yet wanted the "vaulting ambition" which most commonly attends a king; and in his reign, accordingly, will be found a suspension of the severe rule which previously and subsequently cursed the people of Ireland. It was not consistent with the views of that monarch to tolerate the inhuman system which, in the reign of Elizabeth, was recommended to her, whose cold, calculating and selfish policy would not allow her to hesitate, even in the awful event of taking away the life of a sister. To one so senseless and ambitious, that policy which was the most cruel was best recommended,and to her might be appropriately presented the plan of government proposed by Sir John Perrot. Even he has found his advocates and supporters. Let a world, now enlightened by religion, give its judgment on the governor who would address, and the queen who would receive, the following proposition:

"That all brehons, car rashes, bardes and rymers, that infect the people, friars, monks, jesuits, pardmers, nuns, and such like, that openly seeke the maintenance of papacy, a traytorous kind of people, the bellowes to blow the coals of all mischiefe and rebellion, and fit spies of antichrist, whose kingdom they greedily expect to be restored, be executed by marshal law, and their favorites and maintainers, by due course of law, to be tryed and executed as in cases of trea

son." *

While, therefore, James was on the throne, there was less riot and disturbance. Even with their disabilities not removed, but only suspended, the people of Ireland were steady and devoted in their allegiance. Yet James was a weak monarch. The reins of government were held by one who was not competent to the management of the affairs of a great nation. If "indigenous disaffection" was really a part of the character of the people, it might then have been exhibited, perhaps, with great success. Still they were peaceable, passive, if not contented. Here, then, is a fact worth a thousand surmises. A fact that ought to have dissipated a thousand suspicions. In the reign of Elizabeth, when the most arbitrary measures were adopted and enforced, tumults, riots and excesses of all kinds, desolated the land and ruined the people. In the reign of James, when the government of Ireland was administered on different principles, no disturbance defied the authority of the monarch. But, though the

* Carey's Vind. Hib.

proof had been revealed from heaven, it would not have altered the national policy. Ireland, poor, wretched and abandoned, was the fated object that should illustrate at once the callousness and misery of our nature. With no new pretext, William of Orange wasted her soil with fire-her people with the sword. A British Parliament, actuated by a revengeful jealousy, and ambitious to become the panders to the bloody passions of an imported master, most humbly petitioned him to interpose his sword between the bread and the mouth of the famishing peasant of Ireland, and do all in his power to prohibit the woollen trade of that country. Well did he redeem his promise, when he assured them, that he would do his best to gratify them in the request. Let the numbers who have welcomed death as the only relief for hunger, attest his sacred reverence for his promise!

For centuries did these and similar enactments weigh down to the earth the enterprise and genius of the people of Ireland. Successive monarchs varied from each other only in the degree of severity with which these laws were enforced. Hope was lost to the nation, and an eternal night seemed to hang over the land. The Irish nation had become a mere appendage to the British crown, and the assertion of a right of absolute dominion was carried into practice with the most cruel and inhuman energy.

An era was, however, to arise in the history of the world,. and the sufferings of the Irish people were to find some abatement, in the bold and successful attempts which in other parts of the world were making and to be made for the cause of freedom. The haughty majesty of England was to be humbled in a war with her feeble colonists, and fear was to accomplish for the people of Ireland, what neither the sense of justice nor the claims of religion could produce. The stern moral told in the tale of the revolution of the colonies in North-America, had not only served to keep alive the flame of patriotism in Ireland, but had even penetrated the adamantine heart of a British king, and made him feel the insecurity of that power which might alone supports. He had looked upon the rich fields which had been planted in North-America, as so many sources from which the Treasury of England could be replenished, and the tears of the suffering peasantry of Ireland were to burst afresh, and their groans to be re-echoed, in the wilds of North-America. But a Power superior to all earthly kings had willed it otherwise.

The monarch courted sleep at night, with the visions of plunder and unbridled sway, but the morning's sun had dispelled forever the illusion of his dream. His power had been contemned-his law trampled under foot. A hired soldiery, trained in the business of subjugation, and adorned with the bloody triumphs they had achieved, were defeated by an ill-fed, worse-clothed, and worse disciplined people, who enlisted in the cause of freedom under the high influences of religion, and were prepared to perish, if they could not preserve that sacred boon. They did succeed. The most triumphant success crowned this bold and divine attempt to vindicate the character of our race, and, in the vicissitudes of human policy, still to establish the truth, that under the influences of education and religion, man is capa ble of self-government.

After a contest of seven years, the independence of America was formally recognized. The prowess of a British army was then an idle boast, and the example of patient fortitude exhibited in this hemisphere, was like a revelation from heaven, teaching suffering mankind throughout the world, that a people resolved to be free, and fit to be so, can, without doubt, forge from their chains weapons to hew out a pathway to their own emancipation.

The lesson thus taught in the new world, was not lost in the old. In Ireland, every event connected with the revolution in America, was of the deepest and dearest interest. The disasters of the campaign in America had incapacitated many a soldier, who retired from the service, but carried with him the faithful narrative of the energy and boldness with which their brethren on this side of the Atlantic had sustained the cause of freedom. The memory of this event warmed every heart in Ireland. What had been accomplished in America, could be done in Ireland. What their brethren there could do, they could at least equal. England, that had hitherto been considered invincible, was no longer so regarded. The terror of defeat was diminished by the disgrace she had undergone, and a keen sense of retributive justice, caused the Irish patriot to feel that a day was fast approaching, when England should render a heavy account for the wanton miseries she had inflicted on a people, whose only crime was too timid an acquiescence in her arbitrary rule.

At this time, the French revolution, like the eruption of a volcano, burst out in all its fury. Throughout Europe, the lawfulness of kingly rule had passed into a belief, as unquestioned as the least disputed dogma in religious faith. The excesses of the ruler, however severe, could not wake into resistance the long subjugated powers of our race. Born in bondage, the son preserved undisturbed this dishonorable inheritance; and in whatever form the edict of the master was announced, a patient submission was cheerfully paid. True, the substance had been exchanged for the shadow. The high and daring qualities, whether of mind or body,the qualities of profound statesmanship, or chivalrous valor, which had won for their possessor a sceptre and crown, had vested these forever in his successors. At times, indeed, there might be a change of rulers, but still the rule was the

same.

The alarm of the French revolution, waked into the wildest affright those who had fancied that the question of prerogative was forever at rest. New and bold doctrines found their way through Paris, and penetrated the farthest boundaries of France. The nature of the compact between the ruler and the ruled, then became a subject of momentous discussion. The principle of unlimited obedience not only was questioned, but denied. The rights of the ruled involved the question of the rights of the ruler, and it was soon settled that the ruler had no rights, but exercised only a delegated trust, and that for its abuse there was but one penalty-death! It is not our purpose to enter here into a discussion of this eventful revolution. Suffice it to say, that to the most distant ages the consequences of the revolution in France will remain, like the vestiges of some terrific conflagration, which neither the arts of man, nor the still more powerful and effacing influence of time, can obliterate or impair. It was a mighty monument at once of patriotism and infamy. A sepulchre in which tyranny and freedom, religion and depravity, were indiscriminately entombed.

The shock under which the throne of France reeled and fell, was not unheeded in England. A momentous issue was now presented to those who had hitherto rioted in the plenitude of power. The spread of disorganizing principles was so insidious and alarming, that no one could venture to predict where it would reach. Not only were the common people to be watched, but even they who were high in pow

er and place had become infected, deeply infected with the mania. To men of ardent temperament,-to the young and ambitious, there was a charm in the principles of the French revolution, as developed in its commencement, that enlisted not only the sympathies, but induced the active support and advocacy of the most distinguished men in England. Societies, professing fraternal feelings with the revolutionists in France, were openly organized, and the name of Fox, and the pen of MacIntosh, gave a tower of strength to the side they espoused. Although the cool and sagacious forethought of Mr. Burke had, with prophetic clearness, discerned the mighty elements that were hidden from the common view, yet the warning had no effect. It was delightful to all men, to feel that the natural rights and privileges of their race had been openly vindicated and successfully supported.

Meanwhile, the disaffection in Ireland had not been appeased. The subverting influences of the French revolution were there also felt; and the ministry of England looked towards that land, but then without power either to protect or crush. The danger of foreign invasion threatened the whole coast of England and Ireland. In England, the most extraordinary measures were resorted to, to place the kingdom in an attitude of defence. The militia of the country were organized, and the whole nation remained like a mighty conqueror, who had been shorn of much of his strength, and who, doubtful of the power of successful resistance, felt that he would perish in a manner worthy of his past story. There were no longer standing armies to awe the people of Ireland. The captive, so long watched, was deserted by his guard, the cords still around him, but there was no one ready to interfere, if a friendly hand should cut them asunder.

Left thus to themselves, the people of Ireland armed for the danger that threatened the British empire. What had they to fear from any invasion, for what incursion, however savage, could work for them more deadly wrong than they had suffered from that government, the dismemberment of which was then apprehended? True, however, even in such times, to a government which had by its criminal conduct violated every claim to their allegiance, and relaxed every hold on their affections, even then, with arms in their hands, the people of Ireland prepared to meet the bold invader at the very threshold, and dispute with him each foot of ground. Then if, indeed, "indigenous disaffection," to use a coined