A woman thinks a judge is to be just,; Pilate. It means a man, a ruler as I am, Who weep so for this one man dead, what tears, Out of your frightened eyes if I had been, Had, starving them of their sweet blood-draught, roused The wild dog lurking in each several man Of your dear Jews, these stubborn sullen Jews Who are ready any moment to spring up And flesh their teeth in Roman throats? Aye, think Bloody rebellion loosed; the ready cry 'Insult to Moses' law' howled through the land, And then the vengeance! these your hero Jews, But hundreds, crucified; rapine and fire And slaying everywhere. Then, bye and bye, Half our Jews dead, the other half grown dumb Cæsar bethinks him whence the mischief came: "Our procurator-What! to save one man He put a slight upon the famous law He was bidden touch so gingerly, and set The land in that fierce uproar! Call him home And let him answer it.' You'd blame me then In sadder fashion, Procla." Even as the tale comes to its 2. In the long poem entitled "The Fairies' Chatter" there is much that is very beautiful. The fairies, neglected in these latter days, move about through the old hall at night, visiting the various sleepers, and end with a weird story of how a former lord of the house wooed and won a fairy for his bride, who changed her elfish life for human love and human sorrow. crisis, the sleepers stir, and the fairies are gone. 3. But the poem of the book.is yet to come. "Lota" is a tale full of sorrow, but ending in joy; and also ends with Mrs. Webster's very best matter. It almost redeems the patchwork which bridges over the middle space of the volume. We shall look earnestly for Mrs. Webster's third book. Might it not be some longer and more elaborated poem, varying the depth and pathos of "Lota" with the play and airiness of The Fairies' Chatter?" She has planted her foot on a round of one ladder of fame where it may remain, or it may be shaken off again. It is for herself to say which of these two shall happen. Need we exhort her, by more concentrated and patient effort, to make her footing permanent? Is not the excellence of her work, when at its best, a warranty that she will produce something that shall last? She has heard of "notes, whose very sweetness giveth proof that they were born for immortality." But the sweetness must be unquestioned, and, as far as may be, unalloyed. FROUDE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. The History of England, from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. By JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, M.A, Vols. IX. and X. 8vo. Lon ALTHOUGH we have placed Mr. Froude's last volumes at the head of our paper, we must at the outset inform our readers that it is not our intention to review these volumes in detail. This would be a task of great magnitude, requiring greater knowledge and greater ability than we can lay any claim to. We propose, therefore, in this paper, to confine our attention to Mr. Froude's narration of Irish History; more particularly to his account of the reformation in the Church of Ireland. Before, however, we enter upon our immediate subject, we desire to make some preliminary observations on the general subject of Irish History. And, first, we would observe-That the wars waged against English rule in Ireland were not wars of religion. They were sometimes wars of races the Celt against the Saxon; sometimes political wars, with Celts and Anglo-Normans on both sides. This is a fact which lies at the very foundation of Irish History. It is its peculiar and special characteristic. From the invasion of Ireland by Henry II. -an invasion undertaken under the sanction and with the express approval of Popes Adrian IV. and Alexander III.—these wars never ceased. They were continued with marvellous perseverance. When the Irish were for a moment apparently crushed under the weight and vigour of the Saxon onslaught, they retired to their mountain fastnesses and recruited their strength. When others would have relinquished the desperate struggle in despair, they persevered. They cherished the violent antipathies of their race. As any student of history knows, so late as the reign of Henry VII., Ireland was almost wholly lost to the crown of England. Its power was confined within the narrowest limits of the pale, and was there only maintained by the presence of overwhelming force. On ascending the throne, Henry VIII. found the kingdom in almost successful rebellion. The Lords and Council informed the king that they needed the help of the Earl of Kildare to maintain themselves against the Irish men, and they accordingly elected him Lord Justice. This state of things lasted for many years. The pale itself was in imminent peril.+ The king was at length aroused to a sense of the danger which threatened English rule in Ireland. In 1520 he sent over the Earl of Surrey as Lord-Lieutenant. That nobleman reported to his royal master the rebellious state in which he found the kingdom, and how he had endeavoured himself, after his power, "as well by policie, as by exploite of warre, to represse the temerity of our Irish rebelles there." But the task of the English Government was no easy one. The enemy had become bold and daring. In 1528 the King's Vice Deputy (Lord Delvin) was holding a parley, under a flag of truce, with O'Connor, one of the Irish chieftains. By this sturdy enemy the Deputy was carried away as a captive, and detained as a hostage. The Church was called in to lend her aid to recover the captive Deputy. The Prior of Conall was sent by the Council as ambassador to the rebellious vassal.§ But he was not to be trifled with. He declared he would make neither peace nor truce without the consent of his brother chieftains. He would not give up his captive, unless all his demands were complied with and a ransom paid. The ambassador returned unsuccessful, and such was the pride and the resolve of the chieftain, that the defeated prior expressed his alarm lest he should invade the English pale, and attack, capture, and burn three of its principal towns. Again, six years after, the Vice Deputy (Lord Thomas Fitzgerald) surrendered the sword of state, broke out into rebellion, murdered the Archbishop of Dublin, and committed divers other murders, robberies, and burnings within the pale, and up to the very gates of Dublin.¶ The Pope, whose supremacy had been then formally abjured, now The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Council of Ireland to the King (June 8, 1509). MSS. Ireland, Public Record Office. + John, Archbishop of Armagh, to Thomas (Wolsey), Bishop of Lincoln (May 14, 1514). MSS. Ireland, P.R.O. The King to the Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Chancellor, and Council (July, 1520). State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. ii. p. 31. The Council of Ireland to Wolsey (May 15, 1528). State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. ii. p. 127. Walter Wellesley, Prior of Conall, to the Archbishop of Dublin, and Lord Chancellor (May 15, 1528). MSS. Ireland, P.R.O. Robert Cowley to Secretary Cromwell (June, 1534). State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. ii. p. 197. appears on the stage, not as a mediator, but as a partisan. He issued "a great thundering Bull" against the king. He interdicted all places which adhered to him. He deprived his adherents of all the rights of the Church. He absolved his subjects from their oath of allegiance. He declared all treaties, &c., made between him and other sovereigns ipso facto null and void; and, finally, he directed all ecclesiastics to declare, by "bell, book, and candle," the king and all his adherents excommunicated and accursed. But Henry was not a man to be thus defied with impunity. He would by no means allow himself to be worsted by foreign enemies any more than by domestic traitors. The king took the government of Ireland into his own hands. He planned his own measures, and issued his own orders. Men and money were poured without stint into the rebellious kingdom. "Hostings" against the "Irish enemies and English rebels" were proclaimed. The royal armies and the native levies soon marched and overran the country. Victory at length crowned their efforts. One by one the proud and rebellious chieftains laid down their arms, and submitted to the conqueror. They relinquished their longcherished privileges. They received their pardons, and accepted their lands as grants from the king. Some, even though so illiterate as to be unable to write their own names,† were raised to high rank in peerages created by the crown, and all acknowledged for themselves and their followers the royal supremacy, and renounced the usurped authority of the Bishop of Rome. Con. O'Neill held out longest. He declared himself the champion of the Papacy. He was incited thereto by the personal appeal of the Bishop of Metz, who, writing to him in the name of the Council of Cardinals, conjured him to be faithful to the Romish Church. But this was not enough. The Pope (Paul III.) also addressed him (April 24, 1541), and encouraged him in his rebellion,-he assured him that his paternal heart was grievously afflicted by the tidings that Ireland had been "drawn astray by that modern king into such awful impiety."§ O'Neill was at length overcome. In his submission he formally renounced the authority of the Pope, and accepted that of the king ;|| and from the same "modern heretic king" he was content to receive money, plate, and his robes, as well as the earldom of Tyrone. T Foulis's "History of Romish Treasons," London, 1681, p. 315; and King's "Primer of Irish Church History," vol. iii. p. 1201. + Submission of O'Neill (Sept. 24, 1542). State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. iii. pp. 421-22. Submissions of Lord Barry and other Irish, Cork (September, 26, 1542). State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. iii. p. 422. § "Hibernia Dominicana" (Supplementum), by T. De Burgho (Romish Bishop of Ossory, Cologne), 1762, p. 873. || O'Neill to King Henry VIII. (Dec., 1541). State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. iii. p. 353. ¶ Henry VIII. to Lord Deputy and Council (October 8, 1512). State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. iii. pp. 428-9.. HH 2 Bland was now at peace. The Irish Council informed the Privy Council that this, the king's majesties realme, for this presente, is in suche peax and quietness, as the like hathe not been seen theise many veres." Four years afterwards the Council and Peers of Ireland informed the king "that the Englisshe pale of this your realne, is in suche peace as it was not in any tyme of our remembraunce. And as for the Yrisherye, albeit that your majesties lawes be not currant emonge them, but there is many contencions and stryffes emonge them selves, yet thei more recognize and knowledge your majestie to be king of this realme, and to be more conformable to your majestie, your grace's deputie his commaundement, then ever we knewe them in our tymes."+ The great Irish annalists (the Four Masters) confirm this account. They say: "At this time the power of the English was great and immense in Ireland, so that the bondage in which the people of Leagh M'Hagha (ie. the southern half of Ireland) were, had scarcely been ever equalled before that time." + ++ At the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., the Mores and O'Connors rose in revolt. They were soon subdued, and peace once more reigned throughout the land. The only trouble which seems to have weighed upon the Government and people of Ireland, is one which has always existed, and for which we fear a remedy has not yet been found. It was the lack of money. There was, however, one memorable attempt at a stir during the reign of Edward VI., which it is important to note. Its facts are interesting, its lessons are instructive. On the death of George Cromer in 1542, Henry VIII. appointed George Dowdall Archbishop of Armagh. The Pope appointed Robert Wauchop. Wauchop sat in the Council of Trent as Papal Archbishop. About the beginning of Edward's reign, he and two other bishops were at Rome. On pretence of religion, they were intriguing with the enemies of their king; they were endeavouring to procure aid to foment a rebellion in Ireland. Wauchop wandered about from place to place-from Rome to Paris, from Paris to Rome, and from thence to Scotland. He was, as Archbishop Dowdall informed the Lord Chancellor and Council of Ireland, "a very skowth (i.e. shrewd) spy, as I hyre say, and a gret brew' of warr and sedicon." He was so Council of Ireland to the Council in England (Jan. 8, 1542). State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. iii. p. 358. + Council and Peers of Ireland to King Henry VIII. State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. iii. pp. 560-1. ‡ "Annals of Ireland," by the Four Masters, edited by J. O'Donovan. Dublin, 4to, vol. ii. p. 1499. § Archbishop of Armagh to the Lord Chancellor and Council of Ireland (March 22, 1519-50). "Original Letters and Papers on the History of the Church in Ireland,” edited with notes by E. P. Shirley, Esq., Svo, London, 1851, p. 38. |