been promoted to the primacy of Armagh by Henry, unexpect edly opposed it with the utmost vehemence, and, followed by most of his suffragans, retired from the convention. Archbishop Browne and other prelates declared their acceptance; after which the assembly broke up. The Liturgy was read in the cathedral of Dublin, in presence of the lord lieutenant, the nobility, and the clergy, on Easter day, one thousand five hun dred and fifty-one. The primatial dignity was transferred from the see of Armagh to that of Dublin; and Dowdall retiring to the Continent, his diocese was bestowed on a prelate named Goodacre. John Bale, a man of great learning, and so violent an opposer to popery, that his life was in continual danger from the populace, was promoted to the see of Ossory. But the Reformation was far from being effected by these means. The aversion of the people to it was supported by the refractory opposition of Dowdall, and much increased by the unwarrantable conduct of the commissioners appointed to remove relics and other objects of superstition, who, without authority plundered and exposed to public sale the most valuable furniture of the churches. These attempts, therefore, to force the Irish to depart from the religion of their ancestors, and to conform to an English ritual, not only caused many present disturbances, but contributed to raise the famous insurrection of the earl of Ty. rone, who had lately made ample submission to the king and accepted an English title.

The sudden death of Edward, and the short reign of his sis ter and successor Mary, a stupid and sanguinary bigot, zealously attached to the cause of popery, and disgraced by a combination of the lowest passions and prejudices of the vulgar with almost every vice usually attendant upon exalted stations, gave a teme porary respite to the troubled state of Ireland. Immediately on her accession, she repealed all the acts in favour of protestant ism which had been executed by her father and brother: She returned the church to its former dependance on the see of Rome: She placed many of the deposed ecclesiastics in their former situations: She persecuted the reformers in England with unremitting assiduity, committing all who refused to renounce their opinions without mercy to the flames: the persecution, however, did not extend to Ireland, whither many of

the heretics fled to escape her fury: She restored Gerald, the only surviving member of the noble family of Kildare, to the honours and estates of his progenitors. During her reign an insurrection of the people of Leix and Ofally was quelled with such effect as nearly to occasion their total extirpation. Their territories were for ever vested in the crown and converted into shires; Leix, under the name of Queen's-county, in compliment to the queen, and Ofally, under that of King's-county, from a like attention to her husband, Philip, king of Spain. She reduced the army in Ireland to about a thousand men, so confident was she of the tranquillity of the country, but was obliged afterwards to reinforce it, on account of the increasing commotions, and the lawless conduct of Scotch adventurers, who continued to land frequently on the island.

Although the restoration of the church to its former state of dependance on the see of Rome gave much satisfaction to the great mass of the Irish, yet they seem, upon the whole, to have been rather dissatisfied with the administration of Mary. The power vested in the lord lieutenant to dispose of the lands of Leix and Ofally at the royal pleasure, to the injury of the natives to whom they had hitherto belonged, and several acts she passed with evident intention totally to subvert their civil independence, appear particularly to have irritated them.

On Elizabeth's accession to the throne [1558,] she found the Irish better disposed to submit to her government than they had been to that of any of her predecessors. Having resolved,. however, completely to effect the reformation in religion, she imprudently reversed the steps of Mary, and renewed the impolitic measures of Henry with still greater severity. She adopted, amongst other outrages against the people, the inhuman plan of repeopling the whole province of Munster, to the extermination of the original inhabitants. Great inducements were held out to all who would adventure in this scandalous undertaking. Estates were offered at a small rent, on condition that a certain number of families were planted on them, amongst whom there were to be no native Irish; and they were promised a force sufficient for the defence of their frontiers. To Sir Walter Raleigh and many other persons of power and distinction, considerable portions of territory were on these terms inj

quitously granted. The people were enraged by this arbitrary measure, and though forced to affect submission, waited only for a favourable opportunity to shake off the yoke by which they were oppressed.

The chieftains, especially in the north, were soon in arms; and so formidable did they at length become, that the queen was forced to submit to treat with them. The cessation of arms that ensued was only a temporary respite. Hostilities quickly recommenced; and for the first time [1596] a regular system of rebellion against English government was organized in Ireland. The most formidable of the rebels was O'Nial, who, disdaining his title of earl of Tyrone, boldly assumed that of king of Ulster, and entered into a correspondence with Spain, from whence he was furnished with a supply of arms and ammunition. The queen sent over her favourite, the earl of Essex, as lord deputy, with an army of twenty thousand men. During the violent struggle which ensued, acts of the deepest atrocity were committed by both parties. The English arms were for several years unsuccessful; but mutual devastation soon rendered the country, however fertile, incapable of supporting its inhabitants. Many fell daily by the sword: more were destroyed by famine. The putrid exhalations from multitudes of carcases, left every where exposed to the air, brought on a pestilence, which, added to innumerable other calamities, threatened completely to annihilate the Irish race. The army of Tyrone diminished rapidly; while the English were supported by seasonable supplies of fresh provisions from sea. Reduced to the last extremity, O'Nial was obliged to make overtures of accommodation. After much treachery, evasion, and many pretended submissions, he was at length obliged to yield in good earnest. He fell upon his knees before the deputy, and petitioned for mercy with an air and aspect of distress. He subscribed his submission in the most ample manner and form. He implored the queen's most gracious commiseration; and humbly sued to be restored to his dignity and the state of a subject which he had justly forfeited. He utterly renounced the name of O'Nial, which he had assumed on account of the veneration in which it was held by the people. He abjured all foreign power, and all dependency except on the crown of

England. He resigned all claim to any lands, excepting such as should be conferred upon him by letters patent; promising at the same time to assist the state in abolishing all barbarous customs and in establishing law and introducing civilization among his people. The lord deputy, on the part of the queen, promised a full pardon to him and all his followers; to himself the restoration of his blood and honours, with a new patent for his lands, except some portions reserved for certain chieftains received into favour, and some for the use of English garrisons.

Thus ended this formidable rebellion; but it was a melancholy consideration that the reduction of Ireland to a state of sullen submission, through famine, pestilence, and bloodshed, cost England near four millions and a half of money: a sum which, in that age, was truly enormous, and to the support of which her resources were by no means adequate.

No insurgent now remained in the kingdom who had not obtained or sued for mercy. Many, indeed, had been forced to make their escape to the Continent, where they subsisted themselves by serving in the armies of Spain: and thus a race of Irish exiles was trained to arms, filled with a malignant resentment against the English. The ghastliness of famine and desolation was now somewhat enlivened by the restoration of tranquillity, though the price of provisions had increased to so exorbitant a pitch that it is astonishing the inhabitants were able to subsist; every article having advanced to at least four times the value it had bore but a few years before.

With the rebellion ended the reign of Elizabeth, a princess distinguished by the wisdom and vigour of her administration in England, but who appears to have miserably mistaken her true interest in Ireland. Enthusiastically beloved by the English, she drew on herself the detestation of her Irish subjects. Politic and artful, she hoped the blackness of her actions would never be exposed to the light of truth. Her debaucheries, however, escaped not the observation even of her own times. Since then, her character has justly been painted in all its genuine blackness and deformity. Perfidious and deceitful, she hesitated at no step, however vile, which tended to forward her views; and she advanced in iniquity with a cautious cir cumspection that proves her villany to have been as deliberate

as her principles were depraved. Her treacherous and cruel treatment of the amiable and accomplished, though unfortunate Mary, queen of Scots, who fled to her for protection against the attempts of her rebellious subjects, unjustly detaining her many years in prison on the groundless charges of her enemies, the effects of her own intrigues, and whom she at length caused to be beheaded, though conscious of her innocence and of her own duplicity, will stand to her eternal dishonour, and to the disgrace of that legislature which suffered so flagrant a violation of the laws of justice and humanity to be inflicted on the person of a sovereign prince, a fugitive whom it was bound by every principle of honour to cherish and to protect!-To gratify the injustice, the passions, or the caprice of a monarch, to what degradations, to what abject compliances, has not an English legislature descended?

• See Whittaker's Mary Queen of Scots Vindicated.