[ 480 J | Nov. 
COLONEL ROCHE FERMOY ON THE MORAL AND PAYSICAL FORCE 
OF IRELAND. 
IRELAND, it is said in some of our newspapers, attracts much of the 
notice of the Continental politicians, and her strength or weakness is 
matter of anxious calculation abroad. We believe, if we say that the 
expatriated Irish are very anxious to impress the importance of the fac- 
tions to which they belong, and the great interest which they ought to 
be in Europe, we shall have said what is nearer the truth. Without at 
present entering into the question as to the causes of the fact, it is matter 
of history that Irish exiles, from the earliest days that the history of 
these islands begins to dawn, have been painfully conspicuous for their 
anxiety to call in foreign aid. Almost the very first notice of Ireland in 
the annals of the civilized world, occurs in Tacitus’s History of Agricola, 
and there we find a banished Irish chieftain proposing to the Roman 
commander to invade Ireland, and assuring him that half a legion, about 
three thousand men, would be amply sufficient for the conquest Ten or 
eleven centuries later, Dermot McMurrough called in the assistance of 
the Anglo-Norman knights, and it is rather whimsical to perceive that 
almost exactly the same number of men* as that proposed to Julius Agri- 
cola, was eventually required for the successful accomplishment of the 
purposes of their invasion. 
During the long wars of the Lords of the Pale against their rude 
neighbours, the European powers were too much torn in pieces by intes- 
tine dissentions of their own to afford assistance to the descendants of those 
whom Mr. Moore has designated as the ragged, royal race of Tara. 
But as soon as nations began to consolidate, as soon as the present political 
relations, or at least outlines of them, commenced to get into play, viz. 
in the sixteenth century, the application for foreign interference begins 
to be as regular a feature in discontented Irish policy, as in the days: 
of the Cesars or the Plantagenets. In the reign of Elizabeth Spain 
was the leading continental power—the first in all the arts, and strongest 
in all the sinews of war. She was mistress of the Netherlands, of Por- 
tugal, of the Indies, the head of the Catholic interest, allied with all the 
great courts of Europe. To Spain, therefore, the eyes of the Irish in- 
surrectionists were turned, and Spanish intrigue, Spanish dollars, and at 
last Spanish troops, (a small army commanded by Don Juan d’Aguilar, 
united to a large tumultuous force of Irish, was defeated in the end of 
Queen Elizabeth’s reign, near Kinsale) were employed in exciting the 
hopes or supporting the cause of the last barbarian princes of the Milesian’ 
descent. In the next century the ascendency of Spain had departed, and. 
the insurgents of 1641 looked to France, to Louis XIV. ; and as the tem- 
poral power of the Popes, or at least their treasury, was even then of 
some importance, the assistance of his Holiness and his exchequer was 
not deemed unworthy of attention. Modern Rome has however been as 
sparing of bestowing gold on foreign nations as antient—both have been 
much more active in gathering tribute than in returning any part of it ; 
and the Urbans and Innocents sent bulls and nuncios, instead of men 
and money. French troops, however, and they too troops of the finest. 
days of France, made their appearence upon the Irish soil, when James IT. 
made his last struggle for his dominions ; but with the surrender of Li- 
merick they departed. France, in some few years after, had enough to 
do at home, without meddling with the territory of her neighbours. 
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