able conditions which that nobleman was now empowered to grant, but which might immediately be revoked. The chieftain, in his former pride, would have confidered. fuch advances as an indication of the weakness and ap prehenfions of the government, and rejected them with contempt; but he was now reduced to a state of real humiliation. Inftantly complying, he fet out to attend the lord-deputy, who, at Mellifont, received him with a dignity becoming the reprefentative of an offended fovereign. Tirone fell upon his knees, and petitioned for mercy with an air and afpect of diftrefs. He fubfcribed his fubmiffion, which was conceived in the ampleft form. He implored the queen's gracious commiferation; humbly fuing to be reftored to his dignity and the state of a fubject, which he had fo juftly forfeited. He utterly renounced the name of O'Nial, with all its honourable diftinctions and pretended authority; abjured all foreign power, and all dependency but on the crown of England; and promised to affift the government in abolishing all barbarous customs, and establishing law and civility among his people. The lord-deputy, on the part of the queen, promised a full pardon to him and all his followers; to himself, the restoration of his blood and honour, with a new patent for his lands, except fome portions referved for certain chieftains received into favour, and fome for the ufe of English garrifons; to which refervations the earl readily confented. This accommodation being concluded, Tirone accompanied the lord-deputy to Dublin; where, on hearing of the death of the queen, he was observed to burst into a flood of tears. He pretended that his emotion arose from the affection which he entertained for a princefs, who had treated him with fuch unmerited clemency. But it was obvious that this paffion really proceeded from a fenfe of his precipitate fubmiffion; when, by persevering but a few days, his reputation with his countrymen might have been inviolate, and the war renewed with confiderable advantage; or, at worst, he might have made a merit with the new fovereign, that immediately on his acceffion he had freely fubmitted to mercy. As it was now impoflible to recede, he renewed his fubmiflion, in the form before prefcribed, to the king. No infurgent remained in the kingdom, who had not obtained or fued for mercy. Many were driven by neceffity to the continent, and earned a fubfiftence in the armies of Spain, where they continued to maintain a malignant refentment against the English'. J Sulliv. СНА Р. James I. CHA P. V. From the Acceffion of James to the English Crown, to the Battle of Kilrush, in the Reign of Charles I. A.D.1603. THUS, after a perpetual conteft of four hundred and forty years, the enemies of the English crown were entirely fubdued in this ifland. But there yet remained for fome future fovereign the nobler work of establishing the authority of laws, in a country fo long cut off by civil difcord from the moft valuable advantages of fociety. It was ftill, however, the misfortune of Ireland to be infefted by the emiffaries of Rome; who, on the acceffion of James, in many places encouraged their votaries, by affuring them that the new king was of the catholic religion. Such were the effects of these peftilent infinuations, that feveral cities of Leinfter, and almost all those of Munfter, now confpired to avow their contempt of penal ftatutes, and to reftore the Romish worship in its full fplendor. In Cork, the factious ecclefiaftics were particularly numerous and turbulent. Their magiftrates at first refused to proclaim the king; but not daring to persevere in this infolent oppoûtion to authority, they at length published the proclamation of their liberties; and at the fame time that they notified this event to the lorddeputy, they demanded that Halbowling, a fort built in the late reign to protect the city against invasion, should be delivered into the hands of their corporation. The commiffioners for executing the prefidency of Munster on the departure of fir George Carew, and the officers of the army, were justly alarmed at their extravagances, and determined to strengthen every poft in the neighbourhood of Cork, by which the feditious inhabitants might be kept in awe; a measure which was not effected without oppofition and fome bloodfhed ". This feditious fpirit, fo generally diffufed through the cities of the South, was particularly embarraffing, at a time when the calamities which war and devaftation had produced, required the whole attention of the government. Mountjoy foon determined to march into Munster at the head of the royal army. At Waterford he found the gates fhut against him; the citizens pleading, that, by a charter from king John, they were exempt from quartering foldiers. Two ecclefiaftics, in the habits of their m Ware. order order, and with the crofs erected, prefented themfelves before the lord-deputy in his camp, and infolently declared, that the citizens of Waterford could not in confcience obey any prince that perfecuted the catholic faith. But this expedient having no effect in altering the refolution of the deputy, he threatened, that, if the inhabitants proved refractory, he would level the city with the ground. In confequence of this declaration, he was immediately admitted; the inhabitants at once fwore allegiance, and renounced all foreign jurifdiction; and a ftrong garrifon was ftationed in the city, to retain them in fubjection. Cafhel, Clonmel, Limerick, and other cities, which had declared for the free exercife of popery, were intimidated by the vigour of Mountjoy, and reduced to the fame compliances. Corke had been actually invested by the fouthern forces as a rebellious city; but on the firft appearance of the lord-deputy, the gates were opened to him without ftipulation. In order to the full re-eftablishment of the public tranquillity, it was judged expedient to pafs an act of oblivion and indemnity. All offences against the crown, and all particular trefpaffes between fubjects, committed before. the king's acceffion, were declared to be extinguished; and the whole body of the Irifh yeomanry was received into his majesty's immediate protection, to the utter exclufion of the ancient jurifdiction of their chieftains. This falutary ordinance was the last act of Mountjoy's vigorous and fuccefsful administration. He was conftifuted lord-lieutenant of Ireland, but permitted to appoint fir George Carew his deputy, and returned to England, attended by the earl of Tírone, and Roderic O'Donnel, the brother and rival of Nial Garruff, whofe infolence grew fo offenfive, that the government was inclined to favour his competitor. Both the Irish chieftains were received by the king with marks of favour. Roderic was, by the good offices of Mountjoy, created earl of Tyrconnel; and Tirone was confirmed in his honours and poffeffions; but fuch was the deteftation expreffed by the populace against the man, whofe rebellion had proved fo fatal to many of their friends, that he could not travel in fecurity, without a powerful escort. The government next proceeded to the extenfion of law, and the establishment of public juftice. During the fhort administration of Carew, fheriffs were fent into the counties of Tyrconnel and Tirone, and itinerant judges A.D.1604. vifited the whole northern province. Sir Arthur Chichefter, who fucceeded to Carew, advanced the work of re 9 3 formation formation yet farther. The dangerous fept of O'Byrnes, who had for ages harraffed even the capital by their infurrections, he brought under due fubjection to the government, and converted their territory into a county. He established feffions of justice in the province of Connaught; and restored the circuit of Munster, after a difcontinuance of two hundred years. The old Irish cuftoms of tainiftry and gavelkind were abolished by judgment in the King's Bench, and the Irish eftates were made defcendible, according to the courfe of the common law of England. In exchange for the Brehon jurifdi&tion, the native Irish were thus invefted with all the privileges of fubjects, and admitted to all the benefits of the English law; while inferiors were univerfally emancipated from the tyranny of barbarous chieftains. To afcertain the rights of individuals, and fettle the poffeffions of all the inhabitants of the realm, was the next great object of the government. A commiffion of grace, as it was called, iffued under the great-feal of England, for fecuring the fubjects of Ireland against all claims of the crown. The chief governor was empow ered to accept the furrenders of thofe Irifh lords who held eftates by their old precarious tenure, and to regrant them on a more permanent fecurity. Many embraced the opportunity of converting their prefent tenure for life, to an estate in fee, which defcended to their children. No chieftainries were now granted by patent; and no pretended officers of juftice were ftationed in the remote parts to exercise an Irish feigniory over the wretched inhabitants. Every lord, by his new patent, was invefted only with the lands found to be in his immediate poffeffion; and his followers were confirmed in their tenures, on condition only of paying him the annual renț at which his duties were rated, in the place of all uncertain and arbitrary exactions. Building, planting, cultivation, and univerfal improvement, were the confequences of thefe falutary regulations. The trading towns and corporations through the kingdom foon followed the example of the land-holders; they furrendered their old, and accepted new charters, with fuch regulations and privileges, as tended to keep them in fubjection to the crown, and promote the interefts of peace and com merce P. But the progrefs of thefe fchemes of reformation were unhappily interrupted by the virulence of religious fac tion. Popish ecclefiaftics ftill practifed with their votaries in different quarters of the kingdom. They denounced the vengeance of their fpiritual authority on all who fhould attend on the established worship. Abbeys and monasteries were repaired; churches were refitted and furnished for the Romish rites, which were again publicly celebrated in feveral parts of the realm. The popish clergy proceeded yet farther; prefuming even to arraign the civil administration, and to review caufes determined in the king's courts. And amidst all these exceffes, they were induftrioufly flattered in an opinion, that their new fovereign entertained a fecret propensity to the catholic faith. But whatever tendernefs James expreffed for the religious tenets of Rome, he had a fincere abhorrence of thofe who maintained the fupremacy of the papal jurifdiction; and whatever were his private difpofitions, he was obliged to keep fome terms with the puritans, who whispered their fufpicions of his being popishly inclined. As he had, therefore, publifhed a proclamation in England, commanding all Jefuits and other priests, having orders from any foreign power, to depart from the kingdom, fo, by a like proclamation, was the popish clergy of Ireland commanded to depart within a limited time, unlefs they conformed to the laws of the land. This ordinance was intended to be executed with equal lenity in both kingdoms; but in Ireland, instead of terrifying the delinquents, it enraged them. The chief governor and council, perceiving the daring spirit of the recufants, determined to revive the penal ftatutes, and began by enjoining the magiftrates and principal citizens of Dublin to repair to the established churches. Repeated admonitions and conferences ferved but to render them more obftinate. They were fined and committed to prison; when in an inftant, all the old English families of the Pale took the alarm, and boldly remonftrated against the feverity of these proceedings. Their remonstrance, and petition for the free exercise of religion, was prefented to the council, by an unusual concourfe, on the very day when intelligence was received of the gunpowder confpiracy; a circumftance which excited in the king's minifters a fufpicion of fome concert between the confpirators in England and the popifh party of Ireland. The chief petitioners were confined in the caftle of Dublin, and fir Patrick Barnewell, their great agent, was, by the king's command, fent under cuftody into England. 0.4 The |