Mercurius Hibernicus: OR, A Discourse of the late Insurrection in IRELAND, displaying, 

1. The true causes of it (till now not so fully discovered.)  
2. The course that was taken to suppress it.  
3. The reasons that drew on a Cessation of Arms, and other compliances since.    
AS ALSO Touching those Auxiliaries which are transported thence to serve in the present war.  — Patremque Mercurium blandae quis negat esse Lyrae. 
Printed at Bristol, 1644.   

Mercurius Hibernicus, His Advertisement to the well-tempered READER.  
THere is a mongrel race of Mercuries lately sprung up, but I claim no acquaintance with them, much less any kindred. They have commonly but one weeks' time for their conception and birth; and than are they but like those Ephemeran creatures, which Pliny speaks of, that are borne in the morning, grow up till noon, and perish the same night: I hope to be longer lived then so, because I was longer a getting, there was more time and matter went to my Generation.  
There is a Tale how the true Mercury indeed, descended once in a disguise, to see how he was esteemed on earth; and entering one day into a painter's shop, he found there divers Pictures of Apollo, Jupiter, Mars, with others, and spying his own hanging in a corner hard by he asked what the price of that portrait might be, The Painter answered, that if he bought any of the rest, he would give him that into the bargain for nothing: Mercury hereupon shaking his white Caducean, flung out in indignation, and flew up to Heaven. Should Mercury chance to descend now from his sphere▪ I think he would be much more offended to find himself personated by every petty impertinent Pamphleter; yet I believe he would not take it ill that Aulicus assumes his shape, nor that the Harp, who owes her first invention to him, should be made now his crest.   

To my honourable Friend Master E. P.  
SIR,  
IF You please to cast your eyes upon the following Discourse, I believe it will afford you some satisfaction, and enlighten you more in the Irish affairs. The allegiance I owe to Truth, was the Midwife that brought it forth, and I make bold to make choice of you for my Gossip, because I am  
Your true Servant Philerenus.   

Mercurius Hibernicus.  
THere is not any thing since these wars begun, whereof there hath been more advantage made, to traduce and blemish His majesty's actions, to alienate and embitter the affections of his people, to incite them to arms, and enharden them in the quarrel, than of the Irish affairs; whether one cast his eyes upon the beginning and procedure of that war (which some by a most monstrous impudence would patronize upon their Majesties) or upon the late Cessation, and the transport of Auxiliaries since from thence. There are some that in broken pieces have written of all three, but not in one entire discourse, as this is: nor hath any hitherto hit upon those reasons and inferences that shall be displayed herein.  
But he who adventures to judge of affairs of State, specially of traverses of war, as of Pacifications, of Truces, Suspensions of arms, parleys, and such like, must well observe the quality of the times, the success and circumstance of matters past, the posture and pressure of things present (and upon the Place) the inducement or enforcement of causes, the gaining of time, the necessity of preventing greater mischiefs (whereunto true policy prometheus like hath always an eye) with other advantages. The late Cessation of arms in Ireland was an affair of this nature; a true Act of State, and of as high a consequence as could be: Which Cessation is now become the common Subject of every man's discourse, or rather the discourse of every common Subject all the three kingdoms over: And not only the subject of their discourse, but of their censure also; nor of their censure only, but of their reproach and obloquy. For the World is come now to that pass, that the Foot must judge the Head, the very cobbler must pry into the Cabinet Counsels of his King; nay, the distaff is ready ever and anon to arraign the sceptre; Spinstresses are become States-women, and every peasant turned politician; such a fond irregular humour reigns generally of late years amongst the English Nation.  
Now the design of this small discourse, though the Subject require a far greater volume, is, to vindicate His majesty's most pious intentions in condescending to this late suspension of Arms in His kingdom of Ireland; and to make it appear to any rational ingenious capacity, (not preoccupied or purblinded with passion) that there was more of honour and necessity, more of prudence and piety in the said Cessation, than there was either in the Pacification or Peace that was made with the Scot.  
But to proceed herein the more methodically, I will lay down, first,  
The real and true radical causes of the late two-yeers Irish Insurrection.  
Secondly, the course His Majesty used to suppress it.  
Lastly, those indispensable impulsive reasons and invincible necessity which enforced His Majesty to condescend to a Cessation.  
Touching the grounds of the said Insurrection, we may remember when His Majesty out of a pious design (as His late Majesty also had) to settle an Uniformity of serving God in all his three kingdoms, sent our liturgy to his Subjects of Scotland; some of that Nation made such an advantage hereof, that though it was a thing only recommended, not commanded or pressed upon them, and so called in suddenly again by a most gracious Proclamation, accompanied with a general pardon: Yet they would not rest there, but they would take the opportunity hereby to demolish Bishops, and the whole Hierarchy of the Church (which was no grievance at all till then) To which end, they put themselves in actual Arms, and obtained at last what they listed; which they had not dared to have done, had they not been sure to have as good friends in England as they had in Scotland (as Lesley himself confessed to Sir William Berkley at Newcastle) for some of the chiefest Inconformists here, had not only intelligence with them, but had been of their Cabinet-counsels in moulding the Plot: though some would east this war upon the French Cardinal, to vindicate the invasion we made upon his Master's dominions in the Iste of Rets; as also for some advantage the English use to do the Spaniard in transporting his Treasure to Dunkirk, with other offices. Others would cast it upon the Jesuit, that he should project it first, to force His Majesty to have recourse to his Roman Catholic Subjects for aid, that so they might, by such Supererogatory service ingratiate themselves the more into his favour.  
The Irish hearing how well their next Neighbours had sped by way of Arms, it filled them full of thoughts & apprehensions of fear & jealousy, that the Scot would prove more powerful hereby, and consequently more able to do them hurt, and to attempt ways to restrain them of that connivency, which they were allowed in point of Religion: Now there is no Nation upon earth that the Irish hate in that perfection, & with a greater Antipathy, than the Scot, or from whom they conceive greater danger: For whereas they have an old prophecy amongst them, which one shall hear up and down in every mouth, That the day will come when the Irish shall weep upon English men's graves, They fear that this prophecy will be verified and fulfilled in the Scot, above any other Nation.  
Moreover, the Irish entered into consideration, that They also had sundry grievances and grounds of complaint, both touching their estates and consciences, which they pretended to be far greater than those of the Scots. For they fell to think, that if the Scot was suffered to introduce a new Religion, it was reason they should not be so pinched in the exercise of their old, which they glory never to have altered. And for temporal matters (wherein the Scot had no grievance at all to speak of) the new plantations which had been lately afoot, to be made in Conaught and other places; the concealed lands and defective titles which were daily found out; the new customs which were imposed, and the incapacity they had to any preferment or office in Church and State (with o●her things) they conceived these to be grievances of a far greater nature, and that deserved redress much more than any the Scot had. To this end, they sent over Commissioners to attend this Parliament in England, with certain Propositions, but those Commissioners were dismissed hence with a short and unsavoury answer, which bred worse blood in the Nation than was formerly gathered; and this, with that leading case of the Scot, may be said to be the first incitements that made them rise.  
In the course of human actions, we daily find it to be a true rule, Exempla movent, Examples move, and make strong impressions upon the fancy; precepts are not so powerful as precedents. The said example of Scotland, wrought wonderfully upon the imagination of the Irish, and filled them (as I touched before) with thoughts of emulation, that They deserved altogether to have as good usage as the Scot, their Country being far more beneficial, and consequently, more importing the English Nation. But these were but confused imperfect notions, which began to receive more vigour and form after the death of the Earl of Strafford, who had kept them under so exact an obedience, though some censure him to have screwed up the strings of the Harp too high; insomuch that the taking off of the Earl of Straffords head, may be said to be the second incitement to the heads of that insurrection to stir.  
Add hereunto, that the Irish understanding with what acrimony the Roman Catholics in England were proceeded against since the sitting of our Parliament, and what further designs were afoot against them, and not only against them, but for ranversing the Protestant Religion itself, as it is now practised (which some shallow-brained schismatics do throw into the same scales with Popery.) They thought it was high time for them to forecast what should become of Them, & how they should be handled in point of conscience, when a new Deputy of the Parliaments election (approbation at least) should come over. Therefore they fell to consult of some means of timely prevention: And this was another motive (and it was a shrewd one) which pushed on the Irish to take up arms.  
Lastly, that Army of 8000. men, which the Earl of Strafford had raised to be transported to England for suppressing the Scot, being by the advice of our Parliament here, disbanded; the Country was annoyed by some of those straggling soldiers, as not one in twenty of the Irish, will from the sword to the spade, or from the pike to the plough again. Therefore the two Marquesses that were ambassadors here, then for Spain, having propounded to have some numbers of those disbanded forces, for the service of their Master; His Majesty by the mature advice of his privy counsel, to occur the mischiefs that might arise to his Kingdom of Ireland by those loose cashiered soldiers, yielded to the ambassador's motion, who sent notice here of to Spain accordingly, and so provided shipping for their transport, and impressed money to advance the business; but as they were in the heat of that work, His Majesty being then in Scotland, there was a sudden stop made of those promised troops, who had depended long upon the Spaniards service, as the Spaniard had done on theirs.  
And this was the last, though not the least fatal cause of that horrid insurrection: All which particulars well considered, it had been no hard matter to have been a Prophet, and standing upon the top of Holy-Head, to have foreseen those black clouds engendering in the Irish air, which broke out afterwards into such fearful tempests of blood.  
Out of these premises, it is easy for any common understanding, not transported with passion and private interest, to draw this conclusion. That They who complied with the Scot in his insurrection; They who dismissed the Irish Commissioners with such a short unpolitic answer, They who took off the Earl of Straffords head, and delayed afterwards the dispatching of the Earl of Leicester; They who hindered those disbanded troops in Ireland to go for Spain, may be justly said to have been the true causes of the late insurrection of the Irish; and consequently, it is easy to know upon the account of whose souls must be laid the blood of those hundred and odd thousands poor Christians, who perished in that war; so that had it been possible to have brought over their bodies unputrified to England, and to have cast them at the doors, and in the presence of some men I believe they would have gushed out afresh into blood, for discovery of the true murderers.  
The grounds of this insurrection being thus discovered, let us examine what means His Majesty used for the suppression of it. He made his address presently to his great counsel, the English Parliament then assembled, which Queen Elizabeth and her progenitors did seldom use to do, but only to their Privy counsel in such cases, who had the discussing and transacting of all foreign affairs; for in managing matters of State, specially those of war, which must be carried with all the secrecy that may be, Trop grand nombre, est encumber, as the Frenchman saith, too great a number of counsellors may be an encumber, and expose their results and resolutions to discovery and other disadvantages, whereas in military proceedings the work should be afoot before the Counsels be blazed abroad. Well, His Majesty transmitted this business to the Parliament of England, who totally undertaking it, and wedding as it were the quarrel (as I remember they did that of the Palatinate a little before by solemn vote; the like was done by the Parliament of Scotland also, by a public joint Declaration, which in regard there came nothing of it, tended little to the honour of either Nation abroad) His Majesty gave his royal assent to any Propositions or acts for raising of men, money and arms to perform the work. But hereby no man is so simple as to think His Majesty should absolutely give over his own personal care and protection of that his kingdom, it being a Rule, That a King can no more desert the protection of his own people, than they their subjection to him. In all his Declarations there was nothing that he endear and inculcated more often, and with greater aggravation and earnestness unto them, than the care of his poor Subjects their fellow-protestants in Ireland: Nay, he resented their condition so f●rre, and took the business so to heart, that he offered to pass over in person for their relief: And who can deny but this was a magnanimous and kinglike resolution? Which the Scots by public act of counsel, did highly approve of, and declared it to be an argument of care and courage in His Majesty. And questionless it had done infinite good in the opinion of them that have felt the pulse of the Irish people, who are daily o'erheard to groan, how they have been any time these 400. years under the English. Crown, and yet never saw but two of their Kings all the while upon Irish ground, though there be but a salt ditch of a few hours sail to pass over. And much more welcome should His Majesty, now regnant, be amongst them, who, by general tradition, They confess and hold to come on the paternal side from Fergus (by legal and lineal descent) who was an Irish Prince, and after King of Scotland, whereas the title of all our former Kings and Queens was stumbled at always by the vulgar. His Majesty finding that this royal proffer of engaging his own person, was rejected with a kind of scorn, couched in smooth language, though the m●ine business concerned himself nearest, and indeed solely himself, that kingdom being his own hereditary Right. Understanding also, what base sinister use there was made of this insurrection by some traitorous malevolent persons, who, to cast aspersions upon His Majesty, and to poison the hearts of his people, besides public infamous reports, counterfeited certain commissions in His majesty's name to authorise the business, as if he were privy to it, though I dare pawn my soul His (or Her Majesty) knew no more of it than the great Mogor did. Finding also that the Commissioners employed hence for the managing and composing matters in that kingdom, though nominated by the Parliament, and by their recommendation authorized by His Majesty, did not observe their instructions, and yet were connived at. Understanding also, what an inhuman design there was between them and the Scot, in lieu of suppressing an insurrection to eradicat and extinguish a whole Nation to make booty of their l●nds, (which hopes the London Adventurers did hug, and began to divide the bear's skin before he was taken, as His Majesty told them) an attempt the Spaniard not any other Christian State ever intended against the worst of Savages; The conceit whereof infused such a desperate courage, eagerness and valour into the Irish, that it made them turn necessity into a kind of virtue.  
Moreover, His Majesty taking notice that those royal Subsidies, with other vast contributions whereunto he had given way, with the sums of particular Adventurers (amongst whom some Aliens (Hollanders) were taken in, besides the Scot, to share the Country) were misapplied, being visibly employed, rather to feed and English Rebellion then to suppress an Irish: Nay, understanding that those charitable collections which were made for the relief of those distressed Protestants, who being stripped of all their livelihood in Ireland, were forced to fly over to England, were converted to other uses, and the Charity not dispensed according to the Givers intention. Hearing also that those 5000. men which had been levied and assigned to go under the Lord Wharton, the Lord of Kerry, Sir faithful Fortescue and others were diverted from going to the west of Ireland, and employed to make up the Earl of Essex Army: And having notice besides that the Earl of Warwick had stayed certain ships going thither with supplies, and that there was an attempt to send for over to England some of those Scottish Forces which were in Ulster, without his privity. Lastly, His Majesty finding himself unfit, and indeed disabled to reach those his distressed Subjects, his own royal arm▪ all his naval strength, revenues and magazines being out of his hands; and having as hard a game to play still with the Scot, and as pernicious a fire to quench in England, as any of his Progenitors ever had: Receiving intelligence also daily from his Protestant Nobility and Gentry thence, in what a desperate case the whole kingdom stood, together with the report of the Committee that attended His Majesty from them expressly for that service, who amongst other deplorable passages in their petition, represented, That all means by which comfort and life should be conveyed unto that gasping kingdom, seemed to be totally obstructed, and that unless timely relief were afforded, His loyal Subjects there must yield their fortunes for a prey, their lives for a sacrifice, and their Religion for a scorn to the merciless Rebels.  
His Majesty (as it was high time for him) taking into his Princely thoughts those woeful complaints and cries of his poor Subjects, condescended at last to appoint some persons of honour to hear what the Irish could say for themselves, as they had often petitioned; and God forbid but the King of Ireland should receive his Subjects petitions, as well as the King of Scotland. But His Majesty being unsatisfied with what they propounded then, the Lord marquess of Ormond marched with considerable Forces against them, and though he came off with honour, yet no relief at all coming thither for many months after from the Parliament here, who had undertaken the business, and had received all the sums and subsidies, with other unknown contributions to that end, matters grew daily worse and worse. To sum up all, His Majesty receiving express and positive advice from his Lord Justices and counsel of State there, that the whole kingdom was upon point of utter perdition, which was cointimated the same time to the Parliament here, by a special letter to the Speaker; I say His Majesty finding that he had neither power of himself, it being transmitted to others; and that those trusties did misapply that power and trust he had invested in them (for the time) to make good their undertaking for preservation of that his fruitful kingdom; being impelled by all these forcible reasons, His Majesty sent a commission to the Lord marquess of Ormond his Lieutenant general (a most known sincere Protestant) to harken to a treaty according to their petition; and if any thing was amiss in that treaty in point of honour (as it shall appear by comparing it with others, there was none) we know whom to thank. For out of these premises also, doth result this second conclusion. That they who misapplied those moneys, and misemployed those men which were levied with His majesty's royal assent for the reduction of Ireland: They who set afoot that most sanguinary design of extirpating, at least of enslaving a whole ancient Nation, who were planted there by the hand of Providence from the beginning: They who hindered His majesty's transfretation thither to take cognizance of his own affairs and expose the countenance of His own royal person for composing of things: They, They may be said to be the true causes of that unavoidable necessity (and as the heathen Poet sings, The Gods themselves cannot resist Necessity) which enforced His Majesty to capitulate with the Irish, and assent to a Cessation.  
It was the saying of one of the bravest Roman Emperors, and it was often used by Henry the Great of France, Her majesty's Father, That he had rather save the life of one loyal Subject then kill a hundred Enemies: It may well be thought that one of the prevalentst inducements that moved His Majesty (besides those formerly mentioned) to condescend to this Irish Cessation, was a sense he had of the effusion of his own poor Subjects blood, the hazard of the utter extirpation of the Protestants there, and a total irrecoverable loss of that kingdom, as was advertised both in the petition of the Protestants themselves, the relation of the Committee employed thither to that purpose, and the express letters of the Lord Justices and counsel there.  
To prove now, that this Cessation of Arms in Ireland was more honourable and fuller of Piety, Prudence and Necessity, then either the Pacification or Peace with the Scot. I hope, these few ensuing arguments (above divers others which cannot be inserted here, in regard of the fore intended brevity of this Discourse) will serve the turn.  
1. Imprimis, When the Pacification was made with Scotland, His Majesty was there personally present, attended on by the flower of His English Nobility, Gentry and Servants, and the enemy was hard by ready to face Him. At the concluding of the Irish Cessation, His Majesty was not there personally present, but it was agitated and agreed on by his Commissioner, and it hath been held always less dishonourable for a King to capitulate in this kind with his own Subjects by his Deputy, then in his own person, for the further off he is, the less reflects upon him.  
2. Upon the Pacification and Peace with Scotland, there was an Amnestia, a general pardon, and an abolition of all by-passed offences published, there were honours and offices conferred upon the chiefest sticklers in the War. At the Cessation in Ireland there was no such thing.  
3. When the Pacification and Peace was made with the Scots, there was money given unto Them, as it is too well known. But upon the settling of this Cessation, the Irish gave His Majesty a considerable sum as an argument of their submission and gratitude, besides the maintenance of some of his Garrisons in the interim; and so much partly in point of honour.  
4. At the concluding of the Pacification and Peace with Scotland, there was a vigorous fresh, unfoiled English Army afoot, and in perfect equipage; there wanted neither Ammunition, arms, Money, clothes, Victuals or any thing that might put heart into the soldier and elevate his spirits. But the Protestant Army in Ireland had not any of all these in any competent proportion, but were ready to perish, though there had been no other enemy than hunger and cold: And this implies a far greater necessity for the said Cessation.  
5. In Ireland there was imminent danger of an instant loss of the whole kingdom, and consequently, the utter subversion of the Protestant Religion there, as was certified both to King & Parliament by sundry letters & petitions which stand upon record: There was no such danger in the affairs of Scotland, either in respect of Religion or kingdom; therefore there was more piety shown in preserving the one, and prudence in preserving the other in Ireland, by plucking both (as it were) out of the very jaws of destruction by the said Cessation.  
We know that in the Medley of mundane casualties, of two evils, the least is to be chosen, and a small inconvenience is to be borne withal, to prevent a greater.  
If one make research into the French Story, he will find, that many kinds of Pacifications and Suspensions of arms were covenanted twixt that King and some of his Subjects, trenching far more upon regal dignity than this in Ireland. The Spaniard was forced to declare the Hollanders Free-states, before they could be brought to treat of a truce: And now the Catalans screw him up almost to as high conditions. But what need I rove abroad so far? It is well known, nor is it out of the memory of man, that in Ireland itself there have been Cessations, all circumstances well weighed, more prejudicial to Majesty then this.  
But that which I hear murmured at most as the effect of this Cessation, is the transport of some of those soldiers to England for recruiting His majesty's Armies, though the greatest number of them be perfect and rigid Protestants, and were those whom our Parliament itself employed against the Irish. But put case they were all Papists, must His Majesty therefore be held a Favourer of popery? The late King of France might have been said as well to have been a Favourer of Protestants, because in all his wars he employed Them most of any in places of greatest trust, against the House of Austria; whereas all the World knows, that he perfectly hated them in the general, and one of the reaches of policy he had, was to spend and waste them in the wars. Was it ever known but a sovereign Prince might use the bodies & strength of his own natural-born Subjects, and Liege men for his own defence? When His person hath been sought and aimed at in open field by small and great shot, and all other Engines of hostility and violence: When he is in danger to be surprised or besieged in that place where he keeps his Court: When all the flowers of his crown (his royal prerogatives which are descended upon him from so many successive progenitors) are like to be plucked off and trampled under foot: When there is a visible plot to alter and overturn that Religion he was born, baptised & bred in: When he is in danger to be forced to infringe that solemn sacramental Oath he took at his Coronation to maintain the said Religion, with the Rights & Rites of the holy Anglican Church, which some brainsick schismatics would transform to a Kirk and her Discipline, to some chimerical form of government they know not what. Francis the first, and other Christian Princes, made use of the Turk upon less occasions; and if one may make use of a Horse, or any other bruit animal, or any inanimat Engine or Instrument for his own defence against man, much more may man be used against man, much more may one rational Creature be used against another though for destructive ends in a good cause, specially when they are commanded by a sovereign head, which is the main thing that goes to justify a war. Now touching the Roman Catholics, whether English, Welsh, Irish, or Scottish, which repair to His majesty's armies either for service or security, He looks not upon them as Papists, but as his Subjects, not upon their Religion, but their allegiance, and in that quality he entertains them: Nor can the Papist be denied the Character of a good Subject, all the while he conforms himself to the laws in general, & to those laws also that are particularly enacted against him, & so keeps himself within the bounds of his civil obedience: As long as he continues so, he may challenge protection from his Prince by way of right, and if his Prince by some accident be not in case to protect him, he is to give him leave to defend himself the best he can, for the law of nature allows every one to defend himself, and there is no positive law of man can annull the law of nature. Now if the Subject may thus claim protection from his Prince, it followeth, the Prince by way of reciprocation may require assistance, service and supplies from the Subject upon all public occasions, as to suppress at this time a new race of Recusants, which have done more hurt than ever the old did, and are like to prove more dangerous to His crown and regal Authority than any foreign enemy.  
But whosoever will truly observe the genius, and trace the actions of this fatal Faction which now sways with that boundless, exorbitant, arbitrary and Antinomian power, will find, that it is one of their prime pieces of policy, to traduce and falsify any thing that is not conducible to their own ends: Yet what comes from Them must be so magisterial, it must be so unquestionably and incontroulably true and lawful, that it must be believed with an implicit faith, as proceeding from an in-erring Oracle (as if these Zealots were above the common condition of mankind, to whom error is as hereditary as any other infirmity) though the thing itself encroach never so grossly both upon the common liberty, the states and souls of men. But if any thing bear the stamp of royal Authority, be it never so just and tending to peace and the public good, yea, though it be indifferent to either side, it is presently countermanded, cried down, and stifled; or it is calumniated and aspersed with obloquies, false glosses and misprisions; and this is become now the common theme wherewith their Pulpits ring.  
Which makes me think, that these upstart politicians have not long to reign; for, as the common Proverb saith, Fraud and frost end foul, and are short lived, so that policy, those Counsels which are grounded upon scandals, reproaches and lies, will quickly moulder & totter away, and bring their Authors at last to deserved infamy and shame, and make them find a tomb in their own ruins. Add hereunto as further badges of their nature, that black irreconcilable malice and desire of revenge which rageth in them, the averseness they have to any sweetness of Conformity and Union, the violent thirst they have of blood, which makes me think on that distique of Prudentius, who seemed to be a Prophet as well as Poet (a true Vates) in displaying the humours of these fiery Dogmatists, this all-confounding faction which now hath the vogue, to the punishment, I will not say yet, the perdition of this poor Island.  
Sic mores produnt animum, & mihi credit, junctus  
Semper cum falso est dogmatè coedis amor.  
Thus in English: 
 
Manners betray the mind, and credit me,  
there's always thirst of blood with heresy.   
FINIS.