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hands, for their legges could not bear them. They looked like anatomies of death; they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves; they eat the dead carrions, happy where they could find them; yea, and one another soon after, insomuch as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves; and if they found a plot of watercresses or shamrocks, to these they flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able to continue therewithall; that in a short space there were none almost left, and a most populous country suddenly left void of man and beast."

During the bitter wars of the time of Charles I., no matter which party got the upper hand, the Irish were fated to suffer. They suffered from the duplicity of Charles, and they were crushed under the iron hand of Cromwell. The Irish were devoted to the house of Stuart, and stood by them in all their misfortunes. But this wretched family repaid their devotion with the basest treachery. Charles I., and James II., while looking to the Irish for support, and for the maintenance of their thrones, were both playing a double game. The Irish were the most faithful supporters of the house of Stuart, and that house abandoned them to ruin. It found, when too late, that in this treachery it had ruined itself.

Cromwell came to Ireland apparently with the feeling that the country had never been conquered, and determined to finish the work. He attacked Drogheda, which, after an obstinate defense, surrendered on promise of quarter. The bravery with which the town was defended would have led a generous foe to grant honorable terms.

But Cromwell refused even to ratify the agreement of his officers, by which their lives were to be spared. He ordered the whole garrison to be put to the sword. It consisted of two thousand men, and the butchery occupied two days. It was the design of this massacre to strike terror into the hearts of the Irish. Perhaps, to some extent, it succeeded. But it fixed the first indelible stain on

the name of Oliver Cromwell. The same horrors were repeated at Wexford. Cromwell forbade his soldiers to give quarter.

Then did this holy army take possession of the country, and comparing themselves to the Israelites, and Ireland to Canaan, proceeded to distribute the promised land among their tribes. Confiscation followed confiscation. Almost the whole island changed hands. The best Irish estates were distributed among the praying captains and majors of Cromwell's army. Of the Irish who were perImitted to live, thousands were driven into the wilds of Connaught. The Roundhead was as unscrupulous as the Cavalier in taking possession of the Irish lands. Both were ready to raise the cry of "no popery," or "the English interest," whenever it was necessary to secure them. In the civil war in Ulster, in 1641, Sir William Petty observes, "There was now a great game to be played for the estates of the Irish proprietors. Upon so great odds the English won, and have, besides other pretenses, a gamester's right at least to their estates, but as for the blood shed in the contest, God alone knows who did occasion it."

It is an instance of those strange inconsistencies which meet us everywhere in history, that the period when the

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English people were most clamorous for liberty themselves, was the period in which they bore most hard upon others. The date of liberty in England was the date of oppression in Ireland. The Parliament under Cromwell humanely declared "that it was not their intention to extirpate the Irish nation!" And yet this same Parliament, which gave liberty to England, resolved in solemn debate by both houses, "that they would not consent to the toleration of popery in Ireland, or any of his majesty's dominions," which was in effect declaring a war of extermination against seven eighths of the whole population of that country.

Every impartial historian now concedes the great services rendered by the Puritans to the cause of English liberty. But that they were more advanced than the rest of their age, in principles of toleration, is not so apparent. If anywhere on earth just religious liberty could be found at that day, it should have been in that band of pilgrims who sought freedom to worship God amid the forests of this new world. Yet from these shores, bleak and inhospitable, yet dear to our fathers, because they afforded a refuge from oppression, went forth this counsel to old England: "I begge upon my hands and knees, that the expedition against them [the Irish] may be undertaken while the hearts and hands of our souldiery are hot, to whom I will be bold to say briefly: happy is he that shall reward them as they have served us, and cursed be he that shall do the work of the Lord negligently, cursed be he that holdeth back his sword from blood; yea, cursed be he that maketh not his sword starke drunk with Irish blood, that

doth not recompense them double for their hellish treachery to the English, that maketh them not heaps upon heaps, and their country a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment to nations: let not that eye look for pity, nor that hand to be spared, that pities or spares them, and let him be accursed, that curseth not them bitterly." 11*

Such were the sentiments which national jealousy and religious hatred could inspire even in the breasts of good men. With such messages came the English to crush the last spark of liberty out of a brave and unfortunate people. How different, from that gentle reign which Christ came to establish on earth!

When Charles II. was restored to his father's throne, the loyal Irish, who had forfeited their estates for taking up arms to support his father, expected to be reinstated in their just possessions. But so far from this, Charles confirmed the confiscations of Cromwell, thus punishing the loyalty of his Irish subjects. The motive of this strange act was curious. It was that Cromwell, though a regicide in England, stood in Ireland as the representative of the English interest, and to dispute the authority of England, by whomsoever governed, was an offense not to be forgiven. The whole aim was to establish in Ireland a powerful English interest. This had a double object to pre

*The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam in America, by Rev. Nathaniel Ward. This clergyman came to this country in 1634, and was pastor of the church at Ipswich, Mass. He returned to England in 1646, and preached before the House of Commons, and published a book with the above quaint title, on the political state of England. It is a book of much wit. Its spirit may be judged of from the extract above.

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vent Ireland from becoming a commercial rival, and to secure her close dependence upon England. It was a scheme of bargain and plunder between England and her Irish colony. To the English residents in Ireland was granted as their share of the spoil, the internal government of the country, the broad lands of the Irish, and their spoliation at home, while they were to purchase the support of England by the sacrifice of national independence and of foreign trade. British statesmen had already begun to see that Ireland, if left to herself, might become a great power on the seas. The natural features of that island, its deep rivers, and broad-armed ports, pointed it out as fitted to be a great commercial country. The English government anticipated this, and it therefore became a settled policy that Ireland should be systematically depressed, to prevent her becoming a rival of England. Thus, while the ships of England were crossing all oceans, extending the wealth and power of their country, the commerce of Ireland was subjected to restrictions which amounted to a virtual prohibition. While English merchants were reaping the wealth of the Indies, the Irish were left to derive a scanty subsistence from digging the soil. In this, Ireland was treated like the other English colonies, which do not exist at all for themselves, but only to pour riches into the lap of the mother country. The policy was successful. In two hundred years it has made England the richest country on earth, and Ireland the poorest.

The Revolution of 1688 gave the English a new excuse for robbery, for the Irish had been faithful to the fallen