in Munster, and 600 l. in Leinster. The
rates per acre were 4 s., 6s., 8s., and 12 s. in those provinces
respectively.

The nature of the war, and the spirit in which it was conducted, may
be inferred from the sort of weapons issued from the military
stores. These included scythes with handles and rings, reaping-hooks,
whetstones, and rubstones. They were intended for cutting down the
growing corn, that the people might be starved into submission, or
forced to quit the country. The commissary of stores was ordered to
issue Bibles to the troops, one Bible for every file, that they might
learn from the Old Testament the sin and danger of sparing idolaters.

The rebellion in Ulster had almost collapsed before the end of the
year. The tens of thousands who had rushed to the standard of Sir
P. O'Neill were now reduced to a number of weak and disorganised
collections of armed men taking shelter in the woods. The English
garrisons scoured the neighbouring counties with little opposition,
and where they met any they gave no quarter. Sir William Cole,
ancestor of the Earl of Enniskillen, proudly boasted of his
achievement in having 7,000 of the rebels famished to death within
a circuit of a few miles of his garrison. Lord Enniskillen is an
excellent landlord, but the descendants of the remnant of the natives
on his estate do not forget how the family obtained its wealth and
honours. The Government, however, seemed to have good reason to
congratulate itself that the war was over with the Irish. To these Sir
Phelim O'Neill had shown that there is something in a name: but if
the name does not represent real worth and fitness for the work
undertaken, it is but a shadow. It was so in Sir Phelim's O'Neill's
case. Though he had courage, he was a poor general. But another hero
of the same name soon appeared to redeem the honour of his race, and
to show what the right man can do. At a moment when the national
cause seemed to be lost, when the Celtic population in Ulster were
meditating a wholesale emigration to the Scottish Highlands--'a word
of magic effect was whispered from the sea-coast to the interior.'
Colonel Owen Roe O'Neill had arrived off Donegal with a single ship,
a single company of veterans, 100 officers, and a quantity of
ammunition. He landed at Doe Castle, proceeded to the fort of
Charlemont, met the heads of the clans at Clones in Monaghan, was
elected general-in-chief of the Catholic forces, and at once set about
or