may deserve, not only pardon, but favour and cherishing."

The spirit of the country party could not be restrained by such language, even coming from the throne: and they continued the same uninterrupted opposition to every measure which trespassed on their religious or political liberty. The court and country party being nearly equal in numbers, began to see the injuries which must flow from the perpetual fire of mutual recrimination. The court ceased to practise on the feelings of the people by measures of violence, and the friends of the people gave up the rigid spirit of resistance to every recommendation of the crown. All parties now drew together in parliament, and agreed to recognise, by an express law, the king's title to the crown. They passed an act, in 1614, for the attainder of the Earls of Tyrone, Tyrconnell, and Sir Cahir O' Dogherty. The old and sanguinary statutes against the native Irish, by which those within the pale were permitted to treat their devoted countrymen as spies, were repealed; and all distinctions, between the native Irish and the colonists, completely done away. For these great and comprehensive blessings, the king's treasury was speedily enriched by the gratitude of his Irish subjects. James acknowledged the liberal contributions of Ireland to the public expenditure, and pledged himself to watch over her interests with indefatigable zeal.

The next subject of 'importance which occupied the Irish government, was the framing a public

confession, of faith for the established church of Ireland. Dr James Usher, so distinguished for his learning and talents, was selected to perform this difficult undertaking. He drew up a profession, which consisted of no less than one hundred and four articles, some of which the British sovereign was known to have dissented from; but the rigid Calvinism of Usher would compromise with no authority. The success attendant upon the great northern plantation had now encouraged James to make a similar experiment in the southern countries. He determined, therefore, to send forth his agents of discovery, who would easily establish the royal claim to all the lands, which its avarice or its despotism might think proper to possess. The political inquisition soon discovered, that all that fine tract of country between the river of Arklow and that of Slaney, was the property of the Crown; that the counties of Leitrim, Longford, and Westmeath, were either at a very early period vested in the British Crown, or forfeited by the rebellion of its inhabitants.

King James thus had to distribute among his English followers no less than four hundred thousand acres. It is not wonderful that the Irish, who were banished from their houses and their lands, whose families and whose property were thus sacrificed to the enlightened legislation of King James, should be hereafter found revenging themselves on the successors of those Englishmen who had raised fortunes on their ruins. It is not difficult to present to the imagination of the reader of sensibility,

the wide and dismal distress which the expulsion of the thousand families that covered such an extent of country, must have created. It is not diffi cult to conceive the heart-burnings it must have caused, and the unappeasable vengeance with which it must have filled the human bosom; yet there are some men who, will express surprise at the barba rous scenes of retaliation which we shall have to record. The man who reflects will see that they are the necessary effects of despotism, and the natural vent through which the abused and suffering heart ever looks for relief.

Sir Arthur Chichester was recalled to England before his last work of regeneration was complete. He was succeeded in his administration by Sir Oli, ver St John, whose conduct in parliament promis ed but little indulgence to the religion or conscience of Ireland. He banished the priests by proclamation; an act of mercy, in the opinion of Mr Leland, to the poorer catholics, who were so intolerably oppressed by the clergy, an idle and factious tribe. It is strange with what fidelity the poorer catholics clung to such oppressors; but Sir Oliver St John, whom the same historian panegyrizes for his vigour and his decision, does not stop here. He compells all magistrates to take the oath of supremacy. The severity of such government

in

*

* All the counsellors at law that were in Ireland, who would not take the oath of supremacy, were put from pleading of causes any of the four courts, or elsewhere, to speak for clients; likewise such as were pensioners, that would not take the same oath, were discharged of their pensions.

called forth the remonstrances of the catholic continental powers, who were always alive to the sufferings of the Irish catholics, and whose power so often interposed to blunt the sword of persecution. Such interference had the effect of removing the English deputy, and thus rescuing the Irish from the fanatical violence of a sanguinary sectarian. The Irish people had flattered themselves, that the consequence of removing Sir Oliver St John, would have been an indulgence to their religious feelings, and that an adherence to the practice of their church, would be no longer considered incompatible with the sincerest loyalty. They therefore openly attended the duties which their religion prescribed. The reformed clergy took the alarm, and the war of intolerance commenced with increased acrimony. Doctor Usher, who was considered the head of the reformers, first drew the polemical sword; and in a sermon, the text of which was, "he beareth not the sword in vain," he inculcated on the existing government, the necessity of strong and vigorous measures to suppress the rising confidence of the catholics.

Mr Leland, who loses no opportunity of abusing the motives and principles of his countrymen, brands the fidelity of the Irish to the religion of their ancestors, with the humiliating stigma of ignorance, obstinacy, barbarism; an unworthy and cruel commentary on the most unexampled allegiance to those principles, which they were taught to believe were the best calculated to ensure them eternal salvation. The criminations and recrimi

nations of all religious sectarians, equally excite the scorn and contempt of the philosopher. The li beral and enlightened mind will have equal reverence for the opinions and principles of one sect as of another, and will endeavour to demonstrate that the true Christian, whether protestant, presbyterian, or catholic, will be best fulfilling its duties, when he inculcates the toleration of all, undisturbed by the insulting imputations of folly, of ignorance, or of superstition. No sect of Christianity teaches immorality; no sect of Christianity professes doctrines which would not make its follower a valuable member of society; therefore, let each indulge the other, and the human mind, unrestrained by the bigot, will soon resume its strength, and throw off the oppressive incumbrance of accumulated prejudices. The scene of calamity which Ireland exhibited in 1622, and which was principally caused by the merciless prosecution of the discoveries of defective titles, is acknowledged by Mr Leland, who has so often been the panegyrizer of the plantation system of James, as the infallible mode of civilizing the barbarous inhabitants of Ireland. Never has any nation so dearly purchased the blessings of civilization.

In the manuscripts of Bishop Sterne, we find, that in the small county of Longford, twenty-five of one sept were all deprived of their estates, without the least compensation, or any means of subsistence assigned them. Let the reader, (when he comes to those periods of our history in which the collected vengeance many years of suffering,

of