the beneficial results of such a measure must have mainly depended on the essential condition, by which a comparatively advanced population should be interfused throughout the kingdom, and by which some application of capital should be secured. Such were the means adopted for the civilization of the country: they were indispensably necessary, and their success is traceable on the map of Ireland. But it is, we trust, needless to insist further upon this. To look to the fact. If the reader will take the trouble to examine the items of the above statement of Sir Richard Cox, it will appear, that first 137,167 acres must be deducted as anciently appurtenant to the institutions to which they are allotted in the distribution-leaving a gross sum of 374,289 for distribution. Now, of this it will be observed, that 123,768, being very nearly one-third, is allotted or restored to the natives; while of the remaining 250,521, there is an allotment of 27,773 for public institutions of the more necessary or useful kind, and 209,800 to the city of London. The remainder is 12,948 acres for distribution to English grantees from the crown. Thus, omitting the odd hundreds, the grants to the English compared with those to the Irish, are only as 12 to 123, a proportion less than one-tenth.

Among these allotments, there was none which at the moment appeared to offer such decided promise of future advantages, as to the city of London. The king in one of his letters expressed his satisfaction in an arrangement which appeared to secure the co-operation of that wealthy and even then influential corporation; he rejoiced in the supposition, that when "his enemies should hear, that the famous city of London had a footing therein, they would be terrified from looking into Ireland, the backdoor to England and Scotland.”* The London grants were in the county of Londonderry: they engaged to build the cities of Derry and Coleraine, and to lay out L.20,000 on the plantation. In consideration of these terms, engagements were entered into in 1609; they were incorporated by a charter bearing date 29th January, 1613, by the title of governors and assistants of the new plantation of Ulster. We should here, however, do the justice to state, that this step had been efficiently prepared by the valour and wisdom of Sir Henry Dockwra, who first selected the site, and began the fortification of Derry. Of this, the following notice is selected from the full statements of the memoir of Londonderry, in the Ordnance survey of the parish of Templemore: "September 12, a grant was made to Sir Henry Dockwrą, knt., governor of Lough Foyle, and privy councillor, to hold two markets, on Wednesday and Saturday, and a fair for six days (viz., on the vigil day and morrow of St Lawrence, 9th, 10th, and 11th of August), and for three days following, at Derrie, every year, with horse races, there to be held during the same markets and fairs, together with the issues, profits, and emoluments, belonging and apertaining to the said markets and fairs,” (1 Jac. I. 2 pars fol. 33.)† We shall have to return to this topic in the following memoirs.

Letter to Sir T. Philips, quoted by Leland.

+ Ordnance Survey.

The above extract is taken from a first impression (of we believe 100 copies only) which was printed for the inspection of the statistical sec

In this arrangement, provision was carefully made for the church, and all lands to which they could prefer a claim, were given up and appropriated to their original design. During the late rebellion, the churches had been destroyed or plundered, and religious service had fallen into neglect. To remedy this evil, the most effective arrangements were made. The churches were repaired, clergymen were appointed with a due provision for their maintenance. "To provide for the inferior clergy, the bishops were obliged to resign all their impropriations, and to relinquish the tithes paid to them out of parishes, to the respective incumbents, for which ample recompense was made out of the king's lands-every proportion allotted to undertakers was made a parish, with a parochial church to each. The incumbents, besides their tithes and duties, had glebe lands assigned to them, of sixty, ninety, or one hundred and twenty acres, according to the extent of their parishes. To provide for a succession of worthy pastors, free schools were endowed in the principal towns, and considerable grants of lands conferred on the university of Dublin, together with the advowson of six parochial churches, three of the largest, and three of the smallest in each county." By this well arranged and comprehensive provision, both the moral and spiritual welfare of the whole country was provided for, to the full extent, which circumstances admitted.

The working of this great measure was unquestionably productive, and this in a very high degree, of the benefits it was designed to produce, and effected a gradual, and slow, but sure progress, from a state of barbarism incompatible with progress, towards the civilized condition of other surrounding countries. Still it must be admitted, that this very process, like all others which are introduced under similar conditions, was accompanied by workings of an opposite character, and which appear to warrant inferences different from those which we have here indicated. It is the misfortune of all civil changes, however salutary, and of all measures, however wisely or beneficially designed, that they cannot be carried into effect without a multitude of under agencies, and without thus calling into operation all the baser passions of the human heart. Such is, indeed, the fertile scope for the partial representations of faction. The advocate of laws, institutions, and authorities, may point out the delusion, folly, or fanaticism of the popular movements of all times; the popular historian, or orator, will find a theme as fertile in the venality,

tion of the Scientific Association in 1831, when this body held its meeting in Dublin. A full and enlarged edition of this inestimable work has since been published by Messrs Hodges and Smith. It falls especially within our province to observe, that such a publication, if continued, with the same exemplary caution, intelligence, and industry, with which it has been thus commenced, must be regarded as among the most important incidents for the advantage of Ireland, that have yet occurred. It is equally to be commended for the fulness, accurate and accessible arrangement of its copious and momentous details, and for the unquestionable character of its authorities. We have indeed much lamented that, from the necessarily slow advance of that great work, we have not been able to derive from it those inestimable advantages which it may at some future time present to the historian of this country.

* Leland.

jobbing, and intrigue of public servants, however, or by whatever authority they chance to be organized. The only invariable exception must be looked for in those situations, of which the organization excludes self-interest: as for instance, in the judicial character. Such is the principle which must confirm and soften our view of the subsequent consequences of the policy of king James's government. Of its general beneficence, and sound wisdom, we cannot admit a doubt. Of those decisive advantages, of which it was the origin, we can be still more confident; but it is painful to the historian to witness the small intrigues which made it the means of much injustice—and the mixture of fanaticism, cunning, and ignorance, which partly retarded, and partly destroyed its better workings: and produced in months a greater sum of wickedness and mischief, than the venality and oppression of centuries, have ever or could have ever caused. We cannot, indeed, quit the parallel into which we have been accidentally led, without observing this farther lesson, which has forced itself upon us in the contemplation of the same facts, in this and other countries, and in different ages of time. The crimes of individual malversation and corruption are not permanent, while the outbreaks of popular faction have that unhappy characteristic of reaction, arising from extreme, which gives to revolution its periodical property. So long as the progress of civilization continues (and its permanence is demonstrable), the tendency to equalization goes on by a spontaneous operation of the social elements. The crimes of individuals, by which individuals are afflicted, pass away with the time, and leave no real effect on the system. But the people are moved by prejudices, and act by passions their objects are unattainable, and their course neither rightly directed nor amenable to right direction: should they fail in trampling down civil order, they are necessarily trampled down themselves; should they succeed, the ignorance and infatuation, the collapse of their passions, and their total want of any permanent principle of concentration, except under the aggregating influences of some fanaticism, almost at once subject them to some aggravated imposition of tyrannical rule. The only reply to this inference, which could affect its reason, must be the assertion, that the intrigues which work with the weapons of popular folly, are more honest than those which abuse the powers of civil authority. This may be asserted on the hustings, or in party debate, but will not be dreamed of in the closet.

The free circulation of justice; the establishment of fairs, markets, and corporate institutions; the liberation of the people from the oppressive rights of the chiefs; the constitutional distribution of territory; the fixing individual possessions on a secure principle of tenure; and the communication of a national unity to the country, by which for the first time it became a nation-all these were vast changes for the better. But we have to notice the crimes, corruptions, and disorderly movements which neutralized these blessings to a great extent.

In the execution of the plan of government two principal abuses prevailed. The grantees did not carry into effect the conditions of their grants; and the most iniquitous wrongs were perpetrated under the pretext of authority. The commissioners perverted their office to their private emolument, or in subservience to their personal friend

The

ships and animosities. False, unfair allocations, and unauthorized usurpations of property were practised without constraint. frauds of office were maintained by those misrepresentations which always impose on cabinets compelled to rely on their ministerial agents. Of this latter grievance, a very aggravated example will appear among the following notices: here we must limit ourselves to an extract from Carte's Ormond" Hence several persons were turned out of large estates of profitable land, and had only a small pittance, less than a fourth part, assigned them for it in barren ground. Twenty-five O'Ferrals were dispossessed of their all, and nothing allotted them for compensation; and in certain places the resentment of the old possessors was raised the higher, because the lands taken from them were given to others who had none before, and even to some that had been rebels and traitors. Neither the actors nor sufferers in these grievances were confined to one religion. Selfishness and corruption are vices founded in human nature, and often too strong for any religion to correct; and hard as was the case of Owney MacTortly O'Ferral of Caermagh in the barony of Moudoe, (whose fidelity to the crown and good services in war against the rebels were certified in vain by Sir Lawrence Esmond, a privy counsellor) yet he had not greater reason for his complaints against Sir William Parsons, who was master surveyor and one of the commissioners for this plantation, than he had for the like against Sir Christopher Nugent, a lawyer and an obstinate recusant, who possessed himself of a great part of the lands that were taken from him. Avarice and lust of rapine make no distinctions of persons on whom they are to prey; so that we may the less wonder at the treatment of Tirlogh O'Ferral, who, though his lands, after all deductions were made, did, according to the king's directions, entitle him to a freehold, yet was stripped of all, without oue acre being assigned him in lieu thereof, notwithstanding that he was the only Protestant of his name."*

Such wrongs were the more grievous, as it was unquestionably the intent of government to act in a spirit both of clemency and justiceand every provision for both was made in the instructions of those employed in these arrangements. But a more serious because more general evil was the imperfect execution of their covenants by the planters, which had more than any other cause the effect of retarding and diminishing the advantages of the plantation.

Of the grantees, many altogether neglected the fulfilment of their engagement, and few observed them, to the extent which was essential to the full success of the measure. It was soon found more advantageous to set the lands to Irish than to English tenants: they required fewer advantages, and could therefore be content with a lower share of the return, or in other words, they could afford to pay a higher rent, and to give their labour for lower wages. They were less independent in their habits, and accustomed to submit without a murmur to their burdens and exactions: they had been slaves, and when set free, they were long unconscious of the freedom of which they had no apprehension. Many were glad to sell their allotments, which were

* Carte's Ormond.

readily bought up by those who knew how to convert them to profit. The estates of many were farmed by inferior agents and undertakers, who dropped out of consideration every engagement, and wrung the tenants for an exorbitant profit. Many too, had through favouritism, obtained grants beyond their means,-and many found other investments more certain and profitable. It must also be admitted that in a country, which had never yet been reduced within the ordinary limits of social security, it demanded much of the adventurous spirit of that age, to risk capital to any amount. There were too many dangerous spirits in the atmosphere-and rumours, apprehensions, and dangerous possibilities, on which the historian may ill calculate with a mind at ease, floated from tongue to tongue in the common gossip, and ruffled the security of life. It is not where an ancient order, deposed from its privileges, stood round in formal acquiescence but real dissatisfaction; and though they found it safest to give way, still far from silent on their present wrongs and future redress,-it is not where, the hereditary spirit of turbulence was yet asserting its existence and menacing outbreak from its embers, that the spirit of security and quiet commercial pursuits could be hoped to live. The foresight of commercial enterprise must have hesitated to build its costly structures of investment and labour, for the tempest and the whirlwind which could still be seen remotely gathering in the cloudy terror of the old sanguinary mountain recess to scatter and overwhelm in its fury. Indeed of all the ills to which this wretched island has been the subject-the insecurity arising from the same unsettled temper, has ever been by far the worst; while the miserable populace are hurried from illusion to illusion, suffering and discontented, but ignorant of the causes of their miseries; looking for objects which can bring no relief, and remembering injuries which they never suffered; spurning at law, and submitting to various tyrannies of an undefined but unresisted force. But we must resist the temptation of generalization unhappily so apparent. With all its disadvantages, the plantation of Ulster was productive of a larger sum of good than has resulted from any subsequent measure for the advantage of Ireland. Much as it was impeded by the workings of perverted self-interest, and interrupted by the neutralizing forces, which have still defeated the operation of all good to Ireland-it gave an impulse to the social progress of the north, which never wholly ceased to operate, and which now may be estimated by its integral result. In an incredibly short space of time the face of the country was changed. Castles, villages, and cultivated fields occupied the site of savage fastnesses and tracts of desolate forest, the haunts of misery and lurking-places of murder and robbery. Cities arose and became the centres of new wealth and of growing civilization.

Whatever cases of partial wrong may be detected in all this great and salutary operation, a general view exhibits the full measure of just consideration for the natives. In three several facts, may this assertion be verified: among the grantees, they formed the most numerous proportion; they received their allocations of the better lands; and they were preferred to an extent rather excessive, as ten

ants.

The king was pleased with the rapid and striking success of his