their portion of lands, complained, that in many instances, they had been scandalously defrauded. The revival of obsolete claims of the crown, harassing of proprietors by fictions of law, dispossessing them by fraud and circumvention, and all the various artifices of interested agents and ministers, were naturally irritating; and the public discontents must have been further inflamed by the insincerity of Charles, in evading the confirmation of (what he called) his graces; the insolence of Strafford in openly refusing it; together with the nature and manner of his proceedings against the proprietors of Connaught. *

Though the people of Ireland were completely subdued by the powerful arm of William, these prejudices and prepossessions remained: and though it is to be presumed that, in general, justice has been more impartially administered since the reign of this wise prince, yet, it is certain, that various circumstances, even since this auspicious æra, have obstructed the progress of that order, security, and civility, which are the result of equal laws. Some of these I have noticed elsewhere; † and shall now take leave

* Vide Leland, v. iii. p. 88.

+ Vide Chap. On the progress of the Reformation.

of this subject by observing that in the island of Tory, in the county of Donegal, the inhabitants are still unacquainted with any other law than that of the Brehon code. They choose their chief magistrate from among themselves;

and to his mandate, issued from his throne of turf, the people yield a cheerful and ready obedience. They are perfectly simple in their manners, and live as their fathers had done three centuries ago.

CHAP. IX.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED THE PENAL

CODE.

THOUGH in the foregoing chapters enough has been said to account for the slow progress of the reformation in Ireland, it may be proper to resume the consideration of the same subject as it regards the long period that has elapsed between the treaty of Limerick and the Union. This period of Irish history, which affords so many instructive examples of the ignorance and folly of man, and of the baneful consequences of bigotry and intolerance, merits a much closer and more extended investigation than the limits of this essay will admit.

The Roman Catholics of Ireland have often been accused by their protestant brethren of the most atrocious cruelty, of an inveterate rancour and malignity, of a sanguinary and treacherous disposition. During the reign of Charles the First, indeed, the leaders of the popular party found it expedient to publish such charges under every 'degree of aggravation, for the purpose of exciting the fury of the multitude against the measures of the king,

A

and facilitating the accomplishment of their own designs. Nor were these patriots at all sorry when they were informed that a formidable rebellion, chiefly among the catholics, actually existed in Ireland, since by this means the royal army was divided, the prejudices of the people were confirmed, a good opportunity presented itself for declaiming against the adherents of popery, and penal laws might be framed and executed with increasing severity. It is easy to assign reasons for their hostility to popery, independent of those just grounds of complaint which were common to all protestants. But the hatred which has subsisted between the catholics and protestants of Ireland, has been so malignant, so long continued, and so destructive in its consequences, as to render a minute investigation into its origin highly instructive.

Under the reign of Elizabeth, both native Irish and Anglo-Hibernians were engaged in rebellion; O'Neal and Tyrone in the north, and Desmond in the south; not so much on account of religion, as from restless ambition. This rebellion ended with the forfeiture of vast districts in Ulster and Munster; the former of which were given by James the First to a colony from Scotland, and the latter chiefly to Englishmen. These colonies of course were protestant. The dispossessed natives were ca

tholics; and thus was laid a lasting ground of jealousy and resentment.-The second me. morable Irish rebellion began 'under the reign of Charles the First. This war seems to have been chiefly carried on from religious views: the horrid massacre of the protestants with which it commenced seems to support this idea. It was brought to a termination with a most signal vengeance on those engaged in it, by the conquering arms of Cromwell. This occasioned other forfeitures to an immense extent. The mutual antipathies of protestants and catholics were now increased beyond all bounds. The cruelties which had been committed by both parties, enkindled desires of mutual revenge: the poor catholic, who had been instigated to rebellion by Spanish and Italian priests, by grievous oppression, by seeing the lands of his fathers in the possession of strangers; who had witnessed the massacres of the usurper, or the desolations which followed the bloody footsteps of his generals; while he laid down his arms at the command of the victor, retired in silence and in sorrow to his cabin, with feelings of implacable hostility, with an earnest prayer that Heaven might avenge his wrongs; the protestant, on the other hand, who had seen some of the atrocities committed by the

* It is generally supposed that there were about 40,000 massacred on this occasion.