A LETTER From a Person of HONOUR in the COUNTRY Written to the EARL of CASTLEHAVEN BEING Observations and Reflections Upon his Lordship's MEMOIRES Concerning the WARS of IRELAND.  
LONDON, Printed for Nath. Ponder at the Peacock in the Poultry, 1681.   

A LETTER Written to the EARL of CASTLEHAVEN.  
My Lord Castlehaven,  
HAving Received your Lordships of the 24th Current, with your printed Memoires, which you are pleased in some sort to Entitle me to; and I will not conceal from your Lordship that I am not yet ashamed, now I have read them, though I cannot approve all in them, that I was the first incentive to your Writing them; which was upon this occasion, having sat along with your Lordship in Parliament, and observing for the most part such a consent between your Lordship and me, in proceed there upon the most abstracted Principles of Honour and Allegiance, I could not but account of your Lordship as a true Englishman and a Loyal Subject, whatsoever blemish your engagement under the confederate Rebels of Ireland had before fixed on you; and having heard you so often pathetically declare yourself fully to mine and most honest men's Minds, against the dangers of the growing greatness of the French and the too fast Declension of the Spaniard, between which great Powers of the World, the Crown of England was so happy and wise in former times as to hold and guide the Balance; and finding by your frequent, and as I could not but conceive, Cordial Expressions against the Pope of Rome's Usurping Authority in these Dominions, over and against his Majesty, and Kingdoms, to such a degree, that you spared not, like a right Ancient Peer of this Realm, often to say, That if the Pope himself should Attack any of his Majesty's Dominions, you would be one of the first to labour his Destruction; I was deservedly much delighted in your Lordship's Converse: which having been often honoured with, both by your Letters, when in Foreign parts, and your favourable Society here at home, I was instrumental, as your Lordship well knows, to prevail with the Parliament to set a mark of great Honour on your Lordship, by a special recommendation and intercession to his Majesty for a regard to and reparation of the Breaches time and misfortune had made upon so Ancient and Honourable a Family. And looking upon your Lordship as a Peer of most noble Principles, and free of the worst part of Bigotry, I could not but lament your leaving the Parliament, and still wish your return.  
During our said Converse, being engaged in the History of Ireland, to which I was the more inclined by an interest therein for several Generations; my Great Grandfather, Sir John Perrot, having been Deputy thereof, governing the same with great Wisdom and Success, my Grandfather Annesley having been Commander at Sea in Queen Elizabeth's time, and one of the Undertakers for Land in Munster, after the Earl of Desmond's Rebellion; my Father, the Lord Baron of Mountnorris, and Viscount of Valentia (of whom I have very often heard your Lordship speak with great Honour, and as your worthy Friend) having faithfully served King James and King Charles the First, near Forty years in that Kingdom, in Offices and Employments of high Trust; and I myself being a Native of the City of Dublin, a diligent Observer of the Troubles there, wherein I had some share; and having both Honours and Lands descended to me in that Realm; and knowing that your Lordship had heretofore a great part in the Action there, and taking notice that no Memorials I had yet seen, did give a full account of your Lordship, whom as my own Friend and my Father's Friend, I was willing to do right to in History, as far as I could; ever highly esteeming the Bravery of your Actions and Wisdom of your Conduct, as far as I had Cognizance thereof, though I bemoaned the unhappy circumstances of your engaging under a Power usurping over your own Prince, and encroaching Royal Power; which I find you cannot digest, either the Pope or Duke of Lorraine should have done: I discoursed with your Lordship many of the most important Designs, Actions and Traverses of Fortune in Ireland, since the fatal 23 of October 1641, and finding by your full Relations, with a perfect memory thereof, that you were able to give help to History therein; I moved your Lordship (to which you friendly consented) that at leisure hours you would reduce to writing what you could remember, with as exact reference to Time and Order (as you could recollect) of Passages and Exploits there; and that I might by your favour be possessed thereof: And I wish things had rested there, little expecting a formal Relation in print, and much less so introduced before I had the perusal of it; for I must now acquaint your Lordship, that I did not, after what I have above related, save now and then to yourself, inquire after your Memoires promised me, till by a Letter of the 16th of this month, from a hand I respect, I had notice he had seen them; and my Censure thereon was desired, they seeming to him (after 28 years' silence, to cast a Calumny on the Government then; and as he suspects, with no good intention, though he refers that to my Opinion; knowing (as he is pleased to say) none to appeal to but me. Your Lordship sees now how you are engaged for want of commanding my Service before the Printers: and I am confident the heat of a Battle would be less formidable to you then the Paper war you must expect to be assaulted with; wherein, if I be necessitated to have the least hand, your Lordship may be assured it shall be en Gentilhome & en amy, and chief with an aim to convince your Lordship of that which hath obscured the Glory of your Adventures and Exploits or Undertake, in that unfortunate Kingdom; and therefore I forbear giving any Opinion to my Friend, till I have vented my thoughts to your Lordship, which I shall now take the liberty to do.  
Upon serious perusal of your Book, I find your Lordship's Story of two parts, The First till the Cessation of Arms concluded by the Rebels Commissioners at Seginstowne, with the Marquis of Ormond, Sept. 15, 1643; all which time your Lordship was wholly of the Rebel's Party, and under their Pay and Command, which I wish your Lordship had not thought fit for the Press, though there were some Acts of Soldierly bravery in it. The Second Part, From that time till your Lordship finding the ill state of Affairs in Ireland, was dispatched by the then Lord Deputy Clanrickord, to set out the same to the King in France; from whence, though your Lordship procured a Letter from his Majesty to the Lord Deputy, and sent the same by a safe Messenger, yet you returned not again, but engaged in the Service of the Prince of Conde. My Lord, I am loath now to make my remarks upon this Second Part, because your Lordship's acting therein at times, under the Confederate Irish their Commission, and under his Majesty's Authority at other times, and sometimes under both. It will be fit at present for me to be silent therein, than to attempt the unblending such a mixture, and separate your Acts of Allegiance from those of Opposition to the King, which I must always blame you for: or to condemn you entirely, when some things your Lordship did were by full Authority, though very fatal to the English Protestant interest in that Kingdom, and no ways advantageous to his Majesty or his Affairs.  
But the First Part of your Story, which takes up three Sections of your Memoirs, I cannot let pass unanimadverted and corrected, without condemning the generation of the just; suffering Blemish, and Calumny, to lie upon his Majesty and Government, both in England and Ireland; and leaving your Lordship in a mistake of having done well, when I hope I shall evince that you did very ill, unless the gallantry of a Soldier can expiate for all that was amiss. For this end I must take notice to your Lordship, that all I find you urge to satisfy your own Conscience, or to vindicate your Honour and Integrity to the World, in this your engaging yourself amongst the Irish, is to this effect: Your Lordship saith, That at the first eruption of the Rebellion (which you seem to tie to the North, but was universal) you acquainted the Lords Justices with your willingness to serve the King against the Rebels, as your Ancestors had formerly done in Ireland; but they replying, that your Religion was an Obstacle; there being then a Parliament in that Kingdom sitting, you were resolved to see the event, sending your Brother to your House at Madingstowne, in the County of Kildare, to secure and defend it, in case there were any rising in those parts. Sometime after the Parliament being dissolved (but you do not mention that you attended your duty in Parliament, when it was sitting, and declaring against the Rebels) your Lordship desired a Pass from the Justices to go to England, but they refusing, you acquainted them with the condition of your Estate, and desired a supply of Money till you could apply to the Parliament of England for a Pass to bring you over, which they denied. You pressed them then to direct you what course you should steer, to which they replied, Go home and make fair weather. You took this advice, and being come, my Lord of Antrim, and my Lady Duchess of Buckingham (both Papists, and after that deeply engaged in the Rebellion) soon followed (whether by concert with your Lordship is not said) and you were very well pleased with so good company. But in a short time the Irish came and drove away great part of your Stock, which you recovered by a party sent out with your Brother, who brought with him two or three of the chiefest Conductors of that Rabble. This enraged the Irish so much, as you conceived your Brother was not safe there, and therefore sent him to Dublin, to attend the Justice's Orders, and assure them of your readiness to return on a call, they sending a Convoy, which they promised to do as Occasion required. But your Lordship hearing that you were indicted of High Treason, and hereupon your Brother addressing to the Lords Justices again, to let them know that they had not kept their words with him, in suffering this clandestine proceeding against you (as your Brother's Letter calls it) you went to Dublin, and addressed yourself to my Lord of Ormond, as your Brother did in your behalf to the Lords Justices and Council, to acquaint them with your coming; and upon your appearance before them they ordered you to come the day following, at which time, without calling you in, they committed you to Mr. Woodcock's House, one of the Sheriffs of Dublin. Your Brother seeing (as he calls it) this rigorous usage towards you, and being refused a Pass for himself to go for England, he got away to the King at York, and petitioned him that you might be sent for over to be tried here by your Peers. But his Majesty's Answer was, That he had left all the Affairs of Ireland to the Parliament; upon which he petitioned the Parliament to the same effect: their Answer was, that they could do nothing without the King. After this your Brother saith, he was continually serving his Majesty in England. Your Lordship once more placeth yourself at Madenstowne, whither you had at first retired by advice of the Lords Justices, and continued there some Five or six months after in peace and quietness; but your Lordship doth not mention that other neighbouring places possessed by the English did so; or what in diligence your Lordship had with or gave to the State. But proceed to say, That in the mean while Parties were sent out by the Justices from Dublin, and the Towns adjacent, to kill and destroy the Rebels; and the like was done through all parts of the Kingdom. But your Lordship adds, the Officers and Soldiers did not take care enough to distinguish between the Rebels and Subjects, but killed in many places promiscuously; on which partly, and partly on other provocations that proceeded, and some too that followed, the whole Nation finding themselves concerned, took to Arms for their own defence, and particularly the Lords of the Pale did so, who yet at the same time desired the Justices to send their Petition to the King, which was refused. And for their further discouragement, Sir John Read, his Majesty's sworn Servant (a stranger to the Country, uningaged, and an Eye-witness of their proceed, then upon his Journey to England) prevailed with by them, to carry their Remonstrance to his Majesty, and to beg his Pardon for what they had done; coming to Dublin, and not concealing his Message, was put to the Rack for his good will. The said Lords having tried this and other ways to acquaint the King with their Grievances, and all failing, an open War broke forth generally throughout the Kingdom. Your Lordship next takes notice of your accidental entertaining my Lord of Ormond at Dinner, immediately after the Battle of Killrush, which you were a Spectator of, being in sight of your House; but that some who came with him, turned this another way, and publishing through the Army, that it was a mighty Feast for my Lord Mount Garret and the Rebels; this through the English Quarters passed for currant. And you believe it was much the cause of this underhand villainous proceed (as you call it) against you . Your Lordship proceeds to tells us, That after Twenty Weeks that you had remained in Prison, you were ordered to be removed to the Castle of Dublin, which startled you, and brought to your thoughts the proceed against the Earl of Strafford, who confiding in his Innocency, lost his Head: you concluded then that Innocency was a scurvy plea in an angry time; besides, your Lordship looked upon the Justices and most of the Council to be of the Parliaments Persuasion; wherefore you resolved to attempt an escape, and save yourself in the Irish Quarters, which your Lordship did, and give us a Relation of the manner of it; and how your Lordship took your way towards the Mountains of Wickow, where being come, you cared little for the Justices, though before Dinner, your escape being discovered, on notice given to the Justices, you were pursued by a party of Horse, taking their way to your House at Madingstowne, which they invested in the night: but not finding your Lordship, after possessing themselves of what your Lordship had within and without, they killed many of your Servants and burned the House. Your Lordship kept on your way to Kilkenny, as much through the Fast Country as you could, till you arrived, where you found the Town very full, and many of your acquaintance, all preparing for their Natural Defence; seeing no distinction made, or safety but in Arms. To this end your Lordship saith, They had chosen amongst themselves, out of the most eminent Persons, a Council, and gave it the Title of, The Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholics of Ireland; and form an Oath of Association, by which all were bound to obey them. They had made Four Generald of the Four Provinces, Preston of Leinster, Barry of Munster, Owen-Roe Oneal of Ulster, and one Burk of Connaught; and being to give Commissions, they caused a Seal to be made, which was the Seal of the Council. Your Lordship saith, you were sent for to this Council to tell your Story, which you did. And being asked what you intended to do, you answered, to get into France, and so to England; upon which they told you their condition, and what they were doing for their preservation, persuading you to stay with them, being your Lordship was beloved in the Country; had three Sisters married amongst them, was persecuted upon the same score they were, and ruined; so that you had no more to lose but your Lives. You took two or three days to think of this Proposition, examining the Model of Government they had prepared against the meeting of the general Assembly, and most particularly their Oath of Association, which your Lordship judged to be very reasonable, as the case stood. On the whole matter you returned to this Council, Thanked them for their good Opinion of you, and engaged yourself to run a Fortune with them. Whether Anger and Revenge did not incline you to it as much as any other consideration, you say you cannot resolve; but this you well remember, that you considered how you had been used, and seen your House burning as you passed by; besides, that you were a light man, with no charge, and not any hopes of redress from the King, who was then engaged in an intestine War. Now being thus a Confederate, and having taken the Oath, they made your Lordship one of the Council, and General of the Horse under Preston.  
The Assembly met the 24th of October, 1642. It differed nothing from a Parliament, other then that the Lords and Commons sat together, and not in two Houses.  
This your Lordship saith, we see was a force-put upon you, and you hoped in time, the storm being passed, to return to your old Government under the King. You had many Learned in the Law amongst you, whom you encouraged to keep you as near the Old Government as might be; holding to the Ancient Laws of the Land.  
That Assemby, without delay, approved all the Council had done, and settled a Model of Government, viz. That at the end of every General Assembly, the Supreme Council should be Confirmed or Changed as they thought sit. That it should consist of Twenty five, six out of each Province, three of the six still Resident.  
〈…〉 was your Lordship, with 〈…〉 to any Province, but to the Kingdom in general. Every Province had a Provincial Assembly, which met on occasions, and each Country had Commissions for Applotting Money within themselves, as it came to their stairss, upon the general Applotment of the Province. Many other things there were as to Government. If a better came to them written in Irish, it would be wondered at, and hardly could one be found to read it. You say you were not in case to bring to Justice those that begun the Rebellion. But you never saw any of them esteemed or advanced. The general Assembly being put off, the Generals fell to their work, and your Lordship's General took in Burras, Fort Faukland and Barrish, in the King's County, where you were with him. Your Lordship was also with this General the 18th of March, 1642, when he was beaten at Rose by the Marquis of Ormond, and by Colonel Monk, since Duke of Albermarie, at Timochoe, in the Queen's County, the Fifth of October, 1642. Yet afterwards he besieging Ballynekill, in the same County, you ventured once more with him; where he having intelligence that Major General Crawford was Besieging Ballybritas, a Castle, belonging to the Viscount Clanmalleer, he sent your Lordship with a party of Fifteen hundred Horse and Foot, to endeavour the succouring of that place, which your Lordship did; and Crawford drawing off, in passing the River of the Barrow, in a Skirmish, had his Thigh broken with a Musket Shot. You returned as Ballynekill was rendered. After this your Lordship remained at Kilhenny, with the Supreme Council, and Preston went into the lower parts of the Province with the Army; of whose Absence, the Enemy's Garrisons, in the County of Catherlagh and Queen's County, taking advantage, alarmed the County of Kilkenny, even to the Gates of the City. Your Lordship was then by the Council commanded to go against them. And therefore having gotten together about 2000 Men, with some Cannon, you marched to Ballynunry, in the County of Catherlagh, and took it; as also Cloghgrenan, where the County of Wexford's Regiment mutined, but were reduced and some Examples made, served well for the future. Your Lordship marched thence into the Queen's County, and Besieged Bellylenan, Commanded by the Grimes', a valiant People, with a strong Garrison. But a great breach being made, their Succour came by the way of Athy. Your Lordship was not well at this Alarm, but laid upon your Bed in your Tent. However you made no great matter of it, knowing the Succour could not be considerable; but your Lordship beating their Succour in their view, the besieged Garrison yielded, on condition to march out with their Arms. And then your Lordship was persuaded to head the Munster Forces, of whose Success, under your Command, you give a full Relation; and then returning to Kilkenny, gave the Assembly an account of what had passed. Soon after the Assembly being broke up, and a Supreme Council chosen to govern in their absence; you retired to Kilkash, your Brother Butler's House, to rest yourself. The Council went to Ross, and whilst they were there, a Trumpet brought them a Letter from the Marquis of Ormond, setting forth his being appointed by the King to hear your Grievances, and to treat for an accommodation. The particulars of the Letter you know not, but the Trumpet was quickly dispatched with some slight Answer; which coming to your knowledge, you repaired to Kilkenny, whither the Council was returned; and on information, finding what you had heard to be true, you sent for Sir Bobert Talbot, Sir Richard Barnwall, Colonel Walter Bagnal, and such others as were in the Town, well affected and leading Men of the Assembly, though not of the Council. Now being in your Lodging, you acquainted them with what you had understood, and that if they would stick to you, you would endeavour to give it a turn. You all agreed on the way, which was to go to the Council then sitting, to take notice of the Kings offer, and their return; and to mind them that the consideration and resolutions concerning Peace and War, the general Assembly referved to themselves only; and therefore to require that they would send immediately a Trumpet of their own, with a Letter to the Marquis of Ormond, giving him to understand they had issued a Summons for a general Assembly, in order to acknowledge the King's gracious Favour, in naming him his Commissioner to hear your Aggrievances and redress them. This you put in execution, and gained your point without much resistance.  
The Marquis of Ormond being thus brought into a Treaty, the Confederate Commissioners met at Seginstowne, near the Nasse, as his Excellency had appointed, in order to a Cessation of Arms. At which time all Parties laboured to get into possession of what they could. Colonel Monk, after made Duke of Albermarle, marched into the County of Wicklow to take in the Harvest, and possess some Castles. Your Lordship being then commanded by the Council to go against him, and having Rendezvous'd your Troops, consisting of about 3000 Horse and Foot at Ballynekill, in the County of Catherlagh; notice was brought you that Colonel Monk was marched away in all haste to the assistance of the Lord Moor, then facing Owen Roe Oneal, near Portlester. You finding yourself now to have nothing to do, thought it worth the while to endeavour taking in Dullerstown, Tully, Lacagh, and all other Castles in the County of Kildare, between the Rivers of the Barrow and Life, which you did; leaving Garrisons in them. This done, you repast past the Barrow at Monaster-Evan, marched into Leix, and took three or four small places. But as you were going on, had Advice from the Commissioners at Seginstowne, that they had on the 15th of September, 1643, concluded a Cessation of Arms with the Marquis of Ormond, to which you submitted.  
As your Lordship did also to the two Peace's of 1646, 1648, both suitable, and of the same strain; and though both were of advantage only to the Irish, and highly dishonourable to the Crown of England, and destructive to the English and Protestants, yet both were broken and set at naught by the Irish themselves, a just Judgement of God against them, whose hands were full of Blood; and there being no hopes that such untempered Mortar could cement them and the Posterity left alive of murdered Parents, Brothers, Sisters, and other Relations; or that ever the English could live out of danger, and free of Massacres for the future, without exemplary punishment of the Murderers and Rebels, and bringing them by forfeitures and otherwise, to an absolute subjection to the Laws, and keeping them in that state, as it is now hoped they are, and will be by the watchful Eye of Government.  
I shall now, as briefly as I can, take the liberty to give your Lordship impartial Remarks upon what your Lordship hath written in justification of the Rebels, or tending to caluminate his Majesty's Government, or English and Pretestant Subjects; reserving a fuller account thereof to a fit occasion.  
In the first place, Seeing your Lordship's Memoires, dedicated to the King, I cannot but take notice how dangerous a thing it is, and of how bad consequence it may prove, especially in this case and juncture, to misinform his Majesty; not that I do suspect or tax your Lordship of design to abuse the King; for I do charitably believe, as your Lordship affirms upon your word, that they do not contain a lie or mistake to your knowledge, yet I must positively aver, and it is my part to make it good, that the Relation wants the most material and pregnant Truths in the principal part thereof, and of most consequence to the Public, as I doubt not your Lordship will believe and confess upon such glances as I shall make upon particulars as I go over them. But before I proceed, it will import the giving clear light to an affair, which contrary interests have so much endeavoured to perplex, to observe the state that unhappy Kingdom of Ireland was in at the Eruption of that satal Rebellion. A Parliament sitting the year before in Ireland, both Houses taking notice of some Grievances growing upon them, and the want of some good New Laws for advancing the Prosperity and good Government of that Kingdom, did send chosen Agents or Commissioners, both Lords and Commons, of most esteem amongst them, to attend his Majesty in England, for redress of such Grievances, and procuring such new Grants and Graces, as they were directed to move for, from a Gracious King. His Majesty received them favourably and with good dispatch, they returned for Ireland fully satisfied, and loaden with all the Graces and Bounties, good Subjects could hope to receive upon such an Address to their Prince; and what needed Confirmation in Parliament, was to be done when the Parliament should meet, at the day to which it was Prorogued. The People of Ireland were never better pleased then with the gracious Returns his Majesty had made by their Commissioners. That Kingdom never enjoyed a more prosound, and more like to be lasting Peace and Prosperity, Commerce and Trade, both at home and abroad, never flourished more; barbarous Customs were never more entirely subdued and abrogated; there never was more Unity, Friendship, and good Agreement, amongst all sorts and degrees (except in the standing root of miscnief, the difference in Religions then at this time, nor more mutual Confidence. I can say, being that time there, the Sheep and the Goats lived quietly together; and there was that entire trust in one another, as to all Matters Civil and Temporal, that I remember very well, the Summer before the Rebellion, The Titular Bishop of Fernes coming his Visitation into the County of Wexford, where I than dwelled, at the request of a Popish Priest, I lent most of my Silver Plate to entertain the said Bishop with, and had it honestly restored. In this serene and happy state was that Kingdom, every one sitting under his own Vine and Figtree in peace, and in the abundance of all things, when, whether surfeiting of Quiet and Plenty, or by the just Judgement of God upon a sinful and superstitious Nation; or that the said Committees having stayed in England till they saw symptoms of a misunderstanding between his Majesty and his two Houses of Parliament in England, and being most of them Papists, conceived they had fallen into a fit juncture to set up their darling Idolatry, and restore the pretended Jurisdiction of their Idolized Foreign Power of the Pope of Rome, or being in at the Intrigues of the Popish Faction all Court, and receiving encouragement by what they observed, and was infused into them; they had here laid the Foundation of the Massacre and Rebellion, whereof Ireland was to be the Scene; or upon what other grounds, I shall not here take upon me determine, but I well remember that he 23d. of October, after their Return, broke out upon a form Combination and Conspiracy, wherein almost all the said Popish Committees were leading Men and principal Actors, such a horrid and bloody Massacre and Rebellion, as is not to be paralleled in History; neither Man, Woman, nor Infants in the Womb, or at the Breast, being spared; but the generality of that Nation turning barbarous and wild Irish again, after so many hundred years' Subjection to the Crown of England, and Endeavours of their Reformation and Civilising to so vast an expense of Blood and Treasure, as is hardly to be believed. But, my Lord, I may now but touch at things, Comme en passant, that I may keep within the bounds of a Letter; but when, what I have meditated, and am preparing from Records and authentic, unquestionble Relations and Transactions of that bloody Tragedy and matchless Defection from the Crown and very Nation of English Men, shall see the light, your Lordship will be informed, of what, it seems, hath not yet come to your knowledge, and what must make your Lordship blush, at your so fatal mistake, to have ever been (so far (as you confess yourself) in so ill Company, and to have partaken in the least in so foul a Gild.  
Having made this necessary Excursion and Caution, I proceed in your Lordships own Method, Going first with your Lordship to the Lords Justices, acquainting them of your willingness to serve the King against the Rebels, to which no doubt, by advice of his Majesty's Privy Council in that Kingdom, they gave a very prudent Answer, That your Religion was an obstacle; and how could they well say less, when it was apparent that it was a Popish Conspiracy, and those of that profession universally engaged in the Defection; in so much that though the State there would have distinguished them into Allegiance, and for that end, more out of desire to win them than any confidence they had in them, but to leave them without excuse, put Arms and Ammwition into the hands of the Lord Viscount Gormanston; and other Popish Lords and Gentlemen of best Quality and Estates in the English Pale; and who by their tenors had formerly, and were obliged to assist the Crown, in times of danger; and they, almost all of them, went with his Majesty's Arms in Aid of the Rebels; and they who did best, did but restore the King's Arms, and joined themselves, and all the power they could make, to the Insurrection; forgetting the Grants and bountiful Gifts of Lands their Ancestors had received from the Crown, for former, and on condition of future Service; in which Rank your Lordship placeth your noble Ancestors, and I hearty wish you had continued that station.  
Your Lordship's next motion was to the Lords Justices, for a Pass to go for England, which, though they could not consent to, they gave your Lordship good Advice, and which for a time you followed (viz.) to go home to your House, being but 20 miles from Dublin, and under the protection or reach of the State, as there should be occasion, and as your Lordship found afterwards.  
Concerning your Lordship's entertaining my Lord of Antrim and the Duchess of Buckingham at Madinstowne, whither they soon followed, whither by consent with your Lordship is not said, and your delight in their company, I have nothing to say, but that it was an ill time for Feasting and Jollity, when stripped, and almost starved English, came flying by your Gate every day from the Rebel's Cruelty. And I find, that both the Marquis of Antrim and the Duchess, were after that deeply engaged in the Rebellion; and her Grace living and dying in the Irish Quarters, chose to be buried at Waterford. And though your Lordship had power enough, when the Irish came and drove away a great part of your Stock; to recover it, by a party sent out with your Brother, who brought with him two or three of the chiefest Conductors of that Rabble; yet you do not so much as pretend that you delivered up any of them to Justice (as you ought.) But you say that this enraged the Irish so much, as you conceived your Brother was not safe there (where yet you thought fit to continue; but sending him to Dublin to attend the Justice's Orders, and assure them of your readiness to return on a Call, they sending a Convoy, which they promised to do as occasion required, yet your Lordship hearing that you were indicted of high Treason (the most public way of accusing, though your Brother's Letter calls it Clandestine) you went to Dublin (it seems you could go when you pleased without a Convoy) but did not, it seems, think fit to appear and oppose the Indictment, but being committed by the Lords Justices and Council (the Justification whereof is not the work of this Letter, but will have its proper time and place) your Lordship after addressing your Case, by your Brother, to the King and Parliament in England, without success, whither your Brother, being refused a Pass by the Justices, was gotten. It seems your Lordship meditated your escape into the Irish Quarters, and relate the manner how you compassed the same, which few will believe your Lordship would have done, or held it the way to save yourself, but that you knew you had deserved it of them, and that they had no cause to hurt you, as appeared after, by their making you General of their Horse; and your Lordship, choosing the Oath of Association before that of Allegiance.  
Your Lordship's having now shifted sides, betake yourself roundly to a justification of the Rebel's cause, I must follow you your own way, though it be not so methodical as I could wish, and is with great confusion of times and affairs, which the thread of History will reduce to order when time serves. It is true, that Parties were sent out by the Justices, according to his Majesty's Direction, to kill and destroy the Rebels throughout all the parts of the Kingdom; and if the Officers and Soldiers did not take care enough (in your Lordship's Opinion) to distinguish between the Rebels and the Subjects, but killed in many places promiscuously (whereof your Lordship gives no instances, or of particular complaints to have been made of any such thing) I would fain know what distinction could be made of those that were found in Arms or Action against the King's Authority; for there will appear to have been no prosecution of others, nor any others killed, unless by such accidents as might happen in full peace, and when the course of Justice is free.  
But your Lordship saith, that on this partly, and partly on other occasions that preceded, and some too that followed (but you enumerate none) the whole Nation finding themselves concerned, took Arms for their own defence; and partlcularly the Lords of the Pale did so, who yet at the same time, desired the Justices to send their Petition to the King, which was refused.  
This being the chief ground by which your Lordship would justify the most form and dangerous Conspiracy and Rebellion that ever was in that Kingdom since the Crown of England's first Title thereunto, which your Lordship (being a Peer of England) should have distinguished from a just and a lawful War, but do not. I must observe to your Lordship, that its an ill way to acquaint the King with their pretended Grievances, La main a lespe; they should have done that, if they had any, before their treacherous and bloody Massacres and open Rebellion; but indeed they had none to offer, but what was the just return of their own black Actions; for your Lordship knows (as I have said before) that by Committees of both Houses of Parliament in Ireland, whereof most were Papists, they had just before their Rebellion, returned loaden with such Graces and Condescensions of Favour from the Crown, as had been sufficient (meeting with the least ingenuity, gratitude and humanity) to have made wavering Persons good Subjects; but the Lord Macguires and others Confessions, manifested that they had laid their Design of Treason too deep to retreat easily, when they had once struck the stroke, till finding their error, not from remorse, but from sense of danger imminent (which must inevitably follow, unless they could subdue England too. At the first they made a loud cry of Grievances, and at length bid fair, as they had made Ireland a field of Blood and Desolation, to disturb England also.  
Concerning the further discouragement the Rebels received by Sir John Reads treatment, and what that was, and upon what grounds, though I have all the passages thereof by me, and will by no means allow of Racking any Man, as being contrary to the Law of England; yet I must observe that it was a very jealous time, after so many thousands slaughtered barbarously in cold blood, the Rebellion increasing every day, too great a curiosity arising to know the bottom of the design, that remedies proportionable might be applied; and Sir John Read being one of the King's Servants and a designing Papist, being there so unseasonably, without being able to give a good account of himself or business, and going away Agent for the Rebels in Arms, without leave of the State, might make them exceed the strict bounds of Law in his Examination  
Your Lordship in the next place taking notice that you had tried this and other ways to acquaint the King with your Grievances (which I have showed before were none) and all failing, an open War broke forth generally throughout the Kingdom; this being a mere colour and pretence, your Lordship unfortunately puts the effect before the pretended cause; for by what you had said before, and what the truth of the cause is, the horrid Rebellion, (for it never merited the name of a War) was universal, before they so much as alleged any Grievance. Your next Memoire is of your entertaining my Lord of Ormond at Dinner after the Battle of Kilrush, which you were a Spectator of; and that some who came with him, turned it another way, publishing through the Army that it was a Feast for my Lord Mountgarret and the Rebels, which through the English Quarters passed for currant.  
Here your Lordship, by your own showing, intimates, that though you were a Spectator from your own House of a Battle, wherein the Crown lay at stake, and had formerly discovered you had force enough to recover your Cat el taken away by the Rebels, and apprehend some of their Leaders, which you call Rogues, yet (though a Peer of both Kingdoms) you would be no Actor, though the King's General was at your Gate, doubting, it seems, the event of Battle; but the success rendering my Lord of Ormond Victorious, you set before him that Dinner, which you had not strength to keep from him. And indeed it was generally then held by the English, that if the Rebels had gained the day, your Lordship would more frankly have bid the Lord Mountgarret, their General (and a Butler also) welcome to that Dinner than you did my Lord of Ormond; and this is what passeth rant in this particular to this day, which you believe was much the cause of that villainous proceeding (as you call it) , whereas it seems you were so far from being ill dealt with in the least, that my Lord of Ormond, your Guest, though he might have justified his carrying you Prisoner with him to Dublin, who would not assist him in Fight, as your Tenure required left you (as some think by a  omission) Master of your own House, and without the least damage done you, though much happened after to the Kingdom by your liberty, of which you were for some time restrained in the Sheriff's hands, and after ordered to be removed to the Castle of Dublin, which you say startled you, and it brought to your thoughts the proceed against the Earl of Strafford, etc. whereupon you made an escape, probably in the manner related.  
But here your Lordship, not distinguishing times, and I not having Papers by me, am so doubtful of an intermixture of Affairs to your advantage, that I must reserve the unfolding thereof to another tfme, when I shall be able exactly to show you the times of your Lordships appearing and joining with the Rebels; and of the proceeding against the Earl of Strafford, and how they preceded on the other. I shall only for the present, observe how that great personage (though more innocent than your Lordship could pretend to) never fled his Trial, well knowing that would have fixed more guilt upon him in construction of Law, than could be proved against him; and judged it more honourable to hazard the losing of his Head than his Innocency. Your Lordship's Wisdom took a contrary course, and concluding that Innocency was a scurvy plea in an angry time (as in deed it is in any times, where it is so thin laid, that gross guilt appears under it) you find it safer to arraign the state than to abide a Trial; and accordingly taxing them for passion and partiality, and to be of the Parliaments persuasion (when your Lordship would have had them and the whole Kingdom of yours, and by what means time hath manifested) you resolved to attempt an escape and save yourself in the Irish Quarters, which your Lordship did to the Mountains of Wicklow; where being come, you cared little for the Justices. Is it possible, if your Lordship had thought yourself innocent, that you would seek safety, or count yourself safe among the most enormously bloody and guilty men that ever were under the Sun; and fly the King's Justice with reflection and scorn upon the State, that was pursuing them for their Crimes; and to avoid the inward stings of Gild or Apprehensions of Punishment, run headlong into open and a vowed Gild, among those who were under God's Vengeance and the Kings. I leave this to your Lordships more serious second thoughts.  
Being out of the danger of Justice, though your Lordship cared little for the Justices (as how could your Lordship, when you were associated with those who had bid defiance to God and the King) yet your Lordship quickly saw a proof, how civil and merciful they had been to you hitherto, when they upon your escape, shown you they had power enough to pursue you, and pillage and burn your House in your Mountain view, and use your Family as Enemies, which they might have done before, but their constant course was to endeavour the regaining those who had faltered in their Allegiance; and not to increase the number, which was too heavy upon them already.  
Your Lordship at length arrived to the beloved place designed, the City of Kilkenny, Head Quarters of the Confederate Rebels, where you found many of your acquaintance preparing for their natural defence, seeing no distinction made, or safety but in Arms.  
Your Lordship's heart was now at rest among your Friends and Relations, to whom indeed, after committing all the wickedness their hand of violence could reach to, being defeated in several Battles by his Majesty's Forces, and driven into their Holds, defence became natural, their Crimes having left them no hopes but in Arms; and who could expect no distinction to be made, where they were universally involved in the same black guilt.  
For this end your Lordship saith they had chosen a Council, form an Oath of Association, made Four Generals of the Four Provinces, caused a Seal to be made, raised Monies, constituted a General Assembly, etc. all ensigns of the more than Regal Power they had usurped. To this Council your Lordship was sent for, and being well prepared by those inclinations which made you forsake the King's Government and the Laws, you quickly closed with them upon the grounds before expressed, and upon consideration of their model of Government, and very reasonable (as your Lordship judged it) Oath of Association, which your Lordship prints at large, and their desiring your conjunction, with thanks returned, your Lordship engaged yourself to run a Fortune with them, upon very ill principles, if anger and revenge inclined you to it as much as any other consideration (which you intimate, though you say you cannot resolve.)  
It's strange how the Earl of Castlehaven and Lord Audley in England. could close so cordially with the Irish, who had shed so much innocent English Blood in full peace, and think himself justified by such an account of his engagement as this, unless he had been resolved in the justice of their cause from the beginning, however he carried it with seeming fairness to the Lords Justices till he got out of their reach.  
But engaged your Lordship was, and being thus Confederate, and having taken the Oath of Association, becoming one of their Council, and General of the Horse under Preston, and giving the most specious account you can of your proceed in that quality. Truth being the greatest and best friend, I had rather one or several Persons and Families, should lie under the Consequences of its impartiality, than that the English Nation and Protestant Religion should suffer by a timorous unworthy concealing, or withholding any part of it. And since your Lordship, to palliate or justify your own Actions, and the Confederate Irish Cause, endeavours to render the generality of the English Protestants Criminal, your Lordship must not think it much, that I, one of English Race, and for Religion of the Church of England, should be a little plain in their Justification and Defence; and for that end remove the mask your Lordship hath put upon the face of Affairs, by continuing my remarks upon your Lordship's Memoires. And first to the constitution of a Council, it was made up of Members uncapable of that trust by Law. In the Oath of Association, and Propositions grounded thereon, there is not a word but breaths high Treason (except the first thirteen lines, which set up the King's Name and Authority only in pageantry and mockery, to be crucified and contradicted by all that follows; and yet this Oath your Lordship held very reasonable, as the case then stood, that is, when you and your Confederates were encouraged or heightened with a Power able, as you fancied, to make good what you had sworn. And suitable to this ungodly, traitorous Oath, where all the subsequent proceed of the Confederates, their Councils at home and their Actions abroad, their Cessations and pretended Peace's, which I shall take notice of more particularly in their respective series of time.  
The general Assembly met the 24th of October 1642; your Lordship saith it differed nothing from a Parliament, but that the Lords and Commons sat together, and not in two Houses. Was this so inconsiderable a difference in the Opinion of a Peer of England as well as Ireland, or fit for one of so noble Extraction to be submitted to, against Honour, Law and right Reason. But the truth is, and I speak it for the honour of the Nobility of Ireland, the Rebels had not debauched enough of them, either for interest or number, to bear the Countenance of a House of Peers, or to be of any considerable figure among that People, who having cast off Majesty, could not be warmed by the beams thereof, which I count the Nobility; but they resolved of course into common persons again, and had but single Votes among the Crowd, instead of those Honourable Privileges and Negative Voice, which their Ancestors had acquired as the just reward of their faithfulness to the Crown in former times, and in all Defections and Rebellions since the subjection of that Nation to England. And this your Lordship ingeniously confesseth (and saith we see it) was a force-put upon you, and you hoped in time the storm being passed, to return to your old Government under the King. Here you own the being fallen from it, but could your Lordship imagine, or any others believe, this Cobweb pretence possible, were you not all engaged by the bond of an Oath to the contrary, and to preserve your new upstart treasonable Model and Constitution; and that the storm should never cease till you had by Arms attained a confirmation of all that you had done, for which, by the said Oath, you renounced the receiving any Pardon or Protection, but by your own Sword. But that Assembly differed also from a Parliament in this, That it was called by a packed party of bloody Papists in Rebellion and Confederacy, and had neither Legal nor Regal Authority.  
But to conciliate, credit and belief, you add, That there were many learned in the Law amongst you, whom you encouraged to keep you as near the old Government as might be, holding to the Ancient Laws of the Land.  
This is as improbable as the other, but if true, is a demonstration that Irish Popish Lawyers, are the worst instruments that can be tolerated in Ireland. And it is notorious in Fact, that these were the Men that did both contrive and put in order the Rebellion, and frame their whole Constitution, and without whose Council and Abilities (having had their Education in the Inns of Court of England) they had never come out of that Chaos of Confusion, where they were at first, or reduced their Affairs to a consistency, but had been quickly mastered. And therefore I hope this hint concerning the Lawyers will awaken his Majesty and Parliament of England, and the Government in Ireland, to provide against the continuance of such dangerous instruments, as the Popish Lawyers have showed themselves to be, and in probability will so continue; making use of their Learning and Skill for subversion of Government and good Order: So that Ireland is never like to be quiet if they be tolerated. Your Lordship proceeds to tell us, that this Assembly without delay approved all the Council had done, (how could they well in gratitude do less, being themselves a Creature of that Councils making) and settled a Model of Government, viz. That at the end of every General Assembly, the supreme Council should be confirmed or changed, as they thought fit. That it should consist of Twenty five, six out of each Province, three of the six still resident, the 25th was your Lordship, with no relation to any Province, but to the Kingdom in general, etc. Your Lordship's Relation was a mock Image of his Majesty, which was also to the Kingdom in general, and, but that it is not now my business, I could here evince that this Constitution cast the over balance of the Government clearly into the Irish hands, such of the old English Extraction as joined with them, being cyphers upon the matter, as it appeared afterwards in practice: so improbable was what your Lordship asserts, that if a Letter came to them written in Irish, it would be wondered at, and hardly could one be found to read it, unless you would confess, that those skilled in reading the Irish Language are extinct; for the merest Irish of that Kingdom, and all the Popish Clergy, who (if any) are likeliest to be skilled in it, were engaged in the Rebellion, and constant promoters of it, having their Colleges and Monasteries in Kilkenny, and all Cities and chief Towns under the Confederate Irish Power, and wholly at their Command. For a close of this Paragraph, your Lordship saith, you were not in case to bring to Justice those that begun the Rebellion, but you never saw any of them esteemed or advanced. This is strange, when Owen Roe Oneal, Sir Phelemy Oneal, Con Oneal, the Mc. Donnels, Mc. Thomas, the Farrolls, the Delyes, the Mc. Cartyes, Mc. Guires, Mc. Mahans, Fitzpatricks, Mc. Gennis'; and generally those of the mere Irish septs and Families, were chief trusted, whose names it were too tedious to repeat, but I have Authentic Lists of them; but indeed I do believe the Confederates, even of English Extraction, had as little will as power to question those that begun the Rebellion; and to this day they are so far from any inclination to condemn it, that all their Writings run in Justification of it; and I never yet met with any that cordially seemed to repent it, or persuade others to it, except only Peter Walsh, whom your Lordship calls your Ghostly Father Charon, and some few Remonstrants with them, who condemning the Doctrines of Rebellion, King killing, and Deposing, etc. do obliquely censure this Rebellion; and some of them positively call the beginners and continuers thereof to repentance.  
The rest of your Lordships Memoires is more History than Justification, as well whilst you continued to serve under the Confederate Catholics, which was till the Peace of 1646, proclaimed, as after, till you left Ireland, wherein your Lordship's part being mixed of Gallentry and Generosity in some instances, as well as Severity and fierce Prosecution of the English in others, I will not be a critical observer thereof, or lead any to envy your Lordship, the just esteem of whatever you did honourably, though in an ill cause. But since your Lordship lays some weight of merit upon the Cessation, and two Peace's of 1646, and 1648, and expresseth no unfavourable Opinion of that which goes by the name of Glamorgan's Peace, and think much that the Irish their Estates were given away by the Acts of Settlement, I shall only make some general Remarks upon those particulars, and the whole state of that Rebellion, and so put an end to your Lordship's trouble and my own.  
And first, I must observe upon the whole matter, that the Irish did the English more hurt, and advantage themselves more by the Cessation and two first Peace's, than ever they did or could do by open force after the first Massacre. Upon this grounds the Lords Justices and Council, were from the beginning averse to them; and for me to show the Design and Intrigue of the Cessation and Peace's, which I can do by unquestionable Memorials and Records, will make a great part of a Volumn, and cannot well come within the bounds of a Letter; but when I have said all, I think fit to your Lordship, upon occasion of your Letter, your Lordship who (as you were an Enemy, as keen as generous) having been by your place and interest privy to all the Cabals and secret Councils against the English and Protestants, being deeply engaged in the Roman Catholic Confederacy; and any other Attempts against them, in what shape or form soever they appeared) will I hope, if you find any thing written by me questionable or doubtful in your opinion, favour me with your severest Reflections thereupon; for as I design nothing but exact truth wherever it light, so if by inadvertency or want of full information, I should err, or come short in the least, your Lordship shall find me ready to retract or supply, but never to persist in it.  
Your Lordship knows as well as any man, that the Earl of Ormoud, made afterwards Marquis and Duke with the same Title, was the first of that Family of the Botelers, that was Educated in the Protestant Religion; his Mother the Lady Thurles, Brothers, Sisters, and all his Relations continuing Roman Catholics, and in the Irish Quarters, and those able to bear Arms, as the Lord Muskery, after Earl of Clancarty, and Colonel Fitzpatrick, his Brother in Law, his Brother Colonel Richard Butler of Vilcash, and Colonel George Mathewes, and other his Relations; as the Lord's Mountgarret, Dunboyne, and divers other Lords, and others of his Name and Family, were Generals or Commanders of lower Quality in the Rebel's Army; so that his Lordship was upon the matter single in any Duty and Allegiance to the Crown; all his Lordship's Friends, Kindred and Dependants, taking the contrary part; and his Lordship escaping soon after the Rebellion to Dublin, only with the King's Troop, which he Commanded, and some Servants that attended him. The Earl of Leicester, Lord Lieutenant, as he was upon his Journey for Ireland, was discharged that Employment, to make way for the Marquis of Ormond to succeed him, who had an unlimited Commission sent him, sole to examine the pretended Grievances of the Irish, and for making a Cessation with the Rebels, which he did, and was after made Lord Lieutenant, and concluded the two first Peace's . I have heard Sir Philip Percival, a very worthy Person and of a fair Estate, being asked why he would by his Certificates of Defect of Stores, give countenance and furtherance to a Cessation, which he knew could only advantage the Rebels, and be ruinous to the English? Answer, The Stores were really wasted upon unprofitable, fruitless Marches, and then his Certificates being required, he durst not (as an Officer) refuse them, though he was ware of the use would be made of them.  
To show your Lordship how the Cessation operated (laying aside at present, the question of the warrantableness on necessity thereof) and that the two first Peace's were against Law, and several Acts of Parliament, in both Kingdoms (and upon that and other accounts, the validity thereof) I must take another opportunity, when I may discourse things more fully with your Lordship. I can now only briefly tell your Lordship, that all the Proceed of the Rebels in Arms, and all their Demands, were Treason: That the English and Protestants had the Laws on their side, which the Irish by combination and force did break, and designed wholly to subvert: That the Irish tolerated no Protestants in their Quarters, though that Religion were the only legal Establishment; but seized and forfeited all their Estates, whilst the Protestants afforded the measure and benefit of the Laws to the Irish and Papists, even to those who had been in Rebellion, whensoever they came in or submitted.  
It is not then to be wondered at, that the chief and most of the English Nobility in Ireland, and the generality of English, Scotch, and Irish Protestants of all qualities and degrees, sooner or later, opposed both the Cessation and Peace's, as destructive to them, and derogatory to the Crown, in which number we find, the Earls of Kildare, Thomond, Cork, Barrimore, Drogheda, Donnagall, Claubrasill, Mount Alexander, etc. The Viscounts of Valentia, Conoway, Ranelagh, Kinnelmeky, Shannon, etc. Barons or Lords Elsmond Juchequin, Blaney, Broghill, etc. But it were endless to name all, and of no use to your Lordship, who know this as well as I.  
By this it appears how ungratefully the Irish did requite the Marquis of Ormond, for his unwillingness that the whole Irish Nation should ruin themselves by their persisting in Rebellion. And now, whether it was their vain confidence to carry the day, or what else occasioned it, they lost the opportunity of deliverance, which the Marquis of Ormond being related to so many of them by Blood and Alliance, had compassionately designed for them, though with great hardship and damage to the English. And whatever grounds the Marquis of Ormond had for the Cessation and Peace's (by which he could have got nothing, but would have incurred manifest loss) which it chief concerns himself to vouch, that in the eye of the World he may stand clear, as a true English Man and faithful Subject. It is apparent, that now by the Forfeiture and Punishment of the Irish, his Lordship and Family are the greatest gainers of the Kingdom, and have added to their Inheritances vast scopes of Land, and a Revenue three times greater than what his Paternal Estate was before the Rebellion; and most of his increase is out of their Estates who adheared to the Peace's, or served under his Majesty's Ensigns abroad; which shows, that whatsoever of Compassion or Natural Affection, or otherwise, might incline him to make those Peace's, he is in Judgement and Conscience against them, and so hath since appeared, and hath advantage by their laying aside. The like may be said of the Duke of York, the Earl of Arlington, Lord Lanesborough, and others, who have great Estates of the Irish freely given them upon the same foundation. So that 'tis to be hoped whether the Bills already come over to confirm the forfeited Rebels Estates to English and Protestants, will do the work or no: That his Grace, or whosoever shall succeed him in the Lieutenancy, will in time transmit such Bills as shall do that work effectually, and unite and strengthen his Majesty's Protestant Subjects, to oppose and break the further Designs of that Rebellious Generation, which they will never keep free from, so long as they acknowledge and obey a Foreign Head.  
I shall make no reflection at this time upon the Peace called Glamorgan's Peace, but what your Lordship gives occasion for by mentioning it, viz. That it was the most destructive of all to the English and Protestants, but suited best with the Confederate Design of establishing the Romish Idolatry, which your Lordship in your Oath of Association engaged as deep in as any, excepting the first foundation laid in Blood, a fit basis for a Faction, only supported by Fraud and Cruelty.  
One passage in your Lordship's Memoires I cannot but take notice of, for your Honour, as an English Man, That when the Marquis of Ormond in his extremity, between the Nuncio party and the Parliament of England, asked your Lordship with which of his Enemies he should treat. You answered, That you were confident he had resolved that before, there being no question in the case; when it was no question with your Lordship, I wonder how it came to be one with his Lordship; but the success of your Council was happy, and founded upon solid grounds of Reason.  
Your Lordship sees I can but glance at particulars in this Letter, and being (by so noble a Pens engaging in justification of a Quarrel, which casts reflection upon all that took contrary part to the Irish, of which number I was one) contrary to my first intention upon the matter, necessitated (in vindication of as just a cause as ever was managed under the Sun) to hasten out the last part of the general History of Ireland first (Wherein I shall so impartially make relation beyond all possibility of contradiction, that I doubt not your Lordship will reflect with remorse upon what you have done and written, wherein I differ from you, and the World will know exactly the truth of that sad story.) I shall in the mean time, only as in an abstract, ser these things before you, and upon the whole matter in answer to your Lordship's specious justification, and for your present mortification, let you know that by Judgement of the King and his Privy Councils and Parliaments in both Kingdoms. You are involved in the guilt of Treason, and under forfeiture of all you have, and as a friend, yet advise you to get his Majesty's Pardon, if the Acts of Parliaments have not precluded you; for it's more than I know if all your Lordship's active Services in Ireland be not yet liable to the utmost penalties and Severities of the Law. So far are they from being fit to be offered as entertainment to his Majesty by an Epistle Dedicatory, as your Lordship hath done.  
I find your Lordship in several places reflects upon those who broke the first Peace, and call it unparallelled breach of Faith, punished by heavy Judgements from Heaven; and yet this was the Confederates own Act. But as if the breach of the Oath of Allegiance by the Irish, and their treacherous and bloody defection from the Crown of England, were a Peccadillo, your Lordship hardly takes notice of it, but repines at the forfeiture of Estates grounded thereupon, though God and Man agreed in that Vengeance and Punishment.  
And let this Rebellion be compared to all before it, there will not appear, since the English Title to Ireland, so just and clear grounds of forfeiture and extirpating a Nation, as have done upon this; but the King hath mingled Mercy with Justice; and though by a Providence from Heaven to the English, the Marquesses of Ormond and Clanrickard, his Majestles chief Governors, encouraged the Irish to keep up a War against the English, wherein they were so much hardened to their ruin, that they were at length entirely subdued, without condition to any save for life, and left to be as miserable as they had made others in all other respects, yet multitudes of them have been restored, and must yet own their Lives and Estates to the Clemency of the King, and the mildness of the English Government, which they had cast off, and put themselves under a Foreign Yoke, which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear. The Wisdom of God thus punishing one sin of theirs with another, till they are scarce a People; and the English and Protestant interest never more flourishing in that Kingdom. Insomuch, that it would be now the greatest folly imaginable in the Government of England and Ireland, ever to suffer the Papists to grow capable of raising such a Rebellion again, which they will certainly do when able; Bigottery and sottish Ignorance, both of Priests and People in Religion, being the growing root of mischief there.  
Upon the whole, since the Cobweb excuses your Lordship hath made, cannot cover the Blood that hath been shed, or bring quiet to the Consciences of any that had hand therein; and since your Lordship so well knows the Temper and Constitution of the Irish, by your long continuance and interest among them, I cannot but yet hope and therefore do with the most friendly adjurations beseech your Lordship herein) that the zeal, which you yet seem to have for the King his Laws, and the English Government, will incline you to let him know (the truth you cannot be ignorant of) that they are a Nation never to be trusted till reform, that so his Majesty and his English Subjects may run no more hazards of suffering by confidence in them, or regard to their Crocodile Tears and groundless Complaints, by which they have deceived the English in all times. And that by your Repentance, imitating your Ghostly Father Peter Walsh, his Advice to his Country Men for Repentance and change of Principles, your Lordship may give another instance to the World that Allegiance and the Religion you profess may dwell in the same Breast, than which nothing can more conduce to divert the Irish from future Attempts of Rebellion.  
My Lord, I find many Queries fit to be made on your Memoires, and many other particulars; a Redire therein, but you will, perhaps, think I have done too much already. I shall therefore reserve these to another opportunity, and here close in the wont manner, with the assurance of my being (saving in the Irish Confederacy and Matter of Religion)  
My Lord, Your Lordship's Affectionate Friend and Servant.   

Postscript.  
THis Letter was written, as appears, in August 1680, presently after the Earl of CASTLE-HAVEN had Published his Memoires, with a Dedication only to the King; but since his Lordship's Receipt of this Letter, he was, it seems, convinced of the necessity of writing the Epistle to the Reader, in Condemnation of the Irish Rebellion, which his Lordship hath since caused to be Printed, with the said Memoires.  
FINIS.