pelled to pay his sister's portion, who had now sunk under the affliction occasioned by his cruelty; that his country should be freed from English garrisons and sheriffs; that his troop of horse should be restored to him; and that all those who had ravaged his territory should be obliged to due restitution. O'Donnell next proceeded to expatiate on the treachery of Sir John Perrot, and the injuries he had received in a cruel and unmerited captivity. The severities of Fitz-William to O'Toole, Mac-Mahon, and O'Dogherty, were not forgotten. Every inferior chieftain had his grievances to urge; and all concurred in the same general demands of a free exercise of religion, and an exemption from garrisons and sheriffs. They were heard with temper: some of their allegations were confessed to be just; and some indulgence acknowledged to be reasonable. In the essential articles, they were informed, that no decision could be made, until the royal pleasure should first be signified. In the mean time some points were propounded on the queen's part, tending to suspend their hostilities, till an equitable accommodation should be finished. It was demanded, that the insurgents should lay down their arms, admit sheriffs into their country, repair the forts they had demolished, leave the English garrisons unmolested, restore what they had unjustly seized, discover upon oath their transactions with foreign princes, and, begging pardon for their present rebellion, solemnly promise for the future to enter into no engagements against their sovereign.

But these haughty lords, who in the condescen sions of government discerned its fears and weakness, rejected such overtures with disdain; and broke up the congress, consenting only to a truce of a few days."*

This account is pretty near the truth, saving that an English bias in the writer is prevalent. This war is called petty, because every thing Irish must be either petty, barbarous, or even savage. The negotiation with the northerns was, the effect of a weak temporizing policy, for the same reason; because the impertinent fellows ought to be crushed at once: and because a learned book-bred gentleman, two centuries after the scene, claims deference to his own superior judgment, in censuring the policy of Elizabeth and her counsellors, such statesmen as Bacon, Cecil and Walsingham. They did not consider the war petty, but very serious and formidable, as it really proved in the result. Elizabeth was mortified at the disgrace and expence that accompanied her arms in Ireland, while she reaped glory and emolument from her wars in France and the Netherlands. The offer of peace only proves the wisdom of the English cabinet, and the temporary superiority of the northern Irish in arms. Their demands, and the influence of their example on the rest of Ireland, concur with the pacific offers to prove their success, though we have no exact detail of the military operations of the campaign of 1595. A cessation of arms

Leland, Vol. II. Book IV. c. iv. p. 334.

was every thing to the English, whose resources were at some distance from the scene of action, and whose intrigues might profit of the interval, to detach some members from the sand-rope confederacy of Irish chieftains. It was, on the part of the Irish, weak and temporizing policy, to grant a truce, as long as they remained masters of the field, until they obtained substantial pledges for the fulfilment of articles, agreed to by their adversaries only to gain time and opportunity for infringing them.

The oppressions, spoliations and cruelties, practised in Leinster, Munster and Connaught, had considerably broken and disheartened the inhabitants, but left a sore spirit of discontent rankling in their bosoms, ready to burst into flame, whensoever any prospect of revenge or redress appeared. The success and solicitations of the northerns stirred up partizans in these provinces, who might make useful diversions. They had a common cause, as well as a common country to defend. The free exercise of their religion, security for their lives, and the remnant of their properties, hitherto denied them, was a natural and just claim, though qualified insolence by party writers. The justice of their quarrel is partly confessed even by Leland, on the authority of Morryson, an hostile writer, who quotes Gen. Norris, commander-in-chief of the queen's forces.

"Norris had judgment and equity to discern, that the hostilities of the Irish had been provoked by several instances of wanton insolence and oppression; and as the deputy declared for a ri

VOL. II.

gourous prosecution of the rebels, he was the more tempted to adopt the opposite principle of lenient and conciliating measures, even though he had not duly weighed the hazard and toil of pursuing an enemy to their bogs and woods, repelling their tumultuary incursions, and guarding against sudden and desultory attacks. He marched however with the lord-deputy to the borders of Tyrone, at the expiration of the truce, with a force so terrifying to the Northerns, that the rebel earl abandoned the fort of Blackwater, set fire to the town of Dungannon, without sparing his own house, destroyed the adjacent villages, and retired to his woods, which then overspread those parts of Ulster, that have since experienced the effects of industry and cultivation. In this progress, Tirone and his principal associates were indicted, summoned, condemned in a regular procedure, and proclaimed traitors. But such was the distress occasioned by their laying the country waste, that the lord-deputy was soon obliged to return to Dublin, having first stationed garrisons at Armagh and Monaghan, which latter place had been reduced, and was now abandoned by the enemy. According to his instructions, Sir John Norris was left with part of the royal army, on the borders of Ulster, to prosecute the war against the Northerns, while the lord-deputy professed to march against the insurgents of Leinster."*

Both parties were wearied of the war, but looked for terms hardly attainable, and preca*Leland, Vol. II. Book IV. c. iv. p. 337.

rious if attained. Security for the uti possidetis, was sought by the northerns, with regard to temporals and spirituals. Submission to her authority, ecclesiastical, civil and military, was the main object of Elizabeth; which, for the present, she was obliged to postpone. Deeply engaged with her principal antagonist, Philip, in the wars of France and the Netherlands, where fame and emolument was often reaped by her forces, she was confounded and mortified, at the disgrace, losses and expence, attending her Irish wars, though conducted by Norris, one of the most distinguished generals of his age. Glad to disengage herself, at any rate, from a vexatious, losing contest, until she had leisure to prosecute it with all her power, she sent commissioners to treat with the chieftains at war. These did not want motives for a cessation of hostilities. Their territory, become the theatre of war, was wasted, even by their own defensive measures; which, added to at least partial neglect of agriculture, menaced scarcity. Philip, involved in the civil wars of France, was tardy in sending the promised succours; and the consecrated feather of a pretended Phenix, seat by the holy father, was but a poor substitute for the sincw of war. The conference was held in an open plain, near Dundalk, where a treaty of peace was signed, the terms of which I cannot admit, nor insert, from such biassed writers as Morrison and Leland; suffice it to say concerning it, that the treaty, not long after its conclusion, was violated by the English, a l'Anglois.