A Memoir on Ireland, native and Saxon

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A MEMOIR n.s IRELAND NATIVE AND SAXON. BY DAMEL O'COMELL, I.P. VOL. I. 1172—1660. '• On our side is virtue and Erin— On theirs is the Saxon ajid guilt." moohe. DUBLIN : PRINTED FOR CHARLES DOLMAN, Gl, NEW BOND STREET, LONDON. MDCCCXLIII. DTJBL1H : PRINTED BY EDWARD EGINTON, 3G, L01YF.lt OKMOND-QUAY. THIS BOOK Is HUMBLY INSCRIBED TO HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN AND OF IRELAND. QUIS TALIA FANDO ****** TEMPEBET A LACHRYMIS." preface. I humbly inscribe the following Memoir to Her most gracious Majesty the Queen ; not in the shape of a dedication, or with the presumptuous hope of my being able to produce any work of sufficient interest to occupy the Royal mind. Yet, there is nothing more desirable than that the Sovereign of these realms should understand the real nature of Irish history ; should be aware of how much the Irish have suffered from English misrule ; should comprehend the secret springs of Irish discontent ; should be acquainted with the eminent virtues which the Irish nation have exhibited in every phasis of their singular fate ; and, above all, should be intimately acquainted with the confiscations, the plunder, the robbery, the domestic treachery, the violation of ab public

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. VIII faith, and of the sanctity of treaties, the ordinary wholesale slaughters, the planned murders, the concerted massacres, which have been inflicted upon the Irish people by the English Governments. It has pleased the English people in general to forget aU the facts in Irish history. They have been also graciously pleased to forgive themselves all those crimes ! And the Irish people would forgive them likewise, if it were not that much of the worst spirit of the worst days still survives. The system of clearance of tenants at the present day, belongs to, and is a demonstration of, that hatred of the Irish people which animated the advice of Spenser and the conduct of Cromwell. It is quite true that at the present day Judges are not bribed with "four shillings in the pound," to be paid out of the property in dispute : but, may not prejudice and bigotry produce unjust judgments, as well as pecuniary corruption? — And, are those persons free from reproach, or from guilt, who are ready to select for the Bench of justice, men whose sole distinguishing characteristic has been the exhibition of their animosity to the religion and to the people of Ireland ?

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. IX Did Stanley show none of the temper of Ireton in his Coercion Bill ? Is none of the spirit of Coote or of Parsons to be found (in a mitigated form) in those who refuse to the Catholic people of Ireland their just share of elective or municipal franchises ; and who insist that the Irish shall remain an infe rior and a degraded caste, deprived of that perfect equality of civil and rebgious liberty, of franchises and privileges — which equality could alone consti tute a Union, or render a Union tolerable ? I wish to arouse the attention of the Sovereign and of the honest portion of the English people to the wrongs "which Ireland has suffered, and which Ireland is suffering from British misrule. The Irish people are determined to preserve their alle giance to the Throne unbroken and intact ; but they are equally determined to obtain justice for themselves ; to insist on the restoration of their native Parliament, and to persevere in that demand without violating the law ; but also without remit ting or relaxing their exertions, until the object is achieved and success attained. What the Sovereign and the Statesmen of Eng land should understand is, that the Irish people

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. X feel and know, that there cannot happen a more heavy misfortune to Ireland than the prosperity and power of Great Britain. When Britain is powerful, the anti-Irish faction in this country are encouraged, fostered, promoted ; Irish rights are derided ; the grievances of Ireland are scoffed at ; we are compelled to receive stinted franchises, or none ; limited privileges, or none ! — to submit to a political inferiority, rendered doubly afflictive by the contrast with the advantages enjoyed by the people of England and the people of Scotland. The Tory Landlord class — exterminators and all — prime favourites at the Castle, countenanced and sustained as the nucleus of that anti-Irish faction which would once again transplant the Catholics of Ireland to the remotest regions, if that faction had the power to do so ; and which actually drives those Catholics to transport themselves in multitudes to every country out of Ireland.

The worst result of British prosperity is, the protection it gives to the hard-hearted and bigoted class among the Irish Landlords. It is also of the utmost importance that the Sovereign and Statesmen of England should be

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. XI apprised that the people of Ireland know and feel that they have a deep and vital interest in the weakness and adversity of England. It was not for themselves alone that the Americans gained the victory over Burgoyne at Saratoga. They conquered for Irish as well as for American freedom. Nor was it for France alone that Dumourier defeated the Austrian army at Gemappe. The Cathobcs of Ireland participated in the fruits of that victory. At the present day it would be vain to attempt to conceal the satisfaction the people of Ireland feel at the fiscal embarrassments of England. They bitterly and cordially regret the sufferings and privations of the English and Scotch artisans and operatives. But they do not regret the weakness of the English Government, which results from fading commerce and faibng manufacture.

For the woes of each suffering individual they have warm compassion and lively sympathy. From the consequent weakness of the Government party, they derive no other feelings than those of satisfaction and of hope. Was ever folly — was ever fatuity so great, as is

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. evinced in the system of governing such a country as Ireland in such a manner as to create and con tinue the sentiments and opinions which I have expressed, and feebly endeavoured to describe ? Her Majesty's most faithful, most dutiful, and most devoted Subject, DANIEL O'CONNELL. 1st February, 1843. N.B.— The proofs and illustrations in this Volume come down to the Restoration. The Second Volume will bring them down to the present period. AN HISTORICAL MEMOIR os IRELAND AND THE IRISH. CHAP. I. Years 1172 — 1612. Sec I. The English dominion in Ireland com menced in the year 1172. It was for some cen turies extended over only an inconsiderable portion of the island. From various causes the Engbsh district or Pale sometimes augmented in size, some times diminished. It did not become generally diffused over Ireland until the last years of Queen Elizabeth, nor universally so, until shortly after the accession of King James the First.

The success of the forces of Queen Elizabeth was achieved by means the most horrible ; treachery, murder, wholesale massacre, and deliberately created Fa mine. Take the last instance : the growing crops were year after year destroyed, until the fairest part of Ireland, and in particular the province of Munster, was literally depopulated. I give here one quotation. It is from the English Protestant B 1172—1612. CHAP. I. historian Morrison : — " No spectacle was more " frequent in the ditches of the towns, and espe " cially in wasted countries, than to see multitudes " of these poor people, the Irish, dead, with their " mouths all coloured green by eating nettles, " docks, and all things they could rend above " ground." Mark ! Illustrious Lady — oh ! mark ! The most frequent spectacle was, multitudes of dead — of Irish dead — dead of hunger !

Lady, after having endeavoured to sustain life by devouring, after the fashion of the beasts of the field, the wild-growing herbs. They were dead in multitudes and none to bury them ! This was the consummation of the subjugation of the Irish after a contest of 400 years. Never was a people on the face of the globe so cruelly treated as the Irish. § 2. The Irish people 'were not received into allegiance or to the benefit of being recognized as subjects until the year 1612, only 228 years ago, when the Statute 1 1 James I. cap. 5, was enacted. That Statute abolished all distinctions of race be tween English and Irish, " with the intent that" as the Statute expresses it, " they may groiv into " one nation, whereby there may he an utter obli " vion and extinguish?nent of all former differ " ences and discorde betwixt them." § 3.

During the four hundred and forty years, that intervened between the commencement of the English dominion in 1172 and its completion in CHAP. I.] 1172—1612. 3 1612, the Irish people were known only as the " Irish Enemies." They were denominated " Irish Enemies" in all the Royal Proclamations, Royal Charters, and Acts of Parliament, during that period. It was their legal and technical description. § 4. During that period the English were pro hibited from intermarrying with the Irish, from having their children nursed by the wives of Irish Captains, Chiefs, or Lords ; and what is still more strange, the English were also prohibited from sending goods, wares, or merchandizes for sale, or selling them upon credit or for ready money to the Irish. § 5. During that time any person of English de scent might murder a mere Irish man or woman with perfect impunity.

Such murder was no more a crime in the eye of the law, than the killing of a rabid or ferocious animal. § 6. There was indeed this distinction, that if a native Irishman had made legal submission and had been received into English allegiance, he could no longer be murdered with impunity, for his murder was punishable by a small pecuniary fine : a punishment not for the moral crime of murdering a man, but for the social injury of depriving the State of a servant. Just as, at no remote period, the white man in several of our West Indian Colo nies was liable to pay a fine for killing a negro, only because an owner was thereby deprived of a slave. b [chap. II. 4 1612—1625. CHAP. II. Years 1612—1625. " Residue of the reign of King James the First." Sec 1 . I have traced the first period of Anglo- Irish History by a few of its distinctive character istics.

It comprised a period of 440 years of in ternal war, rapine, and massacre. The second period consists only of thirteen years, but possesses an interest of a different and a deeper character. § 2. Unhappily there had grown up during the first period another, and alas ! a more inveterate source of " differences and discorde " between the people. I mean the Protestant Reformation. I am not now to give any opinion on the religious grounds of that all-important measure. I do not treat of it as a theologian. I speak of it merely historically, as a fact having results of a most in fluential nature. § 3. The native Irish universally, and the natives of English descent generally, rejected the Reforma tion. It was embraced but by comparatively few, and thus the sources of " differences and discorde" were perpetuated.

The distinction of race was lost. Irish and English were amalgamated for the purpose of enduring spoil and oppression under the name of Catholics. The party which the English Government supported was composed of persons lately arrived in Ireland, men who, of course, took the name of " Protestants." CHAP. II. 1612—1625. 5 § 4. The intent of the statute of 1612 was thus frustrated, the " discorde " between the Protestant and Catholic parties prevented the Irish from " growing into one nation," and still prevents them from being " one nation." The fault however has been and still is with the Government. Is it not time it were totally corrected ? § 5. The reign of James the First was distin guished by crimes committed on the Irish people under the pretext of Protestantism. The entire of the province of Ulster was unjustly confiscated, the natives wTere executed on the scaffold or slaugh tered with the sword, a miserable remnant were driven to the fastnesses of remote mountains, or the wilds of almost inaccessible bogs.

Their places were filled with Scotch adventurers, " aliens in blood and in religion." Devastation equal to that committed by King James in Ulster was never before seen in Christendom save in Ireland. In the Christian world there never was a people so cruelly treated as the Irish. § 6. The jurisdiction of Parliament being now extended all over Ireland, King James created in one day forty close boroughs, giving the right to elect two members of Parliament in each of these boroughs to thirteen Protestants, and this, in order to deprive his Catholic subjects of their natural and just share of representation. — 1660. 6 CHAP. III. Years 1625—1660. Sec 1. The reign of Charles the First began under different auspices. The form of oppression and robbery varied — the substance was still the same. Iniquitous law took place of the bloody sword : the soldier was superseded by the judge ; and for the names of booty and plunder, the words forfeiture and confiscation were substituted.

The instrument used by the Government was the " Commission to enquire into defective titles." The King claimed the estates of the Irish people in three provinces. This commission was instituted to enforce that claim. It was a monstrous tribunal : an attempt was made to bribe juries to find for the Crown — that attempt failed. Then the Jurors, who hesitated to give verdicts against the people, were fined, imprisoned, ruined. The Judges were not so chary — they were bribed — aye, bribed, with four shillings in the pound of the value of all lands recovered from the subjects by the Crown before such Judges. And so totally lost to all sense of justice or of shame was the perpetrator of this bribery, Strafford, that he actually boasted, that he had thus made the Chief Baron and other Judges " attend to the affair as if it were their own pri private business." 1625—1660. 7 i § 2.

By these unjust and wicked means the mi nisters of Charles the First despoiled for the use of the Crown, the Irish Catholic people of upwards of one million of arable acres, besides a considerably greater extent of land taken from the right owners, and granted to the rapacious individuals by whom the spoliation was effected. § 3. The civil war ensued. Forgetting all the crimes committed against them, the Irish Catholics adhered with desperate tenacity to the party of the King. The Irish Protestants, some sooner and others later, joined the usurping powers. § 4. During that civil war, the massacres com mitted on the Irish by St. Leger, Monroe, Tich bourne, Hamilton, Grenville, Ireton, and Cromwell, were as savage and as brutal, as the horrible feats of Attila or Ghengis Khan. § 5. In particular the history of the world pre sents nothing more shocking and detestable, than the massacres perpetrated by O'Brien, Lord Inchi quin in the Cathedral of Cashel ; by Ireton, at Limerick, and by Cromwell in Drogheda and Wex ford. § 6.

When the war had ceased, Cromwell collected, as the first-fruits of peace, eighty thousand Irish in the southern parts of Ireland, to transplant them to the West India Islands. As many as sur vived the process of collection were embarked in transports for these islands. Of the eighty thousand, in six years, the survivors did not amount to 1660—1692. CHAP. IV. 8 twenty individuals ! ! ! Eighty thousand Irish at one blow deliberately sacrificed, by a slow but steady cruelty, to the Moloch of English domination! ! ! Eighty thousand— Oh God of mercy ! § 7. Yet all these barbarities ought to be deemed light and trivial, compared with the crowning cruelty of the enemies of Ireland. The Irish were refused civil justice. They were still more atro ciously refused historical justice, and accused of being the authors and perpetrators of assassina tions and massacres, of which they were only the victims. § 8.

No people on the face of the earth were ever treated with such cruelty as the Irish. CHAP. IV. Years 1660—1692. Sec 1. We are arrived at the Restoration — an event of the utmost utility to the English and Scotch royalists, who were justly restored to their pro perties. An event, which consigned irrevocably and for ever to British plunderers, and especially to the soldiers of Ireton and Cromwell, the proper ties of the Irish Catholic people, whose fathers had contended against the usurped powers to the last of their blood and their breath. § 2. The Duke of York, afterwards James the CHAP. IV.] 1660—1692. 9 Second, took to his own share of the plunder, about eighty thousand acres of lands belonging to Irish Catholics, whose cause of forfeiture was nothing more than that they had been the friends and sup porters of his murdered father, and the enemies of his enemies. § 3.

Yet such was in the Irish nation the inhe rent love of principle, — a principle of honourable, but, in this instance, most mistaken loyalty — that when this royal plunderer was afterwards driven from the throne by his British subjects, he took refuge in Ireland, and the Irish Catholic nobility, gentry, and universal people, rallied round him, and shed their blood for him with a courage and a constancy worthy of a better cause. § 4. This section should be devoted to the treaty of Limerick. The Irish were not conquered, Lady, in the war. They had in the year preceding the treaty, driven William the Third with defeat and disgrace from Limerick. In this Irish victory the women participated. It is no romance. In the great defeat of William, the women of Limerick fought and bled and conquered. On the third of October, 1691, the treaty of Limerick was signed.

The Irish army, 30,000 strong— the Irish nobility and gentry, and people, capitulated with the army and Crown of Great Britain. They restored the allegiance of the Irish nation to that Crown. Never was there a more useful treaty to England than this was under the circumstances. It was a most [CHAP. V. 10 1692—1778. deliberate and solemn treaty — deliberately con firmed by letters-patent from the Crown. It ex tinguished a sanguinary civil war. It restored the Irish nation to the dominion of England, and se cured that dominion in perpetuity over one of the fairest portions of the globe. Such was the value given by the Irish people. § 5. By that treaty, on the other hand, the Irish Catholic people stipulated for and obtained the pledge of " the faith and honour" of the English Crown, for the equal protection by law of their properties and their liberties with all other subjects — and in particular for the free and unfet tered exercise of their religion.

CHAP. V. Years 1692—1778. Sec 1. The Irish in every respect performed with scrupulous accuracy the stipulations on their part of the Treaty of Limerick. § 2. That treaty was totally violated by the Brit ish government, the moment it was perfectly safe to violate it. § 3. That violation was perpetrated by the enact ment of a code, of the most dexterous but atrocious iniquity that ever stained the annals of legislation. § 4. Let me select a few instances of the bar- CHAP. V.] 1692—1778. 11 barity with which the treaty of Limerick was vio lated, under these heads : First. — " Property." " Every Catholic was, by Act of Parliament, de- " prived of the power of settling a jointure " on any Catholic wife — or charging his " lands with any provision for his daughters " — or disposing by will of his landed pro- " perty.

On his death the law divided his " lands equally amongst all his sons. "All the relations of private life were thus " violated. " If the wife of a Catholic declared herself a " Protestant, the law enabled her not only " to compel her husband to give her a se- " parate maintenance, but to transfer to her " the custody and guardianship of all their " children. " Thus the wife was encouraged and empowered " successfully to rebel against her husband. " If the eldest son of a Catholic father at any " age, however young, declared himself a " Protestant, he thereby made his father " strict tenant for life, deprived the father " of all power to sell, or dispose of his estate, " and such Protestant son became entitled " to the absolute dominion and ownership " of the estate. [chap. V. 1692—1778. 12 u a XX Thus the eldest son was encouraged and, in- " deed, bribed by the law to rebel against " his father.

If any other child beside the eldest son de- " clared itself, at any age, a Protestant, " such child at once escaped the controul " of its father, and was entitled to a main- " tenance out of the father's property. Thus the law encouraged every child to rebel " against its father. If any Catholic purchased for money any " estate in land, any Protestant was em- " powered by law to take away that estate "from the Catholic, and to enjoy it without " payingone 'shilling of 'the purchase money This wras Law. — The Catholic paid the money, " whereupon the Protestant took the estate. " The Catholic lost both money and estate. If any Catholic got an estate in land by mar- " riage, by the gift, or by the will of a " relation, or friend, any Protestant could " by Law take the estate from the Catholic " and enjoy it himself.

If any Catholic took a lease of a farm of land " as tenant at a rent for a life, or lives, or " for any longer term than thirty-one years, " any Protestant could by Law take the " farm from the Catholic and enjoy the " benefit of the lease. ,V.] CHAP 1692 — 1778. 13 a a a a u <c If any Catholic took a farm by lease for a " term not exceeding thirty-one years, as " he might still by Law have done, and by " his labour and industry raised the value " of the land so as to yield a profit equal " to one-third of the rent, any Protestant " might then by Law evict the Catholic, " and enjoy for the residue of the term the " fruit of the labour and industry of the " Catholic. If any Catholic had a horse, worth more than " five pounds, any Protestant tendering £5 " to the Catholic owner, was by law entitled " to take the horse, though worth £50, or " £100, or more, and to keep it as his own.

If any Catholic being the owner of a horse " worth more than five pounds, concealed his " horse from any Protestant, the Catholic " for the crime of concealing his own horse, " was liable to be punished by an imprison- " ment of three months, and a fine of three " times the value of the horse, whatever " that might be. So much for the Laws regulating by Act of " Parliament, the property — or rather plun- " dering by due course of Law, the property " — of the Catholic. I notice — Secondly. — Education. If a Catholic kept school, or taught any per- [chap. V. 1692—1778. 14 a a Xt. u i " son, Protestant or Catholic, any species " of literature, or science, such teacher was " for the crime of teachingpunishable by " Law by banishment— and, if he returned " from banishment, he was subject to be " banged as a felon.

If a Catholic, whether a child or adult, at- " tended, in Ireland, a school kept by a " Catholic, or was privately instructed bya " Catholic, such Catholic, although a child " in its early infancy, incurred a forfeiture " of all its property, present or future. If a Catholic child, however young, was sent " to any foreign country for educution, such " infant child incurred a similar penalty — " that is, a forfeiture of all right to pro- " perty, present or prospective. If any person in Ireland made any remittance " of money or goods, for the maintenance " of any Irish child educated in a foreign " country, such person incurred a similar " forfeiture. Thirdly. — Personal Disabilities. The Law rendered every Catholic incapable of " holding a commission in the army, or " navy, or even to be a private soldier, un- " less he solemnly abjured his religion.

The Law rendered every Catholic incapable of " holding any office whatsoever of honour V-] 1692—1778. CHAP 15 te C( u it u " or emolument in the State. The exclusion " was universal. A Catholic had no legal protection for life " or liberty. He could not be a Judge, " Grand Juror, Sheriff, Sub-sheriff, Master " in Chancery, Six Clerk, Barrister, Attor- " ney, Agent or Solicitor, or Seneschal of " any manor, or even gamekeeper to a pri- " vate gentleman. A Catholic could not be a member of any " Corporation, and Catholics were precluded " by Law from residence in some corporate " towns. Catholics were deprived of all right of voting " for members of the Commons House of " Parbament. Catholic Peers were deprived of their right to " sit or vote in the House of Lords. Almost all these personal disabilities were ". equally enforced by Law against any Pro- " testant who married a Catholic wife, or " whose child, under the age of fourteen, " was educated as a Catholic, although " against his consent.

Fourthly. — Religion To teach the Catholic religion was a trans- " portable felony ; to convert a Protestant " to the Catholic faith, was a capital offence " punishable as an act of treason. [chap. V. 1692—1778. 16 " To be a Catholic regular, that is a monk or " friar, was punishable by banishment, and " to return from banishment an act of high- " treason. " To be a Catholic Archbishop or Bishop, or " to exercise any ecclesiastical jurisdiction " whatsoever in the Catholic Church in " Ireland, wras punishable by transportation " — to return from such transportation was " an act of high-treason, punishable by being " hanged, embowelled alive, and afterwards " quartered." § 5. After this enumeration, will you, Illustrious Lady, be pleased to recollect that every one of these enactments, that each and every of these laws, was a palpable and direct violation of a solemn treaty to which the faith and honour of the British Crown was pledged, and the justice of the English nation unequivocally engaged. § 6.

There never yet was such a horrible code of persecution invented, so cruel, so cold-blooded — calculating — emaciating — universal — as this legislation, which the Irish Orange faction — the Shaws — the Lefroys — the Verners of the day did invent and enact. A code exalted to the utmost height of infamy by the fact, that it was enacted in the basest violation of a solemn engagement and deli berate treaty. § 7- It is not possible for me to describe that code in adequate language — It almost surpassed CHAP. V.] 1G92— 1778. 17 the eloquence of Burke to do so. " It had," as Burke describes it, " It had a vicious perfection "—it was a complete system— full of coherence '*rand consistency; well digested and well dis "posed in all its parts. It was a machine of wise " and elaborate contrivance, and as well fitted for "the oppression, impoverishment, and degrada " tion of a people, and the debasement in them of " human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the "perverted ingenuity of man." § 8.

This code prevented the accumulation of property, and punished industry as a crime. Was there ever such legislation in any other country, Christian or Pagan ? But that is not all, because the party who inflicted this horrible code, actually reproached the Irish people with wilful and squalid Poverty. § 9- This code enforced ignorance by Statute Law, and punished the acquisition of knowledge as a felony. Is this credible ? — yet it is true. But that is not all ; for the party that thus persecuted learning, reproached and still reproach the Irish people with Ignorance. § 10. There; — there never was a people on the face of the earth so cruelly, so basely, treated as the Irish. There never was a faction so stained with blood — so blackened with crime as that Orange faction, which, under the name of Protestant, seeks to retain the remnants of their abused power, by keeping in activity the spirit which created and c [chap. VI. 1778—1800. 18 continued the infamous penal persecution of which I have thus faintly traced an outline.

It would be worse than seditious, nay actually treasonable, to suppose that such a faction can ever obtain countenance from you, IUustrious Lady, des tined, as I trust you are, at length to grant justice, by an equalization of rights with your other sub jects, to your faithful, brave, long oppressed, but magnanimous, people of Ireland. CHAP. VI. Years 1778—1800. § 1. The persecution I have described — the per secution founded on a breach of national faith and public honour — lasted for eighty-six long years of darkness — of shame — and of sorrow. It was intended to reduce the Catholic people of Ireland to the state of the most abject poverty, and by the same means to extirpate the Cathobc religion. Here a question of some interest arises : — What was the success of the experiment ? Before the question is answered, let it be recollected that the experiment had in favour of its success the Crown — the Parliament — the Bishops and Clergy of the established Church — the Judges — the Army, the Navy— the Corporations— Mayors — Aldermen — Sheriffs and Freer -.en — the Magistracy, the Grand CHAP. VI.] 1778—1800. 19 Jurors — the almost universal mass of the property and wealth of the Irish nation.