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CHAPTER VIII.

The Egyptians spoiled once more. Regal rapine, in the King's and Queen's counties, Leitrim, Longford, and Westmeath. Three hundred and eighty-five thousand acres forfeited, for the charitable purpose of civilizing the natives.

JAMES'S predominating passion for plunder and plantation had been tolerably satisfied with the spoliation of Ulster, where, by a princely exercise of law, honour, and conscience, he had involved in ruin the once proud owners of princely estates, raised to rank and fortune many of the lowest orders of society, and, in a word, changed the whole face of the country. He for a while rested from his labours: but the devouring lust of plunder and plantation returned; and, being too imperiously craving to be resisted, he resolved to gratify it. Encouraged by the facility with which he had effected his spoliations in Ulster, he displayed himself, on this occasion, in the bold character of a public depredator, scorning disguise or artifice. It was thought unnecessary to hire letter-droppers, or false witnesses, to swear to plots or conspiracies. Without any of the tricks played off by his predecessors, or

by himself, in the province of Ulster, he plundered his subjects, in King's and Queen's counties, Leitrim, Longford, and Westmeath, of estates to the amount of three hundred and eighty-five thousand acres. Thus this vain, sottish, contemptible, and rapacious monarch, in a time of profound peace, at two successive operations, seized about a twentieth part of the whole island; five hundred thousand acres in Ulster, and three hundred and eighty-five thousand in Leinster and it is more than probable, that, had his inglorious career continued as long as that of some of his successors, he would have seized every acre of the island, belonging to the Roman Catholics; for, after his depredations in Leinster were completed, he was seriously occupied in preparations for the plantation of Connaught,* when death humanely rescued his Irish subjects from the merciless gripe of the canting, hypocritical oppressor, who had, throughout his reign, plundered them as "a father, not as a monarch," and, according to the sovereign dictates of "law, honour, and conscience," reduced them to beggary here, for "the good of their souls hereafter."

*"The project recommended to the king was nothing less than that of establishing an extensive plantation in Connaught, SIMILAR TO THAT OF ULSTER; and, in his rage for reformation, IT WAS MOST FAVOURABLY RECEIVED.'

215 Leland, II. 558.

9215

But, as it was only "spoiling the Egyptians," to borrow a phrase from Rob Roy, it is passed over by Leland, Carte, and Hume, not merely as an innocent, but as a necessary measure; nay, it appears from their statements as entitled to applause.

Leland informs us, that those counties, " by their situation and circumstances, required particular regulation." And what was the "particular regulation," which they required? It was simply, that all the rights of property, held sacred among the most barbarous nations, the Moors and Algerines, should be basely invaded by a wretched monarch, who, as I have already hinted, has been fraudulently ranked among the civilizers and benefactors of mankind:

"Naturally strong, and difficult of access, they afforded, in the very heart of the island, a safe retreat and shelter to the old inhabitants, who were tenacious of their barbarous customs, nestling in their filthy cottages in winter, in summer wandering with their cattle over the mountains. Through these districts, the Irish insurgents had usually passed from Connaught or Ulster, to annoy the Pale. They had served for a passage to Tyrone and his forces into Munster, and a retreat in his inglorious flight from Kinsale. In time of peace, they were the safe receptacles of robbers, where they defied the ministers of justice; and, surrounded with woods, bogs, and mountains, lived in a sort of independence, and contemptuous resistance to the law. To reduce these savages to order and subjection," [that is, reader, those savages, than whom, according to Sir John Davies and Edward Coke, NO PEOPLE UNDER THE SUN LOVED JUSTICE BETTER; and who were MORE FEARFUL TO OFFEND THE LAW THAN THE ENGLISH] "inquisitions were held to examine the king's title to the whole

or any part of their lands. It was found, that some of them had been anciently possessed by English settlers, who, in the disorders of the kingdom, had been expelled by the old natives, and which were therefore vested in the crown, as the lands of absentees; others appeared to have been forfeited by rebellion. So that James deemed himself entitled to make a distribution of THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTYFIVE THOUSAND ACRES in these counties, to such proprietors, and in such proportions, as might promote the general welfare and security, the extension of commerce, and the civility of the natives. The large portions re-granted to the ancient proprietors, on permanent tenures, reconciled many to this new scheme of plantation."216

Language hardly affords terms of contempt and disgust, adequate to brand the writer, who can cant and whine, in extenuation of such atrocious spoliation. If the natives "nestled in filthy cottages," it proceeded from the oppression of the wretched government under which they groaned, and which, in the lapse of ages, hardly ever adopted a single measure dictated by sound or magnanimous policy, or calculated to claim the respect or gratitude of its Irish subjects.

In the same hacknied strain, Carte cants on the subject of this immense depredation :

"The peace of the kingdom was very precarious, whilst those countries remained in a sort of independence on the state, and its inhabitants lived in a contempt of its laws. The king saw it necessary to reduce them into the same order and subjection" [that is, the same state of beggary and ruin in which he had involved the people of the six counties in Ulster] "as the rest of the kingdom: and therefore, by a special commission, in 1614, had empowered the lord deputy Chiches

216 Leland, II. 539.

ter and others to take a view of the countries," [and so ascertain how much he might seize]" and inquire into the title which the crown had to them, or any part thereof; the estate, number, and condition of the inhabitants; the chiefries, claims, customs, and rents of the present lords; and the best way of reducing and settling them."217

I have given these statements at length, that the reader may have a full view of the grounds on which the depredation took place, and may decide on its propriety or justice, and on the merits of the writers from whom the accounts are taken. The flimsy pretext, that "the peace of the country was precarious," and that "these counties were receptacles of robbers," will not stand a moment's examination. Fraud and rapine never wanted a pretext of extenuation or justification. The fable of the wolf and the lamb affords a proper type of this course of proceeding.

If those counties were receptacles of robbers, the proper corrective was to open assizes, and employ courts, sheriffs, and executioners; not to rob the people of their lands, and turn them out on the highway, to retaliate on the unwary passenger the depredations they suffered from those whose office imposed on them the duty of protection.

The admission of such a paltry defence of so base a system of rapine and plunder, reflects indelible disgrace on Leland and Carte, and ought

217 Carte, I. 23.

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