Yourself and the Neighbors 
 
 SEUMAS' MacMANUS' LATEST BOOK— NINTH EDITION. 
 
 Illustrated by Thomas Fogarty. 
 
 fw^^f '? ^ ¥^^^ °^^°y y^^^» *^ere is published a book 
 hnS^«^rr?^-.''"i '^ Pi-e-eminently above the general run o£ 
 books that It deserves to be classed among the masterpieces 
 
 iourself ana the Neighbors.' "—The Baltimore Sun. 
 • i,'^5 Ss"^^f MacManus is not taken to our bosom ard cher- 
 i!^f?, ^./'^ classic, then all signs by which we estimate genius 
 rail. —Ihe Los Angeles Times. 
 
 New^^ 7-^ T^^^ *^® ^°"^ °^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^°^^ language exquisite.''— 
 
 George W. Cable says: I may have read as good English- 
 not often, iiowever. Assuredly Seumas MacManus's is a mas- 
 ter pen ,and a joy to me which I mean to malie permanent. 
 
 Jamea ¥/hitcoiab Riley: I read it with avidity— as I read 
 every line of Seumas MacManus. 
 
 Archibishop Prendergast: Now that I have read it every 
 JI tho^^l^"'^'',^ parts more than once. I wish to sav that it 
 hi i^® .^^'f dehghtrul book of its kind I ever read. It should 
 De in the horae of every one of our race the world over. 
 fin^^^'J^o^^^^^^' • ^ ^J>^A^^ if Seumas MacManus realizes how 
 i™ J. ^^'^'^ ^^- . ^^ '^ S'' charming, fresh, and quaintly 
 humorous, and at the same time so pa^heticallv tender that 
 I smiled and laughed and gulped -all in one Veath!"' 
 Mark Sullivan, Editor of Colliers: I have read it with the 
 
 Lover, or Lever, or Banim, or GeraM Grlffia-^nd worth S 
 Wilderness ot the works of George Jloore 
 
 in^'eSu'St anl^dictSon." ^ ^'""^'^'^-''^ '=-»tifu. booU. both 
 
 Edwin Markham: I am struck by the freshress hp-mt- 
 
 poesy., of this, the best work Seumas MacManuT'has eve'- 
 
Ruth McEnery Stuart: This book is a delight— and for so 
 many qualities that I find them almost lost in the word 
 "charm." Many times in my reading I found my eyes filling 
 with tears — ot keen delight and sympathy— ^and pride too. 
 This work is the real thing, and as vital as Seumas MacManus* 
 first touch, which made the world look his way. 
 
 President Chase, Bates College: This intensely interesting 
 book helped me to understand, to appreciate, to love, and to 
 admire the Irish people to a degree that has enriched my own 
 mind, and made more tender my own heai't. 
 
 Chief Justice of Canada, Sir Charles Fitzpatrick: I thank 
 Seumas MacManus for giving me here the key to all the 
 charm of the Irish people. 
 
 Chancellor McCormick, University of Pittsburgh: I wonder 
 whether Seumas MacManus himself realizes what a fine piece 
 of work he has here done. I dare anyone to spend an hour 
 reading this book and not rise from it a kinder, gentler, finer 
 soul. The worldv when it comes to know the book, will thank 
 Seumas MacManus for it as I thank him. 
 
 Price (including postage) $1.65. 
 
 THE IRISH PUBLISHING CO 
 
 Box 1300, New York City 
 
 A Lad of the O'Friels 
 
 By SEUMAS MacMANUS. 
 
 Fiana MacLeod says: An admirable piece of work, true to 
 life, true in sentiment, true in touch), with vivid actuality 
 and the breath of romance, and a very real and appealing 
 winsome charm. ... It gave me sincere and deep pleasure 
 to read this delightful book. 
 
 New Ireland Review: The poetry of Irish homely life has 
 never been more faithfully and more touchlngly portrayed 
 than in this book. It is a powerful (piece of work. 
 
 Boston Transcript: This book is a landmark, showing the 
 height of excellence to which the flood of fiction may rise. 
 
 Punch: A charming book sure of lasting fame and popularity. 
 
 To-Day: It grips and enthrals the reader. 
 
 Dundee Courier: A more delightful book than "A Lad of 
 the O'Friels'' has not left the press for a long time. 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette: A literary achievement of great distinc- 
 tion. 
 
 Irish Independent: Of all novels of Irish life, "A Lad of 
 the O'Friels" sings truest. 
 
 Price (Including postage) $L65. 
 
 THE IRISH PUBLISHING CO 
 Box 1300, New York City 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 SEUMAS MacMANUS 
 
 (Fiftieth iTiousand) 
 
 1919 
 
 New York 
 The Irish Publishing Co. 
 P. O. Box 1300 
 
 Copyright, 1917, 
 By Seumas MacManus 
 
To JOHN DEVOY 
 
 Because you bestowed yourself on a forlorn cause—* 
 without seeking reward or honor— and without getting 
 them: 
 
 Because, when the night was blackest, and the way 
 was loneliest, with few workers to cheer, but alas I many 
 lurkers to sneer, you, unheeding, tolled faithfully oa : 
 
 Because though the faint-hearted failed you, saying 
 the Day could never dawn, and the false-hearted assailed 
 you, saying it should never dawn, you still kept your 
 determined way: 
 
 And because now*, with the brave band which you took 
 safely through the traps and treacheries of the Night, 
 you, vindicated, stand at the threshold of the Dawn, 
 whence you see the spears of the Resurrection morn 
 strike the sky: 
 
 I would lend lustre to this little book by writing down 
 at its beginning — even without your permission — your 
 bright name — 
 
 And the golden name of 
 
 THE' CLAN-na-nGAODHAL. 
 
 s. :.i. M. 
 
 154B2 
 

 FOREWORD 
 
 In the course of my lecture tour last winter I 
 was due to talk to a certain lar^ Woman's Club 
 in a Pacific Coast Qty. The women were dis- 
 cussing the subject en ^vhich I should be aske|l 
 to address them. One of the members made 
 claim that they should have, from me, an histori- 
 cal talk upon Ireland. The President of the 
 Club, a truly cultured woman, looked sympa- 
 thetically through her lorgnette at the member 
 Vv^ho had spoken, and patiently pointed out to 
 the ignorant one, "But, my dear, you must know 
 that Ireland hasn't any history/* 
 
 My continuous peregrinations through Ameri- 
 ca have shown me tliat Americans know nothing 
 of Irish history. 
 
 Irish-vAmericans know probably double as 
 much as do Americans. So you can credit them 
 with double 'ought on the subject. 
 
 And yx>\x may, at the same time, conservatively 
 credit five ©r six times 'ought to the purely jlrish 
 here. 
 
 In the case of the Irish this is criminal ignor- 
 ance. In Americans it is largely the fault ol 
 
 ?! 
 
English historians who, through the gcnerationij, 
 have done their best to shed abundant darkness 
 upon the subject of Ireland — and of the\i coun- 
 try's relations with Ireland. And it is partly 
 due to the lack of a good, gripping, readable, Irish 
 history being popularized here. 
 
 It is a century since Plowden was moved in his 
 hcmesty to protest against his brother historians' 
 continuous and persistent misrepresentation and 
 beclouding of Ireland's story. But honest Plow- 
 den's protesting was about as effective as the 
 badger s trying to blow the breeze from his door. 
 Except in rare instances, English historians have 
 ever since stuck to their traditional policy of 
 either ignoring Ireland's wonderful history or 
 gaibling and misrepresenting it. 
 
 This little book is compiled for the purpose of 
 enlightening all who need it, only upon the fear- 
 fully tragic story of Ireland's connection with 
 England. And even in that it only touches some 
 of the high spots. 
 
 It is the duty of every man and woman of Irish 
 blood, first to study and digest for themselves the 
 following papers, and next to force them on the 
 notice of the purely American people — to make 
 Americans study and digest them likewise — thus 
 opening their eyes to a revelation that will shock 
 
them out of their present unwitting ignorance 
 and unblamable indilterence. 
 
 If Irish- American readers do this perseveringiy 
 and conscientiously, Ireland's cause will get neWj 
 forceful allies. 
 
 I suppose it is superfluous to point out that 
 the persecuting English Protestant v/ho will be 
 so often mentioned in these chapters, is no nearer 
 kin to the reader's sincere Protestant neighbor, 
 whom he knows and loves, than is the politician 
 to the patriot. 
 
 i may say that I hope the present little work, 
 a preliminary canter into Irish history, is the 
 forerunner of a far more ambitious one, The 
 STORY OF THE IRISH RACE, on which I 
 am working, and which, within two years, I 
 may, with God's help, be able to present to Am- 
 ericans and to Irish alike. 
 
 New York, July i, 1917. 
 
BEFORE ENGLAND CAME 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 It was in the year of Our Lord, ii 72 that 
 England's army of invasion landed in Ireland. 
 
 Some of my readers know — but I fear many 
 of them do not know — that for hundreds of years 
 before that, the little Island sitting on the West- 
 ern Ocean, was a hive of learning. For many 
 centuries it had been the school of Europe. 
 
 In his "Age of the Saints," Boriase says, "Ire- 
 land \vas the center of all the religious and liter- 
 ary life of the North. Thither every peaceful 
 scholar and every philosopher fled for refuge, be^ 
 fore the Pagan hordes which swooped over Eur- 
 ope." And M. Darmesteter says, "Ireland was the 
 asylum of tlie higher learning which took refuge 
 there from the uncultured states of Europe. The 
 Renaissance began in Ireland 700 years before 
 it was known in Italy. At one time Armagh, the 
 ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, was the metro-i 
 polis of civilization." 
 
 Though Ireland's schools had been heard o! 
 en the Continent of Europe before Saint Patrick 
 
 IX 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 brought Christianity to Ireland in 432, it was 
 under the stimulus of the new faith that the great 
 schools multiplied in Ireland — in the sixth and 
 seventh centuries — and fixed the eyes of Europe. 
 They attracted crowds of hungering scholars 
 from the Continent, to whom, as testified by the 
 ancient Saxon chronicler, the Venerable Bede, 
 Ireland gave food and shelter, the use of her 
 books, and the service of her famous teachers, 
 gratis. 
 
 The sixteenth century Briton, Camden, treat- 
 ing of the manner in which the English in the 
 early centuries had flocked to the Irish schools — 
 and of the distinction conferred upon a foreigner 
 wht> could boast an Irish education says: *'Hence 
 it is frequently read in our histories of holy men, 
 *He h'ds been sent to Ireland to school/ *' 
 
 The Reverend Dr. Milner in his history of the 
 Eng'lish Church, says, "The Irish clergy were 
 then the luminaries of the Western World. To 
 them we are indebted for the preservation of 
 the Bible, the Fathers, and the Classics. Then, a 
 residence in Ireland, like a residence now at a 
 university, was almost essential to establish a 
 literary reputation." 
 
 We have record of seven Egyptian monks dy- 
 ing in Ireland in the eighth century. And also we 
 
 12 
 
BEFORE ENGLAND CAME 
 
 find fifty natives of Rome "attracted to Ireland 
 by the repute of the people for piety and learn- 
 ing, and especially for knowledge of the Sacred 
 Scripture." And still again we find an account of 
 150 people, natives of Rome and Italy, sailing in 
 company to Ireland the renowned. 
 
 The School of Glendalough in the County of 
 Wicklow, was attended by two thousand stu- 
 dents. The School of Clonard on the Boync 
 ■was attended by three thousand students. 
 King Dagobert II. of France was educated 
 there. From this school, Ussher tells us. 
 ^'Scholars came out in as great numbers as 
 Greeks from the side of the horse of Troy." The 
 School of Bangor in the County Down, one of 
 the most famous of the Irish Schools, was attend- 
 ed by three thousand students. 
 
 The great School of Clonmacnoise, founded 
 by St. Ciaran in the sixth century, was attended 
 Ly six thousand students. A great university 
 city grew up around it. St. Seananus tells how 
 he, in one day, saw no less than seven ships 
 carrying scholars from the Continent of Europe, 
 sail up the River Shannon, bound for the School 
 of Clonfert, on an Island in the river. 
 
 And through those early centuries the Irish 
 schools were not only receiving and educating 
 
 13 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 scholars from the Continent, but, year after year 
 they were sending forth to .t^e Continent oi Eur- 
 ope learned men and holy men who went travel- 
 lirg in bands, bearing the light of learnmg and 
 the torch of faith to the barbarous and semi-bar- 
 barous nations of the Continent, founding schools, 
 churches, and monasteries wherever they went. 
 The Irish saints of those days are the patron 
 saints of many corners of Europe which they 
 evangeUzed. Saint Columbanus evangehzed 
 Burgundy and Lombardy in the sixth century. 
 He founded an Irish monastery at Luxeuil in 
 France and a school at Bobbio in Italy where 
 he died* The Irish Saint Cathal (Cathaldus). 
 after whom San Cataldo in Italy is named i3 
 the patron saint of Tarentum in Italy of which 
 he was Bishop. Saint Fergal (Virgilius) Irish 
 geometer, who, in the eighth century preacxied 
 the sphericity of the earth, was Bishop of Salz- 
 burg Saint Colman is the patron saint of Lower 
 Austria. Saint Gall, who founded the famous 
 Irish School and monastery named after him in 
 Switzerland, is the great Swiss saint. Samt 
 
 *I would advise my readers to get Mrs. 
 Tomas O'Concannon's very fine Life of St. Co- 
 lumban, 
 
 14 
 
BEFORE ENGLAND CAME 
 
 Fiacra did wonderful work for Christianity in 
 France. Saint Kilian is the saint of Franconia. 
 
 The Irish monks, Aidan and his fellows, dis- 
 ciples of Saint Colmcille, going forth from Colm- 
 cille's school on lona, went down through Britain, 
 evangelizing and teaching. It is said that, 
 about the middle of the seventh century there 
 was only one Bishop in all England not of Irish 
 consecration, namely, Bishop Agilbcrct of Wes- 
 sex. Yet he was trained in Ireland. 
 
 Good St. Bernard testified, ''Ireland poured 
 out swarms of Saints, like an inundation, upon 
 foreign coutttries." 
 
 • Antissiodorus, of old, said, "It may be super- 
 fluous t0 relate how all Ireland, as it were, emi- 
 grated to ©ur shores with her swarms of philoso- 
 phers." 
 
 The Continental scholars admit that St. Co- 
 lumbanus, evangelizer of Burgundy and Lom- 
 bardy, was head and shoulders above all scholars 
 of his day in Europe, The Emperor Charle- 
 magne, gathered to his court great numbers of 
 the Irish scholars. The court tutor Qement was 
 an Irishman. The great Irish astronomer. Dun- 
 gall, who explained for the Emperor (in a docu- 
 ment still preserved, dated 8ii), the eclipses of 
 the sun which occurred in 8io and which had 
 
IREUJnyS CASE 
 
 Ikerrified Qiarlemagne's subjects, came to reside 
 at the Imperial Court, at the request of Charle- 
 magne. Charlemagne's grandson, Lothajre, had 
 Dungall found the School of Pavia in Italy for 
 civilizing the Lombards. 
 
 Some of the old writers relate the quaint story 
 of how in Charlemagne's day there arrived in 
 the royal City two men from Ireland, who, go- 
 ing to the market-place, took a prominent stand 
 there, and to the gaping, wondering crowds an- 
 nounced knowledge for sale. When word of 
 their strange proceedings was carried to the Em- 
 peror he ordered the men from Ireland to be 
 fetched to his Palace — where he asked them their 
 price for knowledge. They answered, "A shel- 
 tering roof, food and clothing, and eager-minded 
 pupils," This price he readily and quickly 
 ordered to be paid to the Irish km>wledge ven- 
 dors. 
 
 Scaliger Le Jeune, the French critic, says that 
 in Charlemagne's day, almost all the learned men 
 in Europe were Irishmen. In Charles the Bald's 
 time it was said on the Continent that every man 
 there who knew Greek was either an Irishman, 
 or the pupil of an Irishman. 
 
 That wonderful Irish scholar, Johannes Scotus 
 Erigena, always referred to by the Continental 
 
 i6 
 
BEFORE ENGLAND CAME 
 
 scholars, as "The Master/' and described as *'a 
 miracle of learning* — poet, philosepher and the- 
 ologian — was brought over by King Charles the 
 Bald, and made head of his School in Paris. 
 
 Professor Stokes enumerates in the tenth cen- 
 tury twenty-four Irish schools in France, eighteen 
 in Germany, not to mention the many in Italy, 
 Switzerland and the Lowlands. The German 
 philosopher, Professor Goerres says, "To Ireland 
 the affrighted spirit of truth had flown during the 
 Gothic irruptions in Europe, and there made its 
 abode in safety until Europe returned to repose, 
 when these hospitable phil©sophers, who had 
 given it an asylum., were called by EUirope to re- 
 store its effulgent light over her bedarkened 
 forests." 
 
 In their address to Daniel O'Connell in the time 
 of his Repeal agitation, the German College men 
 said: "We never can forget to look upon your 
 beloved country as our mother in religion, that 
 already, at the remotest periods of the Christian 
 era. commiserated our people, and readily sent 
 forth her spiritual sons to rescue our pagan an- 
 cestors from idolatry at the sacrifice of her own 
 property and blood, and to entail upon them the 
 blessings of the Christian faith." 
 
 Hieric in his biography of Saint Germanus, 
 
 17 
 
IRELAND'S t:ASE^ 
 
 written in the latter part of the ninth century, 
 says in the course of his dedication of the book 
 to the Emperor, "Need I remind Ireland that she 
 sent troops of philosophers over land and sea to 
 our distant shores, that her most learned sons 
 offered gifts of wisdom of their own free will, in 
 the service of onr learned King, our Solomon." 
 
 The eminent Celtologist, the late Professor 
 Zimmer (of the University of Berlin) says : "Ire- 
 land can not only boast of having been the birth- 
 place and abode of high culture in the fifth and 
 sixth centuries, but nlso of having made stren- 
 uous efforts in the seventh century to spread her 
 learning among the German and Romance peo- 
 ples, thus forming the actual foundations of our 
 present Continental civilization." 
 
 Their love of faith and their love of learning 
 were two passions — or was it one passion? which 
 thrilled the souls of the Irish people. And they 
 were consumed with eagerness to share with the 
 unfortunate ones abroad, the blessing that Heav- 
 en had so bountifully bestowed on them at home. 
 Hence, for long centuries, there was pouring out 
 from Ireland and spreading everywhere, from Ice- 
 land to Africa, from Biscay to Syria, a steady 
 stieam of fiery crusaders armed with Bible and 
 Cross, and girded with stylus and tablets, who 
 
BEFORE ENGLAND CAME 
 
 knew not rest nor ease while still any corner o% 
 the darkened Continent yearned for the light of 
 faith. In wave after wave they came, dispers- 
 ing themselves over many lands, and lavishing, 
 wherever they went, their golden treasure — till 
 Ireland became known throughout the Continent 
 of Europe by the phrase Insula Sanctorum et 
 Doctorum, Island of Saints and Scholars; and 
 the name of Eire became in the mouths of the 
 European populace a holy name, as well as a 
 name of mystery and wonder. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ^ ELIZABETH CIVILIZES IRELAND 
 
 Though the Danes had ravaged many quarters 
 of Ireland in the ninth and tenth centuries — un- 
 til they were cast out by King Brian Boru in 
 IC14 — the schools were again flourishing, beauti- 
 ful churches and monasteries were being erected^ 
 and Ireland was holding aloft once more the torch 
 of learning whose light had for so long lighted 
 the world's path, when the English, in 11 72 be- 
 gan the conquest which it took long and terrible 
 centuries to consummate — if it was ever con-' 
 summated. 
 
 Conquering Ireland, inch by inch, it took up-* 
 wards of four hundred fearful years before the}^ 
 had extended their rule to the country's four cof'* 
 tiers. During all of those more than four cen-» 
 ttiries, Ireland got but few momenta of respite 
 from war. Though to name it respite is, after all, 
 bitter irony. For when Ireland was not shaken 
 by war, it was racked by infinitely worse than 
 war. 
 
 Mrs. Green (widow of the English historian 
 
ELIZABETH CIVILIZES IRELAND 
 
 Green) says, "At a prodigious price, at any con- 
 ceivable cost of human woe, the purging ot the 
 soil from the Irish race was begun. There was 
 no protection for any soul — -the old, sick, infants, 
 women or scholars. No quarter was allowed, no 
 hith kept, and no truce given. Chiefs were made 
 to draw and carry, to abase them — poets and 
 historians were slaughtered, and their books of 
 genealogies burned." 
 
 Under Elizabeth, Ireland almost touched the 
 depths. Her troops butchered and burned, car- 
 ried fire and sword to the ends of the Island — 
 and left the hitherto smiling and fruitful province 
 of Munster, a blackened and desolate waste. The 
 old English chronicler, Hollinshed, vividly de- 
 scribes this desolation — "The land which before 
 was populous," he says, "and rich in all the good 
 blessings of God; plenteous of corn; full of cat- 
 tle; well-stored with fruits and other commodi- 
 ties ; is now waste and barren, yielding no fruit, 
 the pastures no cattle, the fields no corn, the air 
 no birds. Finally, every way, the curse of God is 
 so great and the land become so barren — both 
 of man and beast, that whoever did travel from 
 one end of Munster to the other, over six score 
 miles, would not meet any man or child, save in 
 
 91 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 towns and cities; nor yet see any beasts save 
 wolves, dogs and other ravening things." 
 
 It was the curse of God observe, not that of 
 Elizabeth, which had fallen upon Ireland. 
 Always, to the good Briton, when England curses 
 God applauds. 
 
 And of the stricken survivors of Elizabeth's 
 Wars in the South, the English poet, Edmund 
 Spenser, who came as Chief Secretary to Ireland, 
 says "At that time, out of the woods and glyns 
 came creeping forth upon their hands (being un- 
 able to stand upright, from starvation), things 
 that looked like anatomies of death, that chattered 
 like ghosts risen out of their graves. And they 
 did eat the carrions, happy where they could find 
 them." 
 
 The English General, Sir Richard Perrin, ex- 
 ultingly wrote that he left "neither corn, nor 
 horn, nor house unburnt, between Kinsale and 
 Ross." 
 
 And the Irish chroniclers, the Four Masters, 
 v/riting of one of the vast tracts of Munster over 
 which the civilizers had swept — under date, 1582. 
 say ''Neither the lowing of a cow, nor the voice 
 of a plowman was, this year, to be heard here." 
 
 Sir Henry Sidney (Deputy) at leng-th in formed 
 Elizabeth, "There are not, I am sure, in any re- 
 
 23 
 
ELIZABETH CIVILIZES IRELAND 
 
 gion where the name of Christ is professed such 
 horrible spectacles as are here to be beheld — ^yea 
 the view of bones and skulls, of dead who, partly; 
 by murder and partly by famine, have died in the 
 fields, is such that hardly any Christian can with 
 dry eye behold." 
 
 Elizabeth did not content herself with merely 
 civilizing. She also evangelized in the most per- 
 suasive Christian way. In the twenty-seventh 
 year of the reign of Elizabeth it was 
 enacted that "Every Romish priest found 
 in the Island is deemed guilty of rebellion. 
 He shall be hanged till half dead, then 
 his head taken off, his bowels drawn out and 
 burnt, and his head fixed on a pole in some pub- 
 lic place." While the criminal who would shel- 
 ter a priest was to have all his goods confiscated, 
 and for his flagrant crime die upon the gallows. 
 
 This Act of course was only meant as a rough 
 working basis for the introduction of Christian 
 light and love into the souls of the benighted 
 Irish. The authorities were required to improve 
 upon it by working out practical details. In the 
 case of Archbishop O'Hurley of Cashel, for in- 
 stance, the sublime beauty of true Christianity 
 was brought home to him and to those whom he 
 misled, by the simple but elective device of put-» 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 ting his legs into loose jack boots which were 
 then filled with quick lime and water ; and letting 
 him meditate upon the wondrous splendor of the 
 English religion, while his legs were being slowly 
 eeten to the bone — after which other ingenious 
 persuasions were practised on him, before his be- 
 ing hung upon the gallows. A Protestant his- 
 torian, revolting at this, describes the torture as 
 "The most horrible torture known to humanity.** 
 
 That was a sample out of thousands of the 
 evangelizing methods of Elizabeth in Ireland. 
 Let us note some samples of the civilizing — say 
 the massacres of Smerwick, Clannaboy and Mul- 
 laghmast. 
 
 A garrison of Spanish allies of the Irish, who 
 held Smerwick Fort in Kerry, was attacked by 
 English troops under the Deputy, Lord Grey. 
 On promise of mercy, the Spaniards surrendered. 
 After their arms had been collected from them 
 Grey sent into the fort a company of English 
 soldiers under Sir Walter Raleigh to give these 
 fellows a taste of English mercy. Every Span- 
 iard was butchered in cold blood. Sir Walter 
 Raleigh was rewarded with a grant of forty thou- 
 sand acres (of other people's property of course), 
 in County Cork. It should be noted that the gen* 
 
ELIZABETH CIVILIZES IRELAND 
 
 tie poet, Edmund Spenser, made public defence of 
 the Smerwick massacre. 
 
 In this connection I would pause to emphasize 
 the essential and unconscious brutality of the 
 Saxon nature when we find even the most beau- 
 tiful minded of the race — one who had such lofty 
 imagination, sweet fancy, and rare poetic soul as 
 Edmund Spenser, not only defending this hor- 
 rible deed, but actually advocating, as he did, 
 that since the Irish nation could not be made 
 amenable to fire and sword, the race could be 
 wifjed out (to make room for good Englishmen) 
 by creating famine and pestilence among them. 
 "The end will (I assure me) ' be very short." 
 Spenser says in his State of Ireland; "Although 
 there should none fall by the sword nor be slain 
 by the soldier ... by this hard restraint they 
 would quietly consume themselves, and devour 
 one another." 
 
 The massacre of Mullaghmast is probably a 
 still better illustration of Elizabeth's forcible and 
 effective civilizing strokes in Ireland. To the 
 Rath of Mullaghmast were invited by English 
 proclamation, some hundreds of the leading men 
 among the Irish within the Pale — chiefly men 
 of the clans O'Connor and O'More — ^invited for 
 a friendly interview. When they were collected. 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 they were surrounded by three or four lines of 
 horse and foot, fallen upon, and murdered to the 
 last man. No single soul was permitted to escape 
 from the dreadful Rath of MuUaghmast. 
 
 And then Clannaboy. The Earl of Essex in- 
 duced the Chief, Brian O'Neill of Clannaboy, to 
 make peace with him. But a dead O'Neill was 
 always a more comfortable sight to the English 
 than a live one. To celebrate the peace-making the 
 Earl with a great troop of retainers visited O'Neill. 
 Well, and purposely, armed they attended 
 the banquet given to Brian in his castle — to which 
 banquet Brian had invited many of his fellows of 
 note. In the middle of the banquet, when all the 
 Irish were ofJ their guard, at a given signal the 
 English drew their weapons and massacred ail 
 of the Irish present with the exception of O'Neill, 
 his wife, and his brother, who were carried to 
 Dublin and there cut in qv.arters — as a stimulus 
 to the Irish nation to respect, imitate, and adopt 
 English civilization. 
 
 This massacre of Clan/iaboy is treated by 
 Ethna Carbery in one of her most stirring 
 ballads — 
 
 26 
 
ELIZABETH CIVILIZES IRELAND 
 THE BETRAYAL OF CLANNABUIDHE* 
 
 (Belfast Castle, November, 1574) 
 
 From Brian O'Neill in his Northern home 
 
 Went swiftly a panting vassal. 
 Bidding the lord of Essex come ' 
 
 To a feast in his forded castle, 
 \£o a friendly feast where the gleaming foatE^ 
 
 Of the wine-cup crowned the wassail, ^ 
 iTo Brian O'Neill came his gentle wife, 
 
 And wild were her eyes of warning; 
 '"A banquet-chamber of blood and strife, 
 
 I dreamt of *twixt night and morning. 
 And a voice that keened for a Chieftain's life"?-i 
 But he laughed as he kissed her, scorning. 
 
 "In peace have I bidden the strangers here. 
 
 And not to the note of battle ; 
 My flagons await them with bubbling cheer, 
 
 I have slaughtered my choicest cattle; 
 And sweetest of harpings shall greet thine caTg '. 
 
 Aroonl o'er the goblet's rattle.** 
 In pride he hath entered his banquet hallg > 
 
 Unwitting what may betide him, 
 
 *From Ethna Carber/* ''The Four Winds of EirlMf 
 (Funk. WagnaUs Co.), * 
 
 ^1 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 ^Girded round by his clansmen tall, 
 
 And his lady fair beside him ; 
 From his lips sweet snatches of music fall, 
 
 And none hath the heart to chide him. 
 
 Hath he forgotten his trust betrayed 
 
 In the bitterest hour of trial? 
 Hath he forgotten his prayer half-stayed 
 
 At the Viceroy's grim denial? 
 And the bloody track of the Saxon raid 
 
 Oa the fertile lands of Niall? 
 
 Essex bath coveted Massareene, 
 
 And Toome by the Bann's wide border, 
 
 Edenhncarrig's dark towers — tlie scene 
 Of hard-won fight's disorder ; 
 
 And Castlereagh, set in a maze of green 
 (Tail trees, like a watchful warder. 
 
 Brian O'Neill he hath gazed adown 
 
 Where the small waves, one by one, met 
 
 The sward that sloped from the hilltops thrown 
 Dusky against the sunset; 
 
 Sighed in his soul for his lost renown. 
 And the rush of an Irish onset. 
 
 28 
 
ELIZABETH CIVILIZES IRELAND 
 
 Woe ! he is leagued with his father's foe» 
 
 Hath buried the ancient fever 
 Of hate, while he watches his birthright go 
 
 Away from his hands for ever; 
 
 No longer Clan-Niall deals blow for blow, 
 
 Plis country's bonds to sever. 
 » * « * ^ ft 
 
 Over the Ford to his castle grey 
 
 They troop with their pennons flying — 
 
 (Was that the ring of a far hurrah, 
 Or the banshee eerily crying?) 
 
 In glittering glory the gallant array 
 
 Spurs hard up the strand, low-lying. 
 
 Three swift-speeding days with the castle's lord 
 They had hunted his woods and valleys ; 
 
 Three revelling nights v/hile the huge logs roared, 
 And the bard with his harp-string dallies, 
 
 Freely they quaffed of the rich wine, poured 
 As meed of the courtly sallies. 
 
 (Yet one fair face in the laughing crowd 
 Grew wan as the mirth waxed faster, 
 
 Her blue eyes saw but a spectral shroud, 
 And a spectral host that passed her; 
 
 Jlcr ears heard only the banshee's loud 
 Wilti prescience of disaster.) 
 
 29 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 Gaily the voice of the chieftain rang, 
 
 Deeply his warriors blended 
 In chant of the jubilant song they sang 
 
 Ere the hours of the feasting ended ; 
 
 Eut harkl Why that ominous clash and clang? 
 
 And what hath that shout portended? 
 
 What Speech uncourteous this clamor provokes. 
 
 Through the midst of the banter faring? 
 Forth flashes the steel from the festal cloaks, 
 
 Vengeful and swift, unsparing— 
 And Clannabuidhe's bravest reel 'neath the 
 strokes, 
 
 Strive blindly, and die despairing! 
 
 O'Gilmore sprang to his Tanist's side 
 
 ShriUing his war-cry madly— 
 Ah ! far are the kerns who at morning-tide 
 
 Would flock to the summons gladly ; 
 The echoes break on the rafters wide, 
 
 And sink into silence sadly. 
 
 Captive and bleeding he stands— the lord 
 Of the faithful dead around him ; 
 Captive and bleeding— the victor horde 
 
 In their traitorous might surround him; 
 
 30 
 
ELIZABETH CIVILIZES IRELAND 
 
 From his turrets is waving their flag abhorred, 
 And their cruel thongs have bound him. 
 
 Cold are the fires in the banqueting hall, 
 Withered the flowers that graced it, 
 
 Silent for ever the clansmen tall 
 
 Who stately and proudly paced it; 
 
 <jrloom broods like a pall o'er each lofty wall 
 For the foul deed that disgraced it. 
 
 There is grief by the shores of the Northern sea. 
 And grief in the woodlands shady, 
 
 There is wailing for warriors stout to see, 
 Of the sinewy arm and steady; 
 
 There is woe for the Chieftain of Clannabuidhe, 
 And tears for his gentle lady. 
 
 The honest Scottish Protestant Dr. Smiles 
 sums up the Elizabethan work in Ireland, "Men, 
 v/omen and children wherever found were put in- 
 discriminately to death. The soldiery was mad 
 for blood. Priests were murdered at the altar, chil- 
 dren at their mother's breast. The beauty of 
 woman, the venerableness of age, the innocence 
 of youth was no protection against these san^ 
 guinary demons in human form." 
 
 And old Hollinshed enthusiastically sets dowii| 
 
 31 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 "The soldiers in the camps were so hot upon tlie 
 spur, and so eager upon the vile rebels, that they 
 spared neither man, woman or child. They put 
 all to the sword/' 
 
 Cox, an English writer of the old time, tells 
 with much relish, "They performed their duty so 
 effectually and brought the rebels to so low a con- 
 dition that they saw three children eating the en- 
 trails of their dead mother, on whose flesh they 
 had fed many days." 
 
 The historian Lecky (a bitter anti-Home Ruler^ 
 and staunch upholder of British power in Ire- 
 land), admits in the preface to his "History of 
 Ireland in the Eighteenth Century." "The slaugh- 
 ter of Irishmen was looked upon as literally the 
 slaughter of wild beasts. Not only men, but even 
 women and children who fell into the hands of 
 the English, were deliberately and systematically 
 butchered. Bands of soldiers traversed great 
 tracts of country, slaying every living thing they 
 met." And he also says, "The suppression of the 
 native race was carried on with a ferocity which 
 surpassed that of Alva in the Netherlands, and 
 which has seldom been exceeded in the pages of 
 histor}'.** 
 
 It is no wonder that in a short time one of her 
 «®ldiar courtiers was able to convey to Eliza- 
 
 33 
 
ELIZABETH CIVILIZES IRELAND 
 
 beth the gratifying intelligence. *There is now 
 little left in Ireland for your Majesty to reign 
 over, but carcasses and ashes." 
 
 And Sir George Carew — after doing his fearful 
 share, v/ith rack and torch and sword, in reducing 
 Ireland almost to a solitude — wiped his sword, 
 took up his pen, and leisurely wrote his Hibernia 
 Pacata — Ireland Pacified ! 
 
 The only other quality in an Englishman's 
 makeup that is at all comparable with his un- 
 conscious brutality, is his unconscious humor. 
 
 35 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 AND THEN CAME CROMWELL 
 
 Elizabeth's worthy work of introducing Brit- 
 ish civilization to the benighted Irish met with 
 marked success. 
 
 But the good work probably reached its cli- 
 max under Cromwell, who scourged, tortured 
 and butchered the population, and drenched the 
 land in a deluge of blood. 
 
 For Cromwell, the ground was well prepared. 
 Five Northern Counties had been depopulated 
 thirty years before, to make room for James's 
 Scotchmen. The wretched Irish survivors of the 
 depopulation campaign, those who had been 
 robbed of their houses and lands, and bereaved 
 Oi kith and kin, were hunted like animals in the 
 hills to which they had fled. On the 23rd of 
 Oct. 1641 there was a general rising of the hunt- 
 ed ones. They sw0®ped back over the lands 
 where their plunderers had been fattening in ease 
 and plenty. 1 Jgland was aroused by frightful 
 reports of a general massacre of almost all the 
 British in Ireland 1 
 
AND THEN CAME CROMWELU 
 
 It would not have been strange if these poor 
 ■wretches — plundered, harried, hounded, and driv- 
 en to frenzy — had wreaked terrible vengeance 
 on, and exterminated, their merciless tyrants. 
 But the Protestant Minister, Rev. Ferdinand 
 Warner in his "History of the Irish Rebellion," 
 written a few years after the event, says, "It is 
 easy enough to demonstrate the falsehood of the 
 relation of every English historian of the re- 
 bellion." And another celebrated Protestant 
 historian, Dr. Taylor, in his "Civil Wars of Ire- 
 land," says, "The Irish massacre of 1641 has 
 been a phrase so often repeated, even in books 
 of education, that one can scarcely conceal his 
 surprise when he learns that the tale is apocryp- 
 hal as the wildest fiction of romance." He says^ 
 "There were crimes committed owing to the 
 wickedness of particnlpr men. Ent it is only 
 fair to add that all atrocities were not only dis- 
 couraged, but punished, by the Irish nobility and 
 g^entry." 
 
 To suppress this rebellion the whole pack of 
 England's carefully nurtured savageries, and 
 best trained savages, were unleashed against 
 Ireland. 
 
 Sir Charles Coote typical of the English gen- 
 erals ill this war employed rack, and dungeon 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 and roasting to death for appeasing of the tur- 
 bulent natives. He stopped at nothing — even 
 hanging v^^omen with child. 
 
 Lord Clarendon in his narrative of the events 
 of the time records, how, after Coote plundered 
 and burned the tovv'n of Clontarf, he massacred 
 townspeople, men and women, "and three suck- 
 ling infants." And in that same week, says 
 Clarendon, men, women and children of the vil- 
 lage of Bullock frightened of the fate of Clon- 
 tarf, went to sea to shun the fury of the soldiers 
 who came from Dublin under Colonel Clifford, 
 "Being pursued by the soldiers in boats and 
 overtaken, they were all thrown overboard." 
 
 Coote and Clifford were not better or worse 
 than the average of the pacifiers of Ireland. I 
 could quote here more instances of the blood- 
 freezing kind than would fill a large book. But 
 for my purpose one or two samples are as good 
 as a thousand. Castlehaven sets down one in- 
 cident characteristic of the humanity of the Eng- 
 lish troopers. He tells how Sir Arthur Loftus, 
 Governor of Naas, marched out with a party of 
 horse, and being joined by a party sent by Or- 
 mond from Dublin, "They both together killed 
 such of the Irish as they met .... but th^ 
 most considerable slaughter occurred in a grv*iii 
 
AND THEN CAME CROMWELL 
 
 8L*ait of furze, situated on a hill, where the peo- 
 ple of several villages had fled for shelter." Sir 
 Arthur surrounded the hill, fired the furze, and 
 ■with the points of swords, drove back into the 
 flames the burning men, women and children 
 who tried to emerge — till the last child was burn- 
 ed to a crisp. Says Castlehaven in his Memoirs, 
 '*! saw the bodies — and the furze still burning." 
 For it should be particularly noted that the 
 suckling infant aroused in the brave Britons the 
 same noble, blood-thirst that did the fighting 
 rebel. The butchering of infants was more dili- 
 gently attended to during the Cromwellian per- 
 iod, than in any previous or subsequent English 
 excursion through Ireland. It is matter of rec- 
 ord that in the presence, and with the tolera- 
 tion, of their ofncers — in at least one case with 
 the hearty approval of a leader — the common 
 soldiers engaged in the sport of tossing Irish 
 babes upon their spears. A noted old English 
 historian. Dr. Nalson, in his account of the 
 rebellion states (Introduction to his Second Vol- 
 ume) **I have heard a relation of my own, who 
 was a captain in that service (in Ireland), relate 
 that .... little children were promiscuously 
 sufferers with the guilty, and that when anyone 
 who had some grains of compassion reprehended 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 the soldiers for this unchristian inhumanity, tfiey 
 would scoflingly reply 'Why? nits will be lii:er 
 and so despatch them." 
 
 In countering this rebellion the Britsh opesied 
 the game with the fearful County Antrim hoiror 
 known to history as the Massacre of Island 
 Magee — where, after murdering a multitude in 
 b^d, the women and children, screaming and 
 begging for mercy, were driven before the troops' 
 goading bayonets to the terrible Gobbins cliffs — 
 and thrown over the cliffs to fearful death below ! 
 
 The singer of Ireland's woes and Ireland's joys, 
 Ethna Carbery, sang a fierce song of this terrible 
 deed— BRIAN BOY MAGEE. 
 
 I am Brian Boy Magee — 
 My Father was Eoghain Ban — 
 1 was wakened from happy dreams 
 By the shouts of my startled clan; 
 And 1 saw through the leaping glare 
 That marked where our homestead stood. 
 My mother swing by her hair— 
 And my brothers lie in their blood. 
 
 In the creepy cold of the night 
 The pitiless wolves came down — 
 Scotch troops from that Castle grim 
 Guarding Knockfergus Town; 
 
AND THEN CAME CROMWELE 
 
 And they hacked and lashed and hewed, 
 With musket and rope and sword, 
 TiU my murdered kin lay thick, 
 In pools, by the Slaughter Fordl 
 
 I fought by my father's side, 
 And when we were fighting sore 
 We saw, a line of their steel 
 With our shrieking women before ; 
 The red-coats drove them on 
 To the verge of the Gobbins gray, 
 Hurried them — God, the sight! 
 As the sea foamed up for its prey. 
 
 Oh, tall were the Gobbin cliiis. 
 And sharp were the rocks, my woe 1 
 And tender the limbs that met 
 Such terrible death below; 
 Mother and babe and maid 
 They clutched at the empty air, 
 With eyeballs widened in fright, 
 That hour of despair. 
 
 (Sleep soft in your heaving bed, 
 O little fair love of my heart! 
 The bitter oath I have sworn 
 Shall be of my life a part; 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 "" '^ 
 
 And for every piteous prayer 
 You prayed on your way to die, 
 May I hear an enemy plead, 
 ^While I laugh and deny.) 
 
 In the dawn that was gold and red, 
 Ay, red as the blood-choked stream, 
 I crept to the pervious brink — 
 Great Christ! was the night a dream? 
 In all the Island of Gloom 
 I only had life that day — 
 Death covered the green hill-sides, 
 And tossed in the Bay. 
 
 I have vowed by the pride of my sires—! 
 By my motiier's wandering ghost — 
 By my kinsfolk's shattered bones 
 Hurled on ^e cruel coast — 
 By the sweet dead face of my love. 
 And the wound in her gentle breast- 
 To follow that murderous band, 
 A sleuth-hound who knows no rest. 
 
 I shall go t© Phelim O'Neill 
 Witli my sorrowful tale, and crave 
 A blue-4)right blade of Spain, 
 In the ranks of his soldiers brave^ 
 
AND THEN CAME CROMWELL 
 
 And God grant me the strength to wield 
 That shining avenger well — 
 When the Gael shall sweep his foe 
 Through the yawning gates of Hell. 
 
 I am Brian Boy Mageel 
 
 And my creed is a creed of hate; 
 
 Love, Peace, I have cast aside — 
 
 But Vengeance, Vengeance, I wait! 
 
 Till I pay back the four-fold debt 
 
 For the horrors I witnessed there. 
 
 When my brothers moaned in their blood, 
 
 And my mother swung by her hair. 
 
 In 1644 the British Parliament ordered no 
 quarter to Irish troops in Britain. Ormond shipt 
 150 Royalists from Gal way to Bristol, under Wil 
 loughby. Captain Swanley seized the ship, 
 picked out from amongst the troops seventy 
 whom he considered to be Irish and threw them 
 overboard. The Journal of the English House 
 of Commons for June of that year records that 
 "Captain Swanley was called into the House of 
 Commons and thanks given to him for his good 
 service, and a chain of gold of two hundred 
 pounds in value." 
 
 In pursuance of the same admirable policy, 
 Napier in hU "Life of Montrose" says that, in 
 
IRELAND'S CASS 
 
 Scothnd, la one day, eighty Irish women and 
 children were thrown over a bridge, and 
 drowned. 
 
 Clarendon tells that the Earl of Warwick v/her» 
 he captured Irish frigates, used to tie the Irish 
 s*iilors back to back, and fling them into the sea. 
 
 So, a sympathetic atmosphere had been created 
 for Cromwell's coming. And Cromwell quickly 
 demonstrated that he deserved such preparation. 
 
 In Wexford town alone, although negotiations 
 for surrender had begun, Cromwell slew two 
 thousand. Lingard in his "History of Eng- 
 land" says, **Wexford was abandoned to the 
 mercy of the assailants. The tragedy recently 
 enacted at Drogheda was renewed. No distinc- 
 tion was made between the defenceless inhabi- 
 tants and the armed soldiers, nor could the 
 shrieks and prayers of three hundred females 
 who had gathered round the great Cross in the 
 market-place, preserve them from the swords 
 of these ruthless barbarians." 
 
 Cromwell in explaining the matter to the com- 
 plete satisfaction of his saintly self and the pious 
 English nation, wrote, that he "thought it not 
 right or good to restrain off the soldiers from 
 their right of pillage, nor from doing execution 
 on the enemy." (From "Cromwell's Letters.") 
 
 4J 
 
AND THEN CAME CROMWELL 
 
 Though, after the sack of Drogheda, he prob- 
 ably could not surpass himself. In the five days 
 massacre at Drogheda only thirty men out of 
 a garrison of three thousand escaped the sword. 
 And it is impossible to compute what other thou- 
 sands, of non-combatants, men, women and chil- 
 dren, were butchered. In the vaults, underneath 
 the church, a great number of the finest women 
 o^ the city sought refuge. But hardly one, if 
 om% even of these, was left to tell the awful 
 tal(i of unspeakable outrage &nd murder. 
 
 And of all the men, womes and children who 
 had taken refuge in the church tower, none 
 esoaped. In the attack upon the church tower, 
 the English soldiers made good use again of a 
 device which they always practised when oppor- 
 tufeity offered. They picked up children 
 and carried them in front of them as bucklers. 
 
 Arthur Wood the Historian of Oxford, gives 
 us a narrative compiled from the account of his 
 brother who was an officer in Cromwell's army, 
 and who had been through the siege and sack of 
 Drogheda — a narrative that throws interesting 
 sidelight upon the Christian methods of the Eng- 
 lish army, and the quaint point of view of the 
 mest cultured of them. Wood's narrative says, 
 **Eftch of the assailants would take up a child 
 
 43 
 
ntELAKiys CAsa 
 
 i 
 
 mnd use It as a buckler of defence td leec^ HSm 
 from being shot <m: brained. After they hmi 
 killed all in the church they went into the vaults 
 underneath, where all the choicest of women and 
 ladies had hid themselves. One of these, a most 
 handsome virgin, arrayed in costly and gorgeous 
 apparel, knelt down to Wood with tears, and 
 prayers, begging for her life, and being stricken 
 "wiUi a profound pity, he did take her under his 
 arm for protection, and went with her out of the 
 church with intention to put her over tfee works, 
 iQ shift for herself. But a soldier, perceiving- his 
 intention, ran his sword through her, whereupon 
 Mr. Wood, seeing her gasping, took away hei; 
 money, jewels etc., and flung her down over the 
 works." The instincts of the English gentleman 
 burst through the Qiristian crust in Mr. Wood. 
 But hearken to how one of the greatest of Eng- 
 lish Christians — ^perhaps the shinin|^ light of 
 English Puritanism — at one stroke, beth haloes 
 his crime and honors God by giving God partner- 
 ship with him in his most demoniac work. la 
 his despatch to the Speaker of the Eiouse of C&m* 
 mons, after Droglieda, Cromwdl says, ''It laid 
 pleased God to bless our endeavor at DrofiK^ 
 [.] . . the enemy were about 3,000 stnmg ta tti<i 
 town. I believe we put to the swerd tke 
 
 m 
 
AND THEN CAME CROMWELL 
 
 number. •; • . This hath been a marvelous great 
 mercy. , , . I wish that all honest hearts may 
 give the glory of this to God alone, to whom 
 indeed the praise of this mercy belongs." And 
 again this shining light of Christianity says, "In 
 this very place (St. Peter s Church), lOO of them 
 were put to the sword, fleeing thither for safety. 
 . . . And now give me leave to say how this 
 work was wrought. It was set upon some of our 
 hearts that a great thing should be done, not by 
 power or might, but by the spirit of God. And is 
 it not so clearly?" 
 
 The Englishman's intimacy with, and obedi- 
 ence to, the spirit of God, throughout England's 
 history in Ireland, enables him always to speak 
 with authority upon the subject. And the spirit 
 of God, we may expect, is exalted, when the 
 Englishman, with characteristic generosity 
 drapes it with his own character. 
 
 The English Parliament, on October 2, 1649, 
 appointed a Thanksgiving Day for the triumph 
 at Drogheda, and put upon record — "That the 
 House does approve of the execution done at 
 Drogheda, as an act both of justice to them 
 (the butchered ones) and mercy to others who 
 may be warned by iV 
 
 r^rte in his *'Life ol Ormond" records that at 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 Drogheda, the offer to surrender, and request for 
 quarter, had been made before the final assault 
 and massacre. 
 
 The holy spirit that generally moved Britain 
 in this war is exemplified by a pamphlet pub- 
 lished in London at the height of the civiliz- 
 ing demonstration in Ireland. The pam- 
 phlet is represented as being published "by J. D. 
 and R. I. at the sign of the Bible in Popes head 
 Alley, 1647." I^ t^^ course of the pamphlet the 
 writer says, "I beg upon my hands and knees 
 that the expedition against them (the Irish) be 
 undertaken while the hearts and hands of our 
 soldiery are hot ; to whome, I will be bold to say, 
 briefly: happy be he that shall reward them as 
 they served us, and cursed be he who shall do 
 the work of the Lord negligently. Cursed be he 
 who holdeth back the sword from blood: yea 
 cursed be he that maketh not the sword stark 
 drunk with Irish blood; who doth not recom- 
 pense them double for their treachery to the Eng- 
 lish ; but maketh them in heaps on heaps, and 
 their country the dwelling place of dragons — 
 an astonishment for nations. Let not that eye 
 look for pity, nor hand be spared, that pities or 
 spares them ; and let him be cursed that curseth 
 them not bitterly." ^ 
 
AND THEN CAME CROMWELE 
 
 •A truly sweet soul was the Lord's Anointed 
 
 who framed this delicate flower of prayer. 
 
 A little illustrative incident from Carte's Life 
 of Ormond may here be set down to show how. 
 the "treacherous Irish" retaliated. Carte tells 
 how St. Leger when marching across the coun- 
 try, "slaughtered men, women and children" — 
 the usual thing — finally murdered one, Philip 
 Ryan, whose infuriated relatives retaliated in 
 kind upon several of the British settlers. Carte 
 says "All the rest of the English were saved by the 
 inhabitants of that place : their houses and goods 
 safely returned to them. Dr. Saml. Pullen, Prot- 
 estant Chancellor of Cashel, and the Dean of 
 Clonfert with his wife and children, were pre- 
 served by Father James Saul, a Jesuit. Several 
 other Romish priests distinguished themselves 
 by their endeavors to save the English. The 
 English thus preserved were, according to their 
 desires, safely conducted to the County 
 Cork, by a guard of the Irish inhabitants of 
 Cashel." 
 
 And how the Catholics retaliated on their 
 persecutors in Ireknd ia the century before, is 
 witnessed by the Protestant, William Parnell, in 
 his '*Hi€torical Apology" (1807). When in the 
 rdgn of Maiy, the Catholics were in the ascent 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 dancy, **They entertained no resentment for the 
 past/* Pamell testifies: "they laid no plans for 
 future domination. Such was the general spirit 
 of toleration that many English families, friends 
 of the Reformation, took refuge in Ireland, and 
 there enjoyed their opinions and worship without 
 molestation." 
 
 So much for the Irish brand of retaliation as 
 opposed to the London sample. 
 
 Half a century ere Cromwell, the conquest of 
 Ireland had been technically completed. The 
 Cromwellian Wars — like many other wars which 
 continued to shake the Island — were merely civil- 
 izing demonstrations. 
 
 Cromwell sent twenty thousand Irish boys 
 and girls into slavery in the Virginian Colonies 
 and the West Indies. (On one or two of the 
 Islands of the West Indies, up to nearly a cen- 
 tury ago, it is related, the negroes still spoke 
 Gaelic.) The merchants of Bristol, ever enter- 
 prising, and prompt to profit by a good opening, 
 did a brisk business in Irish slaves then and 
 later for the transatlantic markets — entering into 
 formal legal contracts for the worthy purpose. 
 
 Prendergast in his Cromwellian Settlement of 
 Ireland names four Bristol merchants who were 
 the most active of the slave trading agents. Fo£? 
 
AND THEN CAME CROMWELL 
 
 * 
 illustrating the formal legal way in which the 
 horror was commercialized Prendergast quotes 
 "one instance out of many" — the case of Captain 
 John Vernon, who as agent of the English Com- 
 missioners who then governed Ireland, con- 
 tracted with Messrs. Sellick and Leader of Bris- 
 tol "under his hand, of date 14th September, 
 1653," to supply tliem with two hundred and 
 fifty women of the Irish nation above twelve and 
 under forty-five years of age. Also three hun- 
 dred men between twelve years and forty-five 
 years of age. 
 
 On the troopers, the camp followers, the Eng- 
 lish friends, and London financiers, of the Crom- 
 wellian expedition — for it was financed by spec- 
 ulators in legal, regular way — was bestowed all 
 of the richest of the lands in the East and South. 
 To such of the Irish as escaped butchery and 
 slavery, Cromwell gave the choice of "Hell or 
 Connaught" — Connaught being the Western, the 
 wildest and most barren province of Ireland. 
 
 After the Cromwellian settlement of Ireland, 
 the official records (May, 1563) state "The starv- 
 ing multitude are feeding on carrion and weeds 
 on the highways, and many times orphans are 
 found exposed and some of them fed upon by 
 
 49 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 ravening wolves, and other birds and beasts of 
 prey." 
 
 Thirty thousand Irishmen escaped with their 
 lives to Europe — to all corners of which they 
 wandered — and in all corners of which they 
 with their Irish brilliancy, soon made themselves 
 famed. One historian says, "They became Chan- 
 cellors of Universities, professors, and high of- 
 ficials in every European state. A Kerryman was 
 physician to Sobieski,, King of Poland, A Kerry- 
 man was confessor to the Queen of Portugal, and 
 was sent by the King on an embassy to Louis 
 the Fourteenth. A Donegal man named 
 O'Glacan was physician and Privy Chancellor 
 to the King of France, and a very famed prc^ 
 lessor of medicine in the Universities of Tolouse 
 and Bologna." 
 
 "There wasn't a country in Europe and not 
 an occupation where Irishmen were not in the 
 first rank — as Fieldmarshals, Admirals, Ambas- 
 sadors, Prime Ministers, Scholars, Physicians, 
 Merchants, Soldiers, and Founders of mining in- 
 dustry." 
 
 Irish scholars and soldiers, the Wild Geese, 
 continued streaming from Ireland to the Con- 
 tinent over more than one hundred years — and 
 during the next century and a half were making 
 
 SO 
 
AND THEN CAME CROMWELL 
 
 their mark throughout Europe. Read O'Callag- 
 haiv*s History of the Irish Brigade in the service 
 of France for much that is absorbingly interest- 
 ing. 
 
 From 1690 to 1745 it is recorded that almost 
 half a million Irish soldiers died for France. But 
 before they died they wrote their name and Ire- 
 land's name, in glory, on many famous battlefields 
 — at Steinkirk, at Landen, at Blenheim, at Spires, 
 at Fontenoy the Glorious where they proved 
 themselves the saviours of France, and on a score 
 of other fields. 
 
 "On far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to Belgrade, 
 Lie the soldiers and chiefs of the Irish Brigade." 
 
 In the middle of the eighteenth century Naples 
 had an Irish regiment. 
 
 There were five Irish regiments with Spain. 
 At Melazzo in Sicily, the Irish troops turned 
 the tide of war when the Spaniards were sur- 
 prised by the Germans — and saved the Span- 
 iards. 
 
 The Irish Admiral, Cammock, who was the 
 leading man in the Spanish Government in the 
 sixties of the eighteenth century, had been an 
 ambassador to London. 
 
 St 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 Spain had noted generals, O'Mahoney, O'Don-i 
 nell, O'Gara, O'Reilly, O'Neill. 
 
 When Cremona was surprised by Eugene and 
 the Imperial troops, the Irish, tumbling out ol 
 bed and fighting in their shirts, recovered the 
 City. 
 
 Lecky says, ''llie Austrian army was crowded 
 with Irish officers and soldiers." 
 
 The noble family of the Taaffes of Austrii. 
 were Irish — and down to the present day kept 
 up their Irish affiliations. The Duke of Tetuan, 
 who was Spanish Minister of War during the 
 Spanish-American War, is one of the Donegal 
 O'Donnells who have been for centuries in Spain. 
 He still maintains his affiliations with Donegal. 
 
 Lally of the Brigade who distinguished him- 
 self at Fontenoy and elsewhere, ambitioned the 
 conquest of India. 
 
 Tyrconnel was French ambassador to Berlin. 
 Lacey was Spanish ambassador to Stockholm. 
 And O'Mahoney was ambassador to Vienna. In 
 recent days Marshal MacMahon was President 
 of France. 
 
 The Dillons were high in the French army. 
 And one of the family was Bishop of Toulouse. 
 
 One of the foremost Austrian generals during 
 the Seven Years' War was the Irishman, Browne, 
 
AND THEN CAME CROMWELL 
 
 Another Browne, cousin to General Browne, o! 
 Austria, was Fieidmarshal in the Russian ser- 
 vice, and became Governor of Riga. O'Brien it 
 was who founded and built up the Russian navy. 
 Peter Lacey was Russian Field Marshal and was 
 the chief man in organizing the army of Peter 
 the Great. 
 
 The Laceys achieved great fame in Spain and 
 Austria, as well as in Russia. 
 
 While Ireland groaned through her long and 
 terrible night of agony, and the Irish at home 
 were as the wild beasts, Europe, throughout its 
 length and breadth, scintillated wath the bril- 
 liancy of the brilliant banished children of Inis- 
 fail, and their children, and children's children. 
 
 These had escaped the blessings of English 
 civilization. 
 
CHAPTER IV, 
 ENGLAND FOSTERS IRISH INDUSTRIES 
 
 It was not only about Ireland's morality and 
 politics that England gravely concerned herself. 
 Ireland's industries, trade and commerce, needed 
 serious looking after by the protector. 
 
 From very remote days, as testified both by 
 ancient history and ancient legend, the natives of 
 this Island adventured much upon sea. 
 
 In the early centuries of the Christian Era 
 the highly civilized Celt turned to trade and com- 
 merce — probably stimulated thereto by the 
 Phoenicians who carried on a large commercial 
 intercourse with Ireland. The early Irish were 
 famous for their excellence in the arts and crafts 
 — particularly for their Vvonderfully beautiful 
 vvork in metals — in bronze, silver and gold. A 
 hundred hills and bogs in Ireland constantly 
 yield up testimony to this — if we discarded the 
 testimony of history, story and poem. 
 
 By the beginning of the Middle Ages, the trade 
 of Ireland with the Continent of Europe was im- 
 portant — and Irish ships seem to have been sail- 
 
 54 
 
ENGLAND FOSTERS IRISH INDUSTRIES 
 
 ing to most of the leading ports of the Con- 
 tinent. Irish merchants were well-known in the 
 great Continental markets. And Irish money 
 commanded universal credit. 
 
 This condition of things naturally did not suit 
 Ireland's protector — her commercial rival — Eng- 
 land. So at an early period she began to pro- 
 tect Irish industry — by trying to keep it at home. 
 It is interesting to foliow for a century or two 
 the means adopted for this worthy object. 
 
 In 1339 England appointed an admiral whose 
 duty was to stop traffic between Ireland and tlie 
 Continent. He m.ust have been but indifferently 
 successful ; for, a little more than a century later, 
 Edward the Fourth deplores the prosperity of 
 Ireland's trade, and he orders (in 1465) that since 
 the fishing vessels from the Continent helped 
 out the traffic with Ireland, these vessels should 
 not henceforth fish in Irish waters without an 
 English permit. 
 
 And since even this did not stop the stubborn 
 Irish, in 1494 an English law is enacted prohibit- 
 ing the Irish from exporting any industrial pro- 
 duct, except with English permit, and through 
 ar English port, after paying English fees. 
 
 This handicap, too, failed. For, we find Eng- 
 lish merchants in 1548, unofficially taking a hand 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 at tryingf to end the traffic — by fitting out 
 armed vessels to attack and plunder the trading 
 ships between Ireland and the Continent — com- 
 mercialized piracy. 
 
 But official piracy had to be fallen back upon. 
 Still twenty years later, Elizabeth ordered the 
 seizure of the whole Continental commerce of 
 Munster — much more than half of the trade of 
 the Island. And in 1571 she ordered that no 
 cloth or stuff made in Ireland, should be exported 
 even to England, except by an Englishman in 
 Ireland, or by a merchant approved by the Gov- 
 ernment. (Nearly thirty years before, her res- 
 pected, much married father, Henry of blessed 
 memory, had forbidden Irish cloths to be ex- 
 ported from Gahvay). 
 
 And Irish trade was attacked fr@m yet another 
 angle. At the same time that the altruistic ad- 
 miral was appointed, Irish coinag-e, was, by law, 
 forbidden to be received in England. However, 
 Irish merchants and Irish money had such worthy 
 repute that not only did they still succeed with 
 it on the Continent but, one hundred years later, 
 Irish coinage had to be prohibited again in Eng- 
 land. That was in 1447. 
 
 In 1477, after imprisoning some Irish mer- 
 chants who traded with Irish money in England, 
 
 5i 
 
ENGLAND FOSTERS IRISH INDUSTRIES 
 
 Ireland's protectors adopted a radical reform by 
 Introducing into Ireland an English coinage de- 
 based twenty-five per cent, below the English 
 standard — and by law establishing it as the Irish 
 currency. 
 
 Yet we are told that Irish credit on the Con- 
 tinent was so good that, the "illegal" Irish coin- 
 age still continued to pass there. And the Irish 
 at home, with their usual perversity, seemed to 
 have preferred the full value Irish coinage to the 
 three-quarter value English coinage — for, seventy 
 years later (in 1549) the refusal of an Irishman 
 in Ireland to accept the debased English coin- 
 age at its face value was decreed an act of trea- 
 son. An immediate reason for this act was, that 
 the English soldiers in Ireland, being paid with 
 the debased brand of English coinage, found 
 "nothing doing" when they tendered their coin 
 for Irish products. 
 
 By reason of the big Continental trade the 
 shipping industry had in itself become an impor- 
 tant one in Ireland. Hence it was advisable to 
 extinguish it. So, in 1663 the law prohibited the 
 ise of all foreign going ships except such as were 
 built in England, manned by Englishmen, and 
 mailing from English ports. 
 
 Tlic Navigation Act of 1637 had already pro- 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 vided that Irish ships must clear from English 
 ports for foreign trade. After the Act of 1663 
 was passed, it was found that Irish merchants 
 even at these heavy disadvantages, had begun to 
 develop direct trade with the English Colonies. 
 So this was stopped. And it was then tried to 
 enact that no boats could even fish upon the 
 Irish shore except boats built and manned by 
 Englishmen. Anyhow the Irish ship-building 
 sore was healed — by the effective method of re- 
 moving it altogether. 
 
 The foreigner who knows not the way of Eng- 
 land with Ireland, will pause to ask himself if all 
 this is joke. It is a very grim joke. But dear 
 foreign reader, be not discouraged — there's worse 
 to come. Study Ireland's woolen joke. 
 
 The manufacture of cloths, more especially 
 woolens, had become in these centuries, a great 
 Irish industry. In the Continental markets, and 
 even in the British, Irish woolens were in great 
 demand. Consequently this trade should be 
 stopped. Though, as usual, it took a long time 
 to convince the pig-headed people who inhabited 
 Ireland that it was for their benefit to stop it. 
 The good work was, for mother England, a 
 tedious and thankless task. But England work* 
 not for thanks. Her work is altruistic evcTg 
 
 S8 
 
ENGLAND FOSTERS IRISH INDUSTRIES 
 
 ' III 1571, Elizabeth had begun the useful work 
 % discouraging the cloth trade. But half a cen- 
 tury later the good Lord Strafford, then Lord 
 ILieutenant of Ireland, is begging for a little more 
 discouragement. In 1634, he writes to Charles 
 the First, **That all wisdom advises to keep this 
 j(Irish) Kingdom as much subordinate and de- 
 pendent on England as possible; and holding 
 them from the manufacture of wool (which un- 
 less otherwise directed, I shall by all means dis- 
 courage), and then enforcing them to fetch their 
 cloth from thence, how can they depart from us 
 without nakedness and beggary?" Dear Mother 
 England, how closely Ireland should cling to, 
 and how dearly Ireland should love you ! 
 
 But it was not until 1660 that woolen goods 
 •were, by law, forbiddea to be exported from Ire- 
 land to England. Then the Irish thought to ex- 
 port their raw wool. This must be discouraged. 
 So, in 1669, Ireland was prohibited from export- 
 ing ber wool to England, 
 
 Biit there was ito r^son why, even when Irish 
 wool was k^t at home, England might not 
 make &^£i, profit out of it there — and also help 
 her own merchants, by enabling them to under- 
 sell tiie Irkh, in their own Irish markets. So, 
 later, Ireland was asked to send her «h«^ tp 
 
 S9 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 English ports for shearing — and iot oSctal ^^ 
 ing of the price of Irish wool. 
 
 This was good. But there was better to come. 
 In 1673, Sir William Temple (by request of Vice- 
 roy Essex) proposed that the Irish would act 
 wisely in giving up altogether the manufacture of 
 WGoI (even for home use), because "it tended to 
 interfere prejudicially with the English woolen 
 tiade.*' This is the same English statesman and 
 Irish protector who pointedly and pithily put 
 the maxim which England has always observed 
 in protecting Ireland, and fostering Irish wel- 
 fsre — ^**Regard must be had" said Sir William 
 Temple "to those points wherein the trade of Ire- 
 land comes t© interfere with that of England, in 
 v/hich case Irish trade ought to be declined so as 
 t© give way to the trade of England.** The es- 
 sence of the maxim, though, was then old. Sir 
 Humphrey Gilbert in the sixteenth century had 
 said, '*The trade of Ireland with Spain must be 
 d&stmyQ<i and secured to England." 
 
 Now Ireland was almost completely cured of 
 the bad habit of exporting woolens to her mas- 
 ter's detriment. Only, a little trace of the habit 
 8^1 Imgered. While the British Colonies (by 
 an oversight) had been left open to her, she con- 
 tinued exporting to them. This needed attention^ 
 
ENGLAND FOSTERS IRISH INDUSTRIES 
 
 Accordingly in 1697 an act was introduced to pro- 
 hibit Ireland from sending out any of her wool- 
 en manufactures — to any place. That should 
 finally fix her. 
 
 But, the Old England conscience yet scrupled 
 that it had not fully done its duty by its stepchild. 
 For though Ireland had ceased to interfere with 
 the English market throughout the rest of the 
 world, it was still wilfully making and wearing 
 its own woolens — to the criminal detriment of 
 English trade in Ireland. So, in 1698 a final step 
 was taken. On June 9 of that year both of the 
 English Houses of Parliament addressed King 
 William (of Glorious, Pious and Immortal Me- 
 mory) beseeching him to chide his Irish subjects 
 for that — in the language of the House of Lords, 
 "The growth of the woolen manufactures there 
 hath long and will be ever looked upon with great 
 jealousy by all your subjects of this kingdom, 
 and if not timely remedied m.ay occasion very 
 strict laws totally to prohibit and suppress same." 
 The impending punishment for continued wll- 
 fullness on the part of the naughty Irish child, 
 was going to give the noble lords more pain than 
 it would the child — ^which was being punished for 
 its own good. ^ 
 
 A^ the Commons in the course of their ad- 
 
 1^ 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 dress say, "And therefore we cannot without 
 trouble observe that Ireland which is dependent 
 on, and protected by, England, in the enjoyment 
 of all they have" — that is so decidedly good that 
 we must repeat it — "that Ireland which is de- 
 pendent on, and protected by, England in the 
 enjoyment of all they have, should of late apply 
 itself to the woolen manufacture, to the great 
 prejudice of the trade of this kingdom. . . . 
 make it your royal care, and enjoin all those 
 whom you employ in Ireland to make it their 
 care, and use their utmost diligence, to hinder the 
 export of wool from Ireland, except to be im- 
 ported hither, and for discouraging the woolen 
 manufacture of Ireland." And in token of their 
 solicitude for the country which was "protected 
 by England in the enjoyment of all that they 
 have" they suggested that Irishmen should turn 
 to making hemp and linen — which England had 
 little means of making — and which, more betoken, 
 Ireland then had less means of making. 
 
 King William answered his faithful Lords and 
 Commons, "I shall do all that in my power lies 
 to discourage the manufacture of woolens in Ire- 
 land." And the King w^as this time as good as 
 his word (despite the scandalous slanders of 
 Limerick men). In this year of 1698 he signed 
 
 62 
 
ENGIIAND FOSTERS IRISH INDUSTRIES 
 
 an act to the effect that because these manu- 
 factures are daily increasing in Ireland (disas- 
 trous to relate!), the exports of wool and woolen 
 manufactured articles from Ireland, should be 
 forbidden under pain of forfeiture of the goods, 
 and ships that carried them, and five hundred 
 pounds fine. It needs an Englishman's sublimity 
 of mind to comprehf^nd the enormity o\ the Irish 
 crim.e, and the deep degradation of Irish 
 criminals, which permitted the manufactures of 
 their country *Maily to increase" — to such a 
 grievous extent that their protectors had to step 
 in and penalize the crime — and root it out. 
 
 It is worth remembering that though the mere 
 Irish in Ireland were the workers, earning a sub- 
 sistence at the trade, it was n®w almost entirely 
 the Anglo-Irish, the purely British-blooded peo- 
 ple of the Island who were the manufacturers, 
 the traders, the capitalists. They, having had 
 the misfortune to be born and to be living in Ire- 
 land, were penalized and striven to be crushed 
 out by their own kin in the holy motherland be- 
 yond the Irish Sea. That they richly deserved, 
 howeA^er, to be throttled and kicked, is proven 
 by the fact that they, servile creatures, acting on 
 the behest of William and their kin beyond the 
 watf^r, did, on September, 1698, actually pass in 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 tlicir own House of Parliament (from which the 
 real Irish were carefully excluded) an act laying 
 prohibitory duties on their own w©olen manufac- 
 tures! In this connection it is worth comparing 
 the spinelessness of the Anglo-Irish in 1698 with 
 the spinefulness of their cousins in America, three 
 quarters of a century later. 
 
 Except for a few little items such as waddings 
 which were overlooked in the act of William the 
 .Third — but carefully attended to by his succes- 
 sors — the great Irish woolen manufacture was 
 now extinguished forever. The Irish woolen 
 comedy was ended. 
 
 For a long time after this destruction of one 
 of the country's chief supports, the economic 
 conditions in Ireland were terrible. Swift, who 
 had stated that **since Scripture says oppression 
 makes a wise man mad, therefore, consequently 
 speaking, the reason that some men in Ireland 
 arc not mad is because they are not wise" — he. 
 Swift, thus describes the condition to which Ire- 
 land was brought, by the suppression of the wool- 
 en trade — ^"The old and sick are dying and rotting 
 by cold and famine, and filth and vermin. The 
 younger laborers cannot get work, and pine away 
 for want of nourishment to such a degree that 
 if at any time they are accidently hired to com- 
 
ENGLAND FOSTERS IRISH INDUSTRIES 
 
 tnence labor, they have not the strength to per- 
 form it." 
 
 And the Protestant Bishop Nicholson who was 
 transferred to Derry from Carlisle, wrote "Never 
 even in Picardy, Westphalia or Scotland, did I 
 behold such marks of hunger and want as ap- 
 peared in the countenances of most of the poor 
 creatures met with on the road. In Donegal, in 
 bad seasons, the cattle are bled and the blood 
 boiled with sorrel." 
 
 Both Irish and English writers of this period 
 draw fearful pictures of Irish suffering and Irish 
 starvation, resulting from the abolition of her 
 woolen manufactures. 
 
 But, of course, they had hemp and linen manu- 
 factures to fall back upon — not to mention cot- 
 ton. So, they turned their attention to these. 
 But were not long at them till England got con- 
 cerned that they v/ere in danger of making a suc- 
 cess of them. 
 
 So, with the thoroughness of a real mistress, she 
 attended to this. Twenty five per cent, duty was 
 first put upon Irish cotton imported into Eng- 
 land. And then, in the reign of George the First, 
 tne inhabitants of Great Britain were forbidden to 
 wear any cotton other than of British manufac- 
 
 6s 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 hire. Which ended the brief cotton comedy in 
 Ireland. 
 
 As for the linen, it began receiving England's 
 attention immediately after the woolens were 
 disposed oi. As early as 1705, the export of linen 
 from Ireland to the British Colonies was for- 
 bidden — except for the coarsest kinds of undyed 
 Imens. Then the British Parliament put duties 
 and prohibitions upon Irish linen manufacturers 
 — and at the same time, granted bounties to Eng- 
 lish and Scotch manufacturers — in order to cure 
 Irishmen of the trade for promise of which Ire- 
 land had permitted herself to be robbed of her 
 woolen manufacture. 
 
 The Irish linens being excluded from England 
 by the imposition of a heavy duty, the foreign 
 Irish linen trade was soon safely ruined also. 
 But English attention to the trade followed and 
 sought it out even within the four seas of Ire- 
 land. When Crommelin, the Hugenot, who had 
 materially helped to build up the linen trade in 
 Ulster, tried to spread the manufacture into Lein- 
 stor, we are told that the fiercest English opposi- 
 tion blazed up. 
 
 Edmund Burke challenged the English Gov- 
 ernment for its breach of faith on the linen prop- 
 psition. And the servile Irish (Anglo-Irish) Par- 
 
 66 
 
ENGLAND FOSTERS IRISH INDUSTRIES 
 
 liament in 1774 addressed Harwood, the Lord 
 Lieutenant on the subject of the linen ruin, say- 
 ing, "The result is the ruin of Ulster and the flight 
 of the Protestant population to America." So, 
 it was the ruin of the linen trade under Eng- 
 land's "protecting them in the enjoyment of all 
 they have" that helped to give to America her so- 
 called Scotch-Irish pQpulation. 
 
 "Whoever," said Swift, "travels in this land 
 and observes the face of nature, and contrasts it 
 with the faces and dwellings of the natives, 
 hardly thinks himself in a land where law, re- 
 ligion, or common humanity is professed." 
 
 The linen trade was now well in hand. So let 
 us follow up another Irish comedy. 
 
 From an early period the Irish had a large 
 trade in the export of cattle to England. In 1665 
 England tried to stop this trade — and finally did 
 stop it in the reign of Charles the Second, when 
 the importation of Irish cattle into England was, 
 by an act of Parliament, voted "a common nuis- 
 ance" — and forbidden. 
 
 Carte in his "Life of Ormond" tells of the dis- 
 astrous effect which these acts had upon Ireland. 
 He says that horses went down in price from 
 thirty shillings to one shilling. And beeves from 
 £fty shillings to tenpence, 
 
 67 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 The resourceful Irish then began kilting the 
 cattle at home, and exporting the dead meat 
 Their equally resourceful protectors immediately- 
 countered with a law forbidding the import of 
 beef into England. And to leave no little hole 
 without a peg — they added pork and bacon for 
 good micasure. 
 
 But the contrary Irish ferreted out a hole to 
 get through. They developed dairying and began 
 exporting butter and cheese, from Ireland. Their 
 exasperated protectors had to go to the trouble 
 of amending the prohibition laws— adding butter 
 and cheese to the items which the Irish were in- 
 •\ited to keep at heme. 
 
 Then the Irish killed their cattle and horses 
 for their hides, and began what soon proved to be 
 a prosperous trade in leather — which was in de- 
 mand not only in England, but on the Continent 
 of Europe. 
 
 Their vigilant English masters, how^ever, soon 
 came along with another prohibition bill, which 
 put an end to that business. Before quitting 
 the cattle drive, however, it is only fair to say 
 that one of England's most representative com- 
 mercial writers of the early eighteenth century, 
 Davenant, pleaded that England should permit 
 
ENGLAND FOSTERS IRISH INDUSTRIES 
 
 Ireland to resume the cattle trade — because it 
 would hold the Irish from manufactures I 
 
 Ireland attempted to develop her tobacco in- 
 dustry. But a law against its gxowth was passed 
 in the reign of Charles the Second. And again, 
 in 183 1, under William the Fourth, it was enacted 
 that any person found in possession of Irish- 
 grown tobacco, should suffer a heavy penalty. So 
 the tobacco trade was tenderly shown out. 
 
 Ireland, in the latter part of the eighteenth 
 century, began not only making her own glass, 
 but also making glass for export. In the reign 
 of George the Second, the Irish, by law, were 
 forbidden to export glass, and also forbidden to 
 import any glass other than that of English man- 
 ufacture. So the glass industry was protected 
 to extinction. 
 
 Four and five centuries ago and upward, the 
 Irish fisheries were the second in importance in 
 Europe. Under careful English nursing they 
 were, a century and a half ago, brought to the 
 vanishing point. But the independent Irish Par- 
 liament at the end of the eighteenth century 
 saved them. It subsidized and revived the Irish 
 fisheries — till they were rivalling the British. A 
 few years after the Union, in 1819, England with- 
 drew the subsidy from the Irish fisheries — at th« 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 same time confirming and augmenting the sutn 
 sidles and grants to the British fishermen — with 
 ihe result that, notwithstanding Ireland's pos- 
 session of ^ the longest coastline of almost any 
 European country, it is now possessed of the most 
 miserable fisheries. 
 
 Where 150,000 Irish fishermen in 27,000 Irish 
 boats worked and thrived at the time that the 
 English Parliament took away the subsidy in 
 1S19, only 20,000 Irish people get a wretched 
 support from Irish fisheries today. The Brit- 
 ish fisheries, three or four centuries ago, about 
 squalled the Irish. The fisheries of Britain 
 today are valued at 9,000,000 pounds annually. 
 The fisheries of Ireland are worth 300,000 pounds. 
 The Irish fish were with typical British solicitude, 
 protected int@ the British net. 
 
 I have referred only to the leading Acts and 
 <ievices for the suppression of Irish manufactures 
 and Irish industries. What I have set down, 
 however, is sufficient to show how England "pro- 
 tected her beloved Irish subjects in the enjoyment 
 of all they have" — how Ireland prospered under 
 English Rule in a material way — and how Eng- 
 land in her own kind way, took each little todd- 
 ling Irish industry by the hand, led its childish 
 footsteps to the brink of the bottomless pit, and 
 
ENGLAND FOSTERS IRISH INDUSTRIES 
 
 gave it a push — thus ending its troubles forever. 
 
 Finally, the whole history of England's fos- 
 tering of Irish industries may be shown in one 
 illuminative sentence — When Englaad, several 
 centuries ago, began the work of fostering Irish 
 trade and industry, the commerce of Ireland was 
 about equal to the commerce of Britain; in 1912, 
 after several centuries assiduous English moth- 
 ering of Irish industries, statistics showed that 
 of the commerce of the foreign three kingdoms 
 1.2 per cent, was in Irish hands, 98.8 per cent, was 
 in the hands of Britain I 
 
 The reader who would like to have at his finger 
 ends the whole history of Irish trade progress 
 under mother England may burn and forget all 
 the rest of this chapter if he only remember 
 those few eloquent figures. 
 
 Even the bitter, anti-Irish Froude, in his "Eng- 
 lish in Ireland,*' is constrained to confess, "Eng- 
 land governed Ireland for what she deemed her 
 own interest, making her calculations on the 
 gross balance of her trade ledgers, and leaving 
 her moral obligations aside, as if right and v/rong 
 had been blotted out of the statute book of the 
 Universe." 
 
 Edmund Burke, asked, "Is Ireland united to 
 the crown of Great Britain for no purpose otlicr 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 than to counteract the bounties of Providence? 
 And in proportion as that bounty is generous that 
 we should regard it as an evil which is to be dealt 
 with by every sort of corrective?" 
 
 Says Lecky, "It v/ould be difficult in the whole 
 range of history to fnid another instance in which 
 such various and powerful agencies agreed to 
 degrade the character, and blast the prosperity 
 of a nation." 
 
 And here endeth what will be considered by 
 those who know not England's way with Ireland 
 a wonderful chapter of Irish history — but quite 
 common-place to those who have a bowing ac- 
 quaintance with Irish history. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 But these Lnsh knaves, barbarous and per- 
 verse, were not yet domesticated to the satisfac- 
 tion of the exacting Briton, 
 
 A less persevering people than the English, 
 less zealous in the service of God, might have 
 given up these unregcnerate heathens, in despair. 
 But in doing his duty to God and man, nothing 
 on earth or under the earth will deter the Briton. 
 
 Since fire and sword failed to carry civilization 
 home to the Irish savages, sometliing newer and 
 more effective must be tried. 
 
 So the Penal Laws were invented. 
 
 The great French jurist, Montesquciu, says of 
 the Irish Penal Laws: "This horrible code was 
 conceived by devils, written in human blood, and 
 registered in hell." 
 
 Under the Penal Laws a Catholic (in Ireland 
 synonymous with Irishman) was deprived of all 
 rights of citizenship. 
 
 He was forbidden to vote. 
 
 He was forbidden to keep any arms for his 
 piotection. 
 
 73 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 He was forbidden to enter any profession. 
 
 He was forbidden to hold public oflice. 
 
 He WB.B forbidden to engage in trade or com- 
 merce. 
 
 He was forbidden to take a mortgage in security 
 for a loan. 
 
 He was forbidden to live in a walled town— 
 or within five miles of a walled town. (The Eng- 
 lish and Scotch settlers owned and occupied the 
 towns and carried on the trade and commerce 
 there. The Irishman was graciously permitted 
 to come into the town during daylight — but had 
 to depart for his own wilds before sunset — un(2er 
 risk of being shot at sight for transgressing this 
 law. Even after the middle of the eighteenth 
 Century it was the boast of such cities as Ban- 
 don in the South, and Derry in the North, that 
 no Catholic was tolerated within their walls. 
 And when John Wesley visited Enniskillen after 
 the middle of the century, he found that city 
 boasting of the same proud distinction). 
 
 If any child of any Irish lather adopted the 
 English religion, that child could defy his father, 
 become thereby his father's landlord, m.ake his 
 father support him in ease, and must inherit all 
 of his father's estate. 
 
 II g man's wife chose to turn Protestant, the 
 
 74 
 
THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 n 
 Lord Oiancellor provided for the wife, accord- 
 ing to his pleasure from the property of her hus- 
 band — and she became thereby the sole heir of 
 all of her husband's property. 
 
 No Catholic could inherit the land of a Protes- 
 tant. 
 
 It was illegal for a Catholic to purchase any 
 land. He could not inherit any land by will. No 
 Catholic could receive an annuity. 
 
 No Catholic could own a horse of greater val- 
 ue than five pounds. If he found himself in pos- 
 session of such an animal, the law compelled 
 him, under severe penalty, to proceed at once tQ 
 the nearest Protestant and inform on himself. 
 
 Catholics could only dwell on forfeited estates 
 as laborers or cottiers. 
 
 It was illegal for a Catholic to hold any land 
 valued for more than thirty shillings a year. 
 
 If, on his miserable patch of holding, a Catho- 
 lic's profits exceeded one-third of his rent, all his 
 land would, by law, go to the Protestant who dis- 
 covered on him. 
 
 Lecky says: "All real enterprise and industry 
 among Catholic tenants were destroyed by laws 
 which consigned them to utter ignorance, and still 
 more by the law which placed strict bounds to 
 progress by providing that if their profits ever 
 
 75 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 exceeded one-third of their rent the first Protes- 
 tant who could prove that fact could take their 
 farm." 
 
 As decent Protestants revolted at becoming in- 
 formers it was enacted (by the Anglo-Irish Par- 
 liament in 1705) "That the persecuting of, and 
 informing against, papists, is an honorable serv- 
 ice." (The renowned quality of English humor 
 charmingly exemplified by making dishonor 
 honor, by Act of Parliament !) 
 
 A Catholic father could not be guardian to, or 
 have the tuition or custody ©f his own children, 
 if they chose to turn Protestant. 
 
 A Catholic was forbidden to educate his child. 
 And he was forbidden to exercise his religion. 
 
 If he sent his child abroad to be educated, ail his 
 property was thereby forfeited, and he himself 
 outlawed. 
 
 If by money help, or other help, he aided in 
 sending the child of another abroad t© be edu- 
 cated, his property was confiscated and he him- 
 self outlawed. '^^" 
 
 If any child went abroad to be educated, the 
 child's property, if it had any, or any property 
 that it might ever after own, was thereby confis- 
 cated — and the child was then and thenceforth 
 placed outside all privileges of law. 
 
 76 
 
THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 A Penal Law passed as early as the reign of 
 Elizabeth, and re-enacted as late as the reign of 
 Anne, commanded all Irish people under penalty 
 of fine or imprisonment to attend Protestant 
 worship. 
 
 Under the same law the leading Catholics in 
 each town or district were appointed to see, and 
 held responsible for, all of their fellow Catholics 
 strictly observing the foregoing. They were to 
 be the queen's bailiffs in bringing their heathen 
 fellows to hear the truth — and the queen's in 
 formers upon all of their fellows who should turn 
 a deaf ear to the truth. 
 
 Both schoolmaster and priest w^ere banned by 
 law. Both of them hunted in the hills — tracked 
 by blood hounds — and by human hounds infin- 
 itely more beastly. 
 
 There was a price upon the head of the school- 
 master and of the priest — the same as on the 
 head of a w^olf. Though, frequently they were 
 rated higher than the other pest. For instance, 
 en June lO, 1567, Burton's Parliamentaiy Diary 
 records the words of Major Morgan, M. P. for 
 Wicklow — who was protesting in Parliament 
 against striking more taxes on Ireland — ^**We 
 have three beasts to destroy that lay burdens 
 upon us; the first is a wolf upon whom wc lay 
 
 77 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 five pounds ; the second beast is a priest on whons 
 we lay ten pounds — if he be eminent, more; the 
 third beast is a Tory on whom we lay twenty 
 pounds." 
 
 For, the price of priests fluctuated. Like every 
 other commodity on the English market, it had^ 
 of course, to be governed by the law of supply 
 and demand. And like most bad weeds the more 
 the priest was rooted out the thicker he seemed 
 to spring up again. When he was plentiful — > 
 which was usually the case — the most that an 
 honest, hard-working man could get for a priest 
 was five pounds — at which the quotation usually 
 stood. 
 
 Again, even when priests were few, but that 
 the priest-hunting profession was over-crowded, 
 prices slumped. After the Cromwellian Settle- 
 ment, for instance, alhtough priests were then 
 scarce, prices reached rock-bottom — because 
 every man of the settlers was trying, through 
 priest-hunting, to make a little ready money on 
 the side. Here are a few sample dusbursemcnt 
 items from the Government records of 1657: 
 
 "Five pounds to Thomas Gregson, Evan Pow- 
 ell, and Samuel Ally, to be equally divided up- 
 on them, for arresting a Popish priest, Donogb 
 Hagerty, taken and now secured in the Countjr 
 
 78 
 
THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 jail at Clonmel." P'or, neighboring British set- 
 tlers often formed a co-partnership in the good 
 work, and divided their earnings, share and share 
 alike. 
 
 f An enterprising man, however, such as an ex- 
 soldier sometimes employed hired help for priest- 
 hunting, and, paying them by the day^s work, 
 thus reaped larger profits for himself. For in- 
 stance *To Lieutenant Edwin Wood, twenty- 
 five pounds for five priests and three frairs ap- 
 prehended by him — nam^ely Thomas McGeogha- 
 gan, Turlough MacGowan, Hugh Goan, Terence 
 Fitzsimmons, and another — v/ho on examination 
 confessed themselves to be priests and friars." 
 It must not be misunderstood that the generous 
 Lieutenant threw in three friars for good meas- 
 ure, gratis to the Government. There was only a 
 total of five head in the round-up, all of them 
 priests, but three of them belonging to the orders. 
 
 "To Humphrey Gibbs and to Corporal Thomas 
 Hill ten pounds for apprehending two Popish 
 priests, namely Maurice Prendergast and Ed- 
 ward Fahy." The ex-soldiers with their greater 
 keeness land very fine training were usually able 
 to skin the field — to the disgust of the civilians. 
 
 *To Arthur Spollen, Robert Pierce, and John 
 Bruen, five pounds for their good service per- 
 
 79 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 formed in apprehending and bringing before the 
 Right Hon. Lord Chief Justice Pepys on the 
 2 1 St January last, one Popish priest, Edwin 
 Duhy." Only five pounds between three saints I 
 The civilians it will be observed were only pikers 
 at the work. 
 
 Maybe it was as well. For then, as now, too 
 great commercial success, led these Captains of 
 industry to ultimate ruin. Exempli gratia, Mr. 
 Terrell. The Dublin Intelligencer of May 23, 
 1713 records the sad news — "This day Terrell 
 the famous priest-catcher, who was condemned 
 this term of Assize for having several wives, was 
 executed.** The poor fellow could no more with- 
 stand success than a Pittsburgh millionaire, 
 
 Linder Elizabeth it was enacted that every 
 Romish priest found in Ireland after a certain 
 date should be deemed guilty ©f rebellion, that 
 he should "be hanged till dead then his head 
 taken of!, his bowels taken out and burned, and 
 his head fi:Ked on a pole in some public place." 
 
 And the same act of Elizabeth provided that 
 any one who harboured a priest should have all 
 his goods confiscated and should die upon the 
 gallows. 
 
 The Puritans whose renowned strug-gle for 
 liberty of corLscience (their conscience), itiU 
 
 go 
 
THE PENAL L.\WS 
 
 makes the world rmg — the Puritans, in their con- 
 suming zeal for liberty of conscience, re-enacted 
 in Ireland this law of Elizabeth— with improve- 
 ments. They provided that not only any man 
 who harboured a priest, but any man who knew 
 Vv'here a priest was hidden, and did not hurry the 
 information to the authorities, should be punished 
 with death. And furthermore they enacted that 
 even the private exercise of the Roman Catholic 
 Religion in Ireland should be punished by death. 
 
 Schoolmaster hunting, and priest hunting, in 
 those days became a very profitable pursuit, and 
 many enterprising Englishmen emigrated to Ire- 
 land to enter the remunerative profession. Even 
 Portuguese Jews came over to push their fortune 
 at the sport 
 
 The Protestant Dr. Taylor says "During the 
 latter part of the seventeenth and the beginning 
 <ji the eighteenth century priest hunting had be- 
 come a favorite field sport/' 
 
 Unlike most other field sports however, the 
 end of the field day did not end the enjoyment. 
 After the criminal was taken — if he was taken 
 alive — the fun entered a new phase. For the 
 prolongation of the enjoyment of the English 
 sportsmen a "trial" v/as often staged and regular 
 sentence gravely pronounced and its execution 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 earned out with as much orderliness as an Ala- 
 bama lynching-bec. 
 
 A fair sample of the proceeding's of the time 
 is afTorded by the case of Oliver Plunkett the 
 meek and saintly Archbishop of Armagh, whose 
 '^execution furnished an English holiday In i6So. 
 fThe Protestant Bishop Burnett says of his case, 
 ***The witnesses v/ere brutal and profligate 
 men." He was charged with the crime of trying 
 ■to establish the Catholic religion in Ireland. The 
 ILord Chief Justice pronounced sentence "And 
 therefore you must go hence to the place from 
 whence you came, that is, to Newgate, and from 
 thence you shall be, drawn through the city of 
 Lx)ndon to Tyburn; there you shall be hanged 
 by the neck, but cut down before you are dead, 
 your bowels shall be taken out and burnt before 
 your face, your head shall be cut off, and your 
 body divided into four quarters, to be disposed 
 of as His Majesty pleases. And I pray God 
 to have mercy on your soul." 
 
 Another historian describing the end of this 
 base criminal says, ''His speech ended and the 
 cap drawn over his eyes, OliTer Plunkett again 
 recommended his happy soul, with raptures of 
 devotion into the hands of Jesus, his Saviour, for 
 whose sake he died — till the cart was drawn from 
 
 §3 
 
THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 under him. Thus then he hung betwixt Heaven 
 and earth, an open sacrifice to God for innocence 
 and religion ; and as soon as he expired the exe- 
 cutioner ripped his body open and pulled out his 
 heart and bowels, and threw them in the fire, 
 already kindled near the gallows for that pur- 
 pose.'* And so perished one "surpliced ruffian" 
 of Ireland — to the glory of England and God. 
 
 The Scottish Protestant, Dr. Smiles, (the fa- 
 mous "Self-Help" Man,) in his History of Ire- 
 land, says '*The Cath#Hc Irishman was degraded 
 into a mere i^rf and bondsatan of the soil — ^from 
 all proprietorship in wkkh he was debarred. 
 His property (if he had atiy), might now be 
 seized by his Protestant neighbors; the child 
 might plunder the father; the wife, the husband; 
 the servant, the master. The nation lay at the 
 m.ercy of the vilest kind ©f disceverers and in- 
 formers. The history of that time is the most 
 elcquent in the histary of Ireland — eloquent of 
 suffering and endurance under the deadliest 
 wrongs.** 
 
 We will pause in our picturing of the English 
 crime in Ireland — to consider a thought that may 
 naturally arise in many minds. 
 
 "Might not the Irish themselves, if they had 
 
 t.3 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 ■ . * 
 
 had the power, have persecute3\theiryinemiel. 
 after the same fashion?" , .. * * ;' ^ *-.-.^^ 
 
 I confess it would be natural to expect that the 
 Irish, coming into power, should have oppressed, 
 persecuted and massacred those who had plun- 
 dered them of their patrimony, made their land 
 flov/ with blood, and forced them, the natives of 
 this land, into the direst bondage. 
 
 It v/ould be only natural to expect this. But 
 let us study an actual instance of what did occur. 
 And after that we'll glance at an instance of the 
 opposite kind. 
 
 When James II. came to Ireland in 1689 and 
 rallied around him the often-befooled Irish people 
 — and that the Irish were, for once, in com.plete 
 control again of their own country, an Irish Par- 
 liam.ent met in Dublin on May 7, 1689. 
 
 This was a Catholic Irish Parliament, repre- 
 senting a Catholic Irish country. The members 
 of it were men called together in the frenzy of 
 Civil War — men too, everyone of v/hom was 
 smarting from memory of the vilest wrongs ever 
 Vv'rought by conqueror on conquered. Lecky 
 says of the mxcmbers of the Plouse of Comm.ons : 
 "They were almost all new men animated by 
 resentmxent of bitterest wrongs," — men most of 
 whom had been robbed of their father's estates. 
 
 84 
 
THE PENAi; LAWS 
 
 Yet though these men burned with holy indigna- 
 tion for the persecutions that they and their land 
 and their people had suffered at the hands of the; 
 plunderer and the murderer — and though in this 
 their hour of triumph they held the power of life 
 and death over their wrongers, Lecky confesses, 
 with evident astonishment, "They established 
 freedom of religion in a moment of excitement 
 and passion." 
 
 By this Parliament it was enacted "We hereby 
 declare that it is the law of this land that not 
 now, or ever again, shall any man be persecuted 
 Cor his religion." 
 
 Four Protestant Bishops sat in the Upper 
 House. No Catholic Bishop was called to sit 
 there. Fifteen outlawed Catholic peers were r^ 
 called, but only five new peers were made. Siit 
 Protestant members sat in the Lower Housfr— 
 most of the rest of the Protestant members hav- 
 ing espoused the cause of William, or fled to 
 England. 
 
 They established free schools. 
 
 Where; Catholic Ireland had before been com- 
 pelled to support the Protestant Church, this 
 Parliament enacted that Catholics should pay 
 dntis to Catholic pastors, and Protestants should 
 p9j dues to Protestant pastors, 
 
 8s 
 
IREEAND'S CASE 
 
 The Catholic Bishop Moloney in writing to the 
 Parliament went so far as to recommend that 
 compensation should be provided for all Pro- 
 testant Church beneficiaries who, under the for- 
 eigner's regime, had been paid by the state. 
 
 And thus did these Irish Catholics, in theii^ 
 brief moment of triumph, to the usurpers who 
 had persecuted and plundered them till as one 
 Protestant historian confesses, ** Protestantism 
 came to be associated in the native mind with 
 spoliation, confiscation, and massacre," 
 
 Lecky admits that under this Irish Catholic 
 Parliament "The Protestant clergy were guar- 
 anteed full liberty of professing, preaching, and 
 teaching their religion,** 
 
 And now let us glance at a contrasting picture. 
 
 A little more than two years after the sitting 
 and legislating of the Irish Catholic Parliament, 
 the British once more got the upper hand — by 
 agreement. In the WilHamite War that ensued, 
 the Williamites won all before them— till they 
 came to Limerick. After ^^vo long sieges they 
 could not defeat the Irish there. Accordingly 
 they ended the war by the celebrated Treaty of 
 Limerick. Under this treaty, to which the faith 
 snd honor of the English crown were pledged, 
 tie Irish people were promised in their own coun- 
 
 m 
 
THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 try equal protection with the British usurper 
 there, for their properties and their liberties — 
 and in particular they were to enjoy the free and 
 unfettered exercise of their rcligi©n. 
 
 On these conditions, and in their innocence 
 thinking that the pledged faith and honor of the 
 English crown was an inviolable guarantee, the 
 Irish laid down their arms and ended the war. 
 
 What followed? 
 
 As it has been often, and well put, the cele- 
 brated Treaty of Limerick was broken before 
 the ink on the document was dry. 
 
 When the Lords Justices, returning from the 
 treaty signing, attended service in Christ Church 
 Cathedral, Dr. Dopping, Lord Bishop of Meath 
 opened the ball by preaching a furious sermon 
 upon the sin of keeping faith with papists. All 
 over the country the persecution and plundering 
 of the papist began again, and was soon in full 
 swing. A million acres of papists' lands were con- 
 fiscated. The British settlers in Ireland began 
 bcmbarding Parliament with petitions against the 
 Irish papists. If these people got their liberties 
 it was shown that Ireland would be no place for 
 decent British people. For instance, the Mayor 
 and the Aldermen of Limerick, in their petition 
 to Parliament, protested that they were "greatly 
 
 87 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 damaged in their trade (with the honest British 
 residents) by the large number of papists residing 
 here." Just as every good American knows how 
 any American quarter is cheapened and ruined 
 by negroes migrating into it, so Irish towns were 
 ruined by the mere Irish being allowed to crawl 
 in. 
 
 Even the Protestant coal porters of Dublin pre- 
 sented in Parliament "the petition of one Edw^ard 
 Spragg and others" in which the petitioners hum- 
 bly show that Darby Ryan, a papist, is employ- 
 ing porters of his own religion ! 
 
 Just imagine — if you can — the Impudence of the 
 diabolical Darby, an Irish papist living in a papist 
 Ireland under the solemn pledge of the English 
 crown's faith and honor that he should enjoy 
 equal liberties with the foreigner — imagine this 
 scoundrel perpetrating the outrage of giving his 
 fellow papists work to do! The astounding im- 
 pudence of the impudent fellow surpassed the 
 comprehension of every noble-minded Briton! 
 
 Only three years after the faith and honor of 
 the British crown had been pledged to the pap- 
 ists, the Parliament passed its Act for the Better 
 Securing of the Government against Papists. 
 
 No Catholic could henceforth have "gun, pistol 
 or sword, or any other weapon of offense or de- 
 
THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 fense, tinder penalty of fine, imprisonment, pillory 
 or public whipping." It was provided that any 
 magistrate could visit the house of any of the 
 Irish, at any hour of the night or day, and ransack 
 it for concealed weapons. John Mitchel says 
 ''It fared ill with any Catholic vvho fell under the 
 displeasure of his formidable neighbors." lie says 
 no papist was safe from suspicion who had money 
 to pay fines — ^but woe to the papist who had a 
 handsome daughter! 
 
 Under the pledged faith and honor of the Brit- 
 ish crown, which promised to secure the Irish 
 from, any disturbance on account of their religion, 
 it was now enacted that '*A11 Popish Archbishops, 
 Bishops, Vicars-General, Deans, Jesuits, monks, 
 friars, and all other regular Popish clergy shall 
 depart out of this kingdom before the first day of 
 May, 1698"— under penalty of transportation for 
 life if they failed to comply — and under penalty 
 to those who should dare to return, of being 
 hanged, drawn and quartered. 
 
 And by such liberality and generosity on the 
 part of the British was the Irish nation repaid for 
 the generosity it had shown them in its hour of 
 triumph. 
 
 And to our foolish trusting Irish people thus 
 jras exemplified for tibe ninety and ninth time, th^ 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 folly of relying on a "solemn treaty" of Britain-^ 
 of thinking there was some value in the "pledged 
 faith and honor" of the British Crown! 
 
 This is the same Britain that was so painfully 
 shocked (bless its virtuous heart!) when, recent- 
 ly, a German diplomat called a treaty a scrap 
 of paper! .Those unutterable Germans! 
 
 90 
 
CHAPTER VI, 
 STILL THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 Throughout those dark days the hunted Irish 
 schoolmaster, with price upon his head, was hid- 
 den from house to house. And in the summer 
 days he gathered his little class, hungering and 
 thirsting for knowledge, behind a hedge in re- 
 mote mountain glen — where, while tattered lads 
 upon the hilltops kept watch for the British sol- 
 diers, he fed to his eager pupils the forbidden 
 iruit of the tree of knowledge. 
 
 Latin and Greek were taught to ragged hunt- 
 ed ones under shelter of the hedges— whence 
 these teachers were known as hedge schoolmas- 
 ters. A knowledge of Latin was a frequent 
 enough accomplishment among poor Irish moun- 
 taineers in the seventeenth century, — and was 
 spokea by many of them on special occasions. It 
 is truthfully boasted that cows were sometimes 
 bought and sold in Greek, ia mountain market- 
 places of Kerry. I had a valued friend, an old 
 mountaineer in Donegal, who toJd me how, 
 even at the end of the eighteenth century, his 
 
 91 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 father, then a youth, used to hear at **rhe 
 Priests Dinner/' in the mountain station house, 
 the priest, the schoolmaster and many of the 
 weli-to-do mountaineers discourse in Latin. 
 
 To these hedge schoolmasters who at the cost 
 of all their happiness and risk of their lives, fed 
 the little flame of knowledge and kept it burn- 
 ing among the hills and glens of Ireland, through- 
 out Ireland's dread night, Ireland can never re- 
 pay her debt. In my book of verse, ''Ballads of 
 a Country-boy," I sing a little stave to their 
 memory : 
 
 THE HEDGE SCHOOLMASTERS 
 
 When the night shall lift from Erin's hills, 'twere 
 
 shame if we forget 
 One band of unsung heroes whom Freedom owes 
 
 a debt. 
 When we brim high cups to brave ones then, 
 
 their memory let us pledge 
 Who gathered their ragged classes behind a 
 
 friendly hedge. 
 
 By stealth they met their pupils in the glen's 
 
 deep-hidden nook, 
 And taught them many a lesson was never ia 
 
 English book; 
 
 92 
 
STILL THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 iThere was more than wordy logic shown to use 
 in wise debate; 
 
 Nor amo was the only verb they gave to con- 
 jugate. 
 
 When hunted on the heathery hill and through 
 the shadov/y wood^ 
 
 They climbed the clift, they dared the marsh, they 
 stemmed the tumbling flood; 
 
 [Their blanket was the clammy mist, their bed 
 the wind-swept bent; 
 
 lii ^tiul sleep they dreamt the bay of blood- 
 hounds on their scent. 
 
 [Their lore was not the brightest, nor their storCp 
 
 mayhap, the best, 
 But they fostered love, undying, in each young 
 
 Irish breast; 
 'And through the dread, dread night, and long, 
 
 that steeped our island then, 
 [The lamps of hope and fires of faith were fed by 
 
 these brave men. 
 iThe grass waves green above them ; soft sleep b 
 
 theirs for aye; 
 [The hunt is over, and the cold ; the hunger passeif 
 
 away. 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 O, hold them high and holy! and their memory 
 
 proudly pledge, 
 .Who gathered their ragged classes behind a 
 
 friendly hedge. 
 
 Throughout these dreadful centuries, too, the 
 hunted priest — who as a youth had been smuggled 
 to the Continent of Europe to receive his training 
 — tended the flame of faith. He was hidden like 
 s thief among the hills. On Sundays and feast 
 days he celebrated Mass on a rock on a mountain- 
 side in a remote glen, while the congregation 
 knelt there on the heather of the hillside under 
 the open heavens. While he said Mass, faithful 
 sentries watched from all the nearby hilltops, to 
 give timely warning of the approaching priest- 
 hunter and his guard of British soldiers. 
 
 But sometimes the troops came on them un- 
 awares, and the Mass Rock was bespattered with 
 the blood of the "surpliced rnffian" (as he is, 
 by English authority, appropriately named), — 
 and men, women and children caught red-handed 
 in the crime of w^orshipping God among the glens, 
 >veft butchered on the mountainside. 
 
 Bishops and archbishops, meanly dressed in 
 Irough home-spuns, trudgied on foot among their 
 
STILL THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 people — and sometimes sheltered themseives» and 
 ate and slept in caves in the ground. 
 
 The gentle Spenser in his day, observing all 
 this, "did marvel" how these hunted priests, fore- 
 going all the comforts and pleasures of life, and 
 inviting both life and death's fearfulest terrors, 
 pursued their mission "without hope of reward 
 and richesse/* 
 
 "Reward and richesse 1" exclaims the Presby- 
 terian patriot, John Mitchell, commenting on this, 
 *'l know the spots within my own part of Ireland 
 where venerable archbishops hid themselves, as it 
 were, in a hole of the rock. . . . Yet it was 
 with full knowledge of all this, with full resolu- 
 tion to brave all this, that many hundreds of edu- 
 cated Irishmen, fresh from the colleges of Bel- 
 gium or of Spain, pushed to the Sea Coast at 
 Brest or St. Malo, to find some way of crossing 
 to the land that offered them a life of work and of 
 woe. Imagine a priest ordained at Seville or 
 Salamanca, a gentleman of high old name, a 
 man of eloquence and genius, who has sustained 
 disputations in the college halls on question of 
 literature or theology, and carried off prizes and 
 crowns ; — see him on the quays of Brest, bargain- 
 ing with some skipper to be allowed to work his 
 passage. He wears tarry breeches and a tar- 
 
 95 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 paulin hat (for disguise was g^enerally needed) — 
 he throws himself on board, does his tull part of 
 the hardest work, neither feeling the cold spray 
 nor the fiercest tempest. And he knows, too, that 
 the end of it all, for him, may be a row of sugar 
 canes to hoe, under the blazing sun of Barbadoes^ 
 overlooked by a broad-hatted agent of a Bristol 
 plantation. Yet he pushes eagerly to meet his 
 fate; for he carries in his hands a sacred deposit, 
 bears in his heart a holy message, and must tell it 
 or die. See him, at last, springing ashore, and 
 hurrying on to seek his bishop in some cave, or 
 tinder some hedge — but going with caution by 
 reason of the priest catcher and the wolf dogs." 
 
 The learned and saintly Bishop Gallagher (still 
 famed for his sermons), a noble and beautiful 
 character, had many narrow escapes from butch- 
 ery in his unending peregrinations, traveling 
 stick in hand, and homespun clad, among his 
 flock — sleeping, sometimes in human habitation,. 
 sometim.es in a hole in the bank and frequently 
 among the beasts of the field. Once when he had 
 the good fortune to be sheltered under a poor roof 
 in Donegal, he was aroused in the middle of the 
 night by the alarm that the priest hunters wc'ce 
 c'o<e upon him. Half-clad, he escaped — but the 
 poor man who had been guilty of housing him, 
 
 96 
 
STILL THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 was taken out and butchered — thereby saving the 
 priest hunters from an entirely unprofitable and 
 uncomfortable night journey. 
 
 After Bishop Gallagher was translated from 
 Donegal to a Bishopric in the midlands, the 
 Bishop's Palace of this learned and truly noble 
 man was a bothy built against a bank in the bog 
 of A.llen. 
 
 Thus in their miserable lairs, in the bogs and 
 barren mountains, whither they were trailed by 
 wolf-hounds and blood-hounds, were sheltered all 
 that was noble, high and holy in Ireland — while 
 scoundrels, silk-and-fine-linen-clad, fattening on 
 the <at of an anguished land, languished in the 
 country's high seats of honor; or with Bible in 
 blood-embrued hands, and eyes upturned to God, 
 stalked abroad, models of true English Christian- 
 ity for the edification of the Irish barbarians. 
 
 The late date down to which these persecutions 
 were carried may be judged from the fact that the 
 present Irish Primate's predecessor, Archbishop 
 McGettigan, used to tell how, in his young days, 
 at the Mass Rock in the meuntain, he acted as 
 sentry, as acolite, and as candle-stick (one of the 
 two boys who at either side of the altar-rock held 
 the lighted candle and shielded it from the wind). 
 
 On the occasion of a recent lecture tour in Cal- 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 ifornia, I met, in a valley of the Sierras, a middle- 
 aged Donegal man, who told me how when he 
 was a little boy in Donegal a man with a much 
 disfigured face came one day to his father's house, 
 and how his father told him that the man had es- 
 caped with only this disfigurement from a Mass 
 Rock massacre — when the priest hunters and sol- 
 diers had, unawares, surprised the congregation 
 in their crime. 
 
 In contrast with the manner in which the Irish 
 papist was dealt with for his religion's sake, keep 
 in mind how he dealt with others when he had 
 had the upper hand. 
 
 We have already seen what happened in the 
 times of Mary of England, and of James II. of 
 England. 
 
 The old-time Protestant, William Pamell, in 
 his historical treatise, testified: "The Roman 
 Catholics are the only sect that ever resumed 
 power without exercising vengeance." 
 
 With this Protestant testimony to the liber- 
 ality and forgiveness of the Irish to their oppres- 
 sors, contrast then another Protestant's testimony 
 
 98 
 
STILL THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 to the liberality of the usurpers to their victims. 
 Under the rule of the English, Smiles tells us, 
 **Laws of the most ferocious cruelty were devised 
 against the Catholic priesthood. They were 
 hunted like wild beasts, hanged, tortured, behead- 
 ed and quartered. The mere Irish were deprived 
 of the protection of the English law, and might 
 be killed with impunity." 
 
 Indeed the bereaved family needed to be grate- 
 ful, if the good Englishman who took the trouble 
 to shoot one of its members generously refrained 
 from assessing them with the price of the gun's 
 priming. 
 
 It is good to record that many and many a time 
 during the centuries of Ireland's agony, the de- 
 cent Protestant hid the hunted priest wb-en the 
 bloodhounds, and human hounds, were close upon 
 him, and saved his life — at the risk, too, of his 
 own. 
 
 And many a time, too, the decent Protestant — 
 sometimes a poor man — accepted legal transfer of 
 the lands of his Catholic neighbor to hold these 
 lands for his Catholic neighbor's benefit, and thus 
 save them from being forfeited to an informer. 
 
 Of the Penal system, the great Irish Protestant, 
 Edmund Burke, said ; '*It was a machine oi' wise 
 
IRELAND'S C\SE 
 
 and elaborate contrivance as well flitted for the 
 impoverishment and degradation of a people, and 
 the debasement in them of human nature, as ever 
 proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man." 
 And of those dreadful days the ardent Protes- 
 tant young Irelander, Thomas Davis, sang: 
 
 *'0 weep those days — the Penal Days 
 
 When Ireland hepelessly complained 1 
 O weep those days, the Penal Days, 
 
 When Godless persecution reigned! 
 They bribed the fiock, they bribed the son, 
 
 To sell the priest, and rob the sire. 
 Their dogs were taught alike to run 
 
 Upon the track of wolf and friar ; 
 Among the poor and on the moor, 
 
 Were hid the faithful and the true, 
 While traitor, slave, and recreant knave. 
 
 Had riches rank and retenue.** 
 
 Even in recent days in some of the remote parts 
 of Ireland often the local representatives of Brit- 
 ish power, the landlord and magistrate, would not 
 permit the erection of a Catholic Church within 
 the district that he lorded over. The Church of 
 the famous, fighting Father McFadden in Gwee- 
 dore, had to be erected on a No-man's land, the 
 
 TG9 
 
STILL THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 tiead-line between the possessions of two Englisli 
 landlords — a gulch which had been the bed of 
 a mountain torrent — now diverted. On a fatal 
 stormy Sunday in the '8o's the torrent, finding its 
 old way again, swept down upon the little chapel 
 when it was packed with its mountain congrega- 
 tion, carried away chapel, priest and worshippers, 
 and left sad hearts and lone hearths in bleak 
 Gweedore. 
 
 In my own parish of Inver, a relic of the Penal 
 Days was with us till I had reached mature man- 
 hood — in the form of a scalan — a three-walled, 
 thatched Mass-shed which sheltered the altar and 
 the officiating priest. In front of the open end, 
 the congregation, gathered hither from miles of 
 moor and mountain, kneeling on the bare hillside 
 tinder the open Heavens — often with slush soak- 
 ing their knees, and pelting rain or driving hail 
 mercilessly lashing their bodies, and whipping 
 their upturned faces — heard Mass evtry Sunday. 
 Whether blowing or snowing, shining or shower- 
 ing, every Sunday morning were there from re- 
 mote homes man and woman, boy and girl, bare- 
 footed child and crawling old. I have knelt with 
 them — one of them. 
 
 In the days when I, la bouchaillin, scudd ed 
 the moors to Mass, there mothered England and 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 step-mothered Ireland a very respectable, very 
 lugubrious, and very homely-minded old lady, 
 who had developed a comfortable embonpoint, 
 and fattened a very large and very ordinary 
 brood of children, at the expense of poor, lean, 
 famished, famine-haunted Ireland — a worthy 
 enough old lady who represented the power that 
 robbed us of everything except our hardships, 
 and gave us nothing but our poverty. Now about 
 the very time that our scalan congregation would 
 be kneeling down on the arctic shoulder of Ardag- 
 iiey Hill this good lady and her middling well- 
 trained children would probably be bogging* their 
 knees in the yielding plush of their prie-dieux 
 in the magnificent Chapel of Buckingham Palace 
 — or before a comforting fire, languidly sinking 
 out of one another's sight in the caressing up- 
 holstery of their Palace drawing-room. And I 
 can vividly remem^ber the queer questioning that 
 started in my boyish mind one fierce February 
 Sunday when, with the miserable multitude at 
 IMass on that storm-lashed hillside, our knees 
 sunk in the marrow-freezing mire, our few sorry 
 clothes soaked through and plastered to our bones 
 by the snow-broth, our bared heads battered, and 
 faces whipped and cut by the driving sleet, I 
 heard the sagart (a simple saintly soul) lead ua 
 
 I03 
 
STILL THE PENAL LAWS 
 
 in supplication to the Lord to grant health and 
 happiness to, and fhower His manifold blessings 
 upon, "Her Majesty, the Queen of this Realm, 
 and all the Royal Family 1" 
 
 Oh the irony of the ways of poor hungry Ire- 
 land ! Oh the wistful naivete of comfortable, fat 
 England ! happy as the happiest hog that ever 
 wallowed and grunted in the spilt wealth of his 
 sti\ 
 
 3^ 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 THE BRITISH GARRISON IN IRELAND 
 
 This cliapter does not treat upon the ordinary 
 British army in Ireland. It refers to an unofficial 
 British army, which, more than the regular army, 
 has held Ireland for England — held it down. 
 
 What has come to be known as the British gar- 
 rison in Ireland, is the vast body of the Brito- 
 Irish, referred to in the last chapter as having 
 been amongst the cruellest, most brutal maltreat- 
 ors of the Irish people. It is the greater portion 
 of the descendants of the British — the English 
 and Scotch, who, through centuries, came here 
 either as olicials to grow fat upon Ireland or as 
 settlers to accept her richest confiscated lands. 
 
 While a small, but important, percentage of the 
 best of them have become truly Irish, the greater 
 part of these people, v^^hose families have been 300 
 and 400 years in Ireland, are, today, more truly 
 anti-Irish than were their ferefathers, centuries 
 ago. 
 
 The early English who came over before the 
 days of Elizabeth, and who were chiefly Norman 
 
 104 
 
THE BRITISH HARRISON IN IRELAITO 
 
 English, were absorbed by the Irish, almost as 
 last as they settled amongst them. It was the 
 bitter complaint of an early English Deputy to 
 the British Parliament that these people to whom 
 England had generously given, with lavish hand, 
 of Irish lands, had after a few generations become 
 •—to quote his oft^quoted words — ^*'ipsis Hiber- 
 nicis Hibemiores"— more Irish than the Irish 
 themselves. Special laws had to be passed by the 
 British Parliament, forbidding amongst these 
 early British settlers in Ireland any Irish cus- 
 toms, Irish manners, Irish dress, Irish language— 
 in endeavor to save them to England as an Eng- 
 lish garrison. But the laws were passed in vain. 
 The exceptional cruelty that characterized the 
 British wars in Ireland from Elizabeth onwards, 
 coupled with the difference of religion of all set- 
 tlers thenceforward^ and the religious persecution 
 which was superadded to the political, now ac- 
 complished what laws had hitherto failed to do. 
 The two races henceforward not only never 
 blended, but the bitter«t feelings between them 
 were naturally begotten and nurtured. And the 
 major part of British in Ireland from that day to 
 the present day, have reversed the order of their 
 antecedents and become more anti-Irish than the 
 
IRELAND^S CASE 
 
 English, more British than the British them- 
 selves. 
 
 What w« call the British garrison in Ireland- 
 all of those of purely British blood who still retain 
 their British anti-Irish bias — constitutes about 
 one-fourth of the population of the Island at the 
 present day — by far the largest portion of them 
 being in the northeast of the Island, with Belfast, 
 so to speak, as their capital center. It is they 
 who, today, form the political party known as 
 Unionists, Orangemen, Anti-Home Rulers, and 
 anti-everything that Is for the political advance- 
 ment of the country on which they batten. 
 
 By far the largest portion of this British gar- 
 risn In Ireland was planted here in the beginning 
 and in the middle of the seventeenth century. 
 They came over chiefly in the course of two great 
 "settlements"— the Ulster Plantation and the 
 Cromwellian Settlement. 
 
 The Ulster Plantation was carried out in the 
 first decade of the seventeenth century by James 
 the First of England (Sixth of Scotland). From 
 five of the richest counties of Ulster (which has 
 nine counties in all), he drove such of the Irish as 
 had survived the sword — drove them to dwell 
 with the snipes on the moors, and the badgers in 
 the mountains, of those barren portions of Ulster 
 
 io6 
 
THE BRITISH GARRISON IN IRELAND 
 
 that were of no use to Mm, his followers or any 
 normal human being. The fertile lands that were 
 taken from these fugitives— about the most fertile 
 ill Ireland — James bestowed upon his own faith- 
 ful Scots. He brought over the Scotch Under- 
 takers (as they were oiFicially called), and par- 
 celled out to them the confiscated rich lands in 
 parcels of S,ooo acres, 2,000 acres, and 1,000 acres. 
 
 Yet the sons of Ulster Scots (and many of 
 their unthinking advocates) now proudly point 
 to their wealth and their Catholic neighbors' pov- 
 erty — as object lessons on industry and idleness! 
 
 The written conditions on v/hich they^ v/ere 
 given these lands— and on which they undertook 
 them — are practically all summed up in the stipu- 
 lation that they were to be England's garrison 
 in Ulster — keeping so many armed retainers and 
 so many stands of arms, and building their houses 
 like fortresses, to hold the wild Irish confined to 
 their mountain lairs, if they could n©t succeed in 
 extinguishing them. 
 
 The aim, object and conditions of the Ulster 
 Plantation (as it is known) is very pithily pre- 
 sented in a few words of a communication from 
 one of the garrison in Ireland to a government 
 official in England. I do not recall whether it 
 is from Lecky <»• from Mrs. Green, that are 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 taken these words of the British gentleman. 
 •"'The present frame of Irish government is partic- 
 ularly well suited for our purpese. That frame 
 is a Protestant garrison in possession of the land, 
 magistracy, and power of the country; holding 
 that property under the tenure of British power 
 and supremacy, and ready at every instant to 
 crush the rising of the conquered." And thus 
 were the Irishrie induced to develop their well- 
 knovvn affection for Mother England. 
 
 Sir John Davies in his b®@k, "Discoverie of 
 the True Causes Why Ireland Was Never Sub- 
 dued and Brought Under Obedience to the 
 Crowne of England Until the Beginning of His 
 Majestie's Happie Reign," throws interesting 
 light on this. He says, "The multkude, having 
 been brayed, as it were, in a m©rtar, with sword, 
 pestilence and famine, altogether became admir- 
 ers of the crowne ©f England.** How could the 
 gratified creatures help it, gentle Sir J®hn ! 
 
 These people and their descendants, in Ulster, 
 far frem blending with the Irish people, always 
 aimed, as was expected, to trample them out. 
 From the day they came to Ireiana t© the pres- 
 ent day there has been no intermarriage, no in- 
 termixture. The two streams have since flowed 
 side by side but always in contrast, always dis- 
 
 loS 
 
THE BRITISH GARRISON IN IRELAND 
 
 tinct And the flow has never, to the present 
 iday, been peaceable. 
 
 These Scotch-Irish (as they have been nick- 
 named in America) always, up to a few years 
 ago, held all honors, all offices, all power, in their 
 hands — even, so far as they dared, the power of 
 life and death over their Irish papist neighbors. 
 rJut from their first day in Ireland down to their 
 last day of power (which, in some parts of Ul- 
 ster, is not yet) they exercised the power piti- 
 essly upon their despoiled neighbors — ^always, 
 of course, for patriotic reasons. 
 
 And that the "patriots' " last day of power is 
 not just yet is eloquently evidenced by cold gov- 
 ernment statistics. The return of men holding 
 Local Government Offices in Ulster five years 
 ago shows that there were 1,192 Protestant office- 
 holders and 199 Catholics I What the statistics 
 60 not show, however, is that almost all of the 
 199 favored Papists got offices which were too 
 mean for the God's chosen to accept. 
 
 The story of the terrible wrongs inflicted by 
 these settlers and their descendants upon those 
 whom they or their forefathers had dispossessed 
 would make as fearful reading as does any chap- 
 ter of Irish history since the coming of the Eng- 
 Hsh. 
 
 log 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 But as their power of wrong doing has ahnost 
 passed, it is better that the repulsive particulars 
 of the wrong doing should pass with it. The de- 
 plorable situation of the harried and hunted 
 Irish of the North during that time may be 
 summed up and dismissed in the words of an 
 Anglo-Irish Jurist of the bad days — "The law 
 does not suppose any such person to exist as an 
 Irish Roman Catholic." 
 
 Before quitting this portion of the subject, it 
 will be of interest to Irish-Americans and to 
 Scotch-Irish-Americans to note the character of 
 the ifien who formed the Ulster Colony, from 
 which came those whom America names the 
 Scotch-Irish. I quote the testimonials not from 
 their enemies but from their own. And it ean- 
 not be disputed that they knew of what they were 
 speaking. 
 
 Reid, in his "History of the Irish Presbyteri- 
 ans," says, "Although among those whom divine 
 Providence did send to Ireland, there were sev- 
 eral persons eminent for both education and 
 parts, yet the most part were such as either pov- 
 erty or scandalous lives had forced hither." 
 
 x\nd Stewart, the son of a Presbyterian min- 
 ister who was one of the planters, writes, *Trom 
 Scotland came many, and from England not & 
 
 IIO 
 
THE BRITISH GARRISON IN IRELAND; 
 
 lew, yet all of them generally the scum of both 
 nations, who from debt, or breaking, or fleeing 
 justice, or seejcing shelter, came hither hoping 
 to be without fear of man's justice.*' 
 
 It Is well worth observing that while, for 
 the first hundred years after they came to Ireland 
 these Ulster Presbyterians worked con amore 
 with the English Episcopalians, in passing and 
 in executing the cruellest laws for the suppression 
 oi the hunted Irish, — in the reign of Anne, when 
 the Episcopalians found themselves able to do 
 without the aid of these despised tools, the 
 Ulster Presbyterians were, for half a cen- 
 tury, treated to a right hearty dose of 
 tiic very medicine they had so eagerly mixed 
 for the hated Papists. *i1ie laws they had helped 
 to pass for the suppression of Papistry, were now 
 used for the suppression of Presfeyterianism — 
 their religion was proscribed, their industries were 
 killed — the rod they had pickled for the Papist 
 was right smartly applied to their own hereafters 
 — they were whipped out of Ulster, and in tens 
 of thousands sent scurrying to America, where 
 they arrived in crowded ship-loads, calling down 
 curses on England, her persecutions and perse- 
 cutors ! 
 
 It was amongst these people ia Ulster that tk« 
 
 III 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 Orangfc Society was formed, and fostered, prac- 
 tH-ally for the suppression of Roman Catholics 
 find Roman Catholicism. And it is these people 
 Ytho, still foreigners in blood, breeding, educa- 
 tion, and outlook, occupying less than one-haif 
 of Ulster, and electing less than half of the Parli- 
 amentary reprcseatadves of Ulster, are mistak- 
 enly known in Amftrka as Ulsttrites, and are 
 mistakenly supposed to own and occupy all, or 
 almost all, of Ulster. Though it must be admit- 
 ted that the amount of noise they make when 
 taking Ulster's name in vain makes it excusable 
 for any uninformed outsider to suppose 1 .:it they 
 own not only all Ulster but all Ireland. 
 
 This Ulster plantation was then one o: the 
 very great and permanent "Settlements" of Ire- 
 land. The other great and permanent one oc- 
 curred half a century later. It was the Crom- 
 wellian Settlement. 
 
 Cromwell began by desolating Ireland and 
 then settling it. But first let me say, in Crom- 
 well's behalf, that in depopulating and desolat- 
 ing the land he was merely carrying out orders 
 conscientiously. From Dublin, under date 25th 
 February, 1642, tlie Government issued for the 
 guidance of its generals, the very clear and ex- 
 plicit command, "to wound, kill, slay and destroj 
 
 112 
 
THE BRITISH GARRISON IN IRELAND 
 
 hy all the ways and means you may, all the reb- 
 els and adherents and relievers; and burn, spoil, 
 waste, consume and demolish all places, towns, 
 -and houses, where the said rebels are or have 
 been relieved and harboured, and all hay and 
 corn there, and kill and destroy all the men in- 
 habiting, able to bear arms." (See Carte's "Or- 
 snond"). 
 
 When Cromwell had completed his work to his 
 satisfaction, and that almost all of the able-bodied 
 snen (not to mention thousands of old men, 
 women and children) had been killed and de- 
 stroyed or sold into slavery, the Cromv/ellian 
 Settlement began under direction of the English 
 Commissioners. The survivors of the Irish peo- 
 ple were, by Parliamentary edict, commanded to 
 betake themselves to Connaught — the wild and 
 desolate Province beyond the Shannon — by or 
 before the first day of May, 1654. And the 
 Cromwellian troops were paid with confiscated 
 lands and homes. 
 
 Of this time Prendergast gives a picture in 
 his "Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland"; *'Ire- 
 iand, in the language of Scripture, now lay void 
 as a wilderness. Five-sixths of her people had 
 perished. Women and children were found 
 daily perishing in ditches, starved. The bodies 
 
 113 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 of many wandering orphans, whose fathers had 
 been killed or exiled, and whose mothers had 
 died of famine, were preyed upon by wolves. In 
 the years 1562 and 1563 the plague, following the 
 desolating wars, had swept away whole counties, 
 so that one might travel twenty or thirty miles 
 and not see a living creature. Man, beast and 
 bird were all dead, or had quit those desolate 
 places. The troops would tell stories of the 
 place where they saw a smoke, it was so rare t« 
 see either smoke by day, or fire or candle by 
 night. If two or three cabins were met with, 
 there were found none but aged men, with wo- 
 men and children ; and they, in the words of the 
 prophet, 'become as a bottle in the smoke,' their 
 skins black like an oven because of the terrible 
 famine." 
 
 Then every knave and rascal from England, 
 and every English vulture, harpy, and ghoul, flew 
 hither, to rob the dead and the dying. Over the 
 desolate land from which was rising the reek 
 of blood that smelt good in the nostrils of these 
 scoundrels, they roamed, picking and choosing 
 where they would, and where they could — and 
 in the meantime lived zestfully and profitably by 
 harrying and murdering and plundering of their 
 few pitiable belongings, the streams of tottering 
 
 114 
 
THE BRITISH GARRISON IN IRELAND 
 
 vcrj old and crawling very young, the hungering, 
 piteous children and skeleton-like, hollow-eyed 
 •Id men and women who, with sighs and groans 
 and breaking hearts, were painfully toiling on 
 their weakened limbs to their Westward Siberia. 
 *'To Hell or Connaught" had been the command. 
 %esc poor creatures had chosen Connaught. 
 
 From the Government records, Prendergast 
 g-ires us samples of the official description of the 
 migrating Irish, both the high brought low, and 
 t^e lowly still lower.^Here are a few of these 
 ©ficial entries : ' -^--^ - 
 
 "Sir Nicholas Comyn'^of Limerick numb on 
 one side of dead palsy, accompanied only by his 
 wife, Catherine, aged thirty-five, flaxen hair, of 
 middle stature, and one maid servant, Honor 
 MacNam.ara, aged twenty, brown hair, micldle 
 stature — having no substance." 
 
 "Ignatius Stacpool of Limerick, orphant, eleven 
 years of age, flaxen hair, full face, low of stature ; 
 Catherine, his sister, orphant, age eight, flaxen 
 hair, full face — having no substance." 
 
 "James, Lord Dun Boyne in County Tipperary, 
 describes himself as likely to be accompanied by 
 twenty-one followers, and as having four cows, 
 ten garans, and two swine." 
 
 The Lord and the commoner, the palsied old 
 
 115 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 man, and the toddling orphan child— all alike 
 were driven forth from their homes, and by Brit- 
 ain's brave soldiers goaded over the blood-stained 
 flints to their Siberia. 
 
 The Barony of Burren in Clare, to which the 
 first batch of these unfortunates were consigned, 
 ■*^as such a god-forsaken region that it was popu- 
 larly said to have, not wood enough on which to 
 hang a man, water enough to drown him, nor 
 earth enough to bury him. Beside it Siberia 
 were Eden. 
 
 The historian Morrison, a Britisher who was 
 on the ground and saw for himself the horrors, 
 records: "Neither the Israelites were more 
 cruelly persecuted by Pharaoh, nor the innocent 
 infants by Herod, nor the Christians by Nero, 
 or any other of the pagan tyrants, than were the 
 Roman Catholics of Ireland by these savage 
 Comxnissloners." 
 
 But be it noted England plundered and drove 
 to starvation and death,entirely for this ungrate- 
 ful people's good. Sir John Davies, who had 
 planned the method of the Ulster Plantation, 
 laid it down that—like tvtry other crime ever 
 committed by England — it was for the good of 
 the people and the glory of God to rob them of 
 their fruitful lands and banish them to the bar-? 
 
 ixi 
 
THE BRITISH GARRISON IN IRELAND 
 
 ren wilds. Sir John in his historical tract says, 
 **This transplanting of the natives is made by his 
 Majesty like a father, rather than a lord or mon- 
 arch. , . , So as his Majesty doth in this 
 imitate the skillful husbandman who doth remove 
 his fruit trees, not on purpose to extirpate and 
 destroy^ but that they may bring forth better 
 and sweeter fruit J'* 
 
 If England roasted a man alive — as often she 
 did — the virtuous Englishman proved to his own 
 satislaction that roasting alive was the most 
 wholesome thing under Heaven for that fellow's 
 constitution. And, of course, humbly, to God 
 alone was the glory. That was always, of course, 
 in the history of Britain. God is ever Britain's 
 accomplice, before, during and after every vir*^ 
 tuous British act. 
 
 In this connection I set down here another fine 
 illustration of England's pious way of sending 
 people to Hell for their good and God's glory. 
 
 After the conquest of Jamaica in 1655 — ^and 
 after thousands of the Irish had, through years 
 before, been shipped into slavery, the Governor 
 asked for a thousand girls from Ireland to be 
 shipped there — to the most appalling kind of 
 slavery. 
 
 Secretary Thurloe's Correspondence, Voi. 4* 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 gires Henry Cromwell's reply to this modest re- 
 <(Uest — in his letter of September ii, 1655: 
 
 **Concerninge the younge women, although we 
 must use force in takeinge them up, yet it beinge 
 so much for their owne goode and likely to be 
 of soe great advantage to the publique, it is not 
 in the least doubted you may have sucli number 
 of them as you thinke fitt to make use upon this 
 account. ... I desire to express as much 
 zeal in this design as you would v/ish, and shall 
 be as diligent in prosequution of any directiones 
 . . . judgeinge it to be business of publique 
 concernment. . . . Blessed be God, I do not 
 finde many discouragements in my worke, and 
 hope I shall not doe it soe longe as the Lord is 
 pleased to keep my harte uprighte before him." 
 
 And tinder date of September 18, 1655, Henry 
 of the Uprighte Harte, writing from Kilkenny 
 again to Thurloe, says in the course of his letter, 
 **! shall not neede to repeat anythinge about the 
 g^rles, not doubtinge but to answer your expec- 
 tationes, to the full in that : and I think it might 
 be of like advantage to your aftaires there, and 
 to ours heer if you should thinke fitt to sends 
 1500 or 2000 young boys of from twelve to four- 
 teen years of age, to the place aforementioned. 
 We could well spare them, and they would t)C of 
 
 iiS 
 
THE BRITISH GARRISON IN IRELAND 
 
 «?se to you ; and who knowes but that it may be 
 the meanes to make them Englishmen, I mean 
 rather Christians/* 
 
 The justification of himself on the ground that 
 the boys' enslaving mi|;ht m.ake them good Eng- 
 lishmen (which in the sight of God, meant, of 
 course, good Christians) -^and the tearing away 
 and the carrying of! of the girl children for the 
 personal use of the swinish English planters in 
 Jam,aica, because it was "so much for their own 
 good"! — is a brilliancy that, of all men under 
 Heaven, could burst forth only from the brain of 
 an Englishman— whose harte the Lord is pleased 
 to keep uprighte before Him. 
 
 And this was the Cromwellian Settlement. 
 
 Some authorities say that before the Cromwel- 
 lian Settlement the proportion of the Irish lands 
 still in the hands of the Irish was two-thirds of 
 all Ireland. Still others say that as jnuch as nine- 
 tenths of the lands in three of the provinces 
 had still been in the hands of the Irish. After 
 the Cromwellian Settlement, Sir William Petty 
 says that two-thirds of Ireland was owned by 
 the British settlers, but another authority says 
 that four-fJths of it was in the hands of the Brit- 
 ish. 
 
 Our zealous Christian conqiierorg always pro* 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 lessed that their Irish activities were prompted 
 by their eagerness to bring home the truth and 
 beauty of English Protestantism to the Irish 
 Papist heathen, and turn his footsteps from Hell- 
 ward to Heavenward. But as ©ne old Irish his- 
 torian recorded, the event proved that they were 
 more anxious to make the Irish land turn Protes- 
 tant than the Irish people. 
 
 Says Dr. Smiles in his "History of Ireland": 
 "The British colonists who settled in Ireland 
 erected themselves into an Ascendancy, of the 
 most despotic and tyrannical kind. In the course 
 of time they possessed themselves of almost the 
 entire soil of Ireland, treating the natives as 
 Helots and slaves, and with a cruelty that has 
 never been exceeded in any age or country/* 
 
 So Ireland was again settled. Connaught, 
 containing the miserable remnant of the Irish 
 nation, was a frightful scene of plague, sicknes^; 
 starvation and death. And Euglaiad was thank- 
 ing God, with whom she was so intimate and so 
 privileged, for the great mercy shewn her— and 
 for the praper retribution that He had meted out, 
 through her, His humble Instrufamit, to the Irish 
 barbarian enemies of herself and Heaven. 
 
 And Ireland was given into the charge of th« 
 volunteer Bri^tish garrison. 
 
CHAPTER yilL 
 RESOURCES OF ENGLISH aVILIZATION 
 
 I In Chapter H. I attempted a faint picture of 
 England's civilizing methods in Ireland. But 
 some readers will object: The age of which you 
 spoke was a barbarous one, anyhow. 
 
 j On the contrary, the age of which I spoke was 
 England's golden age. 
 
 \ And her methods of civilizing Ireland in that 
 age were not isolated methods. They were the 
 methods that England consistently followed in 
 
 'dealing with the "Irish Hottentots" (vide the late 
 lamented Lord Salsbury's speeches) — the Hotten- 
 tots, who, it may be remembered, had given civ- 
 ilization, education, and the Christian faith to the 
 greater part of Britain. 
 
 I Let us come down some centuries farther, and 
 see how England's methods in Ireland have im- 
 proved. For they really did improve as they 
 went along. Readers will admit that, after they 
 have had a glimpse of English methods in Ireland 
 ed the threshold of the Nineteenth Century, 
 
 I2£ 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 Well, first, hear the testimony from the oppoan 
 !ng party. 
 
 At that time Lord Moira was one of the many 
 British Lords who enjoyed Ireland's confiscated 
 lands. But, unlike most of his fellows, he had a 
 human heart, instead of a stone, in his breast. Un- 
 like the host of his fellows, he had realized that, 
 after all, these Irish slaves were human bdngs. 
 At length, he felt so revolted at the scenes going: 
 on in Ireland every day, that he, in the House of 
 Lords, on the 226. November, 1797, had to express 
 himself as follows: "What I have to speak of, 
 are not solitary and isolated measures nor par- 
 tial abuses, but what is adopted as the system of 
 government ; I do not talk of a casual system, but 
 of one deliberately determined on, and regularly 
 persevered in . . . My Lords, I have seen in 
 Ireland the most disgusting tyranny any nation 
 ever groaned under. 
 
 "I have seen the most wanton insults practised 
 upon men of all ranks and conditions, the most 
 grievous oppressions exercised in districts as 
 quiet and free from disturbance as is this city of 
 London. I have known a man, in order to ex- 
 tort confession of a supposed crime or of the 
 crime of some of his neighbors, picketted till he 
 fainted; when he recovered, picketted untU he 
 
 I2J 
 
RESOURCES OF ENGLISH QVILIZATION 
 
 fainted again; and after that, picketted until he 
 fainted yet again; and all upon mere suspicion. 
 Many have been taken and hung up until half 
 dead, and then threatened with repetition of this, 
 unless they confessed imputed guilt. These 
 ■were not particular acts of cruelty exercised by 
 men abusing power committed to them, but 
 form part of our system." 
 
 Mark well, this British Lord resident in Ire- 
 land takes care to emphasize and to repeat that 
 the horrible cruelties to which the Irish were 
 then, as always, subject, were merely the or- 
 'dinary system., used and recommended to b^ 
 used, by Englishmen in ruling Irishmen. 
 
 Lord Moira went on to tell how in pursuance 
 oi an illegal proclamation, ordering any Irish 
 people who were in possession of arms to give 
 them up— **If anyone was suspected of having 
 concealed weapons of defense, his house, furni- 
 ture, and all property were burned." The local 
 Government official, he said, arbitrarily named 
 the numbers of arms that should be given up by 
 each district — the numbers that he supposed, or 
 pretended to suppose, each district to possess. If 
 any district did not surrender all the arms for 
 which it had pleased this man to rate it, a mili- 
 tary party was sent out to collect the number 
 
 123 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 rated. And in execution of this, said Lord Moira, 
 "as many as thirty houses were sometimes 
 burned in one night." 
 
 But a significant part of this testimony is the 
 tail end of it wherein he teld their krdships that, 
 in public speech, "for prudential reasons I wish 
 to draw a veil ©ver the more aggravated facts." 
 
 The account of Lord Moira's speech may be 
 found in the book (published in 1840) entitled, 
 "Lights and Shadows ef Whig^ and Tories." 
 
 It was in Ireland, in that self same year of 
 i;97, that General Abercrombic's honest old 
 Scotch heart revolted, and he wrote, "Every 
 crime and cruelty that could be committed by 
 Cossacks or Calmucks has been committed here 
 . . . the abuses of all kinds that I found here 
 can scarcely be believed or enumerated." 
 
 It is only fair to add that the shocked author- 
 ities gave particular attention to Abercrombie's 
 complaint. Out ©f consideration for his revolted 
 feelings, they relieved him of his command, 
 
 Frem this bit of testimony al©ne, the reader 
 may see clearly how far England's methods in 
 Ireland kept pace with the march of civilization 
 in the world at large. 
 
 When Elizabeth, tw@ hundred years but one, 
 before that, was sending Carew t@ Ireland to 
 
 124 
 
RESOURCES OF ENGLISH CIVILIZATION 
 
 propagut^ civilization in that beniglited land, 
 she authorized him "to put suspected Irish to the 
 rack and to torture them when found conveni- 
 ent.*' With the aforementioned march of civili- 
 zation progressing daring two hundred years oi 
 English inventiveness and English progress sup- 
 plied the English civilizer in Ireland with rich 
 choice of many improved forms of torture — all 
 of which were in constant use in the declining 
 years of the eighteenth century. 
 
 In 1798, and the years preceding, when it 
 was necessary to goad the people into a prema- 
 ture rebellion, and pave the way for the Parlia- 
 mentary Union, the torturers, both official and 
 non-official, suiTered from an embarrassment of 
 riches. The Rev. James Gordon, Protestant 
 Rector of Killegney in Wexford, relates some- 
 thing of the stimulating means adopted; and 
 among them mentions — ^"Various other violent 
 acts were committed such as to cut away pieces 
 of men's ears, even sometimes the whole ear, 
 or part of the nose. The High Sheriff of Tippcr- 
 ary seized a gentleman named Wright, against 
 whom there were no grounds of suspicion, had 
 five hundred lashes administered to him, in the 
 severest manner — and then confined him several 
 
 125 
 
^ -vA"^ IRELAND'S CASE ^-.. 
 
 days without permitting his wounds to he 
 dressed." 
 
 The delightful tortures of picketting, the cat, 
 and half hanging, for the purpose of extracting 
 confessions, were so common as to pass unno- 
 ticed. 
 
 The triangle and the pitch cap were newer 
 methods of persuasion in use then. 
 
 The facetious plan of cropping off a man's ears, 
 piece by piece, by way of stimulating his mem- 
 ory, and developing his confidingness, became 
 quite popular. 
 
 Laceration of the back, either by flogging with 
 a cat-o'-nine-tails, or by combing it with a steel- 
 toothed combed, and then rubbing salt into the 
 wounds, was fashionable. And burning of the 
 hair with gun-powder was a new process of tor- 
 ture that gave much satisfaction. 
 
 Edward Hay, in his "History of the Insurrec- 
 tion in Wexford," gives a description of this lat- 
 ter refined amusement. He says that Mr. Perry, 
 a Protestant (evidently suspected of sympathiz- 
 ing with the rebels), was taken out by the troops, 
 the sign of the cross cropped in his hair — from 
 forehead to neck and from car to ear, then gun- 
 powder mixed through his hair and set on fire. 
 This was repeated till every hair that remained 
 
 . 126 
 
RESOURCES OF ENGLISH CIVILIZATION 
 
 could be pulled out by the roots. Yet they still 
 continued to burn it with the gun-powder lit by 
 a candle— continually applied and continually 
 burned till the entire scalp was burned away. 
 
 For the brutal and lustful soldiery, free-quar- 
 ters with all its attendant horrors, was provided 
 in the homes of the country people. 
 
 It is no wonder that numbers of the poor, ig- 
 norant, suffering, tortured, country people when, 
 driven to madness by such fearful practices, 
 burst Into disorganized revolt, and in several 
 places, before leaders brought them imder control, 
 massacred hundreds of the Anglo-Irish Protes- 
 tants — many of whom were innocent of any 
 crime whatsoever against their Catholic neigh- 
 bors. Only, they were of those who had driven 
 these people to their frenzy. This, though the 
 work of men driven to madness, is the saddest 
 thing in the Rebellion of '98 — to good Irishmen 
 far sadder and more painful than the endless tor- 
 turing and massacring of hosts ©f their own peo- 
 ple by the English and the Anglo-Irish. 
 
 When one ponders ®n the sights that the agon- 
 ized people were daily seeing around them, the 
 horrors indicted upon their kith and their kin — 
 a father, for instance, seeing his child of twelve 
 years wantonly cloven through the skull by the 
 
 .127 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 sword of the gentlemanly English ofHcer to 
 whom the child had opened the door— the cord- 
 bound brother compelled to witness his sister 
 outraged by a troop of British beasts — it is hard 
 to realize how, when at length the inevitable 
 frenzy seized them, and that, spurning conse- 
 quences and seeing only red vengeance, they 
 arose up, they could be restrained from slaking 
 their thirst for vengeance in murderotjs deeds 
 done indifferently upon innocent and guilty of 
 the class that had evoked their frenzy. 
 
 But notwithstanding that Irishmen must record 
 their sorrow and shame that their people, 
 even in the madness to which they were driven, 
 should do the deeds that were appropriate only 
 to the oppressor, it is, yet, a source of consola- 
 tion to think that even in their frenzy these men 
 did not altogether forget Irish manhood. Hear 
 again the Protestant Rector, Rev. James Gor- 
 don — "Amid all the atrocities, the chastity of 
 the fair sex was rwpected by the insurgents. I 
 have not been able to find one instance to the 
 contrary in the Comaty Wexford, though many 
 beautiful young w«»en were absolutely at their 
 mercy.** He also testified that "Women and 
 children were not put to death by the insurgents, 
 excepting in the one instance of the burning of 
 
RESOURCES OF ENGLISH aVIUZATION 
 
 Sctillabogue bam (where about 200 Anglo-Irisli 
 rcfug-ecs were burned to dea"^). 
 
 After the Rebellion had broken out, the policy 
 of torture and of horror was, of course, not only 
 continued, but improved upon. 
 
 The higher officials who could not be in the 
 field to enjoy tlie fun there, because they had to 
 direct operations from Dublin Castle, were not, 
 nevertheless, to be deprived of their share of the 
 entertainment Sir Jonah Harrington says, 
 **Dead bodies of insurgents sabred by Roden's 
 dragons were brought in carts to Dublin, with 
 some prisoners tied together. And en a hot day, 
 these bodies, with wounds gaping, were stretched 
 out in the castle yard in view of the Chief Secre- 
 tary's windows." 
 
 Disembowelling of rebels— espexnaDy of leaders 
 or supposed leaders, was a favorite form of relax- 
 ation, for the English troops and their officers. 
 While General Lake sat at dinner, he was enter- 
 tained by the hanging, and then the mutilating, 
 of a rebel, in front of his window. 
 
 Illuminative of British refinement and noble 
 nature was the treatment accorded the body of 
 Father Murphy (the leader of the Rebels) after 
 liis death in the battle of Aidclow. Mr. George 
 Taylor, in his Historical Account of the Wexford 
 
 1*9 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 Rebellion, says, "Lord Mountnorris and some of 
 his troopers found the body of the perfidoiis 
 priest Murphy, who had so much deceived him 
 and the country. Being exasperated, his Lord- 
 ship ordered the head struck off and the body 
 thrown into a house that was burning-, exclaim- 
 ing, at the same time, *Let his body go where his 
 soul is/ Particularly observe that his Lordship 
 <lid not for a moment forget he was a gentleman. 
 He was only exasperated. A noble English Lord 
 never stoops to anything below exasperation. 
 One of the common herd could afford to indulge 
 in a paroxysm of brutal saveagery at the sight of 
 a dead patriot leader — but not my noble lord. 
 
 When the exasperated gentlemen had ridden 
 away, a body of the Ancient Britons Regiment 
 came along. >The news that it was the body of 
 Father Murphy which they saw burning there, 
 naturally ruffled the temper of these English 
 gentlemen. And a man not partial to the insur- 
 gents, Rev. James Gordon, in his History of the 
 Rebellion, written five years later, tells us that 
 these English gentlemen, to soothe their ruffled 
 temper, "cut open the dead body of Father Mur- 
 phy, took out his heart, roasted the body, and 
 oiled their boots with the grease that dripped 
 from it." — ''Captain Holmes of the Durham Reg- 
 
 130 
 
RESOURCES OF ENGLISH CIVILIZATION 
 
 iment," says Mr. Gordon, "told me in the pres- 
 ence of several, that he himself had assisted at 
 cutting open the breast with a hatchet and 
 pulling out the heart." He who, striving to lift 
 from his country the pleasant yoke of Britain, ex- 
 asperates British gentlemen, merits some such 
 impressive British rebuke. 
 
 No quarter was given to rebels, or persons 
 taken as rebels, with or without arms. Just as 
 was enacted by the English Parliament a century 
 and a half b v. lore, no quarter for the Irish was 
 still the English rule of warfare. 
 
 Ihe rule, too, applied to wounded and dying, 
 equally with those who were still militant and 
 whole. In Enniscorthy thirty wounded and dy- 
 ing insurgents in one house, which was being used 
 as a hospital, were burned to death. On? .\nglo- 
 Irish historian excuses the soldiers from deliber- 
 ately burning these men to death. He says that 
 the house was fired by the wadding of the sol- 
 diers' guns setting fire to the beds, when the Srcl- 
 diers were shooting the patients in bed! 
 
 On the attitude of the general body of the 
 Anglo-Irish, the Ascendancy party, toward the 
 mere Irish whom they trampled, Hunter Gowan, 
 the leader of the band of Yeos in Wexford, gave 
 fair illustration. We find him returning from one 
 
 131 
 
IRELANiyS CASE 
 
 of his forays at the head of his Ycos, with « 
 rebel's finger as a trophy impaled oo the point of 
 his sword Mr, Gowan made a friendly call at a 
 rectory which they passed, and playfully fright- 
 coed the yo^ng ladies with the fanny object oo 
 his sword point — poking it in their faces, chasing 
 them through the honse with it, and humorously 
 dropping the rebel's finger down inside the bosom 
 erf one young lady's dress, causing her to famt 
 To wind op a great day's adventure by fittino^ cel- 
 ebration, he stirred the punch at dinner with the 
 Croppie 8 finger. 
 
 For, cruel and savage as were the methods of 
 the Enofltsh in Ireland, those of the Anglo- Irish 
 (the British who had been here for generation* 
 or centuries) were sometimes infinitely worse 
 
 The noted Sir John Moore, who had been seat 
 to Ireland in command of Elnglish troops, report- 
 ed that he found the presence of troops necessary 
 not to check the pet>ple in general, but rather to 
 check the Anglo-Irish Yeos in their career of car- 
 nage These Yeos, raiding the country in bands, 
 oftentimes brought with them on their excursions 
 a professional hangman to aid their worthy work. 
 
 In Clogheen, Sir John Moore found the High 
 Sheriff having the streets lined with country peo- 
 ple oa their knees, and with hats off, while he 
 
 I3S« 
 
RESOURCES OF ENGLISH CIVILIZATION 
 
 © 
 was whipping a poor devil to death. The High 
 Sheriff confided to Sir John that he had "flogged 
 the truth out of many respectable persons/' 
 
 With horror and disgust at England's inhuman 
 work in Ireland, Moore resigned his command 
 and left the country. 
 
 Teeling, in his "Narrative of the Rebellion," 
 pictures for us some of the sufferings of the Irish 
 people during this terrible time. As exemplify- 
 ing the small things for which great punishment 
 was given, he tells how one Bergan in the City of 
 Drogheda, being convicted of rebellious tenden- 
 cies, because found in possession of % small gold 
 ring v/ith shamrock device, was, in the public 
 street, stripped of his clothes, placed upon a cart, 
 and torn with a cat-o'-nine-tails not only till he 
 gasped his last gasp, but "till long after the final 
 spark was extinct** 
 
 In Drogheda also, a boy, as heroic of will as he 
 was frail of body, being sentenced to receive five 
 hundred lashes for refusing to make some dis- 
 closure that was sought from him, bore up, dur- 
 ing nearly half of the punishment without show- 
 ing a single sign of wincing. Then, finding him- 
 self unable to bear any more without yielding, 
 and thus satisfjnng his executioners, he pretended 
 to make a confession, sent them off upon a blind 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 trail, thus getting time and opportunity to cut 
 his throat before the brutes could again resume 
 his slow execution. 
 
 At headquarters in Dublin, the Government of- 
 ficials ran a torture factory, the horrors of which 
 have seldom, if ever, been surpassed in the annals 
 of the most savage and most barbarous nations. 
 "The world has been astonished at the close of 
 the Eighteenth Century," says Teeling, "with acts 
 which the eye views with horror and heart sick- 
 ens to record. Not only on the most trivial but 
 the most groundless occasions, torture was in- 
 flicted without mercy on every age and on every 
 condition. In the center of the city the heart- 
 rending exhibition was presented of a human be- 
 ing rushing from the infernal depot of torture 
 and death, his person besmeared >vith a burning 
 preparation of turpentine and pitch, plunging, in 
 his distraction, into the Liffy, and terminating at 
 onc?rhis sufferings and his life." 
 
 These few instances of English methods in 
 Ireland on the edge of the Nineteenth Century, 
 are only samples of thousands of such that oc- 
 curred. They are quite enough for my purpose — 
 which is to give a plain picture without revolt- 
 ing the reader by still more horrible details. 
 
 If this method of ruling, crushing, and tortur- 
 
 134 
 
RESOURCES OF ENGLISH CIVILIZATION 
 
 ing of a weak and beaten people, were practiced 
 by Russia in Poland, or by Turkey in Armenia, 
 or by some uncivilized barbarian rulers, over a 
 beaten tribe in the jungles of Africa, it might 
 well cause the world to shudder. But it was the 
 method employed to a people who had preserved 
 and given back light and learning to Europe — by 
 a people who inform us that they are not only the 
 greatest and most powerful in the world, but also 
 the champions of liberty, propagators of civiliza- 
 tion, and sponsors of Christ's teachings, to the 
 darkened regions of earth. 
 
 One's mind naturally turns back to Cromwell, 
 with upturned eyes disclaiming the renown and 
 glory of butchering the women, men and children 
 of Drogheda, infr.rming his Parliament and his 
 Heaven that all the glory for the noble work was 
 God's alone. It is the Briton's ingenious w^ay of 
 making his glory work for him at double com- 
 pound interest, by the ingeniious device of ten- 
 dering to his Maker, on the tactit understanding 
 (always observed between gentlemen) that it will 
 be handed back bigger — while the world at the 
 same time swells it still more, by admiration of 
 his wondrous humility. England's sword is still 
 wielded by Cromwell ; and in England's voice his 
 
 ^35 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 voice yet speaks. In the English sou! Cromwell 
 never dies. 
 
 Lord Salisbury, referring to the innumerable 
 wars of extermination upon the petty tribes of 
 India, said, ^They are but the bloody foam on the 
 crest oi the advancing tide of British civilization. " 
 
 Oh! Qvilization, what British blessings ar* 
 ocKnmitted in thj name 1 
 
 ISI 
 
CH.\FTER IX. 
 
 THE PARLIAMENTARY UNION OF 
 
 IRELAND WITH BRITAIN 
 
 The simple American view of Ireland's relatioas 
 with Eiigiand w^s well illustrated recently by 
 the Editor of a leading review when, in explain- 
 ing away (for his readers' benefit) my showing 
 of Ireland's right to independent nationhood, he 
 informed his public that, in 1800, Irishmen volun- 
 tarily resigned their own Irish Parliament, and 
 eagerly united with England, 
 
 Let us see. 
 
 Although Ireland was officially conquered to 
 Britain centuries before, the Island was alleged 
 to have a Parliament of its own, under the Brit- 
 ish Crown, up to the year i8oo. 
 
 It vvras, of course, a Parliament of, and for, the 
 British in Ireland, The mere Irish had no say 
 in it — except for an insignificantly brief period. 
 Had no right even to vote for a member of it It 
 was not considered that they whose land this was, 
 and who constituted six-sevenths of the popu- 
 lation of the land, could presume to take even the 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 humblest part in governing their own country. 
 The Parliament was for half a million British in 
 Ireland— to hold three million Irish in subjection. 
 Moreover, of the 300 members, only 72 were real- 
 ly elected. Three-fourths of its members were 
 just appointed by the Borough owners, the Brit- 
 ish owners who owned Irish towns. 
 
 I called it an alleged Parliament. It was only 
 at rare intervals that the Anglo-Irish who owned 
 and ran this Parliament dared assert their right 
 to make it a Parliament in reality, as well as in 
 name. For centuries it was held in the strangle- 
 hold of Poyning's Law — a law which forbade it 
 to initiate any legislation — only gave it liberty 
 to legislate under the direction and command of 
 the English Parliament — to pass into law what- 
 ever the English Parliament recommended — and 
 to refrain from legislating upon all things that 
 the English Parliament forbade it to legislate 
 upon. 
 
 Under this state of things naturally Ireland's 
 woes increased w^ith the years. Just before the 
 Anglo-Irish Parliament took heart to shake from 
 its shoulders its Old Man of the Sea, the English 
 Parliament which paralyzed it, Hely Hutchinson,, 
 speaking in the Irish House of Commons (in 
 1779) said: "Can the history of any other fruit- 
 
THE PARLIAMENTARY UNION 
 
 ful country on the globe, enjoying peace for 
 eighty years, and not visited by plague or pestil- 
 ence, produce so many recorded instances of the 
 poverty and the v^^retchedness, of the reiterated 
 want and misery of the lower order of people. 
 There is no such example in ancient or modern 
 story." 
 
 In 1782, when Britain's hands were filled with 
 an American problem, Henry Grattan and the 
 great army of Ireland's Volunteers, 100,000 
 strong, demanded the independence of their Par- 
 liament. And as they had in their hands, when 
 making the request, a hundred thousand muskets 
 their request was graciously granted. During 
 the succeeding years, this Anglo-Irish Parlia- 
 ment, acting independently of the British Parli- 
 ament, was enabled to do wonderful things for 
 the restoration of Ireland's commerce and man- 
 ufactures. Many of the disabilities of the Irish 
 Catholics, too, were, under it, removed — and an 
 Irishman was acknowledged to have some citizen 
 rights. 
 
 But, it did not suit England's book to have any 
 body of people in Ireland, even their own Anglo- 
 Irish kin, running Ireland with profit to Ireland 
 — and consequently a curtailment of English 
 profit. So, the mistake must be corrected. And 
 
 139 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 the best way to correct it was bodily to remove 
 the cause of the trouble. Parliament, both in 
 reality and in name, must be taken from Ireland 
 altogether. So, Prime Minister Pitt of England 
 conspired with his good instruments, Cornwallis, 
 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Castlereagh, the 
 Irish Secretary, to attain the desired end. For 
 this splendidly corrupt object Pitt fortunately 
 had, in Cornwallis and Castlereagh, a pair of 
 splendidly corrupt tools. 
 
 To undermine the prestige of the Irish Parlia- 
 ment and prove its incompetence for governing 
 Ireland, they first goaded the Irish people into a 
 premature rebellion — by such methods as those 
 described by Lord Moira. And they then 
 launched their campaign for giving to the Eng- 
 lish Parliament the sole right of directly govera- 
 ing this ungovernable Island. 
 
 That the Anglo-Irish inhabitants of the Island 
 would not easily yield their right Pitt and his 
 instruments knew well. But that a large portion 
 of their representatives was purchasable, they 
 divined. So they set themselves enthusiastically 
 to the congenial work of bribing and debasing 
 right and left, and buying men's souls. 
 
 Lies, perjury, and fraud were the British stock- 
 in-trade during all of Britain's connection with 
 
 140 
 
THE PARLIAMENTARY UNION 
 
 Ireland. But there was never another period in 
 which so much baseness was crowded into so 
 little time as now, when they were debasing their 
 own kin and robbing them of their **rights." No 
 other scandal of British administration, before or 
 since, ever equalled this one of buying the Union. 
 The immediate chief instruments, Cornwallis and 
 Castlereagh, were probably no worse than any 
 ether English administrators in Ireland — only 
 that this large job gave them an exceptional op- 
 portunity to distinguish themselves. 
 
 Castlereagh indeed partly redeemed himself 
 by living to cut his throat 
 
 Cornwallis, through all the vile business, took 
 the superior stand of the h^'pocrite who thinks he 
 conceals his hypocrisy beneath the cloak of 
 frankness. He writes to a friend, "My occupa- 
 tion is of the most unpleasant nature, bargaining 
 and jobbing with the most corrupt people under 
 Heaven" (the Anglo-Irish). "I despise and hate 
 myself for ever engaging in such dirty work.** In 
 another place he confesses that he is "involved 
 in this dirty business beyond all bearing." 
 
 The people were wheedled, coaxed, threatened, 
 and bribed, into signing petitions in favor of 
 Union with England. Barrington tells us that, 
 vnder promise of pardon, felons in the jails were 
 
 141 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 got to sign the Union petition. Everyone hold- 
 ing a government job in the country had not only 
 to sign the petition himself, but was compelled 
 to make his relatives and the relatives of their 
 relatives sign it likevi^ise. 
 
 Not merely those w^ho held positions under 
 the government were required to do this; but to 
 every man who hoped or dreamt of ever stand- 
 ing chance of a position under the government, 
 it was plainly intimated that he and his relatives' 
 relatives must becom.e petitioners. Mixed bribes 
 and threats were scattered over the land like seed 
 corn — falling upon, sticking to, and germinating 
 in thousands upon thousands of every rank from 
 the public hangman ail the way up to the Arch- 
 bishop of the Established Church. 
 
 The pro-British historian, Lecky, says, "Ob- 
 scure men in unknown political places were dis- 
 missed because they or some of their relatives 
 declined to support it." He says, "The whole 
 force of Government patronage in all branches 
 was steadily employed. The formal and author- 
 itative announcement was made, that, though 
 defeated Session after Session and Parliament 
 after Parliament — the act of Union would al- 
 ways be reintroduced — -and that support of it 
 would hereafter be considered the main test by 
 
 142 
 
THE PARLIAMENTARY UNION 
 
 which all claims to government favor would be 
 determined." — "Everything in the government of 
 the crown in Ireland," Lecky further states, "in 
 the church, in the army, in the law, in the rev- 
 enue, was uniformly and steadily devoted to the 
 single purpose of carrying the Union. From the 
 great noblemen who were bought for marquis- 
 ates and ribands; from the (Protestant) Arch- 
 bishop of Cashel who agreed to support the Union 
 on being promised the reversion of the See of 
 Dublin and a seat in the Imperial House of 
 Lords, the virus of corruption extended and de- 
 scended through every rank and title, and satur- 
 ated the political system, including even crowds 
 of obscure men who had it in their power to as- 
 sist or obstruct addresses on the subject." 
 
 Men who dared be independent and staad for 
 their rights were hounded and persecuted and 
 dismissed from office. Even the highest in rank, 
 such as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a 
 Prime Sergeant and Privy Chancellor, were 
 kicked out for daring to deny England's divine 
 right to do wrong. 
 
 Men who refused to be bribed were forced out 
 of their seats in the Irish Parliament by every 
 dirty means known to dirty men. Their own 
 instruments, their own official aides, even, were 
 
 143 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 put into o&ct mad put into Parliament for the 
 evenly avowed purpose of voting away Ireland's 
 rights. Ei^flishmen who never before had givca 
 any thought to Ireland, were actually imported 
 to sit as Irish members of Parliament — and vote 
 away Ireland's Parliament to England. 
 
 Some of these latter rascals never saw—some- 
 times hardly knew — the name of the Irish Bor- 
 ough for which they sat. When one of them, one 
 day, presented himself at the English House of 
 Parliament and requested some privilege that 
 was of courtesy accorded there to members of 
 the Irish Parliament, he was asked for v/hat Irish 
 Borough he sat "By Heaven," he replied, "the 
 name of the devilish place 'as escaped me. — But 
 if you bring me the Irish Directory I believe I 
 can pick it out." 
 
 They ovcraw^ed patriotic people who ventured 
 to meet any protest against the proposed Union, 
 Barringtou relates how, on the occasion of an 
 Anti-Union m.eeting in King's County, Dariey, 
 the High Sheriti, and Major Rogers (acting of 
 course under instructions from Dublin Castle) 
 placed two six pounders, charged with grape 
 shot, opposite the Court-house where the meet- 
 ing was being held- — bringing England's logic to 
 bear on the misguided ones who thought they 
 
 S44 
 
thp: parliamentary union 
 
 could better know than England, what was for 
 Ireland's benefit. 
 
 The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended. 
 
 Martial law was proclaimed. 
 
 England stationed in Ireland, 126,000 soldiers. 
 
 All constitutional guarantee was annulled. 
 
 The use of torture was frequently availed of. 
 
 Meeting of the people were dispersed by mil- 
 itary force. 
 
 Offices and commands were trafficked in. 
 
 Every foul devise that the most ingeniously 
 tnean-mindcd tools could contrive was employed 
 against Irish liberty — or Anglo-Irish liberty. 
 
 And by use of all conceivable and inconceiv- 
 able mean devices they managed, at length, to 
 secure a bare majority in favor of the Union — 
 162 out of 303 members. One hundred and six- 
 teen of these 162 were their own salaried tools — 
 placemen. 
 
 They carried their "JJnioa^' It has been stated 
 that as much as eight thousand pounds was paid 
 for one vote. Henry Grattan is authority for it 
 that, of those who voted in favor of tiie Union 
 with England, not more than seven were un- 
 bribed. Gornwallis had no illusions about the 
 quality of the men whom he purchased — knew 
 r^ght well that they could be just as faithless to 
 
 145 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 him, despite his gold, as they were to their 
 adopted country, despite their duty. He wrote, 
 "I believe that half of our majority would be as 
 much delighted as any of our opponents, if the 
 measure could be defeated." 
 
 Place, title, and gold, were the inducements 
 for sacrificing Ireland at England's bidding. As 
 reward for good work done — or to be done — 
 twenty-eight Irish peerages were created. Six 
 Irish peers got English peerages. Twenty Irish 
 peers were elevated in rank. New and lucrative 
 jobs, offices, government appointments, were cre- 
 ated—for bestowal on those who rendered "serv- 
 ices." 
 
 In those days the boroughs in Ireland were 
 "owned" by Lordly proprietors who put in for 
 them such puppet members of Parliament as 
 they pleased. In 1782 out of 300 members, only 
 72 were really elected — and of course only one- 
 seventh of the people in Ireland (the British 
 portion) got a chance at electing those. This 
 ownership came to be recognized by law! And 
 to compensate eighty titled Borough owners in 
 Ireland (who owned one hundred and sixty mem- 
 bers) an act was passed appropriating for them 
 £1,260,000— being at the rate of aboiit £8,000 
 for each member. 
 
 146 ^"^ 
 
THE PARLIAMENTARY UNION 
 
 And, crowning joke of all the grim jokes played 
 upon Ireland by England, this million and quar- 
 ter for greasing the groove down which Ireland's 
 Parliament was to be skidded to England — was 
 added to the Irish National Debt! 
 
 Lord Ely who had at first been opposed to the 
 Union, but came finally to see the light and voted 
 for it, received £45,000 of this for his Boroughs. 
 
 These moneys were paid as "compensation" 
 for "disturbance" caused, or to be caused, or in 
 danger of being caused, by the Union. And not 
 only Anglo-Irishmen but likewise every pocket- 
 picking Englishman and hungry Scotchman 
 who could get near it, fought and struggled and 
 mauled one another, for the chance of getting 
 a hand in the Compensation bag. 
 
 Barrington records that even the necessary 
 woman of the English Privy Council asked "com- 
 pensation" from Ireland for the extra trouble 
 which the influx of Irish Privy Councillors would 
 cause in her department ! 
 
 And the Lord Lieutenant's official rat catcher 
 insisted on the right to get his paw in the bag 
 as compensation for "decrease of employment.'* 
 Why the Union with England should affect this 
 gentleman's employment is not stated — but it 
 is easy to suppose that he foresaw the certainty 
 
 147 
 
IRELANiyS CASE 
 
 of droves of British rats quitting tke stidd&f 
 
 ship. 
 
 Daniel O'Connell once said, that he coald not, 
 under Heaven, apprehend how H was that they 
 forgot to charge against Ireland the price of the 
 razor with which Castiereagh afterwards cut hk 
 throat 
 
 And this is the wonderftil story of Ireland's 
 voluntary and eager Union with England. It is 
 a fair illustration of Englaiwi's nice honor, clean 
 handedness, clean mindedness, in dealing with 
 the island that was and is "dependent on and 
 protected by England." 
 
 The carrying of the Union the reader sees, re- 
 flected nearly as much credit upon England's 
 nice honor as did the Treaty of Limerick upon 
 the pledged faith and honor of the British crown. 
 
 I4§ 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 OUR ENGLISH LAND LAWS 
 
 Li Ireland we had not the Feudal System which 
 obtained in England and in Continental countries. 
 Our lands were, practically speaking, the com- 
 mon property of the Chief and the members of 
 the clan. 
 
 When England had succeeded in killing off or 
 banishing the Chiefs, to English landlords were 
 granted the stolen lands. And such memijcrs of 
 the clan as still survived and were permitted to 
 live as "tenants" upon their lands had to begin 
 paying a tribute called *'rent" to the British over- 
 lords. They were at once reduced to serfdom. 
 
 The Irish "tenants" were not only morally 
 owners of the lands, but under the overlordship 
 of their British landlords they still bought and 
 sold the lands among themselves. It is of the 
 utmost importance to note that in Ireland the 
 landlord took no part in improving the land, or 
 in putting up buildings upon it. He did abso- 
 lutely nothing but sit down in his Irish castle, 
 or his London Club, or Continental Gambling- 
 Hell, and accept his rents. The rule for rent- 
 fixing was that the tenant should be made to pay 
 
 149 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 from the lands every penny that could possibly 
 be squeezed out of him. If he was foolish 
 enough to drain and improve his land, and thus 
 make it yield a better crop, his rent was immedi- 
 ately raised — because he was now able to pay 
 more. This vile system of penalizing industry 
 killed ambition in the serf's soul. If he could 
 wring even the most wretched living from his 
 lands, after paying the extortionate rent, the dis- 
 heartened tenant had to be fatalistically content. 
 His lot, throughout the more barren portion of 
 Ireland, was wretched beyond description. 
 
 Swift, in his day, was forced to cry out, 
 "Rents are squeezed out of the clothes and 
 dwellings, the blood and vitals of the tenants, 
 who live worse than English beggars." 
 
 If the tenant failed in his efforts to raise the 
 rent by hook or crook (and in hundreds of thou- 
 sands of cases he raised it not from his land, bnt 
 from outside sources, often emigrating to Eng- 
 land, Scotland and America for the purpose) or 
 if the landlord wanted the land for some favorite, 
 or if the tenant refused to give his labor free to 
 the landlord, disobeyed or otherwise displeased 
 the landlord, or broke one of the man}^ tyran- 
 nical "rules of the estate," he got notice to quit — 
 was evicted from the land that he owned, from 
 the house that he or his forefathers had raised — 
 his home was tumbled down and he and his fam- 
 
OUR ENGLISH LAND LAWS 
 
 ily were cast upon the road (without, of course, 
 any penny of compensation), there to starve or 
 die. 
 
 The brutal "rules of the estate" often almost 
 forbade the tenant to breathe without the land- 
 lord's permission. On many estates the tenant 
 dare not, under penalty of eviction, marry, or 
 permit any of his family to marry, without a li- 
 cense from the landlord's Agent. The tenant had 
 to give to the landlord, the Agent, and the bailiff, 
 all the free labor that they chose to demand. On 
 many estates, the tenant was forbidden to keep 
 a lodger, to harbor a visitor, to give a night's 
 shelter to a beggar, or to any homeless one. On 
 some estates the tenant was forbidden to har- 
 bor even a relative. Butt in his "The Irish Land 
 and the Irish People," instances the case of a 
 widow being evicted for the crime of having 
 brought a widowed daughter to live with her. 
 
 The landlord would not have on his estate any 
 such criminal hospitality. Because it encouraged 
 pauperism — for which he would have to pay his 
 share in poor-tax. And, these people had no 
 right to squander on worthless vagabonds, money 
 that were better employed trying to keep the He- 
 brew wolf from their Lord's door. 
 
 To oflPer shelter and share of their bread to the 
 wretched being, or family, that their landlord had 
 cast out, was especially to invite their own death 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 e 
 
 sentence. As illustrati^ this, let me quote from 
 A. M. Sullivan's "New Ireland," the case of 
 the trial before Chief Baron Pigott of some ten- 
 ants who were accused of the manslaughter of 
 a little boy— the manslaughter being caused by 
 their having forcibly expelled him from their 
 house, and let him die of exposure — under terror 
 of being themselves expelled for violating the 
 "rules of the estate.** The happening occurred 
 on the Kerry estate of Mart^ of Lansdowne. 
 The orphan boy was Denis Sk&L, twelve years 
 old. 
 
 "His mother at one time held a little dwelling 
 from which she was ^q)elled. His father was 
 dead. His mother had left him, and he was 
 alone and unprotected. He foiaad refuge with 
 his grandmother, who hd4 a Iktie farm, from 
 which she was evicted by the iaad4ord in con- 
 sequence of her harboring this poor boy — as the 
 agent of the property had g^ytn public notice 
 to the tenantry that expulsion from their farms 
 would be the penalty inffieted upon them if 
 they harbored any persons hariag no residence 
 on the estate. These cases, not erf eviction, but 
 cases where eviction did not occar, showed that 
 the tenantry were, because of ^c extraordinary 
 powers coirferrcd by law on landtords, in such 
 a stxtt of scrMom, tiba^ th« moditr could not 
 receive her datq^blcr— -diet lite graa^aodicr 
 
OUR ENGLISH LAND LAWS 
 
 could not receive her own grandchild unless that 
 child was a tenant on the estate. And the re- 
 sult was tiiis, that the poor boy, without a house 
 to shelter him, was sought to be forced into 
 the house of a relative in a terrible night of 
 storm and rain. He was immediately pushed 
 out again, he staggered on a little, fell to the 
 ground, and the next morning was found cold, 
 stiff and dead. The persons who drove the poor 
 boy out were tried for the offence of being ac- 
 cessories to his death; and their defence was 
 that what they did was done under the terror 
 of *the rule of the estate' and that they meant 
 n© harQ to the boy. They were found guilty 
 of manslaughter and sentenced." 
 
 And while these wretched victims of the "rule 
 of the estate" were enjoying jail, the framef of 
 the rule, the boy's real murderer, was nonchal- 
 antly throwing his dice in his gambling resort. 
 
 Mitchell, in tailking of the evicting horror, 
 gives a terse and terrible summary of the hap- 
 penings upon one estate as the result of one 
 eviction crop: 
 
 **At an eviction in 1854, on a property under 
 the management of Marcus Keane, James O'Gor- 
 man, one of the tenants evicted, died on the roaa- 
 side. His wife and children were sent to the 
 workhouse, where they died shortly afterwards. 
 
 "John Corbet, a tenant on another townland, 
 
 153 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 was evicted by the same agent. He died on the 
 roadside. His wife had died previous to the evic- 
 tion; his ten children were sent into the work- 
 house and there died. 
 
 "Michael McMahon, evicted at the same time, 
 was dragged out of bed, to the roadside, where 
 he died of want the next day. His wife died of 
 want previous to the eviction, and his children, 
 eight in number, died in a few years in the work- 
 house." 
 
 How is that for fruit of those beneficent Brit- 
 ish laws which it is the inestimable privilege of 
 the Irish barbarians to live under? 
 
 And be it remembered not only did England 
 back up this fearful state of things in Ireland 
 with all the power of her legislature and well- 
 chosen judiciary, but her brave troops, in all 
 their red and royal glittering splendor, with rifles 
 and bayonets, marched out behind the landlord 
 and bailiffs to the noble work of evicting from 
 their hovels these miserable people — and took 
 position in front and on flank of the wretched 
 hovels where the death sentence — as the eviction 
 was usually known— was to be executed. For 
 at the beck of the British landlord, the British 
 army was ever held in readiness to lend the im- 
 posing terrors of its presence at the committal 
 of these awful crimes against God and God's 
 most miserable people. 
 
 154 
 
OUR ENGLISH LAND LAWS 
 
 Foreigners can hardly believe that earth's 
 greatest and most glorious empire could so dis- 
 grace and degrade its forces as to lend them, year 
 after year, week after week, day after day, for 
 exhibitions that would be ludicrous if they were 
 not fraught with such awful consequence to the 
 condemned, who were thereby losing their land, 
 their home, their all — sometimes, too, their rea- 
 son and their life ! I talk of what I myself have 
 seen — what who in Ireland has not seen ? 
 
 To convey to strangers a picture of what an 
 Irish eviction is like, I shall set down here de- 
 scriptions of a few of them given by spectators. 
 The first is from the Right Rev. Dr. McNuIty, 
 Bishop of Meath and is copied from Mitchel: 
 
 "In the very first year of our ministry, as a 
 missionary priest in the diocese, we were wit- 
 ness of a cruel and inhuman eviction, which even 
 still makes our heart bleed as often as we allow 
 ourselves to think of it. 
 
 "Seven hundred human beings were driven 
 from their homes in one day, and set adrift on the 
 world, to gratify the whim of one who, before 
 God and man, probably deserved less considera- 
 tion than the last and least of them. The Crow- 
 bar Brigade employed on the occasion to extin- 
 guish the hearth fires and demolish the homes, in- 
 dustriously worked at their awful calling until 
 evening. 
 
 155 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 "Then an incident occurred that varied the 
 monotony of the ghastly work. — They stopped 
 suddenly, and recoiled panic-stricken from two 
 dwellings which they were directed to destroy 
 with the rest. A frightful typhus fever held 
 those houses in its grasp, and had already brought 
 pestilence and death to some of the inmates. 
 They supplicated the agent to spare these houses 
 a little longer ; but the agent was inexorable, and 
 insisted that they also should be levelled. He 
 ordered a large winnowing-sheet to be put over 
 the beds on which the fever victims lay — fortu- 
 nately, they happened to be delirious at the time 
 — and then directed the house to be unroofed 
 carefuUy and slowly, because, he said, he very 
 much disliked the bother of a coroner's inquest. 
 I administered the Sacrament of the Church to 
 four of tiiese fever victims next day; and, save 
 the above-meationed winnowing-sheet, there was 
 not then a r^of nearer to them than the canopy 
 of Heaven. 
 
 **The borriWe scenes 1 then witnessed I must 
 remember all my life long. The wailing of wom- 
 en-—the screammg, the terror, the consternation 
 of childrea^ — th« speechless agony of honest, in- 
 dustrious men — wrung tears of g^ief from all who 
 saw and heard them. The heavy rains that usu- 
 ally attend the atrtumnal equinox descended in 
 cold, copious blowers throughout the night, 
 
 1S» 
 
OUR ENGLISH LAND LAWS 
 
 bringing home to those helpless sufferers the aw- 
 ful realities of their condition. 
 
 "I visited them next morning, and rode from 
 place to place administering to them what com- 
 fort and consolation I could. The appearance 
 of men, women, and children, as they emerged 
 from the ruins of their former homes — saturated 
 with rain, blackened and besmeared with soot, 
 revealed in every member cold and misery — pre- 
 sented positively the most appalling spectacle I 
 ever looked on. They were driven from the land 
 on which Providence had placed them; and, in 
 the state of society surrounding them, every walk 
 of life was rigidly closed against them. What 
 was the result? After battling in vain with pri- 
 vation and pestilence, they at last graduated from 
 the workhouse to the tomb; and in little more 
 than three years nearly one-fourth of them lay 
 quietly in their graves." 
 
 The scenes and happenings here described by 
 Dr. McNulty were only such as were become 
 commonplace in every corner of Ireland. 
 
 For, be it noted that, sometimes, 70,000 crea- 
 tures in one year underwent the foregoing fate. 
 
 The next I give is a description of the great 
 clearance at Glenveigh, in my own County of 
 Donegal. 
 
 There the landlord, Adair, in a fit of spite 
 against his tenants, determined to clear every 
 
 157 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 miserable soul in the countryside from their 
 home and their lands, and throw them as beg- 
 gars on the beggared world around them. 
 
 "It was early in February, that the poor peo- 
 ple first knew of the tragic fate that awaited 
 them; some realized its terrible import, but the 
 majority did not. In that remote and lonely 
 region, they had never heard that any man couid 
 possess such power — they owed no rent; they 
 had done no man wrong. In a couple of months 
 a large force of police and soldiers, with tents 
 and baggage, marched on Glenveigh, and on the 
 night of Sunday, April 7, had closed in around 
 the place, occupying or commanding the entrances 
 or passes. Still the hapless people, in fatal 
 confidence, slumbered on. In the early morning 
 of Monday, the sight of the red-coats and the glit- 
 tering bayonets gave the signal of alarm, and 
 from house to house, and hill to hill, a halloo was 
 sent afar. Soon there arose on the morning air 
 a wail that chilled even the sternest heart, and 
 there burst from the women and children a cry 
 of agony that pierced the heavens." 
 
 The Derry Standard, the Presbyterian organ of 
 the Northwest, reported the eviction. A. M. Sul- 
 livan in "New Ireland" quotes the report. Read it, 
 and bless the benign rule that God grants Ire- 
 land the blessing to enjoy — and the benign ruler 
 
 158 
 
OUR ENGLISH LAND LAWS 
 
 who sends his gallant war-heroes, in all of war's 
 panoply, to help an Englishman wreak his spite 
 on the most pitable of God's creatures. 
 
 "The first eviction was one pecularly distress- 
 ing, and the terrible reality of the law suddenly 
 burst in surprise on the spectators. Having ar- 
 rived at Lough Barra, the police were halted, and 
 the sheriff, with a small escort, proceeded to the 
 house of a widow named McAward, aged 60 
 years, living with whom were six daughters and 
 a son. Long before the house was reached, loud 
 cries were heard piercing the air, and soon the 
 figures of the poor widow and her daughters were 
 observed outside the house, where they gave 
 vent to their grief in strains of touching agony. 
 The Agent's men, who had been brought from a 
 distance, immediately fell to levelling the house 
 to the ground. The scene then became indescrib- 
 able. 
 
 "The bereaved widow and her daughters were 
 frantic with despair. Throwing themselves on 
 the ground, they became insensible, and burst 
 out in the old Irish wail — then heard by many 
 for the first time — their terrifying cries resound- 
 ing along the mountainside for many miles. They 
 had been deprived of the little spot dear to them 
 with associations of the past — and with poverty 
 before them, and only the blue sky to shelter 
 them, they naturally lost all hope, and those who 
 
 159 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 witnessed their agony will never forget the sight. 
 Every heart was touched, and tears of sympathy 
 flawed from many. In a short time we with- 
 drew from the scene, leaving the widow and her 
 orphans surrounded by a small group of neigh- 
 bors who could only express their sympathy for 
 the homeless, without possessing the power to 
 r^ieve them. 
 
 ^'During that and the next two days the entire 
 holdings in the lands mentioned above were vis- 
 ited, and it was not until an advanced hour on 
 Wednesday the evictions were finished. In ail 
 the evictions the distress of the poor people was 
 equal to that depicted in the first case. Dearly 
 did they cling to their homes till the last moment, 
 and while the male portion bestirred themselves 
 in clearing the houses of what scanty furniture 
 they contained, the v/omen and children remained 
 within till the sheriff's bailiff warned them out, 
 and even then it was with difficulty they could 
 tear themselves away from the scenes of happier 
 days. In many cases they bade an affectionate 
 adieu to their former peaceable, but now desolate, 
 homes. One old man, near the four score years 
 and ten, on leaving his house for the last time, 
 reverently kissed the doorposts, with all the im- 
 passioned tenderness of an emigrant leaving his 
 native land. His wife and children follov/ed his 
 example. And in agonized silence the afflicted 
 
 160 
 
OUR ENGLISH LAND LAWS 
 
 ji 
 family stood by and watched the destruction of 
 their dwelling. 
 
 '*In another case an old man, aged 90, who was 
 JyiGgf ill in bed, was carried out of the house. In 
 nearly every house there was someone far ad- 
 vanced in age — many of them tottering to the 
 grave — while the sobs of the helpless childrci 
 took hold of every heart. When dispossessed 
 the families grouped themselves on the ground, 
 beside the ruins of their late homes, having no 
 place of refuge near. The dumb animals refused 
 to leave the wallsides, and in some cases were 
 with difficulty rescued from the falling timbers. 
 
 "As night set in, the scene became feariully 
 sad. Passing along the base of the mountain 
 the spectators might have observed, near to 
 each house, its former inmates crouching around 
 a turf fire, close by a hedge; and as the drizzling 
 rain poured upon them they found no cover, and 
 were entirely exposed to it; but only sought to 
 warm their famished bodies. Many of them were 
 but m.iserably clad, and on all sides the greatest 
 desolation was apparent. I learned afterwards 
 that the great majority of them lay out all night, 
 either behind the hedges or in a little wood which 
 skirts the lake ; they had no other alternative. I 
 believe many of them resorted to the poorhouse. 
 There, these starving people remain on the cold 
 bleak mountains, no one caring for them whether 
 
 161 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 they live or die. 'Tis horrible to think of, but 
 more horrible to behold." 
 
 It is wonderful to contemplate the patience of 
 the wrathful God who from His Heavens gazing 
 down upon such blackguardism, yet holds His 
 hands from blasting with His bolts the canting 
 hypocrites who are incessantly telling Him how 
 they, the holiest and greatest of His people, 
 glorify Him by carrying His Gospel of love and 
 joy to the outer barbarians whom they take into 
 their Empire to civilize and Salvationizc ! 
 
 Later some friends in Australia subscribed a 
 fund, and sent for these beneficiaries of British 
 law — thanks to the untiring efforts of A. M, Sul- 
 livan. 
 
 Mr. Sullivan says, "The poor people were 
 sought out and collected. Some by this time had 
 sunk under their sufferings. One man named 
 Bradley had lost his reason under tlie sliock ; 
 other cases were equally as heartrending. There 
 were old men who would keep vv^andering over 
 the hills in view of their ruined homes, full of the 
 idea that some da.y Adair might let them return ; 
 but who at last had to be borne to tlie v/orkhouse 
 hospital to die." 
 
 What followed is too touchingly beautiful to 
 omit — one of the most deeply touching in the 
 records of nineteenth century Ireland. And the 
 man, friend or enemy of our race, who can read 
 
 162 
 
OUR ENGLISH LAND LAWS 
 
 to the end of this chapter with heart unmoved 
 and eye undimmed, is a creature to be commiser- 
 ated. 
 
 "A strange mixture of joy and sadness !" says 
 Mr. Sullivan. "The survivors heard that their 
 friends in Australia had paid their passage 
 money. On the day they were to set out for the 
 railway station, en route for Liverpool, a strange 
 scene was witnessed. The cavalcade was ac- 
 companied by a concourse of neighbors and 
 sympathizers. They had to pass within a short 
 distance of the ancient burial ground where the 
 'rude forefathers of the valley slept.' They halt- 
 ed, turned aside, and proceeded to the grass- 
 grown cemetery. Here, in a body, they knelt, 
 throwing themselves on the graves of their rela- 
 tives, which they reverently kissed, again and 
 again, and raised for the last time the Irish 
 caoine, or funeral v/ail. Some of them pulled tufts 
 of the grass, which they placed in their bosoms, 
 and then resumed their v/ay on the road to exile." 
 
 In Dtrry, the port of embarkation, dinner was 
 provided for them. The Presbyterian Derry 
 Standard, in its report, said: 
 
 "When dinner w^as concluded. Rev. Mr. 
 M'Fadden, amidst the most solemn stillness, 
 briefly addressed the assemblage; and it was a 
 most touching sight. He spoke in the Gaelic 
 tongue ; the language of their homes and firesides^ 
 
 163 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 ere Adair had levelled the one, and quenched the- 
 other, forever. As the young priest spoke, his 
 own voice full of emotion, the painful silence all 
 around soon became broken by the sobs of wom- 
 en, and tears flowing down many a cheek. He 
 reminded them that this was the very last meal 
 they would partake of on Irish soil ; that in a few 
 hours they would have left Ireland forever. He 
 spoke of their old homes amidst the Donegal 
 hills, of the happy days passed in the now silent 
 and desolate valley of Derryveigh; of the peace 
 and happiness that they had knoAvn then, because 
 they were contented, and were free from tempta- 
 tions and angers of which the busy world was 
 full. He reminded them of their simple lives — 
 the Sunday Mass, so regularly attended ; the con- 
 fession ; the consolation of faith. Many a cheek 
 was wet as he alluded to how they would be 
 missed by the priest whose flock they were. But, 
 most of all, their lot was sorrowful in the fact 
 that, while other emigrants left behind them 
 parents and relatives over whom the old rooftree 
 remained, they, alas ! left theirs under no shelter, 
 in no home — they were wanderers and outcasts, 
 with the workhouse for a last resort. But (said 
 he), you are going to a better land, a free coun- 
 try, where there are no tyrants, because there are 
 no slaves. Friends have reached out their hands 
 to you; those friends await you on the shore of 
 
 164 
 
OUR ENGLISH LAND LAWS 
 
 that better land. And here, too, in this city, 
 hearts equally true and kindly have met you. Let 
 your last work on Irish ground be to thank the 
 good gentleman who now stands by my side, Mr. 
 Alexander Sullivan. 
 
 "And now, dear brothers, we shall be depart- 
 ing. Before you take your foot off your native 
 land, promise me here that you will, above all 
 things, be faithful to your God, and attend to your 
 religious duties, under whatever circumstances 
 you may be placed. (Sobs and cries of 'We will! 
 We will!'). Never neglect your night and morn- 
 ing prayers, and never omit to approach the 
 Blessed Eucharist at least at Christmas and Eas- 
 ter. And, boys, don't forget poor old Ireland. 
 (Cries of 'Never! Never! God knows'). — Don't 
 forget the old people at home, boys. Sure they 
 will be counting the da^'-s till the letter comes 
 from you. And they will be praying for you, an4 
 we will all pray God be with you." 
 
 Ah ! how these children of woe in Ireland, an«i 
 the children of their children at the world's four 
 corners, to which they were scourged by Eng- 
 land, her laws and her lords, should, in their in- 
 most souls, cherish and revere the sublime laws 
 and benign rule of their loving protector, Britain 
 the Chivalrous ! 
 
 165 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 THE LAST CENTURY 
 
 Since the Irish Parliament was purchased, 117 
 years ago, and Ireland still more closely gathered 
 up to the bosom of her stepmother, the history 
 of the island may be written in three words — 
 TAXATION, STARVATION, EMIGRATION. 
 
 Or economically, we might make one word do 
 for it all— RUINATION. 
 
 In the first quarter century after the Union, al- 
 most all the little industries that remained in 
 Ireland melted away. 
 
 The period since has been marked by a succes- 
 sion of famines, the direct result of English rule 
 and ruin. The trying month of July, during 
 which the preceding year's food crop was usually 
 exhausted, and the current year's crop not yet 
 ready, came to be known, in the Irish-speaking 
 districts, as Mi na Sul Siar — that is, the Monm 
 of the Hollow Eyes. But tens of thousands bore 
 the hpllow eyes from January to January. 
 
 Carlyle asks, "Has Ireland been governed in a 
 wise and loving manner? A Government and 
 guidance of white European men which has end- 
 ed in perennial hunger of potatoes to eyery main 
 
 i66 
 
THE LAST CENTURY 
 
 extant, ought to drop a veil over its face and 
 walk out of court under conduct of the proper 
 officers." 
 
 The most terrible of all the half score of great 
 famines which marked the last century, was that 
 of 1846-1847. At the beginning of that awful 
 famine, when people were already dropping and 
 dying by the wayside, the motherly Government 
 stubbornly refused to close the ports and prevent 
 the shipping of com out of the country. The 
 suffering of the people in those years exceeded 
 the powers of description. While generous ones 
 at the ends of the earth were sending their help 
 to the stricken ones — even to Britain's shame, 
 the Sultan of Turkey, moved to pity by the ter- 
 rible happenings in Ireland, sending contribu- 
 tion — British officials were busy denying that 
 there was any more suffering or any more famine 
 than usual — and the British Parliament was aid- 
 ing a perishing people by contributing talk with 
 lavish generosity. 
 
 The famished subjects of this great British 
 Government, stricken by starvation and by fam- 
 ine fever, were dying so thick and fast, and leav- 
 ing survivors so exhausted, that their bodies oft- 
 entimes remained unburied for weeks. Then only 
 the rats of the land flourished, gorging them- 
 selves on the neglected dead. 
 
 In this fruitful smiling island, sitting in the 
 
 167 
 
IRELAND'S CASK 
 
 seas contiguous to the seat of the worWs great- 
 
 est and richest Empire^and itself a part of that 
 Empire, and taken under the Empire'a special 
 care-u is estimated that during those famine 
 years of 46-47 almost a million died of starvation 
 —died in the houses, in the fields, on the hish- 
 roads, in the workhouses, on the public .treets 
 « the towns. 
 
 And the vast number that died was far from 
 completing Ireland's loss by that famine 
 
 In two other terrible ways it did dread damage 
 to the Irish nation. ^ 
 
 In the first place, the undermining of the 
 physical system of the Irish people by the con- 
 stant recurrence of these famines, and especially 
 the radical weakening of their system in this par- 
 ticular famine, is probably the cause of the tu- 
 berculosis scourge which has fastened on, and 
 given the Irish nation an unenviable pre^-emin- 
 tnce in the history of the White Plague 
 
 And again, in those terrible years the people 
 began flocking from the stricken land in tens and 
 hundreds of thousands—to America and to the 
 ends of the earth. The little b^s of Ireland 
 were in those years, and for mfiny succeeding 
 years, pitifully floating out human cargoes upon 
 the bosom of every tide— till within five years' 
 time about a million despairing refugees had 
 B«d from Ireland. 
 
 ISS. 
 
' -' THE LAST CENTURY 
 
 And in the famine exodus thousands and thou- 
 sands carried their load of famine fever with 
 them aboard the little ships or developed fam- 
 ine fever on the voyage — and thousands upon 
 thousands of them, fleeing from Ireland for the 
 promised land beyond the Sea, never saw that 
 land, but left their bones to whiten on the Ocean 
 bed. 
 
 And still other thousands and thousands 
 reached the Promised Land only to see it, and die. 
 
 Along the Canadian Shore, to which their little 
 ships came, the famine-sticken ones were quar- 
 antined in droves, and died in heaps, and in piles 
 were buried. 
 
 I have visited the little Island at the mouth of 
 the St. John River in the company of an old man, 
 a doctor, who gave me a harrowing picture of 
 the appearance of the unfed, unclad creatures 
 who were dumped there by the shipload in '46, '47 
 and '48 — some of them, he said clad in straw — 
 and I saw the great furrows which mark the 
 trenches in which myriads of them were buried. 
 
 Six thousand of these poor creatures perished 
 on Gros Island in the St. Lawrence. The Mon- 
 treal Emigration Bureau estimated that the banks 
 of the St. Lawrence from Quebec to Port Samia, 
 were dotted with the graves of twenty thousand 
 Irish emigrants, victims of the three-thousand- 
 
 i 169 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 mile-distant famine, which they foolishly thought 
 they had escaped. 
 
 Of certain ninety thousand only, of the emi- 
 grants to Canada in '47, of which accurate ac- 
 count was kept, it is recorded that 6,100 died on 
 the voyage, 4,100 died on arrival, 5,200 died in 
 hospitals, and 1,900 soon died in the towns to 
 which they repaired. 
 
 Here is a sample of the reports for a few of 
 the individual ships: 
 
 The Larch, carrying 440 passengers, had 108 
 deaths. The Queen, carrying 493 passengers, had 
 137 deaths. The Avon, carrying 552 passengers, 
 had 236 deaths. The Virginius, carrying 476 
 passengers, had 267 deaths. 
 
 And thus was the flower of one of the finest 
 nations on the face of the earth in swaths mowed 
 down. And thus in wind-rows did they wither 
 from off the earth — under the aegis of British 
 rule. 
 
 The famine specter was then aggravated by 
 the emigration specter. From that time forward 
 emigration from Ireland assumed alarming pro- 
 portions. 
 
 It is 1,700 years since the old Roman Geogra- 
 pher, Solinus, descanted upon the ideal climate 
 and the fruitful soil of smiling lerne, set upon the 
 Western waves. lerne can still boast of ideal 
 climate and fruitful soil — yet in hundreds of thou- 
 sands its children have been fleeing from it, as 
 
 170 
 
THE LAST CENTURY 
 
 from a doomed land, to earth's ends, seelcing sus- 
 tenance which should be plentiful at home — but 
 that the British Government with the devastating 
 hordes of its officials, hangersHDu, landlords, 
 strangling ramifications and ramificators have 
 been, like leeches, sucking to the last drop the 
 country's life-blood. 
 
 Here is what an English writer who visited the 
 scene in '45 was constrained to confess : "Nature 
 does her duty. The land is fruitful enough. Man 
 and Nature do produce abundantly. The Island 
 is full and overflowing with human food. But 
 something ever interposes between the hungering 
 mouth and the ample banquet. The famished 
 victim of a mysterious sentence spreads out his 
 hands to the viands which his own industry have 
 placed before his eyes; but no sooner are they 
 touched than they fly. The decrees of sic vos non 
 nobis condemns him to toil without enjoyment. 
 Social atrophy drains off the vital juices of the 
 nation." 
 
 Experts have pronounced fruitful Ireland as 
 capable of supporting in comfort a population of 
 twenty million. Today less than four and a half 
 millions cling to existence there. 
 
 Seventy years ago Ireland had a poulation of 
 almost nine million souls. At the natural rate of 
 increase, the population today should be twenty 
 million. Yet, through oppression, starvation, and 
 
 171 
 
IRELAND'S C\SE 
 
 emigration, the population, instead of being 
 doubled in these seventy years, has been halved. 
 That fact alone is a gauge by which to measure 
 the beneficence of British rule in Ireland. 
 
 And the poignancy of regret felt by our kind 
 rulers over the depopulation they caused was 
 very well voiced by the London Times, when, in 
 1848, writing of the wholesale emigration then 
 going on, it exclaimed triumphantly : "They are 
 going! the Irish are going with a vengeance! 
 And a Celt will soon be as rare in Ireland as a 
 Red Indian on the shores of Manhattan !" 
 
 And through the typically British Imperial 
 Saturday Review of November 28, 1863, the voice 
 of England again speaks. Referring to these 
 creatures whom the brute-hearted Briton was 
 scourging from the land of their forefathers, it 
 howled after them, "Departing demons of assas- 
 sination and murder! ... So complete is 
 the rush of the departing marauders that silence 
 reigns over the vast solitude of Ireland. . . . 
 Just as civilization gradually supersedes the wild- 
 er and fiercer creatures by man and cities, so de- 
 civilization, such as is going on in Ireland, wipes 
 out man to make room for oxen." 
 
 When England lashes her conquered ones till 
 every square inch of their bodies gives a gaping, 
 quivering wound, such is the salve that is then, 
 exultantly, rubbed into the agonizing wounds, by 
 
 172 
 
THE LAST CENTURY 
 
 the propagator of Christianity and pioneer of civ- 
 ilization. 
 
 Under British Rule, however, there are two 
 things that flourish in Ireland. They are Public 
 Debt and Taxation. The Tax-raising industry is 
 the only healthy and progressive one that the 
 Island knows. But, then, it is remarkably vig- 
 orous. And the encouraging thing is that the 
 w^orse the condition of the country grows the 
 more merrily and the faster hum the wheels of 
 the taxing machine ; and the more light-heartedly 
 the tax-master sings at his w^ork. 
 
 Ireland was found to be a convenient kitchen 
 garden for furnishing useful, unornamental tax- 
 supplies whose raising in England's shoAv-garden 
 might hurt the aesthetic sense of the English- 
 man. When an English lady, visiting Ireland 
 in Swift's day, said to the Dean, "What a splen- 
 did climate Ireland has," the Dean replied, "For 
 the Lord's sake, madam, don't tell that when you 
 go back to England, or they'll tax it on us !" 
 
 Mrs. Green says : "They quartered on Irish rev- 
 enues all pensioners that could not safely be pro- 
 posed to a free Parliament in England — mistress^ 
 es of successive kings, and their children ; German 
 relations of the Hanovers ; useful politicians cov- 
 ered by their names ; a queen of Denmark ban- 
 ished for misconduct ; a Sardinian ambassador 
 under false title. About six hundred thousand 
 
 173 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 pounds were yearly sent over to England for ab- 
 sentees' pensions, annuities, and the like." 
 
 Just watch Ireland's debt grow under the magic- 
 touch of a mother's hand ; 
 
 In 1795, when England was beginning her 
 machinations for taking away the Irish Parlia- 
 ment, the Irish National Debt was £3,000,000. 
 
 In 1801, when England had finally succeeded in 
 stealing the Parliament from Ireland — and charg- 
 ing to Ireland every bribe and every mean ex- 
 pense entailed by the stealing — the Irish National 
 Debt was £28,000,000— had multiplied by nine. 
 
 In 1817, when the Irish National Debt was 
 finally merged with the British National Debt, 
 the Irish debt had reached £112,000,000. It had 
 been multiplied by four in the sixteen years since 
 the Union. (In the same sixteen years the Brit- 
 ish Debt had only increased seventy-five per 
 cent.) And in the twenty-two years from the 
 time England had begun contriving for the 
 Union, it had multiplied by thirty-seven ! 
 
 At the present day Ireland is privileged to 
 share on equal terms in an Imperial National 
 Debt — incurred for carrying on England's wars 
 of aggression, oppression, expansion, and general 
 greed — wars for the enriching of England at the 
 expense of the weak in all corners of the world — 
 an Imperial debt of more billions than could be 
 set down in a short book like this — more billions 
 
 ^7A 
 
THE LAST CENTURY 1 
 
 than would pave every Irish highroad and every 
 Irish byroad through the length and the breadth 
 of the land with golden guineas. Ireland is now 
 privileged to share in an Imperial National Debt 
 that would purchase Ireland twenty times over 
 at market prices — a staggering debt, every penny 
 of whose expenditure went to the enriching of 
 England, and the impoverishing of Ireland. 
 
 So much for the debt industry in Ireland. 
 
 Now for the taxing. 
 
 In 1795 Ireland was taxed nine and one-half 
 shillings per head of the population. 
 
 In 1801, when the Union was finally completed, 
 the taxes were fifty per cent, higher — somewhat 
 less than fourteen shillings per head. In 1914 
 (before the war began) the taxes were more than 
 fifty-two shillings per head. 
 
 Within 120 years the taxes had been more than 
 multiplied by five. And in the 113 years since 
 the Union they had been almost multiplied by 
 four. 
 
 In the present day, 1917-1918, I believe they 
 are about three times what they were three years 
 ago. What they will be like tomorrow — after 
 the war — may be judged by those who live to 
 listen to the groans of the crushed people — that 
 is, if there be left in the nation enough vitality to 
 emit a groan. 
 
 Here is another way in which to bring home 
 
 175 
 
IRELAND'S CASE ^ 
 
 to one the crushing enormity of Ireland's terrible 
 taxation : 
 
 All income of the people over and above what 
 is supposed to be a mere living pittance, is called 
 the taxable income, or the taxable surplus. Now 
 in complete tax revenue, beggared Ireland is pay- 
 ing an amount equal to four-fifths of all her tax- 
 able surplus — sixteen shillings out of every 
 pound I And at the same time wealthy England^ 
 possessed of an enormous taxable surplus, is pay- 
 ing aa amount less than one-sixth of her taxable 
 surplus — less than three shillings in every pound 
 of her taxable income ! 
 
 In proportion to their respective wealths, then 
 the starving Irishman's tax burden is much more 
 than five times that of the fat-paunched English- 
 man who rolls in his riches. 
 
 Since the Union, England's taxation per head 
 (1914) has decreased considerably. Since the 
 Union, Ireland's taxation per head (1914) has in- 
 creased almost four hundred per cent. 
 
 And those are a few tax facts that will, and 
 well may, astonish the million. 
 
 la the beginning of the Sixteenth Century^ 
 Archbishop King, the Protestant Archbishop of 
 Dublin, was so amazed at the taxing of Ireland 
 into beggary, that he wrote, "I don't see -how 
 any more money is to be got out of these people 
 
 176 
 
THE LAST CENTURY 
 
 unless we take away their potatoes and butter- 
 milk, or slay them and sell their skins." 
 
 The Archbishop offered choice of these two 
 suggestions in bitter jest. But since then, the 
 English rulers of Ireland have again and again lit- 
 erally acted on both suggestions. 
 
 The bitterest part of the pill is that the Irish 
 people have to pay these terrible taxes for the 
 purpose, chiefly, of enabling Britain to hold them 
 down. A large portion of the taxes goes not only 
 toward the support of the regular army and navy, 
 tnaintained for the cowing of Ireland — but also 
 for the paying of the army of police which is 
 maintained for the purpose of naggfng the people 
 and spying on the people — and for paying the 
 swarming hordes of British officials who glut 
 themselves upon Ireland's vitals. Just as at the 
 time of the Union England made Ireland pay the 
 cost of her own robbing, today Ireland has to pay 
 for the knife that cuts her own throat. 
 
 The portion of the taxes that went for Imperial 
 purposes, army, navy, etc. — ^was usually about 
 one-third of the whole. Of the remaining two- 
 thirds that came back to Ireland the droves of 
 British ofiiciaU, ©f police spies, of hangers-on, 
 consumed a large part. For every twenty-nine 
 shillings of England's taxes expended in England 
 under the head of "cost of administration," near- 
 ly twice as much — ^no less than fifty-two shillinga 
 
 X77 
 
ICELAND'S CASE 
 
 — of Irish taxes expended under the head of 
 "cost of administration." These are the pickings 
 of the British vultures in Ireland. 
 
 The Financial Relations Committee of 1896, 
 composed chiefly of Britons appointed to investi- 
 gate the financial relations between Ireland and 
 England, were constrained to pronounce, "We 
 believe that a large proportion of the so-called 
 local expenditure in Ireland is due to Ireland's 
 connection with Great Britain." (See Report of 
 Financial Relations Committee.) 
 
 This same Financial Relations Committee, 
 composed chiefly of Britons, had to declare, as a 
 result of their investigation, that England had 
 taken, in principal and interest, from Ireland, a 
 sum of $1,250,000,000 over and above Ireland's 
 fair contribution. Mr. Childers, the head of the 
 commission, advised that England should pay 
 back to Ireland, in some form, $11,000,000 a year 
 — by way of compensation. And when Ireland 
 presented herself at the treasury and asked for 
 this paltry reparation for centuries of crime and 
 centuries of robbery, the genial John Bull, but 
 toned up his fob and benignantly said, "To 
 Hades with upcasting! Let's forgive and for- 
 get." 
 
 To contrary Ireland the benignant John gave 
 two splendid choices — "You forgive my crimes, 
 and 1*11 forget my debts. But, if that does not 
 
 178 
 
r THE LAST CENTURY 
 
 please you, take it the other way around — You 
 forget my crimes, and I'll forgive my debts." And 
 when Ireland remained stolidly irresponsive to 
 such characteristic British magnanimity, John, 
 pained and hurt, appealed to the world, "What 
 can a godly body do with such a perverse ani- 
 mal r 
 
 To the devil his due, however. During the last 
 century England was in one way generous almost 
 to extravagance.* With a lavish hand, through 
 the century, she dealt out to the Irish Arms Act 
 after Coercion Act, and Coercion Act after Arms 
 Act. With frequent and constant beneficence she,^ 
 year after year, bestowed on them repressive 
 measure after repressive measure, punitive law 
 after punitive law. The Irish asked for justice 
 and she gave them jail. They asked for bread — 
 their own bread — and she gave them bullets. 
 England's own good friend, Mr. John Redmond, 
 it was who reckoned up the repressive Acts of 
 the Nineteenth Century, and found that in those 
 one hundred years no less than eighty-seven Co- 
 ercion Acts were bestowed by England upon Ire- 
 land ! 
 
 The world, in the Nineteenth Century, would 
 not stand for the fire, sword, and bloody mas- 
 sacres which were handy for soothing Ireland in 
 former days. So England, ever in the forefront 
 of repressive progress, treated her dependency 
 
 179 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 Vviia equally effective but more refined and up-to- 
 date species of tortures. 
 
 From the century's beginnings to the century's 
 ending Ireland's continuous groaning made mask 
 in the ears of BritaiiL 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 ENGLAND'S PRESENT-DAY SYSTEM 
 
 On the last summer that I was at home in Ire- 
 land — the summer before the war — I went to 
 Dublin to give a lecture upon the highly sedi- 
 tious subject of story-telling. Two Dublin Castle 
 detectives took position facing the entrance door 
 of the lecture room — with their backs against the 
 railing of Parnell Square — nearly an hour before 
 the time announced for the lecture. They took 
 note of every conspirator who entered the hall 
 for the felonious purpose of reviving Irish story- 
 telling. They did not leave their post till 
 the last batch of criminals left the hall, at eleven 
 o'clock. And as the last party consisted of my- 
 self and a few intimate Dublin friends, they then 
 left their post only to follow us to our hiding 
 places. They did not quit my trail till they had 
 seen me safely in my hotel, after midnight. 
 
 Foreign readers will probably be surprised at 
 this incident. I only set it down here as a sample 
 of the common incident in Ireland — of the man- 
 ner in which several hundreds of people in Ire- 
 land — people whose crime is that they are striv- 
 ing to uplift their country, are, and always have 
 
 181 
 
IRELAND^S CASE 
 
 been, dogged and shadowed from year's end 'to 
 year's end — and complete and detailed record 
 kept in Dublin Castle of every move of theirs — 
 every place they went, every man they met, every 
 person they spoke with, every house they visited 
 — almost every thought they were suspected of 
 thinking. This applies to all men who make 
 themselves prominent even in the harmless move- 
 ment of reviving the industries of Ireland, or re- 
 viving the language of Ireland, or reviving any- 
 thing at all that might directly or indirectly help 
 Ireland. 
 
 Whenever, on any of my constant visits home, 
 I reach Ireland from America, a detective is 
 awaiting me at the dock. And from that day till 
 the m.oment that, several months later, another 
 detective sees me off at the pier, I am under 
 constant surveillance — either by official detec- 
 tives or by local police. Whenever, during that 
 time, I quit my own little mountain village for 
 either a business or a pleasure trip, for any other 
 point in Ireland, the local police, having always 
 at their command such souuces of information as 
 the railroad ticket-office, wire ahead to my point 
 of destination, providing for my reception there 
 — in Belfast, in Dublin, or elsewhere — by a detec- 
 tive who shadows me and keeps record of all my 
 movements from my arrival in the city till I 
 quit it again. 
 
 182 
 
' ENGLAND'S PRESENT-DAY SYSTEM 
 
 And this mean Middle-Ages system is prac- 
 ticed upon, probably, a thousand men in Ireland 
 r— on most men who are guilty of the crime of 
 working for Ireland's uplift. 
 
 Of all the spy systems in the world, the old 
 Russian spy system seems instinctively to come 
 uppermost in people's minds and first upon their 
 tongue. This is because, before England found 
 it useful to ally herself with Russia, English 
 cables and English writers, for English purpose, 
 busied themselves in keeping the phrase "Rus- 
 sian Spy" in the world's eye, and in the world's 
 ear. 
 
 The world knows it not, because English writ- 
 ers and English news services see no good rea- 
 son for mentioning it — but the Russian Czar in 
 his palmiest days might gnash his teeth in envy 
 of the English spy system in Ireland. 
 
 Every soul (if such creatures have a soul) of 
 the swarms of British officials who gorge them- 
 selves upon Ireland's vitals, is supposed to do his 
 part in observing and conveying "useful infor- 
 mation'* to Dublin Castle. Not only are there 
 crowds of official detectives for use everywhere 
 and on every occasion, but Ireland is bent double 
 under its burden of police — every single one of 
 whom is, and must be, an untiring spy. 
 
 No other country in the world bears such an 
 intolerable police burden — chiefly for spy pur- 
 
 183 
 
IRELAND^S CASE 
 
 I' 
 poses — as does Ireland. There is a British po- 
 liceman to every 250 men, women and children 
 in Ireland. 
 
 Every little hamlet in every remote corner of 
 the mountains has got its police barracks rising 
 amidst its handful of huts. And thousands of 
 little villages in Ireland with population of 200 
 or 300 souls (including babies) have got six and 
 seven and eight police quartered upon each of 
 them. It is the duty of these police to await 
 every train that comes in or goes out, make note 
 of all who leave the train and all who enter it — 
 to watch, with the same object, every car that 
 enters or leaves the village, to observe and find 
 out all particulars of every stranger, riding, driv- 
 ing, or afoot, in coach, carriage, or wheelbarrow, 
 who visits the village, halts in it, or flies through 
 it. And for the upkeep of this spy-army Ireland 
 is mulcted in $7,500,000 a year. 
 
 They are responsible to their authorities for 
 being able, at a moment's notice, to answer any 
 question and give any information regarding any 
 person, local or foreign, who ever came within 
 their purview — his name, his description, his 
 business, his associates, his conversation — if pos- 
 sible, these creatures are expected to have worm- 
 ed out the secrets of his soul. 
 
 The British police system in Ireland is car- 
 ried to still further perfection. The police must, 
 
 184 
 
ENGLAND'S PRESENT-DAY SYSTEM 
 
 of course, be on the alert to anticipate and detect 
 all political "crime." When its detection or un- 
 ravelling baffles them, that deficiency must not 
 stand in their way of making an example of some 
 one, innocent or guilty, for every political of- 
 fence ; otherwise there would be an end of Brit- 
 ish Government. So, for every "crime" com- 
 mitted, someone must be made to suffer — the 
 guilty by preference — but only by preference. '^ 
 
 Where lay witnesses are necessary to corrob- 
 orate the splendid swearing of men who must 
 swear hard to hold their jobs, these witnesses are 
 always provided. 
 
 When, in a political crisis, it becomes neces- 
 sary to the policy of the authorities that any 
 specified locality should be lawless, the police 
 have to see to it that, if lawlessness cannot be 
 discovered or provoked, it will be invented. And 
 the patriotic policeman who creates crime for 
 his superiors is not only protected, but promoted. 
 If he blunders and lets the source of manufacture 
 get exposed to the world he, properly, receives 
 condign punishment. 
 
 The famous Sergeant Sheridan case is as good 
 an example of police manufactured crime as any 
 one of a thousand others. The Sergeant had 
 in his district several men, w^ho, being guilty of 
 the high crime of striving for the redress of Ire- 
 land's wrongs, should be got rid of. At the same 
 
 185 ..^ 
 
^ IRELAND'S C/\:5E 
 
 time, because the whole district was active for 
 Ireland, it was desirable that it should be proved 
 to be a criminal district in order that the authori- 
 ties would have an excuse for coercing and ter- 
 rorizing it — and for punishing the more patriotic. 
 
 But, unfortunately, the Irish workers in the 
 district, in their perversity, worked within the 
 law. Something had to be done then. 
 
 The Sergeant, true to the police instinct, saw 
 it was his duty to do that something — either saw 
 it of his own well-trained accord, or was made to 
 see it by the authorities. ^ 
 
 Now, in England, because it constitutes an 
 effective, as well as a noble, text from which 
 to preach against the barbarous Irish, one of 
 the most welcome pieces of Irish news is the 
 news of the malicious maiming of dumb ani- 
 mals. This news always assures a shiver of 
 holy horror, shaking the shocked souls of pious 
 English people who feel cheered of reports of 
 the maiming or killing of an Irish agitator or 
 an Indian agitator, the blowing of Sepoys from 
 a cannon's mouth, or at the butchering of 
 wounded Soudanese after a battle. So the good 
 Sergeant, knowing his market and his mar- 
 keteers, devised a splendid conspiracy for mut- 
 ilating dumb animals in his district. It was, for 
 a time, highly effective, proving a safe and con- 
 venient way for swearing away tjie liberties of 
 
 * i86 
 
ENGLAND'S PRESENT-DAY SYSTEM 
 
 "objectionable" persons in the district. But 
 through an unfortunate accident the Sergeant 
 let himself be discovered. Quietly and quickly 
 the Government slipped him out of the district, 
 gave him one hundred pounds, shipped him to 
 America, and let the little affair blow over. 
 
 This is only quoted as a sample of the spirit 
 that permeates the whole English method of gov- 
 erning Ireland. The same spirit goes through 
 every branch and stem of every department of 
 the terrible English system in the country. And 
 all the official crimes are locked and interlocked. 
 The judiciary is packed with reliable, picked 
 men for doing England's work — men who have 
 been tested and proved satisfactory in subor- 
 dinate places before being entrusted with their 
 high positions. 
 
 The same packing system applies to the juries 
 in the courts. In any political case where it is 
 desirable to convict and sentence a man who has 
 become objectionable by reason of his too ar- 
 dent work for Ireland, trial by jury is supposed 
 to be accorded him. But the British officials 
 take care to select such a jury that the man will 
 not have a chance in twenty of a fair verdict. 
 From the jury panel the Crown Prosecutor care- 
 fully selects the trusty men for trying the case — 
 and in court goes through the form of getting a 
 jury, causing to stand aside every man on all 
 
 187 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 the jury roll who is Irish and National, every 
 man who has Irish or National leanings, and 
 every man, even of the British garrison in Irel- 
 land, who might be in danger of putting con- 
 science before prejudice, when deciding whether 
 or not the victim should be deprived of his lib- 
 erty or his life. 
 
 Of his life, I say, because, during the crisis 
 of the Land League agitation in Ireland, when 
 crimes were committed and it was necessary to 
 make an example, there were several undisputed 
 cases of men having been hung for crimes with 
 which they had no connection. 
 
 If a guilty man was to be transported or hung 
 the jury packing system was handy and effective. 
 If an innocent man was to be transported or 
 hung the jury packing system was more valu- 
 able still. A Crown Prosecutor's value was often 
 rated by the perfection of his jury packing abili- 
 ties. The notorious prosecutor, Peter O'Brien, 
 whose perfected abilities in this matter earned 
 for him his national nickname of Peter the Pack- 
 er, proved himself of such especial value to the 
 British Government that he was raised to the 
 Bench, and pushed upward till the fellow ac- 
 tually sat as Lord Chief Justice for Ireland! 
 This fellow only ceased to disgrace the Bench 
 when he died off it, a few years ago. 
 
 The system is thorough. The manufacture of 
 
 i88 
 
ENGLAND'S PRESENT-DAY SYSTEM 
 
 a crime is backed by the subornation of perjury, 
 which, in turn, is backed by hand-picking the 
 jury; and that in turn strengthened by Bench- 
 packing. This Bench-packing, by the way, was 
 ludicrously illustrated at a famous Irish State 
 trial of the nineteenth century, when the pre- 
 siding Judge, alluding to the counsel for the de- 
 fendant, let slip his mind with the phrase, "The 
 gentleman on the other side." 
 
 So intimate, almost certain, is the connection 
 in Ireland between law and the most terrible 
 injustice, that the Irishman, at length, has come 
 instinctively to range himself on the side of the 
 accused. 
 
 That the Habeas Corpus is suspended in Ire- 
 land whenever the Government chooses, and men 
 thrown into jail without charge, and kept there 
 without trial, astonishes incredulous foreigners. 
 
 Under Chief Secretary Foster there were seven 
 hundred "suspects" enjoying jail terms at one 
 time — without one of them ever having been 
 faced with a charge, or confronted by an accuser. 
 Probably several thousand such suffered jail in 
 the same way, during Buckshot Foster's regime. 
 
 Then, when a man became troublesome by do- 
 ing too effective work for the amending of the 
 miserahV' land laws, it was only necessary for 
 the ] adlord, or the British authorities, to pro- 
 cur . two men — they might be the landlord's own 
 
 189 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 bailiffs or officials of the Government — to go be- 
 fore one of the British magistrates, and swear 
 that they had good reason to suspect this man 
 was dangerous to the peace of the realm. Neither 
 examination nor cross-examination was neces- 
 sary. No details were asked or required. The 
 accused was not only not there, but in no case 
 did he know of the secret proceedings against 
 him. Just the simple oath of men to whom oaths 
 were a joke — their formal oath, given and taken 
 without question, and in secret — sufficed to de- 
 prive the best and most reputable men in the 
 land — alike lay and cleric — of their liberty. The 
 first intimation given the accused of his "trial" 
 and "conviction" was the descent upon his house, 
 oftentimes in the dead of night, of an armed 
 troop of police, who carried him off without 
 charge, and lodged him in a jail cell, among 
 drunks and thieves, where he should remain till 
 such time as it pleased the Government to re- 
 lease him. 
 
 That this method of arresting a man without 
 accusation and jailing him without trial is still 
 a valuable adjunct of the English Government in 
 Ireland, and likely to continue so, is proved by 
 the fact that the authorities have been using it 
 effectively against workers in the Irish Volun- 
 teers and Sinn Fein during the past few years. 
 
 And the treatment of arrested political pris- 
 
 190 
 
^ ENGLAND'S PRESENT-DAY SYSTEM 
 
 oners by the British authorities is usually viler 
 than anything that occurs in semi-barbarous na- 
 tions. 
 
 Even as I write this chapter I pick up an Irish 
 Unionist newspaper, "The Belfast Daily Tele- 
 graph/' of current date (May 28, 1917), giving 
 account of the trial of an Irish Nationalist, a 
 school teacher, James Joseph Layng, court-mar- 
 tailed in Dundalk for the crime of being found 
 in possession of a rebel revolver — from which 
 account I wish to quote, for the benefit of the 
 readers, the following cross-examination ©f Po- 
 lice Sergeant Graham : 
 
 "ATTORNEY— You brought the prisoner te 
 the barracks at Castlebellingham and put him in- 
 to the lock-up there? 
 
 "SERGEANT— Yes. 
 
 "ATTORNEY— Am I right in saying that that 
 room is nine feet by three feet six inches? 
 
 SERGENAT — I cannot say that you are far 
 astray, but it is more than three feet six inches. 
 
 "ATTORNEY— It has a stone floor, without 
 any windows? 
 
 "SERGEANT — There is a small open slit. 
 
 "ATTORNEY— Isn't it devoid of any comfort? 
 
 "SERGEANT — There is a big wooden plank 
 in it. 
 
 "ATTORNEY — There are no sanitary conven- 
 iences? 
 
 191 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 "SERGEANT—None. 
 
 "ATTORNEY-— Was the accused put in that 
 night ? 
 
 "SERGEANT— He was. 
 
 '* ATTORNEY— And kept there for five days 
 and five nights? 
 
 "SERGEANT— Yes. 
 
 "ATTORNEY— During that time was he eve. 
 taken out for any exercise? 
 
 "SERGEANT— No. 
 
 "ATTORNEY— Was there any bed there? 
 
 "SERGEANT— No." 
 
 And that is but a sample of the brutal savagery 
 with which Irish political prisoners are and al- 
 ways have been treated, by the first, greatest, and 
 most glorious empire on earth I 
 
 O^Donovan Rossa, when in English prisons^ 
 serving his life sentence, and protesting against 
 the indignities to which he and his fellows were 
 subject, frequently had his hands chained behind 
 his back for days together, in solitary confine- 
 ment. And to eat the bits of food that were 
 thrust to him through the bars, he had to go on 
 his knees and lap it up like a wild beast! 
 
 Michael Davitt, the one-armed, tells how he 
 and his fellow political prisoners in English dun- 
 geons, in ©rder to get a mouthful of the fresh air 
 for which they gasped, had oftentimes, to lie on 
 their stomachs on the floor of their cell and put 
 
 192 
 
ENGLAND'S PRESENT-DAY SYSTEM 
 
 their mouth to the slit at the bottom of the door. 
 And on passing a garbage barrel when the keep- 
 er vv'as fortunately not watching them, the pris- 
 oners grabbed from it the dirty ends of tallow 
 candles, and secreted the tid-bits, which at the 
 first opportunity they ravenously devoured. 
 
 The treatment of Irish political prisoners in 
 English dungeons has been universally so brutal, 
 so savagely unhuman, so much worse than any- 
 thing the world is aware of, that it is no wonder 
 these Irishmen emerge from the English dun- 
 geons — v.'henever they do emerge— incurably in- 
 valided, crippled, blind, and insane. For some, 
 the jail door opened to the tomb. For others, 
 far worse, it opened to the madhouse. 
 
 On the eve of this chapter's going to press 
 comes the news of the doing to death of Thomas 
 Ashe by Britain's usual prison practices. It is a 
 sadly fitting climax for this chapter. 
 
 This noble fellow, a teacher, a Gaelic League 
 enthusiast, and a beloved leader of his people, 
 was thrown into prison for the crime of wearing' 
 an Irish Volunteer uniform. He was a political 
 prisoner — but Britain branded him criminal, and 
 ordered him to be treated with all the prison in- 
 dignities meted out to the lowest criminal. A^e 
 refused to observe the rules for criminals, and ke 
 refused to take food. He was confined t« his 
 
 193 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 cell. His bed clothes were taken from him, his 
 bed was taken from him, the little jail seat was 
 taken from him, his own clothes and shoes were 
 taken from him. For days he was left in that 
 condition in his little, dirty, cold, cell — without 
 a seat to sit on, without a bed to lie on, without 
 clothes to preserve to him the vital heat. And 
 meanw^hile he was being forcibly fed. When at 
 length they found that their work was accom- 
 plished, that his heart was giving out, and that 
 he must die within some hours, they had the 
 dying man carried nd carted from his cell, and 
 from the jail, and flung into an outside hos- 
 pital — where, in a few hours, he expired — only 
 one other Irishman done away wath, to England's 
 glory ! 
 
 ,This crime — which may well seem unbelieve- 
 able to some readers — was not committed in Bel- 
 gium — nor in the South Sea Islands. But in the 
 heart of the Empire most renowned on earth. 
 
 194 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 HAS THE LEOPARD CHANGED HIS SPOTS? 
 
 But England has got a change of heart in re- 
 cent years, say some people. These people are 
 strangers. And these strangers who give us pleas- 
 ant news of England in Ireland describe Eng- 
 land's change of heart under four various head- 
 ings. 
 
 First — England is, today, generously giving 
 Ireland ameliorative legislation. 
 
 Second — She has been lavishing large sums of 
 money on Ireland during recent decades — pur- 
 chasing the land for the people, building laborers 
 cottages, etc. 
 
 Third — She is yielding more freedom and jus- 
 tice to Ireland. 
 
 Fourth — She is exercising her rule over the two 
 peoples in Ireland, the Anglo-Irish and the Irish- 
 Irish, with much m.ore impartiality than she did. 
 
 Let us seek for proof of the four allegations : 
 
 THE FIRST — A generous money prize can 
 safely be offered the man who will discover one 
 instance of England's having voluntarily granted 
 to Ireland relief from any oppression — voluntari- 
 ly bringing forward and passing even one remed- 
 ial measure for Ireland— in the 117 years sincethe 
 195 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 Irish Parliament united with the English Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 During that period Ireland has at various 
 times, won various ameliorative measures — in 
 every case won these measures by force. Every 
 one who has even a nodding acquaintance with 
 Irish history during the past 117 years, knows 
 that in all of that time never once — even once — 
 did England look around and say, Here is a 
 gross wrong perpetrated upon Ireland — Let us 
 remedy it. 
 
 Every single remedial measure of the 117 
 years — from A. D. 1800 to A. D. 1917, was wrung 
 from England only after the whole Irish nation 
 had for years, and for decades — and sometimes for 
 generations — struggled and fought for that meas- 
 ure, and compelled it. England, far from gener- 
 ously granting such measure, had a hundred 
 times vowed through her ministers that she 
 never would consent to grant it. She had filled 
 the jails, and crowded the gibbets, v^th the fight- 
 ers for the measure, in vain efforts to allay the 
 storm and withhold the reform. For every "con- 
 cession" won, our best people had to rot in jail, 
 be shot down on the streets, hang from the gib- 
 bets — before generous England, harried and har- 
 assed, and her rule in Ireland nullified, had at 
 length to swallow her vows and yield a little to 
 save the rest. 
 
 196 
 
HAS TKK LEOPARD CHANGED HIS SPOTS? 
 
 This applies to every single "generous" grant, 
 from first to last, that "generous" England 
 in change of heart has 'bestowed" upon Ireland 
 — from the Act of Catholic Emancipation in '29 
 to the Land Acts of recent years. Every "gen- 
 erous" grant was dragged from England by su- 
 perhuman force — was given by England with as 
 much hearty good- will as would grace the giv- 
 ing of her eye-teeth. For insta ^ce : 
 
 (a) With holy wrath and burning indigna- 
 tion the idea of emancipating and gfiving rights of 
 citizenship to Irish Roman Catholics in Ireland 
 was at first spurned by British Ministers, As 
 late as 1827, when the agitation for their rights 
 had long been raging, Sir Robert Peel still as- 
 serted, "I cannot consent to widen the door of 
 political power to Roman Catholics. I cannot 
 consent to give them civil rights and privileges 
 equal to those possessed by their Protestant fel- 
 low countrymen." The Irish people answered 
 Peel with still more fearful agitation — giving him 
 "change of heart." In February, 1829, he said, 
 "In the course of the last six months, England, at 
 peace with the world, has had five-sixths of her 
 infantry force occupied in maintaining peace, and 
 in doing police duties in Ireland. I consider 
 such a state of things much worse than rebel- 
 lion." In that year, when things in Ireland got 
 worse than rebellion, the Emancipation Act, so 
 
 ^97 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 long spumed, was passed, and generous England, 
 getting sudden change of heart, generously per- 
 mitted Irishmen to have some of the rights ©f 
 citizens ! 
 
 (b) The next relief of any importance that 
 Ireland got was the Act of Church Disestablish- 
 ment, passed by Gladstone in 1869. T^^ Anglican 
 Protestant Church was the Established Church in 
 Ireland which Catholic Ireland had to support 
 by tithes. In thousands of districts where the 
 only Anglicans were the imported minister, his 
 wife and children and the imported sexton, the 
 minister drew from Catholics, many of whom 
 were themselves perishing with hunger, a fat 
 salary which kept him in luxury's lap. Often- 
 times, too, the man who benefitted from a parish 
 did not live in the parish — lived maybe on an- 
 other fat living in England, and paid a salary to 
 some poor substitute devil, who went through 
 the form of conducting services for nobody on 
 Sunday morning — or, like Swift, preaching his 
 sermon to "My dearly beloved Roger" — his horse- 
 boy — and drawing the large salary for his em- 
 ployer. When, after terribly long and terribly 
 fi€ft« agitation, Gladstone at length disestab- 
 lished the English Church in Ireland, he, in his 
 place m Parliament, confessed: "If it had not 
 bcfeti for the Fenian movement in Ireland I never 
 
HAS THE LEOPARD CHANGED HIS SPOTS? 
 
 would have brought in the Disestablishment 
 Act" 
 
 (c) The Land Acts of a still later period, 
 when the land agitation was rocking the king- 
 doms, were passed for exactly the same forceful 
 reason — after the idea had time and time again 
 been scorned and spurned by all England and 
 its Ministers, and after time and time again they 
 had practically vowed that they would rather 
 clear all the Irish out of Ireland than grant such 
 measures. When the first and most important 
 of these land acts was passed by Gladstone (in 
 '8i), after he had vainly tried to cow Ireland by 
 a reign of terror. Lord Derby, in the course of 
 an article in The Nineteenth Century, comment- 
 ing upon Gladstone's confession that he had dis- 
 established the Church only out of fear, wrote: 
 *'That was the exact and naked truth. But it is 
 regrettable that for the third time in less than a 
 century agitation accompanied by violence should 
 have been shown to be the most effective instru- 
 ment for righting whatever Irishmen may be 
 pleased to consider their wrongs." 
 
 (d) The Full Measure of Home Rule, so long 
 and so solemnly promised Ireland — and which 
 proved indeed to be a Fool Measure of Home 
 Rule, one of the latest, most comic proofs of Eng- 
 land's change of heart, need not be dilated on 
 here. It belongs in a joke book. 
 
 199 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 Yes, England gtta a change of heart, and gen- 
 erously gives to Ireland more generous laws, 
 every time, and only every time, that the strug- 
 gle within Ireland is strong enough to compel 
 her — every time, and only every time, that it 
 becomes imperative on her to sacrifice a little in 
 order to save the remainder. 
 
 THE SECOND— In the last quarter century 
 England has been bestowing large sums of 
 money on Ireland with a lavish hand — so many 
 hundreds of thousands of pounds for building 
 laborers' cottages — so many millions of pounds 
 for buying out the landlords, and presenting the 
 land to the people — and so many billions 
 for so many other charitable objects — in vain 
 hope of appeasing the Irish beggars. 
 
 It was Mr. Redmond and his Parliamentary 
 party that, for their own small glorification, glad- 
 ly led the world to believe that the generous Eng- 
 lishman in a sudden spasm of munificence had 
 begun showering his gold upon the pitiable Irish 
 beggar. 
 
 But what is the reality: 
 
 The District Councils throughout Ireland 
 were granted permission to pre-empt from their 
 own members and from their electors, portions of 
 land for the farm laborers — ^and given permis- 
 sion to borrow, at a reasonable rate of interest, 
 from the common purse — ^the Imperial purse-— 
 
HAS THE LEOPARD CHANGED HIS SPOTS? 
 
 the moneys necessary for building cottages for 
 these laborers — to borrow and pay back the prin- 
 cipal plus the interest, on the instalment plan. 
 Which was neither a gain nor a loss, to the Im- 
 perial purse. 
 
 The farmers were likewise given permission to 
 borrow from the common purse — the purse into 
 which Ireland was paying a far higher proportion 
 of her wealth than was England — to borrow at a 
 rate of interest which secured the Imperial ex- 
 chequer against any loss on the transaction — 
 enough to buy from the landlords at an exorbil 
 ant valuation, the lands that were really theit 
 own, and that had been the possessions of their 
 family from time immemorial. 
 
 And please observe, in this connection, that the 
 Irish money in the Imperial Savings Banks was 
 lent to the Government at two and one-half per 
 cent — while the Imperial Government was gen- 
 erously lending back to these investors the mon- 
 eys for purchase of their lands, at three and one- 
 quarter per cent. The English and Anglo-Irish 
 landlords of the Irish estates were the people 
 most directly benefitted by England's won- 
 drous generosity. 
 
 And these ordinary and safe business transac- 
 tions furnish the sole foundation for the English- 
 gentleman-and-Irish-beggar legend, which a mil- 
 Ifcn innocent people outside of Ireland so greed- 
 
IPIELAND'S CASE 
 
 ily committed to memory, from the continuous 
 re-iteration of Mr. Redmond's Perliamentary 
 Parrots ! 
 
 THE THIRD — And now let us examine 
 how she has extended freedom and justice in Ire- 
 land. 
 
 (a) Mr. Arthur Balfour, who visited America 
 recently — as a champion of Democracy and Lib- 
 erty! — said, apparently without wincing, that 
 England and America could not stand by and 
 see "one unscrupulous power deprive mankind 
 of its liberties !" 
 
 Now this dazzling democrat was Chief Secre- 
 tary for Ireland, and, like the other Chief Secre- 
 taries, of course, suppressed the right of public 
 meeting and the right of free speech, whenever 
 and wherever he chose. There is nothing spe- 
 cially worth noting in such performance of any 
 Englishman — in Ireland. But his most notable 
 achievement in the cause of liberty, to which I 
 wish to draw attention here, was when, after 
 proclaiming a public meeting in Mitchellstown, 
 County Cork, and sending his armed forces there 
 to back his proclamation, he, to prevent ny crim- 
 inal leniency in the forcing of English liberty 
 upon Irish barbarians, telegraphed to the Com- 
 mandant of the forces, on the morning of the 
 proscribed meeting, his famous telegram (in 
 cipher), "Do not hesitate to shoot." 
 
 202 
 
HAS THE LEOPARD CHANGED HIS SPOTS? 
 
 In compliance with the order of this champion 
 of world freedom, British bullets were that day 
 shot into the limbs and bowels and heads and 
 hearts of men who mistakenly thought that to 
 voice their grieveances they could insist upon 
 liberty of meeting and liberty of speaking, in 
 their own land. And crosses in the little grave- 
 yard at Mitchellstown, to this day, attest not only 
 Mr. Balfour's consuming passion for mankind's 
 liberties, but also England's generous change of 
 heart, toward the land "that is dependent on and 
 protected by England." 
 
 (b) Until the privilege was forced from Eng- 
 land by a big struggle a few years ago, Irish his- 
 tory dare not be taught to Irish pupils in Irish 
 National Schools. Novv' Irish pupils are gracious- 
 ly permitted to learn just as much hand-picked 
 Irish history as may be contained in a text-book 
 approved of by the appointees of the English 
 Government ! 
 
 (c) It is a crime in Ireland, punishable by 
 fine or imprisonment, and for which men have 
 frequently been fined and imprisoned, to reply 
 in Irish to the inquiries of a policeman. Only 
 the other day even, an Oxford student, named 
 Chevasse, an enthusiast for the Irish language, 
 was imprisoned for this revolting crime. And 
 it is a crime, punishable by fine or imprisonment, 
 and for which men have frequently been fined 
 
 203 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 and imprisoned, for an Irishman to print hti 
 name upon his cart in the Irish language, in- 
 stead of the English language. 
 
 During the recent Land League agitation m 
 Ireland "intimidation" of any Government pet 
 was exalted among the crimes on the Statute 
 book. A man was imprisoned for instance for 
 the crime (as literally sworn to) of intimidating 
 a boycotted man by ''winking at his pig" as he 
 passed the grunter gentleman in the market- 
 place. And a man was imprisoned for smiling, 
 "a humbugging kind of smile," as he passed an- 
 other anti-Irish Irishman. Those are literal ex- 
 amples of Irish "crimes" for which scores oi 
 Irishmen have been fined and imprisoned. 
 
 (d) In 1915, 1916 and 1917, young men, work- 
 ers in the Irish Volunteers were again and again 
 being arrested without charge, and imprisoned 
 without trial. In the same years young men, 
 workers in the Volunteers, were being taken 
 from their homes and from their employment, 
 and, without charge preferred, deported to Eng- 
 land — and without any provision being made for 
 them, left to live or die in hostile rural English 
 vJEages, where the "Irish traitors" were taunted 
 and jeered, and made the constant objects of 
 conti*m©Iy by the liberty-loving Briton. 
 
 (e) In 1914, after the Orange Volunteers of 
 the North had imported all the *rms they wanted, 
 
 •04 
 
HAS THE LEOPARD CHAKGKD HIS fOfOTM 
 
 and transmitted them without nu^M^tion tD 
 every comer of the Province, the Irish Volun- 
 teers in Dublin imported a ship-load of armi 
 which they landed at Howth. On receipt of thif 
 news at Dublin Castle a regiment of soldiers was 
 immediately marched out to take the arms from 
 these men. The soldiers failed in their task, re- 
 turned into Dublin downcast, and were marching 
 along Bachelor's Walk to their barracks, when a 
 number of boys, women and children, emerging 
 from back streets, jeered them and threw at them 
 some sticks and stones. Suddenly, at the word 
 of command, a company of the soldiers wheeled, 
 knelt on one knee on the street, and poured two 
 volleys ©into a dense throng — leaving fortjr- 
 eight people of both sexes lying in their blood, 
 four or five of them never to rise again ! 
 
 As is usual in Ireland, not the slightest pun- 
 ishment was meted out to anyone of the mur- 
 derers, officers or soldiers. 
 
 (f) In 1916, during the Insurrection in Dub- 
 lin, one of the officers in command, Captain Colt- 
 hurst, a typical British Junker, arrested tiire« 
 men, Skeffington, Maclntyre, and Dickson, who 
 had no connection with the Rising — and, without 
 confronting them with any charge, without court- 
 martJal or hearing of any kind, had these men 
 t\kcn into the barrack yard and shot dead. 
 Skeffington bad wittieMed tiic shooting dead 9i % 
 
 •OS 
 
IRELAND^S CASK 
 
 boy of sfxteen years, named Coady, wlio hsid 
 ipvcn Colthurst a disrespectful reply. To com- 
 pel England to grant even an inquiry into these 
 murders, Heaven and earth had to be moved after 
 the insurrection was over. A form of inquiry 
 was gone through, the brute conveniently ad- 
 judged "insane" and ordered to be confined dur- 
 ing his Majesty's pleasure! 
 
 (g) In the same insurrection the English sol- 
 diers, exasperated that Irishmen should have the 
 presumption to fight for their country, and un- 
 nble to oust the fighters who held their quarters 
 so gallantly — visited several houses in non-fight- 
 ing districts, chiefly in King Street, and there 
 shot to death an unknown number of people, es- 
 timated at forty, who were guilty of no crime 
 and against whom there was no charge — and 
 buried them in the cellars — from which their 
 bodies were being dug up during the week suc- 
 ceeding the insurrection. Heaven and earth and 
 the British Parliament were moved by Mr. Gin- 
 nell, M, P., to get an inquiry into this barbarous 
 massacre. But even an inquir>' was stubbornly 
 refused — by that Empire which is the champion 
 of all small nations that have fallen under the 
 rule of her trade rival. 
 
 (h) ©A little matter of parellels here, will bet- 
 ter bring out England's change of heart toward 
 Irelimds 
 
 ^66 
 
HAS THE LEOPARD CHANGED HIS SPOTS? 
 
 The Boer "barbarians" some years ago took 
 prisoner the Jameson raid criminals. 
 
 The "civilized" Britons, one year ago, took 
 prisoner a band of Irish patriots. 
 
 The Britishers, hired by British capitalists, 
 and backed by English statesmen (who wanted 
 the diamond mines of Boer-land) attempted to 
 seize and steal the government and the liberties 
 of the foreign Republic whose hospitality they 
 were enjoying, and whose opportunities were en- 
 riching them. 
 
 The Irish patriots, fired by their country's 
 wrongs, and backed by all that was noble of their 
 race, arose up in their country, in brave attempt 
 to wrest their own country from the robber who 
 held it — and return it to its rightful owners to 
 rule. 
 
 Britain the honorable, which had hired its ras- 
 cals to do their vile crime, then begged for the 
 rascals' lives; and by the barbarous Boers the 
 lives were spared — of both leaders and men. 
 
 Brftain the liberty-loving, backed up against 
 the nearest wall the sixteen leaders of the Irish 
 patriots and shot them dead. 
 
 (i) James Connolly, Commandant of the Irish 
 Nbels, a noble character and brare man, wat 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 seriously wounded in the Dublin fighting. The 
 doctors disagreed as to whether the wound was 
 vital or not. England, however, was not taking 
 any chances. In his bed he was court-martialled, 
 and sentenced to death for the unforgivable crime 
 of fighting for the freedom of a small nation 
 under other heel than Germany's. And as, of 
 course, he was unable to walk, England's un- 
 daunted soldiers carried him to the place of ex- 
 ecution, and there propped up the hopeless crim- 
 inal — while her firing squad shot their bullets 
 through his heart. 
 
 So far have freedom and justice been extended 
 in Ireland in recent years. 
 
 And FOURTH : -/ : '■ 
 
 We learn that England, too, is dealing impar- 
 tially with both peoples in Ireland — the people of 
 British blood and sympathy who are the British 
 garrison in Ireland — and the people of Irish 
 blood, the Irish Nationalists. Let us see. 
 
 Sir Edward Carson, a few years ago, threat- 
 ened to lead a rebellion of the British in Ireland 
 — the Orangemen — against the British Govern- 
 ment if it dared to give Ireland even a miser- 
 able shadow of Home Rule. He publicly an- 
 nounced that he would get the aid of Germ.any's 
 Kaiser, that he would ally himself and his fol- 
 lowers v/ith the German Empire, and get the 
 
 208 
 
HAS THE LEOPARD CHANGED HIS SPOTSF 
 
 Germans to fight his battle. Sir Edward Carson 
 
 v/ent to Germany, had interviews with the high- 
 est officials there, lunched with the Kaiser, and 
 had a German military man — a German spy — 
 broug-ht into Ulster, to study the situation and 
 the gTound. Sir Edward Carson, because he did 
 this only for the laudable purpose of holding Ire- 
 land down, was soon after elevated to the Eng- 
 lish Cabinet, an idol of the English people. So 
 fsr. so good. 
 
 Next, Roger Casement, an Irish Nationalist 
 2nd idealist, working to uplift and free Ireland, 
 did aiiTiost exactly the same things as Sir Ed- 
 vvard Carson — except that he did not introduce 
 any German spy into Ireland. 
 
 On a certain morning when the anti-Irish Car- 
 son, idolized by England, and weighted with hon- 
 ors and responsibility, was seated in the British 
 Cabinet, the noble Casement was swinging from 
 a gallows tree I 
 
 In this connection we shall pause to note an il- 
 luminative incident reported in the newspapers 
 on the day of Roger Casement's hanging. The 
 news report said, "When the black flag was 
 hoisted, signal that the law had taken its course, 
 and justice been vindicated, there went up from 
 the multitude" (of change-of-heart Britons) 
 which surged In front of the jail, a great howl 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 of mingled execration of the traitor and jabMation 
 for his ending. At the back of the jali waH« a 
 little grottp of Irishmen and women were knelt 
 ia prayer." 
 
 In that little picture is presented seven cen- 
 turies of the history of England ^ Ireland. In 
 the jailyard Erin hanging from the gallows 
 tree, while the British mob (better spelt Brut- 
 ish) inspired by the devil, dance, curse, and howl 
 for joy — the while at the back of the jail Erin's 
 children kneel with their sorrows and their God. 
 
 Has England got a change of heart toward Ire- 
 land? 
 
 Four centuries ago killing the natives of Ire- 
 land was a field-sport for the gentlemen of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Three centuries ago "Because the Queen'i 
 troopers eonld not kill Irishmen fast enough, no 
 Irishman was pardoned Unless ht undertook to 
 murder his friend or relative" (Wm. Parnell). 
 And Lord Mountjoy's Secretary relates that 
 "Lord Mount joy never received any rebel to 
 mercy but such as had drawn blood Oh their fel- 
 low rebels." 
 
 Nearly a century and a half ago, Hussey 
 Burgh, in the Anglo-Iriah House of Commoc», 
 protested ^"The words Crime, Punishmraat «^ 
 Ireland are in England's eyes synonymouB, Th^ 
 
HAS THE LEOPARD CHANGED MIS fflPOTt? 
 
 arc marked in blood on the margin of her Sl»- 
 tules. The destructive influence of the lawi 
 have borne Ireland down to a state of Egyptian 
 bondage." 
 
 Today Mrs. Gren testifies "The evils of the 
 English conquest have never for a moment stib- 
 s'.ded ; and they are at the present day almost M 
 rife as they were seven hundred years ago.** 
 
 Has the leopard indeed changed his spo^? 
 
 [Please turn to page 237 and learn the very latest In 
 gentle British ways with Irish ruffian convicts.] 
 
 Bll 
 
\ 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THE SUMMING UP 
 
 I have tried to picture of the ways of England 
 with Ireland — of England's methods in first rop- 
 ing, and then ruling, another race. Though the 
 picture be only roughly sketched, it is yet suf- 
 ficient to show by what unparalleled barbarism 
 she imposed her rule upon Ireland, and by what 
 fearful injustice she has since tried to maintain it. 
 
 If England had discovered Ireland, an uninhab- 
 ited Island, and colonized it with her own people, 
 and in ruling even her own people had meted out 
 to them a tithe of the horrors which she has dealt 
 to the Irish people — inflicted upon them a hun- 
 dreth of the atrocities which she has perpetrated 
 upon the Irish race — all humanity would cry out 
 that her own people must cast ofT the rule of their 
 unnatural mother — that England had for all time 
 forfeited all right to rule her own colony, of her 
 own offspring. 
 
 For merely trying to levy unjust taxation upon 
 her own kin (as well as the other races) in her 
 own American Colonies, even that portion of her 
 Colony population which was Anglo-Saxon, rose 
 tip in its wrath and shook off the yoke of the 
 
 313 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 In Ireland's case the argument against Eng- 
 land's continued rule is multiplied a thousand 
 fold. 
 
 Since, through lust of power, England sent her 
 devastating army into an ancient land to conquer 
 an ancient race possessed of a higher civilization 
 than her own — ravished this race, murdered, 
 plundered, abased, and degraded, and wrought 
 on them inhumanities beyond the gift of pen or 
 tongue to describe — in this land, put out a light 
 that had lighted the world's path ; and through 
 fearful centuries of fearful night kept savagely 
 stamping out the seeds of the fire, which, having 
 once given its light to the world, was ever in im- 
 inent danger of doing so again — and from the 
 day of conquest down to the present day, imposed 
 upon this people "laws" that have always been 
 synonymous with injustice the rankest, and op- 
 pression the most terrible — a thousand times 
 stronger, then, is this people's claim for the free- 
 dom which is the ordinary due of all people's oc- 
 cupying the land of their forefathers. 
 
 It is for this freedom — which all men who are 
 MEN must claim — that the Irish people have, 
 against overwhelming odds, fought an astound- 
 ing fight, lasting through seven centuries — a fight 
 that has never slackened — and never will slacken 
 till the end is won. 
 
 The winning of mere Home Rule, even if it 
 
 213 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 were real Home Rule, instead of the mockery that 
 was lately played with under the nick-name of 
 Home Rule, would, of course, be considered by 
 the Irish people only as a milestone on the way 
 to their goal. 
 
 But it has been suggested by American people, 
 who thereby consider themselves liberal, that the 
 Irish question should be settled by giving to Ire- 
 land Colonial Home Rule — the same rule that is 
 enjoyed by Canada and Australia. 
 
 It should be pointed out to these liberal Amer- 
 icans that, in the first place, their American fore- 
 fathers, many of them, sprung from the loins of 
 England, would not have been content to accept 
 from their mother, England, that Colonial Home 
 Rule which they now think should satisfy a dis- 
 tinct race inhabiting a distinct country. 
 
 Next, Canada and Australia, enjoying Colonial 
 Home Rule, are countries colonized by England 
 and inhabited by England's own chiMren. In 
 accepting Colonial Home Rule they only unite 
 in bonds of affection with their motherland and 
 mother race. 
 
 And in the third place, the motherland of Can- 
 ada and Australia is not now, and has not been 
 through centuries past, striving to starve their 
 bodies, and crush their spirits, and kill their souls 
 —has not for centuries been plundering and mur- 
 
 314 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 dering them, and devastating their land. If such 
 had been the case, Australia and Canada, far 
 from being content with Colonial Home Rule, 
 would long since have rebelled against their ov/n 
 mother and thrown her off. 
 
 In Ireland we have an ancient race, as distinct 
 from the English race as is the French from the 
 German, the Scandinivian from the Turk. This 
 distinct and ancient race inhabits a distinct and 
 separate country. To this race experience has 
 discovered no reason for drawing near to, but a 
 thousand fearful reasons for pushing away from, 
 tbose "conquerors" who are still striving to hold 
 them by the same brute force by which they first 
 captured them. And physically, morally, and 
 spiritually, this struggling race is certainly not 
 inferior to the average races of earth that now 
 do hold their freedom — and more certainly not 
 inferior to the race which regards itself as com- 
 missioned by God to dominate its neighbors. 
 
 For it is well always to keep in mind that Ire- 
 land's fight is, not merely against foreign misrule, 
 but against FOREIGN RULE. 
 
 And in the Irishmen's stating and proving of 
 Ireland's claims, whole tomes of argument and 
 reams of reasoning may be given to the world 
 in four words— WE WANT OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 - Many foreigners, deeply smypathetic toward 
 215 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 f rciand, and desirous of Ireland's prosperity, pro- 
 test upbraidingly, "Why not forget the past, and 
 joiii in a true partnership with England — for Ire- 
 land's best benefit?" 
 
 To this protest there are three rather effective 
 replies. 
 
 In the first place, if England, with her grasp 
 still upon the throat of prostrate Ireland, and her 
 heel sunk into Ireland's bowels, made the propo- 
 sition. "Join me on equal terms or be d to 
 
 you" — prostrate Ireland, being possessed of some 
 trace of spirit, could not accept such highway- 
 man invitation. It is only after England has let 
 go her hold on Ireland's throat, and that Ireland, 
 risen to her feet and standing erect, looks Eng- 
 land fearlessly in the face, that she can with 
 credit say whether or not she wishes such part- 
 nership. The most cursory examination of the 
 character of the inviting partner (as displayed in 
 the previous chapters) will show the reader what 
 would be Ireland's prompt decision. 
 
 In the second place, the English race and the 
 Irish race are as dissimilar as the plow horse and 
 the race horse. Yoke in the same team the best 
 race horse in the world with the best plow horse 
 in the world and the very quick result will be — 
 no race horse. 
 
 In the third place, there is infinitely less reason 
 for Ireland's allying with England than with 
 
 2X6 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 France, Spain, Germany or America. For, if % 
 practical and sensible person be looking for a 
 partner he will hardly, out of a world-full, choose 
 the one and only one that stabbed, beat, belaborftd 
 him, knocked him down, jumped on him. Of all 
 the many practical and sensible Americans who 
 have recommended to me this "practical" solution 
 of the Irish question I could not find one who 
 would say that in his own personal business he 
 would for a moment dream of allying himself 
 with such a partner. 
 
 Finally, the thousands of well-meaning people 
 who wish what is best for Ireland, point out 
 seven "insuperable" obstacles to Ireland-s free- 
 dom. They are: 
 
 1. The Anglo-Irish — the Orangemen and all 
 of the other Anti-Irish Irishmen — will never be 
 induced to accept separation from England. 
 
 2. In a free Ireland the Irish Catholics can 
 not be trusted to treat the Protestant minority 
 fairly. 
 
 3. Anyhow, the Catholic majority, which all 
 the world knows to be poor and thriftless, could 
 not be permitted to run the progressive, indus- 
 trious and wealthy Protestant minority. 
 
 4. Ireland is financially unable to run her- 
 self. 
 
 5. Because of Ireland's strategic position* 
 
 217 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 IngUmd, ev«n witk the belt intention in the 
 wofM, could not, in «elf-defense, afiFord to hare 
 a free Ireland at h&e back door. 
 
 6. If England freed Ireland tomorrow one or 
 other big" Continental power would grab her up 
 on the day after. 
 
 7. Ireland has been for so many long cen- 
 turies conquered, that, according to the law <^ 
 Nations, she has long lost her claim to freedonL 
 
 We shall look over these seven iiMUperable 
 obstacles. 
 
 I. The real Irish in Ireland will Hardly give 
 up in despair if the Orangemen and etker Anglo- 
 Irish, refuse to accept separation friaa England. 
 Generously consenting to bury In ©bHvlon the 
 fact that these Anglo-Irish are in enfoymeat of 
 the fattest parts of Ireland which thicir forebears 
 wrongly obtained — and consentinff to forg^ all 
 the brutalities and all the sayagerfes by which 
 the Anglo-Irish continued to secure themselves 
 in the possession of the goods and of the power 
 of Ireland, the real Irish people have, for a hun- 
 dred years, been stretching hands ©f forgtveiiess 
 and entreaty to these people, begging them to be 
 loyal to the country in which they live-r-^find on 
 whkh they thrive-— begging ^em to accept for- 
 giveness, and to be brothers workfng vA^ their 
 Irish brothers, shofllder to shoulder for Ireland. 
 Today, as ever, the hands of ikt Irlsk are 
 
 mm 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 stretched to their Anglo-Irish brethren, v If ^ksf 
 choose to accept, and to give their loyalty to, the 
 country that has borne them and bred them, cher- 
 ished and fee them, then they are equally wcK 
 come with their Irish brethren to all the benefits 
 and all the joys of a free Ireland. But if they 
 find they cannot bear to be separated from their 
 beloved England, they are made heartily wel- 
 come to bring themselves to the country to 
 which they give their love and their loyalty. "If 
 you do not love me, you are free to leave me," is 
 a solution both simple and just. 
 
 2. To get the measure of Irish Catholic intol- 
 erance, when they have their old persecutors in 
 their power, the reader need only be referred 
 backward some chapters. 
 
 Note there just how intolerant in the sixteenth 
 century were these Irish Catholics when the 
 reign of Mary put Papistry in the ascendant. 
 
 Note how intolerant they were in the seven- 
 teenth century, when they had all power in their 
 hands at the beginning of the WilHamite wars— 
 in circumstances under which an angel might 
 well be excused for being intolerant. 
 
 In the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
 William Parncll, who lived his life among th# 
 Irish people, said, TThe Irish Roman CathoKc* 
 bigots! Perverse and superficial men have ad- 
 vanced this falsehood in the very teeth of^fact^ 
 
 J19 
 
IRSLANXyS CASE 
 
 mnd contrary to the most distinct evidence of his- 
 tory." The case of the Irish Catholics, he says, 
 ii? the only instance known to history of op- 
 pressed and persecuted ones, on returning to 
 power, refraining from visiting vengeance upon 
 those who had trampled them. 
 
 In the middle of the nineteenth century the 
 Presbyterian Isaac Butt testified (in his "Plea 
 for the Celtic Race") "Limerick and Cork (Cath- 
 olic cities) are free from religious dissension. In 
 (Protestant) Belfast, the town has been held for 
 days by partisan mobs." 
 
 And in the beginning of the twentieth century, 
 the Protestant historian, Mrs. Green, testifies, 
 "Irish Protestants never had cause for fear in 
 Ireland, on religious grounds." 
 
 While such an idea as a Catholic Mayor for 
 Protestant Derry and Protestant Belfast is laugh- 
 ably absurd, such Catholic cities as Dublin, Cork, 
 Limerick, Kilkenny, often honor Protestant clt- 
 iiens by making them their first magistrates. 
 And while the idea of a Catholic Member of 
 Parliament sitting for any of the Protestant 
 Counties of the Northeast is ludicrously laug-h- 
 ablc, purely Catholic Counties in both North and 
 South frequently elect Protestants to represent 
 them in Parliament. 
 
 And finally, and above all, be it remembered 
 that almost every man whom the Irish Catholics 
 
 ■©■as? 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 clxoie as their National leader from the days of 
 Robert Emmet to the; days of Charles Stuart 
 Parnell, has been ProtestaaL 
 
 There is bigotry in Ireland — ^bigotry of the 
 most intoleraatu moBt raoapant, type — but it is 
 almost entirely confined to non-Catholics of the 
 Brito-Irish part of the population. 
 
 "Forgiveness to the injured doth belong, 
 They ne'er forgive who do the wrong.'* 
 
 In the case of Catholic Ireland, the bigotry 
 barrier comes down with a crash. © 
 
 3. The legend that the Celtic (Catholic) ma- 
 jority is shiftless, and the English and Scotch 
 blooded (Protestant) minority is thrifty, pro- 
 ^■ressive, and wealthy, has been so often shouted 
 by the shouters, that a multitude of even think- 
 ing people have come to believe it. 
 
 This is a typical English legend about Ireland 
 — and displays typical English brilliancy — but 
 for so long has it done foul service that it is time 
 now to explode the legend once and for all. 
 
 Here is the recipe for concocting the legend — 
 First, assault your man, blackjack him, bind him 
 hand and foot, rob him of all he has — and bestow 
 the plunder on your friend. Next, pass laws for- 
 bidding the victim to arise, forbidding him to un- 
 tie his hand* and feet, and forbidding any one to 
 
 9 ® 
 
 MI 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 render him aid. Finally, call upon the world to 
 behold the contrast of the shiftless, thriftless 
 creature who wallows in his misery---*-<and the 
 splendid, progressive, industrious, well*to-do fel- 
 low (your friend) who stands erect. 
 
 And there should be a most convincing case 
 against the victim. 
 
 Only, unfortunately for your case, while yots 
 are pre-occupied telling the world about his shift- 
 lessness, the corded creature was u-ntying the 
 knots with his teeth, painfully rising up, and des- 
 perately trying to improve his condition. 
 
 And while yoti were pre-occupied telling the 
 world about your thrifty, progressive, industri- 
 ous, and wealthy friend, this fine upstanding 
 friend was getting bowed and broken. **I11 got, 
 i\\ gone." 
 
 For the million who were misled into believ- 
 ing the English legend about Celtic shiftlessnes-- 
 and British thriftiness, the following few cold 
 facts will prove a tonic . 
 
 Dr. O'Riordan, In "Catholicity and Progress/' 
 qtKites from the Government statistics (of '82 — 
 evidently the latest then available) the compar- 
 ative Income tax assessments for boasting Ulster 
 mtd for the miserable, more Celtic, provinces. 
 Mem they are: 
 
 ® £ s. d. 
 
 Lefnster 10 9 6 per head 
 
 222 
 
Munster 6 7" " 
 
 Ulster 5 14 5 " " 
 
 Connaught ... 3 13 7 " " 
 
 And the comparative figures for income tax on 
 profits in the professions and trades : 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Lelnster 4 2 6 per head 
 
 Ulster 1 8 1 " " 
 
 Munster 1 7 4" " 
 
 The reader will admit that 'tis mortal pity the 
 Ulster legend should be spoilt — by Providence 
 and the taxing-man. 
 
 Again, v/ithin Ulster itself, where the Catholic 
 Celt was robbed of his all, and denied all rights 
 and privileges — and everything lavished on the 
 Protestant Scot — the former is "coming back" at 
 the same amazing rate at which the latter is 
 going under. 
 
 Today fifty-six per cent, of the farms, and 
 fift3^-seven per cent, of the farmers in Ulster are 
 Catholic Celts — the men who had been robbed of 
 their all. Today these people have secured more 
 than one-half of the Parliamentary representa- 
 tion of the province that had been stolen from 
 them. TodorV the Ulster Catholic, whose fore- 
 fathers had been hunted into the holes and the 
 rocks of the most barren mountains — is stream- 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 ing down the valleys and flowing over the fer- 
 tile plains, winning back, buying them back, from 
 the usurpers' descendants who are fast losing, 
 their grasp upon them, losing their pre-eminent 
 wealth, losing their footing — "melting like the 
 snow off the ditch in May." 
 
 In the city of Derry — a typical case — ^where, 
 only a hundred years ago, no Catholic dare en- 
 gage in any trade or profession, and no Catholic 
 dare own a house, and no Catholic dare live — in 
 that city, to-day, the Catholic Celt, swarming in 
 the trades and professions, forms a majority of 
 the population, and returns his choice as Parlia- 
 mentary representative for that once great 
 stronghold of Ascendancy. 
 
 And, as final illustration of the progressiveness 
 CI the Scottish blooded in Ulster, as compared 
 with the thirftlessness of the Celt, I would in- 
 stance from Dr. O'Riordan's book (a matter like- 
 wise recorded by Butt in "The Irish Land and 
 the Irish People") the case of the Protestant 
 Colonization Societies, founded in 1830 and 1840, 
 when the Ascendancy Party took alarm at the 
 rapid melting away of the Protestant population 
 and the fearfully rapid advancement of the Cath- 
 olic — or as more picturesquely put in the Pros- 
 pectus of the 1840 Society, "Where the estab- 
 lished Church once stood, now stands the Popish 
 't © 
 
 234 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 Mass-house, pouring forth th« soul-destroyiiif 
 doctrines of immorality of Maynooth!" 
 
 To remedy this deplorable state of thing^s and 
 keep Ulster Protestant, the Societies proposed 
 to take great tracts of landlords* demesne land, 
 colonize them with Protestants, build houses for 
 these people, and start them on the way t© 
 wealth. In 1832, the first colony was planted — on 
 the estate of Sir Edward Hayes in County Don- 
 egal. Protestant families were selected in thrifty 
 Scotland, brought over and given houses and 
 farms — after each of them had, for the 
 world's good, signed and sealed this chief con- 
 dition — "Every tenant distinctly understands and 
 agrees that no Roman Catholic, under any pre- 
 tence whatever, shall be permitted to reside or 
 be employed in this colony." The result of the 
 laudable project is very forcibly put in the sim- 
 ple report obtained fifty years later from a resi- 
 dent in a nearby locality — ^"There is not a rem- 
 nant of the original settlers in the place for many 
 years. They remained for some time till they 
 spent any means they had, and went away, 
 paupers. . . . The houses arc now in a 
 tumble-down condition." 
 
 That is to say, in the place where the oppressed 
 and persecuted Celt thrived so that he went forth 
 to buy up and absorb the possessions of his rich 
 neighbors ©n the fertile plains, the industrioui 
 
 MS 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 started with gifts of land and house, 
 aided by every favor the powers could sh#w, 
 sank into pauperdom, and disappeared in ^e 
 course of a couple of decades ! 
 
 And now that we can appreciate the rare flavor 
 qI it, let us repeat — ^"The Catholic majority which 
 ali the world knows to be poor and thriftless 
 could not be permitted to run the progressive, 
 industrious, and wealthy Protestant minority." 
 
 4. But, anyhow, Ireland is financially unable 
 to run itself. 
 
 Here, hark back to the Childers' Commission 
 (&i 1896), composed almost entirely of Britons, 
 appointed by the British Government — for the 
 purpose of finding the facts about the financial re- 
 lations of Ireland and Britain — hark back to that 
 Commission, and note its main findings: 
 
 a) That the running of Ireland cost (propor- 
 tionately) nearly twice as much as the running 
 ©f England. 
 
 (fe) That the excessive cost seemed to them 
 td be caused by Ireland's connection with Brit- 
 ain. 
 
 (c) That Ireland herself was not only paying 
 a fair cost for her own running — but that, 
 
 (4) Ireland, herself, was paying an unfair ex-* 
 
 226 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 (c) That Ireland, besides, was not only pay- 
 ing her fair contribution to the Imperial purse 
 (paying for hdlding herself down)— but also, 
 
 (f) That Ireland was paying a very largo 
 sum over and above her fair contribution to the 
 Imperial purse — paying one-eleventh of the tax 
 revenue of the three Kingdoms, while her tax ca- 
 pacity was only one-twentieth. 
 
 (g) That in excessive Imperial contribution 
 alone — principal and interest — England had then 
 robbed from Ireland $1,250,000,000 (an im- 
 mensely larger sum now). 
 
 "And while this heavy ransom was being ex- 
 acted," says Mrs. Green, "Ireland was represent- 
 ed as a beggar, never satisfied, at the gates of 
 England." 
 
 So, while the reader now sees that Ireland hat 
 been financially able to run and outrun herself— 
 he may also divine the truth that her master is 
 determined she shall not be long so. 
 
 5. England, in self-defense, cannot afford a 
 free Ireland at her back-door. 
 
 England can no more afford to have a free Ire- 
 land at her back-door than can Germany afford 
 to have a free Belgium, or France a free Switz- 
 erland, Austria to have a free Servia, or America 
 a free Mexico alongside her — no more than can 
 Joha D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil afford to 
 
 227 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 have a free little competitor running his little 
 one-horse store just over the way. 
 
 If it be the New Justice that the greedy brute 
 among either the nations or the corporations hag- 
 the divine right to gobble up the little fellow who 
 lies near him, or if it be the new morals to en- 
 throne Strategy on the emptied seat of Justice, 
 then we have first g:ot to reform Heaven before 
 we can reform earth to our liking, in the new- 
 era. 
 
 6. If England freed Ireland tomorrow, one 
 of the Continental powers would gobble Ireland 
 up on the day after. 
 
 If England freed Ireland tomorrow, Ireland, 
 instead of having one army and one fleet guard- 
 ing her, would, through the jealousy of the Pow- 
 ers, next day be guarded by half a dozen armies 
 and half a dozen fleets. For her own selfish in- 
 terests, England would then have to guard Ire- 
 land more zealously than ever — against the greed 
 of the other Powers — and the other Powers 
 would have to guard it against the greed of Eng- 
 land. Ireland would have the same greedy, 
 jealous protection that has Servia, Holland, 
 Switzerland and Denmark. 
 
 7. Ireland has been so long conquered that by 
 the law of nations she has lost her claim to free- 
 <iom, ^ ^^ 
 
 There is many a rank injustice established by 
 228 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 t> 
 the Law of Nations — the law of the big trusts 
 
 irameci against the little fellows. But tne iaw 
 
 01 Heaven is a little way above and beyond the 
 
 Law of Nations. 
 
 Moreover, one might ask the advocate of the 
 Law of Nations, After how many years does in- 
 justice become justice? After how many years' 
 persistence in doing a wrong will that wrong 
 automatically become a right? 
 
 And further — and this point is most important 
 —will the reader remember that in reality Ire- 
 land has never been conquered? ® 
 
 A nation is never conquered till its resistance 
 has been beaten down, its spirit broken, and that, 
 despairingly dropping its hands, it cries, I give in. 
 During her long long struggle, Ireland has been 
 a thousand times defeated, but never once con- 
 quered." A thousand times beaten to earth, she 
 has a thousand times returned to the struggle, 
 renewed and determined. From the day England 
 first set her foot in Ireland, down to the present 
 day, Ireland has never ceased to fight the injus- 
 tice — ^it has been one prolonged seven hundred 
 years* war betweefi little, weak Ireland, and great 
 strong England — ^tbe struggle has never abated, 
 never slackened its intensity. And if England 
 should still persbt in h» unjust claim, all who 
 know the Irfeh oatttire know well that Ireland vnll 
 ccmtintie the war for another seven hundred 
 
 829 
 
IRELAND'S CASB 
 
 ^rears — for sev^iteen ko&dred years, if necessary^ 
 What man, or what nation, or Law of Natiojaa, 
 decides that Ireknd, nev«r having ceased to fight, 
 forfeited her ri|^kt of freedom? And, then, at 
 what point in t^e struggle, at what date, did sh« 
 forfeit this riglit? Or, If she continues the strug^ 
 gle, when will she have forfeited it? 
 
 Today Germany has ovemin Belgium. Th« 
 Belgians are fighting for their country's freedom. 
 All Americans are, properly, applauding the Bel- 
 gians in their brave struggle. There is no Amer- 
 ican so unprincipled as to question Belgium's 
 right to freedom — none so absurd as to advocate 
 that Belgium should be satisfied with Home 
 Rule under Germany — even if under the provi- 
 sion of this Home Rule Belgiam were granted aM 
 power over Belgian taxation. There is no Amer- 
 ican so unjust as to advocate Colonial Homo 
 Rule under Germany as a settlement of the Bel- 
 gian question. 
 
 Now, if we consider the Belgian fight contin- 
 ued indefinitely — after how many years, or how 
 many centuries, of struggle, will Americans begin 
 to preach that Belgians have forfeited their claim 
 to rule Belgium? Woald not a trtie and just 
 man, the more applaud Belgium the longer she 
 sustained the ttneqnal struggle? And would he 
 not say that her claim to freedom increased with 
 every additional year she fottght the unequal 
 
 230 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 c 
 fight — that the claim multiplied a hundred-fold 
 for every terrible century during which she 
 bravely prolonged it? 
 
 When, then, any other nation on earth, strug- 
 gling for its freedom, would, with a prolongation 
 of the struggle, win more applause, and more 
 hrmly establish its claim to freedom, in the 
 world's eyes, why should Ireland alone forfeit 
 iicr claim by having prolonged her gallant and 
 marvellous struggle through agonizing centur- 
 ies? 
 
 A-nd thus are disposed of the seven insuperable 
 obstacles to Ireland's freedom. Than Ireland, 
 no other nation on earth has more unquestionably 
 established its claim to freedom. 
 
 And Ireland shall win. Though, if she were 
 never to win, the very fight fot freedom carries 
 with it all the spiritual benefits of freedom. They 
 who struggle for fredom are already free. 
 
 While other races, with less moral stamina, 
 would long since have resigned themselves to 
 the seemingly inevitable, and sunk into the 
 degradation of slavery — becoming faithful slaves 
 to kind masters — the Irish people, scorning the 
 line of least resistance, chose suffering and strug- 
 gle — and thereby found salvation — preserved and 
 fostered all that was noble in their natures, and 
 
 231 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 from the seed of suffcrlrig even now reap a heav- 
 enly harvest. 
 
 Ireland, a nation, shall, with God's help, live 
 and flourish. 
 
 With her wonderful spirit vision Ethna Car- 
 bery foresaw the glorious dawning — as set forth 
 in one of the most beautiful of her poems : 
 
 MO CHRAOIBHIN CNO 
 
 A Sword of Light hath pierced the dark, otir eyes 
 
 have seen the Star ; 
 Oh Eire, leave the ways of sleep now' days of 
 
 promise are ; 
 The rusty spears upon your walls are stirring to 
 
 and fro, 
 Li dreams they front uplifted shields — Then 
 
 wake, 
 
 Mo Chraoibhin Cno ! 
 
 The little waves creep whispering where sedges 
 fold you in, 
 
 xA.nd round you are the barrows of your buried 
 kith and kin ; 
 
 *PronoiiRced Mo chreeveen no. "My cluster of 
 nuts" — my brown-haired girl, i. e., Ireland. When it 
 was treason to sing of Ireland openly, the olden poets 
 sang of, and to, their beloved, under many figurative 
 names. 
 
 232 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 jOii) famine-wasted, fever-burnt, they faded like 
 
 the saow, 
 Or aet their hearts to meet the steel^ — ^for you» 
 Mo Chraoibhin Cno! 
 
 Their names are blest, their caoine sung, our 
 
 bitter tears are dried; 
 y/t bury Sorrow in their graves. Patience we 
 
 cast aside; 
 Within the gloom we hear a voice that once was 
 
 ours to know — 
 Tis Freedom — Freedom calling loud, Arise 1 
 Mo Chraoibhin Cno! 
 
 Afar beyond that empty sea, on many a battle- 
 place. 
 
 Your sons have stretched brave hands to Death 
 before the foeman's face — 
 
 Down the sad silence of your rest their war- 
 notes faintly blow. 
 
 And bear an echo of your name—of yours, 
 Mo Chraoibhin Cno I 
 
 Then wake, a gradh! We yet shall win a gold 
 
 crown ioT your head. 
 Strong wine to make a royal feast — ^the white 
 
 wine and the red — 
 And in your oaken mcther the yellow mead shall 
 '^iow 
 
 «33 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 have a free little competitor running his little- 
 one-horse store just over the way. 
 
 If it be the New Justice that the greedy brute 
 among either the nations or the corporations has- 
 the divine right to gobble up the little fellow who 
 lies near him, or if it be the new morals to en« 
 throne Strategy on the emptied seat of Justice, 
 then we have first got to reform Heaven before 
 we can reform earth to our liking, in the new 
 era. 
 
 6. If England freed Ireland tomorrow, one 
 of the Continental powers would gobble Ireland 
 up on the day after. 
 
 If England freed Ireland tomorrow, Ireland, 
 instead of having one army and one fleet guard- 
 ing her, would, through the jealousy of the Pow- 
 ers, next day be guarded by half a dozen armies 
 and half a dozen fleets. For her own selfish in- 
 terests, England would then have to guard Ire- 
 land more zealously than ever — against the greed 
 of the other Powers — and the other Powers 
 would have to gnard it against the greed of Eng- 
 land. Ireland would have the same greedy, 
 jealous protection that has Servia, Holland,, 
 Switzerland and Denmark. 
 
 7. Ireland has been so long conquered that by 
 the law of nations she has lost her claim to free- 
 dom. @ ^ 
 
 There is many a rank injustice established by 
 228 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 the Law of Nations — the law of the big trusts 
 trained against the little fellows. But tne law 
 oi Heaven is a little way above and beyond the 
 Law of Nations. 
 
 Moreover, one might ask the advocate of the 
 Law of Nations, After how many years does in- 
 justice become justice? After how many years' 
 persistence in doing a wrong will that wrong 
 autoiuatically become a right? 
 
 And further — and this point is most important 
 — will the reader remember that in reanty Ire- 
 land has never been conquered? 9 
 
 A nation is never conqu-e-red till its resistance 
 has been beaten down, its spirit broken, and that, 
 despairingly dropping its hands, it cries, I give in. 
 During her long long struggle, Ireland has been 
 & thousand times defeated, but never once con- 
 quered.* A thousand times beaten to earth, she 
 has a thousand times returned to the struggle, 
 renewed and determined. From the day England 
 first set her foot in Ireland, down to the present 
 day, Ireland has never ceased to fight the injus- 
 tice — it has been one ^t>long'ed seven hundred 
 years' war betweeft little, weak Ireland, and great 
 strong England — the struggle has never abated, 
 never slackened its intensity. And if England 
 should stni persist in her unjust claim, all who 
 know the Irish nature know well that Ireland will 
 continue the war to* ai^th^ seven hundred 
 
 sag 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 years — for scv«nU«a kindred years, if necessary^ 
 What man, or what n^on, or Law of Natioai, 
 decides that Ireland, nev^ having ceased to fight, 
 forfeited her ri^ht of freedoai? And, then, at 
 what point in the struggle, at what date, did sh« 
 forfeit this right? Or, if she continues the strug>^ 
 gle, when will she have forfeited it? 
 
 Today Germany has ©verrun Belgium. Th« 
 Belgians are fighting for their country's freedom. 
 All Americans are, properly, applauding the Bel- 
 gians in their brave struggle. There is no Amer- 
 ican so unprincipled as to question Belgium's 
 right to freedom — none so absurd as to advocate 
 that Belgium should be satisfied with Home 
 Rule under Germany — even If under the provi- 
 sion of this Home Rule Belgium were granted aM 
 power over Belgian taxation. There is no Amef« 
 ican so unjust as to advocate Colonial Home 
 Rule under Germany as a settlement of the Bel- 
 gian question. 
 
 Now, if we consider the Belgian fight contin- 
 ued indefinitely— after how many years, or how 
 many centuries, of struggle, will Americans begin 
 to preach that Belgians have forfeited their claim 
 to rule Belgium? Would not a true and just 
 man, the more applaud Belgium the longer she 
 sustained the unequal struggle? And would he 
 not say that her claim to freedom increased with 
 every additional year she foug^ht the unequal 
 
 230 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 fight — that the claim multiplied a hundred-fold 
 for every terrible century during which she 
 bravely prolonged it? 
 
 When, then, any other nation on earth, strug- 
 gling for its freedom, would, with a prolongation 
 of the struggle, wan more applause, and more 
 hrmly establish its claim to freedom, in the 
 world's eyes, why should Ireland alone forfeit 
 her claim by having prolonged her gallant and 
 marvellous struggle through agonizing centur- 
 ies? 
 
 And thus are disposed of the seven insuperable 
 obstacles to Ireland's freedom. Than Ireland, 
 no other nation on earth has more unquestionably 
 established its claim to freedom. 
 
 And Ireland shall win. Though, if she were 
 never to win, the very fitght for freedom carries 
 with it all the spiritual benefits of freedom. They 
 who struggle for fredom are already free. 
 
 While other races, with less moral stamina, 
 would long since have resigned themselves to 
 tht seemingly inevitable, and sunk into the 
 degradation of slavery — becoming faithful slaves 
 to kind masters — the Irish people, scorning the 
 line of least resistance, chose suffering and strug- 
 gle — and thereby found salvation — preserved and 
 fostered all that was noble in their natures, and 
 
 231 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 from the seed of suffering- even now reap a heav- 
 enly harvest. 
 
 Ireland, a nation, shall, Avith God's help, live 
 and flourish. 
 
 With her wonderful spirit vision Ethna Car- 
 ber}^ foresaw the glorious dawning — as set forth 
 in one of the most beautiful of her poems: 
 
 MO CHRAOIBHIN CNO 
 
 A Sword of Light hath pierced the dark, our eyes 
 
 have seen the Star ; 
 Oh Eire, leave the ways of sleep now days of 
 
 promise are; 
 The rusty spears upon your walls are stirring to 
 
 and fro, 
 In dreams they front uplifted shields — Then 
 
 wake, 
 
 Mo Chraoibhin Cno ! 
 
 The little waves creep whispering where sedges 
 
 fold you in, 
 And round you are the barrows of your buried 
 
 kith and kin; 
 
 *Pronounced Mo chreeveen no. "My cluster of 
 nuts" — my brown-haired girl, i. e., Ireland. When it 
 was treason to sing of Ireland openly, the olden poets 
 sang of, and to, their beloved, under many figurative 
 names. 
 
 232 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 9 
 )0^i famine-wasted, fever-burnt, they faded lik« 
 
 the snow, 
 Sk set their hearts to meet the steel — for you^ 
 Mo Chraoibhin Cnol 
 
 Their names are blest, their caoine sung, our 
 
 bitter tears are dried; 
 ]We bury Sorrow in their graves. Patience we 
 
 cast aside; 
 Within the gloom we hear a voice that once was 
 
 ours to know — 
 Tis Freedom — Freedom calling loud, Arise 1 
 Mo Chraoibhin Cnol 
 
 Afar beyond that empty sea, on many a battle- 
 place. 
 
 Your sons have stretched brave hands to Death 
 b^ore the foeman's face — 
 
 Down the sad silence cA your rest their war- 
 notes faintly blow, 
 
 And bear an echo of your name — of yours, 
 Mo Chraoibhin Cnol 
 
 Then wake, a gradhi We yet shall win a gold 
 
 crowa for your head. 
 Strong wine to make a royal feast — ^the white 
 
 wine and the red — 
 Aad in ymir oaken metiier the yellow mead shall 
 eflow 
 
 233 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 What 4ay you rise, in ail m«n's eyes a Queen, 
 M^ Chraeibkia Cuol 
 
 The silver speech our fathers knew shall onca 
 
 again be heard. 
 The fiie-iit story, crooning song, sweeter than lilt 
 
 of bird; 
 Your quicken-tree shall break in flower, its ruddy 
 
 fruit shall glow, 
 And the Gentle People dance beneath its shade— » 
 Mo Chraoibhin Cnol 
 
 There shall be peace and plenty — the kindly open 
 door; 
 
 Blessings on all who come and go — the prosper- 
 ous or the poor — 
 
 The misty glens and purple hills a fairer tint shall 
 show, 
 
 When your splendid Sun shall ride the skies 
 again — 
 
 Mo Qiraoibhin Cnol 
 
 THE PARTING WORD 
 In this work is sketched an outline only of one 
 of the saddest, terrible tragedies the world ever 
 witnessed — the crudfixioa of a noble nation. 
 
 The picture is incomplete. But the little that 
 has here been set down ^iffices to shov/ that the 
 inhuman barbarity and demonaic savagery with 
 
 «34 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 whkii Ii^lnd has been ravaged — from the first 
 'da|r «l the English inva^on to the present day — 
 is withcmt parallel in history. The reader will 
 ■have seen how an ancient land which led the 
 world in culture, wms ravished by the destroyer, 
 and that light whicli had been Europe's lode star, 
 extinguished — how an honorable race was de- 
 .graded — ^a brave people beaten into the earth. 
 He will also see how, in this worthy land, a pow- 
 er which successfully presents itself to the world 
 as a pillar of liberty and a pioneer of civilization, 
 has, with wanton deviltry, throughout seven cen- 
 turies, wrought havoc and spread desolation, 
 trampling the smiling garden into a piteous wil- 
 derness, and hounding its noble denizens like 
 savage beasts. 
 
 The reader will now, I hope, better understand 
 ,and appreciate the strange Irish spirit which, 
 without failing, has watched the millions of the 
 power of her manhood and the flower of her 
 womanhood driven out from her, and scattered 
 like chafi to the winds of the world — and without 
 quailing, has witnessed every foot of green hill- 
 side again and again crimsoned with the blood 
 of her best. And he will, I think, understand 
 how it is that in Ireland a felon's cap is honored 
 above a Eling's crown — that the dungeon cells 
 wherein, through the generations, the noblest of 
 our race rotted or went ni-d, are reverenced as 
 
 235 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 Saints' cells — and how, here, thousands of men 
 and women would cmsh aad struggle for the 
 privilege oi kissing the steps that go up to the 
 gallows-tree^ — how the jail has, for Ireland, be- 
 come a holy place, and the gibbet a sacred sign. 
 
 He will realize that Ireland has agonized in 
 the garden of the ages, and sweat a bloody sweat: 
 over the cruel flints, bloodied by her bleeding feet, 
 through the jeering multitude, she has passed, 
 dragging her heavy cross, and struggled up her 
 toilsome Calvary — and, taunted by the jeers and 
 pricked by the spears of the tyrant's servitors, 
 endured her terrible crucifixion. 
 
 But the faithful weep not, knowing that tht 
 Easter of the crucified cometh — the glorious ri»« 
 ing time, the Resurrection Mom 1 
 
 (Spread the Light — ^The r^der is requested to 
 lend this book to an American friend who needi 
 to know the truth about Ireland — and to contin- 
 ue lending it till it wears itself out doing worthy 
 work. Both God and Ireland will bless the eager 
 lender. And the borrower won't fail to get a 
 whiflF of the blessing). 
 
 236 
 
SEMPER IDEM, JOHN. 
 
 There is a tribe of innocents abroad (many ot 
 them Irish, more by the same token), v/ho delight- 
 edly swallow the seas of slush which England's 
 hired agents are constantly sending down the gut- 
 ters of the American press — about the old vagabond 
 John Bull's happy transformation into a sucking 
 dove in his recent dealings with Ireland. For the 
 edification of these kindly ones here is set down the 
 most recent report of their dove's soft, sweet cooing : 
 
 SWORN STATEMENT 
 Of Charlea Kenny, of No. 1 Ulster Terrace, North Strand, Dub- 
 lin, taken at the Mansion House, Dublin, on the 
 Nineteenth day of July, 1918. 
 
 I am twenty-flve yeara of age. I am a sanitary contractor. 
 Having been »entenced to aix months' imprisonment for drill- 
 ing, I was sent to Belfast Jail during the second week of April 
 from Mountjoy Jail, where I had spent a fortnight. There were 
 over one hundred others In Belfast Jail serving sentences for 
 drilling, etc. . . . 
 
 In May the prison diet to any of the men who were not 
 getting food from outside was very poor, and gradually be- 
 came worse. . . . 
 
 The conditions as to the food continued, and on the 27th day 
 of June, 1918, all the men met as usual after breakfast on that 
 day. Some of the men occupying cells on the top landing com- 
 plained that the windows of their cells had been replaced and 
 fixed so as not to allow any air to come In through them. This 
 action was discussed, and whilst at exercise we saw the warders 
 fixing the windows in the cells and we were Informed that the 
 windows in all the cells were to be similarly closed. We looked 
 upon this action as a piece of petty tyranny on the part of the 
 Ruthorities, the men decided not to allow the windows to be 
 replaced, and in order to prevent it the men proceeded t« 
 break the windows aa a pretest and aa a means of prs^entiav 
 
 237 
 
the cells fro.n becominar unbearable to liv« In. A few of th* 
 windows had been broken when the Governor came on the 
 acene and said that if the breaking was stopped he would not 
 have the windows put in. This was agreed to and nothing fur- 
 ther happened until that night when the men had been locked 
 up each in his own cell. 
 
 At 7.30 the Governor and warders came on the scene and 
 pi-Qceeded to remove the men from their own cells to the bas- 
 rnent cells, which are smaller than the ordinary cells and are 
 lor prisoners under punishment. As this was a breach of the 
 conditions the men resisted, and proceeded to barricade the doors 
 t'f the cells. Thereupon a big force of police — I think there 
 were two hundred — were brought in from Belfast and they 
 proceeded to break in the doors with sledge hammers and 
 crowbars, at the same time turning a water-hose on each man 
 in his cell. When they entered the cells the police brutally i.s- 
 saulted the men with batons and sticks, and having manacled 
 ihe men with their hands behind their backs, they kicked and 
 punched them when lying helpless on the floor. The police 
 entered my cell and beat me to the ground, striking me on the 
 head with their batons. 
 
 When the men were handcuffed they were dragged down th« 
 iron stairs to the underground cells, some of them head first 
 I saw Mr. McKenna, the Chairman of the Kerry Council, being 
 dragged down the stairs head first while his hands were man' 
 acled behind his back. I saw two policemen dragging Hugh 
 McNeill, of Dublin, along the ground. They were holding his 
 feet and dragging him along on his face, while his hands were 
 handcuffed behind his back. In the month of May I had been 
 suffering from pneumonia, necessitating my removal to the 
 Mater Hospital, Belfast, and from that time up to the 27th of 
 June I was under the care of the prison doctor. The police 
 came to my cell, turned the hose on me, broke open the door, 
 entered my cell, and attacked me with their batons, striking 
 me on the head, and handcuffed me with my hands behind my 
 back. The doctor and the Governor were outside my cell and 
 were in a position to see the way in which I was treated, and 
 when the other prisoners were being removed from the cells the 
 doctor and Governor were standing outside their cell doors and 
 eaw the manner in which they were dealt with and in the case 
 ®f any man badly wounded the doctor attended him in his cell 
 before be was removed to the punishment cells, amongst thes* 
 
 238 
 
b&ing Hugh McNeill and a man named McMahon, of MuUlncftr; 
 the former had his Angers badly torn and the latter had hla 
 h^ad split with a blow of a baton. 
 
 Five of the men, including Brosnan. Talty, Qulnn and Quealy^ 
 all of the County Clare, had to be removed immediately to 
 hospital in consequence of the injuries they received. The other 
 men were left handcuffed and wounded, lying ou the bare floor 
 in their wet clothes and some of them^ half naked, until Fri- 
 day morning. As they could not open their clothes to relieve 
 themselves, ma&y of the men were in a filthy condition in the 
 morning, and as a result of this in particular I have not been 
 able to walk properly since, my legs being frayed and scalded. 
 
 When I was put in the basement cell I had not been before 
 the Governor and was not under any order for punishment, and 
 had not been charged with any oftense against prison discipline, 
 nor, as far as I am aware, had any of my comrades who were 
 /Similarly treated. On Friday the handcuffs were removed for 
 a few minutes only while we were eating, but only after a 
 refusal to eat with the handcuffs on. They were then fastened 
 on again in front. On Friday also we were told by the Visit- 
 ing Justices that on account of insubordination all our privileges 
 were withdrawn. On Saturday morning we went to Mass, as 
 It was a holy-day, but the handcuffs were not taken off. Sub- 
 sequently some of the men smashed the handcuffs, and in con- 
 ■equence the police were brought In again and also a detach- 
 ment of military with fixed bayonets, whereupon Commandant 
 MacDonagh ordered us to submit to the handcuffs, which we did. 
 
 We were brought one by one before the Visiting Justices 
 and sentenced to terms of bread and water punishment, vary- 
 ing from three days in some cases to twenty-eight days in 
 others. 
 
 On Saturday we went to Confession handcuffed, and on 
 Sunday every one of the ninety-three men went to Communion. 
 Except the men from the hospital, all the men going to Com- 
 monion were handcoffed, some of them were even in straight- 
 Jackets, and most of them, besides being handcuffed, were 
 "mulTed," the "mnlTs" consisting of trebly-locked straps from 
 arm to arm so that it was impossible to move the elbows. Many 
 of the men were nnable to stand up to leave the altar rails 
 without assistance. The clothes of most of the men were in a 
 filthy condition for the reasons X have already given. 
 
On Sunday afternoon two priests — I think one of them was 
 Father McGlenaghen of the College — came round to visit the 
 cells. They found Flanagan, a hoy of eighteen, belonging to 
 Dublin, unconscious In his cell, and McQInley, another Dublin 
 boy, also unconscious. . . 
 
 On Monday night I recollect hearing some of the men sing- 
 ing and after that I knew no more until I awoke in the hos- 
 pital on Wednesday evenly. 3. I had been three days on bread 
 and water before I collapsed, the bread allowance being twelve 
 ounces per day — four ounces each meal. . . . 
 
 I was released on Saturday, July 13, on account of the state 
 of my health, having completed four months of my sentence. 
 The prison doctor, Dr. O'Flaherty, told me that owing to the 
 condition of my heart I was not to get into a state of excite- 
 ment or attempt any sudden exertion. I affirm that this state- 
 ment is absolutely and entirely true. 
 
 (Signed) CHARLES KENNY. 
 July 19. 1918. 
 
 Witnesses: 
 
 (Signed) LAURENCE O'NEILL, 
 
 Lord Mayor of Dublin. 
 
 (Signed) PATRICK WM. CORRIGAN, 
 
 Alderman of Dublin Corporation. 
 (Signed) (Rev.) PATRICK FLANAGAN. C. C. 
 Church of the Holy Family, 
 
 Aughrlm Street. 
 (Signed) JOSEPHINE MART PLXJNKETT. 
 
 26 Upper Fitzwilliam St.. Dublin. 
 
 So the voice may be the voice of the dove, but 
 the paw is ever the blood-stained paw of the old. 
 unchanged and unchangeable hypocrite, John. 
 
 (Please turn over.} 
 
 240 
 
SPREAD THE LIGHT. 
 
 If IRELAND'S CASE appeals to you will you join the en- 
 thusiastic Irish throng who in every corner of America (and in 
 far-off Argentina and Australia, too) are with it, spreading the 
 light and converting many to Ireland's cause? 
 
 Great numbers of laymen, pastors and societies have got 
 it in parcels of 100 (at only 25 cents each when taken in such 
 quantity), and put it in the hands of the hosts who sorely need 
 
 MANY PASTORS HAVE PUT IT IN THEIR SCHOOLS AS 
 A HANDBOOK OF IRISH HISTORY. 
 
 THE PRESIDENT of the UNIVERSITY of NOTRE DAJIB 
 has put it in the hands of his students. TPIE BISHOP of 
 SYRACUSE, putting it into his schools, designated it "by far 
 the best and finest compendium of Irish history I have ever 
 seen." 
 
 T^HE CARMELITE FATHERS of New York (who put it in 
 the schools) distributed 400 copies of it. 
 
 The CASEMENT F. O. I. F. of Pittsburgh took 1,100 copies. 
 
 Rev. tT. J. Kerwin, O. M. I., Buffalo, distributed no less than 
 1,300 copies of it. 
 
 A PI-IILADELPHIA PASTOR, after reading one copy, sent 
 immediate order for a copy to be mailed to each of the 279 
 pastors in the Archdiocese and 100 copies to himself. 
 
 RT. REV. BISHOP GRIMES of SYRACUSE writes: "I am 
 enamoured of IRELAND'S CASE, and determined to have every 
 exiled Irishman under my jurisdiction read it. The argument 
 is superb and should echo throughout civilization." 
 
 A Western Ecclesiastic says: "I call this book the Bible 
 of Irish nationality. It has dene more here in half a year to 
 strengthen and establish the cause of true Irish nationality than 
 ail other books combined of the previous fifty years." 
 
 One copy, paper covered, costs Gj cents (free by post). In 
 green cloth, gilt lettered, $1.15, 
 
 Three copies are given for price of two. Three in paper for 
 $1.30; three in cloth binding, |2.30. 
 
 Ten copies for price of six and one-half; twenty-five for price 
 cf fifteen; fifty copies for price of twenty-five. 
 
 100 IN PAPER COVER ONLY $25. 100 CLOTH BOUND §55 
 
 Order from THE IRISH PUBLTSPIING CO., 
 
 P. O. Box 1300, New York City. 
 
 241 
 
ENGAGEMENTS FOR 
 IRISH LECTURE-RECITALS BY 
 
 SEUMAS MacMANUS 
 
 are accepted, for any part of America, by 
 
 The Management of SEUMAS MacMANUS 
 
 P. O. Box 1300, New York City 
 
 SUBJECTS: 
 
 Readings from His Own Boolis. 
 
 An Irish Story-Tellingr. 
 
 The Glories^ the Sorrows^ and the Hopes of Ireland. 
 
 A Rambls 'Round Ireland, Illustrated with 100 Beautiful 
 Colored Views. 
 
 The Irish Question. 
 
 Fairy and Folii-lore. 
 
 Irish Wit and Humor. 
 
 The Irish Question. 
 
 Fairy and Folk-lore. 
 
 Irish Wit and Humor. 
 
 SEUMAS MacMANUS, the Irish poet, is a brilliant repre- 
 sentative of a poetic race. Poetry and mysticism, wit, 
 humor and pathos, are everywhere present in his work. And 
 audiences are held spellbound at the will of this prince of 
 Btory-tellers.— Boston. Transcript. 
 
 As child and youth, he sat at the feet of the Shanachiea 
 by the turf fires, and lived the life of his own people, until, 
 saturated with the Celtic spirit, this brilliant spokesman of 
 a wonderful people now comes to enthrall us with his de- 
 lightful intellectual diversions.— 5^071- Francisco Bulletin. 
 
 Edmund Clarence Stedman said : He is the poet story-teller 
 from ancient time ; the rbapsodist ; the Irish Homer. 
 
 Judg^e Ben Lindsey: Never in my experience have I heard 
 a moi'e wonderful story-telling. 
 
 Dr. Washington Gladden: Don's miss the delight of hear- 
 ing Seumas MacManuS ! 
 
 William Allen White, of Kansas : He has a marvellous gift 
 of story-telling and power of holding his audience. 
 
 National Geographical Society; President Henry Gannett: 
 Rarely has a lecturer captured our audience as completely 
 as did Seumas MacManiis. 
 
 Library Commission of Portland, Ore. : His twelve lectures 
 and story-tellings here, were ^he very happiest thing that 
 happened to us in many a long day. On the last night, the 
 crowd filled all seats, lined the walls, (sat on the platform, 
 packed the entrance— and no one moved during the two hours. 
 There's magic for you ! 
 
 University of Wisconsin: He charmed the University Club 
 diners with a talk utterly unUke any other literary treat that 
 they hav§ ever had.-T7ie Democrat. 
 
 University of Missouri: It was a great night for Ireland— 
 and the University of Missouri.— TTie Herald. 
 University of Michigan: The surprising novelty and unique- 
 ness of his discourse, delighted his three thousand eager 
 auditors.— y/ie Times-Keivs. 
 
Columbia University: In his series of six lecture-recitals 
 the spell of his poetry, the euchuutment of his prose, his 
 quaint and beautiful tales, held his large audiences charmed.— 
 The^ Columhia Spectator. 
 
 Dean Brifirgs of Harvard: Everyone enjoyed Seumas Mac- 
 Manus' readings exceedingly. 
 
 University of Texas: No lectures at the University in 
 recent years have given more general satisfaction than those 
 of Seumas MacManus.— C. S. I'otts, M.A. 
 
 Univresity of Kansas: It was a very unusual and effective 
 lecture.— Chancellor Strong. 
 
 University of Indiana: If I were jnyself a poet, I should try 
 to find words which would tell fittingly how Seumas Mac- 
 Manus' writing and his speaking express the finest spirit 
 of Ireland.— Dr. Bryan. 
 
 The Comparative literature Society of N. Y. : He moved 
 our difficult audience to frequent sudden laughter, or nobly 
 touched them to silence by the simple dignity and human 
 feeling of his theme.— Dr. Merle St. Croix Wright- 
 
 Buffalo, N. Y. — Although so ill that he had to be carried 
 on the stage of Shea's (Theatre in a chair, Seumas Mac- 
 Manus last night delivered the most impressive address ou. 
 Ireland ever heard by the people of Buffalo.— 27ie Buffalo 
 Evening News. 
 
 Normal School Edinboro^ Pa.— He held the children spell- 
 bound, and the adults were as the childi-en. He is an edu- 
 cational ^ inspiration ! !— Frank E. Baker, President. 
 
 Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences: On the occasion 
 of each of his preceding lectures hundreds had to be turned 
 away for lack of accommodation— but last night the numbers 
 turned away at least equalled what found seating accom- 
 modation.— T/ie Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 Notre Dame University^ Ind.— The students of this year can 
 never forget the great advantage they enjoyed in hearing 
 Seumas MacManus's course of twelve lectures. The time he 
 spent with us was a period memorable and full tof inspira- 
 tion.~Rev. John Cavanaugh, C.S.C, President. 
 
 University of Nevada: Seumas MacManus' lecture was a 
 gem— both in matter and the manner of delivery. For two 
 hours he held an audience of students literally entranced by 
 his stories.— President J. E. Stubbs. 
 
 Smith College: He captured us from the first words, and 
 we listened breathlessly as children do.— Smith College 
 Monthly. 
 
 Teachers* Association of Essex Co., Mass. : Seumas Mac- 
 Manus' stories delighted and refreshed two thousand tired 
 teachers at our annual meeting in Tremont Temple, Boston.— 
 Charles E. Towne, President. 
 
 Alamaba Polytechnic Institute: The beautiful viev?s, the 
 Wit, the eloquence, and the literary charm of the lecturer, 
 made for us an evening of notable delight and profit. It 
 was* one of the pleasantest evenings 1 ever enjoyed.— Dr. 
 Charles O. Thach. President. * 
 
 Baylor College, Texas.— No one has ever been before this 
 student body who gave such general satisfaction as Seumafl 
 MacManus.— Dr. J. C. Hardy. 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 What day you rise, m all mrnx's eyes a Queea, 
 Mo Chraoi^hm Cuol 
 
 The silver speech our fathers knew shall onct 
 
 again be heard. 
 The lire-lit story, crooning song, sweeter than lilt 
 
 oi bird; 
 Your quicken-tree shaU break in flower, its ruddy 
 
 fruit shall glow, 
 And the Gentle People dance beneath its shade— » 
 Mo Chraoibhin Cnol 
 
 There shall be peace and plenty — the kindly opcts 
 door; 
 
 Blessings on all who come and go — the prosper- 
 ous or the poor — 
 
 The misty glens and purple hills a fairer tint shall 
 show, 
 
 When your splendid Sun shall ride the skies 
 again — 
 
 Mo Chraoibhin Cnol 
 
 THE PARTING WORD 
 In this work is sketched an outline only of one 
 of the saddest, terrible tragedies the world ever 
 witnessed — the crucifixioa of a noble nation. 
 
 The picture is ineomplete. But the little that 
 has here been set down suffices to show that the 
 inhuman barbarity and demonaic savagery with 
 
 234 
 
THE SUMMING UP 
 
 whuii h«hmd has b«ea ravaged — from the first 
 <la|r ^ the English invasioa to the present day — 
 IS wkhetit parallel in history. The reader will 
 fiave seen how an ancient land which led the 
 world in culture, ^^^8 ravished by the destroyer, 
 ^!id that light whicli had been Europe's lode star, 
 -extinguished — how an honorable race was de- 
 graded — a brave people beaten into the earth. 
 He will also see how, in this worthy land, a pow- 
 er which successfully presents itself to the world 
 as a pillar of libert)'- and a pioneer of civilization, 
 has, with wanton deviltry, throughout seven cen- 
 turies, wrought havoc and spread desolation, 
 trampling the smiling garden into a piteous wil- 
 derness, and hounding its noble denizens like 
 savage beasts. 
 
 The reader v/ill now, I hope, better understand 
 and appreciate the strange Irish spirit which, 
 without failing, has watched the millions of the 
 power of her manhood and the flower of her 
 womanhood driven out from her, and scattered 
 like chaflf to the winds of the w^orld — and without 
 -quailing, has witnessed every foot of green hill- 
 side again and again crimsoned with the blood 
 •of her best. And he will, I think, understand 
 how it is that in Ireland a felon's cap is honored 
 above a Eling's crown — that the dungeon cells 
 -wherein, through the generations, the noblest of 
 our race rotted or went nx..d, are reverenced as 
 
 235 
 
IRELAND'S CASE 
 
 Saints* cells — and hew, here, thousands of men 
 and women would crssh and struggle for the 
 privilege of kissing the steps that go up to the 
 gallows-tree — how the jail has, for Ireland, be- 
 come a holy place, and the gibbet a sacred sign. 
 
 He will realize that Ireland has agonized ia 
 the garden of the ages, and sweat a bloody sweat: 
 over the cruel flints, bloodied by her bleeding feet, 
 through the jeering multitude, she has passed, 
 dragging her heavy cross, and struggled up her 
 toilsome Calvary — and, taunted by the jeers and 
 pricked by the spears of the tyrant's servitors, 
 endured her terrible crucifixion. 
 
 But the faithful weep not, knowing that th« 
 Easter of the crucified cometh — the glorious ri»* 
 ing time, the Resurrection Mom I 
 
 (Spread the Light — The reader is requested to 
 lend this book to an American friend who needi 
 to know the truth about Ireland — and to contin- 
 ue lending it till it wears itself out doing worthy 
 work. Both God and Ireland wHl bless the eag^ 
 lender. And the borrower won't fail to get a 
 whiff of the blessing). 
 
 236 
 
SEMPER IDEM, JOHN. 
 
 There is a tribe of innocents abroad (many of 
 them Irish, more by the same token), who delight- 
 edly swallow the seas of slush which England's 
 hired agents are constantly sending down the gut- 
 ters of the American press — about the old vagabond 
 John Bull's happy transformation into a sucking 
 dove in his recent dealings with Ireland. For the 
 edification of these kindly ones here is set down the 
 most recent report of their dove's soft, sweet cooing : 
 
 SWORN STATEMENT 
 Of Charles Kenny, of No. 1 Ulster Terrace, North Strand, Dub- 
 lin, taken at the Manaion House, Dublin, on the 
 Nineteenth day of July, 1918. 
 
 I am twenty-five years of age. I am a sanitary contractor. 
 Having been sentenced to six months' imprisonment for drill- 
 ing, I was sent to Belfast Jail during the second week of April 
 from Mountjoy Jail, where I had spent a fortnight. There were 
 over one hundred others in Belfast Jail serving sentences for 
 drilling, etc. 
 
 In May the prison diet to any of the men who were not 
 getting food from outside was very poor, and gradually be- 
 came worse. . . . 
 
 The conditions as to the food continued, and on the 27th day 
 of June, 1918, all the men met as usual after breakfast on that 
 day. Some of the men occupying cells on the top landing com- 
 plained that the windows of their cells had been replaced and 
 fixed so as not to allow any air to come in through them. This 
 action was discussed, and whilst at exercise we saw the warders 
 fxtng- the windows In the cells and we were informed that the 
 windows in all the cells were to be similarly closed. We looked 
 upon this action as a piece of petty tyranny on the part of th* 
 authorities, the men decided not to allow the window* to be 
 rt'T laced, and In order to prevent It the men proceeded t« 
 brtak the windows as a protest and as a means of prerentian 
 
 237 
 
the cells froai becoming unbearable to live In. A few of thf 
 windows had been broken when the Governor came on Lh^ 
 f^cene and said that if the breaking waa stopped he would nut 
 have the windows put in. This was agreed to and nothing fur- 
 ther happened until that night when the men had been locked 
 np each in his own cell. 
 
 At 7.30 the Governor and warders came on the scene and 
 ■ ■roceeded to reniove the men from their own cells to the bas- 
 ment cells, which are smaller than the ordinary cells and are 
 for prisoners under punishment. As this waB a breach of the 
 conditions the men resisted, and proceeded to barricade the doors 
 of the cells. Thereupon a big force of police — I think there 
 were two hundred — were brought in from Belfast and they 
 [iroceeded to break in the doors with sledge hammers and 
 crowbars, at the same time turning a water-hose on each man 
 In his cell. When they entered the cells the police brutally xs- 
 c-^aulted the men with batons and sticks, and having manacled 
 the men with their hands behind their backs, they kicked and 
 punched them when lying helpless on the floor. The police 
 entered my cell and beat me to the ground, striking me on the 
 head with their batons. 
 
 When the men were handcuffed they were dragged down th» 
 iron stairs to the underground cells, some of them head first 
 I saw Mr. McKenna, the Chairman of the Kerry Council, being 
 dragged down the stairs head first while his hands were man- 
 acled behind his back. I saw two policemen dragging Hugh 
 McNeill, of Dublin, along the ground. They were holding his 
 feet and dragging him along on his face, while his hands were 
 handcuffed behind his back. In the month of May I had been 
 suffering from pneumonia, necessitating my removal to the 
 Mater Hospital, Belfast, and from that time up to the 27th of 
 June I was under the care of the prison doctor. The police 
 came to my cell, turned the hose on me, broke open the door, 
 entered my cell, and attacked me with their batons, striking 
 me on the head, and handcuffed me with my hands behind my 
 back. The doctor and the Governor were outside my cell and 
 were In a position to see the way in which I was treated, and 
 when the other prisoners were being removed from the cells the 
 doctor and Governor were standing outside their cell doors and 
 saw the manner In which they were dealt with and In the case 
 of anj' man badly wounded the doctor attended him In his cell 
 before be was removed to the punishment cells, amongst theae 
 
 238 
 
being Hugh McNeill and a man named McMahon, of MuUlnffar; 
 the former had his fingers badly torn and the latter had hla 
 h*'ad split with a blow of a baton. 
 
 Five of the men, Including Brosnan, Talty, Quinn and Quealy, 
 all of the County Clare, had to be removed Immediately to 
 hospital in consequence of the injuries they received. The other 
 men were left handcuffed and wounded, lying on the bare floor 
 in their wet clothes and some of them half naked, until Fri- 
 day morning. As they could not open their clothes to relieve 
 themselves, many of the men were in a filthy condition in the 
 morning, and as a result of this in particular I have not been 
 able to walk properly since, my legs being frayed and scalded. 
 
 When I was put in the basement cell I had not been before 
 the Governor and was not under any order for punishment, and 
 had not been charged with any offense against prison discipline, 
 nor, as far as I am aware, had any of my comrades who were 
 aimilarly treated. On Friday the handcuffs were removed for 
 a few minutes only while we were eating, but only after a 
 refusal to eat with the handcuffs on. They were then fastened 
 on again in front. On Friday also we were told by the Visit- 
 ing Justices that on account of insubordination all our privileges 
 were withdrawn. On Saturday morning we went to Mass, as 
 It was a holy-day, but the handcuffs were not taken oft. Sub- 
 sequently some of the men smashed the handcuffs, and in con- 
 sequence the police were brought in again and also a detach- 
 ment of military with fixed bayonets, whereupon Commandant 
 MacDonagh ordered us to submit to the handcuffs, which we did. 
 
 We were brought one by one before the Visiting Justices 
 and sentenced to terms of bread and water punishment, vary- 
 ing from three days in some cases to twenty-eight days In 
 others. 
 
 On Saturday we went to Confession handcuffed, and on 
 Sunday every one of the ninety-three men went to Communion. 
 Except the men from the hospital, all the men going to Com- 
 munion were handcuffed, some of them were even in straight- 
 Jackets, and most of them, besides being handcuffed, were 
 "muffed," the "muffs" consisting of trebly-locked straps from 
 arm to arm so that It was impossible to move the elbows. Many 
 of the men were unable to stand up to leave the altar rails 
 without assistance. The clothes of most of the men were in a 
 filthy condition for the reasons I have already gives. 
 
On Sunday afternoon two priest* — I think one of them w»a 
 Father McGlenaghen of the College — came round to vl«it the 
 cells. They found Flanagan, a boy of eighteen, belonging to 
 Dublin, unconscious in his cell, and McGlnley, another Dublin 
 boy, also unconscious. . . 
 
 On Monday night I recollect hearing some of the men sing- 
 ing and after that I knew no more until I awoke in the hos- 
 pital on "Wednesday evenly, s. I had been three days on bread 
 and water before I collapsed, the bread allowance being twelve 
 ounces per day — four ounces each meal. . . . 
 
 I was released on Saturday, July 13, on account of the stat« 
 of my health, having completed four months of my sentence. 
 The prison doctor. Dr. O'Flaherty, told me that owing to the 
 condition of my heart I was not to get into a state of excite- 
 ment or attempt any sudden exertion. I affirm that this state- 
 ment is absolutely and entirely true. 
 
 (Signed) CHARLES KENNY. 
 July 19, 1918. 
 
 Witnesses: 
 
 (Signed) LAURENCE O'NEILL, 
 
 Lord Mayor of Dublin. 
 
 (Signed) PATRICK WM. CORRIGAN, 
 
 Alderman of Dublin Corporation. 
 (Signed) (Rev.) PATRICK FLANAGAN, C. C. 
 Church of the Holy Family, 
 
 Aughrim Street. 
 (Signed) JOSEPHINE MART PLUNKETT, 
 
 26 Upper Fltzwilliam St., Dublin. 
 
 So the voice may be the voice of the ciove, but 
 the paw is ever the blood-stained paw of the old, 
 unchanged and unchangeable hypocrite, John. 
 
 (Please turn ove?J 
 240 
 
SPREAD THE LIGHT. 
 
 If IRELAND'S CASS appeals to you will you join the en- 
 thusiastic Irish throng who in every corner of America (and in 
 far-off Argentina and Australia, too) are with it, spreading the 
 lig-ht and converting many to Ireland's cause? 
 
 Great numbers of layir^en, pastors and societies have got 
 it in pa.rcels of 100 (at only 25 cents each when taken in such 
 quantity), and put it in the hands of the hosts who sorely need 
 it. 
 
 :jany pastors have put it in their schools as 
 
 A IIAN'DBOOK of IRISH HISTORY. 
 
 THE PRESIDENT of the UNIVERSITY of NOTRE DAME 
 ha.s put it in the hands of hi.s students. THE BISHOP of 
 SYRACUSE, putting it into his schools, designated it "by far 
 the best and finest compendium of Irish history I have ever 
 seen." 
 
 'I'HE CARMELITE FATHERS of New York (who put it in 
 the schools) distributed 400 copies of it. 
 
 The CASEMENT F. O. I. F. of Pittsburgh took 1,100 copies. 
 
 Rev. >T. J, Kerwin, O. M. I., Buffalo, distributed no less than 
 1,300 copies of it. 
 
 A PHILADELPHIA PASTOR, after reading one copy, sent 
 immediate order for a copy to be mailed to each of the 279 
 pastors in the Archdiocese and 100 copies to himself. 
 
 RT. REV. BISHOP GRI^.IES of SYRACUSE writes: "I am 
 enamoured of IRELAND'S CASE, and determined to have every 
 exiled Irishman under my jurisdiction read it. The argument 
 is .superb and should echo throughout civilization." 
 
 A Western Ecclesiastic says: "I call this book the Bible 
 of Irish nationality. It has done more here in half a year to 
 strengthen and establish the cause of true Irish nationality than 
 all other books combined of the previou.g fifty years." 
 
 One copy, paper covered, costs C5 cents (free by post). In 
 green cloth, gilt lettered, $1.15. 
 
 Three copies are given for price of two. Three in paper for 
 $1.30; three in cloth binding, $2.30. 
 
 Ten copies for price of six and one-half; twenty-five for price 
 cf fifteen; fifty copies for price of twenty-five. 
 
 ICO IN PAPER COVER ONLY $25. 100 CLOTH BOUND $55 
 
 Order from THE IRISH PUBLTSITTNG CO., 
 
 P. O. Box 1300, New York City. 
 
 9 '1 
 
ENGAGEMENTS FOR 
 IRISH LECTURE-RECITALS BY 
 
 SEUMAS MacMANUS 
 
 are accepted, for any part of America, by 
 
 The Management of SEUMAS MacMANUS 
 
 P. O. Box 1300, New York City 
 
 SUBJECTS: 
 
 Readings from His Own Books. 
 
 An Irish Story-Telling. 
 
 The Glories^ the Sorrows^ and the Hopes of Ireland. 
 
 A Ramble 'Round Ireland, Illustrated with 100 Beautiful 
 Colored Views. 
 
 The Irish Question. 
 
 Fairy aad Folk-lore. 
 
 Irish Wit and Humor. 
 
 The Irish Question. 
 
 Fairy and Folk-lore. 
 
 Irish Wit and Humor. 
 
 SEUMAS MacMANUS, the Irish poet, is a brilliant repre- 
 sentative of a poetic race. Poetry and mysticism, wit, 
 humor and pathos, are everywhere present in his woi-k. And 
 audiences are held spellbound at the will of this prince of 
 story-tellers.— i?osfoji Transcript. 
 
 As child and youth, he sat at the feet of the Shanachies 
 by the turf fires, and lived the life of his own people, until, 
 saturated with the Celtic spirit, this brilliant spokesman of 
 a wonderful people now comes to enthrall us with his de- 
 lightful intellectual diversions.— Sofn Francisco Bulletin. 
 
 Edmund Clarence Stedman said: He is the poet story-teller 
 from ancient time ; the rhapsodist ; the Irish Homer. 
 
 Judgre Ben Lindsey: Never in my experience have I heard 
 a more wonderful story-telling. 
 
 Dr. Washington Gladden: Don's miss the delight of hear- 
 ing Seumas MacManus ! 
 
 William Allen White, of Kansas : He has a marvellous gift 
 of story-telling and power of holding his audience. 
 
 National Geographical Society; President Henry Gannett: 
 Rarely has' a lecturer captured our audience as completely 
 as did Seumas MacManus. 
 
 Library Commission of Portland, Ore.: His twelve lectures 
 and story-tellings here, were ^he very happiest thing that 
 happened to us in many a long day. On the last night, the 
 crowd filled all seats, lined the walls, sat on the platform, 
 packed the entrance— and no one moved during the two hours. 
 There's magic for you ! 
 
 University of Wisconsin: He charmed the University Club 
 diners with a talk utterly unUke any other literary treat that 
 they hav§ ever had.— T/ie Democrat. 
 
 University of Missouri: It was a great night for Ireland— 
 and the University of Missouri.- TTie Herald. 
 University of Michigan: The surprising novelty and unique- 
 ness of his discourse, delighted his three thousand eager 
 auditors.— T/ie Times-Neics. 
 
Columbia University: In his series of six lecture-recitals 
 the spell of bis poetry, the cuchuntinent of his piose, his 
 quaint and beautiful tales, held his large audiences charmed.— 
 The^ Columbia Spectator. 
 
 Dean Briggs of Harvard: Everyone enjoyed Seumas Mac- 
 Manus' readings exceedingly. 
 
 University of Texas: No lectures at the University in 
 recent years have given more general satisfaction than those 
 of Seumas MacManus,— C. S. Potts, M.A. 
 
 Univresity of Kansas: It was a very unusual and effective 
 lecture.— Chancellor Strong. 
 
 University of Indiana: If I were myself a poet, I should try 
 to find worda which would tell fittingly how Seumas Mac- 
 Manus' writing and his speaking express the finest spirit 
 of Ireland.— Dr. Bryan. 
 
 The Comparative literature Society of N. Y. : He moved 
 our difficult audience to' frequent sudden laughter, or nobly 
 touched them to silence by the simple diguity and human 
 feeling of his theme.— Dr. Merle ^t. Croix Wright. 
 
 Buffalo, N. Y.— Although so ill that he had to be carried 
 on the stage of Shea's (Theatre in a chair, Seumas Mac- 
 Manus last night delivered the most impressive address ou 
 Ireland ever heard by the people of Buffalo.— 27te Buffalo 
 Evening News. 
 
 Normal School Edinboro, Pa.— He held the children spell- 
 bound, and the adults were as the children. He is an edu- 
 cational ^ inspiration ! !— Frank E, Baker, President. 
 
 Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences: On the occasion 
 of each of his preceding lectures hundreds had to be turned 
 away for lack of accommodation— but last night the numbers 
 turned away at least equalled what found seating accom- 
 modatlon.— r/ie Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 Notre Dame University, Ind.— The students of this year can 
 never forget the great advantage they enjoyed in hearing 
 Seumas MacManus's course of twelve lectures. The time he 
 spent with us was a period memorable and full bf inspira- 
 tion.— Rev. John Cavanaugh, C.S.C., President. 
 
 University of Nevada: Seumas MacManus' lecture was a 
 gem— both in jnatter and the manner of delivery. For two 
 hours' he held an audience of students literally entranced by 
 his stories.— President J. E. Stubbs. 
 
 Smith College: He captured us from the fii'st words, and 
 we listened breathlessly as children do.— Smith College 
 Monthly. 
 
 Teachers' Association of Essex Co., Mass.: Seumas Mac- 
 Manus' stories delighted and refreshed two thousand tired 
 teachers at our annual meeting in Tremont Temple, Boston.— 
 Charles E. Towne, President. 
 
 Alamaba Polytechnic Institute: The beautiful views, the 
 wit, the eloquence, and the literary charm of the lecturer, 
 made for us an evening of notable delight and profit. It 
 was pone of the pleasantest evenings I ever enjoyed.— Dr. 
 Charles C. Thach, President. 
 
 Baylor College, Texas.— No one has ever been before this 
 student body who gave such general satisfaction as Seumas 
 MacManus.— Dr. J. C. Hardy. 
 

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