For a much longer period than that which had sufficed to blend the
Romans with the nation to which of all others they were the most
adverse, the Protestants settled in Ireland considered themselves in no
other light than that of a sort of a colonial garrison, to keep the
natives in subjection to the other state of Great Britain. The whole
spirit of the Revolution in Ireland was that of not the mildest
conqueror. In truth, the spirit of those proceedings did not commence at
that era, nor was religion of any kind their primary object. What was
done was not in the spirit of a contest between two religious factions,
but between two adverse nations. The statutes of Kilkenny show that the
spirit of the Popery laws, and some even of their actual provisions, as
applied between Englishry and Irishry, had existed in that harassed
country before the words _Protestant_ and _Papist_ were heard of in the
world. If we read Baron Finglas, Spenser, and Sir John Davies, we cannot
miss the true genius and policy of the English government there before
the Revolution, as well as during the whole reign of Queen Elizabeth.
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