CHAP. of Bacon, seemed to promise Ireland some alleviation IV. of its woes; for the pale was broken down; and when 763. the king, after a long interval, convened a parliament, it stood for the whole island. But in the first place, the law tolerated only the Protestant worship; and when colonies were planted on lands of six counties in Ulster escheated to the crown, the planters were chief ly Presbyterians from Scotland, than whom none more deeply hated the Catholic religion. And next the war of chicane succeeded to the war of arms and hostile statutes. Ecclesiastical courts wronged conscience; soldiers practised extortions; the civil courts took away lands. Instead of adventurers despoiling the old inhabitants by the sword, there came up discoverers, who made a scandalous traffic of pleading the king's title against the possessors of estates to force them to grievous compositions, or to effect the total extinction of the interests of the natives in their own soil.2 1 This species of subtle ravage, continued with systematic iniquity in the next reign, and carried to the last excess of perfidy, oppression and insolence, inspired a dread of extirpation, and kindled the flames of the rising of 1641. To suppress this rebellion, when it had assumed the form of organized resistance, large forfeitures of lands were promised to those who should aid in reducing the island. The Catholics had successively against them, the party of the king, the Puritan parliament of England, the Scotch Presbyterians among themselves, the fierce, relentless energy of Cromwell, a unanimity of 1 Lelands's History of Ireland. 2 Edmund Burke to Sir Hercules Langrishe. 3 Jan. 1792. IV. hatred, quickened by religious bigotry; greediness CHAP. after confiscated estates, and the pride of power in the Protestant interest. Modern History has no parallel1 1763. for the sufferings of the Irish nation from 1641 to 1660. At the restoration of Charles II. a declaration of settlement confirmed even the escheats of land, decreed by the republican party for the loyalty of their owners to the crown. It is the opinion of an English historian, that "upon the whole result the Irish Catholics, having previously held about two-thirds of the kingdom, lost more than one-half of their possessions by forfeitures on account of their rebellion. * * * They were diminished also by much more than one-third through the calamities of that period." Even the favor of James II. wrought the Catholic Irish nothing but evil, for they shared his defeat; and after their vain attempt to make of Ireland his independent place of refuge, and a gallant resistance, extending through a war of three years, the Irish at Limerick capitulated to the new dynasty, obtaining the royal promise of security of worship to the Roman Catholics, and the continued possession of their estates, free from all outlawries or forfeitures. Of these articles, the first was totally disregarded; the second was evaded. New forfeitures followed to the extent of more than a million of acres; and at the close of the seventeenth century, the native Irish, with the AngloIrish Catholics, possessed not more than a seventh of their own island. The maxims on which the government of Ireland 1 Clarendon. Hallam: "The sufferings of that nation, from the outset of the rebellion to its close, have never been surpassed but by those of the Jews in their destruc- 2 Hallam's Constitutional History, 1763. CHAP. was administered by Protestant England after the reIV. volution of 1688, brought about the relations by which that country and our own reciprocally affected each other's destiny: Ireland assisting to people America, and America to redeem Ireland. The inhabitants of Ireland were four parts1 in five, certainly more than two parts in three,2 Roman Catholics. Religion established three separate nationalities; the Anglican Churchmen, constituting nearly a tenth of the population; the Presbyterians, chiefly ScotchIrish; and the Catholic population, which was a mixture of the old Celtic race, the untraceable remains of the few Danish settlers, and the Normans and first colonies of the English. In settling the government, England intrusted it exclusively to those of "the English colony," who were members of its own church; so that the little minority ruled the island. To facilitate this, new boroughs were created; and wretched tenants, where not disfranchised, were so coerced in their votes at elections, that two-thirds of the Irish House of Commons were the nominees of the large Protestant proprietors of the land. In addition to this, an act of the English parliament. rehearsed the dangers to be apprehended from the presence of popish recusants in the Irish parliament, and Boulter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, i. 210: "There are, probably, in this kingdom five Papists to at least one Protestant." Durand to Choiseul, 30 July, 1767. Angleterre T. 474, la proportion est au moins de quatre centre un." So Arthur Young: "500,000 Protestants, two million Catholics." Tour in Ireland, ii. 33. one. Burke says, more than two to 3 "The people, saving a few Brit ish planters here and there, which were not a tenth part of the remnant, obstinate recusants." Bedell to Laud, in Burnet's Bedell. The civil wars changed the proportion. IV. 1763. required of every member the new oaths of allegiance CHAP. and supremacy and the declaration against transubstantiation.1 But not only were Roman Catholics excluded from seats in both branches of the legislature; a series of enactments, the fruit of relentless perseve-. rance, gradually excluded "papists" from having any votes in the election of members to serve in parlia ment.2 4 The Catholic Irish, being disfranchised, one enactment pursued them after another till they suffered under a universal, unmitigated, indispensable, exceptionless disqualification. In the courts of law, they could not gain a place on the bench, nor act as a barrister, or attorney, or solicitor, nor be employed even as a hired clerk, nor sit on a grand jury, nor serve as a sheriff or a justice of the peace, nor hold even the lowest civil office of trust and profit, nor have any privilege in a town corporate, nor be a freeman of such corporation, nor vote at a vestry. If papists would trade and work, they must do it even in their native towns as aliens. They were expressly forbidden to take more than two apprentices in whatever employment, except in the linen manufacture only. A Catholic might not marry a Protestant—the priest who should celebrate such a marriage was to be hanged; nor be a guardian to any child, nor educate his own child, if the mother declared herself a Protest 3 William and Mary, c. ii. An act for the abrogating the oath of supremacy in Ireland, and appointing other oaths. Plowden's Historical Review, i. 197. 27 and 9 William III. "It was resolved, nemine contradicente, that the excluding of papists from having votes for the electing of men bers to serve in parliament, was ne- 3 Edmund Burke. 5 7 and 9 William III. and 2 Anne. CHAP. ant; or even if his own child, however young, should profess to be a Protestant. IV. 1763. None but those who conformed to the established church were admitted to study at the universities, nor could degrees be obtained but by those who had taken all the tests, oaths, and declarations. No Protestant in Ireland might instruct a papist.1 Papists could not supply their want by academies and schools of their own;2 for a Catholic to teach, even in a private family or as usher to a Protestant, was a felony, punishable by imprisonment, exile, or death. Thus "papists" were excluded from all opportunity of education at home, except by stealth and in violation of law. It might be thought that schools abroad were open to them; but, by a statute of King William, to be educated in any foreign Catholic school was an "unalterable and perpetual outlawry." The child sent abroad for education, no matter of how tender an age, or himself how innocent, could never after sue in law or equity, or be guardian, executor, or administrator, or receive any legacy or deed of gift; he forfeited all his goods and chattels, and forfeited for his life all his lands. Whoever sent him abroad, or maintained him there, or assisted him with money or otherwise, incurred the same liabilities and penalties. The crown divided the forfeiture with the informer; and when a person was proved to have sent abroad a bill of exchange or money, on him rested the burden of proving that the remittance was innocent, and he must do so before justices without the benefit of a jury. 17 William III. 2 8 Anne. 4 Edmund Burke. 5 Edmund Burke's Fragment of 3 4 William and Mary, c. iv. Act a Tract on the Popery Laws. to restrain foreign education. |