and that the burgesship of the said burgesses of Belfast, who had not subscribed the declaration and received the Sacrament pursuant to the said act was by such neglect become vacant.* It is difficult even at this distant period to trace to its true source that overbearing principle, under which the Irish Catholics were so severely punished during this reign. The ingratitude of the house of Stuart, to those, who had been the first and the last to fight for them in their distresses, seemed to have communicated its baneful contagion to all its dependants and favourites. In the front of their domestic enemies, the Irish had once more to read the treacherous name of Ormond. The grandson of that Duke, who had so notoriously aggrandized his patrimony by betraying the cause of his king and his countrymen, was sent over by the queen in quality of lord lieutenant. Scarcely had he arrived, when the commons† relying probably on his hereditary propensities to oppress his suffering countrymen, presented to him the Bill to prevent the further Growth of Popery; his grace was pleased to give them his promise, that he would recommend it in the most effectual manner, and do every thing in his power to prevent the growth of Popery. It exceeds the function of the historian to attempt to fathom the sincerity of the actors of those scenes, which it is his duty to represent. This very Duke of Ormond, who in the year 1704 received the warmest thanks of the Irish parliament for having procured for them this barrier to the Protestant religion, (as it was then termed) was in the lapse of some few years convicted of high treason, and a reward of 10000l. was put upon his head, for having deserted his Protestant sovereign and adhered to a Popish pretender to the throne. At the opening of this very parliament, the lords agreed "to an address by way of thanks to her majesty, for her great care of her subjects of this kingdom in send"ing his Grace the Duke of Ormond lieutenant thereof."

Vide Commons' Journ. 2 vol. 564, upon the petition of the Dowager Countess of Donegal on behalf of her infant son, the question arose upon a contested election for that Borough, and thereupon the above resolutions were entered into.

+ Vide Burnett's History of his own Times, 2 vol. 214.

At this time, it has been remarked by Dr. Sommerville (2 vol. page 280) that," the extreme oppression and misery endured by the Irish cannot be re"presented in stronger colours, than by the bare detail of facts, which appear "in the journals of parliament. Multiplied instances occurred almost every "session of the abuse and perversion of power by magistrates and justices of peace: the frauds of contractors and the monstrous cruelties inflicted by of"ficers in the recruiting service, which exhibit a complexion of manners little " removed from barbarism. See particularly the proceedings of the commons "on the complaint and petition of Agmondesham Cuffe against Major Francis "Flood, a member of the house of commons, 7th of June 1705, and on the pe*tition of Eustace Sherlock against Maurice and John Annesley, 9th of June."

No period of the Irish history more strongly illustrates the advantages of an incorporate union between Great Britain and Ireland than the reign of Queen Anne: it verifies to the letter, the trite observation, that if no other benefit were to arise out of it, than the destruction of the Irish parliament and the annihilation of the Irish monopoly of power, it will be the greatest national blessing bestowed on Ireland since the invasion of that country by Henry Plantagenet. The penal laws passed against the Roman Catholics of Ireland under this queen have ever been the theme of murmur and discontent with all the Catholic writers, and here it appears that they were passed against the wishes and efforts (not very manly) of the British cabinet, by the procurement of the head of the Irish aristocracy and the unanimous vote of an Irish parliament. The Irish history superabounds with anomalies: at the very moment, in which this parliament gave so vital a stab to the real interests and happiness of their country, the lords made open profession of principles and sentiments, which would then have averted that source of wretchedness from their countrymen, and ensured them that political security and happiness, to which the nation may now look forward in the union that has taken place. "We are sen"sible, say they, that our preservation is owing to our being "united to the crown of England, so we are convinced that it "would tend to our further security and happiness to have a

more comprehensive and entire union with that kingdom." So little however were they disposed to act in unison with her majesty's English ministers, who were against these penal statutes, that on the 4th of March 1703, the lords in an address to the lord lieutenant assured his grace that it was with great satis'faction they beheld him following the example of his illustrious ancestor, and that they attended his grace to acknowledge and congratulate with him on the good effects of his indefatigable application as well in framing, as in obtaining the return of so many good bills, but especially for The Bill to prevent the further Growth of Popery.* It appears upon the Lords' Journals,† within the same year, that in an address to the throne, they assured her majesty of their unshaken fidelity to her person, crown and government: and as they were inseparably annexed to the

* Thus Curry speaks of The Act to prevent the further Growth of Popery, 2 vol. page 234. "A penal statute, through which there runs such a vein of ingenious cruelty, that it seems to be dictated rather by some Prætor of "Dioclesian than by a British or Irish nobleman."

Lords' Journ. p. 85. Burnett confirms this statement of the lords, "The "commons (says he) offered this bill to the Duke of Ormond, pressing him "with more than usual vehemence to intercede so effectually, that it might be "returned back under the great seal of England. It came over warmly recommended by the Duke of Ormond." Hist. 2 vol. page 214.

Ibid. page 91.

Imperial crown of England, so were they resolved to oppose all attempts, that might be made by Scotland or any other nation whatsoever to divide them from it, or defeat the succession in the Protestant line, as limited by several acts of parliament. The connection of matter, rather than the order of time, points out under what species of influence Ireland has from time to time been oppressed, in order that she may the more distinctly see the end of oppression in her union with Great Britain..... Whatever were the symptoms of disaffection or disloyalty in Scotland in the year 1704, to which the address of the lords referred, no history has even charged the Irish with having been directly or indirectly concerned in the rebellions either of 1715 or of 1745. Yet upon the breaking out of the rebellion in Scotland in 1715 the commons of Ireland, in their address to the crown on that occasion, expressed, that it was with the utmost concern they found that this country (Ireland) had given birth to James Duke of Ormond, a person, who in despite of his allegiance and the obligations of repeated oaths, had been one of the chief authors and fomenters of that wicked and unnatural rebellion. No terms can be too strong to express the hypocritical and traitorous conduct of this debased nobleman; and though it be difficult to account for the wanton and malicious cruelty, with which he rivetted the galling yoke of persecution on the necks of his unoffending countrymen, yet in spite of his malevolence and depravity he rendered justice to their faith and loyalty by not even attempting to turn the influence of the landlord over a numerous tenantry, or of the governor over the dependants of the castle, to the desperate purpose of shaking the well known and tried loyalty of his countrymen: an honourable, though forced testimony of the steady allegiance of the Irish nation, which through a whole century has not been tarnished by any rebellious attempt against their lawful sovereign, until the late fatal insurrection of 1798, which immediately preceded, and perhaps in great measure contributed to the union.

During the whole reign of Queen Anne the penal laws were executed with unabating severity upon the Irish Catholics, without any other visible cause or charge alleged than their mere profession of the Roman Catholic religion. It was the current, though unwise policy of that day, to consider the Roman Catholics as enemies to the crown and government of the realm. The speech of the Earl of Pembroke, lord lieutenant, to the Irish parliament, in 1706, recommends to them to provide for the security of the realm against their foreign and domestic enemies, meaning by the latter....the body of Catholics: for he subjoined, that he was commanded by her majesty to inform them, that her majesty, considering the number of Papists in Ireland, would be glad of an expedient for the strengthening

the interest of her Protestant subjects in that kingdom. There is a principle of liberality and wisdom in concentrating the interests of a great people in a common focus (and such has produced the late union) which is the loudest condemnation of that false, base, and wicked policy, that pervaded the Irish government under Queen Anne. It was then a fundamental maxim, that Roman Catholics could never coalesce with Protestants of any denomination even in the civil duties of allegiance to a common sovereign: they were considered as avowed and common enemies of the state. Hatred of Popery was the common link, by which they connected interests of the utmost discordance and repugnancy to make head against the common enemy. sistance of so much provocation to rebellion as such a principle The rewhen acted upon must have produced, is a marked test of the steady loyalty and peaceful demeanour of the Irish Catholics from the revolution to the accession of his present majesty, under whom they first had the happiness of being considered no longer as enemies.

The House of Peers did not, however, see the same objections to an union which at that time influenced the commons. They had on a former occasion, viz. on the 25th of October, 1703, after the report of a committee upon the state of the nation, come to the following resolution:* "opinion of that committee, upon due consideration of the pre"That it was the "sent constitution of that kingdom, that such an humble repre"sentation be made to the queen of the state and condition "thereof, as might best incline her majesty by such proper

means as to her majesty should seem fit, to promote sush an "union with England as might qualify the states of that king"dom to be represented in the parliament there." In their address to the queen on the union with Scotland on the 15th of July, 1707,† they congratulated the glorious success of her majesty's endeavours for securing by her arms abroad the liberties of Europe, and the welfare of her subjects at home, by uniting Great Britain into one body, under the same Protestant succession to the throne of all her dominions: they were sensible how effectual a means that would prove to prevent the attempts of Papists from disturbing the quiet of her majesty's empire, and particularly of that kingdom, that had been so often endangered by them. They beseeched her majesty to go on and extend her favour to all her subjects, till none were excluded from so great a blessing, but such as by their own frowardness or disaffection to the public good, barred themselves from the general advantages of her majesty's reign: and they expressed their hope, that her majesty's goodness and wisdom would conquer even those, and make them sensible of their true interest.

* 2 Journ. of Lords, p. 29:

+ Ibid. p. 161.

*From the coldness with which the queen answered these addresses, it is plain, infers Lord Clare, that her ministers would not listen to the proposition of an union with Ireland; and in finding a substitute for it, there was a race of impolicy between the countries. The parliament of England seemed to have considered the permanent debility of Ireland as their best security for her connection with the British crown, and the Irish parliament to have rested the security of the colony upon maintaining a perpetual and impassable barrier against the ancient inhabitants of the country. The executive government was committed nominally to a viceroy, but essentially to lords justices, selected from the principal state officers of the country, who were intrusted with the conduct of what was called the king's business, but might with more propriety have been called the business of the lords justices. The viceroy came to Ireland for a few months only in two years, and returned to England perfectly satisfied with his mission, if he did not leave the concerns of the English government worse than he found them and the lords justices in his absence were entrusted implicitly with the means of consolidating an Aristocratic influence, which made them the necessary instruments of the English government.

:

In the year 1707, the commons voted an address of congratu lation to her majesty on the union of her majesty's kingdoms of England and Scotland. They told her, that this great and glorious work, which her ancestors with their utmost endeavours laboured to compass, lay above the reach and wisdom of former times, and seemed reserved, by Heaven, for her majesty's reign: that the difficulty of the attempt required the greatest genius to surmount it, and they could but highly honour and admire the wisdom of those councils, that had by it given a further security to the peace and safety of her majesty's government, the Protestant succession, and the church as by law established in England and Ireland. The reason why these commoners did not in this address even hint at a similar union with Ireland, must have arisen from the impossibility of uniting with a kingdom, the bulk of which they actually considered and acted against as a common enemy for on the same day (9 July, 1707) on which they voted the address to the queen, they presented also an address to the Earl of Pembroke, their lieutenant, in which they thankfully acknowledged the benefits they enjoyed in that happy opportunity of meeting, under his excellency's government, to enact such laws as were yet wanting to strengthen the Protestant interest of that kingdom. And they assured his excellency, that they were met with firm resolutions to improve that opportunity to the utmost of their power, to disappoint the designs of those

* Speech of Lord Clare, p. 26.