&c. had rejected the English laws, and submitted to those of the Irish, with whom they had united in marriage, to the ruin of the English interest. It is therefore enacted, that marrying and gossipping among the Irish, shall be punished as high treason; to use an Irish name, to speak the Irish language, to ride without a saddle, or entertain any Irish bard or minstrel, rhymer, or newsteller, &c. his lands shall be forfeited."

An expedition to Ireland was undertaken by Richard II. who landed in Ireland with a considerable army. As Richard was desirous of exhibiting his greatness to the Irish chiefs, so they were willing to show their consequence; they flocked to Richard's court from all quarters; no less than seventy-five independent chiefs were entertained, and four of the principal, O'Nial, O'Connor, O'Brien, and Mac-Murchad, had the honour to sit at the king's own table, clothed in robes of state; some of them were even knighted!—Yet, after all this parade, Richard was obliged to leave the country, without enlarging the Pale.

After this, no expedition was attempted against Ireland for more than a century, during which there was almost a continual warfare between the English Pale and the natives. The colony, however, still continued to exist; it defended itself by making alliances sometimes with one chief, and sometimes with another; occasionally acting with vigour, and then forgetting the statute of Kilkenny, as circumstances made it necessary.

The inhabitants of Ireland may now be classed as follows: 1. The native Irish. 2. The degenerate English. 3. The English subjects of blood, possessing property, and sometimes attending their parliament. 4. The English subjects of birth, who composed the government of the colony, and were assisted by England.

Such was the situation of affairs in Ireland at the accession of Henry VIII. A. D. 1509, and at this time the Pale contained only four counties. Henry did indeed assume the title of King of Ireland, and had caused certain districts

without the Pale to be divided into counties, but it was only a nominal division. The black rent continued to be exacted from the inhabitants of the borders of the Pale by the surrounding chiefs, who still considered themselves as independent, and, as such, entered into treaties of peace with the English king, or his lieutenant.

Such was the state of Ireland during the reigns of Henry VIII. Edward VI. Queen Mary, and part of Queen Elizabeth's reign-on one side, continual coercion; on the other, a constant repulsion.

At length religious zeal stepped in to augment national prejudice.—The measures pursued in the reign of Edward VI. in order to force the protestant religion upon the Irish, had the natural effect of attaching them more firmly to their own religious system; and a general spirit of hatred to the English government manifested itself at the commencement of Elizabeth's reign.

This disposition was favourable to Philip II. of Spain, for promoting his hostile designs against England; partial invasions of Ireland from Spain had been attempted several years before the sending out of the famous Armada; and Philip said he had two claims upon Ireland, one on account of the catholic religion, the other because the Milesians came originally from Spain !

Spain was then the most powerful, the most ambitious, and the most bigoted nation in Europe; and, by her geographical situation, is well situated for a convenient sea intercourse with Ireland. An army of several thousands of Spaniards were sent to that country, accompanied by a Nuncio from his Holiness the Pope, who took possession of Kinsale. Thus England found herself in danger of being hedged in by the formidable power of Spain, both on the east and the west; on one side by the Netherlands, on the other by Ireland.

These considerations determined the English to make extraordinary efforts to obtain the entire possession of Ireland.

Accordingly a large army was sent under the command of Lord Essex, the Queen's favourite, which, assisted by the advantages already possessed by the English government, by the dissension of the Irish Chiefs, and by the memorable defeat of the invincible Armada, effected a complete reduction of the country after a war that lasted about seven years.*

The English having at length overcome Ireland, the then condition of that unhappy country is thus described in the following beautifully pathetic effusion of an Irish bard.

"O the miserable condition of my dear countrymen!-How languid their joys, how pressing their sorrows!-The wreck of a ruined nation; the wretched crew of a vessel long tossed about by tempestuous waves, and finally cast away!-We are become the prisoners of the Saxon nation, the captives of a remorseless tyranny !-Our sentence is pronounced, our destruction is inevitable !—O frightful, excruciating thought!-Liberty exchanged for servitude, beauty for deformity, independence for slavery!—A brave people become a desponding race!-How came this vile transformation!We are not the same people!-Need I appeal to your own senses-but what sensations have ye left?-Over our whole island, every kind of illegal and extrajudicial proceeding hath assumed the strong form of law, and our only security depends upon a submission to lawless law!-Mark the change which these bold intruders have wrought on the face of our country-they have hemmed in our green lawns, the former scenes of our virtue and glory-they have disfigured with towers and ramparts, those fair fields which Nature intended for the support of her creatures-that Nature which we see defrauded, and whose laws are so wantonly counteracted, that this lately free Ireland is metamorphosed into another Saxony!-The slaves of Ireland no longer recognise their common mother; she disowns us for her children; we have lost our ancient forms; and we now see only insulting Saxon con1 querors, and submissive Irish slaves!-Helpless land!-thou art a shattered bark, over which the tempestuous sea hath burst its way, and we can scarcely perceive a part of the wreck in the rude hands of the plunderer!-Yes, the plunderer hath refitted you for his own uses, and we are new-moulded for his own purposes !-Ye Israelites of Egypt, ye wretched inhabitants of oppressed Erin, is there no relief for you?-Is there no Hector left for the defence, no Hero for the recovery of Troy ?-Send us, O God! a second Moses to redeem thy people from the hands of these cruel Saxons !" (a)

(a) The Irish and Welsh bards called the English, the Saxon nation. Edward I. (he who treacherously murdered Sir William Wallace) to make short work of the business, collected a number of the latter, and then had VOL. I.

B

Queen Elizabeth, however, did not live to see Ireland, en tirely subjected; for the final treaty with O'Nial of Tyrone, did not take place until some days after her death. James E. is therefore the first English monarch who possessed the entire dominion of Ireland.

The English government being now generally established by force of arms, there seemed a probability that the inhabitants would gradually accommodate themselves to the English laws and customs, and that peace at last would prevail in Ireland. But certain events had lately taken place, that gave rise to animosities and contests, as obstinate, and as bloody, and as disgraceful, as any that had yet happened—we allude to the religious dissensions caused by the forcible introduction of the Reformation amongst the Irish.

The first attempt to introduce the Reformation into Ireland, was in the reign of Edward VI. when orders were sent for using the English liturgy in all the churches, and directions were given for removing, selling, or destroying all the ornaments, &c. of the catholic religion; neither argument, nor reason, nor persuasion, were used, but the harsh commands were executed with severity and strictness by an insolent soldiery!

On Queen Mary's ascending the English throne, all these proceedings were suddenly and violently reversed: The anthem all massacred!-See Gray's beautiful Ode, "Ruin seize thee, ruthless King," &c.

It was long before the Irish bards, or wandering minstrels, were totally extirpated by the English power; Carolan, born in 1670, may be considered as the last of the order. Sometimes yet may be seen a few itinerant harpers both in Wales and Ireland; and scarcely any thing can strike the mind with a more pleasing, soothing melancholy, and so powerfully excite ideas of ancient times, than an old gray-headed man, chanting his legendary tales, accompanied by the sweet and impressive notes of the harp.

Ireland was famous for music and poetry. The Scotch and the Irish, each of them, contend for the honour of Ossian's Poems; probably they were formed from both the nations, as they then had but one common language, and for several centuries, had a common intercourse and connection both in civil and religious affairs.

cient order of things was again established; the Latin litany and catholic ornaments were restored to all the churches; and the fires of Smithfield were kindled by this bigoted and impolitic woman-persecution with all its horrors was renewed in the sacred name of religion !*

At Queen Elizabeth's accession, another reformation took place the catholics were again put down, and protestantism gained great strength during her long and prosperous reign.

King James pursued the business of reformation with eagerness, and his power being much greater, his efforts were attended with greater effect. As a further step towards establishing the protestant religion, he escheated, or forfeited, six of the northern counties, viz. Antrim, Armagh, Down, Derry, Donegal, and Tyrone, settling in them large colonies of people from Scotland, and some from England: hence Derry is called London-Derry, as being, most of it, the property, by royal grants, of the twelve incorporated companies of the city of London.

From this time, the people of Ireland may be viewed in * There is a great similarity between this Queen Mary and James II. Both of them, by their violent bigotry, ruined the cause which they were anxious to promote. It may be said that the people of England became protestants, not so much from the convictions of reason, as from the fears of popish despotism.

What a horrible picture does history give of the folly and wickedness of men! It is but little known, because the English historians only skim the subject, that the Scotch suffered much persecution in the reign of Charles II. In one respect this was rather unaccountable, as that monarch was a voluptuous, unprincipled libertine; but it was a state business, to make episcopacy the state religion of Scotland. The Bishops of Rome, in the plenitude of their power, beat down every attempt to enlighten and enfranchise the human mind; they persecuted, and, at length, extirpated, the Albigenses, &c. The Spaniards, by that terrible state engine, the inquisition, persecuted, and banished, and tortured, in the name of the most Holy Trinity, millions of Jews, Moors, and Heretics! The French dragooned the Hugonots. The English persecuted both the Irish catholics and Scotch presbyterians. Calvin and the presbyterians domineered in their turn. And thus the work of persecution went round in enlightened Europe!