be denied that the infancy of the law among us was distinguished by a similar precociousness of talent. Why, then, were my countrymen so quiet during this reign? and how did it happen that under such genial influence of persecution and robbery, the Rocks did not flourish with more than wonted luxuriance? This is a problem which has puzzled historians.* Mr. O'Halloran considers it to have been a matter of sentiment. "King James," he says, "was a descendant of our great ancestor Milesius; and therefore (like the Irishman lately, who was nearly murdered on Saint Patrick's day, but forgave his assailantin honour of the saint,') we bore it all quietly in honour of Milesius." Sir John Davies takes a different view of the matter, and is of opinion that "braying people, as it were, in a mortar with sword and pestilence," is the only way to make them peaceable and comfortable. "Whereupon," says this right-thinking attorney-general, "the multitude being brayed, 66 * "The old Irish lords," says LELAND, in endeavouring to account for this tranquillity, were now deeply impressed with the miseries of Tyrone's rebellion, their power and consequence diminished, without arms to furnish the remains of their followers at home, and without hopes of succour from abroad." as it were, in a mortar with sword, famine, and pestilence together, submitted themselves to the English government, received the laws and magistrates, and most gladly embraced King James's pardon and peace in all parts of the realm with demonstrations of joy and comfort." How little, at all times, have the Irish been aware, that it was solely to produce "demonstrations of joy and comfort" that this process of braying in a mortar has so frequently been tried upon them.-"Felices, sua si bona norint !” Whatever may have been the cause of this preternatural tranquillity, it is certain that it did exist to such an unaccountable degree, that the mock-conspiracy already alluded to, and a short burst of rebellion under a gentleman, whom Hume introduces to us by the foreign name of Odogartie, but who turns out (like little Flanigan disguised in "the blue and gold") to be no other than simple Mr. O'Dogherty, were the only signs of life exhibited by my ancestors, through the whole of this penal and oppressive reign. May it not have been the management of Parliaments (a game at which both court and country were now, for the first time, learning to play) that a good deal diverted the attention of the people from more violent modes of asserting their rights? * This experiment, like the beginnings of steam navigation, was perilous, and accordingly the boiler exploded in the following reign. But, even at this early period, the use that might be made of such a machine against the people was clearly perceived, and the first rude essays of our political engineers in this line, if not instructive, are at least amusing. Thus, in order to procure a majority for those penal statutes which were proposed in the Irish parliament of 1613, a number of new boroughs were hastily created, to which attorneys clerks, and some of the servants of the lord deputy were elected, and when a representation of this grievance, among others, was made to James, his kingly answer was :-"It was never before heard that any good subjects did dispute the king's power in this point. What is it to you whether I make many or few boroughs? My council may consider the fitness if I require it: but what if I had created forty noblemen and four hundred boroughs? The more the merrier, the fewer the better cheer." * Strafford, too, in the following reign, seems to have made an equally unceremonious stride towards parliamentary influence :-"I shall labour," he says, in one of his letters, to make as many captains and officers burgesses in this parliament as I possibly can; who, having immediate dependence upon the crown, may almost sway the business between the two parties which way they please." Mathematicians (says Rabelais) allow the same horoscope to princes and to fools; and, however irreverent the notion may be, there are times when one is inclined to think the mathematicians right. The impatience naturally felt by the adherents of the Rock family at the unusual tranquillity which prevailed during this period, has been well expressed by one of my ancestors, in a spirited Irish ode, of which I have ventured to translate the opening stanzas, though without the least hope of being able to give any adequate idea of the abrupt and bursting energy of the original. "RUPES Sonant carmina."-VIRGIL. Where art thou, Genius of Riot? Where is thy yell of defiance? Why are the Sheas and O'Shaughnessies quiet? Up from thy slumber, O'Branigan! Rouse the Mac Shanes and O'Haggarties! Courage, Sir Corney O'Toole !— be a man again— Oh! when rebellion 's so feasible, Where is the kern would be slinking off? CON OF THE BATTLES! what makes you so peaceable? CHAPTER VIII. 1625-1649. Reign of Charles I.-Lord Strafford.-Perfect Despotism. -Hume's Notions of the "innocent and laudable."Proposed Coalition between Captain Pock and the Emperor of Russia.-Fate of Strafford. LORD Strafford was a man whom the lovers of arbitrary power ought to canonize; for seldom has more lustre been thrown over their bad cause than by "those rare abilities of his (as Lord Digby well expressed it), of which God gave him the use, but the devil the application." His government in Ireland was, on a small scale, a perfect model of despotism, combining all the brute coercion of the East, with all the refined perfidy and Machiavelism of the West, and giving full rein to talents of the noblest breed, in the most unbounded career of oppression and injustice. There are some of his acts which might almost * In one of his letters he asserts triumphantly, "Now the king is as absolute here as any prince in the whole world can be." |