south of Ireland are well known, and can never be removed. Three-fourths
of the population in this section of the island are Protestants, mostly
Calvinists of the sternest kind, and the portraits of John Knox and
Oliver Cromwell hang on the walls of the houses rather than those of the
popes. The religious feeling, however, is not so intense as formerly. A
generation ago, the 12th of July (the anniversary of the battle of the
Boyne, in which the Protestant army of William of Orange overcame and
dispersed the Roman Catholic forces under James II.) never used to pass
without a riot and many broken heads, but of recent years there have
been very few collisions. Formerly, the Roman Catholics used to lie in
wait at a certain bridge to attack the procession of Orange societies as
it passed over, with shillalahs and stones. The Orangemen, who are
mostly mechanics from the shipyards and machine-shops, always armed
themselves with iron bolts and nuts for the fray, and missiles flew
freely, leaving many unconscious and sometimes dead men on the ground.
And on other holidays, whenever the representatives of either religious
faith came out in force, the other usually attempted to interfere with
them. But those days have passed. The rival religionists glare at and
taunt each other now, but do not strike.
One cannot blame the Roman Catholics for their bitterness. In the
middle of the sixteenth century, in consequence of the rebellion of the
earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, the heads of the great clans of O'Neill
and O'Donnell, against the authority of Queen Elizabeth, the territory
belonging to them and their followers was confiscated by the crown and
sold to Protestants, chiefly from Scotland, just as the southern
counties were distributed among the "undertakers" from England, but with
a difference. The "undertakers" who were granted the estates of the
rebellious earls in southern Ireland were mostly adventurers and
speculators. Many of them never came to Ireland at all. Few of them
settled permanently upon their grants, while nearly all of those who
undertook to carry out the contract of colonization were indifferent to
the class of settlers they brought in. In Ulster Province, however,
which is the northern third of Ireland, after the "flight of the earls,"
their confiscated lands were taken up in small parcels by actual
settlers from Scotland, whose descendants have occupied them until this
day--a sturdy, thrifty, industrious, and prosperous race, and the
children of these "Scotch-Irish" Protestants have borne as important a
part in the settlement and development of the United States as the
children of the Pilgrims have done.
The "planters," who came over from Scotland, brought with them their
morals and their religion, and most of them were Presbyterians. In 1637
the surveyor-general of the Ulster plantations reported to the king that
there were forty Scots to one English, and fifteen Presbyterians to one
of all the other sects combined. And the Presbyterians have ever since
been the leading religious body in the north of Ireland. They are a
stern, stolid, conservative race, stubborn of opinion, persistent of
purpose, and fully conscious of their own rectitude. When William,
Prince of Orange, invaded Ireland in 1689, after James II. abdicated his
throne and fled from England, he landed at the little town of
Carrickfergus, about six miles below Belfast, where he was received with
great rejoicing. Here he unfurled his flag and displayed his motto, "The
Protestant Religion and the Liberties of England I will maintain," and
the people of Belfast have endeavored to maintain them with vigor ever
since. The term "Orangemen" has ever since been applied to organizations
of Protestants of a political character, and they have received more or
less support from the church. Most of them are semi-benevolent, like the
Hibernian societies among the Catholic population of southern Ireland,
and they are found in every town and village in the province of Ulster.
There are Orange halls in every parish of Belfast and the surrounding
country. They embrace in their membership representatives of all the
Protestant denominations, the Church of Ireland and the Methodists as
well as the Presbyterians--but the latter are most numerous and in some
districts you will find none but Presbyterians.
The O'Neills were kings of Ulster in ancient times and their coat of
arms was a red hand, whereby hangs a startling tale. According to
tradition, the original O'Neill came over from Scotland with a party of
invaders, among whom it was agreed that he should be king whose hand
first touched the soil of Ireland. The boats were all stranded on the
beach, and the captains and the crews were striving desperately to make
the shore, when "The O'Neill," with the nerve that has always
distinguished his clan, drew his sword, chopped off his own left hand at
the wrist, threw it upon the beach and claimed the throne, which was
accorded him. Hence a red hand or "Lamh dearg" is on the coat of arms of
Ulster, being placed upon a small shield in the center of a large
shield, upon which appears the red cross of St. George, thus signifying
England's domination over Ulster.
Neill of the Nine Hostages, who reigned from A.D. 379 to 405, was the
most warlike and adventurous of all the pagan kings, and, with two
exceptions, all the overkings of Ireland, from the time that Red O'Neill
tossed his amputated hand upon the shore, to the accession of Brian
Boru, belonged to this illustrious family. And they gave England a great
deal of trouble. In 1551, Conn O'Neill was created Earl of Tyrone, and
Mathew, who claimed to be his son, was given the right of succession.
"Shane, the Proud," the legitimate son and heir, was a mere boy at that
time, but when he grew to manhood he disputed his half-brother's
parentage and apologized for his father's conduct with the remark that,
"Being a gentleman, he never refused a child that any woman named to be
his."
After the death of Henry VIII. Shane O'Neill inaugurated a rebellion
which cost England more men and more money than any struggle that has
ever occurred in Ireland; an expenditure equal to $10,000,000 of our
present money, besides tens of thousands of lives and millions of
private property destroyed. After peace was restored in 1558, Shane was
elected "The O'Neill," in accordance with the ancient Irish custom, and
in 1561 he accepted the olive branch from Queen Elizabeth and went to
London at her invitation, followed by his gallowglasses in their strange
native attire--loose, wide-sleeved, saffron-colored tunics, reaching to
their knees, with shaggy mantles of sheepskin over their shoulders,
their heads bare, their long hair curling down on their shoulders and
clipped short in front, just above the eyes.
The last of the earls of Tyrone was Hugh O'Neill, a son of Shane, who
organized another rebellion in 1584, and, being defeated, fled to his
castle in the dense woods of Glenconkeine, and there awaited anxiously
for Philip of Spain or Clement VIII., the reigning pope, to succor him.
One by one O'Neill was deserted by all the Irish chieftains except Rory
O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell, and as they saw no hope of relief they
made peace with England. Several years later, in 1607, being accused of
a plot, they fled from the shores of Ireland with a party of ninety-four
kinsfolk and retainers. They finally found their way to Rome, where Paul
V., the reigning pontiff, gave them shelter and expressed his deep
sympathy with the Irish exiles. The following year Rory O'Donnell, Earl
of Tyrconnell, died of Roman fever, and in 1616 the last of the Irish
kings bearing the name of O'Neill was laid to rest in the Church of San
Pietro on the Janiculum, the same which claims the dust of St. Peter.
[Illustration: SHANE'S CASTLE, NEAR BELFAST, THE ANCIENT STRONGHOLD OF
THE O'NEILLS, KINGS OF ULSTER]
The misfortunes which always followed Hugh O'Neill's footsteps continued
to pursue his sons. Henry, the eldest, died in command of an Irish
regiment in the Netherlands; John, his next brother, succeeded him and
died in battle in Catalonia; Bernard was assassinated when but seventeen
years old; Hugh died of Roman fever, and Conn, the youngest, who, for
some unaccountable reason, was left in Ireland in the hurry of his
father's flight, was arrested, taken to London, and imprisoned in the
Tower, where he was lost sight of, and the male line of the O'Neills
became extinct. The living representative of the family, Baron Edward
O'Neill of Shane's Castle, Antrim, is descended in the female line. His
name was Chichester until he was created baron in 1868, when he assumed
that of his ancestors. He lives in the old castle, about fourteen miles
north of Belfast.
The lord of the county, however, is the young Earl of Shaftesbury,
grandson of the famous philanthropist, who inherits many of his
grandfather's traits and takes an active part in religious,
philanthropic, political, and municipal affairs. He is very
public-spirited, is always willing to do his part in charitable
movements, has served as alderman and lord mayor of Belfast with great
credit, and has held several other important positions. He was educated
at Eton and Sandhurst Military School, was elected alderman in Belfast
in 1905 and lord mayor in 1907. In 1899 he married Lady Constance
Grosvenor, granddaughter of the late Duke of Westminster. He inherited
Belfast Castle, the former seat of the Donegal family, which they have
occupied ever since. It is about three miles from Belfast, and entirely
modern. The state apartments and picture galleries on the main floor are
very fine. A short distance from the castle is a beautiful little
private mortuary chapel erected by the late Marquis of Donegal, as a
burial place for the family.
On the opposite side of Belfast Lough is the seat of the late Lord
Dufferin and Ava, one of the ablest and most useful men in the British
empire for many years. His figure in bronze under a marble canopy in the
City Hall Park reminds the people of Belfast of his ability, his
patriotism, and his public services. He was Viceroy of India,
Governor-General of Canada, ambassador to France, Italy, and Turkey, and
held other important positions and received unusual honors, but he died
here in 1902 broken hearted because his reputation had been used by a
swindler, named Wright, in promoting an enterprise that seemed to him
proper and promising, but turned out to be the worst kind of a fraud.
His situation was similar to that of General Grant after the Grant-Ward
failure in New York. Lord Dufferin gave up all his property as
restitution to the victims of the scheme and retired to the seclusion of
his ancestral home here. Wright was convicted and sentenced to twenty
years in prison, but committed suicide before he was sent to the
penitentiary. The dowager marchioness still occupies the family mansion
with her younger children and is actively engaged in charitable work.
The young earl occupies an important position in the foreign office at
London. He was born in 1866, and in 1903 married an American girl, Miss
Florence Davis, daughter of John H. Davis, 24 Washington Square, New
York City.
Upon the loftiest eminence overlooking Belfast Lough is a tall, round
structure known as Ellen's Tower, which the late marquis erected in
memory of his late mother, Ellen Sheridan, a granddaughter of Richard
Brinsley Sheridan, the dramatist. She was a woman of great ability and
exercised a wide influence. She wrote books and poetry and songs and was
the author of the old-fashioned ballad that was very popular in your
grandmother's time: "I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary."
On the north side of the Bay of Belfast, about six miles below the city,
is the ancient town of Carrickfergus, which is of peculiar interest to
Americans, because the father of Andrew Jackson was born there and from
there emigrated in 1765 and found a farm in the wilderness of North
Carolina.
It was there also that John Paul Jones, with the _Ranger_, fought the
_Drake_, a British sloop of war, April 24, 1778. The _Drake_ was in the
harbor near the Castle of Carrickfergus, when the _Ranger_ came in
sight, and coaxed her out for an engagement, which occurred promptly in
midchannel, and for a while there was very lively action on both sides.
The _Drake_ carried twenty 4-pound guns and 142 seamen. The _Ranger_
carried eighteen 6-pound guns and 155 seamen, several of whom were
Irishmen from Belfast and one from Carrickfergus. The _Drake_ was the
larger vessel, but was not handled as easily as the _Ranger_. The fight
lasted an hour and fifteen minutes when the _Drake_ struck her colors.
Her captain, Burder, by name, was killed; Lieutenant Dobbs, the next in
command, was mortally wounded, and her deck was covered with the dead
and the dying. The _Ranger_ had only three killed and five wounded.
Captain Jones remained in the bay for several days, making repairs, and
sent all the wounded ashore to Carrickfergus. Lieutenant Dobbs died the
morning after the battle and is buried in the churchyard of the little
village of Lisburn near by, where he lies beside the great and good
Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Armagh, who died in 1667.
It was on the day before the battle that Captain Jones made his raid
upon the castle of Lord Selkirk at Kirkcudbright, Scotland, across the
Irish Channel, and carried away with him the family plate, which was
surrendered by Lady Selkirk to avoid a mutiny among the crew. But
Captain Jones, after five years of persistent work, recovered the entire
collection and restored it safely to its original owners, even paying
for its carriage to Scotland. Captain Stockton, the American military
attaché at London, sent to the Navy Department at Washington, copies of
several characteristic letters written by John Paul Jones to Lady
Selkirk and to Lord Selkirk, concerning the matter.
Belfast has had many distinguished sons in addition to those whom I have
already named, but none more eminent and useful than James Bryce,
British ambassador to Washington, who was born there May 10, 1838, and
shares with Lord Kelvin the honor of being the most famous of all
Belfasters. He went from there a young man to the University of Glasgow
and there developed his extraordinary mental and physical energy. From
Glasgow he went to Oxford, where he took his degree in 1862, and then to
Heidelberg to perfect himself in German, of which he is a thorough
scholar. We next find him studying law in London where he was called to
the Bar in 1867 and immediately was recognized for his legal ability and
learning. Only three years later he was invited to accept the Regius
professorship of law at Oxford, which he held from 1870 to 1893. In the
meantime he was the busiest man in England and engaged in the greatest
variety of activities. He was writing history, exploring Iceland,
climbing Mount Ararat, making records in the Alpine Club, studying
Ireland, running for parliament, serving as parliamentary secretary for
foreign affairs, and afterward as chief secretary for Ireland in the
British cabinet and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
And all this time, when he was not doing anything else, he was writing
books, and almost all of his works are regarded as the best books ever
written upon the subjects of which they treat. "The American
Commonwealth" is acknowledged to be the best account of our institutions
ever penned by a foreigner. "The Holy Roman Empire" is a model of
historical literature, while Mr. Bryce's other books, on a variety of
subjects, are of equal rank in scholarship and in literary merit.
The late Rev. Dr. John Hall, in his day the most eminent Presbyterian
divine in America, was born at Armagh, where Cardinal Logue, the Roman
Catholic Primate of Ireland, presides over the ancient see of St.
Patrick. Dr. Hall was born in 1829, entered Belfast College when he was
only thirteen years old, and although the youngest in his class, ranked
first in scholarship and took the largest number of prizes. He studied
theology at the Presbyterian Seminary here, and when he was only
twenty-two years old became pastor of the First Church at Armagh, his
native town. In 1856 he was called to Dublin as pastor of the Rutland
Presbyterian Church, and was appointed commissioner of education for
Ireland. In 1867 he was sent to the United States as a delegate to the
general assembly, and created such a favorable impression that he
immediately received a call to the pulpit of the Fifth Avenue Church,
Presbyterian, of New York, which he accepted and occupied the rest of
his life.
XVI
THE THRIVING CITY OF BELFAST
Belfast has a population of 380,000, according to the most reliable
estimates. The latest enumeration, in 1901, showed a population of
349,180, which is just double that returned by the census of 1871. Of
this population 120,269 are Presbyterians, 102,991 are Episcopalians,
84,992 are Roman Catholics, 21,506 Methodists, and the remainder are
divided among a dozen different religious denominations. It is
distinctively a theological town.
You hear workingmen discussing theology in the street cars instead of
politics, comparing the eloquence of their ministers and their soundness
in the faith.
There is a remarkably large attendance at church. All the churches are
crowded every Sunday. There is a difference of terms, however, with the
several denominations. Catholics go to "mass" where a priest officiates;
members of the Church of Ireland attend "service" which is performed by
a parson; while the Presbyterians and other nonconformists go to
"meeting" and hear the gospel expounded by a minister. The Presbyterian
services are very long and heavy. They begin at 11 o'clock on Sunday
morning and last till 1:30, and the Sunday school continues two hours.
The congregation is never satisfied with a sermon less than an hour
long, while an hour and a quarter is preferred, and they insist that
their ministers shall expound doctrinal texts to their satisfaction or
they criticise them freely and fiercely.
The Irish are the most old-fashioned kind of Presbyterians, being
stricter than the Scotch. Few churches allow musical instruments or
hymns that rhyme, and the congregations follow a precentor with a tuning
fork in chanting Rouse's version of the Psalms of David.
The people remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy only until
afternoon. There are no railway trains or street cars running in the
morning, and you cannot find a cab or a jaunting car on the street. No
boats arrive or depart from the docks on Sunday, and when I took a walk
along the river front one Sunday I found the men who were accustomed to
work there all sitting around eating "willicks," or periwinkles--a sort
of water snails which are picked up on the beach of the bay and are
peddled about by old women and small boys like chestnuts. You can buy
half a pint of them for a penny. The peddler has a paper of long pins in
his basket and gives one to each purchaser to pry the snails out of
their shells. That seems to be the Sunday morning occupation. But Sunday
afternoon everybody comes out for a good time, the streets fill up with
promenaders and the cars are crowded with excursionists.
The Belfast directory gives a list of sixty orthodox Presbyterian
churches, and they are numbered from the First Presbyterian Church
consecutively to the Fifty-eighth Presbyterian Church, with two extras,
called the Strand Presbyterian Church and Albert Hall Presbyterian
Church. In addition to these are five "nonsubscribing" Presbyterian
churches whose members have refused to subscribe to some article of the
confession of faith, but are otherwise orthodox and are numbered with
the elect; four "Reformed Presbyterian churches," one "Original
Secession Church Presbyterian," one "East Reformed Presbyterian Church,"
and one "United Free Presbyterian Church," making altogether seventy-two
Presbyterian churches in a city of three hundred and eighty thousand
inhabitants, an average of one Presbyterian church for every five
thousand inhabitants.
As I was passing under the archway of Queen's College with a
Presbyterian doctor of divinity from Cincinnati he intercepted an old
gentleman and inquired the name of the church with the handsome spire
across the street.
"That's the Fifth Presbyterian Church," was the polite reply.
"And what church is that over yonder, whose spire we see beyond the
college?"
"That's the Twenty-seventh Presbyterian Church."
"You seem to have an abundance of Presbyterian churches in Belfast; you
ought to feel certain of salvation."
"I'm not so sure of that," was the reply. "I'm not convinced that a
Belfast Presbyterian is any more certain of salvation than the rest of
us. We once had here a famous doctor of divinity. He was a great man and
a good man, and you will see his statue in bronze down beyond the
railway station in the middle of the square--Rev. Dr. Cooke. He was
highly respected and revered by the community, but his son was a
scapegrace and gave the old gentleman a great deal of trouble and
anxiety. One Sunday morning the good doctor found Harry at breakfast and
remarked pleasantly:
"'I hope you are going to meeting this morning, Harry?'
"'Well, I'm not,' replied Harry with a grouch.
"'And why not?' asked his father.
"'I'm never going to meeting any more; I never got any good from
meetings.'
"'You'll find no meetings in hell, sir!' said the doctor, solemnly.
"'It'll not be for the lack of the ministers!', was Harry's reply."
And the genial old gentleman smiled grimly and passed on.
At least two of the public monuments in Belfast have been erected in
honor of Presbyterian divines,--Rev. Dr. Cooke, of whom the above story
is told, and Rev. Hugh Hanna; and one of the largest and most beautiful
buildings in the city is the Presbyterian House, where there is an
assembly hall that will seat twenty-five hundred people, smaller halls,
and committee rooms, and the offices of the various missionary societies
and other organizations belonging to that denomination. It was erected
by private subscription and dedicated with great ceremony two years ago.
It is the headquarters of Presbyterianism in the north of Ireland and
its noble tower can be seen for a long distance.
On the second floor of the building are clubrooms, reading-rooms, and
amusement halls, and other attractions for the young men of Presbyterian
families, a sort of denominational Y.M.C.A.; and, strange to say, the
amusement-room is fitted up with two billiard tables, which I am told
are in great demand every evening. The janitor in charge admitted that
some of the stricter members of the sect had made urgent objections
against this form of entertainment, but the committee "was not willing
to let the devil have all the fun."
The general assembly of the Presbyterian church holds its annual
sessions in the big hall of the new Presbyterian building, and all the
other denominational gatherings are held there. At the last assembly
Rev. Dr. McIlveen, the moderator, reviewed the progress of that
denomination during the last forty years. It was true, he said, that its
numbers, as reported by the official census, had not increased. In
common with other religious denominations, the Presbyterians had lost
largely by emigration. Many of their members, especially the young and
vigorous, had gone forth to seek homes in the colonies of the empire, or
the great republic of the West. In the period to which he was referring
the population of Ireland had decreased more than a million, and while
in comparison with the other large denominations the Presbyterians had
suffered less proportional loss, yet their membership had decreased
fifty-five thousand. Yet they had four thousand more families than they
had forty years ago and six thousand more contributors to the stipend
fund. The givings of the people to various objects had more than
doubled. There had been an annual increase of $100,000 in the stipend
fund; $75,000 in the ordinary Sabbath offerings, and more than $90,000
annually to missions. During the same time there had been invested more
than $5,250,000 in the erection and repair of churches, manses, and
other Presbyterian buildings; the Church House at Belfast had been
erected at a cost of $400,000, and $5,250,000 had accumulated in the
hands of the boards of trustees of different benevolences as capital.
In addition to the seventy-two Presbyterian churches in Belfast, the
directory notes thirty-seven under the care of the Church of Ireland,
thirty Methodist, eighteen Roman Catholic, seven Congregationalist, six
Baptist, two Moravians, one Friends' meeting-house, one Jewish synagogue
and two societies called Plymouth Brethren, who announce "breaking of
bread at 11:30 A.M. and gospel at 7 P.M."--making a total of one hundred
and seventy-six houses of worship.