Page:Irish minstrelsy, vol 2 - Hardiman.djvu/172

160 shall not give comberick to any gent, or Lordes' men, children or brethern that shall happen to offend against the Queen's lawes.—He shall not levy any black rent.—He shall not use, ne keepe within his house, any Irishe Barde, Carroghe or Rymor, but to the uttermost of his power help to remove them from his countrie."—From the orig. MS. A. D. 1584.

A century after this period, Lawrence boasted, that Ireland might be called west England. The statement was, however, fallacious. It is not so yet, and unless the policy materially change, ages may roll round before it can be so. Ireland has been rendered a paralyzed limb on the empire, but sufficient nerve remains, by which, in some frenzied or convulsive moment, it may inflict a sudden and deadly wound on the body which it ought to protect, support, and adorn. May this awful truth sink deep in the minds of those who have it yet in their power to avert so dreadful a retribution.

$5$"Banha no more her sons can trace In failing heart and feeble hand." The atrocities committed by the English in Ireland, in the reign of Elizabeth, are frequently alluded to by our bards and historians, but the descriptions in most are too general, because the acts were too numerous to admit of particular detail. "When," says our distinguished countryman, Curran, (whose talented Son's translations enrich these volumes,) "you endeavour to convey an idea of a great number of barbarians, practising a great variety of cruelties upon an incalculable multitude of sufferers, nothing defined or specific finds its way to the heart, nor is any sentiment excited save that of a general erratic unappropriated commiseration." For the purpose therefore of conveying a definite idea of the actions, described in general terms in our poem, a single instance out of many which might be collected, may suffice.—