were before them; as the ancient Kymry were in Britain, and afterwards their conquerors the Saxons. A new immigration was made, early in the sixteenth century, like that of the Tuathade-Danaan and Milesians of remoter times. Once more new blood was infused into old Ireland; the very undertakers that planted Ulster grew racy of the soil; and their children's children became, thank God! not only Irish, but united Irish-became "Eighty-two" Volunteers-antiUnion patriots-in every struggle of Irish nationhood against English domination (to which the now impending one shall not be an exception) were found in the foremost ranks, "more Irish than the Irish." The armies of Elizabeth, the planters and undertakers of James, may have been marauding adventurers, or even robbers: let it be granted that they were so were the Franks who founded Charlemagne's empire; s0 were the vagabonds and fugitive slaves who flocked into the "asylum" of Romulus-and afterwards, off-scouring of mankind as they were, begat a progeny that bore the Roman Eagle over nations' necks, from Indus to the Pillars of Hercules. Whatever god or demon may have led the first of them to these shores, the Anglo-Irish and Scottish Ulstermen have now far too old a title to be questioned: they were a hardy race,

and fought stoutly for the pleasant valleys they dwell in. And are not Derry and Enniskillen Ireland's, as well as Benburb and the Yellow Ford?-and have not those men and their fathers lived, and loved, and worshipped God, and died there ?-are not their green graves heaped up there-more generations of them than they have genealogical skill to count ?-a deep enough root those planters have struck into the soil of Ulster, and it would now be ill striving to unplant them.

The writer of these pages boasts to be of that blood himself: no Milesian drop flows in his veins; and therefore he may be the more easily believed in disclaiming the base intention to exasperate Celtic Irish against Saxon Irish, or to revive ancient feuds between the several races that now occupy Irish soil, and are known to all the world besides, as Irishmen.

The truth is, that the object of this Life of Hugh O'Neill is simply to present as life-like a sketch as the writer's ability and information enable him to give, of an important era of Irish history, and the deeds of that illustrious chieftain who was the leading spirit of the time; who was the first, for many a century, to conceive, and almost to realize the grand thought of creating a new Irish Nation; and who for so

many bloody years, bulwarked his native Ulster against the numerous armies and veteran generals of the greatest English monarch. And, further than this, if any reader shall see a striking similarity in the dealings of England towards Ireland then, and now-towards Ireland Milesian and Strongbownian, and a later Irish nation consisting of Milesians, Strongbownians, Scottish planters, and Cromwellian adventurers ;-and if such reader shall recognize the policy recommended by Bacon, directed by Cecil, and practised by Mountjoy and Carew, in the proceedings of certain later statesmen of England; and if (which is not impossible) he shall arrive at the conclusion, that the bitterest, deadliest foe of Ireland (however peopled) is the foul fiend of English imperialism; and, further, if he shall draw from this whole story the inevitable moral, that at any time it only needed Irishmen of all bloods to stand together to be even nearly united-in order to exorcise that fiend for ever, and drive him irrevocably into the Red Sea';—surely it will be no fault of the present writer.

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In the days of Hugh O'Neill, the religious element had begun to mingle, with terrible effect, in Irish affairs. And as "the business of a religious reformation in Ireland," to use the words of Dr. Leland, "was nothing more than the im

position of English government on a people not sufficiently obedient to that government-not sufficiently impressed with fear or reconciled by kindness," it is impossible for an Irishman, writing of that period, and sympathizing with the outraged and plundered people, to describe that most singular transaction with any soft or conciliatory phrases. Imagine how a native of Ireland must then have regarded the "Reformed" church. To him it was simply the church of the stranger-it was an ally of the enemy :-the spiritual supremacy and the temporal sovereignty of a foreign king, were to him altogether indistinguishable, and alike detestable: the one seemed but a scheme of plunder for military adventurers, the other for ecclesiastical. Apart from all considerations of doctrinal truth (with which, as being wholly irrelevant, the writer of these pages does not meddle) it was enough for the Irish people to know that foreign usurpation and foreign religion were striding over their country, hand in hand, and planting their footsteps together deep in blood and tears;-deposing their chiefs, persecuting their bards, supplanting their ancient laws, and also prostrating their illustrious and

* Hist. of Ireland, vol. II. p. 201. He is speaking of the religious changes made in the reign of Edward the Sixth.

hospitable monasteries, dishonouring the relics of their saints, and hunting their venerated clergy like wolves.

But this, also, is all past and over. The very penal laws, last relics of that bloody business, are with the days before the flood. And, though it be true, that the mode of planting this Established Church of Ireland:-first, enthroning a whole hierarchy of bishops and archbishops, and then importing clergy for the bishops and parishioners for the clergy-was of all recorded apostolic missions the most preposterous-though the rapacity of those missionaries was too exorbitant, and their methods of conversion too sanguinary; yet, now, amongst the national institutions, amongst the existing forces, that make up what we call an Irish nation, the church, so far as it is a spiritual teacher, must positively be reckoned. Its altars, for generations, have been served by a devoted body of clergy; its sanctuaries thronged by our countrymen; its prelates, the successors of those very queen's bishops, have been amongst the most learned and pious ornaments of the Christian church. Their stories are twined with our history; their dust is Irish earth; and their memories are Ireland's for ever. In the little church of Dromore, hard by the murmuring Lagan, lie buried the bones of Je