Weighty Queries Relating to the PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE State of Ireland; Calculated for the Present and Future BENEFIT of that Unhappy KINGDOM.  
And Tendered to the Serious Consideration of all who are willing to be Informed How it became Unhappy, and how it may yet be made Happy again to Posterity.  
WHETHER the Majority of the Irish were ever true, or the Majority of the British ever false to the Crown of England?  
Whether the most Considerable of the said Majority of the Irish, are not at present better Subjects to King Lewis, than either to King William, or the late King James, which is made evident, in that so many of them chose rather to be Slaves in France, than Freeborn Subjects in Ireland; and lost their Estates, and left their Relations, with their Native Country, and much of their rich Plunder they got from the British, rather than live under King William's Government?  
Whether one of a hundred of the British of Ireland, was an Enemy to the Government of King William and Queen Mary, or one of ten thousand of the Irish a Friend to it?  
Whether the Degenerate Irish of English Extraction, be not more Jesuited, Frenchified, and more inveterate against the British, than the Ancient Irish, and needs not a much more Circumspect Eye of the Government over them?  
Whether in all Ages there hath not been observed a greater aptitude in the British to turn Irish, than in the Irish to become British?  
Whether the Successors of the degenerate Posterity of many British Families, whose Ancestors got Estates for their fidelity to the Crown of England, have not as deservedly lost them in the two last Rebellions?  
Whether any one of the Irish restored, either by Prouisoes in the Act of Settlement and Explanation, or decreed innocent in the Court of Claims, They, or their Posterity, were not now again in Rebellion? And whether any one Instance can be given, that any Irishman ever expressed any sorrow for what he did in this Rebellion? and whether they are not ready to do the like, had they again the like Occasion?  
Whether all the Irish real and personal Estates, can satisfy for the Robbery, Plunder and Devastation, made by them upon the British in this last Rebellion?  
Whether the Reduction of the said Rebellion hath not cost more than a hundred thousand British Lives, and more than two hundred thousand Irish?  
Whether more than one half of the Kingdom is not at present laid waste by the said Rebellion?  
Whether those Governors who most effectually encouraged the British Interest, and discouraged the Irish, were not always celebrated as the best Governors of Ireland, and best Servants to the Crown of England?  
Whether the Irish, having in all Ages been so rebellious to the British Crown, and so destructive to the British Subjects, aught to be entrusted with Places of Trust or Power? and whether the disabling them from those Employs, can, or aught to be interpreted, by any Foreign Roman-Catholick, a Persecution upon account of Religion?  
Whether the Irish have not in all Ages grown rich and prosperous under the English Government? and whether there is any possibility that the British can be so under theirs?  
Whether it is not demonstrable that the Nocent Irish have been Millions of pounds' Gainers, and the Innocent British as much more Losers by their two last Rebellions?  
Whether what the Irish usually lose by pusillanimity in the Field, they have not as constantly recovered by Flattery at Court?  
Whether ever they kept faith in any Articles made with the English, either in this, or their former Rebellion.  
Whether the Articles made with Sir Thomas Southwell and his Party, were not as solemnly made to indemnify those British, as the Articles made by the Lord General Ginkle was, to indemnify Galway and Lymerick Irish?  
Whether, notwithstanding the said Articles, the said Sir Thomas Southwell, and his Party, were not imprisoned, tried, sentenced, and condemned as Traitors; and when they produced the said Articles, were told that Articles of War could not invalidate the Laws of the Land?  
Whether the said Lord General Ginkle did not to his immortal Renown, frequently and publicly declare to the Irish, both at Galway and Lymerick, That he was a Stranger to the Constitution of their Country; and that they must expect no Articles to be made good, that was contrary to the Law, and not in his power to grant?  
Whether the Laws of War can extend to vacate Acts of Parliament, or are not to be limited to Life, and Personal Estate in the Place, and not to Real or Personal Estates elsewhere?  
Whether the Articles of Peace made in the Year 1648. at Kilkenny by the Duke of Ormond, were not as solemn, and more binding, than the Galway and Lymerick Articles; yet the said Articles of 1648. were not only accounted of no value by the Parliament of England, as to the Irish's Real and Personal Estates, but were also utterly rejected, and disallowed by the Parliament of Ireland, and made a Bar of Innocency to any claiming by them, as appears by the Act of Settlement?  
Whether the Galway and Lymerick Irish capitulating with the said Lord General Ginkle to have the said Articles confirmed by King and Parliament, is not a Tacit Consent, That they knew the said Articles could not answer their end without the Concurrence of the King and Parliament?  
Whether all Persons who acted in, aided, assisted and abetted the two last Rebellions of Ireland, were not attainted from the 1st of March, 1640. by Act past decimo septimo Caroli Primi, for endeavouring to introduce Papal Authority into the Kingdom of Ireland?  
Whether it is not evident, as well by the Orders of the Supreme Council in their former Rebellion, as by the Acts of their pretended Parliament in this, that nothing short of the Sovereignty of that Kingdom, and the Extirpation of the British, will be ever satisfactory to that Party?  
Whether the vacating of poinding's Law, and abrogating all Writs of Error, and all Appeals into England, doth not sufficiently evidence, That the Absolute Sovereignty of that Kingdom, is the Mark, whatever has been the Butt, they aimed as in all their Rebellions.  
Whether their pretended Act of Reversal and Attainder, does not as evidently prove the Extirpation of the British to be the chief Design of that Party?  
Whether the said Act of Attainder doth not on the beginning of August, 1688. forfeit their Lives and Estates, and corrupt the Blood of about Three Thousand of the chief British Inhabitants of that Kingdom; and wanting other matter, Whether their pretended Crime was not the Aiding, and Assisting the Prince of Orange's Invasion into England; when His Majesty that now is, (whom God for ever Bless and Preserve) made not his Descent into England, till the 5th of November following, and managed that Heroic Design with that Privacy, that the Irish themselves well knew, that not one of the Attainted British did know it, or could then contribute any Assistance to it?  
Whether a parallel Law to this Attainder, for the destruction of so many known Innocent Persons and their Posterities, can be found among all the Records of Jews, Christians, or Heathens Laws?  
Whether King James did not by this pretended Law divest himself and his Successors of any Power to Pardon or Mitigate any of the Penalties mentioned in the said Act?  
Whether his Father King Charles the 1st. did not by his Act of Attainder made decimo septimo Caroli Primi, with more Justice and Reason attaint all such Irish as should be aiding or assisting as aforesaid, to introduce the Authority of the See of Rome into that Kingdom?  
Whether all the Freeholders of Land, and all the Freemen of Burrough Towns who chose Representatives to sit in the Supreme Council, or pretended Parliament, to introduce or maintain that Authority, are not attainted by that Law?  
Whether by the said Act all the Forfeitures of that Rebellion were not vested in the then King for the uses of the said Act; and whether a Moiety of the said Uses, were ever satisfied?  
Whether the King by the said Act did not divest himself and his Successors of any Power to Pardon any of the aforesaid Attainted Irish, without the consent of the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England?  
Whether any of the said Irish, or their Posterity, can have any Legal Right to the Estates they enjoyed or possessed in the Two last Reigns; they being never pardoned or restored by the consent of the said Lords and Commons; and none of the said Acts ever yet Repealed or Reversed, but continue in force to this very day?  
Whether upon Examinations it will not appear that the said Irish and their Posterities have but a very weak and imperfect pretence to the said Estates by the Act of Settlement and Explanation, passed in the Parliament of Ireland; and that for these following Reasons?  

1. The said Act of Settlement and Explanation does as the Acts of England, vest the Forfeitures in the King for the Uses therein mentioned, with only this difference. That the English Act vests Remainders, which is not in the Vestiture of the Irish Acts.  
2. The Enacting Clauses of the Irish Acts, raises Rents above the English Acts, and retrenches one Third what is allowed by the English Acts to the Adventurers.  
3. The Uses mentioned in the said Irish Acts, were as the aforesaid English Acts, never half paid or satisfied.  
4. Both the said Irish Acts declares chief Favour to the Protestant Interest; and provides, That none of them should be removed, before reprized with other Lands of equal Value, Worth, and Purchase; yet not one of twenty of the Protestants have received any Benefit by the said Clause, but after Ten years' Possession many were turned out without any Reprize for Lands or Improvements, when the said Improvements were of greater Value than the Lands were worth, when they entered on them; and the while, large Donatives were given by the said Acts to all the Irish Generals that were then alive, who had not only their former Propriety restored, but most of them had new Honours conferred upon them by the King, and Large Donatives given them by Prouisoes in the Irish Acts, or were made Innocent by the Decrees of the Court of Claims.  
5. The Acts of Settlement gives a twelve months' time for its Execution, and prescribes those strict Rules for Adjudication of Innocents', that an Ingenious Irishman upon reading the said Act affirmed, that his Countrymen might as well plead Innocency upon the terms of the Decalogue with God Almighty, as with his Vicegerent, on the Qualifications of Innocency by the Act of Settlement; yet however the proof of the Irish Nocency being placed on the British, and the Irish having made all within their Reach either accessary to their guilt, or subject to their wrath, there were few or none left alive to give Evidence against them; the Officers and Soldiers who served before the year 1649. having arrears due by the said Acts, were adjudged parties, by the Commissioners and Irish Evidence, being refused as Participes Criminis, so there being but little Evidence left, many times Innocents' were made as fast as Claims were read.  
6. The Commissioners for Claims were so long delayed, that the twelve months' time allowed by the Act of Settlement was effluxed before the Commissioners met, which defect was supplied by another Act of Parliament, commonly called an Act of Periods, which gave the said Commissioners six months' time for restoring of Innocents', and six Months more in Case the Lord Lieutenant and Council should consent thereunto; but the said Lord Lieutenant and Council were so little satisfied in the justice of the said Commissioners proceed, that they positively refused any Enlargement of the said term, however the Commissioners proceeded and restored six times more Innocents', when they had no power or authority for so doing, than they did before.  
7. The Irish Claimants do most of them under their Hands and Seals confess that they enjoyed their Estates Real and Personal till turned out by the Usurped power, when it is well known, no British could live in those Quarters, and by the Books of Distribution of Quarters, made by the Cessation, it is clear that nine parts in ten of the whole Kingdom was Irish Quarters.  
Lastly, Many of the Irish under their said Hands and Seals claimed the benefit of the Articles of Peace, made Anno 1648, which as well as the former are excluded from any claim of Innocency by the express qualification of the Act of Settlement.   
Memorandum, That the Act of Settlement confirms only such Decrees of the Commissioners as are pursuant to the said Act.  
1. Quer. Whether the Irish could have any Legal Title to the Estates they possessed and enjoyed in the two last Reigns on colour of such Decrees upon those Claims?  
2. Qu. What Right the Irish can pretend to the Estates they were restored unto, when the Commissioners had no power to make such Decrees?  
Were the Irish Claims, Decrees, Acts of Periods with the Qualifications of Innocency, mentioned in the Act of Settlement. compared together, not one of fifty of the said Decrees would be found Legal, or pursuant to the said Acts.  
Whether his Majesty by the Articles of Galway, and Lymerick, is now obliged to give the Irish a better or more Legal Title to the Estates they enjoyed, and possessed in the two last Reigns?  
Which Right appearing to be none, by the aforesaid English Laws, and so lame and defective by the aforesaid Irish Acts, and the Galway and Lymerick Irish having many of them in person, and all of them by their Representatives, made null and void the said Irish Laws, by their pretended Parliament, with that Declaration of Abhorrency and Contempt, that they caused both the said Acts publicly to be burnt by the hands of the Common Hangman.  
Query. What Justice can they pretend to the Estates they possessed and enjoyed in the two last Reigns, only by virtue of the said Acts, so annulled and contemned by themselves?  
There being as aforesaid, difference in the Vestitures, and the Enacting Clauses of the English and Irish Acts,  
Whether it may not be a dangerous Precedent to Posterity, that the Parliament of Ireland should assume a power to Alter, Change, Reverse, or Repeal any Acts or Clause of Acts passed in the Parliament of England?  
Whether the sitting of a Parliament in Ireland, continued from 1640 to 1647, whilst the Parliament in England past the Laws 17ᵒ & 18ᵒ of Charles the First to bind Ireland, was not only a tacit and implicit, but a full consent beyond all contradiction, that Laws made in England, even when there is a Parliament sitting in Ireland, are binding there, seeing in all that time it was not questioned by that Parliament of Ireland then sitting?  
Lastly, Since that the Laws of England and Ireland are so jarring as aforesaid, Whether it would not contribute much to the improvement, quiet and satisfaction of that now desolate Kingdom, and a good Expedient to root up those mischievous Fibres which have constantly Repullulated into a forty years' Rebellion?  
Whether it be not desirable, that his Majesty will be Graciously pleased, that one and the same Act should pass both Parliaments of England and Ireland to secure the Titles of the British, and such of the Galway and Lymerick Irish as his Majesty knows most deserving his favour, and most likely to live well and Loyally with the British, and to leave the rest of that Rebellious Herd, to stand or fall by their present Titles?  
And whether it is not as desirable, That His Majesty would be further graciously pleased to grant an Act of Registry, to secure Property against Perjury and Forgery; whereby the Ruins of that Kingdom would soon be repaired, His Majesty's Revenue highly improved, Trade Increased, Expensive and Vexatious Suits of Law prevented, and without which Ickabod must be the Character? A Foreigner may be the Master, when that unhappy Country is made a Habitation for wild Beasts, or worse Creatures under only the shape and resemblance of Humane Features.   

State Tracts: Being a further Collection of several Choice Treatises relating to the Government; from the year 1660 to 1689. Now published in a Body, to show the Necessity, and clear the Legality of the Late Revolution, and Our present Happy Settlement, under the Auspicious Reign of Their Majejesties' King William and Queen Mary. Printed for Richard Baldwin.   

LONDON: Printed for Richard Baldwin, near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane, 1691.