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But what of these people that are her Grace's difficulty; for, from the days of the first settlers, England has had no greater care than how to govern her fifter o' the ocean? Pity she would not somewhiles let the poor girl walk alone in her free robes and bare feet! Oh Erin! Albion hath been but a shrewd half-fifter to thee!

Now, the Irish be not one people other than ourselves. The Briton, the Roman, the Dane, the Saxon, the Norman: thefe, with a dash of the Fleming and fome others o' the feabord, make up the Englishman of our days. But who knoweth whence cometh the Celt? You fhall not need go to Japhet! Some tribes of the Britons, either direct from Gaul or through Wales, a Colony from Phonice, some stragglers coming through the pillars of Hercules, driven on the fouth-west coast, adventurers from Spain, Danes, too, i' th' north and east, Scots returned with Angle blood in them: these all mixed made up the Irish people or ever Strongbow fet foot in Waterford. But the ingredients had this difference: that whereas all those who came to England were fond to stay there and amalgamate with the natives to one end-a national profperity; fo, on the other hand, 'twas for immediate fpoil, and with an Ishmaelite

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cruelty, that the foreigners made descent on Ireland. And to this day, if it can be faid with any truth that the English be unjust or harsh to the native Irish, it will be allowed by themselves that they of their own part be far harsher and more unjust upon them. Though they greet against the Saxon rule, they would not have their Brehon laws in force again. Though they cry out upon her Grace, they would fain shelter themselves from O'Maclachlan, and O'Beirne, and O'Toole, and fuch, under that royal wing, where the measure of justice and protection is " Semper Eadem."

Now the quarrel betwixt us and the Irish is twofold— Agrarian and Religious. The native cared little for his territory till it was forted out among the conquerors; nor did he know he had a faith worth striving for till 'twas tried to force a change on him.

In King Henry II.'s time, there began under Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, that immigration into Ireland which has continued to our day. This Richard, with many Lords and Knights, landing in the south-east, quickly drave back the rude tribes of skin-clad Irish into their woods and bogs. Then, marching towards Dublin, he fortified as well as might be all the country weftward; burning down those

forests which offered fhelter to the natives, and building ftone castles, after the manner of the Normans, at the most principal places. Along this border, you may be fure, was continual ftrife; there is ever fome furf on the shore; yet the bounds ftill ever being extended; the fea is wont to prefs inland. 'Twas easy to conceive a stir in your neighbourhood that must be quelled by a raid into the enemy's country. Then what havoc! and afterwards what heartburnings! For the Saxon had gotten that pasture wherein the Celt's father had erst fatted his kine; and 'tis a deadly curfe when another shall reap what thou,haft planted. And, if the English had suffered in the skirmish, would not he or his comrade take revenge? The law of the stronger, is it not always unjust? The aggreffor, is he not violent, selfwilled, unrefpective? And fo it happened that, in process of time, the English settlers were seized and possessed of all the lands of Waterford, and Wexford, and Dublin, and the Principality of Meath, the which they called their Pale, and whence they banished as much as might be all the native Irish.

And the bounds of this Pale have lately been stretched, so that Offaley and Leix, lying to the west of Kilkenny, and

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the whole province of Leinster, is now included; and there is talk of inclofing Munster, the Defmonds' country; and 'twill not be long ere Tyr Oen his kingdom shall be brought in too. This, however, by the by.

In the matter of Religion, look you, the quarrel is more complicate. You fhall find in our old Chronicles how, in the early times, or ever the Monk Auguftin came to Canterbury, how that the Irish Saints were much fought after for the best and holieft inftructors of youth, nay, confidants of princes. And how they occupied many Sees in England, to wit Hi-Columbkill and Lindisfarne, with others in Northumbria; and how the united Churches then flourished under fuch goodly rule. Then cometh Wilfrid from Rome, and with a flat accufation of Heresy against the Irish Bishops banishes them (i' the Pope's name); nay, excommunicates the Holy Ecclefiaftics, for that they keep the feast of Easter rather according to the Greek than Roman Kalendar. So Holy Colman and the Irish Dignitaries, Saints, Bishops, Abbats, and others, returned to their native land; ftill noted for their piety and learning, and, faithfully keeping to those traditions they had received from the beloved disciple, founded new monasteries at home. But 'twas not to be

fuffered at Rome that a poor Ifle-the Ultima Thule of the Christian world-should hold a doctrine contrary to the Mother Church; the Pafchal cycle and the Tonfure were with them matters of Faith. Yet was Ireland Christian, and not Romish, from and before St. Patrick his day; who with S. Columba, S. Bridget, and many others, were not, nor defired to be, in communion with the Italian Church; neither was Bishop Aidan, nor Finian, nor Colman, with them, but against them at this time. And Baronius, a Roman author, sticks not to call all Irish Bishops fchifmatics. So the Pope, to end the matter by fome power he claims, gave Ireland to King Henry on a condition that the people fhould be reconciled (as the saying run) to Rome, and that Easter be held at a proper time, and all priests accept the Tonfure. Thus the Romish religion was thrust upon the Irish in the year of grace 1152. And whether the Spirituals were better cared for now than heretofore, the fruit will shew.

In process of time cometh on our Reformation, and the late King Henry, he ordered all men to conform to that rule of faith he had fet down; fo that Romish religion England had planted, she now affayed to root out of the Irish foil. But fhe fhall find it easier to fow tares than

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