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 IRELAND

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IRELAND

ite of King James. Protestant magistrates, sheriffs, and judges had lieen (hsplaced to make room for Cathohes; the army and corporations underwent simi- lar changes; and the Act of Settlement was to be re- pealed. Timid Protestants trembling for their lives fled to England ; others formed centres of resistance to the viceroy in Munster and Connaught, and, in Ulster, berry anil Enniskillen expelled the Catholics and closed tlu'ir gates against the viceroy's troops. This was rel>ellin. for James, though repudiated in Eng- land, was still King of Ireland. In March, 1689, he arri\ed at Kinsale from France to subdue these rebels. But the task was beyond his strength. Derry and Enniskillen defied all his attacks, and a Williamite force, issuing from the latter town, almost annihilated a Jacobite army at Newtown-Butler.

Disaffection became general among the Protestants when the Irish Parliament repealed the Act of Settle- ment and attainted eighteen hundred persons who had fled to England through fear; and when, in .\ugust, a Williamite force of twenty thousand landed at Car- rickfergus, the Prot- estants everywhere welcomed it. This great force, however, effected nothing, and in June, 1690, Wil- liam himself came and encountered James on the banks of the Boyne. The battle was fought on 1 July, and resulted in the defeat of James. Hastening to Dublin he told the Duchess of Tyrcon- nell that the Irish soldiers had shame- fully run away, to which the lady is said to have rejilied : "But your Majesty

won the race. " The „ ,,,„„„

retort was just. The Founded 1793-

Irish cavalry behaved with conspicuous gallantry, as did the greater part of the infantry. Some of the latter ditl rim away, but not so fast as James himself, who fled taking the ablest of the Irish generals, Sars- field, with him. That the Irish were no cowards was soon sliown by their defence of Athlone and the still more glorious defence of Limerick. After being com- pelled to raise the siege of the latter city. King William left for England, committing the civil authority to lords justices and the military command to General Ginkel. In the following year Ginkel captured Ath- lone, owing to the carelessness of the Jacobite general, St-Ruth; and on 12 July, 1691, the last great battle of the war was fought at Aughrim. The Irish were not inferior to their opponents in numbers, discipline, or valour, and though overmatched in heavy guns they had the advantage of position. Nor was St-Ruth inferior to Ginkel in military capacity. His disposi- tions were excellent, and after several hours' desperate fighting Ginkel was driven back at every point. Just then St-Uuth was struck down by a cannon ball. Panic-stricken, the Irish fell back, allowing their oppo- nents to advance and inflict on them a crushing defeat. The surrender of Galway and Sligo followed, and in a short time Ginkel and his whole army were before the walls of Limerick. When he had effectually sur- rounded it and made a breach in the walls, further re- sistance was seen to lie hopeless, and .Sarsticld and his friends made terms. By the end of the year the war was over. King William had triumphed, and Protest- ant ascendancy was secure.

The Eighteenth Century. — By the Treaty of

Limerick the Catholic soldiers of King James were pardoned, protected against forfeiture of their estates, antl were free to go abroad if they chose. .Ml Catho- lics might substitute an oath of allegiance for the oath of supremacy, and were to have such privileges "as were consistent with the laws of Ireland, or as they did enjoy in the reign of Charles II ". King WiUiam also promised to have the Irish Parliament grant a further relaxation of the penal laws in force. This treaty, however, was soon torn to shreds, and in spite of William's appeals the Irish Parliament refusetl to rat- ify it, and embarked on fresh penal legislation. Under these new laws Catholics were exclutied from ParUa- ment, from the bench and bar, from the army and navy, from all civil offices, from the corporations, and even from the corporate towns. They could not have Catholic schools at home or attend foreign schools, or inherit landed property, or hold land under lease, or act as executors or administrators, or have arms or ammunition, or a horse worth £5. Neit her could they bury their dead in Catholic ruins, or make pilgrimages to holy wells, or ob- serve Catholic holi- days. They could not intermarry with the Protestants, the clergyman assisting at such marriages be- ing liable to death. The w'ife of a Catho- lic landloril turning Protestant got sep- arate maintenance; the son turning Prot- estant got the whole e :; t a t e ; and the Catholic landlord having only Catholic children was obliged at death to divide his estate among his children in equal shares. All the reg- ular clergy, as well as bishops and vicars- The secular clergy

Ireland

Catholic College general .should quit the kingdom

might remain, but must be registered, nor coukl they have on their churches either steeple or bell. This was the Penal Code, elaborated through nearly half a cen- tury with patience, and care, and ingenuity, perhaps the most infamous code ever elaborated by civilized man.

Such legislation does not generate conviction, and, in spite of all, the Catholics clung to their Faith. De- prived of schools at home, the young clerical student sought the halls of Continental colleges, and being or- dained rettirned to Ireland, disguised perhaps as a sailor and carried in a smuggler's craft. And in se- crecy and obscurity he preached, taught, lived, and died", leaving another generation equally persecuted to carry on the good fight. Poverty was his portion, and frequently the prison and the scaffold; and yet, while Protestantism made no progress, Catholicism more than held its own. In 1728 the Catholics were to the Protestants as five to one, and half a century later Young calculated that to make Ireland Protest- ant would take -1000 years. Indeed the Protestant clergy made no serious effort to convert the Catholics; nor was this the object of the Penal Code. Passed by

.Protestants possessing confiscated Catholic lands, its object was to impoverish, to debase, to degrade, to leave the despoiled Catholics incapable of rebellion and ignorant of their WTongs. In tliis respect it suc- ceeded. A few Catholics, with the connivance of some friendly Protestants, managed to hold their estates; the remainder gradually sank to the level of cottiers and day-labourers, living in cabins, clothed in