ceived the laws and magistrates, and gladly embraced the King's pardon." That long bloody war had cost England many millions of treasure, and the blood of tens of thousands of her veteran soldiers; and from the face of Ireland it swept nearly one-half of the entire population.

From that day, the distinction of "Pale" and "Irish Country" was at an end; and the authority of the Kings of England and their Irish parliaments, became, for the first time, paramount over the whole island. The pride of ancient Erin-the haughty struggle of Irish nationhood against foreign institutions, and the detested spirit of English imperialism, for that time, sunk in blood and horror; but the Irish nation is an undying essence, and that noble struggle paused for a season, only to recommence in other forms and on wider ground-to be renewed, and again renewed, until- Ah! quousque, Domine, quousque ?

"In the year 1599 the queen spent six hundred thousand pounds in six months on the service of Ireland. Sir Robert Cecil affirmed that in ten years Ireland cost her three millions four hundred thousand pounds."Hume. These were enormous sums at that period.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CHIEFTAIN BECOMES AN EARL."-AKTFUL CECIL. THE END.

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A. D. 1603-1616.

Ir now seemed as if the entire object of that tremendous war had been, on the part of England, to force a coronet upon the unwilling brows of an Irish chieftain, and oblige him in his own despite to accept "letters patent" and broad lands "in fee." Surely, if this were to be the conquest of Ulster," if the rich vallies of the North, with all their woods and waters, mills and fishings, were to be given up to these O'Neills and O'Donnells, on whose heads a price had so lately been set for traitors; if, worse than all, their very religion was to be tolerated, and Ulster, with its verdant abbey-lands and livings, and termon-lands, were still to set "Reformation" at defiance; surely, in this case, the crowd of esurient undertakers, lay and clerical, had ground of complaint. It was not for this they left their homes, and felled forests, and camped on the mountains, and plucked down the Red Hand from many a castle wall. Not for this they "preached before the State in Christ-Church,"

and censured the backsliding of the times, and pointed out the mortal sin of a compromise with Jezebel.

"* and

Still a good time was coming for the undertakers of the sword and cassock. Their king was caring for them. For the present, indeed, while any trace of the national confederacy remains, it is necessary to "deale liberally with the Irish lords of countreys,' even to tolerate their religion, "for a time not definite;" until the northern Irish "shall be more divided, and can be ruined the more easily."† Causes of offence shall arise-shall be created or pretended and those lands will assuredly cheat." Reformation will have its way, and the adventurers be satisfied with the bounties of their king.

66

es

Conciliation, however, was now the policy of King James. He was to rule Ireland, not with the iron rod of a conqueror whose title is the sword; but, deducing his pedigree from all the British, Saxon, Danish, and Norman kings of England and Scotland, and condescending even to count kindren with the ancient Ard-righs of Ireland, through his ancestors the Albanian Scots, he indicated an intention of governing the Irish with mild paternal sway, as though he loved them. A comprehensive act of oblivion and amnesty was passed and published under the great seal. All former "treasons" (as the proclamation styled a national war against usurpa

See Mountjoy's letter, in the Appendix-a most instructive document.

† Ibid.

tion and tyranny) were to be remitted and utterly extinguished; and by the same proclamation, the very "Irishry" were informed that they were to believe themselves for the future under the peculiar protection of the crown; and the king's kindness, as his majesty's attorney-general informs us, "bred such comfort and security in the hearts of all men, as thereupon ensued the calmest and most universal peace that ever was seen in Ireland."

Lord Mountjoy having thus finished his mission, and, indeed, to give him justice, having done his errand well, repaired to England, taking with him Hugh O'Neill and Roderick O'Donnell to pay their homage, like good subjects, at the foot of the throne. Their vessel was overtaken by a storm and nearly wrecked upon the Skerries, but at length made the port of Beaumaris, and the passengers proceeded on horseback to London. Public feeling towards any distinguished stranger is more accurately interpreted by the populace, than amidst the stately observances of king's courts, and judging by this criterion the name of O'Neill was more feared than loved in England. There were thousands of widows, tens of thousands of orphans, whose parents and whose husbands' bones strewed many a battle-field in Ulster, from Clontibret to Bealach-moyre, or whitened in heaps hard by the fatal Blackwater. And, as the victor of Beal-an-atha-buidhe rode on, no respect to the Lord Deputy," says Moryson, "in whose company he rode up to London, could contain many women in these parts from flinging dirt at him with bitter words.

66

And

when he was to return, he durst not pass by those parts without directions to the sheriffs to convey him with troops of horse, from place to place, till he was safely embarked.”

But at court his reception was most gracious. His pardon was confirmed, his letters patent were duly made out, his friend Roderick O'Donnell was created "Earl of Tyrconnell," first of that title; and with every mark of high confidence and honour the two new noblemen were sent home to take possession of their estates. Tɔ other chieftains, their former confederates, were also "granted" their own property with larger or smaller reservations in favour of rival claimants. As for Art O'Neill, Tirlough Lynnogh's son, (who would fain have been "The O'Neill" and had accepted English alliance for that end,) he was forced to remain "Sir Arthur," and to confine himself within narrow limits in a corner of the country. And the Rugged Niall Garbh, the Queen's O'Donnell, "had grown so insolent," says Dr. Leland, "that government was well pleased to favour his competitor." He found that his allies were his masters, and that he must yield all his high pretensions in favour of the new Earl Roderick.*

Then the Catholic religion was openly pro

Poor Nial Garbh fought zealously for his chieftaincy, "and it must be confessed," says Cox, "that he was instrumental in those good successes; whereupon he grew so insolent as to tell the Governor Docwra to his face that the people of Tyrconnell were his subjects, and that he would punish, exact, cut, and hang them as he pleased."