wholesale slaughters, the planned murders, the concerted massacres, which have been inflicted upon the Irish people by the English Govern. ments. I HUMBLY inscribe the following Memoir to || faith, and of the sanctity of treaties, the ordinary Her most gracious Majesty the Queen; not in the shape of a dedication, or with the presumptuous hope of my being able to produce any work of sufficient interest to occupy the Royal mind. Yet, there is nothing more desirable than that the Sovereign of these realms should understand the real nature of Irish history; should be aware of how much the Irish have suffered from English misrule; should comprehend the secret springs of Irish discontent; should be acqainted with the eminent virtues which the Irish nation have exhi. bited in every phasis of their singular fate; and, above all, should be intimately acquainted with the confiscations, the plunder, the robbery, the domestic treachery, the violation of all public It has pleased the English people in general to forget all the facts in Irish history. They have been also graciously pleased to forgive themselves all those crimes! And the Irish people would forgive them likewise, if it were not that much of the worst spirit of the worst days still survives. The system of clearance of tenants at the present day, belongs to, and is a demonstration of, that hatred of the Irish people which animated the advice of Spenser and the conduct of Cromwell. It is quite true that at the present day Judges are not bribed with "four shillings in the pound,' -prime favorites at the Castle, countenanced to be paid out of the property in dispute; but, and sustained as the nucleus of that anti-Irish facmay not prejudice and bigotry produce unjust tion which would once again transplant the Cathjudgments, as well as pecuniary corruption?-olics of Ireland to the remotest regions, if that And, are those persons free from reproach, or faction had the power to do so; and which actufrom guilt, who are ready to select for the Bench || ally drives those Catholics to transport themselves of justice, men whose sole distinguishing charac-in multitudes to every country out of Ireland. teristic has been the exhibition of their animosity to the religion and to the people of Ireland? Did Stanley show none of the temper of Ireton in his Coercion Bill? Is none of the spirit of Coote or of Parsons to be found (in a mitigated form) in those who refuse to the Catholic people of Ireland their just share of elective or municipal franchises; and who insist that the Irish shall remain an inferior and a degraded caste, deprived of that perfect equality of civil and religious liberty of franchises and privileges-which equality could alone constitute a Union, or render a Union tolera. ble? The worst result of British prosperity is, the protection it gives to the hard-hearted and bigoted class among the Irish Landlords. It is also of the utmost importance that the Sovereign and Statesmen of England should be apprised that the people of Ireland know and feel that they have a deep and vital interest in the weakness and adversity of England. It was not for themselves alone that the Americans gained the victory over Burgoyne at Saratoga. They conquered for Irish as well as for American freedom. Nor was it for France alone that Dumourier defeated the Austrian army at Gemappe.The Catholics of Ireland participated in the fruits of that victory. At the present day it would be vain to attempt to conceal the satisfaction the people of Ireland feel at the fiscal embarrassments of England.— They bitterly and cordially regret the sufferings and privations of the English and Scotch artisans and operatives. But they do not regret the weak. ness of the English Government, which results from fading commerce and failing manufacture. For the woes of each suffering individual they have warm compassion and lively sympathy.— I wish to arouse the attention of the Sovereign and of the honest portion of the English people to the wrongs which Ireland has suffered, and which Ireland is suffering from British misrule. The Irish people are determined to preserve their alle. giance to the Throne unbroken and intact; but they are equally determined to obtain justice for themselves; to insist on the restoration of their native Parliament, and to persevere in that demand without violating the law; but also without remitting or relaxing their exertions, until the ob. ject is achieved and success attained. What the Sovereign and the Ssatesmen of EngFrom the consequent weakness of the Govern land should understand is, that the Dish: people feel and know, that there cannot happen a more heavy misfortune to Ireland than the prosperity and power of Great Britain When Britain is powerful, the anti-Irish faction in this country are encouraged, fostered, promoted; Irish rights are derided; the grievances of Ireland are scoffed at; we are compelled to receive stinted franchises or none; limited privileges, or none !-to submit to a political inferiority, rendered doubly afflictive by the contrast with the advantages enjoyed by the people of England and the people of Scotland. The Tory Landlord class-exterminators and all ment party, they derive no other feelings than those of satisfaction and of hope. Was ever folly-was ever fatuity so great, as is evinced in the system of governing such a country as Ireland in such a manner as to create and continue the sentiments and opinions which I have expressed, and feebly endeavored to describe? HER MAJESTY's most faithful, most devoted Subject, 1ST FEBRUARY, 1843. The proofs and illustrations in this Volume come down to the Restoration. The Second Volume will bring them down to the present period. NOTE BY THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS. The Second Volume of this work will be published in uniform style with the present one, immediately on its receipt from Dublin, and within six weeks after it is published in Ireland. that intervened between the commencement of the English dominion in 1172 and its completion in 1612, the Irish people were known only as the Irish Enemies." They were denominated' Irish Enemies' in all the Royal Proclamations, Royal Charters, and Acts of Parliament, during that period. It was their legal and technical descrip tion. §4. During that period the English were prohibited from intermarrying with the Irish, from having their children nursed by the wives of Irish Captains, Chiefs, or Lords; and what is still more strange, the English were also prohibited from sending goods, wares, or merchandizes for sale, or selling them upon credit or for ready mo ney to the Irish. SEC. 1. The English dominion in Ireland commenced in the year 1172. It was for some centuries extended over only an inconsiderable portion of the island. From various causes the English district or Pale sometimes augmented in size, sometimes diminished. It did not become generally diffused over Ireland until the last years of Queen Elizabeth, nor universally so, until shortly after the accession of King James the First. The success of the forces of Queen Eliz. abeth was achieved by means the most horrible; treachery, murder, wholesale massacre, and deliberately created famine. Take the last instance: the growing crops were year after year destroyed, until the fairest part of Ireland, and in particit lar the province of Munster, was literally depop. ulated. I give here one quotation. It is from the English Protestant historian Morrison: No 'spectacle was more frequent in the ditches of the 6. There was indeed this distinction, that if 'towns, and especially in wasted countries, thanative Irishman had made legal submission and to see multitudes of these poor people, the Irish, had been received into English allegiance, he dead, with their mouths all colored green by could no longer be murdered with impunity, for eating nettles, docks, and all things they could his murder was punishable by a small pecuniary rend above ground.' fine a punishment not for the moral crime of murdering a man, but for the social injury of depriving the State of a servant. Just as, at no remote period, the white man in several of our West Indian Colonies was liable to pay a fine for killing a negro, only because an owner was thereby deprived of a slave. Mark! Illustrious Lady-oh! mark! The most frequent spectacle was, multitudes of dead —of Irish dead-dead of hunger! Lady, after having endeavored to sustain life by devouring, after the fashion of the beasts of the field, the wild-growing herbs. They were dead in multitudes and none to bury them! This was the consummation of the subjugation of the Irish after a contest of 400 years. Never was a people on the face of the globe so cruelly treated as the Irish. § 2. The Irish people were not received into allegiance or to the benefit of being recognized as subjects until the year 1612, only 228 years ago, when the Statute 11 James I. cap. 5, was enact ed. That Statute abolished all distinctions of race between English and Irish, with the intent 'that,' as the Statute expresses it, they may grow into one nation, whereby there may be an utter 'oblivion and extinguishment of all former dif'ferences and discorde betwixt them.' § 3. During the four hundred and forty years, descent might murder a mere Irish man or woman 5. During that time any person of English with perfect impunity. Such murder was no more a crime in the eye of the law, than the killing of a rabid or ferocious animal. CHAPTER II. YEARS 1612-1625. 'Residue of the reign of King James the First.' SEC. 1. I have traced the first period of Anglo-Irish History by a few of its distinctive characteristics. It comprised a period of 440 years of internal war, rapine, and massacre. The second period consists only of thirteen years, but possesses an interest of a different and a deeper character. § 2. Unhappily there had grown up during the first period another, and alas! a more inveterate source of differences and discorde' between the people. I mean the Protestant Reformation. I am not now to give any opinion on the religious grounds of that all-important measure. I do not treat of it as a theologian. I speak of it merely historically, as a fact having results of a most influential nature. § 3. The native Irish universally, and the na tives of English descent generally, rejected the Reformation. It was embraced but by comparatively few, and thus the sources of differences and discorde' were perpetuated. The distinction of race was lost. Irish and English were amalgamated for the purpose of enduring spoil and oppression under the name of Catholics. The party which the English Government supported was composed of persons lately arrived in Ireland, men who, of course, took the name of 'Protestants.' § 4. The intent of the statute of 1612 was thus frustrated, the discorde' between the Protestant and the Catholic parties prevented the Irish from 'growing into one nation,' and still prevents them from being 'one nation.' The fault however has been and still is with the Government. Is it not time it were totally corrected? § 5. The reign of James the First was distinguished by crimes committed on the Irish people under the pretext of Protestantism. The entire of the province of Ulster was unjustly confisca ted, the natives were executed on the scaffold or slaughtered with the sword, a miserable remnant were driven to the fastnesses of remote mountains, or the wilds of almost inaccessible bogs.Their places were filled with Scotch adventurers, 'aliens in blood and in religion.' Devastation equal to that committed by King James in Ulster was never before seen in Christendom save in Ireland. In the Christian world there never was a people so cruelly treated as the Irish. § 6. The jurisdiction of Parliament being now extended all over Ireland, King James created in one day forty close boroughs, giving the right to elect two members of Parliament in each of these boroughs to thirteen Protestants, and this, in order to deprive his Catholic subjects of their. hatural and just share of representation. CHAPTER III YEARS 1625-1660. SEC. 1. The reign of Charles the First began under different auspices. The form of oppression and robbery varied-the substance was still the same. Iniquitous law took place of the bloody sword: the soldier was superseded by the judge; and for the names of booty and plunder, the words forfeiture and confiscation were substituted. The instrument used by the Government was the 'Commission to enquire into defective titles.' The King claimed the estates of the Irish people in three provinces. This commission was instituted to enforce that claim. It was a monstrous tribunal: an attempt was made to bribe juries to find for the Crown-that attempt failed. Then the Jurors, who hesitated to give verdicts against the people, were fined, imprisoned, ruined. The Judges were not so chary-they were bribedaye, bribed, with four shillings in the pound of the value of all lands recovered from the subjects by the Crown before such Judges. And so totally lost to all sense of justice or of shame was the perpetrator of this bribery, STRAFFORD, that he actually boasted, that he had thus made the Chief Baron and other Judges attend to the affair as if it were their own private business.' §2. By these unjust and wicked means the ministers of Charles the First despoiled for the use of the Crown, the Irish Catholic people of upwards of one million of arable acres, besides a considerably greater extent of land taken from the right owners, and granted to the rapacious individuals by whom the spoliation was effected. § 3. The civil war ensued. Forgetting all the crimes committed against them, the Irish Catholics adhered with desperate tenacity to the party of the King. The Irish Protestants, some sooner and others later, joined the usurping powers. § 4. During that civil war, the massacres committed on the Irish by St. Leger, Monroe, Tichbourne, Hamilton, Grenville, Ireton, and Cromwell, were as savage and as brutal, as the horrible feats of Attila or Ghengis Khan. § 5. In particular the history of the world presents nothing more shocking and detestable, than the massacres perpetrated by O'Brien, Lord Inchiquin in the Cathedral of Cashel; by Ireton, at Limerick, and by Cromwell in Drogheda and Wexford. § 6. When the war had ceased, Cromwell collected, as the first-fruits of peace, eighty thousand Irish in the southern parts of Ireland, to transplant them to the West India Islands. As many as survived the process of collection were embarked in transports for these islands. Of the eighty thousand, in six years, the survivors did not amount to twenty individuals!!! Eighty thousand Irish at one blow deliberately sacrificed, by a slow but steady cruelty, to the Moloch of English domination!!! Eighty thousand-Oh God of mercy! Yet all these barbarities ought to be deemed light and trivial, compared with the crowning cruelty of the enemies of Ireland. The Irish were refused civil justice. They were still more atrociously refused historical justice, and accused of being the authors and perpetrators of assassinations and massacres, of which they were only the victims. § 8. No people on the face of the earth were ever treated with such cruelty as the Irish. CHAPTER IV. YEARS 1660-1692. SEC 1. We are arrived at the Restoration-an event of the utmost utility to the English and Scotch royalists, who were justly restored to their properties. An event, which consigned irrevocably and for ever to British plunderers, and especially to the soldiers of Ireton and Cromwell, the properties of the Irish Catholic people, whose fathers had contended against the usurped powers to the last of their blood and their breath. § 2. The Duke of York, afterward James the Second, took to his own share of the plunder, about eighty thousand acres of lands belonging to Irish Catholics, whose cause of forfeiture was nothing more than that they had been the friends and supporters of his murdered father, and the enemies of his enemies. § 3. Yet such was in the Irish nation the in |