THE REBELLION OF 1641.
The Rebellion of 1641--generally called a 'massacre'--was undoubtedly
a struggle on the part of the exiled nobles and clergy and the evicted
peasants to get possession of their estates and farms, which had been
occupied by the British settlers for nearly a generation. They
might probably have continued to occupy them in peace, but for the
fanaticism of the lords justices, Sir John Parsons and Sir John
Borlace. It was reported and believed that, at a public entertainment
in Dublin, Parsons declared that in twelve months no more Catholics
should be seen in that country. The English Puritans and Scottish
Covenanters were determined never to lay down their arms till they had
made an end of Popery. Pym, the celebrated Puritan leader, avowed that
the policy of his party was not to leave a priest alive in the land.
Meantime, the Irish chiefs were busy intriguing at Rome, Madrid,
Paris, and other continental capitals, clamouring for an invasion of
Ireland, to restore monarchy and Catholicity--to expel the English
planters from the forfeited lands. Philip III. of Spain encouraged
these aspirations. He had an Irish legion under the command of Henry
O'Neill, son of the fugitive Earl of Tyrone. It was reported that,
in 1630 there were in the service of the Archduchess, in the Spanish
Netherlands alone, 100 Irish officers able to command companies, and
20 fit to be colonels. There were many others at Lisbon, Florence,
Milan, and Naples. They had in readiness 5,000 or 6,000 stand of arms
laid up at Antwerp, bought out of the deduction of their monthly pay.
The banished ecclesiastics formed at every court a most efficient
diplomatic corps, the chief of these intriguers being the celebrated
Luke Wadding. Religious wars were popular in those times, and the
invasion of Ireland would be like a crusade against heresy. But with
the Irish chiefs the ruling passion was to get possession of their
homes and their lands. The most active spirit among these was Roger,
or Rory O'Moore, a man of high character, great ability, handsome
person, and fascinating manners. With him were associated Conor
Maguire, Costelloe M'Mahon, and Thorlough O'Neill, Sir Phelim O'Neill,
Sir Con Magennis, Colonel Hugh M'Mahon, and the Rev. Dr. Heber
M'Mahon. O'Moore visited the country, went through the several
provinces, and, by communicating with the chiefs personally, organised
the conspiracy to expel the British and recover the kingdom for
Charles II. and the Pope.
The plan agreed upon by the confederates was this:--A rising when
the harvest was gathered in; a simultaneous attack on all the English
fortresses; the surprise of Dublin Castle, said to contain arms for
12,000 men; and to obtain for these objects all possible aid, in
officers, men, and arms, from the Continent. The rising took place
on the night of October 22, 1641. It might have been completely
successful if the Castle of Dublin had been seized. It seemed an
easy prey, for it was guarded only by a few pensioners and forty
halberdiers, who would be quickly overpowered. But the plot was
made known to the lords justices by an informer when on the eve of
execution.
Sir Phelim O'Neill was one of those 'Irish gentlemen' who, by royal
favour, were permitted to retain some portions of their ancient
patrimonies. At this time he was in possession of thirty-eight
townlands in the barony of Dungannon, county Tyrone, containing 23,000
acres, then estimated to be worth 1,600 l. a-year, equal to some
10,000 l. of our money. Charles Boulton held by lease from the
same chief 600 acres, at a yearly rent of 29 l. for sixty years, in
consideration of a fine of 1,000 l. In 1641 this property yielded a
profit rent of 150 l. a year. Three townlands in the same barony were
claimed by George Rawden of Lisnagarvagh, as leased to him by Sir
Phelim under the rent of 100 l., estimated to be worth 50 l. per
annum.
Sir Phelim might, therefore, have been content, so far as property was
concerned. But, setting aside patriotism, religion, and ambition, it
is likely enough that he distrusted the Government, and feared the
doom pronounced in Dublin Castle against all the gentlemen of his
creed and race. At all events he put himself at the head of the
insurrection in Ulster. He and the officers under his command, on the
night of the 22nd, surprised and captured the forts of Charlemont and
Mountjoy. The towns of Dungannon, Newry, Carrickmacross, Castleblaney,
Tandragee fell into the hands of the insurgents, while the O'Reillys
and Maguires overran Cavan and Fermanagh. Sir Conor Magennis wrote
from Newry to the Government officers in Down: 'We are for our lives
and liberties. We desire no blood to be shed; but, if you mean to shed
our blood, be sure we shall be as ready as you for that purpose.' And
Sir Phelim O'Neill issued the following proclamation:--
'These are to intimate and make known unto all persons whatsoever, in
and through the whole country, the true intent and meaning of us whose
names are hereunto subscribed: 1. That the first assembling of us is
nowise intended against our sovereign lord the king, nor hurt of any
of his subjects, either English or Scotch; but only for the defence
and libertie of ourselves and the Irish natives of this kingdom. And
we further declare that whatsoever hurt hitherto hath been done to
any person shall be presently repaired; and we will that every person
forthwith, after proclamation hereof, make their speedy repaire unto
their own houses, under paine of death, that no further hurt be done
unto any one under the like paine, and that this be proclaimed in all
places.
'PHELIM O'NEILL.
'At Dungannon, the 23rd October, 1641.'
It is easy for an insurgent chief to give such orders to a tumultuous
mass of excited, vindictive, and drunken men, but not so easy to
enforce them. The common notion among Protestants, however, that a
midnight massacre of all the Protestant settlers was intended, or
attempted, is certainly unfounded. Though horrible outrages were
committed on both sides, the number of them has been greatly
exaggerated. Mr. Prendergast quotes some contemporary authorities,
which seem to be decisive on this point. In the same year was
published by 'G.S., minister of God's word in Ireland,' 'A Brief
Declaration of the Barbarous and Inhuman Dealings of the Northern
Irish Rebels ...; written to excite the English Nation to relieve
our poor Wives and Children that have escaped the Rebels' savage
Cruelties.'
This author says, it was the intention of the Irish to massacre all
the English. On Saturday they were to disarm them; on Sunday to seize
all their cattle and goods; on Monday, at the watchword 'Skeane,' they
were to cut all the English throats. The former they executed; the
third only (that is the massacre) they failed in.
That the massacre rested hitherto in intention only is further evident
from the proclamation of the lords justices of February 8, 1642;
for, while offering large sums for the heads of the chief northern
gentlemen in arms (Sir Phelim O'Neill's name heading the list with
a thousand pounds), the lords justices state that the massacre had
failed. Many thousands had been robbed and spoiled, dispossessed of
house and lands, many murdered on the spot; but the chief part of
their plots (so the proclamation states), and amongst them a universal
massacre, had been disappointed.
But, says Mr. Prendergast, after Lord Ormond and Sir Simon Harcourt,
with the English forces, in the month of April, 1642, had burned the
houses of the gentry in the Pale, and committed slaughters of unarmed
men, and the Scotch forces, in the same month, after beating off
Sir Phelim O'Neill's army at Newry, drowned and shot men, women, and
priests, in that town, who had surrendered on condition of mercy, then
it was that some of Sir Phelim O'Neill's wild followers in revenge,
and in fear of the advancing army, massacred their prisoners in some
of the towns in Tyrone. The subsequent cruelties were not on one side
only, and were magnified to render the Irish detestable, so as to make
it impossible for the king to seek their aid without ruining his cause
utterly in England. The story of the massacre, invented to serve
the politics of the hour, has been since kept up for the purposes
of interest. No inventions could be too monstrous that served to
strengthen the possession of Irish confiscated lands.
'A True Relation of the Proceedings of the Scots and English Forces in
the North of Ireland,' published in 1642, states that on Monday, May
5, the common soldiers, without direction from the general-major, took
some eighteen of the Irish women of the town [Newry], stripped them
naked, threw them into the river, and drowned them, shooting some in
the water. More had suffered so, but that some of the common soldiers
were made examples of.
'A Levite's Lamentation,' published at the same time, thus refers
to those atrocities: 'Mr. Griffin, Mr. Bartly, Mr. Starkey, all of
Ardmagh, and murdered by these bloudsuckers on the sixth of May. For,
about the fourth of May, as I take it, we put neare fourty of them
to death upon the bridge of the Newry, amongst which were two of
the Pope's pedlers, two seminary priests, in return of which they
slaughtered many prisoners in their custody.'
A curious illustration of the spirit of that age is given in the fact
that an English officer threw up his commission in disgust, because
the Bishop of Meath, in a sermon delivered in Christ Church, Dublin,
in 1642, pleaded for mercy to Irish women and children.
The unfortunate settlers fled panic-stricken from their homes, leaving
behind their goods, and, in many cases, their clothes; delicate women
with little children, weary and footsore, hurried on to some place
of refuge. In Cavan they crowded the house of the illustrious
Bishop Bedell, at Kilmore. Enniskillen, Derry, Lisburn, Belfast,
Carrickfergus, with some isolated castles, were still held by the
English garrisons, and in these the Protestant fugitives found succour
and protection. Before their flight they were in such terror that,
according to the Rev. Dr. Maxwell, rector of Tynan, for three nights
no cock was heard to crow, no dog to bark. The city of London sent
four ships to Londonderry with all kinds of provisions, clothing,
and accoutrements for several companies of foot, and abundance
of ammunition. The twelve chief companies sent each two pieces of
ordnance. No doubt these liberal and seasonable supplies contributed
materially to keep the city from yielding to the insurgent forces by
which it was besieged.
Meantime the Government in Dublin lost not a moment in taking the
most effectual measures for crushing the rebellion. Lord Ormond, as
lieutenant-general, had soon at his disposal 12,000 men, with a fine
train of field artillery, provided by Strafford for his campaign in
the north of England. The king, who was in Scotland, procured the
dispatch of 1,500 men to Ulster; and authorised Lords Chichester and
Clandeboye to raise regiments among their tenants. Thus the 'Scottish
army' was increased to about 5,000 foot, with cavalry in proportion.
The Irish, on the other hand, were ill-provided with arms and
ammunition. They were not even provided with pikes, for they had not
time to make them. The military officers counted upon did not appear,
though they had promised to be on the field at fourteen days' notice.
Rory O'Moore, like 'Meagher of the sword' in 1848, had never seen
service; and Sir Phelim O'Neill, like Smith O'Brien, was only a
civilian when he assumed the high-sounding title of 'Lord General of
the Catholic army in Ulster.' He also took the title of 'the O'Neill.'
The massacre of a large number of Catholics by the Carrickfergus
garrison, driving them over the cliffs into the sea at the point of
the bayonet, madly excited the Irish thirst for blood. Mr. Darcy
Magee admits that, from this date forward till the arrival of Owen Roe
O'Neill, the war assumed a ferocity of character foreign to the nature
of O'Moore, O'Reilly, and Magennis. 'That Sir Phelim permitted, if
he did not in his gusts of stormy passion instigate, those acts of
cruelty which have stained his otherwise honourable conduct, is too
true; but he stood alone among his confederates in that crime, and
that crime stands alone in his character. Brave to rashness and
disinterested to excess, few rebel chiefs ever made a more heroic end
out of a more deplorable beginning.' The same eulogy would equally
apply to many of the English generals. Cruelty was their only crime.
The Irish rulers of those times, if not taken by surprise, felt at the
outbreak of open rebellion much as the army feels at the breaking
out of a war, in some country where plenty of prize money can be won,
where the looting will be rich and the promotion rapid. Relying with
confidence on the power of England and the force of discipline, they
knew that the active defenders of the Government would be victorious
in the end, and that their rewards would be estates. The more
rebellions, the more forfeited territory, the more opportunities to
implicate, ruin, and despoil the principal men of the hated race. The
most sober writer, dealing with such facts, cannot help stirring men's
blood while recording the deeds of the heroes who founded the English
system of government in Ireland, and secured to themselves immense
tracts of its most fertile soil. What then must be the effect of the
eloquent and impassioned denunciations of such writers as Mr.
Butt, Mr. A.M. Sullivan, and Mr. John Mitchell, not to speak of the
'national press'? Yet the most fiery patriot utters nothing stronger
on the English rule in Ireland than what the Irish may read in the
works of the greatest statesmen and most profound thinkers in England.
The evil is in the facts, and the facts cannot be suppressed because
they are the roots of our present difficulties. Mr. Darcy Magee, one
of the most moderate of Irish historians, writing far away from his
native land, not long before he fell by the bullet of the assassin--a
martyr to his loyalty--sketches the preliminaries of confiscation at
the commencement of this civil war.
In Munster, their chief instruments were the aged Earl of Cork, still
insatiable as ever for other men's possessions, and the president,
St. Leger: in Leinster, Sir Charles Coote. Lord Cork prepared 1,100
indictments against men of property in his province, which he sent to
the speaker of the Long Parliament, with an urgent request that
they might be returned to him, with authority to proceed against the
parties named as outlaws. In Leinster, 4,000 similar indictments
were found in the course of two days by the free use of the rack with
witnesses. Sir John Read, an officer of the king's bedchamber, and
Mr. Barnwall of Kilbrue, a gentleman of threescore and six, were among
those who underwent the torture. When these were the proceedings of
the tribunals in peaceable cities, we may imagine what must have been
the excesses of the soldiery in the open country. In the south,
Sir William St. Leger directed a series of murderous raids upon the
peasantry of Cork, which at length produced their natural effect. Lord
Muskerry and other leading recusants, who had offered their services
to maintain the peace of the province, were driven by an insulting
refusal to combine for their own protection. The 1,100 indictments
of Lord Cork soon swelled their ranks, and the capture of the ancient
city of Cashel, by Philip O'Dwyer, announced the insurrection of the
south. Waterford soon after opened its gates to Colonel Edmund Butler;
Wexford declared for the Catholic cause, and Kilkenny surrendered to
Lord Mountgarret. In Wicklow, Coote's troopers committed murders such
as had not been equalled since the days of the pagan Northmen. Little
children were carried aloft writhing on the pikes of these barbarians,
whose worthy commander confessed that 'he liked such frolics.' Neither
age nor sex was spared, and an ecclesiastic was especially certain
of instant death. Fathers Higgins and White of Naas, in Kildare, were
given up by Coote to these 'lambs,' though, each had been granted a
safe-conduct by his superior officer, Lord Ormond. And these murders
were taking place at the very time when the Franciscans and Jesuits of
Cashel were protecting Dr. Pullen, the Protestant chancellor of that
cathedral and other Protestant prisoners; while also the castle of
Cloughouter, in Cavan, the residence of Bishop Bedell, was crowded
with Protestant fugitives, all of whom were carefully guarded by the
chivalrous Philip O'Reilly.
In Ulster, by the end of April, there were 19,000 troops, regulars and
volunteers, in the garrison or in the field. Newry was taken by Monroe
and Chichester. Magennis was obliged to abandon Down, and McMahon
Monaghan; Sir Phelim was driven to burn Armagh and Dungannon and to
take his last stand at Charlemont. In a severe action with Sir Robert
and Sir William Stewart, he had displayed his usual courage with
better than his usual fortune, which, perhaps, we may attribute to the
presence with him of Sir Alexander McDonnell, brother to Lord Antrim,
the famous _Colkitto_ of the Irish and Scottish wars. But the severest
defeat which the confederates had was in the heart of Leinster, at the
hamlet of Kilrush, within four miles of Athy. Lord Ormond, returning
from a second reinforcement of Naas and other Kildare forts, at
the head, by English account, of 4,000 men, found on April 13 the
Catholics of the midland counties, under Lords Mountgarrett, Ikerrin,
and Dunboyne, Sir Morgan Cavenagh, Rory O'Moore, and Hugh O'Byrne,
drawn up, by his report 8,000 strong, to dispute his passage. With
Ormond were the Lord Dillon, Lord Brabazon, Sir Richard Grenville, Sir
Charles Coote, and Sir T. Lucas. The combat was short but murderous.
The confederates left 700 men, including Sir Morgan Cavenagh and
some other officers, dead on the field; the remainder retreated in
disorder, and Ormond, with an inconsiderable diminution of numbers,
returned in triumph to Dublin. For this victory the Long Parliament,
in a moment of enthusiasm, voted the lieutenant-general a jewel worth
500 l. If any satisfaction could be derived from such an incident, the
violent death of their most ruthless enemy, Sir Charles Coote, might
have afforded the Catholics some consolation. That merciless soldier,
after the combat at Kilrush, had been employed in reinforcing Birr and
relieving the castle of Geashill, which the Lady Letitia of Offally
held against the neighbouring tribe of O'Dempsey. On his return from
this service he made a foray against a Catholic force, which had
mustered in the neighbourhood of Trim; here, on the night of the 7th
of May, heading a sally of his troop, he fell by a musket shot--not
without suspicion of being fired from his own ranks. His son and
namesake, who imitated him in all things, was ennobled at the
Restoration by the title of the Earl of Mountrath.
The Long Parliament would not trust the king with an army in Ireland.
They consequently took the work of subjugation into their own hands.
Having confiscated 2,500,000 acres of Irish land, they offered it as
security to 'adventurers' who would advance money to meet the cost of
the war. In February, 1642, the House of Commons received a petition
'of divers well affected' to it, offering to raise and maintain forces
at their own charge 'against the rebels of Ireland, and afterwards to
receive their recompense out of the rebels' estates.' Under the act
'for the speedy reducing of the rebels' the adventurers were to carry
over a brigade of 5,000 foot and 500 horse, and to have the right of
appointing their own officers. And they were to have estates given to
them at the following rates: 1,000 acres for 200 l. in Ulster, for 300
l. in Connaught, for 450 l. in Munster, and 600 l. in Leinster. The
rates per acre were 4 s., 6s., 8s., and 12 s. in those provinces
respectively.
The nature of the war, and the spirit in which it was conducted, may
be inferred from the sort of weapons issued from the military
stores. These included scythes with handles and rings, reaping-hooks,
whetstones, and rubstones. They were intended for cutting down the
growing corn, that the people might be starved into submission, or
forced to quit the country. The commissary of stores was ordered to
issue Bibles to the troops, one Bible for every file, that they might
learn from the Old Testament the sin and danger of sparing idolaters.
The rebellion in Ulster had almost collapsed before the end of the
year. The tens of thousands who had rushed to the standard of Sir
P. O'Neill were now reduced to a number of weak and disorganised
collections of armed men taking shelter in the woods. The English
garrisons scoured the neighbouring counties with little opposition,
and where they met any they gave no quarter. Sir William Cole,
ancestor of the Earl of Enniskillen, proudly boasted of his
achievement in having 7,000 of the rebels famished to death within
a circuit of a few miles of his garrison. Lord Enniskillen is an
excellent landlord, but the descendants of the remnant of the natives
on his estate do not forget how the family obtained its wealth and
honours. The Government, however, seemed to have good reason to
congratulate itself that the war was over with the Irish. To these Sir
Phelim O'Neill had shown that there is something in a name: but if
the name does not represent real worth and fitness for the work
undertaken, it is but a shadow. It was so in Sir Phelim's O'Neill's
case. Though he had courage, he was a poor general. But another hero
of the same name soon appeared to redeem the honour of his race, and
to show what the right man can do. At a moment when the national
cause seemed to be lost, when the Celtic population in Ulster were
meditating a wholesale emigration to the Scottish Highlands--'a word
of magic effect was whispered from the sea-coast to the interior.'
Colonel Owen Roe O'Neill had arrived off Donegal with a single ship,
a single company of veterans, 100 officers, and a quantity of
ammunition. He landed at Doe Castle, proceeded to the fort of
Charlemont, met the heads of the clans at Clones in Monaghan, was
elected general-in-chief of the Catholic forces, and at once set about
organising an army. The Catholics of the whole kingdom had joined a
confederation, which held its meetings at Kilkenny. A general assembly
was convened for October 23, 1642. The peerage was represented by
fourteen lords and eleven bishops. Generals were appointed for each
of the other provinces, Preston for Leinster, Barry for Munster, and
Burke for Connaught. With the Anglo-Irish portion of the confederacy
the war was Catholic, and the object religious liberty. With them
there was no antipathy or animosity to the English. There was the
Pope's Nuncio and his party, thinking most of papal interests, and
there was the national party, who had been, or were likely to be,
made landless. The king, then at Oxford, was importuned by the
confederation on the one side and the Puritans on the other; one
petitioning for freedom of worship, the other for the suppression of
popery. Pending these appeals there was a long cessation between the
Irish belligerents.
Ormond had amused the confederates with negotiations for a permanent
peace and settlement, from spring till midsummer, when Charles,
dissatisfied with these endless delays, dispatched to Ireland a more
hopeful ambassador. This was Herbert, Earl of Glamorgan, one of the
few Catholics remaining among the English nobility, son and heir to
the Marquis of Worcester, and son-in-law to Henry O'Brien, Earl of
Thomond. Of a family devoutly attached to the royal cause, to which
it is said they had contributed not less than 200,000 l., Glamorgan's
religion, his rank, his Irish connections, the intimate confidence of
the king which he was known to possess, all marked out his embassy as
one of the utmost importance.
The earl arrived in Dublin about August 1, and, after an interview
with Ormond, proceeded to Kilkenny. On the 28th of that month,
preliminary articles were agreed to and signed by the earl on behalf
of the king, and by Lords Montgarrett and Muskerry on behalf of the
confederates. It was necessary, it seems, to get the concurrence of
the Viceroy to these terms, and accordingly the negotiators on both
sides repaired to Dublin. Here Ormond contrived to detain them ten
long weeks in discussions on the articles relating to religion; it
was the 12th of November when they returned to Kilkenny, with a much
modified treaty. On the next day, the 13th, the new Papal Nuncio,
a prelate who, by his rank, his eloquence, and his imprudence, was
destined to exercise a powerful influence on the Catholic councils,
made his public entry into that city.
This personage was John Baptist Rinuccini, Archbishop of Fermo in
the marches of Ancona, which see he had preferred to the more exalted
dignity of Florence.
From Limerick, borne along on his litter, such was the feebleness
of his health, he advanced by slow stages to Kilkenny, escorted by a
guard of honour, despatched on that duty by the supreme council.
The pomp and splendour of his public entry into the Catholic capital
was a striking spectacle. The previous night he slept at a village
three miles from the city, for which he set out early on the morning
of November 13, escorted by his guard and a vast multitude of the
people. Five delegates from the supreme council accompanied him. A
band of fifty students, mounted on horseback, met him on the way, and
their leader, crowned with laurel, recited some congratulatory Latin
verses. At the city gate he left the litter and mounted a horse richly
housed; here the procession of the clergy and the city guilds awaited
him: at the market cross, a Latin oration was delivered in his honour,
to which he graciously replied in the same language. From the cross he
was escorted to the cathedral, at the door of which he was received by
the aged bishop, Dr. David Rothe. At the high altar he intonated the
_Te Deum_, and gave the multitude the apostolic benediction. Then he
was conducted to his lodgings, where he was soon waited upon by Lord
Muskerry and General Preston, who brought him to Kilkenny Castle,
where, in the great gallery, which elicited even a Florentine's
admiration, he was received in stately formality by the president of
the council--Lord Mountgarrett. Another Latin oration on the nature of
his embassy was delivered by the Nuncio, responded to by Heber, Bishop
of Clogher, and so the ceremony of reception ended.[1]
[Footnote 1: Darcy Magee, vol. ii. p.128.]
After a long time spent in negotiations, the celebrated Glamorgan
treaty was signed by Ormond for the king, and Lord Muskerry and the
other commissioners for the confederates. It conceded, in fact, all
the most essential claims of the Irish--equal rights as to property,
in the army, in the universities, and at the bar; gave them seats in
both houses and on the bench; authorised a special commission of oyer
and terminer, composed wholly of confederates; and declared that 'the
independency of the parliament of Ireland on that of England' should
be decided by declaration of both houses 'agreeably to the laws of the
kingdom of Ireland.' In short, this final form of Glamorgan's treaty
gave the Irish Catholics, in 1646, all that was subsequently obtained,
either for the church or the country, in 1782, 1793, or 1829. 'Though
some conditions were omitted, to which Rinuccini and a majority of the
prelates attached importance, Glamorgan's treaty was, upon the whole,
a charter upon which a free church and a free people might well have
stood, as the fundamental law of their religious and civil liberties.'
General O'Neill was greatly annoyed at these delays. Political
events in England swayed the destiny of Ireland then as now. The poor
vacillating, double-dealing king was delivered to the Puritans, tried,
and executed. But before Cromwell came to smash the confederation and
everything papal in Ireland, the Irish chief gladdened the hearts of
his countrymen by the glorious victory of Benburb, one of the most
memorable in Irish history.
In a naturally strong position, the Irish, for four hours, received
and repulsed the various charges of the Puritan horse. Then as the
sun began to descend, pouring its rays upon the enemy, O'Neill led
his whole force--five thousand men against eight--to the attack.
One terrible onset swept away every trace of resistance. There were
counted on the field 3,243 of the Covenanters, and of the Catholics
but 70 killed and 100 wounded. Lord Ardes, and 21 Scottish officers,
32 standards, 1,500 draught horses, and all the guns and tents, were
captured. Monroe fled to Lisburn and thence to Carrickfergus, where he
shut himself up till he could obtain reinforcements. O'Neill forwarded
the captured colours to the Nuncio at Limerick, by whom they were
solemnly placed in the choir of St. Mary's Cathedral, and afterwards,
at the request of Pope Innocent, sent to Rome. The _Te Deum_ was
chanted in the confederate capital; penitential psalms were sung
in the northern fortresses. 'The Lord of Hosts,' wrote Monroe,
'has rubbed shame on our faces till once we are humbled.' O'Neill
emblazoned the cross and keys on his banner with the Red Hand
of Ulster, and openly resumed the title originally chosen by his
adherents at Clones, 'the Catholic Army.'
The stage of Irish politics now presented the most extraordinary
complications political and military. The confederation was occupied
with endless debates and dissensions. Commanders changed positions so
rapidly, the several causes for which men had been fighting became so
confused in the unaccountable scene-shifting, giving glimpses now of
the king, now of the commonwealth, and now of the pope, that no one
knew what to do, or what was to be the end. The nuncio went home in
disgust that his blessings and his curses, which he dispensed with
equal liberality, had so little effect.
At length appeared an actor who gave a terrible unity to the drama of
Irish politics. Cromwell left London in July 1649, 'in a coach drawn
by six gallant Flanders mares,' and made a grand progress to Bristol.
He landed at Ring's End, near Dublin, on August 14. He entered the
city in procession and addressed the people from 'a convenient place,'
accompanied by his son Henry, Blake, Jones, Ireton, Ludlow, Hardress,
Waller, and others. The history of Cromwell's military exploits in
Ireland is well known. I pass on, therefore, to notice the effects of
the war on the condition of the people.
As usual, in such cases, the destruction of the crops and other
provisions by the soldiers, brought evil to the conquerors as well as
to their victims. There had been a fifteen years' war in Ulster,
when James I. ascended the throne, and it left the country waste
and desolate. Sir John Davis, his attorney-general, asserted the
unquestionable fact that perpetual war had been continued between the
two nations for 'four hundred and odd years,' and had always for its
object to 'root out the Irish.' James was to put an end to this war,
and, as we have seen, the lord deputy promised the people 'estates' in
their holdings. The effect of this promise, as recorded by Davis,
is remarkable. 'He thus made it a year of jubilee to the poor
inhabitants, because every man was to return to his own house, and
be restored to his ancient possessions, and they all went home
rejoicing.'
Poor people! they soon saw the folly of putting their trust in
princes. Now, after a seven years' war, the nation was again
visited with famine, and the country converted into a wilderness.
Three-fourths of the cattle had been destroyed; and the commissioners
for Ireland reported to the council in England in 1651, that four
parts in five of the best and most fertile land in Ireland lay waste
and uninhabited, stating that they had encouraged the Irish to till
the land, promising them the enjoyment of the crops. They had also
given orders 'for enforcing those that were removed to the mountains
to return.' The soldiers were employed to till the lands round their
posts. Corn had to be imported to Dublin from Wales. So scarce
was meat that a widow was obliged to petition the authorities for
permission to kill a lamb; and she was 'permitted and lycensed to kill
and dresse so much lambe as shall be necessary for her own eating,
not exceeding three lambes for this whole year, notwithstanding
any declaration of the said Commissioners of Parliament to the
contrary.'[A] This privilege was granted to Mrs. Buckley in
consideration of 'her old age and weakness of body.' In 1654 the Irish
revenue from all sources was only 198,000 l., while the cost of the
army was 500,000 l. A sort of conditional amnesty was granted from
necessity, pending the decision of Parliament, and on May 12,
1652, the Leinster army of the Irish surrendered on terms signed
at Kilkenny, which were adopted successively by the other principal
armies between that time and the September following, when the Ulster
forces surrendered. By these Kilkenny articles, all except those who
were guilty of the first blood were received into protection on
laying down their arms; those who should not be satisfied with the
conclusions the Parliament might come to concerning the Irish nation,
and should desire to transport themselves with their men to serve any
foreign state in amity with the Parliament, should have liberty
to treat with their agents for that purpose. But the Commissioners
undertook faithfully to mediate with the Parliament that they
might enjoy such a remnant of their lands as might make their lives
comfortable at home, or be enabled to emigrate.
[Footnote 1: Prendergast, the Cromwellian Settlement, p.16.]
The Cromwellian administration in Ireland effected a revolution
unparalleled in history. Its proceedings have been well summarised by
Mr. Darcy Magee:--
The Long Parliament, still dragging out its days under the shadow of
Cromwell's great name, declared in its session of 1652 the rebellion
in Ireland 'subdued and ended,' and proceeded to legislate for that
kingdom as a conquered country. On August 12 they passed their Act of
Settlement, the authorship of which was attributed to Lord Orrery, in
this respect the worthy son of the first Earl of Cork. Under this act
there were four chief descriptions of persons whose status was thus
settled: 1. All ecclesiastics and royalist proprietors were exempted
from pardon of life or estate. 2. All royalist commissioned officers
were condemned to banishment, and the forfeit of two-thirds of their
property, one-third being retained for the support of their wives and
children. 3. Those who had not been in arms, but could be shown, by
a parliamentary commission, to have manifested 'a constant, good
affection' to the war, were to forfeit one-third of their estates,
and receive 'an equivalent' for the remaining two-thirds west of
the Shannon. 4. All husbandmen and others of the inferior sort, 'not
possessed of lands or goods exceeding the value of 10 l.,' were to
have a free pardon, on condition also of transporting themselves
across the Shannon.
This last condition of the Cromwellian settlement distinguished it,
in our annals, from every other proscription of the native population
formerly attempted. The great river of Ireland, rising in the
mountains of Leitrim, nearly severs the five western counties from the
rest of the kingdom. The province thus set apart, though one of the
largest in superficial extent, had also the largest proportion of
waste and water, mountain and moorland. The new inhabitants were there
to congregate from all the other provinces before the first day of
May, 1654, under penalty of outlawry and all its consequences; and
when there, they were not to appear within two miles of the Shannon,
or four miles of the sea. A rigorous passport system, to evade which
was death without form of trial, completed this settlement, the design
of which was to shut up the remaining Catholic inhabitants from all
intercourse with mankind, and all communion with the other inhabitants
of their own country.
A new survey of the whole kingdom was also ordered, under the
direction of Dr. William Petty, the fortunate economist who founded
the house of Lansdowne. By him the surface of the kingdom was
estimated at 10,500,000 plantation acres, three of which were deducted
for waste and water. Of the remainder, above 5,000,000 were in
Catholic hands, in 1641; 300,000 were church and college lands; and
2,000,000 were in possession of the Protestant settlers of the reigns
of James and Elizabeth. Under the Protectorate, 5,000,000 acres were
confiscated; this enormous spoil, two-thirds of the whole island, went
to the soldiers and adventurers who had served against the Irish,
or had contributed to the military chest, since 1641--except 700,000
acres given in 'exchange' to the banished in Clare and Connaught;
and 1,200,000 confirmed to 'innocent Papists.' Such was the complete
uprooting of the ancient tenantry or clansmen from their original
holdings, that, during the survey, orders of parliament were issued to
bring back individuals from Connaught to point out the boundaries of
parishes in Munster. It cannot be imputed among the sins so freely
laid to the historical account of the native legislature, that
an Irish parliament had any share in sanctioning this universal
spoliation. Cromwell anticipated the union of the kingdoms by 150
years, when he summoned, in 1653, that assembly over which 'Praise-God
Barebones' presided; members for Ireland and Scotland sat on the same
benches with the commons of England. Oliver's first deputy in the
government of Ireland was his son-in-law Fleetwood, who had married
the widow of Ireton; but his real representative was his fourth son
Henry Cromwell, commander-in-chief of the army. In 1657, the title of
lord deputy was transferred from Fleetwood to Henry, who united the
supreme civil and military authority in his own person until the eve
of the restoration, of which he became an active partisan. We may thus
properly embrace the five years of the Protectorate as a period of
Henry Cromwell's administration.
In the absence of a parliament, the government of Ireland was vested
in the deputy, the commander-in-chief, and four commissioners, Ludlow,
Corbett, Jones, and Weaver. There was, moreover, a high court of
justice, which perambulated the kingdom, and exercised an absolute
authority over life and property greater than even Strafford's Court
of Star Chamber had pretended to. Over this court presided Lord
Lowther, assisted by Mr. Justice Donnellan, by Cooke, solicitor to the
parliament on the trial of King Charles, and the regicide Reynolds.
By this court, Sir Phelim O'Neill, Viscount Mayo, and Colonels O'Toole
and Bagnall were condemned and executed; children of both sexes were
captured by thousands, and sold as slaves to the tobacco-planters of
Virginia and the West Indies. Sir William Petty states that 6,000 boys
and girls were sent to those islands. The number, of all ages, thus
transported, was estimated at 100,000 souls. As to the 'swordsmen'
who had been trained to fighting, Petty, in his _Political Anatomy_,
records that 'the chiefest and most eminentest of the nobility and
many of the gentry had taken conditions from the King of Spain,
and had transported 40,000 of the most active, spirited men, most
acquainted with the dangers and discipline of war.' The chief
commissioners in Dublin had despatched assistant commissioners to the
provinces. The distribution which they made of the soil was nearly
as complete as that of Canaan among the Israelites; and this was
the model which the Puritans had always before their minds. Where a
miserable residue of the population was required to till the land
for its new owners, they were tolerated as the Gibeonites had been by
Joshua. Irish gentlemen who had obtained pardons were obliged to
wear a distinctive mark on their dress on pain of death. Persons of
inferior rank were distinguished by a black spot on the right cheek.
Wanting this, their punishment was the branding-iron or the gallows.
No vestige of the Catholic religion was allowed to exist. Catholic
lawyers and schoolmasters were silenced. All ecclesiastics were slain
like the priests of Baal. Three bishops and 300 of the inferior clergy
thus perished. The bedridden Bishop of Kilmore was the only native
clergyman permitted to survive. If, in mountain recesses or caves, a
few peasants were detected at mass, they were smoked out and shot.
Thus England got rid of a race concerning which Mr. Prendergast found
this contemporary testimony in a MS. in Trinity College library,
Dublin, dated 1615:--
'There lives not a people more hardy, active, and painful ... neither
is there any will endure the miseries of warre, as famine, watching,
heat, cold, wet, travel, and the like, so naturally and with such
facility and courage that they do. The Prince of Orange's excellency
uses often publiquely to deliver that the Irish are souldiers the
first day of their birth. The famous Henry IV., late king of France,
said there would prove no nation so resolute martial men as they,
would they be ruly and not too headstrong. And Sir John Norris was
wont to ascribe this particular to that nation above others, that he
never beheld so few of any country as of Irish that were idiots and
cowards, which is very notable.'
At the end of 1653, the parliament made a division of the spoil among
the conquerors and the adventurers; and, on September 26, an act was
passed for the new planting of Ireland by English. The Government
reserved for itself the towns, the church lands, and the tithes, the
established church, hierarchy and all, having been utterly abolished.
The four counties of Dublin, Kildare, Carlow, and Cork were also
reserved. The amount due to the adventurers was 360,000 l. This they
divided into three lots, of which 110,000 l. was to be satisfied in
Munster, 205,000 l. in Leinster, and 45,000 l. in Ulster, and the
moiety of ten counties was charged with their payment--Waterford,
Limerick, and Tipperary, in Munster; Meath, Westmeath, King's and
Queen's Counties, in Leinster; and Antrim, Down, and Armagh, in
Ulster. But, as all was required by the Adventurers Act to be done by
lot, a lottery was appointed to be held in Grocers' Hall, London, for
July 20, 1653, to begin at 8 o'clock in the morning, when lots should
be first drawn in which province each adventurer was to be satisfied,
not exceeding the specified amounts in any province; lots were to
be drawn, secondly, to ascertain in which of the ten counties
each adventurer was to receive his land--the lots not to exceed in
Westmeath 70,000 l., in Tipperary 60,000 l., in Meath 55,000 l., in
King's and Queen's Counties 40,000 l. each, in Limerick 30,000 l., in
Waterford 20,000 l., in Antrim, Down, and Armagh 15,000 l. each. And,
as it was thought it would be a great encouragement to the adventurers
(who were for the most part merchants and tradesmen), about to plant
in so wild and dangerous a country, not yet subdued, to have soldier
planters near them, these ten counties, when surveyed (which was
directed to be done immediately, and returned to the committee for
the lottery at Grocers' Hall), were to be divided, each county by
baronies, into two moieties, as equally as might be, without dividing
any barony. A lot was then to be drawn by the adventurers, and by
some officer appointed by the Lord General Cromwell on behalf of the
soldiery, to ascertain which baronies in the ten counties should be
for the adventurers, and which for the soldiers.
The rest of Ireland, except Connaught, was to be set out amongst the
officers and soldiers for their arrears, amounting to 1,550,000 l.,
and to satisfy debts of money or provisions due for supplies advanced
to the army of the commonwealth amounting to 1,750,000 l. Connaught
being by the parliament reserved and appointed for the habitation of
the Irish nation, all English and Protestants having lands there, who
should desire to remove out of Connaught into the provinces inhabited
by the English, were to receive estates in the English parts, of equal
value, in exchange.
The next thing was to clear out the remnant of the inhabitants,
and the overture to this performance was the following merciful
proclamation:--
'The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England having by one act
lately passed (entitled an Act for the Settling of Ireland) declared
that _it is not their intention to extirpate this whole nation_,
but that mercy and pardon for life and estate be extended to all
husbandmen, plowmen, labourers, artificers, and others of the inferior
sort, in such manner as in and by the said Act is set forth: for the
better execution of the said Act, and that timely notice may be given
to all persons therein concerned, it is ordered that the Governor and
Commissioners of Revenue, or any two or more of them, within every
precinct in this nation, do cause the said Act of Parliament with this
present declaration to be published and proclaimed in their respective
precincts _by beat of drumme and sound of trumpett_, on some markett
day, within tenn days after the same shall come unto them within their
respective precincts.
'Dated at the Castle of Kilkenny, this 11th October, 1652.
'EDMUND LUDLOW, MILES CORBET,
'JOHN JONES, R. WEAVER.'
A letter from Dublin, dated December 21, 1654, four days before
Christmas, says the 'transplantation is now far advanced, the men
being gone to prepare their new habitations in Connaught. Their wives
and children and dependants have been, and are, packing away after
them apace, and all are to be gone by the 1st of March next.' In
another letter the writer _naïvely_ remarks, 'It is the nature of this
people to be rebellious, and they have been so much the more disposed
to it, having been highly exasperated to it by the transplanting
work.' The temper of the settlers towards the natives may be inferred
from a petition to the lord deputy and council of Ireland, praying for
the enforcement of the original order requiring the removal of all
the Irish nation into Connaught, except boys of fourteen and girls
of twelve. 'For we humbly conceive,' say the petitioners, 'that the
proclamation for transplanting only the proprietors, and such as have
been in arms, will neither answer the end of safety nor what else is
aimed at thereby. For the first purpose of the transplantation is
to prevent those of natural principles' (i.e. of natural affections)
'becoming one with these Irish, as well in affinity as idolatry, as
many thousands did who came over in Elizabeth's time, many of which
have had a deep hand in all the late murders and massacres. And shall
we join in affinity,' they ask, 'with a people of these abominations?
Would not the Lord be angry with us till He consumes us, having
said--"the land which ye go to possess is an unclean land, because
of the filthiness of the people who dwell therein. Ye shall not,
therefore, give your sons to their daughters, nor take their daughters
to your sons," as it is in Ezra ix. 11, 12, 14. "Nay, ye shall surely
root them out, lest they cause you to forsake the Lord your God."
Deut. c. vii. &c.'
In this way they hoped that 'honest men' would be encouraged to come
and live amongst them, because the other three provinces (that is, all
the island but Connaught) would be free of 'tories,' when there was
none left to harbour or relieve them. They would have made a clean
sweep of Munster, Leinster, and Ulster, so that 'the saints' might
inherit the land without molestation. If any Protestant friends of the
Irish objected to this thorough mode of effecting the work of Irish
regeneration, Colonel Lawrence 'doubted not but God would enable that
authority yet in being to let out that dram of rebellious bloud, and
cure that fit of sullenness their advocate speaks of.'
The commissioners appointed to effect the transplantation were
painfully conscious of their unworthiness to perform so holy a work,
and Were overwhelmed with a sense of their weakness in the midst of
such tremendous difficulties, so that they were constrained to say:
'The child is now come to the birth, and much is desired and expected,
but there is no strength to bring forth.' They therefore fasted and
humbled themselves before the Lord, inviting the officers of the army
to join them in lifting up prayers, 'with strong crying and tears,
to Him to whom nothing is too strong, that His servants, whom He had
called forth in this day to act in these great transactions, might be
made faithful, and carried on by His own outstretched arm, against all
opposition and difficulty, to do what was pleasing in His sight.'
It is true they had this consolation, 'that the chiefest and
eminentest of the nobility and many of the gentry had taken conditions
from the king of Spain, and had transported 40,000 of the most active,
spirited men, most acquainted with the dangers and discipline of war.'
The priests were all banished. The remaining part of the whole nation
was scarce one-sixth of what they were at the beginning of the war, so
great a devastation had God and man brought upon that land; and that
handful of natives left were poor labourers, simple creatures, whose
sole design was to live and maintain their families.'
Of course there were many exceptions to this rule. There were some of
the upper classes remaining, described in the certificates which all
the emigrants were obliged to procure, like Sir Nicholas Comyn, of
Limerick, 'who was numb at one side of his body of a dead palsy,
accompanied only by his lady, Catherine Comyn, aged thirty-five years,
flaxen-haired, middle stature; and one maid servant, Honor M'Namara,
aged twenty years, brown hair, middle stature, having no substance,'
&c. From Tipperary went forth James, Lord Dunboyne, with 21 followers,
and having 4 cows, 10 garrons, and 2 swine. Dame Catherine Morris, 35
followers, 10 cows, 16 garrons, 19 goats, 2 swine. Lady Mary Hamilton,
of Roscrea, with 45 persons, 40 cows, 30 garrons, 46 sheep, 2 goats.
Pierce, Lord Viscount Ikerrin, with 17 persons, having 16 acres of
winter corn, 4 cows, 5 garrons, 14 sheep, 2 swine, &c. There were
other noblemen, lords of the Pale, descended from illustrious English
ancestors, the Fitzgeralds, the Butlers, the Plunkets, the Barnwells,
the Dillons, the Cheevers, the Cusacks, &c., who petitioned, praying
that their flight might not be in the winter, or alleging that their
wives and children were sick, that their cattle were unfit to drive,
or that they had crops to get in. To them dispensations were granted,
provided the husbands and parents were in Connaught building huts,
&c., and that not more than one or two servants remained behind to
look after the respective herds and flocks, and to attend to the
gathering in and threshing of the corn. And some few, such as John
Talbot de Malahide, got a pass for safe travelling from Connaught
to come back, in order to dispose of their corn and goods, giving
security to return within the time limited. If they did not return
they got this warning in the month of March--that the officers had
resolved to fill the jails with them, 'by which this bloody people
will know that they (the officers) are not degenerated from English
principles. Though I presume we should be very tender of hanging any
except leading men, yet we shall make no scruple of sending them
to the West Indies,' &c. Accordingly when the time came, all the
remaining crops were seized and sold; there was a general arrest of
all 'transplantable persons. All over the three provinces, men and
women were hauled out of their beds in the dead hour of night to
prison, till the jails were choked.' In order to further expedite
the removal of the nobility and gentry, a court-martial sat in St.
Patrick's Cathedral, and ordered the lingering delinquents, who shrunk
from going to Connaught, to be hanged, with a placard on the breast
and back of each victim--'_For not transplanting.'_
Scully's conduct at Ballycohy, was universally execrated. But what did
he attempt to do? Just what the Cromwellian officers did at the end
of a horrid civil war 200 years ago, with this difference in favour of
Cromwell, that Scully did not purpose to 'transplant,' He would simply
uproot, leaving the uprooted to perish on the highway. His conduct was
as barbarous as that of the Cromwellian officers. But what of Scully?
He is nothing. The all-important fact is, that, in playing a part
worse than Cromwellian, he, _acting according to English law, was
supported by all the power of the state_; and if the men who defended
their homes against his attack had been arrested and convicted, Irish
judges would have consigned them to the gallows; and they might, as
in the Cromwellian case, have ordered a placard to be put on their
persons:--
'FOR NOT TRANSPLANTING!'
In fact the Cromwellian commissioners did nothing more than carry out
fully the _principles_ of our present land code. Nine-tenths of the
soil of Ireland are held by tenants at will. It is constantly argued
in the leading organs of English opinion, that the power of the
landlords to resume possession of their estates, and turn them into
pastures, evicting all the tenants, is _essential_ to the rights of
property. This has been said in connection with the great absentee
proprietors. According to this theory of proprietorship, the only one
recognised by law, Lord Lansdowne may legally spread desolation over a
large part of Kerry; Lord Fitzwilliam may send the ploughshare of ruin
through the hearths of half the county Wicklow; Lord Digby, in the
King's County, may restore to the bog of Allen vast tracts reclaimed
during many generations by the labour of his tenants; and Lord
Hertfort may convert into a wilderness the district which the
descendants of the English settlers have converted into the garden
of Ulster. If any or all of those noblemen took a fancy, like Colonel
Bernard of Kinnitty or Mr. Allen Pollok, to become graziers and
cattle-jobbers on a gigantic scale, the Government would be compelled
to place the military power of the state at their disposal, to evict
the whole population in the queen's name, to drive all the families
away from their homes, to demolish their dwellings, and turn them
adrift on the highway, without one shilling compensation. Villages,
schools, churches would all disappear from the landscape; and, when
the grouse season arrived, the noble owner might bring over a party of
English friends to see his '_improvements!_' The right of conquest
so cruelly exercised by the Cromwellians is in this year of grace _a
legal right_; and its exercise is a mere question of expediency and
discretion. There is not a landlord in Ireland who may not be a Scully
if he wishes. It is not law or justice, it is not British power, that
prevents the enactment of Cromwellian scenes of desolation in
every county of that unfortunate country. It is self-interest, with
humanity, in the hearts of good men, and the dread of assassination
in the hearts of bad men, that prevent at the present moment the
immolation of the Irish people to the Moloch of territorial despotism.
It is the effort to render impossible those human sacrifices, those
holocausts of Christian households, that the priests of
feudal landlordism denounce so frantically with loud cries of
'_confiscation_.'
The 'graces' promised by Charles I. in 1628 demonstrate the real
wretchedness of the country to which they were deceitfully offered,
and from which they were treacherously withdrawn. From them we learn
that the Government soldiers were a terror to more than the king's
enemies, that the king's rents were collected at the sword's point,
and that numerous monopolies and oppressive taxes impoverished the
country. There was little security for estates in any part of Ireland,
and none at all for estates in Connaught. No man could sue out livery
for his lands without first taking the oath of the royal supremacy.
The soldiers enjoyed an immunity in the perpetration of even capital
crimes, for the civil power could not touch them. Those who were
married, or had their children baptized, by Roman Catholic priests,
were liable to fine and censure. The Protestant bishops and clergy
were in great favour and had enormous privileges. The patentees of
dissolved religious houses claimed exemption from various assessments.
The ministers of the Established Church were entitled to the aid of
the Government in exacting reparation for clandestine exercises of
spiritual jurisdiction by Roman Catholic priests, and actually appear
to have kept private prisons of their own. They exacted tithes from
Roman Catholics of everything titheable. The eels of the rivers and
lakes, the fishes of the sea paid them toll. The dead furnished the
mortuary fees to the 'alien church' in the shape of the best clothes
which the wardrobe of the defunct afforded. The government of
Wentworth, better known as the Earl of Strafford, is highly praised by
high churchmen and admirers of Laud, but was execrated by the Irish,
who failed to appreciate the mercies of his star-chamber court, or to
recognise the justice of his fining juries who returned disagreeable
verdicts. The list of grievances, transmitted by the Irish House
of Peers in 1641 to the English Government, cannot be regarded as
altogether visionary, for it was vouched by the names of lords,
spiritual and temporal, whose attachment to the English interest was
undoubted. The lord chancellor (Loftus), the archbishop of Dublin
(Bulkeley), the bishops of Meath, Clogher, and Killala were no rebels,
and yet they protested against the grievances inflicted on Ireland by
the tyranny of Strafford. According to these contemporary witnesses,
the Irish nobles had been taxed beyond all proportion to the English
nobles; Irish peers had been sent to prison although not impeached
of treason or any capital offence; the deputy had managed to keep all
proxies of peers in the hands of his creatures, and thus to sway the
Upper House to his will; the trade of the kingdom had been destroyed;
and the 'graces' of 1628 had been denied to the nation, or clogged by
provisoes which rendered them a mockery. And yet, in the face of
such evidence of misery and misgovernment, the Archbishop of Dublin
asserted in a charge to his clergy, that 'all contemporary writers
agree in describing the flourishing condition of the island, and its
rapid advance in civilisation and wealth, when all its improvement
was brought to an end by the catastrophe of the Irish rebellion of
1641'--the very year in which the Irish Houses of Lords and Commons
agreed in depicting the condition of Ireland as utterly miserable!
But Archbishop Trench not only contradicts the authentic contemporary
records, in picturing as halcyon days one of the most wretched periods
of Irish history, but also wrongfully represents one of the saddest
episodes of that history. He reminded his clergy 'that the number
of Protestants who were massacred by the Roman Catholics during the
rebellion was, by the most moderate estimate, set down as 40,000.' His
grace seems to have been unacquainted with the contemporary evidence
collected by the Protestant historian Warner, who examined the
depositions of 1641, on which the story of the massacre was based, and
found the estimate of those who perished in the so-called massacre to
have been enormously exaggerated. He calculated the number of those
killed, 'upon evidence collected within two years after the rebellion
broke out,' at 4,028, besides 8,000 said to have perished through bad
usage. The parliament commissioners in Dublin, writing in 1652 to the
commissioners in England, say that, 'besides 848 families, there
were killed, hanged, burned, and drowned 6,062. Thus there were two
estimates--one of 12,000, the other of 10,000--each of which was far
lower than the estimate of 40,000, which his grace calls 'the
most moderate.' It turns out, moreover, that the argument based by
Archbishop Trench on the false estimate of those said to have been
massacred, is wholly worthless for the purpose intended by his grace.
The disproportion of Protestants to Roman Catholics, which appears
by the census of 1861, cannot be accounted for by the statistics
of 1641--be those statistics true or false. For the proportion of
Protestants to Roman Catholics was higher in 1672--thirty years after
the alleged massacre--than in 1861. The Protestants in 1672, according
to Sir W. Petty, numbered 300,000, and the Roman Catholics 800,000;
while in 1861 there were found in Ireland only 1,293,702 Protestants
of all denominations to 4,505,265 Roman Catholics. It follows from
these figures, as has been already remarked by Dr. Maziere Brady, that
there has been a relative decrease of Protestants, as compared with
Roman Catholics, of 395,772 persons. And this relative decrease was in
no way affected--inasmuch as it took place since the year 1672--by the
alleged massacre of 1641.