Ireland the Downtrodden.
[=Ireland in the Past Centuries=]
Time was when Ireland was free. But it was a barbarian freedom. The
island had more kings than it had counties, each petty chief bearing
the royal title, while their battles were as frequent as those of our
Indian tribes of a past age. The island, despite the fact that it
had an active literature reaching back to the early centuries of the
Christian era, was in a condition of endless turmoil. This state of
affairs was gradually put an end to after the English conquest; but the
civilization which was introduced into the island was made bitter by
an injustice and oppression which has filled the Irish heart with an
undying hatred of the English nation and a ceaseless desire to break
loose from its bonds.
For centuries, indeed, the rule of England was largely a nominal one,
the English control being confined to a few coast districts in the
east. In the interior the native tribes continued under the rule of
their chiefs, were governed by their own laws, and remained practically
independent.
[=The O'Neill Rebellion and the Confiscation of Ulster=]
It was not until the reign of James I. that England became master of
all Ireland. In the last days of the reign of Elizabeth a great rising
against the English had taken place in Ulster, under a chief named
O'Neill. The Earl of Essex failed to put it down and was disgraced by
the queen in consequence. The armies of James finally suppressed the
rebellion, and the unruly island now, for the first time, came fully
under the control of an English king. It had given the earlier monarchs
nothing but trouble, and James determined to weaken its power for
mischief. To do so he took possession of six counties of Ulster and
filled them with Scotch and English colonists. As for the Irish, they
were simply crowded out, and left to seek a living where they could.
There was no place left for them but the marshes.
This act of ruthless violence filled the Irish with an implacable
hatred of their oppressors which has not vanished in the years since
it took place. They treasured up their wrongs for thirty years, but in
1641, when England was distracted by its civil war, they rose in their
wrath, fell upon the colonists, and murdered all who could not save
themselves by flight. For eight years, while the English had their
hands full at home, the Irish held their reconquered lands in triumph,
but in 1649 Cromwell fell upon them with his invincible Ironsides, and
took such a cruel revenge that he himself confessed that he had imbued
his hands in blood like a common butcher. In truth, the Puritans looked
upon the Papists as outside the pale of humanity, and no more to be
considered than a herd of wild beasts, and they dealt with them as
hunters might with noxious animals.
[=Cromwell's Bloody Severity and the Fate of the Irish=]
The severity of Cromwell was threefold greater than that of James,
for he drove the Irish out of three provinces, Ulster, Leinster and
Munster, bidding them go and find bread or graves in the wilderness of
Connaught. Again the Irish rose, when James II., the dethroned king,
came to demand their aid; and again they were overthrown, this time
in the memorable Battle of the Boyne. William III. now completed the
work of confiscation. The greater part of the remaining province of
Connaught was taken from its holders and given to English colonists.
The natives of the island became a landless people in their own land.
[=The Cause of Irish Hatred of England=]
To complete their misery and degradation, William and the succeeding
monarchs robbed them of all their commerce and manufactures, by
forbidding them to trade with other countries. Their activity in
this direction interfered with the profits of English producers and
merchants. By these merciless and cruel methods the Irish were reduced
to a nation of tenants, laborers and beggars, and such they still
remain, downtrodden, oppressed, their most lively sentiment being their
hatred of the English, to whom they justly impute their degradation.
The time came when England acknowledged with shame and sorrow the
misery to which she had reduced a sister people--but it was then
too late to retrieve the wrong. English landlords owned the land,
manufacturing industry had been irretrievably crowded out, the evil
done was past mending.
With these preliminary statements we come to the verge of the
nineteenth century. America had rebelled against England and gained
independence. This fact stirred up a new desire for liberty in the
Irish. The island had always possessed a legislature of its own, but
it was of no value to the natives. It represented only the great
Protestant landowners, and could pass no act without the consent of the
Privy Council of England.
[=Home Rule and the Act of Union=]
A demand for a national Parliament was made, and the English
government, having its experience in America before its eyes, granted
it, an act being passed in 1782 which made Ireland independent of
England in legislation, a system such as is now called Home Rule. It
was not enough. It did not pacify the island. The religious animosity
between the Catholics and Protestants continued, and in 1798 violent
disturbances broke out, with massacres on both sides.
The Irish Parliament was a Protestant body, and at first was elected
solely by Protestant votes. Grattan, the eminent Irish statesman,
through whose efforts this body had been made an independent
legislature,--"The King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland, to make laws
for the people of Ireland,"--carried an act to permit Catholics to vote
for its members. He then strove for a measure to permit Catholics to
sit as members in the Irish Parliament. This was too much for George
III. He recalled Lord Fitzwilliam, the viceroy of Ireland, who had
encouraged and assisted Grattan and blighted the hopes of the Irish
Catholics.
[=The United Irishmen and Act of Union=]
The revolt that followed was the work of a society called the United
Irishmen, organized by Protestants, but devoted to the interests
of Ireland. Wolfe Tone, one of its leading members, went to France
and induced Napoleon to send an expedition to Ireland. A fleet
was dispatched, but this, like the Spanish Armada, was dispersed
by a storm, and the few Frenchmen who landed were soon captured.
The rebellion was as quickly crushed, and was followed by deeds of
remorseless cruelty, so shameful that they were denounced by the
commander-in-chief himself. With this revolt the independence of
Ireland ended. An act of union was offered and carried through the
Irish Parliament by a very free use of money among the members, and the
Irish Legislature was incorporated with the British one. Since January
1, 1801, all laws for Ireland have been made in London.
Among the most prominent members of the United Irishmen Society were
two brothers named Emmet, the fate of one of whom has ever since been
remembered with sympathy. Thomas A. Emmet, one of these brothers,
was arrested in 1798 as a member of this society, and was imprisoned
until 1802, when he was released on condition that he should spend
the remainder of his life on foreign soil. He eventually reached New
York, at whose bar he attained eminence. The fate of his more famous
brother, Robert Emmet, was tragical. This young man, a school-fellow of
Thomas Moore, the poet, was expelled from Trinity College in 1798, when
twenty years of age, as a member of the United Irishmen. He went to
the continent, interviewed Napoleon on behalf of the Irish cause, and
returned in 1802 with a wild idea of freeing Ireland by his own efforts
from English rule.
[=The Fate of Robert Emmet=]
Organizing a plan for a revolution, and expending his small fortune in
the purchase of muskets and pikes, he formed a plot to seize Dublin
Castle, capture the viceroy, and dominate the capital. At the head of
a small body of followers he set out on this hopeless errand, which
ended at the first volley of the guards, before which his confederates
hastily dispersed. Emmet, who had dressed himself for the occasion in
a green coat, white breeches and cocked hat, was deeply mortified at
the complete failure of his scheme. He fled to the Wicklow mountains,
whence, perceiving that success in his plans was impossible, he
resolved to escape to the continent. But love led him to death. He
was deeply attached to the daughter of Curran, the celebrated orator,
and, in despite of the advice of his friends, would not consent to
leave Ireland until he had seen her. The attempt was a fatal one. On
his return from the interview with his lady-love he was arrested and
imprisoned on a charge of high treason. He was condemned to death
September 19, 1803, and was hanged the next day.
Before receiving sentence he made an address to the court of such
noble and pathetic eloquence that it still thrills the reader with
sympathetic emotion. It is frequently reprinted among examples of
soul-stirring oratory. The disconsolate woman, Sarah Curran, perished
of a broken heart after his untimely death. This event is the theme of
one of Moore's finest poems: "She is far from the land where her young
hero lies."
[=Landlords, Tenants and Clergy=]
The death of Emmet and the dispersal of the United Irishmen by no
means ended the troubles in Ireland, but rather added to their force.
Ireland and England, unlike in the character and religion of their
people and in their institutions, continued in a state of hostility,
masked or active, the old feuds being kept alive on the one side by
the landlords, on the other by the peasantry and the clergy. The
country was divided into a great number of small farms, thousands
of them being less than five acres each in size. For these the
landlords--many of whom the tenants never saw and some of whom had
never seen Ireland--often exacted extravagant rents. Again, while the
great majority of the people was Catholic, the Catholic clergy had to
be supported by the voluntary contributions of the poverty-stricken
people, while tithes, or church taxes, were exacted by law for the
payment of clergymen of the English Church, who remained almost without
congregations. Finally, the Catholics were disfranchised. After the
abolishment of the Irish Parliament they were without representation
in the government under which they lived. No Catholic could be a member
of Parliament. It is not surprising that their protest was vigorous,
and that the British government had many rebellious outbreaks to put
down.
[=O'Connell and Catholic Emancipation=]
It was the disfranchisement of the Catholics that first roused
opposition. Grattan brought up a bill for "Catholic Emancipation"--that
is, the admission of Catholics to the British Parliament and the repeal
of certain ancient, and oppressive edicts--in 1813. The bill was lost,
but a new and greater advocate of Irish rights now arose, Daniel
O'Connell, the "Liberator," the greatest of Irish orators and patriots,
who for many years was to champion the cause of downtrodden Ireland.
[=The "Counsellor" and His Oratory=]
The "counsellor"--a favorite title of O'Connell among his Irish
admirers--was a man of remarkable powers, noted for his boisterous
Irish wit and good humor, his fearlessness and skill as a counsel,
his constant tact and readiness in reply, his unrivalled skill in
the cross-examination of Irish witnesses, and the violent language
which he often employed in court. This man, of burly figure, giant
strength, inexhaustible energy and power of work, a voice mighty enough
to drown the noise of a crowd, a fine command of telling language,
coarse but effective humor, ready and telling retort, and master of all
the artillery of vituperation, was just the man to control the Irish
people, passing with the ease of a master from bursts of passion and
outbreaks of buffoonery to passages of the tenderest pathos. Thoroughly
Irish, he seemed made by nature to sustain the cause of Ireland.
O'Connell was shrewd enough to deter revolt, and, while awakening in
the Irish the spirit of nationality, he taught them to keep political
agitation within constitutional limits, and seek by legislative means
what they had no hope of gaining by force of arms. His legal practice
was enormous, yet amid it he found time for convivial relaxation and
for a deep plunge into the whirlpool of politics.
[=The Irish Association=]
The vigorous advocate was not long in rising to the chiefship of the
Irish party, but his effective work in favor of Catholic emancipation
began in 1823, when he founded the "Irish Association," a gigantic
system of organization which Ireland had nothing similar to before. The
clergy were disinclined to take part in this movement, but O'Connell's
eloquence brought them in before the end of the year, and under their
influence it became national, spreading irresistibly throughout the
land and rousing everywhere the greatest enthusiasm. To obtain funds
for its support the "Catholic Rent" was established--one penny a
month--which yielded as much as £500 per week.
In alarm at the growth of this association, the government brought in
a bill for its suppression, but O'Connell, too shrewd to come into
conflict with the authorities, forstalled them by dissolving it in
1825. He had set the ball rolling. The Irish forty-shilling freeholders
gained courage to oppose their landlords in the elections. In 1826
they carried Waterford. In 1828 O'Connell himself stood as member of
parliament for Clare, and was elected amid the intense enthusiasm of
the people.
This triumph set the whole country in a flame. The lord-lieutenant
looked for an insurrection, and even Lord Wellington, prime minister
of England, was alarmed at the threatening outlook. But O'Connell,
knowing that an outbreak would be ruinous to the Catholic cause, used
his marvelous powers to still the agitation and to induce the people to
wait for parliamentary relief.
[=O'Connell in Parliament=]
This relief came the following year. A bill was passed which admitted
Catholics to parliament, and under it O'Connell made his appearance in
the House of Commons May 15, 1829. He declined to take the old oaths,
which had been repealed by the bill. The House refused to admit him on
these conditions, and he went down to Clare again, which sent him back
like a conqueror. At the beginning of 1830 he took his seat unopposed.
O'Connell's career in parliament was one of persistent labor for the
repeal of the "Act of Union" with Great Britain, and Home Rule for
Ireland, in the advocacy of which he kept the country stirred up for
years. The abolition of tithes for the support of the Anglican clergy
was another of his great subjects of agitation, and this one member had
the strength of a host as an advocate of justice and freedom for his
country.
[=The Tithe Troubles=]
The agitation on the Catholic question had quickened the sense of the
wrongs of Ireland, and the Catholics were soon engaged in a crusade
against tithes and the established Church, which formed the most
offensive symbols of their inferior position in the state. In 1830
the potato crop in Ireland was very poor, and wide-spread misery and
destitution prevailed. O'Connell advised the people to pay no tithes,
but in this matter they passed beyond his control, and for months
crime ran rampant. The farmers refused to pay tithes or rents, armed
bands marched through the island, and murder and incendiarism visited
the homes of the rich. A stringent coercion bill was enacted and the
troubles were put down by the strong hand of the law. Subsequently the
Whig party, then in power, practically abolished tithes, cutting down
the revenue of the Established Church, and using the remainder for
secular purposes, and the agitation subsided.
In 1832 O'Connell became member for Dublin, and nominated most of the
Irish candidates, with such effect that he had in the next Parliament
a following of forty-five members, known sarcastically as his "tail."
He gradually attained a position of great eminence in the House of
Commons, standing in the first rank of parliamentary orators as a
debater.
[=The Home Rule Crusade=]
When a Tory ministry came into power, in 1841, O'Connell began a
vigorous agitation in favor of repeal of the Act of Union and of
Home Rule for Ireland, advocating the measure with all his wonderful
power of oratory. In 1843 he travelled 5,000 miles through Ireland,
speaking to immense meetings, attended by hundreds of thousands of
people, and extending to every corner of the island. But thanks to
his great controlling power, and the influence of Father Mathew, the
famous temperance advocate, these audiences were never unruly mobs, but
remained free from crime and drunkenness. The greatest was that held on
the Hill of Tara, at which, according to the _Nation_, three-quarters
of a million persons were present.
O'Connell wisely deprecated rebellion and bloodshed. "He who commits a
crime adds strength to the enemy," was his favorite motto. Through a
whole generation, with wonderful skill, he kept the public mind at the
highest pitch of political excitement, yet restrained it from violence.
But with all his power the old chief began to lose control of the
enthusiastic Young Ireland party and, confident that the government
must soon yield to the impassioned appeal from a whole nation, he
allowed himself in his speeches to outrun his sober judgment.
[=O'Connell Imprisoned=]
Fearful of an outbreak of violence, the government determined to put
an end to these enormous meetings, and a force of 35,000 men was sent
to Ireland. A great meeting had been called for Clantarf on October
5, 1843, but it was forbidden the day before by the authorities, and
O'Connell, fearing bloodshed, abandoned it. He was arrested, however,
tried for a conspiracy to arouse sedition, and sentenced to a year's
imprisonment and a fine of £2,000. This sentence was set aside by the
House of Lords some months afterward as erroneous, and at once bonfires
blazed across Ireland from sea to sea. But the three months he passed
in prison proved fatal to the old chief, then nearly seventy years old.
He contracted a disease which carried him to the grave three years
afterwards.
[=The Young Ireland Rebellion=]
During his withdrawal the Young Ireland party began to advocate
resistance to the government. In 1846 and 1847 came the potato famine,
the most severe visitation Ireland had known during the century, and
in 1848 the revolutionary movement in Europe made itself felt on Irish
soil. In the latter year the ardent Young Ireland party carried the
country into rebellion; but the outbreak was easily put down, hardly a
drop of blood being shed in its suppression. The popular leader, Smith
O'Brien, was banished to Australia, but was eventually pardoned. John
Mitchell, editor of the _Nation_ and the _United Irishman_, was also
banished, but subsequently escaped from Australia to the United States.
The wrongs of Ireland remained unredeemed, and as long as this was the
case quiet could not be looked for in the island. In 1858 a Phoenix
conspiracy was discovered and suppressed. Meanwhile John O'Mahony, one
of the insurgents of 1848, organized a formidable secret society among
the Irish in the United States, which he named the Fenian Brotherhood,
after Finn, the hero of Irish legend. This organization was opposed by
the Catholic clergy, but grew despite their opposition, its members
becoming numerous and its funds large.
[=The Fenian Brotherhood=]
Its leader in Ireland was James Stephens, and its organ the _Irish
People_ newspaper. But there were traitors in the camp and in 1865 the
paper was suppressed and the leaders were arrested. Stephens escaped
from prison ten days after his arrest and made his way to America. The
revolutionary activity of this association was small. There were some
minor outbreaks and an abortive attempt to seize Chester Castle, and in
September, 1867, an attack was made on a police van in Manchester, and
the prisoners, who were Fenians, were rescued. Soon after an attempt
was made to blow down Clerkenwell Prison wall, with the same purpose in
view.
The Fenians in the United States organized a plot in 1866 for a raid
upon Canada, which utterly failed, and in 1871 the government of this
country put a summary end to a similar expedition. With this the active
existence of the Fenian organization ended, unless we may ascribe to
it the subsequent attempts to blow down important structures in London
with dynamite.
[=Land Holding Reform in Ireland=]
These movements, while ineffective as attempts at insurrection, had
their influence in arousing the more thoughtful statesmen of England
to the causes for discontent and need of reform in Ireland, and since
that period the Irish question has been the most prominent one in
Parliament. Such men as Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright took the matter
in hand, Gladstone presenting a bill for the final abolition of Irish
tithes and the disestablishment of the English Church in Ireland. This
was adopted in 1868, and the question of the reform of land holding
was next taken up, a series of measures being passed to improve
the condition of the Irish tenant farmer. If ejected, he was to be
compensated for improvements he had made, and a Land Commission was
formed with the power to reduce rents where this seemed necessary,
and also to fix the rent for a term of years. At a later date a Land
Purchase Commission was organized, to aid tenants in buying their farms
from the landlords, by an advance of a large portion of the purchase
money, with provision for gradual repayment.
[=The Home Rule Agitation=]
These measures did not put an end to the agitation. Numerous ejections
from farms for non-payment of rent had been going on, and a fierce
struggle was raging between the peasants and the agents of the absentee
landlords. The disturbance was great, and successive Coercion Acts
were passed. The peasants were supported by the powerful Land League,
while the old question of Home Rule was revived again, under the active
leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell, who headed a small but very
determined body in Parliament. The succeeding legislation for Ireland,
engineered by Mr. Gladstone, to the passage in the House of Commons
of the Home Rule Bill of 1893, has been sufficiently described in the
preceding chapter, and need not be repeated here. It will suffice to
say in conclusion, that the demand for Home Rule still exists, and
that, in spite of all efforts at reform, the position of the Irish
peasant is far from being satisfactory, the most prolific crop in that
long-oppressed land seemingly being one of beggary and semi-starvation.