BOOK 1772. The most substantial of the expelled tenantry gathered their effects together and sailed to join their countrymen in the New World, where the Scotch-Irish became known as the most bitter of the secessionists. Between those who were too poor to emigrate, and the Catholics who were in possession of their homes, there grew a protracted feud, which took form at last in the conspiracy of the Peep of Day Boys; in the fierce and savage expulsion of the intruders, who were bidden go to hell or Connaught; and in the counter-organization of the Catholic Defenders, which spread over the whole island, and made the army of insurrection in 1798. It is rare that two private persons have power to create effects so considerable as to assist in dismembering an empire, and provoking a civil war. Lord Donegal for his services was rewarded with a marquisate, and Mr. Upton with a viscountcy. If rewards were proportioned to deserts, a fitter retribution to both of them would have been forfeiture and Tower Hill. A precedent so tempting and so lucrative was naturally followed. Other landlords finding the trade so profitable began to serve their tenants with notices to quit. The farmers and peasants combined to defend themselves. Where law was the servant of oppression, force was their one resource. They called themselves Hearts of Steel. Their object was to protect themselves from universal robbery. Their resistance was not against the Government-it was against the landlords and the landlords' agents, and nothing else. In the Viceroy they felt rightly that they had a friend, and they appealed to him in a modest petition. Petition of those persons known by the name of CHAP. Hearts of Steel. 'That we are all Protestants and Protestant Dissenters, and bear unfeigned loyalty to his present majesty and the Hanoverian succession. 'That we who are all groaning under oppression, and have no other possible way of redress, are forced to join ourselves together to resist. By oversetting our lands we are reduced to poverty and distress, and by our rising we mean no more but to have our lands, that we could live thereon, and procure necessaries of life for ourselves and our starving families. 'That some of us refusing to pay the extravagant rent demanded by our landlords have been turned out, and our lands given to Papists, who will promise any rent. That we are sorely aggrieved with the county cesses, which, though heavy in themselves, are rendered more so by being applied to private purposes. 'Yet lest it should be said that by refusing to pay the cess we fly in the face of the law, which we do not intend, we will pay the present cess; and we hope the gentlemen of the county of Down will in future have pity on the distressed inhabitants. That it is not wanton folly that prompts us to be Hearts of Steel, but the weight of oppression. Were the cause removed the effects would cease, and our landlords as heretofore live in the affection of their tenants. May it please you to enquire into the cause of our grievances, and lend your hand to eschew the evils which seem to threaten the Protestants of the North; and let not false suggestions of men partial to their own cause inflame your wrath against innocent and II. 1772. V. 1772, BOOK injured persons, who are far removed from the ear of Government and any other possible means of redress. Oh that the cry of the oppressed might reach the throne of Britain! Our mild and gracious sovereign from his well-known goodness would extend his care to the suffering Protestants in the north of this kingdom. Vio Unjust laws provoke and compel resistance. lence follows, and crime and guilt; but the guilt, when the account is made up, does not lie entirely with the poor wretch who is called the criminal. The Hearts of Steel destroyed the cattle and farmsteads of the intruding tenants. They attacked gentlemen's houses and lawyers' offices chiefly in search of deeds and leases; of theft they were never accused. Magistrates as usual would not act: they preferred to leave to the Government the odium of repressing riots of which they were themselves the cause. Juries, after the time-honoured fashion, refused to convict, and witnesses to give evidence. The Presbyterian clergy exerted themselves as no one else did, but they did not conceal their opinion that the people were in the right.2 Townshend saw the phenomena with eyes un : 1 Irish MSS., 1772. S. P. O. of many, who contribute to the oppression by proposing for their neighbours' possessions, by which means they are too often deprived of the improvements made by their forefathers and themselves, which may be the occasion of the present illegal measure-yet we are convinced that violence defeats its own ends,' \ &c. jaundiced. He was satisfied that the disturbances sprung from gross iniquity, and that they could be cured only by the lenity of the proprietors, who, if they refused to let their lands on more moderate terms, would compel their tenants to go to America, or to any part of the world where they could receive the reward which was honestly due to their labours.'1 The House of Commons thought differently. The gentry of the north petitioned for troops to defend them, and the House appointed a committee of enquiry. The facts were on the surface, and might have been comprehended without extreme effort of genius. The Protestants of Ireland were as one to four of the entire population. They were, as has been often said, a garrison set to maintain the law and the English connexion. The landlords in stupid selfishness were expelling their Protestant tenantry because Catholics promised them a larger rent. They were driving the very flower of their own army to a country which was already on the edge of rebellion, and uniting in sympathy with that rebellion their comrades who were left behind. An act of such obvious insanity might have been expected to be condemned on the instant by the united voices of the empire. The King saw the infatuation of it; the English Cabinet saw the inconveniences of it, and the Viceroy the iniquity. The Irish Patriot House of Commons could see only an invasion of the rights of landlords. The Committee reported that the increase of rents demanded was not exorbitant. The Hearts of Steel by their resistance were dissolving the bonds of society. The disorders of Ulster required force to 1 Townshend to the Earl of Suffolk, March 21.' CHAP. II. 1772. BOOK V. 1772. check them; and since the northern juries refused to do their duties, it was only necessary that prisoners charged with a share in the riots should be tried in counties where they were unknown. In this spirit an Act was carried through Parliament. The Viceroy was called on to employ the army to restore order, and General Gisborne was sent down with as many regiments as could be spared. General Gisborne executed his orders with moderation. He was received by the people as a friend. They had petitioned Parliament, they said, but Parliament would not answer them. ( The supreme Judge himself' had at length looked upon their distresses and excited them to commotion, 'to cause the landlords, on whom no mild means could prevail, to observe the pale faces and the thin clothing of the honest Protestant subjects who had enriched the country by their industry.' They submitted not to their masters, but to the English commander: they invited him to restore peace, not by killing them, but by remedying their wrongs. Quiet was easily restored. The Hearts of Steel came of a race who had no love for riots; and if redress was refused, they had a better resource than rebellion. The exactions had not been universal, and where attempted were not everywhere persevered in; but mischief irretriev able had been already done. The linen trade from other causes had entered on a period of stagnation, and the consequent distress gave an impetus to the emigration to the land of promise which assumed presently enormous proportions. Flights of Protestant settlers had been driven out 1 Remonstrance of the 'Hearts of Steel,' enclosed by Townshend to Lord Suffolk, 1772. |