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A Popular History of Ireland V2 From the earliest period to the emancipation of the Catholics

Chapter 2 LAST YEARS OF JAMES-CONFISCATION OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES-ACCESSION OF CHARLES I.-GRIEVANCES AND GRACES -ADMINISTRATION OF LORD STRAFFORD.

Word Count: 3591    |    Released on: 06/12/2017

clusively regulated by arbitrary proclamations and orders in Council. Chichester, after the unusually long term of eleven years, had leave to retire in 1816; he was succeed

declarations against recusants were repeated with increased vehemence, while particular treaties for a local and conditional toleration were notoriously progressing; in a word, the administration of affairs exhibited all the worst

ituation, and had, through a long half century of guile and cruelty, contributed as much to the destruction of its inhabitants, by the perversion of law, as any armed conqueror could have done by the edge of the sword. Ulster being already applotted, and Munster undergoing the manipulation of the new Earl of Cork, there remained as a field for the Parsons Commission only the Midland Counties and Connaught. Of these they made the most in the shortest space of time. A horde of clerkly spies were employed under the name of "Discoverers," to ransack old Irish tenures in the archives of Dublin and London, with such good success, that in a very short time 66,000 acres in Wicklow, and 3

he King. When James Usher, then Bishop of Meath, preached before his successor from the text "He beareth not the sword in vain," they were sufficiently formidable to compel him publicly to apologise for his violent allusions to their body. Perhaps, however, we should mainly see in the comparative toleration, extended by Lord Falkland, an effect of the diplomacy then going on, for the marriage of Prince Charles to the Infanta of Spain. When, in 1623, Pope Gre

Charles with Henrietta Maria gave a ray of assurance to the co-religionists of the young Queen, for they had not then discovered that it was ever the habit of the Stuarts "to sacrifice their friends to the fear of their enemies." While he was yet celebrating his nuptials at Whitehall, surrounded by Catholic guests, the House of Commons presented Charles "a pious petition," praying him to put into force the laws against recusants; a prayer which he was compelled by motives of policy to answer in the affirmative. The magistrates of England received orders accordingly, and when the King of France remonstrated against this flagrant breach of one of the articles

me others, laymen and jurists. They were armed with unlimited power "to visit, reform, redress, order, correct and amend, all such errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, offences, contempts and enormities," as came under the head of spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction. They were, in effect, the Castle Chamber, acting as a spiritual tribunal of last resort; and were provided with their own officers, Registers and Receivers of Fines, Pursuivants, Criers and Gaolers. The Court of Wards exercised a jurisdiction, if possible, more repugnant to our first notions of liberty than that of the High Commission Court. It retained its original power "to bargain and sell the custody, wardship and marriage," of all the heirs of such persons of condition as died in the King's homage; but their powers, by royal let

t results, adjourned. But the ultra Protestant party had taken the alarm, and convoked a Synod at Dublin to counteract the General Assembly. This Synod vehemently protested against selling truth "as a slave," and "establishing for a price idolatry in its stead." They laid it down as a dogma of their faith that "to grant Papists a toleration, or to consent that they may freely exercise their religion and profess their faith and doctrines, was a grievous sin;" wherefore they prayed God "to make those in authority zealous, resolute, and courageous against all Popery, superstition, and idolatry." This declaration of the extreme Protestants, including not only Usher, and the principal Bishops, but Chichester, Boyle, Parsons, and the most successful "Undertakers," all deeply imbued with Puritan notions, naturally found among their English brethren advocates and defenders. The King, who had lately, for the third time, renewed with France the articles of his marriage treaty, was placed in a most difficult position. He desired to save his own honour, he sorely needed the money of the Catholics, but he trembled before the compact, well organized fanaticism of the Puritans. In his distress he had recourse to a councillor, who, since the assassination of Buckingham, his first favourite, divided with Laud the royal confidence. This was Thomas, Lord Wentworth, better known by his subsequent title of Earl of Strafford, a statesman born to be the wonder and the bane of three kingdoms. Strafford (for such for clearness we must call him) boldly advised the King to grant "the graces" as his own personal act, to pocket the proposed subsidy, but to contrive that the promised concessions he was to make should never go into effect. This infamous deception was effected in

an austerity and enthusiasm, which barely cloaked a rapacity and bigotry unequalled in any former administration. In Dublin, on Saint Stephen's Day, 1629, the Protestant Archbishop, Bulkley, and the Mayor of the city, entered the Carmelite Chapel, at the head of a file of soldiers, dispersed the congregation, desecrated the altar, and arrested the officiating friars. The persecution was then taken up and repeated wherever the executive power was strong enough to defy the popular indignation. A Catholic seminary lat

atholics. Equipped partly with this money Stafford arrived in Dublin in July, 1633, and entered at once on the policy, which he himself designated by the one emphatic word-"THOROUGH." He took up his abode in the Castle, surrounded by a Body Guard, a force hitherto unknown at the Irish Court; he summoned only a select number of the Privy Council, and, having kept them waiting for hours, condescended to address them in a speech full of arrogance and menace. He declared h

variably with the supreme contempt which no one knows so well how to exhibit towards a popular assembly as an apostate liberal. "Surely," he said in his speech from the throne, "so great a meanness cannot enter your hearts, as once to suspect his Majesty's gracious regard of you, and performance with you, once you affix yourselves upon his grace." His object in this appeal was the sordid and commonplace one-to obtain more money without rendering value for it. He accordingly carried through four whole subsidies of 50,000 pounds sterling each in the session of 1634; and two additional su

in question. The "Commissioners to Inquire into Defective Titles" were let loose upon the devoted Province, with Sir William Parsons at their head, and the King's title to the whole of Mayo, Sligo and Roscommon, was found by packed, bribed, or intimidated juries; the grand jury of Galway having refused to find a similar verdict, were summoned to the Court of Castle Chamber, sentenced to pay a fine of 4,000 pounds each to the Crown, and the Sheriff that empanelled them, a fine of 1,000 pounds. The lawyers who pleaded for the actual proprietors were stripped of their gowns, the sheriff died in prison, and the work of spoliation proceeded. The young Earl of Ormond was glad to compoun

o proceed fearlessly in the same course, and conferred on him the higher rank of Lord Lieutenant. Three years later, on the first rumour of a Scottish invasion of England, Strafford was enabled to remit his master

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1 Chapter 1 JAMES I.-FLIGHT OF THE EARLS-CONFISCATION OF ULSTER- PENAL LAWS-PARLIAMENTARY OPPOSITION.2 Chapter 2 LAST YEARS OF JAMES-CONFISCATION OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES-ACCESSION OF CHARLES I.-GRIEVANCES AND GRACES -ADMINISTRATION OF LORD STRAFFORD.3 Chapter 3 LORD STRAFFORD'S IMPEACHMENT AND EXECUTION-PARLIAMENT OF 1639-'41-THE INSURRECTION OF 1641-THE IRISH ABROAD.4 Chapter 4 THE INSURRECTION OF 1641.5 Chapter 5 THE CATHOLIC CONFEDERATION-ITS CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT.6 Chapter 6 THE CONFEDERATE WAR-CAMPAIGN OF 1643-THE CESSATION.7 Chapter 7 THE CESSATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.8 Chapter 8 GLAMORGAN'S TREATY-THE NEW NUNCIO RINUCCINI- O'NEIL'S POSITION-THE BATTLE OF BENBURB.9 Chapter 9 FROM THE BATTLE OF BENBURB TILL THE LANDING OF CROMWELL AT DUBLIN.10 Chapter 10 CROMWELL'S CAMPAIGN--1649-1650.11 Chapter 11 CLOSE OF THE CONFEDERATE WAR.12 Chapter 12 REIGN OF CHARLES II.13 Chapter 13 REIGN OF CHARLES II. (CONCLUDED.)14 Chapter 14 THE STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING IN IRELAND DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.15 Chapter 15 ACCESSION OF JAMES II.-TYRCONNELL'S ADMINISTRATION.16 Chapter 16 KING JAMES IN IRELAND-IRISH PARLIAMENT OF 1689.17 Chapter 17 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR-CAMPAIGN OF 1689-SIEGES OF DERRY AND ENNISKILLEN.18 Chapter 18 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR-CAMPAIGN OF 1690-BATTLE OF THE BOYNE-ITS CONSEQUENCES-THE SIEGES OF ATHLONE AND LIMERICK.19 Chapter 19 THE WINTER OF 1690-91,20 Chapter 20 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR-CAMPAIGN OF 1691-BATTLE OF AUGHRIM-CAPITULATION OF LIMERICK.21 Chapter 21 REIGN OF KING WILLIAM.22 Chapter 22 REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.23 Chapter 23 ACCESSION OF GEORGE I.-SWIFT'S LEADERSHIP.24 Chapter 24 REIGN OF GEORGE II.-GROWTH OF PUBLIC SPIRIT-THE PATRIOT PARTY-LORD CHESTERFIELD'S ADMINISTRATION.25 Chapter 25 THE LAST JACOBITE MOVEMENT-THE IRISH SOLDIERS ABROAD- FRENCH EXPEDITION UNDER THUROT, OR O'FARRELL.26 Chapter 26 REIGN OF GEORGE II. (CONCLUDED)-MALONE'S LEADERSHIP.27 Chapter 27 ACCESSION OF GEORGE III.-FLOOD'S LEADERSHIP- OCTENNIAL PARLIAMENTS ESTABLISHED.28 Chapter 28 FLOOD'S LEADERSHIP-STATE OF THE COUNTRY BETWEEN 1760 AND 1776.29 Chapter 29 GRATTAN'S LEADERSHIP- FREE TRADE, AND THE VOLUNTEERS.30 Chapter 30 GRATTAN'S LEADERSHIP-LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE ESTABLISHED.31 Chapter 31 THE ERA OF INDEPENDENCE-FIRST PERIOD.32 Chapter 32 THE ERA OF INDEPENDENCE-SECOND PERIOD.33 Chapter 33 THE ERA OF INDEPENDENCE-THIRD PERIOD- CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL OF 1793.34 Chapter 34 THE ERA OF INDEPENDENCE-EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IN IRELAND-SECESSION OF GRATTAN, CURRAN, AND THEIR FRIENDS, FROM PARLIAMENT, IN 1797.35 Chapter 35 THE UNITED IRISHMEN.36 Chapter 36 NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE AND HOLLAND-THE THREE EXPEDITIONS NEGOTIATED BY TONE AND LEWINES.37 Chapter 37 THE INSURRECTION OF 1798.38 Chapter 38 THE INSURRECTION OF 1798-THE WEXFORD INSURRECTION.39 Chapter 39 THE INSURRECTION ELSEWHERE-FATE OF THE LEADING UNITED IRISHMEN.40 Chapter 40 ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CORNWALLIS-BEFORE THE UNION.41 Chapter 41 AFTER THE UNION-DEATH OF LORD CLARE- ROBERT EMMET'S EMEUTE.42 Chapter 42 ADMINISTRATION OF LORD HARDWICKE (1801 TO 1806), AND OF THE DUKE OF BEDFORD (1806 TO 1808).43 Chapter 43 ADMINISTRATION OF THE DUKE OF RICHMOND (1807 TO 1813).44 Chapter 44 O'CONNELL'S LEADERSHIP-1813 TO 1821.45 Chapter 45 RETROSPECT OF THE STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III.46 Chapter 46 THE IRISH ABROAD, DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III.47 Chapter 47 O'CONNELL'S LEADERSHIP-THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION- 1821 TO 1826.48 Chapter 48 O'CONNELL'S LEADERSHIP-THE CLARE ELECTION-EMANCIPATION OF THE CATHOLICS.