terms of which, the Spaniard delivered up the towns and forts of which the Irish had put him into possession. In this, Don Juan manifested a high sense of chivalric spirit; when the fort of Berehaven was to be summoned, O'Sullivan, who had given it up to the Spaniards, disarmed the garrison, and prepared to defend the place. Don Juan offered his aid to Carew for its recovery; this was, however, refused. Carew proceeded to bring up his forces by sea and besieged the fort. Having stormed the upper part, there was still an obstinate struggle maintained in the lower chambers, and the captain of the garrison being mortally wounded, attempted to blow up the fort. This desperate act was prevented, the fort was surrendered, and demolished by the English.

Peace was far from being attained. The promise of Spanish invasion was still continued, and the expectation kept alive and propagated through the priests and other papal emissaries. A wide-spreading and deadly strife was maintained by the parties on either side. The vindictive temper of private animosity became awakened and diffused; the thunder of excommunication added its share of theological rancour; and mutual aggravation laid up a treasured hate for the next generation. They who fell into rebel hands were butchered as enemies to the Pope; the rebel was hanged. Nor was there a pause in this reciprocity of bloodshed, till, in the course of the protracted struggle, the leaders of the rebellion had been slain or reduced to submission, and a cessation of all but silent hate followed for a season.

We here pass the intervening details of the contemporaneous contest of the Deputy with the two great northern chiefs-Tyrone and O'Donnel-who saw their necessity of submission from an increasing inability to resist, and the growing weakness of their party. It may be enough to say, that their submission was received.

CHAPTER II.

James I.-Charles I.-Cromwell-Charles II.-Accession of James II.

The death of Elizabeth in 1603 opened an order of events, in some important respects new. The period was one of present tranquillity. The contest of sovereignty was settled; while the land yet lay under the desolation of the deadly tempests of war which had swept over it in continued succession. for so lengthened a period. But it was still a nation without a government, or in any proper sense a constitution; a people without law or trade, or any but the rudest elements of social existence, dragged on in despite of fierce resistance in the wake of the dominant nation, on which it was thereafter to depend for progress.

The spirit of rebellion was, for the time, subdued; but the forbearance from military repression, and power of martial terror, caused the development of an arrogant temper of resistance and contumacious pretension. Though rebellion did not venture to appear in arms, it was not less free of tongue, or persistent in all safe opposition. The citizens of Waterford boldly refused to open their gates to Mountjoy :

and Doctor White, accompanied by a Dominican friar, visited his lordship's tent, to prove from Augustine, that a king opposed to the Romish faith could not be obeyed. Mountjoy listened with courtesy, and having the book in his tent, showed that it was falsely quoted by the Doctor. He then apprised the refractory citizens, who (more sensibly) pleaded a charter of King John, that he held the sword of King James, with which he would "cut the charter of King John to pieces; that he would level their city with the ground, and strew it with salt." This threat saved the historic immunity of the maiden city, clearly proving the advantage of valour tempered by discretion. The gates were thrown open, allegiance to King James sworn, and a strong garrison stationed. Other chief cities followed the instructive example; Cashel, Clonmel, Limerick, and Cork, all complied, and received garrisons in turn. An act of oblivion and indemnity was published by proclamation, under the great seal, to quiet the fear of the many who must have felt themselves yet within the suspicion of the government. This humane and wise precaution was the winding up of Mountjoy's administration in Ireland.

Many salutary laws were passed, and useful arrangements adopted, on which we will not now enter-as the beneficial results were soon to be reversed, and counteracted in no distant time by succeeding eventsafter which the same sanative policy may be more fully traced in these pages.

The important event of the ensuing reign, was the plantation of Ulster, which may be considered as the second great step in the real advance of Ireland, from the Anglo-Norman settlement under Henry. At the period to which our summary has arrived, the real condition of the people was virtually not more advanced than in the days of MacMurrogh. The nominal possessor of large districts, whether of Celtic or Norman race, possessed the same barbarous notions of feudal power and territoral occupation which were held in the 10th or 11th century, The laws of person and property, the administration of justice and the customs of the people, were on the same ancient level, out of which neither theory nor historic precedent offers any probable course of regular advance. The first Anglo-Norman settlement, reduced to its genuine results, was not so much an advance as a step upon that level, from which, in the course of ages, the path was to be gained; one barbarian race was linked to another; but that other, somewhat less stationary, was destined in time to draw it slowly forward. The retarding forces we have fully noticed; how long they were to operate is undecided still. In the earlier years of the 17th century the land was comparatively worthless to occupant or lord. If we except the counties of the Pale, there was little cultivation; beyond this limit there lay a waste of forest and morass, affording scanty pasture for meagre flocks. At the accession of James, the population was less than one-thirteenth of the mean returns of our time. The measure of a Plantation had presented itself to the common sense of the former generation, and had been undertaken and partially executed in several instances under Queen Elizabeth; but an important condition was wanting. New blood, new life, customs, and habits, were what was wanting, and were to be now supplied by the Scottish experience and the larger economy of King

James; a monarch less remembered for considerable intellectual endowments, than for the moral and personal incapacities by which they were largely neutralized. We would be far from rejecting the strictures of those who have sketched his manners and character somewhat grotesquely; but it is our impression that, although the features are not untruly drawn, the likeness has been imperfectly caught. Scott, in one of those unrivalled master pieces which must for ever leave longo intervallo behind all competition in moral portraiture, or in reanimating the life of other days, has painted the pedant king with his usual force and freedom of hand. But the outward expression does not always reveal the spirit within. The most observable features of character in ordinary deportment, or in personal conduct, are not intellectual so much as moral; he who in cell or cabinet may be profound and subtle to combine and generalize or discern, may go forth a fool and a simpleton, impulsive, rash, and blundering into the walk of everyday life. For though reason, experience, and normal rules govern the study, men act from habit, motive, feeling, and routine. The greatest mathematician of our time was found to show a remarkable incapacity for official business. The case is somewhat different; but King James was very much what Sully has described, "the wisest fool in Christendom;" or in the more elaborate description of Scott, "deeply learned without possessing useful knowledge; sagacious in many cases without having real wisdom; fond of his power, and desirous to retain and augment it, yet willing to resign the direction of that power and of himself to the most unworthy favourites; a big and bold asserter of his rights in words, yet one who tamely saw them trampled on in deeds; a lover of negotiations, in which he was always outwitted; and a fearer of war when conquest might have been easy. He was fond of his dignity, while he was perpetually degrading it by low familiarities; capable of much public labour, yet often neglecting it for the lowest amusements; a wit, though a pedant; and a scholar, though fond of the conversation of the ignorant and uneducated. Even his timidity of temper was not uniform, and there were moments of his life when he showed the spirit of his ancestors. He was laborious in trifles, and a trifler when serious labour was required.” We have been tempted beyond our purpose to

continue this somewhat over-laboured and antithetic character of a monarch to whom Ireland is indebted for the first step of her national regeneration.

Many circumstances prepared the way for this great act of paternal policy. The forfeitures already mentioned, which gave him the disposal of half a million of acres without leaving cause for just complaint; the popular expectation felt from a monarch in whom the ancient line of Milesius was thought to be restored; he was also the son of a mother who was regarded as a martyr for the Church of Rome. His first step was the essential preliminary to the construction of a social state, having its foundation in the security of rights. The Irish customs of tanistry and gavelkind were cancelled by judgment in the King's Bench, and these rude laws abolished. The law courts were organized, and the circuits established in Munster, Connaught, and Ulster. The distribution of property was preceded by the provision for its security. Existing rights were to be settled and ascertained, and com

missions were accordingly issued to ascertain and secure the rightful possessor. They who held their estate by tanistry were invited to surrender and receive possession by letters patent, and thus acquire permanent possession for themselves and their natural heirs. And the consequence was a general surrender on these advantageous terms. A similar arrangement was entered into for the cities, respecting their corporate possessions.

The larger forfeitures had place in Ulster, where the lands, long neglected, were at this time reduced to desolation; the sword had cooperated with famine to depopulate a wide extent of territory.

The king laid down a well-devised plan, of which the execution was mainly intrusted to Sir Arthur Chichester. The lands were divided into portions of 2,000, 1,500, and 1,000 acres, to be allotted with suitable conditions to their respective classes of grantees according to their rank. They were bound to build, cultivate, and sublet, upon certain fixed terms. The first class were to build a castle and a strong courtyard enclosing it, within four years, and to keep 600 acres in demesne; to settle four fee farmers, having each 120 acres. They were obliged to have 48 able-bodied men of English or Scottish descent on the estates. The others were bound by similar conditions according to their respective grants. The several tenures were also fixed: The first class to hold of the king in capite; the second by knight service, and the third in common soccage. They were all bound to five years' residence, or to have agents appointed by government. It was also enacted, that none of these grantees should alienate his lands without a royal license, set at uncertain rents, or for terms less than three lives or 21 years.

The merit of this effective scheme is mainly due to Sir Arthur Chichester, grandson by his mother to Sir William Courtenay of Powderham Castle in Devonshire, thus deriving his lineage from Charlemagne. He became early somewhat notorious for a youthful frolic, more in keeping with the manners of his time than reconcilable to modern notions; the Queen's purveyors, the instruments of despotic exaction, were objects of popular hatred, and, like the bailiffs of sixty years ago in our western counties, regarded as fair game for mischief by country gentlemen; it was thought by the young student to be no bad joke to follow the example of Prince Hal, and ease the licensed spoiler of his plunder. The exploit was discovered, and, as the joke was considered as no laughing matter by Elizabeth, who was to suffer the loss; Chichester was for a time compelled to seek refuge in France. There he was taken into favour with Henry IV., by whom he was knighted. His reputation reached the ear of Queen Elizabeth, who with her known inclination to promote rising talent, was thus induced to recall him and pardon the youthful indiscretion.

After some years of military service, he was sent into Ireland, where he soon distinguished himself in the war against the Earl of Tyrone; and was among the most able officers under Mountjoy. He was soon appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland; he signalized his government by renewing the circuits, and establishing justice and order throughout the country.

Many projects for the plantation of Ulster had, at King James' desire, been submitted for his inspection; that of Chichester was

II.

B

Ir.

chosen, and the details were carried through by his active zeal and ability.

There is a remarkable passage in a letter to Chichester from the king, which is worth extracting for its description of the country and the time. "Hiberniæ, post Britanniam omnium insularum occidentalium, maximæ et amplissimæ et pulcherrimæ, cœli et soli felicitate et fecunditate afluentis et insignis, sed nihilominus per multa jam secula perpetuis seditionum et rebellionum fluctibus jactata; necnon superstitioni et barbaris moribus, presertim in provincia Ultonum, adicta et immersæ."

Chichester continued in the government for ten years till 1613, and took a principal part in the troubles which we shall presently have to notice.

The native Irish who received lands under this settlement, were exempted from most of the conditions imposed on the English; while these were compelled to people their lands with a British tenantry, the Irish grantee was allowed to let to natives; an arrangement in some measure detrimental, but not in fairness to be avoided. The Irish were also exempted from building castles, or fortified places, or from arming their tenantry; an exemption of which the policy is obvious. They were, however, restrained from the barbarous customs till then incidental to Irish proprietors and their tenants. They were obliged to set their lands for certain rents, and for certain terms of years; all denominations of Irish dependency and exaction were prohibited. English methods of cultivation were imposed, and the custom of wandering with their cattle from place to place for pasture forbidden. They were also enjoined to dwell together in villages like the English tenantry. Under these conditions, the lands disposable in Ulster were distributed among one hundred and four English and Scotch, and two hundred and eighty-six native. undertakers, who all covenanted and agreed by their bonds to perform all these conditions.

It had been experienced in the former plantation under Elizabeth, that great evils, amounting, in fact, to the failure of all the objects of the measure, had resulted from the intermixture of the English and natives. The Irish, who were naturally reluctant to give up their own ways of cultivation and management of property, did not thrive in the same rapid course as their British neighbours, and became discontented, disorderly, and insubordinate to the settled jurisdiction. The British, on their part, rather looking to their immediate personal advantage or disadvantage, than upon the ultimate policy of the Settlement, soon found attractions, as well as irregular advantages, in falling into the less constrained and less orderly habits of their neighbours. If honest industry becomes insecure, and is defrauded of its direct and immediate objects, the commencement of demoralization is not long retarded in any stage of social advance. It was at this time determined to prevent the recurrence of these disadvantages by separating the two races. We are far from approving of the abstract policy of such an expedient; but considering all circumstances, it was necessary to immediate success, though less reconcilable to longer views: but all measures of governments must needs be adapted to the time that is present. The attempt to legislate for the future is the most dangerous of all kinds of quackery,