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80

PARNELL AND IRELAND.*

(E. REVIEW, 1807.)

lics. By William Parnell, Esquire. Historical Apology for the Irish CathoFitzpatrick, Dublin, 1807.

Antipelagian, in his tenderest years, may be very just; but what prevents you from making him so? Mr. Lancaster, purposely and intentionally, to allay all jealousy, leaves him in a state as well adapted for one creed as another. Begin; make your pupil a firm advocate for the peculiar doctrines of the IF ever a nation exhibited symptoms English Church; dig round about him, of downright madness, or utter stuon every side, a trench that shall guard pidity, we conceive these symptoms him from every species of heresy. In may be easily recognised in the conduct spite of all this clamour you do nothing; of this country upon the Catholic question. A man has a wound in his great you do not stir a single step; you educate alike the swineherd and his toe, and a violent and perilous fever hog;-and then, when a man of real at the same time; and he refuses to genius and enterprise rises up, and take the medicines for the fever, because says, Let me dedicate my life to this ne- it will disconcert his toe! The mournglected object, I will do everything ful and folly-stricken blockhead forgets but that which must necessarily devolve that his toe cannot survive him!—that upon you alone, -you refuse to do if he dies, there can be no digital life your little, and compel him, by the cry apart from him; yet he lingers and of Infidel and Atheist, to leave you to fondles over this last part of his body, your ancient repose, and not to drive soothing it madly with little plasters, you by insidious comparisons, to any and anile fomentations, while the negsystem of active utility. We deny, lected fever rages in his entrails, and again and again, that Mr. Lancaster's instruction is any kind of impediment to the propagation of the doctrines of the Church; and if Mr. Lancaster were to perish with his system tomorrow, these boys would positively be taught nothing; the doctrines which Mrs. Trimmer considers to be prohibited would not rush in, but there would be an absolute vacuum. We will, however, say this in favour of Mrs. Trimmer, that if every one who has joined in her clamour had laboured one hundredth part as much as she has done in the cause of national education, the clamour would be much more rational, and much more consistent, than it now is. By living with a few people as active as herself, she is perhaps somehow or another persuaded that there is a national education going on in this country. But our principle argument is, that Mr. Lancaster's plan is at least better than the nothing which preceded it. The authoress herself seems to be a lady of respectable opinions, and very ordinary talents; defending what is right without judgment, and believing what is holy without charity.

burns away his whole life. If the com-
paratively little questions of Establish-
ment are all that this country is capable
of discussing or regarding, for God's
sake let us remember, that the foreign
conquest which destroys all, destroys
this beloved toe also. Pass over freedom,
industry, and science—and look upon
this great empire, by which we are
about to be swallowed up, only as it
affects the manner of collecting tithes,
and of reading the liturgy-still, if all
goes, these must go too; and even, for
their interests, it is worth while to con-
ciliate Ireland, to avert the hostility,
and to employ the strength of the
Catholic population. We plead the
question as the sincerest friends to the
Establishment; as wishing to it all
the prosperity and duration its warmest

I do not retract one syllable (or one iota) of what I have said or written upon the Catholic question. What was wanted for Ireland was emancipation, time and justice, abolition of present wrongs; time for forgetting past wrongs, and that continued and even justice which would make such oblivion wise. It is now only difficult to tranquillise Ireland, before emancipation it was impossible. As to the danger from Catholic doctrines, I must leave such apprehensions to the respectable anility of these realms. I will not meddle with it.

ing always, what these advocates seem to forget, that the Establishment cannot be threatened by any danger so great as the perdition of the kingdom in which it is established.

advocates can desire, - but remember- | Ireland between the Reformation and the grand rebellion in the reign or Charles the First. The celebrated conquest of Ireland by Henry the Second, extended only to a very few counties in Leinster; nine-tenths of the whole We are truly glad to agree so entirely kingdom were left, as he found them, with Mr. Parnell upon this great ques-under the dominion of their native tion; we admire his way of thinking; princes. The influence of example was and most cordially recommend his as strong in this, as in most other inwork to the attention of the public. stances; and great numbers of the The general conclusion which he at- English settlers who came over under tempts to prove is this:-that religious various adventurers, resigned their presentiment, however perverted by bigotry tensions to superior civilisation, cast off or fanaticism, has always a tendency to their lower garments, and lapsed into moderation; that it seldom assumes the nudity and barbarism of the Irish. any great portion of activity or enthu- The limit which divided the possessions sasm, except from novelty of opinion, of the English settler from those of the or from opposition, contumely, and native Irish, was called the pale; and persecution, when novelty ceases; that the expressions of inhabitants within the a government has little to fear from pale, and without the pale, were the any religious sect, except while that terms by which the two nations were sect is new. Give a government only distinguished. It is almost superfluous time, and, provided it has the good to state, that the most bloody and sense to treat folly with forbearance, pernicious warfare was carried on upon it must ultimately prevail. When, the borders-sometimes for something therefore, a sect is found, after a lapse sometimes for nothing-most com of years, to be ill-disposed to the Go-monly for cows. The Irish, over whom vernment, we may be certain that the sovereigns of England affected a sort Government has widened its separation of nominal dominion, were entirely goby marked distinctions, roused its re-verned by their own laws; and so very sentment by contumely, or supported its enthusiasm by persecution.

The particular conclusion Mr. Parnell attempts to prove is, that the Catholic religion in Ireland had sunk into torpor and inactivity, till Government roused it with the lash: that even then, from the respect and attachment which men are always inclined to show towards Government, there still remained a large body of loyal Catholics; that these only decreased in number from the rapid increase of persecution; and that, after all, the effects which the resentment of the Roman Catholics had in creating rebellions had been very much exaggerated.

In support of these two conclusions, Mr. Parnell takes a survey of the history of Ireland, from the conquest under Henry, to the rebellion under Charles the First, passing very rapidly over the period which preceded the Reformation, and dwelling principally upon the various rebellions which broke out in

VOL. I

little connection had they with the justice of the invading country, that it was as lawful to kill an Irishman as it was to kill a badger or a fox. The instances are innumerable, where the defendant has pleaded that the deceased was an Irishman, and that therefore defendant had a right to kill him;- and upon the proof of Hibernicism, acquittal followed of course.

When the English army mustered in any great strength, the Irish chieftains would do exterior homage to the English Crown; and they very frequently, by this artifice, averted from their country the miseries of invasion: but they remained completely unsubdued, till the rebellion which took place in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, of which that politic woman availed herself to the complete subjugation of Ireland. In speaking of the Irish about the reign of Elizabeth or James the First, we must not draw our comparisons from England, but from New Zealand; they were not

G

civilised men, but savages; and if we reason about their conduct, we must reason of them as savages.

"After reading every account of Irish history (says Mr. Parnell), one great perplexity appears to remain: How does it happen, that from the first invasion of the English, till the reign of James I., Ireland seems not to have made the smallest progress in civilisation or wealth?

"That it was divided into a number of small principalities, which waged constant war on each other, or that the appointment of the chieftains was elective,-do not appear sufficient reasons, although these are the only ones assigned by those who have been at the trouble of considering the subject: neither are the confiscations of property quite sufficient to account for the effect. There have been great confiscations in other countries, and still they have flourished; the petty states of Greece were quite analogous to the chiefries (as they were called) in Ireland; and yet they seemed to flourish almost in proportion to their dissensions. Poland felt the bad effects of an elective monarchy more than any other country; and yet, in point of civilisation, it maintained a very respect able rank among the nations of Europe; but Ireland never, for an instant, made any progress in improvement till the reign of James I.

which he put off as soon as he came in; and, entertaining the Baron after his best manner in the Latin tongue, desired him to put off his apparel, which he thought to be a burden to him, and to sit naked.

"To conclude, men and women at night going to sleep, lie thus naked in a round circle about the fire, with their feet towards it. They fold their heads and their upper parts in woollen mantles, first steeped in water, to keep them warm: for they say that woollen cloth, wetted, preserves heat (as linen, wetted, preserves cold), when the smoke of their bodies has warmed the woollen cloth.'

"The cause of this extreme poverty, and of its long continuance, we must conclude arose from the peculiar laws of property which were in force under the Irish dynasties. These laws have been described by most writers as similar to the Kentish custom of gavelkind; and, indeed, so little attention was paid to the subject, that were it not for the researches of Sir J. Davis, the knowledge of this singular usage would have been entirely lost.

"The Brehon law of property, he tells us, was similar to the custom (as the English lawyers term it) of hodge-podge. When any one of the sept died, his lands did not descend to his sons, but were divided among the whole sept: and, for this purpose, the chief of the sept made a new division of the whole lands belonging to the sept, and gave every one his part according to seniority. So that no man had a pro

and even during his own life, his possession of any particular spot was quite uncertain, being liable to be constantly shuffled and changed by new partitions. The consequence of this was, that there was not a house of brick or stone, among the Irish, down to the reign of Henry VII.; not even a garden or orchard, or well-fenced or improved field; neither village or town, or in any respect the least provision for posterity. This monstrous custom, so opposite to the natural feelings of mankind, was probably perpetuated by the policy of the chiefs. In the first place, the power of partitioning being lodged in their hands, made them the most absolute of tyrants, being the dispensers of the property as well as of the liberty of their subjects. In the second place, it had the appearance of adding to the number of their savage armies; for, where there was no improvement or tillage, war was pursued as an occupation.

"It is scarcely credible, that in a climate like that of Ireland, and at a period so far advanced in civilisation as the end of Eliza-perty which could descend to his children; beth's reign, the greater part of the natives should go naked. Yet this is rendered certain by the testimony of an eye-witness, Fynes Moryson. In the remote parts (he says), where the English laws and manners are unknown, the very chief of the Irish, as well men as women, go naked in the winter time, only having their privy parts covered with a rag of linen, and their bodies with a loose mantle. This I speak of my own experience; yet remember that a Bohemian baron coming out of Scotland to us by the north parts of the wild Irish, told me in great earnestness, that he coming to the house of O'Kane, a great lord amongst them, was met at the door by sixteen women all naked, excepting their loose mantles, whereof eight or ten were very fair; with which strange sight his eyes being dazzled, they led him into the house, and then sitting down by the fire with crossed legs, like tailors, and so low as could not but offend chaste eyes, desired him to sit down with them. Soon after, O'Kane, the lord of the country, came in all naked, except a loose mantle and shoes,

"In the early history of Ireland, we find several instances of chieftains discountenancing tillage; and so late as Elizabeth's reign, Moryson says, that Sir Neal Garve

restrained his people from ploughing, that | Mr. Parnell contends for, and clearly they might assist him to do any mischief."" and decisively proves is, that many of -(pp. 98-102.)

a striking proof, that the bigotry of the Catholic religion had not, at that period, risen to any great height in Ireland. The insurrections of the various Irish princes were as numerous during this reign, as they had been in the two preceding reigns;-a circumstance rather difficult of explanation, if, as is commonly believed, the Catholic religion was at that period the main spring of men's actions.

those sanguinary scenes attributed to These quotations and observations the Catholic religion, are to be partly will enable us to state a few plain facts imputed to causes totally disconnected for the recollection of our English from religion; that the unjust invasion, readers: 1st, Ireland was never sub- and the tyrannical, infamous policy of dued till the rebellion in the reign of the English, are to take their full share Queen Elizabeth. 2nd, For four hundred of blame with the sophisms and plots years before that period, the two nations of Catholic priests. In the reign of had been almost constantly at war; Henry the Eighth, Mr. Parnell shows and, in consequence of this, a deep and that feudal submission was readily paid irreconcilable hatred existed between to him by all the Irish chiefs; that the people within and without the pale. the Reformation was received without 3rd, The Irish at the accession of Queen the slightest opposition: and that the Elizabeth, were unquestionably the most troubles which took place at that period barbarous people in Europe. So much in Ireland are to be entirely attributed for what had happened previous to to the ambition and injustice of Henry. the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and let In the reign of Queen Mary there was any man, who has the most superficial | no recrimination upon the Protestants; knowledge of human affairs, determine whether national hatred, proceeding from such powerful causes, could possibly have been kept under by the defeat of one single rebellion,-whether it would not have been easy to have foreseen, at that period, that a proud, brave, half-savage people, would cherish the memory of their wrongs for centuries to come, and break forth into arms at every period when they were particularly exasperated by oppression, or invited by opportunity. If the Protestant religion had spread in Ireland as it did in England, and if there never had been any difference of faith between the two countries, can it be believed that the Irish, ill-treated, and infamously governed as they have been, would never have made any efforts to shake off the yoke of England? Surely there are causes enough to account for their impatience of that yoke, without endeavouring to inflame the zeal of ignorant people against the Catholic religion, and to make that mode of faith responsible for all the butchery which the Irish and English for these last two centuries have exercised upon each other. Everybody, of course, must admit, that if to the causes of hatred already specified there be added the additional cause of religious distinction, this last will give greater force (and, what is of more consequence to observe, give a name) to the whole aggregate motive. But what

In the reign of Elizabeth, the Catholic in the pale regularly fought against the Catholic out of the pale. O'Sullivan a bigoted Papist, reproaches them with doing so. Speaking of the reign of James the First, he says, " And now the eyes even of the English Irish (the Catholics of the pale) were opened; and they cursed their former folly for helping the heretic." The English Government were so sensible of the loyalty of the Irish English Catholics, that they entrusted them with the most confidential services. The Earl of Kildare was the principal instrument in waging war against the chieftains of Leix and Offal. William O'Bourge, another Catholic, was created Lord Castle Connel for his eminent services; and MacGully Patrick, a priest, was the state spy. We presume that this wise and manly conduct of Queen Elizabeth was utterly unknown both to the Pastrycook and the Secretary of State, who have published upon the dangers of employing

Catholics even against foreign enemies ; | said or thought of the enormous risk to and in those publications have said a which Ireland is exposed, -nothing great deal about the wisdom of our of the gross injustice with which the ancestors-the usual topic whenever Catholics are treated,-nothing of the the folly of their descendants is to be lucrative apostasy of those from whom defended. To whatever other of our they experience this treatment: but the ancestors they may allude, they may only concern by which we all seem to spare all compliments to this illustrious be agitated is, that the King must not Princess, who would certainly have kept be vexed in his old age. We have a the worthy confectioner to the composi- great respect for the King; and wish tion of tarts, and most probably fur- him all the happiness compatible with nished him with the productions of the the happiness of his people. But these Right Honourable Secretary, as the are not times to pay foolish complimeans of conveying those juicy deli-ments to kings or the sons of kings, or cacies to a hungry and discerning public. to any body else: this journal has alIn the next two reigns, Mr. Parnell ways preserved its character for courage shows by what injudicious measures and honesty; and it shall do so to the of the English Government the spirit last. If the people of this country are of Catholic opposition was gradually solely occupied in considering what is formed; for that it did produce power-personally agreeable to the King, with ful effects at a subsequent period, he out considering what is for his permadoes not deny; but contends only (as ment good, and for the safety of his we have before stated), that these effects dominions; if all public men, quitting have been much overrated and ascribed the common vulgar scramble for emolusolely to the Catholic religion when ment, do not concur in conciliating the other causes have at least had an equal people of Ireland; if the unfounded agency in bringing them about. He alarms, and the comparatively trifling concludes with some general remarks interests of the clergy, are to supersede on the dreadful state of Ireland, and the great question of freedom or slavery, the contemptible folly and bigotry of it does appear to us quite impossible the English*;-remarks full of truth, that so mean and so foolish a people can of good sense, and of political courage. escape that destruction which is ready How melancholy to reflect, that there to burst upon them;-a destruction so would be still some chance of saving imminent, that it can only be averted England from the general wreck of by arming all in our defence who would empires, but that it may not be saved, evidently be sharers in our ruin, — and because one politician will lose two by such a change of system as may thousand a year by it, and another three save us from the hazard of being ruined thousand-a third a place in reversion, by the ignorance and cowardice of any and a fourth a pension for his aunt!- general, by the bigotry or the ambition Alas! these are the powerful causes of any minister, or by the well-meaning which have always settled the destiny of scruples of any human being, let his great kingdoms, and which may level old dignity be what it may. These minor England, with all its boasted freedom, and domestic dangers we must endeaand boasted wisdom, to the dust. Nor is vour firmly and temperately to avert as it the least singular among the political we best can; but, at all hazards, we phenomena of the present day, that the must keep out the destroyer from among sole consideration which seems to in-us, or perish like wise and brave men in fluence the unbigoted part of the Eng- the attempt. lish people, in this great question of Ireland, is a regard for the personal feelings of the Monarch. Nothing is

It would be as well, in future, to say no more of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,

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