The great English settlers found it more for their immediate interest that a free course should be left to their oppressions-that many of those whose lands they coyeted should be considered as aliens-that they should be furnished for their petty wars by arbitrary exactions-and in their rapines and massacres be freed from the terrors of a rigidly impartial and severe tribunal. They had the opportunities of making such representations as they pleased to the Court of England, and such descriptions of the temper and dispositions of the Irish as might serve their own purposes most effectually. They thus succeeded in rendering the mandate ineffectual. The second document to which he must refer, went still further to illustrate this portion of his case. He alluded to an offer made by the people of Ireland to King Edward I., in the year 1278, to contribute no less a sum than 8000 marks to the exigencies of the state, if they were afforded the enjoyment of the English laws. In this instance, as in the preceding case, the King issued his mandate, setting forth that— Whereas the community of Ireland have made to us a tender of 8000 marks, on condition that we grant to them the laws of England, to be used in the aforesaid land, we will you to know that, inasmuch as the laws used by the Irish are hateful to God, and repugnant to all justice-and having held diligent conference and full deliberation with our council on this matter, it seems sufficiently expedient to us and to our council, to grant to them the English laws, provided always that the general consent of our people, or at least of the prelates and nobles of that land, well affected to us, shall uniformly concur in this behalf. We therefore command you that, having entered into treaty with those Irish people, and examined diligently into the wills of our commons, prelates, and nobles, well affected to us in this behalf; and having agreed between you on the highest fine of money that you can obtain to be paid us on this account, you do, with the consent of all, or, at least, with the greater and sounder part aforesaid, make such a composition with the said people in the premises, as you shall judge in your diligence to be most expedient for our honour and interest; provided, however, that these people should hold in readiness a body of good and stout footmen, amounting to such a number as you shall agree upon with them, for one turn only, to repair to us when we shall think fit to demand them.

And the historian says,

Here we see the just and honourable disposition of Edward, notwithstanding his attention to make this incident subservient to his affairs. But his wisdom and rectitude were fatally counteracted, and by those who should have ran foremost in the prosecution of a measure which would have prevented the calamities of ages, and which was obviously calculated for the pacification and effectual improvement of their country; but it would have circumscribed their rapacious views, and controlled their violence and oppression.

Again, however, were the dispositions of the people frustrated and defeated; and again, as formerly, were they refused that which they had solicited. He next must refer, in illustration of his views, to a document recording a similar application made to King Richard II. through Lord Thomas of Lancaster, but which received a similar refusal. Such also in the reign of Henry VIII. was the fate of an application, having the same object, and made to Lord Deputy Grey and Sir Arthur Chichester. The policy of the British subjects in Ireland at these periods was elicited by the next document, which was issued in the year 1584, when the death of the Earl of Desmond was supposed to afford a fitting opportunity for the renewal, with some prospect of success, of the application so frequently and fruitlessly made. But Elizabeth and her councillors thought otherwise.

Should we exert ourselves (said they) in reducing this country to order and civility, it must soon acquire power and riches. The inhabitants will be thus alienated from England; they will cast themselves into the arms of some foreign power, or, perhaps, erect themselves into an independent and separate state. Let us rather connive at their disorders; for a weak and disorderly people never can attempt to detach themselves from the Crown of England.

The Queen and her councillors were aware of the benefit to Ireland

which would arise from the operation of the just laws of the country; but the British subjects in Ireland were apprehensive that their applications would make Ireland too strong, while it was their policy to keep her as weak as possible-a course of policy followed with as unrelenting a perseverance, and which is as much alive in the present day, as in the reign of Elizabeth, ["Hear, hear," from some of the Irish Members.]

Such was the state of things up to the reign of James I., when there still prevailed an anxiety on the part of the people of Ireland to be governed by British instead of their own laws; and on the part of the Government, that anxiety was met by a constant resistance and refusal of compliance, proving to the last that, during the whole period, no title had been raised by subjugation, no acknowledgment had been made of the Irish people as subjects of the Crown, notwithstanding a disposition on the part of the people to submit "with order and civility," as subjects of a distinct and separate country; for during a great portion of this time a Parliament was actually sitting in Ireland. It might, then, be asked, why were these anxious applications refused? His answer was, because the object of the English settlers in Ireland was plunder, spoliation, and robbery-an object which would have been defeated, if the wishes of the Irish population had met with compliance. [Hear, hear.] He thought he should be able to show that during these centuries, the strong disposition was to allow individuals to grasp by degrees the property of the people of Ireland; and the wealth of that nation was ever an object of cupidity; and most unjust and unfair means were taken to secure it, with an atrocity which he should, before he concluded, endeavour to describe. He had already shown that the disposition of the Irish people had been to become subjects of Great Britain, and that of the ruling powers to prevent them from becoming so. The amalgamation of the countries under one government was produced by crimes at which human feelings must be struck with horror. [Loud cries of "Hear, hear."] The powerful were set up and supported against the weak-the O'Donnells against the O'Neills-the illegitimate sons against the legitimate son of O'Neill, [hear] and the entire county of Tyrone was invaded, and yielded to the former, on the alleged ground that it had been forfeited. It was by this cruel policy, to which he was painfully bound to allude, that by degrees an inroad was made upon the property of the Irish national inhabitants, and by these means the entire rule of the country was attained, not by warfare, battles, or subjugation, but by the most horrible cruelties ever inflicted by one class upon another portion of a community. The history of the Spaniards in South America was moderate in the extreme compared with the crimes perpetrated in Ireland during the reigns of Elizabeth and of James I. [Hear, hear.] He relied for his authority in these respects, not upon the Catholics, but the writers of the then ascendency party; and he hesitated not to charge these periods of the history of Ireland as marked with the greatest crimes and atrocities that ever disgraced a nation. ["Hear, hear," from a portion of the Irish Members.] Iu the year 1577, the narrative of the horrible massacre of upwards of one hundred of the Irish gentry invited on public faith, and under the protection of the government, to a fête, was fully described in Morrisson's "History of Ireland."

The Lords of Connaught and O'Rourke made a composition for their lands with Sir Nicholas Malby, governor of the province, wherein they were content to yield the

Queen so large a rent, and such services, both of labourers to work for the occasion of fortifying, and of horse and foot to serve upon occasion of war, that their minds seemed not yet to be alienated to their wonted awe and reverence to the Crown of England. Yet, in that same year, an horrible massacre was committed by the Eng. lish at Mulloghmaston, on some hundreds of the most peaceable of the Irish gentry, invited thither on the public faith, and under the protection of Government.

This massacre is thus described by the Irish annalists

The English published a proclamation, inviting all the well-affected Irish to an interview on the Rathmore, at Mulloghmaston, engaging them, at the same time, for their security, and that no evil was intended. In consequence of this engagement the well-affected came, and soon after they were assembled, they found themselves surrounded by three or four lines of English and Irish horse and foot, completely accoutred, by whom they were ungenerously attacked, and cut to pieces, and not a single man escaped.

The Hon. and Learned Member also read a long extract from Borlase, descriptive of the destruction of the garrison of Smerwick, in Kerry, in 1583, which having

Surrendered upon mercy to Lord Deputy Gray; he ordered upwards of 700 of them to be put to the sword or hanged; repeated complaints were made of the inhuman rigour practised by this deputy and his officers; the queen was assured that he tyrannized with such barbarity, that little was left in Ireland for her Majesty to reign over, but ashes and dead carcases. The mode of accomplishing the destruction of the garrison of Smerwick is described thus:-"Wingfield was commissioned to disarm them, and when this service was performed, an English company was sent into the fort, and the entire was butchered in cold blood; nor is it without pain we find a service so horrid and detestable committed to Sir Walter Raleigh, for which, and other such exploits, he had 40,000 acres of lands bestowed on him in the county of Cork, which he afterwards sold to Richard, first Earl of Cork."

By the destruction in the same year of O'Neill and his wife and family, a great portion of the lands of the counties of Down and Louth were usurped.

Walter, Earl of Essex, on the conclusion of a peace, invited Bryan O'Niall, of Claneboy, with a great number of his relations, to an entertainment, where they lived in great harmony, making good cheer for three days and nights, when on a sudden O'Niall was surprised with an arrest, together with his brother and wife, by the Earl's order. His friends were put to the sword before his face, nor were the women and children spared; he was himself, with his brother and wife, sent to Dublin, where they were cut in quarters. This increased the disaffection, and produced the detestation of all the Irish; for this chieftain of Claneboy was the senior of his family; and as he had been universally esteemed, so he was now as universally regretted.

In the same manner the county of Monaghan was secured in the year 1590.

About this year died M'Mahon, chieftain of Monaghan, who, in his life time, had surrendered his country into her Majesty's hands, and received a re-grant thereof, under the broad seal of England, to him and his heirs male, and in default of such to his brother, Hugh Roe M'Mahon, with the other remainders, and this man dying without issue male, his said brother came up to the state that he might be settled in his inheritence, hoping to be countenanced and cherished as her Majesty's patentee. But he found he could not be admitted till he promised 600 cows (for such, and no other were the bribes). He was afterwards imprisoned for failing in part of the payment, and in a few days enlarged, with promise that the Lord Deputy himself would go and settle him in his coun try of Monaghan; whither his Lordship took his journey shortly after with M'Mahon in his company. At their first arrival, the gentleman was clapped into bolts; in two days after he was indicted, arraigned, and executed at his own door; all done by such officers as the deputy carried with him for that purpose from Dublin. The treason for which he was condemned was, because two years before he, pretending a rent due to him out of Fearney, levied forces and made a distress for the same, which, in the English law (adds my author), may perhaps be treason, but in that country, never before subject to law, it was thought no rare thing nor great offence. The marshal,

Sir Henry Bagnal, had part of the country; a Captain Hensflower was made seneschal of it, and got M'Mahon's chief house and part of the land; and to divers other small portions were assigned; and it is said that these men were all the contrivers of his death, and that every one was paid something for his share.

The further progress which was made towards the entire dominion of Ireland was made and sustained by crimes of the highest magnitude, leading to the complete devastation of property. It was painful and melancholy to have to state these facts, but he was firmly convinced that it was his duty to bring them forward in this part of his address, in order that he might thereby establish some degree of favour in the minds of those he addressed for the motion with which it was his intention to conclude. From the year 1582 to 1590 this system prevailed, and the consequent distress was at once horrible to contemplate and appalling to witness. [Hear.] Morrisson, in his history, stated that Sir Arthur Chichester himself witnessed the spectacle of three children of very tender years feeding upon the flesh of their dead parents. The dead lay on the road sides, with their mouths quite green, from having fed upon nothing but nettles and wild herbs; and the computed number of those who died from starvation in one district, within a very few months, exceeded 3,000 persons. Thus it was that the spirit of the Irish chieftains was completely broken. Spenser had also made the following statement :

Notwithstanding that the same was a most rich and plentiful country, full of corn and cattle, yet, ere one year and a half, they were brought to such wretchedness, as that any strong heart would rue the same. Out of every corner of the woods and glens they came creeping forth upon 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 carrions,-happy were they could they find them; yea, and one another soon after, insomuch as the very carcases they spared not to scrape out of their graves; and if they found a plot of water-cresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast, (for the time, yet not able to continue there withal,) that in short space there was none left, and a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left almost void of man and beast.

Lombard, another writer on Irish history, tells us—

After Desmond's death, and the entire suppression of the rebellion, unheard-of cruelties were committed on the provincials of Munster by the English commander. Great companies of these provincials, men, women, and children, were often forced into castles and other houses, which were then set on fire, and if any of them attempted to escape from the flames, they were shot or stabbed by the soldiers who guarded them. It was a diversion to these monsters to take up infants on the point of their spears, and whirl them about in their agony, apologizing for their cruelty by saying, that" if they suffered them to grow to live up they would become rebels." Many of their women were found hanging on trees, with their children at their breasts, strangled with the mother's hair!

He rejoiced in the possession of these documents, as they enabled him to show the House how ignorant it was generally of the woes and misfortunes of the people of Ireland, and of the great crimes which had been perpetrated towards that country. The Honourable and Learned Member again referred to, and read at length, an extract from Morrisson's History," stating that feuds and assassination were encouraged during Lord Mountjoy's dominion.

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I have, it seems, made (says Lord Mountjoy) some of the subjects already reclaimed and in these times suspected, put themselves in blood already; for, even now, I hear that Lord Mountgarrett's sons have killed some of Lord Clonclare's and some of Tyrrell's followers since I contested with their father about somewhat I heard suspicious of them........ About this time (says he) Nugent came to make his submission to the President, by whom he was told that, as his crime and offences were extraordinary, he could not hope for pardon unless he would deserve it by some ex

traordinary services, which, said the President, if you will perform, you may deserve not only pardon for your faults committed heretofore, but also some store of crowns to relieve your wants hereafter. Nugent, who was valiant and daring, and in whom the rebels reposed great confidence, presently promised not to be wanting in anything that one man could accomplish; and, in private, made an offer to the President that, if he might be well recompensed, he would ruin, within a short time, James Fitzthomas, the then reputed Earl of Desmond, or his brother John. But the President, having be fore contrived a plot for James, gave him in charge to undertake his brother John. Accordingly, some few days after, Nugent, in riding in company with John Fitzthomas and one Mr. Coppinger, permitted this great captain to ride a little before him, minding (his back being turned) to shoot him through with his pistol, which, for the purpose, was well charged with two balls. The opportunity offered-the pistol bent-both heart and hand ready to do the deed, when Coppinger, at that instant, snatched the pistol from him, crying "treason;" wherewith John Fitzthomas turning himself about, perceived his intent. Nugent thinking to escape by the goodness of his horse, spurred hard: the horse stumbled, and he was taken; and the next day, after examination and confession of his intent, hanged. In his examination he freely confessed the whole intent, which was, to have despatched John Fitzthomas, and immediately after to have posted to his brother James, to carry the first news thereof, intending to call him aside, and in a secret manner to relate the particulars of his brother's murder, and then to execute as much upon him also.

Were these the kindly feelings-these the acts that gave authority to any nation to encroach on Irish independence? He felt it exceedingly unpleasant to be forced to refer to such documents, but he did it to show that no title could have been gained for England by battle or conquest, either by submission on the one side, or recognition on the other. It was to this part of Irish history that he had chosen to refer, because it could not be made a question between one religion and another. He went into this detail, as he intended to make it a basis for future argument, to show that England had no charter to the obedience of Ireland, unless it were founded on the brief outline of crimes by which this illegitimate power had been first attained. He had considered in his own mind whether he should bring such an argument forward at all; but after an attentive examination of the reasons that suggested themselves, the impression remained that England and Ireland ought both to know what the nature of the connexion, the original connexion, was. ["Hear," from a portion of the Irish Members.]

He would pass to the period of 1633. [Hear, hear.] From that period the connexion between England and Ireland had become part of our domestic history. They then existed as two nations with one sovereign. Many and many a crime was then committed, but that was part of our domestic history. The history of the reign of James I. was one of rapine, duplicity, and wretchedness, but that was part of our domestic history. The conduct of Strafford, his tyranny and misrule, which at last proved fatal to himself and to the master who sent him [hear, hear], was a part of our domestic history. The continued progress of misrule the crimes committed by the Duke of York, afterwards James II., and the thousands of acres which he took from the men who had bled for his father [hear, hear]-all these things were also a part of our domestic history. Without dwelling on Poyning's law, whose provisions had four times been repealed, and as many times re-enacted, he would assert that what he had said fully proved that Ireland had not been a subordinate, but, for the whole period through which he had rapidly gone, a separate and distinct nation, with a separate sovereignty. ["Hear, hear," from the Irish Members.) This right of Ireland to a separate Legislature had never been affected; it had continued to the