infants by Herod, nor the Christians by Nero, nor any of the other pagan tyrants, than were the Roman catholics of Ireland at this fatal juncture, by Cromwell's savage commissioners; and the same price (five pounds Sterling) was set by the commissioners on the head of a Romish priest, as on that of a wolf, the number of which was then very considerable in Ireland; and although the profession or character of a Romish priest could not, one would think, be so clearly ascertained as the species of wolf, by the mere inspection of their heads thus severed from their bodies; yet the bare asseveration of the beheaders, was, in both cases, equally credited and rewarded by those commissioners, so inveterate was their malice and hatred to that order of men." It may now be fairly asked the declaimers against the insatiable despotism of the catholic inquisition, do they not here see the account of blood between the dissenters from the catholic religion and the catholics, most strictly balanced? and do not the persecutors of conscience also see the insanity of that zeal, which will not suffer the hu man mind to follow the creed, and profess the doctrine which it considers the best, and which is not incompatible with the peace and tranquillity of society? The present day mourns the effects of the follies it laughs at; and the mild and healing senti ment of toleration is now closing the wounds which fanaticism has so long kept open.

In a compendium of Irish history, it would be a departure from the intention and the object of the writer, to set down every instance of individual suf

fering and oppression with which Irish history so constantly overflows; neither the understanding nor the heart derives much improvement from this accurate parade of human misfortune and human atrocity. Perhaps, as it was beautifully expressed by the eloquent and pathetic Curran, in one of the finest passages that ever issued from human genius, the real state of our country, and particularly in the melancholy hour of calamity we are now arriv ed at, is more forcibly impressed on the attention of the reader by a particular, than it ever could be by any general description. "When you endeavour,” says Curran, "to convey an idea of a great number of barbarians, practising a great variety of cruelties upon an incalculable number of sufferers, nothing defined or specific finds its way to the heart, nor is any sentiment extorted, save that of general, erratic, unappropriated commiseration." True;

the misfortunes of an individual find refuge in every bosom. The misfortunes of a nation are too widely diffused; the surface of human suffering is too extended; the sensibility of the spectator is lost in the immensity of the scene he has to contemplate, and he closes the recital of murders, and rapes, and robberies, with less sympathy than he would view the fracture of a limb, or the plunder of a cabin. In the wild and wanton devastation which the commissioners of Cromwell were making through every part of this devoted country, it is difficult to select one instance of barbarous injustice greater than another. Among those persons who were brought before the iniquitous tribunal created by Cromwell,

was Sir Phelim O'Neal, one of the most distinguished leaders in the rebellion of 1641. The great object of O'Neal's judges was to make him the instrument of their vengeance against the character of the monarch whom they had murdered; for which purpose they offered him his life and estates, on condition of his confessing that the instrument which he had forged as a commission from Charles to levy forces and money for the insurrection, was bona fide the genuine act of the king, and not an imposition practised by the ingenuity of Sir Phelim O'Neal on the credulity of the Irish people. Even the ashes of the murdered Charles, fanaticism would not suffer to rest in peace; but the heroism and truth of Sir Phelim O'Neal could not be terri, fied by the menaces of death; for at the place of execution, and after he had mounted the ladder, when an offer of his large estates and life were made him by Ludlow, on the condition of criminating the memory and character of the king, he calmly and firmly replied, "I thank the lieutenant for his mercy; but I declare, good people, before God and his angels, and all you that hear me, that I never had any commission from the king for what I have done in levying and prosecuting this war." Mr Leland represents this man, who acted thus when standing on the verge of eternity, as a monster of cruelty and disloyalty; on the other hand, Mr Carte, in his life of Ormond, writes, that Sir Phelim O'Neal had not the character of being an ill-natured man." In this charitable character," says our honest countryman Dr Curry, "I am apt to consider this unfortunate gentleman; but when I com

pare the behaviour of Sir Phelim O'Neal, in his last moments, with that of his judges, I am at a loss to determine which should be deemed greater, the heroism of the former, or the villany of the latter. The murderers of the unfortunate Charles wanted some justification of their conduct, which now began to tell against them. It was not the crimes of Sir Phelim O'Neal which brought him to trial; it was the hope that he would sacrifice his sovereign to the preservation of his life and property, and thus vindicate the act which had so much astonished and disgusted the world."

The sword and the law had now nearly performed their office. The spirit of the country was broken down. Its heart sunk within its bosom, and the eye of pity had one unchecquered scene of dreary desolation to wander over. The child was torn from the parent, the wife from the husband; all were scattered by the rapacious spirit of fanati, cism; and the ancient rank and venerated blood of Ireland were now to be found in the performance of the most humiliating occupations-the slaves of English and Scotch adventurers. Well might the English Parliament, in 1655, declare that now the rebels in Ireland were subdued and the rebellion ended ; that now they might securely proceed to a distribution of the Irish lands. It was therefore determined, that the whole kingdom should be surveyed, and the number of acres taken, with the quality of them; and then that all the soldiers should bring in their demands of arrears, and to give every man, by lot, as many acres as should

answer the value of his demand. The proposal was agreed to; and all Ireland being surveyed, the best land was only rated at four shillings, and some only at a penny. The soldiers drew lots in what part of the kingdom their portions should be assigned them. The lands so divided amounted to 605,670 acres. Lord Clarendon says that Cromwell reserved for the aggrandizement of his own family the entire of the rich and fertile province of Munster. The administration of Henry Cromwell gave some respite to the sufferings of Ireland; he often hesitated to put into execution the sanguinary mandates of his father's government; and the Irish, under his protection, frequently found shelter from the pursuits of fanaticism and rapacity. We shall close our history of Ireland during the commonwealth, with the relation of an event, as given us by Dr Curry. The reader may, in this picture, estimate the blessings enjoyed by the Irish people, during the sanguinary existence of Cromwell and his republican associates. It is a powerful illustration of the absurdity of religious persecution, and exhibits the cowardice of the persecutor in the wretched meanness of his revenge.

"In these days," says Dr Curry, "the name of an Irishman and rebel was thought to signify the same thing; for whenever the Cromwellians met any of the poor country people abroad, or discovered them lurking from their fury in dens and caverns, they killed them on the spot, if some unusųal or whimsical circumstance did not happen to save them. Thus Ludlow tells us, that being on his