ceed upon a system of gentle and conciliatory policy, congenial to that temper and those intentions, which deservedly obtained for him, when he was beyond the reach of flattery, the epithets of the Peaceful and the Just. More progress in the civilization of Ireland was made during James's reign, than in all the years which had elapsed since its conquest, or than in any other assignable age of its history; and the counties which were then planted are at this time* the most flourishing, the best affected, and consequently the least disturbed parts of that poor miserable country. SIR THOMAS MORE. ...A country from which half a century of efficient government, conducted upon the plainest principles of good policy, would remove its miseries, and with them the reproach which, so long as they are permitted to continue, rests upon England. But proceed to examine where that reproach begins, and for how much England is responsible before God and man. MONTESINOS. The condition of Ireland continued to improve * Digest of the Evidence on the State of Ireland, vol. i. pp. 41-49. till the Puritans obtained the ascendancy in England and then the intolerance of that odious faction gave the Romish priests occasion for alarming the fears of the Irish, while they worked upon their superstition and their national feeling. France and Spain were not backward in ill offices towards Great Britain; the former from old rivalry, the latter for its sincere devotion to the Romish Church. Rebellion broke out, and whoever is acquainted with the dreadful history that ensued, will not wonder at the measure of vengeance which Cromwell exacted, nor that penal laws should have been framed against the professors of a religion which had served as the pretext and incitement and watchword for the Irish mas sacre. The SIR THOMAS MORE. After Cromwell's conquest, might not any thing have been effected in a country where the whole fabric of society had been overthrown,.. and all its boundaries and landmarks as it were swept away and effaced? MONTESINOS. The convulsion and consequent confusion had indeed been such, that one, who holds no mean rank among theoretical politicians, seriously thought the best arrangement which could have been made for Ireland would have been to assign it over to the Jews, and allow them to establish themselves there as a nation, holding under Great Britain by an annual payment of two millions sterling. SIR THOMAS MORE. The proposer must have been more sincere in his political opinions than in his Christian faith, if he supposed that under any mere worldly arrangement the Children of Israel could be gathered together, and subsist collectively as a people. MONTESINOS. How that may have been you may satisfy yourself, for the legislators of Utopia and Oceana can be no strangers to each other in the Intermediate State. Next to the happiness of being re-united in that State to the objects of our love, must be the pleasure of seeking out the kindred spirits of other ages, and conversing face to face with those whose actions we have admired, to whose lives and deaths we have been beholden, from whose works we have derived instruction, or whose examples we have endeavoured to follow. I know not what religious tenets were held by Harrington, but that he is now with the spirits of " "just men made perfect," I entertain no doubt. His speculations were harmless and benevolent even when they ceased to be sane; and if the cooler heads of that age had been regulated by as clear a conscience, it had been happy for Great Britain then, and perhaps for themselves now. The project of selling Ireland to the Jews was the wildest of all Harrington's notions. Had Cromwell possessed the will to put in execution any ideal scheme of government, the power was wanting; for when his strong mind had emancipated itself from the thraldom of error and prejudice, he found himself fettered in the chain of his own misdeeds. What he did in Ireland was done without remorse; he established order there with a strong hand; but at the Restoration all was undone. For the restored government was beset with incompatible interests and conflicting obligations; the evil which had been committed it could but imperfectly redress, while the good which was in progress was destroyed,.. necessarily, for the sake of justice and humanity. SIR THOMAS MORE. This then arose, not from perverse policy, nor even from any error of judgement, but from a combination of circumstances which in human language might be called fatal. MONTESINOS. The circumstances were such that there was no possible course by which great injustice and great evil could be avoided. The settlement of the perplexed affairs of Ireland was so difficult, that Clarendon has told us he made it his humble suit to the King that no part of it might ever be referred to him; and Ormond, who of all men had fullest knowledge of the subject and most personal concern in it, "could not see any light in so much darkness that might lead him to any beginning."* A settlement, how ever, such as it was, was made: the guilty, who had so managed as to secure their own interests in the arrangement, and the loyal sufferers, who had been left with their sufferings for their reward, were removed by the course of years; the commercial towns partook of English industry, and flourished accordingly; and they, who had till then been called the wild Irish, seem at this time to have lost that appellation, perhaps in consequence of having laid aside their wild costume of the glib and mantle, which were never resumed after Cromwell's terrible proscription. But the plants of civilization did not thrive like the old weeds of the |