IRELAND.

Ireland, one of the largest of the European islands, is situated to the west of Great Britain, from which it is separated by a narrow channel called the Irish Sea and St George’s Channel on the east, and is bounded on its other sides by the Atlantic Ocean, through which it can maintain a direct communication with the continents of Europe, Africa, and America. The advantageous position, the fertility of the soil, and the salubrity of the climate, have conferred upon Ireland commercial facilities, which are capable of being greatly increased. How far these natural advantages have been made available towards the internal improvement of the island itself, and the general benefit of the empire of which it forms an important part, may be best ascertained from the following details of its history and statistics.

HISTORY.

The Irish nation is undoubtedly of Celtic origin. This truth is stamped in indelible characters in the names of the rivers, towns, mountains, and other objects of historical notoriety throughout the island; it is proclaimed by marks equally indelible in the relics of antiquity, the tumuli, the cairns, the cromleachs, and the druidical circles, the remains of which, after having triumphed over the ravages of time and repeated revolutions, are now perpetuated in the pages of the antiquary’s researches. The name of the island itself confirms the assertion. Eri or Erin, its most ancient appellation, and that to which the natives still cling with the attachment of veneration, is derived from the Celtic Iar or Eir, which signifies western. Most of its more modern names may be easily traced to this source. By the Grecians, to whom, though unacquainted with its localities, its general geographical position and bearings were not unknown, it was called Ierna, being honoured by them with the rank of the third of the islands of the ocean, and yielding precedence in this respect only to Taprobane and Britain. Ptolemy names it Iouerna; Juvenal and Mela, Iuver-na. Diodorus Siculus, approaching more nearly to the aboriginal word, calls it Iris. Marcianus Heracleota and Eustathius adopt the term used by Ptolemy, but corrupted by the latter into Bernia. By the Britons it was called Iver-don; and the Saxons, attaching to the native name an epithet from their own language, called it Ierland or Ireland. Its later name, Hibernia, may be traced somewhat more circuitously to the same source, although much etymological and antiquarian ingenuity has been employed to deduce it from other circumstances. Some choose to derive it from its climate, calling it Hibernus, on account of its wintry temperature, as unjustly in fact as erroneously in etymology; others from Iberus, a Spaniard, or a river of Spain. One writer ventures still further. Postellus, in his strictures on Mela, deduces it from the Hebrew, “Irin quasi Iurin,” the land of the Hebrews, “who, knowing that the empire of the world would be established in a very strong corner to the north-west, made themselves masters as soon as possible of those parts, and of Ireland.” Bochart traces it to the Phoenician; Hibernia, according to him, or Ierne, being nothing more than Ibernae, or the furthest habitation, because, beyond Ireland westward, all was ocean, according to the ancients. This derivation may be easily made to harmonize with that deduced from the Celtic, serving also to corroborate the opinion now very generally entertained, that the Celtic Irish and the Phoenician were kindred branches from the same eastern stem. Another name from another source has been fixed upon Ireland, one of different derivation, and of later acceptation, as not being known until the fourth century after Christ, when the country was generally designated throughout the learned world of that day by the name of Scotia. Some writers take the word to be a corruption of Scythia, from which region they suppose the nation to have emigrated; others, amongst whom are Whitaker and Chalmers, assert that the people acquired this name from their habits of roving and spirit of enterprise; the term “sceite,” according to them, signifying dispersed or scattered. The name of Ogygia has also been applied to it, and adopted by O’Flaherty in his Chronological Annals. Certainly, if the Ogygia, which Plutarch places west of Britain, be any thing more than an imaginary formation, it must signify Ireland. Yet if so, it should more properly be considered as an epithet given to it on account of its antiquity than as a proper name; the Greeks applying that word exclusively to what was of an origin beyond existing records.

A recurrence to the Greek and Roman writers will show that the country thus designated was not considered by them as the habitation of a single nation. On the contrary, its coasts are described by Ptolemy as being possessed by a number of tribes of various names; whilst with the interior he seems to have had no acquaintance. His nomenclature has been followed by succeeding geographers, with little variation. According to these authorities, the northern regions were possessed by the Venicnii and the Robogdii; the eastern by the Darnii or Ĳarini, the Voluntii, the Blanii or Eblanii, the Cauci, the Menapii, and the Coriondi; the southern shores were possessed by the Brigantes, the Vodii, the Uterni or Ivernii, and the Vellebori; the western coast was the residence of the Gangani or Cancani, the Auteri, the Nagnatae, and the Herdini or Herpeditani. Whitaker supposes the interior, comprehending all the inland counties, to have been peopled by a tribe which he calls the Scoti.

The native annalists present a very different picture of the ancient state of the country, which, although much disfigured by the fables of romance with which the bards, the only historians of the time, chose, for very obvious reasons, to embellish their narratives, must be supposed to rest upon a groundwork of reality. Rejecting, therefore, from their accounts what is evidently fabulous, and suspending the judgment as to circumstances of doubtful or obscure character, the temperate investigator of truth will be able to trace a series of historical connections, to which assent may be conceded, at least to the same extent as to those parts of the recognised histories of other countries, in which it is acknowledged that truth verges upon fiction. With this clue to the investigation of a train of occurrences which affect to penetrate further into the darkness of antiquity than those of any other nation, except the Jewish, the investigation of the history of Ireland may be ventured on from the earliest period at which the most enthusiastic advocate of its primeval origin thinks himself justified in fixing his first footsteps, until we arrive, through the periods of doubt, at those of undisputed historical certainty in our own times.

According to the native historians, Partholan, the sixth in descent from Magog, Noah’s second son, settled in Ireland at the head of a thousand men, and took possession of a country in which no one appeared to dispute his right of occupancy. But he did not long enjoy his possession of it in tranquillity; for at the same time, or shortly afterwards, there arrived a band of lawless adventurers, of the stock [7:12:350]of Nimrod, the descendant of Ham, who were distinguished by the name of Fomorians, or Fawmorries, a name still applied to strangers by the native Irish. With these took place a series of deadly hostilities, which terminated in a battle so bloody and so decisive, that not a single stranger was left alive; and the ground was so infected with the putrefying corpses, which the residue of the followers of Partholan were now too few and weak to inter, that a plague broke out, which destroyed all the survivors, and left the country totally uninhabited for thirty years.

At the termination of this period, Nemedius, another descendant of Japhet, made a settlement on the island with a thousand men, from the borders of the Euxine. The tranquillity of his settlement was also disturbed by the incursions of tribes of Fomorians, here said to be African pirates, with whom his followers carried on an incessant warfare, but with different ultimate success; for the strangers, being reinforced with fresh supplies from their own countrymen, at length defeated the Nemedians with such slaughter, as to force the scanty remains of this second colony to return to the country whence they had originally emigrated. They took their departure in three companies. The first, under Breac, proceeded to Thrace, where they took the name of Belgae; the second, under Jobath, proceeded no farther than Boeotia; and the third, under Bridtan, repaired to the neighbouring island of Britain, where they formed the tribe of the Brigantes. From this Bridtan, the Psalter of Cashel, a record of great authority in the first and second ages of the Irish, traces the origin of the Welsh.

The Fomorians, when sole masters of the country, went to war amongst themselves, and carried their dissensions to such a height of animosity, that the island was a second time utterly depopulated, and continued so until some of the descendants of the Thracian Nemedians, to the number of about five thousand men, returned thither, under the command of the five sons of Dela. The Irish annalists distinguish this colony by the name of Fir-bolgs; a name said to be applied to tribes living in caves, whither the natives used to have recourse for shelter in cases of extremity. To this colony is attributed the division of the country into five principalities, which continued, though not without interruption, till the English invasion. The names of the states of the pentarchy were, Leinster, Munster, Ulster, Connaught, and Meath. The principal chieftain of each division was honoured with the title of king, a name applied very liberally at all times to the petty dynasts who arrogated supreme authority over their own territories, however limited; but the ruler over Leinster was recognised as sovereign, to whom submission was tendered, and from whom protection was claimed, by the other members of the pentarchyin cases of danger. This system of government continued undisturbedfor eighty years, through a succession of nine sovereign rulers, when it was broken in upon by the intrusion of another colony of the same stock, called by the Irish writers Tuatha-na-Danans; a name said by some to have been given them as being the descendants of the three sons of Danan, a profound adept in the art of magic, and by others, as being divided into the three tribes of Tuatha or commanders, Dee, druids or priests, and Danan or bards. The chronicles of the time state, that having been driven out of Boeotia by their inveterate enemies the Fomorians, after wandering through various countries, they settled in Norway, where they were hospitably received; whence they removed to Scotland, and, after a residence there of seven years, proceeded to Ireland, carrying with them several necromantic curiosities, the most remarkable of which was the fatal stone, or stone of destiny, to which tradition attached the belief that the sovereignty would remain with that nation whose king was crowned upon it. The tale would be unworthy of historical notice, were not an observance of the present day connected with the superstitious credence to which it owes its birth. The stone, after having been preserved for many generations in the line of the Irish Milesian monarchs, was taken to Scotland by a king of that family, by whom it was fraudulently detained, and used as the inauguration stone of the Scottish kings until the time of Edward I. of England, who, on his conquest of the country, transferred it, together with all the other appendages of royalty, to London, where it is still kept, under the name of Jacob’s stone, and is used in the ceremonial of the coronation of the kings of Great Britain. The Belgae defended themselves for some time with great spirit, but they were at length totally defeated. Numbers of them withdrew to the neighbouring islands and coasts of Scotland; and those who remained were reduced to a state of abject slavery, under which they remained during the whole time their enemies held the dominion, which the latter were enabled to do, without molestation from a foreign enemy, for an hundred and ninety-seven years, under a succession of nine sovereigns.

The dynasty of the Tuatha-na-Danans was terminated by an event similar to those which had extinguished the two previous colonies. An expedition from Spain, under the eight sons of Milesius, landed in the south-west of Ireland, and after encountering many perils, partly by the violence of a storm, by which five of the leaders were lost, partly by the resistance of the old settlers, they obtained possession of the entire country, which was divided between Heremon and Heber, two of the surviving sons of Milesius; Amergin, the third, having no share in the government, but acting rather as a councillor to both, a function which his literary acquirements entitled him to assume. The southern part fell to Heber; Leinster and Connaught to Heremon, who fixed his residence at Teamor, now called Tarah, in Meath. A war soon broke out between the brothers, which was terminated by the total defeat of Heber, the aggressor, who was killed in a battle fought at Geisiol, or Geashil, in the King’s County. But his death did not put an end to the domestic dissensions of the family. A few years after, Heremon put his remaining brother to death, and thus obtained the sole dominion, which he held for thirteen years, till his death. His time was chiefly employed in repelling invasions of the Britons and of the Picts. The government then continued through a race of twenty kings of the same family, of whom nothing worthy of mention is recorded; the annals of the period containing merely the intestine dissensions of the chiefs of the several branches, and their wars with the Britons and Picts, until the crown descended to Ollav Fola, of the family of Ir, one of the sons of Milesius who had perished on the first landing in Ireland. During his reign, which commenced about 900 years before Christ, the Fez, or triennial meeting of the subordinate chieftains, priests, historiographers, and bards, was instituted at Teamor, or Tarah, in which, besides the regulation of all matters affecting the government and the enacting of laws, a minute investigation was entered into of the national monuments and records. Whatever was then deemed genuine and authentic, was inserted in a volume called the Psalter of Tarait. This legislator closed a reign of forty years, spent with benefit to his subjects and honour to himself, by a natural death, a circumstance very unusual in the annals of those times, and left the undisputed succession to his son, who enjoyed it for seventeen years, and also had the unusual good fortune to die in the same manner. The annals of the succeeding monarchs, for the space of 260 years, present nothing but a reiteration of war and mutual destruction, to such an extent, that out of thirty-one kings, who held the reins of government during that period, all but three are recorded to have fallen in battle, or by a violent death. The only occurrences worthy of notice that can be gleaned from the history[7:12:351] of this barren period, are, the erection of a mint, the formation of a standing army by the allowance of a fixed pay to the soldiery, and the invention of the small boats, formed of wicker-work and covered with hides, now called corraghs.

Kimbath, who ascended the throne 460 years before Christ, has obtained an honourable celebrity by his efforts to revive and improve the institutions of Oìlav Fola. He formed a national police, and regulated the artificers and tradesmen, whom he placed under the jurisdiction of a council of sixty of the nobles and learned men, without whose license no person was permitted to practise any mechanic art. The foundation of the royal palace of Eamania, near Armagh, is attributed by some writers to him; whilst others give the credit of it to his widow, who succeeded him, and reigned seven years, when she was cut off by her successor, who in his turn fell by the hand of Hugony the Great, in revenge for the death of his foster mother. This last-named monarch, with whom the line of Heremon would have terminated had he died without issue, was married to the daughter of a king of France, and kept possession of the crown during a vigorous and active reign of thirty years. He obliged the Picts to pay tribute, and extended his dominion over the Western Isles. He also abolished the pentarchical form of government, dividing the country into twenty-five provinces, over each of which he placed one of his twenty-five sons, and causing the public revenues to be collected according to this arrangement. But neither his virtues nor his abilities were sufficient to save him from the usual fate of Irish monarchs, nor to prevent the recurrence of acts of slaughter amongst his posterity. He was slain, after a reign of thirty years, by his own brother, who fell by the hand of one of Hugony’s sons, who in his turn perished by the treachery of his only brother. Amongst the successors of Hugony, Eochy, surnamed Feileagh, or the Melancholy, has made his reign memorable by founding the royal seat of Croghan, in Connaught. It is also celebrated as being the era of the red-branch knights of Ulster, who were said to have had a residence at the palace of Eamania. His successor Eochy introduced the custom of burying in graves instead of burning. Conary More, who reigned for thirty years according to some writers, and sixty according to others, is famous for having enjoyed the longest, happiest, and most tranquil reign in Irish history. Such periods are not those which furnish most materials for the annalist. Of the particulars of his life, though so highly celebrated, little is recorded. He was killed in battle by the king of Wales, though other accounts state that he was treacherously burned in his own palace of Teamor, which also became a prey to the flames. In the reign of Crimthan, one of his successors, who had married the daughter of a Pictish chieftain, the Irish were the auxiliaries of the Picts against the Romans. The information of the leader of a rival faction to this prince is said to have induced Agricoa to entertain the idea of conquering the island with a single legion and some auxiliaries. Whatever might have been the result of such an invasion under a general of acknowledged military talents, it is certain that the Roman power in Britain declined so rapidly from this time, that the Irish made frequent irruptions into the Roman province, and returned to their own country loaded with spoil. Feredach, one of the successors of Crimthan, owes his title of the Just to his chief councillor Moran, whose rigid impartiality in the dispensation of justice is recorded, in the figurative language of the bards, under the allegory of a collar, invented and handed down by him to his successors in office, which had the supernatural effect of pressing upon the neck of the wearer in case his decision deviated from the strict rule of e 9 uι ty> so as to strangle him if he persevered in his iniquity. Feredach was killed after an unsettled reign of seven years, by an insurrection of the peasantry, to whom the name of Attacots was given; a name which afterwards was carried into North Britain, where, though at first applied to disturbers of the public peace, it ultimately became the distinguishing title of a tribe inhabiting the country adjoining the Roman wall. After a period of civil commotion, Tuathal, upon attaining the sovereign power, exerted himself to restore the ancient constitution of Ollav Fola, and the pentarchical division of the country. To him is attributed the appropriation of the central province of Meath, as a demesne or mensal land for the supreme monarch. Here he restored the royal residence, and founded an edifice for the sacred fire, to which the Druids and priests were to have recourse on the last day of October, to perform a solemn sacrifice, and to supply fire to all the people, who were bound to extinguish their usual fires at that time, and to relight them from this hallowed source. He built similar palaces and temples at Uis-neacht in Connaught, at Flaodha in Munster, and at Tail-tean in Ulster, where there was a fair, to which parents brought their grown-up children and contracted them in marriage. He also was the originator of the fine afterwards known by the name of the Boromé, or Leinster tribute, imposed upon the king of that province for having caused the death of two daughters of Tuathal, whom he inveigled away under a treacherous promise of marriage. This monarch died in battle. The reign of Conn Keadca-hagh, or Conn of the Hundred Battles, is best known by the division of Ireland which he was compelled to make with Mogha Nuod, king of Munster. The line of demarcation was fixed by a rampart and fosse, extending across Ireland from Dublin to Galway, the country to the south of which was called Leagh Mogha, or Mogha’s share, that to the north Leagh Cuin, or Conn’s share; names still familiar amongst the Irish. Cormac, the grandson of Conn of the Hundred Battles, signalized himself by his efforts to restore the ancient regulations of the monarchy; but having lost an eye in suppressing a rebellion excited by one of his own family, and being thus excluded from the throne through the prevalence of a prejudice which forbade a mutilated person to continue monarch, he closed his life in retirement, during which he drew up a treatise, yet extant, called the Book of Advice to Kings; a work extolled by the native writers as worthy to be written in letters of gold, a perfect standard of policy to all ages. In his reign flourished the celebrated Irish militia, known by the name of Fiana Erion, and commanded by Fein M*Cooil, commonly called Fingal. It was a military association, into which admission was attainable only by convincing testimonies of great strength, activity, and intelligence; besides which, an engagement was required on the part of the newly-admitted member to choose a wife solely for her merits, never to ill-treat a woman, and not to turn his back upon an enemy, even though nine times as numerous as the body to which he belonged. The regular number of this force was said to be nine thousand men, divided into three battalions. After a variety of exploits, which have furnished materials to much of the legendary romance of the time, the body was annihilated during the succeeding reign, at the battle of Gabra or Gawra, in Meath, where Oscar, the son of Ossian the poet, fell. Passing over a series of several kings known only by name, Niai of the Nine Hostages signalized himself by his military expeditions in Scotland, England, and France. His career of conquest was cut short in the last-named country, where he died of the wound of an arrow treacherously discharged against him on the banks of the Loire. His immediate successor, Dairy, met with an untimely fate in the same country by lightning. He was the last pagan king of Ireland. In the third year of Logary, or [7:12:352]Lae-ra, who succeeded Dahy, Palladius arrived in Ireland, being sent on a mission thither by Pope Celestine for the conversion of the natives. He was not, however, the first who had been thus employed. The names of St Albe, Declan, Iber, and Kirian, are quoted as his predecessors in the pious work. But their labours were confined to particular districts, nor does it appear that they acted under the authority of the see of Rome. Either through ignorance of the language, or want of spirit to withstand the ferocious opposition of his pagan adversaries, Palladius was compelled, after having founded three churches, to relinquish the design, and to quit the country, in order to save his own life and those of his followers; but he was prevented by death from returning to Rome to give an account of his mission. The completion of the work so inauspiciously commenced was reserved for St Patrick, whose success has acquired him the title of the apostle of Ireland. He was a native of North Britain. When sixteen years old he was brought prisoner to Ireland by Nial of the Nine Hostages, during one of his foreign expeditions, and spent seven years in slavery in the country, where his employment was the herding of swine. The law of bondage at that time extended no longer than the seventh year, at the expiration of which time he returned to his native country; and, after having studied under his uncle, the Bishop of Tours, he found his wav to Rome, where he was selected by the pope to renew the attempt which had already failed; an undertaking for which his knowledge of the language, acquired during his captivity, peculiarly qualified him. To Ireland, therefore, he proceeded with twenty disciples or assistants, which number was increased to thirty-four in England, where he touched during his voyage. His first reception on his landing at Wicklow was very discouraging. The report of his arrival had already reached the Pagan prince who had expelled his predecessor. The same spirit of hostility was directed against the new comer, and Patrick and his company were assailed and forced to take refuge on board their ships. But, though discouraged, he was not disheartened. Instead of relinquishing his purpose, he proceeded to the island afterwards named Holm-patrick, where, having refreshed himself by a short leisure, he proceeded to Ulster, and preached before the chieftain of the district so forcibly as to convert him and his family, and to obtain license to found a church there. In the second year of his mission he presented himself before the Fez, or council at Tarah, where he proved equally successful; Logary the king declaring himself a convert, and many of his subjects following his example. Nor does it appear that the subsequent progress of the apostle was checked by any untoward circumstance. The remainder of his life, which was protracted to an unusual length, was spent in traversing the country, spreading around a knowledge of the Christian doctrine, gaining over converts, and founding churches and monasteries. The chief of his religious foundations was at Armagh, which soon became a school of theology, so famous that students flocked to it from all quarters in such numbers, that at one time it was said to have communicated instruction to seven thousand students. The exertions of Patrick were not wholly confined to the preaching of the gospel. He gave his advice and assistance in the reformation of the government. At his suggestion, Logary summoned an assembly of the princes, historians, and antiquaries, to revise the recordsand chronicles of the country'; and their amendments were deposited in the public archives, under the name of “The Great Antiquity.” Fragments of copies taken from this work were to be met with for many centuries afterwards, under the names of the Book of Armagh, the Psalter of Cashel, the Book of Glandaloch, the Leabhar Gabala, and others, from which subsequent writers have derived much of their information respecting the ancient history' of the country. Patrick did not retain the government of the bishopric-erected by himself in Armagh; but having appointed Binen or Benignus his successor in the see, and having made a visit to Rome, he spent the remainder of his life chiefly at Saul, near Downpatrick, where he had founded a monastery, in which he closed a career of active and successful labours, in the hundred and twentieth year of his age, and was buried in the neighbouring abbey of Downpatrick.

Although the exertions of St Patrick produced an effect so great upon the public mind, that, for many years after, the founding of religious institutions, and the lives and deaths of the ecclesiastics engaged in maintaining and extending the new faith, formed the chief subjects of history, it does not appear that the change of religion produced the beneficial alterations that might have been hoped for from it on the political aspect of affairs. The brief notices of the civil occurrences continue to exhibit little more than a reiteration of the turbulence, crime, and desolation, that had marked the era of paganism. The only event of importance that diversifies the tissue of domestic and foreign warfare which forms the subject of the annals of those days, occurred during the reign of Hugh, the son of Ain-mireagh, in which an assemblage was convened at Drum-keath, in Derry, for the express purpose of curbing the license of the bards, now become intolerable. The privileges annexed of old to this order, whose properties as well as persons were inviolable in all civil commotions, whose lands were freed from tribute, and whose houses were respected as sanctuaries, had rendered the numbers of the profession so great, and entailed such a burden on the state for their support, that they were several times before about to be banished from the country. At the assembly now held, they found a zealous and useful friend in the celebrated Columbkill, who left his monastery of Iona to be present here, and prevailed so far as to procure a mitigation of their treatment, by changing the decree for their banishment into one for the diminution of their numbers. It was therefore resolved, that in future the king of Ireland, each provincial sovereign, and the lord of every subordinate territory, was to maintain a bard to preserve the genealogies and record the acts of the respective families; and that a suitable salary was to be allowed him, in return for which he was also to instruct the youth in history, poetry, and antiquities. The whole body was placed under the control of an arch-poet, in whom was vested the power of admitting qualified persons. Thus restrained as to numbers and means of acquiring wealth, their properties were as hitherto exempted from taxation, and their persons privileged. Yet, during this gloomy period, in which the internal state of the country exhibits so little to cheer the inquirer, it became celebrated throughout Christendom, on account of the piety and learning of the inmates of its religious establishments. In the fifth century Sedulius made himself known as a poet, an orator, and a divine, and spread a knowledge of his acquirements, and the fame of the country in which he had imbibed them, through France, Italy, and the western regions of Asia. Columbkill, already transiently noticed as the founder of the monastery of Iona or Hy, the burial-place of the Scottish kings, adorned the sixth century. So also did Congall, the founder of the monastery of Bangor, famed for the multitude of religious men whom its learning and the strictness of its rules led to it. In the seventh century flourished Columba, the founder of several monastic institutions in France and Italy; Aidan, to whom the conversion of the Northumbrians is attributed; Finan, who followed him in the same field of missionary labour; Argobast, who preached in Alsace, and was thence raised to the see of Strasburg; Adamnanus, who visited the court of Alfred, king of Northumberland; and Cuthbert, the son of one of the petty kings [7:12:353]of Ireland, who, after having been prevailed on with much difficulty to take charge of the bishopric of Holy Island, in the same part of England, resigned it for a life of studious retirement in the Isle of Farn, where he closed his life. In the eighth century lived Sedulius the younger, who assisted at a council held at Rome by Gregory II., and was afterwards a bishop in Spain; also Vergilius, a philosopher as well as a divine, as appears by a treatise of his on the Antipodes, written against the then received opinion of the shape of the earth, which he proved to be a globe, and not a plain surrounded by the heavens at its verge. He spent some time in France at the court of King Pepin, by whom he was highly esteemed.

The state of Ireland was now destined to suffer from another element of convulsion. About the commencement of the ninth century, the Danes began to extend to it their predatory ravages. Their first attacks were trifling and occasional, more of the nature of piratical incursions than preconcerted invasion. But in proportion as the success of their first assaults rendered them more daring, and their more extended knowledge of the country made them better acquainted with its fertility, their bands became more numerous, and better prepared for continued hostilities; whilst at the same time the unsettled state of the country, caused by the intestine wars of the native princes, carried on either for the purpose of attaining the supremacy, or for exacting tribute from their inferiors, prevented that combination of defence which alone could ensure success against the foreign enemy. In the middle of the same century, Turgesius, king of Norway, had virtually rendered himself monarch over the greater part of the island. He maintained himself in it with all the cruelty and arrogance of an usurper. Danes were placed in all the subordinate kingdoms. Every district had a Danish officer placed over it, and even every house was required to maintain a Danish soldier. The use of arms was prohibited to the Irish. A tribute of an ounce of gold was exacted from every householder, the non-payment of which was punished by the mutilation of the nose, whence the tribute was known by the name of the nose-tax; and, to complete the climax of degrading submission, the bridal favours of new-married virgins were exacted by the Danish chief of the territory, and were sometimes commuted, at his caprice, for a sum of money. The country had groaned for thirteen years under this complication of insult and injury, until it was at length roused to shake off the degrading yoke. Turgesius had erected a rath for his residence in the neighbourhood of Tarah, where lived Malachy, who still retained the title of king among the Irish. Turgesius claimed his daughter. Malachy, conscious of his inability to resist the demand openly, yet unwilling to sacrifice his only child without an effort, sent along with her a number of young men disguised as her female attendants, who fell upon the Danes in the rath, slaughtered them, seized Turgesius, and handed him over bound to Malachy, who had advanced with a band of armed men to their aid. The captivity of the tyrant was the signal for a general insurrection of the Irish, by which the Danes were forced either to fly aboard their shipping, or to take refuge in the maritime towns that acknowledged their authority. Turgesius, after being kept some time in prison, was drowned in Lough Innel. On the expulsion of the Danes, the country reverted to its former state of internal dissension. Cormac M‘Cuillenan, king of Munster and bishop of Cashel, an union of civil and spiritual jurisdiction then not uncommon, claimed a tribute from the king of Leinster, which, on refusal of payment, he proceeded to enforce by the power of his arms. But on entering his adversary’s territory, he found him strengthened by the support of the king of Ireland. The unexpected intelligence threw such a damp upon the spirits of his troops, that many deserted him before the battle: those who stood firm were soon routed, and Cormac himself was killed by a fall from his horse, whilst endeavouring to escape amongst the fugitives. This king is best known in history as the compiler of a book of annals, called the Psalter of Cashel, from which succeeding writers derived much information. It has been many years lost.

The internal dissensions of the country encouraged the Danes to make another effort for subjugating the island. A large force landed in Leinster, under the command of Se-trick, said by some writers to have been a son of Turgesius, by whom Dublin was taken, and the possession of it secured by a signal victory obtained over the combined forces of the Irish, in which Niai, king of Ireland, and many of his generals, fell. The distractions of the country, thus augmented by the presence of a foreign enemy, obtained a temporary intermission by the accession of Brian Borce to the sovereignty. This prince, the great hero of the Irish, was brother to the king of Munster, on whose death he succeeded to the throne of that province, from which he not only expelled the Danes, who had made a settlement in Limerick, but extended his dominion over the whole southern division of Ireland. The brilliancy of his achievements against the common enemy induced the rest of the subordinate chieftains to unite in a confederacy for deposing Malachy, the reigning monarch, and raising Brian into his place. The object was effected with little difficulty, and, what was more unusual in the revolutions of the country, with no bloodshed. Malachy was of a mild and undecided character. After a feeble effort to revive the spirit of loyalty among the subordinate princes of the northern division, to the chief of whom, O’Neill, he offered a large portion of his dominions, he resigned the crown without a struggle. The new monarch was publicly proclaimed ‘and inaugurated at Tarah. After receiving the submissions of the kings of Ulster and Connaught, and reducing some refractory chieftains who disputed his authority, he directed the combined energies of all the states against the Danes, whom he expelled from the island, with the exception of such as consented to embrace Christianity. These he located in the great seaports of Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Limerick, and Cork. Having thus removed the obstacles arising from a foreign enemy, he directed his attention to the general civilization of the kingdom, by founding or restoring the places of worship and seminaries of education, building bridges, opening passes, erecting fortresses, and fitting out a fleet to oppose the Danes on their own element, before they could effect a landing. In the accomplishing of these objects, he spent the latter part of a long and glorious reign. But its termination was marked by a circumstance that undid all his labours. The subordinate king of Leinster, irritated at an insult offered to him in the court of Brian, made overtures to the king of Denmark for a union to expel him from the throne. These were gladly accepted. A large fleet was sent from Denmark, which landed a body of troops near Dublin, where they were joined by those of the king of Leinster. Brian was not negligent in discovering, or tardy in adopting measures to resist, this new combination. At the head of a numerous and well-appointed army, collected from all the other provinces, he marched to me'et the enemy. The battle was fought on the plains of Clontarf. It was bloody and desperate, but decisive; the Danes were utterly defeated, and forced to fly to their ships. The Leinster men, abandoned by their foreign friends, were cut to pieces without mercy. The exultation of triumph would have been as unmixed as the victory was glorious, had it not been clouded by the death of the monarch, who, though too far advanced in years to take part in the engagement, led the army to the field, and was killed in his tent, whither he had remained during the conflict, by a party of straggling Danes, as they [7:12:354] were flying. His eldest son Mortogh fell in the battle. Malachy, the deposed monarch, seized the opportunity of reviving his claim to the vacant throne. His conduct during the late crisis had been more than dubious. He had made a show of assisting the Irish with the forces of Meath, which province he had been allowed to retain, but, on the commencement of the battle, withdrew his men to a neighbouring eminence, where he continued an inactive spectator of the struggle. His claim was acquiesced in. But his resumption of the reins of authority proved only the signal for the renewal of those scenes of turbulence and anarchy which the commanding talents of his predecessor had kept under control. The apprehensions of subjugation to a foreign power were indeed removed.' The victory of Clontarf discouraged any further effort of the Danes, whom alone the native rulers dreaded. These were left to carry on undisturbed their schemes of self-aggrandizement and mutual contention. The only event to diversify the gloomy monotony of incessant civil discord, was a synod of the clergy at Kells, held in 1152, under Cardinal Papiron, the pope’s legate. Heretofore the connection of the Irish church with the see of Rome had been very slight, and altogether voluntary. It was governed by the two Archbishops of Armagh and Cashel, and a number of bishops, whose system of control was regulated by domestic synods. At the assemblage now spoken of, the supremacy of the see of Rome was acknowledged, and four palls were given to the Archbishops of Armagh, Cashel, Dublin, and Tuam.

Things continued in this state till the time of Roderic Connor, whose reign forms the commencement of a new era, which overthrew all the ancient forms and constitutions of government, and gave to the tide of political events a new turn, by which they have been influenced to the present time. Notwithstanding the proximity of England to Ireland, there had hitherto been but little intercourse between the two countries. Wales, then an independent state, interposed between them. The Saxons were not a people of commercial or adventuring enterprise; and, even after the final consolidation of England into an established monarchy under the Normans, the views of the monarchs of this line, whether for extension of territory or for commerce, were directed towards the states of the Continent, whence they had derived their parentage. We read indeed of an invasion, and even a subjugation of part of Ireland, by Edgar, king of the Northumbrians. If such occurred, it has left behind it few or no historical traces. The episcopal see of Dublin acknowledged the supremacy of that of Canterbury, from which it received its canons and rights of ordination. The Danish character of the city, which, until after the English invasion, was always considered as a subordinate seaport, accounts sufficiently for this peculiarity; and that the connection between the two kingdoms had nothing in it savouring of subjection on the part of Ireland at the time now about to be entered upon, appears from the fact, that at the synod of Armagh, assembled in 1170, to inquire into the cause of the arrival of strangers from England for the purpose of conquest, the impending calamity was imputed to the sins of the people, and more especially to the practice of buying English children, and making them slaves. Giraldus Cambrensis, in stating the fact, adds, “that the English, by a common vice of their country, had a custom to sell their children and kinsfolk into Ireland, although not driven to it by extreme poverty.”

Dermot M‘Murrough, king of Leinster, had incurred the hatred of his own subjects, and of the other princes, by his tyranny. His breach of the laws of hospitality in carrying off the wife of O’Ruark, king of Breffney, gave particular offence to Roderic, by whom he was consequently driven from his dominions. In his distress he had recourse to Henry II. of England, under whom he offered to hold his crown as a tributary, if restored by that monarch’s exertions. The offer was very grateful to Henry. He had long before turned his thoughts to the acquisition of Ireland. As early as the year 1154, he had procured a bull from Adrian, who owed his elevation to the papacy to Henry’s influence, conferring on him the sovereignty of the island, in order to its civilization, upon payment of the tribute of Peter’s pence to the court of Rome. But his domestic difficulties and continental engagements had hitherto obliged him to postpone any active measures to accomplish his object. He was now in Guienne, embarrassed by rebellion amongst his French subjects, and by his disputes with the papal see, and therefore was forced to confine himself to general expressions of assent, confirmed by a permission to all his English subjects to assist in the restoration of his new ally. Supported by this authority, Dermot turned homewards, and, after vainly attempting to engage adventurers in Bristol, he at last formed a treaty with Richard, earl of Pembroke, and Strigul, better known by the name of Strongbow, a Welsh baron, who, having impaired his patrimony, was easily engaged to take part in a desperate enterprise, on the uncertain expectation of inheriting the kingdom of Leinster after Dermot’s death, by a marriage with his only daughter, which was to be the reward of his exertions if successful. Through Strongbow’s influence, he also engaged the assistance of Robert Fitzstephens, constable of Abertivi, and of Maurice Fitzgerald, a Welsh chieftain. Having secured these auxiliaries, Dermot returned to Ireland, where he lived concealed in the monastery of Ferns, the confidence of whose inmates he had gained by liberal donations to their house, until the arrival of his new friends warranted him in asserting his former station.

Fitzstephens was the first to fulfil his engagement. He landed at the headland of Bag-and-Bon, in the estuary of the Bannow, with a following of but thirty knights, fifty gentlemen, and three hundred archers. Small as the number was, their discipline and superiority in military equipment justified Dermot in throwing off the veil on their appearance. The first movement of the combined force was upon the town of Wexford, a Danish dependency of the crown of Leinster, which surrendered on the first appearance of the enemy, and was, with the two adjoining cantrids of Forth and Bargie, given to Fitzstephens by Dermot, as a foretaste of what was to be hoped for in his service. The next movement was against the king of Ossory, in the Queen’s County, who, after a gallant struggle, was also forced to acknowledge the superiority of the Norman mode of warfare. After a hard-fought contest of three days, the passes of his borders were forced, and himself compelled to fly. The news of these successes soon compelled Roderic to take the most decisive measures. At the head of an army collected from all the subordinate provinces, he advanced to drive the rebel king and his foreign auxiliaries into the sea; but the interference of the clergy prevented the appeal to arms. A treaty was concluded, by which Dermot was restored to his former rank, on condition of dismissing his foreign forces, and paying a fine for his outrage against O’Ruark. His son was delivered to Roderic as a hostage, along with others, for the fulfilment of the terms.

The arrival of Maurice Fitzgerald, who landed at Wexford with ten knights, thirty gentlemen, and an hundred archers, gave a new turn to affairs. Fitzstephens, who was then engaged in erecting a fortified post at Carrig, which commanded a pass on the Slaney, near Wexford, resolved to maintain his position. Little influence was necessary to induce Dermot to aid an effort as profitable [7:12:355]in expectation as perfidious in act. Encouraged by the hope that this new supply would be the prelude to the influx of fresh bands of well-trained warriors, he indulged in the prospect of gratifying his revenge on the causes of his degradation, and even of seating himself on the throne of supreme sovereignty, through the powerful aid of his English allies. For this purpose, after having reduced the city of Dublin to submission by the devastation of the neighbouring district of Fingal, thus establishing his rule over the whole of his former dominions, he sent to urge Strongbow to hasten his arrival.

This nobleman, not satisfied with the general permission already given by Henry, went to that prince, then in Normandy, and having obtained a vague and equivocal assent, prepared for the vigorous prosecution of his enterprise. He first sent over Raymond le Gros, with a detachment of ten knights and seventy archers; who, landing near Waterford, defeated a body of three thousand Irish, collected from the neighbouring country on the spur of the moment, and maintained his position in an intrenched camp until supported by Strongbow himself, who brought to his relief a body of two hundred horse and upwards of a thousand archers. He then, aided by the junction with Dermot, who had hastened to the place, made himself master of Waterford, and thence proceeded to Dublin, which was taken by assault. Roderic, alarmed at the successes of the English, after having called in vain on Dermot to abide by the late treaty, and having, according to some accounts, beheaded that king’s son, in consequence of his father’s refusal to fulfil the terms of it, collected another army to oppose the invaders. Dermot’s death at this juncture gave a new character to the contest. Strongbow, by his marriage with that prince’s only daughter, had succeeded to his royal rights; but being unsupported by any of the Irish chieftains, who viewed with apprehension and envy this intrusion of a stranger, he found himself cooped up in the city of Dublin, with his small band of Englishmen, to stand the brunt of the entire Irish army, with which Roderic had invested the city. But he was delivered from this critical situation by one of those exertions by which a vigorous mind surmounts difficulties. He had been reduced to the necessity of proposing a capitulation. The only terms offered him were the immediate evacuation of the country. Such a surrender of all their brilliant prospects was to these daring adventurers a prospect worse than death. Mito de Cogan, by whose valour in leading the assault the city had been taken, now proposed a sally. His advice was followed. Strongbow, at the head of a select body of ninety knights, attacked the Irish camp. The assault was so sudden and unexpected, that Roderic had scarcely time to escape from the bath, where he was then refreshing himself. The panic spread through all parts; and this great army was dissipated almost without a blow. The English followed up their good fortune by marching to Wexford to relieve Fitzstephens, who was blocked up by the Irish in his castle of Carrig. In the passage thither, the army had to force its way through the passes of Idrone, where O’Ryan, the dynast of the territory, disputed the ground with it successfully, until his death turned the fate of the day. It is said that the English were so severely pressed in the engagement, that Strongbow’s son, a lad rising into manhood, fled from the fight, for which he was hewn in two by his indignant father. A mutilated figure on a small monument placed by the side of Strongbow’s tomb in Christ Church, Dublin, is still adduced as evidence of the truth of this extraordinary event.

The successes of Strongbow excited the jealousy of Henry, who began to apprehend in them, not the enriching of a subject, whence the monarch might derive ho nour, but the aggrandizement of a rival in power. He forbade any of his subjects going to the assistance of the English in Ireland, and commanded the immediate return of all those already there. He was, however, appeased by the appearance of Strongbow himself, who surrendered all his possessions in Ireland to the king, to be holden at his good pleasure. He was restored to favour, and appointed seneschal of this new lordship, with the exception of Dublin and the other fortified cities, which the king retained in his own hands. Henry soon afterwards went over to Ireland with a train of 500 knights, and a large body of soldiers. Landing at Waterford, he proceeded without molestation to Dublin, where he received the homage of a numerous assemblage of the native chieftains, whom he entertained in a pavilion hastily constructed of wicker-work without the walls, as the city then contained no building suitable for their accommodation. He also held a great council or parliament at Lismore, in which the English laws were received and sworn to. At the same time a synod of the clergy at Cashel adopted the rules of doctrine and discipline of the English church for their future regulation. After spending the Christmas in Dublin, and dividing the districts that acknowledged his authority among the chief leaders of the adventurers by whose valour they had been acquired, he returned to England early in spring, to allay the commotions which threatened to break out there.

His absence gave rise to dissensions amongst the English leaders, which led to revolt amongst the natives, who had so lately submitted. To aid the efforts of the Irish, Roderic made another attempt to regain his lost dominions, and to expel the strangers. He invaded Meath, which had been given by Henry to an English baron of the name of De Lacy, with such fury, that Raymond le Gros, the favourite general of the English, who was then celebrating his marriage with the sister of Strongbow, was forced to quit Wexford the morning after his nuptials, in order to make head against the Irish. But they, content with the devastation committed in Meath, had already retired across the Shannon, and Raymond turned his arms against Limerick, which city he took by storm with little difficulty. Roderic, convinced of his inability to cope with success against the superior power of England, sent deputies to the king, proposing to do homage, and pay a stipulated tribute, in return for which he was to hold the kingdom of Connaught, and all his other lands and sovereignties, as fully, in other respects, as before the arrival of the English.

On the death of Strongbow, who died and was buried in Dublin, leaving behind him an only daughter, the heiress of his princely domains, the government of Ireland was committed to William Fitz-Andelm, a nobleman allied to Henry by blood; but the complaints arising from his indolent and corrupt administration became at length too loud to remain unnoticed. He was therefore removed, and John, the king’s favourite son, was appointed lord of Ireland, at the early age of twelve years. On his arrival at Waterford, at the head of a train of young and arrogant noblemen, the native chieftains hastened to pay their respects and do him homage; but when they approached to testify their allegiance according to the custom of the country, by saluting him with the lip, the prince’s English attendants repelled them with insolence, plucked them by their beards, and treated them with every mark of studied indignity. The high-minded natives quitted the court, and their cause was espoused by all who heard their tale. The alarm of war was spread throughout every part of the country. The castles already built by the English on their newlyracquired territories in Meath were stormed and razed, some of their owners killed, and others driven from their settlements. John was recalled, and the government intrusted to De [7:12:356] Lacy, who was soon afterwards assassinated byone of the natives whilst superintending the erection of a fortress which he was building, sacrilegiously, according to the opinion of the times, on the ruins of an abbey dedicated to Columbkill at Durrow. He was succeeded in the government by De Courcy, a nobleman celebrated for his gigantic size and prowess. He had been given such parts of Ulster as he could conquer; and having established his head-quarters at Down, he maintained himself there for some time in a kind of subordinate sovereignty, against all the efforts of the neighbouring princes, and even made an attempt to extend his conquests into Connaught, in doing which, though he failed in the main object of his ambition, he established his power in the neighbourhood of Armagh. The death of Henry II. made no change in the government of Ireland. Richard, intent on his schemes of foreign conquest, permitted John to retain the title and authority conferred on him by his father. The only event which varied the scene of intestine commotion in Ireland during this reign, was the death of Roderic, the last sovereign of all Ireland. The latter years of his life were embittered, in addition to the loss of his independence, by the rebellious conduct of his own sons, which at last compelled him to seek, in the retirement of monastic seclusion, the tranquillity he had vainly sought for on a throne. He died in the monastery of Cong, in 1198, in extreme old age.

John, in the early part of his reign, paid little attention to the affairs of Ireland, which was now much distracted by the feuds carried on between De Lacy, son of him who had been, killed at Durrow, and De Courcy. In this struggle the artful management of the former gained him the advantage over De Courcy’s blunt and boisterous ferocity. He accused him of having imputed to John the murder of his nephew Arthur, in consequence of which, De Courcy was summoned to the court in London; and when he treated the mandate with contempt, he was treacherously seized by his enemy De Lacy, while performing a religious penance unarmed in the church of Down, and sent prisoner to England, where he was long kept in confinement. A proceeding as unworthy as this which exposed De Courcy to the royal indignation, brought John a second time to Ireland. The lady of William de Braosa, who had received a large grant of land in Thomond, or North Munster, on being required to send her children to the English court as hostages for her husband’s allegiance, refused to obey; alleging as a reason, that she would not intrust her children to the care of the murderer of his own nephew. The insult was unpardonable, and John went over in person to avenge it. Upon his arrival in Dublin, upwards of twenty chieftains attended to do homage; but he performed no military act worthy of notice. The unfortunate De Braosa was forced to fly to France, leaving his wife and family behind, who were seized by the tyrant and sent to England, where they died of the severity of their treatment in prison. During his short stay, John paid much attention to the internal management of the country. He ordained that the laws of England should be introduced, with all their judicial forms, a copy of them being left under his great seal, in the exchequer of Dublin. He also divided the districts which acknowledged his authority, and which were afterwards distinguished by the name of the Pale, into the twelve counties of Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Louth, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, and Limerick. In the remainder, which comprehended two thirds of the island, the king’s supremacy was merely nominal. Connaught, which Roderic in his treaty with Henry had specially reserved to himself, after suffering dreadfully by the contentions of that monarch’s sons, and by the irruptions of the English leaders, who endeavoured, by their interference in these family quarrels, io obtain some footing in it for themselves, fell ultimately into the hands of Cathal, surnamed Croove-derg, or the Bloody-handed. But the influence of the De Burghos, a branch of the family of Fitz-Andelm, proved too powerful for him. After many a desperate struggle with the intruders, in which his undisciplined valour enabled him to cope at times successfully with the well-marshalled followers of the English chieftain, he was compelled to surrender two parts of the country to the king of England, in order to secure to himself the peaceable possession of the remainder; at the same time acknowledging himself a vassal, and binding himself to a yearly tribute of an hundred merks. On the departure of John, who continued but a short time in the country, the government was intrusted to John de Grey, bishop of Norwich, who conducted it with prudence and vigour; and afterwards by Henry de Loundres, archbishop of Dublin, the most remarkable act of whose administration was the erection of a castle in Dublin, now the acknowledged capital of the English territory.

Immediately after the accession of Hen III. the Irish transmitted to England a list of the encroachments made on their rights in the preceding reign, with a petition to be taken under the royal protection. Henry sent them in answer a copy of the Magna Charta, whereby they were to be placed on the same footingas English subjects. This charter was confirmed by others of a similar tendency, transmitted by the same monarch. He also gave O’Brien, king of Thomond, a grant of that territory, to be held by English law, in lieu of the Irish tenure by which he had hitherto possessed it. The change was considered of such value as to be worth the payment of a thousand merks, and an annual sum of an hundred and thirty. But the king’s promise of impartial protection to the Irish was grossly violated in the instance of Cathal Croove-derg, who was now deprived of the third part of his kingdom that had been allowed to remain with him by John, this portion being granted, together with all the rest of Connaught, to Richard de Burgho. Cathal died soon after this unjust deprivation of his property. His subjects, assisted by O’Neill, prince of Tyrowen, placed his brother Tirlogh on the throne; but he was removed by the lord-deputy, and Aedh, a son of Cathal, substituted in his place. Aedh being shortly afterwards killed in a skirmish, the lord-deputy again removed Tirlogh, whom the people of Connaught had reinstated, and placed Feidlim, another son of Cathal, upon the throne. But a title held under a tenure so precarious and degrading could not be satisfactory. Feidlim, therefore, crossed over to England, and threw himself on the protection of the king, by whom he received a special assurance of security in the possession of his territories, which enabled him to retain them unmolested till his death.

Towards the conclusion of his reign Henry made a grant of Ireland to his eldest son Edward; with a proviso, however, that it was to be always connected with and dependent upon the crown of England. The country derived no benefit from the arrangement. Edward was drawn away to pursue schemes of more brilliant promise in the Holy Land, and Ireland was suffered to continue under the management of subordinate officers. Its state was at this time truly miserable. In addition to the struggles of the Irish chieftains to regain their patrimonial rights of property and independence, the districts which acknowledged the English rule were torn to pieces by the hostilities of rival barons. To such a pitch did this state of anarchy increase, that in a contest between the De Burghos and the Fitzgeralds, the latter faction seized upon Richard de Rupella, the lord-justice of Ireland, and threw him, with several of his adherents, into prison, from which it required the authority of a parliament to liberate him.

The neglected state of the country during the reign of Edward I., whose attention was absorbed by the nearer and more pressing affairs of Scotland and Wales, increas [7:12:357]ed the turbulence and audacity of the English barons. A dispute between Sir William de Vesci, the lord-justice, who had married an heiress of the Pembroke family, and John Fitzthomas, one of the heads of the Fitzgeralds, was carried to such a pitch, that each accused the other of high treason; and the affair was brought before the king in person, to be decided by the law of duel. On the day appointed for the combat, Vesci was not forthcoming. He had fled to France. The king transferred his lands in Ireland to his accuser, which contributed considerably to the future aggrandizement of the Fitzgerald family. So grievously was the great body of the Irish pressed down by the arrogant tyranny of these feudal lords, that they offered the king six thousand merks for a charter from him to be governed by the laws of England. This reasonable request, which implied nothing more than the enforcing of the previous charters of John and Henry to the same effect, was neutralized by the opposition of the barons, whose oppressions it was meant to curb. A second application of a similar nature during this reign met*with a similar fate. The conduct of Edward to one of the lords-justices, De Ufford, whom he called over to explain why such quarrels were permitted during his administration, proves that the king was not over anxious to probe this malady to the bottom. De Ufford’s defence of himself was, that “he deemed it expedient to suffer one knave to destroy another, to save expense to the king.” Edward was satisfied with this evasive answer, and sent him back to his government. The wars of the barons were still tolerated; and the Irish, who wished for the protection of English law against their tyranny, were still forced to purchase it by special charters of denization, by the fees of which the officers of the court were enriched. These charters were mostly the consequence of intermarriages with some of the great English families.

The accession of Edward II. afforded a prospect of the restoration of the royal authority, and the suppression of the exorbitant power of the English barons. The king, compelled to part with his favourite Gaveston, sent him into Ireland as lord-lieutenant, as into a kind of honourable exile. On his arrival, Gaveston obtained some advantages over the Irish septs in the neighbourhood of Dublin; but, however flattering the appearances arising from this change of administration, they proved delusive. Edward, unable to endure longer his favourite’s absence, recalled him, and the country fell back into the anarchical sway of the barons. The royal mandates were set at nought, and private wars carried on without restraint or control. Frightful as were the state and prospects of the country, a fresh ingredient of misery was now thrown in. Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, elated with the victory of Bannockburn, resolved on a measure which, if successful, would have added considerably to the security of his own kingdom, and to the weakening of his most formidable enemy. He proposed to detach Ireland from England, and to connect it with Scotland, either as an ally or a dependency. V ith this view, and also to give employment abroad to an ambitious and ardent relative, he proposed to his brother Edward the conquest of the country. The offer was accepted. The first attempt on the northern province failed, because the means were insufficient for the magnitude of the object. But Bruce was not to be discouraged by a single check. The attempt was soon afterwards renewed with enlarged resources. In the summer of 1315, Edward Bruce landed in the north of Ireland, at the head of six thousand men, where he was joined by numbers of the discontented Irish. De Burgho, earl of Ulster, aroused by the danger which threatened his possessions, aided by Feidlim, king of Connaught, marched to oppose the invader. Their combined force was defeated at Coleraine, and Bruce, following up his victory, reduced Carrickfergus; penetrated into Meath, where he defeated, at Kenlis or Kells, a second army sent to oppose him; advanced still further to Skerries, where he encountered and routed Sir Edmund Butler, the lord-justice; and returning to Dundalk, through want of provisions, was there crowned king of Ireland. His affairs were now singularly prosperous. His brother came to his assistance from Scotland, but was forced, through the scarcity of provisions, to return, leaving with him a part of his troops. Feidlim joined his party, and was followed by O’Brien of Thomond, and several lesser chieftains. The English barons now began to be sensible that the tenure of their possessions was at stake. They collected a numerous body of troops, which were sent, in the first instance, into Connaught, to put down Feidlim. A sanguinary battle ensued at A.thenree, in which the Irish prince was slain, and with him terminated the last hope of the restoration of the monarchy of Ireland. Bruce, after refreshing his troops, marched to Dublin. To guard against his assaults, the citizens set fire to their suburbs, with such precipitation, that one of the churches was involved in the conflagration; and intrenching themselves within their walls, they presented such a face as deterred the besiegers from continuing the siege. Bruce therefore proceeded to Kildare, which he ravaged, and thence penetrated through the passes of Ossory into Munster, spreading havoc and desolation on all sides. Want of provisions, and the intelligence, on one hand, of another army having been collected against him, under the command of Roger Mortimer, sent from England as lord-justice, and on the other, of new supplies from home, led by his brother in person, induced him to retrace his steps towards Ulster. By forced marches he retreated unmolested into Meath. He was followed by the English, now under the command of Sir John Bermingham. Both armies met at Faugher, near Dundalk. The Scotch army was the more numerous, but it was much exhausted by fatigue and famine; the English were well equipped and armed, and in a high state of organization. It is said that Edward Bruce, on hearing that his brother was advancing, pressed on the engagement, in the hope of securing to himself the undivided honour of victory. The result was deserving of the arrogance which led to an act so ill advised and precipitate. After a sanguinary struggle, the Scottish army was totally defeated. The body of Bruce was found, after the engagement, in the midst of heaps of slain, lying under that of an English knight of the name of Maupas, who had pressed forward to the honour of being captor of the Scottish general. Robert Bruce, on hearing of the result, immediately returned home, and made no further attempt upon the country.

The expulsion of the Scotch gave little relief to the people, who still continued to groan under the feudal oppressions and interminable quarrels of their rulers. On the accession of Edward III. they addressed themselves again to the throne, in order to procure a general charter of admission to the rights of British subjects. The petition was favourably received; but being referred, like former applications of the same kind, to the Irish parliament, through the lord-justice, it was, like these, rejected. The Irish, disappointed in their hopes of good government, broke out into acts of insurrection. The king, unable to restore tranquillity by energetic measures, had recourse to others, the evil effects of which were long felt. The greater part of Leinster had been parcelled out into five palatinates, in favour of the five grand-daughters of Strongbow, on whom this princely inheritance had devolved in failure of male issue. Meath and Ulster had also been granted in like manner. The number of these exempt jurisdictions, in which the superior lord exercised most of the prerogatives of royalty, was now increased, [7:12:358]by erecting the county of Desmond, or South Munster, into a palatinate -in favour of Maurice Fitzthomas, a branch of the Fitzgerald family; and another was shortly after erected in Tipperary, for James Butler, created Earl of Ormond. In consequence of the great privileges bestowed on these noblemen, the king’s authority was proportionally contracted, and a few powerful chieftains were enabled, under colour of asserting their rights, to overawe or control, by their combination, the wholesome exercise of the powers of the constitution, or to convulse the country to its centre, by their mutual contests for superiority. This ruinous system was carried still further. The chief governor, unable to collect men in numbers sufficient to cope with the insurgent Irish, applied for military aid to the Earl of Desmond. The request was readily acceded to, and ten thousand men were sent him; but as the deputy was deficient in the means of paying or feeding such a body, the troops were allowed to live on the country at free quarters, or, as it was then called, on congne and livery, which consisted in the taking of man’s meat, horse’s meat, and money, of all the inhabitants, at the will and pleasure of the soldier, who had no other means of subsistence. This extortion was originally Irish, for they used to lay Bonaught, as they called it, upon the people, and never gave their soldiers any other pay. But under the English it was still more intolerable, as with them the oppression was not temporary or limited either in time or place, but, because there was everywhere a continual war, either offensive or defensive, and every lord of a country, and every marcher, made war and peace at his good pleasure, it became universal and perpetual, and was, indeed, the heaviest oppression that ever was inflicted on any kingdom, Christian or heathen.

The effects of this feeble policy proved the reverse of what its devisers may be supposed to have expected. Internal turbulence and discord increased. To heighten the confusion, William de Burgho, who united in his own person the government of the two palatinates of Meath and Ulster, and had also the greater part of Connaught, was assassinated at Carrickfergus by his own domestics. His only daughter was carried to England for protection. O’Neill of Tyrowen, to whose family the northern palatinate of De Burgho had formerly belonged, seized on the opportunity to recover by force a considerable portion of the inheritance of his forefathers. The estate in Connaught was also seized on by two of the younger branches of the De Burgho family, who, conscious of the illegality of their claim according to the rules of English law, renounced their allegiance, assumed the Irish name of M ’ William, distinguishing themselves from each other by the surnames of Eighter and Oughter, or the Hither and Further M 4 William; the former holding the lands in Galway, the latter those in Mayo, and both, conforming to the laws and tenures of the Irish, set the authority of the king’s justice at defiance. But the act which tended most to destroy the English power, þy unhinging the connection between the parent country and the colony that had sprung from, it, was an order that all public officers whose property existed wholly in Ireland should be displaced, and their places supplied by persons born in England, and having lands in that country. This act gave rise to the distinction between the English by blood and the English by birth, causing those of the former class, through irritation at the insulting degradation by which they were deprived of their fair share of the honours and emoluments earned by the blood of their ancestors, not only to attach themselves to the native Irish by the ties of marriage and community of interests, but to exceed them in the intensity of hatred to the new intruders; and hence they were said to be more Irish than the Irish themselves. The effects of this unjust and impolitic ordinance were not long in showing themselves. A common interest united the descendants of the old settlers into a general combination. Alarmed at the spirit which they indicated, the lord-justice, Sir John Morris, deemed it expedient to assemble a parliament at Dublin, whereby a less dangerous vent might be afforded to the expression of the grievances of the discontented. But the injured party adopted another and a more spirited course. Not content with absenting themselves from parliament, they held another assembly, totally independent of it, at Kilkenny, under the auspices of the Earl of Desmond, in which they drew up a remonstrance, to be presented to the king, which exhibited a striking view of the aggressions of the government, and the grievances which had excited general discontent. The king’s answer was gracious and condescending. Assurance was given them of immediate relief from the more gross grievances, and of inquiry into all. His anxiety to procure aid for his continental expeditions appears to have been one cause of the readiness with which these concessions were granted; for we are informed that the Earls of Desmond and Kildare attended him with numerous followers into France, and the latter distinguished himself greatly at the siege of Calais. But the spirit of self-interested monopoly which gave birth to this distinction, though repressed, was not extinguished; and fresh occasion was soon given it to blaze forth from a quarter whence it might least have been apprehended. Lionel, afterwards Duke of Clarence, Edward’s second son, had married the heiress of the late Earl of Ulster, and thus became entitled to the lordships of Ulster and Connaught. To add weight to the enforcement of his claim, which he was about to assert in person, the king invested him with the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland. But, born and educated in England, he carried over with him all his English prejudices and prepossessions. Surrounded by men of English birth, and taught by them to look on the ancient settlers, not only as unworthy of his confidence, but as disaffected to his government, he forbade, by proclamation, any of the old English, or of the king’s subjects of Irish birth, to approach his camp. This imprudent measure deprived him of the only aid which could render his operations against the common enemy of the English government effectual. Left, amongst strangers to the country, to traverse unknown districts, and to contend against an enemy of whose movements and mode of action he was wholly ignorant, he found himself enclosed in a position in which advance was impossible and retreat perilous, and from which he was extricated solely by an appeal to those whose services he had at his first landing so haughtily and unwisely rejected. After a short stay he was recalled, but returned in a few years, improved in the knowledge of the science of governing a country of habits dissimilar to those of his own. On his second visit he directed his attention to the general reformation of the parts of the island that yielded a willing obedience to the royal authority. A parliament was summoned at Kilkenny, the result of whose deliberations was an ordinance, since known by the name of the Statute of Kilkenny, which forms one of the great political epochs in the history of the country.

By this statute it was enacted, that marriage, fostering, or gossipred with the Irish, should be deemed treasonable; and conformity to the rules of Irish law was subjected to a similar penalty. The use of Irish names, language, or apparel, by any person of English birth or descent, was punishable by forfeiture of lands or imprisonment. Penalties were also imposed on those who permitted their Irish neighbours to graze on their lands, who presented them to ecclesiastical benefices, who admitted them into religious houses as members, or who gave encouragement to the Irish bards, musicians, or story-tellers. The execution of this statute was enforced by the anathemas of the church against its [7:12:359]violators. WTiatever might have been the effects of an enactment so rigorous towards uniting the English settlers more closely among themselves, it is evident that it severed completely any links of the bond of mutual charity and community of interests that existed between them and the Irish. The presence of an English nobleman of royal birth, connected by marriage with the descendant and representative of a family now nearly Irish through length of residence, might have led to the introduction of a system of generous equity towards the natives of the country, the former rightful possessors of the soil. But the wording of this statute pronounced the Irish to be irreclaimable. The opportunity for the amalgamation of conflicting interests was lost; and ages passed over without another such presenting itself for a renewal of the experiment. The Duke of Clarence was again recalled, and the administration of the government left, as before, to deputies. The low condition to which the country was now reduced may be inferred from the fact related as to Sir Richard Pembridge, warden of the Cinque Ports, who, on being appointed to the lieutenancy, refused to undertake the office, in consequence of the distracted state of the country; and it was adjudged that his refusal was strictly legal, inasmuch as residence in Ireland, even in the elevated station assigned to him, was looked upon as but an honourable exile, to which no freeman was to be subjected, except in case of abjuration for felony, or by act of parliament. So far was the English power reduced towards the close of this reign, that, as the authority of the English law had extended during the time of John over the twelve counties already named, and over the greater part of Connaught, it was confined, in the thirtieth year of the present reign, to the four counties of Meath, Louth, Dublin, and Carlow; and of these the greater part was border-land, governed by march law, which was little more than another word for the arbitrary will of the lord of the marches. The last effort made by Edward to restore the English government, was a mandate directing a stated number of bishops, knights, and burgesses to attend the king in his parliament in England, to assist in enacting laws for Ireland. The proceedings of this parliament are lost, but the existence of writs to the several counties, cities, and boroughs, directing them to defray the expenses of the persons sent over, proves that it had assembled. About the same time the trade with Portugal was thrown open to the Irish, but the disorders of the country were too deeply rooted to admit of the people availing themselves of the privilege.

In the beginning of the reign of Richard II., Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland by the joint consent of the king and the English nobility; the latter party wishing thus to break the connection of favouritism that bound him to the former. But after an equipment, fitted out on a princely scale, the project failed. He had proceeded as far as Wales, when Richard, who accompanied him to the water’s edge, found his attachment too violent to bear the separation, and brought him back to London. Commissioners were afterwards deputed to inquire into the state of the country, but with no beneficial result. At length Richard resolved to visit this part of his dominions in person. He landed at Waterford with an army of four thousand men-at-arms and thirty thousand archers; but after nine months spent in an empty display of regal pageantry, during which he received the submission of seventy-five native Irish or degenerate English chieftains, and granted pardons to others, whom an apprehension of ill treatment kept at a distance, he returned to England. The only stipulation for restoring tranquillity made during his visit was, that the province of Leinster should be evacuated by the Irish; but when the condition was to be enforced, after the removal of the terrors of a royal army, the requisitions of the government were followed only by excuses and delays, and ultimately by insurrection, in the course of which Roger Mortimer, earl of Marche, whom Richard had left behind him as his lieutenant, was killed at Kenlis, in a skirmish against the O’Byrnes, whom he had driven from their mountain fastnesses in Wicklow.

Mortified and irritated by a result so contrary to the anticipations entertained from his expensive armament and pompous reception in Ireland, Richard undertook a second military expedition thither. He landed again in Waterford, and after spending some time there and ∙at Kilkenny, in an idle display of royalty, he proceeded to Dublin, in the full confidence that now, as previously, his journey thither would be but a progress of pacific parade. In this expectation he was buoyed up by the appearance of several of the Irish lords, who, presenting themselves with halters round their necks, fell at his feet and implored forgiveness with the most abject humility. But on entering into the woods and defiles of the marches of Leinster, his reception was very different. M 4 Murchad, the principal chieftain of the province, who, notwithstanding the pensions he had received, and the submissions he had entered into, was still the inveterate enemy of the English, rushed out unexpectedly from the cover of his woods, at the head of three thousand chosen men, so well appointed, and with such a display of valour, as to stop the advance of the royal army for some time; and though it ultimately forced its way to the capital, such were the losses sustained by famine, hardship, and battle, that Richard had to wait for a reinforcement from England before he could resume hostilities. In the mean time the news of the successes of the Duke of Lancaster compelled him to hasten his departure, in order to oppose this new enemy. The unfortunate and disgraceful termination of his reign belongs to English history.

The intestine commotions in Ireland were aggravated in the reign of Henry IV. by invasions of the Scotch, who assisted the Irish of Ulster in driving the English from this province, and acquired some settlements there, whence they were never afterwards wholly removed. Henry’s second son, Thomas, duke of Lancaster, was sent over as lord-lieutenant. His government was vigorous, and in some degree effective. The native Irish of Wicklow were checked; the degenerate English in Meath and Uriel were compelled to submit; and M‘Murchad, who still maintained himself in the western parts of Leinster, in defiance of the government, was defeated in a severe and well-contested battle. The citizens of Dublin fitted out several naval expeditions against the Scotch and Welsh; and though, in their first engagement with the former enemy, they suffered a total defeat on the coast of Ulster, they afterwards revenged the insult by carrying the war into the islands and coasts of Scotland, and by their depredations in Wales, whence they brought back in triumph a shrine of St Cubin, and lodged it with much ceremony in Christ Church, as a proud monument of their victory. But this favourable change was merely temporary. The lord-lieutenant was wounded, and his forces beaten back, under the very walls of Dublin; and he soon afterwards quitted the country altogether. The residents in the border counties were now reduced to the degrading necessity of purchasing peace and protection from the neighbouring Irish chieftains, by the payment of a stipulated tribute called black rent.

The arrival of Sir John Talbot, Lord Furnival, in the succeeding reign, a man distinguished for his military talents, gave hope of a change for the better. By his activity and valour he compelled several of the neighbouring Irish chieftains, not only to desist from their incursions, but also to do homage and give hostages. Yet though bound to keep the peace, they still retained their independence, [7:12:360]and the English pale was not enlarged. The lord-lieutenant, likewise, having brought with him no supplies either of men or money, had no means of maintaining his position, except the oppressive and ruinous system of congne and livery. The English settlers were thus reduced to a state of extreme degradation and distress. Looked upon by the Irish as aliens and intruders, they were treated by the new comers from England as slaves, and considered by the English in general as in nowise better than the natives. In the beginning of this reign, the parliament at London, in consequence of the swarms of needy adventurers from Ireland, whom the devastations of their own country had driven to seek an asylum abroad, passed an act to oblige all Irish to quit the kingdom. Even the students who resorted to London for education, though expressly excepted from the severe provisions of the statute, were contemptuously excluded from the Inns of Court, from a prejudice as impolitic as it was unjust, since it not only precluded them from an intercourse tending to conciliate their affections to England, but debarred them from the means of acquiring a knowledge of the laws, which were the only effective means of preserving the connection between the countries. Indeed the continuance of such connection was preserved at the present period, more by the ignorant prejudices of the native princes themselves, than by the exertions of the government. Contented to rule over their petty septs, their aversion to the English was scarcely more violent than that entertained by them against the neighbouring tribes of their own race. They united in the most cordial attachment with the old English in their revolts; and their insurrections, far from being excited by a general desire of exterminating the whole body of their invaders, were usually occasioned by some local dispute or act of private oppression.

In the beginning of the reign of Henry VI. the two Anglo-Irish families of Desmond and Butler began to assume the high political position which they retained long after. James, the first Earl of Desmond, obtained the leadership of the family and the title, to the prejudice of his nephew, who had degraded himself in the eyes of his followers by marrying a peasant’s daughter. The uncle was secured in the estate by authority of parliament, and also constituted governor of the counties of Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and Kerry, over which he exerted an almost royal jurisdiction. The Earl of Ormond, the head of the Butler family, after having been removed from the chief government of Ireland by the machinations of his enemies, was protected against their further efforts by the personal kindness of Henry VI., which laid the foundation of a lasting attachment to this monarch on the part of the earl and his descendants. A change now took place in the government, more important in its effects than any hitherto recorded. Richard duke of York, descended from an elder brother of the prince through whom the reigning family derived its claim to the throne, was universally beloved. The contrast between him and his inglorious sovereign was too glaring to remain unnoticed. It was therefore resolved to remove him out of England; and he was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, with extraordinary powers. His administration presents one of the few bright gleams of Irish history. It was long quoted as the time when peace and prosperity flourished, when faction was repressed by even-handed justice, and when the natives, the English by blood, and the English by birth, coalesced in an honest exertion to improve the country. Aware, on his arrival, of the bitter jealousy which existed between the rival families of the Butlers and Geraldines, and although he ι knew that the former was attached by gratitude to his rival, he scorned to be swayed by any suspicions on that account; but, on the birth of his son, afterwards the unfortunate Duke of Clarence, by engaging the heads of both families to be sponsors at the infant’s baptism, he bound each to himself and to the other by the tie of gossipred, a relationship respected to a degree of veneration amongst the Irish. Being called away to England to clear himself from some imputations on his loyalty, he intrusted the administration to the Earl of Ormond, who was succeeded by Sir Edward Fitz-Eustace, a knight of great military fame, by whom the O’Connors of Offaly were defeated, and the sept of the O’Neills, who had presumed to insult the city of Dublin by plundering some of the ships in the bay, and carrying off the archbishop, were so roughly treated at Ardglass, as to check for a long period any efforts of the northern toparch against the pale. In the mean time the Duke of York, though successful in his first effort to seize the English crown, was totally defeated at Bloreheath, and forced to fly into Ireland, where he was received more like a sovereign prince than a discomfited traitor. The parliament passed an act for hie protection, and decreed that whosoever should attempt to disturb him, under pretence of writs from England, should be deemed guilty of high treason. An agent of Ormond, who ventured to violate the law, was executed. On the duke’s subsequent change of fortune, numbers of his Irish adherents followed him to England. The palatinate of Meath, in particular, was almost deserted by the English settlers, who hastened to enrol themselves under the banner of the white rose. He appeared in London with this gallant train; but the war being unexpectedly renewed, he was encountered at Wakefield by an army four times more numerous than his own, which consisted but of five thousand men, mostly Irish, and fell in the unequal contest, together with the greater part of his devoted followers. The exhaustion thus produced was nearly fatal to the English interests in Ireland. Towards the close of Henry’s reign, the Irish or rebellious English had conquered or subjected to tribute the greater part of the counties of Limerick and Tipperary, together with those of Kilkenny and Wexford, and almost the whole of Carlow, Kildare, Meath, and Uriel, so that little was left, of which the English could claim the undisputed possession, excepting the county of Dublin. The only method to secure peace was by the purchase of the protection of the heads of the Irish septs, who, gratified with such acknowledgment of their superiority, looked with contemptuous disregard on the movements of the Saxons, as the English were called by them.

The attachment of the Geraldines to the house of York was rewarded by Edward IV. on his attainment of the royal dignity, by appointing the Earl of Kildare to the lord-lieutenancy. He was shortly afterwards superseded by the Duke of Clarence, the king’s brother, who appointed the Earl of Desmond his deputy, in return for having crushed an effort made by the Butlers in favour of the house of Lancaster. But his continuance in power was short-lived. On the king’s marriage with Elizabeth Grey, he had incautiously thrown out some reflections upon the meanness of her birth. Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, was soon afterwards sent over as lord-deputy, and, in a parliament summoned at Drogheda, he caused an act to be passed against the Earls of Kildare and Desmond, for allying themselves by marriage, and fostering with the Irish enemy. Kildare, though arrested, was fortunate enough to effect his escape. Desmond, relying either on his innocence or his influence, came forward to justify his conduct, and was immediately seized and executed without even the formality of a trial. This monstrous outrage did not long go unpunished. Kildare justified himself so effectually before the king, that he was not only restored to his titles and estate, but appointed chief governor; and Tiptoft, being recalled into England, suffered, in a new revolution, the same fate which he had inflicted upon Desmond. The defence [7:12:361]of the confined limits of the pale was now intrusted to a military order established by authority of parliament, under the name of the Fraternity of St George. It consisted of thirteen leaders of the first consequence in the four counties of Dublin, Meath, Kildare, and Uriel, who had under them forty knights, as many squires, and an hundred and twenty mounted archers. The appointment of a force so inadequate to preserve the peace even of the contracted limits it was intended to protect, evinces in the strongest manner the reduced state of the English power after the termination of the desolating conflict between the rival roses.

The short and distracted reign of Richard III. allowed no time to attend to the state of Ireland. His successor, for what reason it is not known, suffered the government to continue in the hands of the Fitzgeralds, the avowed friends of the house of York. The evil consequences of this policy, or negligence, were not long in showing themselves. Lambert Simnel, who had been set up by the king’s enemies on the Continent to personate the Earl of Warwick, son of the late Duke of Clarence, was sent by them to Ireland, as the place most favourable for the design. He was received by the Earl of Kildare, then lordlieutenant, as the lawful sovereign; proelaimed king; publicly crowned in Christ Church, with a crown taken for the purpose from a statue of the Virgin Mary; and borne thence to Dublin Castle on the shoulders of Darey of Platten, according to a form used in the inauguration of the native Irish kings. A parliament convened by his writ, under the title of Edward VI. granted subsidies, and enaeted severe laws against those who refused to recognise his right, amongst whom the chief were the families of Butler and Bermingham, and the citizens of Waterford. Fortunately for the peace of the country, the arrival of a body of German auxiliaries from Flanders, under the command of Martin Swart, inspired the partisans of Simnel with such an overweening confidence in their own strength, that they determined to transfer the seat of war to England. Thither Simnel went, attended by the flower of the Irish nobility, and a numerous following of the natives. He was met at Stoke, in Nottingham, and defeated by Henry with immense loss, as the Irish, whose light arms could make no impression on the compact and iron-bound ranks of their adversaries, refused quarter, defending themselves singly, even when routed, until they fell overwhelmed by numbers. Simnel, when taken prisoner, was punished, not by severity, but degradation. He ended his life as a scullion in the royal household. The actors in this hasty and ill-digested movement were not treated harshly. Even the city of Dublin was pardoned, on its humble submission. But, in the hope of securing the future allegiance of the great residents, Sir Richard Edgecombe was sent over as a special commissioner, with a train of five hundred men, to receive their submission, and administer the oath of allegiance. On his arrival at Kinsale, his apprehensions at first prevented him from landing; and he received the homage and oaths of Lord Thomas Barry, a principal nobleman of the district, on board his ship; but afterwards landed, and was received in Cork, Waterford, and Dublin, in a manner befitting his mission. The Earl of Kildare hesitated for a time, but at length joined with the others in tendering this proof of submission to the ruling power.

Another claimant of the throne now appeared in the person of Perkin Warbeek, who was, or pretended to be, the Duke of York, second son of Edward IV. He landed at Cork, where his identity was acknowledged. On his arrival there he wrote to the Earls of Desmond and Kildare. The former recognised him at once; but before the latter could decide on the part he ought to take, the adventurer had removed to the French court, whither he had been invited for the purpose of ι more effectually annoying the English king. Henry now sent over into Ireland Sir Edward Poynings, a knight of distinguished ability, accompanied by several English lawyers to fill the offices of judges; those then on the bench, who owed their elevation to party influence, being notorious for their incapacity.

The administration of this governor forms a new era in the history of the country. A parliament assembled by him enaeted several useful laws, two of which were peculiarly influential in breaking down the exorbitant power of the nobility. By one of these, all the statutes hitherto passed in England were made law in Ireland; by the other, it was enaeted that no parliament should be held until the reasons for holding it, and the statutes to be proposed in it, should be approved by the privy council of England. Warbeek made a second attempt upon Ireland, in which he was openly assisted by the Earl of Desmond; but after an unsuccessful attempt on Waterford, he was forced to quit the country, and take refuge with the king of Scotland. The enemies of’ Kildare were not remiss in seizing this opportunity to crush him; and the Butlers importuned the lord-deputy to imitate the example of Tiptoft, and consign him at once to the execution-er. But Poynings rejected the cruel and impolitie suggestion, contenting himself with sending the earl to England to answer in person the allegations brought against him. This proceeding, as just as it was merciful, led to a conclusion wholly opposite to the anticipations of his enemies. When warned by the king to choose able counsel to defend himself against the heavy charges advanced against him: “Yes,” said Kildare, “I choose the ablest in the realm; 1 take your highness as my counsel against these false knaves.” Charge after charge was alleged against him, and answered; amongst others, that of having burned the church of Cashel. On hearing this brought forward, Kildare interrupted the speaker: “Spare your evidence,” said he; “I did burn the church, but I thought the bishop had been in it.” This extraordinary plea raised a laugh amongst all present. His accusers in a rage exclaimed, “All Ireland cannot rule this earl.” “Is it so?” replied Henry; “then this earl shall rule all Ireland ;” and he sent him back as lord-deputy. The event justified Henry’s sagacity. Kildare repaid his sovereign’s confidence by a government of unremitting zeal, energy, and fidelity. The boundaries of the pale were gradually extended; several septs, to whom tribute had hitherto been paid, were forced to submit. He marched a gallant army into Connaught, against Ulick de Burgho, the head of the degenerate English in that province; more, it must be acknowledged, to gratify private resentment than to promote the interests of his royal master. The armies met at Knocktow, near Galway. The victory of the deputy was sullied by the ferocity of his troops, who refused to give quarter, and. continued the massaere until night forced them to desist. This victory reduced the whole of Connaught to obedience. The O’Neills and the O’Briens were the only septs of any consequence who still refused to tender their allegiance.

The Earl of Kildare was continued in the government by Henry VIII., who testified his approbation of his services by appointing his son Gerald his successor. The young earl, with the characteristie valour of the family, inherited a more than ordinary share of their pride and imprudence. Too haughty to court the favour of Wolsey, then in the zenith of his greatness, by meanness and subserviency, he incurred that proud prelate’s hatred, which was heightened by the artful suggestions of his rival the Earl of Ormond. Through the machinations of this nobleman he was removed, and summoned to England to account for his conduct. Here, strengthened by a marriage with the daughter of the Marquis of Dorset, he was enabled to baffle the efforts of the cabal formed against him.
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He attended Henry at his celebrated interview with Francis I., and, by the splendour of his suite, and the brilliancy of his equipage, contributed largely to the splendour of “the Field of the Cloth of Gold.” On his return home, the struggle between the rival families attained to such a height, that commissioners were sent from England to investigate the case. Their report, when laid before Henry, induced him to remove from the head of affairs Pierce carl of Ormond, better known in the chronicles of the times by the name of Red Peter, the deputy to the Earl of Surrey, then lord-lieutenant, and to substitute his rival in his place. The decision proved eventually fatal to this nobleman. Inflated with an opinion of his own greatness, he acted so as to excite a suspicion of aiming at the assumption of independent power in Ireland. His enemies pressed the charge against him, and a peremptory order was issued for his immediate attendance at court. Unwilling to quit the seat of power, conscious most probably that his conduct would not bear a strict investigation, he endeavoured, through his wife’s relations, to evade obedience; but finding all his efforts ineffectual, he ultimately repaired to London, after having supplied all his castles with arms and ammunition from the royal stores, a measure tending most powerfully to confirm the prejudice raised against him. On his arrival there he was forthwith thrown into the Tower.

That the royal anger against the earl had not been very violent, is evident, notwithstanding the harsh treatment thus inflicted on him, from the fact that he was permitted to commit the government during his absence to some person for whose conduct he should be responsible. By a step still more unaccountable than any of those that had involved him in suspicion, he intrusted the administration to his eldest son Thomas, a stripling scarcely twenty-two years of age, who, to the rashness of youth, and a natural violence of temper, added an insolent contempt of his rivals, and a boyish confidence in the irresistible power of the Geraldines. The news of his father’s imprisonment could not fail soon to arrive in Ireland. Common tame, aided by the artifices of the enemies of the family, swelled it into an assertion of his execution. The young lord lent a credulous ear to these falsehoods, and, as impetuous as he was credulous, instantly had recourse to means of vengeance as desperate as they were chivalrous. Attended by a retinue of an hundred and forty followers equipped in a style of gaudy display, which, even in those times of courtly splendour, earned for him the title of “the Silken Knight,” he proceeded to St Mary’s Abbey, on the northern bank of the Liffey, where the privy council were assembled; and there, throwing down the sword of state, he solemnly renounced his allegiance, and declared himself the mortal enemy of the English government. All the other members of the council gazed on him in silent astonishment. Archbishop Cromer, then primate and chancellor, alone interfered, and remonstrated with the fiery young man on the madness of the act he was committing. The appeal to his better judgment was interrupted by the family bard, who, unconscious, through his ignorance of the language, of what was going forward, commenced a rhapsody on the glories of the Geraldines, the treatment of their chief, and the vengeance which it claimed. Passion prevailed over prudence. The voice of age and wisdom was drowned in the clamours of his attendants, and the young lord tore himself from the chancellor, rushed out of the council board, and, without premeditation or preparation, plunged into a war against the whole power of England.

Baffled in an attempt to surprise the castle of Dublin, Lord Thomas ravaged all the district of Fingal, in its northern neighbourhood, during which Alen, archbishop of Dublin, one of the determined enemies of his family, was taken prisoner. When brought before him, his hasty expression, “ Away with the English churl,” was translated by his rude Irish followers into a mandate for execution, and the wretched man was immediately butchered. He then renewed his attempt to seize the castle, but was prevented, and eventually driven from the city by the citizens, who even burned part of the suburbs, to prevent them from affording shelter to his troops. From being the aggressor, he was now forced to act on the defensive. Maynooth Castle, his strongest fortress, was invested, and, after a resistance of fourteen days, was captured by the treachery of a foster brother of Lord Thomas, who, after having been paid the pecuniary remuneration of his treason, received a more adequate recompense by being hanged by the orders of the English deputy. The irregular army of the insurgents began to dissolve on the intelligence of this disaster, and their leader was driven to a desultory warfare in the fens and mountains, from which he was inveigled by a solemn assurance of pardon given by the English general Lord Grey, and confirmed by the communion of the holy sacrament. Grey was rewarded for his services by the office of lord-justice. His first act of government was one of atrocious perfidy. In spite of his previous solemn promise, he sent his prisoner to London, where the first news the wretched youth received was, that his father had died, not by legal execution, but through grief at his insane rebellion. This act of Grey was followed by a similar one, if possible of deeper guilt. Henry breathed the most furious revenge against the whole family of Kildare, and sent orders to have the five uncles of the young lord seized. To effect this, the lord-deputy invited them to a banquet, where, in the midst of the pretended hospitality, they were arrested, forced on board ship, hurried to England, and executed along with the real instigator of the rebellion. A brother of Lord Thomas, a boy about twelve years of age, who was also included in this decree of blood, after having been sheltered for some time, at no small risk, by his aunt, the widow of M‘Arthy, a Munster chieftain, was conveyed to France, and, when Henry had the meanness to claim him as a subject, he escaped to Flanders. Thence, when pursued by the same spirit of despicable malignity, he fled to Germany, and finally found shelter in Rome, under the protection of Cardinal Pole, who, in defiance of Henry’s protestations, received and educated him as his kinsman, and, by his favour and support, enabled him to recover his birthright, and restore the otherwise extinct honours of the house of Kildare.

A period now arrived in which religion, hitherto little noticed in the political events of the country, was forced to assume a character as dissonant to its real nature as prejudicial to its true interests. Henry determined to extend to Ireland the reformation he had with so little opposition established in England. Commissioners were sent over to procure an acknowledgment of the king’s supremacy, who, though opposed by Cromer, the archbishop of Armagh, a strenuous champion for the religion at that time established by law, succeeded in obtaining it. A parliament, assembled at the special suggestion of Browne, the first Protestant archbishop of Dublin, exhibited a subserviency to the royal wishes as great as even the despotic character of Henry could require. It pronounced the king’s marriage with Catherine of Aragon null; declared the inheritance of the crown to be in the king’s heirs by Anne Boleyn; and as the passing of this declaration was followed by an account of that unhappy lady’s condemnation and death, and the king’s subsequent marriage with Anne Seymour, it altered the succession anew to correspond with the new change in the king’s disposition. It also acknowledged the king’s supremacy in the fullest manner, forbade appeals to Rome, renounced the authority of the Romish see, and decreed the suppression of most of the monastic institutions.
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An act, more creditable to the body whence it emanated, was also passed, by which schools were to be founded in every parish for instructing the natives in the English language, and in the rudiments of useful knowledge.

But words and writings were not of themselves sufficient to accomplish the mighty undertaking which Henry’s impetuous zeal had commenced. The Irish clergy in general were averse to a change. Many of them relinquished valuable preferments rather than submit to it. The Irish chieftains found in it a new motive to animate themselves and to influence their followers against the Saxons. The feeling was fomented by a communication from Rome, exciting the northern chieftains, and more particularly O’Neill, to rally round the sacred standard of their forefathers. O’Neill joyfully accepted the post thus assigned him. He proclaimed himself head of the northern Irish, assembled a numerous force, advanced to Tarah, and there had himself proclaimed on the ancient hill of royalty of the native mò-narchs of Ireland; but, content with this idle display of pomp, he prepared, after ravaging the country, to return into his own demesnes. The deputy had expected this storm, and was prepared against it. With the forces raised in Dublin and Drogheda he pursued the retiring Irish, and overtook them at Bellahoe, on the borders of Meath, where, after a partial engagement, in which the van of the latter army only was concerned, the Irish fell back on their main body, which, struck with an unaccountable panic, immediately gave way and fled. The administration of Lord Grey ended with this victory. He was recalled, and thrown into the Tower, on charges equally futile and malicious. Apprehensive of the irritable temper of his brutal master, he waived all defence, pleaded guilty, and perished by the same fate into which he had so treacherously drawn Lord Thomas Fitzgerald and the rest of the ill-fated Geraldines.

The next step taken by Henry to complete the tranquil-lization of Ireland, was the assumption of the royal title. Hitherto, though exercising all the essentials of sovereignty, the kings of England had contented themselves with the title of lords of Ireland. This term was now changed by act of parliament into that of king. The alteration was commemorated by conferring peerages on several of the heads of the great families. O’Neill was made Earl of Tyrone, with the singular privilege of transmitting the title and estate to an illegitimate son, to the prejudice of his lawful issue. Ulick de Burgho was created Earl of Clanricarde, and O’Brien Earl of Thomond. Several of inferior note were created barons. Besides the act declaring the king’s regal title, others, to the following purport, give striking indications of the manners of the times: Laymen and boys were excluded from ecclesiastical benefices; homicide and robbery were punished by fine, wilful murder and rape by death; congne and livery were prohibited, unless by command of the lord-deputy; idle men and retainers were forbidden; noblemen were allowed no more than twenty cubits or handles of linen in their shirts, which were not to be dyed with saffron; and the people of a country into which a theft was traced, were to trace it thence, or make restitution. A glaring omission in these statutes rendered them almost nugatory. Whilst the great lords were rendered more dependent on the crown by the abolition of their ancient tenures, no provision was made in favour of the subordinate chieftains, or the great mass of the population, over whom their ancient masters were still permitted to exert their former arbitrary dominion. Neither was this omission caused by inadvertence. The petitions of the natives to oe governed by English law were disregarded or denied. O’Byrne, the head of a sept which had long kept the capital in a state of alarm, vainly petitioned that his territory should be converted into an English county by the name of Wicklow. A similar proposal for the Annaly, from its proprietors the O’Ferrals, was treated in like manner, although the king, when applied to, had acquiesced in the arrangement. The only territorial change ventured upon by the lord-deputy was the division of the territory of Meath into the counties of East and West Meath. Still, however, the civil reformation of the country was in progress. A state of general tranquillity was perceptible. Such, indeed, was the spirit of allegiance at this period, that Francis I. then at war with England, found it impossible to move the Irish to insurrection. On the contrary, Henry was attended to Calais on his French expedition by a considerable body of Irish troops, who distinguished themselves equally by their agility during the march, and their ferocity in the combat.

But the happy prospect which now began to dawn over the country was marred by the mismanagement of the English government. O’More and O’Connor of Offaly had renewed their incursions into Leinster. They were soon driven back into their fastnesses, whence they were lured, by a delusive expectation of pardon and favour, on condition of presenting themselves to the king. Scarcely, however, had they arrived at court when they were seized and thrown into prison, where the former soon sunk under the severity of his treatment. The disgust excited by this act of treachery was heightened by the manner in which the reformation was pressed upon the people. When Dowdal, the primate, who had succeeded Cromer, refused to countenance the new doctrines, an old controversy relative to the superiority of the sees of Armagh and Dublin was revived, and, by a royal patent, the title of primacy was transferred from the former to the latter see. Dowdal, unable to brook the indignity, peevishly as well as injudiciously deserted his see, and retired to the Continent. The opposite party, taking advantage of this false step, immediately placed Goodacre, a Protestant bishop, in the see he had abdicated. Throughout the country parts also, the removal of the clergy of the ancient faith, and the introduction of those of the new doctrines, were carried on in a spirit of violence and acrimony unbecoming the cause and irritating to the people. The garrison of Athlone attacked the ancient and venerated recess of Clonmacnois, plundered its furniture, defaced its ornaments, and defiled its altars. Similar excesses took place in other parts. Thus the impression made by those champions of reform was, that the new system sanctioned sacrilege and robbery. In the north, the general peace was disturbed by the family dissensions of the O’Neills. Shane or John O’Neill, the legitimate son of the first Earl of Tyrone, laboured sedulously to induce his father to alter the arrangement which gave the inheritance to his natural son Matthew. The latter threw himself for protection on the lord-deputy, who could devise no better means for closing the family schism, than· by seizing on the persons of tl∣e earl and his countess, whom he kept in close confinement. The consequence of this arbitrary act was the throwing the whole of that country into the hands of Shane, who claimed it by the principles of the English law, and who, assisted by a body of Scots, committed terrible depredations on the property of those who disputed his right or set his power at defiance.

A new revolution, occasioned by the death of Edward VI. added to this state of confusion. The religion was again changed. < Dowdal was recalled to the primacy; the most violent of his opponents fle*d the country, and the great body of the clergy returned to their former faith. This restoration was attended with no acts of violence; the Protestants were not persecuted. On the contrary, several of the English, who had fled from ' the severity of the law in their own country, were received and sheltered by the Catholics in Ireland. Not so with the Irish, she septs of Leix and Offaly resisted the forfeiture of their lands. They insisted that the offences of their leaders [7:12:364]ought not to involve in their confiscation the inferior heads. They took up arms in defence of their rights; but they were soon taught the futility of their opposition. An armed force was sent into the country, which proceeded in the work of extermination with such ruthless ferocity, that scarcely a remnant of the ancient residents could be found to avail themselves of the tardy pardons procured for them by the generous interference of the Earls of Kildare and Ossory. The territory was reduced into shire-ground, under the names of the King’s and Queen’s Counties, in honour of Philip and Mary, whose names were given to the respective assize towns of each.

Elizabeth, on her accession, found the whole island involved in astate of petty warfare. The Earl of Thomond contended with another branch of the O’Briens for the rulership of North Munster. The Desmonds and Butlers renewed their contentions in the south. M‘William Oughter rose in arms against the De Burghos of Clanricarde. The dispossessed inhabitants of Leix and Offaly revenged themselves by the pillage of the neighbouring districts of Leinster, and Shane O’Neill was making rapid strides towards the sovereignty of the whole of Ulster. The last named of these parties was the first pacified. Sir Henry Sidney, the new lord-deputy, instead of turning the military force of the queen against him in the first instance, had recourse to gentler measures. Accepting an invitation to settle the matters in controversy at O’Neill’s own residence, he was received with such splendid hospitality, and heard such a statement of facts, as induced him not only to relinquish all ideas of severity, but to engage to be his mediator with the queen. O’Neill even attended the lord-deputy to Dublin; but when there, being made more fully aware of the deadly machinations of bis secret enemies, who thirsted to make his princely property an object of confiscation, he adopte'd the daring resolution of proceeding to London, and laying his case before the queen in person. Attended by a chosen band of followers equipped in the most appropriate costume of the country, he entered that city, to the astonishment and delight of the population, then as well as now fascinated by show and singularity. A native Irish chieftain, followed by a band of men armed in a strange fashion, with heads bare, their hair flowing in clustering curls on their shoulders, clad in saffron linen vests of exuberant folds, surcharged with light and polished cuirasses, and bearing broad double-edged battle-axes over the shoulders, caught the fancy and dazzled the imagination, not only of the populace, but of the queen herself. She received the singular visitant with marked favour, and sent him back to Ireland secured in the possession of the title and property which he claimed as his right upon his father’s death. But this unexpected tide of royal favour only whetted the ingenuity of his enemies at home. Complaint after complaint, either of actual offence or of imputed ill intention, was sent over to Elizabeth, whose answer, “that if he revolted it would be better for her servants, as there would be more forfeitures to divide amongst them,” excited their hopes, as the prospect of the prey had roused their cupidity. Sir Henry Sidney had placed a garrison in the town of Derry. This step O’Neill considered as an infringement of his rights, and an intrusion on his sovereignty. A body of forces led by him against it defeated and slew the governor. Shortly afterwards, the church, which had been used as a powder magazine, was blown up by accident, and the garrison forced to evacuate the place. This event was construed by the people into a judgment from heaven for the profanation. O’Neill then proceeded to Armagh, which he took by storm, and burned the cathedral; but was baffled in a subsequent attempt upon Dundalk. The tide of fortune now set strongly against him. Several of the native chieftains in the north, and Desmond in the south, took part with the government. His forces were unequal to contend against such a combination. Finding resistance hopeless, his first emotion was to throw himself on the mercy of the lord-deputy; but the treatment of O’More under similar circumstances deterred him. He therefore determined to seek the protection of a body of Scotchmen, who were encamped in that part of Antrim then known by the name of Claneboy. His proposal of joining this party, which was readily accepted by them, became known to the English governor, who sent an officer of the name of Piers to the Scotch commander, to persuade him to assassinate his unsuspecting guest. The plot succeeded. O’Neill, on his arrival, was assailed by a party of his host’s followers, upon the futile pretence of a sudden quarrel during the entertainment to which he was invited. His head was sent to Dublin, and Piers received a thousand pounds for his share in the transaction. The deputy named a feeble old man, named Tirlogh Ley-nagh, as head of the sept, to prevent this office beiny filled by a more youthful and daring individual.

The ruin of O’Neill in the north was followed by that of Desmond in the south. A small body of Spaniards was brought into that part of Ireland by a banished branch of the Fitzgerald family. Though the Earl of Desmond steadily persevered in avoiding to connect himself with their proceedings, the conduct of some of his relations involved him in suspicions, which were then nearly tantamount to guilt. His brothers Sir John and Sir James having joined the invading party, the former disgraced himself, and injured his cause, by the unprovoked murder of an English gentleman of the name of Davels, who had been sent by the deputy to persuade them to continue in their allegiance. The whole force of the government was directed against the family. The army of the insurgents was utterly routed at Kilmallock. The earl himself, though as yet guilty of no overt act, received a peremptory order to surrender within twenty days; and upon his declining to appear, he was declared a traitor. The war was carried on against him with unexampled cruelty. Slaughter, fire, and famine, desolated the finest parts of the rich province of Munster. Desmond, driven to desperation, made a vigorous stand. At one time he possessed himself of the town of Youghal, but was soon afterwards defeated by his old and bitter enemy the Earl of Ormond. At this time a new lord-deputy was sent over in the person of Lord Grey. His first effort was an attack upon the O’Byrnes of Wicklow, who were charged with having banded themselves in alliance with Desmond. He determined to attack them in their stronghold of Glen-dalogh, in the very centre of the mountains; but, when entangled in the inextricable labyrinths of these mountain fastnesses, he was assaulted with such well-judged fury, that his army was cut off almost to a man, he himself scarcely escaping to Dublin, overwhelmed with shame and confusion. Hence he was soon afterwards called away to Munster. A body of Spaniards seven hundred strong had arrived in Kerry to the aid of Desmond; but the number was too small to be effective. On their landing they secured themselves in an intrenchment, which they named Fort d’Ore. Here they were blocked up by the lord-deputy, so as to render escape impossible. They surrendered, whether on terms or at discretion is uncertain. But the subsequent atrocity is as certain as it is detestable. Lord Grey ordered the whole of the garrison to be butchered. His instructions were executed to the letter. Sir W r alter Raleigh, and Spencer the poet, were involved in the infamy of this abominable act, the one as the officer presiding at the massacre, the other as assisting in the councils where it was devised. The war was now at an end, but the chief victim still found means to avoid the indefatigable pursuit of bis enemies. Hunted from lair to lair, he suffered all the extremity of famine. A few of [7:12:365]his daring adherents had seized a prey of cattle for his sustenance. They were traced into a wooded valley, where, attracted by a light, his pursuers were led to a hovel, in which they found only a feeble old man. On being assaulted and wounded, he called out for mercy, and told them he was the Earl of Desmond. This was the signal for his death. The soldier repeated his blow, and slew him. His head was forwarded to the queen, who ordered it to be fixed upon London Bridge.

The government of Sir John Perrott, who succeeded Lord Grey, presents one of the bright spots in the history of the country. His first act was to publish an amnesty, and to denounce the military slaughters and spoliations which were encouraged by too many of the commanders. He took care to secure all parties in their persons and properties, to administer justice to all alike, and to reform the gross abuses in the public departments. Nor were his endeavours unsuccessful. The natives vied with each other in tendering proofs of loyalty. The old lords of the pale suspended their feuds, and came up to attend his court in Dublin. A parliament was assembled, which, though with some reluctance, passed an act for the attainder of the deceased Lord Desmond, together with an hundred and forty of his followers, and confiscated his immense estate to the crown. Having thus reduced the south to order, he turned his attention, to Ulster. Hugh, the eldest son of Matthew, Lord Dungannon, was entitled to the honours and estates belonging to the earldom of Tyrone. He had been educated in England, and had served with honour in the queen’s army. He now applied for his seat in the House of Lords, and for the restoration of his property. Pcrrott granted him the first of these requests, and referred him to the queen as to the second. He therefore presented himself at court, not, like his predecessor, in the wild attire and equipage of an Irish dynast, but as a British courtier. He was received with marked partiality, and soon restored to his possessions. The close of Perrott’s government was stained by an act unworthy of him. O’Donnell, the chieftain of Tyrconnel, was suspected of meditating a revolt. Perrott undertook to stifle the attempt without difficulty or expense. To effect this, he caused O’Donnell’s eldest son to be inveigled on board a ship sent into Lough Swilly, on pretence of trafficking in wine, and had the young man brought up to Dublin, where he was kept for some time in close confinement. But such had been this governor’s general conduct, that even an act so unjustifiable did not deprive him of general confidence. On his recall, being aware of an impending Spanish invasion, he assembled such of the lords and chieftains as were most likely to be swayed from their allegiance by the appearance of a foreign force, pointed out to them the consequences which must result from the apprehended invasion, and persuaded them to give hostages in proof of their determination to adhere to their sovereign. He then quitted the country, followed by the blessings and prayers of thousands. The conduct of his successor, Sir William Fitzwilliam, whose sole object appeared to be the accumulation of wealth, enhanced the feelings of regret for his departure* After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, several of the ships belonging to it were lost on the northern coast of Ireland. Reports were rife as to the quantities of money acquired from the wrecks by the chieftains residing in the neighbourhood. Fitzwilliam seized upon some of them, on the mere suspicion of their being in possession of these treasures, and kept them for years in close confinement. He afterwards imprisoned M‘Mahon, the head of the sept that held Monaghan county, on a charge of treason, for having employed a military force to collect bis revenues, an usual custom in the Irish districts, and brought him to trial before a jury of soldiers, by whom he was at once condemned and consigned to immediate execution. These and similar severities excited the spirit which they professed to repress. Young O’Donnell, who had been treacherously entrapped by Perrott, found means to escape from Dublin Castle, and took refuge in the mountains of Wicklow, whence, after a year’s residence, he made his way, through extraordinary difficulties, to his own country, where he was most active in fomenting the spirit of discontent amongst his neighbours.

About this time the university of Dublin was founded, on the site of a suppressed monastery. The project was first conceived by Sir John Perrott, but it was not acted upon until the time of his successor. It was the only successful effort since the arrival of the English at imparting to the country a knowledge of the higher branches of learning.

O’Neill, ever since his restoration to his estate, had been preparing means for the part he afterwards acted. Amongst the stipulations in his favour on his restoration, was the privilege of being attended with a certain number of armed men. These he frequently changed, so as to have in a short time a large number of his followers trained to the use of arms. When he conceived himself sufficiently prepared to set the English power at defiance, he threw off the mask, and openly laid siege to the fort of Blackwater, built some time before for the avowed purpose of keeping him in check. Sir Nicholas Bagnal was sent to relieve it. The opposing armies met near Armagh. The numbers on each side were nearly equal, but fortune turned the scale of victory. In the heat of the engagement, the explosion of a magazine threw the qneen’s forces into confusion. The death of Bagnal, who, whilst raising his visor, was shot through the brain, rendered the confusion irremediable. The victory of the Irish was decisive, and fifteen hundred of the enemy fell in the field. The fort of Blackwater immediately surrendered, and Armagh was evacuated by the queen’s troops.

Elizabeth at length determined to make one irresistible effort to crush an adversary now become truly formidable. She sent the Earl of Essex into Ireland as lord-lieutenant, at the head of twenty thousand men; a number deemed more than sufficient to accomplish her object in a single campaign. Essex had orders to proceed directly against Tyrone; but he took a course diametrically opposite. He directed his march southwards through Munster, where he found an impoverished and depopulated country, and an enemy that eluded every effort to bring them into decisive collision. In passing through Leix, his cavalry suffered heavily from the repeated desultory attacks of O’More, who cherished all his ancestor’s hereditary hatred of the English; whilst another division of his army was defeated by the O’Byrnes of the mountains. In another quarter Sir Conyers Clifford, who was sent into Connaught to create a diversion in favour of the main body, was routed and killed in the Curlew Mountains, by O’Ruark, prince of Breffney, as the county of Leitrim was then called. These repeated losses so diminished the numbers and broke the spirit of the English, that when Essex moved northwards to effect his main object, he found his means inadequate to the attempt. An interview was proposed and accepted, which was followed by a truce for six weeks, in consequence of which the English army returned to its quarters in Leinster.

The anger of Elizabeth at this termination of her expensive expedition was extreme. Essex, to ward off its effect, took the desperate expedient of returning unbidden to court, to justify himself in person. The act was as unfortunate as inconsiderate. He was arrested, imprisoned, and, on a still more frantic effort to excite the citizens or London against the queen, was tried and beheaded.

Sir Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, was sent to Ireland in the place of Essex. His love of literature had excited [7:12:366]an opinion of his effeminacy. O’Neill exulted openly at the appointment of a man “who would lose the season of action whilst his breakfast was making ready.” He was soon to learn that the graces of polite literature are by no means incompatible with the qualifications of a warrior. At the commencement of Lord Mountjoy’s proceedings, an occurrence took place which excited in his mind strong doubts of the honesty of the Earl of Ormond, who had still the chief command of the army. This nobleman having allowed himself to be trepanned into a conference with O’More, the chieftain of Leix, on pretence of treating as to terms of submission, was seized and long detained prisoner, as Mountjoy was not over hasty in paying a large ransom for a man who, he shrewdly suspected, had been the secret cause of his own calamity. The proceedings against O’Neill were conducted with much policy. The inferior chiefs were bribed to join in the confederacy against him. Rival claimants were set up against his friends. The lands of those who adhered to him were mercilessly devastated. Pardon was granted to the insurgents only on the condition of betraying or murdering a relative or friend. A strict adherence to these practices soon wasted O’Neill’s strength. He persevered in his resistance, however, in the hope of succours from Spain. These at length arrived, but fell far short of what his expectations had anticipated, or the greatness of the emergency called for. Two thousand men, under the command of Don Juan d’Aquila, were all that Philip of Spain would or could spare towards this effort to crush his rival, or at least to dismember her empire. To complete the series of ill-combined arrangements, the invading force landed at Kinsale, in the south of Ireland, whilst the ally whose interests it was sent to maintain was shut up in the northern extremity of the island. The Spaniards, as soon as they landed, were blocked up in Kinsale by the combined forces of the lord-deputy, and Sir George Carew, president of Munster. Don Juan wrote in the most urgent terms to O’Neill and O’Donnell to come to his relief. They advanced at the extraordinary speed of forty miles a day, through a country already desolated by the protracted continuance of a war of extermination. At the same time that they arrived near the scene of action, the landing of a second Spanish armament at Castlehaven, joined to the intelligence that this was to be followed by still further succours, induced several of the southern chieftains to declare themselves openly in favour of the Spaniards; and Mountjoy now found himself blocked up in turn, between the garrison of Kinsale on the one side and the Irish army on the other. Under such circumstances, delay would have been ruin. Famine and disease, already active in his camp, must soon have accomplished the annihilation of his army. The impatience of the Spanish general, and the want of concert among the Irish, saved him. O’Neill was prevailed upon to hazard an attack upon the English lines. In this he was anticipated. Mountjoy, aware of his intention, marched to meet him with part of his forces, leaving the remainder to keep the besieged in check. The enemy were taken by surprise, and, after a short resistance, the main body of the Irish was broken and scattered. O’Donnell, who commanded the rear, fled without striking a blow. O’Neill, after some ineffectual attempts to rally his men, still much superior in numbers, gave up the attempt in despair, and hurried back to the north. The Spanish general, finding himself deserted, and, as he thought, betrayed, by his new auxiliaries, surrendered upon terms. The war of desolation was now carried into the northern province. The forts of Charlemont and Mountjoy were erected to curb the Irish in that quarter. The open country was desolated. Large tracts were converted into deserts, where the miserable remnant of the population endeavoured to support nature by feeding on grass, or the filthiest garbage. O’Neill’s friends and adherents gradually fell off. He at length applied to be received into mercy. Mountjoy, at this time aware of the precarious state of Elizabeth’s existence, was equally anxious to terminate the struggle. After receiving from O'Neill an abject submission on his knees at Mellifont, he admitted him to pardon, and encouraged him with the hope of restoration to his title and estate. Scarcely had the ceremony been concluded when the news of Elizabeth’s death arrived. O’Neill, on hearing of it, burst into a flood of tears, occasioned, as he said, by his regret for a princess whose kindness he had so ungratefully repaid, but, with more probability, by the reflection that an earlier intimation of the event might have enabled him to take advantage of it for procuring terms less degrading. The war could not have been much longer continued. It had worn itself out; the resources of the country were completely exhausted; the population was reduced to the number of from six to eight hundred thousand; the finances were in the most ruinous state; and the debasement of the coin, an expedient adopted by Elizabeth to parry off the ruin, ultimately served only tv aggravate the distress.

With the exception of an effort made in the cities of Waterford and Cork to restore the old forms of worship, which was speedily put down with the effusion of but little blood, the submission of Tyrone restored the general tranquillity to such a degree, that Mountjoy felt justified in proceeding to England to present himself before his new sovereign, leaving Sir George Carew in his place as lorddeputy. He was accompanied by O’Neill and O’Donnell, the former of whom was confirmed in his title of Tyrone, and the latter created Earl of Tyrconnel. Before his departure he published a general amnesty, and received into the protection of the English law the whole of the Irish people hitherto exposed to the ill-defined rule of their respective chieftains. But the dawn of tranquillity was darkened by the apprehension of fresh convulsions. An anonymous letter was found in the council-chamber of the castle, hinting at the existence of a conspiracy carried on by some of the great Irish lords against the state. On the alarm being given, the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel, actuated either by a consciousness of guilt, or by an apprehension that they were specially marked out as the objects of persecution, left the country, and took refuge in Spain. Their flight was considered as sufficient proof of their guilt. They were attainted, and their immense possessions forfeited to the crown. In one district of the north the flame of insurrection broke out openly. Sir Cahir O’Dogherty, proprietor of Innishowen, who had hitherto espoused the cause of the English, disclaimed his allegiance, seized by treachery the fort of Culmore, and thence proceeded to attack the town and fort of Derry, which he took by storm, putting the whole garrison, with the commandant, to the sword; but after continuing his ravages for five months, his followers were routed, and himself slain, in an engagement, by Sir Arthur Chichester, the lord-deputy, who found his presence necessary for the complete suppression of the insurrection.

The death of this chieftain and the flight of the two earls having placed nearly the whole of Ulster in the king’s hands, he resolved to remodel the province, by removing the ancient possessors, and introducing a colony of English and Scotch settlers in their stead. The tract on which the experiment was to be made comprehended the counties of Tyrconnel, since called Donegal, Tyrone, Derry, Fermanagh, Armagh, and Cavan, spreading over upwards of half a million of acres. The lands were to be portioned out into estates varying from one to two thousand acres, the proprietors of which were bound to build substantial residences in them after the English fashion, and to people them with English and Scotch tenantry. The city of London was peculiarly active in promoting this plan. A company of merchants and undertakers there, under the name (
[7:12:367]

the Irish Society, contracted for large tracts of land, which they still hold under this tenure. The remainder was portioned out amongst private individuals, either English or Scotch, who thus became the founders of most of the principal families now residing in these counties. The order of baronets was instituted in order to promote the execution of this favourite project of James. The number of its members was limited to two hundred, each of whom purchased his rank by the payment of a sum adequate to support thirty men on the new plantation for three years. About the same time, the county of Wicklow, heretofore the property of the septs of the O’Byrnes, and O’Tooles or O’Tothils, was made shire-ground, after the natives had been dispossessed by a summary process, somewhat similar to that employed in the settlement of the northern counties.

In order to secure the permanence of these changes by positive law, a parliament was convoked, after a lapse of twenty-seven years. It was the first to which members from all the counties of Ireland were sent. To secure a preponderance in favour of the crown, a number of new boroughs was created, in the charters of which the right of election was placed in hands which secured subserviency to the ruling power of the day. Notwithstanding this precaution, the political aspect which this assemblage presented was by no means promising. In the upper house, which consisted of but four carls, five viscounts, sixteen barons, and twenty-five bishops, the numbers of the latter order gave the crown an irresistible preponderance. But in the House of Commons the parties were more equally balanced. The election of a speaker served as a trial of strength. The court party proposed Sir John Davis, the attorney-general, an Englishman, and author of the celebrated tract on the Causes why Ireland had never been completely subdued. The country party set up Sir John Everard, an Irish lawyer of respectable family. The election went in favour of the former, by a majority of a hundred and twenty-seven votes to ninety-seven. The defeated party, not content with protesting against the unfair construction of the house, took advantage of the absence of the majority, who had left the apartment for the purpose of being counted on the division, put their own speaker in the chair, and were proceeding to pass resolutions, when the excluded members returned, and, failing in an attempt to eject Everard from the chair, placed their own nominee in his lap. The scene of disgraceful tumult which followed was at length terminated by the secession of the minority, after they had protested against all the acts that should be passed, as informal and unconstitutional.

A commission, issued for the discovery of defective titles, at the head of which was placed Sir William Parsons, a name of no small notoriety in the series of subsequent events, began now to excite alarm. During the long continuance of civil war, the loss of family documents, the neglect of the performance of feudal services, the ignorance of the great proprietors, and the uncertainty of the law fluctuating between English and Irish tenure, brought most persons of property within its fangs, and excited the alarm of all. By means of it the king established a claim of right to upwards of an additional half million of acres. The chief profit of these confiscations accrued to the members and dependents of the government, who employed agents, technically called discoverers, to scrutinize titles and discover flaws, receiving as their reward a portion of the lands charged with being concealed or illegally withheld from the crown. Their success in other parts led them to project the confiscation of the whole of Connaught. The king’s claim rested on a case of the most flagrant iniquity. The lands of this province had been surrendered by their proprietors to Sir John Perrott, and restored to them by grants from the queen, to be held under the provisions of English law. Having neglected to enrol their patents in that reign of turbulence and internal commotion, they surrendered them anew to James, and took out new patents, for the enrolment of which a sum of three thousand pounds was paid. The officers of chancery, either through negligence, or from a worse motive, omitted to execute the process of enrolment, and the king, towards the close of his reign, was preparing to take advantage of the laches of his own servants, and to seize on Connaught, in order to have it parcelled out anew, as he had done with Ulster. The injured party, aware of their adversaries’ power, prepared to avert the ruin which impended over them, by the proffer of ten thousand pounds. Whether the necessities of this extravagant monarch would have led him to the acceptance of that sum for the fulfilment of his part of an equitable contract, cannot now be decided. His death left the question at issue to be handed down to his successor, as one of the ingredients of discontent in the cup of bitterness that he was condemned to drain to the very dregs.

Charles I. began his reign by sending a large force to Ireland, both to provide against the danger of foreign invasion, and to curb internal disaffection; but, through a deficiency of pecuniary means to support the troops, he had recourse to the exertion of his prerogative, and quartered them on the counties and principal towns, obliging the inhabitants to supply them, not only with lodging, but with money and provisions. The murmurs against this oppressive impost were loud and frequent. A meeting of the principal Catholic recusants and great landed proprietors having assembled in Dublin, proposed to Lord Falkland, the lord-lieutenant, to grant the king a voluntary assessment of an hundred and twenty thousand pounds, on a guarantee of security in their rights and properties. The proposal was accepted by the king, who sent over the document containing the required concessions, ratified by his signature, in order to their being confirmed by the ensuing parliament. The principal articles in this covenant, which was known by the name of The Graces, were, that the king’s claim to lands should be limited to sixty years; that the Connaught proprietors should receive new patents; that the exactions of’ the soldiery should be restrained, the fees of the king’s officers and the powers of his courts defined, the powers of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction limited, and a general pardon granted for all past offences. When the parliament which was to give the sanction of law to these favours had met, an informality in the writs for assembling was alleged as a reason for not having then confirmed them; and as no new writs were issued, nor any steps taken to convoke another parliament, the people, who had advanced their money on the security of this promise, entertained strong doubts of the king’s sincerity. The recall of Lord Falkland served to confirm these suspicions. The lords-justices who were appointed on his departure executed the laws against recusant Catholics with great severity. They caused the celebrated place of penance in Lough-derg, called St Patrick’s Purgatory, to be dug up and desecrated; and on being resisted by a tumultuous mob in an endeavour to prevent the Carmelite friars of Dublin from publicly performing their religious rites, they seized upon fifteen religious houses, and dispossessed the Catholics of their college in Backlane, giving it to the Dublin university, which kept it open for some time as a Protestant seminary. These measures only augmented the spirit of discontent, to repress which Charles sent over Lord Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Strafford. This nobleman, from being one of the most active leaders of the popular party in the English parliament, became at once the most violent assertor of the king’s arbitrary measures. Equally proud and daring, he took no pains to conceal or palliate his desertion. “You see, gentlemen,” said he to some of his former political friends, “I have quitted you.” “We sec you have,” replied one of these sturdy republicans; [7:12:368] “but, with God’s blessing, we will never quit you while you have a head on your shoulders.” His policy on his arrival was to treat Ireland as a conquered country, and to beat down opposition, from whatever quarter it might arise, by the stern arm of power. His arbitrary conduct made no distinction of persons. The Earl of Kildare having left the country without his permission, for the purpose of laying a complaint against his overbearing conduct before the king, was forced to make an abject submission to the person against whom he complained. Lord Mount-norris, for having used an unguarded expression, which could be distorted into a threat against the lord-lieutenant, was seized, tried by a court-martial, and sentenced to death, and escaped punishment only by the universal outcry raised against such a stretch of power. One Irish nobleman only had courage sufficient to oppose this conduct. Strafford, on the meeting of parliament, had issued orders that the members should lay aside their swords when they took their seats. The Earl of Ormond, who had just come of age, on being stopped at the entrance of the House of Lords, and required by the usher of the black rod to give up his sword, answered, that if that officer must have his sword, it should be through his body, and passed on to his seat. On being summoned before the council to answer for this daring insult on the viceregal authority, he defended himself by saying that he had received the investiture to his earldom per cincturam gladii, and was ordered by the writ of summons to attend parliament gladio cinctus. The answer, as spirited as it was unexpected, staggered Strafford. He felt that such a spirit in so young a man must either be crushed at once, or otherwise directed. He had the prudence to adopt the latter course; and Ormond, at the age of twenty-four, was admitted into the Irish privy council. The imperious and harsh measures of the lord-]ieutenant had, however, the effect of putting down all opposition in parliament. Six subsidies, amounting to three hundred thousand pounds, were granted, and no steps taken to secure to the people, by the sanction of parliament, those graces which the king had pledged himself to grant, and for which they had paid so highly. In some respects Strafford’s government was laudable. He reformed the army, so as to render it efficient without being burdensome to the people; he encouraged the linen manufacture, using at the same time every means to depress that of wool; he promoted a spirit of commerce, and guarded the coasts with great vigilance against the annoyance of pirates. Amongst the worst acts of his government, was his project to subvert all titles to estates in Connaught, in order to plant a new Protestant colony in that province. Taking with him a large body of soldiers to overawe the juries, he held courts of inquest to investigate titles. His measures were effectual in four counties. In Galway, the jurors having presumed to give a verdict against the crown, were summoned before the court of the council chamber in Dublin, and the sheriff fined a thousand pounds for returning an improper jury. The exigencies of Charles’s affairs induced him to call over Strafford to England, where, after some time, he was impeached by the House of Commons. The principal charges against him rested upon his conduct whilst in Ireland. Several articles were certainly groundless, others exaggerated, but more than sufficient remained to justify the sentence which brought his head to the block, and fulfilled the ominous prediction of the party he had deserted when in the zenith of his prosperity.

½ hilst general discontent in Ireland was fermenting through the duplicity of the king, the arbitrary conduct of his officers, the suggestions of his enemies in England, and their bloody triumph over his great agent, a secret conspiracy was forming to rescue the country by force of arms from its present oppressed state, and to restore the property of it to those whom the late changes had ejected. The deviser and main-spring of the plot was Roger Moore, a descendant of the O’Mores of Leix, who had been dispossessed in the reign of Mary. In conjunction with a son of the Earl of Tyrone, who, on escaping to Spain, had obtained the command of a regiment in the Spanish service, he set about procuring the means to accomplish this daring measure. Returning to Ireland, he gained over several of the heads of the old Irish families. The death of Tyrone checked, but did not prevent, his proceedings. Application was made to another branch of the family, Owen Roe O’Neill, then in the service of the king of France, from whom the conspirators received assurances of military aid when matters should be ripe. The seizure of the castle of Dublin was to be the first overt act, and the 5th of October was fixed on for the attempt. The timidity of some of the parties caused its postponement. Roger Moore, after having visited his friends in Ulster, on whose exertions, owing to the severity with which they had been dispossessed in the late settlement of that province, he placed most dependence, came up to Dublin to superintend the attack, which was now fixed on for the 23d of the same month. The lords-justices, Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlase, were till this moment unaware of the conspiracy, and unprepared for resistance. On the evening of the 22d, information of its existence was given, through Owen Conolly, a Protestant, who had been invited to join in it. Parsons paid little attention to his statement, but Borlase took the alarm, placed guards on the castle and principal avenues, and seized M‘Mahon and Lord M‘Guire. Moore had sufficient notice of the discovery to make his escape. Dublin was thus saved; but the insurrection broke out with irresistible fury in the north, where Sir Phelim O’Neil], one of the Tyrone family, a man of mean capacity but violent passions, took the lead, by surprising the castles of Charlemont, Dungannon, and Mountjoy. Tanderagee, and the border town of Newry, soon afterwards fell into the hands of the insurgents. Fermanagh was seized upon by a brother of Lord M‘Guire, and Monaghan by the M‘Mahons. So well organized was the conspiracy, that within eight days’ time the Irish found themselves masters of the counties of Tyrone, Monaghan, Longford, Leitrim, Fermanagh, Cavan, Donegal, and Derry, together with some parts of Armagh and Down.

In the mean time the lords-justices were engaged in taking measures for their own security in Dublin. All strangers were ordered to quit the city. Parliament was prorogued. The sheriffs or the counties of the pale received orders to provide for the security of their respective districts. The Catholic lords of the pale attended the counsel, declaring their readiness to assist in the defence of the country. The lords-justices, suspicious of their motives, yet unwilling to irritate them by an expression of doubt, furnished a small supply of arms to those most exposed to danger. After the first burst of an explosion so general and so unexpected, the progress of the insurgents failed to keep pace with their primary exertions. The Protestants in Down took refuge in Carrickfergus. In Fermanagh, Enniskillen set the attempts of the insurgents at defiance, and Lord M‘Guire’s castle was taken by storm. Sir Phelim O’Neill was driven with disgrace and loss from Castlederg, was defeated in Donegal, forced to retire from before Newry, and again routed at Lisburn, then called Lisnegarvey, with such slaughter that the number of the slain is said to have trebled that of the garrison. These reverses were attended with consequences truly dreadful. The Irish, exasperated by defeat, carried on their hostilities without mercy. The inhabitants of Lurgan, who had surrendered on terms, were seized, and the town plundered. Lord Caulfield, who had been taken [7:12:369]in Charlemont, was murdered, with fifty others. Prisoners, whilst removing from one place of confinement to another, were attacked on the road and massacred, or driven into the nearest river. These excesses were not confined to the one side only. The garrison of Carrickfergus fell upon the Catholic inhabitants of the neighbouring peninsula of Island Magee, and forced a number of them over the rocks into the sea. Sir Charles Coote, who was sent out from Dublin to oppose the insurgents, carried on a war of extermination against all suspected of favouring them. That these atrocities did not stain the rebellion at its commencement, but grew out of its progress, is evident from the fact, that no mention of a massacre is made in any of the proclamations issued by the lords-justices, even so late as the 23d of December, three months after its commencement; the protestation of the Irish parliament, which met on the 17th of November, is also silent on the point; nor does any state paper emanating from the Irish government afford grounds for the charge. The parliament, on assembling, sat but for two days. Its only acts were a protestation against those who had taken arms, and the appointment of a committee to confer with their leaders. Alarmed at this act of concession, it was prorogued by the lords-justices; and the conference was broken off in the most indignant manner by O’Moore, when he found himself and his friends stigmatized in it by the name of rebels. The lords-justices now proceeded to deprive these noblemen ând gentlemen of the pale of the arms furnished to them in the first paroxysm of terror. Exposed thus undefended to the attacks of the insurgents on the one hand, and to the suspicions of the government on the other, they held meetings with the leaders of the insurrection, first at the hill of Crofty, and afterwards at that of Tarah, in consequence of which they determined to embody themselves as a force distinct from the Ulster Irish, under the command of Lord Gormanstown and the Earl of Fingal, with the professed purpose of confining their operations to self-defence. The lords-justices were alarmed. They now sent to invite the discontented lords and gentry to Dublin, to confer with them on the state of the country. These excused themselves, on the plea that they would not venture within a city under the control of Sir Charles Coote, whose sanguinary speeches at the council board, and massacres throughout the country, had already rendered him peculiarly obnoxious. They also drew up an address to the king, complaining of the injurious conduct of the lords-justices, by which they had been driven to the necessity of arming themselves in their own defence; and they published a manifesto to the same purport, for general circulation. The latter document produced a decisive effect. The insurrection, hitherto confined to Ulster and a small portion of Leinster and Connaught, at once became general. At the commencement of the year the authority of the lords-justices was confined to Dublin and Drogheda, the latter of which was m a state of siege. In Connaught, the town of Galway was retained in its allegiance through the influence of the Marquis of Clanricarde, the king’s steady friend. In Munster, the cruelties of Sir Warham St Leger, president of the province, which equalled those of Sir Charles Coote in Leinster, drove even those hitherto well disposed into insurrection.

The arrival of supplies of men from England produced achange v and encouraged the lords-justices to exert themselves to crush their enemies. The means adopted by them were those of extreme severity. The prisoners of the lower orders brought into Dublin were summarily executed by martial law; those possessed of lands were tried by the regular course of law, in order to secure the confiscation of their property. Bills of indictment for high treason were found against all the Catholic nobility and gentry in Meath, Wicklow, and Dublin, and against many in Kildare. Several persons of imputed guilt were put to the torture to extort confessions. The Earl of Ormond, who had the command of the army, received instructions not only to kill all rebels and their adherents, but to burn all the places where they had been harboured, and to destroy all the male inhabitants capable of bearing arms. Nor were these merely denunciations, circulated for the purpose of producing obedience through terror. Sir William Cole’s regiment alone boasted, that, besides killing two thousand five hundred men in battle, they had starved and famished, of the vulgar sort, whose goods they seized on, seven thousand. The Earl of Ormond was despatched into the county of Kildare to relieve and secure the castles which still held out for the government. After executing his commission, he defeated at Kilrush a large body of the Irish under Lord Mountgarret; but being unable, through want of supplies, to follow up his advantage, he was forced to content himself by thus securing a safe retreat to Dublin.

On the other side, the arrival of Owen Roe O'Neill gave fresh vigour to the cause of the Irish in Ulster. A Scotch force, which had been sent thither under the command of Lord Leven, remained inactive. Lord Leven, after an empty display, quitted the country, leaving the command to General Munroe, who, following the example of his predecessor, remained quiet in his quarters, whilst the forces of O’Neill were daily augmenting, by the accession of numbers of the natives, and by supplies of officers, military stores, and money, from the Continent.

The insurgents now began to find themselves sufficiently powerful to give form and regularity to their proceedings. A general assembly of delegates from all the provinces was convened at Kilkenny. Their first act was a declaration, in which, after professing their determination to adhere to their allegiance to the king, they disclaimed the authority of the Irish government in Dublin, administered as it was by a malignant party in conjunction with the king’s enemies in England. They appointed for the execution of their edicts subordinate councils in the provinces, from which there was to be an appeal to the supreme council of the Catholics of Ireland, a permanent body, consisting of twenty-four members, chosen by the general assembly. Having thus organized their civil constitution, they provided for their military operations by giving Owen Roe O’Neill the command of their forces in Ulster; General Preston, who had lately brought a supply of arms and ammunition from France, in Leinster; Garret Barry in Munster; and Colonel Burke in Connaught. Lord Castlehaven, who, on the first breaking out of the war, had made a tender of his services to the government, but had been refused, having afterwards appeared in Dublin to justify himself from a charge of treason, was thrown into prison, whence he contrived to escape after a confinement of twenty weeks, and was appointed to the command of the Leinster cavalry.

The good effects of system soon showed themselves. Munroe was defeated in Ulster, and the united forces of Lords Muskerry and Castlehaven were successful in Munster. Connaught was wholly in obedience to the confederates; and though Preston had allowed himself to be defeated near New Ross, Lord Ormond found himself too weak to reap any decisive advantage from his victory. Yet, notwithstanding these favourable appearances, the leaders of the confederates, aware of the great superiority of their opponents, and not firmly united amongst themselves, were anxious to put an end to hostilities. But the English parliament obstinately refused to negotiate with those whom they styled rebels and murderers. The Earl of Ormond at the same time undertook to continue the war on the part of the crown, provided the lords-justices furnished [7:12:370]him with a supply of ten thousand pounds. After much delay, a cessation of arms was acquiesced in by both the belligerent parties, for which the confederates agreed to advance to the amount of thirty thousand pounds for the king’s service, one half in money, and the remainder in cattle.

The great object of the cessation of hostilities was to procure from the king a permanent settlement of the country. Both parties sent in their proposals. In these the Catholics asked for freedom of religion, seminaries for the education of their children, a free parliament, from which all who had not property in Ireland should be excluded, and an amnesty fur the past. The Protestants, on the contrary, called for the strict execution of the penal laws, the total disarming of the Catholics, the vesting of all estates hitherto forfeited in the crown, and the distribution of them when so vested amongst English settlers exclusively. Charles gave no decisive answer to any of these proposals. He pleaded the difficulties of his situation, and referred them to Ormond, whom he had appointed chief governor instead of Parsons and Borlase, and had raised to the dignity of a marquis. Ormond procrastinated. The mean motives of avarice and personal aggrandizement are charged against him for his indecision in such an emergency. But be the cause what it might, the opportunity for a pacific settlement was let slip, and lost for ever.

The first eventful change was the desertion of the confederate party by Lord Inchiquin, who, on being refused the office of president of Munster by the king, declared for the parliament, and became the bitter enemy of his former associates. Still, however, the confederates had the advantage in several minor encounters, for military operations were not wholly stopped by the armistice. At this period, whilst they refused to furnish the king with supplies either of men or money until their interests were more fully secured than by the temporary stipulations of a truce, and whilst Ormond, on the king’s part, resisted every attempt at a permanent peace, the pope’s legate, Rinuncini, archbishop of Fermo, arrived, and in his master’s name protested against any pacification which did not secure the public establishment of his religion. Charles, pressed by the exigencies of his situation, and unable to overcome Ormond’s reluctance, employed another agent. He sent over the son of the Marquis of Worcester, Edward Lord Herbert, better known by the title of Earl of Glamorgan, to which he was soon afterwards promoted, who, through his influence with the confederates, succeeded in persuading them to make a double treaty, the one public, the other private; which latter contained articles insisted on by the Catholics, but deemed to be such as, if generally known, would increase the prejudice against the royal cause in the minds of the English. The secret clauses were, a provision that the members of each religious persuasion should pay their tithes to their own clergy, and that the churches should remain in the hands of their present possessors.

Rinuncini, who, while on his way to Ireland, had obtained from the queen an assurance of terms even more favourable than those of the private treaty, obiected to both of them; he also insisted on the publication of the former. His wish was accomplished by an accident. Sir Charles Coote, the second of the name, for the former had been killed in a skirmish soon after the breaking out of the war, having defeated, near Sligo, a body of men commanded by the Archbishop of Tuam, found amongst the baggage of this prelate a copy of the secret articles. The document was immediately transmitted to the English parliament, which lost no time in publishing it throughout all parts of the country. Charles at once denied its authenticity. He declared that Glamorgan had exceeded his powers, and caused him to be arrested on a charge of treason, and examined before the Irish privy council. His duplicity gained him but little credit even at the time, and documents preserved in the public libraries of England have since furnished incontestible proofs of his insincerity. Glamorgan was soon liberated upon bail. The transaction destroyed all remaining confidence between the confederates and the king. Ormond refused to ratify the secret articles. Rinuncini, also, who had private information of the progress of a treaty at Paris between Charles and the pope, insisted on delay. In the mean time, the king’s affairs became desperate; and Ormond, when it was now too late, consented to relinquish his objections to the repeal of the penal laws, and concluded a treaty with the confederates. But the want of confidence excited by the king’s conduct caused delays ⅛ carrying the terms of the treaty into effect, which ended in the utter ruin of the royal cause. Rinuncini, still averse to a compromise which withheld from the Catholic church the enjoyment of any of its former privileges, made party with Owen RoeO’Neill, who, through the aid of the nuncio’s money, was enabled to undertake offensive operations, and defeated Munroe at Benburb, a village on the Blackwater. Rinuncini, elated with his success, entered Kilkenny, appointed a new confederate council, and imprisoned the members of the old one. Ormond, in despair, resigned the sword of state, and retired to the Continent; and though he returned again armed with full powers as lord-lieutenant, and though a new general assembly of the confederates, convoked at Kilkenny, had declared themselves favourable to terms in which both parties might be led to acquiesce, and were violent in their protestations against the stubborn resistance of the nuncio, the adoption of any decisive measure was postponed, until all were aroused from their lethargy by the appalling news of the demand made by the parliamentary army in England to bring the king to trial. Then, indeed, the confederates agreed to the terms proposed by Ormond. The leading points were, the free exercise of religion, and the retaining of the churches then in possession of the Catholics until the king’s pleasure should be known. Twelve individuals appointed by the general assembly, under the name of the commissioners of trust, were made guardians of the treaty, and vested with powers to levy soldiers, raise money, and perform all acts of supreme authority. The treaty was signed on the 17th of January 1648. But it was then too late. Before the news of its ratification could arrive in London, Charles had forfeited his life upon the scaffold.

Previously to the death of the king, no less than five armies were maintained in Ireland, each acting for a different object. The Marquis of Ormond commanded that of the king, for the purpose of restoring him to his government. The parliamentary forces, under Colonel Jones, had possession of Dublin; and in the south he was supported for some time by a force under the Earl of Inchiquin. General Preston commanded the troops of the confederate Catholics in Leinster. Owen Roe O’Neill, who had attached himself to the nuncio, and therefore was equally opposed to the king, the parliament, and the confederates, had the command of all Ulster, except a small portion of its eastern extremity, where Munroe was at the head of an army which favoured the Scotch. All these dements of intestine commotion were again thrown into action by the king’s death. Rinuncini, indeed, finding that this event, which he was charged with having hastened by his obstinacy and violence, had alienated the whole of the Catholic population, quitted the country privately. Ormond then endeavoured to gain over O’Neill, but failed; he afterwards made overtures to Colonel Jones, with whom he was equally unsuccessful, his proposals being met with the retort that his suspicious conduct had been the cause of exciting the apprehensions of the king’s [7:12:371]insincerity, which prevented any of the parties in Ireland from coalescing with him sincerely, and thus led to his destruction. Having at length, from his own resources, collected an army sufficient to take the field, he invested Dublin, with the intention of reducing it by famine. But an advanced post at Baggotsrath having been successful-lv assaulted by a sortie from the garrison, which followed up its success by an attack on the marquis’s head-quarters at Rathmines, the whole besieging army was seized with such an unaccountable panic that it dispersed in all directions, leaving the general so utterly deserted, that when he wrote to Jones respecting the prisoners who had fallen into his hands, this officer’s taunting reply was, that he did not know where to find his lordship in order to wait upon him on the business.

Before the marquis could recover from the effect of this defeat, news was brought him of the arrival of Oliver Cromwell in Dublin, with a select and well-appointed army of ten thousand men. After a short delay in that city to refresh his troops and to regulate the civil affairs of the country, Cromwell proceeded to besiege Drogheda, which Ormond, suspecting his intention, had provided with a good garrison, and abundance of military stores. After having made a practicable breach, the assault was given, but the besiegers were twice repulsed. On the third attack, led on by Cromwell in person, his troops forced their way into the town, and the garrison laid down their arms on promise of quarter. The promise, however, was kept only as long as resistance was apprehended; for as soon as the place was completely reduced, orders were issued for the indiscriminate massacre of the inhabitants, without distinction of age or sex; which were so punctually obeyed, that thirty only survived, who were forthwith transported as slaves to Barbadoes. From Drogheda Cromwcll proceeded southwards to Wexford, which being well garrisoned and provided, was expected to make a long resistance, so as to give time to Ormond to collect his forces from other quarters. But it was betrayed by the treachery of the officer placed in command of the castle, and, when taken, treated with the same merciless cruelty as that which had before marked Cromwell’s triumph at Drogheda.

The effect of these terrible examples of severity in paralyzing opposition, was increased by the orders given by Cromwell to his troops to abstain from any wanton injuries on the peaceable peasantry, and to pay them in full for all their supplies; a system directly contrary to all former practice, according to which, the soldier, whether friend or foe, was ever the peasant’s terror.

The only hope for the royalist party now rested in the cordial union of Ormond and O’Neill. Both were sensible that a junction of their forces was absolutely requisite to counteract the movements of Cromwell. To effect this object, O’Neill moved southwards with his army, but was seized on his march with a defluxion of the knees; a complaint attributed at the time to a pair of poisoned boots prepared for him by an agent of the confederates. Unwilling to retard the movements of the armies, he had himself conveyed in a litter, but sunk under the accumulated pressure of disease and fatigue, and died at Cloughouter Castle.

The commissioners of trust were so much alarmed at the treatment of Drogheda and Wexford, that they were with difficulty prevented, by the remonstrances of Ormond, from abandoning Kilkenny. The want of confidence which he experienced, both from the leaders of the confederates, and the inhabitants of several of the large towns in the south, tended much to embarrass him. The city of Waterford absolutely refused admission to his troops, even at a time when a passage through it was required to make a successful assault on the retiring army of Cromwell. This general commencèd the campaign in 1650 by a movement on Kilkenny, which was to have been betrayed into his hands. But the plot being discovered, and the traitor executed, he was forced to lay regular siege to the place. It made a very gallant defence. After a breach had been effected, the besiegers were repulsed in two attempts, and Cromwell was preparing to retire, when he received secret information that the town magistrates were anxious to surrender. A third assault was then made, with as little success as the former; but Ireton having come up with a fresh supply of men, and the garrison having been informed that no assistance could be afforded them from without, the town surrendered on terms highly honourable to its defenders, who, on marching out, were complimented by Cromwell for their gallantry, and told, that had it not been for the treachery of the town’s people, he must have raised the siege.

Clonmell still held out against the parliamentary army. The garrison was commanded by Hugh O’Neill, another branch of the family which had signalised itself in the wars of Ireland. The first assault was repelled with such slaughter that the infantry refused to advance a second time, and Cromwell was compelled to bring forward his own favourite regiment of cavalry. These succeeded in entering the breach, but met with an opposition so fierce and so unexpected, at a retrenchment thrown up within, that the greater part of the storming party lay dead or wounded on the spot, and the remainder evacuated the place. In the two assaults Cromwell lost two thousand of his best soldiers. Not daring to venture on a third, he changed the siege into a blockade. The Marquis of Ormond, aware of the importance of the place, made every exertion for its relief. Assisted by the Catholic bishop of Ross, he collected a numerous but tumultuary body of men in the western part of Cork. These were attacked and routed, and the bishop taken. His life was promised to him, provided he would prevail on the garrison of a neighbouring fort, which greatly annoyed the besiegers, to surrender. On going thither, he exhorted the garrison to persevere in their defence, and, on his return to the camp of Cromwell, was executed. O’Neill having defended the town as long as his ammunition lasted, withdrew his troops by night unobserved; and Cromwell, unaware of the movement, gave the people very favourable conditions, to which he was the more inclined, as the intelligence of Charles II. having taken refuge in Scotland, and the hostile indications from that quarter, rendered his presence in England necessary to his party. Immediately after the surrender of Clonmell, he proceeded to Youghal and embarked for England, leaving the army in charge of his son-in-law, Ireton.

All rational hope of successful resistance to the parliament was now at an end. Ormond prepared to quit the kingdom. The commissioners of trust for some time opposed his intention, conscious of the confusion which must arise from such a public avowal of his despondency. But with the Catholic clergy it was otherwise. They suspected that he was secretly negotiating with Cromwell. His former conduct afforded plausible grounds for such a suspicion; and during the siege of Clonmell he had procured passes from that general for himself and Lord Inchiquin to go to England. A synod of the bishops, held at Jamestown, resolved upon sending a deputation to him, calling upon him to quit the country, and transfer his powers to some trustworthy person, who enjoyed the confidence of the nation. A second resolution denounced excommunication against all who should hereafter adhere to him. Whilst the relics of those who professed attachment to the royal cause were wasting their strength and ruining their prospects by these proceedings, Ireton was engaged in extending his authority by the reduction of [7:12:372]one place of strength after another. Ormond, as a last resource, convened a general assembly at Loughrea; but the party of the clergy was too powerful. Finding all means ineffectual to induce them to recall their hostile declaration, he embarked in a frigate provided for him by the Duke of York, transferring his powers as lord-lieutenant to the Marquis of Clanricarde. An extraordinary negotiation was now commenced with the Duke of Lorraine, by which it was proposed, that on the advance of a large sum of money, and a proportionate supply of military stores, he should be declared protector of the royal cause, and receive some towns as cautionary securities. But the rapid progress of Ireton baffled all these projects. Limerick was reduced, partly by the effects of a pestilential disease, partly by treachery. Amongst the victims of the plague was Ireton himself. After his death, Galway surrendered to Ludlow, his successor. A last desperate attempt at resistance was made in Connaught by Clanricarde, aided by Sir Phelim O’Neill, who now again began to make himself conspicuous. It was defeated, and Clanricarde fled to one of the islands on the coast. Sir Phelim was taken prisoner, and ultimately executed as a traitor. The nuncio’s party sent ambassadors to offer the crown of Ireland to the pope, the kings of France and Spain, and the Duke of Lorraine; but none of them would accept the worthless bauble. Clanricarde still endeavoured to maintain a mountain war amidst the glens and wastes of western Connaught. It was but the expiring effort of unbending loyalty. At length a letter from Charles, recommending him to provide for his own safety, released him from the shackles of the self-imposed bonds of loyalty. He applied to Fleetwood, Cromwell’s deputy, for a pass to retire to England. It was granted, and he submitted to the parliament on an assurance of not being called upon to perform any act inconsistent with his duty to his sovereign. Shortly afterwards, a proclamation from the English parliament announced the termination of what was called the rebellion in Ireland.

The victors had now only to share the spoil. The greater part of the nobility and gentry of Ireland, and of the army, had expatriated themselves; the estates of the confederates were deserted. It remained to apportion them amongst the friends and followers of the parliament, in such a manner as would best secure a zealous attachment to the new order of things. The ordinance of the English parliament to this effect decreed, that all who had been concerned in the rebellion previously to the 10th of November 1641, all Jesuits and priests, all who, not being themselves in arms, had slain English soldiers, and all who, being now in arms, did not lay them down within twenty-eight days, should be excepted from pardon. The Marquis of Ormond, the Earls of Inchiquin and Roscommon, and Bramhall, Protestant bishop of Derry, were also specially excepted. All persons who had borne a command against the parliament were to be banished during pleasure, to forfeit two thirds of their estates, and to be assigned lands to the value of the remaining third wherever the parliament should appoint. All Catholics who had resided in Ireland at any time during the war, and had not manifested their constant good will to the commonwealth of England, were to forfeit one third of their estates. All others residing in Ireland, as before, who had not been in arms for the parliament, or manifested their good will towards it when an opportunity offered, were to forfeit one fifth.

A high court of justice, somewhat of the nature of a court-martial, being composed of parliamentary officers, who acted in the double capacity of judges and jurors, and whose decisions were not regulated by any settled rules of evidence, sat on the cases of delinquency. Yet, after the severest scrutiny, the number of those subjected to the penalties of the first clause of the instructions was very small. Lord Mayo in Connaught, and Colonel Bagnal in Munster, were condemned, as it was thought, unjustly. Lord Muskerry was saved by the evidence of the numerous English settlers, who pressed forward to vouch for the protection and security they enjoyed under his control. In Ulster, Sir Phelim O’Neill was the only victim. Although offered not only pardon, but restoration of property, if he could produce substantial proof that he had had a commission from Charles to commence the insurrection, he disclaimed the fact, and died maintaining the contrary. Of others, not quite two hundred could be found who came within the strictness of the clause, so much had the accounts of the atrocities committed at the breaking out of the insurrection been magnified, or so completely had the actors in it been swept off by the desolation of the hostilities that succeeded.

The disposal of the forfeited lands was regulated according to the principles of an act of the English parliament, by which those who at the commencement of the war had subscribed L.200 towards the reduction of Ireland were to have 1000 acres in Ulster; those who had subscribed L.300, the same number in Connaught; and those who had subscribed L.450 and L.600, a like quantity of land in Munster and Leinster. The holder of the lands thus granted was bound to pay a yearly quit-rent to the crown, of one penny an acre in Ulster, three halfpence in Connaught, two pence in Munster, and three pence in Leinster. The soldiers who had served in Ireland since the landing of Cromwell there in 1649, were entitled to a share of the lands in lieu· of their arrears, on the same terms as those who had advanced money, and who were distinguished by the name of adventurers. Those who had served previously to that date were to look for payment to the residue of lands which might be over and above after the former division had been made; a kind of security which was found to be very deficient. In order the more effectually to secure the new possessors in their properties, the Catholics who should be found entitled to retain any part of their estates under the provisions of the act above specified, were to surrender such part if in any of the other provinces, and to receive an equivalent, or, as it was called, “to be reprized,” by waste lands in Connaught, which new allotments were assigned in the parts of the province situated at least a mile from the coast. No Catholic was, under any condition, to be suffered to remain in a town, or within a certain space around it. By the latter part of this provision, it was intended to cut off’ the Irish from any communication with foreigners, as by the former the broad boundary of the Shannon separated them from any contact with the residents in other parts of the kingdom. Commissioners of delinquency sat at Athlone, to decide upon the qualifications of the Roman Catholics; others, appointed to arrange the details of settlement of those transplanted to Connaught, held their court at Loughrea. A third body of commissioners met in Dublin, to receive and hear claims. Under their direction a survey was made by the celebrated Sir William Petty, of all the forfeited lands, which, notwithstanding the lapse of time, and the state of the country when executed, is found to be singularly correct in its details. The confiscation comprehended by much the greater part of the surface of Ireland, and threw the property, and consequently the influence, of the country into the hands of a new class of men. Private soldiers, or desperate adventurers, now became the lords of extensive tracts, once enjoyed by the native families of ancient descent, or by the Anglo-Irish nobility. It also produced another change, of less striking character at first, but of overpowering influence on the future destinies of the country· The land was likely to be useless for want of cultivators. The continuance of a warfare, in which mercy was deemed a symptom of timidity or [7:12:373] of t 'treachery, had swept away the peasantry in multitudes. Numbershad been transported as slaves to the plantations; many had emigrated as soldiers or colonists. The plan of peopling the wilds of Connaught by transplanted Catholics was almost totally relinquished. Hands were wanting on the new estates; the tenants were therefore retained, but they were treated with all the jealous severity arising from a consciousness of weakness, and an apprehension that advantage would be taken of it. They experienced the harshness of slavery, without the enjoyment of that protection which the selfishness of ownership in some degree spreads over it.

The government of Ireland was intrusted by Cromwell to his son Henry, who proved himself worthy of the choice. He visited most parts of the island, so as to make himself personally acquainted with its resources and capabilities. He checked the frauds attempted to be committed by the commissioners in the disposal of the forfeited lands, repressed the violence of the soldiery, and afforded the protection of the law to the ill-used peasantry. He had even devised plans on an extended scale for the improvement of the country, which the short duration of his power prevented him from executing. Impressed with the necessity of diffusing knowledge as the surest foundation for the solid advancement of the people, he purchased the library of Archbishop Usher, in order to bestow it on a second college which it was intended to found in Dublin. Amongst other plans for the consolidation of the interests of the two countries, it was intended that Ireland, instead of being governed by a domestic parliament, should send representatives to that of England. The number fixed upon was thirty. But the death of Cromwell, and the resignation of his son Richard, put an end to all these well-intended projects. On the announcement of this latter event, the English parliament, aware of Henry Cromwell’s abilities and popularity, and apprehensive of an attempt on his part to maintain himself in the government, sent over Sir Hardress Waller to seize upon the castle of Dublin; but the precaution was unnecessary. Cromwell retired without opposition, remaining in privacy in his house in the Phoenix Park until he had provided himself with the means of removing to England, having administered the government with so much disinterestedness during a period in which he had the means of amassing unlimited wealth, that he could not at once defray the expenses of his passage over.

The thoughts of the new settlers, who were now transformed from needy adventurers and soldiers into landed proprietors, began to turn upon the means of securing the properties so unexpectedly acquired. The agitation consequent on the death of Cromwell, whose overruling master-mind had hitherto kept all parties subservient to his views, began to take a turn decidedly favourable to the restoration of royalty. The great leaders of the parliamentary party perceived this, and prepared to shape their course accordingly. Lord Broghill, who had already changed from a royalist to a republican, was the first to retrace his steps. He was followed by Sir Charles Coote, the most sanguinary of the parliamentary leaders. The towns of Youghal, Bandon, and Kinsale, which had been amongst the first to revolt to Cromwell, were now led by Lord Broghill to declare for the king. Coote secured Galway and Athlone. The same party, after a short struggle, seized upon Dublin Castle. Sir Hardress Waller, who had taken possession of it for the parliament, was sent a prisoner to London; and Ludlow, who, upon the alarm of the change of sentiment in the parliamentary party in Ireland, had been sent over to take the chief command, on arriving in Dublin Bay, was prevented from landing, and forced to return to England. A convention was assembled in Dublin. The council of state in England ordered its dissolution. The order was set at defiance. The king’s declaration at Breda being presented to the convention, was accepted by acclamation, and Charles was proclaimed with every demonstration of joy in all the great towns. Thus, the restoration of the son in Ireland was effected by the same persons who had been mainly instrumental in bringing his father to the block.

The sudden change of public opinion gave Charles irresistible influence in Ireland. All parties looked to him. Above all, the Catholics, whose attachment to his father had been the great cause of their sufferings, and of the ruin of their property, anticipated an immediate restoration of their estates. So sanguine were they, that many proceeded to take forcible possession of them, and to eject the new proprietors. The Protestants raised the cry of a new rebellion, employed agents in London to resist their claims, and had influence sufficient to obtain clauses in the act of indemnity, excluding from it all who had at any time aided the Irish, and prohibiting the restoration, upon any terms, of lands already disposed of by the parliament or convention. Nor was it without the greatest difficulty that an exception could be carried in favour of the Marquis of Ormond and other Protestants. Every severe ordinance against the Catholics was strictly enforced. The commoner sort were prohibited from quitting their place of residence without permission. Assemblies of the Catholic gentry were forbidden. A proclamation was issued for apprehending Irish rebels, and for assuring all adventurers and soldiers in the quiet possession of their grants.

At length the king’s declaration, which was to form the basis of the new settlement of the landed property of the country, was published. This document, after vesting all the confiscated property in the king, confirmed the adventurers and soldiers in the lands already granted to them. The officers in the king’s service before 164⅛9, distinguished by the name of “Forty-nine Men,” were to receive their arrears in lands at the rate of twelve and sixpence in the pound, and an equal dividend of whatever should remain of their security. Protestants whose estates had been given to adventurers were to be restored, and the present holders “reprised,” that is, given other lands of equal value. Innocent Papists were also to be restored, and the holders reprised; those restored to property within corporate towns were to be reprised in the neighbourhood, as no resident Catholics were to be permitted in those places. Such Catholics as had accepted lands in Connaught were to continue bound by that act. Those who had joined the king in his exile, and served under his banners, were to be restored when the present holders were reprised; such persons were called “Ensign-men.” Additional grants were made to Ormond and Inchiquin, who had been restored by the English parliament. Monk, now Duke of Albemarle, and some others, received grants. The king’s brother, James, duke of York, had several or very great extent. Thirty-six of the Irish nobility and gentry, to be specially named by the king, were also to be restored under the title of “Nominees.” Those who had any share in the trial and execution of the late king were specially excluded from the benefit of this arrangement. Lands belonging to corporations were to be restored, and the possessors reprised. The qualifications which entitled a Roman Catholic to claim the benefit of the clause respecting “innocent Papists,” were so worded as to render the chances of an acquittal almost impossible. None were to be restored as such, who, at the time of the cessation in 1643, had been of the royal party, or had lived within the quarters of the confederates, except the inhabitants of Cork and Youghal, who had been forcibly expelled from those towns, and driven by the fanatics into the enemy’s lines; who had acted with the confederates before [7:12:374]the peace of 1648, or had adhered to the nuncio or the papal power against the royal authority, or, when excommunicated for such adherence, had submitted and obtained absolution. Whoever derived his title from persons guilty of those crimes; whoever claimed his estate on the articles of peace, thus acknowledging his concurrence in the rebellion; whoever had held correspondence with the confederates, sat in their councils, or acted under their commission; whoever had employed agents to treat with any foreign power to bring forces into Ireland, or had been a tory, the name given to the marauding parties which harassed the country; were also excepted. Few Roman Catholics could hope to escape being included in some one or other of those sweeping clauses.

The principal subjects which engaged the attention of the Irish parliament that met after the Restoration, were the established church, and the settlement of property. Ormond, to whom the management of Irish affairs was principally intrusted, contrived, by postponing the consideration of the question of the lands, to secure the adoption of the former. Although the House of Commons was almost exclusively composed of those who had a few years before been most zealous in pulling down the church and abolishing the liturgy, it now not only readily assented to the revival of both, but concurred in censuring the solemn league and covenant, and in condemning their former oaths of association. They also procured an order from the lords-justices to adjourn the law term, and close the courts of justice, in order to prevent the reversal of outlawries, or the ejectment of adventurers and soldiers before their titles could be secured by statute.

The act of settlement, the next object of parliamentary attention, was framed according to the spirit, and nearly according to the letter, of the declaration published by the king. The principal alterations were respecting reprisals, and what was called the doubling ordinance. The commissioners of the court of claims had been guilty of gross partiality respecting these. They rejected the claims of the nominees, and the ensign-men, on the plea that there were not lands sufficient to reprise the present possessors, a defalcation caused by the clandestine disposal by themselves of these lands to their own friends. Through the exertions of the House of Lords, a clause was inserted for the revocation of these fraudulent grants. The doubling ordinance was still more pregnant with injustice. The English parliament having found that the sums subscribed by the original adventurers had fallen short of the amount required to finish the war, and being in want of further supplies, passed a law, that whosoever advanced one fourth more than his original share, should be entitled to as much land as if he had actually doubled his subscription; and that if any adventurer refused to make such advance on his original share, any other person, on paying it, should reap the benefit of the doubling clause, provided he repaid to the adventurer the sum at first subscribed. With great exertions, and by the determined interference of the Earl of Kildare, it was at length determined that the adventurers should receive lands for the money actually advanced by them, and no more. The Irish parliament, however, could only frame heads of a bill to this effect, which was liable to be modified by the king and privy council in England. Thither, therefore, all parties interested sent agents to defend their respective claims. London became the scene of controversy, intrigue, cabal, and even violence. The Irish called for the fulfilment of the articles of the peace of 1648. Ormond, who hated the Catholics even more than he did the regicides, persuaded the king that such fulfilment would be detrimental to his favourite scheme of maintaining an English interest in Ireland. Richard Talbot, afterwards Lord Tyrconnel, the advocate of the Irish, finding reason and justice ineffectual, challenged Ormond. The latter made his complaint to the council; Talbot was committed to the Tower, and detained there till he made an humble submission. The bill, with all its clauses, received the royal assent, and was sent back to Ireland, where it was adopted by both houses of parliament.

But the passing of the act was not sufficient to render it operative. Every one was dissatisfied with it. Even the adventurers, whose interests were best guarded by it, exclaimed against it most loudly. They considered the rejection of the doubling ordinance as the deprivation of so much of their justly purchased property. The∙land granted to the nominees, the number of whom had been increased by the king, was looked upon as so much cutoff from the common fund whence they were to be repaid. The restoration of church property was peculiarly galling to their religious prejudices. The Protestant officers felt that their security was greatly diminished by large grants lavishly made to some of the king’s special favourites. The Catholics complained that, so far from having justice done to their services, their agents were not even admitted to plead their cause before the council.

Ormond, now elevated to the rank of a duke, was sent over as lord-lieutenant to calm these effusions of anger, and to settle in the most amicable manner the conflicting interests of the parties. The first proceedings were those of the commissioners of innocency, who soon found that the number of those who could clearly establish their innocence, even before a court cautiously and carefully composed of Englishmen and Protestants, was inconveniently great, and excited the most serious alarm amongst the other party, who felt that every acquittal abstracted so much from the fund to which they themselves had to look for a settlement. Out of a hundred and eighty-seven cases adjudicated in the first three months, a hundred and sixty-eight were pronounced innocent, and but nineteen condemned. The House of Commons called upon the lord-lieutenant to make the qualifications more rigorous. The more violent of the old parliamentary soldiers laid a plan for a general insurrection. Ormond was steady. He put down the conspiracy, and executed a few of the ringleaders. He refused to make any change as to the qualifications. But he contrived to effect, by an evasion, what a regard for consistency of character had made him reject in public. Upwards of four thousand cases had been entered, and, from the number already decided, and the character of the decisions, it was felt that by much the greater proportion of the Catholic proprietors would be restored to their estates. To prevent such an occurrence, the time of the sitting of the court was limited to a fixed number of days, during which not more than one fourth of the claims could by any possibility be heard. It then closed, and thus upwards of three thousand ancientand respectable Irish families were stripped of their fortunes, without even the form of a trial before a court specially constituted to do them justice. The injured parties applied to the king; but he refused to listen to them, and they were irremediably ruined. Though their claim was rejected, however, its justice was recognised by a concession, and the lord-lieutenant was permitted to select twenty out of the three thousand, to be restored to their estates as objects of special favour.

To remedy, in some degree, the defects of the act of settlement, a bill was brought into parliament, chiefly by the instrumentality of the Duke of Ormond, which made a few alterations in some of its most obnoxious provisions. This is known by the name of the act of explanation. The two together form the tenure under which by much the greater part of the landed property of Ireland is held; they have therefore been quaintly, and with more regard to their binding force than their justice, styled the Magna[7:12:375] Charta of the Protestants of Ireland. To account for the Duke of Ormond’s conduct towards his former friends, to whom during the war he owed so much, and his master every thing, and his sacrifice of their interests to the bitter enemies both of himself and the king, it may be sufficient to mention, that his estates, which, before the breaking out of the civil war, had yielded but about L.7000 per annum, now brought him in a yearly income of upwards of L.80,000, in addition to the pecuniary grants made him for losses during the disturbances. The acts which ruined so many of the adherents to the royal cause secured him in the undisturbed enjoyment of this princely income.

Notwithstanding the apprehensions arising from the still uncertain state of title, the condition of the country began to improve with a rapidity alarming to the English, who were now suffering through a decline of their domestic trade, which prejudiced persons imputed in a great degree to the excessive importation of Irish cattle. To prevent the supposed ill effects of this, acts were passed prohibiting the Irish from sending cattle or provisions into England after the first of July, which exclusion was afterwards extended to all periods of the year. So strong was the prejudice, so powerful the alarm, that when the Irish parliament, through a wish to alleviate the sufferings of the people of London after the great fire in that city in 1666, sent them a free gift of thirty thousand oxen, the only wealth of the country at the time, the wellintended donation was rejected, as an attempt to evade the prohibition under the mask of benevolence. The king endeavoured to alleviate, though he was too weak and too timid to prevent, this impolitic act of injustice. He issued an act of state, permitting the Irish to export to foreign countries all commodities of their own growth and manufacture; and the Duke of Ormond, on his part, encouraged the woollen manufacture, for which the country was peculiarly fitted, from its capability of rearing sheep, and its water-power for machinery. He brought in foreigners acquainted with the processes of the manufacture, established a board of trade in Dublin, and encouraged factories on the Suir. His attention was also directed to the improvement of the linen manufacture. But his laudable efforts were thwarted by his enemies at court, who persuaded Charles to recall him. Lord Hobarts, who was appointed in his place, rendered himself so offensive to all parties, that he was soon removed, and his place supplied by Lord Berkeley, who was also as speedily withdrawn, in consequence of his being active in procuring a commission of inquiry as to frauds practised on the Catholics in the adjudication under the act of settlement. The government of Lord Essex, his successor, was equally short-lived; and it was found necessary to restore Ormond, as the only person sufficiently acquainted with the state of parties in Ireland, to manage the country without danger of a sudden explosion.

Shortly after his return to office, the Popish plot occurred. The devisers of this execrable contrivance endeavoured to involve the Irish in a share of the guilt. Charges were made against Talbot the Catholic archbishop of Dublin, Lord Mountgarret, and Colonel Peppard, as being principals in it. On investigation, the first of these imputed conspirators was found to be labouring under a complication of disorders, beneath which he soon afterwards sunk; the second was bedridden through age; and the third was entirely unknown. The Duke of Ormond, more probably through a conviction of the necessity of yielding something to popular clamour, issued two violent proclamations. The one required the relations of tories to be answerable for them, and also that the priests of parishes in which a robbery or murder had been committed should be transported, unless the offender were delivered up to justice within a fortnight; the other prohibited Catholics from entering Dublin Castle, or any fortified place, and caused all fairs to be held without the walls of cities and corporate towns. But restraints, however rigorous, were not sufficient. The bigotry of the time called for a victim. Plunket, the Catholic archbishop of Armagh, was accused of being the instigator of a plot to raise seventv thousand men to overturn the government. He was sent to London, tried there for a crime committed in Ireland, denied either time or means to bring over witnesses, condemned as a traitor, and executed at Tyburn, professin-- his innocence to the last. The only subsequent act of Charles’s reign, of consequence enough to merit notice, was a second attempt to deprive Ormond of his power. And it proved successful. Partly from a plea of his advanced age and increasing infirmities, partly from a necessity avowed by the king of removing from office several of .his friends, the sword was taken from him and assigned to his relative Lord Rochester.

All the political arrangements consequent on the accession of James II. indicated a settled and systematic determination to disturb, if not wholly to nullify, the provisions of the act of settlement. Talbot, afterwards Earl of Tyrconnel, was placed over the army, which he immediately began to new-model, by cashiering and disbanding most of the Protestants, and bringing Catholics into their places; and by disarming the militia, which consisted chiefly of Protestants, under the plea that they were suspected to have been connected with Monmouth’s rebellion. These apprehensions were still further increased by the promotion of Tyrconnel to the chief government. The first overt act was made against Dublin College, by nominating a Catholic to the professorship of the Irish language, which was defeated on the ground that no such professorship existed. An attempt made to appoint a Roman Catholic to a fellowship was frustrated by the gross incapacity of the person recommended.

The king’s attempts against the Irish corporations were more successful. In order to carry into effect all his changes, the sanction of an Irish parliament was necessary; and to effect this, it was equally necessary to secure a majority in the boroughs, in which the Protestant interest had hitherto been almost exclusively predominant. Tyrconnel caused all the charters of these bodies to be seized into the king’s hands, on the plea of violation or non-performance of conditions, and granted new charters, so arranged as to throw the whole of the borough influence into the hands of the Catholics. A few of the corporate bodies still hold under these charters; but the great majority of them having been passed after the abdication, are considered as of no authority in the courts of law.

On the landing of the Prince of Orange in Torbay, Tyrconnel received orders to send over four thousand men to England. So little prepared was he at the time to meet the exigency, that he found it necessary to withdraw the garrison from Londonderry in order to make up the number. But he soon became sensible of his error. The Protestants in the northern counties had already been roused to a movement of self-defence, in consequence of an anonymous letter sent to Lord Mount-Alexander, warning him of the intention of an immediate insurrection to extirpate them. Just at the time, a Roman Catholic regiment, lately raised by the Marquis of Antrim, had been ordered to Derry in room of the troops sent to England. The appearance of the men, now approaching the town, noway tended to diminish the feelings of alarm already excited by the previous warning. The first division of the newly-arrived regiment was within a few hundred paces of the town, when several young men, said to be apprentice boys, hurried armed to the gate, shut out the soldiers, hastened to the walls, pointed the guns, and [7:12:376]threatened them with destruction if they attempted to force their entrance.

This decided act of the people of Derry was followed up by all the northern Protestants. The town of Enniskillen was secured in a similar manner, and armed associations were formed throughout every part of the province, to maintain.the Protestant religion, and secure the dependency of Ireland. The first act of these bodies, after providing themselves with the means of resistance, was to apply to William. But he had already opened a treaty with Tyrconnel, to whom he sent General Hamilton, then prisoner with him, under a promise, that if he failed in gaining over Tyrconnel, he himself should return. Hamilton’s conduct on the occasion was inexcusable. Instead of using arguments to persuade Tyrconnel to submit, he encouraged him to persevere in the cause of James, and remained with him instead of redeeming his parole, and proved his zeal in the cause he had thus faithlessly adopted, by heading a body of troops in Ulster, by which the whole province, with the exception of Derry and Enniskillen, was brought again under its allegiance to its former king.

James soon afterwards landed at Kinsale with a small body of French forces, having declined the aid of a more powerful armament, from a wish to be indebted for his restoration to the unassisted loyalty of his own subjects. On arriving at Dublin, he was welcomed with loyal addresses from all ranks and classes, amongst which the Protestant clergy were not less forward than others in their professions of zealous attachment. Finding himself at the head of what he considered as an unanimous people and a large army, his first movement was the reduction of the city of Derry, which, instead of listening to terms offered by Tyrconnel, resolved upon an obstinate resistance; expelled the governor set over the city by the king, upon a well-founded suspicion of intended treachery on his part; marshalled themselves in regiments; chose for leaders in this desperate attempt, George Walker, a clergyman of the established church, who had already signalized himself by raising a regiment of a thousand Protestants, and Major Baker; and, turning their guns against James, who, from a mistaken reliance on his personal influence, had approached the walls, compelled him to retire. The sword was now drawn between king and subject. The men of Derry had not only renounced their allegiance to their sovereign, but defied his power and insulted his person. James, convinced of the irresistible force of the numbers brought against the place, and of the futility of their means of resistance, their numbers not being more than seven thousand men, and these undisciplined and badly armed, the place unprovided with military stores, or even sufficient quantity of provisions, and the defences by no means adequate to resist the advances of a well-organized besieging force, returned to Dublin, leaving the conduct of the siege to Marshal Rosen, who had been a German officer in the French service. After some feeble attempts at gaining the town by storm, Rosen adopted the surer though more tedious method of blockade. The inhabitants were soon reduced to extreme privations, yet still they adhered to their determination of holding out. After upwards of two months suffering, they were cheered by the appearance of a fleet sent by William to their relief; but, after an empty display of assistance, Kirke, who commanded it, sailed away to Lough Swilly, where he employed his time in sending supplies to Enniskillen, which stood less in need of them. Still the garrison persevered in its defence. Rosen, enraged at their obstinacy, ordered all the Protestants in the neighbouring districts to be driven under lhe walls, in order to expedite the extremity of famine. The townsmen, in retaliation, prepared to hang up all the prisoners on the town walls.

An express order from James forced the besieging general to relinquish this inhuman device for augmenting the horrors of war. The wretched sufferers were allowed to return home, and the town’s people adroitly seized this opportunity of recruiting their strength, by taking in some of the younger and more vigorous, and sending away in their stead those exhausted by the hardships of the siege. After the garrison had been reduced to the necessity of subsisting on food loathsome to humanity, Kirke made a second attempt for its relief. A frigate and two provision ships sailed up the river, broke the boom thrown across it to obstruct their passage, and entered the town uninjured. The Irish army, whose hopes of success had rested wholly on the effects of famine, raised the siece in despair. The town’s people, though reduced to half their original number by the casualties of war and sickness, had the hardihood to issue out in pursuit of the retiring army; but their temerity was punished by a severe check. About the same time the Enniskilleners gained a signal victory at Newtown-Butler, over a body of the enemy three times their number.

The military career of James in Ireland was neither creditable nor fortunate; his political efforts during the short period of his Irish government remain to be canvassed. A parliament was assembled in Dublin, in which the Protestant party, as might have been expected, was considerably outnumbered by the Catholics. One of its first acts was the attainder of about two thousand Protestant noblemen and gentlemen, adherents of William, whose estates were to be forfeited, unless they surrendered before a certain day, and who, if found guilty, were to be excluded from the benefit of a royal pardon; an act almost equalling in the extent of its powers, and the severity of its inflictions, the rigours of the act of settlement. The other measures of this parliament were of a different character; one was an act for establishing liberty of conscience, and repealing all such as were contrary thereto; another, connected with religious observances, directed that all should pay their tithes to the pastor of their own persuasion. A bill was also brought in to repeal the act of settlement, which was carried after much opposition from the Protestant bishops, and some of the lords. Another to prevent appeals to England was also carried, though with much difficulty. Two more, the one to repeal Poyning’s law, the other to establish inns of court in Dublin, were opposed by James himself, who, still fondly clinging to the hope of a restoration to his seat of dominion in England, was averse to whatever had a tendency to diminish the dependency of Ireland. His conduct with respect to the circulating medium is the most unjust, as well as the most impolitic, of his measures. Parliament had voted him a subsidy of twenty thousand pounds a month. He doubled this sum by a royal ordinance. The money, notwithstanding votes of parliament and kingly proclamations, came in slowly. James erected a mint in Dublin, where he had large quantities of base metal coined into pieces of large nominal value. The plan, as a financial project, proved a complete failure, bringing discredit on the deviser, and inflicting injury on the friends of his cause, who were the ultimate sufferers by the depreciation.

Whilst James was neglecting his military operations in the north of Ireland, and injuring his credit and resources by his financial mismanagement in Dublin, his antagonist William, now freed by the death of Dundee from the apprehension of a Scotch invasion, was making extensive preparations for carrying on the war in Ireland. In the summer of 1689, his favourite general Schomberg landed near Carrickfergus, with a well-appointed army of ten thousand veterans. After taking that town, which surrendered on honourable terms, he moved southwards to Dundalk, where the scarcity of provisions, and the ap [7:12:377]proach of the Irish army under James, obliged him to halt and encamp. His position was low and unhealthy, his camp ill supplied with provisions. His men sunk rapidly, through sickness and inaction. James, though much urged to it by his officers, could not be prevailed upon to hazard an assault. After remaining some time opposed to each other in a state of inaction, Schomberg took advantage of the arrival of some fresh troops to change his position, and retrace his steps towards Carrickfergus, where he was more secure against the necessity of combating to disadvantage with a superior force.

Next year William resolved to take the field in person. He landed early in June at Carrickfergus, and being joined by Schomberg with the remains of his shattered forces, advanced southwards in the same direction that had formed the line of march in the last campaign. His forces now amounted to six and thirty thousand men, the greater part veterans, who had proved themselves on the Continent. James’s army had been in the mean time furnished with a supply of five thousand Frenchmen; but these were raw and undisciplined, and procured by an exchange of an equal number of Irish, the flower of his army. After retreating before his rival from Dundalk to Drogheda, he at length took up a position on the south side of the Boyne, where, contrary to the advice of all his officers, he determined to make a stand, and to set his chance of dominion on the hazard of a battle. William, whose disposition and circumstances equally urged him to bring the contest to an immediate decision without hesitation, prepared to force the passage of the river. Whilst engaged in reconnoitring the enemy’s arrangements, he received a wound on the shoulder from a piece of artillery levelled at him from the opposite bank, but not sufficient to prevent him from appearing at the head of his troops in the ensuing day’s engagement. The next morning his army, headed by himself, moved to the attack in three divisions. Crossing the river where the water in some places came up to their breasts, his troops gained the opposite bank, notwithstanding a galling fire from the infantry, by which they were lined, and repeated charges of the Irish cavalry led on by General Hamilton. Schomberg was killed, as is supposed by a chance shot from his own soldiers, in the confusion of one of these desperate assaults. Callimote, the leader of the French Protestants in William’s army, also fell during the passage. Walker, likewise, the clerical defender of Derry, fell here. When his death was reported to William, the only remark made by the cold Dutchman was, “The fool; what business had he there?” The Irish, after some vain efforts to drive back the enemy into the river, in one of which Hamilton was taken prisoner, finally broke and quitted the field, thinking only of making good their retreat.

Whilst William was thus actively engaged in asserting his title to his newly-acquired throne, James was standing aloof on the hill of Donore, an idle spectator of a struggle which involved the fortunes of himself and all his adherents. On seeing the discomfiture of his army, he immediately fled to Dublin, and thence to Waterford, leaving directions to have the bridges broken down after him, to check his pursuers. William, adopting the same system towards him as when he had driven him from England, allowed him to continue his flight unmolested. Proceeding to Drogheda, he forced it to surrender on a threat of military execution in case of resistance, and thence continued his march without interruption to Dublin, holding out offers of protection to the peasantry, who accepted his protection, but declaring that he w ould leave the leaders, of what he chose to call a rebellion, to the chances of war. 1he main body of the Irish army retreated to Limerick a ∏d Athlone, placing the strong line of the Shannon between themselves and their victorious enemy. An attempt made upon Athlone by General Douglas was unsuccessful. After being baffled in an attempt to force a passage there, and in another at Lanesborough, lower down the river, he was forced to desist and retire to Dublin. A similar attempt made by William upon Limerick met with the same termination. Relying for success on the dissensions that existed between the French and Irish officers in James’s army, he advanced to that town, carrying with him only a field train of artillery. On being apprized of his error by the formidable aspect of defence presented by the garrison, he sent for his battering train from Dublin, which, when within seven miles of his camp, was attacked and totally destroyed by a sortie of General Sarsfield. William, however, was not of a temper to be easily discouraged. With two pieces which had escaped the fate of the others he effected a breach, and proceeded to attempt an entrance by storm; but the breach was defended so gallantly that he was forced to retreat and raise the siege, after having suffered a loss of two thousand of his best men. The urgency of his affairs in England obliged him to go thither, leaving the command of the army to his generals, Solmes and Ginckel. The war was carried on during the winter, chiefly from a suggestion of the Earl, afterwards the celebrated Duke, of Marlborough, w ho proposed the taking of Cork and Kinsale, so as to secure the command of the southern coast. The suggestion was adopted, and its execution intrusted to the proposer of it. The fortifications of Cork were in a state of great dilapidation; the place was in a hollow, commanded by the surrounding mountains. After a short resistance, the only remarkable feature of which was the death of the Duke of Grafton, one of the natural sons of Charles 11., the town surrendered on condition of protection to persons and property. But it was with much difficulty that the commanding officers enforced the observance of these terms. As soon as the troops had entered, a tumult was excited, the governor was wounded, the Earls of Tyrone and Clancarty narrowly escaped, and the houses of many Catholics were plundered. Kinsale, which was afterwards invested, presented more difficulty. The garrison abandoned the town, and confined their defences to two castles. One of these, the old castle, was soon stormed; but the other held out until its garrison procured permission to march out with their arms and join the main body of the Irish. Ginckel, after the capture of these places, attempted to carry the war into the west of Cork and Kerry; but his troops were foiled in the mountain passes, and forced to return with loss. Whilst the military operations were proceeding thus languidly, the civil officers of King William were more active and successful in securing their own interests, by the confiscation of the property of the adherents of King James. The forfeitures made by them comprehended a million of acres, the property of three thousand nine hundred and twenty-one sufferers, and were valued at three millions three hundred and twenty thousand pounds. The injustice of inflicting such a penalty on adherence to the cause of a rightful sovereign can only be surpassed by the means of its enforcement. The Irish gentry who possessed estates were indicted for high treason in their respective counties, and the causes then removed by certiorari into the King’s Bench in Dublin. Thus, in most cases, the accused persons were deprived of the means of making their defence. In many, they were ignorant even of their accusation, until they found themselves stripped of their patrimony by the sentence of the court. At the same time rumours of plots and conspiracies were set afloat, and proclamations issued in consequence, assessing the Catholic inhabitants of peaceable counties for injuries to Protestant property in others, excluding from protection those who had sons in the enemy’s quarters, prohibiting assemblages of more than ten Catholics, and subjecting to transportation the [7:12:378]parish priest of places where such assemblages were held. These proceedings drove the great body of the Catholics to desperation. They saw no hope but in the subversion of a government whose establishment was to be secured only by their utter ruin.

Military operations recommenced vigorously at the beginning of summer. St Ruth, who had been sent from France to take the chief command, determined to make a stand at Athlone, which he strengthened with some works. Ginekel directed his main force against it. His first assault failed. After a delay of nine days spent in preparations, a second attempt was made with still less effect. Not only were his troops repulsed, but his works were burned. St Ruth, intoxicated with his snecess, withdrew the greater part of his men from the defences, in spite of the warnings of his Irish officers. Ginekel, aware of the inconsiderate movement, took advantage of it, and forced the passage of the Shannon by surprise, whilst St Ruth was celebrating his victory by balls and entertainments in his camp at some distance. The Irish general then retired to Aghrim, on the borders of Galway, there determined to make a final stand, on a position chosen by himself. He was soon followed thither by the English, who attacked the position with undaunted intrepidity. For some time the contest was doubtful; but the death of St Ruth, who fell by a cannon-ball in the heat of the action, decided its fate. Whether from jealousy or contempt, this foreigner had avoided communicating his plans to the Irish generals who were to execute them. His sudden death, therefore, left the army without a head. All was confusion; and Ginekel, taking advantage of this state of things, pressed on and obtained an easy, but not a cheap victory. In the preceding struggle, upwards of two thousand of his men had fallen. The loss of the Irish, which occurred mostly in the rout, exceeded seven thousand.

The remains of the Irish army fell back upon Limerick. This city was now the only place of any importance that held out. Galway had surrendered upon favourable conditions. The garrison of Banagher, on declaring their determination to return home after surrendering, were supplied by their conqueror with the means of proceeding thither. Ginekel, who had remained some time inactive in Galway, hoping that terms of accommodation would be offered, as Tyrconnel was now dead of an illness said to be caused by disappointment, and the lords-justices who succeeded him were inclined to make terms, provided the interests of the general body of the Catholics were secured by them, at length opened the trenches before Limerick. At first the operations of the besiegers proceeded but slowly. Having, however, made themselves masters of a pass across the Shannon, through the treachery of Colonel Clifford, the officer who commanded there, they were enabled to invest the town on all sides. This advantage was followed by an assault on one of the gates, which was urged with so much ardour, that the officer there thought it necessary to raise the drawbridge with so much precipitation that upwards of a thousand of the garrison were left on the outside, exposed to the besiegers’ fire. The greater part of these unfortunate victims were killed either by the enemy or in attempting to swim the river; a few were captured. The act itself was condemned as over hasty. The officer who gave the order for it was a Frenchman, and his conduct was imputed to bad motives. The bad feeling that had long subsisted between the strangers and the native troops was thus greatly exasperated. The latter, conceiving that their countrymen had been wantonly sacrificed, determined to seek for peace. Their resolution was encouraged by Ginekel, and a cessation of arms for the purpose of adjusting the terms of a treaty was the consequence. The news was immediately forwarded to the lords-justices in Dublin, just in time to prevent the publication of a proclamation, offering to the Irish in arms terms as liberal as they could have hoped for after a victory; granting, in faet, to the Catholics all the privileges they had heretofore enjoyed, and all they have since obtained. The lords-justices hastened to the camp, and in two days after their arrival the articles of Limerick received the signatures of both the contracting parties.

By this treaty it was stipulated that the Roman Catholics should enjoy the exercise of their religion, as during the reign of Charles II.; to which was added a promise that the king would endeavour to procure further security for them on this point, as soon as parliament should be assembled. It was further agreed, that all the inhabitants of Limerick, and those in arms for King James in the counties of Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, and Mayo, should enjoy their estates, and be suffered to pursue their respective avocations unmolested; that the Catholic gentry should be allowed the use of arms, and should not be called upon to take any oath but that of allegiance; and, finally, that all the soldiers who were unwilling to submit to these conditions should be conveyed to the Continent at the expense of the English government. Two days after the signing of this treaty, a French fleet arrived on the coast with a large supply of reinforcements and military stores. But it was then too late. Nothing now remained in order to terminate the war, but the execution of that part of the treaty which permitted the Irish soldiery to choose between residence at home and service under a foreign but friendly power on the Continent. The Irish guards set the example; they all volunteered for the service of the king of France, seven individuals only excepted. Two regiments of Ulster Irish returned home in a body. Of the remainder of the Irish army, but one thousand horse and fifteen hundred foot remained. The generous self-devotion of those who sacrificed their country for their principles was but ill rewarded. On the arrival of the troops in France no quarters were assigned to them. The regiments were broken up, the officers reduced to lower grades, and the generals excluded from court. After some time, however, the value of their services was acknowledged, and the Irish brigade, during the succeeding continental wars, long maintained the highest character for fidelity to the cause it had embraced, and for the intrepidity it manifested under every circumstance of difficulty and danger.

A parliament was convened shortly after the ratification of the treaty. It was the first that had assembled after a lapse of twenty-six years of intestine commotion. Composed as it was of a great majority of Protestants, it testified little inclination to co-operate with the king’s wishes, in adhering to the strict fulfilment of the articles of Limerick. The king evidently wished them to be maintained in the spirit as well as in the letter. The feelings of the leading party in parliament were sufficiently indicated in a sermon preached by the Bishop of Meath before the lords-justices, which inculcated the detestable doctrine that Protestants were not bound to keep peace with Papists. The first open breach that occurred between the government and the House of Commons was caused by the introduction of two money bills. According to the system of Ireland under Poyning’s law, no bill could be brought into parliament until it had received the approbation of the king through the privy council. According to the principles of the British constitution, all money bills should originate with the House of Commons. The party opposed to the king took their stand upon the latter ground. One of the two bills was rejected altogether, and the other suffered to pass solely in consideration of the present exigency of affairs, and the pressing necessity of raising a supply for the king s service. Lord Sidney, in retaliation, suddenly prorogued the parliament, after reprehending the House of Commons sharply for what he styled an undutiful and ungrateful m*
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vasion of the royal prerogative. This act increased the general discontent, as several measures of importance then in progress were left unfinished.

A new parliament, assembled in 1695 by the Lord-deputy Capel, opened with an assurance from the throne, that the king was intent upon the firm settlement of Ireland upon a Protestant interest. Such a declaration was hailed with joy by the prevailing party. In order to support the king in this measure, a committee was appointed to consider what penal laws were in force. The following were found to be the principal: 1. An act subjecting all who maintained the supremacy of the church of Rome to the penalties of a praemumre, and requiring the oath of supremacy as a qualification for every office. 2. An act imposing fines on absence from the parish churches on Sunday. 3. An act authorizing the chancellor to appoint a guardian to the child of a Catholic. 4. An act to prevent Catholics from being private tutors, without license from the bishop. Having ascertained the actual state of restrictions on the Catholics, as they had existed previously to the treaty of Limerick, the parliament proceeded, not to secure them in the privileges guaranteed to them by that instrument, but to increase the number of penalties and restrictions, contrary to its spirit and tenor. The following statutes, passed by this parliament, formed the commencement of the system of restrictive legislation now known by the name of the penal code, which, when wound up to its acmê of intolerant severity, by the successive enactment of laws, each surpassing its predecessor in severity, was described by Burke as the acmé of refinement in political persecution. These acts were, 1. to deprive Catholics of the means of educating their children, either at home or abroad, except under Protestant teachers, and to prevent them from being guardians even to their own children; 2. to disarm the Catholics; 3. to banish Catholic priests and prelates. Having passed these acts in direct violation of the treaty, they proceeded to confirm those articles, or so much of them as might consist with the safety and welfare of the king’s subjects in these kingdoms. The bill took care that the precautionary proviso should not be a dead letter. It abrogated the articles which provided for the security of the Catholics from disturbance on account of their religion, which confirmed them in the possession of their estates and the exercise of their profession, which allowed them the use of arms, and which required the oath of allegiance only as a test of their loyalty. The bill passed the House of Commons with little difficulty. But in the House of Lords, where several of the Catholic peers still had seats, it was strenuously resisted; and when carried, a protest against it was entered on the journals by thirteen peers, six of whom were bishops. This mutilated ratification of the treaty was followed up by three other penal laws: 1. To prevent the intermarriages of Protestants and Catholics; 2. to prevent Papists from being solicitors; and, 3. to prevent them from being gamekeepers.

The spirit of religious intolerance that gave birth to these acts was not the only evil that checked the prosperity of the country. The commercial spirit of monopoly of the English manufacturers, who had long viewed with a jealous eye the increase of the woollen manufacture in Ireland, to which the cheapness of living and the excellency of the pasturages afforded peculiar advantages, prevailed on the king to make a solemn assurance that he would do all that in him lay to discourage that manufacture, adding as a mitigation of a declaration so iniquitous, that every encouragement should be afforded to the linen Manufacture. The former part of the promise was rigidly adhered to, the latter was disregarded. Every attempt to establish the linen manufacture in the south of Ireland failed, chiefly from the opposition given by the clergy to the introduction of an equitable modus for the tithe of flax.

Whilst parliament was thus employed during the reign of William, in undoing the bonds of the treaty of Limerick, the court of claims appointed to investigate and dispose of the lands forfeited by the adherents of James was equally active in its invasion of their property. Amongst the chief sufferers by the decisions of this court was the Earl of Clancarty. It appeared doubtful whether his noble estate should be included amongst the forfeitures. The point was decided by a declaration of the grand jury of the county of Cork, which resolved that its restoration would be prejudicial to the Protestant interest. It was therefore sold, under a decree of the court. A subsequent attempt made in his favour in the reign of George II. was not only equally unsuccessful, but all attempts at a repetition of it were crushed by a vote of the House of Commons, that any lawyer who pleaded in his behalf should be deemed an enemy to his country.

The annals of Ireland during the reign of Queen Anne are merely a record of the exertions of the Irish parliament to rivet and extend the penal laws. By an act passed in 1703, the father of a Papist who conformed to the established religion was incapacitated from disposing of his property by sale, mortgage, or bequest; and a Papist was prohibited from being guardian to his own child, who, on conforming, was to be taken from his parent, and given in charge to a Protestant. Papists were rendered incapable of holding lands for more than thirty-one years; and if the profit rent of such land was found to exceed one third of the actual rent, the benefit of the lease was to be transferred to the Protestant who made the discovery. They were also prevented from inheriting the lands of their Protestant relatives, and their own lands were to be gavelled after death amongst their children. The most extraordinary provision of this monstrous act, was the requiring the oath of abjuration, and the sacramental test, to be taken as a qualification for office and for voting at elections. The cause of its insertion is singular. The English government was at this time negotiating with the emperor of Germany for the toleration of Protestantism throughout his dominions. To press the enactment of severe laws against the Catholics at home at such a period, exhibited an inconsistency as absurd as it was iniquitous. An effort was therefore made to dissuade the Irish parliament from proceeding with the bill, but to no purpose. Knowing, therefore, that the majority of the lower house consisted of Protestant dissenters, the clause requiring the taking of the sacramental test was inserted by the English council, in the hope that the rigid puritans would reject the whole bill rather than saddle themselves with the disqualification. But they were mistaken. Bigotry prevailed over self-interest; and the puritans of the day acquiesced in the passing of a law, which deprived the conscientious members of their own persuasion of the right of exercising the most valuable privileges of freemen, rather than suffer their Catholic countrymen to participate in them.

This act was followed up by resolutions calling upon all the civil officers of the government to enforce its provisions, and declaring that the prosecuting and informing against Papists was an honourable service to the government. But this law, and these resolutions, were not deemed sufficient. In 1709 another act was passed, imposing additional restrictions upon the Catholics, by which they were prohibited from holding annuities for life; requiring the father of a conforming child to give in to the chancellor a strict account of the value of his property, in order to apportion a due share thereof to his support. Jointures were secured to conforming wives. Papists were forbidden to be assistants in schools. Popish priests [7:12:380]who conformed were allowed a stipend of L.30 a year, that of a Protestant curate being L.50; and rewards were offered for the discovery of popish prelates, priests, and teachers, at the rate of L.50 each for the first of these classes, L.20 for the second, and L.10 for the third. A subsequent statute excluded Catholics from acting as sheriffs, and from sitting on grand juries, and even proceeded as far as to enact, that in trials arising out of statutes for strengthening the Protestant interest, the plaintiff might set aside a juror on the ground of his being a Papist. The example of the parliament was followed by the corporations. Bye-laws were enacted, excluding Catholics from every profitable branch of trade. The result was, that all the Catholic gentry possessed of the means of emigration quitted the country, as did all the merchants of respectability, carrying with them, to fructify in other and in hostile countries, the property which might have enriched that of their persecutors.

The system was now nearly complete. The Catholics were excluded from every opening to political power. They were not exterminated, because the land would have been valueless to the new proprietors, without the assistance of labourers sufficient to extract its produce. The effects of the system soon began to appear. The son of James II. made an attempt to recover his father’s dominions in the beginning of the reign of George I. The new proprietary took the alarm. On the first rumour of his intended project against Scotland, a number of Irish Catholic gentlemen were thrown into close confinement. The government, however, ashamed of this unnecessary ebullition of terror, soon afterwards caused them to be liberated, even without payment of the customary fees. The alarm was futile. The' Irish had not the means, nor even the inclination, to renew the contest. Their spirit was broken by the grinding degradation of the restrictions thrown around them. Yet, to make assurance still surer, these restrictions were increased by the addition of new clauses to the penal code, mostly of minor importance, by one of which Papists were excluded from voting in vestries for the assessment of money for repairing or rebuilding parish churches.

The Irish Protestants were equally active in asserting their own liberties, as in extinguishing those of the Catholics. An attempt made by the English House of Lords to exercise the right of ultimate jurisdiction in cases of disputed property, to the prejudice of the peers of Ireland, was stubbornly resisted ∙, and though the dispute was cut short for the time by an English act, declaring that the British parliament had full power and authority to make laws to bind the people of Ireland, the acquiescence of the latter proceeded, as future events fully proved it, from a consciousness, not of the defect of right, but of power to assert it. In its resistance to another act of British interference the country was more successful. The coinage, particularly of copper, was deplorably defective both in quantity and in value. An application for a domestic mint, a right often before allowed and exercised, was rejected, and in lieu of it a patent was granted to an English brassfounder of the name of Wood to coin copper to a large amount. The pride of the Irish took fire, and the circumstances of the case elevated the feeling into patriotism. Amongst the opponents of Wood’s patent, Jonathan Swift, the celebrated dean of St Patrick’s, was most eminent. In a series of letters, published under the name of the “Drapier,” he denounced the scheme as illegal and ruinous. One of the letters was deemed libellous, and a large reward was offered for the discovery of the author. But the fidelity of the dean’s partisans bore him harmless; the storm passed over without injury to him. The invidious patent was recalled; and his grateful country has embalmed his memory in the immortality of patriotism.

The state of the Catholics was now brought down nearly to the lowest point of depression. An address of congratulation to George II. on his accession, presented to the lord-lieutenant by Lord Delvin, on their part, was suffered to remain unnoticed, except so far as to render so faint an effort an apology for still further restraints. A bill was brought in for excluding Papists from voting at elections. By another, lawyers and attorneys married to Papists were prevented from practising. Even converts could not hold the office of justice of the peace if their wives and children continued co be recusant; and persons plundered by privateers in the service of a popish nation were to be reimbursed by a levy on the goods of Roman Catholics only. A vote of the Commons, declaring any person who took legal steps for the recovery of his tithes of dry cattle, commonly called the tithe of agistment, to be an enemy to the country, threw the greater part of the burden of maintaining the Protestant clergy from the rich proprietor, whose land was wholly under pasturage, upon the Roman Catholic cotter, who was obliged to raise some grain on his little patch of ground for the subsistence of his family.

Whilst the Irish parliament were thus vigilant in cutting off from the Catholics all means of regaining political power, they were no less so in preventing any encroachment of the English government upon the rights they themselves possessed. The relations of these two latter parties towards each other after the Revolution were peculiar. The members of the House of Commons held their seats, not, as in Great Britain, by septennial election, but during the pleasure of the crown. Their tenure was therefore generally regarded as tantamount to a life estate, subject only to a dissolution on the demise of the crown. Hence they were virtually unrestrained by popular control. On the other hand, as the lord-lieutenant came over to Ireland but once in two years, to hold a parliament for granting the supplies, the management of the country rested with the lords-justices nominated to hold the reins of government in his absence, who were selected from among the most powerful of the great Protestant families. Their influence, in questions between the two countries, was therefore often directed to thwart the measures of the English cabinet, particularly when these seemed to interfere with their own aggrandizement. The operation of the penal laws, whilst it enslaved the Catholics, pauperized the country. The great mass of the population was deprived by them of the main stimulus to industry, the hope of improving their condition by their own exertions. The great proprietors found their land becoming of less value, from the neglect of agricultural improvement. The supplies for the service of government were therefore granted with a niggardly and reluctant spirit. The English cabinet hoped to cut the knot that thus linked them to the Irish parliament. An attempt was made to obtain a vote for the supplies for twenty-one years. The Irish aristocracy immediately took the alarm. However acquiescent in the general tenor of their votes, they now rallied, and the insidious attempt was rendered abortive by a majority of one.

The depression of the country, arising from the treatment of the Catholic part of the population, was endeavoured to be remedied by the extension of education, the formation of patriotic societies, and the execution of public works. To educate the Catholics, it was necessary they should first be converted, because by the penal code domestic education according to the principles of their own faith was prohibited. Schools were therefore opened, in which the pupils were taught the elements of literature and the useful arts, and were also clothed and fed at the public expense. Being established by letters patent from the crown, these obtained the name of charter schools.
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Their professed object was the diffusion of useful knowledge; but as their primary process was based upon Protestant instruction, and as this, to be effective, required a total severance of the parental tie which linked the Catholic peasant to his family, the effort failed. The second element of national regeneration was attempted by the formation of a society, in imitation of the Royal Society of London, under the name of the PhysicoHistorical Society, for the improvement of agriculture, husbandry, and the useful arts, which afterwards merged into the Royal Dublin Society. The last-named element of improvement, the execution of public works, gave rise to the measure of inland navigation. But none of these were effective to the extent proposed by those who set them on foot. The great object was not merely to give Protestantism the ascendency, but to eradicate Catholicism; to realize, in fact, what was imagined by a fiction of law, when, in a case where a Catholic came into a court of justice, he was gravely told that the law did not recognise the existence of a Papist. Education, whether of the primary rudiments or of the higher departments of science, gave knowledge, and knowledge revealed the extent and gloom of degradation. Useful works required workmen, and thus circulated capital amongst the Catholic population, to which the undertakers were compelled to have recourse for the mechanical parts of such undertakings. A state of society so anomalous, in which universal liberty was the avowed principle, yet slavery, unmitigated by the protection which sordid interest extends to the preservation of individual property, was the practice, could not but be most precarious. The ruling party, aware of the danger of explosion, at length found itself compelled to give vent to the under-workings of the re-action against oppression, by a partial change of system. That of ever-increasing compression, painful and hazardous at all times, was found, in periods of general agitation or impending warfare, impracticable. The threatened invasion of England by the young Pretender was the crisis which led to a change of domestic policy towards the Catholics. Ireland, as the weakest point of the empire, was looked upon as the most exposed. The Irish population was numerous and discontented. Their deficiency in the means and the organization of war could be instantaneously supplied by the wealth of France, and by the long-proved skill and valour of their countrymen, the Irish brigades in the French service. To ward off the apprehended danger, Lord Chesterfield was sent over in the spirit of conciliation. To the Catholics, worn down by the action of half a century of increasing oppression, the slightest relaxation of the highly strained engine of oppression became comparatively a blessing. An accidental circumstance afforded the new governor an opportunity to evince the sincerity of his professions. Hitherto the Catholics had held their assemblages for religions worship in the most secluded and secret places. , The rewards offered by the laws for the detection of their priests, or of those who attended their ceremonies, compelled them to the strictest secrecy. The floor of a building in one of the confined streets of Dublin, where mass was celebrated, gave way, and caused the death or mutilation of a number of the wretched beings, congregated to worship their God at all hazards, in the way in which they had been trained. Lord Chesterfield, with the tact which has immortalized him as a first-rate character in the annals of fashionable life, seized the opportunity of declaring openly that he would not be a party to a system of religious prevention, liable to the hazard of such results; and the meetings of Catholics for the purpose of religious worship were consequently winked at. Still, however, the spirit of the penal code remained unrestricted; and operative laws were passed during the government of this, the first of the tolerating lord-lieutenants, not only annulling all marriages between Protestants and Catholics, if celebrated by a Catholic priest, but also rendering the clergyman who performed the ceremony liable to capital punishment. The threatened storm from abroad blew over. The invasion of the young Pretender forms no part of Irish history. The Irish Catholic remained unmoved in his habits of passive obedience. The Irish Protestant returned to his parliamentary controversies with the ruling powers in England. Where there existed such a consciousness of overwhelming superiority on the one side, acting upon a spirit of domineering independence, checked by an internal conviction of weakness, the weakness of division, on the other, collisions between the English cabinet and the Irish ascendency party could not fail to be frequent and acrimonious; much less could such collisions fail to throw to the surface some of those restless spirits which political convulsions have shaken from their orbits of ordinary movement. A contest between the Irish privy council, which then exercised the most important parts of the legislative functions of government, and the corporation, stimulated Charles Lucas, a Dublin apothecary, to assert the rights of the latter. Though unsuccessful, he was not nnrewarded. The death of the two representatives for Dublin gave rise to a contested election, an event of rare occurrence under the then existing constitution of the Irish parliament. Lucas was elected, under the pledge of vindicating, in the House of Commons, the perfect independence of the Irish legislature. This doctrine, first broached by Molyneaux shortly after the Revolution, in a treatise called the “Case of Ireland,” was viewed with alarm by the English party in the house, and with jealousy by that of the Irish aristocracy. By the one it was viewed as a severance of the connection of sovereignty and dependence between the two countries, by the other it was felt to sap the foundations of their own domestic omnipotence. Passages of libellous tendency were extracted from Lucas’s publications. The House of Commons declared him an enemy to the country, and passed a vote for his prosecution. He evaded the coming storm only by retiring to the Continent. On a subsequent vacancy, however, he was reelected, and took his seat as one of the representatives of the people, which he retained till his death. The Irish parliament, arrogant where it felt secure in its own power, was tamely submissive under circumstances wherein an assertion of its just rights would have been truly creditable. A surplus revenue remained in the Irish exchequer. The English council insisted on the king’s right to dispose of it at pleasure. The Irish Commons equally insisted on their absolute control over the public purse, without any interference from other quarters. The bill acknowledging the necessity of the royal consent to the appropriation of the surplus income was rejected by the Commons. The English council cut the matter short. The money in dispute was drawn out of the treasury by a king’s letter, and the Commons passively acquiesced in the spoliation and insult.

In this state of torpid tranquillity, ruffled only by apprehensions of internal commotion, or by the agitation of partisan quarrels between the rival factions of court and country which divided the dominant party, Ireland continued to advance for nearly seventy years after the Revolution, until at length the elements of activity were roused by the reality of an actual invasion. In the year 1759, a fleet was fitted out in the French ports, for the avowed purpose of landing a large armament in Ireland. A small squadron under M. Thurot, supposed to be an advanced section of the main fleet, and intended to cause a diversion of the defending forces, landed in the north of Ireland, and took possession of the town and castle of Carrickfergus, with little opposition. After holding it a few days, the French commander, checked by the appearance of the general and [7:12:382] determined resistance which was gathering around him through all the northern counties, deemed it expedient, instead of proceeding to the assault of the wealthy and undefended town of Belfast, which lay at but a few miles’ distance, to re-embark. Any further repetition of his predatory incursions was prevented by the destruction of his little armament in the channel, in an engagement, in which Thurot himself lost his life.

The alarm excited by the threatened invasion afforded an opportunity to the Catholics to call the attention of the government to their sufferings. An address, framed by a committee of their body, was presented to the lord-lieutenant, making a tender of their allegiance at this critical period. Its favourable reception brought forward others of the same kind from every part of the country, and thus was the first impulse given to the movement for the repeal of the penal code. Another opportunity of echoing the sentiments contained in these ac’dresses presented itself on the accession of the new king, George III. It was eagerly seized on, and the address was received with equal favour as the former. The state of the country required some vital change in its internal administration. The revenue was declining, and the peasantry were every year becoming more destitute and discontented. The wretched sufferers, attributing their misery to the exaction of tithes and the enclosure of lands hitherto left open in commonage, banded themselves together in large bodies at night, and destroyed the new enclosures; whence they at first received tĥe name of Levellers, but were afterwards better known by that of Whiteboys, from their wearing white shirts over their clothes, to be known to one another in their nocturnal expeditions. From the invasion of property they proceeded to the attack of persons obnoxious to them, particularly tithe proctors, treating with wanton and barbarous cruelty those who fell into their hands. The government, instead of probing the evil to the bottom in order to effect a cure by the removal of the cause of irritation, retaliated by a series of severe and arbitrary laws, known by the name of the Whiteboy Acts, many of which are still in force. Attempts were made to connect those insurrections of desperate misery with the political movements of France. Rumours were circulated that the Whiteboys were encouraged by money from that court, and that their combination was the explosion of a plan for restoring the Pretender. A parish priest of the name of Sheehy, who had made himself obnoxious to the gentry in his neighbourhood by his exertions to shield the peasantry from their oppressions, was arrested on a charge of treason; and, though acquitted of that crime after a patient and long investigation by a jury in Dublin, he was, on his return home, again arraigned on a charge of murder, universally known to be false, and executed. The situation of the British government in Ireland at this time was extremely irksome and invidious. In order to carry on the public business smoothly, it became necessary to conciliate the great landed proprietors, who, through their borough influence, had the control of the House of Commons. They were to be gained over partly by allowing them a large share in the disposal of all places of trust and profit, and partly by indulging their enmity to the Catholics, who were still suspected of being cemented in a secret union for the recovery of their forfeited estates. The party which thus virtually ruled the country by playing the British government and the Irish people against one another, was known by the name of the Undertakers. They had a double object; the one to make the crown, as far as Ireland was concerned, dependent on themselves; and the other to check the spirit of liberty in the people, and at the same time to throw on the government the odium of the measures of which they themselves were the instigators. To break down this petty aristocracy, which had intruded itself between the prerogative of the crown and the rights of the people, the British cabinet resolved, in the early part of George HI.’s reign, that the lord-lieutenant, who had hitherto visited the country only once in two years for the purpose of holding a parliament and passing the supplies, leaving the management of the country during the intervening period to two or three lords-justices chosen from among the leaders of the Undertakers, should reside permanently in Dublin, so as thus to be the immediate and ostensible organ of government patronage and influence. At the same time, to put a stop to the outcry against the mismanagement of the public income, which was attributed to the people’s want of a sufficient check over their representatives, the duration of parliaments, which hitherto had terminated only on the demise of the crown, was limited to eight years, so that,* as the parliaments then sat only ever second year, there should be four sessions between each dissolution. Lord Townshend, a nobleman of moderate political, but of great convivial endowments, was selected as the most fitting person to effect the change. He succeeded with much difficulty, some loss of character, and great expenditure of the public money. But the people felt no benefit from the change. The places and pensions, hitherto bestowed on the dependents of the Undertakers, were now lavished with augmented profusion on the creatures of the lord-lieutenant. The disappointed borough holders of the old parliaments felt their power in the House of Commons increased by the curtailing of the period of legislation. They threw themselves into the ranks of opposition, to thwart the measures of the government which they could no longer direct. The parliament was the arena for the struggle between the two parties, and the real interests of the country were disregarded. The severity of the Whiteboy Acts caused a temporary cessation of insubordination in one part of the country, only to give vent to it in another. The disturbances in the south had been imputed to Catholic conspiracy, aided by foreign influence. A similar systematized spirit of outrage now displayed itself in Ulster, which was chiefly inhabited by a Protestant population, that had already testified its loyalty during Thurot’s invasion. The real cause of disaffection was the same in both parts of the country. High rents, and the rapacity of the agents of absentees, drove the people into insurrection. The assembled multitudes here took the name of Hearts of Steel. For their suppression, the legislature passed an act that offenders should be tried in counties different from that in which the crime was committed. The extreme severity and injustice of the law counteracted its operation. Dublin juries, disgusted at a measure so arbitrary and unconstitutional, acquitted the prisoners, and the law was soon repealed. Emigration to the American colonies was the consequence of the depressed state of the peasantry, and of the severity with which they were treated. The war with those colonies, by closing this vent for the discharge of the popular discontents, caused them to accumulate at home. It also increased their amount by the addition of other grievances arising out of the change from peace to war. America had been the great mart for Irish linens, now the only thriving branch of the national manufactures; it was also the great market for Irish provisions. The war closed the trade, and an embargo laid on provisions in favour of some great English contractors put a stop to their export. The country was also deprived of its portion of the regular troops, which the increasing emergency of the struggle with the revolted provinces called away. The sufferings of the people were intense; and the alarm of danger was shortly afterwards increased by the well-founded apprehension of an invasion from France, now the avowed ally of the Americans. To allay the spirit of discontent which was rapidly pervading all ranks, two measures were proposed, the one in England, the removal of the restrictions[7:12:383] imposed there, as unwisely as selfishly, on Irish commerce; the other the relaxation of the penal code in Ireland. The commercial jealousy of the mercantile interest in England prevented the former; the latter succeeded so far as to allow Catholics to hold lands by lease for a long term of years. This boon, though it might excite the hope of more extended liberality, could avail little toward relieving the pressure of immediate distress. Want at home, and danger from abroad, stared the country every year more fully in the face. The landed and commercial interests called on the government for protection. The Earl of Buckinghamshire, then lord-lieutenant, a man of moderate abilities, returned for answer that the government had none to give. The people, urged on by the exigency of the crisis, resolved to arm themselves. Volunteer associations were not hitherto wholly unknown in the country. The military spirit of the nation had shown itself on many preceding occasions, in the readiness with which numerous bodies of men, assuming a self-formed and self-taught military organization, united together on occasions of local or temporary danger. The invasion of Thurot gave rise to some in the. north, the outrages of the Whiteboys led to others in the southern counties. But such instances were temporary and local. The impulse now given to the public spirit, by the desponding reply of the government to the appeal for protection, was universal and permanent. The organization commenced in Belfast, to which the lord-lieutenant’s answer had been more specially directed. The constituted authorities had told them they were not to look to them for protection, but to themselves. They took the hint, and formed several companies of self-armed, selfdisciplined, and self-officered soldiers. The surrounding towns followed the example; and the government, acting in the spirit of its own suggestion, supplied these new-raised levies with arms. The flame of military ardour spread with unexpected rapidity through all parts, and the number of well-disciplined corps soon became so great and so formidable as to dispel all thought of invasion on the one side, and all apprehension of it on the other. The same spirit caused a re-action against the monopolizing restrictions of the British legislature. The people of Ireland entered into a very general combination to confine themselves to the use of their own manufactures. The sudden check to industry thus produced in England caused the supporters of the measure to reflect on its inexpediency; and the military display could not fail to attract their respect.

The people of Ireland now began to expect from their volunteer associations what, according to the principles of the constitution, should only be looked for from the legislature. These bodies were not backward in meeting such expectations. Assemblages of volunteer corps in Dublin and elsewhere passed resolutions that the king, lords, and commons of Ireland alone were competent to make laws to bind the people of Ireland. The political feeling thus excited increased the number of military associations; and, whilst in the parliament the old system of corrupt influence carried all before it by numerical majorities, the volunteers of Ulster, in the consciousness of their strength, held a meeting at Dungannon, declarative of the necessity of a thorough reform of the state of the representation, and of a combined exertion of the whole volunteer force of Ireland to procure it. The effervescence of patriotism was increased by the unsettled state of the administration in England; Lord North had resigned, and the death of Lord Rockingham put a premature end to his short-lived administration. The result as to Ireland was the dissolution of the parliament, against which the feelings of the nation were so highly excited. A new parliament was about to meet; and at the same time a meeting of delegates from all the volunteer corps in Ire land was to assemble in Dublin, to urge on the favourite measure of parliamentary reform.

At this time several individuals had raised themselves to the highest pinnacle in the scale of patriotism. The most remarkable was the Earl of Charlemont, who, after spending his youth amidst the elegancies of Italian refinement, devoted his maturer years to the service of his country at home. Next to him were Grattan and Flood, both members of parliament, both eager to establish the independence of their common country on sure grounds, yet fatally adverse to each other as to the foundation on which it was to be laid; the former considering a simple repeal of all English laws interfering with Irish rights as a sufficient disavowal of the assertion of supremacy, the latter requiring an open and explicit disclamation on the point. Grattan was successful, and the country voted him L.50,000. The breach between the rival patriots was irremediable. Grattan remained at home to continue the struggle for securing the newly-gained rights of his country. Flood soon afterwards retired to England, where a seat in the British legislature flattered him with a more enlarged sphere for the display of his powers. But he failed, and was no longer named as a patriot or statesman.

The meeting of the new parliament and of the volunteer convention took place simultaneously. The first and only act of any consequence adopted by the latter, was a resolution as to the necessity of a reform in parliament; which having been immediately afterwards introduced by Mr Flood into the House of Commons, was there rejected by a large majority; and the convention, partly through an apprehension among many of its members, of dangers from a collision between two representative bodies, both emanating from the same source, and both claiming to be the constitutional organ of their constituents, and partly through a manoeuvre of some of its leaders, quietly adjourned, and never afterwards assembled.

Assemblages of large bodies of armed men, unconnected with and beyond the control of the government, could not fail to alarm the ruling powers. The union of these bodies into a deliberative meeting, for the avowed purpose of influencing the legislature, was still more alarming. The first effort of the volunteers to attain this position had been baffled. The meeting of delegates was dissolved; but it might, and there was every 7 reason to suppose that it would, be re-assembled. To prevent such a recurrence by violent means was dangerous. The volunteer body was numerous. It counted upwards of 100,000 men, embracing the greater part of the wealth and respectability of the country, in its ranks; its numbers and discipline were yearly increasing. The consequences of a hostile collision with such a body, particularly at the close of an unsuccessful war, commenced with the avowed determination of crushing the spirit of independence in the American colonies, were fraught with great hazard. An attempt was therefore made to break up the strength of this body by internal divisions. The Catholic question effected this. The volunteers were almost exclusively Protestants. The extension of rights to a portion of the population, so long held in a state of passive degradation, was viewed by many of them with a jealous eye. They looked upon every new concession to the Catholics as so much abstracted from themselves. Still, however, the Catholic cause was gaining ground.

The extension of a free trade to Ireland had afforded the means of accumulating property. It was eagerly seized on by the Catholic merchants and traders. The lately conceded permission to hold land on long leases gave the holder of such property a fixed position and weight in the country. New laws, framed in the spirit of the increasing liberality of the age, extended their rights. They were permitted to purchase, hold, and dispose of land, by will [7:12:384]or otherwise, as freely as Protestants. The penal acts prohibiting the celebrating or hearing of mass, keeping horses above the value of five pounds each, instructing their own children, or acting as teachers, were repealed; as were those taxing them for the losses sustained from privateers, obliging them to pay Protestant watchmen, excluding them from residence in particular towns, and some other petty and irritating restrictions. Still they were far from being on a political equality with their Protestant countrymen; and at the very time that the severity of the code was thus relaxed as to property, new laws were passed still further contracting their political rights. By one of these they were debarred from admission into the Inns of Court; by another the English act of William III. excluding them from sitting in parliament, was formally enacted in Ireland. The passing of it attracted but little notice, as the act of William had been hitherto passively acquiesced in by the Catholic body.

Whilst the government was successfully busied in sowing the seeds of disunion amongst the volunteers, it paid little attention to conciliate the people by economy or good management. The reckless system of lavish and profligate expenditure ĩntroduced by Lord Townshend, to break down the monopoly of the Undertakers, was persevered in to secure majorities in the House of Commons. A feeble effort made by the Duke of Buckingham to retrench and restore order into the finances only led to his recall. Yet it was soon found that a government resting on majorities thus purchased depended on a very frail security. The mental derangement of the king in 1789 showed the futility of such reliance. The English cabinet wished to restrict the Prince of Wales in the discharge of the regal powers intrusted to him as regent. The Irish privy council was prepared to follow the example. But the opposition in parliament, anxious to extend their own influence by gaining over the heir-apparent, who had till then always made professions of great liberality of political opinion; resolved to grant him the regency of Ireland, with no restrictions beyond those imposed by the constitution on the sovereign himself. An address to this effect, voted by both houses of parliament, in opposition to the lord-lieutenant, was forwarded to London. The sudden and unexpected recovery of the king prevented its effect. But the British minister, having now so fully before him a warning of the consequences that might result from similar collisions of the two legislatures upon future questions, seemed fully determined to seize on every opportunity of preventing it, by taking measures for effecting a union of the parliaments of both countries, similar to that which took place in Scotland at the commencement of the century. The prevalence of opposition to the wishes of the English cabinet was as transient as it had been sudden. The members who voted against the ministry on the regency question were-again found in their places on all ministerial questions, with the exception of those whose rebellion had been too gross and daring to admit of pardon; and the parliamentary management of the country began to subside again into its former state of torpidity.

But the calm was not to be of long duration. A new element of convulsion was at work. The French revolution broke out in the same year in which the king’s insanity had caused such excitation. For some time it produced but little effect on the popular movements in Ireland. The Protestants, indeed, began to call more loudly for reform, and the Catholics to press more openly for admittance into the pale of the constitution. Both were disregarded. The government felt itself strong in its majorities, and in the plenitude of its means for securing them. The question of reform was disregarded; thatofCa-tholic relief was not only scouted with marked contumely, but, during the ensuing recess in 1792, every exertion was made on the part of government to draw forth from the grand juries of the several counties the strongest resolutions against any further concessions. Yet the very next year a bill was introduced into parliament by the government, for extending the elective franchise to the Catholics, which was passed by a majority nearly equal to that which had refused to take their claims into consideration in the last session. Bills for amending the representation, and for disqualifying placemen from sitting in the House of Commons, were also introduced. The promises of reform thus held out induced the minority to acquiesce in several coercive measures, particularly one against the holding of conventions by delegation. Enactments of the latter character having been secured, that of reform was allowed to languish, and, next year, was rejected by an overwhelming ministerial majority. The French war in which England was now involved had been the cause of this sudden burst of concession; but when the means of carrying it on, and of checking by severity any efforts to excite discontent at home, had been assured, the mask was thrown off, and the management of affairs carried on with increased profligacy of expenditure, and disregard of public opinion. The advocates of reform, despairing of any change of measures from parliament, endeavoured to carry the question of reform by a pressure from without, through the agency of voluntary associations. They formed a Whig Club, which afterwards was superseded by that of the United Irishmen. One of the leading features of both societies, especially of the latter, was the advocacy of the Catholic question, as it now appeared evident that the question of reform was hopeless, without the previous admission of the Catholic body to their rights of freemen. The government, after some further perseverance in measures of harshness and restraint, heightened by the increased violence of the leaders of the people, the principal of whom, Wolf Tone, Hamilton Rowan, and James Napper Tandy, were forced to expatriate themselves, changed at once to a system of conciliation. In assurance of the sincerity of the change of sentiment, Earl Fitzwilliam, a nobleman possessed of large estates in Ireland, and a steady advocate of liberal measures, was sent over as lord-lieutenant. He commenced his government by arrangements for bringing in a bill for the total repeal of the penal statutes, and by the removal from office of the inferior agents of government, who, by their long continuance in place, and the manner in which their mutual interests were connected, virtually possessed the supreme power. The latter of these efforts caused the lord· lieutenant’s removal. The family of the Beresfords, which had for many years possessed the chief places of profit and influence, remonstrated effectually against their own dismission and the breaking up of the old system, and Earl Fitzwilliam was suddenly recalled. Earl Camden, who succeeded him as lord-lieutenant, recurred to the former system of patronage and coercion. The United Irishmen now looked not to a reform, but to a separation from Great Britain, and the establishment of an independent republic in alliance with that of France, as the only means of securing the independence of their country. A well-arranged system of secret confederacy was spread over the greater part of the kingdom, headed by an executive in the capital, the members of which, though wholly unknown, except to the few individuals in immediate communication with themselves, issued orders for enlisting, combining, and arming their adherents, which were zealously and implicitly obeyed. The northern and midland counties bad for some time been disturbed by the fierce and deadly contentions of the peasantry of the two opposite religious creeds; the Catholics took the name of Defenders, the Protestants that of Orangemen. As the struggle grew more despe [7:12:385]rate, the attraction of party extended to the higher classes, and the former of these predial disturbers merged into the great mass of United Irishmen, whilst the latter, consolidated by the infusion of a superior spirit of wealth and intelligence, formed a compact, well-organized, and resolute body, under the original name of Orangemen, determined to maintain to the utmost their own monopoly of power, and the entire exclusion of the Roman Catholics, who formed the great mass of the population, from any participation of it. The increasing hostility of both parties showed itself by acts of augmented atrocity on both sides. The Defenders’ means of aggression were nocturnal plunder, house-burnings, and murders. The other party, backed by the sanction of the government, had recourse to the force of statutes of increased rigour, and, where these failed, to the agency of military violence beyond the law. In the year 1796 the organization of the united system on the one side, and on the other the increased severities of the Orangemen, supported by the government, and directed exclusively against the Catholic peasantry, compelled the leaders of the people to press upon the French government the necessity of an immediate invasion. In consequence of their repeated and urgent applications, aided by the exertions of Wolf Tone, who, since his departure from Ireland, had devoted himself to this object, a large armament was equipped in the western ports of France, for the avowed purpose of invading Ireland. The command of it was intrusted to Hoche, then considered as the first officer of the time. Taking advantage of a storm which drove the blockading squadron of England off the coast, a large fleet sailed from Brest under his command in the middle of December; but the same violence of weather which afforded it the opportunity of eluding the vigilance of the British navy dispersed it when at sea, insomuch that but a part of the armament arrived on the coast of Ireland. Having lain for some time in Bantry Bay undiscovered by the enemy, waiting the arrival of the general, who had embarked in a frigate, and finding the further continuance on the station every day more precarious, it departed, contrary to the pressing remonstrances of Wolf Tone, and returned to Brest, whither the remainder of the fleet soon afterwards arrived, with the loss of a few ships. A second expedition from the Dutch coast was equally unsuccessful. The possibility of an invasion being thus demonstrated, and the probability of its ultimate success, if effected on a great scale, being apprehended in the present excited state of the public mind, the government had recourse to still stronger measures to put down the spirit of insurrection. The habeas corpus act was suspended, domiciliary visits throughout the country parts were frequent, meetings of the people were dispersed by violence, torture was inflicted to force confession from suspected persons, and bodies of soldiery were allowed to live at free quarters in suspected districts. The relaxation of discipline and consequent outrages arising from these practices caused General Abercromby, who came over to take the command of the army at this juncture, to declare, in general orders to the troops, that “tire army was in a state of licentiousness which rendered it formidable to every one but the enemy.” The announcement was as unpalatable as it was harsh. The general was recalled. General Lake was sent in his place. By his commands the soldiery exercised an almost uncontrolled authority, in which they were sanctioned by instructions from the government empowering the army to use force at the discretion of the officers against the people. At the same time the strength of the United Irish Association was considerably impaired by the arrest or flight of the executive, caused by the treachery of some of their own body, this circumstance, however, produced no despondency. On the contrary, it led to increased exertion. A new executive was formed, and a resolution adopted to press forward the insurrection without waiting for French assistance. A second act of treachery baffled this effort. Twelve of the leading members of the United Irishmen were seized, with their papers, whilst in committee. A third act of treachery led to the disclosure of the details of the plans. Captain Armstrong, of the king’s county militia, entered the association for the purpose of betraying its leaders. By his information two barristers of the name of Sheares, brothers, were arrested; and shortly afterwards, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a brother of the Duke of Leinster, to whom the chief command of the insurrection had been intrusted, was seized in his place of concealment in Dublin, and carried to prison, where he soon after died either of his wounds or from his treatment whilst there. Notwithstanding these checks, the insurrection exploded at the time arranged by its leaders. On the evening of the 23d of May, the United Irishmen assembled in large bodies in the neighbourhood of Dublin and the adjoining counties. The warnings previously given to government were sufficient to provide against the intended attack upon the capital. The parties collected in its neighbourhood were easily dispersed, with the loss only of a few lives. Unfortunately the same vigilance did not extend to the more distant parts. The signal for commencing operations on the side of the insurgents was to be the non-arrival of the mail coaches at their respective places of destination. The northern and western mail coaches were stopped. The town of Naas was attacked, but, owing to an anonymous warning, the garrison was prepared, and the assault was repelled. Unsuccessful attacks were also made on Carlow, Hacketstown, and Monasterevan. A large body which had assembled on the hill of Tarah was routed with much slaughter. The operations of the army were seconded by the most violent acts on the part of the government. Several of the leaders who had been previously seized were tried and executed. Numbers arrested on suspicion were brought to places prepared for the purpose, and there tied up and flogged, to extort confession. The principal places in Dublin for these inquisitorial executions w ere the Royal Exchange, the Old Custom-House, the Prevot Barrack, and a riding house belonging to a cavalry corps commanded by one of the Beresford family. The atrocities practised in the capital under the sanction of the government were improved upon in the country parts, where the military, to whom full license was permitted, by putting the country under martial law, not only adopted the same method of extorting confession, but used others of more refined agony to elicit discoveries or to gratify revenge. In some cases they hanged up their victim, and let him down again just before life was extinct; thus repeating at pleasure the sufferings of strangulation. On the heads of others they applied caps lined with heated pitch, which, when fastened on, and allowed to cool, were suddenly torn off, carrying with them the hair and skin. In the spirit of fiendish mockery, they cut ridges in the hair of others, in the form of a cross, and filling up the furrow with gunpowder, set fire to it. On the first breaking out of the rebellion, a number of suspected persons, some of them respectable farmers, who had been confined in a racket-court at Hacketstown, were deliberately shot, without even the form of trial, on the removal of the troops from that place, lest they should join the rebel camps. A similar massacre was perpetrated at Dunlavin. The insurgents of Kildare, finding themselves defeated in almost every assault upon the king’s troops, came forward to surrender on promise of pardon. Many laid down their arms, and were permitted to disperse in safety. But a large body of them, assembled for the same purpose, was unexpectedly attacked by a detachment of the military, who had not been made acquainted with the arrangement, and cut to pieces.

The system of torture was carried by the soldiery into the county of Wexford, which had hitherto remained quiet.
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Here the insurgents were more successful. After cutting to pieces a detachment of cavalry from Dublin, and another of infantry and artillery from Duncannon Fort, and taking Enniscorthy by storm, they seized on the town of Wexford, which had been evacuated on the first alarm by the military. Having established themselves here, and at Vinegar Hill, an eminence near Enniscorthy, they remained comparatively quiet, being chiefly occupied in putting to death prisoners charged with having been active in the cruelties practised upon the insurgents. Their first serious defeat was at New Ross, from which they were repulsed after a sanguinary contest of ten hours. In revenge for this defeat, a party of the fugitives set fire to a barn at Scullabogue, in which upwards of an hundred of their prisoners were confined, all of whom were either burned, or piked in attempting to escape from the flames. The same impulse of sanguinary despair caused the insurgents in Wexford to put their prisoners to death, by piking them on the bridge, and flinging their bodies into the sea; a process of cruelty continued for several days, notwithstanding the active interference and remonstrances of several of their own clergy. At length, however, their main position at Vinegar Hill was invested by a large military force, and stormed after a short resistance. Wexford soon afterwards fell into the hands of the royal troops, having surrendered without resistance, on conditions which were immediately violated. The leaders of the insurrection who had not fallen in the field were executed by court-martial, and the insurrection in this and the neighbouring county of Wicklow totally suppressed.

The news of the first successes of the insurgents in Wexford caused a rising in the counties of Antrim and Down, which had remained passive on the first breaking out of the insurrection in Kildare. But it was speedily put down after a battle in the town of Antrim, and another at Ballynahinch, in both of which the insurgents, who displayed much courage, but no military skill, were totally defeated. The marauding parties, who still harassed the country after the dispersion of the main bodies, were ultimately broken up by the prudent and merciful conduct of Lord Cornwallis. This nobleman, who succeeded Earl Camden as lord-lieutenant, not only put an instant stop to the system of torture and extermination which had been adopted and perseveringly acted on by his predecessor, but issued an amnesty to all who submitted and returned to their dwellings. This merciful policy had its full effect; and the country, after being convulsed for two months by the deadly struggles of the contending parties, entertained the hope of being restored to tranquillity, when the prospect was suddenly overcast. Towards the close of summer, a small French squadron landed a force of about twelve hundred men at Killala, in the west of Ireland. Humbert, the general, being joined by a number of the inhabitants, pressed on to Castlebar, where a force of from five to six thousand men under General Lake was posted to oppose him. This force was taken by surprise, and routed almost without firing a shot. The French then proceeded to Coolooney, where they received a temporary check from a party of the Irish militia, which made a gallant stand against superior numbers; and thence proceeded, followed by General Lake, into the county of Longford. Having arrived at the village of Ballynamuck, the French commander, finding himself surrounded by an overwhelming majority of force, collected from all parts by Lord Cornwallis, surrendered at discretion, leaving his Irish auxiliaries to the mercy of the enemy. No quarter was given to these. A second attempt at invasion, equally feeble and futile, was made the following month. A small squadron appeared off the northern coast, filled with troops intended for disembarkation; but it was routed by a superior English fleet, with the loss of one line-of-battle ship and six frigates, in which were some of the expatriated Irish who were embarked in this desperate expedition. Amongst these was Wolfe Tone, who, on being brought prisoner to Dublin, anticipated the sentence of a court-martial by an act of suicide.

The explosion of the insurrection hastened on the steps for effecting a legislative union, long a favourite measure with the British minister. The intention was announced in the lord-lieutenant’s speech at the opening of the parliament in 1799. After a discussion of upwards of twenty-four hours in the lower house, a resolution approving of the principle was carried by two voices, a majority so small that it was viewed on both sides as tantamount to a rejection of the question. In a subsequent debate the opinion of the house was more expressly declared against it by a majority of five. The public discussion of the subject being thus suspended by this expression of a majority of the representatives of the people, the Irish government employed itself for a renewal of the effort, by bringing into action every means of intimidation and influence at its command. Public meetings convened to express sentiments adverse to a closer connection with Great Britain, were either prevented or dispersed by military authority; tenders of honours and emoluments were lavished upon all who possessed the means of influencing the votes of members of the House of Commons. The great body of the people were induced to give the measure a tacit though reluctant assent, from a promise held out to them of Catholic emancipation as its result. Confiding in the success of these arrangements, Lord Castlereagh, the Irish minister, revived the question early next session; and, on a division, found himself at the head of a majority of forty-two, notwithstanding the violent and impassioned exertions of all adverse to the measure, which proceeded even to a hostile collision between two of the leaders of the contending parties, Mr Grattan, and Mr Corry, the new chancellor of the exchequer, the latter of whom was wounded on the occasion. The principle being thus admitted, the details were easily arranged, as they had been settled by the British parliament during the late session; so that at the close of the year the two separate parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland were dissolved, never to meet again, and a proclamation issued for the assembling of an imperial parliament in January 1801. The principal articles of this international treaty are,-—1. The permanent union of the two kingdoms into one, under the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 2. The succession to the throne to continue limited as at present. 3. The kingdom to be represented by one parliament, to be called the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 4. Twenty-eight peers temporal elected for life, and four spiritual peers succeeding each other by a rotation of sessions, were admitted into the House of Lords; one hundred representatives, two for each county, two for Dublin city, two for Cork city, and one each for thirty-one towns and the university, were to be elected into the lower house. 5. The churches of England and Ireland were to be united into one, to be called the United Church of England and Ireland, the doctrine, worship, and discipline of which was to be the same as that established for the Church of England. 6. The subjects of Great Britain and Ireland were to be placed on the same footing as to manufactures, trade, and commerce. 7. The contribution of each portion of the empire towards the general expenditure was to be m the proportion of fifteen to two between Great Britain and Ireland for twenty years; after which, to be regulated at the discretion of parliament. 8. The existing laws and courts of justice in each island were to continue as heretofore, except that appeals from the Irish chancery were to be brought before the House of Lords in England.
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The style of the king was in consequence changed to that of king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the blazoning of the royal standard was altered accordingly.

The act of union, after it had been carried by an unprecedented combination of corruption and intimidation, did not at once produce the results promised by its advocates. It neither tranquillized the country, nor aided the consolidation of its resources. The Protestants, who constitute the aristocracy, found their influence diminished by it. The Catholics soon discovered the hopelessness of the expectation of being thereby admitted to the rights of freemen. When the question of their emancipation was about to be made an object of discussion, it was now for the first time publicly announced that the king had insuperable objections to the measure. The consequence was a change of ministry, which was followed up by legislative measures of great severity towards Ireland, founded on a suspected apprehension of the existence of a secret spirit of disaffection there. Martial law was re-enacted, and the acts for the suspension of the habeas corpus, and for preventing seditious meetings, were revived. These measures of prospective severity did not prevent the mischiefs apprehended. In 1803, less than three years after the passing of the act, an insurrection, devised and matured by a gentleman of the name of Robert Emmett, the younger brother of a barrister of the same name who had expatriated himself in consequence of the leading part he had taken in the proceedings of the United Irishmen, broke out in the city of Dublin. Its explosion was so sudden and unexpected, that no suspicions, at least none strong enough to lead to the adoption of measures of precaution, were entertained by the government. Soon after sunset on the 23d of July, Mr Emmett, at the head of a number of his followers, armed chiefly with pikes, issued from a depot established by him in an obscure street in the west of Dublin, and after cutting down some of the military who were proceeding individually to their several quarters, moved towards the Castle, the main object of attack, when his followers were delayed by the approach of Lord Kilwarden’s carriage. This nobleman, who had been chief justice of the King’s Bench during the late troublous times, was coming' into Dublin as a place of security, in consequence of a rumour of a rising having reached him in his villa, a few miles from town. On being recognised, he was immediately assailed, mortally wounded, and lingered only about two hours. His last words were, an entreaty that none engaged in the insurrection should be put to death without trial. His daughter and his nephew accompanied him in his carriage; the latter was killed on the spot, the former was allowed to pass unmolested through the crowd, every one exclaiming that the lady must be spared. The arrival of two small piquets immediately dispersed the collected multitude, with the loss of a few lives. Emmett, on finding the failure of his scheme, escaped to the neighbouring mountains, where he was soon afterwards taken, brought to trial, and executed. Thus died a young man of good family, superior talents, and enthusiastic zeal for the independence of his country, through a deplorable error of judgment, in endeavouring to attain an object in itself so honourable, by means totally inadequate to its magnitude, and attainable through a frightful expenditure of human life. A similar attempt at insurrection was arranged in the north of Ireland by an associate of Emmett, of the name of Russell. It was discovered before the time fixed for its explosion. Measures of prevention were adopted, and its leader, being soon afterwards taken in his place of concealment in Dublin, was also executed. The whole transaction Was but the act of an hour; its only permanent consequence the revival of statutes of extreme severity, which, by placing the people beyond the protection of the usual course of law, served to foster in the mind the seeds of discontent and disaffection, which it was the professed object of such legislation to extinguish.

The agitation of the feelings of mutual irritation between the two great parties in Ireland, arising from the late insurrection, had not sufficiently'subsided to admit of the most distant hope that the Catholic claims would receive the slightest attention in parliament until 1805. Even then, so powerful was the party adverse to the entertaining of the question in any manner, that motions for a committee on the petitions of the Catholics presented in that year were rejected in both houses by overwhelming majorities. Even a bill, which asked no more than to put Roman Catholic officers in the army on the same footing in the English as they were in the Irish service, brought in by the then ministry, led to a dissolution, both of the administration and of the parliament, in consequence of the king’s aversion to it. For several years afterwards, the question was periodically mooted in one or both houses of parliament, and uniformly rejected, though ou each subsequent occasion by a diminished majority against it. In 1811, so little were the rights of conscience respected, so little regard was paid to the religious feelings of Catholics, that soldiers of that persuasion were sentenced to do duty with their coats turned, in consequence of having attended at the public worship of their own church. The effect of the punishment was directly the reverse of that intended. Such a wanton insult on the feelings of the great body of the people excited universal disapprobation, and an order was issued, not merely to permit the Catholic soldiery to be present at their own places of worship, but to take care that they should proceed thither in military order.

The Catholic committee, which had sat under various names and forms from time to time ever since its original institution in 1756, having, in 1811, proposed to assemble by delegation in Dublin, steps were taken by the government to put it down, as being contrary to the convention act, which prohibited such assemblages, and one of the members, Dr Shendan, was prosecuted; but, in consequence of his acquittal by a Dublin jury, no further proceedings were then taken. About the same period the exacerbation between the members of the two great parties, the Orangemen on one side, and the Catholics on the other, led to frequent personal collisions among the lower classes, which terminated in bloodshed in several places. In 1817 public opinion had advanced in favour of the Catholic claims so far as to admit of the question of securities being a topic of discussion both in and out of parliament. The royal exertion of a veto in the nomination of the Catholic hierarchy was now the great point. A letter on the subject from Μ. Quarantotti, president of the sacred missions at Rome, to Dr Poynter in England, in favour of it, excited much controversy. The general feeling of the Catholics of Ireland against any ministerial interference with the ministers of their religion was decisive and strongly marked. The question therefore was dropped.

During these protracted and angry discussions, it was not to be expected that the internal prosperity of the country could have increased. On the contrary, the sanguine anticipations of the advocates of the union, as to its good effects on the great interests of Ireland, were so far from being realized, that, in 1817, the public debt of the country had increased to such a magnitude as to threaten a national bankruptcy, which was averted only by the consolidation of the exchequers of the two great parts of the empire; Great Britain thus being made responsible, if not for the discharge of the principal, at least for the regular payment of the interest, of the Irish debt. Three years afterwards, the failure of ten private banking-houses, one in [7:12:388]Dublin, and the otners in the south and west, caused a general stagnation of trade. The greatest distress among the working classes was the consequence. In 1821 the king (George IV.) proposed to visit Ireland, with the view, as was universally understood, of establishing, by his personal interference, a bond of amicable relations between all classes of Irishmen. He landed on his birth-day, was enthusiastically received, entered Dublin with a splendid retinue, visited all the public institutions, conferred some honours, and, after a visit of about six weeks, spent partly in the metropolis, partly at the mansion of the Marquis of Conyngham, in the county of Meath, he quitted the country, as he had entered it, amidst the acclamations of congregated thousands. Previously to his departure, a letter was issued by his order, expressive of his gratification at the reception he had met with, and of his desire of the mutual good will of his subjects. But his visit effected nothing. The remedy was too superficial, too evanescent, to effect a cure; the cause of irritation remained still untouched, rankling in the heart’s core of the community. Shortly after his departure, the feud that had been lulled by respect and expectation broke out anew. Catholics and Orangemen were again opposed to each other. The insurrection act was again called for, and granted. In 1822, the failure of the crops produced a state of destitution truly appalling. It was relieved by the generous exertions of the people of Great Britain, who, when informed of the exigency of the case, through the instrumentality of Mr J. Smith, a London banker, and member of parliament, came forward with a liberality of contribution, which, aided by the efforts of the governmcht, thus directed to the knowledge of the existence of an evil that it ought to have foreseen, checked the consequences of extreme famine.

In 1823 the Catholic question began to assume a new and more imposing form. Its change of character was owing to Mr Daniel O’Connell, a barrister, who, after having signalized himself on his first entrance into political life by his energetic and eloquent protest against the extinction of the parliament of Ireland, had been subsequently an active and most influential actor in all the proceedings of the Catholic body. Deploring, alongst with his friend and coadjutor in political action Mr Shiel, the state of torpid depression in which the question now seemed sunk, he suggested the revival of a central body to advocate and manage their cause, planned its details, and commenced its organization. The first meeting of this body, so soon, under the name of the Catholic Association, to be the acknowledged organ of the public sentiment of the greater part of the population of Ireland, commenced in a meeting of three individuals, of whom O’Conncll himself and Sheil were two. Its distinguishing characteristics were the exclusion of any thing savouring of delegation, a strict adherence to the letter of any law that had been or might be enacted in order to stifle the expression of the sentiments of the Catholics, and, above all, the admission of the great body of the people into it. This last element of its constitution was finally secured and firmly grafted into it, after a precarious struggle for existence for some time, by a pecuniary contribution, which Mr O’Connell, its inventor, as sagaciously as quaintly denominated “the Catholic rent.” By this every Catholic was called upon to subscribe at least one penny per month to defray the expenses of the association, and thereby became a member of it. These expenses were far from inconsiderable. They were applied partly to protect poor Catholics from the petty persecutions of intolerant magistrates and landlords, partly to meet the general expenditure of the association, whose communications with all parts of the country could not otherwise be effectively carried on, and partly for the gratuitous circulation, throughout every part, of a newspaper, containing a detail of all the proceedings and debates of the association. Opportunities soon presented themselves of displaying the powers of the organization thus devised. The first was the consequence of an act passed for its suppression, which, from its severity, was nick-named “the Algerine act.” Its operation was so parried by the ingenious management of the association, as to render it ineffective, and the association continued to meet in open submission to its provisions, but in virtual defiance of them. The second was, if not more effective, certainly more imposing. The county of Waterford had for more than seventy years been represented by a member of the Beresford family. On the dissolution of parliament in 1826, the Catholic, or as they now began to style themselves, the liberal party, resolved to throw off the yoke to which they had tamely submitted for nearly a century, and to send into parliament a representative of their own choice, without regard to any accustomed rules of family claims or rights of landlords. Mr Stewart, a young gentleman of large fortune, then travelling on the Continent, was invited to stand as candidate. He obeyed the call, and in a few weeks arrived in Waterford. The preparations for a contest were at first disbelieved or derided by the county aristocracy. So far were the landlords from an apprehension of a disruption of the old bond by which they heretofore held their tenantry engaged to obey their dictates in the choice of a representative, that the Duke of Devonshire, who, though, as a liberal, he would not openly take part with the Beresfords, yet wished to maintain the long-established custom of the tenants’ subserviency, declared, that “though, from respect to the constitutional rights of the people, he refused as a peer to interfere with the votes of his fifty-pound freeholders, he expected of course that his forty-shilling freeholders would abstain from giving their votes to either of the rival candidates.” His dictation was to no purpose. When the day of election arrived, his as well as all the other Catholic tenantry voted for the new candidate, so that at the close of the fifth day’s poll the brother of the Marquis of Waterford, hitherto the undisputed nominee of the family, relinquished the contest in despair. The example of Waterford was followed in Louth, Monaghan, and Westmeath, in each of which counties popular feeling triumphed over family influence in the choice of a representative.

The dissolution of Mr Canning’s ministry by the unexpected death of its leader, and the formation of that of the Duke of Wellington, gave a character of increased energy to the Catholic struggle. Mr Canning had appointed the Marquis of Anglesey to be lord-lieutenant. The sentiments of this nobleman upon the Catholic question were little known; but the apprehensions of his hostility entertained by many on his first arrival were quickly dissipated. The association was not suppressed, coercive statutes were not called for; the people were suffered to discuss and to petition wůthout official interruption, as long as they restrained themselves within the limits prescribed by law. On the Duke of Wellington’s succession to power, he was universally believed to be decidedly and irreclaimably adverse to concession. One of the first measures then taken by the Catholics, was the adoption of pledges to be given by every candidate, on an election, to oppose his administration. These pledges were intended for the next general election. An earlier opportunity of trying their efficacy presented itself. A vacancy was occasioned in the representation of Clare, by one of the county representatives, Mr Vesey Fitzgerald, accepting a place in the cabinet. Mr Fitzgerald had always been an advocate for Catholic emancipation; he was a resident landed proprietor, of amiable manners; and his father had resigned a lucrative post at the bar rather than vote against the feelings of the country on the question of the union. But he was the nominee of the Duke of Wellington, the reputed enemy of the Catholics. He therefore came within the mean [7:12:389]ing of the pledges, and was to be rejected if the Catholic power in Clare was sufficient for the effort. A new difficulty presented itself. The candidate chosen by the people refused to stand in opposition to Mr Fitzgerald. The day of election was hastening on. No other suitable resident was to be found to supply his place. In this emergency Mr O’Connell, the leader of the Catholic body, the founder of the Catholic Association, stood forward and offered himself. The result was the same as at Waterford. The election terminated in an overwhelming yet peaceful triumph. Mr O’Connell was the acknowledged representative of the county of Clare, the first Catholic returned to sit in the imperial parliament of Great Britain.

For some time previous to this event, the Orange or anti-catholic party, alarmed at the rapid progress of their antagonists, and the high position they were on the point of attaining, had banded themselves into a new system of counter-association, under the name of Brunswick Clubs, the avowed object of which was to resist any further concessions to the Catholics. Both parties now every day pre-sentedmore and more the aspect of uncompromising hostility. Their speeches assumed the character of mutual denunciation. The arm of each was all but lifted up. Each seemed to wait only that his antagonist might strike the first blow, and be the first to outstep the bounds of constitutional resistance. In this awful pause, the liberal Protestants, who had hitherto advocated, mildly, if not timidly, the cause of the Catholics, felt that their own safety and that of their common country required more decided measures. Mr John David Latouche, a banker in Dublin, the head of a family long known and respected for extensive benevolence and liberal political sentiments, prepared a declaration expressive of the necessity of parliament taking the whole subject into its immediate consideration, with a view to its final and conciliatory adjustment. Copies of this declaration were circulated throughout all parts, and in a singularly short period it received the signatures of sixty-nine peers, either Irish, or holders of large properties in Ireland, and upwards of two thousand other landed proprietors. At this crisis the Marquis of Anglesey was suddenly and angrily recalled, in consequence, as was universally believed, of bis recommendation to the Catholics, expressed in a letter to their primate, of peaceful but determined perseverance in the pursuit of their rights. An impression now prevailed amongst parties that this act was decisive as to the Duke of Wellington’s determination to resist all concession. The Brunswick Club held its meeting in Dublin. Its bearing was that of boldness and defiance. The liberal Protestants, who had as yet assumed no specific title of recognition, determined on an antagonist meeting. It was held in January, and was even more numerously attended than its most zealous devisers had anticipated. Petitions to the king and both houses of parliament for the total repeal of all the laws disqualifying the Catholics were adopted; and the basis was laid for the formation of a society of united Protestants and Catholics, for the attainment of civil and religious liberty, under the name of the Irish Association, The unexpected change in the measures of the king’s government towards Ireland rendered any further progress in these projected plans unnecessary. The Catholic emancipation bill passed on the 13th of April 1829, clogged indeed with two provisos not quite in unison with the spirit of liberality that marked its main enactments. The one was general in its object, the disfranchisement of the forty-shilling freeholders; the other was personal, excluding Mr O’Connell, not by name, but virtually, from the seat to which he had been nominated at the late Clare election. The latter exception proved altogether futile, λ Mr O’Connell was again returned at the next election. The attainment of Catholic emancipation was followed by a loud though not universal demand for the repeal of the legislative union, and for the abolition of tithes; an impost considered as degrading in principle, as it was felt to be oppressive in the mode in which it was levied. The reform question also was added to the number of stimulants of the public mind. This last-named subject of irritation has been laid at rest in a manner not so satisfactory to Ireland as to the other great divisions of the empire, but so as to lead to reasonable hopes of its progressive efficacy. The question of repeal has been silenced as far as can be done by an authoritative declaration of one, and that one the more powerful, of the parties interested in its decision; the tithes still remain a question, no longer of Irish, but of imperial interest.

STATISTICS.

The island of Ireland is of a rhomboidal shape, having its longer sides nearly in the direction of the meridian, and its shorter from south-west to north-east. It lies between the latitudes of 51. 26. and 55. 20. north, and the longitudes of 5. 28. and 10. 28. west. In the direction of its greater diagonal, from Browhead in the south to Fairhead in the north-east, it measures 306 miles. Its extreme length, from its most southern point, already named, to Walinhead, its most northern extremity 7 , is 290 miles; its greatest length on a meridian 235 miles. Its breadth where greatest, measured from Emlagh-rash, in the peninsula of the Mullet, to Killard Point, at the entrance of Strangford Lough, is 182 miles; but its least breadth, from the eastern side of Galway Bay, near Oramnore, to Ringsend, near Dublin, is not more than 110 miles. The whole comprises an area of 20,499,550 acres, or 320,312 statute miles. Separated from the adjacent island of Great Britain by an arm of the sea not more than forty-nine miles across at its southern extremity, and narrowing to twelve miles at the north, but expanding in its intermediate space into the Irish Sea, it is washed on its three other sides by the Atlantic Ocean, whose waves have indented its western and southern shores with many large bays and inlets, trenching far into the country; so that the whole outline of the coast, including that of the estuaries of the great rivers, to the boundary of the tide, is estimated to measure upwards of 2200 miles.

This extended line contains a great number of fine harbours and roadsteads. The eastern coast has but one; that of Strangford or Lough Cone, which forms a very deep bay, with sufficient depth of water for every kind of ship. The bays of Carrickfergus, Dundalk, and Carlingford, arc adapted only for vessels of lesser draught; Dublin is so defective as to require the construction of two safety harbours; one to the north, at Howth, and the other to the south, at Kingstown. The coast to the south of Dublin affords no shelter for large ships; Wicklow, Arklow, and Wexford, admitting only vessels of very small size. This part of the coast is also dangerous, from the shoals which extend along it near the land. On the southern side of the island is the fine estuary of Waterford, formed by 7 the confluence of the Suir, Nore, and Barrow. Here ships of large burden can discharge at the quay of Waterford. Farther on is Cork Harbour, securely land-locked and protected by large battcries, and therefore chosen as the principal naval station on the Irish coast in time of war. Still farther are Baltimore Harbour, Long Island, Skull, Cape Clear, Crookhaven, Dunmanus, and Bantry 7 Bay, all of sufficient depth and capacity for the largest ships. A French fleet, designed for the invasion of Ireland, lay in the last named of these in the winter of 1796. Turning westward are Berehaven, Quoylagh Bay, Kenmare River, and Kilmichalog and Sneem Harbours, Valentia, [7:12:390]Ventry, Smerwick, and Brandon Bay. The estuary of the Shannon contains several good stations. Farther north is Galway Bay, also containing several smaller ones; Casheen, Kilkerran, and Roundstone Bays, the last of which is capable of containing the whole navy of Britain; Birter Bay, Ardbear or Clifden, Cleggan Bay, Ballynakill and Killery Harbours; Clew Bay, within which a numerous archipelago of islets affords many safe stations. Proceeding still in a northern direction is Blacksod Bay, Broadhaven, Killala Bay, Killibegs Harbour, and Macswine’s Bay. On the northern coast are Milroy Harbour, and the two fine gulfs of Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle. The harbours and inlets for the reception of smaller vessels are too numerous to admit of detailed enumeration. In short, there are upwards of seventy harbours well suited for the general purposes of commerce, and fourteen capable of accommodating large naval armaments.

The islands near the shore are numerous, but few of large size. Their total number is nearly an hundred and fifty. Amongst the most remarkable are, on the north shore, Rathlin or Raghery, celebrated for its basaltic formation; Tory, Ennisbofin, and the Rosses, the largest of which is Arranmore. On the west, Enniskea, Achill, Clare, Ennisbofin, the southern islands of Arran at the entrance of Galway Bay, the Blasquets, and Valentia. On the south are Bear and Whiddy in Bantry Bay; Cape Clear, long supposed to be the most southern point of Ireland; and Cove Island, in Cork Harbour. The few islets on the eastern coast are uninhabited, except one. The most remarkable of these are, Dalkey, Ireland’s Eye, Lambay, the Skerries on the coast of Dublin, and the Coplands at the entrance of Carrickfergus Bay. The population of all the coast islands is estimated at 43,000 souls. They are thus classed as to provinces.
[table]

The surface of the country i«, generally speaking, plain, yet not altogether level, but rising in most parts into hills of small elevation. The most level parts are in the centre, in a band extending across the island from Dublin to Galway, in which the land rises gradually from the coast, to a height of 322 feet. The hill of Moat-a-Grenogue, in Westmeath, is the highest point of the plain. Both in the north and south the land rises into heights much greater, but none of such elevation as to retain the snow during any long period of the year; the most elevated point in Ireland not attaining to the range of 3500 feet above the level of high water. The mountains form groups rather than chains. The highest is in the west of Munster, the next in height in Leinster, the third in Ulster, and the fourth in Connaught. All are near the coast. Ţhe comparative altitudes of the highest points in each group are as follows:

Munster, S. W. McGillicuddy’s Recks, Kerry.... 3410

Mangerton, Kerry 2693

Leinster, S. E. Lugnaquilla, Wicklow 3070

Thonalagee, Wicklow 2696

Ulster, N. E. Slieve Donard, Down 2809

Connaught, N∙ W. Muilrea, Mayo 2737

Croaghpatrick, Mayo 2660

Nephin, Mayo 2630

Furmnagur, Mayo 2569

The largest river is the Shannon, which, rising in the mountains in the confines of Fermanagh and Leitrim, flows through Lough Allen, and thence in a south-western direction, separating Connaught from Leinster, till, arriving at Limerick, it turns westward, and discharges itself into the Atlantic, through a fine estuary, which, at its entrance between the capes of Loophead and Kerryhead, is eight miles wide. It is navigable for large vessels to Limerick, near which its course is checked by natural obstacles. During its passage from Lough Allen to Limerick it expands into the large lakes of Lough Reagh, fifteen miles, and Lough Dearg, twenty-one miles, in length. Each of these is narrow, and studded with numerous islets. The Blackwater rises near Charleville, and, flowing south-eastwards, discharges itself into the Atlantic at Youghal, after forming the boundary between the counties of Cork and Waterford. Between the latter county and that of Wexford is the estuary of the Suir, the Nore, and the Barrow, all of which have their sources not far from each other in the central range of the Slievebloom Mountains; and, after diverging so that their streams enrich a great portion of the provinces of Leinster and Munster, unite again near the city of Waterford. The Slaney rises in the mountains of Wicklow, and empties itself into St George’s Channel at Wexford. The Boyne, famous for its historical recollections as well as for its natural advantages, has its sources in the central elevated plain of Leinster, and, flowing north-eastwards, falls into the Irish Sea at Drogheda. The Bann rises in the Mourne Mountains, flows northwards through Lough Neagh, and, after separating the counties of Londonderry and Antrim, flows into the Atlantic at Coleraine. The Foyle is formed by the union of the streams of the Poe, the Mourne, the Finn, and the Derg, which, flowing from different parts of the interior of Ulster, discharge their combined waters into Lough Foyle near Londonderry. The Erne, which gives vent to the waters of Lough Erne, has a short course to the Atlantic westwards, checked by several ridges of rock, which form fine falls. The other rivers, though numerous, amounting nearly to an hundred, are small, and mostly confined to the counties that give them birth. The Liffey, which rises in the mountain-land of Wicklow, and, •after a circuitous course through Kildare, dischargesitself into the Irish Sea, is remarkable for little more than that Dublin city, the metropolis of the island, is seated on its banks.

The lakes are numerous. Lough Neagh, in Ulster, is the largest. It covers 97,272 acres at high-water mark. The river Bann passing through it affords the means of lowering its surface, if such a process should be deemed advisable; but as its lowest part is beneath the level of low water, its total drainage would be impracticable. Tradition states that it was once dry land; and the boatmen assert that the tops of buildings may at times be seen in it. It contains but one islet, Ram Island, remarkable only for a round tower. Its vicinity to five of the most agricultural and manufacturing counties of Ulster, Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone, and Londonderry, each of which its waters touch, present great advantages for internal trade by inland navigation. This lake has long been celebrated for its petrifying qualities, by which trunks of trees have been converted into a siliceous substance. Lough Erne, the next in size, lies wholly within the county of Fermanagh. Its total length is upwards of forty miles, but its greatest breadth is not more than eight. Strictly speaking, it consists of two lakes; the more inland measuring about fourteen miles in length, and that nearer the sea twenty-five. They are connected with one another by a narrow channel, on which the town of Enniskillen is built. Its area covers 48,797 acres, and it is adorned with upwards of an hundred islets. The level of its waters is 140 feet [7:12:391]above the sea. Its coasts are studded with numerous seats and villas of much beauty. Lough Corrib and Lough Mask, in the west of Connaught, are separated from each other by an isthmus not more than three miles broad. The former of these lakes is thirty miles long, and from nine to ten broad in some places. It discharges its waters into Galway Bay by a short but broad and rapid river, which skirts the town of Galway. Though its level is but fourteen feet above that of the sea, the means of connecting them by water communication has not yet been effected. Lough Mask is of smaller dimensions, and has attached to it Lough Gara, still more diminutive. Farther north is the narrow lake of Lough Conn, fourteen miles long. The other lakes are too numerous, and not of sufficient importance as to size or local peculiarity, to admit of a detailed description. Most of them lie in the central plain, particularly in the counties of Cavan, Westmeath, and Longford. From this sweeping exclusion a few must, however, be excepted. Lough Lane, or the Lake of Killarney, in Kerry, has long been celebrated for its picturesque scenery. The tract of water distinguished by this name consists of three parts, connected by short straits. Lough Derg, in the south of Donegal, is small, but of great celebrity from an islet in it called St Patrick’s Purgatory, which has been resorted to from time immemorial as a place of penance by pilgrims of the Roman Catholic persuasion. Several attempts have been made to put an end to the religious ceremonies performed there, but without success. It still continues to be visited by multitudes of strangers from all parts, from a reliance on its supernatural qualities. This lake is not to be confounded with the Lough Dearg already noticed as lying on the course of the Shannon. Lough Gill in Sligo, Lough Shellin to the north of Meath, and Lough Oughter in Cavan, are also worthy of notice for their scenic beauties.

Ireland was once so thickly covered with timber as to receive the name of the Island of Woods. During the early periods of its connection with England, its extensive and impenetrable forests formed a main obstacle to the progress of the English troops. Westminster Hall is said to be roofed with oak cut in the woods of Shillelagh. Numerous trunks of large trees are constantly found in the bogs. Even in mountain tracts devoted for a long succession of years to the pasturage of sheep, timber trees shoot up spontaneously wherever the land is secured from the intrusions of cattle. Many places, where the vestige of a plantation is not to be seen, retain a name of which the word “wood” forms a component part. The extension of agricultural improvement, and more especially the timber act, which gives the tenant, at the expiration of his lease, a pecuniary interest in the trees he has planted, are gradually removing this defect, the consequence of ages of disturbance and desolation.

To the same cause may be attributed in a great measure the extent of bog with which the face of the country is disfigured. The bogs are chiefly found in the elevated central district. Two lines drawn across the island, the one from Howth to Sligo, the other from Wicklow to Galway, will comprehend by much the greater portion of bog throughout the island. The total quantity, independently of small mountainous and detached patches, has been thus estimated:

Flat red bog, capable of being reclaimed 1,576,000 acres.

Mountain bog, mostly convertible into pasturage 1,255,000

2,831,000

The bogs are distinguished, according to their substance, into red or fibrous, and black or compact. The former, which consists chiefly of the Sphagnum palustre, or bog-moss, is the most general. Its colour is of a reddish brown, approaching when dry to that of an olive. Its surface is generally covered with heath, which gives it a still darker hue. The black bog varies in colour from dark brown to perfect black; in which latter case it is extremely hard and close grained, separating, when broken, into angular fragments. On cutting downwards, the substance grows denser and darker, exhibiting a black mass very compact, strongly resembling pitch or coal, and when ignited emitting a smell so offensive as to prevent its general use as an article of fuel. The peat is found to rest on a blue clay, and ultimately on limestone gravel. The depth of the bogs in some places is nearly forty feet; twenty-five may be considered as a general average. In all cases they are found above the level of the sea. The greatest height of any is 488 feet, the least 25; and they invariably afford easy means of communication to some river by which their superfluous waters can be carried off, where draining is requisite for reclaiming them.

The following table exhibits the area of every county of Ireland, according to a return made to the House of Commons in 1832. It also contains an estimate of the total value of the land, the average value per acre, and a statement of the amount of county rates on an average of the years 1830-1831.
[7:12:392]
[table]

The contents in acres of the following cities and towns, each of which is a county in itself, are included in the preceding table in the total contents of the county at large, wherein they are situated. As the average value of land in the counties of cities and towns exceeds considerably that of the county at large, a statement, of it is annexed, together with that of the average of the county at large, if taken without such additions :—
[7:12:393]
[table]

The great central plain, already described as containing by much the larger portion of the bogs, rests on a subsoil of floetz limestone, which may be considered as in a great measure the substratum of the whole island, as there is in fact but one county, that of Wicklow, in which this rock, either of primary or secondary formation, does not appear. Secondary limestone is much more generally diffused, the primary being found only in the counties of Antrim, Tyrone, Donegal, Londonderry, Sligo, and Galway. The mountainous district in the north consists of three groups of different character. The first is that of the Mourne Mountains, of which Slieve Donard is the summit. Granite is the basis of this group, and of most of its subordinate branches. Hornblende and syenite frequently occur in the borders of the granitic region. The mountainous district in Londonderry and Tyrone, included between the Roe and Mourne, two branches of the Foyle, constitute the second northern group. Its formation is primitive. Most of the country consists of mica slate, accompanied with primitive limestone. In the eastern part is a range of secondary hills, capped by an immense covering of basalt, which spreads itself over the north-eastern part of Antrim. The third group is formed by the two chains which the valley of the Bann passes through in its course to the Atlantic. The formation is secondary, and is invariably covered with masses of stratified basalt, in some places exceeding 900 feet in thickness, but of an average depth of 545 feet, and spreading over a surface of 800 square miles.

Whin dykes have been found only in the northern region. Most of them are on the coast, none more than fifteen miles fŗom it. They are generally found in groups, several lying within a short distance of each other. They maintain a singular uniformity in their line of direction. 1heir bearing is constantly from south-east to north-west. Great diversity exists as to their width; that on Arrigle Mountain rises perpendicularly, like a partition wall, to the height of forty feet. Their depth has never been ascertained; but it is observed that their sides never converge, nor do they ever branch off into minute veins, or swell into what are called, in the technical language of miners, bellies.

The same part of Ireland exhibits the only specimen of columnar basalt to be found in the island. The Giant’s Causeway, in the north of Antrim, is the most remarkable specimen of it. It forms a low point, projecting into the sea, and ultimately covered with water; and consists wholly of prismatic pillars of stone, of various angular forms, all standing upright, each pillar being separated into pieces convex below and concave above, fitting into each other like a pile of dinner-plates or saucers. Along the same shore the precipices which overhang the sea present several other instances of this kind of basalt, one end of which only is visible, the remainder being buried in the mountain. At Doon Point, in the island of Rathlin, on the same coast, is another collection of columnar basalt, differing from that on the main land by having the columns curved or horizontal, as if forced from their perpendicularity by a sudden shock during the process of formation. Traces of a similar columnar formation appear in other parts of the great basaltic mass which covers most of the county of Antrim, where the rock has been accidentally denuded of its surface soil.

Another granitic region shows itself to the south of the great limestone plain in Wicklow, where it forms the base of the mass of which that county is wholly composed, whence it extends into the mountainous ridge between Carlow and Wexford. The granite field is here bounded on each side by clay slate, which constitutes the greater part of the formation of the south-east and south of the country. The total absence of metallic veins on the western side of this granitic region, whilst they exist in abundance on the eastern, forms a singular feature of the district. The southern counties are chiefly a combination of clay slate and red sandstone, the latter showing itself mostly in the mountains. In the Slievebloom Mountains, between the King’s and Queen’s Counties, the sandstone bursts forth in the southern part of them from out of the clay slate in which it is imbedded. To the north of these mountains three insulated hills of sandstone rise out of the limestone plain, at Moat-a-Grenogue, Ballymahon, and Slieve Gouldry. The Galtees and Kilworth Mountains, in Cork, are of sandstone. In Kerry the clay slate predominates, till it is lost in the limestone which occupies its northern parts. In the west of Connaught the division between the limestone and granitic district is distinctly marked; a line from Galway to Oughterard designates their respective limits. All to the north, spreading over part of Mayo and Roscommon, is of the former; that to the south and west is of the latter formation.

The following table exhibits a general view of the geological features of the country, arranged according to the great natural regions into which it may be divided :—

Northern Pegion.

Mica Slate—Donegal; Londonderry, west; Tyrone. Floetz Trap—Londonderry, east; Antrim, north. Sandstone—Mayo, east; Sligo; Roscommon; Leitrim, north; Fermanagh; Tyrone; Cavan, north; Monaghan, north; Armagh, north; Antrim, south.

Clay slate—Monaghan, south; Down; Louth; Longford, north; Cavan, south; Armagh, south.

Granite—Down, south.

Coal—Antrim, north; Tyrone; Roscommon; Leitrim.

Central Pegion.

Floetz Limestone—Mayo, west; Leitrim, south; Longford, south; Westmeath; Meath; Galway, east; King’s; Kildare, east; Dublin, north; Clare, west; Queen’s; [7:12:394] Kilkenny, north; Carlow, west; Limerick, north; Kerry, north; Cork, north.

Sandstone in the mountain ridges—Mayo; Leitrim; Clare;

King’s; Queen’s.

Clay Slate—Clare, east.

Granite—Galway, west.

Coal—Tipperary; Queen’s; Kilkenny.

Southern Region.

Sandstone in the mountain ridges—Kerry, south; Limerick, south; Cork; Waterford; Kilkenny, south.

Clay slate—Kerry, south; Cork, south; Waterford; Wexford; Wicklow, east and west; Dublin, south.

Granite—Carlow, east; Wicklow, central.

Coal—Cork; Kerry.

By the preceding table it will be seen that coal exists in each of the provinces; that in the two southern being carbonaceous or stone-coal, the slaty glantz-coal of Werner; that in the two northern provinces bituminous or blazing coal. The most productive mines are those of Leinster, which supply the surrounding country, and are conveyed by the canal to more distant parts. The Munster collieries are considered as of the greatest extent and richness, but their coal is less in demand, from the difficulty of conveyance, owing to the badness of the roads, and the rugged nature of the country in which they are lodged. The Tyrone coal is raised in quantities barely sufficient for the demand of the immediate neighbourhood. The Antrim collieries are scarcely worked. Those of Connaught labour under the inconveniences already pointed out respecting the collieries of Munster. The quantity supplied on the whole does not exclude the importation of British coal in large quantities, which is frequently preferred for culinary and domestic purposes, even in the vicinity of the native collieries.

The following table, showing that the demand for British coal increases with the increase of the population, is a proof that the quantity of native coal raised is every year less commensurate with the wants of the population.

Account of the Quantity of Coal sent to Ireland.

Years. Tons. Years. Tons.

1819 669,060 1825 695,832

1820 606,400 1826 779,584

1821 644,787 1827 650,728

1822 694,024 1828 740,071

1823 693,413 1829 840,246

1824 691,429

The scarcity of this valuable mineral is, however, amply compensated by the almost inexhaustible supply of peat fuel raised from the bogs in every part of the country.

Notwithstanding repeated attempts, made at considerable expense, to work the metallic mines discovered in Ireland, few have been found sufficiently productive to repay the outlay of capital employed on them. Gold was discovered accidentally in the streams flowing from the mountain of Croghan Kinselagh, in the confines of Wicklow and Wexford. Several of the peasantry having enriched themselves by collecting it, the mine was taken possession of, and wrought under the directions of the government; but, after several years experience, the result was found to be inadequate to the expenditure, and the workings have been relinquished. The principal veins of copper and lead have been found on the eastern side of the granitic region of the county of Wicklow, the western being without any. The copper mines of Cronebane and Ballymurtagh were wrought with great effect for some years. They are now less productive. A mine at Bonmahon in Waterford, and another at Allihies in Cork, are worked with much spirit; but as, from the want of a sufficient supply of native coal, the ore has to be exported to Swansea to be smelted, the ι profit is much diminished. Mines of copper at Cappagh, at Kenmare and Ross Island in Kerry, and at Boulard in Galway, have all been relinquished in consequence of the failure of timber for fuel. Lead mines are more numerous and more productive. The principal are at Ballycorus, and Luganure in Wicklow, Kildrum in Donegal, Clea in Armagh, Came in Wexford, Castlemaine and Kenmare in Kerry, and Sheffry in Mayo. A rich vein of iron was worked at Arigna, near Lough Allen, until stopped from the failure of fuel. On the discovery of coal in the neighbourhood, the workings were resumed with a reasonable prospect of permanent profit; but this not having been fulfilled, the workings have been again abandoned. Antimony has been found at Castleshane, in Monaghan. Gypsum, fuller’s earth, manganese, and ochres of various kinds, have been raised in many parts. Amethysts, chalcedony, and garnets, have also been found. Transparent crystals are met with frequently in Kerry. Several parts of Ireland produce marble, in much demand for domestic purposes. That of Kilkenny is of a deep black, mottled with white spots, evidently the exuviae of marine shell-fish. The marble of Armagh is red, and less susceptible of polish. Galway contains several species; but the difficulty of conveying it through a mountainous district makes them little sought for. The most remarkable fossil remains are those of the Elk or Moosedcer, celebrated for the great size of the horns, one pair of which measured ten feet ten inches from tip to tip. A complete skeleton of this noble animal has not yet been found; but a fine specimen, comprising most of the bones, is preserved in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin. Mineral springs arc numerous, most of them are chalybeate. Those of chief note for their medicinal qualities are Mallow in Cork, resembling the hot wells in Bristol; Ballynahinch in Down, and Golden bridge near Dublin, sulphureous and chalybeate; Swadlinbar in Cavan, and Lucan in Dublin, sulphureous; and Castleconnel near Limerick, chalybeate.

The prevalent soil is a fertile loam, resting on a rocky substratum, chiefly of limestone. The depth, though in general not great, is in some parts such as to admit of fresh vegetable mould being repeatedly thrown up by successive ploughings to a greater depth. This occurrence is most striking in Meath, and in the district of the counties of Tipperary and Limerick, long distinguished by the name of the Golden Vale, from its extraordinary fertility. In some parts, particularly in Galway, the rock shows itself above the surface in ridges like weaves, the interstices being filled with rich mould, which produces a thick, close sward, extremely grateful to sheep. Large tracts of grazing land similar to the Downs in England are unusual; the only tract of any extent of such description is the Curragh of Kildare, which has been used, time immemorial, for a sheep walk. The mountains are capable of tillage to a considerable height; and their summits, with the exception of a few of the very highest, are fit for pasturage in summer.

The moisture of the climate, caused by the insular position of the country, and the prevalence of western and southern winds, contributes its full share to the peculiar adaptation of the soil for pasturage, insomuch so that its perennial verdure has justly acquired it the poetical title of the Emerald Isle. Neither does this peculiarity of climate, which tends so powerfully to the increase of the agricultural wealth of the country, detract from its salubrity, as is apparent from the comparative ratios of length of life i∏ Great Britain and Ireland; the proportion of persons above an hundred years of age being in the former as ∙1 to 10,000, whilst in the latter it is as ∙5 to the same quantity. The same proportion applied to the several provinces of Ire [7:12:395]land, proves that the province of Connaught, confessedly the most moist in climate, is also the most favourable to the duration of human life. The ratios are as follow :—

Leinster *5 to 10,000

Ulster '3 to 10,000

Munster ∙5 to 10,000

Connaught ∙9 to 10,000

The same peculiarity of climate serves to account for the absence of venomous reptiles. Snakes are unknown, as are toads, unless, as is asserted by some zoologists, they are to be seen occasionally in parts of Kerry, where they are said to be distinguished by the name of creeping frogs. Even this latter animal is not aboriginal. Its introduction is no earlier than the last century, when, after the living animal had been imported without success, it was afterwards propagated by means of spawn.

Previously to the calculations made by Sir William Petty to ascertain the numbers of the inhabitants of Ireland, scarcely any data, even for a probable or conjectural estimate, existed. The marks of the plough observable on the tops of hills which have for many years been devoted to pasture only, have been adduced as a proof that the superabundant population of former ages compelled the farmers to have recourse to the poorer ground there to raise a sufficiency of grain; but the fact has been imputed, with equal show of probability, to the disturbed state of the country, when a ferocious enemy, having desolated and possessed the more fertile lands in the plains, compelled the natives to have recourse to the poorer soils on the hills. It has also been attributed by some to the superior mildness of the climate in ancient times. The opinion of Agricoa, quoted by Tacitus, that a single legion would be sufficient to conquer the island, does not indicate a very numerous population at that period; and, subsequently, the smallness of the force which enabled Henry II. to make such an impression on the country favours the same conclusion. After the close of the desolating wars of Elizabeth, in which the Irish in arms were generally exterminated as rebels, Fynes Moryson, Lord Mountjoy’s secretary, asserts that not more than five or six hundred thousand escaped the edge of the sword or the horrors of famine. Sir William Petty’s first estimate, as stated in the ensuing table, rests upon conjecture; his second is founded on the number of “smokes” or hearths in the country. Those given by the tax-collectors are founded on data of the same description, corrected in the case of Mr Bushe by collateral calculations. The returns of the established clergy were made at a time in which much of the country was without a resident clergy of this persuasion, and therefore must be of doubtful weight. De Burgho’s, formed from information collected through the Catholic clergy, then in a state of the lowest political degradation, must be equally dubious. Newen-ħam formed his from a great variety of ingenious calculations on the quantity of food, exports, and imports, and other similar circumstances. The first of the parliamentary inquiries was a total failure, several counties having declined to make any return, and those of several others being glaringly deficient and inaccurate. The second, which ascertained not only the number, but the name, age, occupation, and degree of mutual relationship, of every inhabitant, particulars which still exist in the archives of Dublin Castle as a permanent record of the facts, may be considered as approximating very closely to accuracy. In the third, which might be presumed to be an improvement on the preceding in these respects, the returns of the enumerators employed were not subjected, as in the preceding instance, to any effectual check, and therefore little reliance can be placed on its statements. The returns of occupations in the city of Dublin, where their accuracy can be easily ascertained, are extremely faulty. The latest return of the population, that of 1834, rests on the same defective basis as that of 1831; but as it was afterwards checked and corrected by the commissioners of public instruction, through the medium of the resident clergy, its statements are entitled to more credit. Unhappily for statistical and political purposes, the returns of this last census have been made according to the ecclesiastical arrangement of dioceses, which it is nearly impossible to reduce to that of counties, on which all the former returns had been formed. According to these documents, it appears, that from 1672 to 1723, a period of fifty years, the population had nearly doubled. In the next fifty years, from 1723 to 1777, it had advanced more slowly; and, from 1777 to 1831, somewhat more than fifty years, it had nearly trebled, the period of doubling, from 1777 to 1805, if Newenham’s calculation be correct, being but twenty-eight years.

Population of Ireland at different periods.

1652 Sir William Petty 850,000

1672 Ditto 1,320,000

1695 Captain South 1,034,102

1712 Thomas Dobbs 2,099,094

1718 Ditto 2,169,048

1723 Ditto 2,317,374

1726 Ditto 2,309,106

1731 Established Clergy 2,010,221

1754 Tax Collectors 2,372,634

1760 De Burgho, Hibern. Dominican 2,317,384

1767 Tax Collectors 2,544,276

1777 Ditto 2,690,556

1785 Ditto 2,845,932

1788 Gervais P. Bushe 4,040,000

1791 Tax Collectors 4,206,612

1792 Dr Beaufort 4,088,226

1805 Thomas Newenham 5,395,456

1811 Parliamentary Return 5,937,856

1821 Ditto 6,801,827

1831 Ditto 7,734,365

1834 Commissioners of Public Instruction 7,943,940

The following table contains the summaries of the three parliamentary returns according to counties, that of 1834

being omitted for the reason already stated.
[7:12:396]
[table]
[7:12:397]

The returns of 1821 give a general average of five and three-fourth souls to a family. The defective state of parish registers in a country in which these documents are kept by three classes of clergymen, each observing a system of arrangement peculiar to themselves, prevents any authoritative deductions from that source as to the question of the duration of human life. But the following table, taken from the parliamentary return of 1821, on which reliance may be placed, furnishes the ratio of ages to every 10,000 of the total population at that period. The statement of ages in the late census of 1831 is still less worthy of credit than that of the numbers. - *
[table]

The most ancient annals record a twofold division of the country by two of the descendants of Milesius, who made a line drawn from Dublin to Galway the boundary of their respective shares; of these the northern was called Leath Conn, the southern Leath Mogha. In the time of Ptolemy the island was partitioned out by a number of tribes, whose position has been determined by Whitaker as follows :—
[table]

A subsequent division was that into the five petty kingdoms of Leinster, Ulster, Munster, Connaught, and Meath, which last consisted of the counties of Meath, W estmeath, Longford, and parts of Armagh and Louth. This division [7:12:398]existed till after the arrival of the English, when, in the reign of John, the parts subject to his sway were formed into the twelve counties of Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Uriel (now Louth), Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary. No further change took place until the reign of Philip and Mary, when the King’s and Queen’s Counties were formed. Elizabeth divided Connaught into the seven counties of Galway, Clare, Roscommon, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, and Longford; and Ulster into the nine counties of which it consists at present. Wicklow was separated from Dublin, and made a distinct county, by James I. The only alteration which has occurred since, is the transfer of some of the counties of Connaught into the adjoining provinces , and the division of the county of Cork into tv¢o parts, called the East and West Ridings. This latter division took place in 1823. An act, passed in 1835, gives the lord-lieutenant a discretionary power of subdividing the larger counties, as has already been done with respect to Cork. The topographical arrangement of Ireland, given by Camden in his Britannia, retains the pentarchical division. It is as follows :—

Munster, including Kerry, Desmond (now incorporated into Cork and Kcrry), Waterford, Limerick, Tipperary, with the county of Tipperary Holycross; Leinster, including Kilkenny, Caterlough (now Carlow), Queen’s, King’s, Kildare, Weishford, Dublin; Meath, including Eastmeath, Westmeath, Longford; Connaught, including Twomund (now Clare), Galloway, Maio, Slego, Letrim; and Ulster, including Louth, Cavon, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Armagh, Down, Antrim, Colrane (now Londonderry), Tir-ocn, Tir-connell or Donegall.

The counties are subdivided into baronies, the baronies into parishes, and these again into townlands or ploughlands, which is the name of the smallest territorial subdivision. Besides the thirty-two counties already named, a few cities and towns, with a small surrounding portion of land, form separate jurisdictions under their own magistrates, and are also called counties. There are eight of them; five cities, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Kilkenny, and three towns, Galway, Drogheda, and Carrickfergus. The territorial divisions of the country, .according to the civil arrangement of it, are as follow:
[table]

The ecclesiastical arrangement of the country was, until lately, framed on the same fourfold provincial division as the civil, but under different names and with different boundaries. There were four archbishoprics, one for each province; but named from the place in which the archiepiscopal see was fixed. The number of bishoprics subject to each of these varied at different periods, and two or more sees were frequently united to afford a revenue competent to maintain the dignity of the holder. Formerly the dioceses were much more numerous than at present, as may be seen from the following list, taken from an old Roman Provincial, and given nearly in the words of the original.

Armagh, containing Meath or Elnamirand,Down or Dun-dalethglass, Clogher or Lugundun, Connor, Ardachad ( Ardagh), Rathbot (Raphoe), Rathlue (now part of Derry),

Daln-liquir (unknown, but by some supposed to have merged into Meath), Dearri (Derry); Dublin, containing Glendelagh, Fern, Ossori or De-Canic, Lechlin, Kildare or Dare; Cassel, containing Isle of Gatha (now Innis-Scat-tery, and united to Limerick), Limric, Laon or De Ken-dalnan (now Killaloe), Cellumabrath (called also Fenebore, now Kilfenora), Melie or Emileth (Emly), Ross or Roscrea, Waterford or Baltifordian, Lismore, Clone or Clua-nan (Cloyne), Cork, Rosalither (now part of Cork), Ard-forth; Tuam, containing Duac or Kilmacduach, Mage (or Mayo, now part of Tuam), Enachdun (also part of Tuam), Cellaiar (unknown), Roscommon (translated to Elphin), Clonfert, Achad (Achonry), Lade or Killaleth (Killala), Conani (Clonmacnois, now part of Meath), Kihnunduach (Kilmacduagh), Elphin.

The modern division, until the alterations made since the reform act, is as follows :—

List of the archbishops and bishops of Ireland, according to the ecclesiastical provinces as they were arranged previously to the act for the reduction of ten bishoprics, with the amount of their respective incomes. Those marked with an asterisk are the bishoprics to be reduced under the act. Those in Italics are already united each with another see, according to its provisions.

Armagh L.17,669 16 7

Meath and Clonmacnois 5,220 10 6

* Clogher 10,371 0 2

Down and Connor 5,896 0 1

Derry 14,193 3 9ļ

* Raphoe 5,787 8 2

Kilmore 7,477 17 0∣

* Dromore 4,813 6 9

Dublin and Glandclagh 9,320 12 9

* Kildare and Christ-Church Deanry 6,451 13 3

* Ossory 3,859 0 6∣

Ferns and Leighlin 6,550 2 10

Cashel and Emly 7,354 2 0

Limerick, Ardfert, and Aghadoe 5,368 13 5

* Waterford and Lismore 4,323 7 1

* Corh and Ross 4,345 18 Öį

Cloyne 5,008 18 lOį

Tuam and Ardagh 8,206 3 9∣

* Eiphin 7,034 8 9

* Clonfert and Kilmacduagh 3,260 19 4∣

* Killala and Achonry 4,081 18 8

Total L.151,127 12 4į

By the new ecclesiastical arrangement there are to be but two archbishoprics, Armagh and Dublin, the two others being reduced to the rank of bishoprics. The bishoprics are also to be consolidated under twelve bishops, instead of eighteen, as heretofore. The arrangement, when completed by the falling in of the several sees on the demise of their present incumbents, will stand as follows:—

Archbishops and Bishops since the Reduction, with their respective Incomes. Armagh, with Clogher L.13,170

Meath .*. 5,221

Derry, with Raphoe 8,033

Down, with Connor and Dromore 5,896

Kilmore, with Ardagh and Elphin 7,478

Tuam, with Killala and Achonry 5,020

Dublin, with Glandclagh and Kildare 9,321

Ossory, with Leighlin and Ferns 6,550

Cashel, with Emly, Waterford, and Lismore 7,354

Cloyne, with Cork and Ross 5,009

Killaloe, with Kilfenora, Clonfert, and Kilmacduagh 4,532 Limerick, with Ardfert and Aghadoe 5,369

L.82,953 [7:12:399]The other dignitaries of the establishment are thirty-three deans, twenty-six precentors, twenty-two chancellors, twenty-one treasurers, thirty-four archdeacons, two provosts, and one sacristan, besides which there are 178 prebendaries and nine canons. Of these, forty-two of the dignitaries and fifty-two prebendaries are sinecurists,, or nearly so, requiring only an occasional attendance at the cathedral church; the remainder derive their incomes from benefices with cure of souls, and may therefore be considered as parochial clergy. There are likewise some subordinate corporations, consisting of five canons, fifty-nine vicars-choral, and fifteen choiristers, in twelve of the cathedral churches. The number and names of parishes, according to the ecclesiastical arrangement by which the clerical duties are performed and the tithes collected, vary considerably from the civil arrangement according to which the county assessments are levied. The latest returns state the number of parishes at 2348, which are condensed into 1385 benefices, each under a separate incumbent, who enjoys the emoluments, as follows :—
[table]

The income by which the whole establishment is maintained, is as follows :—

Archbishops and bishops L.15l,128

Deans and chapters 1,043

Economy estates of cathedrals 11,θ5θ

Subordinate ecclesiastical corporations 10,526

Dignities and prebends without cure of souls, and exclusive of those held by bishops 34,482

Glebe lands .^ 92,000

Tithes 555,000

Minister’s money 10,300

L.865.535

The population for whose spiritual benefit this extensive and complicated structure of ecclesiastical jurisdictions is maintained, is thus distributed among the several sects, according to the late returns of the commissioners of public instruction, as shown by the following table, which exhibits also the proportion per cent, borne by the several religious denominations to the total population :—

Denomination. p Proportion

Population. per cent.

Established church 852,064 10∙726

Roman Catholics 6,427,712 80-913

Presbyterians..., 642,356 8∙086

Other dissenters 21,808 0∙275

Total population 7,943,940 100-000

By referring to the amount already stated as being the income of the established church, it will appear, that whilst the Roman Catholics provide for the total maintenance of their clergy by voluntary contribution from amongst themselves, the religious instruction of the Protestant portion of the population costs the country two shillings per head annually; or, in other words, every family has to contribute nearly twelve shillings a year towards the maintenance of the established clergy; whereas, if that body were to derive its support solely from the contributions of its own members, as is the case with the Roman Catholic clergy, the sum to be annually paid by every Protestant, man, woman, and child, in order to make up the sum of L.865,000 deemed necessary for the maintenance of their establishment, would be one pound each, or six pounds for every family.

The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church still continues of the same form that it bore previously to the Reformation, consisting of four archbishops and twenty-two bishops, to which another has been lately added; the town and vicinity of Galway, which had been hitherto an exempt jurisdiction under an ecclesiastical head styled warden, having been erected into a see. The hierarchy is supported by the profits of some one or more parishes in the respective dioceses, by fees from the incumbents of the others, and by those of marriage licenses. The incomes of the bishops, as well as those of every class of Catholic clergy, are derived wholly from voluntary contributions. Monasteries and convents are numerous, and some, particularly those for females, are well endowed.

The presbyterian church, which flourishes chiefly in the north of Ireland, is governed by a synod, which chooses a moderator annually as its president. The ministers are maintained partly by the voluntary contributions of their respective congregations, and partly by an annual parliamentary grant called the Regium Donum.

Ireland is represented in the imperial legislature by twenty-eight temporal and four spiritual peers, and 105 commoners. The temporal peers hold their seats for life; the spiritual peers sit annually, according to a rotation of sees. The changes in the right of franchise for the election of commoners have been very considerable since the passing of the Catholic relief bill, which diminished the number of electors in an extraordinary degree. The following table shows the alterations caused by the legislative measures adopted since the passing of that act, as compared with the previous state of the constituency. The first line gives the average number of electors before 1829. The other lines show the effects since produced by subsequent acts of parliament.

Year. L.100. L.50. L,20. L.10. 40s. Total.

1829, 303 18,066 6806 ... 191,606 216,791

1830, 98 17,409 7319 11,804 ... 39,772

1832, 31 10,214 8414 42,066 ... 60,725

The executive government is committed to a lord-lieutenant deputed by the crown. He holds his place during pleasure, but is generally continued in office for five years. He is assisted by the privy council, a body also nominated by the king, and invested with extensive powers, as well judicial as ministerial; also by a chief secretary, who is a member of the House of Commons, and [7:12:400] is the person looked to by the legislature for the management of the country. Each county is also placed under a lord-lieutenant nominated by the crown, who is considered to be responsible for the preservation of good order, and has much weight in the nomination of the magistrates. He is aided by a number of deputy lieutenants, also nominated by the crown.

The levy and expenditure of money for local purposes is in the hands of the grand juries in every county; the members are named annually by the high sheriff, from among the chief landed proprietors or their agents. This arrangement has given rise to much abuse in the management of the funds intrusted to them. The sums levied bear very heavily on the industry of the actual landholder; and the application of them is subject to strong imputations, often too well founded, of fraud and favouritism.

The administration of law is vested in the lord chancellor, who is assisted by the master of the rolls, and in the twelve judges of the supreme courts, namely, the King’s Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer. The judges visit the counties twice a year, in six circuits, for the decision of weightier causes, and the investigation of heavy offences. Minor cases are brought before the magistrates at petty sessions, who are then assisted by a lawyer nominated by the crown, under the name of assistant barrister.

A very numerous armed force has long been maintained in Ireland. Regular troops, to the number of from twenty to twenty-five thousand men, are quartered in barracks in all parts; besides which, a well-armed and organized body of police, amounting to nearly 6000 effective men, is maintained. These are placed under the immediate control of stipendiary or salaried magistrates, appointed by the crown. In addition to the military and police, a force of armed yeomanry, mostly Protestant, was supported until lately, and called out occasionally into active service.

Before the arrival of the English, the revenues of Ireland were paid in cattle; and even after that period the custom prevailed for several centuries in the parts less subject to foreign influence. Traces of it have been met with so late as the reign of Elizabeth. The new government, under the English, introduced the method of raising money by subsidies. John exacted a subsidy from the Irish clergy, and established 'the court of exchequer for the general management of the revenue. The same method was continued during the reigns of Henry III. and the first Edwards; but the income thus extracted from the people proved so inadequate to meet the wasteful expenditure caused by a repetition of foreign wars and intestine commotions, that recourse was had to the legalized extortion of congne and livery, which was the levying of man’s meat and horse’s meat for the soldiery in time of service. The amount of the regular revenue, in the reign of Edward HL, is stated by Walsingham and Holingshead to have been L.30,000; but Sir John Davis, who collected his information from the pipe-rolls, and other authentic sources, reduces it to L.10,000. The most remarkable financial measure of Richard II. was a tax upon absentees. In 1433, the eleventh of Henry VI., the revenue was reduced to L.2339. 18s. 6d., whilst the expenses of the government were L.2348. 16s. 1l⅜d., thus exceeding the income by L.18. 17s. 5įd. At the latter end of the same reign, the Duke of York, when sent over as lord-lieutenant with extraordinary powers, not only obtained the whole revenue, but stipulated for an additional supply from England of 4000 marks for the first year, and L.2000 for every year thereafter. Edward IV. raised money by the imposition of duties on all merchandise sold in Ireland except hides. In the fifteenth year of Henry VII. a duty of one shilling in the pound was laid on all merchandise imported and exported, except wine and oil; and a tax, by way of subsidy, of 13s. 4d. on every hide of land. During this reign the revenue seldom exceeded L.5000. During the reign of Henry VIII. the revenue was increased by the suppression of monasteries. The laws against absentees were also enforced. During the first fifteen years of Elizabeth, the revenue was L.120,000, or L.8000 per annum, according to Ware, though Sinclair states it at only L.6000, whilst the expenses amounted to L.490,779. 7s. 6⅜d. In 1599, at the close of Tyrone’s rebellion, L.600,000 were spent in six months; and Sir Robert Cecil affirmed that Ireland had cost the queen L.3,400,000 in ten years’ time. The pacific reign of James tended much to the improvement of the revenue. The customs increased from L.50 to L.3000, and at the close of his reign to L.9700. The wardships and other feudal rights produced about L.10,000, notwithstanding which the income was inadequate to the expenditure. To defray the expense of the army, an order of baronets was established, by which L.98,500 was raised, in addition to which L.247,433 were remitted from England to clear off the debts incurred by Elizabeth. The Irish parliament granted the same king a subsidy of 2s. 8d. in the pound on every personal estate of three pounds annual value, and sourpence in the pound on every real estate of one pound value; an act of liberality with which James was so much pleased, that he declared “he would hereafter hold his Irish subjects in equal favour with those of his other kingdoms.” In the succeeding reign Strafford raised the customs to four times their previous amount. In the same reign the first mention is made of an excise tax. The distractions of the country till the restoration afforded little means to ascertain the progress of the revenue. Thurloe, however, in his state papers, mentions that the revenue for two years ending in 1657 amounted to L.137,558. 13s. 3d., whilst the expenditure was L.142,509. 11s., leaving a deficit of L.4959. 17s. 9d. When the Irish parliament met after the restoration, it granted, first, an hereditary revenue to the king, his heirs and successors; second, an excise for maintaining the army; third, the subsidy of tonnage and poundage for the navy; and, fourth, a tax of two shillings each on hearths, in lieu of the feudal burdens, which were then abolished. After the revolution, the information respecting this important element of national statistics becomes more precise and satisfactory. The revenue, from the landing of Schomberg in 1689 till the end of the reign of William, was as follows, the total of the previous military expenditure of the war with James having amounted to L.3,851,655:

1689 L.8,834 1696 L.513,534

1690 93,910 1697 548,967

1691 274,949 1698 601,846

1692 393,926 1699 701,932

1693 444,183 1700 766,620

1694 430,534 1701 697,955

1695 438,304 1702 581,286

During the earlier part of Anne’s reign the income exceeded half a million, but in her latter days it was less productive. In the reign of George I. the state of the revenue continued nearly as in the preceding reign. In that of George II. there was a surplus, which was applied, not always judiciously, to public works.

From the earlier part of the reign of George III. to the present period, the total amount of the public income was formed of the customs, excise, land tax, assessed taxes, stamps, postage, duties on pensions and offices, lotteries, and poundage pells and casualties. Up to 1811 the first four of these make but a single item in the parliamentary account. After that date the customs are specified as a separate item. The Irish lottery ceased at the union; the land tax at the consolidation of the exchequers in 1817; [7:12:401]the assessed taxes were repealed in 1822-23, since which time the whole income is formed of the items of customs, excise, stamps, postage, and poundage and casualties. The following table, exhibiting the receipts for every fifth year, from 1790 to 1830, will give a general view of the progress of taxation in its leading departments during that period.
[table]

The expenditure for every fifth year corresponding with the years in the preceding table is given in that which follows. The first item states the payments of interest and management of the public funded debt; the second, the payments out of the consolidated fund, which include the civil list, miscellaneous payments, and interest on Irish treasury bills; and then follow the charges for the army, the navy, and the miscellaneous expenditure. The last column consists chiefly of advances for the relief of trade, and other public objects.
[table]

The national debt of Ireland, incurred by an excess of expenditure beyond the income of the country, increased with great rapidity towards the close of the last century and till the year 1817, when it ceased to form a separate item in the public accounts, in consequence of the consolidation of the British and Irish exchequers. Its progressive increase since the revolution is exhibited in the following table.

Public Debt of Ireland.

1716 L.16,106 1770 L.628,883

1720 87,511 1780 1,067,565

1730 220,730 1790 1,586,067

1740 296,988 1800 22,245,190

1750 205,117 1810 75,240,790

1762 223,438 1817 134,602,769

Ireland has, till of late years, been almost exclusively a pastoral country. The population drew its chief sustenance from cattle, and the few manufactures were derived from the same source.

The rich pasturages, adapted both for black cattle and sheep, furnished in abundance the material for two branches; the woollen trade, and the tanning of leather. The former was carried on to a considerable extent at a very remote period. Traces of an export of woollens to Italy as early as the reign of Edward III. have been discovered. The manufacture was an object of legislative interference as early as the third year of Edward IV. (1462); and an act of Henry VIII. in 1542 expressly notices the exportation of woollen yarn from Ireland. The former of these acts was the first attempt to restrict the importation of foreign goods into England, to the prejudice of the native artist. By it woollens, laces, and ribbons were prohibited; but a provision was inserted, “that all wares and chaffers t made in the land of Ireland may be brought and sold in this land of England, as they were wont to do before the making of this statute.” Although subsequent prohibitory acts of Elizabeth, James, and Charles 1. make no mention of Ireland, there is little reason to suppose that any change was made as to the freedom of trade with this country, until the 12th of Charles II., when an act was passed in the English parliament, imposing such rates of duty as effectually prevented importation. By an act of the same year, the exportation of wool from England was prohibited generally, as was that from Ireland, to foreign countries. An act of the 9th and 10th of William III. prohibited the exportation of fullers’ earth to Ireland. But the great blow to this branch of national industry was caused by an address from both houses of the English parliament to William in 1698, praying him, “with a view to secure the [7:12:402]woollen manufacture as much as possible entire to England, that he would use his utmost diligence to hinder the exportation of wool from Ireland, except to be imported hither; and for discouraging the woollen and encouraging the linen manufactures of Ireland.” The immediate consequence of these addresses was the passing of an act prohibiting the exportation of wool or woollens, except to England, from which country the manufactured article was already excluded by the act of the 12th Charles II., still in force. Under this code England effectually restrained the Irish trade. The supply of the raw material was narrowed by the impossibility of importing British wool, and the manufactured goods were confined to the domestic consumption of the country.' Scarcely a vestige of this ill-advisĉd system now exists. The laws which prohibited the exportation of Irish woollens to foreign countries, and to the British colonies, were repealed in 1779. Ęy the act of union, the duties on woollens imported into either island were confined to those ,ĉálled “old and new draperies ;” and the high duties of Charles II. were reduced to eightpence halfpenny per yard on the old, and twopence three farthings on the new draperies. By the same act, England relaxed her monopoly so far as to permit the export of wool and woollen yarn duty free to Ireland. According to evidence before the House of Commons in 1832, one third of the cloth used in Ireland is brought from Great Britain; but as that imported is usually of finer, quality, the value of it is estimated at one half. The manufacture of Ireland is confined to the coarsest description of goods; every attempt to introduce the manufacture of the higher-priced articles has been the cause of the ruin of the speculator who ventured upon it. Broad cloths and blanket manufactories exist nowhere north of Dublin; flannels arc made in Wicklow, and blankets in Kilkenny. Frize of the coarsest kind is made in most counties by the farmers, during the intervals of their agricultural labours, for their own use, and for the supply of the adjoining districts.

The following tables show the quantity, quality, and declared value of woollens imported since the union. The imports previous to that period will be found in a general table of imports and exports under a subsequent head.
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[7:12:403]

The same legislative measure which deprived Ireland of its woollen manufacture stated, that “if the Irish turned their industry and skill to the settling and improving of the linen manufacture, they should receive all the countenance, favour, and protection for its encouragement, and promotion to all the advantage and profit they might be capable of deriving from it.” This declaration should not lead to the inference that the manufacture had been previously unknown or disregarded in Ireland. On the contrary, the use of linen was so prevalent amongst the higher orders, that sumptuary laws were enacted to check its excessive use. The unfortunate Earl of Strafford seems also to have anticipated the views of the British manufacturers on the subject. He, however, took a more honest, and perhaps a more judicious course. Instead of extinguishing the woollen trade by exclusive duties, he laboured to foster that of linen. He imported flax seed in large quantities from Holland, and held out premiums to induce Flemings and Dutchmen acquainted with the manufacture to settle here. On these laudable objects he spent upwards of L.30,000 of his private fortune; and his example was followed by the Duke of Ormond. Still, however, the woollen trade prevailed, particularly in the south and west, where the climate and the extensive pasturage for sheep insured a copious and cheap supply of the raw material. In the same spirit, an act was passed by the English parliament in 1696, to encourage foreign linen manufacturers to settle in Ireland; and with that view all articles made of flax or hemp in this country were admitted into England duty free, a privilege which is estimated to have given that branch of trade an advantage of L.25 per cent, over other nations in the English market. The Irish parliament, responding to the sentiments and wishes of that of England, promised that “it would heartily endeavour to establish the linen and hempen manufacture, so as to render it useful to both kingdoms ;” adding, that “it hoped to find such a temperament in respect to the woollen trade here, that the same may not be injurious to England.” The “temperament” here announced was evinced most effectually by laying prohibitory duties on the export of its own woollens, thus accepting the compact on the part of Ireland, and giving the country an incontrovertible claim upon England for a perpetual encouragement of that branch which was to be nurtured in lieu of the natural staple of the country. In furtherance of the measures mutually agreed on between both kingdoms, a board of trustees for the encouragement of the linen manufacture was established in 1710, consisting of a number of individuals of most influence in each province. Under its control a code of regulations was devised and maintained, which extended to the most minute particulars of the processes, and had the effect for many years of securing the fabric a decided preference both in the home and foreign market. A large sum was annually granted to this board, for premiums and the supply of wheels and other implements, which was continued’till the year 1830, when the grants were discontinued, and the board consequently ceased to act. The flax seed is chiefly imported. Little is grown in the country, as, notwithstanding all the exertions made by the grower, the plant raised from it is considered as of inferior quality. The principal part of the seed is brought from America, the remainder from Holland, Prussia, and Great Britain. The following table shows the number of hogsheads and of acres sown during a period of four years.

Hogsheads. Acres. Hogsheads. Acres.

1818 47,607 80,785 1820 52,416 77,755

1819 44,431 91,728 1821 45,163 83,312

The three following tables show the value of the brown or unbleached linen sold in the several linen markets in Ireland during a period of four years; also the state of the export of linens both plain and coloured, and of linen yarn, in periods of ten years each since the formation of the linen board in 1710; exhibiting both the total amount of quantity and value during each period, and the' average annual amount of quantity and value for each year in the respective periods. The sums stated in the former of these tables are the first cost paid to the manufacturer by the country purchaser; the value of most of the linen sold is afterwards considerably increased by the process of bleaching and other treatment.
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[7:12:404]
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The following table exhibits the progress of the trade, with respect to the foreign demand, from 1820 till the latest period that public documents supply information.
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The cotton manufacture was early an object of attention to the Irish parliament, which endeavoured to secure a monopoly of the home market by high import duties and by bounties. The first cotton mills were erected at Prosperous, in the county of Kildare, and in Belfast, about the year 1784. From that period till the union, it throve, in consequence of the measures adopted to prevent foreign competition. At the union it was arranged that the then existing duties should continue for eight years, after which they were to be gradually lowered, by eight annual reductions, in such manner that, after the year 1816, they should stand at ten per cent, ad valorem. The progress of the manufacture has been very slow as compared with that of Great Britain. The alteration of the scale of duties materially affected the home demand, and the immense capital and great superiority of the British artist have contributed much to secure to his manufacture a preference in the foreign market ,∙ yet it is a curious fact, that cottons printed in Dublin are sent to Manchester, where they are purchased by the Irish retailer, and obtain a preference by the home consumer. The following table of the quantity of cotton wool and yarn imported from all quarters affords a general view of the increase of the manufacture from its origin to 1823.
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The silk manufacture was introduced into Ireland by French emigrants after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Its principal seat was the city of Dublin, where it was maintained by the aid of protecting duties. Some feeble attempts to fix it in the country parts failed completely. The last of these was so lately as 1825, when a company was formed for the purpose of fixing the trade on a secure basis in the south of Ireland, by rearing the silk-worm there, and thus having the benefit of the raw material for the labour of producing it; but after considerable expense had been incurred for the purchase of ground and the planting of mulberry trees, the scheme was relinquished as hopeless. One branch of the manufacture, a fabric of mixed worsted and silk, known here by the name of tabbinet, and in England by that of Irish poplin, is in considerable demand, both at home and elsewhere, for the richness and beauty of the texture. It is almost the only branch now flourishing. The general trade has been nearly annihilated by the removal of the protecting duties since the union. The following table of the official value of the silk imported since the commencement of the manufacture evidently proves its decline.
[7:12:405]

Statement of the Value of Silk imported into Ireland, in Irish cuirency i for 1771, and for every year afterwards to 1823 inclusive.

1771 L.80,361 1799 L.63,626

1775 95,224 1803 74,423

1779 57,116 1807 53,225

1783 99,647 1811 71,203

1787 113,695 1815 68,528

1791 81,413 1819 65,372

1795 51,930 1823 45,523

The manufactures of iron, copper, and brass are very confined. The few iron founderies that still exist are limited to the execution of orders for works or manufactories carried on in the neighbourhood, which necessarily require the article to be made according to pattern, and on the spot. The same observation applies to those of copper, brass, and lead. The great advantage enjoyed by Great Britain in the inexhaustible stores of native metal, particularly iron, and of coal, together with the command of capital, and the elegance and cheapness of finish, arising from long experience, deprives Ireland of any reasonable hope of a successful competition in these branches, even for the wants of its own population.

The manufacture of glass was carried on to a considerable extent. There were four establishments in Dublin, two in Belfast, two in Cork, one in Waterford, and one in Derry. The raw material, except coal, was to be had in abundance, and in some places of excellent quality. The white glass was in much estimation for its goodness and brilliancy. The bottle manufacture supplied the entire demand of the country. But the trade has sunk under the effects of the assimilation of the duties with those in Britain. There is now scarcely an establishment existing.

The making up of provisions for the army and navy, and for the foreign market, has long been a great source of i wealth to the country. The principal part of the provision trade was carried on in Cork until of late years, when Belfast and Newry obtained a large share of it. The flesh is suffered to lie seven or eight days in salt before it is packed. The expedition with which the whole process is then earned on is astonishing. The beef, when cured, is assorted according to quality, in three classes, called planters’, India, and common beef. The hides are returned to the grazier: those of the oldest cattle are most valued. The fat is disposed of to the tallow merchant. Bacon and hams are salted on an extensive scale for London, at Limerick, Clonmel, Waterford, and Belfast, in which last town the superior mode of preparing the article has given it a high character. The progress of the trade may be judged of by the following tables, exhibiting a statement of the quantities of salted meat and butter exported every fourth year from the union until 1825, when the official returns cease to give separate details for Ireland; and of the quantity of salt imported every tenth year, from the earliest returns to the same period.
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The use of spirituous liquors was known in Ireland at an early period. Camden, who derived his knowledge of the country from writers that lived long before himself, states that “the excessive moisture of the air and soil occasions many to be troubled with fluxes and catarrhs, particularly strangers, to stop which they have excellent usquebagh, much less heating and more drying than ours.” But the article itself was not subjected to fiscal regulations till the reign of Charles II. when, in 1661, an excise duty of 4d. per gallon was laid on it, and continued at that rate till 1715, when an additional duty of 3d. was imposed; and two years after a further duty of Id. This duty in 1719 produced a revenue of L.5785. In 1785 the duty was fixed at Is. 2d., and so continued for some years. Its produce at that rate in 1791 was L.204,648. After a variety of changes, by which it was progressively raised, it stood in 1814 at 5s. 6d.; and though, for a year or two after, an attempt was made to augment it to 6s. the experiment was found to be so unsuccessful that it was lowered to the former rate after two years’ trial. Severe restrictions were imposed, and a most complicated and harassing system of checks established, upon every part of the process, to prevent the possibility of yielding to the temptations to defraud the revenue occasioned by the enormous charge of duty. The consequence was, that the whole spirit trade was thrown into the hands of a few capitalists, who, by their mutual understanding, were enabled in their turn to check and control theofficersof the revenue in their attempts to stop the issue of spirits from the distilleries which had not paid duty; whilst in the country parts, and particularly in the mountainous districts in the north and west, illicit distillation was carried to an extent that ultimately set all means to prevent it at defiance. No country has suffered more than Ireland from the excessive height to which the duties on home-made spirits have been carried. If heavy taxes, enforced by severe fiscal regulations, could make a people sober and industrious, the Irish would be the most so of any on the face of the earth. In [7:12:406]order to make the possessors of property join heartily in suppressing illicit distillation, the novel expedient was resorted to of imposing heavy fines on every parish or townland in which an illicit still was found at work, and those detected in making it were transported for seven years. But instead of the effect looked for, these unheard-of severities not only did not check the practice, but filled the country with bloodshed, and established an organized resistance to the laws. In 1811, when the duty was 2s. 6d. per gallon, 6,500,000 gallons were paid for; in 1822, when it was raised to 5s. 6d., only 2,950,000 gallons were brought to charge, whilst at this latter period the commissioners of revenue, from whose reports this statement is extracted, estimate the total consumption at not less than 10,000,000 gallons, of which therefore upwards of 7,000,000 paid no duty. The profits on the manufacture were such as to induce the country people to run all risks, and to set. at defiance every effort of the constituted authorities to put down the practice. Another mode was then at last resorted to. The duties were reduced in 1822 from 5s. 6d. to 2s. the wine gallon, or 2s. 4d. the imperial gallon. The results are best exhibited by the following table, showing the quantity of spirits that paid duty each year, the rate of duty, and the net amount of revenue collected.
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A superficial view of this table might lead to the conclusion that the consumption of spirits in Ireland had nearly trebled since 1823; but, in fact, the apparent increase was caused solely by the general use of licensed instead of illicit spirits under the reduced scale of duties. The measure was most effective, and it will be found by the succeeding table, exhibiting the progress of convictions under the illicit distillation laws, that the subsequent increase of duty in 1830 has been pernicious. The truth is, that 2s. 4d. was as high a duty as the article would bear, and the additional 6d. has again thrown the balance in favour of the smuggler, and led to a partial revival of illicit distillation. The subsequent reduction of the duty in 1834 proves that this financial error has been perceived and corrected.

Convictions for Illicit Distillations. (Inspectors of Prisons for 1829 and 1835.)

1822 1003 1829 617

1823 1057 1830 658

1824 912 1831 276

1825 994 1832 363

1826 824 ∙1833 896

1827 693 1834 1149

1828 652

From the preceding statements it is evident, that as long as the undue proportion between the duty and the intrinsic value of spirits induces a continuance of the practice of illicit distillation, no official returns can afford adequate data for calculating the quantity of home-made spirits consumed in the country. As far, however, as a conclusion can be drawn from the number of houses licensed for the retailing of spirituous liquors, it would appear that Ireland is not excessive in this point. The number of spirit licenses granted in 1834, in each part of the united kingdom, were, for
[table]

There are breweries in most of the large towns in Ireland, not only adequate to the internal demand, but allowing an export, which has been increasing for the last few years. The importation of beer from Great Britain has been progressively diminishing for many years, particularly since the union, as will appear from the following table of the average amounts of the quantities of beer and ale imported in the several periods stated.

From 1721 to 1760 6,307, average during 40 years.

1760 to 18Ό0 56,323, average during 40 years.

1800 to 1810 3,710, average during 10 years.

1810 to 1821 512, average during 10 years.

It does not, however, appear that the consumption of home-brewed beer has increased in proportion to the diminution of that imported. The number of barrels of malt usedin the breweries of Ireland in 1810 was 446,436; in 1822 it was only 361,301; and, according to another official account, the number of quarters of malt used by brewors in 1823 was 174,466, whilst in 1833 it was 192,867, an increase not at all proportional to the increase of the population during the same period.

The exports of ale and beer from Ireland, as compared with those from England and Scotland, show that the article produced here is increasing steadily in demand in foreign countries.
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Ireland, as has been already noticed, is, both from soil and climate, a pastoral country. The habits of the people tended to keep it such. Nor was it till the beginning of the last century that any efforts were made to introduce an attention to tillage upon an extended scale. Primate Boulter, when one of the lords-justices, pressed strongly on the British government the importance, or rather the necessity, of enforcing a tillage system; and for this purpose proposed a law in 1727, to compel landholders to till five acres out of every hundred in their possession, exclusive of meadows and bogs; and also to release tenants to the same extent from the penal covenants against tillage, inserted with equal want of policy and justice into their [7:12:407]leases. Mr Dobbs, who wrote several valuable tracts on Ireland about the same period, ascribes the poverty of the country to the neglect of tillage. The Irish legislature at length became sensible of the necessity of some general and vigorous expedient to direct domestic industry into this channel. It saw a large sum annually remitted to England to purchase grain, producing a drain of capital, and holding out as it were a premium to indolence at home. The remedy devised was not the best, but it produced to a certain degree the effect. Bounties were given for corn brought by land-carriage to Dublin, where the demand for grain was greatest. The progress of the excitement thus produced appears by the progressive increase of the amount of bounties, which were ultimately withdrawn, partly because the desired object, the direction of public attention to this branch of national industry, had been attained, but more so in consequence of the many frauds and abuses which had crept into its management.

The amount of the bounties paid was, in

1764 L.5,483

1767 6,074

1770 18,706

1774 49,674

1777 61,786

1780 77,800

The counties which drew the largest amount of bounty were Tipperary, Kilkenny, Meath, Queen’s, and Carlow.

The nature of the tenures by which land was held had also an unfavourable influence on the agricultural improvement of the country. After the transfer of by much the greater part of the territorial surface to Cromwell’s adventurers, the original patentees in many instances were glad to grant leases at long terms of years, and in many cases in perpetuity, for what would now be considered as trifling considerations. These lands, as their value increased by the increased feeling of the permanency of the new government after the revolution, were re-let by the holders, who preferred to draw a fixed rent from them, rather than to hold them in their own hands. Hence arose the class of middlemen, sometimes in a triple or quadruple order, living in independence and idleness on the labours of the occupying tenant, the whole of whose earnings, beyond the means of a bare subsistence for his family, was drawn away from him by this succession of intermediate landlords.

The system of exaction thus produced was increased by the operation of the penal law, which forbade a Roman Catholic to hold any land if the rent did not amount to two thirds of the actual value, thus leaving one third only for the subsistence of the tenant and the payment of tithes and local taxes. Land was essential for the existence of the Catholic peasant, who could not afford to emigrate. He therefore paid the rack rent, and of course had the preference as a tenant; and the Protestant was forced to follow the example or quit the country.

The size of farms, as well as their mode of culture, varies greatly in different parts. Generally speaking, in the manufacturing districts of the north, the small allotments of land, there dignified by the name of farms, are limited to a few acres, the cultivators of which no more deserve the name of farmers than would the occupiers of mere cabbage gardens. In the grazing counties the farms are of very great extent, often spreading over upwards of a thousand acres; wdulst in the counties in which greater attention is paid to tillage, they are more moderate in dimensions. The mixture of grazing and tillage so frequent in England is much less usual here, except on the farms of gentlemen, where both the feeding of stock and the growth of grain are carried on, in numerous instances, to as high a state of excellence as in any part of Great Britain. Nor are there any large tracts of country exclusively devoted to the breeding of cattle, as in the highlands of Scotland.

The grazing of various kinds of stock is seldom combined. A usual mode, with respect to black cattle, particularly in Connaught, is to collect yearling calves, which are fed till they are four years old, when they are sold, at the great annual fair at Ballinasloe, to the graziers of Limerick, Tipperary, Roscommon, and Meath, by whom, when fattened for the butcher, they are either shipped alive for Liverpool, or sent to the markets of Dublin and the larger northern towns, or to Limerick and Cork, where they are cured for exportation.

The dairy farms form a conspicuous feature in the rural economy of the country, occupying a still larger portion of the soil than that used by the grazier. Butter, much celebrated for its excellence, is exported in large quantities. That of Carlow bears the highest character in the foreign market. It may appear strange that a country whose character stands so high in the production of butter, should be so unsuccessful in that of cheese. Yet such is the fact. With the exception of some made in the county of Antrim, particularly at Carrickfergus, Irish cheese is of very inferior quality. The failure of the many attempts to produce a good article may in most cases be attributable to the want of, that tact in the management of it during its fabrication, which is only to be acquired by long and persevering practice. Yet it is stated of Lord Hawarden, whose estate lies in one of the richest tracts in Tipperary, that two skilful persons from different parts of England, who had successively a fair course of trial, failed to make, from the milk produced from those fine pastures, a single cheese that combined the essential qualities of excellence of flavour and durability of keeping. Calves are seldom fattened except in the neighbourhood of large towns, where that meat is to be found of very fine quality. In the country parts it is the custom to slaughter the male calves when but a few days old; and the meat of them is sold to the lower classes, by whom it is distinguished by the name of slink veal.

The chief breeding counties for sheep are Roscommon, Galway, Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary. The flocks are usually managed by the herd, who attends the cattle; a regular shepherd, as in England, being seldom set over them. Folding is little practised, and the use of turnips for winter food is by no means general. In many parts sheep are kept for the sole purpose of supplying wool for the use of the owner’s family. No county in Ireland equals Galway in the management of this valuable animal; and nowhere are finer flocks to be seen. There is reason to suppose that, in the time of Giraldus Cambrensis, the Irish breed of sheep was black. The introduction of the white breed of an improved kind is attributed to the English. Latterly much attention has been directed to the bettering of the stock, whether for the shambles, the wool comber, or the clothier, by judicious crossing. The merino sheep has latterly been brought over, and has been found to agree well with the soil and climate. On the mountains is found a breed similar to that of Wales, small, with nearly as much hair as wool.

The total number of sheep in the British isles is estimated by Mr Macculloch to have been, in the year 1830, as follows :—

England 26.500,000

Scotland 3'500,000

Ireland 2,000,000

United kingdom 32,000,000

The right of pasturage on mountains is frequently let to the inhabitants of a village in common, each of whom maintains on it a determinate stock of cows, goats, and sheep. In the apportionment five goats are considered as [7:12:408] equal to a cow. Sheep are rated as goats, but are not so frequent; for milk is the chief object, and a ewe does not yield it so abundantly as a goat. Large flocks of this latter animal are to be seen amongst the mountains, where the cottier must be poor indeed who does not reckon one at least as part of his property.

Horses for agricultural purposes are seldom of great excellence. But a breed for general use, both for draft and saddle, is much esteemed; and blood-horses of high price and repute are bred in the rich pastures of the principaI grazing counties. In general this animal is treated with less care and greater harshness than in England. The old Irish hobby, a small but excellent breed, supposed to be derived from a Spanish race, is nearly extinct; yet some vestiges of it are still to be traced in the western parts of Connaught, and in Kerry. In this latter county a small breed of cows, very hardy, and excellent milkers, is still kept up.

Hogs are kept in great numbers. The native breed is tall, bony, and ill proportioned; but crosses from some of the most approved British stocks, particularly the Leicester, have been introduced, to the great improvement of the animal. In general the cottier’s hog is the inmate of his cabin, a member of the family, upon whom the owner chiefly depends for the payment of his rent. Hence it acquires a docility of manners unknown elsewhere. Its food is invariably the potato. When fit for market it is either slaughtered in the provision markets of Cork, Waterford, Belfast, and Newry, or exported alive, chiefly to Liverpool.

Wakefield, in his observations on the state of tillage, classes the country into nine agricultural districts, according to the peculiarities of soil and culture. The first comprehends the flat parts of Antrim, the eastern side of Tyrone, and the counties of Down, Armagh, Monaghan, and Cavan. In these the farms are small, and spade cul tivation common. Potatoes, oats, and flax, are the principal crops. The second district comprehends the counties of Londonderry and Donegal, the mountainous part of Antrim, and the north and west of Tyrone. Agriculture is in a more backward state here than in the preceding district. Wheat is little known. In the third, which is confined to the northern parts of Fermanagh, the system of tillage is better, and the farms larger. Wheat is largely planted, but oats form the great staple crop. The whole of the north-west of Ireland, comprehending Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Clare, with Roscommon and Longford, forms the fourth district. Oats is still the prevalent crop, but much barley is also raised in the districts near the sea. The plough is often drawn by four horses abreast. Illicit distillation is carried on here upon an extensive scale, and much of the land is leased to tenants in common, according to what is called the corn-acre system. In the fifth district, which comprehends Limerick, Kerry, the southwestern and northern parts of Cork, and all Waterford, cultivation is not far advanced. The greater part is a grazing country. Where tillage prevails, the land is much subdivided, and the farms consequently very small. The sixth district includes the southern part of Cork. Spade culture is here frequent, the farms small, and hogs constitute the main dependence of the poor. The best farming in Ireland is to be seen in the seventh district, which takes in Tipperary, the Queen’s, and King’s Counties. Tillage is carried on in a systematic manner, and wheat forms an important part of the crop. The character of the eighth district, which comprehends Kilkenny, Kildare, Carlow, Westmeath, Meath, and Louth, much resembles that of the preceding, except that the system of tillage is not managed with so much neatness and precision. The farms are large, and the English mode of treatment adopted; but the details arc executed in a more slovenly manner. Wexford, and the arable part of Wicklow, form the ninth district. Beans are largely cultivated. A very singular mode of ploughing may be seen here. One man leads the horses, another holds the plough, and a third sits on it to keep it down.

The preceding sketch shows that oats are the prevailing crop, then wheat and barley; flax on an extensive scale is confined to the northern counties. Potatoes are universally cultivated. It is the crop on which the great mass of the population depends for its subsistence; its failure, wherever it occurs, produces a famine. The outcry against the clumsy and defective construction of agricultural implements is every year less merited. In most parts much attention is paid to their construction; and, where they differ from those most in vogue in Great Britain, the cause can be traced to the peculiarities of the soil. The spade is narrower in the blade than the English, and longer in the handle. In many parts its use is supplied by a narrow spade, with a projection for the foot only on.one side; it is called a loy. In cutting turf, a kind of double loy, called a slane, is used. Oxen are little employed in tillage. When used in the plough they are yoked sometimes by the horns, somerimes by the breast. The Scotch cart or dray, with two large wheels and a single horse, is to be found in every part, its structure having been found best adapted to a hilly country such as Ireland generally is. It has in a great measure superseded the old Irish car. In the mountainous parts the slide-cart without wheels is still employed. The ends of the shafts, which lie on the ground and are dragged on by the horse, being shod with iron, allow the vehicle to slide along with considerable facility. The fences vary extremely, according to the character of the soil. In the rocky districts in the north and west they are mostly dry-stone walls, sometimes of great thickness at bottom, being used as well for a means of getting rid of the numerous loose stones on the surface, as for the enclosing of the land. A mound, planted at top with furze, or gorse, is a common fence in those parts where fuel is scarce. In the more improved parts white thorn hedges are most usual. Lime and limestone gravel is the most general manure. It is often used mixed with turf mould. On the sea-coasts coralline sand and sea-weed are employed; the former is often conveyed to great distances into the interior. Paring and burning, though prohibited by statutory enactments, which impose a fine of ten pounds on the person practising it, is very frequent, and found, under judicious restrictions, to be highly salutary.

As the potato forms the main article of food for the general population of the country, it is evident that by much the greater part of the other crops raised must be disposed of in other countries, and therefore that the quantities exported will form no bad criterion of the progress of tillage, and of the crops to which it has been chiefly directed; but as this point comes more properly under another division of the work, the reader is referred to it, where he will find, in the statement of exports, an enumeration of the quantities of agricultural produce sent out of the country at different periods.

The peculiar natural advantages of Ireland with respect to the fisheries were long since noticed. Sir William Temple observes of them, that “they might prove a mine under water as rich as any under ground.” Young asserts with truth, that “there is scarcely a part of Ireland but what is well situated for some fishery of consequence; anu that her coasts, and innumerable inlets and creeks, are the resort of vast shoals of herring, cod, ling, hake, mackerel, &c. which might be converted into funds of wealth.” Daniel, in his Rural Sports, speaking of the inland fisheries, says, that “the waters of Ireland abound in all that can invite an angler to their banks; they are more largely stored, and with fish of a better quality, than elsewhere in the [7:12:409]united kingdom.” Such descriptions would lead to the conclusion that the fisheries were in a very flourishing condition. The contrary is the fact. The several attempts to establish them have failed, not certainly from want of fostering superintendence, but more probably from injudicious nurture, perhaps over attention. In the beginning of the reign of George III. the Irish parliament established a liberal system of bounties, particularly for the herring fisheries. The result of the experiment was the very reverse of what had been anticipated by the devisers of the measure. The following table shows that the import of herrings for nine years after the granting of the bounties, exceeded that of the nine preceding years by no less than 155,156 barrels.
[table]

The chief seat of the herring fishery was along the northwestern coast, from Lough Swilly to Broadhaven. To secure it, large sums were laid out in establishing stations for taking and curing the fish in the islands of the Rosses; but, after much expenditure, the fish deserted the shores about the year 1780, and the fisheries were of course abandoned. The Nymph Bank, on the southern coast, was discovered in 1736. It abounded with white fish, and a company was formed to take advantage of it; but the breaking out of the Spanish war three years afterwards put an end to the project. It afterwards remained unnoticed till 1801, when, through the exertions of Captain Robert Fraser, a company was formed for the special purpose of supplying the London market with fresh fish from it by means of well-boats; but the scheme proved abortive, apparently from internal mismanagement. In 1819, the attention of the legislature was again directed to the improvement of this source of national wealth, and a large sum was granted annually to commissioners, partly for the payment of bounties, partly for the erection of fishing piers, and partly for the issue of loans for building boats and providing fishing tackle. After twelve years’ experience the grants were discontinued, and the commission was revoked. The following tables will serve to show the results of the efforts made to establish fisheries previously to the formation of the Fishery Board in 1819, and the effects of the exertions made by the commissioners, as stated by themselves in their reports.
[table]
[7:12:410]
[table]

Number of Fishermen enrolled as Sea F enables at the several Fishing Stations of Ireland in 1810.

Buncrara 869 Galway 452 Kinsale 655

Rutland 699 Tarbert 318 Cove 731

Killybegs 539 Tralee 521 Passage 446

Killala 289 Dingle 994 Wexford 312

Broadhaven 143 Kenmare 393 Wicklow 412

Westport 264 Berehaven 205 Malahide 482

Bunowen 249 C. Townsend 449 C. Fergus 469

3052 3332 3507

Total number of fishermen enrolled, 9891.
[table]

Whales and sun-fish are often seen off the western coast. The fishing of them has frequently been attempted, but al ways with loss. Seals are frequent along the rocky shores. They are occasionally shot; but as they are extremely wary, and must be struck on the head in order to kill them at once, they are seldom taken in this manner. They are sometimes, particularly the young ones, caught by moonlight, in the caverns where they sleep; but the attempt is very venturous. The old ones bite most furiously in defence of their young; and, as they are supposed never to let go their hold until they hear something crash between their teeth, the seal-catchers have bags, with charcoal quilted into them, fixed on their arms by way of defence. Most of the embouchures of the great rivers have salmon fisheries attached to them. That at Coleraine is particularly valuable; nearly all the fish caught there is sent fresh to Liverpool packed in ice. Eels are caught in large quantities in the large rivers, particularly after floods. As they do not take the bait, the usual mode of entrapping them is by stretching coarse hay ropes under water at the bridges, in which they are entangled while shooting down the stream. Shell-fish is abundant, particularly on the western and southern coasts. Oysters of much repute are raised at Carlingford; those from Burren and Lissadil on the western coast are also thought worthy of being transported across the island to Dublin. Muscle-beds are abundant, especially in the south; but they are sought after chiefly on account of the pearls occasionally found in them. In Cork the muscles are caught in sunny weather, at which time only they open their shells. The fisherman thrusts an osier twig into the aperture, the fish closes on it, and is drawn up. Pearls of the size of a pea, but seldom of good quality, are found in them.

The circulating medium in Ireland was, until lately, subject to a great variety of alterations. Without entering into the disputed question of the existence of a mint in Ireland established by the Ostmen or Danes, the first certain account of a mint there is that established in 1210, by King John, who caused pennies, halfpennies, and farthings to be coined and made current by proclamation. Further coinages were made by Henry III. and Edward I. The latter prince was the first who added the title of Dominus Hibernie to that of Rex Anglie on his Irish coinage. It consisted of groats, halfpence and farthings. The first important alteration as to value was in the latter part of the reign of Edward I∏∙ who caused the ounce of silver to be cut into twenty-six deniers or pennies, instead of twenty, as before, which caused precisely the same depreciation of eight and one third per cent, in the Irish, as compared with the British currency, that lately existed, until the final assimilation in 1825. Henry VI. or rather the Duke of York, his lieutenant in Ireland, had mints in Dublin and Trim, in which both sil [7:12:411]ver and copper were coined. In the beginning of the subsequent reign of Edward IV. the value of the silver coins was raised to the double of its previous amount. The consequence was an enormous increase of price in all the necessaries of life; to remedy which, the Irish parliament enacted, that the master of the mint should strike, in the castles of Dublin and Trim, and in the town of Drogheda, five kinds of silver coins; the gross (or groat), the demigross, the denier (or penny), the demi-denier, and quadrant (orfarthing); eleven groats to weigh an ounce troy, and each, unclipped, to pass for fourpence. A very few years afterwards, the price of silver was again raised so excessively, that the difference between the Irish and English groat was fifty per cent, in a pound of bullion. In the reign of Henry VII. the difference between the two coinages was one third. Soon after the accession of Henry VIII. the coin in Ireland was so clipped, defaced, and scarce, that the Earl of Surrey, then lord-lieutenant, sued for his recall, in consequence of the want of money to carry on the war against the Irish. Elizabeth ordered the ounce of silver to be cut into sixty pennies, so that the coin of that name was reduced in weight from the twentieth to the sixtieth part of an ounce. The total value of the money coined in Ireland by that princess is said to have been L.94,577. 19s. 6d. English, which, at the rate of sixteen pence Irish for a shilling English, amounts to L.l 18,222. 9s. 4⅜d. Irish. The Irish shilling, or harp as it was called, from the impression on its reverse, was worth ninepence English. By a proclamation issued in the fifth year of James I. the same proportion of values was continued. In 1613 English money was current in Ireland at an increased value; the English five-shilling crownpiece passing for six shillings and eightpence, and the other coins in proportion. The exchange between Dublin and London was at Jwenty-one shillings Irish for fifteen English, with sixpence or eightpence per pound extra, payable in London. By a proclamation in 1637, the name of Irish money was ordered to be abolished, and all payments reduced to English sterling money. About 1672, small change was so scarce in Ireland, that towns and private dealers were obliged to issue copper tokens. James II., on his arrival in Dublin in 1688, issued a proclamation, by which the English guinea was to pass current at L.l. 4s., the crown-piece at 5s. 5d., and all lesser coins in the same proportion. In 1690, he depreciated still further the value of the coin, by the issue of pieces of base metal, which were to pass at a nominal value far above their intrinsic worth; so that the coins issued of the nominal value of L.965,375 according to some, but, according to others, of L.l,596,799, were really worth no more than L.6495, estimating the metal at fourpence per pound. On the accession of William, this coinage was cried down. In 1725, the new gold coin of Portugal was made current in Ireland, the largest coin, or Portugal piece, being rated at L.4. About the same time, in consequence of the scarcity of small change, Wood obtained his patent for the issue of a copper currency, which was prevented by the literary exertions of Dean Swift in his celebrated publications called the Drapiers Letters. In 1780, the acts of parliament prohibiting the carrying of gold or silver into Ireland were repealed. At that time the value of the precious metals in circulation as specie, or hoarded, was estimated at L.3,000,000 Irish. No further legislative change took place until the assimilation of the Irish and

English currency in 1825, previously to which, however, the want of a metallic circulation was so severely felt, particularly during some periods of the French war, that private bankers and other dealers issued notes or tickets for small sums, from five shillings down to twopence-halfpenny; and also copper tokens of a great variety of values and impressions. The character of the silver currency was much deteriorated during the same period, in consequence of the arrival of several regiments of English militia from Warwickshire and the neighbouring manufacturing counties, who, taking advantage of the defaced state of the Irish coinage of shillings, counterfeited them so ingeniously, that the country was for a time inundated with this description of base money. The evils of this combined pressure of the scarcity of legal and the abundance of counterfeit coin, was ultimately remedied by the issue of silver tokens, estimated at six shillings, tenpence, and fivepence, by the Bank of Ireland, which circulated freely until they were replaced by the issue of a pure standard coinage of silver from the royal mint.

The entire banking business of Ireland, until 1783, was in the hands of private individuals, who often issued notes to an amount not only far beyond their respective capitals, but exceeding, in a great degree, what the wants of the country required, or its credit could support. To remedy the evil effects of a system so pernicious, a national bank was established in that year, with similar privileges to those of the Bank of England in respect to the restriction of more than six partners in a private bank. The injury that Ireland has sustained from the repeated failure of banks may be mainly attributable to this injudicious regulation. The loss that the country has suffered by the failure of banks may be described in a few words. In 1804, there were fifty registered banks. Since that year, many more have been opened; but all have failed, one after another, with the exception of four in Dublin, three in Belfast, and a few that have withdrawn from business. In 1821, in consequence of the failure of eleven banks nearly at the same time in the south of Ireland, government made an arrangement with the Bank of Ireland, by which joint-stock companies were allowed to be established at the distance of fifty Irish miles from Dublin, in return for which concession, that company was permitted to increase its capital L.500,000; but, in consequence of several restrictions remaining unrepealed, no new company was formed until 1825, when the Northern Banking Company of Belfast began to act on the new system. In the same year the Provincial Bank of Ireland began business with a capital of L.2,000,000; and the Bank of Ireland has established branch banks in several of the larger towns. The capital of the Bank of Ireland at its commencement amounted to L.600,000. It has been since increased at different periods; and in 1821 it amounted to L.3,000,000. At present no bank with more than six partners can be established within fifty Irish miles of Dublin; nor can such bank draw bills on Dublin for less than L.50, or at a shorter date than six months, which is a virtual prohibition of the drawing of such bills. The Bank of Ireland draws on London at twenty days date, and discounts at the rate of five per cent. Its charter expires in 1838.

The following table exhibits the amount of the issue of Bank of Ireland notes, and the highest and lowest aggregate amount of Bank of Ireland notes and post bills issued, as far as can be collected from official documents :—
[7:12:412]
[table]
[table]

In the Provincial Bank, twenty-five per cent., or L.500,000, has been paid up. Its head is in London, but it has offices in all the large towns of Ireland. The business of the branch banks is managed, under the control of the directors in London, by the managers, with the aid of two or more residents in the district, who must be holders of ten shares each. This bank has had several severe runs to contend against. In 1828, L.l,000,000 in gold was sent from England to maintain its credit. Its notes are received in the treasury in payment of taxes; and it is the bank of the excise, post-office, and stamp-departments, in all places beyond the restricted limit. The dividends have been at the rate of four, five, and, since December 1832, of six per cent. Its stock is at a high premium. The Northern Bank transacts business on similar principles with the Provincial, but on a smaller scale. The Hibernian Joint-Stock Loan Company was formed by some Roman Catholic gentlemen and merchants, in consequence of their exclusion from seats in the direction of the Bank of Ireland. Its nominal capital was L. 1,000,000, in 10,000 shares, of which twenty-five per cent, was paid in. It issues no notes, and has no branch offices. In 1824, the company obtained an act, which gave them some additional facilities in transacting their concerns. Two new joint-stock banking companies were commenced in the year 1833; the one, called the Agricultural and Commercial Bank of Ireland, is managed in Ireland, and rests on Irish capital; the other, called the National Bank of Ireland, has a proprietary in London, who have contributed a large capital on the principle of advancing to any bank formed in connection with it in Ireland, a sum equal to that subscribed there, and receiving half of the profits of the joint capital. Both of these banks have branches in some of the great towns. Private banks are now to be met only in Dublin, where there are but four. Ireland has but few manufactures and little commerce, and banks abound only in wealthy and commercial countries. Another striking circumstance is the vast proportion of notes under five pounds issued by the country banks. This is accounted for by the smallness of the transactions, and the peculiarities of Irish trade, which in the north is chiefly confined to the domestic manufacture of linen; and in the south to the provision trade, the supplies for which are furnished, in consequence of the great subdivision of land, by a number of dealers, each of whom can furnish a very limited quantity. The fairs and markets are attended by multitudes of people, bringing each his butter, corn, and poultry, for sale, few of whom individually take away to the amount of five pounds.

A reference to the preceding table of the issue ofBank of Ireland notes will confirm this position, by showing that the increased issue of that bank, since the commencement of notes under five pounds, has arisen from the increased number of those under that value.
[table]

The system of savings’ banks was introduced from Scotland in 1817, when an act was passed, by which a fixed interest of L.4 per cent., resting upon public security, was granted to the depositors. This rate was in 1828 reduced to three per cent., in consequence of the influx of deposits from persons who thereby derived a larger interest from their lodgments than what was then attainable from funded security. The confidence at first excited in favour of this mode of securing small sums has been latterly considerably diminished, from the discovery, that though the interest payable is secured by act of parliament, yet the management, being lodged in the hands of private individuals who undertake it ostensibly from benevolent motives, is under no effective check beyond that of the general character of the directors. Several instances have occurred of losses to a considerable amount, from the negligence or misconduct of the managers. The following [7:12:413]tables show the progress of the system as far as can be ascertained by public documents; the first showing the gross amount of deposits and deductions to the latest return published; the latter the rates of the deposits at two periods, by which not only the progress of the system, but the proportional number of contributors of different pecuniary means, may be conjectured.
[table]
[table]

The internal traffic of the country is carried on chiefly by wheel-carriage roads. Canals are few, and railways almost unknown. The great roads are mostly kept up by turnpikes, against which there was, until lately, a violent and just outcry, as the outlay upon them did not at all correspond with the amount of tolls collected. Latterly most of them have been placed under the control of the post-office, which lets them out to contractors. Their condition, both as to lines of direction and mode of construction, is excellent. The limestone, which is the general substratum of the greater part of the country, is the best material for their formation; and the system now so generally known and highly appreciated under the name of macadamizing was long and successfully practised in 1 nany of the leading lines of road in Ireland before it was thought of in Great Britain. Young remarks upon this peculiarity as early as the year 1779. “For a country,” says he, “so very far behind us as Ireland to have got so suddenly the start of us in the article of roads, is a spectacle that cannot fail to strike the English traveller ex ceedingly. I will go here; I will go there; I. could trace a route upon paper as wild as fancy could dictate, and everywhere I found beautiful roads, without break or hindrance, to enable me to realize my design. But from this commendation the turnpikes in general must be excluded; they are as bad as the cross roads are admirable.” The cause of this eulogy is to be traced to acts made on the subject from the time of Charles 1. till the beginning of the reign of George III. Before that time the roads were constructed and repaired, like those in England, under the miserable police of the six days’ labour. The new law totally changed the arrangement. The system according to which the cross roads, or, as they are called, the presentment roads, are made, is this: The part to be acted upon is measured by two persons, who swear to the measurement, to their opinion of its utility, and to its probable expense. A certificate to this effect is signed by the measurers, the overseers who propose to undertake the work, and the justice before whom the oath is taken. It is then sent in to the grand jury at the assizes, and if approved there, the work is undertaken by the overseers at their own expense, and must be finished before the ensuing assizes, when, on a certificate upon oath that the money has been honestly expended, it is passed by the grand jury, fiated by the judge of assize, and paid forthwith by the county treasurer. In like manner, bridges, jails, houses of correction, and other public works, are built. The expense is defrayed by a tax on the lands, paid by the occupying tenant, either by the acre or by the plough-land or town-land. In the latter case, as these denominations are of very unequal dimensions, the tax falls very unfairly upon the holders of the land. The restriction upon a wanton outlay of money, either in consequence of an unnecessary line of road, or an exorbitant estimate of expense, is by traversing, or opposing, the presentment in the first case, that is, by denying the allegations in the certificate. The presentment is then laid by till the ensuing assizes, and in the intermediate time inquiries are made respecting the conflicting statements. In the latter case, payment is suspended until the case is cleared up and proved. The good effects of this system rest upon the principle, that when individuals act for the public alone, the public is likely to be negligently, and therefore badly served; but when their own interest as well as that of the public is concerned, good is likely to be done. For a few years after the passing of the act, the good roads were found all leading from the mansions of the principal gentry in the counties, as rays from a centre, with a surrounding space through which there was no communication; but every year brought the remedy, until in a short time those rays, proceeding from so many centres, met, and the communication was complete. At first, roads were, like bridges, paid out of the common stock of the county, but afterwards they were charged upon the barony through which they were made. By subsequent acts, narrow mountain roads, and foot-paths along the sides of the greater roads, were constructed upon the same principle. The exorbitancy of expense, arising from the power of imposing the tax having been vested in the hands of the great landed proprietors as grand jurymen, whilst the payment came out of the pocket of the poor occupier, was the less felt, except in some extreme cases, because the money was expended among those who paid it, and gave employment to many hands that otherwise would have been pining away in idle destitution. Still, however, it must be acknowledged, that complaints against what is called jobbing were, and still continue to be, general, and too often upon solid grounds.

With respect to canals, the manner in which Ireland is circumstanced in this respect may be most fairly estimat-eü[7:12:414] by a view of the following table, which exhibits the relative proportion, or rather disproportion, of the means of internal communication, by means of inland navigation and railways, in that country and in England.

Ireland. England.

Acreable contents 20,499,500 37,094,960

Population in 1831 7,734,365 16,537,398

Canals miles 280 2400

Navigable rivers miles 380 2000

Railways miles 5f 400

The idea of improving Ireland by means of inland navigation is attributable to the unfortunate and misguided Earl of Strafford, who had the sagacity to perceive that the general flatness of the country, and the abundance of lakes, waters, and bog, were very favourable to it. Yet no parliamentary steps are on record respecting the subject until 1703, when bills were brought in to make the Shannon navigable from Limerick to Jamestown in Leitrim, for the rivers Barrow and Boyne, and for connecting Newry with Lough Erne. No further steps were taken till 1709, when the subject was revived. In 1715 a company for rendering the Shannon navigable was formed, under an act which also gave general powers for similar undertakings elsewhere. Many projects were started under the provisions of this act. The following is a summary of their results:

1. From Dublin to Banagher on the Shannon; accomplished by the Grand Canal.

2. The Barrow, with a canal thence to join the Grand Canal; accomplished.

3. The Glyn and Bann, from Newry to Coleraine; effected as far as Lough Neagh by the Newry Canal.

4. The Nore and Brosna, from New Ross to the Grand Canal; unaccomplished.

5. The Liffey and Greece, from Dublin to Carlow; partially effected by the Kildare branch of the Grand Canal.

6. The Blackwater, from Youghal to Newmarket; effected as far as Lismore.

7. The Foyle, Finn, Derg, and Mourne, from Derry to Omagh; effected to Strabane.

8. The Boyne, from Drogheda to the Grand Canal; the river made navigable to Navan.

9. The Suir, from Waterford to Thurles; a towing-path made to Clonmell.

10. The Lee, from Cork to Macroom; some locks made, but to no purpose.

11. The Erne, above Lough Erne; unattempted.

12. The Maig, from Limerick to Cork; unattempted.

13. A line from Sligo to Carrick-on-Shannon; unattempted.

14. A line through Lakes Corrib and Mask, from Galway to Killala; unattempted.

15.. The Slaney, from Wexford to Baltinglas; unattempted.

16. A line from Galway to the Shannon; unattempted.

17. The Inny, from Lough Shillin to the Shannon; unattempted.

18. The Suck, from Castlerea to the Shannon; unattempted.

19. The Bandon, from Kinsale to Dunmanway; uriat-tempted.

20. The Laune, from Newcastle to Castlemaine; unattempted.

After a lapse of fourteen years, it was found that works of such magnitude could not be carried into effect without public aid; a fund was therefore formed by parliament from taxes on wheel-carriages, cards, dice, and wrought plate. The amount of the income thence arising amounted in 1735 to L.3000 per annum, in 1740 to L.4000, and in 1750 to L6000. For nineteen years the whole fund was applied to the navigation from Newry to the Tyrone collieries. The committee for the improvement of tillage having reported that inland navigation was the most effectual means for its increase, the lines of the present Grand and Royal Canals were struck out, but the public money was applied solely to the former of these. In 1771 the board of inland navigation was empowered to transfer the property of any canal in progress to a local company which would subscribe towards its completion; and several additional grants of money were made in aid of such companies; but in 1789 it was found that the board had involved itself in debt to the amount of upwards of L.26,000, whereupon it was dissolved, the payment of debts secured by debentures, and the navigations transferred to local commissioners. In the same year parliament resolved to grant one third of the expense to any new undertaking of this kind; and from thence to the union many large grants were made on this principle. The two great canal companies, during the same period, were induced to undertake an expensive system of wet docks in Dublin, which greatly embarrassed their funds, without a prospect of adequate remuneration. At the union, L.500,000 were granted for inland navigation generally, and for some specific lines of works, to be under the control of a board. Since that period to 1812, L.213,000 were further granted to them. The principal objects of expenditure were the Grand and Royal Canals, the Shannon and the Barrow Rivers, the Newry and Tyrone Canals. The board has also, since 1810, caused several surveys to be made of lines between the Shannon, Barrow, Suir, and Grand Canal, and also towards Loughs Erne and Neagh. Various minor lines have likewise been pointed out, in consequence of the general survey of the bogs; so that it may truly be said, that a more perfect knowledge of the levels and waters of Ireland has been obtained than of any other country in the world except Holland.

To proceed to some of the details of the works that have been completed: The Grand Canal commences near the embouchure of the Liffey, where it has floating docks with sixteen feet depth of water, and capable of containing 400 sail of vessels, with three entrance-locks, and three graving-docks. It sweeps round thence by the southern verge of the city westward for eighty miles, to the Shannon at Banagher, with branches to the Barrow at Athy, and some minor ones. The summit-level is 240 feet above the level of the sea, and 160 above the Shannon. The commodities conveyed on it are flour, grain, potatoes, turf, coal, manure, brick, stone, flags, slates, and assorted merchandise. Its revenue in 1813 amounted to L.90,000, but since the peace it has diminished considerably. A branch of this canal was carried on westward of the Shannon to Ballinasloe in 1828, being a distance of fifteen and a half miles.

The Royal Canal extends from Dublin westward to the Shannon, nearly parallel to the Grand Canal, and for a long part of its course seldom more than ten miles distant from the latter. It begins on the north side of the Liffey, with which it communicates by a sea-lock, opening into a floatingdock capable of containing twenty-seven sail of shipping; and thence by the Broadstone, where there is a harbour, to Tarmonbarry in Longford; its total length being eighty-eight miles. The summit-level is 307 feet above the sea. The company by which this navigation was undertaken having become insolvent, it lapsed into the hands of government, by whom it has been completed and rendered available. The principal commodities conveyed by it are grain, meal, flour, butter, potatoes, turf, timber, bricks, and stone. In 1828, during a severe scarcity of potatoes in Leinster and the south of Ireland, whilst there was a superabundance in Connaught, 22,292 tons were brought to Dublin from the latter province by the Royal Canal, which greatly alleviated the distress of the poor in the other parts. The general tonnage on these two main canals has been as follows :—
[7:12:415]
[table]

Of the lesser artificial lines of inland navigation, the Newry Canal is the most important, and was the first completed. It is navigable from the tideway at Fathom, to Newry, for vessels of nine or ten feet draught; and thence to the Bann, where that river becomes navigable for barges of sixty tons. Its summit is sixty-five feet above the sea. The navigation is carried on in the Bann for twelve miles to Lough Neagh, which is navigable through an extent of fifteen miles by eleven. The Lower Bann, from Lough Neagh to the sea below Coleraine, is yet unnavigable, from obstructions in its course.

The Lagan navigation extends from the tideway at Belfast, partly in the river, partly artificially, to Lough Neagh, a distance of twenty miles. It is the only undertaking of the kind which has been maintained by local taxes, assessed upon the neighbouring districts at their own request.

The Tyrone Colliery Canal extends from Coal Island in Tyrone, four miles to the Blackwater, and thence by a short cut into Lough Neagh, which thus forms the receptacle for three branches of inland navigation. The communication from the colliery basin to the mines is by a wooden railway.

A new line of inland navigation, under the name of the Ulster Canal, is now in progress. Its object is to connect Loughs Neagh and Erne. The workings have been carried on from the former of these points to Tullybrick Lake in Armagh.

The river navigation, commencing from Dublin, may be summed up as follows: The Lift'ey is navigable merely to the western extremity of Dublin city, and that only from half flood. The Slaney is navigable for barges from Wexford to Enniscorthy, a distance of nineteen miles. On the southern side of the island, the Barrow has been rendered navigable from the tideway at the Scars, below St Mullins, to Athy, a distance of forty-three miles; the total fall is 172 feet. It is partly a river, partly a still water navigation. The Nore, a branch of the Barrow, is navigable for barges from New Ross to Thomastown. The Suir, another branch, admits vessels of the largest draft at Waterford, and thence is navigable for sloops to Carrick, and for barges to Clonmell. The southern Blackwater admits vessels or 300 tons over its bar, and sloops can proceed eight miles up the river to Dromore. A navigable canal has been cut by the Duke of Devonshire, from Cappoquin to Lismore, three miles. Three miles of canal were also made above Mallow. The Lee admits vessels of 200 tons as far up as the city of Cork, and barges a short distance farther. The Bandon is navigable from Kinsale to within three miles of Bandon. On the western coast, the Laune and Main in Kerry uniting, fall into the head of Dingle Bay. They admit sloops to Castlemaine. The noble river of the Shannon, which, if properly treated and cleared of its impediments, might be called the great aorta of Ireland, is navigable, but with frequent interruptions, from Limerick, for 230 miles. The Maig, one of its branches, admits boats as far as Adare; and the Fergus, which discharges itself into its estuary, has been rendered navigable for boats as far as Ennis. The Moy, in Mayo, admits small vessels from Killala to Ballina. The only navigable river on the northern coast is the Foyle; it is navigable by nature for nine miles to St Johnstown, and thence by the assistance of art for four miles farther to Strabane. Proceeding north about to the eastern coast, the only river to the north of Dublin is the Boyne, in which, by the attention paid to clear its channel, vessels of considerable burden can run up as far as Drogheda, four miles from its mouth. The navigation is continued thence for boats in the bed of the river to Slane, and beyond that by artificial means sixteen miles further, to Navan and Trim. The total ascent from the former to the latter of these places is 190 feet. The following table affords a summary view of the length of the chief lines of inland navigation, and of the expense at which they have been formed.
[table]
[7:12:416]

Besides these river navigations, and that of Lough Neagh already noticed, Lough Corrib is navigable from Galway for boats for nearly fifty miles. The chief trade is in turf, lime, and grain to Galway. The Erne becomes navigable at Belturbot, whence there is a navigation through the lakes, but obstructed at the gut of Enniskillen by weirs. The free passage from the lakes to the sea is prevented by the salmon weirs at Ballysliannon.

The only rail-road is that between Dublin and Kingstown, a distance of five miles and three quarters. It is formed on the model of that between Liverpool and Manchester. It was opened in 1834, and promises to be very productive, chiefly by the conveyance of passengers. Its shares are at a premium of upwards of a hundred per cent.

The cattle trade is chiefly transacted at fairs, of which by far the most important is held at Ballinasloe in Connaught. There are two annual fairs; that of October regulates the transactions as to live stock in black cattle and sheep for the ensuing year. The extent of dealings can be estimated by the subsequent tables. The sheep and heifers sent thither are from three to four years old, the bullocks from four to five. The latter are mostly lean, and are kept for a year on the rich pastures of Leinster before they are thought fit for the Dublin or Liverpool market. The decline in the number of cattle and sheep in the latter years, stated in the table, is attributed partly to the increase of tillage cultivation, caused by the great increase of the population, and the consequent continual subdivision of land, and partly to the increased demand for cattle and sheep in several other fairs.
[table]

The traffic in cattle slaughtered for exportation is transacted in the towns in which the trade is carried on, whither the animals are sent from great distances. The principal marts are Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Belfast. The corn sold is either purchased by factors or sent to the mills in the neighbourhood, where it is ground and disposed of for domestic consumption or for export. The extent and progress, both of the provision and corn trade, will best be ascertained in the tables of exports under a subsequent division of this article. The linen trade is carried on chiefly at the weekly markets held in the larger towns of the northern province, to which the manufacture is mostly confined.

The external trade of Ireland branches out into two great divisions, the cross-channel trade with Great Britain, and the commerce with foreign nations. The progress of domestic navigation will appear best from the first of the following tables, containing a summary, in periods of ten years each, of the number and tonnage of ships built in Ireland, and of the number and tonnage of those belonging to the several ports of Ireland; while the relative importance of each port, as respects its commercial character, will appear from the second, which contains a specification of the number of vessels registered in each of the ports of Ireland in each of the years specified.
[table]
[7:12:417]
[table]

The progress of the general navigation of Ireland with other countries may be inferred from the following table, which also affords a view of the outlets for Irish commerce at the periods specified. The official returns previously to the union do not state the number or tonnage of the vessels which cleared out from Ireland for foreign parts. What has been published is sufficient, however, to show the great preponderance of the trade with Great Britain over that with all the world besides. The accounts could not be stated according to any cycle of years, in consequence of a chasm in the official documents from 1806 to 1817.
[table]
[7:12:418]
[table]
[7:12:419]
[table]
[7:12:420]
[table]

Another view of this interesting illustration of the importance and value of the commercial ties which connect together these two great portions of the united kingdom, may be had from the following tables, the two first of which exhibit the number of vessels that entered and quitted the ports of Ireland during the period therein mentioned; the third shows the progressive increase of the interchange of the commodities of both islands by the cross-channel trade.
[7:12:421]
[table]
[table]

Average Amount of Imports and Exports between Great Britain and Ireland.

Imports Exports to into Ireland. Great Britain.

1749 to 1759, ten years L.1,θ15,305 L.1,274,569

1759 to 1769, ten years 1,367,573 1,719,575

1769 to 1779, ten years 1,823,183 2,405,747

1779 to 1789, ten years 2,286,562 2,710,039

Imports Exports to into Ireland. Great Britain.

1789 to 1799, ten years L.2,923,321 L.3,816,018

1799 to 1809, ten years 4,317,828 4,114,704

1809 to 1819, ten years 4,787,434 5,722,242

1819 to 1825, five years 5,046,389 6,450,803

The imports may be considered as almost wholly intended for home consumption, either as materials of ma nufacture, or for the immediate use of the people, as the quantities imported for re-exportation, though increasing [7:12:422]of late, bear a very small proportion to their total amount. The principal articles imported in a raw or unwrought state are, coal, iron, flax-seed, flax, hemp, ashes, cotton wool, timber, deals, staves, tallow, bark, and silk. The importation of these for every tenth year, until the termination of the official returns, will give a general idea of the quantities imported, and their increase or diminution.
[table]

The exports from Ireland are chiefly the agricultural produce of the country, with a few manufactured articles produced from them, without having undergone many processes of manipulation. The articles forming these exports, and the increase or decrease of value of each description sent into Great Britain after a lapse of ten years, terminating at the latest period of which official documents afford information, may be deduced from the following table :—

Species of Exports to Great Britain, and the value of each description, at two periods of Ten Years distance.

1815. 1821.

Bacon and hams L.378,161 L.519,049

Beef 148,452 126,714

Butter 463,130 621,245

Grain, meal, &c 683,557 1,700,963

Cotton goods 356,819

Cows and oxen 37,252 146,935

Flax, dressed and undressed 47,448 101,424

Hides 10,241 7,731

Horses 16,845 39,832

Lard 21,595 44,998

Linens 1,628,659 2,111,696

Paper 32,546

Pork 227,561 167,879

Sheep 16,236

Skins 25,162 9,090

Spirits, Irish 40,325 55,787

Swine 32,959

Wool 33,774 29,427

Yarn, cotton 20,980

linen 75,247 26,234 Other articles 264,786 376,018

L.4,167,597 6,544,575

Taking the article of linen from among those quoted in this table, to show the increasing ratio of the cross-channel trade, and its superiority over that with all the rest of the world besides, the following totals of the number of millions of yards exported to Great Britain and elsewhere will serve as a satisfactory illustration of the fact.

1801. 1805. 1809. 1815. 1817. 1821. 1825.

37 43 37 39 56 49 55

34 40 33 35 50 45 521

3 3 4 4 6 4 2ļ

The facilities for promoting this mutual intercourse, to which both countries owe so much, have been augmented to an extraordinary degree by the discovery of open-sea steam navigation. The earliest attempt at establishing a company for this purpose was made in Dublin about the year 1816. Two small vessels were fitted out; but the construction of their machinery was faulty, their dimensions were too small, and the effort proved abortive. Now, the trade, with the exception of that of coal, is chiefly carried on by means of steam.

Many of the principal features of the character of the people may be deduced from the preceding summary of their history, and of their present state. In appearance, the peasantry are of full size, strong, vigorous, athletic, healthy; capable of much labour, but averse from longcontinued exertion. In moral and intellectual qualities they are ardent in their affections, extreme in the indulgence of their passions both of love and hatred, easily roused, desperate and daring to excess when excited, but also quickly dispirited and deeply desponding under failure; vivacious, social, much attached to home, dreading expatriation more than death; addicted to rural sports and amusements; fond of music and song, and still more so of dancing; adhering with inviolable fidelity to their engagements to each other, but lax in their sentiments of moral obligation towards those whom they consider as their enemies; of quick, shrewd intellect, admirers of literature, and vain of their own acquirements in it. This general description, both of external and intellectual qualities, is varied by striking shades of difference in the different parts of the country. Derived from distinct aboriginal stocks, the inhabitants of each province, particularly those in the extreme and less-frequented districts of each, exhibit marked traits of their parentage, in person, physiognomy, customs, and language. In the north-eastern part of Ulster, the Scotch features, dialect, manners, and dispositions, are strikingly prevalent. In the south of Leinster the peasants still retain much of the old English language and customs. In Kerry, the Spanish descent is clearly to be traced in the personal appearance, the dress, and the style of building prevalent there. In Connaught and the north-west, the vestiges of the aboriginal Celt is still prominently conspicuous. The Irish language is spoken in all parts except in the Welsh colony in Wexford, and in that of the Scotch settlers in the east of Ulster, but with marked variations of dialect and tone in various parts. That of the mountainous districts of Donegal is said, by those deemed to be adepts in the study of national philology, to be the most pure. Few countries exhibit such a contrast in the architectural construction of the habitations of the higher and lower orders. The mansions of the nobility and great landed gentry are capacious, splendid, and fitted up with every appendage of rural luxury. Those of the middling classes, whose great ambition it is to imitate, and if possible to rival, the style of living of their superiors, are generally neat and elegant. The glebe-houses of the Protestant clergy exhibit every appearance of English comfort. The cottages of the peasantry are seldom more than huts of earth, covered with straw, with one or two windows. In the mountainous districts, where timber is scarce, they are miserable in the extreme. The clothing of the great body of the people [7:12:423]is home-madd’frize and linen. The former material is generally dyed with some peculiar tint that marks at sight the locality of the wearer. Latterly, cottons have superseded to a great extent the use of linen, particularly amongst the women. The uħiversal food is the potato, aided occasionally by bacon, and, in the maritime parts, by fish. Milk is the usual beverage. Indulgence in spirituous liquors has long been imputed to the Irish as a national vice. There is a very trite proverb throughout the country, that where there is smoke, there is fire. Even though true, it admits of the qualification, that where there is most smoke, there is often but little fire. A reference to facts and printed documents will show that the quantity of spirits consumed in Ireland, compared with that in the other divisions of the united kingdom, does not bear out the sweeping and prevalent charge of excessive inebriety. Parliamentary documents lately published furnish the following statement of the number of gallons of spirits of every kind that paid duty in each part of the united kingdom.
[table]

According to the data here afforded, the average consumption of spirits, compared with the population of each portion of the united kingdom, will be as follows:
[table]

So that England being the standard of unity, the excess of consumption is but one fourth in Ireland, whilst it rises to one and three fourths in Scotland. A deduction, however, must be made for the large quantity of spirits sent, by some strange anomaly in the. management of the excise, from Scotland, both into England and Ireland, notwithstanding the lower rate of duty here; for which, if due allowance be made, it is probable that the average consumption of ardent spirits will be found to be nearly equal throughout all parts of the united kingdom, and that the character of excess which still adheres to Ireland may be accounted for partly from prejudice, which is apt to cling pertinaciously to long-established and old opinions, and partly to the fact that the indulgence on the part of the lower classes is more public.

As far as drunkenness and crime are connected in the relation of cause and effect, the comparative view of convictions in Ireland shows that crimes of atrocity, which are most likely to be the result of passions excited by the excessive indulgence in spirituous liquors, are on the decline. The number of executions is considerably diminished since 1822, and of those which have taken place, many, if not most, were for murders connected with political circumstances. The following table exhibits a view of the criminal offences from 1822 to 1834 inclusive.
[table]
[7:12:424]

Other official documents for last year tend to show, as far as the number of places for vending spirits can exhibit it, that their sale is more general in England than in either Scotland or Ireland, whilst in the last-named portion of the kingdom the consumption of beer is evidently on the increase. Of the following summaries the former gives the number of retail spirit-licenses issued last year, the latter the quantity of malt used by brewers.

England. Scotland. Ireland. “Total.

1. 47,312 16,278 18,416 82,006

2. 15,837,409 997,771 2,055,326 10,890,50G

The following table of the consumption of articles of foreign luxury may serve as a criterion of the progress of refinement throughout the country. In drawing conclusions from it, the increase of the population at each period here stated should be kept in mind.
[table]

The statement of savings’ banks already given may also serve as another element of calculation in forming the same estimate. Friendly societies, so largely spread over England, and protected there by several statutory enactments, seem to have taken but little root in Ireland. The following return shows the number of these societies, whose regulations are filed with the clerks of the peace, according to the law, from 1792 to 1832, a period of forty years, viz. England, 17,365; Scotland, 2144; Ireland, 274.

The efforts to improve the state of the people by religious and literary instruction have been numerous and extended. For some centuries after the settlement of the English, these efforts were, however, conducted on a principle as unjust as impolitic. All attempts at bettering the condition of the people were limited to the English settlers or the inhabitants of the pale, those of the rest of the island being treated as enemies. To such a height was the distinction carried, that whilst the murder of an Englishman was death, that of a native was suffered to go unpunished, provided it could be proved that he was mere Irish, and not one of the five bloods of the O’Neills, O’Melaghlins, O’Connors, O’Briens, and M‘Murroughs, who were admitted by special favour to the privileges of English subjects. It was not till the reign of James I. that the whole of the island was allowed to participate in the protection afforded by English law.

The machinery used for diffusing religious instruction has already been developed in the account of the ecclesiastical state of the country. That of the literary instruction remains to be stated. It may be arranged under three heads; collegiate institutions for the higher departments of science and literature; academies and schools for rudimental instruction in the same studies; and primary schools for affording the first elements of knowledge to the great mass of the population.

The first, attempt at founding an university after the arrival of the English was made by John Leck, archbishop· of Dublin, who obtained a papal bull for the purpose in 1311, which was carried into effect in 1320 by Alexander Bicknor, his successor. The disturbed state of the country prevented its success. Little more is known of it than that, after lingering through an existence of some time, it died away. Another similar attempt was made, with similar success, at Drogheda, where an university was founded by act of parliament in 1465, with the same privileges as that of Oxford. The next attempt was more happy. In 1593 the university of Trinity College, Dublin, was opened in the buildings of the dissolved monastery of All-Hallows. It still continues to be the sole uni versity in Ireland. Another was opened by James II.; but after his flight it was handed over to Trinity College, and soon afterwards finally closed. The celebrated Henry Flood left a bequest for the endowment of a college after his death; but the legacy lapsed, from a neglect of apply ing it within the proper time. In 1810 the inhabitants of Belfast opened a collegiate institution for scientific and literary instruction by private subscription. It has been sanctioned by act of parliament, and receives a liberal grant of public money; but as it has not been privileged to grant degrees, it cannot be ranked as a university.

With respect to the second class of places of public education, an act of Elizabeth required that a grammarschool should be maintained in every diocese, by the contributions of the bishop and beneficed clergy. James I. improved on the idea, by vesting large tracts of forfeited lands for the maintenance of similar schools. His example was followed by Charles I. Erasmus Smith, also, one of the adventurers who obtained large tracts of land during the time of Cromwell, applied some of his property to this purpose. Classical schools were also endowed by other private individuals. The schools of royal foundation were those of Armagh, Dungannon, Enniskillen, Raphoe, Cavan, Banagher, and Carysfort. Those of Erasmus Smith’s, and other private foundations, were, Drogheda, Galway, Tipperary, Ennis, Navan, and Ballyroan. The diocesan schools never exceeded seventeen out of the twenty-two dioceses.

The primary schools owe their foundation to an act of Henry VIII., which bound every incumbent of a parish by oath to maintain a school therein to teach the English language. The bond was neglected by many, and observed with culpable laxity by most others. The statute having fixed upon forty shillings as the minimum of the teacher’s salary at the time of its 1⅜actment, the incumbent, regardless of the great subsequent depression of the value of money, deemed his duty to be fulfilled and his conscience cleared by paying that annual stipend to his parish-clerk, or some other person who professed to teach in the parish. Soon [7:12:425]after the revolution, a project was started and eagerly followed up by the established clergy, of founding schools, in which the children of the poor should be instructed in the rudiments of literature, as well as in useful works, and also maintained at the public expense. To these laudable objects was also added that of converting them to the Protestant doctrine. These schools being incorporated by act of parliament, received the name of charter-schools. They were long a favourite object of interest to the legislature, which annually voted large sums for their support, in addition to those procured by donation or bequest. Notwithstanding several essays on general education were subsequently written, and the subject brought before parliament at different times, nothing further was practically attempted till 1819, when a voluntary society was formed in Dublin, for the avowed purpose of instructing the poor, without interfering with their religious opinions. The society was at first generally supported; and being aided by liberal grants of public money, promised fair to achieve its professed object. But a stipulation introduced into its regulations shortly after its commencement, requiring the Bible to be used as a school-book, aroused the suspicions of the Roman Catholic clergy, who excited such a distaste to it throughout the country, that it was found expedient to withdraw the grant, and to transfer the management to another body. The important duty of providing literary instruction to the great body of the people is now delegated to a board, consisting of the two archbishops of Dublin, the moderator of the synod of Ulster, and a few other commissioners nominated by the crown. The main feature of difference between this board and the society it superseded, generally called the Kildare Place Society, from the site of its offices and model school, is, that' instead of insisting on the Bible being used as a school-book in all cases, selections from it are employed for the purpose of general education, and a portion of every week set apart, in which the clergy of each religious persuasion may instruct the pupils of their own flock in the peculiar tenets of their doctrines. The board has been too short a time in existence to form a decisive opinion as to its probable results. Its views are sufficiently extensive. It proposes to establish five professorships in the training institution: 1. Of the art of teaching and conducting schools; 2. of composition, English literature, history, geography, and political economy; 3. of natural history in all its branches; 4. of mathematics and mathematical science; 5. of mental philosophy, including the elements of logic and rhetoric. Every candidate for the charge of a school is to study at least two years in this department, so as to receive instruction in all the departments of knowledge there taught. It is also proposed to establish a model-school for each county, in which all candidates for admission into the central training establishment should undergo a preparatory process of instruction. The annual salaries of teachers of primary schools is estimated at L.25, with a gratuity of L.5 dependent on good conduct; and that of a teacher in the model schools at L.100, with two assistants at L.50 each.

The population of Ireland being estimated at 8,000,000, of which about one seventh, or 1,140,000, are between the ages of seven and thirteen, and as one half of that number would require the aid of the national system of education, there should be 5000 schools, of an average of 100 pupils each, established. Supposing this number to be completed in nine years, during which the expenses would fluctuate according to the number of schools erected each year, it is estimated that the system could be carried on permanently at an annual expenditure of about L.200,000. The amount is very great, yet probably not more than the magnitude and importance of the undertaking requires. The following table contains a statement of it, formed from the latest official document presented to parliament, and containing also an account of the sums already expended in carrying the plan into effect, during the three years since the issuing of the commission.
[table]

Since the commencement of the present century, four parliamentary inquiries have been instituted relative to this great national subject. The first, which commenced in 1810, published fourteen reports, containing a copious, accurate, and well-digested view of the then state of public education in Ireland, which presented a very discourag- ln g detail of negligence and abuse among those to whom the care of the funds granted for education had been intrusted. The summary of it furnishes the following statement of the number of endowed schools and pupils, and the expense of their education:

β , 1 Annual No. of Average Cost

Schools. income. Pupils. of each.

Classical L.9,000 1000 L.9

English 70,000 4200 19

in which latter average the maintenance of the pupils is [7:12:426]included in many cases. The total number of pupils in seventeen dioceses out of twenty-two, from which only returns could be obtained, was 3736 schools, containing 162,467 pupils, of whom 45,490 were Protestants and 116,977 Catholics; whence the commissioners inferred that the total numbers of schools and pupils in Ireland were 4600 and 200,000. The second parliamentary inquiry was made during the progress of taking the census in 1821, in which the enumerators were required to report the number of pupils in each school. The result not being a primary object of inquiry, cannot be considered as strictly accurate. In 1824 another parliamentary commission was issued, which published a very minute statement of all the important particulars relative to the numbers, religious persuasions, and localities of the teachers and pupils, and paved the way for the formation of the board of national education, already noticed. The reports of this board form the fourth official statement on the subject. The three last-named sources supply the following summary of the state of education at the periods stated in them, throughout the four provinces of Ireland:
[table]

In a general view of the country, the antiquities cannot be wholly passed unnoticed, although, to do justice to the subject, a much larger scope would be required than the limits here prescribed will permit. They may be classed in two great divisions, Pagan and Christian. Of the former, the round or pillar towers are the most striking and unique. They are tall, narrow, circular buildings, generally from forty to fifty feet in exterior circumference at their base, rising to a height of upwards of a hundred feet, topped, when perfect, with a conical roof, having the entrance several feet above the level of the surrounding country, some of them with projections for four or five tiers of floors, and with four small windows near the summit, generally opposite to the cardinal points. The sites of upwards of ninety of them have been discovered. Their origin and purpose are wrapt in equal uncertainty. That they were anterior to any other erections of stone in the country is now generally admitted; and the opinion that they were somehow connected with the ceremonies of fire-worship is gaining ground. Altars, commonly called Brehon’s chairs, circular enclosures of huge pillar stones, rocking stones, cromleachs, and cairns, are to be found in several places; Danish raths or moats everywhere. Among the more anomalous antiquities of this class, a building, called by Vallancey a ship temple, near Dundalk, a subterraneous, cruciform cavern at New Grange, and a singular circular building in Kerry, formed of stone without mortar, of the appearance of an amphitheatre, are the most singular. Weapons and implements of mixed metal, and ornaments of pure gold, found in bogs, may be referred to the same period.

The Christian antiquities may be classed into ecclesiastical, military, and civil. The first comprehend the monasteries, churches, chapels, and cells, of which some are large and of an imposing appearance, though none worthy of comparison in these respects with similar buildings in England or on the Continent, while others are of very limited dimensions and inartificial structure. Of the castles, some retain traces of great feudal grandeur; but the greater number are merely square forts, erected for the reception of a small detachment adequate to guard a pass, or keep a surrounding sept under control. The buildings of a character purely civil are confined to corporate towns.

A retrospect of the preceding concise summaries of Irish history and statistics may serve to show, that though much has been done towards the full development of the capabilities of the country, so as to enable it to contribute its full share to the maintenance, and derive its adequate portion of advantage from the prosperity, of the empire of which it forms so important a part, much still remains to be effected. During the period that has elapsed since the revolution in 1688, a revolution still more pregnant in consequences to Ireland than either to England or Scotland, a variety of tranquillizing remedies have been applied to heal the evils of centuries of turbulence and discord, each of which was in turn deemed a panacea of power to eradicate every grievance. Shortly after that period, education, on principles exclusively Protestant, was expected to secure not only the allegiance, but the conversion, of the great body of the people. Agricultural improvement was then recommended. A closer connection with the other portion of the empire was afterwards suggested. Reform was called for, and now a very prevalent longing indicates itself among the great body of the people for the restitution of its domestic legislature. Education has been tried repeatedly, and in various forms, on a scale of liberal, if not lavish expenditure. Agriculture has extended itself into every part. Religious distinctions have been done away with. Reform has been procured. Yet still a country, endowed beyond most others, through its natural resources, with capabilities for the attainment of wealth, prosperity, and happiness, continues in a state of comparative destitution as regards the means of subsistence, and of degradation as respects the intellectual character of the great mass of its population. A contemplation of this fact has led some to the conclusion that there is something anomalous in the Irish character which prevents the means of melioration, effective elsewhere, from acting beneficially upon it. Such a conclusion would be as disheartening to the philanthropist, who aims at the improvement of the people, as degrading to the nation that merited the imputation. Before it be irrevocably formed, one experiment more should be added to those already tried, founded on the principle that Irishmen are moulded of the same material as the rest of mankind,—the application of a steady, well-devised system of cheap government, and even-handed justice.
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