Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/281

 HiSTOKY.] out of the woods and glens. &quot; They looked like anatomies of death ; they did eat the dead carrion and one another soon after, insomuch as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves ; .... to a plot of water- cresses or shamrocks they flocked as to a feast.&quot; In 1534 Sir John Perrott, the ablest man available after Sidney s retirement, became lord-deputy. Sir John Norris, famed in the Netherland wars, was president of Munster, and so impressed the Irish that they averred him to be in league with the devil. Perrott held a parliament in 1585 in which the number of members was considerably increased. He made a strenuous effort to found a university in Dublin, and proposed to endow it with the revenues of St Patrick s, reasonably arguing that one cathedral was enough for any city. Here he was opposed by Loftus, archbishop of Dublin and chancellor, who had expressed his anxiety for a college, but had no idea of endowing it at his own expense. The colonization of the Munster forfeitures was undertaken at this time. It failed chiefly from the grants to individuals who neglected to plant English farmers, and were often absentees themselves. Raleigh obtained 42,000 acres. The quit rents reserved to the crown were less than one penny per aore. Racked with the stone, hated by th# official clique, thwarted on all sides, poor Perrott was goaded into using words capable of a treasonable interpre tation. Archbishop Loftus pursued him to the end. He died in the Tower under sentence for treason, and we may charitably hope that Elizabeth would have pardoned him. In his will, written after sentence, he emphatically repu diates any treasonable intention &quot; I deny my Lord God if ever I proposed the same.&quot; In 1584 Hugh O Neill, if O JS&quot;eill he was, became chief of part of Tyrone ; in 1587 he obtained the coveted earldom, and in 1593 was the admitted head of the whole tribe. A quarrel with the Government was inevitable, and, Hugh Roe O Donnell having joined him, Ulster was united against the crown. In 1598 James Fitzthomas Fitzgerald assumed the title of Desmond, to which he had some claims by blood, and which he pretended to hold as Tyrone s gift. Tyrone had received a crown of peacock s feathers from the pope, who was regarded by many as king of Ireland. The title of Sugan or straw-rope earl has been generally given to the Desmond pretender. Both ends of the island were soon in a blaze, and the Four Masters say that in nond seventeen days there was not one son of a Saxon left alive j n j^g D esmon( j territories. Edmund Spenser lost his all, escaping only to die of misery in a London garret. Tyrone more than held his own in the north, completely defeated Sir H. Bagenal in the battle of the Yellow Ford (1598), invaded Munster, and ravaged the lands of Lord Barry- more, who had remained true to his allegiance. Tyrone s ally, Hugh Roe O Donnell, overthrew the president of Connaught. &quot; The Irish of Connaught,&quot; say the Four Masters, &quot; were not pleased at Clifford s death ; .... he had never told them a falsehood.&quot; Essex came over in 1599 with a great army, but did nothing of moment, was outgeneralled and outwitted by Tyrone, and threw up his command to enter on the mad and criminal career which led to the scaffold. In 1600 Sir George Carew became president of Munster, and, as always happened when the crown was well served, the rebellion was quickly put down. Mountjoy, who succeeded Essex, joined Carew, and a Spanish force which landed at Kinsale surrendered. The destruction of their crops starved the people into submis sion, and the contest was only less terrible than the first Desmond war because it was much shorter. In Ulster Mountjoy was assisted by Sir Henry Docwra, who founded the second settlement at Derry, the first under Randolph having been abandoned. Hugh O Donnell sought help in Spain, where he died. Tyrone submitted at last, craving ilion. 265 pardon on his knees, renouncing his Celtic chiefry, and abjuring all foreign powers, but still retaining his earldom, and power almost too great for a subject. Scarcely was the ink dry when he was told of the great queen s death. He burst into tears, not of grief, but of vexation at not having held out for still better terms. In reviewing the Irish government of Elizabeth we shall Eliza- find much to blame, a want of truth in her dealings and bethan of steadiness in her policy. Violent efforts of coercion c n( l uef were succeeded by fits of clemency, of parsimony, or of i^ apathy. Yet it is fair to remember that she was surrounded by enemies, that her best energies were expended in the death struggle with Spain, and that she was rarely able to give undivided attention to the Irish problem. After all she conquered Ireland, which her predecessors had failed to do, though many of them were as crooked in action and less upright in intention. Considering the times, Elizabeth Religious cannot be called a persecutor. &quot;Do not,&quot; she said to the policy, elder Essex, &quot; seek too hastily to bring people that have been trained in another religion from that in which they have been brought up.&quot; Such things as the torture of Archbishop O Hurley cannot and need not be defended, but the statesmen of that day regarded the royal supremacy as a political doctrine, and its active opponents as traitors. And Catholics should not be too ready to remember the tyranny which their forefathers felt, and to forget the plots against Elizabeth s life, the night of St Bartholomew, and the Spanish Inquisition. Elizabeth saw that the Irish could only be reached through their own language. But for that harvest the labourers were necessarily few. The fate of Bishop Daly of Kildare, who preached in Irish, and who thrice had his house burned over his head, was not likely to encourage missionaries. Neither the best nor the worst of the episcopal body, Adam Loftus must be regarded as a representative man. To preach what he thought true when he could do it safely, to testify against toleration, and in the meantime to make a fortune, was too often the sum and substance of an Anglican prelate s work in Ireland. In all wild parts divine service was neglected, and wander ing friars or subtle Jesuits, supported by every patriotic or religious feeling of the people, kept Ireland faithful to Rome. Against her many shortcomings we must set the queen s foundation of that university which has been the one successful English institution in Ireland, and which has continually borne the fairest fruit. Stuart s son, and there was a curious antiquarian notion fi?^&quot; 1 afloat that, because the Irish were the original &quot;Scoti,&quot; a * Scottish king would sympathize with Ireland. Corporate towns set up the mass, and Mountjoy, who could argue as well as fight, had to teach them a sharp lesson. Finding Ireland conquered and in no condition to rise again, James established circuits and a complete system of shires. Sir John Davies was sent over as solicitor-general. The famous book in which he glorifies his own and the king s exploits gives far too much credit to the latter, and far too little to his great predecessor. When she was still alive to confer favours, Davies in very creditable verse had lavished praises upon Elizabeth which must have seemed exaggerated even to her. Two legal decisions swept away the customs of tanistry and of Irish gavelkind, and the English land system was violently substituted. Tyrone was harassed by sheriffs and other officers, and the Government, learning that he was engaged in an insurrectionary design, prepared to seize him. The information was probably false, but Tyrone was grow ing old and nervous, and perhaps despaired of making good his defence. By leaving Ireland he played into his enemies hands. Rory O Donnell, created earl of Tyrconnel, accompanied him. Cuconnaught Maguire had already gone XIII. 34
 * .Great things were expected of James I. He was Mary James I,