English government, which lasted, to the injury of all parties, for upwards of four centuries.

Few opportunities of exercising regal power can be more enviable than that now possessed by James I. To him belonged the noblest harvest of victory, that of instituting civil regulations for the amelioration of a country, so long distracted by struggles for individual ascendancy that the arts of peace were unknown or despised, whilst the people were considered merely as the instruments of turbulent enterprize. That much local dissatisfaction should be created in the progress of attempts so arduous, will naturally be expected; and it is certain that many acts of great injustice to individuals were committed in consequence of some arrangements made by James, professedly for the public good.

Amongst the first important actions towards the settlement of the country, the antient Irish customs of Tanistry and Gavelkind were abolished, and the English law substituted for the Brehon jurisdiction. A subsequent measure has so much influence on the topographical history of this country, that it demands explicit notice. In the twelfth year of Queen Elizabeth a law had been made, enabling the Lord Deputy to receive surrenders, and to re-grant estates to the Irish. But, as is observed by Sir John Davies, "there were few of the Irish lords that made offer to surrender during her reign; and they which made surrenders obtained grants of the whole again, to themselves only, whilst no The history of Ireland, previous to the entry of the English, presents, indeed, a succession of colonists who, by degrees, amalgamated with the original Celtic population, and are not usually distinguished from the first possessors of the soil. Great numbers of the English had adopted the language and national sentiments of the Irish, long before the time of Queen Elizabeth; in whose reign, and in the wars noticed above, they sided by whole septs, or under the guidance of Anglo-Hibernian nobles with the descendants of the original inhabitants. Since the time of the Eighth Henry, the painful distinctions of religion had aided in widening the line of separation between the descendants of the antient English settlers, and the English newly arrived. From the date of that reign there appears to have been little or no distinction, in the point of view taken by English writers, between the original Irish and the posterity of the old English plantation.

care was taken of the inferior septs of people inhabiting these countries under them." By the neglect of small proprietors, mentioned in this passage, our author means that a degree of power, injurious to the commonwealth, was left in the hands of the principal lord, whilst the possessions of inferiors descended in the antient course of Tanistry and Gavelkind, and remained subject to long-established duties towards the chief.

In the reign of James, continues the author last cited, two special commissions were sent from England, "the one for accepting surrenders of the Irish and degenerate English, and for re-granting estates unto them according to the course of the common law; the other for strengthening of defective titles. In the execution of which commissions there was special care taken to settle and secure the under-tenants." It will not be doubted but that, under the existing political circumstances, many Irish chiefs embraced this opportunity of converting a tenure for life into an estate in fee, and a very general surrender of lands consequently took place.

The plans of the king were greatly advanced by the flight of the Earls of Tyrone and Tirconnel, who quitted the country under a charge of high treason, leaving their vast possessions in the north to the mercy of the crown. It is too likely that interested persons took advantage of the well-known contentious character of these lords, and imputed to them a crime which either had no existence or was aggravated by the accusers. The event alone is of import to the object of these pages. The two earls, with other persons in the north, of inferior note, were attainted, and a vast tract of land in Ulster, amounting to not less than 500,000 acres, escheated to the crown. On this extensive territory the king placed a colony of Undertakers, as these planters were termed, in part from England, but chiefly from Scotland. The conditions on which the plantation was conducted, and the important national effect of its industrious members and their posterity, are noticed, in that part of our work which is descriptive of the province of Ulster.

Other large tracts of land, considered to be vested in the

crown by the troubles of recent ages, were likewise granted, by James I. to different persons supposed likely to advance the general welfare. Among these latter grants, were not less than 400,000 acres, situated in the counties of Leitrim; Longford; Westmeath; and those of the King and Queen.-As it was usually stipulated that each undertaker should erect on his lands a castle, or house, proportioned to their extent, we find in Ireland very numerous remains of buildings evincing the architectural style of this reign.

The reign of Charles I. was marked in the annals of Ireland by a civil war of dreadful ferocity, which differed in character from those we have hitherto noticed, as religious enmity had a large share in its commencement, and (still more to the disgrace of human nature) in the cruelty with which it was conducted by each contending party. In the prosecution of this war, which commenced in October, 1641, and lasted, with little intermission, for nearly eleven years, most of the principal towns in Ireland experienced assault, or are rendered memorable in the annals of this period, by conflicts which took place in their vicinity. Whilst England was harassed by sanguinary disputes between the king and parliament, the civil wars of Ireland were occasionally diverted into channels foreign to the original subjects of dissension, or at least subsidiary to the chief objects of those with whom these commotions originated. But when the parliamentary party obtained the complete ascendancy, serious measures were adopted for the reduction of the royalists and Roman catholics of Ireland. Oliver Cromwell entered this distressed country, with the title of Lord-lieutenant, in the year 1649. His army consisted of 8000 foot and 4000 horse, provided with a formidable train of artillery; and he commenced a course of operations barbarously severe with the assault of Drogheda, which place was taken by storm, and the garrison put to the sword. By measures thus prompt and unrelenting, he successfully terminated the war, but with a profusion of bloodshed that has stamped his name and cause with lasting disgrace.

The ravages committed in the Irish war under Cromwell,

extended, as in the wars of England at the same æra, to works of art thought to be superstitious. The topographer will find that, in many recorded instances, the mutilation of sculpture, and other atrocious injuries committed on religious piles and the monuments which they contained, are traced to the hands of these fanatic warriors.

It may be necessary to observe that, in the disposal of lands forfeited in the above disastrous wars, Oliver Cromwell assigned considerable portions to the army which had served from the date at which himself entered on command (the year 1649); and reserved the province of Connaught entirely for the Irish, under qualifications determined by Parliament. In the reign of Charles II. the Government made a declaration for the settlement of Ireland, which was of great importance in the future tenure of landed property.*

It is well known that in the reign of James II. Ireland was again plunged in warfare. James, after quitting England, had repaired to France, from which country he immediately proceeded

By this declaration the adventurers were confirmed in the lands which they possessed on the 7th day of May, 1659, agreeably to the acts of the seventeenth and eighteenth of Charles I. The soldiers who had received allotments of lands for arrears of pay were also confirmed in possession, with an exception of church-lands, of estates procured by fraudulent means, &c. Protestants whose estates had been given to adventurers, or soldiers, were to be restored, unless they had been in rebellion before the cessation, or had taken out decrees for lands in Connaught or Clare. The persons thus removed were to be reprised, "Innocent Papists," although they had taken lands in Connaught, were to be restored to their estates, and the persons removed also to be reprised. Many of the Irish nobility and gentry were named, as objects of the king's peculiar favour, to be restored to their estates on condition that the adventurers, or soldiers, who then enjoyed them were reprised, and satisfied for their disbursements. From all the estates involved in the act of settlement a small rent was reserved to the crown. For particulars respecting this "Declaration," which is an object of frequent reference in Irish topographical history, see Irish Stat. 14 and 15. Car. ii.-It is justly observed, in a note to the "Account of Tullaroan," in Mr. Shaw Mason's Parochial Survey, that "the proceedings under the commissions of claims during the Protectorate, and the ACTS of SETTLEMENT and g

VOL. I.

when he entered Ireland in March, 1689, at the head of about 1200 of his native subjects, in the pay of the French King. The memorable siege of Derry was his first military operation; and the lengthened opposition he there encountered formed the precursor of numerous disasters, destructive of his last hope of sovereignty. After a considerable delay, occasioned by the political intrigues and embarrassments which attended the early stages of William's elevation to the throne, James was opposed by an army under Duke Schonberg; but the same impediments in the machinery of government which had retarded the duke's entry into Ireland, prevented his achieving any military exploit of importance, and the great event of the war was reserved for the king in person.

William landed at Carrickfergus, on the 14th of June, 1690, attended by many persons of distinction, and was joined by Duke Schonberg. Passing quickly through the north, he sought the army of his rival in the vicinity of Drogheda, and commenced his campaign with the decisive battle of the Boyne, which was fought on the 1st of July, 1690.

Shortly after the loss sustained by James on that eventful day, he fled to France; but the hopes of his friends did not utterly expire on his flight, and much blood was yet spilt before the nation was restored to a resemblance of tranquillity. In the subsequent prosecution of the war many deplorable acts of ravage were committed by both parties, which long left emphatical marks, in the desolated buildings of the gentry, and the distress visible in every feature of the country. The chief military actions were achieved by General de Ginkle in the siege of Athlone, com- . manded by Colonel Richard Grace, and in the battle of Aghrim, which derives its name from a village in Galway, contiguous to the field of bloodshed. In this battle the English were

EXPLANATION after the Restoration, and the several transactions connected with them, would form in themselves, if compiled with adequate judgment and sufficient information, as curious and interesting, and also as desirable and necessary, a compendium of Irish history, as ever yet issued from the press."