of the world, to be ascertained, that O'Connor, O'Drifcol, and my own ancestor Fagan, were great folks in Hibernia, before the Milefian adventurers had arrived in Spain, or had even taken fhipping from Phenicia. Is this formidable reaffumption to originate with a subsequent critical æra of Irish mifery, the deftruction of the Lords of Defmond, and the bloody triumphs of Lancafter over York, under the partifans of Henry VII. his fon, and granddaughters?---Here was a new fucceffion of intruders upon Irifh territory; for except the Fitzgeralds of Leinfter, the Savages, and a few other princely Houfes, all Ireland was devoted to the line of York, and almost all the kingdom, worth fubjugation, was ravaged by the selfish and fufpicious Tudors:No, it cannot commence with the Tudors: for in that cafe what is to become of the prefent poffeffions of feveral great Catholic families now refident in Munfter, who either rofe upon the ruins, or who now occupy the territory of the attainted Earl of Defmond, and of his numerous followers ?----Will thefe families relinquish Munster to his defcendants; for the heirs of Defmond are not extinct; and ftill lefs, thofe of five hundred gentlemen befide, whofe lands and lives were involved, and loft in his overthrow," The Earl of Delmond [fays Baker's Chronicle, p. 361] poffeffed whole counties, together with the county palatine of Kerry, made fo by Edward III. and had of his own name and race, at least five hundred gentlemen at his command; all whom, with himself, loft their lives within the fpace of three years,"--which is continued by Leland, Vol. II. p. 278. " In this difmal fituation of the once great Defmond, his Countefs fell upon her knees before the Lord Deputy, acknowledging his intent, was executed next day. -In his examination, he confeffed his intention was to deftroy the Earl of Defmond, and afterwards to poft away to his brother, James Fitzgerald, call him afide in a fecret manner, as if to acquaint him with his brother's death, and then execute as much upon him. He added that they might take his life, but there were many more, whom he perfectly knew, that had fworn unto the Prefident, to effect the murder of both, upon promife of their lands.”. [Pacata Hibernia, fol. 37-8]"The army of Elizabeth was crowded with Irish; who were most active and zealous in the reduction of their countrymen.-Hugh O'Nial, Earl of Tyrone, had the command of, and lead all the Queen's forces, which were fo fuccefsfully fent against Mac Guire and at the furrender of Kinfale, Burke, the Earl of Clanricard, killed with his own hand above twenty Irish; and cried out-to fpare no rebels! fome Irish, of quality, were taken prifoners, who offered great ranfoms, but upon their being brought to the camp, they were all put to death, and the Lord Deputy Fitzwilliams, knighted Clanrickard in the field."-[Morrifon, p. 187. No man, faid Sir George Carey, did bloody his fword upon the Irish more than Lord Clanrickard; and he would not fuffér any man to take any Irish prisoners."---[Paccata Hib. fol. 235]. Where is the foundation here of adjustment of property among the heirs of thefe difcordant Irishmen?Will the reprefentatives of Mac Mahon remember alone, that an English deputy tried his anceftor, the lord of the county, by a jury of English common foldiers, and instantly hanged him at his own caftle gate, as Baker relates, in his Chronicle, p. 378; and will they forget that his great landed property was divided among four perfons, three of whom were Irish fepts, and perhaps his neighbours, kinfmen, or allies---?---Or what regulation can take place between the heirs of Hugh O'Neal and Mac Guire; or between the heirs of Lord Clanrickard and thofe Irish perfons of quality, who, after the battle, in cold blood, he executed in camp-?-- Or in brief, why did not James the Second's parliamentary committee, in 1689, travel up to thefe reigns with the inveftigation of their Court of Claims--and why did they stop at 48 years? The reafon is obvious: they found infuperable bars which rendered all inveftigation nugatory: They found it would give rife to unceasing inteftine divifion among themselves: they found that poffeffion for a century had too fteadily rooted the occupiers of the day, for them ever to be fhaken by parliamentary enquiry: and that the lapfe of one hundred years had even defeated all investigation, who the real ufurpers were, or where they were to be found, amid the change, alienation, violence, or purchase of mingled friends and adversaries---and such as were the reigns of James, and Charles 1ft, to our Catholic anceftors, are now become to the Catholicks of the prefent day, the forfeitures of King William, and his ftatute of affumption of lands, in 1692.-- Our Catholic ancestors, in 1689, when under the influence of violent antipathy against their Proteftant foes, found upon an investigation fo folemn as a parliamentary inquest, that they could carry up their enquiry no higher than 48 years: D Now, Now, our Catholic brethren of the prefent day, fuppofing them in parliament, as I hope to fee them before the close of the prefent century, CANNOT INSTITUTE ANY ENQUIRY AT ALL, unless they travel back one hundred and five years; for within that period there have been no forfeitures and this fuperlatively hoftile measure, which their ancestors relinquifhed, when in arms, and aided by a foreign force, they are now to undertake, when cemented with us in friendship, and under obligations to us for liberty;----which is to fay, that in the bofom of peace, cordiality, and mutual intereft, in a fituation of quiet, of enrichment, and of general confidence, THE CATHOLICKS reftored from political diffolution to the life of liberty, and to the elevation of freemen, are to hazard their happiness, and to ftain their reputation by a distracted enthufiafm of grafping at that which, one hundred years ago, their ancestors, in profperity, deemed to be chimerical: and under the fanction and funshine of their monarch's prefence, rejected as an enterprize utterly unattainable.I fear it not--and I believe, that the Catholicks of the present day, are, like myself, living in the termination of the eighteenth century, and not at the commencement of fixteen hundred, the date of the existence of families, enumerated in this mulitated, chronological fragment.-- And here a corollary irrefiftibly obtrudes itfelf, as growing out of the matter which I have already related." That the leading maxim of British policy has ever been-to govern Ireland by inteftine divifion: And that in confequence of ty ranny, fo treacherous, and fo fanguinary, we can be little aftonished at any deed however extravagant, or any maffacre however enormous, to which this perfecuted nation fhould have had recourfe in their defpair !----Hunted like brute animals over their native plains, and fomented against each other by the governors of the island, who, awaking and nourishing every malignant paffion, flimulated them to bathe in the carnage of each other; thus performing the office of the great enemy of man, inftead of difcharging the high commiffion of fupreme and impartial adminiftrators of juftice! Who of us can wonder, or who will venture to difapprove, had the natives of the country fworn unceafing enmity against the British name; and deluged the ifland in the blood of their oppreffors! But let it be supposed, that with Cromwell, finally, an inquifition of this nature is a fecond time. to commence----in what fituation are, then, to be placed, or under what class of ufurpers are then to be arranged, the prefent Catholicks, who now Occupy more than the half of the province of Conaught, and almost all Clare ;-where their mife rable ancestors were compelled to retire, when they were driven out of Munster by the impla cable Ludlow ?----To what body of Catholicks is that extenfive territory now to be adjudged? What is become of thofe terrifying Catholic natives of Conaught, refident there a hundred years before, as fpecified in the map? They muft have been all turned out for thofe unfortunate, intruding exiles from Munfler, difpoffeffed the natives of Conaught of an immenfe divifion of country, to which territory the title of their children or reprefentatives, at this moment, is at least of as modern a date, as that of the debenturers can poffibly be to theirs-Where is the foundation here of an adjustment of property among the reprefentatives of thefe difcordant Irish D 2 men? |