Old Church at Dungiven, Figure of the Parnassia Palustris, View of the Long Tower, anciently belonging to the Church of St. Columb, Sepulchral Pillar of Dungiven, with the Old Church in Perspective, 163 179 217 222 225 328 MEMOIR. Sketch of Irish Affairs, preceding the Settlement of Protestant Colonies in Ulster. ALTHOUGH the military dominion of England had subsisted in Ireland more than four hundred years, before the time when the Protestant colonies were settled by King James the First, in the province of Ulster, yet all historians agree that, previous to this date the civil and political influence of this power was but nominally acknowledged, and of course was but occasionally obeyed. It was obeyed, indeed, by the Irish chieftains when their own feuds excited them to enmity with each other; it was set at nought as often as these partial rivalries gave way to a more general resentment against invading foreigners. In this precarious state of affairs, although the power of the English was, for the most part, equal to the repressing of any sudden insurrections, yet the effort, like the danger, being of a temporary nature, was seldom, if ever, sustained with that equability which is necessary to hold in subjection the unbroken spirit of a warlike people. Such are the considerations which may account for the hopes and the courage with which the Irish clans, under their native Princes, flew to arms on every favourable opportunity. Even when the influence of the conquerors might have begun to impress habits partaking of their own improvements, this progress was retarded in Ireland by many unhappy though, perhaps, unavoidable causes; and among others, it was obviously and essentially impeded through the defect of the military system. The English armies, B like most of that age, were often in need of equipment and provisions. That department, invaluable in our modern campaigns, under the title of Commissariat, was then unknown; it was therefore through a kind of necessity, that the soldiery were permitted to live at free quarters among the natives-a situation at all times galling and oppressive; how much more so, whensoever the peasants are beheld, as the Irish were then viewed by the English, in the character of irreconcileable barbarians. We have also to lament, that, in proportion as the English valued themselves on their superiority over the Irish, in the same proportion they disdained to admit them, as equals, to the protection of their laws or the diffusion of their improvements. Besides these disadvantages, we must call to mind that our monarchs looked for their glory and distinction, among the rival potentates of the continent, rather than among the petty warfares of this remote island. Thence it happened that to avoid both trouble and expense, they usually delegated to private adventurers the task of subduing the natives, and by conferring the lordships of the territories subdued, acquitted themselves of the debt for subjugation. Out of this system arose a class of English possessors who, affecting the condition of independant Princes, estranged themselves from the habits and intercourse, with that power which might admonish them of their duty and allegiance. To these causes, which of themselves might account for the unsettled condition of the Irish, we have yet to add another, derived from a source, which of all others, when mingling with human affairs, has been found to confer either the most exalted blessing, or the most degrading affliction; under this distinction I would be understood to contrast the spirit of theological fanaticism with that of pure and benignant Christianity. Happily for the liberty and the liberality of mankind, the controversies and disputations which, during the sixteenth century, had spread war and bloodshed through Europe, terminated amongst |