attempting to propagate religion through the medium of a foreign language. Nothing could be more preposterous or absurd than this attempt, which was persisted in by the Government through the vain desire of banishing the Irish, to make way for the English tongue. This change, however, as might have been anticipated, the natives unanimously and successfully opposed.' pp. 65, 66.

Having premised these remarks, we now turn to the Author's account of the period at which the consequences of this wretched policy, aggravated by the misgovernment of successive reigns, were revealed in all their appalling horrors.

The

Ireland was now in a state of universal tranquillity. At no former period had the country enjoyed so much real prosperity, and so long internal peace. The evils of Strafford's administration had been, in a great measure, remedied; and that obnoxious and formidable governor had paid the penalty of his delinquencies. Charles had confirmed to all parties the privileges for which they had so long petitioned, and fully redressed the grievances of which they had so repeatedly complained. All dissatisfaction or anxiety with respect to defective titles, had been removed by the confirmation of the graces, and by other conciliatory acts of the sovereign and the English parliament. Roman catholic party enjoyed ample toleration. Their nobility were unrestricted in their privileges, and shared in the titles and dignities conferred on the peers of Ireland by James and Charles. Their gentry were members of parliament, judges, magistrates and sheriffs. Their lawyers occupied the same station at the bar as Protestants, and practised as freely in the courts of law. Their clergy were unmolested in the performance of their religious rites, and their other ecclesiastical functions. In obtaining the redress of national grievances, both Protestants and Romanists cordially co-operated. The constitutional administration of the lords-justices was universally popular and a new era of national improvement and civilization appeared to be opening on this long-distracted country.

"The hopes

But these anticipations were awfully disappointed. conceived from a peace of forty years, from the gradual improvement of the nation, from the activity of its parliament, from the favourable disposition of the king, from the temper of the English parliament, were in an instant confounded; and the calamities of former times revived in all their bitterness."

The causes of the memorable REBELLION which occurred at this period, are very variously stated by historians. The scheme of an insurrection for the overthrow of the British power, the recovery of the forfeited estates, and the re-establishment of popery, undoubtedly originated with the descendants of the northern chieftains, who had been banished from Ireland, and whose properties had been confiscated, in the beginning of the century. They had lived in favour at the courts of Rome and Madrid, where they enjoyed splendid allowances, and held high military rank. They maintained almost uninterrupted communication with their relatives in Ulster, whose antipathies against the English as invaders and usurpers on the one hand, and heretics

and persecutors on the other, were studiously inflamed by those most bigoted emissaries—the foreign educated priests. Conscious that the occupiers of their former properties could not be dispossessed, except by the total subversion of the British power, these plotting exiles assured their countrymen of an invasion, supported by continental succours, which would rescue them from their fancied bondage, and restore them to their territories, and the nation to her independence. This alluring proposal was eagerly embraced by the leaders of that party, denominated the old or native Irish. This portion of the population still brooded over the wrongs inflicted on their ancestors by the English; and their aversion to the British government had been latterly increased by the insincerity of Charles in the matter of the graces, and the tyranny of Strafford in that of defective titles; though these causes of complaint had been recently removed under the administration of the lords justices.

But it was on the ground of religious grievances that the native Irish were most readily incited to rebellion. They were the adherents of popery in its grossest form. The reformed faith, as the reader has seen, had been presented to them under all the disadvantages of being the religion professed and propagated by those whom they were artfully taught to consider as invaders and oppressors. No adequate means, except in a few insulated cases, had been employed for their conversion; even the use of their native language, as a medium of instruction, had been unaccountably and perversely neglected. With not many exceptions, the reformed clergy had been either indolent or careless on the one hand; or bigoted and intolerant on the other, despising the Irish as mere barbarians, unworthy as well as incapable of being educated or reformed. The prejudices and ignorance of the people attached them the more firmly to their ancient superstition; while, by their own clergy, they were taught to hate and abhor both the persons and religion of the British. Although, since the commencement of the century, the penal statutes had been seldom enforced, and that only in extreme cases, on political rather than on religious grounds, and although they had been for some time virtually repealed; yet the exasperating cry of persecution continued to be rung in their ears, till the multitude were fully prepared for the work of extirpation. These embittered feelings were studiously fostered by the priesthood, who were more anxious for an insurrection, that they might regain the ecclesiastical property of the kingdom, than even the gentry were, that they might recover their forfeited estates. The priesthood, in their turn, were instigated by the emissaries of the pope, ambitious of signalizing his pontificate by re-establishing his supremacy over this "island of saints," still regarded as the especial patrimony of the Roman see. The destruction of protestantism was accordingly a prominent object of the contemplated rebellion; and the necessity of such a measure, for their own safety and the security of their religion, was assiduously urged upon the people, by alarming but unfounded reports of the persecuting dispositions of the English puritans. The late successful struggles, too, of the Scots, in defence of their national faith and independence, against the arbitrary impositions of the king and his ecclesiastical advisers, contributed not a little to encourage the 31

VOL. XVI.-N.S.

Irish in their design. But the former had vindicated their religious liberties in a manner far different from that in which the latter were preparing to proceed. The one revolution had been effected by a firm, open, and unanimous expression of the national will, without secret conspiracy or open violence; while the other was about to be accomplished by the most criminal means-already employed with success in France-the merciless extirpation of the adherents of the reformed faith.

The leaders of the native Irish and the more adventurous of their clergy, had held frequent consultations, even during Strafford's administration, on the projected insurrection. But the scheme of so extensive and perilous an enterprise, as the subversion of the British power, was not easily perfected. And it is highly probable their plans would not have been matured, even so soon as they eventually were, had it not been for the posture of affairs at this period in England. Charles, indignant at the noble efforts of the long parliament to rescue the kingdom from his arbitrary encroachments on constitutional rights, had early resolved to crush it, if possible, by force. For this purpose, he had secretly endeavoured to induce the English army to declare for the royal prerogative, in opposition to the parliament, that, with their aid, he might disperse that dreaded and now formidable assembly. It was in the prosecution of the same design that he had laboured to prevent the disbanding of the Irish army, relying on them as assured and faithful auxiliaries, when the proper time might arrive for openly opposing the parliament. He had already, under Strafford, received aid from Ireland in his first attempts to overawe and repress the Scottish nation, and he now again looked for assistance from the same quarter.

With the Roman catholics of the committee, deputed from the Irish parliament to represent the grievances of the nation, it is believed both Charles and his queen intrigued, with the view of detaching them from the puritans, with whom they had hitherto co-operated, and of inducing them to form a party in their native kingdom and parliament, in support of the falling cause of prerogative. In return for this seasonable assistance, ample immunities, both civil and religious, were freely promised; extending, it is alleged, even to the legal establishment of the Romish faith. The Irish deputies readily listened to the royal suggestions, and at once espoused the cause of Charles. The marquisses of Ormond and of Antrim, the most influential noblemen at this time in Ireland, had already been separately enlisted in the same cause.'

*

Up to this point, the views of both parties among the conspirators were perfectly coincident; beyond it, they were quite opposite. The primary projectors of the rebellion, such as lord Maguire, Roger Moore, Plunket, sir Phelim O'Neil, &c., looked upon the seizure of Dublin and the re-organization of the army, merely as preliminary steps to the overthrow of the British power, the separation of the kingdom from England, the recovery of the forfeited estates, and the expulsion of the protestants: on the accomplishment of these objects, they might

6

then, as an independent catholic nation, support Charles against his refractory parliament. On the other hand, the king's confidential friends, such as the earls of Ormond and Antrim, lord Gormanstown, and perhaps the other gentry of the pale, sir James Dillon, &c., do not appear to have contemplated, in their scheme of insurrection, any unnecessary violence to the persons or properties of the British. Their grand aim was to remove the puritan party from the government of the kingdom, and to place it and its resources at the disposal of the king. Until the rebellion broke out, however, both parties cordially co-operated, and conducted their negociations without division or apparent distrust.'-Vol. I., pp. 296–303.

We shall offer no comments upon this instructive and melancholy portion of our history. Charles the Martyr appears to as little advantage in the annals of Ireland as in the history of his perfidious transactions with the Scotch. Ulster was the principal scene of rapine and bloodshed. In the other parts of the kingdom to which the rebellion soon extended, the confederated Roman Catholics acted with more humanity and moderation, 6 while many of them denounced in strong terms the barbarous massacre which had almost depopulated Ulster.' Dr. Reid has carefully examined the contradictory calculations of the number of Protestants who perished during the early part of the rebellion, after it was converted into a religious war; and he frankly owns, that he finds it impossible to strike the proper medium between the disingenuous misrepresentations and under-statements of Curry and Lingard, and the violent exaggerations of May and Temple, followed by Rapin. In a valuable note, he shews, however, that Dr. Warner's computations are not trust-worthy, which reduce the number of Protestants who lost their lives in the first two years of the Rebellion, out of war, to 12,000; and that the calculations of Clarendon and Sir William Petty have greater probability. The Presbyterian interest' in Ulster was by this rebellion almost entirely destroyed.

6

Protestant prelates had commenced the work by compelling the greater part of the presbyterians to flee to Scotland. But what appeared to be the ruin, proved to be the preservation of the Church; while they who had been the foremost to persecute, were the first to suffer. For, on the bishops and other dignified clergy, the Roman catholics early vented their rage and indignation; and while the Scots were, in the first instance, spared, their episcopal persecutors were, in their turn, compelled to abandon their properties, and fly for refuge to England. As a body, the presbyterians suffered less by the ravages of the rebellion than any other class. The more influential of their ministers, and the principal part of their gentry, had previously retired to Scotland, to escape the tyranny of Strafford, and the severities of the bishops, and were thus providentially preserved." Ib., p. 339.

Ultimately, when peace was restored to Ulster, the episcopal 6 church, which had been so intolerant in the hour of her pros'perity,' was found overthrown and desolate,'' and out of her 'ruins speedily arose the simpler fabric of Presbyterianism." Well would it have been for the peace of the country, and for the interests of the Protestant Religion, had Episcopacy shared in Ireland the same fate that awaited it in Scotland.

The narrative, in the present portion of Dr. Reid's work, is brought down only to the period of the Solemn League and Covenant. We trust that he will be encouraged by public approbation to complete the more interesting portion of the history of Irish Presbyterianism which yet remains. As might have been expected, perhaps, from a writer of Dr. Reid's ecclesiastical predilections, he defends the imposition of that 'bond of union' and 'test of fidelity,' as a seasonable measure,' which 'tended most materially to unite the friends of true religion and 'liberty throughout the whole empire.' As introductory to our notice of Mr. Carlile's pamphlet, we shall extract the paragraph which, though intended as a vindication, admits the objectionable character of that two-fold Covenant. It was in accordance," undoubtedly, 'with the spirit of those times;' but, 'in the present state of society, would be palpably unsuitable and inefficient."

Such was THE COVENANT. It could be consistently, and, in point of fact, was actually, refused by none, except by the violent partisans of Charles. It was no doubt pressed with great earnestness on all, and those who refused to subscribe it were viewed-and the result almost invariably proved the truth of the surmise--as hostile to the cause of truth and freedom. These persons were consequently discouraged, and, where the safety of the cause required it, were deprived of their places of trust, and laid under restraint. But in what other way could the Scots and the parliament, now united to restore and uphold constitutional monarchy and secure the liberties of both kingdoms, expect to attain success? Self-preservation demanded, when in a state of open warfare, that they should clearly ascertain both their friends and their adversaries, for the purpose of uniting the one, and repressing the other. And how could this end be attained, but by the enforcement of a test suited to the existing emergency? covenant been simply a civil league, and merely the test of a political party, it would be much more favourably regarded by the present generation than it is. But, in accordance with the spirit of those times, it was both a civil and a religious bond,—an ecclesiastical as well as a political test; and it is in consequence of its bearing this twofold character, that such diversities of opinion have existed with regard to its expediency then, and its authority now.

Had the

It must, however, be carefully remembered, that civil and religious concerns were so intimately connected, that it was impracticable, had it been desirable, to separate them in the public transactions of that