attach themselves to the natural enemy of both; whose object, in keeping them divided, was to subjugate both, and make them subservient instruments to their own power and aggrandizement. Why should we, who are natural born Irishmen, where we enjoy prosperity, and consequence, be looking to England, under the fantastical notion of a parent country, as if one country could engender another; as the wandering persecuted Jews, look with longing eyes to their Sion? If any country were entitled to so ridiculous a title, Normandy has a prior title to England; and Denmark, whence our forefathers emigrated southward, has a prior claim over both. But the most convincing argument, proving where their attachments should fix, along with their interests, lay, in the sore experience of spiritual and temporal tyranny, unrelentingly and inhumanly exercised over them, by the foreign government, arrogantly claiming their exclusive attachment. These joined the more antient inhabitants; and to give their party the greater weight, and completely to remove any apprehensions, that might be inspired into the settlers by the craft of the enemy, of a resumption of property by the antient inhabitants, the first act of Tyrone was, to revoke the unjust confiscation of Desmond's property. He caused James, nephew to the late unhappy Gerald, to be solemnly invested with the title of earl of Desmond; which, together with his lands now to be recovered, he stipulated to hold in vassalage to the O'Nial.

The condition of English government appeared now desperate. The chieftain of Tyrone, without the title of king, commanded the reverence of his countrymen, and possessed considerable authority in most of the open country. He sent ambassadors to Spain, enlarging on the success of his arms, professing attachment, and demanding succours. There can be scarce a doubt, in the actual posture of affairs, that if ten or twelve thousand veterans were sent by Philip, with sufficient arms and ammunition, the English power in Ireland, would be irrecoverably overthrown. Repeated dispatches were sent into England, representing the dangerous situation of Irish affairs, with pressing instances for additional troops. The queen, more provoked at the vexatious burden, than solicitous for the real welfare of her Irish dominions, condemned the conduct of Ormond in not undertaking the northern war in person, instead of entrusting it to Sir Henry Bagnal; ordered him passionately

to purge the army of Irish; named Sir Richard

Bingham, now restored to favour, to succeed this unhappy officer as marshal of Ireland; and on his sudden death, appointed Sir Samuel Bagnal to lead two thousand men into this kingdom. They had been destined to form a garrison at Loughfoyle on the back of the northern rebels; but now it was deened necessary to station them in Leinster, in order to strengthen the heart of the kingdom.

"But such a provision was by no means thought adequate to the pressing necessities of Ireland.

At a time when this country was one general scene of insurrection, Elizabeth received intelligence from the king of Scots, that Philip of Spain was preparing for a powerful invasion of her dominions; that forty thousand men were raised for a descent on England, as was supposed; and twelve thousand destined for the assistance of her rebel-subjects in Ireland. The preservation of this kingdom was now become a serious object of attention in her councils; and so forcibly were they impressed with the danger and futility of all temporizing expedients, that it was universally agreed, that nothing but a formidable army, and an experienced general, could preserve the realm of Ireland from the enemies of the crown."*

The Irish war was no longer beheld with contempt in England. Nothing less than a formidable army, headed by a brave and skilful general, was thought capable of preventing Ireland becoming the property of its own inhabitants. The earl of Essex, the queen's favourite, a commander of established reputation, was sent to the post of danger and honour. "His patent was granted with the title of Lord Lieutenant, and with more extensive power than almost any governor had enjoyed: besides an extraordinary authority of pardoning all treasons, even such as touched the queen's person, of removing officers and conferring dignities, he was left to conduct the war at his own discretion, and furnished

Leland, Vol. II. Book IV. c. iv. p. 351.

with an army of twenty thousand men, such a force as had not yet been sent into Ireland, and such as those, who were strangers to this country, conceived to be utterly irresistible.

The insurgents of Ireland seemed not dismayed by this formidable preparation; they even took occasion from thence to confirm the inveteracy of the disaffected, and to persuade the wavering, that their very being now depended on uniting bravely with their countrymen. "Our grievances," said they, "have been frequently laid before the throne, but without redress or notice. Treaties have been violated; submissions received, with a shameful and contemptuous disregard to the most solemn promises; our fortunes have been torn from us; our consciences have been enslaved; but our oppressors, not yet satiated, now prepare to exterminate the wretched natives who have presumed to assert their liberty, and thus to erect a tyrannical dominion even over those who call themselves English subjects, and are so infatuated as not to discern, that the present is the common cause of all." Such was the alarm conceived or affected in Ireland, that the queen thought it necessary, by proclamation, utterly to disavow all intentions against the liberty of a country, where she had so great a number of loyal subjects; the war she declared was to be directed only against the obstinately rebellious; and that her mercy should be still extended to those who sought it by sincere penitence and submission."*

Leland, Vol. II. Book IV. c. iv. p. 354.

Essex had been expressly commanded, agreeably to his own declared opinions, to strike directly at the North, as the focus and principal strength of the insurrection. But he was persuaded by the Irish council, interested in the new plantations in Munster, to march first southward, to settle the disturbances of that quarter. In his march through Leinster, he was considerably harassed by O'Moore, chieftain of Leix. At a place called the Pass of Plumes, from the quantity of plumes taken from his soldiers, the earl was attacked in his rear, with great advantage, and a number of his men slain. The siege of Lord Cahir's castle, his first military exploit in Ireland, was retarded ten days, by the active opposition he met with from the earl of Desmond. "So confident were the enemy, notwithstanding the inferiority of their numbers, that it was resolved to break from their retreats suddenly, and to attack different bodies of his army at once: but by some disagreement among their leaders, the scheme miscarried; and Essex was left to march through the province without opposition, and waste his forces in a fruitless pursuit of the rebels.

The northern insurgents in the mean time proceeded with address and vigour. The chieftain of Tirone was indefatigable in confirming his adherents, and defeating every attempt to seduce them. He stationed parties on the passes of Loughfoyle and Ballyshannon, to oppose any English garrisons that might attempt to settle there. He received ammunition from Spain; and,