neil would not. “ He had advertisement out 
 of the Pale that the lady was brought over only to 
 entrap him, and if he came to the Deputy he should 
 never return.” 
 
 Fighting began again, but the Deputy met with no 
 success. Shan lorded it in Ulster, harrying the lands of 
 all who dared to oppose him. He was on the high road to 
 establish himself as supreme over the “ Irishry ” in all 
 the land ; he was plotting with the Pope, the Spaniard, 
 and the Queen of Scots. Sussex tried hard to stand 
 out against the rebel, but his troops mutinied for want 
 of pay, and he had not “one penny of money.” In 
 default of any other course of action Elizabeth made 
 peace with Shan on his own terms. By the new treaty 
 he became virtually king in Ulster. The first result of 
 the peace was another attempt on his life. Poisoned 
 wine was sent to him as a present from Dublin ; he 
 and his household drank of it, and only escaped death 
 because the poison was not strong enough. There was 
 no evidence to prove Sussex guilty of the murderous 
 attempt. One John Smith of Dublin had sent the 
 wine, and was severely reproved for the deed. He 
 could not by law (as interpreted at the time) be 
 punished by death, as the crime, to which he con- 
 fessed, had not been completed. He might have been 
 imprisoned ; but it was thought that Shan would 
 derive no satisfaction from so mild a punishment, and 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 33 
 
 so the matter dropped, Smith going free. Recovered 
 from the deadly wine, Shan ruled in Ulster, “ the only 
 strong man in Ireland.” Ulster was too narrow for his 
 ambition. Before long he ranged over Connaught, 
 demanding “ the tribute due of owld time to them 
 that were kings in that realm.” It was plainly seen 
 that either Shan or the English Government in Ireland 
 must fall. 
 
 Sir Henry Sidney is sent over , 1566. — Sir Henry 
 Sidney was sent over to make an end of the Irish wolf. 
 On his landing the new Deputy summoned Shan to 
 meet him at Dundalk, but The O’Neil refused to come. 
 Messengers then passed between Sidney and the rebel, 
 but the end of all negotiation was, that Shan stoutly 
 declared Uiat what he had won by the sword he would 
 keep by the sword. The sword then remained the last 
 and only appeal. Sidney’s plan of attack was compre- 
 hensive. . Shan had assailed and dispossessed of their land 
 all the Ulster chiefs who had refused to acknowledge 
 him as their lord. These chiefs were to be reinstated, 
 and to form so many centres of opposition. Harassed 
 in his own land of Ulster, O’Neil was to be attacked 
 at once from the north and the south by a force en- 
 camping at Derry and by an army from the Pale. 
 Shan, with all his wit and power, could not stand 
 against this organized attack. He appealed to France 
 for help, but in vain. No foreign aid came to him, and 
 one by one his native allies deserted him. 
 
 Shan's Downfall and Death , 1567 . — His last battle 
 was fought with the ancient enemies of his house, the 
 O’Donnells, who had joined with the Deputy. It was 
 near Londonderry, on the west side of the river which 
 runs into Lough Foyle. The O’Donnells were inferior 
 P 
 
34 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND . 
 
 in numbers, but the fortune of war was theirs. Panic 
 seized the O’Neils; they fled before their enemies, 
 and the river received those who escaped the sword, 
 so that scarce a man remained alive. Shan himself 
 was not among the slain; he fled for his life to the 
 far north of Antrim, and took refuge with the M’ Con- 
 nells. Three days afterwards he was slain in a brawl 
 by the fierce Scots, his enemies of old. “ His head,” 
 reported the Deputy, “ sundered from his body, was . . . 
 carried into the city of Dublin, where it was bodied 
 with a stake, and standeth on the top of your Majesty’s 
 Castle of Dublin.” 
 
 After the death of the great rebel a blow was dealt at 
 his family. The very name of O’Neil was declared to 
 be extinguished, while Tyrone, and Shan’s other lands 
 in Ulster, were declared to be forfeit to the crown. 
 Nevertheless Turlough Luineach O’Neil assumed the 
 headship of his clan, and, notwithstanding his direct 
 disobedience to so recent an enactment, Elizabeth made 
 a treaty with him on January 20th, 1570. 
 
 The Pope's Bull of Excommunication , 1569. — Two 
 years after the death of Shan O’Neil, Pope Pius V. 
 issued a Bull excommunicating Elizabeth and depriving 
 her of her throne. This Bull had a disastrous effect 
 on Ireland; for the English Government naturally 
 thought that the Irish people, being Catholics, would 
 do their utmost to dethrone the heretic Queen denounced 
 by the Holy Father. Stern measures were, therefore, 
 carried out in Ireland ; the Anglicising policy was in 
 full swing. To exterminate the native Irish, and to 
 replace them by new English settlers, appeared to 
 Elizabeth’s advisers to be the best course of action; 
 hence the wretched attempts of Sir Thomas Smith and 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 35 
 
 the Earl of Essex in the North, hence the Desmond 
 rebellion and the planting of the South. To the hatred 
 of the Irish for the English was now added the hatred of 
 the Catholic for the Protestant, and the despairing rage 
 of the landowner about to be despoiled. The agrarian 
 grievance was old, the religious grievance new; but 
 from this time the two were entwined, and became 
 hard to separate. 
 
 Sir Thomas Smith and the Earl of Essex . — Two 
 attempts were made to plant English and Protestant 
 colonies in the North of Ireland. One was planned in 
 1572, by Sir Thomas Smith, and conducted by his 
 son ; this utterly failed. The other and more famous 
 failure is connected with the name of Walter Devereux, 
 Earl of Essex. His idea was to expel the Hebridean 
 Scots from the coasts of Antrim, and to plant the vacant 
 land with Englishmen, leaving the interior to Irish 
 tenants, who were to be under his sway, as well as their 
 English neighbours. The Queen made him a grant of 
 “that part of Ulster called Chandeboy,” with extra- 
 ordinary powers to do as he liked, even “power to 
 make slaves and to chain to ships and galleys all or 
 any such of the Irishry or Scots-Irish as should be 
 condemned of treason, for the better furtherance of his 
 enterprise.” In August, 1573, the “ enterprise ” was 
 begun. Elizabeth had begged Essex to “ win the Irish 
 by mildness.” In furtherance of the royal wish the 
 Earl began by some sort of negotiation with Sir Brian 
 MacPhelim, an Ulster chief. Mild ways were, how- 
 ever, soon at an end. Sir Brian, seeing that the in- 
 vading army was not very large, joined with The O’Neil 
 and the Scots, and began to resist Essex. The English 
 Earl managed to win over to his side the tribes who 
 
36 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 resisted the supremacy of The O’Neil, and there was 
 fighting up and down Ulster, wasting of the land and 
 terrible slaughter. 
 
 The Massacre at Raghlin , July , 1575. — Part of the 
 Earl’s plan was to dispossess the Scots who had settled 
 on the Antrim coast. These Scots naturally resisted. 
 Their chief Surleyboy entreated that he and his men 
 might remain in the homes they had made for them- 
 selves, swearing to be faithful servants of the Queen. 
 Essex paid no heed to Surleyboy’s messages until he 
 had made an end, with much “ killing,” of the Irish 
 opposition. Then he gave a terrible answer to the 
 Scottish chief. The island of Raghlin, rocky and diffi- 
 cult to approach, lies off the Antrim coast, near the 
 Giants’ Causeway. This island the Scots had fortified, 
 and thither, as to a refuge, they sent their wives and 
 children. Essex sent his soldiers to attack the island, 
 and they made short work of the task. They speedily 
 destroyed the fortifications, and then put to death, not 
 only the armed men who had opposed them, but all the 
 women and children who were hidden about in the 
 caves and rocks of the island. “ Surleyboy himself,” 
 says Essex, in a letter to the Queen, “ stood upon the 
 mainland of the Glynnes and saw the taking of the 
 island, and was likely to have run mad for sorrow, 
 tearing and tormenting himself, and saying that he 
 there lost all that ever he had.” Notwithstanding this 
 and other cruel and unscrupulous deeds of Essex in the 
 North, his “ enterprise ” did not succeed. He got into 
 difficulties with the Queen about money matters, the 
 Irish Government would afford him no help, he lost 
 heart, sickened in a mysterious way, and died in Dublin, 
 September 22, 1576. 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH, 
 
 37 
 
 The Presidents . — The southern province was harried 
 in a like manner to the northern. The attempt to 
 Anglicise was nowhere successful. A device long 
 meditated by Elizabeth’s advisers was carried into 
 execution. Presidents were appointed in Ulster, Mun- 
 ster, and Connaught, who should act as sub-Deputies, 
 and enforce the English law. 
 
 Act to reduce all Ireland to Shire Land , 1569. — In 
 1569 an Act was passed, making all Ireland into shire 
 land. This virtually did away with the Brehon law, 
 and deprived the chiefs of their ancient privileges. 
 The land being planned out in the English fashion 
 tempted fresh English adventurers, who were bitterly 
 opposed by the Irish. 
 
 Sir Thomas Stukely , 1578. — The troubles in the 
 South were encouraged by emissaries of the J esuits. In 
 1578 one Sir Thomas Stukely, a wild and disreputable 
 adventurer, who had been a pirate and a friend of Shan 
 O’Neil, set out from Civita Yecchia with a force 
 gathered together by the Pope to oust the govern- 
 ment of the heretic Queen from Ireland. Stukely met 
 on the way a Portuguese force bound for Morocco, and 
 changing his mind forgot Ireland, joined the Portu- 
 guese fleet, and perished in the adventure. 
 
 Sir James Fitzmaurice at Smerwick , 1579. — The 
 next year brought an ill-fated force to Ireland. Nicolas 
 Sanders, ex-Papal Legate, and Sir James Eitzmaurice, 
 accompanied by a motley crew of priests and laymen 
 of various nationalities, scarce a hundred in all, landed 
 in Dingle harbour, in Kerry, with much pomp, bringing 
 with them a Papal Bull and a consecrated banner. 
 They meant to conquer the land by means of the Irish 
 army, which they expected to flock to their standard. 
 
38 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 The army was slow to gather, and the handful of ad- 
 venturers built a fort at Smerwick on “ a very small 
 neck of land, joined to the shore by a bank of sand,” 
 a situation which did no credit to their strategy. Fitz- 
 maurice tried to get the Earl of Desmond to join him, 
 hoping so to win over the vast Geraldine following 
 to that visionary army. Desmond wavered, being un- 
 certain which would profit him most, rebellion or 
 loyalty; but two of his brothers joined Fitzmaurice, 
 and with them many others of the clan, and the rebel 
 army began to grow. The government woke to a sense 
 of danger, and Sir Nicholas Malby took the field with 
 a few hundred English soldiers, and with the Burkes of 
 Connemara and Mayo, who were at feud with the 
 Geraldines. A fight took place in the wood of Limerick, 
 and Fitzmaurice was killed. This defeat was a great 
 blow to the rebels, and Sir William Drury, the Lord 
 Justice, set out on a march to finish the business. But 
 he was in feeble health, and wandering with his troops 
 in the great wood of Limerick to find the enemy he 
 grew bewildered, and the Irish set upon his forces and 
 discomfited them. He died shortly afterwards. 
 
 The Desmond Rebellion , 1579. — Then Desmond took 
 the field, and all the men of the South rose up in 
 arms, drawn by their allegiance to the Geraldine and 
 cajoled by the promise of help from Spain. Massacre 
 and plunder marked the path of the rebels through 
 Munster. Violent and cruel as were the ways of the 
 insurgents, they were met by equal violence and cruelty 
 on the part of the Queen’s forces. Elizabeth sent over 
 the Duke of Ormond to be military governor of Mun- 
 ster, and expected him to reduce the province to order. 
 It was thought that the fact of the chief insurgent 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 39 
 
 being bis hereditary foe would urge him on. Burghley 
 wrote to him by the Queen’s orders, and thus ended his 
 letter : “ So now I will merely say Butler aboo, against 
 all that cry in a new language Papa aboo, and God 
 send you your heart’s desire to banish and vanquish 
 those cankered Desmonds.” The “ cankered Des- 
 monds” were to be overthrown by an orderly plan, 
 carried out with steady and terrible exactitude. A fleet, 
 under Sir William Winter, sailed to the coast of Kerry 
 to support the land forces. Sir William Pelham, the 
 new Lord-Deputy, and Ormond, each with a small 
 force, set out at the same time, the one from Dublin, 
 the other from Kilkenny, with the intent to meet near 
 Limerick. Pelham himself tells in a few words the 
 story of their doings. “We passed,” he says, “ through 
 the rebel countries, consuming with fire all habitations, 
 and executing the people wherever we found them.” 
 Working on in the same thorough fashion, the English 
 generals, after the junction of their forces, proceeded to 
 attack the strong castle of Carrigafoyle. With the aid 
 of artillery they carried it ; then one stronghold after 
 another fell before them. Pelham went near to capture 
 Desmond, his wife, and the Legate, in the Castle of the 
 Island, in Kerry ; but they escaped him and fled into 
 the wilds. The Englishmen only turned in their march 
 of destruction when they reached the Atlantic, at the 
 edge of Kerry ; then they returned to Cork. In that 
 year of grace, 1580, Ormond says that he put to death 
 “ eighty-eight captains and leaders, with 1547 notorious 
 traitors and malefactors, and above 4000 others.” 
 There was a great quiet in the crushed province. 
 Winter, acting on his own responsibility, and believing 
 that all danger was over, took the fleet home. 
 
40 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 The Spaniards land at Smerwiek , 1580. — Then, the 
 coast being clear, came the long-promised foreign help 
 — 800 Italians and Spaniards, sent by the Pope, with a 
 great store of arms for the Irish. Some of them went 
 inland in search of Desmond ; the greater number en- 
 trenched themselves in the deserted fort of Smerwiek. 
 
 Risings in the Pale , 1580. — At the same time a 
 rebellion broke out in the Pale, which had long smarted 
 under illegal exactions. At its head was James Eustace, 
 Lord Baltinglass, an ardent Catholic, who was joined by 
 Sir John of Desmond and his men. A new Deputy 
 came to deal with this rising, the Lord Grey de Wilton, 
 whose first act brought upon him a disastrous defeat. 
 The rebels of the Pale lay in Glenmalure, a narrow 
 valley in the mountains. Up this gorge the Lord- 
 Deputy sent his men, himself standing at its mouth. 
 The English soldiers marched well into the narrow pass. 
 When they had reached the heart of it, of a sudden 
 armed men started up on every side and assailed them. 
 There was no escape, and they were shot down like 
 dogs. Some thought that Kildare, who stood with the 
 Deputy at the mouth of the gorge, had given warning 
 to his countrymen. Lord Grey gathered himself to- 
 gether, and with a small force, including among others 
 Edmund Spenser and Walter Raleigh, left the Pale and 
 marched to the south-west to Smerwiek. Ormond, as 
 military governor of Munster, had appeared on the 
 scene with 4000 of his men soon after the arrival of 
 the foreigners ; but he only looked at the little fort and 
 went away again. 
 
 Massacre at Smerwiek , 1580. — Lord Grey, on his 
 arrival before Smerwiek, had to wait till Winter came 
 back with the fleet. Then the siege began, and lasted 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH 
 
 41 
 
 for three days, at the end of which time the besieged, 
 finding that they could hold out no longer, begged for 
 terms. Lord Grey would grant no terms to men sent 
 by the Pope, “ that detestable shaveling,” as he called 
 him. He demanded unconditional surrender, and the 
 unlucky strangers had no choice but to give way. The 
 general, Don Bastian de San Josepho, and his officers, 
 came out with ensigns trailing, and gave themselves up. 
 They were put to ransom, but the common men, in 
 number six hundred, were slaughtered, and laid out on 
 the sand, “as gallant and goodly personages as ever 
 were beheld,” said the Deputy. The English captains 
 looked upon their death as a necessary example, and it 
 may be that they were right. 
 
 Suppression of the Rebellion, 1582. — The Papal force 
 was thus disposed of in a manner not calculated to en- 
 courage the despatch of any more foreign troops to 
 Ireland. The Desmonds and the Legate were still wan- 
 dering in the wilds, but Lord Grey returned to the 
 Pale, and speedily made short work of the rebels there. 
 Kildare was arrested on suspicion, and presently taken 
 to London, where, three years afterwards, he died in the 
 Tower. The Wicklow rebels were hunted from their 
 fastnesses; all the disaffected, high and low, were ac- 
 cused of treason, convicted, and hanged. In the South, 
 Ormond as governor, Baleigh and others as captains, 
 were busy hunting out the last rebels, the followers of 
 the Desmond. Sir J ohn and Sir James of Desmond were 
 caught and killed ; the aged Legate, unused to privation, 
 died of hunger and cold ; but the Desmond still lived, 
 and till he was got rid of the work could not be con- 
 sidered at an end. He was hunted from place to place, 
 and at last, one morning in October, 1583, some English 
 
42 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 soldiers found him and killed him. His body was 
 swung up in Cork, and his head spiked on London 
 Bridge. With him ended the great Desmond rebellion. 
 
 The Desolation of Munster . — The province of Mun- 
 ster lay almost emptied of people, a fact scarcely to be 
 wondered at when the manner of warfare, described by 
 Pelham himself, is considered. Writing to the Queen, 
 he says : “ Touching my manner of proceeding, it is 
 thus : I give the rebels no breath to relieve themselves, 
 but by one of your garrisons or the other they be con- 
 tinually hunted. I keep them from their harvest, and 
 have taken great preys of cattle from them, by which 
 it seemeth the poor people, that lived only upon labour, 
 and fed by their milch cows, are so distressed as they 
 follow their goods, and offer themselves, with their 
 wives and children, rather to be slain by the army than 
 to suffer the famine that now beginneth to pinch them.” 
 
 Spenser's description of Munster . — It was purposed 
 to confiscate the land of the rebels and plant it 
 with English settlers. The land indeed was in woe- 
 ful plight. Edmund Spenser, who was among the 
 settlers, thus describes its state : “ Notwithstanding 
 that Munster was a most rich and plentiful country, 
 full of corn and cattle, that you would have thought 
 they should have been able to stand long, yet ere one 
 year and one-half they were brought to such wretched- 
 ness as that any stony heart would have rued the 
 same. Out of every corner of the woods and glens 
 they came, creeping forth upon their hands ; for their 
 legs could not bear them. They looked like anatomies 
 of death; they spoke like ghosts crying out of their 
 graves; they did eat the dead carrions, happy where 
 they could find them ; yea, and one another soon after, 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 43 
 
 inasmuch as the very carcases they spared not to scrape 
 out of their graves ; and if they found a plot of water- 
 cresses or shamrocks, there they thronged as to a feast 
 for the time, yet not able long to continue there withal ; 
 that in short space there were none almost left, and a 
 most populous and plentiful country suddenly left void 
 of man and beast; yet, sure in all that war there 
 perished not many by the sword, but all by the 
 extremity of famine, which they themselves had 
 wrought.” 
 
 Plantation of Munster , 1586. — It was planned to 
 colonise the land wrenched from these wretched people 
 under the direction of Sir John Perrot, Deputy in 
 succession to Lord Grey de Wilton. He first held a 
 Parliament and passed two Acts of Attainder against 
 the rebels — Desmond, Lord Ealtinglass, and all the 
 lesser men. By these acts the lands of the attainted 
 became Crown property. The confiscated lands were 
 divided into seigniories of 12,000, 8,000, 6,000, and 
 4,000 acres each, , to be held in fee of the Crown at a 
 nominal rent, with great privileges attached. Among 
 the “ undertakers ” — so the new settlers were called — 
 were Walter Ealeigh and Edmund Spenser. One of 
 the chief conditions on which these grants were made 
 was that no Irish were to be admitted as tenants. This 
 condition was naturally set at nought. The English 
 farmers and labourers who were needed to make the 
 plantation a success did not find their new venture 
 attractive ; they were continually plagued by the native 
 Irish, who formed themselves into secret societies. So 
 they returned to England as fast as they could, and the 
 new landlords were obliged to take on the old tenants, 
 there being no others to be had. 
 
44 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 Sir John Perrot Deputy , 1584. — Sir John Perrot 
 was Lord-Deputy from 1584 to 1588. He was a just 
 man, and his policy towards the Irish was on the whole 
 one of conciliation. Among the English settlers in 
 Ireland he had many enemies, for he had a bad temper, 
 and was imperious towards those under him. Tale- 
 bearers carried mischievous stories of him to the Queen; 
 he fell into disgrace, was recalled, and died in the 
 Tower. His departure was a disaster for Ireland ; for 
 his successor, Sir William Eitz william, was unwise, in- 
 considerate, and arbitrary. He irritated and oppressed 
 the Irish, and in his time the English soldiers through- 
 out the land behaved with such violence and insolence 
 that disaffection was general, and the outraged people 
 could not but rebel. This, the last and greatest re- 
 bellion of Elizabeth’s reign, was headed by Hugh 
 O’Neil, Earl of Tyrone. 
 
 Early Life of Hugh O'Neil , Earl of Tyrone . — Hugh 
 O’Neil was the son of the Baron of Dungannon, 
 murdered by Shan O’Neil in 1558, and the younger 
 brother of the boy baron who was slain while Shan was 
 in London. He had been brought over to England by 
 Sir Henry Sidney, educated at Court in the English 
 fashion, and was the English candidate, so to speak, 
 for power in Ulster, as opposed to Turlough Luineach, 
 self-styled The O’Neil. He was a very able man, and 
 as he had been nurtured under English influence the 
 Government hoped to use him, and the influence of 
 his great name, in the work of winning Ireland over to 
 English ways. He was an officer in the Queen’s army, 
 was accounted a loyal subject, and was greatly in 
 favour with Elizabeth. He was stationed on the 
 borders of Ulster, and began his career in his hered- 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 45 
 
 itary lands by fighting on every occasion and pretext 
 with his kinsman — The O’Neil. Holding fast to the 
 English side, he gradually got the better of Turlough. 
 In 1584 he gained a portion of Tyrone ; three years 
 later the rest of the territory belonging to the ancient 
 earldom was granted to him, together with the title of 
 Earl of Tyrone. His zeal grew with his possessions. 
 In 1590 he entered into communication with the 
 Government as to the ordering of Ulster, offering to do 
 all in his power to bring the province into English ways, 
 and affirming, not for the first time, that the name of 
 The O’Neil ought to be suppressed. The Government 
 gladly availed themselves of his help, and he continued 
 fighting with his old kinsman. The Deputy speaks of 
 “ a great controversy between the Earl and Sir Turlough 
 O’Neale, by reason of a fray fallen between them, in 
 which the dutiful old knight, Sir Turlough O’Neale, 
 was shot through the shoulder with a bullet, and 
 stricken with a horseman’s staff in the small of the 
 back — two grievous wounds, but (God I thank) will 
 recover. I sent him a surgeon with a great deal of 
 stuff for his dressing.” Sir Turlough was growing old, 
 and had not strength and energy to carry on hostilities 
 with his kinsman Hugh. He retired from the fray, 
 stipulating only for certain lands and money. 
 
 Tyrone Rebels , 1595. — Tyrone was no sooner left 
 the richest and strongest O’Neil than his loyalty and 
 his love of English rule and order disappeared. The 
 high hopes which the Government had founded upon 
 him sank, and the disaffected Irish chieftains plucked 
 up heart. There was a great prospect of success for a 
 rising, headed by one of the ancient royal house, 
 especially such a one as Hugh, Earl of Tyrone. 
 
4 6 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 It was some time before open war broke out. Dis- 
 putes were rife between Tyrone and the Dublin 
 executive. A new Lord -Deputy, Sir William Russell, 
 was sent over, and to the surprise of all Tyrone 
 hastened to Dublin, and made submission on August 
 13th, 1594. Secret instructions from the Queen 
 reached Russell, ordering him to detain Tyrone ; but 
 the Deputy disobeyed these instructions, and was 
 bitterly reproached for his behaviour. By slow degrees 
 Tyrone prepared for action. His mock submission 
 smoothed things outwardly for a time, and he began 
 to build up a confederacy against the power of Eng- 
 land. His first wife had been an O’Donnell, and 
 through her he had formed a friendship with her 
 brother, Red Hugh, a determined enemy of England. 
 The two great houses of O’Neil and O’Donnell found 
 no difficulty in rallying round them the greater number 
 of the Ulster lords, and many chiefs in the other pro- 
 vinces. The religious cry was raised ; an appeal was 
 made to the rancour of the Catholic against the heretic ; 
 finally, Tyrone made supplication to the Spanish king 
 for help. 
 
 Tyrone’s war began in a very desultory fashion. The 
 native forces in Ulster amounted to about 17,000 men, 
 being about three times as great as the entire forces of 
 the Queen in Ireland. Numbers, however, do not re- 
 present the true state of the case. Tyrone could not 
 depend on his great force keeping together or acting in 
 concert for any length of time ; he therefore confined 
 himself to harassing the English soldiers and drawing 
 them into small encounters. He was waiting until 
 help should come from Spain, or until Elizabeth should 
 be worried into making peace with him on his own 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH '. 47 
 
 terms. The latter contingency happened. The Queen, 
 fretted by the continual and ineffectual warfare, and 
 not recognizing how deep the canker of rebellion had 
 eaten into the heart of the land, determined to make 
 peace. She wished to break up the league by separately 
 reducing each chief to submission ; but Tyrone was as 
 yet too strong for her. He would not let his fellow- 
 rebels out of his net ; he was their spokesman in all 
 negotiations. He dragged out the correspondence, ex- 
 pecting always the help of Spain ; but he firmly ad- 
 hered to his demand that liberty of conscience should 
 be granted to his countrymen, and that no English 
 garrisons should be stationed in lands belonging to 
 Irishmen. The first point was not much pressed, being 
 chiefly raised as a matter of form ; but to the second 
 Tyrone clung with deadly tenacity. The English re- 
 cognized its importance, and would not yield upon it. 
 The negotiation dragged on, and Tyrone claimed to act 
 for all the insurgents throughout the land. Elizabeth 
 was forced to acknowledge the widespread character of 
 the league. She would not yield to the demands of the 
 insurgents, she could not stifle them ; she therefore 
 went on writing letters. The rebels throughout the 
 land took heart, seeing how slow to act was the Govern- 
 ment. There was great hope among the Irish, and 
 great fear among the English. “ There is no part (of 
 Ulster) freed from the poison of this great rebellion,” 
 says a contemporary writer, “ and no country, or chief- 
 tain of a country, whom the capital traitor Tyrone hath 
 not corrupted and drawn into combination with him.” 
 “This great rebellion” pressed hard upon the small 
 English force in Ireland. There was a lack of food 
 among the soldiers stationed in the North, and Sir 
 
48 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 Henry Bagnal, the Lord-Marshal, whose sister Tyrone 
 had abducted, inarched with several thousand men to 
 relieve the famine-threatened garrisons. 
 
 Battle of the Yellow Ford , 1598. — On his way from 
 Armagh to Portmore, as Blackwater Town was then 
 called, Sir Henry Bagnal fell in with the Irish army 
 on August 15th, 1598, and a battle took place, in which 
 the English were utterly defeated; Bagnal himself 
 was slain with thirteen of his officers, and 1500 of his 
 soldiers and all the arms and provisions were captured. 
 Those soldiers who escaped with their lives fled away, 
 and the English army of the North ceased to exist. 
 Fynes Morrison, a contemporary writer, says : “ The 
 English, from their first arrival in the kingdom, never 
 had received so great an overthrow as this. Tyrone 
 was among the Irish celebrated as the deliverer of his 
 countrymen from thraldom ; and the general voice of 
 Tyrone among the English after the defeat of the 
 Blackwater was as that of Hannibal among the Bomans 
 after the battle of Cannse.” This great defeat was 
 quickly followed by risings in every quarter. The 
 English strongholds in the North surrendered, and 
 Ulster fell into rebel hands. All Ireland indeed was 
 suddenly wrested from her conquerors, except Dublin 
 and a few other towns ; for once the Irish were almost 
 united. 
 
 Lord Essex arrives , 1599. — But the temporary union 
 of the Irish chieftains could not long avail against the 
 power of England and her armies. Lord Essex, son of 
 the ill-fated Walter Devereux, came over, in April, 1599, 
 with twenty thousand men, commanded by veteran 
 officers. Against this, the greatest army ever sent to 
 Ireland by Elizabeth, what could the undisciplined 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH. 49 
 
 forces of the rebels effect ? Tyrone did all in his power 
 to avoid a pitched battle ; he was waiting for the pro- 
 mised assistance of Spain. Lord Essex had no great 
 success, however. He made an expedition into Munster, 
 in the course of which he was much harassed, and lost 
 many men. The Queen was angry with him for wasting 
 his time and losing his men in the South ; she sent him 
 more soldiers, and he marched northwards into Ulster, 
 hut there was no fighting. He had an interview with 
 Tyrone, and the two leaders agreed to an armistice. 
 Then Essex hurried back to London to explain to the 
 Queen Tyrone’s views and his own actions. How he 
 fared belongs to English history. As regards Ireland, 
 the only results of his efforts were the waste of a year, 
 and the loss of several thousand men. 
 
 Lord Mountjoy Deputy , 1600. — Charles Blount, 
 Lord Mountjoy, came over as Lord -Deputy in 1600. 
 He at once began to reform the army on strict religious 
 principles, thus anticipating the celebrated new model 
 of Cromwell. He also adopted a mode of warfare 
 more effectual than the hasty raids of his predecessors. 
 He sent forces to the various strongholds, from which 
 they were to harry the country, speedily returning 
 again to their refuge. This strategy steadily pursued 
 was gradually successful. The North and the South 
 were most obstinate in holding out. Sir George Carew, 
 President of Munster, worked well in his province, and 
 took the strongholds by degrees ; and even in Ulster, 
 Tyrone’s own land, many forts were held by the 
 English. Tyrone himself, and Red Hugh, his brother- 
 in-law, still bore arms, and still avoided battle, whilst 
 they waited for the aid of Spain. At length it came, 
 five years after it had been promised. 
 
 E 
 
ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 50 
 
 Arrival of the Spaniards , 1601. — In the autumn of 
 1601 a Spanish veteran force of 3500 men landed at 
 Kinsale. Their leader, Don Juan de Aquila, im- 
 mediately put forth a declaration to the people, wherein 
 he said: “We, commiserating the condition of the 
 Catholics here, have left our most sweet and happy 
 country, Spain, that is replenished with all good 
 things; and being stirred with their cries, which 
 pierce the hearers, having reached to the ears of the 
 Pope and our good King Philip (III.), they have 
 (being moved with pity) at last resolved to send into 
 you soldiers, silver, gold, and arms, with a most liberal 
 hand, not to the end they might (according as they 
 feign) exercise cruelty towards you, 0 Irish Catholics, 
 but that you may be happily reduced (being snatched 
 out of the jaws of the devil, and freed from their 
 tyranny into your own pristine ingenuity), and that 
 you may freely profess the Catholic faith. Therefore, 
 my most beloved, . . . the Pope, Christ’s vicar on 
 earth, doth command you to take arms for the defence 
 of your faith. I admonish, exhort, and beseech you 
 all . . . that as soon as possibly you can you come to 
 us with your friends and weapons. Whosoever shall 
 do this shall find us prepared, and we will communicate 
 unto them those things which we possess ; and whoso- 
 ever shall (despising our wholesome council) do other- 
 wise, and remain in the obedience of the English, we 
 will persecute him as an heretic, and a hateful enemy 
 of the Church, even unto death.” 
 
 Battle of Kinsale , 1601. — To the dismay of Don 
 Juan the Irish did not respond to his invitation; he 
 expected an army to gather round him, but not a man 
 appeared. Then he fell back upon the hope of O’Neil 
 
THE WARS OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 5* 
 
 joining him ; but all the might of England was put 
 forth to prevent this junction. Three days after the 
 Spaniards had landed an English force sat down before 
 Kinsale ; a week later the Deputy and Sir George 
 Carew arrived. Reinforcements poured in, and pre- 
 sently the town of Kinsale was closely blocked on 
 every side; no way was left open by which O’Neil 
 could reach the Spaniards. For two months the 
 siege was carried on, both Spaniards and Englishmen 
 suffering. Tyrone and Red Hugh with their army 
 marched towards Kinsale. Sir George Carew left 
 the besieging force, and tried to stop them; but the 
 rebels, through their better knowledge of the country, 
 eluded him, and managed to join a new foreign force 
 of about 1000, which had just landed. Many of 
 the Munster chiefs rose and joined The O’Neil, who 
 then took up his position north of the besieging army 
 and waited. From the 8th of December until the 
 23rd the armies waited ; neither would strike the first 
 blow. Then Tyrone suddenly made up his mind, and 
 on Christmas-eve, 1601, he led his men to the attack, 
 hoping to surprise the English. Hastily as his re- 
 solution had been made, there was yet time for one of 
 his men to betray him. The Irish found the enemy ready 
 for them, and more than a match for them. Fortune 
 speedily declared herself for the English, and the rebel 
 army broke and rushed away in a despairing flight. 
 The unlucky Spaniards, deserted by those whom they 
 had come to succour, surrendered. The vessels which 
 had brought them returned to Spain bearing many of 
 the Irish who fled from their own land — among them 
 Hugh O’Donnell, who went on a fruitless errand to 
 beg for more help, and died in Spain. 
 
52 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 Tyrone Surrenders, 1603. — O’Neil now returned to 
 Ulster, and the Deputy, after a march of destruction 
 through Cork and Kerry, betook himself to the North, 
 and there wrought such fearful havoc that Tyrone, 
 realising the utter hopelessness of his enterprise, sur- 
 rendered absolutely on the 25th of March, 1603. On 
 the same day Queen Elizabeth died. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER , . THE 
 
 WENTWORTH SCOURGE . 
 
 The Vanquished Land . — Mountjoy’s terrible plan 
 bad succeeded. The Irish who remained after Eliza- 
 beth’s last wars lifted up their heads and beheld their 
 fruitful land barren. The crops had been destroyed. 
 The English general had done this work deliberately, 
 meaning to starve the people. There was no food in 
 Ireland, and there was no money wherewith to buy 
 foreign food, for the base money which the Queen had 
 sent to her Irish subjects was useless for such a pur- 
 pose. The wretched Irish wandered up and down the 
 country in search of food. They devoured docks and 
 nettles and other weeds, and the English soldiers found 
 them lying dead with ghastly green faces. Gangs of 
 women entrapped and ate little children, and Sir 
 Arthur Chichester with his own eyes saw three little 
 children devouring their dead mother. Starvation and 
 such loathsome food brought pestilence, and the people 
 perished by thousands of the famine and the plague. 
 
 English Ways come in . — How was the time, thought 
 James I. and his advisers, to break the spirit and tame 
 the pride of these insolent islanders. Irish ways were 
 to disappear; Ireland was to be made like England. 
 The Brehon laws, so often derided and contemned, were 
 
54 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 to disappear ; the system of land tenure was to be as- 
 similated to that of England; the Irish tongue and 
 Irish customs were to go. Justice was to be adminis- 
 tered as in England ; the judges were to go on circuit, 
 the King’s writ was to run throughout the land. 
 
 Religious Reform attempted , 1605. — In religion also 
 Ireland was to follow her mistress. The Irish Catholics, 
 having regard to certain tendencies of James while he 
 was only king of Scotland, began to hope, after his 
 accession to the English throne, that they would be 
 allowed liberty of worship. They were mistaken. 
 The new King showed himself much more stern and 
 unyielding in this matter than his predecessor. On the 
 4th of July, 1605, he issued a proclamation ordering 
 all persons in Ireland to attend church, and banishing 
 all priests. Then began a wearisome and hopeless 
 struggle between the Deputy and the recusants. Sir 
 Arthur Chichester, who had succeeded to the office of 
 Deputy in the autumn of 1604, was an active and 
 energetic man, and fitted to be a ruler in virtue of his 
 wisdom and knowledge of men. Wise to plan, and 
 prompt to carry out, he yet recognised the limits set to 
 him by the nature and will of those with whom he 
 dealt, and his instinct led him to stop at the right 
 point. Believing that things would never go well in 
 Ireland until the Irish followed the State Church 
 humbly and willingly, he pursued at first a stern and 
 vigorous course towards the recusants. The shilling 
 fine imposed by law for each absence from church was 
 enforced. This, thought Chichester, did not press hardly 
 enough on the well-to-do, whose action was important 
 as influencing the lower orders. He therefore consti- 
 tuted the Castle Chamber a kind of spiritual tribunal, 
 
THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER. 
 
 55 
 
 before which he summoned rich and important recu- 
 sants, who were imprisoned or heavily fined. A short 
 trial of such measures showed the Deputy that they 
 were useless to effect his object, and hurtful in many 
 ways. He gave up attempting to coerce the recusants, 
 and began to think that to educate the young in the 
 religion of the State was the right way to deal with 
 the religious difficulty in Ireland. As he said : “ In 
 these matters of bringing men to church I have 
 dealt as tenderly as I might, knowing well that men’s 
 consciences must be won and persuaded by time, con- 
 ference, and instructions, which the aged here will 
 hardly admit, and therefore our hopes must be in the 
 education of the youth ; and yet we must labour daily, 
 otherwise all will turn to barbarous ignorance and con- 
 tempt. I am not violent therein, albeit I wish reform- 
 ation, and will study and endeavour it all I may, which 
 I think sorts better with His Majesty’s ends than to deal 
 with violence and like a Puritan in this kind.” The 
 wise Deputy accordingly betook himself to the task of 
 reforming the weak and wretched Protestant Church, so 
 as to make its fold more inviting to the erring Papists. 
 
 The Flight of the Earls , 1607. — Civil as well as 
 religious reform was needed. Ulster claimed much 
 attention. It was impossible for that province to live 
 quietly after the English mode while O’Neil and 
 O’Donnell lorded it there. It is true that the repre- 
 sentatives of those two ancient royal houses — Hugh 
 O’Neil, Elizabeth’s rebel, and Kory O’Donnell — masked 
 under the titles of Earl of Tyrone and Earl of Tyr- 
 connel, were attempting to forget their ancient state, 
 and to live as English subjects. But for them this 
 was difficult, and for the English and official Irish it 
 
56 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 was very trying to see the late rebels held in honour. 
 One of the latter says : “ I have lived to see that 
 damnable rebel Tyrone brought to England, honoured 
 and, well liked. Oh, what is there that does not 
 prove the inconstancy of worldly matters'? How I 
 did labour for all that knave’s destruction! I ad- 
 ventured perils by sea and land, was near starving, eat 
 horseflesh in Munster, and all to quell that man, who 
 now smileth in peace at those who did hazard their 
 lives to destroy him; and now doth Tyrone dare us, 
 old commanders, with his presence and protection.” 
 Whether Tyrone was really in earnest or not in his 
 endeavour to be loyal he was not credited with sin- 
 cerity. His life was made a burden to him by reason 
 of spies and suspicion, and Tyrconnel was in no better 
 case. In May, 1607, a terror arose in Dublin. A 
 paper was dropped at the door of the Council Cham- 
 ber by an unknown hand. This paper, vaguely worded, 
 gave information of a plot to murder Chichester and 
 seize on the government. Tyrone’s name was men- 
 tioned. There was nothing worthy the name of evi- 
 dence to connect him with this plot, if plot there was. 
 But he was called to account; the King himself decided 
 to investigate the matter in London. Tyrone began to 
 prepare for the journey, which he never accomplished. 
 He received a warning from abroad that danger awaited 
 him in London. The friend who sent the warning sent 
 also an armed ship, and in that ship Tyrone and Tyr- 
 connel, with all their belongings, fled from Ireland, 
 never to return. Their flight marked them as guilty 
 in the eyes of the world ; the Government attainted 
 them, and rejoiced in the opportunity of gaining such 
 great and fair lands as theirs by confiscation. 
 
THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER. 
 
 57 
 
 The Plantation of Ulster Planned . — The attainder 
 of the two Earls seemed to the government of James I. 
 to offer a favourable opportunity for attempting to secure 
 the loyalty of Ulster by a new plantation, as it was 
 called. This plantation of Ulster was founded on a gross 
 injustice. It was assumed by the Commissioners that 
 the lands confiscated — the counties of Tyrone, Donegal, 
 Coleraine, Armagh, Fermanagh, and Cavan — were the 
 freeholds of the attainted Earls, and that they might, 
 therefore, be appropriated by the Government. In fact, 
 however, the absent lords had, whether by old Irish 
 custom or by new English law, absolute possession only 
 of their own private estates. They had only certain 
 rights of lordship over the tribal lands at large, which 
 were the common property of all the members of the 
 tribe. These humble commoners, many thousands in 
 number, were nevertheless looked upon as mere tenants- 
 at-will, and their rights were accordingly disregarded 
 by those who planned the plantation. 
 
 The Views of Chichester disregarded . — Had Sir 
 Arthur Chichester been heeded this would not have 
 been. He knew Ireland and her ways better than any 
 man of his time. He made a survey of the land to be 
 planted and drew up an account of it, which he handed 
 to the Commissioners on October 1 4th, 1608. He strongly 
 urged that lands should be first given to the native 
 Irish, then to the servitors (or retired officials, civil and 
 military), and last of all to the undertakers (or English 
 and Scotch colonists); but the Commissioners would 
 not listen to the Deputy. They drew up a scheme of 
 their own, which differed from Chichester’s in the vital 
 matter of the rights of the Irish commoners. The 
 natives were first to be dispossessed ; then the planta- 
 
58 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND . 
 
 tion was to proceed as should seem fit to the Commis- 
 sioners. The chief among them was Sir John Davis, 
 the able but unscrupulous Attorney-General. His view 
 of the matter, as opposed to Chichester’s, was unfortu- 
 nately supported by Lord Bacon in a treatise which the 
 latter drew up and presented to the King. The Deputy 
 had the unwelcome task of carrying out the plantation 
 on lines of which he disapproved. Two things had 
 led, it was thought, to the failure of the Munster plan- 
 tation. The estates granted were of too great extent, 
 and the English settlers were exposed to the contami- 
 nating influence of the Irish. These errors were to be 
 avoided in Ulster, where no portion was to exceed 2000 
 acres, and whence the Irish, with very few exceptions, 
 were to be driven out. 
 
 The Irish attempt to Resist . — The unlucky Irish 
 made one despairing attempt to keep their homes. 
 They got down a lawyer from the Pale, who urged on 
 their behalf the King’s promise to protect the possessions 
 of all his loyal subjects. The Dublin lawyer was no 
 match for Sir John Davis, who affirmed that the Irish 
 held their lands by no titles which could be recognized 
 in law, and that, therefore, the declaration did not apply 
 to them. The luckless people held their peace, and 
 slowly and reluctantly dragged themselves away from 
 their homes to the pitiful holdings provided for them. 
 
 The Plantation is accomplished . — The settlers made 
 their appearance, and their wealth and energy changed 
 the face of the country. The city of London took up 
 Coleraine and rebuilt Derry, which was from that time 
 called Londonderry. Manufactures began to grow, and 
 Ulster made vast strides in material prosperity. One 
 provision of the Commissioners was not carried out. 
 
THE PL ANT A TION OF ULSTER. 
 
 59 
 
 They had attempted to exclude the Irish from the lands 
 of the undertakers, hut the attempt was as usual unsuc- 
 cessful None knew so well as the Irish the nature of 
 the country and its ways; the dispossessed tenants 
 were kept on as humble dependents of the settlers and 
 mere labourers, and the practice was winked at. More- 
 over, many of the English and Scotch who became 
 tenants under the settlers did not like their position, 
 and there were always natives at hand ready to pay all 
 they could scrape together for the privilege of occupy- 
 ing their own land again. This was the beginning of 
 the so-called Ulster tenant-right. The result of the 
 plantation of Ulster may thus be summed up. The 
 province acquired a large and loyal population of 
 English and Scotch Protestants, whose wealth en- 
 riched and beautified the land. But underneath the 
 wealthy and contented settlers groaned the wronged 
 and despoiled Irish, only restrained from open rebellion 
 by the double garrison which the Deputy was forced to 
 post, though he cursed the Commissioners in his heart. 
 “ They know not Ireland so well as I do,” he sighed. 
 The year 1641 showed who was right. 
 
 Beginning of Protestant Ascendancy . — The Ulster 
 Plantation, by providing a population who would send 
 loyal and Protestant members to represent them in 
 Parliament, was the real beginning of the period of 
 Protestant ascendancy in Ireland. In the Parliament 
 of 1613, by jugglery and corruption, a working majority, 
 composed of men alien in religion and sympathy from 
 the majority of the nation, was returned to act as the 
 tool of the government. A disgraceful conflict as to 
 the election of a Speaker marked the opening of this 
 Parliament. When the Deputy ordered that a Speaker 
 
6o 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 should be chosen the majority chose the ever-ready Sir 
 John Davis; while the Roman Catholics, enraged at 
 finding themselves in a minority, not only chose Sir 
 John Everard, one of themselves, but placed him 
 bodily in the chair. To the Protestants no better 
 course appeared than to thrust Sir John Davis down 
 on to the lap of Everard, and a most unbecoming 
 scuffle ensued. The Protestants carried the day ; 
 Everard was unseated ; his supporters retired from the 
 House in dudgeon, and the whole case was referred to 
 the King, who seized the opportunity of delivering a 
 lecture, comprehensive and inconsequent, as was his 
 wont, to his subjects of the Irish Parliament. The 
 upshot of it all was that Sir John Davis retained the 
 Speakership, and under his guidance the Parliament 
 proceeded to carry out the king’s wishes. The statutes 
 prohibiting intercourse between the English and the 
 Irish were all repealed, and free liberty of intercourse 
 between all classes permitted and encouraged, the pur- 
 pose being to weld all the dwellers in Ireland into one 
 nation. The formal attainder for treason of Tyrone, 
 Tyrconnel, and others was passed; and last of all a 
 subsidy was granted, and an appearance of peace was 
 secured by a general pardon and act of oblivion. 
 
 Plantations in Leinster , 1612-24. — Parts of Leinster 
 were planted in the same manner as Ulster ; but as no 
 convenient flight of landowners had occurred, the King 
 had to seek other means of obtaining the land. Doubts 
 were raised as to the rights of the Leinster Irish to 
 their lands, and a “ commission to inquire into defective 
 titles” was sent by the King. The Commissioners, 
 having before them so excellent an example as Sir John 
 Davis, were soon able to come to a decision pleasing 
 
THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER. 
 
 61 
 
 to the King. It was held that large portions of land in 
 Leitrim, Longford, Westmeath, King’s County, Queen’s 
 County, Wicklow, and Wexford, having been granted 
 to colonists some centuries before in early Plantagenet 
 times, had in theory reverted to the Crown by death, 
 flight, or surrender, though in reality they had been 
 seized upon by certain presumptuous Irish. These, 
 notwithstanding their centuries of occupation, were 
 now to be ousted, in favour of the King, the rightful 
 owner of the property. This iniquitous judgment was 
 carried out. Thousands of Irish were driven out, some 
 into the unprofitable lands in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood, others into the wild west. 
 
 The O’ Byrnes . — The fate of the O’Byrnes of Wick- 
 low is typical of the worst English ways of the time. 
 Their territory was needed, but the pretext of a royal 
 title could not be alleged ; for both Elizabeth and 
 James had given orders that the title of the O’Byrnes 
 should be recognised as valid. Accordingly Sir William 
 Parsons and other agents of the King falsely accused 
 the O’Byrnes on a vague charge of treason. To sustain 
 the charge false witnesses were suborned. Witnesses 
 who proved restive were tortured, one being placed 
 naked on a burning gridiron. The O’Byrnes in the 
 end escaped, but not with their lands. 
 
 Projected Planting of Connaught , 1624. — Connaught 
 now remained the only unplanted province of Ireland, 
 and greedy eyes were cast upon it, wild and waste land 
 as it was. Schemes were laid by the government, and 
 a trick was devised whereby the titles of the Connaught 
 landowners were pronounced to be defective. The 
 Crown stepped in and claimed the lands, and a planta- 
 tion was planned. The men of Connaught, fearing 
 
62 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 the fate of the men of Ulster, prepared to pay black- 
 mail to the king. They offered to double the annual 
 tax which they had paid since the time of Sir John 
 Perrot, and also to pay the King a fine of <£10,000 if 
 only they might be confirmed in their possessions. The 
 offer proved tempting to the needy King, but he had 
 not time to close with it before he died, in 1625. 
 
 The Graces , 1626. — Charles I., soon after his ac- 
 cession, was confronted by an earnest petition from his 
 Irish subjects for the relief of their grievances, civil 
 and religious. They asked from him certain “ graces,” 
 over fifty in number, of which the most important 
 were : That sixty years 7 possession of land should 
 ensure the owner against resumption by the Crown; 
 that the lords, gentlemen, and freeholders of Connaught 
 and Clare, should be admitted to enrol the surrenders 
 made in the last reign, and should be confirmed in their 
 estates; that an Act should be passed for a general 
 pardon; that certain grievous monopolies should be re- 
 voked or limited ; that the soldiers should be restrained 
 from oppression in levying taxes ; that the Castle 
 Chamber — a tribunal accused of oppression — should be 
 restricted in its jurisdiction ; that certain gross abuses 
 in the Church should be reformed ; that Eoman Catholic 
 lawyers and others should be dispensed from taking 
 the Oath of Supremacy, and should be allowed to take 
 a new Oath of Allegiance, the wording of which did 
 not offend their consciences. In return for these graces 
 the Irish agreed to pay <£120,000 to the King, who 
 gladly closed with this bargain. More than one-third 
 of the subsidy was paid into the treasury; but, un- 
 happily, history affords no evidence of the fulfilment 
 of the King's part of the compact. 
 
THE WENTWORTH SCOURGE. 
 
 6 3 
 
 Wentworth comes as Deputy, 1633. — Ireland, with 
 the “ graces ” dangling before her, was now to undergo 
 a period of despotism. The famous Thomas Wentworth, 
 afterwards Lord Strafford, was sent over as Deputy, 
 being a man after the King’s heart. Wentworth did not 
 believe in parliamentary institutions, or in the capacity 
 of the many to govern. He thought the absolutism of 
 the few more conducive to order, and he came to Ire- 
 land to set up absolutism, and to train up an Irish 
 army in implicit obedience to himself and to the King, 
 so that it might at some future time be useful in sub- 
 duing the sturdy English. He set himself to pursue 
 his objects with a firm purpose and an ungracious 
 manner. His first care was to show all men that he 
 meant to be master; his second, to remodel and im- 
 prove the army, which was wretchedly inefficient ; his 
 third, to get money for his work. 
 
 Wentworth's Parliaments, 1634. — Wentworth an- 
 nounced that he intended to hold two parliaments— 
 one in the summer, and one in the winter ; the former 
 to obtain the necessary supplies, the latter to enact as 
 many of the graces as he thought desirable. The first, 
 the King’s Parliament, was carefully packed and astutely 
 handled. Judiciously playing off Protestants against 
 Catholics, the Deputy succeeded in getting liberal sup- 
 plies. The second, the People’s Parliament, met on the 
 4th of November, 1634, and transacted certain busi- 
 ness deemed necessary by the Deputy. The matter 
 of the graces Lord Wentworth lightly passed over as 
 of little moment. He adroitly explained to the obse- 
 quious Parliament that many of the articles among the 
 graces demanded by the Irish were only temporary 
 expedients for which the need had now passed away, 
 
6 4 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 that others were meeter to he trusted to the honour- 
 able care of the subordinate officers of the Govern- 
 ment, many more to his own honour and justice. 
 Some few he passed into acts ; but in two points the 
 Deputy thought fit to deny the request of the Com- 
 mons — the limitation of the King’s title to sixty years 
 backwards, and the confirmation of the landowners of 
 Connaught in their estates. As these two points were 
 the most important of all, Wentworth’s refusal to en- 
 tertain them was practically a rejection of the “ graces,” 
 and a breach of the compact for which the King had 
 already received a substantial consideration. 
 
 Wentworth deals with the Irish Church. — The 
 Church of Ireland was at this time in a deplorable 
 condition. Not only had poverty and ancient op- 
 pression disfigured the Church, but it appeared to 
 Wentworth that the demon of dissent was clutching 
 at those who should have been gathered into her fold. 
 Throughout the length and breadth of the land were 
 obstinate Koman Catholics, and in the North were the 
 Scotch settlers, sturdy in their Presbyterianism. Went- 
 worth set out to reform all things, with the help and 
 advice of his friend Laud. He sternly restored all 
 temporalities which he considered to have been stolen 
 or wiled away from the Church. He planned to restore 
 the fabric of the churches and to reform the morals of 
 the clergy, and he laboured in all ways “ to bring the 
 kingdom of Ireland to a conformity in worship, doc- 
 trine, and discipline with the Church of England.” 
 He procured Laud to be chosen Chancellor of the 
 University of Dublin. A High Commission Court 
 was established, and the same ecclesiastical policy 
 which harassed England and incensed Scotland was 
 
THE WENTWORTH SCOURGE. 65 
 
 pursued in Ireland, not without some success in 
 temporal matters. In the matter of doctrine, how- 
 ever, there still remained much to he accomplished if 
 Wentworth’s designs w r ere to he fulfilled. 
 
 Wentworth claims Connaught for the Crown. — Pend- 
 ing the conversion of the recusants to the right way, 
 the Deputy busied himself in snatching more lands 
 and money for the King. The victims were the Con- 
 naught landowners, whose titles had been purposely 
 left unconfirmed. The Deputy claimed the whole 
 province for the Crown, in right of the ancient Con- 
 quest of Henry II., and on similar remote pleas. Ros- 
 common, Sligo, and Mayo at once submitted ; but in 
 Galway the jury dared to dispute the King’s right, 
 saying that Henry II. ’s only title was the willing sub- 
 mission of the inhabitants. In anger the Deputy 
 brought the refractory jury to trial. They were fined 
 four thousand pounds each, and sentenced to imprison- 
 ment till it was paid ; they were further required to 
 make acknowledgment, upon their knees in court and 
 at the assizes, of their offence in refusing to base their 
 verdict upon the evidence produced. This sentence 
 was duly passed and recorded, though it was never 
 completely executed. Juries in future were not em- 
 boldened to oppose the wish of the Deputy, and the 
 King’s title to Connaught was accordingly acknowledged. 
 Money, however, was more useful than land; so in 
 most, cases the landowners were not dispossessed, hut 
 allowed to retain possession on payment of heavy fines. 
 In this respect only Wentworth was impartial in his 
 treatment of the two nationalities. English gold was 
 every whit as good as Irish, and the City of London, 
 having failed to fulfil some of the covenants whereby 
 
66 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 it held Coleraine, was brought to hook, and the Star 
 Chamber fined it £70,000. Thus in many ways 
 Wentworth gathered in money for the King, and for 
 the support of the Irish army which was intended to 
 crush the liberties of England. 
 
 Wentworth encourages Irish Trade. — One good 
 thing Wentworth did in Ireland — he strove earnestly 
 to encourage Irish trade, and to remove the burdens 
 imposed on it. He allowed no new monopolies to be 
 granted; he cleared the Irish Sea of pirates, so that 
 the merchandize of Ireland might be safely conveyed 
 away. It is true he discouraged the Irish woollen 
 manufacture lest it should injure the wool trade of 
 England; but to recompense the people for this he 
 brought flax seed and skilled workmen from the Con- 
 tinent, and greatly improved the linen manufacture, 
 which still flourishes in Ireland. 
 
 Fall of Strafford , 1640. — In 1640 Wentworth was 
 created Earl of Strafford and Lord-Lieutenant of Ire- 
 land ; but troubles in England soon put an end to his 
 rule. The King in his hopeless struggle to impose an 
 absolute rule on the people of England and Scotland 
 called to his trusty servant for help. Money and men 
 were forthcoming from well-dragooned Ireland; but 
 both were wasted by Charles I. The anger of the 
 people of England, not yet daring openly to attack 
 the monarch, fell upon his agent, Strafford. He was 
 impeached in England, and condemned to death : he 
 died for his sins against the liberties of England, not 
 of Ireland. That unhappy country, seething with 
 rage and grievances new and old drifted on to the 
 insurrection of 1641, 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CROMWELLIAN SETTLEMENT, 
 
 The Outbreak of the Rebellion, 1641. — The great 
 rebellion of 1641, sudden as its outburst might seem 
 to the superficial observer, had in reality been long pre- 
 paring. Persecution and spoliation had kindled anger 
 and hatred against the English, and had inspired, not 
 without reason, a universal dread of further oppression. 
 Events in England and Scotland hastened and en- 
 couraged the Irish to revolt. A rumour spread that 
 the Scots were coming over — Bible in one hand, sword 
 in the other — to root out Roman Catholicism, and the 
 rumour intensified the growing fear and thirst for 
 vengeance. 
 
 The flame burst out in Ulster. An attempt was 
 made to seize Dublin Castle, but it failed through the 
 treachery of one of the conspirators, and the Pale 
 remained for a while unaffected by the rebellion which 
 raged in the North. Lord Chichester writes to the 
 King : “ The Irish, in the northern parts of your 
 Majesty’s kingdom of Ireland, two nights last past, 
 did rise with force, and have taken Charlimont, Don- 
 gannon, Tonragee, and the Newry, with your Majesty’s 
 stores there — townes all of good consequence, the far- 
 thest within forty miles of this place, and have slain 
 
68 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 only one man, and they are advancing near to these 
 parts.” 
 
 Extract from the Official Report of the Rebellion . — 
 Steadily and swiftly the Ulster men advanced in their 
 work of uprooting and driving out. Every English 
 man, woman, and child was ruthlessly torn from home 
 and driven away, towards Dublin and the English 
 Pale. The contemporary “ Eeport ” says : “ The city 
 of Dublin is the common receptacle of these miserable 
 sufferers. Here are many thousands of poor people, 
 sometimes of good respects and estates, now in want 
 and sickness, whereof many daily die, notwithstanding 
 the great care of those tender-hearted Christians (whom 
 God bless); without whom all of them had before 
 now perished. . . .We, with such other of our 
 brethren, ours and their wives and children, coming on 
 foot hither through ways tedious and full of peril, 
 being every minute assaulted, the end of one but lead- 
 ing to the next danger, one quite stripping off what 
 others had in pity left. So that in nakedness we have 
 recovered this our city of refuge, where we live in all 
 extremity of want, not having wherewithal to subsist, 
 or to put bread in our mouths. Of those of our 
 brethren who have perished on the way hither, some 
 of their wives and children do yet remain. The chil- 
 dren also of some of them are wholly deprived of 
 their parents and left for deserted orphans.” 
 
 Conduct of the Lords Justices. — The strange conduct 
 of the Lords Justices, in delaying to deal with the 
 rebellion, and their obstinate determination, when at 
 length they were roused to action, to push the Irish to 
 desperation by their hard and unconciliatory attitude 
 and measures, can only be accounted for by accepting 
 
THE CROMWELLIAN SETTLEMENT. 69 
 
 the truth of the common rumour — that they thirsted 
 for new lands in confiscation, and so allowed, and even 
 caused, the spread of the rebellion. The opponents of 
 the King in England aided the Lords Justices in this 
 matter. 
 
 Act of 1641 and its consequences . — The Act passed 
 in December, 1641, which doomed the Roman Catholic 
 religion in Ireland to extinction, changed the face of 
 affairs. The rebellion of Ulster became the rebellion 
 of all Ireland. Anglo-Korman and Celt, moderate and 
 loyal Catholics, as well as obstinate and rebellious re- 
 cusants, men of all shades of political opinion, joined 
 the ranks of the rebels : the long war of race suddenly 
 became a more deadly war — a war of religion. It was 
 the Catholic against the Protestant, against the stern 
 and unyielding Puritan. 
 
 General vieio of the Rebellion . — It is impossible in 
 this brief sketch to unravel the twisted threads of the 
 history of this great rebellion. Charles I. meddled 
 with it in his dark and tortuous way, and it was not 
 always clear that the rebels were not fighting under 
 the King’s orders. In England the power was steadily 
 leaving the King and going to the Parliament, and it is 
 certain that it was no new idea with Charles to fight 
 against his rebels in England with a faithful Irish 
 army. English affairs were too urgent to allow the 
 Long Parliament to engage seriously in the work of 
 suppressing the rebellion. In the early spring of 1642 
 however they invited the English nation at large to 
 provide money for the purpose, offering portions of the 
 fair and coveted land of Ireland to all who would come 
 forward. This act increased the frenzy of the Irish 
 people, who saw that they themselves were to disappear 
 
7o 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 with their religion. They pressed on to the fray in 
 blind rage, quickened by terror, and the soldiers 
 charged with the duty of opposing them caught the 
 fury, and acted with the utmost cruelty, so that this 
 rebellion and its suppression are marked by terrible 
 scenes of horror. There w T ere many murders on both 
 sides, and many deaths from exposure and hard usage ; 
 but the fable, invented and circulated by the enemies 
 of the Irish nation and the coveters of the Irish land, 
 that the rebellion began with a wholesale and organized 
 massacre, is proved, by an accumulation of weighty 
 testimony, to be absolutely untrue. 
 
 For more than seven years Ireland was distracted by 
 endless faction and intrigue. The general situation is 
 thus described by a recent writer : “ While the waver- 
 ing struggle between the King and the Parliament was 
 going on in England, four factions, like four vipers 
 twining together in inextricable confusion, fought, con- 
 spired, and intrigued in Ireland — the Catholic con- 
 federates, the Catholic nobility of the Pale, the 
 Protestant Royalists, and the Parliamentarians.” Last 
 of all came the “ curse o’ Crummell,” as it was gene- 
 rally, and not unjustly, called. 
 
 Cromwell Lands in Ireland , 1649. — On the 14th of 
 August, 1649, Cromwell landed in Ireland. At his 
 coming all disorderly warfare ceased : his stern and 
 terrible soldiers, carrying out as they believed a divine 
 mission, proceeded to the work of conquest, which in 
 their hands proved to be little less than extermination. 
 Stronghold fell after stronghold, massacre succeeded 
 massacre. That of Drogheda was the worst. Cromwell 
 stayed less than a year in Ireland, but he broke the 
 back of the Irish resistance. Fire, the sword, and 
 
THE CROMWELLIAN SETTLEMENT. 71 
 
 starvation are potent weapons. Cromwell and his suc- 
 cessors in command so wielded them, that when peace 
 was made, in 1652, Ireland lay exhausted and helpless. 
 Over 600,000 men, women, and children, being one- 
 third of the entire population, had perished. Corn 
 and cattle had been destroyed, the land lay waste, and 
 was ravaged by wolves. 
 
 The Settlement Planned . — The time had come for a 
 fresh plantation, to be effected on a larger scale than 
 had ever been attempted before ; but fire, the sword, hun- 
 ger and pestilence, had not even yet sufficiently cleared 
 the land. Foreign princes were allowed to recruit in 
 Ireland, and over 30,000 of the flower of the Irish nation 
 sailed away to join the armies of Spain, France, and 
 Poland. Many thousands of women and children were 
 sold into West Indian slavery. The wasted people 
 hardly dared to cry out against their doom. They were 
 to be driven bodily out of the three provinces of Ulster, 
 Munster, and Leinster, and penned up in barren Con- 
 naught, which was a convenient land for the purposes 
 of banishment and isolation, being almost an island, 
 surrounded by the sea and the Shannon. Then the 
 three emptied provinces were to be planted with 
 English settlers. Land to the value of £360,000 was 
 due to the adventurers who had advanced money 
 ten years before for the army of Ireland. These 
 adventurers were to draw lots for their land. The 
 Government kept for its own purposes four counties — 
 Dublin, Kildare, Carlow, and Cork ; also all towns 
 and all Church lands. The rest of Ireland was to be 
 for the officers and soldiers of the army, about to be 
 disbanded. 
 
 The Irish Ordered to Transplant , 1653.— In the 
 
7.2 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 year 1653, on the 26th of September, Ireland was de- 
 clared to he the property of the English soldiers and 
 adventurers, and the Irish were ordered to transplant 
 themselves to Connaught. On every man, woman, or 
 child, of Irish race left east of the Shannon after May 
 1st, 1654, was pronounced sentence of death. A 
 mockery of an exception was made. Those Irish who 
 could prove that they had borne a constant good affec- 
 tion to the Parliament of England were allowed to 
 stay; but to prove that constant good affection was 
 almost beyond the power of man. A cry, a despairing 
 cry, for time rose up from the afflicted nation. Might 
 they be suffered to gather in their last harvest? 
 Grudgingly this leave was given. Connaught was so 
 bleak and bare that the unhappy ones tried hard 
 to avoid the journey. Eut the hirelings of the 
 Government and the English thirsting for land kept 
 a stern guard, and hounded them out. Prison and 
 death were to some preferable to transplanting. In 
 the year 1655, on April 3rd, one Edward Hetherington 
 was hanged ; and on his back and his breast were dis- 
 played the words, “For not transplanting.” A letter 
 written from Dublin in the same year says : “ The 
 business of transplanting is not yet finished. The 
 Irish in many places choose death rather than remove 
 from their wonted habitations. But the State is 
 resolved to see it done.” 
 
 The State resolved, but resolutions are not always 
 carried out. To drive out the Irish from their homes, 
 to lay waste the land, and plant it with English, 
 that was accomplished: but to keep those English 
 from the subtle Irish spell was not possible. The 
 plan was — leaving Connaught as an Irish state, and the 
 
THE CROMWELLIAN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 73 
 
 Pale as an English state — to plant the rest of Ireland 
 with settlers who should keep as labourers certain 
 Irish authorized to remain. These Irish were to be 
 Anglicized. They were to speak the English language, 
 to copy the English manners, to conform to the Eng- 
 lish Protestant worship, to leave their Irish names, 
 especially the Os and the Macs, and to build chimneys 
 like the English. These strict ordinances, like many 
 others of like import, failed greatly of their purpose. 
 The towns of Ireland seized upon by the English 
 Parliament were emptied of their inhabitants, and in 
 some cases planted with English settlers. Sometimes 
 the English settlers were not forthcoming, then the 
 towns fell into ruins. 
 
 The Desolation of Ireland . — The Cromwellian settle- 
 ment left Ireland desolate. Five-sixths of the popu- 
 lation had perished or gone over seas. The wretched 
 ones who remained were preyed upon by wolves. 
 Those in whom any spirit was left fled out into the 
 wilds and became Tories, as they were called. The 
 desolate land was ravaged by three great plagues, said 
 Major Morgan, member for Wicklow County in 1657. 
 “We have three beasts to destroy that lay burthens 
 upon us. The first is the wolf . . . the second beast 
 is a priest . . . the third beast is a Tory.” In hunt- 
 ing these beasts the loyal settlers spent their time. 
 The second beast gave terrible trouble; for although 
 the Koman Catholic religion was strictly prohibited by 
 law it still grew and flourished, and persecution only 
 strengthened its power. The dispossessed and ex- 
 asperated Irish fled beyond the reach of the law, and 
 formed secret and murderous bands which became an 
 abiding terror to the planters. Gentlemen were 
 
74 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND . 
 
 treacherously called by familiar voices from their fire- 
 side, and basely murdered on their own thresholds ; 
 others were shot dead as they walked unsuspiciously 
 about their grounds and lands, and the murderers 
 escaped undetected. All attempts to bring the crimi- 
 nals to justice were frustrated by the inability of the 
 English to speak the Irish language, and by the sym- 
 pathy of Irish with Irish, which induced the innocent 
 to screen the guilty. 
 
CHAPTEK Y. 
 
 THE WARS OF WILLIAM III. 
 
 The Restoration , 1660. — The accession of Charles II. 
 raised hopes in the minds of the dispossessed Irish. 
 They prayed the new King to re-establish them in their 
 lands ; but he did not dare to disturb to any serious 
 extent the recent settlements. He ousted some few of 
 the English, and restored a few of the Irish ; but the 
 general balance of wealth and power remained as left 
 by the Cromwellian settlement. Outward quiet and 
 comparative prosperity marked the reign of Charles II. 
 in Ireland. In the brief reign of his brother and 
 successor hope again stirred in the Irish breast. The 
 Irish Catholics raised their heads, and rivalled James II. 
 in his insolence and folly. 
 
 In the turmoil of the Eevolution and the years that 
 followed it Ireland became the battle-ground of the 
 long strife which then disturbed Europe — the strife in 
 which despotism, civil and religious, was personated by 
 Louis XI Y. of France, and freedom found a champion 
 in William III. of England. Louis saw that if James 
 II. could become the Catholic King of Catholic Ireland, 
 and thence reconquer England, and rule as the willing 
 and grateful slave of France, William would be worsted, 
 and practically Protestantism and freedom throughout 
 
76 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 Europe would have received a blow from which it would 
 not easily recover. Therefore help from France was 
 freely given to James. 
 
 An army was not indeed given by Louis XIY. ; for 
 an army under Tyrconnel only awaited the landing 
 of James in Ireland; but all else necessary for a 
 campaign was forthcoming — arms, money, generals, and 
 last, but not least, a French diplomatist, who should 
 guide all things in the interests of France — the Count 
 of Avaux. 
 
 James II. lands in Ireland , 1689. — Parties were 
 sharply divided and warfare already afoot when, early 
 in 1689, James II. landed in Ireland. The leading 
 spirit in the land was Eichard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel, 
 who, first as Commander-in-chief of the forces in Ire- 
 land, then as Lord-Deputy, had laboured assiduously, 
 and with great success, to convert the Protestant 
 ascendancy in that land into Catholic ascendancy. 
 From all important posts, civil and military, from the 
 rank and file of the army, and from the Parliament, 
 Protestants had disappeared, and Catholics had taken 
 their place. Many leading Protestants had fled to 
 England ; those who remained were crushed and dumb, 
 except in the two towns of Enniskillen and London- 
 derry. The Catholics met James II. with much 
 enthusiasm and loyalty. They looked to him to 
 establish them in their religion and in the lands which 
 they had lost under the Cromwellian settlement, and for 
 that reward they were ready to fight for him to the death. 
 Here was the difficulty of James II. ’s position. To 
 content the Irish Catholics would be to discontent the 
 English and Scotch Protestants, and so to shut himself 
 off for ever from his lost Kingdoms. This was by no 
 
THE WARS OF WILLIAM. 
 
 77 
 
 means his wish. He therefore set himself to the task, 
 impossible in that age, of winning all Ireland by con- 
 ciliating Catholics and Protestants alike. James II. 
 landed at Kinsale on March 12th, 1689. He made his 
 way to Dublin, conciliating and befriending the Protes- 
 tants as he went. He summoned a Parliament to meet 
 on the 7th of May, and then betook himself to the 
 North. 
 
 James II. goes to the North , 1689. — Enniskillen and 
 Londonderry were the only two strongholds of Pro- 
 testantism left in Ireland, and against them the armies 
 faithful to James were vainly striving. James joined 
 the besiegers of Londonderry, who were under the 
 command of General Richard Hamilton. The arrival 
 of the King outside the walls of Londonderry only 
 stimulated the energy and devotion of its heroic in- 
 habitants. Lundy, the governor of the city, inclining 
 to surrender and stooping to treachery, roused the fierce 
 anger of the citizens against himself, and was forced to 
 fly. One Major Baker, and a clergyman named Walker, 
 took joint command of the garrison, and encouraged it 
 to a sturdy resistance, in spite of hunger and exhaus- 
 tion. Word was sent to James II. that any messenger 
 he sent should be fired at, and the baffled King turned 
 southward, leaving with the besiegers two of his foreign 
 allies, Marshal Maumont and General Rosen. In the 
 end the citizens were victorious, and to the men of 
 Londonderry, as well as to the Enniskilleners, belongs 
 the honour of having upheld the cause of Protestant- 
 ism in Ireland while William of Orange was busy 
 establishing himself on the throne of England. 
 
 The Irish Parliament assembles , May , 1689. — James 
 II., after his short and useless visit to the North, re- 
 
7 * 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 turned to Dublin to begin the work of legislation. 
 The Parliament which assembled was almost wholly 
 composed of Catholics, the sons of the men whom 
 Charles II. at his restoration had not dared to reinstate. 
 They went their own way, and James II., to his dismay, 
 found that the Irish Commons were as stubborn as 
 the English. The first act of this Parliament was to 
 acknowledge James II. as King ; then money was 
 granted for the King’s war, but on one condition only — 
 the reversal of the Cromwellian settlement. 
 
 Act of Attainder , 1689. — Side by side with this 
 agrarian measure came the great Act of Attainder, 
 providing that over two thousand of the chief men in 
 Ireland would be declared to be guilty of high treason, 
 and their lands forfeited, if they did not within a short 
 time submit themselves to King James II. It was not 
 really expected that these rebels would return to their 
 allegiance; indeed the King had already in his mind 
 disposed of their lands. He meant to give them to such 
 of his loyal subjects as should be left homeless by the 
 reversal of the Cromwellian settlement. After a session 
 of somewhat more than two months the Parliament 
 was prorogued, towards the end of July, 1689. 
 
 Landing of Schomberg , 1689. — A month later 
 General Schomberg arrived, with a small force of 
 about six thousand men, to reduce Ireland to the 
 obedience of William and Mary, already the established 
 sovereigns of England and Scotland. He landed at 
 Carrickfergus, in Ulster, that province which, through 
 the victories of the Enniskilleners and the men of 
 Londonderry, might be considered as already won for 
 William. The rest of Ireland, stirred by native en- 
 thusiasm and religious zeal, rose up at his coming, and 
 
THE WARS OF WILLIAM. 
 
 79 
 
 armed men in great numbers flocked to the standard 
 of James II., who encamped near to Schomberg. The 
 great army of the King, 30,000 in number, was eager 
 to give battle, but the foreign generals, skilled in war, 
 and having no confidence in raw and undisciplined 
 troops, restrained them. The veteran Schomberg, 
 wisely heeding his small numbers and his ignorance of 
 the country, also remained quiet. The two armies sat 
 watching each other through the deluge of an Irish 
 autumn ; bad and insufficient food and exposure to the 
 weather brought pestilence to the invaders, and when 
 in November both armies prepared to go into winter 
 quarters, one-third of Schomberg’s small force had 
 perished. 
 
 The winter of 1689-90 was wasted by James II. in 
 Dublin, while his rival was preparing in England a 
 large force, well armed and provisioned, with which to 
 subdue Ireland. Louis XIY. did his best for his in- 
 competent ally : in return for four Irish regiments 
 drafted into the French service he sent over a force of 
 over 6000 men, trained soldiers, well officered and 
 armed, under the command of Count Lauzun. General 
 Kosen was recalled, and Avaux, who could not get on 
 with the indolent Stuart, returned to France in his 
 company. Lauzun saw at once the danger of James 
 II. ’s want of energy; he drew up a paper in which he 
 urged wise and brisk measures of preparation for the 
 field. The King read the paper, agreed in great measure 
 to its suggestions, but still very little was done. 
 
 In May, 1690, Schomberg was afoot. His troops, 
 greatly reinforced from England, numbered 30,000 
 men, well armed and provisioned. He opened the 
 campaign by taking Charlemont, the last strong place 
 
8o 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 faithful to James II. in Ulster. It took James a 
 month to get himself ready for the field. Towards 
 the end of June he betook himself and his army to 
 Dundalk, which he selected for his headquarters. 
 
 William III . lands in Ireland , June 14 th, 1690.— 
 On the 24th of June, James II. learned that his son-in- 
 law had landed at Carrickfergus ten days before, and 
 was already marching southwards. The position which 
 the Irish army had taken up was not suitable for a 
 battle. Lauzun therefore advised and conducted a 
 retreat towards the valley of the Boyne. The army 
 now led by William III. had gained ttbout 6000 men 
 since, under Schomberg, it opened the campaign. 
 Many nationalities were represented by its soldiers. 
 There were the English, the Englishry of Ireland, the 
 Huguenots of Erance, Scots, Dutch, Germans, and 
 Danes. These last caused the superstitious Irish to 
 quake with fear; for an old prophecy had said that 
 the descendants of the Ostmen would one day destroy 
 the people of Ireland. William commanded in person ; 
 under him among others were the veteran Marshal 
 Schomberg, and his son Count Meinhard Schomberg. 
 
 Battle of the Boyne , July 1 st, 1690. — William III. 
 was most anxious to press on an engagement ; James 
 II. was as anxious to avoid it. The Irish pressed on 
 towards Dublin ; the English followed them, and over- 
 took them in the valley of the Boyne. In accordance 
 with his fate James was in an almost desperate position; 
 but there was no help for it now, and the battle must 
 be fought. At daybreak on the following day, July 
 1st, all were astir. The army of William III. forced 
 the fords of the river, and what followed was rather a 
 rout than a battle. The Irish horse fought bravely, 
 
THE WARS OF WILLIAM. 
 
 81 
 
 but in vain ; the Irish foot were base in their cowardice. 
 The disciplined French troops under Lauzun were led 
 by him early in the day to a point some miles away 
 from the scene of the chief encounter, in order to 
 secure the line of retreat to Dublin. Thus they were 
 withdrawn from the fight itself, though they did good 
 service in covering the retreat of the Irish. James II., 
 tenderly careful of his safety, did not wait to see 
 the battle out. He made for Dublin, stopped long 
 enough in the capital to sneer at the troops who had 
 lost the day for him, then fled to France to his 
 faithful ally, Louis XIY. His two generals, Lauzun 
 and Tyrconnel, led away the remnant of their army 
 from the field of battle. There was no serious pursuit. 
 Passing through Dublin, they made their way to 
 Limerick, carrying with them the artillery. The 
 victorious army marched to Dublin. A public thanks- 
 giving was held in the Cathedral of St. Patrick, 
 William appearing in state with his crown on his head. 
 The brave old Schomberg, who had perished in the 
 battle, was buried in the cathedral. 
 
 Fighting in the West . — From the capital William III. 
 proceeded to take Wexford, Waterford, and other 
 places. Then he made for the West, intending to cap- 
 ture Limerick, and so make an end of the war. Before 
 he reached his destination the face of affairs changed. 
 Lauzun and Tyrconnel declared that Limerick was un- 
 tenable. They withdrew to Galway, taking with them 
 the foreign troops. The Irish army, 20,000 in number, 
 remained to defend Limerick under the command of 
 Boisselot, a French brigadier. In spite of the gloomy 
 forebodings of Lauzun and his party, the garrison was 
 not unsuccessful in repelling William III. The King 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 had moved in advance of his artillery, and the Irish 
 determined to prevent his recovering it. Under the 
 command of Colonel Patrick Sarsfield an Irish force 
 stole out of Limerick by night, surprised the King’s 
 artillery, and destroyed it. Nothing could make up for 
 the loss of the siege-train. After an unsuccessful assault 
 William raised the siege and returned to England, 
 dreading the autumn rains for his soldiers. An expedi- 
 tion under the Earl of Marlborough, which captured 
 Cork and Kinsale, wound up the autumn campaign. 
 
 Athlone is taken , 1691. — The year 1691 saw the 
 end of the Irish campaign. The English forces were 
 commanded by Baron Ginkel. In the Irish camp 
 the French general Saint Buth, somewhat hampered by 
 Tyrconnel, held the chief command. The summer 
 had come before operations began. In June Ginkel 
 attacked the town of Athlone, well fortified, strongly 
 garrisoned, and supported by Saint Euth, who lay en- 
 camped at a short distance. Eor ten days the besiegers 
 held out; then the town was stormed and taken, 
 chiefly owing to the negligence of Saint Euth. 
 
 The Battle of Aughrim , 1691. — Mortified by this 
 defeat, the French general sought his revenge in a 
 pitched battle. He drew up his forces on the heights 
 of Aughrim, and sought to bar the westward march of 
 the conquerors. Tyrconnel had retired to Limerick. 
 On the 12th of July the English army joined battle, 
 and a terrible fray ensued. The fortune of war long 
 wavered. At length a cannon ball struck down Saint 
 Euth, and with him passed away the fortunes of the Irish 
 army. Seven thousand fell on the field. The rest 
 fled to Galway and Limerick, the last strongholds of 
 their race. 
 
I HE WARS OF WILLIAM. 
 
 83 
 
 Surrender of Galioay and Limerick . — Galway did 
 not long hold out. Ginkel offered a general amnesty 
 and toleration to the Catholics, and the town submitted, 
 wearied with the hopeless struggle ; the garrison, with 
 D’Usson, the French commander, retiring to Limerick. 
 All the hope of the Irish was now shut up in 
 Limerick, but that town was as a house divided against 
 itself. D’Usson, Saint Buth’s subordinate and suc- 
 cessor, was in favour of stout resistance, hoping to drag 
 on the siege till the autumn rains should drive Ginkel 
 into winter quarters, and counting on fresh help from 
 France in the spring. Tyrconnel, who represented the 
 Irish party, had lost all hope of success ; he was only 
 awaiting James II. ’s leave to surrender when he died, 
 struck by apoplexy. The brave Sarsfield was then left 
 as head of the Irish party, and the counsel of despair 
 prevailed. 
 
 Treaty of Limerick , 1691. — The besieged opened 
 negotiations, and in the name of the Irish people 
 demanded, as a condition of their surrender, freedom 
 for Catholics in the exercise of their religion, and 
 equal civil rights. Though Ginkel did not dare to 
 grant so comprehensive a demand, he went as far as he 
 could. The Treaty of Limerick, as finally concluded, 
 ignored the matter of civil rights, but promised to the 
 Irish Eoman Catholics such freedom in their religion 
 as they had enjoyed in the time of King Charles II. 
 The later history of Ireland is a justification of the 
 title that Limerick has since acquired, of “ the City of 
 the Broken Treaty.” A military treaty gave permission 
 to all Irish soldiers who wished to cling to their ancient 
 cause to enter the French army, and in pursuance of 
 this agreement 12,000 men quitted Ireland for France. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PENAL LAWS . 
 
 General View of Irish Affairs in the Eighteenth 
 Century . — The defeated and depopulated country was 
 now to undergo a period of steady oppression, directed, 
 on the one hand, against the religion of the majority ; 
 on the other, against the commerce and material 
 prosperity of all. This oppression increased with the 
 years of the eighteenth century. The stir of the 
 Scottish rebellions of 1715 and 1745 found no response 
 in Ireland; but. in the minds of the Irish, the thought 
 grew and strengthened, that all their evils came from 
 dependence on England. The successful revolt of the 
 American colonies, and the mutinous temper engendered 
 by it, encouraged the uprising which led to the emanci- 
 pation of the Irish Parliament in 1782 with all its 
 consequences. It is true that not all the guilt of Irish 
 misery and oppression must be laid on English 
 shoulders. It must be borne in mind that often, when 
 the English government was prepared with wise and 
 liberal measures, the Irish Protestants, narrow and 
 dogmatic, prevented the proper reform. By a sad mis- 
 chance the good intentions both of English and Irish 
 were seldom carried out. 
 
 We must now attempt to chronicle this course of 
 legislation which we have characterized as oppression, 
 
THE PENAL LA WS. 85 
 
 beginning with the laws against the Catholics, com- 
 monly known as the Penal Code. 
 
 The Penal Laics , 1696. — An Act of the English 
 Parliament, passed in 1696, was the first step. It re- 
 quired from members of both Houses of the Irish Par- 
 liament the Oaths of Allegiance and Abjuration, and a 
 Declaration against Transubstantiation. Thus the 
 Catholics were virtually expelled. The same requisi- 
 tion was imposed upon * every person holding office 
 ecclesiastical, civil, or military;'* so that by a single 
 stroke the Irish Catholics were thrust out of all posi- 
 tions of importance. Then the Irish Parliament, 
 ultra-Protestant in its new form, went on with the 
 work. 
 
 An Act was passed forbidding Catholics to send 
 their children abroad for education, or to have them 
 taught at home in any but Protestant schools. 
 
 Another Act was passed forbidding Catholics to carry, 
 or even to possess, arms, on penalty, for the first offence, 
 of a heavy fine ; for the second, of imprisonment for 
 life and forfeiture of all goods. 
 
 In 1698 it was enacted that ^ all bishops, Jesuits 9 
 monks, friars, and r regular clergy,* should leave Ire- 
 land, never to return, on penalty of being hung, drawn, 
 and quartered." The parish priests were allowed to 
 remain ; but they were compelled, by an Act passed 
 six years later, to be registered, and to give security 
 for good behaviour. 
 
 In 1698 an Act was also passed to prevent the 
 intermarriage of Catholics and Protestants, except in 
 certain specified cases, and to facilitate in those cases 
 the passing of Catholic dowers into Protestant hands. 
 
 In 1699 an Act was passed forbidding Catholics to 
 
86 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 practise as solicitors without taking the oaths on 
 penalty of £100. This fine was afterwards doubled. 
 
 These stringent Acts greatly failed of their purpose. 
 It was always the way in Ireland that savage laws 
 should exist side by side with a weak executive. 
 More laws and stronger were accordingly passed with 
 the intent to take the land from the Catholics, and 
 keep it from them for ever. 
 
 In 1704 it was enacted that any- one perverting a 
 Protestant should he liable to Ae penalties' of prae- 
 munire ; that is, imprisonment for life, and forfeiture 
 of all goods. Catholics were forbidden to act as 
 guardians under penalty of £500 fine. Catholic 
 fathers were compelled to hand over their Protestant 
 children to guardians of the reformed faith. The 
 eldest son of a Catholic, being a Protestant, inherited 
 all his father’s estate; but the Catholic sons of a 
 Catholic father divided the estate, and took share and 
 share alike. 
 
 Ho Catholic was allowed to purchase land or to hold 
 a mortgage on land. A Catholic might not hold a 
 lease of longer than thirty-one years, and that only on 
 certain conditions. After a' certain specified date no 
 Catholic might inherit any estate without first changing 
 his faith. 
 
 Ho Catholic might vote at an election without taking 
 the oaths. 
 
 Ho Catholic might settle in Galway or Limerick. 
 Catholics already inhabiting those cities must give 
 security for good behaviour. 
 
 All pilgrimages were declared riotous and unlawful. 
 Pilgrims to holy places were ordered to be fined 10s., 
 or whipped tit the cart’s tail. 
 
THE PENAL LAWS . 
 
 87 
 
 In 1710 new and stronger laws were again passed, 
 all with the intent to keep land and learning away 
 from the Catholics, and to encourage informers. 
 
 Finally, in 1733, all Catholics were disfranchised, 
 both as regards Parliamentary and municipal elections. 
 
 Effect of the Penal Laws . — These laws succeeded in 
 tirusting out of Ireland the flower of the Catholic 
 gentry, who lived and rose to eminence in foreign 
 lands. But they failed to turn from their religion the 
 mass of the peasants, who clung to the land, and grew 
 more and more devoted to their Church. 
 
 Commercial Legislation . — In like manner as the 
 Catholics were hunted out of Ireland by the laws 
 against their religion, so were the Protestant colonists 
 reduced to poverty, and finally driven out, by the laws 
 destroying the trade of Ireland. 
 
 The commercial legislation was inspired by the fear 
 and jealousy of the English traders. The reign of 
 Charles II. began in Ireland with comparative pros- 
 perity. The rich pasture lands brought much trade to 
 the colonists ; but lest English farmers should suffer, it 
 was enacted that no Irish cattle nor dairy produce 
 should be imported into England. A great and flourish- 
 ing trade was thus abolished. 
 
 In pursuance of the same policy Ireland was shut 
 off from all trade with the colonies. The Irish 
 wool was esteemed to be the best in Europe it was 
 feared that it would drive the English wool from the 
 market, and by repeated restrictive Acts the trade 
 in Irish wool was ruined. 
 
 In 1699, it was enacted that no Irish manufactured 
 wool should be exported to any country whatever. 
 The flourishing and legitimate trade thus destroyed 
 
 \ 
 
88 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 was replaced by a smuggling trade with France and 
 other Catholic countries. 
 
 Thousands of loyal Protestant colonists were driven 
 from Ireland by the restrictions placed on them when- 
 ever they turned. The only trade allowed to Ireland 
 was the linen manufacture. It had existed in Ireland 
 from very early times. Strafford, as we have seer., 
 gave it a great impetus ; but the restrictions placed ox 
 Irish trade prevented it from becoming the source oi 
 wealth which it otherwise might have been. It chiefly 
 flourished in the North. To the inhabitants of Lein- 
 ster, Munster, and Connaught there remained no pos- 
 sible means of gaining a livelihood but that of wresting 
 it from the land, and the whole intent of legislation 
 was to take even the land from the Catholics, who 
 formed the overwhelming mass of the people. 
 
 Of the miserable eighteenth century in Ireland the 
 chief facts to be borne in mind are : first, that all the 
 best of the people, old Catholic Irish and new Protestant 
 English, were driven away in despair by the laws 
 which made it penal to exercise the Catholic religion, 
 and to engage in almost any business ; secondly, that 
 those who remained clung with desperate devotion to 
 the Church of Rome, and lived in constant opposition 
 to and evasion of the law. They were perpetually being 
 reminded that dependence on the English Parliament 
 was the source of all their ills, and they longed for an 
 opportunity to shake off the yoke. The Act known as 
 the sixth of George I * finally completed their subjection 
 by expressly declaring that “the English Parliament had, 
 hath, and of right ought to have power and authority 
 to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity 
 to bind the people and kingdom of Ireland. ” 
 
THE PENAL LA WS. 
 
 Let us briefly chronicle the most salient events of 
 this wretched period from the beginning of the century 
 to the year of the first free Parliament. 
 
 Material Misery . — The material misery of the 
 country during the first half of the century, due to 
 many causes, but chiefly to the destruction of trade, 
 bad harvests, and severe winters, can scarcely be ex- 
 aggerated. The people died by thousands of cold, 
 famine, and fever. Although there are some noble 
 exceptions, the majority of the ruling classes of Ireland 
 from the Viceroy downwards were absentees. For 
 forty years the land was virtually ruled by the 
 Primates — Boulter, Hoadly, and Stone. The business 
 of Parliament, which sat every other year, was in great 
 measure carried on by the bishops. To the doubtful 
 good service of providing rulers of the State the 
 Church added the terrible oppression of the tithes. 
 The wretched peasants, barely able to get from the 
 land food enough for themselves, were yet obliged to 
 give a tenth of all for the support of the alien clergy. 
 Most unfairly, pasture land held by the large graziers 
 did not pay tithes, while the small potato patch was 
 ruthlessly mulcted by the tithe procter. To the hatred 
 of the tithe are attributable the Whiteboy risings of 
 the end of the eighteenth century, and innumerable 
 outrages in the nineteenth. In 1838 this grievance 
 came to an end, when after a long Parliamentary 
 struggle the Act for the Commutation of Tithes was 
 passed. 
 
 Dean Swift . — One Churchman indeed did good service 
 to Ireland — Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick’s, the 
 patriot who wielded the most formidable pen of his time. 
 He went to Ireland as Dean of St. Patrick’s in 1713, 
 
90 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 and for many years took an active part in Irish politics, 
 chiefly through his anonymous writings. The most 
 famous of his political pamphlets were The Drapier's 
 Letters , which succeeded in defeating an infamous 
 job set on foot by Sir Robert Walpole and the 
 Duchess of Kendal, a German favourite of George I. 
 
 Wood's Halfpence , 1723. — It was an old grievance 
 that Ireland possessed no mint, and that private 
 persons coined her money, with more regard for their 
 own gain than for the good of the realm. In 1722, 
 there being a lack of copper coin, save of the most 
 debased kind, the privilege of coining £108,000 of 
 halfpence and farthings was granted to the Duchess of 
 Kendal. The Duchess transferred the patent to a certain 
 Mr. Wood, who began the work of coinage. Over 
 these halfpence arose the greatest storm that had shaken 
 Ireland for many years. The coins were not more 
 debased than Irish money generally was. But they 
 were represented as being the most base of all coins, 
 and Swift declared that thirty-six of them would only 
 suffice to buy a quart of twopenny ale. But the 
 number and badness of the halfpence were really only 
 a small part of the objection to them. The manner of 
 issuing the patent was the gravest infringement of the 
 rights of the Irish nation. It was granted by the 
 English Government to a private person, the Lord- 
 Lieutenant of Ireland, the Privy Council and the 
 Lords and Commons of that realm, being ignored. 
 It was therefore a grievance to be resented by all 
 Irishmen. A storm of protest raged through the 
 land. The Parliament was loud in opposition, the 
 Corporations of the towns spoke out, pamphlets 
 were written, sermons preached, and ballads sung 
 
THE PENAL LA WS. 
 
 9i 
 
 against the halfpence. The Drapier’s Letters , purport- 
 ing to come from a Dublin tradesman, were really from 
 the pen of Swift. They began by damning the half- 
 pence, but went on to strike at the dependency of the 
 Irish Parliament, preaching many a sermon from the 
 text, “ Government without the consent of the governed 
 is the very definition of slavery,” and the Government 
 quaked at the effect of the bold words on the people. 
 The Lord-Lieutenant, the Duke of Grafton, was re- 
 called, and Carteret, afterwards Lord Granville, replaced 
 him ; but the new Lord-Lieutenant was as powerless 
 as his predecessor. The English Government was 
 forced to withdraw the patent, and there was an end 
 of the business. 
 
 Lord Chesterfield , Lord Harrington , and the Pri- 
 mates . — A political calm of some years followed this 
 violent storm ; but the material condition of Ireland 
 underwent no improvement, and agrarian misery was as 
 rife as ever. Nevertheless the troublous times of the ’45 
 glided away without the shadow of a storm under the 
 wise rule of the brilliant Lord Chesterfield. After 
 his short tenure of office came that of Lord Harrington, 
 in whose time Archbishop Stone, the powerful though 
 unpopular successor of Archbishop Boulter, exercised 
 the chief power in the State. In Harrington’s time 
 Irish trade again began to hold up its head, and with a 
 surplus came a dispute, protracted and often renewed, 
 as to the right to dispose of it between the Irish 
 Parliament and the King. Parliamentary opposition to 
 English tyranny was strengthened by outside agitation. 
 One Charles Lucas, a Dublin citizen, laboured for the 
 good of his country by his political writings, which 
 had great influence. His great theme was the sole 
 
92 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND . 
 
 right of the Irish Parliament to legislate for Ireland, 
 and among the reforms which he rightly deemed 
 necessary for his native Parliament was the limiting 
 of its duration. That the raising of this question was 
 not unnecessary may be proved by the fact that the 
 Parliament summoned at the accession of George II. 
 lasted for the thirty-three years of his reign. Lucas 
 aroused the wrath of the Government by his writings, 
 and was exiled in 1749. 
 
 Rise of the Patriots . — In the latter half of the cen- 
 tury a party arose and strengthened itself in Parlia- 
 ment, whose aim was to govern Ireland through her 
 native Parliament, and to put a stop to the monstrous 6 
 system of jobbery and corruption of which the affair 
 of Wood and his halfpence was only one example. To 
 avoid disputes as to the right of dealing with a surplus 
 the Opposition iaboured to prevent the accumulation of 
 a surplus, and great sums of public money were spent 
 on public works. Repeated efforts were made to cut 
 down the pension list, a continual scandal, but in vain. 
 
 That there should have been any honest party in the 
 Parliament w T as a marvel. The great majority of the 
 seats were in the hands of a few powerful men — the 
 n Undertakers^who undertook to lead affairs in the 
 English interest, and in return were masters of most 
 of the patronage of the Crown. 
 
 During the Seven Years’ War the trade of Ireland 
 suffered to a great extent. The potato failed, and there 
 was terrible misery in the land. “-The bulk of~the 
 people,” writes Primate Stone, in 1758, “are not regu- 
 larly either lodged, clothed, or fed.” 
 
 The tendency of the time was to turn arable land 
 into pasture, especially when a plague among English 
 
93 
 
 THE PENAL LA WS. 
 
 and -Continental cattle, by raising the price of the 
 beasts, gave the Irish a chance of making some money. 
 
 This change threw great numbers of poor people out of 
 employment. Besides this, those who were left on the 
 soil suffered a great wrong by the inclosure of common 
 lands. This matter of the inclosures, together with the 
 old grievance of the tithes, brought into existence a 
 widespread and powerful secret organization, the first of 
 all the secret societies, which have from that time 
 gnawed at the heart of Ireland. The parents of the 
 Irish Invincibles were the Whiteboys. 
 
 The Whiteboys , 1761. — John Wesley tells in his 
 Journal, June, 1762, of their first appearing. a About 
 the beginning of December last a few men met by 
 night near Nenagh, in the county of Limerick, and 
 threw down the fences of some commons which had 
 been lately inclosed. Near the same time others met 
 in the counties of Tipperary, Waterford, and Cork. 
 
 As no one offered to suppress or hinder them they in- 
 creased in numbers continually, calling themselves 
 Whiteboys, wearing white cockades and white linen 
 frocks. In February there were five or six parties of 
 them, 200 to 300 men in each, who moved up and 
 down chiefly in the night . . . levelled a few fences, 
 dug up some grounds, and hamstrung some cattle, 
 perhaps fifty or sixty in all. One body of them came 
 into Clogheen, of about 500 foot and 200 horse. They 
 moved as exactly as regular troops, and appeared to be 
 thoroughly disciplined. ” ^ ^ ... i , 
 
 The Whiteboys, under the command of “ -Captain 
 Bight,” spread throughout the length and breadth of the 
 land, plu nd e ring and destroying, by way of rqdressing 
 the wrongs of the Irish. For five years they harassed 
 
 .V 
 
94 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 the country, and the law was almost powerless. Then 
 stringent Coercion Acts were passed, and by dint of 
 stern and steady repression the Whiteboys were in great 
 measure put down, though for twenty years afterwards 
 there were risings in various localities. The disaffection 
 was not trampled out, but only thrust underground. 
 
 The Odkboys , 1762. — In the North a milder out- 
 break occurred, partly caused by the tithes, partly by a 
 grievance about the making of the roads. The ag- 
 grieved Northerners, their heads decked with boughs of 
 oak, went about in warlike fashion, and threatened the 
 clergy and laity until they got their way. 
 
 The Steelboys, 1768. — The Steelboys, or Heart- o’ 
 Steelboys, who arose in 1771, were the ejected peasantry 
 of Ulster, who, stung to desperation by the ruin of 
 themselves and their families, committed deeds of de- 
 struction and violence. Stem measures were taken, 
 and the Steelboys vanished, fleeing to America. 
 
 The Parliament frets under Poynings > Law. — To 
 return to the constitutional history. The second part 
 of Poynings’ law enacted that when Parliament was 
 about to assemble the Irish Privy Council should send 
 to the English Privy Council the heads of the bills 
 about to be brought forward, and custom ruled that 
 one of these bills should be a money bill. This custom 
 of a money bill originating in the Privy Council 
 always angered the Commons and irritated whatever 
 independent feeling existed throughout the country. 
 The accession of George III. was marked by a very 
 strong protest on this subject, within and without the 
 House ; but the protest was ineffectual. 
 
 Lord Halifax Lord-Lieutenant. — There was great 
 excitement at the general election of 1760, and this is 
 
THE PENAL LAWS. 
 
 95 
 
 not surprising, since a generation had passed since 
 Ireland had seen a general election. Lord Halifax 
 was George III.’s first Lord-Lieutenant, and under him 
 the Eoman Catholics made earnest supplication to he 
 allowed to serve in the King's armies. The judgment 
 of those in power could not agree to admit them into 
 the king's armies in England ; hut a scheme was set 
 afoot for admitting Irish Eoman Catholic regiments 
 into the allied army of Portugal. The scheme came 
 to nothing, but through no fault of the Catholics. 
 
 The points of reform on which the patriots were 
 bent were — Immovability of judges, Habeas Corpus 
 Act, restriction of pensions, and limitation of the dura- 
 tion of Parliament. These measures were brought in 
 and suppressed. 
 
 The Undertakers are replaced by a Resident Lord- 
 Lieutenant . — -Five years after the accession of George 
 III. came a further change in Irish affairs. It was 
 resolved to do away with the Undertakers, and to 
 have a resident Lord-Lieutenant, who should rule in 
 earnest. It was difficult to find any one to pilot 
 the ship through the distressed Irish seas. Three 
 shadows of Viceroys flitted across the scene,- then came 
 the stout Lord Townshend, a soldier, with bluff, good- 
 humoured, undignified ways, whose lavish hospitality 
 made him at once popular. His utter ignorance of 
 State affairs led him into a pitfall, however, at the very 
 outset of his rule. He had been instructed to coax 
 men over to the Government side by dangling before 
 them the satisfaction of the popular demands. Hot 
 understanding vague and underhand ways, he boldly 
 promised, in the speech from the throne, the immov- 
 ability of the judges. The English authorities had no 
 
96 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND . 
 
 intention of granting this reform. They got out of 
 the difficulty by so altering the Bill in England that 
 the Irish Parliament rejected it on its return as not 
 fulfilling their intention. The whole strength of the 
 Irish patriots was turned to trying to pass a Septennial 
 Bill. The whole strength of the English party was 
 turned to trying to augment the army to 15,000 men. 
 A course of bargaining began. The view of the 
 English party was, “ More soldiers are wanted for the 
 Empire at large. The English Parliament will not grant 
 them, we will squeeze them out of Ireland.” The Irish 
 view was, “ Our army is already 12,000 men, more than 
 we want ; in fact, we always do with far less, for the 
 most of them are on foreign service. But we want to 
 get something out of you, namely, the Septennial Bill ; 
 so we will grant you the augmentation if you grant us 
 our Bill. Also we make this condition : If we support 
 15,000 men, 12,000 must be always in Ireland, to put 
 down our Whiteboys, Oakboys, and Steelboys; also 
 grant no more pensions and tax absentees.” 
 
 Octennial Act and Augmentation Act Passed . — In 
 November, 1767, the Bill for shortening the duration 
 of Parliament passed in Ireland. It was an Octennial 
 Bill, to suit the special circumstances of Ireland, where 
 Parliament only sat every other year, and also to avoid 
 the general confusion which, it was supposed, would 
 arise if the English and Irish elections coincided. 
 
 Then came the wish of the King’s heart — the 
 Augmentation Bill. The Undertakers — Lord Shannon, 
 Ponsonby, and Hely Hutchinson — asked too high a 
 price for their support. The Government could not or 
 would not give it, and the triumvirate went into oppo- 
 sition. Townshend had never counted on their support 
 
THE PENAL LA WS. 
 
 97 
 
 as permanent ; he now cast about how to remove them, 
 and to create a majority subservient to himself. Much 
 underhand work preceded the session of 1769, and a 
 sudden storm marked its opening. 
 
 The unpopular Money Bill was sent over as usual 
 from the Irish Privy Council to England, as a cause for 
 summoning the new Parliament. It was returned to 
 Ireland according to custom, and it was rejected 
 by the Irish Parliament, a resolution being passed 
 to the effect that the Bill was rejected “because 
 it did not take its rise in the House of Commons.” 
 The English Government, having an immediate point 
 to carry, dissembled. The resolution was received in 
 silence. The Augmentation Bill was carried, and 
 liberal supplies voted for two years. Then Lord 
 Townshend, having got all that he wanted for the 
 present, solemnly protested against the resolution, as 
 being an infringement of Poynings’ law, and prorogued 
 Parliament for fourteen months. 
 
 The general wrath of the nation was aroused at this 
 prorogation. Famine, distress, and * disaffection com- 
 bined to make the state of things very bad. Meanwhile 
 Townshend followed out his plan of overthrowing the 
 Undertakers, and building up the power of the Lord- 
 Lieutenant. Lord Shannon and Mr. Ponsonby were 
 deprived of office, together with all the lesser men who 
 dared to oppose the Government. 
 
 Corruption in every form succeeded in creating a 
 majority for the Lord-Lieutenant, and the Parliament, 
 which opened on February 26th, 1771, was as sub- 
 servient as could be desired. Mr. Ponsonby resigned the 
 Speakership, and Mr. Pery was elected in his stead. 
 
 End of Lord Townshend 1 s Tenure of Office . — The 
 H 
 
98 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND . 
 
 reign of Lord Townshend, which began with such 
 pleasant promise, dragged itself out to a dismal 
 end in 1772. An infamous job marked its close. 
 Being in need of more offices to bestow, the Lord- 
 Lieutenant bethought himself that he might divide 
 the Boards of Custom and Excise, and make more 
 Commissioners of Account. Public opinion, both in 
 the House and out of it, was strong against this step ; 
 hut, trusting in his popularity, Lord Townshend per- 
 sisted, until the cry against him grew loud and bitter. 
 His disreputable and disgraceful private life gave his 
 enemies a great handle against him, and his public life 
 was equally assailable. 
 
 Lord Bar court Lord-Lieutenant , 1772. — At last in 
 very shame Lord Townshend was recalled, and Lord 
 Harcourt, a man of venerable age and tranquil disposi- 
 tion, was sent over in his stead, in 1772. He made 
 friends with the chief men — Shannon, Leinster, IJon- 
 sonby, and Flood — but he committed himself to no 
 course of action during the year which passed be- 
 tween his accession to power and the meeting of 
 Parliament. He won for himself golden opinions 
 in his first session by undoing Lord Townshend’s 
 excise arrangements. 
 
 Lord Bar court fails to impose a Tax on Absentees . — 
 Finance was in a wretched condition, and it was 
 necessary for the Viceroy to find some means of reliev- 
 ing it. He came to the conclusion that the best remedy 
 was the ancient one of a tax of two shillings in the 
 pound on the rent of absentees. This was very un- 
 popular in England, and excited much discussion in 
 both countries. Lord Chatham was in favour of it, 
 on the ground that it was the wish of the Irish 
 
7 HE PENAL LAWS. 
 
 99 
 
 Commons, who ought to rule over their country’s 
 purse. Edmund Burke was against it, and, at the 
 request of the great English Whigs, he penned a 
 remonstrance, which was scattered broadcast. So strong 
 an influence was brought to hear against this tax that 
 it was rejected, and the money so urgently needed was 
 raised by a hatch of new duties. 
 
 Flood takes Office and loses his Power . — LordHarcourt 
 made two important appointments when he had finished 
 the Parliament business. He made Hely Hutchinson 
 provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and Henry Flood 
 vice-treasurer. On the matter of Flood’s appointment 
 there was much to be said, especially by the patriots ; 
 for Flood had been their leader, and they bitterly 
 resented his taking office. Flood always alleged that 
 he took office because he conceived that only so could 
 he do his country any good. But from this time his 
 popular influence waned, and his place was taken by 
 Henry Grattan, the most noble of Irish patriots, and 
 the most brilliant of Irish orators, whose upright and 
 single mind gained him the respect of all. From this 
 time onwards to the Union, and for long after, he is 
 the central figure in Irish politics. 
 
 The American Address . — When Grattan first entered 
 Parliament, the longing of Ireland for a free Parliament 
 was stimulated by a voice from America. The same 
 problem was agitating England’s subjects on both sides 
 of the sea, and in 1775 the Americans sent an address 
 to the Irish, pointing out that both peoples were in one 
 case, and asking for help ; yet so little could the Parlia- 
 ment be depended on for reflecting the will of Ireland/ 
 that the Address in reply to the royal speech, at the 
 beginning of the session of 1775, strongly reprehended 
 
100 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 the conduct of the Americans, and some Irish troops 
 were actually sent over to help to quell the colonists’ 
 rebellion. 
 
 Lord Har court Departs , 1776. — Lord Harcourt de- 
 parted from Ireland at the end of 1776, leaving behind 
 him a country overwhelmed with misery. The annual 
 expenses of government had enormously increased 
 under the corrupt regime of the resident viceroys. 
 Trade, owing partly to the stem English restrictions, 
 was at a very low ebb. It was absolutely necessary 
 that Ireland should provide money, for her own wants 
 and those of her mistress; therefore, reluctantly, a 
 scheme was drawn up for relaxing some of the crushing 
 restrictions which took the life out of Irish trade. 
 From every English merchant, save the men of London, 
 arose a cry of jealous resistance ; and concession, which 
 could not be entirely withheld, was pared down to the 
 narrowest limits. But the very smallest of concessions 
 was valuable for the sake of principle and precedent. 
 
 Remedial Legislation . — Ireland was at last beginning 
 to shake off the tremendous double yoke which for so 
 many years had weighed upon her. The will of the 
 people was beginning to exercise its strength. Side 
 by side with the trade concessions came concessions to 
 the Catholics. Not from any sense of abstract justice, 
 but from sheer necessity and lack of soldiers, did 
 England allow the recruiting of Irish Catholics. In 
 the meantime ,the restrictions which kept the Catholics 
 from owning land, or in any way being interested in 
 the holding or cultivation of land, were being gradually 
 thrust aside. The entire loyalty of the Catholics as 
 such during the various disturbances of the century 
 took away all reasonable objection to their enfranchise- 
 
THE PENAL LA WS. 
 
 IOI 
 
 ment. In 1774 an Act was passed to enable Catholics 
 to swear allegiance before a justice of the peace. The 
 Catholics, who had now so long been inert as far as 
 any social or political action was in question, became 
 with each concession, minute though it was, more keen 
 and eager for enfranchisement. 
 
 The Catholic Association . — A Catholic Association 
 had been formed in 1759. Its object was to watch 
 over the interests of Catholics in every possible way. 
 The Irish Protestants met their Catholic brethren half- 
 way. Tolerance, and not fanaticism, was the fashion 
 of the day; moreover the patriot, seeking to free his 
 country, could not leave out the greater part of her 
 inhabitants. Grattan’s saying, “The Irish Protestant 
 could never be free till the Irish Catholic had ceased 
 to be a slave,” was the key to the action of the patriots 
 on this matter of the enfranchisement of the Catholics. 
 
 In 1778 the Catholics presented a petition asking 
 for relief, and in the same year a Bill was passed which 
 may be looked upon as the beginning of the downfall 
 of the Penal Code. By this bill v Catholics were 
 enabled to hold and inherit land, and the odious 
 system by which children were induced to change 
 their religion in order to despoil their parents was 
 abolished. Lawful agitation sufficed to obtain these 
 first pledges of reform for Irish merchants and Irish 
 Catholics. To gain political freedom Ireland was 
 obliged to have recourse to The sword. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE VOLUNTEERS . 
 
 The Volunteers, 1778. — The year 1778 saw Ireland 
 in an utterly defenceless state. The enemies of England 
 were watching, it was feared, for an opportunity of 
 striking a blow through her disaffected province, and 
 that province, though she paid for the support of 
 15,000 of the king's troops, was left with not one- 
 third of the number, a force totally insufficient to 
 protect her. Waiving the question of the misappro- 
 priation of the forces meant to defend the country, the 
 gentlemen of Ireland were most anxious that a militia 
 should he formed, or, failing that, that companies of 
 volunteers should be raised. A militia was out of the 
 question ; for the Government was penniless. It had 
 come then to this, that Ireland was in imminent danger 
 and her mistress could do nothing for her. With no 
 anger or resentment, but with the noble fervour of 
 pure patriotism, the men of Ireland, gentle and simple, 
 rose up and formed an army of over forty thousand 
 men, loyal to England. 
 
 The chief men in Ireland, amongst others the Duke 
 of Leinster and Lord Charlemont, were at the head of 
 the movement. The Lord-Lieutenant looked on with 
 
THE VOLUNTEERS. 
 
 103 
 
 alarm at the rise of this great armed force outside his 
 control, which, loyal and disciplined, and assembled 
 for a lawful and uu impeachable purpose, could not be 
 touched. 
 
 General misery . — The volunteers were not the only 
 cause of alarm to Lord Buckingham. Dire distress and 
 disaffection filled the land. The miserable lack of trade 
 reduced thousands to starvation. When the country at 
 large starved the government could not flourish. There 
 was not one penny of money in the treasury, and for 
 means to meet the most pressing and immediate calls 
 the Lord-Lieutenant was indebted to one Mr. La 
 Touche, a Dublin banker, who advanced £20,000. 
 The widespread belief, certainly not without founda- 
 tion, that the restrictions on trade were the cause of 
 the distress, produced a loud cry for free trade. The 
 stout resistance of the American colonists to the policy 
 of England had a decided influence in Ireland. An 
 address, urging upon the Irish community of interests, 
 came from America, and was sent up and down the 
 land. The cry for practical reform came from the 
 heart of a people longing for political freedom. Con- 
 cession to Irish trade was to be the thin end of the 
 wedge. 
 
 Parliament meets , 1779. — Parliament met in Octo- 
 ber, 1779, and the first step towards Irish freedom 
 was taken. The address to the Crown urged that 
 “ free trade ” should be granted ; only a short Money 
 Bill was passed. Ho permanent taxes were to be 
 granted until the grievances were redressed.’ The 
 words and deeds of the Parliament men were em- 
 phasized by the volunteers, and threatening crowds 
 gathered about the streets of the city. “ England has 
 
104 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND . 
 
 sown her lands,” said a patriot, “in dragon’s teeth, 
 and they have sprung up in armed men.” 
 
 Fear of the volunteers prevailed, and in 1779 
 England began to try to do justice to Ireland. Trade 
 with the colonies and with the Levant was thrown 
 open to Ireland. The country was not ungrateful for 
 this concession, but the thought ran through all minds 
 that the hand which gave might take away. The pre- 
 sence of the volunteers emboldened all, and Ireland 
 demanded that her Parliament should be free. 
 
 Irish Declaration of Independence, 1780. — On April 
 19th, 1780, Grattan moved for the first time the 
 Irish Declaration of Independence : 
 
 “ Resolved, — 
 
 “(1) That His most excellent Majesty, by and with 
 the consent of the Lords and Commons of Ireland, are 
 the only power competent to enact laws to bind 
 Ireland. 
 
 “ (2) That the Crown of Ireland is and ought to be 
 inseparably annexed to the Crown of Great Britain. 
 
 “ (3) That Great Britain and Ireland are inseparably 
 united under one sovereign, under the common and in- 
 dissoluble ties of interest, loyalty, and freedom.” 
 
 The speech accompanying these resolutions was a 
 masterpiece of eloquence, but it failed of its imme- 
 diate purpose. By corrupt means the Government had 
 secured so great a majority in the House of Com- 
 mons, that it was not possible to pass the resolutions, 
 and the debate was adjourned indefinitely. 
 
 The second Irish assault took the form of a Bill to 
 prevent the Irish Privy Council from altering or sup- 
 pressing Bills on their way to the King. This Bill was 
 brought in by Yelverton and rejected. The third Irish 
 
THE VOLUNTEERS. 
 
 105 
 
 assault was inspired by the strong feeling that English 
 laws were not binding in Ireland. It was said that 
 there was nothing to keep the army in order, and 
 Gervase Burke brought in an Irish Mutiny Bill. It 
 was passed and sent to England, and there altered 
 in the important point of duration. The clause which 
 made the Bill an annual one was cut out ; and so sub- 
 servient was the majority in the Irish Parliament, that 
 the Bill was actually passed in its altered form; so 
 that the control of the army passed away from Parlia- 
 ment, and the army became a tool in the King’s hands. 
 This action filled the people with anger against the 
 majority. 
 
 Lord Carlisle Lord-Lieutenant , 1780. — Lord Buck- 
 ingham, worn out with his thankless task, was now 
 recalled, and Lord Carlisle, a promising young man and 
 a great friend of Charles James Fox, succeeded him, Sir 
 W. Eden, afterwards the first Lord Auckland, being the 
 new Chief Secretary. The new Viceroy found Ireland 
 still in imminent danger of foreign invasion, but light 
 at heart on that score because of her splendid volunteer 
 army. Many successful reviews were held in the 
 summer of 1781. The volunteers, who not long after 
 their first assembling numbered 40,000 men, now 
 counted nearly double that number. They were strong 
 enough to protect their country from foreign invasion, 
 and they determined also to free her from domestic 
 tyranny. The repeal of Poynings’ law, that ancient 
 yoke, was the thing longed for ; but the session of 
 1781 did not obtain it. Only a Habeas Corpus Act 
 was extorted from England in this year. There was a 
 general longing to do justice to the Boman Catholics, and 
 a Belief Bill was discussed. All were agreed that there 
 
io6 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 should be liberty of worship and liberty of holding land. 
 But there was naturally a disinclination to upset the 
 land settlement, and so men were divided as to whether 
 political power should be given to the Catholics. 
 
 The will of Ireland, manifest in the volunteers, 
 was now determined to march on to freedom. The 
 slow and painful wresting of point after point could 
 no longer be endured. 
 
 Convention of Dungannon , 1782. — It was resolved 
 to hold a Convention of the chief volunteers of Ulster, 
 which would practically be a true Parliament. At noon 
 on the 15th of February, 1782, the delegates, 242 in 
 number, met in the Church of Dungannon. They de- 
 bated for eight hours and passed several resolutions, of 
 which the following are the chief : 
 
 “ 1. That a claim of any body of men, other than the 
 King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland, to make laws 
 to bind this kingdom is unconstitutional, illegal, and a 
 grievance. 
 
 “ 2. That the powers exercised by the Privy Council 
 of both kingdoms under, or under colour or pretence 
 of, the law of Poyning, are unconstitutional and a 
 grievance. 
 
 “ 3. That we hold the right of private judgment, in 
 matters of religion, to be equally sacred in others as in 
 ourselves; that we rejoice in the relaxation of the 
 penal laws against our roman catholic fellow- 
 subjects, and that we conceive the measure to be 
 fraught with the happiest consequences to the union 
 and prosperity of the inhabitants of Ireland.” 
 
 One Colonel Irvine presided at the Convention, and 
 Lord Charlemont, Mr. Flood, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Stewart 
 (the father of Lord Castlereagh),and Francis Dobbs were 
 
THE VOLUNTEERS. 
 
 107 
 
 among the most prominent members. Before they 
 separated they resolved to meet again in a year’s time. 
 Committees were appointed to act meanwhile, and, 
 with four exceptions, every member swore to vote for 
 no Parliamentary candidate who did not pledge himself 
 to work for the fulfilment of the resolutions. 
 
 The thunder of Dungannon echoed in the Parlia- 
 ment House. For the second time Grattan moved the 
 Irish Declaration of Independence; for the second 
 time the obsequious majority rejected it. But a 
 change was at hand. In the spring of the year 1782-3 
 Lord North’s government came to an end. A Whig 
 ministry under Lord Bockingham took office. The 
 Duke of Portland was sent over as Lord-Lieutenant. 
 Two days after his arrival the Parliament assembled 
 in Dublin. The city was thronged; the volunteers, 
 gathered in thousands, watched the march of events. 
 On the 16th of April, 1782, Grattan moved for the 
 third time the Irish Declaration of Independence. 
 The most splendid eloquence flowed from his lips ; in 
 him appeared incarnate “ the whole faculty of the 
 nation . . . braced up to the act of her own deliver- 
 ance.” The threefold chain of Poynings’ law, the 
 sixth of George I., and the Perpetual Mutiny Act, 
 was now to be struck off. 
 
 That England must yield admitted of no doubt; 
 but the Government made an effort to delay, and to 
 concoct a treaty which should define the relations of 
 the two countries. Grattan would listen to no delay, 
 no treaty. Ireland’s rights must first be restored, then 
 negotiation might come. He was obeyed. 
 
 The Irish Parliament Unshackled , 1782. — The Eng- 
 lish Parliament repealed the sixth of George I., for- 
 
108 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 bade the Privy Councils of England and Ireland to 
 mutilate or suppress bills, and limited the Mutiny Act 
 to two years. 
 
 An address of thanks to the King was moved by 
 Grattan in the Irish House of Commons, large sums 
 for the British navy were voted, over 3000 of the 
 Irish troops were placed at the disposal of England. 
 A solemn day of thanksgiving was held. Acts grant- 
 ing relief to Catholics were also passed, and the first 
 free Irish Parliament showed its grateful love to its 
 liberator by voting a grant of £50,000 to Henry 
 Grattan. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE INDEPENDENT IRISH PARLIAMENT 
 
 Agitation for Parliamentary Reform and Catholic 
 Emancipation, 1783. — The English gift of a free 
 Parliament for Ireland was little better than a specious 
 promise, which ended in bitter disappointment. That 
 a body so constituted as the Irish Parliament, ignoring 
 the great Catholic majority of the nation, and very 
 imperfectly and corruptly representing the Protestant 
 minority, could adequately govern was a thing im- 
 possible. Without Parliamentary Reform and Catholic 
 Emancipation legislative independence was of no avail. 
 The English Government would not grant these two 
 points ; perhaps they could not have done so without 
 danger to the connection. 
 
 The Plan of the Union . — The Union, that great 
 solution of the Irish difficulty, floated always before 
 the eyes of Pitt, who became Prime Minister in 1783 ; 
 but as usual no definite policy was pursued in Ireland 
 save the policy of corruption. Stoutly to resist the 
 demand for reform, steadily to gather up all power into 
 the hands of the government through the Parlia- 
 mentary majority, then to drift wheresoever the general 
 tendency of things should lead, those were the views 
 to be adopted by the English executive in Ireland. 
 That the Union was the ultimate end was never 
 
no 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 doubted and never avowed. How tiie persistent denial 
 of such reforms as alone could give vitality to the 
 shadowy Irish Parliament so exasperated the people 
 that they broke forth into rebellion, and how that 
 rebellion formed a decent pretext for the Union, must 
 now be told. 
 
 Simple Repeal Controversy . — The first important 
 question which stirred the independent Irish Parlia- 
 ment was the question of “ Simple Repeal.” The 
 Irish Parliament had been placed in subordination to 
 the Parliament of England, according to the English 
 view, by the Act known as Poynings’ law; but the 
 force of that law had always been a moot point, the 
 Irish view being that it was not strictly binding. It 
 had, however, been formally confirmed, as we have seen, 
 by the Act passed in 1720, and known as the sixth 
 George I., which expressly declared the subordination of 
 Ireland to the English Parliament ; the latter statute 
 was thus clear and indisputable, not ambiguous like 
 the law of Poynings. Hence when the sixth George I. 
 was repealed, the true and consistent Irish view should 
 have been that the Irish Parliament was free; but a 
 difference arose in the Irish ranks. For various reasons, 
 public and personal, Flood and Grattan differed. Grat- 
 tan held that the Simple Repeal of the sixth of George I. 
 gave Ireland her freedom ; Flood held that more was 
 needed. Flood’s views prevailed, and in 1783 the 
 Parliament of Great Britain passed a solemn Act of 
 Renunciation, whereby all attempt to control the Irish 
 Parliament by Acts passed only in the English was 
 given up. 
 
 On one other important point did Flood and Grattan 
 differ. Both were intensely anxious for Parliamentary 
 
INDEPENDENT IRISH PARLIAMENT 1 1 1 
 
 reform; but Flood would have forced on reform by 
 means of the power of the volunteers, whereas Grattan 
 held that to be under a military despotism was in itself 
 too great an evil to be borne. 
 
 Volunteer Reform Bill . — The Volunteer Convention 
 sat in state in Dublin, and tried to overawe the Parlia- 
 ment. A Reform Bill, comprehensive enough save in 
 the very important point of Catholic Emancipation, 
 was drawn up by the Convention, and this bill Flood 
 introduced into the House of Commons. It was re- 
 jected, not on its merits, but because it came from 
 without. The Convention being defeated peaceably 
 dispersed. 
 
 All Efforts for Reform frustrated . — That a Reform 
 Bill originating in an armed rival of the Parliament 
 was rejected could not be deplored by the friends of the 
 liberties of Parliament; but that all reform bills 
 should be steadily thrown out was ominous and dis- 
 appointing. In 1785, in 1791, in 1793, and in 1794, 
 Grattan and others brought forward measures of reform, 
 but in vain. 
 
 The Regency Question , 1789. — In 1789 a collision 
 took place between the Irish Parliament and the 
 Parliament of Great Britain. George III. became 
 insane, and a regent had to be appointed. Two 
 parties were formed in England on this question — one, 
 under Pitt, wished to grant limited powers to the Prince 
 of Wales as regent; the other, under Fox, to make 
 the Prince regent with full kingly power. The Irish 
 Parliament espoused Fox's view, and took the ini- 
 tiative in the matter. The affair did not become 
 serious, as the King recovered speedily ; but it was of 
 importance as showing that there was nothing to 
 
1 12 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 prevent the nomination of two regents — one in Ireland 
 one in England, and that that and other complications 
 arising from the existence of an Independent Irish 
 Parliament were unbearable, and were only to be cured 
 by a complete Union. This at any rate was the English 
 view of the matter. 
 
 Catholic Emancipation . — The second object of all 
 Irish patriots during the years of the Independent 
 Parliament was Catholic Emancipation. For long it 
 was the enlightened among the Protestants alone who 
 openly sought this ; the Catholics themselves were too 
 downtrodden to speak up. An institution called the 
 Catholic Committee had existed for some years. Its 
 avowed object was to watch over the interests of 
 Catholics ; but it did not dare to do much. 
 
 The United Irishmen , 1791. — In 1791 a society 
 calling itself The United Irishmen was formed by 
 Wolfe Tone and others, for the purpose of obtaining 
 the two things needed for Ireland— Parliamentary Be- 
 form and Catholic Emancipation. This society dook its 
 rise in Belfast, and its adherents were the Presbyterians 
 of the North, who most of all Irishmen had been 
 influenced by the ideas of the French Bevolution. 
 Tone, who was a far-sighted man, sought to make 
 this society in reality a Society of United Irishmen, 
 and strove to bring into its ranks the Catholics of 
 Dublin and the South. He therefore sought for the 
 co-operation of Keogh, a rich and enlightened Dublin 
 merchant, and a leading spirit in the Catholic Com- 
 mittee. Keogh was followed by the greater number of 
 the Catholic Committee. He and his supporters were 
 for demanding the franchise for their co-religionists. 
 The aristocratic and priestly element of the committee, 
 
INDEPENDENT IRISH PARLIAMENT. i 13 
 
 headed by Lord Kenmare, hung back, determining to 
 wait on Providence and the Protestant majority rather 
 than to cast in their lot with a society which numbered 
 many Republicans, and even some Separatists. Not- 
 withstanding this division in their ranks, the United 
 Irishmen grew and flourished, and became a great 
 power in the land — the hope of the patriots and the 
 dread of the government. A great gulf was fixed 
 between the executive government and all who desired 
 reform in Ireland. The whole evil spirit of the govern- 
 ment was embodied in the Earl of Clare — “Black 
 Jack Fitzgibbon.” The aim of this minister was to 
 keep alive for ever the religious feuds which desolated 
 Ireland, and to keep the Cabinets of England from all 
 action which might tend to conciliate Ireland. He 
 brought to pass one thing which he did not wish. 
 It was mainly through his vehement opposition that 
 Wolfe Tone was able to rouse the Catholics throughout 
 the land to a sense of their wrongs and their rights, 
 and to urge them to demand justice. 
 
 Lord Clare rouses the Catholics , 1792. — A plan 
 was formed that a Catholic Convention, composed of 
 representatives from all parts of Ireland, should meet 
 in Dublin. Lord Clare moved heaven and earth to 
 prevent the assembling of this Convention. From 
 every corner of Ireland he stirred up a furious outcry 
 against the independence of the Catholics, and his 
 efforts did more by a great deal than he had intended. 
 He roused indeed the Protestant wrath, and that wrath 
 goaded the longsuffering Catholic to shake off his 
 lethargy. “ Lord Clare,” said Keogh, “ has done what 
 I so long attempted, and attempted in vain — he has 
 roused the Catholics.” 
 
 1 
 
ENGLAND AND IRELAND . 
 
 1 14 
 
 The Catholic Convention , 1792. — The Catholic Con- 
 vention met in Dublin on the 3rd of December, 1792. 
 A petition to the King, praying for the complete en- 
 franchisement of the Catholics, was drawn up. Five 
 delegates, among whom was Keogh, took it to London, 
 where it was graciously received by George III., who 
 promised to recommend the Catholic cause to the Irish 
 Parliament. In the next session of Parliament (1793) 
 a bill was passed which, by giving a vote to all 40s. 
 freeholders, enabled Catholics to vote in elections ; 
 but the amendment which would have rendered the 
 bill of use, a clause allowing Catholics to sit in Parlia- 
 ment, was thrown out. Undaunted, the party of 
 reform pressed on, at first with somewhat faint success ; 
 for the fortune of Ireland depended on the exigencies 
 of English party politics. 
 
 Lord Fitzwilliam Lord- Lieutenant, 1794. — In the 
 end of 1794 a favourable turn of affairs gave Ire- 
 land a good Viceroy — Lord Fitzwilliam, a friend of 
 Grattan and of Catholic Emancipation. Grattan was 
 very hopeful ; for Pitt had said to him that he had 
 counselled the new Viceroy not to bring forward 
 emancipation as a government measure, but if Govern- 
 ment were pressed to yield to it. The secret injunction 
 of the Prime Minister was not known, but it was 
 divined from the sending of Fitzwilliam. Loud and 
 hearty welcome greeted the new Viceroy, and petitions 
 for Catholic Emancipation poured in from every quarter. 
 Parliament met ; large and liberal supplies were voted, 
 and Grattan prepared, in concert with the Viceroy, a 
 bill granting full emancipation to the Catholics. A 
 Eeform Bill was to follow. The Irish were tempted 
 to hope that now at last the wrongs of ages seemed 
 
INDEPENDENT IRISH PARLIAMENT 1 1 5 
 
 about to be righted. This patriotic delusion did not 
 last long. 
 
 The King declares himself against Catholic Eman- 
 cipation . — The King suddenly and stoutly declared 
 himself to be against Catholic Emancipation, and 
 considerations of party and power overrode all else in 
 the mind of Pitt. Eitz william was suddenly recalled, 
 and all the hope of Ireland went with him. Corrupt 
 and powerless for good, the Irish Parliament dragged 
 on. Grattan made many noble efforts for reform, but 
 all in vain. At length, in despair of the public weal, he 
 resigned his seat in Parliament, and retired into the 
 country. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE REBELLION OF 1798. THE UNION 
 
 Suppression of the United Irishmen — With the down- 
 fall of all hope of constitutional redress of wrongs, the 
 counsels of the disloyal prevailed, disaffection was rife, 
 and outrage filled the land. The Society of United Irish- 
 men, being judged treasonable, was suppressed by the 
 government ; but it only disappeared from the sight of 
 men to take deep root as a secret society. The aim of 
 the first United Irishmen had been to obtain Parlia- 
 mentary reform, and as a means to that end Catholic 
 Emancipation. The aim of the United Irishmen, when 
 reconstituted as a secret society, was to break loose 
 from England, and to make Ireland into a Republic. 
 This could only be done by foreign aid. Tone went 
 to America, and thence to France, to solicit this aid. 
 
 Formation of Orange Lodges , 1795. — In the mean- 
 time a society arose in the opposite camp of the Irish. 
 The Protestants of the North formed themselves into 
 Orange Lodges, called after the prince of “ glorious, 
 pious, and immortal memory.” The aim of the Orange- 
 men, who grew and multiplied, was to drive all Catho- 
 lics from Ulster. In pursuit of this aim no atrocity 
 seemed to them too great to permit. Law was of no 
 avail in Ulster. Troops were sent down to quell the 
 
THE REBELLION OF 1798. 117 
 
 Orangemen, but their success was not great. The 
 turmoil of the Orangemen in the North was rivalled 
 by the turmoil of the Defenders in the West. Lord 
 Carhampton was sent to restore order, and he and 
 those under him could only support the law by break- 
 ing the law. It was found necessary to pass an In- 
 demnity Bill to screen these high-handed supporters 
 of law and order. A Coercion Act of tremendous 
 force was passed in order to keep down the excited 
 country. This Coercion Act thrust the evil under- 
 ground, but the evil remained. 
 
 Hoche 1 s Expedition , 1796. — The foreign aid was 
 what all waited for. Tone’s efforts were successful. 
 In December, 1796, a Drench fleet, bearing 15,000 
 soldiers, well armed, and provided with arms for the 
 Irish, set sail under General Hoche for the invasion 
 of Ireland. The English squadron, which should have 
 barred the way, did nothing, and Hoche and his men 
 sailed on towards Ireland, which lay defenceless ; but 
 the elements did the work which the English ships 
 neglected. A sea fog came down on the fleet, and 
 the ships parted company, and struggled separately on 
 their way. On the morning of the 22nd of December 
 the fleet found itself in clear weather again off the Irish 
 coast; but seven ships were missing, and among them the 
 Fraternity which bore General Hoche. Nothing could 
 be done without the general. As they waited for him 
 a furious storm from the east arose, which made the 
 landing of the French impossible. For six days the 
 storm raged, and several ships were destroyed. At 
 last those ships that remained struggled back to France, 
 and so ended another luckless Irish attempt to throw 
 off the English yoke by foreign aid. 
 
n8 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 Planning of the Rebellion . — In despair the United 
 Irishmen determined to attempt an unaided rising — a 
 misguided and hopeless undertaking. Grattan was 
 throughout opposed to violent measures. He lent 
 no countenance to the project of revolt, hut he urged 
 unceasingly on the Government the necessity of con- 
 cession to reasonable popular demands. The Govern- 
 ment, however, preferred to encounter the rising dis- 
 loyalty with mere repression. The number of in- 
 formers has always been a marked feature in the 
 history of Irish conspiracy. At this time they 
 swarmed, and every word and action of the con- 
 spirators was brought in to the Government by the 
 army of spies. The arrest of some of the leaders of the 
 conspiracy hastened the movements of those left at 
 liberty. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, lying hidden in 
 Dublin, was the soul of the plot. The rising was 
 fixed for the 23rd of May, 1798. It was planned to 
 seize the capital, the Viceroy, and the Privy Council. 
 The arrangements were known to the Government, and 
 measures were accordingly taken. 
 
 Arrest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald . — A few days 
 before the 23rd Lord Edward Fitzgerald was betrayed 
 in his hiding-place. He resisted the soldiers sent to 
 capture him; a desperate fight took place, and Lord 
 Edward was arrested, though he died shortly afterwards 
 of the wounds he received. His arrest was followed by 
 the capture of the other leaders of the conspiracy, and 
 Dublin was saved. Martial law was proclaimed in the 
 city, and a strong military force preserved order. 
 
 Local Risings . — In the country places there were 
 many abortive risings. Scattered bodies of rebels con- 
 tended with scattered bodies of soldiery, and where 
 
THE REBELLION OF 1798. 119 
 
 they fought the luckless inhabitants suffered. Eiot 
 and bloodshed prevailed ; but one place was isolated 
 from another, and the soldiery won the day. In a 
 week the rioting at large was over, but all the strength 
 and all the horror of the rebellion was concentrated in 
 one county, and it is the war of Wexford which 
 marks the year ’98 with so hideous a stain. 
 
 The War of Wexford . — Wexford had only recently 
 become a seat of disaffection. For many years it had 
 been one of the quietest and least discontented spots in 
 Ireland; but the general tyranny and lawless oppression 
 whereby the English troops and the Irish yeomanry 
 sought to maintain the law and to avert civil war, did 
 its work, and Wexford rose. On the 27th of May a 
 disorderly host of men and women, some thousands in 
 number, and led by a priest, Father John Murphy, 
 defeated and destroyed a small body of militia sent 
 against them, rushed upon Ferns, and burnt the bishop’s 
 palace. Then, driving before them herds of infuriated 
 cattle, they marched upon Enniscorthy, which they 
 attacked. After a gallant resistance the garrison fled 
 out to Wexford, leaving the rebels in possession. 
 Wexford was next to be seized. The soldiers, finding 
 themselves too few for adequate defence of the town, 
 marched away. The rebels set up a kind of govern- 
 ment in Wexford, and chose as their leader Bagenal 
 Harvey. 
 
 The Camp of Vinegar Hill . — Father John Murphy 
 had set up a great camp at Vinegar Hill, near Ennis- 
 corthy, and thither congregated masses of the lowest 
 of the people — men and women. Throughout the 
 county the rebels had it their own way. Two places 
 only were held by the king’s forces — Duncannon and 
 
120 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND . 
 
 New Eoss. Bagenal Harvey determined to attack 
 New Eoss, and advanced at the head of 30,000 rebels 
 against the town, defended by a force of under 1400 
 men. The conflict was desperate, but discipline won the 
 day. After ten hours’ fighting the rebels gave way ; 
 but the end of that day witnessed a dreadful deed. 
 One of the retreating rebels ran to a place called 
 Scullabogue, where over 200 loyalists lay imprisoned 
 in a house and a barn. The fugitive announced that 
 he bore an order from Bagenal Harvey to the effect 
 that all these prisoners were to die. Accordingly the 
 prisoners in the house were piked, and the barn was 
 fired, being filled with 184 persons, who died from 
 suffocation and burning. Harvey was horrified at this 
 crime done in his name. He quarrelled with his men 
 on the matter, and gave up the command to Father 
 Philip Eoche, a burly priest. 
 
 Troops poured into "VVexford, but did not at once 
 succeed in putting down the rebellion. For a time 
 there was a panic that Dublin was again in danger; 
 but the rebels had no general worthy the name, and 
 they wasted their time in plundering at large, and did 
 not attempt to march on Dublin. On the 9th of June 
 there was a repetition of the day of New Eoss. Again 
 30,000 of the rebels marched upon a small force of the 
 king’s troops, this time shut up in Arklow, the key of 
 the Dublin road. After a day’s hard fighting the rebels, 
 deprived of their captain, withdrew defeated. This 
 defeat put an end to all bold schemes. The insurgents 
 remained encamped in their two strongholds on the 
 hill of Lacken, and on Vinegar Hill. The latter camp 
 had a monopoly of atrocities. The followers of Father 
 John Murphy brought into the camp all the loyal 
 
THE REBELLION OF 1798. 121 
 
 Protestants they could find; these luckless prisoners 
 were shut up in a windmill, and then put to death. 
 Four hundred in all perished in this slaughter. 
 
 Capture of- Vinegar Hill . — It was impossible for 
 the force stationed in Ireland to put down this 
 rebellion. Eight thousand men were sent from Eng- 
 land; 7000 more joined them, and a well-armed 
 force, with General Lake as commander-in-chief, set 
 out into Wexford. The Englishmen surrounded 
 Vinegar Hill. The rebel forces nearly equalled their 
 antagonists in number, but they had not much ammu- 
 nition, and no discipline or strategy. The result was 
 what might have been expected. After fierce fighting 
 the rebels abandoned their hill, and fled away to the 
 south, towards Wexford, where a scene of horror was 
 being acted. General Lake had sent a force to attack 
 Wexford; this force met with Father Roche and his 
 men, who had abandoned the hill of Lacken. A 
 battle took place which had no decisive ending. 
 Father Roche fell short of ammunition, and withdrew 
 in good order to a strong position without the walls. 
 Then the populace of Wexford began to wreak their 
 vengeance on all the Protestants within their reach. 
 These unhappy victims were dragged to the middle of 
 the bridge where a mock trial was held, and they were 
 murdered one by one to the number of ninety-seven, 
 and flung into the river. The rumour of defeat, and 
 of the approach of the enemy, cut short the murderous 
 work. The insurgent troops fled away into the moun- 
 tains, dispersed, and in course of time disappeared. 
 Wexford was given up to the mercy of the soldiers ; 
 and they, remembering the barn of Scullabogue, and 
 the bridge of Wexford, had no mercy, and dealt death 
 
122 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 and destruction throughout the county, Eagenal Har- 
 vey, Father Philip Roche, and many others, were hung 
 upon the bridge at Wexford. Father John Murphy 
 was executed elsewhere. Martial law prevailed, and 
 frequently enough it degenerated into mere lynch-law 
 and the wanton burning of homesteads. 
 
 Lord Cornwallis lands in Ireland . — The rebellion 
 having lost all semblance of danger, it was deemed 
 desirable to set up in Ireland a Viceroy who should 
 not be so cold and merciless as Lord Camden. Lord 
 Cornwallis was sent over to act both as Viceroy and 
 Commander-in-Chief. Lord Castlereagh accompanied 
 him as Chief Secretary. The new Viceroy, who strove 
 to be just and temperate, was deeply distressed at the 
 state of feeling he found amongst the English in 
 Ireland. He says in a letter, “The conversation of 
 the principal persons of the country all tends to en- 
 courage the system of blood; and the conversation 
 even at my table, where you will suppose I do all I 
 can to prevent it, always turns on hanging, shooting, 
 burning, &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.” 
 
 He issued a proclamation, “ promising protection to 
 all insurgents guilty of rebellion only, who should sur- 
 render their arms and take the Oath of Allegiance.” He 
 carried an Amnesty Bill, and enforced strict discipline 
 on the army, whilst he showed kindness to the un- 
 happy people. A few of the leading conspirators who 
 had been captured were hung, and the rest were 
 banished for life. Two ridiculous and unsuccessful 
 French expeditions disturbed the West of Ireland. 
 On board one of the unlucky French ships was Wolfe 
 
THE REBELLION OF 1798. 
 
 123 
 
 Tone, the founder of the United Irishmen. He was 
 captured, tried, and condemned to death ; hut he cut 
 his throat, and died in prison. 
 
 The Union , 1800. — In the exhausted state of Ire- 
 land after the rebellion and its suppression, Pitt saw a 
 favourable opportunity for bringing about the Union 
 which he had so long planned. An overwhelming 
 majority of the people of Ireland were bitterly op- 
 posed to any such measure, and the bill for effecting a 
 Union was thrown out in the session of 1799 ; but by 
 scattering abroad money and false hopes the Viceroy, 
 his Chief Secretary, and the Lord Chancellor, won 
 over votes to their side. A million and a half of 
 money, and titles and places innumerable secured a 
 bare majority in the House for the government 
 measure. The mass of the Catholics throughout the 
 country, awakened by Lord Clare from their long sleep, 
 and persistently clamorous for their rights, were hushed 
 into silence for the time by the promise that the Union 
 once passed should be followed by their emancipation. 
 The three men who brought about the Union looked 
 upon their preparatory measures with very different 
 eyes. Lord Cornwallis said, “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 for engaging in such dirty 
 work, and am supported only by the reflection that 
 without an Union the British Empire must be dis- 
 solved.” Lord Castlereagh does not seem to have 
 been disturbed in his mind by any such scruples; 
 and Lord Clare, always glad to coerce his “damnable 
 country,” was quite happy. In May, 1800, the Irish 
 Parliament passed the Act of Union, and decreed its 
 
124 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND . 
 
 own destruction. Grattan, in a splendid speech, lifted 
 up his voice against the bill, hut in vain. 
 
 The Act of Union decreed that the Irish Parliament 
 should cease to exist, and that Ireland should he re- 
 presented in the Imperial Parliament hy one hundred 
 members in the Commons House, and hy four lords 
 spiritual sitting in rotation, and twenty-eight lords 
 temporal elective. It was further provided that the 
 Irish Church should continue as then established, and 
 that free trade should exist between England and 
 Ireland. 
 
CHAPTEK X. 
 
 IRELAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 The Four Grievances of Ireland . — The Union was 
 meant to be the great panacea for all the woes of 
 Ireland. It is true that it put an end to many 
 troublesome questions, and that it gave one great boon 
 to the Irish — free trade with England. But Ireland 
 remained oppressed by many and great grievances, 
 the four chief ones being the political slavery of the 
 Catholics, the heavy burden of the tithes, the existence 
 of the alien Church, and the system of land tenure. The 
 agrarian grievances of Ireland, and the various attempts 
 that have been made from time to time to remove them, 
 must be treated apart. As to the three first grievances, 
 it is the glory of the nineteenth century to have re- 
 dressed them ; and if it is objected that no far-seeing 
 and benevolent legislation has done these things, and 
 that Irish reforms have never been carried when they 
 could possibly be deferred, it ought also to be remem- 
 bered that the same reproach in a lesser degree may 
 be levelled at all English reforms. 
 
 Catholic Emancipation . — The great body of Irish 
 Catholics, so long inert and timid, had been stirred 
 into active life in the times of the United Irishmen. 
 The year 1793 granted them the electoral franchise; 
 
126 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND . 
 
 but more than a generation passed away before their 
 emancipation was completed, before Catholics were 
 allowed to sit in Parliament. In the negotiations 
 which preceded the Act of Union, the Irish Catholics 
 were given to understand that their complete emanci- 
 pation should speedily follow the Union. Bribed by 
 this brilliant prospect, they held their peace, and 
 abstained from any organised opposition to the measure. 
 The Union once accomplished, they were undeceived. 
 The King's views on the question were no longer con- 
 cealed by anxious ministers from the world at large. 
 What those views were may best be explained in the 
 King's own words : “ My inclination to the Union with 
 Ireland was chiefly founded on a trust that the uniting 
 of the Established Churches of the two kingdoms 
 would for ever shut the door to any further measures 
 with respect to the Eoman Catholics.” So said King 
 George III., and Pitt only escaped from the con- 
 demnation he deserved by posing as the unwilling 
 victim of the royal obstinacy. Anger at the ministerial 
 trick rolled through Ireland ; but anger was unavailing, 
 the Union was accomplished. All the wit of Ireland 
 then set to work to get the boon which had been 
 promised and withheld. The rebellion of Emmett does 
 not enter into the history of the struggle for Catholic 
 Emancipation; it was a mere survival of 1798. 
 
 Daniel O'Connell . — A new hero arose in Ireland in 
 the beginning of this century — Daniel O’Connell, 
 known as The Agitator. The old idol of the Irish 
 Parliament, the patriot Henry Grattan, spent the 
 last years of his life in advocating in the Parliament 
 of Great Britain the claims of the Irish Catholics; 
 but he died before success was won. The man who 
 
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 127 
 
 freed the Catholics was Daniel O’Connell. O’Connell 
 was a barrister, eloquent and ambitious, clear in aim 
 and strong in act. At the time of the Union he was 
 only twenty-five years old, but he had already made 
 his mark. The Union he hated and abhorred, and he 
 very soon made up his mind as to what he wanted. 
 He wished that the Union should be repealed, the 
 Protestant Church deprived of its ascendancy, and 
 that Catholics and Protestants, free alike, should sit in 
 a Parliament in Dublin. To bring about this state of 
 things he saw that it was necessary to stir up the 
 great body of the Irish Catholics to demand their 
 rights. The best way to reach the Catholics was 
 through the priests. O’Connell set himself to make 
 the priests do the work, and they did it. The struggle 
 lasted for many years. What was called the Veto 
 question delayed matters. The English Government 
 offered to give emancipation to the Catholics on con- 
 dition of having a right of veto on the appointment of 
 Catholic prelates. More than once Irish opinion in- 
 clined to accept this compromise; but O’Connell, fearing 
 loss of power to his Church, swayed it otherwise. 
 
 In 1824 O’Connell founded the Catholic Association, 
 to be worked by the priests in every parish in Ireland, 
 for divers avowed objects, the real object being to 
 agitate in favour of emancipation. Vast sums of money 
 were raised in order to carry on the agitation. This 
 was called the Catholic Pent. The priests throughout 
 the land exercised their enormous influence ; O’Connell 
 and his colleague, Eichard Lalor Sheil, traversed the 
 country and roused it. The Catholic Association came 
 athwart the Government in every election. In 1828 
 O’Connell himself, though a Catholic, was returned for 
 
128 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 Clare. The will of the whole people was now strung up, 
 and as in 1782 it was irresistible. Catholic Emancipa- 
 tion was wrung from the ministry of the Duke of Well- 
 ington, in the year 1829, by the fear of civil war. As 
 usual the gift was robbed of its grace. The 40s. free- 
 holders, whose votes had done so much towards en- 
 franchising their fellow-Catholics, were disfranchised 
 lest they should do any further mischief. The Catholic 
 Association was suppressed by law. O'Connell himself 
 was refused admission to Parliament until he had been 
 re-elected, on the ground that he had been elected 
 while he was ineligible. All constitutional agitation 
 was suppressed by the power given to the Viceroy to 
 stop any public meeting which he deemed dangerous. 
 Constitutional means of agitation being denied to 
 Ireland, the old evil of the secret societies was intensi- 
 fied. Outrage was rife ; coercion was the only remedy 
 approved by the Executive, and the miserable circle 
 of agitation and coercion began to revolve again. 
 
 Tithe Commutation Act, 1838. — The reform of Eng- 
 lish Parliamentary representation in 1832 was not 
 without its influence on Irish legislation, though after 
 the Keform Bill was passed, as before it, England rarely 
 conceded anything to Irish demands except in response 
 to increasing turbulence and intolerable agitation. In 
 1838 the Tithe Commutation Act was passed after a 
 long and desperate struggle, in which the Irish were 
 again led by O’Connell. An absolute and dogged 
 refusal on the part of the tithe-payers to pay any 
 tithe at all brought about the Act. The Catholic 
 peasantry were released from the payment of tithes, 
 and the Protestant landlords were required to pay 
 instead. 
 
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 129 
 
 Education . — Education demanded early attention. 
 After the Union the conscientious among the Pro- 
 testants felt uneasy at the thought of the mass of 
 ignorant Catholics, doomed to ignorance as long as 
 they remained faithful to their religion. An effort 
 was accordingly made to educate without proselytizing, 
 and a Society called the Kildare Street Society was 
 formed in 1811, which established mixed schools for 
 Catholics and Protestants. In these schools a secular 
 education was given, and the Bible was read without 
 note or comment. The British Parliament adopted 
 as its basis the system thus established ; and this 
 system, extended and modified by measures passed 
 in 1832 and subsequent years, still furnishes all 
 classes in Ireland, who choose to avail themselves of 
 it, with a sound secular training. The same liberal 
 policy was adopted with respect to the College of 
 Maynooth, originally founded during the French war 
 for the education of the Irish priests. Sir Eobert 
 Peel gave it a permanent endowment in 1845, 
 and at the same time established the three Queen’s 
 Colleges in Belfast, Cork, and Galway, often described 
 as the Godless Colleges, because they provided an 
 entirely unsectarian education.. The Maynooth grant 
 was frequently attacked by ultra Protestants in the 
 English Parliament. Together with the Regium 
 Donum — a grant made from the Imperial Exchequer 
 towards the maintenance of the Presbyterian establish- 
 ment in Ulster — the Maynooth grant was cancelled in 
 1868, by provisions in the Act whereby the Protestant 
 Church in Ireland was finally disestablished and dis- 
 endowed. 
 
 Repeal Agitation . — The Tithe Commutation Act 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 was deemed insufficient by O’Connell. Persuaded 
 that the mind of England was bent on recalling or 
 nullifying the freedom gained in 1829, the great 
 agitator began to devote the whole of his strength 
 to the task of rousing his countrymen to demand 
 the repeal of the Union. He held monster meetings 
 throughout the length and breadth of Ireland, as 
 remarkable for their decency and order as for their 
 burning enthusiasm ; Eather Matthew, the temperance 
 priest, worked with him. The great year of the agita- 
 tion was 1843. In the autumn of that year it reached 
 such a height that the Government in alarm forbade the 
 meetings, and tried O’Connell and some others on a 
 charge of conspiracy. O’Connell was found guilty and 
 sent to prison ; but an appeal was made to the House of 
 Lords, the Irish sentence was reversed, and O’Connell 
 was freed after some months’ imprisonment. This 
 interlude had broken the back of the agitation. The 
 personal power of the leader being for a time in 
 abeyance the concord of the agitators was disturbed. 
 The Young Irelanders were an offshoot of O’Connell’s 
 Eepealers; the chief of them were Smith O’Brien, 
 John Mitchel, T. E. Meagher, John Dillon, and Charles 
 Gavan Duffy. 
 
 The Potato Famine . — In 1846 the potato crop 
 failed in Ireland, and a dreadful famine ensued, which 
 embittered and intensified all the questions at issue 
 between England and Ireland. Thousands died from 
 starvation, and emigration removed as many more ; 
 so that ten years after the famine broke out the total 
 population of Ireland had been reduced by more than 
 a million. Strenuous attempts were made by the 
 Government and people of England to relieve the 
 
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, 131 
 
 distress caused by the famine, but its intensity served 
 nevertheless to increase the perennial discontent of the 
 Irish peasantry. The year 1848 — a period of revolution 
 throughout Europe — was one of universal ferment in 
 Ireland. The party of Young Ireland very nearly 
 succeeded in stirring up a revolt ; but the rising was 
 mismanaged, its leaders were unready, and hostilities 
 began and ended with the defeat and arrest of Smith 
 O’Brien, and one or two of his associates, in a cabbage 
 garden at Ballingarry, in Tipperary. 
 
 The Fenian Conspiracy . — The rising of 1848 was 
 crushed, but discontent and disaffection could not be 
 crushed. A steady stream of Irish emigrants sought 
 the New World, and the saying of Grattan began to be 
 fulfilled — “ Whatever is bold and disconsolate ... to 
 that point will precipitate, and what you trample on in 
 Europe will sting you in America.” The Fenian con- 
 spiracy of 1867 was but the latest outcome of that 
 network of secret societies which for generations has 
 undermined Ireland. In 1 867 and 1868 Eenian outrages 
 and menaces were rife in England. These culminated 
 in a cowardly attempt to rescue certain prisoners de- 
 tained in Clerkenwell Gaol by means of an explosion, 
 which caused great suffering and loss of life. 
 
 Disestablishment of the Dish Church , 1867. — In 
 1867 Mr. Gladstone, as leader of the Liberal party, 
 had carried in the House of Commons a resolution in 
 favour of the disestablishment of the Irish Church. 
 In the autumn of the same year a dissolution of 
 Parliament resulted in the return of a large Liberal 
 majority. Mr. Disraeli, the Tory Premier, resigned, 
 and was replaced by Mr. Gladstone. One of the first 
 measures of the new Government was a bill for the 
 
132 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 
 
 disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish 
 Church. This was carried, and was followed by the 
 Land Act of 1870. In 1873 Mr. Gladstone attempted 
 to deal with the question of education, the third 
 branch, as he called it, of the upas-tree of Protestant 
 ascendancy in Ireland. In this attempt he was un- 
 successful, and the return of Mr. Disraeli to power 
 in 1874 suspended for several years the operation and 
 development of his rival’s policy in Ireland. To 
 which of the two policies, that of the Tories or that of 
 the Liberals, is to be attributed the condition in which 
 Ireland was found in 1880, when Mr. Gladstone re- 
 turned to power, is a question which need not be 
 decided here. It must suffice to say that once more in 
 1880 it became necessary for Parliament to take up 
 that question of land tenure which from time im- 
 memorial had alienated Ireland from England, and 
 had perplexed the legislatures and embarrassed the 
 statesmen of both countries. 
 
 The Land Question . — The Act of 1793, which gave 
 the Parliamentary franchise to all 40s. freeholders, 
 resulted in a large increase of the number of small 
 holdings. The Act of 1829 deprived the 40s. free- 
 holders of their votes. In consequence, the land- 
 lords, being no longer induced to cut up their holdings 
 in order to multiply votes, inclined towards con- 
 solidation, and eviction was rife. Eamine and poverty 
 were the portion of the small tenants who remained, 
 and the wretched system of land tenure which obtained 
 in Ireland threatened to make famine and poverty peren- 
 nial. The inextricable confusion which came from the 
 superposition, never willingly accepted by the people, 
 of the feudal system upon the tribal system, has more 
 
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 133 
 
 than once been mentioned. The many wholesale con- 
 fiscations — the original Conquest of Henry II., the 
 Plantations of Elizabeth and James I., and the Crom- 
 wellian settlement — had made the confusion worse. 
 Absentee landlords, the growth of a bad feeling be- 
 tween them and their tenants, and the mischievous 
 system whereby the tenant repaired and improved, 
 and the landlord secured the ultimate advantage, have 
 kept up the misery to this day. Ulster was in some 
 respects an exception to the general distress and dis- 
 content ; for there the system of rack-rent was modi- 
 fied and softened by the custom known as the Ulster 
 tenant right. This custom, which arose, as we have 
 shown, in the years following the Ulster Plantation, 
 gave the tenant permissive fixity of tenure, accom- 
 panied by the right to sell the goodwill of his farm. 
 When it is remembered that by the opposition of 
 England to the growth of trade and manufacture the 
 people of Ireland have had no means of gaining sub- 
 sistence save from the land, the terrible and lasting 
 misery resulting from the evil system of land tenure 
 may be understood. 
 
 Affairs in Ireland grew steadily worse from 1829 
 onwards. The measure known as the Catholic Eman- 
 cipation Act, while it grudgingly gave permission to 
 Catholics to sit in Parliament, did not alter the system 
 of patronage whereby all the chief offices were filled 
 by Protestants ; and by disfranchising the 40s. free- 
 holders, it condemned to political death by far the 
 largest class of Catholic voters in the land. All this 
 weighed on the mind and spirit of the people, and in- 
 creased the material misery. 
 
 The Devon Commission , 1842. — The first serious 
 
134 
 
 ENGLAND AND IRELAND . 
 
 attempt at agrarian reform was made in the year 
 1835 by Mr. Sharman Crawford, member for Dun- 
 dalk, who brought in a bill to improve the con- 
 dition of the Irish tenant. The main purpose of this 
 bill was that the tenant should be entitled, in the case 
 of his eviction, to compensation for permanent im- 
 provements made with the landlord’s consent. This 
 bill was brought in in 1835 and 1836, but met 
 with violent opposition, and was thrown out. Seven 
 years afterwards Mr. Crawford succeeded in obtain- 
 ing the appointment of a Royal Commission to in- 
 vestigate the “ occupation of land in Ireland.” This 
 Commission, known from its chairman, Lord Devon, 
 as the Devon Commission, marks a great epoch 
 in the Irish land question. The Commissioners, in 
 their Report, brought out strongly the facts that great 
 misery existed in Ireland, and that the cause of 
 the misery was the system of land tenure. The 
 following extract from the Report indicates the 
 general nature of its conclusions: “A reference to 
 the evidence of most of the witnesses will show 
 that the agricultural labourer of Ireland continues 
 to suffer the greatest privations and hardships; that 
 he continues to depend upon casual and precarious 
 employment for subsistence ; that he is badly housed, 
 badly fed, badly clothed, and badly paid for his labour. 
 Our personal experience and observations during our 
 enquiry have afforded us a melancholy confirmation of 
 these statements, and we cannot forbear expressing our 
 strong sense of the patient endurance which the labour- 
 ing classes have generally exhibited under sufferings 
 greater, we believe, than the people of any other 
 country in Europe have to sustain.” And the remedy 
 
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 135 
 
 for the evil is to be found, continues the Report, in 
 “an increased and improved cultivation of the soil/’ 
 to be gained by securing for the tenant “fair re- 
 muneration for the outlay of his capital and labour/’ 
 
 Various Attempts at Land Reform . — No sooner 
 was this Report issued than great numbers of petitions 
 were presented to the House of Lords, and supported 
 by Lord Devon, praying for legislative reform of 
 the land evils; and in June, 1845, a bill was intro- 
 duced into the House of Lords by Lord Stanley, 
 on behalf of the government of Sir Robert Peel, 
 for “the purpose of providing compensation to 
 tenants in Ireland, in certain cases, on being dis- 
 possessed of their holdings, for such improvements as 
 they may have made during their tenancy.” By the 
 selfish opposition of the Irish landlords this bill was 
 thrown out. Two days after its rejection in the House 
 of Lords Mr. Sharman Crawford brought into the 
 House of Commons a Tenant Right Bill, and met 
 with as little success. In 1846 a government bill was 
 introduced, bearing a strong resemblance to that of 
 Lord Stanley ; but the ministry was overthrown, and 
 the bill was dropped. A Liberal ministry under Lord 
 John Russell came into power in July, 1846, and 
 Irish hopes again began to rise. 
 
 In 1847 the indefatigable Mr. Crawford brought in 
 a bill, whose purpose was to extend the Ulster custom 
 to the whole of Ireland ; it was thrown out. A well- 
 meant but in the end unsuccessful attempt to relieve 
 the burdens of embarrassed landlords without redress- 
 ing the grievances of rack-rented tenants, was made in 
 1848 by the measure well known as the Encumbered 
 Estates Act. This Act had for its object to restore 
 
136 
 
 ENGLAND AND ZEELAND. 
 
 capital to the land ; but with capital it brought in 
 a class of proprietors who lacked the virtues as well as 
 the vices of their predecessors, and were even more 
 oppressive to the tenantry. 
 
 Between 1847 and 1860 innumerable bills were 
 introduced and disappeared. In 1860 an Act passed 
 by Lord Palmerston’s government attempted to deal 
 with Irish agrarian discontent by declaring the relation 
 between landlord and tenant to be one of contract, and 
 not of tenure. This Act proved to be almost a dead 
 letter. It was found impossible to extinguish Irish 
 ideas of tenure by the mere letter of an Act of Parlia- 
 ment, and matters consequently went from bad to 
 worse. In 1870 the policy attempted in 1860 was 
 reversed. Mr. Gladstone passed an Act, of which the 
 main purposes were : 
 
 1. To obtain for the tenants in Ireland security of 
 tenure. 
 
 2. To encourage the making of improvements 
 throughout the country. 
 
 3. To create a peasant proprietorship in Ireland. 
 
 This Act was inadequate in that it secured to the 
 
 tenant the value of his improvements only in case of 
 eviction, whereas the one desire of the tenant was to 
 retain his holding. Hence distress and discontent 
 continued, and in 1879 and 1880 were almost fanned 
 into insurrection by a partial failure of the harvest, 
 and by the influence of a powerful and unscrupulous 
 organization known as the Land League. Another 
 Commission, under the presidency of Lord Bess- 
 borough, was appointed by the government of Mr. 
 Gladstone in 1880. Early in 1881 it reported, and 
 the result of its report was the Land Act of 1881, 
 
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 137 
 
 whereby the system of land tenure, known as the 
 “ Three F’s ” — fixity of tenure, fair rent, and free sale — 
 was established, and provision was incidentally made 
 for emigration on the one hand, and for the purchase 
 of their holdings by occupying tenants on the other. 
 
 This great reform is now in full operation through- 
 out Ireland. Its final results cannot as yet be foreseen, 
 but it bids fair to allay agrarian discontent ; and if it 
 should succeed in doing so it may yet come to be 
 regarded as the charter of peace between the two 
 countries. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Page 
 
 Abjuration, Oatli of ... 85 
 
 Absentees, Law against 17 
 
 Absentees, Tax on ... 98 
 
 Account, Commissioners of 98 
 Act of Renunciation ... 110 
 
 Address, The American 99 
 
 Allegiance, Oath of 85, 122 
 
 Amnesty Bill 122 
 
 Antrim ... 28, 34-36 
 
 Aquila, Don Juan de ... 50 
 
 Ardscull 15 
 
 Arklow 120 
 
 Armagh ... 48, 57 
 
 Armagh, Synod of ... 8 
 
 Athlone ... ... 82 
 
 Attainder, Act of ... 78 
 
 Aughrim, Battle of ... 82 
 
 Augmentation Act ... 96 
 
 Avaux, Count of 76, 79 
 
 Bacon, Lord ... 21, 58 
 
 Bagnal, Sir Henry ... 48 
 
 Baker, Major ... ... 77 
 
 Ballingarry 131 
 
 Baltinglass, Lord ... 43 
 
 Belfast ... 112, 129 
 
 Bellingham, Sir Edward 26, 27 
 Bessborough Commission 136 
 Bessborougli, Lord ... 136 
 
 Birmingham, Jean de ... 16 
 
 Blackwater Town ... 48 
 
 Bloods, The Five ... 12 
 
 Blount, Charles, Lord 
 Mountjoy ... 49, 51-53 
 
 Boisselot 81 
 
 Page 
 
 Bolingbroke ... ... 20 
 
 Boulter, Primate 89, 91 
 
 Boyne, Battle of the 80, 81 
 
 Brehon Laws 3, 53 
 
 Brian, King ... ... 5 
 
 Brotherhood of St. George 20 
 
 Bruce, Edward 14 
 
 Bruce, Robert ... ...14-16 
 
 Buckingham, Lord 103, 105 
 
 Bull, Adrian IWs ... 6 
 
 Burghley, Lord ... ... 39 
 
 Burgo, William de ... 11 
 
 Burgo, De, The “ Red 
 
 Earl” 15 
 
 Burkes, The 38 
 
 Burke, Edmund 99 
 
 Burke, Gervase ... ... 105 
 
 Camden, Lord ... ... 122 
 
 Carew, Sir George 49, 51 
 
 Carhampton, Lord ... 117 
 
 Carlisle, Lord ... ... 105 
 
 Carlow 71 
 
 Carrickfergus ... 15, 78, 80 
 
 Carrigafoyle, Castle of . 39 
 
 Carteret, Lord Granville 91 
 
 Castle of the Island ... 39 
 
 Castle Chamber .. . 54,62 
 
 Castle Connell ... ... 24 
 
 Castlereagh, Lord 122, 123 
 
 Catholics in Ireland, 34, 50, 54, 
 60, 63, 64, 69, 70, 75, 86-88, 
 95, 100, 101, 105, 106, 108, 
 112-114, 116, 123, 125-127, 
 129, 133. 
 
140 
 
 INDEX . 
 
 Page 
 
 Catholic Association of 1 7 59, 1 0 1 
 Catholic Association of 
 1824 ... 127, 128 
 
 Catholic Committee ... 112 
 
 Catholic Convention 113, 114 
 Catholic Emancipation, 109, 
 111, 112, 114-116, 125, 126- 
 128, 133. 
 
 Catholic Rent 127 
 
 Cavan ... ... 57 
 
 Chandeboy 35 
 
 Charlemont ... 67, 79 
 
 Charlemont, Lord 102, 106 
 
 Charles I. ... 62, 66 
 
 Charles II. ... 75, 78, 83 
 
 Chatham, Lord ... ... 98 
 
 Chesterfield, Lord ... 91 
 
 Chichester, Sir Arthur 53-59 
 Chichester, Lord ... 67 
 
 Christianity, Introduction of 3 
 CivitaVecchia ... ... 37 
 
 Clare ... 62, 127 
 
 Clerkenwell Explosion ... 131 
 
 Clogheen 93 
 
 Clontarf, Battle of ... 5 
 
 Clyn, John ... ... 15 
 
 Coercion Acts ... 94, 117 
 
 Cogan, Mylo de 11 
 
 Coleraine ... 57, 58, 66 
 
 Commercial Legislation 87, 88 
 Connaught, 11, 33, 37, 61, 62, 
 64, 65, 71, 72, 88. 
 Connemara ... ... 38 
 
 Conquest, Anglo-Norman 6 
 Cork 11, 39, 42, 82, 129 
 Cork, County of 52, 71, 93 
 Cornwallis, Lord 122, 123 
 
 Counties, Ireland divided into, 6 
 Counties Palatine ... 11 
 
 Courcy, John de ... 11 
 
 Coyne and Livery ... 17 
 
 Crawford, Mr. Sharman,134,135 
 Crofts, Sir James ... 27 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver 70, 71 
 
 Cromwellian Settlement, 71-74, 
 133. 
 
 Page 
 
 Davis, Sir John 58, 60, 61 
 Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence, The Irish 104, 107 
 Defenders, The ... 117 
 
 Dermot Mac Murrough ... 7 
 
 Derry 33, 58, 76-78 
 
 Desmonds, The... 39, 41 
 Desmond, Earls of, 18, 24, 25, 
 38-41, 43. 
 
 Desmond Rebellion, 35, 38-42 
 Desmond, Sir James of 41 
 Desmond, Sir John of 40, 41 
 Devon Commission 133, 134 
 Devon, Lord ... 134, 135 
 
 Dillon, John 130 
 
 Dingle Harbour 37 
 
 Disraeli, Mr. ... 131, 132 
 
 Dobbs, Francis 106 
 
 Don Bastian de San Josepho, 41 
 Donegal ... ... 57 
 
 Down 28 
 
 Drapier’s Letters 90, 91 
 
 Drogheda ... ... 70 
 
 Drury, Sir William ... 38 
 
 Dublin, 8-10, 19, 20, 23, 27, 
 32, 34, 36, 39, 48, 64, 68, 71, 
 72, 77-81, 107, 111-114,118, 
 120, 127. 
 
 Dublin Castle 67 
 
 Duffy, Charles Gavan ... 130 
 
 Duncannon ... ... 119 
 
 Dundalk, 15, 16, 31, 33, 80, 134 
 Dungannon ... ... 67 
 
 Dungannon, Barons of, 28, 30, 
 44. 
 
 Dungannon, Convention of, 106 
 D’Usson 83 
 
 Eden, Sir W 105 
 
 Edward VI 26 
 
 Elizabeth, 24, 28-32, 34-39, 
 42, 44, 46-49, 52, 133. 
 
 Emmett 126 
 
 Encumbered Estates Act 135 
 
 Enniscorthy ... ... 119 
 
 Enniskillen ... 76, 77 
 
INDEX. 
 
 141 
 
 Page 
 
 Enniskilleners, The ... 78 
 
 Essex, Walter Devereux, 
 
 Earl of ... 35,36 
 
 Essex, Robert Devereux, 
 
 Earl of ... 48,49 
 
 Eustace, James, Lord 
 
 Baltinglass 
 Eva, Princess 
 Everard, Sir John 
 
 40 
 
 8 , 11 
 60 
 
 Faughared, J 16 
 
 Fenian Conspiracy ... 131 
 
 Fermanagh 57 
 
 Ferns ... ... 119 
 
 Fitz-Aldelm ... ... 11 
 
 Fitzgerald, Gerald 25, 28 
 Fitzgerald, Lord Edward 118 
 Fitzgibbon, John, Earl 
 of Clare ... 113, 123 
 
 Fitzmaurice, Sir James 37, 38 
 Fitz-Stephen, Robert 7, 8, 11 
 Fitz william, Sir William, 29, 
 30, 44. 
 
 Fitzwilliam, Lord 114, 115 
 
 Flood, Henry, 98, 99, 106, 
 110, 111. 
 
 Fosterage ... 13, 17 
 
 Fox, Charles James 105, 111 
 
 Foyle, Lough ... ... 33 
 
 Fraternite ... ... 117 
 
 Galway 65, 81-83, 86, 129 
 Gavelkind ... ... 2 
 
 George I. 90 
 
 George II. 92 
 
 George III., 94, 95, 111, 114, 
 115, 126. 
 
 Geraldines, The, 8, 22, 23, 29, 38 
 Giants’ Causeway ... 36 
 
 Ginkel, Baron ... 82, 83 
 
 Gladstone, Mr. 131, 132, 136 
 Glenmalure ... ... 40 
 
 Glynnes, The 36 
 
 Godless Colleges ... 129 
 
 Gossipred ... 13, 17 
 
 Graces, The 62-64 
 
 Page 
 
 Grafton, Duke of ... 91 
 
 Grattan, Henry, 99, 101, 106- 
 108, 110, 111, 114,115, 118, 
 124, 126, 131. 
 
 Gray, Neil ... ... 30 
 
 Grey, Lady Elizabeth ... 23 
 
 Grey, Lord Leonard ...24-26 
 
 Grey de Wilton, Lord, 40, 41, 43 
 
 Habeas Corpus Act ... 105 
 
 Halifax, Lord ... 94, 95 
 
 Hamilton, Richard ... 77 
 
 Harcourt, Lord ... 98-100 
 
 Harrington, Lord ... 91 
 
 Harvey, Bagenal, 119, 120, 122 
 
 Henry II. 7-10, 65, 133 
 
 Henry YII 21 
 
 Henry VIII. ... 23,26,28 
 
 Hely Hutchinson 96, 99 
 
 Hetherington, Edward ... 72 
 
 High Commission Court 64 
 Hoadley, Primate ... 89 
 
 Hoche, General ... 117 
 
 Indemnity Act 117 
 
 Irvine, Colonel 106 
 
 James I., 53, 54, 56-58, 60-62, 
 133. 
 
 James II. ... 75-81, 83 
 
 Jesuits, The ... ... 37 
 
 John, King 9 
 
 Kendal, Duchess of ... 90 
 
 Kenmare, Lord 113 
 
 Keogh, John ... 112, 113 
 
 Kerry ... 37, 39, 52 
 
 Kildare 71 
 
 Kildare, Earls of, 18, 22. 24, 
 29, 40, 41. 
 
 Kildare Street Society ... 129 
 
 Kilkenny ... ... 39 
 
 Kilkenny, Statute of 13, 16 
 
 King’s County 61 
 
 Kinsale 50, 51, 77, 82 
 
 Kinsale, Battle of ... 50 
 
142 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Lacken ... ... 120 
 
 Lacy, Hugh de ... 10, 11 
 
 Lake, General ... ... 121 
 
 Land Act of 1860 ... 186 
 
 Land Act of 1870 132, 136 
 
 Land Act of 1881 ... 136 
 
 Land League ... ... 136 
 
 Land System, 2, 125, 132, 133 
 
 La Touche, Mr 103 
 
 Laud 64 
 
 Lauzun, Count ... ...79-81 
 
 Leinster ... 10, 71, 88 
 
 Leinster, Duke of ... 102 
 
 Leinster, Plantations in 60 
 
 Leitrim 61 
 
 Limerick 25, 39, 81-83, 86 
 Limerick, County of ... 93 
 
 Limerick, Treaty of ... 83 
 
 Limerick, The Wood of 38 
 Linen Manufacture 66, 88 
 
 Lionel, Duke of Clarence 17 
 London, City of .. . 58,65 
 
 Londonderry (see Derry). 
 Longford ... ... 61 
 
 Lords Justices, The 68, 69 
 
 Louis XIV. ... 75,79, 81 
 
 Lucas, Charles ... ... 91 
 
 Lundy, Governor ... 77 
 
 McConnells, The 28, 34 
 
 M’Murroughs, The ... 12 
 
 MacPhelim, Sir Brian ... 35 
 
 Malby, Sir Nicholas ... 38 
 
 Marlborough, Ear^ of . . . 82 
 
 Mary, Queen 28 
 
 Matthew, Father ... 130 
 
 Maumont, Marshal ... 77 
 
 Maynooth, College of ... 129 
 
 Mayo ... 38, 65 
 
 Meagher, T. F 130 
 
 Meath 6, 10 
 
 Mitchell, John 130 
 
 Money Bill ... 94,97 
 
 Morgan, Major ... ... 73 
 
 Morocco 37 
 
 Morrison, Fynes ... 48 
 
 Page 
 
 Mortimer, Lord Roger ... 19 
 
 Munster, 6, 24, 37, 38, 40, 42, 
 49, 71, 88. 
 
 Munster, Plantation of 43 
 Murphy, Father John, 119, 
 120 , 122 . 
 
 Mutiny Bill, Irish, 105, 107, 
 108. 
 
 Nenagh 
 
 93 
 
 Nesta, Princess ... 
 
 7 
 
 New Ross 
 
 120 
 
 Newry 
 
 67 
 
 North, Lord 
 
 107 
 
 Northumberland, Earl of 
 
 28 
 
 Oakboys, The ... 
 
 94 
 
 O’Briens, The 
 
 12 
 
 O’Brien, Prince of Tlio- 
 
 
 mond ... 24, 25 
 
 O’Brien’s Bridge 24, 25 
 
 O’Brien, Smith ... 130, 131 
 
 O’ Byrnes, The 61 
 
 O’Connell, Daniel, 126-128,130 
 
 O’Connors, The 12 
 
 Octennial Act 96 
 
 O’Donnells, The, 28, 29, 31, 33 
 O’Donnell, Red Hugh, 46,49,51 
 O’Donnell, Rory, Earl of 
 Tyrconnel ... ... 55 
 
 O’Molaghlins, The ... 12 
 
 O’Neils, The ... 12,25,28 
 
 O’Neil, Con, Earl of 
 
 Tyrone 28 
 
 O’Neil, Hugh, Earl of 
 Tyrone 44-52, 55, 56 
 
 O’Neil, Shan 28-34, 37, 44 
 O’Neil, Turlough Luineach, 
 
 34, 44, 45. 
 
 Orangemen ... 116, 117 
 
 Ormond, Earls of 18, 25 
 
 Ormond, Duke of 38-41 
 
 Ostmen, The 5, 80 
 
 Pale, The, 14, 20, 28, 33, 40, 
 41, 68. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Palmerston, Lord ... 136 
 
 Parliament of England, 69, 70, 
 73, 85, 88, 110, 111. 
 Parliament of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, 124, 128, 129, 
 131-137. 
 
 Parliament, The Long ... 69 
 
 Parliament of Ireland, 10, 17, 
 20, 21, 26, 59, 60, 63, 77, 78, 
 84-87, 92, 94-101, 103-105, 
 107-112, 114, 115, 123, 124 
 Parliamentary Reform, 109-112 
 Parsons, Sir William ... 61 
 
 Patriots, The ... ... 92 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert 129, 135 
 Pelham, Sir William 39, 42 
 Penal Laws, The ...85-87 
 Perrot, Sir John 43, 44, 62 
 
 Pery, Mr. 97 
 
 Philip III. of Spain ... 50 
 
 Pitt, William, 109, 111, 114, 
 115, 123, 126.. 
 
 Pole, Cardinal ... 24, 25 
 
 Ponsonby, Mr 96-98 
 
 Pope John XXII. ... 14 
 
 Pope Pius V 34 
 
 Portland, Duke of ... 107 
 
 Portmore 48 
 
 Potato Famine 130 
 
 Poynings, Sir Edward ... 21 
 
 Poynings’ Law, 21, 94, 97, 105, 
 107, 110. 
 
 Presidents, The... ... 37 
 
 Prince of Wales... ... Ill 
 Protestants, Irish, 60, 76, 77, 
 85,87,88,101,112,116,121, 
 127, 129. 
 
 Protestant Church in Ire- 
 land, 26, 55, 64, 124-127, 
 
 129, 131, 132. 
 
 Queen’s County 61 
 
 Raghlin, Massacre at ... 36 
 
 Raleigh, Walter 40, 41, 43 
 Ravenspur 20 
 
 143 
 
 Page 
 
 Rebellion of 1641 67-70 
 
 Regency Question ... Ill 
 Regium Donum ... 129 
 
 Repeal Agitation ... 129 
 
 Richard, Duke of York 21 
 Richard II. ... 17, 19, 20 
 
 Roche, Father Philip, 120-122 
 Rockingham, Lord ... 107 
 
 Roderic, King ... 8, 9, 11 
 
 Roscommon 65 
 
 Rosen, General ... ... 77 
 
 Roses, Wars of the ...20, 21 
 Russell, Lord John ... 135 
 
 Russell, Sir William ... 46 
 
 St. Leger, Sir Anthony, 25-27 
 
 St. Malachy 4 
 
 St. Patrick ... ... 4 
 
 St. Patrick, Cathedral of 81 
 St. Ruth ... 82, 83 
 
 Sanders, Nicolas ... 37 
 
 Sarsfield, Colonel Patrick, 82, 
 83. 
 
 Schomberg, Count Mein- 
 
 hard 80 
 
 Schomberg, General 78-81 
 
 Scots, The ... ... 67 
 
 Scots, The Hebridean, 28, 29, 
 34-36. 
 
 Scots, Queen of . . . ... 32 
 
 Scullabogue ... 120, 121 
 
 Settlement of Henry II. 10 
 Settlers, Grants to the 
 First ... 10,11 
 
 Seven Years’ War ... 92 
 
 Shannon, The 24, 71, 72 
 Shannon, Lord ... 96-98 
 
 Sheil, Richard Lalor ... 127 
 
 Shireland, Act to Reduce 
 Ireland to ... ... 37 
 
 Sidney, Sir Henry 33, 44 
 
 “ Silken Lord,” The 23, 24 
 
 Simple Repeal Controversy, 110 
 Sixth of George I., 88, 107, 
 110. 
 
 Skeffington, Sir William 24 
 
144 
 
 INDEX . 
 
 Sligo 
 
 Page 
 ... 65 
 
 Siperwick 
 
 37, 38, 40 
 
 Smith, John 
 
 ... 32 
 
 Smith, Sir Thomas 
 
 34, 35 
 
 Spenser, Edmund 
 
 40, 42, 43 
 
 Stanley, Lord . . . 
 
 ... 135 
 
 Steelboys, The ... 
 
 ... 94 
 
 Stewart, Mr. 
 
 ... 106 
 
 Stone, Primate 
 
 89, 91, 92 
 
 Strafford, Thomas Went- 
 
 worth, Earl of 
 
 63-66, 88 
 
 Strongbow 
 
 ... 7-11 
 
 Stukely, Sir Thomas 
 
 i ... 37 
 
 Supremacy, Act of 
 
 ... 26 
 
 Supremacy, Oath of 
 
 ... 62 
 
 Surleyboy 
 
 ... 36 
 
 Sussex, Lord 
 
 29, 30, 32 
 
 Swift, Dean 
 
 89, 90, 91 
 
 Page 
 
 Ulster, 11, 29, 30, 32, 33-35, 
 37, 44-46, 48, 49, 52, 62, 
 67-69, 71, 78, 80, 94, 116, 
 129, 133. 
 
 Ulster Custom ... 59, 133, 135 
 Ulster, Plantation of 57, 133 
 Undertakers, The 92, 95-97 
 Union, The, 109, 110, 112, 123 
 125-127, 129. 
 
 Union, Act of 124 
 
 United Irishmen, 112,113,116, 
 123, 125. 
 
 V eto Question 127 
 
 Vinegar Hill ... 119-121 
 
 Volunteers, The 102-107 
 Volunteer Convention ... Ill 
 V olunteer Reform Bill ... Ill 
 
 Talbot, Richard, Earl of 
 Tyrconnel ... 76, 81-83 
 
 Tanist 2 
 
 Tanistry ... ... 2 
 
 Tara Hill 25 
 
 Three Fs 137 
 
 Tipperary, County of 93, 131 
 Tithes, The ... 89, 125 
 
 Tithe Commutation Act, 89, 128, 
 129. 
 
 Tone, Wolfe, 112, 113, 116, 117, 
 123. 
 
 Tonragee 67 
 
 Tories, The 73 
 
 Townshend, Lord 95-98 
 
 Transubstantiation, Decla- 
 ration against ... 85 
 
 Tyrconnel 31 
 
 Tyrone, County of 34, 57 
 
 Tyrone, Captain of ... 31 
 
 Walker, George 77 
 
 Walpole, Sir Robert ... 90 
 
 Waterford 8, 9, 19, 81 
 
 Waterford, County of ... 93 
 
 Wellington, Duke of ... 128 
 
 Wesley, John 93 
 
 Westmeath 6, 61 
 
 Wexford 8, 81, 119, 121, 122 
 Wexford, County of, 61, 119, 120 
 Whiteboys, The 89, 93, 94 
 Wicklow ... 61, 73 
 
 William III., 75, 77, 78, 80-82 
 Winter, Sir William 39, 40 
 Wood’s Halfpence 90-92 
 Woollen Manufacture ... 66 
 
 Wool Trade 87 
 
 Yellow Ford, Battle of the 48 
 
 Yelverton 104 
 
 Young Irelanders 130, 131