privation, made them surmount every hardship; and the result was an extraordinary redundance of population.

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Notwithstanding the direct operation of the Reverend Mr. Malthus's "extremely various positive checks," such as, severe labour and exposure to the seasons, extreme poverty, bad nursing of children, the whole train of common diseases and epidemics, wars, pestilence, plague, and famine;" the population of the island kept on increasing at a rate unparalleled in any portion of Europe. This increase, however, began to be felt as a calamity, not from any defect in the supply of food, for the fertility of the soil appears inexhaustible; nor from any additional stretch given to the natural duration of human life; but from other causes, of a moral nature.

The impolitic measure of suppressing the woollen manufacture, and consequently of securing to England a monopoly of that branch of trade, threw the population back upon the resources of agriculture; whilst almost every kind of foreign demand, except corn, wool, cattle and their products: this principally affected the southern counties, where the population, the agricultural class especially, was almost exclusively of the Catholic persuasion. In the north the case was somewhat different: there the majority of the people, a great many of whom were Protestants, were engaged in the linen manufacture, and cultivation of the soil was of far less importance. Both of these classes were pressed upon by the demand for tithe, which operated with equal hardship, but in a different way. In the south

* In the summer of 1650, 17,000 persons died of the plague in Dublin; and in 1728 a scarcity of corn was severely felt in the northern counties, where the inhabitants, chiefly employed in the linen manufactures, increased so rapidly, as to send off every year an emigration

a tenth part of the crop, or an equivalent in money, swallowed not only a tenth of the poor man's property, but a tenth of his time and industry: in the north the industrious weaver was in some measure safe from that exaction, but he had to complain of the agistment-tithe which made a demand for cattle. The ecclesiastical establishment had a right to the provision which had been secured by law; the inability and unwillingness of one party urged the other to insist upon their legal right, and parliament (1735) threw in its omnipotent preponderancy, and by a resolution of the House of Commons, wiped away the tithe of agistment, which resolution was long a custom, and afterwards became law.

This boon was undoubtedly a relief to the Protestant tenant, and lessened his inclination to emigrate, a practice then quite common, to get away from enormous rents and heavy lease fines; but it threw the burden with increased weight upon the agricultural class, leaving the more profitable and wealthy portion of the soil absolutely free of tithe; and in this instance the legislature evidently promoted their own interest at the expence of the humble and laborious peasantry. The Catholic, however, clung to the soil amidst domestic misery; the Protestant in manly sorrow turned his back upon the scene of his affliction, and abandoned those fields in which he could not obtain comfort or competency, carrying his arts and arms to the regions of North America, where he afterwards secured that independent superiority which was ever the object of his ambition.*

It may not be undeserving of note, that, in the nobly contested action between the English and United States frigates, the GUERRIERE and CONSTITUTION, most of the crew of the latter were born and brought up in the neighbourhood of Rathfryland, a spot more distinguished for peaceful loyalty, and less agitated by Orangeism than any other in the

The evil pressure thus produced upon agriculture, as it affected the great mass of the Catholic peasantry, who were literally reduced to a situation worse than that of the Helotes of ancient Greece, pining in slavery amidst a people opulent and exulting in the enjoyment of civil liberty, so it bore with accumulated grievance, until discontent and want combined in irresistible impulse, and drove the people into desperate but ineffectual resistance to the severe exactions imposed upon their industry.

So long as pecuniary distress did not visit the mansion of the landlord, or wealthy proprietor, the complaint of the peasant might be uttered with impunity; the tithe, too, might be claimed, and enforced by an expensive and odious process at law, because the law-makers had resolved to relieve themselves of every concern on that account; still the distress that pursued the poor man's toil remained unalleviated, and illegal combination, with outrage, followed, and no parliamentary investigation or inquiry into the exciting causes was made; or, however well those causes must have been known, no remedy was attempted to be applied.

The attention of Parliament had been long engaged with contests between privilege and prerogative. The great lords had long engrossed the legislative powers by their means of bringing in majorities on almost every question. A party denominated patriots rose between the landed interest and the government, and the pension list obtained for administration that influence which subsequently has

north of Ireland. Although that action terminated in the loss of the Guerriere, it is not meant to cast the slightest shade on the character of the officers and crew by whom she was defended. They fought till their ship sunk under them. Sparta never produced braver men. They contended against superior numbers, - men equally brave: "When

carried all before it. Among these party struggles the country in general was the sufferer; nothing was secured to promote industry or trade, and national poverty was the result: the government had its patronage; the landed interest its monopoly; the patriots their popularity, and the peasantry their midnight maraudings, barbarities, and secret associations, as Whiteboys, Hearts of Oak, and Hearts of Steel. A brighter and happier era commenced with the reign of George III.

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CHAPTER V.

ACCESSION OF GEORGE III.

In the preceding historical observations, the affairs of the Catholics of Ireland have necessarily engaged a large share of attention; larger, perhaps, than some will think they deserved. This objection was foreseen, but could not be obviated. The elicitation of truth has been already stated as the object of this inquiry, which has been prosecuted with unbending impartiality, with perfect disregard as to whom it may chance to please or offend. The Catholics always constituted the great body of the people in Ireland; they once possessed the whole of its property;

and still, though stripped of their ancient possessions and national honours, they form a vast numerical majority of the population, which, in spite of every check, is rapidly increasing. They have ever formed so prominent a feature in the character of that country, that it is impossible to refer to it in any way without including them. This is not offered by way of apology to any party. Wretched indeed must be the state of that country where the humblest advocate of justice should find it necessary to apologize for honesty of intention. Such, it is conceived, would be as insulting to the judgment as libellous on the understanding of the liberal and enlightened of the present day.

"The end and purpose of all government being the advantage, safety, and happiness of the community, the general discontent of the people is at all times an argument