The Lasting Effects of Feudalism. 9 



their priests as leaders : a circumstance which induced the 

 former to tighten their grasp upon the land by means of 

 drastic legislation, and the latter to throw in their powerful 

 influence with the cause of that side to which they were 

 attracted by consanguinity as well as by a community of 

 interests and tastes. 



That portion of Irish history, however, which coincides with 

 the period we have now reached, is perhaps the most in- 

 structive of any for the problems we have just set ourselves to 

 solve. The ethnic instincts of the Celt, when unrestricted, 

 gravitate down to a tribal economy, while those of the Anglo- 

 Saxon stop short at a feudal economy. 



At the moment when William of Orange was being crowned 

 King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, that strained 

 relationship between Irish landlord and tenant, to which we 

 have drawn attention, stretched to a breaking point by the 

 increasing tension between the social and religious leaders of 

 the people, was about to burst asunder in open strife. The 

 viceregency of Tyrconnel had all along aimed at transferring 

 the chief posts of civil authority to the native element. The 

 administrative power was in the hands of men Avhose national 

 antipathy to the Anglo-Saxon was only equalled by their 

 sectarian hatred. The wealth of Ireland consisted of its flocks 

 and herds ; and though but one-fifth of its population was 

 English, four-fifths of the property located there belonged 

 to Anglo-Saxon landlords.^ There was much in the stealthy 

 and determined provisions for the coming struggle which 

 reminds us of the Indian Mutiny. Instead of the unsuspect- 

 ing sahibs, there are the unconscious country gentry ; instead 

 of the bloodthirsty Sepoy, the savage Rapparee ; instead of 

 the whispers in Indian bazaars, the undertone of gossip in 

 Irish market and fair. When the storm bursts, there is on 

 the one side a resuscitation of all the old tribal instincts 

 of murder and rapine, on the other side all the discipline 

 and resource of a military system, prepared as it was for 

 war at every point. In the absence of castellated manors 



^ Macaulay's History of England^ c. xii. 



