Present Irish Questions

by William O'Connor Morris

[34] I feel obliged to refer to these authorities; not in order to stir up resentment against England in Ireland, but to point out a most important, if unfortunate, fact in the relations between the two countries. Swift, in his ‘View of the State of Ireland,’ Works, vol. ii. 8vo ed. 1890, says, ‘We are in the condition of patients, who have physic sent them by doctors at a distance, strangers to their constitution and the nature of the disease.’ Burke, ‘Correspondence,’ vol. iii. p. 438, has remarked, ‘I have never known any of the successive Governments of my time influenced by any other feeling relative to Ireland than the wish that they should hear of it and of its concerns as little as possible.’ So Grattan, cited by Mr. Lecky, vol. vii. p. 108, exclaimed, ‘It is a matter of melancholy reflection to consider how little the Cabinet knows of anything relating to Ireland. Ireland is a subject it considers with a lazy contumely, and picks up here and there, by accident or design, interested and erroneous intelligence.’ I quote this passage from one of the speeches of Lord Clare: ‘The people of England know less of this country than of any other nation in Europe;’ and this passage from one of the speeches of O’Connell: ‘We are governed by foreigners; foreigners make our laws.... As to Ireland, the Imperial Parliament has the additional disadvantage springing from want of interest and total ignorance. I do not exaggerate; the ministers are in total ignorance of this country.’ This want of knowledge of Ireland, too often associated with indifference, has, I repeat, been distinctly made manifest of late years.

[35] These figures are taken from the Irish census of 1891. By the census of 1901, the population of Antrim and Down has increased, and that of every other county in Ireland, except Dublin, has declined. The over-representation of Ireland has thus become more than ever an unjust anomaly.

[36] For an admirable account of the ancient land system of Celtic Ireland, see Maine’s ‘Early History of Institutions.’ I may be allowed to refer to an article on this work, from my pen, in the Edinburgh Review of July, 1875, and to the first chapter of my ‘History of Ireland,’ in the Cambridge ‘Historical Series.’

[37] In the case of this, as of all the chapters, a list of the principal authorities and sources of information will be found in the preface to this book. For the conquest and confiscations of the Irish land, from the Norman Conquest to the end of the reign of William III., see ‘The Statute of Kilkenny,’ edited by James Hardiman; ‘The Discoverie of Sir John Davies;’ ‘The Carew Papers,’ edited by J. S. Brewer and William Bullen; Spenser’s ‘View of the State of Ireland;’ Holingshead’s ‘Chronicles of Ireland;’ Carte’s ‘Life of Ormond;’ Lord Clanricarde’s ‘Memoirs;’ Sir William Petty’s ‘Political Anatomy of Ireland;’ ‘Macariæ Excidium;’ and King’s ‘State of the Protestants of Ireland.’ As regards modern authorities, numerous, and some very valuable, the reader may be referred to Froude’s ‘History of England,’ vol. ii. ch. viii.; vol. v. ch. xxviii.; vol. viii. chs. vii., xi.; vol. x. ch. xxiv.; vol. xi. ch. xxvii.; to Mr. Lecky’s ‘History of England in the Eighteenth Century,’ vol. ii. ch. vi.; and to the Irish chapters in Mr. Gardiner’s ‘History of England,’ from the Accession of James I. to the outbreak of the Civil War; to his ‘History of the Great Civil War,’ vol. i. chs. vi., xi.; vol. ii. chs. xxvii., xxxvii., xliv.; and to the Irish chapters of his ‘History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate.’ Other modern works on the subject are Sigerson’s ‘History of Land Tenure in Ireland;’ ‘An Historical Account of the Plantation of Ulster,’ by the Rev. George Hill; ‘The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland,’ by John P. Prendergast; and the ‘Life of Sir William Petty,’ by Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice. See a review by me of this last work in the Edinburgh Review of July, 1895; and also chs. iii., iv., and v. of my ‘History of Ireland, 1494-1868,’ referred to before. There are innumerable minor authorities; and Hallam’s ‘Chapter on Ireland,’ vol. iii., may be studied.

[38] ‘Letter to Sir Hercules Langriche:’ ‘Works,’ vol. i. p. 560, ed. 1834.

[39] For an account of the penal laws of Ireland, see Vincent Scully on ‘The Irish Penal Laws;’ Howard’s ‘Popery Laws;’ and Burke’s ‘Tracts on the Popery Laws,’ a short but masterly work.

[40] For the state of Ireland and of the Irish land at this period, see the Irish Statute Book from 1700 to about 1750, and especially the writings of Swift and Berkeley on Irish affairs. Swift, however, is not just to the Irish landed gentry, many as were their faults. See also the ‘Letters’ of Archbishop Boulter, the virtual ruler of Ireland during a series of years, and of Archbishop Synge. Reference, too, may be made to Molyneux’s ‘Case of Ireland,’ and to Hutchinson’s and Caldwell’s ‘Restraints on the Trade of Ireland.’ For modern authorities, consult Lecky’s ‘History of England in the Eighteenth Century,’ vol. ii. ch. vii.; vol. iv. chs. xvi., xvii. Froude’s ‘English in Ireland’ is very inaccurate and one-sided for this period; but his fine romance, the ‘Two Chiefs of Dunboy,’ contains a brilliant, and, in the main, a true account of the state of Irish social life in those days.

[41] By far the best account of the state of Ireland, at this period, is to be found in the celebrated ‘Tour’ of Arthur Young, who wrote in 1776-78. See also Mr. Lecky’s ‘History of England in the Eighteenth Century,’ vol. vi. chs. xxiv., xxv.; vol. vii. ch. xxvii. The ‘Irlande, Sociale, Politique, et Religieuse’ of Gustave de Beaumont may also be consulted; but though a very able work, it is that of a democratic doctrinaire. For the Whiteboy movements, see the Irish Statute Book, and Sir George Lewis on ‘Irish Disturbances.’

[42] See Burke’s ‘Tracts on the Popery Laws,’ vol. ii. pp. 445, 446. Arthur Young, too, often dwells on this subject.

[43] For an account of this period nothing can be compared to Mr. Lecky’s ‘History of England in the Eighteenth Century,’ vols. vii., viii. These contain all the information that can be obtained, collected from every available source. I may refer to my ‘Ireland, 1798-1898,’ chs. i., ii.