BOOK I. 1650 The English of Munster, who had hitherto held with Ormond, seeing now how events were turning, with one consent went over to the conqueror. Sir Charles Coote, in December, reduced the northern Presbyterians. The Catholic bishops, in assumed horror of rebellion, continued to shriek against 'the malignant murder of King Charles.' Emer MacMahon, Bishop of Clogher, joint conspirator with Sir Phelim O'Neill, made head in Coleraine. Coote set upon him, defeated and took him prisoner, and the next day hung him, and set his head on the gates of Londonderry. Cromwell himself, after breaking the neck of the coalition, went back to England; but others were easily able to finish the meal which Cromwell had carved. Ormond, now desperate, a second time left Ireland. Prince Rupert had gone long before. Clanrickarde still struggled feebly; but those who were loudest for fighting to the last were manoeuvring secretly to make private terms for themselves. 'The Irish,' said Castlehaven,' are so false that nobody is to be trusted; either the husband or the wife are treating with the enemy, and in their camp.' The Duke of Lorraine was appealed to passionately for help in the name of the young King. The Duke answered coolly, 'that his majesty had nothing in Ireland to treat for.' In the spring of 1652, Galway, the last stronghold which the Irish held, capitulated to Coote. Ross Castle, on Killarney, continued defiant, and was thought impregnable; but Ludlow carried a vessel over the mountains in pieces, launched and armed it, and Ross gave in. Lord Muskerry and Lord Westmeath, who were in the mountains, laid down their arms, and all was over. The remnant of the Ulster murderers who had ; II. 1652 survived the wars, remained to be brought to late CHAP. justice. A High Court of Justice, under General Fleetwood, was held at Kilkenny, in the hall of the assembly, to try them. Sir Phelim O'Neill and two hundred others were convicted and executed. All the rest had been consumed in a war, the waste of life in which, compared with the population of the country exposed to its ravages, stands unparalleled in the annals of mankind. BOOK 1652-60 SECTION VI. IRELAND was now a blank sheet of paper, on which the English Commonwealth might write what characters they pleased. Owing to the double character which the rebellion had assumed, there was scarcely a Catholic landowner who had not, in one form or other, exposed his property to confiscation. The royalist English families who had gone with Ormond were in no better condition; and it was neither reasonable nor tolerable that the cost of restoring peace should be thrown on the taxpayers of England. The common sense of all nations declares, that those who risk the game of insurrection shall pay the penalty of failure, and the enormous misery created by civil war renders the punishment of it imperative on the conquerors. The generosity of motive, or the mistaken sense of duty, which may prompt men to take arms against their government, exempts them from the personal detestation which is the due of baser criminals; but the character of those misleading influences makes severity more necessary, as a counterweight to imaginative seductions. No government deserves to exist which permits those who have defied its authority to suffer no worse consequences than disappointment, and to remain with unimpaired means to renew the struggle at another opportunity. The character of landed tenures-it cannot be too often repeated-renders forfeiture the appropriate retribution. Private ownership in land is permitted because Government cannot be omnipresent, and II. personal interest is found, on the whole, an adequate CHAP. security that land so held shall be administered to the general advantage. But seeing that men are born 1652–60 into the world without their own wills, and, being in the world, they must live upon the earth's surface, or they cannot live at all, no individual, or set of individuals, can hold over land that personal and irresponsible right which is allowed them in things of less universal necessity. They may obtain estates by purchase. They may receive them as rewards of service, or inherit them from their ancestors. But the possession, however acquired, carries with it honourable and inseparable consequences in the respect, the deference, or even positive obedience which the possessor receives from the dependants by whose hands those estates are cultivated, and with the privilege is involved the responsibility. To some extent at present-to a far greater extent two centuries ago -the owner of the soil was the master of the fortunes and the guide of the allegiance of his tenants. He was an officer of the commonwealth-the natural governor of tens, hundreds, or thousands of human beings committed to his charge. If he was false to his trust, the sovereign power resumed its rights, which it had never parted with; and either sold or gave his interest, and his authority along with it, to others who would better discharge the duties expected of them. Times are changing, and such theories may be passing out of date. At best they could never be acted upon more than approximately. In violent convulsions however, when existing organizations are torn in pieces, principles form the only guide. The Irish proprietors had become intolerable. They were dismissed, and their room was supplied by better men. BOOK I. It will be remembered that, in 1642, the English Parliament, in consequence of the dimensions which 1652-60 the rebellion had then assumed, confiscated between two and three million acres of Irish soil. Debenture bonds were issued payable in land when the country should be reconquered. Bonds for a million acres had been taken up, and money had been raised on them, for the troops sent to Ireland previous to Cromwell's arrival. Similar debentures were issued afterwards for Cromwell's own army, not thrown upon the market like the first, but given to the soldiers in lieu of their pay, and the time was come when all these engagements were to be redeemed. The intention was, that the men who conquered Ireland should remain to hold it. The country was to be occupied, in old Roman fashion, by military colonies. The scheme, though admirable in conception, could only be executed imperfectly. Many of the soldiers, in want of money, had sold their bonds. Keen-eyed capitalists, like Dr. Petty, hung about the army, and the sale of debentures became a trade. The officers bought from the men, the men bought from one another. The thrifty and prudent kept their claims, the improvident and careless were weeded out. Vast numbers, however, remained. Adventurers came from England to take the place of those who were unwilling to stay. There was a fair prospect that Munster and Leinster might be settled and occupied as completely as the six counties had been. The whole country was carefully surveyed; and a court was established to examine the claims, and assign every bondholder his share. The principles of the Cromwellian settlement were generally these. The surviving population was esti |