mous pretext of teaching those manners, who, as Swift remarks, first taught the English civilisation.

The horrible effect of this transference of Irish property was so grievously felt at the time, and so endangered the connexion between the two countries, that about 1378, when Richard II. filled the throne of England, a law was enacted against absenteeism, and a tax of two thirds of their income was laid upon absentees, who were loudly complained of, (as well as in our days), for abandoning their Irish lands, and impoverishing the country, by spending their revenues in a distant country; thus leaving the residents unequal to the charge and labor of supporting the public burdens." But it must be ever borne in mind, that this law emanated from a parliament then holden in Dublin, and was soon most graciously despised by the paternal senate of England.

The divisions of the houses of York and Lancaster soon

abrogated all these laws. "At this time, (says Spenser), all English lords and gentlemen who had great possessions in Ireland, repaired over hither into England, some to succour their friends here, and to strengthen their party, others for to defend their lands and possessions here, against such as hovered after the same, upon hope of the alteration of the kingdom, and success of that side which they favored and affected." The result of this absenteeism of the great landholders of Ireland was natural then and inevitable; it was a part and parcel of English legislation, and "motherly attention.'

"The Irish," continued Spenser, "whom before they (the English) had banished into mountains, where they lived only upon white meats, as it is recorded, seeing now their lands so dispeopled and weakened, came down into all the plains adjoining, and thence expelling those few English that remained, repossessed them again;" but these repossessions were only temporary. New invasions and new forfeitures ensued, and transferred them to strangers

upon

Then 66 the accession of Edward VI.," says the annalists, "O'Moore, prince of Leix, and O'Connor, prince of Offaly, (now the King's and Queen's counties), drew the sword, on pretence (reality) of some injury received. The lord deputy defeated them, ravaged their country,

seized their lands, and drove out the old inhabitants." Every acre of these " wide domains" were handed over to new proprietors, who, having established themselves "by fire and sword, transferred the ownership to foreigners by connexion, and resided themselves in England."

To form some idea of the "paternal conduct" of the English government towards Ireland, in the days of Henry VIII. it is only necessary to see the state to which it was reduced by that government, who were framing the "act of absencie" for preventing the increase of the absentees of England, unless as far as the fines went to the king.

"Notwithstanding," says Spenser," that the same was a most rich and plentiful country, full of corn and cattle, yet in one year and a half, (during the war carried on against the earl of Desmond, for the purpose of forfeiting his estates) the natives were brought to such wretchedness as that any stoney heart would rue the same; out of every corner of the woods and glens, they came creeping forth on their hands, for their legs could not bear them; they looked like anatomies of death; they spoke like ghosts crying out of their graves; they did eat the dead carrion, happy when they could find them; yea, and one another soon after, inasmuch as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves; and if they found a plot of watercresses or shamrocks, they flocked as to a feast for the time. Yet not able to continue them without that, in a short time there was none almost left; and a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left void of man and beast."State of Ireland, 1581.

Such was the "civilisation" the enlightened English introduced into our once beautiful country.

In fact," the first barbarous English sequestrators of Ireland, (and when has the epithet been inapplicable?)" says lady Morgan, "were, at an early period of their unfixed power, sensible of the injury which the state and the country suffered from absenteeism;" yet they considered the absence of the Irish from their houses and country, as a state engine, and wielded it with a policy which always advanced their own interest, and confirmed their power over that unhappy land."-p. 14.

Thus, whilst the English government, in the reign of Elizabeth, levied a tax of 10 per cent. on all who absented themselves for any considerable time from England; "they

adopted the most cruel means to increase the number of absentees in Ireland; nay, utterly to remove from it all the natives, and replace them by such English nobles, as were deemed deserving of taking their land, on account of their attachment to the government."-Ibid. *

In the days of the reign of the virgin queen, Ulster was the principality of the O'Neills: after much difficulty England forced Con O'Neill the chieftain to surrender his territory, and take back a grant of it. As usual, conditions were exacted by the "civilised invaders," at variance with all the usages of civilised society.

Con O'Neill had two sons: Shane the legitimate, and Mathew the illegitimate. The question was which child, was to be heir to the chieftain's possessions. Shane's claim was supported by all laws. The English government, however, ruled the point in favor of the bastard, practising (says Parnel, in his "Apology," page 58.) " a policy that has governed them in the latest times, in India, where it has been the custom to arise to the throne, in violation of the customary mode of succession, a person who depended for his station on their power, who was strictly a dependant, and who might be set aside whenever a favorable opportunity occurred. The sic jubeo of the virgin queen was of course decisive. The bastard was proclaimed the lawful heir. The consequence was, a rebellion on the part of Shane. There was then, a declaration of war against him, as an "usurper." His forces were conquered, and his property taken. Well, what did the "parental government" do? Did it restore what it originally con sidered the right of Mathew? No! It confiscated the whole possessions, both of Shane and Mathew!!"

Thus, "in order," says Parnel, "to divert Shane, the territory was reputed Mathew's, and in order to get rid of Mathew's claim, the territory was confiscated as Shane's!"

"It was reserved," says lady Morgan, "for the reign of the virgin queen, to drive the genuine nobility of Ireland from their native land, at any loss or risk, into distant regions and unknown countries, or to allure them to her own formal and fantastic court, by a show of genuine sympathy; which, though in direct contradiction to her whole policy and conduct, was well calculated to win the unwary, and to soothe the unfortunate." P. 42,

Such were the barbarities adopted under this "paternal

queen," to civilise Ireland, that the heart of man cannot but sicken at its relation, and humanity almost disown itself!

These horrors stand recorded to the everlasting dishonor of the English government, and as standing monuments of the atrocity of its diabolical agents, in destroying not only the fair face of Erin, but of murdering in cold blood, or of transporting, (and in some cases of burying in the sea), the rightful owners of the Irish soil, and the chiefs of her people!

"The queen," says Leland, "was assured that he (lord deputy Grey) tyrannised with such barbarity, that little was left in Ireland for her majesty to reign over but ashes and dead carcasses."-Hist. of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 227. The same historian, (who, be it remembered was not so partial to his country as he ought), tells us, that "the English officers having assured some of the Irish chiefs, that by surrendering themselves to the government they would obtain their pardon, embraced the counsel, submitted, and consented to attend the lord deputy St. Leger, to Ireland. But here the only favor granted them was, that they were not brought to immediate execution. They were committed to prison, their lands declared forfeited, and granted to those on whose counsel they had surrendered."-Ibid.

How well does this base violation of engagements verify the declaration of baron Finglas, who lived about that time:""The English statutes passed in Ireland, are not observed eight days after passing them-whenever laws and statutes are made by the Irish on their hills, they keep them firm and stable, without breaking through them for any favor or reward."-Breveate of Ireland.

To describe the manner in which the O'Neills and the O'Donnells, the O'Rourkes and the O'Connors, were deprived of their lives, or of their estates, would alone swell a volume too dreadful to publish or even to read!

Invasions were followed by confiscations, particularly in the southern parts of Ireland; such as those of the Cavanaghs, and the knights of the Glynn-Barry of Barry's court, was despoiled of his territory on the mere complaint of Sir W. Raleigh, and all the estate of Desmond was forfeited, and 40,000 acres given to that perfidious Agent, as the reward of his cruelty. This forfeiture not only included all these possessions of Desmond: but of all who

derived under him, or held property within the confines of Munster.

There were inen of property who had sense enough neither to care about the earl of Desmond or the queen, who had not taken arms, and whose property could not be "decently confiscated." The queen, however, thoughtsuch Irishmen might be inconvenient to her plan of making a colony in Munster, and therefore, required them to prove their titles; which if they could not do, to the satisfaction of her commissioners, they were turned off; and if they could prove their titles, they were also to be turned off, first receiving what the commissioners conceived as a compensation, which was not, perhaps, in most cases, the tenth part of what the estates were worth.

As an illustration of the "civilised manner" in which these confiscations took place, the following deserves attention:-M'Mahon, prince of Monaghan, surrendered his country to Elizabeth, and received a grant of it, with the remainder, in the default of issue to his brother Hugh. He died without offspring, and Hugh took possession. The lord deputy Fitzwilliam proceeded to Monaghan, under the pretence of giving M'Mahon his possession. But as soon as he arrived there, he raised an accusation against M'Mahon, for having, two years before, recovered some rent due to him by force of arms. By the law of the English pale, this was treason; but M'Mahon never stipulated to be subject to that law; on the contrary, the patents by which their territories were regranted to the Irish princes, either formally acknowledged the validity of the Irish Brehon law, or tolerated it by a silence equally expressive. The unfortunate M'Mahon, for an offence committed before the law, which declared it capital, was established in his country, was tried, condemned by a jury formed of private soldiers, and executed in two days, to the horror and consternation of his subjects and the rest of the Irish chieftains. His territory was distributed to Sir H. Bagnel and other English adventurers. Four ouly of the sept saved their property, thus leaving on the page of history, one of the greatest acts of perfidy, ever recorded in the annals of a "civilised nation."

"All this," as Mr. Staunton judiciously remarks, "was pretty well for one reign, and that the reign of the "virgin queen,"