Twenty-feven years had elapfed fince the laft parliament, when James deemed it neceffary to convene one. The grounds of this neceffity, according to Leland, "were to fupport the arrangement (the plantation of Ulfter) lately made, to remove real grievances, to reprefs caufelefs difcontents, "and to fecure the administration againft all attempts of turbulence and "difaffection." The progress of the reformation in Ireland under James, although much more confiderable than under Elizabeth, did not yet anfwer the views or wishes of government. The Lord Deputy Chichefter had fuccefsfully convinced the king of the neceffity of eftablishing a Protefiant afcendancy in parliament,* and pledged himself that, with a plenitude of power to make the previous arrangements, he would, in defiance of numbers, property, and influence in the country, fecure a Proteftant majority in both houses. From the circumftances of the times, Proteftants and Catholics were arrayed against each other, according to what in modern parliamentary language would be termed the court and country party. It was impoffible, that the meafures of government tending to fecure fuch parliamentary influence against the decided preponderancy and natural intereft of the country party, could be kept fecret from the nation at large. No fooner, therefore, was the royal intention of convening a parliament publickly made known, than the Catholics took the alarm, that it was the defign of government to force upon them fome additional grievances, especially as they had not vouchfafed, according to Poyning's law, to make any previous communication of the defign of fummoning the parliament, or of the laws intended to be enacted therein. Accordingly fix of the principal lords of the Pale addreffed a letter to the king, strongly expreffive of their apprehenfions, and plainly pointing out to him the confequences which this rigorous fyftem of government a * Leland informs us (though without quoting any authority), that "the king had denounced curfe on himself and his pofterity, if ever he should grant a toleration to the Romanifts: and "had, on particular occafions, inftructed the Irish administation to adminifter the oaths, and "execute the penal laws." 2 vol. p. 452. And we read (in Anal. Sacr.), that when Chichester had made a prefent of a fine horse to his royal master, the king asked if it were of Irish breed, ' and being answered in the affirmative, his majesty swore aloud, that then certainly it must be a Papift; for that he believed all things produced in Ireland, even the very animals, were Papifts. And Chichefter himself (An. Sacr.) in a moment of irritation at failing in withdrawing fome perfons of confequence from their religion, exclaimed, that he believed the very air and foil of Ireland were infected with Popery. towards towards the nation at large, on account of their adhesion to their ancient faith would inevitably produce.* The ftile of this letter was too free and independent for James's inflated notions of the royal prerogative.† He pronounced it to be a rash and infolent interference with his authority. The lord deputy continued to encrease the number of the new boroughs, for which court candidates were of courfe returned, until he had fecured a majority of that party. Forty new boroughs were thus created, of which feveral were not incorporated, until the writs for fummoning a parliament had already iffued. Violent altercations attended the meeting of this parliament, not only upon the election of Sir John Davis for the fpeaker of the House of Commons, in oppofition to Sir John Everard (" a recufant," fays" Leland, "of refpectable character, who had been a juftice of the King's "Bench, and on refigning this station, rather than take the oaths, was in dulged with a pension,") but also on account of the illegality of many of the returns of the court members, which the country party vehemently protested againft. Two hundred and thirty-two members had been returned : fix were abfent: of the remainder, one hundred and twenty-five were Protestants; and one hundred and one formed the recufant party. The upper houfe confifted of fixteen temporal barons, twenty-five Proteftant prelates, five viscounts, and four earls, of which a confiderable number, fays Leland, were friends to the adminiftration. See the letter from a copy of the Lambeth manufcript. Appendix, No. XV. The + In his speech to parliament, 1609, he told them, "I would with you to be careful to avoide "three things in the matter of greevance. 1ft, That you doe not meddle with the maine points of "" governement, that is my craft, tractent fabrilia fabri; to meddle with that were to leffon me." James's Works, fo. ed. p. 537. The majority of Protestant members returned to this parliament is very furprizing, confidering how very few of the Irish had then given in to the Reformation. Gheoghegan afferts, that there were not fixty down to the reign of James I. Lord Clare, in his fpeech in the Irish House of Lords, on his own motion for the Union (p. 13), has remarked, "that from the first introduction "of this Proteftant colony by James I. the old diftinctions of native Irish and degenerate English, " and English of blood, and English by birth, were loft and forgotten: all rallied around the "banner of the Popish faith, and looked upon the new Proteftant fettlers as the common aggreffor " and enemy and it is a melancholy truth, that from that day all have clung to the Popish religion as a common bond of union, and an hereditary pledge of animofity to British fettlers and the "British nation. What alternative then remained to the king for retaining this country under "the dominion of his crown? In the modern revolutionary phrafe, the phyfical confequence of "the The Catholic party were fo difgufted and provoked at the majority thus fecured against them, that for a confiderable time they feceded from parliament; and were only induced to refume their feats by the affurances of the lord deputy, that no other bill fhould for the prefent be propounded, than that for recognizing the king's title. This having been done, the parliament was prorogued, to give time for the violence of paffion on both fides to abate. In the mean while, the Catholic party with full confidence dispatched their agents to lay their grievances at the feet of their fovereign. The deputy alfo fent his agents to counteract the efforts of the Catholics.* Two of the Catholic agents were, immediately on their arrival, committed prifoners; one to the Tower, the other to the Fleet: and James received the petition or remonftrance of the remaining Catholic agents in a moft ungracious manner; and in flagrant violation of the rights of the Irish parliament (if that were to be confidered independent), referred the final determination of it to the English privy council. The refult of this appeal to the fovereign, "the country was arrayed against the English colony and the English government. He was, "therefore, driven to the neceflity of treating the old inhabitants as a conquered people, and "governing their country as an English province; or of fortifying his Proteftant colony by in 66 66 vefting them, exclufively, with the artificial power of a feparate government; which, on every principle of felf-interest and self-preservation, they were bound to administer in concert with "England. The executive departments were under the immediate control of the ordinary royal prerogative; but it was in vain to hope that he could retain poffeffion of Ireland under a separate government, unless a majority of the Irish parliament flood well-affected to the English crown "and English nation: and to obtain that majority he reforted to the exercife of a prerogative "which has always belonged to the English crown-by erecting new counties, and incorporating "fome of the principal towns occupied by the new fettlers, giving them the franchize of fending "reprefentatives to the Irish parliament. And I repeat, without incurring the hazard of con tradiction, that Ireland never had any affembly which could be called a parliament, until the "reign of James I." If an earneft of prospective happiness be to be expected from the union of the two kingdoms, nothing can fo adequately depict it, as the contraft of the conduct of King James I. against that of our present moft gracious fovereign. On one hand we behold a vain imperious monarch contemning, deriding, perfecuting, oppreffing, and exterminating his Irish fubjects on the other, we fee the father of his people cherishing, endearing, relaxing the feverity of the penal code, encouraging, embracing, and uniting with them in every blefling and advantage. that the British conftitution can impart. * The Catholic agents were the Lords Gormanftown and Fermoy, Sir James Gough, Huffay, Lutterel, and Talbot. The lord deputy's were the Earl of Thomond, Sir John Denham, the chief juftice of the King's Bench, and Sir Oliver St. John. was was a moft* difgraceful difmiffal of the Catholic agents; a rejection of their demands; the imprisonment of Sir James Gough on his return to Ireland, for boasting of the king's promise to grant redrefs, and the remu-. neration of Sir Arthur Chichester by the grant of those princely domains, which his family poffeffes to this day. Chichester, thus confirmed in the royal favor, found little difficulty in paffing every act, as it was proposed, by means of the majority he had by these new means acquired in parliament ; though he found it prudent, in the heat of the contending parties, to drop a bill for the total expulfion of the Catholic clergy, and other penal bills against the Catholics, which had been prepared, and were intended to have been brought forward. The paffion which James indulged for plantations was an endless fource of apprehenfion and fuffering to the Irish. With a view to extend them to other parts of the kingdom, he appointed a Commiffion of Enquiry, to fcrutinize the titles and determine the rights of all the lands in Leinfter and the adjoining diftricts. Such rapid progress did these commiffioners of defective titles make in their miffion, that in a fhort time, †" James deemed himself entitled to make a distribution of 385000 acres in those countries." These were apportioned to English settlers and to fome few of the natives, under regulations nearly fimilar to those by which he had fettled the colony in Ulfter. In executing this fcheme, little regard was had to the plaineft dictates of juftice. Old obfolete claims were received even as far back as the reign of Hen. II.; and advantage was taken of the most trivial flaws and minute informalities. In Connaught, immense estates were declared forfeited to the crown, becaufe the recent grants made to the proprietors upon their furrenders of them to James, had been neglected to be inrolled by the clerks in chancery, although the new grantees had paid above 3000/. into their hands for the inrolments, and thefe clerks alone could make them. Perjury, fraud, and the most infamous acts of deceit were * Such contradictory accounts and representations of James's conduct towards Ireland have been transmitted to us, that I muft refer the reader, who wishes to form a candid opinion for himself, to the authentic documents, which are to be found in the Appendix, No. XVI. and XVII. being the remonftrance of divers lords of the Pale to the king, concerning the parliament; and the king's fpeech to the lords of the council before the Irish agents. One cannot pafs over this reception and difimiflion of the Irish agents by James, without reflecting upon the benignity with which the Catholic delegates were received at the court of St. James's, in 1790, and the large indulgences and favors they returned loaded with to their brethren in Ireland. † 2 Lel. p. 461. fuccefsfully fuccefsfully practised by rapacious adventurers and informers: and Leland, who gives an accurate detail of these enormities, refers to authentic "proofs of the moft iniquitous practices of hardened cruelty, of vile perjury and fcandalous fubornation, employed to defpoil the fair and "unoffending proprietor of his inheritance." Thus was every man's poffeffion precarious and doubtful; and to complete the measure of abuse, the juries who refused to find a title in the crown were cenfured and fined in the caftle chamber. The remainder of James's reign was an uninterupted fcene of vexatious oppreffion of the recufants, grievous extortions of the foldiery and their officerst upon the people, the execution of martial law in time of peace, the abufive exactions of the clergy and the ecclefiaftical courts, the unconftitutional interference of the privy council and castle chamber in causes which ought to have been determined by common law, the invafion of property in the different plantations, and extreme rigor in executing the penal laws, were the means by which James eftranged the affections of his Irish fubjects from the English government, reduced them to want and mifery, and confequently predisposed them to rise against their oppreffors, whenever the opportunity fhould prefent itself of doing it with effect. A woeful legacy to his unfortunate fucceffor! * 2 Lel. p. 470. † Who, as Leland obferves, were privy councellors, and men of great property and influence, too powerful to be complained of for any grievance suffered by their foldiers, and too deeply engaged in one common intereft to call each other to account. P. 471. CHAP |