And such was

revolve between helpless concession and rash violence. the Irish government of Edward, which plunged the island in disorders from which it has been but recently beginning to emerge, amidst a doubtful and dangerous undulation. The unfortunate distinction which at once threw the insult and injury of doubt upon the loyalty of the English settlers, by an edict which forced them into the condition of enemies, followed and completed the steps of ruinous impolicy.

James, Second Earl of Ormonde.

BORN A. D. 1331-died A. D. 1383.

THE second earl of Ormonde was born at Kilkenny, October, 1331, and by his mother was descended from Edward I., that lady having been the daughter of Humphrey Bohun, earl of Essex, by the princess Elizabeth, the king's seventh daughter. From this he was commonly called the "noble earl." A still nobler appellation was given by the respect of his countrymen; to whom he was known by the popular title of “James the chaste;"-won, it is said, by his known character for modesty and virtue.

His guardianship was committed, by king Edward III., to the earl of Desmond, for the sum of 2,300 marks, in 1344, at which time he was in his thirteenth year: this wardship, however, was forfeited by Desmond's rebellion in the following year, and afterwards committed to Sir* John Darcy, when he came over as lord justice. Sir John married him to his daughter; and, as he was but fourteen when committed to him, the marriage was perhaps early enough to account for some part of the virtue for which he is commemorated. He received large additions to his estates from both Edward and Richard; and, in 1359, was appointed lord justice of Ireland, but in a short time was recalled, and the earl of Kildare appointed as his deputy. One of the many characteristic features of this immediate time, was the rapid change of governors; that which we here mention was the eighth within ten years previous.

In 1360, he returned and distinguished himself honourably against the Irish in Ulster, Munster, and Leinster. But the disorders of Ireland had now arisen to a height which appeared to demand strong measures; and Edward came to the determination of sending over his son, the duke of Clarence, whose large Irish possessions made it expedient that his interests should be personally attended to. To this prince, therefore, the government was to be committed, with a force sufficient to command respect and submission. Nothing that could conduce to the efficiency of this measure was omitted save one-the just and rational conception of the nature of the step, and of the conduct necessary to effect it. The measure was prudent in design, and the preparations were vigorous and adequate; 1500 English soldiers, the counsel and assistance of Ormonde, with the earl of Stafford, Sir John Carew, Sir William Windsore, and other eminent captains and coun

* This person is the same called Sir Rodger, by Cox, p. 122.

sellors, were attached to the prince's army, with pay proportioned to their respective commands; that of the prince was thirteen shillings and four pence per day, that of Ormonde four shillings, with allowance for knights and soldiers under his orders. There can be little reasonable doubt, that a measure of this nature was necessary to secure the English settlers and reduce this distracted island to order; and that if carried into effect with vigour and prudence, and with a due regard to its only rational object, it might have been the means of changing the whole fatal and disastrous course of Irish history into a peaceful' progress towards national order and prosperity. But the councils of Lionel were perverted by ignorance of the true condition of the country, and an unfortunate disregard to policy, prudence, or any wise or just object. Party distinction, the constitutional canker which has blighted the growth of Ireland, was then already far advanced in its accursed development. Springing naturally from the animosities of rival races-left too long to work unchecked by any pressure of a governing authority-it was now to receive a fresh impulse from the hand that should repress it. It was not then as thoroughly understood as it has since become, through a hapless experience, that distinctions between classes, however little founded in nature or fact, may become the means of national convulsions more violent, extensive, and lasting, than want, oppression, and all the evils which tyranny can inflict. The Irish policy of Edward, if the name of policy can be given to the hasty expedients of inconsiderate anger, was characterized by this hapless oversight. Instead of seasonable conciliation, accompanied by the stern and unbending control which alone gives weight and effect to conciliation-men being in this, as children, easily satisfied with those to whom they must bend, and impossible to be appeased by any length of concession when they are allowed to tyrannize-Edward himself entered into the feelings of party, and adopted the most irritating and insulting distinctions in his ordinances and proclamations; and though repeatedly compelled to retract and explain away his laws, still returned to the same impolitic and ignorant distinctions. The first acts of Lionel throw a strong light on this policy, as they clearly manifest the mist of prejudice as to Ireland which surrounded the English court. The recent prejudice amongst the middle classes in England, which is expressed in the popular cant phrase, "the wild Hirish," is far more founded in certain realities than the pernicious prejudice which dictated lord Lionel's first step: by a proclamation, he forbade all the old English settlers, or any of the king's subjects of Irish birth, from approaching his camp. Such a proclamation suggests, and must have suggested the question, what he came for? and was equally adapted to excite resentment and awaken distrust. It is probable that it would have leagued the Irish barons against him, but that they felt themselves secure in their knowledge of the result of the prince's imprudence; and it may be, that from their retirements they looked with a vindictive satisfaction on the consequences of an offence which must bring its own punishment.

Deaf to counsel, and listening only to the suggestions of those whose ignorance and prejudices confirmed his own, prince Lionel traversed the country to attack the chief of Thomond. He was alike ignorant

of the ground through which he was to march, and of the species of warfare he was to encounter; and his youthful confidence was blindly urged on by the presumption of those who had never before seen the country. The immediate consequences were such as might be presumed. The Irish hovered about his camp, and practised on his little army all the well known resources and stratagems of their desultory warfare;-making sudden attacks and eluding all resistance; cutting off stragglers or detached bodies; intercepting supplies, and occupying dangerous passes. His soldiers, unaccustomed to fight an invisible enemy and receive blows that could not be returned, hampered in their movements and contracted in their provisions, became discouraged and malecontent. Numbers deserted, and numbers were slain by surprises of which one was nearly fatal.

Prince Lionel recovered from his mistakes and retrieved his errors-so far as battles won and honours gained could retrieve so lasting an injury. But the results of this could not be immediately understood; and the insult seemed to be wiped out with its consequences, when the prince, sensible of the mistake he had committed, did tardy justice to the offended feelings of the Irish barons. They were called by proclamation to his standard, and Lionel turned the scale in his favour. It is no part of our present design to enter into the account of wars, unattended with any permanent result or special interest. The natural effects of military success followed-a season of quiet and the honours and flatteries attendant on success in arms. Justice requires that it should be added, that the prince's conduct was personally unexceptionable; he preserved discipline, and restrained those abuses which make war so much more dreadful to the quiet inhabitants of a country which has the misfortune to be the seat of war, than to those who are defeated in the ranks.

He was recalled into England, but a subtle poison was left in the nation's heart. The terms "English by birth" and "English by race," were become party terms with all the fatal power of names. King Edward saw what could not be now concealed, and he adopted the laughable resource of forbidding the freedom of speech—“He commanded that no English subject, born in England or in Ireland, should make or cause dissension, raise debate or contumely, under the penalty of imprisonment for two years."*

Prince Lionel was succeeded by the earl of Ormonde, who, in the mean time, had very much distinguished himself by his valour, prudence, and activity. In 1362, he gained a great victory over MacMurrough at Teigstaffen, in the county of Kilkenny, in which six hundred of the Irish force were slain.† He now, on being made lord deputy, received from king Edward permission to purchase land to the amount of £60 per annum, notwithstanding the statute that no officer should purchase within his own jurisdiction.‡

Ormonde was soon superseded by the return of the duke, who did not remain long; and on his departure, committed the imprudence, so often recurring in the history of the time, of intrusting the administration to a person without rank or property. In the next three years, † Lodge.

Leland, from Rymer, tom. vi. p. 442.

+ Cox.

therefore, disorders rose to their usual height, and the dissensions among the English became serious and alarming. These dissensions, the chief cause of the calamities of Ireland, called out for immediate interference, and in 1367, lord Lionel was again sent over. This prince, who was not deficient in virtue or prudence, had now acquired some adequate idea of the condition of the country he came to govern. He saw as far, perhaps, as the knowledge of the times permitted, into the true interests of the country; and, although his measures fell far short of the purpose, yet it must be allowed, that, so far as they went, they were rightly conceived. He saw the necessity of reforming the destructive abuses which had crept into the English pale, which was degenerating into the total barbarism of the surrounding septs; and for this purpose a parliament was convened, and the STATUTE OF KILKENNY passed. The statute was beneficial and necessary; but it was only remedial to certain abuses which no legal enactment could repress more than transiently, while their causes remained in a vicious state of things. An impolitic distinction was preserved even in the language of this statute. The Irish laws, customs, and connexions, which had been so pernicious in their effects upon the English, were prohibited. But in these measures they overlooked the necessary effects of the close contact of two races so essentially distinct in national character and customs-the temptations to their assimilation; and, above all, the small effect which enactments can have in a lawless state of society. No wise provision was therefore made to reverse the fatal process that was in operation to civilize the Irish, instead of vainly aiming to arrest the degeneracy of the English, while all its causes remained. A law to arrest contagion from a permitted contact, could have no beneficial result; nor could any permanent good be effected by any measure, which left two contending races, having different laws and degrees of civilization, to exercise on each other the alternating influences of contention, or of more permanently injurious alliances. There could be no prudence in any course of policy which fell short of the reduction of the Irish to English law. Next to this, undoubtedly, we must admit the wisdom of a statute which restrained the connexion which degraded the English; it had a temporary good effect, and was long looked on as a beneficent and wise measure. A summary of its provisions will give the clearest view of the state of things it was designed to amend.

The

The preamble declares the degeneracy of the English, whom it describes as having become mere Irish in language, manners, customs, and dress, by their alliance with the Irish and adoption of their laws. It proceeds in several enactments to remedy these evils; condemning and making penal the use of Brehon law: intermarriage, fosterage, and gossippage with the Irish, were made treasonable offences. use of Irish language and dress, or the adoption of Irish names, or of Irish manners or customs, were subjected to the penalty of forfeiture or imprisonment. Disputes were ordered to be tried by the English law alone, and any admission of Irish jurisdiction was declared treasonable. To permit the Irish to graze on their lands, or to nominate them to ecclesiastical preferment, was subjected to severe penalties. It was also forbidden, under heavy penalties, to entertain the bards,

travelling minstrels, or story-tellers. Other enactments of more obvious policy, guarded against the oppressions which were practised under the sanction of the military levies, and wardens were appointed to control and regulate the exactions on the score of military preparation. It seems to have been inferred by some writers, that this statute was designed to apply to the whole of the country; but, not to consider the objection which is drawn by Leland from a consideration of the actual jurisdiction of the king of England—an argument of small weight —the intent, terms, and whole sense of the statute, contradict such a notion, which confounds the distinction which it is the essential purpose of the statute to maintain. A law to prevent certain affinities with the Irish, could not, by any rational interpretation, comprehend them. The truth of most immediate importance to the estimation of such measures is this, that the presence of an authoritative governor, whose personal weight and influence were sufficient to conciliate respect, was sure to be attended by order, and the cessation of the more aggravated crimes and disturbances which the return of a feeble and inefficient administration was always sure to restore. Thus was prosperity occasional, and degeneracy progressive; each successive governor found a more desperate and difficult state of things to encounter; and other fatal resources began to be systematically adopted. These we shall have to notice but too often and too long.

He

In the year 1372, Ormonde was made constable of the castle of Dublin, with a fee of eighteen pounds five shillings per annum. sat in the parliament summoned by Richard II. In 1381, he had a commission to treat with the rebels, and grant safe-conducts in order to reform them and promote peace. He died at Knoctopher, in the county of Kilkenny, in 1383, and was buried in the cathedral of St Canice, in the city of Kilkenny.

Maurice, Fourth Earl of Kildare.

DIED A. D. 1390.

NOT to re-enter upon the petty distractions in which this eminent warrior took a leading part-the wars with O'Dempsies and O'Mores, and other lesser Irish chiefs, whose insurrections he suppressed-it may be considered as a title to a niche among the illustrious of his age, that he attended king Edward III., at the siege of Calais, and was knighted for his valour in the high station of command to which he was appointed by the sagacity of that warlike monarch. In 1350, he was appointed to the government of Ireland, with the annual fee of £500. After this he was successively appointed again, in 1371 and 1375.

In the reign of Richard II., he was summoned to meet him in parliament, at Castle-Dermott, Dublin and Naas. We shall here avail ourselves of this memoir, to give a brief sketch of the Irish history of this ill-fated and weak monarch, whose character appears to less disadvantage in this country than in England.

At the accession of Richard, two principal evils marked the decline,