The Irish standard., 1919-09-27

the natives against their bloodthirsty
oppressors. And so it continued under
James l and Charles l. who came to
the English throne in 1925. The plan
tation" of foreigners and the grants of
lands to them. which had been effect
ed in Ulster, was sought to be extend
ed through the other provinces. but
the attempt was resisted by continu-
Gus rebellions, in which the natives
were subjected to almost unbelievable
horrors and tortures.
Cromwell and the Penal Laws.
After the Civil War in England thc
Great Protector" Oliver Cromwell.
men. This pious Puritan adhered to
the English traditional policy of ex-
termination of the Irish, adopting the
plan of driving them ito hell or to
Connaught." Eighty thousand of the
natives were shipped as slaves to the
sugar plantations of the West Indies
by this exemplar of British freedom,
and the Adventures" of his armies
were rewarded large grants of lands
in the fairest portions of Ireland
On July l, 1890 was fought the bat
tie of the Boyne, wherein the forces
of William of Orange triumphed over
those of the cOwardly King James I,
establishing the ascendency of that
monarch, whose intolerance of Cath
olicism was fanatical. The horrors of
the penal laws were then multiplied
and extended to an almost grOtesQue
degree, but in spite of them the ma
tives persisted in their almost mira
culOus adherence to the Catholic faith.
The continued enforcement of these
inhuman statutes we'll bears out their
characterization by Edmund Burke as
being as we'll fitted "for the oppres-
sion, impoverishment, and degradation
of feeble people and the debasement
in them of human nature itself, as any
that has ever proceeded from the per-
verted ingenuity of man."
The great Irish wooden industry was
destroyed, the Catholic faith pro-
scribed, and innumerable and almost
incredible devices were enacted to
thwart the education of Catholics and
their right to hold property of any
kind, much less to hold office.
Legislative independence Won by
Grattan's Volunteers.
1t is not until the period of the
American and French revolutions that
hope penetrating the darkness of the
long record of pillage and persecution
in Ireland. Under the Poynings law,
passed in 1896, no Irish Parliament
could meet or propose law without
the previous consent of both the Irish
and English Privy Councils. After the
Americans had won their fight in the
Revolutionary war Grattan with his
volunteers succeeded in securing the
legislative independence of the Irish
Parliament in 1782-a concession that
was due to the organization of the
volunteer forces rather than to any
change of heart or conscience on the
part of the English authorities. 1t
should be remembered in this connec-
tion that although by the act of 1893
the parliamentary and municipal fran
chise was granted to Catholics, they
were still excluded from membership
in Parliament, as we'll as from many
other civil and military offices.
Irish Parliament Abolished.
The rebellion of 1893 was another
attempt to shake off the fetters of
British tyranny, being developed un-
der the guidance of Wolfe Tone, Lord
Edward Fitzgerald, and John and Hen
ry Sheares, nearly all of the leaders
being Ulster Presbyterians. After it's
suppression the Irish Parliament was
abolished and the Act of Union was
passed in 1901. This was accom-
plished by the sinister Vaccinations
of the British minister, Pitt, and his
henchmen in Ireland, among whom
was the notorious Castlereagh. By
all manner of bribery, corruption, and
- L ~ .S-I~
was at last accomplished. OF this
piece of political debauchery, Glad.
stone has given this characterization:
Gas to the legislative union I believe
history and posterity will consign to
disgrace the name and memory of