Archeological Society in the first volume of their Tracts relating to Ireland, a small work entitled "A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND, MADE IN THE YEAR 1589 BY ROBERT PAYNE; from which I select two extracts that confirm strongly the praises bestowed upon the Irish love of justice :'Nothing is more pleasing unto them, than to 'heare of good Justices [placed amongst them. They have a common saying which I am per'suaded they speake unfeinedly, which is, Defend me and spend me: meaning from the oppres'sion of the worser sorte of our countriemen: they are obedient to the laws; so that you may tra'vel through all the land without any danger or 'injurie offered of the verye worst Irish, AND BE GREATLY RELEEVED OF THE BEST."-Page 4.

My next quotation is peculiarly interesting at the present moment. It shows what the Corporations of Ireland were in Catholic times, before Protestantism and Exclusion were the ruling impulses

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'BUT AS TOUCHING THEIR GOVERNMENT IN THEIR CORPORATIONS WHERE THEY BEARE RULE, IS DONE 'WITH SUCH WISDOME, EQUITY, AND JUSTICE, AS DEMERITS WORTHY COMMENDATIONS. For I myself 'divers times have seene in severall places within 'their jurisdictions wel near twenty causes de'cided at one sitting, with such indifferencie that 'for the most parte both plaintife and defendant ' hath departed contented: yet manie that make 'show of peace, and desireth to live by blood, doe utterly mislike this or any good thing that the poore Irish man dothe.'-Ibid.

There is nothing new under the sun. The tranquillity which existed in Ireland, whilst the the disposition of the Melbourne Government was evinced to administer the laws impartially, had been found at former periods to arise from precisely a similar cause. Sir John Perrot had endeavoured to show the Irish impartial justice, and Hooker, who in some of his writings bestows on the Irish unmeasured vituperation and abuse, yet says that at the close of Sir John Perrot's ad. ministration

Let us listen to Sir John Davies upon this subject, and one will immagine it is the Attorney. General of the Melbourne Government who speaks

Spencer's Ireland.

These now are all noble traits in the character of the Irish people. Fidelity-proof against every temptation of bribery or torture; fidelity which nothing could buy, and which nothing could intimidate! Piety and goodness whilst her people adhered' (and they do yet adhere) to the religion of their forefathers.' But above all, transcendently stands the glorious title, LOVERS OF JUSTICE-LOVERS OF EQUAL AND IMPARTIAL JUSTICE.'-Lovers of justice, not only when they obtain it for themselves; but loving it so dearly that they are satisfied with its execution even when against themselves! Military valor not excelled by any nation in existence! And upon whose testimony is it, that the Irish claim the glory of these qualities? From the testimony of strangers, aliens, enemies! I challenge the world to produce an instance of such praise bestowed on any nation by persons not themselves interested in, or connected with such praise.

It may be objected that near 300 years have elapsed since these praises were bestowed; and that the Irish may have much changed since that period. But what says the truth of history? What does it exhibit in that period? The Irish have been since severely tried in the furnace of affliction; they have been assailed with treachery and persecution; and yet they have exhibited the most unalterable fidelity to the faith which they in their consciences preferred. No money could bribe-no torture could compel them to forsake the allegiance which they owed to their God.Compare their conduct in this respect with that of any other nation under the sun; and admit (for truth compels the admission) that the glory of religious fidelity supereminently belongs to the people of Ireland. You may say, perhaps, that their faith was erroneous, their creed mistaken, and their practice superstitious. Suppose it were Yet their fidelity was religious; it was attachment to the religion they deemed the true one; and this national trait of their character ought not to be tarnished even in the opinion of those who do not agree with them as to its object. It will not be thus tarnished in the mind of any just

So.

or generous man.

Again, we perceived, during the late administration, the same respect paid to the attempt on the part of the Irish Government to purify the administration of justice; the same tranquility follows, from the hope of having justice adminis

Again, behold the national movement in favor of temperance. There are more than five millions pledged to total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors. What nation upon the face of the earth can afford such an example as this? But it may be said that this temperance movement is transitory. To those who may say so I reply, that the first trait in the Irish character is fideli

ty of purpose-fidelity superior to corruption, to force, and to temptation! I do therefore feel it my duty solemnly to declare, that the people of Ireland, the lovers of impartial justice, stand su. perior in their national characteristics to the inhabitants of any other country on the face of the globe. I am, therefore, proud of my fatherland. Nor is it the less dear to me because of the evils that have been inflicted upon it, the oppression it has endured, and the tyranny that it has nearly survived:

"More dear in thy sorrow, thy gloom, and thy showers, Than the rest of the world in their sunniest hours." Nor is it the less loved by me, because of the slavery that has been treacherously imposed upon

it:

"No! thy chains as they rankle, thy blood as it runs,
But make thee more painfully dear to thy sons!
Whose hearts, like the young of the desert-bird's nest,
Drink love in each life-drop that flows from thy breast."

IT will have been observed, that the alteration in religion, commonly, but most improperly, called The Reformation'-for it cannot seriously be called a Reformation at all-occurred in the period included in the first chapter. But I have designedly omitted all mention of it; having reserved it for a separate and distinct consideration. When Luther commenced the great schism of the sixteenth century, all Christendom was Catholic. Ireland of course, was so. It has indeed been so said-for what will not religious bigotry say?— that the Catholic church in Ireland did not recog. nize the authority of the Pope, and was severed from the Church of Rome. This assertion was gravely brought forward by Archbishop Usher, who was indeed its principal fabricator. But the Right Rev. Dr. Milner has distinctly shown that there is the most conclusive historical evidence in the works of Usher himself, to demonstrate the utter falsehood of his own assertion. And there is a curious incident belonging to this controversy which occurred before Milner wrote; namely, that the credit of Usher's assertion having been much impugned, a grandson of his, a Protestant Clergyman, determined to confute the impugners of his grandfather's statement; and, with that view, carefully examined the authorities upon the subject; when, to his utmost surprise, he discovered the total falsehood of that statement! Being led by this circumstance to examine the other points of difference between the Catholics and Protestants, he ended by giving up his living, resigning his gown as a Protestant clergyman, and embracing the profession of a Catholic priest.

It has been often remarked that in all the countries into which Protestantism entered, it owed its introduction to men remarkable for the badness of their character and the greatness of their vices. Protestantism was not more fortunate in Ireland than it was elsewhere. It owed its introduction into Ireland, as it did into England, to the foul passions of Henry the Eighth; but in Ireland its principal patron was Archbishop Browne, (as he is called; but his title to the Archbishopric would not have stood canonical investigation.) The Act of Supremacy-that act which so absurdly vested in the King-and such a king-spiritual powerwas passed by a gross and glaring fraud. The proetors of the clergy had, from the commence

ment of the parliaments held in Ireland, been re. ceived as members of that body. It would have been impossible to pass the Act of Supremacy if they had remained in the house. Henry the Eighth made short work of the matter-he_expelled them! He procured them an Act of Parliament making it high treason to dispute the validity of the marriage of the wretched Ann Boleyn, or the legitimacy of her child. He soon afterward procured another Act of Parliament by which it was made treason to assert that validity or legitimacy! That was the mode in which Protestantism was made the law of the land!

It is curious enough that the Act of Uniformity was passed in Ireland by another gross and ludicrous trick. The historian* informs us, that

'It was passed by the artifice of one Mr. Stany'hurst of Corduff, then Speaker of the Irish Com'mons, who, being in the reforming interest, pri'vately got together, on a day when the house was not to sit, a few such members as he knew to be favorers of that interest, and consequently in the absence of all those who he believed 'would have opposed it. But that these absent members having understood what passed at that secret convention, did soon after, in a full and 'regular meeting of the parliament, enter their 'protests against it: upon which the Lord Lieu'tenant assured many of them in particular, with 'protestations and oaths, that the penalties of that 'statute should never be inflicted; which they, 'too easily believing, suffered it to remain as it 'was. This, adds my author, I have often heard 'for certain truth from many ancient people, who 'lived at that time; and I am the more inclined 'to believe it, because the Lord Lieutenant's pro•mise was so far kept that this law was never generally executed during the remainder of Queen Elizabeth's reign;—that is,' observes 'Curry on the foregoing passage, until all, or 'most of those members were probably dead, to 'whom such promise had been given."

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'Sir Christopher Nugent asserted publicly be'fore the King, the traditional report of the Irish, that this statute was passed in the fraudulent manner above mentioned.'-Analecta Sacra, p. 431.

It is right to observe that these Acts of Parliament were operative only upon a small portion of the inhabitants of Ireland; only ten counties being represented, and the entire number of members of the House of Commons did not exceed

from sixty to eighty. It is unnecessary to say, that so far as the English dominion extended, persecution was vigorous. The utmost cruelty was exercised to the extent of the power of the English Government. Doctor Johnson says that there is no instance even in the ten persecutions equal to the severity which the Protestants of Ireland have exercised against the Catholics. This is literally true wherever the English power extended. The reign of Edward the Sixth was marked by the intensity with which the system of attempting to Protestantize Ireland was carried on.

published several years ago by Mr. William Parnell-a Protestant gentleman of high station— the brother of a Cabinet Minister:

'A still more striking proof that the Irish Ro'man Catholics, in Queen Mary's reign, were 'very little infected with religious bigotry, may 'be drawn from their conduct towards the Pro'testants, when the Protestants were at their 'mercy.'

Were we to argue from the representations of 'the indelible character of the Catholic religion, 'as pourtrayed by its adversaries, we should have 'expected that the Irish Catholics would exer'cise every kind of persecution which the double 'motives of zeal and retaliation could suggest :the Catholic laity, in all the impunity of tri'umphant bigotry, hunting the wretched heretics 'from their hiding places-the Catholic clergy 'pouring out the libation of human blood at the 'shrine of the God of mercy, and acting before 'high heaven those scenes which make the angels 6 weep.

'But on the contrary; though the religious feelings ' of the Irish Catholics, and their feelings as men, ‘had been treated with very little ceremony dur'ing two preceding reigns, they made a wise and 'moderate use of their ascendency. THEY EN

TERTAINED NO RESENTMENT FOR THE PAST: THEY LAID NO PLANS FOR FUTURE DOMINATION.

'Even Leland allows that the only instance of popish zeal, was annulling grants that Archbishop Browne had made, to the injury of the See of Dublin; and certainly this step was full as agreeable to the rules of law and equity, as to 'popish zeal.

The assertors of the Reformation during the preceding reigns, were every way unmolested; or, as the Protestant historian chooses to term it, were allowed to sink into obscurity and neglect. 'Such was the general spirit of toleration, that 6 MANY ENGLISH FAMILIES, FRIENDS TO THE REFORMATION, TOOK REFUGE IN IRELAND, AND THERE 6 ENJOYED THEIR OPINIONS AND WORSHIP WITHOUT

MOLESTATION.

'The Irish Protestants, vexed that they could 'not prove a single instance of bigotry against 'the Catholics, in this their hour of trial, invented 'a tale, as palpably false as it is childish, of an intended persecution, (but a persecution by the English Government, not by the Irish Catholics,) ' and so much does bigotry pervert all candor and 'taste, that even the Earl of Cork, Archbishop Usher, and in latter times, Dr. Leland, were not ' ashamed to support the silly story of Dean Cole ' and the Knave of Clubs!

'How ought these perverse and superficial men 'to blush, who have said that the Irish Roman 'Catholics must be bigots and rebels from the very nature of their religion, and who have ad'vanced this falsehood in the very teeth of fact, contrary to the most distinct evidence of his'tory!

The_Irish Roman Catholics bigots? THE IRISH ROMAN CATHOLICS ARE THE ONLY SECT • THAT EVER RESUMED POWER WITHOUT EXERCIS'ING VENGEANCE!

'tears? Has this been the conduct of the Irish 'Protestants?'-Parnell's Historical Apology, pp. 35-37.

In the wretched history of dissension and cruelty from the period of the Reformation to the present moment, there is no instance in which any people, Catholic or Protestant, have been entitled to such a meed of approbation as the Irish Catholics. There is no other such instance. Protestantism can boast of nothing of the kind-nor can the Catholics of any other state in the known world, give such a practical proof of Christian liberality. What a contrast between the English and the Irish Catholics. You find the English Protestants flying from English Catholic persecution, and receiving refuge, shelter, and security in Ireland. Queen Mary's persecution of Protestants leaned very heavily on Bristol. And, accordingly, the merchants of Dublin, being Catholics, and then forming the corporation, are known to have hired no less than seventy-four furnished houses which they filled with English Protestant refugees from Bristol and its vicinage. They lodged themthey fed them-they maintained them, and sent them back safe and sound to England, when the death of Mary restored Protestantism to power there; and enabled the English Protestants to retaliate with sevenfold severity on their Catholic countrymen; and-shame upon English Protestants to make use of that power-again unrelentingly to persecute the generous and liberal Cathotics of Ireland !

Let me give another quotation from a modern Protestant writer of very considerable literary merit and discrimination. When this writer comes to treat of the reign of Queen Mary, he has the following passage :—

1553. The restoration of the old religion was ' effected without violence; no persecution of the 'Protestants was attempted; and SEVERAL OF THE 'ENGLISH, WHO FLED FROM THE FURIOUS ZEAL OF MARY'S INQUISITORS, FOUND A SAFE RETREAT AMONG THE CATHOLICS OF IRELAND. It is but 'justice to this maligned body to add, that on the three occasions of their obtaining the upper hand,

THEY NEVER INJURED A SINGLE PERSON IN LIFE OR 'LIMB FOR PROFESSING A RELIGION DIFFERENT

FROM THEIR OWN. They had suffered persecution and learned mercy, as they showed in the reign of Mary, in the wars from 1641 to 1648, and during the brief triumph of James II.'Taylor's History of Civil Wars of Ireland, vol. I. p. 169.

I cannot better conclude my observations upon Catholic liberality, than by giving an extract from the historian Leland; whose prejudices and whose interests made him necessarily most inimical to the Catholic people and their religion. He, in fact, confirms every thing I have said respecting the liberality exhibited by the Irish Catholics during the melancholy reign of Queen Mary. If anything could silence the rancorous malignity with which the Irish people are persecuted in their character as well as in their property, it would be this distinct admission of their perfect tolerance to Protestants during the reign of Queen Mary; an admission proceeding from so powerful an adversary as Dr. Leland. I give his words: The spirit of popish zeal, which glutted all its vengeance in England, was, in Ireland thus

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