read the rapacious wholesale butcheries of the Irish catholics in Elizabeth's reign, but see the effects of these butcheries all over that desolate island. In no country has popery left more visible mementos of her blighting touch than has protestantism here; in no country has she more boldly said, "Give me your conscience, or I will not only kill but eat you," than have the protestants of Ireland.

The catholics of Ireland, before the days of Adrian, were even a more liberal and religious people than any other; and it was long before they nominally put on the yoke of the pope, and their submission then was more outward than inward; yet, from age to age have they gradually conformed to all the dogmas of that church in worship, clinging to their priests, because from generation to generation they had been interwoven with all classesthe poor as well as the rich; and when they found themselves in the grasp of a full-fed, full-paid, aristocracy, who were demolishing their churches, confiscating their lands, and enforcing a religion upon them by a soldiery, who violated and killed their women, who wantonly destroyed all who would not attend their worship, which was performed in an unknown tongue, (for the English language was not so well understood by most of the common people, as was the Latin in which the priest performed mass;) and beside, the exhortations from the altar were always in their own tongue, the Irish language, What must, it is asked, be the consequence? Had the protestants manifested at least a tolerable spirit of the gospel; had they come among them in kindness, and manifested that it was love, not power-Jesus Christ, and not English government-they were wishing to introduce, they might now have been in heart a united people, whose God is the Lord.

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CHAPTER IV.

Elizabeth, ye need not live again to be remembered."

We now approach a fearful crisis; Mary's burning was a prelude to the mighty conflagration that was about to devastate not only England but Ireland. Elizabeth was

not to be turned aside from any favourite object, and whoever opposed her will did it at his peril. On her ascendancy she ordered all Mary's "got up" catholic clergy to disband-to take off the frocks of the pope and put on hers; and, like magic, no sooner said than done. And we are informed, that among the immense host which Mary had established, not more than 200 demurred, but instantly all put on the yoke of "Queen Bess;" and certainly many of them have found it "easy," and the "burden light." And though, when she introduced her dogmas into Ireland, many of the English pale there turned over to protestantism, yet the majority of the Irish clergy stood fast. Leland says, "The greater part of the prelates were such as quietly enjoyed their sees, by conforming occasionally to different modes of religion.' And to this day is the practice quite common, for those who have been bribed into the protestant church, to carry a protestant prayer-book to the place of worship, and say the catholic prayers while the service is going on; and this they do not deny.

When the queen met those incorrigible clergy, and found that her act of parliament had not taken effect, what must be done? She ordered racks, and they were "tortured, hanged, and quartered;" many of them had their brains beaten out upon the highway; and an equal premium was offered for a wolf's head and the head of a priest. The Earl of Essex, the queen's deputy, found O'Neil struggling for the mastery of Ulster; Munster was stirred up by the Butlers and Geraldines, and Connaught by the De Burghs. She convened a parliament,

and passed the "Acts of Supremacy and Conformity," for the re-establishment of the protestant worship. They handed over from the pope to the queen, the spiritual power to decide all errors in the church. And now, reader, what must be expected from an ambitious, ungodly, talented woman, invested with power like this? And who would not be as willing that a pope should lord it over the conscience as a woman? If a creed of faith must be concocted by ungodly men and women in power, and the length of prayers be enacted by an act of parliament, why not as well be bowing the knee and counting the beads before some Peter or James hung upon the wall, who are now in heaven, as to be kneeling over the gilt-edged leaves of a book whose prayers are indited by a spirit, which savors outwardly at least, of proselytism more than of the Holy Ghost, and the repeating of which serves to keep in remembrance the persecuting hearts, which "inwardly digested" and outwardly pictured them for the more insinuating purposes of the church's idolatry. But, leaving the prayers, let us descend to practicals. Here we find enough; the clergy who remained firm were driven from their posts and English shepherds substituted, which history has reported as being men of dissolute habits, greedy, covetous, and slothful; besides, they did not know a syllable of the language, as before has been stated; and the Irish, rather than submit to this rule imposed upon them, were slain by wholesale. Attempts were made to provoke them to rebellion against one another. In this they succeeded with John O'Neil, under pretence that he was intending to rebel. They sent a force against him; a truce was effected between the lord-deputy and himself; and the chief, in all the novel habiliments of a "wild Irish leader, appeared before Queen Elizabeth, who was so smitten with admiration that she yielded to his requests, and he returned to Ireland laden with new honours, and confirmed in all his vast estates. English agents in Ireland were incensed at this-were continually representing to the queen that he was a dangerous man, and on the eve of insurrection. She only answered, "If he

revolts there will then be estates enough for you all." Taking advantage of this answer, her agents construed it into a liberty to provoke a revolt; they prepared their engines; O'Neil at first succeeded, but was afterwards overwhelmed fled to the Hebrides. The Scots, glad to get a chief in their power who had once routed and slaughtered them, instigated by a British officer, slew him, and sent his head to Dublin. A bill was immediately passed by a packed parliament for a forfeiture of his estates, and vesting them in the crown.

The Earl of Desmond was now an object of plunder. He possessed vast estates in Munster, was an AngloNorman, and bold and powerful; he refused obedience to the lord deputy-was seized and sent to the Tower. in London; at last he escaped, returned, and was at the head of his sept; the government made a superficial truce with him, his kinsmen immediately brought a force of Spaniards to re-conquer Ireland; the government were enraged he was ordered to surrender-refusing, he was declared a traitor, and the most frightful war and massacres ensued. He boldly stood out for a time, captured the town of Youghal, defeating the Earl of Ormond. Lord Grey now put forth his brutal strength. Newly appointed to the station of lord deputy, he determined to act like a lord, and hearing that a small Spanish force had reached Munster with money and arms for 5000 men, he attacked the garrison of Limerick in Kerry, and they soon surrendered themselves to mercy, but quickly proved how cruel are the "tender mercies of the wicked," for they were all ordered to be butchered. Leland writes, that Wingfield was honoured with power to disarm them, when an English company was sent into the fort and butchered the whole of them! Here we find Walter Raleigh at the head; Spenser too did his part, and afterwards we hear him giving this advice: He recommended that the Irish should be granted twenty days to come and submit, after this no mercy should be shown, those who escaped the sword should be starved. His own words are, "The end will, I assure mee, bee very short, and much sooner than it can be in so great a trouble as

it seemeth hoped for, although there should none of them fall by the sword, nor be slain by the soldiour, yet thus being kept from manurance, and their cattle from running abroad, by this hard restraint, they would quietly consume themselves, and devour one another."

Reader, do you believe this advice was heeded? Lord Grey set his men at work in earnest; butcheries of men, women, and cattle followed, the entire country of the Desmond estates was depopulated, Desmond was hunted into a cave or retreat in the wilds by Kelly, his head cut off and sent to Ormond, who forwarded it to the queen as a specimen of English valour and civilization then in Ireland.

Munster had little more to suffer, and Queen Elizabeth was informed that there was little else for her majesty to reign over than “ carcasses and ashes," and one writer says, that for "six-score miles, whoever should travel, would find neither man, woman, or child, saving in towns or cities, nor yet see any beast but the very wolves, the foxes, and other like ravenous beasts."

The details of different writers are so horrid, that they would seem incredible, but facts, yes living-scathing facts, remain to attest that Ireland, above all other lands, has been steeped in cruel suffering, and the "smoke of her torment" is still ascending. In that age of Lord Grey, we hear that Ireland was "purified." Sir Walter Raleigh, shall it be repeated, had 40,000 acres in the county of Cork allotted to him, out of the 600,000 acres of arable land made over to the crown, for his massacre of the Spanish garrison at Limerick, and one of the conditions. of these grants were, that none but English tenants should occupy them; the Irish were to be excluded, but they could not cultivate the land without Irish labourers, the plantations failed, and Irishmen again composed the rural districts.

John Perrot succeeded Grey, and was the reverse of his predecessor, endeavouring to allay all riots and instigations to war, and to give the country a just and impartial government; but in every movement his good intentions were thwarted; greedy officials under