THE PROPOSALS FOR IRISH Forfeitures CONSIDERED, With Regard to LAW and GOOD CONSCIENCE.  
THE Forfeitures of Ireland being now proposed as a Security to raise a Million of Money on towards tste Charge of the War, 'twill be necessary to inquire more near into the Value of the said Forfeitures, rather than depend altogether upon a Notional Calculation made by the Proposer, (who contents himself in framing his Project with Numbers of Imaginary Acres without any regard to the nature of a Forfeiture, or the Laws established) for that a disappointment in a matter of this kind may prove of Ill Consequence to the Public; which he and his Party don't so much seem to consider, as their own particular Gain, and the Destruction of Innocents', Widows, and Orphans, who have suffered but too much already.  
The Proposer brings the People of Ireland under Two Heads, that is to say, English, and Irish; the Possessions of the latter he would have entirely Forfeited, and brings every Estated Roman Catholic of that Kingdom under that denomination, and thence would he insinuate them to be different from the English in Temper, and Interest, nay, that they have an innate prejudice and hatred to them. Thus by false and malicious Suggestions would he carry on a design to strip, and ruin a Body of English People, because of a different persuasion from himself; for that the Estated Men of Ireland (to a very few) are descended of Ancient English Families, who at the expense of their Blood first Conquered that Kingdom, brought it under the Subjection of the Crown of England, and continued it so ever since. The English who plant in America may with as much reason be called Indians, and for that alone have their Fortunes and Estates taken from them.  
It is therefore hoped that the Wise, and Just Senate, the Parliament of England, will consider their Countrymen (tho' in a distinct Kingdom) under their present unfortunate Circumstances, without any prepossessions of prejudice, and take their Case justly as ' 'tis.  
King James having gone for Ireland on the Late Revolution, some of the Catholic there were concerned in his Army, and some not; of those concerned in the Army some submitted to the present Government on Articles, others chose to follow him; these are entitled to no favour from that Power to which they refused to submit, and of consequence their Estates justly to be Forfeited.  
But as to the Article-Men public Faith ought to stand good, besides, he was their only known Master, and to whom, as their King, they had promised Faith, and Sworn Allegiance. Then let any impartial Man make the case his own, and seriously examine if at the expense of his Conscience he would refuse performing the Duty of a Subject to his Sovereign when required to it? Must it not then necessarily follow that they acted but the part of Subjects, or at least, the Proposer must maintain that the ties of Faith and Allegiance are of no force, and may be broke with their present Majesties in case of a Foreign Invasion, which is a Doctrine no good Subject will allow of.  
These People have now submitted on a solemn Capitulation, and are become Subjects, is it not therefore reasonable they should have the benefit of the same, and be received into the protection of the Laws, when as by the implacable malice of the Proposers Party, one third of those comprised in the said Capitulation are not admitted to enjoy their Estates, and Fortunes, as 'twas stipulated.  
As to them, who were not concerned in King James' Army; some for order, decency, and security in the Commonweal had and took, Civil Employments, to prevent the mischief a multitude, or populace is capable of, these he would have Forfeiting Persons too.  
Others were no way concerned, more than in Tilling their Ground, and following their lawful Occupations, yet can they not escape this Proposer's heavy stroke, but that they must likewise Forfeit.  
In fine, so 'twas ordered, That all the Roman Catholics of the Kingdom, that had any Estate of Freehold, or Lease, to the number of Four Thousand stand now Outlawed of High Treason, save some few, who through their Majesty's Grace and Favour have procured Orders to Reverse the same.  
'Tis out of these Persons Estates, (without regard to Law, either Humade, or Divine) that this Projector would extract his Fund for the Million of Money.  
And to that end computes a Million of Acres to be Forfeited, (making his clipped allowance for the Article-Men) which with the help of Forfeited (or so supposed) Tithes, Fairs, Markets, Woods, etc. if valued at 2 s. the Acre per Annum, makes up 100000 l. and that at Ten Years Purchase brings in a Million.  
This Calculation granted, (tho' false in this, as in other instances, viz. for that Litterees by the Act of Settlement, as such, were restored to no Acres) yet there is no allowance made for such of these Lands, as are fallen in so great a tract of time to Protestant Heirs, sold, or Leased to Protestants for Chieferees, or some small Rents, besides the heavy Encumbrances due to the Protestant Creditors, (of which there are but very few Catholics Estates free) will never be balanced by Forfeited Encumbrances, as he suggests. Then he destroys all Remainders, and Settlements, by supposing the Parties interested all guilty of Rebellion, and probably many of them Protestants, and Infants.  
The Commissioners of the Revenue in Ireland have brought these Forfeitures to a greater certainty, than an airy Calculation can be supposed to do, those of them in this Kingdom at present can give an estmate of what they amount to, and out of this two thirds of the Article-Men, not yet restored, are to be satisfied; so that 'tis plain this expedient (tho' 'twere practicable by Law) answers not with any certainty the end proposed.  
However the Proposer and his Adherents makes sure of what 〈◊〉 aim at first, to secure all these Lands in Fee-farm to themselves at an easy Rent, 〈◊〉 to exterminate a People, who they have but too much injured, and leave the Million as a Consequence to happen, or not happen.  
If these Gentlemen did but offer to their Majesties a Million of Money for the present Exigency of Affairs out of the 4560037 Acres, they now poffess, and which they got at small, or no Rates, with the large Purchases made by them these Thirty odd Years past, (and that may justly be computed at much above a Million more) 'twould be some proof that this Project of theirs was meant for the Public Good, but to be thus Generous at other men's Expense, and that with so great a regard to themselves, shows but too plain the Design to be set on foot for their own particular Interests.  
It is evident that a Covetous Man is not to be satisfied, for these very Persons (whose Fathers, and many of themselves were Born to little or no Estates) are now possessed of six parts in seven of a Fertile Rich Kingdom, and yet are not contented, but would play the old Game over again; for that upon the Restoration of King Charles the Second they prevailed to get an Irish Act of Parliament of their own forming, with such Qualifications on Roman Catholics, that 'twas easier to pass the trial of Ordial, than to be judged Innocent by the said Conditions, by the several Clauses and Limitations of the said Act, they entitled themselves to the Estates of the very Persons, that Fought for the Crown, and never against it, and of such Infants and Orphans whose Fathers died for the King by seemingly involving them in a Conspiracy carried on by Sir Phalim Oneile, and his Accomplices; they now would finish at a blow what they left uncompleted, which may plainly appear by what he says was designed by their late Irish Parliament, as if they had an undoubted Right to Enslave People.  
Their Outlawries reach not only all the Living, but call the Buried out of their Graves, many being Outlawed after Death, a proceeding against Law, and Common Sense; for that by the same Rule any, or all the Families of England may be Outlawed since the Conquest; some were actually Prisoners in the Sheriff's Custody, and Outlawed by the Return made by the same Sheriff, and such as appeared to stop the Process offered to be Tried, yet were refused, or otherwise terrified; in short, 'twas the Estate committed the Treason, and not the Man.  
And because after long Solicitation and Importunity they find his Majesty will not recede from his Royal Promise as to the Articles, they seemingly consent the same may be confirmed, but in Negative Terms, to the end, they may have room to cavil at, limit, and construe the same at will and pleasure in the execution thereof; the few that have already been admitted to the benefit of the said Articles were not allowed the Arrears due to them on their own Tenants, but obliged by Recognisance to Release the same, as also the November Rent growing due after the perfection of the said Articles, nor were they admitted to any Chattels real, (tho' the Fortunes of many consisted in no other Estate, and the Capitulation says positively they shall be restored to all their Estates, Rights, Titles, and Interests; by the very word (Estates) not only an Inheritance, or Freehold is signified, but also a Term for Years, a Statute Staple, Merchant, Elegit, or the like. Cook's first Instit. 345. a. Such is the favour (as he calls it) they met with on an Execution of the said Articles.  
Now seeing that the Proposer graciously condescends, that the Article-Men may at one time or other receive the benefit of their Capitulation, whence must we have this Million of Acres? He tells you out of the Estates of the Protectees, that is to say, first, the Justice of Peace, the Sheriff, Judge, or any other in Civil Employments, (tho' by Commission before the Revolution;) truly 'tis a new sort of Forfeiture, that Men who out of a public Spirit of distributing Justice, keeping of Peace in a Society, and preventing of Destruction in a Commonweal, shall Forfeit their Birthrights and Inheitances for the same.  
But he finds you out of another sort of Men that after his way are yet more guilty, and that is the Honest Gentleman, who stayed at home to look after his Tilling, his Grounds, and Estate; or otherwise followed his lawful Affairs, without being concerned in Army or Civil Employment, the Lawyer that minded his Client's Interest, the Physician that took care of his Patient, the Merchant that attended his Market, and Business, and the Tradesman that looked after his Shop, these are the Persons, he says, who must have committed deep Crimes in thought and imagination (for no other appears) and therefore must give all their Fortunes to make up the Calculators Fund, tho' they lived under the Faith of the Government by receiving public Protections, and were not a little useful to the English Army, and are expressly within the King's Declaration of the 22 th'. of Feb. 1688.  
If thus People living under the Laws of England must be stripped of all, we ought no more to boast of Liberty, and Property, and what is practised to day in Ireland may hereafter serve as a Precedent for the future. By the Law every Man is free, and Master of his Property, until he be proved guilty par judicium parium suorum, or flies from Justice. In the Case of Ireland there happens neither, therefore 'tis against Law, and Magna Charta expressly, to keep them out of their Rights: When it is evident by many Instances how well disposed the Government is to do all People Right, but their Majesty's good Intentions in doing Justice to the Catholics of Ireland are wholly obviated by the practice of malevolent Persons, who by their Artificial Contrivances continue them Attainted, and of consequence are capable of no Grace, or Favour.  
As to the Two and Fifty Rebellions mentioned by the Proposer to have been in Ireland, whether true, or false, is not at this time disputed; and what Country has been altogether free from such Misfortunes? But 'tis most certain that neither he, nor one of his Adherents, had any share in quelling these he mentions: 'Twas by those, and their Ancestors (whom he calls Forfeiting Irish) they were suppressed, who fought for every Foot of Land they got there, and gained it Inch by Inch until they subdued the whole Country, and preserved it since for the Crown of England; and if in return of so much Fidelity they must now be destroyed to make room for, or to gratify these their Persecutors, 'twill be hereafter but a slender Encouragement for just and faithful Services.  
He would infer as a necessary Consequence from these Rebellions a prejudice and hatred to be engrafted in those of Ireland against the English Nation, which in practice and experience is most notoriously false; nay, they lived after a most Neighbourly and Amicable manner during the last two Reigns, even with the Proposer's Friends, who had a little before taken most part of their Bread from them, by which it plainly appears, that 'tis the injured Man that forgets and remits the wrong, but never he that gives it: For who could be better used than those of the Protestants, who stayed in Ireland during these late Troubles; did they pay extraordinary Taxes, or any thing more than the Catholics? Nay, by all People in Employment they were rather favoured than otherwise? What might have been done by the Mobb, or Rapparees, was not in the power of Man to help; yet all this Humanity and Justice would he attribute to the hopes King James' Officers had of getting Estates in England; but the Gentleman is apt to mistake, and did not consider, that every Body well knows the People of England don't Forfeit their Estates on such easy terms; however he allows in Fact that they were well used, and we are obliged to him for this one Truth.  
If then all those black Rebellions, and false Reasonings done't prevail, he offers for a concluding, and stabbing stroke, That to make Forfeitures of these Estates by accriminating the Innocent, oppressing the Widow, and striping the Orphan, is a sure Basis to Build on, and an infallible Mean whereby to preserve the Protestant Religion, by which he shows himself so little a Divine, that he is not commonly Moral, to imagine that any Religion should establish itself by a practice so contrary to what it teaches.  
Then he desires that Sanguinary, and Penal Laws may be put into their hands, but it should seem by their practice, that they need neither, who proceed so violently even against the Established Laws, and regard so little Humanity, and the Laws of God; for that the Militia of Ireland, since the Reduction of it by the Army, have under pretext of Rapparees, killed several Labouring-men, even at the Plough; because they wanted opportunities during all the War to draw their Swords.  
Another Expedient he thinks likewise Reasonable, which is, That a Pale may be made for Protestants; and that the Catholics be removed from the Seaside in all Parts. The English of which is, That where a Catholic shall happen to be restored to his own Inheritance, and the same prove to be good Land, it shall then be in the Power of any of them to transplant him to the top of a Mountain, and to seize on his Right, as being within their Verge. In short, 'tis to be wondered they do not sue for a Power and Liberty to impale them then too at will and pleasure; for that they are in a Circumstance almost as bad, exposed daily to the Insults of their Neighbours, who at discretion may take from them the small Remnant they have left of any kind, and as being Outlawed, have no Remedy for the same.  
What state of Man can be more Miserable than this, or savour more of Bondage? A thing in England so much detested. It is therefore hoped that these Instances will make impressions on every true English-man's heart, and that they will consider those of their own Nation, so as to prevent their being thus injured by a sort of Men, who have always fished in troubled Waters, and know not what 'tis to get, but by Rapine and Oppression.  
It is to be presumed that these Catholics for being of that Persuasion are not to lose their Birthrights. Wherefore it may reasonably be asked, why a Protestant living in Ireland under King James, or actually serving him either in a Military or Civil Employment, should be free under the Protection of the Laws, and safe in his Property; when at the same time his Roman Catholic Neighbour, in equal Circumstances with him, shall forfeit all, and be proscribed? This single Instance shows the Proceedings of these Men of Ireland to be plainly Partial and Unjust.  
All this considered, and seriously reflected on, it may with Reason be hoped, and expected, That Their Majesties, and all those concerned in the Legislature, will no longer suffer, that Men shall thus be divested of their Properties, against the Laws of God and Man: That some certain Rules or Measures of Justice be put to them like other Subjects, and that all their Outlawries (a Yoke much more intolerable than Chains and Fetters) be reversed, they having done nothing to Forfeit the Protection of the Government since their Submission to it.  
In Consideration of which, and to be delivered out of the Power of their bitter and insatiable Persecutors, the supposed Forfeiting Persons most Humbly, and willingly offer to Subscribe to any Tax that shall be thought fit, or reasonable to be given out of their Estates towards the Charge of the War, which in all probability will prove more effectual to the Government, than the Methods proposed for Selling the said Estates, so much against Reason, Law, and good Conscience; an Undertaking no considerate Man (both for his own, and the sake of his Posterity) will have a hand in.  
FINIS.