Catholics of all grades and complexions. Hence the dissensions, the weaknesses, and the constant jealousies of these three divisions of the royalist party. At length, Cromwell appears, and with his strong iron hand he crushes all these warring parties to the dust. Such is a short outline of a period which, for vicissitudes, calamities, transpositions of parties, and dreadful cruelties, stands quite unequalled in the history of nations.

We need scarcely state that during these ten years the great mass of the Irish people were reduced to a state of deplorable suffering and misery. The country had been so repeatedly ravaged by the contending armies during this ten years' war, that at length men ceased to till the ground and to cast in the seed, from the uncertainty of reaping the fruits, and the probability that they would only be the more exposed to the ravages of the contending parties. The peasantry also, in many parts of the country, especially in Ulster and Munster, were slain while at work-cut down in the half-ploughed field. The sufferings of the poor people, during this calamitous period, would exceed credibility, if they were not attested by the actors themselves who perpetrated the horrid cruelties. Wherever an Irishman was encountered, he was killed. The order given out by the Parliamentarians was, "No quarter to be given to the Irish soldiers." Ludlow himself

describes the atrocious devices of his soldiers to smoke the Irish out of the caves in which they had taken refuge. The survivors of these barbarities, destitute of food and habitations, were forced to join one or other of the rival armies careering through the country. The consequence of all this was an awful famine, followed by disease, pestilence, and death. The misery of the people was excrnciating. Thousands perished of cold and hunger; many threw themselves headlong from precipices, and into lakes and riversdeath being their last refuge from such direful calamities. The following account, by an eye-witness, conveys but a faint idea of the horrors of this awful period:

"About the year 1652 and 1653, the plague and famine had so swept away whole countries, that a man might travel twenty or thirty miles and not see a living creature, either man, beast, or bird; they being either all dead, or had quit those desolate places; our soldiers would tell stories of the place where they saw a smoak; it was so rare to see either smoak by day, or fire or candle by night. And when we did meet with two or three poor cabins, none but very aged men, with women and children, and those, like the prophet, might have complained, We are become as a bottle in the smoak, our skin is black like an oven because of the terrible famine.—I have seen those miserable creatures plucking stinking

6

* This order was, for a short time, strictly adhered to; but Prince Rupert, on the King's part making retaliation, this most sanguinary measure was quickly rescinded.

+ O'Connor's History of the Irish Catholics, p. 87.

carrion out of a ditch, black and rotten, and been credibly informed that they digged corpses out of the grave to eat; but the most tragical story I ever heard was from an officer commanding a party of horse, who, hunting for tories in a dark night, discovered a light, which they supposed to be a fire, which the tories usually made in those waste countries to dress their provisions and warm themselves; but drawing near, they found it a ruined cabin, and besetting it round, some did alight, and peeping at the window, where they saw a great fire of wood, and a company of miserable old women and children sitting round about it, and betwixt them and the fire a dead corpse lay broiling, which, as the fire roasted, they cut off collops and eat."*

The picture is a horrible one,-enough to make the blood run cold. But it is not one to be lingered over; accordingly we leave it to hasten onwards with our sad and melancholy recital.

CHAPTER XIX.

Fleetwood made lord-deputy-Subdued state of Ireland-The division of the spoil by the Parliament-Extensive scheme of confiscation-High courts of justice, or "Cromwell's slaughter-houses"-Allocation of land among the soldiers and adventurers-They enter on their estates-Banishment of the Irish to Connaught -Cruel laws-Fearful sufferings of the natives-The scheme fails-The Irish retained as serfs-Atrocities committed upon them-Measures for the extirpation of the Catholic religion-Moral effects of tyranny-The Cromwellian atrocitiesPriest-hunting-Henry Cromwell appointed to the Irish government-His able administration-Death of Oliver Cromwell-Renewed dissensions-The Restoration-The Union first projected by Cromwell.

FLEETWOOD Succeeded to Ireton's wife, and to Ireton's command in Ireland, at one and the same time. Having married that general's widow, who was Cromwell's daughter, and being thus devoted to the interests of his father-in-law, he was appointed lord-deputy of Ireland, and sent over to carry out the plans of the parliament for the final settlement of that country.

When Fleetwood landed in Ireland, all signs of resistance had ceased; most of the male adults, capable of bearing arms, had been transported to France, Spain, and the West Indies; an immense number, even of the women, were transported to Virginia, Jamaica, and New England; and the unfortunate people who remained, bruised in spirit and devoid of all means of resistance, were of course obliged to submit to the terms imposed on them by their conquerors. Ireland never had been so subdued since the period of the Anglo-Norman invasion, in the reign of Henry II. Besides the vast numbers who were banished the country at this period, multitudes had been destroyed by the sword during the last ten

• Colonel Laurence's Interest of Ireland, part ii. p. 86, 87.

years, and many more had been destroyed by famine and pestilence. Seventeen thousand persons died in Dublin alone, in the summer of 1650, * and the average mortality was not by any means so great there as in many other populous towns and cities throughout the kingdom. The consequence was, that Ireland was now nearly depopulated, and one of the first measures of the parliamentary lord-deputy was to invite over settlers from England, on the most tempting conditions, the consequence of which was that numbers of all sorts and sexes flocked into the kingdom.

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The parliament, which had now disposed of the Irish people, next proceeded to dispose of their property, and set on foot a system of confiscation and plantation more extensive than any English monarch had yet contemplated. The confiscations of Elizabeth and James were now to be thrown far into the shade. Ireland was now to be dealt with as a mere conquered country," and divided as a booty among the successful soldiery of Cromwell. The English parliament looked upon Ireland as the absolute property of England, regarding the natives as no more entitled to the land than the beasts of the field or the fowls of the air. They came to the same summary conclusion with regard to Ireland and its inhabitants, that the Puritans of Massachussets did about the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, on taking possession of the hunting-grounds of the Indians. Their argument was as follows:"The Earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof: we are the Lord's therefore the Earth is ours." And so the heathen natives were, like the Catholic Irish, forcibly dispossessed, and their lands divided among "the Lord's people." The proposal was even made by some of the more fanatical of the party to extirpate the Irish as some of the idolatrous tribes had been by the children of Israel in the time of Moses; but this counsel was over ruled; and the first clause of the new ordinance for the settlement of Ireland actually declared, as if it were necessary to convince the public on this point, that it was not the intention of the English parliament to extirpate the Irish nation!

The first act passed by the parliament was for the confiscation of all the lands of the "rebels." The following is a brief summary of its provisions:-that all who had been engaged in the rebellion of 1641, or had contrived, aided, or in any way abetted it, or had slain any person in arms for the English, or were now in arms and refused to lay them down and submit to the authority of the parlia ment, were excepted from pardon of life and estate, that all who had borne command in the war against the English parliament, were to be banished, two-thirds of their estates to be forfeited, and the value of the remaining third assigned to their wives and children at the pleasure of the parliament; that all persons of the Popish religion who had been resident in Ireland from 1641 to 1650,

* Borlase's History of the Irish Rebellion.

and had not manifested their constant good affection to the Com monwealth of England, were to forfeit one-third of their estates, and be assigned the value of the other two-thirds according to the pleasure of the parliament; that all persons who had resided in Ireland during the above period, who had not been in arms for the parliament, or shown their good affection to it, were to forfeit onefifth of their estates; among those expressly exempted from pardon for life and estate, were the Marquis of Ormond, Lord Inchiquin, the Earl of Roscommon, and Bramhal, the Protestant Bishop of Derry.

A new kind of tribunal was now erected, under the name of the High Courts of Justice, for the trial of those chargeable under the above act. These courts, which were held in different parts of the kingdom, were of the most arbitrary constitution and character; being, in fact, mere courts-martial, in which the parliamentary officers sat as both judges and jurors. The courts decided entirely according to their prejudices. Law and justice were alike disregarded by them; and it was enough that a man was "a papist," to secure his instant condemnation. Such were the cruel and iniquitous sentences passed in these courts that they were generally known as Cromwell's slaughter houses; "for no articles were pleadable in them; and against a charge of things said to be done in them twelve years before, little or no defence could be made: and that the cry was made of blood, aggravated with expressions of so much horror, and the no less daunting aspect of the courts, quite confounded the amazed prisoners, so that they came like sheep to the slaughter.*"

The next act passed by the parliament had for its object the satisfaction of the claims of the parliamentary soldiers, and the partition among them of the Irish estates. An act had been passed at the commencement of the civil war (17 Charles I.) commonly known as the Adventurers' Act, which provided that those who adventured money in the service of the parliament should be repaid in the lands of those who were in arms against their authority. The partition accordingly now took place; and two millions and a half of acres were at once assigned in the following proportions :-each adventurer of £200 was to have allotted to him 1000 acres in Ulster; of £300, 1000 acres in Connaught; of £450, 1000 acres in Munster; and of £600, 1000 acres in Leinster. Those who held lands in Ulster to pay a yearly quit-rent to the crown of one penny per acre; in Connaught, three-half-pence per acre; in Munster, two-pence farthing per acre; and in Leinster, threepence per acre. Various manorial powers and privileges were also attached to the possession of these splendid allotments.

Preparations were then made for carrying this arrangement into

* Borlase's History of the Irish Rebellion.

effect, and four Commissioners were appointed by the parliament, to act in conjunction with the Lord-deputy, in carrying the law into execution. A council of war was held in Dublin, of all the chief commanders for the parliament, at which Lord Broghill proposed that the whole kingdom should be surveyed, and the number of acres taken, and the quality of them; and then, that all the soldiers should bring in their demands of arrears; and so, give every man, by lot, as many acres as should answer the value of his demand." This was agreed to, and a survey and valuation of all Ireland was accordingly made. The best land was valued at only four shillings an acre, and some of it at only a penny. As much as 605,670 acres were returned as unprofitable: the distinction was merely arbitrary, for some of these lands returned as unprofitable, were in reality among the best in the kingdom. But by this means, they were obtained gratis, and of course the soldiers and adventurers of money did not find fault with the arrangement. The division then took place, the soldiers drawing lots in what part of the kingdom their portions should be assigned them. Many immediately took possession of their lots; others re-sold them to the original proprietors for a trifling recompense; while others parted with them to their officers, who entered on their possession. +

It is astonishing with what ease and quiet the national property changed its owners. The original proprietors of nearly three-fourths of Ireland were plundered of the possessions which had belonged to their families for centuries, and without ceremony taken possession of by adventurers and soldiers from England. The act was unquestionably one of atrocious spoliation, of unprincipled plunder, of barefaced robbery strange that it should have been recognized as lawful, not only by the government of Cromwell, but by succeeding governments of the most opposite character! But, to do them justice, these soldiers and adventurers showed that they valued their possessions much more highly than their Anglo-Irish predecessors had done. They clung to them with extreme tenacity, and were on all occasions found ready to defend them with resolute firmness; whereas the Catholic aristocracy, most of whom they

Lord Antrim's estate, consisting of 107,611 acres, was allotted to Sir John Clotworthy (afterwards Lord Massarene) and a few others, in consideration of their adventures and pay, which did not in all exceed the sum of £7,000.---CARTE'S ORMOND, vol. II., p. 278.

year 1643.

+ Forfeit lands were assigned to satisfy the arrears due to the English army; but this satisfaction was confined to those who had served from the arrival of Cromwell, in the The distresses of those who had borne arms before this period were much more lamentable; but they were infected by a mixture of the ungodly and malignant, and no provision could now be obtained for them, except a small portion of lands in Wicklow, and the adjacent counties, not suflicient to discharge a fourth part of their arrears.---LELAND, vol. III., p. 396.

The writer has frequently seen the muster rolls of the troops that have assigned their grants to their captains, gratuitously, or for a trifling recompense. Tradition, in many instances, records, that the officers married the heiresses of the estates which they had been granted. And this is not improbable; for so many of the nobility and gentry had either fallen in the war, or gone into exile, that the right of inheritance must, in countless instances, have vested in feunales.---TAYLOR's Civil Wars of Ireland, vol. II., p. 61.