and the far more serious offences which were daily connived at or compromised the arrest by a most fraudulent manoeuvre-the clandestine and illegal trial and execution, and the division of the spoil-it would be setting at naught the ordinary laws of equitable construction to deny that an aggravated outrage was thus committed against right. The whole of this iniquitous proceeding was at once and universally understood. It struck at the root of all confidence-the wide-spread and deeply-seated elements of disaffection and hate were aggravated and apparently justified by a well-grounded distrust; and there were at the time active agents at work, by whom nothing was let fall inoperative that could awaken and concentrate hostility to the English. On the report of this execution, the chiefs of Ulster were not slow to express their sense by their language and actions. They showed the utmost unwillingness to admit any English sheriffs, or admit of any channel for the entrance of laws which they saw could thus easily be made the weapon of rapine and murder.

These transactions, whatever may have been their influence in determining the after-course of Tyrone, had the immediate effect of rendering his conduct cautious and watchful in an increased degree. He had a fray with his neighbour, Tirlogh Lynnogh, in which Tirlogh was wounded: Tyrone anticipated his complaint by a representation that the occurrence was caused by his neighbour's attempt to take a prey in his lands, from which he repelled him by force. He also, immediately after, permitted the county of Tyrone to be made shire ground. In July, 1591, the bounds of this county were defined by commissioners appointed for the purpose; who divided it into eight baronies, and made Dungannon the shire town.

One act of Tyrone, of which we only know the fact from its consequences, was perhaps more decisive of his fate than any other cause.

It was that in the same year a complaint was preferred against him by Sir Henry Bagnal, for having carried off his sister and married her, his former wife being still alive. Tyrone defended himself by alleging that the lady was taken away and married by her own consent, and that his former wife had been previously divorced.

Amidst all these occasions of offence and fear, it is not improbable that a great change may have grown over the temper of the earl; yet his overt conduct, at least, still manifested a disposition to adhere to the English government. In the English council also there was a disposition to trust him: the main occasions of his irregular proceedings were understood, or met with a favourable construction; his reputation for sagacity also stood in his favour, for as his best interest lay in the shelter of the English government, he was allowed the credit of understanding this fact; while every charge which had hitherto been advanced against him met with a fair excuse, many services of an unquestionable nature ascertained his fidelity, or disarmed accusation of its pretext. Such, indeed, both in historical or political construction of the characters of public men, is the case which constantly recurs, and renders judgment difficult and fairness itself a risk. In their overt acts, fair appearances, honest motives, and universal principles, are kept on the surface, however base, dangerous, or dishonest, may be the motives and designs of the actors. There can be no

course of public conduct maintained in the public eye, that is not capable of being defended upon the ground of principle; while the more refined and less popular reasoning by which the secret can be traced, depends on facts and assumptions which, though plain to all thinking persons, are not so capable of being substantiated to the coarse perception and prejudiced sense of the public mind-so generally just in its practical maxims, and so inapt beyond them.

Judging by his public acts, by his fair professions, or by a due allowance for the just sense of his own interests, it is to be inferred that the earl of Tyrone was still at this period of our narrative sincere in his professions of loyalty. But it is impossible to make these allowances, without also insisting upon some allowance of an opposite value, for other facts of which he must have been fully cognizant, and in nɔ small degree influenced by. We are made aware, by several statements of a very authoritative nature, that he maintained an intimate understanding with the Irish, who were at the same time entering into a most formidable conspiracy against the English pale.

While the state of English affairs seemed to be approaching to a steady and settled aspect of prosperity, a strong and dangerous underworking had set in, which menaced the very existence of the pale. O'Donell, whose capture and well-grounded hate to the English government we have related, had escaped from his cruel, impolitic captivity, and, after many romantic adventures, found refuge and friendship with Tyrone; and from this moment the latter was in fact a consenting party to all the machinations of the insurgents. This consent may be affirmed to have been insincere, but cannot be reasonably denied. If the defence be considered worth any thing, there is indeed ample ground for questioning his sincerity to either party; and it will, after all, be the best that can be said, that his deportment to either was the stern dictate of circumstance. It was the result of his position, that the contingencies belonging to whatever course he might take wore a formidable aspect; and his best excuse must be found in the conduct of the English government. The difficulties which pressed him on either side should have been allowed for; and while his conduct received the most indulgent construction, he should have been firmly upheld in the course which was imposed on him by his obligations to the queen's government.

Instead of support and allowance, on the fair principle of recognizing the difficulties of his position, these difficulties were soon indefinitely increased by a jealous scrutiny, which began to give the worst construction to every act, and the readiest reception to every whisper which breathed against him. It was unquestionably the duty of a vigilant administration to keep the most jealous eye on the conduct of one whose situation was exposed to so many varied impulses. But judicious watchfulness is not more vigilant to detect an indication, than cautious to avoid misconstruction; and it was, or ought to have been known, how much enmity and how much grasping cupidity were on the alert to hunt down so rich a victim as Tyrone.

While, then, to sum the fact in a few words, Tyrone truly or insincerely asserted his loyalty to the queen, with the same respective degree of insincerity or truth, he asserted his adherence to the party of

O'Donell, to whom he pleaded the necessity of preserving appearances towards the English; and under the operation of this most fatal position, the moment was fast approaching when he must of necessity have taken his choice, and when the indulgence of the English-for this too has its limits-would have been fatuity, not fairness. Such, then, is the ground which we desire to take, on a question upon which, we think, some able writers have taken a narrow and a partial view.

As yet, however, it is manifest the public conduct of Tyrone entitled him to be considered as a loyal British subject. In 1592, among other statements, he wrote to the English council that he had brought over O'Donell to the queen's allegiance, and "that he would persuade him to loyalty, and, in case he were obstinate, that he would serve against him as an enemy." ""* Another circumstance-one of the many which accumulated into the serious rebellion which followed-gave Tyrone an occasion to maintain his character of questionable loyalty. In the year 1593, M'Guire, chief of Fermanagh, began to take an active part in the gathering troubles of the north. He was, in common with all the surrounding chiefs of Ulster, alarmed and irritated by the execution of MacMahon; and the feeling was chiefly indicated by a reluctance to admit of an English sheriff within these territories. It is mentioned by Davis, that, when Fitz-William first intimated to M'Guire his intention to send an English sheriff into Fermanagh, the chief replied, "Your sheriff shall be welcome; but let me know his eric, that if my people cut off his head, I may levy it on the county.” The sheriff was sent, with two hundred men to support him. And not long after, he was, with his party, assailed by M'Guire, and driven to take refuge in a church, where they would have been exterminated by fire, but for the timely interposition of the earl of Tyrone. The lord-deputy, on this, sent a party of soldiers into Fermanagh, who seized M'Guire's castle of Eniskillen; the chief was proclaimed a traitor; and the lord-deputy let fall some threats against the earl of Tyrone, which soon found their way to his ear. These expressions, whatever was their import, were afterwards referred to by the earl as a justification of his subsequent conduct. From the time he was apprized of the deputy's language, he said that he began to consider his safety doubtful, and to make up his mind to join with O'Donell.

Still he thought it necessary to preserve appearances; and when M'Guire, breaking into open rebellion, made an irruption into Connaught, Tyrone joined his forces to the English and took an active part in the operations by which he was driven back. On this occasion he received a wound. But whatever were his intentions, nothing could now divert the course of the suspicion and enmity which watched and severely interpreted every thing he did. Though ready to comply with his avowed engagements, there was much to support a jealous view of all his conduct: he gave his daughter in marriage to O'Donell, and refused to deliver up the sons of Shane O'Neale, whom he had seized and cast into chains.

In the month of August, 1594, Fitz-William was recalled, and Sir William Russell sent over in his room. The complaints against

• Moryson.

Tyrone had increased, and suspicion was growing fast into certainty, when he made his appearance in the metropolis, from which he had carefully absented himself during Fitz-William's government. The step was politic, but not without risk; for the enemies of the earl were many and powerful, and (had enmity been wanting) his conduct. was open to suspicion. But, above all the whispers of suspicion, or the cautious doubts of guarded policy, the bitter animosity of Bagnal made itself heard. Bagnal earnestly urged that the earl's visit to the city was but an artifice to lull the suspicions excited by his long course of double dealing, entreated that he should be arrested, and offered to make good several articles of treason against him. The accusations of Bagnal had been repeatedly proffered, and comprised all the questionable acts of the earl's past life, most of which we have mentioned in their order of occurrence. They were chiefly these: That he entertained Gauran, titular primate of Ireland, knowing him to be a traitor-this Gauran had been but recently slain in an encounter between Bingham and M'Guire in Connaught; that he corresponded with O'Donell, who was at the very time levying war against the queen; that, being allowed to keep six companies in the queen's service, he so contrived, by continued changes of the men, to discipline the entire population of Tyrone; that having engaged to build a castle for his own residence after the fashion of the English nobility, he had availed himself of the occasion as a pretence to purchase a quantity of lead as if for the roof, but which he stored in Dungannon as material for bullets. But whatever may have been Tyrone's sincerity, he was no mean proficient in the arts of speciousness: he vindicated his character and intentions before the council, to whom, in the tone of ardent gratitude, he enumerated the many honours and benefits he had received from the bounty of the queen; and renounced all mercy from the Almighty if he should ever lift his hand against her. He promised to send his son to be educated in Dublin, and to deliver sufficient pledges for his future conduct. These representations, which were accompanied with specific answers to the several charges which had been made against him, impressed the council and the lord-deputy in his favour; and they agreed to dismiss him. The queen, who had, perhaps, before this been enabled to form a more correct estimate of Tyrone's conduct, was very much displeased, and sent over a severe reprimand. She thought that her deputy should at least have used the occasion to stipulate for the relief of Eniskillen,*- -an object which, in the same month, was effected by Sir William Russell, who, by a week of rapid and laborious marching over mountain and bog, entered Eniskillen without a blow; the enemy having abandoned it on his approach.

Notwithstanding the strong professions of Tyrone, his real designs were now strongly impressed on the government in both countries. An equivocal course can only deceive for a short time, and suspicious conduct long persisted in becomes the certain indication of the crime suspected. The reason of this is plain enough; such appearances must, from their very nature, be casual, and cannot, therefore, long be al

* Cox.

lowed against the course of probability: we mention this because it is the principle upon which we venture the assertion that Tyrone was at this time, decided in his purpose of rebellion. We have willingly conceded to those who are inclined to take the most favourable view, that his earlier professions of loyalty were sincere; it is indeed the inference we have ourselves arrived at: we have also strongly asserted our belief that he was placed in a position which rendered perseverance in loyalty difficult in a high degree-between the accusations of those who loved his possessions, or resented his encroaching and tyrannical actions-the restless suspicions and despotic temper of lord-deputies, and the fierce remonstrances of his own countrymen. Viewing his conduct with every allowance of palliation, we think that from the commencement of 1594, he must be allowed to have engaged clandestinely in the design then openly avowed by O'Donell; and all professions to the contrary were such as could only be allowed to pass by the most blameable remissness. It is at this point of time that we think it, therefore, important to draw a line, which has been obliterated by the strong party professions of those who have written on either side: Cox, whose prejudices blind him, and Moryson who lay within the dust of the struggle, and could not be expected to see beyond it, and the numerous historians who but follow in the wake of these: or, on the other hand, the recent writers who, with a far larger grasp of facts and principles, can only be just to the cause so far as their political creed allows of justice. Totally dissenting from the spirit of both, we have neither allowed the subject of our memoir to be set down as one of the most base and crafty traitors that ever breathed; nor, on the contrary, one of the most injured victims of a base faction and tyrannical government. The government was often incompetent, often tyrannical, and in no instance administered on principles of clearsighted and comprehensive policy or justice: but Tyrone was fairly open from the beginning to suspicion. Though sagacious, he had not discretion to resist the temptations of power: he was brave in action but he had not the firmness to preserve his consistency. The taunts and solicitations of the disaffected, the injuries and insults of the interested underlings of power, warped his course and brought him into positions, in which he met not perhaps all the allowance which these considerations might seem to claim: because, in reality, such allowance cannot in any case be made, but by the eye of omniscience. We shall not, therefore, with some contemporary writers, allow him the praise of a great man. He was, in our estimate, much sinning as well as much sinned against; and it is precisely at the period of his life at which we have now arrived, that we are anxious to impress our reader with this distinction—that having till now wavered under the operation of causes hard to resist, he at length, under the continued operation of these causes joined the struggle, and began to move heart and hand with the rebel party.

But it was among the least equivocal indications of the double play upon which Tyrone had entered, that to the native chiefs who had at this time leagued against the English, he actually professed that such was the true nature of his conduct towards the English; that his professions were intended for the purpose of deception: and that