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the service.' Such arguments were not to be resisted. The Scotch at last prevailed, and obtained freedom to enjoy their Presbyterianism in peace. The struggle of the Irish, if less violent and less successful, was not less honorable. It was the cause of liberty in both cases. Covenanter and Catholic alike contended for freedom to worship God. And on the Irish moor, as in the Scottish glen, it was to the honor of a poor peasantry that they clung to their ancient faith, rather than receive passively a religion of which they knew nothing but that it was the author of their woes.

That the Irish character has survived such persevering. efforts to crush and brutalize it, is the most extraordinary fact in the history of that people. That they retain to this day such wit and humor, such gayety, and an attachment so affecting to their native land, is the most signal proof of the elasticity of their national character, and gives the best hope that they will yet rise above all their misfortunes, and secure the happiness and glory of their country.

* Hume's History of England,

CHAPTER IV.

THE STRUGGLE FOR IRISH INDEPENDENCE BEGINS.-THE AMERICAN WAR.DANGER OF A FRENCH INVASION. THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS ORGANIZED.— DEMAND FOR FREE TRADE AND an Independent PARLIAMENT.-REVOLUTION OF 1782.-REJOICINGS OF THE PEOPLE.-GRATTAN.--THE FRENCH REVOLU TION BREAKS OUT.

THE first organized movement for liberty in Ireland was occasioned by the American Revolution. Our seven years* war of independence was the beginning of modern revolutions. The wave of liberty, rolling from the west, soon began to break on the European shores. Its first distant echo was heard in Ireland.

When the news came that the colonies of Great Britain beyond the seas had broken out into open rebellion against the mother country, the people of the British islands were unanimous that it should be suppressed by force of arms. They had been accustomed to speak of their foreign possessions as "our colonies," so that almost every man in the united kingdom felt as if the Americans were rebels against himself. Besides it was a matter easily accomplished. One vigorous blow would annihilate the young power that had begun to lift its head beyond the ocean, and to deal this was essential to the integrity and glory of the British empire..

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Remote from the scene of contest, Ireland at first felt no danger from the war which England was waging with her revolted colonies. But when France and Spain came forward to take part in the contest, that country was placed in imminent peril. The combined fleets were then superior to the naval force of England, and they rode through St. George's Channel in triumph, and threatened a descent upon the Irish coast. Should they land, there was no force in Ireland to resist them. The troops had been called off to America, and there remained in the whole island not more than five thousand soldiers to repel an invasion, or to suppress domestic insurrection. The loyal inhabitants became alarmed. Only eighteen years before, Belfast had been invaded by the French. The inhabitants now peti tioned the English government for troops to protect the city. The answer disclosed the weakness of England at that moment. The government declared that all the force they could spare was half a troop of dismounted horse, and half a company of invalids! Of course the French could enter Belfast without firing a gun. The people then determined to arm themselves to protect their country. Thus began, in 1778, the organization of the Irish volunteers. The spirited town of Belfast took the lead, and other cities and counties soon followed. The government could not refuse them arms, and the organization spread rapidly until it numbered eighty thousand men, well armed, and supplied with near a hundred pieces of cannon. This was a force too formidable to be attacked, and no invasion was attempted. This was the first benefit of the C

American Revolution to Ireland. It gave her a national

army.

Meanwhile the war was silently producing a vast moral effect. At first the resistance of America was looked upon as an audacious rebellion. Europe had not learned to respect her valor in the field, nor to appreciate the principles for which she fought. But as the war went on, the feelings of the Irish, and to some extent of the English people, changed from contempt to respect, and from respect to admiration. The long line of muskets which gleamed over the breastwork on Bunker's Hill, and shot incessant flame, taught the British battalions that they had an enemy that was not to be despised. The darkest hour of the Revolution was when the army of Washington fled through New Jersey, tracking the ground with blood, the foe in hot pur suit. Yet even then their triumph was short. Crossing the Delaware in midwinter, amid floating ice, the rebel hero had surprised two detachments in their camps, fought and won two pitched battles, and recrossed with his prisoners, before the main body of the royal troops could be brought up to the attack. A brave enemy could not refuse their admiration of these daring achievements, and tales of the rebel valor found their way across the sea, and turned the current of European sympathy in favor of these brave defenders of their native land.

The brilliant army of Burgoyne, as they marched out of their camp to lay down their arms, and cast a look towards the rude farmer soldiery that surrounded them, could not suppress a feeling of admiration for these men, who, though they had wives and children to make life

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dear, had come out from their mountain homes at the call of their country, to peril life in the field of battle.

Meanwhile the attention of Europe became more fixed on this colonial war. From being viewed as a rebellion, it began to be regarded as a rightful struggle for liberty, and to attract the sympathies of the friends of freedom throughout Europe. Enthusiastic soldiers of liberty crossed the seas to share the fortunes of the American arms. And when the batteries at Yorktown were silenced, there was many a heart which rejoiced even in the kingly courts of Europe. The French grenadiers, who saw the proud columns of Cornwallis file through their ranks as captives, caught the enthusiasm for liberty, which beat in every American bosom in that glad hour of triumph. And they carried back the principles of freedom to take root in the soil of France.

At the same time the spell of English invincibility was sinking. From year to year the war went on. Campaign after campaign was begun and ended, and yet conquest seemed as distant as ever. No vanquished rebels sued for peace. No royal proclamation announced that the colonists were subdued, and their leaders brought to punishment. Thus it continued for eight years, till England had to acknowledge the unwelcome truth that she could not conquer America, and to give up the attempt.

It

The war operated in Ireland in other ways. brought no glory, but it brought heavy taxes. Of the few articles of trade which remained to the Irish, the principal was linens. For these the American colonies had fur