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people of Munster, presents the same picture.— "Out of every corner of the woodes and glennes, they came creeping forth upon their hands, for

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legs could not bear them: they looked like ana"tomies of death: they spake like ghostes crying "out of their graves; they eat the dead carrions, happy when they could find them; yea, and one "another soon after, insomuch that the very carcases they spared not to scrape out of their "graves."

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Lord Clare, in the speech we have quoted, is silent on these cruelties, but expresses, in a few lines, his just opinion of the general injustice and impolicy of the system of government carried on by the ministers of queen Elizabeth in Ireland. "It seems difficult," says his lordship, "to con"ceive any more unjust or impolitic act of govern"ment, than an attempt to force new modes of religion, faith, and worship, by severe penalties, "upon a rude, superstitious, and embittered people. "Persecutions, or attempts to force conscience, "will never produce conversion: they are calcu"lated only to make hypocrites or martyrs; and "accordingly, the violence commenced by Eliza

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beth, to force the reformed religion into Ireland, "had no other effect than to foment a general dis"satisfaction to the English government.'

Relying on this general dissatisfaction, the Spanish army, under the command of general don Juan d'Aquila, landed at Kinsale, and expected to be joined by the whole mass of the catholic population beyond the pale: "but no Irish of any

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"account," says Morryson, "joined him ;" and thus the Spaniards," who," as Leland writes*, came "with a vain hope of meeting a whole kingdom "at their devotion, found themselves confined "within an inconsiderable town, unassisted by the "natives, and besieged by the queen's forces t."

Relying, in like manner, on this general dissatisfaction, three popes, successively, issued bulls, fomenting the insurrections of the catholics against Elizabeth. The bull of St. Pius the fifth, deposing queen Elizabeth, and absolving her subjects from allegiance to her, has been inserted in a former part of these Memoirs. It was communicated to the Irish by Dr. Saunders, who, in 1579, was sent by the pope, as his nuncio, into Ireland. The earl of Desmond was encouraged by a bull of pope Gregory the thirteenth, dated the 13th of May 1580;-and the insurrection of Hugh O'Neil was encouraged by pope Clement the eighth, by a bull dated the 16th of April 1600. The bulls of Gregory and Clement were addressed to the archbishops, bishops, prelates, counts, barons, and people of Ireland; and exhorted them to recover their liberties, to defend and maintain them against the heretics, and second the efforts of their generals. They bestow on the insurgents the same indul

* History of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 396.

+ Philip the second justified this invasion, as a retaliation, which Elizabeth had given to his rebellious subjects in the low countries. Hume, c. xli.

Both are inserted by the abbé Mac Geoghegan, in his Histoire de l'Irlande, vol. i. p. 437. 508.

gences as the holy see usually bestows on those who make war against the Turks.

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-"But most certain it is," says Dr. Curry*, "that, "the principal nobility and gentry of the kingdom, "and all the cities and corporate towns, persisted "in their allegiance to her majesty, notwithstanding the many tempting offers made them by the Spaniards, in order to withdraw them from it. "It is also certain, that more than one half of the gallant army under lord Mountjoy, which so successfully attacked, and at last entirely defeated Tyrone, was Irish," and consequently catholic. Lord Mountjoy, as Morryson mentions in his History †, acknowledged, in several letters to the council," the great assistance, which the catholics "had given him;" and in one of them, expressly says, that, "if they had not furnished his army "with beeves, it would have been in great distress."

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The earl of Desmond expiated his rebellion by his life, and the forfeiture of his vast possessions in Munster. The pardon of the earl of Tyrone was extorted from queen Elizabeth, greatly against her will, by her ministers and has been assigned as one cause, that brought on the profound melancholy which embittered the last days of her life.

* Historical Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland, b. 1. c. xii. + Page 115.

LXXX. 5.

State of the Irish Catholics under James the first.

IMMEDIATELY after the death of the earl of Desmond, his property was surveyed and distributed, principally among the English adventurers; but a considerable proportion of it was bestowed on the earl of Ormond.-" The multitude," says sir John Davies, admiring the power of the crown of

England, being brayed, as it were, in a mortar, "with sword, famine, and pestilence, altogether, "submitted themselves to the king's government, "received the laws and magistrates, and most gladly embraced the king's pardon and peace, "in all parts of the realm, with demonstration of "joy and comfort."

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But, in this state of joy and comfort, the catholics were not long permitted to remain. James the first, soon after his accession, "conceived," says Mr. Leslie Forstert, "the project of changing the po

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pulation of a great part of the island, and of in"troducing a new set of men, who, from religion "and their race, and the continual necessity of self "preservation, should be for ever attached to the "interests of England. The rebellion of Tyrone 'furnished an excuse for considering the province

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* "A Discourse of the true Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued, nor brought under obedience to the crown ' of England, until the beginning of his Majesty's happy reign. "ed. 1747."—An excellent work.

+ Speech on the 9th of May 1817.

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of Ulster as forfeited to the crown; and James proceeded to fill it with English and Scotch adven"turers." It is observable, that the rebellion of Tyrone was never proved by reasonable evidence. In his letter to sir Hercules Langrish*, Mr. Burke observes, that "these plots and conspiracies were "never proved upon their supposed authors." The question of Harris,-If Tyrone and Tyrconnel(his associate in the supposed rebellion),-were not guilty, why did they fly?-is not so overwhelming as it has been represented. They might have feared that justice would not have been done them; or that it would be done them in the manner, in which it was done to the Byrnes, in the case which we shall afterwards have occasion to mention.

The confiscation of Tyrone's property,-(and the same may be said of every confiscation in the reign of queen Elizabeth),-was attended with this remarkable circumstance, that the crown seized, not only the demesnes and seignorial right of the offender, but dispossessed all his tenants and subtenants of their lands, and parcelled them out among strangers. In the rebellion of Desmond, his estates were found, on a loose survey, to contain 511,456 Irish acres. Elizabeth seized the whole, and granted them to her favourites ;-and "special directions were given," says sir Richard Cox, "that the grantees should not suffer any la"bourer, that would not take the oath of supre"macy;"-in others words, "any roman-catholic, "-to dwell upon their land." It has been happy . Page 13.

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