Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/253

1569-] STATE OF IRELAND. 233 appear at first acquaintance with it, nevertheless, if to extinguish an entire people be to solve the problem of governing them, it promised better for the settlement of Ireland than any plan which had been as yet sug- gested. The action of the Crown was hesitating, em- barrassed by a sense of responsibility, and hampered by considerations of humanity. The adventurers, it is plain, understood the problem which they were under- taking, and meant to hesitate at no measures, however severe, which would assist them in dealing with it. The Irish people were to become ' civil ' and industrious, or else ' through idleness would offend to die/ These Western gentlemen had been trained in the French wars, in the privateer fleets, or on the coast of Africa, and the lives of a few thousand savages were infinitely unimportant to them. In collision with such men as these, the Irish would have shared the fate of all creatures who will neither make themselves useful to civilization, nor have strength enough to defend themselves in barbarism. Their extinction was contemplated with as much indifference as the destruction of the Red Indians of North America by the politicians of Washington, and their titles to their lands as not more deserving of respect. The Irish, it is true, were not wholly savages j they belonged, as much as the English themselves, to the Arian race ; they had a history, a literature, laws, and' traditions of their own, and a religion which gave half Europe an interest in their preservation ; but it is no less certain that to these intending colonists they were of no more value than their own wolves, and