Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/283

 HISTORY.] IRELAND 267 Great numbers were killed, often in cold blood and with circumstances of great barbarity. The English under Coote and others retaliated. In 1642 a Scottish army under Monro landed in Ulster, and formed a rallying point for the colonists. Londonderry, Enniskillen, Coleraine,Carrick- fergus, and some other places defied Sir Phelim O Neill s tumultuary host. Trained in foreign wars, Owen Roe O Neill gradually formed a powerful army among the Ulster Irish, and it is impossible to overestimate his skill and patience. But like other O Neills, he did little out of Ulster, and his great victory over Monro (1G45) had no last ing result. }, The old English of the Pale were forced into rebellion, but could never get on with the native Irish, who hated them only less than the new colonists. Ormonde throughout maintained the position of a loyal subject, and, as the king s representative, played a great but hopeless part. The Celts cared nothing for the king except as a weapon against the Protestants; the old Anglo-Irish Catholics cared much, but the nearer Charles approached them the more completely he alienated the Protestants. In 1645 Rinuccini reached Ireland as papal legate. He could never cooperate with the Catholic confederacy at Kilkenny, which was under old English influence, and fty throwing in his lot with the Celts only widened the gulf between the two sections. The Royalist confederates were not willing to decide the question of investitures in favour of the pope, still less to restore the abbey lands of which they were the chief holders. Whatever may be thought of Mr Carlyle s judgments on Ireland generally, he has thoroughly mastered the state of parties during the turmoil which followed 1641 : &quot;There are,&quot; he says, &quot;Catholics of the Pale, demanding freedom of religion, under my lord this and my lord that. There are Old-Irish Catholics, under pope s nuncios, under Abba O Teague of the excom munications, and Owen Roe O Neill, demanding not reli gious freedom only, but what we now call repeal of the union/ and unable to agree with Catholics of the English Palo. Then there are Ormonde Royalists, of the Episco palian and mixed creeds, strong for king without covenant; Ulster and other Presbyterians strong for king and cove nant ; lastly, Michael Jones and the Commonwealth of England, who want neither king nor covenant.&quot; In all their negotiations with Ormonde and Glamorgan, Henrietta Maria and Digby, the pope and Rinuccini stood out for an arrangement which would have destroyed the royal supremacy and established Romanism in Ireland, leaving to the Anglicans bare toleration, and to the Pres byterians not even that. Charles behaved after his kind, showing, not only his falseness, but also his total want of real dignity. Ormonde was forced to surrender Dublin to the Parliamentarians (1646), and the inextricable knot awaited Cromwell s sword. The total inability of the Irish Catholics to form anything like a working government during their nine years of power proves that her history, and the discordant ingredients of her population, must ever prevent Ireland from achieving a separate political existence. iwell. Cromwell s campaign (1649-50) showed how easily a good general with an efficient army might conquer Ireland. Resistance in the field was soon at an end ; the starving- out policy of Carew and Mountjoy was employed against the guerillas, and the soldiers were furnished with scythes to cut down the green corn. Bibles were also regularly served out to them. Oliver s severe conduct at Droghecla and elsewhere is not morally defensible, but much may be urged in his favour. Strict discipline was maintained he hanged soldiers for stealing chickens ; faith was always kept; and short, sharp action was more merciful in the long run than a milder but less effective policy. The character and designs of this great man offer a most difficult problem. For a time Lord Clarendon had it all his own way ; in due course came a reaction so violent that the Protector has been almost deified in some quarters. Ireton was in many respects a copy of his father-in-law. Cromwell s civil policy, to use Macaulay s words, was &quot; able, straightforward, and cruel.&quot; He thinned the disaffected population by allowing foreign enlistment, and 40,000 are said to have been thus got rid of. Already Irish Catholics of good family had learned to offer their swords to foreign princes. In Spain, France, and the empire they often rose to the distinction which they were denied at home. About 9000 persons were sent to the West Indies, practically into slavery. Thus, and by the long war, the population was reduced to some 850,000, of whom 150,000 were English and Scots; the marvel is that so many were left. Then came the trans plantation beyond the Shannon. The Irish Catholic gentry were removed bodily with their servants and such tenants as consented to follow them, and with what remained of their cattle. They suffered dreadful hardships. To exclude foreign influences, a belt of one mile was reserved to soldiers on the coast from Sligo to the Shannon, but the idea was not fully carried out. The derelict property in the other provinces was divided between adventurers who had advanced money and soldiers who had fought in Ireland. Many of the latter sold their claims to officers or specu lators, who were thus enabled to form estates. The majority of Irish labourers stayed to work under the settlers, and the country became peaceful and prosperous. Some fighting Catholics haunted woods and hills under the name of Tories, afterwards given in derision to a great party, and were hunted down with as little compunction as the wolves to which they were compared. Measures of great severity were taken against Catholic priests ; but it is said that Cromwell had great numbers in his pay, and that they kept him well informed. All classes of Protestants were tolerated, and Jeremy Taylor preached unmolested. Com mercial equality being given to Ireland, the woollen trade at once revived, and a shipping interest sprang up. Were it worth while to prove Cromwell a greater statesman than Strafford, his religious and commercial policy in Ireland would supply ample evidence. A legislative union was also effected, and Irish members attended at Westminster. The following brief record of a debate is worth quoting : &quot; Mr Bamfield and Mr Robinson all that serve for Ireland should be on this committee. Sir Gilbert Pickering, Mr Hyland against any such distinction of members ; it is an ill precedent and looks not like an union ; name as many as you will, but let them not be exclusively added. Mr Ashe as they sit in Parliament, they are not Irishmen but mere Englishmen. Resolved that all who serve for Ireland be of the committee.&quot; For further particulars Mr Prendergast s Cromivellian Settlement and Tory War of Ulster should be consulted. Charles II. was bound in honour to do something for Charles such Irish Catholics as were innocent of the massacres of 1641, and the claims were not scrutinized too severely. It was found impossible to displace the Cromwellians, but they were shorn of about one-third of their lands. When the Caroline settlement was complete it was found that the great rebellion had resulted in reducing the Catholic share of the fertile parts of Ireland from two-thirds to one-third. Ormonde, whose wife had been allowed by Cromwell s clemency to make him some remittances from the wreck of his estate, was largely and deservedly rewarded. A revenue of 30,000 was settled on the king, in considera tion of which Ireland was in 1663 excluded from the benefit of the Navigation Act, and her nascent shipping interest ruined. In 1666 the importation of Irish cattle and horses into England was forbidden, the value of the former at once falling five- fold, of the latter twenty-fold.