where every effort would be systematically made to uproot it. No Catholic school or college was permitted in Ireland, while the Foreign Education Acts forbade, under heavy penalties, the sending of children to colleges abroad.

Undutifulness in children and heartlessness in wives were encouraged by the law. Any child who expressed a desire to join the Established Church was to be at once removed from the custody of the Catholic parent, who would be forced to make for him or her an allowance in proportion to his means. An eldest son conforming could, after he had attained his majority, make his father a mere tenant for life of any estate he possessed, unable to sell, mortgage or otherwise decrease its value. Such a son, when his father died, succeeded to all his lands, subject only to small allowances to be made to his mother, brothers and sisters. A wife who conformed likewise received an adequate part of her husband's income or property, and could abandon his house and live where she pleased.

Most cruel of all perhaps was the law which handed over Catholic orphans to the care of a Protestant guardian, who should bring them up in his own creed. The sufferings of the dying parent must have been immensely increased by the knowledge that the children he was leaving behind would be taught to despise and detest the faith to which he himself had clung throughout his life at so great a cost.

Laws against the Protestant Dissenters.-Religious intolerance in eighteenth-century Ireland did not find its victims amongst the Catholics alone. By the members of the Established Church the Protestant Dissenters were as little liked as the Papists themselves. Like the Catholics, they were excluded from Parliament and from public offices. Till 1719 their public worship was illegal, but in that year the Relief Act was passed, which authorised them to hold religious meetings.

The Presbyterian Church, to which the majority of the Irish Dissenters belonged, was so far acknowledged by the Government that a small grant (called the Regium Donum) was made to its clergy. Of all the Non-conforming sects the Quakers suffered most, their peculiar tenets bringing them constantly into conflict with the law. The fines inflicted on them during the period 1702-1760 are said to have amounted to £79,181.

Excuses made for the Penal Laws.-The Penal Laws have found few actual defenders, but many who, by explanations and excuses, modify their condemnation. The most usual defence is that the persecuting enactments were due to fear of a French invasion, and the conviction that the Catholics would, if suffered to retain power and influence, help the invaders; so that only by their virtual enslavement

But while this must be

could the English interest in Ireland be secured. admitted as true in a great measure at first, it neither explains nor excuses the continuance and even aggravation of the oppression of the Catholics long after all such fear had ceased. So, too, the influence of the persecution of the French Protestants, the anger aroused by which is often mentioned as an inciting cause of the persecuting Acts passed in Ireland, cannot be denied. Many of the Penal Laws are evidently copied from Louis XIV's decrees against the Huguenots. But the Penal Laws remained unrepealed when the persecution of the Huguenots had become a thing of the past. That they so continued can be ascribed only to the desire of the Ascendancy to maintain its position of exclusive superiority, and to that love of tyranny which always, when one race, creed or political party is suffered to dominate over another, comes into special prominence.

The number of Catholics who, during the period of Penal Laws, abandoned their religion was relatively small, and those who did so were usually landowners or members of the professional classes. The conversion of the town or country poor was little desired by members of the Established Church. Protestant traders and Protestant tenants were more independent, less subservient, less willing to submit to hard conditions than were the spirit-broken Catholics.

Bad Effects of the Penal Laws.-The evil effects of the Penal Laws on the character of both Protestants and Catholics, and on the country itself, can scarcely be exaggerated. The Protestants developed the vices of slave-owners, becoming idle, dissipated, and neglectful of their duties. The Catholics grew, as a serf population always does grow, cringing, shifty, and untruthful. They were lazy because they had nothing to work for; lawless because they knew the law only as an enemy, to be defied or evaded when possible. Not such had been the Irish of the old times, praising truth as the highest of virtues; obeying strictly a law supported by no force save that of public opinion. Nor were such qualities observed in the soldiers and statesmen whom Ireland at this very time was giving to the nations of Europe and of America.

That bad effects must have followed from these pernicious enactments, as regards efficiency in professional and artistic work, in industry and in agriculture is evident. The Catholic's abilities were lost to the country, since he had no means of exercising them. The tenant whose improvements the landlord might confiscate at the end of his short lease, if indeed he had a lease at all, naturally did not improve. If a tenant at will, he did not dare even to show any sign of prosperity in his dress or in the equipment of his house or farm. The purchase of a new coat or a new plough might result in a raising of his rent next gale day.

CHAPTER III

THE IRISH ABROAD

WHILE in their own land the mass of the Irish people was thus oppressed and degraded, others of their race and creed were performing elsewhere deeds which kept the name of Ireland in honour before the eyes of the world.

At the very time when "scattered over all Europe were to be found brave Irish generals, dexterous Irish diplomatists, Irish counts, Irish barons, Irish Knights of St. Lewis and of Saint Leopold, of the White Eagle and of the Golden Fleece," the Irish at home were hewers of wood and drawers of water," of as little consequence as women or children.

The Mountcashel Brigade, which had passed into the service of France in 1690 (see Chap. XV, Book/V), had given a good account of itself on many fields of battle before "the Wild Geese," as those who left Ireland after the surrender of Limerick were called, joined it. When the Articles were violated, many who originally designed to remain in Ireland crossed, too, to France, and the number of the Irish army amounted, it is estimated, to at least 24,000 men.

The Irish Brigade in the Service of France: Their Record in the War of the Spanish Succession.-In 1702, after the death of William III and the succession of Anne, second daughter of James II (Mary had died in 1694), the War of the Spanish Succession, chiefly between France on the one side, and England and the Empire on the other, broke out. The Duke of Marlborough gained victory after victory, his four great triumphs being at Blenheim (1704), Ramilles (1706), Oudenarde (1708), and Malplaquet (1709). At each of these battles Irish Protestant troops fought on his side, and Irish Catholic troops fought against him. At Blenheim, where the French sustained a crushing defeat, it was noted by King Louis with special commendation that the Irish regiments never broke their ranks and lost neither colours nor prisoners to the enemy. At Ramilles, Lord Clare's regiment captured the colours of Churchill's. They hung them in the Church of "the Irish Dames of Ypres," a convent of Benedictine nuns endowed by Mary of Modena,

James II's wife, and ruled by Irish Abbesses till far into the nineteenth century. At Malplaquet, the two "Royal Irish Regiments," French and British, engaged one another, the result being in favour of the latter.

Against the Imperialists, too, the Irish distinguished themselves. Major O'Mahony covered himself with glory by his wonderful defence of Cremona in 1702, against the forces of Prince Eugene of Savoy. He and some of his officers were personally congratulated by the French King.

The war concluded in 1714, and a long period of peace followed. One by one the Irish exiles passed away, but their sons took their places and inherited their traditions. The ranks, too, were constantly filled by newcomers from Ireland; although there "foreign recruiting" was an offence punishable with death.

The Irish Brigade in the War of the Austrian Succession.-In 1740 the War of the Austrian Succession began, and again France and England found themselves enlisted on opposite sides. The greatest military achievement of the Irish regiments during this conflict was their splendid charge at the Battle of Fontenoy (1745), which is admitted to have decided the victory in favour of France. Louis XV himself went to the Irish camp after the battle and thanked each corps separately.

After Fontenoy the laws against foreign recruiting in Ireland were very strictly carried out. It became more and more difficult to fill up the ranks of the Irish regiments; finally foreigners of various sorts, Flemings, Walloons, Scotch and others, began to be admitted, though most of the officers continued to be Irish.

Count Thomas Arthur Lally.-In 1757, Count Thomas Arthur Lally, the chief hero of Fontenoy, was sent to take command of the French forces in India, and to reform the abuses of the French East India Company. He was the son of Sir Gerard Lally of Tulać na Dála, near Tuam, one of those who departed to France in 1691. Lally the younger at first gained much success in India. But he was badly served, and indeed betrayed by those interested in continuing the corrupt methods of administration which he was endeavouring to suppress. He was defeated by Sir Eyre Coote (a Limerick man) at the Battle of Wandewash (1760), and was obliged, after a gallant resistance, to surrender Pondicherry (1761). On his return to France he was falsely accused by his enemies of maladministration and dishonesty, and, after suffering an imprisonment of four years in the Bastille, was executed in 1766. Twelve years later, Louis XVI reversed his sentence on the appeal of his son.

The Irish in the French Revolution and Afterwards.-When the French Revolution broke out, in the last decade of the eighteenth century,

the greater number of the Irish officers adhered to the Royalist side. Many went into exile with the emigrant nobles of France. Some remained, and were guillotined. A few elected to serve the new Republican Government. One, Theobald Dillon, rose to the rank of general, and was murdered by his own mutinous soldiers at Tournay; another, Brigadier-General O'Meara, successfully defended Dunkirk against the Duke of York (1793). Under the first Empire an Irishman, Henry Clarke Duc de Feltre, was Napoleon's War Minister (1807-1814). The Brigade Dissolved.-After the Restoration Louis XVIII was obliged to dissolve the Irish Brigade, lest he should offend his allies the English. He held a review of the three last remaining regiments, and solemnly presented them with a "farewell banner" of white silk, on which was embroidered an Irish harp surrounded with the emblems of Ireland and of France, shamrocks and fleur-de-lis, with the motto Semper et Ubique Fidelis " (always and everywhere faithful), and the dates 1692-1792. It is said that, during these hundred years, 500,000 Irishmen had fallen in the service of France.

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The Irish Soldiers in Spain, Italy and Austria.-France was not, however, the only country for which the Irish exiles shed their blood. Until the nineteenth century an Irish Brigade was maintained in Spain. Sir Patrick Lawless was Colonel of Philip V's regiment of Guards, and was sent as an Ambassador to England in 1714. A Waterford man, Richard Wall, was Prime Minister of Spain under Ferdinand VI and Charles III (1754-1764). There was an Irish regiment also in Naples, and the Austrian army was crowded with Irishmen, several of whom rose to the highest ranks.

Peter Lacy and His Son.-In Russia, Peter Lacy of Killeedy Castle, Limerick, entered the service of Peter the Great, rose to the rank of Brigadier-General, and is said to have so improved the Russian troops by the new system of drill which he introduced from France, that " from the worst, they became some of the best soldiers in Europe." He died in 1751 as Governor of Livonia. One of his sons became a Field-Marshal in the Austrian service.

The Irish in America.-Across the Atlantic, too, both in North and in South America, the Irish won laurels, and made for themselves names ever to be remembered in the lands of their adoption. When, in 1775, the American Colonies of England broke out into revolt against her, Irishmen were amongst the most prominent movers in the rebellion. On July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed by the Colonial delegates. It was in the handwriting of Charles Thompson of Londonderry; it was first read to the American people by John Nixon, son of a Waterford man; first printed and published by John Dunlop