UNIVERJ 
 
 AT
 
 AN 
 
 IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 IRELAND, 
 
 FROM THE PERIOD OF THE ENGLISH 
 INVASION TO THE YEAR 1810. 
 
 FROM AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. 
 
 r> j? ? 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 PRINTED Blf J. CHRISTIE, 16, ROSS-LANE, 
 
 1809.
 
 9|o 
 T J / 
 \/, I 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THOUGH the ancient History of Ireland, as 
 comprising the period of her glory and indepen- 
 dence, may be generally more flattering to the 
 feelings of Irishmen, yet the period since the 
 English invasion is more interesting and instruc- 
 tive to the mixed race who' now inhabit this 
 island. The turbulence, the almost constant 
 >vars, the perpetual struggle between the inva- 
 ders and the invaded, the one contending for 
 power, the other for independence and property ; 
 the massacres, confiscations, famine, and other 
 cruel methods resorted to, are distressing to a 
 feeling mind: but, narrated with impartiality 
 and judgment, it will afford a most instructive 
 lesson to statesmen and to people; teaching the 
 remedy of present ills from the experience of the 
 past ages. Governors may therein learn the im- 
 policy and weakness of the former system of 
 ruling Ireland, acknowledged by her ablest 
 statesmen when debating on the Union; and the 
 people may learn to mitigate the asperity of re- 
 ligious prejudice, on seeing that English and
 
 IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Anglo-Irish catholics were poisoned with illibe- 
 ral prejudice against ancient Irish catholics, 
 and rioted in the licentiousness of oppression as 
 madly and wickedly, if not more so., as English 
 or Anglo-Irish protestants can be accused of. 
 
 This is the proper office and the great end of 
 history: it is then truly philosophy teaching by 
 examples. Written in the spirit of conciliation 
 and truth 'tis the school of moral and political 
 wisdom. 'Tis the more necessary in this age and 
 country, as we are still torn by religious and 
 political animosities, inflamed, instead of being 
 healed, by the perusal of almost all the histories 
 hitherto published. The sacred duty of the his- 
 torian was basely transgressed, and truth was 
 sacrificed to the spirit of party. The English 
 and Anglo-Irish writers on Irish affairs, gene- 
 rally brandished the pen of defamation with a 
 mind no less hostile than that of the warrior 
 wielding the sword in battle: all was panegyric 
 for one side, all satire for the other,, dated from 
 the first English libeller, Gyraldus Cambrensis, 
 through the whole pedigree of his successors, 
 Campion, Morrison, Cox, Burnett, Clarendon, 
 Temple, Musgrave, &c. &c. 
 
 To give one instance, a little ludicrous, of 
 the extreme partiality of those writers to their 
 own nation and colony, we shall quote Cam- 
 pion Jn a battle between the English aud
 
 INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 Irish, both Catholics, in which the latter were 
 worsted, this chronicler gravely asserts, that 
 the sun stood still four hours, to enable the 
 conquering army to make a hearty slaughter 
 of their vanquished fellow Catholics. 
 
 By this continual havoc of national character, 
 continued so many ages, by writers of different 
 descriptions, the minds of many are so embittered, 
 that truth dare not appear before them in a His- 
 tory of Ireland, but as a lawyer goes to court. 
 It must be armed with documents and evidences ; 
 it must be supported with critical ability, to un- 
 ravel the tissue of falsehood, compiled, sometimes 
 with ability, but always with malice: it requires 
 the abilities of a pleader to detect and expose the 
 false evidence of lying history, by cross-exami- 
 nation and comparison, by chronological accu- 
 racy and moral probabilities. Even thus sup- 
 ported, with all requisite authorities and evi- 
 dences, the number is small, who can so divest 
 themselves of party prejudice, early imbibed 
 and constantly inculcated, as to acknowledge 
 its force. This was not the only obstacle his- 
 torical truth had to encounter. Power, in the 
 hands of guilty men, dreading its appearance, 
 consigned numerous records to destruction, aud 
 made its publication dangerous: nevertheless, the 
 historian must not desert his duty, however 
 arduous or hazardous. When truth advocate*;
 
 YI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 for a fallen people, once renowned fdr learning, 
 sanctity, and valour, it would be cowardice to 
 abandon it from motives of personal interest or 
 safety; where it lays open their errors and their 
 crimes, it must not be concealed from their pos- 
 terity by any blind partiality. It is the right 
 and the interest of the present and future gene- 
 rations, to receive nothing but the wholesome 
 instructions of sacred truth, from those who 
 write for them. This shall be inviolably adhered 
 to, with all possible care and caution, in the fol- 
 lowing work. A faithful portrait shall be given 
 of the parties, whether English or Irish, Protes- 
 tant or Catholic; in so doing the liberal spirit of 
 our Irish annalists shall be followed, who wrote 
 in their native tongue of the transactions of the 
 English and their Irish colonists with as great 
 impartiality as if they were a neutral and friendly 
 nation who had not inflicted a wound. 
 
 It will not appear amiss to preface the narra- 
 tive with a brief delineation of the state of Ire- 
 land at the arrival of Strongbow. Without this 
 the reader will find it difficult to reconcile the 
 ancient and modern history of Ireland. After 
 reading the monuments of Irish valour, display- 
 ed in their domestic and foreign wars, he will 
 be astonished at the facility with which a hand- 
 ful of foreigners obtained such ample posses- 
 sions, in spite of so brave a people; nor can he
 
 INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 easily reconcile it with the long and obstinate 
 wars afterwards maintained by the natives in 
 their own defence. 
 
 Before the arrival of the English the consti- 
 tution of Ireland was annihilated; anarchy and 
 
 B 
 
 insubordination succeeded to order and regular 
 government, and facilitated the subjugation of 
 the country. We are not to suppose, with some 
 prejudiced writers, that the Irish were a barba- 
 rous and uncivilized people, destitute of laws 
 and regular government, because the English 
 found them in a state of anarchy on their arrival. 
 A constitution that lasted upwards of 3000 years, 
 under which learning and religion flourished to 
 that degree, that Ireland became the mart of 
 literature, and merited the title of The Island of 
 Saints, could not be entirely destitute of merit. 
 It was at once the most ancient and the most 
 simple; the most conformable to the laws of na- 
 ture and the revealed law of God. The land was 
 distributed among the clans, as among the tribes 
 of Israel ; the landed property among both na- 
 tions was inalienable; and in each nation mea- 
 sures were adopted to prevent any great inequa- 
 lity of property from intermarriages or mort- 
 gages. By the law of Moses, landed property 
 reverted to the original owners at the fiftieth 
 year, or the year of jubilee. By the law of Ire- 
 land, every chieftain, at his accession to power, 
 might, with the consent of the seniors of the
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 clan, cause a survey to be made of the territory 
 of the clan, and a fresh distribution thereof, if 
 any great inequality was apparent. The authors 
 of those laws wisely considered, that any consi- 
 derable inequality of property would be sub- 
 versive of liberty. 
 
 The boasted constitution of Great Britain is 
 destitute of these salutary precautions and reme- 
 dies, without which liberty, however obtained, 
 cannot subsist long : her property is power. If the 
 property of a country be in the possession of a 
 few thousand families, the power of the country is 
 consequently in their hands, notwithstanding any 
 popular forms of freedom that may subsist. 
 
 The tributes, paid to the chieftains of clans, 
 provincial kings and monarchs of Ireland, were 
 very moderate, and unalterably fixed by the con- 
 stitiuion. No monarch, king or chief, could at 
 his pleasure, or by the vote of any body of men, 
 levy a new tax, that was not marked in the con- 
 stitutional laws of the country; nor can there 
 be found a departure from this fundamental law 
 of the Irish constitution, except in the single in- 
 stance of the Boroimhe Laighean, or Leinster 
 tribute, the exaction of which frequently occa- 
 sioned bloody wars between the prince of Lein- 
 ster and the monarch. 
 
 The government was patriarchal ; that is to 
 say, it was monarchy, partly hereditary, partly 
 elective, through all its gracUt'ons, from the
 
 INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 monarch to the chief of a clan ; as Justin de- 
 scribes the original governments of mankind to 
 have been. It was hereditary in some certain 
 branch of a clan; but not in any one particular 
 line, descending from father to son, as in the 
 modern hereditary monarchies. It was, by neces- 
 sity, a free constitution; because a king or chief, 
 who could not encroach upon the property of 
 his subjects, nor keep up a standing army, was 
 utterly unable to enslave his people, who might 
 with greater propriety be stiled his brethren than 
 his subjects. There were no hereditary titles, 
 as at present in Europe, for all were considered 
 equally noble : the only distinction was that of 
 office and profession. Like the Hindoos, the 
 ancient Persians and Egyptians, they were divi- 
 ded into seven casts; that is, warriors, druids, 
 who professed both philosophy and religion, 
 bards, lawyers, antiquarians, mechanics and 
 tillers. 
 
 The chief defect in this constitution consisted 
 in the weakness of the supreme executive, and 
 the excess of liberty which frequently degene- 
 rated into anarchy and insubordination. In their 
 jealous precautions against the encroachments of 
 tyranny., and for the security of liberty, they did 
 not sufficiently provide for the support of the 
 monarchical government. Without distinguished 
 abilities., virtue and valour, no monarch of Ire- 
 land sat securely on his throne, nor always with 
 
 VOL. I ]5
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 them, so that few of the Irish monarchs died a 
 peaceable death. To remedy these deficiencies in 
 the constitution, some wise monarchs, favoured 
 by circumstances, adopted some useful plans: 
 the first was, the institution of the famous Mi- 
 litia of Ireland, called Feine Erin, probably 
 occasioned by a dread of the Roman power, 
 composed of seven battalions, of 3000 select 
 men each: the second was, the annexation of 
 Meath, both cast and west, to the crown, as an 
 hereditary domain. The alienation of that do- 
 main, by a monarch of the Hy-Niall race, was 
 one of the greatest faults ever committed in poli- 
 tics, which finally led to the overthrow of the 
 monarchy and nation; for a king of Ireland, de- 
 prived of that domain, was little better than 
 an emperor of Germany without his hereditary 
 states. 
 
 The second cause of the downfall of the 
 monarchy and the people, arose from the long 
 and bloody wars between the Normans and the 
 Milesians. For though the conquerors of Eng- 
 land and France, after a warfare of two hundred 
 years, were unable to subjugate Ireland; but, 
 on the contrary, were utterlv defeated, and irre- 
 trievably overthrown, by the victorious arms of 
 the great JBricn Boiroimhe; yet the long and 
 bloody contest shook the machine of govern- 
 ment, and enabled the conquered to break the 
 feeble springs of a too weak executive.
 
 INTRODUCTION. Xl 
 
 The usurpation of a provincial king, Brien 
 Boiroimhe, on the hereditary rights of the Hy- 
 Niall race of kings,, who commanded respect 
 more from the veneration of the people to the 
 antiquity of their race, and their personal vir- 
 tues, than from revenue or a standing force, 
 of which they had but a shadow, proved fatal. 
 Other provincial kings followed the example, 
 and the chieftains of clans thought themselves 
 entitled to resist provincial kings, as they had 
 resisted the monarch. Thus, though Roderic 
 O'Connor be commonly considered the last 
 monarch of Ireland, the monarchy may be 
 fairly considered as extinguished by the usur- 
 pation of that illustrious hero, Brien Boiroimhe. 
 The south would not acknowledge a monarch 
 of the northern race, and the north would not 
 acknowledge a monarch of the southern race, 
 so that an inexpiable war broke out, which 
 ended in the ruin of the contending parties and 
 of the nation. 
 
 Some time before the arrival of the English, 
 Murchertach O'Neill, prince of Ulster, set up 
 his claim to the monarchy. Endeavouring to 
 limit the extravagant pretensions of subordinate 
 chieftains to independence, but by means too 
 linrsh, and unsuitable to the turbulent temper of 
 these anarchists, a formidable confederation of 
 chieftains was formed against him secretly, who
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 suddenly came upon him unawares, with an army 
 of seventy thousand men., headed by Roderic 
 O'Connor, king of Connaught, demanding his 
 surrender of the diadem. This brave but un- 
 fortunate monarch scorned to parley; and, at 
 the head of three thousand men of the Hy-Nial 
 race and their followers, formed the magnani- 
 mous resolution to dispute it with the sword 
 against such mighty odds. Unfortunate in his 
 plan of a night attack, in the execution of 
 which his little army, divided into two parties, 
 missed their way, met, mistook, fought, and 
 slaughtered each other miserably; the next day 
 he died, fighting at the head of his men for 
 the hereditary rights of his family, and with 
 him expired the greatest support of Ireland. 
 It sunk under the dominion of the same peo- 
 ple, under a new name, whom it had success- 
 fully combated during two hundred years, and 
 finally expelled the country scarcely a century 
 before. 
 
 The catastrophe, though unexampled for con- 
 tinuance and cruelty, is not without a parallel, 
 as to change of dominion, among other nations 
 renowned for science and valour. Greece, di- 
 vided at home, was subdued by the Macedo- 
 nians, and afterwards by the Romans. Egypt, 
 subdued by the Persians, passed from them to 
 the Greeks, afterwards to the Romans, thence
 
 INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 to the Saracens, and lastly to the Turks. Spain, 
 partly subdued by the Carthaginians., entirely 
 by the Romans, afterwards by the Goths, then 
 by the Saracens, whom after a long struggle she 
 finally expelled. But the fate of Ireland was 
 by far more lamentable than that of any of those 
 ancient people; for other conquerors, even hea- 
 thens, contented themselves with wresting a 
 portion of land from the conquered countries. 
 Rome, for example, took the one-seventh, and 
 left the remainder to the ancient possessors: the 
 Visigoths and Burgundians, on establishing 
 themselves in Gaul, divided the land into three 
 parts, two of which they took to themselves, 
 leaving the third to the vanquished: Clovis, 
 king of the Franks, used a similar policy to 
 those whom he subdued; but those who sub- 
 mitted by treaty and capitulation had not to 
 share their lands with the Franks. But the 
 invaders of Ireland were not satisfied with a 
 part, they should have the whole. From the 
 very commencement they doomed the ancient 
 proprietors to extermination and plunder, fol- 
 lowing in this the maxim of Gyraldus Cam- 
 brensis, debilitentur deleantur, i. e. let them be 
 weakened and exterminated. Henry II. after 
 confirming to each provincial king and chieftain 
 the possession of their territories, honors, and 
 rights, immediately afterwards, without the least
 
 XI? INTRODUCTION 
 
 cause of complaint, bestowed three-fourths of 
 Ireland on the adventurers. 
 
 Besides the foremcntioned downfall of the 
 monarchy, and the anarchy and interminable 
 feuds which succeeded that fall, other causes 
 contributed to facilitate the reduction of the 
 kingdom. The difference of arms; the supe- 
 riority of the English, accustomed to continen- 
 tal wars, in planning and conducting a cam- 
 paign; their knowledge in the construction of 
 fortifications, and carrying on sieges; the use 
 of the cross-bow; their acquaintance with poli- 
 tical intrigues, whereby to inflame into mutual 
 hostility a divided people, gave them advantages 
 over a people brave but simple, accustomed to 
 fight in the open plain, frequently appointing 
 the place and day., as if to fight a duel; nor 
 was the bull of Pope Adrian, bestowing Ire- 
 land to his countryman Henry II. without its 
 effect, on the minds and fortunes of a people 
 extremely religious and submissive to ecclesias- 
 tical authority.
 
 AN 
 
 IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 FROM THE PERIOD OF THE ENGLISH INVASION 
 TO THE YEAR 1810. 
 
 THOUGH the disordered state of Ireland, 
 occasioned by the overthrow of the constitution 
 and monarchy,, threatened sooner or later the 
 downfall of the nation, the catastrophe was ac- 
 celerated, as usual, by proximate causes, beyond 
 which the generality of mankind do not look. 
 As the downfall of Troy WHS immediately occa- 
 sioned by female lubricity, though without that 
 cause it must have fallen under the dominion of 
 the Greeks, so Ireland had its Helen, captivated 
 not by a buxom youthful Paris, arbiter of ce- 
 lestial beauty, but by an Athletic grey-beard, 
 Dermod Mac Morrough, king of Leinster. 
 
 Dervorguile, daughter of Mortough Mac 
 Floinn, a prince of Meath, had been espoused 
 against her inclinations to Teighernan O'Rourk, 
 prince of Brefney ( Lcitrim ). This princess al- 
 ways cherished a secret partiality for Dermod, a 
 son of Morrough, king of Leinster, who had 
 paid her his addresses before her marriage. Pro- 
 fiting of the absence of her husband on a pilgri- 
 mage, she wrote to him by a special messenger,
 
 2 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 requesting him, in violation of conjugal fidelity, 
 to come and deliver her from conjugal engage- 
 ments contracted with a husband whom she did 
 not love. 
 
 O'Rourk, on his return, being apprised of the 
 elopement of his spouse, addressed himself to the 
 monarch, demanding satisfaction for the affront 
 put upon him and his family. O'Connor, being 
 an equitable prince, gave a favourable ear to 
 the complaints of O'Rourk, ordered the forces 
 of Connaught to assemble,, who, joined by those 
 of Brcfney, Orgiel (Louth), and Meath, en- 
 tered Leinster, to avenge the insult offered to 
 the prince of Brefney. Dermod, aware of the 
 inarch of .the royal army, and the sentence of 
 excommunication hurled against him by the 
 clergy, called a meeting of the nobles of his 
 kingdom, at Fearna (Ferns), in the county of 
 Wexford, to deliberate on the means of averting 
 the storm that menaced him. His subjects, scan- 
 dalised by the enormity of his crime, and dis- 
 contented by the tyranny of his government, in- 
 stead of supporting him in this critical moment, 
 renounced their allegiance, and put themselves 
 under the protection of the monarch. In this 
 plight, Dermod, abandoned by his own sub- 
 jects, and too haughty to bend to circumstances, 
 or make reparation for his sins, embraced the 
 desperate and traitorous resolution of calling in 
 a foreign power, and embarked for England. 
 Hereupon the monarch, finding no enemies to 
 combat, destroyed the castle of Ferns, whence 
 he took the unfortunate Dervorguile, whom he
 
 OF IRELAND. 3 
 
 shut up in the monastery of St. Bridget, in the 
 Co.Kildare; after which he dismissed his troops, 
 and returned to the kingdom of Connaught. 
 
 The haughty Dermod, in a manner obliged to 
 seek an asylum amongst strangers,, breathed ven- 
 geance against his revolted subjects., and against 
 the nation in general. He went to request the 
 aid of Henry II. king of England, then in Aqui- 
 tain, in order to recover his dominion, promising 
 to yield him obedience as a vassal. 
 
 Henry II. was a powerful and ambitious prince. 
 Besides England and Wales, he possessed the 
 duchies of Normandy, Anjou, Aquitain, Poitou, 
 Touraine, and Maine. He was highly flattered 
 by the offers of the Irish prince, as favouring 
 designs he long had upon Ireland; but replied, 
 that the actual situation of his affairs upon the 
 continent did not allow his giving him any 
 troops; but if he would goto England he would 
 give him the royal authority for levying volun- 
 teers. Accordingly he sent orders to his minis- 
 ters to favour the enterprise of the fugitive. 
 
 Taking leave of Henry, Dermod embarked 
 for England, and, arriving at Bristol, he com- 
 municated the orders of Henry to the magistrates 
 of that city, who made them public. Richard 
 Strongbow, son of Gilbert, earl of Pembroke, 
 was then at Bristol: he had dissipated his for- 
 tune, and contracted immense debts, and was 
 further in disgrace with the king. Thus capable 
 of any enterprise, that, might promise to mend his 
 broken fortune, he offered his services to Der- 
 mod, who kindlv received him, with a proffer 
 
 I'OT.. I. C
 
 <X AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 far above what he had reason to expect. For he 
 promised him his daughter Eve in marriage, 
 with an assurance of his succession to the crown 
 of Leinster after his own death, on condition he 
 would aid him to the utmost in its recovery. 
 The condition was joyfully accepted by earl 
 Richard. 
 
 Dermod, relying on the promises of his future 
 son-in-law, addressed himself to Ralph Griffin, 
 governor of Wales, and solicited the liberation 
 of Robert Fitz-Stephen, a courageous and expe- 
 rienced officer, who was four years a prisoner of 
 state. Fitz-Stephen having by this means ob- 
 tained pardon, willingly accepted the condition 
 of volunteering to Ireland, from a country whence 
 he was banished forever, together with Maurice 
 Fitz-Gerald, his step-brother, who got a pro- 
 mise of the town of Wexford, and some adjoin- 
 ing territory for him and his posterity. Dermod 
 entered into similar engagements with many 
 others, whom he attracted, as Nubrigensis, an 
 English cotemporary writer says, by the hope of 
 a profusion of wealth. The greater part of these 
 volunteers were indigent people, according to 
 the same author, "men struggling with poverty, 
 and greedy of gain." 
 
 The king of Leinster, satisfied with the suc- 
 cess of his negociations in England, returned to 
 Ireland, where he remained incog, in the city of 
 Ferns, waiting the arrival of his allies. 
 
 Fitz-Stephen was urged by two powerful mo- 
 tives not to forget his engagements with Der- 
 mod: the liberation he had obtained, on consi-
 
 OF IRELAND. 5 
 
 deration of departing from England as soon as 
 possible; and the flattering recompence that 
 awaited him in Ireland. Having recruited 400 
 volunteers, of desperate fortune like himself, he 
 landed with them in the month of May., 1169, 
 on the coast of Wexford. 
 
 The king of Leinster, overjoyed at the news 
 of their arrival, put himself at the head of 500 
 horse, and joined the invaders. In a council of 
 war the first enterprise they resolved on was, the 
 siege of Wexford, inhabited then by Danes;* in 
 consequence of which their troops marched be- 
 fore the place, the inhabitants of which surren- 
 dered, made homage, and gave hostages with 
 presents to the king of Leinster. He, to acquit 
 his promise to Fitz-Stephen, gave him the town, 
 with some adjoining territory, where he esta- 
 blished his adventurers; to a paternal uncle of 
 Fitz-Stephen, Herveyde Mountmorres, he gave 
 an estate: by these and similar grants were those 
 adventurers encouraged to the greatest enter- 
 
 * It is a vulgar mistake, that the Danes were all expelled 
 Ireland in consequence of their defeat at Clcmtarf. None 
 were expelled hut those who invaded the country as allies of 
 the king of Leinster. Such as dwelt in the seaport towns, 
 as peaceable mechanics, merchants, or farmers, were not 
 disturbed in their persons or properties, but allowed to live 
 according to their own usages, on paying a moderate tribute 
 to the prince of the territory. Accordingly, at the entrance 
 of the English, all the seaport towns of Ireland were inha- 
 bited by Danes. 
 
 If is another mistake to suppose that the inhabitants and 
 language of the barony of Forth are from England. The 
 inhabitants and dialect of them and the Fingallicins are from
 
 O AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 prises. Meanwhile Maurice Prendergast arrived 
 at Wexford with a reinforcement to the confe- 
 derate army, which then amounted to 3000 men. 
 
 Dermod, animated by his first success, re- 
 solved to follow up his conquests, and with that 
 view turned his arms against Donough Fitz 
 Patrick, prince of Ossery, who became the first 
 victim of his resentment. At the head of his 
 victorious army, Dermod struck terror into Os- 
 sery, and forced this prince, after three days 
 hard fighting, in a well chosen position, covered 
 with an abbatis, to give hostages, and to pay an 
 annual tribute to the crown of Leinster. 
 
 The fame of the progress made by the king of 
 Leinster and his English allies having spread 
 through the island, the princes and nobles ad- 
 dressed Roderic O'Connor, to concert the means 
 of quelling this rebellion, so capable of creating 
 confusion in the kingdom. It was ordained in 
 the conference held for this purpose, that the 
 provinces should furnish their contingent to the 
 monarch, to enable him to suppress the revolt, 
 
 the Baltic; as the word Fingallian sufficiently proves. There 
 Avere two descriptions of adventurers from the Baltic; those 
 from the north side were called in Irish Finghal, and those 
 from the south side Dubhghal. These fought a bloody battle 
 at Clontarf for the possession of the country. The Finghaliia 
 having prevailed, retained possession of Dublin and the ma. 
 ritime district called Fingal, where the same dialect was 
 spoken formerly as in the barony of Forth. The first I Ji. 
 glisli adventurers came over, not to turn farmers on the sc;u 
 coast, and remain there, but to fiirht their o\vn and Dermod's 
 battles, to satiate his vengeance, and gain estate-, for t!um. 
 pelves.
 
 OF IRELAND. 7 
 
 The army of the monarch being reinforced by 
 the allied troops, he marched to the county of 
 Wexford. Dermod, unable to keep the field 
 against an army so superior,, took refuge in fo- 
 rests and inaccessible bogs near Ferns,, where he 
 held on the defensive. 
 
 If what some historians relate be true., that 
 Roderic, at the head of his army,, wanted to 
 reason these greedy and needy adventurers, en- 
 riched by the donations of their patron, out of 
 Ireland, instead of relying on the sword alone 
 for their extirpation, it argues great weakness in 
 the monarch of Ireland: it would be just as effi- 
 cacious to argue the vulture or the wolf from 
 their prey. The interposition of the clergy of 
 Leinster with Roderic, in favour of peaceable 
 measures, was much more effectual. The king% 
 moved by their remonstrances, made a truce, 
 and negociated with the confederates. A treaty 
 of peace was concluded on the following condi- 
 tions : first, Dermod should be put in possession 
 of his kingdom of Leinster, with all the autho- 
 rity of his ancestors, and should be indemnified 
 for the expences of the war: secondly, the king 
 of Leinster should render homage to the monarch, 
 and promise him fidelity: thirdly, that he would 
 bind himself by oath not to send for any more 
 English into his states; and that he would re- 
 fuse to intruders his protection: fourthly, thai 
 Robert Fitz-Steplien should nevertheless remain 
 in possession of Wexford. Dermod, for the ra- 
 tification of this treaty, and to remove every sus- 
 picion of bad faith, gave his son Arthur hostage
 
 8 THE GENERAL HISTORY 
 
 to the monarch, who thereupon disbanded his 
 army, and returned to Connaught. 
 
 It is not easy to find an instance of so shame- 
 ful and dishonorable a treaty, between the mo- 
 narch of a country and a revolted chief. It is 
 such as might be dictated by a conqueror to a 
 defeated prince, hopeless and resourceless. The 
 rebellious prince was to be reinstated in the so- 
 vereignty he forfeited by his crimes, though he 
 had been excommunicated by the clergy, and 
 detested by the chieftains and clans as a tyrant. 
 He was to be indemnified for the expences of 
 the war; the confederates of his rebellion were 
 to keep peaceable possession of the territories 
 ravished from the lawful proprietors; and all 
 this was submitted to without either fighting or 
 losing a single battle, and that when the enemy, 
 who dictated the treaty, is stated as hiding in 
 bogs and morasses. Was Roderic influenced by 
 the clergy, or by his fears? most probably by 
 the former. However that be, they were mise- 
 rably disappointed in their hopes of peace. The 
 treaty was a stroke of perfidy and policy, to dis- 
 entangle the confederates from an embarrassing 
 situation,, and to gain time for the arrival of 
 succours from England. 
 
 The treaty was hardly concluded when Mau- 
 rice Fitz-Gerald, step-brother to Fitz-Stephen, 
 arrived at Wexford, with a considerable rein- 
 forcement of English, which greatly raised the 
 spirits of the revolters. 
 
 On the first news of the arrival of Maurice 
 Fit/- Gerald, Dermod hastened to Wexford,
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 where lie held a council with Fitz-Stephen, Fitz- 
 Maurice, Prendergast, Barry, Myler, Fitz- 
 Gerald, and other English leaders, whose inte- 
 rest accorded with his ambition and vengeance. 
 They filled him with the extravagant notion of 
 aspiring to the monarchy of the island, promising- 
 troops from England sufficient for the enterprise. 
 The king of Leinster, finding himself supported 
 by the English, and a considerable part of his 
 subjects., led by fear or attachment, marched to- 
 wards Dublin, whose environs he laid waste, 
 especially Fingal. His chief design was to 
 avenge on the Danes the insults that he and his 
 father had received from them; and to levy a 
 contribution to defray the expences of the war, 
 He commenced the siege of the capital with 
 Maurice Fitz-Gerald, who commanded under 
 him. Asculph, son of Torcall, commandant of 
 the place, alarmed by the danger which menaced 
 the town, assembled the principal inhabitants, 
 to deliberate on the measures they should adopt, 
 It was concluded, that a prompt submission was 
 necessary to avert the storm. In consequence of 
 this they sent deputies to the king of Leinster, 
 with considerable sums in gold and silver; As- 
 culph did him homage in the name of the city, 
 and sent him hostages, as guarantees of their 
 obedience. Robert Fitz-Stephen was not with 
 this expedition, being busied in building and 
 fortifying the fort of Carrick, near Waterford. 
 
 Such was the state of the king of Leinster's 
 affairs when earl Richard Strongbow landed in 
 this island.
 
 10 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORV 
 
 This English adventurer,, not forgetful of his 
 promise of succour to the king, nor of his hope 
 to become his son-in-law and successor to the 
 throne., in hopes to be on good terms with his 
 sovereign, Henry II. appeared at court,, demand- 
 ing his permission to quit the kingdom, and to 
 seek his fortune elsewhere. Henry, being dis- 
 satisfied with him, granted his permission in an 
 ironical manner, as to a man whose name he did 
 not wish to hear mentioned. Richard, wishing 
 to profit of this permission, however equivocal, 
 made the necessary preparations for his expedi- 
 tion to Ireland; but previously detached Ray- 
 mond le Gros, with a small body of men, to 
 reconnoitre the countrv, facilitate his intended 
 descent, and announce his intentions to the kine; 
 
 O 
 
 of Lei nster. 
 
 Raymond disembarked on the first of May, 
 1 170, at the little port of Don Domhnall, within 
 four miles of \Vaterford, where he threw up en- 
 trench ments, to prevent a surprise. The Danes 
 of Waterford, hearing of a bodv of English 
 
 O t/ O 
 
 troops being encamped in their neighbourhood, 
 assembled, with the clan of O'Faolan, king of 
 the Dcsies ( Co.Waterford ), to the number of 
 two or three thousand, but without discipline, 
 and ill provided with arms. Raymond, without 
 waiting for the enemy in his trenches, sallied out 
 to meet them on the plain. The battle began 
 with vigour, and the English were driven back 
 to their entrenchments, where being enabled by 
 the courage of despair, they rallied, and made 
 head against their disorderly assailants, of whom
 
 OF IRELAND. 11 
 
 they made a great carnage. This victory of the 
 English, though inferior in number, was owing 
 to their discipline,, and to a number of archers, 
 who took sure aim from their ramparts, on a 
 people unaccustomed to such a weapon of war- 
 fare. The victory was disgraced by the massacre 
 of seventy prisoners, consisting of the chief citi- 
 zens of Waterford. At a council of war, held to 
 deliberate on their treatment, Raymond was for 
 observing the customary laws of civilized war- 
 fare, but Hervey de Mountmorres harangued the 
 soldiers, and prevailed on them to murder the 
 prisoners. This they brutally performed by first 
 breaking their legs, and then casting them from 
 a precipice into the sea. 
 
 This was civilizing the Irish, both Danes and 
 Milesians, on the plan of an Anglo-Irish writer, 
 \vho said, that the only way to civilize the Irish 
 was, to kill them and take their properties. It 
 \vas conformable to the maxim of Gerald Barry, 
 commonly called Gyraldus Cambrensis, a catholic 
 priest, tutor to king John, arid a relation of the 
 Geraldines, some of the chief invaders, who laid 
 it down as an invariable rule for the conduct of 
 the adventurers, to debilitate and exterminate 
 the ancient catholic proprietors of Ireland. A 
 sanguinary maxim, more becoming the preacher 
 of the Alcoran than a minister of the gospel, 
 which was but too fatally adhered to. Slaughter, 
 confiscation, colonization, formed the fatal circle 
 of English policy towards the native Irish. Di- 
 vision, famine, fictitious plots, assassinations of 
 distinguished men, were among the means ot" 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 12 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 accomplishing the destruction and degradation 
 which they call civilization. The suppression 
 of schools and colleges., the extinction of learn- 
 ing; and language, and the destruction of books, 
 
 o o C5 ' 
 
 formed their methods of refining and improving 
 a nation ! 
 
 Strongbow landed at Waterford, on the 24th 
 of August, with 1200 choice troops, where he 
 was speedily joined by the kina; of Leinster, with 
 his Irish and English forces. They held a coun- 
 cil of war, in which it was resolved to lay siege 
 to Waterford. This they considered as an easy 
 conquest. That ill-fortified place was defended 
 by the burghers who had escaped from the late 
 defeat, and was attacked bv an army superior in 
 number, well disciplined, and commanded by- 
 able officers; yet it was defended with obstinate 
 valour by the inhabitants. At length, taken by 
 
 u <* J 
 
 assault, the besiegers rushed in, making an in- 
 discriminate slaughter of the inhabitants, until 
 the arrival of Dermod, whose interposition saved 
 the lives of many of his countrymen. A terrible 
 specimen of the cruelty of those adventurers, 
 proving that Suwarrovv was not the first butcher 
 of men who ci\ili/ed mankind by destruction. 
 
 Soon after the king of Leinster fulfilled his 
 engagements with earl Richard ; and betrothing 
 to him his daughter E\e, declared them heirs of 
 his crown. 
 
 Their next enterprise was against the Danes 
 of Dublin, whom the treaty concluded the year 
 before, the hostages, the homage, the tribute 
 yielded, could not protect from the further a<>--
 
 OF IRELAND. 13 
 
 gressions of those lawless treaty-breaking plun- 
 derers. They accordingly attacked it with all 
 their forces. Asculph, the governor, unable to 
 maintain a siege, charged St. Laurence O"Kool, 
 the archbishop, to negociate a fresh peace with 
 the king of Leinster. On the 21st of September, 
 while this holy prelate was treating with the king 
 iu his camp, Raymond, Maurice Fitz-Gerald, 
 and Miles Cogan, with their followers, entered 
 through a breach into the town, making an in- 
 discriminate slaughter of the inhabitants, with- 
 out sparing age or sex.* Thus the laws of na- 
 tions, the laws of war, the laws of humanity, 
 were trampled under foot, and men, women and 
 children barbarously butchered, while they were 
 treating for capitulation ! 
 
 Dermod, leaving a garrison in the city, of 
 which he trusted the command to Miles Cogan, 
 turned his arms against O'Rourk, chieftain of 
 Brefney, with whose wife he had eloped; by 
 whom he was twice defeated., and with difficulty 
 escaped. 
 
 Meanwhile no effort was made by the monarch 
 of Ireland, or its divided princes, to stem the 
 torrent of carnage and plunder, while it remained 
 at a distance, until it approached their own (ion- 
 tiers; then Roderick had recourse to expostula- 
 tions, reviling the king of Leinster for his breach 
 of treaty, threatening to execute the hostages, 
 given as a security of good faith, among- \vhoai 
 was his own son Arthur. But the arguments of 
 religion and morality wore thrown away on a 
 
 * Stauihiml. de Reb. in Ilib. Gest. Lib. III. p, 100,
 
 14 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 banditti spreading devastation with arms in their 
 hands. Dermod's reply was laconic. Threat- 
 ened to revenge the death of the hostages on 
 O'Connor and his whole race. The winter fol- 
 lowing <hc king of Leinstertook up his quarters 
 at Fearns, where he died in the month of May, 
 1171. lie was a man of extraordinary stature, 
 strong^ valiant, and warlike: his nation he sa- 
 crificed to his vengeance: his principle was 
 rather to inspire terror than to win the affections 
 of his people, for whose interest he lived too 
 long: his memory was long held in execration 
 by his countrymen. 
 
 After his death carl Richard., pretender to the 
 crown, became the real heir of his tyranny. lie 
 led his troops into Munster, where they commit- 
 ted great devastation; but he was arrested in 
 his career by Roderic O'Connor, who gained 
 some advantages over him. 
 
 Henry II. then in Aquitain, hearing of the 
 progress made by Strongbow and his other sub- 
 jects in Ireland, entertained violent suspicions 
 that the carl was endeavouring to conquer a 
 kingdom for himself, which he was long desi- 
 rous of uniting to hi? other dominions. To de- 
 feat the supposed ambition of this subject, in 
 whom he never had any confidence, he prohi- 
 bited b\ edict all intercourse with Ireland, and 
 forbade men, arms or provisions to be couveved 
 thither. Bv the same edict he commanded his 
 subjects actually in Ireland to come to England, 
 on an appointed day, under pain of being consi- 
 dered us traitors and rebels.
 
 OF IRELAND. J5 
 
 Earl Richard was disconcerted by this edict, 
 which interrupted all his projects. Though mas- 
 ter of Dublin, Wexford and Waterford, he was 
 not in a condition to preserve them without suc- 
 cours from England, which could not be ob- 
 tained without an accommodation with the king. 
 For this purpose he held a council with the En- 
 glish chiefs., when it was resolved to send Ray- 
 mond le Gros to represent to his majesty, that it 
 was with his permission the English assisted the 
 king of Leinster; but that they still considered 
 themselves as his subjects, and did nothing but 
 for his interest. Raymond having acquitted 
 himself of his commission, Henry II. returned 
 to England, from whence he sent Raymond with 
 orders for the speedy return of Strongbow to 
 England, to give an account of his conduct. 
 
 About this time Asculph, chief of the Danes 
 of Dublin, who had escaped at the last siege of 
 that city, returned with sixty ships and troops, 
 collected from the Hebrides, Orkneys, &c. to 
 besiege it. He encamped at the eastern gate of 
 the town, and made such vigorous attacks, that 
 the English, conscious of their inability to resist 
 the superior force of the Danes, had recourse to 
 stratagem. Miles Cogan, the governor, sent his 
 brother, Richard Cogan, with a squadron of 
 cavalry, through the southern gate, with orders 
 to attack the besiegers in the rear. This stra- 
 tagem had complete success. The Danes dis- 
 heartened, thinking it was the advanced guard 
 of a reinforcement coming to relieve the town, 
 took to flight. The carnage was great. Asculph,
 
 16 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 the chief, was brought prisoner to Dublin we 
 need not add that he was murdered however 
 they did not torture him, they only cut off his 
 head. 
 
 This unsuccessful attempt of Asculph was fol- 
 lowed by a greater effort of O'Connor,, the mo- 
 narch,, without much better success. St. Lau- 
 rence O'Tool, animated with zeal for his coun- 
 try, for the purity of morality and religion,, of 
 which in the spirit of prophecy he foresaw the 
 ruin, moved heaven and earth to avert the im- 
 pending calamity. By his eloquence and his 
 authority he suspended for a while the heredi- 
 tary feuds of the Irish chieftains, and succeeded 
 in forming a confederacy for the expulsion of 
 those barbarous invaders. To render their de- 
 struction inevitable, he negociated with the 
 Danes of the isle of Man, the Hebrides, and the 
 Orkneys, to blockade the harbour of Dublin, 
 while the confederates invested the town by 
 land. These measures were wise, and seemed 
 to promise success. The blockade lasted two 
 months, and the besieged felt already the ap- 
 proach of famine. At the same time Domhnall, 
 son of Derrnod, very unlike his father, assem- 
 bled some troops, and besieged Fits-Stephen in 
 a fort at Carrick, near Wexford. Fitz-Stephen 
 found means to let the garrison of Dublin un- 
 derstand, that if he was nut succoured in two or 
 three da\s he must inevitably fall into the hands 
 ot his enemies. This news, coming upon them 
 in their great distress, left no resource but the 
 courage of despair, and that succeeded. The
 
 OF IRELAND. 17 
 
 besiegers., confident of reducing the town by fa- 
 mine, and despising the weakness of the garri- 
 son, indulged in all the neffli sconce of an assured 
 
 o o ~ 
 
 victory. Individually as brave and skilful in 
 arms as any nation upon earth in the aggregate 
 they were but a host without discipline or sub- 
 ordination. Every commander of a clan was, by 
 the constitution., the general of that clan, inde- 
 pendent of the monarch., who could neither pro- 
 mote or dismiss him: invested with the power of 
 making peace or war, without consulting the 
 monarch, his obedience to orders was rather a 
 matter of complaisance than of necessity. If the 
 monarch was a hero, a veneration for talents, 
 natural to the Irish, made his orders respected; 
 but, if an ordinary man, he was liable to all the 
 evils of insubordination, of which O'Connor felt 
 the consequences. No entrenchments, no out- 
 posts, patroles, and those other precautionary 
 measures, that always attend a regular army, the 
 
 .' O \j 
 
 besieged saw they might be taken by surprise. 
 Accordingly they made a sally at the break of 
 day, fell upon O'Connor's quarters, while they 
 were as yet asleep, dispatched a great many of 
 them, and the rest fled. 
 
 This victory enabled the garrison of Dublin 
 to selid succours to Fitz-Stephen, besieged in 
 the fort of Carrick. But the detachment, led to 
 their relief by Strongbow, being harassed by the 
 O'Ryans, in the defiles of Idrone ( Co. Carlow ), 
 arrived too late: a part of the garrison fell in 
 the con diet, and the rest, among whom was 
 Fitz-Stephen., were made prisoners of war, and
 
 18 A^ 7 IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 confined in the island of Beg- Erin, in the county 
 of Wexford. It seems that the Irish had not as 
 yet learned, from those English adventurers, to 
 butcher their prisoners. 
 
 One of those writers, which are peculiar to 
 this country, has given a tale of Irish perfidy in 
 this transaction. He tells us, that Fitz-Stephen 
 was led to capitulate by perfidy and fraud! But 
 memory failed. He forgot that, in three pages 
 before he narrates this libellous fable, he had 
 stated, that " intelligence was brought by the 
 faithful Donald Kavanagh, ( to the English in 
 Dublin,) that the gallant Fitz-Stephen was 
 besieged in the fortress of Carrick, by the men 
 of Wexford, and MUST, UNLESS RELIEVED BE- 
 FORE THE END OF THREE DAYS, fall into the 
 
 hands of a revengeful and cruel foe." Here we 
 see that famine, and not perjury or fraud, com- 
 pelled Fitz-Stephen to surrender. And that the 
 prisoners did not experience the treatment of a 
 cruel and perfidious foo, is also manifest. Had 
 the men of Wexford been tutored bv the massa- 
 cres of Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford, and 
 the constant murder of their prisoners bv those 
 barbarous invaders, Fitz-Stephen would not 
 have lived to be presented to his sovereign by 
 his captors, then requiring his punishment for 
 the enormities he had committed. 
 
 Strongbow, pressed by the orders of his mas- 
 ter, embarked for England, leaving the colony 
 in an unpromising situation. He was presented 
 to the king, at Ncweham, near Gloucester, then 
 preparing an army for his expedition to Ireland,
 
 OF IRELAND. 19 
 
 Henry reproached him bitterly for the robberies 
 and massacres committed in Ireland; and that, 
 not satisfied with the honorable lot granted him 
 by the king of Leinster, he behaved as a cruel 
 tyrant, and usurper of the lands of others. This 
 was the language of truth, and would appear 
 also to be that of an honest man, if we did not 
 know that Henry was as great a tyrant and usur- 
 per as the man whom he reproached. After this 
 stern reprimand, the king's indignation at the 
 enormity of his adventurers was appeased by 
 submission, a promise of amendment, and of 
 putting into the king's hands Dublin, and all 
 the other places wrested from the Irish. 
 
 Meanwhile O'Rourk, prince of Breifne, made 
 an effort against the English garrison of Dublin. 
 He enticed them outside of the fortifications, 
 where a bloody battle took place between the 
 two parties, without further effect than the ef- 
 fusion of blood. The son of O'Rourk, cc a 
 3 r outh," says Stanihurst, " illustrious in the arts 
 of war and peace," after signalising his valour 
 in the midst of the enemy, was, with several of 
 his followers, mortally wounded ; but they dearly 
 sold their lives to their adversaries, of whom a 
 great number lay on the field of battle. 
 
 Having completed all his preparations for the 
 expedition to Ireland, Henry, aged 41, in the 
 seventeenth year of his reign, embarked at Mil- 
 ford, in October 1172, with a formidable and 
 well appointed army, and arrived at Waterford 
 on the festival of St. Luke, where he established 
 his head quarters. His English subjects, from 
 
 VOL, I, E
 
 SO AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, and their other 
 possessions, hastened to pay him homage, and 
 renew their oath of allegiance. Their example 
 \vas soon followed by some of the native princes, 
 who basely submitted instead of uniting in de- 
 fence of their country's independence. Mac 
 CartyMore, king of Desmond (south Munster), 
 was the first of these deserters. He presented 
 himself to the king of England at Waterford, 
 and paid him homage. Henry, after consulting 
 with his English subjects on the means of re- 
 ducing the island, assembled his forces, and 
 marched to Lismore; whence, after a repose of 
 two days, he advanced towards Cashel. He was 
 met on the road, near the river Suir, by Donald 
 O'Brien, king of Thomond (north Munster), 
 who submitted to him. The example of these 
 two leading princes of the south was followed 
 by the other cnieftains of Munster. Henry there- 
 upon dispatched garrisons to Limerick and Cork, 
 to take possession of these two cities surrendered 
 to him. Thence he returned to Waterford, where 
 he received the homage of Fitz- Patrick, prince 
 of Ossery, and of O'Faolan, prince of the De- 
 sies. He treated all those princes with distin- 
 guished honor, made them magnificent presents, 
 and guaranteed the possession of their properties 
 and dignities.* He also imprisoned Fit.z-Stephen 
 for the tyrannies and robberies exercised by him 
 on the natives; but restored him to liberty OH 
 surrendering the town and territory of Wexford, 
 
 * Stan, de Reb. in Hib. Gest. Lib. I. p. 125.
 
 OF IRELAND. 21 
 
 which he had obtained as a present from the 
 plunderer Dermod. 
 
 Henry, appointing Robert Bernard governor 
 of Waterford, marched to Dublin, where his 
 feudal sovereignty was acknowledged by several 
 princes of Leinster. He loaded all these princes 
 with presents, and strove to win them by caresses, 
 in order to blind them to the chains he was pre- 
 paring for them: he promised to maintain them 
 in their properties and dignities, though he had 
 no intention of keeping his word. 
 
 O'Connor, seeing the general desertion of the 
 chieftains, was necessitated to yield to the times. 
 Henry sent him two ambassadors, L-icy and Fitz- 
 Aldelm, to negociate for an interview. In con- 
 sequence the two princes met on the banks of 
 the Shannon, without coming to any conclusion. 
 O'Connor had his forces covered with bogs and 
 woods, where Henry did not think it proper to 
 attack him. But there was a treaty concluded 
 between them at Windsor some time afterwards. 
 
 Having thus settled the affairs of the infant 
 colony, and obtained from most of the native 
 princes a sort of a feudal homage, which did not 
 compromise their dignities, nor interfere with 
 their authorities, laws or revenues, he returned 
 to England at Easter, 1173, whence he shortly 
 went to Normandy, where his son Henry, whom 
 he had entrusted with the government of his 
 French dominions, had revolted against him. 
 Eleanor, his wife, resenting his numerous con- 
 jugal infidelities, excited her son Henry to claim 
 the crown. The prince, aided in his rebellion
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 by his brothers Richard and Geoffry, was also 
 supported by his father-in-law, Louis VII. and 
 Philip Augustus, his successor. The consequence 
 of this revolt was the invasion of several parts 
 of his territories by neighbouring princes, and 
 his own subjects. Verneuil, in Normandy, was 
 taken in the time of Louis VII., and the city of 
 Mans, his birth-place, was taken under Philip 
 Augustus. His chagrin at losing the latter place 
 caused him to blasphemously exclaim, " I wont 
 love God any more, since he suffered my dear 
 city to be ravished from me!" 
 
 Henry was too busy in his continental affairs 
 to give personal attention to Ireland. As an 
 able politician, he thought it prudent to interest 
 the English subjects he had left there to support 
 his pretensions. With a liberality only equalled 
 by that of his countryman, Adrian IV., he be- 
 stowed the territories of the princes, who had 
 acknowledged his feudal domination, in defiance 
 of his solemn promises to maintain them in their 
 property and dignity, and of the treaties which 
 he had concluded with them. Notwithstanding 
 his jealousy of Strongbow, he confirmed to him 
 the donation of the kingdom of Leinster, made 
 to him without any just title by his father-in- 
 law Dermod, except the seaport towns and some 
 forts that he reserved for himself. This dona- 
 tion of a property not his own was confirmed by 
 a charter, granted by king John to William 
 Marshall, earl of Pembroke, son-in-law of 
 Strongbow; a copy of which is preserved in the 
 Tower of London.
 
 OF IRELAND. 23 
 
 Strongbow, imitating the predatory liberality 
 of his sovereign, distributed the greater part of 
 Leinster, on military tenure, among his follow- 
 ers. But the grantees did not always obtain 
 peaceable possession of the illegal donations. 
 Marching to take possession of O'Dempsey's 
 country., in Offaly (King's county), where he 
 plundered and burned several villages, Strong- 
 bow had the mortification to lose his son-in-law 
 and general, Quincy, who was slain in a defile 
 where O'Dempsey attacked. 
 
 Unfounded as were the pretensions of Henry 
 to the province of Leinster, he extended his libe- 
 rality to countries no ways connected with that 
 kingdom. He granted by a charter dated at 
 Wexford, which was confirmed by king John, 
 the large territory of Meath, east and west, to 
 Hugh de Lacy, on condition of military service. 
 
 Hugh entered Meath to take possession, where 
 not satisfied with dispossessing, he massacred a 
 great number of the ancient proprietors; thence 
 he made an inroad into Annaly ( Longford), 
 where he committed great depredations, and 
 slew Donald O'Farrel, the chieftain, in a con- 
 flict. 
 
 O'Melaghlin, hereditary chieftain of Meath, 
 afflicted at the outrages committed on his peo- 
 ple, waited on Lacy, to make his complaints of 
 this unprovoked aggression, who promised him 
 an interview at Tara to explain matters. There 
 the prince of Meath spoke much of the injustice 
 of England's king, who, in spite of his solemn 
 promises and treaties, by which he guaranteed
 
 4? AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 to him, and the other Irish princes, their proper- 
 ties and dignities, had sent a lawless banditti to 
 plunder and destroy his people. The unfortu- 
 nate prince of Meath paid the forfeit of his 
 foolish confidence in the faith and honor of the 
 invaders. He was assassinated at the conference, 
 beheaded, his body was buried with the feet up, 
 his head sent to Dublin, and thence tq England. 
 Stanihurst relates this calamity as having be- 
 fallen O'Rourk, who he falsely imagined to be 
 the prince of Meath. With all the venom of an 
 English partizan he endeavours to gloss the per- 
 fidy and barbarity of Lacy; yet he acknowledges 
 that there was a strong body of English troops 
 placed in ambuscade, at a small distance from 
 the place of interview, which must be to make 
 certain the intended assassination. The assassin, 
 in imitation of his master Henry, and of Strong- 
 bow, distributed the territory of the murdered 
 chieftain among a number of vassals, on military 
 tenure. 
 
 Henry, pressed by his enemies in Normandy, 
 sent orders to Strongbow to come to him speedily, 
 with what forces he could collect. The earl, in 
 obedience to his orders, passed over v^ith some 
 picked men, where he remained some time, as 
 commandant of Gisors, as Regan says. The king 
 considering the English colony as yet too weak, 
 sent Strongbow back, in quality of governor, as 
 soon as he could spare him, who was received in 
 Dublin with great acclamations. 
 
 Meantime the plundered Irish, seeing no ter- 
 mination to the cruelty and rapacity of those
 
 OF IRELAND. 25 
 
 adventurers, had recourse to arms in their ovm 
 defence, and compelled the marauders to seek 
 security in their fortresses. But after receiving 
 reinforcements from England and Normandy, 
 they sallied out into the country called Desies, 
 laying the whole country waste. The booty was 
 so considerable, that they were obliged to send a 
 part of it by sea to Waterford, under the com- 
 mand of Adam dc Hereford. The Danes of Cork, 
 with a view to intercept the convoy, equipped 
 a fleet of thirty-five ships, which was defeated 
 by the valour of Philip Walsh, who, leaping 
 sword in hand on board the admiral's vessel, 
 killed him, which occasioned the retreat of the 
 Danes, and allowed the English a safe passage 
 with their prey. Raymond conveyed the rest of 
 the booty, consisting principally of cattle, by 
 land, but not without some opposition from Der- 
 mod, king of Desmond. 
 
 Among the calamities which visited Ireland 
 since the English invasion, may be reckoned a 
 plague, which ravaged the provinces of Munstcr 
 and Connaught at this period. 
 
 In 1174, encouraged by their successful plun- 
 der of East Munster, the adventurers resolved to 
 try their fortune westward, and marched with all 
 the troops they could collect towards Cashel; 
 but, contrary to their expectation, they met Ro- 
 deric O'Connor at Thurles, where they expe- 
 rienced a defeat, leaving 1700 on the field of 
 battle.* 
 
 * Cambrens. Evers. c. ix, p. 89. Anna!, c, \l, Hen. II
 
 26 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 After this Roderic marched to Meath, whence 
 he expelled the English, who, unable to stand 
 the field, retreated to Dublin, after demolishing 
 the fortifications of Trim and Duleek. Roderic 
 was assisted in this expedition by O'Neill, king 
 of Ulster. A junction probably effected more 
 by family interest than patriotism : the murdered 
 chieftain of Meath being of the Hy-Nial race, 
 who were long in possession of that country. 
 
 The battle of Thurles, and the loss of Meath, 
 alarmed Strongbow. Seeing the perilous situ- 
 ation of the adventurers, he sent an account of 
 his sad situation to Raymond le Gros, who the 
 preceding year had retired in disgust, requesting 
 his return and aid, promising him his sister in 
 marriage. Raymond immediately accepted the 
 terms, and collected 330 horse and foot, with 
 which he landed at \Y atcrford, and assisted 
 Slrongbow to escape out of the town, of which 
 the Danes had made themselves masters. A part 
 of the garrison, however, defended Rinald's tower 
 so obstinately, that the Danes, despairing of its 
 capture, evacuated the town. By this time the 
 allies of Roderic, thinking the campaign finished 
 by the recapture of Meath, returned home, as 
 usual with an Irish host, which served without 
 pav, and therefore were without subordination. 
 The adventurers, availing themselves of this cir- 
 cumstance, repossessed themselves of a great part 
 of the country they had lost. 
 
 That Irish literature, though greatly depressed 
 by the Danish wars, and disturbed by the English 
 invaders, was not as vet entirely extinct, we have 
 
 t/ */ ^
 
 OF IRELAND. 27 
 
 proofs in a number of learned men mentioned by 
 our annalists; such as Gelasius, archbishop of 
 Armagh; Flamin O'Gorman, professor in the 
 university of Armagh; Gilbert, bishop of Li- 
 merick ; Celsus, archbishop of Armagh ; Mala- 
 chy O'Morgair, archbishop of Armagh, a cor- 
 respondent of St. Bernard, author of a collection 
 of ecclesiastical constitutions, treatises on celi- 
 bacy, traditions, the life of St. Cuthbert, a pro- 
 phecy concerning the Popes is also attributed to 
 him; Maurice Regan, secretary and interpreter 
 to Dermod Mac Morrough, the last king of 
 Leinster, who carefully narrated the history of 
 Irish affairs during his own time, which was 
 translated into French, and thence into English, 
 by Sir George Carew, president of Minister in 
 the reign of queen Elizabeth; without mention- 
 ing O'Heney, archbishop of Cashel, and many 
 others. 
 
 Further to secure his acquisitions in Ireland, 
 in 1175, Henry II. obtained the following bull, 
 from Pope Alexander III. confirmatory of that 
 of his predecessor, Pope Adrian IV. te Alexan- 
 der, the bishop, the servant of the servants of 
 God, to his dearly beloved son, the noble king 
 of England, greeting, grace and apostolic bene- 
 diction. Forasmuch as things given and granted 
 upon good reason by our predecessors, are to be 
 well allowed of, ratified and confirmed, we well 
 considering and pondering the grant and privi- 
 lege for and concerning the dominion of the land 
 of Ireland to us appertaining, and lately given 
 by Adrian, our predecessor, we, following his 
 
 VOL i, F
 
 28 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 steps, do in like manner confirm, allow, and ra- 
 tify the same; reserving and saving to St. Peter, 
 and to the church of Rome, the yearly pension 
 of one penny out of every house, as well in Eng- 
 land as in Ireland. Provided also, that the bar- 
 barous people of Ireland, by your means, be re- 
 formed and recovered from their filthy life, and 
 abominable conversation. That as in name, so in 
 life and manners thev may be Christians; and 
 that as that rude and disordered church, being 
 by you reformed, the whole nation may also 
 with the possession of the name be in acts and 
 deeds followers of the same." This was brought to 
 Ireland by Nicholas, prior of Wallingsford, and 
 William Fitz Aldelm, who delivered it to an 
 assembly of Irish bishops at W atcrford, by whom 
 it was approved, according to English writers. 
 
 Invited by family dissensions among the 
 O'Briens, Raymond undertook an expedition to 
 Limerick, in conjunction with the prince of 
 Ossery, a sworn foe of the king of Thomond. 
 After some skirmishes, the city being then open 
 and defenceless, it was taken and pillaged, then 
 garrisoned and retained. 
 
 O'Connor, afflicted at the calamities which 
 were inflicted by those merciless marauders on 
 liis country, thought that the only means of 
 setting some bounds to those excesses was, to 
 capitulate national independence for the protec- 
 tion of the king of England by a solemn treaty. 
 For that purpose he dispatched ambassadors, 
 viz. O'Duffy, archbishop of Tuam, Concord, 
 abbot of St. Brandon, at Clonfert, and Laurence,
 
 OP IRELAND. 29 
 
 chancellor of Connaught, who were received by 
 Henry, on the 8th of October, 1176, at a par- 
 liament held at Windsor. The king of England, 
 flattered by this embassy, concluded the follow- 
 ing treaty with Roderic, in quality of tributary 
 king, which title was transmitted to some of his 
 successors. His son is named king of Connaught 
 in a roll in the Tower of London, dated the sixth 
 year of king John. Henry III. in the fifth year 
 of his reign, addressed letters patent to the kings 
 of Connaught and Cinel Eoin ( Tyrone ); he 
 also gave a charter to O'Brien of the land of 
 Thomond, with the title of king; but there is 
 no charter extant of Ulster, whose king had not 
 as yet submitted. 
 
 " This is the object and concord, concluded 
 at Windsor, between our lord Henry II. king 
 of England, and Roderic, king of Connaught, 
 through Catholicus, archbishop of Tuam, Con- 
 cord, abbot of St. Brandon, and Master Lau- 
 rence, chancellor of the kingdom of Connaught. 
 
 " First. The king of England concedes to 
 the said Roderic, his liege man, the kingdom of 
 Connaught, as long as he shall faithfully serve 
 him; and that he shall be a king under him, 
 ready for his service, as a trusty man; and that 
 he shall hold his territories, as well, and in 
 peace, as he held them before the king of Eng- 
 land entered Ireland, paying- him tribute; and 
 that lie shall have that whole land, and its inha- 
 bitants, under him; and that through him they 
 shall pay tribute to the king of England, and 
 thro* his hands they shall preserve their rights.
 
 30 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 and privileges; and those \vho are now in pos- 
 session shall keep their possessions in peace, as 
 long as they remain loyal to the king of England, 
 and faithfully pay the tribute and other duties 
 which they owe, through the hands of the king 
 of Connaught: his and the king of England's 
 honor also to be safe. 
 
 " Secondly. If any rebel against him and the 
 king of England, and will not pay the tribute 
 and duties to the king of England through his 
 hands, and shall depart from their loyalty to the 
 king of England, he shall do justice on them, 
 and remove them : and if he cannot by himself 
 enforce justice, the constable of the king of 
 England and his people shall help him in the 
 execution thereof, on a requisition being made 
 to that effect, and the necessity of such aid ma- 
 nifested. A ud for this purpose let the foresaid 
 king of Connaught pay yearly tribute to the 
 king of England, namely, of every ten animals 
 one saleable skin, as well from his own lands as 
 of the lands of others. 
 
 (e Thirdly. Except those lands which the king 
 of England held under his own dominion, and 
 the dominion of his barons; except Dublin, with 
 all its appurtenances; except also Wexford, with 
 all its appurtenances, ihat is, with Lcinster, 
 ( Wicklow, Wexford and Carlow ) ; except also 
 Waterford to Dungarvan, so that Durigarvan 
 be included in that land, with all its appurte- 
 nances. 
 
 tc Fourthly. And if fugitive Irish shall be 
 willing to return to the lands of the English
 
 OF IRELAND. 31 
 
 barons, let them return in peace, paying the 
 aforesaid tribute which others pay, or perform- 
 ing the same labour \vhich others use to do for 
 their lands; and let this be in the arbitration of 
 their lords. And if any shall be unwilling to 
 return, their lords and the king of Connaught- 
 shall receive hostages for all those whom the 
 king of England had committed to him, agree- 
 able to the will of our lord the king and his 
 own, these or others; and the same shall serve 
 the king with dogs and birds every year, from 
 their appurtenances. And they shall retain no 
 man whatsoever from the king's lands, contrary 
 to the will of our lord the king. Witness these 
 present, Richard, bishop of Winchester, Jeof- 
 fry, bishop of Ely, Laurence, bishop of Dublin, 
 Jeoffry, Nicholas, and Roger, the king's chap- 
 Jains, and many others." 
 
 This humiliating treaty, between the feeble 
 expiring monarchy of Ireland and its oppressors, 
 refutes the vanity of Irish patriots endeavouring 
 to maintain that Ireland was never conquered 
 by the English. The terms of the treaty were 
 such as could be dictated only by a victorious 
 foe to a defeated and a desponding enemy. Could 
 any thing but defeat and despair induce the mo- 
 narch of Ireland to become tributary to Henry? 
 and not only tributary, but to become his col- 
 lector of taxes; and to bind himself to call for 
 the assistance of the English to compel his coun- 
 trymen to pay the tribute? Roderic himself con- 
 tributed his share to bring Ireland to this dis- 
 graceful situation. Imitating the ruinous ambi-
 
 32 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 tion of Brien Boiroimhc, without possessing his 
 talents, he became a patron of feudal anarchy, 
 in the conspiracy formed against the house of 
 O'Neil, whose long prescriptive rule., sanctioned 
 by popular veneration, was the only remaining 
 prop of a declining monarchy, unsupported by 
 revenue or standing forces. 
 
 The colonial writers, agreeably to their na- 
 tional partiality, dwell on the alliances and 
 deaths of the chiefs of the invaders. The proper 
 object for a national historian is to remark those 
 events which illustrate the causes of Ireland's 
 downfall. How a nation, generous and brave, 
 individually the best soldiers on earth, superior 
 to their enemies, by their own confession, in 
 strength, agility, and skill at arms, fell, by anar- 
 chy and division, a prey to merciless marauders. 
 
 Donald O'Brien, about this time, made an 
 effort to recover Limerick. The town was des- 
 titute of provisions, and would be soon compelled 
 to surrender, if not speedily relieved. Murchadh, 
 king of Leinstcr, and Donald, chieftain of Os- 
 sr.ry, united their forces with those of Raymond, 
 which advanced to its relief. The king of Tho- 
 mond, hearing of their approach, raised the siege, 
 and came to meet them as far as Cashel, where 
 he fell into an ambuscade: his armv, surrounded 
 bv superior numbers, was routed, after a vigo- 
 rous resistance; and Donald O'Brien, king of 
 Thomond was obliged to submit to the terms 
 of Raymond. How could a nation stand, so 
 forward to fight not only against each oilier, 
 but for their eneiin ? It was notoniv clan airaiust
 
 OF IRELAND. 33 
 
 clan, or province against province, but civil dis- 
 sensions in the same family desolated the island. 
 
 Dermod Mac Carty, king of Desmond, was 
 compelled, by the revolt of his son Connac, to 
 implore the succour of Raymond, who marched 
 to his assistance, and subdued the revolters. 
 Mac Carty, in recompence for this assistance, 
 bestowed on Raymond a considerable territory 
 in Kerry, of which his son Maurice took pos- 
 session ; who, espousing Catherine, the daughter 
 of Miles Cogan, left a posterity in possession of 
 Mac Carty's grant, known by the name of Clau- 
 morres. 
 
 In the beginning of June, 1176, died, at Dub- 
 lin, the chief of the English colony, Strongbow, 
 after tyrannizing over Leinster seven years. His 
 disease seemed emblematic of the country he in- 
 vaded. A mortification in the foot extended to 
 the vital parts, and caused his dissolution: 'twas 
 thus a mortification of the fundamental princi- 
 ples of the constitution caused its extinction, 
 His corpse was interred by St. Laurence O'Tool, 
 in Christ-church, Dublin. He left no male 
 issue, neither did his son-in-law, William Mar- 
 shall ; so that his immense and illegal acquisi- 
 tions of territory fell, by intermarriages, into 
 different families. To use the language of an 
 English author, Nubrigensis, thew r hole plunder 
 of Ireland, for which he laboured so much, he 
 left to strangers, who felt no gratitude for his 
 perils and turmoils, nor solicitude for the risk 
 of his salvation in the acquisition. A salutary 
 lesson for posterity !
 
 3 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 A whimsical contradiction in the conduct of 
 leading- men in those days, has disconcerted not 
 a little the writers on Irish affairs. They were 
 at a loss to reconcile the cruelty and the piety, 
 the robheries and religious donations, practised 
 bj the invaders. Churches and monasteries plun- 
 dered, and the clergy slaughtered, in one place, 
 and the foundation and endowment of religious 
 houses in other places. -They did not perceive 
 that English policy was the latent motive that 
 explains the contradiction. Religious establish- 
 ments, possessed by Irish natives, were invaded 
 as the property of an enemy; and sometimes a 
 part of the plunder was appropriated to the esta- 
 blishment of religious houses for English sub- 
 jects exclusively, as useful allies for the reduc- 
 tion of Ireland. Thus the knights templars were 
 established by Strongbow at Kilmainham, 1174, 
 to which eight other commanderies were an- 
 nexed afterwards. 
 
 On receiving the intelligence of the death of 
 Strongbow, Raymond hastened from Limerick 
 to Dublin, to superintend the affairs of the co- 
 lony, and preserve their territorial acquisitions, 
 leaving the care of Limerick to O'Brien, king 
 of Thomond, who thereupon set lire to it. As 
 this trust was a matter of necessity, and not of 
 choice, the act of a natural enemy, bound by no 
 treaty, O'Brien might easily conceive that he 
 only did his duty in destroying a place which 
 was held to his injury. 
 
 Henry, always jealous of the progress of the 
 principal invader?., had seat commissioner; to
 
 OF IRELAND 35 
 
 Ireland, to order the appearance of Raymond at 
 court. These commissioners, from an ocular in- 
 spection of the affairs of the colony, judging 
 that his absence would endanger its existence, 
 ventured to suspend the king's orders, and leave 
 him provisional governor. Notwithstanding the 
 statement of his commissioners, Henry sent, as 
 viceroy, William Fitz-Aldelm, and gave him as 
 assistants John de Courcy, and Miles Cogan^ 
 who had signalized themselves in the wars of 
 France and England. 
 
 Stanihurst makes an observation on Fitz- 
 Aldelm, which is applicable to the generality of 
 mankind, that he was not altogether wise, nor 
 altogether foolish. It was not wise policy to 
 disclose his enmity to the Fitzgeralds, who by 
 alliances and property were the most powerful 
 family of the pale. 
 
 After the death of Maurice Fitz-Gerald, he 
 seized on his castle of Wicklow; and to colour 
 this injustice he gave to his three sons the town 
 of Fearns. To secure the possession of this 
 place they built a castle, which was soon after 
 razed, by order of Walter, nephew of Fitz-Al- 
 delm, and governor of Wexford. 
 
 About this time (1177), Henry II. availed 
 himself of the spiritual powers of Rome; and, 
 in consequence of his alliance with the Holy 
 See, for the reduction and the pretended refor- 
 mation of Ireland, obtained the assistance of a 
 pope's legate, to visit Ireland, and conjure it to 
 obedience. Cardinal Vivian, on his arrival in 
 England, was obliged by Henry IL to swear 
 
 VOL, I G
 
 36 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 that he would employ all his authority to sup- 
 port his interest. To fulfil his engagements with 
 Henry, which were probably sanctioned by tem- 
 poral interest, as well as by his oath, shortly after 
 his arrival in Ireland, he called a meeting of 
 bishops and abbots in Dublin, whom he endea- 
 voured to convince, in an eloquent harangue, of 
 Henry's title to the crown of Ireland, command- 
 ing the Irish to obey him under pain of excom- 
 munication. 
 
 Meanwhile the policy of England was build- 
 ing castles and monasteries for the very same 
 object, influence and defence. During the stay 
 of the legate at Dublin, Fitz-Aldelm, the vice- 
 roy, founded a monastery of English canons 
 regular, called Thomas-court. They were en- 
 dowed with the territory of Donore, Co. Meat.li., 
 on condition of praying for the souls of Geoffry, 
 earl of Anjou, and the empress Matilda. The 
 charter did not enjoin these monks to pray for 
 the souls of the proprietors of that territory. 
 
 The denunciations of the legate, however, did 
 not prevent Melaghlin Mac Logblin, ancient 
 proprietor of Meath, attacking the castle of 
 Slane, which he carried by assault, and demo- 
 lished; and in which Richard Fleming, who 
 
 held forcible possession thereof, wiih manv of 
 
 *. ./ 
 
 his followers, was slain. 
 
 This disaster did not discourage other adven- 
 turers from daring enterprizes. The cruel and 
 valiant De Courcy tried his fortune in Ulster, 
 whither the English had not as yet penetrated. 
 With 400 men, in 1177, he arrived at Dow%
 
 OF IRELAND. 37 
 
 the chief city of a territory then called Ullagh, 
 and now the county of Down. The inhabitants, 
 apprehending no danger, were taken by surprise; 
 they were astonished and alarmed at the outrages 
 committed by these barbarians, no house or chest 
 could escape the avidity of the plunderers; as 
 Stanihurst says, quibus spoliis miseras ac diu- 
 turnas egestates explent. It could not be ex- 
 pected that the authority of the Pope's legate 
 could reconcile these miserable sufferers with 
 this strange mode of civilization. 
 
 Roderick, son of Dunlevy, chieftain of the 
 country, raised an undisciplined multitude to 
 oppose the plunderers, but was defeated. The 
 account that Stanihurst gives us of this battle 
 savours much of national partiality. It is not 
 probable that 400 Englishmen defeated 10,000 
 Irish, for several reasons. First, it is not proba- 
 ble, that a petty chieftain could bring so many 
 men into the field; because we find that provin- 
 cial kings were not able to muster so numerous 
 an army. O'Neil, king of Ulster, could only 
 muster 3000 men against Roderic O'Connor, at 
 the head of the confederated forces. Arthur 
 Cavanagh could only bring 3000 men into the 
 field against Richard II., at the head of the 
 greatest English army that ever landed in Ire- 
 land. Where then could a petty toparch find 
 ten thousand? Secondly, it coniradicts the cha- 
 racter, drawn by himself, of the men of Ulster. 
 <f The men of Ulster," says he, " arc by nature 
 and practice very warlike; always inured to 
 arms, their battle with the Britons is conducted
 
 38 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 with boldness and regularity, without any defi- 
 ciency of martial valour, but God, the giver of 
 victory, decided the battle in favour of the 
 English." Though the authority of Cardinal 
 Vivian, the Pope's ambassador, could not re- 
 strain the carnage and plunder of his allies, he 
 obtained the liberty of Malachy, bishop of 
 Down. 
 
 Courcy continued his career of devastation in 
 Ulster. Superstition and barbarity were blended 
 in his character. He had a copy of Merlin's Pro- 
 phecies always about him; and thinking himself 
 designated therein as the conqueror of Ulster, 
 he had it in his pocket by day, and under his 
 pillow by night. 
 
 It seems Merlin did not warn him of his for- 
 tune; as in the year following, 1178, he marched 
 towards Oriel (Louth), where he was vigo- 
 rously attacked in his camp of Gliury, by Mor- 
 tough O'Carrol, chieftain of the country. The 
 action was severe, and De Courcy's forces were 
 entirely routed in their trenches. O'Carrol knew 
 how to conquer, and to avail himself of his con- 
 quest; he pursued the plunderers to the extre- 
 mity of the county of Down, where in a second 
 engagement he cut them to pieces, De Courcy 
 himself, and about a dozen of his gang, with 
 difficulty escaped to the castle of Down. 
 
 Courcy, perhaps instructed by those severe les- 
 sons, had recourse to more efficacious means than 
 the prophecies of Merlin. He built castles, and 
 by the plunder of Irish monasteries founded mo- 
 nasteries of English monks, who answered all
 
 OF IREL4ND. 39 
 
 the purposes of an English garrison. As an in- 
 stance of this policy, common to the English 
 invaders, he destroyed the abbey of Carrick, 
 founded near the bridge of Fane, and applied 
 its revenues for the foundation of a monastery 
 of Cistercian monks, brought from the abbey 
 of Fumes, in England. One of these monks, 
 by name Jocelyn, wrote a life of St. Patrick; 
 a monument, which decisively proves, that phi- 
 losophy was at a low ebb in England, where 
 he received his education. 
 
 In 1183, Courcy dispossessed the canons of 
 the cathedral church of Down, and brought over 
 Benedictine monks from the abbey of St. Wer- 
 burgh, of Chester; and gave them as prior Wil- 
 liam Etleshall, a monk of their order. Another 
 of those spiritual garrisons he established at 
 Tubberglory, and another at Nedrum, in which 
 lie placed English monks from Cumberland. 
 The churches of Inis-Catha ( Inis-Scattery ), an 
 island at the mouth of the Shannon, were appro- 
 priated, byHervey deMountmorres, to the foun- 
 dation of a monastery for English monks, at 
 Dunbrodee, near the confluence of the Suir and 
 Barrow, county of Wexford. 
 
 While the English adventurers were pursuing 
 these judicious plans for the reduction of the 
 island, Henry II. was meditating to secure their 
 acquisitions to his family, by appointing his son 
 John, king of Ireland. He did not neglect any 
 precaution of policy to bring his projects to ef- 
 fect. He obtained the assistance of the court of 
 Rome, and appointed John Comyn, archbishop
 
 40 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 of Dublin, to prepare men's minds for the recep- 
 tion of the young prince. After being knighted 
 at Windsor,, by the king, his father, at the age 
 of twelve, John set off for Milford, in the April 
 of 1175, where a fleet awaited to conduct him to 
 Ireland. He embarked at Easter, accompanied 
 by Ralph Glanville, justiciary of England, and 
 Giraldus Cambrensis, his tutor. He was accom- 
 panied by four hundred knights, and some young 
 debauched courtiers, who possessed his entire 
 confidence. As soon as he landed at Waterford, 
 the Irish lords in its vicinity came immediately 
 to compliment him on his arrival. The manners 
 and customs of the two nations were very diffe- 
 rent. The Irish were naturally hospitable, free, 
 and polite to strangers; the English the very 
 reverse. Receiving the Irish lords with a sulky 
 disdain, they fired the pride of the chieftains, 
 who retired, breathing vengeance for the insults 
 of the royal boy and his debauched companions. 
 War resounded from all quarters; and the chief- 
 tains for a while suspended their private hostili- 
 ties, to avenge -what they considered a national 
 affront. But these tumultuary hostilities pro- 
 duced no other effect, than that of interrupting 
 the pleasures in which John revelled, determin- 
 ing him to abandon so dangerous a dignity, and 
 return to England, after having built three cas- 
 tles, during his stay, for the protection of the 
 colony. His tutor, Gerald Barry, vulgarly called 
 Gyraldus Cambrensis, remained behind, to col- 
 lect the fables which he called the history of 
 Ireland. The policy of England constantly joined
 
 OF IRELAND. 41 
 
 the pen of the libeller to the sword of the war- 
 rior; to destroy the character as well as the per- 
 sons of the natives., and confound in one ruin 
 their fame and their inheritance. 
 
 The king of England, instructed by John's 
 mal-administration in Ireland, thought it expe- 
 dient to entrust the government in the hands of 
 military men. Accordingly John de Courcy, an 
 able officer, practised in the Irish mode of war- 
 fare, was appointed viceroy. He undertook some 
 expeditions to Cork and Connaught, with various 
 success. 
 
 During the progress of the invaders it cannot 
 be supposed, that the natives, however divided 
 by domestic quarrels, could remain idle specta- 
 tors of their own ruin. Here and there some va- 
 liant efforts were made by the invaded clans, 
 which, for want of union, discipline, and a na- 
 tional government, terminated in a fruitless effu- 
 sion of blood. Four English officers, with a 
 detachment of the garrison of Ardfinnan, were 
 put to the sword, by Donald O'Brien, king of 
 Thomond. Another detachment from the same 
 garrison, surprised marauding near Limerick, 
 met the same fate. Surprises and ambuscades 
 are allowed by the law of nations: it is not easy 
 to justify assassination upon any principle. Ar- 
 thur O'Melaghlin, chief of Meath, was killed 
 by the English, three English lords were also 
 killed; and to complete the picture of the times, 
 while assassination, carnage and robbery were 
 triumphant, monasteries were founded. 
 
 About this time an abbey of Bcrnardines was
 
 42 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 founded at Leix, near the river Nuir. The bodies 
 of St. Patrick, St. Columb, and St. Bridget were 
 translated at Down, by the Pope's legate; and 
 the Staff of Jesus was carried in triumph from 
 the cathedral of Armagh to Christ-church, Dub- 
 lin, the adventurers hoping that it would pro- 
 mote their interests. 
 
 While the Irish nation was falling piecemeal 
 a prey to their invaders, the family quarrels of 
 the chieftains accelerated the catastrophe. O'Con- 
 nor Maonmui entered ConnaujHit. at the head of 
 
 O * 
 
 a hostile force, to dethrone his father; but the 
 latter, having obtained the assistance of Donald 
 O'Brien, of Thomond, defeated him. Roderic 
 O'Connor, disgusted, and weary of holding the 
 reins of a tottering monarchy, destitute of the 
 sinews of war, and of the means of enforcing 
 a submission to the laws, retired to the abbey of 
 Cong, where he spent the remainder of his days, 
 thirteen years, to prepare for eternity. 
 
 The natives sometimes copied the example of 
 the invaders, whose pretence was civilization, 
 but whose practice was a lesson in every manner 
 of cruelty and tyranny. About this time Hugh 
 de Lacy, the usurper of Meath, was assassinated 
 at Durrow, with the stroke of a hatchet, by a 
 young Irish lord, disguised as a workman, while 
 he was building a strong castle to keep the vici- 
 nity in subjection. Henry II. on hearing of the 
 death of Lacy, sent his son John, with a consi- 
 derable army, to repossess himself of the govern- 
 ment. Delayed at Chester by contrary winds, 
 the king, on hearing of the death of his sou
 
 OF IRELAND. 43 
 
 jrcoffry, who died at Paris, sent him orders to 
 eturn, and charged Philip Wigorne with the 
 xpedition to Ireland. Some pretend that Henry 
 limself came to Ireland at that time. 
 
 The impending ruin of Ireland \vas not capa- 
 ile of appeasing the intestine troubles of the 
 rish, or uniting them for their common pre- 
 ervation. Donald, son of Hugh O'Loghlin, 
 hieftain of Tyrone, was dethroned by his son 
 loderic Lachertair. The latter made incursions 
 he year following into Tyrconnel, where he was 
 lain, and Donald was again established. 
 
 118(3. The death of O'Conarchy, bishop of 
 ..ismore, and apostolic legate, referred by our 
 nnalists to this year, deserves to be noticed only 
 s it elucidates the policy of the courts of Rome 
 nd London. Since the first alliance, concluded 
 letween Henry II. and Pope Adrian, and con- 
 inued by their respective successors, judging the 
 eduction of Ireland to be for the interest of the 
 Hied powers, they had a Pope's legate always 
 ;i Ireland, of the king's nomination,, and devoted 
 o his interest. Three of them had already acted 
 11 that capacity, Cardinal Vivian, O'Hency, 
 rchbishop of Cashel, and the last mentioned 
 lishop of Lismore. A fresh spiritual ambassa- 
 dor came from Rome, Cardinal Octavian, with 
 n assistant, Hugh de Nounant, bishop of Co- 
 entry and Litchfield, to perform the ceremony 
 f crowning his son John, king of Ireland. The 
 eremony was suspended, says Iloveden, on ac- 
 ount of Henry's continental affairs, who brought 
 kith him the two legates, to ai<t at a confe- 
 
 VOL, i, u
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 rence he was going to hold with the king of 
 France towards a treaty of peace. 
 
 That the absurd union of bigotry and robbery 
 could be met with in the native Irish as well as 
 in their English invaders, Mildouin O'Dono- 
 ghue will serve for an instance. At the head of 
 a gang of freebooters,, he plundered the church 
 of Ardfert, and the abbey of Inisfallen, situated 
 in Lough Lene, (now called the Lake of Kil- 
 larney), and with much effusion of blood. 
 During the prevalence of anarchy and confusion 
 in Ireland,, the wealth of these places attracted 
 the cupidity of a number of swordsmen, more 
 able and willing to fight than to work. 
 
 The writers on Irish affairs, as has been ob- 
 served, seem not to have penetrated the policy 
 which induced the invaders to plunder native 
 monasteries, and found new ones in their room. 
 How edifying it is, says Abbe Geoghegan, to 
 see the plunderers of churches, and of other 
 men's properties, making religious foundations ! 
 This strange sort of devotion was introduced 
 into Ireland by the English, says the abbe. For 
 instance, Philip Wigorne, viceroy of Ireland, 
 after plundering the university of Armagh, 
 founded a priory of Benedictines at Kilcumin, 
 county of Tipperary. But of what nation were 
 the monks? It appears by the original charter, 
 in the Cottonian library, that they were taken 
 from the Benedictine abbey of Glaston, in Eng- 
 land; and were subject to that house, and to the 
 rules of English policy to admit no native mem- 
 bers or novices.
 
 OF IRELAND. 45 
 
 Further to illustrate the policy of the English 
 court in pursuing the subjugation of Ireland, \ve 
 cannot avoid observing, that misrepresentation 
 did appear necessary, notwithstanding the sub- 
 sidies to the Pope, to obtain his concurrence. 
 When St. Laurence O'Toole, archbishop of Dub- 
 lin, and three other Irish bishops, were on their 
 passage through England, to tl>e council of 
 Lateran, Henry II. made them swear, that they 
 would not say any thing there prejudicial to his 
 interests. He dreaded the resentment of the coun- 
 cil if they heard of the abominable cruelties com- 
 mitted in Ireland. According to the colonial 
 writers, the archbishop of Dublin durst not re- 
 turn, on account of having said something in 
 favour of his nation. Be that as it may, this 
 holy prelate fell sick, and died at the town of 
 En, in France. His life was written by a re- 
 gular canon of Eu, in Stirius, with exactitude, 
 according to Baronius. The miracles, which 
 God operated by his intercession, before and 
 after his death, prevailed upon Pope Hono- 
 rius III. to enrol him in the catalogue of saints, 
 in 1226, by a bull dated the third of December, 
 the tenth year of his pontificate, of which a 
 copy is preserved in the Bullarium of Laurcn- 
 tius Cherubinus. The prolestant kings of Eng- 
 land were not the first who disliked the big O, 
 for the catholic kings took good care that no 
 other O should sit in the see of Dublin. *Tis 
 also remarkable, that O'Tool was the last of the 
 Irish saints. 
 
 It is surprising that the Pope could not be
 
 46 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 undeceived, by the representations of that holy 
 and learned man, of the false pretences of the 
 invaders to civilize Ireland. It was the island 
 of saints and learning before they came; what it 
 has become since, the reader will see, and the 
 present generation are sensible. Thus it appears, 
 that no single virtue was imported from England, 
 but the very contrary, the vices of indigent, un- 
 principled, libertine invaders. It was riot with- 
 out reason, that Aubin O'Molloy, abbot of Bal- 
 tinglas, and bishop of Ferns, in an eloquent dis- 
 course, before the prelates and clergy of Lcin- 
 ster, convened at Christ-church by the arch- 
 bishop, John Comyn, on the chastity of ecclesi- 
 astics, declaimed powerfully on the incontinence 
 of the clergy who came from England and 
 Wales. To sum up the picture then, breach of 
 treaty, murder of prisoners of war, assassination, 
 robbery and bigotry, carnage, usurpation, and 
 clerical debauchery, were not the means of im- 
 proving a nation; yet they were the principal 
 things imported by English Papists into Ire- 
 land. 
 
 When any king or chieftain became formida- 
 ble to the invaders by his talents, one of their 
 chief means of getting rid of him was, to invite 
 him to a feast or a conference; and if they could 
 seduce him to put confidence in their good faith 
 or loyalty, they gave him pledges thereof with 
 poison or the dagger. Among the number of 
 those who fell victims to their perfidy, must not 
 be omitted Dermod :\Iac Carty, king of Des- 
 mond, Invited to Cork, bv Theobald Walter
 
 OF IRELAND. 47 
 
 in 1186, as if to a friendly conference., to make 
 a treaty of peace with the invaders, he was basely 
 assassinated. Yet this chieftain had bestowed a 
 considerable territory,, in the county of Kerry, 
 on Raymond, one of the principal leaders of his 
 murderers, whose posterity long held it by the 
 name of Clanmorres. But the most atrocious 
 instance upon record, unexampled perhaps in the 
 history of the heathen world, was the perfidious 
 massacre of the noble families of O'Moore, in- 
 vited to a friendly conference., by the ministers 
 of Philip and his wife,, commonly called., by 
 Protestant writers, bloody queen Mary. This 
 shall be narrated more at large in its proper 
 place. I only mention it here, to shew that the 
 policy of the colony, from the beginning, was 
 invariable; and to make my countrymen sensi- 
 ble, that it is not difference of religion which 
 they ought to consider as the real cause of civil 
 discord and animosity,, but CLASHING INTERESTS 
 and NATIONAL ANTIPATHIES, necessarily sub- 
 sisting between a conquering and an oppressed 
 nation. In a fair review of the conduct of Eng:- 
 
 o 
 
 lish Papists and English Protestants towards 
 Ireland, it will appear to an unprejudiced reader, 
 that the latter have not exceeded the former in 
 outrage and inhumanity; and that the Popish 
 pale was as truly hostile to the national interest 
 as the Orange confederation may be supposed 
 now. Catholics and Protestants live amicably 
 in France, Switzerland, Germanv, and Ameri- 
 ca; and would do so in any country, where the 
 ruling power thought proper to encourage mu~
 
 48 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 tual toleration, and the arts of peace. In more 
 than one church bevond the Rhine. I have seen 
 
 \J 
 
 the altar at one end, and the communion-table 
 at the other, where Catholics and Protestants 
 paid the tribute of devotion to their Maker, at 
 different hours. Ceitain I am, they were not 
 worse Christians for this mutual toleration. They 
 practically enforced the parable of the good Sa- 
 maritan; in which our Saviour commands us to 
 love a dissenter or a heretic as a brother. But 
 
 when unfortunatelvthe rulers of a country think 
 
 ./ i/ 
 
 it politic to divide the people, they will illus- 
 trate the ingenious and shrewd reply of Mau- 
 rice, archbishop of Cashel. Father Barry re- 
 proached the church of Ireland, in the presence 
 of the Pope's leg-ate, with having no martyrs to 
 boast of. The bishop replied, " We shall not 
 be long so. Our new visitors have given suffi- 
 cient specimens, both in their own country and 
 in this, that they are very well inclined to make 
 
 martvrs." He alluded to the murder of the arch- 
 
 i/ 
 
 bishop of Canterbury, and the cruelties of the 
 invaders in Ireland. This prediction was but 
 too well accomplished afterwards. 
 
 It is a striking instance of national character, 
 that whilst a generous and religious people were 
 perishing in the tumults of anarchy and confu- 
 sion, atrocities and acts of piety and charity ap- 
 pear together on the scene. In 1178, Donald 
 O'Loghlin, king of Tyrone, gained a victory, 
 und lost his life, in a bloody battle with the 
 English. The same year Alfred Palmer, of 
 Danish descent, founded the priory of John the
 
 OF IRELAND. 49 
 
 Baptist, at Newgate, Dublin, which was after- 
 wards endowed and converted into an hospital, 
 with 150 beds for the sick, without mentioning 
 chaplains and physicians. 
 
 As a picture of the manners and state of the 
 pretended civilizers, it will be apropos to mention 
 the death of Henry II. as recorded by English 
 historians. In 1189, Henry II. king of England, 
 absorbed in an abyss of sorrow and despair, cur- 
 sing his birth, and the day he was born,* a me- 
 morable lesson to ambitious invaders! died, at 
 the castle of Chinon, and was buried at Font 
 Everard. He was long languishing, but the list 
 that Philip Augustus, king of France, sent him, 
 of the number of those that were conspiring 
 against him, among whom was his son John, 
 gave him the finishing blow. His obsequies 
 were performed in the following manner, ac- 
 cording to Baker. His body was covered witli 
 the royal robes, his crown on his head, white 
 gloves on his hands, boots with golden spurs on 
 his legs, a ring of great value on his linger, a 
 sceptre in his hand, a sword by his side, and his 
 face uncovered. 
 
 After the death of Henry, Richard I. known 
 by the name of Coeur de Lion, ascended the 
 throne. His first enterprise was an expedition to 
 the Holy Land. It is not necessary, with some, 
 to attribute this to any desire of expiating the 
 crime of rebellion, of which he was guilty to- 
 wards his father. The crusades were fashionable 
 
 * Weslmonast. Flor. Hist. Lib. II. an. 1189,
 
 50 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 at that time, and the young king was ambitious 
 of signalizing his valour among the sovereigns 
 which took up the cross. The affairs of the co- 
 lony he left to the management of his brother 
 John, whom his father had appointed king there- 
 of; yet he did not omit to renew the allia'nce 
 with the Pope, and strengthen the English inte- 
 rest in Ireland, by the authority of a legate from 
 the Holy See. For this purpose he sent a depu- 
 tation to Pope Clement III., requesting the no- 
 mination of William Longfield, bishop of Ely, 
 in quality of legate. It appears by the Pope's 
 rescript, in answer to this request, which he 
 granted, that the part of Ireland, then possessed 
 by the English, was not considerable; for the 
 words of the rescript are these. " Clement, the 
 bishop, &c. According to the commendable de- 
 sire of our beloved son in God, Richard, the 
 illustrious king of England, w r e commit to your 
 fraternity the office of legate in all England and 
 Wales, as well in the dioccss of Canterbury as 
 in that, of York, and in those parts of Ireland 
 in which that nobleman, John Morton, the 
 king's brother, has authority and dominion. 
 Given the third of June, the third year of our 
 pontificate, 1188."* 
 
 Meanwhile the Irish did not forget their fa- 
 mily dissensions, or their provincial wars, which 
 the English took care to foment. In Connaught, 
 Cathal Carrach, the son of Cathal Maonmui,, 
 succeeded his father, but found a formidable 
 
 * Matt. Paris. Angl, Hist, ad an. U88, p. 103.
 
 OP IRELAND. 51 
 
 rival in his uncle Cathal Crovdearg. Each had 
 partizans to espouse his quarrel, not only of the 
 Irish natives, but of the English colonists. Fitz- 
 Aldelrn declared for Cathal Carrach, and Courcy 
 for Crovdearg. After some skirmishing, they 
 rarne to a decisive action; Cathal Carrach and 
 his party were routed, after an obstinate battle> 
 in which he and many nobles of the province 
 were slain. Fitz-Aldelm returned to Limerick, 
 with what troops he had left; and the victorious 
 Crovdearg laid siege to a castle he had built in 
 Mileach O Madden, ( O Madden's country, ) 
 but the English garrison withdrawing at night, 
 the castle was demolished. 
 
 Still the fashion continued of mingling do- 
 mestic quarrels, plunder, and bloodshed, with 
 religious foundations, monasteries, and churches. 
 The abbey of Knockmoel was about this time 
 founded by Cathal Crovdearg, in gratitude for 
 his victory. And the English, as usual, did not 
 cease to plunder the monasteries, and to appro- 
 priate at least a part of the spoil for the esta- 
 blishment of English monks, attached to the 
 English interest in Ireland. The priory of St. 
 Mary, at Kenlis, county Kilkenny, w r as founded 
 byGeoffry, seneschal of Lcinster. It is mention- 
 ed by Dugdale and Doddsworth, in their Mo- 
 nasticon Anglicanum. Jocelyn Nangle founded 
 an abbey at Navan for Augustinians. A priory, 
 in the name of Peter and Paul, was founded for 
 the same order, by the Roches of Fermoy. John 
 Comvn, archbishop of Dublin, repaired the 
 cathedral called Christ-church", and entirely re- 
 
 VOL. I, i
 
 52 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 built St. Patrick's, which was falling into decay. 
 
 While these works of policy and devotion 
 were going on, the hostilities of the natives 
 against each other did not relax. War had 
 some time continued between the O'Briens of 
 Thomond, and the Mac Cartys of Desmond. 
 Peace was at length concluded between these 
 two clans, but was of no long duration. 
 
 As if Heaven were offended at the incessant 
 discords of these unfortunate people, at a time 
 when union was so indispensible for their preser- 
 vation, Munster was visited by storms and hur- 
 ricanes, which demolished castles and churches, 
 and destroyed a number of people. 
 
 Still new foundations of monasteries ! At Glas- 
 carig, in Wexford, an abbey of Benedictines. 
 At Ballymore, in Westmeath, an abbey of Cis- 
 tercians; and another in the town of Down, A 
 priory in Trim, and another in Kells, by a bishop 
 of Meath,, and Walter Lacy. 
 
 King Richard, on his return from the Holy 
 Land, was shipwrecked in the Adriatic. He 
 wished to travel incog, through Germany, on 
 his return to England., but had the misfortune 
 to fall into the hands of Leopold, marquis of 
 Austria. That prince forgot not the affront he 
 suffered from Richard, at the siege of Acre; 
 who had snatched from him a standard he had 
 planted on the top of a tower, to plant his own 
 in its stead. He sold Richard to the emperor 
 Henry VII. who kept him prisoner fifteen months! 
 His brother John, according to Ware, was wil- 
 ling to take advantage of this incident, and took
 
 OF IRELAND. 5S 
 
 some steps to get himself crowned king of Eng- 
 land; but, mistrusting the issue, he was content 
 to fortify some castles in England ; after which 
 he had an interview with Philip Augustus, king 
 of France, then in Normandy, who received him 
 with distinction. English writers say, that 
 Richard, on his return from captivity, was re- 
 ceived with acclammations of joy. But it is dif- 
 ficult to reconcile that with his long captivity, 
 when a ransom would have extricated him at 
 once. Perhaps the English had not at that time 
 learned to pay foreign subsidies. 
 
 The hereditary hostility of Irish chieftains 
 continued to furnish the invaders with inexhaus- 
 tible facilities for depredation and conquest. 
 The O'Briens, at enmity with the Mac Cartys, 
 the chieftain of Thomond allowed the English 
 to build the castle of Briginis, as a place of 
 safety, to protect their incursions into Desmond. 
 Aided by such means, the invaders never ceased 
 to pillage: they held nothing sacred that was 
 Irish. Gilbert Nangle pillaged the abbey of 
 Inis Cloghran, situated in Lough Rea; while the 
 spouse of Courcy founded an abbey in Ulster, 
 with the usual English policy, endowed for 
 English monks. 
 
 Our annalists place the death of Dcrvorgoilc, 
 wife of Tighernan O'Rourke, to this year, 119o. 
 She differed from Helen in this: the Greek 
 beauty brought destruction on Troy, the coun- 
 try of her gallant, while the Irish beauty plung- 
 ed her native country, by her debaucheries,, into 
 irretrievable calamities.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 During this reign Richard was so much taken 
 up with continental affairs, being almost con- 
 stantly at war with the king of France, that he 
 did not follow up his father's views, on the con- 
 quest of Ireland, by the powerful means he pos- 
 sessed. He left the English colony to avail 
 themselves of the divisions of the Irish; and to 
 derive from England such reinforcements, from 
 time to time, as might be necessary for their 
 security. 
 
 Many of the Irish chieftains, like Dermod 
 O'Brien, of Limerick, who died about this time, 
 repented the confidence they placed in these 
 foreigners, and the footing they allowed them 
 in the country. Notwithstanding the allow- 
 ance of building a castle, for the annoyance of 
 Desmond, the English, by their usual means of 
 fraud, got possession of his second son Mor- 
 tough, and put out his eyes. It is probable, 
 that it was not without the consent of Donough 
 O'Brien, his successor, that Mac Carty w r as able 
 to demolish the castle, and drive the English 
 out of Limerick. Such occasional victories 
 availed not the Irish, because they either would 
 not or could not follow them up. Regular 
 campaigns can only be carried on by standing 
 forces, which the Irish never kept on foot. 
 
 After this defeat a reinforcement arrived on 
 the coast of Minister, under Philip Wigorne, 
 which restored the affairs of the colonists. In 
 Ulster, Roderic, chieftain of Ulidia, in con- 
 junction with the English, made an inroad into 
 Tyrone; but was attacked at Armagh, during
 
 OF IRELAND. 55 
 
 his retreat, by O'Loghlin, prince of Tyrone, 
 who was soon afterwards assassinated by O'Ca- 
 han. A similar invasion of Tirconnel, by Rus- 
 selj governor of the castle of Kilsandra, was at- 
 tended with worse consequences to the invaders. 
 On their return, with a considerable booty, they 
 were attacked by O'Mildouin, chieftain of Tir- 
 connel, and most of them slain. Mac Carty, of 
 Desmond, irritated by the depredations of the 
 English, put the garrison of Imaculla to the 
 sword, and demolished the fortress. He treated 
 in the same manner, the garrison of Kilfecal. 
 The English, to arrest his progress, mustered all 
 the forces they could; in consequence of which 
 a truce was made, without coming to blows. 
 
 That no part of Ireland should have repose, 
 Gilbert Nangle, one of the invaders planted in 
 Meath, assembled a number of freebooters, and 
 committed great depredations in the neighbour- 
 ing countries. Had he done so in the Irish 
 countries, he would be praised and rewarded ; 
 but, committing outrages within the pale, drew 
 on him the resentment of the justice, Hamon de 
 Valoin, who demolished his castles, and confis- 
 cated his estates. 
 
 Such was the state of unfortunate Ireland. 
 Her annals present nothing to the view but in- 
 cessant storms and outrages. Here and there, 
 indeed, the dreadful scene is diversified, by some 
 acts of bigotry or devotion. At Termon Fcckin, 
 in the county Louth, a nunnery was founded by 
 Mac Mahon, a nobleman of that country. And 
 Courcy ravaged Tirconnel., and slew it*
 
 56 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 chieftain, O'Dogherty, who had succeeded the 
 heroic O'Mildouin. The English did not forget 
 their policy of fortifying themselves; they built 
 the castles of Ardpatrick and Astrettin, in 
 Munster. 
 
 One would be surprized, that the adventurers 
 were able to carry on war against the natives., in 
 so many, and so distant parts of Ireland, at the 
 same time, if he did not know, that most of their 
 forces consisted of native Irish, whether as allies 
 or mercenaries. Without such auxiliaries, they 
 could not effectually carry on their plan of exter- 
 mination. For the natives were so swift of foot, 
 according to the accounts of their enemies, that 
 the English cavalry could not overtake them in 
 a retreat. But they had bodies of their own 
 countrymen, as light infantry, for pursuit and 
 slaughter. By such means were the English 
 enabled to carry on their hostilities in Ireland. 
 
 In 1199, Courcymade a second irruption into 
 Tyrone, laid waste the country, and brought with 
 him much booty, but not with impunity. O'Neill 
 overtook them at Donoughmore, where he com- 
 pletely defeated them, and recovered the booty. 
 At the same time the English of Desmond over- 
 run the country of Minister, and laid waste the 
 whole of it, from the Shannon to the sea. And 
 Richard Tuite built a castle at Granard, to 
 rhcck the O'Reillys, who annoyed the quarters 
 of the invaders. With a similar policy, the 
 \Viiites of the countv of Down established a 
 
 t/ 
 
 garrison of Cistercian monks, brought from 
 Wale* The carl of Pembroke established a
 
 OF IRELAND. 57 
 
 similar one at Tinterne, on the coast of Wexford, 
 garrisoned by Cistercian monks from Wales ; 
 another at Kilrush, in the county of Kildare, of 
 a different order,, but for a similar purpose, to 
 which he added two more in Wexford, of mili- 
 tary orders. 
 
 Such was the deplorable state of this divided 
 country, when Richard I. died in Normandy. 
 He survived his captivity but five or six years. 
 In attempting to take the castle of Chains, 
 near Limoges, by assault, he was wounded in 
 the arm with an arrow, and his wound, by the 
 ignorance of his surgeon, became mortal. His 
 sudden death afforded John Lackland, stilecl 
 Lord of Ireland, a favourable opportunity to 
 seize on the crown, to the prejudice of the right- 
 ful heir, Arthur, son of Geoffry, the eldest son 
 and heir of Henry II. Arthur took arms in de- 
 fence of his right, encouraged by Philip of 
 France; but, taken prisoner at Mirabel, in Poi- 
 tou, by his usurping uncle, he was brought 
 under a strong guard to Rouen, and put to 
 death. By these means John Lackland gave the 
 lie to his name; uniting under his dominion the 
 extensive continental territories of his father, 
 together with England, the Irish colony, and 
 his pretensions to the whole of Ireland. 
 
 This is an instance of the inscrutable ways by 
 which Providence rules the fortunes of nations. 
 Had Henry II. lived to crown his son Johh king 
 of Ireland, and that his elder brothers, or their 
 heirs, lived to inherit England and Normandy, 
 Ireland would have remained an independent
 
 o AN IMPARTIAL HISTORr 
 
 kingdom. John's posterity, reared in Ireland, 
 education and interest would make them Irish- 
 men. The invaders, instead of being freebooters, 
 would become good subjects. They would learn 
 a language more copious and elegant than their 
 own, which at that time was a barbarous jargon, 
 half French, half Saxon. As the Tartar conque- 
 sors of China were civilized and became Chinese, 
 so it would be counted no degeneracy in the 
 English or Welsh to become real Irish, and im- 
 
 O 
 
 bibe the native virtues. Well it had been for 
 their posterity, for in the various revolutions in 
 religion and politics, and the confiscations that 
 usually succeeded them, few of their offspring 
 that are not found mingled in the mass of Irish 
 sufferers. Fresh swarms of adventurers pouring 
 in, during the wars of Elizabeth, Cromwell, 
 and William, used the same language and con- 
 duct towards them as they did to the ancient 
 natives, " the only way to civilize them was, 
 to- kill them and take their properties." Thi* 
 was not the plan of Henry the Second ; a- 
 he demonstrated, by his intention of making 
 his son John king of Ireland. It was the 
 language of the detestable father Barry, the 
 first libeller of Ireland, and tutor to kins; 
 John, but too faithfully put in execution by 
 the adventurers. The same maxim was af- 
 terwards repeated by bishop Jones, who had 
 been scout-master to Oliver Cromwell's ar- 
 my. And it must be allowed, that the adven- 
 turers of that dav, and ever since, acted their 
 part in Ireland's tragedy, with no less ability
 
 Of IRELAND. 59 
 
 than the first adventurers. The death of one or 
 two men decided the destiny of this nation. Was 
 it the effect of chance? Was it the decree of 
 Providence? Numerous prophecies, published 
 by Irish saints, warned this nation of its down- 
 fall; but they likewise consoled it, with the pros- 
 pect of a more glorious uprise. 
 
 King John, no less avaricious than his father, 
 screwed his subjects for money. His reign might 
 be justly called a continual tax. He sold, ac- 
 cording to Hoveden, to William de Braosa and 
 other adventurers, for 4000 marks of silver, all 
 the country of the O Carrols, O Kennedys, O 
 Meaghcrs, O Fogartys, O Ryans, O Heffernans, 
 &c. which Henry II. his father, had bestowed 
 to Philip de Worcester and Theobald Fitz- 
 Waltcr. The Pope and the king of England no 
 doubt were very liberal in bestowing what was 
 not their own, but king John, like most other 
 robbers, thought it better to convert it into cash. 
 Worcester however, who was then in England,, 
 came to Ireland through Scotland, and retook 
 possession of his grant by force of arms. Fitz- 
 Walter, with the assistance of Hugh Bere, his 
 brother, archbishop of Canterbury, compounded 
 with Braosa for his grant, by paying him 500 
 marks, which bargain was signed in the presence 
 of the king. Henry II. had already appointed 
 Fitz- Walter sfrand butler of Ireland. From this 
 
 O 
 
 office his descendants took the name of Butler. 
 
 The sudden prosperity of the adventurers., 
 risi'ig at once from indigence to opulence and 
 power, had its usual effect. Envy and jealousy 
 
 VOL, I, JK.
 
 60 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 soon began to divide them like the ancient 
 natives. The secret enmity between Lacy and 
 Courcy burst forth in the beginning of the reign 
 of king John. His usurpation of the crown from 
 the lawful heir,, Arthur, his nephew, rendered 
 him odious to the public, and his inhuman 
 butchery of the innocent youth made him detes- 
 table. De Courcy, a valiant though cruel war- 
 rior, was not very guarded in his expressions of 
 abhorrence. In some of his transports he went 
 so far as to curse the tyrant, of which the king 
 was informed. Apprised of the enmity between 
 him and Lacy, he appointed the latter justice of 
 Ireland, with orders to arrest Courcy, and to 
 send him in irons to England. Lacy, delighted 
 with a situation, and a command, so flattering to 
 his sentiments, neglected nothing to fulfill his 
 commission. He marched with the forces of 
 the Pale to Down, where De Courcy with his 
 Irish mercenaries and allies defeated him. Lacy, 
 seeing it impossible to conquer him by force of 
 arms, published a royal manifesto, declaring him 
 a traitor to the king, and offering a reward to 
 whomsoever would take him, dead or alive. The 
 valour of his allies could not save him from the 
 treachery of his domestics. By some of these 
 miscreants he was secretly conveyed, on Good 
 Friday, to the justice, who, after paying the 
 promised reward, hanged them. Lacy, without 
 delay, brought his captive to the king, who, in 
 recompence for this service, bestowed on him 
 Courcy's possessions in Ireland, with the title of 
 carl of Ulster.
 
 OF IRELAND. 61 
 
 Notwithstanding the dissensions amongst the 
 chiefs of the colony, they were not unmindful of 
 any means to strengthen the English interest, by 
 multiplying the garrisons of spiritual invaders. 
 At Granee, in the county Kildare, one was erect- 
 ed by Ridlesford, for Augustinians of English 
 descent, mentioned by the authors of the Monas- 
 ticon Anglicanum, with the bull of confirmation 
 of Pope Innocent III. anno 1207. At Nenagh, 
 county Tipperary, Theobald Walter, chief of 
 the Butlers, founded a priory of the Hospitallers. 
 At Athassel, in the same county, a priory of 
 canons regular was founded by De Burgh, from 
 whom the Burkes. At Kilbeggan, in the county 
 Westmeath, there was a Cistercian abbey found- 
 ed by the Daltons. At Tristernagh, in the same 
 county, a priory of canons regular of St. Augus- 
 tine was founded by Geoffry. In the town of 
 Wexford, the priory of Peter and Paul, for 
 canons regular of St. Augustine, was founded by 
 the Roches of Fermoy. At Naas, in the county 
 Kildare, a priory of the same order was founded 
 by the baron of Naas. At Connall, on the banks 
 of the Liffey, county Kildare, a rich priory for 
 canons regular of St. Augustine, was founded by 
 Meyler Fitz- Henry, a natural son of Henry II. 
 This priory depended on the abbey of Anthony 
 in England; the original act of its foundation 
 is in the Bodleian library. An abbey dedicated 
 to St. Wolstan, lately canonized by Pope Inno- 
 cent III. commonly called Scala Celi, in Latin, 
 was founded by Richard and Adam de Hereford, 
 and filled with English monks, anno 1205, At
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Ouney, in the county of Limerick., an abbey of 
 Cistercians,, peopled with Norman monks from 
 Avranche, by Theobald Fitz-Walter, the first 
 grand butler of Ireland. It would be tedious to 
 the reader to go over the long detail of similar 
 foundations, recorded by English and Anglo- 
 Irish writers; such as that of Inisteige, in the 
 county of Kilkenny, founded by the seneschal 
 of Leinster; that of the Cross-bearers, founded 
 in Drogheda; that of Newtown, near Trim, by 
 Rochefort, bishop of Meath; that of Douske, 
 county of Kilkenny, founded by Marshall, earl 
 of Pembroke, for Cistercians; that of Ardee^ 
 county of Louth, founded by Pipard, for cross- 
 bearers, &c. 
 
 The reader will not imagine that the plun- 
 derers of Irish monasteries, and of Irish pro- 
 perty in general, the breakers of treaties, the 
 murderers of prisoners of war, and of innocent 
 and unoffending people, were actuated by piety, 
 in disposing of a part of the plunder in the 
 building of monasteries. If they were not moral 
 and just, they were at least politic, and in these 
 foundations they closely followed the Roman 
 policy of establishing colonies in conquered 
 countries. They also had a fair pattern of the 
 same policy in the conduct of the See of Rome; 
 who, in confirming the establishment of any 
 new order of monks, took care that the novices 
 should, on their admission, swear passive obe- 
 dience to their superiors ; and that the chief of the 
 order, under the title of general, should remain 
 at Rome, under the eve of the Pope, This dus
 
 OF IRELAND. 63 
 
 toot escape the penetrating eye of Frederic II., 
 who, on the suppression of the order of the 
 Jesuits, was heard to say, <f I wonder what 
 could induce Ganganelli to disband his grena- 
 diers." To root out Irish monks, and plant 
 English in their place, to keep a strict alliance 
 with the Pope, by an annual subsidy, was to 
 wield the two-edged sword of the temporal and 
 spiritual power, for the subjugation of Ireland. 
 This policy has been exemplified in the dumb 
 creation. After the destruction of the Irish fo- 
 rests, for hunting the Irish natives, the importa- 
 tion of timber became necessary. Together with 
 the timber from the Baltic, the rats, commonly 
 known by the name of Norway, were imported; 
 who, without regarding the prescriptive title of 
 the little black rats of Ireland, or the imme- 
 morial possession of their rat-holes; without 
 soliciting a grant, either from the Pope or the 
 king of England, but with all the ferocity of 
 invaders, they gave no quarters. Fighting 
 them under ground, and above ground, they de- 
 stroyed the race. A similar revolution attended 
 the Milesian bees. More long and slender than 
 those now commonly seen, and of a darker hue, 
 a few of them are still to be found wild in dif- 
 ferent parts of the country. In imitation of their 
 ancestors of a warmer climate, they collect less 
 wax, make their cells thinner, but gather more 
 honey than the present race; and, with Milesian 
 hospitality, they will not fight for their treasure, 
 but, if plundered, they flit, and begin to work
 
 64 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 While these measures of profound policy and 
 powerful means were preparing for the destruc- 
 tion of the ancient Irish, as if blinded by fate or 
 Providence, they were still a prey to civil dis- 
 sensions. Hugh O'Neil, chieftain of Tyrone, 
 was dethroned by Cornelius Mac Loghlin; but 
 on the latter being slain in battle shortly after 
 by O'Donnel, he was re-established. Such was 
 the anarchy of the Irish, that the discord of the 
 English chiefs availed them nothing. The sale 
 of the grant to Philip de Worcester, by the king, 
 to William de Braosa, caused a great deal of 
 trouble in Minister, as the grantee sought for- 
 cible possession : but the matter was compromised 
 by the surrender of Knock Graffan, and some 
 other places, to William. Geoffry Mac Morres, 
 from some motives of ambition or discontent, at 
 present unknown, raised an insurrection against 
 his fellow adventurers in Tipperary. Lacy, in 
 quality of king's justice, marched with all the 
 troops he could collect towards Thurles, to quell 
 the insurrection. He razed Castle Mcyler; but, 
 after losing a great number of men in the taking 
 of it, and in different actions with the Irish, he 
 was obliged to give up the enterprise. 
 
 This, and all the other instances, which are 
 numerous, of Irish valour, availed the unfortu- 
 nate natives nothing. Actuated only by chival- 
 rous principles, and torn by hereditary feuds 
 and vehement passions, their arms were directed 
 against themselves, by the cool, cruel policy of 
 a phlegmatic people. England, with its conti- 
 nental possessions, was powerful and near. It
 
 OF IRELAND. 65 
 
 was an inexhaustible source of men and arms. 
 The divisions of the numerous clans of Ireland, 
 fomented by the intrigues of England, made 
 them at last a sure, though a difficult prey. The 
 difficulty of the conquest may be estimated by 
 comparison. The vast empire of Hindoostan, 
 almost as distant from England as the antipodes, 
 has been conquered in less than a century. And 
 Ireland, so small, so contiguous to England, so 
 distracted bv anarchy and civil war, was not 
 subdued during four hundred years. 'Tvvas the 
 introduction of gunpowder alone, which deprived 
 the natives of the advantages of superior strength, 
 agility, and skill at arms, that enabled all Eng- 
 land, and half Ireland, after a Contest of fifteen 
 years, to subdue the North. 
 
 In 1209, the city of Dublin was taught by 
 severe experience, that the Irish had learned 
 some lessons of cruelty from the invaders. The 
 citizens of Dublin were regaling themselves at 
 Cullen's wood, (so called from O'Cullen, the 
 ancient proprietor, ) on Easter-Monday, when 
 they were unexpectedly attacked by the O'Byrnes 
 and the O'Tooles, and a great number of them 
 massacred. This gave rise to an annual custom, 
 long observed by the citizens of Dublin, of com - 
 memorating this disaster on the spot where it 
 happened; and the day was denominated Black- 
 Monday. In succeeding ages new actors ap- 
 pear the feast of the Pale is forgotten the fes- 
 tivals of the Cromwellians and of the Williamites 
 now yearly fan the breeze of civil dissension. 
 
 / */ 
 
 The situation of the English colony induced
 
 66 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 king John to undertake an expedition to Ireland 
 in person. He landed at Watcrford, in 1209, at 
 the head of a numerous and well appointed 
 army, to suppress the bordering clans, who were 
 making severe reprisals on the murdering, ma- 
 rauding invaders. He advanced towards Dub- 
 lin, where he received the homage of several 
 chieftains, but there w r ere manv who did not 
 
 */ 
 
 condescend to pay him court.* The object of 
 this expedition appears to have been, rather the 
 establishing order and obedience to the royal 
 authority in the pale, than the conquest of Ire- 
 land. For this purpose he took possession of 
 the castles and strong holds of the adventurers. 
 All fled before him. Among the rest William de 
 Braosa with his whole family; but they were 
 taken, conveyed to England, and confined in 
 the castle of W 'indsor, where they died of hun- 
 ger. Nor did the Lacys entirely escape the con- 
 sequences of their tyranny and rapine. Walter, 
 and Hugh, justice of Ireland, tormented by re- 
 morse for their crimes, and terrified bv the com- 
 
 / 
 
 plaints made to the king, fled to Normandy; 
 upon which, John Gray, bishop of Norwich, 
 was appointed the king's deputy. For the pur- 
 pose of concealment, they presented themselves 
 at the abbey of St. Taurin d'Evreux, as la- 
 bourers, where being received, they tilled the 
 fields and gardens of the abbey during three 
 years. After some time, the abbot, suspecting 
 from their manners and language, that they were 
 
 * Matt. Pan*. A 113!. Ifi-J. JVIaior. ad an. 1210,
 
 OP IRELAND. 67 
 
 not originally bred to manual labour, questioned 
 them about their descent and family. Having 
 learned from them their history, he took com- 
 passion on them, and undertook to make their 
 peace. His interposition with an avaricious 
 king had its full force. John allowed them to 
 return to Ireland, and re-possess themselves of 
 the grants of his father, on paying a large ran- 
 som. Walter paid for Meath 2500 marks of 
 silver, and his brother Hugh had to pay a more 
 considerable sum for his grants in Ulster and 
 Connaught. 
 
 After establishing some laws for the govern- 
 ment of the pale, and ^the regulation of the 
 mint, he passed over to Wales, where he took 
 twenty-eight children of the first quality as hos- 
 tages; but, on hearing that the Welsh began to 
 revolt, in a transport of rage, he ordered these 
 innocents to be hanged in his presence, while at 
 dinner. This trait of barbarity alone, sufficiently 
 depicts this cruel and barbarous tyrant; but the 
 murder of his nephew Arthur, the rightful heir 
 to the crown, had already made him odious and 
 contemptible both at home and abroad. For 
 this he was cited to appear before a court of the 
 peers of France. Not appearing, he was declared 
 a rebel; his territories in France were confis- 
 cated, and he was condemned to death, as the 
 crime was committed within the jurisdiction of 
 the French monarchy. Normandy, Touraine, 
 Anjou and Maine,, were re-united to the French 
 domain, and Guienne alone remained to Eng- 
 land. Another false step, taken by John, com- 
 
 voz-., i. JL
 
 68 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 pleted his humiliation. Having opposed the 
 election of Cardinal Langton for the see of Can- 
 terbury, the Pope put his kingdom under an 
 interdict. The king then set about confiscating 
 the property of the church; and irritated the 
 nobility, by refusing them the privileges and li- 
 berties which Henry I. had granted them by 
 charter. Authorised by the general complaints, 
 presented both from the nobility and clergy,, the 
 Pope excommunicated him, absolved his subjects 
 from their allegiance., and bestowed England to 
 the king of France.* John,, seeing himself aban- 
 doned by the whole nation., was obliged to sub- 
 mit to the Pope, and make a most humiliating 
 penance. He was obliged to lay down his crown 
 it the feet of monks appointed to dictate the 
 terms, to strip naked, and receive a flagellation 
 with a Miserere; and then humbly receive the 
 crown back again from his Holiness, promising 
 him vassalage, and an increase of tribute. 
 
 He was not equally condescending to his sub- 
 jects; but, emboldened by the renewal of the 
 alliance with the Head of the church, he broke 
 all his promises with them. The English, iu 
 revenge, kept no terms with him; but invited 
 Louis, son of Philip of France, and crowned 
 him in London. John did not think it proper 
 to meet his rival, but marched towards the north, 
 Louis also set in motion, with an army of his 
 new subjects, and took Norwich and Dover. 
 Meanwhile John sent an embassy to the Pope, 
 
 * Abbe. O'Geoghegan, Hist, d'lrlandi-, T. II. c. ii. p. 60. 
 Paris edit.
 
 OF IRELAND. 69 
 
 claiming his alliance and protection,, as a vassal. 
 The Holy Father excommunicated Louis and 
 the English. But this interference did not res- 
 cue John from his fate. He lost his baggage and 
 treasure, whilst passing from Lynn to Leicester- 
 shire. A few days after he died, broken-hearted, 
 at Newark. His death appeased the resentment 
 of the English, who declared for Henry, his son. 
 He reigned under the name of Henry III, 
 
 We find in the writings of our annalists, that 
 the rage for building monasteries, with which 
 Ireland was overloaded, continued unabated. 
 New religious orders, about this time, made their 
 appearance in Ireland, and multiplied their con- 
 vents, Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, 
 Cross-bearers, Premonstratenses, &c. Such in- 
 stitutions are conformable to the Christian reli- 
 gion; and, with a reasonable limitation, would 
 be useful. But one may easily perceive, that it 
 was not piety, but policy, that guided the des- 
 troyers and builders of monasteries to erect these 
 strongholds, peopled with ecclesiastical invaders. 
 The natives seem to have been aware of the po- 
 licy of these foundations; for they began to rival 
 the English in building monasteries, from which, 
 by the law of retaliation, novices of English 
 descent were excluded. 
 
 In 1216, Henry III. was crowned, in the 
 ninth year of his age, by the bishops of Win- 
 chester and Bath, in presence of the Pope's le- 
 gate. After the customary oaths of loyalty to 
 (rod and his holy church, and of doing justice 
 to his subjects, he made homage to the Pope for
 
 70 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 his kingdom, and engaged on oath to pay the 
 thousand marks tribute, in addition to the hearth- 
 money, to the see of Rome. 
 
 The chiefs of the adventurers in Ireland, like 
 the captains of Alexander, became giddy by their 
 sudden elevation from indigence to opulence, 
 and desolated the unfortunate country by their 
 hostilities. Meath suffered by the hostilities of 
 Hugh de Lacy with William Marshall. Lein- 
 ster and Munster were often wasted by the quar- 
 rels of the latter with Meyler Fitz-Henry . Taking 
 forcible possession of some lands belonging-to the 
 bishop of Ferns, he died excommunicated. Some 
 writers on Irish affairs observe, that Divine ven- 
 geance chastises impiety; and that his five sons 
 by Isabel, daughter of Strongbow, and heiress, 
 by fraudulent compact, of Leinster, left no pos- 
 terity. 
 
 A strong instance of the English policy in 
 building and destroying monasteries, was fur- 
 nished by Meyler Fitz-Henry,, whose death is just 
 related. At the head of an armed banditti, he 
 entered the town of Cluain Mac Naois, murdered 
 indiscriminately all he met, plundered houses, 
 churches and monasteries, not sparing the orna- 
 ments and sacred vessels. Yet this monster of 
 cruelty built an ecclesiastical garrison atConal], 
 where he was interred. That the English per- 
 severed steadilv to establish their authority, by 
 
 V V */ 
 
 ecclesiastical as well as secular means, may be 
 perceived, not only by their establishing con- 
 vents of English monks, but likewise by their 
 efforts to establish bishops of English descent
 
 OF IRELAND. 71 
 
 wherever their interest could prevail. Henry de 
 Londres, archbishop of Dublin, called so from 
 the city of London, of which he was a native, 
 died about this time, and was succeeded by Lu- 
 cas, dean of the church of St. Martin, London. 
 Eugene, archbishop of Armagh, was succeeded 
 by Luke Netterville. 
 
 As a proof of the munificence of some of these 
 religious foundations, we may instance the Old 
 Four Courts, Christ-church-lane, Dublin. This 
 building was originally erected for Cistercian 
 monks, of Norman or English descent indiffe- 
 rently. It was afterwards conceded to the Do- 
 minicans, on condition of offering a lighted wax 
 candle annually, on Christmas-day, to the Cis- 
 tercian abbey, the scite of which is now called 
 Mary's abbey. As the numerous foundation^, 
 mentioned year after year by our annalists, rather 
 belong to topography than national history, we 
 shall not detain the reader with a detail, only a 
 few instances occasionally. 
 
 While the Anglo-Irish were thus busied in 
 mining or countermining the natives, by every 
 means that religion, arms or policy could sug- 
 gest, the Holy Father took occasion, from his 
 quarrel with the ernpcror Frederic, to make his 
 English vassals sensible of the weight of his al- 
 liance. To obtain the sinews of war, Gregory IX. 
 sent Stephen, as nuncio, with an apostolic man- 
 date, for the payment of the tenth of all move- 
 able property, lay and clerical, from England 
 and Ireland. The English peers rejected this 
 demand; but the clergy, dreading cxcommuui-
 
 72 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 cation, yielded a reluctant obedience. The in- 
 habitants of the pale, sensible of the importance 
 of the Roman alliance, sold not only private 
 property, but the church utensils, to satisfy his 
 demands. 
 
 1229. The monarchs of England had still a 
 hankering for the French provinces wrested 
 from king John. Henry III. made some efforts 
 for the recovery of Normandy. He drew, for 
 this enterprise, auxiliaries from Ireland, which 
 served in fact as a practical military school for 
 English adventurers. Maurice Fitz-Gerald, the 
 justice, had the command of this expedition, and 
 Hubert de Burgo became his substitute in the 
 government of the pale. This man deserves to 
 be noticed, as a striking instance of the versitality 
 of human affairs. In high repute, for his gallant 
 defence of Dover against prince Louis,, he was 
 appointed governor to the king, during his long 
 minority, lord justice of Ireland, and earl of 
 Kent. But he lived to experience a sad reverse. 
 Disgraced by the king, who treated him as an 
 old traitor, and confined to the tower of Lon- 
 don. During the period of his elevation, Mau- 
 rice Fitz-Gcrald being still on the continent, he 
 appointed Geoffry Maurice as the king's deputy 
 in Ireland. 
 
 The native princes made now and then some 
 taint and transitory efforts to resist encroach- 
 ments, or recover their lost patrimony. The king 
 of Counaught, thinking the absence of William 
 Marshall and Robert Fitz-Gerald a favourable 
 opportunity, made some incursions into the EMIT- 
 
 * 4 %. - <_,
 
 OF IRELAND. 8? 
 
 lish territories; but the chieftains of the English 
 settlers had the advantage of trained mercenary 
 bands., accustomed to discipline and obedience,, 
 to oppose to an undisciplined multitude. The jus- 
 tice, Gcoffry Maurice, summoned Walter Lacy, 
 and Richard de Burgo, to his assistance, with 
 all the forces they could raise, with whom he 
 marched to Connaught. Coming to the borders 
 of a wood, they learned by their spies, that the 
 king of Connaught, with his force y was en- 
 camped on the opposite side of it. Geoffry there- 
 upon divided his army into three columns. He 
 gave the command of two of them to Walter 
 de Lacy, and Richard de Burgo, with orders to 
 hide in the wood, to the right and left of the 
 road by which it was traversed. With the third 
 he marched to meet the king of Connaught, and 
 drew up his forces in order of battle. According 
 to his wishes, he was immediately attacked by 
 the Irish. The artful justice thereupon retreated. 
 The Irish fell into the ambuscade, and were cut 
 to pieces, their king taken prisoner. The loss of 
 the Connaught army, some English writers say, 
 was 20,000 men. But this narrative is not ac- 
 companied by circumstances indispensible to his- 
 tory. Time, place and name are wanting. It 
 was written by people accustomed to sacrifice 
 truth on the altar of national vanity. Had the 
 swords of English warriors been as destructive 
 as the pens of their writers, few of their enemies 
 would survive the slaughter. Whether any king 
 of Connaught ever experienced such a defeat, it 
 is certain, that the supposed conqueror met a
 
 74 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 fate, due perhaps to his conduct. Disgraced and 
 sent into exile by his king, the tragical end of 
 his son completed his misfortune. He sunk, un- 
 regretted, by the doleful tale that his son was 
 hanged arid quartered for his crimes. 
 
 It may perhaps diversify the tragic scene a 
 little, to remark, that amidst the tumults of 
 anarchy and predatory warfare, learning was not 
 entirely forgotten in the island of saints. Many 
 of the religious foundations were partly destined 
 for the purpose of education. And we meet in 
 our analists, now and then, the names of men, 
 eminent for their literature. Such as Cornelius, 
 called Historicus, on account of his knowledge 
 of antiquities; of whose life Bale and Stanihurst 
 gave an abridgment. Hector Bcetius acknow- 
 ledges himself indebted to this author of Mul- 
 tarum Rerum Chronicon, for much useful infor- 
 mation towards the knowledge of Scottish his- 
 
 O 
 
 lory. If envy be a sure test of merit, his me- 
 mory is not destitute of that kind of testimony. 
 Dempster, the saint-stealer, with his gluttonous 
 patriotism, would swallow this man into his own 
 country, along with the rest of his thefts. 
 
 'Twas during the minority of Henry III., when 
 one of his English settlers, Hubert, became go- 
 vernor to the minor, and chief justice of Eng- 
 land, that the affairs of the English colonists 
 flourished. He passed two charters in their fa- 
 vour, which are published byLeland; and, being 
 remarkable for the privileges granted to his Irish 
 subjects, are here inserted.
 
 OF IRELAND. 75 
 
 fe The king, to Geoffry de Maurisco, Justiciary 
 of Ireland, greeting. 
 
 (( WE return our manifold thanks, for your good 
 and faithful service performed to John, late king 
 of England, our father, of blessed memory, and 
 to us to be continued, and for those things you 
 have signified to us, by our trusty Ralph of 
 Norwich, clerk. 
 
 " Seeing then, that by his will, in whose hands 
 are the issues of life and death, our lord and 
 father hath happily departed this life, ( whose 
 soul may the heavens receive ! ) We will you to 
 know, that, the royal obsequies being first so- 
 lemnly and duly performed in the church of the 
 blessed Mary of Winchester, there were con- 
 vened at Gloucester the greater number of the 
 nobles of our realm, bishops, abbots, earls, and 
 barons, who adhered faithful and devoted to our 
 father during his lifetime, and very many others : 
 where, on the feast of the apostles Simon and 
 Jude, in the church of Saint Peter, Gloucester, 
 with the acclamations of the clergy and laity, 
 we were, by the hands of the lord Gualon, by 
 the title of St. Martin, presbyter, cardinal and 
 legate of the apostolic see, and those of the 
 bishops then present, with invocation of the 
 Holy Spirit, publicly anointed, and crowned king 
 of England; fealty and homage being of all 
 performed to us. Which we have judged neces- 
 sary to communicate to you as our liege subject, 
 that you may share the joy of our honour and 
 happy success, 
 
 VOL, i M
 
 76 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Cf And whereas we have heard that some re- 
 sentment hath arisen between our lord and father 
 aforesaid, and certain nobles of our realm ; and 
 for some time subsisted; whether with cause or 
 without cause, we know not; our pleasure is, 
 that it should be for ever abolished and forgot- 
 ten, so as never to remain in our mind; and in 
 order that the effect may cease with the removal 
 of the cause, whatever resentment was conceived, 
 or subsisted against him, we are ready and wil- 
 ling to the utmost of our power to atone for, by 
 yielding to all persons what reason shall sug- 
 gest, and the good counsel of our subjects di- 
 rect, abolishing all evil usages from our realm, 
 and by the restoration of liberties and free cus- 
 toms, so as to recal the gracious days of our an- 
 cestors, granting to all our subjects what each 
 may fairly and reasonably claim. For this pur- 
 pose know ye, that a council being lately con- 
 vened at Bristol, in which were present all the 
 prelates of England, as well bishops and abbots 
 as priors, and many, as well earls as barons, they 
 did homage and fealty to us, publicly, and ge- 
 nerally; and receiving a grant of those liberties 
 and free customs first demanded and approved 
 by them, departed in joy, ready and willing to 
 do our service, each to his particular residence. 
 
 " We further hope, and trust in the Lord, 
 that the state of our realm shall, by the divine 
 inercy, be changed considerably for the better. 
 
 " As to sending our lady the queen-mother, 
 or our brother, into Ireland, our answer is, that 
 taking the advice and assent of our faithful sub-
 
 OF IRELAND. 77 
 
 jects, we shall do that which shall be expedient 
 to our interest and the interest of our realm. 
 
 <c We therefore desire you our beloved, that 
 as you have been faithful and devoted to John 
 our father, of blessed memory, so you may be 
 the more careful to continue in fidelity to us,, as 
 you know that in thjs our tender age we have 
 the more occasion for your assistance and coun- 
 sel; and that you receive the homage of the 
 princes of Ireland, and all others who ought to 
 do it unto us. 
 
 " We retain at our court Ralph of Norwich, 
 that by his means we may signify our pleasure 
 to you, more fully, in these and other matters. 
 And our pleasure is, that you and our other 
 faithful subjects of Ireland shall enjoy the same 
 liberties which we have granted to our subjects 
 of England; and these we will grant and con- 
 firm to you." 
 
 <( The king to all archbishops, bishops, abbots, 
 earls, barons, knights, and free tenants, and 
 all our faithful subjects settled throughout 
 Ireland. Greeting. 
 
 cc WITH our hearty commendation of your fide- 
 lity in the Lord, \vluch you have ever exhibited 
 to our lord father, and to us in these our days 
 arc to exhibit, our pleasure is, that in token of 
 this your famous and notable fidelity, the liber- 
 tics granted by our father, and by us, of our 
 grace and gift, to the realm of England, shall 
 in our kingdom qf Ireland, be enjoyed by you
 
 78 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 and by your heirs for ever. Which liberties, 
 distinctly reduced to writing by the general 
 counsel of all our liege subjects, we transmit to 
 you, sealed with the seals of our lord Gualon, 
 legate of the apostolical see, and of our trusty 
 earl William Marishal, our governor, and the 
 governor of our kingdom ; because, as yet, we 
 have no seal. And the same shall in process of 
 time, and on fuller counsel, receive the signature 
 of our own seal. Given at Gloucester the sixth 
 day of February." 
 
 The partiality of the chief justice to the An- 
 glo-Irish interest, appears clearly in these grants, 
 which were voluntary concessions of the same 
 rights and privileges extorted from king John 
 by the English. The same partiality appears 
 in the unjust donation of the kingdom of Con- 
 naught to his kinsman De Burgo. 
 
 After the death of Cathal O'Connor, Richard 
 endeavoured to enforce the grant; but O'Nial 
 interposed, in support of the ancient house, and 
 got Turlough O'Connor proclaimed king. The 
 justice, Geoffry Maurice, had recourse to the 
 established usage of divide and conquer. He 
 marched with an army to Connaught, and set up 
 a rival to the new king, Hugh, the son of Cathal. 
 The demands of the English, in reward for this 
 transfer of power, seeming to him and his party 
 excessive, they resisted them with some success, 
 and took a son of Geoffry prisoner. Invited to 
 an amicable conference by the justice, and assas- 
 sinated, his uncle Turlough re-assumed the so
 
 OF IRELAND. 79 
 
 vereignty. But De Burgo succeeding Geoffry, 
 as king's deputy., soon raised him another rival. 
 His claims of remuneration appearing exorbitant 
 to Phelim O'Connor, he had recourse to arms. 
 The deputy set all the power of the English set- 
 tlers in motion against him; and further to weak- 
 en his resources, declared for the uncle, against 
 whom he had set him up. Yet Phelim had the 
 good fortune to defeat both the English and 
 their Irish partizans, and re-assume the sove- 
 reignty without a rival. But what was still of 
 more advantage than a victory, Hubert was in 
 disgrace; his favourite, De Burgo, ceased to be 
 deputy, and Maurice Fitz-Gerald succeeded 
 him. 
 
 The king of Connaught took occasion of the 
 favourable moment, and endeavoured to secure 
 his people and country from further insults, by 
 royal protection. The king could not but be 
 astonished at the representations of O'Connor; 
 who, with unaffected candour and simplicity, 
 told the grievous tale of his own and people's 
 sufferings, from the enormity of the settlers; so 
 contrary to the false impressions made on him, 
 by his interested governor, concerning Irish af- 
 fairs. Accustomed to hear the natives of Ireland 
 described as uncivilized barbarians, he was sur- 
 prised to see an accomplished and polished gen- 
 tleman. He was no less shocked to find, that 
 the enormities, falsely imputed to the natives, 
 were most commonly committed by their accu- 
 sers. In compliance with O'Connor's request, 
 he addressed a letter to Maurice Fitz-Gerald,
 
 80 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 his deputy, recommend ing the affairs of the king 
 of Connaught to his attention, in the following 
 terms. 
 
 " The king to his beloved liege-man, Maurice 
 Fitz-Gerald, justiciary of Ireland, greeting. 
 
 " Our beloved liege-man, Phelim, son of our 
 dearest king of Connaught, signified to us that 
 he purposed to come to England to see us, and 
 to confer with us concerning our mutual affairs; 
 and we sent him word in return, to assist you in 
 the capture of the castle of Milock, which is in 
 the hand of Richard de Burgo, and when that 
 castle shall have been taken, and surrendered to 
 you, and peace restored in Connaught, we are 
 well pleased, and wish that he should come to 
 England along with the messengers whom you 
 shall send to us. 
 
 " These matters being thus settled, take care 
 to give the said Phelim a safe conduct to come 
 to us, in company with some discreet persons, 
 able and willing to give us true information 
 concerning the state of Ireland. Witness my- 
 self, May 28, the seventeenth year of our reign." 
 
 Thus, favoured by a revolution in the cabinet, 
 which brought the Geraldines into power, who 
 had no intersecting interests beyond the Shan- 
 non, and by the disgrace of the De Burgo fa- 
 mily, the most dangerous enemies of the house of 
 O'Connor, Phelim enjoyed the sovereignty for 
 some time in peace. IJe was neither harassed by
 
 OF IRELAND. 81 
 
 a rival,, nor oppressed by any depredations or 
 claims of the English, being protected by the 
 crown as an acknowledged liege-man. 
 
 The style of Matthew Paris, in relating this 
 fact, being somewhat curious, it may perhaps 
 gratify the reader to have a literal translation of 
 it. " A certain little king of that part of Ireland 
 called Cunnoch, came to the king, at London; 
 and made a grievous complaint before the king 
 and council, of the injuries done him by John 
 de Burgo, who did not cease to lay waste the 
 country with fire and sword. For all which 
 trespasses he demanded justice; and that these 
 rash outrages should be bridled by the royal 
 authority; and that he would not suffer his 
 liege-man, who paid him 5000 marks a year for 
 his kingdom, to be disinherited by ignoble ad- 
 venturers (as he said). The king, moved by 
 the justice of his expostulations, commanded 
 Maurice, in the presence of O'Connor, to extir- 
 pate the unfruitful wild fig-tree of iniquity's 
 plantation, which Hubert had planted in those 
 parts, and not to suffer it to ramify any further, 
 He wrote also to the Irish chieftains, to assist 
 his deputy in extirpating De Burgo from all the 
 possessions of O'Connor."* 
 
 At first view this would appear an act of jus- 
 tice and humanity; if one did not know that 
 courts and princes are seldom guided by any 
 other motive than policy. What benefit he ex- 
 pected therefrom, may appear from a celebrated 
 
 * Matt. Paris. Am;!. Hist. Major, ad an, 1240, p. 365.
 
 82 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 letter he sent to the Irish chieftains, requesting 
 their aid against Scotland. Leland has publish- 
 ed it from Rymer's Foedera. It is in the follow- 
 ing language: f< The king, to Donald., king of 
 Tirconnel, health. Whereas the king of Scot- 
 land has provoked us by injuries, and that we 
 have prepared to rise against him in revenge for 
 his many transgressions, unless he makes repa- 
 ration, confiding in your love, that you will not 
 deny us your help in this our expedition, we re- 
 quest you to come along with our justiciary of 
 Ireland, and other liege-men of Ireland, who are 
 soon to come to the parts of Scotland to distress 
 our enemies there; and that you would be pleas- 
 ed to give us such and so powerful a succour, 
 appearing personally at the head of your brave 
 forces, that you may, in any distress, apply to 
 us for succour with full confidence. And by 
 granting to our prayers this your succour, what- 
 ever favour you ask, we most willingly shall ac- 
 knowledge ourselves bound to grant, with a spe- 
 cial act of thanksgiving. Witness the king, at 
 Stanford, the 7th day of July." 
 
 Copies of this letter were sent to more than 
 twenty Irish chieftains, whose names are pre- 
 served in that record, as independent princes in 
 their respective districts, viz. Phelim O'Connor, 
 king of Connaught; O'Reilly, king of Breifne, 
 (Cavan); O Hanlon of Lower Oirgiel, Bryan 
 O'Neill of Tyrone, O'Cathan of Derry, O'Hy- 
 nery, Mac Donald, Mac Ginnis, Mac Car-' 
 tane, O'Neill of Claneboy, O'Flinn of Antrim, 
 Mac Mahon of Monaghao, Mac O'Calmery,
 
 OF IRELAND. 83 
 
 O'Brien of Thomond, Mac Cartj of Desmond, 
 O'Faolan of the Deisies, O'Condon of Fermoy, 
 O'Caftray, O'Kelly of Wicklow, and Bryan 
 Mac Murchadh of Ranelagh. 
 
 W hat might have been the effect of this re* 
 quisitioii cannot be with certainty known at pre- 
 sent, for a sudden accommodation with the king 
 of Scotland made the march of the Irish forces 
 unnecessary. Next year, however, the king 
 reaped the benefit, whether of his policy or of 
 his justice, by the decisive assistance of Phelim 
 O'Connor, in his wars with Llewellyn, prince of 
 
 Wales. David Llewellyn had defeated the royal 
 
 j j 
 
 army, which was reduced to extreme misery dur- 
 ing the winter. In his necessities, Henry de- 
 manded aid of Maurice Fitz-Gerald, his jus- 
 ticiary, and Phelim O'Connor, king of Con- 
 naught. After some delay, which gave the king 
 uneasiness, the justiciary appeared, in company 
 with O'Connor and his forces, when joining the 
 royal army, they obtained a complete victory 
 over the Welsh, upon which he dismissed the 
 Irish troops, and returned to England. 
 
 Leland gives O'Connor credit, for being tbe 
 only chieftain, requested by the king, who at- 
 tended at his summons; but the justiciary must 
 have been the best judge of what force he deem- 
 ed sufficient for the enterprise, and would not 
 distress the treasury with a useless expence of 
 sending more troops than was wanting. 
 
 Notwithstanding these fair appearances of 
 royal favour, Ireland \vas still plagued by all 
 the scourges of violence and anarchy. The iu- 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 0* AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 vaders never ceasing to encroach on the invaded, 
 the latter sometimes making reprisals. By erect- 
 ing castles in strong situations, they soon found 
 means, among a nation of warriors, to get troops 
 to garrison them, and to share the plunder depo- 
 sited. Secure from a surprise, they could plunder 
 the neighbouring inhabitants, and compel them 
 to pay tribute. Feasting, dancing, music, attract- 
 ed recruits to the castle, and the bards sounded 
 the praise of the noble and hospitable robber. 
 The arm of beauty, descended from an Irish 
 chieftain, graced his hand; and the advantage of 
 hereditary property, by this union of alliance 
 and seduction, enabled the robber to appropriate 
 to himself the property of the clan. 
 
 Fitzgerald, after fyis return from Wales, pur- 
 sued these methods of colonial policy. He and 
 his associates proceeded to encroach upon the 
 noble family of Mac Carty of Desmond. The 
 desolation of war was the natural consequence. 
 At the same time he fomented a war between 
 O'Connor of Counaught and O'Donnell of Tir- 
 connell. 
 
 During the deputyship of the son of Geoff ry 
 Maurice, the government of the Pale was at 
 constant war with the king of Tirconnel ; nor 
 could he be subdued without the auxiliary forces 
 of other Irish chieftains. Neither did the west 
 of Ireland long continue to enjoy the promised 
 benefits of England's protection; for, as if the 
 English made treaties only to break them, Wal- 
 ter de Burgo, on some pretence or other, found 
 the means of driving Pheliin from his territory.
 
 OP IRELAND. 85 
 
 But O'Connor had the spirit to measure swords 
 with the invader, put him and his forces to 
 flight, and retook possession of his patrimony. 
 
 After laying waste a great part of the north 
 and south, Maurice Fitz-Gerald, always ob- 
 noxious to the king, for his supposed infidelity 
 in delaying the succours for the Welsh war, was 
 deposed, 1245, and John Fitz-Geoffry was ap- 
 pointed deputy. 
 
 Still numerous religious foundations continued 
 to be made, as mentioned in the annals; nor did 
 plunder or rapine cease, in the distracted and 
 troubled state of the country. The Fitz-Geralds 
 founded a convent of Dominicans in the county 
 of Kerry; the founder and his so?is, slain by 
 Mac Carty, were interred therein. 
 
 A phenomenon is recorded by the annalists, 
 which rarely happens in these islands. An earth- 
 quake, 1247, infected the air, and communicated 
 some unwholesome qualities to it. This was fol- 
 lowed by a stormy winter, cold and damp, which, 
 lasting till the month of July, made people ap- 
 prehensive for the produce of the earth. 
 
 Henry III. desiring to marry his son Edward, 
 gave him the sovereignty of his part of Ireland, 
 Gascony, and Wales; after which he sent him 
 to Spain, where he espoused Eleanor, sister of 
 king Alphonso, and came back loaden with 
 riches. 
 
 Contention was not confined to the different 
 nations in Ireland. Ecclesiastics too had their 
 differences. A hot dispute continued between 
 the archbishops of Dublin and Armagh for pre-
 
 86 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 cedency. A similar ambition agitated the cathe- 
 drals of Christ Church and St. Patrick. To ad- 
 just their difference,, the archbishop ordained 
 that the election for the see of Dublin should 
 always take place in Christ-church; and that the 
 dean and chapter should, jointly with the prior 
 and monks., have the right of suffrage. At the 
 next election they united their suffrages in favor 
 of Randolph of Norwich, a canon of St. Pa- 
 trick's church; but, though he was of English 
 descent, an English native, Fulk, treasurer of 
 St. Paul's, London, was preferred at Rome be- 
 fore him, and appointed to the see. 
 
 Notwithstanding the long continuance of tra- 
 gic scenes, in a land violently torn by all the 
 horrors of anarchy and oppression, some traces 
 of erudition are still observable. Joannes de 
 Sacro Bosco has been claimed for Ireland, by 
 Ware, Harris, and Geoghegan. He was esteemed 
 the best mathematician of his time. He wrote a 
 treatise on the sphere, on the calculation of the 
 ecclesiastical year, a breviary of law, &c. He 
 died at Paris, in 1256, where he was long an 
 applauded professor. Florence Mac Flin, chan- 
 cellor of the church of Tuam, mentioned in the 
 annals as a learned man, is chiefly admired for 
 his knowledge of canon law. 
 
 Fitz-Geoffry, who succeeded in the government 
 of the settlers, was soon followed by Zouch, who 
 made no long stay, but, returning to England,, 
 was appointed justiciary there. In his violent 
 end we find proof, that turbulence was not con- 
 fined to this country. Some English noblemeo
 
 OF IRELAND. 87 
 
 having altercations about the limits and titles of 
 their estates, the king determined to call a court 
 at Westminster, to terminate their disputes. There 
 Zouch, as justiciary, demanded of earl Warren 
 the titles of his estate. Upon which he drew his 
 sword, replying, " Behold the title by which my 
 ancestors got them, and by the same I mean to 
 hold them." On which he run him through the 
 body. 
 
 The carl of Salisbury, called Stephen Long- 
 sword, succeeded Zouch, as deputy to the lord 
 of Ireland. He carried on war with O'Neil and 
 other northern chieftains. They came to battle 
 at Down, where a great number perished on 
 both sides, without decisive advantage to either 
 party. He died two years after, and, in 1260, 
 was succeeded by William Den, who found the 
 south in flames. The Mac Cartys were making 
 energetic reprisals on the insatiable cruel guests 
 planted in their territories. They became so for- 
 midable, that their enemies durst not peep out of 
 their strongholds. At the battle of Callan they 
 slew a great number: the principal of whom 
 were John Fitz-Thomas, founder of the monas- 
 tery of Tralee, Maurice his son, eight barons, 
 and fifteen knights. The English owed their 
 safety to the usual bane of the Irish. Discord 
 and civil war broke out among the Mac Cartys, 
 O'Driscols, O'Donovans, Mac Mahons, and 
 other clans, inhabiting Muskerry, which so en- 
 feebled them, that they could not make head 
 against the common enemy. 
 
 Thomas Hibeniicus, a native of PalmerVtowo,
 
 88 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 in the county of Kildare, had considerable repu- 
 tation for learning at this period. He was the 
 author of several tracts, viz. Flores Doctorunr, 
 or elegant extracts from the most celebrated doc- 
 tors of philosophy and theology. It was printed 
 in Paris, 1664. A treatise on Religion, on Vir- 
 tue and Vice, Flowers of the Bible, &c. The 
 Annals of Multifernam close about this time, 
 (1274). Gelasius Mac Firbis, an historian and 
 poet of some celebrity, lived in this century. He 
 left a chronicle of his own times, and some poems. 
 
 It is surprising that the incessant din of arms 
 did not entirely banish the Muses from this ill- 
 fated island. But it seems the person of a bard 
 was held more sacred than that of a priest. The 
 English settlers frequently plundered and mas- 
 sacred the clergy; while we find few or no in 
 stances of similar cruelty exercised on the chil- 
 dren of the Muses. In addition to the high res- 
 pect entertained for their profession, ambition 
 was interested in their protection. They were, 
 in a great measure, arbiters of fame; and the 
 murder of one of their body would inflame the 
 whole irritable race of poets and harpers, to con- 
 sign to the execration of posterity the perpetrator. 
 
 Sensible that character forms one species of 
 power, the chiefs of the settlers not only avoided 
 insulting men, possessed of such influence on 
 public opinion, but they kept pensioned bards, 
 to sound and extend their credit. At his com- 
 mand they sounded the war song, inveighed 
 against his enemies, extolled his success in col- 
 lecting their spoils, and praised the munificence
 
 OF IRELAND. 89 
 
 with which he shared the fruits of victory among 
 his followers. In the Book of Fermoy there re- 
 mains a curious collection of such mercenary 
 rhapsodies, composed by Roche's bards. In these 
 times of anarchy they were generally employed as 
 trumpeters of war; and served, by their melo- 
 dious notes, and rapturous strains, to attract en- 
 thusiastic youth to the standard of a chief, and 
 to inflame their ardour in the day of battle. 
 
 No sooner were the Geraldines enabled to 
 breath, on account of the civil wars of the na- 
 tive Desmonians, and assume thcir*former con- 
 sequence, than the enmity between them and the 
 De Burgo's broke out anew. The alliances, 
 lately made between those ambitious families, 
 were incapable of allaying their mutual hatred. 
 The miserable people, partly the tools, partly 
 the victims, of their furious hostilities, were mi- 
 serably ravaged. The insolence of the Geral- 
 dines went so far, as to arrest the king's deputy, 
 Richard de Capell, who interposed his authority 
 to put an end to their disturbance, and confine 
 him to the castle of Dunarnaes. An act of vio- 
 lence which even the Mac Cartys had scrupled 
 to commit, quoth Leland. How blind is he that 
 will not see ! the murder of prisoners of war, or 
 of guests, formed no part of autient Irish cus- 
 toms or manners. Among them the rights of 
 hospitality were held so sacred, that even an 
 enemy, putting himself under the protection of 
 a clan, would be defended against pursuit, at the 
 risk of their lives and fortunes. Thus it was, 
 that the O'Moores of Leix refused to surrender
 
 90 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 one of the Geraldines, who had put himself un- 
 der their coimric, ( protection,, ) in the reign of 
 Henry VIII. To remedy the disorders occasion- 
 ed by the conflicting ambition of the Geraldines 
 and the Burkes, an assembly was held at Kil- 
 kenny; and the imprisoned deputy, together with 
 some English lords imprisoned with him, were 
 liberated at their requisition. 
 
 The king, informed of the distempered state 
 of Ireland, and apprehending the decay of his 
 power there, from the animosities and civil wars 
 of the chief settlers, recalled Capell, and substi- 
 tuted David Barrv. This active deputy employ- 
 ed the resources of the Anglo-Irish government, 
 not neglecting Irish alliances, to bring the Ge- 
 raldines to reason. He seized some of their cas- 
 tles, and employed every means to keep them 
 within bounds, and prevent such another insult 
 
 to the roval authority as the seizure of his deputy. 
 
 / ./ i < 
 
 Meanwhile Walter Burke, encouraged by the 
 interposition of royal authority, which relieved 
 him from the superiority of the Geraldines, set 
 no bounds to his encroachments in Connaught, 
 in defiance of the rights of the prince of that 
 country, acknowledged to him by royal charter, 
 as a tributary. Hugh O'Connor, son of Phelim, 
 rose in his own defence, which was represented 
 as an open rebellion against his liege lord, Henry. 
 But Burke was defeated with great slaughter; 
 nor did he long survive his disgrace. 
 
 The Annals of Innisfallen relate numerous 
 instances of similar encroachments, made by the 
 settlers on the property of the natives, in different
 
 OF IRELAND. 91 
 
 parts of the kingdom; which were followed by 
 their usual concomitants, a scarcity bordering 
 on famine, and great mortality. 
 
 Besides the advantages already mentioned., 
 which the settlers possessed over the natives, in 
 these conflicts of opposite interests; such as cas- 
 tles, for the reception and security of plunder, 
 and of their plundering Irish allies, whom mirth, 
 song, and feast, enticed to the destruction of 
 their country, there were other powerful causes 
 of superiority. The one had a centre of union 
 and subordination, and a factious spirit of na- 
 tional pride and combination; the other were en- 
 thusiastic for the honor of their particular clans, 
 but, entertaining hereditary enmity towards each 
 other, they were utterly divested of national 
 patriotism. These local prejudices, surviving 
 their causes, continue to this day. 
 
 Still the chivalrous spirit of the ancient Irish 
 was not as yet broken. Notwithstanding the 
 anarchy, domestic feuds, and hereditary hostili- 
 ties, that distracted and desolated the country, 
 here and there an heroic chief, at the head of 
 his clan, became formidable to the oppressors. 
 The latter knew too well the means of ridding 
 themselves of a dangerous native. If they found 
 him too hard for them in the field of battle, a 
 convivial murder, the dagger of an assassin, or 
 division, delivered from embarrassment. 
 
 In J270, the Irish natives made some severe 
 reprisals on the settlers, but were afterwards 
 tranquillized by David Barry, the deputy, after 
 the English fashion, 
 
 VOL. I,
 
 92 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 The historians of the pale, and libellers of the 
 ancient Irish, ridiculously calling their partial 
 and malevolent compilations, histories of Ireland, 
 dwell largely on the extortions of the Pope, and 
 the king of England. " At this time a fifteenth 
 of all cathedrals, churches, and religious houses, 
 and a sixteenth of all other ecclesiastical reve- 
 nues, were demanded hy the king, with the con- 
 currence of the Pope. Here the wretched laity 
 were stripped, even of their very necessaries., and 
 the churches of all their ornaments, to supply the 
 rapacious demands of legates and nuncios."* 
 
 The pale historian ought to have remarked, 
 that these oppressive tributes were confined to 
 the popish limits of English jurisdiction, and 
 were effectually resisted by the native catholics, 
 who acknowledged no superior in temporals. 
 The king of England, and the Irish settlers, were 
 equally interested to cultivate their alliance with 
 the court of Rome, and, consequently, to tolerate 
 its extortions. The native Irish, sensible of the 
 injurious abuse of the Pope's spiritual authority 
 to their disadvantage, were less than ever in- 
 clined to pay him tribute. The writers of the 
 pale observe, that the king of England endea- 
 voured to restrain, within some limits, the rapa- 
 cious demands of foreign ecclesiastics, and pub- 
 lished an ordinance, that no legate should pass 
 into Ireland without a royal licence. But it was 
 not merely to spare the natives or settlers, that 
 this politic precaution was used. By this check^ 
 
 * Leland, Vol. I. Book II. c. i. p. 233. Dub. cd. 4to 1773,
 
 OF IRELAND. 93 
 
 the legate would be obliged to share his acqui- 
 sitions, or at least engage on oath not to make 
 any representations of the real state of Ireland at 
 Rome; such as might,, notwithstanding the sub- 
 sidy, be prejudicial to the English interest, to 
 which truth, religion and conscience were always 
 sacrificed. Leland dwells with some severity, 
 and a mixture of truth, on the sufferings of the 
 Irish clergy from these foreigners. " The bold- 
 est remonstrances were made to the king, against 
 the scandalous abuse of investing proud and 
 luxurious foreigners with the dignities and reve- 
 nues of the Irish church, who contemptuously 
 refused to engage in the duties of their function, 
 or to reside in the country which they pillaged 
 with their extortions . . . but the clergy had not 
 only the partialities of the Pope, but those of 
 Henry himself to contend with. The neglected, 
 the worthless, or the depressed, among their 
 English brethren, sought refuge in the church 
 of Ireland, to the utter mortification and discon- 
 tent of the whole body of ecclesiastics, both of 
 the Irish and of the English race, who regarded 
 them as aliens, and deemed the invasion of their 
 own rights equally oppressive, whether Italy or 
 England furnished this series of emigrants. 
 Though forced to submit to the royal authority, 
 strengthened by that of the Pope, they yet de- 
 termined to exert all the power they had left, 
 against the invasions of this strange clergy."* 
 lie forgot to remark, that these ecclesiastical 
 
 * L.'IauiU VuL I, Book II. c. i. p. 233, 234.
 
 94 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 usurpations were confined within the limits of 
 English influence. The Irish princes, who as yet 
 retained their independence, scornfully rejected 
 such encroachments as unchristian. 
 
 Yet even the clergy of English descent were 
 so spirited in their opposition to these intruders, 
 that the king was obliged to appeal to the Pope. 
 The Pontiff, in compliance with the requisition 
 of his ally and tributary, threatened to fulminate 
 the thunders of the Vatican against the daring 
 colonists, who presumed to dispute his own and 
 the king's right, to dispose of benefices to whom- 
 soever they chose, whether English or Italian. 
 The same partial writer, in his further remarks 
 on the ecclesiastics of the settlers, confounds and 
 misleads his readers, by not clearly expressing 
 the distinction between the clergy of the colony 
 and those of the Irish nation. " The clergy," 
 lie says, (C were indefatigable in their encroach- 
 ments on the civil power."* Who would not 
 imagine that the national clergy were meant 
 here; but, in the very next page, it appears 
 clearly, that they were only those of English 
 descent, who were copying the popery of their 
 English brethren. tc An application was made 
 to the, king's courts in England, to decide on 
 this point, (the case of bastardy; ) the statute of 
 JMerton was therefore transmitted to Ireland for 
 the direction of the king's subjects."! The na- 
 tional clergy had nothing to do with the king's 
 English courts, the king's common law, or the 
 
 > Loland, Vol. I. B. II. ch. i. p. 235. I Ibid. p. 36.
 
 OF IRELAND. 95 
 
 statute of Morton, but were guided by the Bre- 
 hon and canon laws. 
 
 The same writer proves, in another instance, 
 the difficulty of subduing inbred prejudice. 
 " The Irish clergy were possessed with exalted 
 ideas of the dignity and glory of their own 
 church,"* (and the whole Christian world 
 agreed with them in this. ) Good reader, would 
 you not fancy, that the following record of 
 clerical tyranny applied to the national clergy? 
 especially when the historian of the colony en- 
 deavours to persuade, by an inuendo, " but 
 what were the manners, at least of some among 
 them . . . we learn from the curious petition of a 
 widow, in the reign of Edward I."* This peti- 
 tion, thus introduced, to blacken the character 
 of the Irish clergy, is as follows. 
 
 " Margaret le Blunde, of Cashel, petitions 
 our lord the king's grace, that she may have her 
 inheritance., which she recovered at Clonmcll be- 
 fore the king's judges, &c. against David Mac- 
 mackerwaytj bishop of Cashel. 
 
 " Item, the said Margaret petitions redress 
 on account that her father was killed by the said 
 bishop. 
 
 " Item, for the imprisonment of her grand- 
 father and mother, whom he shut up and de- 
 tained in prison till they perished by famine, be- 
 cause they attempted to seek redress for the death 
 of their son, father of your petitioner, \\ho had 
 been killed by the said bishop. Item, for the 
 
 * Loland. Vol. 1. B. II. c. i. p. 234, note.
 
 96 * AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 death of her six brothers and sisters, who were 
 starved to death by the said bishop, because he 
 had their inheritance in his hands at the time he 
 killed their father. 
 
 tc And it is to be noted, that the said bishop 
 had built an abbey in the city of Cashel, on the 
 king's lands granted for this purpose, which he 
 liath filled with robbers, who murder the Eng- 
 lish, and depopulate the country; and that when 
 the council of our lord the king attempts to take 
 cognizance of the offence, he fulminates the sen- 
 tence of excommunication against them. 
 
 " It is to be noted also, that the aforesaid 
 Margaret has five times crossed the Irish sea. 
 Wherefore she petitions for God's sake, that the 
 king's grace will have compassion, and that she 
 may be permitted to take possession of her inhe- 
 ritance. 
 
 " It is further to be noted, that the aforesaid 
 bishop hath been guilty of the death of many 
 other Englishmen besides that of her father. 
 
 " And that the aforesaid Margaret hath many 
 times obtained writs of our lord the king, but to 
 no effect., by reason of the influence and bribery 
 of the said bishop. 
 
 " She further petitions, for God's sake, that 
 she may have costs and damages, &c." 
 
 " What a prelate was this, even supposing the 
 allegations aggravated !" says Leland. But was 
 this Macrnackerwayt one of the national clergy? 
 Does the epithet macmac prove the felonious 
 bishop to be of Milesian extraction? Many of 
 the settlers assumed the title of mac; such as
 
 OP IRELAND. 97 
 
 Mac William, Mac Morris. 2dly. None of the 
 natives assumed the sirname of macmac, i. e. the 
 son of the son; because instead of that it would 
 be 6. E. g. When any one adopted a sirname 
 from the name of his father, then it would be 
 joined to mac,, son in English, as Mac Neil, Neil- 
 son, Mac Sean, Johnson; but when he took it 
 from his grandfather, or any remoter ancestor, 
 the 6 was added, simply denoting descent, as 
 de in French, and von in German, but never 
 macmac, except applied to a recent settler, who 
 was not of the clan. 
 
 It is not difficult to perceive, that this sample 
 of ecclesiastical barbarity, industriously pub- 
 lished, and fraudulently interpreted, to tarnish 
 the glory of the island of saints, really belonged 
 to the degenerate English : an obscure adventu- 
 rer, indigent and unprincipled, as most of them 
 are depicted, by English and Anglo-Irish writers, 
 settled in Tipperary. Fairwood was of that de- 
 scription, now generally transported to the south- 
 ern hemisphere, when they can escape the gal- 
 lows. As he neither cared to tell, nor the Irish 
 to know, anything of his pedigree, his grandson 
 was known by the name of Macmac, more cor- 
 rectly Macmicerwayt, i. e. the son of the son of 
 Fairwood. Making allowance for the imper- 
 fection of writing from the ear, and that by a d 
 from people not masters of the language, of 
 which we haye numerous proofs, in the mang- 
 ling of Irish words in English records, it is 
 rather surprising that the name was so preserved 
 as to be intelligible. A demonstrative proof, that
 
 98 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 the reverend culprit was none of the native 
 clergy, is contained in the very act of petition- 
 ing the king of England. This proves that the 
 bishop lived under the jurisdiction of English 
 kings; otherwise we know,, that Cork, Limerick, 
 Cashel, &c. were among their earliest acquisi- 
 tions in Ireland. Consequently, agreeably to the 
 invariable policy of popish England, a native of 
 England, Normandy, or at worst, a settler, was 
 nominated to the see. We had, beside this fellow, 
 many foul specimens of these civilizing villains, 
 as O'Molloy, bishop of Ferns, remarked, in his 
 discourse in Christ-church, before the clergy of 
 Leinster, from the neighbouring island. Ader- 
 ton, bishop of Waterford, hanged for bestiality 
 and sodomy, perhaps was the most disgraceful of 
 the pretended civilizers of the mart of science 
 and sanctity. 
 
 Leland gives many instances of what he sets 
 forth as clerical tyranny. The archbishop of 
 Dublin excommunicated Stephen Longespee, or 
 Longsword, with all his train. He fulminated 
 the same sentence against the magistrates and 
 citizens of Dublin, for opposing his exactions, 
 known by the title, ' oblations of the faithful." 
 In vain they applied to the deputy for protection. 
 He, and the cardinal legate, Ottobon, were in- 
 structed by their masters, who shared the booty 
 levied on the Irish clergy within Henry's juris- 
 diction, to allow them to become the collectors, 
 and raise it on the laity. Accordingly the city of 
 Dublin was compelled to compound the matter. 
 
 The death of Henry III. and the succession
 
 OF IRELAND. 99 
 
 of Edward I. to the throne of England, made 
 no material alteration in the state of Ireland. 
 The new king found sufficient employment for 
 his talents in England, and on the Continent; 
 leaving his Irish subjects, tributaries, and the 
 independent clans, stiled by the settlers, " Irish 
 enemies," to their long accustomed broils. 
 
 The melancholy picture of a magnanimous 
 people, perishing piecemeal, in the convulsions 
 of anarchy, exacerbated by hereditary feuds, is 
 hardly relieved by any incident of novelty, or of 
 consolation, to the heart-feelings of humanity. 
 Edward, at his accession, in a letter to his de- 
 puty, Maurice Fitz-Maurice, made a specious 
 promise of his protection to all his Irish subjects; 
 but his attention was so much directed to weigh- 
 tier affairs, that he did not live to realize his 
 professions. Indeed his subjects in Ireland were 
 more deserving of coercion than protection. 
 Their insatiable encroachments on, and treach- 
 erous dealings with the natives, sometimes pro- 
 voked the resentment of a spirited and warlike 
 people. The O'Moores of Leix, ( King's county, ) 
 and the O'Connors of Ophaly, ( Queen's county, ) 
 flew to arms, repelled the aggressors, demolished 
 their castles, defeated the king's deputy, took 
 him prisoner, and confined him in Ophaly. The 
 victors retaliated on the pale the depredations 
 committed on their own territories; and the next 
 deputy, Glenvill, attempting to oppose them, 
 experienced a signal defeat. 
 
 Maurice Fitz-Maurice, as soon as liberated 
 from prison, \vas the author of new troubles in. 
 
 VOL. i p
 
 100 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Munstcr. Emboldened by his alliance with the 
 duke of Gloucester's son, Thomas de Clare, 
 married to his daughter, and encouraged to 
 wrest lands from the O'Briens, by the promise 
 of a reinforcement from England, under the 
 command of his son-in-law, in conjunction with 
 Theobald Butler, he made war on that princely 
 familv. De Clare soon arrived from England. 
 
 > O 
 
 with a royal grant of the best of their patrimony, 
 and a considerable train of followers, to support 
 his claim. In vain the chieftain exclaimed 
 against the injustice of such lawless grants, 
 made by a man, who had no justcr title to Tho- 
 mond than he had to to the empire of China. In 
 vain he appealed to the treaties, by which the 
 kings of England guaranteed to his family their 
 principality, laws, rights, and privileges, as held 
 by him before the adventurers arrived. The 
 grantee would hearken to no reasoning on the 
 merits of his claim, but referred to the motto of 
 the O'Briens, " Laiv laidir an uatar, The strong 
 hand uppermost." The latter accepted the chal- 
 lenge; but a seasonable assassination of their 
 chieftain lost them a battle. The warlike son* 
 of O'Brien resolved to avenge the insult offered 
 to their tribe, and the death of their father, car- 
 ried on the war with energy and success. The 
 Geraldines were totally overthrown; and the 
 remnant, with the grantee and his father-in-law, 
 were driven into an inaccessible mountain, where, 
 blocked up, and reduced to famine, they were 
 obliged to capitulate, and acknowledge the 
 O'Briens kings of Thomond. ' Hostages were
 
 OF IRELAND. 101 
 
 given for Hie eric, or satisfaction, demanded for 
 the death of their late chieftain, according to 
 Irish custom; and the castle of Roscommon, 
 lately built, and strongly fortified, "was surren- 
 dered to the victorious cnemv."* Oh the blind 
 partiality of these Pale writers ! In the same 
 page he says, " as the Irish allcdgc," but quotes 
 no authority, that O'Brien fell by the treachery 
 of his own people. Undoubtedly, ruffians could 
 be found in Ireland, as well as in other coun- 
 tries, capable of any enormity for a bribe; but 
 it was not the instrument, but the principals and 
 employers, that the Thomonians pursued for 
 eric. It was in the temper of indigent libertines, 
 described as such by their own country writers, 
 come to prey on an opulent divided people, to 
 scruple no means of wresting their property. 
 These instances are sufficient to give an idea of 
 the state of the island in general ; the Irish na- 
 tives being there most wretched, where the power 
 of the settlers was strongest. 
 
 The incessant su Her ings of the Milesians, in 
 several parts of Lcinster; the insecurity of their 
 lives and properties, harrassed and hunted from 
 < very quarter, without protection from law or 
 government, determined them to petition king 
 Edward, to be admitted as his subjects, and be 
 protected by his law. This petition, " wrung 
 from a people tortured by the painful feelings 
 of oppression,"! proves only their deplorable 
 tiiualion, not u decided preference to the Eng- 
 
 * L -laud, Vu! 1 B U, rh.i,, p.-jl. I IbiJ. j>. 2IJ.
 
 102 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 lish law over their own ancient laws and consti- 
 tution, under which the monarchy long flourish- 
 ed. The motives of this application are thus stated 
 by Sir John Davies, attorney-general to James I. 
 " As longe as they [the Irish]) were out of the 
 protection of the lawe, so as evrie Englishman 
 might oppresse, spoile, and kille them without 
 controulment, howe was it possible they shoulde 
 be other than outlawes and enemies to the crowne 
 of England ? If the king woulde not admit them 
 to the condition of subjects,, howe coulde they 
 learnc to acknowledge and obey him as their so- 
 vereigne? When they might not converse, or 
 commerce with any civil man, nor enter into any 
 towne or citty, without perrill of their lives, whi- 
 ther shoulde they flye but into the woodes and 
 mountains, and there live in a wilde and barba- 
 rous manner ? If the English magistrates woulde 
 not rule them by the lawe which doth punish 
 murder, and treason, and theft, with death, but 
 leave them to be ruled by their own lords and 
 lawcs, why shoulde not they embrace their own 
 Brehon lawe, which punisheth no offence but 
 with ,i fine or cricke? If the Irish be not per- 
 mitted to purchase estates of freeholds or inhe- 
 ritance, which might descende to their children, 
 according to the course of our common lawe, 
 must they not continue their custom of tanistrie, 
 which makes all their possessions uncertaine, and 
 brings confusion, barbarisme, and incivility? In 
 a worde, if the English woulde neither in peace 
 governe them by the lawe, nor in war roote them 
 out by the swordc, must they not needes be
 
 OF IRELAND. 103 
 
 prickes in their eyes, and thornes in their sides, 
 till the world's ende?"* Through deputy Ufford 
 they offered 8000 marks to the king, provided 
 he would grant the free enjoyment of the Eng- 
 lish laws to the whole body of Irish inhabitants; 
 the first instance, perhaps, recorded in history, 
 of any people offering a bribe to a foreign king 
 to receive them as his subjects. Here follows 
 Edward's answer to this memorable petition: 
 
 <e Edward, by the grace of God, king of Eng- 
 land, lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine, 
 to our trusty and well beloved Robert de 
 Uffford, justiciary of Ireland, greeting. 
 
 " THE improvement of the state, and peace of 
 our land of Ireland, signified to us by your let- 
 ter, gives us exceeding joy and pleasure. We 
 entirely commend your diligence in this matter, 
 hoping, (by the divine assistance, ) that the things 
 there began so happily by you, shall, as far as 
 in you lieth, be still further prosecuted with the 
 greater vigour and success. 
 
 " And whereas the community of Ireland hath 
 made a tender to us of 8000 marks, on condition 
 that we grant to them the laws of England, to 
 be used in the aforesaid land, we will you to 
 know, that, inasmuch as the laws used by the 
 Irish are hateful to God, and repugnant to all 
 justice., and having held diligent conference, and 
 full deliberation with our council on this mat- 
 
 * Davics's Discovery.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL I1ISTORV 
 
 tcr, it seems sufficiently expedient to us and to 
 our council, to grant to them the English laws; 
 provided always that the general consent of our 
 people, or at least of the prelates and nobles of 
 that land, well affected to us, shall uniformly 
 concur in this behalf. 
 
 " We therefore command you, that having 
 entered into treaty with these Irish people, and 
 examined diligently into the wills of our com- 
 mons, prelates, and nobles, well affected to us 
 in this behalf, and having agreed between you 
 and them on the highest line of money that you 
 tan obtain, to be paid to us on this account, you 
 do, with the consent of all, at least of the greater 
 and sounder part aforesaid, make such a compo- 
 sition with the said people, in the premises, as 
 NOU shall judge in your diligence to be most ex- 
 pedient for our honour and interest. Provided 
 however, that, these people should hold in readi- 
 ness a body of good and stout footmen, amount- 
 ing to such a number as you shall agree upon 
 with them for one turn only, to repair to us 
 when we shall think lit to demand them." 
 
 In this answer, the king's cautious policy, 
 whether he should at all admit the old natives 
 to the rank of subjects is plain. Referring the 
 petition to the decision of the settlers, whose ob- 
 ject was to exterminate the old proprietors, and 
 seize on their properties for themselves, \\as, iu 
 fact, to reject it. As well might catholic eman- 
 cipation be referred to the vole of protestant 
 ascendancy. Iti the improbable event,, that the
 
 OF IRELAND. 105 
 
 popish oppressors should consent to the emanci- 
 pation of Milesian catholics, lie, it seems, not 
 satisfied with the offer of 8000 marks, recom- 
 mends a hard bargain to be made with them, 
 " the highest fine of money that you can ob- 
 tain ;" "provided however, that these people 
 should hold in readiness a body of good and 
 stout footmen, &c." His majesty of England, it 
 seems, was unacquainted with the temper and 
 policy of his liege-men of his land of Ireland, 
 the pale, or he would have never indulged the 
 chimerical notion, that they would surrender the 
 victims of their daily oppression, their destined 
 prev, to become the instruments of his avarice 
 and ambition. Under various pretences, the ob- 
 jects of the petition were eluded; and this by 
 prelates and barons calling themselves catholics. 
 Two years afterwards, the cry of oppression 
 reached the ears of the sovereign from the same 
 quarter. The petition of emancipation from the 
 tyranny of English descended papists, was again 
 presented by old native catholics, anno 1280. 
 This petition met the fate of its predecessor, be- 
 cause referred, like it, to the consideration of 
 the colonists. What must have been the feelings 
 of these unhappy men, visibly marked out for 
 slaughter. They would not be allowed as fellow 
 subjects, by the barbarous papists of the pale, 
 both clergy and laity, who eyed them and their 
 patrimony, with the feelings and eyes of a butcher 
 marking out sheep for the knife! Notwithstand- 
 ing the lines and services they repeatedly prof- 
 fer red for legal protection, every Englishman
 
 106 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 might kill and plunder a native. If, perchance, 
 summoned to a court of justice, he obtained per- 
 fect impunitv, bj swearing that he killed only a 
 mere native Irishman. If the murdered person 
 was a man of rank, the assassin was even ap- 
 plauded and rewarded ! 
 
 These were not the sole misfortunes of the 
 natives. The foreign wolves, after sating their 
 voracity with their spoils and blood, involved 
 them also in their wars with each other, ravaging 
 and slaying without mercy. The native Irish 
 formed the main bulk of their forces; and these 
 were placed in every post of danger. 
 
 Besides those already mentioned, they found 
 another mode of recruiting, from those they treat- 
 ed as Irish enemies. While they lulled the neigh- 
 bouring tribes, by the mockery of treaties of al- 
 liance, never meant to be kept, they made a sud- 
 den irruption upon some district, marked out as 
 a prey ; and, overpowering it, they built a castle, 
 compelling all they condescended not to kill, to 
 work at the building. Thither they conveyed 
 all the provision they chose, together with the 
 best connected and handsomest young women, 
 to be married to some of their followers. These 
 they employed, like the Sabine women, to entice 
 their relatives to enlist under the banners of the 
 new bashaw, who knew how to reward military 
 merit; to exchange famine for plenty; and the 
 scanty and precarious tenure of gavel-kind, for 
 the security and splendor of hereditary estates. 
 Thus the country falling to ruin on every side, 
 and policy dictating something to be saved from
 
 OF IRELAND. 107 
 
 the common wreck for themselves and families, 
 multitudes were forced or seduced, by fraud and 
 violence, to enlist with the destroyers; besides 
 numbers, who volunteered with them for a pro- 
 mised share of plunder. Another source of booty 
 and aggrandizement, was the facility of exciting 
 clans, embittered with hereditary feuds, to make 
 war on each other; sometimes joining one side, 
 sometimes another, untill both were enfeebled 
 and subdued. So easy it was to kindle such 
 petty wars, that the parliament of the Pale passed 
 an act, in the tenth year of Henry VII. forbid- 
 ding any liege-man, under pain of treason, to 
 excite the. Irishry to war against the Pale, or the 
 king's deputy. 
 
 The elective form of the petty sovereignties, 
 especially since the downfall of the monarchy 
 and constitution, opened a wide field of con- 
 stantly recurring opportunities, to the phlegma- 
 tic calculating ambition and avarice of the in- 
 vaders. On such occasions they used every art, 
 to inflame the contest of an election into a civil 
 war among the clan and their followers. These 
 being the most cruel of wars, they were sure to 
 be called in, to the aid of the weaker party, on 
 their own terms. If their allies succeeded, lands, 
 matrimonial alliance with the triumphant chief, 
 and castles for their security, rewarded their ser- 
 vices, untill they gradually became greater than 
 the chieftain of the territory. If beaten, as some- 
 times happened, still it was a splendid though 
 bloody lottery for adventuring speculation; and 
 the next contested election of a chief would re- 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 108 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 pair their losses, and amply reward their under- 
 mining toils. 
 
 By such arts, profiting of the confusion and 
 anarchy of the country,, the Fitz-Geralds, Burkes, 
 Butlers, Eustaces, Lacys, &c. became great lords, 
 allied in blood, and ranking with the greatest 
 Irish chieftains. So De Clare, notwithstanding 
 his defeat, and humiliating treaty, and the pay- 
 ment of an eric for the murder of O'Brien Roe, 
 became a great man once more. His remittances 
 from England enabled him to interfere with ef- 
 fect, in the disputed succession to the chieftainry 
 of Thomond. His ally was acknowledged by 
 the majority of the electors. His rival, indig- 
 nant at English interference, and supported by a 
 powerful party, was preparing to wage a bloody 
 war against the new chieftain, when the ami- 
 cable interposition of Mac Carty, chieftain of 
 Desmond, assuaged the fury of his countrymen. 
 (e He entreated them to consider, that they were 
 arming against their own brethren, preparing to 
 depopulate their lands, blowing up the flame of 
 civil dissension, which had already wasted their 
 unhappy country. That they had a common 
 enemy, industriously fomenting, and taking ad- 
 vantage of their disorder, to subdue them by 
 their own weapons. That their interest, and that 
 of all their countrymen, called loudly on them 
 to compose their private differences, and wait, 
 with patience, some favourable opportunity to 
 recover their lost rights." His mediation was 
 successful. 
 
 I see no immediate reason, but this charitable
 
 OF IRELAND. 109 
 
 good office to his deluded countrymen, that 
 made Leland, the Pale historian, say, " The 
 Mac Cartys, ever implacable enemies to the Eng- 
 lish, proceeding with a dark and determined ran- 
 cour. 1 ' I see no dark rancour in this mediation. 
 But, if they were really animated with implaca- 
 ble enmity to their inhuman invaders, it only 
 proved they were men endowed with human 
 feelings. If the bare recital of their deeds of 
 treachery and blood, fills every humane breast 
 now with horror, how must the sufferers and 
 spectators in the tragic scene have felt? Unfor- 
 tunately for the Milesian race, they felt not an 
 adequate degree of abhorrence for their syste- 
 matic destroyers, capable of suspending for some 
 time their hereditary animosities, to save them- 
 selves from the ruin decreed for them. 
 
 The English were not the only enemies the 
 Irish had to fear; they had more to apprehend 
 from their own intestine divisions. O'Connor, 
 prince of Connaught, and Mac Dermot of Mog- 
 lurg, took the field against each other; waging 
 a cruel and desolating war, perhaps at the insti- 
 gation, certainly to the great delight, and for 
 the profit, of their enemies. O'Connor was among 
 the number of the slain. Some time before, 
 O'Hanlon, at the instigation of Ralph Peppard, 
 was at war with O'Neil. Meanwhile O'Connor 
 Falie was murdered by Jordan Comin; and his 
 brother Charles was assassinated, by Pierce But- 
 ler, at Carrick. "What a misfortune, in them 
 days, for a native Irishman to be a large pro- 
 prietor. The O'Connors were, from the remotest
 
 110 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 antiquity, in possession of lands, seized by these 
 foreign usurpers. They must be cut off, O'Coch- 
 lan was more fortunate, for he totally defeated 
 William Bourke, with his followers, at Delvin, 
 his ancient patrimony, 
 
 Ireland might justly be compared with Re- 
 becca, bearing in her womb the struggling in- 
 fants, Esau and Jacob. Two hostile races now 
 tore the country to pieces between them; but 
 the ancient, by far the more numerous and power- 
 ful in physical force, were lacerated by their 
 conflicts with each other, still more than by the 
 weapons of those who avowedly laboured for 
 their extermination on system. Ravages, blood- 
 shed, and desolation disfigured the face of the 
 country, still the rage for building convents did 
 not cease. A long list of these may be found 
 with Geoghagan and the annalists. 
 
 During the successive administration of the 
 Pale, by three deputies, the scene continued 
 nearly the same, agitation and turbulence. The 
 monotonous tale of Ireland's misfortunes, may 
 be a little diversified by the narrative of a quar- 
 rel between two of the principal settlors, which 
 may amuse the reader, like a farce a Her a tra- 
 gedy. During Ven-y's administration, there were 
 violent disputes between him and John Fitzge- 
 rald, son of the baron of Ophaly. According to 
 Hollingshed's Chronicle, they proceeded to the 
 most scurrilous invectives, und the vilest Bil- 
 lingsgate. In an assembly where they met, they 
 mutually reproached each other with robbery, 
 assassinations, extortions, &c. The baron having
 
 OF IRELAND. Ill 
 
 made some reflections on the birth of the gover- 
 nor, the latter replied, that the Vescys were noble 
 before the Fitzgeralds were barons of Ophaly, 
 even before your bankrupt forefather made his 
 fortune in Leinster, (alluding to the head of 
 that family, who accompanied Strongbow to 
 Ireland). The quarrel did not stop in Ireland. 
 They went to England to plead their cause be- 
 fore the king and court. The presence of his 
 majesty could not silence their invectives nor 
 reproaches. Perhaps this stile of conversation 
 was at that time fashionable among the civil i- 
 zcrs of Ireland. Fitzgerald, weary of disputing, 
 challenged his antagonist to single combat, which 
 was highly diverting to the court in those chival- 
 rous times. According to some English writers, 
 Vescy, shunning the combat, fled to France; ac- 
 cording to others, it was Fitzgerald declined it. 
 However that may be, Fitzgerald was put in 
 possession of the lands and castles of Vescy; in 
 Kildarc and Rathangain. From him are de- 
 scended the Fitzgeralds of Kildare, who shortly 
 afterwards got the title of earl of Kildare, and 
 latterly duke of Leinster. 
 
 Amidst all this turbulence, and clash of 
 arms, ravaging the country, some examples re- 
 main, proving that Irish literature was, though 
 thwarted and interrupted, not quenched. In 
 130.'), died Nicholas Mac Molisse, archbishop 
 of Armagh, celebrated for his eloquence, his 
 wisdom, and zeal for religion. That the Mile- 
 sian influence was on the wane, and the English 
 interest beginning to predominate, even in church
 
 112 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 matters, is proved by the name of his successor 
 in the see of Armagh, John Taaffc, sprung from 
 the settlers of the county of Louth. 
 
 There is an anecdote related of Edward I. in 
 Baker's Chronicle, which, though not directly 
 connected with Irish affairs, may serve to throw 
 light on the character of those who pretended to 
 civilize Ireland. The Welsh, driven from Eng- 
 land into the mountains of Wales, by their per- 
 fidious allies, the Saxons, maintained their inde- 
 pendence untill the eleventh, century, when they 
 were subdued, and their king, Ap Rees, ( Rice, ) 
 was massacred. The remembrance of their for- 
 mer liberty, and the tyranny of their new mas- 
 ters, caused some revolts; but the superior power 
 of England, in its immediate vicinage, always 
 succeeded to quell them. It was reserved for 
 Edward to exhibit a barbarous example of civi- 
 lization to the world, lie made war on Llewel- 
 lyn, prince of Wales, who, was betrayed to a 
 soldier, who cut off his head, and sent it to Ed- 
 ward, in London, where, by his orders, it was 
 fixed on a spike of the Tower. His brother, David, 
 shortly after fell into the hands of the English. 
 They tied him to a horse's tail, and dragged him 
 through the streets of Shrewsbury; then they 
 cut out his bowels, and threw them into a fire 
 prepared for the purpose; his head was fixed 
 near his brother's, on the Tower; they cut him 
 into four parts, and hung up a quarter in four 
 towns, viz. Bristol, Northampton, York, and 
 Winchester. 
 
 This was an authentic declaration that David
 
 OF IRELAND. 113 
 
 Llewellyn was a hero and a patriot, who often 
 pressed hard on his enemies in defence of his 
 country's rights. It is likewise an incontrover- 
 tible proof, that the English did not degenerate 
 from the civilizing methods, practised by their 
 ancestors, the Saxons, on the Britons, who in- 
 vited them as allies; nor from those of their 
 other progenitors, the Normans, exercised on 
 the Anglo-Saxon race afterwards. How can the 
 impudent lying scribblers of the Pale pretend, 
 that the unprincipled indigent marauders, de- 
 scribed as such by cotemporary and copatriot 
 writers, coming here for blood and booty, learned 
 to commit atrocities in this country? An Irish 
 war was carried on with all the principles of 
 chivalrous honour; they sought not extermina- 
 tion, but subjection, as the Roman poet says, 
 " to spare the submissive, and to subdue the 
 proud." One battle generally finished hostilities, 
 and the victor, not tutored to kill prisoners of 
 war, was content witli hostages and tribute. 
 
 After thus annexing the principality of Wales 
 to his dominions, Edward turned his ambitious 
 views toward Scotland. That kingdom, after 
 tlie death of Alexander III. without issue, was 
 rent by factions, supporting different pretenders 
 to the crown. Of these, Baliol and Bruce were 
 the most eminent; the one nearer to the royal 
 family in blood, the other in higher estimation. 
 To profit of these divisions, he took a journey 
 to Scotland; and first addressing himself to 
 Bruce, offered to place him on the throne of 
 Scotland, ou condition he would swear fealty to
 
 114- AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 him, as his liege-lord. The answer of Bruce 
 was worthy of his talents and patriotism. ee I 
 shall not sacrifice my country's rights to the 
 ambition of reigning." He next applied to Ba- 
 liol, who, less punctilious, accepted the condi- 
 tioris, was crowned king of Scotland, at Scone, 
 and swore homage to Edward, at, Newcastle. 
 His retractation afterwards kindled a fierce war 
 hetween the two nations, which was renewed, 
 after different intervals of a truce, rather than 
 a peace, during three hundred years, and was 
 only terminated bv the union of the two crowns 
 in James, the First of England, and Sixth of 
 Scotland. 
 
 During the thirteenth century flourished the 
 celebrated John Dun Scotus, called the subtle 
 doctor. He wrote many works of philosophy 
 and theology, with much penetration and sub- 
 tletv. Eiirht folio volumes of his works are 
 
 *. o 
 
 extant in print; but, though formerly in vogue 
 in the schools, shey are now read by few. He 
 died suddenly at Cologne, where he was interred. 
 His order, the Franciscans, presented him before 
 the holy college, as probably a fit subject for 
 canonization. The process went on, after the 
 usual cautious circumspection of that court. 
 After the accustomed evidences of sanctity of 
 life, miracles are laid before them, attested on 
 oath by creditable witnesses; a lawyer is ap- 
 pointed to discuss the several articles, and cross- 
 examine the witnesses. The process went on to 
 the btage of beatification ; sanctification was the 
 UTV next step, The rival order of St. Dominic
 
 OF IRELAND. 115 
 
 took the alarm. They dreaded to see the great 
 rival of their sainted doctor, Thomas, rank with 
 him in the schools. They remembered, with 
 bitter resentment, the victory he gained over 
 them, in the famous dispute about the immacu- 
 late conception; and they moved heaven and 
 earth to avert his canonization. They dug up 
 his grave, in Cologne, opened his coffin, attested 
 on oath before the college, that they found him 
 turned therein, lacerated by the nails, and with 
 an appearance of having bit his arm. This 
 put an end to the process; and John Dun, the 
 Irish Scot, remains excluded from the catalogue 
 of saints. The title to all the printed copies of 
 his works, taken from his own manuscript, 
 ought to silence the contest between three na- 
 tions about his birth, fc Johannes Dun, Scotus 
 Hibernus." 
 
 Edward II. the second son of the deceased 
 king, succeeded to the throne, and shortly after 
 married Isabelle, daughter of Philip le Bel, of 
 France. He recalled his favourite, Gaveston, 
 whom his father had banished the kingdom. 
 This nobleman had so far gained on the king's 
 affection, that he disposed of all favours and 
 graces, which drew upon him the envy and ha- 
 tred of the English nobility, who threatened to 
 oppose his coronation, if he did not expel his 
 favourite from the kingdom. The weak king 
 consented; but, in order to soften the disgrace, 
 sent him to Ireland, invested with the royal au- 
 thority, where he suppressed some revolts, and 
 laboured effectually to secure the possessions of 
 
 VOL. i, R
 
 116 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 the settlers in Leinster. The king, unable to 
 bear the absence of his favourite, and flattering 
 himself that time and distance had cooled the 
 hatred of his enemies,, recalled him from the go- 
 vernment of the Pale, and sent Sir John \Yogan 
 to replace him. To establish his credit the more 
 effectually, he had him married to the daughter 
 of the earl of Gloucester. This alliance with 
 one of the first families in the kingdom, served 
 but to encrease the detestation of his enemies. 
 Another incident decided his fall. At the tour- 
 naments of Wallingford, he bore away the prize 
 from all the English lords who durst contend 
 with him. Not satisfied with this triumph of 
 his address and courage, he humbled their pride 
 still more by piquing sallies of wit and raillery, 
 than by his victory in feats of arms. They all 
 conspired against him, made lively remonstrances 
 to the king, intimating, that nothing short of the 
 sacrifice of his favourite could appease their 
 resentments. Gaveston, yielding to the storm, 
 passed over to Franco; but the desire of seeing 
 again his dear master, dragged him into England 
 once more, at the risk of his life. There he re- 
 mained sonic time incog. To secrete him from the 
 fury of his enemies, the king assigned, for resi- 
 dence, the caslle of Scarborough, as a secure 
 
 o y 
 
 asylum; but he was soon besieged there, by a 
 revolted nobility, and obliged to capitulate, on 
 condition of .saving his life. This treaty was not 
 long kept. The earl of \Var\vick dragged him 
 from his keepers, and cut off his head, without 
 form of law, notwithstanding the reiterated en-
 
 OF IRELAND. 117 
 
 treaties of the king. Such was the end of Ga- 
 veston, one of the handsomest and most accom- 
 plished men of his age,, native of Gascony. 
 Royal favour has often proved a dangerous 
 honor. 
 
 During the feeble administration of deputy 
 Wogan, a contention between the prelates of 
 Armagh and Dublin, whether their erozicrs 
 should be borne before them, in certain districts, 
 erect or depressed, was treated as an important 
 state affair. The contest occasioned some blood- 
 shed; and the king's mediation was necessary, 
 to settle the controversy. 
 
 The great lords, taking advantage of despised 
 government, carried on their wars without fear 
 or controul. The bulk of their forces, always 
 composed of old natives, were the victims of the 
 folly or madness of their leaders. The earl of 
 Ulster marched into Thomond, with all the 
 pride of an independent sovereign, to assert some 
 pretended rights with the sword; but was there 
 humbled by a signal defeat. He was made pri- 
 soner, with several of his most distinguished ad- 
 herents, and obliged to .submit to such terms as 
 his conquerors imposed. The accommodation 
 was cemented by the marriage of Maurice and 
 Thomas Fitz-John, the heads of the houses of 
 Desmond and Kildare, to two daughters of the 
 earl of Ulster. 
 
 This union between these powerful families 
 seemed to promise some tranquillity, when new 
 enemies were invited by the tyranny of the set- 
 tiers, exercised over the ancient inhabitants. The
 
 118 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 successful resistance of Scotland to the encroach- 
 ments of England, was a grateful hearing to the 
 distressed Milesians, who always regarded the 
 Scots as kinsmen. Their many gallant exploits 
 under Wallace, barbarously murdered by the 
 English, and under young Bruce, the son of 
 him who disdained the proffer of the crown on 
 conditions dishonourable to his country, became 
 the theme of Irish bards, rousing their country- 
 men to honor and glory. The news of the ever 
 memorable and decisive victory of Bannockburn, 
 where 30,000 brave Scots, under the command 
 of the gallant Bruce, routed 100,000 English, 
 commanded by the king in person, filled their 
 Irish kinsmen with rapture. Mortified by a gall- 
 ing yoke, which, for want of union or concert, 
 they were unable to shake off. they adopted, in 
 all appearance, a very prudent resolution. As 
 the provincial kings were too proud to bear a 
 native superior, they could feel na humiliation 
 in a young hero, of their own race, brother to 
 the victorious king of Scotland, monarch of Ire- 
 land. As the northern chieftains lay most conve- 
 nient for Scotland, they first sent ambassadors 
 to Robert Bruce, then marching with his victo- 
 rious forces through the north of England. They 
 painted to him, in glowing colours, the unparal- 
 lelled calamities inflicted on their country by in- 
 solent oppressive invaders. That they wanted but 
 such a leader to rescue their whole nation from 
 present distress and impending ruin. That thev 
 did not consider it a foreign yoke, to receive a 
 sovereign from the Scots, descended from the
 
 OF IRELAND. 119 
 
 same stock as themselves; one \vlio had courage 
 to defend them, and equity to rule with justice. 
 That the alliance of the two kingdoms would 
 be of the utmost utility to each,, whether in a 
 commercial or political point of view; and that 
 their united strength would form an impregna- 
 ble rampart against the ambition of English 
 kings. Robert Bruce was well pleased with the 
 proffer. He was aware of the great supply of 
 men and provisions,, furnished by Ireland to Ed- 
 ward in his war against Scotland; and was too 
 keen-sighted not to perceive the vast advantages 
 of such an alliance, if the Irish nation, so long 
 torn by intestine divisions, making havoc of each 
 other in every corner of the kingdom, could be 
 brought to support an efficient executive in the 
 monarch. If the monarchy was held on the same 
 precarious footing as heretofore,, without revenue 
 or forces, the alliance would rather be burden- 
 some than beneficial to Scotland. On assurances 
 given, that the monarchy would be supported 
 with their lives and fortunes,, and O'Neil, the only 
 Irish prince entitled to the throne, setting the 
 example, the Scottish king accepted the propo- 
 sals. He urged his brother Edward, a valiant 
 and aspiring youth, to accept the proffered dia- 
 dem; assuring him of such effectual support, as 
 would enable him, with the assistance of his new 
 subjects, to bear down all opposition. The he- 
 roic youth naturally embraced the offer with ar- 
 dor; the chiefs of Ulster were assured of his 
 speedy arrival with a considerable force; and the 
 pews was received with joy throughout the pro-
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 vince. These negotiations thus divulged, the 
 government of England, and their Irish party, 
 were apprized of their danger, and prepared for 
 defence. Richard, earl of Ulster, lords Edmond 
 Butler and Theobald de Verdun, were summon- 
 ed to the parliament in England, to treat with 
 the king, his prelates and nobles, about the 
 affairs of Ireland. They returned back next 
 spring, instructed to deliver the result of their 
 deliberations to the principal nobles, prelates, 
 and magistrates. They had even the effrontery 
 to present them to the Irish chieftains, of whose 
 lives and 'fortunes they made daily havock, by 
 treachery and violence, assassination and mas- 
 sacre, sowing division, and exciting hostilities 
 among a too irritable race. 
 
 Among other measures, offensive and defensive, 
 both parties applied to the Pope, whose thunders 
 were as yet formidable. The king of England, 
 with the confidence of an ally, and a firm stick- 
 ler of popery, whose address derived additional 
 weight, from the annual subsidy paid to St. Pe- 
 ter's successor. The Irish chieftains, being only 
 catholics, divested of such claims to papal par- 
 tiality, relied on the justice of their cause, and 
 sent the following pathetic statement of their 
 sufferings from unprincipled tyrants, to Pope 
 John XXII.* 
 
 * See Plowtlcn, Vol. I. Geoghegan, T. II. J. Fordun,. 
 Scoto-Chroii. T. III. &c.
 
 OF IRELAND. 121 
 
 " To the most holy father in Christ, Lord John, 
 by the grace of God, his devoted children, 
 Donald O'Neil, king of Ulster, and by here- 
 ditary right true heir of all Ireland, as also 
 the chieftains, and nobles, and the people of 
 Ireland,, recommend themselves most humbly, 
 &c. &c. 
 
 fc It is extremely painful to us, that the vipe- 
 rous detractions of slanderous Englishmen, and 
 their iniquitous suggestions against the defenders 
 of our rights, should exasperate your holiness 
 against the Irish nation. But alas, you know 
 us only by the misrepresentation of our enemies, 
 and you are exposed to the danger of adopting 
 the infamous falsehoods, which they propagate, 
 without hearing anything of the detestable cru- 
 elties they have committed against our ancestors, 
 and continue to commit even to this day against 
 ourselves. Heaven forbid, that your holiness 
 should be thus misguided; and it is to protect 
 our unfortunate people from such a calamity, 
 that we have resolved here to give you a faith- 
 ful account of the present state of our kingdom, 
 if indeed a kingdom we can call the melancholy 
 remains of a nation, that so long groans under 
 the tyranny of the kings of England, and of 
 their barons, some of whom, though born among 
 us, continue to practise the same rapine and cru- 
 elties against us, which their ancestors did against 
 ours heretofore. We shall speak nothing but 
 the truth, and we hope, that your holiness will
 
 122 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 not delay to inflict condign punishment on the 
 authors and abettors of such inhuman calamities. 
 " Know then, that our forefathers came from 
 Spain, and our chief apostle, St. Patrick, sent 
 by your predecessor., Pope Celestine, in the year 
 of our Lord 435, did, hy the inspiration of the 
 Holy Ghost, most effectually teach us the truth 
 of the Holy Roman Catholic faith, and that 
 ever since that, our kings, -well instructed in the 
 faith that was preached to them, have, in num- 
 ber sixty-one, without any mixture of foreign 
 blood, reigned in Ireland to the year 1170. And 
 those kings were not Englishmen, nor of any 
 other nation but our own, who with pious libe- 
 rality bestowed ample endowments in lands, and 
 many immunities on the Irish church, though in 
 modern times our churches are most barbarously 
 plundered by the English, by whom they are 
 almost despoiled. And though those our kings, 
 so long and so strenuously defended, against 
 the tyrants and kings of different regions, the 
 inheritance given them by God, preserving 
 tlicir innate liberty at all times inviolate; yet 
 Adrian IV. your predecessor, an Englishman, 
 more even by affection and prejudice than by 
 birth, blinded by that affection, and the false 
 suggestions of Henry II. king of England, un- 
 der whom, and perhaps by whom, St. Thomas 
 of Canterbury was murdered, gave the dominion 
 of this our kingdom, by a certain form of words, 
 to that same Henry II. whom he ought rather to 
 have stript of his own, on account of the above 
 clime.
 
 OF IRELAND. 123 
 
 " Thus, omitting all legal and judicial order, 
 and alas ! his national prejudices and predilec- 
 tions blindfolding the discernment of the pontiff, 
 without our being guilty of any crime, without 
 any rational cause whatsoever, he gave us up to 
 be mangled to pieces by the teeth of the most 
 cruel and voracious of all monsters. And if 
 sometimes, nearly flayed alive, we escape from 
 the deadly bite of these treacherous and greedy 
 wolves, it is but to descend into the miserable 
 abysses of slavery, and to drag on the doleful 
 remains of a life more terrible than death itself. 
 Ever since those English appeared first upon 
 our coasts, in virtue of the above surreptitious 
 donation, they entered our territories, under a 
 certain specious pretext of piety and external 
 hypocritical shew of religion; endeavouring in 
 the mean time, by every artifice malice could 
 suggest, to extirpate us root and branch; and 
 without any other right, than that of the strong- 
 est, they have so far succeeded, by base and frau- 
 dulent cunning, that they have forced us to quit 
 our fair and ample habitations and paternal in- 
 heritances, and to take refuge, like wild beasts, 
 in the mountains, the woods, and the morasses 
 of the country; nor can even the caverns and 
 dens protect us against their insatiable avarice. 
 They pursue us even into these frightful abodes^ 
 endeavouring to dispossess us of the wild uncul- 
 tivated rocks, and arrogating to themselves the 
 property of every place, on which \ve can stamp 
 the figure of our feet; and through an excess of 
 the most profound ignorance, impudence, arro~ 
 VOL, i, R
 
 124 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 gance, or blind insanity scarce conceivable, they 
 dare to assert, that not a single part of Ireland 
 is ours, but by right entirely their own. 
 
 ff Hence the implacable animosities and exter- 
 minating carnage, which are perpetually carried 
 on between us; hence our continual hostilities, 
 our detestable treacheries, our bloody reprisals, 
 our numberless massacres, in which, since their 
 invasion to this day, more than 50,000 men have 
 perished on both sides: not to speak of those, 
 who died by famine, despair, the rigors of cap- 
 tivity, nightly marauding, and a thousand other 
 disorders, which it is impossible to remedy, on 
 account of the anarchy in which we live; an 
 anarchy, which, alas ! is tremendous, not only to 
 the state, but also to the church of Ireland; the 
 ministers of which are daily exposed, not only to 
 the loss of the frail and transitory things of this 
 world, but also to the loss of those solid and 
 substantial blessings, which are eternal and im- 
 mutable. 
 
 " Let those few particulars, concerning our 
 origin, and the deplorable state to which we 
 have been reduced, by the above donation of 
 Adrian IV., suffice for the present. 
 
 tc We have now to inform your holiness, that 
 Henry, king of England, arid the four kings his 
 successors, have violated the conditions of the 
 pontifical bull, by which they were empowered 
 to invade this kingdom; for the said Henry pro- 
 mised, as appears by the said bull, to extend the 
 patrimony of the Irish church, and to pay to the 
 apostolical see, annually, one penny for each
 
 OF IRELAND. 125 
 
 bouse. Now this promise both he and his succes- 
 sors above-mentioned, and their iniquitous mi- 
 nisters, observed not at all with regard to Ire- 
 land. On the contrary, they have entirely and 
 intentionally eluded them, and endeavoured to 
 force the reverse. 
 
 f( As to the church lands, so far from extend- 
 ing them, they have confined them, retrenched 
 them, and invaded them on all sides, insomuch 
 that some cathedral churches have been, by open 
 force, notoriously plundered of half their pos- 
 sessions. Nor have the persons of our clergy 
 been more respected; for, in every part of the 
 country, we find bishops and prelates cited, ar- 
 rested, and imprisoned without distinction ; and 
 they are oppressed with such servile fear, by those 
 frequent and unparallelled injuries, that they 
 have not even the courage to represent to your 
 holiness the sufferings they are so wantonly con- 
 demned to undergo. But since they are so cow- 
 ardly, and so basely silent in their own cause, 
 they deserve not that we should say a syllable in 
 their favour. The English promised also to in- 
 troduce a better code of laws, and enforce better 
 morals, among the Irish people; but instead of 
 this, they have so corrupted our morals, that the 
 holy and dove-like simplicity of our nation is, 
 on account of the flagitious example of those re- 
 probates, changed into the malicious cunning of 
 the serpent. 
 
 fc We had a written code of laws, according 
 ta which our nation was governed hitherto. 
 They have deprived us of those laws, and of
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 every law except one, which it is impossible to 
 wrest from us; and for the purpose of extermi- 
 nating us, they have established other iniquitous 
 laws, by which injustice and inhumanity are 
 combined for our destruction. Some of which 
 we here insert for your inspection, as being so 
 many fundamental rules of English jurispru- 
 dence established in this kingdom. 
 
 ec Every man, not an Irishman, can,, on any 
 charge, however frivolous, prosecute an Irish- 
 man; but no Irishman, whether lay or ecclesias- 
 tic, (the prelates alone excepted, ) can prosecute 
 for any offence whatsoever, because he is an 
 Irishman. If any Englishman should, as they 
 often do, treacherously and perfidiously murder 
 an Irishman, be he ever so noble or so innocent, 
 whether lay or ecclesiastic, secular or regular, 
 even though he should be a prelate, no satisfac- 
 tion can be obtained from an English court of 
 justice: on the contrary, the more worthy the 
 murdered man was, and the more respected by 
 liis own countrymen, the more the murderer is 
 rewarded and honoured, not only by the Eng- 
 lish rabble, but even by the English clergy and 
 bishops; and especially by those, whose duty it 
 is, chiefly, on account of their station in life, to 
 correct such abominable malefactors. Every 
 Irish woman, whether noble or ignoble, who 
 marries an Englishman, is, after her husband's 
 death, deprived of the third of her husband's 
 lands and possessions, on account of her being 
 an Irish woman. In like manner, whenever the 
 English can violently oppress to death an Irish-
 
 OF IRELAND. 127 
 
 man, they will by no means permit him to make 
 a will, or any disposal whatsoever of his affairs: 
 on the contrary, they seize violently on all his 
 property, deprive the church of its rights, and 
 per force reduce to a servile condition, that blood 
 which has been from all antiquity free. 
 
 fe The same tribunal of the English, by ad- 
 vice of the king of England, and some English 
 bishops, among whom the ignorant and ill-con- 
 ducted arch-bishop of Armagh was president, 
 has made in the city of St. Kenniers,( Kilkenny, ) 
 the following absurd and informal statute: that 
 no religious community in the English Pale, 
 shall receive an Irishman as novice, under pain 
 of being treated as contumacious contemners of 
 the king of England's laws. And as well be- 
 fore as after this law was enacted, it was scru- 
 pulously observed, by the English Dominicans, 
 Franciscans, monks, canons, and all other reli- 
 gious orders of the English nation, who shewed 
 a partiality in the choice of their religious sub- 
 jects; the more odious, inasmuch as those mo- 
 nasteries were founded by Irishmen, from which 
 Irishmen are so basely excluded by Englishmen 
 in modern times. Besides, where they ought to 
 have established virtue, they have done exactly 
 the contrary; they have exterminated our native 
 virtues, and established the most abominable 
 vices in their stead. 
 
 " For the English, who inhabit our island, 
 and call themselves a middle nation, (between 
 English and Irish ) are so different in their morals 
 from the English of England, and of all other
 
 128 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 nations, that they can, with the greatest pro- 
 priety, be stiled a nation, not of middling but of 
 extreme perfidiousness. For it is of old, that they 
 follow the abominable and nefarious custom, 
 which is acquiring more inveteracy every day 
 from habit; namely, when they invite a noble- 
 man of our nation to dine w ith them, they, either 
 io the midst of the entertainment, or in the un- 
 guarded hour of sleep,, spill the blood of our un- 
 suspecting countrymen, terminate their detesta- 
 ble feast with murder, and sell the heads of their 
 guests to the enemy. Just as Peter Brumiche- 
 haine, who is since called the treacherous baron, 
 did with Mauritius de S his fellow spon- 
 sor, and the said Mauritius' brother, Calnacus, 
 men much esteemed for their talents and their 
 honour among us. He invited them to an enter- 
 tainment, on a feast day of the Holy Trinity; on 
 that day, the instant they stood up from the 
 table, he cruelly massacred them, with twenty- 
 four of their followers, and sold their heads at 
 a dear price to their enemies ; and when he was 
 arraigned before the king of England, the pre- 
 sent king's father, no justice could be obtained 
 against such a nefarious and treacherous offend- 
 er. In like manner lord Thomas Clare, the duke 
 of Gloucester's brother, invited to his house 
 the most illustrious Brien Roe O'Brien of Tho- 
 
 rnond, his sponsor. 
 
 f( All hope of peace between us is therefore 
 completely destroyed; for such is their pride, 
 such their excessive lust of dominion, and such 
 our ardent ambition to shake off this insupport-
 
 OF IRELAND. 129 
 
 able yoke, and recover the inheritance which 
 they have so unjustly usurped; that, as there 
 never was, so there never will be any sincere co- 
 alition between them and us: nor is it possible 
 there should in this life, for we entertain a cer- 
 tain natural enmity against each other, flowing 
 from mutual malignity descending by inheri- 
 tance from father to son, and spreading from 
 generation to generation. 
 
 fc Let no person wonder then, if we endeavour 
 to preserve our lives, and defend our liberties, 
 as well as we can, against those cruel tyrants, 
 usurpers of our just properties, and murderers 
 of our persons; so far from thinking it unlaw- 
 ful, we hold it to be a meritorious act. Nor can 
 we be accused of perjury or rebellion, since nei- 
 ther our fathers or we, did at any time bind our- 
 selves by any oath of allegiance to their fathers 
 or to them; and, therefore, without the least re- 
 morse of conscience, while breath remains, we 
 will attack them, in defence of our just rights, 
 and never lay down our arms until we force 
 them to desist. Besides, we are fully satisfied to 
 prove in a judicial manner, before twelve or more 
 bishops, the facts, which we have stated, and 
 the grievances, which we have complained of. 
 Not like the English, who in time of prosperity 
 contemn all legal ordinances; and, if they eu- 
 ed prosperity at present, would not recur to 
 Rome, as they do now, but would crush, with 
 their overbearing and tyrannical haughtiness 
 all the surrounding nations, despising every law 
 human and divine.
 
 130 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 " Therefore, on account of all those injuries, 
 and a thousand others, which human wit cannot 
 easily comprehend; and on account of the kings 
 of England, and their wicked ministers, who, 
 instead of governing us, as they are bound to 
 do, with justice and moderation, have wickedly 
 endeavoured to exterminate us off the face of the 
 earth ; and to shake off entirely their detestable 
 yoke, and recover our native liberties, which we 
 lost by their means, we are forced to carry on 
 an exterminating war; chusing in defence of our 
 lives and liberties, rather to rise, like men, and 
 expose our persons bravely to all the dangers of 
 war, than any longer to bear, like women, their 
 atrocious and detestable injuries. And in order 
 to obtain our interest the more speedily and con- 
 sistently, we invite the gallant Edward Bruce, 
 to whom, being descended from our most noble 
 ancestors, we transfer, as we justly may, our 
 own right of royal dominion, unanimously de- 
 claring him our king, by common consent, who 
 in our opinion, and in the opinion of most men, 
 is as just, prudent, and pious, as he is powerful 
 and courageous: who will do justice to all 
 classes of people, and restore to the church 
 those properties, of which it has been so damna- 
 bly and so inhumanly despoiled," &c. 
 
 On receipt of this spirited pathetic remon- 
 strance, the Pope, though solicited by the court 
 of London, to issue an excommunication against 
 the Irish and Scotch, thought proper to send 
 it copy of it to Edward II., accompanied with
 
 OF IRELAND. 131 
 
 the following exhortations to attend to the grie- 
 vances stated therein, and correct them. 
 
 (c Pope John, the servant of the servants of God, 
 to the illustrious Edward, king of England, 
 health and eternal benediction. 
 
 f MOST beloved son, we bear a paternal love 
 for the encrease and prosperity of your highness, 
 while we invite you, with earnest exhortation, 
 to attend to those things which are pleasing to 
 the just judge of your kingdom, and that would 
 be productive of the peace of your lands and 
 subjects, and worthy of your sense and honor. 
 For which reason you ought to receive our ad- 
 vice with a devout mind, and yield yourself flex- 
 ible and ready to put them in execution. Behold, 
 my son, we have received letters, addressed to us 
 long ago, by the magnats and people of Ireland, 
 to the address of our beloved sons Anselm, car- 
 dinal presbyter of the SS. Marceiline and Peter, 
 and Luke, cardinal deacon, of the title of St. 
 Mary, of Broadstreet, nunciosof the apostolicsee, 
 anu by them transmitted to us, inclosed in their 
 own letters. In the sayings of which, among 
 other things, we have seen a document, stating, 
 that whereas Pope Adrian, our predecessor of 
 happy memory, had granted the dominion of Ire- 
 land to Henry II., your progenitor of illustrious 
 memory, by apostolic letters, containing a cer- 
 tain modification and limits; that the said king 
 and his successors, kiisgs of England, to this 
 time, have not obeserved this modification, nor 
 VOL. i T
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 these limits, but, on the contrary, transgressing 
 them, have oppressed the Irish with unheard-of 
 grievances of insupportable servitude, and super- 
 fluous afflictions; nor was there hitherto any 
 who would redress those grievances, or punish 
 those crimes. No one was moved with a pious 
 compassion for the destruction of these people; 
 although they often had recourse to you, and 
 the loud cry of the oppressed sometimes rung in 
 your ears. 
 
 " On these accounts, unable any longer to 
 bear such tyranny, they were compelled to with- 
 draw from your dominion, and to call another 
 to rule them. 
 
 " These allegations, my dear son, if founded 
 on truth, are so much the more distressing to 
 our feelings, the more intensely we wish all sorts 
 of prosperity to you. You ought sedulously to 
 attend to those things, and to put in speedy exe- 
 cution such measures, as mav be pleasing to 
 your Creator; and solicitously to avoid all things 
 by which God himself, the Lord of vengeance, 
 might be provoked against vou, who does not 
 neglect the groans of those unjustly oppressed, 
 who is known to have rejected his chosen people 
 for their injustice, and made a transfer of em- 
 pires. What we the more aruYnllv wish for you 
 is, to pav attention, in these times of revolution, 
 to every means that may conciliate the affections 
 of the people, and avoid even thing that mav 
 cause disaffection. Now, as it is your interest to 
 prevent the evils that these troubles may cause, 
 so it is most expedient not to neglect the begin-
 
 OF IRELAND. 133 
 
 mugs, lest the evil encreasing daily,, the neces- 
 sary remedy might come too late. Every thing 
 well considered., we exhort,, by these presents, 
 your majesty, that by maturity of council, and 
 prudence of consideration of your statesmen, you 
 should provide a correction and reformation of 
 these abuses and grievances, by such decent ways 
 and means as you may be able to devise; that so 
 you may be able to oppose these dangerous be- 
 ginnings, and please him, by whom you reign, 
 and plant yourself solidly among them ; that so 
 no one may have any cause of complaint against 
 you; and that the Irish, led by sounder counsel, 
 may obey you as their lord: or if, which God 
 forbid, they should continue in their foolish re- 
 bellion, they would make their own cause appear 
 unjust., and leave you excused before God and 
 man. 
 
 cc That you may be the more fully informed 
 of the aforesaid grievances and complaints, on 
 which the Irish rest their cause, we send you 
 the aforesaid letters, addressed to the aforesaid 
 cardinals, with a copy of the letters,, by which 
 our fore-mentioned predecessor, Pope Adrian, 
 granted the land of Ireland to the said Henry, 
 king of England. Given at the Vatican," &c. 
 
 In round terms he asserts the claims of Eng- 
 lish kings on Ireland; " that if the Irish perse- 
 vcrrd in their foolish rebellion, they would ex- 
 ruso him before God and man, and condemn 
 their own c:uise." I see no reason for these bold 
 but the following iniquitous gninl
 
 134 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 made by Pope Adrian IV., and confirmed by 
 his successors, until the schism of Henry VIII. 
 
 " Adrian the bishop, the servant of the servants 
 of God, to his most dear son in Christ, the 
 noble king of England, sendeth greeting and 
 apostolic benediction. 
 
 " Your magnificence hath been very careful and 
 studious how you might enlarge the church of 
 God here on earth, and encrease the number of 
 saints and elect in heaven, in that as a good ca- 
 tholic king, you have and do by all means labour 
 and travel to enlarge and encrease God's church, 
 by teaching the ignorant people the true and 
 Christian religion, and in abolishing and root- 
 ing up the weeds of sin and wickedness. And 
 wherein you have, and do crave, for your better 
 furtherance, the help of the apostolic see ( where- 
 in more speedily and discreetly you proceed ) the 
 better success, we hope, God will send; for all 
 they, which of a fervent zeal and love in reli- 
 gion, do begin and eriterprize any such thing, 
 shall no doubt in the end have a good and pros- 
 perous success. And as for Ireland, and all other 
 islands where Christ is known and the Christian 
 religion received, it is out of all doubt, and your 
 excellency well knoweth, they do all appertain 
 and belong to the right of St. Peter, and of the 
 church of Rome; and we are so much the more 
 ready, desirous, and willing, to sow the accept- 
 able seed of God's word, because we know the 
 same in the latter day will be most severely re-
 
 OF IRELAND. 135 
 
 quired at your hands. You have (our well be- 
 loved son in Christ) advertised and signified un- 
 to us,, that you will enter into the land and realm 
 of Ireland, to the end to bring them to obedience 
 unto law, and under your subjection, and to 
 root out from among them their foul sins and 
 wickedness; as also to yield and pay yearly out 
 of every house, a yearly pension of one penny to 
 St. Peter ; and besides also will defend and keep 
 the rites of those churches whole and inviolate, 
 We therefore, well allowing and favouring this 
 your godly disposition and commendable affec- 
 tion, do accept, ratify, and assent, unto this 
 your petition, and do grant that you ( for the 
 dilating of God's church, the punishment of 
 sin, the reforming of manners, the planting of 
 virtue, and the encreasing of Christian religion) 
 do enter to possess that land, and there to exe- 
 cute, according to your wisdom, whatsoever 
 shall be for the honour of God and the safety of 
 the realm. And further also we do strictly charge 
 and require, that all the people of that land do 
 with all humbleness, dutifulness, and honour, 
 receive and accept you as their liege lord and 
 sovereign., reserving and excepting the right of 
 Holy Church to be inviolably preserved,, as also 
 the yearly pension of Peter-pence out of every 
 house, which we require to be truly answered to 
 St. Peter and to the church of Rome. If there- 
 fore you do mind to bring your godly purpose 
 to effect, endeavour to travail to reform the peo- 
 ple to some better order and trade of life, and 
 that also by yourself and by such others as you
 
 136 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 shall think meet, true and honest in their life, 
 manners and conversation, to the end the church 
 of God may be beautified, the true Christian re- 
 ligion sowed and planted, and all other things 
 done, that by any means shall or may be to God's 
 honour and salvation of men's souls, whereby 
 you may in the end receive of God's hands the 
 reward of everlasting life, and also in the mean 
 time, and in this life, carry a glorious fame and 
 an honourable report among all nations." 
 
 The representations of Edward, however, at 
 the court of Rome, prevailed. The English al- 
 lowed liis holiness both temporal and spiritual 
 power, the Irish confined him to spirituals: this 
 may account for the partiality in favour of the 
 latter. The bull of excommunication was pub- 
 lished some time afterwards, in which Robert 
 and Edward Bruce arc mentioned by name. 
 
 On the 25th of May, 1315, Edward Bruce 
 landed in the north, with 6000 men, to assert 
 his title to the sovereignty of this island; as just 
 a title as ever man had to a crown. He was in- 
 f vited by independent princes, who never acknow- 
 ledged themselves subjects; and by a people, 
 groaning under the most galling and intolerable 
 oppression, who would not be received as sub- 
 jects of the English monarchs, nor be admitted 
 to the protection of the law, though backing 
 their petitions with large oilers of money. It 
 was the constant policy of the popish parliament 
 of t!;e Pa!e, to devise penal statutes against 
 Milesian catholics, and the "'ovcrnor^ and ?ct-
 
 OF IRELAND. 137 
 
 tiers were equally industrious to enforce them. 
 " Hence it is," says Sir John Davies, " that in 
 all the parliament rolls, which are extant, 
 from the 40th year of Edward III. when the 
 statutes of Kilkenny were enacted, to the reign 
 of king Henry VIII. we find the degenerate and 
 disobedient English called rebels; but the Irish, 
 which were not in the king's peace, are called 
 enemies. Statutes of Kilkenny, c. 1, 10, and 1J. 
 H Hen. IV. c. 24. 10 Hen. VI. c. 1, 18. 18 
 Hen. VI. c, 4. -5 Edw. IV. c. 6. 10 Hen. VIII. 
 c. IT. All those statutes speak of English rebels, 
 and Irish enemies; as if the Irish had never been 
 in the condition of subjects, but always out of 
 the protection of the laws, and were indeed in a 
 worse case than aliens of any foreign realm, that 
 was in amity with the crown of England. For 
 bv divers heavy penal laws, the English were 
 forbidden to marry, to foster, to make gossippes 
 with the Irish ; or to have any trade or commerce 
 in their markets and fairs." 
 
 A still more grievous article, in the English 
 
 o 
 
 penal code against native catholics, were those 
 
 statutes, which made it lawful, or at most but 
 slightly penal, to kill them. By the Beard act,* 
 
 * " No manner man, that will be taken for an English- 
 man, shall have no board above his mouth, that is to say, 
 that he have no hairs upon liis upper lip, so that the said 
 lip be once at least shaven every fortnight, or of equal 
 growth with the nether lip. And if any man bo found 
 amongst the English contrary hereunto, that then it shall 
 be lawful to ever) 'man to take them and their goods as 
 Irish enemies, and to raneom them a.s Irish enemies;" (M. 
 25 Hen. VI.) it the ransom was not paid death.
 
 138 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 the Apparel and Surname acts* against those 
 English called degenerate, for conforming to 
 national customs, we sec clearly the insecurity of 
 the life of any of the antient race. Such people 
 are warned, that, in an Irish garb, they forfeit 
 the protection of the law, and are liable to be 
 treated as an Irish enemy; i. e. whoever found it 
 convenient might take their lives and properties. 
 By the comparison of two arts, one respecting 
 the fine for conveying; a hawkf out of the Pale, 
 another concerning a peaceable Milesian living 
 
 * Stat. 19 EJ. IV. c. 3. enact?. " that every Irishman 
 that dwells betwixt or amongst Englishmen, in the county 
 of Dublin. Myeth, Uriel! and Kiklare, shall go like to one 
 Kn^lijhmau in apparel, and shaving of his beard above the 
 month, and shall be within one year suorn the liege-man of 
 the king in the hands of the lieutenant or deputie, or such 
 as he will assign to receive this oath for the multitude that 
 is to be sworn, and shall take to him an English surname 
 of one town, as Sutton, Chester, Trym, Skryne, Corke, 
 Kinsale: or colour, as White. Blacke, Browne: or arte or 
 science, as Smith or Carpenter : or office, as Cooke, Butler, 
 and that he and his issue shall use this name, under pain of 
 forfeiting of his good yearly till the premisses be done to 
 be levied two times by the year to the king's -wars, accord- 
 ing to the discretion of the lieutenant of the king or his 
 deputy/' 
 
 f By st. 20 Ed. IV. sess. 2. it is enacted, that " what, 
 soever merchant shall take or carry any hawk out of the 
 x: i .id land of Ireland, shall pay for every goshawke thirteen 
 >hiirmgs and four pence, for a tiercel six shillings eight 
 pence, for a falcon ten shillings, and the poundage accord- 
 ingly. And that every merchant that shall do contrary to 
 this act, so often as he so doth shall incur the penalty of 
 forty shillings, the one half to the king, and the other half 
 to thti liiuier or informer."
 
 OF IRELAND. 139 
 
 by his industry within the Pale, we may form an 
 estimate of the contempt in which the lives of 
 Irish catholics were held., hy these barbarous le- 
 gislators. The tine for the hawk was thirteen 
 shillings and four-pence., the Milesian eric \vas 
 six pence. But for those out of the Pale, living 
 according to the antient laws and customs of the 
 country., killing them was thought praise-worthy, 
 and the higher in rank the greater the applause. 
 
 It was not enough to deprive the ancient L ish 
 of all legal protection, and allow every settler 
 that could, to take their lives and properties, hut 
 a reward was put upon their heads, by the -infa- 
 mous head act, passed hy the infamous junto of 
 the Pale, at Trim, before the earl of Desmond, 
 deputy to the duke of Clarence, the king's Irish 
 deputy, in the fifth of Edward IV. 1465. It 
 is ordained and established, that it shall be law- 
 ful to all manner of men that find any thieves 
 robbing by day or by night, or going or coming 
 to rob, or steal, in, or out, going or coming, 
 having no faithful man of good name and fame 
 in their company in English apparel upon any of 
 the liege people of the king, that it shall be law- 
 ful to take and kill those, and to cut oft their 
 heads, without any impeachment of our sovereign 
 lord the king, &c. and of any head so cut, in the 
 county of Meath, that the cutter of the said head 
 and his ayders there to him, cause the said head 
 so cut to be brought to the portreffe of the town 
 of Trim, and the said portreffe to put it upon a 
 slake or spear upon the castle of Trim, and that 
 the said portreile shall give his writing under 
 
 vor. i u
 
 HO AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 the common seal of the said town, testifying the 
 bringing of the said to him. And that it shall 
 be lawful by authority of the said parliament to 
 the said bringer of the said head, and his ayders 
 to the same, for to distrain and levy by their 
 own hands, of every man having one plough- 
 land in the barony where the said theif was so 
 taken, two-pence, and of every man having half 
 a plough-land in the said barony, one peny, 
 and every man having one house and goods to 
 the value of fourty shillings, one peny, and of 
 every other cottier having house and smoak, one 
 half peny. And if the same portreffe refuse for 
 to give the said certificate by writing, freely tin- 
 der his said common seal, then the said portreffe 
 to forfeit to the said bringer of the said head ten 
 pounds, and that he may have his action by bill 
 or by writ, in whatsoever court shall please 
 the bringer of the said head for the said ten 
 pounds against the said portreife." Here was an 
 ample reward for the murder of a Milesian, esta- 
 blished by the parliament of the Pale, to be re- 
 covered from the barony, by the aid of civil offi- 
 cers, from whom, if they refused compliance, it 
 was recoverable by law. " Going or coming. 
 
 / o O' 
 
 in or out, by night or by day ! unless some man 
 of good name, and fame; ( i. e. of English name, 
 and closely wedded to the English interest), 
 were in his or their company, in English appa- 
 rel!" If a man was caught in the act of rob- 
 bing, there might be an excuse for homicide; 
 but going or coming ! were these authorised and 
 rewarded head-loppers gifted with second sight
 
 OP IRELAND. 141 
 
 or infallible,, that they should know where or on 
 what errand every Milesian Irishman was going 
 or coming, to or from. There is no conventicle 
 of robbers and assassins could devise better en- 
 couragement to the avarice or the revenge of 
 profligate men. Let any villain fall on a travel- 
 ling Milesian by night or by day, if he was not 
 in the company of some reputable man of Eng- 
 lish descent, (if such there were,) salute him 
 with dagger, cut off his head, bring it to the 
 constable of Trim, and levy his head-fine on the 
 barony. All the evidence required of him was, 
 to declare that the head had been that of a Mi- 
 lesian, and that he was not in company with 
 any of the settlers, and that in his opinion he 
 was going to or coming from some bad errand ! 
 what a licence, what encouragements, what re- 
 wards for the blackest crimes ! a stranger of 
 English descent might be sacrificed by this per- 
 version of law. 
 
 That property as well as life was insecure, is 
 evident from the language of the parliament of 
 the Pale, which denominates lands in possession 
 of the ancient Irish waste ground. The king of 
 England exceeded the liberality of the Pope, in 
 making grants of property not his own. The 
 latter bestowed dominion, but not the ri;ht of 
 
 * ~ 
 
 extermination, and of the seizure of all property 
 the former was guilty. Encouraged by the autho- 
 ritv of both, and prompted by insatiable avarice 
 and tyranny, the grantees, about nine or ten in 
 number, with their followers, to whom Henry, 
 isi breach of his treaties, bv which he guaranteed
 
 143 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 their lands and other properties,, bestowed the 
 whole island, soon set up for themselves as in- 
 dependent princes. The ancient Irish., in the dis- 
 tricts occupied by these new kings, were held in 
 villeinage,, after the manner of the labouring 
 classes in England,, who were then in the condi- 
 tion of villeins. This explains why the petitions 
 of the distressed Milesians, either smarting un- 
 der the dominion of the settlers, or galled to 
 madness by incessant annoyance from castles 
 planted in their neighbourhood, praying to be 
 admitted as subjects of the king of England, 
 and to be protected by English law, where the 
 Brehon law was abolished, were always strenu- 
 ously opposed by settlers, to whom English 
 kings always referred them. The concession 
 *" woulde have abridged and cut off a great part 
 of that greatness which they had promised unto 
 themselves: they perswaded the king; of Eng- 
 land, that it was unfit to communicate the lawes 
 of England unto them; that it was the best po- 
 licie to hold them as aliens and enemies, and to 
 prosecute them with a continual warre. Hcereby 
 they obtained another royal prerogative and 
 power; which was to make wane and peace at 
 their pleasure in every part of the kingdomer 
 which gave them an absolute command over the 
 bodies, lands, and goods of the English subjects 
 lioero. The troth is, that those great English 
 lords did to the uttermost of their power, crossjj 
 and withstand the enfranchizement of the Irish,
 
 OF IRELAND. 143 
 
 for the causes before expressed, wherein I must 
 cleare and acquit the crown and state of Eng- 
 land of negligence or ill policy ." 
 
 From their first settlement they considered 
 themselves as well entitled to the full possession 
 of Ireland, by the double grant of Pope and 
 king, as the Jews were entitled to Palestine by 
 the gift of God. They planned the utter exter- 
 mination of the ancient Irish, as the Jews were 
 ordered to treat the Canaanites and Philistines. 
 The Jews were prohibited all alliances or close 
 intimacy of any kind with the Canaanites, lest 
 they should be infected with idolatry; so the 
 English settlers were interdicted <c marriage, 
 gossipred, or nurture of infants, 1 ' with the an- 
 cient Irish, though the religion of the latter was 
 purer than their own. Of this we have an exam- 
 ple, in the famous statutes of Kilkenny, that 
 Sir John Davies quotes on this subject. 
 
 (f In the 40th year of his reign king Edward 
 held that famous parliament at Kilkenny, w here- 
 in many notable lawes were enacted, which doo 
 shew and lay open ( for the lawe doth best dis- 
 cover enormities) how much the English colo- 
 nies were corrupted at that time, and doo infal- 
 libly prove that which is laide down before: 
 that they were wholly degenerate, and fallen 
 away from their obedience. For first it appeareth 
 by the preamble of these lawes, that the English 
 of this reahne, before the coming over of Lionel 
 duke of Clarence, were at that time become 
 ineerc Irish in their language, names, apparel 1, 
 and all their manner of livirg, and had njcctcd
 
 144- AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 the English lawcs and submitted themselves to 
 
 O 
 
 the Irish, with whom they had made many mar- 
 riages and alliances, which tended to the utter 
 
 o 
 
 ruin and destruction of the commonwealth. 
 Therefore alliaunce by marriage, nurture of in- 
 fants, and gossipred with the Irish are by this 
 stature made high treason. Again, if anie man 
 of English race should use an Irish name, Irish 
 language, or Irish apparel I, or any other guize 
 or fashion of the Irish, if he had lands or tene- 
 ments, the same should be seized, till he had 
 given security to the Chancery, to conform him- 
 self in all points to the English manner of living. 
 And if he had no lands, his bodie was to be 
 taken and imprisoned, till he found sureties as 
 aforesaid." 
 
 The imperfection of Irish laws, which were 
 in a great measure corrected by Irish manners, 
 became an intolerable scourge in the hands of 
 the adventurers. If an Irish chief was empow- 
 ered, in time of war, to lay a bonaght, i.e. bil- 
 let his soldiers on his people, it was because he 
 bad no revenue, the land being held in fee sim- 
 ple by the families of the clan. The chief was 
 elective, and abuse of his authority could easily 
 raise him a rival, or invite invasion from some 
 neighbouring chief. While the Irish constitution 
 stood, there lay an appeal to the monarch and 
 the convention of Tara. A people of the most 
 lively sensibility to praise and dispraise, would 
 not willingly expose themselves to the satire of 
 their bards; in fact, in the character, manners, 
 and customs of the ancient Irish, there were
 
 OF IRELAND. 145 
 
 many checks to the abuse of power, and some 
 consolations to humanity, even under tyranny. 
 Not so with the English settlers; they were ac- 
 quainted with nothing in their parent country 
 but the tyranny established there by its Norman 
 conquerors. All the barons were despotic ty- 
 rants, all their laborious classes were villeins, 
 and their laws were like the laws of Draco, 
 written in blood. It seems those sanguinarjr 
 laws either were necessary for their nature, or 
 made their nature worse; for like felons burst- 
 ing from the bolts of a prison, coming from the 
 severe restraints of English tyranny and sangui- 
 nary laws, to a land where anarchy had suc- 
 ceeded freedom, and where the laws were so 
 mild, that the word death was never mentioned 
 in the code, they gave an entire loose to their 
 appetites for plunder and carnage. Their pro- 
 perties were made hereditary, their landholders 
 were obliged to pay rent and taxes; so to put 
 the Irish bonaght on them was a grievous op- 
 pression. There was hardly any remedy for a 
 longtime, not even the cheek of public opinion, 
 because the public of the settlers was England, 
 to which they sent what representations they 
 pleased. The attorney-general of James I. men- 
 tions the grievonce of coyne and livery. 
 
 (( But the most wicked and mischievous cus- 
 tome of all others was that of coygne and livery, 
 often before-mentioned: which consisted in tak- 
 ing mans-meate, horse-meate and money, of all 
 the inhabitants of the country at the will and 
 pleasure of the soldier, v. ho, as the phrase of
 
 146 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Scripture is, did eate up the people as it were 
 bread, for that he had no other entertainment. 
 This extortion was originally Irish,, for they 
 used to lay bonaght upon the people., and never 
 gave their soldier any other pay. But when the 
 English had learned it, they used it with more 
 insolency and made it more intolerable; for 
 this oppression was not temporary, or limited 
 cither to place or time: hut because there was 
 every where a continual] warre, either offensive 
 or defensive, and everie lorde of a countrie, and 
 everie marcher made warre and peace at his 
 pleasure, it became universall and perpetuall: 
 and was indeede the most heavy oppression that 
 ever was used in anie Christian or Heathen king- 
 dome. And therefore vox oppressorum, this cry- 
 iiig sinne did drawe down as great or greater 
 plagues upon Ireland, than the oppression of 
 the Israelites did draw upon the land of Egypt. 
 For the plagues of Egypt, though they were 
 grievous, were of a short continuance: but the 
 plagues of Ireland lasted 400 years together. 
 This extortion of coygne and livery did produce 
 two notorious effects. First, it made the land 
 waste: next, it made the people ydle. For when 
 the husbandmen had laboured all the yeare, the 
 soldier in one night did consume the fruites of 
 all his labour, longique pcrit labor irritus anni. 
 Had hee reason then to manure the lande for 
 the next yeare, or rather might he not complayne 
 as the sheperd in Virgil: 
 
 Impius lure tarn culta novalia miles lial)t-bit? 
 Barbaras lias sogefes ? Kn quo discordia cives 
 Produxit miserosr Eu queib consevunus agros?
 
 OF IRELAND. 147 
 
 And hereupon of necessity came depopulation, 
 banishment,, and extirpation of the better sort of 
 subjects, and such as remained became ydle and 
 lookers on, expecting the event of those miseries 
 and evill times: so as this extream extortion and 
 oppression hath been -the true cause of idleness 
 in this Irish nation; and that rather the vulgar 
 sort have chosen to be beggars in forraign coun- 
 tries than to manure their awn fruitful land at 
 home. Lastly, this oppression did of force and 
 necessitie make the Irish a crafty people; for 
 such as are oppressed and live in slavery are 
 ever put to their shifts, ingenium mala semper 
 movent."* 
 
 Let no man be surprised, that English writers 
 called the Milesian Irish, at war with the Pale, 
 rebels; while in the language of parliament, and 
 the law, they are stiled enemy, like any other 
 power at war. They used the same abusive stile 
 towards the Scots. " The Scotch began to rebel, 
 anno 1079 again they were in rebellion, anno 
 1090 under king Malcolm again, anno 1103, 
 when their king was slain. The Welsh began 
 to rebel, anno 1121. "f In the language of this 
 libeller, the Scotch, an independent nation, go- 
 verned by their own kings., and their own laws, 
 are called rebels, for defending themselves against 
 English encroachments, The Welsh also, go- 
 verned by their own princes, and their own laws, 
 are denominated rebels. The opposition of the 
 Irish princes to English tyranny, is, in the same 
 
 * Davics's Discovery, p. 174, &c. 
 i Homingford, mors Gul. Nothi ? 1037. 
 VOL. I, X
 
 148 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 libellous spirit, stiled rebellion, by the English 
 writers of romance, falsely called history.* The 
 language of the law is correct and decisive on 
 this subject. The independent Irish, at war with 
 the king's deputy, are not called Rebels, but 
 Irish enemies; as the French or Russians would 
 be called enemies, not rebels. This was uni- 
 formly the language of the law, untill the reign 
 of queen Elizabeth. In an act of the 28th of 
 Henry VI. passed by the parliament of the Pale, 
 in the presence of Richard, duke of York, anno 
 1450, this distinction is clearly marked. " And 
 the captains of the said marchours,f their wives, 
 and their pages, do bring with them the king's 
 Irish Enemies, both men and women, and Eng- 
 lish rebels." In a parliament held at Drogheda, 
 in the 28th of Hen. VI., before the said duke of 
 York, the limits of the Pa!e, | i.e. the English 
 king's jurisdiction, are precisely ascertained. 
 Within them limits, war against the crown was, 
 in the language of the law, rebellion; without 
 them limits it was, in the same correct language, 
 stiled the war of an enemy. The law, therefore, 
 as it were by anticipation, lias passed sentence of 
 condemnation upon these impertinent scribblerg 
 
 * AVith a fresh edition of those slop-shop impurities, the 
 public, it seems, is to be now regaled, by a press miscalling 
 itself Hibernian. 
 
 + Marchonrs. i. e. settlors possessed of freehold* on the 
 borders of the Pale, on condition of keeping and practising 
 the use of arms, to watch the movements of the independent 
 Irish, and give the alarm when necessary. Sentinels, out. 
 
 l>0~t*. 
 
 * Dublin, Kildare, Meath, and Uriel (Loutli).
 
 OF IRELAND. 149 
 
 of fooleries, in which they stile the resistance of 
 independent princes rebellion. 
 
 Two acts (5 Edward IV.) for arming the 
 Pale in a mass, prove, that the independent Irish 
 were still formidable. Those of Irish descent, 
 even within the Pale, were as three or four to 
 one, to those of English extraction; whence, to 
 conceal their inferiority, the Surname act, the 
 Beard act, the Apparel and Language acts, &c. 
 
 The chieftains of Ulster, who had invited 
 Bruce, were now prepared to receive their new 
 monarch. They flocked to his standard, gave 
 hostages, and marched, under his command, to 
 rescue their country from a deplorable bondage 
 mixed with destructive anarchy. The few gar- 
 risoned towns and castles, possesscd^by the Eng- 
 lish in the north, were soon overpowered. There 
 were no English settlers in the north, except in 
 such places, notwithstanding the outcry of the 
 historical liar, Lelar.d, on the butchery of Eng- 
 lish settlers, who were <c driven from their fairest 
 possessions in a moment." The settlers, their 
 possessions, and butchery, are all fictions, in- 
 vented to deceive the reader. There were settlers 
 in the other three provinces, but in the north 
 none, except in a few strong holds on the sea 
 coast. This is not his fust historical lie. The 
 perfidious murder of Brien Roe O'Brian, chief- 
 tain of Thomond, by Thomas de Clare, brother 
 to the duke of Gloucester, who had invited him 
 to dine, for that hellish purpose, he endeavours 
 to palliate or deny, by saying tf he was killed 
 by one of his own people, as Irish writers al-
 
 150 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 lege." He names no writer, because lie could 
 not. He states, that O'Brien's sons compelled 
 De Clare to pay the eric for their father's mur- 
 der, which could not be done unless the murder 
 was proved home. He had in his possession, the 
 remonstrance, drawn up by the northern chief- 
 tains, and addressed to Pope John XXII., in 
 which they state that treacherous invitation and 
 murder, as one of the instances of the detestable 
 policy used by English adventurers in this un- 
 happy land. They were cotemporaries, and could 
 not appeal to the Pope, and the world, but on a 
 notorious ouvert act. A lie of that magnitude, 
 and of such recent occurrence, would soon be 
 detected ; the people, interested in the detection, 
 
 had most influence Avith the court of Rome, and 
 
 i * 
 
 most connexion with foreign parts; and one de- 
 tected falsehood would discredit the whole re- 
 monstrance, and injure their cause. It is much 
 more easy to conceive, that an historian, evi- 
 dently partial, would sooner smother the truth, 
 or tell a talo, to conceal or palliate the crimes of 
 his favourites, than that an assembly of the mag- 
 nates of Ireland, men bred in the principles of 
 chivalrous honor, could agree to publish a false 
 account of a cotemporary fact, the refutation of 
 which would be so easy, and so injurious to their 
 interests. 
 
 What the measures were, that occupied the 
 attention of the English cabinet with the Irish 
 deputies, during their long stay in London, to 
 repel an invasion truly formidable in the actual 
 circumstances of the island, we are in a great
 
 OF IRELAND. 151 
 
 measure left to conjectures. Neither they nor 
 their successors deemed it expedient to make 
 them public. From a letter* of the earl of Essex 
 to queen Elizabeth, we may form a pretty sure 
 guess at the palladium of England and its set- 
 tlers, under the terrors of the alliance of Ireland 
 and Scotland: "Thirdly, your majesty,, victual- 
 ling your army out of England, and with your 
 garrisons burning and spoiling the country in all 
 places, shall starve the rebels in one year, be- 
 cause no place else can supply them." This 
 was put in practice in the golden days of queen 
 Bess, with an addition of a base coin, forged by 
 royal authority, for the payment of her forces, 
 and the general circulating medium for the pur- 
 chase of all sorts of necessaries; in order when 
 the famine was brought on them, they should be 
 destitute of the means of purchasing provisions 
 from any part of the world. Famine, and the 
 pestilence, its usual concomitant, swept away 
 their millions, to civilize the poor Irish. Would 
 England, and its settlers, scruple the employment 
 of such dreadful means, to avert the storm of 
 war threatening them from the united powers of 
 Scotland and Ireland. Did they not know, that 
 the want of provisions alone could prevent their 
 bringing such an army into the field, so superior 
 in numbers and valour, as they could never be 
 able to cope with. Or did popish England, arid 
 its settlers, leave any article in the catalogue of 
 inhumanity, treachery, or barbarity, to be in- 
 
 * Dated 5th June, 1598
 
 152 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 vented or improved by their protestant succes- 
 sors? On a comparison of two codes, the popish 
 and the protestant, against Irish catholics, the 
 latter will appear, to an impartial observer, to 
 fall short of its predecessor, in the most features 
 of cruelty and tyranny. 
 
 The sequel will prove, even from partial do- 
 cuments, whether the terrible scourges of plague 
 and famine were or were not resorted to by the 
 settlers. " Richard, earl of Ulster, rose up, 
 with such forces as he could collect, at Roscom- 
 mon, whence marching to Athlone, he was there 
 joined by Fedlim O'Connor, with his forces. He 
 then proceeded through the territory of Meath, 
 to the northern province, wasting and desolating 
 the districts through which he passed, to supply 
 the necessities of his army." ( Leland. ) He for- 
 got to add, that to deprive the enemy of re- 
 "sources he destroyed all he did not use. " But- 
 ler, the deputy, exerted his diligence to collect 
 the troops of Leinster, offered his aid to earl 
 Richard, who, disdaining his assistance, advised 
 him to attend to the security of Leinster."* This 
 was no act of an imperious proud spirit, as Le- 
 land would persuade us, but of a deep, though 
 infernal policy. They divided the provinces be- 
 tween them, in order to secure provisions for 
 themselves in their fortresses, and by laying waste 
 the country, to render the subsistence of a great 
 army any where impossible. 
 
 Connaught, while their troops were actually 
 
 * Lclaad, Vol. I. B. II. c. iii. p. 267.
 
 OF IRELAND. 153 
 
 fighting the battles of the settlers, could not 
 escape the disasters planned for their country- 
 men. A rival was raised up against young Fed- 
 lim, during his campaign against the invaders, 
 who succeeded in getting himself acknowledged 
 chief of the Irish division of Connaught, after 
 much hloodshed and devastation. Thus Fedlim 
 was obliged to march back to Connaught, with 
 his troops, continually harassed by the northern 
 Irish, who justly retaliated on him the devasta- 
 tion of their districts, which could not be so 
 much as attempted without his aid. The earl of 
 Ulster was soon obliged to follow him, happjr 
 to escape the pursuit of the Scotch and northern 
 forces with great loss of men. But want of pro- 
 vision, in those parts laid waste, deprived Bruce 
 of the advantages of his victory, compelling him 
 to return back to the north, where he remained 
 some time in a state of inactivity. Fedlim, am- 
 bitious to recover his petty sovereignty, but un- 
 able, with the shattered remains of a discomfited 
 armv, to meet his antagonist in the field, assisted 
 the earl of Ulster in putting the famishing plan 
 in execution. They carried on a predatory war- 
 fare. Suddenly issuing out from their castles and 
 strong holds, and coining unawares on a district, 
 they wasted all manner of provisions, which thcj 
 could not speedily convey to their fortresses, 
 thus aggravating 1 the distresses of a scarce sea- 
 
 ~ " C 
 
 son, with all the horrors of war, famine, and 
 pestilence. 
 
 On the arrival of Sir John Bermingharn with 
 a select body of troops, Fedlim took the field,
 
 154" AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 and engaged his rival, who lost the battle and 
 his life. Fedlim, discontented with the immo- 
 derate ambition of his allies, declared for Bruce. 
 The cession of a large part of his already too 
 much diminished territory,, demanded in recom- 
 pence for a service justly due to him, appeared 
 to him not the act of an honorable faithful ally, 
 but of an insidious encroaching enemy. It was 
 his alliance with the settlers, and his devastating 
 campaign to the north, that raised him a rival, 
 who possessed himself of the sovereignty. What 
 he lost by the alliance, his allies were in duty 
 bound to make good to him, to the utmost of 
 their power. Wherefore, then, demand cession 
 of territory, for doing a service due to him by 
 the law of nature and of nations. He rejected 
 the demand, and declared for Bruce. This was 
 the effect of resentment, not policy; and he veri- 
 fied an Irish proverb, applying generally to Irish- 
 men, equivalent to the Latin adage, sero sapiunt 
 Phrygcs, i.e. Phrygians are wise too late. The 
 Irish say of themselves, andia^h na nsrnoithe 
 
 J ~ 
 
 thig kiall an Eirinigh, i. e. after the deed comes 
 the good sense of the Irishman. That sentence, 
 pronounced by themselves, is truly characteristic, 
 and points out one great cause of their downfall. 
 Extremely proud, passionate and vindictive, 
 there were always many pretenders to their elec- 
 tive sovereignties, who, by flattery and promise 
 of succour, could easily be prevailed on to assert 
 their pretensions with the sword. A cession of 
 territory must reward the instigators of the civil 
 war., if their ally is victorious The same causes
 
 OF IRELAND. 155 
 
 perpetuated family feuds, and prevented the elec- 
 tion of a monarch for a long time. Each of the 
 four provincial kings thought himself too great 
 to own a superior on earth. Passionate and pre- 
 cipitate in their resolves, they were likewise ob- 
 stinate in the execution of them; for though 
 they had sagacity enough to discover an error, 
 they too commonly wanted humility to own and 
 correct it, unless rouzed by a contrary passion; 
 some deep insult to their feelings and honor, as 
 in the case of Fedlim O'Connor. He had, how- 
 ever, during his alliance with the English set- 
 tlers, done more injury to the cause of the con- 
 federate Scotch and Irish, than he could possi- 
 bly repair by espousing it. The country was 
 now wasted. Numerous armies could not be kept 
 together for want of food; and the settlers lay 
 secure in their castles and strong holds, stored 
 with provision, while the antient natives perished 
 by myriads, under the cruel pangs of famine and 
 pestilence. This is the true cause of the failure 
 of that measure; the wisest and most promising 
 ever adopted by the Milesian chieftains, since 
 the English invasion. 
 
 Edward Bruce was crowned at Dundalk. All 
 Ulster, and a great part of Leinster, Munster, 
 and Connaught, declared for him. His brother 
 Robert, king of Scotland, landed in the north, 
 with a powerful army, to support the confede- 
 rates. All these promising appearances were 
 blasted by famine. The king of Scotland was 
 obliged to return home, leaving but a part of his 
 army to king Edward. After the surrender of 
 
 VOL. i v
 
 156 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Carrickfergus, the only place in the north that 
 held out against him, the new monarch of Ireland 
 marched southward, at the head of the confede- 
 rate Scotch and Irish, joined likewise by some 
 of the chief settlers; as the De Lacys, and their 
 numerous followers. 
 
 In the mean time, the English chieftains made 
 the greatest exertions. They raised an army of 
 30,000 men, as some Pale writers say, the great 
 majority of which consisted of Milesian Irish, 
 They could keep them together, where they had 
 magazines of provisions. They entered into an 
 association to support the English interest with 
 their lives and fortunes, and gave hostages to 
 Hotham, the king's commissioner, for their faith 
 and loyalty. To confirm them in their loyal dis- 
 position, the king conferred some new honors 
 on their chiefs. John Fitz-Gerald, baron of 
 Ophaly, was created earl of Kildare, and Ed- 
 mond Butler was made earl of Carrick. These 
 exerted themselves with vigour in warlike pre 
 parations. They dispatched an army to Con 
 naught, under the command of William de 
 Burgo, and Richard de Bermingham, against 
 Fedlim O'Connor. The forces met at Athenreej 
 where a desperate battle was fought, in which 
 O'Connor lost his life, and of course the battle; 
 for the Irish, like the Hindoos, when the chief 
 who commanded happened to be slain, gave up 
 righting and fled. Sensible of this, the chief, 
 not protected by life guards like modern mo- 
 narchs, was always singled out for destruction 
 by the English. The writers of the Pale swell
 
 OF IRELAND. 157 
 
 the number slain by the English, in that battle, 
 to 8000. 'Tis probable O'Connor's troops did 
 not amount to that number. Neither was the 
 havoc done by Englishmen. English foot had 
 no more chance of overtaking an Irish army in 
 its flight, than a body of cavalry; and few of 
 such horses as the English then had that an 
 Irishman afoot would not outrun, according to 
 cotemporary English writers. Accordingly, little 
 slaughter could be made of them, unless their 
 swift-footed countrymen were engaged in the 
 pursuit, of whom the Anglo-Irish armies were 
 chiefly composed. 
 
 Not discouraged at the fall of this useful ally, 
 Edward Bruce proceeded to assert his title to 
 the throne of Ireland with spirit. He marched 
 up to Dublin, when the garrison and citizens 
 set fire to the suburbs, to which the cathedral 
 of St. Patrick fell a prey, and retired within the 
 walls, for a brisk defence of which they made 
 great preparations. The mayor seized De Burgo, 
 earl of Ulster, on suspicion of favouring the 
 new king, his sister being married to Robert, 
 king of Scotland, and committed him to prison. 
 Bruce, finding the town well prepared for de- 
 fence, unable for want of provisions, to form 
 either a blockade or carry on a siege, moved oft' 
 through the county of Kildare. Thence ho 
 marched through Ossory and Tipperary, and 
 encamped near the city of Limerick. The Eng- 
 lish forces, commanded bv Roger Mortimer, of 
 Wigmore, who came with a considerable rein- 
 forcement, lay at no great distance, in a strong
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 position. Leland says, " Bruce, conscious of 
 his own real weakness, determined to avoid an 
 engagement." Who can believe the historian of 
 the Pale ? Bruce could not avoid an engagement, 
 if the English chose to force him to it. He had 
 to seek sustenance for his arm) through a wasted 
 country, in which they must take a wide range, 
 to glean as much as might barely stay the gall- 
 ing cravings of hunger. In such a situation, if 
 any enemy came upon him, how could he avoid 
 giving battle? On the contrary, it was the policy 
 of the English to avoid, at that time, a general 
 engagement, and wait the sure operations of fa- 
 mine in a wasted country. Bruce several times 
 offered battle on the plain of Fearan Samhgil, 
 near Limerick; but the English, well knowing 
 that he must soon decamp for want of provisions, 
 cautiously declined it. A battle being the only 
 military operation that he could attempt, and 
 that being refused,, his only resource was to re- 
 turn back again to Ulster. 
 
 Leland, in his account of this frustrated ex- 
 pedition, ef gluts his frantic malice," to use his 
 own words, in loading the confederate army 
 with all the foul epithets his prejudiced mind 
 could furnish " Marched southwards, with a 
 barbarous army, enflamed to madness by the vi- 
 olent cravings of nature, and prepared to glut 
 their frantic malice., and allay the rage of hun- 
 ger, by the bloodiest hostilities and most ruthless 
 depredations." Is this language for an historian ? 
 Is it not rather the low, vulgar ribaldry of the 
 fish-market ? I see no reason why the Scotch or
 
 OF IRELAND. 159 
 
 Irish should be denominated barbarous, by any 
 member of the Pale. I know no better tests and 
 means of civilization, than religion and the fine 
 arts. The Island of Saints excelled in both these. 
 Of the fine arts, music and poetry principally 
 contribute to polish the mind and improve the 
 feelings. In the first, the Irish excelled all the 
 neighbouring nations, and that incomparably, 
 on the testimony of the English themselves. In 
 the latter, they excelled their cotemporaries as 
 much as in the former; and their language was 
 admirably fitted for every effusion of the muses. 
 It combined the majesty of the Spanish, the soft- 
 ness and melody of the Italian, the strength and 
 conciseness of the Hebrew, as suited the subject 
 and occasion. Admirably copious, and contain- 
 ing in itself the terms of all arts and sciences 
 till then invented, and the radicals of all the 
 languages in the world, it was, of necessity, the 
 language of a highly cultivated and refined 
 people. With and through it, the philosophy of 
 language, and the affinities of all tongues, can 
 be traced. Even the word barbarous, here mis- 
 placed by the too partial Doctor, cannot be ex- 
 plained by any Grecist or Latinist. 'Tis the 
 Celtic barb, or borb, fierce, untractable; from 
 barr, or borr, high feeding, pampering, which 
 is productive of that effect on all animals. Now 
 the English are remarkable, among all neigh- 
 bouring nations, for unwearied voracity, which 
 must necessarily have its effect on the tempera- 
 ment of body and mind. If the one be filled 
 with gross humours., and a redundancy of sagi-
 
 160 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 nation, the other will be sulky, churlish, some- 
 times oppressed with a lovvness of spirits termi- 
 nating in suicide,, always unsocial, tyrannical, 
 fanatically hating other nations, through the 
 corruption of bile, the prejudices of education, 
 and the overgrown spleen of unlimited selfish- 
 ness. The description of our masters, copied by 
 Leland himself from Hume, may point out the 
 party to whom the epithet would more properly 
 apply. fc The estate of an English baron was 
 managed by his bailiffs, and cultivated by his 
 villains; its produce was consumed in rustic 
 hospitality, by the baron and his officers; a num- 
 ber of idle retainers, ready for any mischief or 
 disorder, were maintained by him: all who lived 
 upon his estate were absolutely at his disposal. 
 Instead of applying to courts of justic, he usual- 
 ly sought redress by open force and violence. 
 The great nobility were a kind of independent 
 potentates, who, if they submitted to any regu- 
 lations at all, were less governed by the munici- 
 pal law, than by a rude species of the law of 
 nations."* 
 
 "" This is the description of an admired Eng- 
 lish historian: and if we were to delineate the 
 manners of the most unrefined Irish septs, we 
 might fairly adopt the very same terms. Add 
 to this, the vices of the English nobility, which 
 the same writer enumerates, in the rei^n of 
 
 o 
 
 Edward III., the outrageous and intolerable 
 abuse of purveyance, the interruption of the 
 
 * Hume, Vol.11. 4to. p. 153.
 
 OF IRELAND. 161 
 
 course of law from grants of franchises and im- 
 munities., levying exorbitant fines, unjust par- 
 doning of criminals., confederacies formed by 
 great lords in mutual support of their iniquity, 
 and the numberless robberies,, murders, and ra- 
 vishments committed by their retainers; and the 
 whole picture., both of the English and the 
 native inhabitants of Ireland, is exactly deli- 
 neated."- Not quite. Here Mr. Leland adds 
 to those errors, or wilful mistatements, which 
 disgrace so many of his pages. The estate of 
 the clan did not belong to the chief, who had 
 but his portion of it among his brethren, his 
 equals in blood, inferior only by station. All 
 on the estate were by no means at his disposal, 
 nor could he substitute violence for law. He 
 must be governed by written laws, like the 
 other members of the commonwealth. His re- 
 ceipts, for the support of his dignity, were small; 
 and an elective chief, liable to be crossed by a 
 rival, had too much need of popularity, or in- 
 deed too confined means, to oppress his kindred. 
 The social dispositions of the people, universal 
 hospitality, and the inviolability of the guest, 
 among every tribe that received him, were anti- 
 dotes to the evils of the times, of which boastinc; 
 
 O 
 
 England was destitute. In Ireland, prevailing 
 anarchy, trampling on the constitution and laws, 
 was mitigated in its effects by national manners 
 Hence, the tendency of the greater part of the 
 iettlers to adopt these manners and customs, and 
 
 l.claiu!. Vol. I. Book II. c. iv. p. 2S. r ,
 
 162 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 become Irishmen in reality, as well as by name; 
 even numbers, in times of disturbance, took re- 
 fuge among the Irish tribes, from the tyranny 
 and feudal barbarities of Anglo-Irish barons. 
 The Irish had no villains, but such English 
 children as they purchased from their own pa- 
 rents: even that traffic was prohibited by an as- 
 sembly of the Irish clergy. Was this traffic cri- 
 minal ? If the Irish are what they are misrepre- 
 sented by party writers, English parents were 
 guilty of the most heinous crime against nature 
 and parental duty. If they were such as vene- 
 rable Bede, Alfred the Great, and all the old 
 Saxon writers describe them; a people renowned 
 for sanctity, learning, hospitality, indulgent le- 
 nity to inferiors, the traffic would lose much of 
 its criminality. In case of great poverty it might 
 even be laudable, in a distressed parent, to con- 
 fide his child to such persons as would reward 
 bodily labour with education, food, and clothing. 
 All these things they were accustomed to bestow 
 on the children of the English, as Bede and Lord 
 Lvttleton tell us. 
 
 But to return to Edward Bruce, and what 
 Lehind is pleased to call his barbarous army. 
 For want of provisions, after various successful 
 battles and skirmishes, he was obliged to remain 
 quiet in the north, where the English did not 
 think it proper to molest him for a considerable 
 time. Now if any one chuses to doubt, whether 
 the plan of famine was or was not that hatched 
 by the Irish deputies, in their long conferences 
 with the English cabinet, lei. him reflect on two
 
 OF IRELAND. 163 
 
 material circumstances. Bruce was frequently 
 compelled by hunger to retreat to the north, 
 notwithstanding the superiority of his arms in 
 the other provinces. The north was not the most 
 fertile, nor the best cultivated part of the island. 
 How came it to have more resources in provi- 
 sions? I can only account for the difference by 
 a plain fact. The English power was unable to 
 waste the north, as it did the other three pro- 
 vinces. What else can explain his retreats to the 
 north, while he was victorious in every engage- 
 ment with his enemies? Was it to repose among 
 allies? If we credit Leland, O'Brien, and other 
 southern chieftains, declared for him; and Mun- 
 ster is naturally more fertile than the north. 
 Nothing but the systematic devastation of the 
 country can account for this difference, as the 
 north was less in the power of the English than 
 the other provinces; yet De Burgo and Fedlim 
 O'Connor had committed great ravages there 
 likewise. 
 
 Bruce having thus withdrawn to the north, 
 his partizans in Leinster and elsewhere retired 
 homewards, where they were exposed to the fury 
 of their enemies. Many were slain at Castle- 
 derrnot, by order of Edmond Butler. Several of 
 the O'Moores, O' Byrnes, O'Tooles, and Mac 
 Morroughs, underwent the same fate. The 
 O'Connors of Phaly, were massacred at Balli- 
 bogan, on the Boyne, by the English of Lein- 
 ster and Meath. The Irish, on their side, made 
 jbome reprisals. The O'Nowlans of Leinster slew 
 Andrew Bermingham and Sir Do la Loude, with 
 
 VOL, r 7.
 
 164 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 their followers, who were committing outrages 
 in their district. Richard de Clare, Henry Capel, 
 Thomas de Naas, the two Cantons, and eighty 
 more, were slain by the O'Briens and Mac 
 Cartys. 
 
 The Lacys of Meath, summoned to Trim by 
 deputy Mortimer, of Wigmore, to give an ac- 
 count of their conduct, received the summons 
 with scorn, and slew Hugh Crofts, the messen- 
 ger. The deputy, enraged at this open defiance 
 to his authority, laid waste the estates of the 
 Lacys, whom he declared traitors. It appears, 
 indeed, that this was the only family of English 
 descent, who adhered to the interest of Bruce. 
 They fled to Connaught, and thence to Scotland, 
 except John de Lacy, who, falling into the de- 
 put\*s hands, was by his order strangled at Trim. 
 
 To enter into a detail of all the different skir- 
 mishes, massacres, and assassinations, committed 
 during the period of near three years, while Ed- 
 \vard Bruce was acknowledged monarch of Ire- 
 land by the majority of the nation, would be 
 neither entertaining nor instructive. The war, 
 necessarily confined to petty hostilities, through 
 the scarcity first caused by a cruel policy, and 
 afterwards prolonged by impolitic revenge, dis- 
 plays no symptom of a struggle between two 
 powerful kingdoms. The strength of the con- 
 tending parties could not be collected together; 
 because great armies require great magazines of 
 provision, and such were not to be found, while 
 the interruption of tillage, and mutual devasta- 
 tion, continued the dearth. Yet an anecdote of
 
 OF IRELAND. 165 
 
 singular barbarity, recorded of the English gar- 
 rison of Carrickfergus, should not be passed by. 
 Holding out against Edward Bruce to the last 
 extremity, among other expedients " to glut 
 their frantic rage,"( Leland's polite phraseology ) 
 they eat eight Scotch prisoners ! Whether they 
 eat them dead or alive, roast, boiled or raw, our 
 authorities do not inform us; but national hatred 
 seems to have contributed to a cannibal act, 
 which no pressure of want could justify in a 
 besieged garrison, though besieged by Scotch- 
 men, since they could relieve themselves by 
 capitulation. 
 
 Here it is proper to review the plausible pre- 
 tences, with which the Pope and the king of 
 England varnished over the iniquitous bargain 
 of the sale of Ireland, for the tribute of hearth- 
 money to the see of Rome. The Island of saints 
 was to be reformed and civilized religion was 
 to be promoted! What religion? The purest 
 branch of the catholic church they were; the 
 most truly pious, hospitable, charitable, gene- 
 rous, frank, manly, heroic even in the highest 
 flights of chivalrous honor. Ah! but they did 
 not allow the head of the church temporal 
 power. By whom, then, was the purity of the 
 catholic faith in Ireland to be adulterated, under 
 pretence of reform, with the profane mixture of 
 temporal and spiritual power? From cotempo- 
 
 rarv writers of their own nation we learn, that 
 
 j 
 
 they were indigent and profligate men, of ruined 
 characters, broken fortunes, in debt, or disgrace, 
 to whom any risque or perilous nil venture was
 
 166 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 more expedient than to remain at home. From 
 their first landing, these greedy blood-thirsty 
 adventurers described their own characters in 
 deeds of matchless perfidy, atrocity,, and rapine. 
 The murder of prisoners of war, the perfidious 
 invitations to murderous banquets, where poison 
 or the dagger terminated the existence of the in- 
 veigled guests ; assassinations of illustrious men ; 
 the murder of the Irish clergy., and plunder of 
 churches and monasteries: to which, when they 
 added cannabilism, bestiality, and sodomy, they 
 give the hideous character of the monsters who 
 were to reform the Island of saints, and plant 
 popery instead of catholicity. But the Milesians, 
 true to the catholic faith, would admit no inno- 
 vation. Some protest ant writers have deceived 
 themselves, and endeavoured to deceive others, 
 from this circumstance, into a belief, that the 
 antient Irish were Bible Christians, some sort of 
 Protestants. They were Catholics, in the true 
 strict sense of that word, who allowed the pope 
 spiritual, but not temporal supremacy. From 
 this rock, no seduction or coercion, not all the 
 efforts of popish England first, nor of protestant 
 England afterwards, could drive them. How 
 different were the pretended reformers of the 
 holy island? Like a pendulum, swung from the 
 perpendicular point of equipoise to the extreme 
 of popery, they were as easily swung to the op- 
 posite point of heresy; in whose inextricable 
 mazes they still continue, tremulous, quivering, 
 shifting, changing, without a fixed point of 
 Cohesion or repose.
 
 >F IRELAND. 167 
 
 Notwithstanding the damning evidences of 
 the immorality, treachery, and inhumanity, of 
 these infamous marauders, the pope supported 
 their usurpation with the misapplication of his 
 spiritual power, and sent his mad bulls roaring 
 through Europe against the sacred island and 
 its defenders. The settlers, in the mean time, 
 had recourse to other means, which proved more 
 efficacious. From their first conflicts with the 
 Irish they observed, that the fall of a chief would 
 determine the fate of a battle. The Irish, indi- 
 vidually the best soldiers in the world, yet col- 
 lectively only a mob, for want of pay, and con- 
 sequently of discipline, were held together alone 
 by reverence for the chieftain, whose election 
 depended on his talents, and chiefly military ta- 
 lents. His fall, therefore, destroyed the sole 
 connecting link, and his followers fled. This 
 piece of English policy explains the catastrophe 
 of Edward Bruce, hitherto unconquered. lie 
 inarched upon some secret expedition to Foghard, 
 the birth-place of St. Brigid, within two miles 
 of Dundalk, with about 3000 men. The deputy 
 dispatched an army from Dublin, under the 
 command of Sir John Bcrmingham, to oppose 
 him. The two armies met at the forementioned 
 place, where a furious engagement commenced, 
 in which Bruce lost his life, and the greater 
 part of his little army was slain. A trait, dis- 
 covering the cloven foot of English policy, ap- 
 peared in this battle. A conspiracy was made to 
 single out the monarch of Ireland,, and kill him, 
 at all hazards, cost what it would. The writers
 
 168 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 of the Pale, to gloss over this dark transaction, 
 state, that captain John Maupas singled him 
 out, while he was engaged with others, and 
 stabbed him; adding, that their two dead bodies 
 were found by each other, when the battle was 
 over. Walsingham and Baker state, that he was 
 taken prisoner, and that his head was cut off, 
 contrary to the law of nations, and sent as a pre- 
 sent to the king of England, who in recompence 
 created Berminghani earl of Louth, and baron 
 of Athenry. This latter title he obtained by his 
 victory over the Conacians, obtained by a similar 
 military assassination of the chieftains, O'Connor 
 and O'Kelly. It was probably the frequency of 
 this practice, that obliged kings, who originally 
 commanded their own armies, to keep body- 
 guards. 
 
 The unfortunate issue of the Scotch and Irish 
 confederacy, does not authorize us to echo the 
 language of those writers, who call it wild and 
 romantic. We rather agree with Abercromby, 
 that if the military impetuosity of Edward was 
 tempered with the superior prudence of his bro- 
 ther, he had remained king of Ireland. Had he 
 been counselled by him, and waited for his arri- 
 val with a respectable force, victory could hardly 
 be doubtful. Jealousy of sharing expected glory 
 with any one, precipitated his fall; and Robert 
 arrived with an army, only to hear of his death, 
 and return home. 
 
 The disastrous consequences to Ireland, of 
 this three years war, are fairly enough deline- 
 ated by Leland; for the support whereof, " the
 
 OF IRELAND. 169 
 
 revenue of the land [the Pale] was far too 
 short, and yet no supply of treasure was sent 
 out of England."* 
 
 <f The dismal effects of war, especially in a 
 country circumstanced as Ireland was at this 
 time., arc not to be estimated solely by the troops 
 lost in battle, or the towns taken: those which 
 history deigns not to record were yet more af- 
 flicting and extensive. The oppression exercised 
 with impunity in evjery particular district; the 
 depredations every where committed among the 
 inferiour orders of the people, not by open ene- 
 mies alone, but those who called themselves 
 friends and protectors, and who justified their 
 outrages by the plea of lawful authority; their 
 avarice and cruelty, their plunderings and mas- 
 sacres, were still more ruinous than the defeat 
 of an army, or the loss of a city. The wretched 
 sufferers had neither power to repel, nor law to 
 restrain or vindicate their injuries. In times of 
 general commotion, laws the most wisely framed., 
 and most equitably administered, are but of little 
 moment. But now the very source of public 
 justice was corrupted and poisoned. The dis- 
 tinction maintained between the Irish fnedary 
 and the English subject, and the different modes 
 of jurisdiction by which each was governed, 
 every day demonstrated, by its miserable effects, 
 the iniquity of those who had favoured this hor- 
 rid and infatuated policy. 
 
 '' The murder of an Irishman was punishable 
 
 * Diivie-s's Discovery.
 
 170 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 only by a fine; a slight restraint on the rage of 
 insolence and rapine."* 
 
 " The compendious Irish f method of quar- 
 tering the soldiers on the inhabitants,, and leaving 
 them to support themselves by arbitrary exactions, 
 seemed to have been pointed out by the urgent 
 occasion, was adopted with alacrity, and execu- 
 ted with rigour. Riot, rapine, massacre, and all 
 the tremendous effects of anarchy, were the na- 
 tural consequences. Every inconsiderable party, 
 who, under pretence of loyalty, received the king's 
 commission to repel the adversary in some parti- 
 cular district, became pestilent enemies to the in- 
 habitants. Their properties, their lives, the chas- 
 tity of their families, were all exposed to barba- 
 rians, who sought only 10 glut their brutal pas- 
 sions; and by their horrible excesses, saith the 
 annalist, purchased the curse of God and man. 
 The English freeholder abandoned his lands, 
 raiher than endure the burden of impositions in- 
 tolerably severe, attended with such dreadful cir- 
 cumstances of outrage: he fled to the haunts of 
 the Irish insurgents, connected and allied himself 
 with these, learned their language and manners, 
 and marched out with them against the common 
 enemy; while his lands were resumed by the 
 barbarous natives as their original and rightful 
 property. 
 
 " The same method of arbitrary exactions, 
 (or coyne and livery, as it was called,) for the 
 maintenance of the soldiery, was also adopted by 
 
 * Inland, Vol. I. B. II. c. iii. pp. 278, 279. 
 V For tlit> Irish bonaght see pp. 14 i. 145, 14G.
 
 OF IRELAND. 171 
 
 lords of considerable note and consequence; and 
 particularly, began at this time to be exercised 
 with great severity, by Maurice Fitz-Thomas 
 of Desmond." * 
 
 The reader must smile with contempt at the 
 contradictions of this barbarous Leland, strug- 
 gling between truth and prejudice. After stating 
 that English freeholders fled from the intolerable 
 tyranny of their own countrymen., took refuge 
 among the Irish clans, whom they were taught 
 to hate as natural enemies, and found that huma- 
 nity and protection among them, that they did 
 not experience from their own nation, as if im- 
 patient to escape from these sour truths, and 
 revenge the pain he felt from the narrative on 
 the unfortunate Milesians, he immediately adds, 
 "while his lands were resumed by the barbarous 
 natives." Did the fugitive carry his lands on his 
 back, that the people to whom he fled should 
 seize on them? Is it not self-evident, that the 
 people, from whose tyranny he fled, seized on 
 his lands? These tyrants might plant barbarous 
 natives on the abandoned freeholds; because the 
 degenerate Irish, who conformed to the manners 
 of the settlers, and became followers of English 
 lords, were real barbarians, rather worse than 
 the settlers themselves; for this reason, the cor- 
 ruption of the best things is the worst, and the 
 strongest wine, by acetous fermentation, makes 
 the strongest vinegar. The English freeholders, 
 who are stated by him, to have abandoned their 
 
 * Leland, Vol.1. 13.11. c. Hi. pp.280, SU 
 VOL.1. 2 A
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 freeholds, and taken refuge among the Irish 
 clans, learning their language, and conforming 
 to their manners, must have had a feeling trial 
 of the barbarity of their own race, and consi- 
 dered the Milesians as far superior to them, in 
 humanity and generosity. What sacrifices did 
 they not make by this exchange? Loss of pro- 
 perty; the sacrifice of predilection for natal soil; 
 the conquest of deep-rooted antipathy, and inve- 
 terate prejudices, against the antient natives, up- 
 held by the laws, cruel policy, and savage war- 
 fare of the settlers ; the sacrifice of their language 
 and manners, things to which mankind are pecu- 
 liarly wedded ; the risque of committing them- 
 selves and families to the mercy of enemies, thus 
 incessantly provoked and injured, by a combina- 
 tion of treachery and cruelty; the romantic hope 
 of finding support and protection, from these 
 very ulcerated enemies. Their choice of residing 
 among the antient natives, in defiance of these 
 losses, difficulties, and dangers, demonstrates 
 which party they considered civilized, and which 
 barbarous. As cotemporaries, eye witnesses, 
 taught by experience, they are better evidence 
 than any prejudiced writer, however smooth his 
 periods may flow. Their experiment and suc- 
 cess is the highest evidence of the hospitality 
 and generosity of the Milesians, even in their 
 decline; and that it was to acquire a more tole- 
 rable state of society they made the great sacri- 
 fices enumerated above. That emigration from 
 the tyranny of Anglo-Irish barons, and their 
 suite, was not confined to the period of the
 
 OF IRELAND. 173 
 
 Bruces, but existed from their first settlement 
 in Ireland, is pretty clear, from an article in the 
 treaty* of Windsor, obtained by the settlers to 
 guard against it. 
 
 The country thus tranquillized, i. e. depeopled 
 by plague, war, and famine, cum solitudinem fa- 
 ciunt, pacem appellant, Thomas Fitz-Gerald, 
 earl of Kildare, was entrusted with the govern- 
 ment of the Pale. Hitherto the English adven- 
 turers were intent on exterminating and plunder- 
 ing the natives, lay and ecclesiastic. They had, 
 in imitation of their Danish forefathers, destroyed 
 and plundered many an Irish monastery, seats of 
 learning and virtue, and planted some convents 
 for English ecclesiastical adventurers, poisoned 
 with the national hatred and selfishness of their 
 lay brethren, without adding any thing to the 
 cause of learning or religion. Bricknor, arch- 
 bishop of Dublin, is an honorable exception to 
 the general inattention of the Anglo-Irish to 
 literature. He obtained a bull from Pope 
 John XXII., in confirmation of one already 
 granted by Clement V. for the erection of an 
 university. St. Patrick's church, Dublin, was 
 chosen as the site for the college, anno 1320, 
 which was established by the zealous patronage 
 of the bishop, Bricknor. Studies were continued 
 there untill Edward III,, who enlarged the ori- 
 ginal endowment, and by special writ granted 
 his protection and safe conduct to the students, 
 thirty-eight years after the first establishment, 
 
 * Sea Article IV, p.p, 30, 31 s
 
 174 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 The good intentions of the founders and patrons 
 of this institution, were frustrated by the cir- 
 cumstances of the times, and the dispositions of 
 the people. Learning was quite unfashionable 
 among the English and Anglo-Irish barons. 
 The latter especially, always engaged in war, 
 paid no attention to letters, except such as were 
 styled degenerate Englishmen. These studied 
 the Irish language, the most copious, and one 
 of the most elegant in the world, and cherished 
 bards and antiquarians. 
 
 Learning, though obscured, was not extinct 
 in the Irish countries, where schools and pro- 
 fessors were still continued. The Milesians had 
 always their philes, ollavs, sruhs, seanchies, 
 bards, &c. while the university, established in 
 the capital of the colony, after languishing for 
 a while, expired. This contrast places in the 
 clearest light, the disparity of the two races, in 
 point of civilization. 
 
 The enmity of the two races, fomented by the 
 policy of England, extended to every thing. As 
 the English Franciscans, Dominicans, &c. of 
 the Pale, admitted no mere Irish novices, some 
 convents of the antient stock excluded English 
 novices; as appears from a register in the Tower 
 of London, recording an instance of national an- 
 tipathy, in the refusal of the abbey of Mellifont, 
 county of Louth, to admit novices of English 
 descent. 
 
 At an election of a bishop for the see of Cashel, 
 the dean, together with the greater number of 
 the canons, elected John Mac Carwill, bishop
 
 OF IRELAND. 175 
 
 of Cork; another party of the canons elected 
 Thomas O'Lonchi, archdeacon of the same see. 
 This contested election was referred to the Pope ; 
 who, in complaisance to the king of England, 
 to whom Mac was disagreeable as well as the 
 big O, excluded both candidates, and named to 
 the see of Cashel, William Fitz-John, bishop of 
 Ossory. Why the different popes favoured all 
 the encroachments of the English on the antient 
 Irish, especially if, according to Abbe Geoghe- 
 gan, Pope John XXII. remitted the tribute of 
 Peter's-pence, I see but one fact that explains. 
 The English admitted popery, i.e. the pope's 
 temporal power, in its fullest extent. The antient 
 Irish, and they almost alone, constantly opposed 
 it; which may partly account for the alliance of 
 the two potentates against them, and the willing- 
 ness of the holy father to concur with the English 
 monarch, in rejecting the 6s and macs, and fill- 
 ing the sees with staunch English papists, in- 
 stead of Milesian catholics. 
 
 From different acts of Pope John XXII., 
 commonly called Pope Joan, by English protes- 
 tants, he seemed to have been much wedded to 
 English interests. For he bestowed on Edward II, 
 a tenth of all ecclesiastical incomes within the 
 king's Irish territories, for two years, and to be 
 levied by the dean and chapter of Christ-church, 
 Dublin. The prelates and clergy of the Pale, 
 unwilling to contest the pope's authority, in im- 
 posing this heavy income tax, least they should 
 invalidate the basis of their own encroachments 
 on livings founded by Milesians, had recourse
 
 176 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 to evasion. They insisted on seeing the pope's 
 original bull, before they would pay the tax. 
 
 It is rather unfortunate for the pretensions of 
 those people, who came to Ireland, as they held 
 forth, to reform morals and religion, that they 
 left so many specimens of their barbarity and 
 ignorance. " Richard Ledrcd ( Leatherhead ) 
 bishop of Ossory, a man of violent passions, and 
 a proud and vindictive spirit, contrived, from 
 what private motive or provocation doth not ap- 
 pear, to raise such confusion in his diocese as 
 soon engaged the attention of the whole island. 
 A woman of some distinction, called Alice Ketler, 
 with her son and some of her dependents, were 
 accused of witchcraft in his spiritual court. One 
 of these dependents was condemned and executed, 
 the son confined in prison; the lady, though the 
 charge could not be clearly established against 
 her, yet, on a new accusation of heresy, was 
 tried, convicted, and condemned to the flames. 
 Arnold de la Poer, one of the magistrates of Kil- 
 kenny, who espoused the cause of these unhappy 
 culprits, was also charged with heresy by the 
 bishop; he appealed to the chief justice, the prior 
 of Kilmainham, who countenanced and protected 
 him : the insolent prelate instantly extended his 
 accusation to the justice, who now found it dif- 
 ficult to secure himself, and left his wretched 
 client, De la Poer, to expire in prison. A new 
 weapon was thus found, to execute the private 
 revenge of individuals, and aggravate the public 
 calamities. Heresy was a word of horrour, even 
 to those who were every day breaking through
 
 OF IRELAND. 177 
 
 the most sacred bonds of religion and humanity. 
 The oppressor,, the ravager, the murderer, was 
 zealous to approve himself a true son of the 
 church, and to execute her vengeance on all her 
 enemies. Adam Duff, a man of a considerable 
 Irish family in Leinster, was seized and burnt 
 for heresy. His offence was aggravated by a 
 charge of horrid and senseless blasphemy; just 
 as Ketler had her sacramental wafer impressed 
 with the devil's name, and an ointment to con- 
 vert her staff into a witch's vehicle. At length, 
 the mischief, thus spread abroad, reverted upon 
 its author. The bishop of Ossory himself was, 
 by his metropolitan, formally accused of heresy, 
 and obliged to make a precipitate retreat, and to 
 appeal to the apostolic see, leaving his country 
 free from the miserable consequences of folly 
 and superstition operating in favour of personal 
 animosity and revenge."* The ecclesiastical 
 history of the Island of Saints was never stained 
 by such disgraceful samples of superstition and 
 barbarity. 
 
 War was still carried on between the Scotch 
 and English, and the catastrophe of Edward 
 Bruce contributed not a little to foment it. The 
 Scotch pushed their conquests as far as York. 
 Thev afterwards laid siege to Berwick; which 
 was delivered to them, by the treachery of Spal- 
 ding, the governor, and of other English, who 
 were there in garrison. The king of Scotland 
 hanged them, for having betrayed their country; 
 
 * Leland, Vol. I. Book II. c. iv. p. 287.
 
 178 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 in order to teach posterity, that, if treason is use- 
 ful, traitors ought to be detested. The Scotch 
 having gained many other advantages over the 
 English, Edward, finding himself in no condition 
 to maintain the war, concluded a truce of two 
 years, some say of thirteen. 
 
 Of all the kings who reigned over England 
 since the Conquest, Edward II. was the most 
 unfortunate, and the least deserving the bad 
 treatment he experienced from his revolted sub- 
 jects, and from his nearest connexions. He never 
 ground his subjects, nor attempted on their pri- 
 vileges. His principal failing was, too much 
 affection for his favourites. He had a tender and 
 generous heart, a rare quality among the people 
 whom he had the misfortune to govern, \oung 
 Spencer, who had succeeded Gaveston in the 
 good graces of the king, was cut in quarters, 
 after his father, aged ninety years, had been 
 butchered in the same barbarous manner. His 
 single crime consisted in the love of his monarch, 
 unable to protect him. The king himself fell a 
 sacrifice 1o the barbarous malice of his enemies* 
 Those who, by the tics of nature, blood, and 
 honor, should have sacrificed their lives for his, 
 were his most cruel persecutors. The queen her- 
 self, with a brutal and ferocious nobility, carried 
 on war against him, took him prisoner, and con- 
 fined him in a dungeon, withholding from him, 
 not only comforts, but necessaries. The states 
 were then assembled, to extort a solemn abdica- 
 tion of the crown, in favour of his son; a for- 
 mality then judged necessary, for disposing of
 
 OF IRELAND. 179 
 
 the crown,, which has since been omitted in simi- 
 lar circumstances. This ceremony finished, his 
 foot-guards, thought too much attached to him, 
 were removed, and he was delivered into the 
 hands of two infamous ruffians, Sir Thomas de 
 Goiiruey and John Mattrevers, who were sold 
 to his enemies. They destroyed him with most 
 cruel torments, driving a red hot iron through 
 his fundament into his bowels. Such was the 
 genius of the English of that day; and their 
 characteristic cruelty frequently manifested itself 
 since. 'Tis said, that Mortimer, to encourage 
 these monsters to the commission of this parri- 
 cide, sent them in a letter the following equivo- 
 cation, composed by Adam Toleton, bishop of 
 Hereford, Edvardum occidere nolite timere bo- 
 num est; which may be rendered thus in English^ 
 {C Slay Edward not to fear is good." The sense 
 depends on punctuation. If a comma follow 
 Edward, 'tis a command to kill; if it follow the 
 negative not, 'tis a prohibition. Mortimer, after 
 having been created earl of March, was con- 
 demned to be hanged, for concluding a shame- 
 ful treaty of peace with the Scotch, from whom 
 he received presents; for having caused the death 
 of the late king, and living too familiarly with 
 Isabel le, the queen-dowager; and lastly, for 
 having plundered king and people. He was 
 executed at Tyburn, in 1380, and was gibbetted 
 two days. 
 
 This is the guilty culprit, whom Cox, one 
 of the most impudent liars who ever put pen 
 to paper, calls the rightful proprietor of Lehr, 
 
 VOL. i. 2 c
 
 180 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 in the Queen's county. " Lord Mortimer being 
 obliged, whether by inclination or the necessity 
 of his affairs, to repair to England, gave the 
 superintendance of his estates in Leix to an Irish- 
 man, by name O'Morra. In process of time the 
 Irishman made himself proprietor, and kept pos- 
 session a longtime. He even still pretends a right 
 to it, though his pretensions are only founded on 
 perfidy and ingratitude."* Cox could not be 
 ignorant of what every novice in Irish history 
 must know, that the O'Moores, descended from 
 Conall Cearnach, chief of the Ulster chivalry, 
 were owners of that land, not alone before the 
 coming of the English, but before the mission 
 of St. Patrick; and, after the coming of these 
 exterminators, held possession, at the point of 
 the sword, with various issue, sometimes dispos- 
 sessed, but as often recovering possession, by the 
 valour of their arm, untill the unexampled per- 
 fidy, and inhuman cruelty, practised upon that 
 noble and brave clan, by the bloody and trea- 
 cherous government of Philip and Mary. 
 
 A lover of truth, unacquainted with facts, 
 may here be staggered, and ask himself, whether 
 the character of the English invaders of Ireland 
 be truly and impartially drawn ? Let him also 
 put this question to himself, Whether the cha- 
 racter of the English, Irish, or Scottish nation, 
 is to be estimated, from the patterns sent to Bo- 
 tany bay? or the character of the Spanish nation 
 to be appreciated, by the murdering marauders 
 
 * Cox's Hist, of Ireland, an. 1326,
 
 OF IRELAND. 181 
 
 who assisted Cortes in the subjugation of Peru 
 and Mexico? Las Casas, the humane priest, who 
 espoused the cause of the injured South Ameri- 
 cans with enthusiasm, was a Spaniard,, as well as 
 their destroyers. We must agree with O' Neil's 
 Remonstrance to the Pope, that the English 
 nation, residing in England, was by no means so 
 corrupt and abominable as the adventurers, who 
 came thence into Ireland, with the authority of 
 the Pope and of England's king, under pretence 
 of reforming the nation. 
 
 Historic impartiality here demands, in addi- 
 tion to the foregoing reflections, shewing that 
 the English ought not to be judged by the indi- 
 gent profligate adventurers vomited on the Irish 
 coast, that the causes should be brought forward 
 of the very different temper of the antient and 
 modern English towards the Milesian Irish. The 
 Anglo-Saxons, long allies of the Irish against 
 the Roman empire, at the invitation of the antient 
 Britons, landed in South Britain, (afterwards 
 called England, from their name, ) and drove 
 the Irish Scots from that part of the island. But, 
 as Horace observes, with regard to the civiliza- 
 tion of the Romans, Grecia victa, ferum victorem 
 cepit, et artes intulit agresti Latio.* 
 
 Horace, like the rest of his countrymen, was 
 ignorant of the word Latium. They are only the 
 descendants of the mighty genius, who invented 
 the alphabet, established the first university after 
 the Flood, on the plains of Shinaar, in Chaldea, 
 
 * Greece subdued, captivated the ferocious conquerorSj 
 and introduced arts into rustic Latiura.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 and planned the construction of a language, con- 
 taining the radicals of all the dialects produced 
 by the miraculous confusion of tongues, who can 
 explain that, and every thing else belonging to 
 antiquity and language. The Laithe, or marshes, 
 called by the modem Italians, padule pontine, 
 which Roman emperors endeavoured to drain, 
 and Pope Pius VI. lived to accomplish, was the 
 first refuge of the runagates and robbers, who 
 afterward built the fortress of Rome. The par- 
 tial civilization, communicated to them barba- 
 rians from Greece, they could not trace to its 
 source. They did not know, that the descendants 
 of Phenius, in their emigration from Egypt to 
 Greece, were the very men, who imparted to them 
 the use of letters, and the rudiments of all the 
 arts. The terms of the arts, which Greek inge- 
 nuity could never explain, are imperishable de- 
 monstrations of the source; because the terms, 
 and the arts, accompany each other. Let igno- 
 rance and prejudice open the yawning grin of 
 ridicule, at this bold, but true assertion. The 
 means of demonstration are not wanting; and, 
 if.the means of publication were at hand, a blaze 
 of irresistable light would issue from the sacred 
 island, that would astonish the learned world, 
 confound obstinate dulness, and delight the cu- 
 rious searchers of truth. Phenius Redivivus is 
 a tribute due to the memory of the illustrious 
 ancestor of the Gathelians, whom Livy, though 
 acquainted but with a small part of his abilities, 
 justly calls, divinum ingeniurn. A divine genius 
 he surely was. His posterity, in Ireland, have
 
 OF IRELAND. 183 
 
 still, with filial piety, retained his original alpha- 
 bet unaltered; while his other descendants, Phe- 
 nicians, Persians, Hindoos, and Thibetans, have 
 admitted an adulterated mixture. Neither did 
 the Greeks or Romans retain the original; but 
 the former adopted, from the corrupted Syrian 
 alphabet, during their war with Troy, some ab- 
 breviations for letters; such as p and s, changed 
 to psi; s and c, called by them xi, and by the 
 Latins ex. The Gathelian branch of his descen- 
 dants did more. They preserved the language of 
 his contrivance and construction; a monument 
 of his genius, more astonishing to me than the 
 invention of the alphabet itself. The plan was 
 surprising: the execution admirable. It yet 
 stands, monumentum asre perennius, the impe- 
 rishable record of the miraculous confusion of 
 tongues, the bulwark of revealed truth. All the 
 exertions of tyrannic barbarity, or native trea- 
 chery, against it, are fruitless; strong is the arm 
 that has and will uphold it. A man, possessed 
 of this incomparable language, could teach 
 Moses Hebrew, Aristotle Greek, and Cicero 
 Latin. The demonstration of this I have in my 
 hand, without labour or study, but by way of 
 amusement, to which opposition would be vain. 
 The descendants of this great man imparted the 
 most valuable discoveries to the human race. 
 The branch in Inisfail was not idle. They im- 
 parted letters and civilization to all the nations 
 in Europe. Even the frozen region of Iceland 
 still preserves the Ira leter, i.e. Irish letters; and 
 Runic, i. e. secret characters. To the northern
 
 184" AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 conquerors of the Western empire they gave 
 Christianity and learning; and the name of Gil- 
 lemcr, i. e. Servant of Mary,, king of the Vandals, 
 in Africa, points the nation, whose missionaries 
 converted and baptized him. They neglected 
 not their neighbours, the Anglo-Saxons. To 
 them they dispensed religion, letters, and arts, 
 as we have recorded by their own testimony, 
 Venerable Bede, Alfred the Great, Cambden, 
 Littleton. " Multitudes of English youth, fed, 
 clothed, and instructed gratis, in the holy island, 
 an honorable testimony," says the latter, " to 
 the learning and hospitality of the antient Irish." 
 True; but how were they rewarded afterwards! 
 
 In order to set the character of the contending 
 races in the clearest light, it is necessary to con- 
 tinue mining the fountains of the great deep, for 
 the discovery of the links, that connect the chain 
 of cause arid effect. Britain had received Chris- 
 tianity before the Saxon conquest; but the ani- 
 mosity between them and the antient Britons 
 must account, either that the one would not 
 labour for the conversion of their conquerors, or 
 that the latter would not listen to their instruc- 
 tions. The task of converting and civilizing 
 them was left for the Milesian Irish; of which 
 honor, the Pope's influence, by local prejudices, 
 endeavoured to deprive them. 
 
 A striking difference of character, between 
 the antient Britons and the Milesians, is con- 
 spicuous, from the contrast of the conversion of 
 Saxons and Danes. The hostility between the 
 antient Irish and Danes was more virulent, and
 
 OF IRELAND. 185 
 
 of longer continuance, than that between the old 
 inhabitants of south Britain, and their overbear- 
 ing; invited allies. Yet, after one fourth of Ire- 
 land completely and irretrievably discomfitted 
 the conquerors of France and England, under 
 the great Brien Boroive, they communicated to 
 them Christianity and civilization. How was 
 this conquest of national antipathy, embittered 
 by the furious hostility of ages, accomplished? 
 Certainly, by no other weapons but piety and 
 social virtue. So effectually were they civilized, 
 domesticated, and naturalized, in the establish- 
 ments conceded to them in Ireland, that they en- 
 trusted their spiritual and temporal concerns to 
 some of the antient natives, Laurence O'Tool, 
 archbishop of Dublin, to wit. Could they trust 
 them in better hands? Against the settlement of 
 their barbarous brethren from Normandy, they 
 rnade the most strenuous opposition. The con- 
 duct of the Danes of Wexford may stand as one 
 instance for all. Like the Athenians, who, by 
 the persuasion of Themistocles, abandoned the 
 city, and took refuge in islands and ships, the 
 AVexfordians, at the approach of the English, 
 set tire to the town, and sheltered themselves in 
 the island of Beg- Erin, in the bay. How came 
 the Norman Danes, settled in England bv the. 
 Conquest, to be more ferocious and uncivilized, 
 than the Saxons and Danes resident in Ireland ? 
 They had not the advantage of a civilizing in- 
 tercourse, like the others. They had an heredi- 
 tary detestation of the Milesians, for the many 
 humiliating defeats they experienced from them,
 
 186 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 To elucidate further the peculiar virulence of 
 these invaders, some unopened sluices of infor- 
 mation must be tried. The Lochlins, who infested 
 Europe with piracy, plunder, and devastation, 
 during centuries, embraced a greater extent of 
 territory than Denmark ; for they were inhabi- 
 tants of all the countries bordering on the Baltic, 
 Norway, Sweden, Denmark, part of Russia, Po- 
 land, and the north of Germany. They were di- 
 vided by the Irish into two casts, Duv Ghall, 
 and Finghall. Religion lent features of unexam- 
 pled atrocity and cruelty to their wars, which 
 were in the beginning religious crusades, formed 
 by religious hatred. Here the impolicy of reli- 
 gious persecution is demonstrated by facts. Char- 
 lemagne, the greatest man of his age in body and 
 mind, was yet a bigot. During his thirty years 
 war with the Saxons, i.e. the north of Germany, 
 his conduct more resembled the maxims of the 
 Alcoran than those of the Gospel. He left his 
 prisoners of war no other alternative than bap- 
 tism or death. This breach of the law of nations, 
 coupled with bigotry, drove the northern hea- 
 thens to madness. They projected a crusade 
 against Christian countries, put to sea in all the 
 havens of the Baltic, and took a terrible revenge 
 for the intolerable cruelty of the French emperor. 
 The clergy, secular and regular, were the first 
 objects of their vengeance, which set churches, 
 monasteries, and universities in a blaze. As if to 
 put the antichristian practice of persecution to 
 shame and confusion, they retaliated on France 
 what they suffered from the emperor; and, in
 
 OF IRELAND. 187 
 
 spite of that potent monarchy, wrested from it 
 the large province of Normandy, whence they 
 invaded England, and afterwards Ireland, under 
 the borrowed name of English. 
 
 In perusing the momentous epoch of the elec- 
 tion of Bruce to the monarchy of Ireland, a dis- 
 cerning reader will perceive the deception, false 
 colourings, and fictions, of Leland, and his kin- 
 dred libellers of the Pale. The settlers are with 
 them the heroes of the drama. All the Irish 
 princes are stated as having declared for Bruce; 
 yet, wonderful to tell, the Anglo-Irish, fewer by 
 far in number, with their degenerate Irish vil- 
 lains, defeated and dispersed the puissant confe- 
 deration of Scotland and Ireland, as with a con- 
 juror's wand, presto, allegremento, subito. The 
 English were able to revive the hereditary rivalry 
 of the north and south; and, though a candidate 
 for the principality of Thomond invited Edward 
 to Munster, he found the forces of Thomond, 
 the renowned Dalgaissians, the Desrnonians, and 
 the English, in formidable array against him. 
 Of this I was aware; but unwilling to bring 
 forward the fact, untill I put my finger on the 
 unquestionable authority of the annals of Innis- 
 fallen, lar chonarc do sluagh Gcil agus Gallaiv. 
 Nevertheless, the Scotch and northern Irish, 
 though inferior in number,, offered battle on the 
 plains of Saingil, which the combined army of 
 the south, Englibh and degenerate Irish, declined ; 
 by reason of a prophecy, portending the overthrow 
 of the English on that spot. 
 
 The terror of this invasion being over, the 
 
 VOL. i" ^ <.
 
 188 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 English lords, not unlike the Irish princes after 
 the fall of the monarchy, quarrelled among them- 
 selves. A trifle was sufficient to kindle the flames 
 of war, in which the degenerate Milesians were, 
 of course, the chief victims and sufferers, quic- 
 quid delirant reges plectuntur Achivi. 
 
 Edward III. called Edward of Windsor, from 
 the place of his nativity, who was crowned by 
 Reginald, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1327, 
 was too much occupied with his wars against 
 France and Scotland, to give any attention to 
 his Irish domain; and the chief settlers carried 
 on their projects of ambition or revenge, regard- 
 less of his deputy. Maurice Fitz-Gerald of Des- 
 mond, feeling hurt at the nickname of Rymer, 
 given him by Arnold Poer, (now Power,) re- 
 solved to avenge the affront with the sword. He 
 drew into his quarrel the Butlers and Berming- 
 hams, and carried on war against the Pocrs, and 
 their allies, the Burkes. The latter were defeat- 
 ed with great slaughter, the survivors dispersed, 
 and obliged to take refuge; in Connaught, while 
 their habitations and lands were ravaged and laid 
 
 O 
 
 waste. 
 
 The carl of Kilclare, the king's justiciary, in 
 vain interfered with his authority, to quell these 
 civil wars. On an appointed day, he cited the 
 two parties to appear before him; but Poer, 
 whether conscious of guilt, or suspicious of par- 
 tiality, disobeyed the citation, and fled to Eng- 
 land. His flight did not put an end to the dis- 
 orders occasioned by him. The confederates con- 
 tinued to spread devastation and terror so far.,
 
 OF IRELAND. 189 
 
 that towns, neutral in this private war, dreading 
 the storm, began to fortify themselves. The con- 
 federates began at length to be alarmed at the 
 ravages they had made, and the preparations of 
 the king's towns, lest they should be considered 
 as rebels; they sent word to the earl of Kildare, 
 that their arms were not directed against the 
 king and his towns, but merely to take vengeance 
 of their enemies; and that they were willing to 
 appear before him at Kilkenny, to justify their 
 conduct. 
 
 The cause of Fitz-Gerald's superiority in this 
 conflict is not so much as hinted, by any writer 
 on this period; yet it is not difficult to see, 
 that Poer's injudicious affront encreased the 
 popularity of Desmond, for his encouragement 
 of Irish literature and bards, the best recruit- 
 ing sergeants; with the enthusiastic fervour of 
 their strains, on the tuneful lyre, the southern 
 Milesians made common cause with them and 
 with Desmond. 
 
 The Irish of Lcinster, taking advantage of 
 the civil wars of their invaders, proclaimed Do- 
 nald, son of Arthur Mac Murchad, descended 
 from the antient royal family, king of that pro- 
 vince. He carried his arms to the walls of Dub- 
 lin; but his reign was of short continuance. At 
 a battle near this city, in which he was fighting 
 valiantly, at the head of new subjects, the Eng- 
 lish had recourse to their accustomed policy, 
 made a set at him, took him prisoner, and con- 
 fined him in the tower. For this truly English 
 exploit, the gratification to Sir Henry Traheme
 
 190 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORV 
 
 and Walter de Valle,wasj110 sterling; a con- 
 siderable sum for them times, when six pence 
 was the value of an Irish Milesian of the Pale, 
 and no eric for the murder of an Irishman from 
 the Irish countries, denominated,, in the style of 
 the settlers, waste countries, i. e. lands, whose 
 owners were considered as dead, to be seized by 
 the invaders, whenever they had the power of 
 exterminating the possessors, and enslaving the 
 remnant escaped from the sword. The English, 
 faithful to their original system of extermination, 
 and the murder of prisoners of war, executed 
 David O'Tool, whom they took by the same dis- 
 honorable methods of warfare. Mac Murchad 
 was more fortunate ; for he escaped by means of 
 a cord, sent to him by Adam de Nangle, who was 
 hanged for this generous unenglish action. The 
 premium of John \Vellesly, for the capture of 
 David O'Tool, is not mentioned. 
 
 The chiefs of the setlers were aggrandizing 
 themselves, in the same proportion as the nathe. 
 interest was on the decline. Burke, and Arnold 
 Poer, who had fled from Ireland, to escape the 
 fury of the Butlers, Fitz- Geralds, and Berming- 
 hams, were reconciled to each other, by a parlia- 
 ment held in Dublin for that purpose. 
 
 In the second year of Edward III., Jame.s 
 Butler, son of Edmond, earl of Carrick, espoused 
 the daughter of Edward I. In consequence of 
 this alliance, he was created earl of Ormond, by 
 the king, at a parliament held at Northampton, 
 The county of Tipperary was erected into a coun- 
 ty paktine, over which he was invested, with
 
 0F IRELAND. 191 
 
 royalties, franchises, military fiefs, and other 
 privileges. 
 
 During the administration of Sir John Darcy, 
 lord Thomas Butler, marched to West-meath, 
 with a considerable force, with a view to subject 
 and eject the antient proprietors. On the vigil of 
 St. Laurence, he was met by Mac Geoghagan, at 
 the head of his forces. A furious battle ensued, 
 in which Butler lost victory and life, with many 
 of his chief officers. O'Brien of Thomond, pro- 
 voked by their encroachments, ravaged the Eng- 
 lish settlements in Tipperary. 
 
 These few advantages, gained by the Irish 
 over their enemies, did not hinder the latter to 
 cut each other down. John Bcrminghain, earl 
 of Louth, with Peter his brother, Talbot, of 
 Malahide, and 160 of their English followers, 
 were massacred at Ballibragan, in theterritoy of 
 Oriel, by the Savages, Gernons, and others of 
 their own nation. James, son of Robert Keating, 
 Lord Philip Hodnet, with Hugh Condon, and 
 their followers, to the amount of 140, were 
 treated as enemies, in Munster, by the Barrys 
 and the Roches. The English of Meath, under 
 the command of Sir Simon Genevil, made an 
 inroad on the barony of Carbrie, in the county 
 of Kildare, but were defeated by the Berming- 
 hams, with the loss of 76 men. 
 
 Meanwhile the remnant of the ancient Irish 
 of Leinster, were obliged to be constantly under 
 arms, to resist their exterminators. But these were 
 now too firmly established, and cast too deep 
 roots, in three- fourths of Ireland, to be shaken
 
 192 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 "by the solitary., divided efforts of disunited 
 clans. Yet some reprisals were here and there 
 made on them. Philip Staunton was killed, 
 and Henry Traherne made prisoner in his 
 house at Kilbeg, by Richard,, son of Philip 
 O'Nowlan. This was soon after revenged on 
 the territory of Foghard, in the county of Wex- 
 ford, which was laid waste,, by order of the earl 
 of Ormond. 
 
 During the deputyship of Sir John Darcy, 
 serious measures were adopted, to subdue the 
 independent tribes of Leinster. The justice 
 marched with an army towards Wicklow and 
 Newcastle, against the O'Byrnes, who were re- 
 taliating on the English settlements. This ex- 
 pedition produced no other effect but effusion of 
 blood on both sides. The justice, sensible of the 
 impossibility of carrying on the war effectually 
 with an empty treasury, desired, with the advice 
 of his counsel, Maurice Fitz-Gerald, son of 
 Thomas of Desmond,, to take the command, and 
 carry on the war at his own expence; for which 
 he would be indemnified. He marched at the 
 head of 10,000 men, most of them degenerate 
 Irish, and subdued the Irish enemy in detail. He 
 began with the O'Nowlans, whose country he 
 burned, lie treated the Mac Murchads in the 
 same manner, took hostages from them, and re- 
 took the castle of Ley from the O'Dempsies. He 
 supported his troops by requisitions in provi- 
 sions, clothing, and money, levied at discretion 
 on the people. This oppressive method, by the 
 English called coyne and livery, and bonaght bj
 
 OP IRELAND. 193 
 
 the Irish, proved ruinous to the house of Des- 
 mond afterwards. 
 
 The Leinster Irish,, seeing themselves without 
 resource, a prey, marked out for destruction, pe- 
 titioned the king, to admit them as his subjects, 
 and place them under the government and pro- 
 tection of his laws. The king, as usual, referred 
 the decision of this affair to his Irish parliament, 
 who, as usual, rejected it. " We wish to be in- 
 formed, if we can grant the premises,, without 
 injury to others; and we charge you to sound 
 the inclinations of the magnates of that land, in 
 our next parliament to be held there,"* was the 
 language of Edward III. to his deputy. There 
 was a parliament that year, which certified to 
 the king, that the grant would be injurious to 
 his and to their interests. 
 
 This impolitic, inhuman repulse, spread alarm 
 among the native Irish, and rouzed the indig- 
 nation of a long provoked and injured people. 
 They now clearly saw, that the infernal policy, 
 hitherto practised towards them, was to be per- 
 petuated, by the united sanction of the English 
 government and settlers. It was not only lawful, 
 but laudable, to kill them and take their pro- 
 perty. The perfidious invitation to the murderous 
 banquet, where the dagger or poison concluded 
 the repast, was a choice stratagem. The art of re- 
 viving hereditary feuds, and causing them to cut 
 each other down, with their own weapons, was 
 still better. To have a chosen body, for singling* 
 
 * Davis'* Hist, Re!,
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 out a chief of ability, on the day of battle, was 
 an approved mode of warfare. " No Irishman 
 was safe to enter a walled town, castle, or any set- 
 tlement, belonging to these enemies."' In short, 
 they were now convinced, that they need not ex- 
 pect to be treated as human beings ; but to be ex- 
 terminated like wild beasts, on the original in- 
 variable plan of the English invaders. Resolved 
 to avenge the national affront, of being refused 
 the condition of subjection to the English govern- 
 ment, and the protection of the laws, they rose 
 up in arms, in different parts. Not that all the 
 Milesians joined in this petition, but the repulse 
 of those who did, gave all to understand, that 
 they were to be treated like the Canaanites; and 
 their whole race was chalked out for slaughter. 
 Leland gives the following account of this war, 
 with his usual inaccuracy, and contempt of his- 
 torical truth. 
 
 " The resentment of the Irish, naturally violent, 
 and now too justlv provoked, broke out in an in- 
 surrection, projected with greater concert, and ex- 
 ecuted with more violence, than for some time 
 had been experienced. O'I>ricn, the chieftain of 
 Thomond, was chosen leader of the insurgents; 
 and under his standard some powerful septs of 
 Lcinstcr determined to execute their vengeance. 
 The flame of war soon raged in Meath, in Mun- 
 ster, in the fairest English settlements of Leinster : 
 and the first successes of the Irish, which were 
 not inconsiderable, inflamed their pride even to 
 
 * Sir John Davics's Disc.
 
 OF IRELAND. 195 
 
 the most outrageous violence. In their triumphant 
 progress, we are told,, that they surrounded a 
 church, where about fourscore persons of English 
 race were assembled at their devotions; these 
 wretches, too sensible of the cruelty of the enemy, 
 and utterly hopeless of escaping their fury, peti- 
 tioned only that the priest might be suffered to 
 depart unmolested. But the merciless ruffians, 
 instead of complying with this affecting suppli- 
 cation, were only provoked to make the priest 
 the very first object of their cruelty. The Host, 
 which he held forth, in hopes that the awful ob- 
 ject might have some influence upon their minds, 
 was torn from him, and spurned under foot; their 
 weapons were plunged in him, and the church, 
 with all the miserable people cooped up in it, 
 destroyed by fire."* 
 
 The term insurgent is here evidently wrong. 
 In the language of the law, and the policy of 
 government, the Irish clans were marked as Irish 
 enemies, like any independent power at war; only 
 with this difference, that the Irish, even while at 
 peace with the Pale,, were always stiled enemies, 
 i. e. natural enemies to be exterminated. Indeed 
 had the petitioning clans of Leinstcr been received 
 as subjects, any rising afterwards might be called 
 insurrection, whether just or unjust. Bui the war 
 of a people not subjects, nor allowed to be such, 
 by England or its Irish settlers, is ignorantly and 
 foolishly called so. 
 
 The story he tells, about the massacre of SO 
 
 * Li'hml, Vol. I. Book II. c, iv. i>, 290. 
 VOL. T 2 D
 
 196 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 people in a church, the trampling on the host, 
 and murder of the priest, requires better evidence 
 than the assertion of so partial a writer. I see, 
 indeed, Pryn on his margin ; but he quotes not 
 a word from him, in support of this story; and, 
 if he did, any one ever so little acquainted with 
 Irish affairs, will see how questionable the autho- 
 rity of English and Anglo-Irish writers is, on 
 Irish barbarities; and be apt to class this tale of 
 horror with Musgrave's affidavit fables on Irish 
 cruelty. If any of the old stock could be guilly 
 of such impiety and barbarity, the degenerate 
 Irish, fighting against their kindred, under the 
 earl of Desmond, who " exacted his coyne and 
 livery with a detestable violence and oppression," 
 were tutored in every species of inhumanity by 
 their new masters. From them they could learn 
 breach of treaty, murder of prisoners of war, 
 perfidious invitations, the kiss of Judas, convi- 
 vial murder of guests, invited for that very pur- 
 pose; a contempt for every thing sacred, and 
 violation of every moral duty, when their interest 
 was concerned; the massacre of pious and learned 
 Irish monks; the plunder of the sacred utensils 
 oftheiraltarsjand the political foundation of con- 
 vents, garrisoned with English monks, devoted 
 to the devouring Moloch of English interest. 
 
 As he neither gives time, place, party, circum- 
 stance, or authority, for his shocking narrative, 
 I pass over to some of his absurdities; for a 
 writer, whose object is not historical justice, but 
 such misrepresentations, and deceptions varnish, 
 as may suit party purposes, must often detect
 
 OF IRELAND. 197 
 
 himself by contradictions and absurdities. This 
 is the case with Leland, whose pages are not less 
 at war with themselves than with truth. 
 
 Edward III. under pretence of invading Ire- 
 land, made great preparations, and obtained large 
 supplies from parliament. The better to conceal 
 his real designs against Scotland, he sent for the 
 earls of Ulster and Ormond, Sir William and 
 Sir Walter de Burgo, in order to concert the 
 means necessary for his voyage and plan of ope- 
 rations. Further to cover his real views, he or- 
 dered all the ships in his part of Ireland to be 
 seized, and conveyed to Holyhead, for the tran- 
 sport of troops; and issued another order, for 
 the impressing of Welsh infantry, to attend him 
 on his expedition to Ireland. To confirm the 
 expectations of the public, he gave orders to all 
 the officers, commissioned for his service in Ire- 
 land, to repair thither, without delay or excuse; 
 <c a country where the English had as yet but a 
 partial, precarious, and disputed settlement." 
 Who can reconcile this with the term insurgents, 
 any more than with Musgrave's denomination of 
 rebels? In the same page.,* he says, " the Irish 
 had never been subdued; nor was their country 
 in a worse state, than at the accession of the 
 king or his father." Then they made war as 
 independent potentates; whom, to stile rebels 
 or insurgents, appertains only to the impudent 
 brazen front of English historical liars, and their 
 descendants. 
 
 * Page 294..
 
 198 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 That the partizans of English interest, what- 
 ever partial successes they may boast of, were 
 worsted in this extensive war, excited by the vil- 
 lianous repulse of the old natives, petitioning to 
 be admitted as the king'? subjects, and in that 
 quality to swear allegiance, and receive the pro- 
 tection of the law, is easily proved from Leland 
 himself; for as soon as their expectation of the 
 king's arrival failed, they were happy to conclude, 
 what he calls a precarious and inglorious peace. 
 
 " The only measure now taken for the regu- 
 lation of Ireland, was, that precarious and in- 
 glorious one, of treating with the adversaries of 
 government. The prior of Kilmainham was com- 
 missioned to enter into such conventions with all 
 insurgents, both of the English and Irish race, as 
 he should judge most expedient for the pacifica- 
 tion of the realm, and the honour and interest of 
 his master. The great lords received orders to 
 assist him by their advice and countenance; and 
 the sheriffs of the several counties and liberties 
 were instructed, that the conferences to be held 
 for this purpose should be protected, without da- 
 mage or injury to any of the parties. Thus were the 
 turbulent and disaffected taught their own real 
 
 O 
 
 powrr, and the weakness and insufficiency of that 
 government which attempted to controul them. 
 Insidious accomodations were readily concluded; 
 and a number of secret enemies admitted to the 
 royal grace and favour, whose perverse disposi- 
 tions were thus cherished, instead of being broken 
 by a steady, firm, and rigorous authority."* 
 * Leland, Vol. "I. B. II. c. iv. p. 295
 
 OF IRELAND. 199 
 
 This is a clear acknowledgment of defeat. For 
 it was not from motives of humanity or lenity, 
 to a race, whom they marked out for extermina- 
 tion,, that they would conclude one, so humilia- 
 ting to English pride. It was truly inglorious, 
 for the Milesians ever to conclude a peace with 
 their systematic plunderers and exterminators, 
 as long as they polluted with their presence the 
 soil of the sacred island. 
 
 Another proof of defeat he furnishes, where 
 he represents the deputy as suspecting the chiefs 
 of the settlers to connive at the success of the 
 Irish in this war. c: In the mean time, O'Brien, 
 leader of the Irish insurgents, not yet subdued, 
 found full employment, both for the English 
 councils convened to devise the means of redu- 
 cing him, and for the troops sent out to oppose 
 him. Deliberations were held, and armaments 
 prepared; but the leaders were divided, and their 
 troops employed with little honour or advantage. 
 Sir Antony Lucy, an English knight, appointed 
 to the government, was astonished and provoked 
 at the insolence of the Irish, and justly suspected 
 that they must be secretly favoured and abetted 
 by some great lords. He entered on his adminis- 
 tration with a determined purpose to support the 
 interests of his royal master, by a vigourous pro- 
 secution of the enemy, and a spirited opposition 
 to the insolence and insidious practices of his in- 
 sincere adherents of the English race, lie sum- 
 moned a parliament to meet at Dublin: his order 
 was neglected, and the assembly inconsiderable. 
 U was adjourned to Kilkenny ; and here the
 
 200 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 still decreasing number of attending members 
 gave new occasion of suspicion. Intelligence 
 was received of some considerable bavock com- 
 mitted [victory gained] by the Irish. The go- 
 \ernour imagining with good reason, and con- 
 firmed in his suspicion by sufficient evidence, 
 that the enemy was secretly encouraged by some 
 lords of English race, determined to strike at 
 the very root of such abuse. He seized the earl 
 of Desmond, Mandeville, Walter de Burgho, 
 and his brother, William and Walter Berming- 
 ham. The evidence against William Bermingham 
 was full and forcible: he was condemned and 
 executed : his brother escaped only by his privi- 
 lege as an ecclesiastic: Desmond, who had been 
 obliged to submit to this rigourous governour, 
 after a long confinement was discharged on great 
 surety, and sent into England."* 
 
 That O'Brien, and the independent Irish, were 
 not subdued during that war, is manifest, from 
 the " precarious, inglorious peace," which gives 
 the lie to " not yet subdued." With his usual 
 candour, he calls, in the next page, victory, 
 " havoc." Now havoc, from the root catbhoc, 
 is only an affray, in its original sense; and a great 
 havoc, attended by victory, deserves the name of 
 a victory. In the usual spirit of contradiction, 
 into which every narrator, shunning or disguising 
 truth, is liable to fail, after furnishing incontes- 
 table evidences of the defeat of his favourites, he 
 endeavours to overturn all he had said, by call- 
 
 4 Lcland, Vol.1. Book II. c.iv. p. 29<2. 293,
 
 OF IRELAND. 201 
 
 ing that peace, dictated by necessity, an " inju- 
 dicious condescention" ! 
 
 " This injudicious condescention to the ene- 
 mies of the English interest, was attended by an 
 event of the utmost danger, and most pernicious 
 consequences, that of the death of William, earl 
 of Ulster, who was assassinated by his own per- 
 fidious servants at Carrickfergus. His countess, 
 with her infant daughter, fled in the utmost con- 
 sternation into England, and the vast demesnes 
 of this illustrious family were left without any 
 sufficient defender. By the law of England, the 
 earl's lands should have been seized into the king's 
 hands as guardian to the infant ward; but this 
 law was of little force against the violence of old 
 claimants. The Northern septs of O'Nial, ia 
 whom all national animosities were revived by 
 this event, seized the occasion of recovering their 
 antient power, rose suddenly in arms, passed the 
 river Bann, and fell furiously upon the English 
 sellers established by the family of de Burgho, 
 Notwithstanding abrave and obstinate resistance, 
 the persevering virulence of the Irish prevailed 
 in a course of time, so as to extirpate the Eng- 
 lish, at least to confine them within very narrow 
 bounds. And their extensive possessions now par- 
 celled out among the conquerours, received the 
 name of the Upper and Lower Clan-Hugh-boy; 
 from their leader Hugh-boy O'Nial. In Con- 
 naught, some younger branches of the family of 
 de Burgho intruded into the late earl's posses- 
 sions ; of whom, two the most powerful contrived 
 to divide the great seignory between them; and
 
 202 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 conscious that the law of England must oppose 
 this usurpation, and defend the rightful claim of 
 the young heiress,, they at once rejected the Eng- 
 lish law, renounced their names, language, ap- 
 parel and manners, adopted those of the Irish, 
 called themselves Mac- William Oughter, and 
 Mac-William Eighter, that is, the Farther, and 
 the Nether Mac-William, seduced their coun- 
 trymen, settled in this province, by their perni- 
 cious example, and from thenceforward trans- 
 mitted their possessions in the counaof tainistry 
 and gavel-kind."* 
 
 With the veracity of a Richard Cox, he here 
 states, that the territory of Clan-hugh-boy O'Neil 
 had belonged to English settlers, untill O'Niall 
 seized on it, during this great war. He forgot 
 his previous statement, that " the English set- 
 tlers of the north were instantly swept away by 
 the confederate Scottish and Irish army, under 
 Bruce." The fact is, that the earl of Ulster was 
 then first endeavouring to establish settlers in 
 that district, and lost his life in the attempt. 
 
 Another proof of the victorious progress of the 
 Milesian arms, during this just and necessary 
 war, he furnishes unknown to himself, in this 
 last quoted page. As the tide of victory favoured 
 either of the races, many of the vanquished party 
 thought it their interest to change their names 
 and dress, and conform to the lan^uaffe, laws, 
 
 !j O ^ * 
 
 customs and manners of the conquerors. Thus 
 the Leinster clans, wearied with incessant war- 
 
 * Lelaud. Vol.1. B. II. c. iv. p. 295,296.
 
 OF IRELAND. 203 
 
 fare, and distressed by their oppressors, petitioned 
 for the English law; to understand which, and 
 for to become subjects of the Pale, they must 
 learn English; in which capacity, they, by a 
 standing law, should adopt English sirnames, 
 language, dress, manners, and customs. This 
 reason alone explains, why all the settlers of 
 Connaught, at this period, adopted Irish laws, 
 language, and sirnames, as Mac William; and 
 in Munster, as Clan-Morres, Mac Walter, and 
 became Irish in every particular. 
 
 In the next page he furnishes a material wit- 
 ness, that the inglorious peace was not dictated 
 by any Cf injudicious condescention" to the king's 
 Irish enemies, whose blood they thirsted after, 
 but by necessity. ec It was found necessary to 
 seize and confine two of the noble house of de 
 la Poer. Nicholas Fitz-Maurice, of Kerry, who 
 avowed his attachment to the Irish of Munster, 
 was made prisoner by his kinsman Desmond, and 
 confined for life; while Kildare, with equal vi- 
 gilance and spirit, chastised the violence of those 
 who had presumed to disturb the peace of Lein- 
 gter";* i.e. of those who favoured the cause of 
 the petitioners for subjection and personal safety. 
 
 The severe proceedings of king Ed ward, against 
 the chief settlers, after this ' c inglorious peace," 
 are overpowering demonstrations of the victories 
 of the Thomonians and Dalgaissians, over the 
 inhuman monsters, who would refuse to all des- 
 cendants of Milesius, the condition of subjects, 
 with safety to persons and property; but meant 
 
 * Lcland, Vol. I. Book TI. c. iv. p. 297. 
 VOL. I % E
 
 201 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 to treat them, as if anathematized for destruction 
 by heaven, in the manner of the Canaanites. The 
 defence of the settlers furnishes proofs no less 
 cogent. 
 
 ie But the rigourous measures now pursued 
 by king Edward, served to damp the zeal of 
 these nobles, to enflame discontents, and extend 
 division yet further among all the lords of Eng- 
 lish race. The evils of a distracted state, local 
 feuds and insurrections, violence and ravage, 
 Englishmen renouncing their allegiance and re- 
 volting to the enemy, the enemy strengthened, 
 emboldened, and enabled to return with double 
 fury, and reassume those settlements from whence 
 they had formerly been driven, were soon expe- 
 rienced in an alarming deficiency of revenue, 
 highly inconvenient to a prince who now medi- 
 tated his vast designs against France. Edward 
 was necessitated to seek every resource for sup- 
 plying his exhausted finances. He depended for 
 some assistance from Ireland: he was disap- 
 pointed: and possessed as he was with the glit- 
 tering objects of his ambition, the disappoint- 
 ment was received with a passionate impatience. 
 Not considering that, his enormous schemes of 
 conquest had been the very means of diverting 
 his attention from his Irish interests, and conse- 
 quently the occasion of the distresses of Ireland, 
 and the disappointments he there experienced, 
 he accused his servants and ministers, and de- 
 nounced the terrour of his resentment against all 
 those whom he had employed in this kingdom. 
 Conscious of his own power, and disdaining to
 
 OF IRELAND. 205 
 
 attend to the passions, tempers, and prejudices 
 of his subjects, in a country where his mandate 
 lie conceived was more than sufficient to secure an 
 immediate and implicit obedience, he at once re- 
 solved on the most violent and offensive measures. 
 " He began with declaring, that all suspen- 
 sions or remissions of debts due to the crown, 
 either in his time or that of his predecessors 
 (except those which had the sanction of the 
 great seal) should be null and void; and the 
 debts strictly levied without delay; in conside- 
 ration, as he expressed it, of his necessities ari- 
 sing from the war he was to maintain upon the 
 continent and other urgent affairs. Hence he 
 proceeded to a more extensive and vigourous re- 
 sumption of all grants made not by him only, 
 but by his father. Those to the prior of Kil- 
 mainham, who had administered his government 
 with vigour and fidelity, were specifically men- 
 tioned. The justices of the king's bench and 
 common pleas, Mountpessou and Baggot, were 
 suddenly discharged from their offices. He not 
 only dismissed Ashburne, another of his officers, 
 but seized his estate. The deputy was forbidden 
 to grant or alien any of the king's lands without 
 a strict inquisition into their circumstances and 
 value. The treasurer of the exchequer, who 
 claimed a privilege to dispose of small sums 
 without voucher, was not only prohibited for 
 the future, but obliged to account for such sums 
 from the beginning of the present reign: he was 
 forbidden to take rewards for indulging the 
 king's debtors; he was abridged of the power
 
 206 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 of naming sheriffs, a power hitherto annexed to 
 his office: his receipts of the king's rents were 
 ordered to be open and public: and to complete 
 the scheme of reformation,, the deputy was di- 
 rected to certify to the king in his chancery of 
 England, the qualities., services, fees, number, 
 and behaviour of all his officers in Ireland. But 
 the most offensive and severe of these ordinances 
 was not to be compared with one which crowned 
 the whole intemperate conduct of the king, 
 and afforded just ground of dissatisfaction to a 
 people conscious of their own, and the merits of 
 their ancestors, and too powerful, and too far 
 removed from the seat of royalty to conceal their 
 indignation. It is here inserted at large, that 
 its spirit and purport may be more clearly ap- 
 prehended. 
 
 (f The king, to his trusty and beloved John 
 Darcy, justiciary of Ireland, greeting: 
 
 ff Whereas it appeareth to us and our council, 
 for many reasons, that our service shall the better 
 and more profitably be conducted in the said 
 land, by English officers having revenues and 
 possessions in England, than by Irish or Eng- 
 lishmen married and estated in Ireland, and 
 without any possessions in our realm of Eng- 
 land; we enjoin you, that you diligently inform 
 yourself of all our officers greater or lesser with- 
 in our land of Ireland aforesaid; and that all 
 such officers beneficed, married and estated in 
 the said land, and having nothing in England,
 
 OF IRELAND. 207 
 
 be removed from their offices; that you place 
 and substitute in their room other fit English- 
 men,, having lands, tenements and benefices in 
 England, and that you cause the said offices for 
 the future, to be executed by such Englishmen, 
 and none other, any order of ours to you made 
 in contrarywise notwithstanding." 
 
 " Thus were the descendants of those who had 
 originally gained the English acquisitions in 
 Ireland, who had laboured in a long course of 
 painful and perilous service to maintain them, 
 who daily shed their blood in the service of their 
 monarch, pronounced indiscriminately to be dan- 
 gerous, and declared incapable of filling any, 
 even the meanest department in administration. 
 The degeneracy and disaffection of a number of 
 subjects of the English race, considered in the 
 most striking and offensive view, could only have 
 warranted some secret resolutions of entrusting 
 the affairs of government chiefly to others: but 
 a formal, open, and general sentence of disquali- 
 fication, was ec[ually iniquitous and impolitic. A 
 just prince could have been induced to it only 
 by the severest mirepresentations; nor can it be 
 reconciled to the plainest dictates of prudence, 
 unless we suppose that Edward had been made 
 to regard the country and the people he thus 
 treated, with the most so.frcign contempt. 
 
 ff But whatever representations he had re- 
 ceived, or conceptions he had formed of the old 
 English inhabitants, they were too spirited to 
 endure the loss of their lands, and their own
 
 208 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 personal indignities with an abject resignation. 
 The late emigrants from England triumphed 
 over the old race, as if they had all forfeited 
 their privileges, and were consolidated with those 
 Irish who had been reduced by their arms. The 
 old English, on the other hand, beheld the par- 
 tiality shewn to those who boasted their English 
 birth, with impatience and indignation. Jea- 
 lousy and dissention were thus excited among 
 those who still adhered to English government, 
 and proved the mistaken policy of the king's 
 procedure. The consequences were more alarm- 
 ing as the injured party of his Irish subjects 
 were the more powerful, of more extensive in- 
 fluence, and better enabled to support the inte- 
 rests of government, or rather absolutely neces- 
 sary to the very existence of the royal authority 
 in Ireland. Essentially injured and wantonly 
 insulted, they were soon agitated to that degree 
 of ferment which threatens something violent 
 and dangerous. The more powerful among them 
 fomented the discontents of their inferiours; and 
 where the interests of all were threatened, a 
 common cause and general danger readily dis- 
 posed them to a truly formidable combination. 
 Their violences were so dreaded, that the chief 
 go\ernour deemed it necessary to summon a par- 
 liament at Dublin on this critical occasion. 
 
 " This chief governour, Sir John Morris, 
 was of no higher note or station than that of an 
 English knight, and not distinguished either by 
 his fortune or abilities. And the lords he was 
 to govern, regarded it not as the least of those
 
 OF IRELAND. 09 
 
 insults they had sustained, that the king's autho- 
 rity should be delegated to so inferiour a person. 
 The spirited Geraldines were particularly irrita- 
 ted, and espoused the cause of their brethren the 
 old English with extraordinary zeal. Their nu- 
 merous adherents gave them consequence and 
 power, and their consequence and power served 
 to give countenance to these adherents, and en- 
 couraged them to an open and violent avowal 
 of their dissatisfactions. Desmond, too proud 
 and powerful to be attached to government 
 by any other means but favour and flattery, 
 flew through all his numerous partizans of the 
 South, conferred with the nobility who were 
 most attached to him, and practised with those 
 cities and corporations in which he had the great- 
 est influence. Kildare, his kinsman and associate, 
 \vas equally provoked and equally active and in- 
 dustrious. So that at the time when the parlia- 
 ment was to meet at Dublin, Morris was alarm- 
 ed at the intelligence of another independent as- 
 sembly more numerous and respectable, convened 
 by Desmond at Kilkenny. They stiled them- 
 selves the prelates, nobles, and commons of the 
 land, were the more formidable as they affected 
 to assemble peaceably, and prepared a remon- 
 strance to be transmitted to the king. 
 
 " The only account which the English anna- 
 lists have given of their transactions, is,* that by a. 
 
 " * V5y their messengers, say these annalists, they pro- 
 posed the, following questions to the kin^. 
 
 ' ; How a realm of war could be governed by a roan un- 
 skilful in all warlike .service ?
 
 210 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 few short strictures they intimated the notorious 
 insufficiency of the present chief governour, as 
 well as his rapaciousness and oppressions; impu- 
 ting the distresses of the realm, and the deficien- 
 cies of the public revenue, to the pernicious con- 
 duct and counsels of the king's ministers. But 
 we have a petition of the grievances of Ireland, 
 together with the king's answers, among the close 
 rolls of the sixteenth year of this reign, which 
 seems pretty evidently to have been the act of 
 this convention at Kilkenny; which assembled 
 for the first time in this year, and was too for- 
 midable to be despised., or to have their represen- 
 tations passed over in contemptuous silence. It is 
 said to be the act of the prelates, earls, barons, 
 and commons of the land, without the usual ad- 
 dition of their being assembled in a parliament 
 held at some particular time and place; and it 
 contains such bold accusations of the king's mi- 
 nisters, and such insinuations against the chief 
 governour himself, as seem not likely to have 
 proceeded from an assembly convened by his au- 
 thority, and possibly consisting for the most part, 
 of that faction which opposed the old English 
 settlers; favoured, and therefore influenced by 
 the governour. But wherever it was framed, the 
 petition must not pass entirely unnoticed, as it 
 exhibits a distinct and striking view of the irre- 
 
 " How an officer under the kinc;, who entered very poor, 
 could in one year amass more wealth than men of large 
 estates in many years? 
 
 " How it chanced, since they were all called lords of their 
 own, that the sovereign lord of them all was not the richer 
 for them ?"
 
 OF IRELAND. 211 
 
 gularities in administration, and the grievances 
 which had for some time enflamed the public 
 dissensions, and weakened the interests of the 
 crown. 
 
 tf The petitioners begin with representing the 
 total neglect of fortifications and castles, parti- 
 cularly those of the late earl of Ulster, in Ulster 
 and Connaught, now in the king's custody, but 
 abandoned by his officers, so that more than a 
 third part of the lands conquered by his royal 
 progenitors were regained by the Irish enemy: 
 and by their insolence on the one hand, and the 
 excesses of his servants on the other, his faithful 
 subjects are reduced to the utmost distress. Other 
 castles, they observe, had been lost by the cor- 
 ruption of treasurers who withheld their just pay 
 from the governours and warders; sometimes 
 obliged them in their necessities to accept some 
 small part of their arrears, and to give acquit- 
 tances for the whole; sometimes substituted in 
 their place mean and insufficient persons, con- 
 tented with any wages they were pleased to al- 
 low; sometimes appointed governours to castles 
 never erected, charging their full pay, and dis- 
 bursing but a trifling part: that the subject 
 was oppressed by the exaction of victuals never 
 paid for, and charged at their full value to the 
 crown, as if duly purchased; that hostings wore 
 frequently summoned by the chief governour 
 without concurrence of the nobles, and money 
 accepted in lieu of personal service; treaties made 
 with the Irish, which left them in possession of 
 those lands they had unjustly seized ; the attempts 
 
 vor i 2 F
 
 212 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 of the subjects to regain them, punished with 
 fine and imprisonment; partial truces made with 
 the enemy, which, while one country was secur- 
 ed, left them at liberty to infest the neighbouring 
 districts; the absence and foreign residence of 
 those who should defend their own lands and 
 seigniories, and contribute to the public aid and 
 service; illegal seizures of the persons and pro- 
 perties of the English subjects. All these, with 
 various instances of corruption, oppression, and 
 extortion in the king's servants, were urged plain- 
 ly and forcibly, as the just grounds of discontent. 
 
 " But chiefly, and with particular warmth and 
 earnestness, they represent to the king, that his 
 English subjects of Ireland had been traduced 
 and misrepresented to the throne, by those who 
 had been sent from England to govern them; 
 men, who came into the kingdom without know- 
 ledge of its state, circumstances, or interests; 
 whose sole object was to repair their shattered 
 fortunes: too poor to support their state, much 
 less to indulge their passsions, until they had 
 filled their coffers by extortion, to the great de- 
 triment and affliction of the people; that notwith- 
 standing such misrepresentations, the English 
 subjects of Ireland had ever adhered in loyalty 
 and allegiance to the crown of England, hud 
 maintained the land for the king and his pro- 
 genitors, served frequently both against the Irish 
 and their foreign enemies, and mostly at their 
 own charges. 
 
 ' As a reward of these services, say the peti- 
 tioners, your progenitors, Sir, and you, have
 
 OF IRELAND. 213 
 
 granted by letters patent to diverse people of the 
 realm, lands, tenements, franchises, wards, mar- 
 riages, and pardons of debts, which, by virtue of 
 such letters patent they have held in peaceable 
 possession; till lately that your ministers by or- 
 ders received from England, as they pretend, 
 have resumed and taken into your hands what 
 your progenitors, Sir, and you have so granted, 
 as well what was granted for good and reason- 
 able cause as otherwise; and this contrary to the 
 tenour and intent of the aforesaid orders, to en- 
 damage others for their own private emolument. 
 Which things, Sir, seem to your liege subjects 
 contrary to reason, as their ancestors and they 
 have well deserved, and do deserve, by defending 
 and maintaining, as much as in them lies, the 
 dominion of the land to our use. For which, 
 Sir, may it please you to ordain that they be not 
 ousted of their freeholds without being called 
 into judgment, according to the provision of the 
 GREAT CHARTER/ 
 
 ff To the several grievances alledged, the an- 
 swers of the king were now gracious and conde- 
 scending; and particularly to this last article, 
 he replied, that the grants of his progenitors 
 should be restored without diminution; that 
 those made in his own reign should also be deli- 
 vered up on sufficient surety that they should be 
 again surrendered, if on a legal inquisition they 
 vu're found resumeable, as granted without just 
 cause; and that the pardons of debts should be 
 deemed valid, until the causes of such pardons 
 should be duly tried.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 ff Such condescensions were at this time the 
 more necessary, as Edward prepared for his ex- 
 pedition into France, and now sent his letters to 
 the officers of state in Ireland, intimating that 
 he had already applied for succours to the prin- 
 cipal lords of this kingdom, directing them to 
 treat with these lords, and to use their utmost 
 diligence to prevail upon them to lead or send 
 their respective vassals into Bretany with all 
 possible expedition."* 
 
 The dissensions between the new adventurers 
 from England, and the old settlers, was a just 
 retaliation for their barbarous contempt of their 
 betters, the antient Irish. The soil must partake 
 of the disdain felt or affected for its inhabitants; 
 and Irish birth must vilify the hoggish blood of 
 Englishmen, in the minds of the boorish gene- 
 ration born in England. This is the principle of 
 reaction, that predominates in the physical and 
 moral world, the great law of retributive justice, 
 (f Whatever measure you measure unto others, 
 the same measure shall be measured unto you." 
 In the course of this history it will be seen, that 
 every fresh swarm of adventurers, under a variety 
 of denomination, have given their precursors the 
 exact measure which those gave to the antient 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Some may wonder why Edward, who fought 
 with such success in France, did never attempt 
 to realize his promise of attempting the conquest 
 of Ireland. The advice of the earl of Essex to 
 
 * Lcland, Vol. I. Book II. c. iv. p. 297, ct scq.
 
 OF IRELAND. 215 
 
 queen Elizabeth, explains the guarded policy of 
 England, with regard to the Milesians: cc You 
 must hide from their view all purpose of esta- 
 blishing English government, untill the strength 
 of the Irish be broken." This was the policy of 
 Henry II. and of all the kings for centuries after 
 him, with one unfortunate exception in the case 
 of Richard II. Edward was eye-witness of the 
 astonishing agility, strength, and skill at arms, 
 displayed by his Irish auxiliaries at the battle of 
 Creepy, under the command of the earls of Kil- 
 dare and Desmond. He thought it better to suf- 
 fer them to waste each other gradually, by civil 
 wars, than to unite them in a common cause, by 
 avowing the design of conquering them. Leland 
 allows, that ec a want of concert and union, 
 among the Irish, prevented them from demolish- 
 ing the whole fabric of English power, by one 
 general and decisive assault."* 
 
 But, if Edward carefully avoided the perilous 
 undertaking of the conquest of Ireland, he did 
 not neglect the means of preserving the English 
 colony; which was more effectually secured by 
 the civil broils of the antient Irish, than by the 
 colonial regulations for its security and preser- 
 vation. A parliament, convened at Kilkenny, 
 by deputy Bcrmingham, granted a tax of two 
 shillings on every carucate of land, ecclesiastical 
 as well as secular, in support of the Irish war. 
 The collection of this tax from church lands, 
 was strenuously and successful}' opposed, bj 
 
 * Lclaml, Vol. I. Book II. c. v. r>- 315,
 
 216 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 the archbishop of Cashel.* Several ordinances 
 \vere passed, tending to unite the settlers in one 
 compact body., who should have hut one peace 
 and one war, and to reconcile them with ad- 
 venturers of English birth. He sent his son, 
 Lionel, duke of Clarence, son-in-law to the 
 earl of Ulster, with 1500 men., to govern and 
 defend the Pale. Lionel, and his army of Eng- 
 lish birth, manifested an impolitic contempt for 
 the English settlers of Irish birth, very unsuit- 
 able to his station and views. He marched 
 against O'Brien of Thomond, by whom he was 
 out-generaled and defeated. The king of Eng- 
 land issued two proclamations, one to the settlers, 
 and another to the English nobility possessing 
 property in Ireland, to join his son speedily, with 
 all the troops they could collect. The command 
 was urged under pain of forfeiture. With these 
 reinforcements the advantages his flatterers and 
 
 O 
 
 Anglo- Irish writers boast his having obtained, 
 appear from undeniable facts to have been fic- 
 titious or exaggerated. The most effectual mode 
 of securing the king's portion of Ireland, was 
 found in the payment of tribute to some power- 
 ful chieftains, which the pride of Englishmen, 
 and of their partizans, calls pensions. They may 
 call them what they chu.se; but, if annual sums, 
 extorted at the point of the sword, be not tributes, 
 1 know not what a tribute is. Second fact. The 
 
 * This opposition of the archbishop is unjustly censured 
 by Le.land, becausi: it was justified by the great charter 
 grunted to Irdand. Siv Appendix. No. I.
 
 OF IRELAND. 217 
 
 extensive tracts recovered by the Irish of tlicir 
 ancient properties, is testified by the king's 
 edict, stating the loss of scutage in these tracts. 
 
 After obtaining from the settlers, both lay 
 and clerical, two years value of their incomes, 
 Lionel departed for England. He was succeeded 
 by the carl of Ormond, who shortly after surren- 
 dered the administration to Sir Thomas Dale. 
 The post of deputy was found so perilous at that 
 time, that few cared to keep it long. The duke 
 of Clarence, tutored by experience, and his fa- 
 ther's advice, came back as deputy, in 1367. 
 
 For the purpose of reforming the settlers, he 
 convened a parliament at Kilkenny, where the 
 barbarous statute, which enacted what follows, 
 was passed. ff Marriage, gossipred, nurture of 
 infants high treason! Irish name, language, 
 apparel, any mode or custom of the Irish adopt- 
 ed by a settler forfeiture of lands and tene- 
 ments; or if he have no lands imprisonment! 
 Irish law pernicious! Submission to its deci- 
 sion high treason ! To permit their Irish neigh- 
 bours to graze their lands; to present them to 
 benefices; to receive them into monasteries or 
 nunneries highly penal!" "What excess of bar- 
 barous selfishness and national antipathy, towards 
 a nation always renowned for hospitality, affabi- 
 lity, courtesy to strangers, generosity and honor! 
 whose eminent piety merited for their country the 
 exalted title of The island of saints; and whose 
 learning made it the mart of literature for Europe. 
 Did the Algerines, did the Turks, did the most 
 barbarous savages in the world, ever produce
 
 218 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 anything, so insulting to humanity, so ignorant, 
 so cruel and absurd as this ? To prohibit all man- 
 ner of civility and intercourse, all the good offices 
 of neighbourhood and friendship, between two 
 people, inhabiting the same country, professing 
 the same religion, and, from vicinage, frequently 
 needing mutual assistance! What crime was in 
 an Irish name, whether Paddy orTeague? What 
 crime in learning a language, copious and ele- 
 gant, while their own was an uncouth, barren 
 jargon, and the language of a people with whom 
 they must frequently converse, in spite of penal 
 statutes? This was empaling the Pale from so- 
 cial life; forming an insulated Jewish cast, ab- 
 horring all, and abhorred by all. It was coun- 
 teracting the law of nature, recommending a cross 
 of breeds. It was warring against religion and 
 morality, which commands the love of our neigh- 
 bours, even of our enemies. It far exceeded the 
 rigour of the Jewish pale, and had no such rea- 
 sons to warrant it. The Jews were insulated 
 from the neighbouring idolatrous nations, to 
 guard them against idolatry. This English pale 
 excluded the intercourse of a people better Cbws- 
 tians than they, better men, more civilized. W'hat 
 crime could be in the melody of the Irish harp, 
 cliaunting the sweet strains of Erin's bards ? Why 
 should Irish learning and piety be excluded from 
 benefices, founded by Irishmen, or from monas- 
 teries founded by them? The Norman conque- 
 rors passed no such statute in England, nor the 
 heathen Danes in Ireland. Taken altogether, 
 the popish penal code of the settlers exceeds the
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 protcstant one, and has no parallel in any age or 
 country. If all other monuments had perished, 
 this alone would prove the barbarity, the wick- 
 edness, the perfidy, and absurdity of its con- 
 trivers. Behold the pretended reformers of the 
 sacred island! These statutes, lasting monuments 
 of the misanthropy of the framers, were a sufii- 
 cient provocation to a high-spirited, gallant peo- 
 ple, especially when aggravated by the incessant 
 endeavours of the settlers to encroach by force or 
 fraud. 
 
 Accordingly we find, that, shortly after the de- 
 parture of Lionel, deputy Windsore was alarmed 
 with the intelligence, that O'Brien and O'Con- 
 nor took the field. The earl of Desmond, en- 
 trusted with the command of the English forces, 
 met the Irish near the monastery of Mayo, where 
 he lost the battle and his life; most of his fol- 
 lowers were either slain or taken prisoners. Such 
 terror did the Milesian arms inspire at this time, 
 that those who received illegal grants of lands 
 durst not come to claim them; and Sir Richard 
 Pembroke, warden of the Cinque-ports, appoint- 
 ed deputy of Ireland, shuddered at the thoughts 
 of so dangerous a situation, and declined it. Such 
 
 O 
 
 were the natural fruits of overweening, selfish, 
 misanthropic usurpation and tyranny. The se- 
 verest blows, as yet experienced by the adventu- 
 rers, were occasioned by the rejection of the Irish 
 petition, to be treated as fellow men and chris- 
 tians, in the humble condition of subjects, and 
 by the proscription statutes of Kilkenny. 
 
 Notwithstanding the misanthropic policy, c.\- 
 
 VOL. i 2 c;
 
 220 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 hibited by the convention -at Kilkenny, the set- 
 tlers were more patriotic for the concerns of the 
 narrow Pale, than the soi-disant parliament of 
 Ireland for the whole Irish nation; and for this 
 obvious reason, there were, among the former, 
 none of those boroughs called rotten, neither 
 pensioners or placemen to represent them. The 
 effect of this appeared in an application of king 
 Edward to the parliament of the Pale, for a li- 
 beral subsidy. Importuned by the parliament of 
 England, which was weary of the burdensome 
 support* of the English colony in Ireland, the 
 necessary result of their own perverted policy, 
 he sent Nicholas Dagworth as king's messenger 
 to the Pale, demanding such supplies as the 
 exigencies of the times required. Poverty was 
 pleaded, and the supplies were refused. Irri- 
 tated by this disappointment, he summoned the 
 parliament of the Pale to London, to meet him 
 and his council, for to deliberate on their com- 
 mon interests. Though they did not absolutely 
 refuse the summons, their answers prove how 
 sensible they were of their rights, and how much 
 alive to the interests of their little commonwealth. 
 The answer of the archbishop of Armagh, and 
 of the county of Dublin, to this requisition, was 
 as follows. " We are not bound, agreeably to 
 the liberties, privileges, rights, laws and customs 
 of the church and land of Ireland, to elect any 
 of our clergy, and to send them to any part "of 
 
 * According to Davis, it amounted to <\ 1,000 yearly. 
 A sum exceeding the total revenue of the Pale, which thtfa 
 amounted only to o 10.000.
 
 OF IRELAND, 
 
 England, for the purpose of holding parliaments 
 or councils in England. Yet, on account of our 
 reverence to our lord the king of England, and 
 the now imminent necessity of the land aforesaid, 
 saving to us and to the lords and commons of the 
 said land, all rights, privileges, liberties, laws, 
 and customs before mentioned, we have elected 
 representatives to repair to the king in England, 
 to treat and consult with him and his council. 
 Except, however, that we do by no means grant 
 to our said representatives, any power of assent- 
 ing to any burdens or subsidies, to be imposed 
 on us or our clergy, to which we cannot yield, 
 by reason of our poverty and daily expence in 
 defending the land against the Irish enemy/' 
 The whole Pale, though, out of complaisance to 
 the king, they allowed their deputies to go to 
 England, unanimously protested against their 
 compliance to be taken as a surrender of their 
 rights and privileges, or a precedent for alienat- 
 ing their legislative power, cautiously reserving 
 to themselves the power of granting or withhold- 
 ing subsidies; so that their deputies, deprived 
 of the power of taxation and legislation, might 
 with more justice be called the king's Irish coun- 
 cil, than a parliament. " The nobles and com- 
 mons, unanimously, and with one voice declare, 
 that, according to the rights, privileges, liberties, 
 laws and customs of the land of Ireland, enjoyed 
 from the time of the conquest of said land, they 
 are not bound to send any persons from the land 
 of Ireland to the parliament or council cf our 
 bid the king in England, to treat, consult, or
 
 222 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 agree with our lord the king in England, as the 
 writ requires. Notwithstanding, on account of 
 their reverence, and the necessity and present 
 distress of the said land, they have elected repre- 
 sentatives to repair to the king, and to treat and 
 consult with him and tys council; reserving to 
 themselves the power of yielding or agreeing to 
 any subsidies." At the same time protesting, 
 " that their present compliance is not hereafter 
 to be taken in prejudice to the rights, privileges, 
 laws and customs, which the lords and commons, 
 from the tune of the conquest of the land of Ire- 
 land, have enjoyed, in consideration of the various 
 burdens which the said lords and commons have 
 borne, and still do bear, and which for the future 
 they cannot support nisi dominus rex manum 
 suarn melius apponcrc volucrit.* 
 
 " "What was the result of this notable contro- 
 versy, between Edward and his subjects of Ire- 
 land, or whether, or how far the king's necessi- 
 ties were supplied, w r e arc not distinctly informed. 
 It only appears that the Irish representatives sat 
 at Westminster, and that their wages were levied 
 on the dioceses, counties, and boroughs, which 
 had chosen thcm.''f 
 
 If the period of Irish history, since the inva- 
 sion, hitherto has been mangled, defaced, and 
 wilfully obscured, by partial writers: of the next 
 reign, Richard II. they have left, instead of his- 
 tory, a romance or novel, without cohesion or 
 
 * Unless thr. king puts his hand <o the \vork more 
 effectually. 
 
 + Lrland, Vol. T. B. II. c. v. p. 328, 325.
 
 OF IRELAND. 223 
 
 probability. One important fact, however, has 
 been preserved, which proves that English policy 
 in those days was more deep than it is now. Se- 
 veral acts had been passed against Irish absen- 
 tees, who spent their incomes in England, to 
 compel residence in Ireland, for the defence of 
 their fortunes. In the reign of Richard II. the 
 absentee act was renewed, and the tax augmented 
 to two-thirds of their Irish revenues, in case of 
 non-compliance, to be applied for the defence of 
 the king's Irish domain; except those on the 
 king's service, students, and those licensed under 
 the great seal, who were taxed but one-third of 
 their revenues. Richard besides allowed his Irish 
 subjects to work mines, coin money, and trade 
 with Portugal. For these favours the king ex- 
 pected some liberal return,, to relieve the poverty 
 of the English exchequer, drained by the long 
 wars of his predecessor. With that intent he di- 
 rected his Irish deputy, Roger Mortimer, carl 
 of March, grandson of the duke of Clarence, to 
 convene a parliament, and move for supplies. 
 But the colony was so exhausted by its constant 
 war with the aboriginal inhabitants, that nothing 
 
 O J ~ 
 
 considerable was or could be given. 
 
 The history of the Pale continues to be of little 
 interest., as well as that of the Irish countries, 
 engaged as usual in petty hostilities, untill the 
 landing of Richard II. The historians of the 
 Pale fill this chasm with a piece of English his- 
 tory, concerning Robert de Vcre, earl of Oxford, 
 the favourite of Richard II. The rise of that 
 favourite, through his master's bounty, created
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 marquis of Dublin, and duke of Ireland. His 
 renewal of the treaty of peace with Arth Mac 
 Murchad O'Cavenagh, and the payment of the 
 stipulated tribute. Leland tells, that the earl of 
 Ormond, who succeeded Sir John Stanly, ob- 
 tained some advantages over O'Nial, whom he 
 stiles the powerful chieftain of the North, and 
 over O'Brien. But whoever considers the nar- 
 row limits and real weakness of the Pale, at that 
 time, tributary to Mac Murchad, with a revenue 
 short of .=10,000 a year, will be led to discredit 
 such relations, unless they be explained by a civil 
 war, or some such distraction as would enfeeble 
 the potentates of the north and south. 
 
 The reign of Richard II., and of Arth Mac 
 Murchad. O'Cavenagh in Leinster, form au 
 epoch in Irish history. We have seen before, 
 that the Leinster tribes, provoked by the scorn- 
 ful rejection of their petition, put O'Brien at 
 their head, and took vengeance on the colonists. 
 The next leader, who led them to victory, was a 
 youth of sixteen, Arth Mac Murchad O'Cave- 
 nagh, descended from the antient kings of Lein- 
 ster. So successfully did he carry on the war, 
 that constant supplies of men and money were 
 necessary for the existence of the colony; and so 
 hard were they driven, by that incomparable 
 warrior, O'Cavenagh, that the whole power of 
 England appeared necessary to save them. 
 
 Leiand, rather than acknowledge the truth, 
 that they were the victories of O'Cavenagh which 
 summoned Richard and his great army into Ire- 
 land, found or made fictitious motives. That he
 
 OF IRELAND. 225 
 
 gave in his name to the electors of Germany, as 
 candidate for the imperial throne: that his ina- 
 bility to recover the conquets of his ancestors in 
 France, or suhdue the enemies of his government 
 in Ireland, were represented by the electors as 
 sufficient disqualifications; to wipe off which he 
 ventured on the conquest of a prince, who ruled 
 three counties, Wick low, Wexford, and Carlow! 
 Great levies were raised, and great supplies grant- 
 ed, for this enterprize; from which the parlia- 
 ment and people of England had such mighty 
 expectations, but which the issue disappointed, 
 The English clergy gave a tenth of their pro- 
 perty for the intended conquest of Ireland. 
 
 In the month of October, 1394, Richard landed 
 at Water ford, at the head of 30,000 foot and 4000 
 heavy armed cavalry, attended by the duke of 
 Gloucester, the earls of Nottingham and Rutland , 
 Thomas lord Piercy, and other distinguished per- 
 sonages. All this mighty preparation and bustle 
 ended in the renewal of the original treaties made 
 between Henry II. and the Irish princes; and 
 which, it appears, they were willing to observe, 
 as the infractions always commenced with the 
 opposing party. 
 
 Mowbray earl of Nottingham, earl marshal 
 of England, was empowered to treat with the 
 Leinster chieftains, who met him at Carlow, and 
 entered into treaties by their interpreters; while 
 the king in person went as far as Droghcda, to 
 meet the powerful chieftain of Ulster, O'Neil, 
 where they accommodated their differences in an 
 amicable manner, and returned to Dublin; win-
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 tlier Richard invited the four provincial kings, 
 and other princes, to a royal entertainment, as 
 kings Henry and John did before, in which he 
 studied to display his magnificence, having re- 
 moved the crown jewels from England for that 
 purpose. No less than seventy-five princes at- 
 tended Richard's court on this occasion, who 
 exercised the rights of sovereignty in their own 
 tribes and districts, ' all blindly attached to 
 
 their own unrefined customs and manners!" savs 
 
 j 
 
 Lei and. 
 
 A stupid and bigotted observation. Manners 
 and customs are not the growth of a day; nor 
 can a nation lav them aside in a moment like a 
 cloak, and adopt opposite habits, were they even 
 decidedly preferable, a thing far from being evi- 
 dent. The Irish constitution had indeed failed. 
 It had its period, like every thing human; but 
 it lasted a long time, much longer than any con- 
 stitution has hitherto lasted in England, and un- 
 der it Ireland attained prosperity, learning, and 
 renown; a leading rank among the nations of 
 Europe. She enjoyed more of internal tranquil- 
 lity, and social happiness, than any cotemporary 
 state in Europe; and, if we had no other proof 
 of this, the flourishing state of her numerous 
 learned seminaries, and the immense numbers 
 that resorted to them, from every part of Europe, 
 ure in themselves ample evidences; as the muses 
 lly the din of arms. The university of Prague 
 lost its splendour through the Hussite war; and 
 Ireland, become the theatre of war between the 
 Danes and natives, lost her ancient pre-emincucc
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 in the sciences and arts, and thence forward was 
 little resorted to by foreign students. Even after 
 the constitution of Ireland expired, through the 
 nullity of the supreme executive power attached 
 to the monarchy, her manners and customs made 
 the state of society tolerable, during the indeter- 
 minable contests of petty chiefs, unrestrained by 
 superior authority, and more tolerable than the 
 tyranny of an English baron.* We have already 
 observed the rudeness and ill breeding of John's 
 courtiers, but then they were young. Well, let 
 us see the behaviour of Richard's courtiers, the 
 prime nobility of England; men in the prime of 
 life, or beyond it. The four principal kings, 
 O'Ncil, O'Connor, O'Brien, and Mac Murchad, 
 sat at king Richard's table, in their robes of 
 state; Ormond, and Henry Castile, a gentleman 
 of Richard's court, who understood Irish, inter- 
 preted. "The staring courtiers importuned them 
 with such questions, as argued the meanest con- 
 ceptions of their manners and understanding, 
 and were answered with indignation and affected 
 dignity." Why, Mr. Leland, ' affected dignity?' 
 Dignity was a sentiment habitual to the mind of 
 an Irish chieftain, needing no affectation. Frois- 
 sard, an eye-witness, does not call that dignity 
 affected; rudeness may be a part of English po- 
 liteness; we cannot otherwise account for the 
 supercilious and unmannerly conduct of the Eng- 
 lish courtiers towards their master's guests, men 
 every way their superiors. 
 
 * See pages 170, 171, 172. 
 VOL. I ^ H
 
 22S AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 King Richard having thus settled his affair* 
 in Ireland., and spent some months in festivity 
 with his feudatory allies, departed for England. 
 Doubtless, great expectations of the entire re- 
 duction of Ireland was formed in England, from 
 the presence of the king with a royal army, aided 
 by his ablest statesmen and generals; and they 
 criticized the king's remissness with a severity 
 proportioned to their disappointment. But the 
 king and his counsellors, who were on the spot, 
 were better able to weigh the difficulties of such 
 an enterprize. The Irish, though weakened and 
 divided, were still formidable; a formal and se- 
 rious attempt to reduce the whole island, would 
 probably unite the seventy-five tribes in a com- 
 mon cause, and drive them to forget their do- 
 mestic quarrels, elect a monarch to conduct their 
 operations, and raise an army in one week of 
 100,000 armed men; a very moderate estimate. 
 Did they chuse to protract the war; carrying it 
 on defensively, they would ruin Richard's army 
 without fighting., and a nation of warriors would 
 not be subdued by the loss of many battles. We 
 may estimate the hazard of such an undertaking, 
 from the formidable resistance made by one pro- 
 vince, under O'Ncil, against the power of Eng- 
 land, aided by the rest of Ireland. During a 
 vigorous contest of fifteen years, he was more 
 than once on the point of extinguishing the Eng- 
 lish power in Ireland. The superior fortune of 
 his adversary obtained at last a dear bought 
 victory. 
 
 Richard himself experienced the difficulty of
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 conquering Ireland, in his second expedition, 
 undertaken against the broken remnants of the 
 Leinster tribes, which ended not much to his 
 honour. The story is a short one. The king's 
 governors of the Pale pretended, or had a king's 
 order, which English writers miscal a treaty, to 
 compel all the native Irish to evacuate the pro- 
 vince of Leinster, and seek their fortunes where- 
 ever they could. It is, I say, highly absurd in 
 Leland or Cox, to pretend that any people would 
 voluntarily, and without compulsion., agree to 
 quit their homes, and resign their inherited lands, 
 without being compelled by the point of the 
 sword. Very naturally they resisted the insolent 
 mandate, and summoned from his studies, at the 
 age of sixteen, that admirable hero, Arlh Mac 
 Murchad O'Cavenagh, to assume the crown of 
 Leinster, to which he was the legitimate heir. 
 The youthful warrior, born a general, accepted 
 the post of danger and honor with delight. The 
 boisterous temper, the rebellion of the natives, 
 was echoed to the throne; and Richard prepared 
 once more, resolved to come to Ireland with a 
 great army, to assert his own authority, and to 
 support the usurpations of his vassals. 
 
 On the 13th of May, l.'WJ, Richard, accom- 
 panied by a splendid train of English nohility, 
 and agrand army, landed at Waterford ; whence, 
 after some delay to refresh his troops, and receive 
 the submissions of some neighbouring chiefs, 
 lie marched in quest of Mac Murchad, the head 
 of the Leinster Irish; who, to secure himself 
 from the superior number of his cneinio.s, retired
 
 230 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 to his woods, and at their approach appeared at 
 the head of 3,000 men, so well armed and ap- 
 pointed, and with such an appearance of deter- 
 mined valour, as was perfectly astonishing to 
 the English, who had been taught to despise 
 their rude and undisciplined violence. The royal 
 army was drawn out in order of battle, expecting 
 a vigorous attack ; but the Irish forces suddenly 
 disappeared, and Richard, elevated by this re- 
 treat, ordered the adjacent houses and villages 
 to be set on fire, and the royal standard to be ad- 
 vanced, under which he created several knights, 
 and among these the young Henry of Lancas- 
 ter, afterwards the illustrious king Henry V., 
 who on this occasion gave the first proofs of his 
 valour. 
 
 To facilitate the pursuit of an enemy,, who ap- 
 peared to fly, a large body of peasants was em- 
 ployed to cut a passage through the woods, 
 which the Irish had by every means endeavoured 
 to render impassible. As the king's army march- 
 ed through all the difficulties of an encumbered 
 road, perpetually impeded, and sometimes plung- 
 ed into deep and dangerous morasses, the enemy 
 frequently assailed them with loud shouts. Mr. 
 Leland calls them ' barbarous ululations/ But 
 was it not the custom of the Greeks and Romans, 
 and indeed of most nations, to commence battle 
 with shouts and clashing of armour? The enemy 
 then frequently assailed them, and cast their darts 
 with such force as no armour could withstand, 
 slaughtering their detached parties, retired and 
 advanced with astorvhing agility, so as coiiti-
 
 OF IRELAND. 231 
 
 Finally to annoy and harrass the English forces, 
 though they could not be brought to a general 
 engagement. This masterly plan of warfare, 
 rigidly adhered to,, brought Richard and his 
 army to intolerable distress. Numbers of his 
 men perished by famine; their horses, from want 
 and hardship, grew incapable of service; a gene- 
 ral gloom spread through the camp, and his 
 bravest knights murmured at their fate, who were 
 to perish in a service attended with so little 
 honour, and such severe distress. A few ships, 
 laden with provisions from Dublin, having ap- 
 proached the neighbouring coast, the famished 
 soldiers plunged into the sea, seized and rifled 
 them, shedding each other's blood in a furious 
 contest for relief. This was the situation of 
 Richard's army, according to the description of 
 the earl of Totness. 
 
 In this situation, Richard made large offen 
 ( Leland says, was weak enough to offer terri- 
 tories and castles, in Leinster) to Arth Mac 
 Murchad. I believe Dr. Leland, in the king's 
 situation, would be guilty of similar weakness. 
 These overtures and offers the Doctor makes the 
 Irish hero reject, and in the same breath repre- 
 sents him as suing for an accommodation of his 
 own accord,, which resolution he imputes to 
 sound policy. Surely this would not be the con- 
 duct of an able general and politician, such as 
 Murchad is described. The truth is, they garble 
 the whole account, to bring off the honour of 
 the English army, and to palliate their defeat. 
 The treaty, which enabled Richard to ave the
 
 232 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 remains of his army, it seems was so disgraceful 
 that he was ashamed to own it. His violent and 
 extravagant proceeding afterward, offering a re- 
 ward for the head of a brave and injured prince, 
 whom he was unable to subdue, proved his con- 
 scious shame. To cover this perfidy, and the 
 disgrace of the British arms before so inferior a 
 force, romantic tales must be invented. Mur- 
 chad's uncle., and other lords, against the supe- 
 rior judgment of their general, must go to Ri- 
 chard's camp, and submit, with halters round 
 their necks, when Richard himself was in extre- 
 mity, in the power of the enemy; and, to be 
 sure, the uncle and the other lords knew nothing 
 of the matter, were totally unacquainted with 
 the merits and success of Arthur's plan. 
 
 This story must serve to usher in the king's 
 promises, as unconnected with the negociation; 
 and Arthur must be transformed into the swag- 
 gering hero of a tragedy, that he may appear to 
 have rejected advantageous offers; and then, im- 
 mediately after, with the same levity, court ne- 
 gotiation, without any stipulation; and then he 
 is made to break off the treaty, that the English 
 forces may have the honour to retreat without 
 his permission. 
 
 In the situation described by the earl of Tot- 
 ness, famine and dismay in his camp, men and 
 horses perishing for hunger and fatigue, his most 
 valiant knights, giving all for lost, lamenting 
 their fate, Richard could not delay a moment to 
 extricate his army from destruction, by treating 
 \viththecncmy; for, if he hesitated, the arm/
 
 OF IRELAND. 23,*? 
 
 would doubtless mutiny,, and compel him to it. 
 He could not expect a morsel of provisions, ex- 
 cept what might come by sea, and that was pre- 
 carious. By advice of the council, who, cer- 
 tainly, would not advise it, unless necessary for 
 the safety of the army, (and be it remembered, 
 that Richard made the first overtures. cc offering 1 
 
 o 
 
 castles and lands in Leinster,") Gloucester was 
 commissioned to meet him at a place appointed, 
 and for this purpose marched out with a guard 
 of 200 lances and 1000 archers. An eye-witness 
 ( Froissard) of their interview describes the Irish 
 chieftain tall of stature, formed for agility and 
 strength, of an aspect fierce and severe, ( it should 
 be haughty and severe, ) mounted on a swift and 
 stately horse, darting rapidly from a mountain, 
 between two woods, adjacent to the sea, attended 
 by his train. At his command they halted at a 
 due distance, while their leader, casting the spear 
 from him, which he grasped in his right hand, 
 rushed forward to meet the English lord. The 
 parley was continued for a considerable time, and 
 a treaty of peace concluded, the very existence of 
 which Leland endeavours to find pretences to 
 deny, yet which, nevertheless, saved Richard's 
 armv. For we find, in effect, that Mac Murchad 
 withdrew his forces, and that the English army 
 was suffered to pursue its retreat to the capital 
 unmolested. After refreshing his enfeebled army 
 in Dublin, and receiving reinforcements brought 
 from England, he had the meanness to deny his 
 treaty, offering a reward of 300 gold marks for 
 the head of the heroic Arth, sending out his
 
 234 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Iroops lo harrass his country,, for he no longer 
 chose to go in person in quest of the formidable 
 Arthur. Here he lay, uttering his vexation against 
 the Leinster prince,, for the deep disgrace of his 
 royal arms, until news came from England of 
 more serious importance,, that the throne was 
 filled in his absence. 
 
 In the succeeding reign of Henry IV. the duke 
 of Lancaster w r as sent over with an English force, 
 to retrieve the honour of the English arms, who, 
 assembling a parliament at Trim, and collecting 
 the forces of the English settlements, aided by 
 the zealous concurrence of Ormond and Kildare, 
 formed a respectable army, crouded with Irish 
 natives as well as settlers, and marched to subdue 
 Mac Murchad. This chieftain, though weakened 
 by the defection of many of his associates, dis- 
 dained to employ those arts of generalship on 
 this occasion, which had proved so successful 
 against the greatest English army ever landed in 
 Ireland. Anno 1407, he gave the enemy battle, 
 a desperate, a well disputed battle they called it, 
 in which they claimed the victory, while they ac- 
 knowledge that Murchad was not thereby, re- 
 el need. 
 
 The year following, anno 1408, Lancaster 
 made extraordinary preparations, stipulating for 
 supplies of men and money from England, and 
 that one or two families should be transported 
 into Ireland, at the king's charges, from every 
 parish in England; yet notwithstanding these 
 extraordinary efforts, he was totally defeated. 
 The battle was fought at the western extremity
 
 OF IRELAND. 235 
 
 of Dublin, where the Phenix Park now stands, 
 and the English hotly pursued in their flight with 
 great slaughter, choaked up the ford with the 
 dead bodies, and dyed it red with their blood, 
 whence it got the name of Ath cro, i. e. bloody 
 ford, which epithet, after the building of a bridge 
 over the ford, was communicated to it also. The 
 duke of Lancaster, who commanded the English, 
 was wounded near the walls of Dublin, and soon 
 after expired. 
 
 The details of all the victories of this hero, I 
 have not as yet seen, but the result and confir- 
 mation of thorn are to be found, in the trepidation 
 of the colony; the incessant demand of succours 
 from England; the frequent change of governors 
 and councils; the murmurings of the English 
 parliament and nation, for the burden of sup- 
 porting the English settlers against his victorious 
 arms; the great armies sent from England against 
 him, the greatest that ever landed in Ireland, and 
 their discomfiture. 
 
 England was petrified, that the chief of a few 
 Irish clans, occupying the territory now named 
 the counties of Wicklow, Wexford, and Carlow, 
 should humble the victors of Crecy and Agin- 
 court. She endeavoured to practise the resource 
 of base cowardly minds, and take off the hero by 
 assassination, whom she durst no longer encoun- 
 ter in the field. 
 
 The English writers have recorded the reward 
 of 300 gold marks, offered for the capture or 
 death of the king of Lcinstcr; they have omitted 
 the perfidy of the English settlers endeavouring; 
 
 VOL. i. *2 i
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 to earn the blood-money. The Irish annalists, 
 unacquainted probably with the proffered re- 
 ward, recorded the treacherous attempt of the 
 chief settlers to destroy their formidable conque- 
 ror. The lords of English descent invited him 
 to a banquet. Conscious of the prowess of the 
 hero., they made every preparation for his ruin. 
 The guests were numerous., bred to arms, and all 
 wore swords. With the sentiments of a Milesian 
 cavalier, fraught with the loftiest flights of chi- 
 valry, accustomed to the hospitality of his coun- 
 try, which made every house a sanctuary, even 
 for the worst enemy, he suspected no guile in 
 the invitation of men calling themselves noble. 
 He came attended only by his bard and a ser- 
 vant: luckily for him his bard was not blind. 
 Placed at a window, the minstrel delighted the 
 company with the native airs, superior, by the 
 confession of the worst enemies, to the music of 
 all other nations at that day. He suddenly 
 changed his notes to a Rosg catha, i. e. incite- 
 ment to battle. Reprimanded, and ordered to 
 play festive airs, he complied, but presently re- 
 turned again to the Rosg catha. Whether Arth 
 understood him, or was moved with indignation 
 at the disobedience of his harper, he arose from 
 the table, and saw the house surrounded with 
 horse and foot. The scene that ensued would be 
 a subject for the pencil of a Raphael, Angelo, 
 or Phidias. How can I describe the consterna- 
 tion and terror of the traitors, when they saw 
 their treason prematurely detected, before the 
 bottle had settled the preliminaries ! Armed as
 
 OF IRELAND. 237 
 
 they were, and numerous, who dare stir, while 
 Hercules stood before them, sober, on his guard, 
 brandishing a sword, that cost almost as much as 
 his horse, with an arm that dealt deatli among 
 their ranks on the field of battle, and often cut a 
 man cased in armour in two with a single blow. 
 It is not in my power to paint the frown of in- 
 dignity and contempt he darted on the base assas- 
 sins, who greeted him with the kiss of Judas, 
 and invited him to a murderous feast. They 
 were already subdued, by shame, guilt, and ter- 
 ror; for the man who dare stir was sure of his 
 death-warrant. I cannot attempt to detail the 
 rapidity and energy with which he fought his 
 way through horse and foot, assembled about 
 the house for his destruction. The Irish annal- 
 ists narrate this wonderous exploit in a few ex- 
 pressive words: <c with the valour of his arm 
 and his heroism he cut his w r ay through them/' 
 He mounted his steed, the swiftest that Frois- 
 sard ever saw, and on arriving home, declared 
 war against the perfidious assassins, who con- 
 verted hospitality into a man-trap for murder. 
 This just and necessary war he pursued, untill 
 he humbled the pride of England, and i<s Irish 
 colony; compelled them to acknowledge him 
 king of Leinster, and to pay tribute to him, and 
 to his posterity, for tolerating the English colony 
 in Ireland. 
 
 He might have his reasons for not expelling the 
 vile ruffians, \> ho attempted his life for the blood- 
 iminey, by the infamous treason of a murderous 
 f 4 a>t lie mi^ht have been weary of a war, that
 
 238 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 lasted upwards of forty years, with a few inter- 
 vening truces, though generally victorious. He 
 might have foreseen, that the Pale, pushed to 
 extremity, England would subsidize O'Neil or 
 O'Brien to wage war against him. At all events, 
 he might have considered the Pale as an useful 
 appendage to his kingdom of Leinster, paying 
 him tribute. That this was not a pension, as the 
 flatterers of English pride would insinuate, is 
 proved by the authority of Henry VIII. and his 
 parliament of the Pale, who, in the twenty-eighth 
 year of his reign, passed the following act against 
 the payment thereof. {c Prayen the lords spiri- 
 tual and temporal, and the commons in this pre- 
 sent parliament assembled, that whereas the king's 
 Irish enemies have been heretofore of great force 
 and strength, within this land of Ireland, by 
 reason whereof they have charged divers the 
 king's towns and faithful subjects with tributes 
 and exactions, for consideration that the said 
 Irishmen, which do take the said tributes should 
 defend the king's said subjects, which they have 
 not done, ne do not, and yet the king's said sub- 
 jects at the charge to pay them the said unlaw- 
 full impositions to their utter impoverishing 1 . 
 Wherefore and forasmuch as our sovereign lord 
 the king, having respect to the poverties of his 
 said poor subjects of this his land of Ireland, 
 hath sent his armie royal hither for the exonera- 
 ting of his grace's said subjects, whereby his 
 grace's said subjects are highly animated and 
 fortified, and the said Irish enemies greatly en 
 feeblished, so as nothing lieth in them to do for
 
 OF IRELAND. 239 
 
 having any such tribute. Be it therefore by 
 authority of this present parliament enacted, esta- 
 blished and ordained, that no manner Irishman, 
 within this land of Ireland, shall have any tri- 
 bute, exaction,, or any other unlawful] impositions, 
 of, or upon any the king's towns or faithfull sub- 
 jects within the same land, but that all and every 
 the king's said towns and subjects shall be clear- 
 ly from henceforth for evermore acquitted, dis- 
 charged and exonerated from all and every such 
 tributes, any letters or commandments sent to 
 them or any of them, or hereafter to be sent con- 
 trary to this present act, in any wise notwith- 
 standing." 
 
 As the defeat of the greatest English armj 
 that ever visited Ireland, combined with the 
 forces of the English settlers, by a chief of a ter- 
 ritory now known by the names of the counties 
 of Wicklow, Wcxford and Carlow, at the head 
 of only 3000 men, may appear marvellous, and 
 perhaps incredible, to the self-love of English- 
 men, notwithstanding unquestionable English 
 and French authorities, parallel examples, and 
 an elucidation of O'Cavenagh's stratagems, may 
 remove their scruples. 
 
 The Numantians of Spain, descended from the 
 same stock as the Milesians, furnish a parallel 
 example of a small force defeating a much great- 
 er, not in one battle, but in many. If the Ro- 
 mans, to their shame, at length overwhelmed and 
 annihilated that heroic people, their writers, very 
 unlike the English, instead of endeavouring to 
 defame them, left an honorable testimony of their
 
 210 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 valour and generosity. The Lusitani furnish 
 another example. 
 
 " Though Numantiawas inferior to Carthage, 
 Capua., and Corinth, in wealth; yet, in honor 
 and reputation of valour, it was equal to them 
 all, in respect of its men, ( Celtiberians, ) the 
 flower of all Spain. For, standing upon a small 
 ascent, by the river Durius, and having neither 
 walls nor towers, it defended itself, with no more 
 than 4000 Celtiberians, against an army of 40000 
 men, for fourteen years together; and not only 
 kept them off, but gave them severe blows, and 
 made them accept dishonourable terms. At last, 
 when we found them too hard for us this way, 
 we sent the conqueror of Carthage to deal with 
 them. It must be confessed, if we speak the 
 truth, that never was any war so ill grounded. 
 The Numantians had received into their bosoms, 
 the Segidenses, their allies and kindred, who had 
 escaped out of the hands of the Romans. No in- 
 tercession for pardon would be accepted. They 
 were commanded to lay down their arms. This 
 was resented, as if they were ordered to cut off 
 their own hands. Therefore, at the instigation of 
 their valiant leader Megara, they flew to arms, 
 and fell upon Pompey; but, when it was in their 
 power to have beaten him, they chose rather to 
 accommodate matters. The next general they 
 encountered was Hostilius Mancinus, of whose 
 forces they made such havock, that not a man 
 of them durst look a Nmnantian in the face. 
 \ ot here too they forbore to destroy their enemy, 
 which they might have done; and struck a
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 241 
 
 league, upon no other advantage but the spoils 
 they had taken with their swords, &c. Lastly, 
 overpowered by a consular army, twenty times 
 their number, led on by Scipio Africanus, who 
 employed against them all the stratagems of su- 
 perior tactics, they fell, to the eternal disgrace of 
 the Roman name, martyrs to the cause of honor 
 and freedom. Death they preferred to bondage; 
 and thus practised what other nations only talk 
 of, to live free or die."* Roman armies, in the 
 most flourishing state of their discipline, after 
 the second Punic war, we cannot conceive to 
 have been beaten, without the combination of 
 extraordinary bravery guided by military skill 
 equally great. 
 
 The few sketches remaining of Arth's manner 
 of warfare with Richard II., give some insight 
 into the plan of that great hero's campaign. He 
 had timely notice of the extraordinary supplies 
 granted by parliament; and the great prepara- 
 tions made for invading his principality. A 
 pitched battle, with more than twelve times the 
 number he could muster, he knew to be impru- 
 dent, and probably ruinous. Uc therefore had 
 recourse to the stratagems of war. It is probable, 
 that he buried provisions for himself and his army, 
 in pits known but to a few trusty men, and re- 
 moved or destroyed the remainder. That, as the 
 royal armv was advancing, the cattle were driven 
 out of their reach ; the roads broke up; pits dug, 
 bottomed with pointed stakes, and covered with 
 
 * Floras. Rom. Hist.
 
 242 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 slender wattles and green sods. The hills, in- 
 tended for temporary encampments, provided 
 \vith rolling stones; barrels, filled with earth or 
 stones; car wheels, with transverse spikes tra- 
 versing their axle, with a few stones lashed to it, 
 to enerease the weight; darts prepared of massy 
 oak, well pointed with steel, something like the 
 Roman pilum; with many others, that a fertile 
 invention would suggest. Add to this, that he 
 drew the English army into defiles and morasses, 
 where the superior agility and strength of the 
 Irish, and perfect knowledge of the country, of 
 the turnings, windings, and passes, gave him 
 great advantages. In these places the Irish were 
 swifter than the English cavalry. They threw 
 their darts with such force as no armour could 
 withstand. They cut to pieces all detached par- 
 ties, whether for observation or forage. " They 
 retired and advanced with astonishing agility, 
 so as continually to annoy and harrass the Eng- 
 lish forces, though they could not be brought to 
 a general engagement."* Perishing by famine, 
 cut off in detail, 'tis obvious, that the Irish prince 
 might have annihilated the royal army, if his 
 humanity, equal to his abilities and valour, did 
 not plead for them. In vain Leland strives to 
 cover their disgrace with the transparent gauze 
 of fiction. " Arth sued for peace, and offered to 
 go to Richard's camp." " The Irishman, who 
 well knew the dillicultics to which the king's 
 army was reduced, and the impossibility of their 
 
 * Leland, from Froissard, an eye-witness.
 
 OP IRELAND. 243 
 
 subsisting for any time in their present situation; 
 horses and men perishing by famine and fatigue; 
 the bravest knights murmuring at their fate, who 
 were to perish in a service attended with so little 
 honor/' 'Tis thus the prevaricating historian 
 overturns in one line what he asserted in another. 
 Little honor to be sure they got, except what 
 they deserved, a sound drubbing, for going on a 
 lawless unjust war, for their ingratitude to the 
 family that founded their colony. 'Tis not im- 
 probable, that the common proverb in Ireland, 
 Byrne, ToolCj and Cavanagh, Triur a rtisgadh 
 Sassanach, may be dated from the reign of this 
 victorious kins: of Lcinster. That he could not 
 
 O 
 
 impede Richard's return to Dublin, is the 
 groundless assertion of Leland. A famishing 
 army, perishing by hunger, cut off in detail, 
 fifty miles from Dublin, that must fight its way 
 with famine and the sword, through the moun- 
 tains and defiles of the county of Wicklow, 
 where all provision would be removed from its 
 reach, must inevitably have been exterminated 
 before it reached the capital. 
 
 Arth little imagined, that gratitude for his 
 clemency would be a breach of treaty, and a 
 price set on his head! Repeated acts of perfidy 
 had not taught the Irish to consider it as a na- 
 tional malady, not confined to individuals. But 
 Arth miraculously escaped the snare of the mur- 
 derous banquet, while Richard paid (he forfeit 
 of his treaty-breaking, and assassination rewards, 
 by the loss of his crown and life. 
 
 The first parliament convened by Henry IV., 
 
 VOL. i, 2 K
 
 244 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 of the house of Lancaster, who succeeded Ri- 
 chard II., of the house of York, demonstrated 
 the victories of O'Cavenagh, and their dread of 
 his power, by their solicitude and efforts for the 
 preservation of the Pale. A subsidy for three 
 years was granted b) the English parliament for 
 its defence. The act against Irish absentees was 
 renewed, imposing a tax of two-thirds of their 
 income on such as would not reside on their es- 
 tates in Ireland; and Henry's second son, Tho- 
 mas., duke of Lancaster, was sent with some troops 
 to Ireland as deputy. 
 
 Henceforward the history of Ireland offers lit- 
 tle interesting, untill the reign of Henry VII. 
 The existence of the Pale was secured by the 
 .subsidy to Mac Murchad; and the chief settlers, 
 as well as the autient Irish, carried on their local 
 wars, in defiance of its feeble government. Eng- 
 land too, during this period, was distracted by 
 civil wars between the rival houses of \ ork and 
 Lancaster; and could but pay but little attention 
 to Irish affairs. Not a year elapsed without a 
 war in one or oilier of the provinces; and not 
 unfrequentiy in all at once. Leinster, in parti- 
 cular, was infested with incessant hostilities, be- 
 tween the English and the bordering septs: for, 
 though they purchased peace from the formidable 
 Arth, they honored not O 'Moore of Leix, or 
 O'Connor Faly, with the same respectable atten- 
 tion; but were involved in incessant hostilities 
 with them, to enlarge their frontier. 
 
 If the scene was not afllicting, that exhibits a 
 brave magnanimous people, renowned of yore for
 
 OF IRELAND. 245 
 
 the most exalted virtues, tearing each other in 
 pieces with their own hands, for the gratification 
 and benefit of cruel,, perfidious enemies, watching 
 the moment to pounce on their destined prey, it 
 would be amusing to peruse the narrative of their 
 petty hostilities. These are transmitted to us, by 
 our annalists, with a scrupulous veracity. There 
 is too much monotony in them, to afford either 
 entertainment or instruction. Two bordering 
 clans fell out, met and fought, made peace, and 
 the war was over for some time. In one of these 
 tremendous battles, which Irish writers registered 
 as matter for history,, nine men were killed, and 
 one horse taken ! What a pity they did not ac- 
 quaint us with the number of the wounded and 
 prisoners, if there were any. 
 
 The pernicious effects of the statutes of Kil- 
 kenny were forcibly felt by the settlers. Statutes, 
 which, if at all admissible, could only be enacted 
 by national authority against some party or cul- 
 pable individuals, but were utterly impracticable 
 in the then circumstances of Ireland. The set- 
 tlers were not allowed to make peace or war with 
 the Irish, without permission of government ; 
 but it might frequently happen, that waste and 
 havoc was made on them, before they recei\ed 
 permission to stand on their defence. They wen- 
 prohibited to trade, or hold any intercourse, with 
 the Irish enemy. And who else could they deal 
 with? a. handful of men compared to the. ualion, 
 among whom they dwelt as a corroding canker; 
 to use the expression of Lelantl, bcller applied. 
 Cities and individuals sued for patents, y.utho-
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 g 1 them to transgress these statutes, as iin- 
 poliJicas inhuman; and the majority daily trans- 
 gressed them, without the authority of a patent; 
 because their observance was impracticable in 
 most cases. 
 
 The absurd tyranny of these men is further 
 proved by an act of the colonial parliament, pro- 
 hibiting the Irish enemy to emigrate, without 
 special licence under the great seal of Ireland ! 
 They would not be received as subjects, pro- 
 tected by law. They were designated as fair 
 game for any settler, who could kill them, and 
 take their properties; yet they would not be al- 
 lowed to migrate in quest of safety ! This can 
 appear in no other light than as a game-act; not 
 unlike the act forbidding the transportation of 
 ha\vks, under a penalty heavier than the eric al- 
 lowed for the murder of twenty-four mere Irish- 
 men residing within English jurisdiction. 
 
 One cannot help admiring the puny arts, by 
 which English vanity labours to discolor facts, 
 and prevaricate against truth. Mac Murchad, 
 though acknowleged king of Leinster, by both 
 king and parliament, who agreed to pay him and 
 his posterity annual tribute, for his forbearance 
 or protection, must be called an insurgent ! Cer- 
 tainly, whoever rises against another is an insur- 
 gent, in the literal meaning; but, by usage, it 
 has been warped, to signify the rising of an infe- 
 rior against a superior. Now, surely the Pale can 
 no wise be considered as superior to the man, 
 whom it acknowleged as kinjr, and to whom it 
 
 ~ o * 
 
 paid tribute. Certain chroniclers, determined to
 
 OF IRELAND. 247 
 
 defeat Mac Murchad at any rate, tell us., that 
 deputy Scroop, with the zealous concurrence of 
 Ormond, Desmond, Kildare, and other English 
 lords, and the subjects of Meath, in a desperate 
 and well disputed battle, defeated, but did not 
 subdue the Leinster chief. We wish for better 
 authorities. Why did not they follow up their 
 blow, at least untill he renounced the tribute 
 called Black Rent? Because, according to their 
 story, they were obliged to march against other 
 insurgents. But the conquest of him would be of 
 more important consequences than that of any 
 other Leinster chieftain. 'Tis probable they had 
 sound reasons for altering their position; and the 
 defeat of Arth was, like some modern victories 
 on paper. 
 
 There is a law of action and reaction, pervad- 
 ing every department of nature. There is a law 
 of retributive justice, in the moral system of in- 
 telligent beings, which the setlers experienced in 
 different measure from their first settlement. All 
 appointed to station and office of English birth, 
 every fresh swarm of adventurers treated the set- 
 lers of Irish birth with the most mortifying con- 
 tempt and injustice; as if the local difference of 
 birth could found any real cause of disparity. 
 Thus,, within the narrow limits of the Pale, dis- 
 tinct English and Irish interests were formed, 
 by prejudice of birth; contested by two violent 
 factions, subsisting until difference of religion ab- 
 sorbed that less serious party badge. The contempt 
 for the settlers of English descent, was manifested 
 by the nobility and gentry of England; as if the
 
 248 A\ IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 soil or climate of Ireland communicated a taint 
 to English blood in those born there. In the 
 Pale, there was no college or seminary for law,, 
 physic or divinity. The inhabitants were deterred,, 
 by national antipathy as well as power, from 
 sending their children to the seminaries of the 
 Irish enemy ; their only resource was to send them 
 to England. In the beginning of the reign of 
 Henry V., the English parliament decreed the 
 expulsion of all Irish adventurers from England, 
 as vagabonds. Their students, ignominiously 
 turned out of the inns of courts, and every other 
 place of education, were thus deprived of any 
 knowlcgc of the laws by which they were to be 
 governed. Could the Irish enemy have been 
 treated worse? What a striking display this, of 
 the very opposite character of the two nations? 
 England refused residence or education to the 
 youth of their own colony, of the same race and 
 religion, and expelled them as vagabonds. The 
 Milesian Irish gave habitation, maintenance, 
 clothing, books, and education, gratis, to thou- 
 sands of English youth, by the testimony of their 
 own writers. The prejudice of England, against 
 every thing Irish, reached the brute creation ; 
 and an English parliament voted Irish cattle a 
 nuisance, whether dead or alive. 
 
 The inhuman policy of expelling the English 
 sc tilers from intercourse and education in Eng- 
 land, a retaliation on them for similar decrees 
 against the mere Irish in the statutes of Kilkenny., 
 had reasons at bottom unnoticed by those who 
 recorded them. It was the wish of England^
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 that the learned professions,, within the extent of 
 her jurisdiction in Ireland, should be altogether 
 in the hands of born Englishmen; that all law- 
 yers, judges,, physicians, and bencficed clergy- 
 men, should be of the same English birth. Con- 
 sequently, the youth of the Pale should not be 
 admitted to qualifications,, that might raise up 
 competition. The declaration of war against 
 Irish cattle had also its motives. The English. 
 
 r> J 
 
 then no manufacturers, exported hides, tallow, 
 wool, &c.,, and imported cloth, leather, linen, 
 and other manufactures. The grazing interest, 
 therefore, obtained that violent decree against 
 the horned creation of Ireland. The modern 
 English, for other reasons, whether of sympathy 
 or interest, arc reconciled to them. 
 
 Great has been the change in the policy of 
 England. The popish kings and parliaments of 
 England discouraged colonial emigration, i. e 
 absence from the colony and residence in Eng- 
 land, by the enormous tax of two-thirds of the 
 property of the absentee. Even such as went to 
 England on the king's business, if thev staid 
 beyond the time necessary for accomplishing the 
 object of their mission, were taxed one-third of 
 their property. These severe penalties on absen- 
 tees continued in force till the Reformation 
 There was a solid reason for these severities. It 
 was necessary that every man, possessing property 
 in the Pale, or other parts connected \\ith Eng- 
 land, should be on the spot, to conciliate the at- 
 tachment of his tenants and servants, by giving 
 them an interest to liii'ht for; to furnish them
 
 250 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 with arms, and train them to the use of them,, to 
 be ready to sally out at his command, and join 
 in the common defence of the colony. Modern 
 England encourages Irish emigration; making 
 it, by the act of Union, not alone fashionable, 
 but necessary. Thus the landed proprietors of 
 Ireland, residing in England, are not acquainted 
 with their tenants ; who, left to the mercy of 
 agents, middle-men, and tithe-proctors, know 
 nothing of superiors, but through the rack-rent, 
 toil, and demi-starvation. Would the great man, 
 who lives in pomp on their hard labour and 
 wretchedness, come, an utter stranger to them, 
 to invite them to fight his battles, unarmed and 
 untrained as they are, their answer most likely 
 would be similar to that of the ass in Esop. 
 " An ass grazing near his master, was asked by 
 him to use all speed, for the enemy was coming. 
 Would he double my present load? No. Then 
 'tis indifferent to me who has me, since my con- 
 dition cannot be worse." Which policy be wisest 
 I leave to time. 
 
 The division between the new and old settlers 
 extended even to the clergy; and bishops were 
 seen to inveigh against each other, publishing 
 scandalous reporls and recriminations. 
 
 The native Irish were too much divided, and 
 occupied in fighting each other, to take any ad- 
 vantage of the disunited colony. Were the re- 
 presentations of the English writers, and the 
 language of parliament and state acts true, inti- 
 mating a rancorous hatred in all the Irish against 
 the foreign invaders, and a settled design to ex-
 
 OF IRELAND. 251 
 
 terminate or expel them, that handful of foreigners 
 could not stand a general assault from a nation 
 of warriors A moment. Unfortunately for them- 
 selves,, pride and revenge perpetuated their family 
 quarrels, and blinded them to the consequences 
 of suffering a powerful and neighbouring king- 
 dom to keep a garrison in the heart of their 
 country, and hold possession of its cities and 
 strong holds. Their contempt for the Pale was 
 not wise. They might have seen, from their sta- 
 tutes, and the usual course of their policy, that 
 the extermination of the antient inhabitants was 
 their principal wish, arid ultimate object. They 
 did not foresee, what actually happened after- 
 wards, that they would employ their own arms 
 to effect that purpose. 
 
 The old settlers prepared a petition to Henry V. 
 on his arrival in England from the battle of 
 Agincourt, setting forth the grievances and vex- 
 ations they suffered, from the prejudices of new 
 adventurers, in all the departments of govern- 
 ment, church and law r ; but the chancellor Mer- 
 bury, of English descent, refused to put the great 
 seal to it, without which its transmission would 
 be informal: it was dropped for the present. 
 
 What feigned submissions might have been 
 obtained by deputy Furnival, from Irish chief- 
 tains, with whom he never fought a battle that 
 has been recorded, may be gue.sscd by the senti- 
 ments of the people at his departure. He was 
 accompanied with the execration of clergy and 
 laity, whose land? he had ravaged, whose castles 
 he had seized, whose fortunes had been impaired 
 
 \ 01. i L l i.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 by his extortions and exactions, or \vho shared 
 in the distress arising from the debts he left un- 
 discharged. He might have prevailed on Mac 
 Murchad,, to let his son accompany him to the 
 castle, by a liberal share of the plunder of the 
 colony, and persuade the bigotted settlers that 
 he was an hostage. Arth might indulge the pa- 
 rade, assured that no perfidy would be attempted, 
 which he was sure of speedily punishing with 
 exemplary vengeance. 
 
 Bat perhaps the exaggerations of colonial 
 writers, concerning imaginary victories gained, 
 and the implacable hatred of the Milesian race 
 to the foreign invaders, will be more satisfacto- 
 rily explained from one of themselves; who, tho' 
 sometimes swayed by truth, never missed any 
 occasion to conceal or disguise it. \\ho, in a 
 court of justice, would reject the testimony of 
 his opponents, when favorable to his cause? No- 
 thing can better illustrate the real weakness of 
 the Pale, and the causes of its preservation, than 
 their own records. 
 
 ec The common enemy, [the Milesians,] who 
 had left them [the settlers] leisure for frivolous 
 dissentions, were too much disunited to take ad- 
 vantage of them. They were contented, in the 
 distant quarters of the island, to rule their petty 
 septs, to maintain their state and consequence 
 against their neighbours, to enjoy the honour 
 and advantage of trifling victories, to execute 
 their revenge, or to pursue their local interests. 
 Their aversion to the English w r as by this time 
 scarcely more national than their aversion to thu
 
 OF IRELAND. 253 
 
 rival septs of their own race. They united in the 
 most cordial affection with those of the old Eng- 
 lish families who had revolted to them; and their 
 insurrections against the English,, far from being 
 uniformly actuated by a desire of exterminating 
 the foreign invaders., appear to have been com- 
 monly occasioned by local claims and disputes. 
 Sometimes they rose to avenge the defeat or death 
 of some chieftain, sometimes to recover some dis- 
 puted lands, or to exact some duties which they 
 claimed. Had the whole Irish race arisen as one 
 man,, against the subjects of the crown of Eng- 
 land, they must have instantly destroyed them. 
 But the truth is, this little handful of men, for 
 such they were, when compared to the body of 
 original natives, had the same ground of security 
 with any of the particular Irish septs. They had 
 enemies on all sides, but these were enemies to 
 each other; nor were any concerned to espouse 
 the quarrels of their neighbours, or mortified by 
 their losses or defeats. Sometimes indeed, when 
 a particular sept was in danger of total ruin from 
 the victory of some English forces, their neigh- 
 bours were persuaded to come to their rescue; 
 * e for the sake of the Irish language/' (as {he 
 manuscript annals* express it,) but without en- 
 gaging further, and without conceiving them- 
 selves bound by one general permanent interest. 
 These particulars seem necessary to be pointed 
 out, not only to account for the subsistence of 
 the En^li^h. but to guard against the prejudices 
 
 * \nu. lYrbi-. Mv
 
 254 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 of their annalists. They frequently intimate, that 
 the reigning passion among the whole body of 
 Irish for many ages, was an inveterate and im- 
 placable vengeance against the English settled 
 in their country, merely as foreigners and usur- 
 pers; and even in the representations of some 
 Irish parliaments, and the acts of state, we find, 
 in the aggravated language of law and politics, 
 assertions of a settled design and general confe- 
 deracy among the Irish to extirpate the whole 
 race of English subjects. Their perfidious vio- 
 lation of treaties, and their cruelties, are fre- 
 quently displayed with great severity. But such 
 charges are made on both sides : the sudden in- 
 surrections and local quarrels of the Irish, which 
 the writers of England represent as the excesses 
 of an horrid irreclaimable race of barbarians, 
 are ascribed, by the Irish annalists, to the insin- 
 cerity, injustice, and oppression of their neigh- 
 bours, to the warmth of just resentment, or the 
 efforts of self-defence. It would be unreasonable 
 partiality to suppose that such representations 
 were always groundless/'* 
 
 During the minority of Henry VI., the colo- 
 nial parliament, sitting at Trim, convened by the 
 archbishop of Dublin, voted an augmentation of 
 twelve men at arms, and sixty archers, to be paid 
 for forty days! Is it not evident from this, that 
 the tributes, paid to Irish chieftains, impove- 
 rished the colony; and that, along with the un- 
 ceasing hostilities of the natives, and their foolish 
 
 * Island, Vol. II. I). III. c.i, p. 16, 17,
 
 OF IRELAND. 255 
 
 contempt of the Pale, a real English garrison 
 protected its existence among a nation who were 
 at any time able to exterminate it; and a nation, 
 whose extermination was planned from the be- 
 ginning, and afterwards executed, not by the 
 power of the invaders, but by the arms of the 
 Milesians themselves, which shall appear in its 
 proper place? 
 
 While tributes to Irish chieftains, and the 
 wars of the latter against each other, left the 
 colony peaceable possession, they abused their 
 repose by factious quarrels, between adventurers 
 of English birth and the old settlers. These re- 
 sisted the appointment of a bishop of Meath to 
 the deputyship, on account of his English birth. 
 They alledged, that his commission was not con- 
 firmed by the great seal; and he was accused of 
 stealing a chalice from one of the churches in 
 his diocese. He was at length accepted, condi- 
 tionally, on account of the exigencies of the 
 times. During his administration the tribute to 
 the royal family of Leinster was voted justly 
 due, and paid to Gerald Cavenagh, successor to 
 the great Arth. 
 
 This great man, and his chief judge, O'Doran, 
 died the same day, in his camp, not without a 
 strong suspicion of their being poisoned by Eng- 
 lish influence; a suspicion not improbably found- 
 ed, when we consider the tenor he inspired, and 
 the base arts employed by his enemies to rid 
 themselves of a dreaded adversary. A valuable 
 Irish manuscript, written on vellum, contains 
 the uubought eulogy of the departed hero, which
 
 256 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 shall be given here. On hearing of his death, 
 the writer paused from his labour,, and foisted 
 into the volume a slip of parchment., containing 
 an account of departed greatness. " This year 
 died Arth boy Mac Murchad O'Cavenagh, one 
 of the greatest heroes the world ever saw. Had 
 I the tongues of men and angels, I would never 
 be able to relate his merits. The mighty defender 
 of his injured kindred the redoubted avenger 
 of tyranny and oppression the sure refuge of 
 the weak and distressed the patron of literature 
 and science the glory of chivalry, is gone! 
 Alas! poor Erin,, weep, when shall his equal 
 return !" 
 
 During the successive administrations of the 
 earl of March, Onnond, and lord .Furnival, 
 little occurs interesting in the history of Ireland. 
 The Irish chieftains continued their domestic 
 quarrels, with a blind obstinacy,, inspired by fa- 
 mily pride and implacable hereditary animosity; 
 thus, with their own weapons, paving the way 
 for their own extermination, and preparing an 
 intolerable yoke for the remnant that would be 
 permitted to exist, as hewers of wood and draw- 
 ers of water. The English colonists, torn by the 
 opposite factions of Butlers, Geraldines, Burkes, 
 and that of the new and old adventurers, left a 
 fair opportunity for their Irish enemy to recover 
 his properly, which their infatuated pride would 
 not allow them to make use of. O'Brien was 
 too proud, since the days of Brien Boroive, to 
 arl-.mm ledge a monarch of the house of Heremon. 
 O'Nidll was too powerful,, and inflated by the
 
 OF IRELAND. 257 
 
 long list of illustrious monarchs, his ancestors, 
 and scorned to admit a monarch of the house of 
 Heber. O'Connor did not forget, that the last 
 monarch of Ireland was his forefather. Mac 
 Murchad, since the time of the victorious Arth, 
 thought himself as well entitled to the throne as 
 either of the three. As the provincial kings re- 
 nounced the monarchy and constitution,, toparchs, 
 in the different provinces, were willing to shake 
 oft' all submission to them. O'Donnel was too 
 great to obey O'Neil; exemplified in the laconic 
 message of the latter, and the equally laconic 
 reply of the former. O'Neil to O'Donnel " Pay 
 me my tribute or if." O'Donnel to O'Neil 
 " i owe you no tribute- and if?" O 'Kelly., 
 Mac Dermot, O'Madain, &c. set up similar 
 pretensions to independence., against the prero- 
 gatives of O'Connor. The first mentioned sent 
 a challenge to the kiiiir of Connauffht. to decide 
 
 O O O ' 
 
 their disputes in a pitched battle, without armour 
 on either side. O'Connor accepted the defiance, 
 but brought his forces in armour to the field, 
 and defeated O'Kelly, who had adhered to his 
 engagement. The south was not less divided. 
 Mac Carty, sensible of his descent from the el- 
 dest branch of the eldest son of Heber, excused 
 himself from any subordination to O'Diien. 
 O'Sullivan would not acknowledge Mac Cartv 
 his superior. Fitz- Patrick, O' Moore, O'Connor 
 Faly, were not more complaisant to Mac Mur- 
 chad. Antient claims, of jurisdiction, privileges, 
 tributes, duties, territory, precedence. &c. which 
 could be adjusted by the national convention of
 
 258 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Tara, while the constitution lasted, were now 
 referred to the sword. Add to all these causes of 
 dissention, the contested elections to the chief- 
 tainry of each clan and province., hereditary feuds,, 
 &c. and it will be easily perceived, that the sword 
 was never suffered to rust in the scabbard. The 
 anarchy, that prevailed among this unhappy peo- 
 ple upwards of four hundred years, untill they 
 were extinguished from the catalogue of nations, 
 may be compared to the confusion that would 
 ensue, if all the courts of law and government 
 were abolished, and the people allowed to appeal 
 to blows instead of law, to terminate their dif- 
 ferences. To illustrate the fatal anarchy, and 
 horrid animosities, that raged among the antient 
 Irish, untill their dominion was taken away, and 
 their name, nation, laws, learning, language and 
 character were trampled under foot, and that too 
 by their own hands, one example may suffice for 
 the present. The castle of Roscommon, as before 
 mentioned, had been surrendered to the victorious 
 arms of the Thomonians by De Clare, as part of 
 the eric for the base assassination of Brien Roe 
 O'Brien, their chieftain, at a banquet, to which 
 he was invited for that very purpose. But, as 
 the earl of Essex remarked to queen Elizabeth, 
 the Irish neither could take a castle, nor keep 
 one, if they had possession. The reason of this, 
 though not mentioned by the favourite, is obvious 
 enough. The Irish had no mercenary troops; 
 and, consequently, they could not keep their clans 
 long together, either to carry on a siege, or gar- 
 rison a fortress; yet dire necessity compelled cue
 
 OF IRELAND. 259 
 
 clan to submit to the restraint of presidial disci- 
 pline, considered by them an imprisonment. The 
 castle fell again into the hands of the English, 
 and the garrison sorely distressed and harassed 
 the O'Kellys of Imany. Possessed of a secure 
 retreat, they could sally out by night or by day, 
 as opportunity offered, and kill, plunder, take 
 men,, women, cattle, corn, &c. into their fortress. 
 The chieftain took counsel with his people, how 
 they might check the devastations of such des- 
 perate banditti. The best safeguard appeared to 
 be, to build and garrison a castle, in opposition 
 and contiguous to it. O'Kelly accordingly called 
 forth his kindred and his allies; and with them 
 rested under arms fifteen days, untill he erected 
 and garrisoned a castle, in spite of the English 
 and their Milesian allies. What infernal vin- 
 dictiveness must have rankled in those Milesians, 
 and depraved their feelings, when they would 
 assist this gang of robbers to infest their neigh- 
 bours with all kind of carnage, plunder and sa- 
 vage atrocity, and hinder O'Kelly to protect the 
 lives and properties of his people, by his little 
 castle, as it was spitefully called, so speedily 
 constructed. The annalists, though accurate as 
 to facts, yet generally too brief, have not record- 
 ed the names of those Irish enemies to O'Krliy, 
 who inhumanly endeavoured to make him and 
 his people a prey to the ruffians, who had been 
 wasting his territory nearly with impunity ; w he- 
 ther they were the O'Rourkcs, Mac Derniots, 
 Burkes, O'Madains, O'Connors, or a confede- 
 ration of t\vo, three, or more of them. They 
 VOL. i, 2 M
 
 260 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 simply state, that a host of Gathelians marched 
 to the assistance of the marauders; and, in con- 
 junction with them, endeavoured to take and 
 demolish O'Kelly's little castle. The castle was 
 well defended, and the combined forces beat off. 
 They forgot to record, whether the chieftain of 
 Imany had an entrenched camp near his little 
 castle, to second the valour of its little garrison, 
 though the fact can hardly be doubted; since 
 it cannot be conceived, that the castle-builder 
 would abandon a work, that cost such exertion, 
 and was so necessary to his people. From this 
 sample, and some more that shall follow, it is 
 self-evident, that a people, thirsting so greedily 
 for each other's destruction, could not long sub- 
 sist as a nation, in the devouring jaws of anarchy 
 and vindictive hostilities. Indeed there was at 
 that time no such thing as an Irish nation united 
 by interest and the national feelings of patriotism. 
 Each clan was a distinct nation ; considering only 
 its own local concerns, and hostile or indifferent 
 to the rest. Sometimes, indeed, they formed al- 
 liances among a few clans, for some object of- 
 fensive or defensive; but these were temporary 
 and precarious, while the Irish alliances with 
 their enemies, for the ruin of their country, were 
 more numerous and steady. The mercenary race 
 of their bards, with few exceptions, abused the 
 influence of music and numbers, on minds of 
 vehement sensibility, meanly flattering and in- 
 flaming their passions; and were easily bribed, 
 by the invaders, to rekindle old animosities and 
 wars amongst them. Thus, in the reign of queen
 
 OF IRELAND. 261 
 
 Elizabeth, the bards of the north and south were 
 played off against each other, to revive the rivalry 
 of the houses of Heber and Heremon; and im- 
 pede, by their mutual vaunting, defiance, re- 
 proaches and recriminations, any concert for their 
 common protection. 
 
 Leland, with his fellow writers of the same 
 stamp, talk of the successes of the carl of Onnond, 
 during his deputysliip, over O'Nial, and some 
 other chieftains, which but ill accord with what 
 he states in the same page.* " We find the limits 
 of the English Pale, as it stood in the ninth year 
 of Henry VI. defined in such a manner, as gives a 
 MORTIFYING idea of the extent of English power 
 in those days;" little more than the county of 
 Dublin being exempt from tribute to Irish chief- 
 tains. " In this interval we find a remarkable 
 instance of the poverty or the economy of those 
 times. It was agreed in council, that as the hall 
 of the castle of Dublin, and the windows there- 
 of, were ruinous, and that there was in the trea- 
 sury a certain antient silver seal cancelled, which 
 was of no use to the king, the said seal should 
 be broken and sold, and the money laid out on 
 the said hall and windows." Here are two con- 
 vincing proofs of their inability to put down any 
 of the great chieftains, or compelling thorn to 
 relinquish their claim to the tribute, called, by 
 those who paid it, Black Rent. The narrow li- 
 mits of the colony, and the tributes therefrom to 
 the powerful families of Mac Murchad, O'Nial 
 
 * Vol. 11. Book III. c. i. p. 22.
 
 262 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 and O'Brien, sufficiently explain the poverty of 
 the exchequer. 
 
 Even in this state of real debility, and preca- 
 rious tolerated existence, the Pale could not di- 
 vest itself of its absurd antipathies, subservient 
 to the policy of England. In the administration 
 subsequent to that of Ormond, all the statutes 
 against marrying, fostering, or trafficking with 
 the Irish, were renewed. Nevertheless, the par- 
 liament of this little tract, called the Pale, paid 
 a laudable attention to their own interests, with 
 regard to English interference. In their petitions 
 to the king, they notice the misrepresentations 
 made to him of his Irish subjects; the incapacity 
 and ignorance of persons sent from England to 
 every office of trust; and their impudent affec- 
 tation of superiority over the old settlers: their 
 own right to be treated as Englishmen, agreeably 
 to the stipulations of their ancestors, they insisted 
 on. The discontents, arising from those grie- 
 vances unredressed, kept increasing, untill they 
 were buried in oblivion by contests of greater 
 moment. 
 
 The chief settlers, generally descended from 
 indigent and profligate adventurers, on the tes- 
 timony of their own cotemporary countrymen, 
 had, by various arts of violence, perfidy, and 
 fraud, profiting of the anarchy and feuds of the 
 old natives, attained princely opulence and con- 
 sequence. TheGeraldines, Burkes, and Butlers, 
 could rank with chieftains of the second class, in 
 power and resources. Of all these, the carl of 
 Desmond was the most potent. He usurped a
 
 OF IRELAND 263 
 
 large tract of the county of Cork, tinder pre- 
 tence of a grant from Cogan; as if that early 
 adventurer had a right to grant other men's 
 estates. He was by patent appointed governor 
 of Limerick, Waterford, Cork and Kerry, dis- 
 pensed from attendance on parliament for life, 
 on sending a proxy. As an independent sove- 
 reign, he exercised all the prerogatives of royalty, 
 and continued his encroachments. Ormond, at 
 this time deputy, began to look with a jealous 
 eye on the aggrandizement of the rival of his 
 house; and interposed his authority, to restrain 
 the rapacity of Desmond. The latter bad him 
 defiance ; they collected forces; to war they went, 
 in \vhich the unfortunate natives were, as usual, 
 the principal victims and sufferers. Foiled in his 
 endeavour to defeat Desmond, the deputy was 
 obliged to make a twelve month's truce with him ; 
 during which the thane had time to strengthen 
 his party, and encourage the enemies of Ormond 
 to impeach him of sundry acts of mal-admini- 
 slration. The artifices of Desmond succeeded: 
 an order was issued for the removal of Ormond, 
 which, on receiving a favourable testimony of 
 his Irish deputy's conduct, Henry suspended; 
 yet, soon after, whether moved by the accusa- 
 tions sent over, or to remove a cause of jealousy 
 from among the leading colonists, he sent an 
 Englishman, Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, to go- 
 vern his Irish domain. He came attended by 
 700 men; a necessary reinforcement, in times of 
 turbulence and factious broils among natives 
 and settlers. The Fitz-Patricks and the Butlcri
 
 264 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 had some quarrels,, in which the Irish chieftain 
 of Ossory, as usual, was assassinated. O'Connor 
 Faly and the Berminghams invaded Meath. 
 O'Brien and Clannckard made war on the colo- 
 nists of Thomond. The colonial writers here 
 state, " that the Irish chieftains were reduced, 
 the degenerate English intimidated, and some of 
 the most obnoxious among them, particularly of 
 the Berminghams, seized, condemned and exe- 
 cuted." The reduction of the Irish chieftains! 
 How reasonable the tales of baron Munkhausen, 
 when compared with such extravagant rant? 
 Long after this period the Milesian power was 
 formidable. It was not with 700 men, and the 
 forces of the petty, impoverished Pale, that such 
 an undertaking could be dreamed of. If, by the 
 mediation of a deputy, peace was restored, or 
 atonement made to an injured or offended chief- 
 tain, it was set down reduction, homage. The 
 native Irish seldom took up arms but to revenge 
 some wrong or insult. The settlers, true to the 
 lirst principles of their mission, never let slip, 
 but always strove to create opportunities of en- 
 croachment. If a provoked chieftain was ap- 
 peased by submission and satisfaction, 'tis strange 
 language to call the transaction homage, submis- 
 sion, and no way rcconcileablc with the continu- 
 ance of the tribute. 
 
 At a parliament held in Trim, anno 1447, the 
 bigotted ordinances of the Pale against native 
 Irish were renewed. The beard-act, prohibiting 
 the use of whiskers, now generally worn by sol- 
 diers on the continent ; an act against the use of
 
 OF IRELAND. 26;) 
 
 gold or silver trappings or harness, except by 
 noblemen or prelates; an act against O'Reily's 
 coin; and an act against the conveyance of gold 
 or silver into England, so remarkable as not to 
 be unworthy of insertion. te Whereas this land 
 of Ireland is greatly impoverished from day to 
 day, by the great deduction and carriage out of 
 the said land into England of the silver plate, 
 broken silver bullion, and wedges of silver made 
 of the great tonsure of the money of our sovereign 
 lord the king, by his Irish enemies, and English 
 rebels within his said land, whereby his said coyn 
 is diminished and greatly impaired, and Irish 
 money called Relycs do encrease from day to 
 day, unto the great hurt and impoverishment of 
 his said people of this his said land, and dimi- 
 nution of his coin: the premises therefore consi- 
 dered, it is ordained, established, and provided 
 by authority of the said parliament, that of every 
 ounce of broken silver, bullion, and wedges of 
 silver, taken by any person or persons out of the 
 said land, the said person or persons shall pay, 
 satisfie and content to the king, twelve pence for 
 custom of every ounce, to be received by the 
 hands of his customers for the time being, except 
 lords and messengers going into England about 
 the business of the land, that they may take plate 
 \viththcmaccordingto their beings and estates." 
 Talbot, on returning to England, his brother, 
 the archbishop of Dublin, being appointed lord 
 lieutenant in his absence, brought several charges 
 of high treason against his predecessor Ormond. 
 The archbishop wrote a treatise in confirmation
 
 266 AX IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 of those charges. The king; whether from lenity 
 or policy, quashed all proceedings on the charges, 
 as he did the trial by combat,, to which Butler 
 was challenged by the prior of Kilmainham, in 
 support of the allegations against him. These 
 repeated farours confirmed Ormond in his at- 
 tachment to the house of Lancaster. 
 
 As the affairs of Ireland soon became connect- 
 ed with English affairs; and the revolutions in 
 the one always shook the other, more or less, 
 since that period, it will be proper to sketch 
 briefly the causes that first linked the domestic 
 policy of both countries so closely. Notwith- 
 standing two successive reigns in the line of 
 Lancaster, one of whom made a splendid figure 
 on the continent, the house of York had parti- 
 /ans, numerous and powerful, w r ho considered 
 Richard, duke of York, as the legitimate heir; 
 being descended from Lionel, duke of Clarence, 
 the elder brother of him from whom the house 
 of Lancaster claimed their right to the crown. 
 Margaret of Anjou, wife to Henry VI. exercised 
 that dominion over him, which strong minds na- 
 turally possess over the weak. In all his transac- 
 tions with France, her national partiality led him 
 to treaties and concessions odious and unpopular 
 in England. Espousing the animosities of those 
 attached to the Lancastrian line, or who procured 
 her marriage, she imprudently led him to destroy 
 the duke of G louccster, the darling of the people. 
 The partizans of the house of York failed not to 
 take advantage of every mistake of Henry, ia 
 favour of their own cause. They represented him
 
 OF IRELAND. 267 
 
 as a weak, pusillanimous man, governed abso- 
 lutely by an imperious woman, wedded to foreign 
 and party interests; and the superior rights of 
 York were urged without reserve. A pretence 
 was wanting to the politic Margaret, of sending 
 him out of sight. Petitions were procured from 
 the Irish colony, representing it on the brink of 
 destruction; while the Milesians, occupied by 
 their domestic feuds, and the three most power- 
 ful chieftans satisfied with their tributes, left it 
 in full security. Richard, duke of York, was 
 pitched on by the court, as the fittest person to 
 meet the pretended storm; as a relative of De 
 Burgo, and the inheritor of a vast estate in Ire- 
 land, could not want followers. Neither did 
 they give him any army; for an administration of 
 eclat was the very thing they did not wish for, 
 in sending this dreaded pretender to Ireland. 
 The policy of Richard appears clearly, from the 
 stipulations he made on accepting the office of 
 lord lieutenant of the Pale. His chcarful accep- 
 tance of the lieutenancy, and the stipulations he 
 made, clearly bespeak the abilities of a states- 
 man. Conscious that he was removed to Ireland 
 from his English connexions, as too formidable, 
 by his pretensions to the throne, founded on his 
 descent from an elder branch of Lionel, duke of 
 Clarence, supported by numerous and powerful 
 partizans, and his popularity contrasted with the- 
 odium of an English king held under the govern- 
 ment of a French woman, he thought it best to 
 temporize. To disown ambition, natural to most 
 men, especially to those of high rank and autho- 
 VOL, i. 2 N
 
 268 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 rity, would only render him more suspicious to 
 the penetrating Margaret. But, claiming higher 
 honors, support, and revenue, than any of his 
 predecessors, and a continuance of his delegated 
 authority for ten years, was a virtual surrender 
 of his pretensions to the throne, to cover his real 
 designs. This is the true clue to his administra- 
 tion in Ireland; the most just, moderate, and 
 conciliating, ever experienced in Ireland from 
 an English delegate. What his character would 
 have been, had he reached the summit of his am- 
 bition, his failure and death have left uncertain; 
 but his management of Irish affairs proved, how 
 far equity and conciliation could operate to tran- 
 quillize a distracted state, perpetually irritated, 
 and goaded to acts of vengeance by encroach- 
 ments and insults. Equally courteous and at- 
 tentive to all parties, of English or Irish descent, 
 Ormond, the noted partizan of a rival house, or 
 a chief of the Irish enemy, was received with 
 equal affability, as the partizans of his own fa- 
 mily, and with every appearance of kindness and 
 attention to their affairs. Ormond and Desmond 
 were chosen as gossips to an infant born to him 
 in the castle; studying thus to unite these rival 
 lords, or at least, by his honoring a partizan of 
 Lancaster, to remove the suspicion of a lurking 
 pretendership from York. He soon found, that 
 the representations made in England, of Irish 
 disturbances, were the fabrications of designing 
 men. The only opportunity he found of display- 
 ing his arms, was presented by a quarrel between 
 Mac Geoghegan and the English of Meath. But
 
 OF IRELAND. 269 
 
 the presence and equity of York soon settled their 
 differences, to their mutual satisfaction. Studious 
 to recommend himself both to natives and settlers, 
 by his equity to the one, and care of the other, 
 he gained many friends to his cause. In a par- 
 liament, which he held in Dublin, anno 1450, 
 some acts were passed, of a popular nature. The 
 law of retaliation was enacted, that an accuser 
 should give security to pay costs and damages, 
 on being convicted of false accusation. It was de- 
 clared lawful to kill robbers and thieves caught 
 in the fact, and a reward to be levied on the dis- 
 trict for the service. But the most remarkable 
 act was that, which restrained the tyranny and 
 oppression of the lords of the Pale, abolishing 
 coyne and livery, &c. and is as follows. 
 
 " That where the marchours [those who dwelt 
 on the borders] of the county of Dyvelyn, [Dub- 
 lin,] and other marchours of sundry counties, 
 and other men within the land of Ireland, do 
 keep horsemen and footmen, as well Irish as 
 English, more than they can maintain upon their 
 own costs, or upon their own tenants, and from 
 day to other do coyiiee them upon the poor hus- 
 bands and tenants of the said land of Ireland, 
 and oppress and destroy them, and namely in 
 time of harvest upon their comes and meadows 
 with their horses both day and night, and do 
 pay nothing therefore, but many times do rob, 
 spoyl, and kill the said tenants and husbands, as 
 well bv night as by day, and the captains of the 
 same marchours, their wives and their pages, 
 certain tinns of the year do gather and bring
 
 270 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 with them the king's Irish enemies both men 
 and women, and English rebels, with their horse- 
 men and footmen, as well in time of war as of 
 peace, to night suppers called cuddies, upon the 
 said tenants and husbands, and they that are the 
 chief captains of the said marchours, do leade 
 and lodge them upon one husband one hundred 
 men horsemen and footmen some night, and upon 
 one other tenant or husband, so many one other 
 night, and so every captain and their wives, 
 pages, and their sons, as well as themselves, and 
 every of them do lead and bring with them so 
 many of the said Irish enemies and English re- 
 bels, with their horsemen and footmen upon the 
 said husbands and tenants, and so they espy the 
 secrecie of the said land: and after that every of 
 the said marchours and their wives, pages and 
 sons, have overgone the said husbands, and te- 
 nants of the said marches in the form aforesaid, 
 then they go to the captain aforesaid, and there 
 the thieves of the said marchours do knit and 
 confcder together. And that the said marchours 
 thieves do steal in the English country/ 1 distin- 
 guished from Irish country, <e they do put out 
 to them in the march, and in time of war the 
 men of the same marchours, as well horsemen 
 and footmen, do guide the said Irish enemies 
 and their thieves into the English country, and 
 what tenant or husband will not be at their 
 truce, they do burn, they do rob, spoil and kill, 
 and for the more part, the said land is wasted 
 and destroyed. And if such rule be holden, not 
 punished, it is like to be the utter destructioa
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 and undoing of the said land. Wherefore the 
 premises considered, it is ordained and agreed by 
 the authority of the said council,, that no mar- 
 chours nor other man of the said counties, shall 
 keep more men, horsemen or footmen, but that 
 they shall answer for them, and shall maintain 
 them upon their own costs, or their own tenants. 
 And what men that they do keep, horsemen or 
 footmen, the marchours of the county of Dy velyn 
 shall present their names to the sheriff, or to the 
 justices of peace of the said county, and they to 
 present them to the mayor and bayliffs of the city 
 of Dyvelyn, and in like case, all marchours and 
 other men of every county within Ireland, to the 
 sheriffs or justices of peace of the counties, and 
 they to present them to the mayor and bayliffs of 
 the said cities within the said counties. Sove- 
 raigns or provosts of the best burrough-towns 
 within the said counties. And that the said 
 marchours, nor no other man, shall any more 
 use any such coynees, suppers, cuddies, nor shall 
 take no pledges for them, nor none of their thieves 
 or men shall guide none of the king's Irish ene- 
 mies in the form aforesaid. And what marchours 
 or other men do contrary to the ordinances afore- 
 said, that they shall be judged as felons. And 
 that the mayors, bailiffs, sovereigns and provosts 
 of the counties aforesaid for the tune being, or 
 any other of the king's liege-men, shall have 
 the king's letters patents under his groat seal out 
 of his chancerv of Ireland made to them in due 
 form, without line or fee paying for the said let- 
 ters patents, or great seal, that where they may
 
 272 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 find any such thieves, burning, robbing, stealing, 
 killing, coyning, or taking pledges, as it is afore- 
 said, to take them and their goods, to be forfeited 
 as goods of felons, and the half of the said goods 
 to go to the king, and the other half to them that 
 do take them. And that no escape shall be levyed 
 of the commons of the said counties if any of the 
 said felons be killed for the causes aforesaid, nor 
 they nor any of them shall be vexed nor grieved 
 by our sovereign lord the king, nor his justices, 
 officers, nor ministers, notwithstanding any sta- 
 tutes or ordinances thereof made to the contrary 
 before this time." In a parliament, held under 
 the same prince-royal at Drogheda, in the same 
 year, some useful ordinances were made, to regu- 
 late the course of law. 
 
 While his equitable administration in Ireland 
 daily increased the number of his adherents, his 
 partizans in England improved every incident to 
 his advantage. Notwithstanding the cautious line 
 of policy hitherto pursued by Richard Planta- 
 geuet, an incident awoke suspicions of his designs 
 at court. An impostor, by name Cade, assuming 
 the popular name of Mortimer, caused distur- 
 bances, and laid open the popular attachment to 
 the house of York. Richard, resolved to appear 
 in London for his justification, committed the 
 lieutenancy to the earl of Orrnond, a known par- 
 tizan of the reigning family. This appointment 
 appeared extraordinary to Leland, but was per- 
 fectly suitable to his situation and subtlety. Had 
 ho appointed a Yorkist, he would have confirmed 
 the suspicions of the Lancastrians.
 
 OF IRELAND. 273 
 
 After the departure of the duke of York, no- 
 thing very memorable happened, to be recorded 
 in history, except one trait of parental affection 
 and filial piety, which, for the sake of humanity, 
 should not be buried in oblivion. During the 
 administration of Fitz-Eustace, deputy to the 
 duke of York, now apparently reconciled to the 
 king, and residing in Wales, O'Connor Faly 
 made an irruption into the district of Kildare. 
 Surprized by Fitz-Eustace,, his small troop fled; 
 and, as he was endeavouring to effect his escape, 
 he fell from his horse. " A generous contest was 
 now commenced between the father and son, 
 which of them should be resigned to the mercy 
 of the enemy. The youth urgently pressed his 
 father to take his horse, to leave him to his fate, 
 and to seize the present moment of providing for 
 his own safety. The father obstinately refused; 
 commanded his son to fly, and was quickly made 
 prisoner; but as it appeared that he had taken 
 arms merely for the sake of prey, not with any 
 deliberate purpose of opposition to English go- 
 vernment, he was released without any injury." 
 
 The colonial writers make a long story of a 
 petty transaction that occurred at this time. A 
 few barks were fitted out in the north, who cap- 
 tured some ships sailing from Dublin, on board 
 one of which was the archbishop of Dublin. 
 " A force was quickly raised by the deputy, to 
 chastise these pirates." says Leland. Would he 
 call the English government pirates, for similar 
 conduct? 
 
 At a parliament assembled in Drogheda, by
 
 274 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Fitz-Eustace, as deputy to the duke of York, 
 \vhereall statutes made in England against suing 
 provisions at Rome,, were made of force in Ire- 
 land, another act was passed, preventing coron- 
 ers from harrassing and detaining jurors, who., 
 on inquisition for murder, return that they know 
 not the perpetrator. In all the acts of the parlia- 
 ment of the Pale, sedulous attention to the rights 
 of the crown, and to the rights, privileges, ease 
 and convenience of the subject, is observable. 
 That little senate was a fair representation of the 
 proprietors and property of the colony; rotten 
 boroughs were first introduced by the rotten 
 
 house of . 
 
 Nations are seldom wise politicians; and their 
 vanity is often at war with their interest. No- 
 thing would be more acceptable to John Bull's 
 pride, than the conquest of France, and the 
 crowning of his king at Paris; yet nothing more 
 adverse to his interest. The king of France 
 should reside there, attending the interests of 
 that great kingdom, and watching the move- 
 ments of his potent neighbours, the emperor and 
 the king of Spain. There he should hold his 
 court and parliament, and govern England by a 
 viceroy. Thus were they unwitlingly wishing 
 the conquest of England, to make it a province 
 to France. In the reign of Henry VI. the total 
 loss of his French dominions, though a real and 
 great benefit to his English subjects, exonerating 
 them from the burdens of an almost "perpetual 
 war, and the drain caused by the frequent resi- 
 dence of their king and oobility there, yet mor-
 
 OP IRELAN D. S75 
 
 tified national vanity. It furnished a theme of 
 declamation to the Yorkists, to encrease popular 
 discontents. The birth of an heir to king Henry 
 accelerated the contest between the followers of 
 the white and red rose. 
 
 Duke Richard arrived in London, where he 
 was, during the king's indisposition, appointed 
 protector of the kingdom. The Lancastrians 
 striving to wrest this power out of his hand, the 
 parties came to blows, and the victory of St. Al- 
 bans gave the duke possession of the king's per- 
 son and authority; then he threw off the mask, 
 under which he courted Orniond, the partizan 
 of his royal prisoner, and appointed his rival, a 
 determined Yorkist, the earl of Kildare, his de- 
 puty in Ireland. Margaret of Anjou renewed 
 the contest, and obtained the victory at Blore- 
 heath, in Staffordshire, as some alledge, through 
 treachery. Richard fled to Ireland ; where he 
 was received, not as a fugitive, but as the right- 
 ful heir to the throne. During his former admi- 
 nistration he had gained powerful friends, and 
 the affection of all the subjects, who now declared 
 unanimously for him. The English parliament, 
 at Coventry, having declared his adherents re- 
 bels, many of them followed their leader into 
 Ireland for shelter. Here he protected them 
 against the writs issued from England for their 
 
 O 
 
 attachment ; and the colonial parliament appealed 
 to Irish hospitality, in support of the protection 
 they gave. They enacted a decree, purporting, 
 that it had been ever customary in their land to 
 receive and entertain strangers with due support 
 VOL i= 1 2 o
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 and hospitality; that the custom was good and 
 laudable; and that it should be deemed high- 
 treason for any person, under pretence of writs, 
 privy-seals., or any authority, to attach or disturb 
 the persons so supported and entertained. 
 
 ee But the temper of the Irish subjects,, and 
 the policy of the duke of York, will appear more 
 fully by an abstract of some laws, passed in the 
 Irish parliament after his return. 
 
 " The assembly in the first place assumed the 
 power of confirming the patent made to the duke, 
 constituting him lieutenant of Ireland for ten 
 years. They enacted, that if any person should 
 imagine, compass, or excite his destruction or 
 death, and for this purpose confederate with the 
 Irish, or any other persons, they should be at- 
 tainted of high-treason. By an act, calculated 
 to guard the duke and his adherents from all the 
 attempts of his enemies in England, they declared 
 in the fullest manner, that Ireland is, and always 
 has been, incorporated within itself, by ancient 
 laws and customs, and is only to be governed by 
 such laws, as by the lords and commons of the 
 land, in parliament assembled, have been advised, 
 accepted, affirmed, and proclaimed; that by cus- 
 tom, privilege, and franchise, there has ever been 
 a royal seal, peculiar to Ireland, to which alone 
 the subjects are to pay obedience : that this realm 
 hath also its constable and marshal, before whom 
 all appeals are finally determinable ; yet, as or- 
 ders have been of late issued under another seal, 
 arid the subjects summoned into England to pro- 
 secute their suits before a foreign jurisdiction, to
 
 OF IRELAND. 277 
 
 the great grievance of the people, and in viola- 
 tion of the rights and franchises of the land, 
 they enact, that for the future no persons shall 
 be obliged by any command ment, under any 
 other seal but that of Ireland, to answer any ap- 
 peal, or any other matter out of the said land, 
 and that no officer, to which such commandment 
 may come,, shall put the same into execution, 
 under the penalty of forfeiture of goods and chat- 
 tels, and one thousand marks; half to be paid to 
 the king, and the other to the prosecutor; and 
 further, that all appeals of treason in Ireland be 
 determinable before the constable and marshal of 
 Ireland, and in no other place."* 
 
 The declaration of rights, issued by the repre- 
 sentatives of the English district, on this occa- 
 sion, shames the memory of the suicide-union 
 parliament. 
 
 This parliament gave incontestable evidences 
 of English degeneracy, for hospitality was never 
 an English virtue. Their writers disown it, and 
 transfer it to the unrefined stage of society. To 
 come to issue, once for all, with lying historians 
 and ill-mannered libellers, on the foul epithets 
 they lavish on the anticnt and modern Irish, 
 without sparing those of English descent any 
 more than the Milesians, I shall not stoop to re- 
 tort their own Billingsgate, but come to a defi- 
 
 O O * 
 
 nition of what civilization means, and the vices 
 opposed thereto; and an appeal to facts shall de- 
 termine which was most civilized, and which the 
 
 * Ljlaiul, Vol. 11. B. 111. c.ii. p. 42.43.
 
 278 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 contrary. Civility, from the Latin civilis, civil, 
 and civis, citizen, comprehends those qualities 
 that constitute a good member of society. These 
 qualities may be classed into four kinds: the 
 necessary., the useful, the ornamental, and the 
 agreeable. 'Tis necessary, first, that every mem^ 
 berof society should procure his maintenance by 
 some profession, some branch of industry, and 
 besides contribute his proportion to the public 
 exigencies of the community, in support of those 
 who must devote their whole time to the public 
 service, whether as governors or judges, for the 
 preservation of internal peace, the execution of 
 the laws, or external defence. The long dura- 
 tion of the Irish monarchy testifies of this qua- 
 lity. A love of justice, and obedience to the 
 laws, are primary ingredients in civilization. 
 Two English authorities attribute this to the 
 antient Irish in an eminent degree. Sir John 
 Davis, long residing as attorney-general among 
 them, affirms, that cf no nation in the world 
 loved impartial justice more than the Irish, 
 though it should make against themselves/- 
 Antient authors affirmed the same of the Scy- 
 thians, railing them, ec the most just of man- 
 kind. The words Scoti and Scythians are syno- 
 nimous; the latter being formed from Scuith, 
 the plural of Scot. Hence the modern Persians 
 call Scythia Chothan; and the Fingallians call 
 the north Gothan, which originally was Scothan. 
 Lord Howth says, " the Irish obey the laws, 
 framed for them on their hills, better than the 
 English do theirs., framed by parliament in walled
 
 OF IRELAND. 279 
 
 towns." The virtue of hospitality, though not so 
 essential to the existence of society, is yet highly 
 graceful, and consolatory to the feelings. It is 
 one for which Ireland was always famous, ac- 
 cording to the testimony of all nations, not ex- 
 cepting the English. It was practised by the 
 patriarchs, and by the most renowned nations of 
 antiquity. It constituted one of the most en- 
 dearing pledges of friendship among the Greeks, 
 Romans, and Gathclians. 'Tis enforced by a 
 tremendous threat in the gospel, <f Whatever 
 house you enter, greet them with shalam, i. e. 
 peace, and if they receive you not, shake your 
 shoe-dust in testimony against them. Verily, I 
 say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom 
 and Gomorra, on the last day, than for them." 
 Coimric, i. e. sanctuary, was an Irish custom, 
 much reprobated by the English; yet it was 
 established among the chosen people, by divine 
 authority, in order to prevent the summary exe- 
 cution of vengeance, untill the first ebullitions 
 of anger abated, and mediation or judgment 
 could determine the case. The exercise of this 
 institution, confirmed by divine authority, to- 
 wards their kinsmen, the Segidcnses, brought 
 the Roman arms on the Numantines, and the 
 arms of England on the O'Moores, for their 
 protection of their enemy, Fitz-Gerald. 
 
 Another proof of civilized society is, its com- 
 petence to provide all necessaries for itself. Now 
 the Irish nation not only supplied themselves 
 with all sorts of manufactures of necessity., but 
 even of elegance, and exported besides. A flou-
 
 280 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 rishing agriculture., cloth and linen manufactures, 
 iron and timber works, curious workmanship in 
 gold and silver yearly dug up and sent to the 
 mint, a circumstance belonging to no other coun- 
 try in Europe. They had breweries and distille- 
 ries. They cultivated medicine in all its branches; 
 of which respectable monuments still remain on 
 vellum, and in the traditions of their posterity, 
 with which cures are wrought that barffle modern 
 skill. All the great monasteries, that were col- 
 leges, had botanic gardens; as Mr. White, of the 
 botanic garden, Glasnevin, has proved, from the 
 number of exotic plants still growing wild about 
 their ruins. 
 
 The knowledge of the Irish in astronomy was 
 evidently greater before Christianity than since; 
 to which department, some fragments of their 
 books on astronomy, still preserved, attest their 
 attention. They spoke a language copious and 
 elegant beyond any cotemporary, which the re- 
 mains of their compositions in poetry and prose 
 abundantly evince. Their music was acknow- 
 ledged, by their bitterest enemies, incomparably 
 superior to that of the neighbouring nations ; and 
 the remains thereof, preserved in Ireland, Scot- 
 land, aud England, though plagiarized, leave 
 no doubt on that head. If music be sentiment 
 guided by harmony, they possessed, in the pcr- 
 irction of sublime simplicity, the most soul-mo- 
 ving melody, never descending to the caterwaul- 
 ing semidemiquavers of some farraginous, incon- 
 gruous, unmeaning overtures. Spencer, from 
 imperfect translations, was enabled to perceive
 
 OF IRELAND. 281 
 
 tlio beauty of the original compositions of the 
 Irish bards., and the samples published by Miss 
 Brookes, shew that nothing equal to them in 
 harmony and sentiment was at that time produced 
 in Europe. In fact, literature was so deeply in- 
 terwoven in the constitution, laws and customs 
 of the Gathelians; every man's consequence and 
 rights depended so much on records; a passion 
 for literature, especially history, poetry, and 
 music, was so firmly engrafted in the Milesians, 
 that it could not be extirpated without the extir- 
 pation of the nation. Every clan had hereditary 
 lawyers, hereditary historians, hereditary physi- 
 cians, hereditary bards, combining poetry and 
 music. Thus family interest was interested in 
 the improvement and preservation of every art 
 and profession; every generation was sedulous 
 to hand down the records, containing the rules 
 and improvement of each profession, to their pos- 
 terity. Though hereditary possessions may pos- 
 sibly not be (he best suited for the rapid progress 
 of arts and sciences, they afford the greatest se- 
 curity for their conservation. Hence the Danish 
 wars of two hundred years, and the English and 
 Irish wars of four hundred years continuance, 
 were unable to pluck up the strong ayd deep 
 roots of Irish learning, until I the nation and it 
 fell together. Even still there is no such general 
 passion for learning to be found in the bulk of 
 the people in any other country, working against 
 a current of obstacles and oppression. 
 
 The fate of English literature was quite dif- 
 ferent; because it had not such deep roots in the
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 constitution. The wars,, tyranny and policy of 
 the Danes., succeeded to crush, what the Gathe- 
 lians generously kindled there,, to a half-smo- 
 thered ember; so that., until 1 the Norman con- 
 quest, few barons could write their names. " In 
 former times many farms and manors were given 
 by bare word, without writing, only with the 
 sword of the lord on his headpiece, with a borne 
 or a standing goblet; and many tenements with 
 a quill, with a horse combe,, with a bow., with 
 an arrow."* 
 
 It was already observed, that the exports of 
 England were raw materials, and its imports 
 manufactured goods. Not alone in Westminster- 
 abbey, but in all the great buildings in England, 
 the workmen, as well as the oak, were sought in 
 Ireland. That they were inferior in every art. 
 That their music and their poetry were con- 
 temptible, in the judgment of their countrymen, 
 as soon as they heard the lively rapidity, and 
 soul-animating strains of Milesian bards. They 
 are called upon to name a single virtue, civil or 
 religious, a single feature of civilization, im- 
 ported by them into this ill-fated island. They 
 brought nothing with them but rapacious indi- 
 gence, and plenty of vice, by which they cor- 
 rupted the primitive simplicity of the natives. 
 They paled themselves in their districts, in boor- 
 ish selfishness, like hogs in a stye; excluding 
 all intercourse with an enlightened civilized peo- 
 ple, whether of friendship or business, alliance^ 
 
 * Hayward's Life of William I.
 
 OF IRELAND. 283 
 
 charity or religion. Their barbarous lawgivers 
 prohibited access to Irish poets, musicians, and 
 novellists; least they should, as they alledged, 
 " corrupt the imaginations of the settlers." Can 
 we call such people any thing but barbarians, 
 who excluded from their villains (their tenants 
 were held in villanage) those very branches of 
 the fmoarts, fitted to harmonize the feelings and 
 civilize the man cc Music hath charms to soothe 
 the savage breast." They talk of degenerate 
 English! Yes. There were degenerate English, 
 who adopted social virtues for unsocial chur- 
 lishness; who obeyed the law of nature, in con- 
 forming to the laws, customs and manners of 
 the nation: what a handful of strangers always 
 are inclined, and indeed bound to do, when no- 
 thing is found in them repugnant to religion and 
 morality. There were many, who exchanged an 
 uncouth, barren and barbarous jargon, such was 
 the English then, for an elegant, copious, and 
 expressive language. Many could not be re- 
 strained by all the severities of penal laws, even 
 the threat of death itself, from this degeneracy. 
 They felt their pretended degeneracy to be a 
 transition from barbarity to civilization; and 
 the fascinating attraction of social virtues, and 
 elegant amusements., drew many to the Gathe- 
 lians, in despite of penal laws, and the commi- 
 nation of forfeiture and death. AVere there no 
 English who did not degenerate? \ es, surelv. 
 Those who followed precedents laid by their fore- 
 fathers, who copied domestic example*, a few of 
 which are here inserted, did not degenerate, 
 VOL. i. % p
 
 284 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 William the Conqueror, after having defeated 
 the English,, at the memorable battle of Hastings, 
 in which their king, Harold,, lost his crown and 
 life, ec the wajes where he passed being as free 
 from resistance, as his thoughts were from change, 
 whether it were upon licentiousness after the late 
 victorie, or whether for want of necessary provi- 
 sion,, or whether to strike a terrour into the Eng- 
 lish, or whether to leave no danger at his backe, 
 he permitted the sword to range at large, to 
 harrie freely, to defile many places with ruine 
 and blood."* 
 
 The Conqueror ee secured himself against his" 
 new lf subjects, not by altering their will, but 
 by taking away their power to rebell. The 
 stoutest of the nobilitie and gentlemen were 
 spent, either by warre, or by banishment, or by 
 voluntary avoidance out of the realme. All these 
 hce stripped of their states, and in place of them 
 advanced his Normans: insomuch as scarce any 
 noble familie of the English blood did beare 
 cither office or authoritie within the realme. "f 
 
 In the reign of William Rufus, the carls of 
 Chester and Shrewsbury took the island of An- 
 glesey. " The Welsh that were there taken, 
 were very hardly, or rather unmercifully and 
 cruelly entreated; some had their eyes pulled 
 out, some their hands cut off, some their armcs, 
 some their noses, some their gcnitalles. An aged 
 priest, named Kenredus, who had bene a chief 
 (lirectcr of the common affaires, was drawne out 
 
 * Hayward's Lives of the three Normau Kings., p. 80. 
 -1- Ibid. p. 80.
 
 OF IRELAND. 285 
 
 of a church whereinto he had fled, had one of 
 his eyes pulled out,, and his tongue tome from 
 his throat."* 
 
 Henry IV. of England,, dissatisfied with the 
 duke of Gloucester, " entered into counsaille 
 with John Holland,, earle of Huntington, his 
 halfe brother,, and Thomas Mowbray, earle of 
 Nottingham, howe the duke of Gloucester might 
 be suppressed or oppressed rather. The cruelty 
 which was but wavering in the king, yea want- 
 ing by nature, was soone confirmed by evil ad- 
 vise: and being once inclined to blood, he did 
 not faile, either of example of lewd action to 
 follow: or direction of cruell counsaille what to 
 doe: so the ploUc was contrived, and according 
 thereto, the king and the earle of Notingham 
 rode together into Essex, as though it were to 
 disport themselves in hunting: when they were 
 in the middest of the forrcst, the earle made 
 staye, and the king passed forth with a small 
 and unsuspitious company to the duke, lying at 
 Plashey; there he stayed dinner: and then pre- 
 tending occasion of present returne, he desired 
 the duke to accompany him to London, the la ire 
 entreatie of a prince, is a most forcible com- 
 maunde: therefore the duke supposing that onely 
 to bee intended in deede, which was pretended 
 in shewe, went to horsc-backe with the king-, 
 taking such small attendance, as upon (he Midden 
 could be in a readiness, and appointing the rot 
 to conic afler him to London. So they rode to 
 
 l!;i)\\;m!'-. l.iu-s of (lie iliroo Norman King", I 1 - '7"9.
 
 286 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 gether, using much familiar talkc by the way, 
 uiitill they came neere the place of await: then 
 the king put his horse forwarde, and the duke 
 comming behinde, was suddenly intercepted and 
 stayed, crying aloud, and calling to the king for 
 his helpe: the king continued his journey, as 
 though he had not heard: and the duke was vi- 
 olently carried to the Thames, and there shipped 
 in a vessel layed for the purpose, and from thence 
 conveyed over to Calice."* 
 
 In the reign of Henry IV. Owen Glendor, a 
 Welsh esquire, endeavoured to expel the English 
 from Wales. " That his aspiring and ambi- 
 tious humour might beare some shew of honest 
 meaning, he pretended to his countrymen the 
 recoverie of their free estate, the desire whereof 
 was so naturally swecte, that even wilde birdes 
 will rather live hard, lye at large in the ayrc, 
 then bee daintily dycted by others in a cage; 
 and opportunitic was at that time fitly offered, 
 or else never to be expected, to rid them of their 
 thraldome, falsely and colourablie intituled a 
 peace, whilest the oue king's power was warning, 
 and the other not yet fullye wexen, and either of 
 them grew \\eake by wasting the other: neither 
 was their any diflcrence which of them should 
 prevayle, sithe the war touched both alike, inso- 
 much as the overthrow would mine the one, and 
 the victorie the other. So hee exhorted them to 
 take courage and armes; and first to kill all the 
 English within their territories, for libcrtie and 
 
 * Hayward's Life and Raiguc of Ileury IV. p. 36, 37.
 
 OF IRELAND. 287 
 
 lordes could not endure together; then to resume 
 their auncient customes and lawes, whereby more 
 then armes, common-wealths arc established and 
 enlarged: so should they bee a people uncorrupt, 
 without admixtion of forrcine manners of bloud; 
 and so should they forget servitude, and eyther 
 live at libertie, or else, perhaps, bee lordes over 
 other. 
 
 " Heereupon many flocked unto him, the best 
 for love of libertie, the basest for desire of bootie 
 and spoil, insomuch as in short time hee became 
 commaunder of competent forces to stand openly 
 in the fielde. And being desirous to make some 
 proofe of his prowesse, he sharply set upon his 
 ould adversarie Reignold, lordeGrey of Ruthen, 
 whose possessions he wasted and spoyled : slew 
 man) of his men, and tooke himself prisoner.... 
 
 " The Welshmen being confident uppon this 
 successc, began to breake into the borders of 
 Herefordshire, and to make spoyle and pray of 
 the countrey, against whom lord Edmund Mor- 
 timer, earle of Marche, who for feare of king 
 Henrie had withdrawne hirnselfe (as hath been 
 declared) to Wiggomore Castle, assembled all 
 the gentlemen of the countrye, and meeting with 
 the Welshmen, they joyned together a sharpc 
 and cruell conflict : not in forme of a loose 
 skirmish, but standing still and maintaining 
 their place, they endevoured with inaine might 
 1o breake and beare downe one another. The 
 courage and resolution of both sides was alike, 
 but the Welshmen \\ere superiour both for num- 
 ber and direction, for they were conducted by
 
 288 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 one knowne leader, who with his presence every 
 where assisted at neede, enflarning his soldiours, 
 some with shame and reproofe, others with praise 
 and encouragement, all with hope and large 
 promises ; but the Englishmen, had no certaine 
 general!, but many confused comrnaunders, yea 
 every man was a commaunder to himselfe, pres- 
 sing forward or drawing backe as his owne cour- 
 age or feare did nioove him. Insomuch as no 
 doubt they had taken a great blow that day by 
 theyr ill governed bouldnesse, had not Owen 
 Glendor presently uppon the breaking up of the 
 field ceased to pursue the execution, and shewed 
 himself more able to get a victorie, then skilful 
 to use it. But even to his side the victorie had 
 cost bloud, and many of those which rernayned, 
 were cvther wounded or wcarie: the niffht was 
 
 J o 
 
 neere also, and they were in their enemies coun- 
 trie; by which meanes our men had libertie to 
 retire rather then runne away, no man being 
 hoat to follow the chase. They lost of their com- 
 pany about a thousand men, who sould their 
 lives at such a price, that when manhood had 
 doone the hardest against them, certaine man- 
 nish, or rather devilish women, whose malice is 
 immortallj exercised avainc revenge uppon their 
 dead bodyes," in a manner too brutal to be here 
 inserted, " and would not not suiler their man- 
 gled carcasses to be committed to the earth, un- 
 till they were redeemed with a great summe of 
 money."* 
 
 * Hay ward's Life and Ruignc of Henry IV. p. 1-10, &c.
 
 OF IRELAND. 289 
 
 Henry IV. <f cntred into Scotland with a puis- 
 sant armie; wherewith lice burnt many villages 
 and townes, cast downe diverse castles, and 
 ruined a great part of the townes of Edenbo- 
 rough and Litli, sparing nothing but churches 
 and religious houses: so that in all places as he 
 passed, the spectacle was ougly and grislie which 
 he left behind him; bodyes torn in peeccs, man- 
 gled and putrified limmes, the ayre infected with 
 stinckc, the ground imbrued with corruption and 
 blond, the countrie wasted, the grasse and come 
 trodcn downe and spoyled ; insomuch as a man 
 would have sayde that warre is an exercise not 
 of manhood, but of inhumanitie."* 
 
 In the reign of Edward VI. a sedition, which 
 had spread over a considerable part of England, 
 being " broken and beaten downe, Sir Anthony 
 Kingston, provost-marshal of the king's army, 
 was deemed by many not only cruell, but unci- 
 vill and inhumane in his executions. One Boyer, 
 mayor of Bodmin, in Cornwall, was observed to 
 have beene among the seditious, but by absolute 
 enforcement as many others were. The marshal 
 wrote to him a letter that he would dine at his 
 house upon a day which he appointed; the mayor 
 seemed glad, and made for him the best provision 
 that he could. Upon the day he came, and a 
 large company with him, and was received with 
 many ceremonies of entertainment. A little be- 
 fore dinner he took the mayor aside, and whis- 
 pered him in the care, that execution must that 
 
 * Hayward's Life and Raigne of Henry IV. p. ! 46.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 day be done in the towne, and therefore required 
 him that a paire ofgallowes should be framed 
 and erected, against the time that dinner should 
 end; the mayor was diligent to accomplish his 
 demand, and no sooner was the dinner ended, 
 but he demanded of ihe mayor whether the work 
 were finished, the mayor answered that all was 
 ready, I pray you, said the provost, bring me to 
 the place, and therewith he tooke him friendly 
 by the hand; here beholding the gallows, he 
 asked the mayor whether he thought them to be 
 strong enough, yes, said the mayor, doubtlesse 
 they are; well then, said the provost, get you up 
 speedily, for they arc prepared for you. I hope, 
 answered the mayor, you meane not as you speak; 
 in faith, said the provost, there is no remedy, for 
 you have bccne a busie rebel; and so without 
 respite or defence he strangled to dcatli 
 
 " Divers others were executed by martial law, 
 and a great part of the country was abandoned 
 to the spoile of the souldiers, who not troubling 
 themselves to disccrne betvvcenc a subject and a 
 rebel, whilcst their liberty lasted, made indiffe- 
 rently profit of both."* 
 
 A transaction occurred, during the deputyship 
 of the duke of York, which deserves notice, as 
 illustrative of national character. Three cen- 
 turies had now elapsed, since the elopement of 
 O'Rourk's spouse with the sexagenarian, Diar- 
 iiuiid Mac Murchad, king of Lriuster; and but 
 two instances of crim. con. have been noticed 
 
 * Ha) ward's Life and Ilaigne of Edward VI. p. 64,
 
 OF IRELAND. 291 
 
 during that long period. The antient Irish, as 
 chaste as prolific, regarded the illicit intercourse 
 of the sexes with abhorrence. A high sense of 
 honor, and religious sentiment, bridled the na- 
 tural impetuosity of that passion, implanted for 
 the preservation of the human race, and which, 
 when legitimate, is the fountain of many social 
 virtues. The adultery of Mac Murchad lost 
 him the hearts of all his people, and occasioned 
 his flight, and his introduction of the English 
 into Ireland. A similar transgression of con- 
 jugal fidelity raised a storm against O'Xeil, the 
 most powerful of the Irish princes, to whose force 
 he was obliged to submit. He had put away 
 his lawful wife, daughter to Mac Murchad, 
 king of Lcinster, and niece to the earl of Or- 
 mond, and took to his bed the daughter of 
 Burke, earl of Clanrickard. Every motive of 
 ambition, family pride, and jealousy of a rival 
 house, instigated Onnond to form a confederacy 
 against him. The cause was popular among a 
 religious people, lovers of justice, and would 
 furnish an opportunity of displaying more than 
 the natural resources and power possessed by 
 himself and the Pale. In conjunction with the 
 lord lieutenant and other allies, all of whom are 
 not named by the annalists, he undertook the 
 important expedition. Vv lien the uncle pro- 
 fessed so much zeal for the queen of L Islcr, 
 is it likely her father, the king of Leinstcr, 
 would neglect her cause ? Evcrv chieftain whom 
 he visited, on this honorable errand, readily 
 submitted to his demands; and gave aid iu an 
 VOL. i 2 Q
 
 293 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 enterprize which drew on him the blessings of 
 the clergy and laity. 
 
 In their progress they burned O'Dempsey's 
 castle of Leix, and released the son of Berrning- 
 ham, therein confined. In the King's county, 
 O'Connor readily submitted; and O'Farrell, in 
 Longford., supplied them with provisions. They 
 razed the castle of Barcha, and laid waste the 
 neighbouring country. The O'Reilly's in 
 Cavan, and also Mac Mahon, in the plains of 
 Louth, readily acquiesced to their demands. 
 Thence marching against O'Neil, with an army 
 augmented by the forces of the chieftains through 
 whose territories they passed, they compelled 
 him to put away the daughter of William de 
 Burgh, with whom he unlawfully cohabited, 
 and take back his own lawful wife, the daughter 
 of Mac Murchad, and niece of Ormond. 
 
 The following statement of the relation of 
 Ireland to England, and the causes of the violent 
 antipathy of the latter towards the former, may 
 be acceptable from the pen of a colonial writer, 
 who is not liable to the suspicion of a bias against 
 the settlers. 
 
 " It is indeed generally imagined and repre- 
 sented, that the bloody wars, between the fami- 
 lies of Lancaster and York, had a violent and 
 dangerous effect upon the native Irish, in ex- 
 citing them to a general confederacy, and raising 
 their whole powers against the English pale. 
 But we have, from their own annalists, more 
 particular accounts of the transactions of the 
 distinguished septs, at this period, than these
 
 OF IRELAND. 293 
 
 jejune remains usually afford. And, had any 
 considerable attempts been made against the 
 English, these writers would have gloried in 
 displaying them. They tell us indeed of some 
 petty insurrections against particular settlements 
 of the English, and record, with triumph, that 
 they were averted by the payment of tribute. 
 But they are particular in relating the contests, 
 invasions, and engagements, in which their chief- 
 tains were involved with each other, which are 
 generally so futile, and sometimes so horrid, as 
 to raise no suspicion of art or fallacy in their 
 annalists. The representations, made in England 
 of this people and their conduct, were generally 
 false and interested, to magnify the zeal of the 
 great lords, to procure remittances for a chief 
 governor, or to conceal the offences and irregu- 
 larities of cither. The English vicegerents, even 
 of the very best dispositions, were kept in igno- 
 rance during their residence, and shut up in the 
 seat of government from any knowledge of the 
 native Irish, or any general intercourse even 
 with the most peaceable among them. They 
 received their information through corrupted 
 channels: it was transmitted and believed. But 
 the truth is, that the contest for the crown of 
 England, during this period of carnage, had its 
 principal effect, in Ireland, on the great lords 
 entrusted with the administration, or possessed 
 of power and influence. Vicegerents unno- 
 ticed, and unrestrained by the throne, were 
 tempted to exercise their authority with an in- 
 temperate and unjust severity. Slight pretences,
 
 294 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 or false representations, served for loading the 
 subjects with oppressive taxes. Different par- 
 liaments were summoned at the interval of a few 
 months,, and repeated subsidies imposed without 
 necessity, and beyond the abilities of the people: 
 a grievance so flagrant and so severe, that, by a 
 law made in the thirty-fourth year of this pre- 
 sent reign, it was forbidden to hold more than 
 one parliament in a year ; and, if the chief go- 
 vernor should issue his writs for summoning 
 another within the year, it was enacted that the 
 persons summoned might without peril refuse to 
 appear, and that the acts of such a parliament 
 should be void. The law, however, was but 
 temporary, to continue for three years. The 
 great lords, who were ever rivals to each other, 
 were at the same time less restrained ; and by 
 mixing in the contests of England en flamed their 
 resentments, and were ready to rush against each 
 other in all the phrenzy of political and personal 
 animobitv."* 
 
 t/ 
 
 As every revolution in England affected Ire- 
 land more or less, since the first connexion of 
 the two countries, the triumph of the house of 
 York over that of Lancaster, was a victory to 
 the Fitzgeralds arid a defeat to the JSutlers. 
 No sooner was Edward IV. seated on the 
 throne, after the deposition of Henry VI. than 
 he confirmed the carl of Kildare in the go- 
 vernment of the Pale, to which he had been 
 provisionally appointed by the prevailing par- 
 
 * Leland, Vol. II. B. III. c. ii. p. 45, 46.
 
 OF IRELAND. 295 
 
 tizans of York. To him succeeded George, duke 
 of Clarence, appointed governor for lite. In 
 reward for their attachment to the reign i 112; fa- 
 mily, Fitz-Eustace was created baron of Pod- 
 lester, and Barnwall, baron of Trimblesfown. 
 The earl of Ormond was sacrificed to the ven- 
 geance of the triumphant party,, executed, and a 
 general war was declared against the name of 
 Butler. Sir John., brother and herr to the earl, 
 fled into Ireland, accompanied by the remnant 
 of the Lancastrian faction; where, being joined 
 by his followers, he boldly defied the king's de- 
 puty. Had not the earl of Desmond, a zealous 
 partizan of the reigning house, taken up arms 
 against their enemy, rival of his family, Fitz- 
 Eustace might have experienced some difficulty 
 in the encounter. He collected a numerous 
 army of his followers and allies, pursued the 
 Onnondians into the county of Wcxforcl, which 
 town they had taken, challenged and defeated 
 them in a pitched battle. Elated bv this suc- 
 cess, and by his elevation to the deputyship, as a 
 recornpence for his services, he considered 'him- 
 self more powerful than any Irish chieftain; but 
 an incident happened in Meath, frequent be- 
 tween the anticnt and now Irish, that undeceived 
 him, and completely humbled his pride. 
 
 One of the settlers, byname Petit, of which 
 name and family the marquis of Lmisdownc is 
 endeavoured to encroach on the southern llv- 
 Nialls, known then by the name of Melachlin, 
 formerly sovereigns of the t\\o ?>Ieaths, and often 
 monarchs of Ireland, but then pent up in the
 
 296 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 northern part, bordering on Brefny O'Reilly, 
 Even the remnant of that once powerful family 
 were able to beat off Petit and his marauders ; 
 but deputy Desmond, in proof of his loyalty to 
 the English interest, marched with a powerful 
 army, to support the usurpation of the invader. 
 The neighbouring chieftain, O'Reilly, powerful 
 in cavalry, independently of national, had parti- 
 cular interest in this quarrel. He did not wish 
 to have the Pale exactly contiguous to his terri- 
 tory, or himself and his people to be annoyed by 
 banditti, issuing from castles they would not 
 fail to build on their new acquisitions. The 
 chieftain of east Brefny, (County of Cavan), 
 valiant as wise, collected his forces secretly and 
 speedily, and gave the earl of Desmond a total 
 overthrow, took him and his principal officers 
 prisoners, and, at the intercession of young 
 O'Connor Faly, dismissed them without ransom. 
 
 The scribblers of the English colony, with 
 their accustomed effrontery, talk of the insur- 
 gents of Brefny on this occasion ; as if an inde- 
 pendent prince, who acknowledged no subjec- 
 tion to the crown of England, and who, in all 
 state papers, was styled an enemy, never rebel, 
 like any other sovereign potentate, could be de- 
 signated by such language. 
 
 The earl of Desmond and his officers, were 
 fortunate in falling into the hands of a generous 
 enemy, unaccustomed to massacre prisoners of 
 war. Mortified by this act of Milesian genero- 
 sity, it was during his administration, that the 
 bitterest acts were passed, breathing fiend-like
 
 OF IRELAND. 297 
 
 enmity to the anticiit race. Acts, when we con- 
 sider the impotence,, as well as the malignity of 
 the Pale, of a nature to excite alternately, laugh- 
 ter, contempt, scorn and horror. Anno 14(51, 
 at Trim, an act, setting a price on the heads of 
 Milesians, going from, or coming into any part 
 of the Pale, if lie or they he not in company 
 with an Englishman of good repute, wearing 
 English apparel. An act, that every Irishman, 
 living among the English settlers, shall change 
 their sirnames, speak English, and wear English 
 apparel. An act, that no ship or other vessel, of 
 any foreign country, shall go lish to Irish coun- 
 tries.* The impotence of the Pale, to exccuto 
 its malice on the old stock, is attested hy two 
 acts, ordering its inhabitants to be armed en 
 masse, and trained to war, from the age of sixteen 
 to sixty. Shortly after passing those furious 
 edicts, against a people, whose unsuspecting 
 generosity and alliance raised his family to the 
 rank of princes, he closed his administration 
 with an ignominious death. Tiptoft came from 
 
 * " At the request of the commons, that where divers ves- 
 sels of other lands fro one day to other going to fish amongst 
 the king's Irish enemies in divers parts of this said land, by 
 which the king's said enemies be greatly advanced and 
 strengthened as well in victuals, barneys, armour, as divers 
 other necessaries also great tributes of money, given by 
 every of the said vessels to the said enemies from dav to day 
 to the great augmentation of their power and force against 
 the. king's honour and wealth, and utter destruction ot iliis 
 said land, whereupon the premises considered, it is enacted 
 and ordeyned by authorise of the said parliament, th.it no 
 manner vessell of other Unds shall be no tuae uor season of
 
 298 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORV 
 
 England,, as deputy,, with secret orders, 'tis said, 
 to compass the destruction of Desmond. He 
 beheaded him at Drogheda, having first pro- 
 cured his conviction of high treason, by the 
 parliament of the Pale ; a'fatc which he met in 
 his turn,, on his return to England. Never- 
 theless,, the fortunes of the Gerald ines, destined 
 to pave the way for the overthrow of the Mile- 
 sians, were again restored by the earl of Kildare. 
 lie boldly repaired to the king of England, ex- 
 patiated on the services of his family to the 
 English interest, and Edward IV. satisfied with 
 his explanation., appointed him his deputy in 
 Ireland. It need not be added, that Kildare 
 restored the honors of his family,, and summoned 
 a parliament obsequious to his wishes, confirm- 
 ing his acts and those of Desmond, and con- 
 demning their adversaries. The temporary re- 
 volution, effected in England by the earl of 
 Warwick, restoring Henry VI. to the throne, 
 left Kildare undisturbed in the government of 
 the English colony. The measures he adopted 
 
 tlte year from henceforth, from (he feast of the nativity of 
 cuir Lord Jesus Christ next coming, go in no part of the 
 said land betwixt the said Irish enemies to no manner fishing 
 without one special licence of the lieutenant, his deputy or 
 justice of the land for the time being, or licence of another 
 person having tho king's power to graunt such licence, 
 upon pain of forfeiture of the ship and goods to the king, 
 a'ul tluil whatsoever person or persons, that find or impeach 
 any of the said vessels, rumpants or forfeits against this act 
 toy the authorise of the same it be lawful to them so making 
 any claim in (he behalf of the king and approving the said 
 furfcitures by any of the said vessels so to be made that the
 
 OF IRELAND.' 299 
 
 for the defence of the Pale, demonstrate the 
 nullity of its resources ; and that it was not 
 power, but will, the antient proprietors wanted, 
 to pluck that deleterious thorn out of their side. 
 Against Irish enemies and English rebels, how 
 formidable were the forces he mustered for the 
 defence of the colony ? Just one hundred and 
 sixty archers, and sixty pikemen, twenty-four of 
 whom were to be commanded by his son Gerald. 
 In addition to this terrible army, he formed an 
 armed association, to be headed by the chief 
 settlers. In the county of Kildare by the earl 
 himself, lord Portlester, and sir Rowland Eus- 
 tace. For the county of Dublin, lord Howth, the 
 mayor of Dublin, and sir Robert Dowdal. In 
 the county of Meath, lord Gormanston, Plunket 
 and Barnwall. In Oriel, (county of Louth) the 
 mayor of Drogheda, sir Lawrence Taatfe, and 
 Richard Bellew. 
 
 If the reader could be amused with a detail 
 of the petty transactions of the English colony, 
 or the family quarrels of the Butlers and Fitz- 
 
 king shall have the one moictie of the said forfeiture, and 
 the said persons or person shall have the other without any 
 impeachment, and that all manner vessels of other landi 
 coming in the said land of Ireland a fishing, being of the 
 burthen of twelve tunns or less, having one drover or boate, 
 every of them to paye for the maintenance of the kind's 
 wars there thirteen shillings four ponce by tho y< are. And 
 all other small vessels, as scarfes or boats, not having dro- 
 ver nor lighter being within the said burthen of twelve tunn:*, 
 every of them shall pay two shillings goiiu a tilling in like 
 manner. Provided always, that no vessel tilling in the north 
 part of WicklOj be charged by reason of this act, and that 
 VOL. I. 2 R
 
 300 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Geralds, he will to satiety find the pages of 
 English writers stuffed with these uninteresting 
 narratives. One circumstance, however, may 
 be constantly observed, in the conduct of their 
 puny senate, a great attention to their own 
 interest, and a stern opposition to English en- 
 croachments. A native of England was ap- 
 pointed deputy by Edward IV. without con- 
 sulting the colonists. He was opposed and dis- 
 owned. Kildare kept the lieutenancy; Keating, 
 prior of Kilmainham, governor of the castle, 
 refused him entrance. After a few ineffectual 
 attempts to appoint an Englishman born, Gerald 
 Fitz-Gerald held the reins of government over 
 the English district, to which he first gave con- 
 sequence, by his policy, and his alliance with 
 Conbacach O'Nial. The settlers throve won- 
 derfully on the fertile soil of Erin. The family 
 of de Burgo ( Burk ) had alliance with the kings 
 of Scotland and England ; but the alliance with 
 O'Nial was far more important to the ag- 
 grandizement of Fitz-Gerald, and of more fatal 
 
 the lieutenant, his deputie or justice of the land for the time 
 being, .shall have the fore-said summes aud duties of money 
 S( paicd, to be imployed in the king's Avars for the defence 
 of (lie said land, and that the customers and collectors of 
 the same summes, shall accompt before the said justice, lieu- 
 tenant or deputie for the time being, or such auditors that 
 shall be for the same appointed bv the king or them, and 
 not before the barons of the exchequer in the said laud, aiid 
 that none of the said vessels so commin^ from other parts 
 in the said land, shall not depart out of (he said land, (ill 
 every of them pa) their said duties, upon pain of forfeiture 
 of the vebsells aud goods to the king.
 
 OF IRELAND. 301 
 
 consequence to the Hibernian interest. We need 
 no longer be surprized, that he was continued in 
 the government during the changes of England; 
 even when out of administration, he was of more 
 real weight and power, through his Irish con- 
 nexions, than the deputy governor of the colony. 
 
 These alliances, fatal to the antient Irish, arid 
 prohibited by the barbarous bigotry of the 
 English popish parliament of the Pale, were the 
 wisest plans that could be devised, not only for 
 the aggrandizement of a leading family, but for 
 the preservation of the Anglo-Irish interest. 
 O' Byrne and O'Toole were still powerful in the 
 vicinity of Dublin ; so that a popish Pale par- 
 liament, at the instigation of Kildare, allowed 
 the archbishop of Dublin to present Irish clerks 
 to benefices within their districts, for two years. 
 Admirable condescension ! to grant two years 
 respite of the exclusion of Irish catholics from 
 benefices founded by their own kindred. 
 
 In the connexion of the two islands nothing 
 material occurs, during the short reigns of Ed- 
 ward V. and Richard III. The accession of 
 Henry VII. of the house of Lancaster, mado 
 some impression, where the majority were decided 
 Yorkists. Notwithstanding that Kildare, and 
 all his creatures in office, were known to be of 
 that party, yet his alliance with O'Nial made 
 him too formidable to be displaced or provoked. 
 The Yorkists of England, provoked In MMHC 
 imprudent stops of Henrv \ 11. iiillammg their 
 party prejudice, courted (heir Irish paitizans. 
 The scene that ensued thereon., shews with what
 
 302 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 caution historical narratives of civil commotions 
 must be received. The question is., whether a 
 Robert Siranel, or the earl of Warwick might 
 have escaped out of prison,, and fled to the colony, 
 where both power and numbers were for him, 
 than that a youth of mean parentage could per- 
 sonate him, and impose on the leading men, who 
 forwarded the house of York ? It is less impro- 
 bable,, that a victorious party would succeed in 
 discrediting the name and memory of a defeated 
 and slain pretender, than that an ignorant young 
 boy would act a part beyond the abilities of the 
 greatest actor who ever trod the stage. C( He 
 was not to personate an infant taken from his 
 cradle, and known to few, but a lord entertained 
 at the court of Edward to the age of ten years ; 
 one with whom the nobility of the realm had 
 frequently converged, and were perfectly ac- 
 quainted. He was to be accurately instructed in 
 many circumstances, and to speak with ease and 
 correctness of various persons and incidents, in 
 which the least failure oi % mistake must prove 
 fatal to his design." Leland's guesses are futile 
 on this subject. He was not sent to Ireland to 
 be distant from severe scrutiny. He was sent to 
 the only place where, with the greatest ease and 
 security, he could raise a force. He came recom- 
 mended by some of the first nobility in England, 
 who must have well known the young earl of 
 Warwick at court. Kildare himself had personal 
 knowledge of him ; and, therefore, could hardly 
 be deceived. Now he and his privy council, after 
 maturely examining and weighing the evidences
 
 OP IRELAND. 303 
 
 of his birth and titles, were satisfied of his per- 
 sonal identity. Could Margaret of York, second 
 sister of Edward IV. be deceived by a new-born 
 stripling, personating her cousin ? yet she lent 
 every aid in her power to the young pretender. 
 Could her sister Elizabeth, and her husband, 
 the earl of Lincoln, be likewise imposed on ? 
 However opinions may vary, the Yorkists made 
 some exertions in his behalf. Two thousand men 
 arrived in Ireland from Flanders, under the com- 
 mand of general Swaart; and his solemn corona- 
 tion took place in Dublin. " He was conducted in 
 due state to the cathedral, called Christ-Church, 
 attended by the lord deputy and officers of state, 
 the English nobles, and all his other adherents. 
 The bishop of Meath explained and enforced his 
 right to the crown from the pulpit; it was for- 
 mally recognized by all who attended on the ce- 
 remonial ; a crown, said to have been taken from 
 a statue of the Virgin, was placed on his head, 
 amidst the acclamations of the people ; and from 
 the church he was conveyed in pomp to the 
 castle of Dublin, elevated on the shoulders of 
 Darcy, chief of a considerable English family of 
 Mcath ; a ceremony which seems to have been 
 adopted from the native Irish." 
 
 Invested with regal authority, in complete 
 possession of the Pale, Simnel proceeded to sup- 
 port his claims to the crown of England, with 
 an Irish army, aided by Swaart and his Belgians. 
 They landed at Foudrcy, in Lancashire, marched 
 towards \ork, where they were disappointed of 
 their expectations of a rising in their favour;
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 thence to Newark, near which Henry VII. met 
 them with a great army, when one of the most 
 obstinate and bloody battles commenced,, that 
 ever took place between forces so dispropor- 
 tionate; and which, in its issue, was most dis- 
 astrous to Simnel and his adherents. Defeated 
 and taken prisoner, Simnel was placed in the 
 kitchen by Henry; but Swaart, most of the lead- 
 ers, and almost all the soldiers, too brave to re- 
 treat, remained on the field of battle. English 
 writers say, that only the vanguard of the roval 
 army was engaged. No doubt the whole of that 
 great army could not have engaged at once with 
 the paucity of their antagonists; but they might, 
 and probably did, successively, relieving each 
 other. The valour of Swaart and his Belgians, 
 erroneously called Germans in most printed books 
 on this subject, is praised by colonial writers. 
 Very likely commendation was due to them; but 
 the impression made on the public mind, by the 
 strength, agility and desperate valour, displayed 
 by the Irish at the battle of Stoke, extorted the 
 admiration of their enemies. This stimulated 
 the politicians of that day to speculate on the 
 immense advantages that would accrue to Eng- 
 land from a more complete connexion with Ire- 
 land; an incontrovertible monument of the high 
 notion the Irish taught them to entertain of Irish 
 valour. 
 
 " The late transactions in Ireland, the bold 
 attempt in favour of Simnel, and the desperate 
 valour displayed by the troops led into England 
 by the Geraldincs, had made this country the
 
 OF IRELAND* 
 
 subject of general discourse and speculation ; 
 and the rising spirit of project and enquiry had 
 engaged individuals to search deeply into the 
 revolutions experienced in Ireland, ever since 
 the reign of Henry the Second ; the declension 
 of the English interest,, the dispositions, temper, 
 and power of the old natives, the designs and 
 competitions of great lords, the conduct of the 
 king's officers, and the means of rendering an 
 appendage to the crown of England, in itself so 
 valuable, of real weight and consequence to the 
 general weal. There is a discourse stiil extant in 
 some repositories of curious papers, said to have 
 been presented to the king and council, not later 
 than the present period, in which the affairs of 
 Ireland are copiously examined. The author la- 
 bours to engage the king in the complete reduc- 
 tion and settlement of this country. His hopes of 
 success he founds on a supposed prophecy, that 
 about the present time, this great and important 
 undertaking was to be completed, and that, in 
 consequence, an united army of England and 
 Ireland \vas to seat the king upon the throne of 
 France, to restore the Greeks, to recover Con- 
 stantinople, and to make him emperor of Rome. 
 Yet notwithstanding this ridiculous fanaticism of 
 the projector, his researches were accurate, and 
 his policy judicious. He recounts no less than 
 sixty regions of different dimensions, all governed 
 by Irish chieftains, after their antient laws and 
 manners, together with a long catalogue of de- 
 generate English, \\l\o had renounced all obe- 
 dience to government, in the several provinces.
 
 306 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 The pale of English law and civil obedience, he 
 confines within the narrow bounds of half the 
 counties of Uriel, Meath, Kildare, Dublin, and 
 Wexford, and the common people of these dis- 
 tricts he represents as entirely conforming to the 
 Irish habit and language, although they pro- 
 fessed obedience to the laws ; so general had been 
 the intercourse of fostering, marriage and alli- 
 ance, with the enemy, of which the deputy him- 
 self had set the example, and which of conse- 
 quence he could not restrain. The grievances of 
 these counties, from oppressive exactions, unna- 
 tural feuds, expeditions undertaken by deputies 
 from personal animosity, or private interest, to 
 the utter ruin of the subject, and without the least 
 ad vantage to the state; laws forgotten, neglected, 
 and defied ; an encreasing degeneracy, a general 
 ignorance, and scandalous inattention to instruct 
 and reform the people, are all detailed fully. 
 The remedies proposed are, a competent force 
 sent out of England to support the authority of 
 a chief governor of integrity and equity ; a strict 
 attention to training the people to the English 
 art of war ; garrisons stationed so as to awe the 
 Irish enemies and rebels, to put an end to local 
 quarrels, and gradually to reduce the whole body 
 of inhabitants to obedience; equitable and mo- 
 derate taxation, substituted in the place of arbi- 
 trary impositions, with other particular regu- 
 lations, many of which were afterwards adopted. 
 Such remains of antiquity are not unworthy of 
 notice, as the sentiments and opinions of cotem- 
 poraries serve to illustrate and confirm the repre-
 
 OF IRELAND. 307 
 
 sentations collected from history or records."* 
 Pandarus sive Salus Populi. MS. Trin. Col. Dub. 
 Nothing occurs very interesting in the reign of 
 Henry VII. until the desperate battle of Knoctow, 
 in 1504. The historians of the Pale are prolix on 
 a succession of deputies,, who did nothing worth 
 mentioning, except the laws of Poynings, and the 
 dissentions raging between powerful families of 
 English descent, which scarcely interest any but 
 their particular posterity. Henry VII. jealous of 
 lords <H Irish birth as his deputies, sent over 
 EdwarolPoynings, with some English forces, to 
 whom having added those of the Pale, he endea- 
 voured to figure as a warrior. He first marched 
 against O'HanWi^wherehe was disappointed of 
 his expected gloiy. * His next essay was in the 
 county of Carlow, where he fared no better. The 
 method of warfare, practised by his antagonists, 
 was judicious; in case of a smaller force keeping 
 on the defensive against a greater. fc Instead of 
 marching to the field in all the pomp and pride 
 of chivalry, and engaging in an open and regular 
 battle, they [the Irish] darted upon their prey 
 from inaccessible woods and morasses; to these 
 they retired at the approach of the royal army; 
 from these they again issued upon any prospect 
 of advantage, but before the deputy could draw 
 out his forces, were already vanished, so as to 
 keep him in perpetual terrour and perplexity, 
 without permitting him to strike any deceive 
 blow."f 
 
 * Ldaiul. Vol. IT. R. TIL c. iv. p. 07, 08. 
 t Ibid. Vol. II. B. III. c. v. p. 101. 
 VOL. I. *2 s
 
 308 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Leland's prejudice here, or his ignorance, is 
 truly pitiable. Did he not know, that military 
 stratagems,, preparing victory, reflect the highest 
 honour on a commander ? Neither did the Irish 
 always adhere to this desultory and perplexing 
 mode of warfare. Sometimes they fought obsti- 
 nate battles in the open field ; and instances are 
 not wanting, of their giving and accepting chal- 
 lenges to fight on a given day, on chivalrous 
 principles of gallantry. 
 
 Poynings, having failed in his martiaXrareer, 
 endeavoured to retrieve his honour by pdisplay 
 of legislative capacity. He summoned a parlia- 
 ment at Drogheda, which passed such acts as 
 were qualified to regulate th^Jnglish district, 
 and confirm the influence of England; of which 
 the following, called Poyning's law, obtained 
 some celebrity, during the struggles of the Irish 
 volunteers for a free trade and a free parliament. 
 
 " Item, at the request of the commons of 
 the land of Ireland, be it ordained, enacted, 
 and established, that at the next parliament 
 that there shall be holden by the king's com- 
 mandment and licence, wherein amongst other 
 the king's grace intendeth to have a general 
 resumption of his whole revenues, sith the last 
 day of the reigri of king Edward the second, 
 no parliament be holden hereafter in the said 
 land, but at such season as the king's lieutenant 
 and council there first do certify the king under 
 the great seal of tiiat land, the causes and con- 
 siderations and all such acts as to them seemeth 
 should pass in the same parliament, and such
 
 OP IRELAND. 309 
 
 causes, considerations, and acts, affirmed by the 
 king and his council, to be good and expedient 
 for that land, and his licence thereupon, as well 
 in affirmation of the said causes and acts, as to 
 summon the said parliament under his great seal 
 of England had and obtained: that done, a par- 
 liament to be had and holden after the form and 
 effect afore-rehearsed; and if any parliament be 
 holden in that land hereafter, contrary to the 
 form and provision aforesaid, it be deemed void 
 and of none effect in law." 
 
 Among other acts passed in this parliament, 
 one made it high treason to incite the Irish to 
 make war upon the English ; another prohibited 
 any person born in Ireland, from being constable 
 of Dublin, Trim, Leixlip, Athlone, Wicklow, 
 Greencastle, Carlingford, and Gragfergousc; the 
 infamous statutes of Kilkenny were also revived. 
 
 Hitherto the English Pale was so inconsider- 
 able, as to be an object of contempt,, rather than 
 respect, to the neighbouring chieftains. In this 
 reign, the carl of Kildare raised it to importance, 
 For the long-wished reduction, of those called 
 degenerate English, to obedience, the quarrel of 
 one of them with an Irish chieftain furnished a 
 good pretence. The alliance of the lord of Ire- 
 land's deputy., the earl of Kildare, with O'Nial, 
 the most powerful of the Irish prince's, 1'unnMicd 
 the means. 
 
 Three castles belonging to O 'Kelly having 
 been demolished by Mac William de lJurgo > 
 O'Kelly sought the assistance of the lord-justice. 
 Gerald Fitz-Thomas, earl of Kildare, then loid
 
 310 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 justice, mustered a powerful army., being joined 
 by the nobles of Leath Cuinn, (the northern half 
 of Ireland,) viz. O'Donell ( Aodh Roe) and his 
 son; the principal chiefs of Cineal-Conaill, and 
 a party of the Conatians, viz. O'Connor Roe, 
 and Mac Dcrmott, lord of Moy-luirg; the chiefs 
 of Ulster, except O'Nial, who were, Art, son of 
 Aodh O'Nial, tanist of Cineal Eogain; (a dis- 
 trict in Ulster,) Donall, the son of Magenis ; 
 Mac Mahonand O'Hanlon ; O'Reilly; O'Farrell, 
 commonly called the bishop; O'Connor- Failge; 
 the O'Kellys, and even the sons of William de 
 Burgo; and the forces of almost all Leath Cuinn 
 in general. This numerous and combined array 
 being assembled, marched into Clanrickard, 
 against Mac William de Burgo, who had also 
 mustered a great army. Those who joined him, 
 on that occasion, were as follows: Turlogh, son 
 of Teige O'Brien, lord of Thomond, and his 
 brothers, with all their forces; theMacNemaras; 
 O'Carroll, lord of Ely, with all his clans and 
 chieftains, joined by the nobles of Ormond and 
 Ara. Mac William and O'Brien held a council 
 of war, in which, with the assent of their chiefs, 
 they came to the brave and spirited resolution, 
 not to submit, but by arms to decide the contest. 
 At Knocktow, within five miles of Galway, on 
 the 19th of August, 1504, was fought the most 
 memorable, the most bloody battle that stains 
 the Irish annals. " Such was the vehemence, and 
 such the obstinacy of it, that, at a great distance 
 from the field of action might be distinctly heard, 
 the violent attack of the martial chiefs; the ve-
 
 OF IRELAND. 311 
 
 hement blows of the champions; the desperate 
 charge of the royal heroes ; the noise of the nobles 
 running through the ranks; the clamour of the 
 troops, when thrown into confusion ; the cries 
 and exultations of the victorious youths; the 
 sound of the brave men falling to the ground, 
 and the continued deroute of the inferior soldiery 
 by the nobility. The battle ended with the defeat 
 of Mac William, O'Brien, and the chiefs of 
 Leath-Modha; (the southern half of Ireland.) 
 Among the slain was Morogh, the son of O'Brien. 
 Of the nine battalions of galloglasses, which 
 were of their party, only one escaped, and that 
 much broken. An incredible number of the lord- 
 justice's forces were also slain, though victory- 
 favoured his side.* 
 
 In this terrible conflict the brave fell by the 
 axe of the brave, and they were pursued with 
 slaughter by enemies equally swift. It was a 
 day of exultation and triumph to the partizans 
 of England, a day of grief and consternation to 
 all the wise well-wishers of Ireland, a sad pre- 
 sage and sure forerunner of its final overthrow. 
 In proportion as that sanguinary day raised the 
 spirits of the Pale, it dejected the Milesians of 
 foresight, as it removed every reasonable hope of 
 concert between the north and south for mutual 
 defence. Con O'Nial, chieftain of Tyrone, seems 
 not to have approved of this war; since, though 
 kinsman of Kildare,, he did not join him in it. 
 
 i{ In the memorials remaining of this present 
 
 * Annals of Dunnagall.
 
 312 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 period, written by an Englishman, we are told, 
 that immediately after the victory of Knocktow, 
 lord Gormanstown turned to the earl of Kildare, 
 in the utmost insolence of success: " We have 
 slaughtered our enemies," said he, C( but, to 
 complete the good deed, we must proceed yet 
 further., cut the throats of those Irish of our 
 own party;"* Kildare replied, " 'Tis too soon 
 
 yet." 
 
 In treating of the subjugation of pretended 
 degenerates, it is of importance to Irish history, 
 to find strong evidence from a writer commonly 
 partial to the English side of the question. 
 " This degeneracy we find commonly imputed to 
 a lawless spirit of riot and disorder, impatient of 
 the restraint of English law; a contagion in- 
 deed too readily caught by men who live in a 
 state of perpetual warfare, without refinement or 
 discipline. But some part of it may reasonably 
 be imputed to the weakness of English govern- 
 ment, which left remoter districts unrestrained 
 and undefended, so that the inhabitants were ne- 
 cessarily obliged to court the alliance and sup- 
 port of the neighbouring Irish clans. The mu- 
 tual wants of both parties, induced a correspon- 
 dence; and that good-natured sociability and 
 hospitality, by which the Irish were distinguish- 
 ed, improved and extended it. The warm and 
 powerful affection of the sexes, free from the ar- 
 tificial restraints of civility and refinement, knows 
 no distinction of race or families. Laws forbad 
 
 * Book of Howth, M.S.
 
 OF IRELAND. 313 
 
 all intermarrying with the Irish ; but laws were 
 insignificant barriers against the humanity, and 
 the power of mutual intercourse and affection. 
 But whatever causes may he assigned for it, the 
 old English race had by this time proceeded so 
 far towards a coalition with the old natives, that 
 even in the Pale, and the very seat of govern- 
 ment, the Irish manners and language were ge- 
 nerally predominant. And it may be doubted 
 whether such effect could posibly have been 
 produced, if the old natives had ever been pos- 
 sessed invariably and unalterably with that in- 
 veterate national aversion, to which their repeat- 
 ed insurrections are commonly ascribed. The 
 solution was easy, and might have served the 
 purposes of a selfish policy; but there are other 
 causes to be assigned : and candour must acknow- 
 ledge that national prejudices and aversions arc 
 as generally predominant in those who possess 
 superior power, who are impatient of opposition, 
 and provoked at any appearance of rivalship in 
 men whom they are habituated to regard as in- 
 feriors. In the remains of the old Irish annalists, 
 we do not find any considerable rancour express- 
 ed against the English. They even speak of the 
 actions and fortunes of great English lords with 
 affection and sympathy. 
 
 At the accession of Henry VIII. the relative 
 position of the two nations was such, as should 
 have alarmed Irishmen, had they any policy. 
 The titles of York and Lancaster, united in that 
 
 * Leland, Vol. II. Book III. c. v. p. 119, 120.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 imperious monarch, delivered England from the 
 distractions of civil wars. Being farther freed 
 from burdensome continental possessions, she 
 was possessed of liberty and leisure to turn her 
 ambition towards Ireland, rent by incurable di- 
 visions; a nation literally dismembered into sixty 
 or seventy petty states, and still pursuing their 
 unfortunate quarrels. 
 
 During this reign, the earl of Kildare, having 
 strengthened himself by alliances with powerful 
 Irish chieftains, ruled longer, as deputy, than 
 any of his predecessors, and with unbounded 
 sway. But for having laid the foundation of 
 English power in Ireland, his services to the 
 crown of England were requited in a very un- 
 expected manner. The king was prepossessed 
 against him, partly by cardinal Wolsey, his mor- 
 tal enemy; and in part by representations of mal- 
 practices, sent over by the enemies of his house. 
 He remanded him over to England, to give an 
 account of his conduct; and, on his arrival, 
 committed him to the tower. Before this mis- 
 fortune he received the mortification of a defeat, 
 anno 1522, acting against O'Donnel, of Tyr- 
 connel, in conjunction with one of the greatest 
 confederacies formed in Ireland. O'Nial sent to 
 O'Donnel, " pay me tribute or if." O'Donnel 
 returned answer in theSaconic manner; O'Donnel 
 to O'Nial., fc I owe you no tribute and if." 
 War immediately ensued between the two chief- 
 tains; and the magnitude of the preparations, 
 made by O'Nial against the chieftain of Tyr- 
 comielj proves the high opinion entertained of
 
 OF IRELAND. 315 
 
 his military talents. These preparations, and this 
 war, are thus related in the annals of Dunagal. 
 <c An. 1522. A desperate war broke out between 
 O'Donell and O'Nial. Mac William of Clan- 
 rickard, the English and Irish chiefs of Con- 
 naught, the O'Briens, the O'Kenncdys and the 
 O'Carrolls, joined and leagued with O'Nial 
 against O'Donell. The nobles or chiefs, who 
 came from the west, with their forces, on that 
 expedition, were Mac William of Clanrickard, 
 and a party of the O'Briens, viz. Donogh and 
 Teigc, the sons of Turlogh O'Brien, and the 
 young bishop O'Brien, Maolruana O'CarrolI, 
 the O'Kennedy's; with them the Conatians, who 
 until then were under tribute, and proved faith- 
 ful subjects to O'Donell, viz. O'Connor-Roe, 
 O'Connor- Don, the son of William de Burgo, 
 and Mac Dermott of Moyluirg. These pro- 
 mised to join O'Nial about the middle of August, 
 O'Nial assembled the forces of Cineal Eogain, 
 ( Derry, Tyrone fc and Armagh, ) the Mac Gen- 
 nisses, thoseof Oirgialla,( Louth, ) theO'Reillys, 
 the people of Fermanagh, and a great number 
 of Scotch auxiliaries, under the command of 
 Alexander Mac Donald. O'Nial's mother being 
 the daughter of the earl of Kildare, a strong 
 body of English troops, together with a great 
 number of the galloglasses of Leinster, composed 
 of the Mac Donalds and Mac Sheehys, came 
 and joined them. 
 
 " O'Donell also assembled his small but 
 faithful army, in Cineal-Conaill, viz. O' Boyle, 
 O'Dogherty, the three Mac Sweenvs, tbe 
 
 VOL. I. 2 T
 
 316 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 O J Gallaghers, and stationed them, under his son 
 Magnus, at Port-na-Tri-Narnhad, (the port of 
 the three enemies, ) a narrow pass through which 
 he supposed O'Nial would endeavour to enter 
 Tir-Connell. O'Nial, apprized of this, marched 
 through Tyrone, unexpectedly, into Fermanagh, 
 and thence to Ballyshannon, where he laid siege 
 to the castle, which, though ably defended by 
 Brian-an-Cobhlaigh, was taken by O'Nial, who 
 put Brian and most of his forces to the sword, 
 on the second day of June. 
 
 " WhenO'Donell had intelligence of O'Nial's 
 march, to cause a diversion, he ordered his son 
 Magnus to enter Tyrone, and ravage the coun- 
 try; whilst with the main body of the army, he 
 went in quest of O'Nial. As soon as O'Nial 
 was acquainted that Magnus had entered Ty- 
 rone, he crossed the river Finn, and marched as 
 far as Kenmair, laying waste the country, but 
 Magnus, meantime, having executed his orders, 
 returned from Tyrone in triumph. O'Donnell, 
 finding it impossible to overtake O'Nial, return- 
 ed, and having united his forces with the army 
 of Magnus, directed his route to the plain of 
 Dromline, to give battle to O'Nial. Here he 
 held a council of war, in which it was deter- 
 mined to attack O'Nial by night, though his 
 army was much stronger than O'Donell's, be- 
 fore he was joined by the Conatian forces. But 
 O'Nial, having intelligence of their intentions, 
 took every possible precaution to prevent being 
 surprised. 
 
 " O'Donell having animated and arranged
 
 OF IRELAND. 317 
 
 his small force, ordered them to forsake their 
 horses, confident then, that once engaged, they 
 must conquer or die. On their approach, the 
 advanced guards of O'Nial gave the alarm; on 
 which the forces of O'Doriell rushed on so 
 vigorously, that they and the advanced guards 
 entered the camp, pell-mell. On falling in with 
 each other they raised loud and clamourous shouts. 
 The troops of O'Nial received the charge 
 bravely; both armies engaged with the greatest 
 obstinacy; but after a severe conflict, O'Nial 
 was defeated, with considerable loss. After this 
 victory O'Donnell marched to the relief of Sligo, 
 then besieged by the Conatian army. But, 
 panic-struck on his approach, having received 
 intelligence of his victory, they made proposals 
 of peace, raised the siege, and fled precipitately 
 to the Curlew mountains, where the Conatian 
 army dispersed." 
 
 Here was a great display of conduct and 
 valour, talents with which the Island of Saints 
 and heroes abounded ; but which, alas ! avail- 
 ed her nothing; because the dissentions of her 
 children turned their arms against one another. 
 
 The Pale was not less distracted by divisions 
 than the nation. The great English lords, exer- 
 cising royal authority, like Irish princes, were 
 mortal enemies one to another. O'Nial and 
 O'Donel were not more at variance than Fitz- 
 Gerald and Butler. Kildare, in the plcnlitude of 
 his power, when he might be considered im- 
 moveable, experienced the ill cllects of cabals. 
 A powerful one was secretly formed, to prepare
 
 318 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 and present articles of impeachment against him 
 to the king. These were,, his Irish alliances; ex- 
 action of coyne and livery; Irish nursing, gos- 
 sipred, and other transgressions of barbarous 
 statutes, made by a boorish, a misanthropic race. 
 These, with many other charges, either unfounded, 
 or not peculiar to the earl, made so unfavourable 
 an impression on that haughty, capricious, and 
 lustful tyrant, that he sent orders to the deputy 
 to repair to England, to answer these charges. 
 He tried by every art to elude this peremptory 
 order. In vain he sent his wife as his proxy; hop- 
 ing, perhaps, a better fate from female eloquence 
 or beauty, with a lascivious monarch. Henry 
 continued inflexible, and Kildare was obliged to 
 obey ; but, before his departure, he committed 
 two faults. The first was, to arm and garrison 
 his castles. The second was, to commit the go- 
 vernment to his son, lord Thomas, a youth scarce 
 twenty-one. During the father's confinement in 
 the tower., a report was industriously spread 
 abroad, that he was executed. The Butlers, ene- 
 mies of his house, received the news with exul- 
 tation, and communicated it in letters, some of 
 which fell into the young deputy's hands. At a 
 period when no regular intercourse was estab- 
 lished, it required time to procure correct infor- 
 mation. The young deputy was credulous enough 
 to believe the report without further investiga- 
 tion, and plunged into rebellion with boyish 
 precipitancy. He scorned to act with the refined 
 policy of aprince Maurice; who, under pretence 
 of zeal for the service of Charles V. fought
 
 OF IRELAND. 319 
 
 under his banners, only to come upon him ofY his 
 guard. Fitz-Gerald, full of chivalrous honor, 
 openly avowed his design of righting against the 
 king, in revenge for his father's death. He 
 marched into Duhlin at the head of a troop of 
 horse, entered the council-chamber, where he de- 
 livered the sword of state; accompanying his sur- 
 render of the government with a declaration of 
 war against king Henry. After collecting his 
 forces, both of English and Irish descent, he ra- 
 vaged the Pale, arid proposed to the citizens of 
 Dublin to give him a free passage through the 
 city, to attack the castle, otherwise he would 
 destroy it with fire and sword. The passage was 
 granted; he left a party of his forces to carry on 
 the siege, and marched with his main body to 
 punish the earl of Ormond, for refusing to join 
 him in the insurrection. The carl of Ormond's 
 son came to meet him with his forces, but lost 
 the battle and his life. Thereupon he ravaged the 
 estates of the Butlers, and levied contributions, 
 when he was called back by intelligence from 
 Dublin, that his besieging party was cooped up, 
 between the armed citizens and the garrison of 
 the castle; and that except a few, who profited 
 of the first tumult, by swimming across the river, 
 they were all either slain or taken prisoners. Fitz- 
 Gerald summoned the city to deliver up his men; 
 and, on their refusal, formed the siege thereot, 
 with a force not well qualified for such enter- 
 prizes. After many unsuccessful assaults, he was 
 obliged to retreat, but obtained the liberation of 
 liis soldiers by seizing the children of the citizens,
 
 320 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 who had been removed from the city during a 
 plague. While inspecting his castle of Maynooth, 
 he received intelligence of an English army being 
 in the bay. He marched immediately to annoy 
 them on their landing; met a party of them al- 
 ready landed, engaged and slew all who did not 
 surrender as prisoners. Then he planted his ar- 
 tillery on the shore,, and forced the ships to put 
 back to sea, while one of his partizans took a 
 schooner loaded with horses and troops. The 
 troops., however,, landed on the opposite shore, 
 and thence entered the city. Hereupon Fitz- 
 Gerald inarched westwards,, to obtain succour, 
 while his castle of Maynooth was besieged by 
 Skeifington, with his English forces. There was 
 no impression made on the castle during fourteen 
 days; nor had the garrison the least doubt of 
 holding out until they were relieved, when trea- 
 chery defeated their hopes. It was betrayed by 
 oneParcse, foster-brother to lord Thomas,,who, on 
 receiving his wages, was hanged by Skeffington. 
 Meanwhile Fitz-Gerald exerted himself with 
 great vigour, in the hope of raising the siege of 
 Mavnooth. He applied to the chieftains of Con- 
 naught and Ulster, and raised an army of seven 
 thousand men, with which he marched to the re- 
 lief of his castle; but, on seeing the fall of May- 
 nooth, most of them, giving up his cause as des- 
 perate, returned home. Nevertheless, with the 
 remainder, he ventured to meet the deputy in the 
 field, but his auxiliaries, unacquainted with can- 
 non, shrunk from the discharges of the artillery, 
 tcrriiied more, 'tis probable, by the uoise than
 
 OF IRELAND. 321 
 
 the execution. Unknown objects, striking for- 
 cibly tbe senses, are apt to inspire the bravest men 
 with some decree of apprehension. Thus it was, 
 that the Romans were defeated by means of Pyr- 
 rhus's elephants, who, on acquaintance, despised 
 these unwieldy masses. Fitz-Gerald, however, 
 finding himself no longer able to keep the field 
 in Lcinster, retreated to Munster, in expectation 
 most likely of succour or protection, from his 
 kinsman Desmond. Thither he was followed by 
 Leonard Grey, his kinsman. After some indecisive 
 skirmishes, the unfortunate lord Thomas., finding 
 Desmond, through the intrigues of Harry, in- 
 disposed to succour him, was induced to dismiss 
 his troops and surrender himself on assurance of 
 pardon. However this may be, he certainly re- 
 ceived such assurances of favour, and at least of 
 a powerful recommendation to the king, that he 
 consented to dismiss his troops, and to attend 
 lord Grey to Dublin. Lord Thomas was sent to 
 England, confident of his promised pardon being 
 ratified. Unhappy youth ! he little knew the ty- 
 rant, on whose clemency he relied. As he was on 
 his way to Windsor, prepared to cast himself at 
 the king's feet, he was arrested, and committed 
 to the tower, where he was suffered to languish 
 for a while in despair, that, to use the words of 
 Nero, he might feel himself dying. Ham's ven- 
 geance extended to the whole family. He g;i\c 
 orders to the new deputy, Grey, to seize on his 
 five uncles, though three of them were known to 
 have opposed the rebellion. His order was obeyed. 
 The deluded men accepted Grey's invitation to a
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 tanquet. They were first feasted with all the 
 appearance of amity, then made prisoners, sent to 
 England, confined in the tower, and put to death. 
 The marvellous escape of the younger branch 
 of the Geraldines, a boy of twelve years of age, 
 from the vengeance of this monster of lust and 
 cruelty, deserves to be recorded, as an instance 
 of divine interposition in favour of individuals 
 and families, as well as of nations and empires. 
 ec This infant, by the vigilance of his guardians, 
 was secreted and conveyed to his aunt, the widow 
 of Mac-Arthy, Irish dynast of South Munster. 
 This lady, solicitous to preserve the remaining 
 hope of her noble family, consented to a second 
 marriage with another Irish chieftain, called 
 O'Donel, on the express condition that he should 
 protect her nephew: but soon convinced of the 
 insincerity of her new husband, who sought to 
 recommend himself to the English government, 
 by delivering up this youth, she conveyed him 
 into France, where the king entertained him ; 
 and when Henry had the meanness to demand 
 him as a rebel- subject, favoured his escape to 
 Flanders. The like demand was made to the 
 emperor, when this young lord had escaped to 
 his court, but with like success. He was per- 
 mitted to seek the protection of cardinal Pole, 
 who, in defiance of his declared enemy, king 
 Henry, received lord Gerald as his kinsman, 
 educated him suitably to his birth, and by his 
 favour and support, preserved him to regain the 
 honours of the family of Kildare."* 
 
 * Leland. Vol. IL Book III. c. vi. p. 154.
 
 OF IRELAND. 323 
 
 We have passed a period of atrocious and in- 
 cessant warfare; darkened by the barbarous mis- 
 anthropy of the invaders, and the implacable en* 
 mities of the invaded; disgraced by the cold- 
 blooded cruelty and inhuman perfidy of the pre- 
 tended civilizers of Ireland. We have seen, 
 that the English popish penal code left nothing 
 to the ingenuity of human malice to invent, or 
 demoniac malignity to inflict, on the persons, 
 families, and properties of the antient natives; 
 that nothing was omitted that could ulcerate the 
 human heart, engender incurable antipathy, and 
 eternize hostility. Were the same diligence and 
 abilities employed, to collect and divulge the 
 penal statutes of the popish code, as those which 
 favoured the public with a digest of the pro- 
 testant penal laws, I believe the former would 
 be found far more ingenious in devices of inhu- 
 manity, for temporal gain, than the latter in 
 tormenting men., for the honor and glory of God, 
 and the salvation of their souls. It would seem 
 that Englishmen became no worse men by their 
 embracing the reformed religion, since the sti- 
 mulant of religious bigotry, invigorating the ap- 
 petite of temporal gain, has not enabled them to 
 reach the climax of savage and perfidious atro- 
 city, practised by their popish ancestors on a 
 nation of the catholic profession. The protestant 
 penal code enlided any protcstant to sei/e the 
 horse of a catholic worth five pounds; but if 
 was on condition of giving five pounds to the 
 owner, the value, when the act was passed, of a 
 good horse. The popish penai code allowed 
 
 \ o r. i *i i
 
 324- AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 any English papist to take the life of an Irish 
 catholic vassal of the Pale, on paying six pence 
 fine. The murder of an Irish catholic out of 
 the pale was praise-worthy; if of high rank, 
 applauded. The reader need not be asked, whe- 
 ther he would rather part with his horse, even 
 by compulsion, on receiving cash for him, than 
 lose his life, with impunity or reward to assassins. 
 
 Let us not imagine, that nothing but war, 
 cruelty, and perfidy existed in those distracted 
 times. While history records the miseries, in- 
 flitted by mankind on each other, by their vices 
 and follies, numerous examples of social virtues, 
 and domestic felicity, are generally passed by, 
 which incline us to congratulate that nation and 
 epoch which afford least matter for the historian. 
 The Irish annalists equally intersperse their con- 
 cise narratives, with an account of characters, 
 illustrious for their learning, piety and humanity; 
 of this sort was Phelim O'Reilly, celebrated for 
 his liberality to poets and travellers, who kept 
 an open house for the reception of passengers. 
 
 A new aera now opens upon us. The king, 
 
 DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, Sacrifices his relt- 
 
 gion to his lust, severs his kingdom from the 
 unity of the catholic church, and the jurisdiction 
 of its chief pastor, and thus opens the flood-gates 
 of error, letting in an inundation of heresies of 
 all sorts. In addition to the calamities, with 
 which Ireland was already afflicted, this super- 
 added another cc pestilent bane/' as lord Clare 
 calls it. I wonder did he ever learn the cate- 
 chism from his grandfather, the priest.
 
 OF IRELAND. 325 
 
 English historians, as well as their Irish par- 
 tizans, give such accounts of this reformation, 
 began by Henry VIII. as favour their own party; 
 and, for want of knowing the real, attributed to 
 imaginary causes, its tardy and small progress in 
 Ireland. That arbitrary tyrant never meant any 
 alteration in the creed or ritual he had learned, 
 but solely thirsted for money and pleasure. To 
 indulge his capricious lusts, hecrcated the schism; 
 to acquire money, and also to deprive the Pope of 
 partizans, he suppressed monasteries, and seized 
 their estates and moveables. He had too much 
 need of partizans, to lock up his vast plunder of 
 ecclesiastical property in his own coffers. He 
 prudently distributed a great portion of it among 
 men of rank, lead and talent, whom he thus in- 
 terested to espouse his innovations: adding withal, 
 such titles of honor and distinction, as generally 
 captivate human vanity. With these means, and 
 the exercise of unlimited power, the authority of 
 an obsequious parliament, the concurrence of a 
 corrupt prelacy, and the general timidity and 
 procrastinating policy of English catholics, the 
 schism was completed in England. In Ireland 
 it met with greater opposition. 
 
 Leland is futile and tedious, beyond suffering, 
 in accounting for the resistance of the Irish to 
 heresy and schism. Blindness and bigotry; a dis- 
 solute course of life; odious and absurd distinc- 
 tion of inhabitants; ignorant clerirv and super- 
 stitious laity. On these topics he dwells, with a 
 tedious, unmeaning prolixity, proving him igno- 
 rant of tin- !ru' Guilds. If the ignorance of the
 
 326 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 clergy and laity accounts for the resistance of the 
 Irish to innovation, why not dissolve protestant 
 colleges, that clergy and laity, through ignorance, 
 may acquire a hlind attachment to the established 
 church, and an abhorrence of the oppressors. An 
 odious distinction between the inhabitants con- 
 tinues yet; why does it not protect the flocks of 
 the established church from being thinned by 
 Methodists ? There are numbers of blind and bi- 
 gotted men of the establishment daily seduced 
 into conventicles. The real causes were these. 
 The abuses that were complained of over Europe, 
 existed indeed, but were not felt with the same 
 weight. The wealth of the Irish clergy was col- 
 lectively great ; but not so great as the reunion 
 of sees has made it, reducing fifty to twenty- five. 
 They exercised hospitality, the fashionable virtue 
 of their country, without which they would incur 
 general contempt ; and, in some of the petty wars 
 of the tribes, be plundered unmercifully, perhaps 
 grossly insulted in their persons. The original 
 intention of the donors of church lands, for the 
 support of the poor, and instruction of the igno- 
 rant, was fulfilled here better than any where else. 
 Each prelate had a numberof widows and orphans 
 on his pension list, and the wandering poor re- 
 ceived relief from his kitchen. The abbeys were 
 generally seats of literature and hospitality. The 
 study of medicine was one of the branches of their 
 learning; for the relief of the sick poor in their 
 vicinity, and for poor applicants of any nation or 
 country. For this purpose they kept their Materia 
 Medica in a botanic garden contiguous to them;
 
 OF IRELAND. 327 
 
 as Mr. White, of the Glasnevin Botanic Garden 
 has proved,, from the samples of exotic plants 
 growing wildly about their venerable ruins. Add 
 to all these titles of respectability, the chastity 
 that distinguished the Irish clergy above those of 
 any other country, attested by foreign writers, 
 and then you will see cause, why the clerical cha- 
 racter was held in such high estimation in this 
 country, and why Henry's attempt upon them, 
 and upon the unity of the church, provoked uni- 
 versal opposition, even in the Pale. In my travels 
 through Europe the same opinion still prevailed, 
 of the chastity of the Irish clergy. It was an 
 adage among the clergy of the continent; and 
 they had every opportunity of observation, as the 
 whole of the Irish clergy, secular and regular, 
 were educated among and spent their lives there. 
 Hibernus (clerus) bihax sicut anser, et castus si- 
 cut angel us.* This restraint of a natural passion, 
 whose vehemence in the Irish is attested bv the 
 
 / 
 
 antient proverb, Libidinosi Scoti; could only 
 be atchieved by religious zeal, a high sense of 
 honor, and reverence for their character and func- 
 tions. Besides, the Irish were then, what they 
 now are, a religious people, tenacious of anti- 
 quity, and enemies to innovation. Their abhor- 
 rence of Henry's plundering arid schismatical 
 schemes, is not imputable to ignorance, or blind 
 attachment, but to the assiduous care of the 
 clergy in catechising them, and to the subtlety of 
 their minds, naturally penetrating, which easily 
 
 * The Irish (clergy) tipple like i;eese. i. e. Dipped often, 
 but not to excess, at their meats, antl arc chaste as angels.
 
 328 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 discerned the marks of the true church of Christ, 
 unity, (not to speak of sanctity,) apostolicity, 
 and universality. They clearly perceived, that 
 Henry was militating- against all these; and that 
 the church of England, torn from the main body 
 of the faithful, would, like a branch torn from a 
 tree, wither, and produce insects; so would a 
 schismatical limb, severed from the communion 
 of the faithful, decay in the faith, and be overrun 
 with innumerable heresies. Tbey saw, that the 
 pretended reform, by substituting reason for au- 
 thority,, sipped the foundation of revealed reli- 
 gion. Fortified by these unquestionable facts, 
 the reader may safely peruse the account of this 
 most tyrannical attempt, of forcing a new religion 
 on the Irish nation, as given by Leland, and ad- 
 mitted by Plowden, with few exceptions. These 
 gentlemen cannot be supposed unreasonably par- 
 tial to Irishmen, and catholics; the one, on ac- 
 c >unt of his country, being an Englishman; 
 the other, on account of his religion, being a 
 protestant divine. 
 
 " Lord Cromwell, who upon the death of 
 \Volsey had succeeded to as much of his prince's 
 fiivors, as Henry would again bestow upon a 
 subject, in his quality of vicar general in spi- 
 rituals, appointed George Brown, the provincial 
 of the Augustine Friars, who had been promir 
 nently conspicuous in preaching up the reforma- 
 tion 111 London, to succeed Allan in the archic- 
 piscopal see of Dublin. He was scut over with 
 other commissioners, specially instructed and 
 sppoiiitcd to coufdr with the clergy and nobility,
 
 OF IREL4ND, 
 
 in order to procure a general acknowledgement 
 of the king's spiritual supremacy. . . . No sooner 
 had the commissioners appointed by the king 
 explained their instructions., and demanded an 
 acknowledgment of his supremacy, than Cromer, 
 primate of Armagh, an Englishman, by birth, 
 and who had sometimes held the office of chan- 
 cellor, openly and boldly declared against an 
 attempt so impious. . . . He summoned the suf- 
 fragans and clergy of his province: and to those 
 whom he could collect, he pathetically repre- 
 sented the danger, which now threatened the re- 
 ligion of their ancestors : exhorting them to ad- 
 here inviolably to (he apostolic chair, bv such 
 arguments and motives as were suited to their 
 understandings. He reminded them, that their 
 country had been called in the earliest ages the. 
 Holy Island ; a convincing proof that it ever 
 was and is the peculiar property of the holy see, 
 from which the kings of England derive their 
 lordship. He enjoined them by his spiritual au- 
 thority to resist all innovation, as thev tendered 
 their everlasting felicity: and pronounced a tre- 
 mendous curse against all those, who should sa- 
 crilegiously acknowledge the king's supremacy. 
 In the mean time he dispatched two emissaries io 
 Rome, to represent the danger of the eliuie!:, 
 and to entreat the interposition of the pent i IV i:i 
 defence of his rights and interests in Ireland. 
 
 "' This spirited opposition of the most einiiie;.t 
 amongst the Irish prelates, enlivened the /e:l 
 and vijror of the friends of Home. lleniv ai.d 
 
 G * 
 
 his minister seem to have imagined, that no one
 
 330 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 could have presumed to attempt the least resist- 
 ance to his royal will, in a point which had been 
 already solemnly decided and established in Eng- 
 land. His agents were probably possessed with 
 the same idea. But to their utter mortification, 
 the king's commission was treated with indiffe- 
 rence and neglect; and his vicar, on account of 
 the meanness of his birth, became even a subject 
 of popular ridicule.* Archbishop Browne, with 
 the assistance of some of his suffragans, laboured 
 in support of the commission : but he was treated 
 not only with disdain but outrage, and his life 
 was exposed to danger from the opponents of the 
 reformation. Such at least were the apprehen- 
 sions he expressed. He informed Lord Cromwell 
 of his bad success, and the opposition of Cromer: 
 represented the melancholy situation of ecclesi- 
 astical affairs in Ireland ; the extreme ignorance 
 of the clergy, incapable of performing even the 
 common offices, and utter strangers even to the 
 language, in which they celebrated their mass;f 
 and the furious zeal of the people, whose blind 
 attachment to Rome was as determined, as the 
 constancy of the most enlightened martyrs to the 
 
 * Archbishop Browne in one of his letters to Lord 
 Cromwell, tells him with an awkward and uncourtly simpli. 
 city, the 4i countrie folk.hcre much hate your lordship, 
 arid despitcfully call you in their Irish tongue, The black, 
 smith's son." 
 
 + That might have been the slate of the clergy within the 
 Pule, as they had as yet no seminary of learning in the 
 English district; they were excluded from English schools, 
 and they were not allowed, by thrir own bigotry, to fre. 
 qtuvnt the seminaries of the antiuit Irish.
 
 OF IRELAND. 331 
 
 true religion,,* who exulted in expectation of ef- 
 fectual support from the pope, and that he would 
 engage some of the old chieftains and particu- 
 larly O'Nial, the great dynast of the north, to 
 rise in defence of their religion. He recommended 
 
 *-' 
 
 as the most vigorous and effectual method of 
 procedure, that an Irish parliament should be 
 assembled without delay, which, like the English 
 legislature, might by law enforce a general ac- 
 knowledgment of the king's supremacy, so as to 
 terrify the refractory and to silence their opposi- 
 tion. This advice was approved: and the Lord 
 Gray, who was still engaged in suppressing the 
 disjointed relicts of the Geraldine rebellion, re- 
 ceived a commission to summon a parliament, 
 which was accordingly convened at Dublin on 
 the first of May 153(3. f 
 
 " So limited at this time was the jurisdiction of 
 the Irish parliament, or to speak more properly, 
 of the provincial assembly of the Pale, that the 
 master of the rolls reported to the king, that his 
 laws were not obeyed twentv miles from his capi- 
 
 * What true religion? AY as it the schism produced by 
 Harry's lust? Was it by removing the foundation of le- 
 vealed religion, and submitting mysterious, incomprehen- 
 sible doctrines to be scanned by ignorant and delirious ima- 
 gination ? Was it to open the door to endless varieties and 
 contradictions, to numberless heresies, daily sprouting up 
 like mushrooms, to whose growth, on the principles ot thij 
 separatists, no mortal can set limits. 
 
 i Lord Grey was infringing the treaty of peace and par. 
 don, concluded with lord Thomas Fitz. Gerald, murdvring 
 and plundering wherever he could, those unconcerned as 
 well as those concerned. 
 
 VOL 1 ^? X
 
 332 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 tal. Yet did Henry successfully exert every de- 
 vice of art and power to render the members that 
 composed it ductile and subservient to his dictates. 
 The transactions of the late parliament at West- 
 minster were holden out to the members con- 
 vened, as a model of the ordinances the king ex- 
 pected at their hands. Therefore, as to all the 
 acts which concern the reformation of religion, 
 the Irish statutes are mere transcripts of the 
 English acts upon the same subjects. The 
 king was declared supreme head on earth of the 
 Church of Ireland: all appeals to Rome in spi- 
 ritual causes were taken away: the English law 
 against slandering the king in consequence of 
 these innovations was enacted and confirmed in 
 Ireland, together with the provisions made in 
 England for payment of first fruits to the king : 
 and not only of the first fruits of bishopricks and 
 other secular promotions in the Church of Ire- 
 land; but by another act he was vested with those 
 of abbies, priories, colleges, and hospitals. By 
 a further act the authority of the bishop of Rome 
 was more solemnly renounced, and the maintainers 
 of it in Ireland made subject to a praMiiunire. 
 All officers of every kind and degree were re- 
 quired to take the oath of supremacy; and every 
 person who should refuse it was declared, as in 
 England, guilty of high treason. All payment 
 of pensions and suing for dispensations and facul- 
 ties to Rome were utterly prohibited, by adopt- 
 ing the English law made for this purpose, and 
 accommodating it to Ireland. By one act twelve 
 religious houses were suppressed : by another
 
 OF IRELAND. 333 
 
 the priory of St. Wolstan's was particularly 
 suppressed ; and the demesnes of them all were 
 vested in the crown. 
 
 " As to the right of inheritance and succession 
 of the lordship of Ireland, they pronounced the 
 marriage of the king with Catharine of Arragon 
 to be null and void, and the sentence of separa- 
 tion by the archbishop of Canterbury to be good 
 and effectual. They declared the inheritance of 
 the crown to be in the king and his heirs by 
 Queen Ann (of Boleyn) : they made it high 
 treason to oppose this succession, misprision of 
 treason to slander it; and appointed an oath of 
 allegiance to be taken by the subjects of Ireland 
 for the sure establishment of it under the penal- 
 ties of misprision of treason. But scarcely had 
 this act been passed, when intelligence arrived of 
 the condemnation and death of Ann Boleyn, and 
 the marriage of the king with the Lady Jane 
 Seymour. With the same ease and compliance 
 with Henry's wishes, they followed the servile 
 corruption of the English parliament, and in- 
 stantly repealed their late act, and passed an act 
 of attainder on the late Queen Ann, George 
 Boleyn, Lord Rochford, William Brercton, and 
 Mark Smeaton, who had been accused as accom- 
 plices in the supposed guilt of that unhunpy 
 ladv. Both the former marriages of Henry were. 
 by this new act declared null and void: the suc- 
 cession was new modelled, and declared to be in 
 the king and his heirs by the Lady Jane, his 
 then queen ; and, in default of such heirs, the 
 king was empowered to dispose of the inheritance
 
 334 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 of the lordship of Ireland ( as of the crown of 
 England ) by letters patent, or by will. 
 
 " Other acts were made for the encrease of the 
 king's revenue, and the internal regulation of the 
 Pale. The usual subsidy of 18s. 4d. on every 
 plough land was granted for ten years. The 
 lands and honors of the Duke of Norfolk and 
 other absentees* were vested in the king, and one 
 twentieth part of every spiritual promotion was 
 granted to him for ever. All pensions paid by 
 the king's subjects to any Irish sept were utterly 
 abolished; the antient laws against marrying and 
 fostering with the Irish were revived in all their 
 severity; and the use of the English order of 
 living, habit, and language, were strictly en- 
 forced throughout the Pale. It was provided, 
 that no ecclesiastical preferment should be con- 
 ferred on any, who did not speak the English 
 language, unless after three solemn proclama- 
 tions none so qualified could be found; that an 
 English school should be kept in every parish; 
 and that such as could not pay for the education 
 of their children at such. school, should be ob- 
 liged to employ them from the age of ten years 
 in trade or husbandry. To prevent waste of 
 lands, either by the suppression of monasteries or 
 attainder of rebels, commissioners were appointed 
 to grant leases of all crown lands; and others for 
 pardoning any persons concerned in the late re r 
 bellion, who should submit within a given time, 
 
 * Time probably will determine whether the union, en. 
 creasing absentees, was wiser for security, than those sevc* 
 rities against absentees,,
 
 OF IRELAND. 3,35 
 
 except such as had heen attainted by name. 
 These were named in the very first act of this 
 parliament, intituled, An act for the attainder 
 of the earl of Kildare and others. 
 
 ee Such were the laws which this corrupt and 
 servile parliament passed to gratify the resentment, 
 lust, avarice, and amhition of Henry. Ingenuity 
 could not have devised a collection of laws more 
 emphatically calculated to render the English 
 power contemptible and odious to the Irish 
 nation. This policy of the English, to discou- 
 rage all connexion of the colony with the native 
 Irish, it has heen lately observed,* was not " to 
 be reconciled to any principle of sound policy : 
 it was a declaration of perpetual war, not only 
 against the native Irish,, but against every per- 
 son of English blood, who had settled beyond 
 the limits of the Pale, and from motives of per- 
 sonal interest or convenience had formed con- 
 nections with the natives, or adopted their laws 
 and customs; and it had the full effect, which 
 might have been expected: it drew closer the 
 confederacy it was meant to dissolve, and im- 
 plicated the colony of the Pale in ceaseless war- 
 fare and contention with each other, and with 
 the inhabitants of the adjacent districts." 
 
 " As the religion professed by those within and 
 those without the Pale was at this time our and 
 the same in every respect, an observation of the 
 same illustrious personage, to whose authority 
 I have just referred, applies indiscriminately to 
 
 * Speech of (lit? eari of Clare in the Irish House of J,ord> 
 m the 10th of February, 1805,
 
 336 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 both ; te it was equally hopeless and impolitic to 
 call upon the people at once to abjure the reli- 
 gion of their ancestors, and to subscribe to new 
 doctrines. Accordingly, says Dr. Leland, the 
 laws for the regulation of the Pale, and even 
 those which declare the right of succession to 
 the throne, were received without opposition. 
 But those relative to ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
 had all the violence of religious enthusiasm to 
 encounter. The Romish party had collected 
 their adherents, and were prepared for a vigo- 
 rous contention. The two proctors from each 
 diocese, who had usually been summoned to 
 parliament, composed a formidable body of ec- 
 clesiastics, avowed adherents to the holy see. 
 They claimed to be members of the legislative 
 body, and to have a full right of suffrage in 
 every puhlic question; it therefore became ne- 
 cessary, before the act of supremacy should be 
 proposed, to define their rights. It was de- 
 clared by a previous act, that their claim was 
 presumptuous and groundless; that they were 
 summoned merely as counsellors and assistants, 
 (as the King's judges and other learned men 
 had decided) and that from the first day of that 
 parliament they should be accepted and taken as 
 counsellors and assistants only, whose assent and 
 concurrence were by no means necessary to any 
 parliamentary transaction. 
 
 " Although the partizans of Rome were thus 
 deprived of the assistance of so powerful a body, 
 yet when the act of supremacy came to be pro- 
 posed, Lords and Commons joined in expressing
 
 OF IRELAND. 337 
 
 their abhorrence of the spiritual authority as- 
 sumed by the King, whilst the ministers of the 
 royal party were equally determined in defence 
 of it. Archbishop Browne took the first part 
 in supporting the propriety of this act, by such 
 arguments as probably had their weight upon 
 his own mind, and were more likely to influ- 
 ence his hearers, than those of greater force and 
 solidity. He pleaded the authority of the Popes 
 themselves against the usurpation of Rome; so 
 that in asserting the king's supremacy, he claimed 
 no more than what Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, 
 had granted to Lucius, the iirst Christian King 
 of the Britons : but the argument he concluded 
 with, was most likely to confound opposition ; 
 he pronounced those, who made any difficulty of 
 concurring with him, to have no right to be re- 
 garded or treated as loyal subjects. Fear served 
 to allay the violence of such as could not be 
 persuaded ; and the most determined partizans 
 of Rome were obliged to reserve themselves for 
 a clandestine opposition to the execution of a 
 law, which they could not prevent from being 
 enacted. 
 
 " At this period of the Irish history, the whole 
 Irish nation, within and without the Pale, was 
 Catholic. Archbishop Browne and the other 
 commissioners, together with the ministers and 
 royal party, whom they had gained over to the 
 reformation, were the only Protestants in the 
 country. The hand of power was therefore 
 called in to compel submission to these acts thus 
 forced upon the nation. The royal party, who
 
 338 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 had possessed themselves of the reins of power 
 within the Pale, aware of the consequences of 
 their abusing it, ere the session was over, passed 
 a special act, to make it felony to attempt to 
 invalidate any of the laws passed during this 
 session of the parliament. And no wonder, as 
 Leland observes, that to these vigorous counsels 
 and decisions of the legislature., it was at this 
 time peculiarly necessary to add an extraordinary 
 vigilance and activity in the field. It was ob- 
 vious to foresee, that religious controversy must 
 aggravate arid protract the disorders so long 
 and so grievously experienced in this country. 
 Rightly then was it said, " At this time a new 
 schism arose, which has been the bane and pes- 
 tilence of Ireland."* The question of papal au- 
 thority threatened to divide those, who had 
 hitherto been most united ; and whilst the king's 
 subjects within the Pale, who disapproved the 
 late regulations, were thus in danger of being 
 seduced from their allegiance, at the same time 
 a new bond of union was formed amongst the 
 old Irish chieftains. Formerly to their petty 
 septs (called nations) their views had ever prin- 
 cipally been confined : then their temporal inte- 
 rests were separate, and their mutual enmities 
 frequent, fierce, and rancorous. But now the 
 defence of their antient religion was inculcated 
 as the cause of all, and afforded a new pretence 
 for insurrection; a pretence which operated so 
 powerfully upon the Irish, that it seemed almost 
 
 * Lord Clare's speech.
 
 OF IRELAND. 339 
 
 for the lime to have absorbed the other nume- 
 rous and heavy grievances, which Henry had 
 accumulated upon their nation."* 
 
 Hitherto the Irish suffered in their goods and 
 persons, now they were attacked in the sanctuary 
 of conscience; no wonder a high-spirited and re- 
 ligious people should resist. The failure of their 
 just and necessary resistance requires explanation. 
 They had improvidently abandoned tlioir sea-port 
 towns, and foreign commerce, first to the Danes, 
 and afterwards to the English, for a yearly tribute. 
 These were fortified, and rendered, since the in- 
 troduction of fire-arms, not only impregnable, but 
 inaccessible, to a people destitute of these new 
 war machines. The Milesians, thus cooped up in 
 their own country, from foreign intercourse, by 
 which they might obtain arms and ammunition; 
 excluded from towns, where they \vere manufac- 
 tured,, were further precluded, by the non-inter- 
 course act of Edward IV., of which the follow- 
 ing is an extract, from any communication \\ith 
 foreigners. " Item at the request of the commons, 
 that where divers vessels of other lands fro one 
 day to other going to fish amongst the king's 
 Irish enemies in divers parts of this said land, by 
 which the king's said enemies be greatly ad vanciui 
 and strengthened as vvel in victuals, harness, ar- 
 mour, as divers other necessaries also givut tri- 
 butes of money given by every ot the said voxels 
 to the said enemies from day to (lav (o the uveat 
 
 ./ *S *-- > 
 
 augmentation of their power and force auaiu^l 
 
 * Plowden. Hist. Rev. State of Irvhml. Vol. I. p. :>'2, \ 
 VOL, I. l - V
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 the king's honour and wealth,, and utter destruc- 
 tion of this said land, whereupon the premises 
 considered, it is enacted and ordeyned by authoritie 
 of the said parliament, that no manor vessell of 
 other lands shall be no time nor season of the year 
 from henceforth, from the feast of the nativity of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ next coming, go in no part 
 of the said land betwixt the said Irish enemies to 
 no nianer fishing without one speciall licence of 
 the lieutenant, his deputy or justice of the land 
 for the time being, or licence of another person 
 having the king's power to graunt such licence., 
 upon pain of forfeiture of the ship and goods to 
 the king." 
 
 Archbishop Browne, an apostate provincial of 
 the English Augustinians, met with vigorous 
 opposition in the seat of government. Out of 
 the Pale he could effect no change, as he owns 
 himself. " The viceroy is of little or no power 
 with the old natives, therefore your lordship 
 will expect from me no more than I am able."* 
 O'Nial, O'Brien, and several other chieftains of 
 less note appeared in arms, either on pretext or in. 
 defence of religion, but were foiled by the ine- 
 quality of arms, and obliged to make peace with 
 Henry. The tyrant learned by experience that the 
 Irish were more easily gained by favors, titles and 
 bribes, than subdued by force. Accordingly he 
 passed an act, declaratory of his design to confer 
 tides, honors, and bestow estates suitable thereto, 
 on loydl and meritorious men; thus to procure 
 
 '" Letter to Lord Cromwell, vicar in spirituals to Harry,
 
 OF IRELAND. 341 
 
 their acquiescence in the suppression of monas- 
 teries. <c Where our sovereign lord the king's 
 most excellent majesty, for the relief and fortifi- 
 cation of this his Highness's realm of Ireland, 
 having respect to the great lack of nobility or 
 men for honour now within the same, of his most 
 kingly benevolence hath created, erected, and 
 enabled and hereafter entendeth to create, name, 
 erect and enable divers persons unto names of ho- 
 nour and dignities within this his said realm, en- 
 duing them with divers possessions and heredi- 
 taments, and to others freely have also disposed 
 and hereafter entendcth to dispose others his 
 Graces possessions, lands, tenements, and here- 
 ditaments within the same realm," &c.* 
 
 Pursuant to this policy, Uliac dc Burgo was 
 created earl of Clanrickard and baron of Dun- 
 kellan; Morough O'Brien, earl of Thomond 
 and baron of Inchiquin, and his son Connor, 
 "baron of Ibraken. O'Nial accepted the title of 
 earl of Tyrone; and his son was created baron of 
 Dungannon, Several other dynasts were courted 
 in the same manner, and promised shares of ec- 
 clesiastical plunder. The innovations, by these 
 means of seduction, gained somepartizans among 
 the great, but with the multitude they found 
 no favor. While the king of England was ca- 
 joling Irish chieftains with titles; and what they 
 valued more, a partition of the lands of sup- 
 pressed abbeys, be assumed to himself the title 
 of king of Ireland To make his reformation 
 
 - An act for land" given by the kin^. :'' Il-ii.VUI.
 
 342 AN IiMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 less disgusting to the Irish, some excellent statutes 
 were passed in the parliament of the English dis- 
 trict. It was enacted, that voters for members 
 of parliament should be possessed in freehold of 
 forty shillings a year, more than forty pound 
 ft year at present; and that those who were elected 
 for counties, cities and towns, should be residents 
 of the places for which they were elected. After- 
 wards was passed an act for the suppression of 
 Kilmainham, and other religious houses, upon 
 the free surrender and grants of the superior. 
 Peerages and bribes were dispensed w r ith a pro- 
 digal hand, to all men of weight, whose opposi- 
 tion to the king's violent schemes might be ap- 
 prehended. Meath was divided into two coun- 
 ties; for a reason, stated in the following pre- 
 amble of the act, which proves the small extent 
 of the Pale at that time. cc Forasmuch as the 
 sli ire of Methe is great and large in circuit, and 
 the west part thereof laid about and beset with 
 diverse of the king's rebells, and that in severall 
 parts thereof the king's writs for lacke of minis- 
 tration of justice, have not of late been obeyed, 
 nor his Grace's laws put in due execution." It 
 was also enacted, that on the death, resignation, 
 or recal of a deputy, the privy council should 
 elect a man of English birth to succeed him, 
 during the king's pleasure; or in default of such, 
 to elect two of English blood and surname as 
 lords justices. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the efforts of Harry's 
 policy and power, wherever the Milesian power 
 prevailed, religious houses were protected. Da-
 
 OF IRELAND. 343 
 
 vies remarks, (e tliat the abbeys and other reli- 
 gious houses in Tyrone, Tyrconnel, and Ferma- 
 nagh, though they were dissolved in the thirty- 
 third year of Henry VIII. were never surveyed, 
 nor reduced into charge, but were continually 
 possessed by the religious persons, untill the 
 reign of James I." 
 
 Francis I. of France, informed of the general 
 disposition that prevailed in Ireland, to resist the 
 English schism and innovations, attempted to be 
 forced on them, sent some emissaries to Ireland, 
 to tamper with O'Donnel of Tyrconnel, a chief- 
 tain well known in Rome and France, and of 
 great authority. But he, either unwilling to break 
 his late engagements, or despairing of being able 
 to form any general confederacy, declined the 
 task. On the other hand, Henry was accompa- 
 nied to Calais with a considerable body of Irish 
 troops, who astonished the French by their agi- 
 lity and their ferocity in battle. There is a stra- 
 tagem for procuring provisions, attributed to 
 that brigade, which I have met no where else. 
 <s They caught a bull, tied him to a stake, kin- 
 
 / O 
 
 died fires around him, so that the scorching 
 flames caused the animal to bellow piteously. 
 All the horned cattle crowded to the spot, where 
 they became a booty."* 
 
 In closing this reign, it >vill not appear im- 
 proper to sketch the character of this daring ec- 
 centric man, who commenced the great changes 
 in church and state, whose agitations have not as 
 
 * Plowden. Hist. Rev. State of Ireland, Vol. }. p. 65.
 
 S44f AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 yet subsided. In person handsome and of good 
 stature, he neither wanted penetration or learn- 
 ing-. Bred up a catholic, and taught scholastic 
 theology, he was in the beginning of his reign a 
 zealous stickler for its tenets. Shocked at the 
 heretical doctrines of Luther and his associates, 
 he was the only Christian prince who drew the 
 pen against them., in- his Defence of the Seven 
 Sacraments. Happily for them, that violent 
 prince could not draw the sword against them. 
 He was liberal to men of science, and encreascd 
 the salaries of professors. In his promotions to 
 bishop's sees, he always had regard to learning 
 and merit, except the instance of Craumer, whom 
 he promoted for the purpose of his divorce; so 
 that the bishops appointed by him, endured im- 
 prisonment., chains, exile and torture, for the con- 
 fession of the catholic faith, during the reigns of 
 Edward VI. and Elizabeth, lie never departed 
 irom the catholic faith, but for the gratification 
 of luxury and lust. He always held the sacra- 
 ment of the eiicharist in the highest veneration, 
 which he manifested a little before his death. 
 Quitting his chair and kneeling to receive, some 
 of his courtiers observed, that his majesty, 
 infirm as he was, might receive sitting. " If, 
 instead of kneeling, I could throw myself 
 under the ground. I could not pay sufficient 
 honor to the most holy sacrament/' replies he. 
 His natural good scn.se and Christian education, 
 \\erc overpowered by four violent passions, ex- 
 ressive pride, lust, avarice and cruelty. Before 
 jiis rupture with Catharine, her piety and excm-
 
 OF IRELAND. 345 
 
 plary virtues commanded his esteem, and bridled 
 the impetuosity of his character. After his di- 
 vorce and schism, he gave loose reins to the vio- 
 lence of his passions,, making; dreadful havoc of 
 the nobility, citizens and clergy. In the public 
 records are numbered three or four queens, two 
 heroines, two cardinals, and a third condemned 
 absent. Dukes, marquises, earls and the sons of 
 carls, twelve; of the Geraldiries, six; barons and 
 knights, eighteen; abbots and priors, thirteen; 
 monks, priests and religious, seventy-seven ; and 
 others almost innumerable, both gentle and sim- 
 ple. This visitation, brought by a lustful tyrant 
 on popish England, and the still greater calami- 
 ties for which he paved the way, might move 
 one, not acquainted with the conduct of popish 
 England towards catholic Ireland. Thev only 
 
 O / ' 
 
 received back their own measure, and as jet only 
 part payment. For, untaught by all they suf- 
 fered, during this reign and the succeeding one 
 of Edward VI., no sooner did they recover their 
 spirits under queen Mary, than they practised 
 on Irish catholics such infernal perfidy and 
 cruelty as exceeded all their former crimes, as 
 shall be seen in its proper place. 
 
 Since his schism and divorce, Henry had not a 
 moment's peace of mind or tranquillity. The 
 wives he chose proved to be strumpet*, or at !eat 
 as such he beheaded them, except the last, who 
 only escaped by surviving him. The heresies he 
 detested, crept in through the breach he made in 
 despite of him, though he burnt some heretics, in 
 tcrrorciu. The reconciliation with the catholic
 
 346 AN IMPARTIAL "HISTORY 
 
 church, which he seemed once before his death to 
 have seriously wished, was impeded by the terror 
 lie inspired; for none of the bishops, called toge- 
 ther for that purpose, durst disclose his thoughts 
 freely, lest the proposals were meant to ensnare. 
 He died unregretted ; nor was his memory honored 
 with a sepulchre by any of his three children, 
 who reigned successively after him. His will was 
 broke; for he strictly enjoined his son Edward 
 to be reared a catholic, arfd he was reared a pro- 
 testant ; and the catholic tutors and commis- 
 sioners, appointed to superintend his education, 
 and assist in the administration of the kingdom, 
 
 o * 
 
 were turned out. His three children died without 
 issue, and the seed of the wicked perished, but 
 not before they bathed this unfortunate island in 
 the blood of its best inhabitants. 
 
 During the reic;n of Edward VI., the adm-i- 
 jiistration, conducted by his uncle, the duke of 
 Somerset, under the name of Protector, was 
 chiefly busied in making those alterations in reli- 
 gion, called Reformation. Their endeavours suc- 
 ceeded to their satisfaction in England, but in 
 Ireland they still met unabating opposition. This 
 they experienced in every shape. The saved 
 branch of Kildare had not as yet attained man's 
 estate; but St. Leger, the deputy, was strenu- 
 ously opposed by Ormond, in a scheme of taxa- 
 tion, which was protested against as illegal and 
 oppressive. In the violence of contest, they 
 came to mutual impeachments, which ended \\ith 
 the death of Ormond, who was poisoned at a 
 feast in Ely-house, with sixteen of his retinue.
 
 OF IRELAND. 347 
 
 Nobody did it, to be sure; but the undegenerate 
 Englishman was extremely glad of the sudden 
 departure of his powerful opponent. 
 
 The change meditated in religion, determined 
 the English government to send over a rein- 
 forcement of 600 horse and 400 foot., under 
 the command of general Bellingham. Joining 
 his forces with those of the Pale, he marched 
 against O'Moore, and O'Connor, over whose 
 undisciplined force, fire arms, as yet terrific 
 even by their noise to the Irish, gave him a de- 
 cided superiority. He routed them in the field, 
 drove out the old inhabitants from Leix and 
 O'Faly, and planted castles thereon in defence 
 of his conquest. Reduced to the situation of 
 desperate fugitives, the two chieftains, forsook 
 by most of their followers, were prevailed on to 
 come to an accommodation, and rely on the 
 generosity and good faith of Englishmen. Ac- 
 cepting the proffer, they accompanied St. Leger, 
 into England, where the only favor they re- 
 ceived was, not to be brought to immediate exe- 
 cution. They were imprisoned, their lands wore 
 declared forfeit, and given to those by \\hoe 
 counsel they had surrendered. O'Moore soon 
 after died in captivity. An ineffectual attempt 
 of O'Connor to escape, only served to make Ins 
 confinement more rigorous, and their lands were 
 
 divided among; English adventurers. Their kins- 
 
 o ~ 
 
 men and followers, most likely to revive their 
 claims, were persuaded to enlist in the king's 
 English army, to relieve their immediate neces- 
 sities. Thus were two strong fathers plucked 
 VOL, i. 1 '/.
 
 348 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 out of the Milesian pinions, without the inter- 
 ference of their neighbours, who could never 
 adopt the wise policy of the Pale, " one peace, 
 and one war, with the common enemy." In 
 honor of this first and considerable addition to 
 the Pale during centuries, Bellingliam received 
 the honor of knighthood, and was appointed 
 governor of the enlarged district. Some at- 
 tempt at insurrection, occasioned, perhaps, by 
 the dread of changes in religion, were suppressed 
 in their birth by his vigilance. 
 
 The efforts of the English council, to force 
 a new religion on the Irish, kept this unhappy 
 country in constant agitation. At a conference 
 held for this purpose in the hall of Mary's- 
 abbey, Dowdal defended the Roman liturgy, 
 and Staples of Meath, the new-fangled English 
 translation; as usual in such cases, each party 
 claimed the victory. A proclamation not having 
 the force of law in either countries, government 
 avenged the opposition of Dowdal, by deciding 
 the long contest for precedence between the sees 
 of Dublin and Armagh in favor of the former, 
 whose intruded bishop, Browne, was an apostle 
 of the new doctrines. The primate, probably 
 taking this first aggression as a prognostic of 
 more serious severities, and not being animated 
 with the spirit of martyrdom, retired to the con- 
 tinent. Had he stood his ground, the tide of po- 
 pularity ran so violently in his favor., both within 
 and without the Pale, his opposition would in 
 all probability have compelled the protector to 
 abandon his scheme of reforming Ireland. The
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 cause was abandoned, at a critical moment, by a 
 man, whose station, abilities, and first essay, com- 
 manded the enthusiastic devotion of the nation, 
 and the innovators in power were left leisure and 
 opportunity to improve by the absence of the lead- 
 er of a catholic nation against schism and heresy. 
 Immediately a successor was appointed to him, 
 contrary to canon law; and John Bale, "the 
 violent and acrimonious impugrier of popery," 
 ( Lei. ) was appointed to the see of Ossory. All 
 the clergy, not excepting Goodacre, the intruded 
 bishop of Armagh, wished, in complaisance to 
 popular prepossessions, to have Bale consecrated 
 according to the Roman ritual. The furious 
 innovator rejected, with fanatical scorn, these 
 venerable formalities. The evidence of a protcs- 
 tant divine, on the intemperate conduct of this 
 fanatic, though not detailed or explicit, hints a 
 good deal. " Bale insulted the prejudices of his 
 flock without reserve or caution. They vverepro- 
 voked ; and not so restrained, or awed by the 
 civil power, as to dissemble their resentments. 
 During the short period of his residence in Ire- 
 land, he lived in a continual state of fear and per- 
 secution. On his first preaching of the reformed 
 doctrines, his clergy forsook him, or opposed 
 him; and to such violence were the populace spi- 
 rited against him, that five of his domestics were 
 slain before his face; and his own life saved only 
 by the interposition of the civil magistrate. These 
 outrages are pathetically related ; but vtr are not 
 informed what imprudences provoked them, or 
 what was the intemperate conduct which his ad-
 
 350 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 versaries retorted with such shocking barbarity."* 
 The ministry of the colony, sensible of the un- 
 popularity of religious innovations in Ireland, 
 saw the necessity of holding out some boon to 
 conciliate the nation. They frequently and 
 strongly urged the expediency and necessity of 
 extending the English law and constitution, to 
 the old natives, as an inducement to coalesce into 
 one people, attached to one monarch and one 
 political system, but without effect. It is not 
 clear, that the antient Irish would exchange 
 their own laws and usages, under which their 
 country obtained renown, for those of the Saxons. 
 True, indeed Milesians petitioned for English 
 laws; but they were those of Leinster, whose 
 properties were intersected by, or contiguous to 
 the Pale. No instance can be found of the 
 powerful chieftains petitioning for such a favor. 
 The clashing of English and Irish law, pro- 
 duced much confusion and bloodshed among the 
 Milesians and settlers. On the death of the earl 
 of Clanrickard, his followers elected a chieftain, 
 according to Irish usage; and the young lord as- 
 serted his claim, grounded on English law, with 
 the sword. On the demise of the earl of Thomond, 
 the baron of Ihraken, heir, according to English 
 law, was compelled by his tribe to declare a Tai- 
 nist according to the Irish constitution, who, 
 though compelled for the present to relinquish 
 that station by the interposition of the English 
 government, waited but a favourable opportunity 
 
 * Leland, Vol. II. B. III. c. viii. p. 201.
 
 OF IRELAND. 351 
 
 to recover it, by a sanguinary and successful war. 
 But the principal commotions., occasioned by this 
 unnatural collision of opposite constitutions and 
 conflicting laws, were in the family of O'Nial. 
 By the persuasion of Henry VIII. the chieftain 
 of Ulster was induced to accept the title of earl 
 for himself, and to accept so much of English 
 law, as regarded hereditary succession to the 
 principality by the eldest branch. Partiality for 
 Matthew, an illegitimate son, procured for him 
 the title of baron of Dungannon, and destined him 
 for the inheritance. John, in Irish Shane O'Neil, 
 assisted by his brother Hugh, laboured to wane 
 their father from his unjust partiality, and his 
 shameful dereliction of the "independence and 
 prerogatives of his illustrious house. The baron, 
 aware of the impressions made on his father, and 
 that the majority of the nation would favour the 
 rights of the legitimate offspring, alarmed the 
 deputy by the news of these beginnings of war, 
 the intrigues of his brothers, and the connivance 
 of his father. Thereupon the earl and his countess 
 were suddenly seized and imprisoned in Dublin. 
 John collected his followers, and declared war 
 against Matthew, to whose practices he imputed 
 the indignity offered to his parents. The deputy 
 hastened to the relief of this creature of English 
 government. John attacked and defeated them, 
 with considerable slaughter; "and, encouraged 
 by this success plundered his father's mansion, 
 ravaged his whole territory, and spread desolation 
 through a district, the fairest and most flourish- 
 ing in the whole island, more than sixty miles in
 
 352 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 length and forty broad.* This most flourishing 
 district was inhabited and cultivated by the an- 
 tient natives. All the attempts of Sir James Crofts, 
 to reduce him, ended in disgrace and disappoint- 
 ment; nor was the war, though it subsided at 
 intervals, totally extinguished for many years. 
 
 The abortive attempt of the duke of North- 
 umberland,, in favour of Lady Jane, gave but a 
 feeble and brief interruption to the legal rights 
 of queen Mary. At her accession, notwithstand- 
 ing a promise of general pardon, the few abet- 
 tors of innovation in Ireland took the alarm . Bale, 
 the bitter declaimer against popery, and Casey 
 of Limerick, fled. Others, confiding in the pro- 
 mised amnesty, remained. George Dowdal was 
 restored to the primacy, and compensated with 
 the priory of Atherdec for the spoil of his diocese 
 by the English intruder. No violent changes 
 were attempted in the establishment, " a licence 
 only was published, as in England, for the cele- 
 bration of mass, without penalty or compulsion; 
 and among the royal titles, that of supreme head, 
 on earth, of the church of Ireland, still continued 
 to be inserted in the acts of state. "f 
 
 The restoration of the house of Kildare de- 
 serves mention, among the acts of beneficence 
 that graced the beginning of this reign. Young 
 lord Gerald, by his marriage with the daughter 
 
 * Inland, Vol. II. B. III. c. viii. p. 205. This testimony 
 of a writer, no way partial to Ireland, would prove that the 
 English had imported no improvements into Ireland at that 
 period. 
 
 I Lelaud, Vol. II. B. III. c. viii. p. 206L
 
 OF IRELAND. 353 
 
 of Sir Anthony Browne, formed a connexion, 
 that procured his restoration to the honors and 
 estates of his family. Charles Kavenagh was 
 created baron Balyan, and in the patent is st\led 
 captain of his sept. O'Connor Faly, so long 
 imprisoned, obtained his liberty, by means of 
 his daughter, who had formed connexions at the 
 court of England. The grantees of his territory, 
 alarmed at his return, prevailed on the deputy to 
 make him renew his submission, and give his 
 son hostage for keeping the peace. 
 
 Leland judged rightly, that the desire of re- 
 establishing the antient religion, rather than 
 friendship to Ireland, influenced the queen in 
 granting these graces. " Mary was the readier 
 to grant such conciliating marks of favour, an 
 she judged of the dispositions of her Irish sub- 
 jects by what she observed in England; and ap- 
 prehended the same difficulties in her design of 
 restoring the antient religion, in a country that 
 had scarcely known any other, which she expe- 
 rienced among a people, of whom numbers wore 
 averse from it, even to a high degree of fana- 
 ticism." 
 
 All who renounced the catholic faith were 
 secured from severities, by the general pardon, 
 except these who adopted a state incompatible 
 with canon law. Dowdal was appointed com- 
 missioner to enquire concerning such people, and 
 ejected the five bishops, who betrayed their reli- 
 gion, not for that offence, but for taking \\i\es, 
 
 * Leland, Vol. II. Book 111. r. >iii. [.. <)7.
 
 354? AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 and refusing to part with them., contrary to the 
 discipline of the catholic church; viz. Staples 
 of Meath, Browne of Dublin., Lancaster of 
 Kildare, and Traverse of Leighlin. 
 
 However, a crime, horrible to relate, which 
 makes humanity shudder, effaces all the merits of 
 this reign, and is not exceeded by the foulest act 
 in the records of human depravity. The antient 
 inhabitants of Leix and O'Faly, ever since the 
 English settlement here, had to guard against 
 English encroachments. Their wars with the 
 English, in defence of their patrimony, were 
 frequent, only suspended occasionally by a peace 
 in name, but a truce in fact. Sometimes eject- 
 ed, they as often retook possession, at the point 
 of the sword. The English, who beheld with 
 greedy eyes, their fair well cultivated plains, 
 ( Morison) wearied with the invincible courage 
 and perseverance with which they defended their 
 inheritance, had recourse to the vilest treason, 
 against the law of nature and nations; against 
 God, appealed to as guarantee of treaties; 
 against man, whose welfare is interested in fide- 
 lity to engagements. The chief men of the two 
 septs are invited by the earl of Sussex, as to an 
 amicable conference, to the Rathmore of Mullah- 
 maisteen, to adjust all differences. Thither they 
 unadvisedly came; all the most eminent in war, 
 law, physic and divinity, all the leading men of 
 talents and authority, the stay and prop of the 
 tribes, to the number of four hundred. They 
 rode into the fatal rath, confiding in the olive 
 branch of peace, held out to allure, in the cha-
 
 OF IRELAND. 355 
 
 racier of ambassadors, sacred among all nations, 
 even barbarians and heathens. They perceived, 
 too late, that they had been perfidiously dealt 
 with, when they found themselves on the sudden, 
 surrounded by a triple line of horse and foot, 
 who, on a given signal, fell on those unarmed, 
 defenceless gentlemen, and murdered them all on 
 the spot! Ah bloody queen Mary ! Yes. Blood- 
 thirsty Philip, and his blood-thirsty spouse, occa- 
 sioned the death of a few heretics, perhaps five or 
 six, during her reign. In one day she butchered 400 
 Irish catholics, all cavaliers, and men of chival- 
 rous honor, the heroic descendants of one of the 
 greatest heroes in the western world, Conal 
 Kearnach, chief of the knights of Ulster. And 
 the sequel ! full of horrid deeds. The army, 
 thus glutted with the noble blood of the magna- 
 nimous, the pious, the hospitable, the brave, were 
 let loose, like blood-hounds, on the multitude, 
 dispersed in their villages, now without council, 
 union or leader. A miserable massacre was 
 made of these unhappy people, over the whole 
 extent of what is now called King and Queen's 
 county, without regarding age or sex. The 
 detail of the diabolical outrages, committed on 
 these large and populous districts, would make 
 hell blush, to be out done by devils in human 
 shape. I leave the reader to surmise the scenes 
 of horror that ensued, when the whole popula- 
 tion of an extcusive territory was consigned to 
 military execution. A few brave men here and 
 there selling their lives as dearly as they could. 
 V\ hat conflagration of villages and unfortunate 
 
 VOL. I. 3 A
 
 356 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 victims, rushing from the flames on the spears 
 of their murderers. What shrieks and lamenta- 
 tions of women and children. A brutal soldiery, 
 drunk with blood, and the contents of cellars, 
 raging with fire and sword through the coun- 
 try, cutting down men, women arid children, 
 with indiscriminate slaughter; children massa- 
 cred before their affrighted parents, reserved for 
 their greater torture to die a double death, the 
 first in witnessing the massacre of their innocents, 
 and then be cut down last. 
 
 Leland passes over most of these infernal 
 deeds ; Plowden omits them altogether. Though 
 the historian of the Pale omits the eirormous per- 
 fidy by which these gallant clans were circum- 
 vented, he does not entirely conceal the inhuman 
 barbarity with which their utter extirpation was 
 pursued. " Numbers of them were cut off in 
 the field, or executed by martial law, and the 
 whole race would have been utterly extirpated, 
 had not the earls of Kildare and Ormond inter- 
 ceded with the queen, and become sureties for 
 the peaceable behaviour of some survivors."* 
 
 The copy of the annals of Donegal, that I 
 have perused, and Leland appears to have copied 
 from, misdate this deplorable catastrophe of the 
 O'Moorcs and O'Connors, confounding it with 
 a similar perfidy, practised on the Butlers, near 
 Kilkenny, in the reign of Elizabeth. Had not 
 the warlike tribes of O'Moore and O'Connor 
 been circumvented by treachery, their lands 
 
 * Leland, Vol. II. B. III. c. viii. p. 208. An. of Doneg. MS.
 
 OF IRELAND. 357 
 
 eould not have been In'stowed to adventurers, 
 and converted into shire ground, without a war 
 as sanguinary as that of O' Neil or O'Kavenagh; 
 nor would there be any necessity for the inter- 
 cession of Ormond and Kildare, in the reign of 
 Philip and Mary, to save a remnant of them 
 noble families from utter destruction. Curry 
 follows in the same track; and also quotes Lee's 
 Memoir, that queen Elizabeth's officers invited 
 the Irish to treat near her garrison towns, whence 
 they sallied out, to butcher them. That is true 
 of the massacre of the Butlers near Kilkenny, 
 and of the O' Neils near Derry; but Mullagh- 
 Maisteen is not near any garrison town. "\Vhyare 
 not the battles of the O'Moores and O'Connors, 
 if fair war was, recorded, before their patrimony 
 "was given to strangers, and a remnant of them 
 spared by intercession ? The number of the chief 
 men, who assembled for the conference, prove* 
 that the sept of the O'Moores was yet in its in- 
 tegrity. Allowing one hundred common men 
 for every chief, 40,000 men inhabited that terri- 
 tory. This was not after the reign of Mary, 
 when a remnant only remained. The place of 
 conference too, on the confines of the Pale and 
 Lcix, as between two neighbouring powers 
 proves, that the O'Moores were then in full 
 possession of their inheritance, which was not 
 the case after the reign of Mary. The names of 
 King and Queen's county, Philipsborough and 
 Maryborough, are irrefragable evidences of 
 the reign, during which Lei.v and O'Faly 
 were changed into shire ground A are t\ro
 
 S58 IN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 acts of the provincial parliament, confiscating 
 the same from the original proprietors, and vest- 
 ing it in Philip and Mary, passed in the session 
 of 1556,, unquestionable evidence of the date. 
 
 " Where the counties of Leixe, Slewmarge, 
 Offaily, Irry and Glynmalry which belong of 
 right to the king and queen's most excellent ma- 
 jesties, were of late wholly possessed by the 
 Moores, the Connors, the Dempsies and other 
 rebells, and now by the industrious travaile of 
 the earl of Sussex now lord deputy of Ireland, 
 be brought again to be in the possession of their 
 majesties, and so remain to be disposed as to their 
 highnesses shall be thought good; forasmuch as 
 the well disposing of the aforesaid countreys and 
 planting of good men there, shall not only be a 
 great strength to those quarters, but also a won- 
 derfull assurance of quiet to all the rest of the 
 English countrevs, and a great terror to all Irish 
 countreys bordering on the same."* 
 
 " Praycn the commons in this present parlia- 
 ment assembled, that forasmuch as the O 'Moores, 
 O' Dempsies, O'Connors, and others of the Irishry 
 lately inhabiting the countreys of Leixe, Slew- 
 marge, Irry, Glynmalry and OfFaily, and by their 
 sundry manifest treasons after many pardons 
 granted to them, and sundry benefits shewed to 
 them, yet often rebelled, committing great hur( 
 to the king and queen's majesties most loving 
 subjects, by the which they provoked the most 
 worthy prince king Edward VI. brother to our 
 
 * Preamble of an Act for the disposition of Leixe and 
 Oflailie.
 
 OF IRELAND. 359 
 
 sovereign lady the queen's majesty, to use his 
 power against them, who at length to his great 
 charge did subdue and repress the said Irish ene- 
 mies, or rebels, bringing into his possession the 
 cou u treys aforesaid, sithence which time the said 
 O'Moorcs, O'Dcmpsies, O'Connors, and others 
 of the said Irishry have traiterously, contrary to 
 their bounden duties, by force entred the said 
 countreys, and them so did hold against the king 
 and queen's majesties, unto such time as their 
 majesties by the diligent and painful travel and 
 labour of the right honourable the carl of Sussex, 
 their majesties lord deputy in Ireland, by the 
 sword, edicted and reduced the said countreys 
 out of, and from the wrongful and usurped pos- 
 sessions of the said Irish enemies or rebels to their 
 majesties former possession."' 
 
 There is no necessity for loading protestant 
 England with the sins of their popish predeces- 
 sors, since they have enough of their own to 
 answer for. Howbeit, upon a fair review of the 
 subject, I think the malice of English papists, 
 towards the antient Irish, left no species of per- 
 secution for protestant ingenuity to invent or 
 improve on; since whatever is most base in hy- 
 pocrisy, whatever is most savage in barbarity, 
 whatever is most atrocious and infernal in cru- 
 elty, was abundantly, incessantly, even to su- 
 
 * Preamble of an Act whereby the King and Querns Ma- 
 jesties, and the heirs and successors of the Queen lie cnti- 
 tilled to the counties of Leixe, Slen mar^e. Irry, (Jlyn- 
 inalry, and Qllailie, and for making the. same cjimtieys shirt- 
 jjrouuds.
 
 360 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 pererogation, practised by them,, against the 
 antient proprietors of this country. 
 
 After the re- establishment of catholicity during 
 this reign, though the Pale par! iainent revived all 
 Ihe statutes made in Ireland, for the punishment 
 and suppression of heresy, yet it is worthy of re- 
 mark, and honorable to Irish catholics, that, in 
 the plenitude of power, they persecuted none for 
 heresy. Before their conversion, the Milesians 
 persecuted not the Christian missionaries, who 
 preached to them; after their conversion, they per- 
 secuted none for dissenting from them. This fea- 
 ture of magnanimity belongs to no other nation. 
 The testimony of a protestant divine, though 
 studiously mutilated and disfigured by himself, 
 is nevertheless strong in support of the laudable 
 spirit of toleration, manifested by Irish catholics. 
 " The successor to George Browne in the see 
 of Dublin, presented a petition to the parliament, 
 complaining of devastations made in the archie- 
 piscopal rights, during the late schism. His 
 application was favourably received: it was 
 enacted, that all conveyances made of the lands 
 and possessions belonging to the see, by Browne, 
 without a royal licence, all demises of any parcel 
 of the archbishopric, to his own use, or to that 
 of any bustard of his, should be utterly void. 
 The spirit of popish zeal which glutted all its 
 vengeance in England, was, in Ireland thus hap- 
 pily co:ifin< d to reversing the acts of an obnox- 
 ious prelate, and stigmatizing his offspring with 
 an approhrious name. Those assertors of the 
 Reformation who had not fled from this king-
 
 OF IRELAND. SCI 
 
 dom, were by the lenity of Irish government suf- 
 fered to sink into obscurity and neglect. No 
 warm adversaries of popery stood forlh to pro- 
 voke the severity of persecution; the whole 
 nation seemed to have relapsed into the stupid 
 composure of ignorance and superstition, from 
 which it had been scarcely awakened. And as 
 it thus escaped the effects of Mary's diabolical 
 rancour, several English families, friends to the 
 Reformation, fled into Ireland, and there en- 
 joyed their opinions and worship, in privacy, 
 without notice or molestation."* 
 
 The indulgence, enjoyed by protestants in 
 Ireland, during the reign of catholicity, cannot 
 fairly be imputed only to the lenity of Marv's 
 ministers; but more justly to the tolerant spirit 
 of the colony, its parliament, and the nation. 
 Englishmen had in this, as in many other res- 
 pects, degenerated from their ancestors; for 
 \vhose fickleness and intolerance, they adopted a 
 firm attachment to the catholic church, together 
 with a spirit of toleration worthy of Christians. 
 They degenerated, when the representatives of 
 the Pale declared hospitality a laudable national 
 virtue, not to be infringed. An English political 
 writer, of some eminence, residing some time in 
 Ireland, declared, that one Englishman, born in 
 Ireland, was worth three born in England. This 
 must be allowed degeneracy, but was it not for 
 the better? 'Tis not necessary, with the learned 
 Lynch, to qua?re who was the father; trussing 
 
 * Lelaud, Vol. II. Book III. c. viii. ji. 213.
 
 362 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 the breed, and Irish institutions,, may explain the 
 difference. 
 
 What strange language the spirit of party in- 
 spires? The tranquillity of Ireland, on the score 
 of religion, during the reign of queen Mary, is 
 called, a relapse into the stupid composure of ig- 
 norance and superstition, from which the nation 
 had scarce been awakened ! ! ! As if the Christian 
 religion, which was given to mankind for their 
 instruction and consolation, should become a 
 subject of unceasing litigation, a bone of con- 
 tention, to be wrangled and fought about, frit- 
 tered into party badges, inflaming those passions 
 it was meant to subdue. What a pity, the Irish 
 were not rouzed from their stupid composure, by 
 running after crazy mountebanks, vending their 
 quackeries of new invented doctrines, with as 
 great an assortment of sample patterns, as there 
 are delirious fancies in the heated brains of bible- 
 mad fanatics. So the calm, enjoyed by protestants 
 in Ireland, when they were few, and the catholics 
 all powerful, the effect of an enlightened philo- 
 sophy, or great native generosity, is the effect of 
 a stupid composure in ignorance and superstition \ 
 W r hat pity the neighbouring island partook not 
 somewhat of that stupidity of composure, instead 
 of the active intolerance of burning zeal. It were 
 much to the honor of Christianity, and the hap- 
 piness of mankind, that it had been a little more 
 general. 
 
 During the remainder of this reign little occurs 
 worth recording, except a bloody contest between 
 the chieftains of Tyrone and Tyrconuel, O'Neil
 
 OF IRELAND.' 363 
 
 and O'Donnel, occasioned by the collision of 
 Irish and English laws. " Domestic dissention 
 had for some time raged in the leading family of 
 Tirconnel. The chieftain to this district, worn 
 out with age, and oppressed hy the unnatural 
 cruelty of his son Calvagh, who had detained 
 him two years in prison, could hut ill support 
 the honours of his family, or the independence 
 of his tribe. Hugh, his other son, to revenge 
 these quarrels which had raged between the 
 brothers, fled with his partizans to O'Nial, 
 pressed him to seize the favourable moment of 
 forcing Tirconnel to submit to his superior au- 
 thority, and offered to assist him in the invasion 
 of his own country, and the destruction of his 
 own family. John was readily persuaded to an 
 expedition so suited to his passions; summoned 
 his vassals and auxiliaries, so as to exhaust all 
 Tirowen, and the whole adjoining tract of Ar- 
 gial of their military inhabitants; and, entering 
 Tirconnel, pitched his camp between two rivers, 
 displaying his great force, and denouncing vcji- 
 geance against all his opposcrs. The first alarm 
 of this invasion determined the inhabitants of 
 Tirconnel to secrete their valuable eifects, and 
 drive their flocks and herds into the more inac- 
 cessible quarter of their country; a precaution 
 which the hostile chieftain affected to treat with 
 contempt and sccrn. " Let them drive our prey 
 into tlic midst of Lcinsler. or let them hi'.le it in 
 the South, ' cried O'Nial. "We shall pursuu 
 it to the remotest quarter of the island. No 
 power shall protect our enemies or stop thft 
 VOL. i. '>' a
 
 364? AN IMPARTIAL BISTORT 
 
 progress of the prince and sovereign of Ulster. 
 
 " Calvagh, on whom the defence of his country 
 had devolved, found his forces utterly unequal 
 to a contest with this arrogant invader; and as 
 the common danger had reconciled the father 
 and the son, he consulted the old chieftain, on 
 the conduct he was to pursue, and the measures 
 to be taken in this dangerous emergency. " Do 
 not/' said the father,, " attempt with our infe- 
 riour numbers to meet the enemy in the field, 
 O'Nial is advancing on us, and in this new si- 
 tuation his camp bears a formidable aspect; but 
 what though it be provided with stores of every 
 kind; what though every necessary and every 
 luxury is brought thither and exposed to sale, as 
 in a regular market, yet the state and magnifi- 
 cence of the enemy, may be greater than his 
 precaution; attack his camp by night; one sud- 
 den and vigorous effort may disperse our enemies 
 at once." 
 
 ec The advice was applauded : and two gallant 
 youths freely offered to undertake the dangerous 
 office of entering the camp at the close of day, 
 in order to spy out the circumstances and situa- 
 tion of the enemy. They passed his guards, 
 mixed with his tumultuous soldiers, traversed 
 the camp, and made all their observations, un- 
 heeded. An unusual blaze of large tapers di- 
 rected them to the general's pavilion, where 
 John O'Nial lay surrounded bv his bodv eruards, 
 
 J J ,/ O 
 
 consisting of sixty Irish vassals, bearing the 
 battle-ax, and as many mercenary Scots, armed 
 with their broad cutting swords and targets,
 
 OF IRELAND. 365 
 
 And so little were the youths suspected, that 
 \vhen supper was brought to these guards,, they 
 invited them to partake of their repast. To 
 accept this invitation, was to form a friendship 
 with these men not to be violated: which should 
 prevent them from gi\ing any intelligence, or, 
 if discovered, would have rendered their intelli- 
 gence suspected.* They therefore declined the 
 courtesy; and flying to their companions, re- 
 lated what they had seen and heard, and cn- 
 flamed them with impatience to surprise the 
 enemy. Even the old O'Donnel mounted his 
 horse, and offered to lead his countrvmen to the 
 attack; they were formed by Calvagh into one 
 compacted body, and, under the conduct of their 
 spies, burst into the camp at midnight, bearing 
 down their op posers, and spreading terror and 
 confusion. John O'Nial, to whose tent the ene- 
 my was pressing forward with dreadful slaughter, 
 started at the tumult, found himself abandoned 
 by his guards, and fled precipitately ; two youths 
 only accompanied him, sons of the revolted Hugh 
 O'Donnel, and by swimming over rivers, and 
 traversing unknown ways, with difficulty gained 
 a place of safety. The whole army of T;ro\u;i 
 dispersed, and left the \ictors to enj;>y the 
 plunder of the camp. 
 
 " Such is the account of this local war, in 
 
 * This instance of the honor of lrl>h spjps, r- rordrd by 
 Kn-li-hmca and protestasits, is oi- of tin- .-mh-iuvs nt < 
 sacred rights of hospitality amou^ tin- asitin.i m-li, "Inch 
 forms a striking contrast with th..- p.-radious imitations of 
 
 tht-ir prctriuk'd civili/ers to the murderous l.ui^iu-t.
 
 366 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY, &C. 
 
 \vhich the English government had not sufficient 
 power or authority to interpose."* 
 
 A swarm of Scotch islanders, invited over by 
 the chieftains of Tyrconnel, joined their coun- 
 trymen already settled here, ready to enlist in the 
 service of any prince, who would employ them 
 for the purposes of ambition or revenge. In an 
 engagement with deputy Sussex, they were indeed 
 defeated, but not reduced. Thus was unfortunate 
 Ireland lacerated by the incessant wars of Irish 
 chieftains, and fresh swarms of invaders, from all 
 parts of the neighbouring island, Scots, Welsh 
 and English. 
 
 In the south, the baron of Ihraken, de- 
 clared earl of Thomond, renounced the name of 
 O'Brien, and consented to hold the lands an- 
 nexed to this title, according to English law, as 
 an English subject, and swore allegiance with all 
 his freeholders, to the utter mortification of his 
 Irish adherents. He accepted the title of earl, 
 say the annalists, but gave up the dignity of 
 Dalcais, to the astonishment and indignation of 
 all the descendants of Heber, Heremon, and Ir. 
 
 * Lcland, Vol. II. Book III. c. viii. p. 215.
 
 PART II. 
 
 HITHERTO \ve have rapidly travelled over a 
 period of four centuries, since the invasion of the 
 exiled king- of Leinster with his English and 
 Welsh auxiliaries. His invasion it ought to he 
 called, because he was the prime mover, the lead- 
 ing commander, and his Leinster forces, headed 
 by his son, Donald Kavenagh, formed the main 
 strength of the invading army. A period, crowded 
 with the tumults of anarchy, local wars, and 
 blackened with perfidy and eold-blooded cruelty. 
 We have seen two very opposite characters on 
 this sanguinary theatre, conflicting for the soil. 
 The one, comparatively feeble, but aided by a 
 phlegmatic temper and deliberate policy, unre- 
 strained by any law, human or divine, in the pur- 
 suit of its object. The other, mighty and formi- 
 dable, if they could recover the constitution; but, 
 in the convulsions of anarchy, abusing their 
 native and acquired valor, for mutual destruc- 
 tion, frequently at the instigation, and through, 
 the intrigues of their destroyers. A\ e have seen 
 one race of men, planted in the English Pale, 
 vow the extermination of the whole iMilesian 
 race, co-members, though sounder and purer, of 
 the same catholic church. \Ve have seen that 
 impious plan, tirst laid down by lather Gerald 
 JBarrv, a popish priest,, in these memorable words,
 
 368 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 tr debilitentur, deleantur;" i. e. let the Milesians 
 be debilitated and exterminated., pursued with a 
 cool,, undeviating policy,, unexampled since the 
 destruction of the Canaanites. We have seen 
 the heads of the catholic church shamefully 
 prostituting their spiritual authority, to abet 
 an unjustifiable invasion,, for English subsidy, 
 and to extend their temporal power over the 
 calholic church of Ireland, the only limb of the 
 western church exempt from that profane mixture 
 of spirituals and temporals. An invasion, not 
 like most others, for dominion, but for exter- 
 mination, and the seizure of all private property. 
 We have seen men, of the same race and religion, 
 prosecuting each other with vengeful, implacable 
 war, to the utter overthrow and destruction of 
 the whole of them. We have seen the popish 
 penal code, decreed against the old natives, by 
 members of the same church, more sanguinary 
 and inhuman, than that dictated by religious 
 rancour and national antipathy afterwards. Bar- 
 barous decrees, worthy only of Mahometans, 
 which should have opened the eyes of the nation, 
 if they were not blinded by self-conceit, and too 
 mean an opinion of the Pale, which was tribu- 
 tary to them, and whose decrees they laughed 
 at, as impotent bravados. They soon had, and 
 their posterity has had, abundant cause to lament 
 their mad divisions, and their improvident 
 contempt for the English garrison, planted in 
 their countrv, animated with implacable hatred 
 towards them, and ardently thirsting for their 
 lives and properties. The reader may perceive,,
 
 OF IRELAND. 3Q9 
 
 from unquestionable facts, that difference of reli- 
 gion is not really the efficient cause of the mal- 
 administration of Irish affairs; though it covered 
 the selfish policy, of a very selfish nation, with a 
 plausible veil. 
 
 After reviewing the, horrors of war and perfi- 
 dies, that afflicted this unhappy people so long; 
 all the evils, that flowed from excessive pride, and 
 its concomitant,, vindictiveness, injustice to a de- 
 parted nation, we must take a peep at their coun- 
 terbalancing comforts. The Milesian tillers 
 were freeholders, paying but a moderate tax to 
 their chiefs, which was spent in hospitality 
 among themselves. Their labour was moderate, 
 and their enjoyments manv. Freedom they en- 
 joyed even to excess, and an elective chief, with- 
 out any mercenary force, could not tyranni/e 
 over a people of warriors. Vehement in friend- 
 ship as in enmity, they w r ere the most social, 
 neighbourly, hospitable, charitable people in the 
 world. Affliction, distress, never wanted cordial 
 sympathy or relief. Hospitality was not only a 
 national virtue, practised by all ranks, but it 
 was further established by law, and that antece- 
 dent to Christianity. An estate was assigned, 
 and a building erected, for that purpose, en- 
 trusted to a Biatach, i. e. hospitaller, bound to 
 entertain all travellers with diet and lodging, for 
 one or more days and nights, according to rank 
 or exigency; the allowance and time for each 
 being distinctly specified in the Biehon la\\<. 
 The hospitable lawgivers were not sat i> lied with 
 providing comforts and case for the stranger and
 
 370 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 traveller,, they moreover attended to furnish them 
 with* amusements and pleasures. The Biutach 
 must have a chess-board in readiness, a kind of 
 play which the Milesians delighted in,, and the 
 bard must be at hand, to touch the tuneful lyre. 
 Other accommodations have been reported; but, 
 if ever true,, they were abolished by the intro- 
 duction of Christianity. Further,, the Biatach 
 must have messengers on the highways, to invite 
 and guide all passengers to the feast,, and " com- 
 pel them to come in;" since, it is fair to use a 
 gospel phrase, in relating an evangelical virtue, 
 unparalleled in any other nation or age. Will 
 any man wonder, that such a people should have 
 so quickly embraced Christianity, without mak- 
 ing martyr or confessor., without drawing a single 
 drop of blood, or confining preacher or convert 
 a single hour ? The evangelical counsels they had 
 already practised, in high perfection, before they 
 heard them preached by Christian missionaries; 
 scarcely having any thing to learn, but the mys- 
 teries, rites and sacraments. But one may justly 
 wonder, wherefore a people, so renowned for 
 sanctity and learning, whose sublime virtues ba- 
 lanced their terrible faults, pride and vindictive- 
 ness, should be delivered over to the most cruel, 
 unrelenting enemies,, long agonizing tortures, 
 and final excision! By the confession of their 
 enemies, no nation in the world has suffered such 
 dreadful and long-continued calamities, except 
 the Jews; and surely the Irish have not crucified 
 the Son of God, whose flock they encreased by 
 innumerable prosehtes, and adorned by theprac-
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 371 
 
 ticc of the most exalted virtues. For what crime, 
 or for what mysterious purpose, has he sacrificed 
 this generous and brave people ? Such have been 
 the frequent appeals of our bards to heaven. Shall 
 human infirmity attempt a solution? The proxi- 
 mate cause of their calamitous overthrow con- 
 sisted in their implacable animosities against each 
 other, springing from excessive family and per- 
 sonal pride, into which the known magnanimity 
 of their ancestors had too generally degenerated, 
 receiving constant fuel from the adulatory com- 
 positions of their poets-laureat. The fall of Ire- 
 land was prophccied by its great apostle, St. Pa- 
 trick, and afterwards by many of its saints, who 
 all agreed in promising it a glorious resurrection. 
 The final cause of this deplorable catastrophe 
 \vas, probably, not concealed from them; but, if 
 they have divulged it, I had not the happiness to 
 meet any of their works on this deep and awful 
 subject. They foretold the great naval power 
 and prosperity of England; together with its 
 schism and heresy, and the decline of that power. 
 All these events are so many links in the great 
 chain of causes and effects, that, by a mysterious, 
 but unerring operation, produce the various ap- 
 pearances, the diversity of scenes and revolutions,, 
 that succeed each other on the theatre of the 
 world. Nations and empires, at particular period-, 
 and in different places, arise to eminence, in art-, 
 sciences, prosperity and power. These have, like 
 everything mortal, their limited periods, after 
 which they begin to decline, to make way for 
 .others. Virtue, prosperity, luxury, decline, are 
 VOL. i. 3 c
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 four cardinal points in the fatal circle, that in- 
 volves the fortunes of nations and families. 
 
 If the scene has been hitherto turbulent and 
 sanguinary, it ig speedily to be darkened, with a 
 lowering tempest, pregnant with ruin to the an- 
 tient inhabitants. The antient glory and happiness 
 of the island of sanctity, learning, hospitality and 
 heroism, is to be trampled under foot. In addition 
 to their former misfortunes, a fresh scourge is 
 prepared for the proud Gathelians. If popish 
 England assailed their persons and properties, 
 protestant England assaults even the sanctuary of 
 conscience. The loss of life, and its comforts, 
 God knows! was grievous enough; but the 
 attempt of wresting from them, by tyrannic vio- 
 lence, their belief, and hopes of an immortal in- 
 heritance, was still reserved to fill the cup of 
 misery brimfull, and drive a religious people to 
 utter despair. The universal law of re-action 
 brought down the visitation of offended heaven 
 on popish England, during nearly two centuries; 
 and involved the English settlers in a participa- 
 tion of the same evils they inflicted or meditated 
 against the antient race, with whose posterity 
 theirs, for the most part, is confounded in one 
 mass of common wretchedness. 
 
 The instrument, for effecting the total change 
 of religion in England, and persecuting the 
 Irish of both races, with a similar intent, was 
 extremely well adapted fo* that bold experiment 
 of tyranny. Harry's illegitimate daughter, for 
 such she was, even by the law of nature, as she 
 was his daughter's child, dissembled her reli-
 
 OP IRELAND. 37$ 
 
 gious opinions with great art, during Mary's 
 reign, and in the beginning of her own. On 
 hearing of the persecuting queen's death, she 
 rode up to London, put in her claim for the 
 crown, was accepted, and took the coronation 
 oath in the usual form, including a solemn pro- 
 mise of maintaining the constitution in church 
 and state, as she found it left by Mary. An oath 
 she regarded as little as her father did his own, 
 or his matrimonial vows. Elizabeth was of a 
 good stature, red-haired, with grey blue eyes, 
 with a sharp, piercing physiognomy, expressive 
 of art, subtlety and dissimulation. Freckled in 
 the face, and slightly pitted, though she relished 
 the incense of judicious adulation, she was pene- 
 trating enough to discern, that the complimen- 
 tary gallantries of courtiers regarded more her 
 power than her personal charms. She inherited 
 all the good and bad qualities of her father; but 
 rather exceeded him, at least in the last. Like 
 him, she was, tyrannical, proud, violent, vin- 
 dictive, lustful and capricious, yet with more 
 art; she knew how to disguise, conceal or pal- 
 liate these odious passions. Endued with a pe- 
 netrating discernment of men and their charac- 
 ters, she was enabled to chuse proper ministers 
 for every undertaking. Two of the ablest and 
 worst men of her age were her ministers ; Cecil 
 and Bacon, related to each other. The only 
 signal instance recorded, in which she could ac- 
 cuse herself of haviug subjected her judgment to 
 the dictates of love, was in the choice of Essex 
 for the Irish war. His failure therein was iu-
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 strumental in bringing him to the block and her 
 to her grave. While the catholic continued the 
 national religion of England and Ireland, she 
 did not consider herself securely seated on the 
 throne, being a bastard, according to the laws 
 and decisions of that church. She therefore me- 
 ditated the overthrow of that church., and sub- 
 stitute for it a novel one, in the formation of 
 which she had great share; a daring scheme, 
 which she pursued with wonderful art, obsti- 
 nacy and cruelty, during her whole reign. Like 
 her father and sister, she persecuted; but, a 
 better hypocrite than either, she metamorphosed 
 her persecution on the score of religion, into the 
 execution of the law against state criminals; and 
 with consummate address, put on, sometimes, 
 an air of commisseration for the unfortunate cul- 
 prits, the severity of whose sentence she would 
 sometimes condescend to mitigate, affecting le- 
 nity. Cecil, plot-maker in chief to her and her 
 successor, was powerfully instrumental in for- 
 warding her disguised persecution: and Mary, 
 the captive queen of Scots, whom she hated as a 
 catholic, a beauty, and the lawful heir to the 
 throne, furnished a good pretext for destroying 
 the catholic magnates of England, who would 
 not adopt her new creed and ritual. She cor- 
 dially hated the Irish ; not only for being Irish, 
 like the rest of her countrymen, but, moreover, 
 for the stubborn opposition her reformation met 
 there. In England her victims were numerous : 
 of whom some perished in jails, dungeons, black 
 holes, &c. some were privately tortured on the
 
 OF IRELAND. 375 
 
 rack, whipt, &c. and some privately executed, 
 and some publicly. In Ireland this lioness slew 
 many more,, all her wars with O'Neil being in a 
 very principal measure, crusades against catho- 
 licity; for the chief article of accusation against 
 him was, his protection of the catholic religion, 
 monasteries and seminaries for the education of 
 clergymen. 
 
 The successful war of Elizabeth on the ca- 
 tholic church of England was tyrannic and in- 
 human, in as much as conversion, enforced by 
 fines, imprisonments, torture and death, is un- 
 worthy of the Christian religion, degrading to 
 humanity, and can only make hypocrites. It was 
 truly a desperate undertaking, when we consider 
 the power of her enemy, Philip II. of Spain, and 
 the possibility of her catholic subjects being 
 driven by persecution to join the invaders, had 
 the Spanish forces, then deemed the best in Eu- 
 rope, effected a landing. Such, at least, has been 
 the conduct of the reformed, in similar circum- 
 stances. But, if the attempt was tyrannic and 
 desperate in England, it was additionally absurd 
 in Ireland. People were here punished, not only 
 for not violating their conscience ; but there were 
 no suitable means employed, to reconcile them to 
 the change proposed. Most of the ministers, sent 
 over to preach to them, are described by cotem- 
 porarv protestants, as immoral, and ignorant, 
 especially of the country language; so that she 
 might as well have sent her English rituals, and 
 English preachers, to preach to Chinese as to 
 Irish, in her time. In all the avenues to her ucw
 
 376 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 church, nothing meets the eye, but fines, impri- 
 sonments, torture, death; all whose effect was to 
 make the people miserable, provoke insurrections, 
 wars, destruction and confiscation. The new re- 
 ligion could only gain terrified or interested hy- 
 pocrites, while the means and methods of per- 
 suasion were neglected or inadequate. " The 
 clergy in Ireland, excepting the grave fathers, 
 who are in high places about the state, and some 
 few others, who are lately planted in the new 
 college, are generally bad, licentious, and most 
 
 disordered Whatever disorders are in the 
 
 church of England, may be seen in that of Ire- 
 land, and much more, namely, gross simony, 
 greedy covetousness, fleshly incontinency, careless 
 sloth, and generally all disordered life in the 
 common clergymen. And besides these, they have 
 particular enormities; they neither read the scrip- 
 ture, nor preach to the people, only they take the 
 tythes and offerings, and gather what fruit they 
 can off their livings, which they convert as 
 badly."* That the Irish clergy were of opposite 
 character, and merited the esteem of their flocks 
 by their morals, piety and diligence we have 
 from the same authorities. " It's a great wonder, 
 to see the odds, which is between the zeal of 
 popish priests and the ministers of the gospel. 
 For they spare not to come out of Spain, from 
 Rome, and from Rheims, by long toil and dan- 
 gerous travelling hither; where they know peril 
 pf death awaiteth thcnr, and no reward, or riches 
 
 * Spencer, (on this period). State of In,iau.d.
 
 OF IRELAND. S?7 
 
 to be found, only to draw the people to the church 
 of Rome. Whereas, some of our idle ministers, 
 having a way for credit and estimation thereby 
 opened, and having livings of the country offered 
 to them, without pains, and without peril, will 
 neither for the same, nor for any love of God, or 
 zeal of religion, be drawn forth from their warm 
 nests, to look out into God's harvest."* Besides 
 prepossession, every motive of persuasion, edifi- 
 cation, esteem, were on the side of the catholic. 
 Irish nation. With the innovators there was no- 
 thing but brutal force, cruelty, perfidy, and abo- 
 minable morals. Moreover, national antipathy 
 was, in itself, a strong obstacle to innovations, 
 coming imported from a quarter whence this 
 country seldom received benefits, but, full often, 
 the greatest injuries. " It seems diilicult to con- 
 ceive any more unjust or impolitic act of govern- 
 ment, than an attempt to force new modes of re- 
 ligious faith and worship by severe penalties, 
 upon a rude, superstitious, and unlettered peo- 
 ple. Persecutions or attempts to force conscience 
 will never produce conviction. They are calcu- 
 lated only to make hypocrites or martyrs; and 
 accordingly the violence committed bv the re- 
 gency of Edward, and continued by Elizabeth, 
 to force the reformed religion on Ireland, had no 
 other effect, than to foment a general disaffection 
 to the English government; a disaffection so ge- 
 neral, as to induce Philip II. of Spain, to attempt 
 partial descents on the southern coasts of this 
 
 Spc-ncer'i State of
 
 378 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 island, preparatory to his meditated attack upon 
 England."* 
 
 Encouraged in England, by the success of her 
 father and her infant brother in a similar enter- 
 prize, relying on an obsequious parliament, a 
 venal prelacy, a timid, cautious nobility, and the 
 absolute power invested in the crown, since the 
 rival houses of York and Lancaster were united 
 in the person of Henry VII. when both parties, 
 hating and dreading each other, finding the rights 
 and claims of all the objects of their respective 
 devotion centered in one man, set no limits to their 
 obsequiousness, and vied in servility. Elizabeth 
 made ample use of this plenitude of arbitrary 
 power in England, as well as sham plots, and 
 fictitious insurrections, for the supposed delive- 
 rance of captive queen Mary, to prostrate the 
 pillars of the ancient church. In Ireland, ex- 
 pecting greater opposition, she sent instructions 
 to her deputy, Sussex, to pack a parliament, and 
 instruct the members in the duty she expected 
 from them. 
 
 The north and south of Ireland were still dis- 
 tracted, by the seeds of commotions contrived 
 and planted therein by Harry VIII. Daniel 
 O'Brien was at variance with the earl of Tho- 
 mond, for chieftainry, and the Irish constitution. 
 The North was disturbed by causes of the same 
 kind, which committed Shane O'Neil in a war 
 with the baron of Dunganuon, in whiclj the 
 
 * Speech of Lord Clare in the Irish House of Lord 1 ;. 
 Fei>. 10. 1800.
 
 OF IRELAND. 379 
 
 latter was defeated and slain. This spirited 
 prince perceived, from the encrcasing power of 
 the English in Ireland, and the hard measure 
 dealt by them to two powerful clans, the neces- 
 sity of vigorous measures, not, barely in support 
 of independence, but for existence. The first 
 step of greatest consequence to attain security 
 was, to re-estabiish the antient bond of union 
 among the chieftains, at least of the north, which 
 consisted in the authority exercised by the Hv- 
 Nialls, as kings of Ulster, over the rest of the 
 chieftains. This authority, enfeebled and pre- 
 carious, since the fall of the monarchy and con- 
 stitution, was slighted altogether, during the civil 
 wars between him and the baron of Dungannon, 
 he now endeavoured to restore. A\ ith this intent 
 he marched into O'lleilly's country, ( Cavan, ) 
 and compelled him to make homage and give 
 hostages. Thence to Donegal, where he took 
 Calvach O'Donel, his old enemy, unprepared to 
 meet him in the field and exacted from him 
 similar submission. The English, alarmed at the 
 progress of O'Nial, asserting his sovereignty in 
 Ulster, proclaimed a general host ing, and the 
 deputy, Sussex, marched in qursl of the northern 
 chieftain; but, before hostilities commenced, 
 they came to an accommodation. O'Nial pleaded, 
 that the reduction of his own refractory vassals 
 was hut a just exi'ici.-e of his legitimate aulhoriiy, 
 furnishing no fair pretence for Kt'gli^h inler- 
 frrencc. That his irruptions into the Pale \\ere 
 provoked bv injuries, and by designs formed to 
 cut him oiF by assassination, of which he offered 
 
 VOL. I. I) D
 
 380 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 proof. A treaty was provisionally concluded, by 
 which O'Nial was to be acknowledged dynast 
 of Tyrowen, with all the rights and prerogatives 
 of that station, provided parliament would sanc- 
 tion it. That he should still retain the title of 
 earl of Tyrowen, with the antient authority over 
 all who would be found to owe him vassalage. 
 The treaty being thus concluded to O'Nial's 
 satisfaction, he resolved to attend the queen in 
 person for its ratification, and agree to any rea- 
 sonable conditions, that might conduce to its 
 stability, but to attend her in a manner suitable 
 to his princely dignity. cc He appeared in London, 
 attended by a guard of gallowglasses, arrayed 
 in the richest habiliments of their country, armed 
 with the battle-ax, their heads bare, their hair 
 flowing on their shoulders, their linen vests 
 dyed with saffron, with long and open sleeves, 
 and surcharged with their short military har- 
 ness ; a spectacle astonishing to the people, who 
 imagined that they beheld the inhabitants of 
 some distant quarter of the globe/' They ima- 
 gined not wrong; for they were an oriental 
 people, emigrated into this western isle, still re- 
 taining the dress, manners, institution and lan- 
 guage of their ancestors, without much alteration, 
 except their conversion to Christianity, during 
 some thousands of years. 
 
 Elizabeth with affected tenderness and conde- 
 scension received O'Nial; who " with firmness 
 and composure acknowledged, that he had op- 
 posed the succession of Matthew's children to 
 the sovereignty of Tirowen. But it was well
 
 OF IRELAND. SSI 
 
 known, (he added,) that this Matthew, whom 
 Henry the eighth had incautiously created baron 
 of Dungannon, was the offspring of a mean 
 woman of Dundalk, the wife of a smith, and 
 for sixteen years reputed to be his son; until 
 earl Conn accepted him as his child, on the alle- 
 gation of an adulteress, and with a shameful 
 partiality preferred him to his legitimate issue. 
 That if he himself were to resign his pretensions 
 in favour of any son of such a father, yet more 
 than one hundred persons of the name of O'Nial 
 were ready to assert the honour of their family 
 against the usurpation of any spurious race. 
 That the letters patent, on which their claim 
 was founded, were in etfect vain and frivolous; 
 for Conn, by the anttent institutions of his 
 country, could claim no right in Tirowen, but 
 during his own life; nor was he empowered to 
 surrender or exchange his tenure, without con- 
 sent of all the lords and inhabitants of this ter- 
 ritory. Or if the cause should be determined by 
 the English law, it is the known order and course 
 of this law that no grants can be made by letters 
 patent, until an inquisition be previously held 
 of the lands to be conveyed: but no such inqui- 
 sition had been held in Tirowen, which had not 
 known the English law, nor ever been reduced 
 to an English county. Were it still insisted that 
 the inheritance should descend in succession to. 
 the rightful heir, he was rightful heir, as eldest 
 of the legitimate sons of Conn. But his pre- 
 eminence was derived from an origin, still more 
 glorious; from the free election of his country-
 
 383 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 men, who on his father's death had chosen him 
 their leader, as the best and bravest of his fa- 
 mily; an election ever practised in his country 
 without anj application to the crown of England. 
 And thus invested with the sovereignty of Tir- 
 owen, he claimed only those rights and jurisdic- 
 tions, which a lung train of predecessors had en- 
 joyed,, which were ascertained and recorded, so 
 as to exclude all controversy, and to render the 
 interposition of the English government t "'hilly 
 unnecessary."* He pathetically represented the 
 injuries he had received, the desperate attempts 
 made to destroy him, and lamented the iniquity 
 of his enemies, which had driven him to seek 
 Iris o\vn security, by any appearance of opposi- 
 tion to the royal authority. The flattery of his 
 address, and the strength of Iris allegations, had 
 such an effect upon Elizabeth, that she dismissed 
 him with presents and assurances of her favour. 
 O'Nial, now become ally of the queen, exerted 
 himself in her service. He encountered and de- 
 feated the Hebride Scots, ever swarminsr into 
 
 * ~ 
 
 Ulster, slew their leader, and retook some towns 
 clained by the English. Satisfied with these 
 services, the queen dispatched to him letters 
 patent, confirming 1 the terms of their former 
 agreement, expressing entire approbation of his 
 conduct. This confirmation of the trcatv iniva 
 
 .' O 
 
 him some respite, to carry on his original plan of 
 recovering the sovereignty of Ulster; a thing not 
 to be atchieved by patents, without the sanction 
 
 f Lfland, Vol. II. Book IV. c. i. i>. 9,s.
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 of a good army. Accordingly, he kept arming 
 and training his followers, which gave umbrage 
 to two sorts of people, the chieftains, who were 
 unwilling to own any superior; and the settlers, 
 who dreaded nothing* so much as the revival of 
 subordination and union among the Irish, who 
 dreaded the power of Ulster, if its kingdom was 
 restored. The representations of tlie.se to the 
 queen, of O'Nial's hostile intentions, drew from 
 her this laconic reply: " Tell my friends, if he 
 arise, it will turn to their advantage. There 
 will be estates for them who want." To Sussex 
 succeeded Arnold, an English knight, in the 
 government of the colony, and to him shortly 
 after, Sir Henry Sydney, who had served before 
 in that station, to the satisfaction of his em- 
 ployers, and was well acquainted with the 
 country, the temper of its inhabitants, and the 
 method of subduing by division. To assist him 
 in forwarding the English interest., Saint Leger 
 was appointed president of Minister, and Ran- 
 dolph was stationed at Derry, with a strong and 
 well provided garrison. A new privy council, 
 dc propaganda fide, was established, with special 
 instructions to assist the deputy in enforcing the 
 authority of the queen and her laws, and propa- 
 gating queen Bess's true religion. Mac Arthv, 
 lord of Desmond, was induced to hold his terri- 
 tory by English tenure; and become a peer of 
 parliament by the tide of earl of Clancarlhy. Thi > 
 caused the magnanimous O'Nial to observe to 
 some English commissioners; " \ precious earl' 
 I keep a lacquay as noble :><; he But let him
 
 S84 1 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 enjoy his honour; it is not worthy of O'Nial. 
 I have indeed made peace with the queen at her 
 desire; but I have not forgotten the royal dig- 
 nity of iny ancestors. Ulster was theirs, and 
 shall be mine. With the sword they won it; 
 with the sword I will maintain it." 
 
 The hostile views of Elizabeth on O'Nial, 
 notwithstanding her late apparent friendship, 
 was manifested by the strong garrison, stationed 
 in Derry; but the slaughter committed by that 
 garrison on some of O-Nial's men, near the 
 walls of that town, is related in such a manner 
 by the Pale writers, as to excite a suspicion of 
 wilful inaccuracy. " He led his forces to the 
 walls of Derry, and without directly attacking 
 the town, insolently braved the garrison. Ran- 
 dolph, their commander, more spirited than cau- 
 tious, issued out against a party of his boisterous 
 followers, and repelled them with considerable 
 slaughter, but lost his life in the encounter. 
 This action was not justified by any direct hosti- 
 lities committed by O'Nial."* What should 
 bring O'Nial, or any of his men, n6ar the walls of 
 Derry, to brave the garrison, when they made no 
 attack, and, most probably, expected none? 
 O'Nial was then at peace with the English, com- 
 mitting no hostilities. The slaughter of his men 
 afforded him a fair occasion of complaint. He 
 called for a conference with the deputy, to ex- 
 plain his grievances; then he must be confident 
 that the deputy must acknowledge this slaughter 
 
 * Inland, Vol. II. B. IV. c. i. p. m
 
 OF IRELAND. S85 
 
 to be a grievance. It was,, probably, one of tbose 
 stratagems, alluded to by captain Lee, in his 
 memorial. " They invited four hundred of this 
 country people, (speaking of the north,) near 
 where your garrison was placed, on pretence of 
 doing your majesty service, and there most dis- 
 honorably murdered them." War with the Eng- 
 lish, which was contrary to O'Nial's interest, 
 while at variance with the northern chieftains 
 struggling against his authority, proves this to 
 have been a perfidious massacre. He had to fight 
 at once, the forces of Elizabeth, Maguire, 
 O'Donel of Donegal, and some other heads of 
 septs; especially O'Donel, the next to O'Nial in 
 power, who was then his bitter enemy. (Lee). 
 Thus were the toils completely drawn round him. 
 None of the expected forces come from Spain or 
 the. pope. Desmond, whom he had solicited, 
 joined the queen's forces, and he was at once 
 attacked from all quarters. In several sharp ren- 
 counters his forces were thinned. Numbers de- 
 serted, from the fatigue of forced marches, want, 
 and the severity of continual service. O'Nial, in 
 a few months, lost more than 3500 of his men ; 
 when hunted, together with the remainder, from 
 one retreat to another, harassed by famine, with- 
 out hope or resource, he resolved to cast himself 
 at the deputy's feet, and sue for mercy. In this 
 forlorn situation, he was persuaded to put himself 
 in the protection of the Scots, then encamped at 
 Clan-hu-boy. Me arrived there with about fifty 
 horsemen, was received with every appearance of 
 friendship, and shortly after assassinated, with all
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 his retinue. Piers, an English officer., who had 
 excited the Scots to commit the murder,- sent his 
 head to Dublin ; for which he was rewarded with 
 a thousand marks. 
 
 Sydney immediately marched into Tyrone, to 
 take advantage of the disordered state of that 
 
 O 
 
 country., and promote such arrangements as 
 would he advantageous to the English interest. 
 In the humbled distracted state of Tyrone, he 
 assumed the power of nominating Tirlough 
 Lynnough O'Nial, grandson of Conbaccagh, 
 the son-in-law of Kildare, successor to John. 
 A man of meek and humble disposition, suited 
 the views of the English. He bound himself 
 
 ~ 
 
 by indenture, to renounce the claim of sove- 
 reignty over Ulster, to be faithful to the crown, 
 to suffer the sons of Matthew to enjoy their de- 
 mesnes unmolested. To secure these dispositions, 
 favourable to English interest, the son of John 
 O'Nial, an hostage, was kept in close confine- 
 ment, in the castle of Dublin. The Irish chief- 
 tains, blinded by their pride to the last, were well 
 satisfied with exemption from the authority of 
 O'Nial, hugging that devouring anarchy, poli- 
 tically cherished by their enemies, which was to 
 engulph their whole nation and its honors, in 
 one common tomb. "With these subtle views, the 
 artful queen concluded atreaty with JohnO'Nial, 
 conformable to his wishes, encouraging him to 
 resume the sovereignty of Ulster. She employed 
 him as an instrument, to chastize Maguire, and 
 other lords, who openly resisted English en- 
 croachments; to humble the Scots, in Ulster.,
 
 OF IRELAND. 387 
 
 \vho were held to be dangerous enemies to the 
 English interest. When he had rendered these 
 important services, pretences were soon found to 
 quarrel with him, and to turn against him a con- 
 federacy of those very chieftains, whom his obe- 
 dience to the queen's orders must have inflamed 
 against him. 
 
 The principal settlers were involved in similar 
 confusion. Desmond and Ormond had disputes 
 about their boundaries; and in the Irish manner, 
 chose to decide the contest by arms, instead of 
 litigation. Desmond was defeated, wounded and 
 taken prisoner. Though the carl was prisoner, 
 his family was powerful; and Ormond, prudently 
 declining the chances of war, referred the con- 
 troversy to the queen. They attended her; she 
 heard the cause, and proposed terms of accom- 
 modation to both parties, which were accepted : 
 injunctions to assist the execution of the queen's 
 laws, in the collection of the revenues; in the 
 substitution of the English law for the Brehon. 
 Desmond was referred to the deputy for further 
 instructions, to whom he declared, that, " as to 
 the furtherance of religion in Munstcr, ha>ing 
 no knowledge in learning, and being ignorant of 
 what was to bedone in that behalf, he would aid 
 and maintain whatever was appointed by com- 
 missioners nominated for the purpose.' Tins is 
 no proof of Desmond's absolute illiteracy. It 
 might have b<'tn an evasion of the question, al- 
 ledging his ignorance of theological learning, 
 similar to the caution of lord Fingal, in avoiding 
 a religious controversy with chancellor Ilcdcsddle., 
 
 VOL. I, $ E
 
 388 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 and referring it to the clergy, as better informed 
 in ecclesiastical studies. 
 
 The arts,, that were employed to forward the 
 changes in religion, have never been sufficiently 
 developed; but must be sought by moral criti- 
 cism. The pliant Ormond was probably enjoined, 
 to watch the motions of Desmond; and, if he 
 was found averse to the Reformation, and an 
 encourager of seminaries, to renew his complaints 
 against him on the ground of temporal interest, 
 to shun the imputation of religious persecution. 
 Ormond's complaint to the queen, of the partia- 
 lity of her deputy to his rival, cannot be other- 
 wise understood. For the deputy would undoubt- 
 edly adhere to the terms proposed by the queen, 
 and accepted by the litigants, and decide in fa- 
 vour of him who was most ready to abide thereby. 
 In obedience to the queen's orders, Desmond 
 repaired to London, to give an account of his 
 conduct; where he, and his brother, sir John, 
 were committed close prisoners to the Tower, 
 which confirmed in them that aversion to English 
 government, which only ended with their lives. 
 
 Poor Ireland still continued to experience all 
 the horrors of complicated anarchy; a prey to 
 the conflicts of opposite parties, wasting it with 
 numerous petty hostilities in different quarters, 
 extortions, .rapine and massacres. The old native 
 and English settlers, the old and new adventurers, 
 Scotch freebooters, the discord bred by two 
 opposite systems of law, and the rancour of sys- 
 tems of religion, all produced incessant distur- 
 bances, Sir Edward Butler rose in arms against
 
 or IRELAND.^ 389 
 
 gome of the Gerald ines in Minister. James Fitz- 
 gerald of Desmond, drew his sword a^:iijist iiis 
 kinsman, the baron of Lixnaw. The O'Moorcs 
 and O'Connors were struggling for the recovery 
 of some of their confiscated properties. Tirlough 
 Lynnough of Tyrone engaged a thousand Scots 
 in his service, while the earl of Ciancartt.y 
 claimed the sovereignty of south Munstcr, and 
 attacked some of his neighbours. 
 
 We are now come to the epoch,, that will soon 
 determine the fate of the antient Irish, still blind 
 to the impending catastrophe, still inflated with 
 family pride, and rushing headlong to destruc- 
 tion by family quarrels. No public authority or 
 national executive, not so much as a provincial 
 government acknowledged, but every clan for 
 itself, amidst intestine divisions amongst each 
 clan, and this anarchy maintained by obstinate 
 warfare, if the descendant of a provincial king 
 attempted to enforce the authority of his prede- 
 cessors, according to the constitution. Far other- 
 vise was the state of the English. They were 
 not indeed equal in physical force, to the antient 
 inhabitants; neither in numbers, bodily strength, 
 asrility, or the use of arms: but they were no', 
 Jike them, a power destitute of counsel and au- 
 thority, working its own ruin. They had a 1( v 
 lativc and executive, which were ohesed and 
 respected; they had a public force, and revenue 
 to maintain it; and the power of England \\as 
 convenient, to supply men, money and arni.s. 
 
 The Pale was now become formidable, by its 
 acquisitions of territory; but still more by the
 
 390 
 
 support of England, which could give undivided 
 attention to Irish affairs, as she had no continen- 
 tal wars to apprehend,, nor any war with Scot- 
 land, as long as Elizabeth remained single, be- 
 cause James was certain of the succession in that 
 case. The queen, then in the eleventh year of 
 her reign, convened a parliament of the English 
 province, partly to devise means of furthering 
 the conquest of Ireland, and securing to the 
 crown, subsidies and duties from present and 
 future acquisitions; perhaps chiefly to propagate 
 her adopted scheme of religion. As a great op- 
 position was expected to some of these measures, 
 no exertion was spared to prepare a majority for 
 the crown, and a vote for the change of religion. 
 To use the words of a protestant historian, 
 tf considerable management had been used, and 
 even great irregularities committed, in the elec- 
 tions and returns of the commons. Stanihurst, 
 recorder of Dublin, and Sir Christopher Barne- 
 \val, a favourite of the old English race, were 
 proposed by their several partizans for the ofiice 
 of speaker: and the election of Stanihurst, by 
 the influence of the court, served to enrage the 
 party in opposition. Barnewal, who was es- 
 teemed for his political knowledge, insisted that 
 the present House of Commons was most ille- 
 gally constituted, and therefore opposed the ad- 
 mission of any bill; and he was supported by 
 Sir Edmund Butler, who now appeared in his 
 place. In proof of the assertion it was alledged, 
 that several were returned members for towns 
 not incorporated ; that several sheriffs and ma-
 
 OF IRELAND. 301 
 
 gistrates of corporations had returned them- 
 selves; but above all, that numbers of EnHisii- 
 men had been elected and returned as bi,r v sses 
 for town* which they had never seen nor k.iown, 
 far from being residents,, as the laws duvet. 
 
 Four days were spent in clamorous altercation ; 
 the discontented members declaring; with jrreat 
 
 O \_j 
 
 violence against receiving any bill, or proceed- 
 ing on any business. The speaker attended the 
 lord deputy and council, to explain their objec- 
 tions to the constitution of the House of Com- 
 mons. The judges were consulted; and de- 
 clared that those returned for towns not incor- 
 porated, and the magistrates who had returned 
 themselves were incapable of sitting in parlia- 
 ment; but as to the members not resident in the 
 towns for which they were returned, that they 
 were entitled to their seats, and that the penalty 
 of returning them should alight on the respective 
 sheriffs; a decision which still left the g<nern- 
 ment that majority of friends, which so much 
 pains had been taken to acquire; and which of 
 consequence increased the violence of the oppo- 
 site party; nor did the clamour cease, until tiio 
 judges came to the Commons House, and there 
 avowed their opinion."* The corruption of the 
 legislature, by false returns or otherwise, is one 
 of the most heinous treasons that, can he com- 
 mitted against society; yet this illegitimate pro- 
 ceeding was found necessary to gain a vote for 
 the queen's new religion, as illegitimate as her 
 
 . Vol. II. B. TV. c. i.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 birth.* In the house of lords there was also a 
 strenuous opposition, both to the taxes and to 
 the proposed change in religion. 
 
 The inhabitants of the Pale had, as U appears 
 from this instance, as well as from others, some- 
 what degenerated. For, instead of changing from 
 one religion to another, as their kindred in South 
 Britain did, thrice in three reigns, as the pen- 
 dulum obeys the impulse communicated to it, 
 they opposed the measure with firm resolution. 
 To what cause is this difference ascribable? Is 
 it to mixture with Milesian blood, to the soil, 
 climate, St. Patrick's blessing and promise, the 
 exemplary conduct, piety and diligence of the 
 clergy, or to all united, I shall not determine. 
 The fact itself is obvious. Every effect must par- 
 take something of the nature of its productive 
 and instrumental causes; " no bad tree bringcth 
 
 *The Pale parliament, in the 18th of Henry VIII. enacted, 
 that the marriage of king Henry with queen Catherine was 
 unlawful and void; the issue of said marriage (Mary) to be 
 illegitimate; and the crown should descend to the children 
 of his " most dear and entirely beloved w ife queen Anne" 
 (Elizabeth :) shortly after, on the condemnation and death 
 of Anne Boleyn, and the marriage of Henry with Jane 
 Seymour, it passed sentence of attainder on Anne, declared 
 Henry's former marriages null and void, and placed the suc- 
 cession in his heirs by queen Jane. But no sooner had in- 
 telligence arrived, of the accession of Mary, than they an- 
 nulled their former acts, declared Mary legitimate, and the 
 crown to be rested in her and her heirs. With the same 
 servility, they declare Elizabeth, in the second year of her 
 reign, to be rightly, lineally and lawfully descended, maka 
 all former acts derogatory thereto void, (and if 'twas in their 
 power) cousigu them to oblivion.
 
 OF IRELAND. 393 
 
 forth good fruit." Now it is evident, that the 
 reformation forced its way upon reluctant Irish- 
 men, by these alarming means, a packed parli- 
 ament, the terror of a vengeful queen, and the 
 opinion of corrupt judges ; and that the degene- 
 rate popish parliament of the English province 
 defended the principles of the constitution, and 
 the magna charta obtained by their ancestors, 
 with the same zeal and courage with which they 
 adhered to their religion, while the protestant 
 parliament of England, of the same race, ser- 
 viley bowed to the haughty commands of a 
 tyrant. 
 
 Notwithstanding the staunch attachment of 
 the colony to its own interests, it abated not 
 of its rancorous antipathy to the ancient inha- 
 bitants; as appears from the attainder of Shane 
 O'Ncil, passed nem. con. and their impudent 
 donation of almost all Ulster to the queen; as 
 if he, a sovereign prince, could be denominated 
 or treated as a rebel; as if all the territory were 
 his private property, The fables and absurdities*, 
 contained in this act of attainder, deserve to he 
 mentioned, as evidences of the national antipathy 
 rancoring in the minds and hearts of the settlers. 
 
 In the preamble to this remarkable act, a Her 
 stating, that they would be noted to the world 
 for ingrate and unnatural people, did they not 
 uphold arid maintain the kingly estate with the 
 rampicr of their carcases and consumption of 
 their goods ( lives and fortunes men;) that the 
 magnificence of a prince resteth in populous, 
 rich and well-governed regions, which were poa-
 
 394 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORf 
 
 sessed by her majesty by the " death and final 
 destruction of that caitiffe and miserable reble 
 Shane O'Nellie," who refused the name of a 
 subject., and took upon him the office of a 
 prince,, for whose manifold offences their intent 
 was, to intitle her majesty, &c. to the dominion 
 and territories of Ulster, as a foundation laid 
 (perhaps the great object) for your highness to 
 PLANT and DISPOSE the same for ENCREASING 
 
 OF YOUR REVENUE, STRENGTHENING OF US, &C. 
 
 it then proceeds to state that Henry VIII. had 
 created his father earl of Tyrone, and his son 
 Matthew, baron of Dungannon ; that Shane 
 after the decease of his father, usurped and took 
 upon him the name of O'Neyle, with the supe- 
 riority, &c. of all the lords and captains of Ul- 
 ster, according to the Irish custome,* in scorne 
 of the English creation: that he made war upon 
 her majesty, took hostages from O'Reily; made 
 O'Doneile of Tirconnel and his family prisoners; 
 built a fort in an island in Tyrone, which he 
 called Foohnegall, i. e. the hate of Englishmen; 
 that he hanged two English spies; and cruelly 
 tortured an English galloglass: then it allows/ 
 that he and the queen had made peace; mentions 
 the proposed conference with the lord deputy at 
 
 * The Pale legislature knew, that he fallowed the custom 
 of his house, which always claimed the sovereignty of 
 Ulster. If O'Nial was really and bona fide a subject ap. 
 pearing in arms against his sovereign, there was no neces- 
 sity to search for other parts of his life for his condemnation, 
 or to patch up the queen's title, to his private estate, on (he 
 fable of kinij Gurmunde and Belin j the existing laws 
 sufficient.
 
 OF IRELAND. 395 
 
 Dnndalk, but conceals the cause, the massacre 
 of his men at Derry; states his destroying the 
 church of Armagh; his irruptions into Ferma- 
 nagh, and into the Pale; his defeat; the disper- 
 sion of his followers; his intended submission: 
 then follows his assassination., bj the Scots, in 
 \vhich, to be sure, the deputy was not concerned. 
 O'Neil, his secretary, and fifty horsemen, having 
 joined the Scots,, encamped at Clancboy, entered 
 the tent of the commander, Alexander Oge, 
 fe where after a few dissembled gratulatorie 
 words used betwixt them they fell to quaffing 
 and drinking of wine. This Agnes Ileys sonne, 
 all inflamed with malice and desire of revenge 
 for the death of his father and uncle, began to 
 minister quarelling talke to O'Neyle, \vho took 
 same verie hot, and after some reproach full words 
 past betwixt them, the said Gillaspike demaunded 
 of the secretorie whether he had bruted abroad 
 that the ladie his aunt, wife unto James Mac 
 Conill, did offer to come out of Scotland into 
 Ireland, to marrie with O'Neyle, the secretorie 
 affirmed himselfe to be the author of that report, 
 and said withall that if his aunt wire queen of 
 Scotland slice might be \\ell contented to match 
 
 ~ 
 
 hersclfe with O'Ncylc; the oilier with that gave 
 him the lye, and said that the lady his aunt was 
 a woman of that honestie and reputation, a> 
 would not take him thut was the betrayer and 
 murderer of her worthy husband. ()' \r\le -i\- 
 ing eare to the talke, began to nuii.taviie his 
 serretorie's quare!!, and thereupon (nil:i>pike 
 withdrew himseifc out of the tent and came 
 VOL. 1 - r
 
 396 
 
 abroade amongst his men, who forthwith raised 
 a fray and fell to killing of O'Neyle's men, and 
 the Scotes as people thiristie of O'Neyle's bloud, 
 for requiting the slaughter of their master and 
 kinsfolke,* assembled together in a throng and 
 thrust into the tent where the said O'Neyle was, 
 and there with their slaughter swords hewed 
 him to pieces, slew his secretorie and all those 
 that were with him, except a verie few which 
 escaped by their horses. Alexander Oge, after 
 his bouchery handling of this cruell tyrant, 
 caused his mangled carcasse to be caried to an 
 old ruinous church neer unto the camp, where 
 for lack of a better shroud he was wrapt in a 
 kerns old shirt, and there miserably interred, a 
 fit end for such a begining, and a funerall pompe 
 convenient for so great a defacer of God's tem- 
 ples, and withstander of his prince's lawes and 
 rcgall authentic. And after being foure dayes in 
 earth, was taken up by William Pierce, and his 
 head suridred from his bodie was brought unto 
 the said lord deputie to Drogheda, the one-and- 
 twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord 
 God a thousand five hundred threescore and 
 seven, and from thence carried unto the citie of 
 Dublin, where it was bodied with a stake, and 
 standeth on the top of your majcstic's castle of 
 Dublin." Having thus dispatched O'Nial they 
 proceed to state her many titles to Ulster, FARR 
 BEYOND (they say) the lynage of the O'Nial's. 
 
 * This he did in the service of queen Elizabeth, and we 
 see the envoy, captain Piers, stirred up the Scotch to re 
 %-euge it on him.
 
 OF IRELAND. 397 
 
 And first the fable " that at the begining, afore 
 the comraing of Irishmen into the said land, 
 they were dwelling in a province of Spaine, the 
 which is called Biscan, whereof Byon was a 
 member, and the chief citie. And that at the 
 said Irishmen's comming into Ireland, one king 
 Gurmond, sonne to the noble king Belin, king 
 of Great Britaine, which now is called England, 
 was lord of Bayon, as many of his successours 
 were to the time of king Henry the second, first 
 conquerour of this realm, and therefore the 
 Irishmen should be the king of England his 
 people, and Ireland his land. Another title is, 
 that at the same time that Irishmen came out of 
 Biscay as exhiled persons in sixty ships, they 
 met with the same king Gurrnond upon the sea, 
 at the yles of Orcades, then comming from Den- 
 mark with great victory, their captaines called 
 Heberus and Hermon, went to this king, and 
 him told the cause of their comming out of Bis- 
 cay, and him prayed with great instance that he 
 would graunt unto them that they might inhabit 
 some laud in the west. The king at the last by 
 advise of his councel granted them Ireland to 
 inhabite, and assigned unto them guides lor the 
 sea to bring them thither: and therefore they 
 should and ought to be the king of England's 
 men." The act continues to assert many titles, 
 after the invasion of Henry, not worthy to he 
 here inserted; (but what becomes of prescription ? 
 The O'Nials were in possession of Ulster upwards 
 of twenty-five centuries;) after which it attaints 
 O'Neil; confiscates not only his, but the lauds
 
 398 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 of his adherents;* endeavours to extinguish the 
 name, and exempts! the chiefs of Ulster from 
 their rule. " Thus was the name of O'Neal,, with 
 the power and dignity of the race, for ever anni- 
 hilated: and a prince, acknowledged and obeyed 
 as such during his life time, who constantly 
 boasted that he never made peace with Elizabeth, 
 but at her own request., after his death treated 
 with all the indignity due to a rebel. But a 
 princess, who could put to death a queen, who 
 only came to seek an asylum in her country, from 
 the rage of her own factious subjects, may well 
 be excused for a slip of this kind. "I 
 
 The English settlers now began to feel a fore- 
 taste of the great law of reaction, retaliating on 
 them the persecutions they heaped on the more 
 ancient inhabitants. While in that scandalous 
 act of attainder of O'Neil, full of falsehoods 
 and contradictions, they vented their spleen 
 against the posterity of Milesius, the government 
 struck them on two tender points, their liberty 
 and rcligiou. Several acts were extorted from 
 them, in spite of all opposition, by a, mock re- 
 presentation ; the act of supremacy, together with 
 the penalties against recusants; the act, vesting 
 
 * This confiscation remained a dead letter till the reign 
 of James [. who confiscated Ulster again and planted it. 
 
 t This is an acknowledgement, that the right of sove- 
 reignty belonged to the name of O'Nial ; why e)s> make it 
 treason to assume it ? Why abolish the ceremonies of hip 
 creation, his authority, jurisdiction, &c? as it would be 
 treason in a subject to take the title of king. 
 
 % HalJoran, introd. to the study of the history and antu 
 quity of Ireland, p. 260,
 
 OF IRELAND. S99 
 
 in the deputy the power of nominating to sees, 
 under English influence, for ten years, conse- 
 quently, that of appointing apostles of the new 
 faith ; an act for erecting free schools, as semi- 
 naries for the same purpose. An act, entitled 
 tc an act restoring to the crown the auncient 
 jurisdiction over the state, ecclesiasticall and 
 spiritual, and abolishing all foreign power re- 
 pugnant to the same/' enacted, that all persons in 
 office, civil or ecclesiastical, under pain of for- 
 feiture thereof, should take the oath of supre- 
 macy; confiscation of property, for defeating the 
 unity of the church, the first punishment; the 
 second, a whole year's imprisonment, without 
 bail or mainprize; the third, high-treason, i.e. 
 one convicted of having undergone the first two 
 punishments for the catholic faith, and of having 
 still continued to defend it by word or writing, 
 to suffer the pains, penalties, and death of a 
 traitor, not as a martyr. The act of uniformity 
 enacted, that any clergyman, refusing to use the 
 Book of Common Prayer, for the first offence, 
 loss of one year's income, and six month's im- 
 prisonment; for second offence, deprivation of 
 benefice, and one year's imprisonment; for third 
 offence, imprisonment for life. To despise the 
 Book of Common Prayer, or any thing therein 
 contained; to procure or maintain any person, 
 vicar or minister, in any place, to pray or minu- 
 ter sacraments different therefrom; for first 
 offence, a fine of one hundred marks, if not paid. 
 six months imprisonment; for the second offence, 
 3 fine of four hundred marks, if not paid, inv
 
 400 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORf 
 
 prisonmcnt for life; for third offence, not onTj 
 confiscation of property, but imprisonment for 
 life. These are the penalties for saying mass, and 
 for maintaining and succouring a priest. All 
 persons not going to church, and hearing pro- 
 testant service, fined twelve pence, and subject 
 to ecclesiastical censure; censures however not 
 much dreaded. The protestant clergy and jus- 
 tices of the peace, were empowered to enforce 
 this act; an act, which concludes by empower- 
 ing the queen to appoint and prescribe other 
 forms and ceremonies, as it may please her high- 
 ness. Behold a profane woman, clothed with 
 more than pontifical authority, and persecuting 
 catholics with rancorous rage. 
 
 These violent acts of usurpation and persecu- 
 tion, were passed in the second year of her reign, 
 under deputy Sussex; and must have been the 
 act of such another packed parliament as that 
 convened in the eleventh. The penalties, in- 
 flicted for speaking in favor of the catholic reli- 
 gion, or against her petticoat supremacy in spi- 
 rituals, against the common-prayer book, were 
 most alarming, as a single false witness might 
 circumvent any man, however guiltless. Besides, 
 might not an enemy, or a professional informer, 
 artfully draw an honest man into conversation on 
 the subject, on which, if he spoke at all, he 
 could scarcely avoid telling his mind. 
 
 In the llth of Elizabeth, and 4th session, the 
 provincial parliament proceed to dispose of Ire- 
 land, as if already conquered ; yet much remained 
 to be done, to bring it to that state. Divided,
 
 OF IRELAND. 401 
 
 distracted, dismembered, enfeebled, it indisputa- 
 bly was ; yet, if the antient inhabitants could be 
 brought to act in concert, by a sense of their im- 
 pending destruction, under one leader, they were 
 still too mighty for the settlers, or any force, 
 England could spare at that time. The most re- 
 markable act in favour of the new religion passed 
 in the fourth session was, an act, empowering 
 the deputy to present to the dignities of Munstcr 
 and Connaught, for ten years ; i. e. of appointing 
 protestant pastors to teach catholic flocks; and 
 we have stated the penalties inflicted for non- 
 attendance on these preachers in an unknown 
 tongue. The act, absolving chieftains from obe- 
 dience to provincial kings, was in some measure 
 defeated bv another act, absolving their inferiors 
 from any duty to them, but making them imme- 
 diately depend on the crown. The last explained 
 to the chieftains the policy of the first; and that 
 both were meant to improve on the anarchy of 
 the Milesians, and throw them into irremediable 
 confusion . These acts were as yet on speculation ; 
 nor could they be enforced without the reduction 
 of the whole island, which would and did re- 
 quire a good many years great effusion of blood, 
 and expenditure of treasure to accomplish. The 
 decrees of the colonial assembly did not hinder 
 the northern Irish to keep possession of theitf 
 estates, and to fight valiantly, during a long war, 
 in their defence. The abbeys and seminaries still 
 subsisted ; and the three northern bishoprics of 
 Derry, Raphoe, and Clogher, were still granted 
 by the pope.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 While the old settlers thus indulged their he- 
 reditary hatred towards the antient Irish, toge- 
 ther with the hope of exterminating them, and 
 getting their properties, severe retaliation came 
 upon them, not only by encroachments on their 
 purses and liberties, and persecution of con- 
 science, but by the overbearing insolence of new 
 adventurers, " Those, whom the revival of the 
 English power in Ireland, had tempted into this 
 kingdom, came with the most unfavourable pre- 
 judices against the old natives; whom they were 
 interested to represent ( both those of the Irish 
 and the old English race, ) as dangerous and dis- 
 affected. The natives were provoked at the par- 
 tiality shewn to these insolent adventurers; they 
 \vere treated like aliens and enemies, ( as the an- 
 nalist of Elizabeth repeatedly observes, ) and ex- 
 cluded with contemptuous insolence from every 
 office of trust and honour."* 
 
 Sir Edward Butler, having become obnoxious 
 to government, by his strenuous opposition to 
 many of their favourite measures, a grant of 
 some of his lands were made to Sir Peter Carew. 
 His claims were resisted, and he was repelled by 
 force of arms. They both complained to the 
 deputy, commissioners were appointed to hear 
 their cause; Butler alleged, that no justice 
 could be expected from his mortal enemy, and 
 disdained to appear before them. The threats 
 and intrigues of Spain, the insurrection of James 
 Fitz- Maurice, made this defiance appear alarm* 
 
 * Uia.nd, Vol. II, B. IV. c. ii. p. 213.
 
 OF IRELAND. 403 
 
 ing. The claimant of Butler's lands, now com- 
 manding Lcighlin, \vas ordered to reduce him, 
 and Carew accepted the commission v\ith ala- 
 crity. <c He stormed one of his castles and ra- 
 vaged his lands. At Kilkenny he was informed 
 that a party of the Butlers was collected at some 
 distance from the town. Thcv seem to have as- 
 sembled implicitly at the command of their 
 leader, as \vas usual in Ireland, and possibly 
 were not apprised of his delinquency, or of his 
 traiterous designs: for they took their station, 
 carelessly and securely., without discovering any 
 intentions of annoying the town. Carew howe- 
 ver determined to consider them as rebels; and 
 leading his garrison against them, at one vitro- 
 
 O O O 
 
 rous and unexpected onset put them to flight, and 
 pursued them with terrible execution. Hooker 
 describes his palron, marching with an inconsi- 
 derable bodvj attacking two thousand men, com- 
 pletely armed,, and drawn up in military array, 
 killing four hundred of their mnnber, and this 
 without the loss of one man; a circumstance 
 which confutes his account, and shews tli.it the 
 party he attacked neither expected nor v.cre 
 prepared for hostilities: and the :u;thr.r incau- 
 tiously confesses, that the citi/ens of Kilkenny 
 were stricken with horrour at the canney, in- 
 stead of cxuKing i' 1 <he di feat of an enemy." 
 
 Killed four hundred v. ithout the lo^ of ''m* 
 man ! ! This was one of the mav^u re- ai:uded to 
 in Lee's memorial; " that main of lin> country 
 
 * Ldaiicl. Vol. H. R. IV. t. ii. p. 250. 
 VOL. I. -y
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 people were invited to a conference near her ma 
 jesty's garrison,, where they were inhumanly 
 butchered." This might have been confounded 
 with the massacre of Mullabmaistin, or there 
 might have been two massacres at that boundary 
 of the Pale and Leix. 
 
 In addition to our former, may be added the 
 following reasons, that such a massacre did take 
 place, in the reign of Philip and Mary, viz. the 
 !*pot of the conference, the boundary of the two 
 tenitories, which supposes that Leix and Ophaly 
 were not as yet subdued. 2dly, The easy and rapid 
 reduction of the two territories; which would not 
 have been the case, if the leaders in war and 
 counsel had not been cut off. 3dly, The actual 
 colonization of the two districts, and the change 
 of their names into that of King and Queen's 
 county ; and of their chief towns into Philipstown 
 and Maryborough. 4th ly, The no necessity of 
 bringing a conference to the boundaries of the 
 anticnt Pale, when the boundaries of tiie en- 
 larged Pale were more suitable to the negocia- 
 tors. 5thlv, The improbability, that four hun- 
 dred unarmed gentlemen would venture through 
 their antic-lit patrimony., now in possession of the 
 enemy, so far as the alleged place of conference, 
 (it'll v, Four hundred gentlemen, of lead and 
 rank, would form the sum of such an extent of 
 landed proprietors, before their subjugation. 
 7lhly, Queen Elizabeth bore no sueh love to 
 her sister and brother-in-law, as to dedicate the 
 conquest and colonization of their territories to 
 their names. Hihlv, As in the case of the north.
 
 OP IRELAND. 405 
 
 \vhen the confiscation thereof, under Elizabeth, 
 could not be enforced, there was a fresh act of 
 confiscation issued try James; so if the conquest 
 and colonization had not been completed under 
 Philip and Mary, the act of confiscation would 
 be renewed by Elizabeth, on the final subjugn- 
 tion of the proprietors. As no such act passed, 
 Elizabeth appears to have no claim to the mas- 
 sacre or conquest. She killed a Hessian for her- 
 self; had massacres enough of her own. Before 
 the conquest of O'Moore and O'Connor, such 
 a perfidious transaction might appear expedient 
 or necessary, to the unrestrained policy of the 
 invaders; after the conquest, it was superfluous. 
 In perusing the records of this blood-stained 
 period, the unreflecting are liable to bo misled, 
 by the false colourings, forgeries, and misrepre- 
 sentations of partial historians; nor do Cambdcn, 
 Hooker, or Cox, throw fair light on the subject. 
 We are told of the rebellions of Desmond, Butler 
 and Lixnaw, but they do not inform us of the 
 oppressions that provoked them. Whoever pe- 
 ruses the penalties* decreed on the exercise of the 
 catholic religion, and on nonconformity to Eliza- 
 beth's new creed and ritual; the inflexible ty- 
 ranny with which she and her officers inflicted 
 them; the attack on the privileges of peers and 
 commons; the rewards, held out from confiscated 
 lands, for officers; the contempt and haired of 
 these new comers towards the old settlers, as 
 papists and Irish, retaliating on them, what they 
 
 * See Appendix,
 
 406 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORT 
 
 had done to the aboriginal inhabitants, will see 
 abundant cause of insurrection. Infinitely short 
 of these, were the provocations or apprehensions, 
 that made English protestants rise against a 
 popish king. 
 
 James Fitz-Maurice invested Kilkenny ; which 
 unable to take., he ravaged the country. He treated 
 with some of the Irish chieftains ; dispatched 
 messengers to Rome and Spain, solliciting aid 
 against the heretical, tyrannical pcrsecutress of 
 the faith. Fitz-Maurice soon found himself de- 
 serted by all those chieftains, who professed to 
 espouse the cause. O'Brien fled at the first 
 commencement of hostilities into France, where, 
 by the mediation of Norris, the English ambas- 
 sador, he obtained terms. Mac Carthy submitted. 
 Tirlough Lynough, a feeble prince, partly a crea- 
 ture of English government, made some move- 
 ments, took into his pay one thousand Scotch, 
 and seemed to threaten the borders of the Pale. 
 An accidental \vound spread confusion through 
 his camp; where all was bustle, canvassing for a 
 successor to the chieftainry. The Scotch, re- 
 ceiving neither pay or plunder, dispersed; and 
 the old chieftain was obliged to submit. Fitz- 
 Maurice \vas obliged to fly before the queen's 
 force?, to secret haunts, while the deputy pro- 
 ceeded through south and west Minister, terri- 
 fying the disaffected, receiving submission and 
 auxiliaries from many of the most considerable 
 in rank and fortune. 
 
 Sir John Perrot was appointed president of 
 Munster, to carry on the war against Desmond.
 
 OF IRELAND.' 407 
 
 He pursued the rebels vigorously, storming their 
 castles, and chasing them from their haunts, 
 without respite, until Fitz-Maurice, with some 
 of his adherents, worn out with fatigue, toil and 
 terror, were compelled to throw themselves at his 
 feet. The inferior leaders in the insurrection 
 were instantly executed, while Desmond was re- 
 served for the queen's disposal. Thence he pro- 
 ceeded to subjugate the rest of Munster, by all 
 the means of terror. The success of the queen's 
 arms allowed Sydney to return to England, 
 leaving the government in the hands of his 
 brother Sir \\illiam Fitz- William. 
 
 Speculations now began to be formed in Eng- 
 land, for obtaining estates in Ireland ; and plant- 
 ing them with Englishmen. Sir Thomas Smyth, 
 secretary to the queen, conceived the design of 
 providing for his natural son, by a grant of 
 Irish lands. A peninsula, called Ardcs, in the 
 east part of Ulster, from its situation easily de- 
 fended, was assigned for the colony, which was 
 accordingly conveyed thither; but the leader, 
 Smyth, being slain by one of the proprietors, a-.i 
 O'Nial, the project was abandoned. The earl 
 of Essex formed the plan of a more powerful 
 and extensive colony. On the report of some 
 commotions in Clanhubov, he ollered his ser- 
 vices for reducing that district, and planting it 
 with English settlers. It was settled, that he 
 
 O 
 
 should possess a moiety of the plantation; that 
 one thousand two hundred forces >h)uld be 
 maintained, and fortifications raised, at the joint 
 expcnce of the queen and carl. Four hundred
 
 408 A!f IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 acres of land for every horseman, and two 
 hundred for every footman,, at two pence per 
 acre, invited volunteers for the expedition ; and 
 the plantation was to be continued until two 
 thousand English families were settled in it. 
 Essex mortgaged his estate to the queen for ten 
 thousand pounds; the lords Dacre and Rich, 
 Sir Henry Knowles, and his four brothers, three 
 sons of lord Norris, and other Englishmen of 
 distinction, accompanied him. The favorite, 
 Leicester, ( for virgin Elizabeth, like virgin Ca- 
 therine II. of Russia, had a succession of favo- 
 rites, ) secretly thwarted the newly-created earl, 
 in conjunction with deputy Fitz- William. The 
 expedition was too long delayed; the queen's 
 soldiers ill-chosen and ineffective; their provi- 
 sions tardily supplied and unsound. When the 
 earl landed -with his troops, the northern Irish 
 \vere apprized and prepared for him. Brian Mac 
 Phelim O'Nial, Hugh, son to the earl of Dun- 
 gannon, and Tirlough Lyriough, united against 
 him, and harassed his forces by perpetual skir- 
 mishes. His noble associates quickly repented 
 of their engagements, in an enterprize so unpro- 
 mising; and under one pretence or another, with- 
 drew one by one to their native country. Essex 
 pathetically represented his situation to the 
 queen, when his enemies found new pretences of 
 detaining him in Ireland. 
 
 Representations were sent over from Ireland, 
 stating the country to be every where in commo- 
 tion. The remnant of the O'Moores were tur- 
 bak'iit. Brian Mac Murdiad took arms., and
 
 OF ICELAND. 409 
 
 defeated the Wexfordians. TIic sons of Clan- 
 rickard were in amis. The carl of Desmond, 
 and his brother found means to escape to their 
 territory,, where they Mere received with exulta- 
 tion by their followers, breathing; vengeance for 
 the severities they had endured. To enereasc the 
 alarm, letters from Rome had been intercepted, 
 exhorting the Irish to hold out against the 
 queen's government; with an assurance of a 
 supply of money and troops, and absolution to 
 themselves and posterity to the third generation. 
 These causes of alarm, whether real, feigned or 
 aggravated, persuaded the queen to command 
 the stay of Essex in Ireland, for assisting the 
 deputy against her enemies. 'Tis likely also, 
 Brian Mac Murchad was easily persuaded to 
 lay down his arms, by a simple act of justice. 
 Tiit 1 sons of Clanrickard were reduced and par- 
 doned; their insurrection having been compelled 
 by the tvranny c,f president Fitton; who was, 
 on their complaints being found true, c-i-miss.cd 
 from the presidency of Connaught. DV.MIKHK!, 
 vigorously pursued by Essex a:id Kih!are, M;IS 
 
 O . I J 
 
 obliged to renew his submission and aihghnce. 
 Essex now returned to the prosecution of l.is 
 schemes in Ulster; where he attempted to r\< - 
 rute his project of plantation a I'AnrJoi-, i:;i- 
 tincturcd by the least infusion of Iii.h drgcrr- 
 re.cy. " On the conclusion of a peace he invitul 
 Bryan O'"l\ei! of Clanhubov, with a grraf i;ir.n!rr 
 of his relations, to an entertainment, v. ! ere they 
 lived together in great haruionv, n:;i!\ing good 
 
 ijzuls when, on a
 
 410 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 sudden, O'Neal was surprised with an arrest, 
 together with his brother and wife, by the earl's 
 order. Kis friends were put to the sword before 
 his face; nor were the women and children 
 spared, he was himself, with his brother and 
 wife, sent to Dublin, where they were cut in 
 quarters." The annalist observes, that " this 
 increased the disaffection, and produced the de- 
 testation of all the Irish: for this chieftain of 
 Claahuboy, was the senior of his family., and as 
 he had been universally esteemed, he was now 
 as universally regretted."* It seems, however, 
 the perfidious butchery of his guests availed him 
 nought; for the turbulence and perfidiousness 
 of the Irish, fc and the insidious practices of 
 Leicester and his partizans,, involved him in a 
 scries of perplexities. When he had been wearied 
 into a resignation of his authority, he was com- 
 manded to res u me it: when he had resumed it, 
 and for a \\hile proceeded with success, he was 
 again ordered to resign it. When he had at 
 length obtained permission to return to England, 
 lie was again remanded into Ireland, with the 
 insignificant title of earl marshal of this country. 
 Here vexation and disappointment soon put an 
 end to his life, which involved Leicester in the 
 suspicion of having caused this unhappy noble- 
 man to be poisoned; a suspicion which he him- 
 self encreascd by hastily marrying the countess of 
 EJSCX."| SI range language! to call the defence 
 of libertv, religion and properly, against barba- 
 
 * Anmls of Dmia-all. M. S. 
 
 l, Vol. 11. B^ok VI. c. ii. p. 258.
 
 OF IREL1XD. 411 
 
 rous, perfidious, inhuman invaders of all these 
 most valuable blessings of life, perfidy and tur- 
 bulence ! But we must make some allowance for 
 the splenetic humours of an English or Anglo- 
 Irish writer, treating of mere native Irish, and 
 their affairs. 
 
 Sir Vv illiam Fitz- William, weary of the pub- 
 lic hatred he had incurred, and of the compli- 
 cated difficulties he involved himself in, desired 
 his recal. Me was replaced by Sir Henry Sydney, 
 whose reluctance to accept the oilice was over- 
 come by the communication of extensive powers; 
 and the promise of an annual remittance of twenty 
 thousand pounds., in aid of the ordinary revenues 
 of Ireland. On his landing in 1570, a plague, 
 raging in the Pale, prevented his approach to the 
 capital ; and the turbulence of the Scotch settler* 
 in the north, \\ho had made hostile attempts on 
 the garrison of Carrigfergus, determined him to 
 march to Ulster. He inarched through Lister 
 and Connaught, at the head of six hundred men, 
 \\ithout the least molestation; composing petty 
 broils, and receding assurances of uniity towards 
 the English government. T!:e earl ol'Chn- 
 rickard's soi'.s alonr, presumed to break out nit j 
 fresh extravagances aft r bis departure. On his 
 returning quickly, they i'cd to the woo;'-;; ilnir 
 castles vsere taken, a::a their father,, m^peetcd of 
 favouring their rebellion, Mas committed tocloMj 
 custody. For the good iro\ eminent of the south, 
 he prevailed on the (,:;' -.MI to appoint Sir Edward 
 Drtiry, president of .Minister, in the room of 
 Ferrot, returned to E.igluml. Like bis prc- 
 
 VOL I, O li
 
 412 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 decessor, he held his courts regularly, adminis- 
 tered justice impartially, enforced a stict obser- 
 vance of English manners, and a dutiful submis- 
 sion to English law. So Leland. 
 
 The county of Kerry, made palatine for the 
 Desmond family by Edward III., was now the 
 only refuge for fugitives in Munster. Thither 
 Drury resolved to extend his jurisdiction, re- 
 gardless of anticnt patents. Desmond, rinding 
 the president obstinate in his purpose, reserved 
 himself for an appeal to the deputy, receiving 
 Drury in the mean time with all honor and sub- 
 mission, inviting him to his house in Tralee. 
 <c The invitation was accepted; when on the ar- 
 rival of Drurv with a train of a hundred and 
 
 */ 
 
 twenty men in arms, a body of seven hundred 
 followers of Desmond, tall, active, and vigo- 
 rous, appeared at some distance, and advanced 
 upon him. The president, unacquainted with 
 the customs of this district, and filled with the 
 suspicions and jealous prejudices of an English 
 stranger, at once concluded that he had been 
 betrayed, and was to be surrounded and cut to 
 pieces. He encouraged his followers, to prevent 
 this formidable enemy, and to charge them with- 
 out waiting to be attacked. The first onset at 
 once dispersed the Desmonians; who, without 
 attempting the least hostility, fled with the 
 utmost astonishment and precipitation: and the 
 countess of Desmond was left to explain this 
 extraordinary incident. She assured the presi- 
 dent that these men neither intended nor expected 
 hostilities; that their flight was not the effect of
 
 OF IRELAND. 413 
 
 cowardice, but amazement and confusion at 
 being; treated as enemies, when they had as- 
 sembled peaceably to do him honour; that they 
 had been collected by her lord merely to enter- 
 tain him with hunting;, in which the men of 
 Kerry were remarkably expert and vigorous. 
 Drury affected to be satisfied with this explana- 
 tion; and proceeded to execute the laws within 
 the liberties of the carl of Desmond, without 
 controul or opposition."* 
 
 The English interest being now established in 
 Munster and Connaught, the deputy bethought 
 himself of a scheme to recommend himself to the 
 favor of his English masters. The heavy charge 
 of maintaining the English power in Ireland, 
 instead of deriving any emolument therefrom 
 was a subject of constant complaint in England; 
 nor could any service be performed more accep- 
 table to them, than the alleviation of the burden. 
 For the maintenance of the royal garrison, and 
 the governor's household, certain assessments 
 were laid on the English districts, settled bv the 
 
 ^ - 
 
 consent of the principal inhabitants of each. 
 Sydney designed to change the occasional sub- 
 sidy into permanent revenue, by substituting a 
 composition instead of the assessment, and exact- 
 ing it from all the subjects. His court encou- 
 raged him to pursue his plan. He first began, 
 by proclamation, to dissolve those liberties which 
 hud ever claimed an exemption from the anticnt 
 charge of purveyance; or to curtail the privi- 
 
 * Lcland, Vol. II. Book VI. c. ii. p. 202.
 
 414? AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 leges of those whose legality could not he im^ 
 peached ; and then proceeded to a general impo- 
 sition of the new tax, by mere authority of coun- 
 cil,, and by virtue of the queen's prerogative. A 
 general and violent discontent was the immediate 
 consequence. Those, whose liberties were in- 
 vaded; those who chear fully contributed to the 
 assessment in its former mode; the secretly dis- 
 affected, and the loyal, were provoked at a tax, 
 so unconstitutional and oppressive, and united in 
 a spirited remonstrance to the deputy and council. 
 Sydney, after a deliberation of some days, re- 
 plied, that, as to the liberties dissolved, they 
 appeared to be invalid or expired; ns to the 
 Lurden of the tax, her majesty was contented, 
 that it should not exceed fiv'J months for every 
 plough land; as to its authority, it was imposed 
 by the queen's prerogative. So novel, and so re- 
 pugnant to every principle of law and justice, 
 did this doctrine of raising money by preroga- 
 tive appear, to the subjects of Ireland; so con- 
 fident were the remonstrants in the validity of 
 their pica, that thev humbly besought the de- 
 
 I J \i * 
 
 puty's permission to repair to the court of Eng- 
 land, and there lay their cause before the queen. 
 Sydney coldly replied, that lie would neither 
 sanction, nor yet restrain their appeal. 
 
 " Opposition, in a cause so popular, gained 
 daily accessions of strength, and was animated 
 by the public applause: the principal lords 
 through all parts of the realm refused obedience 
 to the edict of council, and enjoined their tenants 
 and dependents by no means to pay the assess-
 
 OF IRELAND. 415 
 
 merit. The Inhabitants of the Pale assembled, 
 deliberated, and at length resolved to entrust 
 their cause to three agents, eminent for their 
 knowledge of the laws, and zealous opposcrs of 
 the present tax. They \vere sent' into England 
 \vith letters to the queen and to the English 
 council, signed by the lords Baltinglass, Delvin, 
 Hoath, Trimblcston, Bellow, Nangle, some of 
 the families of Plunkct and Nugei.t, with other 
 distinguished inhabitants of the counties of 
 Meath and Dublin, in the names of all the sub- 
 jects of the English Pale. They complained of 
 the grievance they sustained by the tax, and that 
 they had been denied redress by the lord deputy; 
 they urged the illegality and oppressive burden 
 of the tax, and the various abuses committed in 
 the exaction of it."* But this genuine daughter 
 of IJenry resolved on maintaining prerogative. 
 The Irish agents were committed to the Fleet, as 
 contumacious opposers of the royal authority. 
 The queen's letters to Sir Sydney and the Irish 
 council, reprimanded them for not having in- 
 stantly committed and punished these refractory 
 subjects, who durst deny the legality of the. 
 composition; commanding, that ail, who super- 
 scribed the present application to the throw*, 
 should be summoned before them; and it they 
 should persist in their opposition, should 
 committed to close imprisonment; lint all her 
 servants and counsellors, learned in the law, 
 who had neglected to maintain her prerogative, 
 
 * Lrlancl, Vol. II. Book IV. c. ii. p. QG3.
 
 416 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 should be removed from their offices. All these 
 severities proved insufficient to operate on the 
 lords and gentlemen of the Pale. " They ap- 
 peared before the council, and there, perempto- 
 rily adhering to their former declarations, and 
 denying the legality of any tax not regularly es- 
 tablished in parliament, were committed to close 
 durance in the castle of Dublin. Their agents 
 in England on a second examination appeared 
 equally determined; and therefore were removed 
 from the Fleet to the Tower; which implied 
 that their offence was considered as of a treason- 
 able nature. The whole body of Irish subjects 
 were alarmed and confounded at this rigour, 
 which they imputed to the practices of Sydney, 
 and whom of consequence they loaded with 
 the most virulent invectives. Their clamours 
 were so violent, as even to startle the arbitrary 
 queen and her obsequious counsellors. They 
 dreaded the consequence of a general discontent 
 in a country which harboured so many secret 
 enemies to government, and therefore closed 
 their imperious denunciations of vengeance by 
 accepting an equivocal submission from the 
 Irish agents, who acknowledged that the manner 
 of their application had been undutiful, but 
 disavowed all intention of impeaching the queen's 
 just prerogative. They gave security to render 
 themselves before the lord deputy, and were re- 
 mitted to Ireland. Here they repeated their 
 submission, and were dismissed: some of the 
 confined lords and gentlemen regained their li- 
 berty by a like submission. Nor were the more
 
 OF IRELAND. 417 
 
 spirited and obstinate broken by any further se- 
 verity. Sydney was instructed to bring this vio- 
 lent and dangerous dispute to some speedy ac- 
 commodation:* a composition for purveyance 
 was by the deputy and council, with the con- 
 currence of the lords and gentlemen of the Pale, 
 settled for seven years; and the malcconteuts 
 were discharged. All the rage of indignation 
 and resentment fell on the lord deputy. He was 
 accused of wantonly alienating the affections of 
 the Irish subjects; of ruling without temper, 
 policy, or discretion; of lavishing tho revenue; 
 of discouraging and despising the well-affected; 
 of carelessly or corruptly pardoning the most 
 notorious rebels and offenders. Nor was Sydney 
 insensible to the sting of popular odium. Ue 
 grew weary of a government, in which every 
 act of administration was strictly scrutinized, 
 and severely interpreted ; and made pressing in- 
 stances to the queen, that she would be pleased 
 to recal him/'f 
 
 History is the best refutation of those ignorant 
 bigots, who assert, without authority or reason, 
 that papists are unfit for freedom. The spirited 
 defence of their constitutional rights, and oppo- 
 sition to arbitrary government, made at sundry 
 times, as well as the present, has been at no time 
 equalled by theprotestant Pale that succeeded it 
 
 The conclusion of this dispute is only to be 
 
 *This appears from a letter written by tho English council 
 to tho lords justices of Ireland, dated April 30. 15S4. 
 i Llaiid 3 Vol. 11- Book IV. c. ii- p- -".
 
 418 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 explained by (he apprehension of foreign enemies. 
 The assistance, given by Elizabeth to the re- 
 volted Netherlands, naturally pointed out Ire- 
 land to Philip, as a proper scene for retaliation. 
 At Rome,, every fugitive, who could suggest 
 any scheme of annoying the persecutress of the 
 catholic faith, was favourably received. Of this 
 sort was an English adventurer, Thomas Stukely, 
 whose enterprising genius had raised him to some 
 notice in Ireland, and even gained him the at- 
 tention of deputy Sydney. lie arrived at Rome, 
 the center of conspiracy against Elizabeth, was 
 well received by (he Irish ecclesiastics, and in- 
 troduced to the pope, as a distinguished friend 
 to the catholic cause. With pope Pius V. his 
 project did not succeed, but his successor, Gre- 
 gory XIII. listened more attentively to his plans, 
 artfully hinting the facility with which his 
 nephew, Jacomo Boncompagno, might be esta- 
 blished king of Ireland. The ambitious old 
 man received the overture with delight, prac- 
 tised with Spain, amused Philip with the hope 
 of burning the English fleet, by the address and 
 \alor of Stukely, and of expelling Elizabeth 
 from all her dominions, by first beginning with 
 the invasion of Ireland. Eiirlit hundred Italians 
 
 O 
 
 were raised for this expedition., commanded by 
 Stukelv, in the pay of Philip. Another Irish 
 exile meditated a descent on his country. Fitz- 
 Maurice, after his liberation from prison, sub- 
 sequent to his reduction by Perrot, retired to 
 the continent, thirsting for revenge. His solici- 
 tations at the court of France, after two years
 
 OF IRET.JIND. 410 
 
 expectations and disappointment, proving fruit- 
 less,, he next applied to Spain, where he was re- 
 ceived with more attention. " Philip srs.t him 
 to the pope; Gregory was readily prevailed on 
 by Saunders the famous ecclesiastic, and Alien, 
 an Irish priest, to favour his design of an inva- 
 sion. A bull was drawn np addressed to the 
 prelates, princes, nobles, and people of irehu.d, 
 exhorting them to assist Fitz-Mauriee for tl;e 
 recovery of their liberty, and the defence of the 
 holy church; and promising to all his adherents 
 the same spiritual indulgences granted to those 
 who fought against the Turks : a banner was 
 solemnly consecrated and delivered to this cham- 
 pion of the fait!) : and as Saunders and Allen 
 both consented to attend Fitz-Maurice into Ire- 
 land, the former was invested wiih the dignity 
 of legate. The conspirators thus strengthened 
 by the authority and benediction of the holy 
 father, and furnished with some moi:,-v, were 
 sent to king Philip, who was to supply the forces 
 necessary for their enterprize." 
 
 Elizabeth, informed of these designs, prepared 
 forces for the Irish service, by sea and by land. 
 Her ships were stationed to guard the Irish 
 coast, and Sydney had orders to quell by lenity 
 and conciliation every remains of commot'.en in 
 Ireland. Stukely embarked at Civitu \ecehiu, 
 and arrived at the mouth of liie Tngi.s, when 
 Don Sebastian v>.*> in 1 , itcd to Afrieu by M.iho- 
 niet, son of Abdulla. king of 1-V/. On expluiu- 
 
 I; Inland. Vol. ii. P.. IV. c. il.n. 2GS. 
 
 VOL, j, :> i
 
 420 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 ing his design, the king pressed him first to join 
 in his African expedition; promising, on his 
 return to attend him into Ireland. The king of 
 Spain, having discovered the pontiff's inten- 
 tions in favour of his nephew, readily consented. 
 Stukclj, with his Italians, followed the standard 
 of Portugal, and fell with Sebastian. The death 
 of king Sebastian diverted the Spaniard from his 
 design against Elizabeth to the invasion of Por- 
 tugal. 
 
 Though Philip renounced the design of con- 
 quering the British islands, he was still inclined to 
 annoy Elizabeth by insurrections. Fitz-Maurice 
 therefore, on his return to Spain, though he 
 could not obtain an efficient force, was not en- 
 tirely unnoticed. He obtained a troop of about 
 fourscore Spaniards; to whom, uniting some 
 fugitive English and Irish, he embarked his 
 little force in three ships, and landed in Kerry, 
 at a bay called Smcrwick. Saunders and Allen 
 hallowed the place, and assured the invaders of 
 success in the glorious cause of the church. 
 Their transports, cut off by a ship of war, that 
 lay in the harbour of Rinsalc, left them destitute 
 of relief or retreat. On their first summons, 
 Sir John and Sir James, brothers to the earl of 
 Desmond, joined them with their followers. 
 The earl himself, acting for the present on the 
 reserve, made a shew of loyalty, by mustering 
 his forces, and summoningthe carl of Clancarthjr 
 to his assistance; v\ho, impatient of his tergi- 
 versation, retired in disgust. Fitz-Maurice could 
 not suppress his vexation at so great a disappoint-
 
 OP IRELAND. 421 
 
 merit; rightly judging that the temporizing half 
 measures of the earl would ruin the enterprize, 
 and the family of Desmond in its consequences. 
 He even hinted a suspicion, that Sir John Des- 
 mond was capable of betraying his associates to 
 purchase his own safety. John, stung with this 
 reproach, resolved to efface all suspicion, by a 
 decided act of hostility against tiie govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Henry Davels, an officer in the English ser- 
 vice, intimate with the Geraldines of south 
 Munster, was sent to reconnoitre the position 
 and strength of the invaders, and to sound the 
 earl of Desmond, and his kindred associates, as 
 to the part they meant to espouse. On his return 
 to the deputy with all the necessary information 
 as to the dispositions and force of the cnemv, 
 and the probable disaffection of the Geraldines, 
 Sir John, judging it for the benefit of the cause 
 to deprive government of this mass of intelli- 
 gence, pursued him with a chosen band, and 
 overtook him at Tralce. There they massacred 
 him and his companions, as one escaping might 
 reveal their situation. Leland works up this 
 massacre into a tragic scene, with such pathetic 
 circumstances as he borrowed from his own ima- 
 gination; yet such has been the fate of spies in 
 all countries, as soon as they were discovered in 
 their proper character. The foreigners, mean- 
 while, were impatient to see the vast concourse 
 of discontented Irish, of whose junction they 
 were assured. Fitz-Maurice, no less chagrined, 
 persuaded them to maintain their station, \\itli
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 promise of powerful support, while he pro- 
 fessed a pilgrimage to the holy cross in Tippe- 
 rary, iu consequence of a vow he had made in 
 Spain; under cover of which, he concealed his 
 design of enticing- the discontented in Connaught 
 and Ulster to unite with him. His first essay 
 was in the country of the De Burghos, where 
 lie seized some carriage horses necessary for his 
 train. Sir William tie Burgho, head of the 
 neighbouring- sept, reclaimed them. In a scuffie 
 that ensued, Fitz- Maurice, and one of the sons 
 of Mac William, fell by each other's swords. 
 Of such consequence the death of Fitz-Maurice 
 appeared to the queen, that she wrote a letter of 
 acknowledgement to de Burgh o, and soon after- 
 wards created him a peer. Sir William Drury 
 marched with the forces of government to meet 
 the insurgents, and from Kilrnallock summoned 
 the lords and gentlemen of Munster to join him 
 with their followers. They readily obeyed; 
 Even Desmond, with a well appointed com- 
 pany of horse and foot, attended his standard. 
 Yet such were the suspicions entertained of him, 
 or so greedy wi re the recent adventurers for his 
 immense property, and so desirous, at all hazards, 
 to involve him in rebellion, that he was com- 
 mitted to custody. After he was liberated, on 
 promise of loyalty and fidelity, this severity so 
 wrought on his fears, that he retired from the 
 camp; and though he still professed his attach- 
 ment to the crov, n, and his son was an hostage 
 for his jyood conduct, he declined attending the 
 deputy. Hitherto Desmond had given no proofs
 
 OF IRELAND. 423 
 
 of a rebellious disposition. His declining the 
 task of making war on his brothers, such of his 
 kindred, and their followers, as took up* arms in 
 defence of their country and religion, might rest 
 on other motives. The cause was popular, and 
 lie might be deserted by his vassals; an instance 
 
 of which we shall see in the vouno; branch of 
 
 j 
 
 this family, tutored in Bess's religion, and sent 
 to Ireland; who, on discovery of the same, was 
 treated with the utmost scorn and abhorrence. 
 The grievances of which he complained, might 
 be of such a nature as to cool his loyalty and 
 attachment to a persecuting queen. If the earl 
 of Desmond meditated \var_, and was really im- 
 plicated in this insursection, he was one of the 
 weakest of men. He had made no provisions or 
 preparations for the hazardous conflict, lie had 
 not armed or trained his followers; nor put his 
 castles in a state of siege. He had not procimd 
 ammunition or ordinance for the sen ice; nor se- 
 cured any firm alliance or partizans. Had he 
 really embarked early in the enterprise, his fo- 
 reign and domestic correspondence could hardly 
 
 O i ** 
 
 have eluded the vigilance of Boss's emissaries, 
 and his consciousness of this would have induced 
 him to espouse the cause immediately, with all 
 his resources. As for pnpcrs, found on a dead 
 man, by people thirsting for the dividends of 
 immense property, they must appear to every 
 considerate person very suspicious evidence. As 
 for the cause of this local insurrection; if flic 
 revolution of I6S9 v.-as justifiable, the !ri>h in- 
 surrections against Kli/ubeili were much more
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 so. The one was suspected of a design (o res- 
 tore the catholic religion, without persecuting 
 the protestant: the other openly and furiously 
 persecuted the catholic, the national and esta- 
 blished religion of Ireland, which she endea- 
 voured to hide under the mask of punishment 
 for state crimes. She at once invaded their civil 
 and religious liberties; and if ever resistance be 
 lawful,, which none but the slavish abettors of 
 passive obedience will deny, it was against such 
 atrocious tyranny. 
 
 After the death of Fitz-Maurice, the fo- 
 reigners had no other resource, but to submit to 
 the guidance of Sir John Desmond. They aban- 
 doned their station at Smerwick ; and in order 
 to evade this rencounter of superior forces, were 
 distributed in different quarters in Kerry. The 
 insurgents now held on the defensive; and nine 
 weeks were spent to no purpose, endeavouring 
 to come up with Sir John; who hovered about 
 the royal army, and kept them in continual 
 alarm, without suffering them to attack him. 
 A party of two hundred, who attempted to sur- 
 prize one of his detachments, was cut to pieces 
 on their return. Such petty advantages revived 
 the hopes of the insurgents, and cncreased their 
 numbers. Diury, on the other hand, had his 
 lasses seasonably repaired, by a reinforcement of 
 six hundred men from England, while Perrot 
 was stationed on the coast, with ships of war, to 
 cut off all assistance from the rebels. The de- 
 puty, sick of fatigue, retired to Wexford in a 
 languishing state, committing the army to Sir
 
 OF IRELAND. 425 
 
 Nicholas Malby. Hearing that Sir John Des- 
 mond lay encamped within a few miles of Lime- 
 rick, Malby inarched to attack him. In a plain, 
 adjoining to an old abbey, called Monastcr 
 Neva,, he found the forces of Sir John in array, 
 prepared to give battle; and their attack was 
 so vigorous, and so obstinately maintained,, that 
 the fortune of the day seemed a long time doubt- 
 ful. The good fortune of the English at length 
 prevailed. Desmond's forces were routed, and 
 pursued with great slaughter. 
 
 After this victory, the earl of Desmond sent 
 a gratulatory epistle to the English general, 
 which was received as a dissimulation of his ic- 
 bellious disposition, and he was ordered to sur- 
 render and renew his promise of fealtv. ISut, 
 mindful of the insulting severities with which 
 lie was treated, when he joined the English army 
 in the beginning of the campaign, he refused 
 to put himself in the power of any of the queen's 
 officers. Hereupon Malby removed to Rathkeale, 
 a town belonging to the earl, either to terrify 
 him into absolute submission, or what is more 
 probable, to goad him to resistance, in the ex- 
 pectation of sharing a dividend of his vast estate. 
 Desmond was provoked, by this unwarrantable 
 attack on his territory, to make a night attack 
 on the English camp. Malby thereupon was pre- 
 paring to reduce his castles, when the intelli- 
 gence of Drurv's death put an end to his au- 
 thority; so, distributing his forces into garri- 
 sons, he retired to his government of Cou- 
 fiaught.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 While the Desmonians exulted in this suspen- 
 sion of hostilities, and were annoying the Eng 
 lish garrisons,, the council chose Sir William 
 Pelham provisional deputy, who proceeded with- 
 out delay to renew the war in Munster. There 
 he was powerfully reinforced., and sent the earl 
 of Ormond to the earl of Desmond, commanding 
 him to surrender, and acquainting him with the 
 terms on which his submission would be ac- 
 cepted. He must surrender Dr. Saunders, and 
 the other strangers harboured in the country; 
 one of his castles, either Askeaton or Carrick- 
 a-Fojle, must be delivered to the queen, as a 
 pledge of his future conduct; and submit to the 
 judgment of her majesty and council of Eng- 
 land, or to that of the deputy and Irish council; 
 and meanwhile give assistance in the present war, 
 against his brethren, and all other traitors. His 
 answer was, a complaint of injuries. He was 
 thereupon proclaimed a traitor., if within twenty 
 liays he did not submit. The earl's territory was 
 purposely made the seat of war, and exposed to 
 the ravages of a necessitous., licentious, and 
 blood-thirstv soldierv. In re verge, Desmond 
 
 \J */ CJ 
 
 and his brother appeared before the town 
 of You^hal, which they took, and cut off a 
 detachment sent by Ormond for its succour. 
 Elated by this success, the Gcralciir.es declare 
 themselves the champions of the catholic faiih, 
 i:i alliance with the holy see, and the king of 
 Spain, uniting the faithful to join in defence of 
 their hearths and altars; in defence of their lives, 
 liberties a::d properties; hi defence of what
 
 OF IRELAND. 427 
 
 should be dearer than all earthly considerations 
 their holy religion, their hope of a happy im- 
 mortality., to resist a persecution more cruel 
 and per lid ions than any recorded in the annals of 
 heathen persecution. This invitation had little 
 effect, on a nation incurably rent by family 
 quarrels, local claims, and national antipathies. 
 They felt the force of the appeal; and, though 
 they shrunk at present from the call of nature's 
 rights,, they all successively, and therefore un- 
 successfully, had recourse to arms, in defence of 
 their rights. Saunciers's letters to de Burgho 
 \vere delivered to Sir Nicholas Malby, and served 
 to discover the views and hopes of the insur- 
 gents. In the Pale their applications Mere 
 more favourably received. Several of the Eng- 
 lish, as \vcll as the old Irish race, Mere goad- 
 ed by persecutions to declare openly for the 
 national faith. 
 
 During this time, Desmond, vsho had been 
 wholly unprepared for war, saw his va: 3 l patri- 
 mony wasted with fire and sword; the unarmed 
 defenceless population mowed down with indis- 
 criminate slaughter; such as escaped the sv.oi J, 
 a prey to the still more horribb doom of famine, 
 himself hunted, like an abject (-at law, fivm on 
 retreat to another, unable to meet the enemy in 
 the field, and confined to nightly e.\cur-ion<. 
 Several of his vassals, hearing 
 \Vinter was on the coast, and Lid c:on::uV-iim 
 to execute martial law, fle.l to him 1 'i p'< 
 tions, which they extorted from the. tar. by 
 the piteous representation of their calamities. 
 
 VOL. I. O K
 
 428 AN IMPARTIAL IIISTORr 
 
 " Which the soldiers/' saith Hooker with a 
 shocking indifference., " did very much mislike, 
 (e the same, to be somewhat prejudicial to her 
 cc majesty's service,, because they persuaded 
 <c themselves, that if they had followed the course 
 ff which they began, they should either have taken 
 fc or slain them all." Such was the temper of this 
 man., who could express regret at a little mercy 
 shewn to wretches who scarcely knew any duly 
 but that of implicit obedience to their lords ! 
 when at the time that their lives were spared, 
 they were frequently bereft of all means of sup- 
 port; and when their cattle had been seized, he 
 assures us, that they were seen following the army 
 with their wives and children, and begging that 
 all might be rescued from their miseries by the 
 sword, rather than thus condemned to waste by 
 famine."* 
 
 From thr?e circumstances it is evident, either 
 that Desmond was an idiot, or was forced into 
 hostilities unprepared, and in spite of himself. 
 That his brethren, aided by many of his fol- 
 lowers, revolted, makes no positive proof of 
 bis consent to an undertaking so popular. We 
 have seen, that lord Thomas Fitzgerald re- 
 volted, in spite of the remonstrances of his 
 uncles; and that the earl of Ormond's brothers 
 drew his followers into a revolt, which he 
 quelled, more by his personal influence over his 
 brethren, and the weight of his arguments, 
 than by his authority, as head of the Butlers, 
 
 * Lclaml, Vol. II. B. IV. c. ii. p. 278.
 
 OF IRELAND. 4*29 
 
 The preparations for defence, being confined to 
 the parts of the county of Kerry \vhcrc his 
 brother's influence chiefly prevailed, and the de- 
 fenceless state of his own immediate domain, 
 render his participation in the plot of insurrec- 
 tion very improbable. His greatest crime con- 
 sisted in his attachment to the catholic faith, 
 his support of catholic seminaries and catholic 
 clergymen, and his princely domain, which 
 would reward adventuring converts to the new 
 
 J 
 
 gospel. Nothing like war occurs in this butchery 
 of a defenceless people, except the sieges of a 
 few forts, defended by small garrisons. The 
 castle of Carrick-a-Foyle was defended by fifty 
 Irish and nineteen Spaniards, commanded by an 
 Italian officer, named Julio. After a brave re- 
 sistance it was taken, the garrison was put to 
 the sword, except a few, among whom was th 
 commanding officer, reserved to be hanged, in 
 1580. Mot probably tliev were hung in sight 
 of one of Desmond's forts; for the little garri- 
 sons of the other castles, terrified In these bar- 
 barities, and seeing that the laws of civilized war- 
 fare were not to be observed toward them; that 
 neither treaty nor capitulation ailbrdcd securily. 
 abandoned their posts. In this abject sitiutio:), 
 Desmond, his countess, v, iih a few faithful fol- 
 lowers, lived in constant terror am! di.-tiv-s. 
 James, one of his brothers, was surprised and 
 executed. As usual with Iho iinfi>rti:;i:ite, lie nnd 
 his brother John, came to im:<i:al reproaches. 
 The countess in vain fell upon her k;; \ . ar.tl 
 petitioned with tears, thai her husband should
 
 430 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 be received to mercy. His force, as a rebel,, was 
 now too inconsiderable, and his possessions to be 
 forfeited were of too princely an extent, for the 
 queen's ministers to admit or pardon or submis- 
 sion. Even his offer of surrender to admiral 
 Winter, on condition of being conveyed prisoner 
 to England, there to supplicate the royal mercy, 
 at the foot of the throne, was rejected. In their 
 now desponding situation, a gleam of bope 
 seemed to draw on the southern insurgents. 
 The justice was suddenly recalled from the 
 south, by the arrival of Arthur, lord Grey, his 
 successor; leaving the Munster army, of about 
 three thousand, to the command of Bourchier, 
 carl of Bath. 
 
 Grey, who was instructed, among other parti- 
 culars, to shorten the Irish wars by a vigorous 
 prosecution, hearing of an encampment of insur- 
 gents at Gleandalough, formed by O' Byrne and 
 lord Baltinglass, grew impatient to signalize his 
 7eal. Fraught with contempt of the Irish, like 
 the rest of his countrymen, inexperienced in their 
 mode of warfare, he peremptorily commanded all 
 the officers to collect their companies, and drive 
 these rebels from their retreats. " They were to 
 enter a steep and marshy valley, perplexed with 
 rocks, and winding irregularly through hills 
 thickly wooded. A.s they advanced, they found 
 themselves more and more encumbered; and 
 either sunk into the vieldiuo 1 soil, so as to be ut- 
 
 *} O 
 
 tcrly incapable of action, or were obliged to 
 chimbcr over rocks which disordered their march. 
 In the midst of confusion and distress, a sudden
 
 OF IRELAND. 431 
 
 volley from the woods was poured in upon them, 
 without any appearance of an enemy; and re- 
 peated with terrible execution. Soldiers and offi- 
 cers fell, without any fair opportunity of signa- 
 lizing their valour. Audley, Moore, Cosby, and 
 Sir Peter Carew, all distinguished officers, were 
 slain in this rash adventure. George Carew, the 
 younger brother, was restrained from following 
 his companions by his uncle \\ ingfield, master 
 of the Ordnance, and thus reserved for nobler 
 service. Lord Grey, who had waited the event 
 upon a neighbouring eminence, returned, with 
 the remains of his forces, to the seat of govern- 
 ment, covered with confusion and dishonour." 
 Sir Robert Walpolc, in our own memory, paid 
 dearly for a similar precipitation and contempt 
 of an Irish enemy. This check was succeed- 
 ed by an alarm from the south. Seven hun- 
 dred Spaniards and Italians had made good 
 their landing at Smcrwick. They brought arms 
 and ammunition for five thousand men, and a 
 large sum of money, which they were ordered to 
 deliver to Desmond, his brother John, and Dr. 
 Saunders. 
 
 The earl of Ormond, now commanding in 
 Munster, on the first alarm of the descent, 
 marched to oppose the invaders; who at his ap- 
 proach, sought shelter in a neighbouring wood; 
 but, on learning that his force was not as great 
 as they first imagined, their commander, \\ith 
 about 300 of his men, returned to their origi- 
 
 * Li-land. Vol.11. B. IV.c.ii.p.280,
 
 432 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 nal stations, whence a successful sortie forced 
 Ormond to retreat to Rathkeale, and await the 
 arrival of the deputy Grey, who led 800 men 
 from Dublin, which united to the 3000 left by 
 Pelham, in Munster, formed a force very supe- 
 rior to the invaders, and what was of no less 
 moment, admiral Winter resumed his station off 
 the coast, to co-operate with the deputy. The 
 fort was thus invested by sea and land, and the 
 garrison summoned to surrender, to declare who 
 they were, for what purpose sent, and why pre- 
 sume to fortify themselves in the queen's domi- 
 nions. They answered that they were sent by 
 the pope and the king of Spain, to extirpate 
 heresy, and to reduce the land to the obedience 
 of king Philip, who was vested by the holy 
 father with the sovereignty of Ireland. This 
 answer was seconded by a vigorous sortie, in 
 which they were repulsed. The very next night, 
 Winter landed the artillery from his ships, and 
 cutting through a bank, which lay between the 
 shore and the coast, drew up his cannon, and com- 
 pleted his battery by the dawn of day, while Grey 
 made the like preparations on the landside. The 
 fort was now again summoned, but the foreigners, 
 unacquainted with their danger, or the nature 
 of their enemy, boldly replied, that they would 
 rmintain their posts, and endeavour to extend 
 their acquisitions. In fine, the garrison, say the 
 Pale writers, fatally surrendered at discretion; 
 and after surrendering their arms, a company of 
 E r;iish was sent into the fort, \\lio killed them 
 all in cold blood, except some reserved to be
 
 OF IRELAND. 4.>3 
 
 hanged from the battlements, in terror to their 
 Irish allies, now coining within sight. Fatal 
 indeed such a cowardly surrender was, if proved 
 true. By the opposite party it was represented 
 ns a perfidious and an inhuman violation of u. 
 solemn treaty, whereby Grey had engaged by 
 oath to permit the foreigners to depart unmo- 
 lested, with all the honors of war. This is the 
 more probable account, for we read of no prac- 
 ticable breach as yet for an assault, no lodgment, 
 nor attempt to take it by storm. The besieged 
 expected, and the besiegers dreaded, the speedy 
 arrival of an Irish force, perhaps succours from 
 Spain, to raise the siege. The law of honor 
 obliged the garrison to hold out as long as pos- 
 sible; policy dictated to the besiegers, to obtain 
 a speedy surrender of the fort on any terms; an 
 advantage, which promises, treaties and ouths 
 would not be spared to acquire. The murderers 
 furnish some proofs against themselves. Fir>t, 
 an Italian, the commander, determined to capi- 
 tulate, contrary to the opinion of his officers. 
 Now if the otliccrs opposed capitulation, con-i- 
 dering the fort as yet tenable, how much more 
 would they oppose a cowardly surrender at dU- 
 cretion, not justified by any cogent, necessity. 
 Secondly, If the number was too formidable to 
 be made prisoners, and the Irish were approach- 
 ing in a body of one thousand five hundred men, 
 how much more formidable nuit they not appear 
 armed, and in possession of the fort, when their 
 IribU.alHes cuiiiti in view; especially a the hauuhty
 
 434 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Englishman had been taught, in his signal defeat 
 by O'Byrne, at Glendalogh, no longer to despise 
 an Irish force? His fears, no doubt, prompted 
 the threatning language he held to the garrison, 
 for none threaten so hard as cowards; their Irish 
 allies were said to be cut off; no succours from 
 Spain; the coasts guarded by English fleets; if 
 taken by assault, no quarters to be given. 
 Splendid promises gained over the commander- 
 in-chief and a few others, honourable terms 
 promised to all, for the surrender so eagerly 
 panted for by Grey. With whatever pretences or 
 professions they endeavoured to cloak their hel- 
 lish deed, it " could not efface the odiousness of 
 this action ; on the continent it was received with 
 horror/'* That the deputy Grey was a monster 
 fitted for so foul a treason, we have the best 
 authority, that of Elizabeth's counsel and 
 agents, <c Repeated complaints were made of 
 the inhuman rigor practiced by this deputy 
 and .his officers; the queen was assured, that 
 lie tyrannized with such barbarity, that little 
 was left in Ireland for her majesty to reign over, 
 but ashes and dead carcasses."! To which she 
 replied, in the strain of crocodile pity, " Alas ! \ 
 ft:ir it will be said of mo, as Bato said to Tibe- 
 rius, You, you it is that are in fault, who have 
 committed your flocks not to shepherds but to 
 wolves." 
 
 * Loland, Vol. II. Book IV. c. ii. p. 283. 
 + Ib. p. 2S7.
 
 OF IRELAND. 435 
 
 The invasion being thus disposed of, and the 
 affairs of Minister quieted for the present, Zouch 
 was appointed governor of Kerry, Sir Walter 
 Raleigh commandant of Cork, and lord Grey 
 returned to Leinster, to oppose the progress of 
 lord Biiltinglass and his allies, daily becoming 
 more formidable. Tutored, however, b) his first 
 campaign at Glendalogh, he declined the dange- 
 rous honor of encountering O'Hyrn in his glens 
 or mountains; but, leaving that t:isk to other 
 commanders, occupied himself in detecting a 
 fabricated conspiracy, pretended to be formed in 
 the seat of government, by the principal inhabi- 
 tants of the Pale. That the earl of Kildare had 
 engaged to seize on the castle of Dublin; and 
 that others, both of the English and Irish, were 
 joined in the confederacy; that it was discovered 
 by the wife of one of the associates, prompted by 
 jealousy to open his letters. Camden took up the 
 tale, stating, " that the principal families of 
 English blood in Lein^er, partly from a fleet ion 
 to the Romish religion and its ministers, who 
 were sore persecuted; partly out of hatred to the 
 new-come English," who gave them like measure 
 as they gave unto the aboriginals, excluding 1 hem, 
 like mere Irish, from every office of gou-n .m.-nt 
 and magistracy," had " conspired to >ei/,e on the 
 deputy and the castle by surprize, wheie all pro- 
 visions necessary for war were deposited, and to 
 put every Englishman in Ireland to the sword. 
 This last circumstance robs the tale of any de- 
 gree of cn-dibilily. Hooker, a cult rnpmaiy 
 writer, resident and employed m Ireland, and no 
 
 VOL. I. ^ L
 
 436 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 way partial to the old English, takes no notice 
 of this formidable conspiracy; but slightly men- 
 tions a design on the deputy's person. Lord 
 Grey was a true pupil of the prevailing system 
 of policy and religion in the court of London ; 
 and, seeing the great advantages, both for power 
 and wealth, accruing to his masters from the 
 fabrication of plots, he resolved to copy their 
 example. Rumours were circulated; and he pro- 
 cured alarming information to be sent to him. 
 Several were seized, and some were executed ; of 
 whom the most distinguished was Nugent, baron 
 of the Exchequer, a man of singular good life 
 and reputation, who persevesed in asserting his 
 innocence, though he had assurance of pardon 
 if he would confess his guilt and disclose the 
 plot. The earl of Kildare and lord Delvin were 
 on suspicion committed to the custody of Wing- 
 field, master of the ordinance. Lord Henry, the 
 earl's son, took refuge among his fosterers in 
 O'Faly, who declared they would protect him 
 against the malice of his enemies, and were ready 
 to rise in arms. After repeated efforts to prevail 
 upon them to surrender him, they at length agreed 
 to resign him to the earl of Ormond. What a 
 contrast, this noble generosity towards a fugitive 
 of an implacable hostile race of exterminators, 
 and the murderous banquets and murderous ne- 
 gotiations of the latter. Together with his father 
 and lord Delvin, lie was sent into England, where 
 they were all honourably acquitted. Grey was 
 justly represented as a man of blood, who 
 dibliquoured his nation and sovercigu among
 
 OP IRELAND. 437 
 
 foreigners, and alienated the hearts of all the 
 Irish, by repeated barbarities. 
 
 The English colonists began to receive like 
 measure as they measured to the antient Irish. 
 New adventurers from the same stock, with a 
 new religion, eyed them with the same hatred 
 and contempt, as they did the Milesians, and 
 "with a similar longing for their property and 
 blood. " The province of Munster was govern- 
 ed with rigour and severity by the officers sta- 
 tioned in the several districts, who were rein- 
 forced by troops sent at different times from 
 England. The distinguished families of the old 
 English race, who still adhered to the popish 
 religion, were naturally suspected of favouring 
 the rebels. They declined furnishing their quotas 
 to the queen's service; and yet, were seen in 
 arms; for self-defence, as they pretended. And 
 it was the interest of the English officers to re- 
 present their conduct in the severest light. If 
 once declared rebels, their lands and property lay 
 at the mercy of their pursuers. Orders were dis- 
 patched from Dublin to seize the castle of lord 
 Barry, whose practices had been most obnoxious ; 
 but this lord, in the rage of indignation, set lira 
 to his house, rather than abandon it to the rapine 
 of the queen's soldiers. Roche, another suspected 
 lord, was surprised and seized by Raleigh, and 
 had the miserable satisfaction of approving hi* 
 innocence and being dismissed/' 
 
 After driving the gentry, both of English and 
 
 * Lt-Jand, Vol. II. Book IV. c. ii. p. ':SG.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Irish descent, to the extreme of discontent, by 
 arbitrary exaction, and excessive penalties on 
 the score of religion, the troops in Munster were 
 reduced to a small number, to tempt, as it were, 
 their feelings. The baron of Lixnaw, in revenge 
 for the oppressions he had endured from the 
 queen's officers, seized the occasion, and drove 
 out the garrisons that occupied his castles. Soon 
 after, he applied to the earl of Ormond for par- 
 don and protection; the more readily granted, 
 as he made it appear that he was driven to extre- 
 mities by intolerable oppressions. The queen was 
 so well convinced that such complaints were fre- 
 quently well founded, that a pardon was offered 
 to such rebels as would accept it. Unfortunate 
 Desmond was excepted from this general pardon, 
 though still entreating for mercy. Hunted from 
 one wretched retreat to another, frequently in 
 danger of being taken; disguised among his 
 wretched followers, lurking with them in bogs; 
 at length, caught alone, in a miserable hut, 
 his head was cut off and sent to Ormond, thence 
 to the queen, who caused it to be impaled on 
 London- bridge. Thus was a family extinguished, 
 which had amassed, from the ruins of the divided 
 Irish, a princely fortune, before the extinction 
 of the antient inhabitants,, laid down as a maxim 
 by their relative, Gerald Barry, took place. 
 
 The settlers in general were now receiving 
 some prefatory information, of which abundance 
 afterwards, how far the extermination of the 
 antient Irish, or the confiscation of their pro- 
 perties, "strengthen us;" as the Pale parliament,,
 
 OP IRELAND. 439 
 
 in its act of attainder against Shane O'NVil, 
 uttered, in the folly of ui.calculating selfishness. 
 Now that the south was pacified, that is, re- 
 duced to a wilderness, presenting an hideous 
 scene of famine and desolation, cum solitudincm 
 faciunt pacem appellant; a fair opportunity 
 offered, for the pretended civilization of one half 
 of the island, if any scheme of liberal policy \vas 
 in contemplation. That odious jealous> of this 
 country, which has always disgraced English 
 counsels, prevailed among the counsellors of 
 Elizabeth, and reconciled them to the distractions 
 and miseries of Ireland. " Should we exert our- 
 selves," said they, <e in reducing this country to 
 civility, it must soon acquire power, consequence 
 and riches. The inhabitants will be thus alienated 
 from England. They will cast themselves into 
 the arms of some foreign power, or perhaps erect 
 themselves into an independent and separate state. 
 Let us rather conniv- at ( of course foment ) their 
 disorders, for a weak and disordered people never 
 can attempt to detach themselves from tho crown 
 of England."* A nobleman of rank in tho pre- 
 |pnt government held similar language to me at 
 Ratisbon, as we conversed on Irish affairs. Un- 
 fortunately this abominable policy remains not 
 confined to theory, but is and lias bom s\stnn:i- 
 tically persevered in. If weakness and disorder 
 be their infallible recipe for preserving the con- 
 nexion, like the bleeding and warm water of 
 Doctor Sangrado; if their interest and ambition 
 
 * Letters of Sir II. Sidaey and Sir Jyhu i'trrot.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORT 
 
 conspire, to remove wealth, concord and pros- 
 perity from our reach, and hold us divided, in 
 chains, poverty and rags, good Lord deliver us ! 
 Yet, for what other purpose these annual com- 
 memorations of civil wars, fabricated plots, and 
 partly exaggerated, in part misrepresented out- 
 rages. Why those party badges of religious and 
 political factions ? Why one faction armed and 
 countenanced; the other, the majority of the 
 nation., disarmed, discountenanced ? Why foment 
 the hostilities of these factions, until it rose to 
 civil war; when the ministry, by adopting one, 
 made the other appear rebellious? 
 
 My eyes have been so fatigued, and my feelings 
 so disgusted, by the tiresome affectation of supe- 
 rior civility, and the arrogant claim of higher 
 social improvements, on which English and Pale 
 vriters incessantly ring the change, that I deter- 
 mined to proceed to an immediate enquiry into 
 the foundation of such fulsome self- adulation. 
 As to the fine arts, they had as yet no existence 
 in England. In music, confessedly the most 
 civilizing of the fine arts, and the most indubi- 
 table test of civilization, the Irish, by their ow^ 
 confession, not only exceeded them, and all the 
 west of Europe, but exceeded them incomparably. 
 The language of Ireland was copious and ele- 
 gant, imprimis; most eminently, according to the 
 testimony of the great Usher of English race; 
 while the language of England was uncouth 
 and barren. The one language abounded with 
 learned treatises on astronomy, physic, law, 
 divinity, history, elegant compositions in prose
 
 OF IRELAND. 441 
 
 and verse, of which valuable fragments have 
 survived the Gothic persecution of the first and 
 second race of Danes. The other language scarce 
 can shew a single tract worth perusal, until the 
 end of the present reign. Architecture could not 
 flourish among the Milesians, as thrir institutions, 
 rendering tenure of lands fluctuating, to prevent 
 its accumulation to a few hands, encouraged not 
 the erection of gorgeous palaces; neither had it 
 hitherto made any advances in the selfish island. 
 Cf The greatest part of our building in the cities 
 and good towns of England consisteth only of 
 
 O / 
 
 timber, cast over with thick clay to keep out the 
 wind. Certes, this rude kind of building made> 
 the Spaniards in queen Mark's days to wonder; 
 but chiefly when they saw that large diet was 
 used in many of their so homely cottages, inso- 
 much that one of no small reputation amongst 
 them, said, after this manner: these English, 
 quoth he, have their houses made of sticks and 
 dirt, but they fare commonly so well as the 
 king. Whereby it appeareth, that he liked bet- 
 ter of our good fare in such coarse cabins, than 
 of their own thin diet in their princely habita- 
 tions and palaces. The clay with which our 
 houses are commonly impannelled is either white, 
 red, or blue."* 
 
 Ireland, from the establishment of the Mile- 
 sians, if not before it, possessed agriculture and 
 manufactures; of which numerous proof- re- 
 Qj.ain, in domestic and foreign records, some of 
 
 * Harrison, Uook II. Chap. L*
 
 442 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 which have been published by Lynch, and by 
 Dr. Murray, in the fourth volume of the Trans- 
 actions of the Philosophical Society of Goettin- 
 gen; and in Ireland's Mirror, the Anthologia 
 and Collectanea; beside numerous incontestible 
 evidences, found on the furrowed brows of now 
 neglected mountains, in the bottom of bogs, in 
 quarries and mines formerly worked; in gold 
 and silver ornaments and vases, dug up yearly by 
 the peasantry, in such numbers and variety, that 
 no other country whatever has produced so great 
 a host of silent, subterraneous depositaries of 
 anticnt events. The unbounded hospitality with 
 which the Island of Saints entertained myriads of 
 the English youth, furnishing them with food, 
 raiment, books, and instruction, gratuitously, 
 attested by Bede and Alfred, whose testimony 
 extorted this confession from Lord Lyttleton, 
 fc an honourable testimony for the bountiful 
 generosity of this antient and learned people." 
 Similar hospitality, exercised towards the youth 
 of other nations, and strangers of every descrip- 
 tion, corroborates the eulogy of Donatus, bishop 
 of Fesula?, in Italy, composed in Latin, on this 
 sacred island, in the seventh century; " Insula 
 dives opum, gemmarum, vestis et auri."* With- 
 out agriculture and manufactures, a nation, never 
 much addicted to foreign commerce, which, like 
 the Chinese, she left mostly in the hands of 
 strangers, could not display such unequalled 
 munificence as foreigners vouch for. The singu- 
 
 * An island rich in produce, cloth, gems and gold.
 
 OF IRELAND. 443 
 
 larity of their fashions; (ho Brehon laws, regu- 
 lating the number of colours to be in the gar- 
 ments of each cast; the tributes, payable to the 
 monarch and provincial kings, in gold, silver, 
 and the manufactures of the country, mantles, 
 swords, utensils, ships, chariots, &c. prove manu- 
 factures of their own. Until the league in 
 France, and the tyranny of Philip II. in the 
 Netherlands, drove some manufacturers to Eng- 
 land, they exported the raw materials, and im- 
 ported manufactured goods. This explains the 
 vote of an English parliament, that Irish cattle 
 was a nuisance, dead or alive; as exporters of 
 raw materials, they disliked a competition of the 
 same kind, in their home market. 
 
 Further tests of civihition would consist, in 
 religion, social virtues, morality. In these exalted 
 characteristics, England had no improvement to 
 impart to her western sister. \ot in religion: 
 since, \vith a scandalous, latitudinarian indif- 
 ference, she thrice in three reigns changed her 
 creed, at the command of lu>tl'iil or bigotted 
 tyrants, and has still her faith to seek. Not in 
 the second: for, by confession, the hospitality 
 and charitv of the Irish, amidst distress and po- 
 verty, stands yet unrivalled; so tint the la\v, 
 which dares not entrust (he pocr of England t< 
 the Christian charity, or humane companion ol 
 their countrvmen, glutted with the wealth ai:d 
 commerce of the world, le*t thev should vtarve 
 or hang-, confides them safely to the hountv and 
 mercy of an oppressed, impoverished people. In 
 what state the third characteristic, morality 
 
 VOL. I. 'j M
 
 444 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 stood, in the present reign, we are not to judge 
 from the present state of England, whose flou- 
 rishing commerce, fisheries and manufactures, 
 furnish abundance of employment for all hands; 
 and whose taxation renders that employment in- 
 dispensable to the lower orders, even in old age 
 and infancy; whose paupers are imprisoned in 
 every parish, and fed attheexpence of the public, 
 by poor rates; but we must take our estimate 
 from cotemporary English writers. Harrison 
 says, book ii. chapter 11. that " in the reign 
 of Henry VIII. there were hanged seventy-two 
 thousand thieves and rogues (besides other male- 
 factors);"* this makes about two thousand ayear. 
 " A judicious paper, which is preserved by 
 Strype,f and which was writ by an eminent jus- 
 tice of peace of Somersetshire, in the year 1596, 
 near the end of the queen's (Elizabeth) reign, 
 when the authority of that princess may be sup- 
 posed to be fully corroborated by time, and her 
 maxims of government improved by long prac- 
 tice, contains an account of the disorders which 
 then prevailed in the county of Somerset. The 
 author says, that forty persons had been there 
 executed in a year for robberies, thefts, and other 
 felonies; thirty- five burned in the hand, thirty- 
 seven whipped, one hundred and eighty-three 
 discharged : that those who were discharged 
 were most wicked and desperate persons, who 
 never could come to any good, because they 
 would not work, and none would take them into 
 
 * Harrison's Description of Britain, 
 t Annals. Vol. IV. p. 290.
 
 OF IRELAND. 445 
 
 service: that notwithstanding this great number 
 of indictments, the fifth part of the felonies com- 
 mitted in the county were not brought to a trial ; 
 the greater number escaped censure, either from 
 the superior cunning of the felons, the remissness 
 of the magistrates, or the foolish lenity of the 
 people; that the rapines, committed by the infi- 
 nite number of wicked, wandering, idle people, 
 were intolerable to the poor countrymen, and 
 obliged them to a perpetual watch over their 
 sheep-folds, their pastures, their woods, and their 
 corn-fields: that the other counties of England 
 were in no better condition than Somersetshire; 
 and many of them even in a worse: that there 
 were at least three or four hundred able bodied 
 vagabonds in every county, who lived by theft 
 and rapine; and who sometimes met in troops to 
 the number of sixty and committed spoil on the 
 inhabitants: that if all the felons of this kind 
 were assembled, they would be able, if reduced 
 to a good subjection, to give the greatest enemy 
 her majesty has a strong battle: and that the 
 magistrates themselves were intimidated from ex- 
 ecuting the laws upon them; and there were ex- 
 amples of justices of peace, who, after giving 
 sentence against rogues, had interposed to stop 
 the execution of their own sentence, on account 
 of the danger which hung over them from the 
 confederates of these felons." 
 
 The number of malefactors, executed in the 
 reign of Henry VIII. for theft and robbery 
 
 * Hume, Vol. V. App. HI.
 
 446 AN IiMPARTI/VL HISTORY 
 
 alone, was truly prodigious; taken from a popu- 
 lation short of a million and a half, according 
 to the computations quoted in Hume's appendix. 
 From such a sample, one would picture to his 
 mind a people, not only uncivilized,, but utterly 
 disorganized, divested of religious and moral 
 principles. It is very probable, that Henry's 
 schism, and suppression of abbeys and monas- 
 tries, contributed much to augment this host of 
 malefactors, in two ways; by diminishing re- 
 straint, and increasing temptation to guilt. First, 
 to gain popularity to the suppression, no pains 
 were spared to decry monks and friars, and de- 
 pict them to the populace, as monsters of lust 
 and luxury; and with some silly apes of a vile 
 superstition, fit objects of ridicule. Turned 
 out loose on the world, with whose affairs and 
 fashions they were unacquainted, their awkward- 
 ness gave opportunities enough for libertines to 
 join the fashionable laugh, and point them to 
 the finger of scorn. From sacred persons to 
 sacred things, the transition is easy and short; 
 and contempt for the one leaves no respect for 
 the other. Now, during the great power and 
 wealth of the secular clergy, the regulars at- 
 tracted the devotion of the multitude; and, as 
 far as the court succeeded to make them odious 
 or contemptible, so far the bulk of the people 
 became irreligious. Besides, great numbers were 
 deprived of their ordinary means of subsistence 
 by the suppression. Every abbey must be consi- 
 dered as the center and support of a village, 
 whose inhabitants were diversely employed and
 
 OF IRELAND. 447 
 
 maintained by its inmates. Some as fanners, 
 gardiners, cowherds,, &c. some as menial ser- 
 vants. The monks, being constant residents, 
 the rental of the abbey- lands was always con- 
 sumed on the spot, circulating in the vicinity. 
 After the suppression, their estates fell general Iv, 
 cither by sale or gift, to noblemen or capitalists,, 
 residing- in London, or other cities becoming 
 cither sheepwalks or pleasure grounds, and the 
 cottagers were ruined. Supposing live hundred 
 religious houses, including monks, friars, nun?, 
 and the like, no extravagant computation, and 
 allow ten families to subsist by each, at live 
 souls to each family, the number beggared would 
 amount to twenty- five thousand souls; out. of 
 which, the number, that could possibly be amen- 
 able to law, for the foremcntioned crimes, would 
 not exceed ten or twelve thousand, a number 
 far short of seventy-two; not to reckon, that 
 the calamity would not be so general as not 1< 
 admit of many exceptions. Some of the abbey- 
 lands were probably continued in tillage, afford- 
 ing 1 bread and employment to the original cotta- 
 gers; some might lind employment elsewhere. 
 
 In order to account for the prodigious ho-f of 
 miscreants, with which England abounded, in 
 the long period of the reigns of Henrv. i-idward. 
 INIarv and Elizabeth, the cause mu>t hr liacvd a 
 little farther than the calamity brought on num- 
 bers bv the suppression of religious liou>r- To 
 explain such general epidemic depra\ it \ in a \\ hole 
 nation, as amounts to a moral revolution. -\\KJI- 
 jiii- avav, like a torrent, the imbibed religion- sru-
 
 448 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 timents, and impressed religious usages, whose 
 union forms the pivot on which moral princi- 
 ples rest, we must seek for some general and ade- 
 quate cause of such revolution. Such a cause 
 can onlj be found in the measures of govern- 
 ment,, shaking and overturning the settled sys- 
 tem of religion. The catholic religion was the 
 national established religion of England before 
 these times. Bj its hoary antiquity, consistency, 
 generality, and solemnity of its ceremonies and 
 pomp of worship, it commanded the veneration 
 of the people, accustomed to believe and prac- 
 tise what they were taught, without scruple or 
 enquiry. The foundation of public morals rested 
 quietly on habits and tradition. But, when go- 
 vernment employed numberless agents, to upset 
 this tranquil order of things. When the press 
 teemed with scurrilous invectives against cere- 
 monies and rites; some of which are highly use- 
 ful, and most of them, at worse, very harm- 
 less. When the authority of a servile parlia- 
 ment was obtained, to abolish and persecute the 
 national religion. When the pulpit, where the 
 healing voice of charity should alone be heard, 
 was converted to drum ecclesiastic, resounding 
 with lampoons, furious and scandalous, against 
 the scarlet whore, her idolatries, and impos- 
 tures. When the magistrate crammed the jails, 
 with readers and hearers of mass. When the 
 support of priests was made treason; the bulk 
 of the people was, by the various arts of perse- 
 cution, violence and seduction, penalties and 
 rewards, ridiculed or cajoled, persuaded, bul-
 
 OF IRELAND. 449 
 
 lied or bribed out of their antient religion, when 
 very few of them were instructed or persuaded to 
 reverence a new system. To decry and hunt 
 down one system, by fraud and by force, was a 
 much easier task, than to establish in a whole 
 people, reverence and affection for a novel sys- 
 tem, as yet only broached, not settled, and that 
 by men and means ill calculated to produce 
 those effects. Persecution and seduction gained 
 proselytes; but they were such as fear and inte- 
 rest make, hypocrites. The new evangelists, as 
 they are described by cotemporary writers of 
 their own sect, ignorant, immoral, and scanda- 
 lously licentious, were only fitted to gain prose- 
 lytes to irrcligion; better adapted to decry fasts, 
 confessions, penances, celibacy, and other popish 
 austerities, than to invite, by preaching or exam- 
 ple, to the observance of the evangelical virtues. 
 The necessary consequence, of these means of 
 perfidy and cruelty, to root out of the people all 
 reverence and respect for the religion they had 
 learned, and the inability of operating a general 
 conversion to as yet an unsettled system, accom- 
 panied with the same reverent ial awe the former 
 commanded, was hypocrisy, irrcligion, immora- 
 lity. We have in our days, witnessed similar 
 effects, from similar causes, in France. The ex- 
 cesses of the French populace, under the regime 
 of infidelity, w ill never be forgotton ; and had 
 not the coalition called forth the population of 
 France, and iriven their unbridled licentiousness 
 
 * c 
 
 another direction, ambulatory guillotines would 
 tind as much employment there, as the 1 growers
 
 450 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORr 
 
 of hemp did in England, in the innovating reigns 
 of Henry and Bess. Add to this stupendous mass 
 of executed malefactors, stupendous indeed,, when 
 compared with the small population of England, 
 the far greater number., who escaped detection, 
 or were spared, by a mistaken lenity of the peo- 
 ple; or not committed by magistrates, for fear 
 of their vengeful associates; or discharged for 
 want of prosecution, arising, partly from terror, 
 partly from lenity ; besides the number of receivers 
 and circulators of theft and rapine, and the male- 
 factors of every species omitted in this enume- 
 ration. Such universal depravation of a whole 
 people, can only be ascribed to the violent, pre- 
 cipitate, persecuting reform, carried on; and 
 teaches governments and people, the danger, the 
 folly of resorting to precipitation and violence, 
 for the overthrow of any settled order of things. 
 "V on may call that order, tyranny, superstition, 
 idolatry, or any other scolding epithet flung by 
 party rage. Before you attack that order, look 
 to the woeful effects of disorder; but, above all, 
 before vou attack the fixed principles, and settled 
 habits, which govern the conductand morals of the 
 community, to most of whom implicit obedience 
 is the polar star, and habit the compass of action. 
 If, by persecution or seduction, by declamation, 
 ridicule, or any other means, these affections and 
 habits arc rooted out of their minds, and they aje 
 delivered over to the management of fanatical 
 enthusiasts, spiritual empiric?, putting scripture 
 texts in the crucible, for the discovery of \\ihl 
 visionary innovations, the multitude will become
 
 OF IRELAND. 451 
 
 an easy prey to such vain declaimers, wliilc they 
 turn the objects of their former veneration to 
 ridicule; when they hold forth fasts, penances, 
 and every sort of mortification, as intolerable 
 tyranny. It may be easy, when enforced by 
 power, encouraged by the example of the great 
 and learned, and when the revolution is set for- 
 ward by the executive and heads of a nation, not 
 forcibly intruded by a hostile nation, to eradicate 
 principles and habits, resting on traditionary 
 acquiescence and implicit faith, by ridiculing or 
 persecuting ceremonies and observances attached 
 to them: but it is not easy to substitute any of 
 equdl force in their place; impossible to do so 
 as quickly as the exigency of a precipitate revo- 
 lution in religion would require. Few are instan- 
 taneously converted from one religion to another, 
 like St. Paul ; but., in all ordinary cases, time, 
 instruction, example and persuasion, are essential 
 to a solid and entire conversion, even of an indi- 
 vidual, much more so for the conversion of an 
 entire nation, even to the most perfect system of 
 religion, sanctified by hoary antiquity, unity and 
 universality. To effect that by a furious perse- 
 cution, imprisonments, fines, torture and execu- 
 tions, or with bribes, favours and promotions, 
 towards an immature fret us of a female pontiff, 
 not yet licked into form bv herself, or the good 
 bishops of her confirmation and consecration, 
 would be a miracle of miracles. Hypocrites 
 without number she made; fanatics >-he encou- 
 raged and multiplied ; the bulk of the people, 
 terrified into hypocrisy, deprived of their original 
 VOL. i. o >
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 pastors and religion, no way enticed, or indeed 
 instructed by the new, except in the horrors of 
 popery, sunk into indifference and ignorance of 
 all religion ; a disposition common enough among 
 the lower orders of the English to this day, who, 
 except in the article of scandal against popery, 
 are left in the most deplorable ignorance of the 
 Christian faith. A saying common enough among 
 them, ' I knows not what religion is, but I hates 
 the pope.' The decay of religion and morality 
 are mighty evils to a state; they are not the only 
 ones, prepared by the furious persecution of Bess 
 for her successors. The experience of every age 
 shews, the dangerous folly of warring against 
 settled habits and opinions; the mad tyranny of 
 persecuting them, if they be at all compatible 
 with social order, with peace and industry; if 
 they promote loyalty in the subject, and mitigate 
 authority in the prince. The antient principles 
 were found by long experience promotive of all 
 these good ends. If abuses there were, as nobody 
 will deny, they could have been discreetly and 
 gradually removed, without shaking the foun- 
 dation of religion and morality, of the altar and 
 the throne, by an unnecessary change of the 
 orthodox system, an unskilful, ruinous cobling 
 of creeds and sacraments. Now, as falsehood, 
 injustice and tvranny, betray themselves by their 
 discordant features, Cess's measures convicted 
 her of tyrannic inconsistency, and improvident 
 impolicy. She persecuted papists for adhering to 
 antiquity, and resisting innovation; she perse- 
 cuted puritans, for embracing innovation and
 
 OF IRELAND. 45S 
 
 exploding antiquity. Popish recusants were per- 
 secuted as traitors, for refusing conformity to her 
 own innovations; puritan malignants she perse- 
 cuted for improving on her innovations; as if her 
 private opinion were to be an infallible standard 
 of orthodoxy. " Udal, a puritanical clergyman, 
 published a book., called A Demonstration of 
 Discipline, in which he inveighed against the 
 government of bishops; and though he had 
 carefully endeavoured to conceal his name, he 
 was thrown into prison upon suspicion, and 
 brought to trial for this oiTence. It was pre- 
 tended, that the bishops were part of the queen's 
 political body; and to speak against them, was 
 really to attack her, and was therefore felony by 
 the statute. This was not the only iniquity to 
 which Udal was exposed. The judges would 
 not allow the jury to determine any thing but 
 the fact, whether Udal had \vrit the book, or not, 
 without examining his intention,, or the import 
 of the words. In order to prove the fact, the 
 crown lawyers did not produce a single witness 
 to the court; they only read the testimony of two 
 persons absent, one of whom said, that I dal had 
 told him he was the author; another, that a friend 
 of Udal's had said so. Thry would not allow 
 Udal to produce any exculpatory evidence; which, 
 they said, was never to be permitted airaiii-'t the 
 queen. And they tendered him an oath, hv which 
 he was required to depose, that lie was not author 
 of this book; and his refusal to give that trsti- 
 jnony was employed as the strongest proof of his 
 guilt It is almost wcdlc^ to iidd. that, notwith-
 
 454 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 standing these multiplied iniquities, a verdict of 
 death was given by the jury against Udal : for 
 as the queen was extremely bent upon his prose- 
 cution, it was impossible he could escape.* He 
 died in prison before the execution of his sentence. 
 
 " The case of Penry was, if possible, still hard- 
 er. This man was a zealous puritan, or rather a 
 Brownist; and he had written against the hie- 
 rarchy several tracts, such as Martin Marprelate, 
 Theses Martinianse, and other compositions, full 
 of low scurrility and petulant satire. After con- 
 cealing himself for some years, he was seized; 
 and as the statute against seditious words required, 
 that the criminal should be tried within a year 
 after committing the offence, he could not be in- 
 dicted for his printed books. He was therefore 
 tried for some papers found in his pocket, as if 
 he had thereby scattered sedition. f It was also 
 imputed to him, by the lord keeper, Puckering, 
 that in some of these papers, fc he had only ac- 
 knowledged her majesty's royal power to establish 
 laws, ecclesiastical and civil; but had avoided 
 the usual terms of making, enacting, decreeing, 
 and ordaining laws: which imply," says the lord 
 keeper, " a most absolute authority. "| Penry 
 for these offences was condemned and executed 
 
 " A severe law was also enacted against Je- 
 suits and popish priests: that they should de- 
 
 * " State trials, vol. i. p. 144. Strype, vol. iv. p. 21. Life 
 of Whitgift, p. 343. 
 
 + " Stripe's Life of Whitgift, book iv. chap. 11. Neal, 
 vol. i. p. 5'5 4. 
 
 'I t; Stivpc, vol. iv. p. 177.
 
 OF IRELAND. 455 
 
 part the kingdom within forty days; that those 
 who should remain beyond that time, or should 
 afterwards return, should be guilty of treason ; 
 that those who harboured or relieved them should 
 be guilty of felony; that those who were edu- 
 cated in seminaries, if they returned not in six 
 months after notice given, and submitted not 
 themselves to the queen, before a bishop or two 
 justices, shonld be guilty of treason: and that if 
 any, so submitting themselves, should, within 
 ten years, approach the queen's court, or come 
 within ten miles of it, their submission should be 
 void.* By this law, the exercise of the catholic 
 religion, which had formerly been prohibited 
 under lighter penalties, and which was, in many 
 instances, connived at, was totally suppressed. 
 In the subsequent part of the queen's reign, the 
 law was sometimes executed, by the capital pu- 
 nishment of priests; and though the partizans of 
 that princess asserted, that they were punished 
 for their treason, not their religion, the apology 
 must only be understood in this sense, that the 
 law was enacted on account of the treasonable 
 views and attempts of the sect, not that every in- 
 dividual, who suilered the penalty of the law, 
 was convicted of treason. f The catholics, there- 
 fore, might now with justice complain of a 
 violent persecution; which, we may safely allirm, 
 in spite of the rigid and bigotted maxims of that 
 
 * " 27 Eiiz. cap. I. 
 
 i " Some even of thcw who defend the queen's nioa>ur^<;, 
 allow that in ten years fifty priests >\ere executed^ aud liftj. 
 fi?e banished. (Jaiudcn, p. 6 19.
 
 456 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 age, not to be the best method of converting 
 them, or of reconciling them to the established 
 government and religion/'* For their treason, 
 not their religion ! Yes, truly, for their religion 
 was made treason. Papist and traitor were made 
 synonimous terms. Yet, strange to tell, those 
 traitors fought her battles by sea and land, and 
 she was more than once on the point of marrying 
 one of them. No matter. She first thought her 
 honour and interest concerned in the overthrow 
 of the catholic church, and she gradually adopted 
 its destruction, by all means, fair and foul, as a 
 leading article of her faith and politics ; a domi- 
 neering passion, that swallowed up all other 
 considerations. Under cover of feigned popish 
 plots, she really plotted against them; and by 
 one stratagem or another, successively cut off 
 most of the catholic nobility and gentry of rank 
 and fortune. At the close of a long and prospe- 
 rous reign, she left the catholics a weak party, 
 and their enemies predominant in England. Did 
 she foresee, that she paved the way for the over- 
 throw of her new created church and of the 
 monarchy, and the establishment of a republic 
 on its ruins ? Could she see, that contempt for 
 ecclesiastical authority was not very apt to inspire 
 reverence to the civil ; and that people, who 
 were taught to despise antiquity and authority, 
 when in competition with their own fancies ; who, 
 with bible in hand, condemned popes, councils 
 and bishops, as ministers of antichrist, would 
 
 * IIume 3 Hist, of England, Vol. V. c.
 
 OF IRELAND. 457 
 
 soon discover, that the civil power, when in 
 opposition to their interpretation of scripture, 
 was one of the horns of the beast; and find au- 
 thority in the bible, . " with the high praises of 
 God in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in 
 their hands, to execute judgment on the heathen, 
 and judgments upon the people, to bind their 
 kings with chains and their rulers with fetters of 
 iron ?"* as Hugh Peters sung his In Pean, in the 
 king's chapel at St. James's, when Charles I. was 
 a prisoner in the hands of the rebels. 
 
 Hitherto we have seen, that England had no 
 notable improvements, in arts or manufactures, 
 to impart to the Irish: that, if they had, by the 
 confession of their own statesmen and writers, 
 they would rather withhold than communicate 
 any thing useful to a nation, whose poverty and 
 distrac(ions they considered as the best guarantees 
 for its obedience; and that Ireland, in the most 
 useful, and some of the most civilizing arts, was 
 entitled to the precedence. The shocking immo- 
 rality and profligacy of the lower orders; the 
 no less revolting perfidy and cruelty of the 
 higher, in the intercourse of hospitality and 
 pacification, which civilized and most barbarous 
 nations guard with scrupulous honor. The reli- 
 gious confusions, distractions, and delirious fa- 
 naticism, that convulsed that country, shedding 
 torrents of blood ; first in the tyrannic overthrow 
 of the antient religion, afterwards in the sangui- 
 nary conflict of the triumphant innovators for 
 
 * Psalm clix.
 
 458 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 power and riches, were not boons to be wished 
 for ; but, to use the word of chancellor Fitz- 
 gibbon, " pestilent banes," to be deprecated. Let 
 us now see what blessings they had in store, for 
 this unhappy country, from the sanctuary of the 
 constitution, the guardian of civil and religious 
 liberty. If a servile parliament, met solely to 
 impose taxes, and register the decrees of an arbi- 
 trary monarch, was a desirable constitution, the 
 English could have shared this blessing with us. 
 " One of the most antient and most established 
 instruments of power was the court of Star- 
 chamber, which possessed an unlimited discre- 
 tionary authority of fining, imprisoning, and in- 
 flicting corporal punishment, and whose juris- 
 diction extended to all sorts of offences, con- 
 tempts., and disorders, that lay not within reach 
 of the common law. The members of this court 
 consisted of the privy council and the judges; 
 men, who all of them enjoyed their offices during 
 pleasure: aud when the prince himself was pre- 
 sent, he was the sole judge, and all the others 
 could only interpose with their advice. There 
 needed but this one court, in any government, to 
 put an end to all regular, legal, and exact plans 
 of liberty. For who durst set himself in oppo- 
 sition to the crown and ministry, or aspire to the 
 character of being a patron of freedom, while 
 exposed to so arbitrary a jurisdiction ? I much 
 question, whether any of the absolute monarchies 
 in Europe contain, at present, so illegal and 
 despotic a tribunal. 
 
 " The court of High Commission was another
 
 OF IRELAND. 459 
 
 jurisdiction still more terrible; both because the 
 crime of heresy, of which it took cognizance, was 
 
 ' O * 
 
 more undeiinable than any civil offence, and be- 
 cause its methods of inquisition, and of admini- 
 stering oaths, were more contrary to all the most 
 simple ideas of justice and equity. The fines and 
 imprisonments imposed by this court were fre- 
 quent: the deprivations and suspensions of the 
 clergy for non-conformity were also numerous, 
 and comprehended at one time the third of all the 
 ecclesiastics of England.* The queen, in a letter 
 to the archbishop of Canterbury, said expressly, 
 that she was resolved., " That no man should be 
 suffered to decline,, either on the left or on the 
 right hand., from the drawn line limited by au- 
 thority, and by her laws and injunctions. "f 
 
 But Martial Law went beyond even these two 
 courts, in a prompt and arbitrary and violent 
 method of decision. Whenever there was any 
 insurrection or public disorder, the crown em- 
 ployed martial law; and it was, during that 
 time, exercised not only over the soldiers, but 
 over the whole people: any one might be pu- 
 nished as a rebel, or an aider and abettor of 
 rebellion, whom the provost-martial, or lieutenant 
 of a county, or their deputies, pleased to suspect. 
 Lord Bacon says, that the trial at common law, 
 granted to the carl of Essex and his fellow con- 
 spirators, was a favour: fur that the case would 
 have borne and required the severity of martial 
 law. \Ve have seen instances of its being rm- 
 
 * N.-al, Vol. I. p. 179. * Murden. p. 1S3. 
 
 VOL, 1. 3 O
 
 460 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 ployed by queen Mary in defence of orthodoxy. 
 There remains a letter of queen Elizabeth's to 
 the earl of Sussex, after the suppression of the 
 northern rebellion, in which she reproves him 
 sharply, because she had not heard of his having 
 executed any criminals by martial law;* though 
 it is probable, that near eight hundred persons 
 suffered, one way or other, on account of that 
 slight insurrection. But the kings of England 
 did not always limit the exercise of this law 
 to the times of civil war and disorder. In 
 1552, when there was no rebellion nor insur- 
 rection, king Edward granted a commission 
 of martial law; and empowered the commis- 
 sioners to execute it, as should be thought by 
 their discretion most necessary. f Queen Eliza- 
 beth too was not sparing in the use of this law. 
 In 1573, one Peter Burchet, a puritan, being 
 persuaded that it was meritorious to kill such as 
 opposed the truth of the gospel, ran into the 
 streets, and wounded Hawkins, the famous sea- 
 captain, whom he took for Hatton, the queen's 
 favourite. The queen was so incensed, that she 
 ordered him to be punished instantly by martial 
 law ; but upon the remonstrance of some prudent 
 counsellors, who told her, that this law was 
 usually confined to turbulent times, she recalled 
 her order, and delivered over Burchet to the 
 common law.]; But she continued not always 
 
 * MS. of lord Iloyston's from the paper office. 
 
 i Strype's Eccles. Memoirs, Vol. II. p. 373. 458. 9, 
 
 1 Camdeiij p. 416. Srrype, Vol. II. p. 288.
 
 OF IRELAND. 461 
 
 so reserved in exerting this authority. There 
 remains a proclamation of hers, in which she 
 orders martial law to be used against all such 
 as import bulls, or even forbidden books and 
 pamphlets from abroad;* and prohibits the 
 questioning of the lieutenants or their deputies, 
 for their arbitrary punishment of such offenders, 
 any law or statute to the contrary in any wise 
 notwithstanding. We have another act of her's 
 still more extraordinary. The streets of London 
 were much infested with idle vagabonds and 
 riotous persons : the lord mayor had endeavoured 
 to repress this disorder: the star-chamber had 
 exerted its authority, and inflicted punishment 
 on these rioters: but the queen, finding those 
 remedies ineffectual, revived martial law, and 
 gave Sir Thomas Wilford a commission of pro- 
 vost-marshal : " granting him authority, and 
 commanding him, upon signification given by 
 the justices of the peace in London, or the neigh- 
 bouring counties, of such offenders, worthy to be 
 speedily executed by martial law, to attach and 
 take the same persons, and in the presence of (lie 
 said justices, according to justice of martial law, 
 to execute them upon the gallows or gibbet 
 openly, or near to such place whore the >aul re- 
 bellious and incorrigible offenders shall be found 
 to have committed the said great offences. "f I 
 suppose it will be difficult to produce an instance 
 of such an act of authority in any place nearer 
 than Moscow. 
 
 - Stryj),-, V-)!. III. p. ">70. 
 f HVDKI. Tom. X\ i. p. '279.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 tc The star -chamber,, and high commission, and 
 court-martial, though arbitrary jurisdictions, jet 
 had still some pretence of a trial, at least of a 
 sentence ; but there was a grievous punishment 
 very familiarly inflicted in that age, without any 
 other authority than the warrant of a secretary 
 of state, or of the privy council;* and that was, 
 "Imprisonment, in any jail, and during any time 
 that the ministers should think proper. In sus- 
 picious times, all the jails were full of prisoners 
 of state; and these unhappy victims of public 
 jealousy were sometimes thrown into dungeons, 
 and loaded with irons, and treated in the most 
 cruel manner, without their being able to obtain 
 any remedy from law. 
 
 " This practice was an indirect way of em- 
 ploying torture: but the rack itself, though not 
 admitted in the ordinary execution of justice,f 
 was frequently used, upon any suspicion, without 
 other authority than a warrant from the secretary 
 or the privy council. Even the council in the 
 marches of Wales was empowered, by their very 
 commission, to make use of torture, whenever 
 they thought proper. J There cannot be a stronger 
 proof how lightly the rack was employed, than 
 the following story, told by lord Bacon. We 
 shall give it in his own words. " The queen was 
 mightily incensed against Haywarde, on account 
 of a book he dedicated to lord Essex, being a 
 
 * In 1588, the lord mayor committed several citizens to 
 prison, because they refused to pay the loan demanded of 
 them. Murden, p. 632. 
 
 f Harrison, Book II. c. 11. 
 
 Haynes, p. 196. See farther la Boderie ? vol. i. p. 211.
 
 OF IRELAND. 463 
 
 story of the first year of Henry IV. thinking it 
 a seditious prelude to put into the people's heads 
 boldness and faction : She said, she had an opi- 
 nion that there was treason in it, and asked me, 
 if I could not find any places in it, that might 
 be drawn within the case of treason: whereto I 
 answered, for treason, sure I found none ; but for 
 felony, very many: and when her majesty very 
 hastily asked me, wherein ? I told her, the author 
 had committed very apparent theft : for he had 
 taken most of the sentences of Cornelius Tacitus, 
 and translated them into English, and put them 
 into his text. And another time,, when the queen 
 could not be persuaded, that it was his writing 
 whose name was to it, but it had some more mis- 
 chievous author,, and said with great indignation 
 that she would have him racked to produce his 
 author; I replied, nay, madam, he is a doctor, 
 never rack his person, but rack his style: let him 
 have pcn^ ink, and paper, and help of books, and 
 be enjoined to continue the story where it brcak- 
 eth oft", and I will undertake, by collating the 
 styles to judge whether he were the author or 
 no."* Thus, had it not been for Bacon's huma- 
 nity, or rather his wit, this author, a man ot 
 letters, had been put to the rack, for a most in- 
 nocent performance. His real oflenre \\a-, his 
 dedicating a book to that munificent patron ot 
 
 To our apprehension, Il;i\ \v;m!<-'- h<>.>k MTIIK rath, r to 
 have a contrary tendency. J'''>r he ' 1;1S liieiv pn-M-m-d flip 
 famous speech of the bishop of CarlN.-, hir!i nmMin-, in 
 the most express term-, the dorlrim- of pa-n-' olu-dinuv. 
 But queen Klizabeth was very diiiicult to plea-i- on lui^ head. 
 
 * Cabbala, p. 81.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 the learned, the earl of Essex, at a time when this 
 nobleman lay under disgrace with her majesty. 
 
 " The queen's menace, of trying and punish- 
 ing Haywarde for treason, could easily have 
 been executed, let his book have been ever so 
 innocent. While so many terrors hung over 
 the people, no jury durst have acquitted a man 
 whom the court was resolved to have condemned. 
 The practice also, of not confronting witnesses 
 with the prisoner, gave the crown lawyers all 
 imaginable advantage against him. And, indeed, 
 there scarcely occurs an instance, during all these 
 reigns, that the sovereign, or the ministers, were 
 ever disappointed in the issue of a prosecution. 
 Timid juries, and judges who held their offices 
 during pleasure, never failed to second all the 
 views of the court. 
 
 " The government of England during that age, 
 however different in other particulars, bore, in 
 this respect, some resemblance to that of Turkey 
 at present : the sovereign possessed every power, 
 except that of imposing taxes: and in both coun- 
 tries this limitation, unsupported by other pri- 
 vileges, appears rather prejudicial to the people. 
 In Turkey, it obliges the sultan to permit the 
 extortion of the bashas and governors of pro- 
 vinces, from whom he afterwards squeezes pre- 
 sents or takes forfeitures: in England, it engaged 
 the queen to erect the monopolies, and grant 
 patents for exclusive trade: an invention so per- 
 nicious, that, had she gone on, during a tract of 
 years, at her own rate, England, the seat of 
 riches, and arts, and commerce, would have con-
 
 OF IRELAND. 465 
 
 tained at present as little industry as Morocco, 
 on the coast of Barbary. 
 
 " Purveyance was a method of taxation, 
 unequal, arbitrary., and oppressive. The whole 
 kingdom felt sensibly the burthen of this impo- 
 sition: and it was regarded as a great privilege 
 conferred on Oxford and Cambridge, to prohibit 
 the purveyors from taking any commodities within 
 five miles of these universities. The queen vic- 
 tualled her navy by means of this prerogative, 
 during the first years of her government.* 
 
 " Embargoes on merchandize was another 
 engine of royal power, by which the English 
 princes were able to extort money from the peo- 
 ple. Elizabeth, before her coronation, issued an 
 order to the custom-house, prohibiting the sale 
 of all crimson silks, which should be imported, 
 till the court was first provided. f She expected, 
 no doubt, a good penny-worth from the mer- 
 chants, while they lay under this restraint. 
 
 " The parliament pretended to the right of 
 enacting 1 laws, as well as of granting subsidies; 
 but this privilege was, during that age, still more 
 insignificant than the other. Queen Elizabeth 
 expressly prohibited them from meddling with 
 state matters or ecclesiastical causes; and she 
 openly sent the members to prison, who dared to 
 transgress her imperial edict in these particulars. 
 There passed few sessions of parliament, during 
 her reign, where there occur not instances of this 
 arbitrary conduct. 
 
 ' Camdcn, p. 3S8. * Strype. Vol. 1. P- 27.
 
 466 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 (C The queen's prohibition of the Prophesyings 
 shews still the unlimited extent of her prerogative. 
 Two or three people could not meet together, in 
 order to read the scriptures, and confer about 
 religion, though in ever so orthodox a manner, 
 without her permission."* 
 
 At this juncture three provinces of Ireland 
 may fairly be considered under Elizabeth's yoke. 
 The south, much depopulated, and the vast tracts 
 of land, confiscated from Desmond and his fol- 
 lowers, left room for the favourite scheme of co- 
 lonizing and civilizing Ireland from the abun- 
 dance of English felons, for whose transporta- 
 tion neither America nor Botany-bay were as yet 
 projected. A commission of survey was to he 
 appointed, a parliament to be assembled for pas- 
 sing acts of attainder, schemes to be devised for 
 lessening the annual expence of Ireland, pro- 
 voking burden ! and encreasing the revenue. The 
 government was, on these accounts, committed 
 to Sir John Perrot, a man reverenced in Ireland 
 for his justice; one who had studied its interests, 
 and whose policy was liberal. He found the 
 kingdom generally tranquil; the last insurgent 
 of note, lord Baltinglas, fled to Spain ; and he 
 published a general amnesty, to all who should 
 submit and swear allegiance. He sent the son 
 
 O 
 
 of the earl of Dc-smond to the queen, to be edu- 
 cated agreeably to her principles, with a view of 
 qualifying him for the propagation of the new- 
 invented faith. 
 
 * Hume, Hist, of England, Appendix III.
 
 OF IRELAND. 467 
 
 To induce the original Irish, and the so called 
 degenerate English, to renounce all ideas of in- 
 dependence, reject Irish institutions, and quietly 
 submit their necks to the yoke, Averc the grand 
 ohjccts at present, an. 1584. For this purpose 
 Perrot visited, at the head of his army, the dif- 
 ferent provinces, beginning with Conraught. 
 That province was divided into six. counties, 
 Clare, Galway, Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon, and 
 Leitrim. Sheriffs were appointed for each of 
 them, and Sir Richard Bingham made president 
 of the whole. Hence he proceeded to the smith ; 
 hut, on his arrival at Limerick, he recei\ed intel- 
 ligence, that one thousand Sects had landed in 
 Ulster, and, in conjunction with their country- 
 men already settled there, threatened some distur- 
 bances. He quickly marched to the north, where 
 his appearance had a sudden and powerful effect. 
 The new arrived Scots (led to their ships, and 
 left their brethren of Ulster to make their peace. 
 The Irish chieftains waited on Perrot, \\ith pro- 
 fessions of esteem and loyalty to their engage- 
 ments. 
 
 After presenting some fruitless projects to the 
 English ministry, for strengthening the power ot" 
 the English government in Ireland, e\en In cor.- 
 
 O ^ 
 
 sent of the remaining chieftains, by the ijrant ot 
 any reasonable terms, Perrot cc-mencd an Ir>Ii 
 parliament, the most independent and respectable 
 that ever met in Ireland since the co;:\ en.ion ot 
 Temora. The representali\es deputed from the 
 Milesians, were: the chiefs c.f Tirconall and 
 Tirone, particularly TorloiJi, l.uinai.h.. O'Neill, 
 
 VOL. I, ' I*
 
 468 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 and Hugh the son of Firdarach O'Neill, last 
 baron of Dungannon, who attended under the 
 title of earl of Tirone; O'Donall (Hugh the 
 son of Magnus) Maguire, chief of Fermanagh, 
 ( Cuchonnact the son of Cuchonnact) O'Dogh- 
 arty, chief of Inisoen, ( Shane og the son of Shane ) 
 O'Boyle, (Torlogh son of Neill) O'Gallagher, 
 John the son of Tuathal. The chieftains of 
 Orgial, ( Ros the son of Arthur Mac Mahon, 
 O'Cahane ( Rorj the son of Magnus), chieftain 
 of Oreacht, Conn O'Neille (the son of Null og) 
 chief of Clanna-boy, Magennis, chief of Iveagh 
 (Hugh the son of Donall og), O'Rorke, chief 
 of the western Breffny ( Brian na Murtha, the 
 son of Brian Ballach), O'Reily, chief of the 
 eastern Breffny (Shane Roc, the son of Hugh 
 Conallach ), together with his uncle Edmond, in 
 contention with each other about the right of 
 governing their country. The O'Farralls of 
 Annally, viz. O'Farral Can (William son of 
 Donal), and O'Farrall boy ( Fachtna son of 
 Brian). The Clan- Mury chiefs of Connaught, 
 viz. Hugh O'Conor (the son of Dermond O'Co- 
 nordon),, Teig og O'Conor Roe, Donall O'Co- 
 nor Sligoe. Brian Mac Dermott, representative 
 for May-lurg (the plains of Bayle), the chief- 
 tain of that district being disabled by great age 
 from personally appearing; O' Berne, chief of 
 Tirbrun on Shannon ( Carbrey the son of Teige ), 
 O'Kelly of Hy-Manly ( Teige son of William), 
 O'MaddenofSiol Anmead ( Donall son of Shane). 
 The earl of Clanrickard (the son of Richard), 
 the two sons of O'Shagnussy (John and Der-
 
 OF IRELAND. 469 
 
 mond.) Murcha-na-dua O' Flaherty, for the 
 country of Ler-Conaght. From Thomond, Do- 
 nogh (the son of Conor), earl of Thomond, and 
 Sir Turlogh O'Brien, elected knight of parlia- 
 ment for the county of Clare; also Turlogh the 
 son of Teige O'Brien and Macnamara (Shane), 
 representative of the western district of Clan cu- 
 lim, and Boethius Mac Egan returned one of the 
 knights of parliament for the county of Tippe- 
 rary. Ros the son of O'Lochlin, of Burren; the 
 son also of O'Brien of Ara ( Murtagh, the bishop 
 of Killaloe), O'Carrol of Ely (Calvagh), Mac 
 Caghlin ( Shane ), the son of Arthur., O'Ducie of 
 Coille na managh (Philip son of Othus), Mac 
 Brian O'Guanach (Murtogh), the chieftain of 
 Carigogonnel (Brian Duff O'Brian), O'Mul- 
 rian (Conor na meinge), chieftain of Uathney 
 O'Mulrian. Also a number of chiefs from South 
 Mury, Mac CarthyMor ( Donall), Mac Carlhy 
 Cairbreach ( Owen son of Donall ), with his ne- 
 phews by two brothers, Donall and Fingin. Two 
 
 of the Mac Carthv cliiefs also, who were in con- 
 
 j 
 
 tention about the estate of Alia. O'Sullivau of 
 Bera ( O \ven son of Dermod), O'Sullivan Mor 
 (Owen son of Donall), O'Mahonyof Fun iaru- 
 rach (Conor), O'Driscol Mor ( Fingin \ Mac 
 GillaPatric of Ossory ( Fingin ), Macgeochagan, 
 chief of Kcncl Fiacha ( Conla), O'Mulloy ( Co- 
 nail), chief of Fera-kall. Fiach Mae Hugh 
 O'Burn, representative for the (il\n of Malura, 
 (county of Wicklow, ) which he possessed. Few 
 of the Cavcnaghs, O' Burns, O 'Tools, O'Duns 
 or the O'Dcmpseys, attended this parliament.
 
 70 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 After mentioning only a few of their names/ 
 Leland adds,, " such slight circumstances serve 
 to mark the progress of reformation !" Already 
 the reader may have seen a glimpse of English 
 manners, a conformity to which is called refor- 
 mation ! I wonder how any man of common un- 
 derstanding would commit himself to the public 
 with such a silly sentence. What becomes of the 
 eulogy bestowed on Perrot, his knowledge of the 
 interests of this country., acquired by long study, 
 his liberal and benevolent policy ? He thought 
 the assembling the antient proprietors and the 
 settlers, in one parliament, to be the first step 
 towards forming them into one people, not a slight 
 but a weighty and glorious circumstance; in 
 which opinion every man of untainted judgment 
 must agree. 
 
 During his administration, by pursuing a libe- 
 ral policy,, and proposing equitable terms to the 
 residue of Irish chieftains, he left evident demon- 
 strations, that such a national incorporation could 
 Le effected, uniting the two races into one people, 
 obeying one government, agreeably to one con- 
 stitution and svstem of laws, without fighting a 
 
 t/ O ^ 
 
 blow. But it would not suit the inhuman policy 
 of those, \\lio wished to keep the Irish divided 
 and poor, to ensure their obedience; nor of those 
 
 blood-thirsty vultures, who sought the confisca- 
 
 \> ~ 
 
 lion of a kingdom^ by exterminating a nation, 
 always renowned for hospitality, generosity, long 
 for sanctity and learning, the eminent benefactress 
 of England and of Europe; nor the queen, whose 
 unquenchable fury against the catholic faith
 
 OF IRELAND. 471 
 
 required the extirpation thereof out of the land. 
 What if the Milesians were exterminated by war, 
 inflicted famine, base coin, murderous banquets 
 and negotiations, sham plots, she could coloni/c 
 their lands, and case her kingdom of the num- 
 berless ungovernable felons with which it was 
 infested. 
 
 The independent spirit, displayed by this as- 
 sembly, exhibits a striking contrast to the fawn- 
 ing servility of English parliaments during this 
 and the preceding reigns. The bill for suspend- 
 ing Poyning's law was thrown out; that for re- 
 newing the ordinary tax of thirteen shillings and 
 four pence on every plow land, met the same fate. 
 They refused to vest the queen with the lands of 
 attainted persons, or to declare those guilty of 
 treason who detained any of her castles; so that 
 two acts only were passed, during a short ses- 
 sion, in which every measure of government ex- 
 perienced strong opposition, the attainder of lord 
 
 Baltinarlas and his adherents, and the restoration 
 
 ~ 
 
 of a person, whose ancestor had been attainted 
 in the reign of Harry the Eighth. 
 
 Perrot's administration was successful and 
 liberal. He treated the anticnt natives as fellow 
 creatures of the same flesh and blood, Mrtucs 
 and vices, as other human beings; not with the 
 rancorous antipathy, pcriidy, and flagrant injus- 
 tice, with which they were harassed and perse- 
 cuted, by most of his predecessors. His atten- 
 tion to prevent oppression and abuses in the lower 
 departments of office, raised him an hos-t of ene- 
 mies. All of English birth, the proselytes to the
 
 472 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 new religion, and many of the degenerate Irish, 
 swordsmen of desperate fortunes, whose name and 
 alliances could draw followers after them; all, 
 eager for a participation of church plunder, and 
 of confiscated estates., were hostile to the man and 
 measures, that promised a tranquil settlement of 
 the kingdom. Complaints against him were sent 
 to the queen, from various quarters ; and, from a 
 letter she sent him by secretary Fenton, perceiving 
 the queen's prepossessions against him, he ear- 
 nestly entreated to be recalled. 
 
 Perrot's candid method of dealing with the 
 old Irish, procured every good effect he hoped 
 for. The chieftains of the north agreed to main- 
 tain eleven hundred men for the queen, at their 
 own charge, provided they were allowed the free 
 exercise of their religion, and be liberated from 
 the oppressions and ravages of sheriffs' garrisons. 
 In Connaught a free composition was settled, in 
 lieu of assessments, and the English law received. 
 The confiscation of the vast landed property, held 
 by Desmond and his adherents, allowed the queen 
 to indulge her favourite scheme of colonizing 
 Ireland. " Letters were written to every county 
 in England, to encourage younger brothers to 
 become undertakers in Ireland. Estates were 
 offered in fee at a small acreable rent of three 
 pence, and in some places two pence, to com- 
 mence at the end of three years, and for three 
 years more, half only of the stipulated rent was 
 to be paid. Seven years were allowed to com- 
 plete their plantation. The undertaker for twelve 
 thousand acres was bound to plant eighty-six
 
 OF IRELAND. 4*3 
 
 families on his estate; those who engaged for 
 lesser seigniories, were to provide a proportionable 
 number. NONE OF THE NATIVE IRISH WERE 
 
 TO BE ADMITTED AMONG THEIR TENANTRY; 
 
 and, among other advantages, they were assured, 
 that sufficient garrisons should he stationed on 
 their frontiers ; and commissioners appointed to 
 decide their controversies. Sir Christopher Hat- 
 ton, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Thomas Norris, Sir 
 Warham Saintleger, Sir George Bourthier, and 
 a numher of other gentlemen of power and dis- 
 tinction, received grants of different portions. 
 But the greater their rank and consequence, the 
 more were they emboldened to neglect the terms 
 of their grant. Instead of completing their sti- 
 pulated numbers of tenantry the same persons 
 were admitted tenants to different undertakers, 
 and in the same seigniory sometimes served at 
 once as freeholder, as leaseholder, as copyholder, 
 to fill up the necessary number of each denomi- 
 nation. Leases and conveyances were made to 
 manv of the Irishry. In some places the lands 
 were abandoned to the old possessors, in others 
 the undertakers unjustly encroached on the estates 
 of the innocent and loyal inhabitants : not residing 
 themselves, they entrusted the settlement and sup- 
 port of their respective colonies, to agents igno- 
 rant, negligent and corrupt. No effectual provi- 
 sions were made for defence either bv themselves 
 or by the queen. Such instances of misconduct 
 were severely felt, and contributed to the subse- 
 quent disorders of the kingdom." 
 
 * Lt-latul, Vol. II. Book IV. r. iii. p. jijl.
 
 474 AN IMPARTIAL HISJTORT 
 
 However wise Perrot's system of settling the 
 affairs of Ireland might have been,, his intentions 
 were frustrated,, and any benefits that might be 
 expected from English law and equitable regu- 
 lations were entirely defeated, by the iniquity of 
 those who were to superintend the execution of 
 the one,, and administer the other. Bingham, 
 president of Connaught, ruled people little ac- 
 customed to severe rule,, with a rod of iron and 
 a harpie claw. " The sheriffs and other offices 
 of justice followed the example of the lord pre- 
 sident,, and acted not only with rigour, but im- 
 periousness. They entered the several counties, 
 attended with large bodies of armed men, pil- 
 laging the inhabitants, whom they affected to 
 despise, terrifying them with their military train, 
 and rendering the execution of law odious and 
 oppressive; so as to confirm their aversion from 
 a system accepted with reluctance. One of the 
 De Burghos, called Thomas Roah, was sum- 
 moned to the session of judges, held in the county 
 of Mayo, and refused to attend. Bingham or- 
 dered him to be seized; he resisted, and was 
 killed; two of his adherents were taken and exe- 
 cuted."* A petty insurrection was the unavoid- 
 able consequence of these enormous cruelties,, 
 which only served to aggravate the miseries of 
 the oppressed. One of the leaders, Richard, 
 brother to Sir Thomas Roah, soon surrendered, 
 but was ordered by Bingham to instant execu- 
 tion. In the suppression of this insurrection,, the 
 president was powerfully assisted by some Irish 
 * Leland, Vol. II. Book IV. c. iii. p. 302.
 
 OF IRELAND. 475 
 
 clans, and those called degenerate English. Of 
 the extent of military execution, plunder and 
 confiscation, I have seen no correct detail; but 
 it need not be doubted, that sueh a tyrant as 
 Bingham would not let slip so fine an opportu- 
 nity of sating his thirst for Irish blood, and his 
 coffers with their spoil. Many escaped death, by 
 inlistirisr in the armv destined for the Low Coun- 
 
 C? *j 
 
 tries, in support of the revolted faithful of the 
 new gospel; some escaped to Spain. 
 
 Now three of the provinces being comfortably 
 reclaimed,, reformed and civilized, by the queen's 
 ministers and forces, in conjunction with their 
 Irish auxiliaries, the benefits of which to the 
 province of Munster Spencer thus sketched. 
 " Notwithstanding that the same was a most 
 rich, and plentiful country, full of corn and 
 cattle. Yet, ere one year and a half, the} were 
 brought to such wretchedness, as that any stony 
 heart would rue the same. Out of every corner 
 of the woods and glynns, they came creeping 
 forth upon their hands, for their legs could not 
 bear them: they looked like anatomies of death; 
 they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves, 
 they did eat the dead carrions, happy were they 
 could find them, yea, and one another soon alter : 
 insomuch, as the very carcasses they spared not 
 to scrape out of their graves, and, if they found 
 a plot of waterciesses or shamrocks, there they 
 flocked as to a feast for the time, yet. not able to 
 continue there withal; that, in short space, there 
 was none almost left, and a most populous and 
 plentiful country suddenly left void of man and 
 
 VOL. I
 
 476 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 beast/'* The other provinces had no Spencer 
 to record the favours conferred on them by their 
 reclaimers. It was now high time to turn their 
 attention to the north, the only part of Ireland 
 continuing unreclaimed., exulting in the untouched 
 population, agriculture, manufactures and reli- 
 gion of that province. Monasteries and semi- 
 naries of learning were still protected there. The 
 catholic religion maintained its ground, conse- 
 quently, dainty morsels of church plunder might 
 be looked for, and plenty of confiscations, al- 
 ready decreed by the provincial parliament, in 
 the second year of Elizabeth. Had it not been 
 predetermined to extend to the north the same 
 discipline exercised in the south, this act would 
 not have passed, or stood unrepealed. How could 
 it be expected, that the extermination of the an- 
 tient race, and the colonizatic ; of the land by 
 English adventurers, projected, and in part exe- 
 cuted by popish England, should be relinquished 
 by their protestant successors? That the domi- 
 nion of the crown of England would be submitted 
 to by the northern lords, and preserved by equi- 
 table and moderate administration, is acknow- 
 ledged by Lelancl, and by Lee.f It was prac- 
 tically proved by deputy Perrot. But then the 
 odious stipulations, of' not being compelled to 
 renounce religion, and submit to the plunder and 
 outrages of sheriffs, carrying along with them a 
 posse of robbers and prostitutes, offending the 
 pious, and corrupting the youth, by their scau- 
 
 * Spencer's Slate of Ireland, p. 158. 
 f- See Memoir, in Appendix.
 
 OF IRELAND. 477 
 
 dalous profaneness and open immoralities. " A 
 great part of the unquietness of O'Donnel's 
 country (Tirconnel) came by Sir Wm. Fit/- 
 \villiam placing one Willis there to be sheriff, 
 who had with him three hundred of the very ras- 
 cals and scum of that kingdom, which did rob 
 and spoil that people, ravish their wives and 
 daughters,, and made havoc of all; which bred 
 such a discontent, as that the whole country 
 was up in arms against them, so as if the earl of 
 Tirone had not rescued and delivered him and 
 them out of the country, they had been all put 
 to the sword."* Lest Fermanagh should be jea- 
 lous of the graces bestowed on O'Donncl's coun- 
 try, it was favoured with a similar visitation. 
 The chieftain of Fermanagh, Maguire, alledged, 
 " that he had given three hundred cows, to free 
 his country from a sheriff, during the lord depu- 
 ty's government; and that, notwithstanding, one 
 captain \\ illis was made sheriff of Fermanagh, 
 having, for his guard, one hundred HUM); and 
 leading about some hundreds of uornen and box*, 
 all living upon the spoil of the country: upon 
 which, taking his advantage, Marline sH upon 
 them, and drove them into a church, where lie 
 would have put them all to the sword, if the earl 
 of Tyrone had not interposed his authority, and 
 made composition for their live>, upon condition 
 that they should all leave the countrx. 1. pou 
 this occasion, the lord deputy Fit/willianis >ent 
 
 the queen's forces, commanded hx the eail of 
 
 "* 
 
 Tyrone and the English marshal! ol Ntv.;\, into 
 
 * Lct-'s Memorial to (JUCL'U lil
 
 478 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Fermanagh, won Maguire's castle of Enniskillen, 
 and proclaimed him a traitor. The Irish avow, 
 that his lordship let fall some speeches against 
 the earl of Tyrone himself, calling him a traitor 
 also, ( notwithstanding his late services.,) which 
 speeches coming to that earl's hearing, he ever 
 after said, were the first causes that moved him 
 to misdoubt his safety, and to stand upon his 
 defence; now first combining himself with 
 O'Donnel, and the other lords of the north, to 
 defend their honours, estates and liberties.'" 
 
 ef In the northern province, which had but ju&t 
 now professed to accept the English polity, the 
 execution of the laws was rendered detestable and 
 intolerable, by the queen's officers. Sheriffs pur- 
 chased their places; acted, as in Connaught, with 
 insolence and oppression; spoiled the old inha- 
 bitants, and obliged them to recur to their native 
 chieftains for protection. As the state had no 
 forces in Ulster, nothing but the mutual suspi- 
 cion and disunion of the Irish prevented a sud- 
 den and violent insurrection.''! \\ hat else was 
 looked for, but such an event, as might lead to 
 chureh plunder and confiscations? \V herefore, 
 send profligate miscreants, with the queen's com- 
 mission, to pillage, rob, ravish, to destroy morals 
 and religion, but the hope, that resistance to a 
 tyranny, at once so shameful and detestable, so 
 intolerable and base, would furnish a pretence 
 for extermination and plunder? Will any man 
 be surprised, that the De Burghos of Connaught 
 
 * Curry's Hist. Rev. c. v. and Morrison's Hist, of 
 \ U'land, Vol. IJ. Book IV. c. iii. p. 305.
 
 OF IRELAND. 479 
 
 refused to admit such nefarious pests of society, 
 for which noncompliance they were prosecuted 
 with fire and sword? or that O'Donnel refused 
 them entrance into Tyrconnel, whose noncom- 
 pliance the state, unable by force, revenged by 
 fraud. " A merchant of Dublin was instructed 
 to lade a ship with Spanish wines, and to sail up 
 by Donnegall, into the country of O'Donnel, to 
 expose his wines to sale, to shew an extraordinary 
 courtesy and bounty to the natives, to invite and 
 feast them in his ship : and if the old chieftain or 
 his son should be prevailed on to come on board, 
 to entertain them liberally; and when intoxicated, 
 to secure them under hatches, and to convey 
 them to Dublin. The pretended Spanish mer- 
 chant executed his commission accurately and 
 successfully. The rude inhabitants crowded to 
 purchase his wines, and to partake of his libera- 
 lity. The eldest son of O'Donnel, and two com- 
 panions, accepted his invitation to carouse on 
 board of his ship: and when they awaked from 
 their debauch, they found themselves prisoners. 
 They were deposited in the castle of Dublin.' 
 Their treatment therein is thus described bv Lee. 
 " His manner of usage was mo>t dishonorable 
 and discommendable, and neither allowable be- 
 fore God or man. For lie (O'Donnel) being 
 young, and being taken by this stratagem, ha\ing 
 never offended, was imprisoned with great seve 
 ritv, many irons laid upon him. as if lie had been 
 a notable traitor and malefactor. "f 
 
 * Lflaml, Vol. If. Hook IV. c. iti. p. 310 
 } Liv'x Memorial
 
 480 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 This act of swindling closed the administra- 
 tion of Perrot, who, in spite of his utmost efforts 
 to serve the crown of England, and strengthen 
 the English interest in Ireland, was mortified by 
 the queen, denied the necessary support for his 
 government, traduced by the incessant malice of 
 his enemies, and insulted by his inferiors at the 
 council-board. He earnestly petitioned Eliza- 
 beth to recal him from the burden of govern- 
 ment, rendered intolerable by the perverseness of 
 her English subjects in Ireland, whose enmifyhe 
 had provoked beyond all possibility of reconci- 
 liation, by restraining their oppressions of the 
 antient natives. 
 
 The extermination of antient race, and of ari- 
 tient religion, was not to be effected by equity, 
 moderation, or impartial government. These 
 seem to have been principal objects with the 
 queen, her council, and adventurers, both ar- 
 rived, and speculating on a venture to Ireland. 
 J Tis notorious, that the overthrow of the catholic 
 religion was the darling object of Elizabeth* 
 chief object of her ambition; for the attainment 
 of which, she spared no pains or expence; in the 
 pursuit of which, she disregarded effusion of 
 l>lood as puddle water, and trampled every feel- 
 ing of humanity, every principle of morality, 
 every law, human and divine, that could thwart 
 her headlong career. Sensible of her unappease- 
 able fury against the mother church, Lee, in his 
 Memoir,, endeavours to apologize for O'NeiPs 
 catholicity. " It will be represented to your 
 majesty, that he and his lady are papists, aut!
 
 OF IRELAND. 481 
 
 foster seminaries. 'Tis true he is affected this 
 \vay, but not half so bitter as the greatest men 
 of the Pale. He will go with the state, and re- 
 main to hear sermon and service,, while they, as 
 soon as they leave the deputy at the door, run 
 off like wild cats." 
 
 A successor was appointed to Perrot, Sir Wil- 
 liam Fitz- William, of a character suitable to 
 the temper and hopes of all, who wished to wade 
 through blood and ruin to wealth and honor, and 
 \vho wished at any price to extinguish antient 
 race and religion; when, as Leland owns, " an 
 interval of tranquillity had diffused plenty and 
 prosperity through the countrv; the provinces of 
 Connaught and Munstcr governed with vigour, 
 by Richard Bingham and Sir Thomas N orris, 
 deputy to his brother John: when the discon- 
 tents of Ulster had not yet broken out into any 
 violence, and might easily have been stifled, by a 
 moderate and equitable conduct." But neither 
 the new deputy nor his employers were of a tem- 
 per to relish the tranquillity and prosperih of a 
 popish nation, whose disunion and poverty were 
 considered as the best pledges of their obedience. 
 Many feats of English civilization had already 
 been atchievcd, by the gallant soldiers of that 
 humane,, liberal and honorable people, on the 
 persons, goods, religion and rights, of this poor 
 anathematized nation, without discovering symp- 
 toms of commotion amonir the northerns, the 
 
 O 
 
 only province as yet not sufli( ienlly civili/ed. 
 Such were the assassinations of ecclesiastics for 
 religion: " O'lahy O'Bovlc, abbot of Bo\le of
 
 483 
 
 the diocese of Elphin, and Owen O'Mulkeren, 
 abbot of the monastery of the Holy Trinity in 
 that diocese, hanged and quartered by lord Gray, 
 in 1580; John Stephens, priest, for that he said 
 mass to Teague M'Hugh, was hanged and quar- 
 tered by the lord Burroughs, in 1597; Thady 
 O' Boyle, guardian of the monastery of Donegal, 
 was slain by the English in his own monastery; 
 six friars were slain in the monastery of Mogni- 
 higan; John O'Calyhor and Bryan O'Trevor, 
 of the order of St. Bernard, were slain in their 
 own monastery, de Santa Maria, in Ulster; as 
 also Felimy O'Hara, a lay brother ; so was Eneas 
 Penny, parish priest of Killagh, slain at the altar 
 in his parish church there; Cahall M'Goran, 
 Rory O'Donnellan, Peter O'Quillan, Patrick 
 O'Kenna, George Power, vicar-general of the 
 diocese of Ossory, Andrew Stretch of Limerick, 
 Bryan O'Murihirtagh, vicar-general of the dio- 
 cese of Clonfert, Doroghow O'Molowny of 
 Thomond, John Kelly of Louth, Ste. Patrick 
 of Annaly, John Pillis, friar, Rory M'Henlea, 
 Tirrilagh M'Inisky, a lay brother. All those 
 that came after Eneas Penny, together with 
 Walter Fernan, priest, died in the castle of 
 Dublin, either through hard usage and restraint, 
 or the violence of torture.' 5 * Murderous ban- 
 quets; of which some are recorded: as that of 
 Brien Roe O'Brien, murdered by De Clare, at 
 a feast to which he invited him for that purpose. 
 The intended assassination of O'Kavenagh, de- 
 feated by his extraordinary valour and good for- 
 * Theatre of Catholic and Protestant Religion, p. 582.
 
 OF IRELAND. 483 
 
 tune. The murder of O'Neil of Clan-hu-boy, 
 and his retinue, by the earl of Essex, at a feast, 
 to which he invited him. The perfidious invita- 
 tions to negotiate for peace, with the intent of 
 massacring the negociators; as that of the 
 O'Moores at Mullahmaisteen, of the Butlers at 
 Kilkenny, of the O' Neils at Derry, and a long 
 et cetera. Under cover of negotiation, and ces- 
 sation of hostilities, the first invaders perfidiously 
 took Dublin by surprize, trusting to the law of 
 nations, that no hostilities would commence until 
 sufficient notice that the negotiation had failed. 
 The .same perfidy was practised on the Italians!, 
 who accompanied Fit/morris to Ireland, which 
 is thus detailed in the Irish annals. " An. 15SO, 
 in the war of the Fitzgeralds, an Italian fleet, 
 belonging to the pope, landed its men, in the 
 mouth of September, on the coast of Kerry, in 
 an island called Oilean an Oir, which the Fitz- 
 geralds had fortified in the former year. The 
 intention of this expedition was to assist the Fit/,- 
 geralds, much distressed through their attempts 
 to support the catholic religion in Ireland. On 
 the news of this landing, the lord deputy, Gray, 
 ordered Thomas, earl of Ormond, to head an 
 army, and lead it towards the island, where the 
 Italians were fortifying themel\es. The earl 
 delayed not. He inarched into Ivny, win re an 
 army of the Fit/gerahls were preparing tooppo.-r 
 him; an engagement ensued, ai.d Ormond had 
 at last the way left open to him, til! he armed 
 in sight of the island, and took a > iew <f the en- 
 trenchments which were thrown uj> b\ the 
 
 VOL- I 3 K
 
 484 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 He concluded, that it was too desperate an un- 
 dertaking to attack them within their lines; he 
 retired, and waited for the lord deputy, who was 
 on his march to join him. On their joining, it 
 was concluded, that they should not encamp close 
 to the island, but approach it at the head of a 
 few, to reconnoitre the works of the enemy, and 
 to decoy them into an interview. Some chiefs of 
 the Italians came out to confer with the deputy 
 and the earl; and, after some debates, the Italians 
 were offered good conditions. While these terms 
 were entering into, the lord deputy's troops 
 passed over into the island, and massacred) to a 
 man, the whole body of seven hundred Italians, 
 who had landed there. The deputy, after this 
 sad exploit, seized upon a great quantity of gold, 
 and other eflects^of the invaders."* Reformation 
 of religion, by the sacrilegious plunder and de- 
 solation of churches, and by the substitution of 
 men, ignorant and profligate, for a zealous and 
 learned ministry, murdered or expelled, is attested 
 by Leland and Sydney. fc The prejudices con- 
 ceived against the Reformation, by the Irish na- 
 tives more especially, were still further encreased, 
 by the conduct of those who were commissioned 
 to remove the objects and instruments of popular 
 superstition. Under pretence of obeying the or- 
 ders of state, they seized all the most valuable 
 furniture of the churches, which they exposed to 
 sale without decency or reserve. The Irish anna- 
 lists pathetically describe the garrison of Athloiie 
 
 . * Irish Annals. MS.
 
 OF IRELAND. 485 
 
 issuing forth, with a barbarous and heathen fury, 
 and pillaging the famous church of Clonmac- 
 noise, tearing away the most inoffensive orna- 
 ments,, books, bells, plate, windows, furniture of 
 every kind, so as to leave the shrine of their fa- 
 vourite saint, Kieran, a hideous monument of 
 sacrilege. Nor do such complaints appear to 
 have been entirely groundless/' Leland adds, 
 fc for we find that Sir James Crofts, the succes- 
 sor of Saintleger, who had been remanded into 
 England,, was particularly instructed to prevent 
 the sale of bells and other church-furniture."* 
 Sir Henry Sydney thus describes the desolation 
 of religion, in his letter to queen Elizabeth. 
 " May it please your most excellent majestic, I 
 have in fower severall discourssies, addressed 
 vnto the lordes of your highnes most honourable 
 councell, certified theim hovve I founde this 
 jour highness realme, at myne arryval into the 
 same; and what I have scene, and vnderstand by 
 my travell theise last sixe monethes, in whiche I 
 have passid thorough eche province, and have 
 bene almost in eche countye thereof: the whiche 
 I would not sende to your most excellent majeslie, 
 immediatlye to be reade by the same; least they 
 should have seamed to tedious, partelye t horoughe 
 the quantise of the matter, but cliiefely thcroughe 
 the bad delyvery thereof, by my pen ; not uoubt- 
 inge but your majestic is by this tune advertized 
 of the material! pointes conteined in then:!. 
 
 " And no\vc, most dearc metres, and nio.^t 
 
 * Lclaud, Vol. II. Book III. c. viii. p. 1DU.
 
 486 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 honored sovereigne, I solye addresse to you, as 
 to the onelye sovereigne salve gever, to this your 
 sore and sicke realme ; the lamentable estate of 
 the most noble and principall lym thereof, the 
 churche I meane, as fowle, deformed, and as 
 cruellye crushed, as any other parte thereof; by 
 your onelye gratious and relygious order to be 
 cured, or at least amended : I would not have 
 beleved, had I not, for a great parte, viewed 
 the same, thoroughout the whole realme, and 
 was advertized of the perticuler estate of eche 
 churche, in the bishopprick of Meithe ( being 
 the best inhabited countrie of all this realme) by 
 the honest, zealous, and learned bishopp of the 
 same, Mr. Hugh Bradye, a godlye minister for 
 the gospell, and a good servaunt to your high- 
 nes, who went from churche to churche hyr^ 
 selfe, and found, that there are within his dioces 
 224 parishe churches, of which number 105 are 
 impropriated tosondrie possessions, nowe of your 
 highnes, and all leased out for yeares, or in fee 
 far me, to sevcrall farmors, ai.^ great gayne 
 reaped out of theirn above the rent, which your 
 majestic receivethe; no parson, or vicar, resident 
 vpon any of them, and a verye simple, or soarye 
 curat, for the most parte, appointed to serve 
 theirn; amonge which nomber of curatts, onelye 
 eightcne were found able to speake Englishe ; 
 the rest Irishe prcists, or rather Irishe roges, 
 havinge verye little Lattin, lesse learninge, or 
 cyvilitie: all theise lyve upon the bare alterages 
 (as they tearme theim ) which God knoweth are 
 verye small, and were wont to lyve upon the
 
 OF IRELAND. 487 
 
 gayne of masses, dirges, shryvings, and soch 
 lyke tromperye, goodlye abolished by your ma- 
 jestic: no one howse standinge for any of theim 
 to dwell in. In maney places, the very vralles of 
 the churches doune ; very few chauncclls covered, 
 wyndowes and dores ruyned, orspovled: there 
 are 52 other parishe churches in the samedioces, 
 who have vicars induced vpon theim, better 
 served and mavntcined then the other, yet but 
 badlye. There are 52 parishe churches more, 
 residue of the first number of 224, which perteine 
 to dyvers perticuler lordes, and these though in 
 better estate than the rest common lye are., yet 
 farre from well. If this be the estate of the 
 churche, in the best peopled dyoces, and best 
 governed countrie, of this your realme (as in 
 troth it is: ) easye it is for your majestye to con- 
 jecture, in what case the rest is, where little or 
 no reformation, either of religion or manners, 
 hath yet bene planted, and contvnued amonge 
 theime; yea, so profane and heathenishe are some 
 parts of this youre countrie becomme, as it hath 
 bene preached publikelyc before me, that the 
 sacrament of baptismc is not vsed amonge theim, 
 and trewlye I beleve it: if I should write vnto 
 your majestie, what spoyle hath bene, and is of 
 the archbisshoppricks, whereof there are fo\\er, 
 and of bisshoppricks, whereof there are above 
 thirtie, parteV.ye by the prelatts theim selves, 
 partelve by the potentates, their noysome neigh- 
 bors, I should make too longea lyhell of this my 
 let t re; but your majestie may beleve it, that vpon 
 the face of the earthe, where Chri>t is professed,
 
 488 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORf 
 
 there is not a churche in so miserable a case : 
 the miserye of whiche consistethe in theise three 
 particulars, the ruyne of the verye temples theim 
 selves; the want of good mynisters to serve in 
 theim, when they shall be reedified; competent 
 lyvinge for the ministers, beinge well chosen. For 
 the first, let it lyke your most gratious majestic 
 to write earnestlye to me, and to whom els, it 
 may best please you, to examyne in whome the 
 fault is, that the churches are so ruynous ; if it 
 be founde in the countrie or fermors, to compell 
 theim speedilye to goe about the amendement of 
 theim; if the favvlt, for the churches of your 
 highnes inheritaunce, be not in the fermors, nor 
 they bound to repaier theim ( and the most ruyned 
 of theim are soche as are of your possession) it 
 may lyke you, to graunt warraunt that some 
 porcion may yerelye, of the revenue of everye 
 parsonadge, be bestowed on the churche of the 
 same. 
 
 " For the second and third; which is, that 
 good ministers mought be founde to occupie the 
 places, and they made able to lyve in theim; in 
 chovce of which ministers, for the remote places, 
 
 */ * 
 
 where the Englishe tounge is not vnderstood, it 
 is most necessarie that soche be chosen as can 
 speake Irishe, for whiche searche would be made 
 first, and speedilye, in your owne vniversities; 
 and any founde there well aftected in religion, 
 and well conditioned beside, they would be sent 
 hether animated by your majestic; yea, though 
 it were somewhat to your highnes chardge; and 
 on perrill of my liffe, you shall fynde it retorned
 
 OF IRELAND. 489 
 
 with gayne, before three yeres be expired: if 
 there be no soch there, or not inough ( for I wish 
 tene or twelve at the least) to be sent, who might 
 be placed in offices of dignitie in the churche, in 
 remote places of this realme then I do wishe, 
 (but this most humblye vnder your highncs cor- 
 rection,) that you would write to the regent of 
 Scotlande, where, as I learne, there are maney of 
 the reformed churche, that are of this language, 
 that he would prefer to your highnes so manev 
 as shall seme good to you to demaunde, of 
 honest, zelous, and learned men, and that could 
 speake this language; and though for a whvle 
 your majestic were at some chardge, it were well 
 bestowed, for, in shorte tyme, theire own prefer- 
 ments would be able to suffice thcim; and in the 
 mean tyme, thow sands would be gayned to 
 Christ, that now are lost, or left at the woorst: 
 and for the ministerie of the churches of the 
 English pale of your ownc inheritaunce, be con- 
 tented, most vertuous queue, that some conve- 
 nient porcion for a minister may be allowed to 
 hym, out of the farmer's rents; it will not be 
 moch losse to you, in your revenue, but gayne 
 otherwise inestimable, and yet the decay of your 
 rent but for a while, for, the ycarcs once expired 
 of the leases alreadye graunted, there is no doubt, 
 but that to be graunted to the churche will be 
 recovered with encrease. 
 
 " I wishe, and most humblye bescache your 
 majestic, that there may be three or tower, grave, 
 learned, and venerable parsonagies of the clenjye 
 there, be sent hetlicr. who in short paci\ being
 
 490 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 here, would censiblye perceive the enormityes of 
 this overthrowene churche, and easelye prescribe 
 orders, for the repaier and vpholdinge of the 
 same, whiche I hope God would confirrne; and 
 I fynde no difficuitie, but that your officer here 
 might execute the same ; cawse the bisshopps of 
 that your realme, to vndertake this apostlesbipp, 
 and that upon their owne chardgies: They be 
 riche enoughe, and if either they be thankefull 
 to your majestic, for your immence bountye 
 donne to theim, or zealous to jncrease the chris- 
 tian flocke, they will not refuce this hononoura- 
 ble and religious travell; and I will vndertake 
 their guydinge and gardinge bonorablye, and 
 safelye from place to place: the great desier that 
 I have, to have soche from thence, is, for that I 
 hope to fynde theim, not onely grave in judge- 
 ment but voyd of affection. 
 
 I most humblye beseache your majestic to ac- 
 cept theise rny rude letters, as figures of a zealous 
 mynde for reformation of this your churche and 
 countrie; wherein me thiukcth I woorke way- 
 \vardlye, when the latter is preferred before the 
 former. When I had thus come to an eude of 
 this my evill scriblid lettre, and beheld the ille- 
 giable lynes, and ragged lettres of myne owne 
 staggering hand, I was ashamed to suffer the 
 same to be sent to your majestie, but made by 
 man to write it out agayne ; for whiche I most 
 humblye crave pardon, as for the rest of this my 
 tedious peticion. And thus, from the bottome of 
 ray harte, wisshing to your majestie the longe 
 coiitynuance of your most prosperous and godlyc
 
 OP IRELAND. 491 
 
 reigne over vs, your most happic subjectes: as a 
 most fajthfull and obedient servaunt, I recom- 
 mend myself, and service, to your most faythfull 
 and obedient servaunt,, I recommend myself, and 
 service, to your most excellent majestie. From 
 your highnes castell of Dublin, this xxviiith of 
 April, 1576, your majesties fay thfull, humble and 
 obediaunt servaunt, H. Sydney. 
 
 Fitz-William having assumed the reins of 
 government, with at least a tacit permission, to 
 seize every opportunity of rewarding his pretend- 
 ed services at the expence of the Irish, soon 
 found one to his taste. Several ships, belonging 
 to the Spanish armada, had been driven to the 
 coast of Ireland, where the Spaniards were hos- 
 pitably entertained, as kinsmen. The strangers, 
 it may be presumed, gave presents to their kind 
 hosts, which were magnified by report into trea- 
 sures. The bare rumour of these imaginary 
 riches fired the cupidity of the deputy, who 
 forthwith issued a commission for search, claim- 
 ing what could be got, in the name of the queen. 
 The commissioners for searching having failed 
 in their inquest for hidden gold, Fit/-\\ illiam, 
 like the fox in the proverb, determined to seek 
 in person the secreted love, and make trial of the 
 powers of his olfactory nerves, in detecting by 
 scent the produce of Potosi. Away lie marched, 
 at the head of an armed force, to the great cx- 
 pence of the state, and annoyance to the country; 
 where all the exertions avidity could devise, and 
 tyranny execute, having proved ineflectnal, he 
 resolved to wreak his disappointment on the hap- 
 
 VOL. I,
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Jess natives. Irish cows could not be so com- 
 modiously concealed as Spanish doubloons; why 
 should not the former recompense the loss of the 
 latter ? That he might not return empty-handed, 
 without performing any act of prowess worthy of 
 his expensive expedition, he seized on Sir Owen 
 Mac Toole, father-in-law to the earl of Tyrone, 
 and Sir John O'Dogherty, gentlemen of rank, 
 property, and known attachment to English go- 
 vernment, and confined them in durance vile iu 
 the castle of Dublin. In vain they pleaded their 
 services, and Mac Toole shew his patent for a 
 pension of two hundred a-year ( near two thou- 
 sand of our present currency, ) as tests of their 
 loyalty; one was not released from bondage, till 
 on the point of death, and O'Dogherty was 
 obliged to purchase his enlargement by a consi- 
 derable bribe of Irish cows. 
 
 This unworthy treatment of men, respected 
 both by the English and Irish parties, drew on 
 the barbarous deputy merited and general ab- 
 horrence. All the Irish lords, however, reputed, 
 or in fact well affected to the English govern- 
 ment, began to tremble for their own safety. 
 Many began to repent of their submissions, and 
 those who held aloof could now boast their su- 
 perior prudence, which taught them to put no 
 confidence in English faith, and to consider a 
 watchful defensive the only safeguard against 
 the ruthless oppression of a faithless and natural 
 enemy. 
 
 This shameless violation of all law and public 
 faith, by the government, and all its officers,
 
 OF IRELAND. 493 
 
 down to the sheriff, who, with his posse of 
 strumpets and robbers, laid waste the country, 
 outraging the feelings of a religious people, by 
 openly violating the chastity of their wives and 
 daughters, seasoning the atrocity of tyranny with 
 the still more galling sauce of contempt, wero 
 sufficient to rouse a more lethargic, a less war- 
 like people than the Milesians; but they were 
 divided, three-fourths of the country lay pros- 
 trate, and the English power in Ireland had 
 waxed formidable, through its own dissentions, 
 and had the power of England ready at hand to 
 support it. After the dispersion and defeat of 
 the Spanish armada, Spain was no longer dreaded 
 in England, and was looked to from Ireland 
 with less sanguine hopes. Now Elizabeth's coun- 
 cil, like the rest of their countrymen, entertaining 
 a mean opinion of the Irish, judged the conquest 
 of the remaining fourth of Ireland an easy task, 
 liaving the other three fourths in their hands. 
 The sentence of extermination, pronounced 
 against the Milesians by their popish predeces- 
 sors, facilitated and aided by their alliance with 
 the see of Rome, it was now resolved should be 
 put in execution, in despite of the Holy Father, 
 and to gratify the hot zeal of the queen, for the 
 extinction of the catholic faith, to which the 
 antient Irish adhered with an obstinacy that 
 rendered them detestable to her. 
 
 Because the experiments hitherto (ried, on the 
 patience of the suffering Irish, of vig->r beyond 
 law, of vigor contrary to all law, had not suc- 
 ceeded to rouse to war, more deeds of lawless
 
 494 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 violence, sanctified by indemnity, must be em- 
 ployed, to exasperate the ulcerated feelings of 
 discontent into the alarm and terror of despair. 
 When submission afforded no security for life or 
 property, and would be treated as cowardice; 
 while the hazards of war, not more perilous, 
 would at least rescue their honor from that im- 
 putation, perhaps free them for ever from a hor- 
 rid yoke. These were the feelings, and the rea- 
 sonings of the parties, concerned in this unequal 
 contest, when the sanguinary rapacious wolf, 
 Fitz- William, accelerated the pending catas- 
 trophe. fc And, as if the secret fire of disaffec- 
 tion were not sufficiently kindled in the northern 
 province, Fitz-William by his intemperate con- 
 duct seemed to court every occasion of enflaming 
 it. Mac-Mahon, chieftain of the district called 
 Monaghan, had surrendered his country held by 
 tainistry to the queen, and received a re-grant 
 thereof, under the broad seal of England, to 
 him and his heirs male, and in default of such 
 heirs, to his brother Hugh. As he died without 
 issue, this brother petitioned to be admitted to 
 his inheritance. He is said to have promised a 
 considerable bribe in order to facilitate his suit; 
 and to his failure of payment it was imputed, 
 (hat he was for some days imprisoned, on his ar- 
 rival at Dublin. Fitz-William, however, was 
 prevailed upon to promise that he would settle 
 him in peaceable possession of his inheritance, 
 and for this purpose that he meant to go in per- 
 son into Monaghan. But scarcely had he arrived 
 thither, when he eagerly received a new accusa-
 
 OF IRELAND. 495 
 
 lion against Hugh, that two years before,, he had 
 entered hostilely into a neighbouring district, to 
 recover some rent due to him, by force of arms. 
 In the un reformed parts of Ireland, such actions 
 were common and unnoticed ; but the English 
 law declared them treasonable. The unhappy 
 Mac-Mahon, for an offence committed before 
 the law which declared it capital had been esta- 
 blished in his country, was tried, condemned by 
 a jury said to be formed of private soldiers, and 
 executed in two days; to the utter consternation 
 of his countrymen. His estate was distributed to 
 Sir Henry Bagnal and other adventurers, toge- 
 ther with four of the old Irish sept."* 
 
 Why the northern Irish hitherto bore their 
 aggravated wrongs, with a patience unusual to 
 their race and country, besides the fore-men- 
 tioned, we must look to the policy of Hugh 
 O'Neil, earl of Tyrone, as one who principally 
 held back the north from any dangerous explo- 
 sion. " Among the northern lords, Hugh, son 
 to the late Matthew baron of Dungannon, had 
 acquired considerable weight and consequence 
 by the favours he had received from government. 
 Though his person was not striking, he yet pos- 
 sessed a vigour of constitution fitted for all the 
 severities of a military life. Less respected in 
 his sept on account of the illegitimacy of his 
 descent, he entered early into the service of 
 English government, and in the rebellion of 
 
 o ~ 
 
 Desmond was distinguished by his industry, ac- 
 
 * Leland, Vol. II. B. IV. c. iii. p. 316.
 
 496 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 tivity, and valour: by an English education, 
 and a constant intercourse with the state, he 
 added the polish of English manners to a temper 
 naturally insinuating and subtile: but this re- 
 finement he could easily disguise among his own 
 people, and assume all the port, and accommo- 
 date himself to all the barbarous manners of an 
 O'Nial. In the parliament held by Sir John 
 Perrot, he petitioned,, that by virtue of the 
 royal grant to his grandfather earl Conn., to his 
 father and his heirs, he might be admitted to the 
 place and title of earl of Tirowen, as well as to 
 the inheritance annexed to this earldom. The 
 title was readily granted; but for the inheri- 
 tance, which by the attainder of John O'Nial 
 was vested in the crown, he was referred to the 
 queen's pleasure. He addressed himself to the 
 drputy, and so far prevailed by his insinuating 
 manners,, and particularly by promising, that if 
 restored to his estate, a large rent should be se- 
 cured to the crown, that Perrot sent him into 
 England with warm letters of recommendation, 
 that he might prefer his petition to the queen. 
 All his powers of obsequiousness and flattery 
 were employed to captivate Elizabeth. She 
 deigned to interrogate him on the state of Ireland, 
 With an appearance of the most ingenuous zeal, 
 he lamented the unnatural reluctance of his 
 countrymen to order and civility, and their barba- 
 rous prepossessions in favour of their antient man- 
 ners ; artfully pleaded the necessity of strength- 
 ening their attachment to English government ; 
 and, affecting a particular solicitude for the
 
 OF IRELAND. 4 ( J7 
 
 welfare of his own district., implored her majesty 
 to take effectual measures for suppressing the 
 name of O'Nial, as the first step necessary for 
 introducing the inestimable blessings of English 
 laws arid manners into the northern province. 
 This artifice so wrought upon the queen, that 
 by letters patent under the great seal of England, 
 she granted him both the earldom and the inhe- 
 ritance annexed to it, without any reservation of 
 rent. It was only provided, that the bounds of 
 Tirowen should be marked out explicitly : that 
 two hundred and forty acres should be reserved 
 adjoining to the river called Blackwater, for the 
 use of a fort there to be erected : that the new 
 earl should challenge no authority over the 
 neighbouring lords : that the sons of John and 
 Tirlaugh O'Nial should have sufficient provi- 
 sions allotted to them : and that Tirlaugh should 
 be continued Irish chieftain of Tirowen, with a 
 right of superiority over Mac-Guire and 
 O'Cahan, two subordinate lords (or Uriaghts 
 as they are called) of his neighbourhood." 
 
 As a man of ability, he saw the delicacy of his 
 situation, and the diilicult part he had to act. 
 Owing his elevation to the policy of the court 
 
 (3 
 
 of England, aware of the downfall of Shane 
 O'Neil, and of almost all the chiefs, who had 
 latterly opposed that power; sensible, that (he 
 same anarchy, which overwhelmed Shane, hy a 
 combination of northern chiefs joining the stan- 
 dard of his enemy, he saw it his interest to culti- 
 
 * Ldand, Vol. II. 13. IV. c. iii. pp. 306. 307. 308.
 
 498 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 vate and purchase the friendship of that power, 
 upon any tolerable terms; any that would not 
 entirely sink him in the estimation of his coun- 
 trymen, and deprive him of the lead to which he 
 aspired; an event that would deprive him of the 
 favor of a court, which meant only to employ 
 his abilities and influence instrumental to its own 
 designs. He had two incompatible interests to 
 manage. That of the northern Irish, who daily 
 experienced such violent aggressions from go- 
 vernment, as seemed to announce a settled plan 
 for their total extirpation ; and that of the ex- 
 terminating power, which, though it chose to 
 employ him, gave him abundant proof, that it 
 did not trust him, and meant to devour him, 
 perhaps last. In all his trials, and he had severe 
 ones, he acted with great judgment, and cool 
 steady resolution, confounding his enemies, and 
 bringing home conviction to the queen, her 
 council, and her generals, by facts and argu- 
 ments, which they were unable to withstand. 
 What a callous-minded wretch a Pale writer 
 must be. All that persuasion, by which he tri- 
 umphed over his adversaries and judges, and 
 what judges ! the most subtle able knaves of 
 their day, and partial too, must be the effect of 
 subtlety and dissimulation ! ! ! "What simpletons 
 he had to delude with subtleties, in Bacon, 
 Cecil, Walsingham; in Perrot, Norris, Russel, 
 Essex, all cotemporaries, interested in the detec- 
 tion of falsehood, and possessed of all human 
 means for its discovery. If he could convince all 
 these men, without truth and justice on his side,.
 
 OF IRELAND. 499 
 
 he must have been more eloquent than all ora- 
 tors. In fact, he strove to keep the peace of the 
 north, as long as it could be kept, without sacri- 
 ficing- his religion, and the interests of the north- 
 erns; which would cause a general alienation of 
 all hearts from him, and degrade him to a vile 
 satellite of tyranny, despised even by those whom 
 he served. 
 
 O' Neil's great services, and his perseverance 
 in the queen's service, as long as it was in any 
 degree supportable; his eagerness to continue in 
 the same, and fence against the scourge of war, 
 are clearly set forth by a confidential agent of 
 the queen, commissioned to send her a true state- 
 ment o this country, who says, that e< it is not 
 O'Donnell, Maguire, Brian Oge Macrnahon, 
 nor Brian Oge O'Roirke, nor any of those four 
 who must be dealt withal, for they are all traitors 
 and villains, and most obstinate against your 
 majesty; but the foundation must be laid upon 
 the earl of Tyrone, to draw him by any reasona- 
 ble conditions unto your majesty, that you may 
 have conference with him, and as he is made by 
 your majesty a great man there, so may he bij 
 also a special good member in that common- 
 wealth, to redress and remedy many great dis- 
 orders, which no doubt he would faithfully d, 
 if he might be trusted, for what niakelh a man 
 honest but trust. 
 
 " And whereas some affirm, that he standeth 
 upon a pardon for himself and his follower*. I 
 think not so, for lie and they hold themselves in 
 less safety thereby, than they v> ere before, because 
 
 VOL I 3 T
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 they have seen pardons serve (in their conceit) 
 rather for traps to catch others in, than for true 
 and just remission and acceptance into the free 
 benefit of subjects., which maketh him fear the 
 like practice towards himself.... 
 
 " And where there was a credible report made, 
 that the earl of Tyrone came into the now lord 
 deputy, without pardon or protection, I assure 
 myself, your majesty shall find he came in upon 
 the credit of your state, although in policy he 
 might be willed to give out otherwise, and no 
 doubt, but such as have often mistaken his ac- 
 tions, and intents, would make an open demand 
 of him, how? and he perhaps answer them, with- 
 out protection; and upon this his answer, they 
 might be very importunate with the lord deputy 
 and the council, that he might be detained for 
 great matters of treason, wherewith they had to 
 charge him, which demand of theirs being re- 
 fused, it is not unlike but they would either 
 write to your majesty, or to their friends here, to- 
 inform your majesty how provident they were to 
 have him safe kept, and vet their cares and offers 
 were neglected. 
 
 " Let those devices of theirs take effect, or 
 otherwise, to have him cut off, your majesty's 
 whole kingdom there would moan it most piti- 
 fully; for there was never man bred in those 
 parts, who hath done your majesty greater ser- 
 vice than he, with often loss of his blood upon, 
 notable enemies of your majesty's; yea, more 
 often than all the other nobles of Ireland. And 
 what quietness your majesty had these many years
 
 OF IRELAND. 501 
 
 past in the northern parts of that kingdom, its 
 neither your forces there placed, (which have 
 been but small,) nor their great service who 
 commanded them, but only the honest disposition 
 and carriage of the earl, hath made them obedient 
 in those parts to your majesty. And what pity it 
 is that a man of his worth and worthiness shall 
 be thus dealt withal by his adversaries, ( who are 
 men who have had great places of command- 
 ment) and neither they, nor their friends for 
 them, are able to set down they ever did your 
 majesty one good day's service, I humbly leave 
 to your majesty. 
 
 " If he were so bad as they would fain enforce 
 (as many as know him and the strength of his 
 country, will witness thus much with me) he 
 might very easily cut off many of your majesty's 
 forces which are laid in garrison in small troops, 
 in divers parts bordering upon his country; yea, 
 and overrun all your English pale, to the utter 
 ruin thereof; yea, and camp as long as he should 
 please him even under the walls of Dublin, for 
 any strength your majesty yet hath in that king- 
 dom to remove him. 
 
 " These things being considered, and how 
 unwilling he is (upon my knowledge) to be 
 otherwise toward your majesty than he ought, 
 let him (if it so please your highness) be some- 
 what hearkened unto, and recovered (if it may 
 be) to come in unto your majesty to impart hi* 
 own griefs, which no doubt he will do, if lie will 
 like his security . And then, I am persuaded, he 
 Will simply acknowledge to your majesty
 
 502 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 far he hath offended you; and besides (notwith- 
 standing his protection) he will, if it so stand 
 with your majesty's pleasure, offer himself to the 
 marshal (who hath been the chiefest instrument 
 against him) to prove with his sword that he 
 hath most wrongfully accused him. And because 
 it is no conquest for him to overthrow a man 
 ever held in the world to be of most cowardly 
 behaviour, he will, in defence of his innocency, 
 allow his adversary to come armed against him 
 naked, to encourage him the rather to accept of 
 his challenge. 
 
 " I am bold to say thus much for the earl, 
 because I know his valour, and am persuaded 
 he will perform it; and what I have spoken of 
 him, over and above this, these reasons have led 
 me to it. 
 
 " Being often his bedfellow, he hath divers 
 times bemoaned himself, with tears in his eyes, 
 faying, if he knew any way in the world to be- 
 have himself (otherwise than he hath done) to 
 procure your majesty's assured good opinion of 
 him, he would not spare (if it pleased you to 
 command him) to offer himself to serve your 
 highness in any part of the world against your 
 enemies, though he were sure to lose his life. 
 
 " And as he hath in private thus bemoaned 
 himself unto me, so are there many eye-witnesses 
 here in your highness's court, who have seen him 
 do no less openly; which tears have neither pro- 
 ceeded from dissimulation, nor of a childish 
 disposition, (for all who know him will acquit 
 him thereof, ) but of mcer zeal unto your high-
 
 OP IRELAND. 503 
 
 ness, and grief and fear to lose your favour, whom 
 he desireth with life, and all he hath, most duti- 
 fully and loyally to serve.... 
 
 \ourmajcsty, since you were queen, never 
 had so great cause to bethink you of (he service 
 of that place [the north] as now you have. Your 
 highness shall not get so great honour in culling 
 off' him, and thousands of those hare people that 
 follow him, as you shall to win him and them, 
 to be good and loyal subjects, and to live and 
 sene your highness, for good offices. As the 
 case now staudeth with the earl, he hath small 
 encouragements to be otherwise than now he is. 
 
 " For where it was your majesty's pleasure he 
 should have great encouragement given him, by 
 thanks for his last good service against jMaguire, 
 it was held from him, and instead of that, they 
 devised all means and policies to aggravate mat- 
 ters against him to your majesty, which is credi- 
 bly made known unto him; and more, that upon 
 what security soever he should come in, your 
 majesty's pleasure is to have him detained." 
 
 To him government was obliged to look, for 
 the support of its authority in the northern pro- 
 vince, which their enormities rendered every day 
 more detestable, for restraining discontents, 
 which they were multiplying by unlimited -p<>- 
 liations, insults, and perfidious murders, "i n 
 not wonderful, that a brave man, endowed with 
 uncommon vigour of mind and body, should 
 shed tears, at the awful prospect of ruin impend- 
 
 * Lee's Memorial to ijucou Elizabeth.
 
 504 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORf 
 
 ing over the remains of a once flourishing nation, 
 the means of averting which were so doubtful. 
 The way of submission, and cultivating the 
 countenance of Elizabeth, he pursued zealously 
 and frankly, for many years; serving in her ma- 
 jesty's armies, at his own heavy charge, exposed 
 to all the hardships and perils of a military life. 
 Yet all that time he experienced little thanks or 
 rewards for his services. Experience taught him, 
 that popery was a state crime, against which 
 Elizabeth was inexorable; and, that his fostering 
 seminaries, i.e. permitting or patronizing schools 
 for the education of youth in the catholic reli- 
 gion, and especially for holy orders, effaced all 
 the merits of his loyalty with a queen at inter- 
 necine war with pope and popery. Conscious of 
 the secret practices of his enemies against him, 
 at the court of England, and shunning the vio- 
 lent outrages of the deputy, whom he might 
 easily have crushed, he determined to repair to 
 London, and lay a statement of his own case, 
 and the grievances of his neighbouring territo- 
 ries, before the queen and the privy council, to 
 whom he justified his own conduct. Leland says, 
 fc he had departed without licence from the de- 
 putv, and was therefore at first restrained of his 
 liberty; but such was the well-dissembled zeal 
 of his submission and humility, that the offence 
 was soon pardoned, and the earl admitted before 
 the privy council, to give such assurance of his 
 future loyalty as should be demanded. He agreed 
 to find sureties for his good behaviour, with the 
 addition of hostages to be delivered to the Irish
 
 OP IRELAND. 
 
 deputy, and to be exchanged once in three 
 months. The principal articles which he was 
 thus bound to perform were, to continue loval 
 and peaceable; to renounce all Irish sovereignty 
 and Irish customs ; and to promote the establish- 
 ment of English laws and manners in his district ; 
 to give no aid to the queen's enemies; to hold no 
 correspondence with foreign traitors; to maintain 
 no monks or friars; not to meddle with spiritual 
 livings; to levy no forces without licence of the 
 state; to keep his troop of fifty horse in the 
 queen's pay complete; and to be ever ready on a 
 general hosting to attend the royal standard ; to 
 supply the garrison of Blackwater with provi- 
 sions at a reasonable price; to impose no exac- 
 tions but by commission from the state; and to 
 execute no criminals but by licence of martial 
 law. The articles which restrained him in the 
 exercise of Irish sovereignty, were., at his repre- 
 sentations of the equity and necessity of it, or- 
 dered to be imposed on the chieftains of hi* 
 neighbourhood also. He readily and cheerfully 
 
 O * 
 
 acquiesced in every requisition ; and the earl of 
 Ormond and Sir Christopher Hatioii became 
 sureties for his performance. 
 
 " Scarcely had this accommodation been con- 
 cluded., when the sons of John O'Nial, who en- 
 vied and dreaded the rising power of Tironr, 
 made a bold attempt to e fleet hi* ruin. Hugh, 
 a bastard son of John, surnamrd \e-Gavelocke, 
 or the Fettered, from the circumstance ot his 
 being born in the captivity of Ins mother, waa 
 commissioned to repair to the court ul England..
 
 506 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 and there to accuse the earl of several articles of 
 treason, particularly of having entered into secret 
 negotiations with Spain, by means of those Spa- 
 niards who had been shipwrecked on his coast. 
 Tirone affected to treat this accusation with 
 contempt ; he imputed it to the enmity which his 
 countrymen had conceived against him from his 
 attachment to the queen; and observed, that he 
 who had advised the total suppression of the 
 name of O'Nial never could be forgiven by that 
 haughty sept. Thus converting this charge into 
 a proof of his merits, he so wrought upon the 
 council, that the accuser was neglected, and the 
 carl permitted to return to Ireland. His pro- 
 mises and assurances of fulfilling his engage- 
 ments were renewed to the lord deputy; but 
 when pressed to execute his indentures in due 
 form, he artfully replied, that all his neigh- 
 bouring lords stood equally engaged with him, 
 and that when they were ready to appear before 
 the state, and enter into the necessary securities, 
 he should be found equally prepared; but to 
 execute his indentures singly, while they conti- 
 nued free, were only to expose his country to 
 their lawless depredations; and to deprive him- 
 self of all power of defence." 
 
 Why Leland should stile his contempt of an 
 accusation, ascribed by himself, a few lines be- 
 fore, to the envy of John O'Nial's sons, dread- 
 ing his rising power? 'Tis of a piece with the 
 atiectation, and false colouring, that infect his 
 
 * Leland, Vol. II. Cook IV. c. iii, p. 315.
 
 OF IRELAND. 507 
 
 whole history, which by blending truth and 
 fiction, discolouring the compound with false 
 daubing, exhibit a caricature, not a true picture 
 of the times. His confidence in his own inte- 
 grity, and his punctuality to his engagements, 
 must have been well assured, before he would 
 throw himself into the power of those, who were 
 prodigal of Irish blood, never scrupling any 
 means of shedding it; or venture to a place 
 where every Irishman could view a memento of 
 his fate, on beholding the heads of Desmond, 
 O'Rourke, &c. impaled on London-bridge. What 
 is the artful reply? Merely, a very true and just 
 one. Leland must have considered the public, 
 for which he wrote, a pack of foolish unreflecting 
 ideots; or he would not venture to amuse them 
 with his artful, affected misapplication of terms. 
 Talking of the escape of O'Doimel, chieftain 
 of Tyrconnel, Tyrone's son-in-law, from a trea- 
 cherous captivity and bondage in Dublin castle, 
 he says, " however this may be, the hostages e!- 
 fected their escape, and some proceeded directly, 
 and without any difficulty, to their own countn. 
 Hugh O'Donnel, and Arthur, a youth of the fa- 
 mily of O'Nial, being hotly pursued, lied for 
 immediate shelter to some of the Irish ept- in 
 the neighbourhood of the capital; and gained a 
 miserable retreat in the drears season of the \e;ir ; 
 where their friends,, terrified by the queen's troop-, 
 left them for some days, to struggle with the 
 miseries of cold and hunger; and when tlit\ at 
 length ventured to their relief, found the \oung 
 O'Nial expiring with famine, and Hugh O'Dui.- 
 VOL i '> L
 
 508 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 nel deprived of his limbs, by the severity of cold, 
 lamenting over his companion. He was har- 
 boured, attended, and restored. He regained 
 his country with an implacable detestation of the 
 English power, sharpened by the recollection of 
 his sufferings; and was soon after invested with 
 the Irish chieftainry of Tirconnel, on the resig- 
 nation of his father; so as to be thus enabled to 
 give a freer course to his resentment."* 
 
 A hostage is a person delivered to a conque- 
 ror, as a guarantee for the fulfilment of a treaty,, 
 not to be chained in a loathsome dungeon, but 
 
 O ' 
 
 treated honorably. Never before did I see the 
 term applied to a kidnapped child. Behold 
 Leland's kidiiapped hostage; from his own ac- 
 count of the faithless capture of young O'Donnel, 
 by the artifice of deputy Perrot, in page 479. 
 Lee, with the conscience of a true-born English- 
 man, allows the kidnapping of Irish children, 
 especially those of great lords, to be good and 
 commendable; but condemns the inhuman treat- 
 ment of kidnapped O'Donnel; for he says, 
 " When there hath been a stratagem used for the 
 taking into your majesty's hands ayoung * youth, 
 the heir of a great country, by whose taking his 
 whole country would have been held in obedience, 
 the practice whereof was most good and com- 
 mendable; yet (after the obtaining of him) his 
 manner of usage was most dishonourable and dis- 
 commendable, and neither allowable before God 
 
 * Inland, Vol. If. B. IV. c. iii. p. 316. 
 i The earl of T) rconm-I.
 
 OF IRELAND. 509 
 
 nor man." As it fared with the man-mountain 
 in the kingdom of Liliput, fresh accusations 
 against Tyrone. He was married to Bagnal's 
 sister; he seduced her affections; his daughter 
 \vasmarried to O'Donnel; lie strengthened him- 
 self by an alliance; he put his accuser, Hugh 
 na Ngabhloe, to death, an act of sovereignty. 
 ec But Tirone who still found it necessary to dis- 
 semble, declared that his alliance with O'Donnel 
 \vas intended merely to keep him firm to his alle- 
 giance, that the outrages which Tirlaugh had 
 suffered were the consequences of his O\VM lawless 
 violence; that far from seducing the si-tor of Sir 
 Henry Bagnal, she had freely consented to become 
 his consort, and that lie was equally at liberty to 
 accept her, as he had been regularly divorced 
 from his former wife. Me accused his brother-in- 
 law of usurping an authority in Lister, incon- 
 sistent with his just rights, but at the same ti.ne 
 artfully requested the lord's of her majesty's 
 council to prevail on Bagnal to be reconciled to 
 him, that they might live as kinsmen and neigh- 
 bours, and concur amicably in the service of go- 
 vernment. To give these professions a greater air 
 of sincerity, he admitted his country to he iVrmed 
 into a shire, and divided into baronies altrr the 
 English model. The northern province, .vhicli 
 harboured the most pestilent disaffection, now 
 seemed reduced and pacified; and government 
 found leisure to attend to no other dMricN ol the 
 island. A composition for purveyance war 
 
 * Lee'i Memorial.
 
 510 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 lished in Munster for three years; and the queen, 
 flattered by finding every province of Ireland at 
 length consenting to contribute in this manner, 
 to the augmentation of her revenue."* 
 
 Dissemble. A man of sound ability, endowed 
 with such policy as the Doctor imputes to Hugh 
 O'Nial, might cordially and seriously wish for 
 peace with English power, almost on any terms ; 
 considering the relative situation of both parties. 
 Weakness and disunion on one side; power, 
 wealth, and concord, on the other. Prudence 
 would direct him to dissemble his resentments, to 
 justify his conduct, and seek toward oft* the insi- 
 dious manoeuvres of the sanguinary wolves, who 
 thirsted for Irish blood and plunder, by every 
 conciliatory resource of submission and accom- 
 modation. Artfully. To request the interference 
 of an umpire, towards a reconciliation with a 
 brother-in-law, would appear a very innocent, nay, 
 a humane and Christian artifice. The northern 
 province, which harboured the most pestilent dis- 
 affection. Yes, in common with the rest of Ire- 
 land, it harboured the pestiferous monsters, whose 
 excessive cruelties, treasons, and perfidies, wan- 
 ton and brutal lust, would excite commotion and 
 civil war in the most peaceable and best esta- 
 blished kingdom in the world. Did England 
 bear the thousandth part of such outrages, 
 when it rose against Charles I. and James II. 
 Did Switzerland, when it rose against Austria? 
 Did America, an English colony 3 The insults 
 
 * Lelaud, Vol. 1[. B. IV. c. iii. pp. 318. 31U.
 
 OF IRELAND. 5H 
 
 offered her, compared to the accumulated wrongs, 
 and inhuman oppressions, heaped on the Irish, 
 during upwards of four centuries, would weigh 
 but as a barley-corn against the globe. AVhy did 
 they not resist sooner, and more efticaciouslv ? 
 Because if they were disaffected to their common 
 tyrants, they were still more disaffected to each 
 other. Their pride, that hereditary maladv, 
 which sticks to their degraded posterity, even in 
 rags; their mutual jealousies, and vindictive 
 spirit of perpetuating old family quarrels, kept 
 them asunder. In the stile of the English court 
 and law, they are emphatically called, the Irish 
 enemy. In their own language, they deserve that 
 title still better; for they proved the most mortal 
 enemies to each other, who gloried and delighted 
 in cutting each other down; as it shall appear hi 
 this last war ever undertaken in defence of na- 
 tional independence and liberty of conscience. 
 They were not Englishmen, but the hands and 
 arms of Irishmen, who cut down the Irish. The 
 English, unable to sustain the severities of Iri.-h 
 warfare, were dropping like rotten sheep; but 
 Irish catholics were found in abundance, to re- 
 pair these losses, and bear the brunt and ha\oc. 
 The Irish were not onlv vindictive, but w-iv 
 corruptible. Many chieftains and leader* wore 
 bought with English gold. l)a\id Hume re- 
 lates, that Elizabeth expended six hundred thou- 
 sand pounds in six months on the IrMi war: an 
 enormous sum in those days, whether we cou-ider 
 the relative value of currency, or the comparative 
 resources of Erg-land at these different
 
 512 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 The queen was so exhausted by these sacrifices, 
 that she sold the crown jewels and royal demesnes; 
 one leading step to the overthrow of the monarchy, 
 and her new church, under her successors. The 
 Irish bards were not neglected in the distribu- 
 tion. These possessed considerable influence on 
 the public mind, somewhat like the orators at 
 Athens. As Philip had always one or other of 
 these in pay, so Bess hired bards to revive old 
 rivalries. Among these venal revivers of almost 
 forgotten animosities, Tcag mac Dai re holds a 
 distinguished rank. Taking up an old poem of 
 Torna Eiges, in which the preeminence of the 
 north over the south is expressly affirmed, he 
 undertook its refutation. The northern bards, 
 unaware of the plot, gave into the bait, and 
 espoused the political maxims of Torna Eiges. 
 The controversy continued some years, and con- 
 tributed, as far as bardic influence reached, to 
 rekindle and inflame the animosities of the north 
 and south. Which of the bards wrote best or 
 worst; which maintained the right or wrong 
 position, was matter of great indifference to the 
 instigators of this poetic warfare. It was enough, 
 that it served the English interest. 
 
 All Ireland being pretty well civilized by de- 
 populating devastations, Mr. Leland introduces 
 the foundation of Trinity College,, as an interlude 
 between tho tragical scenes, that covered this 
 country with ruins, bathed the soil with the best 
 blood of its inhabitants, converting it, literally, 
 into an Haccldama, field of blood, a catacomb 
 of mangled carcases. A source of civility and
 
 OF IRELAND. 513 
 
 refinement indeed ! After destroying all the semi- 
 naries of learning in the kingdom, and prohi- 
 biting men, by penalties of fine, imprisonment, 
 torture and death, to be taught the only religion 
 they would be taught; deprived of instruction in 
 their own native language, the only tongue un- 
 derstood by the great majority, and, consequently, 
 the only one through which thev could then re- 
 ceive civility and refinement, the institution of a 
 single school, and that partial, for the exclusive 
 benefit of a sect, leaves no great room to a nation 
 for boasting of civilization and refinement. The 
 foundation of a learned seminary must he allowed 
 useful; but many circumstances obscure the 
 lustre of this establishment. AVe sec no traces of 
 royal munificence,, nurturing its infancy, unless a 
 sheet of parchment, with a seal appended to it. 
 If, from the immense plunder of churches and 
 monasteries, a scrap of one, called Allhallowi, 
 erected by the adulterous harbinger of his coun- 
 try's destroyers, was granted by the citizens of 
 Dublin for this purpose, it will not seem a vio- 
 lent effort of liberality. The popish English 
 settlers far exceeded this measure of retribution ; 
 for, after destroying two or three monasteries, 
 possessed bv natives, as a recompence to God and 
 religion, and " to strengthen us," they iraveone 
 to monks of English birth or blood. \\ ere that 
 
 O 
 
 seminary destined for the improvement ot the 
 nation, it might be boasted as a source ot civility. 
 Alas, it was far from that just and humane polio. 
 It was erected for the narrow purposes ot a sect, 
 to propogate that religious innovation, aptly
 
 514; AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 stiled by lord Clare, the fc pestilent bane" of 
 Ireland. The great mass of the natives were still 
 reduced to languish in ignorance at home, or seek 
 education abroad. A more enlightened policy 
 has happily since prevailed, and rendered this 
 university, what every similar institution should 
 be, a national benefit. 
 
 Melodious lyre of Innisfail, strike mournful 
 notes. The heroes, who delighted in thy fes- 
 tive notes, and cherished thy muse, are hastening 
 to the last act of the fatal tragedy, which closes 
 with their utter overthrow, saddened by calami- 
 ties unequalled, by desolation and ruin seldom 
 inflicted by human beings; never, before or 
 since, by people professing Christianity on their 
 fellow Christians. A nation, patriarchal, in its 
 recorded antiquity, in its constitution, laws, 
 manners and customs, is on the point of exter- 
 mination; or, if a remnant is to survive slaughter 
 and famine, 'tis only to irretrievable degrada- 
 tion. The monuments of their genius, in poetry, 
 music, physic and philosophy, are devoted to 
 perish. Their language, one of the most elegant, 
 certainly the most copious and interesting in the 
 \vorld, is to be suppressed, by worse than Gothic 
 barbarians. The religion, taught by St. Patrick, 
 and professed, when he taught, by the \vhole 
 Christian world, is to be persecuted, its profes- 
 sors arc to endure every sort of punishment, in 
 their persons, properties, and posterity; in their 
 rights, as men and citizens, for ages. The 
 putty scribblers, \ylio have laboured to disfigure 
 the transactions of these days, with the coloured
 
 OF IRELAND. 515 
 
 gas of fiction and deception, partly prejudice, 
 partly voluntary misrepresentation, have called 
 the resistance of the northerns, rebellions. Yes: 
 if unsuccessful war be rebellion. Washington, 
 defeated, would hang as a rebel. Is resistance 
 never lawful ? Are we to admit passive obe- 
 dience, and non-resistance, as a sacred maxim ? 
 If so, the reformation stands convicted from its 
 birth ; as it consisted in opposition to the esta- 
 blished authorities. The reformers would every 
 where be condemned, on the same principle; for 
 they conspired the downfall of church and state, 
 wherever they could venture on the experiment. 
 If resistance to lawless tyranny be ever justifiable, 
 the northern Irish cannot be impeached of rash- 
 ness or unwarrantable resistance. First, they 
 were not subjects, in the whole latitude of that 
 word; but were governed by their own laws, and 
 by the legitimate, recognized authority of their 
 native princes, acknowledging, merely, such 
 feudal obedience to the crown of England, as 
 their progenitors paid to their own monarch* ; 
 with whom, to wage war, was not rebellion in 
 an Irish chieftain; or as the electors and princes 
 of Germany did homage to the emperor, again-t 
 whom they might make war. without heing de- 
 nominated or treated as rebels, \\ere they run 
 subjects, in every sense of the word, the tyranny 
 exercised over them Mas so cruel, pertidiou*'.. 
 and worse than inhuman; carried on with Mich 
 audacity of insult, such contemptuous iii-oU'iuc, 
 such revolting defiance of all law, human and 
 divine, with such undisguised views of exUnui- 
 VOL. i. 3 x
 
 516 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 nation and extinction of religion, as sanctified 
 resistance by every sanction that God conferred 
 on man, as a rational, moral and religious being, 
 member of a civilized and religious society, 
 whose government should be ruled by the eternal 
 principles of moral justice, charity and benefi- 
 cence. A government, which studied not the 
 happiness, but the destruction of the people, 
 which protected neither persons, nor property, 
 but violated both with persevering constancy, 
 not caring to hide its intention of rooting out its 
 antient inhabitants; a government of professed 
 murderers, plunderers, bible-mad, persecuting 
 demoniacs, deserved neither respect or obedience, 
 but the vengeance of God and man, which it 
 grievously and hourly provoked. Allowed, that 
 these frantic fanatics made no improvement in 
 tyranny, treachery or cruelty, that were not 
 practised by their popish predecessors, some 
 of whose atrocities they did not even equal. 
 Rut, besides that recrimination is no justifica- 
 tion, the English papists of birth and blood, 
 persecuted not protrstants, but papists, as Irish- 
 men; and as such they smarted, under the 
 crushing destructive yoke of insolent task- 
 masters; who, in all the transmutations of their 
 faith arid policy, in the phrenzy of revolution, 
 religious innovation, rebellion, or in the calm 
 security of peaceful settlement, wealth and domi- 
 nion, had not abated the hatred they bOre to the 
 unfortunate slaves who tilled this fair island for 
 their emolument. 
 
 What law was not violated? Protection and
 
 OF IRELAND. 517 
 
 obedience are reciprocal. The law of England 
 neither protected an Irishman's life, nor avenged 
 his death. This is attested by Sir John Temple, 
 who, in his History of the Irish Rebellion, p. 7, 
 states, Those that were adventurers in the 
 first conquests (of Ireland), and such other of 
 the English nation as came over afterwards, took 
 possession, by virtue of former grants, of the 
 whole kingdom, drove the Irish, in a manner, 
 out of all the habitable parts of it, and settled 
 themselves in all the plains and fertile places of 
 the country, especially in the chief towns, ports, 
 and sea-coasts. It was no capital offence to kill 
 any of the rest of the (non-enfranchised) Irish; 
 the law did neither protect their life, nor revenge 
 their death." " It was not till the 12lh of 
 James I. arm. 16 J \, that the Irish were consi- 
 dered as subjects; for then an act was made in 
 the Irish parliament, declaring, that the natms 
 of Irish blood were in several statutes and re- 
 cords called Irish enemies, and accordingly 
 abridged of the benefit of the laws, but that 
 being then taken into his majesty's gracious 
 protection under one law, as dutiful subjects- 
 those laws of distinction and difference \\erc 
 wholly abrogated."* Public faith broken, i> 
 attested by Lee, in his Memorial to queen LI 
 zabeth, for be says, that ' the Irish, \\lio ha\e 
 once offended, live they never so homely aft.r- 
 wards, if they grow into wealth, are Mire to be 
 cut off by one indirect means or other.' 
 
 * Borluse lleduct. of IrtUad. p. l^S.
 
 518 
 
 this he gives the following melancholy instance. 
 " In one of her majesty's civil shires,, there lived 
 an Irishman peaceably and quietly as a good 
 subject, many years together, whereby he grew 
 into great wealth; which his landlord thirsting 
 after, and desirous to remove him from his land., 
 entered into practice with the sheriff of the shire 
 to dispatch this simple man, and divide his goods 
 between them. Whereupon they sent one of his 
 own servants for him, and he coming with him, 
 they presently took his man and hanged him., 
 and keeping the master prisoner, they went 
 immediately to his dwelling, and shared his sub- 
 stance, which was of great value, between them, 
 turning his wife and many children to begging. 
 After they had kept him ( the master ) fast for a 
 season with the sheriff, they carried him to the 
 castle of Dublin, where he lay bye the space of 
 two or three terms, and he having no matter ob- 
 jected against him, whereupon to be tried by 
 law, they by their credit and countenance ( being 
 both English gentlemen, and he, who was the 
 landlord, the chiefest man in tSie shire) informed 
 the lord deputy so hardly of him, as that, without 
 indictment or trial, they executed him; to the 
 great scandal of her majesty's state, and the 
 impeachment of her laws. Yet this, and the 
 like exemplary justice (adds he) is ministered to 
 your majesty's poor subjects there/'* The mas- 
 sacres of Mullah-maisteen, Derry, Kilkenny, 
 Dublin, Waterford, &c. the perfidious engago- 
 
 * Lee's Memorial.
 
 OF IRELAND. 510 
 
 ment of the public faith procured the opportunity, 
 and its unprincipled breach accomplished the 
 murder of unsuspecting loyalty. In fact, the 
 principle invariably acted on was, that no faith 
 was to be kept with the Irish. Like the Maho- 
 metans towards the Christians; no peace with the 
 Irish enemy, only a cessation of arms, to wait a 
 more favourable juncture for forwarding the plan 
 of extermination. Was private faith more res- 
 pected ? \Vitness the murderous invitations to 
 bloody banquets. . .O'Brien, Kavanagh, O'Neil, 
 Fitzgerald's, by the deputy, thence to Eng- 
 land, the tower, the scaffold, the spike. The 
 breach of faith towards the Irish was so com- 
 mon, that mistrust of Englishmen, whether by 
 birth or blood, except those who degenerated 
 from the common perfidy, to more honourable 
 native principles, passed into a proverb, \a dean 
 comamle fear Gall, &c. Form no partnership 
 with an alien; if you do, woe be to you, always 
 on the watch to deceive; behold alien partner- 
 ship with you. 
 
 No greater or more flagrant violation of public 
 and private faith has been recorded, than tho^e 
 practised under pretence of introducing Ki:gli>h 
 law and civilization among the Irish. Mngh.-h 
 law was to be introduced by miscreants \\hom 
 every law would sentence to the gallons ; robin T>, 
 thieves, prostitutes, vagabonds rqualh profligato 
 and impious; and they were diligent in the prac- 
 tice of their se\eral professions, to procure the 
 love and attachment of the natives to novl m-ti- 
 tutions, by plundering, murdering, ra\i.-hinjj
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 females, pillaging 1 the sacred utensils from 
 churches and altars,, worthy missionaries of a 
 propaganda of immorality and impiety. These 
 able contrivers of evil rightly judged, that pro- 
 fligacy of manners, and general corruption, 
 would be accompanied by a decay of religion, 
 and facilitate access to strange doctrines ; hence 
 their endeavours to spread the pestilent infection 
 among the natives ; or excessive tyranny, steeled 
 against every principle of conscience or remorse, 
 of right and wrong; devoid of the fear of God, 
 as of all human feelings ; copper-sheath fronted 
 against every impression of shame or decency; 
 of the public opinion of the present or future 
 generations, that would let loose on the public, 
 and licence a nefarious gang of freebooters, for 
 whom the jail or the gallows would be too mild 
 a destination, to put them to live on free quarters, 
 and take, as the reward of their crimes, the plun- 
 der of an unhappy people, whose religion and 
 morality were shocked and scandalized, at scenes 
 of debauchery, cruelty, and unutterable abomi- 
 nations, exhibited by these fiends to their asto- 
 nished senses, such as they never witnessed, nor 
 could conceive possible. 
 
 If human nature revolted, as it necessarily 
 must, if any resistance was made, to this odious, 
 base, filthy prostitution of ruffian tyranny, run 
 mad with the fumes boiling furiously from Beel- 
 zebub's hottest cauldron, inilaming their greedy 
 thirst for blood, plunder, and the diffusion of 
 impiety and profligacy, traitors proclaimed, con- 
 fiscations, massacres, &c. &c. \Vherever these
 
 OF IRELAND. 521 
 
 detestable locusts appeared, terror and dismay 
 seized the inhabitants; tumults and insurrection 
 unavoidably followed, and drew in their train 
 military execution. Hence, Maguire, beiii 
 asked by the deputy, if lie would admit a sheriff 
 into his country, replied, yes; but tell me his 
 eric, that, if any of my people kill him, I may 
 levy it on the country. Sensible, that the worse 
 than brutal excesses, perpetrated by these ministers 
 of rapine, and impudent abandoned vice, would 
 provoke retaliation. Dreading- the evils of such 
 a visitation, he compounded with the deputy for 
 a precarious respite, paying; him three hundred 
 cows, on condition of not sending; a sheriff into 
 his country, during the remainder of his deputy- 
 ship ; which might not be a year, perhaps not a 
 month. But exemption from so dreadful a cala- 
 mity for a year, even for a month, was considered 
 a blessing worth the purchase. Fit/William took 
 the cows, but, with the usual good faith of Eng- 
 lishmen in their dealings with the Irish, he sent 
 the notorious captain Willis, with his gang of 
 licenced felons and freebooters, to prey on Fer- 
 managh, and astonish the affrighted inhabitant*, 
 >vith the strange and woeful experience of their 
 lewd excesses, and diabolical practices. The 
 misfortunes, foreboded by Maguire, come to pass. 
 The cries and resentment of the \ictirns reached 
 his ears. lie was eye-witness of the infamies 
 and scandals, committed. He obeyed his nature, 
 heard the cry of suffering humanity, n -e on 
 the ruffians, cooped them up in a church, 
 where an indignant outraged people would hive
 
 522 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 executed summary and merited justice, if the 
 miscreants had not been saved by the interposition 
 of Tyrone, on condition of departing out of the 
 country. Maguire was proclaimed a traitor. The 
 queen's forces were marched against him ; who, 
 in conjunction with Tyrone's forces, defeated him 
 and his allies, and took his castle of Enniskillen. 
 In this action Tyrone was wounded in the thigh; 
 and, instead of thanks, he was given to under- 
 stand, that he too was mentioned in the catalogue 
 of traitors; on which he separated from the Eng- 
 lish army, and visited no longer the deputy or 
 general, alledging apprehensions of treachery, 
 which appear to have been well grounded. See 
 pp.449, 500, 501, 502. 
 
 Hugh O'Neil, long dissatisfied with the treat- 
 ment he experienced from the Irish government, 
 unable to rely on the promises of the British 
 cabinet, whose wily politics seemed influenced 
 by caprice, alternately declaring for and against 
 him, but at bottom determined to use him as an 
 instrument for their designs on the remnant of 
 the antient race and religion, could see neither 
 honor or safety in the terms, on which he served 
 her majesty hitherto. He saw, that the avidity of 
 adventurers, who preyed on three provinces, was 
 not yet sated, but coveted a fourth ; and, that in 
 quest of plunder there could be no dearth of new 
 comers. The danger now approached his own 
 door. M/Mahon had fallen by English perfidy, 
 and Orgial became their booty. Me had himself 
 aided them in the reduction of Maguire, and 
 Fermanagh fell into their hands, with its pi in-
 
 OF I R EL AN*. 5^3 
 
 cipal fort, Enniskillcn. Who was next to be as- 
 sailed, but O'Donnel or himself? A similar 
 pretext, of declaring them traitors, as served 
 against Maguire, was always at hand. Some 
 scoundrel, like Willis, Conel, Fuller, &c. might 
 
 be sent, with an infamous crew of vagabonds and 
 
 f * 
 
 strumpets, to civilize Tyrone and Tyrconnel, and 
 resistance, treason. What the Milesians endured, 
 
 whithersoever English power extended, spoke 
 strong warning of his own fate. Religion, too, 
 was in danger of perishing in the wreck; a mat- 
 ter of no secondary moment to any man, much 
 less to a wise statesman, \\hat perils awaited 
 the catholic faith were visible, from the persecu- 
 tion it was crushed with in England.* Some 
 English general affirmed, that Tyrone had no 
 more religion than his horse; but, besides that 
 the relation of an enemy is not incautiously ad- 
 missible, his toleration, or even courtesy to the 
 new faith, argued no indifference to his own, but 
 the liberality of a mind enlightened beyond h;> 
 age. The preservation of the catholic church. 
 in its rights and immunities, within the limit*, ot 
 his jurisdiction; his encouragement of semina- 
 ries, afford no proof of indifference. Policy 
 might have prompted some affectation oi zeal on 
 declaring himself a champion of the faiih. bnl 
 to attribute the whole of his religious conduct to 
 that inferior consideration, is not equitable 
 
 After maturely weighing the extieme peril ot 
 the enterprise, Tu'one resolved to pass 
 
 * Soc ut supra, p. -JJK i 5 
 VOL. II. ^ Y
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Rubicon, and raise the sword against a tyranny, 
 at once terrible, base, odious and perfidious. The 
 power of the English had grown colossal in dis- 
 tracted Ireland. Three fourths of the land yielded 
 resources, in men and means, to his enemies, sup- 
 ported by the money, sea and land forces of s Eng- 
 land. To balance these odds, he could barely 
 expect the co-operation of a few partizans; such 
 as Tyrrell, Feadh mac Hugh, O' Byrne, Pierce 
 Laccy, to make diversions in other parts, while 
 the north must sustain the main brunt of war. 
 Succours were promised by Spain, wishing to 
 avenge the assistance given by Elizabeth to the 
 revolted Netherlands, and to the Hugonots, 
 against the catholic League of France, in alli- 
 dnce. But effectual assistance could not soon be 
 expected, from a power, slow in council, tardy 
 in execution, involved in the civil wars of France^ 
 and in war with the Netherlands and England. 
 
 Beside these motives for a prudent hesitation 
 in declaring his intention, considerations of a do- 
 mestic nature occurred, to postpone his manifes- 
 tation of hostile designs. Sensible of the slender 
 tie that bound the obedience of the chuftains to 
 a provincial king 4 and how easily they might be 
 detached, by the revival of antient animosities, 
 or by the weighty argument of an English sub- 
 sidy, it was sound policy to await, until oppres- 
 sion, added to insult, had forced them to commit 
 themselves with English po\ver so deeply, as to 
 look to no private accommodation with it. 
 
 Fitzwilliarn, after provoking discontent and 
 insurrection in so many places, by every specks
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 of cruelly, that avarice, tyranny and religious 
 persecution could contrive, like a coward, as ho 
 was, dreading the commotions he had excited, 
 petitioned to be recalled from a scene of confla- 
 gration, after kindling the wisp, loaded with the 
 spoils and curses of a plagued people.* Why so 
 odious and oppressive a tyrant was so long con- 
 tinued as deputy, to scourge and flay the suffering 
 Irish, was best known to his employers, suffici- 
 ently informed of his criminal and dishonourable, 
 conduct to the natives. The counsels of those, 
 who wished for insurrection and confiscations, 
 emboldened by a national and deceitful contempt 
 for the power of the northerns, prevailed; and 
 the anti-catholic zeal of the queen flattered her 
 with the hope of speedily extinguishing the 
 catholic faith in Ireland, by the conquest of the 
 north, the only part of Ireland that could se- 
 riously oppose its suppression. "V\ hat must have 
 been their astonishment and disappointment, at 
 the first military essays of O'Donnel, and the 
 energy displayed by the northerns, in the course 
 of this seven year's war; during which they 
 were often victorious, over the utmost exertion 
 of English power, aided by half Ireland; and 
 often seemed on the point of chasing English 
 power from the land. 
 
 On the arrival of the new deputy, Sir John 
 Russel, O'Neil appeared at the lri*h court, and 
 gave satisfactory reasons for keeping aloof, uu- 
 iing the latter part of lMtz\vilJiiim'.> deputy-hip. 
 
 * See Lee's Memorial. Appendix.
 
 526 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Satisfactory it seems they proved, to the Anglo- 
 Irish council, who., in spite of the malicious ac- 
 cusations of his mortal enemy, Bagnal, rejected 
 the advice of breaking the public faith, pledged 
 to him, by detaining him prisoner. Reasons, 
 which satisfied cotemporaries and enemies, pos- 
 sessed of every means of information, confronted 
 with the accusations of a neighbouring, power- 
 ful and mortal enemy, ought, one would sup- 
 pose, content a modern writer of history if not 
 warped from candour and truth, by party preju- 
 dice. Even had Tyrone so long cloaked real 
 disaffection to English government, under the 
 mask of loyalty; and sought to train and arm his 
 followers, under pretence of serving the queen, 
 he would only have imitated the successful policy 
 of prince Maurice of Saxony, in the service of 
 Charles V. in his war against the protestants of 
 Germany. If dissimulation be commendable, to 
 protect the religion and independence of German 
 protestants, against the encroachments of their 
 feudal sovereign, why must it be wicked and de- 
 teslable, in the service of Iri^h catholics, against 
 the more violent assaults of a power not less 
 limited. None but one infected with the false 
 logic of party prejudice, would make any dis- 
 tinction between two cases, perfectly similar, 
 without any the least shade of difference, except 
 solely in the issue; one being crowned by suc- 
 cess, the other disgraced by defeat. 
 
 I cannot proceed further, without some ani- 
 madversions on the indecent and impudent libel, 
 published by David Hume, in the fifth volume
 
 OF IRELAND. 527 
 
 of his history of England, on the inhabitants of 
 this country. Was it for Hottentots or English- 
 
 * ^ 
 
 men, he Vented this volley of scurrilous abuse, 
 teeming with ignorance, nauseating with vulga- 
 rity of invective, disgusting by the rancour of 
 impotent malignity ? His account is either true 
 or false. If the first, the English have been the 
 most barbarous of invaders; for it shall be proved, 
 that Ireland was highly civilized before their 
 arrival. If the latter, 'tis a signed death-war- 
 rant of their moral character. If evcrv account 
 of Ireland, published for English readers, is sure 
 of procuring reputation and profit to the author, 
 just in proportion as it violates truth, for libel- 
 lous defamation, and shocking caricatures of men 
 and manners, what an abominable race, to har- 
 bour misanthropy, such infernal hatred, tounrd.s 
 a people, whose population and soil are such 
 great sources of their opulence and power. To 
 this worrying backbiter, as a hound of the same, 
 kennel, may be applied my former stricture mi 
 his fellow calumniator. Every English dabbler 
 in literature, since Gerald Harry, thinks himself 
 authorized, by the destruction of our records. Jo 
 publish fictions, hovu:\er incredible, concerning 
 the terra australis incognita of our history. 1 heir 
 historians arc gravelv employed to publish ln>to- 
 rical lies again-t 1h:.- cour.try. Not a paltry 
 compilation can be published, under the title ot 
 gazetteer, geography, n-gazim*. but n;u-t mangle 
 and disfigure the name ami character ot In I, mi! 
 But people are not to be credited to our di-ad- 
 vantaire, who demonstrated their abhorrence et
 
 528 AN IMPARTIAL' HISTORY 
 
 truth, and their enmitj to historical monuments, 
 in diligently robbing us of our records and ma- 
 nuscripts of every kind; as far as their utmost 
 power and influence could reach, using their best 
 endeavours to destroy all remembrance of past 
 events, that they might be at liberty to publish 
 their own malicious forgeries, without fear of 
 detection. The monuments of Irish genius are 
 scattered to the wind ; the records and memorials 
 of our fame dispersed or destroyed ; the memory 
 of the illustrious dead, and the character of the 
 living., are equally insulted ; we are stript bare, and 
 then reproached with our poverty; we have been 
 deprived of education, and then reproached with 
 our ignorance; our colleges, that abounded with 
 learning, and learned men, who enlightened Eu- 
 rope, our seminaries of physic, poetry, music, 
 &c. were suppressed, and their scientific labours 
 destroyed or cajrricd off, and we are insultingly 
 told, that our ancestors were barbarians ; we have 
 been deprived of our manufactures, and the means 
 of employing and feeding our people, and they 
 are reproached with laziness ! Likea wreck drifted 
 by the storm to a barbarous inhospitable shore, 
 our spoils are become the prey of the robber and 
 the thief. One set runs away with our saints, ano- 
 ther snatches our doctors, and learned men; many 
 are the filchers of our music, which like base 
 plagiarists,, they publish in their own names, 
 witness Hooker's Voice of Love, and Along, &c. 
 Our poets and heroes cannot escape them, and a 
 puny Caledonian attempted to runaway with our 
 inigbty Fion and his grandson Ossian; but the
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 \vight proved too feeble for the load ; stung at 
 the disappointment, the cunning Scotchman 
 made wooden figures of the hero, painted and 
 dressed them out from his own fancy, and called 
 
 J * 
 
 them, as well he might, higlilanders. Then they 
 attacked the credit of our annals and history. In 
 opposition to the current of antiquity, they de- 
 nied the arrival of the Spaniards into Ireland, 
 and the emigration of the Scots from Ireland to 
 Caledonia, where they at length obtained the so- 
 vereignty, and gave the country its present name, 
 in the teeth of their own uniform, tradition, and 
 of the testimonies of their oldest historians. Our 
 literary champions, Ward, L\nch, David Butheus, 
 Colgan, Usher, O' Flaherty, O'llalloran, and 
 Chas. O'Connor, general Vallancev, have sallied 
 forth like the Argonauts, to reco\er the golden 
 prize, and assert its just titles to Ogygia Atlan- 
 tica. Injuries sit lighter on men of spirit than 
 insults, and justly too. Reputation is dearer 
 than wealth; still more to a nation, or an exten- 
 sive description of persons, than to an individual. 
 Immortal by nature, they must reap the good or 
 ill annexed to reputation individually, and col- 
 lectively it is a concern of the first magnitude; 
 and, next to the criminality of deserving a had 
 character, is the turpitude of abandoning fair 
 fame the prey of foul calumny and falsehood. 
 Further, character never goes alone; it is the 
 natural outinuird and bulwark of every man's 
 
 ^j 
 
 safety and comfortable existence: il it is sur- 
 rendered, the enemy will not stop their, but pu-.Ii 
 bis attacks against other >ital parts, with the
 
 530 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 more advantage, as the protecting shield of 
 Reputation is gone. 
 
 The virulent chapter on the Irish, Wilkes's 
 favourite number, begins with a bull. fc Though 
 the dominion of the English over Ireland had 
 been established above four centuries, it may 
 safely be affirmea, that their authority had hi- 
 therto been little more than nominal. Good 
 heavens, what confusion of ideas! how many 
 blunders in one short period. If English domi- 
 nion had been ESTABLISHED, how could English 
 authority continue little more than nominal? If 
 the authority was nominal, the dominion too 
 must be nominal, since real dominion, without 
 real authority, is unintelligible. Eitiier both are 
 real, or both nominal. " Though/' beginning 
 the sentence, holds out a reason, " the Irish 
 princes and nobles, divided among themselves, 
 readily paid the EXTERIOR MARKS of obeisance 
 to a power, which they were not able to resist; 
 but as no durable force was ever kept on foot, to 
 retain them in their duty, they relapsed into their 
 former state of independence!" More confusion 
 of ideas. That the Irish might have been pru- 
 dently polite, in complimenting and bowing to 
 their august visitor, Henry II. is not improbable; 
 but the coy abstemiousness of the English mo- 
 narch, in the use of irresistable power, is so truly 
 admirable, so unlike himself, and all who sat on 
 his throne before and after, that, with irresistable 
 power he could, and no doubt would have wrested 
 substantial pledges of their future obedience, lie 
 could have forced hostages from them., establish
 
 OF IRELAND; 5.31 
 
 a revenue, and a standing army, to be main- 
 tained and recruited in the country, to ensure 
 their obeisance. Yet, with all these efficacious 
 means in his hands, he contents himself with 
 mere exterior marks; bid them take care of 
 themselves; departs with his unopposcablc force, 
 and leaves them just as they were. Here was 
 nolo regnare, I will not reign, in sincerity. 
 Too weak to introduce order and obedience 
 among a rude people." Consequently, no such 
 power as could not be resisted. tc And though 
 it could bestow no true form of civil government, 
 it was able to prevent the rise of any such form, 
 from the internal combination or polity of the 
 Irish." "What form of civil government they 
 could bestow, he has himself, in this very volume, 
 accurately delineated, such as exists now no 
 where in Europe, except in Turkey. The latter 
 part is pretty true; for the English colony formed 
 one of the obstacles to the restoration of the 
 Irish monarchy and constitution. Had .Mr. Hume 
 taken the pains to procure belter information, 
 he would have learned, that the English did not, 
 until the reign of queen Elizabeth, conquer Ire- 
 land. That they got their establishment her.% 
 by the grant of Mac Murehad, whom they as- 
 sisted in the recovery of his kingdom of l.enjstcr. 
 That the settlers, in Minister and Connaught, 
 obtained tracts of land from the native princes, 
 through fortunate interferences in theci\il broil-, 
 
 O 
 
 occasioned by contested elections to the chiei- 
 tainry, alliances, and other means, specified in 
 the beginning of this work. That the power of 
 VOL i. * L
 
 532 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 England extended not beyond the Pale, which 
 was ever tributary to the kings of Leinster, 
 until the twenty-eighth of Henry VIII. " But 
 the English carried farther their ill-judged 
 tyranny. Instead of inviting the Irish to adopt 
 the more civilized customs of their conquerors, 
 they, even refused, though earnestly solicited, to 
 communicate to them the privilege of their laws, 
 and every where marked them out as aliens and 
 enemies. Thrown out of the protection of jus- 
 tice, the natives could find no security but in 
 force; and flying the neighbourhood of cities, 
 which they could not approach with safety, 
 they sheltered themselves in their marshes and 
 forests, from the insolence of their inhuman mas- 
 ters. Being treated like wild beasts,, they became 
 such; and joining the ardor of their revenge to 
 their yet untamed barbarity they grew every day 
 more intractable and more dangerous." Until 
 the reign we are now treating of, the Irish had 
 no occasion to skulk in marshes and forests, ex- 
 cept as a temporary expedient, to answer war 
 manoeuvres; since they held possession of more 
 than nine-tenths of the soil, until the reign of 
 Elizabeth. I might have said nineteen -twen- 
 tieths; because the settlers out of the Pale were 
 become Irish, nature and interest baffling bar- 
 barous laws. " As the English princes deemed 
 the conquest of the dispersed Irish to be more 
 the object of time and patience than the source 
 of military glory." \Vhy not the source of mi- 
 litary glory? Ireland was far more valuable and 
 populous than Scotland, yet the kings of England
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 did not disdain to attempt its conquest. The 
 conquest of Wales also, a poor principality, was 
 thought to contribute something to their tame. 
 The English cabinet was too wise to attempt at 
 once the conquest of the whole island; judging 
 it better to proceed with patience in the task of 
 gradually reducing the petty princes one after 
 another, perpetuating anarchy, fomenting divi- 
 sions, and causing the Irish to hew each other 
 to pieces. He might have learned, from a close 
 intimacy with Irish affairs, that, instead of 
 being able to conquer all Ireland, a contest of 
 forty years with one Irish chief, during which 
 the greatest English army that ever landed in 
 Ireland, before or since, was foiled, ended in a 
 treaty that confounded English pride, being 
 compelled to pay tribute for tolerating the colony 
 in Ireland. Even so late as the latter period of 
 Elizabeth, when three-fourths of Ireland might 
 be considered as subdued, at least enfeebled, it 
 was considered politic to hide from the declining 
 Milesians the intention of imposing English go- 
 vernment on them. Essex, in his letter to queen 
 Elizabeth, says, " if your majesty \\ill have a 
 strong party in the Irish nobility, and make ut". 
 of them, you must hide from them all purpose 
 of establishing English government till tin' 
 strength of the Irish be so broken, that they shall 
 see no safety but in your maje^tie's protection.' 
 From this general's statement it is c\iilrnt. lhat 
 no hope w;i entertained of conquering them by 
 fair war, but by perfidy and inhuman \\arfme. 
 
 - By all tin's imprudent conduct of England,
 
 b34; AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 the natives of its dependent state remained still 
 in that abject condition, into which the northern 
 and western parts of Europe were sunk, before 
 they received civility and slavery from the refined 
 policy and irresistible bravery of Rome." What 
 a strange confusion of ideas and words ! The 
 natives of its dependent state were then indepen- 
 dent., if they were as the north and west of 
 Europe were before the Roman conquest. How 
 could the natives of British dependency be inde- 
 pendent ? W hen was the north of Europe con- 
 quered by Rome ? The frontiers of the Roman 
 empire nearest the north of Europe., were Gaul 
 and Pannonia, which are in the middle, not the 
 north of Europe. During upwards of four cen- 
 turies, Ireland was no more a British dependency 
 than France. The king of England had depen- 
 dencies in both kingdoms, for the preservation 
 of which they were almost continually at war. 
 They assumed titles from both countries., from 
 which they derived no real sovereignty over 
 either. The lord of Ireland was as little obeyed 
 beyond the Pale, as the king of England and 
 France was out of his feudal French territory. 
 
 / 
 
 In diplomatic and law language, they were 
 equally accosted as stilcd, allies, potentates, or 
 enemies. In Hume's idea, Gaul and Spain were 
 sunk before the Romans blessed them with civi- 
 lity and slavery ! Where did they sink from, or 
 into what? Liberty and independence. What an 
 abject condition ! From Roman history we may 
 see, if we chuse to enquire, that Gaul and Spain 
 were populous, brave, and wealthy, before civi-
 
 OF IREL4ND. 535 
 
 lily and slavery were bestowed on them ; neces- 
 saries and comforls of life were abundant ; nor 
 were they destitute of seience and education. 
 For my part, I cannot discern any great civili- 
 zation or improvement introduced by Roman 
 arms into any of the provinces. What little in- 
 formation they possessed, scantily diffused, they 
 entirely borrowed from Athens, which was their 
 only university. Virgil, in his line culogiiiin on 
 Italy, prudently disclaims all pretension to com- 
 petition in pursuits of science and the fine arts, 
 complimenting the Romans with their favourite 
 pursuit, in which only they studied to excel, 
 parcere subjectis et debellare supcrbos, to spare 
 the subdued and conquer the haughty. Indeed 
 were they generally a scientific, people, from 
 which they were far, they would not deem it 
 consistent with their civili/ing policy to diffuse 
 literature and science in the provinces; because 
 mental illumination and slavery are not congenial 
 associates. Roman civility made them truly, 
 witness the cries of the Britons to.Etius, unable 
 to withstand the predatory incursions of the 
 Scots, and easily conquered by their Saxon allie--. 
 Witness the ease with which the unch ili/ed 
 northerns, comparatively few, overran all the 
 provinces, Italy and Rome itself. " E\en at 
 the end of the sixteenth ccnturv, v, hen every 
 Christian nation was cultivating vuth ardour 
 every civil art of life, that island, lung in a 
 temperate climate, enjoving a fertile soil, acces- 
 sible in its situation, possessed of innumerable 
 harbours, was still, notwithstanding these ad-
 
 536 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 Yantages, inhabited by a people, whose customs 
 and manners approached nearer those of savages 
 than of barbarians." The Irish, surely, owe 
 David Hume many thanks, for this rough-spun 
 compliment. These words are of ambiguous sig- 
 nification. To the Greeks, all nations were bar- 
 barians. The Romans copied from them, with 
 an exception to the Greeks. The word itself, 
 borb, rampant, tierce; from borr, satiety of 
 nourishment, high condition, or, to use a vul- 
 gar phrase, ' going out of one's skin/ which 
 was far from being the condition of the Irish in 
 the latter end of the sixteenth century ; when, 
 torn to pieces by civil and foreign war, the arts 
 of peace were neglected or crushed, and the in- 
 fernal policy of Bess and her council, added 
 plague and famine to the wasting sword and fire 
 that laid waste the land. People of savage 
 manners may dwell in any country; but the defi- 
 nition of a savage nation will, I suppose, be 
 admitted to consist, in their subsisting altoge- 
 ther on the produce of the chace, or devoting 
 themselves entirely to that diversion. In that 
 sense, country squires, in Great Britain and 
 Ireland, as well as their huntsmen and hounds, 
 bear some faint resemblance to the savage state. 
 But, that the institutions and manners of a na- 
 tion, which once made so eminent a figure in 
 Europe, approached the lowest verge of human 
 existence, nearer than to the rude state of the 
 most barbarous Samoeid or Laplander, requires 
 some proof, beyond ' See Spencer throughout/ 
 We cannot suppose, that such a nation practise^
 
 OF in EL AND. 537 
 
 agriculture or manufactures ; because these arc 
 very far removed from savage life, and also from 
 most of those called barbarians, in anv degree 
 of improvement or perfection. The agriculture 
 and manufactures of the Irish are well attested, 
 by the traces of the plow; by their unbounded 
 hospitality and entertainment to foreign students; 
 by their numerous monasteries and universities; 
 by their exports; by subterraneous discoveries 
 yearly made; by many written, domestic and 
 foreign authorities. An antient coin or inscrip- 
 tion would he greedily adopted as an unques- 
 tionable evidence of antient facts; but the early 
 agriculture of the Irish stands on a more solid 
 foundation; its traces are impressed on the rug- 
 ged brows of now barren mountains, and con- 
 cealed beneath bogs. This, as a matter of noto- 
 riety, might safely be left to its own evidence, 
 which must strike every traveller of Ireland. It 
 was observed long ago by Samuel Molyncux, in 
 a letter to the archbishop of Dublin, in which 
 he says, " Ireland has certainly been better inha- 
 bited formerly than it is at present; mountains, 
 that are now covered with bogs, have been for- 
 merly ploughed, for when you dig five or six 
 feet deep, you discover a proper soil for vegeta- 
 tion, and find it ploughed into ridges and fur- 
 rows. This is observable in the wild mountains 
 between Ardmagh and Duudalk, and likewise 
 on the mountains of Altmore; the same, as I am 
 informed, has been observed in the counties of 
 Derry and Donnegal. A plow was found in ;i 
 >ery deep bog in the latter; mid an hedge with
 
 538 AN IMPATIAL HISTORY 
 
 wattles standing under a bog that was five or six 
 feet in depth. I have seen likewise large old 
 oaks grow on land that had the remains of fur- 
 rows and ridges; and I am told., that on the top 
 of an high mountain in the north, there are jet 
 remaining the streets and other marks of a large 
 town. And, in truth, there are few places, but 
 either at present, or when the bog is removed, 
 exhibit marks of the plow, which surely must 
 prove the country formerly to have been well 
 inhabited.'* What a stupendous register of an 
 immense lapse of time ! A cultivated plain must 
 have been over-run with wood, which would re- 
 quire a long series of years; that wood must 
 grow to maturity, and fall at last, through age 
 and decay, and a bog be formed, which has sub- 
 sisted irnmemorially for many centuries ; and this 
 justifies the Irish annals, which mention a period 
 when Ireland was desolated from being populous 
 and cultivated, so as to be over-run with woods, 
 and that through the effects of long wars and 
 famine. Morrison, an hostile writer, accompa- 
 nying the ravager Mountjoy, says, " I was sur- 
 prised at the beauty and fertility of O'Moore's 
 country, and the neat manner in which it was 
 laid out for tillage." Even Cambrensis says, 
 " the plains are fertile in corn, the mountains 
 are covered with flocks, the woods abound with 
 game/' Also, "this island is rich in pasture and 
 agriculture, in milk and honey, and in wines, 
 though not of its own growth;" of course ob- 
 tained through commerce. Pomponius Mela 
 and Solinus extol the fertility of its pastures,
 
 OF IRELAND. 539 
 
 asserting that the flocks would burst, if not 
 occasionally driven from pasture. Orosius says, 
 that it exceeds Britain in the goodness of its soil, 
 and the temperature of its climate. In the life 
 of St. Kilian, it is called, fruitful of soil; and 
 in the life of St. Rumaldus, the most fertile of 
 all the countries on earth. Stauihurst says, that 
 tf few countries could vie with, and none exceed 
 Ireland, in salubrity of climate, fertility, in the 
 abundance of its harvests, delightful springs, 
 commodious rivers, safe havens, stately forests, 
 rich veins of metals, abundance of pasture and 
 cattle." Sir John Davies calls it, in the language 
 of scripture, " a land of wheat and barley." 
 Petrus Lombardus says, that " the soil of Ire- 
 land is so fruitful, that it bears constantly crops 
 of different kinds, without the intervention of 
 fallowing. 
 
 The antiquity of agriculture is lost in the im- 
 mensity of time: our most antient laws mention 
 the arech deise, or tillers, among the seven classes 
 into which the people were divided. Whenever 
 agriculture came hither, it came when arbor 
 was the common term for corn, when orne meant 
 barley among some people of Europe: when 
 coirce meant oats; when ith meant wheat; when 
 ce meant the earth ; ceate, a plow; treava. plow- 
 ing; omare, a ridge; eitire, a furrow; ibd, a 
 sod; siol, seed; brathair, fallow; when irort 
 signified growing corn; abbui, ripe, &c. \\hen 
 mehlui signified a reaper; punnan, a sheaf, &c. 
 This vocabulary of agriculture cannot be found 
 among any of the European nations, enlightened 
 
 VOL. i, 4 A
 
 540 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 enough to export arts, these last two thousand 
 years and upwards. 
 
 Every smatterer in Irish antiquities knows, 
 that the Irish excelled in timber work. I remem- 
 ber to have seen two houses in Shop-street, 
 Drogheda, finished indeed with curious art. The 
 joists of oak were curiously carved, and shaped 
 into ovals, circles, and parabolic sections ; the 
 date was carved in the oak, in figures about two 
 feet long, and, as I think, was 1074. I have 
 seen wooden houses in Pilnitz, Reichenau, and 
 other towns of Bohemia and Germany, but none 
 of such curious and elegant, as well as durable 
 workmanship. Smith, in his history of the Co. 
 of Kerry, deplores the neglect with which a 
 curious bridge over the river Inny, which he 
 calls the Irish Rialto, was suffered to fall into 
 decay, for want of a little repair. In the small 
 island of Skelligs, he describes elegant ruins of 
 religious edifices, and the remains of a conside- 
 rable town still braving the force of winds and 
 seas. He says, that a stone inscription of the 
 house of O'Lehane, dated 1010, was found In 
 its ruins, when rebuilding hy the Barrys, who 
 dispossessed the family in the twelfth century. 
 The magnificent ruins of Kilmallock; those in 
 Inis Catha (Scattery) in the Shannon; those 
 of the royal palace of Emania, near Armagh ; 
 the cathedral of Ardagh; the church of Mayo, 
 covered with lead, burnt by Turgesius; the 
 cathedral of Armagh, repaired byGelasius, con- 
 secrated primate, anno 1137, and his kiln of 60 
 feet diameter; the church of Tuam, built 1004;
 
 OF IRELAND. 541 
 
 St.Mary's-abbey, in Dublin, founded by Maol- 
 seachluin, in 1139; the abbey of Baltiuglas, bv 
 Mac Morrough, in 1159; the abbey of Holy- 
 cross, Tipperary, founded by Mortogh and Do- 
 nald O'Brien, before tbe Saxon invasion; the 
 cathedral of Limerick, originally a palace for 
 the kings of north Minister, built in the eleventh 
 century; three grand and spacious bridges, com- 
 pleted in the reign of T. O'Connor, anno 1130, 
 viz. of Athlone, of Ahacrucha over the Shan- 
 non, of Donleoga over the Sure; the causeway 
 from Inis Caorach ( Mutton island ) to the main 
 land, forty feet wide, two miles in length, pas- 
 sable at the ebb of spring tides; the elegant ruins 
 of Boycc and Mel li font, in the county of Louth ; 
 the royal bishop of Cashel's chapel, built anno 
 908; the monument of Feidlim, king of Con- 
 naught, surrounded with his galloglachs, exe- 
 cuted in fine Irish marble, in the Dominican 
 church near Roscommon, destroyed by drunken 
 dragoons; the crosses, curiously carved in stone, 
 with very antient Irish inscriptions on them, at 
 Cluainmacnois, near Drogheda, are instances of 
 Irish architecture, before the English invasion. 
 
 That manufactures flourished in Ireland, va- 
 rious monuments attest: and first, Lea\ar i;a 
 Gceirt, or the Book of Public Rights, mentior.s 
 swords, shields, mantles, golden-bitted bridles, 
 horses richly caparisoned, scarlet and embroidered 
 cloaks, and caps of curious workmanship, amonj;- 
 the presents made by the king of Minister to his 
 subordinate princes; as also a ship or sliips, in 
 full rigffinjr, to the princes on the sea coast. In
 
 542 AN IMPARTIAL BISTORT 
 
 the will of Cathaoir More, made before the bat- 
 tle of Tailtean, the following items occur. To 
 liis son Bressil he left five ships of burden, fifty 
 shields embossed, ornamented and inlaid with 
 gold and silver; five swords with gold hilts; 
 five chariots with their harnesses and steeds. To 
 Fiech, another son, among other things, fifty 
 pied horses, with brass bits. The famous Boroimh 
 Laigean, or Leinster tribute, consisted in part of 
 six thousand ounces of pure silver, and six thou- 
 sand mantles. The linen manufacture flourished 
 here very early, as may be seen in a description 
 of Ireland, printed at Ley den in 1627, quoted 
 by Cambden and archdeacon Lynch, which states, 
 that " Ireland abounds with flax, which is sent 
 ready spun in large quantities to foreign markets. 
 Formerly they wove great quantities of linen, 
 which was mostly consumed at home, the natives 
 requiring thirty ells or upwards in a shirt or 
 shift." That iron was well wrought and tem- 
 pered in this country, Cambrensis assures us. 
 Speaking of the weapons of the Irish, he says, 
 te they use pikes, javelins, and great battleaxes, 
 exceedingly well tempered;" and, that " they 
 wield the axe with one arm, their thumb extend- 
 ing along the shafts, and guiding the stroke, 
 from whose violence neither helmit, nor coat of 
 iron mail, are sufficient protection ; whence it 
 has happened in our days, that a single stroke 
 has severed a heavy-armed horseman in two, 
 thorough his massy covering of iron armour, one 
 side falling one way, and the other a contrary 
 way/'' How powerful must the arm be, and how
 
 OF IRELAND. 543 
 
 well tempered the weapon, to atchieve what is 
 here related by an eye-witness and an enemy ! 
 fc These hatchets/' he says, " they always carry 
 in their handj as .walk ing- staffs, ready instru- 
 ments of death, not requiring to he unsheathed 
 like a sword, or bent like a bow ; without fur- 
 ther preparation than raising the arm, it inflicts 
 a deadly wound." The story that Rapin tells, 
 from some old English fable or history I know 
 not, about DeCourcy, earl of Ulster, proves the 
 reputation of Irish steel in those days. Confined 
 in the Tower, he consented to answer the chal- 
 lenge of a French knight,, sent by king Philip 
 to challenge all England. Enlarged, allowed io 
 recruit his strength and prepare ior the combat, 
 the French knight saw, dreaded him, and fled. 
 The king and court, desirous to see how his 
 blade would cut, requested he would try it in 
 their presence, and try if he could cut a helmet 
 in two. But he replied, that English blades 
 would not do, he must have his own trusty one 
 from Ireland. The great use made of copper 
 and brass, we not only collect from domestic 
 documents, but from the great quantity of brass 
 hatchets, swords, and other utensils, discovered 
 in modern times, on digging through bogs. &c. 
 Iron succeeded to brass, and iron mines were 
 wrought very early. Ncnnius, a British writer of 
 the 9th century, speaks of the iron, copper, lead 
 and tin mines of Ireland, ( DC Mirab. Hibct-nia? ) 
 in the neighbourhood of Lough Lene. or Killar- 
 ney, in the county of Kerry. When these mines 
 were worked in the last century, they discovered
 
 5M AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 the shafts formerly sunk, and the implements of 
 mining. On opening many other mines, old 
 shafts have been discovered, and implements of 
 mining found, particularly in a rich lead one on 
 the estate of Thos.Westrop, esq. near the bor- 
 der of the Shannon. In the lead mines of Knock- 
 adcrry, in the county of Tipperary, old shafts, 
 and other proofs of its having been antiently 
 worked, were found. Stanihurst says, that Ire- 
 land was known to be rich in mines of different 
 metals. It could not be without good founda- 
 tion, that Donatus, bishop of Fesulae, near Flo- 
 rence, who wrote eleven centuries ago, affirmed, 
 that Ireland abounded with gems, cloth, and 
 gold. In the reign of Tighernmas, cotemporary 
 with Solomon, the first gold mine was discovered 
 iu Ireland, as Keating, O' Flaherty and Lynch 
 testify, on the authority of our antient annals. 
 The mine was discovered near the banks of the 
 LifFey, and Jauchadhan, of Cualane, in the 
 county of Wicklow, was the principal conductor 
 of the works. In 1692, a crown of gold was 
 found in the county of Tipperary, raised in 
 chafed work, which must be older than the 
 trhristian aera, as it has not the cross, which the 
 crowns of Christian princes never were without. 
 It was purchased by Jos. Comerford, and pre- 
 served in the castle of Anglurre, in Champagne. 
 In 1744, another golden crown, weighing six 
 ounces, was found in the bog of Callen, and sold 
 to Mr. Jos. Kinshallagh, a jeweller of Limerick. 
 From the number of curiosities, gorgets of gold 
 and gold-handled swords, found in this bog, it
 
 OF IRELAND. 515 
 
 is called Golden Bog. The gold corselets found 
 by the Spaniards near Smerwick-bay, in the 
 county of Kerry, and frequently in bogs, of 
 which O'Halloran says he saw twenty, and pur- 
 chased one, the gold of which was so ductile, as 
 to roll up like paper, prove the reality of our 
 Niaghnase, or knights of the golden collar, as 
 well as the knowledge possessed by the antient 
 Irish in the natural history of their own country. 
 It is not a century since those pearls were re- 
 discovered, which, according to foreign writers, 
 abound here; and, according to our own old 
 writers, were used as ear-pendants and ornaments. 
 Airgiod sron, or nose-money, to the amount of 
 an ounce of gold, was paid yearly to the Danish 
 tyrants, by housekeepers within their jurisdiction. 
 The great plenty of gold is attested bv the quan- 
 tity of plate used by the sovereigns of Tara, and 
 in the churches throughout the kingdom ; even 
 the small bells used at the altars were of gold, 
 or silver inlaid with gold, and ornamented with 
 precious stones, many of which existed in the 
 seventeenth century, as Colgan witnesses. Ard- 
 corn, frequently mentioned in poem*, or lofly 
 golden goblets, attest the luxury of private fa- 
 milies in this article. Gold and silver demcd 
 no value from the stamp or impression, hut cir- 
 culated in pieces called Bon or \uinge, not 
 round; as we find from Matthew Paris, v\h<> 
 relates, that, in the days of king John, tin* 
 bishop of Norwich, justiciary of the Pale, caused 
 the coin (in the Pale) to be rounded and stamped 
 after the English manner : for nntientlv pieces
 
 546 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 of gold and silver were received as value, in pro- 
 portion to their weight alone, as to this day in 
 China, Persia, Hindoostan, and formerly among 
 the Tyrians, Jews, Egyptians; as we find by 
 the names of their monies signifying pounds, 
 ounces, scruples, and the like. Thus, in the 
 will of king Cormac, bishop of Cashel, who 
 died A. D. 913, among other bequests are the 
 following: to the abbey of Ardfinan, an ounce 
 of gold, an ounce of silver, a horse and arms. 
 To the church of Lismore, a gold and silver 
 chalice, with silk vestments. To the church of 
 Cashel, four ounces of gold, five of silver, a 
 chalice of gold, and one of silver. To Emly, 
 three ounces of gold, and a mass-book. To 
 Glendaloch, an ounce of gold, an ounce of sil- 
 ver, a horse and arms, with a silk vestment. To 
 the church of Ardrnagh, twenty-four ounces of 
 gold and silver. To Inis Catha, three ounces of 
 gold, with a silk vestment, and his benediction. 
 The sumptuary laws, published by general Val- 
 lancey/ mention aicde airgit, bom. nuinge, criad 
 nuinge airgit, mion oir, tan oir, rann airgid, 
 which appear to be different pieces of gold and 
 silver. Aicde is explained a bodkin; mion oir, 
 a gold diadem. Airgid mbruih, refined silver, is 
 once mentioned in the same law tract. 
 
 In shipping, also, antient Ireland was not de- 
 ficient. The annals frequently mention fleets 
 and naval expeditions; as, the fleets of Eogan 
 More, Labra Loingseach, and Mac Con, before 
 the fourth century. The great naval victory, 
 obtained by the Irish fleet of Minister, over the
 
 OF IRELAND. 517 
 
 Danish fleet in the bay of Carl ing-ford, near 
 Dundalk, in the county of Louth, and from 
 which event the bay and a town on its borders 
 derive their name, Catharlin, meaning a sea- 
 fight, are irrefragable proofs of an Irish navy. 
 Tacitus, in his life of Agricola, affirms, that the 
 harbours of Ireland were more frequented by 
 foreign merchants than Britain; and that Ireland 
 connected the most powerful provinces of the 
 empire, by a great commercial intercourse; as 
 Carnbden likewise remarks on that very passage. 
 
 Before the English invasion, though under 
 an imperfect system of government, this country 
 was distinguished among the nations of Europe. 
 No fact is more fully attested by unquestionable 
 vouchers. We must totally reject historical evi- 
 dence, or admit that Ireland was the mart of ci- 
 vilization and science for the rest of Europe. 
 Its hospitality and learning arc extolled unani- 
 mously by all the writers who treat of the mid- 
 dle ages. From all parts of Europe youth flocked 
 hither in crowds, and Irish professors laid the 
 first foundation of seminaries and universities 
 abroad. 
 
 The state of Irish learning could not have 
 been very contemptible, to secure it a preference 
 before the Greeks: and it is certain, that Ita- 
 lians, more contiguous to Greece by far, pre- 
 ferred a dangerous and expensive journey to Ire- 
 land, before the short and easy passage to Greece. 
 Surely some weighty motives of superior advan- 
 tage must have decided their choice; for, during 
 the feudal period, tnuelling was insecure and 
 
 vor. i, i B
 
 548 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 expensive. Let it not be fancied, that Greek 
 learning was then extinct: its lustre was doubt- 
 less decayed, yet they had, during the middle 
 ages, several learned men, and chief among them 
 was Photius, of matchless erudition. At a much 
 later period, Greek refugees still possessed learn- 
 ing enough to be instrumental in reviving lite- 
 rature and taste in Europe, at a time when they 
 were extinguished, even in their antient western 
 seat, by national calamities. Lord Lyttleton, in 
 his life of Henry II., mentions the topic inci- 
 dently, with a handsome compliment to the boun- 
 ty and hospitality of the learned and ancient na- 
 tion. Venerable Bede treats more largely of the 
 subject; as a man evidently impressed with vene- 
 ration and gratitude to those eminent benefactors 
 of Europe and mankind. A very competent wit- 
 ness he must be allowed : learned^himself ; a co- 
 temporary witness of what he records, and im- 
 partial, though an Englishman. Nevertheless he 
 witnessed only the declining period of Ireland's 
 fame, when her descending glories beamed for a 
 while on the western horizon. It is desirable, 
 that all the records and testimonies, relating to 
 this curious and interesting subject, which are 
 numerous, and dispersed in the different libraries 
 of Europe, should be collected and published. 
 It would fill a large chasm in literary history, 
 and ought to be considered by every friend to Ire- 
 land as a work of peculiar national importance. 
 A letter from Aldhelm to Eadfride, published by 
 Usher, speaks thus of the Sacred Island; " Ire- 
 land is a fertile and blooming nursery of letters.
 
 OF IRELAND. 549 
 
 You might as soon reckon the stars of heaven, 
 as enumerate her students and literati. There 
 Eadfride imbibed the pure nectar of know ledge : 
 six years he gave to the study of philosophy,, 
 and enriched his mind with treasures of the 
 Scotic hive. Such were the crowds of students 
 who resorted to Ireland from Britain only, that 
 it required fleets to carry them." Camden vouches 
 the same; (C Our Anglo-Saxons, in them days, 
 flocked from all quarters into Ireland,, as the 
 mart of literature, whence we commonly read, in 
 the lives of holy or eminent men, ' He was sent 
 into Ireland for his education ;' as we find in the 
 life of Sulgenus, who flourished more than 600 
 years ago ( dating back from Elizabeth, ) e Moved 
 by the example of his ancestors, he went to Ire- 
 land, to court the muses, a land far famed for 
 admirable wisdom.' And," continues Cambden, 
 ff our English ancestors appear to have borrowed 
 thence their alphabet, as they formerly used the 
 very same which is employed to this day in Ire- 
 land; so that Ireland was adorned with piety 
 and the splendour of genius in those ages, when 
 the rest of the Christian world lay immersed in 
 darkness." Fifty monks, natives of Rome, wen; 
 attracted to Ireland by the reputation of that 
 people for piety and learning, and especially the 
 knowledge of the sacred scriptures, which great- 
 ly flourished there. Ten of them became the dis- 
 ciple's of St. Finl n; as many submitted to the 
 discipline of St. Sennan ; as many bc.tool-: them- 
 selves to Brendau; us many to Barra-us ; and 
 the remaining ten addicted themselves to Kienui.
 
 550 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 (Colgan, M. Martio, p. 533.) There were 
 twelve foreigners, the elect disciples of St. Syn- 
 cellus in Ireland; into which arrived likewise in 
 a hundred and fifty ships,, natives of Rome and 
 Italy, in the company of St. Elice, Romanius 
 Coreuntarius; also one hundred and fifty Ro- 
 mans and Italians accompanied St. Abban, on 
 his return to Ireland. Alcuin, in his life of St. 
 Willibert, and Usher,, De Primordiis, state, that 
 St.\V illibert, understanding that scholastic learn- 
 ing flourished in Ireland, repaired thither with 
 all speed, that he might, fn imitation of the pru- 
 dent bee, cull the mellifluous flowers of piety 
 and learning,, and construct in his bosom, as it 
 were, honey-combs of virtue. There he was in- 
 structed during twelve years, by the most emi- 
 nent professors of sacred and humane literature, 
 who was to become the teacher of many people. 
 St. Sampson remained some time in Ireland, and 
 his uncle, St. Umbrafel, father of St. Maglorius, 
 was made abbot. In the same island did Osbert 
 and Lancfrid, two Anglo-Saxon kings, as like- 
 wise Constantine, duke of Cornwal, finish their 
 education; as likewise St. Perroc, Gildas, styled 
 Sapiens, or the Wise, Gildas, of Scotland, and 
 Badonicus; St. Cadroc, St. Genorius, Betheus, 
 together with other religious Britons, followers 
 and disciples of St. Finian, accompanied him on 
 his return to Ireland, after an absence of thirty 
 years. Agilbert, bishop of Paris, carne also into 
 Ireland, for the purpose of studying the holy- 
 scriptures. ( Bede, Usher, and Colgan.) 
 
 It would prove an endless task to enumerate
 
 OF IRELAND. 551 
 
 the Irish, who are venerated on the continent for 
 their learning and sanctity. According to the 
 testimony of foreign writers, you might as well 
 reckon the sand of the shore, or the stars of the 
 firmament; they have been estimated to out-num- 
 ber,, in this particular, the whole Christian world 
 beside. St. Bernard says, " Ireland poured out 
 swarms of saints, like an inundation., upon fo- 
 reign countries." Antissiodorus states, " it may 
 be superfluous to relate (a thing so well known) 
 how all Ireland as it were emigrates to our 
 shores, with her swarrns of philosophers." From 
 all the literary and ecclesiastical monuments of 
 the middle ages it is clear, that the northern na- 
 tions, who overran the western Roman empire, 
 especially those of Britain, Gaul, and Italy, re- 
 ceived the rudiments of the Christian faith, and 
 their first bishops, from Ireland, as well as the 
 Germans and Belgians. The earliest seminaries 
 were opened by Irish teachers ; as Ratisbon, by 
 Marianus, St. Gall by Gallus, Paris and Oxford 
 by Joannes Erigina, Pavia by Joannes Albuinus. 
 To return nearer home, the following monaste- 
 ries, which were likewise academics, agreeably 
 to the Irish usage, were commenced by Irish 
 doctors there, before Erigcna opened his famous 
 school at Oxford; viz. Malmsbury, which owes 
 its name, and existence as a town, to the monas- 
 tery commenced there by Mailfiulph; from him 
 aiitiently called Maildulphsburg, and since con- 
 tracted into Malmsbury. The celebrated monas- 
 tery of Glaston, which was likewise an academy 
 of learning, had its commencement from Iri^h-
 
 553 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 men, as English authors of the first weight and 
 character testify., and from their testimony pri- 
 mate Usher, in his sylloge. Cambden, says, " in 
 early times, most holy men held vigils to God 
 in this place, and chiefly Irishmen, who were 
 supported by royal stipends, and educated jouth 
 in piety and the liberal arts. They embraced a 
 solitary life, that they might study sacred writ 
 with the greater tranquillity." Osborne of Can- 
 terbury says, cc Many illustrious men, highly in- 
 structed in sacred and profane literature, leaving 
 Ireland, came to reside in England, and chose 
 Glaston for the place of their habitation." In 
 Monmouthshire Tathaeus opened a school, at 
 the request of king Caradoch, whither a multi- 
 tude of scholars flocked from all parts, to learn 
 the seven liberal arts; and the monastery of Lin- 
 disfarn, begun by St. Aidan, afterwards bishop; 
 besides several nunneries, instituted by Irish 
 women in England, for the education of female 
 youth. Add to all this, that the first bishops 
 and doctors of Anglo-Saxon race, were every one 
 of them educated in Ireland, or by Irishmen 
 teaching in England. These are the men, who 
 are branded as savages, the apostles of religion, 
 and doctors of learning throughout Europe. 
 Where will the licentious rage of libellers stop? 
 Not satisfied with reviling the living, they blas- 
 pheme the illustrious dead; men, great and glo- 
 rious in their generations, whose titles are not 
 founded, like the false pretenders to fame, on 
 the misery or destruction of their fellow-crea- 
 tures, but on the godlike beneficence, that marked
 
 OF IRELAND. 553 
 
 their active and meritorious lives ; diffusing the 
 blessings of religion, knowledge, civilization and 
 benevolene, far and wide, through the remote 
 nations as well as their neighbours. Such was 
 
 O 
 
 the character of their public conduct. Follow 
 them into the shades of academic retirement, 
 you will find those venerable sages consistent 
 throughout; equally great in the virtues that 
 adorn private life, as in those that distinguish 
 the more public stations ; a life of labour and 
 study; a life of abstinence and sobriety, of de- 
 votion and piety, in which the career of private 
 virtue was suspended only to make room for the 
 public duties of administering instruction and 
 consolation to the people; and the relaxation 
 from public duty was the resumption of austerity 
 and labour. From what has been stated, the 
 following poetic description of the sacred island 
 will not be considered too highly coloured. 
 
 " Far westward lies an isle of antient fame, 
 
 " By nature bless'd, and Scotia is her name; 
 
 a Enroli'il in books; exhaustless is her store 
 
 ' Of veiny silver, and of golden ore; 
 
 *' Her fruitful .soil for ever teems with wealth, 
 
 " With gems her waters, and her air with health: 
 
 *' Her verdant fields with milk and honey flow; 
 
 u Her woolly fleeces vie with virgin snow; 
 
 ^' Her waving furrows float with bearded corn. 
 
 *' And arms and arts her envied sons adorn. 
 
 *' No savage bear with lawless fur) roves ; 
 
 " No fifix-cM- lions through her peaceful groves; 
 
 " No poison there infects, no scaly snake 
 
 <; Creeps through the grass, nor fro.;* aimo> s tin- ldk<-: 
 
 * Frogs were never seen in Ireland until thi- n i:;u of kin,- 
 
 William UI. when, along with many other exotic*, ilu 
 
 introduced .
 
 554 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 " An island worthy of its pious race, 
 
 " In war triumphant, and unmatch'd in peace." 
 
 Of the fine arts,, those that breathe a civilized 
 air, and contribute most to refinement, are, music,, 
 poetry and eloquence. The proficiency of the 
 Gathelians in the first is indisputable, and ob- 
 vious to every hearer who is blessed with a taste 
 for harmony. The monuments of the two last, 
 that escaped the rage of Gothic civilizers, are of 
 sufficient number and merit, as to convince those 
 who understand them, that gross ignorance or 
 poisonous malevolence vented the foresaid abuse 
 on the memory of our departed forefathers. Miss 
 Brooke's elegant translations may justly be ap- 
 pealed to as a specimen of Irish poetry ; had we 
 many such translators, we have materials enough 
 for several large folios. That Ireland had long 
 been in a state of decadence is too true; and that 
 every evil of civil confusion and sanguinary anar- 
 chy, was aggravated studiously, and zealously, 
 and unremittingly, by the English, who laboured 
 to cut them down by each other's hands, in order 
 to make the remnant and the soil a prey. But 
 then the invaders, in their whole conduct, views, 
 and means of attaining their object, were much 
 nearer the most atrocious savages of the interior 
 of Africa, than the invaded, in all the convulsions 
 of anarchy and civil war. Egypt and Greece, 
 like Ireland, once basked in the sunshine of pros- 
 perity and renown. Like it, they have been pros- 
 trated beneath the iron yoke of barbarous victors, 
 and languish under a temporary cloud of adversity. 
 The institutions of Ireland bordering on the
 
 OF IRELAND. 555 
 
 savage state! Yet they bore a striking resem- 
 blance to the institutions of those nations revered 
 for wisdom by all antiquity. As in Egypt, Chal- 
 dea and Hindoostan, the people consisted of dis- 
 tinct classes, or, as they are called, casts, of dif- 
 ferent rank, privilege,, and avocation, distin- 
 guished by different garments and colours, all 
 hereditary. The military, the judicial, the lite- 
 rary, the druidic, the bardic, the agricultural., 
 and the mechanical casts, were all by inherit- 
 ance, and the number of casts was seven, as in 
 the East. Lest emulation should be extinguished, 
 by hereditary succession to professions, different 
 degrees and titles of honour were awarded to 
 merit, detcrminablc by the unbiassed judgment 
 of the public, on the performances of competi- 
 tors. The memorials of these things I have seen, 
 in old vellum manuscripts of the Brehon laws, 
 written in the Phcenico-celtic. For example, 
 scacht ngradh phile, seven degrees of phile, of 
 which the highest was ollamb, or ard ollamli. 
 Now, the philosophy of the Milesians included 
 music, poctrv, and eloquence, as well as arithme- 
 tic, geometry, astronomy, geography, natural 
 history and physic. The fragments of those that 
 have survived persecution, have not been the 
 contrivance or work of savages, but of an inge- 
 nious scientific people. I have known cures to 
 be wrought, by recipes taken from these ninety 
 records, of diseases, which bailled the faculty to 
 this day, with all their materia mcdica. >> hat 
 shall 1 say of those relics of anticnt art yearly- 
 dug up ? Vases and instruments, lur use or OI- 
 VOL. i. ^ <-
 
 556 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 namcnt, in gold,, silver, brass, and iron, of cu- 
 rious and elegant workmanship. The most va- 
 luable and elegant specimens that I have seen, 
 of these antient monuments of Irish art, three 
 golden serpents of exquisite workmanship,, form- 
 ing an urn by their foldings, purchased by De- 
 laud re from a countryman, and from him by the 
 marquis of Lansdovvn, I hope to be preserved. 
 These put ir.e in mind of a passage I had read in 
 one of the old vellums, concerning the migration, 
 of the Ily-Mbruin tribe towards the Shannon. 
 They divided themselves into three columns, the 
 standard of each was a serpent of burnished 
 gold. I was not confirmed in the belief of this 
 assertion until I saw the reality, and both call to 
 mind the brazen serpent, that was borne before 
 the children of Israel. The same goldsmith has 
 another curious antique, dug from the Irish soil, 
 a golden vase, in form of a cymbal, of no savage 
 contrivance or workmanship. In effect, whether 
 we contemplate the munificent institutions in 
 favour of learning, piety, hospitality, poetry, 
 music; their n.ihl and equitable laws, some of 
 which are still preserved on vellum, of a date 
 antecedent to the Christian ;cra. The triennial 
 assembly of the states. Their Olympic games, 
 of which some mention is to be found in the 
 fabulous period of Grecian antiquity. Their 
 antieut orders of chivalry. The clitic-rent titles 
 and degrees of honor, assigned to every kind of 
 merit, in arts, in learning, valour and virtue. 
 The care with which, beyond any other nation, 
 they preserved the records of history. This at-
 
 OF IRELAND. 557 
 
 teution to historic truth was in reality indissolubly 
 interwoven with the constitution ; for every man's 
 rights, privileges and property, depending on pe- 
 digree, the antiquary was as necessary as the Bre- 
 hearnh : no clan could want one. Besides the check 
 of mutual jealousy, their works must he revised 
 by the states at Tara, and receive their sanction, 
 before they were admitted as legitimate records. 
 
 It is not without contempt and scorn, that any 
 one, informed of the memorable facts concerning 
 the antieiit, learned, philanthropic and religious 
 race, can read the despicable insult of an iniidel 
 historian, telling the world, that the barbarous 
 Baltic rovers contributed rather to civilize Ire- 
 land ! lie has not named any single species of 
 improvement introduced by them ; not a single 
 art or manufacture, that has any Danish name, 
 or any connexion with a Danish origin. The 
 terms of Irish art and science have a strong aili- 
 nity with the antient languages of Phenicia and 
 Persia. But the Danes built castles here! What 
 then ? Does civilization depend on the rudu 
 workmanship of them forts, or on stone build- 
 ings preferably to wooden ? W hocver experienced 
 the comforts of timber walls, especially during 
 the damp cold winters of these islands, would in- 
 sured ly not chiise to be environed with damp cold 
 stones. When the dearth and scarcity of limber 
 obliged people to resort to stone fabrics, the opu- 
 lent still got their walls wainscoted, i.e. lined 
 with timber by Scottish, that is, Irish carpenters. 
 On the contrary, the ferocious plunderers were 
 civilized by those whom they outraged, and iroui
 
 558 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORr 
 
 whom they received religion, letters and arts. 
 They likewise imparted letters, arts and religion, 
 as far as Iceland and Africa, founded colleges 
 and universities in sundry parts of Europe, where 
 their learning and piety is still preserved in me- 
 mory, in temples, and religious offices. The very 
 names of Gillimer* and Gillus, of the Vandals 
 and Goths, point out the missionaries who bap- 
 tized them ; the one meaning the Servant of Mary, 
 the other the Servant of Jesus. 
 
 Hume and Leland agree, in attributing to 
 their ignorance, the inattention of the Irish to 
 the theological controversies that convulsed the 
 greater part of Europe during nearly two centu- 
 ries. It might, with more justice perhaps, be 
 attributed to the contrary, or to other causes. In 
 the writings of cotemporary protestants, we find 
 much cause to think, that superior information, 
 natural sagacity, or both united, discredited the 
 reformation in Ireland. The preachers of the 
 new faith they describe as ' sorry curates/ igno- 
 rant, profligate, indolent, careless of the instruc- 
 tion or salvation of the people, so they got the 
 emoluments of a sinecure office. The catholic 
 clergy, on the other hand, are depicted, as ani- 
 mated with indefatigable zeal and perseverance, 
 in the exercise of their functions, sacrificing there- 
 to every personal consideration of ease, health, 
 and frequently at the peril of their lives. From 
 
 * Gillimer, king of the Vandals, in Africa. Avas defeated 
 by Bellisarius, an. 530. His Irish name is a sufficient proof 
 of his having been baptized by an Irish missionary, whose 
 father he had converted, as lie is mentioned to have becii 
 kind to the church. Christ. Helvicus. Chron. Hist,
 
 OF IRELAND. 559 
 
 this unsuspicious evidence 'tis easy to infer, 
 which flock was best instructed. The sagacity 
 of the Irish was easily directed to discern the es- 
 sential point, on which all controversies must 
 depend. A supernatural religion must contain 
 some things undiscoverable and unintelligible to 
 mere human reason, the number and definition 
 of which cannot be settled by it, but by the 
 divine authority, immediate or delegated. Now 
 as that supernatural religion is not revealed to 
 every individual directly, and yet is necessary for 
 all, and for ever, consequently, it must be com- 
 municated by delegated authority, extending to 
 all countries and all ages, protected from any 
 noxious error, and commanding silence on the 
 human understanding, in the exposition of the 
 faith. Revealed religion implies, in its concep- 
 tion and definition, a superior and paramount 
 authority, to whose dictates human reason must 
 submit. The Irish must have perceived, on sup- 
 position of their being diligently taught the 
 principles of their religion, that Christianity was 
 founded on facts, and those of a supernatural 
 kind, claiming implicit belief. That facts, beyond 
 the course of nature, require more than ordinary 
 testimony, unerring. Because supernatural reli- 
 gion, teaching incomprehensible mysteries, de- 
 serves no implicit submission, unless supported 
 by unerring testimony, and taught by those 
 commissioned as delegates to preserve and dis- 
 pense it from generation to generation. Irish 
 catholics saw, that those, who disown infallible 
 testimony and interpretation, have no right to
 
 5,6*0 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY 
 
 believe any mystery of the faith. For belief in 
 these mysteries requires a sacrifice of the human 
 understanding, the greatest that man can make 
 to his Creator; consequently., it cannot be made 
 to any fallible authority without idolatry. Nor 
 is the Scripture any refuge in this case; for it 
 also, to those who reject the church, one, ca- 
 tholic, apostolic, and its grave testimony, is but 
 a fallible authority; since all the copies and 
 versions were made by fallible men, who might, 
 through ignorance, inattention, or design, change 
 it materially from the original; and, since the 
 interpreters are all fallible, they concluded, that 
 the reformers., by rejecting the authority of the 
 catholic church, through which the Christian 
 faith was handed down to us, without interrup- 
 tion, from Christ and his apostles, rejected 
 religion itself. Indeed authority is so much of 
 
 o / 
 
 the essence of revelation, that it cannot be con- 
 ceived without it. \Vhy was revelation necessary? 
 The in sufficiency and errors of the human mind., 
 on the question of religion, and the abomina- 
 tions practised in the name of worship, called 
 for divine interposition. The understanding wa 
 to be controuled, as well as enlightened. God 
 dictated. To him, or to those manifestly dele- 
 gated by him, the submission of all human facul- 
 ties is due. The experience of ages before Chris- 
 tianity, when the age of reason and superstition 
 existed with the whole Gentile world; the ne- 
 cessity of checking the aberrations of the human 
 mind, and guide it by a sure authority, to which 
 it would submit, became apparent., even to hea-
 
 OF IRELAND. 
 
 then philosophers. Cicero, who has left us an 
 epitome of the Greek philosophy, laments the 
 deficiency of the human intellect, to settle the 
 important question of religion. " The question, 
 concerning the nature of the gods, us you 
 know, my friend Brutus, so pleasing in the 
 investigation, so necessary for the settlement 
 of religion, is, as you know, most obscure 
 and difficult ; on which there are so main, and 
 such contradictory opinions, published by the 
 most learned of men, as prove sufficiently, that 
 the first principle of sound philosophy is not yet 
 understood." What a candid confession of the 
 impotence of human reason, unguided by divine 
 authority, either immediate or delegated, towards 
 settling the most important of human concerns. 
 As was the case of the heathen schools of philo- 
 sophy, straying after false lights, precisely simi- 
 lar has been, and ever shall bo, the predicament 
 of Christian sects, departing from the unity and 
 authority of the church. The one misinterpreted 
 the book of nature, unquestionably the handy- 
 work of God. The other despoil the wiiften 
 work of its legitimate authority, by depriving it 
 of the support of its appointed testimony; and 
 by misinterpreting, mistranslating, interpolating, 
 aiid erasing, according to the whims of healed 
 imaginations, ovmveaning fancies, and bewil- 
 dered intellects. Like the heathen schools, their 
 doctrines will be eternally at variance with them- 
 selves, and with each other. The Irish c:ii!:o!i' 
 was scandalized at the commencement, and could 
 auirur DO favourable issue to the rupture.
 
 AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY, ETC. 
 
 wondered why people, who professed to worship 
 Christ as God, could doubt his words. He gave 
 a mission to his disciples, such as he received 
 from the Father. He promised to be with them 
 to the end of the world. The gates of hell, that 
 is, death, dissolution, or decay, should not pre- 
 vail over his church. He that receives you 
 receives me; he who rejects you rejects me. 
 Will they deny, that redemption was for all 
 Nations and ages, that the church was accord- 
 ingly promised perpetuity and. universality? or 
 will they say, that God was either unwilling or 
 unable to perform his promise? Do they not 
 know, that St. Paul, and all the apostles, con- 
 sidered the church as the pillar of truth ? Well, 
 but there were abuses. Allowed. What divine 
 gift has not been abused by frail mortals? Must 
 all institutions, human or divine, be therefore 
 abolished ? The way to reformation, was it to 
 rend asunder the body of Christ, in dissolving 
 the unity of his church ? Was it by sacrilege, 
 confiscation., plunder, massacre, and infidelity,, 
 that Christians were to be reformed? These con- 
 siderations disgusted Irish catholics with the 
 principles and conduct of the so-called reformers; 
 and long experience has classed them with the 
 results of prudent reflection, warning against the 
 seduction of innovators; an effect \vhich the 
 partizans of innovation vainly endeavour to 
 ascribe to ignorance. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME* 

 
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