counties of Dublin, Meath, Westmeath, Louth, Kildare, Catherlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Tipperary, and Wexford. Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Cavan, Clare, Antrim, Ardee, Down, and King's and Queen's counties, containing probably half of the entire population of the kingdom, were wholly unrepresented, and of course disfranchised. It was in this Parliament, and by such vile fraud, that the oppressive penal code against the Roman Catholics was enacted.

On this atrocious affair, it would be superfluous to comment. Lives there a man, with a spark of honour or justice in his composition, however hostile to Ireland or Irishmen, however bigotedly devoted to England, that will not pronounce it infamous ?

In the Parliament held in 1568, the election was conducted with most manifest injustice. To pass over minor enormities, and condense the frauds into the narrowest compass possible, we shall confine ourselves to three species of flagrant crimes :

I. Many persons were returned for places not incorporated, and which of course had no right to representation;

II. In several of the places entitled to send representatives, the sheriffs and mayors returned themselves;

III. A swarm of Englishmen were returned for places which some of them knew not, and of

which none of them were residents, although residence was, by law, an essential requisite in a representative.

In consequence of these frauds, the administration had a considerable majority; and elected Mr. Stanihurst, recorder of Dublin, their speaker, although Sir Christopher Barnwell had a large majority of the votes of the real members, those who were duly elected. For a considerable time, the latter disputed the validity of the votes of the intruding impostors, which gave rise to the utmost disorder, and contests that would have better suited with a bear-garden than a Parliament.* Hooker, one of the impudent intruders, has left on record the most circumstantial account of the affair that is to be found; and, as the leader of the usurpers, endeavours to throw the whole guilt of the dishonourable proceeding on the members duly returned.† But it is impossible

* "And in this matter they showed themselves very forward, and so unquiet that it was more like a bear-baiting of disorderly persons, than a Parliament of wise and grave

"Their dealings then were altogether disordered, being more like a bear-baiting of loose persons, than an assembly of wise and grave men in parliament."247

1

"The next day following, being Friday, the lower house met; and, contrary to the order of that house, and duty of that company, instead of unity, there began a disunion; and for concord, discord was received. For all, or the most part

246 Hollinshed, VI. 344.

247 Idem, 345.

to read even his account, varnished as it is with false glosses, without being satisfied that the crime rested on him and his accomplices. As well might a band of ruffians or burglars, forcing themselves into a man's house, with a view to robbery or murder, charge the owner, who endeavoured to save himself, his family and property, with the crime of the affray, and its consequences, if bloodshed ensued, as a riotous rabble of strangers, who, in violation not merely of honour and justice, but of the express law of the land, had polluted the sanctuary of legislation by a forcible entry, could make the legal representatives of the nation responsible for their crime.

of the knights and burgesses of the English Pale, especially they who dwelled within the counties of Meath and Dublin, who, seeing a great number of Englishmen to have place in that house, began to except against that assembly as not good, nor warranted by law. Their avantparler was Sir Christopher Barnwell, knight; who being somewhat learned, his credit was so much the more, and by them thought meetest and worthy to have been the speaker of that house: and he, being the spokesman, alleged three special causes, why he and his complices would not yield their consents.

"The first was, because that there were certain burgesses returned for sundry towns which were not corporate, and had no voice in the Parliament.

"The second was, that certain sheriffs, and certain mayors of towns corporate, had returned themselves.

"The third and chiefest was, that a number of Englishmen were returned to be burgesses of such towns and corporations as which some of them never knew, and none at all were residing and dwelling in the same, according as by the law is required."248

248 Hollinshed, VI. 342.

The business of the legislature being impeded by these furious contests, it was agreed to refer the matter in dispute to the judges. This afforded but a miserable chance of redress for the Irish nation, as these functionaries were removable at the pleasure of the crown, and of course subservient to its views. However, the profligacy of the proceedings was fully established; for the judges, corrupt and biassed as they were, admitted the existence of the three enormous species of offence alleged by the minority.* They decided that two of the classes of usurpers should be expelled the Parliament,—

I. Those who were returned for towns not incorporated;

II. Those magistrates who had returned themselves.

But they profligately gave their opinion, that those who were returned for towns where they

*The judges, having "discoursed and conferred of this matter, returned their answers; that concerning the first and second exceptions, that the burgesses returned from towns not corporate, and for such sheriffs, mayors, and sovereigns, as have returned themselves, shall be dismissed out of the same; but as for such others as the sheriffs and mayors had returned, they should remain, and the penalty to rest upon the sheriffs for their wrong returns.

17249

"The same was so stomached, that the placing of the Englishmen, to be knights and burgesses, could not be digested, as did appear in the sequel of that assembly, where every bill furthered by the English gentlemen, was stopped and hindered by them."250

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249 Hollinshed, VI. 348.

250 Ibid.

did not reside, should retain their seats; and that the penalty of the false, illegal returns should be paid by the sheriffs.

The third class being more numerous than the other two, and being secured in their usurpation by this iniquitous decision, the government still possessed a majority; and was of course enabled to carry whatever measures it thought proper; and thus a few needy and dependent Englishmen, who probably had not an acre of land in the island, were virtually its legislators. Let us, however, do lord Clarendon the justice to state, that this dishonourable affair occurred previous to his millenium. His mistakes and falsehoods are sufficiently numerous, without unjustly increasing them.

What a shameful prostitution of the dignity of the bench! What an unanswerable proof that venality and corruption had spread throughout every department of the state, poisoned all the sources of justice, and that all were leagued in the grand work of oppressing the wretched Irish! A law, founded in reason, common sense, justice, and honesty, declared that every borough, or town, or city, should be represented by a resident, who would know its situation, feel its wants, plead its cause, rise with its prosperity, and sink with its fall. A horde of hungry Englishmen, in violation of the law, are returned to represent places they never saw a profligate Parliament applies to a prostitute bench, to de