EPOCHS IN IRISH HISTORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1945, 4 June 1891, Page 41

EPOCHS IN IRISH HISTORY.

Bx R. N. Adams.

No. XXXVII.

PULLING DOWN AND OVERTURNING,

THE ARMY RKCOV.'iTRUOTED.

King James, the Earl of Tyrconnel, with the other secret conspirators of the court and ecclesiastical bench, had only begun their work when they disbanded the militia and disarmed the private Protestant inhabitants. This scheme was to make the ascendancy of the Catholic Church an indisputable fact and the humiliation of Protestants an unassailable certainty. For this purpose they had to turn their attention to the fitness of the Irish army. It would be a most unsuitable instrument while Protestants were permitted to bear commissions and arms in its ranks. When Tyrconnel was appointed commander-in-chief the army " consisted of about 7000 men." That these men were loyal to the Crown of England wanted no more confirmation than their zeal in its service during the rebellions of Monmouth and Argyle. They were, however, exclusively Protestants, and Tyrconnel could not hope to make such men the tool he wanted the army to be ; and of course his policy "was to change its character as quickly as possible. His commission permitted him to " receive Roman Catholics into the army." This he acted upon in a thorough manner. Immediately after his assumption of command " between 200 and 300 officers were dismissed," no reason being given for the act beyond his order. Efforts were made by men in authority and favour to have them, oi some of them, reinstated, but to no purpose. The crime of being Protestant was .the unpardonable charge against them. Many of these men went to the Continent to serve in other fields, • some to return under another banner, true to England's interests. In place of those dismissed Tyrconnel put men who had been leaders of banditti, grooms, and footmen ; *nd men entirely ignorant of military duties, (Ingram). Archbishop King declares he knew of as many as 20 Tory (banditti) officers in one regiment. Lord Clarendon wrote : " Scarce a colonel of the army • knows anything of his regiment." D'Avaux wrote to the King of France that " the colonels of the Irish army were generally men of good families, but their captains were butchers, tailors, and shoemakers."

DISBANDING PROTESTANT SOLDIERS,

Protestant private soldiers were as objectionable to the leader of the new scheme as were Protestant officers ; and consequently he gave orders to disband between 5000 and 6000 common soldiers without any provision being made for their comfort or conveyance to their homes. The poor fellow 3, without clothes and without money, were left no course but to beg along their various ways through the country. Many of them, having been deprived of their military clothes, were half naked, and in that condition had to make their way through a community which regarded them as enemies. In Dublin 400 were dismissed from the guards in one day, 300 of whom were without a fault against them. Clarendon gives the following example of the plan adopted to cleanse the army :— -" Nicholas Darey, who has the company, late Captain Motloe's, called his company together and asked them if thf-y went fco mass, to which 40 of them said 'no,' whereupon he immediately dismissed them, and said he had kept as many above a week at his own house upon his own charge, who, the next morning were all admitted." Tryconnel had ordered the officers to enlist none but Roman Catholics.

THE NEW EECKUITS.

Speaking of the new men 1 who were to take the place of the trained men so ruthlessly dismissed, Clarendon says : " When the new men are listed they are sent to the commissary to be sworn. The first thing they say is that they will ' not take the oath of supremacy ' ; he tells them that he is •not to tender it to them, 1 therefore they need not fear ; that ♦ they are only to take the oath of fidelity, which is the oath mentioned in my instructions, and taken by the Roman Catholic judges.' That they swallow; and being asked whether they understood what they have sworn, the answer was, ' Ye 3, they had sworn to be true to the Pope and their religion ' ; and being by some told they had sworn to be true to the King, they replied their priest had told them they must take- no oat but to be- true to the Pope." Another testimony is supplied by Ingram: "Mr Stafford, a Boman Catholic who, through the interest of his son, a master in Chancery, had been made a justice of the peace, in a charge to the grand jury, . . remarked, ' I ehall not need to say much concerning rogues and vagabonds, the country being pretty well cleared of them, by reason his Majesty has entertained them all in his service, clothed them with red coats, and provided well for them." These two remarkable pictures are enough to give us a good estimate of the sort of men enlisted for the purpose of carrying ou,t the design of the conspirators against the Protestant inhabitants of the country who had been guilty of no 'act of rebellion, or even insubordination.

DESTOBTING THE COURTS.

Sir Charles Porter had filled the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland for some time during Clarendon's term of office as Lord Deputy. But when Tyrconnel became dictator of the Justice department as well as of military affaire, Sir Charles being called upon to acfc as he required him, refused, saying", " I came not here to serve a turn, nor will I act against my conscience," the despot dismissed him. He had brought over with him a man quite according to his own heart — a ready-made Lord Chancellor — in the person of Alexander Fitton, who had been imprisoned by the House of Lords for forgery in Westminster and Chester, but was released from his cell to serve the secret conclave in the reductioa of Ireland to serfdom. Fitton was a convert fpom tha Church of England to the Church of Borne. When occupying his position on the benah he was in the habit of making speeches to the effect that "all Protestants were rogues, and among 40,000 of them there was not ore who was not a traitor, a rebel, and a villain." jHe disoarded all the rales of law, saying the

Court of Chancery was above law. On hearing a charge between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant, he would intimate that he "would deliver judgment after consulting his chaplain." This was a priest who had been trained in Spain. There were three other judges, all Protestants. Tyrconnel removed two of them, retaining the other as a show of impartiality. These being the Court of Appeal, there were two against one. Thomas Nugent, a man noted for nothing more than his gross ignorance of the law, was appointed Lord Chief Justice of King's Bench, and was never known to give judgment in favour o£ a Protestant whose opponent was a Catholic. He is said to have declared from the bench that " rapparee3 (robbers, outlaws) were necessary evils." Over the Court of Exchequer was placed as chief baron one Stephen Rice, an intemperate though able man, who had frequently protested he could drive a coach-and-six through the Acts of Settlement — that they were) unnatural, and therefore not obligatory. Protestants, he said, would have " nothing but the utmost rigour of the law from him." His subsequent practice proved the earnestness of his threat.

SHERIFFS AND J.P'S.

During the year 1685 Lord Clarendon had been at great pains to make a careful and prudent revision of the sheriffs' and J.P's. rolls, and recommended to the King as the best lists that had been made for many years. Tyrconnel was not pleased with them and in 1686, with the help of Nugent, drew up new lists of men who would be subservient to his purpose, and had them appointed, the others being removed. Macaulay says of the sheriffs of Tyrconnel's nomination : " The sheriffs to whom belonged the execution of writs, and the nomination of juries, were selected in almost every instance from the caste which had, till very recently, been excluded from all public trusts. It was affirmed that some of these important functionaries had been burned in the hand for theft." These men were not required to take the usual oath prescribed by the law for officers undertaking^ such duties. They systematically prevented Protestants from receiving the privileges and protection of the law in cases which came into their fingers. — (Ingram!) The commissions of the justices of the peace were so managed that only a very few of those who were not of 4 " Tyrconnel's religion " were permitted to hold one, and where any did their influence was destroyed by the vast number of the other side. Harris says that the native Jrish J.P.s were " for the most part of the very scum of the people, and a great many whose fathers had been executed for theft, robbary, and murder." Burdy says : "So little regard was had to character that a man was appointed chief magistrate in a oorihern city who had been condemned to t he gallows for his crimes."

THE COBPOEATION3 CAPTUBBD.

All the cjrporate towns of Ireland with four exceptions had been built by English settlers at their own cost. They had built them for their own convenience as centres of business, and strongholds of defence. The householders werealmostentirely P v rote3tants. These towns had the right by virtue of their charters to send representatives to Parliament, who would certainly be Protestants. That had to be altered to complete the gigantic tyranny of Tyrconnnel. By threats, storms of passion, and violent abuse he prevailed upon the corporations to surrender their charters on a promise of enlarged privileges. These privileges were that all ic dependent rights were struck out, and a clause inserted giving the Lord Deputy power co appoint the aldermen. The people were at one 3weep completely disfranchised, and Tyrconnel was made absolute ruler. His appointments to the corporations were an average of about two-thirds Catholics and the rest Protestants. Many persons were appointed who had never seen the towns for which they were to legislate and administer. Men who knew nothing of trade or commercial affairs were seleo'ed to look after the interests of the most important business cities. But as this was a means to •« destroy the noxious tree of Protestant ascendancy " it suited well the scheme in hand.

THE PBIVY COUNCIL.

One step more and the ambition of the Earl of Tyrconnel had gained its point, and all along the line the administration was in his hand. The Privy Council must be a3 a piece of wax in his fingers, else his labour might be thwarted just at fruition. It had power to shape ajl Acts of Parliament. Nothing could be introduced into the House until the Council had certified to ifc. He was not likely to have it all his own way unless he either greatly increased its members, or had it composed of mere creatures of his will. In 1686 he added two Protestants and 18 Boman Catholic* to its roll. The Protesr tants declined the honour, and Tyrconnel now bad it all his own way. He was de facto King of Ireland. But such an Ireland 1 Instead of an army of 7000, it was now 50,000 1 There was no war in the land, yet this enormous increase of military was made, while every remaining Protestant was deprived of weapons even of defence.

DISMAY AND CONFUSION.

Everything was now in the hand of one arrogant, licentious, evil-minded man. Every department was controlled by servile creatures of his direction. He was master of every man in the country — even the King's authority was not above him. Every industry was paralysed ; the people were struck down with terror, and thousands were weekly migrating to less dangerous countries. Fifteen hundred families left Ireland when Clarendon handed over the Lord Deputyship to the despoj. The property of Protestants is said to have suffered to the extent of eight millions of money I Money then represented about five times the value it does now ; so we may imagine what cause there was for consternation, when such deterioration took place in less than four years' time. "The French Ambassador reported to the King of France that in six weeks 50,000 horned cattle had been slain, and were rotting on the ground." Sheep were wantonly destroyed ; and property generally was ruined in the most reckless manner. Adding to thi<», Tyrconnel let loose his 50,000 undisciplined troops upon the country among the reduced Protestants during the winter. These unfortunates they treated with unendurable and abominable offences. Ohief Justice Keating in an address at the Assizes spoke as follows : — " There are suoh general and vast depredations in the opuntry that many

honest men go to bed possessed of considerable stocks <?£ black and white cattle, gotten by great labour and pains, the industry of their whole lives, and in the morning when they arise not any thing is left them but, burned out of all, to go a-begging, all being taken away by thieves and robbers, sons of violence. . . . It is come to that pass that a man that loses the better part of his substance chooses rather to let that, and what he has besides, go, than come to give evidence. And why ? Because he is certain to have his house burned and his throat cut if he appears against them." — (State trials.)