Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 7 - "Ireland" to "Isabey, Jean Baptiste"

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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 7 - "Ireland" to "Isabey, Jean Baptiste"
Author: Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 7 - "Ireland" to "Isabey, Jean Baptiste"" ***

Transcriber's notes:

(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an
underscore, like C_n.

(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.

(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
paragraphs.

(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
inserted.

(5) [root] stands for the root symbol; [alpha], [beta], etc. for greek
letters.

(6) The following typographical errors have been corrected:

ARTICLE IRELAND: "The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 entirely
altered the parliamentary representation of Ireland. Twenty-two
small boroughs were disenfranchised." 'disenfranchised' amended
from 'disfranchized'.

ARTICLE IRELAND: "Catholics could not take longer leases than
thirty-one years at two-thirds of a rack rent; they were even
required to conform within six months of an inheritance accruing,
on pain of being ousted by the next Protestant heir." 'thirty'
amended from 'thiry'.

ARTICLE IRELAND: "It would be hard to name four other men who,
within the same period, used Shakespeare's language with equal
grace and force." 'four other' amended from 'other four'.

ARTICLE IRON AND STEEL: "This usefulness iron owes in part, indeed,
to its abundance, through which it has led us in the last few
thousands of years to adapt our ways to its properties; but still
in chief part first to the single qualities in which it excels,
such as its strength, its magnetism ..." Added 'properties'.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA

A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION

ELEVENTH EDITION

VOLUME XIV, SLICE VII

Ireland to Isabey, Jean Baptiste

ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:

IRELAND IRONWOOD
IRELAND, CHURCH OF IRON-WOOD
IRENAEUS IRONY
IRENE IROQUOIS
IRETON, HENRY IRRAWADDY
IRIARTE Y OROPESA, TOMÁS DE IRREDENTISTS
IRIDACEAE IRRIGATION
IRIDIUM IRULAS
IRIGA IRUN
IRIS (Greek mythology) IRVINE
IRIS (botany) IRVING, EDWARD
IRISH MOSS IRVING, SIR HENRY
IRKUTSK (government of Russia) IRVING, WASHINGTON
IRKUTSK (Russian town) IRVINGTON
IRMIN ISAAC (child of Abraham)
IRNERIUS ISAAC I.
IRON ISAAC II.
IRON AGE ISAAC OF ANTIOCH
IRON AND STEEL ISABELLA (queen of Castile)
IRON MASK ISABELLA II.
IRON MOUNTAIN ISABELLA (wife of Charles VI)
IRONSIDES ISABELLA OF HAINAUT
IRONTON ISABEY, JEAN BAPTISTE

IRELAND, an island lying west of Great Britain, and forming with it the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It extends from 51° 26´ to
55° 21´ N., and from 5° 25´ to 10° 30´ W. It is encircled by the
Atlantic Ocean, and on the east is separated from Great Britain by
narrow shallow seas, towards the north by the North Channel, the width
of which at the narrowest part between the Mull of Cantire (Scotland)
and Torr Head is only 13½ m.; in the centre by the Irish Sea, 130 m. in
width, and in the south by St George's Channel, which has a width of 69
m. between Dublin and Holyhead (Wales) and of 47 m. at its southern
extremity. The island has the form of an irregular rhomboid, the largest
diagonal of which, from Torr Head in the north-east to Mizen Head in the
south-west, measures 302 m. The greatest breadth due east and west is
174 m., from Dundrum Bay to Annagh Head, county Mayo; and the average
breadth is about 110 m. The total area is 32,531 sq. m.

Ireland is divided territorially into four provinces and thirty-two
counties:--(a) _Ulster_ (northern division): Counties Antrim, Armagh,
Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan, Tyrone. (b)
_Leinster_ (eastern midlands and south-east): Counties Carlow, Dublin,
Kildare, Kilkenny, King's County, Longford, Louth, Meath, Queen's
County, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow. (c) _Connaught_ (western midlands):
Counties Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo. (d) _Munster_
(south-western division): Counties Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick,
Tipperary, Waterford.

_Physical Geography._--Ireland stands on the edge of the European
"continental shelf." Off the peninsula of Mullet (county Mayo) there are
100 fathoms of water within 25 m. of the coast which overlooks the
Atlantic; eastward, northward and southward, in the narrow seas, this
depth is never reached. The average height of the island is about 400
ft., but the distribution of height is by no means equal. The island has
no spinal range or dominating mountain mass. Instead, a series of small,
isolated clusters of mountains, reaching from the coast to an extreme
distance of some 70 m. inland, almost surrounds a great central plain
which seldom exceeds 250 ft. in elevation. A physical description of
Ireland, therefore, falls naturally under three heads--the coasts, the
mountain rim and the central plain.

Coasts.

The capital city and port of Dublin lies a little south of the central
point of the eastern coast, at the head of a bay which marks a sudden
change in the coastal formation. Southward from its northern horn, the
rocky headland of Howth, the coast is generally steep, occasionally
sheer, and the mountains of county Wicklow approach it closely.
Northward (the direction first to be followed) it is low, sandy and
fringed with shoals, for here is one point at which the central plain
extends to the coast. This condition obtains from 53° 25´ N. until at
54° N. the mountains close down again, and the narrow inlet or fjord
of Carlingford Lough separates the abrupt heights of the Carlingford
and Mourne Mountains. Then the low and sandy character is resumed; the
fine eastward sweep of Dundrum Bay is passed, the coast turns north
again, and a narrow channel gives entry to the island-studded lagoon
of Strangford Lough. Reaching county Antrim, green wooded hills plunge
directly into the sea; the deep Belfast Lough strikes some 10 m.
inland, and these conditions obtain nearly to Fair Head, the
north-eastern extremity of the island. Here the coast turns westward,
changing suddenly to sheer cliffs, where the basaltic formation
intrudes its strange regular columns, most finely developed in the
famous Giant's Causeway.

The low land surrounding the plain-track of the Bann intervenes
between this and the beginning of a coastal formation which is common
to the north-western and western coasts. From the oval indentation of
Lough Foyle a bluff coast trends north-westward to Malin Head, the
northernmost promontory of the island. Thence over the whole southward
stretch to Mizen Head in county Cork is found that physical appearance
of a cliff-bound coast fretted with deep fjord-like inlets and fringed
with many islands, which throughout the world is almost wholly
confined to western seaboards. Mountains impinge upon the sea almost
over the whole length, sometimes, as in Slieve League (county
Donegal), immediately facing it with huge cliffs. Eight dominant
inlets appear. Lough Foyle is divided from Lough Swilly by the
diamond-shaped peninsula of Inishowen. Following the coast southward,
Donegal Bay is divided from Galway Bay by the hammer-like projection
of county Mayo and Connemara, the square inlet of Clew Bay
intervening. At Galway Bay the mountain barrier is broken, where the
great central plain strikes down to the sea as it does on the east
coast north of Dublin. After the stern coast of county Clare there
follow the estuary of the great river Shannon, and then three large
inlets striking deep into the mountains of Kerry and Cork--Dingle Bay,
Kenmare river and Bantry Bay, separating the prongs of the forklike
south-western projection of the island. The whole of this coast is
wild and beautiful, and may be compared with the west coast of
Scotland and even that of Norway, though it has a strong individuality
distinct from either; and though for long little known to travellers,
it now possesses a number of small watering-places, and is in many
parts accessible by railway. The islands though numerous are not as in
Scotland and Norway a dominant feature of the coast, being generally
small and often mere clusters of reefs. Exceptions, however, are Tory
Island and North Aran off the Donegal coast, Achill and Clare off
Mayo, the South Arans guarding Galway Bay, the Blasquets and Valencia
off the Kerry coast. On many of these desolate rocks, which could have
afforded only the barest sustenance, there are remains of the
dwellings and churches of early religious settlers who sought solitude
here. The settlements on Inishmurray (Sligo), Aranmore in the South
Arans, and Scattery in the Shannon estuary, had a fame as retreats of
piety and learning far outside Ireland itself, and the significance of
a pilgrimage to their sites is not yet wholly forgotten among the
peasantry, while the preservation of their remains has come to be a
national trust.

The south coast strikes a mean between the east and the west. It is
lower than the west though still bold in many places; the inlets are
narrower and less deep, but more easily accessible, as appears from
the commercial importance of the harbours of Cork and Waterford.
Turning northward to the east of Waterford round Carnsore Point, the
lagoon-like harbour of Wexford is passed, and then a sweeping, almost
unbroken, line continues to Dublin Bay. But this coast, though
differing completely from the western, is not lacking in beauty, for,
like the Mournes in county Down, the mountains of Wicklow rise close
to the sea, and sometimes directly from it.

Mountains.

Every mountain group in Ireland forms an individual mass, isolated by
complex systems of valleys in all directions. They seldom exceed 3000
ft. in height, yet generally possess a certain dignity, whether from
their commanding position or their bold outline. Every variety of form
is seen, from steep flat-topped table-mountains as near Loughs Neagh
and Erne, to peaks such as those of the Twelve Pins or Bens of
Connemara. Unlike the Scottish Highlands no part of them was capable
of sheltering a whole native race in opposition to the advance of
civilization, though early customs, tradition and the common use of
the Erse language yet survive in some strength in the wilder parts of
the west. From the coasts there is almost everywhere easy access to
the interior through the mountains by valley roads; and though the
plain exists unbroken only in the midlands, its ramifications among
the hills are always easy to follow. Plain and lowland of an elevation
below 500 ft. occupy nearly four-fifths of the total area; and if the
sea were to submerge these, four distinct archipelagos would appear, a
northern, eastern, western and south-western. The principal groups,
with their highest points, are the Mournes (Slieve Donard, 2796 ft.)
and the Wicklow mountains (Lugnaquilla, 3039) on the east; the
Sperrins (Sawel, 2240) in the north; the Derryveagh group in the
north-west (Errigal, 2466); the many groups or short ranges of Sligo,
Mayo and Galway (reaching 1695 ft. in the Twelve Pins of Connemara);
in the south-west those of Kerry and Cork, where in Carrantuohill or
Carntual (3414) the famous Macgillicuddy Reeks which beautify the
environs of Killarney include the highest point in the island; and
north-east from these, the Galtees of Tipperary (3018) and Slieve
Bloom, the farthest inland of the important groups. Nearer the south
coast are the Knockmealdown (2609) and Commeragh Mountains (2470) of
county Waterford.

Central plain.

It will be realized from the foregoing description that it is
impossible to draw accurate boundary lines to the great Irish plain,
yet it rightly carries the epithet central because it distinctly
divides the northern mountain groups from the southern. The plain is
closely correlated with the bogs which are the best known physical
characteristic of Ireland, but the centre of Ireland is not wholly
bog-land. Rather the bogs of the plain are intersected by strips of
low-lying firm ground, and the central plain consists of these bright
green expanses alternating with the brown of the bogs, of which the
best known and (with its offshoots) one of the most extensive is the
Bog of Allen in the eastern midlands. But the bogs are not confined to
the plain. They may be divided into black and red according to the
degree of moisture and the vegetable matter which formed them. The
black bogs are those of the plain and the deeper valleys, while the
red, firmer and less damp, occur on the mountains. The former supply
most of the peat, and some of the tree-trunks dug out of them have
been found so flexible from immersion that they might be twisted into
ropes. Owing to the quantity of tannin they contain, no harmful miasma
exhales from the Irish bogs.

Rivers.

The central plain and its offshoots are drained by rivers to all the
coasts, but chiefly eastward and westward, and the water-partings in
its midst are sometimes impossible to define. The main rivers,
however, have generally a mountain source, and according as they are
fed from bogs or springs may be differentiated as black and bright
streams. In this connexion the frequent use of the name Blackwater is
noticeable. The principal rivers are--from the Wicklow Mountains, the
Slaney, flowing S. to Wexford harbour, and the Liffey, flowing with a
tortuous course N. and E. to Dublin Bay; the Boyne, fed from the
central plain and discharging into Drogheda Bay; from the mountains of
county Down, the Lagan, to Belfast Lough, and the Bann, draining the
great Lough Neagh to the northern sea; the Foyle, a collection of
streams from the mountains of Tyrone and Donegal, flowing north to
Lough Foyle. On the west the rivers are generally short and
torrential, excepting the Erne, which drains the two beautiful loughs
of that name in county Fermanagh, and the Shannon, the chief river of
Ireland, which, rising in a mountain spring in county Cavan, follows a
bow-shaped course to the south and south-west, and draws off the major
part of the waters of the plain by tributaries from the east. In the
south, the Lee and the Blackwater intersect the mountains of Kerry and
Cork flowing east, and turn abruptly into estuaries opening south.
Lastly, rising in the Slieve Bloom or neighbouring mountains, the
Suir, Nore and Barrow follow widely divergent courses to the south to
unite in Waterford harbour.

Lakes

The lakes (called loughs--pronounced _lochs_) of Ireland are
innumerable, and (apart from their formation) are almost all contained
in two great regions, (1) The central plain by its nature abounds in
loughs--dark, peat-stained pools with low shores. The principal of
these lie in county Westmeath, such as Loughs Ennel, Owel and
Derravaragh, famed for their trout-fishing in the May-fly season. (2)
The Shannon, itself forming several large loughs, as Allen, Ree and
Derg; and the Erne, whose course lies almost wholly through
loughs--Gowna, Oughter and the Loughs Erne, irregular of outline and
studded with islands--separate this region from the principal
lake-region of Ireland, coincident with the province of Connaught. In
the north lie Loughs Melvin, close above Donegal Bay, and Gill near
Sligo, Lough Gara, draining to the Shannon, and Lough Conn near
Ballina (county Mayo), and in the south, the great expanses of Loughs
Mask and Corrib, joined by a subterranean channel. To the west of
these last, the mountains of Connemara and, to a more marked degree,
the narrow plain of bog-land between them and Galway Bay, are sown
with small lakes, nearly every hollow of this wild district being
filled with water. Apart from these two regions the loughs of Ireland
are few but noteworthy. In the south-west the lakes of Killarney are
widely famed for their exquisite scenic setting; in the north-east
Lough Neagh has no such claim, but is the largest lake in the British
Isles, while in the south-east there are small loughs in some of the
picturesque glens of county Wicklow.

_Climate._--The climate of Ireland is more equable than that of Great
Britain as regards both temperature and rainfall. No district in Ireland
has a rainfall so heavy as that of large portions of the Highlands of
Scotland, or so light as that of several large districts in the east of
Great Britain. In January the mean temperature scarcely falls below 40°
F. in any part of Ireland, whereas over the larger part of the eastern
slope of Great Britain it is some 3° lower; and in July the extremes in
Ireland are 59° in the north and 62° in Kilkenny. The range from north
to south of Great Britain in the same month is some 10°, but the greater
extent of latitude accounts only for a part of this difference, which is
mainly occasioned by the physical configuration of the surface of
Ireland in its relations to the prevailing moist W.S.W. winds. Ireland
presents to these winds no unbroken mountain ridge running north and
south, which would result in two climates as distinct as those of the
east and west of Ross-shire; but it presents instead only a series of
isolated groups, with the result that it is only a few limited districts
which enjoy climates approaching in dryness the climates of the whole of
the eastern side of Great Britain. (O. J. R. H.)

_Geology._--Ireland, rising from shallow seas on the margin of the
submarine plateau of western Europe, records in its structure the
successive changes that the continent itself has undergone. The first
broad view of the country shows us a basin-shaped island consisting of
a central limestone plain surrounded by mountains; but the diverse
modes of origin of these mountains, and the differences in their
trend, suggest at once that they represent successive epochs of
disturbance. The north-west highlands of Donegal and the Ox Mountains,
with their axes of folding running north-east and south-west, invite
comparison with the great chain of Leinster, but also with the
Grampians and the backbone of Scandinavia. The ranges from Kerry to
Waterford, on the other hand, truncated by the sea at either end, are
clearly parts of an east and west system, the continuation of which
may be looked for in South Wales and Belgium. The hills of the
north-east are mainly the crests of lava-plateaux, which carry the
mind towards Skye and the volcanic province of the Faeroe Islands. The
two most important points of contrast between the geology of Ireland
and that of England are, firstly, the great exposure of Carboniferous
rocks in Ireland, Mesozoic strata being almost absent; and, secondly,
the presence of volcanic rocks in place of the marine Eocene of
England.

The fact that no Cambrian strata have been established by
palaeontological evidence in the west of Ireland has made it equally
difficult to establish any pre-Cambrian system. The great difference
in character, however, between the Silurian strata at Pomeroy in
county Tyrone and the adjacent metamorphic series makes it highly
probable that the latter masses are truly Archean. They form an
interesting and bleak moorland between Cookstown and Omagh, extending
north-eastward into Slieve Gallion in county Londonderry, and consist
fundamentally of mica-schist and gneiss, affected by earth-pressures,
and invaded by granite near Lough Fee. The axis along which they have
been elevated runs north-east and south-west, and on either flank a
series of "green rocks" appears, consisting of altered amygdaloidal
andesitic lavas, intrusive dolerites, coarse gabbros and diorites, and
at Beagh-beg and Creggan in central Tyrone ancient rhyolitic tuffs.
Red and grey cherts, which have not so far yielded undoubted organic
remains occur in this series, and it has in consequence been compared
with the Arenig rocks of southern Scotland. The granite invades this
"green-rock" series at Slieve Gallion and elsewhere, but is itself
pre-Devonian. Even if the volcanic and intrusive basic rocks prove to
be Ordovician (Lower Silurian), which is very doubtful, the
metamorphic series of the core is clearly distinct, and appears to be
"fundamental" so far as Ireland is concerned.

The other metamorphic areas of the north present even greater
difficulties, owing to the absence of any overlying strata older than
the Old Red Sandstone. Their rocks have been variously held to be
Archean, Cambrian and Silurian, and their general trend has
undoubtedly been determined by post-Silurian earth-movements. Hence it
is useful to speak of them merely as "Dalradian," a convenient term
invented by Sir A. Geikie for the metamorphic series of the old
kingdom of Dalriada. They come out as mica-schists under the
Carboniferous sandstones of northern Antrim, and disappear southward
under the basaltic plateaux. The red gneisses near Torr Head probably
represent intrusive granite; and this small north-eastern exposure is
representative of the Dalradian series which covers so wide a field
from central Londonderry to the coast of Donegal. The oldest rocks in
this large area are a stratified series of mica-schists, limestones
and quartzites, with numerous intrusive sheets of diorite, the whole
having been metamorphosed by pressure, with frequent overfolding.
Extensive subsequent metamorphism has been produced by the invasion of
great masses of granite. Similar rocks come up along the Ox Mountain
axis, and occupy the wild west of Mayo and Connemara. The quartzites
here form bare white cones and ridges, notably in Errigal and Aghla
Mt. in county Donegal, and in the group of the Twelve Bens in county
Galway.

Following on these rocks of unknown but obviously high antiquity, we
find fossiliferous Ordovician (Lower Silurian) strata near Killary
harbour on the west, graduating upwards into a complete Gotlandian
(Upper Silurian) system. Massive conglomerates occur in these series,
which are unconformable on the Dalradian rocks of Connemara. In the
Wenlock beds of the west of the Dingle promontory there are
contemporaneous tuffs and lavas. Here the Ludlow strata are followed
by a thick series of barren beds (the Dingle Beds), which have been
variously claimed as Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian. No certain
representative of the Dingle Beds has been traced elsewhere throughout
the south of Ireland, where the Old Red Sandstone succeeds the
uptilted Silurian strata with striking unconformity. The Silurian
rocks were indeed greatly folded before the Old Red Sandstone was laid
down, the general trend of the folds being from south-west to
north-east. The best example of these folds is the axis of Leinster,
its core being occupied by granite which is now exposed continuously
for 70 m., forming a moorland from Dublin to New Ross. On either flank
the Silurian shales, slates and sandstones, which are very rarely
fossiliferous, rise with steep dips. They are often contorted, and
near the contact with the granite pass into mica-schists and
quartzites. The foothills and lowlands throughout southern Wicklow and
almost the whole of Wexford, and the corresponding country of western
Wicklow and eastern Kildare, are thus formed of Silurian beds, in
which numerous contemporaneous and also intrusive igneous rocks are
intercalated, striking like the chain N.E. and S.W. In south-eastern
Wexford, in northern Wicklow (from Ashford to Bray), and in the
promontory of Howth on Dublin Bay, an apparently earlier series of
green and red slates and quartzites forms an important feature. The
quartzites, like those of the Dalradian series, weather out in cones,
such as the two Sugarloaves south of Bray, or in knob-set ridges, such
as the crest of Howth or Carrick Mt. in county Wicklow. The radial or
fan-shaped markings known as _Oldhamia_ were first detected in this
series, but are now known from Cambrian beds in other countries; in
default of other satisfactory fossils, the series of Bray and Howth
has long been held to be Cambrian.

All across Ireland, from the Ballyhoura Hills on the Cork border to
the southern shore of Belfast Lough, slaty and sandy Silurian beds
appear in the axes of the anticlinal folds, surrounded by Old Red
Sandstone scarps or Carboniferous Limestone lowlands. These Silurian
areas give rise to hummocky regions, where small hills abound, without
much relation to the trend of the axis of elevation. The most
important area appears north of the town of Longford, and extends
thence to the coast of Down. In Slieve Glah it reaches a height of
1057 ft. above the sea. Granite is exposed along its axis from near
Newry to Slieve Croob, and again appears at Crossdoney in county
Cavan. These occurrences of granite, with that of Leinster, in
connexion with the folding of the Silurian strata, make it highly
probable that many of the granites of the Dalradian areas, which have
a similar trend and which have invaded the schists so intimately as to
form with them a composite gneiss, date also from a post-Silurian
epoch of earth-movement. Certain western and northern granites are
however older, since granite boulders occur in Silurian conglomerates
derived from the Dalradian complex.

This group of N.E. and S.W. ridges and hollows, so conspicuous in the
present conformation of Donegal, Sligo and Mayo, in the axis of Newry,
and in the yet bolder Leinster Chain, was impressed upon the Irish
region at the close of Silurian times, and is clearly a part of the
"Caledonian" system of folds, which gave to Europe the guiding lines
of the Scottish Highlands and of Scandinavia.

[Illustration: Map of Ireland.]

On the land-surface thus formed the Devonian lakes gathered, while the
rivers poured into them enormous deposits of sand and conglomerate. A
large exposure of this Old Red Sandstone stretches from Enniskillen
to the Silurian beds at Pomeroy, and some contemporaneous andesites
are included, reminding us of the volcanic activity at the same epoch
in Scotland. The numerous "felstone" dikes, often lamprophyric,
occurring in the north and west of Ireland, are probably also of
Devonian age. The conglomerates appear at intervals through the
limestone covering of central Ireland, and usually weather out as
conspicuous scarps or "hog's-backs." The Slieve Bloom Mountains are
thus formed of a dome of Old Red Sandstone folded on a core of
unconformable Silurian strata; while in several cases the domes are
worn through, leaving rings of Old Red Sandstone hills, scarping
inwards towards broad exposures of Silurian shales. The Old Red
Sandstone is most fully manifest in the rocky or heather-clad ridges
that run from the west of Kerry to central Waterford, rising to 3414
ft. in Carrantuohill in Macgillicuddy's Reeks, and 3015 ft. in
Galtymore. In the Dingle Promontory the conglomerates of this period
rest with striking unconformity on the Dingle Beds and Upper Silurian
series. Here there may be a local break between Lower and Upper
Devonian strata. The highest beds of Old Red Sandstone type pass up
conformably in the south of Ireland into the Lower Carboniferous,
through the "Yellow Sandstone Series" and the "Coomhola Grits" above
it. The Yellow Sandstone contains _Archanodon_, the oldest known
fresh-water mollusc, and plant-remains; the Coomhola Grits are marine,
and are sometimes regarded as Carboniferous, sometimes as uppermost
Devonian.

[Illustration: Geological Map of Ireland.]

In the south, the Carboniferous deposits open with the Carboniferous
Slate, in the base of which the Coomhola Grits occur. Its lower part
represents the Lower Carboniferous Shales and Sandstones of the
central and northern areas, while its upper part corresponds with a
portion of the Carboniferous Limestone. The Carboniferous Limestone,
laid down in a sea which covered nearly the whole Irish area, appears
in the synclinal folds at Cork city and Kenmare, and is the prevalent
rock from the north side of the Knockmealdown Mountains to Enniskillen
and Donegal Bay. On the east it spreads to Drogheda and Dublin, and on
the west to the heart of Mayo and of Clare. Loughs Mask and Corrib are
thus bounded on the west by rugged Silurian and Dalradian highlands,
and on the east appear as mere water-filled hollows in the great
limestone plain.

The Lower Carboniferous Sandstones are conspicuous in the region from
Milltown near Inver Bay in southern Donegal to Ballycastle in county
Antrim. In the latter place they contain workable coal-seams. The
Carboniferous Limestone often contains black flint (chert), and at
some horizons conglomerates occur, the pebbles being derived from the
unconformable ridges of the "Caledonian" land. A black and often shaly
type called "calp" contains much clay derived from the same
land-surface. While the limestone has been mainly worn down to a
lowland, it forms fine scarps and table-lands in county Sligo and
other western regions. Subterranean rivers and water-worn caves
provide a special type of scenery below the surface. Contemporaneous
volcanic action is recorded by tuffs and lavas south-east of Limerick
and north of Philipstown. The beds above the limestone are shales and
sandstones, sometimes reaching the true Coal-Measures, but rarely
younger than the English Millstone Grit. They are well seen in the
high ground about Lough Allen, where the Shannon rises on them, round
the Castlecomer and Killenaule coalfields, and in a broad area from
the north of Clare to Killarney. Some coals occur in the Millstone
Grit horizons. The Upper Coal-Measures, as a rule, have been lost by
denudation, much of which occurred before Triassic times. South of the
line between Galway and Dublin the coal is anthracitic, while north of
this line it is bituminous. The northern coalfields are the L.
Carboniferous one at Ballycastle, the high outliers of Millstone Grit
and Coal-Measures round Lough Allen, and the Dungannon and Coalisland
field in county Tyrone. The last named is in part concealed by
Triassic strata. The only important occurrences of coal in the south
are in eastern Tipperary, near Killenaule, and in the Leinster
coalfield (counties Kilkenny and Carlow and Queen's County), where
there is a high synclinal field, including Lower and Middle
Coal-Measures, and resembling in structure the Forest of Dean area in
England.

The "Hercynian" earth-movements, which so profoundly affected
north-west and north-central Europe at the close of Carboniferous
times, gave rise to a series of east and west folds in the Irish
region. The Upper Carboniferous beds were thus lifted within easy
reach of denuding forces, while the Old Red Sandstone, and the
underlying "Caledonian" land-surface, were brought up from below in
the cores of domes and anticlines. In the south, even the
Carboniferous Limestone has been so far removed that it is found only
in the floors of the synclinals. The effect of the structure of these
folds on the courses of rivers in the south of Ireland is discussed in
the paragraphs dealing with the geology of county Cork. The present
central plain itself may be regarded as a vast shallow synclinal,
including a multitude of smaller folds. The earth-wrinkles of this
epoch were turned into a north-easterly direction by the pre-existing
Leinster Chain, and the trend of the anticlinal from Limerick to the
Slieve Bloom Mountains, and that of the synclinal of Millstone Grit
and Coal-Measures from Cashel through the Leinster coalfield, bear
witness to the resistance of this granite mass. The Triassic beds rest
on the various Carboniferous series in turn, indicating, as in
England, the amount of denudation that followed on the uplift of the
Hercynian land. Little encouragement can therefore be given in Ireland
to the popular belief in vast hidden coalfields.

The Permian sea has left traces at Holywood on Belfast Lough and near
Stewartstown in county Tyrone. Certain conglomeratic beds on which
Armagh is built are also believed to be of Permian age. The Triassic
sandstones and marls, with marine Rhaetic beds above, are preserved
mainly round the basaltic plateaus of the north-east, and extend for
some distance into county Down. An elongated outlier south of
Carrickmacross indicates their former presence over a much wider area.
Rock-salt occurs in these beds north of Carrickfergus.

The Jurassic system is represented in Ireland by the Lower Lias alone,
and it is probable that no marine beds higher than the Upper Lias were
deposited during this period. From Permian times onward, in fact, the
Irish area lay on the western margin of the seas that played so large
a part in determining the geology of Europe. The Lower Lias appears at
intervals under the scarp of the basaltic plateaus, and contributes,
as in Dorsetshire and Devonshire, to the formation of landslips along
the coast. The alteration of the fossiliferous Lias by dolerite at
Portrush into a flinty rock that looked like basalt served at one time
as a prop for the "Neptunist" theory of the origin of igneous rocks.
Denudation, consequent on the renewed uplift of the country, affected
the Jurassic beds until the middle of Cretaceous times. The sea then
returned, in the north-east at any rate, and the first Cretaceous
deposits indicate the nearness of a shore-line. Dark "green-sands,"
very rich in glauconite, are followed by yellow sandstones with some
flint. These two stages represent the Upper Greensand, or the sandy
type of the English Gault. Further sands represent the Cenomanian. The
Turonian is also sandy, but in most areas was not deposited, or has
been denuded away during a local uplift that preceded Senonian times.
The Senonian limestone itself, which rests in the extreme north on
Trias or even on the schists, is often conglomeratic and glauconitic
at the base, the pebbles being worn from the old metamorphic series.
The term "Hibernian Greensand" was used by Tate for all the beds below
the Senonian; the quarrymen know the conglomeratic Senonian as
"Mulatto-stone." The Senonian chalk, or "White Limestone," is hard,
with numerous bands of flint, and suffered from denudation in early
Eocene times. Probably its original thickness was not more than 150
ft., while now only from 40 to 100 ft. remain. This chalk appears to
underlie nearly the whole basaltic plateaus, appearing as a fringe
round them, and also in an inlier at Templepatrick. The western limit
was probably found in the edge of the old continental land in Donegal.
Chalk flints occur frequently in the surface-deposits of the south of
Ireland, associated with rocks brought from the north during the
glacial epoch, and probably also of northern origin. It is just
possible, however, that here and there the Cretaceous sea that spread
over Devonshire may have penetrated the Irish area.

After the Irish chalk had been worn into rolling downs, on which
flint-gravels gathered, the great epoch of volcanic activity opened,
which was destined to change the character of the whole north-west
European area. The critical time had arrived when the sea was to be
driven away eastward, while the immense ridges due to the "Alpine"
movements were about to emerge as the backbones of new continental
lands. Fissure after fissure, running with remarkable constancy N.W.
and S.E., broke through the region now occupied by the British Isles,
and basalt was pressed up along these cracks, forming thousands of
dikes, from the coast of Down to the Dalradian ridges of Donegal. One
of these on the north side of Lough Erne is 15 m. long. The more
deep-seated type of these rocks is seen in the olivine-gabbro mass of
Carlingford Mountain; but most of the igneous region became covered
with sheets of basaltic lava, which filled up the hollows of the
downs, baked the gravels into a layer of red flints, and built up,
pile upon pile, the great plateaus of the north. There was little
explosive action, and few of the volcanic vents can now be traced.
After a time, a quiet interval allowed of the formation of lakes, in
which red iron-ores were laid down. The plant-remains associated with
these beds form the only clue to the post-Cretaceous period in which
the volcanic epoch opened, and they have been placed by Mr Starkie
Gardner in recent years as early Eocene. During this time of
comparative rest, rhyolites were extruded locally in county Antrim;
and there is very strong evidence that the granite of the Mourne
Mountains, and that which cuts the Carlingford gabbro, were added at
the same time to the crust. The basalt again broke out, through dikes
that cut even the Mourne granite, and some of the best-known columnar
masses of lava overlie the red deposits of iron-ore and mark this
second basaltic epoch. The volcanic plateaus clearly at one time
extended far west and south of their present limits, and the
denudation of the lava-flows has allowed a large area of Mesozoic
strata also to disappear.

Volcanic activity may have extended into Miocene times; but the only
fossiliferous relics of Cainozoic periods later than the Eocene are
the pale clays and silicified lignites on the south shore of Lough
Neagh, and the shelly gravels of pre-glacial age in county Wexford.
Both these deposits may be Pliocene. Probably before this period the
movements of subsidence had set in which faulted the basalt plateaus,
lowered them to form the basin of Lough Neagh, and broke up the
continuity of the volcanic land of the North Atlantic area. As the
Atlantic spread into the valleys on the west of Ireland, forming the
well-known marine inlets, Europe grew, under the influence of the
"Alpine" movements, upon the east; and Ireland was caught in, as it
were, on the western edge of the new continent. It seems likely that
it was separated from the British region shortly before the glacial
epoch, and that some of the ice which then abutted on the country
travelled across shallow seas. The glacial deposits profoundly
modified the surface of the country, whether they resulted from the
melting of the ice-sheets of the time of maximum glaciation, or from
the movements of local glaciers. Boulder-clays and sands, and gravels
rearranged by water, occur throughout the lowlands; while the eskers
or "green hills," characteristic grass-covered ridges of gravel, rise
from the great plain, or run athwart valleys and over hill-sides,
marking the courses of sub-glacial streams. When the superficial
deposits are removed, the underlying rocks are found to be scored and
smoothed by ice-action, and whole mountain-sides in the south and west
have been similarly moulded during the Glacial epoch. In numerous
cases, lakelets have gathered under rocky cirques behind the terminal
moraines of the last surviving glaciers.

There is no doubt that at this epoch various movements of elevation
and subsidence affected the north-west of Europe, and modern Ireland
may have had extensions into warmer regions on the west and south,
while the area now left to us was almost buried under ice. In
post-Glacial times, a subsidence admitted the sea into the Lagan
valley and across the eastern shore in several places; but elevation,
in the days of early human occupation, brought these last marine
deposits to light, and raised the beaches and shore-terraces some 10
to 20 ft. along the coast. At Larne, Greenore and in the neck between
Howth and Dublin, these raised beaches remain conspicuous. To sum up,
then, while the main structural features of Ireland were impressed
upon her before the opening of the Mesozoic era, her present outline
and superficial contours date from an epoch of climatic and
geographical change which falls within the human period.

See maps and explanatory memoirs of the _Geological Survey of
Ireland_ (Dublin); G. Wilkinson, _Practical Geology and Ancient
Architecture of Ireland_ (London, 1845); R. Kane, _Industrial
Resources of Ireland_ (2nd ed., Dublin, 1845); G. H. Kinahan, _Manual
of the Geology of Ireland_ (London, 1878); E. Hull, _Physical Geology
and Geography of Ireland_ (2nd ed., London, 1891); G. H. Kinahan,
_Economic Geology of Ireland_ (Dublin, 1889); A. McHenry and W. W.
Watts, _Guide to the Collection of Rocks and Fossils, Geol. Survey of
Ireland_ (2nd ed., Dublin, 1898). (G. A. J. C.)

ECONOMICS AND ADMINISTRATION

_Population._--Various computations are in existence of the population
of Ireland prior to 1821, in which year the first government census was
taken. According to Sir William Petty the number of inhabitants in 1672
was 1,320,000. About a century later the tax-collectors estimated the
population at a little over 2,500,000, and in 1791 the same officials
calculated that the number had risen to over 4,200,000. The census
commissioners returned the population in 1821 as 6,801,827, in 1831 as
7,767,401, and in 1841 as 8,196,597. It is undoubted that a great
increase of population set in towards the close of the 18th century and
continued during the first 40 years or so of the 19th. This increase was
due to a variety of causes--the improvement in the political condition
of the country, the creation of leaseholds after the abolition of the
40s. franchise, the productiveness and easy cultivation of the potato,
the high prices during the war with France, and probably not least to
the natural prolificness of the Irish people. But the census returns of
1851 showed a remarkable alteration--a decrease during the previous
decade of over 1,500,000--and since that date, as the following table
shows, the continuous decrease in the number of its inhabitants has been
the striking feature in the vital statistics of Ireland.

_Decrease per cent. of Population 1841-1901._

+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| |1841-1851.|1851-1861.|1861-1871.|1871-1881.|1881-1891.|1891-1901.|
+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Leinster | 15.25 | 12.86 | 8.11 | 4.49 | 6.8 | 3.5 |
| Munster | 22.47 | 18.53 | 7.93 | 4.98 | 11.8 | 8.4 |
| Ulster | 15.69 | 4.85 | 4.23 | 5.11 | 7.07 | 2.4 |
| Connaught| 28.81 | 9.59 | 7.33 | 3.43 | 12.4 | 9.7 |
+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Ireland | 19.85 | 11.50 | 6.67 | 4.69 | 9.08 | 5.3 |
+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+

The cause of the continuous though varying decrease which these figures
reveal has been emigration. This movement of population took its first
great impulse from the famine of 1846 and has continued ever since. When
that disaster fell upon the country it found a teeming population
fiercely competing for a very narrow margin of subsistence; and so
widespread and devastating were its effects that between 1847 and 1852
over 1,200,000 of the Irish people emigrated to other lands. More than
1,000,000 of these went to the United States of America, and to that
country the main stream has ever since been directed. Between 1851 and
1905 4,028,589 emigrants left Ireland--2,092,154 males and 1,936,435
females, the proportion of females to males being extraordinarily high
as compared with the emigration statistics of other countries. Between
these years the numbers fluctuated widely--1852 showing the highest
total, 190,322 souls, and 1905 the lowest, 30,676 souls. Since 1892,
however, the emigrants in any one year have never exceeded 50,000,
probably because the process of exhaustion has been so long in
operation. As Ireland is mainly an agricultural country the loss of
population has been most marked in the rural districts. The urban
population, indeed, has for some years shown a tendency to increase.
Thus in 1841 the rural population was returned as 7,052,923 and the
urban as 1,143,674, while the corresponding figures in 1901 were
respectively 3,073,846 and 1,384,929. This is further borne out by the
percentages given in the above table, from which it will be seen that
the greatest proportional decrease of population has occurred in the two
provinces of Munster and Connaught, which may be regarded as almost
purely agricultural. That the United States remained the great centre of
attraction for Irish emigrants is proved by the returns for 1905, which
show that nearly 80% of the whole number for the year sailed for that
country. Ireland does little to swell the rising tide of emigration
that now flows from England and Scotland to British North America.

Turning now to the census figures of 1901, we find that the population
had diminished as compared with 1891 by 245,975. During the decade only
three counties, Dublin, Down and Antrim, showed any increase, the
increase being due to the growth of certain urban areas. Of the total
population of 4,458,775, 2,200,040 were males and 2,258,735 were
females. The inhabitants of the rural districts (3,073,846) decreased
during the decade by over 380,000; that of the urban districts, i.e. of
all towns of not less than 2000 inhabitants (1,384,929) increased by
over 140,000. This increase was mainly due to the growth of a few of the
larger towns, notably of Belfast, the chief industrial centre of
Ireland. Between 1891 and 1901 Belfast increased from 273,079 to
349,180; Dublin from 268,587 to 289,108; and Londonderry, another
industrial centre in Ulster, from 33,200 to 39,873. On the other hand,
towns like Cork (75,978), Waterford (26,743) and Limerick (38,085),
remained almost stationary during the ten years, but the urban districts
of Pembroke and of Rathmines and Rathgar, which are practically suburbs
of Dublin, showed considerable increases.

From the returns of occupation in 1901, it appears that the indefinite
or non-productive class accounted for about 55% of the entire
population. The next largest class was the agricultural, which
numbered 876,062, a decrease of about 40,000 as compared with 1891.
The industrial class fell from 656,410 to 639,413, but this
represented a slight increase in the percentage of the population. The
professional class was 131,035, the domestic 219,418, and the
commercial had risen from 83,173 in 1891 to 97,889 in 1901. The
following table shows the number of births and deaths registered in
Ireland during the five years 1901-1905.

+------+---------+---------+
| | Births. | Deaths. |
+------+---------+---------+
| 1901 | 100,976 | 79,119 |
| 1902 | 101,863 | 77,676 |
| 1903 | 101,831 | 77,358 |
| 1904 | 103,811 | 79,513 |
| 1905 | 102,832 | 75,071 |
+------+---------+---------+

The number of illegitimate births is always very small in proportion
to the legitimate. In 1905 illegitimate births numbered 2710 or 2.6 of
the whole, a percentage which has been very constant for a number of
years.

_Railways._--The first act of parliament authorizing a railway in
Ireland was passed in 1831. The railway was to run from Dublin to
Kingstown, a distance of about 6 m., and was opened in 1834. In 1836 the
Ulster railway to connect Belfast and Armagh, and the Dublin and
Drogheda railway uniting these two towns were sanctioned. In the same
year commissioners were nominated by the crown to inquire (_inter alia_)
as to a general system for railways in Ireland, and as to the best mode
of directing the development of the means of intercourse to the channels
whereby the greatest advantage might be obtained by the smallest outlay.
The commissioners presented a very valuable report in 1838, but its
specific recommendations were never adopted by the government, though
they ultimately proved of service to the directors of private
enterprises. Railway development in Ireland progressed at first very
slowly and by 1845 only some 65 m. of railway were open. During the next
ten years, however, there was a considerable advance, and in 1855 the
Irish railways extended to almost 1000 m. The total authorized capital
of all Irish railways, exclusive of light railways, at the end of 1905
was £42,881,201, and the paid-up capital, including loans and debenture
stock, amounted to £37,238,888. The total gross receipts from all
sources of traffic in 1905 were £4,043,368, of which £2,104,108 was
derived from passenger traffic and £1,798,520 from goods traffic. The
total number of passengers carried (exclusive of season and periodical
ticket-holders) was 27,950,150. Under the various acts passed to
facilitate the construction of light railways in backward districts some
15 lines have been built, principally in the western part of the island
from Donegal to Kerry. These railways are worked by existing companies.

The following table shows the principal Irish railways, their mileage
and the districts which they serve.

There is no lack of cross-channel services between Ireland and Great
Britain. Belfast is connected by daily sailings with Glasgow,
Ardrossan, Liverpool, Feetwood, Barrow and Heysham Harbour, Dublin
with Holyhead and Liverpool, Greenore (Co. Down) with Holyhead, Larne
(Co. Antrim) with Stranraer, Rosslare (Co. Wexford) with Fishguard and
Kingstown (Co. Dublin) with Holyhead.

_Navigable Waterways._--Ireland is intersected by a network of canals
and waterways, which if efficiently managed and developed would prove
of immense service to the country by affording a cheap means for the
carriage of goods, especially agricultural produce. Two canals--the
Grand and the Royal--connect Dublin with the Shannon; the former
leading from the south of Dublin to Shannon Harbour and thence on the
other side of that river to Ballinasloe, with numerous branches; the
latter from the north side of Dublin to Cloondera on the Shannon, with
a branch to Longford. The Barrow Navigation connects a branch of the
Grand canal with the tidal part of the river Barrow. In Ulster the
Bann navigation connects Coleraine, by means of Lough Neagh, with the
Lagan navigation which serves Belfast; and the Ulster canal connects
Lough Neagh with Lough Erne. The river Shannon is navigable for a
distance of 143 m. in a direct course and occupies almost a central
position between the east and west coasts.

_Agriculture._--Ireland possesses as a whole a soil which is naturally
fertile and easily cultivated. Strong heavy clay soils, sandy and
gravelly soils, are almost entirely absent; and the mixture of soil
arising from the various stratifications and from the detritus carried
down to the plains has created many districts of remarkable richness.
The "Golden Vein" in Munster, which stretches from Cashel in Tipperary
to near Limerick, probably forms the most fertile part of the country.
The banks of the rivers Shannon, Suir, Nore, Barrow and Bann are lined
with long stretches of flat lands capable of producing fine crops. In
the districts of the Old and New Red Sandstone, which include the
greater part of Cork and portions of Kerry, Waterford, Tyrone,
Fermanagh, Monaghan, Mayo and Tipperary, the soil in the hollows is
generally remarkably fertile. Even in the mountainous districts which
are unsuitable for tillage there is often sufficient soil to yield, with
the aid of the moist atmosphere, abundant pasturage of good quality. The
excessive moisture in wet seasons in however hostile to cereal crops,
especially in the southern and western districts, though improved
drainage has done something to mitigate this evil, and might do a great
deal more.

Irish political history has largely affected the condition of
agriculture. Confiscations and settlements, prohibitive laws (such as
those which ruined the woollen industry), penal enactments against the
Roman Catholics, absenteeism, the creation for political purposes of
40s. freeholders, and other factors have combined to form a story which
makes painful reading from whatever point of view, social or political,
it be regarded. Happily, however, at the beginning of the 20th century
Irish agriculture presented two new features which can be described
without necessarily arousing any party question--the work of the
Department of Agriculture and the spread of the principle of
co-operation. Another outstanding feature has been the effect of the
Land Purchase Acts in transferring the ownership of the land from the
landlords to the tenants. Before dealing with these three features, some
general statistics may be given bearing upon the condition of Irish
agriculture.

_Number of Holdings._--Before 1846 the number of small holdings was
inordinately large. In 1841, for example, there were no less than
310,436 of between 1 and 5 acres in extent, and 252,799 of between 5
and 15 acres. This condition of affairs was due mainly to two
causes--to the 40s. franchise which prevailed between 1793 and 1829,
and after that date to the fierce competition for land by a rapidly
increasing population which had no other source of livelihood than
agriculture. But the potato famine and the repeal of the Corn Laws,
occurring almost simultaneously, caused an immediate and startling
diminution in the number of smaller holdings. In 1851 the number
between 1 and 5 acres in extent had fallen to 88,033 and the number
between 5 and 15 acres had fallen to 191,854. Simultaneously the
number between 15 and 30 acres had increased from 79,342 to 141,311,
and the number above 30 acres from 48,625 to 149,090.

Since 1851 these tendencies have not been so marked. Thus in 1905 the
number of holdings between 1 and 5 acres was 62,126, the number
between 5 and 15 acres 154,560, the number between 15 and 30 acres
134,370 and the number above 30 acres 164,747. Generally speaking,
however, it will be seen from the figures that since the middle of the
19th century holdings between 1 and 30 acres have decreased and
holdings over 30 acres have increased. Of the total holdings under 30
acres considerably more than one-third are in Ulster, and of the
holdings over 30 acres more than one-third are in Munster. The number
of holdings of over 500 acres is only 1526, of which 475 are in
Connaught. A considerable proportion, however, of these larger
holdings, especially in Connaught, consist of more or less waste land,
which at the best can only be used for raising a few sheep.

_Tillage and Pasturage._--The fact that probably about 1,000,000 acres
formerly under potatoes went out of cultivation owing to the potato
disease in 1847 makes a comparison between the figures for crops in
that year with present figures somewhat fallacious. Starting, however,
with that year as the most important in Irish economic history in
modern times, we find that between 1847 and 1905 the total area under
crops--cereals, green crops, flax, meadow and clover--decreased by
582,348 acres. Up to 1861, as the area formerly under potatoes came
back gradually into cultivation, the acreage under crops increased;
but since that year, when the total crop area was 5,890,536 acres,
there has been a steady and gradual decline, the area in 1905 having
fallen to 4,656,227 acres. An analysis of the returns shows that the
decline has been most marked in the acreage under cereal crops,
especially wheat. In 1847 the number of acres under wheat was 743,871
and there has been a steady and practically continuous decrease ever
since, the wheat acreage in 1905 being only 37,860 acres. In that year
the wheat area, excluding less than 5000 acres in Connaught, was
pretty equally divided between the other three provinces. Oats has
always been the staple cereal crop in Ireland, but since 1847 its
cultivation has declined by over 50%. In that year 2,200,870 acres
were under oats and in 1905 only 1,066,806 acres. Nearly one-half of
the area under oats is to be found in Ulster; Leinster and Munster are
fairly equal; and Connaught has something over 100,000 acres under
this crop. The area under barley and rye has also declined during the
period under review by about one-half--from 345,070 acres in 1847 to
164,800 in 1905. The growing of these crops is confined almost
entirely to Leinster and Munster. Taking all the cereal crops
together, their cultivation during the last 60 years has gradually
declined (from 3,313,579 acres in 1847 to 1,271,190 in 1905) by over
50%. The area, however, under green crops--potatoes, turnips,
mangel-wurzel, beet, cabbage, &c., shows during the same period a much
less marked decline--only some 300,000 acres. There has been a very
considerable decrease since about 1861 in the acreage under potatoes.
This is probably due to two causes--the emigration of the poorer
classes who subsisted on that form of food, and the gradual
introduction of a more varied dietary. The total area under potatoes
in 1905 was 616,755 acres as compared with 1,133,504 acres in 1861.
Since about 1885 the acreage under turnips has remained fairly
stationary in the neighbourhood of 300,000 acres, while the
cultivation of mangel-wurzel has considerably increased. Outside the
recognized cereal and green crops, two others may be considered, flax
and meadow and clover. The cultivation of the former is practically
confined to Ulster and as compared with 20 or 30 years ago has fallen
off by considerably more than 50%, despite the proximity of the linen
industry. The number of acres under flax in 1905 was only 46,158. The
Department of Agriculture has made efforts to improve and foster its
cultivation, but without any marked results as regards increasing the
area sown. During the period under review the area under meadow and
clover has increased by more than 50%, rising from 1,138,946 acres in
1847 to 2,294,506 in 1905. It would thus appear that a large
proportion of the land which has ceased to bear cereal or green crops
is now laid down in meadow and clover. The balance has become
pasturage, and the total area under grass in Ireland has so largely
increased that it now embraces more than one-half of the entire
country. This increase of the pastoral lands, with the corresponding
decrease of the cropped lands, has been the marked feature of Irish
agricultural returns since 1847. It is attributable to three chief
reasons, the dearth of labour owing to emigration, the greater fall in
prices of produce as compared with live stock, and the natural
richness of the Irish pastures. The following table shows the growth
of pasturage and the shrinkage of the crop areas since 1860.

+------+------------+------------+------------+-----------+------------+
| | | Cultivated |Crops (other| Meadow | |
| Year.| Total Area.| Area (Crops|than Meadow | and | Grass. |
| | | and Grass).|and Clover).| Clover. | |
+------+------------+------------+------------+-----------+------------+
| 1860 | 20,284,893 | 15,453,773 | 4,375,621 | 1,594,518 | 9,483,634 |
| 1880 | 20,327,764 | 15,340,192 | 3,171,259 | 1,909,825 | 10,259,108 |
| 1900 | 20,333,344 | 15,222,104 | 2,493,017 | 2,165,715 | 10,563,372 |
| 1905 | 20,350,725 | 15,232,699 | 2,410,813 | 2,224,165 | 10,597,721 |
+------+------------+------------+------------+-----------+------------+

One more table may be given showing the proportional areas under the
various kinds of crops, grass, woods and plantations, fallow, bog,
waste, &c., over a series of years.

+------+------+------+-------+------+------------+------+-------+------+
| |Cereal|Green |Meadow | | Total | | | |
| Year.|Crops.|Crops.| and |Grass.|Agricultural|Woods.|Fallow.|Waste.|
| | | |Clover.| | Land. | | | |
+------+------+------+-------+------+------------+------+-------+------+
| 1851 | 15.2 | 6.7 | 6.1 | 43.0 | 71.0 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 25.7 |
| 1880 | 8.1 | 5.5 | 8.1 | 50.5 | 72.2 | 1.7 | 0.0 | 22.8 |
| 1905 | 6.3 | 5.3 | 11.3 | 52.1 | 75.0 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 23.5 |
+------+------+------+-------+------+------------+------+-------+------+

_Produce and Live Stock._--With the decrease of the area under cereal
and green crops and the increase of pasturage there has naturally been
a serious fall in the amount of agricultural produce and a
considerable rise in the number of live stock since the middle of the
19th century. Thus in 1851 the number of cattle was returned as
2,967,461 and in 1905 as 4,645,215, the increase during the
intervening period having been pretty gradual and general. Sheep in
1851 numbered 2,122,128 and in 1905 3,749,352, but the increase in
this case has not been so continuous, several of the intervening years
showing a considerably higher total than 1905, and for a good many
years past the number of sheep has tended to decline. The number of
pigs has also varied considerably from year to year, 1905 showing an
increase of about 150,000 as compared with 1851.

_The Department of Agriculture._--By an act of 1899 a Department of
Agriculture and other industries and technical instruction was
established in Ireland. To this department were transferred numerous
powers and duties previously exercised by other authorities, including
the Department of Science and Art. To assist the department the act also
provided for the establishment of a council of agriculture, an
agricultural board and a board of technical instruction, specifying the
constitution of each of the three bodies. Certain moneys (exceeding
£180,000 per annum) were placed by the act at the disposal of the
department, provisions were made for their application, and it was
enacted that local authorities might contribute funds. The powers and
duties of the department are very wide, but under the present section
its chief importance lies in its administrative work with regard to
agriculture. In the annual reports of the department this work is
usually treated under three heads: (1) agricultural instruction, (2)
improvement of live stock, and (3) special investigations.

1. The ultimate aim of the department's policy in the matter of
agricultural instruction is, as defined by itself, to place within the
reach of a large number of young men and young women the means of
obtaining in their own country a good technical knowledge of all
subjects relating to agriculture, an object which prior to the
establishment of the department was for all practical purposes
unattainable. Before such a scheme could be put into operation two
things had to be done. In the first place, the department had to train
teachers of agricultural subjects; and secondly, it had to demonstrate
to farmers all over Ireland by a system of itinerant instruction some
of the advantages of such technical instruction, in order to induce
them to make some sacrifice to obtain a suitable education for their
sons and daughters. In order to accomplish the first of these two
preliminaries, the department established a Faculty of Agriculture at
the Royal College of Science in Dublin, and offered a considerable
number of scholarships the competition for which becomes increasingly
keen. They also reorganized the Albert Agricultural College at
Glasnevin for young men who have neither the time nor the means to
attend the highly specialized courses at the Royal College of Science;
and the Munster Institute at Cork is now devoted solely to the
instruction of girls in such subjects as butter-making,
poultry-keeping, calf-rearing, cooking, laundry-work, sewing and
gardening. In addition to these three permanent institutions, local
schools and classes have been established in different parts of the
country where systematic instruction in technical agriculture is given
to young men. In this and in other branches of its work the department
is assisted by agricultural committees appointed by the county
councils. The number of itinerant instructors is governed entirely by
the available supply of qualified men. The services of every available
student on completing his course at the Royal College of Science are
secured by some county council committee. The work of the itinerant
instructors is very varied. They hold classes and carry out field
demonstrations and experiments, the results of which are duly
published in the department's journal. The department has also
endeavoured to encourage the fruit-growing industry in Ireland by the
establishment of a horticultural school at Glasnevin, by efforts to
secure uniformity in the packing and grading of fruit, by the
establishment of experimental fruit-preserving factories, by the
planting of orchards on a large scale in a few districts, and by
pioneer lectures. As the result of all these efforts there has been an
enormous increase in the demand for fruit trees of all kinds.

2. The marked tendency which has been visible for so many years in
Ireland for pasturage to increase at the expense of tillage makes the
improvement of live-stock a matter of vital importance to all
concerned in agriculture. Elaborate schemes applicable to
horse-breeding, cattle-breeding and swine-breeding, have been drawn up
by the department on the advice of experts, but the working of the
schemes is for the most part left to the various county council
committees. The benefits arising from these schemes are being more and
more realized by farmers, and the department is able to report an
increase in the number of pure bred cattle and horses in Ireland.

3. The special investigations carried out by the department naturally
vary from year to year, but one of the duties of each instructor in
agriculture is to conduct a number of field experiments, mainly on the
influence of manures and seeds in the yield of crops. The results of
these experiments are issued in the form of leaflets and distributed
widely among farmers. One of the most interesting experiments, which
may have far-reaching economic effects, has been in the cultivation of
tobacco. So far it has been proved (1) that the tobacco plant can be
grown successfully in Ireland, and (2) that the crop when blended with
American leaf can be manufactured into a mixture suitable for smoking.
But whether Irish tobacco can be made a profitable crop depends upon a
good many other considerations.

_Agricultural Co-operation._--In 1894 the efforts of a number of
Irishmen drawn from all political parties were successfully directed
towards the formation of the Irish Agricultural Organization Society,
which has for its object the organizing of groups of farmers on
co-operative principles and the provision of instruction in proper
technical methods. The society had at first many difficulties to
confront, but after the first two or three years of its existence its
progress became more rapid, and co-operation became beyond all question
one of the most hopeful features in Irish agriculture.

Perhaps the chief success of the society was seen in the establishment
of creameries, which at the end of 1905 numbered 275--123 in Ulster,
102 in Munster, 20 in Leinster and 30 in Connaught. The members
numbered over 42,000 and the trade turnover for the year was
£1,245,000. Agricultural societies have been established for the
purchase of seed, implements, &c., on co-operative lines and of these
there are 150, with a membership of some 14,000. The society was also
successful in establishing a large number of credit societies, from
which farmers can borrow at a low rate of interest. There are also
societies for poultry-rearing, rural industries, bee-keeping,
bacon-curing, &c., in connexion with the central organization. The
system is rounded off by a number of trade federations for the sale
and purchase of various commodities. The Department of Agriculture
encourages the work of the Organization Society by an annual grant.

_Land Laws._--The relations of landlord and tenant in Ireland have been
a frequent subject of legislation (see _History_ below). Under the act
of 1881, down to the 31st of March 1906, the rents of 360,135 holdings,
representing nearly 11,000,000 acres, had been fixed for the first
statutory term of 15 years either by the land commissioners or by
agreements between landlords and tenants, the aggregate reduction being
over 20% as compared with the old rents. The rents of 120,515 holdings,
representing over 3,500,000 acres, had been further fixed for the second
statutory term, the aggregate reduction being over 19% as compared with
the first term rents. Although the acts of 1870 and 1881 provided
facilities for the purchase of holdings by the tenants, it was only
after the passing of the Ashbourne Act in 1885 that the transfer of
ownership to the occupying tenants began on an extended scale. Under
this act between 1885 and 1902, when further proceedings were suspended,
the number of loans issued was 25,367 (4221 in Leinster; 5204 in
Munster; 12,954 in Ulster, and 2988 in Connaught) and the amount was
£9,992,536. Between August 1891 and April 1906, the number of loans
issued under the acts of 1891 and 1896 was 40,395 (7838 in Leinster;
7512 in Munster; 14,955 in Ulster, and 10,090 in Connaught) and the
amount was £11,573,952. Under the Wyndham Act of 1903 the process was
greatly extended.

The following tables give summarized particulars, for the period from
the 1st of November 1903 to the 31st of March 1906, of (1) estates for
which purchase agreements were lodged in cases of sale direct from
landlords to tenants; (2) estates for the purchase of which the Land
Commission entered into agreements under sects. 6 and 8 of the act;
(3) estates in which the offers of the Land Commission to purchase
under sect. 7 were accepted by the land judge; and (4) estates for the
purchase of which, under sections 72 and 79, originating requests were
transmitted by the Congested Districts Board to the Land Commission:--

+-------------------+--------+---------+----------------------------------------+
| | | | Purchase Money. |
| | No. of | No. of +------------+------------+--------------+
| Classification. |Estates.| Purchas-| | Amount of | Amount of |
| | | ers. | Price. | Advances | Proposed |
| | | | |applied for.|Cash Payments.|
+-------------------+--------+---------+------------+------------+--------------+
| Direct Sales | 3446 |86,898 |£32,811,564 |£32,692,066 | £119,498 |
| Sections 6 and 8 | 54 | 3,567^1 | 1,231,014 | 1,226,832 | 4,182 |
| Section 7 | 29 | 1,174^1 | 383,388 | 381,722 | 1,666 |
| Sections 72 and 79| 67 | 5,606^1 | 975,211 | 975,211 | .. |
+-------------------+--------+---------+------------+------------+--------------+
| Total | 3596 |97,245 |£35,401,177 |£35,275,831 | £125,346 |
+-------------------+--------+---------+------------+------------+--------------+

+-------------------+--------+---------+----------------------------------------+
| | | | Purchase Money. |
| | No. of | No. of +------------+------------+--------------+
| Classification. |Estates.| Purchas-| | Amount of | Amount of |
| | | ers. | Price. | Advances |Cash Payments.|
| | | | | made. | |
+-------------------+--------+---------+------------+------------+--------------+
| Direct Sales | 925 | 16,732 | £8,317,063 | £8,226,736 | £90,327 |
| Sections 6 and 8 | 40 | 3,047 | 1,048,459 | 1,047,007 | 1,452 |
| Section 7 | 29 | 1,174 | 383,388 | 381,722 | 1,666 |
| Sections 72 and 79| 12 | 763 | 199,581 | 199,581 | .. |
+-------------------+--------+---------+------------+------------+--------------+
| Total | 1006 | 21,716 | £9,948,491 | £9,855,046 | £93,445 |
+-------------------+--------+---------+------------+------------+--------------+
^1 Estimated number of purchasers on resale.

It will be seen from these two tables that though the amount of
advances applied for during the period dealt with amounted to over
£35,000,000 the actual advances made were less than £10,000,000. It
will be seen further that the act operated almost entirely by means of
direct sales by landlords to tenants. Of the total amount advanced up
to March 31, 1906, almost one-half was in respect of estates in the
province of Leinster, the balance being divided pretty equally between
estates in the other three provinces.

_Fisheries._--The deep-sea and coast fisheries of Ireland form a
valuable national asset, which still admits of much development and
improvement despite the fact that a considerable number of acts of
parliament have been passed to promote and foster the fishing industry.
In 1882 the Commissioners of Public Works were given further powers to
lend money to fishermen on the recommendation of the inspectors of
fisheries; and under an act of 1883 the Land Commission was authorized
to pay from time to time such sums, not exceeding in all £250,000, as
the Commissioners of Public Works might require, for the creation of a
Sea Fishery Fund, such fund to be expended--a sum of about £240,000 has
been expended--on the construction and improvement of piers and
harbours. Specific acts have also been passed for the establishment and
development of oyster, pollan and mussel fisheries. Under the Land
Purchase Act 1891, a portion of the Sea Fisheries Fund was reserved for
administration by the inspectors of fisheries in non-congested
districts. Under this head over £36,000 had been advanced on loan up to
December 31, 1905, the greater portion of which had been repaid. In 1900
the powers and duties of the inspectors of fisheries were vested in the
Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. Under the Marine
Works Act 1902, which was intended to benefit and develop industries
where the people were suffering from congestion, about £34,000 was
expended upon the construction and improvement of fishery harbours in
such districts.

For administrative purposes Ireland is divided into 31 deep-sea and
coast fisheries and during 1905, 6190 vessels were engaged in these
districts, giving employment to a total of 24,288 hands. Excluding
salmon, nearly one million hundredweights of fish were taken, and
including shell-fish the total money received by the fishermen
exceeded £414,000. In the same year 13,436 hands were engaged in the
25 salmon fishing districts into which the country is divided. In
addition to the organized industry which exists in these salmon
districts, there is a good deal of ordinary rod and line fishing in
the higher reaches of the larger rivers and good trout fishing is
obtainable in many districts.

_Mining._--The mineral produce of Ireland is very limited, and its mines
and quarries in 1905 gave employment to only about 6000 persons.
Coal-fields are found in all the provinces, but in 1905 the total output
was less than 100,000 tons and its value at the mines was given as
£43,000. Iron ore is worked in Co. Antrim, over 113,000 tons having been
produced in 1905. Alum clay or bauxite, from which aluminium is
manufactured, is found in the same county. Clays of various kinds,
mainly fire and brick clay, are obtained in several places and there are
quarries of marble (notably in Connemara), slate, granite, limestone and
sandstone, the output of which is considerable. Silver is obtained in
small quantities from lead ore in Co. Donegal, and hopes have been
entertained of the re-discovery of gold in Co. Wicklow, where regular
workings were established about 1796 but were destroyed during the
Rebellion.

_Woollen Manufacture._--At an early period the woollen manufactures of
Ireland had won a high reputation and were exported in considerable
quantities to foreign countries. Bonifazio Uberti (d. c. 1367) refers in
a posthumous poem called _Dita mundi_ to the "noble serge" which Ireland
sent to Italy, and fine mantles of Irish frieze are mentioned in a list
of goods exported from England to Pope Urban VI. In later times, the
establishment of a colony from the German Palatinate at Carrick-on-Suir
in the reign of James I. served to stimulate the manufacture, but in the
succeeding reign the lord-deputy Strafford adopted the policy of
fostering the linen trade at the expense of the woollen in order to
prevent the latter from competing with English products. An act of the
reign of Charles II. prohibited the export of raw wool to foreign
countries from Ireland as well as England, while at the same time
Ireland was practically excluded by heavy duties from the English
markets, and as the Navigation Act of 1663 did not apply to her the
colonial market was also closed against Irish exports. The foreign
market, however, was still open, and after the prohibition of the export
of Irish cattle to England the Irish farmers turned their attention to
the breeding of sheep, with such good effect that the woollen
manufacture increased with great rapidity. Moreover the improved quality
of the wool showed itself in the improvement of the finished article, to
the great alarm of the English manufacturer. So much trade jealousy was
aroused that both Houses of Parliament petitioned William III. to
interfere. In accordance with his wishes the Irish parliament in 1698
placed heavy additional duties on all woollen clothing (except friezes)
exported from Ireland, and in 1699 the English Parliament passed an act
prohibiting the export from Ireland of all woollen goods to any country
except England, to any port of England except six, and from any town in
Ireland except six. The cumulative effect of these acts was practically
to annihilate the woollen manufacture in Ireland and to reduce whole
districts and towns, in which thousands of persons were directly or
indirectly supported by the industry, to the last verge of poverty.
According to Newenham's tables the annual average of new drapery
exported from Ireland for the three years ending March 1702 was only 20
pieces, while the export of woollen yarn, worsted yarn and wool, which
to England was free, amounted to 349,410 stones. In his essay on the
Trade of Ireland, published in 1729, Arthur Dobbs estimated the medium
exports of wool, worsted and woollen yarn at 227,049 stones, and he
valued the export of manufactured woollen goods at only £2353. On the
other hand, the imports steadily rose. Between 1779 and 1782 the various
acts which had hampered the Irish woollen trade were either repealed or
modified, but after a brief period of deceptive prosperity followed by
failure and distress, the expansion of the trade was limited to the
partial supply of the home market. According to evidence laid before the
House of Commons in 1822 one-third of the woollen cloth used in Ireland
was imported from England. A return presented to Parliament in 1837
stated that the number of woollen or worsted factories in Ireland was
46, employing 1321 hands. In 1879 the number of factories was 76 and the
number of hands 2022. Since then the industry has shown some tendency to
increase, though the number of persons employed is still comparatively
very small, some 3500 hands.

_Linen Manufacture._--Flax was cultivated at a very early period in
Ireland and was both spun into thread and manufactured into cloth. In
the time of Henry VIII. the manufacture constituted one of the principal
branches of Irish trade, but it did not prove a very serious rival to
the woollen industry until the policy of England was directed to the
discouragement of the latter. Strafford, lord-deputy in the reign of
Charles I., did much to foster the linen industry. He invested a large
sum of his own money in it, imported great quantities of flax seed from
Holland and induced skilled workmen from France and the Netherlands to
settle in Ireland. A similar policy was pursued with even more energy by
his successor in office, the duke of Ormonde, at whose instigation an
Irish act was passed in 1665 to encourage the growth of flax and the
manufacture of linen. He also established factories and brought over
families from Brabant and France to work in them. The English parliament
in their desire to encourage the linen industry at the expense of the
woollen, followed Ormonde's lead by passing an act inviting foreign
workmen to settle in Ireland, and admitting all articles made of flax or
hemp into England free of duty. In 1710, in accordance with an
arrangement made between the two kingdoms, a board of trustees was
appointed to whom a considerable sum was granted annually for the
promotion of the linen manufacture; but the jealousy of English
merchants interposed to check the industry whenever it threatened to
assume proportions which might interfere with their own trade, and by an
act of George II. a tax was imposed on Irish sail-cloth imported into
England, which for the time practically ruined the hempen manufacture.
Between 1700 and 1777 the board of trustees expended nearly £850,000 on
the promotion of the linen trade, and in addition parliamentary
bounties were paid on a considerable scale. In 1727 Arthur Dobbs
estimated the value of the whole manufacture at £1,000,000. In 1830 the
Linen Board ceased to exist, the trade having been for some time in a
very depressed condition owing to the importation of machine-made yarns
from Scotland and England. A year or two later, however, machinery was
introduced on a large scale on the river Bann. The experiment proved
highly successful, and from this period may be dated the rise of the
linen trade of Ulster, the only great industrial manufacture of which
Ireland can boast. Belfast is the centre and market of the trade, but
mills and factories are to be found dotted all over the eastern counties
of Ulster.

In 1850 the number of spindles was 396,338 and of power looms 58; in
1905 the corresponding figures were 826,528 and 34,498. In 1850 the
number of persons employed in flax mills and factories was 21,121; in
1901 the number in flax, hemp and jute textile factories was 64,802.

_Cotton Manufacture._--This was introduced into Ireland in 1777 and
under the protection of import duties and bounties increased so rapidly
that in 1800 it gave employment to several thousand persons, chiefly in
the neighbourhood of Belfast. The trade continued to grow for several
years despite the removal of the duties; and the value of cotton goods
exported from Ireland to Great Britain rose from £708 in 1814 to
£347,606 in 1823. In 1822 the number of hands employed in the industry
was stated to be over 17,000. The introduction of machinery, however,
which led to the rise of the great cotton industry of Lancashire, had
very prejudicial effects, and by 1839 the number of persons employed had
fallen to 4622. The trade has dwindled ever since and is now quite
insignificant.

_Silk Manufacture._--About the end of the 17th century French Huguenots
settled in Dublin and started the manufacture of Irish poplin, a mixture
of silk and wool. In 1823 between 3000 and 4000 persons were employed.
But with the abolition of the protective duties in 1826 a decline set
in; and though Irish poplin is still celebrated, the industry now gives
employment to a mere handful of people in Dublin.

_Distilling and Brewing._--Whisky has been extensively distilled in
Ireland for several centuries. An excise duty was first imposed in 1661,
the rate charged being 4d. a gallon. The imposition of a duty gave rise
to a large amount of illicit distillation, a practice which still
prevails to some extent, though efficient police methods have largely
reduced it. During recent years the amount of whisky produced has shown
a tendency to decrease. In 1900 the number of gallons charged with duty
was 9,589,571, in 1903 8,215,355, and in 1906 7,337,928. There are
breweries in most of the larger Irish towns, and Dublin is celebrated
for the porter produced by the firm of Arthur Guinness & Son, the
largest establishment of the kind in the world. The number of barrels of
beer--the inclusive term used by the Inland Revenue Department--charged
with duty in 1906 was 3,275,309, showing an increase of over 200,000 as
compared with 1900.

The following table shows the net annual amount of excise duties
received in Ireland in a series of years:--

+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Articles. | 1900. | 1902. | 1904. | 1906. |
+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Beer | £983,841 |£1,200,711 |£1,262,186 |£1,227,528 |
| Licences | 209,577 | 213,092 | 213,964 | 214,247 |
| Spirits | 4,952,061 | 4,292,286 | 4,311,763 | 3,952,509 |
| Other sources| 502 | 436 | 508 | 798 |
+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Total |£6,145,981 |£5,706,525 |£5,788,421 |£5,395,082 |
+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

_Other Industries._--Shipbuilding is practically confined to Belfast,
where the firm of Harland and Wolff, the builders of the great "White
Star" liners, have one of the largest yards in the world, giving
employment to several thousand hands. There are extensive engineering
works in the same city which supply the machinery and other requirements
of the linen industry. Paper is manufactured on a considerable scale in
various places, and Balbriggan is celebrated for its hosiery.

_Commerce and Shipping._--From allusions in ancient writers it would
appear that in early times Ireland had a considerable commercial
intercourse with various parts of Europe. When the merchants of Dublin
fled from their city at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion it was
given by Henry II. to merchants from Bristol, to whom free trade with
other portions of the kingdom was granted as well as other advantages.
In the Staple Act of Edward III., Dublin, Waterford, Cork and Drogheda
are mentioned as among the towns where staple goods could be purchased
by foreign merchants. During the 15th century the trade of these and
other towns increased rapidly. With the 17th century began the
restrictions on Irish trade. In 1637 duties were imposed on the chief
commodities to foreign nations not in league with England. Ireland was
left out of the Navigation Act of 1663 and in the same year was
prohibited from exporting cattle to England in any month previous to
July. Sir William Petty estimated the value of Irish exports in 1672 at
£500,000 per annum, and owing principally to the prosperity of the
woollen industry these had risen in value in 1698 to £996,000, the
imports in the same year amounting to £576,000. A rapid fall in exports
followed upon the prohibition of the export of woollen manufactures to
foreign countries, but in about 20 years' time a recovery took place,
due in part to the increase of the linen trade. Statistics of exports
and imports were compiled for various years by writers like Newenham,
Arthur Young and César Moreau, but these are vitiated by being given in
Irish currency which was altered from time to time, and by the fact that
the method of rating at the custom-house also varied. Taking the
figures, however, for what they are worth, it appears that between 1701
and 1710 the average annual exports from Ireland to all parts of the
world were valued at £553,000 (to Great Britain, £242,000) and the
average annual imports at £513,000 (from Great Britain, £242,000).
Between 1751 and 1760 the annual values had risen for exports to
£2,002,000 (to Great Britain, £1,068,000) and for imports to £1,594,000
(from Great Britain, £734,000). Between 1794 and 1803 the figures had
further risen to £4,310,000 (to Great Britain, £3,667,000) and
£4,572,000 (from Great Britain £3,404,000). It is clear, therefore, that
during the 18th century the increase of commerce was considerable.

In 1825 the shipping duties on the cross-Channel trade were abolished
and since that date no official figures are available as to a large part
of Irish trade with Great Britain. The export of cattle and other
animals, however, is the most important part of this trade and details
of this appear in the following table:--

+------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+
| Year.| Cattle. | Sheep. | Swine. | Total. |
+------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+
| 1891 | 630,802 | 893,175 | 505,584 | 2,029,561 |
| 1900 | 745,519 | 862,263 | 715,202 | 2,322,984 |
| 1905 | 749,131 | 700,626 | 363,973 | 1,813,730 |
+------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+

The value of the animals exported in 1905 was estimated (at certain
standard rates) at about £14,000,000.

Since 1870 the Board of Trade has ceased to give returns of the
foreign and colonial trade for each of the separate kingdoms of
England, Scotland and Ireland. Returns are given, however, for the
principal ports of each kingdom. Between 1886 and 1905 these imports
at the Irish ports rose from £6,802,000 in value to £12,394,000 and
the exports from £825,000 to £1,887,000.

The following table shows the value of the total imports and exports
of merchandise in the foreign and colonial trade at the ports of
Dublin, Belfast and Limerick in each of the years 1901-1905:--

+-----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Ports. | 1901. | 1902. | 1903. | 1904. | 1905. |
+-----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Dublin-- | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ |
| Imports |2,666,000 |2,856,000 |3,138,000 |2,771,000 |2,664,000 |
| Exports | 54,000 | 63,000 | 122,000 | 79,000 | 78,000 |
| Belfast-- | | | | | |
| Imports |6,626,000 |6,999,000 |7,773,000 |7,033,000 |6,671,000 |
| Exports |1,442,000 |1,344,000 |1,122,000 |1,332,000 |1,780,000 |
| Cork-- | | | | | |
| Imports |1,062,000 |1,114,000 |1,193,000 |1,156,000 |1,010,000 |
| Exports | 15,000 | 17,000 | 6,000 | 8,000 | 5,000 |
| Limerick--| | | | | |
| Imports | 826,000 | 913,000 | 855,000 | 935,000 | 854,000 |
| Exports | 2,000 | 400 | 3,000 | 600 | 3,000 |
+-----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+

The Department of Agriculture published in 1906 a report on the
imports and exports at Irish ports for the year 1904. In this report,
the compiling of which presented great difficulties in the absence of
official returns, are included (1) the direct trade between Ireland
and all countries outside of Great Britain, (2) the indirect trade of
Ireland with those same countries via Great Britain, and (3) the local
trade between Ireland and Great Britain. The value of imports in 1904
is put at £55,148,206, and of exports at £46,606,432. But it is
pointed out in the report that while the returns as regards farm
produce, food stuffs, and raw materials may be considered
approximately complete, the information as to manufactured
goods--especially of the more valuable grades--is rough and
inadequate. It was estimated that the aggregate value of the actual
import and export trade in 1904 probably exceeded a total of
£105,000,000. The following table gives some details:--

+-----------------------------------------+-----------+------------+
| | Imports. | Exports. |
+-----------------------------------------+-----------+------------+
| I. Farm Produce, Food and Drink Stuffs--| | |
| (a) Live-stock, meat, bacon, fish and | | |
| dairy produce |£3,028,170 |£23,445,122 |
| (b) Crops, fruit, meal, flour, &c. |11,859,201 | 1,721,753 |
| (c) Spirits, porter, ale, &c. | 919,161 | 4,222,194 |
| (d) Tea, coffee, tobacco, spices, &c. | 4,230,478 | 1,121,267 |
| II. Raw Materials-- | | |
| (a) Coal | 2,663,523 | .. |
| (b) Wood | 1,880,095 | 235,479 |
| (c) Mineral | 1,012,822 | 282,081 |
| (d) Animal and vegetable products | 4,529,002 | 3,067,398 |
| III. Goods, partly manufactured or of | | |
| simple manufacture | 7,996,143 | 2,576,993 |
| IV. Manufactured goods. |17,059,611 | 9,934,145 |
+-----------------------------------------+-----------+------------+

From the figures given in the report it would appear that there was in
1904 an excess of imports amounting to over £8,500,000. But owing to
the imperfect state of existing information, it is impossible to say
with any certainty what is the real state of the balance of visible
trade between Ireland and other countries.

Shipping returns also throw some light upon the commercial condition
of Ireland. Old figures are not of much value, but it may be stated
that Arthur Dobbs gives the number of ships engaged in the Irish trade
in 1721 as 3334 with a tonnage of 158,414. According to the statistics
of César Moreau the number of ships belonging to Irish ports in 1788
was 1016 with a tonnage of over 60,000, and in 1826 they had
increased, according to the trade and navigation returns, to 1391 with
a tonnage of over 90,000. In 1905 the vessels registered at Irish
ports numbered 934 with a tonnage of over 259,000. In the same year
the vessels entering and clearing in the colonial and foreign trade
numbered 1199 with a tonnage of over 1,086,000, and the vessels
entering and clearing in the trade between Great Britain and Ireland
numbered 41,983 with a tonnage of over 9,776,000.

_Government, &c._--The executive government of Ireland is vested in a
lord-lieutenant, assisted by a privy council and by a chief secretary,
who is always a member of the House of Commons and generally of the
cabinet. There are a large number of administrative departments and
boards, some, like the Board of Trade, discharging the same duties as
the similar department in England; others, like the Congested Districts
Board, dealing with matters of purely Irish concern.

_Parliamentary Representation._--The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885
entirely altered the parliamentary representation of Ireland. Twenty-two
small boroughs were disenfranchised. The towns of Galway, Limerick and
Waterford lost one member each, while Dublin and Belfast were
respectively divided into four divisions, each returning one member. As
a result of these changes 85 members now represent the counties, 16 the
boroughs, and 2 Dublin University--a total of 103. The total number of
electors (exclusive of Dublin University) in 1906 was 686,661; 113,595
for the boroughs and 573,066 for the counties. Ireland is represented in
the House of Lords by 28 temporal peers elected for life from among the
Irish peers.

_Local Government._--Irish local government was entirely remodelled by
the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, which conferred on Ireland the
same system and measure of self-government enjoyed by Great Britain. The
administrative and fiscal duties previously exercised by the grand jury
in each county were transferred to a county council, new administrative
counties being formed for the purposes of the act, in some cases by the
alteration of existing boundaries. To the county councils were also
assigned the power of assessing and levying the poor rate in rural
districts, the management of lunatic asylums, and the administration of
certain acts such as the Explosives Act, the Technical Education Act and
the Diseases of Animals Act. Subordinate district councils, urban and
rural, were also established as in England and Scotland to manage the
various local areas within each county. The provisions made for the
administration of the Poor Law by the act under consideration are very
complicated, but roughly it may be said that it was handed over to these
new subordinate local bodies. Six towns--Dublin, Belfast, Cork,
Limerick, Londonderry and Waterford--were constituted county boroughs
governed by separate county councils; and five boroughs--Kilkenny,
Sligo, Clonmel, Drogheda and Wexford--retained their former
corporations. The act provides facilities for the conversion into urban
districts of (1) towns having town commissioners who are not sanitary
authorities and (2) non-municipal towns with populations of over 1500
and entitled to petition for town commissioners.

_Justice._--The Supreme Court of Judicature is constituted as follows:
the court of appeal, which consists of the lord chancellor, the lord
chief justice, and the master of the rolls and the chief baron of the
exchequer as _ex-officio_ members, and two lords justices of appeal; and
the high court of justice which includes (1) the chancery division,
composed of the lord chancellor, the master of the rolls and two
justices, (2) the king's bench division composed of the lord chief
justice, the chief baron of the exchequer and eight justices, and (3)
the land commissions with two judicial commissioners. At the first
vacancy the title and rank of chief baron of the exchequer will be
abolished and the office reduced to a puisne judgeship. By the County
Officers and Courts (Ireland) Act 1877, it was provided that the
chairmen of quarter sessions should be called "county court judges and
chairmen of quarter sessions" and that their number should be reduced to
twenty-one, which was to include the recorders of Dublin, Belfast, Cork,
Londonderry and Galway. At the same time the jurisdiction of the county
courts was largely extended. There are 66 resident (stipendiary)
magistrates, and four police magistrates in Dublin.

_Police._--The Royal Irish Constabulary were established in 1822 and
consisted at first of 5000 men under an inspector-general for each of
the four provinces. In 1836 the entire force was amalgamated under one
inspector-general. The force, at present consists of about 10,000 men of
all ranks, and costs over £1,300,000 a year. Dublin has a separate
metropolitan police force.

_Crime._--The following table shows the number of persons committed for
trial, convicted and acquitted in Ireland in 1886, 1891, 1900 and
1905:--

+------+----------+----------+----------+
| Year.|Committed.|Convicted.|Acquitted.|
+------+----------+----------+----------+
| 1886 | 3,028 | 1,619 | 1286 |
| 1891 | 2,112 | 1,255 | 669 |
| 1900 | 1,682 | 1,087 | 331 |
| 1905 | 2,060 | 1,367 | 417 |
+------+----------+----------+----------+

Of the 1367 convicted in 1905, 375 were charged with offences against
the person, 205 with offences against property with violence, 545 with
offences against property without violence, 52 with malicious injury
to property, 44 with forgery and offences against the currency, and
146 with other offences. In 1904, 81,775 cases of drunkenness were
brought before Irish magistrates as compared with 227,403 in England
and 43,580 in Scotland.

_Poor Law._--The following table gives the numbers in receipt of indoor
and outdoor relief (exclusive of persons in institutions for the blind,
deaf and dumb, and for idiots and imbeciles) in, the years 1902-1905,
together with the total expenditure for relief of the poor:--

+------+-----------------------------+--------------+
| | Aggregate number relieved | |
| Year.| during the year. | Total Annual |
| +---------+---------+---------+ Expenditure. |
| | Indoor. | Outdoor.| Total. | |
+------+---------+---------+---------+--------------+
| 1902 | 363,483 | 105,501 | 468,984 | £1,026,691 |
| 1903 | 363,091 | 99,150 | 452,241 | 986,301 |
| 1904 | 390,047 | 98,607 | 488,654 | 1,033,168 |
| 1905 | 434,117 | 124,697 | 558,814 | 1,066,733 |
+------+---------+---------+---------+--------------+

The average daily number in receipt of relief of all kinds (except
outdoor relief) during the same years was as follows: 1902, 41,163;
1903, 43,600; 1904, 43,721; 1905, 43,911. The percentage of indoor
paupers to the estimated population in 1905 was 1.00.

_Congested Districts Board._--This body was constituted by the Purchase
of Land Act 1891, and is composed of the chief secretary, a member of
the Land Commission and five other members. A considerable sum of money
was placed at its disposal for carrying out the objects for which it was
created. It was provided that where more than 20% of the population of a
county lived in electoral divisions of which the total rateable value,
when divided by the number of the population, gave a sum of less than
£1, 10s. for each individual, these divisions should, for the purposes
of the act, form a separate county, called a congested districts county,
and should be subject to the operations of the board. In order to
improve the condition of affairs in congested districts, the board was
empowered (1) to amalgamate small holdings either by directly aiding
migration or emigration of occupiers, or by recommending the Land
Commission to facilitate amalgamation, and (2) generally to aid and
develop out of its resources agriculture, forestry, the breeding of
live-stock, weaving, spinning, fishing and any other suitable
industries. Further provisions regulating the operations of funds of the
board were enacted in 1893, 1896, 1899 and 1903; and by its constituting
act the Department of Agriculture was empowered to exercise, at the
request of the board, any of its powers and duties in congested
districts.

_Religion._--The great majority of the Irish people belong to the Roman
Catholic Church. In 1891 the Roman Catholics numbered 3,547,307 or 75%
of the total population, and in 1901 they numbered 3,308,661 or 74%. The
adherents of the Church of Ireland come next in number (581,089 in 1901
or 13% of the population), then the Presbyterians (443,276 in 1901 or
10% of the population), the only other denomination with a considerable
number of members being the Methodists (62,006 in 1901). As the result
of emigration, which drains the Roman Catholic portion of the population
more than any other, the Roman Catholics show a larger proportional
decline in numbers than the Protestants; for example, between 1891 and
1901 the Roman Catholics decreased by over 6%, the Church of Ireland by
a little over 3%, the Presbyterians by less than 1%, while the
Methodists actually increased by some 11%. The only counties in which
the Protestant religion predominates are Antrim, Down, Armagh and
Londonderry.

The Roman Catholic Church is governed in Ireland by 4 archbishops,
whose sees are in Armagh, Dublin, Cashel and Tuam, and 23 bishops, all
nominated by the pope. The episcopal emoluments arise from the mensal
parishes, the incumbency of which is retained by the bishops, from
licences and from an annual contribution, varying in amount, paid by
the clergy of the diocese. The clergy are supported by fees and the
voluntary contributions of their flocks. At the census of 1901 there
were 1084 parishes, and the clergy numbered 3711. In addition to the
secular clergy there are several communities of regular priests
scattered over the country, ministering in their own churches but
without parochial jurisdiction. There are also numerous monasteries
and convents, a large number of which are devoted to educational
purposes. The great majority of the secular clergy are educated at
Maynooth College (see below).

The Protestants of Ireland belong mainly to the Church of Ireland
(episcopalian) and the Presbyterian Church. (For the former see
IRELAND, CHURCH OF).

The Presbyterian Church, whose adherents are found principally in
Ulster and are the descendants of Scotch settlers, was originally
formed in the middle of the 17th century, and in 1840 a reunion took
place of the two divisions into which the Church had formerly
separated. The governing body is the General Assembly, consisting of
ministers and laymen. In 1906 there were 569 congregations, arranged
under 36 presbyteries, with 647 ministers. The ministers are supported
by a sustentation fund formed of voluntary contributions, the rents of
seats and pews, and the proceeds of the commutation of the Regium
Donum made by the commissioners under the Irish Church Act 1869. Two
colleges are connected with the denomination, the General Assembly's
College, Belfast, and the Magee College, Londonderry. In 1881 the
faculty of the Belfast College and the theological professors of the
Magee College were incorporated and constituted as a faculty with the
power of granting degrees in divinity.

The Methodist Church in Ireland was formed in 1878 by the Union of
the Wesleyan with the Primitive Wesleyan Methodists. The number of
ministers is over 250.

_Education._--The following table shows that the proportion per cent
of the total population of five years old and upwards able to read and
write has been steadily rising since 1861:--

+-----------------------+-----------------------------+
| | Proportion per cent. |
| +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| |1861.|1871.|1881.|1891.|1901.|
+-----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Read and write | 41 | 49 | 59 | 71 | 79 |
| Read only | 20 | 17 | 16 | 11 | 7 |
| Neither read nor write| 39 | 33 | 25 | 18 | 14 |
+-----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

Further details on the same subject, according to provinces and
religious denominations in 1901, are subjoined:--

+---------------------------+---------+--------+-------+----------+
| |Leinster.|Munster.|Ulster.|Connaught.|
+---------------------------+---------+--------+-------+----------+
| Roman Catholics-- | | | | |
| Read and write | 80 | 80 | 70 | 72 |
| Read only | 7 | 5 | 11 | 7 |
| Neither read nor write | 13 | 15 | 19 | 21 |
| Protestant Episcopalians--| | | | |
| Read and write | 95 | 95 | 81 | 93 |
| Read only | 1 | 2 | 9 | 3 |
| Neither read nor write | 4 | 3 | 10 | 4 |
| Presbyterians-- | | | | |
| Read and write | 97 | 96 | 88 | 95 |
| Read only | 1 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| Neither read nor write | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Methodists-- | | | | |
| Read and write | 97 | 97 | 90 | 96 |
| Read only | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| Neither read nor write | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Others-- | | | | |
| Read and write | 91 | 91 | 90 | 94 |
| Read only | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| Neither read nor write | 7 | 7 | 4 | 5 |
| Total-- | | | | |
| Read and write | 83 | 81 | 79 | 72 |
| Read only | 6 | 5 | 9 | 7 |
| Neither read nor write | 11 | 14 | 12 | 21 |
+---------------------------+---------+--------+-------+----------+

_Language._--The number of persons who speak Irish only continues to
decrease. In 1881 they numbered 64,167; in 1891, 38,192; and in 1901,
20,953. If to those who spoke Irish only are added the persons who
could speak both Irish and English, the total number who could speak
Irish in 1901 was 641,142 or about 14% of the population. The purely
Irish-speaking population is to be found principally in the province
of Connaught, where in 1901 they numbered over 12,000. The efforts of
the Gaelic League, founded to encourage the study of Gaelic literature
and the Irish language, produced results seen in the census returns
for 1901, which showed that the pupils learning Irish had very largely
increased as compared with 1891.

Universities and colleges.

The university of Dublin (q.v.), which is for practical purposes
identical with Trinity College, Dublin, was incorporated in 1591. The
government is in the hands of a board consisting of the provost and the
senior fellows, assisted by a council in the election of professors and
in the regulation of studies. The council is composed of the provost
(and, in his absence, the vice-provost) and elected members. There is
also a senate, composed of the chancellor or vice-chancellor and all
doctors and masters who have kept their names on the books of Trinity
College. Religious tests were abolished in 1873, and the university is
now open to all; but, as a matter of fact, the vast majority of the
students, even since the abolition of tests, have always belonged to the
Church of Ireland, and the divinity school is purely Protestant.

In pursuance of the University Education (Ireland) Act 1879, the Queen's
University in Ireland was superseded in 1882 by the Royal University of
Ireland, it being provided that the graduates and students of the former
should have similar rank in the new university. The government of the
Royal University was vested in a senate consisting of a chancellor and
senators, with power to grant all such degrees as could be conferred by
any university in the United Kingdom, except in theology. Female
students had exactly the same rights as male students. The university
was simply an examining body, no residence in any college nor attendance
at lectures being obligatory. All appointments to the senate and to
fellowships were made on the principle that one half of those appointed
should be Roman Catholics and the other half Protestants; and in such
subjects as history and philosophy there were two courses of study
prescribed, one for Roman Catholics and the other for Protestants. In
1905 the number who matriculated was 947, of whom 218 were females, and
the number of students who passed the academic examinations was 2190.
The university buildings are in Dublin and the fellows were mostly
professors in the various colleges whose students were undergraduates.

The three Queen's Colleges, at Belfast, Cork and Galway, were founded in
1849 and until 1882 formed the Queen's University. Their curriculum
comprised all the usual courses of instruction, except theology. They
were open to all denominations, but, as might be expected, the Belfast
college (dissolved under the Irish Universities Act 1908; see below) was
almost entirely Protestant. Its situation in a great industrial centre
also made it the most important and flourishing of the three, its
students numbering over 400. It possessed an excellent medical school,
which was largely increased owing to private benefactions.

The Irish Universities Act 1908 provided for the foundation of two new
universities, having their seats respectively at Dublin and at Belfast.
The Royal University of Ireland at Dublin and the Queen's College,
Belfast, were dissolved. Provision was made for a new college to be
founded at Dublin. This college and the existing Queen's Colleges at
Cork and Galway were made constituent colleges of the new university at
Dublin. Letters patent dated December 2, 1908, granted charters to these
foundations under the titles of the National University of Ireland
(Dublin), the Queen's University of Belfast and the University Colleges
of Dublin, Cork and Galway. It was provided by the act that no test of
religious belief should be imposed on any person as a condition of his
holding any position in any foundation under the act. A body of
commissioners was appointed for each of the new foundations to draw up
statutes for its government; and for the purpose of dealing with any
matter calling for joint action, a joint commission, half from each of
the above commissions, was established. Regulations as to grants-in-aid
were made by the act, with the stipulation that no sum from them should
be devoted to the provision or maintenance of any building, or tutorial
or other office, for religious purposes, though private benefaction for
such purposes is not prohibited. Provisions were also made as to the
transfer of graduates and students, so that they might occupy under the
new régime positions equivalent to those which they occupied previously,
in respect both of degrees and the keeping of terms. The commissioners
were directed to work out schemes for the employment of officers already
employed in the institutions affected by the new arrangements, and for
the compensation of those whose employment could not be continued. A
committee of the privy council in Ireland was appointed, to be styled
the Irish Universities Committee.

The Roman Catholic University College in Dublin may be described as a
survival of the Roman Catholic University, a voluntary institution
founded in 1854. In 1882 the Roman Catholic bishops placed the buildings
belonging to the university under the control and direction of the
archbishop of Dublin, who undertook to maintain a college in which
education would be given according to the regulations of the Royal
University. In 1883 the direction of the college was entrusted to the
Jesuits. Although the college receives no grant from public funds, it
has proved very successful and attracts a considerable number of
students, the great majority of whom belong to the Church of Rome.

The Royal College of Science was established in Dublin in 1867 under the
authority of the Science and Art Department, London. Its object is to
supply a complete course of instruction in science as applicable to the
industrial arts. In 1900 the college was transferred from the Science
and Art Department to the Department of Agriculture and Technical
Instruction.

Maynooth (q.v.) College was founded by an Irish act of parliament in
1795 for the training of Roman Catholic students for the Irish
priesthood. By an act of 1844 it was permanently endowed by a grant from
the consolidated fund of over £26,000 a year. This grant was withdrawn
by the Irish Church Act 1869, the college receiving as compensation a
lump sum of over £372,000. The average number of students entering each
year is about 100.

There are two Presbyterian colleges, the General Assembly's College at
Belfast, which is purely theological, and the Magee College,
Londonderry, which has literary, scientific and theological courses. In
1881 the Assembly's College and the theological professors of Magee
College were constituted a faculty with power to grant degrees in
divinity.

In addition to the foregoing, seven Roman Catholic institutions were
ranked as colleges in the census of 1901:--All Hallows (Drumcondra),
Holycross (Clonliffe), University College (Blackrock), St Patrick's
(Carlow), St Kieran's (Kilkenny), St Stanislaus's (Tullamore) and St
Patrick's (Thurles). In 1901 the aggregate number of students was 715,
of whom 209 were returned as under the faculty of divinity.

Schools.

As regards secondary schools a broad distinction can be drawn
according to religion. The Roman Catholics have diocesan schools,
schools under religious orders, monastic and convent schools, and
Christian Brothers' schools, which were attended, according to the
census returns in 1901, by nearly 22,000 pupils, male and female. On
the other hand are the endowed schools, which are almost exclusively
Protestant in their government. Under this heading may be included
royal and diocesan schools and schools upon the foundation of Erasmus
Smith, and others privately endowed. In 1901 these schools numbered 55
and had an attendance of 2653 pupils. To these must be added various
private establishments, which in the same year had over 8000 pupils,
mainly Protestants. Dealing with these secondary schools as a whole
the census of 1901 gives figures as to the number of pupils engaged
upon what the commissioners call the "higher studies," i.e. studies
involving instruction in at least one foreign language. In 1881 the
number of such pupils was 18,657; in 1891, 23,484; and in 1901,
28,484, of whom 17,103 were males and 11,381 females, divided as
follows among the different religions--Roman Catholics 18,248,
Protestant Episcopalians 5669, Presbyterians 3011, Methodists 760, and
others 567. This increase in the number of pupils engaged in the
higher studies is probably due to a large extent to the scheme for the
encouragement of intermediate education which was established by act
of parliament in 1879. A sum of £1,000,000, part of the Irish Church
surplus, was assigned by that act for the promotion of the
intermediate secular education of boys and girls in Ireland. The
administration of this fund was entrusted to a board of commissioners,
who were to apply its revenue for the purposes of the act (1) by
carrying on a system of public examinations, (2) by awarding
exhibitions, prizes and certificates to students, and (3) by the
payment of results fees to the manager of schools. An amending act was
passed in 1900 and the examinations are now held under rules made in
virtue of that act. The number of students who presented themselves
for examination in 1905 was 9677; the amount expended in exhibitions
and prizes was £8536; and the grants to schools amounted to over
£50,000. The examinations were held at 259 centres in 99 different
localities.

Primary education in Ireland is under the general control of the
commissioners of national education, who were first created in 1831 to
take the place of the society for the education of the poor, and
incorporated in 1845. In the year of their incorporation the schools
under the control of the commissioners numbered 3426, with 432,844
pupils, and the amount of the parliamentary grants was £75,000; while
in 1905 there were 8659 schools, with 737,752 pupils, and the grant
was almost £1,400,000. Of the pupils attending in the latter year, 74%
were Roman Catholics, 12% Protestant Episcopalians and 11%
Presbyterians. The schools under the commissioners include national
schools proper, model and workhouse schools and a number of monastic
and convent schools. The Irish Education Act of 1892 provided that the
parents of children of not less than 6 nor more than 14 years of age
should cause them to attend school in the absence of reasonable excuse
on at least 150 days in the year in municipal boroughs and in towns or
townships under commissioners; and provisions were made for the
partial or total abolition of fees in specified circumstances, for a
parliamentary school grant in lieu of abolished school fees, and for
the augmentation of the salaries of the national teachers.

There are 5 reformatory schools, 3 for boys and 2 for girls, and 68
industrial schools, 5 Protestant and 63 Roman Catholic.

Technical instruction.

By the constituting act of 1899 the control of technical education in
Ireland was handed over to the Department of Agriculture and Technical
Instruction and now forms an important part of its work. The annual
sum of £55,000 was allocated for the purpose, and this is augmented in
various ways. The department has devoted itself to (1) promoting
instruction in experimental science, drawing, manual instruction and
domestic economy in day secondary schools, (2) supplying funds to
country and urban authorities for the organization of schemes for
technical instruction in non-agricultural subjects--these subjects
embracing not only preparation for the highly organized industries but
the teaching of such rural industries as basket-making, (3) the
training of teachers by classes held at various centres, (4) the
provision of central institutions, and (5) the awarding of
scholarships.

_Revenue and Expenditure._--The early statistics as to revenue and
expenditure in Ireland are very fragmentary and afford little
possibility of comparison. During the first 15 years of Elizabeth's
reign the expenses of Ireland, chiefly on account of wars, amounted,
according to Sir James Ware's estimate, to over £490,000, while the
revenue is put by some writers at £8000 per annum and by others at less.
In the reign of James I. the customs increased from £50 to over £9000;
but although he obtained from various sources about £10,000 a year and a
considerable sum also accrued from the plantation of Ulster, the revenue
is supposed to have fallen short of the expenditure by about £16,000 a
year. During the reign of Charles I. the customs increased fourfold in
value, but it was found necessary to raise £120,000 by yearly subsidies.
According to the report of the committee appointed by Cromwell to
investigate the financial condition of Ireland, the revenue in 1654 was
£197,304 and the expenditure £630,814. At the Restoration the Irish
parliament granted an hereditary revenue to the king, an excise for the
maintenance of the army, a subsidy of tonnage and poundage for the navy,
and a tax on hearths in lieu of feudal burdens. "Additional duties" were
granted shortly after the Revolution. "Appropriate duties" were imposed
at different periods; stamp duties were first granted in 1773, and the
post office first became a source of revenue in 1783. In 1706 the
hereditary revenue with additional duties produced over £394,000.

Returns of the ordinary revenue were first presented to the Irish
parliament in 1730. From special returns to parliament the following
table shows net income and expenditure over a series of years up to
1868:--

+------+-----------+------------+
| Year.| Income. |Expenditure.|
+------+-----------+------------+
| 1731 | £405,000 | £407,000 |
| 1741 | 441,000 | 441,000 |
| 1761 | 571,000 | 773,000 |
| 1781 | 739,000 | 1,015,000 |
| 1800 | 3,017,757 | 6,615,000 |
| 1834 | 3,814,000 | 3,439,800 |
| 1850 | 4,332,000 | 4,120,000 |
| 1860 | 7,851,000 | 6,331,000 |
| 1868 | 6,176,000 | 6,621,000 |
+------+-----------+------------+

The amount of imperial revenue collected and expended in Ireland under
various heads for the five years 1902-1906 appears in the following
tables:--

_Revenue._

+------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------+------------+-----------+
| | | |Estate, &c.| Property | Post | Miscel- | Total | Estimated |
| Year.| Customs. | Excise. | Duties |and Income | Office. | laneous.| Revenue. | True |
| | | |and Stamps.| Tax. | | | | Revenue. |
+------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------+------------+-----------+
| 1902 |£2,244,000 |£5,822,000 |£1,072,000 |£1,143,000 | £923,000 |£149,000 |£11,353,000 |£9,784,000 |
| 1903 | 2,717,000 | 6,011,000 | 922,000 | 1,244,000 | 960,000 | 148,500 | 12,002,500 |10,205,000 |
| 1904 | 2,545,000 | 5,904,000 | 1,033,000 | 1,038,000 | 980,000 | 146,500 | 11,646,500 | 9,748,500 |
| 1905 | 2,575,000 | 5,584,000 | 1,016,000 | 1,013,000 |1,002,000 | 150,500 | 11,340,500 | 9,753,500 |
| 1906 | 2,524,000 | 5,506,000 | 890,000 | 983,000 |1,043,000 | 150,000 | 11,096,000 | 9,447,000 |
+------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------+------------+-----------+

_Expenditure._

+------+---------+-----------+---------------------+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| | | | Local Taxation | | | | | |
| | Consoli-| | Accounts. | Total | | | | Estimated |
| Year.| dated | Voted. +---------+-----------+ Civil |Collection| Post | Total | True |
| | Fund. | | Local | Exchequer | Charges. | of Taxes.| Office. | Expended. | Revenue. |
| | | |Taxation | Revenue. | | | | | |
| | | | Revenue.| | | | | | |
+------+---------+-----------+---------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 1902 |£169,000 |£4,271,000 |£389,000 |£1,055,000 |£5,884,000 | £243,000 |£1,087,000 |£7,214,000 |£9,784,000 |
| 1903 | 168,500 | 4,357,500 | 383,000 | 1,058,000 | 5,967,000 | 246,000 | 1,140,000 | 7,353,000 |10,205,000 |
| 1904 | 170,000 | 4,569,000 | 376,000 | 1,059,000 | 6,174,000 | 248,000 | 1,126,000 | 7,548,000 | 9,784,500 |
| 1905 | 166,000 | 4,547,000 | 374,000 | 1,059,000 | 6,146,000 | 249,000 | 1,172,000 | 7,567,000 | 9,753,500 |
| 1906 | 164,000 | 4,582,500 | 385,000 | 1,059,000 | 6,191,500 | 245,000 | 1,199,000 | 7,635,500 | 9,447,000 |
+------+---------+-----------+---------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

Subtracting in each year the total expenditure from the estimated true
revenue it would appear from the foregoing table that Ireland
contributed to imperial services in the years under consideration the
following sums: £2,570,000, £2,852,000, £2,200,500, £2,186,500 and
£1,811,500.

The financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland have long been
a subject of controversy, and in 1894 a royal commission was appointed
to consider them, which presented its report in 1896. The commissioners,
though differing on several points, were practically agreed on the
following five conclusions: (1) that Great Britain and Ireland must, for
the purposes of a financial inquiry, be considered as separate entities;
(2) that the Act of Union imposed upon Ireland a burden which, as events
showed, she was unable to bear; (3) that the increase of taxation laid
upon Ireland between 1853 and 1860 was not justified by the then
existing circumstances; (4) that identity of rates of taxation did not
necessarily involve equality of burden; (5) that, while the actual tax
revenue of Ireland was about one-eleventh of that of Great Britain, the
relative taxable capacity of Ireland was very much smaller, and was not
estimated by any of the commissioners as exceeding one-twentieth. This
report furnished the material for much controversy, but little practical
outcome; it was avowedly based on the consideration of Ireland as a
separate country, and was therefore inconsistent with the principles of
Unionism.

The public debt of Ireland amounted to over £134,000,000 in 1817, in
which year it was consolidated with the British national debt.

_Local Taxation._--The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 effected
considerable changes in local finance. The fiscal duties of the grand
jury were abolished, and the county council which took the place of
the grand jury for both fiscal and administrative purposes was given
three sources of revenue: (1) the agricultural grant, (2) the licence
duties and other imperial grants, and (3) the poor rate. These may be
considered separately. (1) It was provided that the Local Government
Board should ascertain the amount of county cess and poor rate levied
off agricultural land in Ireland during the year ending (as regards
the poor rate) on the 29th of September, and (as regards the county
cess) on the 21st of June 1897; and that half this amount, to be
called the agricultural grant, should be paid annually without any
variation from the original sum out of the consolidated fund to a
local taxation account. The amount of the agricultural grant was
ascertained to be over £727,000. Elaborate provisions were also made
in the act for fixing the proportion of the grant to which each county
should be entitled, and the lord-lieutenant was empowered to pay
half-yearly the proportion so ascertained to the county council. (2)
Before the passing of the act grants were made from the imperial
exchequer to the grand juries in aid of the maintenance of lunatics
and to boards of guardians for medical and educational purposes and
for salaries under the Public Health (Ireland) Act. In 1897 these
grants amounted to over £236,000. Under the Local Government Act they
ceased, and in lieu thereof it was provided that there should be
annually paid out of the consolidated fund to the local taxation
account a sum equal to the duties collected in Ireland on certain
specified local taxation licences. In addition, it was enacted that
a fixed sum of £79,000 should be forthcoming annually from the
consolidated fund. (3) The county cess was abolished, and the county
councils were empowered to levy a single rate for the rural districts
and unions, called by the name of poor rate, for all the purposes of
the act. This rate is made upon the occupier and not upon the
landlord, and the occupier is not entitled, save in a few specified
cases, to deduct any of the rate from his rent. For the year ending
the 31st of March 1905, the total receipts of the Irish county
councils, exclusive of the county boroughs, were £2,964,298 and their
total expenditure was £2,959,961, the two chief items of expenditure
being "Union Charges" £1,002,620 and "Road Expenditure" £779,174.
During the same period the total receipts from local taxation in
Ireland amounted to £4,013,303, and the amount granted from imperial
sources in aid of local taxation was £1,781,143.

_Loans._--The total amount issued on loan, exclusive of closed
sources, by the Commissioners of Public Works, up to the 31st of March
1906, was £26,946,393, of which £15,221,913 had been repaid to the
exchequer as principal and £9,011,506 as interest, and £1,609,694 had
been remitted. Of the sums advanced, about £5,500,000 was under the
Improvement of Lands Acts, nearly £3,500,000 under the Public Health
Acts, over £3,000,000 for lunatic asylums, and over £3,000,000 under
the various Labourers Acts.

_Banking._--The Bank of Ireland was established in Dublin in 1783 with
a capital of £600,000, which was afterwards enlarged at various times,
and on the renewal of its charter in 1821 it was increased to
£3,000,000. It holds in Ireland a position corresponding to the Bank
of England in England. There are eight other joint-stock banks in
Ireland. Including the Bank of Ireland, their subscribed capital
amounts to £26,349,230 and their paid-up capital to £7,309,230. The
authorized note circulation is £6,354,494 and the actual note
circulation in June 1906 was £6,310,243, two of the banks not being
banks of issue. The deposits in the joint-stock banks amounted in 1880
to £29,350,000; in 1890 to £33,061,000; in 1900 to £40,287,000; and in
1906 to £45,842,000. The deposits in the Post Office Savings Banks
rose from £1,481,000 in 1880 to £10,459,000 in 1906, and the deposits
in Trustee Savings Banks from £2,100,165 in 1880 to £2,488,740 in
1905.

_National Wealth._--To arrive at any estimate of the national wealth
is exceptionally difficult in the case of Ireland, since the largest
part of its wealth is derived from agriculture, and many important
factors, such as the amount of capital invested in the linen and other
industries, cannot be included, owing to their uncertainty. The
following figures for 1905-1906 may, however, be given: valuation of
lands, houses, &c., £15,466,000; value of principal crops,
£35,362,000; value of cattle, &c., £81,508,000; paid-up capital and
reserve funds of joint-stock banks, £11,300,000; deposits in
joint-stock and savings banks, £58,791,000; investments in government
stock, transferable at Bank of Ireland, £36,952,000; paid-up capital
and debentures of railway companies, £38,405,000; paid-up capital of
tramway companies, £2,074,000.

In 1906 the net value of property assessed to estate duty, &c., in
Ireland was £16,016,000 as compared with £306,673,000 in England and
£38,451,000 in Scotland; and in 1905 the net produce of the income tax
in Ireland was £983,000, as compared with £27,423,000 in England and
£2,888,000 in Scotland.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Agriculture: Accounts of the land systems of Ireland
will be found in James Godkin's _Land War in Ireland_ (1870);
Sigerson's _History of Land Tenure in Ireland_ (1871); Joseph Fisher's
_History of Land Holding in Ireland_ (1877); R. B. O'Brien's _History
of the Irish Land Question_ (1880); A. G. Richey's _Irish Land Laws_
(1880). General information will be found in J. P. Kennedy's Digest of
the evidence given before the Devon Commission (Dublin, 1847-1848);
the _Report_ of the Bessborough Commission, 1881, and of the
commission on the agriculture of the United Kingdom, 1881. The
Department of Agriculture publishes several official annual reports,
dealing very fully with Irish agriculture.

Manufactures and Commerce: _Discourse on the Woollen Manufacture of
Ireland_ (1698); _An Inquiry into the State and Progress of the Linen
Manufacture in Ireland_ (Dublin, 1757); G. E. Howard, _Treatise on the
Revenue of Ireland_ (1776); John Hely Hutchinson, _Commercial
Restraints of Ireland_ (1779); Lord Sheffield, _Observations on the
Manufactures, Trade and Present State of Ireland_ (1785); R. B.
Clarendon, _A Sketch of the Revenue and Finances of Ireland_ (1791);
the annual reports of the Flax Supply Association and other local
bodies, published at Belfast; reports by the Department of Agriculture
on Irish imports and exports (these are a new feature and contain much
valuable information).

Miscellaneous: Sir William Petty, _Political Anatomy of Ireland_
(1691); Arthur Dobbs, _Essay on the Trade of Ireland_ (1729);
_Abstract of the Number of Protestant and Popish Families in Ireland_
(1726); Arthur Young, _Tour in Ireland_ (1780); T. Newenham, _View of
the Circumstances of Ireland_ (1809), and _Inquiry into the Population
of Ireland_ (1805); César Moreau, _Past and Present State of Ireland_
(1827); J. M. Murphy, _Ireland, Industrial, Political and Social_
(1870); R. Dennis, _Industrial Ireland_ (1887); Grimshaw, _Facts and
Figures about Ireland_ (1893); _Report of the Recess Committee_
(1896, published in Dublin); _Report of the Financial Relations
Commission_ (1897); Sir H. Plunkett, _Ireland in the New Century_
(London, 1905); Filson Young, _Ireland at the Cross-Roads_ (London,
1904); Thom's _Almanac_, published annually in Dublin, gives a very
useful summary of statistics and other information. (W. H. Po.)

EARLY HISTORY

Historical sources.

On account of its isolated position we might expect to find Ireland in
possession of a highly developed system of legends bearing on the
origins of its inhabitants. Ireland remained outside the pale of the
ancient Roman world, and a state of society which was peculiarly
favourable to the preservation of national folk-lore survived in the
island until the 16th century. The jealousy with which the hereditary
antiquaries guarded the tribal genealogies naturally leads us to hope
that the records which have come down to us may shed some light on the
difficult problems connected with the early inhabitants of these islands
and the west of Europe. Although innumerable histories of Ireland have
appeared in print since the publication of Roderick O'Flaherty's
_Ogygia_ (London, 1677), the authors have in almost every case been
content to reproduce the legendary accounts without bringing any serious
criticism to bear on the sources. This is partly to be explained by the
fact that the serious study of Irish philology only dates from 1853 and
much of the most important material has not yet appeared in print. In
the middle of the 19th century O'Donovan and O'Curry collected a vast
amount of undigested information about the early history of the island,
but as yet J. B. Bury in his monograph on St Patrick is the only trained
historian who has ever adequately dealt with any of the problems
connected with ancient Ireland. Hence it is evident that our knowledge
of the subject must remain extremely unsatisfactory until the chief
sources have been properly sifted by competent scholars. A beginning has
been made by Sir John Rhys in his "Studies in Early Irish History"
(_Proceedings of the British Academy_, vol. i.), and by John MacNeill in
a suggestive series of papers contributed to the _New Ireland Review_
(March 1906-Feb. 1907). Much might reasonably be expected from the
sciences of archaeology and anthropology. But although Ireland is as
rich as, or even richer in monuments of the past than, most countries in
Europe, comparatively little has been done owing in large measure to the
lack of systematic investigation.

It may be as well to specify some of the more important sources at the
outset. Of the classical writers who notice Ireland Ptolemy is the only
one who gives us any very definite information. The legendary origins
first appear in Nennius and in a number of poems by such writers as
Maelmura (d. 884), Cinaed Uah Artacáin (d. 975), Eochaid Ua Flainn (d.
984), Flann Mainistrech (d. 1056) and Gilla Coemgin (d. 1072). They are
also embodied in the _Leabhar Gabhála_ or _Book of Invasions_, the
earliest copy of which is contained in the _Book of Leinster_, a
12th-century MS., Geoffrey Keating's _History_, Dugald MacFirbis's
_Genealogies_ and various collections of annals such as those by the
Four Masters. Of prime importance for the earlier period are the stories
known collectively as the Ulster cycle, among which the lengthy epic the
_Táin Bo Cúalnge_ takes first place. Amongst the numerous chronicles the
_Annals of Ulster_, which commence with the year 441, are by far the
most trustworthy. The _Book of Rights_ is another compilation which
gives valuable information with regard to the relations of the various
kingdoms to one another. Finally, there are the extensive collections of
genealogies preserved in Rawlinson B 502, the _Books of Leinster_ and
_Ballymote_.

_Earliest Inhabitants._--There is as yet no certain evidence to show
that Ireland was inhabited during the palaeolithic period. But there are
abundant traces of man in the neolithic state of culture (see Sir W. R.
W. Wilde's _Catalogue_ of the antiquities in the Museum of the Royal
Irish Academy). The use of bronze was perhaps introduced about 1450 B.C.
The craniological evidence is unfortunately at present insufficient to
show whether the introduction of metal coincided with any particular
invasion either from Britain or the European continent. At any rate it
was not until well on in the Bronze Age, perhaps about 600 or 500 B.C.,
that the Goidels, the first invaders speaking a Celtic language, set
foot in Ireland. The newcomers probably overran the whole island,
subduing but not exterminating the older race with which they doubtless
intermarried freely, as pre-Celtic types are frequent among the
populations of Connaught and Munster at the present day. What the
language was that was spoken by the neolithic aborigines is a question
which will probably never be settled. The division into provinces or
"fifths" (Ulster, Leinster, Connaught, E. Munster and W. Munster)
appears to be older than the historical period, and may be due to the
Goidels. Between 300 B.C. and 150 B.C. various Belgic and other
Brythonic tribes established themselves in Britain bringing with them
the knowledge of how to work in iron. Probably much about the same time
certain Belgic tribes effected settlements in the S.E. of Ireland. Some
time must have elapsed before any Brythonic people undertook to defy the
powerful Goidelic states, as the supremacy of the Brythonic kingdom of
Tara does not seem to have been acknowledged before the 4th century of
our era. The early Belgic settlers constituted perhaps in the main
trading states which acted as intermediaries of commerce between Ireland
and Gaul.[1] In addition to these Brythonic colonies a number of Pictish
tribes, who doubtless came over from Scotland, conquered for themselves
parts of Antrim and Down where they maintained their independence till
late in the historical period. Picts are also represented as having
settled in the county of Roscommon; but we have at present no means of
ascertaining when this invasion took place.

_Classical Writers._--Greek and Roman writers seem to have possessed
very little definite information about the island, though much of what
they relate corresponds to the state of society disclosed in the older
epics. Strabo held the inhabitants to be mere savages, addicted to
cannibalism and having no marriage ties. Solinus speaks of the luxurious
pastures, but the natives he terms an inhospitable and warlike nation.
The conquerors among them having first drunk the blood of their enemies,
afterwards besmear their faces therewith; they regard right and wrong
alike. Whenever a woman brings forth a male child, she puts his first
food on the sword of her husband, and lightly introduces the first
_auspicium_ of nourishment into his little mouth with the point of the
sword. Pomponius Mela speaks of the climate as unfit for ripening grain,
but he, too, notices the luxuriance of the grass. However, it is not
until we reach Ptolemy that we feel we are treading on firm ground. His
description is of supreme importance for the study of early Irish
ethnography. Ptolemy gives the names of sixteen peoples in Ireland,
several of which can be identified. As we should expect from our
knowledge of later Irish history scarcely any towns are mentioned. In
the S.E., probably in Co. Wicklow, we find the Manapii--evidently a
colony from N.E. Gaul. North of them, perhaps in Kildare, a similar
people, the Cauci, are located. In Waterford and Wexford are placed the
Brigantes, who also occur in Yorkshire. The territory to the west of the
Brigantes is occupied by a people called by Ptolemy the Iverni. Their
capital he gives as Ivernis, and in the extreme S.W. of the island he
marks the mouth of the river Iernos, by which the top of Dingle Bay
called Castlemaine Harbour is perhaps intended. The Iverni must have
been a nation of considerable importance, as they play a prominent part
in the historical period, where they are known as the Érnai or Éraind of
Munster. It would seem that the Iverni were the first native tribe with
whom foreign traders came in contact, as it is from them that the Latin
name for the whole island is derived. The earliest form was probably
_Iveriyo_ or _Iveriyu_, genitive _Iveryonos_, from which come Lat.
_Iverio_, _Hiverio_ (Antonine Itinerary), _Hiberio_ (Confession of St
Patrick), Old Irish _Ériu_, _Hériu_, gen. _Hérenn_ with regular loss of
intervocalic v, _Welsh Iwerddon_ (from the oblique cases). West of the
Iverni in Co. Kerry Ptolemy mentions the Vellabori, and going in a
northerly direction following the coast we find the Gangani, Autini
(Autiri), Nagnatae (Magnatae). Erdini (cf. the name Lough Erne),
Vennicnii, Rhobogdii, Darini and Eblanii, none of whom can be identified
with certainty. In south Ulster Ptolemy locates a people called the
Voluntii who seem to correspond to the Ulidians of a later period (Ir.
_Ulaid_, in Irish Lat. _Uloti_). About Queen's county or Tipperary are
situated the Usdiae, whose name is compared with the later Ossory (Ir.
_Os-raige_). Lastly, in the north of Wexford we find the Coriondi who
occur in Irish texts near the Boyne (Mid. Ir. _Coraind_). It would seem
as if Ptolemy's description of Ireland answered in some measure to the
state of affairs which we find obtaining in the older Ulster epic
cycle.[2] Both are probably anterior to the foundation of a central
state at Tara.

_Legendary Origins._--We can unfortunately derive no further assistance
from external sources and must therefore examine the native traditions.
From the 9th century onwards we find accounts of various races who had
colonized the island. These stories naturally become amplified as times
goes on, and in what we may regard as the classical or standard versions
to be found in Keating, the Four Masters, Dugald MacFirbis and
elsewhere, no fewer than five successive invasions are enumerated. The
first colony is represented as having arrived in Ireland in A.M. 2520,
under the leadership of an individual named Partholan who hailed from
Middle Greece. His company landed in Kenmare Bay and settled in what is
now Co. Dublin. After occupying the island for 300 years they were all
carried off by a plague and were buried at Tallaght (Ir. _Tamlacht_,
"plague-grave"), at which place a number of ancient remains (probably
belonging, however, to the Viking period) have come to light. In A.M.
2850 a warrior from Scythia called Nemed reached Ireland with 900
fighting men. Nemed's people are represented as having to struggle for
their existence with a race of sea-pirates known as the Fomorians. The
latter's stronghold was Tory Island, where they had a mighty fortress.
After undergoing great hardship the Nemedians succeeded in destroying
the fortress and in slaying the enemies' leaders, but the Fomorians
received reinforcements from Africa. A second battle was fought in which
both parties were nearly exterminated. Of the Nemedians only thirty
warriors escaped, among them being three descendants of Nemed, who made
their way each to a different country (A.M. 3066). One of them, Simon
Brec, proceeded to Greece, where his posterity multiplied to such an
extent that the Greeks grew afraid and reduced them to slavery. In time
their position became so intolerable that they resolved to escape, and
they arrived in Ireland A.M. 3266. This third body of invaders is known
collectively as Firbolgs, and is ethnologically and historically very
important. They are stated to have had five leaders, all brothers, each
of whom occupied one of the provinces or "fifths." We find them landing
in different places. One party, the Fir Galeoin, landed at Inber Slangi,
the mouth of the Slaney, and occupied much of Leinster. Another, the Fir
Domnand, settled in Mayo where their name survives in Irrus Domnand, the
ancient name for the district of Erris. A third band, the Firbolg
proper, took possession of Munster. Many authorities such as Keating and
MacFirbis admit that descendants of the Firbolgs were still to be found
in parts of Ireland in their own day, though they are characterized as
"tattling, guileful, tale-bearing, noisy, contemptible, mean, wretched,
unsteady, harsh and inhospitable." The Firbolgs had scarcely established
themselves in the island when a fresh set of invaders appeared on the
scene. These were the Tuatha Dé Danann ("tribes of the god Danu"), who
according to the story were also descended from Nemed. They came
originally from Greece and were highly skilled in necromancy. Having to
flee from Greece on account of a Syrian invasion they proceeded to
Scandinavia. Under Nuadu Airgetláim they moved to Scotland, and finally
arrived in Ireland (A.M. 3303), bringing with them in addition to the
celebrated Lia Fáil ("stone of destiny") which they set up at Tara, the
cauldron of the Dagda and the sword and spear of Lugaid Lámfada.
Eochaid, son of Erc, king of the Firbolgs, having declined to surrender
the sovereignty of Ireland, a great battle was fought on the plain of
Moytura near Cong (Co. Mayo), the site of a prehistoric cemetery. In
this contest the Firbolgs were overthrown with great slaughter, and the
remnants of the race according to Keating and other writers took refuge
in Arran, Islay, Rathlin and the Hebrides, where they dwelt until driven
out by Picts. Twenty-seven years later the Tuatha Dé had to defend
themselves against the Fomorians, who were almost annihilated at the
battle of north Moytura near Sligo. The Tuatha Dé then enjoyed
undisturbed possession of Ireland until the arrival of the Milesians in
A.M. 3500.

All the early writers dwell with great fondness on the origin and
adventures of this race. The Milesians came primarily from Scythia and
after sojourning for some time in Egypt, Crete and in Scythia again,
they finally arrived in Spain. In the line of mythical ancestors which
extends without interruption up to Noah, the names of Fenius Farsaid,
Goedel Glas, Eber Scot and Breogan constantly recur in Irish story. At
length eight sons of Miled (Lat. _Milesius_) set forth to conquer
Ireland. The spells of the Tuatha Dé accounted for most of their number.
However, after two battles the newcomers succeeded in overcoming the
older race; and two brothers, Eber Find and Eremon, divided the island
between them, Eber Find taking east and west Munster, whilst Eremon
received Leinster and Connaught. Lugaid, son of the brother of Miled,
took possession of south-west Munster. At the same time Ulster was left
to Eber son of Ir son of Miled. The old historians agree that Ireland
was ruled by a succession of Milesian monarchs until the reign of
Roderick O'Connor, the last native king. The Tuatha Dé are represented
as retiring into the _síd_ or fairy mounds. Eber Find and Eremon did not
remain long in agreement. The historians place the beginnings of the
antithesis between north and south at the very commencement of the
Milesian domination. A battle was fought between the two brothers in
which Eber Find lost his life. In the reign of Eremon the Picts are
stated to have arrived in Ireland, coming from Scythia. It will have
been observed that Scythia had a peculiar attraction for medieval Irish
chroniclers on account of its resemblance to the name Scotti, Scots. The
Picts first settled in Leinster; but the main body were forced to remove
to Scotland, only a few remaining behind in Meath. Among the numerous
mythical kings placed by the annalists between Eremon and the Christian
era we may mention Tigernmas (A.M. 3581), Ollam Fodla (A.M. 3922) who
established the meeting of Tara, Cimbaeth (c. 305 B.C.) the reputed
founder of Emain Macha, Ugaine Mór, Labraid Loingsech, and Eochaid
Feidlech, who built Rath Cruachan for his celebrated daughter, Medb
queen of Connaught. During the 1st century of our era we hear of the
rising of the _aithech-tuatha_, i.e. subject or plebeian tribes, or in
other words the Firbolgs, who paid _daer_- or base rent to the
Milesians. From a resemblance in the name which is probably fortuitous
these tribes have been identified with the Attecotti of Roman writers.
Under Cairbre Cinnchait ("cathead") the oppressed peoples succeeded in
wresting the sovereignty from the Milesians, whose princes and nobles
were almost exterminated (A.D. 90). The line of Eremon was, however,
restored on the accession of Tuathal Techtmar ("the legitimate"), who
reigned A.D. 130-160. This ruler took measures to consolidate the power
of the _ardrí_ (supreme king). He constructed a number of fortresses on
the great central plain and carved out the kingdom of Meath to serve as
his mensal land. The new kingdom was composed of the present counties of
Meath, Westmeath and Longford together with portions of Monaghan, Cavan,
King's Co. and Kildare. He was also the first to levy the famous
Leinster tribute, the _boroma_, in consequence of an insult offered to
him by one of the kings of that province. This tribute, which was only
remitted in the 7th century at the instance of St Moling, must have been
the source of constant war and oppression. A grandson of Tuathal's, the
famous Conn Cétchathach ("the hundred-fighter"), whose death is placed
in the year 177 after a reign of about twenty years, was constantly at
war with the Munster ruler Eogan Mór, also called Mog Nuadat, of the
race of Eber Find. Eogan had subdued the Érnai and the Corco Laigde
(descendants of Lugaid son of Ith) in Munster, and even the supreme king
was obliged to share the island with him. Hence the well-known names
Leth Cuinn or "Conn's half" (north Ireland), and Leth Moga or "Mug's
half" (south Ireland). The boundary line ran from the Bay of Galway to
Dublin along the great ridge of gravel known as Eiscir Riada which
stretches across Ireland. Mog Nuadat had a son Ailill Aulom who plays a
prominent part in the Irish sagas and genealogies, and his sons Eogan,
Cian and Cormac Cas, all became the ancestors of well-known families.
Conn's grandson, Cormac son of Art, is represented as having reigned in
great splendour (254-266) and as having been a great patron of learning.
It was during this reign that the sept of the Dési were expelled from
Meath. They settled in Munster where their name still survives in the
barony of Decies (Co. Waterford). A curious passage in Cormac's
_Glossary_ connects one of the leaders of this sept, Cairpre Musc, with
the settlements of the Irish in south Wales which may have taken place
as early as the 3rd century. Of greater consequence was the invasion of
Ulster by the three Collas, cousins of the ardrí Muredach. The
stronghold of Emain Macha was destroyed and the Ulstermen were driven
across the Newry River into Dalriada, which was inhabited by Picts.

The old inhabitants of Ulster are usually termed Ulidians to distinguish
them from the Milesian peoples who overran the province. With the advent
of Niall Nóigiallach ("N. of the nine hostages" reigned 379-405) son of
Eochaid Muigmedóin (358-366) we are treading safer ground. It was about
this time that the Milesian kingdom of Tara was firmly established. Nor
was Niall's activity confined to Ireland alone. Irish sources represent
him as constantly engaged in marauding expeditions oversea, and it was
doubtless on one of these that St Patrick was taken captive. These
movements coincide with the inroads of the Picts and Scots recorded by
Roman writers. It is probably from this period that the Irish colonies
in south Wales, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall date. And the earliest
migrations from Ulster to Argyll may also have taken place about this
time. Literary evidence of the colonization of south Wales is preserved
both in Welsh and Irish sources, and some idea of the extent of Irish
oversea activity may be gathered from the distribution of the Ogam
inscriptions in Wales, south-west England and the Isle of Man.

_Criticism of the Legendary Origins._--It is only in recent years that
the Irish legendary origins have been subjected to serious criticism.
The fondly cherished theory which attributes Milesian descent to the
bulk of the native population has at length been assailed. MacNeill
asserts that in MacFirbis's genealogies the majority of the tribes in
early Ireland do not trace their descent to Eremon and Eber Find; they
are rather the descendants of the subject races, one of which figures in
the list of conquests under the name of Firbolg. The stories of the
Fomorians were doubtless suggested in part by the Viking invasions, but
the origin of the Partholan legend has not been discovered. The Tuatha
Dé do not appear in any of the earliest quasi-historical documents, nor
in Nennius, and they scarcely correspond to any particular race. It
seems more probable that a special invasion was assigned to them by
later writers in order to explain the presence of mythical personages
going by their name in the heroic cycles, as they were found
inconvenient by the monkish historians. In the early centuries of our
era Ireland would therefore have been occupied by the Firbolgs and
kindred races and the Milesians. According to MacNeill the Firbolg
tribal names are formed with the suffix -_raige_, e.g. _Ciarraige_,
Kerry, _Osraige_, Ossory, or with the obscure words _Corcu_ and _mocu_
(_maccu_), e.g. _Corco Duibne_, Corkaguiney, _Corco Mruad_, Corcomroe,
_Macu Loegdae_, _Macu Teimne_. In the case of _corcu_ and _mocu_ the
name which follows is frequently the name of an eponymous ancestor. The
Milesians on the other hand named themselves after an historical
ancestor employing terms such as _ui_, "descendants," _cland_,
"children," _dál_, "division," _cinél_, "kindred," or _síl_, "seed." In
this connexion it may be noted that practically all the Milesian
pedigrees converge on three ancestors in the 2nd century--Conn
Cétchathach king of Tara, Cathair Mór of Leinster, and Ailill Aulom of
Munster,--whilst in scarcely any of them are mythological personages
absent when we go farther back than A.D. 300. Special genealogies were
framed to link up other races, e.g. the Éraind and Corcu Loegdi of
Munster and the Ulidians with the Milesians of Tara.

The peculiar characteristic of the Milesian conquest is the
establishment of a central monarchy at Tara. No trace of such a state of
affairs is to be found in the Ulster epic. In the _Táin Bó Cúalnge_ we
find Ireland divided into fifths, each ruled over by its own king. These
divisions were: Ulster with Emain Macha as capital, Connaught with
Cruachu as residence, north Munster from Slieve Bloom to north Kerry,
south Munster from south Kerry to Waterford, and Leinster consisting of
the two kingdoms of Tara and Ailinn. Moreover, the kings of Tara
mentioned in the Ulster cycle do not figure in any list of Milesian
kings. It would appear then that the central kingdom of Tara was an
innovation subsequent to the state of society described in the oldest
sagas and the political position reflected in Ptolemy's account. It was
probably due to an invasion undertaken by Brythons[3] from Britain, but
it is impossible to assign a precise date for their arrival. Until the
end of the 3rd century the Milesian power must have been confined to the
valley of the Boyne and the district around Tara. At the beginning of
the 4th century the three Collas founded the kingdom of Oriel
(comprising the present counties of Armagh, Monaghan, north Louth, south
Fermanagh) and drove the Ulidians into the eastern part of the province.
Brian and Fiachra, sons of Eochaid Muigmedóin, conquered for themselves
the country of the Ui Briuin (Roscommon, Leitrim, Cavan) and Tír
Fiachrach, the territory of the Firbolg tribe the Fir Domnann in the
valley of the Moy (Co. Mayo). Somewhat later south Connaught was
similarly wrested from the older race and colonized by descendants of
Brian and Fiachra, later known as Ui Fiachrach Aidni and Ui Briuin
Seola. The north of Ulster is stated to have been conquered and
colonized by Conall and Eogan, sons of Niall Nóigiallach. The former
gave his name to the western portion, Tír Conaill (Co. Donegal), whilst
Inishowen was called Tír Eogain after Eogan. The name Tír Eogain later
became associated with south Ulster where it survives in the county name
Tyrone. The whole kingdom of the north is commonly designated the
kingdom of Ailech, from the ancient stronghold near Derry which the sons
of Niall probably took over from the earlier inhabitants. At the end of
the 5th century Maine, a relative of the king of Tara, was apportioned a
tract of Firbolg territory to the west of the Suck in Connaught, which
formed the nucleus of a powerful state known as Hy Maine (in English
commonly called the "O'Kelly's country"). Thus practically the whole of
the north and west gradually came under the sway of the Milesian rulers.
Nevertheless one portion retained its independence. This was Ulidia,
consisting of Dalriada, Dal Fiatach, Dal Araide, including the present
counties of Antrim and Down. The bulk of the population here was
probably Pictish; but the Dal Fiatach, representing the old Ulidians or
ancient population of Ulster, maintained themselves until the 8th
century when they were subdued by their Pictish neighbours. The
relationship of Munster and Leinster to the Tara dynasty is not so easy
to define. The small kingdom of Ossory remained independent until a very
late period. As for Leinster none of the Brythonic peoples mentioned by
Ptolemy left traces of their name, although it is possible that the
ruling family may have been derived from them. It would seem that the
Fir Galeoin who play such a prominent part in the _Táin_ had been
crushed before authentic history begins. The king of Leinster was for
centuries the most determined opponent of the _ardrí_, an antithesis
which is embodied in the story of the _boroma_ tribute. When we turn to
Munster we find that Cashel was the seat of power in historical times.
Now Cashel (a loanword from Lat. _castellum_) was not founded Until the
beginning of the 5th century by Core son of Lugaid. The legendary
account attributes the subjugation of the various peoples inhabiting
Munster to Mog Nuadat, and the pedigrees are invariably traced up to his
son Ailill Aulom. Rhys adopts the view that the race of Eber Find was
not Milesian but a branch of the Érnai, and this theory has much in its
favour. The allegiance of the rulers of Munster to Niall and his
descendants can at the best of times only have been nominal.

In this way we get a number of over-kingdoms acknowledging only the
supremacy of the Tara dynasty. These were (1) Munster with Cashel as
centre, (2) Connaught, (3) Ailech, (4) Oriel, (5) Ulidia, (6) Meath, (7)
Leinster, (8) Ossory. Some of these states might be split up into
various parts at certain periods, each part becoming for the time-being
an over-kingdom. For instance, Ailech might be resolved into Tír Conaill
and Tír Eogain according to political conditions. Hence the number of
over-kingdoms is given variously in different documents. The supremacy
was vested in the descendants of Niall Nóigiallach without interruption
until 1002; but as Niall's descendants were represented by four reigning
families, the high-kingship passed from one branch to another.
Nevertheless after the middle of the 8th century the title of _ardrí_
(high-king) was only held by the Cinél Eogain (northern Hy Neill) and
the rulers of Meath (southern Hy Neill), as the kingdom of Oriel had
dropped into insignificance. The supremacy of the _ardrí_ was more often
than not purely nominal. This must have been particularly the case in
Leth Moga.

_Religion in Early Ireland._--Our knowledge of the beliefs of the pagan
Irish is very slight. The oldest texts belonging to the heroic cycle are
not preserved in any MS. before 1100, and though the sagas were
certainly committed to writing several centuries before that date, it is
evident that the monkish transcribers have toned down or omitted
features that savoured too strongly of paganism. Supernatural beings
play an important part in the _Táin Bó Cualgne_, _Cuchulinn's Sickbed_,
the _Wooing of Emer_ and similar stories, but the relations between
ordinary mortals and such divine or semi-divine personages is not easy
to establish. It seems unlikely that the ancient Irish had a highly
developed pantheon. On the other hand there are abundant traces of
animistic worship, which have survived in wells, often associated with a
sacred tree (Ir. _bile_), bulláns, pillar stones, weapons. There are
also traces of the worship of the elements, prominent among which are
sun and fire. The belief in earth spirits or fairies (Ir. _aes síde_,
_síd_) forms perhaps the most striking feature of Irish belief. The
sagas teem with references to the inhabitants of the fairy mounds, who
play such an important part in the mind of the peasantry of our own
time. These supernatural beings are sometimes represented as immortal,
but often they fall victims to the prowess of mortals. Numerous cases of
marriage between fairies and mortals are recorded. The Tuatha Dé Danann
is used as a collective name for the _aes síde_. The representatives of
this race in the _Táin Bó Cualgne_ play a somewhat similar part to the
gods of the ancient Greeks in the _Iliad_, though they are of necessity
of a much more shadowy nature. Prominent among them were Manannán mac
Lir, who is connected with the sea and the Isle of Man, and the Dagda,
the father of a numerous progeny. One of them, Bodb Derg, resided near
Portumna on the shore of Lough Derg, whilst another, Angus Mac-in-óg,
dwelt at the Brug of the Boyne, the well-known tumulus at New Grange.
The Dagda's daughter Brigit transmitted many of her attributes to the
Christian saint of the same name (d. 523). The ancient Brigit seems to
have been the patroness of the arts and was probably also the goddess of
fertility. At any rate it is with her that the sacred fire at Kildare
which burnt almost uninterruptedly until the time of the Reformation
was associated; and she was commonly invoked in the Hebrides, and until
quite recently in Donegal, to secure good crops. Well-known fairy queens
are Clidna (south Munster) and Aibell (north Munster). We frequently
hear of three goddesses of war--Ana, Bodb and Macha, also generally
called Morrígu and Badb. They showed themselves in battles hovering over
the heads of the combatants in the form of a carrion crow. The name Bodb
appears on a Gaulish stone as (_Cathu_-)_bodvae_. The _Geniti glinni_
and _demna aeir_ were other fierce spirits who delighted in carnage.

When we come to treat of religious rites and worship, our sources leave
us completely in the dark. We hear in several documents of a great idol
covered with gold and silver named Cromm Cruach, or Cenn Cruaich, which
was surrounded by twelve lesser idols covered with brass or bronze, and
stood on Mag Slecht (the plain of prostrations) near Ballymagauran, Co.
Cavan. In one text the Cromm Cruach is styled the chief idol of Ireland.
According to the story St Patrick overthrew the idol, and one of the
lives of the saint states that the mark of his crosier might still be
seen on the stone. In the _Dindsenchus_ we are told that the worshippers
sacrificed their children to the idol in order to secure corn, honey and
milk in plenty. On the occasion of famine the druids advised that the
son of a sinless married couple should be brought to Ireland to be
killed in front of Tara and his blood mixed with the soil of Tara. We
might naturally expect to find the druids active in the capacity of
priests in Ireland. D'Arbois de Jubainville maintains that in Gaul the
three classes of druids, vates and gutuatri, corresponded more or less
to the pontifices, augurs and flamens of ancient Rome. In ancient Irish
literature the functions of the druids correspond fairly closely to
those of their Gaulish brethren recorded by Caesar and other writers of
antiquity. Had we contemporary accounts of the position of the druid in
Ireland prior to the introduction of Christianity, it may be doubted if
any serious difference would be discovered. In early Irish literature
the druids chiefly appear as magicians and diviners, but they are also
the repositaries of the learning of the time which they transmitted to
the disciples accompanying them (see DRUIDISM). The Druids were believed
to have the power to render a person insane by flinging a magic wisp of
straw in his face, and they were able to raise clouds of mist, or to
bring down showers of fire and blood. They claimed to be able to
foretell the future by watching the clouds, or by means of divining-rods
made of yew. They also resorted to sacrifice. They possessed several
means for rendering a person invisible, and various peculiar and
complicated methods of divination, such as _Imbas forosna_, _tein
laegda_, and _díchetal do chennaib_, are described in early authorities.
Whether or not the Irish druids taught that the soul was immortal is a
question which it is impossible to decide. There is one passage which
seems to support the view that they agreed with the Gaulish druids in
this respect, but it is not safe to deny the possible influence of
Christian teaching in the document in question. The Irish, however,
possessed some more or less definite notions about an abode of
everlasting youth and peace inhabited by fairies. The latter either
dwell in the síd, and this is probably the earlier conception, or in
islands out in the ocean where they live a life of never-ending delight.
These happy abodes were known by various names, as Tír Tairngiri (Land
of Promise), Mag Mell (Plain of Pleasures). Condla Caem son of Conn
Cétchathach was carried in a boat of crystal by a fairy maiden to the
land of youth, and among other mortals who went thither Bran, son of
Febal, and Ossian are the most famous. The doctrine of metempsychosis
seems to have been familiar in early Ireland. Mongan king of Dalriada in
the 7th century is stated to have passed after death into various
shapes--a wolf, a stag, a salmon, a seal, a swan. Fintan, nephew of
Partholan, is also reported to have survived the deluge and to have
lived in various shapes until he was reborn as Tuan mac Cairill in the
6th century. This legend appears to have been worked up, if not
manufactured, by the historians of the 9th to 11th centuries to support
their fictions. It may, however, be mentioned that Giraldus Cambrensis
and the _Speculum Regale_ state in all seriousness that certain of the
inhabitants of Ossory were able at will to assume the form of wolves,
and similar stories are not infrequent in Irish romance.

_Conversion to Christianity._--In the beginning of the 4th century there
was an organized Christian church in Britain; and in view of the
intimate relations existing between Wales and Ireland during that
century it is safe to conclude that there were Christians in Ireland
before the time of St Patrick. Returned colonists from south Wales,
traders and the raids of the Irish in Britain with the consequent influx
of British captives sold into slavery must have introduced the knowledge
of Christianity into the island considerably before A.D. 400. In this
connexion it is interesting to find an Irishman named Fith (also called
Iserninus) associated with St Patrick at Auxerre. Further, the earliest
Latin words introduced into Irish show the influence of British
pronunciation (e.g. O. Ir. _trindóit_ from _trinitat-em_ shows the
Brythonic change of a to ó). Irish records preserve the names of three
shadowy pre-Patrician saints who were connected with south-east Ireland,
Declan, Ailbe and Ciaran.

In one source the great heresiarch Pelagius is stated to have been a
Scot. He may have been descended from an Irish family settled in south
Wales. We have also the statement of Prosper of Aquitaine that Palladius
was sent by Pope Celestine as first bishop to the Scots that believe in
Christ. But though we may safely assume that a number of scattered
communities existed in Ireland, and probably not in the south alone, it
is unlikely that there was any organization before the time of St
Patrick. This mission arose out of the visit of St Germanus of Auxerre
to Britain. The British bishops had grown alarmed at the rapid growth of
Pelagianism in Britain and sought the aid of the Gaulish church. A synod
summoned for the occasion commissioned Germanus and Lupus to go to
Britain, which they accordingly did in 429; Pope Celestine, we are told,
had given his sanction to the mission through the deacon Palladius. The
heresy was successfully stamped out in Britain, but distinct traces of
it are to be found some three centuries later in Ireland, and it is to
Irish monks on the European continent that we owe the preservation of
the recently discovered copies of Pelagius's _Commentary_. Palladius's
activity in Britain probably marked him out as the man to undertake the
task of bringing Ireland into touch with Western Christianity. In any
case Prosper and the Irish Annals represent him as arriving in Ireland
in 431 with episcopal rank. His missionary activity unfortunately is
extremely obscure. Tradition associates his name with Co. Wicklow, but
Irish sources state that after a brief sojourn there he proceeded to the
land of the Picts, among whom he was beginning to labour when his career
was cut short by death.

_St Patrick._--At this juncture Germanus of Auxerre decided to
consecrate his pupil Patrick for the purpose of carrying on the work
begun by Palladius. Patrick would possess several qualifications for the
dignity of a missionary bishop to Ireland. Born in Britain about 389, he
had been carried into slavery in Ireland when a youth of sixteen. He
remained with his master for seven years, and must have had ample
opportunity for observing the conditions, and learning the language, of
the people around him; and such knowledge would have been indispensable
to the Christian bishop in view of the peculiar state of Irish society
(see PATRICK, ST). The new bishop landed in Wicklow in 432. Leinster was
probably the province in which Christianity was already most strongly
represented, and Patrick may have entrusted this part of his sphere to
two fellow-workers from Gaul, Auxilius and Iserninus. At any rate he
seems rather to have addressed himself more especially to the task of
founding churches in Meath, Ulster and Connaught. In Ireland the land
nominally belonged to the tribe, but in reality a kind of feudal system
existed. In order to succeed with the body of the tribe it was necessary
to secure the adherence of the chief. The conversion in consequence was
in large measure only apparent; and such pagan superstitions and
practices as did not run directly counter to the new teaching were
tolerated by the saint. Thus, whilst the mass of the people practically
still continued in heathendom, the apostle was enabled to found
churches and schools and educate a priesthood which should provide the
most effective and certain means of conversion. It would be a mistake to
suppose that his success was as rapid or as complete as is generally
assumed. There can be no doubt that he met with great opposition both
from the high-king Loigaire and from the druids. But though Loigaire
refused to desert the faith of his ancestors we are told that a number
of his nearest kinsmen accepted Christianity; and if there be any truth
in the story of the codification of the Brehon Laws we gather that he
realized that the future belonged to the new religion. St Patrick's work
seems to fall under two heads. In the first place he planted the faith
in parts of the north and west which had probably not yet heard the
gospel. He also organized the already existing Christian communities,
and with this in view founded a church at Armagh as his metropolitan see
(444). It is further due to him that Ireland became linked up with Rome
and the Christian countries of the Western church, and that in
consequence Latin was introduced as the language of the church. It seems
probable that St Patrick consecrated a considerable number of bishops
with small but definite dioceses which doubtless coincided in the main
with the territories of the _tuatha_. In any case the ideal of the
apostle from Britain was almost certainly very different from the
monastic system in vogue in Ireland in the 6th and 7th centuries.

_The Early Irish Church._--The church founded by St Patrick was
doubtless in the main identical in doctrine with the churches of Britain
and Gaul and other branches of the Western church; but after the recall
of the Roman legions from Britain the Irish church was shut off from the
Roman world, and it is only natural that there should not have been any
great amount of scruple with regard to orthodox doctrine. This would
explain the survival of the writings of Pelagius in Ireland until the
8th century. Even Columba himself, in his Latin hymn _Altus prosator_,
was suspected by Gregory the Great of favouring Arian doctrines. After
the death of St Patrick there was apparently a relapse into paganism in
many parts of the island. The church itself gradually became grafted on
to the feudal organization, the result of which was the peculiar system
which we find in the 6th and 7th centuries. Wherever Roman law and
municipal institutions had been in force the church was modelled on the
civil society. The bishops governed ecclesiastical districts co-ordinate
with the civil divisions. In Ireland there were no cities and no
municipal institutions; the nation consisted of groups of tribes
connected by kinship, and loosely held together by a feudal system which
we shall examine later. Although St Patrick endeavoured to organize the
Irish church on regular diocesan lines, after his death an approximation
to the lay system was under the circumstances almost inevitable. When a
chief became a Christian and bestowed lands on the church, he at the
same time transferred all his rights as a chief; but these rights still
remained with his sept, albeit subordinate to the uses of the church. At
first all church offices were exclusively confined to members of the
sept. In this new sept there was consequently a twofold succession. The
religious sept or family consisted in the first instance not only of the
ecclesiastical persons to whom the gift was made, but of all the _céli_
or vassals, tenants and slaves, connected with the land bestowed. The
head was the coarb (Ir. _comarba_, "co-heir"), i.e. the inheritor both
of the spiritual and temporal rights and privileges of the founder; he
in his temporal capacity exacted rent and tribute like other chiefs, and
made war not on temporal chiefs only, the spectacle of two coarbs making
war on each other not being unusual. The ecclesiastical colonies that
went forth from a parent family generally remained in subordination to
it, in the same way that the spreading branches of a ruling family
remained in general subordinate to it. The heads of the secondary
families were also called the coarbs of the original founder. Thus there
were coarbs of Columba at Iona, Kells, Derry, Durrow and other places.
The coarb of the chief spiritual foundation was called the high coarb
(ard-chomarba). The coarb might be a bishop or only an abbot, but in
either case all the ecclesiastics in the family were subject to him; in
this way it frequently happened that bishops, though their superior
functions were recognized, were in subjection to abbots who were only
priests, as in the case of St Columba, or even to a woman, as in the
case of St Brigit. This singular association of lay and spiritual powers
was liable to the abuse of allowing the whole succession to fall into
lay hands, as happened to a large extent in later times. The temporal
chief had his steward who superintended the collection of his rents and
tributes; in like manner the coarb of a religious sept had his
_airchinnech_ (Anglo-Irish _erenach_, _herenach_), whose office was
generally, but not necessarily, hereditary. The office embodied in a
certain sense the lay succession in the family.

From the beginning the life of the converts must have been in some
measure coenobitic. Indeed it could hardly have been otherwise in a
pagan and half-savage land. St Patrick himself in his Confession makes
mention of monks in Ireland in connexion with his mission, but the few
glimpses we get of the monastic life of the decades immediately
following his death prove that the earliest type of coenobium differed
considerably from that known at a later period. The coenobium of the end
of the 5th century consisted of an ordinary sept or family whose chief
had become Christian. After making a gift of his lands the chief either
retired, leaving it in the hands of a coarb, or remained as the
religious head himself. The family went on with their usual avocations,
but some of the men and women, and in some cases all, practised
celibacy, and all joined in fasting and prayer. It may be inferred from
native documents that grave disorders were prevalent under this system.
A severer and more exclusive type of monasticism succeeded this
primitive one, but apart from the separation of the sexes the general
character never entirely changed.

Diocesan organization as understood in countries under Roman Law being
unknown, there was not that limitation of the number of bishops which
territorial jurisdiction renders necessary, and consequently the number
of bishops increased beyond all proportions. Thus, St Mochta, abbot of
Louth, and a reputed disciple of St Patrick, is stated to have had no
less than 100 bishops in his monastic family. All the bishops in a
coenobium were subject to the abbot; but besides the bishop in the
monastic families, every _tuath_ or tribe had its own bishop. The church
in Ireland having been evolved out of the monastic nuclei already
described the tribe bishop was an episcopal development of a somewhat
later period. He was an important personage, his status being fixed in
the Brehon laws, from which we learn that his honour price was seven
_cumals_, and that he had the right to be accompanied by the same number
of followers as a petty king. The power of the bishops was considerable,
as they were strong enough to resist the kings with regard to the right
of sanctuary, ever a fertile source of dissension. The _tuath_ bishop in
later centuries corresponded to the diocesan bishop as closely as it was
possible in two systems so different as tribal and municipal government.
When diocesan jurisdiction was introduced into Ireland in the 12th
century the _tuath_ became a diocese. Many of the old dioceses represent
ancient _tuatha_, and even enlarged modern dioceses coincide with the
territories of ancient tribal states. Thus the diocese of Kilmacduagh
was the territory of the Hui Fiachrach Aidne; that of Kilfenora was the
tribe land of Corco-Mruad or Corcomroe. Many deaneries also represent
tribe territories. Thus the deanery of Musgrylin (Co. Cork) was the
ancient Muscraige Mitaine, and no doubt had its tribe bishop in ancient
times. Bishops without dioceses and monastic bishops were not unknown
outside Ireland in the Eastern and Western churches in very early times,
but they had disappeared with rare exceptions in the 6th century when
the Irish reintroduced the monastic bishops and the monastic church into
Britain and the continent.

In the 8th and 9th centuries, when the great emigration of Irish
scholars and ecclesiastics took place, the number of wandering bishops
without dioceses became a reproach to the Irish church; and there can be
no doubt that it led to much inconvenience and abuse, and was subversive
of the stricter discipline that the popes had succeeded in establishing
in the Western church. They were accused of ordaining serfs without the
consent of their lords, consecrating bishops _per saltum_, i.e. of
making men bishops who had not previously received the orders of
priests, and of permitting bishops to be consecrated by a single bishop.
This custom can hardly, however, be a reproach to the Irish church, as
the practice was never held to be invalid; and besides, the Nicene
canons of discipline were perhaps not known in Ireland until
comparatively late times. The isolated position of Ireland, and the
existence of tribal organization in full vigour, explain fully the
anomalies of Irish discipline, many of which were also survivals of the
early Christian practices before the complete organization of the
church.

After the death of St Patrick the bond between the numerous church
families which his authority supplied was greatly relaxed; and the
saint's most formidable opponents, the druids, probably regained much of
their old power. The transition period which follows the loosening of a
people's faith in its old religion and before the authority of the new
is universally accepted is always a time of confusion and relaxation of
morals. Such a period appears to have followed the fervour of St
Patrick's time. To judge from the early literature the marriage-tie
seems to have been regarded very lightly, and there can be little doubt
that pagan marriage customs were practised long after the introduction
of Christianity. The Brehon Laws assume the existence of married as well
as unmarried clergy, and when St Patrick was seeking a bishop for the
men of Leinster he asked for "a man of one wife." Marriage among the
secular clergy went on in Ireland until the 15th century. Like the
Gaulish druids described by Caesar, the poet (_fili_) and the druid
possessed a huge stock of unwritten native lore, probably enshrined in
verse which was learnt by rote by their pupils. The exalted position
occupied by the learned class in ancient Ireland perhaps affords the key
to the wonderful outbursts of scholarly activity in Irish monasteries
from the 6th to the 9th centuries. That some of the _filid_ embraced
Christianity from the outset is evident from the story of Dubthach. As
early as the second half of the 5th century Enda, a royal prince of
Oriel (c. 450-540), after spending some time at Whithorn betook himself
to Aranmore, off the coast of Galway, and founded a school there which
attracted scholars from all over Ireland. The connexion between Ireland
and Wales was strong in the 6th century, and it was from south Wales
that the great reform movement in the Irish monasteries emanated.
Findian of Clonard (c. 470-548) is usually regarded as the institutor of
the type of monastery for which Ireland became so famous during the next
few centuries. He spent some time in Wales, where he came under the
influence of St David, Gildas and Cadoc; and on returning to Ireland he
founded his famous monastery at Clonard (Co. Meath) about 520. Here no
less than 3000 students are said to have received instruction at the
same time. Such a monastery consisted of countless tiny huts of wattles
and clay (or, where stone was plentiful, of beehive cells) built by the
pupils and enclosed by a fosse, or trench, like a permanent military
encampment. The pupils sowed their own corn, fished in the streams, and
milked their own cows. Instruction was probably given in the open air.
Twelve of Findian's disciples became known as the twelve apostles of
Ireland, the monastic schools they founded becoming the greatest centres
of learning and religious instruction not only in Ireland, but in the
whole of the west of Europe. Among the most famous were Moville (Co.
Down), founded by another Findian, c. 540; Clonmacnoise, founded by
Kieran, 541; Derry, founded by Columba, 546; Clonfert, founded by
Brendan, 552; Bangor, founded in 558 by Comgall; Durrow, founded by
Columba, c. 553. The chief reform due to the influence of the British
church[4] seems to have been the introduction of monastic life in the
strict sense of the word, i.e. communities entirely separated from the
laity with complete separation of the sexes.

One almost immediate outcome of the reformation effected by Findian was
that wonderful spirit of missionary enterprise which made the name of
Scot and of Ireland so well known throughout Europe, while at the same
time the Irish were being driven out of their colonies in Wales and
south-west Britain owing to the advance of the Saxon power. In 563
Columba founded the monastery of Hí (Iona), which spread the knowledge
of the Gospel among the Picts of the Scottish mainland. From this same
solitary outpost went forth the illustrious Aidan to plant another Iona
at Lindisfarne, which, "long after the poor parent brotherhood had
fallen to decay, expanded itself into the bishopric of Durham." And
Lightfoot claims for Aidan "the first place in the evangelization of the
English race. Augustine was the apostle of Kent, but Aidan was the
apostle of England." In 590 Columbanus, a native of Leinster (b. 543),
went forth from Bangor, accompanied by twelve companions, to preach the
Gospel on the continent of Europe. Columbanus was the first of the long
stream of famous Irish monks who left their traces in Italy,
Switzerland, Germany and France; amongst them being Gallus or St Gall,
founder of St Gallen, Kilian of Würzburg, Virgil of Salzburg, Cathald of
Tarentum and numerous others. At the beginning of the 8th century a long
series of missionary establishments extended from the mouths of the
Meuse and Rhine to the Rhône and the Alps, whilst many others founded by
Germans are the offspring of Irish monks. Willibrord, the apostle of the
Frisians, for instance, spent twelve years in Ireland. Other Irishmen
seeking remote places wherein to lead the lives of anchorites, studded
the numerous islands on the west coast of Scotland with their little
buildings. Cormac ua Liathain, a disciple of St Columba, visited the
Orkneys, and when the Northmen first discovered Iceland they found there
books and other traces of the early Irish church. It may be mentioned
that the geographer Dicuil who lived at the court of Charlemagne gives a
description of Iceland which must have been obtained from some one who
had been there. The peculiarities which owing to Ireland's isolation had
survived were brought into prominence when the Irish missionaries came
into contact with Roman ecclesiastics. The chief points of difference
were the calculation of Easter and the form of the tonsure, in addition
to questions of discipline such as the consecration of bishops _per
saltum_ and bishops without dioceses. With regard to tonsure it would
seem that the druids shaved the front part of the head from ear to ear.
St Patrick doubtless introduced the ordinary coronal tonsure, but in the
period following his death the old druidical tonsure was again revived.
In the calculation of Easter the Irish employed the old Roman and Jewish
84-years' cycle which they may have received from St Patrick and which
had once prevailed all over Europe. Shut off from the world, they were
probably ignorant of the new cycle of 532 years which had been adopted
by Rome in 463. This question aroused a controversy which waxed hottest
in England, and as the Irish monks stubbornly adhered to their
traditions they were vehemently attacked by their opponents. As early as
633 the church of the south of Ireland, which had been more in contact
with Gaul, had been won over to the Roman method of computation. The
north and Iona on the other hand refused to give in until Adamnán
induced the north of Ireland to yield in 697, while Iona held out until
716, although by this time the monastery had lost its influence in
Pictland. Owing to these controversies the real work of the early Irish
missionaries in converting the pagans of Britain and central Europe, and
sowing the seeds of culture there, is apt to be overlooked. Thus, when
the Anglo-Saxon, Winfrid, surnamed Boniface, appeared in the kingdom of
the Franks as papal legate in 723, to romanize the existing church of
the time, neither the Franks, the Thuringians, the Alemanni nor the
Bavarians could be considered as pagans. What Irish missionaries and
their foreign pupils had implanted for more than a century quite
independently of Rome, Winfrid organized and established under Roman
authority partly by force of arms.

During the four centuries which elapsed between the arrival of St
Patrick and the establishment of a central state in Dublin by the
Norsemen the history of Ireland is almost a blank as regards
outstanding events. From the time that the Milesians of Tara had come to
be recognized as suzerains of the whole island all political development
ceases. The annals contain nothing save a record of intertribal warfare,
which the high-king was rarely powerful enough to stay. The wonderful
achievements of the Irish monks did not affect the body politic as a
whole, and it may be doubted if there was any distinct advance in
civilization in Ireland from the time of Niall Nóigiallach to the
Anglo-Norman invasion. Niall's posterity held the position of _ardrí_
uninterruptedly until 1002. Four of his sons, Loigaire, Conall
Crimthand, Fiacc and Maine, settled in Meath and adjoining territories,
and their posterity were called the southern Hy Neill. The other four,
Eogan, Enna Find, Cairpre and Conall Gulban, occupied the northern part
of Ulster. Their descendants were known as the northern Hy Neill.[5] The
descendants of Eogan were the O'Neills and their numerous kindred septs;
the posterity of Conall Gulban were the O'Donnells and their kindred
septs. Niall died in 406 in the English Channel whilst engaged in a
marauding expedition. He was succeeded by his nephew Dathi, son of
Fiachra, son of Eochaid Muigmedóin, who is stated to have been struck by
lightning at the foot of the Alps in 428. Loigaire, son of Niall
(428-463), is identified with the story of St Patrick. According to
tradition it was during his reign that the codification of the _Senchus
Mór_ took place. A well-known story represents him as constantly at war
with the men of Leinster. His successor, Ailill Molt (463-483), son of
Dathi, is remarkable as being the last high-king for 500 years who was
not a direct descendant of Niall.

In 503 a body of colonists under Fergus, son of Erc, moved from Dalriada
to Argyll and effected settlements there. The circumstances which
enabled the Scots to succeed in occupying Kintyre and Islay cannot now
be ascertained. The little kingdom had great difficulty to maintain
itself, and its varying fortunes are very obscure. Neither is it clear
that bodies of Scots had not already migrated to Argyll. Diarmait, son
of Fergus Cerbaill (544-565), of the southern Hy Neill, undoubtedly
professed Christianity though he still clung to many pagan practices,
such as polygamy and the use of druidical incantations in battle. The
annals represent him as getting into trouble with the Church on account
of his violation of the right of sanctuary. At an assembly held at Tara
in 554 Curnan, son of the king of Connaught, slew a nobleman, a crime
punishable with death. The author of the deed fled for sanctuary to St
Columba. But Diarmait pursued him, and disregarding the opposition of
the saint seized Curnan and hanged him. St Columba's kinsmen, the
northern Hy Neill, took up the quarrel, and attacked and defeated the
king at Culdreimne in 561. In this battle Diarmait is stated to have
employed druids to form an _airbe druad_ (fence of protection?) round
his host. A few years later Diarmait seized by force the chief of Hy
Maine, who had slain his herald and had taken refuge with St Ruadan of
Lothra. According to the legend the saint, accompanied by St Brendan of
Birr, followed the king to Tara and solemnly cursed it, from which time
it was deserted. It has been suggested that Tara was abandoned during
the plague of 548-549. Others have surmised that it was abandoned as a
regular place of residence long before this, soon after the northern and
southern branches of the Hy Neill had consolidated their power at Ailech
and in Westmeath. Whatever truth there may be in the legend, it
demonstrates conclusively the absence of a rallying point where the idea
of a central government might have taken root. Aed, son of Ainmire
(572-598) of the northern Hy Neill, figures prominently in the story of
St Columba. It was during his reign that the famous assembly of Drumcet
(near Newtown-limavaddy in Co. Derry) was held. The story goes that the
_filid_ had increased in number to such an extent that they included
one-third of the freemen. There was thus quite an army of impudent
swaggering idlers roaming about the country and quartering themselves
on the chiefs and nobles during the winter and spring, story-telling,
and lampooning those who dared to hesitate to comply with their demands.

Some idea of the style of living of the learned professions in early
Ireland may be gathered from the income enjoyed in later times by the
literati of Tír Conaill (Co. Donegal). It has been computed that no less
than £2000 was set aside yearly in this small state for the maintenance
of the class. No wonder, then, that Aed determined to banish them from
Ireland. At the convention of Drumcet the number of _filid_ was greatly
reduced, lands were assigned for their maintenance, the ollams were
required to open schools and to support the inferior bards as teachers.
This reform may have helped to foster the cultivation of the native
literature, and it is possible that we owe to it the preservation of the
Ulster epic. But the Irish were unfortunately incapable of rising above
the saga, consisting of a mixture of prose and verse. Their greatest
achievement in literature dates back to the dawn of history, and we find
no more trace of development in the world of letters than in the
political sphere. The Irishman, in his own language at any rate, seems
incapable of a sustained literary effort, a consequence of which is that
he invents the most intricate measures. Sense is thus too frequently
sacrificed to sound. The influence of the professional literary class
kept the clan spirit alive with their elaborate genealogies, and in
their poems they only pandered to the vanity and vices of their patrons.
That no new ideas came in may be gathered from the fact that the bulk of
Irish literature so far published dates from before 800, though the MSS.
which contain it are much later. Bearing in mind how largely the Finn
cycle is modelled on the older Ulster epic, works of originality
composed between 1000 and 1600 are with one or two exceptions
conspicuously absent.

At the convention of Drumcet the status of the Dalriadic settlement in
Argyll was also regulated. The _ardrí_ desired to make the colony an
Irish state tributary to the high-king; but on the special pleading of
St Columba it was allowed to remain independent. Aed lost his life in
endeavouring to exact the _boroma_ tribute from Brandub, king of
Leinster, who defeated him at Dunbolg in 598. After several short reigns
the throne was occupied by Aed's son Domnall (627-641). His predecessor,
Suibne Menn, had been slain by the king of Dalaraide, Congal Claen. The
latter was driven out of the country by Domnall, whereupon Congal
collected an army of foreign adventurers made up of Saxons, Dalriadic
Scots, Britons and Picts to regain his lands and to avenge himself on
the high-king. In a sanguinary encounter at Mag Raith (Moira in Co.
Down), which forms the subject of a celebrated romance, Congal was slain
and the power of the settlement in Kintyre weakened for a considerable
period. A curious feature of Hy Neill rule about this time was joint
kingship. From 563 to 656 there were no less than five such pairs. In
681 St Moling of Ferns prevailed upon the _ardrí_ Finnachta (674-690) to
renounce for ever the _boroma_, tribute, which had always been a source
of friction between the supreme king and the ruler of Leinster. This
was, however, unfortunately not the last of the _boroma_. Fergal
(711-722), in trying to enforce it again, was slain in a famous battle
at Allen in Kildare. As a sequel Fergal's son, Aed Allan (734-743),
defeated the men of Leinster with great slaughter at Ballyshannon (Co.
Kildare) in 737. If there was so little cohesion among the various
provinces it is small wonder that Ireland fell such an easy prey to the
Vikings in the next century. In 697 an assembly was held at Tara in
which a law known as _Cáin Adamnáin_ was passed, at the instance of
Adamnán, prohibiting women from taking part in battle; a decision that
shows how far Ireland with its tribal system lagged behind Teutonic and
Latin countries in civilization. A similar enactment exempting the
clergy, known as _Cáin Patraic_, was agreed to in 803. The story goes
that the _ardrí_ Aed Oirdnigthe (797-819) made a hostile incursion into
Leinster and forced the primate of Armagh and all his clergy to attend
him. When representations were made to the king as to the impropriety of
his conduct, he referred the matter to his adviser, Fothud, who was also
a cleric. Fothud pronounced that the clergy should be exempted, and
three verses purporting to be his decision are still extant.

_Invasion of the Northmen._--The first incursion of the Northmen took
place in A.D. 795, when they plundered and burnt the church of Rechru,
now Lambay, an island north of Dublin Bay. When this event occurred, the
power of the over-king was a mere shadow. The provincial kingdoms had
split up into more or less independent principalities, almost constantly
at war with each other. The oscillation of the centre of power between
Meath and Tír Eogain, according as the _ardrí_ belonged to the southern
or northern Hy Neill, produced corresponding perturbations in the
balance of parties among the minor kings. The army consisted of a number
of tribes, each commanded by its own chief, and acting as so many
independent units without cohesion. The tribesmen owed fealty only to
their chiefs, who in turn owed a kind of conditional allegiance to the
over-king, depending a good deal upon the ability of the latter to
enforce it. A chief might through pique or other causes withdraw his
tribe even on the eve of a battle without such defection being deemed
dishonourable. What the tribe was to the nation or the province, the
_fine_ or sept was to the tribe itself. The head of a sept had a voice
not only in the question of war or peace, for that was determined by the
whole tribe, but in all subsequent operations. However brave the
individual soldiers of such an army might be, the army itself was
unreliable against a well-organized and disciplined enemy. Again, such
tribal forces were only levies gathered together for a few weeks at
most, unprovided with military stores or the means of transport, and
consequently generally unprepared to attack fortifications of any kind,
and liable to melt away as quickly as they were gathered together.
Admirably adapted for a sudden attack, such an army was wholly unfit to
carry on a regular campaign or take advantage of a victory. These
defects of the Irish military system were abundantly shown throughout
the Viking period and also in Anglo-Norman times.

The first invaders were probably Norwegians[6] from Hördaland in search
of plunder and captives. Their attacks were not confined to the
sea-coasts; they were able to ascend the rivers in their ships, and
already in 801 they are found on the upper Shannon. At the outset the
invaders arrived in small bodies, but as these met with considerable
resistance large fleets commanded by powerful Vikings followed. With
such forces it was possible to put fleets of boats on the inland lakes.
Rude earthen or stockaded forts, serving as magazines and places of
retreat, were erected; or in some cases use was made of strongholds
already existing, such as Dun Almain in Kildare, Dunlavin in Wicklow and
Fermoy in Cork. Some of these military posts in course of time became
trading stations or grew into towns. During the first half of the 9th
century attacks were incessant in most parts of the island. In 801 we
find Norwegians on the upper Shannon; in 820 the whole of Ireland was
harried; and five years later we hear of Vikings in Co. Dublin, Meath,
Kildare, Wicklow, Queen's Co., Kilkenny and Tipperary. However, the
invaders do not appear to have acted in concert until 830. About this
time a powerful leader, named Turgeis (Turgesius), accompanied by two
nobles, Saxolb and Domrair (Thorir), arrived with a "royal fleet."
Sailing up the Shannon they built strongholds on Lough Ree and
devastated Connaught and Meath. Eventually Turgeis established himself
in Armagh, whilst his wife Ota settled at Clonmacnoise and profaned the
monastery church with pagan rites. Indeed, the numerous ecclesiastical
establishments appear to have been quite as much the object of the
invaders' fury as the civil authorities. The monastery of Armagh was
rebuilt ten times, and as often destroyed. It was sacked three times in
one month. Turgeis himself is reported to have usurped the abbacy of
Armagh. To escape from the continuous attacks on the monasteries, Irish
monks and scholars fled in large numbers to the continent carrying with
them their precious books. Among them were many of the greatest lights
in the world of letters of the time, such as Sedulius Scottus and
Johannes Scottus Erigena. The figure of Turgeis has given rise to
considerable discussion, as there is no mention of him in Scandinavian
sources. It seems probable that his Norwegian name was Thorgils and he
was possibly related to Godfred, father of Olaf the White, who figures
prominently in Irish history a little later. Turgeis apparently united
the Viking forces, as he is styled the first king of the Norsemen in
Ireland. A permanent sovereignty over the whole of Ireland, such as
Turgeis seems to have aimed at, was then as in later times impossible
because of the state of society. During his lifetime various cities were
founded--the first on Irish soil. Dublin came into existence in 840, and
Waterford and Limerick appear in history about the same time. Although
the Norsemen were constantly engaged in conflict with the Irish, these
cities soon became important commercial centres trading with England,
France and Norway. Turgeis was captured and drowned by the _ardrí_
Maelsechlainn in 844, and two years later Domrair was slain. However
cruel and rapacious the Vikings may have been, the work of disorder and
ruin was not all theirs. The condition of the country afforded full
scope for the jealousy, hatred, cupidity and vanity which characterize
the tribal state of political society. For instance, Fedilmid, king of
Munster and archbishop of Cashel, took the opportunity of the
misfortunes of the country to revive the claims of the Munster dynasty
to be kings of Ireland. To enforce this claim he ravaged and plundered a
large part of the country, took hostages from Niall Caille the over-king
(833-845), drove out the _comarba_ of St Patrick, or archbishop of
Armagh, and for a whole year occupied his place as bishop. On his return
he plundered the termon lands of Clonmacnoise "up to the church door,"
an exploit which was repeated the following year. There is no mention of
his having helped to drive out the foreigners.

For some years after the death of Turgeis the Norsemen appear to have
lacked a leader and to have been hard pressed. It was during this period
that Dublin was chosen as the point of concentration for their forces.
In 848 a Danish fleet from the south of England arrived in Dublin Bay.
The Danes are called in Irish _Dubgaill_, or black foreigners, as
distinguished from the _Findgaill_[7] or white foreigners, i.e.
Norwegians. The origin of these terms, as also of the Irish name for
Norway (_Lochlann_), is obscure. At first the Danes and Norwegians
appear to have made common cause, but two years later the new city of
Dublin was stormed by the Danes. In 851 the Dublin Vikings succeeded in
vanquishing the Danes after a three days' battle at Snaim Aignech
(Carlingford Lough), whereupon the defeated party under their leader
Horm took service with Cerball, king of Ossory. Even in the first half
of the 9th century there must have been a great deal of intermarriage
between the invaders and the native population, due in part at any rate
to the number of captive women who were carried off. A mixed race grew
up, recruited by many Irish of pure blood, whom a love of adventure and
a lawless spirit led away. This heterogeneous population was called
_Gallgoidel_ or foreign Irish (whence the modern name Galloway), and
like their northern kinsmen they betook themselves to the sea and
practised piracy. The Christian element in this mixed society soon
lapsed to a large extent, if not entirely, into paganism. The
Scandinavian settlements were almost wholly confined to the seaport
towns, and except Dublin included none of the surrounding territory.
Owing to its position and the character of the country about it,
especially the coast-land to the north of the Liffey which formed a kind
of border-land between the territories of the kings of Meath and
Leinster, a considerable tract passed into the possession of so powerful
a city as Dublin.

The social and political condition of Ireland, and the pastoral
occupation of the inhabitants, were unfavourable to the development of
foreign commerce, and the absence of coined money among them shows that
it did not exist on an extensive scale. The foreign articles of luxury
(dress, ornaments, wine, &c.) required by them were brought to the great
_oenachs_ or fairs held periodically in various parts of the country. A
flourishing commerce, however, soon grew up in the Scandinavian towns;
mints were established, and many foreign traders--Flemings, Italians and
others--settled there. It was through these Scandinavian trading
communities that Ireland came into contact with the rest of Europe in
the 11th and 12th centuries. If evidence were needed it is only
necessary to point to the names of three of the Irish provinces, Ulster,
Leinster, Munster, which are formed from the native names (_Ulaid_,
_Laigin_, _Muma-n_) with the addition of Norse _staðr_; and the very
name by which the island is now generally known is Scandinavian in form
(_Ira-land_, the land of the Irish). The settlers in the Scandinavian
towns early came to be looked upon by the native Irish as so many septs
of a tribe added to the system of petty states forming the Irish
political system. They soon mixed in the domestic quarrels of
neighbouring tribes, at first selling their protection, but afterwards
as vassals, sometimes as allies, like the septs and tribes of the Goidel
among themselves. The latter in turn acted in similar capacities with
the Irish-Norwegian chiefs, Irish tribes often forming part of the
Scandinavian armies in Britain. This intercourse led to frequent
intermarriage between the chiefs and nobility of the two peoples. As an
instance, the case of Cerball, king of Ossory (d. 887), may be cited.
Eyvindr, surnamed Austmaðr, "the east-man,"[8] son of Björn, agreed to
defend Cerball's territory on condition of receiving his daughter
Raforta in marriage. Among the children of this marriage were Helgi
Magri, one of the early settlers in Iceland, and Thurida, wife of
Thorstein the Red. Three other daughters of Cerball married
Scandinavians: Gormflaith (Kormlöð) married Grimolf, who settled in
Iceland, Fridgerda married Thorir Hyrna, and Ethne (Edna) married
Hlöðver, father of Earl Sigurd Digri who fell at Clontarf. Cerball's son
Domnall (Dufnialr) was the founder of an Icelandic family, whilst the
names Raudi and Baugr occur in the same family. Hence the occurrence of
such essentially Irish names as Konall, Kjaran, Njall, Kormakr, Brigit,
Kaðlin, &c., among Icelanders and Norwegians cannot be a matter for
surprise; nor that a number of Norse words were introduced into Irish,
notably terms connected with trade and the sea.

The obscure contest between the Norwegians and Danes for supremacy in
Dublin appears to have made the former feel the need of a powerful
leader. At any rate, in 851-852 the king of Lochlann (Norway) sent his
son Amlaib (Olaf the White) to assume sovereignty over the Norsemen in
Ireland and to receive tribute and vassals. From this time it is
possible to speak of a Scandinavian kingdom of Dublin, a kingdom which
lasted almost without interruption until the Norman Conquest. The king
of Dublin exercised overlordship over the other Viking communities in
the island, and thus became the most dangerous opponent of the _ardrí_,
with whom he was constantly at variance. Amlaib was accompanied by Ivar,
who is stated in one source to have been his brother. Some writers wish
to identify this prince with the famous Ivar Beinlaus, son of Ragnar
Lodbrok. Amlaib was opposed to the _ardrí_ Maelsechlainn I. (846-863)
who had overcome Turgeis. This brave ruler gained a number of victories
over the Norsemen, but in true Irish fashion they were never followed
up. Although his successor Aed Finnliath (863-879) gave his daughter in
marriage to Amlaib, no better relations were established. The king of
Dublin was certainly the most commanding figure in Ireland in his day,
and during his lifetime the Viking power was greatly extended. In 870 he
captured the strongholds of Dumbarton and Dunseverick (Co. Antrim). He
disappears from the scene in 873. One source represents him as dying in
Ireland, but the circumstances are quite obscure. Ivar only survived
Olaf two or three years, and it is stated that he died a Christian.
During the ensuing period Dublin was the scene of constant family feuds,
which weakened its power to such an extent that in 901 Dublin and
Waterford were captured by the Irish and were obliged to acknowledge the
supremacy of the high-king. The Irish Annals state that there were no
fresh invasions of the Northmen for about forty years dating from 877.
During this period Ireland enjoyed comparative rest notwithstanding the
intertribal feuds in which the Norse settlers shared, including the
campaigns of Cormac, son of Cuilennan, the scholarly king-bishop of
Cashel.

Towards the end of this interval of repose a certain Sigtrygg, who was
probably a great-grandson of the Ivar mentioned above, addressed himself
to the task of winning back the kingdom of his ancestor. Waterford was
retaken in 914 by Ivar, grandson of Ragnall and Earl Ottir, and Sigtrygg
won a signal victory over the king of Leinster at Cenn Fuait (Co.
Kilkenny?) two years later. Dublin was captured, and the high-king Niall
Glúndub (910-919) prepared to oppose the invaders. A battle of prime
importance was gained by Sigtrygg over the _ardrí_, who fell fighting
gallantly at Kilmashogue near Dublin in 919. Between 920 and 970 the
Scandinavian power in Ireland reached its zenith. The country was
desolated and plundered by natives and foreigners alike. The lower
Shannon was more thoroughly occupied by the Norsemen, with which fact
the rise of Limerick is associated. Carlow, Kilkenny and the territory
round Lough Neagh were settled, and after the capture of Lough Erne in
932 much of Longford was colonized. The most prominent figures at this
time were Muirchertach "of the leather cloaks," son of Niall Glúndub,
Cellachan of Cashel and Amlaib (Olaf) Cuarán. The first-named waged
constant warfare against the foreigners and was the most formidable
opponent the Scandinavians had yet met. In his famous circuit of Ireland
(941) he took all the provincial kings, as well as the king of Dublin,
as hostages, and after keeping them for five months at Ailech he handed
them over to the feeble titular _ardrí_, showing that his loyalty was
greater than his ambition. Unlike Muirchertach, Cellachan of Cashel, the
hero of a late romance, was not particular whether he fought for or
against the Norsemen. In 920 Sigtrygg (d. 927) was driven out of Dublin
by his brother Godfred (d. 934) and retired to York, where he became
king of Northumbria. His sons Olaf and Godfred were expelled by
Æthelstan. The former, better known as Amlaib (Olaf) Cuarán, married the
daughter of Constantine, king of Scotland, and fought at Brunanburh
(938). Born about 920, he perhaps became king of York in 941. Expelled
in 944-945 he went to Dublin and drove out his cousin Blákáre, son of
Godfred. At the same time he held sway over the kingdom of Man and the
Isles. We find this romantic character constantly engaged on expeditions
in England, Ireland and Scotland. In 956 Congalach, the high-king, was
defeated and slain by the Norse of Dublin. In 973 his son Domnall, in
alliance with Amlaib, defeated the high-king Domnall O'Neill at Cell
Mona (Kilmoon in Co. Meath). This Domnall O'Neill, son of Muirchertach,
son of Niall Glúndub, was the first to adopt the name O'Neill (Ir. _ua_,
_ó_ = "grandson"). The tanists or heirs of the northern and southern Hy
Neill having died, the throne fell to Maelsechlainn II., of the Cland
Colmáin, the last of the Hy Neill who was undisputed king of Ireland.
Maelsechlainn, who succeeded in 980, had already distinguished himself
as king of Meath in war with the Norsemen. In the first year of his
reign as high-king he defeated them in a bloody battle at Tara, in which
Amlaib's son, Ragnall, fell. This victory, won over the combined forces
of the Scandinavians of Dublin, Man and the Isles, compelled Amlaib to
deliver up all his captives and hostages,--among whom were Domnall
Claen, king of Leinster, and several notables--to forgo the tribute
which he had imposed upon the southern Hy Neill and to pay a large
contribution of cattle and money. Amlaib's spirit was so broken by this
defeat that he retired to the monastery of Hí, where he died the same
year.

_The Dalcais Dynasty._--We have already seen that the dominant race in
Munster traced descent from Ailill Aulom. The Cashel dynasty claimed to
descend from his eldest son Eogan, whilst the Dalcassians of Clare
derived their origin from a younger son Cormac Cas. Ailill Aulom is said
to have ordained that the succession to the throne should alternate
between the two lines, as in the case of the Hy Neill. This, however, is
perhaps a fiction of later poets who wished to give lustre to the
ancestry of Brian Boruma, as very few of the Dalcais princes appear in
the list of the kings of Cashel. The Dalcassians play no prominent part
in history until, in the middle of the 10th century, they were ruled by
Kennedy (Cennétig), son of Lorcan, king of Thomond (d. 954), by whom
their power was greatly extended. He left two sons, Mathgamain (Mahon)
and Brian, called Brian Boruma, probably from a village near
Killaloe.[9] About the year 920 a Viking named Tomrair, son of Elgi, had
seized the lower Shannon and established himself in Limerick, from which
point constant incursions were made into all parts of Munster. After a
period of guerrilla warfare in the woods of Thomond, Mathgamain
concluded a truce with the foreigners, in which Brian refused to join.
Thereupon Mathgamain crossed the Shannon and gained possession of the
kingdom of Cashel, as Dunchad, the representative of the older line, had
just died. Receiving the support of several of the native tribes, he
felt himself in a position to attack the settlements of the foreigners
in Munster. This aroused the ruler of Limerick, Ivar, who determined to
carry the war into Thomond. He was supported by Maelmuad, king of
Desmond, and Donoban, king of Hy Fidgeinte, and Hy Cairpri. Their army
was met by Mathgamain at Sulchoit near Tipperary, where the Norsemen
were defeated with great slaughter (968). This decisive victory gave the
Dalcais Limerick, which they sacked and burnt, and Mathgamain then took
hostages of all the chiefs of Munster. Ivar escaped to Britain, but
returned after a year and entrenched himself at Inis Cathaig (Scattery
Island in the lower Shannon). A conspiracy was formed between Ivar and
his son Dubcenn and the two Munster chieftains Donoban and Maelmuad.
Donoban was married to the daughter of a Scandinavian king of Waterford,
and his own daughter was married to Ivar of Waterford.[10] In 976 Inis
Cathaig was attacked and plundered by the Dalcais and the garrison,
including Ivar and Dubcenn, slain. Shortly before this Mathgamain had
been murdered by Donoban, and Brian thus became king of Thomond, whilst
Maelmuad succeeded to Cashel. In 977 Brian made a sudden and rapid
inroad into Donoban's territory, captured his fortress and slew the
prince himself with a vast number of his followers. Maelmuad, the other
conspirator, met with a like fate at Belach Lechta in Barnaderg (near
Ballyorgan). After this battle Brian was acknowledged king of all
Munster (978). After reducing the Dési, who were in alliance with the
Northmen of Waterford and Limerick, in 984 he subdued Ossory and took
hostages from the kings of East and West Leinster. In this manner he
became virtually king of Leth Moga.

This rapid rise of the Dalcassian leader was bound to bring him into
conflict with the _ardrí_. Already in 982 Maelsechlainn had invaded
Thomond and uprooted the venerable tree under which the Dalcais rulers
were inaugurated. After the battle of Tara he had placed his
half-brother Gluniarind, son of Amlaib Cuarán, in Dublin. This prince
was murdered in 989 and was succeeded by Sigtrygg Silkiskeggi, son of
Amlaib and Gormflaith, sister of Maelmorda, king of Leinster. In the
same year Maelsechlainn took Dublin and imposed an annual tribute on the
city. During these years there were frequent trials of strength between
the _ardrí_ and the king of Munster. In 992 Brian invaded Meath, and
four years later Maelsechlainn defeated Brian in Munster. In 998 Brian
ascended the Shannon with a large force, intending to attack Connaught,
and Maelsechlainn, who received no support from the northern Hy Neill,
came to terms with him. All hostages held by the over-king from the
Northmen and Irish of Leth Moga were to be given up to Brian, which was
a virtual surrender of all his rights over the southern half of Ireland;
while Brian on his part recognized Maelsechlainn as sole king of Leth
Cuinn. In 1000 Leinster revolted against Brian and entered into an
alliance with the king of Dublin. Brian advanced towards the city,
halting at a place called Glen Mama near Dunlavin (Co. Wicklow). He was
attacked by the allied forces, who were repulsed with great slaughter.
Maelmorda, king of Leinster, was taken prisoner, and Sigtrygg fled for
protection to Ailech. The victor gave proof at once that he was not only
a clever general but also a skilful diplomatist. Maelmorda was restored
to his kingdom, Sigtrygg received Brian's daughter in marriage, whilst
Brian took to himself the Dublin king's mother, the notorious
Gormflaith, who had already been divorced by Maelsechlainn. After thus
establishing peace and consolidating his power, Brian returned to his
residence Cenn Corad and matured his plan of obtaining the high-kingship
for himself. When everything was ready he entered Mag Breg with an army
consisting of his own troops, those of Ossory, his South Connaught
vassals and the Norsemen of Munster. The king of Dublin also sent a
small force to his assistance. Maelsechlainn, taken by surprise and
feeling himself unequal to the contest, endeavoured to gain time. An
armistice was concluded, during which he was to decide whether he would
give Brian hostages (i.e. abdicate) or not. He applied to the northern
Hy Neill to come to his assistance, and even offered to abdicate in
favour of the chief of the Cinél Eogain, but the latter refused unless
Maelsechlainn undertook to cede to them half the territory of his own
tribe, the Cland Colmáin. The attempt to unite the whole of the
Eremonian against the Eberian race and preserve a dynasty that had ruled
Ireland for 600 years, having failed, Maelsechlainn submitted to Brian,
and without any formal act of cession the latter became _ardrí_. During
a reign of twelve years (1002-1014) he is said to have effected much
improvement in the country by the erection and repair of churches and
schools, and the construction of bridges, causeways, roads and
fortresses. We are also told that he administered rigid and impartial
justice and dispensed royal hospitality. As he was liberal to the bards,
they did not forget his merits.

Towards the end of Brian's reign a conspiracy was entered into between
Maelmorda, king of Leinster, and his nephew Sigtrygg of Dublin. The
ultimate cause of this movement was an insult offered by Murchad,
Brian's son, to the king of Leinster, who was egged on by his sister
Gormflaith. Sigtrygg secured promises of assistance from Sigurd, earl of
Orkney, and Brodir of Man. In the spring of 1014 Maelmorda and Sigtrygg
had collected a considerable army in Dublin, consisting of contingents
from all the Scandinavian settlements in the west in addition to
Maelmorda's own Leinster forces, the whole being commanded by Sigurd,
earl of Orkney. This powerful prince, whose mother was a daughter of
Cerball of Ossory (d. 887), appears to have aimed at the supreme command
of all the Scandinavian settlements of the west, and in the course of a
few years conquered the kingdom of the Isles, Sutherland, Ross, Moray
and Argyll. To meet such formidable opponents, Brian, now an old man
unable to lead in person, mustered all the forces of Munster and
Connaught, and was joined by Maelsechlainn in command of the forces of
Meath. The northern Hy Neill and the Ulaid took no part in the struggle.
Brian advanced into the plain of Fingall, north of Dublin, where a
council of war was held. The longest account of the battle that followed
occurs in a source very partial to Brian and the deeds of Munstermen, in
which Maelsechlainn is accused of treachery, and of holding his troops
in reserve. The battle, generally known as the battle of Clontarf,
though the chief fighting took place close to Dublin, about the small
river Tolka, was fought on Good Friday 1014. After a stout and
protracted resistance the Norse forces were routed. Maelsechlainn with
his Meathmen came down on the fugitives as they tried to cross the
bridge leading to Dublin or to reach their ships. On both sides the
slaughter was terrible, and most of the leaders lost their lives. Brian
himself perished along with his son Murchad and Maelmorda. This great
struggle finally disposed of the possibility of Scandinavian supremacy
in Ireland, but in spite of this it can only be regarded as a national
misfortune. The power of the kingdom of Dublin had been already broken
by the defeat of Amlaib Cuarán at Tara in 980, and the main result of
the battle of Clontarf was to weaken the central power and to throw the
whole island into a state of anarchy. Although beaten on the field of
battle the Norsemen still retained possession of their fortified cities,
and gradually they assumed the position of native tribes. The Dalcassian
forces had been so much weakened by the great struggle that
Maelsechlainn was again recognized as king of Ireland. However, the
effects of Brian's revolution were permanent; the prescriptive rights of
the Hy Neill were disputed, and from the battle of Clontarf until the
coming of the Normans the history of Ireland consisted of a struggle for
ascendancy between the O'Brians of Munster, the O'Neills of Ulster and
the O'Connors of Connaught.

_From the Battle of Clontarf to the Anglo-Norman Invasion._--The death
of Maelsechlainn in 1022 afforded an opportunity for an able and
ambitious man to subdue Ireland, establish a strong central government,
break up the tribal system and further the gradual fusion of factions
into a homogeneous nation. Such a man did not arise; those who
afterwards claimed to be _ardrí_ lacked the qualities of founders of
strong dynasties, and are termed by the annalists "kings with
opposition." Brian was survived by two sons, Tadg and Donnchad, the
elder of whom was slain in 1023. Donnchad (d. 1064) was certainly the
most distinguished figure in Ireland in his day. He subdued more than
half of Ireland, and almost reached the position once held by his
father. His strongest opponent was his son-in-law Diarmait Mael-na-mBó,
king of Leinster, who was also the foster-father of his brother Tadg's
son, Tordelbach (Turlough) O'Brian. On the death of Diarmait in 1072
Tordelbach (d. 1086) reigned supreme in Leth Moga; Meath and Connaught
also submitted to him, but he failed to secure the allegiance of the
northern Hy Neill. He was succeeded by his son Muirchertach (d. 1119),
who spent most of his life contending against his formidable opponent
Domnall O'Lochlainn, king of Tír Eogain (d. 1121). The struggle for the
sovereignty between these two rivals continued, with intervals of truce
negotiated by the clergy, without any decisive advantage on either side.
In 1102 Magnus Barefoot made his third and last expedition to the west
with the express design of conquering Ireland. Muirchertach opposed him
with a large force, and a conference was arranged at which a son of
Magnus was betrothed to Biadmuin, daughter of the Irish prince. He was
also mixed up in English affairs, and as a rule maintained cordial
relations with Henry I. After the death of Domnall O'Lochlainn there was
an interregnum of about fifteen years with no _ardrí_, until Tordelbach
(Turlough) O'Connor, king of Connaught, resolved to reduce the other
provinces. Munster and Meath were repeatedly ravaged, and in 1151 he
crushed Tordelbach (Turlough) O'Brian, king of Thomond, at Moanmor.
O'Connor's most stubborn opponent was Muirchertach O'Lochlainn, with
whom he wrestled for supremacy until the day of his death (1156).
Tordelbach, who enjoyed a great reputation even after his death, was
remembered as having thrown bridges over the Shannon, and as a patron of
the arts. However, war was so constant in Ireland at this time that
under the year 1145 the Four Masters describe the island as a "trembling
sod." Tordelbach was succeeded by his son Ruadri (Roderick, q.v.), who
after some resistance had to acknowledge Muirchertach O'Lochlainn's
supremacy. The latter, however, was slain in 1166 in consequence of
having wantonly blinded the king of Dal Araide. Ruadri O'Connor, now
without a serious rival, was inaugurated with great pomp at Dublin.

Diarmait MacMurchada (Dermod MacMurrough), great-grandson of Diarmait
Mael-na-mBó, as king of Leinster was by descent and position much mixed
up with foreigners, and generally in a state of latent if not open
hostility to the high-kings of the Hy Neill and Dalcais dynasties. He
was a tyrant and a bad character. In 1152 Tigernan O'Rourke, prince of
Breifne, had been dispossessed of his territory by Tordelbach O'Connor,
aided by Diarmait, and the latter is accused also of carrying off
Derbforgaill, wife of O'Rourke. On learning that O'Rourke was leading an
army against him with the support of Ruadri, he burnt his castle of
Ferns and went to Henry II. to seek assistance. The momentous
consequences of this step belong to the next section, and it now
remains for us to state the condition of the church and society in the
century preceding the Anglo-Norman invasion.

Although the Irish Church conformed to Roman usage in the matter of
Easter celebration and tonsure in the 7th century, the bond between
Ireland and Rome was only slight until several centuries later. Whatever
co-ordination may have existed in the church of the 8th century was
doubtless destroyed during the troubled period of the Viking invasions.
It is probable that St Patrick established Armagh as a metropolitan see,
but the history of the primacy, which during a long period can only have
been a shadow, is involved in obscurity. Its supremacy was undoubtedly
recognized by Brian Boruma in 1004, when he laid 20 oz. of gold upon the
high altar. In the 11th century a competitor arose in the see of Dublin.
The Norse rulers were bound to come under the influence of Christianity
at an early date. For instance, Amlaib Cuarán was formally converted in
England in 942 and was baptized by Wulfhelm of Canterbury. The
antithesis between the king of Dublin and the _ardrí_ seems to have had
the effect of linking the Dublin Christian community rather with
Canterbury than Armagh. King Sigtrygg founded the bishopric of Dublin in
1035, and the early bishops of Dublin, Waterford and Limerick were all
consecrated by the English primate. As Lanfranc and Anselm were both
anxious to extend their jurisdiction over the whole of Ireland, the
submission of Dublin opened the way for Norman and Roman influences. At
the beginning of the 12th century Gilbert, bishop of Limerick and papal
legate, succeeded in winning over Celsus, bishop of Armagh (d. 1129), to
the reform movement. Celsus belonged to a family which had held the see
for 200 years; he was grandson of a previous primate and is said to have
been himself a married man. Yet he became, in the skilful hands of
Gilbert and Maelmaedóc O'Morgair, the instrument of overthrowing the
hereditary succession to the primatial see. In 1118 the important synod
of Rathbressil was held, at which Ireland was divided into dioceses,
this being the first formal attempt at getting rid of that anarchical
state of church government which had hitherto prevailed. The work begun
under Celsus was completed by his successor Maelmaedóc (Malachy). At a
national synod held about 1134 Maelmaedóc, in his capacity as bishop of
Armagh, was solemnly elected to the primacy; and armed with full power
of church and state he was able to overcome all opposition. Under his
successor Gelasius, Cardinal Paparo was despatched as supreme papal
legate. At the synod of Kells (1152) there was established that diocesan
system which has ever since continued without material alteration.
Armagh was constituted the seat of the primacy, and Cashel, Tuam and
Dublin were raised to the rank of archbishoprics. It was also ordained
that tithes should be levied for the support of the clergy.

_Social Conditions._--In the middle ages there were considerable forests
in Ireland encompassing broad expanses of upland pastures and marshy
meadows. It is traditionally stated that fences first came into general
use in the 7th century. There were no cities or large towns before the
arrival of the Norsemen; no stone bridges spanned the rivers; stepping
stones or hurdle bridges at the fords or shallows offered the only mode
of crossing the broadest streams, and connecting the unpaved roads or
bridle paths which crossed the country over hill and dale from the
principal _dúns_. The forests abounded in game, the red deer and wild
boar were common, whilst wolves ravaged the flocks. Scattered over the
country were numerous small hamlets, composed mainly of wicker cabins,
among which were some which might be called houses; other hamlets were
composed of huts of the rudest kind. Here and there were large villages
that had grown up about groups of houses surrounded by an earthen mound
or rampart; similar groups enclosed in this manner were also to be found
without any annexed hamlet. Sometimes there were two or three
circumvallations or even more, and where water was plentiful the ditch
between was flooded. The simple rampart enclosed a space called
_lis_[11] which contained the agricultural buildings and the groups of
houses of the owners. The enclosed houses belonged to the free men
(_aire_, pl. _airig_). The size of the houses and of the enclosing mound
and ditch marked the wealth and rank of the _aire_. If his wealth
consisted of chattels only, he was a _bó-aire_ (cow-_aire_). When he
possessed ancestral land he was a _flaith_ or lord, and was entitled to
let his lands for grazing, to have a hamlet in which lived labourers and
to keep slaves. The larger fort with several ramparts was a _dún_, where
the _rí_ (chieftain) lived and kept his hostages if he had subreguli.
The houses of all classes were of wood, chiefly wattles and wicker-work
plastered with clay. In shape they were most frequently cylindrical,
having conical roofs thatched with rushes or straw. The oratories were
of the same form and material, but the larger churches and kingly
banqueting halls were rectangular and made of sawn boards. Bede,
speaking of a church built by Finan at Lindisfarne, says, "nevertheless,
after the manner of the Scots, he made it not of stone but of hewn oak
and covered it with reeds." When St Maelmaedóc in the first half of the
12th century thought of building a stone oratory at Bangor it was deemed
a novelty by the people, who exclaimed, "we are Scotti not Galli." Long
before this, however, stone churches had been built in other parts of
Ireland, and many round towers. In some of the stone-forts of the
south-west (Ir. _cathir_) the houses within the rampart were made of
stone in the form of a beehive, and similar cloghans, as they are
called, are found in the western isles of Scotland.

Here and there in the neighbourhood of the hamlets were patches of corn
grown upon allotments which were gavelled, or redistributed, every two
or three years. Around the _dúns_ and _raths_, where the corn land was
the fixed property of the lord, the cultivation was better. Oats was the
chief corn crop, but wheat, barley and rye were also grown. Much
attention was paid to bee-keeping and market-gardening, which had
probably been introduced by the church. The only industrial plants were
flax and the dye-plants, chief among which were woad and rud, roid (a
kind of bed-straw?). Portions of the pasture lands were reserved as
meadows; the tilled land was manured. There are native names for the
plough, so it may be assumed that some form of that implement, worked by
oxen, yoked together with a simple straight yoke, was in use in early
times. Wheeled carts were also known; the wheels were often probably
only solid disks, though spoked wheels were used for chariots. Droves of
swine under the charge of swineherds wandered through the forests; some
belonged to the _rí_, others to lords (_flaith_) and others again to
village communities. The house-fed pig was then as now an important
object of domestic economy, and its flesh was much prized. Indeed, fresh
pork was one of the inducements held out to visitors to the Irish
Elysium. Horned cattle constituted the chief wealth of the country, and
were the standard for estimating the worth of anything, for the Irish
had no coined money and carried on all commerce by barter. The unit of
value was called a _sét_, a word denoting a jewel or precious object of
any kind. The normal _sét_ was an average milch-cow. Gold, silver,
bronze, tin, clothes and all other kinds of property were estimated in
_séts_. Three _séts_ were equal to a _cumal_ (female slave). Sheep were
kept everywhere for their flesh and their wool, and goats were numerous.
Horses were extensively employed for riding, working in the fields and
carrying loads. Irish horsemen rode without saddle or stirrups. So
important a place did bee-culture hold in the rural economy of the
ancient Irish that a lengthy section is devoted to the subject in the
Brehon Laws. The honey was used both in cooking and for making mead, as
well as for eating.

The ancient Irish were in the main a pastoral people. When they had sown
their corn, they drove their herds and flocks to the mountains, where
such existed, and spent the summer there, returning in autumn to reap
their corn and take up their abode in their more sheltered winter
residences. This custom of "booleying" (Ir. _buaile_, "shieling") is not
originally Irish, according to some writers, but was borrowed from the
Scandinavians. Where the tribe had land on the sea-coast they also
appear to have migrated thither in summer. The chase in the summer
occupied the freemen, not only as a source of enjoyment but also as a
matter of necessity, for wolves were very numerous. For this purpose
they bred dogs of great swiftness, strength and sagacity, which were
much admired by the Romans.

The residences within enclosing ramparts did not consist of one house
with several apartments, but every room was a separate house. Thus the
buildings forming the residence of a well-to-do farmer of the _bó-aire_
class as described in the Laws, consisted of a living-house in which he
slept and took his meals, a cooking-house, a kiln for drying corn, a
barn, a byre for calves, a sheep-fold and a pigsty. In the better
classes the women had a separate house known as _grianán_ (sun-chamber).
The round houses were constructed in the following manner. The wall was
formed of long stout poles placed in a circle close to one another, with
their ends fixed firmly in the ground. The spaces between were closed in
with rods (usually hazel) firmly interwoven. The poles were peeled and
polished smooth. The whole surface of the wicker-work was plastered on
the outside and made brilliantly white with lime, or occasionally
striped in various colours, leaving the white poles exposed to view.
There was no chimney; the fire was made in the centre of the house and
the smoke escaped through a hole in the roof, or through the door as in
Hebridean houses of the present day. Near the fire, fixed in a kind of
holder, was a candle of tallow or raw beeswax. Around the wall in the
houses of the wealthy were arranged the bedsteads, or rather
compartments, with testers and fronts, sometimes made of carved yew. At
the foot of each compartment, and projecting into the main room, there
was a low fixed seat, often stuffed with some soft material, for use
during the day. Besides these there were on the floor of the main
apartment a number of detached movable couches or seats, all low, with
one or more low tables of some sort. In the halls of the kings the
position of each person's bed and seat, and the portion of meat which he
was entitled to receive from the distributor, were regulated according
to a rigid rule of precedence. Each person who had a seat in the king's
house had his shield suspended over him. Every king had hostages for the
fealty of his vassals; they sat unarmed in the hall, and those who had
become forfeited by a breach of treaty or allegiance were placed along
the wall in fetters. There were places in the king's hall for the judge,
the poet, the harper, the various craftsmen, the juggler and the fool.
The king had his bodyguard of four men always around him; these were
commonly men whom he had saved from execution or redeemed from slavery.
Among the miscellaneous body of attendants about the house of a king or
noble were many Saxon slaves, in whom there was a regular trade until it
was abolished by the action of the church in 1171. The slaves slept on
the ground in the kitchen or in cabins outside the fort.

The children of the upper classes in Ireland, both boys and girls, were
not reared at home but were sent elsewhere to be fostered. It was usual
for a chief to send his child to one of his own sub-chiefs, but the
parents often chose a chief of their own rank. For instance, the _ollam
fili_, or chief poet, who ranked in some respects with a tribe-king,
sent his sons to be fostered by the king of his own territory. Fosterage
might be undertaken out of affection or for payment. In the latter case
the fee varied according to rank, and there are numerous laws extant
fixing the cost and regulating the food and dress of the child according
to his position. Sometimes a chief acted as foster-father to a large
number of children. The cost of the fosterage of boys seems to have been
borne by the mother's property, that of the daughters by the father's.
The ties created by fosterage were nearly as close and as binding on
children as those of blood.

There is ample evidence that great laxity prevailed with regard to the
marriage tie even after the introduction of Christianity, as marrying
within the forbidden degrees and repudiation continued to be very
frequent in spite of the efforts of the church. Marriage by purchase was
universal, and the wealth of the contracting parties constituted the
primary element of a legitimate union. The bride and bridegroom should
be provided with a joint fortune proportionate to their rank. When they
were of equal rank, and the family of each contributed an equal share
to the marriage portion, the marriage was legal in the full sense and
the wife was a wife of equal rank. The church endeavoured to make the
wife of a first marriage the only true wife; but concubinage was known
as an Irish institution until long after the Anglo-Norman invasion, and
it is recognized in the Laws. If a concubine had sons her position did
not differ materially in some respects from that of a chief wife. As the
tie of the sept was blood, all the acknowledged children of a man,
whether legitimate or illegitimate, belonged equally to his sept. Even
adulterine bastardy was no bar to a man becoming chief of his tribe, as
in the case of Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone. (See O'NEILL.)

The food of the Irish was very simple, consisting in the main of oaten
cakes, cheese, curds, milk, butter, and the flesh of domestic animals
both fresh and salted. The better classes were acquainted with wheaten
bread also. The food of the inhabitants of the Land of Promise consisted
of fresh pork, new milk and ale. Fish, especially salmon, and game
should of course be added to the list. The chief drinks were ale and
mead.

The dress of the upper classes was similar to that of a Scottish
Highlander before it degenerated into the present conventional garb of a
highland regiment. Next the skin came a shirt (_léine_) of fine texture
often richly embroidered. Over this was a tightly fitting tunic (_inar_,
_lend_) reaching below the hips with a girdle at the waist. In the case
of women the _inar_ fell to the feet. Over the left shoulder and
fastened with a brooch hung the loose cloak (_brat_), to which the
Scottish plaid corresponds. The kilt seems to have been commonly worn,
especially by soldiers, whose legs were usually bare, but we also hear
of tight-fitting trousers extending below the ankles. The feet were
either entirely naked or encased in shoes of raw hide fastened with
thongs. Sandals and shoes of bronze are mentioned in Irish literature,
and quite a number are to be seen in museums. A loose flowing garment,
intermediate between the _brat_ and _lend_, usually of linen dyed
saffron, was commonly worn in outdoor life, and was still used in the
Hebrides about 1700. A modified form of this over-tunic with loose
sleeves and made of frieze formed probably the general covering of the
peasantry. Among the upper classes the garments were very costly and
variously coloured. It would seem that the number of colours in the
dress indicated the rank of the wearer. The hair was generally worn long
by men as well as women, and ringlets were greatly admired. Women
braided their hair into tresses, which they confined with a pin. The
beard was also worn long. Like all ancient and semi-barbarous people,
the Irish were fond of ornaments. Indeed the profusion of articles of
gold which have been found is remarkable; in the Dublin Museum may be
seen bracelets, armlets, finger-rings, torques, crescents, gorgets,
necklets, fibulae and diadems, all of solid gold and most exquisite
workmanship.

The principal weapons of the Irish soldiers were a lance, a sword and a
shield; though prior to the Anglo-Norman invasion they had adopted the
battle-axe from the Scandinavians. The shields were of two kinds. One
was the _sciath_, oval or oblong in shape, made of wicker-work covered
with hide, and often large enough to cover the whole body. This was
doubtless the form introduced by the Brythonic invaders. But round
shields, smaller in size, were also commonly employed. These were made
of bronze backed with wood, or of yew covered with hide. This latter
type scarcely goes back to the round shield of the Bronze age. Armour
and helmets were not generally employed at the time of the Anglo-Norman
invasion.

In the Brehon Laws the land belongs in theory to the tribe, but this did
not by any means correspond to the state of affairs. We find that the
power of the petty king has made a very considerable advance, and that
all the elements of feudalism are present, save that there was no
central authority strong enough to organize the whole of Irish society
on a feudal basis. The _tuath_ or territory of a _rí_ (represented
roughly by a modern barony) was divided among the septs. The lands of a
sept consisted of the estates in severally of the lords (_flathi_), and
of the _ferand duthaig_, or common lands of the sept. The dwellers on
each of these kinds of land differed materially from each other. On the
former lived a motley population of slaves, horse-boys, and mercenaries
composed of broken men of other clans, many of whom were fugitives from
justice, possessing no rights either in the sept or tribe and entirely
dependent on the bounty of the lord, and consequently living about his
fortified residence. The poorer servile classes or cottiers,
wood-cutters, swine-herds, &c., who had a right of domicile (acquired
after three generations), lived here and there in small hamlets on the
mountains and poorer lands of the estate. The good lands were let to a
class of tenants called _fuidirs_, of whom there were several kinds,
some grazing the land with their own cattle, others receiving both land
and cattle from the lord. _Fuidirs_ had no rights in the sept; some were
true serfs, others tenants-at-will; they lived in scattered homesteads
like the farmers of the present time. The lord was responsible before
the law for the acts of all the servile classes on his estates, both
new-comers and _senchleithe_, i.e. descendants of _fuidirs_, slaves,
&c., whose families had lived on the estate during the time of three
lords. He paid their blood-fines and received compensation for their
slaughter, maiming or plunder. The _fuidirs_ were the chief source of a
lord's wealth, and he was consequently always anxious to increase them.

The freemen were divided into freemen pure and simple, freemen
possessing a quantity of stock, and nobles (_flathi_) having vassals.
Wealth consisted in cattle. Those possessed of large herds of kine lent
out stock under various conditions. In the case of a chief such an offer
could not be refused. In return, a certain customary tribute was paid.
Such a transaction might be of two kinds. By the one the freemen took
_saer_-stock and retained his status. But if he accepted _daer_-stock he
at once descended to the rank of a vassal. In this way it was possible
for the chief to extend his power enormously. Rent was commonly paid in
kind. As a consequence of this, in place of receiving the farm produce
at his own home the chief or noble reserved to himself the right of
quartering himself and a certain number of followers in the house of his
vassal, a practice which must have been ruinous to the small farmers.
Freemen who possessed twenty-one cows and upwards were called _airig_
(sing, _aire_), or, as we should say, had the franchise, and might
fulfil the functions of bail, witness, &c. As the chief sought to extend
his power in the _tuath_, he also endeavoured to aggrandize his position
at the expense of other _tuatha_ by compelling them to pay tribute to
him. Such an aggregate of _tuatha_ acknowledging one _rí_ was termed a
_mórthuath_. The ruler of a _mórthuath_ paid tribute to the provincial
king, who in his turn acknowledged at any rate in theory the
overlordship of the _ardrí_.

The privileges and tributes of the provincial kings are preserved in a
remarkable 10th century document, the _Book of Rights_. The rules of
succession were extraordinarily complicated. Theoretically the members
of a sept claimed common descent from the same ancestor, and the land
belonged to the freemen. The chief and nobles, however, from various
causes had come to occupy much of the territory as private property: the
remainder consisted of tribe-land and commons-land. The portions of the
tribe-land were not occupied for a fixed term, as the land of the sept
was liable to gavelkind or redistribution from time to time. In some
cases, however, land which belonged originally to a _flaith_ was owned
by a family; and after a number of generations such property presented a
great similarity to the gavelled land. A remarkable development of
family ownership was the _geilfine_ system, under which four groups of
persons, all nearly related to each other, held four adjacent tracts of
land as a sort of common property, subject to regulations now very
difficult to understand.[12] The king's mensal land, as also that of the
tanist or successor to the royal office appointed during the king's
lifetime, was not divided up but passed on in its entirety to the next
individual elected to the position. When the family of an _aire_
remained in possession of his estate in a corporate capacity, they
formed a "joint and undivided family," the head of which was an aire,
and thus kept up the rank of the family. Three or four poor members of a
sept might combine their property and agree to form a "joint family,"
one of whom as the head would be an _aire_. In consequence of this
organization the homesteads of airig commonly included several families,
those of his brothers, sons, &c. (see BREHON LAWS).

The ancient Irish never got beyond very primitive notions of justice.
Retaliation for murder and other injuries was a common method of
redress, although the church had endeavoured to introduce various
reforms. Hence we find in the Brehon Laws a highly complicated system of
compensatory payment; but there was no authority except public opinion
to enforce the payment of the fines determined by the brehon in cases
submitted to him.

There were many kinds of popular assemblies in ancient Ireland. The sept
had its special meeting summoned by its chief for purposes such as the
assessment of blood-fines due from the sept, and the distribution of
those due to it. At larger gatherings the question of peace and war
would be deliberated. But the most important of all such assemblies was
the fair (_oenach_), which was summoned by a king, those summoned by the
kings of provinces having the character of national assemblies. The most
famous places of meeting were Tara, Telltown and Carman. The _oenach_
had many objects. The laws were publicly promulgated or rehearsed; there
were councils to deal with disputes and matters of local interest;
popular sports such as horse-racing, running and wrestling were held;
poems and tales were recited, and prizes were awarded to the best
performers of every _dán_ or art; while at the same time foreign traders
came with their wares, which they exchanged for native produce, chiefly
skins, wool and frieze. At some of these assemblies match-making played
a prominent part. Tradition connects the better known of these fairs
with pagan rites performed round the tombs of the heroes of the race;
thus the assembly of Telltown was stated to have been instituted by
Lugaid Lámfada. Crimes committed at an _oenach_ could not be commuted by
payment of fines. Women and men assembled for deliberation in separate
_airechta_ or gatherings, and no man durst enter the women's _airecht_
under pain of death.

The noble professions almost invariably ran in families, so that members
of the same household devoted themselves for generations to one
particular science or art, such as poetry, history, medicine, law. The
heads of the various professions in the _tuath_ received the title of
_ollam_. It was the rule for them to have paying apprentices living with
them. The literary _ollam_ or _fili_ was a person of great distinction.
He was provided with mensal land for the support of himself and his
scholars, and he was further entitled to free quarters for himself and
his retinue. The harper, the metal-worker (_cerd_), and the smith were
also provided with mensal land, in return for which they gave to the
chief their skill and the product of their labour as customary tribute
(_béstigi_).

AUTHORITIES.--_The Annals of the Four Masters_, ed. J. O'Donovan (7
vols., Dublin, 1856); _Annals of Ulster_ (4 vols., London, 1887-1892);
Keating's _Forus Feasa ar Éirinn_ (3 vols., ed. D. Comyn and P.
Dinneen, London, 1902-1908); E. Windisch, _Táin Bó Cúalnge_ (Leipzig,
1905), with a valuable introduction; P. W. Joyce, _A Social History of
Ancient Ireland_ (2 vols., London, 1903), also _A Short History of
Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1608_ (London, 1895); A. G. Richey,
_A Short History of the Irish People_ (Dublin, 1887); W. F. Skene,
_Celtic Scotland_ (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1876-1880); J. Rhys, "Studies
in Early Irish History," in _Proceedings of the British Academy_, vol.
i.; John MacNeill, papers in _New Ireland Review_ (March 1906-February
1907); _Leabhar na gCeart_, ed. O'Donovan (Dublin, 1847); E. O'Curry,
_The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, ed. W. K. Sullivan (3
vols., London, 1873); G. T. Stokes, _Ireland and the Celtic Church_,
revised by H. J. Lawlor (London^6, 1907); J. Healy, _Ireland's Ancient
Schools and Scholars_ (Dublin^3, 1897); H. Zimmer, article "Keltische
Kirche" in Hauck's _Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und
Kirche_ (trans. A. Meyer, London, 1902), cf. H. Williams, "H. Zimmer
on the History of the Celtic Church," _Zeitschr. f. celt. Phil._ iv.
527-574; H. Zimmer, "Die Bedeutung des irischen Elements in der
mittelalterlichen Kultur," _Preussische Jahrbücher_, vol. lix., trans.
J. L. Edmands, _The Irish Element in Medieval Culture_ (New York,
1891); J. H. Todd, _St Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland_ (Dublin,
1864); J. B. Bury, _Life of St Patrick_ (London, 1905); W. Reeves,
_Adamnan's Life of Columba_ (Dublin, 1857; also ed. with introd. by J.
T. Fowler, Oxford, 1894); M. Roger, _L'Enseignement des lettres
classiques d'Ausone à Alcuin_ (Paris, 1905); J. H. Todd, _The War
of the Gædhil with the Gall_ (London, 1867); L. J. Vogt, _Dublin som
Norsk By_ (Christiania, 1897); J. Steenstrup, _Normannerne_, vols.
ii., iii. (Copenhagen, 1878-1882); W. G. Collingwood, _Scandinavian
Britain_ (London, 1908). (E. C. Q.)

_History from the Anglo-Norman Invasion._

"Bull" of Adrian IV.

According to the _Metalogus_ of John of Salisbury, who in 1155 went on a
mission from King Henry II. to Pope Adrian IV., the only Englishman who
has ever occupied the papal chair, the pope in response to the envoy's
prayers granted to the king of the English the hereditary lordship of
Ireland, sending a letter, with a ring as the symbol of investiture.
Giraldus Cambrensis, in his _Expugnatio Hibernica_, gives what purports
to be the text of this letter, known as "the Bull Laudabiliter," and
adds further a _Privilegium_ of Pope Alexander III. confirming Adrian's
grant. The _Privilegium_ is undoubtedly spurious, a fact which lends
weight to the arguments of those who from the 19th century onwards have
attacked the genuineness of the "Bull." This latter, indeed, appears to
have been concocted by Gerald, an ardent champion of the English cause
in Ireland, from genuine letters of Pope Alexander III., still preserved
in the _Black Book of the Exchequer_, which do no more than commend King
Henry for reducing the Irish to order and extirpating _tantae
abominationis spurcitiam_, and exhort the Irish bishops and chiefs to be
faithful to the king to whom they had sworn allegiance.[13]

Henry was, indeed, at the outset in a position to dispense with the
moral aid of a papal concession, of which even if it existed he
certainly made no use. In 1156 Dermod MacMurrough (Diarmait
MacMurchada), deposed for his tyranny from the kingdom of Leinster,
repaired to Henry in Aquitaine (see _Early History_ above). The king was
busy with the French, but gladly seized the opportunity, and gave Dermod
a letter authorizing him to raise forces in England. Thus armed, and
provided with gold extorted from his former subjects in Leinster, Dermod
went to Bristol and sought the acquaintance of Richard de Clare, earl of
Pembroke, a Norman noble of great ability but broken fortunes. Earl
Richard, whom later usage has named Strongbow, agreed to reconquer
Dermod's kingdom for him. The stipulated consideration was the hand of
Eva his only child, and according to feudal law his sole heiress, to
whose issue lands and kingdoms would naturally pass. But Irish customs
admitted no estates of inheritance, and Eva had no more right to the
reversion of Leinster than she had to that of Japan. It is likely that
Strongbow had no conception of this, and that his first collision with
the tribal system was an unpleasant surprise. Passing through Wales,
Dermod agreed with Robert Fitzstephen and Maurice Fitzgerald to invade
Ireland in the ensuing spring.

The invasion of Strongbow.

About the 1st of May 1169 Fitzstephen landed on the Wexford shore with a
small force, and next day Maurice de Prendergast brought another band
nearly to the same spot. Dermod joined them, and the Danes of Wexford
soon submitted. According to agreement Dermod granted the territory of
Wexford, which had never belonged to him, to Robert and Maurice and
their heirs for ever; and here begins the conflict between feudal and
tribal law which was destined to deluge Ireland in blood. Maurice
Fitzgerald soon followed with a fresh detachment. About a year after the
first landing Raymond Le Gros was sent over by Earl Richard with his
advanced guard, and Strongbow himself landed near Waterford on the 23rd
of August 1170 with 200 knights and about 1000 other troops.

The natives did not understand that this invasion was quite different
from those of the Danes. They made alliances with the strangers to aid
them in their intestine wars, and the annalist writing in later years
(_Annals of Lough Cé_) describes with pathetic brevity the change
wrought in Ireland:--"Earl Strongbow came into Erin with Dermod
MacMurrough to avenge his expulsion by Roderick, son of Turlough
O'Connor; and Dermod gave him his own daughter and a part of his
patrimony, and Saxon foreigners have been in Erin since then."

Most of the Norman leaders were near relations, many being descended
from Nesta, daughter of Rhys Ap Tudor, prince of South Wales, the most
beautiful woman of her time, and mistress of Henry I. Her children by
that king were called Fitzhenry. She afterwards married Gerald de
Windsor, by whom she had three sons--Maurice, ancestor of all the
Geraldines; William, from whom sprang the families of Fitzmaurice,
Carew, Grace and Gerard; and David, who became bishop of St David's.
Nesta's daughter, Angareth, married to William de Barri, bore the
chronicler Giraldus Cambrensis, and was ancestress of the Irish Barries.
Raymond le Gros, Hervey de Montmorency, and the Cogans were also
descendants of Nesta, who, by her second husband, Stephen the Castellan,
was mother of Robert Fitzstephen.

While waiting for Strongbow's arrival, Raymond and Hervey were attacked
by the Danes of Waterford, whom they overthrew. Strongbow himself took
Waterford and Dublin, and the Danish inhabitants of both readily
combined with their French-speaking kinsfolk, and became firm supporters
of the Anglo-Normans against the native Irish.

Alarmed at the principality forming near him, Henry invaded Ireland in
person, landing near Waterford on the 18th of October 1172. Giraldus
says he had 500 knights and many other soldiers; Regan, the metrical
chronicler, says he had 4000 men, of whom 400 were knights; the _Annals
of Lough Cé_ that he had 240 ships. The Irish writers tell little about
these great events, except that the king of the Saxons took the hostages
of Munster at Waterford, and of Leinster, Ulster, Thomond and Meath at
Dublin. They did not take in the grave significance of doing homage to a
Norman king, and becoming his "man."

Henry II. in Ireland.

Henry's farthest point westward was Cashel, where he received the homage
of Donald O'Brien, king of Thomond, but he does not appear to have been
present at the famous synod. Christian O'Conarchy, bishop of Lismore and
papal legate, presided, and the archbishops of Dublin, Cashel and Tuam
attended with their suffragans, as did many abbots and other
dignitaries. The primate of Armagh, the saintly Gelasius, was absent,
and presumably his suffragans also, but Giraldus says he afterwards came
to the king at Dublin, and favoured him in all things. Henry's
sovereignty was acknowledged, and constitutions made which drew Ireland
closer to Rome. In spite of the "enormities and filthinesses," which
Giraldus says defiled the Irish Church, nothing worse could be found to
condemn than marriages within the prohibited degrees and trifling
irregularities about baptism. Most of the details rest on the authority
of Giraldus only, but the main facts are clear. The synod is not
mentioned by the Irish annalists, nor by Regan, but it is by Hoveden and
Ralph de Diceto. The latter says it was held at Lismore, an error
arising from the president having been bishop of Lismore. Tradition says
the members met in Cormac's chapel.

Henry at first tried to be suzerain without displacing the natives, and
received the homage of Roderick O'Connor, the high king. But the
adventurers were uncontrollable, and he had to let them conquer what
they could, exercising a precarious authority over the Normans only
through a viceroy. The early governors seemingly had orders to deal as
fairly as possible with the natives, and this involved them in quarrels
with the "conquerors," whose object was to carve out principalities for
themselves, and who only nominally respected the sovereign's wishes. The
mail-clad knights were not uniformly successful against the natives, but
they generally managed to occupy the open plains and fertile valleys.
Geographical configuration preserved centres of resistance--the O'Neills
in Tyrone and Armagh, the O'Donnells in Donegal, and the Macarthies in
Cork being the largest tribes that remained practically unbroken. On the
coast from Bray to Dundalk, and by the navigable rivers of the east and
south coasts, the Norman put his iron foot firmly down.

Prince John landed at Waterford in 1185, and the neighbouring chiefs
hastened to pay their respects to the king's son. Prince and followers
alike soon earned hatred, the former showing the incurable vices of his
character, and pulling the beards of the chieftains. After eight
disgraceful months he left the government to John de Courci, but
retained the title "Dominus Hiberniae." It was even intended to crown
him; and Urban III. sent a licence and a crown of peacock's feathers,
which was never placed on his head. Had Richard I. had children Ireland
might have become a separate kingdom.

Henry II. had granted Meath, about 800,000 acres, to Hugh de Lacy (d.
1186), reserving scarcely any prerogative to the crown, and making his
vassal almost independent. De Lacy sublet the land among kinsmen and
retainers, and to his grants the families of Nugent, Tyrell, Nangle,
Tuyt, Fleming and others owe their importance in Irish history. It is
not surprising that the Irish bordering on Meath should have thought De
Lacy the real king of Ireland.

King John.

During his brother Richard I.'s reign, John's viceroy was William
Marshal, earl of Pembroke, who married Strongbow's daughter, and thus
succeeded to his claims in Leinster. John's reputation was no better in
Ireland than in England. He thwarted or encouraged the Anglo-Normans as
best suited him, but on the whole they increased their possessions. In
1210 John, now king, visited Ireland again, and being joined by Cathal
Crovderg O'Connor, king of Connaught, marched from Waterford by Dublin
to Carrickfergus without encountering any serious resistance from Hugh
de Lacy (second son of the Hugh de Lacy mentioned above), who had been
made earl of Ulster in 1205. John did not venture farther west than
Trim, but most of the Anglo-Norman lords swore fealty to him, and he
divided the partially obedient districts into twelve counties--Dublin
(with Wicklow), Meath (with Westmeath), Louth, Carlow, Kilkenny,
Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Kerry and Tipperary. John's
resignation of his kingdom to the pope in 1213 included Ireland, and
thus for the second time was the papal claim to Ireland formally
recorded.

Henry III. (1216-1272).

During Henry III.'s long reign the Anglo-Norman power increased, but
underwent great modifications. Richard Marshal, grandson of Strongbow,
and to a great extent heir of his power, was foully murdered by his own
feudatories--men of his own race; and the colony never quite recovered
this blow. On the other hand, the De Burghs, partly by alliance with the
Irish, partly by sheer hard fighting, made good their claims to the
lordship of Connaught, and the western O'Connors henceforth play a very
subordinate part in Irish history. Tallage was first imposed on the
colony in the first year of this reign, but yielded little, and tithes
were not much better paid.

Objections to Irish clergy.

Separation of the two races.

On the 14th of January 1217 the king wrote from Oxford to his
justiciary, Geoffrey de Marisco, directing that no Irishman should be
elected or preferred in any cathedral in Ireland, "since by that means
our land might be disturbed, which is to be deprecated." This order was
annulled in 1224 by Honorius III., who declared it "destitute of all
colour of right and honesty." The pope's efforts failed, for in the 14th
century several Cistercian abbeys excluded Irishmen, and as late as 1436
the monks of Abingdon complained bitterly that an Irish abbot had been
imposed on them by lay violence. Parliament was not more liberal, for
the statute of Kilkenny, passed in 1366, ordained that "no Irishman be
admitted into any cathedral or collegiate church, nor to any benefice
among the English of the land," and also "that no religious house
situated among the English shall henceforth receive an Irishman to their
profession." This was confirmed by the English parliament in 1416, and
an Irish act of Richard III. enabled the archbishop of Dublin to collate
Irish clerks for two years, an exception proving the rule. Many Irish
monasteries admitted no Englishmen, and at least one attempt was made,
in 1250, to apply the same rule to cathedrals. The races remained nearly
separate, the Irish simply staying outside the feudal system. If an
Englishman slew an Irishman (except one of the five regal and
privileged bloods) he was not to be tried for murder, for Irish law
admitted composition (_eric_) for murder. In Magna Charta there is a
proviso that foreign merchants shall be treated as English merchants are
treated in the country whence the travellers came. Yet some enlightened
men strove to fuse the two nations together, and the native Irish, or
that section which bordered on the settlements and suffered great
oppression, offered 8000 marks to Edward I. for the privilege of living
under English law. The justiciary supported their petition, but the
prelates and nobles refused to consent.

Edward I. (1272-1307).

There is a vague tradition that Edward I. visited Ireland about 1256,
when his father ordained that the prince's seal should have regal
authority in that country. A vast number of documents remain to prove
that he did not neglect Irish business. Yet this great king cannot be
credited with any specially enlightened views as to Ireland. Hearing
with anger of enormities committed in his name, he summoned the viceroy,
Robert de Ufford (d. 1298), to explain, who coolly said that he thought
it expedient to wink at one knave cutting off another, "whereat the king
smiled and bade him return into Ireland." The colonists were strong
enough to send large forces to the king in his Scottish wars, but as
there was no corresponding immigration this really weakened the English,
whose best hopes lay in agriculture and the arts of peace, while the
Celtic race waxed proportionally numerous. Outwardly all seemed fair.
The De Burghs were supreme in Connaught, and English families occupied
eastern Ulster. The fertile southern and central lands were dominated by
strong castles. But Tyrone and Tyrconnel, and the mountains everywhere,
sheltered the Celtic race, which, having reached its lowest point under
Edward I., began to recover under his son.

Edward II. (1307-1327).

In 1315, the year after Bannockburn, Edward Bruce landed near Larne with
6000 men, including some of the best knights in Scotland. Supported by
O'Neill and other chiefs, and for a time assisted by his famous brother,
Bruce gained many victories. There was no general effort of the natives
in their favour; perhaps the Irish thought one Norman no better than
another, and their total incapacity for national organization forbade
the idea of a native sovereign. The family quarrels of the O'Connors at
this time, and their alliances with the Burkes, or De Burghs, and the
Berminghams, may be traced in great detail in the annalists--the general
result being fatal to the royal tribe of Connaught, which is said to
have lost 10,000 warriors in the battle of Templetogher. In other places
the English were less successful, the Butlers being beaten by the
O'Carrolls in 1318, and Richard de Clare falling about the same time in
the decisive battle of Dysert O'Dea. The O'Briens re-established their
sway in Thomond and the illustrious name of Clare disappears from Irish
history. Edward Bruce fell in battle near Dundalk, and most of his army
recrossed the channel, leaving behind a reputation for cruelty and
rapacity. The colonists were victorious, but their organization was
undermined, and the authority of the crown, which had never been able to
keep the peace, grew rapidly weaker. Within twenty years after the great
victory of Dundalk, the quarrels of the barons allowed the Irish to
recover much of the land they had lost.

Edward III. (1327-1377).

John de Bermingham, earl of Louth, the conqueror of Bruce, was murdered
in 1329 by the Gernons, Cusacks, Everards and other English of that
county, who disliked his firm government. They were never brought to
justice. Talbot of Malahide and two hundred of Bermingham's relations
and adherents were massacred at the same time. In 1333, William de
Burgh, the young earl of Ulster, was murdered by the Mandevilles and
others; in this case signal vengeance was taken, but the feudal dominion
never recovered the blow, and on the north-east coast the English laws
and language were soon confined to Drogheda and Dundalk. The earl left
one daughter, Elizabeth, who was of course a royal ward. She married
Lionel, duke of Clarence, and from her springs the royal line of
England from Edward IV., as well as James V. of Scotland and his
descendants.

The two chief men among the De Burghs were loth to hold their lands of a
little absentee girl. Having no grounds for opposing the royal title to
the wardship of the heiress, they abjured English law and became Irish
chieftains. As such they were obeyed, for the king's arm was short in
Ireland. The one appropriated Mayo as the Lower (Oughter) M'William, and
the earldom of Mayo perpetuates the memory of the event. The other as
the Upper (Eighter) M'William took Galway, and from him the earls of
Clanricarde afterwards sprung.

Edward III. being busy with foreign wars had little time to spare for
Ireland, and the native chiefs everywhere seized their opportunity.
Perhaps the most remarkable of these aggressive chiefs was Lysaght
O'More, who reconquered Leix. Clyn the Franciscan annalist, whose
Latinity is so far above the medieval level as almost to recall Tacitus,
sums up Lysaght's career epigrammatically: "He was a slave, he became a
master; he was a subject, he became a prince (de servo dominus, de
subjecto princeps effectus)." The two great earldoms whose contests form
a large part of the history of the south of Ireland were created by
Edward III. James Butler, eldest son of Edmund, earl of Carrick, became
earl of Ormonde and palatine of Tipperary in 1328. Next year Maurice
Fitzgerald was made earl of Desmond, and from his three brethren
descended the historic houses of the White Knight, the knight of Glin,
and the knight of Kerry. The earldom of Kildare dates from 1316. In this
reign too was passed the statute of Kilkenny (q.v.), a confession by the
crown that obedient subjects were the minority. The enactments against
Irish dress and customs, and against marriage and fostering proved a
dead letter.

Richard II. (1377-1399).

In two expeditions to Ireland Richard II. at first overcame all
opposition, but neither had any permanent effect. Art MacMurrough, the
great hero of the Leinster Celts, practically had the best of the
contest. The king in his despatches divided the population into Irish
enemies, Irish rebels and English subjects. As he found them so he left
them, lingering in Dublin long enough to lose his own crown. But for
MacMurrough and his allies the house of Lancaster might never have
reigned. No English king again visited Ireland until James II., declared
by his English subjects to have abdicated, and by the more outspoken
Scots to have forfeited the crown, appealed to the loyalty or piety of
the Catholic Irish.

Henry IV. (1399-1413).

Henry IV. had a bad title, and his necessities were conducive to the
growth of the English constitution, but fatal to the Anglo-Irish. His
son Thomas, duke of Clarence, was viceroy in 1401, but did very little.
"Your son," wrote the Irish council to Henry, "is so destitute of money
that he has not a penny in the world, nor can borrow a single penny,
because all his jewels and his plate that he can spare, and those which
he must of necessity keep, are pledged to lie in pawn." The nobles waged
private war unrestrained, and the game of playing off one chieftain
against another was carried on with varying success. The provisions of
the statute of Kilkenny against trading with the Irish failed, for
markets cannot exist without buyers.

Henry V. (1413-1422).

Henry VI. (1422-1461).

The brilliant reign of Henry V. was a time of extreme misery to the
colony in Ireland. Half the English-speaking people fled to England,
where they were not welcome. The disastrous reign of the third
Lancastrian completed the discomfiture of the original colony in
Ireland. Quarrels between the Ormonde and Talbot parties paralysed the
government, and a "Pale" of 30 m. by 20 was all that remained. Even the
walled towns, Kilkenny, Ross, Wexford, Kinsale, Youghal, Clonmel,
Kilmallock, Thomastown, Fethard and Cashel, were almost starved out;
Waterford itself was half ruined and half deserted. Only one parliament
was held for thirty years, but taxation was not remitted on that
account. No viceroy even pretended to reside continuously. The north and
west were still worse off than the south. Some thoughtful men saw
clearly the danger of leaving Ireland to be seized by the first chance
comer, and the _Libel of English Policy_, written about 1436, contains a
long and interesting passage declaring England's interests in protecting
Ireland as "a boterasse and a poste" of her own power. Sir John Talbot,
immortalized by Shakespeare, was several times viceroy; he was almost
uniformly successful in the field, but feeble in council. He held a
parliament at Trim which made one law against men of English race
wearing moustaches, lest they should be mistaken for Irishmen, and
another obliging the sons of agricultural labourers to follow their
father's vocation under pain of fine and imprisonment. The earls of
Shrewsbury are still earls of Waterford, and retain the right to carry
the white staff as hereditary stewards, but the palatinate jurisdiction
over Wexford was taken away by Henry VIII. The Ulster annalists give a
very different estimate of the great Talbot from that of Shakespeare: "A
son of curses for his venom and a devil for his evils; and the learned
say of him that there came not from the time of Herod, by whom Christ
was crucified, any one so wicked in evil deeds" (O'Donovan's _Four
Masters_).

Richard of York in Ireland.

In 1449 Richard, duke of York, right heir by blood to the throne of
Edward III., was forced to yield the regency of France to his rival
Somerset, and to accept the Irish viceroyalty. He landed at Howth with
his wife Cicely Neville, and Margaret of Anjou hoped thus to get rid of
one who was too great for a subject. The Irish government was given to
him for ten years on unusually liberal terms. He ingratiated himself
with both races, taking care to avoid identification with any particular
family. At the baptism of his son George--"false, fleeting, perjured
Clarence"--who was born in Dublin Castle, Desmond and Ormonde stood
sponsors together. In legislation Richard fared no better than others.
The rebellion of Jack Cade, claiming to be a Mortimer and cousin to the
duke of York, took place at this time. This adventurer, at once
ludicrous and formidable, was a native of Ireland, and was thought to be
put forward by Richard to test the popularity of the Yorkist cause.
Returning suddenly to England in 1450, Richard left the government to
James, earl of Ormonde and Wiltshire, who later married Eleanor,
daughter of Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, and was deeply engaged on
the Lancastrian side. This earl began the deadly feud with the house of
Kildare, which lasted for generations. After Blore Heath Richard was
attainted by the Lancastrian parliament, and returned to Dublin, where
the colonial parliament acknowledged him and assumed virtual
independence. A separate coinage was established, and the authority of
the English parliament was repudiated. William Overy, a bold squire of
Ormonde's, offered to arrest Richard as an attainted traitor, but was
seized, tried before the man whom he had come to take, and hanged, drawn
and quartered. The duke only maintained his separate kingdom about a
year. His party triumphed in England, but he himself fell at Wakefield.

Edward IV. (1461-1483).

Among the few prisoners taken on the bloody field of Towton was Ormonde,
whose head long adorned London Bridge. He and his brothers were
attainted in England and by the Yorkist parliament in Ireland, but the
importance of the family was hardly diminished by this. For the first
six years of Edward's reign the two Geraldine earls engrossed official
power. The influence of Queen Elizabeth Woodville, whom Desmond had
offended, then made itself felt. Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, became
deputy. He was an accomplished Oxonian, who made a speech at Rome in
such good Latin as to draw tears from the eyes of that great patron of
letters Pope Pius II. (Aeneas Sylvius). But his Latinity did not soften
his manners, and he was thought cruel even in that age. Desmond was
beheaded, ostensibly for using Irish exactions, really, as the partisans
of his family hold, to please Elizabeth. The remarkable lawlessness of
this reign was increased by the practice of coining. Several mints had
been established since Richard of York's time; the standards varied and
imitation was easy.

Richard III.

Henry VII. (1485-1509).

During Richard III.'s short reign the earl of Kildare, head of the Irish
Yorkists, was the strongest man in Ireland. He espoused the cause of
Lambert Simnel (1487), whom the Irish in general seem always to have
thought a true Plantagenet. The Italian primate, Octavian de Palatio,
knew better, and incurred the wrath of Kildare by refusing to officiate
at the impostor's coronation. The local magnates and several
distinguished visitors attended, and Lambert was shown to the people
borne aloft on "great D'Arcy of Platten's" shoulders. His enterprise
ended in the battle of Stoke, near Newark, where the flower of the
Anglo-Irish soldiery fell. "The Irish," says Bacon, "did not fail in
courage or fierceness, but, being almost naked men, only armed with
darts and skeins, it was rather an execution than a fight upon them."
Conspicuous among Henry VII.'s adherents in Ireland were the citizens of
Waterford, who, with the men of Clonmel, Callan, Fethard and the Butler
connexion generally, were prepared to take the field in his favour.
Waterford was equally conspicuous some years later in resisting Perkin
Warbeck, who besieged it unsuccessfully, and was chased by the citizens,
who fitted out a fleet at their own charge. The king conferred honour
and rewards on the loyal city, to which he gave the proud title of _urbs
intacta_. Other events of this reign were the parliament of Drogheda,
held by Sir Edward Poynings, which gave the control of Irish legislation
to the English council ("Poynings's Act"--the great bone of contention
in the later days of Flood and Grattan), and the battle of Knockdoe, in
which the earl of Kildare used the viceregal authority to avenge a
private quarrel.

Henry VIII. (1509-1547).

Occupied in pleasure or foreign enterprise, Henry VIII. at first paid
little attention to Ireland. The royal power was practically confined to
what in the previous century had become known as the "Pale," that is
Dublin, Louth, Kildare and a part of Meath, and within this narrow limit
the earls of Kildare were really more powerful than the crown.
Waterford, Drogheda, Dundalk, Cork, Limerick and Galway were not Irish,
but rather free cities than an integral part of the kingdom; and many
inland towns were in the same position. The house of Ormonde had created
a sort of small Pale about Kilkenny, and part of Wexford had been
colonized by men of English race. The Desmonds were Irish in all but
pride of blood. The Barretts, Condons, Courcies, Savages, Arundels,
Carews and others had disappeared or were merged in the Celtic mass.
Anglo-Norman nobles became chiefs of pseudo-tribes, which acknowledged
only the Brehon law, and paid dues and services in kind. These
pseudo-tribes were often called "nations," and a vast number of
exactions were practised by the chiefs. "Coyne and livery"--the right of
free-quarters for man and beast--arose among the Anglo-Normans, and
became more oppressive than any native custom. When Henry took to
business, he laid the foundation of reconquest. The house of Kildare,
which had actually besieged Dublin (1534), was overthrown, and the Pale
saved from a standing danger (see FITZGERALD). But the Pale scarcely
extended 20 m. from Dublin, a march of uncertain width intervening
between it and the Irish districts. Elsewhere, says an elaborate report,
all the English folk were of "Irish language and Irish condition,"
except in the cities and walled towns. Down and Louth paid black rent to
O'Neill, Meath and Kildare to O'Connor, Wexford to the Kavanaghs,
Kilkenny and Tipperary to O'Carroll, Limerick to the O'Briens, and Cork
to the MacCarthies. MacMurrough Kavanagh, in Irish eyes the
representative of King Dermod, received an annual pension from the
exchequer. Henry set steadily to work to reassert the royal title. He
assumed the style of king of Ireland, so as to get rid of the notion
that he held the island of the pope. The Irish chiefs acknowledged his
authority and his ecclesiastical supremacy, abjuring at the same time
that of the Holy See. The lands of the earl of Shrewsbury and other
absentees, who had performed no duties, were resumed; and both Celtic
and feudal nobles were encouraged to come to court. Here begins the long
line of official deputies, often men of moderate birth and fortune.
Butler and Geraldine, O'Neill and O'Donnell, continued to spill each
other's blood, but the feudal and tribal systems were alike doomed. In
the names of these Tudor deputies and other officers we see the origin
of many great Irish families--Skeffington, Brabazon, St Leger,
Fitzwilliam, Wingfield, Bellingham, Carew, Bingham, Loftus and others.
Nor were the Celts overlooked. O'Neill and O'Brien went to London to be
invested as earls of Tyrone and Thomond respectively. O'Donnell, whose
descendants became earls of Tyrconnel, went to court and was well
received. The pseudo-chief MacWilliam became earl of Clanricarde, and
others reached lower steps in the peerage, or were knighted by the
king's own hand. All were encouraged to look to the crown for redress of
grievances, and thus the old order slowly gave place to the new.

The Irish Church.

The moment when Protestantism and Ultramontanism are about to begin
their still unfinished struggle is a fit time to notice the chief points
in medieval Irish church history. Less than two years before Strongbow's
arrival Pope Eugenius had established an ecclesiastical constitution in
Ireland depending on Rome, but the annexation was very imperfectly
carried out, and the hope of fully asserting the Petrine claims was a
main cause of Adrian's gift to Henry II. Hitherto the Scandinavian
section of the church in Ireland had been most decidedly inclined to
receive the hierarchical and diocesan as distinguished from the monastic
and quasi-tribal system. The bishops or abbots of Dublin derived their
succession from Canterbury from 1038 to 1162, and the bishops of
Waterford and Limerick also sought consecration there. But both Celt and
Northman acknowledged the polity of Eugenius, and it was chiefly in the
matters of tithe, Peter's pence, canonical degrees and the observance of
festivals that Rome had still victories to gain. Between churchmen of
Irish and English race there was bitter rivalry; but the theory that the
ancient Celtic church remained independent, and as it were Protestant,
while the English colony submitted to the Vatican, is a mere
controversial figment. The crown was weak and papal aggression made
rapid progress. It was in the Irish church, about the middle of the 13th
century, that the system of giving jurisdiction to the bishops "in
temporalibus" was adopted by Innocent IV. The vigour of Edward I.
obtained a renunciation in particular cases, but the practice continued
unabated. The system of provisions was soon introduced at the expense of
free election, and was acknowledged by the statute of Kilkenny. In the
more remote districts it must have been almost a matter of necessity.
Many Irish parishes grew out of primitive monasteries, but other early
settlements remained monastic, and were compelled by the popes to adopt
the rule of authorized orders, generally that of the Augustinian canons.
That order became much the most numerous in Ireland, having not less
than three hundred houses. Of other sedentary orders the Cistercians
were the most important, and the mendicants were very numerous. Both
Celtic chiefs and Norman nobles founded convents after Henry II. 's
time, but the latter being wealthier were most distinguished in this
way. Religious houses were useful as abodes of peace in a turbulent
country, and the lands attached were better cultivated than those of lay
proprietors. Attempts to found a university at Dublin (1311) or Drogheda
(1465) failed for want of funds. The work of education was partially
done by the great abbeys, boys of good family being brought up by the
Cistercians of Dublin and Jerpoint, and by the Augustinians of Dublin,
Kells and Connel, and girls by the canonesses of Gracedieu. A strong
effort was made to save these six houses, but Henry VIII. would not hear
of it, and there was no Irish Wolsey partially to supply the king's
omissions.

Ample evidence exists that the Irish church was full of abuses before
the movement under Henry VIII. We have detailed accounts of three
sees--Clonmacnoise, Enaghdune and Ardagh. Ross, also in a wild district,
was in rather better case. But even in Dublin strange things happened;
thus the archiepiscopal crozier was in pawn for eighty years from 1449.
The morals of the clergy were no better than in other countries, and we
have evidence of many scandalous irregularities. But perhaps the most
severe condemnation is that of the report to Henry VIII. in 1515. "There
is," says the document, "no archbishop, ne bishop, abbot, ne prior,
parson, ne vicar, ne any other person of the church, high or low, great
or small, English or Irish, that useth to preach the word of God, saving
the poor friars beggars ... the church of this land use not to learn any
other science, but the law of canon, for covetise of lucre transitory."
Where his hand reached Henry had little difficulty in suppressing the
monasteries or taking their lands, which Irish chiefs swallowed as
greedily as men of English blood. But the friars, though pretty
generally turned out of doors, were themselves beyond Henry's power, and
continued to preach everywhere among the people. Their devotion and
energy may be freely admitted; but the mendicant orders, especially the
Carmelites, were not uniformly distinguished for morality. Monasticism
was momentarily suppressed under Oliver Cromwell, but the Restoration
brought the monks back to their old haunts. The Jesuits, placed by Paul
III. under the protection of Conn O'Neill, "prince of the Irish of
Ulster," came to Ireland towards the end of Henry's reign, and helped to
keep alive the Roman tradition. Anglicanism was regarded as a symbol of
conquest and intrusion. The _Four Masters_ thus describes the
Reformation: "A heresy and new error arising in England, through pride,
vain glory, avarice, and lust, and through many strange sciences, so
that the men of England went into opposition to the pope and to Rome."
The destruction of relics and images and the establishment of a
schismatic hierarchy is thus recorded: "Though great was the persecution
of the Roman emperors against the church, scarcely had there ever come
so great a persecution from Rome as this."

Edward VI. (1547-1553).

The able opportunist Sir Anthony St Leger, who was accused by one party
of opposing the Reformation and by the other of lampooning the
Sacrament, continued to rule during the early days of Edward VI. To him
succeeded Sir Edward Bellingham, a Puritan soldier whose hand was heavy
on all who disobeyed the king. He bridled Connaught by a castle at
Athlone, and Munster by a garrison at Leighlin Bridge. The O'Mores and
O'Connors were brought low, and forts erected where Maryborough and
Philipstown now stand. Both chiefs and nobles were forced to respect the
king's representative, but Bellingham was not wont to flatter those in
power, and his administration found little favour in England. Sir
Francis Bryan, Henry VIII.'s favourite, succeeded him, and on his death
St Leger was again appointed. Neither St Leger nor his successor Sir
James Croft could do anything with Ulster, where the papal primate
Wauchop, a Scot by birth, stirred up rebellion among the natives and
among the Hebridean invaders. But little was done under Edward VI. to
advance the power of the crown, and that little was done by Bellingham.

The Reformation.

The English government long hesitated about the official establishment
of Protestantism, and the royal order to that effect was withheld until
1551. Copies of the new liturgy were sent over, and St Leger had the
communion service translated into Latin, for the use of priests and
others who could read, but not in English. The popular feeling was
strong against innovation, as Edward Staples, bishop of Meath, found to
his cost. The opinions of Staples, like those of Cranmer, advanced
gradually until at last he went to Dublin and preached boldly against
the mass. He saw men shrink from him on all sides. "My lord," said a
beneficed priest, whom he had himself promoted, and who wept as he
spoke, "before ye went last to Dublin ye were the best beloved man in
your diocese that ever came in it, now ye are the worst beloved.... Ye
have preached against the sacrament of the altar and the saints, and
will make us worse than Jews.... The country folk would eat you.... Ye
have more curses than ye have hairs of your head, and I advise you for
Christ's sake not to preach at Navan." Staples answered that preaching
was his duty, and that he would not fail; but he feared for his life. On
the same prelate fell the task of conducting a public controversy with
the archbishop of Armagh, George Dowdall, which of course ended in the
conversion of neither. Dowdall fled; his see was treated as vacant, and
Cranmer cast about him for a Protestant to fill St Patrick's chair. His
first nominee, Dr Richard Turner, resolutely declined the honour,
declaring that he would be unintelligible to the people; and Cranmer
could only answer that English was spoken in Ireland, though he did
indeed doubt whether it was spoken in the diocese of Armagh. John Bale,
a man of great learning and ability, became bishop of Ossory. There is
no reason to doubt his sincerity, but he was coarse and
intemperate--Froude roundly calls him a foul-mouthed ruffian--without
the wisdom of the serpent or the harmlessness of the dove. His choice
rhetoric stigmatized the dean of St Patrick's as ass-headed, a blockhead
who cared only for his kitchen and his belly.

Mary (1553-1558).

The Reformation having made no real progress, Mary found it easy to
recover the old ways. Dowdall was restored; Staples and others were
deprived. Bale fled for bare life, and his see was treated as vacant.
Yet the queen found it impossible to restore the monastic lands, though
she showed some disposition to scrutinize the titles of grantees. She
was Tudor enough to declare her intention of maintaining the old
prerogatives of the crown against the Holy See, and assumed the royal
title without papal sanction. Paul IV. was fain to curb his fiery
temper, and to confer graciously what he could not withhold. English
Protestants fled to Ireland to escape the Marian persecution; but had
the reign continued a little longer, Dublin would probably have been no
safe place of refuge.

Mary scarcely varied the civil policy of her brother's ministers. Gerald
of Kildare, who had been restored to his estates by Edward VI., was
created earl of Kildare. The plan of settling Leix and Offaly by
dividing the country between colonists and natives holding by English
tenure failed, owing to the unconquerable love of the people for their
own customs. But resistance gradually grew fainter, and we hear little
of the O'Connors after this. The O'Mores, reduced almost to brigandage,
gave trouble till the end of Elizabeth's reign, and a member of the clan
was chief contriver of the rebellion of 1641. Maryborough and
Philipstown, King's county and Queen's county, commemorate Mary's
marriage.

Elizabeth (1558-1603).

Anne Boleyn's daughter succeeded quietly, and Sir Henry Sidney was sworn
lord-justice with the full Catholic ritual. When Thomas Radclyffe, earl
of Sussex, superseded him as lord-lieutenant, the litany was chanted in
English, both cathedrals having been painted, and scripture texts
substituted for "pictures and popish fancies." At the beginning of 1560
a parliament was held which restored the ecclesiastical legislation of
Henry and Edward. In two important points the Irish Church was made more
dependent on the state than in England: _congés d'élire_ were abolished
and heretics made amenable to royal commissioners or to parliament
without reference to any synod or convocation. According to a
contemporary list, this parliament consisted of 3 archbishops, 17
bishops, 23 temporal peers, and members returned by 10 counties and 28
cities and boroughs. Some of the Irish bishops took the oath of
supremacy, some were deprived. In other cases Elizabeth connived at what
she could not prevent, and hardly pretended to enforce uniformity except
in the Pale and in the large towns.

Rebellion of Shane O'Neill.

Ulster demanded the immediate attention of Elizabeth. Her father had
conferred the earldom of Tyrone on Conn Bacach O'Neill, with remainder
to his supposed son Matthew, created baron of Dungannon, the offspring
of a smith's wife at Dundalk, who in her husband's lifetime brought the
child to Conn as his own. When the chief's legitimate son Shane grew up
he declined to be bound by this arrangement, which the king may have
made in partial ignorance of the facts. "Being a gentleman," he said,
"my father never refusid no child that any woman namyd to be his." When
Tyrone died, Matthew's son, Brian O'Neill, baron of Dungannon, claimed
his earldom under the patent. Shane being chosen O'Neill by his tribe
claimed to be chief by election, and earl as Conn's lawful son. Thus
the English government was committed to the cause of one who was at best
an adulterine bastard, while Shane appeared as champion of hereditary
right (See O'NEILL). Shane maintained a contest which had begun under
Mary until 1567, with great ability and a total absence of morality, in
which Sussex had no advantage over him. The lord-lieutenant twice tried
to have Shane murdered; once he proposed to break his safe-conduct; and
he held out hopes of his sister's hand as a snare. Shane was induced to
visit London, where the government detained him for some time. On his
return to Ireland, Sussex was outmatched both in war and diplomacy; the
loyal chiefs were crushed one by one; and the English suffered checks of
which the moral effect was ruinous. Shane diplomatically acknowledged
Elizabeth as his sovereign, and sometimes played the part of a loyal
subject, wreaking his private vengeance under colour of expelling the
Scots from Ulster. At last, in 1566, the queen placed the sword of state
in Sidney's strong grasp. Shane was driven helplessly from point to
point, and perished miserably at the hands of the MacDonnells, whom he
had so often oppressed and insulted.

First Desmond Rebellion, 1574.

Peace was soon broken by disturbances in the south. The earl of Desmond
having shown rebellious tendencies was detained for six years in London.
Treated leniently, but grievously pressed for money, he tried to escape,
and, the attempt being judged treasonable, he was persuaded to surrender
his estates--to receive them back or not at the queen's discretion.
Seizing the opportunity, English adventurers proposed to plant a
military colony in the western half of Munster, holding the coast from
the Shannon to Cork harbour. Some who held obsolete title-deeds were
encouraged to go to work at once by the example of Sir Peter Carew, who
had established his claims in Carlow. Carew's title had been in abeyance
for a century and a half, yet most of the Kavanaghs attorned to him.
Falling foul of Ormonde's brothers, seizing their property and using
great cruelty and violence, Sir Peter drove the Butlers, the only one
among the great families really loyal, into rebellion. Ormonde, who was
in London, could alone restore peace; all his disputes with Desmond were
at once settled in his favour, and he was even allowed to resume the
exaction of coyne and livery, the abolition of which had been the
darling wish of statesmen. The Butlers returned to their allegiance, but
continued to oppose Carew, and great atrocities were committed on both
sides. Sir Peter had great but undefined claims in Munster also, and the
people there took warning. His imitators in Cork were swept away. Sidney
first, and after him Humphrey Gilbert, could only circumscribe the
rebellion. The presidency of Munster, an office the creation of which
had long been contemplated, was then conferred on Sir John Perrot, who
drove James "Fitzmaurice" Fitzgerald into the mountains, reduced castles
everywhere, and destroyed a Scottish contingent which had come from
Ulster to help the rebels. Fitzmaurice came in and knelt in the mud at
the president's feet, confessing his sins; but he remained the real
victor. The colonizing scheme was dropped, and the first presidency of
Munster left the Desmonds and their allies in possession. Similar plans
were tried unsuccessfully in Ulster, first by a son of Sir Thomas Smith,
afterwards by Walter Devereux, earl of Essex, a knight-errant rather
than a statesman, who was guilty of many bloody deeds. He treacherously
captured Sir Brian O'Neill and massacred his followers. The Scots in
Rathlin were slaughtered wholesale. Essex struggled on for more than
three years, seeing his friends gradually drop away, and dying ruined
and unsuccessful.

Towards the end of 1575 Sidney was again persuaded to become viceroy.
The Irish recognized his great qualities, and he went everywhere without
interruption. Henceforth presidencies became permanent institutions. Sir
William Drury in Munster hanged four hundred persons in one year, Sir
Nicholas Malby in reducing the Connaught Burkes spared neither young nor
old, and burned all corn and houses. The Desmonds determined on a great
effort. A holy war was declared. Fitzmaurice landed in Kerry with a few
followers, and accompanied by the famous Nicholas Sanders, who was
armed with a legate's commission and a banner blessed by the pope.
Fitzmaurice fell soon after in a skirmish near Castleconnell, but
Sanders and Desmond's brothers still kept the field. When it was too
late to act with effect, Desmond himself, a vain man, neither frankly
loyal nor a bold rebel, took the field. He surprised Youghal, then an
English town, by night, sacked it, and murdered the people. Roused at
last, Elizabeth sent over Ormonde as general of Munster, and after long
delay gave him the means of conducting a campaign. It was as much a war
of Butlers against Geraldines as of loyal subjects against rebels, and
Ormonde did his work only too well. Lord Baltinglass raised a hopeless
subsidiary revolt in Wicklow (1580), which was signalized by a crushing
defeat of the lord deputy, Lord Grey de Wilton (Arthegal) in Glenmalure.
A force of Italians and Spaniards landing at Smerwick in Kerry, Grey
hurried thither, and the foreigners, who had no commission, surrendered
at discretion, and were put to the sword. Neither Grey nor the Spanish
ambassador seems to have seen anything extraordinary in thus disposing
of inconvenient prisoners. Spenser and Raleigh were present. Sanders
perished obscurely in 1581, and in 1583 Desmond himself was hunted down
and killed in the Kerry mountains. More than 500,000 Irish acres were
forfeited to the crown. The horrors of this war it is impossible to
exaggerate. The _Four Masters_ says that the lowing of a cow or the
voice of a ploughman could scarcely be heard from Cashel to the farthest
point of Kerry; Ormonde, who, with all his severity, was honourably
distinguished by good faith, claimed to have killed 5000 men in a few
months. Spenser, an eye-witness, says famine slew far more than the
sword. The survivors were unable to walk, but crawled out of the woods
and glens. "They looked like anatomies of death; they did eat the dead
carrion and one another soon after, insomuch as the very carcasses they
spared not to scrape out of their graves; ... to a plot of watercresses
or shamrocks they flocked as to a feast."

In 1584 Sir John Perrot, the ablest man available after Sidney's
retirement, became lord-deputy. Sir John Norris, famed in the Netherland
wars, was president of Munster, and so impressed the Irish that they
averred him to be in league with the devil. Perrot held a parliament in
1585 in which the number of members was considerably increased. He made
a strenuous effort to found a university in Dublin, and proposed to
endow it with the revenues of St Patrick's, reasonably arguing that one
cathedral was enough for any city. Here he was opposed by Adam Loftus,
archbishop of Dublin and chancellor, who had expressed his anxiety for a
college, but had no idea of endowing it at his own expense. The
colonization of the Munster forfeitures was undertaken at this time. It
failed chiefly from the grants to individuals who neglected to plant
English farmers, and were often absentees themselves. Raleigh obtained
42,000 acres. The quit rents reserved to the crown were less than one
penny per acre. Racked with the stone, hated by the official clique,
thwarted on all sides, Perrot was goaded into using words capable of a
treasonable interpretation. Archbishop Loftus pursued him to the end. He
died in the Tower of London under sentence for treason, and we may
charitably hope that Elizabeth would have pardoned him. In his will,
written after sentence, he emphatically repudiates any treasonable
intention--"I deny my Lord God if ever I proposed the same."

Last Desmond Rebellion.

In 1584 Hugh O'Neill, if O'Neill he was (being second son of Matthew,
mentioned above), became chief of part of Tyrone; in 1587 he obtained
the coveted earldom, and in 1593 was the admitted head of the whole
tribe. A quarrel with the government was inevitable, and, Hugh Roe
O'Donnell having joined him, Ulster was united against the crown. In
1598 James Fitzthomas Fitzgerald assumed the title of Desmond, to which
he had some claims by blood, and which he pretended to hold as Tyrone's
gift. Tyrone had received a crown of peacock's feathers from the pope,
who was regarded by many as king of Ireland. The title of _Sugan_ or
straw-rope earl has been generally given to the Desmond pretender. Both
ends of the island were soon in a blaze, and the _Four Masters_ says
that in seventeen days there was not one son of a Saxon left alive in
the Desmond territories. Edmund Spenser lost his all, escaping only to
die of misery in a London garret. Tyrone more than held his own in the
north, completely defeated Sir Henry Bagnal in the battle of the Yellow
Ford (1598), invaded Munster, and ravaged the lands of Lord Barrymore,
who had remained true to his allegiance. Tyrone's ally, Hugh Roe
O'Donnell, overthrew the president of Connaught, Sir Conyers Clifford.
"The Irish of Connaught," says the _Four Masters_, "were not pleased at
Clifford's death; ... he had never told them a falsehood." Robert
Devereux, earl of Essex, came over in 1599 with a great army, but did
nothing of moment, was outgeneralled and outwitted by Tyrone, and threw
up his command to enter on the mad and criminal career which led to the
scaffold. In 1600 Sir George Carew became president of Munster, and, as
always happened when the crown was well served, the rebellion was
quickly put down. Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy (afterwards earl of
Devonshire), who succeeded Essex, joined Carew, and a Spanish force
which landed at Kinsale surrendered. The destruction of their crops
starved the people into submission, and the contest was only less
terrible than the first Desmond war because it was much shorter. In
Ulster Mountjoy was assisted by Sir Henry Docwra, who founded the second
settlement at Derry, the first under Edward Randolph having been
abandoned. Hugh O'Donnell sought help in Spain, where he died. Tyrone
submitted at last, craving pardon on his knees, renouncing his Celtic
chiefry, and abjuring all foreign powers; but still retaining his
earldom, and power almost too great for a subject. Scarcely was the
compact signed when he heard of the great queen's death. He burst into
tears, not of grief, but of vexation at not having held out for better
terms.

Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland.

Religious policy.

In reviewing the Irish government of Elizabeth we shall find much to
blame, a want of truth in her dealings and of steadiness in her policy.
Violent efforts of coercion were succeeded by fits of clemency, of
parsimony or of apathy. Yet it is fair to remember that she was
surrounded by enemies, that her best energies were expended in the
death-struggle with Spain, and that she was rarely able to give
undivided attention to the Irish problem. After all she conquered
Ireland, which her predecessors had failed to do, though many of them
were as crooked in action and less upright in intention. Considering the
times, Elizabeth cannot be called a persecutor. "Do not," she said to
the elder Essex, "seek too hastily to bring people that have been
trained in another religion from that in which they have been brought
up." Elizabeth saw that the Irish could only be reached through their
own language. But for that harvest the labourers were necessarily few.
The fate of Bishop Daly of Kildare, who preached in Irish, and who
thrice had his house burned over his head, was not likely to encourage
missionaries. In all wild parts divine service was neglected, and
wandering friars or subtle Jesuits, supported by every patriotic or
religious feeling of the people, kept Ireland faithful to Rome. Against
her many shortcomings we must set the queen's foundation of the
university of Dublin, which has been the most successful English
institution in Ireland, and which has continually borne the fairest
fruit.

James I. (1603-1625).

Great things were expected of James I. He was Mary Stuart's son, and
there was a curious antiquarian notion afloat that, because the Irish
were the original "Scoti," a Scottish king would sympathize with
Ireland. Corporate towns set up the mass, and Mountjoy, who could argue
as well as fight, had to teach them a sharp lesson. Finding Ireland
conquered and in no condition to rise again, James established circuits
and a complete system of shires. Sir John Davies was sent over as
solicitor-general. His famous book (_Discoverie of the State of
Ireland_) in which he glorifies his own and the king's exploits gives
far too much credit to the latter and far too little to his great
predecessor.

Plantation of Ulster.

Two legal decisions swept away the customs of tanistry and of Irish
gavelkind, and the English land system was violently substituted. The
earl of Tyrone was harassed by sheriffs and other officers, and the
government, learning that he was engaged in an insurrectionary design,
prepared to seize him. The information was probably false, but Tyrone
was growing old and perhaps despaired of making good his defence. By
leaving Ireland he played into his enemies' hands. Rory O'Donnell,
created earl of Tyrconnel, accompanied him. Cuconnaught Maguire had
already gone. The "flight of the earls," as it is called, completed the
ruin of the Celtic cause. Reasons or pretexts for declaring forfeitures
against O'Cahan were easily found. O'Dogherty, chief of Inishowen, and
foreman of the grand jury which found a bill for treason against the
earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel, was insulted by Sir George Paulet, the
governor of Derry. O'Dogherty rose, Derry was sacked, and Paulet
murdered. O'Dogherty having been killed and O'Hanlon and others being
implicated, the whole of northern Ulster was at the disposal of the
government. Tyrone, Donegal, Armagh, Cavan, Fermanagh and Derry were
parcelled out among English and Scottish colonists, portions being
reserved to the natives. The site of Derry was granted to the citizens
of London, who fortified and armed it, and Londonderry became the chief
bulwark of the colonists in two great wars. Whatever may have been its
morality, in a political point of view the plantation of Ulster was
successful. The northern province, which so severely taxed the energies
of Elizabeth, has since been the most prosperous and loyal part of
Ireland. But the conquered people remained side by side with the
settlers; and Sir George Carew, who reported on the plantation in 1611,
clearly foresaw that they would rebel again. Those natives who retained
land were often oppressed by their stronger neighbours, and sometimes
actually swindled out of their property. It is probable that in the
neglect of the grantees to give proper leases to their tenants arose the
Ulster tenant-right custom which attracted so much notice in more modern
times.

The Irish Parliament.

The parliamentary history of the English colony in Ireland corresponds
pretty closely to that of the mother country. First there are informal
meetings of eminent persons; then, in 1295, there is a parliament of
which some acts remain, and to which only knights of the shire were
summoned to represent the commons. Burgesses were added as early as
1310. The famous parliament of Kilkenny in 1366 was largely attended,
but the details of its composition are not known. That there was
substantial identity in the character of original and copy may be
inferred from the fact that the well-known tract called _Modus tenendi
parliamentum_ was exemplified under the Great Seal of Ireland in 6 Hen.
V. The most ancient Irish parliament remaining on record was held in
1374, twenty members in all being summoned to the House of Commons, from
the counties of Dublin, Louth, Kildare and Carlow, the liberties and
crosses of Meath, the city of Dublin, and the towns of Drogheda and
Dundalk. The liberties were those districts in which the great vassals
of the crown exercised palatinate jurisdiction, and the crosses were the
church lands, where alone the royal writ usually ran. Writs for another
parliament in the same year were addressed in addition to the counties
of Waterford, Cork and Limerick; the liberties and crosses of Ulster,
Wexford, Tipperary and Kerry; the cities of Waterford, Cork and
Limerick; and the towns of Youghal, Kinsale, Ross, Wexford and Kilkenny.
The counties of Clare and Longford, and the towns of Galway and Athenry,
were afterwards added, and the number of popular representatives does
not appear to have much exceeded sixty during the later middle ages. In
the House of Lords the temporal peers were largely outnumbered by the
bishops and mitred abbots. In the parliament which conferred the royal
title on Henry VIII. it was finally decided that the proctors of the
clergy had no voice or votes. Elizabeth's first parliament, held in
1559, was attended by 76 members of the Lower House, which increased to
122 in 1585. In 1613 James I. by a wholesale creation of new boroughs,
generally of the last insignificance, increased the House of Commons to
232, and thus secured an Anglican majority to carry out his policy. He
told those who remonstrated to mind their own business. "What is it to
you if I had created 40 noblemen and 400 boroughs? The more the merrier,
the fewer the better cheer." In 1639 the House of Commons had 274
members, a number which was further increased to 300 at the Revolution,
and so it remained until the Union.

Religious policy of James I.

Steeped in absolutist ideas, James was not likely to tolerate religious
dissent. He thought he could "mak what liked him law and gospel." A
proclamation for banishing Romish priests issued in 1605, and was
followed by an active and general persecution, which was so far from
succeeding that they continued to flock in from abroad, the lord-deputy
Arthur Chichester admitting that every house and hamlet was to them a
sanctuary. The most severe English statutes against the Roman Catholic
laity had never been re-enacted in Ireland, and, in the absence of law,
illegal means were taken to enforce uniformity. Privy seals addressed to
men of wealth and position commanded their attendance at church before
the deputy or the provincial president, on pain of unlimited fine and
imprisonment by the Irish Star Chamber. The Roman Catholic gentry and
lawyers, headed by Sir Patrick Barnewall, succeeded in proving the
flagrant illegality of these mandates, and the government had to yield.
On the whole Protestantism made little progress, though the number of
Protestant settlers increased. As late as 1622, when Sir Henry Cary,
Viscount Falkland, was installed as deputy, the illustrious James
Ussher, then bishop of Meath, preached from the text "he beareth not the
sword in vain," and descanted on the over-indulgence shown to recusants.
The primate, Christopher Hampton, in a letter which is a model of
Christian eloquence, mildly rebuked his eminent suffragan.

Charles I. (1625-1649).

Administration of Strafford.

The necessities of Charles I. induced his ministers to propose that a
great part of Connaught should be declared forfeited, owing to mere
technical flaws in title, and planted like Ulster. Such was the general
outcry that the scheme had to be given up; and, on receiving a large
grant from the Irish parliament, the king promised certain graces, of
which the chief were security for titles, free trade, and the
substitution of an oath of allegiance for that of supremacy. Having got
the money, Charles as usual broke his word; and in 1635 the lord-deputy
Strafford began a general system of extortion. The Connaught and Munster
landowners were shamelessly forced to pay large fines for the
confirmation of even recent titles. The money obtained by oppressing the
Irish nation was employed to create an army for the oppression of the
Scottish and English nations. The Roman Catholics were neither awed nor
conciliated. Twelve bishops, headed by the primate Ussher, solemnly
protested that "to tolerate popery is a grievous sin." The Ulster
Presbyterians were rigorously treated. Of the prelates employed by
Strafford in this persecution the ablest was John Bramhall (1594-1663)
of Derry, who not only oppressed the ministers but insulted them by
coarse language. The "black oath," which bound those who took it never
to oppose Charles in anything, was enforced on all ministers, and those
who refused it were driven from their manses and often stripped of their
goods.

Rebellion of 1641.

Strafford was recalled to expiate his career on the scaffold; the army
was disbanded; and the helm of the state remained in the hands of a
land-jobber and of a superannuated soldier. Disbanded troops are the
ready weapons of conspiracy, and the opportunity was not lost. The Roman
Catholic insurgents of 1641 just failed to seize Dublin, but quickly
became masters of nearly the whole country. That there was no definite
design of massacring the Protestants is likely, but it was intended to
drive them out of the country. Great numbers were killed, often in cold
blood and with circumstances of great barbarity. The English under Sir
Charles Coote and others retaliated. In 1642 a Scottish army under
General Robert Monro landed in Ulster, and formed a rallying point for
the colonists. Londonderry, Enniskillen, Coleraine, Carrickfergus and
some other places defied Sir Phelim O'Neill's tumultuary host. Trained
in foreign wars, Owen Roe O'Neill gradually formed a powerful army among
the Ulster Irish, and showed many of the qualities of a skilful general.
But like other O'Neills, he did little out of Ulster, and his great
victory over Monro at Benburb on the Blackwater (June 5, 1646) had no
lasting results. The English of the Pale were forced into rebellion, but
could never get on with the native Irish, who hated them only less than
the new colonists. Ormonde throughout maintained the position of a loyal
subject, and, as the king's representative, played a great but hopeless
part. The Celts cared nothing for the king except as a weapon against
the Protestants; the old Anglo-Irish Catholics cared much, but the
nearer Charles approached them the more completely he alienated the
Protestants. In 1645 Rinuccini reached Ireland as papal legate. He could
never co-operate with the Roman Catholic confederacy at Kilkenny, which
was under old English influence, and by throwing in his lot with the
Celts only widened the gulf between the two sections. The state of
parties at this period in Ireland has been graphically described by
Carlyle. "There are," he says, "Catholics of the Pale, demanding freedom
of religion, under my lord this and my lord that. There are Old-Irish
Catholics, under pope's nuncios, under Abba O'Teague of the
excommunications, and Owen Roe O'Neill, demanding not religious freedom
only, but what we now call 'repeal of the union,' and unable to agree
with Catholics of the English Pale. Then there are Ormonde Royalists, of
the Episcopalian and mixed creeds, strong for king without covenant;
Ulster and other Presbyterians strong for king _and_ covenant; lastly,
Michael Jones and the Commonwealth of England, who want neither king nor
covenant."

In all their negotiations with Ormonde and Glamorgan, Henrietta Maria
and the earl of Bristol, the pope and Rinuccini stood out for an
arrangement which would have destroyed the royal supremacy and
established Romanism in Ireland, leaving to the Anglicans bare
toleration, and to the Presbyterians not even that. Charles behaved with
his usual weakness. Ormonde was forced to surrender Dublin to the
Parliamentarians (July 1647), and the inextricable knot awaited
Cromwell's sword.

Cromwell.

Cromwell's campaign (1640-1650) showed how easily a good general with an
efficient army might conquer Ireland. Resistance in the field was soon
at an end; the starving-out policy of Carew and Mountjoy was employed
against the guerrillas, and the soldiers were furnished with scythes to
cut down the green corn. Bibles were also regularly served out to them.
Oliver's severe conduct at Drogheda and elsewhere is not morally
defensible, but such methods were common in the wars of the period, and
much may be urged in his favour. Strict discipline was maintained,
soldiers being hanged for stealing chickens; faith was always kept; and
short, sharp action was more merciful in the long run than a milder but
less effective policy. Cromwell's civil policy, to use Macaulay's words,
was "able, straightforward, and cruel." He thinned the disaffected
population by allowing foreign enlistment, and 40,000 are said to have
been thus got rid of. Already Irish Catholics of good family had learned
to offer their swords to foreign princes. In Spain, France and the
Empire they often rose to the distinction which they were denied at
home. About 9000 persons were sent to the West Indies, practically into
slavery. Thus, and by the long war, the population was reduced to some
850,000, of whom 150,000 were English and Scots. Then came the
transplantation beyond the Shannon. The Irish Catholic gentry were
removed bodily with their servants and such tenants as consented to
follow them, and with what remained of their cattle. They suffered
dreadful hardships. To exclude foreign influences, a belt of 1 m. was
reserved to soldiers on the coast from Sligo to the Shannon, but the
idea was not fully carried out. The derelict property in the other
provinces was divided between adventurers who had advanced money and
soldiers who had fought in Ireland. Many of the latter sold their claims
to officers or speculators, who were thus enabled to form estates. The
majority of Irish labourers stayed to work under the settlers, and the
country gradually became peaceful and prosperous. Some fighting
Catholics haunted woods and hills under the name of tories, afterwards
given in derision to a great party, and were hunted down with as little
compunction as the wolves to which they were compared. Measures of great
severity were taken against Roman Catholic priests; but it is said that
Cromwell had great numbers in his pay, and that they kept him well
informed. All classes of Protestants were tolerated, and Jeremy Taylor
preached unmolested. Commercial equality being given to Ireland, the
woollen trade at once revived, and a shipping interest sprang up. A
legislative union was also effected, and Irish members attended at
Westminster.

Charles II. (1660-1685).

Charles II. was bound in honour to do something for such Irish Catholics
as were innocent of the massacres of 1641, and the claims were not
scrutinized too severely. It was found impossible to displace the
Cromwellians, but they were shorn of about one-third of their lands.
When the Caroline settlement was complete it was found that the great
rebellion had resulted in reducing the Catholic share of the fertile
parts of Ireland from two-thirds to one-third. Ormonde, whose wife had
been allowed by Cromwell's clemency to make him some remittances from
the wreck of his estate, was largely and deservedly rewarded. A revenue
of £30,000 was settled on the king, in consideration of which Ireland
was in 1663 excluded from the benefit of the Navigation Act, and her
nascent shipping interest ruined. In 1666 the importation of Irish
cattle and horses into England was forbidden, the value of the former at
once falling five-fold, of the latter twenty-fold. Dead meat, butter and
cheese were also excluded, yet peace brought a certain prosperity. The
woollen manufacture grew and flourished, and Macaulay is probably
warranted in saying that under Charles II. Ireland was a pleasanter
place of residence than it has been before or since. But it was pleasant
only for those who conformed to the state religion. Roman Catholicism
was tolerated, or rather connived at; but its professors were subject to
frequent alarms, and to great severities during the ascendancy of Titus
Oates. Bramhall became primate, and his hand was heavy against the
Ulster Presbyterians. Jeremy Taylor began a persecution which stopped
the influx of Scots into Ireland. Deprived of the means of teaching, the
Independents and other sectaries soon disappeared. In a military colony
women were scarce, and the "Ironsides" had married natives. Roman
Catholicism held its own. The Quakers became numerous during this reign,
and their peaceful industry was most useful. They venerate as their
founder William Edmundson (1627-1712), a Westmorland man who had borne
arms for the Parliament, and who settled in Antrim in 1652.

James II. (1685-1689).

The duke of Ormonde was lord-lieutenant at the death of Charles II. At
seventy-five his brain was as clear as ever, and James saw that he was
no fit tool for his purpose. "See, gentlemen," said the old chief,
lifting his glass at a military dinner-party, "they say at court I am
old and doting. But my hand is steady, nor doth my heart fail.... To the
king's health." Calculating on his loyal subservience, James appointed
his brother-in-law, Lord Clarendon, to succeed Ormonde. Monmouth's
enterprise made no stir, but gave an excuse for disarming the Protestant
militia. The tories at once emerged from their hiding-places, and
Clarendon found Ireland in a ferment. It was now the turn of the
Protestants to feel persecution. Richard Talbot, one of the few
survivors of Drogheda, governed the king's Irish policy, while the
lord-lieutenant was kept in the dark. Finally Talbot, created earl of
Tyrconnel, himself received the sword of state. Protestants were weeded
out of the army, Protestant officers in particular being superseded by
idle Catholics of gentle blood, where they could be found, and in any
case by Catholics. Bigotry rather than religion was Tyrconnel's ruling
passion, and he filled up offices with Catholics independently of
character. Sir Alexander Fitton, a man convicted of forgery, became
chancellor, and but three Protestant judges were left on the bench. The
outlawries growing out of the affairs of 1641 were reversed as quickly
as possible. Protestant corporations were dissolved by "quo warrantos";
but James was still Englishman enough to refuse an Irish parliament,
which might repeal Poyning's Act and the Act of Settlement.

William III.

At the close of 1688 James was a fugitive in France. By this time
Londonderry and Enniskillen had closed their gates, and the final
struggle had begun. In March 1689 James reached Ireland with some French
troops, and summoned a parliament which repealed the Act of Settlement.
The estates of absentees were vested in the crown, and, as only two
months law was given, this was nearly equivalent to confiscating the
property of all Protestants. Between 2000 and 3000 Protestants were
attainted by name, and moreover the act was not published. The appalling
list may be read in the _State of the Protestants_ by William King,
archbishop of Dublin, one of many divines converted by the logic of
events to believe in the lawfulness of resistance. Interesting details
may be gleaned from Edmundson's _Diary_. The dispossessed Protestants
escaped by sea or flocked into Ulster, where a gallant stand was made.
The glories of Londonderry and Enniskillen will live as long as the
English language. The Irish cause produced one great achievement--the
defence of Limerick, and one great leader--Patrick Sarsfield. The Roman
Catholic Celts aided by France were entirely beaten, the Protestant
colonists aided by England were entirely victorious at the battle of the
Boyne, on the 1st of July 1690; and at the battle of Aughrim on the 12th
of July 1691. Even the siege of Limerick showed the irreconcilable
divisions which had nullified the efforts of 1641. Hugh Baldearg
O'Donnell, last of Irish chiefs, sold his services to William for £500 a
year. But it was their king that condemned the Irish to hopeless
failure. He called them cowards, whereas the cowardice was really his
own, and he deserted them in their utmost need. They repaid him with the
opprobrious nickname of "Sheemas-a-Cacagh," or dirty James.

Irish rhetoric commonly styles Limerick "the city of the violated
treaty." The articles of capitulation (Oct. 3, 1691) may be read in
Thomas Leland's _History of Ireland_ (1773) or in F. P. Plowden's
_History of Ireland_ (1809); from the first their interpretation was
disputed. Hopes of religious liberty were held out, but were not
fulfilled. Lords Justices Porter and Coningsby promised to do their
utmost to obtain a parliamentary ratification, but the Irish parliament
would not be persuaded. There was a paragraph in the original draft
which would have protected the property of the great majority of Roman
Catholics, but this was left out in the articles actually signed.
William thought the omission accidental, but this is hardly possible. At
all events he ratified the treaty in the sense most favourable to the
Catholics, while the Irish parliament adhered to the letter of the
document. Perhaps no breach of faith was intended, but the sorrowful
fact remains that the modern settlement of Ireland has the appearance of
resting on a broken promise. More than 1,000,000 Irish acres were
forfeited, and, though some part returned to Catholic owners, the
Catholic interest in the land was further diminished. William III. was
the most liberally minded man in his dominions; but the necessities of
his position, such is the awful penalty of greatness, forced him into
intolerance against his will, and he promised to discourage the Irish
woollen trade. His manner of disposing of the Irish forfeitures was
inexcusable. The lands were resumed by the English parliament, less
perhaps from a sense of justice than from a desire to humiliate the
deliverer of England, and were resold to the highest bidder.
Nevertheless it became the fashion to reward nameless English services
at the expense of Ireland. Pensions and sinecures which would not bear
the light in England were charged on the Irish establishment, and even
bishoprics were given away on the same principle. The tremendous uproar
raised by Swift about Wood's halfpence was heightened by the fact that
Wood shared his profits with the duchess of Kendal, the mistress of
George I.

Penal laws.

From the first the victorious colonists determined to make another 1641
impossible, and the English government failed to moderate their
severity. In 1708 Swift declared that the Papists were politically as
inconsiderable as the women and children. In despair of effecting
anything at home, the young and strong enlisted in foreign armies, and
the almost incredible number of 450,000 are said to have emigrated for
this purpose between 1691 and 1745. This and the hatred felt towards
James II. prevented any rising in 1715 or 1745. The panic-stricken
severity of minorities is proverbial, but it is not to be forgotten that
the Irish Protestants had been turned out of house and home twice within
fifty years. The restrictions on Irish commerce provoked Locke's friend
William Molyneux (1656-1698) to write his famous plea for legislative
independence (1698). Much of the learning contained in it now seems
obsolete, but the question is less an antiquarian one than he supposed.
Later events have shown that a mother country must have supreme
authority, or must relax the tie with self-governing colonies merely
into a close alliance. In the case of Ireland the latter plan has always
been impossible. In 1703 the Irish parliament begged for a legislative
union, but as that would have involved at least partial free trade the
English monopolists prevented it. By Poynings's law (see above) England
had control of all Irish legislation, and was therefore an accomplice in
the penal laws. These provided that no Papist might teach a school or
any child but his own, or send children abroad, the burden of proof
lying on the accused, and the decision being left to magistrates without
a jury. Mixed marriages were forbidden between persons of property, and
the children might be forcibly brought up Protestants. A Catholic could
not be a guardian, and all wards in chancery were brought up
Protestants. The Protestant eldest son of a Catholic landed proprietor
might make his father tenant for life and secure his own inheritance.
Among Catholic children land went in compulsory gavelkind. Catholics
could not take longer leases than thirty-one years at two-thirds of a
rack rent; they were even required to conform within six months of an
inheritance accruing, on pain of being ousted by the next Protestant
heir. Priests from abroad were banished, and their return declared
treason. All priests were required to register and to remain in their
own parishes, and informers were to be rewarded at the expense of the
Catholic inhabitants. No Catholic was allowed arms, two justices being
empowered to search; and if he had a good horse any Protestant might
claim it on tendering £5.

These laws were of course systematically evaded. The property of Roman
Catholics was often preserved through Protestant trustees, and it is
understood that faith was generally kept. Yet the attrition if slow was
sure, and by the end of the century the proportion of land belonging to
Roman Catholics was probably not more than one-tenth of the whole. We
can see now that if the remaining Roman Catholic landlords had been
encouraged they would have done much to reconcile the masses to the
settlement. Individuals are seldom as bad as corporations, and the very
men who made the laws against priests practically shielded them. The
penal laws put a premium on hypocrisy, and many conformed only to
preserve their property or to enable them to take office. Proselytizing
schools, though supported by public grants, entirely failed.

Commercial restraints.

The restraints placed by English commercial jealousy on Irish trade
destroyed manufacturing industry in the south and west (see the section
_Economics_ above). Driven by the Caroline legislation against cattle
into breeding sheep, Irish graziers produced the best wool in Europe.
Forbidden to export it, or to work it up profitably at home, they took
to smuggling, for which the indented coast gave great facilities. The
enormous profits of the contraband trade with France enabled Ireland to
purchase English goods to an extent greater than her whole lawful
traffic. The moral effect was disastrous. The religious penal code it
was thought meritorious to evade; the commercial penal code was
ostentatiously defied; and both tended to make Ireland the least
law-abiding country in Europe. The account of the smugglers is the most
interesting and perhaps the most valuable part of J. A. Froude's work in
Ireland, and should be compared with the Irish and Scottish chapters of
Lecky's _History_.

Ulster prosperous.

When William III. promised to depress the Irish woollen trade, he
promised to do all he could for Irish linen. England did not fulfil the
second promise; still the Ulster weavers were not crushed, and their
industry flourished. Some Huguenot refugees, headed by Louis Crommelin
(1652-1727), were established by William III. at Lisburn, and founded
the manufacturing prosperity of Ulster. Other Huguenots attempted other
industries, but commercial restraints brought them to nought. The
peculiar character of the flax business has prevented it from crossing
the mountains which bound the northern province. Wool was the natural
staple of the south.

Dissenters.

The Scottish Presbyterians who defended Londonderry were treated little
better than the Irish Catholics who besieged it--the sacramental test of
1704 being the work of the English council rather than of the Irish
parliament. In 1715 the Irish House of Commons resolved that any one who
should prosecute a Presbyterian for accepting a commission in the army
without taking the test was an enemy to the king and to the Protestant
interest. Acts of indemnity were regularly passed throughout the reign
of George II., and until 1780, when the Test Act was repealed. A bare
toleration had been granted in 1720. Various abuses, especially forced
labour on roads which were often private jobs, caused the Oakboy
Insurrection in 1764. Eight years later the Steelboys rose against the
exactions of absentee landlords, who often turned out Protestant yeomen
to get a higher rent from Roman Catholic cottiers. The dispossessed men
carried to America an undying hatred of England which had much to say to
the American revolution, and that again reacted on Ireland. Lawless
Protestant associations, called Peep o' Day Boys, terrorized the north
and were the progenitors of the Orangemen (1789). Out of the rival
"defenders" Ribbonism in part sprung, and the United Irishmen drew from
both sources (1791).

Poverty of the peasantry.

The Ulster peasants were never as badly off as those of the south and
west. Writers the most unlike each other--Swift and Hugh Boulter, George
Berkeley and George Stone, Arthur Young and Dr Thomas Campbell--all tell
the same tale. Towards the end of the 17th century Raleigh's fatal gift
had already become the food of the people. When Sir Stephen Rice
(1637-1715), chief baron of the Irish exchequer, went to London in 1688
to urge the Catholic claims on James II., the hostile populace escorted
him in mock state with potatoes stuck on poles. Had manufactures been
given fair play in Ireland, population might have preserved some
relation to capital. As it was, land became almost the only property,
and the necessity of producing wool for smuggling kept the country in
grass. The poor squatted where they could, receiving starvation wages,
and paying exorbitant rents for their cabins, partly with their own
labour. Unable to rise, the wretched people multiplied on their potato
plots with perfect recklessness. During the famine which began in the
winter of 1739 one-fifth of the population is supposed to have perished;
yet it is hardly noticed in literature, and seems not to have touched
the conscience of that English public which in 1755 subscribed £100,000
for the sufferers by the Lisbon earthquake. As might be expected where
men were allowed to smuggle and forbidden to work, redress was sought in
illegal combinations and secret societies. The dreaded name of Whiteboy
was first heard in 1761; and agrarian crime has never since been long
absent. Since the Union we have had the Threshers, the Terry Alts, the
Molly Maguires, the Rockites, and many others. Poverty has been the real
cause of all these disturbances, which were often aggravated by the
existence of factions profoundly indicative of barbarism. Communism,
cupidity, scoundrelism of all kinds have contributed to every
disturbance. The tendency shown to screen the worst criminals is
sometimes the result of sympathy, but more often of fear. The cruelties
which have generally accompanied Whiteboyism is common to servile
insurrections all over the world. No wonder if Irish landlords were
formerly tyrannical, for they were in the position of slave-owners. The
steady application of modern principles, by extending legal protection
to all, has altered the slavish character of the oppressed Irish. The
cruelty has not quite died out, but it is much rarer than formerly; and,
generally speaking, the worst agrarianism has of late years been seen in
the districts which retain most of the old features.

The medieval colony in Ireland was profoundly modified by the pressure
of the surrounding tribes. While partially adopting their laws and
customs, the descendants of the conquerors often spoke the language of
the natives, and in so doing nearly lost their own. The _Book of Howth_
and many documents composed in the Pale during the 16th century show
this clearly. Those who settled in Ireland after 1641 were in a very
different mood. They hated, feared and despised the Irish, and took
pride in preserving their pure English speech. Molyneux and Petty, who
founded the Royal Society of Dublin in 1683, were equally Englishmen,
though the former was born in Ireland. Swift and Berkeley did not
consider themselves Irishmen at all. Burke and Goldsmith, coming later,
though they might not call themselves Englishmen, were not less free
from provincialism. It would be hard to name four other men who, within
the same period, used Shakespeare's language with equal grace and force.
They were all educated at Trinity College, Dublin. The Sheridans were
men of Irish race, but with the religion they adopted the literary tone
of the dominant caste, which was small and exclusive, with the virtues
and the vices of an aristocracy. Systematic infringement of English
copyright was discreditable in itself, but sure evidence of an appetite
for reading. "The bookseller's property," says Gibbon of his first
volume, "was twice invaded by the pirates of Dublin." The oratory of the
day was of a high order, and incursions into the wide field of pamphlet
literature often repay the student. Handel was appreciated in Dublin at
a time when it was still the fashion to decry him in London. The public
buildings of the Irish capital have great architectural merit, and
private houses still preserve much evidence of a refined taste. Angelica
Kauffmann worked long in Ireland; James Barry and Sir Martin Archer Shee
were of Irish birth; and on the whole, considering the small number of
educated inhabitants, it must be admitted that the Ireland of Flood and
Grattan was intellectually fertile.

Struggle for independence.

The volunteers (see FLOOD, HENRY) extorted partial free trade (1779),
but manufacturing traditions had perished, and common experience shows
how hard these are to recover. The demand for union was succeeded by a
craving for independence. Poynings's law was repealed, and in 1782, in
Grattan's opinion, Ireland was at last a nation. The ensuing period of
eighteen years is the best known in Irish history. The quarrel and
reconciliation of Flood and Grattan (q.v.), the kindly patriotism of
Lord Charlemont, the eloquence, the devotion, the corruption, are
household words. (Details will be found in the biographical articles on
these and other men of the period.) In the parliament of 1784, out of
300 members 82 formed the regular opposition, of whom 30 were the
nominees of Whig potentates and 52 were really elected. The majority
contained 29 members considered independent, 44 who expected to be
bought, 44 placemen, 12 sitting for regular government boroughs, and 12
who were supposed to support the government on public grounds. The
remaining seats were proprietary, and were let to government for
valuable consideration. The House of Lords, composed largely of borough
mongers and controlled by political bishops, was even less independent.
Only Protestant freeholders had votes, which encouraged leases for
lives, about the worst kind of tenure, and the object of each proprietor
was to control as many votes as possible. The necessity of finding
Protestants checked subdivision for a time, but in 1793 the Roman
Catholics received the franchise, and it became usual to make leases in
common, so that each lessee should have a freehold interest of 40s. The
landlord indeed had little choice, for his importance depended on the
poll-book. Salaries, sinecures, even commissions in the army were
reserved for those who contributed to the return of some local magnate.

Dependence on the potato.

But no political cause swelled the population as much as the potato.
Introduced by Raleigh in 1610, the cultivation of this important tuber
developed with extraordinary rapidity. The Elizabethan wars were most
injurious to industry, for men will not sow unless they hope to reap,
and the very essence of military policy had been to deprive a
recalcitrant people of the means of living. The Mantuan peasant was
grieved at the notion of his harvest being gathered by barbarian
soldiers, and the Irishman could not be better pleased to see his
destroyed. There was no security for any one, and every one was tempted
to live from hand to mouth. The decade of anarchy which followed 1641
stimulated this tendency fearfully. The labour of one man could plant
potatoes enough to feed forty, and they could neither be destroyed nor
carried away easily. When Petty wrote, early in Charles II.'s reign,
this demoralizing esculent was already the national food. Potatoes
cannot be kept very long, but there was no attempt to keep them at all;
they were left in the ground, and dug as required. A frost which
penetrated deep caused the famine of 1739. Even with the modern system
of storing in pits the potato does not last through the summer, and the
"meal months"--June, July and August--always brought great hardship. The
danger increased as the growing population pressed ever harder upon the
available land. Between 1831 and 1842 there were six seasons of dearth,
approaching in some places to famine.

The population increased from 2,845,932 in 1785 to 5,356,594 in 1803.
They married and were given in marriage. Wise men foresaw the deluge,
but people who were already half-starved every summer did not think
their case could well be worse. In 1845 the population had swelled to
8,295,061, the greater part of whom depended on the potato only. There
was no margin, and when the "precarious exotic" failed an awful famine
was the result.

Great public and private efforts were made to meet the case, and relief
works were undertaken, on which, in March 1847, 734,000 persons,
representing a family aggregate of not less than 3,000,000, were
employed. It was found that labour and exposure were not good for
half-starved men. The jobbing was frightful, and is probably inseparable
from wholesale operations of this kind. The policy of the government was
accordingly changed, and the task of feeding a whole people was
undertaken. More than 3,000,000 rations, generally cooked, were at one
time distributed, but no exertions could altogether avert death in a
country where the usual machinery for carrying, distributing and
preparing food was almost entirely wanting. From 200,000 to 300,000
perished of starvation or of fever caused by insufficient food. An
exodus followed which, necessary as it was, caused dreadful hardship,
and among the Roman Catholic Irish in America Fenianism took its rise.
One good result of the famine was thoroughly to awaken Englishmen to
their duty towards Ireland. Since then, purse-strings have been even too
readily untied at the call of Irish distress.

Rebellion of 1798.

Great brutalities disgraced the rebellion of 1798, but the people had
suffered much and had French examples before them. The real originator
of the movement was Theobald Wolfe Tone (q.v.), whose proffered services
were rejected by Pitt, and who founded the United Irishmen. His Parisian
adventures detailed by himself are most interesting, and his tomb is
still the object of an annual pilgrimage. Tone was a Protestant, but he
had imbibed socialist ideas, and hated the priests whose influence
counteracted his own. In Wexford, where the insurrection went farthest,
the ablest leaders were priests, but they acted against the policy of
their church.

Union of Great Britain and Ireland.

Catholic Emancipation.

Repeal agitation.

The inevitable union followed (1st January 1801). From this period the
history of Ireland naturally becomes intermingled with English politics
(see ENGLISH HISTORY), and much of the detail will also be found in the
biographical articles on prominent Irishmen and other politicians. Pitt
had some time before (1785) offered a commercial partnership, which had
been rejected on the ground that it involved the ultimate right of
England to tax Ireland. He was not less liberally inclined in religious
matters, but George III. stood in the way, and like William III. the
minister would not risk his imperial designs. Carried in great measure
by means as corrupt as those by which the constitution of '82 had been
worked, the union earned no gratitude. But it was a political necessity,
and Grattan never gave his countrymen worse advice than when he urged
them to "keep knocking at the union." The advice has, however, been
taken. Robert Emmet's insurrection (1803) was the first emphatic
protest. Then came the struggle for emancipation. It was proposed to
couple the boon with a veto on the appointment of Roman Catholic
bishops. It was the ghost of the old question of investitures. The
remnant of the Roman Catholic aristocracy would have granted it; even
Pius VII. was not invincibly opposed to it; but Daniel O'Connell took
the lead against it. Under his guidance the Catholic association became
a formidable body. At last the priests gained control of the elections;
the victor of Waterloo was obliged to confess that the king's government
could no longer be carried on, and Catholic emancipation had to be
granted in 1829. The tithe war followed, and this most oppressive of all
taxes was unfortunately commuted (1838) only in deference to clamour and
violence. The repeal agitation was unsuccessful, but let us not be
extreme to mark the faults of O'Connell's later years. He doubtless
believed in repeal at first; probably he ceased to believe in it, but he
was already deeply committed, and had abandoned a lucrative profession
for politics. With some help from Father Mathew he kept the monster
meetings in order, and his constant denunciations of lawless violence
distinguish him from his imitators. His trial took place in 1844. There
is a sympathetic sketch of O'Connell's career in Lecky's _Leaders of
Public Opinion in Ireland_ (1871); Sir Thomas Wyse's _Historical Sketch
of the late Catholic Association_ (1829) gives the best account of the
religious struggle, and much may be learned from W. J. Fitzpatrick's
_Life of Bishop Doyle_ (1880).

The national system of education introduced in 1833 was the real
recantation of intolerant opinions, but the economic state of Ireland
was fearful. The famine, emigration and the new poor law nearly got rid
of starvation, but the people never became frankly loyal, feeling that
they owed more to their own importunity and to their own misfortunes
than to the wisdom of their rulers. The literary efforts of young
Ireland eventuated in another rebellion (1848); a revolutionary wave
could not roll over Europe without touching the unlucky island. After
the failure of that outbreak there was peace until the close of the
American civil war released a number of adventurers trained to the use
of arms and filled with hatred to England.

Already in 1858 the discovery of the Phoenix conspiracy had shown that
the policy of John Mitchel (1815-1875) and his associates was not
forgotten. John O'Mahony, one of the men of '48, organized a formidable
secret society in America, which his historical studies led him to call
the Fenian brotherhood (see FENIANS).

The Fenian movement disclosed much discontent, and was attended by
criminal outrages in England. The disestablishment of the Irish Church,
the privileged position of which had long been condemned by public
opinion, was then decreed (1869) and the land question was next taken in
hand (1870). These reforms did not, however, put an end to Irish
agitation. The Home Rule party which demanded the restoration of a
separate Irish parliament, showed increased activity, and the general
election of 1874 gave it a strong representation at Westminster, where
one section of the party developed into the "obstructionists" (see the
articles on ISAAC BUTT and C. S. PARNELL).

Isaac Butt, who died in May 1879, led a parliamentary party of
fifty-four, but the Conservatives were strong enough to outvote them and
the Liberals together. His procedure was essentially lawyer-like, for he
respected the House of Commons and dreaded revolutionary violence. His
death left the field clear for younger and bolder men. William Shaw
succeeded him as chairman of the Irish party in Parliament; but after
the election of 1880, Parnell, who had the Land League at his back,
ousted him by 23 votes to 18.

The Land League.

The Land Law of 1860, known as Deasy's Act, had been based on the
principle that every tenancy rested on contract either expressed or
implied. The act of 1870, admitting the divergence between theory and
practice, protected the tenants' improvements and provided compensation
for disturbance within certain limits, but not where the ejectment was
for non-payment of rent. In good times this worked well enough, but
foreign competition began to tell, and 1879 was the worst of several bad
seasons. A succession of wet summers told against all farmers, and in
mountainous districts it was difficult to dry the turf on which the
people depended for fuel. A famine was feared, and in the west there was
much real distress. The Land League, of which Michael Davitt (q.v.) was
the founder, originated in Mayo in August, and at a meeting in Dublin in
October the organization was extended to all Ireland, with Parnell as
president. The country was thickly covered with branches before the end
of the year, and in December Parnell went to America to collect money.
He was absent just three months, visiting over sixty cities and towns;
and 200,000 dollars were subscribed. Parnell had to conciliate the
Clan-na-Gael and the Fenians generally, both in Ireland and America,
while abstaining from action which would make his parliamentary position
untenable. He did not deny that he would like an armed rebellion, but
acknowledged that it was an impossibility. Speaking at Cincinnati on the
23rd of February 1880, he declared that the first thing necessary was to
undermine English power by destroying the Irish landlords. Ireland might
thus become independent. "And let us not forget," he added, "that that
is the ultimate goal at which all we Irishmen aim. None of us, whether
we be in America or in Ireland, or wherever we may be, will be satisfied
until we have destroyed the last link which keeps Ireland bound to
England." At Galway in October of the same year he said that he "would
not have taken off his coat" to help the tenant farmers had he not known
that that was the way to legislative independence. Fenianism and
agrarianism, essentially different as they are, might be worked to the
same end.

Boycotting.

To meet the partial failure of the potatoes in Connaught and Donegal,
very large sums were subscribed and administered by two committees, one
under the duchess of Marlborough and the other under the lord mayor of
Dublin. When Lord Beaconsfield appealed to the country in March 1880, he
reminded the country in a letter to the viceroy, the duke of
Marlborough, that there was a party in Ireland "attempting to sever the
constitutional tie which unites it to Great Britain in that bond which
has favoured the power and prosperity of both," and that such an
agitation might in the end be "scarcely less disastrous than pestilence
and famine." But the general election did not turn mainly upon Ireland,
and the result gave Gladstone a majority of 50 over Conservatives and
Home Rulers combined. Earl Cowper became lord-lieutenant, with W. E.
Forster (q.v.) as chief secretary, and Parnell remained chairman of his
own party in parliament. The Compensation for Disturbance Bill, even
where the ejectment was for non-payment of rent, passed the House of
Commons, but the Lords threw it out, and this has often been represented
as the great cause of future trouble. Probably it made little real
difference, for the extreme party in Ireland were resolved to stop at
nothing. It is not easy to defend the principle that a landlord who has
already lost his rent should also have to pay the defaulter before
getting a new tenant or deriving a profit from the farm by working it
himself. Speaking at Ennis on the 19th of September, Parnell told the
people to punish a man for taking a farm from which another had been
evicted "by isolating him from his kind as if he was a leper of old."
The advice was at once taken and its scope largely extended. For
refusing to receive rents at figures fixed by the tenants, Captain
Boycott (1832-1897), Lord Erne's agent in Mayo, was severely
"boycotted," the name of the first victim being given to the new system.
His servants were forced to leave him, his crops were left unsaved, even
the post and telegraph were interfered with. The Ulster Orangemen
resolved to get in the crops, and to go in armed force sufficient for
the purpose. The government allowed 50 of them to go under the
protection of about 900 soldiers. The cost seemed great, but the work
was done and the law vindicated. In Cork William Bence-Jones (1812-1882)
was attacked. The men in the service of the steam-packet companies
refused to put his cattle on board, and they were eventually smuggled
across the Channel in small lots. Several associations were formed which
had more or less success against the League, and at last a direct attack
was made. Parnell with four other members of parliament and the chief
officers of the Land League were indicted for conspiracy in the Queen's
Bench. No means of intimidating the jurors was neglected, and in the
then state of public feeling a verdict was hardly to be expected. On the
25th of January 1881 the jury disagreed, and Parnell became stronger
than ever.

Then followed a reign of terror which lasted for years. No one was safe,
and private spite worked freely in the name of freedom. The system
originated by Parnell's Ennis speech became an all-devouring tyranny. In
the House of Commons, on the 24th of May 1882, Gladstone said that
boycotting required a sanction like every other creed, and that the
sanction which alone made it effective "is the murder which is not to be
denounced." The following description by a resident in Munster was
published in _The Times_ of the 5th of November 1885: "Boycotting means
that a peaceable subject of the queen is denied food and drink, and that
he is ruined in his business; that his cattle are unsaleable at fairs;
that the smith will not shoe his horse, nor the carpenter mend his cart;
that old friends pass him by on the other side, making the sign of the
cross; that his children are hooted at the village school; that he sits
apart like an outcast in his usual place of public worship: all for
doing nothing but what the law says he has a perfect right to do. I know
of a man who is afraid to visit his own son. A trader who is even
suspected of dealing with such a victim of tyranny may be ruined by the
mere imputation; his customers shun him from fear, and he is obliged to
get a character from some notorious leaguer. Membership of the National
League is, in many cases, as necessary a protection as ever was a
certificate of civism under Robespierre. The real Jacobins are few, but
the masses groan and submit." Medicine was refused by a shopkeeper even
for the sick child of a boycotted person. A clergyman was threatened for
visiting a parishioner who was under the ban of the League. Sometimes no
one could be found to dig a grave. The League interfered in every
relation of life, and the mere fact of not belonging to it was often
severely punished. "The people," says the report of the Cowper
Commission, "are more afraid of boycotting, which depends for its
success on the probability of outrage, than they are of the judgments of
the courts of justice. This unwritten law in some districts is supreme."

Coercion.

The session of parliament of 1881 was chiefly occupied with Ireland.
"With fatal and painful precision," Gladstone told the House of Commons
on the 28th of January, "the steps of crime dogged the steps of the Land
League," and the first thing was to restore the supremacy of the law. In
1871 there had been an agrarian war in Westmeath, and an act had been
passed authorizing the arrest of suspected persons and their detention
without trial. The ringleaders disappeared and the county became quiet
again. It was now proposed to do the same thing for the whole of
Ireland, the power of detention to continue until the 30th of September
1882. Parnell cared nothing for the dignity of the House of Commons. His
leading idea was that no concession could be got from England by fair
means, and he made himself as disagreeable as possible. Parliamentary
forms were used with great success to obstruct parliamentary action. The
"Coercion Bill" was introduced on the 24th of January 1881. There was a
sitting of 22 hours and another of 41 hours, and on the 2nd of February
the debate was closured by the Speaker on his own responsibility and
the bill read a first time. The Speaker's action was approved by the
House generally, but acrimonious debates were raised by Irish members.
Parnell and 35 of his colleagues were suspended, and the bill became law
on the 2nd of March, but not before great and permanent changes were
made in parliamentary procedure. An Arms Bill, which excited the same
sort of opposition, was also passed into law.

Land Act, 1881.

Kilmainham "Treaty."

That a Land Act should be passed was a foregone conclusion as soon as
the result of the general election was known. There were many drafts and
plans which never saw the light, but it was at last resolved to adopt
the policy known as the "Three F's"--free sale, fixity of tenure and
fair rents. By the first tenants at will were empowered to sell their
occupation interests, the landlord retaining a right of pre-emption. By
the second the tenant was secured from eviction except for non-payment
of rent. By the third the tenant was given the right to have a "fair
rent" fixed by a newly formed Land Commission Court, the element of
competition being entirely excluded. There were several exceptions and
qualifying clauses, but most of them have been swept away by later acts.
The act of 1881 can scarcely be said to have worked well or smoothly,
but it is not easy to see how any sort of settlement could have been
reached without accepting the principle of having the rent fixed by a
third party. Drastic as the bill was, Parnell refused to be a party to
it, and on the second reading, which was carried by 352 to 176, he
walked out of the House with 35 of his followers. When the bill became
law in August he could not prevent the tenants from using it, but he did
what he could to discourage them in order to please his American
paymasters, who repudiated all parliamentary remedies. In September a
convention was held in Dublin, and Parnell reported its action to the
American Land League: "Resolutions were adopted for national
self-government, the unconditional liberation of the land for the
people, tenants not to use the rent-fixing clauses of the Land Act, but
follow old Land League lines, and rely on the old methods to reach
justice. The executive of the League is empowered to select test cases,
in order that tenants in surrounding districts may realize, by the
results of cases decided, the hollowness of the act" (Barry O'Brien,
_Life of C. S. Parnell_, i. 306). His organ _United Ireland_ declared
that the new courts must be cowed into giving satisfactory decisions.
The League, however, could not prevent the farmers from using the
fair-rent clauses. It was more successful in preventing free sale,
maintaining the doctrine that, rent or no rent, no evictions were to be
allowed. At the first sitting of the Land Commission in Dublin the
crier, perhaps by accident, declared "the court of the Land League to be
open." Speaking at Leeds on the 7th of October, Gladstone said "the
resources of civilization were not exhausted," adding that Parnell
"stood between the living and the dead, not like Aaron to stay the
plague, but to spread the plague." Two days later Parnell called the
prime minister a "masquerading knight-errant," ready to oppress the
unarmed, but submissive to the Boers as soon as he found "that they were
able to shoot straighter than his own soldiers." Four days after this
Parnell was arrested under the Coercion Act and lodged in Kilmainham
gaol. The Land League having retorted by ordering the tenants to pay no
rent, it was declared illegal, and suppressed by proclamation. Parnell
is said to have disapproved of the no-rent manifesto, as also Mr John
Dillon, who was in Kilmainham with him, but both of them signed it (ib.
i. 319). At Liverpool on the 27th of October Gladstone described Parnell
and his party as "marching through rapine to the disintegration and
dismemberment of the empire." In 1881, 4439 agrarian outrages were
reported; nothing attracted more attention in England than the cruel
mutilations of cattle, which became very frequent. The Ladies' Land
League tried to carry on the work of the suppressed organization and
there was even an attempt at a Children's League. Sex had no effect in
softening the prevalent style of oratory, but the government thought it
better to take no notice. The imprisonment of suspects under the
Coercion Act had not the expected result, and outrages were incessant,
the agitation being supported by constant supplies of money from
America. Gladstone resolved on a complete change of policy. It was
decided to check evictions by an Arrears Bill, and the three imprisoned
members of parliament--Messrs Parnell, Dillon and O'Kelly--were released
on the 2nd of May 1882, against the wishes of the Irish government. This
was known as the Kilmainham Treaty. Lord Cowper and Forster at once
resigned, and were succeeded by Lord Spencer and Lord Frederick
Cavendish, who entered Dublin on the 6th of May.

Phoenix Park murders.

That same evening Lord Frederick and the permanent under-secretary
Thomas Henry Burke were murdered in the Phoenix Park in broad daylight.
The weapons were amputating knives imported for the purpose. The
assassins drove rapidly away; no one, not even those who saw the deed
from a distance, knew what had been done. A Dublin tradesman named
Field, who had been a juror in a murder trial, was attacked by the same
gang and stabbed in many places. He escaped with life, though with
shattered health, and it was the identification of the man who drove his
assailants' car that afterwards led to the discovery of the whole
conspiracy. The clue was obtained by a private examination of suspected
persons under the powers given by the Crimes Act. To obtain convictions
the evidence of an informer was wanted, and the person selected was
James Carey, a member of the Dublin Corporation and a chief contriver of
the murders. He swore that they had been ordered immediately after the
appearance of an article in the _Freeman's Journal_ which declared that
a "clean sweep" should be made of Dublin Castle officials. The evidence
disclosed the fact that several abortive attempts had been previously
made to murder Forster. Out of twenty persons, subsequently arraigned,
five were hanged, and others sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
Carey embarked for South Africa in the following July, and was murdered
on board ship by Patrick O'Donnell, who was brought to England,
convicted, and hanged on the 17th of December 1883.

National League.

Dynamite.

Labourers Act.

Mr (afterwards Sir) G. O. Trevelyan had been appointed chief secretary
in May 1882, and in July the Crimes Prevention Act was passed for three
years on lines indicated by Lord Cowper. In the first six months of the
year 2597 agrarian outrages were reported, and in the last six months
836. They fell to 834 in 1883, and to 744 in 1884. The Arrears Bill also
became law. Money enough was advanced out of the surplus property of the
Irish Church to pay for tenants of holdings under £30 one year's rent
upon all arrears accruing before November 1880, giving them a clear
receipt to that date on condition of their paying another year
themselves; of the many reasons against the measure the most important
was that it was a concession to agrarian violence. But the same could be
and was said of the Land Act of 1881. That had been passed, and it was
probably impossible to make it work at all smoothly without checking
evictions by dealing with old arrears. The Irish National League was,
however, founded in October to take up the work of the defunct Land
League, and the country continued to be disturbed. The law was
paralysed, for no jury could be trusted to convict even on the clearest
evidence, and the National League branches assumed judicial functions.
Men were openly tried all over the country for disobeying the
revolutionary decrees, and private spite was often the cause of their
being accused. "Tenants," to quote the Cowper Commission again, "who
have paid even the judicial rents have been summoned to appear before
self-constituted tribunals, and if they failed to do so, or on appearing
failed to satisfy those tribunals, have been fined or boycotted." In
February 1883 Mr Trevelyan gave an account of his stewardship at Hawick,
and said that all law-abiding Irishmen, whether Conservative or Liberal,
were on one side, while on the other were those who "planned and
executed the Galway and Dublin murders, the boycotting and firing into
houses, the mutilation of cattle and intimidation of every sort." In
this year the campaign of outrage in Ireland was reinforced by one of
dynamite in Great Britain. The home secretary, Sir W. Harcourt, brought
in an Explosives Bill on the 9th of April, which was passed through all
its stages in one day and received the royal assent on the next. The
dynamiters were for the most part Irish-Americans, who for obvious
reasons generally spared Ireland, but one land-agent's house in Kerry
was shaken to its foundations in November 1884. At Belfast in the
preceding June Lord Spencer, who afterwards became a Home Ruler, had
announced that the secret conspirators would "not terrify the English
nation." On the 22nd of February 1883 Forster made his great attack on
Parnell in the House of Commons, accusing him of moral complicity with
Irish crime. A detailed answer was never attempted, and public attention
was soon drawn to the trial of the "Invincibles" who contrived the
Phoenix Park murders. On the 11th of December Parnell received a present
of £37,000 from his followers in Ireland. The tribute, as it was called,
was raised in spite of a papal prohibition. As a complement to the Land
Act and Arrears Act, boards of guardians were this year empowered to
build labourers' cottages with money borrowed on the security of the
rates and repayable out of them. Half an acre of land went with the
cottage, and by a later act this was unwisely extended to one acre. That
the labourers had been badly housed was evident, and there was little
chance of improvement by private capitalists, for cottage property is
not remunerative. But the working of the Labourers Acts was very costly,
cottages being often assigned to people who were not agricultural
labourers at all. In many districts the building was quite overdone, and
the rent obtainable being far less than enough to recoup the guardians,
the system operated as out-door relief for the able-bodied and as a rate
in aid of wages.

Ashbourne Act.

Home Rule Bill, 1886.

The Explosives Act, strong as it was, did not at once effect its object.
In February 1884 there was a plot to blow up four London railway
stations by means of clockwork infernal machines containing dynamite,
brought from America. Three Irish-Americans were convicted, of whom one,
John Daly, who was sentenced to penal servitude for life, lived to be
mayor of Limerick in 1899. In January 1885 Parnell visited Thurles,
where he gave a remarkable proof of his power by breaking down local
opposition to his candidate for Tipperary. In April the prince and
princess of Wales visited Ireland. At Dublin they were well received,
and at Belfast enthusiastically, but there were hostile demonstrations
at Mallow and Cork. In May it was intended to renew the Crimes
Prevention Act, but before that was done the government was beaten on a
financial question by 264 to 252, Parnell and 39 of his followers voting
with the Conservatives. The Crimes Prevention Act expired on the 12th of
July, and the want of it was at once felt. The number of agrarian
outrages reported in the first six months of the year was 373; in the
last six months they rose to 543, and the number of persons boycotted
was almost trebled. Lord Salisbury came into office, with Lord Carnarvon
as lord-lieutenant and Sir W. Hart Dyke as chief secretary. The
lord-lieutenant had an interview with Parnell, of which very conflicting
accounts were given, but the Irish leader issued a manifesto advising
his friends to vote against the Liberals as oppressors and coercionists,
who promised everything and did nothing. The constitutional Liberal
party in Ireland was in fact annihilated by the extension of the
franchise to agricultural labourers and very small farmers. The most
important Irish measure of the session was the Ashbourne Act, by which
£5,000,000 was allotted on the security of the land for the creation of
an occupying proprietary. Later the same sum was again granted, and
there was still a good deal unexpended when the larger measure of 1891
became law. In December 1885, when the general election was over, an
anonymous scheme of Home Rule appeared in some newspapers, and in spite
of disclaimers it was at once believed that Gladstone had made up his
mind to surrender. In October 1884, only fourteen months before, he had
told political friends that he had a sneaking regard for Parnell, and
that Home Rule might be a matter for serious consideration within ten
years (Sir A. West's _Recollections_, 1899, ii. 206). The shortening of
the time was perhaps accounted for by the fact that the new House of
Commons consisted of 331 Liberals, 249 Conservatives, 86 Home Rulers and
Independents, Parnell thus holding the balance of parties. In Ireland
there had been 66 elections contested, and out of 451,000 voters 93,000
were illiterates. Such were the constituencies to whom it was proposed
to hand Ireland over. On the 26th of January 1886 the government were
defeated by a combination of Liberal and Nationalists on an issue not
directly connected with Ireland, and their resignation immediately
followed. Gladstone became prime minister, with Lord Aberdeen as
lord-lieutenant and Mr John Morley as chief secretary. Lord Hartington
and Mr Goschen were not included in this administration. In February
Parnell again showed his power by forcing Captain O'Shea upon the
unwilling electors of Galway. He introduced a Land Bill to relieve
tenants from legal process if they paid half their rent, and foretold
disorder in consequence of its rejection. In April the Government of
Ireland Bill was brought in, Mr Chamberlain (q.v.), Mr Trevelyan and
others leaving the ministry. The bill attempted to safeguard British
interests, while leaving Ireland at the mercy of the native politicians.
Irish members were excluded from the imperial parliament. The local
legislature was to consist of two orders sitting and voting together,
but with the power of separating on the demand of either order present.
The 28 representative peers, with 75 other members having an income of
£200, or a capital of £4000, elected for ten years by £25 occupiers,
were to constitute the first order. The second was to have 204 members
returned for five years by the usual parliamentary electorate. The
status of the lord-lieutenant was unalterable by this legislature.
Holders of judicial offices and permanent civil servants had the option
of retiring with pensions, but the constabulary, whom the Home Rulers
had openly threatened to punish when their time came, were to come after
an interval under the power of the Irish Parliament. Parnell accepted
the bill, but without enthusiasm.

The Government of Ireland Bill gave no protection to landowners, but as
the crisis was mainly agrarian, it would have been hardly decent to make
no show of considering them. A Land Purchase Bill was accordingly
introduced on the 16th of April by the prime minister under "an
obligation of honour and policy," to use his own words. Fifty millions
sterling in three years was proposed as payment for what had been
officially undervalued at 113 millions. It was assumed that there would
be a rush to sell, the choice apparently lying between that and
confiscation, and priority was to be decided by lot. The Irish
landlords, however, showed no disposition to sell their country, and the
Purchase Bill was quickly dropped, though Gladstone had declared the two
measures to be inseparable. He reminded the landlords that the "sands
were running in the hour-glass," but this threat had no effect. The
Unionists of Ireland had been taken by surprise, and out of Ulster they
had no organization capable of opposing the National League and the
government combined. Individuals went to England and spoke wherever they
could get a hearing, but it was uphill work. In Ulster the Orange lodges
were always available, and the large Protestant population made itself
felt. Terrible riots took place at Belfast in June, July and August. In
October there was an inquiry by a royal commission with Mr Justice Day
at its head, and on the report being published in the following January
there were fresh riots. Foolish and criminal as these disturbances were,
they served to remind the English people that Ireland would not cease to
be troublesome under Home Rule. In parliament the Home Rule Bill soon
got into rough water; John Bright declared against it. The "dissentient
Liberals," as Gladstone always called them, were not converted by the
abandonment of the Purchase Bill, and on the 7th of June 93 of them
voted against the second reading, which was lost by 30 votes. A general
election followed in July, and 74 Liberal Unionists were returned,
forming with the Conservatives a Unionist party, which outnumbered
Gladstonians and Parnellites together by over a hundred. Gladstone
resigned, and Lord Salisbury became prime minister, with Lord
Londonderry as lord-lieutenant and Sir M. Hicks-Beach (afterwards Lord
St Aldwyn) as chief secretary.

The "Plan of Campaign."

The political stroke having failed, agrarianism again occupied the
ground. The "plan of campaign" was started, against Parnell's wishes,
towards the end of 1886. The gist of this movement was that tenants
should offer what they were pleased to consider a fair rent, and if it
was refused, should pay the money into the hands of a committee. In
March 1887 Sir M. Hicks-Beach resigned on account of illness, and Mr
Arthur Balfour (q.v.) became chief secretary. The attempt to govern
Ireland under what was called "the ordinary law" was necessarily
abandoned, and a perpetual Crimes Act was passed which enabled the
lord-lieutenant to proclaim disturbed districts and dangerous
associations, and substituted trial by magistrates for trial by jury in
the case of certain acts of violence. In August the National League was
suppressed by proclamation. The conservative instincts of the Vatican
were alarmed by the lawless state of Ireland, and an eminent
ecclesiastic, Monsignor Persico, arrived in the late summer on a special
commission of inquiry. He made no secret of his belief that the
establishment of an occupying proprietary was the only lasting cure, but
the attitude of the clergy became gradually more moderate. The
government passed a bill giving leaseholders the benefit of the act of
1881, and prescribing a temporary reduction upon judicial rents already
fixed. This last provision was open to many great and obvious
objections, but was more or less justified by the fall in prices which
had taken place since 1881.

The steady administration of the Crimes Act by Mr Balfour gradually
quieted the country. Parnell had now gained the bulk of the Liberal
party, including Lord Spencer (in spite of all that he had said and
done) and Sir G. Trevelyan (in spite of his Hawick speech). In the
circumstances the best chance for Home Rule was not to stir the land
question. Cecil Rhodes, hoping to help imperial federation, gave Parnell
£10,000 for the cause. In September 1887 a riot arising out of the "plan
of campaign" took place at Mitchelstown. The police fired, and two lives
were lost, Mr Henry Labouchere and Mr (afterwards Sir John) Brunner,
both members of parliament, being present at the time. The coroner's
jury brought in a verdict against the police, but that was a matter of
course, and the government ignored it. A telegram sent by Gladstone a
little later, ending with the words "remember Mitchelstown," created a
good deal of feeling, but it did the Home Rulers no good. In October Mr
Chamberlain visited Ulster, where he was received with enthusiasm, and
delivered several stirring Unionist speeches. In November Lord
Hartington and Mr Goschen were in Dublin, and addressed a great loyalist
meeting there.

Parnell Commission.

In July 1888 an act was passed appointing a commission, consisting of
Sir James Hannen, Mr Justice Day and Mr Justice A. L. Smith, to inquire
into certain charges made by _The Times_ against Parnell and his party.
What caused most excitement was the publication by _The Times_ on the
15th of May 1887 of a _facsimile_ letter purporting to have been written
by Parnell on the 15th of May 1882, nine days after the Phoenix Park
murders. The writer of this letter suggested that his open condemnation
of the murders had been a matter of expediency, and that Burke deserved
his fate. Parnell at once declared that this was a forgery, but he did
nothing more at the time. Other alleged incriminating letters followed.
The case of _O'Donnell_ v. _Walter_, tried before the Lord Chief Justice
of England in July 1888, brought matters to a head, and the special
commission followed. The proceedings were necessarily of enormous
length, and the commissioners did not report until the 13th of February
1890, but the question of the letters was decided just twelve months
earlier, Richard Pigott, who shot himself at Madrid, having confessed
to the forgeries. A few days later, on the 8th of March 1889, Parnell
was entertained at dinner by the Eighty Club, Lords Spencer and Rosebery
being present; and he was well received on English platforms when he
chose to appear. Yet the special commission shed a flood of light on the
agrarian and Nationalist movement in Ireland. Eight members of
parliament were pronounced by name to have conspired for the total
political separation of the two islands. The whole party were proved to
have disseminated newspapers tending to incite to sedition and the
commission of crime, to have abstained from denouncing the system of
intimidation, and to have compensated persons injured in committing
crime. (See PARNELL.)

New Tipperary.

The conduct of the agrarian war had in the meantime almost passed from
Parnell's hands. The "plan of campaign" was not his work, still less its
latest and most remarkable exploit. To punish Mr Smith-Barry (afterwards
Lord Barrymore) for his exertions in favour of a brother landlord, his
tenants in Tipperary were ordered to give up their holdings. A sum of
£50,000 was collected to build "New Tipperary," and the fine shops and
flourishing concerns in the town were deserted to avoid paying small
ground-rents. The same course was pursued with the farmers, some of whom
had large capitals invested. Mr William O'Brien presided at the
inaugural dinner on the 12th of April, and some English M.P.'s were
present, but his chief supporter throughout was Father Humphreys.
Parnell was invited, but neither came nor answered. No shopkeeper nor
farmer had any quarrel with his landlord. "Heretofore," a tenant wrote
in _The Times_ in the following December, "people were boycotted for
taking farms; I am boycotted for not giving up mine, which I have held
for twenty-five years. A neighbour of mine, an Englishman, is undergoing
the same treatment, and we alone. We are the only Protestant tenants on
the Cashel estate. The remainder of the tenants, about thirty, are
clearing everything off their land, and say they will allow themselves
to be evicted." In the end the attack on Mr Smith-Barry completely
failed, and he took back his misguided tenants. But the town of
Tipperary has not recovered its old prosperity.

Land purchase.

The principal Irish measure passed in 1891 was Mr Balfour's Purchase
Act, to extend and modify the operation of the Ashbourne acts.
£30,000,000 were provided to convert tenants into proprietors, the
instalments paid being again available, so that all the tenanted land in
Ireland might ultimately be passed through if desired. The land itself
in one shape or another formed the security, and guaranteed stock was
issued which the holder might exchange for consols. The 40th clause of
the Land Act of 1896 greatly stimulated the creation of occupying owners
in the case of over-incumbered estates, but solvent landlords were not
in a hurry to sell. The interests of the tenant were so carefully
guarded that the prices obtainable were ruinous to the vendor unless he
had other resources. The security of the treasury was also so jealously
scrutinized that even the price which the tenant might be willing to pay
was often disallowed. Thus the Land Commission really fixed the price of
all property, and the last vestige of free contract was obliterated.
Compulsory purchase became a popular cry, especially in Ulster. Owners,
however, could not with any pretence of justice be forced to sell at
ruinous prices, nor tenants be forced to give more than they thought
fair. If the state, for purposes of its own, insisted upon expropriating
all landlords, it was bound to find the difference, or to enter upon a
course of undisguised confiscation. The Purchase Act was not the only
one relied on by Mr Balfour. The Light Railways Act, passed by him in
1890, did much to open up some of the poorest parts of the west, and the
temporary scarcity of that year was dealt with by relief works.

Parnell's downfall.

An action begun by Parnell against _The Times_ was settled by the
payment of a substantial sum. The Nationalist leader seemed to stand
higher than ever, but the writ in the divorce proceedings, brought by
Captain O'Shea against his wife, with the Irish leader as co-respondent,
was hanging over him. To public astonishment, when the case came on for
trial there was no defence, and on the 17th of November 1890 a decree
nisi was granted. Parnell's subsequent marriage with the respondent
before a registrar did him no good with his Roman Catholic supporters.
The Irish bishops remained silent, while in England the "Nonconformist
conscience" revolted. Three days after the verdict a great meeting was
held in the Leinster Hall, Dublin, attended by 25 members of the Irish
parliamentary party. The result was an enthusiastic vote of confidence
in Parnell, moved by Mr Justin M'Carthy and seconded by Mr T. M. Healy.
Five days later he was unanimously re-elected chairman by his party in
parliament, but the meeting was scarcely over when Gladstone's famous
letter to Mr Morley became public. The writer in effect demanded
Parnell's resignation of the leadership as the condition upon which he
could continue at the head of the Liberal party. He had to choose
between the Nonconformist vote and the Irish leader, and he preferred
the former. Next day the secession of the Irish members from their chief
began. Long and acrimonious debates followed in committee-room 15, and
on the 6th of December Parnell was left in the chair with only 26
supporters. The majority of 45 members--Anti-Parnellites, as they came
to be called--went into another room, unanimously deposed him, and
elected Mr Justin M'Carthy in his place. Parnell then began a campaign
as hopeless as that of Napoleon after Leipzig. He seized the office of
_United Ireland_ in person. The Fenian element was with him, as he
admitted, but the clergy were against him, and the odds were too great,
especially against a Protestant politician. His candidate in a
by-election at Kilkenny was beaten by nearly two to one, and he himself
was injured in the eyes by lime being thrown at him. Similar defeats
followed at Sligo and Carlow. He went over to France to meet Messrs
Dillon and O'Brien, who had not yet taken sides, but nothing was agreed
to, and in the end both these former followers went against him. Every
Saturday he went from London to Dublin and addressed some Sunday meeting
in the country. The last was on the 27th of September. On the 6th of
October 1891 he died at Brighton, from the effects of a chill following
on overwork and excitement. His funeral at Glasnevin was attended by
200,000 people. At the general election of 1892, however, only 9
Parnellites--the section which under Mr John Redmond remained staunch to
his memory--were returned to parliament.

Home Rule Bill 1893.

The "Parnellite split," as it was called, proved fatal to the cause of
Home Rule, for the Nationalist party broke up into factions. No one of
the sectional leaders commanded general confidence, and personal
rivalries were of the bitterest kind. An important result of these
quarrels was to stop the supply of American money, without which neither
the Land League nor the Home Rule agitation could have been worked. The
Unionist party had adopted a policy of local government for Ireland
while opposing legislative independence, and a bill was introduced into
the House of Commons by Mr Balfour in February 1892. The principle was
affirmed by a great majority, but the measure could not then be
proceeded with. At the general election in July the Gladstonians and
Nationalists together obtained a majority of 40 over Conservatives and
Liberal Unionists. Lord Salisbury resigned in August, and was succeeded
by Gladstone, with Lord Houghton (afterwards earl of Crewe) as
lord-lieutenant and Mr John Morley as chief secretary. The Crimes Act,
which had already been relaxed, was altogether suspended, and the
proclamation declaring the National League illegal was revoked. The
lord-lieutenant, on taking up his quarters in Dublin, refused a loyal
address because of its Unionist tone; and in October the government
issued a commission, with Mr Justice Mathew as chairman, which had the
restoration of the evicted tenants as its avowed object. Two of the
commissioners very shortly resigned, and the whole inquiry became
somewhat farcical. It was given in evidence that out of £234,431
collected under the plan of campaign only £125,000 had been given to
evicted tenants. In February 1893, on the application of the sheriff of
Kerry, an order from Dublin Castle, refusing protection, was pronounced
illegal in the Queen's Bench, and persons issuing it were declared
liable to criminal prosecution. In the same month Gladstone introduced
his second Home Rule Bill, which proposed to retain 80 Irish members in
the imperial parliament instead of 103, but they were not to vote on any
proceedings expressly confined to Great Britain. On the 8th of April
1886 he had told the House of Commons that it "passed the wit of man" to
draw a practical distinction between imperial and non-imperial affairs.
On the 20th of July 1888 he informed the same assembly that there was no
difficulty in doing so. It had become evident, in the meantime, to
numberless Englishmen that the exclusion of the Irish members would mean
virtual separation. The plan now proposed met with no greater favour,
for a good many English Home Rulers had been mainly actuated all along
by the wish to get the Irish members out of their way. The financial
provisions of the bill were objected to by the Nationalists as tending
to keep Ireland in bondage.

During the year 1892 a vast number of Unionist meetings were held
throughout Ireland, the most remarkable being the great Ulster
convention in Belfast, and that of the three other provinces in Dublin,
on the 14th and 23rd of June. On the 22nd of April 1893, the day after
the second reading of the bill, the Albert Hall in London was filled by
enthusiastic Unionist delegates from all parts of Ireland. Next day the
visitors were entertained by Lord Salisbury at Hatfield, the duke of
Devonshire, Mr Balfour, Mr Goschen and Mr Chamberlain being present.
Between the second reading and the third on 1st September the government
majority fell from 43 to 34. A great part of the bill was closured by
what was known as the device of the "gag" without discussion, although
it occupied the House of Commons altogether eighty-two nights. It was
thrown out by the Lords by 419 to 41, and the country undoubtedly
acquiesced in their action. On the 3rd of March 1894 Gladstone resigned,
and Lord Rosebery (q.v.) became prime minister. A bill to repeal the
Crimes Act of 1887 was read a second time in the Commons by 60, but went
no farther. A committee on the Irish Land Acts was closured at the end
of July by the casting vote of the chairman, Mr Morley, and the minority
refused to join in the report. The bill to restore the evicted tenants,
which resulted from the Mathew Commission, was rejected in the Lords by
249 to 30. In March 1895 Mr Morley introduced a Land Bill, but the
government majority continued to dwindle. Another Crimes Act Repeal Bill
passed the second reading in May by only 222 to 208. In July, however,
the government were defeated on the question of the supply of small-arms
ammunition. A general election followed, which resulted in a Unionist
majority of 150. The Liberal Unionists, whose extinction had once been
so confidently foretold, had increased from 46 to 71, and the
Parnellites, in spite of the most violent clerical opposition, from 9 to
12. Lord Cadogan became lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and Mr Gerald
Balfour--who announced a policy of "killing Home Rule by
kindness"--chief secretary.

Land Act 1896.

In the session of 1896 a new Land Act was added to the statute-book. The
general effect was to decide most disputed points in favour of the
tenants, and to repeal the exceptions made by former acts in the
landlord's favour. Dairy farms, to mention only a few of the most
important points which had been hitherto excluded, were admitted within
the scope of the Land Acts, and purely pastoral holdings of between £50
and £100 were for the first time included. A presumption of law in the
tenant's favour was created as to improvements made since 1850. The 40th
clause introduced the principle of compulsory sale to the tenants of
estates in the hands of receivers. The tendency of this provision to
lower the value of all property was partly, but only partly, neutralized
by the firmness of the land judge. The landlords of Ireland, who had
made so many sacrifices and worked so hard to return Lord Salisbury to
power, felt that the measure was hardly what they had a right to expect
from a Unionist administration. In their opinion it unsettled the
agricultural mind, and encouraged judicial tenants to go to law at the
expiration of the first fifteen years' term instead of bargaining
amicably with their landlords.

Financial relations.

In the autumn of this year was published the report of the royal
commission on the financial relations between England and Ireland. Mr
Hugh C. E. Childers was the original chairman of this commission, which
was appointed in 1894 with the object of determining the fiscal
contribution of Ireland under Home Rule, and after his death in 1896 The
O'Conor Don presided. The report--or rather the collection of minority
reports--gave some countenance to those who held that Ireland was
overtaxed, and there was a strong agitation on the subject, in which
some Irish Unionists joined without perceiving the danger of treating
the two islands as "separate entities." No individual Irishman was taxed
on a higher scale than any corresponding citizen of Great Britain. No
tax, either on commodities or property, was higher in Ireland than in
England. The alleged grievance was, however, exploited to the utmost
extent by the Nationalist party. In 1897 a royal commission, with Sir
Edward Fry as chairman, was appointed to inquire into the operation of
the Land Acts. Voluminous evidence was taken in different parts of
Ireland, and the commissioners reported in the following year. The
methods and procedure of the Land Commission were much criticized, and
many recommendations were made, but no legislation followed. This
inquiry proved, what few in Ireland doubted, that the prices paid for
occupancy interest or tenant right increased as the landlord's rent was
cut down.

Local Government Act 1898.

The session of 1898 was largely occupied with the discussion of a bill
to establish county and district councils on the lines of the English
Act of 1888. The fiscal jurisdiction of grand juries, which had lasted
for more than two centuries and a half, was entirely swept away. Local
government for Ireland had always been part of the Unionist programme,
and the vote on the abortive bill of 1892 had committed parliament to
legislation. It may, nevertheless, be doubted whether enough attention
was paid to the local peculiarities of Ireland, and whether English
precedents were not too closely followed. In Ireland the poor-rate used
to be divided between landlord and tenant, except on holdings valued at
£4 and under, in which the landlord paid the whole. Councils elected by
small farmers were evidently unfit to impose taxes so assessed. The
poor-rate and the county cess, which latter was mostly paid by the
tenants, were consolidated, and an agricultural grant of £730,000 was
voted by parliament in order to relieve both parties. The consolidated
rate was now paid by the occupier, who would profit by economy and lose
by extravagance. The towns gained nothing by the agricultural grant, but
union rating was established for the first time. The net result of the
county council elections in the spring of 1899 was to displace, except
in some northern counties, nearly all the men who had hitherto done the
local business. Nationalist pledges were exacted, and long service as a
grand juror was an almost certain bar to election. The Irish gentry,
long excluded, as landlords and Unionists, from political life, now felt
to a great extent that they had no field for activity in local affairs.
The new councils very generally passed resolutions of sympathy with the
Boers in the South African war. The one most often adopted, though
sometimes rejected as too mild, was that of the Limerick corporation,
hoping "that it may end in another Majuba Hill." Efforts not wholly
unsuccessful were made to hinder recruiting in Ireland, and every
reverse or repulse of British arms was greeted with Nationalist
applause.

The scheme for a Roman Catholic University--of which Mr Arthur Balfour,
speaking for himself and not for the government, made himself a
prominent champion--was much canvassed in 1899, but it came to nothing.
It had not been forgotten that this question wrecked the Liberal party
in 1874.

Board of Agriculture.

The chief Irish measure of 1899 was an Agricultural and Technical
Instruction Act, which established a new department (see the section
_Economics_ above) with the chief secretary at its head and an elaborate
system of local committees. Considerable funds were made available, and
Mr (afterwards Sir) Horace Plunkett, who as an independent Conservative
member had been active in promoting associations for the improvement of
Irish methods in this direction, became the first vice-president. The
new county councils were generally induced to further attempts at
technical instruction and to assist them out of the rates, but progress
in this direction was necessarily slow in a country where organized
industries have hitherto been so few. In agriculture, and especially in
cattle-breeding, improvement was formerly due mainly to the landlords,
who had now been deprived by law of much of their power. The gap has
been partly filled by the new department, and a good deal has been done.
Some experience has been gained not only through the voluntary
associations promoted by Sir H. Plunkett, but also from the Congested
Districts Board founded under the Land Purchase Act of 1891. This board
has power within the districts affected by it to foster agriculture and
fisheries, to enlarge holdings, and to buy and hold land. In March 1899
it had from first to last laid out a little more than half a million.
The principal source of income was a charge of £41,250 a year upon the
Irish Church surplus, but the establishment expenses were paid by
parliament.

1900.

At the opening of the session in January 1900 there was a formal
reconciliation of the Dillonite, Healyite, and Redmondite or Parnellite
factions. It was evident from the speeches made on the occasion that
there was not much cordiality between the various leaders, but the
outward solidarity of the party was calculated to bring in renewed
subscriptions both at home and from America. It was publicly agreed that
England's difficulty in South Africa was Ireland's opportunity, and that
all should abstain from supporting an amendment to the address which
admitted that the war would have to be fought out. Mr John Redmond was
chosen chairman, and the alliance of Nationalists and Gladstonian
Liberals was dissolved. The United Irish League, founded in Mayo in 1898
by Mr William O'Brien, had recently become a sort of rival to the
parliamentary party, its avowed object being to break up the great grass
farms, and its methods resembling those of the old Land League.

The most striking event, however, in Ireland in the earlier part of 1900
was Queen Victoria's visit. Touched by the gallantry of the Irish
regiments in South Africa, and moved to some extent, no doubt, by the
presence of the duke of Connaught in Dublin as commander-in-chief, the
queen determined in April to make up for the loss of her usual spring
holiday abroad by paying a visit to Ireland. The last time the queen had
been in Dublin was in 1861 with the Prince Consort. Since then, besides
the visit of the prince and princess of Wales in 1885, Prince Albert
Victor and Prince George of Wales had visited Ireland in 1887, and the
duke and duchess of York (afterwards prince and princess of Wales) in
1897; but the lack of any permanent royal residence and the
long-continued absence of the sovereign in person had aroused repeated
comment. Directly the announcement of the queen's intention was made the
greatest public interest was taken in the project. Shortly before St
Patrick's Day the queen issued an order which intensified this interest,
that Irish soldiers might in future wear a sprig of shamrock in their
headgear on this national festival. For some years past the "wearing of
the green" had been regarded by the army authorities as improper, and
friction had consequently occurred, but the queen's order put an end in
a graceful manner to what had formerly been a grievance. The result was
that St Patrick's Day was celebrated in London and throughout the empire
as it never had been before, and when the queen went over to Dublin at
the beginning of April she was received with the greatest enthusiasm.

The general election later in the year made no practical difference in
the strength of parties, but Mr George Wyndham took Mr Gerald Balfour's
place as chief secretary, without a seat in the Cabinet. Both before and
after the election the United Irish League steadily advanced, fresh
branches continually springing up.

Recent years.

The visit of Mr Redmond and others to America in 1901 was not believed
to have brought in much money, and the activity of the League was more
or less restrained by want of funds. Boycotting, however, became rife,
especially in Sligo, and paid agents also promoted an agitation against
grass farms in Tipperary, Clare and other southern counties. In
Roscommon there was a strike against rent, especially on the property of
Lord De Freyne. This was due to the action of the Congested Districts
Board in buying the Dillon estate and reducing all the rents without
consulting the effect upon others. It was argued that no one else's
tenants could be expected to pay more. Some prosecutions were
undertaken, but the government was much criticized for not using the
special provisions of the Crimes Act; and in April 1902 certain counties
were "proclaimed" under it. In February 1902 Lord Rosebery definitely
repudiated Home Rule, and steps to oppose his followers were at once
taken among Irish voters in English constituencies.

Lord Cadogan resigned the viceroyalty in July 1902, and was succeeded by
Lord Dudley. In November Sir Antony Macdonnell (b. 1844), a member of
the Indian Council, became under-secretary to the lord-lieutenant.
During a long and successful career in India (1865-1901) Sir Antony had
never concealed his Nationalist proclivities, but his appointment, about
the form of which there was nothing peculiar, was favoured by Lord
Lansdowne and Lord George Hamilton, and ultimately sanctioned by Mr
Balfour, who had been prime minister since Lord Salisbury's resignation
in July. About the same time a conference took place in Dublin between
certain landlords and some members of the Nationalist party, of whom Mr
W. O'Brien was the most conspicuous. Lord Dunraven presided, and it was
agreed to recommend a great extension of the Land Purchase system with a
view to give the vendor as good an income as before, while decreasing
the tenants' annual burden. This was attempted in Mr Wyndham's Land
Purchase Act of 1903, which gave the tenants a material reduction, a
bonus of 12% on the purchase-money being granted to vendors from funds
provided by parliament. A judicial decision made it doubtful whether
this percentage became the private property of tenants for life on
settled estates, but a further act passed in 1904 answered the question
in the affirmative. After this the sale of estates proceeded rapidly. In
March 1903 was published the report of the Royal Commission on Irish
University Education appointed two years before with Lord Robertson as
chairman, Trinity College, Dublin, being excluded from the inquiry. The
report, which was not really unanimous, was of little value as a basis
for legislation. It recommended an examining university with the Queen's
Colleges at Belfast, Cork and Galway, and with a new and well-endowed
Roman Catholic college in Dublin.

The "Devolution" question.

In August was formed the Irish Reform Association out of the wreckage of
the late Land Conference and under Lord Dunraven's presidency, and it
was seen that Sir A. Macdonnell took a great interest in the
proceedings. Besides transferring private bill legislation to Dublin on
the Scottish plan, to which no one in Ireland objected, it was proposed
to hand over the internal expenditure of Ireland to a financial council
consisting half of nominated and half of elected members, and to give an
Irish assembly the initiative in public Irish bills. This policy, which
was called Devolution, found little support anywhere, and was ultimately
repudiated both by Mr Wyndham and by Mr Balfour. But a difficult
parliamentary crisis, caused by Irish Unionist suspicions on the
subject, was only temporarily overcome by Mr Wyndham's resignation in
March 1905. Mr Walter Long succeeded him. One of the chief questions at
issue was the position actually occupied by Sir Antony Macdonnell. The
new chief secretary, while abstaining from displacing the
under-secretary, whose encouragement of "devolution" had caused
considerable commotion among Unionists, announced that he considered him
as on the footing of an ordinary and subordinate civil servant, but Mr
Wyndham had said that he was "invited by me rather as a colleague than
as a mere under-secretary to register my will," and Lord Lansdowne that
he "could scarcely expect to be bound by the narrow rules of routine
which are applicable to an ordinary member of the civil service." While
Mr Long remained in office no further complication arose, but in 1906
(Sir A. Macdonnell being retained in office by the Liberal government)
his Nationalist leanings again became prominent, and the responsibility
of the Unionist government in introducing him into the Irish
administration became a matter of considerable heart-burning among the
Unionist party.

Mr Balfour resigned in December 1905 and was succeeded by Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman, Lord Aberdeen becoming lord-lieutenant for the
second time, with Mr James Bryce as chief secretary. The general
election at the beginning of 1906 was disastrous to the Unionist party,
and the Liberal government secured an enormous majority. Mr Walter Long,
unseated at Bristol, had made himself very popular among Irish
Unionists, and a seat was found him in the constituency of South Dublin.
Speaking in August 1906 he raised anew the Macdonnell question and
demanded the production of all correspondence connected with the
under-secretary's appointment. Sir A. Macdonnell at once admitted
through the newspapers that he had in his possession letters (rumoured
to be "embarrassing" to the Unionist leaders) which he might publish at
his own discretion; and the discussion as to how far his appointment by
Mr Wyndham had prejudiced the Unionist cause was reopened in public with
much bitterness, in view of the anticipation of further steps in the
Home Rule direction by the Liberal ministry. In 1908 Sir Antony resigned
and was created a peer as Baron Macdonnell. Soon after the change of
government in 1906 a royal commission, with ex-Lord Justice Fry as
chairman, was appointed to investigate the condition of Trinity College,
Dublin, and another under Lord Dudley to inquire into the question of
the congested districts.

Mr Bryce being appointed ambassador to Washington, Mr Birrell faced the
session of 1907 as chief secretary. Before he left office Mr Bryce
publicly sketched a scheme of his own for remodelling Irish University
Education, but his scheme was quietly put on the shelf by his successor
and received almost universal condemnation. Mr Birrell began by
introducing a bill for the establishment of an Irish Council, which
would have given the Home Rulers considerable leverage, but, to the
surprise of the English Liberals, it was summarily rejected by a
Nationalist convention in Dublin, and was forthwith abandoned. The
extreme party of Sinn Fein ("ourselves alone") were against it because
of the power it gave to the government officials, and the Roman Catholic
clergy because it involved local control of primary education, which
would have imperilled their position as managers. An Evicted Tenants
Bill was however passed at the end of the session, which gave the
Estates Commissioners unprecedented powers to take land compulsorily. In
the late summer and autumn, agitation in Ireland (led by Mr Ginnell,
M.P.) took the form of driving cattle off large grass farms, as part of
a campaign against what was known as "ranching." This reckless and
lawless practice extended to several counties, but was worst in Galway
and Roscommon. The government was determined not to use the Crimes Act,
and the result was that offenders nearly always went unpunished, benches
of magistrates being often swamped by the chairmen of district councils
who were _ex officio_ justices under the act of 1898.

The general election of 1910 placed the Liberal and Unionist parties in
a position of almost exact equality in the House of Commons, and it was
at once evident that the Nationalists under Mr Redmond's leadership
would hold the balance of power and control the fortunes of Mr Asquith's
government. A small body of "independent Nationalists," led by Mr
William O'Brien and Mr T. M. Healy, voiced the general dislike in
Ireland of the Budget of 1909, the rejection of which by the House of
Lords had precipitated the dissolution of parliament. But although this
band of free-lances was a menace to Mr Redmond's authority and to the
solidarity of the "pledge-bound" Irish parliamentary party, the two
sections did not differ in their desire to get rid of the "veto" of the
House of Lords, which they recognized as the standing obstacle to Home
Rule, and which it was the avowed policy of the government to abolish.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Ancient: The _Annals of the Four Masters_, ed. J.
O'Donovan (1851), compiled in Donegal under Charles I., gives a
continuous account of Celtic Ireland down to 1616. The independent
_Annals of Lough Cé_ (Rolls series) end with 1590. The _Topographia
and Expugnatio_ of Giraldus Cambrensis (Rolls series) are chiefly
valuable for his account of the Anglo-Norman invaders and for
descriptions of the country. Sir J. T. Gilbert's _Viceroys of Ireland_
(Dublin, 1865) gives a connected view of the feudal establishment to
the accession of Henry VIII. The _Calendar of Documents relating to
Ireland_ in the Public Record Office extends from 1171 to 1307.
Christopher Pembridge's _Annals from 1162 to 1370_ were published by
William Camden and reprinted in Sir J. T. Gilbert's _Chartularies of
St Mary's Abbey_ (Dublin, 1884). _The Annals of Clyn, Dowling and
Grace_ have been printed by the Irish Archaeological Society and the
Celtic Society.

For the 16th century see volumes ii. and iii. of the _Printed State
Papers_ (1834), and the _Calendars of State Papers, Ireland_,
including that of the Carew MSS. 1515 to 1603. See also Richard
Stanihurst's _Chronicle_, continued by John Hooker, which is included
in Holinshed's _Chronicles_; E. Spenser, _View of the State of
Ireland_, edited by H. Morley (1890); Fynes Moryson, _History of
Ireland_ (1735); Thomas Stafford, _Pacata Hibernia_ (1810); and R.
Bagwell, _Ireland under the Tudors_ (1885-1890).

For the 17th century see the _Calendars of Irish State Papers,
1603-1665_ (Dublin, 1772); _Strafford Letters_, edited by W. Knowler
(1739): Thomas Carte, _Life of Ormonde_ (1735-1736), and _Ormonde
Papers_ (1739); Roger Boyle, earl of Orrery, _State letters_ (1743);
the _Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, 1641-1652_
(1879-1880), and _History of the Irish Confederation and the War in
Ireland, 1641-1649_ (1882-1891), both edited by Sir J. T. Gilbert;
Edmund Ludlow's _Memoirs_, edited by C. H. Firth (1894); the _Memoirs_
of James Touchet, earl of Castlehaven (1815); and _Cromwell's Letters
and Speeches_, edited by T. Carlyle (1904). See also J. P.
Prendergast, _The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland_ (1870); Denis
Murphy, _Cromwell in Ireland_ (1885): M. A. Hickson, _Ireland in the
17th Century_ (1884); Sir John Temple, _History of the Irish
Rebellion_ (1812); P. Walsh, _History of the Remonstrance_ (1674);
George Story, _Impartial History of the Wars of Ireland_ (1693);
Thomas Witherow, _Derry and Enniskillen_ (1873); Philip Dwyer, _Siege
of Derry_ (1893); Lord Macaulay, _History of England_; and S. R.
Gardiner, _History of England, 1603-1656_. Further writings which may
be consulted are: _The Embassy in Ireland of Rinuccini, 1645-1649_,
translated from the Italian by A. Hutton (1873); Sir William Petty's
_Down Survey_, edited by T. A. Larcom (1851), and his _Economic
Writings_, edited by C. H. Hull (1899); Charles O'Kelly's _Macariae
Excidium_, edited by J. C. O'Callaghan (1850); and _A Jacobite
Narrative of the War in Ireland, 1688-91_, edited by Sir J. T. Gilbert
(1892).

For the 18th century J. A. Froude's _English in Ireland_ and W. E. H.
Lecky's _History of England_ cover the whole ground. See also the
_Letters 1724-1738_ of Archbishop Hugh Boulter, edited by G. Faulkner
(1770); the _Works_ of Dean Swift; John Campbell's _Philosophical
Survey of Ireland_ (1778); Arthur Young's _Tour in Ireland_ (1780);
Henry Grattan's _Life of the Right Hon. Henry Grattan_ (1839-1846);
the _Correspondence_ of the Marquess Cornwallis, edited by C. Ross
(1859); Wolfe Tone's _Autobiography_, edited by R. B. O'Brien (1893);
and R. R. Madden's _United Irishmen_ (1842-1846).

For the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century see the _Annual
Register_; R. M. Martin, _Ireland before and after the Union_ (1848);
Sir T. Wyse, _Historical Sketch of the late Catholic Association_
(1829); G. L. Smyth, _Ireland, Historical and Statistical_
(1844-1849); Sir C. E. Trevelyan, _The Irish Crisis_ (1880); N. W.
Senior, _Journals, Conversations and Essays relating to Ireland_
(1868); Sir G. C. Lewis, _On Local Disturbances in Ireland and on the
Irish Church Question_ (1836); John Morley, _Life of W. E. Gladstone_;
Lord Fitzmaurice, _Life of Lord Granville_ (1905); and R. Barry
O'Brien, _Life of Parnell_ (1898). Other authorities are Isaac Butt,
_Irish Federalism_ (1870); H. O. Arnold-Forster, _The Truth about the
Land League_ (1883); A. V. Dicey, _England's Case against Home Rule_
(1886); W. E. Gladstone, _History of an Idea_ (1886), and a reply to
this by J. E. Webb entitled _The Queen's Enemies in America_ (1886);
and Mrs E. Lynn Linton, _About Ireland_ (1890). See also the _Report
of the Parnell Special Commission_ (1890); the _Report_ of the
Bessborough Commission (1881), of the Richmond Commission (1881), of
the Cowper Commission (1887), and of the Mathew Commission (1893),
and the _Report_ of the Congested Districts Board (1899).

For the church in Ireland see: Henry Cotton, _Fasti ecclesiae
hibernicae_ (1848-1878); W. M. Brady, _The Episcopal Succession_
(Rome, 1876); R. Mant, _History of the Church of Ireland_ (1840); J.
T. Ball, _The Reformed Church in Ireland, 1537-1886_ (1886); and W. D.
Killen, _Ecclesiastical History of Ireland_ (1875). A. Theiner's
_Vetera Monumenta_ (Rome, 1864) contains documents concerning the
medieval church, and there are many others in Ussher's Works, and for
a later period in Cardinal Moran's _Spicilegium Ossoriense_
(1874-1884). The _Works_ of Sir James Ware, edited by Walter Harris,
are generally useful, and Alice S. Green's _The Making of Ireland and
its Undoing_ (1908), although written from a partisan standpoint, may
also be consulted. (R. Ba.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The importance of the commerce between Ireland and Gaul in early
times, and in particular the trade in wine, has been insisted upon by
H. Zimmer in papers in the _Abh. d. Berl. Akad. d. Wissenschaften_
(1909).

[2] On the subject of Ptolemy's description of Ireland see articles
by G. H. Orpen in the _Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of
Ireland_ (June 1894), and John MacNeill in the _New Ireland Review_
(September 1906).

[3] Scholars are only beginning to realize how close was the
connexion between Ireland and Wales from early times. Pedersen has
recently pointed out the large number of Brythonic and Welsh loan
words received into Irish from the time of the Roman occupation of
Britain to the beginning of the literary period. Welsh writers now
assume an Irish origin for much of the contents of the Mabinogion.

[4] It seems probable that the celebrated monastery of Whithorn in
Galloway played some part in the reform movement, at any rate in the
north of Ireland. Findian of Moville spent some years there.

[5] The O'Neills who played such an important part in later Irish
history do not take their name from Niall Nóigiallach, though they
are descended from him. They take their name from Niall Glúndub (d.
919).

[6] At this period it is extremely difficult to distinguish between
Norwegians and Danes on account of the close connexion between the
ruling families of both countries.

[7] This name survives in Fingall, the name of a district north of
Dublin city. Dubgall is contained in the proper names MacDougall,
MacDowell.

[8] In Anglo-Norman times the Scandinavians of Dublin and other
cities are always called Ostmen, i.e. Eastmen; hence the name
Ostmanstown, now Oxmanstown, a part of the city of Dublin.

[9] On the name see K. Meyer _Erin_, iv. pp. 71-73.

[10] Donaban, the son of this Ivar of Waterford, is the ancestor of
the O'Donavans, Donoban that of the O'Donovans.

[11] The term _rath_ was perhaps applied to the rampart, but both
_lis_ and _rath_ are used to denote the whole structure.

[12] See D'Arbois de Jubainville, _Revue celtique_, xxv. 1 ff., 181
ff.

[13] The whole question is discussed by Mr J. H. Round in his article
on "The Pope and the Conquest of Ireland" (_Commune of London_, 1899,
pp. 171-200), where further references will be found.

IRELAND, CHURCH OF. The ancient Church of Ireland (described in the
Irish Church Act 1869 by this its historic title) has a long and
chequered history, which it will be interesting to trace in outline. The
beginnings of Christianity in Ireland are difficult to trace, but there
is no doubt that the first Christian missionary whose labours were
crowned with any considerable success was Patrick (fl. c. 450), who has
always been reckoned the patron saint of the country. For six centuries
the Church of which he was the founder occupied a remarkable position in
Western Christendom. Ireland, in virtue at once of its geographical
situation and of the spirit of its people, was less affected than other
countries by the movements of European thought; and thus its
development, social and religious, was largely independent of foreign
influences, whether Roman or English. In full communion with the Latin
Church, the Irish long preserved many peculiarities, such as their
monastic system and the date at which Easter was kept, which
distinguished them in discipline, though not conspicuously in doctrine,
from the Christians of countries more immediately under papal control
(see IRELAND: _Early History_). The incessant incursions of the Danes,
who were the scourge of the land for a period of nearly three hundred
years, prevented the Church from redeeming the promise of her infancy;
and at the date of the English conquest of Ireland (1172) she had lost
much of her ancient zeal and of her independence. By this time she had
come more into line with the rest of Europe, and the Synod of Cashel put
the seal to a new policy by its acknowledgment of the papal jurisdiction
and by its decrees assimilating the Church, in ritual and usages, to
that of England. There was no thought of a breach of continuity, but the
distinctive features of Celtic Christianity gradually disappeared from
this time onwards. English influence was strong only in the region round
Dublin (known as the Pale); and beyond this district the Irish were not
disposed to view with favour any ecclesiastical reforms which had their
origin in the sister country. Thus from the days of Henry VIII. the
Reformation movement was hindered in Ireland by national prejudice, and
it never succeeded in gaining the allegiance of the Irish people as a
whole. The policy which directed its progress was blundering and stupid,
and reflects little credit on the English statesmen who were responsible
for it. No attempt was made to commend the principles of the Reformation
to the native Irish by conciliating national sentiment; and the policy
which forbade the translation of the Prayer Book into the Irish
language, and suggested that where English was not understood Latin
might be used as an alternative, was doomed to failure from the
beginning. And, in fact, the reformed church of Ireland is to this day
the church of a small section only of the population.

The Reformation period begins with the passing of the Irish Supremacy
Act 1537. As in England, the changes in religion of successive
sovereigns alternately checked and promoted the progress of the
movement, although in Ireland the mass of the people were less deeply
affected by the religious controversies of the times than in Great
Britain. At Mary's accession five bishops either abandoned, or were
deprived of, their sees; but the Anglo-Irish who remained faithful to
the Reformation were not subjected to persecution such as would have
been their fate on the other side of the Channel. Again, under
Elizabeth, while two bishops (William Walsh of Meath and Thomas Leverous
of Kildare) were deprived for open resistance to the new order of
things, and while stern measures were taken to suppress treasonable
plotting against the constitution, the uniform policy of the government
in ecclesiastical matters was one of toleration. James I. caused the
Supremacy Act to be rigorously enforced, but on political rather than on
religious grounds. In distant parts of Ireland, indeed, the unreformed
order of service was often used without interference from the secular
authority, although the bishops had openly accepted the Act of
Uniformity.

The episcopal succession, then, was unbroken at the Reformation. The
Marian prelates are admitted on all hands to have been the true bishops
of the Church, and in every case they were followed by a line of lawful
successors, leading down to the present occupants of the several sees.
The rival lines of Roman Catholic titulars are not in direct succession
to the Marian bishops, and cannot be regarded as continuous with the
medieval Church. The question of the continuity of the pre-Reformation
Church with the Church of the Celtic period before the Anglo-Norman
conquest of Ireland is more difficult. Ten out of eleven archbishops of
Armagh who held office between 1272 and 1439 were consecrated outside
Ireland, and there is no evidence forthcoming that any one of them
derived his apostolic succession through bishops of the Irish Church. It
may be stated with confidence that the present Church of Ireland is the
direct and legitimate successor of the Church of the 14th and 15th
centuries, but it cannot so clearly be demonstrated that any existing
organization is continuous with the Church of St Patrick. In the reign
of James I. the first Convocation of the clergy was summoned in Ireland,
of which assembly the most notable act was the adoption of the "Irish
Articles" (1615). These had been drawn up by Usher, and were more
decidedly Calvinistic in tone than the Thirty-nine Articles, which were
not adopted as standards in Ireland until 1634, when Strafford forced
them on Convocation. During the Commonwealth period the bishoprics which
became vacant were not filled; but on the accession of Charles II. the
Church was strengthened by the translation of John Bramhall (the most
learned and zealous of the prelates) from Derry to the primatial see of
Armagh, and the consecration of twelve other bishops, among whom was
Jeremy Taylor. The short period during which the policy of James II.
prevailed in Ireland was one of disaster to the Church; but under
William and Mary she regained her former position. She had now been
reformed for more than 100 years, but had made little progress; and the
tyrannical provisions of the Penal Code introduced by the English
government made her more unpopular than ever. The clergy, finding their
ministrations unacceptable to the great mass of the population, were
tempted to indolence and non-residence; and although bright exceptions
could be named, there was much that called for reform. To William King
(1650-1729), bishop of Derry, and subsequently archbishop of Dublin, it
was mainly due that the work of the Church was reorganized, and the
impulse which he gave it was felt all through the 18th century. His
ecclesiastical influence was exerted in direct opposition to Primate
Hugh Boulter and his school, who aimed at making the Established Church
the instrument for the promotion of English political opinions rather
than the spiritual home of the Irish people. In 1800 the Act of Union
was passed by the Legislature; and thenceforward, until
Disestablishment, there was but one "United Church of England and
Ireland."

Continuous agitation for the removal of Roman Catholic disabilities
brought about in 1833 the passing of the Church Temporalities Act, one
of the most important provisions of which was the reduction of the
number of Irish archbishoprics from four to two, and of bishoprics from
eighteen to ten, the funds thus released being administered by
commissioners. In 1838 the Tithe Rentcharge Act, which transferred the
payment of tithes from the occupiers to the owners of land, was passed,
and thus a substantial grievance was removed. It became increasingly
plain, however, as years passed, that all such measures of relief were
inadequate to allay the dissatisfaction felt by the majority of Irishmen
because of the continued existence of the Established Church. Her
position had been pledged to her by the Act of Union, and she was
undoubtedly the historical representative of the ancient Church of the
land; but such arguments proved unavailing in view of the visible fact
that she had not gained the affections of the people. The census of 1861
showed that out of a total population of 5,798,967 only 693,357 belonged
to the Established Church, 4,505,265 being Roman Catholics; and once
this had been made clear, the passing of the Act of Disestablishment was
only a question of time. Introduced by Mr Gladstone, and passed in 1869,
it became law on the 1st of January 1871.

The Church was thus suddenly thrown on her own resources, and called on
to reorganize her ecclesiastical system, as well as to make provision
for the maintenance of her future clergy. A convention of the bishops,
clergy, and laity was summoned in 1870, and its first act was to declare
the adherence of the Church of Ireland to the ancient standards, and her
determination to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Catholic and
Apostolic Church, while reaffirming her witness, as Protestant and
Reformed, against the innovations of Rome. Under the constitution then
agreed on, the supreme governing body of the Church is the General
Synod, consisting of the bishops and of 208 clerical and 416 lay
representatives of the several dioceses, whose local affairs are managed
by subordinate Diocesan Synods. The bishops are elected as vacancies
arise, and, with certain restrictions, by the Diocesan Synods, the
Primate, whose see is Armagh, being chosen by the bishops out of their
own number. The patronage of benefices is vested in boards of
nomination, on which both the diocese and the parish are represented.
The Diocesan Courts, consisting of the bishop, his chancellor, and two
elected members, one clerical and the other lay, deal as courts of first
instance with legal questions; but there is an appeal to the Court of
the General Synod, composed of three bishops and four laymen who have
held judicial office. During the years 1871 to 1878 the revision of the
Prayer Book mainly occupied the attention of the General Synod; but
although many far-reaching resolutions were proposed by the then
predominant Evangelical party, few changes of moment were carried, and
none which affected the Church's doctrinal position. A two-thirds
majority of both the lay and clerical vote is necessary before any
change can be made in the formularies, and an ultimate veto rests, on
certain conditions, with the house of bishops.

The effects of Disestablishment have been partly good and partly evil.
On the one hand, the Church has now all the benefits of autonomy and is
free from the anomalies incidental to state control. Her laws are
definite, and the authority of her judicial courts is recognized by all
her members. The place given to the laity in her synods has quickened in
them the sense of responsibility so essential to the Church's progress.
And although there are few worldly inducements to men to take orders in
Ireland, the clergy are, for the most part, the equals of their
predecessors in social standing and in intellectual equipment, while the
standard of clerical activity is higher than in pre-Disestablishment
days. On the other hand, the vesting of patronage in large bodies like
synods, or (as is the case in some districts) in nominators with little
knowledge of the Church beyond the borders of their own parish, is not
an ideal system, although it is working better as the dangers of
parochialism and provinciality are becoming more generally recognized
than in the early years of Disestablishment.

The finances are controlled by the Representative Church Body, to which
the sum of £7,581,075, sufficient to provide life annuities for the
existing clergy (2043 in number), amounting to £596,913, was handed over
by the Church Temporalities Commissioners in 1870. So skilfully was this
fund administered, and so generous were the contributions of clergy and
laity, at and since Disestablishment, that while on 31st December 1906
only 136 annuitants were living, the total assets in the custody of the
Representative Church Body amounted at that date to £8,729,941. Of this
sum no less than £6,525,952 represented the free-will offerings of the
members of the Church for the thirty-seven years ending 31st December
1906. Out of the interest on capital, augmented by the annual parochial
assessments, which are administered by the central office, provision has
to be made for two archbishops at £2500 per annum, eleven bishops, who
receive about £1500 each, and over 1500 parochial clergy. Of the clergy
only 338 are curates, while 1161 are incumbents, the average annual
income of a benefice being about £240, with (in most cases) a house. The
large majority of the clergy receive their training in the Divinity
School of Trinity College, Dublin. At the census of 1901 the members of
the Church of Ireland numbered 579,385 out of a total population of
4,456,546.

See R. Mant, _History of the Church of Ireland_ (2 vols., London,
1840); _Essays on the Irish Church_, by various writers (Oxford,
1866); Maziere Brady, _The Alleged Conversion of the Irish Bishops_
(London, 1877); A. T. Lee, _The Irish Episcopal Succession_ (Dublin,
1867); G. T. Stokes, _Ireland and the Celtic Church_ (London, 1888),
_Ireland and the Anglo-Norman Church_ (London, 1892), _Some Worthies
of the Irish Church_ (London, 1900); T. Olden, _The Church of Ireland_
(London, 1892); J. T. Ball, _The Reformed Church of Ireland_ (London,
1890); H. C. Groves, _The Titular Archbishops of Ireland_ (Dublin,
1897); W. Lawlor, _The Reformation in Ireland_ (London, 1906);
_Reports of the Representative Church Body_ (Dublin, 1872-1905).
(J. H. Be.)

IRENAEUS, bishop of Lyons at the end of the 2nd century, was one of the
most distinguished theologians of the ante-Nicene Church. Very little is
known of his early history. His childhood was spent in Asia Minor,
probably at or near Smyrna; for he himself tells us (_Adv. haer._ iii.
3, 4, and Euseb. _Hist. Eccl._ v. 20) that as a child he heard the
preaching of Polycarp, the aged bishop of Smyrna (d. February 22, 156).
But we do not know when this was. He can hardly have been born very long
after 130, for later on he frequently mentions having met certain
Christian presbyters who had actually seen John, the disciple of our
Lord. The circumstances under which he came into the West are also
unknown to us; the only thing which is certain is that at the time of
the persecution of the Gallic Church under Marcus Aurelius (177) he was
a presbyter of the church at Lyons. In 177 or 178 he went to Rome on a
mission from this church, to make representations to Bishop Eleutherius
in favour of a more lenient treatment of the Montanists (see MONTANISM.;
Eus. v. 4. 2). On his return he was called upon to undertake the
direction of the church at Lyons in the place of Bishop Pothinus, who
had perished in the persecution (Eus. v. 5. 8). As bishop he carried on
a great and fruitful work. Though the statement of Gregory of Tours
(_Hist. Franc._ i. 29), that within a short time he succeeded in
converting all Lyons to Christianity, is probably exaggerated, from him
at any rate dates the wide spread of Christianity in Lyons and its
neighbourhood. He devoted particular attention to trying to reconcile
the numerous sects which menaced the existence of the church (see
below). In the dispute on the question of Easter, which for a long time
disturbed the Christian Church both in West and East, he endeavoured by
means of many letters to effect a compromise, and in particular to
exercise a moderating influence on Victor, the bishop of Rome, and his
unyielding attitude towards the dissentient churches of Africa, thus
justifying his name of "peace-maker" (Eirenaios) (Eus. _H. E._ v. 24.
28). The date of his death is unknown. His martyrdom under Septimius
Severus is related by Gregory of Tours, but by no earlier writer.

The chief work of Irenaeus, written about 180, is his "Refutation and
Overthrow of Gnosis, falsely so called" (usually indicated by the name
_Against the Heresies_). Of the Greek original of this work only
fragments survive; it only exists in full in an old Latin translation,
the slavish fidelity of which to a certain extent makes up for the loss
of the original text. The treatise is divided into five books: of these
the first two contain a minute and well-informed description and
criticism of the tenets of various heretical sects, especially the
Valentinians; the other three set forth the true doctrines of
Christianity, and it is from them that we find out the theological
opinions of the author. Irenaeus admits himself that he is not a good
writer. And indeed, as he worked, his materials assumed such
unmanageable proportions that he could not succeed in throwing them
into a satisfactory form. But however clumsily he may have handled his
material, he has produced a work which is even nowadays rightly valued
as the first systematic exposition of Catholic belief. The foundation
upon which Irenaeus bases his system consists in the episcopate, the
canon of the Old and New Testaments, and the rule of faith. With their
assistance he sets forth and upholds, in opposition to the gnostic
dualism, i.e. the severing of the natural and the supernatural, the
Catholic monism, i.e. the unity of the life of faith as willed by God.
The "grace of truth" (the _charisma_), which the apostles had called
down upon their first disciples by prayer and laying-on of hands, and
which was to be imparted anew by way of succession ([Greek: diadochê],
_successio_) to the bishops from generation to generation without a
break, makes those who receive it living witnesses of the salvation
offered to the faithful by written and spoken tradition. The Scriptures
of the Old and New Testaments, rightly expounded by the church alone,
give us an insight into God's plan of salvation for mankind, and explain
to us the covenant which He made on various occasions (Moses and Christ;
or Noah, Abraham, Moses and Christ). Finally, the "rule of faith"
(_regula fidei_), received at baptism, contains in itself all the riches
of Christian truth. To distribute these, i.e. to elucidate the rule of
faith as set forth in the creed, and further to point out its agreement
with the Scriptures, is the object of Irenaeus as a theologian. Hence he
lays the greatest stress on the conception of God's disposition of
salvation towards mankind (_oeconomia_), the object of which is that
mankind, who in Adam were sunk in sin and death, should in Christ,
comprised as it were in his person, be brought back to life. God, as the
head of the family, so to speak, disposes of all. The Son, the Word
(_Logos_) for ever dwelling with the Father, carries out His behests.
The Holy Ghost (_Pneuma_), however, as the Spirit of wisdom for ever
dwelling with the Father, controls what the Father has appointed and the
Son fulfilled, and this Spirit lives in the church. The climax of the
divine plan of salvation is found in the incarnation of the Word. God
was to become man, and in Christ he became man. Christ must be God; for
if not, the devil would have had a natural claim on him, and he would
have been no more exempt from death than the other children of Adam; he
must be _man_, if his blood were indeed to redeem us. On God incarnate
the power of the devil is broken, and in Him is accomplished the
reconciliation between God and man, who henceforth pursues his true
object, namely, to become like unto God. In the God-man God has drawn
men up to Himself. Into their human, fleshly and perishable nature
imperishable life is thereby engrafted; it has become deified, and death
has been changed into immortality. In the sacrament of the Lord's Supper
it is the heavenly body of the God-man which is actually partaken of in
the elements. This exposition by Irenaeus of the divine economy and the
incarnation was taken as a criterion by later theologians, especially in
the Greek Church (cf. Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria,
John of Damascus). He himself was especially influenced by St John and
St Paul. Before him the Fourth Gospel did not seem to exist for the
Church; Irenaeus made it a living force. His conception of the Logos is
not that of the philosophers and apologists; he looks upon the Logos not
as the "reason" of God, but as the "voice" with which the Father speaks
in the revelation to mankind, as did the writer of the Fourth Gospel.
And the Pauline epistles are adopted almost bodily by Irenaeus,
according to the ideas contained in them; his expositions often present
the appearance of a patchwork of St Paul's ideas. Certainly, it is only
one side of Paul's thought that he displays to us. The great conceptions
of justification and atonement are hardly ever touched by Irenaeus. In
Irenaeus is no longer heard the Jew, striving about and against the law,
who has had to break free from his early tradition of Pharisaism.

Till recent times whatever other writings and letters of Irenaeus are
mentioned by Eusebius appeared to be lost, with the exception of a
fragment here or there. Recently, however, two Armenian scholars,
Karapet Ter-Mekerttschian and Erwand Ter-Minassianz, have published
from an Armenian translation a German edition (Leipzig, 1907; minor
edition 1908) of the work "in proof of the apostolic teaching" mentioned
by Eusebius _(H. E._ v. 26). This work, which is in the form of a
dialogue with one Marcianus, otherwise unknown to us, contains a
statement of the fundamental truths of Christianity. It is the oldest
catechism extant, and an excellent example of how Bishop Irenaeus was
able not only to defend Christianity as a theologian and expound it
theoretically, but also to preach it to laymen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The edition of the Benedictine R. Massuet (Paris, 1710
and 1734, reprinted in Migne, _Cursus patrologiae_, Series Graeca,
vol. v., Paris, 1857) long continued to be the standard one, till it
was superseded by the editions of Adolph Stieren (2 vols., Leipzig,
1848-1853) and of W. Wigan Harvey (2 vols., Cambridge, 1857), the
latter being the only edition which contains the Syriac fragments. For
an English translation see the _Ante-Nicene Library_. Of modern
monographs consult H. Ziegler, _Irenaeus, der Bischof von Lyon_
(Berlin, 1871); Friedrich Loofs, _Irenaeus-Handschriften_ (Leipzig,
1888); Johannes Werner, _Der Paulinismus des Irenaeus_ (Leipzig,
1889); Johannes Kunze, _Die Gotteslehre des Irenaeus_ (Leipzig, 1891);
Ernst Klebba, _Die Anthropologie des heiligen Irenaeus_ (Münster,
1894); Albert Dufourcq, _Saint Irénée_ (Paris, 1904); Franz Stoll,
_Die Lehre des Heil. Irenaeus von der Erlösung und Heiligung_ (Mainz,
1905); also the histories of dogma, especially Harnack, and
Bethune-Baker, _An Introduction to the Early History of Christian
Doctrine_ (London, 1903). (G. K.)

IRENE, the name of several Byzantine empresses.

1. IRENE (752-803), the wife of Leo IV., East Roman emperor. Originally
a poor but beautiful Athenian orphan, she speedily gained the love and
confidence of her feeble husband, and at his death in 780 was left by
him sole guardian of the empire and of their ten-year-old son
Constantine VI. Seizing the supreme power in the name of the latter,
Irene ruled the empire at her own discretion for ten years, displaying
great firmness and sagacity in her government. Her most notable act was
the restoration of the orthodox image-worship, a policy which she always
had secretly favoured, though compelled to abjure it in her husband's
lifetime. Having elected Tarasius, one of her partisans, to the
patriarchate (784), she summoned two church councils. The former of
these, held in 786 at Constantinople, was frustrated by the opposition
of the soldiers. The second, convened at Nicaea in 787, formally revived
the adoration of images and reunited the Eastern church with that of
Rome. As Constantine approached maturity he began to grow restive under
her autocratic sway. An attempt to free himself by force was met and
crushed by the empress, who demanded that the oath of fidelity should
thenceforward be taken in her name alone. The discontent which this
occasioned swelled in 790 into open resistance, and the soldiers, headed
by the Armenian guard, formally proclaimed Constantine VI. as the sole
ruler. A hollow semblance of friendship was maintained between
Constantine and Irene, whose title of empress was confirmed in 792; but
the rival factions remained, and Irene, by skilful intrigues with the
bishops and courtiers, organized a powerful conspiracy on her own
behalf. Constantine could only flee for aid to the provinces, but even
there he was surrounded by participants in the plot. Seized by his
attendants on the Asiatic shore of the Bosporus, the emperor was carried
back to the palace at Constantinople; and there, by the orders of his
mother, his eyes were stabbed out. An eclipse of the sun and a darkness
of seventeen days' duration were attributed by the common superstition
to the horror of heaven. Irene reigned in prosperity and splendour for
five years. She is said to have endeavoured to negotiate a marriage
between herself and Charlemagne; but according to Theophanes, who alone
mentions it, the scheme was frustrated by Aëtius, one of her favourites.
A projected alliance between Constantine and Charlemagne's daughter,
Rothrude, was in turn broken off by Irene. In 802 the patricians, upon
whom she had lavished every honour and favour, conspired against her,
and placed on the throne Nicephorus, the minister of finance. The
haughty and unscrupulous princess, "who never lost sight of political
power in the height of her religious zeal," was exiled to Lesbos and
forced to support herself by spinning. She died the following year. Her
zeal in restoring images and monasteries has given her a place among
the saints of the Greek church.

See E. Gibbon, _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (ed. J.
Bury, London, 1896), vol. v.; G. Finlay, _History of Greece_ (ed.
1877, Oxford,) vol. ii.; F. C. Schlosser, _Geschichte der
bilderstürmenden Kaiser des oströmischen Reiches_ (Frankfort, 1812);
J. D. Phoropoulos, [Greek: Eirênê hê autokrateira Rhômaiôn] (Leipzig,
1887); J. B. Bury, _The Later Roman Empire_ (London, 1889), ii.
480-498; C. Diehl, _Figures byzantines_ (Paris, 1906), pp. 77-109.
(M. O. B. C.)

2. IRENE (c. 1066-c. 1120), the wife of Alexius I. The best-known fact
of her life is the unsuccessful intrigue by which she endeavoured to
divert the succession from her son John to Nicephorus Bryennius, the
husband of her daughter Anna. Having failed to persuade Alexius, or,
upon his death, to carry out a _coup d'état_ with the help of the palace
guards, she retired to a monastery and ended her life in obscurity.

3. IRENE (d. 1161), the first wife of Manuel Comnenus. She was the
daughter of the count of Sulzbach, and sister-in-law of the Roman
emperor Conrad II., who arranged her betrothal. The marriage was
celebrated at Constantinople in 1146. The new empress, who had exchanged
her earlier name of Bertha for one more familiar to the Greeks, became a
devoted wife, and by the simplicity of her manner contrasted favourably
with most Byzantine queens of the age.

H. v. Kap-Herr, _Die abendländische Politik des Kaisers Manuel_
(Strassburg, 1881).

IRETON, HENRY (1611-1651), English parliamentary general, eldest son of
German Ireton of Attenborough, Nottinghamshire, was baptized on the 3rd
of November 1611, became a gentleman commoner of Trinity College,
Oxford, in 1626, graduated B.A. in 1629, and entered the Middle Temple
the same year. On the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the
parliamentary army, fought at Edgehill and at Gainsborough in July 1643,
was made by Cromwell deputy-governor of the Isle of Ely, and next year
served under Manchester in the Yorkshire campaign and at the second
battle of Newbury, afterwards supporting Cromwell in his accusations of
incompetency against the general. On the night before the battle of
Naseby, in June 1645, he succeeded in surprising the Royalist army and
captured many prisoners, and next day, on the suggestion of Cromwell, he
was made commissary-general and appointed to the command of the left
wing, Cromwell himself commanding the right. The wing under Ireton was
completely broken by the impetuous charge of Rupert, and Ireton was
wounded and taken prisoner, but after the rout of the enemy which ensued
on the successful charge of Cromwell he regained his freedom. He was
present at the siege of Bristol in the September following, and took an
active part in the subsequent victorious campaign which resulted in the
overthrow of the royal cause. On the 30th of October 1645 Ireton entered
parliament as member for Appleby, and while occupied with the siege of
Oxford he was, on the 15th of June 1646, married to Bridget, daughter of
Oliver Cromwell. This union brought Ireton into still closer connexion
with Cromwell, with whose career he was now more completely identified.
But while Cromwell's policy was practically limited to making the best
of the present situation, and was generally inclined to compromise,
Ireton's attitude was based on well-grounded principles of
statesmanship. He was opposed to the destructive schemes of the extreme
party, disliked especially the abstract and unpractical theories of the
Republicans and the Levellers, and desired, while modifying their mutual
powers, to retain the constitution of King, Lords and Commons. He urged
these views in the negotiations of the army with the parliament, and in
the conferences with the king, being the person chiefly entrusted with
the drawing up of the army proposals, including the manifesto called
"The Heads of the Proposals." He endeavoured to prevent the breach
between the army and the parliament, but when the division became
inevitable took the side of the former. He persevered in supporting the
negotiations with the king till his action aroused great suspicion and
unpopularity. He became at length convinced of the hopelessness of
dealing with Charles, and after the king's flight to the Isle of Wight
treated his further proposals with coldness and urged the parliament to
establish an administration without him. Ireton served under Fairfax in
the second civil war in the campaigns in Kent and Essex, and was
responsible for the executions of Lucas and Lisle at Colchester. After
the rejection by the king of the last offers of the army, he showed
special zeal in bringing about his trial, was one of the chief promoters
of "Pride's Purge," attended the court regularly, and signed the
death-warrant. The regiment of Ireton having been chosen by lot to
accompany Cromwell in his Irish campaign, Ireton was appointed
major-general; and on the recall of his chief to take the command in
Scotland, he remained with the title and powers of lord-deputy to
complete Cromwell's work of reduction and replantation. This he
proceeded to do with his usual energy, and as much by the severity of
his methods of punishment as by his military skill was rapidly bringing
his task to a close, when he died on the 26th of November 1651 of fever
after the capture of Limerick. His loss "struck a great sadness into
Cromwell," and perhaps there was no one of the parliamentary leaders who
could have been less spared, for while he possessed very high abilities
as a soldier, and great political penetration and insight, he resembled
in stern unflinchingness of purpose the protector himself. By his wife,
Bridget Cromwell, who married afterwards General Charles Fleetwood,
Ireton left one son and three daughters.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Article by C. H Firth in _Dict. of Nat. Biog._ with
authorities there quoted; Wood's _Ath. Oxon._ iii. 298, and _Fasti_,
i. 451; Cornelius Brown's _Lives of Notts Worthies_, 181; _Clarke
Papers_ published by Camden Society; Gardiner's _History of the Civil
War and of the Commonwealth_.

IRIARTE (or YRIARTE) Y OROPESA, TOMÁS DE (1750-1791), Spanish poet, was
born on the 18th of September 1750, at Orotava in the island of
Teneriffe, and received his literary education at Madrid under the care
of his uncle, Juan de Iriarte, librarian to the king of Spain. In his
eighteenth year the nephew began his literary career by translating
French plays for the royal theatre, and in 1770, under the anagram of
Tirso Imarete, he published an original comedy entitled _Hacer que
hacemos_. In the following year he became official translator at the
foreign office, and in 1776 keeper of the records in the war department.
In 1780 appeared a dull didactic poem in _silvas_ entitled _La Música_,
which attracted some attention in Italy as well as at home. The _Fábulas
literarias_ (1781), with which his name is most intimately associated,
are composed in a great variety of metres, and show considerable
ingenuity in their humorous attacks on literary men and methods; but
their merits have been greatly exaggerated. During his later years,
partly in consequence of the _Fábulas_, Iriarte was absorbed in personal
controversies, and in 1786 was reported to the Inquisition for his
sympathies with the French philosophers. He died on the 17th of
September 1791.

He is the subject of an exhaustive monograph (1897) by Emilio Cotarelo
y Mori.

IRIDACEAE (the iris family), in botany, a natural order of flowering
plants belonging to the series Liliiflorae of the class Monocotyledons,
containing about 800 species in 57 genera, and widely distributed in
temperate and tropical regions. The members of this order are generally
perennial herbs growing from a corm as in _Crocus_ and _Gladiolus_, or a
rhizome as in _Iris_; more rarely, as in the Spanish iris, from a bulb.
A few South African representatives have a shrubby habit. The flowers
are hermaphrodite and regular as in _Iris_ (fig. 1) and _Crocus_ (fig.
3), or with a symmetry in the median plane as in _Gladiolus_. The
petaloid perianth consists of two series, each with three members, which
are joined below into a longer or shorter tube, followed by one whorl of
three stamens; the inferior ovary is three-celled and contains numerous
ovules on an axile placenta; the style is branched and the branches are
often petaloid. The fruit (fig. 2) is a capsule opening between the
partitions and containing generally a large number of roundish or
angular seeds. The arrangement of the parts in the flower resembles that
in the nearly allied order Amaryllidaceae (_Narcissus_, _Snowdrop_,
&c.), but differs in the absence of the inner whorl of stamens.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Yellow Iris, _Iris Pseudacorus_.

1. Flower, from which the outer petals and the stigmas have been
removed, leaving the inner petals (a) and stamens.
2. Pistil with petaloid stigmas.
3. Fruit cut across showing the three chambers containing seeds.
4. A seed. 1-4 about ½ nat. size.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Seed-vessel (capsule) of the Flower-de-Luce
(_iris_), opening in a loculicidal manner. The three valves bear the
septa in the centre and the opening takes place through the back of the
chambers. Each valve is formed by the halves of contiguous carpels.]

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--1. Crocus in flower, reduced. 2. Flower
dissected. b, b´, Upper and lower membranous spathe-like bracts; c, Tube
of perianth; d, Ovary; e, Style; f, Stigmas.]

The most important genera are _Crocus_ (q.v.), with about 70 species,
_Iris_ (q.v.), with about 100, and _Gladiolus_ (q.v.), with 150. _Ixia_,
_Freesia_ (q.v.) and _Tritonia_ (including _Montbretia_), all natives of
South Africa, are well known in cultivation. _Sisyrinchium_, blue-eyed
grass, is a new-world genus extending from arctic America to Patagonia
and the Falkland Isles. One species, _S. angustifolium_, an arctic and
temperate North American species, is also native in Galway and Kerry in
Ireland. Other British representatives of the order are: _Iris
Pseudacorus_, (yellow iris), common by river-banks and ditches, _I.
foetidissima (stinking iris), _Gladiolus communis_, a rare plant found
in the New Forest and the Isle of Wight, and _Romulea Columnae_, a small
plant with narrow recurved leaves a few inches long and a short scape
bearing one or more small regular funnel-shaped flowers, which occurs at
Dawlish in Devonshire.

IRIDIUM (symbol Ir.; atomic weight 193.1), one of the metals of the
platinum group, discovered in 1802 by Smithson Tennant during the
examination of the residue left when platinum ores are dissolved in
_aqua regia_; the element occurs in platinum ores in the form of alloys
of platinum and iridium, and of osmium and iridium. Many methods have
been devised for the separation of these metals (see PLATINUM), one of
the best being that of H. St. C Deville and H. J. Debray (_Comptes
rendus_, 1874, 78, p. 1502). In this process the osmiridium is fused
with zinc and the excess of zinc evaporated; the residue is then ignited
with barium nitrate, extracted with water and boiled with nitric acid.
The iridium is then precipitated from the solution (as oxide) by the
addition of baryta, dissolved in _aqua regia_, and precipitated as
iridium ammonium chloride by the addition of ammonium chloride. The
double chloride is fused with nitre, the melt extracted with water and
the residue fused with lead, the excess of lead being finally removed by
solution in nitric acid and _aqua regia_. It is a brittle metal of
specific gravity 22.4 (Deville and Debray), and is only fusible with
great difficulty. It may be obtained in the spongy form by igniting
iridium ammonium chloride, and this variety of the metal readily
oxidizes when heated in air.

Two oxides of iridium are known, namely the _sesquioxide_, Ir2O3, and
the _dioxide_, IrO2, corresponding to which there are two series of
salts, the sesqui-salts and the iridic salts; a third series of salts
is also known (the iridious salts) derived from an oxide IrO. _Iridium
sesquioxide_, Ir2O3, is obtained when potassium iridium chloride is
heated with sodium or potassium carbonates, in a stream of carbon
dioxide. It is a bluish-black powder which at high temperatures
decomposes into the metal, dioxide and oxygen. The hydroxide, Ir(OH)3,
may be obtained by the addition of caustic potash to iridium sodium
chloride, the mixture being then heated with alcohol. _Iridium
dioxide_, IrO2, may be obtained as small needles by heating the metal
to bright redness in a current of oxygen (G. Geisenheimer, _Comptes
rendus_, 1890, 110, p. 855). The corresponding hydroxide, Ir(OH)4, is
formed when potassium iridate is boiled with ammonium chloride, or
when the tetrachloride is boiled with caustic potash or sodium
carbonate. It is an indigo-blue powder, soluble in hydrochloric acid,
but insoluble in dilute nitric and sulphuric acids. On the oxides see
L. Wöhler and W. Witzmann, _Zeit. anorg. Chem._ (1908), 57, p. 323.
_Iridium sesquichloride_, IrCl3, is obtained when one of the
corresponding double chlorides is heated with concentrated sulphuric
acid, the mixture being then thrown into water. It is thus obtained as
an olive green precipitate which is insoluble in acids and alkalis.
_Potassium iridium sesquichloride_, K3IrCl6·3H2O, is obtained by
passing sulphur dioxide into a suspension of potassium chloriridate in
water until all dissolves, and then adding potassium carbonate to the
solution (C. Claus, _Jour. prak. Chem._, 1847, 42, p. 351). It forms
green prisms which are readily soluble in water. Similar sodium and
ammonium compounds are known. _Iridium tetrachloride_, IrCl4, is
obtained by dissolving the finely divided metal in _aqua regia_; by
dissolving the hydroxide in hydrochloric acid; and by digesting the
hydrated sesquichloride with nitric acid. On evaporating the solution
(not above 40° C.) a dark mass is obtained, which contains a little
sesquichloride. It forms double chlorides with the alkaline chlorides.
For a bromide see A. Gautbier and M. Riess, _Ber._, 1909, 42, p. 3905.
_Iridium sulphide_, IrS, is obtained when the metal is ignited in
sulphur vapour. The _sesquisulphide_, Ir2S3, is obtained as a brown
precipitate when sulphuretted hydrogen is passed into a solution of
one of the sesqui-salts. It is slightly soluble in potassium sulphide.
The _disulphide_, IrS2, is formed when powdered iridium is heated with
sulphur and an alkaline carbonate. It is a dark brown powder. Iridium
forms many ammine derivatives, which are analogous to the
corresponding platinum compounds (see M. Skoblikoff, _Jahresb._, 1852,
p. 428; W. Palmer, _Ber._, 1889, 22, p. 15; 1890, 23, p. 3810; 1891,
24, p. 2090; _Zeit. anorg. Chem._, 1896, 13, p. 211).

Iridium is always determined quantitatively by conversion into the
metallic state. The atomic weight of the element has been determined
in various ways, C. Seubert (_Ber._, 1878, 11, p. 1770), by the
analysis of potassium chloriridate obtaining the value 192.74, and A.
Joly (_Comptes rendus_, 1890, 110, p. 1131) from analyses of potassium
and ammonium chloriridites, the value 191.78 (O = 15.88).

IRIGA, a town of the province of Ambos Camarines, Luzon, Philippine
Islands, on the Bicol river, about 20 m. S.E. of Nueva Cáceres and near
the S.W. base of Mt. Iriga, a volcanic peak reaching a height of 4092
ft. above the sea. Pop. (1903) 19,297. Iriga has a temperate climate.
The soil in its vicinity is rich, producing rice, Indian corn, sugar,
pepper, cacao, cotton, abacá, tobacco and copra. The neighbouring
forests furnish ebony, molave, tindalo and other very valuable
hardwoods. The language is Bicol.

IRIS, in Greek mythology, daughter of Thaumas and the Ocean nymph
Electra (according to Hesiod), the personification of the rainbow and
messenger of the gods. As the rainbow unites earth and heaven, Iris is
the messenger of the gods to men; in this capacity she is mentioned
frequently in the _Iliad_, but never in the _Odyssey_, where Hermes
takes her place. She is represented as a youthful virgin, with wings of
gold, who hurries with the swiftness of the wind from one end of the
world to the other, into the depths of the sea and the underworld. She
is especially the messenger of Zeus and Hera, and is associated with
Hermes, whose caduceus or staff she often holds. By command of Zeus she
carries in a ewer water from the Styx, with which she puts to sleep all
who perjure themselves. Her attributes are the caduceus and a vase.

IRIS, in botany. The iris flower belongs to the natural order Iridaceae
of the class Monocotyledons, which is characterized by a petaloid
six-parted perianth, an inferior ovary and only three stamens (the outer
series), being thus distinguished from the Amaryllidaceae family, which
has six stamens. They are handsome showy-flowered plants, the Greek name
having been applied on account of the hues of the flowers. The genus
contains about 170 species widely distributed throughout the north
temperate zone. Two of the species are British. _I. Pseudacorus_, the
yellow flag or iris, is common in Britain on river-banks, and in marshes
and ditches. It is called the "water-flag" or "bastard floure de-luce"
by Gerard, who remarks that "although it be a water plant of nature, yet
being planted in gardens it prospereth well." Its flowers appear in June
and July, and are of a golden-yellow colour. The leaves are from 2 to 4
ft. long, and half an inch to an inch broad. Towards the latter part of
the year they are eaten by cattle. The seeds are numerous and
pale-brown; they have been recommended when roasted as a substitute for
coffee, of which, however, they have not the properties. The astringent
rhizome has diuretic, purgative and emetic properties, and may, it is
said, be used for dyeing black, and in the place of galls for
ink-making. The other British species, _I. foetidissima_, the fetid
iris, gladdon or roast-beef plant, the _Xyris_ or stinking gladdon of
Gerard, is a native of England south of Durham, and also of Ireland,
southern Europe and North Africa. Its flowers are usually of a dull,
leaden-blue colour; the capsules, which remain attached to the plant
throughout the winter, are 2 to 3 in. long; and the seeds scarlet. When
bruised this species emits a peculiar and disagreeable odour.

_Iris florentina_, with white or pale-blue flowers, is a native of the
south of Europe, and is the source of the violet-scented orris root used
in perfumery. _Iris versicolor_, or blue flag, is indigenous to North
America, and yields "iridin," a powerful hepatic stimulant. _Iris
germanica_ of central Europe, "the most common purple Fleur de Luce" of
Ray, is the large common blue iris of gardens, the bearded iris or fleur
de luce and probably the Illyrian iris of the ancients. From the flowers
of _Iris florentina_ a pigment--the "verdelis," "vert d'iris," or
iris-green, formerly used by miniature painters--was prepared by
maceration, the fluid being left to putrefy, when chalk or alum was
added. The garden plants known as the Spanish iris and the English iris
are both of Spanish origin, and have very showy flowers. Along with some
other species, as _I. reticulata_ and _I. persica_, both of which are
fragrant, they form great favourites with florists. All these just
mentioned differ from those formerly named in the nature of the
underground stem, which forms a bulb and not a strict creeping rhizome
as in _I. Pseudacorus_, _germanica_, _florentina_, &c. Some botanists
separate these bulbous irises from the genus _Iris_, and place them
apart in the genus _Xiphium_, the Spanish iris, including about 30
species, all from the Mediterranean region and the East.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Gynoecium of Iris, consisting of an inferior
ovary o, and a style, with three petaloid segments s, bearing stigmas
st.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Diagram of Trimerous Symmetrical Flower of Iris,
with two whorls of perianth, three stamens in one whorl and an ovary
formed of three carpels. The three dots indicate the position of an
inner whorl of stamens which is present in the allied families
Amaryllidaceae and Liliaceae but absent in Iridaceae.]

The iris flower is of special interest as an example of the relation
between the shape of the flower and the position of the pollen-receiving
and stigmatic surfaces on the one hand and the visits of insects on the
other. The large outer petals form a landing-stage for a flying insect
which in probing the perianth-tube for honey will first come in contact
with the stigmatic surface which is borne on the outer face of a
shelf-like transverse projection on the under side of the petaloid
style-arm. The anther, which opens towards the outside, is sheltered
beneath the over-arching style arm below the stigma, so that the insect
comes in contact with its pollen-covered surface only after passing the
stigma, while in backing out of the flower it will come in contact only
with the non-receptive lower face of the stigma. Thus an insect bearing
pollen from one flower will in entering a second deposit the pollen on
the stigma, while in backing out of a flower the pollen which it bears
will not be rubbed off on the stigma of the same flower.

The hardier bulbous irises, including the Spanish iris (_I. Xiphium_)
and the English iris (_I. xiphioides_, so called, which is also of
Spanish origin), require to be planted in thoroughly drained beds in
very light open soil, moderately enriched, and should have a rather
sheltered position. Both these present a long series of beautiful
varieties of the most diverse colours, flowering in May, June and
July, the smaller Spanish iris being the earlier of the two. There are
many other smaller species of bulbous iris. Being liable to perish
from excess of moisture, they should have a well-drained bed of good
but porous soil made up for them, in some sunny spot, and in winter
should be protected by a 6-in. covering of half-decayed leaves or
fresh coco-fibre refuse. To this set belong _I. persica_,
_reticulata_, _filifolia_, _Histrio_, _juncea_, _Danfordiae_
_Rosenbachiana_ and others which flower as early as February and
March.

The flag irises are for the most part of the easiest culture; they
grow in any good free garden soil, the smaller and more delicate
species only needing the aid of turfy ingredients, either peaty or
loamy, to keep it light and open in texture. The earliest to bloom are
the dwarf forms of _Iris pumila_, which blossom during March, April
and May; and during the latter month and the following one most of the
larger growing species, such as _I. germanica_, _florentina_,
_pallida_, _variegata_, _amoena_, _flavescens_, _sambucina_,
_neglecta_, _ruthenica_, &c., produce their gorgeous flowers. Of many
of the foregoing there are, besides the typical form, a considerable
number of named garden varieties. _Iris unguicularis_ (or _stylosa_)
is a remarkable winter flowering species from Algeria, with sky-blue
flowers blotched with yellow, produced at irregular intervals from
November to March, the bleakest period of the year.

The beautiful Japanese _Iris Kaempferi_ (or _I. laevigata_) is of
comparatively modern introduction, and though of a distinct type is
equally beautiful with the better-known species. The outer segments
are rather spreading than deflexed, forming an almost circular flower,
which becomes quite so in some of the very remarkable duplex
varieties, in which six of these broad segments are produced instead
of three. Of this too there are numberless varieties cultivated under
names. They require a sandy peat soil on a cool moist subsoil.

What are known as _Oncocyclus_, or cushion irises, constitute a
magnificent group of plants remarkable for their large, showy and
beautifully marked flowers. Compared with other irises the "cushion"
varieties are scantily furnished with narrow sickle-shaped leaves and
the blossoms are usually borne singly on the stalks. The best-known
kinds are _atrofusca_, _Barnumae_, _Bismarckiana_, _Gatesi_,
_Heylandiana_, _iberica_, _Lorteti_, _Haynei_, _lupina_, _Mariae_,
_meda_, _paradoxa_, _sari_, _sofarana_ and _susiana_--the last-named
being popularly called the "mourning" iris owing to the dark silvery
appearance of its huge flowers. All these cushion irises are somewhat
fastidious growers, and to be successful with them they must be
planted rather shallow in very gritty well-drained soil. They should
not be disturbed in the autumn, and after the leaves have withered the
roots should be protected from heavy rains until growth starts again
naturally.

A closely allied group to the cushion irises are those known as
_Regelia_, of which _Korolkowi_, _Leichtlini_ and _vaga_ are the best
known. Some magnificent hybrids have been raised between these two
groups, and a hardier and more easily grown race of garden irises has
been produced under the name of _Regelio-Cyclus_. They are best
planted in September or October in warm sunny positions, the rhizomes
being lifted the following July after the leaves have withered.

IRISH MOSS, or CARRAGEEN (Irish _carraigeen_, "moss of the rock"), a
sea-weed (_Chondrus crispus_) which grows abundantly along the rocky
parts of the Atlantic coast of Europe and North America. In its fresh
condition the plant is soft and cartilaginous, varying in colour from a
greenish-yellow to a dark purple or purplish-brown; but when washed and
sun-dried for preservation it has a yellowish translucent horn-like
aspect and consistency. The principal constituent of Irish moss is a
mucilaginous body, of which it contains about 55%; and with that it has
nearly 10% of albuminoids and about 15% of mineral matter rich in iodine
and sulphur. When softened in water it has a sea-like odour, and from
the abundance of its mucilage it will form a jelly on boiling with from
20 to 30 times its weight of water. The jelly of Irish moss is used as
an occasional article of food. It may also be used as a thickener in
calico-printing and for fining beer. Irish moss is frequently mixed with
_Gigartina mammillosa_, _G. acicularis_ and other sea-weeds with which
it is associated in growth.

IRKUTSK, a government of Asiatic Russia, in East Siberia, bounded on the
W. by the government of Yeniseisk, on the N. by Yakutsk, on the E. by
Lake Baikal and Transbaikalia and on the S. and S.W. by Mongolia; area,
287,061 sq. m. The most populous region is a belt of plains 1200 to 2000
ft. in altitude, which stretch north-west to south-east, having the
Sayan mountains on the south and the Baikal mountains on the north, and
narrowing as it approaches the town of Irkutsk. The high road, now the
Trans-Siberian railway, follows this belt. The south-western part of the
government is occupied by mountains of the Sayan system, whose exact
orography is as yet not well known. From the high plateau of Mongolia,
fringed by the Sayan mountains, of which the culminating point is the
snow-clad Munko-sardyk (11,150 ft.), a number of ranges, 7500 to 8500
ft. high, strike off in a north-east direction. Going from south to
north they are distinguished as the Tunka Alps, the Kitoi Alps (both
snow-clad nearly all the year round), the Ida mountains and the Kuitun
mountains. These are, however, by no means regular chains, but on the
contrary are a complex result of upheavals which took place at different
geological epochs, and of denudation on a colossal scale. A beautiful,
fertile valley, drained by the river Irkut, stretches between the Tunka
Alps and the Sayan, and another somewhat higher plain, but not so wide,
stretches along the river Kitoi. A succession of high plains, 2000 to
2500 ft. in altitude, formed of horizontal beds of Devonian (or Upper
Silurian) sandstone and limestone, extends to the north of the railway
along the Angara, or Verkhnyaya (i.e. upper) Tunguzka, and the upper
Lena, as far as Kirensk. The Bratskaya Steppe, west of the Angara, is a
prairie peopled by Buriats. A mountain region, usually described as the
Baikal range, but consisting in reality of several ranges running
north-eastwards, across Lake Baikal, and scooped out to form the
depression occupied by the lake, is fringed on its north-western slope
by horizontal beds of sandstone and limestone. Farther north-east the
space between the Lena and the Vitim is occupied by another mountain
region belonging to the Olekma and Vitim system, composed of several
parallel mountain chains running north-eastwards (across the lower
Vitim), and auriferous in the drainage area of the Mama (N.E. of Lake
Baikal). Lake Baikal separates Irkutsk from Transbaikalia. The principal
rivers of the government are the Angara, which flows from this lake
northwards, with numerous sharp windings, and receives from the left
several large tributaries. as the Irkut, Kitoi, Byelaya, Oka and Iya.
The Lena is the principal means of communication both with the
gold-mines on its own tributary, the lower Vitim, and with the province
of Yakutsk. The Nizhnyaya Tunguzka flows northwards, to join the Yenisei
in the far north, and the mountain streams tributary to the Vitim drain
the north-east.

The post-Tertiary formations are represented by glacial deposits in
the highlands and loess on their borders. Jurassic deposits are met
with in a zone running north-westwards from Lake Baikal to
Nizhne-udinsk. The remainder of this region is covered by vast series
of Carboniferous, Devonian and Silurian deposits--the first two but
slightly disturbed over wide areas. All the highlands are built up of
older, semi-crystalline Cambro-Silurian strata, which attain a
thickness of 2500 ft., and of crystalline slates and limestones of the
Laurentian system, with granites, syenites, diorites and diabases
protruding from beneath them. Very extensive beds of basaltic lavas
and other volcanic deposits are spread along the border ridge of the
high plateau, about Munko-sardyk, up the Irkut, and on the upper Oka,
where cones of extinct volcanoes are found (Jun-bulak). Earthquakes
are frequent in the neighbourhood of Lake Baikal and the surrounding
region. Gold is extracted in the Nizhne-udinsk district; graphite is
found on the Botu-gol and Alibert mountains (abandoned many years
since) and on the Olkhon island of Lake Baikal. Brown coal (Jurassic)
is found in many places, and coal on the Oka. The salt springs of
Usoliye (45 m. west of Irkutsk), as also those on the Ilim and of
Ust-Kutsk (on the Lena), yield annually about 7000 tons of salt.
Fireclay, grindstones, marble and mica, lapis-lazuli, granites and
various semi-precious stones occur on the Sludyanka (south-west corner
of the Baikal).

The climate is severe; the mean temperatures being at Irkutsk (1520
ft), for the year 31° Fahr., for January -6°, for July 65°; at Shimki
(valley of the Irkut, 2620 ft.), for the year 24°, for January -17°,
for July 63°. The average rainfall is 15 in. a year. Virgin forests
cover all the highlands up to 6500 ft.

The population which was 383,578 in 1879, was 515,132 in 1897, of whom
238,997 were women and 60,396 were urban; except about 109,000 Buriats
and 1700 Tunguses, they are Russians. The estimated population in 1906
was 552,700. Immigration contributes about 14,000 every year. Schools
are numerous at Irkutsk, but quite insufficient in the country
districts, and only 12% of the children receive education. The soil is
very fertile in certain parts, but meagre elsewhere, and less than a
million acres are under crops (rye, wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat,
potatoes). Grain has to be imported from West Siberia and cattle from
Transbaikalia. Fisheries on Lake Baikal supply every year about
2,400,000 Baikal herring (_omul_). Industry is only beginning to be
developed (iron-works, glass- and pottery-works and distilleries, and
all manufactured goods are imported from Russia). The government is
divided into five districts, the chief towns of which are Irkutsk
(q.v.), Balagansk (pop., 1313 in 1897), Kirensk (2253), Nizhne-udinsk
and Verkholensk. (P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)

IRKUTSK, the chief town of the above government, is the most important
place in Siberia, being not only the largest centre of population and
the principal commercial depot north of Tashkent, but a fortified
military post, an archbishopric of the Orthodox Greek Church and the
seat of several learned societies. It is situated in 52° 17´ N. and 104°
16´ E., 3792 m. by rail from St Petersburg. Pop. (1875) 32,512, (1900)
49,106. The town proper lies on the right bank of the Angara, a
tributary of the Yenisei, 45 m. below its outflow from Lake Baikal, and
on the opposite bank is the Glaskovsk suburb. The river, which has a
breadth of 1900 ft., is crossed by a flying bridge. The Irkut, from
which the town takes its name, is a small river which joins the Angara
directly opposite the town, the main portion of which is separated from
the monastery, the castle, the port and the suburbs by another
confluent, the Ida or Ushakovka. Irkutsk has long been reputed a
remarkably fine city--its streets being straight, broad, well paved and
well lighted; but in 1879, on the 4th and 6th of July, the palace of the
(then) governor-general, the principal administrative and municipal
offices and many of the other public buildings were destroyed by fire;
and the government archives, the library and museum of the Siberian
section of the Russian Geographical Society were utterly ruined. A
cathedral (built of wood in 1693 and rebuilt of stone in 1718), the
governor's palace, a school of medicine, a museum, a military hospital,
and the crown factories are among the public institutions and
buildings. An important fair is held in December. Irkutsk grew out of
the winter-quarters established (1652) by Ivan Pokhabov for the
collection of the fur tax from the Buriats. Its existence as a town
dates from 1686.

IRMIN, or IRMINUS, in Teutonic mythology, a deified eponymic hero of the
Herminones. The chief seat of his worship was Irminsal, or Ermensul, in
Westphalia, destroyed in 772 by Charlemagne. Huge wooden posts (Irmin
pillars) were raised to his honour, and were regarded as sacred by the
Saxons.

IRNERIUS (Hirnerius, Hyrnerius, Iernerius, Gernerius, Guarnerius,
Warnerius, Wernerius, Yrnerius), Italian jurist, sometimes referred to
as "lucerna juris." He taught the "free arts" at Bologna, his native
city, during the earlier decades of the 12th century. Of his personal
history nothing is known, except that it was at the instance of the
countess Matilda, Hildebrand's friend, who died in 1115, that he
directed his attention and that of his students to the _Institutes_ and
_Code_ of Justinian; that after 1116 he appears to have held some office
under the emperor Henry V.; and that he died, perhaps during the reign
of the emperor Lothair II., but certainly before 1140. He was the first
of the Glossators (see GLOSS), and according to ancient opinion (which,
however, has been much controverted) was the author of the epitome of
the _Novellae_ of Justinian, called the _Authentica_, arranged according
to the titles of the _Code_. His _Formularium tabellionum_ (a directory
for notaries) and _Quaestiones_ (a book of decisions) are no longer
extant. (See ROMAN LAW.)

See Savigny, _Gesch. d. röm. Rechts im Mittelalter_, iii. 83; Vecchio,
_Notizie di Irnerio e della sua scuola_ (Pisa, 1869); Ficker, _Forsch,
z. Reichs- u. Rechtsgesch. Italiens_, vol. iii. (Innsbruck, 1870); and
Fitting, _Die Anfänge der Rechtsschule zu Bologna_ (Berlin, 1888).

IRON [symbol Fe, atomic weight 55.85 (O = 16)], a metallic chemical
element. Although iron occurs only sparingly in the free state, the
abundance of ores from which it may be readily obtained led to its
application in the arts at a very remote period. It is generally agreed,
however, that the Iron Age, the period of civilization during which this
metal played an all-important part, succeeded the ages of copper and
bronze, notwithstanding the fact that the extraction of these metals
required greater metallurgical skill. The Assyrians and Egyptians made
considerable use of the metal; and in Genesis iv. 22 mention is made of
Tubal-cain as the instructor of workers in iron and copper. The earlier
sources of the ores appear to have been in India; the Greeks, however,
obtained it from the Chalybes, who dwelt on the south coast of the Black
Sea; and the Romans, besides drawing from these deposits, also exploited
Spain, Elba and the province of Noricum. (See METAL-WORK.)

The chief occurrences of metallic iron are as minute spiculae
disseminated through basaltic rocks, as at Giant's Causeway and in the
Auvergne, and, more particularly, in meteorites (q.v.). In combination
it occurs, usually in small quantity, in most natural waters, in plants,
and as a necessary constituent of blood. The economic sources are
treated under IRON AND STEEL below; in the same place will be found
accounts of the manufacture, properties, and uses of the metal, the
present article being confined to its chemistry. The principal iron ores
are the oxides and carbonates, and these readily yield the metal by
smelting with carbon. The metal so obtained invariably contains a
certain amount of carbon, free or combined, and the proportion and
condition regulate the properties of the metal, giving origin to the
three important varieties: cast iron, steel, wrought iron. The perfectly
pure metal may be prepared by heating the oxide or oxalate in a current
of hydrogen; when obtained at a low temperature it is a black powder
which oxidizes in air with incandescence; produced at higher
temperatures the metal is not pyrophoric. Péligot obtained it as minute
tetragonal octahedra and cubes by reducing ferrous chloride in hydrogen.
It may be obtained electrolytically from solutions of ferrous and
magnesium sulphates and sodium bicarbonate, a wrought iron anode and a
rotating cathode of copper, thinly silvered and iodized, being employed
(S. Maximowitsch, _Zeit. Elektrochem._, 1905, 11, p. 52).

In bulk, the metal has a silvery white lustre and takes a high polish.
Its specific gravity is 7.84; and the average specific heat over the
range 15°-100° is 0.10983; this value increases with temperature to
850°, and then begins to diminish. It is the most tenacious of all the
ductile metals at ordinary temperatures with the exception of cobalt and
nickel; it becomes brittle, however, at the temperature of liquid air.
It softens at a red heat, and may be readily welded at a white heat;
above this point it becomes brittle. It fuses at about 1550°-1600°, and
may be distilled in the electric furnace (H. Moissan, _Compt. rend._,
1906, 142, p. 425). It is attracted by a magnet and may be magnetized,
but the magnetization is quickly lost. The variation of physical
properties which attends iron on heating has led to the view that the
metal exists in allotropic forms (see IRON AND STEEL, below).

Iron is very reactive chemically. Exposed to atmospheric influences it
is more or less rapidly corroded, giving the familiar rust (q.v.). S.
Burnie (_Abst. J.C.S._, 1907, ii. p. 469) has shown that water is
decomposed at all temperatures from 0° to 100° by the finely divided
metal with liberation of hydrogen, the action being accelerated when
oxides are present. The decomposition of steam by passing it through a
red-hot gun-barrel, resulting in the liberation of hydrogen and the
production of magnetic iron oxide, Fe3O4, is a familiar laboratory
method for preparing hydrogen (q.v.). When strongly heated iron inflames
in oxygen and in sulphur vapour; it also combines directly with the
halogens. It dissolves in most dilute acids with liberation of hydrogen;
the reaction between sulphuric acid and iron turnings being used for the
commercial manufacture of this gas. It dissolves in dilute cold nitric
acid with the formation of ferrous and ammonium nitrates, no gases being
liberated; when heated or with stronger acid ferric nitrate is formed
with evolution of nitrogen oxides.

It was observed by James Keir (_Phil. Trans._, 1790, p. 359) that iron,
after having been immersed in strong nitric acid, is insoluble in acids,
neither does it precipitate metals from solutions. This "passivity" may
be brought about by immersion in other solutions, especially by those
containing such oxidizing anions as NO´3, ClO´3, less strongly by the
anions SO´´4 CN´, CNS´, C2H3O´2, OH´, while Cl´, Br´ practically inhibit
passivity; H´ is the only cation which has any effect, and this tends to
exclude passivity. It is also occasioned by anodic polarization of iron
in sulphuric acid. Other metals may be rendered passive; for example,
zinc does not precipitate copper from solutions of the double cyanides
and sulphocyanides, nickel and cadmium from the nitrates, and iron from
the sulphate, but it immediately throws down nickel and cadmium from the
sulphates and chlorides, and lead and copper from the nitrates (see O.
Sackur, _Zeit. Elektrochem._, 1904, 10, p. 841). Anodic polarization in
potassium chloride solution renders molybdenum, niobium, ruthenium,
tungsten, and vanadium passive (W. Muthmann and F. Frauenberger, _Sitz.
Bayer. Akad. Wiss._, 1904, 34, p. 201), and also gold in commercial
potassium cyanide solution (A. Coehn and C. L. Jacobsen, _Abs. J.C.S._,
1907, ii. p. 926). Several hypotheses have been promoted to explain this
behaviour, and, although the question is not definitely settled, the
more probable view is that it is caused by the formation of a film of an
oxide, a suggestion made many years ago by Faraday (see P. Krassa,
_Zeit. Elektrochem._, 1909, 15, p. 490). Fredenhagen (_Zeit. physik.
Chem._, 1903, 43, p. 1), on the other hand, regarded it as due to
surface films of a gas; submitting that the difference between iron made
passive by nitric acid and by anodic polarization was explained by the
film being of nitrogen oxides in the first case and of oxygen in the
second case. H. L. Heathcote and others regard the passivity as
invariably due to electrolytic action (see papers in the _Zeit. physik.
Chem._, 1901 et seq.).

_Compounds of Iron._

_Oxides and Hydroxides._--Iron forms three oxides: ferrous oxide, FeO,
ferric oxide, Fe2O3, and ferroso-ferric oxide, Fe3O4. The first two give
origin to well-defined series of salts, the ferrous salts, wherein the
metal is divalent, and the ferric salts, wherein the metal is trivalent;
the former readily pass into the latter on oxidation, and the latter
into the former on reduction.

_Ferrous oxide_ is obtained when ferric oxide is reduced in hydrogen at
300° as a black pyrophoric powder. Sabatier and Senderens (_Compt.
rend._, 1892, 114, p. 1429) obtained it by acting with nitrous oxide on
metallic iron at 200°, and Tissandier by heating the metal to 900° in
carbon dioxide; Donau (_Monats._, 1904, 25, p. 181), on the other hand,
obtained a magnetic and crystalline-ferroso-ferric oxide at 1200°. It
may also be prepared as a black velvety powder which readily takes up
oxygen from the air by adding ferrous oxalate to boiling caustic potash.
Ferrous hydrate, Fe(OH)2, when prepared from a pure ferrous salt and
caustic soda or potash free from air, is a white powder which may be
preserved in an atmosphere of hydrogen. Usually, however, it forms a
greenish mass, owing to partial oxidation. It oxidizes on exposure with
considerable evolution of heat; it rapidly absorbs carbon dioxide; and
readily dissolves in acids to form ferrous salts, which are usually
white when anhydrous, but greenish when hydrated.

_Ferric oxide_ or iron sesquioxide, Fe2O3, constitutes the valuable ores
red haematite and specular iron; the minerals brown haematite or
limonite, and göthite and also iron rust are hydrated forms. It is
obtained as a steel-grey crystalline powder by igniting the oxide or any
ferric salt containing a volatile acid. Small crystals are formed by
passing ferric chloride vapour over heated lime. When finely ground
these crystals yield a brownish red powder which dissolves slowly in
acids, the most effective solvent being a boiling mixture of 8 parts of
sulphuric acid and 3 of water. Ferric oxide is employed as a pigment, as
jeweller's rouge, and for polishing metals. It forms several hydrates,
the medicinal value of which was recognized in very remote times. Two
series of synthetic hydrates were recognized by Muck and Tommasi: the
"red" hydrates, obtained by precipitating ferric salts with alkalis, and
the "yellow" hydrates, obtained by oxidizing moist ferrous hydroxide or
carbonates. J. van Bemmelen has shown that the red hydrates are really
colloids, the amount of water retained being such that its vapour
pressure equals the pressure of the aqueous vapour in the superincumbent
atmosphere. By heating freshly prepared red ferric hydrate with water
under 5000 atmospheres pressure Ruff (_Ber._, 1901, 34, p. 3417)
obtained definite hydrates corresponding to the minerals limonite
(30°-42.5°), göthite (42.5°-62.5°), and hydrohaematite (above 62.5°).
Thomas Graham obtained a soluble hydrate by dissolving the freshly
prepared hydrate in ferric chloride and dialysing the solution, the
soluble hydrate being left in the dialyser. All the chlorine, however,
does not appear to be removed by this process, the residue having the
composition 82Fe(OH)3·FeCl3; but it may be by electrolysing in a porous
cell (Tribot and Chrétien, _Compt. rend._, 1905, 140, p. 144). On
standing, the solution usually gelatinizes, a process accelerated by the
addition of an electrolyte. It is employed in medicine under the name
_Liquor ferri dialysati_. The so-called soluble meta-ferric hydroxide,
FeO(OH)(?), discovered by Péan de St Gilles in 1856, may be obtained by
several methods. By heating solutions of certain iron salts for some
time and then adding a little sulphuric acid it is precipitated as a
brown powder. Black scales, which dissolve in water to form a red
solution, are obtained by adding a trace of hydrochloric acid to a
solution of basic ferric nitrate which has been heated to 100° for three
days. A similar compound, which, however, dissolves in water to form an
orange solution, results by adding salt to a heated solution of ferric
chloride. These compounds are insoluble in concentrated, but dissolve
readily in dilute acids.

Red ferric hydroxide dissolves in acids to form a well-defined series of
salts, the ferric salts, also obtained by oxidizing ferrous salts; they
are usually colourless when anhydrous, but yellow or brown when
hydrated. It has also feebly acidic properties, forming _ferrites_ with
strong bases.

_Magnetite_, Fe3O4, may be regarded as ferrous ferrite, FeO·Fe2O3. This
important ore of iron is most celebrated for its magnetic properties
(see MAGNETISM and COMPASS), but the mineral is not always magnetic,
although invariably attracted by a magnet. It may be obtained
artificially by passing steam over red-hot iron. It dissolves in acids
to form a mixture of a ferrous and ferric salt,[1] and if an alkali is
added to the solution a black precipitate is obtained which dries to a
dark brown mass of the composition Fe(OH)2·Fe2O3; this substance is
attracted by a magnet, and thus may be separated from the admixed ferric
oxide. Calcium ferrite, magnesium ferrite and zinc ferrite, RO·Fe2O3 (R
= Ca, Mg, Zn), are obtained by intensely heating mixtures of the oxides;
magnesium ferrite occurs in nature as the mineral magnoferrite, and zinc
ferrite as franklinite, both forming black octahedra.

_Ferric acid_, H2FeO4. By fusing iron with saltpetre and extracting the
melt with water, or by adding a solution of ferric nitrate in nitric
acid to strong potash, an amethyst or purple-red solution is obtained
which contains potassium ferrate. E. Frémy investigated this discovery,
made by Stahl in 1702, and showed that the same solution resulted when
chlorine is passed into strong potash solution containing ferric hydrate
in suspension. Haber and Pick (_Zeit. Elektrochem._, 1900, 7, p. 215)
have prepared potassium ferrate by electrolysing concentrated potash
solution, using an iron anode. A temperature of 70°, and a reversal of
the current (of low density) between two cast iron electrodes every few
minutes, are the best working conditions. When concentrated the solution
is nearly black, and on heating it yields a yellow solution of potassium
ferrite, oxygen being evolved. Barium ferrate, BaFeO4·H2O, obtained as a
dark red powder by adding barium chloride to a solution of potassium
ferrate, is fairly stable. It dissolves in acetic acid to form a red
solution, is not decomposed by cold sulphuric acid, but with
hydrochloric or nitric acid it yields barium and ferric salts, with
evolution of chlorine or oxygen (Baschieri, _Gazetta_, 1906, 36, ii. p.
282).

_Halogen Compounds._--Ferrous fluoride, FeF2, is obtained as
colourless prisms (with 8H2O) by dissolving iron in hydrofluoric acid,
or as anhydrous colourless rhombic prisms by heating iron or ferric
chloride in dry hydrofluoric acid gas. Ferric fluoride, FeF3, is
obtained as colourless crystals (with 4½H2O) by evaporating a solution
of the hydroxide in hydrofluoric acid. When heated in air it yields
ferric oxide. Ferrous chloride, FeCl2, is obtained as shining scales
by passing chlorine, or, better, hydrochloric acid gas, over red-hot
iron, or by reducing ferric chloride in a current of hydrogen. It is
very deliquescent, and freely dissolves in water and alcohol. Heated
in air it yields a mixture of ferric oxide and chloride, and in steam
magnetic oxide, hydrochloric acid, and hydrogen. It absorbs ammonia
gas, forming the compound FeCl2·6NH2, which on heating loses ammonia,
and, finally, yields ammonium chloride, nitrogen and iron nitride. It
fuses at a red-heat, and volatilizes at a yellow-heat; its vapour
density at 1300°-1400° corresponds to the formula FeCl2. By
evaporating in vacuo the solution obtained by dissolving iron in
hydrochloric acid, there results bluish, monoclinic crystals of
FeCl2·4H2O, which deliquesce, turning greenish, on exposure to air,
and effloresce in a desiccator. Other hydrates are known. By adding
ammonium chloride to the solution, evaporating in vacuo, and then
volatilizing the ammonium chloride, anhydrous ferrous chloride is
obtained. The solution, in common with those of most ferrous salts,
absorbs nitric oxide with the formation of a brownish solution.

Ferric chloride, FeCl3, known in its aqueous solution to Glauber as
_oleum martis_, may be obtained anhydrous by the action of dry
chlorine on the metal at a moderate red-heat, or by passing
hydrochloric acid gas over heated ferric oxide. It forms iron-black
plates or tablets which appear red by transmitted and a metallic green
by reflected light. It is very deliquescent, and readily dissolves in
water, forming a brown or yellow solution, from which several hydrates
may be separated (see SOLUTION). The solution is best prepared by
dissolving the hydrate in hydrochloric acid and removing the excess of
acid by evaporation, or by passing chlorine into the solution obtained
by dissolving the metal in hydrochloric acid and removing the excess
of chlorine by a current of carbon dioxide. It also dissolves in
alcohol and ether; boiling point determinations of the molecular
weight in these solutions point to the formula FeCl3. Vapour density
determinations at 448° indicate a partial dissociation of the double
molecule Fe2Cl6; on stronger heating it splits into ferrous chloride
and chlorine. It forms red crystalline double salts with the chlorides
of the metals of the alkalis and of the magnesium group. An aqueous
solution of ferric chloride is used in pharmacy under the name _Liquor
ferri perchloridi_; and an alcoholic solution constitutes the quack
medicine known as "Lamotte's golden drops." Many oxychlorides are
known; soluble forms are obtained by dissolving precipitated ferric
hydrate in ferric chloride, whilst insoluble compounds result when
ferrous chloride is oxidized in air, or by boiling for some time
aqueous solutions of ferric chloride.

Ferrous bromide, FeBr2, is obtained as yellowish crystals by the union
of bromine and iron at a dull red-heat, or as bluish-green rhombic
tables of the composition FeBr2·6H2O by crystallizing a solution of
iron in hydrobromic acid. Ferric bromide, FeBr3, is obtained as dark
red crystals by heating iron in an excess of bromine vapour. It
closely resembles the chloride in being deliquescent, dissolving
ferric hydrate, and in yielding basic salts. Ferrous iodide, FeI2, is
obtained as a grey crystalline mass by the direct union of its
components. Ferric iodide does not appear to exist.

_Sulphur Compounds._--Ferrous sulphide, FeS, results from the direct
union of its elements, best by stirring molten sulphur with a
white-hot iron rod, when the sulphide drops to the bottom of the
crucible. It then forms a yellowish crystalline mass, which readily
dissolves in acids with the liberation of sulphuretted hydrogen.
Heated in air it at first partially oxidizes to ferrous sulphate, and
at higher temperatures it yields sulphur dioxide and ferric oxide. It
is unaltered by ignition in hydrogen. An amorphous form results when a
mixture of iron filings and sulphur are triturated with water. This
modification is rapidly oxidized by the air with such an elevation of
temperature that the mass may become incandescent. Another black
amorphous form results when ferrous salts are precipitated by ammonium
sulphide.

Ferric sulphide, Fe2S3, is obtained by gently heating a mixture of its
constituent elements, or by the action of sulphuretted hydrogen on
ferric oxide at temperatures below 100°. It is also prepared by
precipitating a ferric salt with ammonium sulphide; unless the alkali
be in excess a mixture of ferrous sulphide and sulphur is obtained. It
combines with other sulphides to form compounds of the type M´2Fe2S4.
Potassium ferric sulphide, K2Fe2S4, obtained by heating a mixture of
iron filings, sulphur and potassium carbonate, forms purple glistening
crystals, which burn when heated in air. Magnetic pyrites or
pyrrhotite has a composition varying between Fe7S8 and Fe8S9, i.e.
5FeS·Fe2S3 and 6FeS·Fe2S3. It has a somewhat brassy colour, and occurs
massive or as hexagonal plates; it is attracted by a magnet and is
sometimes itself magnetic. The mineral is abundant in Canada, where
the presence of about 5% of nickel makes it a valuable ore of this
metal. Iron disulphide, FeS2, constitutes the minerals pyrite and
marcasite (q.v.); copper pyrites is (Cu, Fe)S2. Pyrite may be prepared
artificially by gently heating ferrous sulphide with sulphur, or as
brassy octahedra and cubes by slowly heating an intimate mixture of
ferric oxide, sulphur and sal-ammoniac. It is insoluble in dilute
acids, but dissolves in nitric acid with separation of sulphur.

Ferrous sulphite, FeSO3. Iron dissolves in a solution of sulphur
dioxide in the absence of air to form ferrous sulphite and
thio-sulphate; the former, being less soluble than the latter,
separates out as colourless or greenish crystals on standing.

Ferrous sulphate, green vitriol or copperas, FeSO4·7H2O, was known to,
and used by, the alchemists; it is mentioned in the writings of
Agricola, and its preparation from iron and sulphuric acid occurs in
the _Tractatus chymico-philosophicus_ ascribed to Basil Valentine. It
occurs in nature as the mineral melanterite, either crystalline or
fibrous, but usually massive; it appears to have been formed by the
oxidation of pyrite or marcasite. It is manufactured by piling pyrites
in heaps and exposing to atmospheric oxidation, the ferrous sulphate
thus formed being dissolved in water, and the solution run into tanks,
where any sulphuric acid which may be formed is decomposed by adding
scrap iron. By evaporation the green vitriol is obtained as large
crystals. The chief impurities are copper and ferric sulphates; the
former may be removed by adding scrap iron, which precipitates the
copper; the latter is eliminated by recrystallization. Other
impurities such as zinc and manganese sulphates are more difficult to
remove, and hence to prepare the pure salt it is best to dissolve pure
iron wire in dilute sulphuric acid. Ferrous sulphate forms large green
crystals belonging to the monoclinic system; rhombic crystals,
isomorphous with zinc sulphate, are obtained by inoculating a solution
with a crystal of zinc sulphate, and triclinic crystals of the formula
FeSO4·5H2O by inoculating with copper sulphate. By evaporating a
solution containing free sulphuric acid in a vacuum, the
hepta-hydrated salt first separates, then the penta-, and then a
tetra-hydrate, FeSO4·4H2O, isomorphous with manganese sulphate. By
gently heating in a vacuum to 140°, the hepta-hydrate loses 6
molecules of water, and yields a white powder, which on heating in the
absence of air gives the anhydrous salt. The monohydrate also results
as a white precipitate when concentrated sulphuric acid is added to a
saturated solution of ferrous sulphate. Alcohol also throws down the
salt from aqueous solution, the composition of the precipitate varying
with the amount of salt and precipitant employed. The solution absorbs
nitric oxide to form a dark brown solution, which loses the gas on
heating or by placing in ä vacuum. Ferrous sulphate forms double salts
with the alkaline sulphates. The most important is ferrous ammonium
sulphate, FeSO4·(NH4)2SO4·6H2O, obtained by dissolving equivalent
amounts of the two salts in water and crystallizing. It is very
stable and is much used in volumetric analysis.

Ferric sulphate, Fe2(SO4)3, is obtained by adding nitric acid to a hot
solution of ferrous sulphate containing sulphuric acid, colourless
crystals being deposited on evaporating the solution. The anhydrous
salt is obtained by heating, or by adding concentrated sulphuric acid
to a solution. It is sparingly soluble in water, and on heating it
yields ferric oxide and sulphur dioxide. The mineral coquimbite is
Fe2(SO4)3·9H2O. Many basic ferric sulphates are known, some of which
occur as minerals; carphosiderite is Fe(FeO)5(SO4)4·10H2O; amarantite
is Fe(FeO)(SO4)2·7H2O; utahite is 3(FeO)2SO4·4H2O; copiapite is
Fe3(FeO)(SO4)5·18H2O; castanite is Fe(FeO)(SO4)2·8H2O; römerite is
FeSO4·Fe2(SO4)3·12H2O. The iron alums are obtained by crystallizing
solutions of equivalent quantities of ferric and an alkaline sulphate.
Ferric potassium sulphate, the common iron alum,
K2SO4·Fe2(SO4)3·24H2O, forms bright violet octahedra.

_Nitrides, Nitrates, &c._--Several nitrides are known. Guntz (_Compt.
rend._, 1902, 135, p. 738) obtained ferrous nitride, Fe3N2, and ferric
nitride, FeN, as black powders by heating lithium nitride with ferrous
potassium chloride and ferric potassium chloride respectively. Fowler
(_Jour. Chem. Soc._, 1901, p. 285) obtained a nitride Fe2N by acting
upon anhydrous ferrous chloride or bromide, finely divided reduced
iron, or iron amalgam with ammonia at 420°; and, also, in a compact
form, by the action of ammonia on red-hot iron wire. It oxidizes on
heating in air, and ignites in chlorine; on solution in mineral acids
it yields ferrous and ammonium salts, hydrogen being liberated. A
nitride appears to be formed when nitrogen is passed over heated iron,
since the metal is rendered brittle. Ferrous nitrate, Fe(NO3)2·6H2O,
is a very unstable salt, and is obtained by mixing solutions of
ferrous sulphate and barium nitrate, filtering, and crystallizing in a
vacuum over sulphuric acid. Ferric nitrate, Fe(NO3)3, is obtained by
dissolving iron in nitric acid (the cold dilute acid leads to the
formation of ferrous and ammonium nitrates) and crystallizing, when
cubes of Fe(NO3)3·6H2O or monoclinic crystals of Fe(NO3)3·9H2O are
obtained. It is used as a mordant.

Ferrous solutions absorb nitric oxide, forming dark green to black
solutions. The coloration is due to the production of unstable
compounds of the ferrous salt and nitric oxide, and it seems that in
neutral solutions the compound is made up of one molecule of salt to
one of gas; the reaction, however, is reversible, the composition
varying with temperature, concentration and nature of the salt.
Ferrous chloride dissolved in strong hydrochloric acid absorbs two
molecules of the gas (Kohlschütter and Kutscheroff, _Ber._, 1907, 40,
p. 873). Ferric chloride also absorbs the gas. Reddish brown amorphous
powders of the formulae 2FeCl3·NO and 4FeCl3·NO are obtained by
passing the gas over anhydrous ferric chloride. By passing the gas
into an ethereal solution of the salt, nitrosyl chloride is produced,
and on evaporating over sulphuric acid, black needles of FeCl2·NO·2H2O
are obtained, which at 60° form the yellow FeCl2·NO. Complicated
compounds, discovered by Roussin in 1858, are obtained by the
interaction of ferrous sulphate and alkaline nitrites and sulphides.
Two classes may be distinguished:--(1) the ferrodinitroso salts, e.g.
K[Fe(NO)2S], potassium ferrodinitrososulphide, and (2) the
ferroheptanitroso salts, e.g. K[Fe4(NO)7S8], potassium
ferroheptanitrososulphide. These salts yield the corresponding acids
with sulphuric acid. The dinitroso acid slowly decomposes into
sulphuretted hydrogen, nitrogen, nitrous oxide, and the heptanitroso
acid. The heptanitroso acid is precipitated as a brown amorphous mass
by dilute sulphuric acid, but if the salt be heated with strong acid
it yields nitrogen, nitric oxide, sulphur, sulphuretted hydrogen, and
ferric, ammonium and potassium sulphates.

_Phosphides, Phosphates._--H. Le Chatelier and S. Wologdine (_Compt.
rend._, 1909, 149, p. 709) have obtained Fe3P, Fe2P, FeP, Fe2P3, but
failed to prepare five other phosphides previously described. Fe3P
occurs as crystals in the product of fusing iron with phosphorus; it
dissolves in strong hydrochloric acid. Fe2P forms crystalline needles
insoluble in acids except aqua regia; it is obtained by fusing copper
phosphide with iron. FeP is obtained by passing phosphorus vapour over
Fe2P at a red-heat. Fe2P3 is prepared by the action of phosphorus
iodide vapour on reduced iron. Ferrous phosphate, Fe3(PO4)2·8H2O,
occurs in nature as the mineral vivianite. It may be obtained
artificially as a white precipitate, which rapidly turns blue or green
on exposure, by mixing solutions of ferrous sulphate and sodium
phosphate. It is employed in medicine. Normal ferric phosphate,
FePO4·2H2O, occurs as the mineral strengite, and is obtained as a
yellowish-white precipitate by mixing solutions of ferric chloride and
sodium phosphate. It is insoluble in dilute acetic acid, but dissolves
in mineral acids. The acid salts Fe(H2PO4)3 and 2FeH3(PO4)2·5H2O have
been described. Basic salts have been prepared, and several occur in
the mineral kingdom; dufrenite is Fe2(OH)3PO4.

_Arsenides, Arsenites, &c._--Several iron arsenides occur as minerals;
lölingite, FeAs2, forms silvery rhombic prisms; mispickel or arsenical
pyrites, Fe2AsS2, is an important commercial source of arsenic. A
basic ferric arsenite, 4Fe2O3·As2O3·5H2O, is obtained as a flocculent
brown precipitate by adding an arsenite to ferric acetate, or by
shaking freshly prepared ferric hydrate with a solution of arsenious
oxide. The last reaction is the basis of the application of ferric
hydrate as an antidote in arsenical poisoning. Normal ferric
arsenate, FeAsO4·2H2O, constitutes the mineral scorodite;
pharmacosiderite is the basic arsenate 2FeAsO4·Fe(OK)3·5H2O. An acid
arsenate, 2Fe2(HAsO4)3·9H2O, is obtained as a white precipitate by
mixing solutions of ferric chloride and ordinary sodium phosphate. It
readily dissolves in hydrochloric acid.

_Carbides, Carbonates._--The carbides of iron play an important part
in determining the properties of the different modifications of the
commercial metal, and are discussed under IRON AND STEEL.

Ferrous carbonate, FeCO3, or spathic iron ore, may be obtained as
microscopic rhombohedra by adding sodium bicarbonate to ferrous
sulphate and heating to 150° for 36 hours. Ferrous sulphate and sodium
carbonate in the cold give a flocculent precipitate, at first white
but rapidly turning green owing to oxidation. A soluble carbonate and
a ferric salt give a precipitate which loses carbon dioxide on drying.
Of great interest are the carbonyl compounds. Ferropentacarbonyl,
Fe(CO)5, obtained by L. Mond, Quincke and Langer (_Jour. Chem. Soc._,
1891; see also ibid. 1910, p. 798) by treating iron from ferrous
oxalate with carbon monoxide, and heating at 150°, is a pale yellow
liquid which freezes at about -20°, and boils at 102.5°. Air and
moisture decompose it. The halogens give ferrous and ferric haloids
and carbon monoxide; hydrochloric and hydrobromic acids have no
action, but hydriodic decomposes it. By exposure to sunlight, either
alone or dissolved in ether or ligroin, it gives lustrous orange
plates of diferrononacarbonyl, Fe2(CO)9. If this substance be heated
in ethereal solution to 50°, it deposits lustrous dark-green tablets
of ferrotetracarbonyl, Fe(CO)4, very stable at ordinary temperatures,
but decomposing at 140°-150° into iron and carbon monoxide (J. Dewar
and H. O. Jones, _Abst. J.C.S._, 1907, ii. 266). For the cyanides see
PRUSSIC ACID.

Ferrous salts give a greenish precipitate with an alkali, whilst
ferric give a characteristic red one. Ferrous salts also give a bluish
white precipitate with ferrocyanide, which on exposure turns to a dark
blue; ferric salts are characterized by the intense purple coloration
with a thiocyanate. (See also CHEMISTRY, § _Analytical_). For the
quantitative estimation see ASSAYING.

A recent atomic weight determination by Richards and Baxter (_Zeit.
anorg. Chem._, 1900, 23, p. 245; 1904, 38, p. 232), who found the
amount of silver bromide given by ferrous bromide, gave the value
55.44 [O = 16].

_Pharmacology._

All the official salts and preparations of iron are made directly or
indirectly from the metal. The pharmacopoeial forms of iron are as
follow:--

1. _Ferrum_, annealed iron wire No. 35 or wrought iron nails free from
oxide; from which we have the preparation _Vinum ferri_, iron wine,
iron digested in sherry wine for thirty days. (Strength, 1 in 20.)

2. _Ferrum redactum_, reduced iron, a powder containing at least 75%
of metallic iron and a variable amount of oxide. A preparation of it
is _Trochiscus ferri redacti_ (strength, 1 grain of reduced iron in
each).

3. _Ferri sulphas_, ferrous sulphate, from which is prepared _Mistura
ferri composita_, "Griffiths' mixture," containing ferrous sulphate 25
gr., potassium carbonate 30 gr., myrrh 60 gr., sugar 60 gr., spirit of
nutmeg 50 m., rose water 10 fl. oz.

4. _Ferri sulphas exsiccatus_, which has two subpreparations: (a)
_Pilula ferri_, "Blaud's pill" (exsiccated ferrous sulphate 150,
exsiccated sodium carbonate 95, gum acacia 50, tragacanth 15, glycerin
10, syrup 150, water 20, each to contain about 1 grain of ferrous
carbonate); (b) _Pilula aloes et ferri_ (Barbadoes aloes 2, exsiccated
ferrous sulphate 1, compound powder of cinnamon 3, syrup of glucose
3).

5. _Ferri carbonas saccharatus_, saccharated iron carbonate. The
carbonate forms about one-third and is mixed with sugar into a greyish
powder.

6. _Ferri arsenas_, iron arsenate, ferrous and ferric arsenates with
some iron oxides, a greenish powder.

7. _Ferri phosphas_, a slate-blue powder of ferrous and ferric
phosphates with some oxide. Its preparations are: (a) _Syrupus ferri
phosphatis_ (strength, 1 gr. of ferrous phosphate in each fluid
drachm); (b) _Syrupus ferri phosphatis cum quinina et strychnina_,
"Easton's syrup" (iron wire 75 grs., concentrated phosphoric acid 10
fl. dr., powdered strychnine 5 gr., quinine sulphate 130 gr., syrup 14
fl. oz., water to make 20 fl. oz.), in which each fluid drachm
represents 1 gr. of ferrous phosphate, 4/5 gr. of quinine sulphate,
and 1/32 gr. of strychnine.

8. _Syrupus ferri iodidi_, iron wire, iodine, water and syrup
(strength, 5.5 gr. of ferrous iodide in one fl. dr.).

9. _Liquor ferri perchloridi fortis_, strong solution of ferric
chloride (strength, 22.5% of iron); its preparations only are
prescribed, viz. _Liquor ferri perchloridi_ and _Tinctura ferri
perchloridi_.

10. _Liquor ferri persulphatis_, solution of ferric sulphate.

11. _Liquor ferri pernitratus_, solution of ferric nitrate (strength,
3.3% of iron).

12. _Liquor ferri acetatis_, solution of ferric acetate.

13. The scale preparations of iron, so called because they are dried
to form scales, are three in number, the base of all being ferric
hydrate:

(a) _Ferrum tartaratum_, dark red scales, soluble in water.

(b) _Ferri et quininae citratis_, greenish yellow scales soluble in
water.

(c) _Ferri et ammonii citratis_, red scales soluble in water, from
which is prepared _Vinum ferri citratis_ (ferri et ammonii citratis 1
gr., orange wine 1 fl. dr.).

Substances containing tannic or gallic acid turn black when compounded
with a ferric salt, so it cannot be used in combination with vegetable
astringents except with the infusion of quassia or calumba. Iron may,
however, be prescribed in combination with digitalis by the addition
of dilute phosphoric acid. Alkalis and their carbonates, lime water,
carbonate of calcium, magnesia and its carbonate give green
precipitates with ferrous and brown with ferric salts.

Unofficial preparations of iron are numberless, and some of them are
very useful. Ferri hydroxidum (U.S.P.), the hydrated oxide of iron,
made by precipitating ferric sulphate with ammonia, is used solely as
an antidote in arsenical poisoning. The Syrupus ferri phosphatis Co.
is well known as "Parrish's" syrup or chemical food, and the Pilulae
ferri phosphatis cum quinina et strychnina, known as Easton's pills,
form a solid equivalent to Easton's syrup.

There are numerous organic preparations of iron. Ferratin is a reddish
brown substance which claims to be identical with the iron substance
found in pig's liver. Carniferrin is another tasteless powder
containing iron in combination with the phosphocarnic acid of muscle
preparations, and contains 35% of iron. Ferratogen is prepared from
ferric nuclein. Triferrin is a paranucleinate of iron, and contains
22% of iron and 2½% of organically combined phosphorus, prepared from
the casein of cow's milk. Haemoglobin is extracted from the blood of
an ox and may be administered in bolus form. Dieterich's solution of
peptonated iron contains about 2 gr. of iron per oz. Vachetta has used
the albuminate of iron with striking success in grave cases of
anaemia. Succinate of iron has been prepared by Hausmann. Haematogen,
introduced by Hommel, claims to contain the albuminous constituents of
the blood serum and all the blood salts as well as pure haemoglobin.
Sicco, the name given to dry haematogen, is a tasteless powder.
Haemalbumen, introduced by Dahmen, is soluble in warm water.

_Therapeutics._

Iron is a metal which is used both as a food and as a medicine and has
also a definite local action. Externally, it is not absorbed by the
unbroken skin, but when applied to the broken skin, sores, ulcers and
mucous surfaces, the ferric salts are powerful astringents, because
they coagulate the albuminous fluids in the tissues themselves. The
salts of iron quickly cause coagulation of the blood, and the clot
plugs the bleeding vessels. They thus act locally as haemostatics or
styptics, and will often arrest severe haemorrhage from parts which
are accessible, such as the nose. They were formerly used in the
treatment of _post partum_ haemorrhage. The perchloride, sulphate and
pernitrate are strongly astringent; less extensively they are used in
chronic discharges from the vagina, rectum and nose, while injected
into the rectum they destroy worms.

Internally, a large proportion of the various articles of ordinary
diet contains iron. When given medicinally preparations of iron have
an astringent taste, and the teeth and tongue are blackened owing to
the formation of sulphide of iron. It is therefore advisable to take
liquid iron preparations through a glass tube or a quill.

In the stomach all salts of iron, whatever their nature, are converted
into ferric chloride. If iron be given in excess, or if the
hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice be deficient, iron acts
directly as an astringent upon the mucous membrane of the stomach
wall. Iron, therefore, may disorder the digestion even in healthy
subjects. Acid preparations are more likely to do this, and the acid
set free after the formation of the chloride may act as an irritant.
Iron, therefore, must not be given to subjects in whom the gastric
functions are disturbed, and it should always be given after meals.
Preparations which are not acid, or are only slightly acid, such as
reduced iron, dialysed iron, the carbonate and scale preparations, do
not disturb the digestion. If the sulphate is prescribed in the form
of a pill, it may be so coated as only to be soluble in the intestinal
digestive fluid. In the intestine the ferric chloride becomes changed
into an oxide of iron; the sub-chloride is converted into a ferrous
carbonate, which is soluble. Lower down in the bowel these compounds
are converted into ferrous sulphide and tannate, and are eliminated
with the faeces, turning them black. Iron in the intestine causes an
astringent or constipating effect. The astringent salts are therefore
useful occasionally to check diarrhoea and dysentery. Thus most salts
of iron are distinctly constipating, and are best used in combination
with a purgative. The pill of iron and aloes (B.P.) is designed for
this purpose. Iron is certainly absorbed from the intestinal canal. As
the iron in the food supplies all the iron in the body of a healthy
person, there is no doubt that it is absorbed in the organic form.
Whether inorganic salts are directly absorbed has been a matter of
much discussion; it has, however, been directly proved by the
experiments of Kunkel (_Archiv für die gesamte Physiologie des
Menschen und der Tiere_, lxi.) and Gaule. The amount of iron existing
in the human blood is only 38 gr.; therefore, when an excess of iron
is absorbed, part is excreted immediately by the bowel and kidneys,
and part is stored in the liver and spleen.

Iron being a constituent part of the blood itself, there is a direct
indication for the physician to prescribe it when the amount of
haemoglobin in the blood is lowered or the red corpuscles are
diminished. In certain forms of anaemia the administration of iron
rapidly improves the blood in both respects. The exact method in which
the prescribed iron acts is still a matter of dispute. Ralph Stockman
points out that there are three chief theories as to the action of
iron in anaemia. The first is based on the fact that the iron in the
haemoglobin of the blood must be derived from the food, therefore iron
medicinally administered is absorbed. The second theory is that there
is no absorption of iron given by the mouth, but it acts as a local
stimulant to the mucous membrane, and so improves anaemia by
increasing the digestion of the food. The third theory is that of
Bunge, who says that in chlorotic conditions there is an excess of
sulphuretted hydrogen in the bowel, changing the food iron into
sulphide of iron, which Bunge states cannot be absorbed. He believes
that inorganic iron saves the organic iron of the food by combining
with the sulphur, and improves anaemia by protecting the organic food
iron. Stockman's own experiments are, however, directly opposed to
Bunge's view. Wharfinger states that in chlorosis the specific action
of iron is only obtained by administering those inorganic preparations
which give a reaction with the ordinary reagents; the iron ions in a
state of dissociation act as a catalytic agent, destroying the
hypothetical toxin which is the cause of chlorosis. Practical
experience teaches every clinician that, whatever the mode of action,
iron is most valuable in anaemia, though in many cases, where there is
well-marked toxaemia from absorption of the intestinal products, not
only laxatives in combination with iron but intestinal antiseptics are
necessary. That form of neuralgia which is associated with anaemia
usually yields to iron.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] By solution in concentrated hydrochloric acid, a yellow liquid is
obtained, which on concentration over sulphuric acid gives yellow
deliquescent crusts of ferroso-ferric chloride, Fe3Cl8·18H2O.

IRON AGE, the third of the three periods, Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages,
into which archaeologists divide prehistoric time; the weapons, utensils
and implements being as a general rule made of iron (see ARCHAEOLOGY).
The term has no real chronological value, for there has been no
universal synchronous sequence of the three epochs in all quarters of
the world. Some countries, such as the islands of the South Pacific, the
interior of Africa, and parts of North and South America, have passed
direct from the Stone to the Iron Age. In Europe the Iron Age may be
said to cover the last years of the prehistoric and the early years of
the historic periods. In Egypt, Chaldaea, Assyria, China, it reaches far
back, to perhaps 4000 years before the Christian era. In Africa, where
there has been no Bronze Age, the use of iron succeeded immediately the
use of stone. In the Black Pyramid of Abusir (VIth Dynasty), at least
3000 B.C., Gaston Maspero found some pieces of iron, and in the funeral
text of Pepi I. (about 3400 B.C.) the metal is mentioned. The use of
iron in northern Europe would seem to have been fairly general long
before the invasion of Caesar. But iron was not in common use in Denmark
until the end of the 1st century A.D. In the north of Russia and Siberia
its introduction was even as late as A.D. 800, while Ireland enters upon
her Iron Age about the beginning of the 1st century. In Gaul, on the
other hand, the Iron Age dates back some 800 years B.C.; while in
Etruria the metal was known some six centuries earlier. Homer represents
Greece as beginning her Iron Age twelve hundred years before our era.
The knowledge of iron spread from the south to the north of Europe. In
approaching the East from the north of Siberia or from the south of
Greece and the Troad, the history of iron in each country eastward is
relatively later; while a review of European countries from the north
towards the south shows the latter becoming acquainted with the metal
earlier than the former It is suggested that these facts support the
theory that it is from Africa that iron first came into use. The finding
of worked iron in the Great Pyramids seems to corroborate this view. The
metal, however, is singularly scarce in collections of Egyptian
antiquities. The explanation of this would seem to lie in the fact that
the relics are in most cases the paraphernalia of tombs, the funereal
vessels and vases, and iron being considered an impure metal by the
ancient Egyptians it was never used in their manufacture of these or for
any religious purposes. This idea of impurity would seem a further proof
of the African origin of iron. It was attributed to Seth, the spirit of
evil who according to Egyptian tradition governed the central deserts of
Africa. The Iron Age in Europe is characterized by an elaboration of
designs in weapons, implements and utensils. These are no longer cast
but hammered into shape, and decoration is elaborate curvilinear rather
than simple rectilinear, the forms and character of the ornamentation
of the northern European weapons resembling in some respects Roman arms,
while in others they are peculiar and evidently representative of
northern art. The dead were buried in an extended position, while in the
preceding Bronze Age cremation had been the rule.

See Lord Avebury, _Prehistoric Times_ (1865; 1900); Sir J. Evans,
_Ancient Stone Implements_ (1897); _Horae Ferales, or Studies in the
Archaeology of Northern Nations_, by Kemble (1863); Gaston C. C.
Maspero, _Guide du Musée de Boulaq_, 296; _Scotland in Pagan
Times--The Iron Age_, by Joseph Anderson (1883).

IRON AND STEEL.[1] 1. Iron, the most abundant and the cheapest of the
heavy metals, the strongest and most magnetic of known substances, is
perhaps also the most indispensable of all save the air we breathe and
the water we drink. For one kind of meat we could substitute another;
wool could be replaced by cotton, silk or fur; were our common silicate
glass gone, we could probably perfect and cheapen some other of the
transparent solids; but even if the earth could be made to yield any
substitute for the forty or fifty million tons of iron which we use each
year for rails, wire, machinery, and structural purposes of many kinds,
we could not replace either the steel of our cutting tools or the iron
of our magnets, the basis of all commercial electricity. This usefulness
iron owes in part, indeed, to its abundance, through which it has led us
in the last few thousands of years to adapt our ways to its properties;
but still in chief part first to the single qualities in which it
excels, such as its strength, its magnetism, and the property which it
alone has of being made at will extremely hard by sudden cooling and
soft and extremely pliable by slow cooling; second, to the special
combinations of useful properties in which it excels, such as its
strength with its ready welding and shaping both hot and cold; and
third, to the great variety of its properties. It is a very Proteus. It
is extremely hard in our files and razors, and extremely soft in our
horse-shoe nails, which in some countries the smith rejects unless he
can bend them on his forehead; with iron we cut and shape iron. It is
extremely magnetic and almost non-magnetic; as brittle as glass and
almost as pliable and ductile as copper; extremely springy, and
springless and dead; wonderfully strong, and very weak; conducting heat
and electricity easily, and again offering great resistance to their
passage; here welding readily, there incapable of welding; here very
infusible, there melting with relative ease. The coincidence that so
indispensable a thing should also be so abundant, that an iron-needing
man should be set on an iron-cored globe, certainly suggests design. The
indispensableness of such abundant things as air, water and light is
readily explained by saying that their very abundance has evolved a
creature dependent on them. But the indispensable qualities of iron did
not shape man's evolution, because its great usefulness did not arise
until historic times, or even, as in case of magnetism, until modern
times.

These variations in the properties of iron are brought about in part by
corresponding variations in mechanical and thermal treatment, by which
it is influenced profoundly, and in part by variations in the
proportions of certain foreign elements which it contains; for, unlike
most of the other metals, it is never used in the pure state. Indeed
pure iron is a rare curiosity. Foremost among these elements is carbon,
which iron inevitably absorbs from the fuel used in extracting it from
its ores. So strong is the effect of carbon that the use to which the
metal is put, and indeed its division into its two great classes, the
malleable one, comprising steel and wrought iron, with less than 2.20%
of carbon, and the unmalleable one, cast iron, with more than this
quantity, are based on carbon-content. (See Table I.)

TABLE 1.--_General Classification of Iron and Steel according (1) to
Carbon-Content and (2) to Presence or Absence of Inclosed Slag._

+---------------------+------------------------+----------------------+-----------------------+
| | Containing very little | Containing an Inter- |Containing much Carbon |
| | Carbon (say, less than | mediate Quantity of | Carbon (say, from 2.2 |
| | 0.30%). | Carbon (say, between | 2.2 to 5%). |
| | | 0.30 and 2.2%). | |
+---------------------+------------------------+----------------------+-----------------------|
| Slag-bearing or | WROUGHT IRON. | WELD STEEL. | |
| "Weld-metal" Series.| Puddled and bloomary, | Puddled and blister | |
| | or Charcoal-hearth | steel belong here. | |
| | iron belong here. | | |
+---------------------+------------------------+----------------------+-----------------------+
| | LOW-CARBON or MILD | HALF-HARD and HIGH- | CAST IRON. |
| |STEEL, sometimes called | CARBON STEELS, some- | |
| | "ingot-iron." | times called "ingot- | |
| | | steel." | |
| | It may be either | They may be either | Normal cast iron, |
| | Bessemer, open-hearth, | Bessemer, open- | "washed" metal, and |
| Slagless or "Ingot- | or crucible steel. | hearth, or crucible | and most "malleable |
| Metal" Series. | | steel. Malleable | cast iron" belong |
| | | cast iron also often| here. |
| | | belongs here. | |
| +------------------------+----------------------+-----------------------+
| | | ALLOY STEELS. | ALLOY CAST IRONS.* |
| | | Nickel, manganese, | Spiegeleisen, ferro- |
| | | tungsten, and chrome | manganese, and silico-|
| | | steels belong here. | spiegel belong here. |
+---------------------+------------------------+------------------ ---+-----------------------+
* The term "Alloy Cast Irons" is not actually in frequent use, not
because of any question as to its fitness or meaning, but because
the need of such a generic term rarely arises in the industry.

2. _Nomenclature._--Until about 1860 there were only three important
classes of iron--wrought iron, steel and cast iron. The essential
characteristic of wrought iron was its nearly complete freedom from
carbon; that of steel was its moderate carbon-content (say between 0.30
and 2.2%), which, though great enough to confer the property of being
rendered intensely hard and brittle by sudden cooling, yet was not so
great but that the metal was malleable when cooled slowly; while that of
cast iron was that it contained so much carbon as to be very brittle
whether cooled quickly or slowly. This classification was based on
carbon-content, or on the properties which it gave. Beyond this, wrought
iron, and certain classes of steel which then were important,
necessarily contained much slag or "cinder," because they were made by
welding together pasty particles of metal in a bath of slag, without
subsequent fusion. But the best class of steel, crucible steel, was
freed from slag by fusion in crucibles; hence its name, "cast steel."
Between 1860 and 1870 the invention of the Bessemer and open-hearth
processes introduced a new class of iron to-day called "mild" or
"low-carbon steel," which lacked the essential property of steel, the
hardening power, yet differed from the existing forms of wrought iron in
freedom from slag, and from cast iron in being very malleable. Logically
it was wrought iron, the essence of which was that it was (1) "iron" as
distinguished from steel, and (2) malleable, i.e. capable of being
"wrought." This name did not please those interested in the new product,
because existing wrought iron was a low-priced material. Instead of
inventing a wholly new name for the wholly new product, they
appropriated the name "steel," because this was associated in the public
mind with superiority. This they did with the excuse that the new
product resembled one class of steel--cast steel--in being free from
slag; and, after a period of protest, all acquiesced in calling it
"steel," which is now its firmly established name. The old varieties of
wrought iron, steel and cast iron preserve their old names; the new
class is called steel by main force. As a result, certain varieties,
such as blister steel, are called "steel" solely because they have the
hardening power, and others, such as low-carbon steel, solely because
they are free from slag. But the former lack the essential quality,
slaglessness, which makes the latter steel, and the latter lack the
essential quality, the hardening power, which makes the former steel.
"Steel" has come gradually to stand rather for excellence than for any
specific quality. These anomalies, however confusing to the general
reader, in fact cause no appreciable trouble to important makers or
users of iron and steel, beyond forming an occasional side-issue in
litigation.

3. _Definitions._--_Wrought iron_ is slag-bearing malleable iron,
containing so little carbon (0.30% or less), or its equivalent, that it
does not harden greatly when cooled suddenly.

_Steel_ is iron which is malleable at least in some one range of
temperature, and also is either (a) cast into an initially malleable
mass, or (b) is capable of hardening greatly by sudden cooling, or (c)
is both so cast and so capable of hardening. (Tungsten steel and certain
classes of manganese steel are malleable only when red-hot.) Normal or
carbon steel contains between 0.30 and 2.20% of carbon, enough to make
it harden greatly when cooled suddenly, but not enough to prevent it
from being usefully malleable when hot.

_Cast iron_ is, generically, iron containing so much carbon (2.20% or
more) or its equivalent that it is not usefully malleable at any
temperature. Specifically, it is cast iron in the form of castings other
than pigs, or remelted cast iron suitable for such castings, as
distinguished from pig iron, i.e. the molten cast iron as it issues from
the blast furnace, or the pigs into which it is cast.

_Malleable cast iron_ is iron which has been cast in the condition of
cast iron, and made malleable by subsequent treatment without fusion.

_Alloy steels_ and _cast irons_ are those which owe their properties
chiefly to the presence of one or more elements other than carbon.

_Ingot iron_ is slagless steel with less than 0.30% of carbon.

_Ingot steel_ is slagless steel containing more than 0.30% of carbon.

_Weld steel_ is slag-bearing iron malleable at least at some one
temperature, and containing more than 0.30% of carbon.

4. _Historical Sketch._--The iron oxide of which the ores of iron
consist would be so easily deoxidized and thus brought to the metallic
state by the carbon, i.e. by the glowing coals of any primeval savage's
wood fire, and the resulting metallic iron would then differ so
strikingly from any object which he had previously seen, that its very
early use by our race is only natural. The first observing savage who
noticed it among his ashes might easily infer that it resulted from the
action of burning wood on certain extremely heavy stones. He could pound
it out into many useful shapes. The natural steps first of making it
intentionally by putting such stones into his fire, and next of
improving his fire by putting it and these stones into a cavity on the
weather side of some bank with an opening towards the prevalent wind,
would give a simple forge, differing only in size, in lacking forced
blast, and in details of construction, from the Catalan forges and
bloomaries of to-day. Moreover, the coals which deoxidized the iron
would inevitably carburize some lumps of it, here so far as to turn it
into the brittle and relatively useless cast iron, there only far enough
to convert it into steel, strong and very useful even in its unhardened
state. Thus it is almost certain that much of the earliest iron was in
fact steel. How soon after man's discovery, that he could beat iron and
steel out while cold into useful shapes, he learned to forge it while
hot is hard to conjecture. The pretty elaborate appliances, tongs or
their equivalent, which would be needed to enable him to hold it
conveniently while hot, could hardly have been devised till a very much
later period; but then he may have been content to forge it
inconveniently, because the great ease with which it mashes out when
hot, perhaps pushed with a stout stick from the fire to a neighbouring
flat stone, would compensate for much inconvenience. However this may
be, very soon after man began to practise hot-forging he would
inevitably learn that sudden cooling, by quenching in water, made a
large proportion of his metal, his steel, extremely hard and brittle,
because he would certainly try by this very quenching to avoid the
inconvenience of having the hot metal about. But the invaluable and
rather delicate art of tempering the hardened steel by a very careful
and gentle reheating, which removes its extreme brittleness though
leaving most of its precious hardness, needs such skilful handling that
it can hardly have become known until very long after the art of
hot-forging.

The oxide ores of copper would be deoxidized by the savage's wood fire
even more easily than those of iron, and the resulting copper would be
recognized more easily than iron, because it would be likely to melt and
run together into a mass conspicuous by its bright colour and its very
great malleableness. From this we may infer that copper and iron
probably came into use at about the same stage in man's development,
copper before iron in regions which had oxidized copper ores, whether
they also had iron ores or not, iron before copper in places where there
were pure and easily reduced ores of iron but none of copper. Moreover,
the use of each metal must have originated in many different places
independently. Even to-day isolated peoples are found with their own
primitive iron-making, but ignorant of the use of copper.

If iron thus preceded copper in many places, still more must it have
preceded bronze, an alloy of copper and tin much less likely than either
iron or copper to be made unintentionally. Indeed, though iron ores
abound in many places which have neither copper nor tin, yet there are
but few places which have both copper and tin. It is not improbable
that, once bronze became known, it might replace iron in a measure,
perhaps even in a very large measure, because it is so fusible that it
can be cast directly and easily into many useful shapes. It seems to be
much more prominent than iron in the Homeric poems; but they tell us
only of one region at one age. Even if a nation here or there should
give up the use of iron completely, that all should is neither probable
nor shown by the evidence. The absence of iron and the abundance of
bronze in the relics of a prehistoric people is a piece of evidence to
be accepted with caution, because the great defect of iron, its
proneness to rust, would often lead to its complete disappearance, or
conversion into an unrecognizable mass, even though tools of bronze
originally laid down beside it might remain but little corroded. That
the ancients should have discovered an art of hardening bronze is
grossly improbable, first because it is not to be hardened by any simple
process like the hardening of steel, and second because, if they had,
then a large proportion of the ancient bronze tools now known ought to
be hard, which is not the case.

Because iron would be so easily made by prehistoric and even by primeval
man, and would be so useful to him, we are hardly surprised to read in
Genesis that Tubal Cain, the sixth in descent from Adam, discovered it;
that the Assyrians had knives and saws which, to be effective, must have
been of hardened steel, i.e. of iron which had absorbed some carbon from
the coals with which it had been made, and had been quenched in water
from a red heat; that an iron tool has been found embedded in the
ancient pyramid of Kephron (probably as early as 3500 B.C.); that iron
metallurgy had advanced at the time of Tethmosis (Thothmes) III. (about
1500 B.C.) so far that bellows were used for forcing the forge fire;
that in Homer's time (not later than the 9th century B.C.) the delicate
art of hardening and tempering steel was so familiar that the poet used
it for a simile, likening the hissing of the stake which Ulysses drove
into the eye of Polyphemus to that of the steel which the smith quenches
in water, and closing with a reference to the strengthening effect of
this quenching; and that at the time of Pliny (A.D. 23-79) the relative
value of different baths for hardening was known, and oil preferred for
hardening small tools. These instances of the very early use of this
metal, intrinsically at once so useful and so likely to disappear by
rusting away, tell a story like that of the single foot-print of the
savage which the waves left for Robinson Crusoe's warning. Homer's
familiarity with the art of tempering could come only after centuries of
the wide use of iron.

3. _Three Periods._--The history of iron may for convenience be divided
into three periods: a first in which only the direct extraction of
wrought iron from the ore was practised; a second which added to this
primitive art the extraction of iron in the form of carburized or cast
iron, to be used either as such or for conversion into wrought iron; and
a third in which the iron worker used a temperature high enough to melt
wrought iron, which he then called molten steel. For brevity we may call
these the periods of wrought iron, of cast iron, and of molten steel,
recognizing that in the second and third the earlier processes continued
in use. The first period began in extremely remote prehistoric times;
the second in the 14th century; and the third with the invention of the
Bessemer process in 1856.

6. _First Period._--We can picture to ourselves how in the first
period the savage smith, step by step, bettered his control over his
fire, at once his source of heat and his deoxidizing agent. Not
content to let it burn by natural draught, he would blow it with his
own breath, would expose it to the prevalent wind, would urge it with
a fan, and would devise the first crude valveless bellows, perhaps the
pigskin already familiar as a water-bottle, of which the psalmist
says: "I am become as a bottle in the smoke." To drive the air out of
this skin by pressing on it, or even by walking on it, would be easy;
to fill it again with air by pulling its sides apart with his fingers
would be so irksome that he would soon learn to distend it by means of
strings. If his bellows had only a single opening, that through which
they delivered the blast upon the fire, then in inflating them he
would draw back into them the hot air and ashes from the fire. To
prevent this he might make a second or suction hole, and thus he would
have a veritable engine, perhaps one of the very earliest of all.
While inflating the bellows he would leave the suction port open and
close the discharge port with a pinch of his finger; and while blowing
the air against the fire he would leave the discharge port open and
pinch together the sides of the suction port.

The next important step seems to have been taken in the 4th century
when some forgotten Watt devised valves for the bellows. But in spite
of the activity of the iron manufacture in many of the Roman
provinces, especially England, France, Spain, Carinthia and near the
Rhine, the little forges in which iron was extracted from the ore
remained, until the 14th century, very crude and wasteful of labour,
fuel, and iron itself: indeed probably not very different from those
of a thousand years before. Where iron ore was found, the local smith,
the _Waldschmied_, converted it with the charcoal of the surrounding
forest into the wrought iron which he worked up. Many farmers had
their own little forges or smithies to supply the iron for their
tools.

The fuel, wood or charcoal, which served both to heat and to deoxidize
the ore, has so strong a carburizing action that it would turn some of
the resultant metal into "natural steel," which differs from wrought
iron only in containing so much carbon that it is relatively hard and
brittle in its natural state, and that it becomes intensely hard when
quenched from a red heat in water. Moreover, this same carburizing
action of the fuel would at times go so far as to turn part of the
metal into a true cast iron, so brittle that it could not be worked at
all. In time the smith learnt how to convert this unwelcome product
into wrought iron by remelting it in the forge, exposing it to the
blast in such a way as to burn out most of its carbon.

7. _Second Period._--With the second period began, in the 14th
century, the gradual displacement of the direct extraction of wrought
iron from the ore by the intentional and regular use of this indirect
method of first carburizing the metal and thus turning it into cast
iron, and then converting it into wrought iron by remelting it in the
forge. This displacement has been going on ever since, and it is not
quite complete even to-day. It is of the familiar type of the
replacing of the simple but wasteful by the complex and economical,
and it was begun unintentionally in the attempt to save fuel and
labour, by increasing the size and especially the height of the forge,
and by driving the bellows by means of water-power. Indeed it was the
use of water-power that gave the smith pressure strong enough to force
his blast up through a longer column of ore and fuel, and thus enabled
him to increase the height of his forge, enlarge the scale of his
operations, and in turn save fuel and labour. And it was the
lengthening of the forge, and the length and intimacy of contact
between ore and fuel to which it led, that carburized the metal and
turned it into cast iron. This is so fusible that it melted, and,
running together into a single molten mass, freed itself mechanically
from the "gangue," as the foreign minerals with which the ore is mixed
are called. Finally, the improvement in the quality of the iron which
resulted from thus completely freeing it from the gangue turned out to
be a great and unexpected merit of the indirect process, probably the
merit which enabled it, in spite of its complexity, to drive out the
direct process. Thus we have here one of these cases common in the
evolution both of nature and of art, in which a change, made for a
specific purpose, has a wholly unforeseen advantage in another
direction, so important as to outweigh that for which it was made and
to determine the path of future development.

With this method of making molten cast iron in the hands of a people
already familiar with bronze founding, iron founding, i.e. the casting
of the molten cast iron into shapes which were useful in spite of its
brittleness, naturally followed. Thus ornamental iron castings were
made in Sussex in the 14th century, and in the 16th cannons weighing
three tons each were cast.

The indirect process once established, the gradual increase in the
height and diameter of the high furnace, which has lasted till our own
days, naturally went on and developed the gigantic blast furnaces of
the present time, still called "high furnaces" in French and German.
The impetus which the indirect process and the acceleration of
civilization in the 15th and 16th centuries gave to the iron industry
was so great that the demands of the iron masters for fuel made
serious inroads on the forests, and in 1558 an act of Queen
Elizabeth's forbade the cutting of timber in certain parts of the
country for iron-making. Another in 1584 forbade the building of any
more iron-works in Surrey, Kent, and Sussex. This increasing scarcity
of wood was probably one of the chief causes of the attempts which the
iron masters then made to replace charcoal with mineral fuel. In 1611
Simon Sturtevant patented the use of mineral coal for iron-smelting,
and in 1619 Dud Dudley made with this coal both cast and wrought iron
with technical success, but through the opposition of the charcoal
iron-makers all of his many attempts were defeated. In 1625 Stradda's
attempts in Hainaut had no better success, and it was not till more
than a century later that iron-smelting with mineral fuel was at last
fully successful. It was then, in 1735, that Abraham Darby showed how
to make cast iron with coke in the high furnace, which by this time
had become a veritable blast furnace.

The next great improvement in blast-furnace practice came in 1811,
when Aubertot in France used for heating steel the furnace gases rich
in carbonic oxide which till then had been allowed to burn uselessly
at the top of the blast furnace. The next was J. B. Neilson's
invention in 1828 of heating the blast, which increased the production
and lessened the fuel-consumption of the furnace wonderfully. Very
soon after this, in 1832, the work of heating the blast was done by
means of the waste gases, at Wasseralfingen in Bavaria.

Meanwhile Henry Cort had in 1784 very greatly simplified the
conversion of cast iron into wrought iron. In place of the old forge,
in which the actual contact between the iron and the fuel, itself an
energetic carburizing agent, made decarburization difficult, he
devised the reverberatory puddling furnace (see fig. 14 below), in
which the iron lies in a chamber apart from the fire-place, and is
thus protected from the carburizing action of the fuel, though heated
by the flame which that fuel gives out.

The rapid advance in mechanical engineering in the latter part of this
second period stimulated the iron industry greatly, giving it in 1728
Payn and Hanbury's rolling mill for rolling sheet iron, in 1760 John
Smeaton's cylindrical cast-iron bellows in place of the wooden and
leather ones previously used, in 1783 Cort's grooved rolls for rolling
bars and rods of iron, and in 1838 James Nasmyth's steam hammer. But
even more important than these were the advent of the steam engine
between 1760 and 1770, and of the railroad in 1825, each of which gave
the iron industry a great impetus. Both created a great demand for
iron, not only for themselves but for the industries which they in
turn stimulated; and both directly aided the iron master: the steam
engine by giving him powerful and convenient tools, and the railroad
by assembling his materials and distributing his products.

About 1740 Benjamin Huntsman introduced the "crucible process" of
melting steel in small crucibles, and thus freeing it from the slag,
or rich iron silicate, with which it, like wrought iron, was
mechanically mixed, whether it was made in the old forge or in the
puddling furnace. This removal of the cinder very greatly improved the
steel; but the process was and is so costly that it is used only for
making steel for purposes which need the very best quality.

8. _Third Period._--The third period has for its great distinction the
invention of the Bessemer and open-hearth processes, which are like
Huntsman's crucible process in that their essence is their freeing
wrought iron and low carbon steel from mechanically entangled cinder,
by developing the hitherto unattainable temperature, rising to above
1500° C., needed for melting these relatively infusible products.
These processes are incalculably more important than Huntsman's, both
because they are incomparably cheaper, and because their products are
far more useful than his.

Thus the distinctive work of the second and third periods is freeing
the metal from mechanical impurities by fusion. The second period, by
converting the metal into the fusible cast iron and melting this, for
the first time removed the gangue of the ore; the third period by
giving a temperature high enough to melt the most infusible forms of
iron, liberated the slag formed in deriving them from cast iron.

In 1856 Bessemer not only invented his extraordinary process of making
the heat developed by the rapid oxidation of the impurities in pig
iron raise the temperature above the exalted melting-point of the
resultant purified steel, but also made it widely known that this
steel was a very valuable substance. Knowing this, and having in the
Siemens regenerative gas furnace an independent means of generating
this temperature, the Martin brothers of Sireuil in France in 1864
developed the open-hearth process of making steel of any desired
carbon-content by melting together in this furnace cast and wrought
iron. The great defect of both these processes, that they could not
remove the baneful phosphorus with which all the ores of iron are
associated, was remedied in 1878 by S. G. Thomas, who showed that, in
the presence of a slag rich in lime, the whole of the phosphorus could
be removed readily.

9. After the remarkable development of the blast furnace, the
Bessemer, and the open-hearth processes, the most important work of
this, the third period of the history of iron, is the birth and growth
of the science and art of iron metallography. In 1868 Tschernoff
enunciated its chief fundamental laws, which were supplemented in 1885
by the laws of Brinell. In 1888 F. Osmond showed that the wonderful
changes which thermal treatment and the presence of certain foreign
elements cause were due to allotropy, and from these and like
teachings have come a rapid growth of the use of the so-called "alloy
steels" in which, thanks to special composition and treatment, the
iron exists in one or more of its remarkable allotropic states. These
include the austenitic or gamma non-magnetic manganese steel, already
patented by Robert Hadfield in 1883, the first important known
substance which combined great malleableness with great hardness, and
the martensitic or beta "high speed tool steel" of White and Taylor,
which retains its hardness and cutting power even at a red heat.

10. _Constitution of Iron and Steel._--The constitution of the various
classes of iron and steel as shown by the microscope explains readily
the great influence of carbon which was outlined in §§ 2 and 3. The
metal in its usual slowly cooled state is a conglomerate like the
granitic rocks. Just as a granite is a conglomerate or mechanical
mixture of distinct crystalline grains of three perfectly definite
minerals, mica, quartz, and felspar, so iron and steel in their usual
slowly cooled state consist of a mixture of microscopic particles of
such definite quasi-minerals, diametrically unlike. These are cementite,
a definite iron carbide, Fe3C, harder than glass and nearly as brittle,
but probably very strong under gradually and axially applied stress; and
ferrite, pure or nearly pure metallic [alpha]-iron, soft, weak, with
high electric conductivity, and in general like copper except in colour.
In view of the fact that the presence of 1% of carbon implies that 15%
of the soft ductile ferrite is replaced by the glass-hard cementite, it
is not surprising that even a little carbon influences the properties of
the metal so profoundly.

But carbon affects the properties of iron not only by giving rise to
varying proportions of cementite, but also both by itself shifting from
one molecular state to another, and by enabling us to hold the iron
itself in its unmagnetic allotropic forms, [beta]- and [gamma]-iron, as
will be explained below. Thus, sudden cooling from a red heat leaves the
carbon not in definite combination as cementite, but actually dissolved
in [beta]- and [gamma]-allotropic iron, in the conditions known as
martensite and austenite, not granitic but glass-like bodies, of which
the "hardened" and "tempered" steel of our cutting tools in large part
consists. Again, if more than 2% of carbon is present, it passes readily
into the state of pure graphitic carbon, which, in itself soft and weak,
weakens and embrittles the metal as any foreign body would, by breaking
up its continuity.

11. The _Roberts-Austen_ or _carbon-iron diagram_ (fig. 1), in which
vertical distances represent temperatures and horizontal ones the
percentage of carbon in the iron, aids our study of these constituents
of iron. If, ignoring temporarily and for simplicity the fact that part
of the carbon may exist in the state of graphite, we consider the
behaviour of iron in cooling from the molten state, AB and BC give the
temperature at which, for any given percentage of carbon, solidification
begins, and A_a_, _a_B, and B_c_ that at which it ends. But after
solidification is complete and the metal has cooled to a much lower
range of temperature, usually between 900° and 690° C., it undergoes a
very remarkable series of transformations. GHSa gives the temperature at
which, for any given percentage of carbon, these transformations begin,
and PSP´ that at which they end.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Roberts-Austen or Carbon-Iron diagram. The
Cementite-Austenite or Metastable form.]

These freezing-point curves and transformation curves thus divide the
diagram into 8 distinct regions, each with its own specific state or
constitution of the metal, the molten state for region 1, a mixture of
molten metal and of solid austenite for region 2, austenite alone for
region 4 and so on. This will be explained below. If the metal followed
the laws of equilibrium, then whenever through change of temperature it
entered a new region, it would forthwith adopt the constitution normal
to that region. But in fact the change of constitution often lags
greatly, so that the metal may have the constitution normal to a region
higher than that in which it is, or even a patchwork constitution,
representing fragments of those of two or more regions. It is by taking
advantage of this lagging that thermal treatment causes such wonderful
changes in the properties of the cold metal.

12. With these facts in mind we may now study further these different
constituents of iron.

_Austenite, gamma_ ([gamma]) _iron._--Austenite is the name of the
solid solution of an iron carbide in allotropie [gamma]-iron of which
the metal normally consists when in region 4. In these solid
solutions, as in aqueous ones, the ratios in which the different
chemical substances are present are not fixed or definite, but vary
from case to case, not _per saltum_ as between definite chemical
compounds, but by infinitesimal steps. The different substances are as
it were dissolved in each other in a state which has the
indefiniteness of composition, the absolute merging of identity, and
the weakness of reciprocal chemical attraction, characteristic of
aqueous solutions.

On cooling into region 6 or 8 austenite should normally split up into
ferrite and cementite, after passing through the successive stages of
martensite, troostite and sorbite, Fe_xC = Fe3C + Fe_(x-3). But this
change may be prevented so as to preserve the austenite in the cold,
either very incompletely, as when high-carbon steel is "hardened,"
i.e. is cooled suddenly by quenching in water, in which case the
carbon present seems to act as a brake to retard the change; or
completely, by the presence of a large quantity of manganese, nickel,
tungsten or molybdenum, which in effect sink the lower boundary GHS_a_
of region 4 to below the atmospheric temperature. The important
manganese steels of commerce and certain nickel steels are
manganiferous and niccoliferous austenite, unmagnetic and hard but
ductile.

Austenite may contain carbon in any proportion up to about 2.2%. It is
non-magnetic, and, when preserved in the cold either by quenching or
by the presence of manganese, nickel, &c., it has a very remarkable
combination of great malleability with very marked hardness, though it
is less hard than common carbon steel is when hardened, and probably
less hard than martensite. When of eutectoid composition, it is called
"hardenite." Suddenly cooled carbon steel, even if rich in austenite,
is strongly magnetic because of the very magnetic [alpha]-iron which
inevitably forms even in the most rapid cooling from region 4. Only in
the presence of much manganese, nickel, or their equivalent can the
true austenite be preserved in the cold so completely that the steel
remains non-magnetic.

13. _Beta_ ([beta]) _iron_, an unmagnetic, intensely hard and brittle
allotropic form of iron, though normal and stable only in the little
triangle GHM, is yet a state through which the metal seems always to
pass when the austenite of region 4 changes into the ferrite and
cementite of regions 6 and 8. Though not normal below MHSP´, yet like
[gamma]-iron it can be preserved in the cold by the presence of about
5% of manganese, which, though not enough to bring the lower boundary
of region 4 below the atmospheric temperature and thus to preserve
austenite in the cold, is yet enough to make the transformation of
[beta] into [alpha] iron so sluggish that the former remains
untransformed even during slow cooling.

Again, [beta]-iron may be preserved incompletely as in the "hardening
of steel," which consists in heating the steel into the austenite
state of region 4, and then cooling it so rapidly, e.g. by quenching
it in cold water, that, for lack of the time needed for the completion
of the change from austenite into ferrite and cementite, much of the
iron is caught in transit in the [beta] state. According to our
present theory, it is chiefly to beta iron, preserved in one of these
ways, that all of our tool steel proper, i.e. steel used for cutting
as distinguished from grinding, seems to owe its hardness.

14. _Martensite_, _Troostite_ and _Sorbite_ are the successive stages
through which the metal passes in changing from austenite into ferrite
and cementite. _Martensite_, very hard because of its large content of
[beta]-iron, is characteristic of hardened steel, but the two others,
far from being definite substances, are probably only roughly bounded
stages of this transition. _Troostite_ and _sorbite_, indeed, seem to
be chiefly very finely divided mixtures of ferrite and cementite, and
it is probably because of this fineness that sorbitic steel has its
remarkable combination of strength and elasticity with ductility which
fits it for resisting severe vibratory and other dynamic stresses,
such as those to which rails and shafting are exposed.

15. _Alpha_ ([alpha]) _iron_ is the form normal and stable for regions
5, 6 and 8, i.e. for all temperatures below MHSP´. It is the common,
very magnetic form of iron, in itself ductile but relatively soft and
weak, as we know it in wrought iron and mild or low-carbon steel.

16. _Ferrite_ and _cementite_, already described in § 10, are the
final products of the transformation of austenite in slow-cooling.
[beta]-ferrite and austenite are the normal constituents for the
triangle GHM, [alpha]-ferrite (i.e. nearly pure [alpha]-iron) with
austenite for the space MHSP, cementite with austenite for region 7,
and [alpha]-ferrite and cementite jointly for regions 6 and 8. Ferrite
and cementite are thus the normal and usual constituents of slowly
cooled steel, including all structural steels, rail steel, &c., and of
white cast iron (see § 18).

17. _Pearlite._--The ferrite and cementite present interstratify
habitually as a "eutectoid"[2] called "pearlite" (see ALLOYS, Pl.,
fig. 11), in the ratio of about 6 parts of ferrite to 1 of cementite,
and hence containing about 0.90% of carbon. Slowly cooled steel
containing just 0.90% of carbon (S in fig. 1) consists of pearlite
alone. Steel and white cast iron with more than this quantity of
carbon consist typically of kernels of pearlite surrounded by
envelopes of free cementite (see ALLOYS, Pl., fig. 13) sufficient in
quantity to represent their excess of carbon over the eutectoid ratio;
they arc called "hyper-eutectoid," and are represented by region 8 of
Fig. 1. Steel containing less than this quantity of carbon consists
typically of kernels of pearlite surrounded by envelopes of ferrite
(see ALLOYS, Pl., fig. 12) sufficient in quantity to represent their
excess of iron over this eutectoid ratio; is called "hypo-eutectoid";
and is represented by region 6 of Fig. 1. This typical "envelope and
kernel" structure is often only rudimentary.

The percentage of pearlite and of free ferrite or cementite in these
products is shown in fig. 2, in which the ordinates of the line ABC
represent the percentage of pearlite corresponding to each percentage
of carbon, and the intercept ED, MN or KF, of any point H, P or L,
measures the percentage of the excess of ferrite or cementite for
hypo- and hyper-eutectic steel and white cast iron respectively.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Relation between the carbon-content and the
percentage of the several constituents of slowly cooled steel and
white cast iron.]

18. _The Carbon-Content, i.e. the Ratio of Ferrite to Cementite, of
certain typical Steels._--Fig. 3 shows how, as the carbon-content
rises from 0 to 4.5%, the percentage of the glass-hard cementite,
which is 15 times that of the carbon itself, rises, and that of the
soft copper-like ferrite falls, with consequent continuous increase of
hardness and loss of malleableness and ductility. The tenacity or
tensile strength increases till the carbon-content reaches about
1.25%, and the cementite about 19%, and then in turn falls, a result
by no means surprising. The presence of a small quantity of the hard
cementite ought naturally to strengthen the mass, by opposing the
tendency of the soft ferrite to flow under any stress applied to it;
but more cementite by its brittleness naturally weakens the mass,
causing it to crack open under the distortion which stress inevitably
causes. The fact that this decrease of strength begins shortly after
the carbon-content rises above the eutectoid or pearlite ratio of
0.90% is natural, because the brittleness of the cementite which, in
hyper-eutectoid steels, forms a more or less continuous skeleton
(ALLOYS, Pl., fig. 13) should be much more effective in starting
cracks under distortion than that of the far more minute particles of
cementite which lie embedded, indeed drowned, in the sixfold greater
mass of ferrite with which they are associated in the pearlite itself.
The large massive plates of cementite which form the network or
skeleton in hyper-eutectoid steels should, under distortion, naturally
tend to cut, in the softer pearlite, chasms too serious to be healed
by the inflowing of the plastic ferrite, though this ferrite flows
around and immediately heals over any cracks which form in the small
quantity of cementite interstratified with it in the pearlite of
hypo-eutectoid steels.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Physical properties and assumed microscopic
constitution of the pearlite series, graphiteless steel slowly cooled
and white cast iron. By "total ferrite" is meant both that which forms
part of the pearlite and that which is in excess of the pearlite,
taken jointly. So with the "total cementite."]

As the carbon-content increases the welding power naturally decreases
rapidly, because of the rapid fall of the "solidus curve" at which
solidification is complete (Aa of fig. 1), and hence of the range in
which the steel is coherent enough to be manipulated, and, finally, of
the attainable pliancy and softness of the metal. Clearly the mushy
mixture of solid austenite and molten iron of which the metal in
region 2 consists cannot cohere under either the blows or the pressure
by means of which welding must be done. Rivet steel, which above all
needs extreme ductility to endure the distortion of being driven home,
and tube steel which must needs weld easily, no matter at what
sacrifice of strength, are made as free from carbon, i.e. of as nearly
pure ferrite, as is practicable. The distortion which rails undergo in
manufacture and use is incomparably less than that to which rivets are
subjected, and thus rail steel may safely be much richer in carbon and
hence in cementite, and therefore much stronger and harder, so as to
better endure the load and the abrasion of the passing wheels. Indeed,
its carbon-content is made small quite as much because of the violence
of the shocks from these wheels as because of any actual distortion to
be expected, since, within limits, as the carbon-content increases
the shock-resisting power decreases. Here, as in all cases, the
carbon-content must be the result of a compromise, neither so small
that the rail flattens and wears out like lead, nor so great that it
snaps like glass. Boiler plates undergo in shaping and assembling an
intermediate degree of distortion, and therefore they must be given an
intermediate carbon-content, following the general rule that the
carbon-content and hence the strength should be as great as is
consistent with retaining the degree of ductility and the
shock-resisting power which the object will need in actual use. Thus
the typical carbon-content may be taken as about 0.05% for rivets and
tubes, 0.20% for boiler plates, and 0.50 to 0.75% for rails, implying
the presence of 0.75% of cementite in the first two, 3% in the third
and 7.5% to 11.25% in the last.

19. _Carbon-Content of Hardened Steels._--Turning from these cases in
which the steel is used in the slowly cooled state, so that it is a
mixture of pearlite with ferrite or cementite, i.e. is pearlitic, to
those in which it is used in the hardened or martensitic state, we
find that the carbon-content is governed by like considerations.
Railway car springs, which are exposed to great shock, have typically
about 0.75% of carbon; common tool steel, which is exposed to less
severe shock, has usually between 0.75 and 1.25%; file steel, which is
subject to but little shock, and has little demanded of it but to bite
hard and stay hard, has usually from 1.25 to 1.50%. The carbon-content
of steel is rarely greater than this, lest the brittleness be
excessive. But beyond this are the very useful, because very fusible,
cast irons with from 3 to 4% of carbon, the embrittling effect of
which is much lessened by its being in the state of graphite.

20. _Slag or Cinder_, a characteristic component of wrought iron,
which usually contains from 0.20 to 2.00% of it, is essentially a
silicate of iron (ferrous silicate), and is present in wrought iron
simply because this product is made by welding together pasty granules
of iron in a molten bath of such slag, without ever melting the
resultant mass or otherwise giving the envelopes of slag thus
imprisoned a chance to escape completely.

21. _Graphite_, nearly pure carbon, is characteristic of "gray cast
iron," in which it exists as a nearly continuous skeleton of very thin
laminated plates or flakes (fig. 27), usually curved, and forming from
2.50% to 3.50% of the whole. As these flakes readily split open, when
a piece of this iron is broken rupture passes through them, with the
result that, even though the graphite may form only some 3% of the
mass by weight (say 10% by volume), practically nothing but graphite
is seen in the fracture. Hence the weakness and the dark-grey fracture
of this iron, and hence, by brushing this fracture with a wire brush
and so detaching these loosely clinging flakes of graphite, the colour
can be changed nearly to the very light-grey of pure iron. There is
rarely any important quantity of graphite in commercial steels. (See §
26.)

22. _Further Illustration of the Iron-Carbon Diagram._--In order to
illustrate further the meaning of the diagram (fig. 1), let us follow
by means of the ordinate QUw the undisturbed slow cooling of molten
hyper-eutectoid steel containing 1% of carbon, for simplicity assuming
that no graphite forms and that the several transformations occur
promptly as they fall due. When the gradually falling temperature
reaches 1430° (q), the mass begins to freeze as [gamma]-iron or
austenite, called "primary" to distinguish it from that which forms
part of the eutectic. But the freezing, instead of completing itself
at a fixed temperature as that of pure water does, continues until the
temperature sinks to r on the line Aa. Thus the iron has rather a
freezing-range than a freezing-point. Moreover, the freezing is
"selective." The first particles of austenite to freeze contain about
0.33% of carbon (p). As freezing progresses, at each successive
temperature reached the frozen austenite has the carbon-content of the
point on Aa which that temperature abscissa cuts, and the still molten
part or "mother-metal" has the carbon-content horizontally opposite
this on the line AB. In other words, the composition of the frozen
part and that of the mother-metal respectively are p and q at the
beginning of the freezing, and r and t´ at the end; and during
freezing they slide along Aa and AB from p to r and from q to t´.
This, of course, brings the final composition of the frozen austenite
when freezing is complete exactly to that which the molten mass had
before freezing began.

The heat evolved by this process of solidification retards the fall of
temperature; but after this the rate of cooling remains regular until
T (750°) on the line Sa (Ar3) is reached, when a second retardation
occurs, due to the heat liberated by the passage within the pasty mass
of part of the iron and carbon from a state of mere solution to that
of definite combination in the ratio Fe3C, forming microscopic
particles of cementite, while the remainder of the iron and carbon
continue dissolved in each other as austenite. This formation of
cementite continues as the temperature falls, till at about 690° C.,
(U, called Ar_(2-1)) so much of the carbon (in this case about 0.10%)
and of the iron have united in the form of cementite, that the
composition of the remaining solid-solution or "mother-metal" of
austenite has reached that of the eutectoid, hardenite; i.e. it now
contains 0.90 % of carbon. The cementite which has thus far been
forming may be called "pro-eutectoid" cementite, because it forms
before the remaining austenite reaches the eutectoid composition. As
the temperature now falls past 690°, this hardenite mother-metal in
turn splits up, after the fashion of eutectics, into alternate layers
of ferrite and cementite grouped together as pearlite, so that the
mass as a whole now becomes a mixture of pearlite with cementite. The
iron thus liberated, as the ferrite of this pearlite, changes
simultaneously to [alpha]-ferrite. The passage of this large quantity
of carbon and iron, 0.90% of the former and 12.6 of the latter, from a
state of mere solution as hardenite to one of definite chemical union
as cementite, together with the passage of the iron itself from the
[gamma] to the [alpha] state, evolves so much heat as actually to heat
the mass up so that it brightens in a striking manner. This phenomenon
is called the "recalescence."

This change from austenite to ferrite and cementite, from the [gamma]
through the [beta] to the [alpha] state, is of course accompanied by
the loss of the "hardening power," i.e. the power of being hardened by
sudden cooling, because the essence of this hardening is the retention
of the [beta] state. As shown in ALLOYS, Pl., fig. 13, the slowly
cooled steel now consists of kernels of pearlite surrounded by
envelopes of the cementite which was born of the austenite in cooling
from T to U.

23. To take a second case, molten hypo-eutectoid steel of 0.20% of
carbon on freezing from K to x passes in the like manner to the state
of solid austenite, [gamma]-iron with this 0.20% of carbon dissolved
in it. Its further cooling undergoes three spontaneous retardations,
one at K´ (Ar3 about 820°), at which part of the iron begins to
isolate itself within the austenite mother-metal in the form of
envelopes of [beta]-ferrite, i.e. of free iron of the [beta]
allotropic modification, which surrounds the kernels or grains of the
residual still undecomposed part of the austenite. At the second
retardation, K´´ (Ar2, about 770°) this ferrite changes to the normal
magnetic [alpha]-ferrite, so that the mass as a whole becomes
magnetic. Moreover, the envelopes of ferrite which began forming at
Ar3 continue to broaden by the accession of more and more ferrite born
from the austenite progressively as the temperature sinks, till, by
the time when Ar1 (about 690°) is reached, so much free ferrite has
been formed that the remaining mother-metal has been enriched to the
composition of hardenite, i.e. it now contains 0.90% of carbon. Again,
as the temperature in turn falls past Ar1 this hardenite mother-metal
splits up into cementite and ferrite grouped together as pearlite,
with the resulting recalescence, and the mass, as shown in Alloys,
Pl., fig. 12, then consists of kernels of pearlite surrounded by
envelopes of ferrite. All these phenomena are parallel with those of
1.00% carbon steel at this same critical point Ar1. As such steel
cools slowly past Ar3, Ar2 and Ar1, it loses its hardening power
progressively.

In short, from Ar3 to Ar1 the excess substance ferrite or cementite,
in hypo- and hyper-eutectoid steels respectively, progressively
crystallizes out as a network or skeleton within the austenite
mother-metal, which thus progressively approaches the composition of
hardenite, reaching it at Ar1, and there splitting up into ferrite and
cementite interstratified as pearlite. Further, any ferrite liberated
at Ar3 changes there from [gamma] to [beta], and any present at Ar2
changes from [beta] to [alpha]. Between H and S, Ar3 and Ar2 occur
together, as do Ar2 and Ar1 between S and P´ and Ar3, Ar2 and Ar1 at S
itself; so that these critical points in these special cases are
called Ar_(3-2), Ar_(2-1) and Ar_(3-2-1) respectively. The
corresponding critical points which occur during rise of temperature,
with the reverse transformations, are called Ac1, Ac2, Ac3, &c. A
(Tschernoff) is the generic name, r refers to falling temperature
(_refroidissant_) and c to rising temperature (_chauffant_, Osmond).

24. The freezing of molten cast iron of 2.50% of carbon goes on
selectively like that of these steels which we have been studying,
till the enrichment of the molten mother-metal in carbon brings its
carbon-contents to B, 4.30%, the eutectic[3] carbon-content, i.e. that
of the greatest fusibility or lowest melting-point. At this point
selection ceases; the remaining molten metal freezes as a whole, and
in freezing splits up into a conglomerate eutectic of (1) austenite of
about 2.2 % of carbon, and therefore saturated with that element, and
(2) cementite; and with this eutectic is mixed the "primary" austenite
which froze out as the temperature sank from v to v´. The white-hot,
solid, but soft mass is now a conglomerate of (1) "primary" austenite,
(2) "eutectic" austenite and (3) "eutectic" cementite. As the
temperature sinks still farther, pro-eutectoid cementite (see § 22)
forms progressively in the austenite both primary and eutectic, and
this pro-eutectoid cementite as it comes into existence tends to
assemble in the form of a network enveloping the kernels or grains of
the austenite from which it springs. The reason for its birth, of
course, is that the solubility of carbon in austenite progressively
decreases as the temperature falls, from about 2.2% at 1130° (a), to
0.90% at 690° (Ar1), as shown by the line aS, with the consequence
that the austenite keeps rejecting in the form of this pro-eutectoid
cementite all carbon in excess of its saturation-point for the
existing temperature. Here the mass consists of (1) primary austenite,
(2) eutectic austenite and cementite interstratified and (3)
pro-eutectoid cementite.

This formation of cementite through the rejection of carbon by both
the primary and the eutectic austenite continues quite as in the case
of 1.00% carbon steel, with impoverishment of the austenite to the
hardenite or eutectoid ratio, and the splitting up of that hardenite
into pearlite at Ar1, so that the mass when cold finally consists of
(1) the primary austenite now split up into kernels of pearlite
surrounded by envelopes of pro-eutectoid cementite, (2) the eutectic
of cementite plus austenite, the latter of which has in like manner
split up into a mixture of pearlite plus cementite. Such a mass is
shown in fig. 4. Here the black bat-like patches are the masses of
pearlite plus pro-eutectoid cementite resulting from the splitting up
of the primary austenite. The magnification is too small to show the
zebra striping of the pearlite. In the black-and-white ground mass the
white is the eutectic cementite, and the black the eutectic austenite,
now split up into pearlite and pro-eutectoid cementite, which cannot
here be distinguished from each other.

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--The constitution of hypo-eutectic white or
cementitiferous cast iron (washed metal), W. Campbell. The black
bat-like areas are the primary austenite, the zebra-marked ground mass
the eutectic, composed of white stripes of cementite and black stripes
of austenite. Both the primary and eutectic austenite have changed in
cooling into a mixture of pearlite and pro-eutectoid cementite, too
fine to be distinguished here.]

25. As we pass to cases with higher and higher carbon-content, the
primary austenite which freezes in cooling across region 2 forms a
smaller and smaller proportion of the whole, and the
austenite-cementite eutectic which forms at the eutectic
freezing-point, 1130° (aB), increases in amount until, when the
carbon-content reaches the eutectic ratio, 4.30%, there is but a
single freezing-point, and the whole mass when solid is made up of
this eutectic. If there is more than 4.30% of carbon, then in cooling
through region 3 the excess of carbon over this ratio freezes out as
"primary" cementite. But in any event the changes which have just been
described for cast iron of 2.50% of carbon occur in crossing region 7,
and at Ar1 (PSP´).

Just as variations in the carbon-content shift the temperature of the
freezing-range and of the various critical points, so do variations in
the content of other elements, notably silicon, phosphorus, manganese,
chromium, nickel and tungsten. Nickel and manganese lower these
critical points, so that with 25% of nickel Ar3 lies below the common
temperature 20° C. With 13% of manganese Ar3 is very low, and the
austenite decomposes so slowly that it is preserved practically intact
by sudden cooling. These steels then normally consist of [gamma]-iron,
modified by the large amount of nickel or manganese with which it is
alloyed. They are non-magnetic or very feebly magnetic. But the
critical points of such nickel steel though thus depressed, are not
destroyed; and if it is cooled in liquid air below its Ar2, it passes
to the [alpha] state and becomes magnetic.

26. _Double Nature of the Carbon-Iron Diagram._--The part played by
graphite in the constitution of the iron-carbon compounds, hitherto
ignored for simplicity, is shown in fig. 5. Looking at the matter in a
broad way, in all these carbon-iron alloys, both steel and cast irons,
part of the carbon may be dissolved in the iron, usually as austenite,
e.g. in regions 2, 4, 5 and 7 of Fig. 1; the rest, i.e. the carbon
which is not dissolved, or the "undissolved carbon," forms either the
definite carbide, cementite, Fe3C, or else exists in the free state as
graphite. Now, just as fig. 1 shows the constitution of these
iron-carbon alloys for all temperatures and all percentages of carbon
when the undissolved carbon exists as cementite, so there should be a
diagram showing this constitution when all the undissolved carbon
exists as graphite. In short, there are two distinct carbon-iron
diagrams, the iron-cementite one shown in fig. 1 and studied at length
in §§ 22 to 25, and the iron-graphite one shown in fig. 5 in unbroken
lines, with the iron-cementite diagram reproduced in broken lines for
comparison. What here follows represents our present rather
ill-established theory. These two diagrams naturally have much the
same general shape, but though the boundaries of the several regions
in the iron-cementite diagram are known pretty accurately, and though
the relative positions of the boundaries of the two diagrams are
probably about as here shown, the exact topography of the
iron-graphite diagram is not yet known. In it the normal constituents
are, for region II., molten metal + primary austenite; for region
III., molten metal + primary graphite; for region IV., primary
austenite; for region VII., eutectic austenite, eutectic graphite, and
a quantity of pro-eutectoid graphite which increases as we pass from
the upper to the lower part of the region, together with primary
austenite at the left of the eutectic point B´ and primary graphite at
the right of that point. Thus when iron containing 2.50% of carbon (v.
fig. 1) solidifies, its carbon may form cementite following the
cementite-austenite diagram so that white, i.e. cementitiferous, cast
iron results; or graphite, following the graphite-austenite diagram,
so that ultra-grey, i.e. typical graphitic cast iron results; or, as
usually happens, certain molecules may follow one diagram while the
rest follow the other diagram, so that cast iron which has both
cementite and graphite results, as in most commercial grey cast iron,
and typically in "mottled cast iron," in which there are distinct
patches of grey and others of white cast iron.

Though carbon passes far more readily under most conditions into the
state of cementite than into that of graphite, yet of the two graphite
is the more stable and cementite the less stable, or the "metastable"
form. Thus cementite is always tending to change over into graphite by
the reaction Fe3C = 3Fe + Gr, though this tendency is often held in
check by different causes; but graphite never changes back directly
into cementite, at least according to our present theory. The fact
that graphite may dissolve in the iron as austenite, and that when
this latter again breaks up it is more likely to yield cementite than
graphite, is only an apparent and not a real exception to this law of
the greater stability of graphite than of cementite.

Slow cooling, slow solidification, the presence of an abundance of
carbon, and the presence of silicon, all favour the formation of
graphite; rapid cooling, the presence of sulphur, and in most cases
that of manganese, favour the formation of cementite. For instance,
though in cast iron, which is rich in carbon, that carbon passes
comparatively easily into the state of graphite, yet in steel, which
contains much less carbon, but little graphite forms under most
conditions. Indeed, in the common structural steels which contain only
very little carbon, hardly any of that carbon exists as graphite.

27. _Thermal Treatment._--The hardening, tempering and annealing of
steel, the chilling and annealing of cast iron, and the annealing of
malleable cast iron are explained readily by the facts just set forth.

28. _The hardening of steel_ consists in first transforming it into
austenite by heating it up into region 4 of fig. 1, and then quenching
it, usually in cold water, so as to cool it very suddenly, and thus to
deny the time which the complete transformation of the austenite into
ferrite and cementite requires, and thereby to catch much of the iron
in transit in the hard brittle [beta] state. In the cold this
transformation cannot take place, because of molecular rigidity or
some other impediment. The suddenly cooled metal is hard and brittle,
because the cold [beta]-iron which it contains is hard and brittle.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Graphite-austenite or stable carbon-iron,
diagram.]

The degree of hardening which the steel undergoes increases with its
carbon-content, chiefly because, during sudden cooling, the presence
of carbon acts like a brake to impede the transformations, and thus to
increase the quantity of [beta]-iron caught in transit, but probably
also in part because the hardness of this [beta]-iron increases with
its carbon-content. Thus, though sudden cooling has very little effect
on steel of 0.10% of carbon, it changes that of 1.50% from a somewhat
ductile body to one harder and more brittle than glass.

29. _The Tempering and Annealing of Steel._--But this sudden cooling
goes too far, preserving so much [beta]-iron as to make the steel too
brittle for most purposes. This brittleness has therefore in general
to be mitigated or "tempered," unfortunately at the cost of losing
part of the hardness proper, by reheating the hardened steel slightly,
usually to between 200° and 300° C., so as to relax the molecular
rigidity and thereby to allow the arrested transformation to go on a
little farther, shifting a little of the [beta]-iron over into the
[alpha] state. The higher the tempering-temperature, i.e. that to
which the hardened steel is thus reheated, the more is the molecular
rigidity relaxed, the farther on does the transformation go, and the
softer does the steel become; so that, if the reheating reaches a
dull-red heat, the transformation from austenite into ferrite and
cementite completes itself slowly, and when now cooled the steel is as
soft and ductile as if it had never been hardened. It is now said to
be "annealed."

30. _Chilling cast iron_, i.e. hastening its cooling by casting it in
a cool mould, favours the formation of cementite rather than of
graphite in the freezing of the eutectic at aBc, and also, in case of
hyper-eutectic iron, in the passage through region 3. Like the
hardening of steel, it hinders the transformation of the austenite,
whether primary or eutectic, into pearlite + cementite, and thus
catches part of the iron in transit in the hard [beta] state. The
annealing of such iron may occur in either of two degrees--a small
one, as in making common chilled cast iron objects, such as railway
car wheels, or a great one, as in making malleable cast iron. In the
former case, the objects are heated only to the neighbourhood of Ac1,
say to 730° C., so that the [beta]-iron may slip into the a state, and
the transformation of the austenite into pearlite and cementite may
complete itself. The joint effect of such chilling and such annealing
is to make the metal much harder than if slowly cooled, because for
each 1% of graphite which the chilling suppresses, 15% of the
glass-hard cementite is substituted. Thus a cast iron which, if cooled
slowly, would have been "grey," i.e. would have consisted chiefly of
graphite with pearlite and ferrite (which are all relatively soft
bodies), if thus chilled and annealed consists of cementite and
pearlite. But in most such cases, in spite of the annealing, this
hardness is accompanied by a degree of brittleness too great for most
purposes. The process therefore is so managed that only the outer
shell of the casting is chilled, and that the interior remains
graphitic, i.e. grey cast iron, soft and relatively malleable.

31. In making _malleable castings_ the annealing, i.e. the change
towards the stable state of ferrite + graphite, is carried much
farther by means of a much longer and usually a higher heating than in
the manufacture of chilled castings. The castings, initially of white
cast iron, are heated for about a week, to a temperature usually above
730° C. and often reaching 900° C. (1346° and 1652° F.). For about 60
hours the heat is held at its highest point, from which it descends
extremely slowly. The molecular freedom which this high temperature
gives enables the cementite to change gradually into a mixture of
graphite and austenite with the result that, after the castings have
been cooled and their austenite has in cooling past Ac1 changed into
pearlite and ferrite, the mixture of cementite and pearlite of which
they originally consisted has now given place to one of fine or
"temper" graphite and ferrite, with more or less pearlite according to
the completeness of the transfer of the carbon to the state of
graphite.

Why, then, is this material malleable, though the common grey cast
iron, which is made up of about the same constituents and often in
about the same proportion, is brittle? The reason is that the
particles of temper graphite which are thus formed within the solid
casting in its long annealing are so finely divided that they do not
break up the continuity of the mass in a very harmful way; whereas in
grey cast iron both the eutectic graphite formed in solidifying, and
also the primary graphite which, in case the metal is hyper-eutectic,
forms in cooling through region 3 of fig. 1, surrounded as it is by
the still molten mother-metal out of which it is growing, form a
nearly continuous skeleton of very large flakes, which do break up in
a most harmful way the continuity of the mass of cast iron in which
they are embedded.

In carrying out this process the castings are packed in a mass of iron
oxide, which at this temperature gradually removes the fine or
"temper" graphite by oxidizing that in the outer crust to carbonic
oxide, whereon the carbon farther in begins diffusing outwards by
"molecular migration," to be itself oxidized on reaching the crust.
This removal of graphite doubtless further stimulates the formation of
graphite, by relieving the mechanical and perhaps the osmotic
pressure. Thus, first, for the brittle glass-hard cementite there is
gradually substituted the relatively harmless temper graphite; and,
second, even this is in part removed by surface oxidation.

32. _Fineness of Structure._--Each of these ancient processes thus
consists essentially in so manipulating the temperature that, out of
the several possible constituents, the metal shall actually consist of
a special set in special proportions. But in addition there is another
very important principle underlying many of our thermal processes,
viz. that the state of aggregation of certain of these constituents,
and through it the properties of the metal as a whole, are profoundly
affected by temperature manipulations. Thus, prior exposure to a
temperature materially above Ac3 coarsens the structure of most steel,
in the sense of giving it when cold a coarse fracture, and enlarging
the grains of pearlite, &c., later found in the slowly cooled metal.
This coarsening and the brittleness which accompanies it increase with
the temperature to which the metal has been exposed. Steel which after
a slow cooling from about 722° C. will bend 166° before breaking,
will, after slow cooling from about 1050° C., bend only 18° before
breaking. This injury fortunately can be cured either by _reheating_
the steel to Ac3 when it "refines," i.e. returns spontaneously to its
fine-grained ductile state (_cooling_ past Ar3 does not have this
effect); or by breaking up the coarse grains by _mechanical
distortion_, e.g. by forging or rolling. For instance, if steel has
been coarsened by heating to 1400° C., and if, when it has cooled to a
lower temperature, say 850° C. we forge it, its grain-size and
ductility when cold will be approximately those which it would have
had if heated only to 850°. Hence steel which has been heated very
highly, whether for welding, or for greatly softening it so that it
can be rolled to the desired shape with but little expenditure of
power, ought later to be refined, either by reheating it from below
Ar3 to slightly above Ac3 or by rolling it after it has cooled to a
relatively low temperature, i.e. by having a low "finishing
temperature." Steel castings have initially the extremely coarse
structure due to cooling without mechanical distortion from their very
high temperature of solidification; they are "annealed," i.e. this
coarseness and the consequent brittleness are removed, by reheating
them much above Ac3, which also relieves the internal stresses due to
the different rates at which different layers cool, and hence
contract, during and after solidification. For steel containing less
than about 0.13% of carbon, the embrittling temperature is in a
different range, near 700° C., and such steel refines at temperatures
above 900° C.

33. _The Possibilities of Thermal Treatment._--When we consider the
great number of different regions in fig. 1, each with its own set of
constitutents, and remember that by different rates of cooling from
different temperatures we can retain in the cold metal these different
sets of constituents in widely varying proportions; and when we further
reflect that not only the proportion of each constituent present but
also its state of aggregation can be controlled by thermal treatment, we
see how vast a field is here opened, how great a variety of different
properties can be induced in any individual piece of steel, how enormous
the variety of properties thus attainable in the different varieties
collectively, especially since for each percentage of carbon an
incalculable number of varieties of steel may be made by alloying it
with different proportions of such elements as nickel, chromium, &c. As
yet there has been only the roughest survey of certain limited areas in
this great field, the further exploration of which will enormously
increase the usefulness of this wonderful metal.

34. _Alloy steels_ have come into extensive use for important special
purposes, and a very great increase of their use is to be expected. The
chief ones are nickel steel, manganese steel, chrome steel and
chrome-tungsten steel. The general order of merit of a given variety or
specimen of iron or steel may be measured by the degree to which it
combines strength and hardness with ductility. These two classes of
properties tend to exclude each other, for, as a general rule, whatever
tends to make iron and steel hard and strong tends to make it
correspondingly brittle, and hence liable to break treacherously,
especially under shock. Manganese steel and nickel steel form an
important exception to this rule, in being at once very strong and hard
and extremely ductile. _Nickel steel_, which usually contains from 3 to
3.50% of nickel and about 0.25% of carbon, combines very great tensile
strength and hardness, and a very high limit of elasticity, with great
ductility. Its combination of ductility with strength and hardening
power has given it very extended use for the armour of war-vessels. For
instance, following Krupp's formula, the side and barbette armour of
war-vessels is now generally if not universally made of nickel steel
containing about 3.25% of nickel, 0.40% of carbon, and 1.50% of
chromium, deeply carburized on its impact face. Here the merit of nickel
steel is not so much that it resists perforation, as that it does not
crack even when deeply penetrated by a projectile. The combination of
ductility, which lessens the tendency to break when overstrained or
distorted, with a very high limit of elasticity, gives it great value
for shafting, the merit of which is measured by its endurance of the
repeated stresses to which its rotation exposes it whenever its
alignment is not mathematically straight. The alignment of marine
shafting, changing with every passing wave, is an extreme example. Such
an intermittently applied stress is far more destructive to iron than a
continuous one, and even if it is only half that of the limit of
elasticity, its indefinite repetition eventually causes rupture. In a
direct competitive test the presence of 3.25% of nickel increased nearly
sixfold the number of rotations which a steel shaft would endure before
breaking.

35. As actually made, _manganese steel_ contains about 12% of manganese
and 1.50% of carbon. Although the presence of 1.50% of manganese makes
steel relatively brittle, and although a further addition at first
increases this brittleness, so that steel containing between 4 and 5.5%
can be pulverized under the hammer, yet a still further increase gives
very great ductility, accompanied by great hardness--a combination of
properties which was not possessed by any other known substance when
this remarkable alloy, known as Hadfield's manganese steel, was
discovered. Its ductility, to which it owes its value, is profoundly
affected by the rate of cooling. Sudden cooling makes the metal
extremely ductile, and slow cooling makes it brittle. Its behaviour in
this respect is thus the opposite of that of carbon steel. But its great
hardness is not materially affected by the rate of cooling. It is used
extensively for objects which require both hardness and ductility, such
as rock-crushing machinery, railway crossings, mine-car wheels and
safes. The burglar's blow-pipe locally "draws the temper," i.e. softens
a spot on a hardened carbon steel or chrome steel safe by simply heating
it, so that as soon as it has again cooled he can drill through it and
introduce his charge of dynamite. But neither this nor any other
procedure softens manganese steel rapidly. Yet this very fact that it is
unalterably hard has limited its use, because of the great difficulty of
cutting it to shape, which has in general to be done with emery wheels
instead of the usual iron-cutting tools. Another defect is its
relatively low elastic limit.

36. _Chrome steel_, which usually contains about 2% of chromium and 0.80
to 2% of carbon, owes its value to combining, when in the "hardened" or
suddenly cooled state, intense hardness with a high elastic limit, so
that it is neither deformed permanently nor cracked by extremely violent
shocks. For this reason it is the material generally if not always used
for armour-piercing projectiles. It is much used also for certain
rock-crushing machinery (the shoes and dies of stamp-mills) and for
safes. These are made of alternate layers of soft wrought iron and
chrome steel hardened by sudden cooling. The hardness of the hardened
chrome steel resists the burglar's drill, and the ductility of the
wrought iron the blows of his sledge.

Vanadium in small quantities, 0.15 or 0.20%, is said to improve steel
greatly, especially in increasing its resistance to shock and to
often-repeated stress. But the improvement may be due wholly to the
considerable chromium content of these so-called vanadium steels.

37. _Tungsten steel_, which usually contains from 5 to 10% of tungsten
and from 1 to 2% of carbon, is used for magnets, because of its great
retentivity.

38. _Chrome-tungsten or High-speed Steel._--Steel with a large content
of both chromium and tungsten has the very valuable property of
"red-hardness," i.e. of retaining its hardness and hence its power of
cutting iron and other hard substances, even when it is heated to dull
redness, say 600° C. (1112° F.) by the friction of the work which it is
doing. Hence a machinist can cut steel or iron nearly six times as fast
with a lathe tool of this steel as with one of carbon steel, because
with the latter the cutting speed must be so slow that the cutting tool
is not heated by the friction above say 250° C. (482° F.), lest it be
unduly softened or "tempered" (§ 29). This effect of chromium, tungsten
and carbon jointly consists essentially in raising the "tempering
temperature," i.e. that to which the metal, in which by suitable thermal
treatment the iron molecules have been brought to the allotropic [gamma]
or [beta] state or a mixture of both, can be heated without losing its
hardness through the escape of that iron into the [alpha] state. In
short, these elements seem to impede the allotropic change of the iron
itself. The composition of this steel is as follows:--

The usual limits. Apparently the best.
Carbon 0.32 to 1.28 0.68 to 0.67
Manganese 0.03 " 0.30 0.07 " 0.11
Chromium 2.23 " 7.02 5.95 " 5.47
Tungsten 9.25 " 25.45 17.81 " 18.19

39. _Impurities._--The properties of iron and steel, like those of most
of the metals, are profoundly influenced by the presence of small and
sometimes extremely small quantities of certain impurities, of which the
most important are phosphorus and sulphur, the former derived chiefly
from apatite (phosphate of lime) and other minerals which accompany the
iron ore itself, the latter from the pyrite found not only in most iron
ores but in nearly all coal and coke. All commercial iron and steel
contain more or less of both these impurities, the influence of which is
so strong that a variation of 0.01%, i.e. of one part in 10,000, of
either of them has a noticeable effect. The best tool steel should not
contain more than 0.02% of either, and in careful practice it is often
specified that the phosphorus and sulphur respectively shall not exceed
0.04 and 0.05% in the steel for important bridges, or 0.06 and 0.07% in
rail steel, though some very prudent engineers allow as much as .085% or
even 0.10% of phosphorus in rails.

40. The specific effect of _phosphorus_ is to make the metal cold-short,
i.e. brittle in the cold, apparently because it increases the size and
the sharpness of demarcation of the crystalline grains of which the mass
is made up. The specific effect of _sulphur_ is to make the metal
red-short, i.e. brittle, when at a red heat, by forming a network of
iron sulphide which encases these crystalline grains and thus plays the
part of a weak link in a strong chain.

41. _Oxygen_, probably dissolved in the iron as ferrous oxide FeO, also
makes the metal red-short.

42. _Manganese_ by itself rather lessens than increases the
malleableness and, indeed, the general merit of the metal, but it is
added intentionally, in quantities even as large as 1.5% to palliate the
effects of sulphur and oxygen. With sulphur it forms a sulphide which
draws together into almost harmless drops, instead of encasing the
grains of iron. With oxygen it probably forms manganous oxide, which is
less harmful than ferrous oxide. (See § 35.)

43. _Ores of Iron._--Even though the earth seems to be a huge iron
meteor with but a thin covering of rocks, the exasperating proneness of
iron to oxidize explains readily why this metal is only rarely found
native, except in the form of meteorites. They are four important iron
ores, magnetite, haematite, limonite and siderite, and one of less but
still considerable importance, pyrite or pyrites.

44. _Magnetite_, Fe3O4, contains 72.41% of iron. It crystallizes in
the cubical system, often in beautiful octahedra and rhombic
dodecahedra. It is black with a black streak. Its specific gravity is
5.2, and its hardness 5.5 to 6.5. It is very magnetic, and sometimes
polar.

45. _Haematite_, or red haematite, Fe2O3, contains 70% of iron. It
crystallizes in the rhombohedral system. Its colour varies from
brilliant bluish-grey to deep red. Its streak is always red. Its
specific gravity is 5.3 and its hardness 5.5 to 6.5.

46. _Limonite_, 2Fe2O3, 3H2O, contains 59.9% of iron. Its colour
varies from light brown to black. Its streak is yellowish-black, its
specific gravity 3.6 to 4.0, and its hardness 5 to 5.5. Limonite and
the related minerals, turgite, 2Fe2O3 + H2O, and göthite, Fe2O3 + H2O,
are grouped together under the term "brown haematite."

47. _Siderite_, or spathic iron ore, FeCO3, crystallizes in the
rhombohedral system and contains 48.28% of iron. Its colour varies
from yellowish-brown to grey. Its specific gravity is 3.7 to 3.9, and
its hardness 3.5 to 4.5. The clayey siderite of the British coal
measures is called "clay band," and that containing bituminous matter
is called "black band."

48. _Pyrite_, FeS2, contains 46.7% of iron. It crystallizes in the
cubic system, usually in cubes, pentagonal dodecahedra or octahedra,
often of great beauty and perfection. It is golden-yellow, with a
greenish or brownish-black streak. Its specific gravity is 4.83 to
5.2, its hardness 6 to 6.5. Though it contains far too much sulphur to
be used in iron manufacture without first being desulphurized, yet
great quantities of slightly cupriferous pyrite, after yielding nearly
all their sulphur in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, and most of
the remainder in the wet extraction of their copper, are then used
under the name of "blue billy" or "purple ore," as an ore of iron, a
use which is likely to increase greatly in importance with the gradual
exhaustion of the richest deposits of the oxidized ores.

49. _The Ores actually Impure._--As these five minerals actually exist
in the earth's crust they are usually more or less impure chemically,
and they are almost always mechanically mixed with barren mineral
matter, such as quartz, limestone and clay, collectively called "the
gangue." In some cases the iron-bearing mineral, such as magnetite or
haematite, can be separated from the gangue after crashing, either
mechanically or magnetically, so that the part thus enriched or
"concentrated" alone need be smelted.

50. _Geological Age._--The Archaean crystalline rocks abound in deposits
of magnetite and red haematite, many of them very large and rich. These
of course are the oldest of our ores, and from deposits of like age,
especially those of the more readily decomposed silicates, has come the
iron which now exists in the siderites and red and brown haematites of
the later geological formations.

51. _The World's Supply of Iron Ore._--The iron ores of the earth's
crust will probably suffice to supply our needs for a very long period,
perhaps indeed for many thousand years. It is true that an official
statement, which is here reproduced, given in 1905 by Professor
Tornebohm to the Swedish parliament, credited the world with only
10,000,000,000 tons of ore, and that, if the consumption of iron should
continue to increase hereafter as it did between 1893 and 1906, this
quantity would last only until 1946. How then can it be that there is a
supply for thousands of years? The two assertions are not to be
reconciled by pointing out that Professor Tornebohm underestimated, for
instance crediting the United States with only 1.1 billion tons, whereas
the United States Geological Survey's expert credits that country with
from ten to twenty times this quantity; nor by pointing out that only
certain parts of Europe and a relatively small part of North America
have thus far been carefully explored for iron ore, and that the rest of
these two continents and South America, Asia and Africa may reasonably
be expected to yield very great stores of iron, and that pyrite, one of
the richest and most abundant of ores, has not been included. Important
as these considerations are, they are much less important than the fact
that a very large proportion of the rocks of the earth's crust contain
more or less iron, and therefore are potential iron ores.

TABLE II.--_Professor Tornebohm's Estimate of the World's Ore Supply._

+--------------------+---------------+------------+------------+
| Country. | Workable | Annual | Annual |
| | Deposits. | Output. |Consumption.|
+--------------------+---------------+------------+------------+
| | tons. | tons. | tons. |
| United States | 1,100,000,000 | 35,000,000 | 35,000,000 |
| Great Britain | 1,000,000,000 | 14,000,000 | 20,000,000 |
| Germany | 2,200,000,000 | 21,000,000 | 24,000,900 |
| Spain | 500,000,000 | 8,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Russia and Finland | 1,500,000,000 | 4,000,000 | 6,000,000 |
| France | 1,500,000,000 | 6,000,000 | 8,000,000 |
| Sweden | 1,000,000,000 | 4,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Austria-Hungary | 1,200,000,000 | 3,000,000 | 4,000,000 |
| Other countries | | 5,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
+--------------------+---------------+------------+------------+
| Total |10,000,000,000 |100,000,000 |100,000,000 |
+--------------------+---------------+------------+------------+

_Note to Table._--Though this estimate seems to be near the truth as
regards the British ores, it does not credit the United States with
one-tenth, if indeed with one-twentieth, of their true quantity as
estimated by that country's Geological Survey in 1907.

52. _What Constitutes an Iron Ore._--Whether a ferruginous rock is or is
not ore is purely a question of current demand and supply. That is ore
from which there is reasonable hope that metal can be extracted with
profit, if not to-day, then within a reasonable length of time. Rock
containing 2½% of gold is ah extraordinarily rich gold ore; that with
2½% of copper is a profitable one to-day; that containing 2½% of iron is
not so to-day, for the sole reason that its iron cannot be extracted
with profit in competition with the existing richer ores. But it will
become a profitable ore as soon as the richer ore shall have been
exhausted. Very few of the ores which, are mined to-day contain less
than 25% of iron, and some of them contain over 60%. As these richest
ores are exhausted, poorer and poorer ones will be used, and the cost of
iron will increase progressively if measured either in units of the
actual energy used in mining and smelting it, or in its power of
purchasing animal and vegetable products, cotton, wool, corn, &c., the
supply of which is renewable and indeed capable of very great increase,
but probably not if measured in its power of purchasing the various
mineral products, e.g. the other metals, coal, petroleum and the
precious stones, of which the supply is limited. This is simply one
instance of the inevitable progressive increase in cost of the
irrecreatable mineral relatively to the recreatable animal and
vegetable. When, in the course of centuries, the exhaustion of richer
ores shall have forced us to mine, crush and concentrate mechanically or
by magnetism the ores which contain only 2 or 3% of iron, then the cost
of iron in the ore, measured in terms of the energy needed to mine and
concentrate it, will be comparable with the actual cost of the copper in
the ore of the copper-mines of to-day. But, intermediate in richness
between these two extremes, the iron ores mined to-day and these 2 and
3% ores, there is an incalculably great quantity of ore capable of
mechanical concentration, and another perhaps vaster store of ore which
we do not yet know how to concentrate mechanically, so that the day when
a pound of iron in the ore will cost as much as a pound of copper in the
ore costs to-day is immeasurably distant.

53. _Future Cost of Ore._--The cost of iron ore is likely to rise much
less rapidly than that of coal, because the additions to our known
supply are likely to be very much greater in the case of ore than in
that of coal, for the reason that, while rich and great iron ore beds
may exist anywhere, those of coal are confined chiefly to the
Carboniferous formation, a fact which has led to the systematic survey
and measurement of this formation in most countries. In short, a very
large part of the earth's coal supply is known and measured, but its
iron ore supply is hardly to be guessed. On the other hand, the cost of
iron ore is likely to rise much faster than that of the potential
aluminium ores, clay and its derivatives, because of the vast extent and
richness of the deposits of this latter class. It is possible that, at
some remote day, aluminium, or one of its alloys, may become the great
structural material, and iron be used chiefly for those objects for
which it is especially fitted, such as magnets, springs and cutting
tools.

In passing, it may be noted that the cost of the ore itself forms a
relatively small part of the cost even of the cruder forms of steel,
hardly a quarter of the cost of such simple products as rails, and an
insignificant part of the cost of many most important finished
objects, such as magnets, cutting tools, springs and wire, for which
iron is almost indispensable. Thus, if the use of ores very much
poorer than those we now treat, and the need of concentrating them
mechanically, were to double the cost of a pound of iron in the
concentrated ore ready for smelting, that would increase the cost of
rails by only one quarter. Hence the addition to the cost of finished
steel objects which is due to our being forced to use progressively
poorer and poorer ores is likely to be much less than the addition due
to the progressive rise in the cost of coal and in the cost of labour,
because of the ever-rising scale of living. The effect of each of
these additions will be lessened by the future improvements in
processes of manufacture, and more particularly by the progressive
replacement of that ephemeral source of energy, coal, by the secular
sources, the winds, waves, tides, sunshine, the earth's heat and,
greatest of all, its momentum.

54. _Ore Supply of the Chief Iron-making Countries._--The United States
mine nearly all of their iron ores, Austria-Hungary, Russia and France
mine the greater part of theirs, but none of these countries exports
much ore. Great Britain and Germany, besides mining a great deal of ore,
still have to import much from Spain, Sweden and in the case of Germany
from Luxemburg, although, because of the customs arrangement between
these last two countries, this importation is not usually reported.
Belgium imports nearly all of its ore, while Sweden and Spain export
most of the ore which they mine.

55. _Great Britain_ has many valuable ore beds, some rich in iron,
many of them near to beds of coal and to the sea-coast, to canals or
to navigable rivers. They extend from Northamptonshire to near
Glasgow. About two-thirds of the ore mined is clayey siderite. In 1905
the Cleveland district in North Yorkshire supplied 41% of the total
British product of iron ores; Lincolnshire, 14.8%; Northamptonshire,
13.9%; Leicestershire, 4.7%; Cumberland, 8.6%; North Lancashire, 2.7%;
Staffordshire, 6.1%; and Scotland, 5.7%. The annual production of
British iron ore reached 18,031,957 tons in 1882, but in 1905 it had
fallen to 14,590,703 tons, valued at £3,482,184. In addition
7,344,786 tons, or about half as much as was mined in Great Britain,
were imported, 78.5% of it from Spain. The most important British ore
deposit is the Lower Cleveland bed of oolitic siderite in the Middle
Lias, near Middlesborough. It is from 10 to 17 ft. thick, and its ore
contains about 30% of iron.

56. _Geographical Distribution of the British Works._--Most of the
British iron works lie in and near the important coal-fields in
Scotland between the mouth of the Clyde and the Forth, in Cleveland
and Durham, in Cumberland and Lancashire, in south Yorkshire,
Derbyshire, and Lincolnshire, in Staffordshire and Northamptonshire,
and in south Wales in spite of its lack of ore.

The most important group is that of Cleveland and Durham, which makes
about one-third of all the British pig iron. It has the great
Cleveland ore bed and the excellent Durham coal near tidewater at
Middlesbrough. The most important seat of the manufacture of cutlery
and the finer kinds of steel is at Sheffield.

57. The _United States_ have great deposits of ore in many different
places. The rich beds near Lake Superior, chiefly red haematite,
yielding at present about 55% of iron, are thought to contain between
1½ and 2 billion tons, and the red and brown haematites of the
southern states about 10 billion tons. The middle states, New York,
New Jersey and Pennsylvania, are known to have many great deposits of
rich magnetite, which supplied a very large proportion of the American
ores till the discovery of the very cheaply mined ores of Lake
Superior. In 1906 these latter formed 80% of the American production,
and the southern states supplied about 13% of it, while the rich
deposits of the middle states are husbanded in accordance with the law
that ore bodies are drawn on in the order of their apparent
profitableness.

The most important American iron-making district is in and about
Pittsburg, to whose cheap coal the rich Lake Superior ores are brought
nearly 1000 m., about four-fifths of the distance in the large ore
steamers of the Great Lakes. Chicago, nearer to the Lake ores, though
rather far from the Pittsburg coal-field, is a very important centre
for rail-making for the railroads of the western states. Ohio, the
Lake Erie end of New York State, eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland
have very important works, the ore for which comes in part from Lake
Superior and in part from Pennsylvania, New York and Cuba, and the
fuel from Pennsylvania and its neighbourhood. Tennessee and Alabama in
the south rely on southern ore and fuel.

58. _Germany_ gets about two-thirds of her total ore supply from the
great Jurassic "Minette" ore deposit of Luxemburg and Lorraine, which
reaches also into France and Belgium. In spite of its containing only
about 36% of iron, this deposit is of very great value because of its
great size, and of the consequent small cost of mining. It stretches
through an area of about 8 m. wide and 40 m. long, and in some places
it is nearly 60 ft. thick. There are valuable deposits also in
Siegerland and in many other parts of the country.

59. _Sweden_ has abundant, rich and very pure iron ores, but her lack
of coal has restricted her iron manufacture chiefly to the very purest
and best classes of iron and steel, in making which her thrifty and
intelligent people have developed very rare skill. The magnetite ore
bodies which supply this industry lie in a band about 180 m. long,
reaching from a little north of Stockholm westerly toward the
Norwegian frontier, between the latitudes 59° and 61° N. In Swedish
Lapland, near the Arctic circle, are the great Gellivara, Kirunavara
and Luossavara magnetite beds, among the largest in Europe. From these
beds, which in some parts are about 300 ft. thick, much ore is sent to
Germany and Great Britain.

60. _Other Countries._--Spain has large, rich and pure iron ore beds,
near both her northern and her southern sea coast. She exports about
90% of all the iron ore which she mines, most of it to England. France
draws most of her iron ore from her own part of the great Minette ore
deposit, and from those parts of it which were taken from her when she
lost Alsace and Lorraine. Russia's most valuable ore deposit is the
very large and easily mined one of Krivoi Rog in the south, from which
comes about half of the Russian iron ore. It is near the Donetz
coal-field, the largest in Europe. There are also important ore beds
in the Urals, near the border of Finland, and at the south of Moscow.
In Austria-Hungary, besides the famous Styrian Erzberg, with its
siderite ore bed about 450 ft. thick, there are cheaply mined but poor
and impure ores near Prague, and important ore beds in both northern
and southern Hungary. Algeria, Canada, Cuba and India have valuable
ore bodies.

61. _Richness of Iron Ores._--The American ores now mined are
decidedly richer than those of most European countries. To make a ton
of pig iron needs only about 1.9 tons of ore in the United States, 2
tons in Sweden and Russia, 2.4 tons in Great Britain and Germany, and
about 2.7 tons in France and Belgium, while about 3 tons of the native
British ores are needed per ton of pig iron.

62. _The general scheme of iron manufacture_ is shown diagrammatically
in fig. 6. To put the iron contained in iron ore into a state in which
it can be used as a metal requires essentially, first its deoxidation,
and second its separation from the other mineral matter, such as clay,
quartz, &c. with which it is found associated. These two things are done
simultaneously by heating and melting the ore in contact with coke,
charcoal or anthracite, in the iron blast furnace, from which issue
intermittently two molten streams, the iron now deoxidized and
incidentally carburized by the fuel with which it has been in contact,
and the mineral matter, now called "slag." This crude cast iron, called
"pig iron," may be run from the blast furnace directly into moulds,
which give the metal the final shape in which it is to be used in the
arts; but it is almost always either remelted, following path 1 of fig.
6, and then cast into castings of cast iron, or converted into wrought
iron or steel by purifying it, following path 2.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--General Scheme of Iron Manufacture.]

If it is to follow path 1, the castings into which it is made may be
either (a) grey or (b) chilled or (c) malleable. Grey iron castings
are made by remelting the pig iron either in a small shaft or "cupola"
furnace, or in a reverberatory or "air" furnace, with very little
change of chemical composition, and then casting it directly into
suitable moulds, usually of either "baked," i.e. oven-dried, or
"green," i.e. moist undried, sand, but sometimes of iron covered with
a refractory coating to protect it from being melted or overheated by
the molten cast iron. The general procedure in the manufacture of
chilled and of malleable castings has been described in §§ 30 and 31.

If the pig iron is to follow path 2, the purification which converts
it into wrought iron or steel consists chiefly in oxidizing and
thereby removing its carbon, phosphorus and other impurities, while it
is molten, either by means of the oxygen of atmospheric air blown
through it as in the Bessemer process, or by the oxygen of iron ore
stirred into it as in the puddling and Bell-Krupp processes, or by
both together as in the open hearth process.

On its way from the blast furnace to the converter or open hearth
furnace the pig iron is often passed through a great reservoir called
a "mixer," which acts also as an equalizer, to lessen the variation in
composition of the cast iron, and as a purifier, removing part of the
sulphur and silicon.

63. _Shaping and Adjusting Processes._--Besides these extraction and
purification processes there are those of adjustment and shaping. The
_adjusting processes_ adjust either the ultimate composition, e.g.
carburizing wrought iron by long heating in contact with charcoal
(cementation), or the proximate composition or constitution, as in the
hardening, tempering and annealing of steel already described (§§ 28,
29), or both, as in the process of making malleable cast iron (§ 31).
The _shaping processes_ include the _mechanical_ ones, such as rolling,
forging and wire-drawing, and the _remelting_ ones such as the crucible
process of melting wrought iron or steel in crucibles and casting it in
ingots for the manufacture of the best kinds of tool steel. Indeed, the
remelting of cast iron to make grey iron castings belongs here. This
classification, though it helps to give a general idea of the subject,
yet like most of its kind cannot be applied rigidly. Thus the crucible
process in its American form both carburizes and remelts, and the open
hearth process is often used rather for remelting than for purifying.

64. The _iron blast furnace_, a crude but very efficient piece of
apparatus, is an enormous shaft usually about 80 ft. high and 20 ft.
wide at its widest part. It is at all times full from top to bottom,
somewhat as sketched in figs. 7 and 8, of a solid column of lumps of
fuel, ore and limestone, which are charged through a hopper at the top,
and descend slowly as the lower end of the column is eaten off through
the burning away of its coke by means of very hot air or "blast" blown
through holes or "tuyeres" near the bottom or "hearth," and through the
melting away, by the heat thus generated, both of the iron itself which
has been deoxidized in its descent, and of the other minerals of the
ore, called the "gangue," which unite with the lime of the limestone and
the ash of the fuel to form a complex molten silicate called the
"cinder" or "slag."

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Section of Duquesne Blast Furnace.

GG, Flanges on the ore bucket;
HH, Fixed flanges on the top of the furnace;
J, Counterweighted false bell;
K, Main bell;
O, Tuyere;
P, Cinder notch;
RR´, Water cooled boxes;
S, Blast pipe;
T, Cable for allowing conical bottom of bucket to drop.]

[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Lower Part of the Blast Furnace.

Lumps of Coke [symbol]
Lumps* of Iron Ore [symbol]
Lumps* of Lime [symbol]
Drops of Slag [symbol]
Drops of Iron [symbol]
Layer of Molten Slag [symbol]
Layer of Molten Iron [symbol]

* The ore and lime actually exist here in powder. They are shown in
lump form because of the difficulty of presenting to the eye their
powdered state.]

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Method of transferring charge from bucket to
main charging bell, without permitting escape of furnace gas (lettering
as in fig. 7).]

Interpenetrating this descending column of solid ore, limestone and
coke, there is an upward rushing column of hot gases, the atmospheric
nitrogen of the blast from the tuyeres, and the carbonic oxide from the
combustion of the coke by that blast. The upward ascent of the column of
gases is as swift as the descent of the solid charge is slow. The former
occupies but a very few seconds, the latter from 12 to 15 hours.

In the upper part of the furnace the carbonic oxide deoxidizes the iron
oxide of the ore by such reactions as xCO + FeO_x = Fe + xCO2. Part of
the resultant carbonic acid is again deoxidized to carbonic oxide by the
surrounding fuel, CO2 + C = 2CO, and the carbonic oxide thus formed
deoxidizes more iron oxide, &c. As indicated in fig. 7, before the iron
ore has descended very far it has given up nearly the whole of its
oxygen, and thus lost its power of oxidizing the rising carbonic oxide,
so that from here down the atmosphere of the furnace consists
essentially of carbonic oxide and nitrogen.

But the transfer of heat from the rising gases to the sinking solids,
which has been going on in the upper part of the furnace, continues as
the solid column gradually sinks downward to the hearth, till at the
"fusion level" (A in fig. 7) the solid matter has become so hot that the
now deoxidized iron melts, as does the slag as fast as it is formed by
the union of its three constituents, the gangue, the lime resulting from
the decomposition of the limestone and the ash of the fuel. Hence from
this level down the only solid matter is the coke, in lumps which are
burning rapidly and hence shrinking, while between them the molten iron
and slag trickle, somewhat as sketched in fig. 8, to collect in the
hearth in two layers as distinct as water and oil, the iron below, the
slag above.

As they collect, the molten iron is drawn off at intervals through a
hole A (fig. 8), temporarily stopped with clay, at the very bottom, and
the slag through another hole a little higher up, called the "cinder
notch." Thus the furnace may be said to have four zones, those of (1)
deoxidation, (2) heating, (3) melting, and (4) collecting, though of
course the heating is really going on in all four of them.

In its slow descent the deoxidized iron nearly saturates itself with
carbon, of which it usually contains between 3.5 and 4%, taking it in
part from the fuel with which it is in such intimate contact, and in
part from the finely divided carbon deposited within the very lumps of
ore, by the reaction 2CO = C + CO2. This carburizing is an indispensable
part of the process, because through it alone can the iron be made
fusible enough to melt at the temperature which can be generated in the
furnace, and only when liquid can it be separated readily and completely
from the slag. In fact, the molten iron is heated so far above its
melting point that, instead of being run at once into pigs as is usual,
it may, without solidifying, be carried even several miles in large
clay-lined ladles to the mill where it is to be converted into steel.

65. The _fuel_ has, in addition to its duties of deoxidizing and
carburizing the iron and yielding the heat needed for melting both the
iron and slag, the further task of desulphurizing the iron, probably by
the reaction FeS + CaO + C = Fe + CaS + CO.

The desulphurizing effect of this transfer of the sulphur from union
with iron to union with calcium is due to the fact that, whereas iron
sulphide dissolves readily in the molten metallic iron, calcium
sulphide, in the presence of a slag rich in lime, does not, but by
preference enters the slag, which may thus absorb even as much as 3%
of sulphur. This action is of great importance whether the metal is to
be used as cast iron or is to be converted into wrought iron or steel.
In the former case there is no later chance to remove sulphur, a
minute quantity of which does great harm by leading to the formation
of cementite instead of graphite and ferrite, and thus making the
cast-iron castings too hard to be cut to exact shape with steel tools;
in the latter case the converting or purifying processes, which are
essentially oxidizing ones, though they remove the other impurities,
carbon, silicon, phosphorus and manganese, are not well adapted to
desulphurizing, which needs rather deoxidizing conditions, so as to
cause the formation of calcium sulphide, than oxidizing ones.

66. The _duty of the limestone_ (CaCO3) is to furnish enough lime to
form with the gangue of the ore and the ash of the fuel a lime silicate
or slag of such a composition (1) that it will melt at the temperature
which it reaches at about level A, of fig. 7, (2) that it will be fluid
enough to run out through the cinder notch, and (3) that it will be rich
enough in lime to supply that needed for the desulphurizing reaction FeS
+ CaO + C = Fe + CaS + CO. In short, its duty is to "flux" the gangue
and ash, and wash out the sulphur.

67. In order that the _slag_ shall have these properties its composition
usually lies between the following limits: silica, 26 to 35%; lime,
_plus_ 1.4 times the magnesia, 45 to 55%; alumina, 5 to 20%. Of these
the silica and alumina are chiefly those which the gangue of the ore and
the ash of the fuel introduce, whereas the lime is that added
intentionally to form with these others a slag of the needed physical
properties.

Thus the more gangue the ore contains, i.e. the poorer it is in iron,
the more limestone must in general be added, and hence the more slag
results, though of course an ore the gangue of which initially
contains much lime and little silica needs a much smaller addition of
limestone than one of which the gangue is chiefly silica. Further, the
more sulphur there is to remove, the greater must be the quantity of
slag needed to dissolve it as calcium sulphide. In smelting the rich
Lake Superior ores the quantity of slag made was formerly as small as
28% of that of the pig iron, whereas in smelting the Cleveland ores of
Great Britain it is usually necessary to make as much as 1½ tons of
slag for each ton of iron.

68. _Shape and Size of the Blast-Furnace._--Large size has here, as in
most metallurgical operations, not only its usual advantage of economy
of installation, labour and administration per unit of product, but the
further very important one that it lessens the proportion which the
outer heat-radiating and hence heat-wasting surface bears to the whole.
The limits set to the furnace builder's natural desire to make his
furnace as large as possible, and its present shape (an obtuse inverted
cone set below an acute upright one, both of them truncated), have been
reached in part empirically, and in part by reasoning which is open to
question, as indeed are the reasons which will now be offered reservedly
for both size and shape.

First the width at the tuyeres (fig. 7) has generally been limited to
about 12½ ft. by the fear that, if it were greater, the blast would
penetrate so feebly to the centre that the difference in conditions
between centre and circumference would be so great as to cause serious
unevenness of working. Of late furnaces have been built even as wide as
17 ft. in the hearth, and it may prove that a width materially greater
than 12½ ft. can profitably be used. With the width at the bottom thus
limited, the furnace builder naturally tries to gain volume as rapidly
as possible by flaring or "battering" his walls outwards, i.e. by making
the "bosh" or lower part of his furnace an inverted cone as obtuse as is
consistent with the free descent of the solid charge. In practice a
furnace may be made to work regularly if its boshes make an angle of
between 73° and 76° with the horizontal, and we may assume that one
element of this regularity is the regular easy sliding of the charge
over this steep slope. A still steeper one not only gives less available
room, but actually leads to irregular working, perhaps because it unduly
favours the passage of the rising gas along the walls instead of up and
through the charge, and thus causes the deoxidation of the central core
to lag behind that of the periphery of the column, with the consequence
that this central core arrives at the bottom incompletely deoxidized.

In the very swift-running furnaces of the Pittsburg type this outward
flare of the boshes ceases at about 12 ft. above the tuyeres, and is
there reversed, as in fig. 7, so that the furnace above this is a very
acute upright cone, the walls of which make an angle of about 4° with
the vertical, instead of an obtuse inverted cone.

In explanation or justification of this it has been said that a much
easier descent must be provided above this level than is needed below
it. Below this level the solid charge descends easily, because it
consists of coke alone or nearly alone, and this in turn because the
temperature here is so high as to melt not only the iron now
deoxidized and brought to the metallic state, but also the gangue of
the ore and the limestone, which here unite to form the molten slag,
and run freely down between the lumps of coke. This coke descends
freely even through this fast-narrowing space, because it is perfectly
solid and dry without a trace of pastiness. But immediately above this
level the charge is relatively viscous, because here the temperature
has fallen so far that it is now at the melting or formation point of
the slag, which therefore is pasty, liable to weld the whole mass
together as so much tar would, and thus to obstruct the descent of the
charge, or in short to "scaffold."

The reason why at this level the walls must form an upright instead of
an inverted cone, why the furnace must widen downward instead of
narrowing, is, according to some metallurgists, that this shape is
needed in order that, in spite of the pastiness of the slag in this
formative period of incipient fusion, this layer may descend freely as
the lower part of the column is gradually eaten away. To this very
plausible theory it may be objected that in many slow-running
furnaces, which work very regularly and show no sign of scaffolding,
the outward flare of the boshes continues (though steepened) far above
this region of pastiness, indeed nearly half-way to the top of the
furnace. This proves that the regular descent of the material in its
pasty state can take place even in a space which is narrowing
downwards. To this objection it may in turn be answered that, though
this degree of freedom of descent may suffice for a slow-running
furnace, particularly if the slag is given such a composition that it
passes quickly from the solid state to one of decided fluidity, yet it
is not enough for swift-running ones, especially if the composition of
the slag is such that, in melting, it remains long in a very sticky
condition. In limiting the diameter at the tuyeres to 12½ ft., the
height of the boshes to one which will keep their upper end below the
region of pastiness, and their slope to one over which the burning
coke will descend freely, we limit the width of the furnace at the top
of the boshes and thus complete the outline of the lower part of the
furnace.

The height of the furnace is rarely as great as 100 ft., and in the
belief of many metallurgists it should not be much more than 80 ft.
There are some very evident disadvantages of excessive height; for
instance, that the weight of an excessively high column of solid coke,
ore and limestone tends to crush the coke and jam the charge in the
lower and narrowing part of the furnace, and that the frictional
resistance of a long column calls for a greater consumption of power for
driving the blast up through it. Moreover, this resistance increases
much more rapidly than the height of the furnace, even if the rapidity
with which the blast is forced through is constant; and it still further
increases if the additional space gained by lengthening the furnace is
made useful by increasing proportionally the rate of production, as
indeed would naturally be done, because the chief motive for gaining
this additional space is to increase production.

The reason why the frictional resistance would be further increased is
the very simple one that the increase in the rate of production
implies directly a corresponding increase in the quantity of blast
forced through, and hence in the velocity of the rising gases, because
the chemical work of the blast furnace needs a certain quantity of
blast for each ton of iron made. In short, to increase the rate of
production by lengthening the furnace increases the frictional
resistance of the rising gases, both by increasing their quantity and
hence their velocity and by lengthening their path.

Indeed, one important reason for the difficulties in working very high
furnaces, e.g. those 100 ft. high, may be that this frictional
resistance becomes so great as actually to interrupt the even descent
of the charge, parts of which are at times suspended like a ball in
the rising jet of a fountain, to fall perhaps with destructive
violence when some shifting condition momentarily lessens the
friction. We see how powerful must be the lifting effect of the rising
gases when we reflect that their velocity in a 100 ft. furnace rapidly
driven is probably at least as great as 2000 ft. per minute, or that
of a "high wind." Conceive these gases passing at this great velocity
through the narrow openings between the adjoining lumps of coke and
ore. Indeed, the velocity must be far greater than this where the edge
or corner of one lump touches the side of another, and the only room
for the passage of this enormous quantity of gas is that left by the
roughness and irregularity of the individual lumps.

The furnace is made rather narrow at the top or "stock line," in order
that the entering ore, fuel and flux may readily be distributed evenly.
But extreme narrowness would not only cause the escaping gases to move
so swiftly that they would sweep much of the fine ore out of the
furnace, but would also throw needless work on the blowing engines by
throttling back the rising gases, and would lessen unduly the space
available for the charge in the upper part of the furnace.

From its top down, the walls of the furnace slope outward at an angle of
between 3° and 8°, partly in order to ease the descent of the charge,
here impeded by the swelling of the individual particles of ore caused
by the deposition within them of great quantities of fine carbon, by the
reaction of 2CO = C + CO2. To widen it more abruptly would indeed
increase the volume of the furnace, but would probably lead to grave
irregularities in the distribution of the gas and charge, and hence in
the working of the furnace.

When we have thus fixed the height of the furnace, its diameter at its
ends, and the slope of its upper and lower parts, we have completed its
outline closely enough for our purpose here.

69. _Hot Blast and Dry Blast._--On its way from the blowing engine to
the tuyeres of the blast-furnace, the blast, i.e. the air forced in for
the purpose of burning the fuel, is usually pre-heated, and in some of
the most progressive works is dried by Gayley's refrigerating process.
These steps lead to a saving of fuel so great as to be astonishing at
first sight--indeed in case of Gayley's blast-drying process incredible
to most writers, who proved easily and promptly to their own
satisfaction that the actual saving was impossible. But the explanation
is really so very simple that it is rather the incredulity of these
writers that is astonishing. In the hearth of the blast furnace the heat
made latent by the fusion of the iron and slag must of course be
supplied by some body which is itself at a temperature above the melting
point of these bodies, which for simplicity of exposition we may call
the critical temperature of the blast-furnace process, because heat will
flow only from a hotter to a cooler object. Much the same is true of the
heat needed for the deoxidation of the silica, SiO2 + 2C = Si + 2CO2.
Now the heat developed by the combustion of coke to carbonic oxide with
cold air containing the usual quantity of moisture, develops a
temperature only slightly above this critical point; and it is only the
heat represented by this narrow temperature-margin that is available for
doing this critical work of fusion and deoxidation. That is the crux of
the matter. If by pre-heating the blast we add to the sum of the heat
available; or if by drying it we subtract from the work to be done by
that heat the quantity needed for decomposing the atmospheric moisture;
or if by removing part of its nitrogen we lessen the mass over which the
heat developed has to be spread--if by any of these means we raise the
temperature developed by the combustion of the coke, it is clear that we
increase the proportion of the total heat which is available for this
critical work in exactly the way in which we should increase the
proportion of the water of a stream, initially 100 in. deep, which
should flow over a waste weir initially 1 in. beneath the stream's
surface, by raising the upper surface of the water 10 in. and thus
increasing the depth of the water to 110 in. Clearly this raising the
level of the water by 10% increases tenfold, or by 1000%, the volume of
water which is above the level of the weir.

The special conditions of the blast-furnace actually exaggerate the
saving due to this widening of the available temperature-margin, and
beyond this drying the blast does great good by preventing the serious
irregularities in working the furnace caused by changes in the
humidity of the air with varying weather.

70. _Means of Heating the Blast._--After the ascending column of gases
has done its work of heating and deoxidizing the ore, it still
necessarily contains so much carbonic oxide, usually between 20 and 26%
by weight, that it is a very valuable fuel, part of which is used for
raising steam for generating the blast itself and driving the rolling
mill engines, &c., or directly in gas engines, and the rest for heating
the blast. This heating was formerly done by burning part of the gases,
after their escape from the furnace top, in a large combustion chamber,
around a series of cast iron pipes through which the blast passed on its
way from the blowing engine to the tuyeres. But these "iron pipe stoves"
are fast going out of use, chiefly because they are destroyed quickly if
an attempt is made to heat the blast above 1000° F. (538° C.), often a
very important thing. In their place the regenerative stoves of the
Whitwell and Cowper types (figs. 10 and 11) are used. With these the
regular temperature of the blast at some works is about 1400° F. (760°
C.), and the usual blast temperature lies between 900° and 1200° F.
(480° and 650° C.).

Like the Siemens furnace, described in § 99, they have two distinct
phases: one, "on gas," during which part of the waste gas of the
blast-furnace is burnt within the stove, highly heating the great
surface of brickwork which for that purpose is provided within it; the
other, "on wind," during which the blast is heated by passing it back
over these very surfaces which have thus been heated. They are
heat-filters or heat-traps for impounding the heat developed by the
combustion of the furnace gas, and later returning it to the blast. Each
blast-furnace is now provided with three or even four of these stoves,
which collectively may be nearly thrice as large as the furnace itself.
At any given time one of these is "on wind" and the others "on gas."

[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Whitwell Hot-Blast Stove, as modified by H.
Kennedy. When "on wind," the cold blast is forced in at A, and passes
four times up and down, as shown by means of unbroken arrows, escaping
as hot-blast at B. When "on gas," the gas and air enter at the bottom of
each of the three larger vertical chambers, pass once up through the
stove, and escape at the top, as shown by means of broken arrows. Hence
this is a four-pass stove when on wind, but a one-pass stove when on
gas.]

The Whitwell stove (fig. 10), by means of the surface of several
fire-brick walls, catches in one phase the heat evolved by the burning
gas as it sweeps through, and in the other phase returns that heat to
the entering blast as it sweeps through from left to right. In the
original Whitwell stove, which lacks the chimneys shown at the top of
fig. 10, both the burning gas and the blast pass up and down
repeatedly. In the H. Kennedy modification, shown in fig. 10, the gas
and air in one phase enter at the bottom of all three of the large
vertical chambers, burn in passing upwards, and escape at once at the
top, as shown by the broken arrows. In the other phase the cold blast,
forced in at A, passes four times up and down, as shown by the
unbroken arrows, and escapes as hot blast at B. This, then, is a
"one-pass" stove when on gas but a "four-pass" one when on wind.

The Cowper stove (Fig. 11) differs from the Whitwell (1) in having not
a series of flat smooth walls, but a great number of narrow vertical
flues, E, for the alternate absorption and emission of the heat, with
the consequence that, for given outside dimensions, it offers about
one-half more heating surface than the true Whitwell stove; and (2) in
that the gas and the blast pass only once up and once down through it,
instead of twice up and twice down as in the modern true Whitwell
stoves. As regards frictional resistance, this smaller number of
reversals of direction compensates in a measure for the smaller area
of the Cowper flues. The large combustion chamber B permits thorough
combustion of the gas.

71. _Preservation of the Furnace Walls._--The combined fluxing and
abrading action of the descending charge tends to wear away the lining
of the furnace where it is hottest, which of course is near its lower
end, thus changing its shape materially, lessening its efficiency, and
in particular increasing its consumption of fuel. The walls, therefore,
are now made thin, and are thoroughly cooled by water, which circulates
through pipes or boxes bedded in them. James Gayley's method of cooling,
shown in fig. 7, is to set in the brickwork walls several horizontal
rows of flat water-cooled bronze boxes, RR', extending nearly to the
interior of the furnace, and tapered so that they can readily be
withdrawn and replaced in case they burn through. The brickwork may wear
back to the front edges of these boxes, or even, as is shown at R´, a
little farther. But in the latter case their edges still determine the
effective profile of the furnace walls because the depressions at the
back of these edges become filled with carbon and scoriaceous matter
when the furnace is in normal working. Each of these rows, of which five
are shown in fig. 7, consists of a great number of short segmental
boxes.

72. _Blast-furnace Gas Engines._--When the gas which escapes from the
furnace top is used in gas engines it generates about four times as much
power as when it is used for raising steam. It has been calculated that
the gas from a pair of old-fashioned blast-furnaces making 1600 tons of
iron per week would in this way yield some 16,000 horse-power in excess
of their own needs, and that all the available blast-furnace gas in the
United States would develop about 1,500,000 horse-power, to develop
which by raising steam would need about 20,000,000 tons of coal a year.
Of this power about half would be used at the blast-furnaces themselves,
leaving 750,000 horse-power available for driving the machinery of the
rolling mills, &c.

[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Diagram of Cowper Hot-Blast Stove at Duquesne.
(After J. Kennedy.) Broken arrows show the path of the gas and air while
the stove is "on gas," and solid arrows that of the blast while it is
"on wind."

A, Entrance for blast-furnace gas.
B, B, Combustion chamber.
C, Chimney valve.
D, Cold blast main.
E, Hollow bricks.]

This use of the gas engine is likely to have far-reaching results. In
order to utilize this power, the converting mill, in which the pig
iron is converted into steel, and the rolling mills must adjoin the
blast-furnace. The numerous converting mills which treat pig iron made
at a distance will now have the crushing burden of providing in other
ways the power which their rivals get from the blast-furnace, in
addition to the severe disadvantage under which they already suffer,
of wasting the initial heat of the molten cast iron as it runs from
the blast-furnace. Before its use in the gas engine, the blast-furnace
gas has to be freed carefully from the large quantity of fine ore dust
which it carries in suspension.

73. _Mechanical Appliances._--Moving the raw materials and the products:
In order to move economically the great quantity of materials which
enter and issue from each furnace daily, mechanical appliances have at
many works displaced hand labour wholly, and indeed that any of the
materials should be shovelled by hand is not to be thought of in
designing new works.

The arrangement at the Carnegie Company's Duquesne works (fig. 12) may
serve as an example of modern methods of handling. The standard-gauge
cars which bring the ore and coke to Duquesne pass over one of three
very long rows of bins, A, B, and C (fig. 12), of which A and B
receive the materials (ore, coke and limestone) for immediate use,
while C receives those to be stored for winter use. From A and B the
materials are drawn as they are needed into large buckets D standing
on cars, which carry them to the foot of the hoist track EE, up which
they are hoisted to the top of the furnace. Arrived here, the material
is introduced into the furnace by an ingenious piece of mechanism
which completely prevents the furnace gas from escaping into the air.
The hoist-engineer in the house F at the foot of the furnace, when
informed by means of an indicator that the bucket has arrived at the
top, lowers it so that its flanges GG (fig. 7) rest on the
corresponding fixed flanges HH, as shown in fig. 9. The farther
descent of the bucket being thus arrested, the special cable T is now
slackened, so that the conical bottom of the bucket drops down,
pressing down by its weight the counter-weighted false cover J of the
furnace, so that the contents of the bucket slide down into the space
between this false cover and the true charging bell, K. The special
cable T is now tightened again, and lifts the bottom of the bucket so
as both to close it and to close the space between J and K, by
allowing J to rise back to its initial place. The bucket then descends
along the hoist-track to make way for the next succeeding one, and K
is lowered, dropping the charge into the furnace. Thus some 1700 tons
of materials are charged daily into each of these furnaces without
being shovelled at all, running by gravity from bin to bucket and from
bucket to furnace, and being hoisted and charged into the furnace by a
single engineer below, without any assistance or supervision at the
furnace-top.

[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Diagram of the Carnegie Blast-Furnace Plant
at Duquesne, Pa.

A and B, Bins for stock for immediate use.
C, Receiving bin for winter stock pile.
D, D, Ore bucket.
EE, Hoist-track.
F, Hoist-engine house.
LL, Travelling crane commanding stock pile.
M, Ore bucket receiving ore for stock pile.
M', Bucket removing ore from stock pile.
N, N, N, Ladles carrying the molten cast iron to the works, where
it is converted into steel by the open hearth process.]

The winter stock of materials is drawn from the left-hand row of bins,
and distributed over immense stock piles by means of the great crane
LL (fig. 12), which transfers it as it is needed to the row A of bins,
whence it is carried to the furnace, as already explained.

74. _Casting the Molten Pig Iron._--The molten pig iron at many works is
still run directly from the furnace into sand or iron moulds arranged in
a way which suggests a nursing litter of pigs; hence the name "pig
iron." These pigs are then usually broken by hand. The Uehling casting
machine (fig. 13) has displaced this method in many works. It consists
essentially of a series of thin-walled moulds, BB, carried by endless
chains past the lip of a great ladle A. This pours into them the molten
cast iron which it has just received directly from the blast-furnace. As
the string of moulds, each thus containing a pig, moves slowly forward,
the pigs solidify and cool, the more quickly because in transit they are
sprayed with water or even submerged in water in the tank EE. Arrived at
the farther sheave C, the now cool pigs are dumped into a railway car.

[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Diagram of Pig-Casting Machine.

A, Ladle bringing the cast iron from the blast-furnace.
BB, The moulds.
C, D, Sheaves carrying the endless chain of moulds.
EE, Tank in which the moulds are submerged.
F, Car into which the cooled pigs are dropped.
G, Distributing funnel.]

Besides a great saving of labour, only partly offset by the cost of
repairs, these machines have the great merit of making the management
independent of a very troublesome set of labourers, the hand
pig-breakers, who were not only absolutely indispensable for every
cast and every day, because the pig iron must be removed promptly to
make way for the next succeeding cast of iron, but very difficult to
replace because of the great physical endurance which their work
requires.

75. _Direct Processes for making Wrought Iron and Steel._--The present
way of getting the iron of the ore into the form of wrought iron and
steel by first making cast iron and then purifying it, i.e. by first
putting carbon and silicon into the iron and then taking them out again
at great expense, at first sight seems so unreasonably roundabout that
many "direct" processes of extracting the iron without thus charging it
with carbon and silicon have been proposed, and some of them have at
times been important. But to-day they have almost ceased to exist.

That the blast-furnace process must be followed by a purifying one,
that carburization must at once be undone by decarburization, is
clearly a disadvantage, but it is one which is far out weighed by five
important incidental advantages. (1) The strong deoxidizing action
incidental to this carburizing removes the sulphur easily and cheaply,
a thing hardly to be expected of any direct process so far as we can
see. (2) The carburizing incidentally carburizes the brickwork of the
furnace, and thus protects it against corrosion by the molten slag.
(3) It protects the molten iron against reoxidation, the greatest
stumbling block in the way of the direct processes hitherto. (4) This
same strong deoxidizing action leads to the practically complete
deoxidation and hence extraction of the iron. (5) In that carburizing
lowers the melting point of the iron greatly, it lowers somewhat the
temperature to which the mineral matter of the ore has to be raised in
order that the iron may be separated from it, because this separation
requires that both iron and slag shall be very fluid. Indeed, few if
any of the direct processes have attempted to make this separation, or
to make it complete, leaving it for some subsequent operation, such as
the open hearth process.

In addition, the blast-furnace uses a very cheap source of energy,
coke, anthracite, charcoal, and even certain kinds of raw bituminous
coal, and owing first to the intimacy of contact between this fuel and
the ore on which it works, and second to the thoroughness of the
transfer of heat from the products of that fuel's combustion in their
long upward journey through the descending charge, even this cheap
energy is used most effectively.

Thus we have reasons enough why the blast-furnace has displaced all
competing processes, without taking into account its further advantage
in lending itself easily to working on an enormous scale and with
trifling consumption of labour, still further lessened by the general
practice of transferring the molten cast iron in enormous ladles into
the vessels in which its conversion into steel takes place.
Nevertheless, a direct process may yet be made profitable under
conditions which specially favour it, such as the lack of any fuel
suitable for the blast-furnace, coupled with an abundance of cheap
fuel suitable for a direct process and of cheap rich ore nearly free
from sulphur.

76. The chief difficulty in the way of modifying the blast-furnace
process itself so as to make it accomplish what the direct processes aim
at, by giving its product less carbon and silicon than pig iron as now
made contains, is the removal of the sulphur. The processes for
converting cast iron into steel can now remove phosphorus easily, but
the removal of sulphur in them is so difficult that it has to be
accomplished for the most part in the blast-furnace itself. As
desulphurizing seems to need the direct and energetic action of carbon
on the molten iron itself, and as molten iron absorbs carbon most
greedily, it is hard to see how the blast-furnace is to desulphurize
without carburizing almost to saturation, i.e. without making cast iron.

77. _Direct Metal and the Mixer._--Until relatively lately the cast iron
for the Bessemer and open-hearth processes was nearly always allowed to
solidify in pigs, which were next broken up by hand and remelted at
great cost. It has long been seen that there would be a great saving if
this remelting could be avoided and "direct metal," i.e. the molten cast
iron direct from the blast-furnace, could be treated in the conversion
process. The obstacle is that, owing to unavoidable irregularities in
the blast-furnace process, the silicon- and sulphur-content of the cast
iron vary to a degree and with an abruptness which are inconvenient for
any conversion process and intolerable for the Bessemer process. For the
acid variety of this process, which does not remove sulphur, this most
harmful element must be held below a limit which is always low, though
it varies somewhat with the use to which the steel is to be put.
Further, the point at which the process should be arrested is recognized
by the appearance of the flame which issues from the converter's mouth,
and variations in the silicon-content of the cast iron treated alter
this appearance, so that the indications of the flame become confusing,
and control over the process is lost. Moreover, the quality of the
resultant steel depends upon the temperature of the process, and this in
turn depends upon the proportion of silicon, the combustion of which is
the chief source of the heat developed. Hence the importance of having
the silicon-content constant. In the basic Bessemer process, also,
unforeseen variations in the silicon-content are harmful, because the
quantity of lime added should be just that needed to neutralize the
resultant silica and the phosphoric acid and no more. Hence the
importance of having the silicon-content uniform. This uniformity is now
given by the use of the "mixer" invented by Captain W. R. Jones.

This "mixer" is a great reservoir into which successive lots of molten
cast iron from all the blast-furnaces available are poured, forming a
great molten mass of from 200 to 750 tons. This is kept molten by a
flame playing above it, and successive lots of the cast iron thus mixed
are drawn off, as they are needed, for conversion into steel by the
Bessemer or open-hearth process. An excess of silicon or sulphur in the
cast iron from one blast-furnace is diluted by thus mixing this iron
with that from the other furnaces. Should several furnaces
simultaneously make iron too rich in silicon, this may be diluted by
pouring into the mixer some low-silicon iron melted for this purpose in
a cupola furnace. This device not only makes the cast iron much more
uniform, but also removes much of its sulphur by a curious slow
reaction. Many metals have the power of dissolving their own oxides and
sulphides, but not those of other metals. Thus iron, at least highly
carburetted, i.e. cast iron, dissolves its own sulphide freely, but not
that of either calcium or manganese. Consequently, when we deoxidize
calcium in the iron blast-furnace, it greedily absorbs the sulphur which
has been dissolved in the iron as iron sulphide, and the sulphide of
calcium thus formed separates from the iron. In like manner, if the
molten iron in the mixer contains manganese, this metal unites with the
sulphur present, and the manganese sulphide, insoluble in the iron,
slowly rises to the surface, and as it reaches the air, its sulphur
oxidizes to sulphurous acid, which escapes. Further, an important part
of the silicon may be removed in the mixer by keeping it very hot and
covering the metal with a rather basic slag. This is very useful if the
iron is intended for either the basic Bessemer or the basic open-hearth
process, for both of which silicon is harmful.

78. _Conversion or Purifying Processes for converting Cast Iron into
Steel or Wrought Iron._--As the essential difference between cast iron
on one hand and wrought iron and steel on the other is that the former
contains necessarily much more carbon, usually more silicon, and often
more phosphorus that are suitable or indeed permissible in the latter
two, the chief work of all these conversion processes is to remove the
excess of these several foreign elements by oxidizing them to carbonic
oxide CO, silica SiO2, and phosphoric acid P2O5, respectively. Of these
the first escapes immediately as a gas, and the others unite with iron
oxide, lime, or other strong base present to form a molten silicate or
silico-phosphate called "cinder" or "slag," which floats on the molten
or pasty metal. The ultimate source of the oxygen may be the air, as in
the Bessemer process, or rich iron oxide as in the puddling process, or
both as in the open-hearth process; but in any case iron oxide is the
chief immediate source, as is to be expected, because the oxygen of the
air would naturally unite in much greater proportion with some of the
great quantity of iron offered to it than with the small quantity of
these impurities. The iron oxide thus formed immediately oxidizes these
foreign elements, so that the iron is really a carrier of oxygen from
air to impurity. The typical reactions are something like the following:
Fe3O4 + 4C = 4CO + 3Fe; Fe3O4 + C = 3FeO + CO; 2P + 5Fe3O4 = 12FeO +
3FeO,P2O5; Si + 2Fe3O4 = 3FeO,SiO2 + 3FeO. Beside this their chief and
easy work of oxidizing carbon, silicon and phosphorus, the conversion
processes have the harder task of removing sulphur, chiefly by
converting it into calcium sulphide, CaS, or manganous sulphide, MnS,
which rise to the top of the molten metal and there enter the overlying
slag, from which the sulphur may escape by oxidizing to the gaseous
compound, sulphurous acid, SO2.

79. In the _puddling process_ molten cast iron is converted into wrought
iron, i.e. low-carbon slag-bearing iron, by oxidizing its carbon,
silicon and phosphorus, by means of iron oxide stirred into it as it
lies in a thin shallow layer in the "hearth" or flat basin of a
reverberatory furnace (fig. 14), itself lined with iron ore. As the iron
oxide is stirred into the molten metal laboriously by the workman or
"puddler" with his hook or "rabble," it oxidizes the silicon to silica
and the phosphorus to phosphoric acid, and unites with both these
products, forming with them a basic iron silicate rich in phosphorus,
called "puddling" or "tap cinder." It oxidizes the carbon also, which
escapes in purple jets of burning carbonic oxide. As the melting point
of the metal is gradually raised by the progressive decarburization, it
at length passes above the temperature of the furnace, about 1400° C.,
with the consequence that the metal, now below its melting point,
solidifies in pasty grains, or "comes to nature." These grains the
puddler welds together by means of his rabble into rough 80-lb. balls,
each like a sponge of metallic iron particles with its pores filled with
the still molten cinder. These balls are next worked into merchantable
shape, and the cinder is simultaneously expelled in large part, first by
hammering them one at a time under a steam hammer (fig. 37) or by
squeezing them, and next by rolling them. The squeezing is usually done
in the way shown in fig. 15.

[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Puddling Furnace.]

[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Plan of Burden's Excentric Revolving Squeezer
for Puddled Balls.]

Here BB is a large fixed iron cylinder, corrugated within, and C an
excentric cylinder, also corrugated, which, in turning to the right,
by the friction of its corrugated surface rotates the puddled ball D
which has just entered at A, so that, turning around its own axis, it
travels to the right and is gradually changed from a ball into a
bloom, a rough cylindrical mass of white hot iron, still dripping with
cinder. This bloom is immediately rolled down into a long flat bar,
called "muck bar," and this in turn is cut into short lengths which,
piled one on another, are reheated and again rolled down, sometimes
with repeated cutting, piling and re-rolling, into the final shape in
which it is actually to be used. But, roll and re-roll as often as we
like, much cinder remains imbedded in the iron, in the form of threads
and rods drawn out in the direction of rolling, and of course
weakening the metal in the transverse direction.

80. _Machine Puddling._--The few men who have, and are willing to
exercise, the great strength and endurance which the puddler needs when
he is stirring the pasty iron and balling it up, command such high
wages, and with their little 500-lb. charges turn out their iron so
slowly, that many ways of puddling by machinery have been tried. None
has succeeded permanently, though indeed one offered by J. P. Roe is not
without promise. The essential difficulty has been that none of them
could subdivide the rapidly solidifying charge into the small balls
which the workman dexterously forms by hand, and that if the charge is
not thus subdivided but drawn as a single ball, the cinder cannot be
squeezed out of it thoroughly enough.

81. _Direct Puddling._--In common practice the cast iron as it runs from
the blast-furnace is allowed to solidify and cool completely in the form
of pigs, which are then graded by their fracture, and remelted in the
puddling furnace itself. At Hourpes, in order to save the expense of
this remelting, the molten cast iron as it comes from the blast-furnace
is poured directly into the puddling furnace, in large charges of about
2200 lb., which are thus about four times as large as those of common
puddling furnaces. These large charges are puddled by two gangs of four
men each, and a great saving in fuel and labour is effected.

Attractive as are these advances in puddling, they have not been
widely adopted, for two chief reasons: First, owners of puddling works
have been reluctant to spend money freely in plant for a process of
which the future is so uncertain, and this unwillingness has been the
more natural because these very men are in large part the more
conservative fraction, which has resisted the temptation to abandon
puddling and adopt the steel-making processes. Second, in puddling
iron which is to be used as a raw material for making very fine steel
by the crucible process, quality is the thing of first importance.
Now in the series of operations, the blast-furnace, puddling and
crucible processes, through which the iron passes from the state of
ore to that of crucible tool steel, it is so difficult to detect just
which are the conditions essential to excellence in the final product
that, once a given procedure has been found to yield excellent steel,
every one of its details is adhered to by the more cautious
ironmasters, often with surprising conservatism. Buyers of certain
excellent classes of Swedish iron have been said to object even to the
substitution of electricity for water-power as a means of driving the
machinery of the forge. In case of direct puddling and the use of
larger charges this conservatism has some foundation, because the
established custom of allowing the cast iron to solidify gives a
better opportunity of examining its fracture, and thus of rejecting
unsuitable iron, than is afforded in direct puddling. So, too, when
several puddlers are jointly responsible for the thoroughness of their
work, as happens in puddling large charges, they will not exercise
such care (nor indeed will a given degree of care be so effective) as
when responsibility for each charge rests on one man.

82. The _removal of phosphorus_, a very important duty of the puddling
process, requires that the cinder shall be "basic," i.e. that it shall
have a great excess of the strong base, ferrous oxide, FeO, for the
phosphoric acid to unite with, lest it be deoxidized by the carbon of
the iron as fast as it forms, and so return to the iron, following the
general rule that oxidized bodies enter the slag and unoxidized ones the
metallic iron. But this basicity implies that for each part of the
silica or silicic acid which inevitably results from the oxidation of
the silicon of the pig iron, the cinder shall contain some three parts
of iron oxide, itself a valuable and expensive substance. Hence, in
order to save iron oxide the pig iron used should be nearly free from
silicon. It should also be nearly free from sulphur, because of the
great difficulty of removing this element in the puddling process. But
the strong deoxidizing conditions needed in the blast-furnace to remove
sulphur tend strongly to deoxidize silica and thus to make the pig iron
rich in silicon.

83. The _"refinery process"_ of fitting pig iron for the puddling
process by removing the silicon without the carbon, is sometimes used
because of this difficulty in making a pig iron initially low in both
sulphur and silicon. In this process molten pig iron with much silicon
but little sulphur has its silicon oxidized to silica and thus slagged
off, by means of a blast of air playing on the iron through a blanket of
burning coke which covers it. The coke thus at once supplies by its
combustion the heat needed for melting the iron and keeping it hot, and
by itself dissolving in the molten metal returns carbon to it as fast as
this element is burnt out by the blast, so that the "refined" cast iron
which results, though still rich in carbon and therefore easy to melt in
the puddling process, has relatively little silicon.

84. In the _Bessemer or "pneumatic" process_, which indeed might be
called the "fuel-less" process, molten pig iron is converted into steel
by having its carbon, silicon and manganese, and often its phosphorus
and sulphur, oxidized and thus removed by air forced through it in so
many fine streams and hence so rapidly that the heat generated by the
oxidation of these impurities suffices in and by itself, unaided by
burning any other fuel, not only to keep the iron molten, but even to
raise its temperature from a point initially but little above the
melting point of cast iron, say 1150° to 1250° C., to one well above the
melting point of the resultant steel, say 1500° C. The "Bessemer
converter" or "vessel" (fig. 16) in which this wonderful process is
carried out is a huge retort, lined with clay, dolomite or other
refractory material, hung aloft and turned on trunnions, DD, through the
right-hand one of which the blast is carried to the gooseneck E, which
in turn delivers it to the tuyeres Q at the bottom.

There are two distinct varieties of this process, the original
undephosphorizing or "acid" Bessemer process, so called because the
converter is lined with acid materials, i.e. those rich in silicic acid,
such as quartz and clay, and because the slag is consequently acid, i.e.
siliceous; and the dephosphorizing or "Thomas" or "basic Bessemer"
process, so called because the converter is lined with basic materials,
usually calcined dolomite, a mixture of lime and magnesia, bound
together with tar, and because the slag is made very basic by adding
much lime to it. In the basic Bessemer process phosphorus is readily
removed by oxidation, because the product of its oxidation, phosphoric
acid, P2O5, in the presence of an excess of base forms stable phosphates
of lime and iron which pass into the slag, making it valuable as an
artificial manure. But this dephosphorization by oxidation can be
carried out only in the case slag is basic. If it is acid, i.e. if it
holds much more than 20% of so powerful an acid as silica, then the
phosphoric acid has so feeble a hold on the base in the slag that it is
immediately re-deoxidized by the carbon of the metal, or even by the
iron itself, P2O5 + 5Fe = 2P + 5FeO, and the resultant deoxidized
phosphorus immediately recombines with the iron. Now in an acid-lined
converter the slag is necessarily acid, because even an initially basic
slag would immediately corrode away enough of the acid lining to make
itself acid. Hence phosphorus cannot be removed in an acid-lined
converter. Though all this is elementary to-day, not only was it
unknown, indeed unguessed, at the time of the invention of the Bessemer
process, but even when, nearly a quarter of a century later, a young
English metallurgical chemist, Sidney Gilchrist Thomas (1850-1885),
offered to the British Iron and Steel Institute a paper describing his
success in dephosphorizing by the Bessemer process with a basic-lined
converter and a basic slag, that body rejected it.

[Illustration: FIG. 16.--12-15 ton Bessemer Converter.

A, Trunnion-ring. O, Tuyere-plate.
B, Main shell. P, False plate.
C, Upper part of shell. Q, Tuyeres.
D, Trunnions. R, Keys holding lid of tuyere-box.
E, Goose-neck. S, Refractory lining.
F, Tuyere-box. U, Key-link holding bottom.
N, Lid of tuyere-box.]

[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Bessemer Converter, turned down in position to
receive and discharge the molten metal.]

85. In carrying out the acid Bessemer process, the converter, preheated
to about 1200° C. by burning coke in it, is turned into the position
shown in fig. 17, and the charge of molten pig iron, which sometimes
weighs as much as 20 tons, is poured into it through its mouth. The
converter is then turned upright into the position shown in fig. 16, so
that the blast, which has been let on just before this, entering through
the great number of tuyere holes in the bottom, forces its way up
through the relatively shallow layer of iron, throwing it up within the
converter as a boiling foam, and oxidizing the foreign elements so
rapidly that in some cases their removal is complete after 5 minutes.
The oxygen of the blast having been thus taken up by the molten metal,
its nitrogen issues from the mouth of the converter as a pale
spark-bearing cone. Under normal conditions the silicon oxidizes first.
Later, when most of it has been oxidized, the carbon begins to oxidize
to carbonic oxide, which in turn burns to carbonic acid as it meets the
outer air on escaping from the mouth of the converter, and generates a
true flame which grows bright, then brilliant, then almost blinding, as
it rushes and roars, then "drops," i.e. shortens and suddenly grows
quiet when the last of the carbon has burnt away, and no flame-forming
substance remains. Thus may a 20-ton charge of cast iron be converted
into steel in ten minutes.[4] It is by the appearance of the flame that
the operator or "blower" knows when to end the process, judging by its
brilliancy, colour, sound, sparks, smoke and other indications.

86. _Recarburizing._--The process may be interrupted as soon as the
carbon-content has fallen to that which the final product is to have, or
it may be continued till nearly the whole of the carbon has been burned
out, and then the needed carbon may be added by "recarburizing." The
former of these ways is followed by the very skilful and intelligent
blowers in Sweden, who, with the temperature and all other conditions
well under control, and with their minds set on the quality rather than
on the quantity of their product, can thus make steel of any desired
carbon-content from 0.10 to 1.25%. But even with all their skill and
care, while the carbon-content is still high the indications of the
flame are not so decisive as to justify them in omitting to test the
steel before removing it from the converter, as a check on the accuracy
of their blowing. The delay which this test causes is so unwelcome that
in all other countries the blower continues the blow until
decarburization is nearly complete, because of the very great accuracy
with which he can then read the indications of the flame, an accuracy
which leaves little to be desired. Then, without waiting to test the
product, he "recarburizes" it, i.e. adds enough carbon to give it the
content desired, and then immediately pours the steel into a great
clay-lined casting ladle by turning the converter over, and through a
nozzle in the bottom of this ladle pours the steel into its ingot
moulds. In making very low-carbon steel this recarburizing proper is not
needed; but in any event a considerable quantity of manganese must be
added unless the pig iron initially contains much of that metal, in
order to remove from the molten steel the oxygen which it has absorbed
from the blast, lest this make it redshort. If the carbon-content is not
to be raised materially, this manganese is added in the form of
preheated lumps of "ferro-manganese," which contains about 80% of
manganese, 5% of carbon and 15% of iron, with a little silicon and other
impurities. If, on the other hand, the carbon-content is to be raised,
then carbon and manganese are usually added together in the form of a
manganiferous molten pig iron, called spiegeleisen, i.e. "mirror-iron,"
from the brilliancy of its facets, and usually containing somewhere
about 12% of manganese and 4% of carbon, though the proportion between
these two elements has to be adjusted so as to introduce the desired
quantity of each into the molten steel. Part of the carbon of this
spiegeleisen unites with the oxygen occluded in the molten iron to form
carbonic oxide, and again a bright flame, greenish with manganese,
escapes from the converter.

87. _Darby's Process._--Another way of introducing the carbon is Darby's
process of throwing large paper bags filled with anthracite, coke or
gas-carbon into the casting ladle as the molten steel is pouring into
it. The steel dissolves the carbon of this fuel even more quickly than
water would dissolve salt under like conditions.

88. _Bessemer and Mushet._--Bessemer had no very wide knowledge of
metallurgy, and after overcoming many stupendous difficulties he was
greatly embarrassed by the brittleness or "redshortness" of his steel,
which he did not know how to cure. But two remedies were quickly
offered, one by the skilful Swede, Göransson, who used a pig iron
initially rich in manganese and stopped his blow before much oxygen had
been taken up; and the other by a British steel maker, Robert Mushet,
who proposed the use of the manganiferous cast iron called spiegeleisen,
and thereby removed the only remaining serious obstacle to the rapid
spread of the process.

From this many have claimed for Mushet a part almost or even quite
equal to Bessemer's in the development of the Bessemer process, even
calling it the "Bessemer-Mushet process." But this seems most unjust.
Mushet had no such exclusive knowledge of the effects of manganese
that he alone could have helped Bessemer; and even if nobody had then
proposed the use of spiegeleisen, the development of the Swedish
Bessemer practice would have gone on, and, the process thus
established and its value and great economy thus shown in Sweden, it
would have been only a question of time how soon somebody would have
proposed the addition of manganese. Mushet's aid was certainly
valuable, but not more than Göransson's, who, besides thus offering a
preventive of redshortness, further helped the process on by raising
its temperature by the simple expedient of further subdividing the
blast, thus increasing the surface of contact between blast and metal,
and thus in turn hastening the oxidation. The two great essential
discoveries were first that the rapid passage of air through molten
cast iron raised its temperature above the melting point of low-carbon
steel, or as it was then called "malleable iron," and second that this
low-carbon steel, which Bessemer was the first to make in important
quantities, was in fact an extraordinarily valuable substance when
made under proper conditions.

89. _Source of Heat._--The carbon of the pig iron, burning as it does
only to carbonic oxide within the converter, does not by itself generate
a temperature high enough for the needs of the process. The oxidation of
manganese is capable of generating a very high temperature, but it has
the very serious disadvantage of causing such thick clouds of smoky
oxide of manganese as to hide the flame from the blower, and prevent him
from recognizing the moment when the blow should be ended. Thus it comes
about that the temperature is regulated primarily by adjusting the
quantity of silicon in the pig iron treated, 1(1/4)% of this element
usually sufficing. If any individual blow proves to be too hot, it may
be cooled by throwing cold "scrap" steel such as the waste ends of rails
and other pieces, into the converter, or by injecting with the blast a
little steam, which is decomposed by the iron by the endothermic
reaction H2O + Fe = 2H + FeO. If the temperature is not high enough, it
is raised by managing the blast in such a way as to oxidize some of the
iron itself permanently, and thus to generate much heat.

90. The _basic_ or dephosphorizing variety of the Bessemer process,
called in Germany the "Thomas" process, differs from the acid process in
four chief points: (1) that its slag is made very basic and hence
dephosphorizing by adding much lime to it; (2) that the lining is basic,
because an acid lining would quickly be destroyed by such a basic slag;
(3) that the process is arrested not at the "drop of the flame" (§85)
but at a predetermined length of time after it; and (4) that phosphorus
instead of silicon is the chief source of heat. Let us consider these in
turn.

91. The _slag_, in order that it may have such an excess of base that
this will retain the phosphoric acid as fast as it is formed by the
oxidation of the phosphorus of the pig iron, and prevent it from being
re-deoxidized and re-absorbed by the iron, should, according to von
Ehrenwerth's rule which is generally followed, contain enough lime to
form approximately a tetra-calcic silicate, 4CaO,SiO2 with the silica
which results from the oxidation of the silicon of the pig iron and
tri-calcic phosphate, 3CaO,P2O5, with the phosphoric acid which forms.
The danger of this "rephosphorization" is greatest at the end of the
blow, when the recarburizing additions are made. This lime is charged in
the form of common quicklime, CaO, resulting from the calcination of a
pure limestone, CaCO3, which should be as free as possible from silica.
The usual composition of this slag is iron oxide, 10 to 16%; lime, 40 to
50%; magnesia, 5%; silica, 6 to 9%; phosphoric acid, 16 to 20%. Its
phosphoric acid makes it so valuable as a fertilizer that it is a most
important by-product. In order that the phosphoric acid may be the more
fully liberated by the humic acid, &c., of the earth, a little silicious
sand is mixed with the still molten slag after it has been poured off
from the molten steel. The slag is used in agriculture with no further
preparation, save very fine grinding.

92. The _lining of the converter_ is made of 90% of the mixture of lime
and magnesia which results from calcining dolomite, (Ca,Mg)CO3, at a
very high temperature, and 10% of coal tar freed from its water by
heating. This mixture may be rammed in place, or baked blocks of it may
be laid up like a masonry wall. In either case such a lining is
expensive, and has but a short life, in few works more than 200 charges,
and in some only 100, though the silicious lining of the acid converter
lasts thousands of charges. Hence, for the basic process, spare
converters must be provided, so that there may always be some of them
re-lining, either while standing in the same place as when in use, or,
as in Holley's arrangement, in a separate repair house, to which these
gigantic vessels are removed bodily.

93. _Control of the Basic Bessemer Process._--The removal of the greater
part of the phosphorus takes place after the carbon has been oxidized
and the flame has consequently "dropped," probably because the lime,
which is charged in solid lumps, is taken up by the slag so slowly that
not until late in the operation does the slag become so basic as to be
retentive of phosphoric acid. Hence in making steel rich in carbon it is
not possible, as in the acid Bessemer process, to end the operation as
soon as the carbon in the metal has fallen to the point sought, but it
is necessary to remove practically all of the carbon, then the
phosphorus, and then "recarburize," i.e. add whatever carbon the steel
is to contain. The quantity of phosphorus in the pig iron is usually
known accurately, and the dephosphorization takes place so regularly
that the quantity of air which it needs can be foretold closely. The
blower therefore stops the process when he has blown a predetermined
quantity of air through, counting from the drop of the flame; but as a
check on his forecast he usually tests the blown metal before
recarburizing it.

94. _Source of Heat._--Silicon cannot here be used as the chief source
of heat as it is in the acid Bessemer process, because most of the heat
which its oxidation generates is consumed in heating the great
quantities of lime needed for neutralizing the resultant silica.
Fortunately the phosphorus, turned from a curse into a blessing,
develops by its oxidation the needed temperature, though the fact that
this requires at least 1.80% of phosphorus limits the use of the
process, because there are few ores which can be made to yield so
phosphoric a pig iron. Further objections to the presence of silicon are
that the resultant silica (1) corrodes the lining of the converter, (2)
makes the slag froth so that it both throws much of the charge out and
blocks up the nose of the converter, and (3) leads to rephosphorization.
These effects are so serious that until very lately it was thought that
the silicon could not safely be much in excess of 1%. But Massenez and
Richards, following the plan outlined by Pourcel in 1879, have found
that even 3% of silicon is permissible if, by adding iron ore, the
resultant silica is made into a fluid slag, and if this is removed in
the early cool part of the process, when it attacks the lining of the
converter but slightly. Manganese to the extent of 1.80% is desired as a
means of preventing the resultant steel from being redshort, i.e.
brittle at a red or forging heat. The pig iron should be as nearly free
as possible from sulphur, because the removal of any large quantity of
this injurious element in the process itself is both difficult and
expensive.

95. The _car casting_ system deserves description chiefly because it
shows how, when the scale of operations is as enormous as it is in the
Bessemer process, even a slight simplification and a slight
heat-saving may be of great economic importance.

Whatever be the form into which the steel is to be rolled, it must in
general first be poured from the Bessemer converter in which it is
made into a large clay-lined ladle, and thence cast in vertical
pyramidal ingots. To bring them to a temperature suitable for rolling,
these ingots must be set in heating or soaking furnaces (§ 125), and
this should be done as soon as possible after they are cast, both to
lessen the loss of their initial heat, and to make way for the next
succeeding lot of ingots, a matter of great importance, because the
charges of steel follow each other at such very brief intervals. A
pair of working converters has made 4958 charges of 10 tons each, or a
total of 50,547 tons, in one month, or at an average rate of a charge
every seven minutes and twenty-four seconds throughout every working
day. It is this extraordinary rapidity that makes the process so
economical and determines the way in which its details must be carried
out. Moreover, since the mould acts as a covering to retard the loss
of heat, it should not be removed from the ingot until just before the
latter is to be placed in its soaking furnace. These conditions are
fulfilled by the car casting system of F. W. Wood, of Sparrows Point,
Md., in which the moulds, while receiving the steel, stand on a train
of cars, which are immediately run to the side of the soaking furnace.
Here, as soon as the ingots have so far solidified that they can be
lifted without breaking, their moulds are removed and set on an
adjoining train of cars, and the ingots are charged directly into the
soaking furnace. The mould-train now carries its empty moulds to a
cooling yard, and, as soon as they are cool enough to be used again,
carries them back to the neighbourhood of the converters to receive a
new lot of steel. In this system there is for each ingot and each
mould only one handling in which it is moved as a separate unit, the
mould from one train to the other, the ingot from its train into the
furnace. In the other movements, all the moulds and ingots of a given
charge of steel are grouped as a train, which is moved as a unit by a
locomotive. The difficulty in the way of this system was that, in
pouring the steel from ladle to mould, more or less of it occasionally
spatters, and these spatterings, if they strike the rails or the
running gear of the cars, obstruct and foul them, preventing the
movement of the train, because the solidified steel is extremely
tenacious. But this cannot be tolerated, because the economy of the
process requires extreme promptness in each of its steps. On account
of this difficulty the moulds formerly stood, not on cars, but
directly on the floor of a casting pit while receiving the molten
steel. When the ingots had so far solidified that they could be
handled, the moulds were removed and set on the floor to cool, the
ingots were set on a car and carried to the soaking furnace, and the
moulds were then replaced in the casting pit. Here each mould and each
ingot was handled as a separate unit twice, instead of only once as in
the car casting system; the ingots radiated away great quantities of
heat in passing naked from the converting mill to the soaking
furnaces, and the heat which they and the moulds radiated while in the
converting mill was not only wasted, but made this mill, open-doored
as it was, so intolerably hot, that the cost of labour there was
materially increased. Mr Wood met this difficulty by the simple device
of so shaping the cars that they completely protect both their own
running gear and the track from all possible spattering, a device
which, simple as it is, has materially lessened the cost of the steel
and greatly increased the production. How great the increase has been,
from this and many other causes, is shown in Table III.

TABLE III.--_Maximum Production of Ingots by a Pair of American
Converters._

Gross Tons per Week.
1870 254
1880 3,433
1889 8,549
1899 (average for a month) 11,233
1903 15,704

Thus in thirty-three years the rate of production per pair of vessels
increased more than sixty-fold. The production of European Bessemer
works is very much less than that of American. Indeed, the whole
German production of acid Bessemer steel in 1899 was at a rate but
slightly greater than that here given for one pair of American
converters; and three pairs, if this rate were continued, would make
almost exactly as much steel as all the sixty-five active British
Bessemer converters, acid and basic together, made in 1899.

96. _Range in Size of Converters._--In the Bessemer process, and
indeed in most high-temperature processes, to operate on a large scale
has, in addition to the usual economies which it offers in other
industries, a special one, arising from the fact that from a large hot
furnace or hot mass in general a very much smaller proportion of its
heat dissipates through radiation and like causes than from a smaller
body, just as a thin red-hot wire cools in the air much faster than a
thick bar equally hot. Hence the progressive increase which has
occurred in the size of converters, until now some of them can treat a
20-ton charge, is not surprising. But, on the other hand, when only a
relatively small quantity of a special kind of steel is needed, very
much smaller charges, in some cases weighing even less than half a
ton, have been treated with technical success.

97. _The Bessemer Process for making Steel Castings._--This has been
particularly true in the manufacture of steel castings, i.e. objects
usually of more or less intricate shape, which are cast initially in
the form in which they are to be used, instead of being forged or
rolled to that form from steel cast originally in ingots. For making
castings, especially those which are so thin and intricate that, in
order that the molten steel may remain molten long enough to run into
the thin parts of the mould, it must be heated initially very far
above its melting-point, the Bessemer process has a very great
advantage in that it can develop a much higher temperature than is
attainable in either of its competitors, the crucible and the
open-hearth processes. Indeed, no limit has yet been found to the
temperature which can be reached, if matters are so arranged that not
only the carbon and silicon of the pig iron, but also a considerable
part of the metallic iron which is the iron itself, are oxidized by
the blast; or if, as in the Walrand-Legenisel modification, after the
combustion of the initial carbon and silicon of the pig iron has
already raised the charge to a very high temperature, a still further
rise of temperature is brought about by adding more silicon in the
form of ferro-silicon, and oxidizing it by further blowing. But in the
crucible and the open-hearth processes the temperature attainable is
limited by the danger of melting the furnace itself, both because some
essential parts of it, which, unfortunately, are of a destructible
shape, are placed most unfavourably in that they are surrounded by the
heat on all sides, and because the furnace is necessarily hotter than
the steel made within it. But no part of the Bessemer converter is of
a shape easily affected by the heat, no part of it is exposed to the
heat on more than one side, and the converter itself is necessarily
cooler than the metal within it, because the heat is generated within
the metal itself by the combustion of its silicon and other calorific
elements. In it the steel heats the converter, whereas in the
open-hearth and crucible processes the furnace heats the steel.

98. The _open-hearth process_ consists in making molten steel out of pig
or cast iron and "scrap," i.e. waste pieces of steel and iron melted
together on the "open hearth," i.e. the uncovered basin-like bottom of a
reverberatory furnace, under conditions of which fig. 18 may give a
general idea. The conversion of cast iron into steel, of course,
consists in lessening its content of the several foreign elements,
carbon, silicon, phosphorus, &c. The open-hearth process does this by
two distinct steps: (1) by oxidizing and removing these elements by
means of the flame of the furnace, usually aided by the oxygen of light
charges of iron ore, and (2) by diluting them with scrap steel or its
equivalent. The "pig and ore" or "Siemens" variety of the process works
chiefly by oxidation, the "pig and scrap" or "Siemens-Martin" variety
chiefly by dilution, sometimes indeed by extreme dilution, as when 10
parts of cast iron are diluted with 90 parts of scrap. Both varieties
may be carried out in the basic and dephosphorizing way, i.e. in
presence of a basic slag and in a basic- or neutral-lined furnace; or in
the acid and undephosphorizing way, in presence of an acid, i.e.
silicious slag, and in a furnace with a silicious lining.

[Illustration: FIG. 18.--Open-Hearth Process.

Half Section showing condition of charge when boiling very gently.

Half Section showing condition of charge when boiling violently during
oreing.]

The charge may be melted down on the "open hearth" itself, or, as in the
more advanced practice, the pig iron may be brought in the molten state
from the blast furnace in which it is made. Then the furnaceman,
controlling the decarburization and purification of the molten charge by
his examination of test ingots taken from time to time, gradually
oxidizes and so removes the foreign elements, and thus brings the metal
simultaneously to approximately the composition needed and to a
temperature far enough above its present melting-point to permit of its
being cast into ingots or other castings. He then pours or taps the
molten charge from the furnace into a large clay-lined casting ladle,
giving it the final additions of manganese, usually with carbon and
often with silicon, needed to give it exactly the desired composition.
He then casts it into its final form through a nozzle in the bottom of
the casting ladle, as in the Bessemer process.

The oxidation of the foreign elements must be very slow, lest the
effervescence due to the escape of carbonic oxide from the carbon of the
metal throw the charge out of the doors and ports of the furnace, which
itself must be shallow in order to hold the flame down close to the
charge. It is in large part because of this shallowness, which contrasts
so strongly with the height and roominess of the Bessemer converter,
that the process lasts hours where the Bessemer process lasts minutes,
though there is the further difference that in the open-hearth process
the transfer of heat from flame to charge through the intervening layer
of slag is necessarily slow, whereas in the Bessemer process the heat,
generated as it is in and by the metallic bath itself, raises the
temperature very rapidly. The slowness of this rise of the temperature
compels us to make the removal of the carbon slow for a very simple
reason. That removal progressively raises the melting-point of the
metal, after line Aa of Fig. 1, i.e. makes the charge more and more
infusible; and this progressive rise of the melting-point of the charge
must not be allowed to outrun the actual rise of temperature, or in
other words the charge must always be kept molten, because once
solidified it is very hard to remelt. Thus the necessary slowness of the
heating up of the molten charge would compel us to make the removal of
the carbon slow, even if this slowness were not already forced on us by
the danger of having the charge froth so much as to run out of the
furnace.

The general plan of the open-hearth process was certainly conceived by
Josiah Marshall Heath in 1845, if not indeed by Réaumur in 1722, but for
lack of a furnace in which a high enough temperature could be generated
it could not be carried out until the development of the Siemens
regenerative gas furnace about 1860. It was in large part through the
efforts of Le Chatelier that this process, so long conceived, was at
last, in 1864, put into actual use by the brothers Martin, of Sireuil in
France.

99. _Siemens Open-Hearth Furnace._--These furnaces are usually
stationary, but in that shown in figs. 19 to 22 the working chamber or
furnace body, G of fig. 22, rotates about its own axis, rolling on the
rollers M shown in fig. 21. In this working chamber, a long
quasi-cylindrical vessel of brickwork, heated by burning within it
pre-heated gas with pre-heated air, the charge is melted and brought
to the desired composition and temperature. The working chamber indeed
is the furnace proper, in which the whole of the open-hearth process
is carried out, and the function of all the rest of the apparatus,
apart from the tilting mechanism, is simply to pre-heat the air and
gas, and to lead them to the furnace proper and thence to the chimney.
How this is done may be understood more easily if figs. 19 and 20 are
regarded for a moment as forming a single diagrammatic figure instead
of sections in different planes. The unbroken arrows show the
direction of the incoming gas and air, the broken ones the direction
of the escaping products of their combustion. The air and gas, the
latter coming from the gas producers or other source, arrive through H
and J respectively, and their path thence is determined by the
position of the reversing valves K and K´. In the position shown in
solid lines, these valves deflect the air and gas into the left-hand
pair of "regenerators" or spacious heat-transferring chambers. In
these, bricks in great numbers are piled loosely, in such a way that,
while they leave ample passage for the gas and air, yet they offer to
them a very great extent of surface, and therefore readily transfer to
them the heat which they have as readily sucked out of the escaping
products of combustion in the last preceding phase. The gas and air
thus separately pre-heated to about 1100° C. (2012° F.) rise thence as
two separate streams through the uptakes (fig. 22), and first mix at
the moment of entering the working chamber through the ports L and L´
(fig. 19). As they are so hot at starting, their combustion of course
yields a very much higher temperature than if they had been cold
before burning, and they form an enormous flame, which fills the great
working chamber. The products of combustion are sucked by the pull of
the chimney through the farther or right-hand end of this chamber, out
through the exit ports, as shown by the dotted arrows, down through
the right-hand pair of regenerators, heating to perhaps 1300° C. the
upper part of the loosely-piled masses of brickwork within them, and
thence past the valves K and K´ to the chimney-flue O. During this
phase the incoming gas and air have been withdrawing heat from the
left-hand regenerators, which have thus been cooling down, while the
escaping products of combustion have been depositing heat in the
right-hand pair of regenerators, which have thus been heating up.
After some thirty minutes this condition of things is reversed by
turning the valves K and K´ 90° into the positions shown in dotted
lines, when they deflect the incoming gas and air into the right-hand
regenerators, so that they may absorb in passing the heat which has
just been stored there; thence they pass up through the right-hand
uptakes and ports into the working chamber, where as before they mix,
burn and heat the charge. Thence they are sucked out by the
chimney-draught through the left-hand ports, down through the uptakes
and regenerators, here again meeting and heating the loose mass of
"regenerator" brickwork, and finally escape by the chimney-flue O.
After another thirty minutes the current is again reversed to its
initial direction, and so on. These regenerators are the essence of
the Siemens or "regenerative furnace"; they are heat-traps, catching
and storing by their enormous surface of brickwork the heat of the
escaping products of combustion, and in the following phase restoring
the heat to the entering air and gas. At any given moment one pair of
regenerators is storing heat, while the other is restoring it.

[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Section on EF through Furnace and Port Ends.]

[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Plan through Regenerators, Flues and
Reversing Valves.]

[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Section on CD through Body of Furnace.]

[Illustration: FIG. 22.--Section on AB through Uptake, Slag Pocket and
Regenerator.

Figs. 19 to 22.--Diagrammatic Sections of Tilting Siemens Furnace.
G, Furnace body.
H, Air supply.
J, Gas supply.
K, Air reversing valve.
K´, Gas reversing valve.
L, Air port.
L´, Gas port.
M, Rollers on which the furnace tilts.
N, Hydraulic cylinder for tilting the furnace.
O, Flue leading to chimney.
P, Slag pockets.
R, Charging boxes.
W, Water-cooled joints between furnace proper, G, and ports L, L´.]

The tilting working chamber is connected with the stationary ports L
and L´ by means of the loose water-cooled joint W in Campbell's
system, which is here shown. The furnace, resting on the rollers M, is
tilted by the hydraulic cylinder N. The slag-pockets P (fig. 22),
below the uptakes, are provided to catch the dust carried out of the
furnace proper by the escaping products of combustion, lest it enter
and choke the regenerators. Wellman's tilting furnace rolls on a fixed
rack instead of on rollers. By his charging system a charge of as much
as fifty tons is quickly introduced. The metal is packed by unskilled
labourers in iron boxes, R (fig. 21), standing on cars in the
stock-yard. A locomotive carries a train of these cars to the track
running beside a long line of open-hearth furnaces. Here the charging
machine lifts one box at a time from its car, pushes it through the
momentarily opened furnace door, and empties the metal upon the hearth
of the furnace by inverting the box, which it then replaces on its
car.

100. The proportion of pig to scrap used depends chiefly on the
relative cost of these two materials, but sometimes in part also on
the carbon content which the resultant steel is to have. Thus part at
least of the carbon which a high-carbon steel is to contain may be
supplied by the pig iron from which it is made. The length of the
process increases with the proportion of pig used. Thus in the
Westphalian pig and scrap practice, scrap usually forms 75 or even 80%
of the charge, and pig only from 20 to 25%, indeed only enough to
supply the carbon inevitably burnt out in melting the charge and
heating it up to a proper casting temperature; and here the charge
lasts only about 6 hours. In some British and Swedish "pig and ore"
practice (§ 98), on the other hand, little or no scrap is used, and
here the removal of the large quantity of carbon, silicon and
phosphorus prolongs the process to 17 hours. The common practice in
the United States is to use about equal parts of pig and scrap, and
here the usual length of a charge is about ll½ hours. The pig and ore
process is held back, first by the large quantity of carbon, and
usually of silicon and phosphorus, to be removed, and second by the
necessary slowness of their removal. The gangue of the ore increases
the quantity of slag, which separates the metal from the source of its
heat, the flame, and thus delays the rise of temperature; and the
purification by "oreing," i.e. by means of the oxygen of the large
lumps of cold iron ore thrown in by hand, is extremely slow, because
the ore must be fed in very slowly lest it chill the metal both
directly and because the reaction by which it removes the carbon of
the metal, Fe2O3 + C = 2FeO + CO, itself absorbs heat. Indeed, this
local cooling aggravates the frothing. A cold lump of ore chills the
slag immediately around it, just where its oxygen, reacting on the
carbon of the metal, generates carbonic oxide; the slag becomes cool,
viscous, and hence easily made to froth, just where the froth-causing
gas is evolved.

The length of these varieties of the process just given refers to the
basic procedure. The acid process goes on much faster, because in it
the heat insulating layer of slag is much thinner. For instance it
lasts only about 8½ hours when equal parts of pig and scrap are used,
instead of the 11½ hours of the basic process. Thus the actual cost of
conversion by the acid process is materially less than by the basic,
but this difference is more than outweighed in most places by the
greater cost of pig and scrap free enough from phosphorus to be used
in the undephosphorizing acid process.

101. _Three special varieties of the open-hearth process_, the
Bertrand-Thiel, the Talbot and the Monell, deserve notice. Bertrand
and Thiel oxidize the carbon of molten cast iron by pouring it into a
bath of molten iron which has first been oxygenated, i.e. charged with
oxygen, and superheated, in an open-hearth furnace. The two metallic
masses coalesce, and the reaction between the oxygen of one and the
carbon of the other is therefore extremely rapid because it occurs
throughout their depth, whereas in common procedure oxidation occurs
only at the upper surface of the bath of cast iron at its contact with
the overlying slag. Moreover, since local cooling, with its consequent
viscosity and tendency to froth, are avoided, the frothing is not
excessive in spite of the rapidity of the reaction. The oxygenated
metal is prepared by melting cast iron diluted with as much scrap
steel as is available, and oxidizing it with the flame and with iron
ore as it lies in a thin molten layer on the hearth of a large
open-hearth furnace; the thinness of the layer hastens the oxidation,
and the large size of the furnace permits considerable frothing. But
the oxygenated metal might be prepared easily in a Bessemer converter.

To enlarge the scale of operations makes strongly for economy in the
open-hearth process as in other high temperature ones. Yet the use of
an open-hearth furnace of very great capacity, say of 200 tons per
charge, has the disadvantage that such very large lots of steel,
delivered at relatively long intervals, are less readily managed in
the subsequent operations of soaking and rolling down to the final
shape, than smaller lots delivered at shorter intervals. To meet this
difficulty Mr B. Talbot carries on the process as a quasi-continuous
instead of an intermittent one, operating on 100-ton or 200-ton lots
of cast iron in such a way as to draw off his steel in 20-ton lots at
relatively short intervals, charging a fresh 20-ton lot of cast iron
to replace each lot of steel thus drawn off, and thus keeping the
furnace full of metal from Monday morning till Saturday night. Besides
minor advantages, this plan has the merit of avoiding an ineffective
period which occurs in common open-hearth procedure just after the
charge of cast iron has been melted down. At this time the slag is
temporarily rich in iron oxide and silica, resulting from the
oxidation of the iron and of its silicon as the charge slowly melts
and trickles down. Such a slag not only corrodes the furnace lining,
but also impedes dephosphorization, because it is irretentive of
phosphorus. Further, the relatively low temperature impedes
decarburization. Clearly, no such period can exist in the continuous
process.

At a relatively low temperature, say 1300° C., the phosphorus of cast
iron oxidizes and is removed much faster than its carbon, while at a
higher temperature, say 1500° C., carbon oxidizes in preference to
phosphorus. It is well to remove this latter element early, so that
when the carbon shall have fallen to the proportion which the steel is
to contain, the steel shall already be free from phosphorus, and so
ready to cast. In common open-hearth procedure, although the
temperature is low early in the process, viz. at the end of the
melting down, dephosphorization is then impeded by the temporary
acidity of the slag, as just explained. At the Carnegie works Mr
Monell gets the two dephosphorizing conditions, low temperature and
basicity of slag, early in the process, by pouring his molten but
relatively cool cast iron upon a layer of pre-heated lime and iron
oxide on the bottom of the open-hearth furnace. The lime and iron
oxide melt, and, in passing up through the overlying metal, the iron
oxide very rapidly oxidizes its phosphorus and thus drags it into the
slag as phosphoric acid. The ebullition from the formation of carbonic
oxide puffs up the resultant phosphoric slag enough to make most of it
run out of the furnace, thus both removing the phosphorus permanently
from danger of being later deoxidized and returned to the steel, and
partly freeing the bath of metal from the heat-insulating blanket of
slag. Yet frothing is not excessive, because the slag is not, as in
common practice, locally chilled and made viscous by cold lumps of
ore.

102. In the _duplex process_ the conversion of the cast iron into
steel is begun in the Bessemer converter and finished in the
open-hearth furnace. In the most promising form of this process an
acid converter and a basic open-hearth furnace are used. In the former
the silicon and part of the carbon are moved rapidly, in the latter
the rest of the carbon and the phosphorus are removed slowly, and the
metal is brought accurately to the proper temperature and composition.
The advantage of this combination is that, by simplifying the
conditions with which the composition of the pig iron has to comply,
it makes the management of the blast furnace easier, and thus lessens
the danger of making "misfit" pig iron, i.e. that which, because it is
not accurately suited to the process for which it is intended, offers
us the dilemma of using it in that process at poor advantage or of
putting it to some other use, a step which often implies serious loss.

For the acid Bessemer process the sulphur-content must be small and
the silicon-content should be constant; for the basic open-hearth
process the content of both silicon and sulphur should be small, a
thing difficult to bring about, because in the blast furnace most of
the conditions which make for small sulphur-content make also for
large silicon-content. In the acid Bessemer process the reason why the
sulphur-content must be small is that the process removes no sulphur;
and the reason why the silicon-content should be constant is that,
because silicon is here the chief source of heat, variations in its
content cause corresponding variations in the temperature, a most
harmful thing because it is essential to the good quality of the steel
that it shall be finished and cast at the proper temperature. It is
true that the use of the "mixer" (§ 77) lessens these variations, and
that there are convenient ways of mitigating their effects.
Nevertheless, their harm is not completely done away with. But if the
conversion is only begun in the converter and finished on the
open-hearth, then there is no need of regulating the temperature in
the converter closely, and variations in the silicon-content of the
pig iron thus become almost harmless in this respect. In the basic
open-hearth process, on the other hand, silicon is harmful because the
silica which results from its oxidation not only corrodes the lining
of the furnace but interferes with the removal of the phosphorus, an
essential part of the process. The sulphur-content should be small,
because the removal of this element is both slow and difficult. But if
the silicon of the pig iron is removed by a preliminary treatment in
the Bessemer converter, then its presence in the pig iron is harmless
as regards the open-hearth process. Hence the blast furnace process,
thus freed from the hampering need of controlling accurately the
silicon-content, can be much more effectively guided so as to prevent
the sulphur from entering the pig iron.

Looking at the duplex process in another way, the preliminary
desilicidizing in the Bessemer converter should certainly be an
advantage; but whether it is more profitable to give this treatment in
the converter than in the mixer remains to be seen.

103. In the _cementation process_ bars of wrought iron about ½ in. thick
are carburized and so converted into high carbon "blister steel," by
heating them in contact with charcoal in a closed chamber to about
1000° C. (1832° F.) for from 8 to 11 days. Low-carbon steel might thus
be converted into high-carbon steel, but this is not customary. The
carbon dissolves in the hot but distinctly solid [gamma]-iron (compare
fig. 1) as salt dissolves in water, and works its way towards the centre
of the bar by diffusion. When the mass is cooled, the carbon changes
over into the condition of cementite as usual, partly interstratified
with ferrite in the form of pearlite, partly in the form of envelopes
enclosing kernels of this pearlite (see ALLOYS, Pl. fig. 13). Where the
carbon, in thus diffusing inwards, meets particles of the slag, a basic
ferrous silicate which is always present in wrought iron, it forms
carbonic oxide, FeO + C = Fe + CO, which puffs the pliant metal up and
forms blisters. Hence the name "blister steel." It was formerly sheared
to short lengths and formed into piles, which were then rolled out,
perhaps to be resheared and rerolled into bars, known as "single shear"
or "double shear" steel according to the number of shearings. But now
the chief use for blister steel is for remelting in the crucible
process, yielding a product which is asserted so positively, so
universally and by such competent witnesses to be not only better but
very much better than that made from any other material, that we must
believe that it is so, though no clear reason can yet be given why it
should be. For long all the best high-carbon steel was made by remelting
this blister steel in crucibles (§ 106), but in the last few years the
electric processes have begun to make this steel (§ 108).

104. _Case Hardening._--The many steel objects which need an extremely
hard outer surface but a softer and more malleable interior may be
carburized superficially by heating them in contact with charcoal or
other carbonaceous matter, for instance for between 5 and 48 hours at a
temperature of 800° to 900° C. This is known as "case hardening." After
this carburizing these objects are usually hardened by quenching in cold
water (see § 28).

105. _Deep Carburizing; Harvey and Krupp Processes._--Much of the heavy
side armour of war-vessels (see ARMOUR-PLATE) is made of nickel steel
initially containing so little carbon that it cannot be hardened, i.e.
that it remains very ductile even after sudden cooling. The impact face
of these plates is given the intense hardness needed by being converted
into high-carbon steel, and then hardened by sudden cooling. The impact
face is thus carburized to a depth of about 1¼ in. by being held at a
temperature of 1100° for about a week, pressed strongly against a bed of
charcoal (Harvey process). The plate is then by Krupp's process heated
so that its impact face is above while its rear is below the hardening
temperature, and the whole is then cooled suddenly with sprays of cold
water. Under these conditions the hardness, which is very extreme at the
impact face, shades off toward the back, till at about quarter way from
face to back all hardening ceases, and the rest of the plate is in a
very strong, shock-resisting state. Thanks to the glass-hardness of this
face, the projectile is arrested so abruptly that it is shattered, and
its energy is delivered piecemeal by its fragments; but as the face is
integrally united with the unhardened, ductile and slightly yielding
interior and back, the plate, even if it is locally bent backwards
somewhat by the blow, neither cracks nor flakes.

106. The _crucible process_ consists essentially in melting one or
another variety of iron or steel in small 80-lb. charges in closed
crucibles, and then casting it into ingots or other castings, though in
addition the metal while melting may be carburized. Its chief, indeed
almost its sole use, is for making tool steel, the best kinds of spring
steel and other very excellent kinds of high-carbon and alloy steel.
After the charge has been fully melted, it is held in the molten state
from 30 to 60 minutes. This enables it to take up enough silicon from
the walls of the crucible to prevent the evolution of gas during
solidification, and the consequent formation of blowholes or internal
gas bubbles. In Great Britain the charge usually consists of blister
steel, and is therefore high in carbon, so that the crucible process has
very little to do except to melt the charge. In the United States the
charge usually consists chiefly of wrought iron, and in melting in the
crucible it is carburized by mixing with it either charcoal or "washed
metal," a very pure cast iron made by the Bell-Krupp process (§ 107).

Compared with the Bessemer process, which converts a charge of even as
much as 20 tons of pig iron into steel in a few minutes, and the
open-hearth process which easily treats charges of 75 tons, the
crucible process is, of course, a most expensive one, with its little
80-lb. charges, melted with great consumption of fuel because the heat
is kept away from the metal by the walls of the crucible, themselves
excellent heat insulators. But it survives simply because crucible
steel is very much better than either Bessemer or open-hearth steel.
This in turn is in part because of the greater care which can be used
in making these small lots, but probably in chief part because the
crucible process excludes the atmospheric nitrogen, which injures the
metal, and because it gives a good opportunity for the suspended slag
and iron oxide to rise to the surface. Till Huntsman developed the
crucible process in 1740, the only kinds of steel of commercial
importance were blister steel made by carburizing wrought iron without
fusion, and others which like it were greatly injured by the presence
of particles of slag. Huntsman showed that the mere act of freeing
these slag-bearing steels from their slag by melting them in closed
crucibles greatly improved them. It is true that Réaumur in 1722
described his method of making molten steel in crucibles, and that the
Hindus have for centuries done this on a small scale, though they let
the molten steel resolidify in the crucible. Nevertheless, it is to
Huntsman that the world is immediately indebted for the crucible
process. He could make only high-carbon steel, because he could not
develop within his closed crucibles the temperature needed for melting
low-carbon steel. The crucible process remained the only one by which
slagless steel could be made, till Bessemer, by his astonishing
invention, discovered at once low-carbon steel and a process for
making both it and high-carbon steel extremely cheaply.

107. In the _Bell-Krupp_ or "pig-washing" process, invented
independently by the famous British iron-master, Sir Lowthian Bell, and
Krupp of Essen, advantage is taken of the fact that, at a relatively low
temperature, probably a little above 1200° C., the phosphorus and
silicon of molten cast iron are quickly oxidized and removed by contact
with molten iron oxide, though carbon is thus oxidized but slowly. By
rapidly stirring molten iron oxide into molten pig iron in a furnace
shaped like a saucer, slightly inclined and turning around its axis, at
a temperature but little above the melting-point of the metal itself,
the phosphorus and silicon are removed rapidly, without removing much of
the carbon, and by this means an extremely pure cast iron is made. This
is used in the crucible process as a convenient source of the carbon
needed for high-carbon steel.

[Illustration: FIG. 23.--Heroult Double-arc Electric Steel Purifying
Furnace.]

108. _Electric steel-making processes_, or more accurately processes in
which electrically heated furnaces are used, have developed very
rapidly. In steel-making, electric furnaces are used for two distinct
purposes, first for making steel sufficiently better than Bessemer and
open-hearth steels to replace these for certain important purposes, and
second for replacing the very expensive crucible process for making the
very best steel. The advantages of the electric furnaces for these
purposes can best be understood after examining the furnaces themselves
and the way in which they are used. The most important ones are either
"arc" furnaces, i.e. those heated by electric arcs, or "induction" ones,
i.e. those in which the metal under treatment is heated by its own
resistance to a current of electricity induced in it from without. The
Heroult furnace, the best known in the arc class, and the Kjellin and
Roechling-Rodenhauser furnaces, the best known of the induction class,
will serve as examples.

The Heroult furnace (fig. 23) is practically a large closed crucible,
ABCA, with two carbon electrodes, E and F, "in series" with the bath,
H, of molten steel. A pair of electric arcs play between these
electrodes and the molten steel, passing through the layer of slag, G,
and generating much heat. The lining of the crucible may be of either
magnesite (MgO) or chromite (FeO·Cr2O3). The whole furnace, electrodes
and all, rotates about the line KL for the purpose of pouring out the
molten slag and purified metal through the spout J at the end of the
process. This spout and the charging doors A, A are kept closed except
when in actual use for pouring or charging.

[Illustration: FIG. 24.--Kjellin Induction Electric Steel Melting
Furnace.]

The Kjellin furnace consists essentially of an annular trough, AA
(fig. 24), which contains the molten charge. This charge is heated,
like the filaments of a common household electric lamp, by the
resistance which it offers to the passage of a current of electricity
induced in it by means of the core C and the frame EEE. The ends of
this core are connected above, below and at the right of the trough A,
by means of that frame, so that the trough and this core and frame
stand to each other in a position like that of two successive links of
a common oval-linked chain. A current of great electromotive force
(intensity or voltage) passed through the coil D, induces, by means of
the core and frame, a current of enormous quantity (volume or
amperage), but very small electromotive force, in the metal in the
trough. Thus the apparatus is analogous to the common transformers
used for inducing from currents of great electromotive force and small
quantity, which carry energy through long distances, currents of great
quantity and small electromotive force for incandescent lights and for
welding. The molten metal in the Kjellin trough forms the "secondary"
circuit. Like the Heroult furnace, the Kjellin furnace may be lined
with either magnesite or chromite, and it may be tilted for the
purpose of pouring off slag and metal.

[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Plan of Roechling-Rodenhauser Induction
Electric Furnace.]

The shape which the molten metal under treatment has in the Kjellin
furnace, a thin ring of large diameter, is evidently bad, inconvenient
for manipulation and with excessive heat-radiating surface. In the
Roechling-Rodenhauser induction furnace (fig. 25), the molten metal
lies chiefly in a large compact mass A, heated at three places on its
periphery by the current induced in it there by means of the three
coils and cores CCC. The molten metal also extends round each of these
three coils, in the narrow channels B. It is in the metal in these
channels and in that part of the main mass of metal which immediately
adjoins the coils that the current is induced by means of the coils
and cores, as in the Kjellin furnace.

When the Heroult furnace is used for completing the purification of
molten steel begun in the Bessemer or open-hearth process, and this is
its most appropriate use, the process carried out in it may be divided
into two stages, first dephosphorization, and second deoxidation and
desulphurization.

In the first stage the phosphorus is removed from the molten steel by
oxidizing it to phosphoric acid, P2O5, by means of iron oxide
contained in a molten slag very rich in lime, and hence very basic and
retentive of that phosphoric acid. This slag is formed by melting lime
and iron oxide, with a little silica sand if need be. Floating on top
of the molten metal, it rapidly oxidizes its phosphorus, and the
resultant phosphoric acid combines with the lime in the overlying slag
as phosphate of lime. When the removal of the phosphorus is
sufficiently complete, this slag is withdrawn from the furnace.

Next comes the deoxidizing and desulphurizing stage, of which the
first step is to throw some strongly deoxidizing substance, such as
coke or ferro-silicon, upon the molten metal, in order to remove thus
the chief part of the oxygen which it has taken up during the
oxidation of the phosphorus in the preceding stage. Next the metal is
covered with a very basic slag, made by melting lime with a little
silica and fluor spar. Coke now charged into this slag first
deoxidizes any iron oxide contained in either slag or metal, and next
deoxidizes part of the lime of the slag and thus forms calcium, which,
uniting with the sulphur present in the molten metal, forms calcium
sulphide, CaO + FeS + C = CaS + Fe + CO. This sulphide is nearly
insoluble in the metal, but is readily soluble in the overlying basic
slag, into which it therefore passes. The thorough removal of the
sulphur is thus brought about by the deoxidation of the calcium. It is
by forming calcium sulphide that sulphur is removed in the manufacture
of pig iron in the iron blast furnace, in the crucible of which, as in
the electric furnaces, the conditions are strongly deoxidizing. But in
the Bessemer and open-hearth processes this means of removing sulphur
cannot be used, because in each of them there is always enough oxygen
in the atmosphere to re-oxidize any calcium as fast as it is
deoxidized. Here sulphur may indeed be removed to a very important
degree in the form of manganese sulphide, which distributes itself
between metal and slag in rough accord with the laws of equilibrium.
But if we rely on this means we have difficulty in reducing the
sulphur content of the metal to 0.03% and very great difficulty in
reducing it to 0.02%, whereas with the calcium sulphide of the
electric furnaces we can readily reduce it to less than 0.01%.

When the desulphurization is sufficiently complete, the
sulphur-bearing slag is removed, the final additions needed to give
the metal exactly the composition aimed at are made, and the molten
steel is tapped out of the furnace into its moulds. If the initial
quantity of phosphorus or sulphur is large, or if the removal of these
impurities is to be made very thorough, the dephosphorizing or the
desulphurizing slagging off may be repeated. While the metal lies
tranquilly on the bottom of the furnace, any slag mechanically
suspended in it has a chance to rise to the surface and unite with the
slag layer above.

In addition to this work of purification, the furnace may be used for
melting down the initial charge of cold metal, and for beginning the
purification--in short not only for finishing but also for roughing.
But this is rarely expedient, because electricity is so expensive that
it should be used for doing only those things which cannot be
accomplished by any other and cheaper means. The melting can be done
much more cheaply in a cupola or open-hearth furnace, and the first
part of the purification much more cheaply in a Bessemer converter or
open-hearth furnace.

The normal use of the Kjellin induction furnace is to do the work
usually done in the crucible process, i.e. to melt down very pure iron
for the manufacture of the best kinds of steel, such as fine tool and
spring steel, and to bring the molten metal simultaneously to the
exact composition and temperature at which it should be cast into its
moulds. This furnace may be used also for purifying the molten metal,
but it is not so well suited as the arc furnaces for dephosphorizing.
The reason for this is that in it the slag, by means of which all the
purification must needs be done, is not heated effectively; that hence
it is not readily made thoroughly liquid; that hence the removal of
the phosphoric slag made in the early dephosphorizing stage of the
process is liable to be incomplete; and that hence, finally, the
phosphorus of any of this slag which is left in the furnace becomes
deoxidized during the second or deoxidizing stage, and is thereby
returned to befoul the underlying steel. The reason why the slag is
not heated effectively is that the heat is developed only in the layer
of metal itself, by its resistance to the induced current, and hence
the only heat which the slag receives is that supplied to its lower
surface by the metal, while its upper side is constantly radiating
heat away towards the relatively cool roof above.

The Roechling-Rodenhauser furnace is unfitted, by the vulnerability of
its interior walls, for receiving charges of cold metal to be melted
down, but it is used to good advantage for purifying molten basic
Bessemer steel sufficiently to fit it for use in the form of railway
rails.

We are now in a position to understand why electricity should be used as
a source of heat in making molten steel. Electric furnaces are at an
advantage over others as regards the removal of sulphur and of iron
oxide from the molten steel, because their atmosphere is free from the
sulphur always present in the flame of coal-fired furnaces, and almost
free from oxygen, because this element is quickly absorbed by the carbon
and silicon of the steel, and in the case of arc furnaces by the carbon
of the electrodes themselves, and is replaced only very slowly by
leakage, whereas through the Bessemer converter and the open-hearth
furnace a torrent of air is always rushing. As we have seen, the removal
of sulphur can be made complete only by deoxidizing calcium, and this
cannot be done if much oxygen is present. Indeed, the freedom of the
atmosphere of the electric furnaces from oxygen is also the reason
indirectly why the molten metal can be freed from mechanically
suspended slag more perfectly in them than in the Bessemer converter or
the open-hearth furnace. In order that this finely divided slag shall
rise to the surface and there coalesce with the overlying layer, the
metal must be tranquil. But tranquillity is clearly impossible in the
Bessemer converter, in which the metal can be kept hot only by being
torn into a spray by the blast. It is practically unattainable in the
open-hearth furnace, because here the oxygen of the furnace atmosphere
indirectly oxidizes the carbon of the metal which is kept boiling by the
escape of the resultant carbonic oxide. In short the electric furnaces
can be used to improve the molten product of the Bessemer converter and
open-hearth furnace, essentially because their atmosphere is free from
sulphur and oxygen, and because they can therefore remove sulphur, iron
oxide and mechanically suspended slag, more thoroughly than is possible
in these older furnaces. They make a better though a dearer steel.

Further, the electric furnaces, e.g. the Kjellin, can be used to replace
the crucible melting process (§ 106), chiefly because their work is
cheaper for two reasons. First, they treat a larger charge, a ton or
more, whereas the charge of each crucible is only about 80 pounds.
Second, their heat is applied far more economically, directly to the
metal itself, whereas in the crucible process the heat is applied most
wastefully to the outside of the non-conducting walls of a closed
crucible within which the charge to be heated lies. Beyond this sulphur
and phosphorus can be removed in the electric furnace, whereas in the
crucible process they cannot. In short electric furnaces replace the old
crucible furnace primarily because they work more cheaply, though in
addition they may be made to yield a better steel than it can.

Thus we see that the purification in these electric furnaces has
nothing to do with electricity. We still use the old familiar
purifying agents, iron oxide, lime and nascent calcium. The
electricity is solely a source of heat, free from the faults of the
older sources which for certain purposes it now replaces. The electric
furnaces are likely to displace the crucible furnaces completely,
because they work both more cheaply and better. They are not likely to
displace either the open-hearth furnace or the Bessemer converter,
because their normal work is only to improve the product of these
older furnaces. Here their use is likely to be limited by its
costliness, because for the great majority of purposes the superiority
of the electrically purified steel is not worth the cost of the
electric purification.

109. _Electric Ore-smelting Processes._--Though the electric processes
which have been proposed for extracting the iron from iron ore, with the
purpose of displacing the iron blast furnace, have not become important
enough to deserve description here, yet it should be possible to devise
one which would be useful in a place (if there is one) which has an
abundance of water power and iron ore and a local demand for iron, but
has not coke, charcoal or bituminous coal suitable for the blast
furnace. But this ancient furnace does its fourfold work of deoxidizing,
melting, removing the gangue and desulphurizing, so very economically
that it is not likely to be driven out in other places until the
exhaustion of our coal-fields shall have gone so far as to increase the
cost of coke greatly.

110. _Comparison of Steel-making Processes._--When Bessemer discovered
that by simply blowing air through molten cast iron rapidly he could
make low-carbon steel, which is essentially wrought iron greatly
improved by being freed from its essential defect, its necessarily
weakening and embrittling slag, the very expensive and exhausting
puddling process seemed doomed, unable to survive the time when men
should have familiarized themselves with the use of Bessemer steel, and
should have developed the evident possibilities of cheapness of the
Bessemer process. Nevertheless the use of wrought iron actually
continued to increase. The first of the United States decennial censuses
to show a decrease in the production of wrought iron was that in 1890,
35 years after the invention of the Bessemer process. It is still in
great demand for certain normal purposes for which either great ease in
welding or resistance to corrosion by rusting is of great importance;
for purposes requiring special forms of extreme ductility which are not
so confidently expected in steel; for miscellaneous needs of many users,
some ignorant, some very conservative; and for remelting in the
crucible process. All the best cutlery and tool steel is made either by
the crucible process or in electric furnaces, and indeed all for which
any considerable excellence is claimed is supposed to be so made, though
often incorrectly. But the great mass of the steel of commerce is made
by the Bessemer and the open-hearth processes. Open-hearth steel is
generally thought to be better than Bessemer, and the acid variety of
each of these two processes is thought to yield a better product than
the basic variety. This may not necessarily be true, but the acid
variety lends itself more readily to excellence than the basic. A very
large proportion of ores cannot be made to yield cast iron either free
enough from phosphorus for the acid Bessemer or the acid open-hearth
process, neither of which removes that most injurious element, or rich
enough in phosphorus for the basic Bessemer process, which must rely on
that element as its source of heat. But cast iron for the basic
open-hearth process can be made from almost any ore, because its
requirements, comparative freedom from silicon and sulphur, depend on
the management of the blast-furnace rather than on the composition of
the ore, whereas the phosphorus-content of the cast iron depends solely
on that of the ore, because nearly all the phosphorus of the ore
necessarily passes into the cast iron. Thus the basic open-hearth
process is the only one which can make steel from cast iron containing
more than 0.10% but less than 1.80% of phosphorus.

The restriction of the basic Bessemer process to pig iron containing at
least 1.80% of phosphorus has prevented it from getting a foothold in
the United States; the restriction of the acid Bessemer process to pig
iron very low in phosphorus, usually to that containing less than 0.10%
of that element, has almost driven it out of Germany, has of late
retarded, indeed almost stopped, the growth of its use in the United
States, and has even caused it to be displaced at the great Duquesne
works of the Carnegie Steel Company by the omnivorous basic open-hearth
process, the use of which has increased very rapidly. Under most
conditions the acid Bessemer process is the cheapest in cost of
conversion, the basic Bessemer next, and the acid open-hearth next,
though the difference between them is not great. But the crucible
process is very much more expensive than any of the others.

Until very lately the Bessemer process, in either its acid or its
basic form, made all of the world's rail steel; but even for this work
it has now begun to be displaced by the basic open-hearth process,
partly because of the fast-increasing scarcity of ores which yield pig
iron low enough in phosphorus for the acid Bessemer process, and
partly because the increase in the speed of trains and in the loads on
the individual engine- and car-wheels has made a demand for rails of a
material better than Bessemer steel.

111. _Iron founding_, i.e. the manufacture of castings of cast iron,
consists essentially in pouring the molten cast iron into moulds, and,
as preparatory steps, melting the cast iron itself and preparing the
moulds. These are usually made of sand containing enough clay to give it
the needed coherence, but of late promising attempts have been made to
use permanent iron moulds. In a very few places the molten cast iron as
it issues from the blast furnace is cast directly in these moulds, but
in general it is allowed to solidify in pigs, and then remelted either
in cupola furnaces or in air furnaces. The cupola furnace (fig. 26) is a
shaft much like a miniature blast furnace, filled from top to bottom by
a column of lumps of coke and of iron. The blast of air forced in
through the tuyeres near the bottom of the furnace burns the coke there,
and the intense heat thus caused melts away the surrounding iron, so
that this column of coke and iron gradually descends; but it is kept at
its full height by feeding more coke and iron at its top, until all the
iron needed for the day's work has thus been charged. As the iron melts
it runs out through a tap hole and spout at the bottom of the furnace,
to be poured into the moulds by means of clay-lined ladles. The air
furnace is a reverberatory furnace like that used for puddling (fig.
14), but larger, and in it the pigs of iron, lying on the bottom or
hearth, are melted down by the flame from the coal which burns in the
firebox. The iron is then held molten till it has grown hot enough for
casting and till enough of its carbon has been burnt away to leave just
the carbon-content desired, and it is then tapped out and poured into
the moulds.

[Illustration: FIG. 26.--Cupola Furnace for Remelting Pig Iron.]

Of the two the cupola is very much the more economical of fuel, thanks
to the direct transfer of heat from the burning coke to the pig iron
with which it is in contact. But this contact both causes the iron to
absorb sulphur from the coke to its great harm, and prevents it from
having any large part of its carbon burnt away, which in many cases
would improve it very greatly by strengthening it. Thus it comes about
that the cupola, because it is so economical, is used for all but the
relatively few cases in which the strengthening of the iron by the
removal of part of its carbon and the prevention of the absorption of
sulphur are so important as to compensate for the greater cost of the
air-furnace melting.

112. _Cast iron for foundry purposes_, i.e. for making castings of cast
iron. Though, as we have seen in § 19, steel is rarely given a
carbon-content greater than 1.50% lest its brittleness should be
excessive, yet cast iron with between 3 and 4% of carbon, the usual cast
iron of the foundry, is very useful. Because of the ease and cheapness
with which, thanks to its fluidity and fusibility (fig. 1), it can be
melted and run even into narrow and intricate moulds, castings made of
it are very often more economical, i.e. they serve a given purpose more
cheaply, in the long run, than either rolled or cast steel, in spite of
their need of being so massive that the brittleness of the material
itself shall be endurable. Indeed this high carbon-content, 3 to 4%, in
practice actually leads to less brittleness than can readily be had with
somewhat less carbon, because with it much of the carbon can easily be
thrown into the relatively harmless state of graphite, whereas if the
carbon amounts to less than 3% it can be brought to this state only with
difficulty. For crushing certain kinds of rock, the hardness of which
cast iron is capable really makes it more valuable, pound for pound,
than steel.

113. _Qualities needed in Cast Iron Castings._--Different kinds of
castings need very different sets of qualities, and the composition of
the cast iron itself must vary from case to case so as to give each the
qualities needed. The iron for a statuette must first of all be very
fluid, so that it will run into every crevice in its mould, and it must
expand in solidifying, so that it shall reproduce accurately every
detail of that mould. The iron for most engineering purposes needs
chiefly to be strong and not excessively brittle. That for the
thin-walled water mains must combine strength with the fluidity needed
to enable it to run freely into its narrow moulds; that for most
machinery must be soft enough to be cut easily to an exact shape; that
for hydraulic cylinders must combine strength with density lest the
water leak through; and that for car-wheels must be intensely hard in
its wearing parts, but in its other parts it must have that
shock-resisting power which can be had only along with great softness.
Though all true cast iron is brittle, in the sense that it is not
usefully malleable, i.e. that it cannot be hammered from one shape into
another, yet its degree of brittleness differs as that of soapstone does
from that of glass, so that there are the intensely hard and brittle
cast irons, and the less brittle ones, softer and unhurt by a shock
which would shiver the former.

Of these several qualities which cast iron may have, fluidity is given
by keeping the sulphur-content low and phosphorus-content high; and this
latter element must be kept low if shock is to be resisted; but
strength, hardness, endurance of shock, density and expansion in
solidifying are controlled essentially by the distribution of the carbon
between the states of graphite and cementite, and this in turn is
controlled chiefly by the proportion of silicon, manganese and sulphur
present, and in many cases by the rate of cooling.

114. _Constitution of Cast Iron._--Cast iron naturally has a high
carbon-content, usually between 3 and 4%, because while molten it
absorbs carbon greedily from the coke with which it is in contact in
the iron blast furnace in which it is made, and in the cupola furnace
in which it is remelted for making most castings. This carbon may all
be present as graphite, as in typical grey cast iron; or all present
as cementite, Fe3C, as in typical white cast iron; or, as is far more
usual, part of it may be present as graphite and part as cementite.
Now how does it come about that the distribution of the carbon between
these very unlike states determines the strength, hardness and many
other valuable properties of the metal as a whole? The answer to this
is made easy by a careful study of the effect of this same
distribution on the constitution of the metal, because it is through
controlling this constitution that the condition of the carbon
controls these useful properties. To fix our ideas let us assume that
the iron contains 4% of carbon. If this carbon is all present as
graphite, so that in cooling the graphite-austenite diagram has been
followed strictly (§ 26), the constitution is extremely simple;
clearly the mass consists first of a metallic matrix, the carbonless
iron itself with whatever silicon, manganese, phosphorus and sulphur
happen to be present, in short an impure ferrite, encased in which as
a wholly distinct foreign body is the graphite. The primary graphite
(§ 26) generally forms a coarse, nearly continuous skeleton of curved
black plates, like those shown in fig. 27; the eutectic graphite is
much finer; while the pro-eutectoid and eutectoid graphite, if they
exist, are probably in very fine particles. We must grasp clearly this
conception of metallic matrix and encased graphite skeleton if we are
to understand this subject.

[Illustration: FIG. 27.--Graphite in Grey Cast Iron.]

Now this matrix itself is equivalent to a very low-carbon steel,
strictly speaking to a carbonless steel, because it consists of pure
ferrite, which is just what such a steel consists of; and the cast
iron as a whole is therefore equivalent to a matrix of very low-carbon
steel in which is encased a skeleton of graphite plates, besides some
very fine scattered particles of graphite.

Next let us imagine that, in a series of cast irons all containing 4%
of carbon, the graphite of the initial skeleton changes gradually into
cementite and thereby becomes part of the matrix, a change which of
course has two aspects, first, a gradual thinning of the graphite
skeleton and a decrease of its continuity, and second, a gradual
introduction of cementite into the originally pure ferrite matrix. By
the time that 0.4% of graphite has thus changed, and in changing has
united with 0.4 × 14 = 5.6% of the iron of the original ferrite
matrix, it will have changed this matrix from pure ferrite into a
mixture of

Cementite 0.4 + 5.6 = 6.0
Ferrite 96.0 - 5.6 = 90.4
----
96.4
The residual graphite skeleton forms 4 - 0.4 = 3.6
----
100.0

But this matrix is itself equivalent to a steel of about 040% of
carbon (more accurately 0.40 × 100 ÷ 96.4 = 0.415%), a rail steel,
because it is of just such a mixture of ferrite and cementite in the
ratio of 90.4 : 6 or 94% and 6%, that such a rail steel consists. The
mass as a whole, then, consists of 96.4 parts of metallic matrix,
which itself is in effect a 0.415% carbon rail steel, weakened and
embrittled by having its continuity broken up by this skeleton of
graphite forming 3.6% of the whole mass by weight, or say 12% by
volume.

As, in succeeding members of this same series of cast irons, more of
the graphite of the initial skeleton changes into cementite and
thereby becomes part of the metallic matrix, so the graphite skeleton
becomes progressively thinner and more discontinuous, and the matrix
richer in cementite and hence in carbon and hence equivalent first to
higher and higher carbon steel, such as tool steel of 1% carbon, file
steel of 1.50%, wire-die steel of 2% carbon and then to white cast
iron, which consists essentially of much cementite with little
ferrite. Eventually, when the whole of the graphite of the skeleton
has changed into cementite, the mass as a whole becomes typical or
ultra white cast iron, consisting of nothing but ferrite and
cementite, distributed as follows (see fig. 2):--

Eutectoid ferrite 40.0
" cementite 6.7
----
" Interstratified as pearlite 46.7
Cementite, primary, eutectoid and pro-eutectoid 53.3
----
100.0
Total ferrite 40.0
Total cementite 60.0
----
100.0

[Illustration: FIG. 28.--Physical Properties and assumed Microscopic
Constitution of Cast Iron containing 4% of carbon, as affected by the
distribution of that carbon between the combined and graphitic
states.]

The constitution and properties of such a series of cast irons, all
containing 4% of carbon but with that carbon shifting progressively
from the state of graphite to that of cementite as we pass from
specimen to specimen, may, with the foregoing picture of a
skeleton-holding matrix clearly in our minds be traced by means of
fig. 28. The change from graphite into cementite is supposed to take
place as we pass from left to right. BC and OH give the proportion of
ferrite and cementite respectively in the matrix, DEF, KS and TU
reproduced from fig. 3 give the consequent properties of the matrix,
and GAF, RS and VU give, partly from conjecture, the properties of the
cast iron as a whole. Above the diagram are given the names of the
different classes of cast iron to which different stages in the change
from graphite to cementite correspond, and above these the names of
kinds of steel or cast iron, to which at the corresponding stages the
constitution of the matrix corresponds, while below the diagram are
given the properties of the cast iron as a whole corresponding to
these stages, and still lower the purposes for which these stages fit
the cast iron, first because of its strength and shock-resisting
power, and second because of its hardness.

115. _Influence of the Constitution of Cast Iron on its
Properties._--How should the hardness, strength and ductility, or
rather shock-resisting power, of the cast iron be affected by this
progressive change from graphite into cementite? First, the hardness
(VU) should increase progressively as the soft ferrite and graphite
are replaced by the glass-hard cementite. Second, though the
brittleness should be lessened somewhat by the decrease in the extent
to which the continuity of the strong matrix is broken up by the
graphite skeleton, yet this effect is outweighed greatly by that of
the rapid substitution in the matrix of the brittle cementite for the
very ductile copper-like ferrite, so that the brittleness increases
continuously (RS), from that of the very grey graphitic cast irons,
which, like that of soapstone, is so slight that the metal can endure
severe shock and even indentation without breaking, to that of the
pure white cast iron which is about as brittle as porcelain. Here let
us recognize that what gives this transfer of carbon from graphite
skeleton to metallic matrix such very great influence on the
properties of the metal is the fact that the transfer of each 1% of
carbon means substituting in the matrix no less than 15% of the
brittle, glass-hard cementite for the soft, very ductile ferrite.
Third, the tensile strength of steel proper, of which the matrix
consists, as we have already seen (fig. 3), increases with the
carbon-content till this reaches about 1.25%, and then in turn
decreases (fig. 28, DEF). Hence, as with the progressive transfer of
the carbon from the graphitic to the cementite state in our imaginary
series of cast irons, the combined carbon present in the matrix
increases, so does the tensile strength of the mass as a whole for two
reasons; first, because the strength of the matrix itself is
increasing (DE), and second, because the discontinuity is decreasing
with the decreasing proportion of graphite. With further transfer of
the carbon from the graphitic to the combined state, the matrix itself
grows weaker (EF); but this weakening is offset in a measure by the
continuing decrease of discontinuity due to the decreasing proportion
of graphite. The resultant of these two effects has not yet been well
established; but it is probable that the strongest cast iron has a
little more than 1% of carbon combined as cementite, so that its
matrix is nearly equivalent to the strongest of the steels. As regards
both tensile strength and ductility not only the quantity but the
distribution of the graphite is of great importance. Thus it is
extremely probable that the primary graphite, which forms large
sheets, is much more weakening and embrittling than the eutectic and
other forms, and therefore that, if either strength or ductility is
sought, the metal should be free from primary graphite, i.e. that it
should not be hyper-eutectic.

The presence of graphite has two further and very natural effects.
First, if the skeleton which it forms is continuous, then its planes
of junction with the metallic matrix offer a path of low resistance to
the passage of liquids or gases, or in short they make the metal so
porous as to unfit it for objects like the cylinders of hydraulic
presses, which ought to be gas-tight and water-tight. For such
purposes the graphite-content should be low. Second, the very genesis
of so bulky a substance as the primary and eutectic graphite while the
metal is solidifying (fig. 5) causes a sudden and permanent expansion,
which forces the metal into even the finest crevices in its mould, a
fact which is taken advantage of in making ornamental castings and
others which need great sharpness of detail, by making them rich in
graphite.

To sum this up, as graphite is replaced by carbon combined as
cementite, the hardness, brittleness and density increase, and the
expansion in solidification decreases, in both cases continuously,
while the tensile strength increases till the combined carbon-content
rises a little above 1%, and then in turn decreases. That strength is
good and brittleness bad goes without saying; but here a word is
needed about hardness. The expense of cutting castings accurately to
shape, cutting on them screw threads and what not, called "machining"
in trade parlance, is often a very large part of their total cost; and
it increases rapidly with the hardness of the metal. On the other
hand, the extreme hardness of nearly graphiteless cast iron is of
great value for objects of which the chief duty is to resist abrasion,
such as parts of crushing machinery. Hence objects which need much
machining are made rich in graphite, so that they may be cut easily,
and those of the latter class rich in cementite so that they may not
wear out.

116. _Means of controlling the Constitution of Cast Iron._--The
distribution of the carbon between these two states, so as to give the
cast iron the properties needed, is brought about chiefly by
adjusting the silicon-content, because the presence of this element
favours the formation of graphite. Beyond this, rapid cooling and the
presence of sulphur both oppose the formation of graphite, and hence
in cast iron rich in sulphur, and in thin and therefore rapidly
cooling castings, the silicon-content must be greater than in thick
ones and in those freer from sulphur. Thus thick machinery castings
usually contain between 1.50 and 2.25% of silicon, whereas thin
castings and ornamental ones which must reproduce the finest details
of the mould accurately may have as much as 3 or even 3.40% of it.
Castings which, like hydraulic press cylinders and steam radiators,
must be dense and hence must have but little graphite lest their
contents leak through their walls, should not have more than 1.75% of
silicon and may have even as little as 1% if impenetrability is so
important that softness and consequent ease of machining must be
sacrificed to it. Cast iron railroad car-wheels, the tread or rim of
which must be intensely hard so as to endure the grinding action of
the brakeshoe while their central parts must have good shock-resisting
power, are given such moderate silicon-content, preferably between
0.50 and 0.80%, as in and by itself leaves the tendencies toward
graphite-forming and toward cementite-forming nearly in balance, so
that they are easily controlled by the rate of cooling. The "tread" or
circumferential part of the mould itself is made of iron, because
this, by conducting the heat away from the casting rapidly, makes it
cool quickly, and thus causes most of the carbon here to form
cementite, and thus in turn makes the tread of the wheel intensely
hard; while those parts of the mould which come in contact with the
central parts of the wheel are made of sand, which conducts the heat
away from the molten metal so slowly that it solidifies slowly, with
the result that most of its carbon forms graphite, and here the metal
is soft and shock-resisting.

117. _Influence of Sulphur._--Sulphur has the specific harmful effects
of shifting the carbon from the state of graphite to that of
cementite, and thus of making the metal hard and brittle; of making it
thick and sluggish when molten, so that it does not run freely in the
moulds; and of making it red short, i.e. brittle at a red heat, so
that it is very liable to be torn by the aeolotachic contraction in
cooling from the molten state; and it has no good effects to offset
these. Hence the sulphur present is, except in certain rare cases,
simply that which the metallurgist has been unable to remove. The
sulphur-content should not exceed 0.12%, and it is better that it
should not exceed 0.08 % in castings which have to be soft enough to
be machined, nor 0.05% in thin castings the metal for which must be
very fluid.

118. _Influence of Manganese._--Manganese in many cases, but not in
all, opposes the formation of graphite and thus hardens the iron, and
it lessens the red shortness (§ 40), which sulphur causes, by leading
to the formation of the less harmful manganese sulphide instead of the
more harmful iron sulphide. Hence the manganese-content needed
increases with the sulphur-content which has to be endured. In the
better classes of castings it is usually between 0.40 and 0.70%, and
in chilled railroad car-wheels it may well be between 0.15 and 0.30%;
but skilful founders, confronted with the task of making use of cast
iron rich in manganese, have succeeded in making good grey iron
castings with even as much as 2.20% of this element.

119. _Influence of Phosphorus._--Phosphorus has, along with its great
merit of giving fluidity, the grave defect of causing brittleness,
especially under shock. Fortunately its embrittling effect on cast
iron is very much less than on steel, so that the upper limit or
greatest tolerable proportion of phosphorus, instead of being 0.10 or
better 0.08% as in the case of rail steel, may be put at 0.50% in case
of machinery castings even if they are exposed to moderate shocks; at
1.60% for gas and water mains in spite of the gravity of the disasters
which extreme brittleness here might cause; and even higher for
castings which are not exposed to shock, and are so thin that the iron
of which they are made must needs be very fluid. The permissible
phosphorus-content is lessened by the presence of either much sulphur
or much manganese, and by rapid cooling, as for instance in case of
thin castings, because each of these three things, by leading to the
formation of the brittle cementite, in itself creates brittleness
which aggravates that caused by phosphorus.

120. _Defects in Steel Ingots._--Steel ingots and other steel castings
are subject to three kinds of defects so serious as to deserve notice
here. They are known as "piping," "blowholes" and "segregation."

121. _Piping._--In an early period of the solidification of a molten
steel ingot cast in a cold iron mould we may distinguish three parts:
(1) the outer layers, i.e. the outermost of the now solid metal; (2)
the inner layers, i.e. the remainder of the solid metal; and (3) the
molten lake, i.e. the part which still is molten. At this instant the
outer layers, because of their contact with the cold mould, are
cooling much faster than the inner ones, and hence tend to contract
faster. But this excess of their contraction is resisted by the almost
incompressible inner layers so that the outer layers are prevented
from contracting as much as they naturally would if unopposed, and
they are thereby virtually stretched. Later on the cooling of the
inner layers becomes more rapid than that of the outer ones, and on
this account their contraction tends to become greater than that of
the outer ones. Because the outer and inner layers are integrally
united, this excess of contraction of the inner layers makes them draw
outward towards and against the outer layers, and because of their
thus drawing outward the molten lake within no longer suffices to fill
completely the central space, so that its upper surface begins to
sink. This ebb continues, and, combined with the progressive narrowing
of the molten lake as more and more of it solidifies and joins the
shore layers, gives rise to the pipe, a cavity like an inverted pear,
as shown at C in fig. 29. Because this pipe is due to the difference
in the rates of contraction of interior and exterior, it may be
lessened by retarding the cooling of the mass as a whole, and it may
be prevented from stretching down deep by retarding the solidification
of the upper part of the ingot, as, for instance, by preheating the
top of the mould, or by covering the ingot with a mass of burning fuel
or of molten slag. This keeps the upper part of the mass molten, so
that it continues to flow down and feed the pipe during the early part
of its formation in the lower and quicker-cooling part of the ingot.
In making castings of steel this same difficulty arises; and much of
the steel-founder's skill consists either in preventing these pipes,
or in so placing them that they shall not occur in the finished
casting, or at least not in a harmful position. In making
armour-plates from steel ingots, as much as 40% of the metal may be
rejected as unsound from this cause. An ingot should always stand
upright while solidifying, so that the unsound region due to the pipe
may readily be cut off, leaving the rest of the ingot solid. If the
ingot lay on its side while solidifying, the pipe would occur as shown
in fig. 30, and nearly the whole of the ingot would be unsound.

[Illustration: FIG. 29.--Diagram showing how a Pipe is formed.

A, Superficial blowholes.
B, Deep-seated blowholes.
C, Pipe.]

[Illustration: FIG. 30.--Diagram showing a Pipe so formed as to render
Ingot unsound.]

122. _Blowholes._--Iron, like water and many other substances, has a
higher solvent power for gases, such as hydrogen and nitrogen, when
molten, i.e. liquid, than when frozen, i.e. solid. Hence in the act of
solidifying it expels any excess of gas which it has dissolved while
liquid, and this gas becomes entangled in the freezing mass, causing
gas bubbles or _blowholes_, as at A and B in fig. 29. Because the
volume of the pipe represents the excess of the contraction of the
inner walls and the molten lake jointly over that of the outer walls,
between the time when the lake begins to ebb and the time when even
the axial metal is too firm to be drawn further open by this
contraction, the space occupied by blowholes must, by compensating for
part of this excess, lessen the size of the pipe, so that the more
abundant and larger the blowholes are, the smaller will the pipe be.
The interior surface of a blowhole which lies near the outer crust of
the ingot, as at A in fig. 29, is liable to become oxidized by the
diffusion of the atmospheric oxygen, in which case it can hardly be
completely welded later, since welding implies actual contact of metal
with metal; it thus forms a permanent flaw. But deep-seated blowholes
like those at B are relatively harmless in low-carbon easily welding
steel, because the subsequent operation of forging or rolling usually
obliterates them by welding their sides firmly together.

Blowholes may be lessened or even wholly prevented by adding to the
molten metal shortly before it solidifies either silicon or aluminium,
or both; even as little as 0.002% of aluminium is usually sufficient.
These additions seem to act in part by deoxidizing the minute quantity
of iron oxide and carbonic oxide present, in part by increasing the
solvent power of the metal for gas, so that even after freezing it can
retain in solution the gas which it had dissolved when molten. But,
because preventing blowholes increases the volume of the pipe, it is
often better to allow them to form, but to control their position, so
that they shall be deep-seated. This is done chiefly by casting the
steel at a relatively low temperature, and by limiting the quantity of
manganese and silicon which it contains. Brinell finds that, for
certain normal conditions, if the sum of the percentage of manganese
plus 5.2 times that of the silicon equals 1.66, there will be no
blowholes; if this sum is less, blowholes will occur, and will be
injuriously near the surface unless this sum is reduced to 0.28. He
thus finds that this sum should be either as great as 1.66, so that
blowholes shall be absent; or as low as 0.28, so that they shall be
harmlessly deep-seated. These numbers must be varied with the
variations in other conditions, such as casting temperature, rapidity
of solidification, &c.

123. _Segregation._--The solidification of an ingot of steel takes
place gradually from without inwards, and each layer in solidifying
tends to expel into the still molten interior the impurities which it
contains, especially the carbon, phosphorus, and sulphur, which by
this process are in part concentrated or _segregated_ in the
last-freezing part of the ingot. This is in general around the lower
part of the pipe, so that here is a second motive for rejecting the
piped part of the ingot. While segregation injures the metal here,
often fatally, by giving it an indeterminate excess of phosphorus and
sulphur, it clearly purifies the remainder of the ingot, and on this
account it ought, under certain conditions, to be promoted rather than
restrained. The following is an extreme case:--

+------------------+---------+----------+------------+-------------+----------+
| | Carbon. | Silicon. | Manganese. | Phosphorus. | Sulphur. |
+------------------+---------+----------+------------+-------------+----------+
| Composition of | | | | | |
| the initial | | | | | |
| metal per cent | 0.24 | 0.336 | 0.97 | 0.089 | 0.074 |
| Composition of | | | | | |
| the segregate | 1.27 | 0.41 | 1.08 | 0.753 | 0.418 |
+------------------+---------+----------+------------+-------------+----------+

The surprising fact that the degree of segregation does not increase
greatly either with the slowness of solidification or with the size of
the ingot, at least between the limits of 5 in. sq. and 16 in. sq.,
has been explained by the theory that the relative quiet due to the
gentleness of the convection currents in a slowly cooling mass favours
the formation of far outshooting pine-tree crystals, and that the
tangled branches of these crystals landlock much of the littoral
molten mother metal, and thus mechanically impede that centreward
diffusion and convection of the impurities which is the essence of
segregation.

124. _Castings and Forgings._--There are two distinct ways of making the
steel objects actually used in the arts, such as rails, gear wheels,
guns, beams, &c., out of the molten steel made by the Bessemer, open
hearth, or crucible process, or in an electric furnace. The first is by
"steel founding," i.e. casting the steel as a "steel casting" in a mould
which has the exact shape of the object to be made, e.g. a gear wheel,
and letting it solidify there. The second is by casting it into a large
rough block called an "ingot," and rolling or hammering this out into
the desired shape. Though the former certainly seems the simpler way,
yet its technical difficulties are so great that it is in fact much the
more expensive, and therefore it is in general used only in making
objects of a shape hard to give by forging or rolling. These technical
difficulties are due chiefly to the very high melting point of the
metal, nearly 1500° C (2732° F.), and to the consequent great
contraction which it undergoes in cooling through the long range between
this temperature and that of the room. The cooling of the thinner, the
outer, and in general the more exposed parts of the casting outruns that
of the thicker and less exposed parts, with the consequence that, at any
given instant, the different parts are contracting at very different
rates, i.e. aeolotachically; and this aeolotachic contraction is very
likely to concentrate severe stress on the slowest cooling parts at the
time when they are passing from the molten to the solid state, when the
steel is mushy, with neither the fluidity of a liquid nor the strength
and ductility of a solid, and thus to tear it apart. Aeolotachic
contraction further leads to the "pipes" or contraction cavities already
described in § 121, and the procedure must be carefully planned first so
as to reduce these to a minimum, and second so as to induce them to form
either in those parts of the casting which are going to be cut off and
re-melted, or where they will do little harm. These and kindred
difficulties make each new shape or size a new problem, and in
particular they require that for each and every individual casting a new
sand or clay mould shall be made with care by a skilled workman. If a
thousand like gears are to be cast, a thousand moulds must be made up,
at least to an important extent by hand, for even machine moulding
leaves something for careful manipulation by the moulder. It is a
detail, one is tempted to say a retail, manufacture.

In strong contrast with this is the procedure in making rolled products
such as rails and plates. The steel is cast in lots, weighing in some
cases as much as 75 tons, in enduring cast iron moulds into very large
ingots, which with their initial heat are immediately rolled down by a
series of powerful roll trains into their final shape with but slight
wear and tear of the moulds and the machinery. But in addition to the
greater cost of steel founding as compared with rolling there are two
facts which limit the use of steel castings: (1) they are not so good as
rolled products, because the kneading which the metal undergoes in
rolling improves its quality, and closes up its cavities; and (2) it
would be extremely difficult and in most cases impracticable to cast the
metal directly into any of the forms in which the great bulk of the
steel of commerce is needed, such as rails, plates, beams, angles, rods,
bars, and wire, because the metal would become so cool as to solidify
before running far in such thin sections, and because even the short
pieces which could thus be made would pucker or warp on account of their
aeolotachic contraction.

125. _Heating Furnaces_ are used in iron manufacture chiefly for
bringing masses of steel or wrought iron to a temperature proper for
rolling or forging. In order to economize power in these operations, the
metal should in general be as soft and hence as hot as is consistent
with its reaching a low temperature before the rolling or forging is
finished, because, as explained in § 32, undisturbed cooling from a high
temperature injures the metal. Many of the furnaces used for this
heating are in a general way like the puddling furnace shown in fig. 14,
except that they are heated by gas, that the hearth or bottom of the
chamber in which they are heated is nearly flat, and that it is usually
very much larger than that of a puddling furnace. But in addition there
are many special kinds of furnaces arranged to meet the needs of each
case. Of these two will be shown here, the Gjers soaking pit for steel
ingots, and the Eckman or continuous furnace, as modified by C. H.
Morgan for heating billets.

[Illustration: FIG. 31.--Section of Gjers Soaking Pit.]

126. _Gjers Soaking Pit._--When the outer crust of a large ingot in
which a lot of molten steel has been cast has so far cooled that it can
be moved without breaking, the temperature of the interior is still far
above that suitable for rolling or hammering--so far above that the
surplus heat of the interior would more than suffice to reheat the now
cool crust to the rolling temperature, if we could only arrest or even
greatly retard the further escape of heat from that crust. Bringing such
an ingot, then, to the rolling temperature is not really an operation of
heating, because its average temperature is already above the rolling
temperature, but one of equalizing the temperature, by allowing the
internal excess of heat to "soak" through the mass. Gjers did this by
setting the partly-solidified ingot in a well-closed "pit" of brickwork,
preheated by the excess heat of previous lots of ingots. The
arrangement, shown in fig. 31, has three advantages--(1) that the
temperature is adjusted with absolutely no consumption of fuel; (2) that
the waste of iron due to the oxidation of the outer crust of the ingot
is very slight, because the little atmospheric oxygen initially in the
pit is not renewed, whereas in a common heating furnace the flame brings
a constant fresh supply of oxygen; and (3) that the ingot remains
upright during solidification, so that its pipe is concentrated at one
end and is thus removable. (See § 121.) In this form the system is
rather inflexible, for if the supply of ingots is delayed the pits grow
unduly cool, so that the next ensuing lot of ingots either is not heated
hot enough or is delayed too long in soaking. This defect is usually
remedied by heating the pits by the Siemens regenerative system (see §
99); the greater flexibility thus gained outweighs the cost of the fuel
used and the increased loss of iron by oxidation by the Siemens gas
flame.

127. _Continuous Heating Furnace._--The Gjers system is not applicable
to small ingots or "billets,"[5] because they lack the inner surplus
heat of large ingots; indeed, they are now allowed to cool completely.
To heat these on the intermittent plan for further rolling, i.e. to
charge a lot of them as a whole in a heating furnace, bring them as a
whole to rolling temperature, and then withdraw them as a whole for
rolling, is very wasteful of heat, because it is only in the first part
of the heating that the outside of the ingots is cool enough to abstract
thoroughly the heat from the flame. During all the latter part of the
heating, when the temperature of the ingot has approached that of the
flame, only an ever smaller and smaller part of the heat of that flame
can be absorbed by the ingots. Hence in the intermittent system most of
the heat generated within the furnace escapes from it with the products
of combustion. The continuous heating system (fig. 32) recovers this
heat by bringing the flame into contact with successively cooler and
cooler billets, A-F, and finally with quite cold ones, of consequently
great heat-absorbing capacity.

[Illustration: FIG. 32.--Diagram of C. H. Morgan's Continuous Heating
Furnace for 2-inch billets 30 ft. long.

A, Hottest billet ready for rolling.
B, Exit door.
C, Pusher, for forcing billets forward.
D, Water-cooled pipe on which billets are pushed forward.
E, Magnesite bricks on which the hot billets slide forward.
F, The billet last entered.
G, The suspended roof.
H, The incoming air preheated by G and by the pipes N and brought from
above G to between N by a flue not shown.
J, The incoming gas.
L, The flame.
M, The escaping products of combustion.
N, Pipes through which the products of combustion pass.]

As soon as a hot billet A is withdrawn by pushing it endwise out of
the exit door B, the whole row is pushed forward by a set of
mechanical pushers C, the billets sliding on the raised water-cooled
pipes D, and, in the hotter part of the furnace, on the magnesite
bricks E, on which iron slides easily when red-hot. A new cold billet
is then charged at the upper end of the hearth, and the new cycle
begins by pushing out through B a second billet, and so forth. To
lessen the loss in shape of "crop ends," and for general economy,
these billets are in some cases 30 ft. long, as in the furnace shown
in fig. 32. It is to make it wide enough to receive such long billets
that its roof is suspended, as here shown, by two sets of iron
tie-rods. As the foremost end of the billet emerges from the furnace
it enters the first of a series of roll-trains, and passes immediately
thence to others, so that before half of the billet has emerged from
the furnace its front end has already been reduced by rolling to its
final shape, that of merchant-bars, which are relatively thin, round
or square rods, in lengths of 300 ft.

In the intermittent system the waste heat can, it is true, be utilized
either for raising steam (but inefficiently and inconveniently,
because of the intermittency), or by a regenerative method like the
Siemens, fig. 19; but this would probably recover less heat than the
continuous system, first, because it transfers the heat from flame to
metal indirectly instead of directly; and, second, because the
brickwork of the Siemens system is probably a poorer heat-catcher than
the iron billets of the continuous system, because its disadvantages
of low conductivity and low specific heat probably outweigh its
advantages of roughness and porosity.

128. _Rolling, Forging, and Drawing._--The three chief processes for
shaping iron and steel, rolling, forging (i.e. hammering, pressing or
stamping) and drawing, all really proceed by squeezing the metal into
the desired shape. In forging, whether under a hammer or under a press,
the action is evidently a squeeze, however skilfully guided. In drawing,
the pull of the pincers (fig. 33) upon the protruding end, F, of the
rod, transmitted to the still undrawn part, E, squeezes the yielding
metal of the rod against the hard unyielding die, C. As when a
half-opened umbrella is thrust ferrule-foremost between the balusters of
a staircase, so when the rod is drawn forward, its yielding metal is
folded and forced backwards and centrewards by the resistance of the
unyielding die, and thus it is reduced in diameter and simultaneously
lengthened proportionally, without material change of volume or density.

[Illustration: FIG. 33.--Wire undergoing Reduction in the Die.]

[Illustration: FIG. 34.--Two-high Rolling Mill.]

129. _Methods of Rolling._--Of rolling much the same is true. The
rolling mill in its simplest form is a pair of cylindrical rollers, BB
(figs. 34 and 35) turning about their axes in opposite directions as
shown by the arrows, and supported at their ends in strong frames called
"housings," CC (fig. 35). The skin of the object, D, which is undergoing
rolling, technically called "the piece," is drawn forward powerfully by
the friction of the revolving rolls, and especially of that part of
their surface which at any given instant is moving horizontally (HH in
fig. 34), much as, the rod is drawn through the die in fig. 33, while
the vertical component of the motion of the rear part JJ of the rolls
forces the plastic metal of that part of "the piece" with which they are
in contact backwards and centrewards, reducing its area and
simultaneously lengthening it proportionally, here again as in drawing
through a die. The rolls thus both draw the piece forward like the
pincers of a wire die, and themselves are a die which like a river ever
renews or rather maintains its fixed shape and position, though its
particles themselves are moving constantly forward with "the piece"
which is passing between them.

[Illustration: FIG. 35.--Two-high Rolling Mill.]

After the piece has been reduced in thickness by its first passage or
"pass" between the rolls, it may be given a second reduction and then a
third and so on, either by bringing the two rolls nearer together, as in
case of the plain rolls BB at the left in fig. 35, or by passing the
piece through an aperture, F´, smaller than the first F, as in case of
the grooved rolls, AA, shown at the right, or by both means jointly. If,
as sketched in fig. 34, the direction in which each of the rolls turns
is constant, then after the piece has passed once through the rolls to
the right, it cannot undergo a second pass till it has been brought back
to its initial position at the left. But bringing it back wastes power
and, still worse, time, heat, and metal, because the yellow- or even
white-hot piece is rapidly cooling down and oxidizing. In order to
prevent this waste the direction in which the rolls move may be
reversed, so that the piece may be reduced a second time in passing to
the left, in which case the rolls are usually driven by a pair of
reversing engines; or the rolls may be "three high," as shown in fig.
36, with the upper and the lower roll moving constantly to the right and
the middle roll constantly to the left, so that the piece first passes
to the right between the middle and lower rolls, and then to the left
between the middle and upper rolls. The advantage of the "reversing"
system is that it avoids lifting the piece from below to above the
middle roll, and again lowering it, which is rather difficult because
the white-hot piece cannot be guided directly by hand, but must be moved
by means of hooks, tongs, or even complex mechanism. The advantage of
the three-high mill is that, because each of its moving parts is always
moving in the same direction, it may be driven by a relatively small and
hence cheap engine, the power delivered by which between the passes is
taken up by a powerful fly-wheel, to be given up to the rolls during the
next pass. (See also ROLLING MILL.)

[Illustration: FIG. 36.--Three-high Rolling Mill.]

130. _Advantages and Applicability of Rolling._--Rolling uses very much
less power than drawing, because the friction against the fixed die in
the latter process is very great. For much the same reason rolling
proceeds much faster than drawing, and on both these accounts it is
incomparably the cheaper of the two. It is also very much cheaper than
forging, in large part because it works so quickly. The piece travels
through the rolls very rapidly, so that the reduction takes place over
its whole length in a very few seconds, whereas in forging, whether
under hammer or press, after one part of the piece has been compressed
the piece must next be raised, moved forward, and placed so that the
hammer or press may compress the next part of its length. This moving is
expensive, because it has to be done, or at least guided, by hand, and
it takes up much time, during which both heat and iron are wasting. Thus
it comes about that rolling is so very much cheaper than either forging
or drawing that these latter processes are used only when rolling is
impracticable. The conditions under which it is impracticable are (1)
when the piece has either an extremely large or an extremely small cross
section, and (2) when its cross section varies materially in different
parts of its length. The number of great shafts for marine engines,
reaching a diameter of 22(1/8) in. in the case of the "Lusitania," is so
small that it would be wasteful to instal for their manufacture the
great and costly rolling mill needed to reduce them from the gigantic
ingots from which they must be made, with its succession of decreasing
passes, and its mechanism for rotating the piece between passes and for
transferring it from pass to pass. Great armour plates can indeed be
made by rolling, because in making such flat plates the ingot is simply
rolled back and forth between a pair of plain cylindrical rolls, like BB
of fig. 35, instead of being transferred from one grooved pass to
another and smaller one. Moreover, a single pair of rolls suffices for
armour plates of any width or thickness, whereas if shafts of different
diameters were to be rolled, a special final groove would be needed for
each different diameter, and, as there is room for only a few large
grooves in a single set of rolls, this would imply not only providing
but installing a separate set of rolls for almost every diameter of
shaft. Finally the quantity of armour plate needed is so enormous that
it justifies the expense of installing a great rolling mill. Krupp's
armour-plate mill, with rolls 4 ft. in diameter and 12 ft. long, can
roll an ingot 4 ft. thick.

Pieces of very small cross section, like wire, are more conveniently
made by drawing through a die than by rolling, essentially because a
single draft reduces the cross section of a wire much more than a single
pass between rolls can. This in turn is because the direct pull of the
pincers on the protruding end of the wire is much stronger than the
forward-drawing pull due to the friction of the cold rolls on the wire,
which is necessarily cold because of its small section.

Pieces which vary materially in cross section from point to point in
their length cannot well be made by rolling, because the cross section
of the piece as it emerges from the rolls is necessarily that of the
aperture between the rolls from which it is emerging, and this aperture
is naturally of constant size because the rolls are cylindrical. Of
course, by making the rolls eccentric, and by varying the depth and
shape of the different parts of a given groove cut in their surface, the
cross section of the piece made in this groove may vary somewhat from
point to point. But this and other methods of varying the cross section
have been used but little, and they do not seem capable of wide
application.

The fact that rolling is so much cheaper than forging has led engineers
to design their pieces so that they can be made by rolling, i.e. to make
them straight and of uniform cross section. It is for this reason, for
instance, that railroad rails are of constant uniform section throughout
their length, instead of having those parts of their length which come
between the supporting ties deeper and stronger than the parts which
rest on the ties. When, as in the case of eye bars, it is imperative
that one part should differ materially in section from the rest, this
part may be locally thickened or thinned, or a special part may here be
welded on. When we come to pieces of very irregular shape, such as
crank-shafts, anchors, trunnions, &c., we must resort to forging, except
for purposes for which unforged castings are good enough.

[Illustration: FIG. 37.--Steam Hammer.

A, Round bar to be hammered.
B, Anvil.
C, Anvil block or foundation.
D, Falling tup.
E, Steam piston.
F, Piston-rod for lifting tup and driving it down.
G, Steam cylinder.]

131. _Forging_ proceeds by beating or squeezing the piece under
treatment from its initial into its final shape, as for instance by
hammering a square ingot or bloom first on one corner and then on
another until it is reduced to a cylindrical shape as shown at A in fig.
37. As the ingot is reduced in section, it is of course lengthened
proportionally. Much as in the smith's forge the object forged rests on
a massive anvil and anvil block, B and C, and is struck by the tup D of
the hammer. This tup is raised and driven down by steam pressure applied
below or above the piston E of the steam cylinder mounted aloft, and
connected with the tup by means of the strong piston-rod F. The demand
for very large forgings, especially for guns and armour plate, led to
the building of enormous steam hammers. The falling parts of the largest
of these, that at Bethlehem, Pa., weigh 125 tons.

The first cost of a hammer of moderate size is much less than that of a
hydraulic press of like capacity, as is readily understood when we stop
to reflect what powerful pressure, if gradually applied, would be needed
to drive the nail which a light blow from our hand hammer forces easily
into the woodwork. Nevertheless the press uses much less power than the
hammer, because much of the force of the latter is dissipated in setting
up useless--indeed harmful, and at times destructive--vibrations in the
foundations and the surrounding earth and buildings. Moreover, the
effect of the sharp blow of the hammer is relatively superficial, and
does not penetrate to the interior of a large piece as the slowly
applied pressure of the hydraulic press does. Because of these facts the
great hammers have given place to enormous forging presses, the 125-ton
Bethlehem hammer, for instance, to a 14,000-ton hydraulic press, moved
by water under a pressure of 7000 lb. per square inch, supplied by
pumps of 16,000 horse power.

TABLE IV.--_Reduction in Cost of Iron Manufacture in America--C.
Kirchoff._

+-------------------+------------------------+-------------+----------------------------------------------------+
| | | Period | Cost, Profit and Production, at End of Period in |
| | | covered. | Percentage of that at Beginning of Period. |
| | +------+------+------------------------------------+------+--------+
| | | | | Cost. | | |
| Place represented.| Operation represented. | | +------+------+-------+------+-------+ | Produc-|
| | | | | | | | | Total |Profit|tion per|
| | | From | To | | | | |exclu- | per |Furnace |
| | | | | Ore. | Fuel.|Labour.|Total.| ding | Ton. |&c., per|
| | | | | | | | |raw Ma-| | Day |
| | | | | | | | |terial.| | |
+-------------------+------------------------+------+------+------+------+-------+------+-------+------+--------+
| A large Southern | | | | | | | | | | |
| Establishment | Manufacture of Pig Iron| 1889 | 1898 | 79 | 64.1 | 51.9 | 63.4 | .. | 47.9 | 167.7 |
| North-eastern | | | | | | | | | | |
| District | " " | 1890 | 1898 |103.7 | 97 | 61.1 | 65.8 | .. | 33.9 | 163.3 |
| Pittsburg District| " " | 1887 | 1897 | .. | .. | 46 | .. | 44 | .. | .. |
| Eastern District | Manufacture of Bessemer| | | | | | | | | |
| | Steel Ingots | 1891 | 1898 | .. | .. | 75 | 64.39| .. | .. | 107 |
| Pittsburg | " " | 1887 | 1897 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 52 | .. | .. |
| Not stated | Rolling Wire Rods | 1888 | 1898 | .. | .. | .. | 63.6 | .. | .. | 325 |
+-------------------+------------------------+------+------+------+------+-------+------+-------+------+--------+

132. _Statistics._--The cheapening of manufacture by improvements in
processes and machinery, and by the increase in the scale of
operations, has been very great. The striking examples of it shown in
Table IV. are only typical of what has been going on continuously
since 1868. Note, for instance, a reduction of some 35% in the total
cost, and an even greater reduction in the cost of labour, reaching in
one case 54%, in a period of between seven and ten years. This great
economy is not due to reduction in wages. According to Mr Carnegie, in
one of the largest American steel works the average wages in 1900 for
all persons paid by the day, including labourers, mechanics and boys,
were more than $4 (say, 16s. 6d.) a day for the 311 working days. How
economical the methods of mining, transportation and manufacture have
become is shown by the fact that steel billets have been sold at
$13.96 (£2, 17s. 8d.) per ton, and in very large quantities at $15
(£3, 2s.) per ton in the latter case, according to Mr Carnegie,
without further loss than that represented by interest, although the
cost of each ton includes that of mining 2 tons of ore and carrying
them 1000 miles, mining and coking 1.3 tons of coal and carrying its
coke 50 m., and quarrying one-third of a ton of limestone and carrying
it 140 m., besides the cost of smelting the ore, converting the
resultant cast iron into steel, and rolling that steel into rails.

TABLE V.--_Reduction in Price of Certain Products._

+-------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| | Yearly average Price in Pennsylvania, gross tons. |
| +-----------------------------------------------------+
| Date. | Bar (Wrought) |Wrought Iron| Steel | No. 1 |
| | Iron. | Rails. | Rails. | Foundry |
| | | | |Pig Iron.|
+-------+------------------+------------+-----------+---------+
| 1800 |$100.50 \ | | | |
| 1815 | 144.50 | Hammered| | | |
| 1824 | 82.50 | | | | |
| 1837 | 111.00 / | | | |
| | | | | |
| 1850 | 59.54 \ | $47.88 | | $20.88 |
| 1865 | 106.46 | | 98.62 | $158.46^3 | 46.08 |
| 1870 | 78.96 | | 72.25 | 106.79 | 33.23 |
| 1880 | 62.04 | Best | 49.25 | 67.52 | 28.48 |
| 1890 | 45.83 | refined | 25.18^2 | 31.78 | 18.41 |
| 1898 | 28.65 | rolled | 12.39^2 | 17.62 | 11.66 |
| 1900 | 44.00 | | 19.51^2 | 32.29 | 19.98 |
| 1906 | .. | | 23.03^2 | 28.00 | 20.98 |
| 1908^1| 31.00 / | 18.25^2 | 28.00 | 17.25 |
+-------+------------------+------------+-----------+---------+
^1 July 1st.
^2 Old. i.e. second-hand wrought iron rails.
^3 1868.

Table V. shows the reduction in prices. The price of wrought iron in
Philadelphia reached $155 (£32, 0s. 8d.) in 1815, and, after declining
to $80 (£16, 10s. 8d.), again reached $115 (£23, 15s. 4d.) in 1837.
Bessemer steel rails sold at $174 in the depreciated currency of 1868
(equivalent to about £25, 17s. 4d. in gold), and at $17 (£3, 10s. 3d.)
in 1898.

133. _Increase in Production._--In 1810 the United States made about
7%, and in 1830, 1850 and 1860 not far from 10% of the world's
production of pig iron, though, indeed, in 1820 their production was
only about one-third as great as in 1810. But after the close of the
Civil War the production increased by leaps and bounds, till in 1907
it was thirty-one times as great as in 1865; and the percentage which
it formed of the world's production rose to some 14% in 1870, 21% in
1880, 35% in 1900 and 43% in 1907. In this last year the United States
production of pig iron was nearly 7 times, and that of Germany and
Luxemburg nearly 5 times, that of 1880. In this same period the
production of Great Britain increased 28%, and that of the world more
than tripled. The corresponding changes in the case of steel are even
more striking. The United States production in 1907 was 1714 times
that of 1865, and the proportion which it formed of the world's steel
rose from 3% in 1865 to 10% in 1870, 30% in 1880; 36% in 1890, 40% in
1899 and 46% in 1907. In 1907 the British steel production was nearly
five times, that of the United States, nearly nineteen times as great
as in 1880. Of the combined wrought iron and steel of the United
States, steel formed only 2% in 1865, but 37% in 1880, 85% in 1899 and
91% in 1907. Thus in the nineteen years between 1880 and 1899 the age
of iron gave place to that of steel.

The _per capita_ consumption of iron in Great Britain, excluding
exports, has been calculated as 144 lb. in 1855 and 250 lb. in 1890,
that of the United States as 117 lb. for 1855, 300 lb. for 1890 and
some 378 lb. for 1899, and that of the United Kingdom, the United
States and Germany for 1906 as about a quarter of a ton, so that the
British _per capita_ consumption is about four-fold and the American
about five-fold that of 1855. This great increase in the _per capita_
consumption of iron by the human race is of course but part of the
general advance in wealth and civilization. Among the prominent causes
of this increase is the diversion of mankind from agricultural to
manufacturing, i.e. machinery-using work, nearly all machinery being
necessarily made of iron. This diversion may be unwelcome, but it is
inevitable for the two simple reasons that the wonderful improvements
in agriculture decrease the number of men needed to raise a given
quantity of food, i.e. to feed the rest of the race; and that with
every decade our food forms a smaller proportion of our needs, so
rapidly do these multiply and diversify. Among the other causes of the
increase of the _per capita_ consumption of iron are the displacement
of wood by iron for ships and bridge-building; the great extension of
the use of iron beams, columns and other pieces in constructing
buildings of various kinds; the growth of steam and electric railways;
and the introduction of iron fencing. The increased importance of
Germany and Luxemburg may be referred in large part to the invention
of the basic Bessemer and open-hearth processes by Thomas, who by them
gave an inestimable value to the phosphoric ores of these countries.
That of the United States is due in part to the growth of its
population; to the introduction of labour-saving machinery in iron
manufacture; to the grand scale on which this manufacture is carried
on; and to the discovery of the cheap and rich ores of the Mesabi
region of Lake Superior. But, given all these, the 1000 m. which
separate the ore fields of Lake Superior from the cheap coal of
Pennsylvania would have handicapped the American iron industry most
seriously but for the remarkable cheapening of transportation which
has occurred. As this in turn has been due to the very men who have
developed the iron industry, it can hardly be questioned that, on
further analysis, this development must in considerable part be
referred to racial qualities. The same is true of the German iron
development. We may note with interest that the three great iron
producers so closely related by blood--Great Britain, the United
States and Germany and Luxemburg--made in 1907 81% of the world's pig
iron and 83% of its steel; and that the four great processes by which
nearly all steel and wrought iron are made--the puddling, crucible and
both the acid and basic varieties of the Bessemer and open-hearth
processes, as well as the steam-hammer and grooved rolls for rolling
iron and steel--were invented by Britons, though in the case of the
open-hearth process Great Britain must share with France the credit of
the invention.

Tables VI., VII., VIII. and IX. are compiled mainly from figures given
in J. M. Swank's _Reports_ (American Iron and Steel Association).
Other authorities are indicated as follows: ^a, _The Mineral Industry_
(1892); ^b, _Idem_ (1899); ^c, _Idem_ (1907); ^e, _Journal Iron and
Steel Institute_ (1881), 2; ^i, Eckel in _Mineral Resources of the
United States_, (published by the United States Geological Survey
(1906), pp. 92-93.

TABLE VI.--_Production of Pig Iron (in thousands of long tons)._

+------+--------------+--------+-----------+-----------+
| Year.|United States.| Great |Germany and| The World.|
| | |Britain.| Luxemburg.| |
+------+--------------+--------+-----------+-----------+
| 1800 | .. | .. | .. | 825 |
| 1810 | 54 | .. | .. | .. |
| 1830 | 165 | 677 | .. | 1,825 |
| 1850 | 565 | .. | .. | 4,750 |
| 1865 | 832 | 4825 | 972 | 9,250 |
| 1870 | 1,665 | 5964 | 1,369 | 11,900 |
| 1880 | 3,835 | 7749 | 2,685 | 17,950 |
| 1890 | 9,203 | 7904 | 4,583 | 27,157 |
| 1900 | 13,789 | 8960 | 8,386 | 38,973^c |
| 1907 | 25,781 | 9924 | 12,672 | 59,721^c |
+------+--------------+--------+-----------+-----------+

TABLE VII.--_Production of Pig Iron in the United States (in
thousands of long tons)._

+------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+
| Year.|Anthracite.|Charcoal.| Coke and | Total. |
| | | |Bituminous.| |
+------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+
| 1880 | 1614 | 480 | 1,741 | 3,835 |
| 1885 | 1299 | 357 | 2,389 | 4,045 |
| 1890 | 2186 | 628 | 6,388 | 9,203 |
| 1895 | 1271 | 225 | 7,950 | 9,446 |
| 1900 | 1677 | 384 | 11,728 | 13,789 |
| 1907 | 1372 | 437 | 23,972 | 25,781 |
+------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+

"Anthracite" here includes iron made with anthracite and coke mixed,
"Bituminous" includes iron made with coke, with raw bituminous coal,
or with both, and "Charcoal" in 1900 and 1907 includes iron made
either with charcoal alone or with charcoal mixed with coke.

TABLE VIII.--_Production of Wrought Iron, also that of Bloomary
Iron (in thousands of long tons)._

+---------------+-------------+--------------------+
| |Wrought Iron.| Bloomary Iron |
| | |direct from the Ore.|
+---------------+-------------+--------------------+
| 1870. | | |
| United States | 1153 | .. |
| Great Britain | .. | .. |
| 1880. | | |
| United States | 2083(^1) | 36 |
| Great Britain | .. | .. |
| 1890. | | |
| United States | 2518(^1) | 7 |
| Great Britain | 1894 | .. |
| 1899. | | |
| United States | .. | 3 |
| Great Britain | 1202 | .. |
| 1900. | | |
| United States | .. | 4 |
| Great Britain | .. | .. |
| 1907. | | |
| United States | 2200 | .. |
| Great Britain | 975 | .. |
+---------------+-------------+--------------------+
^1 Hammered products are excluded.

TABLE IX.--_Production of Steel (in thousands of long tons)._

+----------------------+----------+----------+-----------+-----------+ | Crucible | |
| |Bessemer. | Open- | and Mis- | Total. |
| | | Hearth. |cellaneous.| |
+----------------------+----------+----------+-----------+-----------+
| 1870. | | | | |
| United States | 37 | 1 | 31 | 69 |
| Great Britain | 215 | 78 | .. | 292^a |
| |(for 1873)| | | |
| The World | .. | .. | .. | 692^a |
| | | | | |
| 1880. | | | | |
| United States | 1,074 | 101 | 72 | 1,247 |
| Great Britain | 1,044 | 251 | 80 | 1,375 |
| Germany and | | | | |
| Luxemburg | 608^a | 87^a | 33 | 728 |
| The World | .. .. | .. | 4,205^a |
| | | | | |
| 1890. | | | | |
| United States | 3,689 | 513 | 75 | 4,277 |
| Great Britain | 2,015 | 1,564 | 100 | 3,679 |
| Germany and Luxemburg| .. | .. | .. | 2,127 |
| The World | .. | .. | .. | 11,902^a |
| | | | | |
| 1900. | | | | |
| United States /Acid | 6,685 | 853\ | 105 | 10,188 |
| \Basic | 0 | 2,545/ | | |
| Great Britain /Acid | 1,254\ | 3,156 | 149 | 5,050 |
| \Basic | 491/ | | | |
| Germany and Luxemburg| .. | .. | .. | 6,541 |
| The World | .. | .. | .. | 28,273 |
| | | | | |
| 1907. | | | | |
| United States /Acid |11,668 | 1,270\ | 145 | 23,363 |
| \Basic | 0 | 10,279/ | | |
| Great Britain /Acid | 1,280 | 3,385\ | .. | 6,523^2 |
| \Basic | 579 | 1,279/ | | |
| Germany and /Acid | 381^1 | 209^1\| 208^3 | 11,873 |
| Luxemburg \Basic | 7,098^1 | 3,976^1/| | |
| The World | | | | 50,375 |
+----------------------+----------+----------+-----------+-----------+
^1 Ingots only.
^2 Bessemer and open hearth only.
^3 Castings.

TABLE X.--_Tonnage (gross register) of Iron and Steel Vessels built
under Survey of Lloyd's Registry (in thousands of tons)._

+--------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| |1877.|1880.|1885.|1890.|1895.|1900.|1906.|
+--------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Wrought Iron | 443 | 460 | 304 | 50 | 8 | 14 | 0 |
| Steel | 0 | 35 | 162 |1079 | 863 |1305 |1492 |
+--------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

TABLE XI.--_Production of Iron Ore (in thousands of long tons)._

+----------------+-------------------+-------------------+------------+
| | 1905. | 1906. | 1907. |
| +------------+------+------------+------+------------+
| |Thousands of| Per |Thousands of| Per |Thousands of|
| | Long Tons. | Cent.| Long Tons. | Cent.| Long Tons. |
+----------------+------------+------+------------+------+------------+
| United States | 42,526 | 37.4 | 47,750 | 38.6 | 51,721 |
| Germany and | | | | | |
| Luxemburg | 23,074 | 20.3 | 26,312 | 21.3 | 27,260 |
| Great Britain | 14,591 | 12.8 | 15,500 | 12.5 | 15,732 |
| Spain | 8,934 | 7.9 | 9,299 | 7.5 | .. |
| France | 7,279 | 6.4 | 8,347 | 6.7 | .. |
| Russia | 5,954^1 | 5.2 | 3,812 | 3.1 | 4,330^2 |
| Sweden | 4,297 | 3.8 | 4,431 | 3.6 | .. |
| Austria-Hungary| 3,639 | 3.2 | 4,024 | 3.3 | .. |
| Other Countries| 3,457 | 3.0 | 4,297 | 3.5 | .. |
+----------------+------------+------+------------+------+------------+
| Total | 113,751 |100.0 | 123,773 |100.1 | |
+----------------+------------+------+------------+------+------------+
^1 Calculated from the production of pig iron.
^2 Approximately.

(H. M. H.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The word "iron" was in O. Eng. _iren_, _isern_ or _isen_, cf.
Ger. _Eisen_, Dut. _ysen_, Swed. _järn_, Dan. _jern_; the original
Teut. base is _isarn_, and cognates are found in Celtic, Ir. _iarun_,
Gael, _iarunn_, Breton, _houarn_, &c. The ulterior derivation is
unknown; connexion has been suggested without much probability with
_is_, ice, from its hard bright surface, or with Lat. _ars_, _aeris_,
brass. The change from _isen_ to _iren_ (in 16th cent. _yron_) is due
to rhotacism, but whether direct from _isen_ or through _isern_,
_irern_ is doubtful. "Steel" represents the O. Eng. _stél_ or _stéle_
(the true form; only found, however, with spelling _stýle_, cf.
_stýl-ecg_, steel-edged), cognate with Ger. _Stahl_, Dut. and Dan.
_staal_, &c.; the word is not found outside Teutonic. Skeat (_Etym.
Dict._, 1898) finds the ultimate origin in the Indo-European base
_stak_-, to be firm or still, and compares Lat. _stagnum_,
standing-water.

[2] A "eutectic" is the last-freezing part of an alloy, and
corresponds to what the mother-liquor of a saline solution would
become if such a solution, after the excess of saline matter had been
crystallized out, were finally completely frozen. It is the
mother-liquor or "bittern" frozen. Its striking characteristics are:
(1) that for given metals alloyed together its composition is fixed,
and does not vary with the proportions in which those metals are
present, because any "excess metal," i.e. so much of either metal as
is present in excess over the eutectic ratio, freezes out before the
eutectic; (2) that though thus constant, its composition is not in
simple atomic proportions; (3) that its freezing-point is constant;
and (4) that, when first formed, it habitually consists of
interstratified plates of the metals which compose it. If the alloy
has a composition very near that of its own eutectic, then when
solidified it of course contains a large proportion of the eutectic,
and only a small proportion of the excess metal. If it differs widely
from the eutectic in composition, then when solidified it consists of
only a small quantity of eutectic and a very large quantity of the
excess metal. But, far below the freezing-point, transformations may
take place in the solid metal, and follow a course quite parallel
with that of freezing, though with no suggestion of liquidity. A
"eutectoid" is to such a transformation in solid metal what a
eutectic is to freezing proper. It is the last part of the metal to
undergo this transformation and, when thus transformed, it is of
constant though not atomic composition, and habitually consists of
interstratified plates of its component metals.

[3] Note the distinction between the "eutectic" or alloy of lowest
freezing-point, 1130°, B, with 4.30% of carbon, and the "eutectoid,"
hardenite and pearlite, or alloy of lowest transformation-point, 690°
S, with 0.90% of carbon. (See § 17.)

[4] The length of the blow varies very greatly, in general increasing
with the proportion of silicon and with the size of charge. Thus the
small Swedish charges with but little silicon may be blown in 5
minutes, but for a 20-ton charge the time is more likely to reach, or
exceed 10 minutes, and sometimes reaches 20 minutes or even more.

[5] A "billet" is a bar, 5 in. sq. or smaller, drawn down from a
bloom, ingot, or pile for further manufacture.

IRON MASK (_masque de fer_). The identity of the "man in the iron mask"
is a famous historical mystery. The person so called was a political
prisoner under Louis XIV., who died in the Bastille in 1703. To the mask
itself no real importance attaches, though that feature of the story
gave it a romantic interest; there is no historical evidence that the
mask he was said always to wear was made of anything but black velvet
(_velours_), and it was only afterwards that legend converted its
material into iron. As regards the "man," we have the contemporary
official journals of Étienne du Junca (d. 1706), the king's lieutenant
at the Bastille, from which we learn that on the 18th of September 1698
a new governor, Bénigne D'Auvergne de Saint-Mars, arrived from the
fortress of the Isles Ste Marguerite (in the bay of Cannes), bringing
with him "un ancien prisonnier qu'il avait à Pignerol" (Pinerolo, in
Piedmont), whom he kept always masked and whose name remained untold.
(Saint-Mars, it may here be noted, had been commandant at Pignerol from
the end of 1664 till 1681; he was in charge there of such important
prisoners as Fouquet, from 1665 to his death in 1680, and Lauzun, from
1671 till his release in 1681; he was then in authority at Exiles from
1681 to 1687, and at Ste Marguerite from 1687 to 1698). Du Junca
subsequently records that "on Monday the 19th of November 1703, the
unknown prisoner, always masked with a black velvet mask, whom M. de
Saint-Mars had brought with him from the islands of Ste Marguerite, and
had kept for a long time,... died at about ten o'clock in the evening."
He adds that "this unknown prisoner was buried on the 20th in the parish
cemetery of Saint Paul, and was registered under a name also
unknown"--noting in the margin that he has since learnt that the name in
the register was "M. de Marchiel." The actual name in the register of
the parish cemetery of Saint Paul (now destroyed, but a facsimile is
still in existence) was "Marchioly"; and the age of the deceased was
there given as "about 45."

The identity of this prisoner was already, it will be observed, a
mystery before he died in 1703, and soon afterwards we begin to see the
fruit of the various legends concerning him which presumably started as
early as 1670, when Saint-Mars himself (see below) found it necessary to
circulate "fairy tales" (_contes jaunes_). In 1711 the Princess Palatine
wrote to the Electress Sophia of Hanover, and suggested that he was an
English nobleman who had taken part in a plot of the duke of Berwick
against William III. Voltaire, in his _Siècle de Louis XIV_ (1751), told
the story of the mysterious masked prisoner with many graphic details;
and, under the heading of "Ana" in the _Questions sur l'encyclopédie_
(Geneva, 1771), he asserted that he was a bastard brother of Louis XIV.,
son of Mazarin and Anne of Austria. Voltaire's influence in creating
public interest in the "man in the mask" was indeed enormous; he had
himself been imprisoned in the Bastille in 1717 and again in 1726; as
early as 1745 he is found hinting that he knows something; in the
_Siècle de Louis XIV_ he justifies his account on the score of
conversations with de Bernaville, who succeeded Saint-Mars (d. 1708) as
governor of the Bastille, and others; and after Heiss in 1770 had
identified the "mask" with Mattioli (see below), Voltaire was not above
suggesting that he really knew more than he had said, but thought it
sufficient to have given the clue to the enigma. According to the Abbé
Soulavie, the duke of Richelieu's advice was to reflect on Voltaire's
"last utterances" on the subject. In Soulavie's _Mémoires_ of Richelieu
(London, 1790) the masked man becomes (on the authority of an apocryphal
note by Saint-Mars himself) the legitimate twin brother of Louis XIV. In
1801 the story went that this scion of the royal house of France had a
son born to him in prison, who settled in Corsica under the name of "De
Buona Parte," and became the ancestor of Napoleon! Dumas's _Vicomte de
Bragelonne_ afterwards did much to popularize the theory that he was the
king's brother. Meanwhile other identifications, earlier or later, were
also supported, in whose case the facts are a sufficient refutation. He
was Louis, count of Vermandois, son of Louise de la Vallière (_Mémoires
secrets pour servir à l'histoire de Perse_, Amsterdam, 1745);
Vermandois, however, died in 1683. He was the duke of Monmouth (_Lettre
de Sainte Foy_ ... Amsterdam, 1768), although Monmouth was beheaded in
1685. He was François de Vendôme, duke of Beaufort, who disappeared (and
pretty certainly died) at the siege of Candia (1669); Avedick, an
Armenian patriarch seized by the Jesuits, who was not imprisoned till
1706 and died in 1711; Fouquet, who undoubtedly died at Pignerol in
1680; and even, according to A. Loquin (1883), Molière!

Modern criticism, however, has narrowed the issue. The "man in the mask"
was either (1) Count Mattioli, who became the prisoner of Saint-Mars at
Pignerol in 1679, or (2) the person called Eustache Dauger, who was
imprisoned in July 1669 in the same fortress. The evidence shows
conclusively that these two were the only prisoners under Saint-Mars at
Pignerol who could have been taken by him to the Bastille in 1698. The
arguments in favour of Mattioli (first suggested by Heiss, and strongly
supported by Topin in 1870) are summed up, with much weight of critical
authority, by F. Funck-Brentano in vol. lvi. of the _Revue historique_
(1894); the claims of Eustache Dauger were no less ably advocated by J.
Lair in vol. ii. of his _Nicolas Foucquet_ (1890). But while we know who
Mattioli was, and why he was imprisoned, a further question still
remains for supporters of Dauger, because his identity and the reason
for his incarceration are quite obscure.

It need only be added, so far as other modern theories are concerned,
that in 1873 M. Jung (_La Vérité sur la masque de fer_) had brought
forward another candidate, with the attractive name of "Marechiel," a
soldier of Lorraine who had taken part in a poisoning plot against
Louis XIV., and was arrested at Peronne by Louvois in 1673, and said
to be lodged in the Bastille and then sent to Pignerol. But Jung's
arguments, though strong destructively against the Mattioli theory,
break down as regards any valid proof either that the prisoner
arrested at Peronne was a Bastille prisoner in 1673 or that he was
ever at Pignerol, where indeed we find no trace of him. Another
theory, propounded by Captain Bazeries (_La Masque de fer_, 1883),
identified the prisoner with General du Bulonde, punished for
cowardice at the siege of Cuneo; but Bulonde only went to Pignerol in
1691, and has been proved to be living in 1705.

_The Mattioli Theory._--Ercole Antonio Mattioli (born at Bologna on the
1st of December 1640) was minister of Charles IV., duke of Mantua, who
as marquess of Montferrat was in possession of the frontier fortress of
Casale, which was coveted by Louis XIV. He negotiated the sale of Casale
to the French king for 100,000 crowns, and himself received valuable
presents from Louis. But on the eve of the occupation of Casale by the
French, Mattioli--actuated by a tardy sense of patriotism or by the hope
of further gain--betrayed the transaction to the governments of Austria,
Spain, Venice and Savoy. Louis, in revenge, had him kidnapped (1679) by
the French envoy, J. F. d'Estrades, abbé of Moissac, and Mattioli was
promptly lodged in the fortress of Pignerol. This kidnapping of
Mattioli, however, was no secret, and it was openly discussed in _La
Prudenza trionfante di Casale_ (Cologne, 1682), where it was stated that
Mattioli was masked when he was arrested. In February 1680 he is
described as nearly mad, no doubt from the effects of solitary
confinement. When Saint-Mars was made governor of Exiles in 1681 we know
from one of his letters that Mattioli was left at Pignerol; but in March
1694, Pignerol being about to be given up by France to Savoy, he and two
other prisoners were removed with much secrecy to Ste Marguerite, where
Saint-Mars had been governor since 1687. Funck-Brentano emphasizes the
fact that, although Eustache Dauger was then at Ste Marguerite, the
king's minister Barbezieux, writing to Saint-Mars (March 20, 1694) about
the transfer of these prisoners, says: "You know that they are of more
consequence (_plus de conséquence_), at least one" (presumably
Mattioli), "than those who are at present at the island." From this
point, however, the record is puzzling. A month after his arrival at Ste
Marguerite, a prisoner who had a valet died there.[1] Now Mattioli
undoubtedly had a valet at Pignerol, and nobody else at Ste Marguerite
is known at this time to have had one; so that he may well have been the
prisoner who died. In that case he was clearly not "the mask" of 1698
and 1703. Funck-Brentano's attempt to prove that Mattioli did _not_ die
in 1604 is far from convincing; but the assumption that he did is
inferential, and to that extent arguable. "Marchioly" in the burial
register of Saint Paul naturally suggests indeed at first that the
"ancien prisonnier" taken by Saint-Mars to the Bastille in 1698 was
Mattioli, Saint-Mars himself sometimes writing the name "Marthioly" in
his letters; but further consideration leaves this argument decidedly
weak. In any case the age stated in the burial register, "about 45," was
fictitious, whether for Mattioli (63) or Dauger (at least 53); and, as
Lair points out, Saint-Mars is known to have given false names at the
burial of other prisoners. Monsignor Barnes, in _The Man of the Mask_
(1908), takes the entry "Marchioly" as making it certain that the
prisoner was not Mattioli, on the ground (1) that the law[2] explicitly
ordered a false name to be given, and (2) that after hiding his identity
so carefully the authorities were not likely to give away the secret by
means of a burial register.

In spite of Funck-Brentano it appears practically certain that Mattioli
must be ruled out. If he was the individual who died in 1703 at the
Bastille, the obscurity which gathered round the nameless masked
prisoner is almost incomprehensible, for there was no real secret about
Mattioli's incarceration. The existence of a "legend" as to Dauger can,
however, be traced, as will be seen below, from the first. Any one who
accepts the Mattioli theory must be driven, as Lang suggests, to suppose
that the mystery which grew up about the unknown prisoner was somehow
transferred to Mattioli from Dauger.

_The Dauger Theory._--What then was Dauger's history? Unfortunately it
is only in his capacity as a prisoner that we can trace it. On the 19th
of July 1669 Louvois, Louis XIV.'s minister, writes to Saint-Mars at
Pignerol that he is sending him "le nommé Eustache Dauger" (Dauger,
D'Angers--the spelling is doubtful),[3] whom it is of the last
importance to keep with special closeness; Saint-Mars is to threaten him
with death if he speaks about anything except his actual needs. On the
same day Louvois orders Vauroy, major of the citadel of Dunkirk, to
seize Dauger and conduct him to Pignerol. Saint-Mars writes to Louvois
(Aug. 21) that Vauroy had brought Dauger, and that people "believe him
to be a marshal of France." Louvois (March 26, 1670) refers to a report
that one of Fouquet's valets--there was constant trouble about them--had
spoken to Dauger, who asked to be left in peace, and he emphasizes the
importance of there being no communication. Saint-Mars (April 12, 1670)
reports Dauger as "resigné à la volonté de Dieu et du Roy," and (again
the legend grows) says that "there are persons who are inquisitive about
my prisoner, and I am obliged to tell _contes jaunes pour me moquer
d'eux._" In 1672 Saint-Mars proposes--the significance of this action is
discussed later--to allow Dauger to act as "valet" to Lauzun; Louvois
firmly refuses, but in 1675 allows him to be employed as valet to
Fouquet, and he impresses upon Saint-Mars the importance of nobody
learning about Dauger's "past." After Fouquet's death (1680) Dauger and
Fouquet's other (old-standing) valet La Rivière are put together, by
Louvois's special orders, in one lower dungeon; Louvois evidently fears
their knowledge of things heard from Fouquet, and he orders Lauzun (who
had recently been allowed to converse freely with Fouquet) to be told
that they are released. When Saint-Mars is transferred to Exiles, he is
ordered to take these two with him, as too important to be in other
hands; Mattioli is left behind. At Exiles they are separated and guarded
with special precautions; and in January 1687 one of them (all the
evidence admittedly pointing to La Rivière) dies. When Saint-Mars is
again transferred, in May 1687, to Ste Marguerite, he takes his
"prisoner" (apparently he now has only one--Dauger) with great show of
caution; and next year (Jan. 8, 1688) he writes to Louvois that "mon
prisonnier" is believed "in all this province" to be a son of Oliver
Cromwell, or else the duke of Beaufort (a point which at once rules out
Beaufort). In 1691 Louvois's successor, Barbezieux, writes to him about
his "prisonnier de vingt ans" (Dauger was first imprisoned in 1669,
Mattioli in 1679), and Saint-Mars replies that "nobody has seen him but
myself." Subsequently Barbezieux and the governor continue to write to
one another about their "ancien prisonnier" (Jan. 6, 1696; Nov. 17,
1697). When, therefore, we come to Saint-Mars's appointment to the
Bastille in 1698, Dauger appears almost certainly to be the "ancien
prisonnier" he took with him.[4] There is at least good ground for
supposing Mattioli's death to have been indicated in 1694, but nothing
is known that would imply Dauger's, unless it was he who died in 1703.

_Theories as to Dauger's Identity._--Here we find not only sufficient
indication of the growth of a legend as to Dauger, but also the
existence in fact of a real mystery as to who he was and what he had
done, two things both absent in Mattioli's case. The only "missing link"
is the want of any precise allusion to a mask in the references to
Dauger. But in spite of du Junca's emphasis on the mask, it is in
reality very questionable whether the wearing of a mask was an unusual
practice. It was one obvious way of enabling a prisoner to appear in
public (for exercise or in travelling) without betrayal of identity.
Indeed three years before the arrival of Saint-Mars we hear (_Gazette
d'Amsterdam_, March 14, 1695) of another masked man being brought to the
Bastille, who eventually was known to be the son of a Lyons banker.

Who then was Dauger, and what was his "past"? We will take first a
theory propounded by Andrew Lang in _The Valet's Tragedy_ (1903). As the
result of research in the diplomatic correspondence at the Record Office
in London[5] Mr Lang finds a clue in the affairs of the French Huguenot,
Roux de Marsilly, the secret agent for a Protestant league against
France between Sweden, Holland, England and the Protestant cantons of
Switzerland, who in February 1669 left London, where he had been
negotiating with Arlington (apparently with Charles II.'s knowledge),
for Switzerland, his confidential valet Martin remaining behind. On the
14th of April 1669 Marsilly was kidnapped for Louis XIV. in Switzerland,
in defiance of international right, taken to Paris and on the 22nd of
June tortured to death on a trumped-up charge of rape. The duke of York
is said to have betrayed him to Colbert, the French ambassador in
London. The English intrigue was undoubtedly a serious matter, because
the shifty Charles II. was at the same time negotiating with Louis XIV.
a secret alliance against Holland, in support of the restoration of
Roman Catholicism in England. It would therefore be desirable for both
parties to remove anybody who was cognizant of the double dealing. Now
Louvois's original letter to Saint-Mars concerning Dauger (July 19,
1669), after dealing with the importance of his being guarded with
special closeness, and of Saint-Mars personally taking him food and
threatening him with death if he speaks, proceeds as follows (in a
second paragraph, as printed in Delort, i. 155, 156):--

"Je mande au Sieur Poupart de faire incessamment travailler à ce que
vous désirerez, et vous ferez préparer les meubles qui sont
nécessaires pour la vie de celui que l'on vous aménera, observant que
comme ce n est qu'un valet, il ne lui en faut pas de bien
considérables, et je vous ferai rembourser tant de la déspenses des
meubles, que de ce que vous désirerez pour sa nourriture."

Assuming the words here, "as he is only a valet," to refer to Dauger,
and taking into account the employment of Dauger from 1675 to 1680 as
Fouquet's valet, Mr Lang now obtains a solution of the problem of why a
mere valet should be a political prisoner of so much concern to Louis
XIV. at this time. He points out that Colbert, on the 3rd, 10th and 24th
of June, writes from London to Louis XIV. about his efforts to get
Martin, Roux de Marsilly's valet, to go to France, and on the 1st of
July expresses a hope that Charles II. will surrender "the valet." Then,
on the 19th of July, Dauger is arrested at Dunkirk, the regular port
from England. Mr Lang regards his conclusion as to the identity between
these valets as irresistible. It is true that what is certainly known
about Martin hardly seems to provide sufficient reason for Eustache
Dauger being regarded for so long a time as a specially dangerous
person. But Mr Lang's answer on that point is that this humble
supernumerary in Roux de Marsilly's conspiracy simply became one more
wretched victim of the "red tape" of the old French absolute monarchy.

Unfortunately for this identification, it encounters at once a
formidable, if not fatal, objection. Martin, the Huguenot conspirator
Marsilly's valet, must surely have been himself a Huguenot. Dauger, on
the other hand, was certainly a Catholic; indeed Louvois's second letter
to Saint-Mars about him (Sept. 10, 1669) gives precise directions as to
his being allowed to attend mass at the same time as Fouquet. It may
perhaps be argued that Dauger (if Martin) simply did not make bad worse
by proclaiming his creed; but against this, Louvois must have _known_
that Martin was a Huguenot. Apart from that, it will be observed that
the substantial reason for connecting the two men is simply that both
were "valets." The identification is inspired by the apparent necessity
of an explanation why Dauger, being a valet, should be a political
prisoner of importance. The assumption, however, that Dauger was a valet
when he was arrested is itself as unnecessary as the fact is
intrinsically improbable. Neither Louvois's letter of July 19, 1669, nor
Dauger's employment as valet to Fouquet in 1675 (six years later)--and
these are the only grounds on which the assumption rests--prove anything
of the sort.

Was Dauger a valet? If Dauger was the "mask," it is just as well to
remove a misunderstanding which has misled too many commentators.

1. If Louvois's letter of July 19 be read in connexion with the
preceding correspondence it will be seen that ever since Fouquet's
incarceration in 1665 Saint-Mars had had trouble over his valets. They
fall ill, and there is difficulty in replacing them, or they play the
traitor. At last, on the 12th of March 1669, Louvois writes to
Saint-Mars to say (evidently in answer to some suggestion from
Saint-Mars in a letter which is not preserved): "It is annoying that
both Fouquet's valets should have fallen ill at the same time, but you
have so far taken such good measures for avoiding inconvenience that I
leave it to you to adopt whatever course is necessary." There are then
no letters in existence from Saint-Mars to Louvois up to Louvois's
letter of July 19, in which he first refers to Dauger; and for three
months (from April 22 to July 19) there is a gap in the correspondence,
so that the sequence is obscure. The portion, however, of the letter of
the 19th of July, cited above, in which Louvois uses the words "ce n'est
qu'un valet," does not, in the present writer's judgment, refer to
Dauger at all, but to something which had been mooted in the meanwhile
with a view to obtaining a valet for Fouquet. This is indeed the natural
reading of the letter as a whole. If Louvois had meant to write that
Dauger was "only a valet" he would have started by saying so. On the
contrary, he gives precise and apparently comprehensive directions in
the first part of the letter about how he is to be treated: "Je vous en
donne advis par advance, afin que vous puissiez faire accomoder un
cachot où vous le mettrez surement, observant de faire en sorte que les
jours qu'aura le lieu où il sera ne donnent point sur les lieux qui
puissent estre abordez de personne, et qu'il y ayt assez de portes
fermées, les unes sur les autres, pour que vos sentinelles ne puissent
bien entendre," &c. Having finished his instructions about Dauger, he
then proceeds in a fresh paragraph to tell Saint-Mars that orders have
been given to "Sieur Poupart" to do "whatever you shall desire." He is
here dealing with a different question; and it is unreasonable to
suppose. and indeed contrary to the style in which Louvois corresponds
with Saint-Mars, that he devotes the whole letter to the one subject
with which he started. The words "et vous ferez préparer les meubles qui
sont nécessaires pour la vie de celui que l'on vous aménera" are not at
all those which Louvois would use with regard to Dauger, after what he
has just said about him. Why "celui que l'on vous aménera," instead of
simply "Dauger," who was being brought, as he has said, by Vauroy? The
clue to the interpretation of this phrase may be found in another letter
from Louvois not six months later (Jan. 1, 1670), when he writes: "Le
roy se remet à vous d'en uzer comme vous le jugerez à propos à l'esgard
des valets de Monsieur Foucquet; il faut seulement observer que si vous
luy donnez des valets que l'on vous aménera d'icy, il pourra bien
arriver qu'ils seront gaignez par avance, et qu'ainsy ils feroient pis
que ceux que vous en osteriez présentement." Here we have the identical
phrase used of valets whom it is contemplated to bring in from outside
for Fouquet; though it does not follow that any such valet was in fact
brought in. The whole previous correspondence (as well as a good deal
afterwards) is full of the valet difficulty; and it is surely more
reasonable to suppose that when Louvois writes to Saint-Mars on the 19th
of July that he is sending Dauger, a new prisoner of importance, as to
whom "il est de la dernière importance qu'il soit gardé avec une grande
seureté," his second paragraph as regards the instructions to "Sieur
Poupart" refers to something which Saint-Mars had suggested about
getting a valet from outside, and simply points out that in preparing
furniture for "celui que l'on vous aménera" he need not do much, "comme
ce n'est qu'un valet."

2. But this is not all. If Dauger had been originally a valet, he might
as well have been used as such at once, when one was particularly
wanted. On the contrary, Louvois flatly refused Saint-Mars's request in
1672 to be allowed to do so, and was exceedingly chary of allowing it in
1675 (only "en cas de nécessité," and "vous pouvez donner le dit
prisonnier à M. Foucquet, si son valet venoit à luy manquer et non
autrement"). The words used by Saint-Mars in asking Louvois in 1672 if
he might use Dauger as Lauzun's valet are themselves significant to the
point of conclusiveness: "Il ferait, ce me semble, un bon valet."
Saint-Mars could not have said this if Dauger had all along been _known_
to be a valet. The terms of his letter to Louvois (Feb 20, 1672) show
that Saint-Mars wanted to use Dauger as a valet simply because he was
_not_ a valet. That a person might be used as a valet who was not really
a valet is shown by Louvois having told Saint-Mars in 1666 (June 4) that
Fouquet's old doctor, Pecquet, was not to be allowed to serve him "soit
dans sa profession, soit dans le mestier d'un simple valet." The fact
was that Saint-Mars was hard put to it in the prison for anybody who
could be trusted, and that he had convinced himself by this time that
Dauger (who had proved a quiet harmless fellow) would give no trouble.
Probably he wanted to give him some easy employment, and save him from
going mad in confinement. It is worth noting that up to 1672 (when
Saint-Mars suggested utilizing Dauger as valet to Lauzun) none of the
references to Dauger in letters after that of July 19, 1669, suggests
his being a valet; and their contrary character makes it all the more
clear that the second part of the letter of July 19 does not refer to
Dauger.

In this connexion it may be remarked (and this is a point on which
Funck-Brentano entirely misinterprets the allusion) that, even in his
capacity as valet to Fouquet, Dauger was still regarded an as
exceptional sort of prisoner; for in 1679 when Fouquet and Lauzun were
afterwards allowed to walk freely all over the citadel, Louvois
impresses on Saint-Mars that "_le nommé Eustache_" is never to be
allowed to be in Fouquet's room when Lauzun or any other stranger, or
anybody but Fouquet and the "_ancien valet_," La Rivière, is there, and
that he is to stay in Fouquet's room when the latter goes out to walk in
the citadel, and is only to go out walking with Fouquet and La Rivière
when they promenade in the special part of the fortress previously set
apart for them (Louvois's letter to Saint-Mars, Jan. 30, 1670).

_Was Dauger James de la Cloche?_ In _The Man of the Mask_ (1908)
Monsignor Barnes, while briefly dismissing Mr Lang's identification with
Martin, and apparently not realizing the possibility of reading
Louvois's letter of July 19, 1669, as indicated above[6] deals in detail
with the history of James de la Cloche, the natural son of Charles II.
(acknowledged privately as such by the king) in whom he attempts to
unmask the personality of Dauger. Mr Lang, in _The Valet's Tragedy_, had
some years earlier ironically wondered why nobody made this suggestion,
which, however, he regarded as untenable. The story of James de la
Cloche is indeed itself another historical mystery; he abruptly vanishes
as such at Rome at the end of 1668, and thus provides a disappearance of
convenient date; but the question concerning him is complicated by the
fact that a James Henry de Bovere Roano Stuardo, who married at Naples
early in 1669 and undoubtedly died in the following August, claiming to
be a son of Charles II., makes just afterwards an equally abrupt
appearance; in many respects the two men seem to be the same, but
Monsignor Barnes, following Lord Acton, here regards James Stuardo as an
impostor who traded on a knowledge of James de la Cloche's secret. If
the latter then did _not_ die in 1669, what became of him? According to
Monsignor Barnes's theory, James de la Cloche, who had been brought up
to be a Jesuit and knew his royal father's secret profession of Roman
Catholicism, was being employed by Charles II. as an intermediary with
the Catholic Church and with the object of making him his own private
confessor; he returned from Rome at the beginning of 1669, and is then
identified by Monsignor Barnes with a certain Abbé Pregnani, an
"astrologer" sent by Louis in February 1669 to influence Charles II.
towards the French alliance. Pregnani, however, made a bad start by
"tipping winners" at Newmarket with disastrous results, and was quickly
recalled to France, actually departing on July 5th (French 15th). But he
too now disappears, though a letter from Lionne (the French foreign
secretary) to Colbert of July 17 (two days before Louvois's letter to
Saint-Mars about Dauger) says that he is expected in Paris. Monsignor
Barnes's theory is that Pregnani _alias_ James de la Cloche, without the
knowledge of Charles II., was arrested by order of Louis and imprisoned
as Dauger on account of his knowing too much about the French schemes in
regard to Charles II. This identification of Pregnani with James de la
Cloche is, however, intrinsically incredible. We are asked to read into
the Pregnani story a deliberate intrigue on Charles's part for an excuse
for having James de la Cloche in England. But this does not at all seem
to square with the facts given in the correspondence, and it is hard to
understand why Charles should have allowed Pregnani to depart, and
should not have taken any notice of his son's "disappearance." There
would still remain, no doubt, the possibility that Pregnani, though not
James de la Cloche, was nevertheless the "man in the mask." But even
then the dates will not suit; for Lionne wrote to Colbert on July 27,
saying, "Pregnani has been so slow on his voyage that he has only given
me (_m'a rendu_) your despatch of July 4 several days after I had
already received those of the 8th and the 11th." Allowing for the French
style of dating this means that instead of arriving in Paris by July 18,
Pregnani only saw Lionne there at earliest on July 25. This seems to
dispose of his being sent to Pignerol on the 19th. Apart altogether,
however, from such considerations, it now seems fairly certain, from Mr
Lang's further research into the problem of James de la Cloche (see LA
CLOCHE), that the latter _was_ identical with the "Prince" James Stuardo
who died in Naples in 1669, and that he hoaxed the general of the
Jesuits and forged a number of letters purporting to be from Charles II.
which were relied on in Monsignor Barnes's book; so that the theory
breaks down at all points.

The identification of Dauger thus still remains the historical problem
behind the mystery of the "man in the mask." He was not the valet
Martin; he was not a valet at all when he was sent to Pignerol; he was
not James de la Cloche. The fact nevertheless that he was employed as a
valet, even in special circumstances, for Fouquet, makes it difficult to
believe that Dauger was a man of any particular social standing. We may
be forced to conclude that the interest of the whole affair, so far as
authentic history is concerned, is really nugatory, and that the
romantic imagination has created a mystery in a fact of no importance.

AUTHORITIES.--The correspondence between Saint-Mars and Louvois is
printed by J. Delort in _Histoire de la détention des philosophes_
(1829). Apart from the modern studies by Lair, Funck-Brentano, Lang
and Barnes, referred to above, there is valuable historical matter in
the work of Roux-Fazaillac, _Recherches historiques sur l'homme au
masque de fer_ (1801); see also Marius Topin, _L'Homme au masque de
fer_ (Paris, 1870), and Loiseleur, _Trois Énigmes historiques_ (1882).
(H. Ch.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Barbezieux to Saint-Mars, May 10, 1694: "J'ai reçu la lettre que
vous avez pris la peine de m'écrire le 29 du mois passé; vous pouvez,
suivant que vous le proposez, faire mettre dans la prison voûtée le
valet du prisonnier qui est mort." It may be noted that Barbezieux
had recently told Saint-Mars to designate his prisoners by
circumlocutions in his correspondence, and not by name.

[2] He cites Bingham's _Bastille_, i. 27.

[3] It was the common practice to give pseudonyms to prisoners, and
this is clearly such a case. Mattioli's prison name was Lestang.

[4] Funck-Brentano argues that "un ancien prisonnier qu'il avait à
Pignerol" (du Junca's words) cannot apply to Dauger, because then du
Junca would have added "et à Exiles." But this is decidedly
far-fetched; du Junca would naturally refer specially to Pignerol,
the fortress with which Saint-Mars had been originally and
particularly associated. Funck-Brentano also insists that the
references to the "ancien prisonnier" in 1696 and 1697 must be to
Mattioli, giving _ancien_ the meaning of "late" or "former" (as in
the phrase "ancien ministre"), and regarding it as an expression
pertinent to Mattioli, who had been at Pignerol with Saint-Mars but
not at Exiles, and not to Dauger, who had always been with
Saint-Mars. But when he attempts to force du Junca's phrase "un
ancien prisonnier qu'il avait à Pignerol" into this sense, he is
straining language. The natural interpretation of the word _ancien_
is simply "of old standing," and Barbezieux's use of it, coming after
Louvois's phrase in 1691, clearly points to Dauger being meant.

[5] This identification had been previously suggested by H. Montaudon
in _Revue de la société des études historiques_ for 1888, p. 452, and
by A. le Grain in _L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs_ for 1891, col.
227-228.

[6] The view taken by Monsignor Barnes of the phrase "_Ce n'est qu'un
valet_" in Louvois's letter of July 19, is that (reading this part of
the letter as a continuation of what precedes) the mere fact of
Louvois's saying that Dauger is only a valet means that that was just
what he was not! Monsignor Barnes is rather too apt to employ the
method of interpretation by contraries, on the ground that in such
letters the writer always concealed the real facts.

IRON MOUNTAIN, a city and the county-seat of Dickinson county, Michigan,
U.S.A., about 50 m. W. by N. of Escanaba, in the S.W. part of the Upper
Peninsula. Pop. (1900) 9242, of whom 4376 were foreign-born; (1904)
8585; (1910) 9216. It is served by the Chicago & North Western and the
Chicago, Milwaukee & Saint Paul railways. The city is situated about
1160 ft. above sea-level in an iron-mining district, and the mining of
iron ore (especially at the Great Chapin Iron Mine) is its principal
industry. Iron Mountain was settled in 1879, and was chartered in 1889.

IRONSIDES, a nickname given to one of great bravery, strength or
endurance, particularly as exhibited in a soldier. In English history
Ironside or Ironsides first appears as the name of Edmund II., king of
the English. In the Great Rebellion it was first given by Prince Rupert
to Cromwell, after the battle of Marston Moor in 1644 (see S. R.
Gardiner's _History of the Great Civil War_, 1893, vol. ii. p. 1, and
_Mercurius civicus_, September 19-26, 1644, quoted there). From Cromwell
it was transferred to the troopers of his cavalry, those "God-fearing
men," raised and trained by him in an iron discipline, who were the main
instrument of the parliamentary victories in the field. This (see S. R.
Gardiner, _op. cit._ iv. 179) was first given at the raising of the
siege of Pontefract 1648, but did not become general till later.

IRONTON, a city and the county-seat of Lawrence county, Ohio, U.S.A., on
the Ohio river, about 142 m. E.S.E. of Cincinnati. Pop. (1890) 10,939;
(1900) 11,868, of whom 924 were negroes and 714 foreign-born; (1910
census) 13,147. It is served by the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Cincinnati,
Hamilton and Dayton, the Norfolk and Western, and the Detroit, Toledo
and Ironton railways, and by river steamboats. The city is built on a
plain at the base of hills rising from the river bottom and abounding in
iron ore and bituminous coal; fire and pottery clay also occur in the
vicinity. Besides mining, Ironton has important lumber interests,
considerable river traffic, and numerous manufactures, among which are
iron, wire, nails, machinery, stoves, fire-brick, pressed brick,
terra-cotta, cement, carriages and wagons, and furniture. The total
value of its factory product in 1905 was $4,755,304; in 1900,
$5,410,528. The municipality owns and operates its water-works. Ironton
was first settled in 1848, and in 1851 was incorporated.

IRONWOOD, a city of Gogebic county, Michigan, U.S.A., on the Montreal
river, in the N.W. part of the upper peninsula. Pop. (1890) 7745; (1900)
9705, of whom 4615 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 12,821. It is served
by the Chicago and Northwestern and the Wisconsin Central railways. The
city is situated about 1500 ft. above sea-level in the Gogebic
iron-district, and is principally a mining town; some of the largest
iron mines in the United States are within the city limits. Ironwood was
settled in 1884, and was chartered as a city in 1889.

IRON-WOOD, the name applied to several kinds of timber, the produce of
trees from different parts of the tropics, and belonging to very
different natural families. Usually the wood is extremely hard, dense
and dark-coloured, and sinks in water. Several species of _Sideroxylon_
(_Sapotaceae_) yield iron-wood, _Sideroxylon cinereum_ or _Bojerianum_
being the _bois de fer blanc_ of Africa and Mauritius, and the name is
also given to species of _Metrosideros_ (_Myrtaceae_) and _Diospyros_
(_Ebenaceae_).

West Indian iron-wood is the produce of _Colubrina reclinata_ (and _C.
ferruginosa_ (_Rhamnaceae_), and of _Aegiphila martinicensis
Verbenacae_). _Ixora_ (_Siderodendron_) _triflorum_ (_Rubiaceae_) is the
_bois de fer_ of Martinique, and Zanthoxylum _Pterota_ (_Rutaceae_) is
the iron-wood of Jamaica, while _Robinia Ponacoco_ (_Leguminosae_) is
described as the iron-wood of Guiana. The iron-wood of India and Ceylon
is the produce of _Mesua ferrea_ (_Guttiferae_). The iron-wood tree of
Pegu and Arracan is _Xylia dolabriformis_ (_Leguminosae_), described as
the most important timber-tree of Burma after teak, and known as
_pyingado_. The endemic _bois de fer_ of Mauritius, once frequent in the
primeval woods, but now becoming very scarce, is _Stadtmannia
Sideroxylon_ (_Sapindaceae_), while _Cossignya pinnata_ is known as the
_bois de fer de Judas_. In Australia species of _Acacia_, _Casuarina_,
_Eucalyptus_, _Melaleuca_, _Myrtus_, and other genera are known more or
less widely as iron-wood. Tasmanian iron-wood is the produce of
_Notelaea ligustrina_ (_Oleaceae_), and is chiefly used for making
ships' blocks. The iron-wood or lever-wood of North America is the
timber of the American hop hornbeam, _Ostrya virginica_ (_Cupuliferae_).
In Brazil _Apuleia ferrea_ and _Caesalpinia ferrea_ yield a kind of
iron-wood, called, however, the _Pao ferro_ or false iron-wood.

IRON-WORK, as an ornament in medieval architecture, is chiefly confined
to the hinges, &c., of doors and of church chests, &c. Specimens of
Norman iron-work are very rare. Early English specimens are numerous and
very elaborate. In some instances not only do the hinges become a mass
of scroll work, but the surface of the doors is covered by similar
ornaments. In both these periods the design evidently partakes of the
feeling exhibited in the stone or wood carving. In the Decorated period
the scroll work is more graceful, and, like the foliage of the time,
more natural. As styles progressed, there was a greater desire that the
framing of the doors should be richer, and the ledges were chamfered or
raised, then panelled, and at last the doors became a mass of scroll
panelling. This, of course, interfered with the design of the hinges,
the ornamentation of which gradually became unusual. In almost all
styles the smaller and less important doors had merely plain
strap-hinges, terminating in a few bent scrolls, and latterly in
_fleurs-de-lis_. Escutcheon and ring handles, and the other furniture,
partook more or less of the character of the time. On the continent of
Europe the knockers are very elaborate. At all periods doors have been
ornamented with nails having projecting heads, sometimes square,
sometimes polygonal, and sometimes ornamented with roses, &c. The iron
work of windows is generally plain, and the ornament confined to simple
_fleur-de-lis_ heads to the stanchions. For the iron-work of screens
enclosing tombs and chapels see GRILLE; and generally see METAL-WORK.

IRONY (Gr. [Greek: eirôneia], from [Greek: eirôn], one who says less
than he means, [Greek: eirein], to speak), a form of speech in which the
real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the words used; it is
particularly employed for the purpose of ridicule, mockery or contempt,
frequently taking the form of sarcastic phrase. The word is frequently
used figuratively, especially in such phrases as "the irony of fate," of
an issue or result that seems to contradict the previous state or
condition. The Greek word was particularly used of an under-statement in
the nature of dissimulation. It is especially exemplified in the assumed
ignorance which Socrates adopted as a method of dialectic, the "Socratic
irony" (see SOCRATES). In tragedy, what is called "tragic irony" is a
device for heightening the intensity of a dramatic situation. Its use is
particularly characteristic of the drama of ancient Greece, owing to the
familiarity of the spectators with the legends on which so many of the
plays were based. In this form of irony the words and actions of the
characters belie the real situation, which the spectators fully realize.
It may take several forms; the character speaking may be conscious of
the irony of his words while the rest of the actors may not, or he may
be unconscious and the actors share the knowledge with the spectators,
or the spectators may alone realize irony. The _Oedipus Tyrannus_ of
Sophocles is the classic example of tragic irony at its fullest and
finest.

IROQUOIS, or SIX NATIONS, a celebrated confederation of North American
Indians. The name is that given them by the French. It is suggested that
it was formed of two ceremonial words constantly used by the tribesmen,
meaning "real adders," with the French addition of _ois_. The league was
originally composed of five tribes or nations, viz. Mohawks, Oneidas,
Onondagas, Senecas and Cayugas. The confederation probably took place
towards the close of the 16th century and in 1722 the Tuscaroras were
admitted, the league being then called that of "the Six Nations." At
that time their total number was estimated at 11,650, including 2150
warriors. They were unquestionably the most powerful confederation of
Indians on the continent. Their home was the central and western parts
of New York state. In the American War of Independence they fought on
the English side, and in the repeated battles their power was nearly
destroyed. They are now to the number of 17,000 or more scattered about
on various reservations in New York state, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and
Canada. The _Iroquoian stock_, the larger group of kindred tribes, of
which the five nations were the most powerful, had their early home in
the St Lawrence region. Besides the five nations, the Neutral nation,
Huron, Erie, Conestoga, Nottoway, Meherrin, Tuscarora and Cherokee were
the most important tribes of the stock. The hostility of the Algonquian
tribes seems to have been the cause of the southward migration of the
Iroquoian peoples. In 1535 Jacques Cartier found an Iroquoian tribe in
possession of the land upon which now stand Montreal and Quebec; but
seventy years later it was in the hands of Algonquians.

See L. H. Morgan, _League of the Hodeno Swanee or Iroquois_
(Rochester, N.Y., 1854); _Handbook of American Indians_ (Washington,
1907). Also INDIANS, NORTH AMERICAN.

IRRAWADDY, or IRAWADI, the principal river in the province of Burma,
traversing the centre of the country, and practically running throughout
its entire course in British territory. It is formed by the confluence
of the Mali and N'mai rivers (usually called Mali-kha and N'mai-kha, the
_kha_ being the Kachin word for river) in 25° 45´ N. The N'mai is the
eastern branch. The definite position of its source is still uncertain,
and it seems to be made up of a number of considerable streams, all
rising within a short distance of each other in about 28° 30´ N. It is
shown on some maps as the Lu river of Tibet; but it is now quite certain
that the Tibetan Lu river is the Salween, and that the N'mai has its
source or sources near the southern boundary of Tibet, to the north-east
or east of the source of the Mali. At the confluence the N'mai is larger
than the Mali. The general width of its channel seems to be 350 or 400
yds. during this part of its course. In the rains this channel is filled
up, but in the cold weather the average breadth is from 150 to 200 yds.
The N'mai is practically unnavigable. The Mali is the western branch.
Like the main river, it is called Nam Kiu by the Shans. It rises in the
hills to the north of the Hkamti country, probably in about 28° 30´ N.
Between Hkamti and the country comparatively close to the confluence
little or nothing is known of it, but it seems to run in a narrow
channel through continuous hills. The highest point on the Mali reached
from the south by Major Hobday in 1891 was Ting Sa, a village a little
off the river, in 26° 15´ N. About 1 m. above the confluence it is 150
yds. wide in January and 17 ft. deep, with a current of 3¾ m. an hour.
Steam launches can only ascend from Myitkyina to the confluence in the
height of the rains. Native boats ascend to Laikaw or Sawan 26° 2´ N.,
all the year around, but can get no farther at any season. From the
confluence the river flows in a southerly direction as far as Bhamo,
then turns west as far as the confluence of the Kaukkwe stream, a little
above Katha, where it again turns in a southerly direction, and
maintains this in its general course through Upper and Lower Burma,
though it is somewhat tortuous immediately below Mandalay. Just below
the confluence of the Mali and N'mai rivers the Irrawaddy is from 420 to
450 yds. wide and about 30 ft. deep in January at its deepest point.
Here it flows between hills, and after passing the Manse and Mawkan
rapids, reaches plain country and expands to nearly 500 yds. at Sakap.
At Myitkyina it is split into two channels by Naungtalaw island, the
western channel being 600 yds. wide and the eastern 200. The latter is
quite dry in the hot season. At Kat-kyo, 5 or 6 m. below Myitkyina, the
width is 1000 yds., and below this it varies from 600 yds. to ¾ m. at
different points. Three miles below Sinbo the third defile is entered by
a channel not more than 50 yds. wide, and below this, throughout the
defile, it is never wider than 250 yds., and averages about 100. At the
"Gates of the Irrawaddy" at Poshaw two prism-shaped rocks narrow the
river to 50 yds., and the water banks up in the middle with a whirlpool
on each side of the raised pathway. All navigation ceases here in the
floods. The defile ends at Hpatin, and below this the river widens out
to a wet-season channel of 2 m., and a breadth in the dry season of
about 1 m. At Sinkan, below Bhamo, the second defile begins. It is not
so narrow nor is the current so strong as in the third defile. The
narrowest place is more than 100 yds. wide. The hills are higher, but
the defile is much shorter. At Shwegu the river leaves the hills and
becomes a broad stream, flowing through a wide plain. The first defile
is tame compared with the others. The river merely flows between low
hills or high wooded banks. The banks are covered at this point with
dense vegetation, and slope down to the water's edge. Here and there are
places which are almost perpendicular, but are covered with forest
growth. The course of the Irrawaddy after receiving the waters of the
Myit-nge at Sagaing, as far as 17° N. lat., is exceedingly tortuous; the
line of Lower Burma is crossed in 19° 29´ 3´´ N. lat., 95° 15´ E. long.,
the breadth of the river here being ¾ m.; about 11 m. lower down it is
nearly 3 m. broad. At Akauk-taung, where a spur of the Arakan hills end
in a precipice 300 ft. high, the river enters the delta, the hills
giving place to low alluvial plains, now protected on the west by
embankments. From 17° N. lat. the Irrawaddy divides and subdivides,
converting the lower portion of its valley into a network of
intercommunicating tidal creeks. It reaches the sea in 15° 50´ N. lat.
and 95° 8´ E. long., by nine principal mouths. The only ones used by
sea-going ships are the Bassein and Rangoon mouths. The area of the
catchment basin of the Irrawaddy is 158,000 sq. m.; its total length
from its known source to the sea is about 1300 m. As far down as
Akauk-taung in Henzada district its bed is rocky, but below this sandy
and muddy. It is full of islands and sandbanks; its waters are extremely
muddy, and the mud is carried far out to sea. The river commences to
rise in March; about June it rises rapidly, and attains its maximum
height about September. The total flood discharge is between four and
five hundred million metre tons of 37 cub. ft. From Mandalay up to Bhamo
the river is navigable a distance of nearly 1000 m. for large steamers
all the year round; but small launches and steamers with weak engines
are often unable to get up the second defile in the months of July,
August and September, owing to the strong current. The Irrawaddy
Flotilla Company's steamers go up and down twice a week all through the
rains, and the mails are carried to Bhamo on intermediate days by a
ferry-boat from the railway terminus at Katha. During the dry season the
larger boats are always liable to run on sandbanks, more especially in
November and December, when new channels are forming after the river has
been in flood. From Bhamo up to Sinbo no steamers can ply during the
rains, that is to say, usually from June to November. From November to
June small steamers can pass through the third defile from Bhamo to
Sinbo. Between Sinbo and Myitkyina small launches can run all the year
round. Above Myitkyina small steamers can reach the confluence at the
height of the flood with some difficulty, but when the water is lower
they cannot pass the Mawkan rapid, just above Mawme, and the navigation
of the river above Myitkyina is always difficult. The journey from
Bhamo to Sinbo can be made during the rains in native boats, but it is
always difficult and sometimes dangerous. It is never done in less than
five days and often takes twelve or more. As a natural source of
irrigation the value of the Irrawaddy is enormous, but the river
supplies no artificial systems of irrigation. It is nowhere bridged,
though crossed by two steam ferries to connect the railway system on
either bank. (J. G. Sc.)

IRREDENTISTS, an Italian patriotic and political party, which was of
importance in the last quarter of the 19th century. The name was formed
from the words _Italia Irredenta_--Unredeemed Italy--and the party had
for its avowed object the emancipation of all Italian lands still
subject to foreign rule. The Irredentists took language as the test of
the alleged Italian nationality of the countries they proposed to
emancipate, which were South Tirol (Trentino), Görz, Istria, Trieste,
Tessino, Nice, Corsica and Malta. The test was applied in the most
arbitrary manner, and in some cases was not applicable at all. Italian
is not universally spoken in South Tirol, Görz or Istria. Malta has a
dialect of its own though Italian is used for literary and judicial
purposes, while Dalmatia is thoroughly non-Italian though it was once
under the political dominion of the ancient Republic of Venice. The
party was of little note before 1878. In that year it sprang into
prominence because the Italians were disappointed by the result of the
conference at Berlin summoned to make a European settlement after the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877. The Italians had hoped to share in the
plunder of Turkey, but they gained nothing, while Austria was endowed
with the protectorate of Bosnia, and the Herzegovina, the vitally
important hinterland of her possessions on the Adriatic. Under the sting
of this disappointment the cry of Italia Irredenta became for a time
loud and apparently popular. It was in fact directed almost wholly
against Austria, and was also used as a stalking-horse by discontented
parties in Italian domestic politics--the Radicals, Republicans and
Socialists. In addition to the overworked argument from language, the
Irredentists made much of an unfounded claim that the Trentino had been
conquered by Giuseppe Garibaldi during the war of 1866, and they
insisted that the district was an "enclave" in Italian territory which
would give Austria a dangerous advantage in a war of aggression. It
would be equally easy and no less accurate to call the Trentino an
exposed and weak spot of the frontier of Austria. On the 21st of July
1878 a noisy public meeting was held at Rome with Menotti Garibaldi, the
son of the famous Giuseppe, in the chair, and a clamour was raised for
the formation of volunteer battalions to conquer the Trentino. Signor
Cairoli, then prime minister of Italy, treated the agitation with
tolerance. It was, however, mainly superficial, for the mass of the
Italians had no wish to launch on a dangerous policy of adventure
against Austria, and still less to attack France for the sake of Nice
and Corsica, or Great Britain for Malta. The only practical consequences
of the Irredentist agitation outside of Italy were such things as the
assassination plot organized against the emperor Francis Joseph in
Trieste in 1882 by Oberdank, which was detected and punished. When the
Irredentist movement became troublesome to Italy through the activity of
Republicans and Socialists, it was subject to effective police control
by Signor Depretis. It sank into insignificance when the French
occupation of Tunis in 1881 offended the Italians deeply, and their
government entered into those relations with Austria and Germany which
took shape by the formation of the Triple Alliance. In its final stages
it provided a way in which Italians who sympathized with French
republicanism, and who disliked the monarchical governments of Central
Europe, could agitate against their own government. It also manifested
itself in periodical war scares based on affected fears of Austrian
aggression in northern Italy. Within the dominions of Austria
Irredentism has been one form of the complicated language question which
has disturbed every portion of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

See Colonel von Haymerle, _Italicae res_ (Vienna, 1879) for the early
history of the Irredentists.

IRRIGATION (Lat. _in_, and _rigare_, to water or wet), the artificial
application of water to land in order to promote vegetation; it is
therefore the converse of "drainage" (q.v.), which is the artificial
withdrawal of water from lands that are over-saturated. In both cases
the object is to promote vegetation.

I. _General._--Where there is abundance of rainfall, and when it falls
at the required season, there is in general no need for irrigation. But
it often happens that, although there is sufficient rainfall to raise an
inferior crop, there is not enough to raise a more valuable one.

Irrigation is an art that has been practised from very early times. Year
after year fresh discoveries are made that carry back our knowledge of
the early history of Egypt. It is certain that, until the cultivator
availed himself of the natural overflow of the Nile to saturate the
soil, Egypt must have been a desert, and it is a very small step from
that to baling up the water from the river and pouring it over lands
which the natural flood has not touched. The sculptures and paintings of
ancient Egypt bear no trace of anything approaching scientific
irrigation, but they often show the peasant baling up the water at least
as early as 2000 B.C. By means of this simple plan of raising water and
pouring it over the fields thousands of acres are watered every year in
India, and the system has many advantages in the eyes of the peasant.
Though there is great waste of labour, he can apply his labour when he
likes; no permission is required from a government official; no one has
to be bribed. The simplest and earliest form of water-raising machinery
is the pole with a bucket suspended from one end of a crossbeam and a
counterpoise at the other. In India this is known as the _denkli_ or
_paecottah_; in Egypt it is called the _shadúf_. All along the Nile
banks from morning to night may be seen brown-skinned peasants working
these _shadúfs_, tier above tier, so as to raise the water 15 or 16 ft.
on to their lands. With a _shadúf_ it is only possible to keep about 4
acres watered, so that a great number of hands are required to irrigate
a large surface. Another method largely used is the shallow basket or
bucket suspended to strings between two men, who thus bail up the water.
A step higher than these is the rude water-wheel, with earthen pots on
an endless chain running round it, worked by one or two bullocks. This
is used everywhere in Egypt, where it is known as the _sakya_. In
Northern India it is termed the _harat_, or Persian wheel. With one such
water-wheel a pair of oxen can raise water any height up to 18 ft., and
keep from 5 to 12 acres irrigated throughout an Egyptian summer. A very
familiar means in India of raising water from wells in places where the
spring level is as much sometimes as 100 ft. below the surface of the
field is the _churras_, or large leather bag, suspended to a rope
passing over a pulley, and raised by a pair of bullocks which go up and
down a slope as long as the depth of the well. All these primitive
contrivances are still in full use throughout India.

It is not improbable that Assyria and Babylon, with their splendid
rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris, may have taken the idea from the Nile,
and that Carthage and Phoenicia as well as Greece and Italy may have
followed the same example. In spite of a certain amount of
investigation, the early history of irrigation in Persia and China
remains imperfectly known. In Spain irrigation may be traced directly to
the Moorish occupation, and almost everywhere throughout Asia and Africa
where the Moslem penetrated is to be found some knowledge of irrigation.

Spain.

India.

Reservoirs are familiar everywhere for the water-supply of towns, but as
the volume necessary, even for a large town, does not go far in
irrigating land, many sites which would do admirably for the former
would not contain water sufficient to be worth applying to the latter
purpose. In the Mediterranean provinces of Spain there are some very
remarkable irrigation dams. The great masonry dam of Alicante on the
river Monegre, which dates from 1579, is situated in a narrow gorge, so
that while 140 ft. high, it is only 190 ft. long at the crest. The
reservoir is said to contain 130 million cub. ft. of water, and to serve
for the irrigation of 9000 acres, but unless it refills several times a
year, it is hardly possible that so much land can be watered in any one
season. The Elche reservoir, in the same province, has a similar dam 55
ft. high. In neither case is there a waste-weir, the surplus water being
allowed to pour over the crest of the dam. South of Elche is the
province of Murcia, watered by the river Segura, on which there is a dam
25 ft. high, said to be 800 years old, and to serve for the irrigation
of 25,000 acres. The Lorca dam in the same neighbourhood irrigates
27,000 acres. In the jungles of Ceylon are to be found remains of
gigantic irrigation dams, and on the neighbouring mainland of Southern
India, throughout the provinces of Madras and Mysore, the country is
covered with irrigation reservoirs, or, as they are locally termed,
tanks. These vary from village ponds to lakes 14 or 15 m. long. Most of
them are of old native construction, but they have been greatly improved
and enlarged within the last half century. The casual traveller in
southern India constantly remarks the ruins of old dams, and the
impression is conveyed that at one time, before British rule prevailed,
the irrigation of the country was much more perfect than it is now. That
idea, however, is mistaken. An irrigation reservoir, like a human being,
has a certain life. Quicker or slower, the water that fills it will wash
in sand and mud, and year by year this process will go on till
ultimately the whole reservoir is filled up. The embankment is raised,
and raised again, but at last it is better to abandon it and make a new
tank elsewhere, for it would never pay to dig out the silt by manual
labour. It may safely be said that at no time in history were there more
tanks in operation than at present. The ruins which are seen are the
ruins of long centuries of tanks that once flourished and became silted
up. But they did not all flourish at once.

In the countries now being considered, the test of an irrigation work is
how it serves in a season of drought and famine. It is evident that if
there is a long cessation of rain, there can be none to fill the
reservoirs. In September 1877 there were very few in all southern India
that were not dry. But even so, they helped to shorten the famine
period; they stored up the rain after it had ceased to fall, and they
caught up and husbanded the first drops when it began again.

Irrigation canals.

Irrigation effected by river-fed canals naturally depends on the regimen
of the rivers. Some rivers vary much in their discharge at different
seasons. In some cases this variation is comparatively little. Sometimes
the flood season recurs regularly at the same time of the year;
sometimes it is uncertain. In some rivers the water is generally pure;
in others it is highly charged with fertilizing alluvium, or, it may be,
with barren silt. In countries nearly rainless, such as Egypt or Sind,
there can be no cultivation without irrigation. Elsewhere the rainfall
may be sufficient for ordinary crops, but not for the more valuable
kinds. In ordinary years in southern India the maize and the millet,
which form so large a portion of the peasants' food, can be raised
without irrigation, but it is required for the more valuable rice or
sugar-cane. Elsewhere in India the rainfall is usually sufficient for
all the cultivation of the district, but about every eleven years comes
a season of drought, during which canal water is so precious as to make
it worth while to construct costly canals merely to serve as a
protection against famine. When a river partakes of the nature of a
torrent, dwindling to a paltry stream at one season and swelling into an
enormous flood at another, it is impossible to construct a system of
irrigation canals without very costly engineering works, sluices, dams,
waste-weirs, &c., so as to give the engineer entire control of the
water. Such may be seen on the canals of Cuttack, derived from the
Mahanadi, a river of which the discharge does not exceed 400 cub. ft.
per second in the dry season, and rises to 1,600,000 cub. ft. per second
in the rainy season.

Very differently situated are the great canals of Lombardy, drawn from
the Ticino and Adda rivers, flowing from the Maggiore and Como lakes.
The severest drought never exhausts these reservoirs, and the heaviest
rain can never convert these rivers into the resistless floods which
they would be but for the moderating influence of the great lakes. The
Ticino and Adda do not rise in floods more than 6 or 7 ft. above their
ordinary level or fall in droughts more than 4 or 5 ft. below it, and
their water is at all seasons very free from silt or mud. Irrigation
cannot be practised in more favourable circumstances than these. The
great lakes of Central Africa, Victoria and Albert Nyanza, and the vast
swamp tract of the Sudan, do for the Nile on a gigantic scale what Lakes
Maggiore and Como do for the rivers Ticino and Adda. But for these great
reservoirs the Nile would decrease in summer to quite an insignificant
stream. India possesses no great lakes from which to draw rivers and
canals, but through the plains of northern India flow rivers which are
fed from the glaciers of the Himalaya; and the Ganges, the Indus, and
their tributaries are thus prevented from diminishing very much in
volume. The greater the heat, the more rapidly melts the ice, and the
larger the quantity of water available for irrigation. The canal system
of northern India is the most perfect the world has yet seen, and
contains works of hydraulic engineering which can be equalled in no
other country. In the deltas of southern India irrigation is only
practised during the monsoon season. The Godaveri, Kistna and Kaveri all
take their rise on the Western Ghats, a region where the rainfall is
never known to fail in the monsoon season. Across the apex of the deltas
are built great weirs (that of the Godaveri being 2½ m. long), at the
ends and centre of which is a system of sluices feeding a network of
canals. For this monsoon irrigation there is always abundance of water,
and so long as the canals and sluices are kept in repair, there is
little trouble in distributing it over the fields. Similar in character
was the ancient irrigation of Egypt practised merely during the Nile
flood--a system which still prevails in part of Upper Egypt. A detailed
description of it will be found below.

Distribution of the water.

Where irrigation is carried on throughout the whole year, even when the
supply of the river is at its lowest, the distribution of the water
becomes a very delicate operation. It is generally considered sufficient
in such cases if during any one crop one-third of the area that can be
commanded is actually supplied with water. This encourages a rotation of
crops and enables the precious liquid to be carried over a larger area
than could be done otherwise. It becomes then the duty of the engineer
in charge to use every effort to get its full value out of every cubic
foot of water. Some crops of course require water much oftener than
others, and much depends on the temperature at the time of irrigation.
During the winter months in northern India magnificent wheat crops can
be produced that have been watered only twice or thrice. But to keep
sugar-cane, or indigo, or cotton alive in summer before the monsoon sets
in in India or the Nile rises in Egypt the field should be watered every
ten days or fortnight, while rice requires a constant supply of water
passing over it.

Experience in these sub-tropical countries shows the absolute necessity
of having, for successful irrigation, also a system of thorough
drainage. It was some time before this was discovered in India, and the
result has been the deterioration of much good land.

In Egypt, prior to the British occupation in 1883, no attempt had been
made to take the water off the land. The first impression of a great
alluvial plain is that it is absolutely flat, with no drainage at all.
Closer examination, however, shows that if the prevailing slopes are not
more than a few inches in the mile, yet they do exist, and scientific
irrigation requires that the canals should be taken along the crests and
drains along the hollows. In the diagram (fig. 1) is shown to the right
of the river a system of canals branching out and afterwards rejoining
one another so as to allow of no means for the water that passes off the
field to escape into the sea. Hence it must either evaporate or sink
into the soil. Now nearly all rivers contain some small percentage of
salt, which forms a distinct ingredient in alluvial plains. The result
of this drainless irrigation is an efflorescence of salt on the surface
of the field. The spring level rises, so that water can be reached by
digging only a few feet, and the land, soured and water-logged, relapses
into barrenness. Of this description was the irrigation of Lower Egypt
previous to 1883. To the left of the diagram is shown (by firm lines) a
system of canals laid out scientifically, and of drains (by dotted
lines) flowing between them. It is the effort of the British engineers
in Egypt to remodel the surface of the fields to this type.

Further information may be found in Sir C. C. Scott-Moncrieff,
_Irrigation in Southern Europe_ (London, 1868); Moncrieff, "Lectures
on Irrigation in Egypt," _Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal
Engineers_, vol. xix. (London, 1893); W. Willcocks, _Egyptian
Irrigation_ (2nd ed., London, 1899).

II. _Water Meadows._--Nowhere in England can it be said that irrigation
is necessary to ordinary agriculture, but it is occasionally employed in
stimulating the growth of grass and meadow herbage in what are known as
water-meadows. These are in some instances of very early origin. On the
Avon in Wiltshire and the Churn in Gloucestershire they may be traced
back to Roman times. This irrigation is not practised in the drought of
summer, but in the coldest and wettest months of the year, the water
employed being warmer than the natural moisture of the soil and proving
a valuable protection against frost.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Diagram showing irrigation properly combined
with drainage (_to left_), and laid out regardless of drainage required
later (_to right_).]

Before the systematic conversion of a tract into water-meadows can be
safely determined on, care must be taken to have good drainage, natural
or artificial, a sufficient supply of water, and water of good quality.
It might indeed have been thought that thorough drainage would be
unnecessary, but it must be noted that porous subsoils or efficient
drains do not act merely by carrying away stagnant water which would
otherwise cool the earth, incrust the surface, and retard plant growth.
They cause the soil to perform the office of a filter. Thus the earth
and the roots of grasses absorb the useful matters not only from the
water that passes over it, but from that which passes through it. These
fertilizing materials are found stored up in the soil ready for the use
of the roots of the plants. Stagnation of water is inimical to the
action of the roots, and does away with the advantageous processes of
flowing and percolating currents. Some of the best water-meadows in
England have but a thin soil resting on gravel and flints, this
constituting a most effectual system of natural drainage. The fall of
the water supply must suffice for a fairly rapid current, say 10 in. or
1 ft. in from 100 to 200 yds. If possible the water should be taken so
far above the meadows as to have sufficient fall without damming up the
river. If a dam be absolutely necessary, care must be taken so to build
it as to secure the fields on both sides from possible inundation; and
it should be constructed substantially, for the cost of repairing
accidents to a weak dam is very serious.

Quantity of water.

Even were the objects of irrigation always identical, the conditions
under which it is carried on are so variable as to preclude calculations
of quantity. Mere making up of necessary water in droughty seasons is
one thing, protection against frost is another, while the addition of
soil material is a third. Amongst causes of variation in the quantity of
water needed will be its quality and temperature and rate of flow, the
climate, the season, the soil, the subsoil, the artificial drainage, the
slope, the aspect and the crop. In actual practice the amount of water
varies from 300 gallons per acre in the hour to no less than 28,000
gallons. Where water is used, as in dry and hot countries, simply as
water, less is generally needed than in cold, damp and northerly
climates, where the higher temperature and the action of the water as
manure are of more consequence. But it is necessary to be thoroughly
assured of a good supply of water before laying out a water-meadow.
Except in a few places where unusual dryness of soil and climate
indicate the employment of water, even in small quantity, merely to
avoid the consequences of drought, irrigation works are not to be
commenced upon a large area, if only a part can ever be efficiently
watered. The engineer must not decide upon the plan till he has gauged
at different seasons the stream which has to supply the water, and has
ascertained the rain-collecting area available, and the rainfall of the
district, as well as the proportion of storable to percolating and
evaporating water. Reservoirs for storage, or for equalizing the flow,
are rarely resorted to in England; but they are of absolute necessity in
those countries in which it is just when there is least water that it is
most wanted. It is by no means an injudicious plan before laying out a
system of water-meadows, which is intended to be at all extensive, to
prepare a small trial plot, to aid in determining a number of questions
relating to the nature and quantity of the water, the porosity of the
soil, &c.

Quality of water.

The quality of the water employed for any of the purposes of irrigation
is of much importance. Its dissolved and its suspended matters must both
be taken into account. Clear water is usually preferable for grass land,
thick for arable land. If it is to be used for warping, or in any way
for adding to the solid material of the irrigated land, then the nature
and amount of the suspended material are necessarily of more importance
than the character of the dissolved substances, provided the latter are
not positively injurious. For use on ordinary water-meadows, however,
not only is very clear water often found to be perfectly efficient, but
water having no more than a few grains of dissolved matter per gallon
answers the purposes in view satisfactorily. Water from moors and
peat-bogs or from gravel or ferruginous sandstone is generally of small
utility so far as plant food is concerned. River water, especially that
which has received town sewage, or the drainage of highly manured land,
would naturally be considered most suitable for irrigation, but
excellent results are obtained also with waters which are uncontaminated
with manurial matters, and which contain but 8 or 10 grains per gallon
of the usual dissolved constituents of spring water. Experienced English
irrigators generally commend as suitable for water-meadows those streams
in which fish and waterweeds abound. But the particular plants present
in or near the water-supply afford further indications of quality.
Water-cress, sweet flag, flowering rush, several potamogetons, water
milfoil, water ranunculus, and the reedy sweet watergrass (_Glyceria
aquatica_) rank amongst the criteria of excellence. Less favourable
signs are furnished by such plants as _Arundo Donax_ (in Germany),
_Cicuta virosa_ and _Typha latifolia_, which are found in stagnant and
torpid waters. Water when it has been used for irrigation generally
becomes of less value for the same purpose. This occurs with clear water
as well as with turbid, and obviously arises mainly from the loss of
plant food which occurs when water filters through or trickles over poor
soil. By passing over or through rich soil the water may, however,
actually be enriched, just as clear water passed through a charcoal
filter which has been long used becomes impure. It has been contended
that irrigation water suffers no change in composition by use, since by
evaporation of a part of the pure water the dissolved matters in the
remainder would be so increased as to make up for any matters removed.
But it is forgotten that both the plant and the soil enjoy special
powers of selective absorption, which remove and fix the better
constituents of the water and leave the less valuable.

Seeds for water-meadows.

Of the few leguminous plants which are in any degree suitable for
water-meadows, _Lotus corniculatus major_, _Trifolium hybridum_, and _T.
pratense_ are those which generally flourish best; _T. repens_ is less
successful. Amongst grasses the highest place must be assigned to
ryegrass, especially to the Italian variety, commonly called _Lolium
italicum_. The mixture of seeds for sowing a water-meadow demands much
consideration, and must be modified according to local circumstances of
soil, aspect, climate and drainage. From the peculiar use which is made
of the produce of an irrigated meadow, and from the conditions to which
it is subjected, it is necessary to include in our mixture of seeds some
that produce an early crop, some that give an abundant growth, and some
that impart sweetness and good flavour, while all the kinds sown must be
capable of flourishing on irrigated soil.

The following mixtures of seeds (stated in pounds per acre) have been
recommended for sowing on water-meadows, Messrs Sutton of Reading, after
considerable experience, regarding No. I. as the more suitable:

Changes in irrigated herbage.

In irrigated meadows, though in a less degree than on sewaged land, the
reduction of the amount or even the actual suppression of certain
species of plants is occasionally well marked. Sometimes this action is
exerted upon the finer grasses, but happily also upon some of the less
profitable constituents of the miscellaneous herbage. Thus _Ranunculus
bulbosus_ has been observed to become quite rare after a few years'
watering of a meadow in which it had been most abundant, _R. acris_
rather increasing by the same treatment; _Plantago media_ was
extinguished and _P. lanceolata_ reduced 70%. Amongst the grasses which
may be spared, _Aira caespitosa_, _Briza media_ and _Cynosurus
cristatus_ are generally much reduced by irrigation. Useful grasses
which are increased are _Lolium perenne_ and _Alopecurus pratensis_, and
among those of less value _Avena favescens_, _Dactylis glomerata_ and
_Poa pratensis_.

Methods.

Four ways of irrigating land with water are practised in England: (1)
bedwork irrigation, which is the most efficient although it is also the
most costly method by which currents of water can be applied to level
land; (2) catchwork irrigation, in which the same water is caught and
used repeatedly; (3) subterraneous or rather upward irrigation, in which
the water in the drains is sent upwards through the soil towards the
surface; and (4) warping, in which the water is allowed to stand over a
level field until it has deposited the mud suspended in it.

There are two things to be attended to most carefully in the
construction of a water-meadow on the first or second of these plans.
First, no portion of them whatever should be on a dead level, but every
part should belong to one or other of a series of true inclined planes.
The second point of primary importance is the size and slope of the main
conductor, which brings the water from the river to the meadow. The size
of this depends upon the quantity of water required, but whatever its
size its bottom at its origin should be as low as the bed of the river,
in order that it may carry down as much as possible of the river mud.
Its course should be as straight and as near a true inclined plane as
possible. The stuff taken out of the conductor should be employed in
making up its banks or correcting inequalities in the meadow.

Bedwork.

In bedwork irrigation, which is eminently applicable to level ground,
the ground is thrown into beds or ridges. Here the conductor should be
led along the highest end or side of the meadow in an inclined plane;
should it terminate in the meadow, its end should be made to taper
when there are no feeders, or to terminate in a feeder. The main drain
to carry off the water from the meadow should next be formed. It
should be cut in the lowest part of the ground at the lower end or
side of the meadow. Its dimensions should be capable of carrying off
the whole water used so quickly as to prevent the least stagnation,
and discharge it into the river. The next process is the forming of
the ground intended for a water-meadow into beds or ridges. That
portion of the ground which is to be watered by one conductor should
be made into beds to suit the circumstances of that conductor; that
is, instead of the beds over the meadow being all reduced to one
common level, they should be formed to suit the different swells in
the ground, and, should any of these swells be considerable, it will
be necessary to give each side of them its respective conductor. The
beds should run at or nearly at right angles to the line of the
conductor. The breadth of the beds is regulated by the nature of the
soil and the supply of water. Tenacious soils and subsoils, with a
small supply of water, require beds as narrow as 30 ft. Porous soils
and a large supply of water may have beds of 40 ft. The length of the
beds is regulated by the supply of water and the fall from the
conductor to the main drain. If the beds fall only in one direction
longitudinally, their crowns should be made in the middle; but, should
they fall laterally as well as longitudinally, as is usually the case,
then the crowns should be made towards the upper sides, more or less
according to the lateral slope of the ground. The crowns should rise 1
ft. above the adjoining furrows. The beds thus formed should slope in
an inclined plane from the conductor to the main drain, that the water
may flow equably over them.

The beds are watered by "feeders," that is, channels gradually
tapering to the lower extremities, and their crowns cut down, wherever
these are placed. The depth of the feeders depends on their width, and
the width on their length. A bed 200 yds. in length requires a feeder
of 20 in. in width at its junction with the conductor, and it should
taper gradually to the extremity, which should be 1 ft. in width. The
taper retards the motion of the water, which constantly decreases by
overflow as it proceeds, whilst it continues to fill the feeder to the
brim. The water overflowing from the feeders down the sides of the
beds is received into small drains formed in the furrows between the
beds. These small drains discharge themselves into the main drain, and
are in every respect the reverse of the feeders. The depth of the
small drain at the junction is made about as great as that of the main
drain, and it gradually lessens towards the taper to 6 in. in
tenacious and to less in porous soils. The depth of the feeders is the
same in relation to the conductor. For the more equal distribution of
the water over the surface of the beds from the conductor and feeders,
small masses, such as stones or solid portions of earth or turf
fastened with pins, are placed in them, in order to retard the
momentum which the water may have acquired. These "stops," as they are
termed, are generally placed at regular intervals, or rather they
should be left where any inequality of the current is observed. Heaps
of stones answer very well for stops in the conductor, particularly
immediately below the points of junction with the feeders. The small
or main drains require no stops. The descent of the water in the
feeders will no doubt necessarily increase in rapidity, but the
inclination of the beds and the tapering of the feeders should be so
adjusted as to counteract the increasing rapidity. The distribution of
the water over the whole meadow is regulated by the sluices, which
should be placed at the origin of every conductor. By means of these
sluices any portion of the meadow that is desired can be watered,
whilst the rest remains dry; and alternate watering must be adopted
when there is a scarcity of water. All the sluices should be
substantially built at first with stones and mortar, to prevent the
leakage of water; for, should water from a leak be permitted to find
its way into the meadow, that portion of it will stagnate and produce
coarse grasses. In a well-formed water-meadow it is as necessary to
keep it perfectly dry at one time as it is to place it under water at
another. A small sluice placed in the side of the conductor opposite
to the meadow, and at the upper end of it, will drain away the leakage
that may have escaped from the head sluice.

To obtain a complete water-meadow, the ground will often require to be
broken up and remodelled. This will no doubt be attended with cost;
but it should be considered that the first cost is the least, and
remodelling the only way of having a complete water-meadow which will
continue for years to give satisfaction. To effect a remodelling when
the ground is in stubble, let it be ploughed up, harrowed, and cleaned
as in a summer fallow, the levelling-box employed when required, the
stuff from the conductors and main drains spread abroad, and the beds
ploughed into shape--all operations that can be performed at little
expense. The meadow should be ready by August for sowing with one of
the mixtures of grass-seeds already given. But though this plan is
ultimately better, it is attended with the one great disadvantage that
the soft ground cannot be irrigated for two or three years after it is
sown with grass-seeds. This can only be avoided where the ground is
covered with old turf which will bear to be lifted. On ground in that
state a water-meadow may be most perfectly formed. Let the turf be
taken off with the spade, and laid carefully aside for relaying. Let
the stript ground then be neatly formed with the spade and barrow,
into beds varying in breadth and shape according to the nature of the
soil and the dip of the ground--the feeders from the conductor and the
small drains to the main drain being formed at the same time. Then let
the turf be laid down again and beaten firm, when the meadow will be
complete at once, and ready for irrigation. This is the most beautiful
and most expeditious method of making a complete water-meadow where
the ground is not naturally sufficiently level to begin with.

The water should be let on, and trial made of the work, whenever it is
finished, and the motion of the water regulated by the introduction of
a stop in the conductors and feeders where a change in the motion of
the current is observed, beginning at the upper end of the meadow.
Should the work be finished as directed by August, a good crop of hay
may be reaped in the succeeding summer. There are few pieces of land
where the natural descent of the ground will not admit of the water
being collected a second time, and applied to the irrigation of a
second and lower meadow. In such a case the main drain of a watered
meadow may form the conductor of the one to be watered, or a new
conductor may be formed by a prolongation of the main drain; but
either expedient is only advisable where water is scarce. Where it is
plentiful, it is better to supply the second meadow directly from the
river, or by a continuation of the first main conductor.

Catchwork.

In the ordinary catch work water-meadow, the water is used over and
over again. On the steep sides of valleys the plan is easily and
cheaply carried out, and where the whole course of the water is not
long the peculiar properties which give it value, though lessened, are
not exhausted when it reaches that part of the meadow which it
irrigates last. The design of any piece of catchwork will vary with
local conditions, but generally it may be stated that it consists in
putting each conduit save the first to the double use of a feeder or
distributor and of a drain or collector.

Upward or subterranean.

In upward or subterranean irrigation the water used rises upward
through the soil, and is that which under ordinary circumstances would
be carried off by the drains. The system has received considerable
development in Germany, where the elaborate method invented by
Petersen is recommended by many agricultural authorities. In this
system the well-fitting earthenware drain-pipes are furnished at
intervals with vertical shafts terminating at the surface of the
ground in movable caps. Beneath each cap, and near the upper end of
the shaft, are a number of vertical slits through which the drainage
water which rises passes out into the conduit or trench from which the
irrigating streams originate. In the vertical shaft there is first of
all a grating which intercepts solid matters, and then, lower down, a
central valve which can be opened and closed at pleasure from the top
of the shaft. In the ordinary English system of upward or drainage
irrigation, ditches are dug all round the field. They act the part of
conductors when the land is to be flooded, and of main drains when it
is to be laid dry. The water flows from the ditches as conductors into
built conduits formed at right angles to them in parallel lines
through the fields; it rises upwards in them as high as the surface of
the ground, and again subsides through the soil and the conduits into
the ditches as main drains, and thence it passes at a lower level
either into a stream or other suitable outfall. The ditches may be
filled in one or other of several different ways. The water may be
drainage-water from lands at a higher level; or it may be water from a
neighbouring river; or it may be drainage-water accumulated from a
farm and pumped up to the necessary level. But it may also be the
drainage-water of the field itself. In this case the mouths of the
underground main pipe-drains are stopped up, and the water in them and
the secondary drains thus caused to stand back until it has risen
sufficiently near the surface. Of course it is necessary to build the
mouths of such main drains of very solid masonry, and to construct
efficient sluices for the retention of the water in the drains.
Irrigation of the kind now under discussion may be practised wherever
a command of water can be secured, but the ground must be level. It
has been successfully employed in recently drained morasses, which are
apt to become too dry in summer. It is suitable for stiffish soils
where the subsoil is fairly open, but is less successful in sand. The
water used may be turbid or clear, and it acts, not only for
moistening the soil, but as manure. For if, as is commonly the case,
the water employed be drainage-water from cultivated lands, it is sure
to contain a considerable quantity of nitrates, which, not being
subject to retention by the soil, would otherwise escape. These coming
into contact with the roots of plants during their season of active
growth, are utilized as direct nourishment for the vegetation. It is
necessary in upward or subterranean irrigation to send the water on
and to take it off very gently, in order to avoid the displacement and
loss of the finer particles of the soil which a forcible current would
cause.

Warping.

In warping the suspended solid matters are of importance, not merely
for any value they may have as manure, but also as a material addition
to the ground to be irrigated. The warping which is practised in
England is almost exclusively confined to the overflowing of level
ground within tide mark, and is conducted mostly within the districts
commanded by estuaries or tidal rivers. The best notion of the process
of warping may be gained by sailing up the Trent from the Humber to
Gainsborough. Here the banks of the river were constructed centuries
ago to protect the land within them from the encroachments of the
tide. A great tract of country was thus laid comparatively dry. But
while the wisdom of one age thus succeeded in restricting within
bounds the tidal water of the river, it was left to the greater wisdom
of a succeeding age to improve upon this arrangement by admitting
these muddy waters to lay a fresh coat of rich silt on the exhausted
soils. The process began more than a century ago, but has become a
system in recent times. Large sluices of stone, with strong doors, to
be shut when it is wished to exclude the tide, may be seen on both
banks of the river, and from these great conduits are carried miles
inward through the flat country to the point previously prepared by
embankment over which the muddy waters are allowed to spread. These
main conduits, being very costly, are constructed for the warping of
large adjoining districts, and openings are made at such points as are
then undergoing the operation. The mud is deposited and the waters
return with the falling tide to the bed of the river. Spring-tides are
preferred, and so great is the quantity of mud in these rivers that
from 10 to 15 acres have been known to be covered with silt from 1 to
3 ft. in thickness during one spring of ten or twelve tides. Peat-moss
of the most sterile character has been by this process covered with
soil of the greatest fertility, and swamps which used to be resorted
to for leeches are now, by the effects of warping, converted into firm
and fertile fields. The art is now so well understood that, by careful
attention to the currents, the expert warp farmer can temper his soil
as he pleases. When the tide is first admitted the heavier particles,
which are pure sand, are first deposited; the second deposit is a
mixture of sand and fine mud, which, from its friable texture, forms
the most valuable soil; while lastly the pure mud subsides, containing
the finest particles of all, and forms a rich but very tenacious soil.
The great effort, therefore, of the warp farmer is to get the second
or mixed deposit as equally over the whole surface as he can and to
prevent the deposit of the last. This he does by keeping the water in
constant motion, as the last deposit can only take place when the
water is suffered to be still. Three years may be said to be spent in
the process, one year warping, one year drying and consolidating, and
one year growing the first crop, which is generally seed-hoed in by
hand, as the mud at this time is too soft to admit of horse labour.

The immediate effect, which is highly beneficial, is the deposition of
silt from the tide. To ensure this deposition, it is necessary to
surround the field to be warped with a strong embankment, in order to
retain the water as the tide recedes. The water is admitted by valved
sluices, which open as the tide flows into the field and shut by the
pressure of the confined water when the tide recedes. These sluices
are placed on as low a level as possible to permit the most turbid
water at the bottom of the tide to pass through a channel in the base
of the embankment. The silt deposited after warping is exceedingly
rich and capable of carrying any species of crop. It may be admitted
in so small a quantity as only to act as a manure to arable soil, or
in such a large quantity as to form a new soil. This latter
acquisition is the principal object of warping, and it excites
astonishment to witness how soon a new soil may be formed. From June
to September a soil of 3 ft. in depth may be formed under the
favourable circumstances of a very dry season and long drought. In
winter and in floods warping ceases to be beneficial. In ordinary
circumstances on the Trent and Humber a soil from 6 to 16 in. in depth
may be obtained and inequalities of 3 ft. filled up. But every tide
generally leaves only 1/8 in. of silt, and the field which has only
one sluice can only be warped every other tide. The silt, as deposited
in each tide, does not mix into a uniform mass, but remains in
distinct layers. The water should be made to run completely off and
the ditches should become dry before the influx of the next tide,
otherwise the silt will not incrust and the tide not have the same
effect. Warp soil is of surpassing fertility. The expense of forming
canals, embankments and sluices for warping land is from £10 to £20 an
acre. A sluice of 6 ft. in height and 8 ft. wide will warp from 60 to
80 acres, according to the distance of the field from the river. The
embankments may be from 3 to 7 ft. in height, as the field may stand
in regard to the level of the highest tides. After the new land has
been left for a year or two in seeds and clover, it produces great
crops of wheat and potatoes.

Warping is practised only in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, on the
estuary of the Humber, and in the neighbourhood of the rivers which
flow into it--the Trent, the Ouse and the Don. The silt and mud
brought down by these rivers is rich in clay and organic matter, and
sometimes when dry contains as much as 1% of nitrogen.

Management and advantages.

Constant care is required if a water-meadow is to yield quite
satisfactory results. The earliness of the feed, its quantity and its
quality will all depend in very great measure upon the proper management
of the irrigation. The points which require constant attention are--the
perfect freedom of all carriers, feeders and drains from every kind of
obstruction, however minute; the state and amount of water in the river
or stream, whether it be sufficient to irrigate the whole area properly
or only a part of it; the length of time the water should be allowed to
remain on the meadow at different periods of the season; the regulation
of the depth of the water, its quantity and its rate of flow, in
accordance with the temperature and the condition of the herbage; the
proper times for the commencing and ending of pasturing and of shutting
up for hay; the mechanical condition of the surface of the ground; the
cutting out of any very large and coarse plants, as docks; and the
improvement of the physical and chemical conditions of the soil by
additions to it of sand, silt, loam, chalk, &c.

Whatever may be the command of water, it is unwise to attempt to
irrigate too large a surface at once. Even with a river supply fairly
constant in level and always abundant, no attempt should be made to
force on a larger volume of water than the feeders can properly
distribute and the drains adequately remove, or one part of the meadow
will be deluged and another stinted. When this inequality of irrigation
once occurs, it is likely to increase from the consequent derangement of
the feeders and drains. And one result on the herbage will be an
irregularity of composition and growth, seriously detrimental to its
food-value. The adjustment of the water by means of the sluices is a
delicate operation when there is little water and also when there is
much; in the latter case the fine earth may be washed away from some
parts of the meadow; in the former case, by attempting too much with a
limited water current, one may permit the languid streams to deposit
their valuable suspended matters instead of carrying them forward to
enrich the soil. The water is not to be allowed to remain too long on
the ground at a time. The soil must get dry at stated intervals in order
that the atmospheric air may come in contact with it and penetrate it.
In this way as the water sinks down through the porous subsoil or into
the subterranean drains oxygen enters and supplies an element which is
needed, not only for the oxidation of organic matters in the earth, but
also for the direct and indirect nutrition of the roots. Without this
occasional drying of the soil the finer grasses and the leguminous
plants will infallibly be lost; while a scum of confervae and other
algae will collect upon the surface and choke the higher forms of
vegetation. The water should be run off thoroughly, for a little
stagnant water lying in places upon the surface does much injury. The
practice of irrigating differs in different places with differences in
the quality of the water, the soil, the drainage, &c. As a general rule,
when the irrigating season begins in November the water may flow for a
fortnight continuously, but subsequent waterings, especially after
December, should be shortened gradually in duration till the first week
in April, when irrigation should cease. It is necessary to be very
careful in irrigating during frosty weather. For, though grass will grow
even under ice, yet if ice be formed under and around the roots of the
grasses the plants may be thrown out by the expansion of the water at
the moment of its conversion into ice. The water should be let off on
the morning of a dry day, and thus the land will be dry enough at night
not to suffer from the frost; or the water may be taken off in the
morning and let on again at night. In spring the newly grown and tender
grass will be easily destroyed by frost if it be not protected by water,
or if the ground be not made thoroughly dry.

Theory.

Although in many cases it is easy to explain the reasons why water
artificially applied to land brings crops or increases their yield, the
theory of our ordinary water-meadow irrigation is rather obscure. For we
are not dealing in these grass lands with a semi-aquatic plant like
rice, nor are we supplying any lack of water in the soil, nor are we
restoring the moisture which the earth cannot retain under a burning
sun. We irrigate chiefly in the colder and wetter half of the year, and
we "saturate" with water the soil in which are growing such plants as
are perfectly content with earth not containing more than one-fifth of
its weight of moisture. We must look in fact to a number of small
advantages and not to any one striking beneficial process in explaining
the aggregate utility of water-meadow irrigation. We attribute the
usefulness of water-meadow irrigation, then, to the following causes:
(1) the temperature of the water being rarely less than 10° Fahr. above
freezing, the severity of frosts in winter is thus obviated, and the
growth, especially of the roots of grasses, is encouraged; (2)
nourishment or plant food is actually brought on to the soil, by which
it is absorbed and retained, both for the immediate and for the future
use of the vegetation, which also itself obtains some nutrient material
directly; (3) solution and redistribution of the plant food already
present in the soil occur mainly through the solvent action of the
carbonic acid gas present in a dissolved state in the irrigation-water;
(4) oxidation of any excess of organic matter in the soil, with
consequent production of useful carbonic acid and nitrogen compounds,
takes place through the dissolved oxygen in the water sent on and
through the soil where the drainage is good; and (5) improvement of the
grasses, and especially of the miscellaneous herbage, of the meadow is
promoted through the encouragement of some at least of the better
species and the extinction or reduction of mosses and of the
innutritious weeds.

To the united agency of the above-named causes may safely be attributed
the benefits arising from the special form of water-irrigation which is
practised in England. Should it be thought that the traces of the more
valuable sorts of plant food (such as compounds of nitrogen, phosphates,
and potash salts) existing in ordinary brook or river water can never
bring an appreciable amount of manurial matter to the soil, or exert an
appreciable effect upon the vegetation, yet the quantity of water used
during the season must be taken into account. If but 3000 gallons hourly
trickle over and through an acre, and if we assume each gallon to
contain no more than one-tenth of a grain of plant food of the three
sorts just named taken together, still the total, during a season
including ninety days of actual irrigation, will not be less than 9 lb.
per acre. It appears, however, that a very large share of the benefits
of water-irrigation is attributable to the mere contact of abundance of
moving water, of an even temperature, with the roots of the grass. The
growth is less checked by early frosts; and whatever advantages to the
vegetation may accrue by occasional excessive warmth in the atmosphere
in the early months of the year are experienced more by the irrigated
than by the ordinary meadow grasses by reason of the abundant
development of roots which the water has encouraged.

III. _Italian Irrigation._--The most highly developed irrigation in the
world is probably that practised in the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy,
where every variety of condition is to be found. The engineering works
are of a very high class, and from long generations of experience the
farmer knows how best to use his water. The principal river of northern
Italy is the Po, which rises to the west of Piedmont and is fed not from
glaciers like the Swiss torrents, but by rain and snow, so that the
water has a somewhat higher temperature, a point to which much
importance is attached for the valuable meadow irrigation known as
_marcite_. This is only practised in winter when there is abundance of
water available, and it much resembles the water-meadow irrigation of
England. The great Cavour canal is drawn from the left bank of the Po a
few miles below Turin, and it is carried right across the drainage of
the country. Its full discharge is 3800 cub. ft. per second, but it is
only from October to May, when the water is least required, that it
carries anything like this amount. For the summer irrigation Italy
depends on the glaciers of the Alps; and the great torrents of the Dora
Baltea and Sesia can be counted on for a volume exceeding 6000 cub. ft.
per second. Lombardy is quite as well off as Piedmont for the means of
irrigation and, as already said, its canals have the advantage that
being drawn from the lakes Maggiore and Como they exercise a moderating
influence on the Ticino and Adda rivers, which is much wanted in the
Dora Baltea. The Naviglio Grande of Lombardy is a very fine work drawn
from the left bank of the Ticino and useful for navigation as well as
irrigation. It discharges between 3000 and 4000 cub. ft. per second, and
probably nowhere is irrigation carried on with less expense. Another
canal, the Villoresi, drawn from the same bank of the Ticino farther
upstream, is capable of carrying 6700 cub. ft. per second. Like the
Cavour canal, the Villoresi is taken across the drainage of the country,
entailing a number of very bold and costly works.

Interesting as these Italian works are, the administration and
distribution of the water is hardly less so. The system is due to the
ability of the great Count Cavour; what he originated in Piedmont has
been also carried out in Lombardy. The Piedmontese company takes over
from the government the control of all the irrigation within a triangle
between the left bank of the Po and the right bank of the Sesia. It
purchases from government about 1250 cub. ft. per second, and has also
obtained the control of all private canals. Altogether it distributes
about 2275 cub. ft. of water and irrigates about 141,000 acres, on which
rice is the most important crop. The association has 14,000 members and
controls nearly 10,000 m. of distributary channels. In each parish is a
council composed of all landowners who irrigate. Each council sends two
deputies to what may be called a water parliament. This assembly elects
three small committees, and with them rests the whole management of the
irrigation. An appeal may be made to the civil courts from the decision
of these committees, but so popular are they that such appeals are never
made. The irrigated area is divided into districts, in each of which is
an overseer and a staff of watchmen to see to the opening and shutting
of the _modules_ (see HYDRAULICS, §§ 54 to 56) which deliver the water
into the minor channels. In the November of each year it is decided how
much water is to be given to each parish in the year following, and this
depends largely on the number of acres of each crop proposed to be
watered. In Lombardy the irrigation is conducted on similar principles.
Throughout, the Italian farmer sets a very high example in the loyal way
he submits to regulations which there must be sometimes a strong
temptation to break. A sluice surreptitiously opened during a dark night
and allowed to run for six hours may quite possibly double the value of
his crop, but apparently the law is not often broken.

Characteristics of the Nile Valley and flood.

IV. _Egypt._--The very life of Egypt depends on its irrigation, and,
ancient as this irrigation is, it was never practised on a really
scientific system till after the British occupation. As every one knows,
the valley of the Nile outside of the tropics is practically devoid of
rainfall. Yet it was the produce of this valley that formed the chief
granary of the Roman Empire. Probably nowhere in the world is there so
large a population per square mile depending solely on the produce of
the soil. Probably nowhere is there an agricultural population so
prosperous, and so free from the risks attending seasons of drought or
of flood. This wealth and prosperity are due to two very remarkable
properties of the Nile. First, the regimen of the river is nearly
constant. The season of its rise and its fall, and the height attained
by its waters during the highest flood and at lowest Nile vary to a
comparatively small extent. Year after year the Nile rises at the same
period, it attains its maximum in September and begins to diminish first
rapidly till about the end of December, and then more slowly and more
steadily until the following June. A late rise is not more than about
three weeks behind an early rise. From the lowest to the highest gauge
of water-surface the rise is on an average 25.5 ft. at the First
Cataract. The highest flood is 3.5 ft. above this average, and this
means peril, if not disaster, in Lower Egypt. The lowest flood on record
has risen only to 5.5 ft. below the average, or to 20 ft. above the mean
water-surface of low Nile. Such a feeble Nile flood has occurred only
four times in modern history: in 1877, when it caused widespread famine
and death throughout Upper Egypt, 947,000 acres remained barren, and the
land revenue lost £1,112,000; in 1899 and again in 1902 and 1907, when
by the thorough remodelling of the whole system of canals since 1883 all
famine and disaster were avoided and the loss of revenue was
comparatively slight. In 1907, for instance, when the flood was nearly
as low as in 1877, the area left unwatered was little more than 10% of
the area affected in 1877.

This regularity of flow is the first exceptional excellence of the river
Nile. The second is hardly less valuable, and consists in the remarkable
richness of the alluvium brought down the river year after year during
the flood. The object of the engineer is so to utilize this flood-water
that as little as possible of the alluvium may escape into the sea, and
as much as possible may be deposited on the fields. It is the possession
of these two properties that imparts to the Nile a value quite unique
among rivers, and gives to the farmers of the Nile Valley advantages
over those of any rain-watered land in the world.

Irrigation during high Nile.

Until the 19th century irrigation in Egypt on a large scale was
practised merely during the Nile flood. Along each edge of the river and
following its course has been erected an earthen embankment high enough
not to be topped by the highest floods. In Upper Egypt, the valley of
which rarely exceeds 6 m. in width, a series of cross embankments have
been constructed, abutting at the inner ends on those along the Nile,
and at the outer ends on the ascending sides of the valley. The whole
country has thus been divided into a series of oblongs, surrounded by
embankments on three sides and by the desert slopes on the fourth. These
oblong areas vary from 60,000 to 1500 or 2000 acres in extent.
Throughout all Egypt the Nile is deltaic in character; that is, the
slope of the country in the valley is away from the river and not
towards it. It is easy, then, when the Nile is low, to cut short, deep
canals in the river banks, which fill as the flood rises, and carry the
precious mud-charged water into these great flats. There the water
remains for a month or more, some 3 ft. deep, depositing its mud, and
thence at the end of the flood the almost clear water may either be run
off directly into the receding river, or cuts may be made in the cross
embankments, and it may be allowed to flow from one flat to another and
ultimately into the river. In November the waters have passed off; and
whenever a man can walk over the mud with a pair of bullocks, it is
roughly turned over with a wooden plough, or merely the branch of a
tree, and the wheat or barley crop is immediately sown. So soaked is the
soil after the flood, that the grain germinates, sprouts, and ripens in
April, without a shower of rain or any other watering.

In Lower Egypt this system was somewhat modified, but it was the same in
principle. No other was known in the Nile Valley until the country fell,
early in the 19th century, under the vigorous rule of Mehemet Ali Pasha.
He soon recognized that with such a climate and soil, with a teeming
population, and with the markets of Europe so near they might produce in
Egypt something more profitable than wheat and maize. Cotton and
sugar-cane would fetch far higher prices, but they could only be grown
while the Nile was low, and they required water at all seasons.

Irrigation during low Nile.

The Nile Barrage.

It has already been said that the rise of the Nile is about 25½ ft., so
that a canal constructed to draw water out of the river while at its
lowest must be 25½ ft. deeper than if it is intended to draw off only
during the highest floods. Mehemet Ali began by deepening the canals of
Lower Egypt by this amount, a gigantic and futile task; for as they had
been laid out on no scientific principles, the deep channels became
filled with mud during the first flood, and all the excavation had to be
done over again, year after year. With a serf population even this was
not impossible; but as the beds of the canals were graded to no even
slope, it did not follow that if water entered the head it would flow
evenly on. As the river daily fell, of course the water in the canals
fell too, and since they were never dug deep enough to draw water from
the very bottom of the river, they occasionally ran dry altogether in
the month of June, when the river was at its lowest, and when, being the
month of greatest heat, water was more than ever necessary for the
cotton crop. Thus large tracts which had been sown, irrigated, weeded
and nurtured for perhaps three months perished in the fourth, while all
the time the precious Nile water was flowing useless to the sea. The
obvious remedy was to throw a weir across each branch of the river to
control the water and force it into canals taken from above it. The task
of constructing this great work was committed to Mougel Bey, a French
engineer of ability, who designed and constructed the great barrage
across the two branches of the Nile at the apex of the delta, about 12
m. north of Cairo (fig. 2). It was built to consist of two bridges--one
over the eastern or Damietta branch of the river having 71 arches, the
other, over the Rosetta branch, having 61 arches, each arch being of 5
metres or 16.4 ft. span. The building was all of stone, the floors of
the arches were inverts. The height of pier from edge of flooring to
spring of arch was 28.7 ft., the spring of the arch being about the
surface-level of maximum flood. The arches were designed to be fitted
with self-acting drop gates; but they were not a success, and were only
put into place on the Rosetta branch. The gates were intended to hold up
the water 4.5 metres, or 14.76 ft., and to divert it into three main
canals--the Behera on the west, the Menufia in the centre and the
Tewfikia on the east. The river was thus to be emptied, and to flow
through a whole network of canals, watering all Lower Egypt. Each
barrage was provided with locks to pass Nile boats 160 by 28 ft. in
area.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Map showing the Damietta and Rosetta dams on the
Nile.]

Mougel's barrage, as it may now be seen, is a very imposing and stately
work. Considering his want of experience of such rivers as the Nile, and
the great difficulties he had to contend with under a succession of
ignorant Turkish rulers, it would be unfair to blame him because, until
it fell into the hands of British engineers in 1884, the work was
condemned as a hopeless failure. It took long years to complete, at a
cost which can never be estimated, since much of it was done by serf
labour. In 1861 it was at length said to be finished; but it was not
until 1863 that the gates of the Rosetta branch were closed, and they
were reopened again immediately, as a settlement of the masonry took
place. The experiment was repeated year after year till 1867, when the
barrage cracked right across from foundation to top. A massive
coffer-dam was then erected, covering the eleven arches nearest the
crack; but the work was never trusted again, nor the water-surface
raised more than about 3 ft.

An essential part of the barrage project was the three canals, taking
their water from just above it, as shown in fig. 2. The heads of the
existing old canals, taken out of the river at intervals throughout the
delta, were to be closed, and the canals themselves all put into
connexion with the three high-level trunk lines taken from above the
barrage. The central canal, or Menufia, was more or less finished, and,
although full of defects, has done good service. The eastern canal was
never dug at all until the British occupation. The western, or Behera,
canal was dug, but within its first 50 m. it passes through desert, and
sand drifted into it. _Corvées_ of 20,000 men used to be forced to clear
it out year after year, but at last it was abandoned. Thus the whole
system broke down, the barrage was pronounced a failure, and attention
was turned to watering Lower Egypt by a system of gigantic pumps, to
raise the water from the river and discharge it into a system of shallow
surface-canals, at an annual cost of about £250,000, while the cost of
the pumps was estimated at £700,000. Negotiations were on foot for
carrying out this system when the British engineers arrived in Egypt.
They soon resolved that it would be very much better if the original
scheme of using the barrage could be carried out, and after a careful
examination of the work they were satisfied that this could be done. The
barrage rests entirely on the alluvial bed of the Nile. Nothing more
solid than strata of sand and mud is to be found for more than 200 ft.
below the river. It was out of the question, therefore, to think of
founding on solid material, and yet it was desired to have a head of
water of 13 or 14 ft. upon the work. Of course, with such a pressure as
this, there was likely to be percolation under the foundations and a
washing-out of the soil. It had to be considered whether this
percolation could best be checked by laying a solid wall across the
river, going down to 50 or 60 ft. below its bed, or by spreading out the
foundations above and below the bridge, so as to form one broad
water-tight flooring--a system practised with eminent success by Sir
Arthur Cotton in Southern India. It was decided to adopt the latter
system. As originally designed, the flooring of the barrage from
up-stream to downstream face was 111.50 ft. wide, the distance which had
to be travelled by water percolating under the foundations. This width
of flooring was doubled to 223 ft., and along the upstream face a line
of sheet piling was driven 16 ft. deep. Over the old flooring was
superposed 15 in. of the best rubble masonry, an ashlar floor of blocks
of close-grained trachyte being laid directly under the bridge, where
the action was severest. The working season lasted only from the end of
November to the end of June, while the Nile was low; and the difficulty
of getting in the foundations was increased, as, in the interests of
irrigation and to supply the Menufia canal, water was held up every
season while the work was in progress to as much as 10 ft. The work was
begun in 1886, and completed in June 1890. Moreover, in the meantime the
eastern, or Tewfikia, canal was dug and supplied with the necessary
masonry works for a distance of 23 m., to where it fed the network of
old canals. The western, or Behera, canal was thoroughly cleared out and
remodelled; and thus the whole delta irrigation was supplied from above
the barrage.

The outlay on the barrage between 1883 and 1891 amounted to about
£460,000. The average cotton crop for the 5 years preceding 1884
amounted to 123,000 tons, for the 5 years ending 1898 it amounted to
251,200 tons. At the low rate of £40 per ton, this means an annual
increase to the wealth of Lower Egypt of £5,128,000. Since 1890 the
barrage has done its duty without accident, but a work of such vast
importance to Lower Egypt required to be placed beyond all risk. It
having been found that considerable hollow spaces existed below the
foundations of some of the piers, five bore-holes from the top of the
roadway were pierced vertically through each pier of both barrages, and
similar holes were drilled at intervals along all the lock walls. Down
these holes cement grout was injected under high pressure on the system
of Mr Kinipple. The work was successfully carried out during the seasons
1896 to 1898. During the summer of 1898 the Rosetta barrage was worked
under a pressure of 14 ft. But this was looked on as too near the limit
of safety to be relied on, and in 1899 subsidiary weirs were started
across both branches of the river a short distance below the two
barrages. These were estimated to cost £530,000 altogether, and were to
stand 10.8 ft. above the river's bed, allowing the water-surface
up-stream of the barrage to be raised 7.2 ft., while the pressure on
that work itself would not exceed 10 ft. These weirs were satisfactorily
completed in 1901.

The barrage is the greatest, but by no means the only important masonry
work in Lower Egypt. Numerous regulating bridges and locks have been
built to give absolute control of the water and facilities for
navigation; and since 1901 a second weir has been constructed opposite
Zifta, across the Damietta branch of the Nile, to improve the irrigation
of the Dakhilia province.

In the earlier section of this article it is explained how necessary it
is that irrigation should always be accompanied by drainage. This had
been totally neglected in Egypt; but very large sums have been spent on
it, and the country is now covered with a network of drains nearly as
complete as that of the canals.

Basin irrigation of Upper Egypt.

The ancient system of basin irrigation is still pursued in Upper Egypt,
though by the end of 1907 over 320,000 feddans of land formerly under
basin irrigation had been given, at a cost of over £E3,000,000,
perennial irrigation. This conversion work was carried out in the
provinces situated between Cairo and Assiut, a region sometimes
designated Middle Egypt. The ancient system seems simple enough; but in
order really to flood the whole Nile Valley during seasons of defective
as well as favourable floods, a system of regulating sluices, culverts
and syphons is necessary; and for want of such a system it was found, in
the feeble flood of 1888, that there was an area of 260,000 acres over
which the water never flowed. This cost a loss of land revenue of about
£300,000, while the loss of the whole season's crop to the farmer was of
course much greater. The attention of the British engineers was then
called to this serious calamity; and fortunately for Egypt there was
serving in the country Col. J. C. Ross, R.E., an officer who had devoted
many years of hard work to the irrigation of the North-West Provinces of
India, and who possessed quite a special knowledge as well as a glowing
enthusiasm for the subject. Fortunately, too, it was possible to supply
him with the necessary funds to complete and remodel the canal system.
When the surface-water of a river is higher than the fields right and
left, there is nothing easier than to breach the embankments and flood
the fields--in fact, it may be more difficult to prevent their being
flooded than to flood them--but in ordinary floods the Nile is never
higher than all the bordering lands, and in years of feeble flood it is
higher than none of them. To water the valley, therefore, it is
necessary to construct canals having bed-slopes less than that of the
river, along which the water flows until its surface is higher than that
of the fields. If, for instance, the slope of the river be 4 in. per
mile, and that of the canal 2 in. it is evident that at the end of a
mile the water in the canal will be 2 in. higher than in the river; and
if the surface of the land is 3 ft. higher than that of the river, the
canal, gaining on it at 2 in. per mile, will reach the surface in 18 m.,
and from thence onwards will be above the adjoining fields. But to
irrigate this upper 18 m., water must either be raised artificially, or
supplied from another canal taking its source 18 m. farther up. This
would, however, involve the country in great lengths of canal between
the river and the field, and circumstances are not so unfavourable as
this. Owing to the deltaic nature of the Nile Valley, the fields on the
banks are 3 ft. above the flood, at 2 m. away from the banks they may
not be more than 1 ft. above that level, so that the canal, gaining 2
in. per mile and receding from the river, will command the country in 6
m. The slope of the river, moreover, is taken in its winding course; and
if it is 4 in. per mile, the slope of the axis of the valley parallel to
which the canals may be made to flow is at least 6 in. per mile, so that
a canal with a slope of 2 in. gains 4 in. per mile.

The system of having one canal overlapping another has one difficulty to
contend with. Occasionally the desert cliffs and slopes come right down
to the river, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to carry the
higher-level canals past these obstructions. It should also be noticed
that on the higher strip bordering the river it is the custom to take
advantage of its nearness to raise water by pumps, or other machinery,
and thereby to grow valuable crops of sugar-cane, maize or vegetables.
When the river rises, these crops, which often form a very important
part of the year's produce and are termed _Nabári_, are still in the
ground, and they require water in moderate and regulated quantities, in
contradistinction to the wholesale flooding of the flats beyond. Fig. 3
will serve to explain this system of irrigation, the firm lines
representing canals, the dotted lines embankments. It will be seen,
beginning on the east or right bank of the river, that a high-level
canal from an upper system is carried past a steep slope, where perhaps
it is cut entirely out of rock, and it divides into two. The right
branch waters all the desert slopes within its reach and level. The left
branch passes, by a syphon aqueduct, under what is the main canal of the
system, taken from the river close at hand (and therefore at a lower
level). This left branch irrigates the _Nabári_ on the high lands
bordering the river. In years of very favourable flood this high-level
canal would not be wanted at all; the irrigation could be done from the
main canal, and with this great advantage, that the main canal water
would carry with it much more fertilizing matter than would be got from
the tail of the high-level canal, which left the river perhaps 25 m. up.
The main canal flows freely over the flats C and D, and, if the flood is
good, over B and part of A. It is carried round the next desert point,
and to the north becomes the high-level canal. The masonry works
required for this system are a syphon to pass the high level under the
main canal near its head, bridges fitted with sluices where each canal
passes under an embankment, and an escape weir at the tail of the
system, just south of the desert point, to return surplus water to the
river. Turning to the left bank, there is the same high-level canal from
the upper system irrigating the basins K, P and L, as well as the large
basin E in such years as it cannot be irrigated from the main canal.
Here there are two main canals--one following the river, irrigating a
series of smaller basins, and throwing out a branch to its left, the
other passing under the desert slopes and supplying the basins F, G, H
and S. For this system two syphons will be required near the head,
regulating bridges under all the embankments, and an escape weir back
into the river.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Map of the Basin System of Irrigation.]

In the years following 1888 about 100 new masonry works of this kind
were built in Upper Egypt, nearly 400 m. of new canal were dug, and
nearly 300 m. of old canal were enlarged and deepened. The result has
been, as already stated, that with a complete failure of the Nile flood
the loss to the country has been trifling compared with that of 1877.

Assiut Weir and Esna Barrage.

The first exception in Upper Egypt to the basin system of irrigation was
due to the Khedive Ismail. The khedive, having acquired vast estates in
the provinces of Assiut, Miniah, Beni-Suef and the Fayúm, resolved to
grow sugar-cane on a very large scale, and with this object constructed
a very important perennial canal, named the Ibrahimia, taking out of the
left bank of the Nile at the town of Assiut, and flowing parallel to the
river for about 200 m., with an important branch which irrigates the
Fayúm. This canal was badly constructed, and by entirely blocking the
drainage of the valley did a great deal of harm to the lands. Most of
its defects had been remedied, but one remained. There being at its
head no weir across the Nile, the water in the Ibrahimia canal used to
rise and fall with that of the river, and so the supply was apt to run
short during the hottest months, as was the case with the canals of
Lower Egypt before the barrage was built. To supply the Ibrahimia canal
at all during low Nile, it had been necessary to carry on dredging
operations at an annual cost of about £12,000. This has now been
rectified, in the same way as in Lower Egypt, by the construction of a
weir across the Nile, intended to give complete control over the river
and to raise the water-surface 8.2 ft. The Assiut weir is constructed on
a design very similar to that of the barrage in Lower Egypt. It consists
of a bridge of 111 arches, each 5 metres span, with piers of 2 metres
thickness. In each arch are fitted two gates. There is a lock 80 metres
long and 16 metres wide at the left or western end of the weir, and
adjoining it are the regulating sluices of the Ibrahimia canal. The
Assiut weir across the Nile is just about half a mile long. The work was
begun at the end of 1898 and finished early in 1902--in time to avert
over a large area the disastrous effects which would otherwise have
resulted from the low Nile of that year. The money value of the crops
saved by the closing of the weir was not less than £E690,000. The
conversion of the lands north of Assiut from basin to perennial
irrigation began immediately after the completion of the Assiut weir and
was finished by the end of 1908. To render the basin lands of the Kena
province independent of the flood being bad or good, another barrage was
built across the Nile at Esna at a cost of £1,000,000. This work was
begun in 1906 and completed in 1909.

Storage.

These works, as well as that in Lower Egypt, are intended to raise the
water-surface above it, and to control the distribution of its supply,
but in no way to store that supply. The idea of ponding up the
superfluous flood discharge of the river is not a new one, and if
Herodotus is to be believed, it was a system actually pursued at a very
early period of Egyptian history, when Lake Moeris in the Fayúm was
filled at each Nile flood, and drawn upon as the river ran down. When
British engineers first undertook the management of Egyptian irrigation
many representations were made to them of the advantage of storing the
Nile water; but they consistently maintained that before entering on
that subject it was their duty to utilize every drop of the water at
their disposal. This seemed all the more evident, as at that time
financial reasons made the construction of a costly Nile dam out of the
question. Every year, however, between 1890 and 1902 the supply of the
Nile during May and June was actually exhausted, no water at all flowing
then out into the sea. In these years, too, owing to the extension of
drainage works, the irrigable area of Egypt was greatly enlarged, so
that if perennial cultivation was at all to be increased, it was
necessary to increase the volume of the river, and this could only be
done by storing up the flood supply. The first difficulty that presented
itself in carrying this out, was that during the months of highest flood
the Nile is so charged with alluvial matter that to pond it up then
would inevitably lead to a deposit of silt in the reservoir, which would
in no great number of years fill it up. It was found, however, that the
flood water was comparatively free from deposit by the middle of
November, while the river was still so high that, without injuring the
irrigation, water might go on being stored up until March. Accordingly,
when it was determined to construct a dam, it was decided that it should
be supplied with sluices large enough to discharge unchecked the whole
volume of the river as it comes down until the middle of November, and
then to begin the storage.

The Assuan Dam.

The site selected for the great Nile dam was at the head of the First
Cataract above Assuan. A dyke of syenite granite here crosses the
valley, so hard that the river had nowhere scoured a deep channel
through it, and so it was found possible to construct the dam entirely
in the open air, without the necessity of laying under-water
foundations. The length of the dam is about 6400 ft.--nearly 1¼ m. The
greatest head of water in it is 65 ft. It is pierced by 140
under-sluices of 150 sq. ft. each, and by 40 upper-sluices, each of 75
sq. ft. These, when fully open, are capable of discharging the ordinary
maximum Nile flood of 350,000 cub. ft. per second, with a velocity of
15.6 ft. per second and a head of 6.6 ft. The top width of the dam is 23
ft., the bottom width at the deepest part about 82 ft. On the left flank
of the dam there is a canal, provided with four locks, each 262 by 31
ft. in area, so that navigation is possible at all seasons. The storage
capacity of the reservoir is about 3,750,000 millions of cub. ft., which
creates a lake extending up the Nile Valley for about 200 m. The
reservoir is filled yearly by March; after that the volume reaching the
reservoir from the south is passed on through the sluices. In May, or
earlier when the river is late in rising, when the demand for water
increases, first the upper and then the under sluices are gradually
opened, so as to increase the river supply, until July, when all the
gates are open, to allow of the free passage of the flood. On the 10th
of December 1902 this magnificent work was completed. The engineer who
designed it was Sir W. Willcocks. The contractors were Messrs John Aird
& Co., the contract price being £2,000,000. The financial treaties in
which the Egyptian government were bound up prevented their ever paying
so large a sum as this within five years; but a company was formed in
London to advance periodically the sum due to the contractors, on
receipt from the government of Egypt of promissory notes to pay sixty
half-yearly instalments of £78,613, beginning on the 1st of July 1903.
Protective works downstream of the dam were completed in 1906 at a cost
of about £E304,000. It had been at first intended to raise the dam to a
height which would have involved the submergence, for some months of
every year, of the Philae temples, situated on an island just upstream
of the dam. Had the natives of Egypt been asked to choose between the
preservation of Ptolemy's famed temple and the benefit to be derived
from a considerable additional depth of water storage, there can be no
question that they would have preferred the latter; but they were not
consulted, and the classical sentiment and artistic beauty of the place,
skilfully pleaded by archaeologists and artists, prevailed. In 1907,
however, it was decided to carry out the plan as originally proposed and
raise the dam 26 ft. higher. This would increase the storage capacity 2½
times, or to about 9,375,000 millions of cubic feet.

There is no middle course of farming in Egypt between irrigation and
desert. No assessment can be levied on lands which have not been
watered, and the law of Egypt requires that in order to render land
liable to taxation the water during the Nile flood must have flowed
naturally over it. It is not enough that it should be pumped on to the
land at the expense of the landowner. The tax usually levied is from £1
to £2 per acre.

See Sir W. Willcocks, _Egyptian Irrigation_ (2nd ed., 1899); Sir C. C.
Scott-Moncrieff, _Lectures on Irrigation in Egypt. Professional Papers
on the Corps of Royal Engineers_, vol. xix. (London, 1893); Sir W.
Garstin, _Report upon the Basin of the Upper Nile_. Egypt No. 2
(1904).

V. _India._--Allusion has already been made to the irrigation of India.
The year 1878, which saw the end of a most disastrous famine, may be
considered as the commencement of a new era as regards irrigation. It
had at last been recognized that such famines must be expected to occur
at no very long intervals of time, and that the cost of relief
operations must not be met by increasing the permanent debt on the
country, but by the creation of a famine relief and a famine insurance
fund. For this purpose it was fixed that there should be an annual
provision of [R]x. 1,500,000, to be spent on: (1) relief, (2) protective
works, (3) reduction of debt. Among protective works the first place was
given to works of irrigation. These works were divided into three
classes: (i.) productive works; (ii.) protective works; (iii.) minor
works.

Productive works, as their name implies, are such as may reasonably be
expected to be remunerative, and they include all the larger irrigation
systems. Their capital cost is provided from loan funds, and not from
the relief funds mentioned above. In the seventeen years ending
1896-1897 the capital expenditure on such works was [R]x. 10,954,948,
including a sum of [R]x. 1,742,246 paid to the Madras Irrigation Company
as the price of the Kurnool-Cuddapah canal, a work which can never be
financially productive, but which nevertheless did good service in the
famine of 1896-1897 by irrigating 87,226 acres. In the famine year
1877-1878 the area irrigated by productive canals was 5,171,497 acres.
In the famine year 1896-1897 the area was 9,571,779 acres, including an
area of 123,087 acres irrigated on the Swat river canal in the Punjab.
The revenue of the year 1879-1880 was nearly 6% on the capital outlay.
In 1897-1898 it was 7½%. In the same seventeen years [R]x. 2,099,253
were spent on the construction of protective irrigation works, not
expected to be directly remunerative, but of great value during famine
years. On four works of this class were spent [R]x. 1,649,823, which in
1896-1897 irrigated 200,733 acres, a valuable return then, although in
an ordinary year their gross revenue does not cover their working
expenses. Minor works may be divided into those for which capital
accounts have been kept and those where they have not. In the seventeen
years ending 1896-1897, [R]x. 827,214 were spent on the former, and
during that year they yielded a return of 9.13%. In the same year the
irrigation effected by minor works of all sorts showed the large area of
7,442,990 acres. Such are the general statistics of outlay, revenue and
irrigated area up to the end of 1896-1897. The government might well be
congratulated on having through artificial means ensured in that year of
widespread drought and famine the cultivation of 27,326 sq. m., a large
tract even in so large a country as India. And progress has been
steadily made in subsequent years.

Some description will now be given of the chief of these irrigation
works. Beginning with the Punjab, the province in which most progress
has been made, the great Sutlej canal, which irrigates the country to
the left of that river, was opened in 1882, and the Western Jumna canal
(perhaps the oldest in India) was extended into the dry Hissar and Sirsa
districts, and generally improved so as to increase by nearly 50% its
area of irrigation between 1878 and 1897. Perhaps this is as much as can
well be done with the water at command for the country between the
Sutlej and the Jumna, and it is enough to secure it for ever from
famine. The Bari Doab canal, which irrigates the Gurdaspur, Amritsar and
Lahore districts, has been enlarged and extended so as to double its
irrigation since it was projected in 1877-1878. The Chenab canal, the
largest in India and the most profitable, was only begun in 1889. It was
designed to command an area of about 2½ million acres, and to irrigate
annually rather less than half that area. This canal flows through land
that in 1889 was practically desert. From the first arrangements were
made for bringing colonists in from the more congested parts of India.
The colonization began in 1892. Nine years later this canal watered
1,830,525 acres. The population of the immigrant colony was 792,666,
consisting mainly of thriving and prosperous peasants with occupancy
rights in holdings of about 28 acres each. The direct revenue of this
canal in 1906 was 26% on the capital outlay. The Jhelum canal was opened
on the 30th of October, 1901. It is a smaller work than the Chenab, but
it is calculated to command 1,130,000 acres, of which at least half will
be watered annually. A much smaller work, but one of great interest, is
the Swat river canal in the Peshawar valley. It was never expected that
this would be a remunerative work, but it was thought for political
reasons expedient to construct it in order to induce turbulent frontier
tribes to settle down into peaceful agriculture. This has had a great
measure of success, and the canal itself has proved remunerative,
irrigating 123,000 acres in 1896-1897. A much greater scheme than any of
the above is that of the Sind Sagar canal, projected from the left bank
of the Indus opposite Kalabagh, to irrigate 1,750,000 acres at a cost of
[R]x. 6,000,000. Another great canal scheme for the Punjab proposed to
take off from the right bank of the Sutlej, and to irrigate about
600,000 acres in the Montgomery and Multan districts, at a cost of [R]x.
2,500,000. These three last projects would add 2,774,000 acres to the
irrigated area of the province, and as they would flow through tracts
almost unpeopled, they would afford a most valuable outlet for the
congested districts of northern India. In addition to these great
perennial canals, much has been done since 1878 in enlarging and
extending what are known as the "inundation canals" of the Punjab, which
utilize the flood waters in the rivers during the monsoon season and are
dry at other times. By these canals large portions of country throughout
most of the Punjab are brought under cultivation, and the area thus
watered has increased from about 180,000 to 500,000 acres since 1878.

It is on inundation canals such as these that the whole cultivation of
Sind depends. In 1878 the area was about 1,500,000 acres; in 1896-1897
it had increased to 2,484,000 acres. This increase was not due to famine
in Sind, for that rainless province depends always on the Indus, as
Egypt does on the Nile, and where there is no rainfall there can be no
drought. But the famine prices obtained for agricultural produce
doubtless gave an impetus to cultivation. In Sind, too, there is room
for much increase of irrigation. It has been proposed to construct two
new canals, the Jamrao and the Shikárpur, and to improve and extend
three existing canals--Nasrat, Naulakhi and Dad. The total cost of these
five projects, some of which are now in progress, was estimated at [R]x.
1,596,682, and the extension of irrigation at 660,563 acres.

Turning from the basin of the Indus to that of the Ganges, the
commissioners appointed to report on the famine of 1896-1897 found that
in the country between the Ganges and the Jumna little was left to be
done beyond the completion of some distributary channels. The East India
Company's great work, the Ganges canal, constructed between 1840 and
1854 before there was a mile of railway open in India, still holds its
place unsurpassed among later irrigation work for boldness of design and
completeness of execution, a lasting monument to the genius of Sir Proby
Cautley, an officer of the Bengal Artillery, but a born engineer. Ever
since 1870 consideration has been given to projects for irrigating the
fertile province of Oudh by means of a great canal to be drawn from the
river Sarda. The water is there in abundance, the land is well adapted
for irrigation, but as there is a considerable rainfall, it is doubtful
whether the scheme would prove remunerative, and a large section of the
landowners have hitherto opposed it, as likely to waterlog the country.
Among the four protective works of irrigation which were said above to
have irrigated 200,733 acres in 1896-1897, one of the most important is
the Betwa canal, in the parched district of Bundelkhand. This canal has
cost [R]x. 428,086, and causes an annual loss to the state in interest
and working expenses of about [R]x. 20,000. It irrigated, however, in
1896-1897 an area of 87,306 acres, raising crops valued at [R]x.
231,081, or half the cost of the canal, so it may be said to have
justified its construction. A similar canal from the river Ken in the
same district has been constructed. Proceeding farther east, we find
very satisfactory progress in the irrigation of southern Behar, effected
by the costly system of canals drawn from the river Sone. In 1877-1878
these canals irrigated 241,790 acres. Rapid progress was not expected
here, and 792,000 acres was calculated as being the maximum area that
could be covered with the water supply available. In the five years
preceding 1901-1902 the average irrigated area was 463,181 acres, and
during that year the area was 555,156 acres, the maximum ever attained.

The canal system of Orissa was never expected to be remunerative, since
in five years out of six the local rainfall is sufficient for the rice
crop. In 1878-1879 the area irrigated was 111,250 acres, and the outlay
up to date was [R]x. 1,750,000. In 1900-1901 the area was 203,540 acres,
the highest ever attained, and the capital outlay amounted to [R]x.
2,623,703. It should be mentioned in favour of these canals that
although the irrigation is not of yearly value, they supply very
important water communication through a province which, from its natural
configuration, is not likely to be soon intersected by railways. If,
moreover, such a famine were again to occur in Orissa as that of
1866-1867, there would be no doubt of the value of these fine canals.

In the Madras presidency and in Mysore irrigation has long assumed a
great importance, and the engineering works of the three great deltas of
the Godavari, Kistna and Cauvery, the outcome of the genius and
indefatigable enthusiasm of Sir Arthur Cotton, have always been quoted
as showing what a boon irrigation is to a country. In 1878 the total
area of irrigation in the Madras presidency amounted to about 5,000,000
acres. The irrigation of the eight productive systems was 1,680,178
acres, and the revenue [R]x. 739,778. In 1898 there were ten of these
systems, with an irrigation area, as shown by the accompanying table, of
2,685,915 acres, and a revenue of [R]x. 1,163,268:

+-----------------------+----------+----------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+
| | | | | | Capital |Percentage |
| Irrigation. | Area | Total | Total | Net | and | of Net |
| | Watered. | Revenue. | Expendi-| Revenue. | Indirect | Revenue |
| | | | ture. | | Charges. |to Capital.|
+-----------------------+----------+----------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+
| _Major Works._ | Acres. | [R]x. | [R]x. | [R]x. | [R]x. | |
| 1. Godavari Delta | 779,435 | 328,443 | 68,376 | 260,067 |1,297,807 | 19.15 |
| 2. Kistna Delta | 520,373 | 254,579 | 74,142 | 180,437 |1,319,166 | 13.18 |
| 3. Pennar Weir System | 70,464 | 28,160 | 5,937 | 23,123 | 189,919 | 7.59 |
| 4. Sangam System | 76,277 | 32,627 | 7,037 | 25,590 | 385,601 | 3.68 |
| 5. Kurnool Canal | 47,008 | 15,622 | 12,404 | 3,218 |2,171,740 | .15 |
| 6. Barur Tank System | 4,421 | 1,162 | 385 | 777 | 4,250 | 1.39 |
| 7. Cauvery Delta | 989,808 | 434,346 | 43,464 | 390,882 | 199,458 | 44.87 |
| 8. Srivaikuntam System| 41,668 | 19,349 | 4,680 | 14,669 | 147,192 | 5.45 |
| 9. Periyar Project | 89,143 | 37,526 | 10,751 | 26,775 | 852,914 | .27 |
|10. Rushikulya Canal | 67,318 | 11,454 | 3,678 | 7,776 | 464,423 | .54 |
| +----------+----------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+
| Total |2,685,915 |1,163,268 |229,954 | 933,314 |7,032,470 | 7.88 |
| | | | | | | |
| _Minor Works._ | | | | | | |
|23 Works for which | | | | | | |
| Capital and Revenue | | | | | | |
| Accounts are kept | 535,813 | 200,558 | 34,655 | 165,903 |1,693,878 | 4.44 |
|Minor Works for which | | | | | | |
| such Accounts are | | | | | | |
| not kept |3,131,009 | 830,175 |193,295 | 636,880 | .. | .. |
| +----------+----------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+
| Grand Total |6,352,737 |2,194,001 |457,904 |1,736,097 | .. | .. |
+-----------------------+----------+----------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+

In the three great deltas, and the small southern one that depends on
the Srivaikuntam weir over the river Tumbraparni, extension and
improvement works have been carried on. The Sangam and Pennar systems
depend on two weirs on the river Pennar in the Nellore district, the
former about 18 m. above and the latter just below the town of Nellore.
The former irrigates on the left, the latter on the right bank of the
river. This district suffered severely in the famine of 1877-1878, and
the irrigation works were started in consequence. The Barur tank system
in the Salem district was also constructed after the famine of
1877-1878. As yet it has not fulfilled expectations. The Periyar scheme
has for its object both the addition of new irrigation and the
safeguarding of that which exists in the district of Madura, a plain
watered by means of a great number of shallow tanks drawing their supply
from a very uncertain river, the Vaigai. This river takes its rise on
the eastern slopes of the Ghat range of mountains, and just opposite to
it, on the western face of the range, is the source of the river
Periyar. The rainfall on the west very much exceeds that on the east,
and the Periyar used to find its way by a short torrent course to the
sea, rendering no service to mankind. Its upper waters are now stemmed
by a masonry dam 178 ft. high, forming a large lake, at the eastern end
of which is a tunnel 5700 ft. long, piercing the watershed and
discharging 1600 cub. ft. per second down the eastern side of the
mountains into the river Vaigai. No bolder or more original work of
irrigation has been carried out in India, and the credit of it is due to
Colonel J. Pennycuick, C.S.I. The dam and tunnel were works of unusual
difficulty. The country was roadless and uninhabited save by wild
beasts, and fever and cholera made sad havoc of the working parties; but
it was successfully accomplished. The last of those given in the table
above was not expected to be remunerative, but it should prove a
valuable protective against famine. The system consists of weirs over
the rivers Gulleri, Mahanadi and Rushikulya in the backward province of
Ganjam, south of Orissa. From these weirs flow canals altogether about
127 m. long, which, in connexion with two large reservoirs, are capable
of irrigating 120,000 acres. In 1901 the works, though incomplete,
already irrigated 67,318 acres.

In addition to all these great engineering systems, southern India is
covered with minor works of irrigation, some drawn from springs in the
sandy beds of rivers, some from the rainfall of ½ sq. m. ponded up in a
valley. In other cases tanks are fed from neighbouring streams, and the
greatest ingenuity is displayed in preventing the precious water from
going to waste.

Allusion has been already made to the canals of Sind. Elsewhere in the
Bombay presidency, in the Deccan and Gujarat, there are fewer facilities
for irrigation than in other parts of India. The rivers are generally of
uncertain volume. The cost of storage works is very great. The
population is backward, and the black soil is of a nature that in
ordinary years can raise fair crops of cotton, millet and maize without
artificial watering. Up to the end of 1896-1897 the capital spent on the
irrigation works of the Deccan and Gujarat was [R]x. 2,616,959. The area
irrigated that year was 262,830 acres. The most important works are the
Mutha and Nira canals in the Poona district.

In Upper Burma three productive irrigation works were planned at the
opening of the century--the Mandalay, the Shwebo, and the Mon canals, of
which the first was estimated to cost [R]x. 323,280, and to irrigate
72,000 acres. The area estimated from the whole three projects is
262,000 acres, situated in the only part of Burma that is considered
liable to famine.

In 1901, after years of disastrous drought and famine, the government of
India appointed a commission to examine throughout all India what could
be done by irrigation to alleviate the horrors of famine. Up to that
time it had been the principle of the government not to borrow money for
the execution of irrigation works unless there was a reasonable
expectation that within a few years they would give a return of 4 or 5%
on the capital outlay. In 1901 the government took larger views. It was
found that although some irrigation works (especially in the Bombay
Deccan) would never yield a direct return of 4 or 5%, still in a famine
year they might be the means of producing a crop which would go far to
do away with the necessity for spending enormous sums on famine relief.
In the Sholapur district of Bombay, for instance, about three years'
revenue was spent on relief during the famine of 1901. An expenditure of
ten years' revenue on irrigation works might have done away for all
future time with the necessity for the greater part of this outlay. The
Irrigation Commission of 1901-1903 published a very exhaustive report
after a careful study of every part of India. While emphatically
asserting that irrigation alone could never prevent famine, they
recommended an outlay of £45,000,000 spread over a period of 25 years.

See also _Annual Reports Irrigation Department Local Governments of
India_; _Reports of the Indian Famine Commissions of 1878, 1898 and
1901_; Sir Hanbury Brown, _Irrigation, its Principles and Practice_
(London, 1907).

VI. _United States._--At the opening of the 20th century, during Mr
Roosevelt's presidency, the new "Conservation" policy (i.e.
conservation of natural resources by federal initiative and control), to
which he gave so much impetus and encouragement, brought the extension
of irrigation works in the United States to the front in American
statecraft (see Vrooman, _Mr Roosevelt, Dynamic Geographer_, 1909).
Though the carrying out of this policy on a large scale was hampered by
many difficulties, the subject was made definitely one of national
importance.

On account of the aridity of the climate throughout the greater part of
the western third of the United States, the practice of agriculture is
dependent upon an artificial supply of water. On most of the country
west of the 97th meridian and extending to the Pacific Ocean less than
20 in. of rain falls each year. The most notable exceptions are in the
case of a narrow strip west of the Cascade Range and of some of the
higher mountain masses. In ordinary years the climate is too dry for
successful cultivation of the field crops, although under favourable
conditions of soil and cultivation there are certain areas where cereals
are grown by what is known as "dry farming." The progress in irrigation
up to the end of the 19th century was spasmodic but on the whole steady.
The eleventh census of the United States, 1890, showed that 3,564,416
acres were irrigated in 1889. This included only the lands from which
crops were produced. Besides this, there were probably 10 million acres
under irrigation systems constructed in whole or in part. In 1899 the
irrigated area in the arid states and territories was more than twice as
great as in 1889, the acreage being as follows:--

Arizona 185,936
California 1,445,872
Colorado 1,611,271
Idaho 602,568
Montana 951,154
Nevada 504,168
New Mexico 203,893
Oregon 388,310
Utah 629,293
Washington 135,470
Wyoming 605,878
---------
Total 7,263,813

In addition to the area above given, in 1899, 273,117 acres were under
irrigation in the semi-arid region, east of the states above mentioned
and including portions of the states of North and South Dakota,
Nebraska, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma. The greater part of these lands
was irrigated by canals or ditches built by individuals acting singly or
in co-operation with their neighbours, or by corporations. The national
and state governments had not built any works of reclamation excepting
where the federal government, through the Indian department, had
constructed irrigation ditches for Indian tribes, notably the Crow
Indians of Montana. A few of the state governments, such, for example,
as Colorado, had built small reservoirs or portions of canals from
internal improvement funds.

The construction of irrigation canals and ditches was for the most part
brought about by farmers joining to plough out or dig ditches from the
rivers, descending on a gentle grade. Some of the corporations
constructing works for the sale of water built structures of notable
size, such, for example, as the Sweet-water and Hemet dams of southern
California, the Bear river canal of Utah, and the Arizona canal, taking
water from Salt river, Arizona. The cost of bringing water to the land
averaged about $8 per acre where the ordinary ditches were built. The
owners of extensive works were charged from $12 to $20 per acre and
upwards for so-called "water rights," or the privilege to take water
from the canal, this covering cost of construction. Besides the first
cost of construction, the irrigator was usually called upon to pay
annually a certain amount for maintenance, which might often be worked
out by labour on the canal. The cost ranged from 50 cents to $1 per
acre; or, with incorporated companies, from $1.50 to $2.50 per acre and
upwards. The largest expense for water rights and for annual maintenance
was incurred in southern California, where the character of the crops,
such as citrus fruits, and the scarcity of the water make possible
expensive construction and heavy charges. The legal expense for the
maintenance of water rights was often large because of the interminable
suits brought during the times of water scarcity. The laws regarding
water in most of the arid states were indefinite or contradictory, being
based partly on the common law regarding riparian rights, and partly
upon the Spanish law allowing diversion of water from natural streams.
Few fundamental principles were established, except in the case of the
state of Wyoming, where an official was charged with the duty of
ascertaining the amount of water in the streams and apportioning this to
the claimants in the order of their priority of appropriation for
beneficial use.

It may be said that, up to the year 1900, irrigation progressed to such
an extent that there remained few ordinary localities where water could
not be easily or cheaply diverted from creeks and rivers for the
cultivation of farms. The claims for the available supply from small
streams, however, exceeded the water to be had in the latter part of the
irrigating season. There remained large rivers and opportunities for
water storage which could be brought under irrigation at considerable
expense. The large canals and reservoirs built by corporations had
rarely been successful from a financial standpoint, and irrigation
construction during the latter part of the decade 1890-1899 was
relatively small. Owing to the difficulty and expense of securing water
from running streams by gravity systems, a great variety of methods were
developed of pumping water by windmills, gasoline or hot-air engines,
and steam. Ordinary reciprocating pumps were commonly employed, and also
air lifts and similar devices for raising great quantities of water to a
height of from 20 to 50 ft. For greater depths the cost was usually
prohibitive. Throughout the Great Plains region, east of the Rocky
Mountains, and in the broad valleys to the west, windmills were
extensively used, each pumping water for from 1 to 5 acres of cultivated
ground. In a few localities, notably in South Dakota, the Yakima valley
of Washington, San Joaquin, and San Bernardino valleys of California,
San Luis valley of Colorado, and Utah valley of Utah, water from
artesian wells was also used for the irrigation of from 1 to 160 acres.
The total acreage supplied by such means was probably less than 1% of
that watered by gravity systems.

The development of irrigation was in part retarded by the improper or
wasteful use of water. On permeable soils, especially those of the
terrace lands along the valleys, the soluble salts commonly known as
alkali were gradually leached out and carried by the percolating waters
towards the lower lands, where, reaching the surface, the alkali was
left as a glistening crust or as pools of inky blackness. Farms adjacent
to the rivers were for a time increased in richness by the alkaline
salts, which in diffuse form might be valuable plant foods, and then
suddenly become valueless when the concentration of alkali had reached a
degree beyond that which the ordinary plants would endure.

The situation as regards the further progress of irrigation on a large
scale was however dominated in the early years of the 20th century by
the new Conservation policy. Mr Roosevelt brought the whole subject
before Congress in his message of the 3rd of December 1901, and thereby
started what seemed likely to be a new sphere of Federal initiative and
control. After referring to the effects of forests (see FORESTS AND
FORESTRY) on water-supply, he went on as follows:--

"The forests alone cannot fully regulate and conserve the waters of
the arid regions. Great storage works are necessary to equalize the
flow of the streams and to save the flood waters. Their construction
has been conclusively shown to be an undertaking too vast for private
effort. Nor can it be best accomplished by the individual states
acting alone.

"Far-reaching interstate problems are involved, and the resources of
single states would often be inadequate. It is properly a national
function, at least in some of its features. It is as right for the
National Government to make the streams and rivers of the arid regions
useful by engineering works for water storage, as to make useful the
rivers and harbours of the humid regions by engineering works of
another kind. The storing of the floods in reservoirs at the
headquarters of our rivers is but an enlargement of our present policy
of river control, under which levees are built on the lower reaches
of the same streams.

"The government should construct and maintain these reservoirs as it
does other public works. Where their purpose is to regulate the flow
of streams, the water should be turned freely into the channels in the
dry season, to take the same course under the same laws as the natural
flow.

"The reclamation of the unsettled arid public lands presents a
different problem. Here it is not enough to regulate the flow of
streams. The object of the government is to dispose of the land to
settlers who will build homes upon it. To accomplish the object water
must be brought within their reach.

"The reclamation and settlement of the arid lands will enrich every
portion of our country, just as the settlement of the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys brought prosperity to the Atlantic States. The
increased demand for manufactured articles will stimulate industrial
production, while wider home markets and the trade of Asia will
consume the larger food supplies and effectually prevent Western
competition with Eastern agriculture. Indeed, the products of
irrigation will be consumed chiefly in upbuilding local centres of
mining and other industries, which would otherwise not come into
existence at all. Our people as a whole will profit, for successful
home-making is but another name for the upbuilding of the nation."

In 1902, by Act of Congress, a "reclamation fund" was created from
moneys received from the sale of public lands; it was to be used under a
"Reclamation Service" (part of the Department of the Interior) for the
reclamation of arid lands. The "Truckee-Carson project" for irrigation
in Nevada was immediately begun. About thirty other government projects
were taken in hand under the new Reclamation Service, in some cases
involving highly interesting engineering problems, as in the Uncompahgre
Project in Colorado. Here the Uncompahgre and Gunnison rivers flowed
parallel, about 10 m. apart, with a mountain range 2000 ft. high between
them. The Uncompahgre, with only a small amount of water, flowed through
a broad and fertile valley containing several hundred thousand acres of
cultivable soil. The Gunnison, with far more water, flowed through a
canyon with very little land. The problem was to get the water from the
Gunnison over the mountain range into the Uncompahgre valley; and a
tunnel, 6 m. long, was cut through, resulting in 1909 in 148,000 acres
of land being irrigated and thrown open to settlers. Similarly, near
Yuma in Arizona, a project was undertaken for carrying the waters of the
main canal on the California side under the Colorado river by a siphon.
In the report for 1907 of the Reclamation Service it was stated that it
had dug 1881 m. of canals, some carrying whole rivers, like the Truckee
river in Nevada and the North Platte in Wyoming, and had erected 281
large structures, including the great dams in Nevada and the Minidoka
dam (80 ft. high and 650 ft. long) in Idaho. As the result of the
operations eight new towns had been established, 100 m. of branch
railroads constructed, and 14,000 people settled in what had been the
desert.

A White House conference of governors of states was held at Washington
in May 1909, which drew up a "declaration of principles" for the
conservation of natural resources, recommending the appointment of a
commission by each state to co-operate with one another and with the
Federal government; and by the end of the year thirty-six states had
appointed Conservation committees. Thus, in the first decade of the
20th century a great advance had been made in the way in which the
whole problem was being viewed in America, though the very immensity
of the problem of bringing the Federal power to bear on operations on
so vast a scale, involving the limitation of private land speculation
in important areas, still presented political difficulties of
considerable magnitude.

IRULAS ("Benighted ones," from Tamil, _iral_, "darkness"), a
semi-Hinduized forest-tribe of southern India, who are found mainly in
North Arcot, Chingleput, South Arcot, Trichinopoly, and the Malabar
Wynaad. The typical Irulas of the Nilgiris live a wild life on the lower
slopes of those hills. At the 1901 census this branch of the Irulas
numbered 1915, while the total of so-called Irulas was returned at
86,087.

See J. W. Breeks, _Primitive Tribes of the Nilgiris_ (1873); _Nilgiri
Manual_, i. 214-217; _North Arcot Manual_, i. 248-249.

IRUN, a frontier town of northern Spain, in the province of Guipúzcoa,
on the left bank of the river Bidassoa, opposite the French village of
Hendaye. Pop. (1900) 9912. Irun is the northern terminus of the Spanish
Northern railway, and a thriving industrial town, with ironworks,
tan-yards, potteries and paper mills. Its principal buildings are the
fine Renaissance parish church and the fortress-like 17th-century town
hall. It derives its prosperity from the fact that it is the most
important custom-house in Spain for the overland trade with the rest of
Europe. Irun is also on the chief highway for travellers and mails. It
is the terminus of some important narrow-gauge mining railways and steam
tramways, which place it in communication with the mining districts of
Guipúzcoa and Navarre, and with the valuable oak, pine and beech forests
of both provinces. There are hot mineral springs in the town.

IRVINE, a royal, municipal and police burgh, and seaport of Ayrshire,
Scotland. Pop. (1901) 9607. It is situated on the north bank of the
estuary of the Irvine, 29½ m. S.W. of Glasgow by the Caledonian railway,
with a station also on the Glasgow & South Western railway. It is
connected with the suburb of Fullarton on the south side of the river by
a stone bridge, which was built in 1746 and widened in 1827. Alexander
II. granted it a charter, which was confirmed by Robert Bruce. Towards
the end of the 17th century it was reckoned the third shipping port in
Scotland (Port Glasgow and Leith being the leaders), and though its
importance in this respect declined owing to the partial silting-up of
the harbour, its water-borne trade revived after 1875, the sandy bar
having been removed and the wharfage extended and improved. The public
buildings include the town hall, academy (1814) and fever hospital. The
principal historical remains are the square tower of Stanecastle and the
ancient Seagate Castle, which contains some good specimens of Norman
architecture. The industries include engine-making, shipbuilding, iron-
and brass-founding, the manufacture of chemicals, brewing and
soap-making. Irvine unites with Ayr, Campbeltown, Inveraray and Oban in
sending one member to parliament. The exports consist principally of
coal, iron and chemical products, and the imports of grain, timber,
limestone, ores and general produce. At DREGHORN, 2 m. to the S.E. (pop.
1155) coal and iron are worked.

IRVING, EDWARD (1792-1834), Scottish church divine, generally regarded
as the founder of the "Catholic Apostolic Church" (q.v.), was born at
Annan, Dumfriesshire, on the 4th of August 1792. By his father's side,
who followed the occupation of a tanner, he was descended from a family
long known in the district, and the purity of whose Scottish lineage had
been tinged by alliance with French Protestant refugees; but it was from
his mother's race, the Lowthers, farmers or small proprietors in
Annandale, that he seems to have derived the most distinctive features
of his personality. The first stage of his education was passed at a
school kept by "Peggy Paine," a relation of the well-known author of the
_Age of Reason_, after which he entered the Annan academy, taught by Mr
Adam Hope, of whom there is a graphic sketch in the _Reminiscences_ of
Thomas Carlyle. At the age of thirteen he entered the university of
Edinburgh. In 1809 he graduated M.A.; and in 1810, on the recommendation
of Sir John Leslie, he was chosen master of an academy newly established
at Haddington, where he became the tutor of Jane Welsh, afterwards
famous as Mrs Carlyle. He became engaged in 1812 to Isabella Martin,
whom in 1823 he married; but it may be at once stated here that
meanwhile he gradually fell in love with Jane Welsh, and she with him.
He tried to get out of his engagement with Miss Martin, but was
prevented by her family. If he had married Miss Welsh, his life, as well
as hers, would have been very different. It was Irving who in 1821
introduced Carlyle to her.

His appointment at Haddington he exchanged for a similar one at
Kirkcaldy in 1812. Completing his divinity studies by a series of
partial sessions, he was "licensed" to preach in June 1815, but
continued to discharge his scholastic duties for three years. He devoted
his leisure, not only to mathematical and physical science, but to a
course of reading in English literature, his bias towards the antique in
sentiment and style being strengthened by a perusal of the older
classics, among whom Richard Hooker was his favourite author. At the
same time his love of the marvellous found gratification in the wonders
of the _Arabian Nights_, and it is further characteristically related
of him that he used to carry continually in his waistcoat pocket a
miniature copy of _Ossian_, passages from which he frequently recited
with "sonorous elocution and vehement gesticulation."

In the summer of 1818 he resigned his mastership, and, in order to
increase the probability of obtaining a permanent appointment in the
church, took up his residence in Edinburgh. Although his exceptional
method of address seems to have gained him the qualified approval of
certain dignitaries of the church, the prospect of his obtaining a
settled charge seemed as remote as ever, and he was meditating a
missionary tour in Persia when his departure was arrested by steps taken
by Dr Chalmers, which, after considerable delay, resulted, in October
1819, in Irving being appointed his assistant and missionary in St
John's parish, Glasgow. Except in the case of a select few, Irving's
preaching awakened little interest among the congregation of Chalmers,
Chalmers himself, with no partiality for its bravuras and flourishes,
comparing it to "Italian music, appreciated only by connoisseurs"; but
as a missionary among the poorer classes he wielded an influence that
was altogether unique. The benediction "Peace be to this house," with
which, in accordance with apostolic usage, he greeted every dwelling he
entered, was not inappropriate to his figure and aspect, and it is said
"took the people's attention wonderfully," the more especially after the
magic of his personality found opportunity to reveal itself in close and
homely intercourse. This half-success in a subordinate sphere was,
however, so far from coinciding with his aspirations that he had again,
in the winter of 1821, begun to turn his attention towards missionary
labour in the East, when the possibility of fulfilling the dream of his
life was suddenly revealed to him by an invitation from the Caledonian
church, Hatton Garden, London, to "make trial and proof" of his gifts
before the "remnant of the congregation which held together." Over that
charge he was ordained in July 1822. Some years previously he had
expressed his conviction that "one of the chief needs of the age was to
make inroad after the alien, to bring in the votaries of fashion, of
literature, of sentiment, of policy and of rank, who are content in
their several idolatries to do without piety to God and love to Him whom
He hath sent"; and, with an abruptness which must have produced on him
at first an effect almost astounding, he now had the satisfaction of
beholding these various votaries thronging to hear from his lips the
words of wisdom which would deliver them from their several idolatries
and remodel their lives according to the fashion of apostolic times.

This sudden leap into popularity seems to have been occasioned in
connexion with a veiled allusion to Irving's striking eloquence made in
the House of Commons by Canning, who had been induced to attend his
church from admiration of an expression in one of his prayers, quoted to
him by Sir James Mackintosh. His commanding stature, the symmetry of his
form, the dark and melancholy beauty of his countenance, rather rendered
piquant than impaired by an obliquity of vision, produced an imposing
impression even before his deep and powerful voice had given utterance
to its melodious thunders; and harsh and superficial half-truths
enunciated with surpassing ease and grace of gesture, and not only with
an air of absolute conviction but with the authority of a prophetic
messenger, in tones whose magical fascination was inspired by an
earnestness beyond all imitation of art, acquired a plausibility and
importance which, at least while the orator spoke, made his audience
entirely forgetful of their preconceived objections against them. The
subject-matter of his orations, and his peculiar treatment of his
themes, no doubt also, at least at first, constituted a considerable
part of his attractive influence. He had specially prepared himself, as
he thought, for "teaching imaginative men, and political men, and legal
men, and scientific men who bear the world in hand"; and he did not
attempt to win their attention to abstract and worn-out theological
arguments, but discussed the opinions, the poetry, the politics, the
manners and customs of the time, and this not with philosophical
comprehensiveness, not in terms of warm eulogy or measured blame, but
of severe satire varied by fierce denunciation, and with a specific
minuteness which was concerned primarily with individuals. A fire of
criticism from pamphlets, newspapers and reviews opened on his volume of
_Orations_, published in 1823; but the excitement produced was merely
superficial and essentially evanescent. Though cherishing a strong
antipathy to the received ecclesiastical formulas, Irving's great aim
was to revive the antique style of thought and sentiment which had
hardened into these formulas, and by this means to supplant the new
influences, the accidental and temporary moral shortcomings of which he
detected with instinctive certainty, but whose profound and real
tendencies were utterly beyond the reach of his conjecture. Being thus
radically at variance with the main current of the thought of his time,
the failure of the commission he had undertaken was sooner or later
inevitable; and shortly after the opening of his new church in Regent
Square in 1827, he found that "fashion had taken its departure," and the
church, "though always well filled," was "no longer crowded." By this
desertion his self-esteem, one of his strongest passions, though
curiously united with singular sincerity and humility, was doubtless
hurt to the quick; but the wound inflicted was of a deeper and deadlier
kind, for it confirmed him finally in his despair of the world's gradual
amelioration, and established his tendency towards supernaturalism.

For years the subject of prophecy had occupied much of his thoughts, and
his belief in the near approach of the second advent had received such
wonderful corroboration by the perusal of the work of a Jesuit priest,
writing under the assumed Jewish name of Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra, that in
1827 he published a translation of it, accompanied with an eloquent
preface. Probably the religious opinions of Irving, originally in some
respects more catholic and truer to human nature than generally
prevailed in ecclesiastical circles, had gained breadth and
comprehensiveness from his intercourse with Coleridge, but gradually his
chief interest in Coleridge's philosophy centred round that which was
mystical and obscure, and to it in all likelihood may be traced his
initiation into the doctrine of millenarianism. The first stage of his
later development, which resulted in the establishment of the
"Irvingite" or "Holy Catholic Apostolic Church," in 1832, was associated
with conferences at his friend Henry Drummond's seat at Albury
concerning unfulfilled prophecy, followed by an almost exclusive study
of the prophetical books and especially of the Apocalypse, and by
several series of sermons on prophecy both in London and the provinces,
his apocalyptic lectures in 1828 more than crowding the largest churches
of Edinburgh in the early summer mornings. In 1830, however, there was
opened up to his ardent imagination a new vista into spiritual things, a
new hope for the age in which he lived, by the seeming actual revival in
a remote corner of Scotland of those apostolic gifts of prophecy and
healing which he had already in 1828 persuaded himself had only been
kept in abeyance by the absence of faith. At once he welcomed the new
"power" with an unquestioning evidence which could be shaken by neither
the remonstrances or desertion of his dearest friends, the recantation
of some of the principal agents of the "gifts," his own declension into
a comparatively subordinate position, the meagre and barren results of
the manifestations, nor their general rejection both by the church and
the world. His excommunication by the presbytery of London, in 1830, for
publishing his doctrines regarding the humanity of Jesus Christ, and the
condemnation of these opinions by the General Assembly of the Church of
Scotland in the following year, were secondary episodes which only
affected the main issue of his career in so far as they tended still
further to isolate him from the sympathy of the church; but the
"irregularities" connected with the manifestation of the "gifts"
gradually estranged the majority of his own congregation, and on the
complaint of the trustees to the presbytery of London, whose authority
they had formerly rejected, he was declared unfit to remain the minister
of the National Scotch Church of Regent Square. After he and those who
adhered to him (describing themselves as of the Holy Catholic Apostolic
Church) had in 1832 removed to a new building in Newman Street, he was
in March 1833 deposed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland by the
presbytery of Annan on the original charge of heresy. With the sanction
of the "power" he was now after some delay reordained "chief pastor of
the church assembled in Newman Street," but unremitting labours and
ceaseless spiritual excitement soon completely exhausted the springs of
his vital energy. He died, worn out and wasted with labour and absorbing
care, while still in the prime of life, on the 7th of December 1834.

The writings of Edward Irving published during his lifetime were _For
the Oracles of God, Four Orations_ (1823); _For Judgment to come_
(1823); _Babylon and Infidelity foredoomed_ (1826); _Sermons_, &c. (3
vols., 1828); _Exposition of the Book of Revelation_ (1831); an
introduction to a translation of Ben-Ezra; and an introduction to
Horne's _Commentary on the Psalms_. His collected works were published
in 5 volumes, edited by Gavin Carlyle. See also the article CATHOLIC
APOSTOLIC CHURCH.

The _Life of Edward Irving_, by Mrs Oliphant, appeared in 1862 in 2
vols. Among a large number of biographies published previously, that
by Washington Wilks (1854) has some merit. See also Hazlitt's _Spirit
of the Age_; Coleridge's _Notes on English Divines_; Carlyle's
_Miscellanies_, and Carlyle's _Reminiscences_, vol. i. (1881).

IRVING, SIR HENRY (1838-1905), English actor, whose original name was
John Brodribb, was born at Keinton-Mandeville, Somerset, on the 6th of
February 1838. After a few years' schooling he became a clerk to a firm
of East India merchants in London, but he soon gave up a commercial
career and started as an actor. On the 29th of September 1856 he made
his first appearance at Sunderland as Gaston, duke of Orleans, in Bulwer
Lytton's _Richelieu_, billed as Henry Irving. This name he eventually
assumed by royal licence. For ten years he went through an arduous
training in various provincial stock companies, acting in more than five
hundred parts. By degrees his ability gained recognition, and in 1866 he
obtained an engagement at the St James's Theatre, London, to play
Doricourt in _The Belle's Stratagem_. A year later he joined the company
of the newly-opened Queen's Theatre, where he acted with Charles
Wyndham, J. L. Toole, Lionel Brough, John Clayton, Mr and Mrs Alfred
Wigan, Ellen Terry and Nelly Farren. This was followed by short
engagements at the Haymarket, Drury Lane and Gaiety. At last he made his
first conspicuous success as Digby Grant in James Albery's _The Two
Roses_, which was produced at the Vaudeville on the 4th of June 1870 and
ran for 300 nights. In 1871 he began his association with the Lyceum
Theatre by an engagement under Bateman's management. The fortunes of the
house were at a low ebb when the tide was turned by Irving's immediate
success as Mathias in _The Bells_, a version of Erckmann-Chatrian's _Le
Juif Polonais_ by Leopold Lewis. The play ran for 150 nights. With Miss
Bateman, Irving was seen in W. G. Wills's _Charles I._ and _Eugene
Aram_, in _Richelieu_, and in 1874 in _Hamlet_. The unconventionality of
this last performance, during a run of 200 nights, aroused keen
discussion, and singled him out as the most interesting English actor of
his day. In 1875, still with Miss Bateman, he was seen as Macbeth; in
1876 as Othello, and as Philip in Tennyson's _Queen Mary_; in 1877 in
_Richard III._ and _The Lyons Mail_.

In 1878 Irving opened the Lyceum under his own management. With Ellen
Terry as Ophelia and Portia, he revived _Hamlet_ and produced _The
Merchant of Venice_ (1879). His Shylock was as much discussed as his
Hamlet had been, the dignity with which he invested the Jew marking a
departure from the traditional interpretation of the rôle, and pleasing
some as much as it offended others. After the production of Tennyson's
_The Cup_, a revival of _Othello_ (in which Irving played Iago to the
Othello of Edwin Booth) and of _Romeo and Juliet_, there began a period
at the Lyceum which had a potent effect on the English stage. The Lyceum
stage management, and the brilliancy of its productions in scenery,
dressing and accessories, were revelations in the art of
_mise-en-scène_. _Much Ado about Nothing_ (1882) was followed by
_Twelfth Night_ (1884), _Olivia_--an adaptation of Goldsmith's _Vicar of
Wakefield_ by W. G. Wills (1885); _Faust_ (1886); _Macbeth_ (1888): _The
Dead Heart_, by Watts Phillips (1889); and _Ravenswood_--Herman
Merivale's dramatic version of Scott's _Bride of Lammermoor_ (1890).
Fine assumptions in 1892 of the characters of Wolsey in _Henry VIII._
and of King Lear were followed in 1893 by a striking and dignified
performance of Becket in Tennyson's play of that name. During these
years too, Irving, with the whole Lyceum company, paid several visits to
America, which met with conspicuous success, and were repeated in
succeeding years. The chief remaining novelties at the Lyceum during
Irving's sole managership (the theatre passed, at the beginning of 1899,
into the hands of a limited liability company) were Comyns Carr's _King
Arthur_ in 1895; _Cymbeline_, in which Irving played Iachimo, in 1896;
Sardou's _Madame Sans-Gêne_ in 1897; _Peter the Great_, a play by
Laurence Irving, the actor's second son, in 1898; and Conan Doyle's
_Waterloo_ (1894). The new _régime_ at the Lyceum was signalized by the
production of Sardou's _Robespierre_ in 1899, in which Irving reappeared
after a serious illness, and in 1901 by an elaborate revival of
_Coriolanus_. Irving's only subsequent production in London was Sardou's
_Dante_ (1903), a vast spectacular drama, staged at Drury Lane. He died
"on tour" at Bradford on the 13th of October 1905, and was buried in
Westminster Abbey.

Both on and off the stage Irving always maintained a high ideal of his
profession, and in 1895 he received the honour of knighthood, the first
ever accorded an actor. He was also the recipient of honorary degrees
from the universities of Dublin, Cambridge and Glasgow. His acting,
apart from his genius as a presenter of plays, divided criticism,
opinions differing as to the extent to which his mannerisms of voice and
deportment interfered with or assisted the expression of his ideas. So
strongly marked a personality as his could not help giving its own
colouring to whatever part he might assume, but the richness and
originality of this colouring at its best cannot be denied, any more
than the spirit and intellect which characterized his renderings. At the
least, extraordinary versatility must be conceded to an actor who could
satisfy exacting audiences in rôles so widely different as Digby Grant
and Louis XI., Richard III. and Becket, Benedick and Shylock, Mathias
and Dr Primrose.

Sir Henry Irving had two sons, Harry Brodribb (b. 1870) and Laurence (b.
1872). They were educated for other walks of life, the former for the
bar, and the latter for the diplomatic service; but both turned to the
stage, and the elder, who had already established himself as the most
prominent of the younger English actors at the time of his father's
death, went into management on his own account.

IRVING, WASHINGTON (1783-1859), American man of letters, was born at New
York on the 3rd of April 1783. Both his parents were immigrants from
Great Britain, his father, originally an officer in the merchant
service, but at the time of Irving's birth a considerable merchant,
having come from the Orkneys, and his mother from Falmouth. Irving was
intended for the legal profession, but his studies were interrupted by
an illness necessitating a voyage to Europe, in the course of which he
proceeded as far as Rome, and made the acquaintance of Washington
Allston. He was called to the bar upon his return, but made little
effort to practise, preferring to amuse himself with literary ventures.
The first of these of any importance, a satirical miscellany entitled
_Salmagundi, or the Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff and
others_, written in conjunction with his brother William and J. K.
Paulding, gave ample proof of his talents as a humorist. These were
still more conspicuously displayed in his next attempt, _A History of
New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch
Dynasty_, by "Diedrich Knickerbocker" (2 vols., New York, 1809). The
satire of _Salmagundi_ had been principally local, and the original
design of "Knickerbocker's" _History_ was only to burlesque a
pretentious disquisition on the history of the city in a guidebook by Dr
Samuel Mitchell. The idea expanded as Irving proceeded, and he ended by
not merely satirizing the pedantry of local antiquaries, but by creating
a distinct literary type out of the solid Dutch burgher whose phlegm had
long been an object of ridicule to the mercurial Americans. Though far
from the most finished of Irving's productions, "Knickerbocker"
manifests the most original power, and is the most genuinely national in
its quaintness and drollery. The very tardiness and prolixity of the
story are skilfully made to heighten the humorous effect.

Upon the death of his father, Irving had become a sleeping partner in
his brother's commercial house, a branch of which was established at
Liverpool. This, combined with the restoration of peace, induced him to
visit England in 1815, when he found the stability of the firm seriously
compromised. After some years of ineffectual struggle it became
bankrupt. This misfortune compelled Irving to resume his pen as a means
of subsistence. His reputation had preceded him to England, and the
curiosity naturally excited by the then unwonted apparition of a
successful American author procured him admission into the highest
literary circles, where his popularity was ensured by his amiable temper
and polished manners. As an American, moreover, he stood aloof from the
political and literary disputes which then divided England. Campbell,
Jeffrey, Moore, Scott, were counted among his friends, and the
last-named zealously recommended him to the publisher Murray, who, after
at first refusing, consented (1820) to bring out _The Sketch Book of
Geoffrey Crayon, Gent._ (7 pts., New York, 1819-1820). The most
interesting part of this work is the description of an English
Christmas, which displays a delicate humour not unworthy of the writer's
evident model Addison. Some stories and sketches on American themes
contribute to give it variety; of these Rip van Winkle is the most
remarkable. It speedily obtained the greatest success on both sides of
the Atlantic. _Bracebridge Hall, or the Humourists_ (2 vols., New York),
a work purely English in subject, followed in 1822, and showed to what
account the American observer had turned his experience of English
country life. The humour is, nevertheless, much more English than
American. _Tales of a Traveller_ (4 pts.) appeared in 1824 at
Philadelphia, and Irving, now in comfortable circumstances, determined
to enlarge his sphere of observation by a journey on the continent.
After a long course of travel he settled down at Madrid in the house of
the American consul Rich. His intention at the time was to translate the
_Coleccion de los Viajes y Descubrimientos_ (Madrid, 1825-1837) of
Martin Fernandez de Navarrete; finding, however, that this was rather a
collection of valuable materials than a systematic biography, he
determined to compose a biography of his own by its assistance,
supplemented by independent researches in the Spanish archives. His
_History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus_ (London, 4
vols.) appeared in 1828, and obtained a merited success. _The Voyages
and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus_ (Philadelphia, 1831)
followed; and a prolonged residence in the south of Spain gave Irving
materials for two highly picturesque books, _A Chronicle of the Conquest
of Granada from the MSS. of_ [an imaginary] _Fray Antonio Agapida_ (2
vols., Philadelphia, 1829), and _The Alhambra: a series of tales and
sketches of the Moors and Spaniards_ (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1832).
Previous to their appearance he had been appointed secretary to the
embassy at London, an office as purely complimentary to his literary
ability as the legal degree which he about the same time received from
the university of Oxford.

Returning to the United States in 1832, after seventeen years' absence,
he found his name a household word, and himself universally honoured as
the first American who had won for his country recognition on equal
terms in the literary republic. After the rush of fêtes and public
compliments had subsided, he undertook a tour in the western prairies,
and returning to the neighbourhood of New York built for himself a
delightful retreat on the Hudson, to which he gave the name of
"Sunnyside." His acquaintance with the New York millionaire John Jacob
Astor prompted his next important work--_Astoria_ (2 vols.,
Philadelphia, 1836), a history of the fur-trading settlement founded by
Astor in Oregon, deduced with singular literary ability from dry
commercial records, and, without laboured attempts at word-painting,
evincing a remarkable faculty for bringing scenes and incidents vividly
before the eye. _The Adventures of Captain Bonneville_ (London and
Philadelphia, 1837), based upon the unpublished memoirs of a veteran
explorer, was another work of the same class. In 1842 Irving was
appointed ambassador to Spain. He spent four years in the country,
without this time turning his residence to literary account; and it was
not until two years after his return that Forster's life of Goldsmith,
by reminding him of a slight essay of his own which he now thought too
imperfect by comparison to be included among his collected writings,
stimulated him to the production of his _Life of Oliver Goldsmith, with
Selections from his Writings_ (2 vols., New York, 1849). Without
pretensions to original research, the book displays an admirable talent
for employing existing material to the best effect. The same may be said
of _The Lives of Mahomet and his Successors_ (New York, 2 vols.,
1849-1850). Here as elsewhere Irving correctly discriminated the
biographer's province from the historian's, and leaving the
philosophical investigation of cause and effect to writers of Gibbon's
calibre, applied himself to represent the picturesque features of the
age as embodied in the actions and utterances of its most characteristic
representatives. His last days were devoted to his _Life of George
Washington_ (5 vols., 1855-1859, New York and London), undertaken in an
enthusiastic spirit, but which the author found exhausting and his
readers tame. His genius required a more poetical theme, and indeed the
biographer of Washington must be at least a potential soldier and
statesman. Irving just lived to complete this work, dying of heart
disease at Sunnyside, on the 28th of November 1859.

Although one of the chief ornaments of American literature, Irving is
not characteristically American. But he is one of the few authors of his
period who really manifest traces of a vein of national peculiarity
which might under other circumstances have been productive.
"Knickerbocker's" _History of New York_, although the air of mock
solemnity which constitutes the staple of its humour is peculiar to no
literature, manifests nevertheless a power of reproducing a distinct
national type. Had circumstances taken Irving to the West, and placed
him amid a society teeming with quaint and genial eccentricity, he might
possibly have been the first Western humorist, and his humour might have
gained in depth and richness. In England, on the other hand, everything
encouraged his natural fastidiousness; he became a refined writer, but
by no means a robust one. His biographies bear the stamp of genuine
artistic intelligence, equally remote from compilation and disquisition.
In execution they are almost faultless; the narrative is easy, the style
pellucid, and the writer's judgment nearly always in accordance with the
general verdict of history. Without ostentation or affectation, he was
exquisite in all things, a mirror of loyalty, courtesy and good taste in
all his literary connexions, and exemplary in all the relations of
domestic life. He never married, remaining true to the memory of an
early attachment blighted by death.

The principal edition of Irving's works is the "Geoffrey Crayon,"
published at New York in 1880 in 26 vols. His _Life and Letters_ was
published by his nephew Pierre M. Irving (London, 1862-1864, 4 vols.;
German abridgment by Adolf Laun, Berlin, 1870, 2 vols.) There is a
good deal of miscellaneous information in a compilation entitled
_Irvingiana_ (New York, 1860); and W. C. Bryant's memorial oration,
though somewhat too uniformly laudatory, may be consulted with
advantage. It was republished in _Studies of Irving_ (1880) along with
C. Dudley Warner's introduction to the "Geoffrey Crayon" edition, and
Mr G. P. Putnam's personal reminiscences of Irving, which originally
appeared in the _Atlantic Monthly_. See also _Washington Irving_
(1881), by C. D. Warner, in the "American Men of Letters" series; H.
R. Haweis, _American Humourists_ (London, 1883). (R. G.)

IRVINGTON, a town of Essex county, New Jersey, U.S.A., bordering on the
S.W. side of Newark. Pop. (1900) 5255, of whom 993 were foreign-born;
(1905) 7180; (1910) 11,877. Irvington is served by the Lehigh Valley
railroad and by electric railway to Newark. It is principally a
residential suburb of Newark, but it has a small smelter (for gold and
silver), and various manufactures, including textile working machinery,
measuring rules and artisans' tools. There are large strawberry farms
here. Irvington was settled near the close of the 17th century, and was
called Camptown until 1852, when the present name was adopted in honour
of Washington Irving. It was incorporated as a village in 1874, and as a
town in 1898.

ISAAC (Hebrew for "he laughs," on explanatory references to the name,
see ABRAHAM), the only child of Abraham and Sarah, was born when his
parents were respectively a hundred and ninety years of age (Gen. xvii.
17). Like his father, Isaac lived a nomadic pastoral life, but within
much narrower local limits, south of Beersheba (Gen. xxvi., on the
incidents here recorded, see ABIMELECH). After the death of his mother,
when he was forty years old, he married Rebekah the Aramaean, by whom
after twenty years of married life he became the father of Esau and
Jacob. He died at the age of one hundred and eighty.[1] "Isaac" is used
as a synonym for "Israel" by Amos (vii. 9, 16), who also bears witness
to the importance of Beersheba as a sanctuary. It was in this district,
at the well Beer-Lahai-roi, that Isaac dwelt (Gen. xxiv. 62, xxv. 11),
and the place was famous for an incident in the life of Hagar (xvi. 14).
This was perhaps the original scene of the striking episode "in the land
of Moriah," when at the last moment he was by angelic interposition
released from the altar on which he was about to be sacrificed by his
father in obedience to a divine command (Gen. xxii).[2] The narrative
(which must be judged with due regard to the conditions of the age)
shows that the sacrifice of the first-born, though not inconsistent with
Yahweh's claims (Ex. xxii. 29), was neither required nor tolerated (cp.
Micah vi. 6-8). See MOLOCH.

Isaac is by general consent of the Christian church taken as a
representative of the unobtrusive, restful, piously contemplative type
of human character. By later Judaism, which fixed its attention
chiefly on the altar scene, he was regarded as the pattern and
prototype of all martyrs. The Mahommedan legends regarding him are
curious, but trifling.

The resemblance between incidents in the lives of Isaac and Abraham is
noteworthy; in each case Isaac appears to be the more original. See
further ISHMAEL, and note that the pair Isaac and Ishmael correspond
to Abraham and Lot, Jacob and Esau. On general questions, see E.
Meyer, _Israeliten_ (_Index_, s.v.). For attempts to find a
mythological interpretation of Isaac's life, see Goldziher, _Mythology
of the Hebrews_; Winckler, _Gesch. Israels_ (vol. ii.).

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The stories, including the delightful history of the courting of
Rebekah by proxy, are due to the oldest narrators. The jarring
chronological notices belong to the post-exilic framework of the book
(see GENESIS).

[2] The name is hopelessly obscure, and the identification with the
mountain of the temple in Jerusalem rests upon a late view (2 Chron.
iii. 1). It is otherwise called "Yahweh-yir'eh" ("Y. sees") which is
analogous to "El-ro'i" ("a God of Seeing") in xvi. 13. See further
the commentaries.

ISAAC I. (COMNENUS), emperor of the East (1057-1059), was the son of an
officer of Basil II. named Manuel Comnenus, who on his deathbed
commended his two sons Isaac and John to the emperor's care. Basil had
them carefully educated at the monastery of Studion, and afterwards
advanced them to high official positions. During the disturbed reigns of
Basil's seven immediate successors, Isaac by his prudent conduct won the
confidence of the army; in 1057 he joined with the nobles of the capital
in a conspiracy against Michael VI., and after the latter's deposition
was invested with the crown, thus founding the new dynasty of the
Comneni. The first care of the new emperor was to reward his noble
partisans with appointments that removed them from Constantinople, and
his next was to repair the beggared finances of the empire. He revoked
numerous pensions and grants conferred by his predecessors upon idle
courtiers, and, meeting the reproach of sacrilege made by the patriarch
of Constantinople by a decree of exile, resumed a proportion of the
revenues of the wealthy monasteries. Isaac's only military expedition
was against the Hungarians and Petchenegs, who began to ravage the
northern frontiers in 1059. Shortly after this successful campaign he
was seized with an illness, and believing it mortal appointed as his
successor Constantine Ducas, to the exclusion of his own brother John.
Although he recovered Isaac did not resume the purple, but retired to
the monastery of Studion and spent the remaining two years of his life
as a monk, alternating menial offices with literary studies. His
_Scholia_ to the _Iliad_ and other works on the Homeric poems are still
extant in MS. He died in the year 1061. Isaac's great aim was to restore
the former strict organization of the government, and his reforms,
though unpopular with the aristocracy and the clergy, and not understood
by the people, certainly contributed to stave off for a while the final
ruin of the Byzantine empire.

See E. Gibbon, _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (ed. J.
Bury, London, 1896, vol. v.); G. Finlay, _History of Greece_ (ed.
1877, Oxford, vols. ii. and iii.).

ISAAC II. (ANGELUS), emperor of the East 1185-1195, and again 1203-1204,
was the successor of Andronicus I. He inaugurated his reign by a
decisive victory over the Normans in Sicily, but elsewhere his policy
was less successful. He failed in an attempt to recover Cyprus from a
rebellious noble, and by the oppressiveness of his taxes drove the
Bulgarians and Vlachs to revolt (1186). In 1187 Alexis Branas, the
general sent against the rebels, treacherously turned his arms against
his master, and attempted to seize Constantinople, but was defeated and
slain. The emperor's attention was next demanded in the east, where
several claimants to the throne successively rose and fell. In 1189
Frederick Barbarossa of Germany sought and obtained leave to lead his
troops on the third crusade through the Byzantine territory; but he had
no sooner crossed the border than Isaac, who had meanwhile sought an
alliance with Saladin, threw every impediment in his way, and was only
compelled by force of arms to fulfil his engagements. The next five
years were disturbed by fresh rebellions of the Vlachs, against whom
Isaac led several expeditions in person. During one of these, in 1195,
Alexius, the emperor's brother, taking advantage of the latter's absence
from camp on a hunting expedition, proclaimed himself emperor, and was
readily recognised by the soldiers. Isaac was blinded and imprisoned in
Constantinople. After eight years he was raised for six months from his
dungeon to his throne once more (see CRUSADES). But both mind and body
had been enfeebled by captivity, and his son Alexius IV. was the actual
monarch. Isaac died in 1204, shortly after the usurpation of his
general, Mourzouphles. He was one of the weakest and most vicious
princes that occupied the Byzantine throne. Surrounded by a crowd of
slaves, mistresses and flatterers, he permitted his empire to be
administered by unworthy favourites, while he squandered the money wrung
from his provinces on costly buildings and expensive gifts to the
churches of his metropolis.

See Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_ (ed. J. Bury, London, 1896, vol. vi.);
G. Finlay, _History of Greece_ (ed. 1877, Oxford, vols. iii. and iv.).

ISAAC OF ANTIOCH, "one of the stars of Syriac literature,"[1] the
reputed author of a large number of metrical homilies,[2] many of which
are distinguished by an originality and acumen rare among Syriac
writers. As to the identity and history of the author considerable
difficulty has arisen. The statements of ancient writers, Eastern and
Western, were collected by Assemani (_B.O._ i. 207-214). According to
these accounts Isaac flourished under Theodosius II. (408-450),[3] and
was a native either of Amid (Diarbekr) or of Edessa. Several writers
identify him with Isaac, the disciple of S. Ephraim, who is mentioned in
the anonymous _Life_ of that father; but according to the patriarch Bar
Shushan (d. 1073), who made a collection of his homilies, his master was
Ephraim's disciple Zenobius. He is supposed to have migrated to Antioch,
and to have become abbot of one of the convents in its neighbourhood.
According to Zacharias Rhetor he visited Rome and other cities, and the
chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre informs us that he composed
poems on the secular games of 404, and wrote on the destruction of Rome
by Alaric in 410. He also commemorated the destruction of Antioch by an
earthquake in 459, so that he must have lived till about 460.
Unfortunately these poems have perished. He is of course to be
distinguished from Isaac of Nineveh, a Nestorian writer on the ascetic
life who belongs to the second half of the 7th century.[4]

When we examine the collection of homilies attributed to Isaac, a
difficulty arises on two grounds. (1) The author of some of the poems
is fervently orthodox or Catholic (see especially Nos. 1-3 in
Bickell's edition = 62-64 in Bedjan), in other and more important
homilies (such as Bickell 6, 8 = Bedjan 59, 61, and especially Bedjan
60) the doctrine is monophysite, even though Eutyches and Nestorius
are equally condemned. (2) One of the monophysite homilies, the famous
poem of 2136 lines on the parrot which uttered the Trisagion in the
streets of Antioch (Bickell, 8 = Bedjan 61), appears to have been
written at Antioch after Peter the Fuller (patriarch 471-488) raised
the dispute about the addition to the doxology of the words _qui
crucifixus es pro nobis_. It is therefore scarcely possible that the
author of this homily should be the same who composed the lost poems
on the secular games in 404 and on the sack of Rome.

Moreover, Lamy (_S. Ephraemi hymni et sermones_, iv. 361-364) and
Bedjan (_Homiliae S. Isaaci_, i. pp. iv-ix) have recently called
attention to statements made by Jacob of Edessa (708) in a letter to
John the Stylite. He says there were three Isaacs who wrote in
Syriac:--two orthodox (i.e. monophysite), and one a Chalcedonian
heretic (i.e. orthodox or Catholic). (a) The first, he says, a native
of Amid, and pupil of S. Ephraim, visited Rome in the time of Arcadius
(395-408), on his return journey suffered imprisonment at Byzantium,
and afterwards became a priest in the church of Amid. (b) The second
was a priest of Edessa, and flourished in the reign of Zeno (474-491).
He went up to Antioch in the time of Peter the Fuller. Jacob then
tells the story of the parrot (see above). (c) The third was also an
Edessene. At first in the days of Bishop Paul (510-522) he was
orthodox (monophysite): but afterwards in the time of the Chalcedonian
(Catholic) bishop Asclepius he became Nestorian (Catholic) and wrote
poems setting forth Nestorian doctrine.

With such conflicting evidence it is impossible to arrive at a certain
result. But Jacob is an early witness: and on the whole it seems safe
to conclude with Bedjan (p. ix) that works by at least two authors
have been included in the collection attributed to Isaac of Antioch.
Still the majority of the poems are the work of one hand--the
5th-century monophysite who wrote the poem on the parrot.[5] A full
list[6] of the 191 poems existing in European MSS. is given by
Bickell, who copied out 181 with a view to publishing them all: the
other 10 had been previously copied by Zingerle. But the two volumes
published by Bickell in his lifetime (Giessen, 1873 and 1877) contain
only 37 homilies. Bedjan's edition, of which the first volume has
alone appeared (Paris, 1903) contains 67 poems, viz. 24 previously
published (18 by Bickell), and 43 that are new, though their titles
are all included in Bickell's list.

The writer's main interest lies in the application of religion to the
practical duties of life, whether in the church or in the world. He has
a great command of forcible language and considerable skill in apt
illustration. The zeal with which he denounces the abuses prevalent in
the church of his day, and particularly in the monastic orders, is not
unlike that of the Protestant reformers. He shows acquaintance with many
phases of life. He describes the corruption of judges, the prevalence of
usury and avarice, the unchastity which especially characterized the
upper classes, and the general hypocrisy of so-called Christians. His
doctrinal discussions are apt to be diffuse; but he seldom loses sight
of the bearing of doctrine on practical life. He judges with extreme
severity those who argue about religion while neglecting its practice,
and those who though stupid and ignorant dare to pry into mysteries
which are sealed to the angels. "Not newly have we found Him, that we
should search and pry into God. As He was He is: He changeth not with
the times.... Confess that He formed thee of dust: search not the mode
of His being: Worship Him that He redeemed thee by His only Son: inquire
not the manner of His birth."[7]

Some of Isaac's works have an interest for the historian of the 5th
century. In two poems (Bickell 11, 12 = Bedjan 48, 49), written
probably at Edessa, he commemorates the capture of Beth-Hur (a city
near Nisibis) by the Arabs. Although the historical allusions are far
from clear, we gather that Beth-Hur, which in zealous paganism had
been a successor to Haran, had been in earlier days devastated by the
Persians:[8] but for the last 34 years the Persians had themselves
suffered subjection.[9] And now had come a flood of Arab invaders,
"sons of Hagar," who had swept away the city and carried all its
inhabitants captive. From these two poems, and from the 2nd homily on
Fasting (Bickell 14 = Bedjan 17) we gain a vivid picture of the
miseries borne by the inhabitants of that frontier region during the
wars between Persia and the Romano-Greek empire. There are also
instructive references to the heathen practices and the worship of
pagan deities (such as Baalti, Uzzi, Gedlath and the planet Venus)
prevalent in Mesopotamia. Two other poems (Bickell 35, 36 = Bedjan 66,
67), written probably at Antioch,[10] describe the prevalence of
sorcery and the extraordinary influence possessed by "Chaldeans" and
enchanters over women who were nominally Christians.

The metre of all the published homilies is heptasyllabic. (N. M.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] W. Wright, _Short Hist. of Syr. Lit._ p. 51.

[2] The fullest list, by G. Bickell, contains 191 which are extant in
MSS.

[3] The trustworthy _Chronicle of Edessa_ gives his date as 451-452
(Hallier, No. lxvii.); and the recently published _Chronicle_ of
Michael the Syrian makes him contemporary with Nonus, who became the
31st bishop of Edessa in 449.

[4] The date of Isaac of Nineveh is now known from the _Liber
fundatorum_ of Isho'-denah, an 8th-century writer; see Bedjan's
edition, and Chabót, _Livre de la chasteté_, p. 63. Assemani (_B.O._
i. 445) had placed him late in the 6th century, and Chabót (_De S.
Isaaci Ninivitae vita_, &c.) in the second half of the 5th.

[5] Lamy (_op. cit._ iv. 364-366) has pointed out that several of the
poems are in certain MSS. attributed to Ephraim. Possibly the author
of the orthodox poems was not named Isaac at all.

[6] Assemani's list of 104 poems (_B.O._ i. 214-234) is completely
covered by Bickell's.

[7] From a really noble poem (Bedjan 60) on the problem whether _God_
suffered and died on the cross.

[8] Possibly in the war at the beginning of the reign of Bahram V.:
but on the uncertainty see Nöldeke, _Gesch. d. Perser und Araber_,
117.

[9] Probably at the hands of the Hephthalites or White Huns of
Kushan: cf. Isaac's mention of the Huns in 1. 420 of the 1st poem.

[10] The author refers to the weeping for Tammuz (1. 125 of the 1st
poem), and speaks of his city as illustrious throughout the world
(ib. 1. 132).

ISABELLA (1451-1504), surnamed _la Catolica_, "the Catholic," queen of
Castile, was the second child and only daughter of John II. of Castile
by his second wife Isabella, granddaughter of John I. of Portugal (thus
being through both parents a descendant of John of Gaunt), and was born
at Madrigal on the 22nd of April 1451. On the death of her father, who
was succeeded by her brother Henry IV. (1454), she was withdrawn by her
mother to Arevalo, where her early education was conducted in the
deepest seclusion; in 1462, however, along with her uterine brother
Alphonso, she was removed by Henry to the court, where she showed a
remarkable example of staidness and sobriety. Already more than one
suitor had made application for her hand, Ferdinand of Aragon, who
ultimately became her husband, being among the number; for some little
time she was engaged to his elder brother Charles, who died in 1461. In
her thirteenth year her brother promised her in marriage to Alphonso of
Portugal, but she firmly refused to consent; her resistance seemed less
likely to be effectual in the case of Pedro Giron, grand master of the
order of Calatrava and brother of the marquis of Villena, to whom she
was next affianced, when she was delivered from her fears by the sudden
death of the bridegroom while on his way to the nuptials in 1466. After
an offer of the crown of Castile, made by the revolutionary leaders in
the civil war, had been declined by her, she was in 1468 formally
recognized by her brother as lawful heir, after himself, to the united
crowns of Castile and Leon. New candidates for her hand now appeared in
the persons of a brother of Edward IV. of England (probably Richard,
duke of Gloucester), and the duke of Guienne, brother of Louis XI., and
heir presumptive of the French monarchy. Finally however, in face of
very great difficulties, she was married to Ferdinand of Aragon at
Valladolid on the 19th of October 1469. Thence forward the fortunes of
Ferdinand and Isabella were inseparably blended. For some time they held
a humble court at Dueñas, and afterwards they resided at Segovia, where,
on the death of Henry, she was proclaimed queen of Castile and Leon
(December 13, 1474). Spain undoubtedly owed to Isabella's clear
intellect, resolute energy and unselfish patriotism much of that
greatness which for the first time it acquired under "the Catholic
sovereigns." The moral influence of the queen's personal character over
the Castilian court was incalculably great; from the debasement and
degradation of the preceding reign she raised it to being "the nursery
of virtue and of generous ambition." She did much for letters in Spain
by founding the palace school and by her protection of Peter Martyr
d'Anghiera. The very sincerity of her piety and strength of her
religious convictions led her more than once, however, into great errors
of state policy, and into more than one act which offends the moral
sense of a more refined age: her efforts for the introduction of the
Inquisition into Castile, and for the proscription of the Jews, are
outstanding evidences of what can only be called her bigotry. But not
even the briefest sketch of her life can omit to notice that happy
instinct or intuition which led her, when all others had heard with
incredulity the scheme of Columbus, to recall the wanderer to her
presence with the words, "I will assume the undertaking for my own crown
of Castile, and am ready to pawn my jewels to defray the expenses of it,
if the funds in the treasury should be found inadequate." She died at
Medina del Campo on the 24th of November 1504, and was succeeded by her
daughter Joanna "la loca" (the "Crazy") and her husband, Philip of
Habsburg.

See W. H. Prescott, _History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella_
(1837), where the original authorities are exhaustively enumerated;
and for later researches, Baron de Nervo, _Isabella the Catholic_,
translated by Lieut.-Col. Temple-West (1897).

ISABELLA II. (1830-1904), queen of Spain, was born in Madrid on the 10th
of October 1830. She was the eldest daughter of Ferdinand VII., king of
Spain, and of his fourth wife, Maria Christina, a Neapolitan Bourbon,
who became queen-regent on 29th September 1833, when her daughter, at
the age of three years, was proclaimed on the death of the king. Queen
Isabella succeeded to the throne because Ferdinand VII. induced the
Cortes to assist him in setting aside the Salic law, which the Bourbons
had introduced since the beginning of the 18th century, and to
re-establish the older succession law of Spain. The brother of
Ferdinand, Don Carlos, the first pretender, fought seven years, during
the minority of Isabella, to dispute her title, and her rights were only
maintained through the gallant support of the army, the Cortes and the
Liberals and Progressists, who at the same time established
constitutional and parliamentary government, dissolved the religious
orders, confiscated the property of the orders and of the Jesuits,
disestablished the Church property, and attempted to restore order in
finances. After the Carlist war the queen-regent, Christina, resigned to
make way for Espartero, the most successful and most popular general of
the Isabelline armies, who only remained regent two years. He was turned
out in 1843 by a military and political _pronunciamiento_, led by
Generals O'Donnell and Narvaez, who formed a cabinet, presided over by
Joaquin Maria Lopez, and this government induced the Cortes to declare
Isabella of age at thirteen. Three years later the Moderado party or
Castilian Conservatives made their queen marry, at sixteen, her cousin,
Prince Francisco de Assisi de Bourbon (1822-1902), on the same day (10th
October 1846) on which her younger sister married the duke of
Montpensier. These marriages suited the views of France and Louis
Philippe, who nearly quarrelled in consequence with Great Britain; but
both matches were anything but happy. Queen Isabella reigned from 1843
to 1868, and that period was one long succession of palace intrigues,
back-stairs and ante-chamber influences, barrack conspiracies, military
_pronunciamientos_ to further the ends of the political
parties--Moderados, who ruled from 1846 to 1854, Progressists from 1854
to 1856, Union Liberal from 1856 to 1863; Moderados and Union Liberal
quickly succeeding each other and keeping out the Progressists so
steadily that the seeds were sown which budded into the revolution of
1868. Queen Isabella II. often interfered in politics in a wayward,
unscrupulous manner that made her very unpopular. She showed most favour
to her reactionary generals and statesmen, to the Church and religious
orders, and was constantly the tool of corrupt and profligate courtiers
and favourites who gave her court a deservedly bad name. She went into
exile at the end of September 1868, after her Moderado generals had made
a slight show of resistance that was crushed at the battle of Alcolea by
Marshals Serrano and Prim. The only redeeming traits of Queen Isabella's
reign were a war against Morocco, which ended in an advantageous treaty
and some cession of territory; some progress in public works, especially
railways; a slight improvement in commerce and finance. Isabella was
induced to abdicate in Paris on 25th June 1870 in favour of her son,
Alphonso XII., and the cause of the restoration was thus much furthered.
She had separated from her husband in the previous March. She continued
to live in France after the restoration in 1874. On the occasion of one
of her visits to Madrid during Alphonso XII.'s reign she began to
intrigue with the politicians of the capital, and was peremptorily
requested to go abroad again. She died on the 10th of April 1904.

ISABELLA, ISABEAU, or ELIZABETH OF BAVARIA (1370-1435), wife of Charles
VI. of France, was the daughter of Stephen II., duke of Bavaria. She was
born in 1370, was married to Charles VI. on the 17th of July 1385, and
crowned at Paris on the 22nd of August 1389. After some years of happy
married life she fell under the influence of the dissolute court in
which she lived, and the king having become insane (August 1392) she
consorted chiefly with Louis of Orleans. Frivolous, selfish, avaricious
and fond of luxury, she used her influence, during the different periods
when she was invested with the regency, not for the public welfare, but
mainly in her own personal interest. After the assassination of the duke
of Orleans (November 23, 1407) she attached herself sometimes to the
Armagnacs, sometimes to the Burgundians, and led a scandalous life.
Louis de Bosredon, the captain of her guards, was executed for
complicity in her excesses; and Isabella herself was imprisoned at Blois
and afterwards at Tours (1417). Having been set free towards the end of
that year by John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, whom she had called to
her assistance, she went to Troyes and established her government there,
returning afterwards to Paris when that city had capitulated to the
Burgundians in July 1418. Once more in power, she now took up arms
against her son, the dauphin Charles; and after the murder of John the
Fearless she went over to the side of the English, into whose hands she
surrendered France by the treaty of Troyes (May 21, 1420), at the same
time giving her daughter Catherine in marriage to the king of England,
Henry V. After her triumphal entry into Paris with the latter she soon
became an object of loathing to the whole French nation. She survived
her husband, her son-in-law, and eight out of her twelve children, and
she passed the last miserable years of her life in poverty, solitude and
ill-health. She died at the end of September 1435, and was interred
without funeral honours in the abbey of St Denis, by the side of her
husband, Charles VI.

See Vallet de Viriville, _Isabeau de Bavière_ (1859); Marcel Thibault,
_Isabeau de Bavière, Reine de France, La Jeunesse, 1370-1405_ (1903).
(J. V.*)

ISABELLA OF HAINAUT (1170-1190), queen of France, was the daughter of
Baldwin V., count of Hainaut, and Margaret, sister of Philip of Alsace,
and was born in 1170 at Lille. She was married to Philip Augustus, and
brought to him as her dowry the province of Artois. She was crowned at
St Denis on the 29th of May 1180. As Baldwin V. claimed to be a
descendant of Charlemagne, the chroniclers of the time saw in this
marriage a union of the Carolingian and Capetian dynasties. Though she
received extravagant praise from certain annalists, she failed to win
the affections of Philip, who, in 1184, waging war against Flanders, was
angered at seeing Baldwin support his enemies, and called a council at
Sens for the purpose of repudiating her. Robert, the king's uncle,
successfully interposed. She died in childbirth in 1190, and was buried
in the church of Notre Dame in Paris. Her son became Louis VIII. of
France.

See Cartellieri, "L'Avènement de Phil. Aug." in _Rev. hist._ liii. 262
et seq.

ISABEY, JEAN BAPTISTE (1767-1855), French painter, was born at Nancy on
the 11th of April 1767. At nineteen, after some lessons from Dumont,
miniature painter to Marie Antoinette, he became a pupil of David.
Employed at Versailles on portraits of the dukes of Angoulême and Berry,
he was given a commission by the queen, which opens the long list of
those which he received, up to the date of his death in 1855, from the
successive rulers of France. Patronized by Josephine and Napoleon, he
arranged the ceremonies of their coronation and prepared drawings for
the publication intended as its official commemoration, a work for which
he was paid by Louis XVIII., whose portrait (engraved, Debucourt) he
executed in 1814. Although Isabey did homage to Napoleon on his return
from Elba, he continued to enjoy the favour of the Restoration, and took
part in arrangements for the coronation of Charles X. The monarchy of
July conferred on him an important post in connexion with the royal
collections, and Napoleon III. granted him a pension, and the cross of
commander of the Legion of Honour. "Review of Troops by the First
Consul" was one of his most important compositions, and "Isabey's
Boat,"--a charming drawing of himself and family--produced at a time
when he was much occupied with lithography--had an immense success at
the Salon of 1820 (engraved, Landon, _Annales_, i. 125). His portrait of
"Napoleon at Malmaison" is held to be the best ever executed, and even
his tiny head of the king of Rome, painted for a breast-pin, is
distinguished by a decision and breadth which evidence the hand of a
master.

A biography of Isabey was published by M. E. Taigny in 1859, and M. C.
Lenormant's article, written for Michaud's _Biog. univ._, is founded
on facts furnished by Isabey's family.

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 7 - "Ireland" to "Isabey, Jean Baptiste"" ***

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