of much mischief. They adopted Irish manners, and were disloyal to their sovereign. Their feuds were as incessant and disastrous as those of the Irish Septs had been, and their despotism over the miserable inhabitants of the Pale' was most intolerable. The wretched descendants of the first settlers felt that English order, so called, was much worse than Irish misrule, and the border of the Pale' retreated steadily towards Dublin. For nearly four centuries the English had established a more miserable state of things than that which they had displaced.

Until Henry VIII. it was but a partial and nominal lordship which the sovereigns of England had over Ireland. Henry saw that a different policy must be pursued-that he must either govern Ireland or let it alone. From the first hour of his accession the Irish felt the heavy hand of a master. With his new Lord-Deputy the King sent a train of artillery, which speedily worked a startling change in the political aspect of the country. The castles, which had been the strongholds of rebellion for ages, were battered into ruins, and the rebel forces driven into the bogs and forests. All Ireland began to stand in fear and submission; and the power of the Crown, which had been limited almost to the walls of Dublin, was acknowledged throughout the country, and Henry received the title of King of Ireland.' With a high hand he endeavoured to set up English law and customs, and to put down those of a Celtic character, though he was conciliatory towards the native princes. His most fatal blunder was his assumption of 'Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland.' This he did in a spirit of antagonism to Rome, and the effect was to plunge Ireland into a religious strife, the consequences of which were hardly a less evil than those of the civil strife which his policy had, to a great extent, brought to an end.

6

During the reign of Edward VI. great efforts were made to establish Protestantism in Ireland, but without success. The Irish did not want the abolition of pilgrimages, the destruction of images, and the reform of public worship; but clung passionately to the ancient forms of faith and the traditions of their fathers. The little that was accomplished quickly melted away when bloody Mary' came to the throne, the mass was restored, all the old modes of worship were set up again, and all religious dissension between the Government and the Irish subjects discontinued.

The days of Elizabeth brought fresh trouble to the land of St. Patrick. That kingdom was fixed upon by the Catholic powers of the Continent as the ground on which they could best fight out their

quarrel with the great heretic Queen. A rebellion of a very formidable kind was instigated, which it took years of conflict and almost rivers of blood to bring to an end. It was headed by the Earl of Tyrone, who, in the first engagement, defeated the English and left the general and 1,500 of the soldiers dead upon the field. This victory, so unusual to the Irish, fired their courage, secured them arms and ammunition, and increased confidence in their leader. The Earl of Essex, with an army of 18,000 men, was sent to quell the outbreak, but suffered a tremendous defeat, and had to make treaty with the Irish general. For this and other blunders Essex lost his head on the block. It took his successor, Mountjoy, several years to subdue the revolt in the isle

of the saints.

After the death of Elizabeth a great revolutionary measure was carried, known as the colonisation of Ulster. Two-thirds of the North of Ireland was declared to have been forfeited to the Crown owing to the part its possessors had taken in the revolt; and the lands thus gained were allotted to new settlers of Scotch and English extraction. In its material results this policy of spoliation proved to be a success. The foundations of that prosperity which has raised Ulster so much above the rest of Ireland in intelligence and wealth were laid in the confiscations of 1610. This seemed to be the crowning act in the conquest of the country, commenced 400 years before by Strongbow, and now completed by Mountjoy. Scarcely had James I. ascended the throne when the last O'Donnell and O'Neil, who had held the rank of independent princes, kissed his hand at Whitehall; and henceforth his writs ran and his judges held assizes in every part of the land.

The reign of Charles I. witnessed, perhaps, the most fearful rebellion and atrocities ever known in the Emerald Isle. A person called Roger Moore, much celebrated among his countrymen for valour and capacity, formed the project of expelling the English, and engaged all the heads of the native Irish in the conspiracy, especially Sir Phelim O'Neil and Lord Maguire. The commencement of the revolt was planned for the approach of winter, that there might be more difficulty in transporting forces from England. The Irish, everywhere intermingled with the English, needed but a hint from their leaders and priests to begin hostilities against a people whom they hated on account of their religion, and envied for their riches and prosperity. The houses, cattle, and goods of the unwary English were first seized. After rapacity had fully satiated itself a universal massacre commenced. No age, sex, or condition was spared. Death was the slightest punishment inflicted by the rebels. All the tortures which wanton cruelty could devise, all

the lingering pains of body, the anguish of mind, the agonies of despair could not satisfy the revenge of the Irish. Amidst all these enormities the sacred name of religion resounded on every side. The English, considered as heretics abhorred of God, and detestable to all holy men, were marked out by the priests for slaughter; and, of all actions, to rid the world of these declared enemies to the Catholic faith was represented as the most meritorious. The English colonies of Ulster were totally annihilated, and the flames spread over all the other three provinces. Even where the Catholics professed to exercise moderation they expelled the Protestants from their houses, despoiled them of their goods, wasted their cultivated fields, stripped them of their very clothes, and turned them out naked and defenceless to all the severities of the season. The heavens themselves, as if conspiring against the unhappy people, were armed with cold and tempest unusual to the climate, and executed what the merciless sword had left unfinished. It is believed that few, if any, short of 200,000 persons perished in this terrible outbreak.

Most severely was this fiendish rebellion revenged by Cromwell. On landing in Ireland with an army of 12,000 men and a formidable train of artillery, he said, 'We are come to ask an account of the innocent blood that hath been shed, and to endeavour to bring to an account all who, by appearing in arms, shall justify the same.' His first blow was decisive and characteristic of the man. He proceeded at once to storm Drogheda. The first and second assaults were repulsed, but in the third, led by himself, the garrison fell, and all that remained in it were put to the sword, and also all in the town that were found in arms; and that fearful night more than 2,000 were slain. Several other garrisoned towns shared a similar fate. At length cities began to open their gates to him without resistance. The storming of Clonmels, where the remains of the rebel forces had concentrated, and the overthrow of the Irish army under Hugh O'Neil, closed Cromwell's campaign in Ireland. Cromwell has been much censured for inflicting such a heavy vengeance on the Irish, which is called the one dark spot on his life. We cannot rightly judge of it without knowing all the circumstances of the case, and especially keeping in view the massacre of the Protestants which had taken place just before. It was not for a love of cruelty, but to strike terror into the hearts of those who had delighted in cruelty, and, to use his own words, to prevent the effusion of blood in future,' that he proceeded with such relentless severity. To him the most energetic way seemed to be the most merciful. He made war on the Irish,' remarks Macaulay, 'as the Hebrews made war on the

Canaanites. Drogheda was as Jericho, and Wexford as Ai. To the remains of the old population the conqueror granted a peace such as that which Israel granted to the Gibeonites. He made them hewers

of wood and drawers of water. In a few months Cromwell subjugated Ireland as Ireland had never been subjugated during the five centuries of slaughter which had elapsed since the landing of the first Norman settlers. He resolved to put a stop to the conflict of races and religions which had so long distressed the island.' Strange to say, under this iron rule the country began to wear such a face of prosperity as it had never done before. Wild and barren districts were transformed into fruitful farms, new buildings, roads, and plantations appeared, the rent of estates rose fast, manufactories were established, and soon the English landowners and tradesmen began to complain that every market was stocked by products from Ireland, and to clamour for protecting laws.

Unfortunately, Charles II. nowhere showed his weakness more than in the policy he pursued in Ireland. It was a pusilanimous policy, which, instead of satisfying either party, vexed and irritated both. While many of the English and the Scotch had their property taken from them, but few of the Catholics had it restored to them. More than 3,000 who had taken no part in the rebellion were cut off from any hope of recovering their lands. With the confiscated territories Charles had many favourites to gratify, and not a few of their descendants are now quaking before the terrible deeds of the Land League. We see the sins of the fathers visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation.'

It is lamentable to think how Ireland was again distracted and almost desolated by being made the battle ground between James II. and William of Orange. It was James' refuge when neither England nor Scotland would longer entertain him. To fortify himself, as he supposed, in the sister isle, he set Catholic Mayors, Sheriffs, Aldermen, Councillors, Judges, Justices of the Peace, and other officers over every city and county. Such startling changes in places of power were effected, that the fear of another massacre seized the Protestants, who drew together at Londonderry and Enniskillen. With a force of 25,000 men James attacked the former place. The defenders, chiefly English and Scotch, were comparatively few, and the fortifications weak, yet courage and desperation made up for the weakness of numbers and of fortress. The siege had to be razed and turned to a blockade. Many died of hunger and fever; yet no cry of surrender was heard. For 105 days the brave men held out until they were

relieved by the passage of the river being forced. James was defeated, and several thousands of his men slain. He had no better success at Enniskillen. After being repulsed, many of the Irish soldiers were forced into Loch Erne and drowned. At length William landed in Ireland, and stamped out James' power in that kingdom by the celebrated battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690, the anniversary of which is kept up with so much enthusiasm by the Orangemen, but only remembered with regret and revenge by the Catholics.

Wars, revolutions, and
The native population

A dead quiet now settled upon Ireland. massacres had fairly worn the country out. was tranquil with the ghastly tranquillity of exhaustion and despair. There were, indeed, occasional outrages, robberies, fire-raisings, assassinations; but more than a century passed away without one general insurrection. Though two rebellions in the time were raised in England by the adherents of the House of Stuart, yet they had no effect beyond St. George's Channel. The iron had entered into the soul. The memory of past defeats, the habit of daily enduring insult and oppression, had cowed the spirit of the unhappy nation. Irish Roman Catholics of ability, energy, and ambition were to be found anywhere except in Ireland, at Versailles, and at Saint Ildefonso, in the armies of Frederic, and in the armies of Maria Theresa. One exile became a Marshal of France; another Prime Minister of Spain, and in his palace at Madrid had the pleasure of being assiduously courted by the ambassadors of George II., and of bidding defiance in high terms to the ambassadors of George III. Scattered all over Europe were to be found brave Irish generals, dexterous Irish diplomatists, Irish counts, Irish barons, and Irish knights, who, if they had remained in the house of bondage, could not have been anything in any petty corporation. The natural chiefs of their race, by oppression and persecution, being expelled, the country was left utterly helpless and passive. The Catholic population especially were in a deplorable condition.

In 1782, taking advantage of the difficulty we were in with the war in America, and with Spain, which was demanding the surrender of Gibraltar, a strong force was organised in Ireland to declare and, if necessary, fight for the independence of the kingdom. It was occasioned by many stringent measures of the English Parliament to annihilate the commerce and ruin the agriculture of Ireland. The jealousy of the English landowners caused statutes to be passed forbidding the export of Irish cattle to English ports. The export of wool was disallowed, lest it should interfere with the profits of English wool-growers. Green says, Poverty was thus added to the curse of