If desolation can be called tranquillity, tranquillity was the effect of Elizabeth's measures; yet the state of peace which continued, with very trifling interruptions, during the whole reign of James, must, in justice, be ascribed to the policy of this prince himself. It is true he exasperated and encreased the new causes of rebellion, and some of the old; namely, those which arose from religion and confiscations; but at the same time, he removed the principal and most momentous spring of disturbance, by effectually reducing the power of the old Irish and old English chieftains. This, for the time, was the most material point; independence and liberty were well disciplined topics and well understood, which upon any favourable opportunity could move the whole island to arms; whereas the natives had yet to learn the more refined and metaphysical
His first object was to destroy, not only the power but the very existence of the old Irish and old English chieftains, and this he accomplished with admirable wisdom. He espoused the cause of their oppressed subjects against their chieftains. He held out to them the blessing of equal law, of the inviolability of their persons, of the secure possession of their properties, and its descent to their children. He strengthened defective titles, and abolished all distinctions between English and Irish; ‘whereupon, says Sir John Davis, such comfort and security was bred in the hearts of all men, as ensured the calmest and most universal peace that ever was seen in Ireland.’ We do not think there can be a more delightful, a more glorious contemplation, than to see a nation, a whole people, rescued from ignorance, poverty, faction and war, and installed in all the blessings of knowledge, wealth and peace, by the operation of a single measure, and this after the same effect had been in vain attempted by force, and its necessary attendant, havoc.
This was perfected in Ireland by the too little celebrated Act of Oblivion, published by proclamation under the great seal; by this all offences against
‘The common Irish were studiously instructed that they were free subjects to the kings of England, and not slaves or vassals to their respective chiefs; that the tributes and extortions exacted from them were not lawful, and that they should no longer pay them; they gave a willing ear to these lessons and therefore, says Davis, the greatness and power of these Irish lords over the people suddenly fell and vanished, when their oppressions and extortions were taken away, which did maintain their greatness, insomuch, as divers of them who formerly made themselves owners of all by force, were now, by the law, reduced to this point; that wanting means to defray their ordinary charges, they resorted to
This enlarged policy, which destroyed the Irish chieftains, as if by magic—this system, at once so simple and so effectual, never entered into the contemplation of James's predecessors. When they seized on the possessions of a conquered chieftain, they confiscated also the whole property of his subjects; in order to win only a seeming dependance, and to procure a nominal surrender of his authority, they regranted to him not only his own lands, but the lands of all his subjects, leaving him in full possession of all his ancient tyranny, tribute and exactions. When they sought to destroy a chieftain, they raised up and supported a rival, by which they tacitly acknowledged the legality of those petty sovereigns—thus Queen Elizabeth had her O'Donnel, her O'Neil, her Maguire, her O'Reilly. Wherever they interfered, they made the condition of the Irish worse than before. They held the Irish in too much contempt to have any interest in their welfare; and this good effect at least arose from the desperate resistance made by the Irish against Elizabeth, that they gained a certain degree of respectability, which seemed to entitle them to the solicitude of government.
If a dog were treated with barbarity, one would feel an inclination to take his part. One cannot but pity the misfortunes of the Irish chieftains, and sometimes one must admire the virtues which those misfortunes called forth; one cannot but detest the mean perfidy, the rapacity and cruelty of their oppressors; yet as far as we can judge from the scanty annals of the country, they were the scourge of their own subjects, and Ireland stands deeply indebted to England for their overthrow.
James conferred a still greater benefit on Ireland the abolition of the Brehon laws of property.
After reading every account of Irish history, one great perplexity appears to remain: How does it happen, that from the first invasion of the English till the reign of James I. Ireland seems not to have made the smallest progress in civilization or wealth?
That it was divided into a number of small principalities, which waged constant war on each other; or that the appointment of the chieftains was elective, do not appear sufficient reasons, although these are the only ones assigned by those who have been at the trouble of considering the subject; neither are the confiscations of property quite sufficient to account
It is scarcely credible that in a climate like that of Ireland, and at a period so far advanced in civilization as the end of Elizabeth's reign, the greater part of the natives should go naked. Yet this is rendered certain by the testimony of an eye-witness, Fynes Moryson: ‘In the remote parts,’ he says, ‘where the English laws and manners are unknown, the very chief of the Irish, as well men as women, go naked in the winter time, only having their privy parts covered with a rag of linen, and their bodies with a loose mantle. This I speak of my own experience; yet remember that a Bohemian Baron, coming out of Scotland to us by the north parts of the wild Irish, told me in great earnestness, that he, coming to the house of O'Kane, a great lord amongst them, was met at the door by sixteen women all naked, excepting their loose mantles, whereof eight or ten were very fair, with which strange sight his eyes being dazzled, they led him
‘To conclude, men and women at night going to sleep, lye thus naked in a round circle about the fire, with their feet towards it. They fold their heads and their upper parts in woollen mantles, first steeped in water to keep them warm; for they say that woollen cloth, wetted, preserves heat, (as linen, wetted, preserves cold) when the smoke of their bodies has warmed the woollen cloth.’
The cause of this extreme poverty, and of its long continuance, we must conclude, arose from the peculiar laws of property, which were in force under the Irish dynasties. These laws have been described by most writers as similar to the Kentish custom of gavel-kind, and indeed so little attention was paid to the subject, that were it not for the researches of Sir J. Davis, the knowledge of this singular usage would have been entirely lost.
The Brehon law of property, he tells us, was similar to the custom (as the English lawyers term it) of hodge podge. When any one of the sept died, his lands did not descend to his sons, but were divided among the whole sept; and for this purpose the chief of the sept, made a new division of the whole lands belonging to the sept, and gave every one his part according to seniority. So that no man had a property which could descend to his children; and even during his own life, his possession of any particular spot was quite uncertain, being liable to be constantly shuffled and changed by new partitions. The consequence of this was, that there was not a house of brick or stone among the Irish, down to the reign of Henry VII.; not even a garden or orchard, or well fenced or improved field, neither village or town, or in any respect the least provision for posterity.12 This monstrous custom, so
In the early history of Ireland we find several instances of chieftains discountenancing tillage, and so late as Elizabeth's reign, Moryson says, that ‘Sir Neal Garve restrained his people from ploughing, that they might assist him to do any mischief.’13
If it were not foreign to our present purpose, we could wish to dwell longer on this subject; it is fertile in profitable contemplation to every Irishman; for at the same time that we would not let a fault pass uncensured in the vile system of government practised by the English in Ireland, we would still maintain its superiority over the barbarous tyrannies it displaced. We wish to repress the headlong and unmethodised desire for a separate and national government which pervades Ireland, and suggest a doubt whether modern chieftains would not be as liable to make as fatal errors in their civil code, as these which have been pointed out in the Brehon laws, and which Irishmen still attempt to extenuate and affect to admire. From the specimens left by
James enforced the laws of England throughout Ireland, extended the protection of government to the lower orders, and secured every man in possession of his property. These measures at once put an end to the power of the Irish chieftains, and extinguished the immediate cause of rebellions.
James himself enjoyed a tranquil reign, but unfortunately for his successor, he created or inflamed other causes of rebellion, which proved more inveterate than the animosity of the old chieftains. These consisted in enormous confiscations of property; and a decided hostility commenced against the Roman Catholics.
Upon the flight of the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel, 500,000 acres (which by the bye did not belong to them, but to their vassals) were confiscated; and to this cause may be fairly ascribed the share which Sir Phelim O'Neil took in the rebellion in the succeeding reign. However, to do James justice, he avoided several errors which had been committed in former distributions of confiscated lands. He included a large proportion of native Irish in the grants, and gave to none of the undertakers those large proportions which engendered
Sixty-six thousand acres were seized on between the men of Arklow and the Slane; three hundred and eighty-five thousand acres in the counties of Leitrim, Longford, Westmeath, Leix and Offaly; and by regranting large proportions to the old inhabitants on permanent tenures, these measures were carried with apparent tranquillity. So far James seems to have been actuated by a colonizing Quixotism; and though his view of objects was false, his intention was liberal and good. But at the latter end of his reign he was gradually led from confiscating people's property for their interest, to confiscate for his own; and had recourse to an outrage which for its practical villainy, and its disastrous consequences, can scarcely be paralleled.
James's revenue in Ireland fell short sixteen thousand pounds per annum, in those days thought a terrible deficiency. To supply this he had recourse to the following device, which was aimed at the inhabitants of an entire province:
The Lords and gentlemen of Connaught, including the County of Clare, had surrendered their estates on composition to Elizabeth, but had neglected to take out the letters patent for the re-grant
Advantage was now taken of this involuntary omission. The titles were pronounced defective, and the lands vested in the crown. Though an act of state, during Lord Grandison's government, had declared the titles valid, though the wrong was evident, and the most pathetic remonstrances were made to the King, he would not retract, till the desperation of a province, inhabited by an active and spirited people, became alarming. Influenced by this fear, and his immediate necessities, James consented to sell a new confirmation of the patents, on consideration that the rents were to be doubled, and that a fine should be given him equivalent to the sum that was computed would arise from a new plantation of the province. To these hard terms the proprietors agreed.
Surely if to these reasons for discontent we add the regret which many of the chieftains or their heirs must have retained for their princely prerogatives, and that natural feeling which inspires one nation to resist the domination of another, a great part of the odium of the succeeding rebellion should in justice be removed from the supposed influence
The point then, next to be considered, is whether this disaffection was a necessary consequence of the Catholic religion itself, or whether it was excited by the injuries inflicted on those who professed this religion.
The Roman Catholics of the Pale, and of the towns and cities, had fought Elizabeth's battles, and hitherto had considered the distinction of English and Irish as paramount to that of Protestant and Catholic. During the whole of Elizabeth's wars, the Catholics of the English Pale had always sided with the Protestants of the English Pale against the Irish enemy, though Catholics. Yet in return, they had been treated with considerable contumely as Catholics, and in consequence finding their religion made a mark to separate them from the English Protestants, that same religion became a common interest, which drew them to an union with their ancient enemies, the Catholics of Irish race.
On the accession of James, who had been known to have tampered with the court of Rome, they resumed the public exercise of their religion as a thing of course; but James, who had measures to keep with the puritans, and who was very tenacious
The next step was still more brutal, and proportionably stupid. The Catholics were required to attend the Protestant churches. Upon their refusal, the magistrates and chief citizens of Dublin were fined and committed to prison. This spread a general feeling of anger among the Catholics, and an immense concourse presented a remonstrance against the illegality of the imprisonment, when the utmost severity of the law, obsolete from the time of its enactment, only authorised a fine; and at the same time, petitioned for the free exercise of their religion.
Unfortunately for that system of conciliation, which the vast importance, and hitherto known loyalty of the Catholics of English descent tended to suggest to James's counsellors, the news of the Gunpowder Plot was received on the very day this petition was presented; and though there appeared no reason afterwards to suppose any connection between the English and Irish Catholics, yet this coincidence was productive of every ill effect at the moment. The Irish government was alarmed, the chief petitioners were confined in the Castle of Dublin,
But what contributed more, even than all these reasons, to alienate the minds of the Catholics of the Pale and of the towns, was, their removal from all places of trust and emolument.
To appreciate the effect which these measures had upon the minds of the Catholics, we must make ourselves familiar with their situation in these times, and judge of them from what they were then, not from what they are now. This point is very little understood. The Catholics of the Pale and towns had, at the beginning of James's reign, exactly the same habitual ascendancy over the mere Irish, which the Protestants have now over the Catholics. They occupied every situation of importance under government, all offices in the law, in the magistracy; they filled the ranks and officered the army; they had long been in the habit of considering the English government in Ireland as owing its existence to their courage, their loyalty, and not unfrequently to the assistance of their private fortunes. It had always been considered as a matter of course that their lords should be consulted on every important measure taken by government. So circumstanced, the character of the Catholics of those days was quite the reverse of what it was afterwards. Not habituated to degradation, their sense of honour was lively and resentful; above suspicion, their
We are not to imagine that because the Catholics long felt very little interest about their emancipation from degradation, that the Catholics then felt very little upon entering on it; on the contrary, just that degree of rage and indignation which the Irish Protestants spoiled by power, would now feel, if their churches were shut up, if they were compelled to go to mass, if they were declared incapable of holding any office of trust and emolument, if they were driven from the privy council; just that degree must the old English colonists have felt when, for the first time, discountenanced and persecuted by the government.
We omit to dwell upon the condemnation of Lalor, a poor popish ecclesiastic, whom government sought to dignify with a martyrdom; and upon the expulsion of the popish regulars from the kingdom; as far as direct insults could justify the resentment of the Roman Catholics, we have said enough. An indirect attack was made upon them,
James, finding it possible that there might be a majority of Roman Catholics in the House of Commons, created a large number of boroughs from towns so inconsiderable, that they and their representatives would be certain to be dependant on government. Here was accomplished the ruin of the Catholics; here was perpetuated the distraction of the country; here commenced the corruption of the constitution; this measure, to which the Protestants were base accessaries, has been visited upon their descendants with poetical justice, by the Union, which was effected by purchasing the corrupt owners of these identical rotten boroughs. To this measure the Catholics gave all the resistance which spirit and talents could prompt. In vain. A tyrant might have yielded from fear; a wise king would have retracted from conviction; but the obstinacy and conceit of a pedant were invincible.
Yet James had sense enough to stoop to conciliation when he had carried his point. No new measures were proposed against popery; the oath of supremacy was tacitly excused, and, when a bill was proposed by Sir Oliver St. John for keeping the fifth of November as a religious anniversary, it was silently got rid of.
A government may, with safety to itself, essentially infringe the interests of its subjects, if it has the condescension to manage their pride. This was exemplified in the case of James. Although he had prepared the ruin of the Catholics, yet as soon as he assumed a moderate tone and gentle usage towards them, they vied with the Protestants in expressions of loyalty, and, what was more substantial, in granting subsidies.
Thus stood the question of disaffection when James died: Among the lower ranks, there was a legendary record of English barbarities; the power of the old Irish, and of the old English chieftains, had been destroyed by the wisdom of James; yet, among these septs, there were many who valued the direct gratification of pride, afforded by princely consequence, to the indirect gratification of pride which is acquired through the medium of property: who preferred to be poor tanists, elected by their clan, rather than rich landlords dependant on law. The title of Monarch of Ireland was still cherished by the O'Neils, and that it was still allowed, at least by the northern Irish, is evident from the great power acquired by Sir Phelim O'Neil, in the great rebellion under Charles I. James's confiscations, but particularly the attack made on the titles of the province of Connaught, the practice known to be a favourite one with him, even to a systematical degree, kept men's minds in an uneasy state of suspense for what was to come, and rage for what had past.
The persecution of the Catholics had, for the first time, produced a resistance on the part of the old English Catholics of the Pale, hitherto the most efficient supporters of the English power; it had alienated their minds—it had detached their sympathy from the ancient object of their love, the English government; and gradually attached it to the ancient object of their detestation, the Irish enemy. That this was the effect, not of religion, but of the persecution of the religion, is clear. Had it been the effect of the religion it would have commenced in Henry VIII's time with the Reformation, which it did not; it would have been apparent in Edward VI.'s time, which it was not; it would have proved fatal to the English power in Elizabeth's wars; yet at that time there was little or no apprehension of it. But on the contrary, it did not exist before the persecution began; it originated with the persecution, and it grew and waxed strong, as the persecution encreased.