to prevent the further growth of Popery." The differences between the two transactions are mainly these two: first, that the French Protestants had not been guaranteed their civil and religious rights by any treaty, as the Irish Catholics, though they held theirs by the Treaty of Limerick; second, that the penalties denounced against French Protestants by the recalling edict bore entirely upon their religious service itself, and were truly intended to induce and force the Huguenots to become Catholics; there being no confiscations except in cases of relapse, and in cases of quitting the kingdom; but there was nothing of all the complicated machinery above described, for beggaring one portion of the population, and giving its spoils to the other part. We may add, that the penalties and disabilities in France lasted a much shorter time than in Ireland; and that French Protestants were restored to perfect civil and religious equality with their countrymen in every respect forty years before the "Catholic Relief Act" purported to emancipate the Irish Catholics, who are not, indeed, emancipated yet. Mr. Burke, in his excellent tract on the penal laws, comparing the recall of the Nantes Edict with our Irish system, says with great force "This act of injustice, which let loose on that monarch such a torrent of invective and reproach, and which threw so dark a cloud over all the splendour of a most illustrious reign, falls far short of the case in Ireland. The privileges which the Protestants of that kingdom enjoyed antecedent to this revocation, were far greater than the Roman Catholics of Ireland ever aspired to under a contrary establishment. The number of their sufferers, if considered absolutely, is not the half of ours; if considered relatively to the body of each community, it is not perhaps a twentieth part; and then the penalties and incapacities which grew from that revocation are not so grievous in their nature, nor so certain in their execution, nor so ruinous by a great deal to the civil prosperity of the state, as those which were established for a perpetual law in our unhappy country." troops had been serving in the French army before the surrender of Limerick. The arrival of Sarsfield, with so many distinguished officers and veteran troops, gav. Jecasion to the formation of the "New Irish Brigade;" and we have seen with now much distinction that corps had fought against England on so many fields of the Netherlands. In the new war which followed the accession of Queen Anne, bodies of the Irish forces served in each of the great French armies. There were four regiments of cavalry, Galway's, Kilmallock's, Sheldon's, and Clare's the last commanded by O'Brien, Lord Clare, constantly employed in these warsand at least seven regiments of infantry. All these corps were kept more than full by new arrivals of exiles and emigrants. It will afford a relief from the irksome tale of oppression at home, to tell how some of these exiles acquitted themselves when they had the good luck to meet on some foreign field either Englishmen or the allies of England. About the timewhen the lawyers of the "Ascendency" were elaborating in Dublin their bill for the plunder of Catholic widows and orphans, it happened that there were two regiments, Dillon's (one of Mountcashel's old brigade), and Burke's, called the Athlone regiment, which formed part of the garrison of Cremona on the bank of the Po. The French commander was the Duke de Villeroy, who had just brought his whole army into Cremona, after an unsuccessful affair with Prince Eugene at Chiari. Cremona was then, as it is now, a very strong fortified town; and the duke intended to rest his forces there for a time, as it was the depth of winter. The enterprising Prince Eugene planned a surprise: he had procured for himself some traitorous intelligence in the town, and some of his grenadiers had already been introduced by a clever stratagem. Large bodies of troops had approached close to the town by various routes; and all was ready for the grand operation on the night of the 2nd of February, 1702. Villeroy and his subordinates were of course much to blame for having suffered Readers will turn with pleasure from the all the preparations for so grand a miligloomy and painful scene presented by tary operation to be brought to perfection Ireland in that dismal time, to the other up to the very moment of execution. half of Ireland, the choicest of the whole The marshall was peacefully sleeping: he nation; which was to be found in all the was awaked by volleys of musketry. He camps and fields of Europe, wherever gal-dressed and mounted in great haste; and lant feats of arms were to be done. The the first thing he met in the streets was a gallant Justin MacCarthy, Lord Mount-squadron of Imperial cavalry, who made cashel, had long been dead, having fallen on the field of Staffardo, under Marshal Catinat, in 1790; where a brigade of Irish him prisoner, his captor being an Austrian officer named MacDonnell. Prince Eugene, with Count Stahremberg, Commerci, was saved."* But the fighting was by no means over with the repulse of Count Merci's reinforcements: a furious combat raged all the morning in the streets; and Mahony and Burke had still much to do. At last the whole Imperialist force was finally repulsed; and the soldiers then got time to put on their jackets. Colonel Burke lost of his regiment seven officers and forty-two soldiers killed, and nine officers and fifty soldiers wounded. Dillon's regiment, commanded that day by Major Mahony, lost one officer and forty-nine soldiers killed, and twelve officers and seventy-nine soldiers wounded. King Louis sent formal thanks to the two Irish regiments, and raised their pay from that day. In the campaigns of 1703 the Irish had at least their full share of employment and of honour. Under Vendôme, they made their mark in Italy, on the fields of Vittoria, Luzzara, Cassano, and Calcinato. On the Rhine they were still more distinguished; especially at Freidlingen and Spires, in which latter battle a splendid charge of Nugent's horse saved the fortune of the day. After this year the military fortune of France declined; but, whether in victory or defeat, the Brigade was still fighting by their side; nor is there any record of an Irish regiment having behaved badly on any field. and seven thousand men, were already in the heart of the town, and occupying the great square. It was four o'clock on a February morning, when all this had been accomplished; and Prince Eugene thought the place already won, when the French troops only began to turn out of their beds, and dress. Alarm was soon given. The regiment des Vaisseaux and the two Irish regiments are the only corps mentioned by M. de Voltaire as having distinguished themselves in turning the fortune of that terrible morning; and as Voltaire is not usually favourable, nor even just to the Irish, it is well to transcribe first his narrative of the affair. "The Chevalier d'Entragues was to hold a review that day in the town of the regiment des Vaisseaux, of which he was colonel; and already the soldiers were assembling at four o'clock at one extremity of the town just as Prince Eugene was entering by the other. D'Entragues begins to run through the streets with the soldiers; resists such Germans as he encounters, and gives time to the rest of the garrison to hurry up. Officers and soldiers, pell-mell, some half-armed, others almost naked, without direction, without order, fill the streets and public places. They fight in confusion, intrench themselves from street to street, from place to place. Two Irish regiments, who made part of the garrison, arrest the advance of the Imperialists. Never town was surprised with more skill, nor defended with so much valour. The garrison consisted of about five thousand men: Prince Eugene had not yet brought in more than four thousand. A large de-strous disaster, Clare's dragoons were victachment of his army was to arrive by the Po Bridge: the measures were well taken; but another chance deranged all. This bridge over the Po, insufficiently guarded by about a hundred French soldiers, was to have been seized by a body of German cuirassiers, who, at the moment Prince Eugene was entering the town, were commanded to go and take possession of it. For this purpose it was necessary that having first entered by the Southern gate, they should instantly go outside of the city in a northern direction by the Po gate, and then hasten to the bridge. But in going thither the guide who led them was killed by a musketball fired from a window. The cuirassiers take one street for another. In this short interval, the Irish spring forward to the gate of the Po: they fight and repulse the cuirassiers. The Marquis de Praslin profits by the moment to cut down the bridge. The succour which the enemy counted on did not arrive, and the town At the battle of Hochstet or Blenheim, in 1704, Marshall Tallard was defeated and taken prisoner by Marlborough and Eugene. The French and Bavarians lost 10,000 killed, 13,000 prisoners, and 90 pieces of cannon. Yet amid this mon torious over a portion of Eugene's famous cavalry, and took two standards. And in the battle of Ramillies, in 1706, where Villeroy was utterly routed, Clare's dragoons attempted to cover the wreck of the retreating French, broke through an Eng lish regiment, and followed them into the thronging van of the Allies. Mr. Forman states that they were generously assisted out of this predicament by an Italian regiment, and succeeded in carrying off the English colours they had taken. At the sad days of Oudenarde and Malplaquet, some of them were also present; but to the victories which brightened this time, so dark to France, the Brigade contributed materially. At the battle of Almanza (13th March, 1707,) several Irish Some of the Irish accounts of this achievement Even ac are too giowing, perhaps, as is natural regiments served under Berwick. In the early part of the day the Portuguese and Spanish auxiliaries of England were broken, but the English and Dutch fought successfully for a long time; nor was it till repeatedly charged by the elite of Berwick's army, including the Irish, that they were forced to retreat. 3000 killed, 10,000 prisoners, and 120 standards, attested the magnitude of the victory. It put King Philip on the throne of Spain. In the siege of Barcelona, Dillon's regiment fought with great effect. In their ranks was a boy of twelve years old; he was the son of a Galway gentleman, Mr. Lally or O'Lally, of Tulloch na Daly, and his uncle had sat in James's Parliament of 1689. This boy, so early trained, was afterwards the famous Count Lally de Tollendal, whose services in every part of the globe make his execution a stain upon the honour as well as upon the justice of Louis XVI. When Villars swept off the whole of Albemarle's battalions at Denain, in 1712, the Irish were in his van. The Treaty of Utrecht and the dismissal of Marlborough, put an end to the war in Flanders, but still many of the Irish continued to serve in Italy and Germany, and thus fought at Parma, Guastalla, and Philipsburg. It was not alone in the French service that our military exiles won renown. The O'Donnells, O'Neils, and O'Reillys, with the relics of the Ulster clans, preferred to fight under the Spanish flag: and in the war of the "Spanish Succession," Spain had five Irish regiments in her army; whose commanders were O'Reillys, O'Garas, Lacys, Wogans, and Lawlesses. For several generations a succession of Irish soldiers of rank and distinction were always to be found under the Spanish standard; and in that kingdom those who had been chiefs in their own land were always recognized as "grandees," the equals of the proudest nobles of Castile. Hence the many noble families of Irish race and name still to be found in Spain at this day. The Peninsular War, in the beginning of the present century, found a Blake generalissimo of the Spanish armies; while an O'Neill commanded the troops of Arragon; and O'Donnells and O'Reillys held high grades as general officers. All these true Irishmen were lost to their own country, and were forced to shed their blood for the stranger, while their kindred at home so much needed their counsels and their swords: but it was the settled policy of England, and the English colony, now and for long after, to make it impossible for men of spirit and ambition to live in Ireland, so that the remaining masses of abject people might be the more helpless in the hands of their enemies. But it is time to turn away from those stirring scenes of glory on the continent, at least for the present, and look back upon the sombre picture presented by one unvarying record of misery and oppression at home. CHAPTER VI. 1704-1714. Enforcement of the Penal Laws.-Making informers honourable.--Pembroke lord-lieutenant.--Union of England and Scotland.-Means by which it was carried Irish House of Lords in favour of an Union.-Laws against meeting at Holy Wells.— Catholics excluded from Juries.-Wharton lordlieutenant.-Second Act to prevent growth of Popery. Rewards for "discoveries."-Jonathan Swift-Nature of his Irish Patriotism.-Papists the "common enemy."-The Dissenters.-Colony of the Palatines.-Disasters of the French, and Peace of Utrecht.-The "Pretender." DURING all the rest of the reign of Aune, the law for preventing the growth of Popery was as rigorously executed all over the island, as it was possible for such laws to be; and there was the keen personal interest of the Protestant inhabitants of every town and district, always excited and kept on the stretch to discover and inform upon such unfortunate Catholics as had contrived to remain in possession of some of those estates, leaseholds, or other interests which were now by law capable of being held by Protestants alone. Every Catholic suspected his Protestant neighbour of prying into his affairs and dealings for the purpose of plundering him. Every Protestant suspected his Catholic neighbour of concealing some property, or privately receiving the revenue of some trust, and thus keeping him, the Protestant, out of his own. Mutual hatred and distrust kept the two races apart; and there was no social intercourse or good neighbourhood between them. Informers of course were busy, and well rewarded; yet there were many of the Catholic families who cheated their enemies out of their prey, by real or pretended conversions to the Established Church, or else by secret trusts vested legally in some friendly Protestant; who ran, however, very heavy risks by this kind proceeding. For on the 17th of March, a few days after the passage of the Act of 1704, the The Commons passed unanimously a resolu- | themselves by one portion of the penal tion, "that all magistrates and other per- code, would never, under any provation. sons whatsoever, who neglected or omitted make common cause with Cathols. And to put it in due execution, were betrayers this confidence was well-founded. of the liberties of the kingdom." Again, Dissenters preferred to endure exclusion in June, 1705, they "resolved, that the by the Test, rather than weaken in any saying or hearing of Mass, by persons way the great Protestant interest; and the who had not taken the oath of abjuration, few representatives whom the Ulster tended to advance the interests of the Presbyterians had in the Commons never, Pretender," although it was then very well in a single instance, gave a voice against known that the Irish Catholics were not any new rigour or penalty imposed upon thinking in the least of the Pretender, or the "common enemy." of placing their hopes in a counter-revo- It was in the year 1707 that the Englution to bring in the Stuarts. This lish Government at length accomplished resolution, therefore, was simply intended its long desired project of an Union to make Papists odious, and to stimulate the zeal of informers against those who said or heard Mass in any other manner, or under any other condition than those prescribed for registering "the pretended Popish priests." But as it was still difficult to induce men to discover and inform upon unoffending neighbours, and as in fact the trade of informer was held in- Exclusive of the methods used to allay famous by all fair-minded men, the the popular resentment and the sacrifices Commons took care also to resolve made to national prejudice, other means unanimously, "that the prosecuting and were adopted to facilitate the final passing informing against Papists was an honour-of the Act of Union. By the report of able service to the Government." The the Commissioners of Public Accounts, informers being now, therefore, honourable by law, and taken under the special favour of the Government, gave such new and extensive development to their peculiar industry as made it for long after the most profitable branch of business in this impoverished country, and afforded some compensation for the ruin of the woollen manufacture and other honest trades. between England and Scotland. There was much indignant resistance against the measure by patriotic Scotsmen; and it needed much intrigue and no little bribery, judiciously distributed (as in Ireland ninety-three years later), to overcome the opposition. An English historian * gives this simple account of the matter: delivered in some years after this time, it appears that the sum of twenty thousand pounds, and upwards, was remitted at the present juncture to Scotland, which was distributed so judiciously that the rage of opposition suddenly subsided; and the treaty, as originally framed, received without any material alteration, the solemn sanction of the Scottish ParliaThe Earl of Pembroke, lord-lieutenant ment-the general question being carried in the year 1706, made a speech to the by a majority of 110 votes." In vain the Parliament, in which he endeavoured to patriots fought against the influence of soothe the feelings of the Dissenters dis- the Court. In vain did Fletcher of abled by the Sacramental Test, and to Saltoun earnestly declare in his place in combine all Protestants in a cordial union Parliament, "that the country was beagainst the hated Papists. He recom- trayed by the Commissioners." In vain mended them to provide for the security did Lord Belhaven, in a speech yet famous of the realm against their foreign and in Scotland, pathetically describe Caledomestic enemies-by which latter phrase donia as sitting in the midst of the Senate, he meant Catholics-and added "that he looking indignantly around and covering was commanded by her majesty to inform herself with her royal robe, attending the them, that her majesty, considering the fatal blow, breathing out with passionate number of Papists in Ireland, would be emotion Et tu quoque, mi fili! The measure glad of an expedient for the strengthen- was carried, and Scotland became a proing the interest of her Protestant sub- vince. How similar all this to the scenes jects in that kingdom." Fear of the enacted in our own country, almost a common enemy"-the established par-century later! But for the name of Lord mentary term to describe Catholics, Somers, the great engineer of the Scottish was often urged as an inducement to Union, we must substitute Castlereagh, mitigate the disabilities of Dissenters; make the bribery larger, and the intrigues and this controversy continued many darker. years. The Established Church party It is worth noting that the Irish House was resolved not to relax any part of their of Lords, when the Union with Scotland code of exclusion; and had perfect conBelsham. History of Great Britain from the fidence that the Dissenters, though pressed | Revolution. Book V. was in agitation four years before, in 1703, addressed the queen in favour of a similar measure for Ireland. They now, in 1707, did so again, beseeching her majesty to extend the benefits of her royal protection equally over all her kingdoms. The House of Commons did not favour this proceeding; nor was it at that time regarded with complacency in England. Nothing further, therefore, was done upon the suggestion made by their lordships, who had probably got scent of bribery going on in Scotland, and naturally bethought them that they had a country to sell as well as other people. They were disappointed for that time; but many of their great grandsons in 1800 derived benefit by the delay in concluding that transaction, and received a price for their services, twenty times more princely than what could have been commanded in the time of Lord Somers. was passed by some in religious exercises, by others in harmless society and amusement. But amusement, or recreation, protection of saints, or benefit of prayers, was not presumed to exist for Catholics; and these innocent meetings were naturally assumed to have some connection with "bringing in the Pretender," and overthrowing the glorious Constitution in Church and State. They were, therefore, strictly forbidden by a statute of this reign,* which imposed a fine of ten shillings (and in default of payment, whipping) upon every person "who shall attend or be present at any pilgrimage, or meeting held at any holy well, or imputed holy well." The same act inflicts a fine of £20(and imprisonment until payment) upon every person who shall build a booth, or sell ale, victuals, or other commodities at such pilgrimages or meetings. It further "requires all magistrates to demolish all crosses, pictures, and inscriptions that are anywhere publicly set up, and are the occasions of Popish superstitions"-that is, objects of reverence and respect to the Catholics. Thus, in Ireland, were made penal and suppressed those patron fairs, which indeed have been the origin of the most ancient and celebrated fairs of Europe, as those of Lyons, Frankfort, Leipzig, and many others. The agitation in Scotland arising from the Act of Union, although entirely confined to the Presbyterian people of that kingdom, furnished a new excuse for outrage upon Irish Catholics. There was in truth a plot, extending through the south-west of Scotland, for raising an army, inviting the "Pretender" (Anne's brother), and so getting rid of the Union by establishing again the dynasty of their ancient kings. On the first discovery of this project in 1708, forty-one Catholic gentlemen were at once arrested and imprisoned in Dublin Castle, without any charge against them whatsoever, but, as it appeared, only to provoke and humble them. It is indeed wonderful to read of the ingenious malignity with which occasions were sought out to torment harmless country people by interIdicting their innocent recreations and simple obscure devotions. In the County Meath, as in many other places in Ireland, is a holy well, named the Well of St. John." From time immemorial, multitudes of infirm people, men, women, and children, had frequented this well, to peform penances and to pray for relief from their maladies. Those invalids who had been relieved of their infirmities at these holy wells, either by faith or by the use of cold water, frequently resorted, in the summer-time, to the same spot, with their friends and relations; so that there was sometimes a considerable concourse of people on the annual festival of the patron saint to whom the wells were dedicated. Such had been the origin of In May, 1709, Thomas Earl of Wharton "Patron" in Ireland. On these occasions being then lord-lieutenant, with Addison, the young and the old met together. A of the Spectator, as secretary, there was little fair was sometimes held, of toys or introduced into the House of Commons a other articles of small value, and the day | One other enactment of 1708 will show what kind of chance Catholics had in courts of justice; and will bring us down to the period of the second Act "to prevent the further growth of Popery." This law enacted, "That from the first of Michaelmas Term, 1708, no Papist shall serve, or be returned to serve, on any grand-jury in the Queen's Bench, or before Justices of Assize, oyer and terminer, or gaol-delivery or Quarter Sessions, unless it appear to the court that a sufficient number of Protestants cannot then be had for the service: and in all trials of issues [that is, by petty juries] on any presentment, indictment, or information, or action on any statute, for any offence committed by Papists, in breach of such laws, the plaintiff or prosecutor may challenge any Papist returned as juror, and assign as a cause that he is a Papist, which challenge shall be allowed.” The spirit of this enactment, and the practice it introduced, have continued till the present moment; and at this very time, on trials for political offences, Catholicswho have been summoned are usually challenged and set aside. 2nd Anne, c. 6. |