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leaders of the Catholic forces. The minute-guns of the storm-tost Armada echoed among their rocks and caves, and when, at last, nothing was left the veteran Tyrone but ignoble submission or sudden flight, it was from Lough Swilly he sailed away in search of aid from allies whose policy he had served, but who refused, in turn, to subserve his. In this same rocky angle of the north, in the reign of King James I., the youthful Sir Cahir O'Doherty rose, at the head of his clansmen and kinsmen, in 1608, to resist the wholesale confiscation of the Province. For five months he was completely successful, driving Sir George Paulet from Derry, and seizing Culmore; but in an unguarded hour, the bullet of a Scottish settler struck him down, and his disheartened followers dispersed to seek such safety as their fastnesses afforded them. This earlier Emmett left a memory not less dear among his native hills and glens. Deserted by his young Norman wife in the hour of his sassin's aim at three and twenty, his story was complete in all those romantic details which attract the fancy and take hold upon the hearts of a simple and intrepid people. Though their firesides, on long winter nights, had many another tale of Orange and Cromwellian conflict, the favorite topic, even still, is the death of Sir Cahir.

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The only other story of the scene which approached it in fearfulness of interest, was the martyrdom of a former Catholic Dean of Derry,—an incident we must let Dr.

Maginn relate in his own language. Addressing himself to Lord Stanley, in defence of the character of his people:-"I write to you," (he says,) from a diocese in which, although there be in it 230,000 Catholic soulsmore than twice as many as of any other creed-and also 100 Priests instructing this number, there has never been hitherto, to my knowledge, a single murder of any proprietor. I write to you also from a parish where the Catholics are twelve to one, and where there has been much suffering among a Catholic population of 10,000 spread over an area of 60,000 acres—all of course savage Irish, or vermin, if you please; and yet there has not been among them, in the memory of man, a single murder. The only one that tradition hands down to us is the murder of a parish Priest of this union, and Dean of the diocese of Derry, Dr. O'Hegarty. He was dragged from a mountain cavern-his hiding-place by day (by night only could he appear in those times, commune with his flock, instruct the living, console the dying, and bury the dead), and was butchered on a rock on the banks of the Swilly, which shall ever be memorable from this bloody tragedy. The perpetrator of this murder was a Captain Vaughan, the son of an English colonel who served in the army of Oliver Cromwell (as Carlyle would say) of blessed memory. The good Captain believed he was doing the work of God, when imbruing his hands in

the blood of Popish Priests, as many now believe they are doing the same holy work in calumniating them."

For such a people the young Missionary Priest was well qualified by nature and education. Enthusiastic by temperament, fearless in danger, no respecter of persons, official or officious, an impassioned patriot, an ardent lover of the faithful peasantry, fond of oral controversy, of simple and accessible habits, well versed in the traditions of the soil, partial to the ballads and the innocent amusements of his flock, he soon became the darling of the romantic old Barony. All his cotemporaries speak of his personal intercourse and his priestly labors, from the very beginning, with thorough admiration. "A series of controversial sermons," writes one of these venerable men, "preached in the chapels of Moville, where he had been recently appointed curate, first brought him before the public. There it was I first saw him, and saw with admiration the boldness and self-reliance manifested even in the placards published to call the people together. I never heard any of those sermons, but from all I have heard from others they were probably his very best ef forts."* "Here he continued," writes another, "until the year 1829. His labors, his zeal, his sermons during this interval were very great." In the same strain

* Letter of the Rev. C. Flanagan, of Coleraine.

+ Letter of the Rev. J. McLaughlin, of Derry.

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speak all who knew and heard him in those days, while his scholastic armor was yet bright from the forge, and his maiden sword turned aside from no encounter, whatever the odds arrayed against him.

Between the years 1824 and '28, Ireland was visited by one of those angry squalls of controversy which spring up so suddenly in the troubled recesses of the Protestant conscience, and rage for a season with such irrational violence. A formidable attempt was made—for the hundredth time at least to overthrow the Church of Saint Patrick, and to establish the Church of England in its stead. The mistaken benevolence of English sectarians and the blinded zeal of the Irish landlords combined to supply the funds, and Exeter Hall furnished or equipped the missionaries. The principal of these were Captain Gordon, a descendant of the lordly rioter of 1780, the Rev. Messrs. Irving, Baptist Noel, McNeile, Stowell and Wolff-all English; the Hon. and Rev. Sir Harcourt Lees, Rev. Mr. Pope, and Rev. Messrs. O'Sullivan and O'Phelan, Irish. Among the Irish landlords, Lords Roden, Lorton, and Farnham were their most active patrons. In the cities, the Corporators being exclusively Protestant, extended to them every indulgence and protection. To sustain the crusade with funds and tracts, "Bible Societies" and "Reformation Societies' were established in the principal cities of both kingdoms; periodical returns were made and given to the public,

with

many confident assurances of the speedy conversion of Ireland.

The Irish Prelates on whose dioceses these vaunting Propagandists first entered, forbade their clergy to meet them in public discussion. They reminded them that the doctrines of the Church were not, for Catholics, fit subjects of debate; they cited the dictum of Saint Augustine to the Pelagians-Causa finita est; they showed there was no earthly tribunal to decide in such controversies, except that which the impugners at the outset ignored; they therefore recommended that no notice be taken of the ostentatious challengers who paraded the country. This was the course recommended by the Archbishop of Armagh, by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Doyle, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Murphy, Bishop of Cork, and other Prelates. At Cork, the missionaries were encountered, not by the Clergy, but by O'Connell and Shiel, then in the heyday of their popularity and reputation. At Carlow, the Rev. Messrs. McSweeney, Maher and others, felt justified in openly confronting them; at Monaghan a few uneducated laymen—taken from the humblest of the peasantry— maintained the discussion, with amazing natural ability, for several days, and were finally awarded the victory by a bench of Protestant judges. In Cavan the missionaries boasted of their highest success, while in Ulster, generally, they looked for "a walk-over."

The rage for proselytism had continued in Derry for

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