CHAPTER CI. THE IRISH REBELLION AND THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 1641. Nov. 1. AGAIN and again Charles's intrigues rose up in judgment against him. On November 1, the day which had been set apart in the House of Commons for the consideration of the Remonstrance, news arrived at Westminster that a rebellion had broken out in Ireland, and that, but for information timely given at the last moment, Dublin itself would have been in the hands of the conspirators. News of the Irish Rebellion. Retrospect Startling as the news was, there was nothing in it to cause surprise. Everything that had been done in Ireland since the flight of the Earls in 1607 had been of a nature to lead up to such a catastrophe. For a few years after James's of the Ulster accession there had been a serious attempt to remedy Plantation. the evils of Ireland by enlisting the sympathies of the people in the cause of at least material progress; but before the temptation offered by the commotions in Ulster English virtue had given way. Six counties were declared to be forfeited to the Crown under an artificial treason-law which had no hold on the Irish conscience. English and Scottish colonists were brought in to occupy the richest parts of the soil. The children of the land were thrust forth to find what sustenance they could on the leavings of the intruders, and were debarred even the poor privilege of serving the new settlers for hire, lest they should be tempted to fall upon their masters unawares. That which was done was done not so much in order that the land of Irishmen should be confiscated, as that a British garrison should be planted amongst them. The result, however, was equally disastrous. The system once established found favour in the eyes of succeeding Deputies. British colonists cost nothing to the Later plan- State, and the means of the Government did not allow it to maintain an army in Ireland adequate to tations. its needs. When St. John and the elder Falkland were Deputies there were fresh plantations, though, in spite of the efforts of land-jobbers and confiscators, an attempt was made to treat the natives with something less of harshness than in Ulster. Threefourths of the re-divided land was to be assigned to them, and only one-fourth to the British undertakers. Even if the plan laid down had been strictly carried out, the system would have been one of the grossest injustice. Some few Irish families were, no doubt, the better for it. They received estates which would be permanently their own, and were thus induced to improve the land of which they had a secure possession. But the mass of Irishmen had no such good fortune. Their part in the old tribal tenure was utterly unrecognised, and they were contemptuously thrust out into the world to seek their fortunes as best they might.1 The pro tation of When Strafford ruled in Ireland, he had resolved to carry out an extensive plantation in Connaught; hoping thereby to effect a change which would bring with it the blessjected Plan- ings of English civilisation, and of English religion. Connaught. It is true that under his rule a very practical toleration existed. Priests and friars who did not make themselves too conspicuous might go about without hindrance amongst a population which well-nigh adored them, and no Irishman had any difficulty in hearing mass as often as he pleased; but it was clearly understood that this license was merely provisional, and that Strafford was looking to the strength which a fresh confiscation would give him, to enable him to suppress the exercise of the Irish religion with a heavy hand. Strafford fell, but he left his hopes and fears to those who succeeded him. Lord Deputy Wandesford died before the end of 1640, and, after a brief interval, his authority was handed 'See the account of these proceedings scattered over the Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1615-1625, of some of which an account has been given in Vol. VIII. pp. 1-28. The Lords Justices over to two Lords Justices, Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlase. The first was an adventurer who had made his fortune by evicting Irishmen from their lands. Borlase. The second was an old soldier, without any qualifications for governing a country. The difficulties before them were such as to be almost insuperable. They found themselves face to face with a Catholic majority in a Parliament in which the Protestant minority was always ready to join the Catholics in pulling down the edifice of prerogative which had been erected by Strafford. Each House had a committee in England negotiating with the King, and these committees found Charles's Charles ready to give way on almost every point. concessions. He was too much occupied with his English difficulties to care whether Ireland were the better or the worse for his concessions, Blow after blow was struck at the revenue, till the ex April. Alarm of the Irish Council. chequer was threatened with a deficit as large as that from which Strafford's energy had saved it. The Lords Justices and the Irish Council were horrified to learn that the Plantation of Connaught, long suspended, 1 In a letter in which the subject is treated from the English point of view, the Council stated 'that in the Plantations great parts of the lands have been so assured to the British by provisos in the grants and other. wise as they must for ever remain English, and cannot in point of interest come into the hands of Irish, which adds much to the strength of the government and service of the Crown, that by them the great Irish Lords, who for many ages so grievously infested this kingdom, are either taken away, or so levelled with others in point of subjection, as all now submit to the law, and many of them live in good order; that the Plantations have been made only in the Irish territories, where those sometimes unruly chieftains formerly governed, and where the Irish, by advantage of the times, prevailed by incursions, and in a manner continued rebellious for a long time to expel the English first planted, though now many of them are changed into a civil course of life; that if no Plantations had been made, this kingdom had doubtless, in many parts thereof, continued in the old barbarism and tumultuary state, deprived in a manner of all the blessings which that providence of our renowned Princes hath thereby afforded to it, and—which would have been the worst of allthere could have been at this time very little appearance of the Protes tant religion here other than where the State resideth, or where the Toleration It was still worse when they was at last definitely abandoned. learnt that the Catholic lords would be content with nothing short of toleration for their own religion, and had ventured to ask why the loyal Catholics of Ireland should fare worse than the rebellious Puritans of Scotland.1 Such things, indeed, were not said openly in the presence of the Lords Justices; but the Committee of the Irish Peers carried the wishes of their countrymen to Whitehall, and the Queen placed liberty of worship for the Irish on the list of benefits which her husband was ready to bestow on the Catholics in the event of his receiving pecuniary assistance from Rome.2 Hopes held out to the ... As part of a settled policy, Charles's offer of religious liberty to the Irish Catholics would have been worthy of all commendation, though it was hardly Catholics. likely that he would have been able to carry it into effect. In his hands it was a mere shifty expedient, from which Presidents of the Provinces do live, and in few other particular places; that if the way of Plantations should now, on the sudden, be stopped, we do apparently foresee that it will beget much discouragement and scruple amongst those already planted, and doubtless will occasion disturbance from the former pretendants; . that, if it had been thought fit to proceed with those Plantations in Connaught and some other Irish territories lately found for the King in Munster; all which do amount to near a fourth part of the kingdom, where there are now few Protestants that have any considerable estates or fortunes, and the spiritual livings nó way competent to support a resident ministry, where there are many ports, creeks, and havens lying open upon Spain and other kingdoms apt for trade, and fit to be inhabited by men of skill and industry . . we could little doubt to affirm that His Majesty and his heirs should for ever, by God's blessing, have continuance of as firm rule and obedience in this kingdom as in any other his dominions.'-The Lords Justices and Council to Vane, April 24, S. P. Ireland. ! They asked 'che sia permesso la libertà di conscienza, et li Cattolici in particolare uon solo chiedono con pietoso zelo l'esercitio publico della Romana religione, ma spallegiati della gente da guerra, che non volse come scrissi agli ultimi comandamenti de S. Mtà sbandarsi, sono tumultuosamente entrati nella Chiesa Cathedrale Protestante di Dublin,'-Derry is no doubt meant—' dove hanno fatto col concorso di molto popolo cantare una solenne messa.'— Giustinian to the Doge, Jan. 1,, Ven. Tran scripts. 2 See Vol. IX. 384. Leicester Lord Lieutenant. nothing good was to be expected, and the mere suggestion of which was certain to kindle hopes which could hardly be disappointed with impunity. Everything seemed to be prepared to bring about a catastrophe. Almost immediately after Strafford's death Leicester had been appointed to the lord-lieutenancy. Instead of hastening to his post, he loitered in England with no sufficient excuse. Charles showed no sign of anxiety for his departure, and it is possible that he was well pleased to leave the field open to the execu*ion of plans in which Leicester could never be expected to concur. the Land Whether under any circumstances an Irish national and Catholic parliamentary government would have been tolerant The Church of existing Protestant congregations might reasonably question and be doubted. It was, however, certain that this quesquestion. tion of toleration for the Church of the Irish people could not, as Charles imagined, stand alone. The Land difficulty followed closely upon the heels of the Religious difficulty. To claim Ireland for the Irish, and to thrust out the intruders who were battening on Irish soil, was the inevitable complement of the demand that Irish ecclesiastical institutions should be constituted in accordance with the ideas of the Irish people. Risk of A wise and strong England able to repress armed resistance, and capable of doing justice to the real grievances of Irishmen, might possibly in time have effaced the traces of that explosion. evil which had been the work of English statesmen. Unfortunately, for more than thirty years, the English government had not been wise, and now at last it had ceased to be strong. The native population had neither been crushed nor conciliated. Full of the memories of violated rights and goaded to bitter hatred by the contemptuous indifference of the conquerors, that population was mastered by a devouring indignation which when it once burst forth would rage as a consuming flame. Irishmen had not passed through the experience which had made Scotland invincible. They had not the discipline which comes of the traditions of successful warfare waged through generations under trusted leaders. Nationality was with them rather a hope of far distant gain than a |