LAND LESSONS, IRISH PAELIAIENTS, 
 
 AND 
 
 CONSTITUTIOML CRITICISMS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PHELIMINARY PRINCIPLES. 
 ** Say as you think and speak it from your souls." 
 
 Amongst the ruling tenets of the section who now 
 possess power is that which prevents a close inspection 
 into fundamental authorities and conventional credentials. 
 Numberless evasive outlets have been relied on to carry out 
 this principle in practice. When public opinion declares 
 for reform, the weapons of rational argument are abaodoned 
 by the partisans of the threatened ascendancy, and the 
 more tangible resources of bribery, coercion, persecution, 
 lying and brute force are used to maintain the status 
 quo. This is especially true of Ireland. Advantage has 
 been taken of Irish disorganisation caused by the collision 
 of human interests with inhuman power. The policy of 
 alien absorption has at all times actuated the proceedings 
 of British parliamentarians in respect to Ireland. 
 Restricted representation, returning Mammon, resulting 
 in purely class legislation, has propped up a system 
 destructive of all things, common to a nation, by strictly 
 legal means. Until the Irish Parliamentary party repre- 
 senting nearly the whole nation, compelled attention, so 
 far as this country was concerned, foreign parliamen- 
 tarians ignored all the vital principles of human progress, 
 passing laws to govern Ireland which denied freedom, 
 independence, wealth, prosperity, or knowledge to the 
 great bulk of Irishmen. Party passions, racial hate, and 
 religious animosity were encouraged. Military licence, 
 official hypocrisy, administrative omnipotence, and partisan 
 administration of justice have always characterised the 
 control of this country as carried on by the Lords 
 Deputies, the Lords Justices, and the Lord Lieutenants 
 
2 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 sent over from England to extract supplies out of Ireland. 
 Thus acute suffering and violent disorders became chronic. 
 Affairs were carried on by secret, malefic influence, con- 
 cealed under the surface of what was facetiously termed 
 constitutional government. This state of things was pre- 
 served by the ignorance of the multitude, which is the 
 natural mother of civil degradation. A distant misinformed 
 parliament was strong and cruel in the assertion of its 
 power, and its imported administrators were judicially 
 irresponsible and fiercely despotic. It serves no useful 
 purpose to indulge in historical recriminations, but it is 
 necessary to search out the reality of causes and events. 
 " Our interest lies so much with the past as may serve to 
 guide our actions in the present, and with so much of the 
 future as we may hope w^ill be affected by our actions now." 
 Ireland is, unfortunately, suffering from the remoter 
 but almost fatal effects of former mistakes. An ignorant 
 jurisdiction and the fact of the seat of government being 
 in a strange, unsympathetic country originated imperfect 
 laws and sowed broadcast commercial jealousies. IJnjust 
 rights and privileges were assumed, and would not be 
 relinquished for the common good. The national resources 
 having been seized, and with them the power to enforce 
 those presumptuous assumptions, it is now formally stated 
 by sophistical dogmatists that prescription or lapse of time 
 fixes the right without regard to the manner of acquisition. 
 The class who benefit socially, financially, officially and 
 politically by this questionable philosophy are theoretically 
 guided by habits and maxims which suit their personal 
 interests. They decline to revert to primary laws and 
 original foundations or to consult the dictates of reason. 
 Corruption, prejudice, and bad habits have given a 
 dangerous immunity to the dissemination of injurious 
 usurpations which are allowed to pass as law, through 
 want of knowledge, apathy, and popular fallacy. Freedom 
 is the heritage of a nation. Rotten borough members 
 were not competent to sell or part with national property, 
 and this is specially to be insisted on in the case of a 
 country like Ireland, which can boast of undeniable self- 
 government. 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 3 
 
 The desire and end of every Christian Constitution 
 should be the welfare and dignity of its people, and the 
 stability and greatness of the state. Salaried English States- 
 men, and their paid garrison, imagine they compliment 
 Irish taxpayers by condescending to govern Ireland 
 upon the principle that the greatness of the State is more 
 imperative than the welfare of the people. This pernicious 
 doctrine has, undoubtedly, been carried into effect, but the 
 Irish race at home and abroad are now determined that 
 the Christian constitutional principle of National well- 
 being shall be inaugurated, the false echo of disintegration 
 cannot hinder capable citizens from asserting their rights, 
 land, labour and liberty, dignit}^ commerce, and culture 
 should be within the grasp of every honest hand. The 
 realm was secured against weakness and instability during 
 the last Irish Parliament. Eighty-five years' chaotic de- 
 struction seems to have blotted out remembrance of the 
 motto, "Peace hath her victories as well as War," for 
 within that period of self-government, Ireland prospered, 
 and was at the same time a faithful ally of Great Britain, 
 until Pitt manufactured his governmental rebellion to 
 carry the Union. Statesmen are wont to think that 
 foreign embroilments take precedence of domestic disturb- 
 ances, they should set their home in order before they 
 go abroad ; millions of capable electors will soon manifest 
 where their most immediate interests lie. Slaughtering 
 savages, bondholders butchering, and Commander Cotton's 
 commercial conquests may be very profitable to pocketing 
 plutocrats, who stay at their firesides. Query if those im- 
 moral, expensive expeditions are pleasing to grumbling tax- 
 payers and unemployed labourers. Representative govern- 
 ment appears at present to exercise no authority what- 
 ever in the foreign policy which is altogether in the hands of 
 those who happen to be in power, directed by militaryism : 
 to whom the nation pays the war bills. The House of 
 Commons is notoriously unable to perform its duties satis- 
 factorily : local self-government is in the air, but only in the 
 clouds. The Colonies are supposed to be subject to that great 
 integral authority, which claims to be the most truly 
 representative government in existence, yet the Colonies 
 
4 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 are not represented in the councils of the realm. The 
 Constitutional machinery of the Empire sadly needs repair; 
 it is gradually growing unworkable from bursting over- 
 pressure, rusty bureaucracy, and confused centralization. 
 The greatest empires have been ruined by similar causes ; 
 yet, when Irishmen sensibly point to history and to the 
 immediate events of their own country, they are denounced 
 as traitorous rebels. Most Englishmen appear to ignore 
 the voluntary federation of Norway and Sweden, the Ger- 
 man Empire, the United States, Austria-Hungary, 
 Switzerland, their own Australian Colonies, Canada, 
 Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man. 
 
 Ireland as an island nation is clearly entitled to a 
 native resident legislature. A people creates the govern- 
 ment; citizens have a perfect right to control the preten- 
 sions of the State when its conduct and tendency has been 
 directed against general utility. The Governmental system 
 which lags behind its people must inevitably be dragged up 
 to the National standard. This natural result would have 
 been arrived at long since in Ireland, but that representa- 
 tives, administration, executive and alien governmentalists 
 were anything but a reflex of the individuals comprising 
 the nation. The thinking and workingof generations of true 
 Irishmen is only now beginning to fructify ; the pen is 
 destroying the sword, blood and iron combinations are being 
 dissolved by the burning w^ords of earnest men. Rules of 
 procedure will not stem the torrent of public opinion, 
 which is greater than ministers or kings. " Words, idle 
 words," put into a Sovereign's speech, may place Royalty 
 in a false position, if unconstitutional threats are used to 
 terrorize the House of Commons, for as the brilliant 
 Irishman, Sheridan, laid down: "The King of England 
 is not seated on a solitary eminence of power ; on the 
 contrary, he sees his equals in the co-existing branches 
 of the legislature, and he recognises his superior in the 
 law.'' There is no such reality as unalterable funda- 
 mental law, all laws are subject to change or repeal when 
 the House of Commons so chooses. Hall declares "the 
 independence of the House of Commons is the column 
 upon which the whole fabric of our liberty rests!' The 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENT'S. 
 
 House of Commons should be the mouthpiece of the people 
 in whom are deposited the supreme power. Long ago in 
 troubled times, Milton wrote : ''The power of kings and 
 magistrates was and is originally the people's, and by 
 them conferred, in trust only, to be employed to the 
 common peace and benefit, with liberty, therefore, and 
 right remaining in them to re-assume to themselves if it 
 be abused, or to dispose of it, by any alteration as they 
 shall judge most conducing to the public good." 
 
 The Irish people desire to re-assume the inalienable 
 power and right of self-government ; they now demand its 
 restitution as most conducing to the public good. 
 History distinctly tells us that Ireland always ranked as a 
 nation, but since the baneful Union, unhappy Erin has 
 been a living illustration of Lammenais's comment : 
 " When you see a people loaded with irons and delivered 
 to the executioner, be not hasty to say this people is an 
 unruly people that would trouble the earth, for perad- 
 venture it is a martyred people which suffers for the 
 salvation of humanity." 
 
 EARLY LIGHT. 
 
 " Deeds never die." 
 
 When in the cause of saving religion St. Patrick 
 landed in Ireland, over fourteen hundred years ago, 
 he found the Irish Pagans cultured islanders, foremost 
 in existing arts beyond their surrounding compeers. 
 The poets, historians, and OUamhs, or doctors, held an 
 elevated rank, and were specially protected in person 
 and property. Druids, Brehons, Files, Bards and 
 Physicians were almost hereditary privileged professions. 
 Brehonic laws were in force, providing a code for the 
 punishment of crime, and arranging succession by a tanis- 
 try decree, which was a strange compound of hereditary 
 and elective principles, but wisely did not disturb property 
 or people. Music was cultivated. M'Geoghegan said the 
 ofl&ce of master to the king was instituted in the third 
 century. 
 
6 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 - Cambrensis later on testifies the skill of the Irish in 
 music is incomparably superior to that of any nation I 
 have seen and Warton, in his History of English Poetry, 
 quotes, " Even so late as the eleventh century, the practice 
 was continued among the Welsh Bards of receiving 
 instructions in the Bardic profession in Ireland," — the harp 
 being the National instrument of Ireland and Wales. The 
 whole country embraced Christianity, without a martyr, 
 the love of learning and peace became usual, churches 
 and schools covered the land, architecture progressed, as 
 can be judged from round towers, sepulchres, dome roofed 
 houses composed of stones without cement in the Pelasgic 
 fashions, ancient oratories simple but beautiful like that 
 of Gallerius, olden monasteries as Arran, Innismurray, 
 Erris and High Island. Those are evidences of gradual 
 improvement in architectural taste and experience during 
 the ages of Paganism and Christianity, advancing from the 
 rude stone fortress to the delicate designs of Cong Abbey, 
 Ireland was known as the Island of Saints and learned 
 men. England, Scotland, and Continental nations sent 
 thousands of pupils to Erin. Venerable Bede relates : 
 Thither came pilgrims, in search of learning, from the 
 forests of Germany, from the cities of the North, as v/ell as 
 frcm England and Scotland." Camden writes : " At that 
 age our Anglo-Saxons repaired on all sides to Ireland as a 
 general mart of learning." Eric of Auxerre wrote in the 
 ninth century : " Ireland, despising the dangers of the deep, 
 is migrating with almost her whole train of philosophers, 
 to our coasts." Thierry declared that " the poetry and 
 literature of ancient Ireland was the most cultivated, per- 
 haps, of all Western Europe." The poet Spenser acknow- 
 ledged : " It is certain that Ireland hath had the use of 
 letters very anciently and long before England, The Saxons 
 are said to have their letters, learning and learned men 
 from the Irish, for the Saxon character is the same as the 
 Irish.'' Lacroix, in Science and Literature in the Middle 
 Ages, testifies : " The Irish scholars were among the most 
 distinguished men in Europe ; their schools were flocked 
 to by scholars from all parts ; their monasteries were 
 densely populated with students, and their country wa& 
 
IlilSII rAllLIAMKNTS. 
 
 7 
 
 tlie very Athens of the age." Mosheim, in Ecclesiastical 
 History, gives credit to " the Hibernians as the first teachers 
 of scholastic theology in Europe." Dr. O'Donovan 
 studiously teaches — " Joannes Erigena, or John of Erin, is 
 admitted by the most competent authorities to have been 
 the founder of the mystic doctrine. It thus appears that 
 the two great systems of theology originated in the Irish 
 schools." Such historical facts are often denied, because, 
 as Dr. Reeves points out, " The merit of the teacher has 
 been transferred to the disciple, and so a great obstruction 
 is placed in the way of acquaintance with Irish manuscripts : 
 the Irish scholar often neglecting to examine them because 
 they are called Saxon, and the English to consult them 
 because unable." 
 
 In Ireland Todd, O'Donovan, and O'Curry have edited 
 with much learning and industry ; on the Continent to 
 Zeuss belongs the honour of having exhumed and printed 
 the oldest known specimens of the Celtic language. He was 
 iu a measure favoured by being able to visit the Monasteries 
 of Austria, Switzerland, Germany,and the Librariesof Milan, 
 where those treasures lie; but it would take one thousand 
 large octavos to issue properly this buried literature. Ber- 
 ington in Literary History of the Middle Ages states : " It 
 is sufficient praise for Ireland that she sent out teachers by 
 whose industry the general cause of knowledge was pro- 
 moted. The Protestant Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. Words- 
 worth, stated to his clergy : Centuries ago Ireland was 
 the burning and shining light of Western Christendom. 
 In sacred and other learning she was in advance of 
 England; the sons of our nobles and gentry were sent 
 TO Ireland for education ; a great part of England 
 owes its Christianity to Irish Missioners from the school 
 of St. Columba in lona." 
 
 About the end of the seventh century, Alfred, King of 
 the Northumbrian Saxons, was expelled from his own 
 country, and found a sanctuary in "The Land of the 
 Loving Heart." John O'Donovan literally translates the 
 exiled monarch's verses thus : — 
 
IRISH PATILTAMENTS. 
 
 I found in the fair Innisfail, 
 In Ireland, while in exile, 
 Many women, no silly crowd, 
 Many laics, many clerics. 
 
 I found in each province, 
 Of the five provinces of Ireland, 
 Both in church and state. 
 Much of food— much of raiment. 
 
 I found gold and silver, 
 
 I found honey and wheat, 
 
 I found affection with the people of God ; 
 
 I found banquets and cities. 
 
 I found in Armagh the splendid, 
 Meekness, wisdom, circumspection. 
 Fasting in obedience to the Son of God, 
 Noble prosperous Sages. 
 
 I found in each great church. 
 Whether internal, on shore or island, 
 Learning wisdom, devotion to God, 
 Holy welcome and protection. 
 
 I found the lay monks. 
 Of alms the active advocates — 
 And in proper order with them 
 The Scriptures without corruption. 
 
 I found in Munster without prohibition 
 Kings, Queens, and Royal Bards 
 In every species of poetry well skilled — 
 Happiness, comfort, pleasure. 
 
 I found in Conact, famed for justice, 
 Affluence, milk in full abundance, 
 Hospitality, lasting vigour, fame. 
 In this territory of Croghan of heroes. 
 
 I found in the country of Connall [Tirconnell] 
 Brave, victorious heroes, 
 Fierce men, of fair complexion. 
 The highest stars of Ireland. 
 
 I found in the province of Ulster 
 Long-blooming beauty — hereditary vigour- 
 Young scions of energy, 
 Though fair, yet fit for war. and brave. 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 9 
 
 I found in the territory of Boyle 
 
 [M.S. effaced] 
 
 Brelions' Erenachs' palaces, 
 
 Good military weapons, active horsemen. 
 
 I found in the fair-surfaced Leinster 
 From Dublin to Sleivmargy, 
 Long living men, health, prosperity, 
 Bravery, hardihood, and traffic. 
 
 I found from Ard to Gle, 
 In the rich country of Ossory, 
 Sweet fruit, strict jurisdiction, 
 Men of truth, chess-playing. 
 
 I found in the great fortress of Meath 
 Valour, hospitality, and truth, 
 Bravery, purity, and mirth — 
 The protection of all Ireland. 
 
 I found the aged of strict morals. 
 The historians recording truth — 
 Each good, each benefit, that I have sung 
 In Ireland I have seen. 
 
 This is the testimony of a British kiogly visitor, on 
 Home Rule in Ireland 1,200 years ago. As to foreign 
 labours. Dr. Wattenbach, in his tract on the Irish 
 Monasteries in Germany, narrates, The Irish Monks 
 evangelised the nations ; they first supplied the defect in 
 the organisation of Christian society, which ar(5se with the 
 development of cities ; for until their time monasteries 
 had been founded only in the solitude of the country, 
 excepting such as were attached to episcopal seats." 
 
 Augustin Thierry, the French historian, bears willing 
 testimony to the popularity of Irish missionary pilgrims 
 and scholars, who resorted to the Continent, who always 
 gained the hearts of those whom they visited by the ex- 
 treme ease with which they conformed to their customs 
 and ways of life." They were the exact contrast of Danish 
 Colonizers and British civilizers in Ireland. The poor 
 monks asked for nothing but a small plot of ground to form 
 a hut encampment. But wise rulers desirous of educa- 
 tional improvement and religious teaching, often granted 
 the pious learned settlers considerable allotments ; the 
 
10 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 whole country of Glarus was given to St. Fridolin. Charles 
 le Gros made a present of Mount St. Victor to the 
 monastery of St. Gall, and more than one island in the 
 Rhine belonged to the Irish monks. So for many centuries 
 Ireland preserved her position as the leading nation in 
 religion, laws, arts, and architecture. Although the Danes 
 made it their special care to " tear, burn, and drown all 
 books and manuscripts, which came into their hands," and 
 to pillage and destroy monasteries, colleges, and schools, 
 the records, annals, manuscripts, books, such as the Book 
 of Kells, and many illuminated specimens, clearly show 
 the fruitful labours of the early Irish in epic and historic 
 literahire. The flint weapons, javelins, and spear heads 
 of bronze, smith's armoury, and works in precious metals, 
 gradually improved in w^orkmanship. Shields, goblets, 
 torques, gold rings, circlets, brooches, and various works 
 of art, can be seen in the Irish Academy, evidencing the 
 gradual advance of skilled labour in conjunction with art. 
 The cloistered ruins which have survived the Iconoclastic 
 fury of Dane, Saxon, and Norman, are standing evi- 
 dence of Irish civilization, when National rulers guided 
 the nation. The German, Pict, Cimbri, Frank, Italian, 
 Celt, and Saxon, sought and received instructions, and 
 often generous hospitality in Athenry, Sligo, Cong, Clare- 
 Galway, Killconnell, Lindisfarne, lona, Monasterevan, 
 Monasterboice, Mellifont, Roscommon, Lismore, Armagh, 
 Muckross, Bangor, Dunbrodie, Clonmacnoise, Glendalough, 
 Bective, the Rock of Cashel, Clonard, and many lesser 
 luminaries, whose light has faded in the distance of time, 
 or have been obscured by overthrow. But the Irish monks 
 did not confine themselves to their native land; they 
 established houses abroad — in Scotland, 13 ; England, 12 ; 
 France, 7; Gaul, 12; Lotharingia, 11; Burgundy, 11; 
 Belgium, 9 ; Alsatia, 10 ; Bavaria, 16 ; Italy, 6 ; and in 
 Rhetia, Helvetia, and Servia, 15 ; besides many smaller 
 establishments. 
 
 As a consequence, the number of Irish saints who are 
 patrons all over Europe, incontestably prove the labours of 
 Irishmen as scholars and pietists. Germany has 152 ; 
 France, 47; Belgium, 30; Italy, 13; Iceland, 9. Nearer 
 
IRISH TAIILIAMENTS. 
 
 11 
 
 home, Scotland has 7G ; England, 44; and the Isle of 
 Man, 6. Truly did St. Bernard write in the eleventh 
 century : " Swarms of holy men were sent forth by Ireland 
 throughout the entire of Europe to preach the gospel of 
 peace, and bring salvation to all. They were the true 
 soldiers of the cross, who bore on faith's bright flag, un- 
 furled Erin's name throughout the world." Yet the 
 motive that is said to have induced Adrian IV. (the only 
 English Pope) to give his sanction to the conquest of 
 Ireland was that it might be christianised. The authen- 
 ticity of the document is questioned, Ireland, the 
 university and schoolmistress of Western Europe, was given 
 away to devastating civilizers. Milman says: "English 
 pride might mingle with sacerdotal ambition in this boon 
 of a new kingdom to his native sovereign. The language of 
 the grant developed principles as yet unheard in 
 Christendom." In 1177 Cardinal Vivian, legate of Pope 
 Alexander III., encouraged and exhorted M'Donlevey, 
 King of Dalriada, to defend his territories against De 
 Courcy, an Anglo-Norman adventurer. So succeeding 
 Papal authorities seem to have regarded the grant of 
 Ireland in a curious light. The Bull may have been 
 obtained by suppressions, exaggerations, slander, and 
 calumny,means which are constantly utilized to aid oppres- 
 sive rulers in Ireland. An Erring-son lately endeavoured 
 "to keep the Vatican in good humour," and re-dispose 
 the spiritual interests of Irish Catholics, to the tender 
 keeping of non-Catholic Veto-ists. The accomplishment 
 of that cunning division would be to-day scarcely less 
 disastrous than former interference, but Providence 
 guided the councils of the Holy Father, and defeated the 
 machinations of those who would "divide and conquer/' 
 
12 
 
 IKISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 GOVERNMENTAL GROWTHS. 
 
 . '*The Earth is sick of chains." — R. D. Williams. 
 
 '* The lesson which I have learnt from the past history of my country 
 is, that the great and first danger an Irishman has to avoid is the danger 
 of division." — John Dillon. 
 
 It is well ascertained through biblical and secular history, 
 and transmitted traditions, that parental authority was 
 originally the governing power, even unto despotism and 
 slavery. It must, however, be remembered that its ab- 
 solute control was largely counterbalanced by natural 
 affection. Though all forms of Governments claim and 
 exercise dominion over life, liberty, and prosperity, yet in the 
 course of ages, the primitive idea of paternal kindness has 
 been almost entirely eliminated from the first principles of 
 Government. Slavery became a great legal institution, 
 because might conferred the right, and ignorance disorgani- 
 zation ; traditional example, and early training, made the 
 enormous majority complying bondsmen to the whims and 
 whips of a ruling minority. Such public opinion as 
 existed recognised the principle : so human slavery lived 
 as a Christian institution until the last generation, 
 even within the English Empire, and later still in what was 
 called a free republic in the Southern States of America. 
 Giraldus Cambrensis recording the Synod of Armagh, 
 1170, relates: There prevailed in England a barbarous 
 custom of selling children as slaves, and the Irish were 
 the principal purchasers. The Irish clergy at the 
 Synod pronounced the custom to be so wicked that the 
 English invasion was a judgment in consequence, and 
 decreed that any English slaves should immediately be set 
 free." Thus an Irish deliberative assembly humanely met 
 the unmerited invasion, and deliberate persecution then 
 begun, and continued ever since in Ireland. It is 
 necessary to revert to these facts, as showing the imperative 
 need of being guided by principle, rather than the theories 
 of half-hearted philanthropists. In course of time parental 
 authority became merged into patriarchal tribes, whose 
 conduct was regulated by custom rather than definite 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 13 
 
 law. Permanent Government arose, and Koyalty was 
 chosen as a central authority. When the twelve tribes of 
 Israel demanded a Sovereign, w^e read in Holy Writ : — 
 
 " And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the 
 people that asked of him a king. 
 
 " And he said : * This will be the manner of the King 
 that shall reign over you. He will take your sons, and 
 appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his 
 horsemen ; and some shall run before his chariots. 
 
 * And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your 
 vinej^ards, and give to his officers and to his servants. 
 
 * And he will take your men-servants, and your maid- 
 servants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, 
 and put them to his work. 
 
 " ' And he will appoint him captains over thousands, 
 and captains over fifties, and will set them to ear His 
 ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his instru- 
 ments of war and instruments of his chariots. 
 
 " * And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, 
 and to be cooks and to be bakers. 
 
 " 'And he will take your fields and your vineyards and 
 your olive yards, even the best of them, and give them to 
 his servants. 
 
 " ' And ye shall cry out in that day because of your King 
 which ye shall have chosen you ; and the Lord will not 
 hear you in that day.^ 
 
 " And all the people said unto Samuel, 'Pray for thy 
 servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not, for we 
 have added unto our sins this evil— to ask a king.' " — 
 Samuel. 
 
 The evils of Kingships were the ruin of Ireland, as no 
 really controlling power existed. The Celtic tribal clans 
 were not wiser than the Israelites, for they had many 
 monarchs — Ulster, Munster, Leinster, Connaught, Meath, 
 and many other districts, boasted of kings, princes, and 
 chieftains. Kings and sub-kings, by the division of 
 authority and the internal dissensions, caused anarchy. 
 A supreme King was supposed to be crowned on the 
 Liafail at Tara, but the supremacy was nominal; the 
 curse of jealous limited dominion kept the country in 
 
14 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 perpetual feuds and wars, but it was the same all over 
 Europe. The Italian cities, French kingdom, and Saxon 
 heptarchy, were just as murderous as the Irish pentarchy. 
 However, regal personages were not like the overpaid and 
 underworked Royal Highnesses of Mammon, they led 
 their clans in battle, and shared the spoil amongst their 
 brethren, or, what are now called subjects. 
 
 The introduction of King Money has changed the pro- 
 cedure, with a more galling result to the mere worker. 
 Family prote'ction and division of spoil with the clans- 
 man has given way to wage servitude, legal monopolies 
 in land, money and railways. Taxes enrich the wealthy who 
 obtain nearly all the emoluments, and impoverish the 
 poor, who pay the greater portion of the revenue through 
 indirect taxation ; those things are so cleverly manipulated 
 that social sanction seems to say we are released from the 
 serfdom of Teutonic feudalism to rejoice in the pauperising 
 freedom of stagnant constitutionalism. Practical wisdom 
 teaches that safety is ensured by steady progress, moving 
 gradually with the forces of society. The ancient Irish 
 appear to have been more impressed with the necessity of 
 jurisprudential motion than the modern British unionist. 
 
 About the year 440 the Pagan laws of Ireland were re- 
 vised and the Seanchus Mor compiled. Fragments of the 
 original MS. are still to be seen in Trinity College and in 
 the British Museum. 
 
 This Christian Constitution of Ireland, it is said, was 
 approved of by St. Patrick. Certain Pagan observances 
 were struck out, but the Brehonic usage of partial popular 
 election ran through the whole system from the King 
 almost to the gallowglass. Honours were also bestowed 
 at an early period. Froissart chronicles that when four 
 Irish kings were offered knighthood by Richard, King 
 of England, they declined, as it had already been 
 conferred on them at home. The Kings choose their 
 Ard-Ri or titular supreme monarch ; nearly every man in 
 the clan is supposed to have had a voice in appointing 
 their existing official executive. National statute laws 
 were discussed and enacted at Tara. It is duly recorded 
 that St. Columba assisted at a conference meeting or 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 15 
 
 Parliament assembled at Drimciat Limavady, where several 
 important legislative measures were determined on by the 
 state or King ; and the noble representatives of the clans of 
 Ireland. St. Adamnan, had the "lex innocentium," protect- 
 ing women and children against the barbarities of war, 
 passed in an assembly held at the Rath of the Synods on 
 Tara Hill. After the death of Brian Boru, who appears 
 to have exercised some authority in collecting the 
 Irish forces to defeat the Danes, civil w^ar became chronic 
 between kings, princes, and chiefs. It is useless to plunge 
 into those puzzling fatalities. The whole nation seems to 
 have gone mad like all the rest of the world at the time. 
 Inquiring into such suicidal quarrels would exemplify 
 Holy Writ, " He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth 
 sorrow." The nation was ruined by division, and weakened 
 by incessant fighting. Practical unity was unknown, and 
 stable centralized authority unsupported. First Strongbow, 
 next Henry took advantage of general disunion. 
 
 Nominally there was held a sort of Parliament at Tara, 
 where the Kings as Lords, and Nobles as Commons, met 
 in Council. This assembly ^vas called together in 1169, 
 perhaps for the last time, by Roderick O'Connor, King, 
 paramount, of Ireland, to discuss the best means of quel- 
 ling the disturbance, begun by Dermod M'Morrough, fol- 
 lowed by the invasion of his English allies. The prince of 
 Thomond refused allegiance to the Ard-Ri, and commenced 
 civil war to aid the foreigners. Henry came, and wily 
 diplomacy succeeded ^varfare. The split-up factions of 
 foolish chiefs and kings only anxious for personal am- 
 bition, sacrificed the Irish nation to the land-grabbing 
 stranger. 
 
16 
 
 LAND LESSONS. 
 
 LAND. 
 
 THE creator's GIFT FOR MAN's SUSTENANCE. 
 
 It would be futile to attempt an understanding of what 
 was named government in Ireland, until an explanation 
 of the motive is arrived at, by considering land possession. 
 It is obvious that at all times those who controlled the 
 soil, governed the state, made the laws, interpreted them, 
 and guided their administration. 
 
 From this point of view it will be instructively useful, 
 briefly to analyse the position of landholders, as warranted 
 by Divine law, guaranteed through human legislation, and 
 enforced by military domination, rather than the moral 
 suasion of Christian civilization. 
 
 Common Land. 
 
 " The Earth is the Lord's." 
 
 In the beginning God created the world for the children 
 of men. He blessed our first parents, saying — "Increase 
 and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue and rule over 
 #he fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all 
 living things that move upon the earth.'' 
 
 In the history of the Creation, the Bible does not 
 record anything relating to the sacred rights of private 
 property in land, privileged ownership, game laws, fore- 
 shore rights, or royalties ; nor does it appear there was 
 any Divine law sanctioning the inhuman theory of over- 
 population — mankind increased in numbers, but not in 
 virtue, the Deluge was ordained, Cain's progeny was des- 
 troyed, the true church continued in Noe, his immediate 
 generations enjoyed all things in common, so that com- 
 munism was the social order in the earliest stages of human 
 existence. Erroneous decisions passed every day, untrue 
 persuasions hourly inculcated, and habitual opinions of 
 early mental training warp current judgments, and cloud 
 the clear dry light of intellect. The animal nature of the 
 body is principally exercised, whilst the mind is allowed to 
 rot in uncultivated darkness, because blindness to prin- 
 
LAND IJLSSONS. 
 
 17 
 
 ciples ensures the success of misrepresentation, which is 
 the foundation of monopolizing power and privilege. 
 
 The Mosaic Constitution nationalized the Canaan land, 
 the title was vested in the head of the State, as trustee for 
 the people. The soil was subdivided and apportioned 
 amongst the families of the tribes; the heiresses were 
 obliged to marry in their own family to prevent a con- 
 fusion of inheritances. If they wished to renounce their 
 right, they could marry where they pleased (a similar law 
 prevailed in Athensj. All transfers between the people 
 were limited in term. All real estate contracts were 
 vacated at the end of every 50 years. When the jubilee 
 of the children of Israel is come, then shall their inheri- 
 tance be added to that of the tribe in which they are 
 received." By means of this periodic redistribution, each 
 family was restored to its share in the soil, which lapsed 
 back from the individuals to the commune. Land 
 monopoly w^as impossible under the Christianised Hebrew 
 polity. When our Lord came on the earth He was born 
 in a manger — worked with His paternal protector as a 
 carpenter in the family commune of Nazareth. When He 
 appeared in public to save the world He took for His 
 disciples twelve landless fishermen ; the first Christians 
 gave up their share in family possessions and followed 
 Him. 
 
 **And all that believed were together, and had all 
 things common, and they sold their possessions and 
 parted them to all, according as any man had need." 
 
 Through the dark and middle age&, and even in the 
 present day, religious communities hold their possessions 
 as common property. This holding of gifts and power as a 
 trust for common service, is a perpetuation of Christian 
 Essenism, which is slightly studied and seldom resolved 
 into first principles, for " if Christianity were taught and 
 understood, in conformity to the spirit of its Founder, 
 the existing social organisation should not last a day." 
 
 The primitive practice of common property was most 
 faithfully adhered to by the Slavic races ; but an almost 
 similar form can be traced in Asia. Some specialists 
 apparently prove that many original types of private pro- 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 LAND LESSONS. 
 
 perty, amongst the Romans and Germans, have been de- 
 rived from the stated methods of common property in 
 India. Owing to Imperialism in Rome, land partly passed 
 into private property. The Patricians encroached upon 
 the common lands of the State, the vicious nobles corrupted 
 the commonwealth — the state followed its leading men — 
 the free farm life of Italy was broken up — vast estates 
 swallowed up industrial tenant farmers. Dispossessed cul- 
 tivators swarmed the imperial city. Pauperism became 
 so alarming and general, that it was absolutely necessary 
 to organise an immense system of state alms to relieve 
 distress and prevent revolution. This happened during 
 the aristocratic empire. In the golden age of the Repub- 
 lic, B.C. 150, the necessaries of life were very cheap. A 
 bushel of wheat sold for four pence, and a bushel of corn 
 for five. The traveller was charged for food and lodgings 
 only two farthings per day. This overflowing plentiful- 
 ness abounded before Pagan patrician land monopoly 
 revolutionised the social system. Tacitus, speaking of the 
 Christians, calls them — Vulgus Ckristianus appelahat'' 
 the vulgar or common people called them Christians. 
 The early Christians preached and practised charity, 
 and loved their neighbours ; being opposed in principle 
 to governmental rapine they were persecuted. Sub- 
 sequently Christianity coalesced with authority when 
 Constantino became a convert; governmental abuses 
 and social injustice were quietly borne, as the force 
 of Christianity in favour of the weak and powerless 
 was, to a certain extent, neutralised by this union. Christ 
 said, " My kingdom is not of this world.'* Rulers did not 
 deem it their mission to endeavour the removal of human 
 slavery and misery; protection of privilege and property 
 was much more important. English laws are mainly 
 founded on Roman codes. Mark how Patrician accumula- 
 tion and vulgar pauperism historically repeats itself 
 
 On the American Continent it was a custom amongst 
 the ancient Peruvians that no one could leave the decury 
 without the express permission of the Inca. The decu ry was 
 bound to have a home built for each new household, and 
 assign to it land enough for its support. (An Inca would 
 
LAND LL:SS0NS. 
 
 19 
 
 be most useful in Ireland, as a law and order agent, to 
 counteract the crowbar brigade, assign land, and stop 
 evictions). In old pagan Peru children were not regarded 
 as an incumbrance; on the birth of each child the 
 allowance made was increased by one fanega for a boy, and 
 for a girl half fanega, which equalled the area that could 
 be sown with one hundred pounds of maize. (A.s a relict 
 of the Israelitish distribution perhaps, curiously, in 
 Europe amongst the ancient Germans, the size of an acre 
 of land was reckoned by the labour of a day.) In Peru the 
 division of the land was modified by a yearly revision, and 
 a new partition took place according to the number of the 
 members of each family. The Peruvian was simply the 
 farmer for the year, of the lot which fate, or the decvurians 
 assigned him. But outside the community lands, the Sun 
 or Inca had exclusive property, which the inhabitants had 
 to cultivate. In all ages, climes and territories, kings 
 claimed privilege and titheage, as foretold by the prophet 
 Samuel. 
 
 In Ireland, under Celtic tenure, the clans were the pro- 
 prietors of the soil, the king or chief nominally gave land to 
 his warriors to support retainers ; those grants were taken 
 away if the officers did not prove useful in war. But the 
 king or chief COULD NOT diminish the property of the 
 clans, although he might apportion according to his idea 
 of merit. Attacks, forays, conquests and rapine in Irish 
 history, were prompted by the desire of land possession 
 and booty. The social rights of the clan were as broad as 
 their acres. Celtic land tenure was tribal family right or 
 recognised legal Communism, preventing the exclusive, 
 personal possession of the first resources of life. The old 
 Celtic fashion is still the rule in Russia. The fundamen- 
 tal Russian institution is the Mir or collective proprietor- 
 ship of the land, and its equal and periodic apportionment 
 amongst the members of the community. Slavic com- 
 munal philosophy is spreading abroad. What is done in 
 Russia can be accomplished elsewhere. 
 
 Although landholders' selfish cupidity has immensely 
 / appropriated an extent of the people's commons through th e 
 secret action of agricolouslegislators,and servileadministra- 
 
20 
 
 LAND LESSONS. 
 
 tors, still the number of existing common lands, such as 
 the Curragh and Phoenix Park in Ireland, numerous tracts 
 of land, forest, moor, and seashore in England and Scot- 
 land, together with public parks, are undeniable evidence 
 of the land for the people. Municipal properties, corpora- 
 tion estates, are recognised institutions, showing a modified 
 form of common property. Government in trust for its 
 people takes unappropriated lands, and as wards for the 
 nation owns all lines of natural transportation roads, 
 streets, rivers, lakes, and sea-coasts, in which every citizen 
 is a co-proprietor. It is only a question of time, money, 
 and expediency to nationalize the railways ; quick, cheap 
 transit being a most important factor in successful com- 
 merce. All over the Three Kingdoms the iron road 
 directors havesacrificed the prosperity of the commonwealth 
 to the usury of individuals. State communism, in certain 
 essentials necessary to national welfare, need not interfere 
 with private property, but limit its dangerous power and 
 control its overbearing accumulations to healthy associative 
 proportions. 
 
 At the present moment the land is nationalised in 
 Japan ; there are no paupers or unemployed, starving 
 multitudes in the Slavic and Japanese communities. 
 Financial famines are unknown in China, where mil- 
 lionaires have yet to be discovered, still it is the most 
 densely populated country in the world ; but the Chinese 
 people are free to till their land and live on their rivers. 
 
 Appointed Royal Commissions could not avoid ex- 
 posing the scandalous fact that adjacent landholders, 
 acting in the fashion which Latimer denounced as 
 •* enclosers, rent raisers, and graziers,*' legally grabbed 
 nearly nine million acres of commons land within the 
 Three Kingdoms. It would be useful to have another 
 inquiry, as absorbing Christians have been enclosing in 
 the interests of monopolizers and meat producers. In 
 Ireland, out of 15,219,000 arable acres, 12,278,788 are 
 meadowed and devoted to the ovine and bovine species, 
 only 1,594,157 acres are retained to feed mankind by 
 cereal crops. Statistics prepared by the Irish army, alias 
 Constabulary, state there are about 4,229,000 cattle, and 
 
LAND LKSSONS. 
 
 21 
 
 4,962,000 human beings, so that probably twelve acres 
 are enjoyed by the four-footed beast or lord of the soil, 
 whilst only ONE acre is allowed for the biped creature 
 with a soul like to God's. If this cultivable area was 
 divided according to the ancient Israelitish, the Mediaeval 
 Celtic, or the modern Slavic system, there would be a 
 farm of from four to five acres for every single man, 
 woman, and child resident inside of " congested Ireland." 
 Nearly four-and-a-half millions of acres is only giving 
 poor herbage ; some seven millions acres require drainage, 
 all would pay for improvement by labour and culture. But 
 outside this there is an enormous ever-increasing quantity of 
 waste land of no value as private or public property ; if 
 taken as a State asset and nationalized it would at once 
 provide a safe output for idle capital which need not be 
 exported to foreign bubble stocks, and also give much- 
 needed work to unemployed labour — stopping an exodus 
 of exiles who will be a source of danger whenever the 
 chance occurs. If this scheme was economically and 
 honestly managed without ruinous law expenses and red- 
 tape foolery, it would reduce taxation by the accruing 
 profit, create contentment, and almost obliterate that 
 growing pauperism which is the cancer of competitive 
 capitalistic civilization. 
 
 This land question has been peacefully settled in 
 Belgium, France, and Germany. Why should English 
 statesmen be afraid to do their duty, so that all classes 
 may co-operate to live in peace and plenty ? 
 
 British land monopolists might, with prudence, remember 
 Hugo's sentence: — "An invasion of armies can be re- 
 sisted, an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted.'' 
 
 FEUDALISM. 
 
 Put not your trust in Princes.'' — Psalms, 
 
 During Saxonism the greater portion of English soil was 
 practically owned by the occupying ceorls or cultivators, 
 and called folks' land ; a small allotment was held in fee by 
 the nobles, for the performance of certain duties, as re- 
 
22 
 
 LAND LESSONS. 
 
 quired ; a land tax was levied. "The king himself could 
 NOT appropriate any portion of folk land without consent 
 of the Witenagemot " (Assembly of the Wise) or grand 
 national 'council. William the Conqueror changed the 
 method. New races introduce fresh laws. In the hands 
 of a few powerful, unscrupulous men, or by the manipula- 
 tion of a selfish, interested class, Law is the root of all 
 National robbery and social injustice. The Saxons were 
 treated as rebels, and their possessions alienated by law. 
 The king of the sword claimed the right to all the land as 
 trustee for the people. Who dare deny his law when he 
 had the will and power to enforce it? The Feudal 
 system nominally vested the land as a holding in the 
 lord ; this explains how the term, "landlord/* was intro- 
 duced. Properly speaking, no one is lord of the land but 
 Him who made it. Lawyer-made titles can only confer 
 the disputed right of holding, which may, at any moment ^ 
 be disturbed by superior force. The term, landlord, is 
 equally mythical as the phrase, "Divine right of kings;" it 
 has no logical efficacy, though it may possess a legal dis- 
 tortion. Landholder is the correct word. No creature 
 manufactured or can destroy the land. Empires and 
 generations melt even out of memory. The land still 
 remains. Can the miserable, shadowy holder be its lord ? 
 As a matter of historical fact, feudal lords, called 
 lords of the land, received holdings on condition 
 of performing well defined ohligations. All land- 
 holders were really simple trustees, under vassals 
 of a suzerain who was generally king. The olden people's 
 land became Royal demesnes. Socage or land tax 
 was a payment to the monarch, mainly to meet war 
 expenses. He was also lord of all the towns and houses, 
 whose inhabitants paid the Crown Tallage or house rent ; 
 but he did not claim the tenants' property as ground land- 
 lords now do by law. 
 
 As the Royal power waned, that of the lords grew 
 stronger. The English Chronicle or oldest extant 
 Teutonic history relates how " in the reign of Stephen, 
 seven centuries since, the landholders or nobles of England, 
 taking advantage of a disputed throne and a weak Govern- 
 
I 
 
 LAJSD LESSONS. 
 
 23 
 
 ment, built for themselves 11,000 castles. Sallying forth 
 from these strongholds they seized every man and woman 
 who had managed by industry to acquire a little wealth, 
 and by the infliction of horrible torture extorted the results 
 of their labour from them. To such an extent did this go 
 on that the ground lay all untilled, and men refused to 
 work, when there was no security that they would enjoy 
 the fruits of their toil.'' 
 
 This aristocratic brigandage was transferred as a legal 
 procedure to Ireland, where insane divisions allowed the 
 land-grabbers permanent settlement in a small seaboard 
 district, and also suffered occasional internal conquests. 
 The feudalistic emigrants sustained their retainers within 
 the Pale by ravaging and impoverishing the wild Irishrie" 
 in their own territory, so as to civilise and christianise the 
 Insula Sanctorum, Land possession and tenant retainers 
 were the only objects of rulers, so the period which extends 
 from the Anglo-Norman invasion to the passing of the 
 Catholic Relief Act, was marked by the endeavour to 
 establish certain alien systems of land-tenure. The wel- 
 fare of the people was scarcely considered at all; but, as a 
 rule, evictions were unknown, except those made by the 
 s word of civil strife. The spirit of the new tenures was 
 essentially feudal — the feudal noble having his tenants as 
 vassals, found them useful, because obedient in all things. 
 Ilis quarrel was not with them, but some rival against 
 whom he could lead them occasionally. The country was 
 at various times portioned out amongst adventurers from 
 England, who were entrusted with exceptional powers for 
 the pacification of their districts, but seeing that peace 
 would not be the best for their personal interests, they be- 
 came fomentors of anarchy. They opposed the extension 
 of English laws to their Irish neighbours who found them- 
 selves deprived of their own Brehon laws and denied the 
 protection of the laws of England. These feudal colonists 
 forged plots and treasons, in order to get the territory 
 ruled over by some Irish chief, partitioned out among 
 themselves. They would also invite some of the principal 
 Irish to a feast, which terminated in massacre, and hire 
 assassins to proceed into the Irish country to murder the 
 
24 
 
 LAND LESSONS. 
 
 Irish chiefs. For killing an Irishman the penalty was five 
 pounds. Both James I. and Charles tried to make planta- 
 tions of English and Scotch settlers in Ireland. The Irish 
 Privy Council wanted James to drive all the native Irish 
 into the mountainous province of Connaught But all the 
 plans of these feudal freebooters were broken by the wars 
 which gave England a Commonwealth and Ireland a 
 Cromwell. He adopted the rejected policy of the Irish 
 Privy Council, drove all the proprietors of three provinces 
 into Connaught, and hemmed them in by military settlers. 
 Many common people were allowed to remain, because 
 they might be useful to new settlers, and become Puritans. 
 This devastation was made that Cromwell might satisfy 
 those who advanced money to carry on the war, and also 
 the Army, whose pay was in arrear, by giving them grants 
 of land. The new settlers were as rapacious and tyranni- 
 cal as the old. The landlord ruled his estate as a feudal 
 despot, with but little check from the law. He extracted 
 all he could from his serfs, and generally spent it in rude 
 pleasures, and often got into debt by his extravagance. 
 The Revolution of 1688 came to re-open old wounds — the 
 Irish fighting for one of those unlucky Stuarts who were 
 the cause of so much misfortune to Ireland. Queen Mary, 
 Elizabeth, James, Cromwell, Charles I. and II., and William 
 III,, often assisted by what were called Irish Parliaments, 
 robbed the people of their land ; thus the vaunted old 
 titles are generally founded on legal fraud or open force. 
 
 Lord Clare, the Chancellor, in a speech delivered Feb- 
 ruary 10th, 1800, said :— 
 
 "The situation of the Irish nation at the Revolution, 
 stands unparalleled in the histories of the inhabited world. 
 If the wars of England carried on here from the reign of 
 Elizabeth had been waged against a foreign enemy, the 
 inhabitants would have retained their possessions, under 
 the established laws of civilized nations, and their country 
 have been annexed as a province to the British Empire. 
 What then was the situation of Ireland at the Revolution, 
 and what is it at this day ? The whole poiuer mid property 
 of the country have been conferred by successive monarchs 
 of England upon an English colony, composed of three 
 
LAND LESSONS. 
 
 25 
 
 sets of English adventurers, who poured into this country 
 at the termination of three successive rebellions. It is a 
 subject of curious and important speculation to look back 
 to the forfeiture of Ireland incurred in the last century. 
 The superficial contents of the island are calculated at 
 eleven millions and forty-two thousand six hundred and 
 eighty-two acres. 
 
 Confiscated in the reign of James I., the 
 
 whole of the Province of Ulster, contain- ACRES, 
 
 ing ... ... ... ... 2,830,837 
 
 Set out by the Court of Claims, at the Res- 
 toration ... ... ... ... 7,800,000 
 
 Forfeitures of 1688 ... ... ... 1,060,792 
 
 Total, 11,697,629 
 
 So that the whole of the island has been confiscated, with 
 the exception of five or six old families of English blood, 
 some of whom had been attainted in the reign of Henry 
 VIII., but received their possessions before Tyrone's 
 rebellion, and had the good fortune to escape the pillage 
 of the English republic inflicted by Cromwell ; and no 
 inconsiderable portion of the island has been confiscated 
 twice, or perhaps taken in the course of a century." 
 
 By the Booh and the Battle the Irish people have been 
 divorced from their native soil and birthright. Originally 
 sword law decapitated the head of the state from the body 
 of the people, in whom were vested the land or God's 
 agent of existence. By abolishing the Saxon representative 
 system of shires, hundreds Siud probi homines , substituting 
 instead Norman nomination, brute force, and curia regis — 
 subsequently allowing mock representative parliaments, 
 coerced by a lawyer, created hereditary oligarchy to manu- 
 facture one-sided legislation, approved of by a kingly 
 figure head. The protection and sustenance afforded by 
 feudalism to friendly retainers has been succeeded by 
 constitutional accumulation, money extraction, wasteland, 
 and pauperism, which threatens danger to the English 
 Empire. 
 
26 
 
 LAND LESSONS. 
 
 A determined opponent writing about Ireland in the 
 North American Reviewer in January, 1880, Mr. Froude,. 
 says : — " Of all the fatal gifts which we bestowed on our 
 unhappy possession was the English system of owning 
 land. Land, properly speaking, cannot be owned by any 
 man — it belongs to all the human race. Laws have to be 
 made to secure the profits of their industry to those who 
 cultivate it ; but the private property of this or that 
 person, which he is entitled to deal with as he pleases, 
 land never ought to be, and never strictly is. In Ireland, 
 as in all primitive civilisations, the soil was divided among 
 tribes. Each tribe collectively owned its own district. 
 Under the feudal system the proprietor was the Crown, as 
 representing the nation, while the subordinate tenures 
 w^ere held with duties attached to them, and were liable, 
 on non-fulfilment, to forfeiture. In England the burden 
 of defence was on the land. Every gentleman, according 
 to his estate, was bound to bring so many men into the 
 field properly armed and accoutred. When a standing 
 army was substituted for the old levies the country squires 
 served as unpaid magistrates on the commission of the 
 peace. The country squire system was, in fact, a develop- 
 ment of the feudal system, and, as we gave the feudal 
 system to Ireland, so we tried long and earnestly to give 
 them our landowners. The intention, doubtless, was as 
 good as possible in both cases, but we had taken no trouble 
 to understand Ireland, and we failed as completely as 
 before. The duties attached to landed property died 
 away, or were forgotten, the ownership only remained. 
 The people retaining their tribal traditions believed that 
 they had rights upon the lands on which they lived. The 
 owner believed that there were no rights but his own. In 
 England the rights of landlords have similarly survived 
 their duties, but they have been modified by custom or 
 public opinion. In Ireland the proprietor was an alien, 
 with the fortunes of the residents upon his estate in his 
 hands and at his mercy. He was divided from them in 
 creed and language, he despised them as of an inferior 
 race, and he acknowledged no interest in common with 
 them. Had he been allowed to trample on them and 
 
LAND LESSONS. 
 
 27 
 
 make them his slaves, he would have cared for them, 
 perhaps, as he cared for his horses. But their persons 
 were free, while their farms and houses were his ; and 
 thus his only object was to wring out of them the last 
 penny which they could pay, leaving them and their 
 children to a life scarcely raised above the level of their 
 own pigs.'' 
 
 "The land belongs to the Nation, to the State, to the 
 people." " No nations would admit that they exist upon 
 sufferance, that they hold their liberty to exist upon the 
 soil of their country at the pleasure of the minority'' ; but, 
 though Arthur Arnold wrote that passage in Free Land, 
 1880, the dominant minority in Ireland have still the 
 power of depopulation by eviction. Irish landholders 
 exercise the most absolute authority that at present is 
 allowed to exist in any civilized community. Sentences 
 of death are general, and the Government will have no 
 people to govern if the system is continued. 
 
 The Democrat quotes : — 
 
 "In 1882, after a tour in Ireland, Mr. John Morley 
 wrote respecting the Irish landlords: — 'They talk about 
 the rights of property as if they were not living on the 
 confiscated improvements of the cultivators of the soil. 
 They denounce the incorrigible indolence of a population 
 whose toil it is that supports luxurious palaces of indolence 
 for their masters. Themselves the neediest aristocracy in 
 Europe, they have no language too strong for the im- 
 providence of their inferiors. Great lords who never go 
 near their estates from year's end to year's end are very 
 edifying on the ruin that will befall the hapless tenantry 
 if they are left to themselves. With virtuous indignation 
 the class that has for generations been in the habit of 
 spending its Irish rents to the tune of millions a year in 
 any place in the world except Ireland solemnly warns the 
 tenants that they are depleting the country of its capital.' 
 To-day the landlords wish to leave the country bag and 
 baggage. And they demand that enormous compensation 
 shall be given them for ceasing to live * on confiscated 
 improvements of the cultivators of the soil.' The demand 
 for compensation should come from the robbed, and not 
 
28 
 
 LAND LESSONS. 
 
 from the robber. For the moral evils which landlordism 
 has wrought in Ireland no human compensation can ever 
 be made." 
 
 CAPITALISTIC LANDHOLDERS. 
 
 RENT. 
 
 *' Their good, ill health, wealth, joy or discontent, 
 Being, end, aim, religion, rent, rent, rent." — Byron. 
 
 ** The widow is gathering nettles for her children's dinner ; a per- 
 fumed seigneur, delicately lounging in the CEil de Beuf, hath an alchemy 
 whereby he will extract from her the third nettle, and call it rent,'' — 
 Carlyle. 
 
 The landlords " exercised their rights with hands of iron and renounced 
 their duties with fronts of brass." — London Times, 
 
 " The first object of a good Government is not that rich men should 
 have their pleasures in perfection, but that all orders of men should be 
 good and happy." — Sydney Smith. 
 
 The economical development of our nation should be set 
 before our country for its future direction, so as to corres- 
 pond with its real conditions and rational ends. '*The 
 mechanism of the body social must be influenced by home 
 legislation so as to point out the law and customs that 
 bring it trouble, and ensure arrangements that will be 
 most favourable to the creation of well-being by the em- 
 ployment of labour, which shall be ensured the result of 
 its steady industry. Under Irish clannish tenure all the 
 members of the tribe or family had an equal right to 
 their proportion of the whole; this enforced mutual depen- 
 dence and created self-respect, as opposed to the vassalage 
 to feudal lord. If a tribe was driven or emigrated to a 'j 
 locality where it held no hereditary claim, then rent was 
 demanded by the king of the district. Conquerors 
 also enforced rent. It was levied as a tribute rather 
 than according to the modern fallacy of free contract 
 in which the monopolist has dictated his own terms. 
 In its first conception and gradual growth from custom to 
 law, rent is the offspring of violent brute force. The 
 English began to pay Danegelt or land tax to the Danes 
 about 995. The Irish civilizer, alias Henry II., was the 
 
LAND LESSONS. 
 
 2fi 
 
 first to introduce a tax on military tenants of the crown, 
 termed scutage, imposed as a recompense instead of per- 
 sonal service ; the generous nobles compelled their poor 
 retainers to pay rents, and so made a vulgar profit on the 
 transaction. Further, taking advantage of monarchical 
 impotence, the holder began rack renting and evicting. 
 Those noble customs of appropriation and depopulation 
 have been shielded through law, and maintained by oVder 
 which is salaried principally with proceeds of taxation on 
 commerce. Land was originally lent by the state for a 
 return called reddit," now corrupted into rent. The 
 trustee had to lead his retainers or tenants properly 
 equipped to the wars, and if he did not give satisfaction, 
 the land Avas taken from him and lent to another. The 
 KEDDIT was not paid in money but personal service. 
 When a tenant or warrior died, his horse and armour 
 should return to the lord to fit out another retainer for the 
 war. Sometimes the horse was worn out or dead. So a 
 law was passed empowering the lord to seize the best beast 
 in the tenant's estate or a money fragment, — this was called 
 a heriot. In Charles II.'s reign, landholders made a law to 
 get rid of its own return ; Reddit, or rent to the state, it 
 continued the payment of the heriots to itself. This is a 
 direct proof of the legal right of the people to the soil and 
 the Exchequer to the rents. Previous to 1692 the land 
 paid all the taxes. That landholders' parliament agreed 
 to pay a land tax of 4s. in the pound, but the valuation 
 was made 150 years ago. Ever since the possessors of 
 land have been appropriating the property and labour of 
 the tenants. The rental of Ireland is five times more than it 
 was then. Tables prepared show^ that all over the three 
 kingdoms, while in 1814 land paid 69 percent, of the whole 
 of the local rates, it does not now pay more than 23 per cent. 
 In other words, out of every £100 required for local taxa- 
 tion, the land, which used to pay £69, has gradually 
 passed through the falls of £49, £33, £27, £26, until now 
 it is £23. The burdens on land therefore have gradually 
 and enormously diminished ; the proportion it used to pay 
 being now borne by other items, by changes of indirect 
 taxation. The ruling classes, alias the landowners, de- 
 
30 
 
 LAND LESSONS. 
 
 crease their own taxation and put it on commerce. The 
 foundation of all government is in the possession of land. 
 The House of Lords, parliamentary land-holders, county 
 Lord Lieutenants, Agricolous Privy Councils, mighty 
 Resident Magistrates, branches of land-owning families, 
 Deputy Lieutenants with large land ratings, land agents 
 posing as J.P/s, and lawyers inventing fundamental laws, 
 are'all of the earth — earthy. It shall be useful to examine 
 and analyse the title-deeds under which landholders pre- 
 sume to continue arbiters of the state and dictators to the 
 people, as shown by the financial fact that in Holland land 
 alone pays 9 per cent. ; in Austria, 17| ; in France, 18^ ; 
 in Belgium, 20 J; and in Hungary, 32|; while in the 
 Three Kingdoms, land only paj^s oij per cent. 
 
 TITLE AND TENANT. 
 
 ** Woe unto you lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of 
 knowledge.* ' — Christ. 
 
 The sententious idiom it is the law " often commands 
 approval and prevents inquiry, yet a lapse from 
 primary principle may, in the course of generations, 
 be worked into Law. Interested deafness, moral blind- 
 ness, and enforced silence, decline to set the mind 
 to work upon first principles. Subsequent sophisms 
 are carelessly and lazily adopted as unalterable facts ; 
 thinking men should be careful to distinguish 
 between law founded on Divine justice, coupled with 
 human expedience and lawyers' interpretation, with placing | 
 of fundamentals ; those arrangements are sometimes the 
 outcome of personal privilege, as opposed to public 
 advantage. The irresponsible unlimited prerogative of 
 private property in land has been the result of usurpation, 
 which destroyed the old Saxon usages. Lawyers are 
 generally the highly paid allies of power, they hide the key 
 of knowledge and imprison industry within the paper walls 
 of monopoly. John Stuart Mill, the great political econo- 
 mist, declared " the land of Ireland, the land of every 
 
LAND LESSONS. 
 
 country, belongs to the people of that country. When the 
 * sacredness of property' is talked of, it should always be 
 remembered that any such sacredness does not belong in 
 the same degree to landed property. No man made the 
 land. It is the original inheritance of the whole species. 
 Its appropriation is wholly a question of expediency. 
 When private property in land is not expedient, it is 
 unjust.'' 
 
 Burke said : — " It is not what a lawyer tells me I may 
 do, but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I 
 ought to do." 
 
 Philosophic Herbert Spencer, in his " Social Statistics," 
 says : — Equity does not permit property in land, for if 
 one portion of the earth's surface may justly become the 
 possession of an individual, held for his sole use and benefit, 
 as a thing to which he has an exclusive right, then other 
 portions of its surface may be so held, and our planet may 
 thus lapse into private hands. It follows that if the land- 
 owners have a valid right to its surface, all who are not 
 landowners have no right at all to its surface. Hence 
 such can exist on the earth by sufferance only. They 
 are all trespassers. Save by permission of the landlords 
 they can have no room for the soles of their feet — nay, 
 these landless men may be equitably expelled from the 
 earth altogether." 
 
 Sacred prerogative long robe gentlemen seldom quote 
 Judge Longfield : — " The right of private property in land 
 is a political NOT a natural institution." This is merely 
 a plain statement devoid of legal technical phraseology, 
 derived from the study of Blackstone, Spelman, and Coke, 
 w^ho were particular legal scientists, unlike the generalising 
 professionals with whom law and order, and "sacred 
 rights of property " are stronger phrases than the ten 
 commandments. The joint interest of the public in land 
 has never been, and can never be, excluded by mere 
 black letter law or formidable parchments. British law 
 acknowledges this fact, but the doctrine is scarcely ever 
 ventilated in Irish courts. Originally the noble land- 
 holders had not the power to sell, but during Henry VIII.'s 
 reign, the law of wills was passed, giving them greater 
 
32 
 
 LAND LESSONS. 
 
 authority over their tenures. By law they were not 
 allowed openly to sell, but as usual the lawyers helped the 
 powerful to evade and break through the law, and make 
 quiet, secret sale. In this way the aristocrats sold what 
 was state property ; so by means of legal chicanery they 
 gradually became the owners instead of tenants to the 
 Crown. Land was thereby created a marketable com- 
 modity. The lawyers are responsible in connection with 
 the nobles for this iniquity. The commercial classes 
 bought to become ennobled, money became master of the 
 situation, and the people were discounted to allow the 
 doctrine of absolute property in land, yet Williams on the 
 law of real property, lays down : — " The first thing tho 
 student has to do is to get rid of the idea of absolute 
 ownership. Such an idea is quite unknown to the 
 English law. No man is, in law, the absolute owner of 
 lands, ' he can only hold an estate in them/ English law 
 is absolutely metamorphosed in Ireland by the extension of 
 executive administrative authority, which extinguishes the 
 spirit, and annuls the practice of constitutional justice.'^ 
 Froude lays down : — " Private ownership in land is per- 
 mitted, because government cannot be omnipresent, and 
 personal interest is found on the whole an adequate 
 security that land so held shall be administered to the 
 general advantage." But seeing that men are born into 
 the world without their own wills, and being in the world 
 they must live upon the world's surface, or they cannot 
 live at all, — no individual, or set of individuals, can hold 
 over land that personal and irresponsible right which is 
 allowed them in things of less universal necessity. Land 
 possession directly affects natural prosperity. The English 
 system of tenure is the worst in the world, having no- 
 parallel except in America, where attention is being 
 rivetted to its glaring defects. As a consequence there 
 is a greater ratio of paupers and more general destitution 
 in the Three Kingdoms than -in any part of the known 
 globe (except perhaps India under British rule). English 
 poor law is a unique institution to pay an army of 
 officials and hang on political purposes. It does not 
 even attempt the State relief as given by land mono- 
 
LAND LESSONS. 
 
 33 
 
 polizing Patrician Romans. In Ireland temporary poverty 
 means imprisonment, as the law distinctly orders that a 
 family may starve if they do not break up their homes 
 and go into the idle workhouse to be manufactured into 
 permanent paupers, and become a lasting charge on rate- 
 payers. This is the legal common sense and Christian 
 communism ; meanwhile the land goes to waste for want 
 of labour. There is no article of commerce the origin 
 of which cannot be either directly or indirectly traced 
 to land. The physiocrats, a well-known French school of 
 economists in the last century, were so impressed with this 
 fact that they regarded land as the sole source of wealth, 
 and paid little attention to other industries than agri- 
 culture. The limited quantity of land and the limited 
 productiveness of it are the real limits to the increase 
 of production of wealth. After a certain and not very 
 advanced stage in the progress of agriculture, it is the 
 law of production from the land, that by increasing the 
 labour the produce is not increased in any equal degree ; 
 in fact, doubling the labour does not double the produce. 
 This general law, says John Stuart Mill, is the most im- 
 portant proposition in political economy. It lies at the 
 root of the laws that regulate rent and that govern the 
 increase of population. The laws that regulate rent in 
 Ireland have been manipulated, forged, and enforced 
 altogether in the interest of capitalistic landholders. 
 Industry and economy are the natural and just sources of 
 wealth, yet those who possess parchment titles to land 
 have stopped industry and paralysed economy by raising 
 rents and appropriating improvements. Truly Buckle 
 declared " landlords are perhaps the only great body of 
 men whose interest is diametrically opposed to the interest 
 of the nation." This is perfectly true regarding im- 
 ported monopolizers of land in Ireland, witnesses, Edmund 
 Spenser, 1596 : — *'The lords of land do not there use to 
 set out their land to farme for tearme of years to their 
 tenants, but only from year to year or during pleasure . . . 
 The landlords there use most shamefully to racke their 
 tenants, laying upon them coin and livery at pleasure, and 
 exacting of them besides his covenants what he pleaseth." 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 LAND LESSONS. 
 
 Sir John Davis, 1612: — "The lord is an absolute Tyrant 
 and the Tennant a very Slave and Villain, and, in one 
 respect pa ore miserable than Bond Slaves. For commonly 
 the Bond Slave is fed by the Lord, but here the Lord is n 
 fed by his Bond Slave." 1725, Dean Swift :— " Rents are 
 squeezed out of the blood and vitals and clothes and 
 dwellings of the tenants who live worse than English 
 beggars." Lord Clare, 1787 : — " The peasantry are ground 
 down to powder by enormous rents." Later on Royal 
 Commissions disclosed if possible a more lamentable state 
 of affairs, but a landholding parliament and hereditary 
 house of landholders preferred to provoke revolution rather 
 than provide a remedy, which would lessen their income 
 and prerogative. The Incumbered Estates Court enabled 
 capitalists to purchase social position, and the privilege to 
 appropriate the earning of tenants. Thus the land, which 
 should be the basis of national wealth, was, through the 
 improvidence of landholders placed at the mercy of mere 
 speculators — men of " blood and iron," who only con- 
 sidered the profit. Human suffering, domestic ties, or 
 national depopulation, did not weigh in the nicely -balanced 
 minds of land investors, who bought the lives, liberties, 
 and wage-earning capabilities of those who unfortunately 
 existed upon estates under misnamed voluntary agreements 
 termed leases. Incumbered estates' titles wiped away any 
 previous blots. Legal sophists were very particular about 
 title, but never thought of the tenants' lives or improve- 
 ments. Having powers within the law, speculative pluto- 
 crats and absentee absorbers recognised no duty, save a 
 quick return and large percentage, as Froude explains in 
 his Short Studies on Great Subjects The (Irish) 
 landlord may become a direct oppressor. He may care 
 nothing for the people, and have no object but to squeeze 
 the most that he can get out of them fairly or unfairly. 
 The Russian Government has been called despotism, 
 tempered by assassination. In Ireland landlordism has 
 been temperedby assassination . . . Every circumstance com- 
 bined in that country to exasperate the relations between 
 landlord and tenant. The landlords were, for the most 
 part, aliens in blood, and in religion. They represented 
 
LAND LESSONS. 
 
 35 
 
 conquest and confiscation, and they had gone on from 
 generation to generation with an indifference for the wel- 
 fare of the people, which would not have been tolerated in 
 England or Scotland. The law had at last to interfere to 
 protect the peasantry in the shape of Mr. Gladstone's Land 
 Act — the best, perhaps, the only good measure, which has 
 been passed for Ireland for the last two hundred years." 
 A Scotchman, Professor John Stuart Blackie gives evidence 
 — " Among the many acts of baseness branding the English 
 character in their blundering pretence of governing Ire- 
 land, not the least was the practice of confiscating the 
 land, which by real law belonged to the people, and giving 
 it, not to honest resident cultivators, which might have 
 been a polite sort of theft, but to cliques of greedy and 
 grasping oligarchs, who did nothing for the country they 
 had appropriated but suck its blood in the name of land 
 rent, and squander its wealth under the name of fashion 
 and pleasure in London." All this was accomplished under 
 the guise of legislative sanction. Our Lord declared " love 
 your neighbour as yourself," contained the whole fulfil- 
 ment of Christian law. 1900 years after His birth, behold 
 the majesty of civil law embodied in a military constable 
 armed cap-a-pie chasing chickens and pocketing potatoes 
 from the wretched starving peasants in Gweedore. An 
 economical methodof collectingseed-rate, costing a hundred 
 times the amount of debit. But prostrate your intellects, 
 ye Gaelic dullards, and admire the British idol of infallible 
 legal supremacy. 
 
36 
 
 LAND LESSONS. 
 
 Eviction and Error. 
 
 Get ye gone into another country and eat your bread in a strange 
 land." 
 
 Neither is the population to be reckoned only by the number for a 
 smaller number that spend moee and earn less, do wear out an estate 
 sooner than a greater number that live lower, and gather more. There- 
 fore, the multiplying of nobility, and other degrees of quality in an 
 over-proportion to the common people doth speedily bring in a State to 
 necessity." — Bacon. 
 
 If care and circumspection be not used by the State, danger will 
 arise." 
 
 * * I have no sympathy with a policy which improves a country by 
 getting rid of its people. It is a policy of despair. It is like the theory 
 of Dr. Sangrado of Gil Bias fame, for the curing of disease by blood 
 letting, the life of the body. I cannot accept the policy of making a 
 solitude and calling it political economy. I am entirely against pressing 
 people out of their own country." — Sir W. Harcourt. 
 
 In the early history of mankind the legal process called 
 eviction was utterly unknown. An enemy might come and 
 seize the soil, making its inhabitants pay tribute. In the 
 Celtic judicature there does not appear to be any pro- 
 vision made for the ejection of tribal landholders, the 
 exact equivalent of the word eviction is perhaps unwritten 
 in the Erse language. The Saxon people were also rooted 
 in the land, even the Norman Saxons protested against 
 feudal land clearances. When the ancient aristocracy was 
 replaced by adventurers, who began to make money by 
 rack renting and evicting, Henry VII. ordered tenants to 
 be restored, telling the landholder it was for the purpose 
 of keeping men in their land he was entrusted with his 
 estate. Bacon relates how to prevent immense grazing 
 tracts being formed, the statute of tillage was passed 
 limiting the number of sheep to be kept by any farmer, 
 and preventing anyone holding more than two farms. 
 This statute might be useful in Ireland, where beef and 
 sheep growers are lords of legislation. It was also enacted 
 that if two farms are held, the holder (mark not the 
 owner), the holder must reside in the parishes, where 
 they be upon penalty of 3s, 4^d. for every week of absence, 
 a large sum in those days, Edward the III. statutes are 
 revived by black letter practitioners for coercive useSo 
 
LAND LESSONS. 
 
 37 
 
 Why don't they disinter those Henry VII. laws, to preserve 
 the people at least by a recollection, — that humane practice 
 was once law. An Act was passed preventing a landlord 
 from pulling down any farm house that had 20 acres of 
 land attached to it How often has this legislation been 
 violated in Ireland under the name of OLD ENGLISH I-AW. 
 In the reign of Henry VIII. acts were passed preventing 
 enclosures of commons, yet nine millions of acres have been 
 enclosed by more recent Parliamentary action. The con- 
 solidation of farms was declared illegal, still all the powers 
 of British law and a standing army was used at the 
 expense of all taxpayers, to evict small holders and con- 
 solidate " immense tracts in Ireland. Bat the Irish 
 landholders, like the nobles in the time of Henry the VIIL 
 were too powerful for the disorganised people who passively 
 acquiesced to the domination of closely connected interests, 
 whose command of governmental resources and techni- 
 calities enabled the accomplishment of their purpose 
 however opposed to general utility, or to the spirit of JUST 
 LAW. 
 
 Landlordism has depopulated the country and allowed 
 the land to go to waste — it has increased rent and lessened 
 production ; it has exported millions of money and trans- 
 ferred the great burden of taxation from landowners to 
 consumers, producers, and tenants. It caused most of the 
 suffering, degradation and crime that has occurred in Ire- 
 land for generations. The prevalence of wide-spread 
 poverty and disaffection among the masses, consequent on 
 ruinous exactions and social tyranny, threaten to over- 
 whelm many established institutions. In the twenty 
 years between '46 and '66 landlordism levelled 250,000 
 Irish homesteads, and nearly 4,000,000 persons were 
 banished in one generation from a land capable of support- 
 ing thrice its present population. This weakening of the 
 Empire was brought about by the legislative action of 
 alien landholding lawmakers, aided by the lawyers who 
 interpreted and administered civil law without appeal to 
 historical precedent or public utility. It is indubitably 
 stated that the old English common law thought the 
 offence of depopulators (that is, evicting landlords) so 
 
38 
 
 LAND LESSONS. 
 
 grave as to deprive them of the benefit of clergy, and so 
 contrary to the common weal that even the King could 
 not pardon them ; while the common law would not grant 
 such depopulators either the privilege or the sanctuary of 
 Christian burial. The old English law does not appear 
 to have been included in the studies of those who aided 
 and abetted depopulation, consolidation, and rent raising. 
 Landholders who would rather let land lie idle than reduce 
 rent should be reminded that under the old law of England, 
 " the mere neglect to cultivate or inhabit the land involved 
 its confiscation to the King's hand," i.e., to the State. 
 The more learned may find proof in Kemble s " Saxons in 
 England," vol. 2, p. 52, or in " Hist : Elien," vol. 1, p. 1, 
 Friar Thomas's " History of Ely." The arable land of 
 Ireland in 1851, after the famine, was 5,788,000 ; it is now 
 about 4,600,000 acres. Who was fined or brought to justice 
 for this conversion of fertility into barrenness ? For it is 
 related by Hume in his History of England, " that in 
 the year 1634 Sir Anthony Roper was fined £4,000 for 
 depopulation, or turning arable land into pasture land, 
 under the provisions of a law enacted in the reign of 
 Henry VII." Ireland's population in 1843 was a little 
 imder nine millions. In 1886 it is less than five. Who 
 was fined for the depopulation of the country ? If the 
 process goes on for another generation Ireland will be the 
 Sahara of British rule, with a town oasis of inhabitants 
 here and there to relieve the monotony of a rural desert. 
 Alien unnatural legislation for Ireland, resolves itself 
 into a state of things which would be punishable by 
 law in England, if not previously prevented through public 
 opinion. By a hollow mockery of representative govern- 
 ment, the land created by God to sustain the children of 
 men, and the national revenues levied for the promotion 
 of general utility have been seized by those who had 
 cleverly wrested the power from the inhabitants. Mono- 
 polies and privileges were legally created to enrich certain 
 limited classes. Any revolt against authority, obtained by 
 nomination and supported by force, was termed rebellion ; 
 every attempt of the people to obtain natural rights, incited 
 by reasonable humanity and sanctioned by Divine law, 
 
LAND LESSONS. 
 
 39 
 
 was savagely punished by the civil and military instru- 
 ments of legislation. The merest technical difference of 
 opinion as to the mode and fundaments of government 
 was adjudged to be treason, and suffered accordingly. 
 Such proceedings might lead to the false supposition that 
 governmentalists made the land, earned all the money, 
 created the people, bestowed the light of reason, and 
 flattered the Irish race, by grasping the soil and accepting 
 salary to rule the Celt and enrich the upper Saxon, for 
 the democracies of Great Britain are in just as woful a 
 plight as their Irish neighbours. 
 
 Financial famines are caused by rack rents exported to . 
 absentee landlords, double taxation sent aw^ay to a foreign 
 Exchequer, commercial annihilation is effected by anti- 
 Irish import agents called merchants. The Mammon 
 Moloch of '48 sacrificed about 1,100,000 lives, but a Con- 
 stitutional Christian Government did not see anything in 
 the circumstance to cause State aid to he required. This 
 extermination policy has been repeated more than once, 
 yet " the first duty of Government is the preservation of 
 its people.'* A brief resume of Irish Parliaments, repre- 
 senting the Anglo-Norman element, will show how pretence 
 can overrule reality. The last Parliament was a sectional 
 sectarian assembly, but Ireland prospered. Since that 
 period, under the name of Union, and cloak of law and 
 order, the Irish nation has been perversely pauperised, 
 dangerously decimated, extensively exiled, and deeply 
 degraded, because strangers governed and administered 
 the Constitution. 
 
 Law was the fulcrum which moved the avalanche of 
 misery to entomb the unfortunate people beneath its des- 
 tructive shadow. 
 
40 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 History is the torch of truth, the witness of ages, and the oracle of 
 life." — Cicero. 
 
 The greater portion of " Irish Parliaments " appeared as 
 letters in the Nation. They are re-issued by desire and 
 permission. A perusal may be useful to political petri- 
 factions drowning in the sink of ignorant prejudice. 
 
 Ephemeral thinkers and obstructive, academical educa- 
 tionists, posing as teachers of public opinion, ignore Irish 
 legislative history as an antediluvian tradition, and scarcely 
 ever advert to the fact that for nearly six centuries Ireland 
 was a. distinct kingdom under Parliamentary Government, 
 just so far as English legislative authority possessed the 
 narrow power of making laws, of overlooking their admin- 
 istration, and of rudely watching administrators. Begin- 
 ning with the synods and public councils, 1172, to Baronial 
 parliaments in 1253, and duly recognised parliaments of 
 the Pale in 1311, there is a clear authentic enrolment of 
 very many Parliaments assembling in various places at 
 different intervals, until the beginning of the present cen- 
 tury. Strange it is that the British Empire was not dis- 
 membered, although five uprisings against oppression took 
 place during those centuries. The incapacity of imported 
 rulers to conciliate or govern Ireland is thereby demonstrated. 
 God implants in the human soul a longing for independ- 
 ence ; no amount of slavery can eradicate it ; empty words 
 will not do duty for acts. Every people has the right to 
 govern itself. Success is the final test of wisdom ; English 
 rule in Ireland has always been a dismal failure, and if 
 the policy of ruling Ireland from an English Parliament is 
 continued, it will end Parliamentary Government. The 
 Kingdom of England was not disintegrated from 1376 to 
 1485, nor did the integrity of the Empire dissolve from 
 1782 to 1800, yet during those years Irish Parliaments 
 absolutely denied the right of Westminster to interfere 
 with legislation in Ireland. . 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 41 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 Woe to the land on whose judgment seat a stranger sits, at whose 
 gate a stranger watches." 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 FROM 1170 TO 1317. 
 
 It is difficult to arrive at facts in antiquarian research, as 
 negligence, ignorance, and misrepresentation obscure distant 
 history. This is more particularly the case when the 
 records are kept by those who desire to conceal the truth. 
 No more striking instance could be given as an example 
 than the alleged Bull of Adrian, which such competent 
 authorities as Cardinal Newman, Father Burke, Dr. Lynch, 
 etc., have repudiated as not being genuine. "Father Yorke 
 lately lectured that twenty-one Bulls were issued by Pope 
 Adrian IV., and the origiuals of these Bulls were to be found 
 in the Papal archives at Rome, but there was no trace at all 
 of this alleged Bull addressed to Henry II. of England. 
 The document has evidence on the face of it that it is a 
 forgery. It purported to be addressed to some English 
 King, but the name of the King was not mentioned. 
 Neither was it signed nor sealed, nor was the name of the 
 Pope to it, and it was quite incomprehensible why such a 
 document, if it had been issued, should be so utterly devoid 
 of all signs of authenticity. It purported also to have been 
 issued from Rome, and the Pope was not in the Eternal 
 City at all at the time. The Bull was said to have been 
 obtained from the Pope at Rome in 1155 by John of 
 Salisbury, who is said to have been sent on an embassy to 
 Rome for the purpose by Henry II. John of Salisbury 
 made no mention whatever of the Bull in the diary he 
 kept of his journey to Rome, and in which he inserted 
 matters most trivial. It was not published by Henry II. 
 till twenty years after, when John of Salisbury and Pope 
 Adrian were dead. In 1172 a Synod was held at Cashel, 
 
42 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS, 
 
 and was attended by the Papal Legate, but there was no 
 mention made there of the Bull, for the very cogent reason 
 that it was not in existence. Three years subsequently it 
 was made public at a Synod held in Waterford by a few of 
 Henry's creatures. The only authority that such a Synod 
 was ever held was Geraldus Cambrensis. It was also con- 
 tended that a confirmatory decree had been issued by Pope 
 Alexander III. in 1172 from Rome, but the fact was that, 
 owing to the disturbed state of the times, the Pope had to 
 go from place to place, and was not in Rome at all in 1172. 
 The Protestant Archbishop Usher, a celebrated scholar and 
 historian, denied that this alleged confirmatory decree of 
 the Bull of Pope Adrian was authentic. King Henry the 
 Second's secretary, who wrote the chronicles of the reign 
 of his Sovereign, made no reference whatever to the Bull; 
 and if it had been issued, St. Laurence O'Toole would not 
 have so strenuously resisted the English invasion. Pope 
 Adrian the Fourth would never have given such a mission 
 to the murderer of St. Thomas a Beckett ; and during his 
 reign from 1154 to 1156 he continued a bitter struggle 
 against the tyrants who occupied the Thrones of Europe 
 at the time." 
 
 It was not Christian zeal but land hunger that prompted 
 the Normans to come to Ireland. Strongbow appealed to 
 his soldiers, showing them the rich plains of Meath, " this 
 is a country worth fighting for," yet the men who owned 
 it scarcely thought it worth defending, and never united 
 against the invader. Duplicity and deceit have ever been 
 the characteristic of state dealings with the Irish nation. 
 
 A species of representative government existed in Ire- 
 land previous to the invasion of Henry. The Celtic chiefs, 
 although partially hereditary, were elected by the clansmen- 
 further it was looked upon as a disgrace if a man did not 
 belong to some tribe whose chieftain or prince should 
 espouse the quarrel and defend the interests of each 
 follower. The kings met first at Tara, the nobles and 
 princes directly represented their followers ; those public 
 councils were called together according to the exigencies of 
 the State. The Kings as Lords, and the nobles as commons 
 were summoned by Roderick O'Connor in 1169, to con- 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 43 
 
 sider measures for repelling the invasion invited by 
 McMurrough. 
 
 In October, 1171, King Henry II. landed with 400 
 knights and about 4,000 soldiers, at Croch, near Water- 
 ford. 
 
 In a wooden palace, erected on the southern side of the 
 present Dame Street, King Henry kept his court at Dublin 
 during the winter of 1171-72. 
 
 Copying Celtic usage, he summoned a parliament of 
 Irish only to arrange the executive government of the Pale. 
 Now, there is no distinct record of parliament in England 
 until 1258 under Henry III. The House of Commons 
 appears to have come into existence about 1265, so that 
 the Irish parliamentary council, even under British 
 invaders, was an older institution than the English parlia- 
 ment which now claims absolute dominion. 
 
 A synod of the Irish clergy, convened by Henry, and 
 held at Cashel in 1172, passed decrees concerning marriage, 
 baptism, and the special privileges of the clergy, who were 
 exempted from payment of the eric — the price of a life — 
 by which a murderer was bound to pay compensation to 
 the family of his victim — and whose property was not liable 
 to any exaction from the chiefs. 
 
 At a royal council held at Lismore, the English monarch 
 imposed obedience to English law upon his new subjects of 
 Ireland. 
 
 Before Henry II. [left, he appointed Hugh de Lacy 
 governor of Dublin in April, 1172, he directed that a castle 
 should be built there, and that the city should be regarded 
 as the seat of government. This is the foundation of 
 Castle Government, and it still remains as a brand of 
 slavery on the forehead of Ireland. Henry departed, 
 leaving Strongbow as Earl Marshal. 
 
 In the Antient Annales are found the following records : — 
 The Irish Statute Roll will demonstrate that from first 
 invasion of Henry II., and ever since, there has existed a 
 parliament in that country — a legislative assembly possess- 
 ing the usual powers of such a meeting. 
 
 The Statute of Richard III. says, that Henry II. of that 
 name had made several regulations for supplying occasional 
 
44 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 vacancies in the office of governor. It then proceeds to 
 amend the same. There is a purely legislative enactment 
 made in Ireland, arranging the executive government itself 
 and co-eval with the supposed conquest of the kingdom. 
 Confining his observations to the limited district 
 under English control, Hallam says : " That Henry gave 
 charters of privilege to the chief towns, began a division 
 into counties, appointed sheriffs and judges of assize to 
 administer justice, erected supreme courts at Dublin, and 
 "perhaps assembled parliaments." 
 
 Limited representation in Irish Parliaments was at all 
 times co-extensive, not merely with the English Pale, but 
 with whatever portion of the Irish territory acknowledged 
 a subjection to English dominion and acquiesced in its 
 legislation. No more can be required, for, of course, ia 
 ancient as in modern times, countries not under obedience 
 to English law, whether in. rebellion, or as yet unsubdued, 
 not only abstained from participation with the parliament, 
 but scorned its enactments. 
 
 Fitzadhelm was appointed second Viceroy, and in 1177 
 Henry II. created his son Lord John of Ireland. Two 
 years later De Lacy was appointed Viceroy in room of 
 FitzAldhelm, who had been recalled. On the death of De 
 Lacy, who was slain at Durrow, in Queen's County, John 
 De Courcy was made Viceroy in 1186. Henry II. died in 
 1189, and his son, Richard I., was too much engrossed in 
 the third Crusade to care for the affairs of Ireland, which 
 w^ere left to J ohn. 
 
 In 1254, King Henry III. formally granted the kingdom 
 of Ireland to his son Prince Edward, who, however, does 
 not appear to have visited the island. 
 
 In Rymer's F^dera will be found a writ to convene an 
 Irish Parliament in the 38th Henry III, A.D. 1253. There 
 is also upon a plea roll, 53 Henry III., which is preserved 
 in Bermingham Tower, a statute of that year. 
 
 In the black book of Christ Church, Dublin, which was 
 written before 1300, there is an account of Parliament of 
 Edward I., holden, as Sir Richard Cox alleges, before Sij^ 
 R. Wogan, 1295 ; this historian gives a list of the members. 
 In the 3rd Edward II., there was one, the enactments of 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 45 
 
 which were printed by Sir K Bolton (the Chief Baron 
 contemporary with Davies.) 
 
 A petition occurs upon the plea rolls of Bermingham 
 Tower, No. 224, this petition was referred to the king in 
 the 6th of Richard II., against the alleged illegal practice 
 of holding Parliaments without the presence of the Lord 
 Lieutenant, and it asserts " that from all times since the 
 conquest of the said land the Lord Lieutenant was 
 present." 
 
 Those extracts are mainly from Monk Mason, who, in 
 his able pamphlet on Irish Parliaments, clearly shows at 
 length: — 
 
 1st. That Irish Parliaments were legislative bodies — 
 2nd. To consider how far the representation of the people 
 in them extended — 3rd. To show that they were consti- 
 tutionally sufficient for the legislation of Ireland, and here, 
 that the nation was altogether independent of the English 
 Parliament, and not bound by its enactments. On this 
 point of Irish Parliamentary independence Molyneux 
 forcibly argued. 
 
 "The Regality of Ireland was vested in John by his 
 father, the grant was confirmed by the English Parlia- 
 ment and licensed by the Pope. This surely dissolves 
 the connexion between the two Parliaments, as it con- 
 stituted distinct princes for each land. The accession of 
 John to the crown of England did not afterwards restore 
 it; this operated only as the accession of James I. did 
 upon Elizabeth's death ; and a grant of common law to 
 Ireland, even if it were in the 12th of John's reign, could 
 no more have restored the original dependence on the 
 English Parliament than the importation of the laws of 
 the twelve tables could have made Rome to be subject to 
 Athenian legislation." 
 
 As to the historical grounds for Home Rule, Molyneux, 
 in " The Case of Ireland," published 1689, shows "That 
 parliaments were authorised and established in Ireland 
 from the time of Henry II." Various charters and de- 
 clarations of right are quoted, proving that at the several 
 times of their execution Ireland was a separate kingdom 
 by the admission of the English Government. Laws 
 
46 
 
 HUSH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 passed in England with the design of binding both king- 
 doms were uniformly transmitted to Ireland to be passed 
 into law by the Irish Parliament. The history of Poyn- 
 ing's law puts that question beyond contradiction. It is 
 obvious from an entry in the White Book of the Ex- 
 chequer in Dublin, that so long ago as the ninth year of 
 Edward L, the king and Parliament of England would 
 not enact laws to bind Ireland without the concurrence of 
 the representatives of this kingdom. Yet in this de- 
 generating age of imperial centralisation English and 
 Scotch members pass laws to bind Ireland in spite of the 
 vigorous protest of a majority of Irish M.P.'s. Molyneux 
 clearly shows that before 1641 " no statute was made in 
 England introductory of a new law that interfered wdth 
 the right which the people of Ireland have to make laws 
 for themselves.'' Afterwards some laws were made in 
 England to be of force in Ireland, but these were repealed 
 by the Irish Parliament, the fact irresistibly showing they 
 did not de facto bind the Irish legislature. De jure^ so 
 far as there was a constitutional system, it excluded the 
 right of the English Parliament to legislate for Ireland. 
 Again, Molyneux proves by grave citations of cases that 
 when a judgment happened to be removed from Ireland 
 to England it was judged according to the laws and cus- 
 toms of Ireland, conclusively showing on strictly legal 
 ground the direct exclusion of the right of the English 
 Parliament to meddle in Irish affairs. 
 
 As showing how slender the sovereignty of the Pale 
 was in Ireland at this early period, history relates that in 
 1315 the Irish of Ulster begged Kobert Bruce, King of 
 Scotland, to send them some aid against the English, 
 Bruce encouraged his brother Edward to invade Ireland. 
 After gaining a victory at Coleraine he was crowned 
 King of Ireland. King Robert Bruce arrived in Ireland, 
 September, 1316, and with an army of 20,000 Scots, 
 reinforced by a contingent of native Irish, the brothers 
 marched towards Dublin. Robert Bruce returned to 
 Scotland in 1317. Edward Bruce was slain in battle 
 near Dundalk^in 1318. 
 
HUSH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 47 
 
 Chapter II. 
 From 1317 to 1376. 
 
 By their fruits ye shall know them." 
 
 It will be observed from the undeniable authorities quoted, 
 that from the first year of the Saxon land-grabbers' in- 
 cursion, a separate and distinct Government under a 
 viceroy with an executive altogether apart from England 
 was allotted. It will be found that a Parliament was held 
 in 1317 by Roger Mortimer at Kilmainham ; at Kilkenny 
 in 1326, and also at Dublin in 1331. D'Arcy M'Gee wrote 
 of this period : — 
 
 " The civil administration of the colonists passing into 
 different hands every three or four years suffered from the 
 absence of permanent authority. The law of the marches was 
 of necessity the law of the strong hand and no other, but 
 Cambrensis says, ' the walled towns were filled with litigation 
 in his time.' There was, he says, ' such lawing and vexation 
 that the veteran was more troubled in lawing within the town 
 than he was in peril at large with the enemy.' This being the 
 case, we must take with caution the assertion so often made of 
 the zeal w^ith which the natives petitioned the Henrys and 
 Edwards that the laws of England might be extended to them. 
 Certain Celts whose lands lay upon the marches, others who 
 compounded with their Norman invaders, a chief or prince 
 hard pressed by domestic enemies may have wished to be in a 
 position to quote Norman law against Norman spoilers, but 
 the popular petitions went only from Dublin townsmen and 
 the new settlers. The great mass of the Irish people remained 
 warmly attached to the Brehon law down to the 17th century. 
 The first attempt to enforce non-intercourse between the natives 
 and the naturalized began in the time of Sir Antony Lucy, 
 (elected 1331), when the King's Council sent over Articles of 
 Reform, in which it was threatened, that if the native nobility 
 were not more attentive in discharging their duties to the 
 c King, his Majesty would resume into his own hands all the 
 
 grants made to them by his ancestors, and he would enforce 
 payment of debts due to the Crown. These articles were 
 allowed to remain a dead letter until the administration of 
 Darcy (Edward III.'s confidential agent). They were pro- 
 
48 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 claimed again by this deputy (in 1342), who convened a Parlia- 
 ment or Council at Dublin. The same year a new ordinance 
 came from England forbidding the public employment of men 
 born or married, or possessing estates in Ireland, and ordering 
 all offices of State should be filled by * fit Englishmen having 
 lands, tenements, and benefices in England.'* The Anglo-Irish 
 resolved to offer resistance, and by the convocation of the Earls 
 of Ormond, Desmond, and Kildare, they agreed to meet at 
 Kilkenny. Accordingly, what is called Darcy's Parliament 
 met at Dublin in October, while Desmond's rival assembly 
 gathered at Kilkenny in November. There is no account 
 given of the proceedings of Darcy's Parliament, but Desmond's 
 despatched to the King a Eemonstrance in Norman-French, in 
 which they reviewed the state of the country ; deplored the 
 recovery of so large a portion of the former conquest by the old 
 Irish, accused the successive English officials with a desire sud- 
 denly to enrich themselves at the expense of sovereign and 
 subject, pleaded their own loyal services to and finally claimed 
 the protection of the Great Charter. Edward was in need of 
 men and money for his French wars, sent a conciliatory 
 answer, and summoned them to join him in arms. The next 
 deputy, Sir Ealph Lifford (1343-1346), made a vigorous effort 
 to enforce the articles of 1331, and the ordinance of 1341. By 
 the capture of the Earls of Kildare and Desmond the policy of 
 non-intercourse was abandoned. Desmond was appointed 
 Lord Justice for life ; he unfortunately died soon. The only 
 legal concession marking his period was a royal writ constitut- 
 ing the Parliament of the Pale, the court of last resort for ap- 
 peals from the decision of the King's Courts in that province. 
 The favourite policy was renewed in 1357. 1367. Lionel, 
 Duke of Clarence, enacted the Penal Code of race, known as the 
 Statute of Kilkenny. * The March law and Brehon law are 
 illegal, and there shall be no law but English law.' Several 
 archbishops were parties to this statute, but they were nominees 
 of the English King." 
 
 This ancient ecclesiastical fact proves how dan- 
 gerous it would be to allow any state interference with 
 spiritual authority. This Parliament also prohibited, 
 under the guilt of treason, " that the English should hold 
 
 * Boycotting pure and simple by English law ever since enforced as 
 far as possible against the mere Irish. 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 49 
 
 any intercourse whatever with the ancient Irish.'* This 
 infernal law was afterwards revived and confirmed in a 
 parliament held at Drogheda under Henry VII. Its 
 statutes also forbade Irish Minstrels to enter the English 
 Pale, and made it penal to give them shelter. Later on 
 said good Queen Bess : " We can never make Ireland 
 Protestant so long as the minstrels are there." A law was 
 passed that " they were to be all hung." Lord Barry more 
 was appointed, and took out a commission TO HANG every 
 MAN THAT WAS A HARPER. Titled hangmen are historical 
 personages in records of English rule long before " Firm 
 and gentle viceroyalty." 
 
 The infamous statute of Kilkenny was the commence- 
 ment of the " penal code of race," which imported absorbers 
 of land and taxation have almost continuously perpetuated 
 to oppress those from whom they claim loyalty. It most 
 appropriately sets out by reciting that : — 
 
 Whereas, at the conquest of the land of Ireland, and for a 
 long time after, the English of the said land used the English 
 language, mode of riding, and apparel, and were governed and 
 ruled, both they and their subjects, called Betaghese (villeins) 
 according to English law, etc., but now many English of the 
 said land, forsaking the English language, manners, mode of 
 riding, laws, and usages, live and govern themselves according 
 to the manners, fashion, and language of the Irish enemies, 
 and also have made divers marriages and alliances between 
 themselves and the Irish enemies aforesaid : it is therefore 
 enacted (amongst other provisions), that all intermarriages, 
 festerings, gossipred, and buying or' selling with the enemy 
 shall be accounted treason ; that English names, fashions, and 
 manners shall be resumed under penalty of the confiscation of 
 the delinquent's lands ; that March laws and Brehon laws are 
 illegal, and that there shall be no law but English law ; that the 
 Irish shall not pasture their cattle on English lands ; that the 
 English shall not entertain Irish rhymers, minstrels, or news- 
 men ; and, moreover, that no ' mere Irishman' shall be 
 admitted to any ecclesiastical benefice or religious house 
 situated within the English districts.'' 
 
 1374. William de Windsor only consented to return a 
 second time as Lord Lieutenant on condition that he was 
 to act strictly on the defensive, and to receive annually 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 the sum of £11,213 6s. 8d. — a sum exceeding the whole 
 revenue which the English king derived from Ireland at 
 the period; which, according to Sir J. Davies, fell short 
 of £11,000. Although such was the critical state of the 
 English interest this Lieutenant obtained from the fears of 
 successive parliaments annual subsidies of £2,000 and 
 £3,000. 
 
 This is direct proof of the limited control exercised by 
 the English from a financial or political point ; but the 
 mad quarrels of personal spite were accounted by Irish 
 chieftains of superior importance to National freedom. 
 
 The deputies from Louth having voted against demand 
 were thrown into prison ; but a direct petition from the 
 Anglo-Irish to the King brought an order to De Windsor 
 not to enforce the collection of these grants, and to remit 
 in favour of the petitioners the scutage "on all those 
 lands of which the Irish enemy had deprived them." 
 
 In 1876 Edward III. summoned the magistrates and 
 burghers of towns to send representatives to London to 
 consult with him on the state of the English settlements 
 in Ireland. But those so addressed, having assembled, 
 drew up a protest setting forth that the Great Council of 
 Ireland had never been accustomed to meet out of that 
 kingdom, though, saving the rights of their heirs and 
 successors, they expressed their willingness to do so for 
 the King's convenience on that occasion. 
 
 Richard Dene and William Stapolyn were first sent 
 over to England to exhibit the evils of the Irish admini- 
 stration ; the proposed general assembly of representatives 
 seems to have dropped. The King ordered the two 
 delegates just mentioned to be paid £10 out of the Ex- 
 chequer for their expenses. 
 
 Here is incontrovertible evidence ''that the Great 
 Council (or Parliament) of Ireland had never been accus- 
 tomed to meet out of that kingdom." This solemn protest 
 was fully passed in the year 1376, yet, in 1886, integrity 
 of the Empire, loyalists declare, that a return to the order 
 of things which existed five hundred years ago is against 
 the Constitution. 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 51 
 
 Chapter III. 
 From 1394 to 1493. 
 
 ' ' With desolation is the land laid desolate, for there is none that 
 think eth in their hearts." 
 
 In Ireland, although the Parliament of the Pale had de- 
 clared itself free from English domination, it was used 
 simply as a legal machine under direction of predominant 
 family factions to oppress, harass, and plunder the 
 divided Irishrie. This limited Parliament was accordingly 
 used as a means of assisting turbulent lords even against 
 the Crown. In England various phases of combat and 
 struggle had taken place between Royalty and Parlia- 
 ment; popular liberty was growing; but in Ireland a 
 Parliament of four, or sometimes of only one county, 
 could not claim any title to a National representative 
 capacity, still, existing as an English institution inside 
 Ireland, it undoubtedly asserted and proved its indepen- 
 dence to manage Irish affairs. 
 
 In 1394-95 Eichard II. lived at Dublin. In a letter to 
 the Duke of York he tells of three races existing in 
 Ireland — (1) the wild Irish ; (2) the rebel Irish ; (3) the 
 English who are in obedience. 
 
 In 1399 the English Pale was reduced from the ten 
 counties of King John to /ow— which were Dublin, 
 Meath, Kildare, and Louth. With an income of £11,000 
 a year, and only four counties, the foreigners held on, their 
 weakness safeguarded by native disunion and tribal 
 jealousy. 
 
 Richard held a Parliament in 1395, and appointed the 
 Earl of March as Lord Lieutenant; in 1405 James, Earl 
 of Ormond, held a Parliament in Dublin. 
 
 In 1401 the second son of Henry Thomas of Lancaster 
 was sent at the age of twelve to rule Ireland. 
 
 Thomas Butler held a Parliament in Dublin in 1411, 
 when certain laws against coyn and livery were further 
 confirmed. It was also enacted, doubtless in the interests 
 of civilization, that none of the Irish enemy should be 
 
52 
 
 IKISH PAELIAMENTS. 
 
 allowed to depart from the realm without special leave 
 Tinder the Great Seal of Ireland — (mark, not England) — 
 and anyone who seized the person or goods of a native 
 thus atten:ipting to depart, should be rewarded with one- 
 half of the aforesaid goods, the remainder to be forfeited 
 to the State." Verily, a just and wise statute calculated 
 to increase the love of the mere Irish inside the Pale. 
 
 In 1414, John Talbot, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury,, 
 landed at Dalkey, and left after a stay of a few months 
 warring with the Septs. 
 
 During the early part of the reign of Henry VI. the 
 chief troubles of the Government in Ireland arose from 
 Ulster. 
 
 The English power in Ireland was reduced in 1430 to 
 so low a point that the Parliament announced the county 
 of Dublin to be the only portion of the country that was 
 submissive to English rule. 
 
 Here was a chance to clear the country of alien domina- 
 tion; but the want of knowledge and combined action 
 was fatal to the cause of freedom, as Bacon moralized, 
 " It is a strange desire which men have to seek power and 
 lose liberty.'' The lesson should not be lost by Irishmen of 
 the present generation, who are about to regain their 
 ancient privilege of Self-Government. 
 
 A Parliament was again held at Dublin in 1441 under 
 Archbishop Talbot. Articles were adopted praying the 
 King to appoint a mighty Lord of England " for the 
 oflB.ce of Lord Lieutenant instead of Earl Ormond. 
 
 Although the Irish had no rallying principle of National 
 cohesion, the Earl of Shrewsbury, certainly the greatest 
 English military captain of the age, when he came over 
 to Ireland with an army could not penetrate farther than 
 O' Conor Faly's territory in Leinster. 
 
 Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, held a Parliament at Trina 
 in 1447. The Irish Parliament declared in 1461 that 
 " Ireland is and always has been incorporated within itself 
 by ancient laws and customs, and is only to be governed 
 by such laws as by the lords and commons of the land in 
 Parliament assembled have been advised, accepted, and 
 afl&rmed, and proclaimed * " also that " by custom, privi- 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 53 
 
 lege, and franchise there has ever been a royal seal 
 peculiar to Ireland to which alone the king's subjects are 
 to pay obedience." This was a wonderful declaration 
 from a Parliament which did not represent the people of 
 Ireland ; for the lords were dependent and expectant on 
 the Crown and powerless in the active business of the 
 State, while the commons simply fulfilled the venal pur- 
 poses of their original design, being nominated by a few 
 nominal electors. The House of Commons, in fact, sup- 
 plied seats for the creatures of the Crown. The English 
 Government did its legal utmost to oppose and insult the 
 Irish people. In 1463 a Parliament held at Trim enacted 
 that "any person may kill thieves or robbers, or any 
 persons going to rob or steal, having no faithful man of 
 good name and in the English dress in their company.'' 
 That was at least an open licence to rob legally. Such 
 privileges nowadays are cloaked under "law and order" 
 forms, and enforced by lawful monopoly, money power, 
 and official irresponsibility. Adventurers are still im- 
 ported into Ireland, and in the garb of foreign legislation 
 assume a power which is not sustainable by justice or 
 morality. 
 
 If laws could exterminate, degrade, and permanently 
 beggar the Irish people it should have been accomplished 
 in 1475 ; it was enacted that any Englishman belonging 
 to an independent Sept might reprize himself on the 
 whole Sept or nation." 
 
 1485 brings us to a turning point in British history. 
 English power in Ireland was then at a very low point. 
 The native chiefs had broken down the barrier of the 
 Pale which was now reduced to a single county. Ulster 
 was entirely in their hands. 
 
 The impostor Simnel came to Ireland, and was adopted 
 as King and crowned in Christ Church. He then went 
 over to England where he was utterly defeated. In con- 
 sequence of Dublin adopting Simnel's cause, Henry the 
 VII. sent Edgecumb on a special commission of loyalising 
 the Irish. Subsequently, another impostor, Warbeck, 
 appeared, and afterwards disappeared into Flanders. 
 Disturbances and rivalries between the Earl of Kildare 
 
54 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 and Ormond, and a difficulty about, the Lord Deputy 
 alarmed Henrj^ He sent over Poynings as Governor, 
 with an army of 1,000 men and a squad of lawyers, law 
 and the sword, dual accompaniments of tyrannical 
 government. 
 
 As the Irish Parliament had in 1376 declared its inde- 
 pendence of England, and as the Anglo-Irish of the Pale 
 had taken the liberty of thinking for themselves, Poyn- 
 ings, after fruitlessly marching against the abettors of 
 Warbeck, who had fled to Ulster, proceeded, as absorbing 
 civilizers do in the present age, to make law. Accordingly 
 a Parliament, which represented only the kingly power, 
 prejudice of strangers, and brute force passed statutes to 
 undermine the strength of the great nobles by extinguish- 
 ing the prerogative of Irish Lords and Commons, and to 
 introduce English laws and habits, and endeavour some 
 systematic taxations instead of Baronial extortions. 
 
 In November 1493, at Drogheda, was held Poynings' 
 Parliament. The aristocracy of the Pale, like the patri- 
 cians of all ages, governments and peoples, had a lazy 
 habit of living on the produce of other people's labour. 
 
 For the workers of the Pale the legislation was bene- 
 ficial, abolishing the practice of coign and livery. The 
 nobles had a practice of coveting and occupying the 
 tenants' lands. It is related per preamble : — 
 
 At the request and supplication of the commons of 
 this land of Ireland, that where of long time there hath 
 been used and exacted by the lords and gentlemen of this 
 land many and divers damnable customs and usages, 
 called coign and livery, and pay, that is horse meat and 
 man's meat; besides many murders, robberies, rapes, and 
 other manifold extortions and oppressions, by the said 
 horsemen and footmen, daily and nightly committed and 
 done, which being the principal causes of the desolation 
 and destruction of the said land, hath brought the same 
 into ruin and decay, so as the most part of the English 
 freeholders and tenants of this land be departed out 
 thereof, some into the realm of England, and other some 
 into other strange lands; whereupon the aforesaid lords 
 and gentlemen of this said land have intruded into the 
 
IKISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 55 
 
 said freeholders' and tenants' inheritance, and the same 
 keep and occupy as their own, and setten under them to 
 the king's Irish enemies, to the diminishing of holy 
 Church's rites, the disherison of the king and his obedient 
 servants, and the utter ruin and desolation of land." 
 
 Another act was passed ordering a ditch (on the Wall 
 of China plan) to be constructed to keep out the Irish 
 from the Pale, just as the law-order coercionists would 
 fence out the Nationalists from the Pale of the Constitu- 
 tion, Poynings was the legal progenitor of Anti-Irish 
 restrictive Unionists. It was then enacted : — 
 
 " That all acts made as well by his majesty as by his 
 royal progenitors late kings of England, concerning the 
 common and public weal of the same, were accepted and 
 confirmed to be used in Ireland according to the tenor 
 and effect thereof." And it was provided that "no 
 Parliament should be held in Ireland until the causes and 
 considerations for holding it were first certified by the 
 deputy and council to the king, with the scope and in- 
 tention of the acts proposed to be passed. 
 
 Item, at the request of the commons of the land of 
 Ireland, be it ordained, enacted, and established, that at 
 the next Parliament that there shall be holden by the 
 king's commandment and license, wherein amongst other 
 the king's grace extendeth to have a general resumption 
 of his whole revenues, sith the last day of the reign of 
 King Edward the Second, no Parliament be holden here- 
 after in the said land, 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 considerations 
 and all such acts as to them seemeth should pass in the 
 same Parliament, and such causes, considerations, and acts, 
 affirmed by the king and his council, to be good and ex- 
 pedient for that land, and his licence 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 the form and effect afore rehearsed: and if 
 any Parliament be holden in that land hereafter, contrary 
 
56 
 
 IKISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 to the form and provision aforesaid, it be deemed void 
 and of none effect in law." 
 And further: — 
 
 " The wild war-cries adopted by the English families in 
 imitation of the natives w^ere forbidden — the statutes of 
 Kilkenny, except as far as the use of the Irish language 
 was concerned, were revived — the use of bows and arrows 
 were enjoined — to stir up the Irishry to war w^as declared 
 high treason — and the lords of Ireland were compelled to 
 wear in Parliament the same sort of robes as worn by the 
 Eno;lish lords in the Parliament of England." 
 
 This legislation changed the channel of Irish juris- 
 prudence. Hallam observes, *' It proved in the course of 
 time the great means of preserving the subordination of 
 the island." There existed some doubts as to the inter- 
 pretations of the acts, but they were settled by a declaratory 
 act, the 3rd and 4th Philip and Mary, by which it de- 
 clared the chi^f governor and council empowered, during 
 the session, to certify other causes and considerations, &c., 
 as they shall think necessary ; but it is also declared tliat 
 no other acts but those transmitted either before or during 
 the session could be enacted by Parliament; thus, as 
 Leland says, Denying the right the Parliaments had 
 previously assumed, and confining them within stricter 
 limits than before." 
 
 So ended the independence of the Irish Parliament 
 until it was revived in 1782. 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 THE "DEFENDER OF THE FAITH " WITH MANY WIVES, 
 AND THE VIRGIN QUEEN, PERIOD. 
 
 In every civil war the object was to displace fortunes.' —Polyhius, 
 Greek Historian. 
 
 ' Henry VIII. ascended the English throne, and the British 
 Parliament was degraded to the level of a mindless truck 
 to carry and levy supplies for a tyrant. Henry's will 
 predominated over all civil and religious law. He ordered 
 the arrest of five Geraldines who were, as a matter of 
 
IRISH PAHLIAMENTS, 
 
 57 
 
 course, attainted by an Irish Parliament, sent to London, 
 and hung at Tyburn, February 1537. 
 
 What was called an Irish government attempted to 
 exterminate all the natives in the districts bordering on 
 the Pale. Secretary Cromwell WTote to his Irish agents: — 
 
 "The very living of the Irishry," it is said, "doth clearly 
 consist in two things ; and take away the same from them and 
 they are past for ever to recover, or yet to annoy any subject 
 in Ireland. Take first from them their corn, and as much as 
 cannot be husbanded and hand into the hands of such as shall 
 dwell and inhabit in their lands, to burn and destroy the 
 same, so as the Irishry shall not live thereupon ; and then to 
 have their cattle and beasts, which shall be most hardest to 
 come by, and yet with guides and policy they be oft had and 
 taken. And, by reason that the several armies, as I devised 
 in my other paper, should proceed at once, it is not possible 
 for the said Irishry to put or flee their cattle from one 
 country into another, but that one of the armies shall come 
 thereby ; and admitting the impossibility so that their cattle 
 w^ere saved, yet in the continuance of one year, the same cattle 
 shall be dead, destroyed, stolen, strayed, or eaten, by reason of 
 the continual removing of them, going from one wood to 
 another, their lying out all the winter, their narrow pastures. 
 . . . . And then they (the Irishry) shall be without corn, 
 victuals, or cattle, and thereof shall ensue the putting in effect 
 all these wars against them." 
 
 The policy of extermination is still fashionable under 
 the disguise of eviction, emigration, and starvation of the 
 poor, or pinch of hunger. A parliament, sitting in Dublin, 
 legalised the manj marriages of the amorous Henry, king 
 of wives. 
 
 Having got rid of certain proctors who represented 
 principle not property, and therefore opposed a new religion, 
 a parliament was held in 15S7. Virtuous Henry VIII. 
 was decreed supreme head of the Church and anything or 
 everything else he choose to style himself. Religious 
 houses were suppressed and their lands confiscated to those 
 who took the oath of supremacy, &c. 
 
 In 1541 a Parliament was held in Dublin where, for the 
 first time, Irish chieftains sat with English lords. The 
 title, King of Ireland, was conferred on Henry VIII. A 
 
58 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 general pardon was issued, and Sentleger writes to the 
 King : — " There was made in the city great bonfires, great 
 feastings, wine in the streets/' &c. 
 
 In the year 1560, on 12th January, a Parliament of 
 seventy-six members, representing ten counties, met in 
 Dublin. After a few weeks' session the whole ecclesiasti- 
 cal system of Queen Mary was reversed ; so that in a half- 
 a-dozen years from Elizabeth's accession, her deputy, Sir 
 Henry Sidney, was able to describe the miserable condition 
 of the Irish Church, as " spoiled, as well by the ruin of the 
 temples as the dissipation and embezzlement of the patri- 
 mony, and most of all for want of sufficient ministers ;" 
 adding, that " so deformed and overthrown a church there 
 is not, I am sure, in any region where Christ is professed !" 
 
 Haverty also records : — 
 
 " As the statute of supremacy, 28th Henry VIIL, chap. 5 
 (a.d. 1536), was passed by the illegal and arbitrary exclusion 
 of the proctors from parliament, and by the preliminary 
 dragooning of the nation by Lord Leonard Gray, who, as Sir 
 John Davis says, * to prepare the minds of the people to obey 
 this statute, began first with a martial course, and by making 
 a victorious circuit round the kingdom, whereby the principal 
 septs of the Irish were all terrified and most of them broken,' 
 (Hist. Eel.) ; so is there sufficient reason to believe that the 
 statute of uniformity of the 2nd of Elizabeth was obtained 
 forcibly or surreptitiously from the parliament of 1560. * In 
 the very beginning of that parliament,' says Ware, * most of 
 the nobility and gentry were so divided in opinion about 
 ecclesiastical government that the Earl of Sussex dissolved 
 them, and went over to England to consult Her Majesty on 
 the affairs of this kingdom.' From this and subsequent pro- 
 ceedings of the viceroy's it may be inferred that the act was 
 not carried in a regular manner. It is even said that the 
 Earl of Sussex, to calm the protests which were made in parlia- 
 ment when it was found that the law had been passed by a 
 few members assembled privately, pledged himself solemnly 
 that it would not be generally enforced during the reign of 
 Elizabeth (See Cambrensis Ever, also Analeda Sacra^ p. 431.) 
 Dr. Curry {Civil Wars, book ii. chap iii.) has collected some 
 curious facts in illustration of this point ; but it is not true 
 that the statute of uniformity, was kept in abeyance until the 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS, 
 
 59 
 
 beginning of the reign of James I., although not generally 
 enforced until that time. On the 23rd May, 1561, commis- 
 sioners were appointed to enforce the 2nd Elizabeth against 
 Catholics in Westmeath ; in December, 1562, a commission 
 with similar jurisdiction was appointed for Armagh and Meath ; 
 and in 1564, commissioners were appointed for the whole 
 kingdom, to inquire into all offences or misdemeanours contrary 
 to the statutes of 2nd Elizabeth, and concerning all heretical 
 opinions, &c., against said statutes. Other commissions were 
 appointed in subsequent years, but the proceedings of none of 
 these appear to be now ascertainable." 
 
 It is well known that there was no persecution, on 
 account of religion, in Ireland during the reign of Queen 
 Mary ; and that some Protestant families came to this 
 country from England, about that time, in order to 
 follow their religious persuasions undisturbed. Haverty 
 states : — 
 
 "Sir Henry Sidney summoned a parliament to meet in 
 Dublin on the 17th of January, 1569. The history of this 
 body is memorable for the unscrupulous and unconstitutional 
 means resorted to in order to secure its subserviency to the 
 crown. Members were returned for towns not incorporated ; 
 mayors and sheriffs in some cases returned themselves; and 
 several Englishmen were elected as burgesses for towns which 
 they had never seen. These monstrous irregularities gave rise 
 to violent opposition. The judges were consulted, and de- 
 clared that those who were returned for non-corporate towns, 
 and those who had returned themselves, were disqualified from 
 sitting as members, but the elections of the non-resident 
 Englishmen were held to be valid ; and this decision still left 
 the court party in a majority. By these Stanihurst, Recorder 
 of Dublin, was chosen speaker, and Sir Christopher Barnwell 
 led the opposition. The first proceedings were stormy in the 
 extreme, and the popular excitement out of doors was so great 
 that Hooker, an Englishman, who was returned for the dilapi- 
 dated borough of Athenry, and who has left us a chronicle of 
 the period, had to be protected by a guard in going to his 
 residence. In this parliament, in which the majority was a 
 mere English faction, an act was passed attainting the late 
 Shane O'Neill, suppressing the name of O'Neill, and entitling 
 the queen and her heirs to the territory of Tyrone and other 
 
GO 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 parts of Ulster. Laws were also enacted imposing a duty on 
 wine ; giving the lord deputy the nomination to church 
 dignities in Munster and Connaught for ten years ; and for 
 erecting in the various dioceses charter schools, of which the 
 teachers were to be English, and, of course, Protestants. A 
 law was also passed abolishing captaincies or chieftaincies of 
 septs, unless when allowed by special patent." 
 
 Describing Munster, Sydney wrote — " I never saw a 
 more waste and desolate land." Depopulation by famine 
 and eviction were governmental agencies. In this Parlia- 
 ment Shane O'Neill was attainted, and his territories of 
 Derry and Tyrone were confiscated. Land hunger was 
 the prevalent appetite of Christian civilisers. The project 
 of planting Ulster was favoured by the Virgin Queen. 
 Insurrection was fomented, so that lands might be grabbed 
 for the loyalists. In 1570 she granted the district of Ards, 
 in Down, to her secretary, Smith, so that the territory 
 might be humanised.'' 
 
 In 1577 the Lord Deputy, by the sole authority of the 
 Privy Council, without the intervention of Parliament, 
 corrected the occasional subsidies into a regular tax. Even 
 the loyalists protested against such an open exercise of 
 nominated despotism. The people pleaded constitutional 
 right — the queen's prerogative was the only reply. The 
 collection of the cess was resisted, and eventually matters 
 were compromised by the ministers and Elizabeth. It is 
 strange that the nominated Privy Council, ruled by the 
 Castle, should at the present time be permitted to exercise 
 parliamentary powers in respect to many regulations to be 
 enforced by law in Ireland, almost without protest or 
 exposure. 
 
 In 1585 Perrot summoned a Parliament, which met in 
 Dublin, 26th April. A number of Irish chiefs and heads 
 of septs attended ; land forfeiture was the main business ; 
 Eustace, Viscount of Baltinglass, was attainted. At the 
 adjourned session, 28th April, 1586, Desmond was 
 attainted, so that about 700,000 acres of land were con- 
 fiscated to the crown to be distributed amongst English 
 undertakers. Districts depopulated by the progress of 
 England's system of civilization, were to be re-peopled by 
 
HUSH PAKLIAMENTS. 
 
 Gl 
 
 English and Scotch settlers. Each person, obtaining 
 12,000 acres, was to plant eighty-six foreigners on his 
 estate ; the native Irish were, on no account, to be 
 admitted as tenants, but they might be hired as beasts of 
 burden. 
 
 During the wars of O'Neill and Mountjoy, famine was 
 caused by that Christian commander, repeatedly destroy- 
 ing the crops, the English government in Ireland appears 
 to have been carried on by councils rather than parliaments. 
 Self-elected, nominated, and co-opted Privy Councillors 
 are never troublesome to the Crown. 
 
 Chapter V. 
 James I. 
 
 " The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is MINE ; for ye 
 are strangers and sojourners with me." — Leviticus. 
 
 As a weak, vacillating Stuart, James sacrificed his co- 
 religionists in Ireland to his fear of the Puritans. On 
 4th July, 1605, he commanded the Popish Clergy "to 
 depart from the realm." The land was the touchstone of 
 English humanisers, so gavelkind and tanistry were 
 abolished. As usual the law came to the rescue of the 
 strong oppressor — the Court of King's Bench abolished the 
 ancient Irish codes, and the inheritance of property was 
 subjected to the rules of English law — that is to say, private 
 property in land was created by the action of an outside 
 usurping legislature — force superseded right. 
 
 The division was, firstly, to English and Scotch, who 
 were to plant their lands with English and Scotch tenants. 
 Secondly, to men employed under goverment, who might 
 take English or Irish tenants as they pleased. Thirdly, 
 to the natives of the confiscated estates, who were to be 
 freeholders. For the full understanding of the duties 
 and character of undertakers, see Harris's Sibernica, p. 66 ; 
 Leland, vol. 2, p. 433. 
 
 MacNevin explains :— 
 
 " The estates of the chieftains were taken into the hands of 
 the crown, and re-granted with the legal titles under which 
 
62 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 English property was held. The system of English coloniza- 
 tion known by the name of Plantation, was introduced. It 
 was a summary method by which the natives, under one false 
 pretence or another — the usual slanders of English avarice, re- 
 bellion or non-conformity — were expelled from the inheritance 
 of their fathers, and a grasping crew of English, but, indeed, 
 principally Scotch adventurers, planted in the ancient homes of 
 the people. The parliaments of the day were ready agents of 
 confiscation, passing acts of attainder as they were required 
 on the most ridiculous pretences, and the falsest evidence. 
 The two great northern chieftains, Tyrone and Tyrconnell, 
 were accused of having engaged in a conspiracy, and aware 
 of the result of awaiting the process of English law, they fled 
 the country and were attainted. Five hundred thousand acres 
 in Ulster were the rich prey of the king — the splendid prize 
 of artful iniquity. And in the domains of the expatriated 
 chiefs of Ulster was planted that colony of Scotch and English 
 which ' have rendered that province, from being the seat of 
 the ivildest natives, the most flourishing, the most Protestant, 
 and the most enlightened part of Ireland.' Such is the moral 
 that Hallam, an English Whig historian, finds in the great 
 scheme of national robbery which was devised by the corruptest 
 statesman in England — Bacon — and executed by the crafty, 
 cruel Chichester." 
 
 Haverty states : — 
 
 "Six counties of Ulster, Tyrone, Derry, Donegal, Fer- 
 managh, Armagh, and Cavan, were confiscated to the crown, 
 and were parcelled out among adventurers from England and 
 Scotland. Various plans were proposed for the purpose, and 
 among others. Lord Bacon was consulted ; but his plan was 
 disapproved of. Sir Arthur Chichester, the lord deputy, was 
 found to be more useful and practical in his views, and richly 
 was he rewarded for the assistance which he rendered to his 
 royal master. He received the wide lands of Sir Cahir 
 O'Doherty for his share in this wholesale spoliation. But the 
 wealthy citizens of London were the largest participators in 
 the plunder. They obtained 209,800 acres, and rebuilt the 
 city, which, since then, has been called Londonderry. Accord- 
 ing to the plan finally adopted for the 'plantation of Ulster,' 
 as this scheme was called, the lots into which the lands were 
 divided were classified into those containing 2,000 acres, ^ 
 which were reserved for rich undertakers and the great servi- 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 63 
 
 tors of the crown ; those containing 1,500 acres, which were 
 allotted to servitors of the crown in Ireland, with permission 
 to take either English or Irish tenants; and thirdly, those 
 containing 1,000 acres, which were to be distributed with still 
 less restriction. The exclusion of the ancient inhabitants, and 
 the proscription of the Catholic religion, were the fundamental 
 principles which were to be acted on as far as practicable in 
 this settlement."* 
 
 MacNevin relates : — 
 It was in the reign of James that Ireland assumed the 
 uniform political appearance it has since, with a short interval, 
 maintained, of a subordinated kingdom united to England, 
 and by the construction put by English lawyers, is, on the law 
 of Poynings, with a legislature dependant on that of England. 
 
 " Twenty-seven years of rapine, massacre, and disorder had 
 passed, since a parliament had been assembled in Ireland, 
 when in 1612 Sir Arthur Chichester, the deputy of James, 
 intimated his intention of summoning a parliament on a wider 
 basis, and influenced by a more extensive theory of represen- 
 tation than had been up to that period known in Ireland. No 
 one of Irish blood had ever sat in parliament until the end of 
 Henry the Eighth's reign ; nor did the Irish Parliament even 
 assume to represent the entire island until the reign of James 
 the First. There was something constitutional and respect- 
 able in the name of Parliament, and their sanction to the 
 designs of conquest or oppression was seldom withheld. The 
 Kecusant party (as the Catholics were called), however, having 
 still a considerable power in the state, and being able to send 
 a great proportion of their representatives to parliament, the 
 deputy, to counteract their influence, created forty new 
 boroughs, of inconsiderable towns, so poor as not to be able 
 to pay the wages of their representatives.! The establishment 
 of territorial divisions had added seventeen new counties to 
 the representative system, imperfect and rude as it then was. 
 The new parliament, which was loudly exclaimed against by 
 the six lords of the Pale, Gormanstown, Slane, Killeen, Trim- 
 
 * See Pynnar's Survey of Ulster, and other original documents pub- 
 lished in Harris's Hibernica ; also, The Confiscation of Ulster^ by Thomas 
 MacNevin, in Duffy's Library ^of Ireland. Cox says, that in the in- 
 structions, printed for the direction of the settlers, it was especially 
 mentioned " that they should not suffer any laborer, that would not 
 take the oath of supremacy, to dwell upon their land." 
 
 t Payment of Members. 
 
64 
 
 HUSH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 bleston, Dunsany, and Lowth, was thus intended to present 
 the appearance of general representation in which not only 
 the British settlers but the native people were to have a voice. 
 Sir John Da vies of the King's part was elected speaker. This 
 was the first parliament in which the whole people were sup- 
 posed to be represented. The number of members was 232 ; it 
 was on many other occasions increased, and in 1692 reached 
 300. The effect of this augmentation of the representation and 
 increase of the boroughs, will be found afterwards to have 
 been the most fatal engine in the destruction of the Irish con- 
 stitution in 1800." 
 
 In this parliament of 1612 the " law and order" "con- 
 stitutional" English minority, being beaten in the choice of 
 a Speaker, took the speaker chosen by the majority forcibly 
 from the cliair. This parliament created 40 new rotten 
 boroughs. The main business of all those parliaments was 
 to provide supplies to the English king from the pockets 
 of the Irish people. This was accomplished by confiscation 
 and spoliation of church lands and property. 
 
 Haverty sets forth : — 
 
 "The systematic rapine called * plantation' was so successful 
 in Ulster, that James was resolved to extend it into other 
 parts of the kingdom. For this purpose he appointed a com- 
 mission of inquiry to scrutinize the titles and determine the 
 rights of all the lands in Leinster,- that province being the 
 next theatre of this iniquitous spoliation ; and so rapid was 
 the progress of the commissioners, that in a little time land 
 to the extent of 385,000 acres more was placed at the king's 
 disposal for distribution. Old and obsolete claims, some of 
 them dating as far back as Henry II., were revived ; advan- 
 tage was taken of trivial flaws and minute informalities. The 
 ordinary principles of justice were set at naught ; perjury, 
 fraud, and the most infamous arts of deceit were resorted to ; 
 and, as even Leland tells us, 'there are not wanting proofs of 
 the most iniquitous practices of hardened cruelty, of vile per- 
 jury, and scandalous subornation employed to despoil the fair 
 and unfortunate proprietor of his inheritance.' From Leinster 
 the system was extended into Connaught, but its principal 
 operation in the latter province was reserved for the next 
 reign. James I. died on the 27th of March, 1625 ; and in con- 
 sequence of his wholesale plunder, oppression, and persecution 
 of the Irish, left a woeful legacy to his unfortunate successor.'^ 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 65 
 
 ClIAPTKR VI. 
 
 Charles I. and Wentwortii Strafford. 
 From 1G26 to 1G42. 
 
 ^' This people that knoweth not the law are cursed." 
 
 On the accession of Charles I. the religion of land became 
 more philosophically developed. It is a true saying, 
 " opinion governs the world/' and of all opinions that of 
 interest is the most powerful. It was St. Paul's sentiment 
 that godliness is great gain," but "reformed" saints of 
 this age invert the maxim, and rather conclude that "gain 
 is great godliness." 
 
 Upon this godly motive it was that zealous reformers" 
 came into Ireland to propagate their gospel, where they 
 took more pains to make the land turn Protestant than 
 the people; the confiscation of men's estates (as King 
 Charles I. well observed of that tribe's apostolic spirit) 
 being more beneficial than the charity of saving their lives, 
 or reforming their errors." 
 
 The Irish people, who were the natural owners of their 
 own land and should be its cultivators, were driven away. 
 The successful invaders divided the country amongst 
 themselves, as if they were the land makers. In July, 
 1633, Wentworth came over as Lord Deputy ; in 1634 
 he assembled a Pale Parliament, and secured its servility 
 to his purposes by having a number of hirelings in the 
 pay of the Crown, returned as members. The system is 
 still extant, money and monopoly are the pillars of law, 
 because the State will neither pay election expenses, nor 
 Parliamentary salaries. How^ever, Parliaments are used 
 to vote supplies from the earnings of the workers. Went- 
 worth got his supplies passed, six subsidies of £50,000 
 each, although he asked only £30,000. The graces which 
 he had definitely promised, w^ere absolutely refused. One 
 was " that sixty years of undisturbed possession, should 
 be a bar to the claims of the Crown for landed property." 
 He had his own reasons, as a commission for defective 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 titles was issued with the open design of confiscating a 
 whole province to the Crown by fictitious law. As usual 
 the law legalised all robberies of power. James I. having 
 planted the greater part of Ireland by law, fresh ground 
 was necessary for Protestant Colonizers from England and 
 Scotland. Leland describes Went worth's idea: — 
 
 His project was nothing less than to subvert the title 
 to every estate in every part of Connaught, and to establish 
 a new plantation through this whole province ; a project 
 which, when first proposed in the late reign, was received 
 with horror and amazement, but which suited the undis- 
 mayed and enterprising genius of Lord Wentworth. For 
 this he had opposed the confirmation of the royal graces, 
 and taken to himself the odium of so flagrant a violation 
 of the Royal promise. The Parliament was at an end, 
 and the Deputy at leisure to execute a scheme, which, as 
 it was offensive and alarming, required a cautious and 
 deliberate procedure. Old records of state and the 
 memorials of ancient monasteries were ransacked to 
 ascertain the King's original title to Connaught. It was 
 soon discovered, that in the grant of Henry III. to 
 Richard de Burgo, five cantreds were reserved to the 
 Crown, adjacent to the Castle of Athlone; that this grant 
 included the whole remainder of the province, which was 
 now alleged to have been forfeited by Aedh O'Connor, 
 the Irish provincial chieftain ; that the land and lordship 
 of De Burgo descended, lineally, to Edward IV., and were 
 confirmed to the Crown by a statute of Henry VII. The 
 ingenuity of court lawyers was employed to invalidate all 
 patents granted to the possessors of these lands, from the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth." 
 
 More were bribed, and judges rewarded to find clear 
 titles for the Crown, In Galway the jurors who would 
 not give an unjust verdict, were fined £4,000 each, and 
 their property confiscated. The Sheriff was fined £1,000, 
 and died in prison. It is not long since a National High 
 Sheriff was incarcerated, and fined £500 for vindicating 
 the independence of criticism upon the details of the 
 Irish jury system. Wonderful is the history of British 
 law w^hich generally strengthens the strong and oppresses 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 67 
 
 the weak. Even landholders who had complied with 
 English law were cheated. 
 
 The gentlemen of Connaught/' says Carte {Life of 
 Ormond, vol. i.), laboured under a particular hardship 
 on this occasion ; for their not having enrolled their patents 
 and surrenders of the 13th Jacobi (which was what alone 
 rendered their titles defective) was not their fault, but the 
 neglect of a clerk entrusted by them. For they had paid 
 near £3,000 to the offices at Dublin for the enrolment of 
 these surrenders and patents, which was never made." 
 The same authority tells us that all these proceedings of 
 Wentworth were sanctioned by the King, his majesty having 
 assured the deputy before the English council in 1636 that 
 his treatment of the Galway jurors "was no severity/' 
 and wished him " to go on in that way," adding " that if 
 he served him otherwise he would not serve him as he 
 expected." 
 
 In the face of all this spoliation, about 1640, another 
 Parliament was called to vote subsidies for the King to aid 
 in putting down the Scottish rebellion. Meantime 
 '^Strafford's* scheme for holding Ireland in subjection, and 
 draining her resources for the benefit of a ruined 
 exchequer and a faithless king, was at once bold in outline 
 and comprehensive in detail. If, instead of legislating for 
 a nation, the Lord Deputy had been maliciously bent on 
 taking all the savour, and sweetness, and warmth out of 
 the life of a colony of galley slaves, he could not have 
 devised anything more likely to effect his purpose. He 
 strove to secure for the Government in Ireland a monopoly 
 of salt and a monopoly of tobacco; he contemplated 
 imposing a tax on bees; and he was determined to prevent 
 the Irish from exporting their wool, or manufacturing it 
 at home for their own use. * Wentworth resolved,' says 
 his biographer, 'that all the wool manufactures of Ireland 
 should be stopped, in order to compel her to purchase them 
 from England. The Irish were not to be allowed to weave 
 or spin their own wool, but this same wool was first to be 
 taken to England, where it was to pay a heavy duty, and 
 
 * Lex, Home Rule. 
 
68 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 when turned into cloth, carried back to Ireland, where 
 again a duty was to be imposed, thus absolutely doubling 
 the customs.' " Just as our present taxation is doubled, 
 under the pretence identity of imposts,^' 
 
 In consequence of this policy, land robberies, and extra- 
 ordinary sectarian persecution, a rebellion broke out in 
 Ireland. Parsons and Borlase, Lord Justices, were not 
 sorry that an opportunity should occur to enable them to 
 have all the recusant landed gentry at their mercy for 
 absorbing confiscation. 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 The General Assembly. 
 1642. 
 
 " We ought not to presume to legislate for a nation in whose feelings 
 and affections, wants and interests, opinions and prejudices we have 
 no sympathy ; the false and abominable presumption that the English 
 could legislate better than they could do themselves, a presumption 
 founded on the most abominable tyranny." — Chas. James Fox. 
 
 Long before Fox existed this obvious truth was forced 
 upon the minds of the Irish people; for they saw that the 
 Anglo-Norman Saxon Commons in Ireland were tributary 
 in kind and money to feudal importations from a foreign 
 country. The Pale garrisons had disturbed the bonds of 
 society by breaches of good faith, and severe laws which 
 special occasions demanded, were held to be unchangeable, 
 selfish vicious rulers vitiated the state and corrupted 
 morality, so harmonising measures were never dreamt of. 
 The common bulwark, general utility, was systematically 
 outraged by those who controlled the judicial and magis- 
 terial administration and military power. By means of 
 partizans the English-Irish Commons was used as a legis- 
 lative tool to enable usurped dignity to accomplish appro- 
 priation. Privileged sectarian liberty degenerated into 
 licentiousness, grasping avarice encroached with legal 
 powers ; every absorber imagined himself a person of 
 exalted talents and virtue. Freedom and order were un- 
 known in a land where discord and disaffection had 
 blighted the growth of confidence in National union. 
 The O'Neill wars of 1599 and 1602 were almost the 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. G9 
 
 final vigorous effort of native chieftains to resist the in- 
 vaders, and overrule their jurisdiction in civil and religious 
 matters. 
 
 Government and religion, the two great supporters of 
 order, morality, and utility, were diverted from their true 
 functions, and used principally as a means to elevate 
 the few by depressing the many. 
 
 Irrespective of doctrinal differences, true religion should 
 sup])ly the insufficiency of the law to assist concord and 
 produce prosperity. 
 
 Native civic pride and political privilege perished, be- 
 cause an imported government became the undisguised 
 protectorate of money-lust and land monopoly. The 
 pagan individualism of governmentalists completely over- 
 bore the Christian communism of general welfare. Land 
 and liberty were given only to the rulers, public things 
 were subordinated to private interests. The political 
 sanitation of freedom and ownership of soil were denied 
 to the people who were thus forced into the arena of truth 
 and action. After the flight of the Northern chiefs the 
 ancient Milesian judicature and the collective proprietor- 
 ship of the soil and its apportionment to members of the 
 clan was nearly disused. Ulster was planted, and the 
 landgrabbers colonised the other provinces. Parliament- 
 ary commissions, king's proclamations, defective titles, 
 the omission of calling an Irish Parliament, packed jurors, 
 who were fined enormous sums if they prevaricated, or, 
 in other words, done justice — those were the law and 
 order means employed to confiscate the possessions of the 
 rightful holders of property. 
 
 As an outcome of general disaffection a plot was laid 
 to take Dublin. It was only prevented being successful by 
 the want of caution in one of the principals, McMahon, 
 who was afterward hanged at Tyburn, on 23rd October, 
 1641. Phelim O'Neill issued a proclamation That the 
 first assembling of us is nowise intended against our 
 sovereign lord the king, nor hurt of any of his subjects, 
 either English or Scotch ; but only for the defence and 
 libertie of ourselres and the Irish natives of this king- 
 dom, &c." Obviously this was intended as a defensive 
 
70 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 association. In the wars which followed deeds were 
 committed which do not commend themselves for repro- 
 duction. The English parliamentarians in Ireland started 
 and kept up a continuous supply of *^ popish massacres 
 and outrages," so that England might be incensed against 
 the Irish. No mention, however, was made of the burn- 
 ings, pillaging, slaying, and torturing inflicted by the 
 Puritan soldiers upon women and non-combatants. This 
 kind of policy united the Nationalists and Royalists ; mainly 
 induced by the Catholic clergy, a National Synod was 
 convened to be held in Kilkenny. On 10th May it assem- 
 bled. Nearly all the ecclesiastical Irish dignitaries at- 
 tended in person or by proxy. An oath of association 
 was passed to bind together the confederate Catholics of 
 Ireland. A representative assembly was arranged to be 
 held, the members representing provinces and cities should 
 be chosen to form a supreme council to carry on the 
 executive government. Penalties were declared against 
 those who committed crime under the excuse of war- 
 fare, etc. This conference sat three days. 
 
 On the 24th October, 1642, the general assembly com- 
 menced operations ; 11 spiritual, 14 temporal peers, and 
 226 commons were present. Patrick Darcy represented 
 the chancellor and judges, Nicholas Plunkett acted as 
 speaker, Rev. J. O. Quirke, Dominican, was chaplain. 
 This assembly declared They did not intend their body 
 as a Parliament to infringe in the prerogative of the 
 crown, but as a provisional government to consult of an 
 order for their own affairs till his majesty's wisdom had 
 settled the present troubles." A supreme council was 
 chosen and generals appointed for the armies of Ulster, 
 Leinster, Munster, and Connaught. The assembly pro- 
 hibited all distinction and comparison between old Irish 
 and old and new English or between Septs and families. 
 ' It broke up 9th January, 1643. After various battles, 
 including the great victory of Benburb, the next memor- 
 able meeting was in Kilkenny, 10th January, 1647. The 
 Papal Nuncio was present. It was resolved, That the 
 nation would accept of no peace not containing sufficient 
 security for the religion, lives, and estates of the con-^ 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 71 
 
 federate Catholics/' On 8tli March a proclamation of 
 aforesaid was published calling on all Catholics to take 
 arms. The confederate generals waged war with vari- 
 able success. Rinuccini left Galway in 1649. Disunited 
 action amongst the leaders had failed to effect that success 
 which the bravery and devotion of their followers de- 
 served. 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 Cromwell, alias, " to Hell or Connaught." 
 From 16cO to 1689. 
 
 The sword of extermination had passed over the land, and the 
 soldier sat down to banquet on the hereditary possessions of the natives." 
 
 — O'CURRY. 
 
 Cromwell came to Dublin 14th August, 1650, and pur- 
 sued a notorious course of massacre and plunder over the 
 greater part of Ireland. Haverty writes : — 
 
 " Cromwell and his council had indeed seriously contem- 
 plated the utter extirpation of the Irish race ; but that 
 fiendish project appeared still too difficult, and even to them 
 too revolting, and accordingly, by the act for the settlement 
 of Ireland, passed by the English Parliament, August 12th, 
 1652, it was decreed that full pardon should be granted to 
 ' all husbandmen and others of the inferior sort not possessed 
 of lands or goods exceeding the value of £10,' while persons 
 of property were to be otherwise disposed of according to a 
 certain classification. Those comprehended under the first 
 six heads set forth in the act, and they comprised all the great 
 landed proprietors and all the Catholic clergy — were excepted 
 from pardon of life or estate ; others, who merely held com- 
 missions as officers in the royalist army, were to be banished, 
 and forfeit their estates, except the equivalent to one-third, 
 which would be assigned for the support of their wives and 
 children ; those who, although opposed to the Parliament, 
 might be found worthy of mercy, and who were not included 
 under any of the preceding heads, also forfeited two-thirds of 
 their estates, but were to receive an equivalent to the remaining 
 third wherever the Parliament might choose to allot it to them ; 
 and, finally, all who were perfectly innocent, that is, who had 
 
72 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 110 share whatev^er in the war, but yet were not in the actual 
 service of the Parliament, or had not manifested their * constant, 
 good affection to it,' forfeited one-third of their estates, and 
 were to receive an equivalent to the remainder elsewhere. 
 Thus all the Catholic gentry of Ireland were indiscriminately 
 deprived of their hereditary estates, and such as might be 
 declared by Cromwell's commissioners innocent of the rebellion, 
 and were to receive back any portion of their property, should 
 transplant themselves and their families beyond the Shannon, 
 where allotments of the wasted tracts of Connaught and Clare 
 would be given to them. The other three provinces were 
 reserved for Protestants, and any of the transplanted Catholics 
 who might be found in them after the 1st of May, 1654, 
 without a passport, might, whether man, woman, or child, be 
 killed, without trial or order of magistrate, by any one who 
 saw or met them. Moreover, those who by this * act of grace ' 
 received allotments in Clare or Connaught were obliged to give 
 releases of their titles to their former estates in consideration 
 of what was now assigned to them, to bar themselves and their 
 heirs from laying claim to their old inheritances ; and they 
 were sent into wild and uncultivated districts, without cattle 
 to stock the land, or agricultural implements to till it, or 
 houses to shelter them ; so that many Irish gentlemen and 
 their families actually perished of cold and hunger. They 
 were not suffered to reside within two miles of the Shannon, 
 or four miles of the sea, or of Galway, or in any garrison, or 
 market town. Many of the transplanted Irish having erected 
 cabins and creaghts, as the hurdle houses were then called, 
 near Athlone, the military authorities were ordered to banish 
 all * the Irish and other Popish persons ' from that neigh- 
 bourhood, so that no such gathering of them should be allowed 
 within five English miles of Athlone. (MS. Orders of Council, 
 Dublin Castle.) In the meantime the whole kingdom was 
 surveyed and mapped out by Dr. Petty, and the forfeited 
 estates distributed among the adventurers who had advanced 
 money for carrying on the war under the confiscating acts of 
 February and March, 1642, and in liquidation of the arrears 
 of pay due to Cromwell's soldiery. According to the stipula- 
 tions on which the money was borrowed, the adventurers 
 were to receive for £200 a thousand acres of good land in 
 Ulster, for £300 a thousand acres in Connaught, for £450 a 
 thousand acres in Munster, and for £600 a thousand acres in 
 Leinster; the bogs, woods, and mountains being thrown in 
 
IRISH TAKLIAMENTS. 
 
 73 
 
 gratis as waste or unprofitable land ; but we are told by a 
 conteniporary writer that the highest value set on the land at 
 the time of the distribution was four shillings per acre, some 
 being only valued at one penny.* Lord Antrim's estate of 
 107,611 acres was allotted to Sir John Clotworthy, after- 
 wards Lord Massareene, and a few others whose adventures 
 and pay did not exceed £7,000. From Sir William Potty's 
 Political Anatomy of Ireland, and the official sources consulted 
 by Mr. Bichenoup, we glean the following data relating to the 
 Cromwellian Confiscation : — The surface of Ireland was esti- 
 mated at 10,500,000 plantation acres, of which 3,000,000 
 were occupied by water, bogs, and coarse or unprofitable land. 
 Of the remaining 7,500,000 acres, 5,200,000 belonged to 
 Catholics and sequestered Protestants before 1641, 300,000 to 
 the church, and 2,000,000 to Protestants planted by Elizabeth 
 and James L The Cromwellian Government confiscated 
 5,000,000 acres, which they disposed of as follows : — To 
 officers and soldiers who served before Cromwell's arrival in 
 1649, 400,000 acres, in Wicklow, Longford, Lei trim, and 
 Donegal; to soldiers who served since 1649, 1,410,000 acres ; 
 to the adventurers who advanced money under the acts of 
 1642, about 800,000 acres ; to certain individuals who were 
 favourites of Cromwell, 100,000 acres; retained by Govern- 
 ment, but let on profitable leases to Protestants in the Counties 
 of Dublin, Louth, Cavan, and Kildare, about 800,000 acres, 
 besides the house property in walled towns and cities ; to the 
 transplanted Irish in Connaught and Clare, 700,000 acres ; to 
 which Petty adds (writing, however, in 1672, long after the 
 Restoration) * innocent Papists' 1,200,000 acres. This was 
 called the Down Survey, or Down Admeasurement of Ireland; 
 and, as an example of the complete desolation of the country 
 at the time it was made, we are told that no one was left of 
 the old inhabitants in Tipperary who could point out the 
 bounds of the estates, so that an order from Government was 
 necessary to bring back from Connaught five or six families to 
 accompany the surveyors and show them the boundaries. 
 Privy Council Book, A 5." 
 
 Here are titles to some sacred rights of property, which 
 claims and enforces the power of depopulating Ireland, 
 because impossible rents are not paid punctually. 
 
 * An instructive comparison in the pending sale. 
 
74 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 He^ardinoj the sister island Carte's Ormond states: — 
 ''In England the old proprietors generally expelled 
 the Cromwellian intruders without much ceremony; but 
 any attempts at a like mode of proceeding in Ireland 
 were immediately put down by a royal proclamation.'* 
 Yet sane individuals wonder why the Irish tenants were 
 not a ioyal, contented race. 
 
 Two most determined slaughterers of the Irish people, 
 Coote and Broghill, were appointed lord justices. Par- 
 liament was summoned 8th May, 1661, the Commons 
 consisted of 264, the Lords of 93 members. Measures 
 were taken to prevent the Catholics from admission by 
 requiring them to take the Sacrament and the oath of 
 supremacy. This Parliament voted £30,000 to the Duke 
 of Ormond. 
 
 A bill of settlement regarding lands was sent on to 
 England, when, after some time, an Act of Explanation 
 was passed by which, as Leland states, every remaining 
 hope of those numerous Catholic claimants whose causes 
 had not been heard was entirely cut off. This act was 
 approved of by the Irish Commons, and passed in Decem- 
 ber, 1665. Proclamations against Catholics and dis- 
 couragement of industry were almost the only judicial 
 functions assumed by unsympathetic governmentalists. 
 
 Imported foreign Lord Lieutenants have been invari- 
 ably " firm and gentle" in regard to Irish interests. " As 
 early as 1673, Sir William Temple, at the request of the 
 Earl of Essex, then Viceroy of Ireland, publicly proposed 
 that the manufacture of woollens (except in the inferior 
 branches) should be relinquished in Ireland, as tending 
 to interfere prejudicially with the English trade. In all 
 probability the Irish manufacturers of broad cloths would 
 gain on their English rivals; and the improvement of 
 woollen fabrics in this kingdom, argued the statesman, 
 * would give so great a damp to the trade of England, that 
 it seems not fit to be encouraged here.' " 
 
IKISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 75 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 James II. and William III. 
 From 1689 to 1703. 
 
 ** Inequality is the source of all revolutions, for no compensation can 
 make up for inequality." — Aristotle. 
 
 Being expelled from England, James landed at Kinsale 
 on the 12th of March, 1689, bringing with him some Irish 
 troops from France, and about a hundred French officers, 
 with a supply of money. Proceeding to Cork, he was 
 there met by the viceroy, Tirconnel], and hastened to 
 Dublin, where he arrived on the 24th, and was received 
 with great demonstrations of joy. He ordered a Parlia- 
 ment to be summoned, and issued proclamations command- 
 ing all those who had abandoned the country and gone to 
 England or Scotland to return under the penalty of being 
 treated as traitors, and calling upon all to aid him against 
 the usurper of his throne ; also for the suppression of 
 robbery, &c. On the 7th of May he opened his Parliament 
 in person, wearing on the occasion a crown newly manu- 
 factured for him in Dublin. This Irish Parliament de- 
 clared itself independent of the Parliament of England, 
 and passed the first act made in these realms for liberty of 
 conscience. To the Catholic clergy it granted the right to 
 receive the tithes payable by the members of their own 
 communion ; and after a violent opposition from the 
 Protestant members, it repealed the Act of Settlement, 
 and passed an Act of Attainder against those who had 
 taken up arms against king James, or who, having gone 
 to England or Scotland, or to the Protestant quarters in 
 Ulster, had refused to comply with the king's proclama- 
 tion calling on them to return to their homes and their 
 allegiance. It is to be observed that Protestants were 
 allowed to sit and vote, so that something like a represen- 
 tative Parliament then sat in Ireland. This assembly, 
 consisting principally of Catholics, anticipated by two 
 
76 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 centuries religious equality, established free schools, free 
 trade, encouraged strangers to settle in Ireland, abolished 
 tithes, compelled each creed to support its own ministers, 
 and reversed confiscations not 30 years old, and passed an 
 act of attainder against those who had been traitors to 
 king and country. What an example that Irish Parlia- 
 ment held 200 years ago affords to the political charlatans 
 of 1886. It met at the Inns of Court. James made a 
 judicious opening speech, declaring his intention to uphold 
 the rights of property and to establish liberty of conscience. 
 D'Arcy Magee says : " Three Acts passed by this Parlia- 
 ment entitled its members to be enrolled amongst the chief 
 assertors of civil and religious liberty. 1st. An Act for 
 establishing liberty of conscience, followed by a supple- 
 mental provision that all persons should pay tithes to the 
 clergy of their own communion. 2nd. An Act abolishing 
 writs of error and appeal unto England. 3rd. An Act 
 repealing the Act of Settlement, which received the royal 
 sanction, notwithstanding the protest of the Protestant 
 lords.'' Whatever may be the bias of historians, it cannot 
 be denied that this Parliament showed a spirit worthy of 
 the representatives of a free people. Grattan, our highest 
 Parliamentary authority, declared : Though Papists they 
 were not slaves. They wrung a constitution from King 
 James before they accompanied him to the field.'^ Then, 
 as to-day, the Irish nation stood forth a valiant friend of 
 freedom and toleration when uncontrolled by imported 
 dominant minorities. 
 
 The battle of the Boyne was fought and lost through 
 incompetence. The siege of Limerick and its violated 
 treaty, remains, as an historical epoch of Irish bravery and 
 English duplicity. 
 
 When Sarsfield departed, and Ireland lay a victim to 
 foreign and native anti-Irish law-making, the victorious 
 possessing minority immediately through the action of the 
 English law makers and appropriate rs, forfeited 1,061,000 
 acres of land from 3,921 Papists who regarded James as 
 their lawful sovereign, and 9,600 acres of James's personal 
 estate to the virtuous Mrs. Villiers, a favourite of William's. 
 The question of the independence of the Irish Parliament- 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 77 
 
 excited much interest. In the Parliament which met in 
 Dublin 1C92, a bill sent from England imposing certain 
 duties was rejected by the Irish Commons, without any 
 reason for rejection being assigned, save that the SAID 
 BILL HAD NOT ITS RISE IN THIS HOUSE." In the Commons, 
 composed almost entirely of importations and Protestants, 
 an oath was framed in direct contravention to the oath 
 prescribed by the ninth article of the Treaty of Limerick, 
 to be taken by the members of both Houses. The insi- 
 dious pledge-breakers introduced a new oath, denying " that 
 in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is any tran- 
 substantiation of the elements further, 'Hhat the invoca- 
 tion of the Virgin Mary or any other saint, and also the 
 Sacrifice of the Mass now used in the Church of Rome, are 
 damnable and idolatrous." Faithful to their religion, the 
 Catholic Peers and Commoners retired from both Houses 
 sooner than take such a blasphemous oath. In this way 
 the Irish Parliament first assumed in 1692 that exclusively 
 Protestant character which it necessarily continued to 
 maintain until its extinction in 1800. Meantime the 
 ascendancy faction legislated for their own interests. 
 Land, money, and office were the cardinal virtues of their 
 creed. The Catholic religion w^as legally damnable so 
 long as a Papist possessed an acre of land, a stiver of 
 money, or a paid position. The Parliament of an intoler- 
 ant faction in Ireland, did not develop or grow with 
 national necessities like the English Parliament. Strange 
 to say, Protestant ascendancy had brains enough to contest 
 British supremacy in legal matters, still the English 
 Parliament denied to Ireland those rights which it had 
 won for itself, by the sword, revolution and regicide. 
 
 Lord Capel in 1695, opened the second Irish Parliament 
 of King William, assuring his greedy auditors that "the 
 king was intent upon a firm settlement of Ireland upon a 
 Protestant interest.'^ Large supplies were voted to be 
 levied from w^hatever little resources were left to the poor 
 Papist, and granted to the resident locusts or exported to 
 England. The House of Commons appointed a select 
 committee to consider what penal laws were already in 
 force against the Catholics, so as to add to their number 
 
78 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 and severity. One addition was an Act to deprive 
 Catholics of the means of educating their children at home 
 or abroad. Yet enlightened Britons rail at the ''be- 
 nighted " Irish of the past ! In the interests of Mammon- 
 worship and true religion an Act was passed to banish 
 all Catholic priests also a bill to confirm articles — not 
 the articles made at the Treaty of Limerick. Dr. Taylor 
 protests that the very title contains evidence of its 
 injustice." The Commons passed this bill without any 
 difficulty. The Lords, however — a few of the ancient 
 respectable nobles, and some prelates who believed in a 
 future state — refused to acknowledge as an article of their 
 creed " that no faith should be kept with Papists.'' Verily 
 a creditable dogma ! An Act was also passed for better 
 securing the Government and disarming the Papists. By 
 this Act all Catholics were required to discover and deliver 
 up by a certain day to the justices or civil officers (note, 
 the appellation justices or civil officers as parties to such an 
 unjust, despotic proceeding) all their arms and ammuni- 
 tion. After that day search might be made for concealed 
 arms or ammunition. Here is the reasons why insurrec- 
 tions were not successful ; here also is the unconstitutional 
 foundation of the Arms Acts and other statutes which are 
 the favourite enactments of brave coercionist — otherwise, 
 penal-law-makers of modern constitutional days. As to the 
 due and honest preservation of property, it was solemnly en- 
 acted in the year 1695 that no Papist should be capable to 
 haveor keepinhispossessionorin the possessionof any other, 
 any horse, gelding, or mare of the value of £5 or more ; the 
 usual clause being added to induce Protestants to inform 
 and cause search to be made for contraband horses — mark 
 the term those land pirates used : " contraband horses " — 
 the property of the horses to be vested in the discoverer. 
 Here is open daylight robbery legalised, just as felonious 
 exterminating landlordism was sanctioned by usage in a 
 highly Christian community which professed to believe in 
 God's commandments — "Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt 
 not steal.'' John Mitchel truly stated : " Those two Acts 
 at once bred in Ireland a swarm of informers and detec- 
 tives, who have been a grievous plague upon the country 
 
IRISH PAUlJAMEiSTS. 
 
 79 
 
 ever since," and are still. Another Act was passed^by this 
 Parliament ''to prevent Protestants intermarrying with 
 Papists, in order to hinder the two nations becoming 
 gradually amalgamated by affinities and family interests/* 
 Here we have a strictly legal Parliamentary sanction by 
 law for boycotting, which is a holy horror to Parlia- 
 mentary descendants, to literary poisoners and moral 
 assassins in our own evil days. An address was presented 
 to William in 1698 by the English Parliament praying 
 him to discourage the woollen manufactures of Ireland and 
 to encourage the linen manufactures therein. He most 
 effectually discouraged the woollen trade, but forgot to 
 encourage the linen. 
 
 "The English House of Lords, with that characteristic 
 generosity which is a leading feature in their lordships' 
 thoughtful and unselfish legislation, particularly when Ireland 
 is the subject of hereditary consideration, represented that: — 
 * The growing manufacture of cloth in Ireland, both by the 
 cheapness of all sorts of necessaries of life, and the goodness 
 of material for making all manner of cloth,' having made the 
 king's loyal subjects in England very apprehensive that the 
 further growth of it would greatly prejudice the said manu- 
 facture here, and lessen the value of lands ; they, the Lords, 
 besought his most sacred Majesty to be pleased ' in the most 
 public and effectual way that may be' to declare to all his 
 subjects of Ireland, that * the growth and increase of the 
 woollen manufacture there hath long been and will ever be, 
 looked upon with great jealousy by all his subjects of the 
 kingdom of England,' &c., &c. 
 
 The Commons of England, in Parliament assembled : — 
 ' Being very sensible that the wealth and power of this king- 
 dom do, in a great measure, depend on the preservation of the 
 woollen manufacture as much as possible entire to this realm,' 
 conceived that it became them, like their ancestors, to be 
 jealous of the increase and establishment of it elsewhere, and 
 to use their utmost endeavours to prevent it. * They cannot 
 without trouble observe that Ireland should of late apply 
 itself to the woollen manufacture to the great prejudice of the 
 trade of England. .... Parliament will be necessitated 
 
 to interfere to prevent the mischief that threatens 
 
 His Majesty's protection and favour in this matter is most 
 humbly implored,' &c., <fec. 
 
80 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 "William III., the ' king, replied briefly,' says Mr. Froude, 
 'that the wish of Parliament should be carried out, and 
 Ireland was invited to apply the knife to her own throat. 
 Two letters of William to the Lords Justices survive in 
 Dublin Castle, embodying the words of the two Addresses, 
 and recommending to the legislature the worst and most fatal 
 of all the mistaken legislative experiments, to which a depen- 
 dent country was ever subjected by the folly of its superiors.' 
 
 "Notwithstanding Molyneux's pamphlet and great agita- 
 tion, after a bootless struggle on the part of a brave minority, 
 the Irish Parliament gave effect to the king's recommendation 
 to the Lords Justices ^ to avoid giving jealousy to England, 
 by the further maintenance of the woollen manufacture in the 
 kingdom,' and imposed duties amounting to a prohibition on 
 the exportation of Irish woollens. Immediately an English 
 Act of Parliament (10th & 11th of William III, ch. 10), 
 suppressed the manufacture in toto. Irish wool and woollens 
 were not in future to be exported to any countries except 
 England and Wales, from which places, as everyone knew they 
 were already virtually excluded by heavy duties."* 
 
 Chapter X. 
 
 Queen Anne, Georges I. and IL 
 From 1703 to 1760. 
 
 The case of historical writers is hard, for if they tell the truth they 
 offend man; if they write what is false, they offend God," — Matthew 
 Paris. 
 
 The penal code was perfected as an instrument of the 
 Devil in Anne's reign. The second Duke of Ormond 
 arrived in Ireland as Lord Lieutenant in 1703. The 
 Commons waited on him, presenting a bill for discourag- 
 ing the further growth of Popery. The 23rd clause of 
 this Act deprived the Catholics of Limerick and Galway 
 
 * Lex, Home Rule. 
 
HUSH PAKLJAMENTS. 
 
 81 
 
 of the protection secured them by the articles of the Treaty 
 of Limerick. Further, if the child of a Papist possessing 
 an estate should conform to Protestantism the parent was 
 debarred from disposing of his property, and the Court of 
 Chancery was empowered to order an annuity out of the 
 estate for the use of such conforming child. Ormond 
 gladly assented to those pledge-breaking laws. As the 
 Presbyterian John Mitchel explained : — 
 
 " The English Government never yet observed any single 
 treaty which it was convenient for them to break ; and having 
 solemnly agreed by the capitulation of Limerick not to impose 
 penalties for Catholic worship, and having so disarmed the 
 Catholic forces and ended the war — that Government, as a 
 matter of course, at once imposed penal laws through their 
 servile Anglo Irish Parliament. Everybody has heard of the 
 terrible Penal Laws; but not everybody knows what they 
 were. 
 
 " They took charge of every Catholic from his cradle, and 
 attended him to his grave — Catholic children could only be 
 educated by Protestant teachers at home; and it was highly 
 penal to send them abroad for education. 
 
 " Catholics were excluded from every profession, except the 
 medical ; and from all official stations without exception. 
 
 Forbidden to exercise trade or commerce in any corporate 
 town. 
 
 ^'Legally disqualified to hold leases of land for a longer 
 tenure than thirty-one years ; and also disqualified to inherit 
 the lands of Protestant relatives. 
 
 " A Catholic child, turning Protestant, could sue his parent 
 for maintenance ; to be determined by the Protestant Court of 
 Chancery. 
 
 " A Catholic's eldest son, turning Protestant, reduced his 
 father to a tenant-for-life, the reversion to the convert. 
 
 " A Catholic priest could not celebrate mass, under severe 
 penalties ; but any priest who recanted was secured a stipend 
 by law. 
 
 " Here was a code for the promotion of true religion ; from 
 whence it may appear, that Catholics have not been the only 
 persecutors in the world. Some persons may even go so far 
 as to say that no Catholic Government ever yet conceived in 
 its heart so fell a system of oppression. However, it may be, 
 a circumstance in favour of the Protestant code (or it may not), 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 that whereas Catholics have really persecuted for religion, 
 enlightened Protestants only made a pretext of religion — 
 taking no thought what became of Catholic souls, if only they 
 could get possession of Catholic lands and goods. Alas, we 
 may remark, that Catholic Governments, in their persecutions, 
 always really desired the conversion of misbelievers (albeit 
 their method was rough) — but in Ireland if the people had 
 universally turned Protestant, it would have defeated the 
 whole scheme. 
 
 " Edmund Burke called this Penal Code * a machine of wise 
 and deliberate contrivance as well fitted for the oppression, 
 impoverishment and degradation of a people, and the debase- 
 ment in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from 
 the perverted ingenuity of man.' Singular that it originated 
 with the * Glorious Eevolution,' and was in full force during 
 the reign of William the Deliverer, Anne, and the three first 
 Georges I 
 
 And it answered the purpose. The Irish people were im- 
 poverished and debased. And so the English, having forbidden 
 them for generations to go to school, became entitled to taunt 
 them with ignorance ; and having deprived them of lands, and 
 goods, and trade, magnanimously mock their poverty, and call 
 them tatterdemalions. 
 
 " The Irish Protestant, observes Mr. Wyse, * had succeeded 
 in excluding the Catholics from all power, and for a moment 
 held triumphant and exclusive possession of the conquest ; but 
 he was merely a locum tenens for a more powerful conqueror, a 
 jackal for the lion, an Irish steward for an English master ; 
 and the time soon came round when he was obliged to render 
 up reluctantly, but immediately, even this oppressive trust. 
 The executive system was turned against him ; he had made 
 the Executive entirely Protestant; the whigs of George I. made 
 it almost entirely English, His victory paved the way for 
 another far easier, and far more important.' " 
 
 The Parliament of 1715 was elected nominally — for 
 there was no real election according to then usage — for 
 the lifetime of the king. This in itself was a gross abuse. 
 The Lord Justices, the Duke of Grafton, and the Earl of 
 Galway, recommend unanimity amongst themselves, as 
 " at once to put an end to all distinctions in Ireland but 
 that of Protestant and Papist,'* The Catholics were 
 called "the common enemy." 
 
IRISH TARLIAMENTS. 
 
 83 
 
 In 1719 a question of appellate jurisdiction was decided 
 in England against Ireland, reducing the Irish Parliament 
 to the level of a mere provincial assembly. In the Irish 
 Parliament an Act was passed to exempt Protestant Dis- 
 senters from certain penalties to which they were liable in 
 common with Papists. In 1723 a bill was brought in 
 
 for still more effectually preventing the growth of 
 Popery." Hitherto Catholics might vote at elections, o. 
 taking the oaths of allegiance and abjuration; but in 172 1 
 a bill was brought into the Irish Parliament which 
 deprived them of this last vestige of constitutional rights. 
 It was simply entitled a bill for further regulating the 
 election of members of Parliament/' and no intimation 
 was given that any new penal enactment was intended ; 
 but without any notice or debate, or any cause being 
 assigned, a clause was introduced which enacted, that 
 no Papist, though not convict, should be entitled or ad- 
 mitted to vote at the election of any mamber to serve in 
 Parliament, or of any magistrate for any city or town 
 corporate.'' The disfranchisement of Catholics is included 
 by Taaffe among the disabilities enacted in the reign of 
 Anne. In order to preclude Catholics from a knowledge 
 of proceedhigs in Parliament it was made a standing order 
 of the Irish House of Commons in 1 713 " that the sergeant- 
 at-arms should take into custody all Papists that were or 
 should presume to come into the galleries. That was the 
 political education vouchsafed to Papists of the period. 
 Parliaments were occasionally held, persecution and plun- 
 der being their principal occupations. 
 
 In 1749 disputes arose in the Irish Parliament about the 
 appropriation of the surplus revenue, and the question of 
 privilege was revived. A bill was introduced in the 
 Commons to apply the unappropriated surplus to the 
 liquidation of the national debt. The court party alleged 
 that such an appropriation could not be made without the 
 previous consent of the Crown, while the patriots insisted 
 that no such consent wsls necessary. The subject gave 
 rise to warm and protracted discussions; in 1751 and 
 1753 the dispute was renewed wuth increased violence; 
 the Duke of Dorset, who had been a second time appointed 
 
84 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 Lord Lieutenant, told the Parliament that the king gave 
 his consent and recommendation to the appUcation of 
 the surplus towards the reduction of the national debt ; 
 hut the formula offended the Commons, who regarded it 
 as an infringement of their privileges and passed the bill 
 without any reference to it. The English Ministry were 
 annoyed and sent back the bill from England with words 
 interpolated in the preamble to express the king's recom- 
 mendation and consent. From year to year the dispute 
 was renewed, and the patriots continued visibly to gain 
 ground. The Earl of Kildare presented to the king in 
 person a bold address complaining of the arrogance and 
 the illegal and corrupt interference of primate Stone and 
 the Lord Lieutenant's son, Lord George Sackville, in 
 public affairs. This manly proceeding was, itself, an im- 
 portant triumph, and popular excitement ran so high that 
 the Viceroy left the country in dismay; but in the end 
 corruption prevailed. By an ingenious complication of 
 intrigues the patriot party was disorganised. 
 
 In 1759 a violent tumult disturbed Dublin, in conse- 
 quence of a proposal for a Union between England and 
 Ireland on the plan of that between England and Scotland. 
 The people were enraged at a project which would deprive 
 them of their nationality and Parliament, and subject them 
 to the burden of English taxation. A Protestant mob 
 broke into the House of Lords, insulted the Peers, seated 
 an old woman on the Throne, and searched for the 
 journals with a view to committing them to the flames. 
 
 Chapter XI. 
 George III. 
 1760 TO 1781. 
 
 *' Ireland as a State, a mere grovelling Colony, regulated by the avarice 
 or fears of a stranger." 
 
 In the Irish Parliament, in 1762, a bill was passed without 
 a division, to enable Catholics to lend money on the security 
 of real property, but was suppressed in England. The following 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 85 
 
 year the attempt was renewed in the Irish House of Commons, 
 by Mr. Mason, but defeated by a majority of 138 to 53 ; the 
 Protestant party alleging that the bill had been inadvertently 
 passed on the last day of the preceding session, and that such 
 a measure, if adopted, would soon make Papists masters of a 
 great part of the landed interest of the country. 
 
 The patriots were at this time engaged in vehement attacks 
 upon the pension list, which had grown into a monstrous 
 source of abuse. The English Privy Council assumed the right 
 of granting any pensions they chose out of the Irish revenue. 
 In 1763, the pensions on the Irish civil establishment, and 
 therefore not including the military and certain special 
 pensions, amounted to £72,000, which exceeded the civil list 
 by £42,000. The revenue of the country was diminishing and 
 the burdens increasing. At the commencement of that year 
 the Irish debt was £521,162, and at the close it had risen to 
 £650,000. The subject gave rise to violent heats in Parlia- 
 ment ; but a juggling and evasive policy, which had become 
 familiar to the Irish government, prevailed, and the efforts of 
 the patriots were foiled. The corrupting influence of the court 
 party was constantly employed to thin the ranks of the patriots, 
 who, finding that the pensions went on multiplying, they took 
 up the general question of parliamentary reform. Hitherto 
 the duration of Parliament in Ireland depended solely on the 
 will of the king, and might be prolonged during an entire 
 reign, as happened in that of George II. In England the 
 duration was limited by the septennial act of George I. ; and 
 in 1765, the Irish Commons passed the heads of a similar bill 
 for Ireland ; but the measure was suppressed in England, and 
 in reply to an address to the king, a very ungracious answer 
 was returned. Lord Townshend was appointed Lord Lieu- 
 tenant in 1767, and came over determined to break up a 
 system of corruption, which, although of its own creation, 
 the Irish government then found to be an insupportable 
 tyranny. A certain number of parliamentary leaders were at 
 that time known as undertakers, whom it was necessary for 
 government to keep in its pay, at a large cost, and who 
 " undertook,'' as the phrase went, upon certain terms, to carry 
 the king's business" through Parliament. These leaders 
 were made the channels for all places, pensions, and other 
 court favours, — a privilege which was indispensable to enable 
 them to fulfil their compact ; and in order to crush the system, 
 it was resolved to make the stream of favour flow directly 
 
86 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 from the government. A great commotion in political circles 
 was the consequence : yet, nothing more had been done than to 
 substitute one system of profligacy for another ; and politically 
 by trafficking in corruption more in detail the government soon 
 found that it had only subjected itself to a more oppressive ^ 
 incubus. Lord Townshend's convivial habits and lavish dis- ^ 
 tribution of favours made him for some time popular; but 
 there were not wanting able and honest men to expose the 
 debasing influence of his policy, and his popularity was soon 
 turned into contempt and detestation. In 1767 another 
 septennial bill was passed and transmitted to England, where 
 it was transformed into an octennial one. By this alteration it 
 was hoped to secure its rejection ; but the Irish Parliament, on 
 the contrary, accepted it as an instalment of reform, and it 
 was regarded as a triumph by Charles Lucas and his friends, 
 after so many years of agitation on the subject. A new Par- 
 liament was now to be elected, and in order to secure a 
 strong majority for the government, Lord Townshend scattered 
 bribes profusely, and employed every species of corruption. 
 In all his bargains, however, he was obliged to leave as an open 
 question the right of the Irish Parliament to originate its own 
 money-bills ; and upon this important point he came to a 
 collision with the Parliament, which met on the 17th of 
 October, 1769. The English Privy Council sent over a 
 money-bill which the Irish House of Commons rejected, 
 " because it had not its origin in that house." Following 
 the precedent of Lord Sydney in 1692, Lord Townshend went 
 to the House of Lords on the 26th of December, caused the 
 Commons to be summoned to the Bar, animadverted in strong 
 terms on their proceedings, and having ordered the Clerk to 
 enter his protest on the journals of the house, in vindication 
 of the royal prerogative, prorogued Parliament, which was not 
 again permitted to meet until the 26th of February, 1771.* 
 
 It was precisely at this period, when the Executive was 
 putrid with corruption and the administration reeking 
 with abominations, that the foundation was laid of the 
 great contest for legislative independence, for out of evil 
 coraeth good." 
 
 In accordance with the natural results of restricted and 
 corrupt representation, in 1769 the first limited Parliament, 
 
 * Mainly extracts from Haverty. 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 87 
 
 held in Ireland after the Revolution, proved totally 
 unworthy of previous anticipations. The Speaker chosen 
 was John Ponsonby. The usual Supply Bill was sent up 
 to the Castle, but on its return from England was found 
 to be altered. Among other changes 15,000 men were 
 charged to the Irish military establishments instead of 
 12,000. It is worthy of note that in these troublous penal 
 times, with double our present population, 12,000 men 
 were sufficient to garrison Ireland under a native, though 
 ascendancy Parliament. At the present moment, under 
 what is termed Union, or a foreign, alien Parliament, it 
 requires S0,000 men to collect for exportation the rents 
 and taxes from half the number of inhabitants, who are 
 totally disarmed by the beneficent provisions of the British 
 constitution. As in 1753, the Commons threw out the 
 bill. The Lord Lieutenant, protesting against this conduct, 
 which proclaimed the independence of an Irish Parliament, 
 ordered a prorogation. Prorogation followed prorogation 
 until Ponsonby resigned. The patriot Perry took his 
 place. The opposition still continued, until Lord Lieute- 
 nant Townshend, falling beneath eloquent speeches and 
 popular enthusiasm, confessed his failure, and resigned the 
 Sword of State to Lord Harcourt, who, like many imported 
 deadhead statesmen of later days, completely failed to 
 remedy affairs. About 1770 England was engaged in 
 conflict with France and America. To each of these for- 
 reign wars Ireland made the second largest contribution 
 of men and money. Yet in both cases she was the 
 severest sufferer in the results on manufactures and the 
 general prosperity. Owing to the English policy of crush- 
 ing Irish home production, the absence of employment in 
 towns threw the labouring classes still more upon the soil 
 for sustenance, while land monopoly and landlord legis- 
 lation forced them as hoplessly back upon other pursuits 
 than agriculture. Legislative agrarian injustice was 
 encountered by conspiracy. The people had no other 
 resource. They could not fight, as they were undisciplined 
 and disarmed. They were not allowed to assemble for 
 peaceful agitation, emigration as a panacea to depopulate 
 a country not having yet arrived at the dignity of a 
 
88 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 philanthropic GovernmeDtal nostrum. In this strictly 
 legal manner were the poor peasantry driven into secret, 
 oath-bound associations. As a matter of course, the 
 jobbers and rulers of the country constitutionally declared, 
 with "law and order" formulas, that the miserable Papists 
 were solely connected with those plots. With that even- 
 keeled justice which has distinguished the record of 
 judicial administration in Ireland, and notwithstanding the 
 fact that secret societies have been always forbidden by the 
 Catholic Church, a number of priests were condemned as 
 secret oath-bound conspirators, known in the South as 
 " Whiteboys,'' in the North as Hearts of Steel." " The 
 Peep o' Day Boys" were the precursors of the Orange 
 associations, and the celebrated society of United Irishmen 
 was at first mainly Protestant, thus proving that even in 
 distant times omnipotent officialism lived upon lies, thrived 
 in calumny, and subsisted on slander. 
 
 In 1773 a bill was introduced to levy a tax of two 
 shillings in the pound on the income of Irish absentee 
 landlords, who would not reside in Ireland at least six 
 months in each year. The measure was exceedingly popular, 
 and the Government supporting it as an open question, 
 rose in public favour, but the violent opposition of great 
 landowners, many of whom resided altogether in England, 
 prevailed, and the bill was rejected. Landholders at all 
 times controlled Governments. 
 
 In the Parliament of 1775, Flood was persuaded that 
 nothing less than Free Trade could save the nation from 
 commercial bankruptcy and general ruin. Notwithstand- 
 ing the prevailing poverty caused by misgovern men t, 
 supplies were demand for the American war. Henry 
 Grattan first appeared in the last session of this Parlia- 
 ment. He moved an address against the pension list in 
 1777. In the English House of Commons Lord Nugent 
 moved the abolition of the more restrictive clauses of the 
 Navigation Act as to exports and imports. The manufac- 
 turing and shipping interests of England became alarmed, 
 and raising such a storm in the towns and cities that the 
 Ministry were compelled to resist the proposed changes. 
 In Ireland Grattan trumpeted the cry of Free Trade, and 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 89 
 
 the people's loud acclaim echoed the note of their har- 
 monious orator, until the whole Empire reverberated with 
 the sound of the popular demand. In January, 1778, the 
 independence of the American States was recognised in 
 France. Fear is a much greater force than morality with 
 temporising statesmen. Accordingly, soon after abill for the 
 partial relief of Catholics unanimously passed the English 
 Parliament. Recognising that prudence is the better part of 
 valour, a Mr. Gardner, with the approval of the Government, 
 introduced a similar bill in the Irish House. Although 
 w^armly supported by the patriots, the measure was only 
 carried by a majority of nine votes. This proves the 
 character of rotten borough representation. Even in the 
 Lords two-thirds voted for the measure ; an instinct of 
 self-preservation prevented their committing political 
 suicide. About the close of 1779, Parliament w^as again 
 called together. Distress, discontent, and disaiFection had 
 increased. Appeals to imbecile administrators and a bank- 
 rupt Government received no reply. Thepeople were thrown 
 upon their own resources ; agitation for Free Trade and 
 discussions in favour of Irish manufactures became general. 
 The threatening French invasion alarmed the loyal Irish ; 
 so an army of citizen soldiers calling themselves Volimteers 
 was started in Belfast. This town had begged in vain for 
 a sufficient garrison. Other cities speedily followed this 
 example. Within a few months a native army, 42,000 
 strong, w^as raised. When the Houses of Parliament in 
 Ireland found themselves sustained by such a powerful 
 disciplined force they voted an address to theViceroy declar- 
 ing that the nation could only be preserved from 
 ruin by free trade." This was carried. In 1780 the 
 celebrated resolution of the Volunteers, presided over by 
 the Duke of Leinster, was passed: — 
 
 ''Resolved — that the King, Lords, and Commons of 
 Ireland only were competent to make laws binding the 
 subjects of the realm, and that they would NOT obey 
 nor give operation to any laws save only those enacted by 
 the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland, whose rights 
 and privileges they were determined to support with their 
 lives and fortunes " 
 
90 
 
 IKISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 How do the law and order disintegrating loyalist lec- 
 turers who denounce Home Rulers as rebels explain the 
 historical fact recorded of an Irish Protestant Parliament 
 led by Henry Grattan, the Duke of Leinster, the Earl of 
 Charlemont, and Henry Flood? After voting themselves 
 free from English control, the Irish Parliament voted 
 £100,000 to raise seamen for the service of England. In 
 the interest of mammon-worship and self-enrichment, the 
 sectarian dominant minority having religiously pauperised 
 nearly all the Papists, and having in 1782 little more to 
 take, the penal laws regarding property were all repealed, 
 and the Papists were placed on a nominal level with Pro- 
 testants as far as regarded the acquisition of land in free- 
 hold or in absolute fee. At the time this w^as considered 
 a concession, when in reality it was a tragic farce, but 
 nothing else could be expected from a miserably small 
 section of the community nominated by themselves to 
 represent their own interests. 
 
 Daunt says : — The great fault which existed in the 
 constitution of the Irish Parliament was the number of 
 small boroughs which were absolutely under the influence 
 of private individuals and entirely beyond the control of 
 the people. The members nominated by these pocket 
 boroughs at the dictation of their several patrons, composed 
 fully two-thirds of the House, and were necessarily more 
 liable to be corrupted by the Court than genuine repre- 
 sentatives of the people could have been." Everything 
 corrupt nrust decay ; the system becomes poisoned and 
 death is the result. 
 
HUSH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 91 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 
 Reign of the Volunteers. 
 1780 TO 1783. 
 
 It is only by making the ruling few uneasy that the oppressed many 
 can obtain justice."— Jeremy Bentiiam. 
 
 MacNevin relates that at a quarterly meeting of the 
 Volunteers in Dublin, the Duke of Leinster presiding, 
 the following resolutions were passed : — 
 
 ^* Resolved, That Great Britain and Ireland are, and ought 
 to be inseparably connected, by being under the dominion of 
 the same king, and enjoying equal liberty and similar constitu- 
 tions. 
 
 " That it is the duty of every good citizen to maintain the 
 connexion of the two countries, and the freedom and indepen- 
 dence of this kingdom. 
 
 That the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland only are 
 competent to make laws, binding the subjects of this realm ; 
 and that we ivill not obey, or give operation to any laws, save 
 only those enacted by the King, Lords, and Commons of Ire- 
 land, whose rights and privileges, jointly and severally we are 
 determined to support with our lives and fortunes. 
 
 " Signed, by order, 
 
 Francis Davis, Sec." 
 
 The churcli of Dungannon was chosen for the convention 
 of the delegates. On the memorable 15th February, 1782, 
 the representatives of the regiments of Ulster — one hundred 
 and forty-three corps — marched to the sacred place of 
 meeting two and two, dressed in the various uniforms and 
 fully armed. Deeply they felt the great responsibilities 
 which had been committed to their prudence and courage ; 
 but they were equal to their task, and had not lightly 
 pledged their faith to a trustful country. The aspect of 
 the church, the temple of religion, in which nevertheless 
 no grander ceremony was ever performed, was imposing, 
 or, it might be said, sublime. Never, on that hill where 
 ancient piety had fixed its seat, was a nobler offering made 
 
92 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 to God than this, when two hundred of the elected warriors 
 of a people assembled in His tabernacle, to lay the deep 
 foundations of a nation's liberty. Colonel Irwin, a gentle- 
 man of rank, a man firm and cautious, of undoubted 
 courage but great prudence, presided as chairman. The 
 following resolutions were then passed : — 
 
 Whereas, it has been asserted that Volunteers, as such, 
 cannot with propriety debate, or publish their opinions on 
 political subjects, or on the conduct of parliament or political 
 men. 
 
 " Eesolved, unanimously, That a citizen by learning the 
 use of arms does not abandon any of his civil rights. 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, 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. 
 
 " Resolved, with one dissenting voice only, That the powers 
 exercised by the privy councils of both kingdoms, under, or 
 under colour, or pretence of, the law of Poynings', are uncon- 
 stitutional, and a grievance. 
 
 *^ Resolved, unanimously, That the ports of this country 
 are by right open to all foreign countries not at war with the 
 King ] and that any burden tliereupon, or obstruction thereto, 
 save only by the Parliament of Ireland, are unconstitutional, 
 illegal, and a grievance. 
 
 " Resolved, with one dissenting voice only, That a Mutiny 
 Bill not limited in point of duration, from session to session, 
 is unconstitutional, and a grievance. 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, That the independence of judges 
 is equally essential to the impartial administration of justice 
 in Ireland as in England, and that the refusal or delay of this 
 right to Ireland, makes a distinction where there should be no 
 distinction, may excite jealousy where perfect union should 
 prevail, and is in itself unconstitutional and a grievance. 
 
 " Resolved, with eleven dissenting voices only, That it is our 
 decided and unalterable determination to seek a redress of 
 these grievances, and we pledge ourselves to each other and to 
 our country, as freeholders, fellow-citizens, and men of honour, 
 that we will, at every ensuing election, support those only who 
 have supported and will support us therein, and that we will 
 use all constitutional means to make such our pursuit of re- 
 dress speedy and effectual." 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 9S 
 
 And other minor resolutions. In consequence of this firm 
 attitude, Lord Portland, a Whig millionaire, was imported 
 in 1782 to represent an imperial policy of conciliation and 
 concession dictated by Burke's wisdom and Fox's candour. 
 ^' Yet," as Magee relates, by a generous people who 
 always find it more difficult to resist a liberal than an 
 illiberal administration, it was in reality a policy more to 
 be feared than welcomed, for its almost certain effects, 
 were to divide their ranks in two sections — a moderate 
 and extreme party — between whom the National cause, 
 only half established, might run great danger of being 
 lost almost as soon as it was won." History repeats itself, 
 and British remedies for Irish diseases have invariably 
 failed, because the doctors mistake the symptoms. 
 Alien misgovernment poisons the entire system. Grattan 
 was anxious to hurry on the work of reform, but another 
 importation — Rockingham — and the Britisher, Fox, urc:ed 
 every possible argument for delay, recognising that delay 
 often kills the patient. But Grattan's ultimatum was sent 
 to England, and finally accepted. The demands were 
 five : — 
 
 1. Repeal of the 4th of George I. 
 
 2. Repeal of Perpetual Mutiny Act. 
 
 3. An Act to Abolish the Alteration or Suppression of 
 Bills. 
 
 4. An Act to Establish the Final Jurisdiction of Irish 
 Courts — the Irish House of Lords. 
 
 5. The Repeal of Poynings' Law. 
 
 This was the Constitutional Charter of 1782, which 
 restored Ireland to the rank of a Nation for the first time 
 in that century. This century is about to witness a more 
 complete restitution of national democratic rights, un- 
 limited by class or creed. About that time a rupture took 
 place between Flood and Grattan. The elder patriot. 
 Flood, saw no sufficient constitutional guarantee in mere 
 Acts of Parliament repealing other Acts. He demanded 
 
 express renunciation of legislative supremacy on the 
 part of England," while Grattan maintained the suffi- 
 ciency of simple Repeal." Popular discontent was 
 
94 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 seething. The question whether simple Repeal of the 
 6th George I. was sufficient, or w^hether or not England 
 should be called on to renounce formally her claim to 
 supremacy, was everywhere discussed. Hence " Repeal " 
 and " Renunciation " became the watchwards of the two 
 parties. An open disagreement soon occurred. On the 13th 
 June, 1782, Grattan remarked that a late British Act relat- 
 ing to sugar was so generally worded as to include Ireland, 
 but this was explained as a mere error of the clerks, and one 
 which would be cancelled (English clerks and officials gene- 
 rally have an omnipotent control in manipulating Acts of 
 Parliament to prejudice Ireland). Upon this Flood took 
 occasion to moot the insufficiency of simple Repeal," and 
 urged the necessity of express renunciation," on the part 
 of England. On the 12th of July he moved tor permission 
 to bring in his Irish Bill of Rights, declaring "the sole 
 and exclusive right of the Irish Parliament to make laws 
 in all cases whatsoever, external and internal." Grattan 
 opposed thisj saying " that the legislature of Ireland is 
 independent, and that any person who shall maintain in 
 any other country that a right to make laws for Ireland 
 exists or can be revived is inimical to the peace of both 
 countries." The bill passed, but the people became 
 uneasy ; the Volunteers sided with Flood as the Parliament 
 favoured Grattan. Six months later, in 1783 (23 George 
 III.) Flood's resolution was admitted by the English 
 Parliament. Grattan was in favour of Catholic Emanci- 
 pation, but Flood opposed it. Meanwhile, during this 
 agitation, Rockingham died, and a change of Ministry 
 occurred. Another Englishman, Earl Temple, was 
 imported into Ireland to relieve the Duke of Portland. 
 Several important measures were carried. The monopoly 
 of the Bank of Ireland was established, giving to anti- 
 Irishmen and English financiers the leverage of the 
 national resources and the power of money exportation. 
 A Habeas Corpus Act was given to this country. The 
 Dissenters were relieved from the sacramental test. 
 The Perpetual Mutiny Bill was repealed. The 
 independence of the judges was established. It is useful 
 to note those liberal enactments and just measures pro- 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 95 
 
 ceeding from an Irish Parliament partly chosen, or rather 
 nominated, from a small dominant section of the nation. 
 On the 27th July this eventful session was brought to a 
 close. A new Parliament was summoned for October. 
 The question of Reform was agitated. It was not 
 until 1832 Reform was granted in England. Irishmen 
 appear to have had more liberal political instincts than 
 coercion teachers. The Irish House of Commons in 1783 
 was then composed of 300 members ; 64 were returned for 
 counties, and of the remainder, 172, or a clear majority of 
 the whole House, were sent for close boroughs — that is to 
 say, directly represented money, monopoly, and land, 
 because those rotten boroughs were the property of a few 
 lords — always the opponents of the people, even of their 
 own creed — and of some wealthy commoners, mammon- 
 worshippers, and man-haters generally. Those seats were 
 publicly bought and sold as marketable merchandise. 
 Verily, money-changers in the temple of law-making! 
 Outside those corrupt representatives, other members were 
 also purchased by the Government using the people's 
 taxes to bribe their nominal representatives to betray them. 
 It is almost miraculous how a Parliament so constituted 
 could have passed any sound legislation. It goes to 
 prove that the foreign English Parliament must have 
 been convicted in the minds of all Irishmen of desiring 
 the complete extinction of all things Irish — which, indeed, 
 has been nearly accomplished since that blessed Union, 
 which certain loyalists are desirous to maintain, so 
 that they may thrive upon national decay. At the best of 
 times in the Irish Parliament only a few members could 
 be said to represent the people honestly, and in point of 
 numbers they formed an insignificant minority, formidable 
 only from its talents, eloquence, and love of justice, 
 opposed to bigoted, silent stupidity. The Volunteer 
 delegates met at Lisburn and Dungannon to discuss the 
 equal representation of the people in Parliament. The 
 other provinces took up the movement, and a convention 
 assembled in Dublin on November 1st. The Government 
 became alarmed, and with their customary duplicity con- 
 trived to introduce dissension. Hypocrisy has always 
 
96 
 
 IRISH PAKLIAMENTS. 
 
 been regarded as a virtue by the shining constitutional 
 lights jerked over from England to rule Ireland without 
 any faith in justice, kindness, or conciliation. On the 
 29th November, 1783, Flood brought before Parliament 
 the plan adopted by the convention. It was proposed to 
 extend the franchise to every Protestant freeholder 
 possessed of a lease worth 40s. a year. So in the eye 
 of the law, only one hundred years ago, there was no such 
 object visible as a Catholic voter. It was also proposed 
 to extend the borough constituencies, pensioners of the 
 Crown to be incapable of election, \oting to be held on 
 the same day, the duration of Parliament to be limited to 
 three years. Lord Avonmore condemned the Volunteers, 
 with stupid aristocratic intolerance, as audacious men 
 attempting to dictate to the Crown," forgetting that the ' 
 Crown is the gift of the sovereign people. Two days later 
 the convention met and adjourned. This was really the 
 last important day of the Volunteers. 
 
 Chapter XIII. 
 How THE Irish Parliament was Destroyed. 
 
 '* In this great and powerful machine there was one principle of self 
 destruction working stealthily but surely the ruin and disorganisation of 
 its power. Intolerance was that evil and malignant principle planted 
 in Ireland by English policy."— MacKevin. 
 
 The session of 1785 was chiefly occupied debating the 
 cross Channel trade 'twixt England and Ireland. It was; 
 proposed that Ireland should contribute a quota for the ^ < 
 protection of the general commerce of both countries. The 
 English manufacturers, with that grasping spirit of mono- 
 poly which still distinguishes certain free traders, became 
 alarmed lest the Irish should in any way share the advan- 
 tages to be deprived from foreign commerce. This jealous 
 policy of commercial extermination is to-day as active as it 
 ever was, by means of through rates and native railway 
 extortion, by the exportation of Irish money to be lent to 
 English manufacturers, and by anti-Irish bodies calling 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 97 
 
 themselves Chambers of Commerce, Docks Boards, Har- 
 bour and often Town Commissioners, tram and railway 
 directors, commission agents, and contractors, whose 
 every act tends to the importing of foreign goods and 
 preventing the development of native manufactures. Pitt 
 assured the English monopolists that Ireland would derive 
 little advantage from the bill. He altered the measure so 
 much that when it was returned to Ireland in August it 
 liad ceased to be the same enactment. Grattan no$r saw 
 he had been mistaken in '82. An honest Irish gentleman 
 was not mean enough to compete with the low hypocrisy, 
 the cunning, and the lying which passed for statesmanship 
 with English law-makers for Ireland. The bill was re- 
 jected by the Irish Parliament, and Pitt never forgave the 
 Irish House of Commons. In 1785-86, the opposition to 
 the importation of English manufactures was renewed, 
 leading to violent proceedings. The Whiteboys were 
 revived, under the name of "Right Boys." Taxes, tithes, 
 Church rates, and rackrents had almost driven the famish- 
 ing peasantry to madness. The law afforded them no 
 relief. As in later days, law and order meant the legal 
 privilege to rob, tax, and pocket. Legislation provided no 
 barrier against tithe-proctors, tax-collectors, landlords, or 
 middlemen, or the cruelties practised under the guise of 
 law by unj ust, despotic, partisan magistrates. Justice being 
 utterly unttainable from the Governmental machinery, 
 the people accordingly sought protection in their own 
 system of wild justice. Grattan made various efforts in 
 Parliament to obtain an inquiry into the causes of agrarian 
 outrages, but landlord legislators were just as ill-disposed 
 to endeavour a remedy for tenants as royal commissions 
 are now inclined to allay the wrongs of democracy caused 
 by the aristocratic influence upon Government and admi- 
 nistration. In 1790 the Catholics resolved to apply to 
 Parliament for relief from their disabilities. They had 
 hitherto timidly abstained from all agitation. They were 
 further awakened by a division into an aristocratic and 
 democratic party. The French Revolution naturally 
 widened this breach. John Keogh, John Sweetman, Rice, 
 M'Corrie, and Edward Byrne were prominent men. 
 
 G 
 
98 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 Theobald Wolfe Tone and several other Protestant gentle- 
 men offered their services. This union of different religions 
 alarmed the Government, whose motto and practice had 
 ever been and ever will be Divide and conquer." As 
 usual with tyrants, fear accomplished more than reason. 
 In 1793, under pressure of renewed war with France, and 
 in order to detach the timorous, slave-driven Catholics 
 from the more active and dangerous politicians of other 
 creeds, the Government philanthropically brought in the 
 relief bill of 1793. In 1794 Hamilton Rowan was prose- 
 cuted for an address adopted at a meeting of United 
 Irishmen held two years before. Although defended by 
 Curran, he was convicted, fined £500, and sentenced to two 
 years' imprisonment ; but he made his escape. Pitt's 
 favourite tactics were disunion and hypocrisy. In 1794 he 
 pretended to abandon his policy of coercion ; so, many of 
 the Whigs joined him. Lord Fitzwilliam came over as 
 Viceroy, but found in Dublin Castle a system established 
 utterly incompatible with any honest constitutional form 
 of government. He at once set about reforming it, not re- 
 cognising that earthly pandemoniums required abolition, 
 being incapable of reformation. Of course the permanent 
 corrupt Castle officials had him suddenly recalled. Decent, 
 moral men were scarcely ever allowed to exist within the 
 precincts of Dublin Castle. In 1795 Lord Camden, his 
 successor, pursued an opposite policy. The political apostate, 
 Lord Castlereaghj became an active member of the Irish 
 executive. The number of bungling, take-salary and 
 grasping lords sent over to mismanage Ireland should be a 
 sufficient proof of their incapacity as a governing class. 
 The Catholics were systematically goaded into rebellion by 
 the paid agents of the British " law and order" hypocrisy. 
 Persecution fills the intervening space. Lord Moira 
 in the English House of Commons gravely mentioning 
 many acts of perfidy, injustice, outrage, and robbery^ 
 adds : " These were not particular acts of cruelty, 
 but formed part of the new system." Lord Cornwallis was 
 appointed viceroy in 1798, although he intended to carry 
 the Union he was not so brutalised by his desire as the 
 sanguinary anarchist Pitt. The Lord Lieutenant was 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 '99 
 
 'blamed for mercy — he wrote as follows to General Ross, 
 loth April, 1799:— 
 
 "You write as if you really believed there was any 
 foundation for all the lies and nonsensical clamour about 
 my lenity. On my arrival in this country I put a stop to 
 the burning of houses and murder of the inhabitants by 
 the yeomen or any other persons who delighted in that 
 amusement, to the flogging for the purpose of extorting 
 •confession, and to the free quarters, which comprehended 
 universal rape and robbery throughout the country." 
 
 Again he writes : — 
 
 " You will have seen by the addresses both in the north 
 and south that my attempt to moderate that violence and 
 cruelty which has once driven, and which, if tolerated, 
 must again soon drive this wretched country into rebellion, 
 is not reprobated by the voice of the country, although it 
 has appeared so culpable in the eyes of the absentees." 
 
 If further proof be required it is furnished in his letter 
 to Castlereagh, declaring, " The rebellion assisted in carry- 
 ing the Union." 
 
 Any amount of documentary evidence could be pro- 
 duced to prove the horrible fact, that an English minister 
 deliberately sacrificed the lives, liberties, and fortunes of 
 Irishmen, and the virtue of Irishwomen to carry a pet 
 political project of injustice. General Cockburn is precise 
 and substantial. Writing, he says — 
 
 "They (the documents) contained details of the most 
 •horrible outrages on the people ; of cruelty and foul deeds 
 that, perhaps, after all it may be as well to have now 
 effaced from Irish records of violence ; and although the 
 people were in many cases driven to retaliation, it was not 
 before murder, burning, destruction of property (often on 
 suspicion of being suspected), and flogging, drove them to 
 desperation." 
 
 Instead of promising redress or attempting reformation, 
 the legal policy was to provoke the people and persecute 
 the popular leaders, who were driven into revolt by the 
 connivance and deep laid schemes of governmentalists 
 Leaded by the British Premier. 
 
 Emmet, in his examination before the Lords Commis- 
 
100 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 sioners, expressly declared oa oath that if there had been 
 any reasonable hope of Reform being adopted, even so late 
 as 1797, the Executive would have broken off the negotia- 
 tions with France. Was not your object in forming the 
 organisation to effect a revolution ?" Arthur O'Connor is 
 asked. If our mere object had been to effect a revolu- 
 tion,'' is the reply, " the British Ministry and the Irish 
 Government were effecting one more violently and rapidly 
 than we wished for ; we clearly perceived that the measures 
 they adopted to prevent revolution were the most effectual 
 that could be devised to ensure it." Asked whether the 
 Union was not designed to destroy the Constitution and 
 set up a Kepublic, he answers : " Certainly not ; for all we 
 wanted was to create a House of Commons which should 
 represent the whole people of Ireland ; for that reason we 
 strove to dispel all religious distinctions from our political 
 Union, and after we had destroyed your usurpation of our 
 National representation, and that we had set up a real 
 representation of the whole people of Ireland, we were 
 convinced there was no evil which such a House of Com- 
 mons could not reach." Dr. M*Nevin is questioned by 
 the Lord Chancellor, " Was not your object a separation 
 from England ?" " It certainly became our object when 
 we were convinced that liberty was not otherwise attain- 
 able ; it is a measure we were forced into, inasmuch as I 
 am now, and always have been, of opinion that if we were 
 an independent Republic and Britain ceased to be for- 
 midable to us our interest would require an intimate^ con- 
 nection with her." 
 
IRISH PAT^LIAMENTS. 
 
 101 
 
 Chapter XIV. 
 How THE Union was Carried. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL REMEDIES TO MANUFACTURE REBELLION 
 AND LEGAL POISON TO CORRUPT PARLIAMENT. 
 
 1797. 
 
 ** Whatever may be thought of the abstract merits of the arrange- 
 ment, the Union (of England and Ireland) as it was carried, was a 
 crime of the deepest turpitude." — W. E. H. Lecky. 
 
 Under the fraudulent franchise and sectarian represen- 
 tation a few patriots could not successfully compete 
 with the conspiracies of Governmental rebellions, place- 
 men's bribery, and disunion sown by official hypocrisy. 
 Those were the virtuous means used by the saintly up- 
 holders of the integrity of the empire about the year 
 1797. Consequently, in the autumn of that year a per- 
 ceptible disunity of purpose was discernible in the mode 
 and action of Protestants and Catholics. The poor Papists 
 began, particularly in the North, to publish fawning 
 addresses and slavish resolutions expressing their horror 
 of the principles of the United Irishmen, and pledging 
 themselves to be loyal in support of the king. One would 
 imagine English royalty was the sun of prosperity to Irish 
 Catholics instead of being at that time a blasting influence 
 to their happiness, preservation, and property. This 
 idolatrous example was generally followed by the Dis- 
 senters, as Mitchel wrote: — "If addresses were tests of 
 loyalty, his Majesty had no more loyal subjects than 
 the Irish in the beginning of 1798." But paper loyalty 
 evoked by pressure, like a parchment charter, is soon 
 consumed by the fire of oppression and the flame of 
 injustice. The Catholic addresses were chiefly procured 
 by the influence of the bishops and higher clergy, 
 who were much relied on about this period to keep in 
 good humour the few remaining upper-class Cawtholics 
 loyal to the English Government and disloyal to Ireland. 
 
102 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 As a means to this end the College of Maynooth had 
 been opened in 1796, and for the first time Catholic 
 young men could be educated for the priesthood without 
 incurring the penalty of death or transportation. This 
 was regarded as a great boon by the majority of a gen- 
 eration who seemed to forget that the Irish Church was 
 the most richly endowed in Europe when our British 
 civilisers came and despoiled the monasteries, colleges, 
 schools, and glebe lands. Then, as now, it was fashion- 
 able not to revert to the past, only look forward to the 
 promising future. So the Parliamentary grant was in- 
 creased in 1798 from £8,000 to £10,000. What scanty 
 restitution, remembering that Trinity College has for 
 centuries absorbed £84,000 per annum — an income mainly 
 derivable from the plunder of Catholic lands and revenue! 
 All this money was and is spent to educate cheaply the 
 anti-Irish Irishmen, so that they could be intellectually 
 armoured to make war upon their fellow-countrymen. 
 
 The modern Athenian Sophists being salaried to make 
 the worse appear the better cause. Having thriven upon 
 the educational outdoor relief granted by a faction from 
 National resources, the recipients exhibit their intel- 
 lectual political pauperism by ''hookem snivey'^ verbiage. 
 Moral philosophy is resurrected from the tomb of the 
 French school where burial is safety. 
 
 In the prevailing low public spirit this grant was re- 
 garded as a great conciliatory measure. Acting upon 
 the leading principles of English wire pullers, hypocrisy 
 and plunder, the members in Ireland of the Government 
 deceived the confiding Catholic bishops by implied pro- 
 mises to complete Emancipation. In this way the unity 
 and strength of the United Irish Society was partly 
 broken up in the North; but its increase in the other 
 provinces alarmed Pitt, who found it becoming too dan- 
 gerous and extensive for his purposes, although he had 
 connived at its inception that he might use it as a tool to 
 destroy Irish legislative freedom, Pitt always designed 
 to effect some mysterious purpose in Ireland. The in- 
 surrectionary spirit which had manifested itself in England 
 and Scotland was immediately crushed. Lord Melville 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS, 
 
 103 
 
 Jiad obtained and published prints of the different pikes 
 manufactured in Scotland long before that weapon had 
 been artificed by the Irish peasantry. But in Ireland, 
 although the Government had full and complete know- 
 ledge of all the working of the United Irish Society, it 
 was not noticed, because a Governmental rebellion is the 
 easiest mode to exterminate a people. In our own day 
 the "law and order'' lecturers and the journalistic 
 scurrilous scribes who taunt the Irish race with a want of 
 courage because they do not madly rush into destruction 
 unarmed and undisciplined, desire to repeat the devilish 
 design of Pitt. He conceived the necessity of forcing a pre- 
 mature explosion by which he might excite sufBcient horror, 
 terror, hatred, and revenge throughout the entire country 
 to serve his nefarious purpose. Thus he intended to sup- 
 press the conspiracy which he had allowed to bud, afraid 
 its fruition might be beyond his power. Lord Camden 
 personally was an excellent man, but was used as a cruel 
 instrument in the hands of Pitt. Most Irish Viceroys 
 are chosen for their incapacity and heartlessness, so that 
 English Premiers may not be troubled by any scruples in 
 the conscience of their puppet, or questioned by the in- 
 tellectual equality of a really competent ruler. It was 
 necessary to appoint nonentities to enable the swindle 
 called Union to be effected. Sir Jonah Barrington, in 
 the " Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation," published in 
 Paris,' 1833 (another expedient of civilising rulers is to 
 prevent publications which tell the truth), says: "More 
 than thirty summers have now passed since that disastrous 
 measure called the Union extinguished at one blow the 
 pride, the prosperity, and the independence of the Irish 
 nation ; a measure which, under the false colours of guard- 
 ing for ever against the disunion of the empire, has taken 
 the largest and surest stride to lead to its dismember- 
 ment," How truly this prediction has been verified by 
 the events from '33 to '86 ! During the wise reign of 
 Earl Fitzwilliam, with a resident legislature, five thousand 
 men were sufficient to garrison Ireland. Under the pre-* 
 sent regime of alien legislation more than thirty thousand 
 soldiers are found to be required to enforce obedience to 
 
104 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 the arbitrary edicts of an Imperial Parliament, and this 
 expensive, tragical farce is termed Union ! The appoint- 
 ment of the said FitzwiUiam was the deepest and most 
 treacherous fraud ever perhaps contemplated by any 
 Minister. Pitt had never been in Ireland, and he ex- 
 perienced difficulties he did not quite anticipate. He 
 fancied he might excite and suppress commotion accord- 
 ing as it suited his ideas. Most British Premiers imagine 
 the Irish people are merely plastic material — toy machines 
 to be moved and moulded just as the sweet will of 
 alien rulers dictates. These imperious individuals, from 
 Pitt down, apparently ignore the fact that Government is 
 merely the creature of the people, that its salaried Minis- 
 ters are the paid servants of the community to work out 
 the doctrine of public utility. But in the interests of the 
 commoners — that is to say, the dominant minority or 
 British garrisons in Ireland — coupled with a view to en- 
 rich England, Pitt decided upon forcing a premature in- 
 surrection, never counting the lives that would be lost, 
 nor calculating the inevitable hatred that might be and 
 has been perpetuated against the British Government. 
 Then this was called statesmanship, just as coercion, 
 imprisonment without trial, packed juries, and the 
 hangman were lately styled constitutional Government. 
 Lord FitzwiUiam, a pure and respected Whig leader, 
 was selected under the supposition he was to tran- 
 quillise and foster the country. With that philanthropic 
 hypocrisy which was the basis of all dealings with Ireland 
 by the average British Statesmen, Pitt simply wanted a 
 high-minded, popular victim as an instrument to agitate 
 the mere Irish, Lord FitzwiUiam had large estates in 
 Ireland, and was an indulgent landlord, beloved by his 
 tenants and generally well liked ; Pitt assured him that 
 he should have the gratification of fully emancipating the 
 Catholics. FitzwiUiam accepted the Viceroyalty only on 
 that consideration. Pitt's plot was to inflame the country, 
 throw upon the Viceroy the insinuation of obedience, and 
 openly charge him with a precipitancy of which he himself 
 was the real author. Lord FitzwiUiam, who was re- 
 ceived with open arms by the Irish people, immediately 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 105 
 
 commenced his arrangements; at the same time Pitt 
 began secretly to counteract them. Lord Fitzwilliam was 
 deceived, circumvented, or thwarted in every single 
 important act of his Government. Pitt, having accom- 
 plished his end by raising the hopes of the Catholics, 
 recalled Fitzwilliam, and by various tantalising measures 
 inflamed the Catholic mind to the degree needful to 
 generate the commotion he w^anted. Thus the Irish 
 Protestants, he calculated, would be thrown into the arms 
 of England for protection. Meantime he reckoned the 
 terror would be aggravated by the mingled conflicts of 
 parties — Royalists and Republicans. The base, low, 
 lying deception practised upon Lord Fitzwilliam by the 
 first citizen of the Empire — alias an English Premier, 
 Pitt — can be proved by reading Lord Fitzwilliam's letters 
 to Lord Carlisle, where this contemptible chicanery is 
 exposed with the accuracy and weight which so remark- 
 able and discreditable an incident in both Irish and 
 English history requires. The day Lord Fitzwilliam 
 arrived peace was proclaimed throughout all Ireland; the 
 hour he left she prepared for insurrection. This is a 
 creditable record for the disunited unionists, disloyal 
 loyalists, and opposing coalitionists, who now adore the 
 solemn holy union, to found their faith on. It is 
 undesirable to wade through the torrents of blood, the 
 horrible massacres, the rapine, plunder, rapes, burnings, 
 bayonetings, starvation, and desolation, which sorrowfully 
 marked the track of Pitt's governmental rebellion. The 
 harrowing history of that awful period should teach 
 Irishmen to be cautious, careful, and constitutional, in 
 this fateful crisis, when a crime or division is most precious 
 to outrage mongers and slanderers, who desire to fatten 
 upon the decay of Ireland, and to revel in despotism, 
 amidst the ruins of her liberty. 
 
lOG 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 1 
 
 Chapter XV. 
 United Irishmen, 1798. 
 
 ** If I were an IrisLnian, I would be a rebel." — Sir John Moore. 
 
 About the end of 1791, Wolf Tone, a Protestant barris- 
 ter, visited Belfast, where the French revolution was 
 celebrated by armed volunteers and townspeople generally. 
 Tone had noted the treacherous cunning conduct of the 
 Government, and with popular Northern leaders saw that 
 an open legal constitutional organisation, to accomplish 
 parliamentary reform and complete Catholic emancipation, 
 was the only course for Ireland. Thus was started the 
 Society of United Irishmen, By governmental persecu- 
 tion, lies, libels, and the cry of French principles, by 
 degrees the popular leaders were forced outside the limits 
 of constitutional agitation. Naked tyranny, combined with 
 law and orderfirmness,administered by an oligarchical party,, 
 drove earnest determined men into an oath-bound and 
 secret society. The United Irish leaders were in corre- 
 spondence with the French directors. British civilizers^ 
 were glad of the fact, knew it, and ridiculed the idea until 
 Hoche appeared in Bantry Bay. Then the constitutional 
 governmentalists decided to force the conflict by the 
 devilish means already explained. In 1796 an Insurrec- 
 tion Act was passed, making the administration of an oath 
 identical with or similar to that of the United Irishmen 
 punishable with death. 80,000 mercenaries and yeomen, 
 with free quarters, picketing, lashing, rapes, and rob- 
 bery were the order of the day, and military law dispensed 
 with the ordinary forms of trial, so that punishment might 
 quickly and invariably overtake those who were accused 
 on any pretence whatever. The United Irish leaders tried 
 to keep the people in restraint. The Government goaded 
 them into action. On the 12th March, 1798, the supreme 
 Council or Directors, with its returns, list, and muster rolls 
 were seized. Lord Edward Fitzgerald only escaped. John^ 
 and Henry Sheares, and Doctor Lawless stepped into the 
 breach of danger. The date for the rising was fixed for 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 107 
 
 the 23rd May. On the 18th Lord Edward was taken by 
 SnT, after a mortal struggle, and died in the Castle on the 
 4th June. On 21st May Sheares was arrested, and hung 
 on 12th July, after the farce called a trial was acted. 
 Wexford rose and fought nobly. Humbert came to Kil- 
 lala Bay with one thousand men, and Cornwallis swooped 
 down w^ith 30,000 men. Rising too soon, and help coming 
 too late, epitomises the '98 rebellion. It is almost outside 
 the scope of Irish Parliaments to refer to this important 
 episode, but it is necessary to understand administrative 
 tactics. Coercion Acts have succeeded Insurrection Acts, 
 because the people have been disarmed. The Land League, 
 although an open constitutional association, immediately it 
 became powerful to cope with the governmental oppres- 
 sion, it was declared illegal, its leaders imprisoned. Every 
 local man of any public spirit was thrown into jail without 
 trial. It was not convenient to hang them all, but innocent 
 men were done to death by means of the most approved 
 law and order jury-packing constitutional practice. Later 
 on it was beneficently intended to suppress the National 
 League, and an organized attempt, by means of general 
 wholesale evictions to create disturbance, was tried and is 
 being carried on, so that rulers may have an excuse for 
 Martial Law" and civil despotism. The bitter experience of 
 the past teaches that "prudence is the better part of valour.'' 
 
 General Opposition 
 
 Chapter XVL 
 
 to the Union, 
 Government. 
 
 AND Irresponsible 
 
 ** Tyranny is not government, and allegiance is only due to protection." 
 
 — Bishop of Dekry. 
 
 In 1799, although the country was under Martial Law, and 
 occupied by anarmy o f aliens 137,000 strong, still the gentry 
 and people made many efforts to retain their native Par- 
 liament They signed petitions against the Union to the 
 number of 707,000, whilst all the Government could, 
 obtain in favour of the accursed Union was 3,000, 
 although they canvassed schools and procured signatures 
 
108 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 ill gaols and other kindred institutions of British Parlia- 
 mentary rule in Ireland. The constitutional body of the 
 Irish Bar protested against it. King's Counsels and 
 the most eminent lawyers orated in solemn meeting. 
 Goold said: — " There are 40,000 British soldiers armed 
 with 40,000 bayonets at my breast, the Minister shall not 
 plant another Sicily in the bosom of the Atlantic ; our 
 patent to be a state, not a shire, comes from Heaven." 236 
 votes were recorded against the Union and 32 for it. 
 Every one of the Unionists was rewarded with places 
 ranging from £5,000 to £800 per annum. Men of intel- 
 lect clearly foresaw the curse of bureaucratic centralisa- 
 tion and consequent pauperism, of petty provincial 
 patronage and practice; but West-British factionists 
 have taken care to silence the lawyers in Ireland by 
 judicious subsidies liberally applied in the proper political 
 quarters. The bankers petitioned against the Union, fore- 
 seeing that London would become the emporium of w^ealth. 
 And so it has come to pass. What are called Irish banks 
 are often collectors for English discount houses, ex- 
 porters of money earned in Ireland to be spent in Eng- 
 land, channels for the flow of rents to absentee landlords, 
 agents for the exportation of taxes to be used in payment 
 of English labour in Government stores and of imported 
 Governmental officials. All this was clear to the minds of 
 financiers who were not insane upon the fashionable hum- 
 bug, the importation of English capital," which is of no 
 use when every available cent of Irish earnings is seized 
 upon by the rapacious claws of foreign rulers, aided by 
 anti-Irish Irishmen. 
 
 The Bill was rejected in 1799. But Pitt and Castle- 
 reagh — arcades amho — redoubled their efforts. Peerages, 
 bishoprics, seats on the bench, and com^mands in the army 
 were given for votes. Money bribes were also freely 
 offered. Such political turpitude, moral degradation, 
 and flagrant prostitution of government has never been 
 equalled in history. Those traitors sold w^hat did not 
 belong to them — the liberty of Ireland and its right to 
 self-government. This clearly was a swindle, yet the de- 
 scendants of those sharpers prate of the sacred Union. 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 101) 
 
 Sir Charles Gavan Duffy recently explained how an 
 irresponsible Government bartered the rights of the Irish 
 nation. 
 
 "Eesponsible government only existed in a rudimentary 
 condition in England in the eighteenth century; in Ireland it 
 did not ejcis't at all. The personal prejudices of George III. 
 or of his mother, called a Court favourite to power in London 
 at the opening of his reign, and sacrificed to this minion the 
 most popular and gifted statesman in the*country. Later, 
 when the House of Commons began to exercise some semblance 
 of the control which it now enjoys, through Ministers possess- 
 ing its confidence, the king took an effectual method of over- 
 riding its authority. A personal party of * King's friends,' 
 recruited from the most accommodating and unprincipled men 
 in public life, and paid out of the Privy Purse, was unblush- 
 ingly employed to outvote the King's Ministers whenever 
 their policy crossed the narrow and besotted designs of the 
 Sovereign. 
 
 But bad as the English system was, the Irish system was 
 only a base parody of it. If the quasi government of Ireland 
 mooted any design in favour of public liberty, the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant was instructed to plot and intrigue, and even to employ 
 the money and patronage of the State to buy votes, against 
 them. It was never a difficult task. The Anglo-Irish nobles, 
 who had a retinue of followers in the Lower House and domi- 
 nated the Upper one, were as practised jobbers as the English 
 squires who swelled the majorities of Sir Robert Walpole and 
 the Duke of Newcastle, or the shameless Scotch intriguers of 
 the revolution under William III. 
 
 And not only did responsible government not exist, but 
 the House of Lords was packed with English officials, and 
 with men who had got the bribe of an Irish peerage for some 
 discreditable service, because they did not happen to need the 
 bribe of a thousand pounds in hand. The second chamber in 
 Grattan's Parliament was so constituted that good government 
 was impossible under it ; it was more hostile to all Irish aims 
 which did not profit landowners than the corresponding House 
 at Westminster. An ascendancy judge of that era, who was 
 hob-nobbing daily with the men he depicts, has left (in his 
 private diary) a graphic picture of the magnates of the two 
 Houses. 
 
 " ^ The Irish Government,' says Lord Clonmell, * resembles 
 
110 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 extremely the state of Hottentots in Africa. The common 
 Irish, divided, dispersed, pillaged, abused as they are, are the 
 Hottentots ; the English administration are the Dutch planters ; 
 the followers of the Lord Lieutenant are the bushmen or spies 
 and swindlers ; and the wild beasts, lions, &c., are the Irish 
 satraps.^ 
 
 This feeble and hybrid system was held in check by devices 
 which would have rendered a great democratic Assembly 
 helpless. No bill could be introduced in either House by an 
 Irish Minister without his having previously obtained the 
 assent of the Viceroy at a time when such assent was not a 
 mere ceremonial, but an agency for enabling the patrons in 
 London who appointed the Viceroy to control the policy of 
 the Executive who were supposed to advise him. And after a 
 bill had passed both Houses, it had to run the gauntlet of noAv 
 critics. It only became law when it received the assent of the 
 Sovereign under the great seal of England, which was in the 
 possession of the Cabinet at Westminster. This was a pro- 
 vision which in effect rendered the Parliament of Grattan the 
 thrall of England ; not an independent, but essentially a de- 
 pendent and limited Legislature. 
 
 " Had Eesponsible Government existed, the Declaration of 
 Irish Independence would have made Grattan and his chief 
 associates the Government of the country. Their public policy 
 would have been in harmony with that declaration, and the 
 great work which it only begun would have been completed. 
 Catholics would have been emancipated, a * concession' (as it 
 was called in those days) which the Volunteers had demanded 
 equally with the independence of Parliament. The represen- 
 tation of the people in the House of Commons would have 
 been put on a reasonable footing, instead of being left the 
 plaything of patrons and jobbers. There would have been no 
 insurrection, for the country would have got what it wanted 
 through constitutional agencies, and there would have been no 
 Union, for the representatives of the people would have been 
 the spokesmen of their real sentiments and desires, and would 
 never have assented to that measure." 
 
 The so-called House of Commons mainly represented the 
 individual interests of the locusts who were termed members 
 of Parliament, they having been nominated by Government to 
 uphold its behests. In the Lower House there were 116 
 placemen wholly, solely, and entirely dependent on the Govern- 
 ment for their daily bread—political beggars without means or 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 principles. Several respectable independent members who 
 could not bring themselves to vote for the destruction of their 
 native Parliament vacated their seats for the admission of 
 Scotchmen and Englishmen. The members who distinguished 
 themselves in opposing the baneful Union were Grattan, 
 Ponsonby, Bushe, Saurin, Speaker Foster, Jebb, and Plunket. 
 
 Chapter XVII, 
 The Sacred Terms of the Union. 
 
 " Every proposal for the advantage of Ireland was held a direct attack 
 on the interests of England." — Theobald Wolfe Tone. 
 
 In 1799 there were a number of new elections be- 
 cause members had resigned their seats. Plowden, in 
 relating this, with the usual candour of British historians, 
 when anything discreditable to Government should be 
 chronicled, does not state what those terms were, Phari- 
 saical journalists still pursue the same literary policy, 
 adopting moral assassination and suppression as honourable 
 weapons against the reputation of the nation wherein they 
 are permitted to exist by libelling its people. The political 
 swindlers who sold what did not belong to them — the 
 legislative independence of Ireland — made sale and bar- 
 gains through Lord Cornwallis as the remote, Lord Cas- 
 tlereagh as the intermediate, and Secretary Cooke as the 
 immediate agent. This dishonest transaction places Eng- 
 land in the position of a receiver of stolen goods. Her 
 statesmen purchased openly that which those mercenary 
 salesmen had no legal right to dispose of. Immediate 
 restitution would be given if honour, truth, and justice 
 were not displaced by the desire of greed, power, and 
 place amongst those who are designated Imperial Union- 
 ists, anxious only for the integrity of their purse, but 
 careless for the welfare of the Irish people. 
 
 Those gentlemen follow the approved traditions of 
 British rule in Ireland, for in order that Government should 
 ensure a continuance of the support of its venal nominated 
 members, it became necessary to pay them highly, as the 
 law and order integrity oracle of the time. Lord Castle- 
 
112 
 
 IRISH PAULIAMENTS. 
 
 reagh, boldly announced his intention to turn the scale 
 by bribes to all who would accept them, under the name 
 of compensation for the loss of patronage and interest. 
 He shamelessly and publicly declared: (1st), that every 
 nobleman who returned members to Parliament should be 
 paid in cash £15,000 for every member so returned ; (2nd), 
 that every member who had purchased a seat in Parlia- 
 ment should have his money repaid to him out of the trea- 
 sury of Ireland; (3rd), that all members of Parliament or 
 others who were losers by the Union should be fully re- 
 compensed for their losses ; and that £1,500,000 should 
 be devoted to this service, or as Mitchel said : " All who 
 should support this measure under some pretext or other 
 were to share in this bank of corruption.'' What a humi- 
 liating reflection for the consideration of sanctimonious 
 Unionists ! This compensation or corruption fund repre- 
 sents only a small part of the bribery. What holy horror 
 should strike the loyalists to learn that over one million 
 sterling w^as paid out of the secret service money for votes 
 — that is to say, the ancestors of the contemptible minority, 
 who appear now to be concerned for the integrity of the 
 empire, were paid for their votes out of the same fund as 
 are informers, perjurers, and other versatile alumni who 
 study the higher classics of British Governmental profes- 
 sors in Ireland. 
 
 The blue-blooded nobility of Ireland scoff at the honest 
 working democracy — yet forty of those peerages were 
 conferred as bribes on political cheats who were glad 
 to have a country to sell, and sold it though it did not 
 belong to them. 
 
 The turpitude was so general and flagrant that 
 a regular commercial tariff of prices for Union votes w^as 
 quotable as a marketable commodity. £S,000 was the 
 general figure, or if a saintly Unionist had any qualms of 
 conscience in taking hard cash for open profligacy, 
 £2,000 a year was ensured in some office, so that he might 
 still pose as an undefiled politician. Treachery of this 
 sort is easily paid for out of the public purse. Bishoprics, 
 chief justiceship, and puisne judgeships, were bestowed 
 as the reward of corruption. Men who had, like cowards, 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 113 
 
 deserted their country in her need, were appointed com- 
 manders of regiments and captains of ships. It has been 
 calculated that the total amount so criminally expended 
 was about five and a half millions. If bribery upon the 
 same scale was now judiciously carried out in the English 
 Parliament, it might be quite possible that a majority 
 could be obtained which would sell England itself to any 
 Government which would supply the money. When the 
 bill legalising corrupting compensation had received the 
 royal assent, the Viceroy duly appointed four commis- 
 sioners to carry its provisions into execudon. These were 
 members of Parliament whose salaries of £1,200 a year 
 each were a tolerable consideration for their former ser- 
 vices. Annesley, Hamilton, and Duignan were commis- 
 sioners. Their proceedings are not fully recorded. 
 Hypocrisy and swindling do not write their own con- 
 demnation. Sir J. Barrington laments that the great 
 and important grants, the private pensions" — a secret 
 compensation — have never been made public further than 
 by those who received them ; but it is known that Lord 
 Shannon received for his patronage in the Commons 
 £45,000 ; Marquis of Ely, £45,000 ; Lord Clanmorris, 
 besides a peerage, £23,000 ; Lord Belvidere, £15,000; Sir 
 Hercules Langrishe, £15,000. Those names are given as 
 particular instances of the barter which disestablished Ire- 
 land as a nation. The immediate effects of the Union 
 may be easily deduced from Parliamentary Paper No. 35 
 of 1819, as follows :— 
 
 The nutional debt of Ireland commenced in 1715; it was 
 then £16,106 lis. Od. In a short time it increased to 
 £371,312 12s. Od., through internal dissensions, fomented 
 by misgovernment, with the expenses chargeable on the 
 unfortunate oppressed natives who had no share whatever 
 in controlliiig the abuses but had to pay for their suffer- 
 ings; it gradually rose as their ability to pay decreased. 
 
 The Irish income and expenditure, as calculated in 1763, 
 stood thus: the military expenditure for two years, 
 £980,956; the civil ditto, £242,956; extraordinary and 
 contingent expenses, £300,000 ; total expenditure for two 
 years, £1,523,212 ; total revenue for that period, 
 
 H 
 
114 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 £1,209,864 ; excess of expenditure to be added to national 
 debt, £514,248. 
 
 After the 
 
 Union : — 
 
 
 
 
 Year. 
 
 British Debt. 
 
 Annual 
 Charge. 
 
 Irish Debt. 
 
 Annual 
 Charge. 
 
 Jan. 5, 1801 
 Jan. 0, I8l7 
 
 £ 
 
 450,504,984 
 734,527,104 
 
 £ 
 
 17.718,851 
 28,238,416 
 
 £ 
 
 28,545,134 
 112,704,773 
 
 £ 
 
 1,244,463 
 4,004,514 
 
 This shows whilst the Imperial Government did not 
 double the British debt they quadrupled the Irish debt. 
 By this system of embezzlement the Irish debt, which in 
 1801 had been to the British as one to sixteen and a half, 
 was forced up to bear to the British debt the ratio of one 
 to seven and a half. The money bribes which were given 
 to the traitors who sold their country were charged as a 
 debt to Ireland. The justice of this financing would be 
 only equalled by bribing a ruffian to murder an individual, 
 paying him liberally for the foul deed, and then taxing 
 the murdered man's relatives to pay the cost of the 
 assassination. This is exactly what has happened in Ire- 
 land, But the circumstances are rendered more intoler- 
 able by the fact that, as Sir J. N. M'Kenna has 
 incontestably proved, Ireland is doubly taxed in proportion 
 to England. 
 
 The little stream of Irish debt has been mingled with 
 the ocean of British indebtedness, so that no trace can be 
 properly obtained of relative proportions. British calcu- 
 lating machines can be produced at any time to manufac- 
 ture figures and results which suit capitalists, monopolists, 
 absorbers, and political economists. 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 115 
 
 Chaptkr XVIII. 
 Prosperity and Anti- Union Movements. 
 
 " Nothing is plainer than that the people have a right to the laws and 
 the '^constitution. This right the nation hath asserted and recovered 
 out of the hands of those wtio had dispossessd them of it several times." 
 —Sir Joseph Jekyl. 
 
 When the fee simple laws and constitution were vested in 
 Ireland as a nation, it prospered, developed trade, 
 and propagated peaceful arts. I)uring 18 years of self- 
 government, Ireland progressed more than it did from 
 1172 to 1782, and from 1800 to 1886. A few details may- 
 be interesting. 
 
 1783— Newcastle Market, George's Street, Black Hall; 
 do. opened. 
 
 1785 — East part of Bank of Ireland erected at a cost of 
 
 £25,000. 
 
 1786 — New Four Courts commenced to be built. 
 
 1787 — Western portion of bank erected, cost £30,00i). 
 1789 — Roval Canal Company incorporated, capital stock, 
 
 £200,000. 
 
 1791 — Parliamentary grants of £45,000 for constructing 
 docks on north and south sides of the Liffey. 
 
 1791 — Carlisle Bridge commenced ; navigation of Grand 
 Canal extended to Athy. 
 
 1793 — Act passed for relief of Roman Catholics in 
 
 Ireland. 
 
 1794 — Act for granting to Ireland a share in the mono- 
 
 poly of the East India trade. 
 1796 — Foundation of Commercial Buildings commenced; 
 
 floating and graving dock near Ringsend opened. 
 
 Canals. 
 
 It is impossible to obtain full information as to the total 
 amount expended on the inland navigation of Ireland, but 
 there is evidence that at least £1,261,208 was advanced 
 by the Irish Parliament in furthering schemes of improve- 
 ment of this kind. 
 
 In the Report of a Committee of the Irish House of 
 
116 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 Commons on Inland Navigation, presented on the 23rd 
 June, 1800, it is stated that "Inland Navigation has been 
 an object of Parliamentary attention from a very early 
 period, the journals stating proceedings and grants from 
 the year 1703." Thus it will be seen that the canals of 
 Ireland were initiated under a paternal government half-a- 
 century before they were introduced into England, whilst 
 in our powerlessness to legislate for ourselves we were left 
 considerably behind our English neighbours when the 
 days of railway development commenced. 
 
 England grew jealous and fomented disunion, just as 
 sanctimonious Pharisees now desire to multiply 
 disorder, and National journalists have gone through 
 the fiery ordeal of Press persecution which always signal- 
 izes a minority government. In rebellion times Finnerty, 
 Magee, and Moore were also recipients of the delicate 
 attention which Castle-hacks pour out so liberally towards 
 Irish Pressmen who desire to spread the light" and dis- 
 sipate darkness. 
 
 James Moore, of 45 College Green, consented to receive 
 all communications from correspondents, and to publish 
 the Anti- Union three times a week, so long as this fatal 
 measure is in agitation." 
 
 The first number of the Anti-Union, 1798. Its motto 
 is a quotation from the marriage ritual in the Protestant 
 Prayer Book : 
 
 If any of you know cause or just impediment why 
 these two may not be lawfully joined together, let him 
 now^ speak, or else hereafter forever hold his peace; this 
 is the last time of asking. For be ye well assured that so 
 many as are coupled together, otherwise than as God's 
 Word doth allow, are not joined together by God, neither 
 is their matrimony lawful." 
 
 The address To the People of Ireland'^ says — We 
 are loyalists and constitutionalists ; we are yeomen, still 
 ready to spill our blood in defence of a limited monarchy, 
 as the British connection. But we find ourselves bound 
 by all our obligations to those principles, to resist a measure 
 that would change a limited monarchy for a provincial 
 viceroyalty, and the British connection for a slavish 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 117 
 
 annexation of onr country to another, or which would 
 precipitate us into an unnatural struggle for separation 
 and perhaps finally destroy both nations." 
 
 " We are deeply convinced that there is no advan- 
 { tage promised by the measure of an incorporated union 
 
 f with England which an independent Irish Legislature is 
 
 not fully competent to provide ; that in the surrender of 
 our distinct existence we gain little and give all; that the 
 commercial advantage w^hich may result is problematical ; 
 that for the little we may gain there can be no security; 
 and that for National Independence there can be no 
 earthly recompense." 
 
 It should be particularly remembered that this paper 
 was written, supported, and edited by Protestants, squires, 
 yeomen, and Orangemen, who were amongst the strongest 
 opponents of the Union, as may be learned by the follow- 
 ing historical resolutions: 
 
 Orange Lodge, No. 882, at Newtownbarry, 16th Feb., 
 1800 — Resolved — That Orangemen ought to come for- 
 ward as Orangemen and Irishmen to declare their senti- 
 ments against a legislative Union, which now or at any 
 other time would be of the most fatal and pernicious con- 
 sequence to the real liberty of Ireland. 
 
 Edmund Beatty, Master, 
 
 " WiLLOUGHBY BuSTARD, Dep., 
 
 ** Alexander M'Claugiiry, Sec/' 
 
 Lodges Nos. 780 and 785, Dublin, 11th March, 1800 
 — Resolved — That the Constitution of 1782, under which 
 our country has advanced to greatness with uncommon 
 rapidity is that which, as Orangemen, we have sworn to 
 defend, and will inviolably maintain. . . . and we are de- 
 termined to co-operate with all our fellow-subjects in every 
 legal and proper method to oppose so destructive a mea- 
 sure. J. Charles, Secretary." 
 Another from — 
 i Lodge 391, held at Wattle Bridge, County Ferma- 
 nagh, 1st March, 1800 — Resolved — That strongly attached 
 to the Constitution of 1782, a settlement ratified in the 
 most unequivocal manner, so far as the faith of nations is 
 
 5 
 
118 
 
 lEISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 binding, we should feel ourselves criminal were we to 
 remain silent while an attempt is made to extinguish it^ 
 That, impressed with every loyal sentiment towards our 
 gracious Sovereign, we trust that the measure of the legis- 
 lative Union, which is contrary to the sense of all Orange- 
 men and of the nation at large, will be relinquished. 
 
 " John Moore, Master." 
 The Orangemen were much more pronounced than the 
 Papists, for up to this time, 1800, the Catholic bishops 
 had been neutral, fearing the consequences of any sign 
 of life from their disfranchised, poverty-stricken flocks, 
 who still suffered from the effects of a penal code worthy 
 of Lucifer. The Protestant Corporations petitioned 
 against Union. Drogheda declared it to be — " A measure 
 which they conceive to be fraught with inevitable ruin to 
 the trade and manufactures of Ireland by depriving them 
 of the protection of a superintending resident Parliament, 
 and placing them at the discretion of a foreign Parlia- 
 ment, where their true interests have never been and 
 probably never can be understood, and where in any ques- 
 tion of competition that may arise between the two coun* 
 tries, their interest will sink under the weight of superior 
 numbers. 
 
 " Your petitioners, ever distinguished for their loyalty, 
 zeal, and ardour in support of your Majesty's Government, 
 are prepared to shed the last drop of their blood in defence 
 of Irish independence and British connection. They can- 
 not conceive any one measure more likely to counteract the 
 blessings they enjoy under that independence and that 
 connection than an incorporate union of the two kingdoms, 
 the tendency of which must be, in their humble opinion,, 
 separation." 
 
 Time has proved the wisdom of those Corporators. 
 The heavenly Castlereagh, with the peculiar effron- 
 tery of imported statesmen, by duplicity, lying, and 
 hypocrisy, induced the Catholic bishops to preach against 
 anti-Union movements. The Protestant patriots who 
 could neither be bought nor hung were to be removed by 
 duelling. The gentle Castlereagh invited some twenty 
 noted duellists of the ministerialists, a club was formed. 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 119 
 
 every member was bound to call out'' any and every anti- 
 Unionist expressing himself immoderately against the 
 Government, the patriotic minority were to be shot down. 
 Although in weak health, Grattan forestalled the govern- 
 mental Carbonari by assuming the offensive. The bully 
 Corry, having vehemently attacked Grattan, was chal- 
 lenged. Grattan insisted on fighting immediately. 
 Leaving the debate, he winged his opponent in the 
 Phoenix, so ending Castlereagh's assassination club, and 
 defeated the idea of fighting down the opposition. 
 
 Ignorant people and deep-scheming hidden conspirators 
 who talk of religious hate and endeavour to excite abhor- 
 rence to Home Rule by alarming the minority, should be 
 reminded of the historical fact that in the old Irish secta- 
 rian Parliament the Protestant patriot members and 
 the Protestant electorate jealously guarded the rights of 
 Ireland as a nation. 700,000 electors petitioned against 
 the measure, and only 7,000 for it. Irishmen of any creed, 
 class, age, or position, must be safer legislators than alien 
 absorbers. It is the old, old story — divide and conquer.'* 
 The religious bogey should not frighten sensible men. 
 Fitzgerald, the Sheareses, Emmet, Grattan, Flood, Shiel, 
 John Martin, John Mitchel, Butt — all differed from the 
 majority of their countryuien in religion; yet those 
 patriots laid down their lives or gave a lifetime to the 
 service of Ireland. 
 
 Chapter XIX. 
 Poisoned Parliaments. 
 
 ''Where one commonwealth unites with another in such a manner, that 
 one keeps its government and states, and the subjects of the other change 
 their country, and are taken into the privileges and rights of a foreign 
 commonwealth, it is evident that one is swallowed up and lost iu the 
 
 other,*' P UFFENDORF, 
 
 For the last time the Irish Parliament met on Jan. 15th, 
 1800, to carry out the act of political turpitude planned by 
 his saintship Castlereagh. The breath of nobility was 
 blown over the bodies of twenty-seven salesmen willing 
 to sell the fortunes of their country and the liberties of 
 
120 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 their countrymen for what was termed title and honour. 
 Those money-making machines and adorers of British 
 gewgaws, disposed of national property to which they had 
 no legal claim, so upon this pretence titular descendants 
 have been honoured and paid for political swindling. 
 Twenty-seven new peers had been added to the Lords, to 
 the degradation of the peerage, so that the pure, undefiled 
 Castle might reckon on a majority of three. Two of the 
 Lords Spiritual only had the decency to prefer honesty 
 to corruption, the vast majority being evidently swayed 
 by the carnal desires which they had solemnly promised 
 to war against by word and example. Obviously the 
 Divine precept, My kingdom is not of this world," had 
 not penetrated the selfish hearts of the clerical assistants 
 who sold their country's birthright for a mess of pottage. 
 In the Commons fifty virtuous slaves were introduced 
 as new borough members, all nominees of that wonderful 
 vessel of light, the Castle, save and except Mr. Saurin, 
 returned for Blessington, and Mr. Grattan, elected at the 
 last moment for Wicklow. 
 
 It was not to members representing the mind of the 
 Irish people that saintly Castlereagh addressed his bes- 
 tial compliments when he congratulated the Commons of 
 Ireland, on the 15th of January, 1800, on the improve- 
 ment which had taken place in public opinion since the 
 former session. Briefly, and without any of the details or 
 guarantees so sternly demanded by a foreign centralistic 
 press, the artistic Castlereagh sketched his plan of the 
 Union. He bid high for commercial interests, and 
 hypocritically hinted at Catholic emancipation. He 
 further arranged an undertaking with the proprietors of 
 rotten boroughs that their interests would be capitalised, and 
 a good round sum given to buy them out. The gentleman 
 was conscientious in villany. Honour amongst thieves" 
 was a governmental dogma at that pure period of West- 
 British " unification." In amendment to this address, Sir 
 Lawrence Ponsonby moved " that the House would main- 
 tain intact the constitution of '82." It was a vital 
 subject; the war of eloquence waged all night — alas! the 
 weapon of obstruction had not then been discovered. 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 121 
 
 Grattan was induced by his wife and friends to to 
 the House in his sickly, weak condition. He arrived at 7 
 a.m. on the 16th. Egan, an honest anti-Unionist, was 
 praising the father of the Constitution of '82 when the 
 latter appeared at the bar leaning on two friends, Arthur 
 Moore and W. Ponsonby. Clad in Volunteer uniform, 
 he advanced to the table, bowed to the Speaker, and took 
 the oaths. After Egan had concluded speaking, Grattan 
 addressed the House for two hours. He spoke with all 
 his old fire of genius, coupled with almost the vigour of 
 youth, and re-asserted his title to be considered the first 
 Commoner of Ireland. After a discussion of eighteen 
 hours the division was taken, when the result of the long 
 recess was seen : — For the amendment, 96 ; for the 
 address, 138. The Union majority was therefore 42. 
 
 On the 5th February, 1800, a formal message, propos- 
 ing a basis of Union, was received from his Excellency 
 the Lord Lieutenant, who was simply a salaried medium 
 for carrying the decrees of British Ministers to the Irish 
 Parliament, imprinting the post-mark of Viceroyalty on 
 the envelope without interfermg with the contents. This 
 carry-and-fetch system is still put in force when weak or 
 imbecile viceroys are appointed to manage Irish affairs. 
 A ^' firm and gentle " Lord Lieutenant may be the most 
 absolute and irresponsible despot tolerated in civilisation. 
 Esse quam videri is not a classical maxim to be quoted in 
 viceregal speeches or acted on by official varnishers. 
 
 Oh, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!" Personal 
 qualifications have invariably succumbed to party necessity 
 and the dire traditions of Lord Justice governments. 
 So Irish viceroys are chosen by alien wirepullers to 
 meet the temper of the times. The excellent pro- 
 posal of his 1800 Excellency was debated for twenty 
 hours; but again the division told for the Ministers — 160 
 to 117, or a majority of 43 for the Union. Ministers 
 have a method of using Parliament as a machine to regis- 
 ter the mandates of a section without regard to the wishes 
 or prosperity of the masses. Nothing commands continu- 
 ous organisation, steady voting, constant attendance, and 
 combined action like the power of patronage and the 
 
122 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 leverage of money taken from the people to pay law manu- 
 facturers who in this instance destroyed their paymasters 
 by illegal and unjust legislation. On the l7th the House 
 went into committee on the proposed articles, and the 
 Speaker, Foster, attacked Pitt's Union speech. But again 
 the numerical majority mustered 161 to 140. 
 
 Finally, on March 25th the committee reported the 
 resolutions, which were passed by 154 to 107 — majority, 47. 
 On the 7th June the final passage of the measure was 
 expected. Barrington wrote: — ''The day of extinguish- 
 ing the liberties of Ireland had now arrived, and the sun 
 took his last view of independent Ireland. He rose no 
 more on a proud and prosperous nation. She was now 
 condemned by the British Minister to renounce her rank 
 amongst the States of Europe. She was sentenced ta 
 cancel her constitution, to disband her Commons, and 
 disfranchise her nobility ; to proclaim her incapacity and 
 register her corruption in the records of the empire. The 
 Speaker, Foster, was placed in a most distressing situation^ 
 An ardent enemy of the measure, he headed its opponents 
 and resisted it with all the power of his mind, the resour- 
 ces of his experience, and the influence of character, 
 position, and eloquence. It was fated that through his 
 voice it was to be proclaimed and consummated. Kesig- 
 uation, his only alternative, would have been unavailing, 
 and could have added nothing to his character. With 
 grave dignity he presided over the last agony of the 
 expiring Parliament. He held up the Bill for a moment 
 in silence, then asked the usual question, to which the 
 response ' ay' was languid but unmistakeable. Another 
 pause ensued. Again his lips seemed to decline their 
 office. At length, with an eye averted from the object 
 which he hated, he proclaimed, with a subdued voice^ 
 ' the ayes have it.' For an instant he stood statue-like, 
 then indignantly and in disgust flung the Bill upon the 
 table and sunk into his chair with an exhausted spirit." 
 
 Ireland as a nation was legally murdered. Grattan 
 subsequently declared : It was a savage act, done by 
 a set of assassins who were brought into the House to sell 
 their country and themselves. They did not belong to 
 
HUSH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 Ireland. Some were soldiers; all were slaves. Every- 
 thing was shame and hurrying and base triumph." 1'liis 
 declaration of an Irish Protestant patriot may be usefully 
 studied by the Unionists who denounce such sentiments in 
 the present generation as rank treason, veiled sedition, or 
 open rebellion. 
 
 Chapter XX. 
 The Crime of the Union. 
 
 He who allows oppression shares the crime. The treason of the 
 ministers against the liberties of the peoi)le was infinitely worse than the 
 rebellion of the people against the ministers." — Grattan^. 
 
 The new emigrationist party ought to become acquainted 
 with Irish history before they quit the country en masse, 
 because public opinion, which should be the breath of 
 the law/' demands the restoration of a native Parliament* 
 The quasi loyal minority might likewise refresh their 
 constitutional memories with the words of Saurin, after- 
 wards Privy Councillor ; ''You made the Union binding as a 
 law, but you cannot make it obligatory in conscience. It 
 will be obeyed so long as England is strong, but resistance 
 to it will be in the abstract a duty, and the exhibition of 
 that resistance will be a mere question of prudence.'' And 
 Bentham lays down : " If the law is good, if. will support 
 itself." 
 
 The machinery of brute force, had been utilised by 
 governmental rebellions. Legions of subsidised venal 
 journalists had been salaried to suppress an effectual ex- 
 posure of the rascally system pursued by governmentalists. 
 Unprincipled writers were hired by the gang to dissemi- 
 nate false doctrines, and mercenary spouters were paid by 
 place, pay, and position, to oppose the patriots. By those 
 flagitious means public opinion was corrupted outside a 
 Parliament which at the best of times only represented a 
 small minority of the Irish people. Within the House it 
 was quite apparent that the very limited representation 
 accorded by law was illegally defiled, tainted by bribery, 
 and rotten with selfishness. The assembly was no longer 
 
124 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 as a whole, the safeguard of even the dominant minority 
 whom they did not honestly represent. Barrington says: 
 British clerks and officers were smuggled into Parlia- 
 ment to vote away the constitution of a country to which 
 they were strangers, and in which they had neither inte- 
 rest or connection. They were employed to cancel the 
 royal charter of the Irish nation, guaranteed by British 
 Government, sanctioned by the British legislature, and 
 unequivocally confirmed by the words, the signature, 
 and the great seal of their monarch." This extract 
 from a Protestant historian partly exposes the modus 
 operandi of the law-and-order Unionists Anno Domini 
 1800. 
 
 It might be fairly questioned if those piratical Parlia- 
 mentarians constituted a Parliament. It was mainly com- 
 posed of nominees, place-holders, pocket-borough paupers, 
 foreign importations, and alien officials, most of whom 
 openly admitted having received bribes. The Lords were 
 in almost a similar state of abominable defilement. Was 
 this a representative constitutional body capable of bind- 
 ing a future generation pauperised, degraded, nearly ex- 
 terminated by the effects of Union? Grattan said: — 
 Parliament is not the proprietor, but the trustee ; the 
 people are the proprietors, not the property. Parliament 
 is called to make laws, not to elect law-makers. It 
 is a body to exercise the functions of Parliament, not to 
 choose or substitute another Parliament for the discharge 
 of its own duties/' The Irish Parliament was not legally 
 competent to commit suicide. Locke declares the legisla- 
 lature cannot be arbitrary over the lives and fortunes of 
 the people, "nor can it transfer the power of making 
 laws to anybody else, or place it anywhere but where the 
 people have." Again, he solemnly lays down; *'The 
 delivery into the subjection of a foreign power is a change 
 of legislators, and, therefore, a dissolution of govern- 
 ment." The Convention of England in 1(588 laid down 
 "That Parliament was simply ministerial — that its purpose 
 was to fulfil the provisions of the contract between the 
 nation and the government, not to break it ; to act within 
 the frame of the constitution, and not to dissolve it.'* 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 125 
 
 Jekyl urges that Nations should recover those rights out 
 of the hands of those who dispossessed them of them/' 
 Bolingbroke asserts: "A parliament cannot annul the 
 constitution, the legislature is a supreme but not an arbi- 
 trary power/' Junius wrote: **The King, Lords, and 
 Commons are trustees, not owners of the estate ; the fee- 
 simple is in us." In view of those authorities the 
 Irish people must be supposed to be a race of idiots inca- 
 pable of reason or principle if they are expected to reve- 
 rence and maintain illegal legislation carried by such 
 unconstitutional representation, aided by force, fraud, and 
 bribery. 
 
 Thus the nominal representatives of Ireland sold the 
 nation's property, its rights, and liberties entrusted to their 
 care, proving that any community which is content to have 
 sovereignty exercised by incapable, non-elected, irrespon- 
 sible, venal representatives abdicates its liberty. If such 
 an assembly of mock deputies and bribed placemen are 
 allowed to make laws, the people are no longer sovereign. 
 This unconstitutional proceeding is diametrically opposed 
 to the ancient democratic law which Tacitus explained 
 clearly : *' The chiefs deliberate on matters of small im- 
 portance ; the whole of the people on the others." How- 
 ever, it must never be forgotten that the Irish people, as a 
 Catholic race, were entirely excluded from any represen- 
 tation in the Irish Parliament. 
 
126 
 
 IFUSH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 Chapter XXI. 
 Victory. 
 
 * ' To call into active political life tlie upper class of Irishmen and to 
 -enlarge the sphere of their political power — to give, in a word, to Ireland 
 the greatest amount of Self- Government that is compatible with the 
 unity and the security of the Empire — should be the aim of every 
 statesman." — Lecky. 
 
 "Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a 
 great empire and little minds go ill together." — Burke. 
 
 Let your foundations be broad and firm, based upon the content- 
 ment and welfare of the people." — Gordon, 
 
 The present movement is one to recover constitutional 
 privileges and legislative rights, which were appropriated 
 by imported chiefs and official garrotters. That despotic 
 unconstitutional fraud is adored as a sacred union by 
 educated beings who imagine they know the meaning of 
 words, and think they can read events, and even pretend 
 to teach history, philosophy, and political economy. Such 
 a race of thinkers would remind a reasonable person of 
 Theebaw's followers, who would fain have kept the pesti- 
 lential remains of their sacred white elephant until its 
 putrefaction would destroy themselves. In like manner 
 would certain law and order sophists breed a national 
 plague by allowing the festering corpse of our white 
 elephant, the Union, to continue its fatal course of decay 
 and corruption until Ireland falls a victim to such insane 
 immolating idolatry. Irishmen will never re-enact the 
 penal laws; yet this pestilence is advocated, forsooth, 
 because the Catholics would extirpate Protestantism, 
 although the leader of the Irish race is a Protestant, and 
 the most Catholic constituencies have elected M.P's who 
 differ from them in religion. The poisonous doctrine of 
 religious intolerance must be, however, beginning to lose 
 its deadly effect when some of the Orangemen of Tyrone 
 vote for as their member the courageous assailant of 
 Dublin Castle morality. 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 127 
 
 Twenty years ago John Morley wrote: — ^'The Eng- 
 lish Government have sown the wind, and it reaped the 
 whirlwind. With the sword and. the bayonet we founded a 
 Churcli in robbery and injustice; we set up an aristocracy 
 on spoils torn from the natives, and we put into their 
 hands a code of laws wicked enough to expel the last spark 
 of virtue and benevolence from the nature of the very 
 best man who should have to administer it or come within 
 its sphere. If we reflect that this was the seed, w^e can 
 barely wonder that the fruit has been and yet remains for 
 us so passingly bitter." 
 
 Notwithstanding the disaster, disgrace, dissension, 
 decimation and disaffection, entailed by brute force union, 
 it is maintained by dominant minorities, through unconsti- 
 tutional practices, illegal frauds, and false pretences. J uris- 
 prudential references almost invariably prove that imported 
 governmental Anglo-Norman or Saxon Parliamentarians 
 and their successors in St. Stephen's, have not utilized the 
 State as the organ of justice to protect the weak or aid 
 the many. Selfish interested egotism has been the sole 
 economic force of the ruling fraction, who have used the 
 machinery of Government to enrich and privilege them- 
 selves at the expense of outside workers. Society is 
 embroiled, and men are set at variance by misrepresenta- 
 tion, denial of past history and present facts. Calumny 
 and detraction, all the offspring of an evil-thinking, 
 unchristian spirit, sectarian animosity, racial hate, and 
 class dissension, are appealed to by those who should 
 remember that " charity thinketh no evil.'' Legislative inde- 
 pendence is not a religious question. The present system 
 of alien unsympathetic absorbing rule means inevitable 
 extinction. In nearly every other portion of the British 
 Empire Home Rule is the rule, except in Jamaica and India, 
 where depopulation, famines, and mutiny proves its neces- 
 sity as a safeguarding protection against the ever increas- 
 ing selfishness of an insatiable alien bureaucracy, 
 entrusted with expenditure, administration, and 
 government, without accountability to the natives. 
 Australia, New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, 
 Tasmania, Victoria, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince 
 
^128 
 
 IRISH PARLIAMb:NTS. 
 
 Edward Island, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, British 
 Columbia, Manitoba, Bahama, Bermudas, Barbadoes, 
 British Guiana, Dominica, St. Kitt's, St. Vincent, Tobago, 
 Nevis, Alderney, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, Malta, 
 Honduras, Natal, Cape of Good Hope, Sierra Leone — 
 over all the world native legislatures, except in Ireland, 
 are really existing without destroying the integrity of the 
 Empire. As Burke said concerning America: 
 
 The proposition is peace. Not peace through the 
 medium of war; not peace to be hunted through the laby- 
 rinth of intricate and endless negotiations ; not peace to 
 arise out of universal discord, fomented from principle, in 
 all parts of the empire; not peace to depend on the juridi- 
 cal determination of perplexing questions or the precise 
 marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex govern- 
 ment. It is simple peace, sought in its natural course 
 and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in 
 the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely 
 pacific.'* 
 
 Irishmen are willing to grasp the friendly, willing hands 
 of English and Scotch democrats. 
 
 Ireland, united and organised, is prepared to act up to 
 the dictates of National duty. It is a question of life and 
 death. Spread over the world, exiled through the 
 mistaken cruel policy of alien Parliamentarians, her 
 people, with money and sympathy, will aid the leader 
 of the Irish race — Parnell. Under his skilful guidance, 
 with a party of 86 members to move the pivot of legisla- 
 tion, sustained by firm unbroken unity, and generalled by 
 tenacity of purpose, the Irish people will not be satisfied 
 with anything less than a restitution of self-government, 
 native legislation, and the re-establishment of Ireland a 
 
 NATION. 
 
 It is Ireland's right recognised by an English statute — 
 23 Geo. III., cap. 28, part of which remains unrepealed — 
 
 that the said Eight, claimed by the people of Ireland, to 
 be bound only by laws enacted by his Majesty and the 
 Parliament of Ireland, shall be, and is hereby declared to 
 be, established and ascertained for ever, and shall at no 
 time hereafter be questioned or questionable." 
 
IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 129 
 
 Liberty should be common to every created being. 
 Christ said: My service is perfect Freedom." Why 
 should it be denied to Erin, whose Christian children 
 sing with the German Freiligrath ? 
 
 FREEDOM AND RIGHT. 
 
 *' 01^! think not she rests in the grave's chilly slumber, 
 
 i.* sheds o'er the present her glorious light, 
 Since Tyrannj- 's shackles the free soul encumber. 
 
 And traitors accusing, deny to us Right ! 
 No ! whether to exile the faithful are wending. 
 Or, weary of power that crushed them unending, 
 In dungeons have perished, their veins madly rending, 
 Yet freedom still liveth, and with her, the Right, 
 Freedom and Right ! 
 
 * -x- * * * 
 
 " And this is a trust : never made, as at present, 
 
 The glad pair from battle to battle their flight ; 
 Never breathed through the soul of the down-trodden peasant. 
 
 Their spirits so deeply its promptings of light ! 
 They sweep o'er the earth with a tempest-like token ; 
 From strand unto strand words of thunder are spoken ; 
 Already the serf finds his manacles broken, 
 And those of the negro are falling from sight ; 
 
 Freedom and Right ! 
 
 Yes, everywhere wide is their war-banner waving, 
 
 On the armies of wrong their revenge to requite ; 
 The strength of Oppression they boldly are braving, 
 
 And at last they will conquer, resistless in Might ! 
 Oh, God ! what a glorious wreath then appearing, 
 Will blend every leaf in the banner they're wearing — • 
 The olive of Greece and the shamrock of Erin, 
 And the oak-bough of Germany, greenest in light ! 
 
 Freedom and Right !" 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by Edmund Burkb & Co., 61 and 62 Great Strand-street, Dublin. 
 
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