small shares of the clan lands, and who, as I have pointed out, in many districts such as Wexford, Carbery in Cork, and west of the Shannon, formed a veritable peasant proprietary. Many of this class no doubt actually cultivated the soil; and this class suffered grieviously in the plantations under James, and practically ceased to exist after the Cromwellian confiscation.
We are constantly told that the lands of the peasants were first, by Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, handed over to the chiefs, and were then confiscated from these latter. This is true, as we have seen, of a part of Ulster, and of some other districts; but it is untrue of the island in general. The "churls," "nativi," or whatever we may call the unfree classes, never had any property in the lands of the clan; and of the lesser free clansmen who had such property very large numbers retained it until dispossessed by Cromwell.
But if, in the seventeenth century, the earth-tillers actually benefited by the confiscations, the eighteenth century saw a great deterioration in their position. Up to the epoch of the penal laws the State had attempted to secure some fixity of tenure for those who actually cultivated the soil. All the various plantation schemes had rules providing that the planters should as far as possible let their lands only on lease; tenancy at will was discouraged.[1] But with the beginning of the penal laws we find a complete change. The Irish Catholic tenant was shut out from any chance of
- ↑ Chapter I., Book V. of Bonn should be carefully read in this connection. In Chapter VII. of Book IV. he points out how yearly tenancy fitted in better with the ideas of the Irish: see pp. 145—146 of Vol. II.
