was unable to achieve anything. The king's lieuten' ant, the marquis of Ormond, concluded peace with the Catholic Irish, who received the promise of religious toleration, and, in return, furnished to the king an army against the Parliament. When, after the execution of the king, Ormond tried to gain the support of the Cath- olic Irish for the prince of ^^'ales as king Charles II, the F^nglish Parliament sent an army of 10,000 men under Cromwell to Ireland, which conquered the whole islaniL The Catholics were punished with the utmost severity; all their landed property, about 5,000,000 acres, confisca- ted ; about 20,000 Irish sold as slaves to the West Indies, and 40,000 others compelled to flee to Spain and F'rancc. The celebration of Catholic service was forbidden, and all Catholic priests ordered to quit Ireland within twenty days. The restoration of royalty caused no important changes in the condition of the people. Keligious per- secution ceased by order of Charles II, but tlie Protes- tants remained in possession of the confiscated projicrty. The accession of the Catholic James II filled the Irish Catholics with the greatest hopes, and when, after his expulsion, he landed, at the beginning of 1689, with a French army of 5000 men, he was received bj' the Cath- olics with enthusiasm. His army in a short time num- bered more than 38,000 men, and he succeeded in cap- turing all the fortified places except Enniskillen and Londonderry. Large numbers of Protestants had to leave the country because their lives and property were no longer secure. Soon, however, the victories of Wil- liam III over the Catholic party on the Boyne River, near Drogheda (July 1, 1690), and near Aughrim (July 13, 1691), completed the subjugation of Ireland. The peace concluded with the British general Ginkel at the surrender of Limerick promised to the Irish the free ex- ercise of their religion as they had possessed it imder Charles II. While James Il'had deprived 2400 Prot- estant landowners of their estates, now more than 12,000 Irishmen who had fought for James voluntarily went into exile. A resolution of the English Parliament or- dered a new confiscation of 1,060,000 acres, which were distributed among the Protestants, who began to organ- ize themselves into Orange societies. A number of rig- orous and cruel penal laws were passed in order to extir- ]iate the national spirit and the Koman Catholic Church. Bishops and other high dignitaries were exiled; the priests w^ere confined to their own counties ; all instruc- tion in the Catholic religion and its public exercise were forbidden ; the Catholic Irishmen were not allowed to own horses of higher value than £o, or to marry Prot- estants, and were excluded from all public offices. The irritation produced by these laws was still increased when the Englisli Pailiament, by imposing high duties on the exports from Ireland, dealt a heavy blow to the commerce and jirosperity of the island, and when, in 1727, it deprived the Catholic Irish of the franchise- These harsh measures soon led to the establishment of several secret societies, as the " Defenders," the " White- boys" (about 1760), so called from the white shirts which they threw over their other clothes Avhen at night they I attacked unpopular landlords and their officers ; and j the " Hearts of Oak" (about 1703). During the Amer- ! ican War of Independence, the Irish, under the pretext j that the French might avail themselves of the with- drawal of most of the British troops to invade their isl- and, formed a volunteer army, which, in the course of two years, increased to 50,000 men. Monster petitions, numerously signed by Irish Protestants also, demanded the abolition of the penal laws, the restoration of the Irish Parliament, reform of the rotten electoral law, and relief of Irish commerce. Fear of a general insurrection induced the Parliament to mitigate the penal laws, and to allow the Catholics to establish schools, to own land- ed property, and to exercise their religious worship. The onerous tithes which the Catholics had to pay to the Protestant clergy soon led to the establishment of another secret society, the " Right Boys," who, by means of oaths and threatened vengeance, endeavored to in-
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tiraidate the Catholics from paying tithes. A still more dangerous movement was called forth by the out- break of the French Revolution. The league of " United Irishmen," which, in November, 1791, was formed at Dublin by former members of the volunteer army, cn- deavoredj in union with the French convent, to make Ireland an independent republic. When the Catholics, at a meeting in Dublin in 1792, demanded equal rights with Protestants, the British Parliament abolished sev- eral penal laws, and gave to the Catholics the right of becoming attorneys-at-law and of marrying Protestants. In 1793 the law was abolished which fined the Catholics for neglecting to attend the Protestant Church on Sun- day; at the same time they were admitted to several lower public offices, and received the right to vote. The United Irishmen, nevertheless, assumed a threatening attitude, and a French corps of 25.000 men, under gen- eral Hoche, landed in Ireland. The latter had, how- ever, to leave again in December, 1790, and a new in- surrection, which broke out in ]May, 1798, was unsuccess- ful. In 1800 the Irish Parliament, bribed by the Eng- lish Parliament, consented to the legislative union of Ireland with Great Britain, and in the next year the first united Parliament of (Jreat Britain and Ireland as- sembled. The union of the two parliaments involved the union of the Anglican churches in the two coun- tries, which now received the name of the United Church of England and Ireland. Several further concessions were, however, about this time made to the Catholics In 1795 a Catholic theological seminary had been estab- lished at IVIaynooth, as the British government hoped that if the Catholic priests were educated upon British territory they would be less hostile to British rule. The rules against convents were also moderated, and at the close of the 18th centur}' the Dominican order alone had in Ireland about forty-three convents. In 1805 the "CatliurK' Association" was formed to secure the com- ]ileto political emancipation of the Catholics. It soon became the centre of all political movements in Ireland, and, as the Orange lodges began likewise to be revived, fretpient disturbances between Catholics and Protestants took place. In 1825 both associations were dissolved by the British government ; but the Catholic association was at once reorganized by O'Connell, and gained con- siderable influence upon the elections. The unceasing agitation of O'Connell, aided by the moral support of the Liberal party in England, finally succeeded in in- ducing the British ministrj^ to lay before Parliament a bill of emancipation, which passecl after violent debates, and was signed by George IV on April 13, 1829. The oath which the members of Parliament had to take was so changed that Catholics also could take it. At the same time they obtained access to all public offices, with the only exception of that of lord chancellor. This vic- tory encouraged the Catholics to demand further con- cessions; in particular, the abolition of the tithes jiaid to the Protestant clergy, and the repeal of the legisla- tive union between Great Britain and Ireland. To that end O'Connell organized the "Repeal Association," to which the ministry of earl (Jrey opposed in 1833 the Irish Coercion Bill, which authorized the lord lieutenant of Ireland to forbid mass meetings and to jiroclaim mar- tial law. When the liberal ministry of Melbourne re- scinded the Coercion Bill and began to pursue a concil- iatory policy towards Ireland, O'Connell dissolved the Repeal Association. Earl Mulgrave, since 1835 lord lieutenant of Ireland, filled the most important offices with Catholics, and in 183(5 suppressed all the Orange lodges. In 1838 the British Parliament adopted the Tithe Bill. When, in August, 1841, the government fell again into the hands of the Tories, O'Connell renew- ed the repeal agitation so violently that in 1843 he was arrested and sentenced to one year's imprisonment, a sentence which was, however, annulled by the Court of Peers. The repeal agitation ended suddenly by the death of O'Connell in 1847, because no competent suc- cessor in the leadership of the party could be found. It