"The queen, however," says Bacon, "sought not an extirpation, but a reduction, (even in a worse way than some economists wish to cut off the surplus population), that, at the end of the war, when lord Mountjoy received the submission of a few well disposed chiefs," he disposed of others in a very summary way, and "by fire, famine, or sword, weakened or ruined most of those who still continued obstinate."

The master blow of this deputy was the ruin of the brave O'Neill. "Having taken the most of his fortresses, and what, perhaps, was more mortifying to him, having broken in pieces the chairs of stone, wherein for many centuries the O'Neills of his family, had been invested with more than kingly authority, he obliged the unfortunate chief to tender his submission on his knees, before the lord deputy, and the council, and in the presence of a great assembly; whereupon the lord deputy, in the queen's name, promised the earl, for himself and his followers, her majesty's gracious pardon."

"Is it wonderful," says lady Morgan, "that in the ensuing reign, the O'Neills and the O'Donnells fled for ever from the scene of their sufferings and humiliations, or that having chosen Spain as the goal of their permanent absenteeship, they should have arrived there only to die of broken hearts!"

"Remote as were the times, the events of which are so slightly recorded, unfixed, capricious and despotic as were the government and the laws; rude, wild, weak, and disorganised as the state of society-yet, through the obscurity and confusion which hang over the neglected annals of the day, it is evident, that all absenteeism, sometimes encouraged or enforced by the English policy, was foreign to the national habits and national temperaments of the Irish; and that the aristocracy of the country, (how unlike the present race!) were more than others wedded to their native land, by natural affection, by family pride, by power, by religion, and by every feeling, and every prejudice which brightens or shadows the mixed and imperfect condition of humanity."

As it is not our object here, to refer to those antichristian statutes enacted by the "mild and tolerant government" of this "female reformer," we shall not enumerate her exer

tions to extirpate the people of Ireland for their adherence to the religion of their fathers, nor to her butchery of two hundred Irish Catholics, including six of their venerable prelates. Mr. Parnel has enumerated them with a candor and impartiality calculated to make a lasting impression on every honest man.

In the time of James I. there were still greater forfeitures; but it is remarkable, that in his reign alone, natives of Ireland were included in the list of new proprietors. The grants, however, to those were partial, and in subsequent times, all the newly acquired property was swept away in the deluge of confiscation.

It was in James's reign, that Tyrone, Tyrconnell, and their followers were despoiled of 500,000 acres, when six counties in Ireland were forfeited to the crown in eight days; and when 385,000 Irish acres were distributed among the base supporters of tyranny and misrule.

To enter minutely into the effects in Ireland, of forced absenteeship, in this and the following reigns, it would be necessary to give an epitome of the barbarous penal laws enacted against the property, lives, and estates of the Irish people, and to enumerate all the unfortunate victims, that suffered death at home, or were compelled to abandon for ever "their dear native land."

But Sir H. Parnel, who now holds so conspicuous a place under government, has drawn the dreadful picture, and has proved to the world, the turpitude of the oppressors of Irishmen, and the unparalleled loyalty they manifested under cruelty, which would have been enough to sever for ever these countries.

The "Revolution," as it is called, of 1688, however cherished by Englishmen, was only an age of new miseries to Ireland.

"The outlawing and confiscations of 1688," says lady Morgan, "drove near 4,000 Irishmen of family into a dreary and perpetual absenteeship, and sent them to dole out for a pitiful hire, in the cause of oppression, in other countries, the same valor and the same spirit which their fathers had displayed in support of the liberty of their

own."

"The sale of the estates of those unfortunate and involuntary absentees, (estimated at the annual sum of 211,6007.)

under the authority of the English parliament, changed a large portion of the Irish population, and introduced a new race of landed proprietors, whose interest it was to stay at home; whilst England gained every thing by the revolution, Ireland had lost nearly all she had left to lose, through her deficiency in these endowments, resulting from many centuries of anarchy and misrule."

"By the total reduction of the kingdom of Ireland in 1691," says Burke, "the ruin of the native Irish, and in a great measure, of the first race of the English, was completely accomplished. The new interest was settled on as solid a basis as any thing in human affairs can look for; all the penal laws of that unparalleled code of oppression which were made after the last event, were manifestly the effects of national hatred and scorn towards a conquered people, whom the victors delighted to trample upon, and were not at all afraid to provoke; they were not the effects of their fears, but of their security. They who carried on this system looked to the irresistible force of Great Britain for their support, in their acts of power: they were quite certain that no complaints of the natives would be heard on this side of the water, with any other sentiments than those of contempt and indignation."

"Their cries served only to augment their torture. Machines which could answer their purposes so well, must be of an excellent contrivance; indeed, at that time, in England, the double name of the complainants, Irish and Papists, (it would be hard to say singly which was the most odious), shut up the hearts of every one against them.

"Whilst that temper prevailed in all its force to a time within our memory, every measure was pleasing and popular, just in proportion as it tended to harass and ruin a set of people who were looked upon as enemies to God and man; and, indeed, as a race of bigoted savages, who were a disgrace to human nature itself."-Letter to Sir H. Langrish, p. 44.

Thus, as Plowden remarks, "whatever civil advantages were gained or established by it (the revolution) in England, vainly do the Irish look up to it as the commencement or improvement of their constitutional liberty. Then, more than ever, was Ireland treated as a conquered

country, its independence violated, its national consequence and dignity debased. It appears to have been the systematic policy of the British cabinet of that day, not only to trample on the rights of individuals, through their immediate governors, but to extinguish the very idea of an independent legislature in Ireland. Although the articles of Limerick had immediately received the sanction of the great seal of England, they were soon infringed, in the face of the Irish nation. Two months had not elapsed, when, according to the testimony of Harris, the avowed encomiast of William, the lord justices and general Ginkle endeavoured to render the first of those articles of as little force as possible."

"The justices of the peace, sheriffs, and other magistrates, presuming on their power in the country, did, in an illegal manner, dispossess several of their majesties' subjects, not only of their goods and chattels, but of their lands and tenements, to the great disturbance of the peace of the kingdom, subversion of the law, and reproach of their majesties' government."-Harris, Life of William, p. 300.

The same partial historian admits, that "when many of the leading Irish then abroad, returned home on solemn promises of protection, they were, contrary to the public faith, as well as law and justice, robbed of their substance, and abused in their persons."-Ibid.

The address from the English house of commons, complaining of the advantages which the treaty of Limerick guaranteed to the Irish Catholics, and the infamous call of these men upon king William, to evade or violate it, stands as indubitable evidence of the misgovernment of the Irish people at that time, on the part of the English Parlia

ment.

The following abstracts from that address, show to what a state of misery the confiscations, forfeitures, and embezzlements effected by that misgovernment, had reduced Ireland at this period.

"By letting the forfeited estates at under-rates, to the prejudice of your majestie's revenue."

"By the great embezzlement of your majesty's stores in the towns and garrisons of that kingdom."

"And forasmuch as the reducing of Ireland had been of

great expense to this kingdom, we do also beseech your majesty, that, according to the assurance your majesty has been pleased to give us, that no grant may be made of the forfeited estates in Ireland, till there be an opportunity of settling the matter in parliament, in such manner as shall be thought most expedient."-Journal of English Parliament, 1692, pp. 826 to 832.

Thus "it was,' as Plowden says, "that the English parliament's interference, created a new and most inveterate ground of jealousy and rancor between the two legislatures."-Voľ, 2.

By an act of the English parliament, (11th and 12th William III. chap. 2.), a commission of seven persons was instituted, to inquire into the value of the forfeited estates, which had been disposed of, and into the reasons upon which they had been alienated from the public."-History of Ireland, vol. 2, p. 16.

The preamble of this act, after charging the Irish who were attached to King James, their monarch, with treason, concludes:

“Whereas, it is highly reasonable that the estates of such rebels and traitors should be applied in case of your majesty's faithful subjects of this kingdom (England) to the use of the public."

The report signed by the parliament commissioners (Francis Annesley, John Frenchard, James Hamilton, and Henry Langford, Esqrs.,) accounted for the appropriation of 1,060,792 acres.

Mrs. Elizabeth Villiers, as a "reward for her signal success in the "reduction of Ireland," had a grant of 95,649 acres, then worth per annum 25,9957. 18s.

The 7th article of impeachment of Lord Somers was, that "he did advise, promote and procure, divers like grants of the late forfeited estates in Ireland, in contempt of the advice of the commons of England."-Par. 1. Hist. vol. 3. p. 151.

In fact, so numerous were the invasions, confiscations and forfeitures, in this, and the few preceding reigns, that Earl Clare, in his aforesaid "Speech on the Union," computes them at 11,697,629 acres, thus :-

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