baggage, drums beating and colours flying. Those officers and soldiers who wished might go to any foreign country, the government to provide them with ships; those who chose might join the army of William and Mary. Ginkel was anxious to keep those fine soldiers in the king's army, but only 1,000 joined; and 2,000 got passes for their homes. 675. More than 20,000-among them Sarsfield-went to Brest and entered the French service. These formed the nucleus of the famous Irish Brigade, who afterwards distinguished themselves in many a battlefield-Fontenoy, Ramillies, Blenheim, Landen, &c. Numbers of the gentry attained distinguished positions on the Continent. Sarsfield, after brilliant service, fell mortally wounded at the battle of Landen in 1693, where he commanded the left wing of the French army. It is stated that while lying on the ground, seeing his hand stained with his own blood, he exclaimed "Oh, that this was for Ireland!"

676. There was at this time and for long after, a vast exodus of the very flower of the Irish people; and between 1691 and 1745 it is reckoned that 450,000 Irishmen died in the service of France.

677. The war had cost the English about seven millions, representing probably fifty millions of our money, besides vast destruction of houses, cattle, and other kinds of property.

678. King William was kindly disposed towards the Irish; and taking advantage of the Treaty, he restored a good part of their estates, and granted many pardons. But he rewarded his followers with vast grants. He created Ginkel earl of Athlone, and gave him 26,000 acres ; to William Bentink, son of the duke of Portland, 136,000 acres; to the countess of Orkney 96,000 acres. Altogether he made 76 land grants to his own people.

679. We shall see further on that the Treaty of Limerick was broken by the English; but for this violation king William was not to blame.

680. Lord Sydney, the lord lieutenant, summoned a parliament which met in Dublin on the 5th October 1692.

it was exclusively Protestant. This was the first held since 1665, with the exception of that of king James (629).

It asserted the independence of the Irish parliament, and though granting a supply of money to the king, it rejected a money bill sent from England, on the ground that it had not been originated in the Irish commons. Sydney was so indignant at this refractory proceeding that he twice prorogued this parliament, which was finally dissolved on the 5th November 1693.

681. In less than a century there had been three great confiscations in Ireland, the old proprietors being in all cases dispossessed: the first after the Geraldine and O'Neill rebellions; the second in the time of Cromwell; and the third after the conquest by king William.

These three included the whole island, except the estates of half a dozen families of English blood. Moreover, the three confiscations sometimes overlapped; so that large portions were confiscated twice, and some three times over, within that period. As the result of all, only about a seventh of the land of all Ireland was left in the hands of the Catholics.

682. The Catholics of old English blood were involved in this general ruin, so far as their numbers went, as well as those of the native Celtic race.

Q

PART V.

THE PERIOD OF THE PENAL LAWS.

(1695-1829.)

BEFORE the year 1695 there were many penal enactments against Irish Catholics; but they were intermittent and not persistently carried out. But after that date they were, for nearly a century, systematic and continuous, and as far as possible enforced. Accordingly this Period is specially distinguished as the Period of the Penal Laws.

These laws were the work of the governing classes; the great body of the English people, whether in England or Ireland, had no hand in them. And as in 1641 Catholics saved many of the settlers from destruction, numberless instances are recorded where Catholics were protected from the operation of the laws by the pitying kindness of their Protestant neighbours. In many instances the laws could not be carried out, partly on account of their excessive severity, and partly from the passive resistance of the general body of Protestants.

Towards the close of the eighteenth century the penal code was gradually relaxed; and, except in a few particulars, the Emancipation act of 1829 put an end to the penal enactments against Catholics.

CHAPTER I.

THE PENAL CODE.

683. The Irish Catholics were now crushed and dispirited; they were quite helpless, for their best men had gone to France; and all hope of resistance was at an end. They had however obtained tolerable conditions in the Treaty of Limerick; but here they were doomed to a bitter disappointment. The English parliament were not satisfied with the treaty, and in its most important provisions refused to carry it out. This greatly displeased king William, who would have faithfully adhered to the pledges, on the faith of which the Irish had surrendered Limerick.

684. The government of Ireland was now completely in the hands of the small Protestant minority, who also possessed almost the whole of the land of the country; and they held nearly all the offices of trust or emolument. This "Protestant Ascendancy," as it is called, was confirmed by the penal legislation, now to be described.

685. It will be convenient to bring the leading enactments of the whole penal code into this chapter, though it will oblige us to run in advance a little in point of time.

In 1695 the English parliament, going over the head of the Irish parliament, passed an act setting aside the oath of supremacy, but substituting something much worse :— Every member of parliament, bishop, holder of any government office, lawyer, and doctor, had to take an oath of allegiance (which was unobjectionable) and also an oath of " Abjuration "—abjuring the Catholic religion: which of course would exclude Catholics from all these positions. 686. In the same year lord Capel was appointed lord deputy; he summoned a parliament which met in Dublin on the 27th August. This parliament completed what the English parliament had begun. In violation of the Treaty of Limerick, they passed a series of penal acts in the two

sessions of 1695 and 1697. The principal items of this code are the following:

687. Education. No Catholic was to teach school or teach scholars in private houses; no Catholic to send his child abroad to be educated. Penalty: forfeiture of all goods, and ineligibility to fill any office, such as guardian or executor, or to accept any legacy. These measures altogether deprived Catholics-as such-of education.

688. Arms and property. All Catholics were to deliver up their arms: magistrates might break open the houses of Catholics and search for arms. But gentlemen having the benefit of the Treaty of Limerick might keep a sword, a case of pistols, and a fowling-piece. No maker of arms could take a Catholic apprentice.

689. No Catholic to keep a horse worth more than £5 (equal about £30 of our money): if a Catholic had a valuable horse, any Protestant might take it by tendering £5.

690. Religion. The Catholic parish clergy, i.e. the existing parish priests, were not disturbed; but all had to be registered, and should give security for good behaviour. All bishops, Jesuits, friars, and monks were ordered to quit the kingdom by the 1st of May 1698. Any who returned were guilty of high treason: punishment death. For any priest landing in Ireland, imprisonment, after which transportation to the Continent. No person to harbour or relieve any such clergy. Any priest who turned Protestant to get a pension of £30. No burials in churchyards of suppressed monasteries. No Catholic chapel to have steeple or bells.

691. Social position. Catholics and Protestants were not to intermarry. If a Protestant woman married a Catholic, her property was forfeited to the next Protestant heir. A Protestant man who married a Catholic was to be treated as if he were himself a Catholic.

A Catholic could not serve on a grand jury, and an attorney could not take a Catholic clerk.

This was the first instalment of the penal code; but it was followed by much worse.

692. In 1703 the duke of Ormond came to Ireland as