Page:A letter to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P. on the state of Ireland.djvu/13

 The second of its political and moral state.

The third will treat of the course which, in my opinion, ought to be adopted by Parliament in its coming session.

But before I begin these separate portions, I will endeavour to review shortly the political history of Ireland, from the twelfth to the eighteenth century.

In considering the question of Ireland, too much has been said of historical oppressions, and too little of recent remedies.

The ancient oppressions are truly lamentable; but, as I view the historical retrospect, it may be thus stated.

The Normans overthrew the Saxons and conquered England. A century later, Strongbow and his confederate nobles and knights conquered Ireland. For a long time they derived little aid from Henry the Second; but when the English King, in order to confirm his temporal authority, brought to his assistance the spiritual arm of the Roman Catholic Church, he proclaimed the Pope as head of the Church, and instituted tithes to be paid to the Roman Catholic clergy. It was therefore from the Norman conquerors of Ireland, at the time of the Conquest, and not from the Irish people, that the Roman Catholic Church obtained its property in Ireland. Till the Reformation this property was held by the Catholic Church. But in the reign of Elizabeth all was changed. The Queen, however reluctant, felt herself compelled to acknowledge the soundness of the opinion affirmed by Bacon and by Cecil, that the only friends to her