that spiritual sword* unsheathed against these countries, which, as it would appear, is never to be returned into the scabbard. Elizabeth was excommunicated, and her subjects absolved from their allegiance, by four successive popes: her life was assailed by numerous conspiracies; her kingdoms given up to the vengeance of Spain, at that time. the greatest power of the Continent, and to the more mischievous intrigues of the new order of Jesuits. Consecrated plumes and banners, men, money, arms and ammunition, were poured into Ireland: special indulgences, and pledges of absolution to the third generation, were granted to all who should rise in rebellion; and, to mark it more decisively as a religious war, similar graces were conferred on the pious, for praying, according to a form which is enjoined in Ireland to this day, for the extirpation of heresy, the union of Catholic princes, and the exaltation of holy church.'

By this time, the nobles, both within and without the Pale, were generally discontented. The former, though few in number, and of no great consideration for wealth or connections, had risen into importance, in proportion as their compeers, in the

* See the Digest of Evidence, v. ii. chaps. 3 and 4.

The Jesuits were brought into Ireland, by Robert Wauchop, a Scotchman. Besides this eminent service, three things conspired to give celebrity to Robert Wauchop: he was blind from his birth; he rode post better than any man of his time; and he was one of three contemporary archbishops of Armagh. The pope nominated Wauchop; the dean and chapter, Dowdall; and the crown, Goodacre.

more distant parts, seceded from the government, and adopted the aboriginal manners. They were, thus, left without competitors, as leaders of the colonial parliament, and assessors at the council board: they generally held some of the offices of state; and, on a few occasions, the vice-regal sword itself had been committed into the hands of one of their body. These distinctions brought with them substantial benefits of power and patronage, to which, after some time, the possessors began to look, as a portion, and no trifling one, of their inheritance: thus the Pale had become a sort of corporation, and its principal families had acquired that corrupt and illiberal spirit, which, too often, belongs to a small privileged community. They were, in fine, the lay leaders of the ascendency party, the genuine archetypes of that repulsive character, which has been drawn for the Protestant Orangemen of later times; selfish, arrogant, rapacious men, holding the crown in the trammels of a venal and factious loyalty, while they breathed a malignant rancour against the whole Irish name, and against those of the English race, who had made Ireland their country. It was one of these, the lord Gormanstown, who, when O'Neil and other chieftains had aided the English of the Pale, to gain the great victory of Knocknow over the degenerate* English of Connaught, in the first insolence of success, turned round to

*The only epithet, which the fastidiousness of this puny aristocracy would allow the English who conformed to the national manners.

*

Kildare on the field of battle and said, We have slaughtered the enemy, but, to complete our triumph, we must cut the throats of the Irish of our own party.' Upon the general submission of the aristocracy to Henry, the jealousy of these personages became alarmed; they saw something in that event, which threatened to lower the price of a good subject, and to break down their snug enclosure of the pale. The soreness of their mortification may be conjectured from the following letter: it was written in the subsequent reign, when the parliament of the colony was about to be enlarged into a parliament of the nation; but, as the language is that of cherished and habitual feeling, the anachronism is of no importance:

Most renowned and dread soveraigne,

The respective care of your highness's honour, with the obligation that our bounden duty requireth from us, doth not permitt that we, your nobility of this part of your realme of Ireland, commonly termed the English Pale, should suppress and be silent, in ought, which, in the least measure, might ymport the honour of your majesty's most royal person, the reputation of your happy government, or the good and quiet of your estates and countreys. And, therefore, we are humbly bold to address these our submissive lynes to your highness, and so much the rather, that, till of late years, it hath been a duty

So the biographer of Captain Rock, quoting from Leland. He follows up the anecdote with this very natural question — Who can wonder that the ROCK family were very active in those times?' — the times immediately antecedent to the Reformation.

especially required the nobility of this kingdom, to advertise their princes, your majesty's most noble progenitors, of all matters tending to their service, and to the utility of the commonwealth.

Your majesty's pleasure for calling a parliament in this kingdom hath been lately divulged, but the matters therein to be propounded, not made known unto us, and others of the nobility; we being, notwithstanding, of the grand councell of the realme, and may well be conceived to be the councell meant in the statute made in king Henry the Seventh's time, who should join with the governour of this kingdom, in certifying thither what acts should pass here in parliament; especially, it being hard to exclude those, that, in respect of their estates and residence, should, next your majesty, most likely understand what were fittest to be enacted and ordeined, for the good of their prince and country.

Yet are we, for our own parts, well persuaded, they should be such as will comport with the good and reliefe of your majesty's subjects, and give hopeful expectation of restauration of this lately torn and rended estate, if your majesty have been rightly enformed. But the extreme and public course held, hath generally bred so grievous an apprehension, as is not in our power to expresse, arising from a fearful suspicion, that the project of erecting so many corporations, in places that can scantly passe the rank of the poorest villages, doth tend to nought else, at this time, but that, by the voice of a few, selected for the purpose under the

name of burgesses, extreme penal laws should be ymposed on your subjects here. Your majesty's subjects, in generall, do likewise very much distaste, and here exclaime against, the deposing of so many magistrates in the cities and boroughs of this kingdome, for not swearing th' oath of supremacy in spiritual and ecclesiastical causes; they protesting a firm profession of loyalty, and an acknowledgment of all kingly jurisdiction and authority, in your highnesse..... And so, upon the knees of our loyal hearts, we do humbly pray, that your highnesse will be graciously pleased not to give way to courses, in the generall opinion of your subjects here, so hard and exorbitant, as to erect towns and corporations, of places consisting of some few poor and beggarly cottages; but that your highnesse will give direction, that there be no more erected, till time, or traffick and commerce, do make places, in the remote and unsettled countries here, fit to be incorporated, and that your majesty will benignly content yourself, with the service of understanding men, to come, as knights of the shires, out of the chief countries to the parliament.

Your majesty's

Most humble and dutiful subjects,

GORMANSTON.

CHR. SLANE.

KILLEEN.

ROBT. TRIMBLESTOWN.

PAT. DUNSANY.

MAT. LOWTH.'*

*Leland, ii. 444.; also, ibid. 297.