Viewing these results, Mr. Froude would, perhaps, confidently appeal to an American audience, and ask what better could the English have done for their Church and for the natives during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in their exercise of dominant power in Ireland?' It might be answered, that if the Roman Catholics had been admitted within the pale of English civilisation, if they had been instructed in the industrial arts by the settlers, if the Gospel had been preached in their own language in the spirit of Bishop Bedell, if their rights as British subjects had been respected the results with regard to religion would have been very different. The priesthood would not have been driven for protection to Foreign Powers; the civil wars thence arising would not have desolated the land; the Established Church would have grown by degrees into a really national institution, and men of the Celtic race would have been among its most zealous and efficient ministers. As it was, the Church of Rome has proved incomparably the greatest gainer by coercion, and her advocates have derived from it their most powerful pleas, and a moral force which Protestantism has found irresistible.

CHAPTER IX.

FOUNDATION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

ONE of the first of the Scottish ministers who came over with the settlers gives a graphic account of their character and of the state of the province at that time. It is very instructive and interesting, enabling us to realise the change that has been effected by the plantation. He remarks that the English had been more tenderly bred and entertained in better quarters than they could find in Ireland. They were very unwilling to flock here except for the good land such as they had before at home, or to good cities where they might trade; both of which in these days were scarce enough here. Besides that the marshiness and fogginess of this island was still found unwholesome to English bodies, more tenderly bred and in better air; so that we have seen in our own time multitudes of them die of a flux called here the country disease at their first entry. These things were such discouragements that the new English came but very slowly, and the old English were become no better than the Irish.' He adds, that the king being himself a Scotchman had a 'natural love to have Ireland planted with Scots, as being, beside their loyalty, of a middle temper between the English tender and the Irish rude being, and a great deal more likely to plant Ulster than the English, it lying far both from the English native land, and more from their humour, while it lies nigh to Scotland, and the inhabitants not so far from the ancient Scots manners; so that it might be hoped that the Irish untoward living would be met both with equal firmness, if need be, and be especially allayed by the example of more civility and Protestant profession than in former times had been among them.'

Between the two races, however, the face of the country was soon changed. The decayed and deserted towns were rapidly

replenished with inhabitants, the lands were gradually cleared of the woods, marshes were drained, substantial houses were erected by the farmers on their allotments, the chief undertakers being required to reside and build houses surrounded by 'bawns' strong enough to protect their cattle against the plundering incursions of the expelled natives, who issued from their fastnesses in the woods. These hungry woodkernes' often swooped down upon their prey with great audacity. Thus Sir Toby Caulfield's people were driven every night' to lay up all his cattle as it were in ward; and do he and his what they could, the wolf and the woodkerne within culver's shot of his fort had oftentimes their share. Even in the old English Pale Sir John King and Sir Henry Harrington, within half a mile of Dublin, had to do the like, for those fore-named enemies did every night survey the field to the very wards.'

Notwithstanding these difficulties, proofs were everywhere exhibited of industry, order, and peace within the border of the colony. It was then that some of the greatest of the noble houses of Ulster were founded. Sir Hugh Clotworthy obtained the lands of Antrim both fruitful and good, and invited thither several of the English, very good men.' 'Chichester,' a worthy man, had an estate given him in the county of Antrim, where he improved his interest, built the prospering mart of Belfast and a stately palace at Carrickfergus. Conway2 had an estate given him in the county of Antrim, and built a town, afterwards called Lisnagarvie (now called Lisburn), and this was planted with a colony of English also. Moses Hill had woodlands given him, which woods being thereafter demolished left a fair and beautiful country where a late heir of the Hills built a town called Hillsborough.' All these lands, and more, were given to the English gentlemen, worthy persons, who afterwards increased and made noble and loyal families in places where formerly there had been nothing but robbing, treason, and rebellion.'

The same old writer adds, that of the Scots nation there were

Now represented by the Marquis of Donegal.

To Conway, who left no issue, succeeded the Seymours, whose representative was the late Marquis of Hertford, now, happily for the tenantry, succeeded by Sir William Wallace, Bart.

3 He founded the House of Downshire.

the families of the Balfours, of the Forbeses, of the Grahams, two of the Stewarts, and not a few of the Hamiltons. The MacDonnells founded the earldom of Antrim, the Hamiltons' the earldom of Strabane. There were besides many knights of that name-Sir Frederick, Sir George, Sir Francis, Sir Charles, his son, and Sir Hawk, all Hamiltons; for they prospered above all others in this country after the first admittance of the Scots into it. The territory of the Irish chief Con O'Neill became the property of Montgomery of Ards and Hamilton of Clandeboye. But land without inhabitants is a burden without relief.' The Irish were gone, the ground was desolate, rents must be paid to the king, and of tenants there were none to pay them. Hence the lords shared their lands with their friends and countrymen who became freeholders under them. Then came Scots in great numbers, becoming tenants and subtenants to their countrymen, whose manner and way they knew. As the colony multiplied they built towns nearly all on a uniform plan, with the market square, the town hall, the church, the meeting-house, and the school. Thus originated the towns of Donaghadee, Grey Abbey, Bangor, Newtown Ards, Killeleagh, Lisburn, Belfast, Antrim, and many others. The parliament now repealed the barbarous laws which had been passed to prevent the English inhabitants of the kingdom from intermarrying or associating with either the Scotch or the Irish. The latter were in many cases permitted to occupy the poorer land in the midst of the new settlers, and to assist them with their labour. They were no longer branded by statute as the 'natural enemies' of the Government, whom it was felony to marry or to employ as nurses. These Presbyterian settlers were subsequently joined by many of the Puritans from England; and some of them being promoted to bishoprics and other ecclesiastical dignities, they gave a Low Church temper to the Established Church, which it always retained.

It seems there was much need of this leaven of Puritanism, from the character of the settlers who came from the Land of Cakes. The contemporary chronicler just quoted, a clergyman named Stewart, describes a state of things more like the morals and manners of the Restoration than of the Commonwealth. From

Represented by the Duke of Abercorn.

Scotland came many, from England not a few, yet all of them generally the scum of both nations, who, from debt, or breaking, or fleeing from justice, or seeking shelter, came hither, hoping to be without fear of man's justice in a land where there was nothing, or but little yet, of the fear of God. And in a few years there flocked such a multitude of people from Scotland that these northern counties of Down, Antrim, Londonderry, &c., were in a good measure planted which had been waste before. Yet most of the people were void of godliness, who seemed rather to flee from God in this enterprise than to follow their own mercy. Albeit, as they cared little for any church, so God seemed to care as little for them.' The good Scotch minister goes on to say that they were entertained merely with the relics of Popery, under a sort of anti-Christian hierarchy, by a number of careless men. 'Thus on all hands atheism increased, iniquity abounded, with contention, fighting, murder, adultery, &c. Their carriage made them to be abhorred at home in their native land, insomuch that going for Ireland was looked on as a miserable mark of a deplorable person-yea, it was turned into a proverb; and one of the worst expressions of disdain that could be invented was to tell a man that Ireland would be his hinder end.'1

This account is confirmed by other contemporary writers, and it shows that the character of Ulster as the model province of Ireland is not to be ascribed to the purity of the stock of men with which it was first planted, but to the religious and moral culture and discipline brought to bear upon them by the Presbyterian Church through the ministry of the Bruces, the Blairs, and Livingstones, and others of that stamp. They were powerfully aided by the influence of some of the lords of the soil, thoroughly good men, among whom the Hamiltons had honourable mention, particularly Sir James Hamilton, the ancestor of Earl Dufferin, now Governor-General of Canada-who had been ennobled by the title of Lord Clandeboye. To my discerning,' says Livingstone, he was the man who most resembled Jesus Christ in all his carriage that ever I saw, and was so far reverenced of all, even by the wicked, that he was oft troubled with that Scripture "Woe to you when all men speak well of you." His descendant History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland,' by J. S. Reid, D.D., vol. i. p. 91.