place will not follow that course of government which his predecessors held, either for disdane of himself, or doubt to have his doings drowned in another man's praise, but will straight take a way quite contrary to the former: as if the former thought by keeping under the Irish to reforme them; the next, by discountenancing the English, will curry favour with the Irish, and so make his government seem plausible, as having the Irish at his command. But he that comes after will perhaps follow neither the one nor the other, but will dandle the one and the other in such sort, as he will sucke sweet out of them both and leave bitternesse to the poor country." Our modern plan, it must be confessed, improves upon the distraction of this, for not only have we Governors of discordant politics succeeding each other, but every new Governor is provided with a Secretary to differ with him for the time being, and both receive their instructions from a Cabinet, not one member of which agrees with another. If this is not sounding the pitch-pipe of discord, Captain Rock has no ear for that kind of music. I have thus selected, cursorily and at random, a few features of the reigns preceding the Reformation, in order to show what good use was made of those three or four hundred years, in attaching the Irish people to their English governors; and by what a gentle course of alteratives they were prepared for the inoculation of a new religion, which was now about to be attempted upon them by the same skilful and friendly hands. Henry the VIIth appears to have been the first monarch to whom it occurred, that matters were not managed exactly as they ought in this part of his dominions; and we find him-with a simplicity, which is still fresh and youthful among our rulers-expressing his surprise that "his subjects of this land should be so prone to faction and rebellion, and that so little advantage had been hitherto derived from the acquisitions of his predecessors, notwithstanding the fruitfulness and natural advantages of Ireland." Surprising, indeed, that a policy such as we have been describing should not have converted the whole country into a perfect Atalantis of happiness.-should not have made it like the imaginary island of Sir Thomas More, where “tota insula velut una familia est!"-most stubborn, truly, and ungrateful must that people be, upon whom, up to the very hour in which I write, such a long and unvarying course of penal laws, confiscations, and Insurrection Acts has been tried, without making them, in the least degree, in love with their rulers! Heloisa tells her tutor, Abelard, that the correction which he inflicted upon her only increased the ardour of her affection for him;-but bayonets and hemp are no such "amoris stimuli.” One more characteristic anecdote of those times, and I have done. At the battle of Knocktow, in the reign of Henry VII., when that remarkable man, the Earl of Kildare, assisted by the great O'Neal and other Irish chiefs, gained a victory over Clanricard of Connaught, most important to the English Government, Lord Gormanstown, after the battle, in the first insolence of success, said, turning to the Earl of Kildare, "we have slaughtered our enemies, but, to complete the good deed, we must proceed yet further, and-cut the throats of those Irish of our own party." Who can wonder that the ROCK Family were active in those times? * Leland gives this anecdote on the authority of an Englishman. CHAPTER IV. 1509-1553. Reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI.-Gentle methods of introducing the Reformation into Ireland.— Parallel between Bishop Bale and Archbishop Magee. -Unchangeableness of the Irish.-Versatility of the English. HENRY the Eighth, who was as fond of theology as of dancing, * executed various pirouettes in the former line, through which he, rather unreasonably, compelled the whole nation to follow him ; and, difficult as it was to keep pace with his changes, either as believer, author, or husband, or know which of his creeds he wished to be maintained, which of his books he wished to be believed, or which of his wives he wished not to be beheaded, the people of England, to do them justice, obeyed every signal of his caprice with a suppleness quite wonderful, and danced the hays with their monarch and his unfortunate wives through every * "Sir W. Molyneux (says Lloyd) got in with King Henry the Eighth, by a discourse out of Aquinas in the morning, and a dance at night."-State Worthies. variety of mystery and murder, into which Thomas Aquinas and the executioner could lead them. But they, upon whom a blessing falls, have no right to be particular as to the source from whence it comes; and though (as Gray with infinite gallantry expresses it) 'Twas Love that taught this monarch to be wise, And Gospel light first beam'd from Boleyn's eyesthough the Faith, thus derived, has preserved, ever since, the "varium semper et mutabile" character of its source, yet that it was a blessing to England and her liberties, even Captain ROCK-all Papist as he is-will not deny. The very variety and mutableness of English Protestantism is congenial with the spirit of Civil Liberty, which delights to follow the branching rivulets of opinion, and has always found her harvests most rich where these meandering streams most freely circulate. * But the Irish were not to be dragooned into * I beg to direct the attention of the reader to the remarkable liberality here displayed by Captain Rock. I must say, indeed, that in the course of my short-acquaintance with the Captain, I found him, upon all subjects (except that of Church property), a perfect gentleman-resembling, in this respect, most of his brother-heroes, among whom there is scarcely one, Qui, s'il ne violoit, voloit, tuoit, brûloit,. EDITOR. |