XVIII.

of undoubted veracity are horrible and appalling CHAP. to human feelings: nor was this war unattended with rueful waste of English blood in a country then unfriendly, from the dampnefs of its air, its woods, and fcanty culture, to English conftitutions.

СНАР.

CHAP.

Acceffion

the first.

1603.

CHAP. XIX.

Acceffion of James the firft-Religious disturbancesPolitical regulations-Religious oppofition-Flight of Tyrone and Tyrionnel--O'Dogherty's rebellion— Plantation of Ulfter-Attention to the church-Religious difcontents-Petition of recufant lords-First national parliament—Altercations Convocation Extenfion of plantations-Saint John's adminiftration-State of the country-of the army and revenue -Spanish recruiting-Oppreffions of plantations— Corruption of commiffioners-Grievances from dif coverers-Abuses of undertakers-Reflexions-Improvements-Customs-Scheme of plantation in Connaught-Death of James.

To the great Elizabeth in the English throne fuc

XIX. ceeded, under the title of James the firft, a defcendant of Henry the feventh by a female line, James of James Stuart, king of Scotland, who thus united under one monarch the three distinct kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Of much erudition, though of fo moderate an intellect as to defcend to pedantry, and fo weak in politics as to incur the contempt of European courts, James was fortunately fitted by his pacific talents for the task which had devolved on him in Ireland, the establishment of English polity throughout the whole country, and inftitutions for the reduction of its inhabitants into order and civilization. But the abilities of Mount

joy

XIX.

joy were still neceffary in the beginning of this reign CHAP, to prevent a renovation of troubles from religious fury, the inftigators of which affured the people, in fome places that James was a catholic, in others that he could not be a lawful king unlefs he had been established by the pope's authority, and had fworn to defend the catholic religion.

Religious diitur

Seduced by fuch peftilent preachers, the inhabitants of feveral cities in Leinster, and of most in bances. Munster, proceeded by their own authority to the reestablishment of the Romish worship in all its former pomp, ejecting the reformed minifters from their churches, and seizing the religious houses which had been converted to civil ufes. The lord-deputy immediately marching fouthward to quell fuch feditious factions, and appearing before Waterford with his army, was refused admittance by the citizens, who alleged that by a charter from king John they were exempt from the quartering of foldiers; and they also declared, by the mouths of two ecclefiaftics in the habits of their order, that they could not in confcience obey any fovereign who should perfecute catholics. Mountjoy, having condescended to expofe the falfehood of a quotation of these churchmen from Saint Auftin in fupport of their doctrine, threatened to cut in pieces the charter of John with the fword of James, to demolish the city and ftrew it with falt. Terrified by the well-known fpirit and abilities of this leader, the citizens immediately yielded and fwore allegiance; and their example was without oppofition followed by the inhabitants of Cafhel, Clonmel, and other cities. Those

of

CHAP. of Cork, the most refractory, who had for fome XIX. time declined to proclaim the king, and been block

Political

f

aded by the royal forces, not without fome bloodfhed, furrendered at difcretion on the arrival of the deputy, who, having executed fome of the inferior agitators, treated the reft with lenity, among whom was Mead the recorder, acquitted by the manifest partiality of his jury.

Having published an act of oblivion and indemnity, to quiet the apprehenfions of multitudes implicated in the late rebellion, and having by the fame authority received the whole body of the Irish peasantry into the immediate protection of the crown, who had been moftly before abandoned to the defpotifm of their chiefs, Mountjoy, created lord lieutenant, and conftituting Sir George Carew his deputy, returned to England accompanied by Hugh O'Nial earl of Tyrone, and by Roderic O'Donnel, the latter of whom was created earl of Tyrconnel, the former confirmed in his honours and estates. But this nobleman, who had so long baffled the arms of Elizabeth, was held in fuch deteftation by the populace, on account of the deaths of fo many of their friends caused by his rebellion, that he could not fafely travel without a strong escort.

In the fucceffive adminiftration of Carew and regulations. Sir Arthur Chichefter fheriffs were appointed to the

1604.

feveral counties, itinerant judges performed their

circuits, and the native Irish, now admitted to all the privileges of English fubjects, were taught to regard the fyftem of English polity in a favourable manner, when its execution was obferved to be impartial and

ftri&t

XIX.

trict, very different from that mockery of juftice CHAP. with which they had before been too often infúlted. By a commiffion of grace under the great feal of England, empowering the chief governor to receive the furrendry of eftates, and to regrant them by a new and fafe inveftiture in the English mode, a general revolution was effected in the rights of tenure; and great attention was given to the juft claims of the feveral perfons concerned in the arrangement of this business. Each lord by his new patent was invested only with the lands found to be in his immediate poffeffion, while his followers were confirmed in their tenures, on condition only of their payment to him of a yearly rent equal to the value at which the uncertain duties, exacted from them by the old Irish customs, were estimated on close examination.

By the fpirit of bigotry, whofe violence can be Religious restrained only by force, was the progrefs of politi- oppofition cal amelioration checked and retarded. Sacerdotal champions perfifted ftrenuously to inculcate the opinion of the king's affection for the church of Rome, to denounce the vengeance of Heaven on all who should attend heretical worship, to order the repair of fuppreffed religious houfes, and even to arraign the civil adminiâration, to review caufes determined in the king's courts, and to command the people, under pain of eternal perdition, to obey the decifions of their fpiritual courts, not those of the civil law. Though James appears to have been fecretly inclined to a temperate coalition of the churches of his realms with the Roman fee, yet he cordially abhorred the doctrine of a civil power in

the