6

The second declares, That all the inhabitants or residents in Limerick, or any other garrison now in possession of the Irish, ' and all officers and soldiers, now in arms, under any commis'sion from King James, in the several counties of Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, and Mayo,' (being the only counties in which there were any Irish troops embodied,) and all such as are under their protection, within the said counties, who shall 'accede to this capitulation, shall be entitled to all rights, privileges, &c. as in the reign of King Charles II. &c.' By the ninth article, again, it is provided, that The oath to be administered to such Roman Catholics as submit to his Majesty's government, shall be the oath above mentioned, (viz. the oath of allegiance,) and no other.' Upon this point, then, of these articles being the conditions of a General Pacification, and applicable to the whole kingdom, no doubt can now be raisedand too much, indeed, has been said on the subject.

It is of more importance to observe, that the extent of the rights and privileges thereby bestowed on the Catholics, is generally fixed, by their condition in the reign of Charles the Second. What that was, both parties, of course, knew quite well in the year 1691; but the lapse of time has since made some things uncertain, or liable at least to dispute, and renders it necessary therefore to refer to contemporary documents and authorities. In the first place, then, it is certain, from the rolls of parliament yet in existence, that Catholics, in the reign of Charles the Second, sate openly in both Houses of the Irish Parliament, and that there was then no law in existence disqualifying them from that privilege. It is true, that it was then supposed competent to require from any member that he should take the oath of Abjuration before voting on any particular occasion, and there are a few instances on record of such oath being tendered accordingly. Doubts, however, were always entertained of the legality of such a proceeding; and at all events, we have seen that these were finally cleared away by the Ninth article of the treaty now under consideration, which expressly declares that no oath but that of allegiance shall be required from any Irish Catholic in all time to come. In the next place, Bishop Burnet, not only a contemporary, but almost an actor in the scene, and in close connexion with all the great actors, has recorded it as quite certain and indubitable, that those of Limerick treated not only for themselves, but for all their countrymen then in opposition to the government;-and that they were thus admitted to all the privileges of subjects, upon taking the oath of allegiance to their Majesties, without being bound to take the oath of abjuration.' In the third place, in the terms originally proposed by the Irish

army to the English commander, and upon the admission of which the treaty was ultimately concluded, it is expressly stipulated, That the Irish Catholics shall be capable of holding all offices, civil and military, under the Crown, and of exercising all trades, professions, and callings whatever;'-and especially, that they may be members of all corporations, and exercise all the corporate functions and immunities.' In the fourth place, and with regard to the military especially, it had been previously announced by King William, in his famous Proclamation issued after the fall of Athlone, and uniformly referred to as the basis of the subsequent articles of Limerick, That all those enjoying rank or dignity in the service of King James, shall be continued in the same rank, or advanced to higher posts.' Finally, the industry of Mr O'Driscol has here presented us with various extracts from pamphlets and other political publications, in the latter part of Charles the Second's reign, which uniformly, and without any exception, recognise the Irish Catholics as then in possession of all the privileges to which we have here alluded. In particular, in a very celebrated pamphlet, entitled, An Answer to the Coventry Letter,' published in 1687, by a decided advocate of the settlers under Cromwell, it is stated, as a known and admitted fact, that the Catholics, though they might have been treated severely by the republicans,had, since the restoration of King Charles II., no occasion to complain. They have been equally protected by the law. They have had parish priests in every parish. All freeholders, without distinction, have been admitted to pass on juries, and to be electors, or elected parliament men; and none excluded out of the House of Lords for their religion. The artificers, tradesmen, and merchants, have also been freely admitted to follow their respective callings in corporations.' It seems, therefore, to be perfectly clear, that all the rights and privileges for which the Irish Catholics have ever, in our day, contended, were most solemnly assured to them by the Articles of Limerick,—which held out to them, indeed, the promise of still farther privileges; and that all the incapacities to which they were afterwards subjected, have been in direct violation of that most onerous and important treaty.

On the other hand, it should never be forgotten that, by the same solemn instrument, the Irish Catholics, as a body, and by their accredited representatives, finally ratified to the English and Protestant leaders, all those possessions, however and whenever acquired, for the restoration of which they did not stipulate upon that occasion. The treaty of Limerick,' as Mr O'Driscol has observed, with his usual candour and acuteness,

'gave the English settlers a title to their estates, which the Crown could not bestow. If the Catholics could appeal to it for political rights, the Protestants could appeal to it for a 'confirmation of title; and a better, indeed, could not be, than this solemn and voluntary compact between the great parties which then divided the nation.'

The fate of the gallant army itself, with whom the negotiation was concluded, is curious and characteristic-and there are not many passages in history at once more graphic and more interesting than Mr O'Driscol's account of the scene that followed the pacification. By the leading terms of it, all the soldiers of the Irish army were to be at liberty to pass, with the same rank, either into the English or the French service, as they thought fit-or, if they preferred it, to receive their discharge, and retire altogether from the military profession. The generals of the rival nations severally harangued the brave men they were so anxious to recruit; and each presented them with a moderate banquet. They were then all mustered as for parade, and directed to march in column up to a certain point where a flag was fixed, on reaching which, those who were for France were to file off to the right, and those for England to the left. The whole ceremony was performed under the eye of the staffs of the contending parties, and of the Lords Justices of Ireland, in decorous and solemn silence, and with something of a melancholy pomp. A more extraordinary scene,' indeed, as Mr O'Driscol has well observed, could not be, than this eager 'contention of the two great powers of Europe for the army of Ireland. That army itself was in a strange predicament.' James's kingdom of Ireland was now to be broken up; and all the fixtures and furniture of the establishment were to be disposed of. The army was the most valuable commodity of this great household; and when it was put up to auction at Lime" rick, the zeal and anxiety of the bidders proved the high opi⚫ nion entertained of its worth.' Of something more than fifteen thousand men, little more than two thousand volunteered for England, and about nine thousand for France; the rest accepted their discharges, and went home. Of the French party, however, many deserted before their embarkation.

The love of country,' says Mr O'Driscol, with a truth and simplicity which, to us, is deeply pathetic- the love of country had its usual effect upon the Irish. The men quitted their ranks every mile they marched, and went to their own homes, or to look for homes amongst their friends and relatives. This army had been chiefly raised between Cork and Limerick, and every man, as he passed his rative village or hamlet, or the tree by the road side, or the stream that be remembered in his infancy, felt the irresistible influence of these

sociations, and rushed into the arms of his kindred. The regiments reached Cork with less than half their numbers; and many who arrived there found themselves at length overcome by the influence of the soil, and did not embark.'

The ultimate fate of those brave men, too, is pitiable; and should operate as a fearful admonition to such of their countrymen as may still look to foreign powers for their deliverance from domestic injustice.

The last of the Irish troops for the French service were not shipped, when accounts arrived of the reception in that country of the first division that had sailed. These accounts spread dismay throughout the Irish army. The first division had arrived at Brest; and the troops, both French and Irish, had been received with all the dishonour due to a defeated army which had betrayed its trust. Lewis sent the French commander, D'Usson, to the Bastile; and when the Irish landed, no quarters were assigned them, and they were suffered to lie in the fields and under the hedges in the neighbourhood of Brest, for several days and nights.

Orders at length arrived from Paris to break the regiments and reduce the officers. The soldiers were drafted and scattered amongst all the French regiments of the line. The officers were reduced, the colonels to captains, the captains to lieutenants, these to sergeants and corporals, and the latter to the ranks. The superior officers were not received at court; and everything showed the displeasure and disappointment of the French government.'

It may serve to enforce the lesson which this statement is calculated to convey, if the same persons to whom we have now recommended it would calmly ponder the following deliberate and dispassionate remarks of our historian, on the discomforts of a French alliance.

The extravagant pretensions of the French had offended the Irish, especially as they were not sustained by substantial performances. The French had hardly been in battle since their arrival in the country, and never showed any anxiety for the post of danger. Their manner of making love was as little to the taste of the country as their mode of making war. The Irish were not sufficiently polished to understand or to relish that light, general, and contemptuous tampering with the sex, called gallantry. The ladies could not comprehend how the champion of the church, and the great pillar of the faith, could be a man of levity and intrigue. Though the Irish have several points in common with the French, they could never much respect or value the French character as a whole, and although they differed almost in every point of character from the British, they associated better with them, and esteemed them more highly. The difference of character between the people of the two islands was not a reason against their being united in one empire, but rather an argument in favour of such a union; and the similarity of character in some respects, in the French and Irish, did not at all tend to encourage or promote a political connexion between the two countries.

The Irish, like the French, are a gay people, but the gaiety of the former is the joyousness of the heart, that of the latter is mere levity or play of the fancy, often cold or superficial. In another particular the contrast was stronger. The Irish were as remarkable for their melancholy as for their gaiety. The gaiety of the French had no flow of melancholy, for it was unconnected with feeling. It was natural in the Irish, as in any people of much feeling, to prefer the pride and gravity of the British, to the levity and insolence of the French; and accordingly the former defects, if they be such, were much more tolerable to them.'

We have room now but for one more extract, and we take it from the concluding sentences of the work before us, which at once embody the general views and principles which it is the object of the author to enforce, and illustrate the calm and dispassionate temper in which he seeks to recommend them.

The war of the Revolution settled finally the question of property in Ireland, which had been the root of all the wars of that country for ages past. It was a great misfortune that the Anglo-Norman invasion, under Henry the Second, was not powerful enough to effect a change in Ireland, as complete and as immediate as took place in England under the invasion by the Conqueror. The Saxons, at the time of the Conquest, underwent a change of property in Britain similar to what was effected by a long and tedious process upon the Milesians in Ireland. But they submitted, or were subdued, speedily; the Irish struggled long and painfully. Unluckily, too, when the question of property could no longer be connected with the distinctions of race or nation, it took a new shape, and became entangled with the still more difficult question of religion. But whatever might be the nature or quality of the material it adhered to, it maintained its own character invariably, and never ceased to be substantially a question of property.

The enormities perpetrated in Ireland by both parties during the civil wars, but chiefly by the prevailing party, did not proceed so much from uncommon or extraordinary barbarity, as from fear. Fear is the cruellest of all passions; it spares nothing; it has no relentings, no compassion. It is restrained by no principle; it is deaf to the pleadings of religion, and is incapable of Christianity. The British settlers were, in every conflict in Ireland, a small minority. They waged the war with all the energy and ferocity of fear. Their safety depended generally upon the address with which they could divide and distract their enemies. The sword was suspended perpetually over their heads; the least chance, the slightest breath of ill fortune, might bring its edge upon them. It was the peril of their situation that made them dip, not their hands only, but their arms, to the shoulders, in blood. It has been so in all such cases, and in every age and country of the world.

The benefit which Ireland derived from the introduction of British government, and the destruction of her own system of petty principalities, was one of incalculable value, and might have been worth