rule of Cromwell precisely reversed the late king's policy by encouraging all Protestant sects except Anglicanism, which he politically distrusted, while viewing Catholicism with

peculiar hostility.

In the following reign of

Charles II., who was finally an avowed, and perhaps always a secret Roman Catholic, the old Church, though distrusted and often insulted, regained some influence, which in the succeeding reign of his brother James II. developed into absolute supremacy.

Then ensued a complete reaction. All Protestant sects whose violent disputes had temporarily restored the power of their common foe now united in politics, though not in doctrine, and, by deposing the king and insisting on a future Protestant monarchy, firmly established Protestantism throughout Great Britain. This revolution was a truly national movement, alike in England and Scotland, being headed by the wealthiest, wisest, and most influential in both countries, and conscientiously supported by the mass of both the English and Scottish people. At this time, and indeed ever since, Ireland presented a remarkable contrast, not only to

Great Britain, but to every European country, in its religious aspect and condition.

While in Great Britain Catholicism was represented by a small minority, comprising, however, some distinguished families in both England and Scotland; in France, Italy, Austria, and Spain it remained the established religion, and steadily opposed all political as well as doctrinal revolution. In Sweden, North Germany, and throughout all northern Europe, except Russia, which had for centuries adhered to the Greek form of Christianity, Protestantism triumphed completely, and both rulers and subjects were apparently united and peaceful after their change of doctrine.

In Ireland alone the Romish Church was, as it were, forced into a democratic position. It had accompanied and sanctioned the English invasion, and steadily supported British rule in the island.* But the eagerness with which nearly all British

*"Pope Adrian IV. assumed the right of sanctioning the invasion on the ground of its advancing civilisation and propagating a purer faith."-Milman's Latin Christianity, vol iv. chap. vii.

colonists became Protestant evidently caused the native Irish to adhere with all the more devotion to the old faith, and, as they formed a large majority of the population, Roman Catholicism, abandoned generally throughout Great Britain, acquired in Ireland extraordinary moral force and vitality. Its clergy, the strict, consistent advocates of established authority, legal rights, and monarchical rule throughout the Christian world became, it may be said, involuntarily the representatives of Irish democracy.

While in every other European country Catholic priests and popular demagogues were, and still continue, implacably opposed, in Ireland alone they are in many respects united. Ardent Catholic and Protestant writers alternately praise and blame the Irish priesthood, but impartial historical students will perceive that the religious history of Europe generally has placed them inevitably in the exceptional position they occupy in Irish politics and estimation.

The '98 rebellion was perhaps in some respects their severest moral trial, at least since the establishment of Christianity. To use a common phrase, they stood between two fires during the

whole contest British Protestant rulers who had for many years persecuted their religion in Ireland, and French infidel allies who were striving to abolish it throughout Europe. Yet at its conclusion their spiritual authority and political influence were apparently greater than at its commencement.

The defeated Catholic rebels, besides specially needing the religious comfort obtainable only from them, knew that, despite their common dislike to Protestant rule, their priests had, with few exceptions, warned them against joining the republican revolution, advising them "to rather bear those ills they had than fly to others they knew not of."

The United Irish leaders and the few followers who understood their opinions at length perceived that their republican principles, at this time allied with atheism, were politically suppressed even in France, their birth-place, by Napoleon, and subsequently by the restoration of the strictly Roman Catholic French monarchy. The United States of America then seemed their proper refuge, and nearly all who escaped from the laws of the

British Government betook themselves to that

country.

*

The historical writers, Plowden, Gordon, Goldwin Smith, Madden, Harwood, and the poet Moore, agree in viewing this revolt as chiefly a Protestant movement; while Musgrave, Maxwell, Froude, and others incline to a contrary opinion, and contrast Protestant loyalty with Roman Catholic sedition.† After comparing many different writers, however, the truth seems to be that this insurrection, in its leaders, objects, and motives, belonged exclusively to neither religious denomination.‡

* "Dr. Madden gives a goodly catalogue of United Irishmen and sons of United Irishmen who have risen to stations of trust and honour in the American Republic."-Harwood's Irish Rebellion, p. 227.

+"It was among Ulster Presbyterians that the foundation was laid of the association known as the United Irishmen, who formed, up to the days of Fenianism, the most formidable conspiracy against English rule.”—T. P. O'Connor's Parnell Movement, chap. xii. p. 520.

"If the United Irishmen had remained as steadily united as they were at heart, it might, in a moment of difficulty or disaster, have led to the severance of Ireland from Great Britain, and its permanent subjection to the tyranny of the French democracy. It is,' says Lord Castlereagh, a Jacobinical conspiracy throughout the