EVENTS PRECEDING HOSTILITIES IN IRELAND.--THE PREPARATORY MEASURES OF
TYRCONNELL.
Leaving William of Orange in undisputed possession of the English
throne, and King James a suppliant at the French court for the support
which he had so unwisely declined previous to the invasion, it is
necessary to reconsider the condition of Ireland before presenting her
part in this great politico-religious drama.
Of the three generations which had passed, antecedent to the events
under consideration, each had witnessed a war more protracted and
devastating than any which marked her history since the invasion.
These were the wars of Desmond and Tyrone, and the war of the Irish
Confederates of 1641; each of which was followed by a wholesale
confiscation and plantation of the country with a population
antagonistic to every interest of the native race. Through these
violent changes four-fifths of the ancient chieftainries had changed
proprietors, and those which were undisturbed by each successive
military convulsion, the court of claims and the acts of attainder
and settlement that continued down to the death of Charles II., had
well-nigh sequestrated. The surface of the country is computed at ten
millions and a half of acres; and of these, says Newenham, "Upon the
final execution of the acts of settlement and explanation, it appears
that 7,800,000 acres were set out by the court of claims, principally
if not wholly, in the exclusion of the old Irish proprietors." It
is scarce necessary to remark that if the above estimate of the
island--which is taken from Dr. Petty's survey--includes the waste and
water, the arable land had passed to the undertakers, and the waste and
water were the portion of the old Irish proprietors.
The loss of liberty, too, had outstripped the loss of lands, for
liberty and law had first to be silenced that these wholesale robberies
might go unquestioned. Education had been proscribed, and ignorance
had increased exceedingly. True, those of the "better sort" might
have received an education at the hands of the Establishment, by
forswearing their religious convictions and pandering to the spirit
of the times, but the Catholic schools and colleges of the land had
been suppressed; expatriation was the consequence of all attempts at
the education of youth in the religious principles of their fathers,
and death the penalty of return after banishment. Nearly all those who
still retained any vestige of their patrimonial estates, had purchased
them at the sacrifice of their religious convictions, and those who
haply retained both, had done so through the friendly interference
of some powerful minions of the English court, who were few and far
between. There were still a few other exceptions to this general rule,
which deserve a casual notice. The descendants of the early settlers
of the Pale, though still adhering to the Catholic faith, had been
held by the English Government as a distinct element from the native
race. On questions pertaining to the English tenure of the island they
had antagonistic interests. Through each successive convulsion they
had been treated with greater leniency, and had received much more
consideration on the adjustment and final settlement. Their condition
was, therefore, less intolerable than that of the _native_ chiefs; they
had privileges without rights, while the latter had neither rights
nor privileges. But then there was a counterbalancing influence; the
native gentry had local popularity; while the Palesmen had Government
consideration;--both felt their religious grievances in common, and
between them there was a mutual forbearance, and an exchange of kindly
offices.
Such was the condition of the descendants of the Normans, and of the
fast waning septs of the ancient race; but, the people!--they had no
consideration, national nor local; no protection but their poverty and
their native tongue: no right but that of animal existence, and that
only on sufferance! Yet, through all, they had retained the noblest
characteristics of manhood; tenacious memory, stubborn will, unselfish
love of country, unshaken fidelity to their faith; and who could doubt
that they would now--true to their instincts--be the last refuge of a
just king in adversity.
When James ascended the throne, on the 16th of February, 1685, the Earl
of Ormond was deputy for Ireland. He had taken a leading part in the
most exciting scenes of the last fifty years. Gifted with the highest
graces of mind and person, he had figured, in early life, as one of
the most important personages of the English court, and had won the
highest favors of Charles I., and his queen, Henrietta. His powers of
diplomacy and statesmanship were kept in continual exercise during the
latter years of that reign; but though gifted with talents to excel
in each, in each he was signally unsuccessful; and all the evils that
befell that king and eventuated in the extinction of his house, may
be fairly traced to the one leading passion of Ormond,--an implacable
hatred of the Irish Catholics. It would seem as if all the enmity of
all the reformers, from Elizabeth to Cromwell, had in him found an
exponent, and in directing his deadly malice against them, he was
over-successful: he accomplished their ruin, but virtually consigned
his patron and sovereign to the scaffold.
His after life was ignoble and inglorious. He became prodigal of honor,
tenacious of power, and served as trimmer and timeserver in turn, to
Royalists and Parliamentarians alike. But whether in the service of
his king or in complicity with his enemies, he held his political
principles subservient to his worldly interest, and was consistent
only in one passion, his religious intolerance. The character of this
statesman had become odious to James long before his accession to the
throne; and believing that no wholesome measures of redress could be
introduced into Ireland, while one so notorious for his duplicity and
hatred of its people remained at the head of affairs, he lost no time
in recalling him. He then deputed the government to two Lords-Justices:
Boyle, the Protestant primate, and Forbes, Earl of Granard, each of
whom had attained a high degree of popularity with the people of
all religious denominations. He had reason to believe that these
appointments would be received in the spirit which dictated them, and
prove a measure of general satisfaction. Upon the Catholic population
it had the desired effect; but with the High Church party and the
Nonconformists it was quite different. The hatred and jealousy that
existed between them was only secondary to their mutual hatred of the
Catholics, and these appointments kindled anew the ire of each party
against the other. The Puritans were dissatisfied with Boyle, alleging
that his Protestantism savored of "Popery;" and the Churchmen averred
that Granard was a favorer of the sectaries, and an enemy to the
"Establishment."
In order to harmonize all interests and carry out his measures
of redress, James sent over the Earl of Clarendon as deputy, and
with him Colonel Richard Talbot, an Irishman and a Catholic, as
Lieutenant-General of the militia. But whether it was that Clarendon
was opposed to the policy of the king, or that he felt unable to give
effect to his measures of redress in a country so divided in sentiment,
he retired shortly after, and Talbot was created Earl of Tyrconnell and
appointed deputy in his stead. In Tyrconnell were then united the civil
and military power, and of all the king's subjects who at that time
accorded with his religious and political views, there could scarcely
be chosen one better adapted to give practical effect to the reforms
which he had extended to Ireland.
Richard Talbot, Earl, and afterwards Duke of Tyrconnell, is one of
the noblest characters in Irish history. He was a loyal subject of
the king, whom he served with characteristic loyalty, and though of
Norman descent, he was as national in heart as the most devoted of the
native race. Of noble presence,[5] courtly manners, untarnished honor,
unshrinking courage, indomitable will, and fervid patriotism, he was
old enough to remember the Revolution of 1641, had been a sympathetic
observer of the sufferings that succeeded, and all the energies of
his mind, from his first introduction to royal favor to the end of
his career, were directed to effect the civil and religious liberty
of his country. Had James been a timeserving king, from Tyrconnell
he would have received no adulation; as he was sincere and steadfast
in his pledges to the Catholics, Tyrconnell was his devoted servant.
As deputy and commander-in-chief, his powers for good were more than
ordinary, and he stretched them to the utmost tension that justice
permitted. His task was delicate and dangerous; but he discarded the
delicacy and braved the danger, as though he alone felt the awakened
energy of a whole people. Imprudent they term him; but looking through
his chequered life, and reviewing the scenes he had witnessed in youth,
we cannot acquiesce in the decision. The circumstances by which he
was surrounded brooked no delay, and what is termed imprudence by our
recent annalists, would, if viewed in the light of his time, appear the
wisest statesmanship; and it must be generally conceded, that if the
king was as bold and intrepid as Tyrconnell, the usurpation of William
would have been as abortive as that of Monmouth.
I have turned aside from the course of direct narrative to dedicate a
page to the memory of this much-maligned statesman. It is deemed a duty
obligatory, because there is a tendency, even among Irish nationalists,
to offer him as a sacrifice on the altar of conciliation. Truth may be
unpalatable, but it is always wholesome, and without due reverence for
it, there will be no incentive to do and suffer for noble ends. The
religious martyr finds his reward above, but the patriot's reward is
the blessing of posterity, and history should never divert a people's
heart from those who labored for their good, albeit their efforts were
unsuccessful. Richard Talbot, Duke of Tyrconnell, is a name to be on
the tongue of every Irish child, and his deeds a memory in the heart of
every Irish patriot. He survived the battle of Aughrim, at which he was
present, but a short time; and he should have died there, and gone to
rest on that mournfully historic field, where rest some of the best and
bravest that Ireland ever nurtured on her bosom. His character would
then be complete. He labored for them through life; they were worthy of
his companionship in death.
Of the parliament which he assembled in Dublin, after the removal of
religious disabilities, the majority in the lower house were of the
Catholic faith, and as the measures which were introduced during that
session afford ample testimony that they were keenly alive to the
higher duties of legislation, a brief outline of them is here submitted
in the order of their political importance:
First.--An act removing all political disabilities from the natives of
Ireland.
Second.--An act against removing writs of error from the Irish to the
English courts.
Third.--An act of indemnity to Catholics who had been declared innocent
by the Court of Claims.
Fourth.--An act to encourage strangers to settle and plant in the
kingdom of Ireland.
Fifth.--An act investing in his majesty the goods of absentees.
Sixth.--An act for the advancement and improvement of trade, and the
encouragement of ship-building.
Seventh.--An act declaring that the Parliament of England cannot bind
Ireland.
The last was a virtual repeal of "Poyning's Law," an act passed during
the reign of Henry VII. in a parliament convoked at Drogheda by Sir
Edward Poyning, in 1494, and which provided "that no parliament could
be held in Ireland until the chief governor and council had first
certified to the king under the great seal of the land, as well the
causes and considerations, as the acts designed to pass, and until the
same should be approved by the king and council of England."
All these acts were known to be so just and salutary, that it was
hoped they would at once meet the unanimous approval of the English
king and his council. But they were all, or nearly all, negatived by
the council; and the king himself, though he gave his assent to all
the others, rejected that repealing the law of Poyning. It had met
with great opposition in the upper house of the Irish Parliament, for
though it was a law which placed Ireland under the complete legislative
control of England, there was in the "higher estate" then, as to-day,
a spirit of subserviency to the English interest, and the king was
as jealous of his royal prerogatives as any of his predecessors. But
this act was afterwards repealed, when nearly one hundred years more
of bitter experience had proved its ruinous effect on the country,
and eighteen years of unparalleled prosperity was the consequence.
This subject is, however, out of the course of our narrative, and is
only referred to as showing that the repeal of Poyning's law did not
originate with Grattan or the volunteers of 1782, but had been the
principal object of the statesmen of ante-Jacobite times, as the repeal
of the Union has been in our own days.
No body of legislators ever understood the wants of a country better
than that parliament did the necessities of Ireland. And well might
they understand them, for their impoverished country and broken
fortunes bore striking and melancholy evidence of the evil effects of
foreign legislation aided by a subsidized native oligarchy inimical
to every interest but their own. For three generations the people
had known no respite from robbery and proscription. Over two hundred
thousand of them had passed into exile, or had been consigned to
penal servitude in the colonies within the last fifty years. Then,
as to-day, the population, though small, was deemed "surplus," while
outlawry and banishment suppressed all manifestations of a national
spirit. The chiefs were detached from their clans, and the clans,
in losing their former protectors, had found but deadly enemies in
their new taskmasters. The old feudal system was nearly extinct,
even in the districts least visited by English adventure, and this
Parliament had realized the stern necessity of reconstructing a nation
out of the elements at its disposal. The troubles that surrounded the
king gave it a temporary power, which it wielded for the removal of
grievances becoming chronic in the land, but "no act of a proscriptive
or retaliatory character stains the parliamentary records of that
period."[6]
Measures of redress now followed in quick succession. Political and
religious disabilities were removed from all denominations, without
distinction; and the people were not slow in availing themselves of
their long-lost privileges. Catholic churches were once more opened
to the service of God, and local schools began to appear throughout
the country. Catholic judges, mayors, and sheriffs took their places
wherever opportunity offered, and the people felt a gratification
corresponding to their altered condition. But, throughout all, they
acted with a forbearance and dignity worthy of a people long tried in
adversity; they expressed no exultation at their sudden emancipation,
and no spirit of retaliation was manifested that might give alarm to
their Protestant countrymen.
The Protestant officials of that day, who held the liberty of the
country, as it were, in lien, threw many obstructions in the way of
these reforms. Among the foremost of these were Topham and Coghill,
masters-in-chancery, and the Chancellor himself, and they were removed
for open contumacy, and on what then appeared "good and sufficient
reasons,"--throwing the legal technicalities of an odious system in the
way of a people's emancipation from the penal servitude of ages.
Early in 1686, Tyrconnell issued a proclamation in accordance with
that of the king, that all classes of his majesty's subjects were
allowed to serve in the army, accompanied by an order that the arms
which had hitherto been given out should be returned to the king's
stores, preparatory to a reorganization of the militia. The militia
of the country, which at that time must have numbered about 20,000,
were exclusively Protestant, and were officered by men of the most
proscriptive tendencies, and apart from those regularly enrolled, the
whole Protestant population were under arms, subject to the call of
local leaders at a moment's notice. Being, almost to a man, opposed to
the measures of Catholic redress then being instituted by the king,
would appear sufficient motive for this action on the part of the
deputy. For the last generation they had been the rigorous executors of
the acts of attainder and settlement; the memories they awakened could
scarcely be conducive to good order or a feeling of public security:
not being national, they were regarded with distrust, and were held
as unsafe guardians of the liberty which they openly denounced. Many
of their leaders were known to be implicated in Monmouth's rebellion,
and as a precautionary measure, it became necessary to infuse a spirit
of loyalty among them by the introduction of a Catholic element. To
accomplish this seems to have been the great trouble of the deputy.
Men there were, to any number, ready at his call, but arms were
wanting, and the revenue of the country was scarce sufficient to
defray the expenses of the civil government. There was, therefore, no
other resource but to call in the arms for a redistribution, and to
organize a body of native troops from whom exclusion would be excluded.
This measure created great alarm, among a party who had been so long
dominant; and, if in its accomplishment, any denomination were excluded
who felt a liberal sentiment towards the great body of the people,
there would have been cause for just apprehension, but such does not
appear on the record of the period. All test oaths were abolished
according to the proclamation of the king, and all denominations,
without distinction, were invited to join the new organization. The
Catholic people responded with promptitude and alacrity, and an army
of about 8,000 men, was soon enrolled from the old royalist corps
scattered through the country; a few regiments more sprang up from the
remnants of the native clans, and with these the deputy felt able to
execute the laws, and garrison a few of the most important military
stations in the kingdom.
On the other hand, the Protestant militia, feeling jealous that men
so long outside the pale of all law, should at once be endowed with
the high privilege of freemen, shunned the organizations, and many of
their prominent officers, retiring to Holland, took service under the
Prince of Orange, then conspiring for the overthrow of their rightful
sovereign.
In this age and clime, such intolerance may seem greatly exaggerated,
if not altogether incredible. But stepping down through the successive
changes of ninety years, we find that the Volunteers of 1782, with the
light of the American Revolution before them, were quite as exclusive.
Up to the day when, on Essex-Bridge, the regiment of Lord Altamont
held its way through the ranks of his Britannic majesty,[7] and a
revolution appeared imminent, the proposition to allow Catholics to
bear arms in the native militia, even as private soldiers, had been
scouted with contempt. The provisions of Catholic Emancipation are not
yet accepted there, for we have seen the "Test Act" revived as late as
1864, in Dublin, to the exclusion of a Catholic alderman. Before such
evidences, doubt vanishes, and we are able to appreciate the position
of Tyrconnell, and the necessity for intrepid action in the premises.
No man had a greater share of praise and censure from contemporary
historians than he, and he is still a subject of each as the minds
of men incline to either side in the issues that then distracted the
country. His precipitancy in removing the restraints on religion, and
in giving too active an impulse to the popular will, has come in for
its share of condemnation. He is also criticized for a too pompous
display of his dual power, as Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief: but we
should remember that they who censure his hasty measures of redress,
are those who persistently oppose all redress; that his manner of life
as Viceroy was simple and unostentatious as compared with that of his
successors in office, and that his dual power was conferred on him,
when the king's brother-in-law, Clarendon, had deserted him, and there
was no other man capable and at the same time willing to assume that
critical position.
Tyrconnell, however, was not a man to be diverted from his purpose by
either threat or criticism, and so he pursued his course unshrinking.
His country demanded redress and he hearkened to her call. The
emancipation of his co-religionists was necessary, and he endeavored to
effect it: but in doing so he infringed no civil or religious right of
others: none were denied equality before the law, and none were removed
from office except for open contumacy or covert treason. No doubt he
had to brave obloquy and opposition; but who could serve that country
and that king at that particular crisis, and escape the shafts of
malignity?
In the summer of 1688, when the conspiracy of the Prince of Orange
became known to Tyrconnell, in the manner already indicated, he lost
no time in communicating his intelligence to the king. It was received
with incredulity, for the evil counsel of Earl Sunderland still held
sway over every other representation. How could he believe that his
affectionate son-in-law, who had made him a prompt tender of military
assistance to suppress the rebellion of Monmouth, could have been
prompted by any but the most honorable and filial motives? Had he not
offered to lead his forces in person, and to protect the capital and
the inmates of the royal palace?
But the urgency of the occasion emboldened Tyrconnell, and he at last
succeeded in arousing the king's suspicions. He urged the necessity of
an immediate alliance with France, and though in this he was not able
to move the fixed impression left by the wily secretary, he prevailed
so far on the king as to accept the greater part of the forces he had
raised for the protection of Ireland; and so they were immediately sent
over and placed at the royal service.
Tyrconnell then formed the bold design, without the knowledge of
the king, of placing Ireland under the protection of France. The
proposition was well received by Louis, but events culminated with
such rapidity during the autumn of 1688, that no time was left for
diplomacy, for it required the undivided attention of Tyrconnell to
repress the spirit of disaffection throughout Ulster as the winter
approached. The leaders of the Protestant party in Ireland were alive
to all that was taking place, and premonitory symptoms of open revolt
were apparent to all. In Ulster, Lord Blaney, Rawdon, Skeffington,
Keames, Kelso, and Walker, who had kept a close correspondence with the
Prince of Orange since the death of Monmouth, sounded the alarm, and
called their followers to arms. Every action or word of the deputy was
seized on to excite the passions and fears of their people, and every
counter-effort on his part to allay the growing excitement was futile.
The time was propitious, and they seized on every event to magnify
their danger. The alarm became wide-spread, and the old hatred that so
often left the country a prey to foreign adventure was revived in all
its bitterness. Fanaticism overruled common sense, and the people were
divided.
A report was industriously circulated that a massacre of the entire
Protestant population of the country was arranged for the 9th of
December, with a minuteness of detail that convinced the most
incredulous. This was about the date that was to usher in the Prince
of Orange. The conspirators knew it, but the people were ignorant. The
utmost consternation prevailed; the Protestant people in considerable
numbers abandoned their homes, flocked to the sea-shore, and stowing
themselves away in the hold of every available craft that presented,
passed over to England, while the boldest of them fled to the North to
join the standard of William's adherents. Those who reached England
awakened the liveliest sympathy for the condition of their Irish
brethren, and the most bitter indignation against "the murdering
Irish." The arrival of William at Whitehall was the signal for a
general onslaught on the English Catholics, and the Irish residents
there had to take refuge in immediate flight. The regiments imprudently
sent there at the suggestion of Tyrconnell, being placed in small
detachments throughout the country, were forced into the usurper's
service, or, trying to make their way home, were set upon in detail,
and slaughtered mercilessly in the streets and by-ways wherever they
passed. Some few fought or forced their way to the seaboard, and
through the kindly offices of the English Jacobites, made their way
back in the most wretched condition.[8]
The news of William's arrival soon spread throughout Ireland and
Scotland. In the former country this event had been anticipated: the
people had already arrayed themselves into two parties known through
succeeding times as Williamites and Jacobites. In the latter a
convention was called, and after much angry opposition, the covenanters
declared that James's flight was a virtual abdication, and that
he had consequently "forefaulted" his right to the throne and the
allegiance of his subjects of Scotland, which they tendered to William.
A respectable portion, however, headed by the Archbishop of Glasgow,
the Duke of Gordon, the Earl of Balcarras, and Graham of Claverhouse
(Viscount Dundee) supported the Jacobite cause and took up arms in
defence of their lawful king.
On the 7th of December the gates of Derry were closed against the Earl
of Antrim's regiment of Highlanders sent thither by Tyrconnell on the
invitation of its governor, and the call to arms was sounded through
all the province of Ulster. Blaney, Walker, Keames, Kelso, Skeffington,
and Rawdon called a convention, and assuming their right to dispose
of the country, tendered its allegiance to William. They then entered
into a league "for the maintenance of the Protestant religion and the
dependency of Ireland upon England," and placed themselves at the head
of the military organizations formed throughout the province: and
Enniskillen, Culmore, Sligo, Coleraine--nearly all the important posts
from Down to Donegal, and from Cavan to Antrim--were seized on and
garrisoned in the name of the Prince of Orange.
It is scarcely necessary to say, that the 9th of December came and
passed without any manifestation of that murderous design attributed
to the Catholics. The conspiracy was on the other side, and manifested
itself in the following manner. Major Poor, who had served in a
dragoon regiment under Cromwell, had got the command of two companies
of cavalry, from "The League." With this force he commenced a series
of raids on the inhabitants of Louth, and levied a tax of £500 on the
tenantry of Lord Bellew. Hearing of this, Bellew sent his son, a youth
of eighteen, with a company of dragoons, to assist the farmers in
resisting the tax. These troops met and fought for some time with the
most determined bravery, until Bellew, closing with the Major, killed
him with a blow of his pistol on the head, when the troops of the Major
took flight, leaving their dead and wounded behind them. This was the
first act of open hostility: it aroused the Catholic people to the
necessity of defensive measures, and quickened that martial spirit,
never extinguished; their hearts responded to the war-note of the
times; but what could the spirit do, but chafe at delay? Their country
was impoverished, and they had neither arms nor organization.