CHAPTER XI.

Slanders of the Irish character. Honourable testimonials. Baron Finglass. Sir Edward Coke. Sir John Davies. Highland missionaries to civilize the Irish. Project of Irish plantations in England and Scotland.

TO palliate, or even to justify, these spoliations, the Irish of that era are represented as rude, barbarous, savage, and intolerant of law and order. Were this statement correct, it would by no means justify the proceedings which we have here detailed. There is no law, human or divine, which warrants a civilized man in seizing the possessions of him who is, or whom he pretends to be, uncivilized. Any law that would have warranted James, in his conduct to his Ulster and Leinster subjects, warranted Cortes, Pizarro, and Almagro, in their lawless devastations in Mexico and Peru. Indeed the Spaniards may be more readily defended than James. The wretched Mexicans and Peruvians had no claim on the protection of their invaders: they were despoiled by a host of armed banditti, after a regular warfare. But the ill-fated Irish were plundered and made a prey of by a prince whose paramount duty was, not only not to depredate

on them himself, but to protect them from the depredations of others.

But here we meet the slanderers, who give such hideous accounts of the Irish, on the very threshold; and are able to stamp on their foreheads the seal of falsehood in the most legible characters. The evidence we produce is such as no man living will dare dispute. It is not derived from O'Sullivan, O'Connor, O'Halloran, or Curry. To these writers, objections of partiality would be made, by those prejudiced men who delight in every thing, however gross, however unjust, that defames or destroys the Irish character. We appeal to Patrick Finglass, Esq. chief baron of the exchequer, under Henry VIII. to Coke, the author of the Institutes, and to that John Davies, king James's attorney-general in Ireland, who brought the accusation against the inhabitants of Ulster, of "not building houses nor planting orchards," to prove that they had no lands of inheritance.

Baron Finglass places the Irish character on far higher ground than that of the English, so far as respects submission to law and justice:

"It is a great abusion and reproach, that the laws and statuts made in this lond are not observed ne kept, after the making of theme, eight days; which matter is oone of the distructions of Englishmen of this lond: and divers Irishmen doth observe and kepe such laws and statuts, which they make upon hills in their country, firm and stable, without breaking them for any favour or reward."234

234 Hibernica, 101.

Edward Coke delivers his opinion of the Irish, in a high and encomiastic style of commendation:

"I have been informed by many of those that have had judicial places there, and [know] partly of my own knowledge, that THERE IS NO NATION OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD THAT ARE GREATER LOVERS OF JUSTICE than they are; which virtue must of course be accompanied by many others."235

In portraying the Irish character, Sir John Davies has displayed more talent and candour than are to be found in his forensic development of the rights of inheritance.

"They will gladly continue in this condition of subjects, without defection, or adhering to any other lord or king, as long as they may be protected and justly governed, without oppression on the one side, or impunity on the other. For THERE IS NO PEOPLE UNDER THE SUN THAT DOTH LOVE EQUAL AND INDIFFERENT JUSTICE BETTER THAN THE IRISH; or will rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although it be against themselves; so that they may have the protection and benefit of the law, when upon just cause they do desire it."236

"I dare affirm, that in the space of five years last past, there have not been found so many malefactors worthy of death, in all the six circuits of this realm, which is now divided into thirty-two shires at large, as in one circuit of six shires, namely, the western circuit in England. For the truth is, that, in time of peace, THE IRISH ARE MORE FEARFUL TO OFFEND THE LAW THAN THE ENGLISH, or any other nation whatsoever.

99237

Yet this is the nation which the miserable herd of scribblers who have undertaken its history, have stigmatized as barbarous, savage, and wild ; Idem, 200.

235 Coke, IV. 349. 236 Davies, 213. 237

and who were to be civilized by plantations of the polished and refined Highlanders, for whom their countryman James despoiled the Irish of their estates. The idea of bringing the wild and savage Highlanders into Ireland, to tame and civilize a nation, of which the agent of their despoiler bore this exalted testimony, that "no people under the sun did love equal and indifferent justice better," is almost as romantic as it would be to bring a party of the refined inhabitants of the Alleghany mountains, to teach our beaux and belles to dance cotillions and minuets. The character drawn by these writers, is true

or false. But it cannot be false: for no rational man could for a moment suppose that these three great public officers of the crown of England could conspire in uttering falsehoods to flatter the Irish, the Helots of England: and if it be true, as it must be, then is it clear that it would have been full as correct and as wise, perhaps more so, to make a plantation of Irish in Scotland or England, to civilize those nations, as to introduce the Scotch or English into Ireland, for the same benevolent purpose. These nations, at that period, carried on their border wars with a ruthless and infernal ferocity, barbarity, and desolation, that will stand a comparison with the so-much-detested ravages of the Huns, Goths, and Vandals. Fire and sword cleared their path of every thing, animate or inanimate, that fell in their way. Neither age, sex, nor condition

escaped. To remove all doubt on the subject, I submit a specimen of a five days' inroad into Scotland, by the earl of Sussex, about thirty years previous to the famous northern plantation.

"A Note of a fourney into Tividale, by the earl of Sussex, her majesty's lieutenant in the north, begun the 17th of April, 1570, and ending the 22d of the same.

"The 17th of April, 1570, the earl of Sussex and the lord Hunsdon, governor of Berwick, with all the garrisons and power of the east marches, came to Warke, and entered into Tividale, in Scotland, the 18th, at the break of day, and burnt all the castles and towns as they went, until they came to the castle of Moss, standing in a strong marsh, and belonging to the lord of Fernhurst, which they burnt and razed, and so burnt the country until they came to Craling.

66 The same day, Sir John Foster, with all the garrisons and force of the middle marches, entered into Tividale and Expesgate Head, sixteen miles from Warke, and so burnt all the country, until they came to a strong castle, in the possession of the mother of lord Fernhurst, which he burnt and razed; and so burnt all the other castles and towns, until he came to Craling, where both companies met, and so went up the river of Tivit, and burnt and threw down all the castles and towns upon the river, until they came to Jedworth, where they lodged this day.

"The 19th, the army was divided into two parts, whereof the one did pass the river of Tivit, and burnt and razed the castle of Fernhurst, Hunthill, and Bederoll, and passed on to Minte: and the other part of the army burnt in like sort on the other side of the river Tivit, until he came to Hawick.

"The 20th, the army went to Branshaw, the lord of Bucklough's house, which was wholly overthrown with powder; and then divided and burnt, on the north of the river of Tivit, more into the inland, all the castles and towns in that country.

"The 21st, the army was divided, and one part went to the river of Bowbeat, and burnt all on both sides of that river, and the other part went to the river of Caile, and burnt all on both