Reflections on that subject.

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and any body of men acting together, will neces sarily act upon this maxim in all questions of great and vital moment affecting themselves. Now if we apply this principle to the Irish roman catholics, what is the necessary result? In the reign of Charles II. according to the calculations of Sir Wm. Petty, the roman catholics were supposed to be as eleven to two of the whole population. In the present day, as the number of protestants has considerably increased, especially in Ulster, they have been estimated at only about two thirds of the whole population; but at the period of the Reformation, they were probably as eleven to one. What then, it may be asked, in the spirit of li beral policy, ought to have been the religion of a country in which so great a majority of the people were catholics? In which so great a majority of the people were professing that religion, which at the time was the religion of all Europe, and was held to be the only true religion? The answer is immediately obvious, and it could not have failed to present itself with strong features to the minds of the Irish catholics at the time of the Reformation. Acting, then from that conviction of propriety which the impression of this truth would necessarily create, the Irish would feel themselves politically aggrieved by the operation of those laws which were passed against them at various periods subsequently to the Reformation, and they would feel themselves more than justified in every act of opposition to them. In adverting, there

104

Reign of Henry VIII.

fore, to that inherent right, which, it may be presumed, every government possesses, to legislate for its subjects, let us not forget that inherent right, which also centers in the people, to demand that the interests of the whole, or nearly the whole, should predominate over the few. Thus much it was thought necessary to say, as a desirable introduction to a period of Irish history, from which may be dated the origin of those causes which have so calamitously operated through the whole of the last three centuries.

Henry succeeded his father in the year 1509, and in the 19th year of his age. With respect to

the interests of Ireland, he was not very attentive to them. Kildare and the other ministers of state were continued in office; but the death of the former happened in 1513, when his son Gerald was elected as his successor, and distinguished himself by the vigour and activity of his government. These virtues did not go unrewarded by Henry; but the honours conferred upon him by his monarch, excited the envy of Peter Butler, Earl of Ormond, who sought to undermine him in the royal favour, by paying servile adulation and court to Cardinal Wolsey, through whose capacious channel all the streams of regal bounty flowed. His treachery was not unsuccessful, for the deputy was summoned to England, to answer for his conduct, and Thomas, Earl of Surry, substituted in his place. This nobleman discharged his high functions with great distinction, and after

Viceroyalty of Kildare.

105

a residence of two years in Ireland, he was succeeded by Ormond himself, who was destined, in his turn, to fall before the intrigues of the man whom he had formerly displaced by his own. His government being not satisfactory to the people, the Earl of Kildare transmitted complaints of it. to the English court, and was appointed to succeed him. But his honours were not permanent. The King of France, who was then at war with Henry, endeavoured to harass and distress him, by proposing to enter into a treaty with Earl Desmond, whose turbulent insurrections had already caused much trouble and anxiety to the English government. Henry, justly irritated at this, issued his commands to Kildare, and ordered him to seize Desmond; but Kildare, from a sentiment of partiality towards his kinsman, affected only to obey the order without substantially doing so. This conduct was represented to Henry, whose haughty and imperious mind was soon inflamed by it, and the deputy was cast into prison, from which he was enlarged with much difficulty. On the death of Wolsey, however, he regained his former height and favour, and felt himself established in the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland with so much security, that he hardly considered himself as wielding only a viceregal sceptre, but aspired to all the independent dignity of an Irish chieftain. Henry, however, could brook no rival near the throne, nor at a distance from it; and the aspiring deputy was peremptorily summoned

106 Treacherous execution of Lord Fitzgerald,

to England, to answer his accusers, being ordered at the same time to entrust his government to some one, for whose conduct he could be responsible. Unfortunately, he entrusted it to his son, Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, an amiable and interesting youth, then only in his 21st year. When Kildare arrived in London, he was committed to the Tower, and a report was immediately circulated that he had been beheaded there. This rumour no sooner reached his son, than it drove him into a state of open and avowed rebellion, which, after various successes and reverses, was at last quelled by Sir Wm. Skeffington. O'Nial and O'Connor, who had joined in it, made their submission to Henry, and Lord Thomas was promised his pardon, provided he repaired to England, and made his submission to the king personally. He confided in the integrity of Henry, and went over to England; but he was arrested on his way to Windsor, committed to the Tower, and soon afterwards tried and executed as a rebel.

Henry, with that liberal spirit of tyrannous subjugation which so conspicuously marked every act of his reign, affected to regard the suppression of this rebellion as a species of new conquest of the country, and seriously debated with his council, whether he had not acquired by that new conquest a right to seize on all the temporal and spiritual estates in the kingdom. Consistently also with the sanguinary features of his character, his mind brooded over schemes of murderous revenge

and his five Uncles.

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Ger

against the whole race and lineage of Kildare. The new deputy of Ireland, Lord Gray, received positive orders from Henry to seize the five uncles of Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, and send them prisoners to London. To add to the nefarious character of this transaction, it was a matter of notoriety, that three out of these five wholly disapproved of their nephew's proceedings, and though the other two had partially countenanced and abetted them, yet they were justified in expecting a pardon, from the general nature of the treaty entered into with the rebels. Upon this presumption they acted, and accepted an invitation from Lord Gray to a banquet, at which they were treacherously and basely captured, sent to London, and there executed for high treason. rald, a youth under 12 years of age, and brother to Lord Thomas, was rescued from the vengeance of the king by his guardian, who conveyed him secretly to Cardinal Pole, then in Italy, and who received the young Lord as his kinsman, educated him suitably to his birth, and preserved him to regain the honours of the family of Kildare. The old earl, it is said, died in his prison through grief at the multiplied disasters that had fallen upon his family and house; and it will afford some satisfaction to the reader to learn, that Lord Gray, the treacherous slave of a treacherous master, did not long survive his perfidy, for he was himself beheaded on Tower-hill, for having been engaged in some conspiracy against the king; so true it is