VINDICLE HIBERNIC.E OR, AN ATTEiWPT TO DEVELOP AND EXPOSE A FEW OF THE MULTIFARIOUS ERRORS AND FALSEHOODS RESPECTING IRELAND, IN THE HISTORIES OF MAY, TEMPLE, WH1TELOCK, BORLASE, RUSHWORTH, CLARENDON, COX, CARTE, LELAND, WARNER, MACAULEY, HUME, AND OTHERS : PARTICULARLY IN THE LEGENDARY TALES OF THE CONSPIRACY AND PRETENDED MASSACRE OF 1641. BY M. CAREY, AUTHOB OF ESSAYS ON BANKING, POLITICAL OLIVE BRANCH, &C. "The history of Ireland's unhappy connexion with England, exhibits, from first to last, a detail of the most persevering, galling, grinding, insulting, and systematic oppression, to be found any where, except among the Helots of Sparta, There is not a national feeling that has not been insulted and trodden under foot ; a national right that has not been withheld, until fear forced it from the grasp of England ; or a dear or ancient prejudice that has not been violated, in that abused country. As Christians, the people of Ireland have been denied, under penalties and disqualifications, the exercise of the rites of the Catholic religion, venerable for its antiquity; admirable for its unity; and consecrated by the belief of some of the best men that ever breathed. As men, they have been deprived of the common rights of British subjects, under the pretext that they were incapable of enjoying them : which pretext had no other foundation than their resistance of oppression, only the more severe by being sanctioned by the laws. England first denied them the means of improvement ; and then insulted them -with the imputation of barbarism." PAULDING. " There is but little respite from exasperating oppression and unmerited cruelty. The eye wanders over a dreary scene of desolation, without a single point on which it can rest. The heart of the Philanthropist sinks under a hopeless despondency ; and passively yields to the unchristian and impious reflection, that the poor people of Ireland are a devoted race, whom Provi- ,dence has- abandoned to the malignant ingenuity of an insatiable enemy." LAWLESS. " There is no instance, even in the ten persecutions, of such severity as that xhich has been exercised over the Catholics of Ireland." S. JOHNSON. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY M. CAREY AND SON. 1819. EASTERN DISTRICT OF PEWMSYLVJiNlJl, TO wii -. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the sixth day of March, in Uie^ (L. S.) forty-third year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1819, Mathew Carey, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the Title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author, in the words following, to wit: "VindiciscHibernicje: or, Ireland Vindicated: an Attempt to develop and expose a few of the multifarious Errors and Falsehoods respecting Ireland, in the Histories of May, Temple, Whitelock, Borlase, Rushworth, Clarendon, Cox, Carte, Leland, Warner, Macauley, Hume, and others : particularly in the Legendary Tales of the Conspiracy and Pretended Massacre of 1641. By M.Carey, Author of Essays on Banking, Political Olive Branch, &c. ' The history of Ireland's unhappy connexion with England, exhibits, from first to last, a detail of the most persevering, galling, grinding, insulting, anil systematic oppression, to be found any where, except among the Helots of Sparta ^ There is not a national feeling that has not been insulted and trodden under foot; a national rjght^hat has not been withheld, until fear forced it from the ' grasp', of Eng-lands ; ; c. $c. In the devouring rage against the persons, and lust after the property, of the Catholics, every kind of evidence was acceptable, no matter how absurd, improbable, or impossible. In the number of the witnesses, who testify to the pretended massacre, the most distinguished is a dean Maxwell, afterwards bishop of Kilmore, an abstract of whose deposition is to be found in the Appendix to Borlase's history. It is a sort of history of the insurrection, and occupies no less than twelve large folio pages, which contain so many extravagant and impossible tales, that no man could swear to it but a perjurer. How many pages the whole contained, whether twenty, or fifty, or one hundred, it is impossible for me to decide ; it is " to be sought for in the archives of Dublin." 17 On the dean's authority rests the hacknied and Gulliverian assertion, that the pre- cise number of one hundred and fifty-four thou- sand were massacred, in three months, in Ulster : and yet, wonderful to tell, there is in this very deposition, on the all-important topic of the "hun- dred and fifty-four thousand persons slaughtered," 17 Borlase, App. 126. CLERICAt, PERJURY. 45 a most palpable and overwhelming contradiction, which at once destroys its credibility. In one part of it, the dean swears that " it was credibly told him, that the persons slaughtered amounted to one hundred and fifty-four thousand, whether in Ulster or the whole kingdom, he durst not in- quire."* Why he durst not inquire, is not stated; and it is impossible to assign any reason : the story carries absurdity on its face: the one kind of information was as readily and as soon acquired as the other. In a subsequent page, he swears positively, that " there were then above one hundred and fifty-four thousand wanting in the province of Ulster alone." This discordance, which would destroy the evidence, in any ho- nourable court in Christendom, of a Washington, a Franklin, a Fayette, a Sheridan, a Brougham, or a Wyndham, was of no importance in the era of perjury, anno 1642, when the lives and for- tunes of the Irish were at stake, and when princely fortunes were the reward of the perju- rer and his employer. * Extracts from the Deposition of Robert Maxwell, since Bishop of Kilmore. " And further saith, that it was credibly told him, that the rebels, least they should hereafter be charged with more mur- ders than they had committed, commanded their priests to bring in a true account of them; and that the persons so slaughtered, whether in Ulster, or the -whole kingdom, the deponent durst not inquire, in March last, amounted unto one hundred fifty-four thousand." 18 18 Borlase, App. 132. 46 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. " He might add to these many thousands more : but the diary which he, the deponent, wrote among the rebels, being burned with his house, books, and all his- papers, he referreth himself to the number in gross, which the rebels themselves have upon inquiry found out and acknowledged, which not- withstanding will come short of all that have been murdered in Ireland, there being above one hundred jifty and four thousand now wanting of the British within the very precinct of Ul- ster. And the deponent further saith, that it was common table-talk amongst the rebels, that the ghosts of Mr. William Fullerton, Timothy Jephes, and the most of those who were thrown over Portnedown bridge, were daily and nightly seen to walk upon the river, sometimes singing of psalms, some- times brandishing of naked swords, and sometimes screeching in the most hideous and fearful manner. The deponent did not believe the same at first, and yet is doubtful whether to believe it or not; but saith that divers of the rebels assured him, that they themselves did dwell near to the said river, and being daily frighted with these apparitions (but especial- ly with their horrible screeching) were in conclusion forced to remove further into the country. Their own priests and friars could not deny the truth thereof; but as oft as it was by deponent objected unto them, they said, that it was but a cunning slight of the devil to hinder this great work of propa- gating the catholic religion, and killing of heretics ; or that it was wrought by witchcraft. The deponent himself lived within thirteen miles of the bridge, and never heard any man so much as doubt of the truth thereof; howsoever the de- ponent obligeth no man's faith, in regard he saw it not with his own eyes ; otherwise he had as much certainty as morally could be required of such a matter" 19 ROBERT MAXWELL. Deposed to August 22, 1642. JOHN WATSON, WILLIAM ALDRICK. 19 Borlase, App. 136. BARONET'S PERJURY. 47 Could there be a more extravagant idea held out, than the reason assigned for keeping an ac- count of the murders, lest the murderers should be charged with a greater number than they ac- tually killed ? Some reason was necessary : but he who could not invent a more plausible pretext was ill calculated for his trade of king's evidence. No man, whose grade of intellect ranks beyond that of an ideot, can give credit to such a ridicu- lous story. Yet on such authority most of the writers on Irish affairs, and among the rest, as we have seen, Milton himself, gave countenance to the precise number of one hundred and fifty-four thousand persons murdered in Ulster alone. On the trial of lord Macguire, the same legend, " with variations" in point of number, was sworn to by Sir Charles Coote. Sir Charles Cootis Testimony concerning the generality of the Rebellion. " Sir Phelim O'Neile and Roger Moore were the actors in the massacres ; and by public directions of some in place, and of the titulary bishops, for sending an exdct account of -what persons were murdered throughout all Ulster, a fourth part of the kingdom of Ireland, to the parish priests of every parish. And they sent in a particular account of it, and the account was one hundred and four thousand seven hundred in one pro- vince, in the first three months of the rebellion." 80 20 Trial of Lord Macguire, 22r. 48 V1NDICL& HIBERNIC&. NOTE I. ON CHAPTER II. A P. 35. Bigotry.'] Thank Heaven, we live in an enlightened age, whose liberality on the subject of differences in religious opinions, ren- ders it difficult to conceive the deplorable bigotry and rancorous spirit of intolerance, that prevailed in that dark and persecuting era. Each denomi- nation of Christians regarded its own opinions as infallible, and all others as heretical and dam- nable : and, next to the right of worshipping God as they thought proper, they prized the right to control, restrain, and persecute all who dared to differ from them ; and instances are to be found, of then 1 exculpating themselves from the charge of being friendly to toleration, as from some foul crime. All abhorred it, as the greatest abomination. The solemn league and covenant, which was most tyrannicaUy enforced on all classes, expressly avowed its object to be the EXTIRPATION of " Popery, prelacy, supersti- tion, heresy, schism, and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of Godliness." Popery had originally an exclusive monopoly of the detestation of the Puritans ; but when they had succeeded in suppressing it, the established religion, from its supposed affinity to Popery, became almost equally odious to them ; and, whenever they had the power, was prohibited CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 49 under heavy penalties, not quite so severe, how- ever, as those against Popery. "Heresy, schism, and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound doctrine and the power of Godliness"* embraced every religious opinion or practice, which in the slightest degree varied from the Westminster Confession of Faith.f This was the standard of perfection, by which the ruling powers measured * " 1647, November 23. Debate upon the ordinance against blasphemies and heresies, and the punishment voted to be death." 1647, October 13. The Commons voted, that " The liberty of conscience granted shall extend to none that shall preach, print, or publish any thing contrary to the first Jlfteen of the thirty-nine articles, except the eighth." 23 u 1644, August 9. Ordered, That Mr. White do give order for the public burning of one Williams his books, intituled, &c. concerning the tolerating of all sects of Christians"** " Concerning religion, rve have expressed the desires of the kingdom of Scotland, and given a testimony against tolera- tion."" \ " 1643, Oct. 16. Ordered, That such members of- the House, as have not yet taken the Solemn League and Cove- nant, do take and subscribe the same on Thursday next, which day is appointed a peremptory day for the taking and sub- scribing the same by such members." 26 " 1645, May 8. Order, That the company of merchant ad- venturers do send the Covenant to all of their company, at home and abroad, and return the names of such as shall refuse to take it."" " 1645-6, January 15. A petition from the lord mayor, aldermen, and common council of London, to the House of 22 Whitelock, 232. M Idem, 276. * Journals, III. 585. 55 Thurloe, I. 111. 2S Journals, III. 318 27 Whitelock, 14O. 7 50 VTNDICIvE HIBERNIGE. the rectitude or depravity of faith or conduct. It was the true theological and intellectual bed of Procrustes, whereby redundancies of opinion were to be lopped off, and deficiencies to be supplied. He who could not command or feign assent to the most minute particulars of this con- fession, was branded as a " delinquent" no matter how orthodox he might be in general. The so- lemnization of Christmas, and various ceremonies, wholly indifferent in themselves, were interdicted, and made punishable. The use of the book of common prayer was likewise forbidden, under heavy penalties.* Peers, desiring the speedy settling of church government, ac- cording to the Covenant; and . " That no toleration be granted of Popery, prelacy, super- stition, heresy, schism, profaneness, or any thing contrary to sound doctrine, and that all private meetings, contrary to the Covenant, may be restrained." 28 * " 1647, December 20. Referred to a committee, to examine what delinquent ministers did preach, or read the book of com- mon prayer, and to silence them." 29 " 1646, March 1. Both Houses gave an allowance to the earl of Chesterfield, with an intimation that he do not entertain malignant preachers in his house, nor use the book of common prayer." " 1647, October 16. Debate touching religion, and voted, That the indulgence as to tender consciences shall not extend to tolerate the common prayer." 31 " This indulgence shall not extend to tolerate the use of the book of common prayer, in any place whatsoever" 52 28 Parl. Hist. XII. 194. 29 Whitelock, 285. 30 Idem, 243. 3l Idem, 276. 32 Thurloe, I. 47. INTOLERANCE. 51 When their reformed brethren experienced .such " tender mercies" at their hands, it is easy to conceive what mercy and justice were meted out to the Roman Catholics, who were the objects of their inveterate and universal abhorrence. In this one point, all the reformers, however enve- nomed and hostile towards each other, most per- fectly accorded. When this horrible and anti-christian spirit as- sumed the efficient shape of statutes, it tortured itself into the production of a system of the most revolting injustice. A slight sketch of it would fill volumes. It would extend beyond the limits prescribed to this chapter, to enter into detail. I shall therefore confine myself, for the present, to two of its features, by which some idea may be formed of its true character. These were framed under Protestant Episcopal monarchs. A Roman Catholic was liable to a penalty of twenty pounds a month, (and observe, there were thirteen months in the legal year) if he did not attend public worship, in one of the established churches, on Sundays. This extravagant and ruinous penalty, which was imposed under Eliza- beth, was not deemed enough to satisfy the rapa- city of the ruling party under James I. ; and ac- cordingly an act was passed, in the third year of his reign, authorizing the king to seize two-thirds of the estates of the Roman Catholics, in lieu of the penalty. 33 33 Pickering, VII. 154. 52 56* VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. But wicked as was this law, there was one that far exceeded it. A penalty of ten pounds a month was imposed on those who " relieved or harboured" persons who did not attend worship in some established church : and to this penalty every man or woman was liable, even for " main- taining, retaining, relieving, keeping, or harbour- ing his or her father or mother," if that father or mother were within the purview of the statute. But, as " a special grace and favour," there was a clause, exempting from the penalty those whose parents were paupers, or destitute of " sufficient maintenance." " Provided nevertheless, That this act shall not in any wise extend to punish, or impeach, any person or persons, FOR MAINTAINING, RETAINING, RELIEVING, KEEPING, OR HAR- BOURING HIS, HER, OR THEIR FATHER OR MOTHER! Wanting, without fraud or covin, other habitation, or sufficient mainte- nance, or the ward of any such person, or any person that shall be committed by authority to the custody of any by whom they shall be so relieved, maintained, or kept ; any thing in this act contained to the contrary notwithstanding." 34 This provision, however, ought not to be sup- posed to arise from liberality or justice, but from a sordid fear, lest the poor parents should become burdensome to the parish. i * Four pages, containing a great variety of proofs of the positions advanced in the text, have been cancelled in this place ; the citations being deemed redundant. 34 Pickering, VII. 161. Who HONOUR THY FATHER AND MOTHER. 57 Who can reflect on this law, without a holy abhorrence of the spirit by which it was dictated, and the men by whom it was enacted? The decalogue and the laws and customs of all the savage as weU as civilized world, with the single exception, at that period, of England, order us to honour our fathers and mothers : but in that wretched and besotted age, a man was liable to pay one hundred and thirty pounds sterling per annum, for even " relieving or harbouring his father or mother," if they were so conscientious- ly scrupulous as not to abandon the religion in which they were educated, and conform to a re- ligion they abhorred. He might harbour or relieve a drunkard, an adulterer, a thief, a robber, or even a murderer, without penalty : but the " relieving" the mother who bore him, might involve him in ruin ! ! The foregoing extracts, although principally taken from English laws and proceedings, are perfectly in point here, as the same spirit of bigotry and remorseless persecution inspired the leaders of the predominant party in both king- doms ; and, as naturally might be expected, pro- duced similar fruits on both sides of the Irish channel. 58 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. NOTE II. ON CHAPTER II. B P. 35. Ravenous thirst for the blood of the natives."] However shocking and incredible it may appear, it is established, by the concurring testimony of Clarendon, Carte, Warner, Le- land, and nearly all the other writers on that period of Irish history, that the predominant party in Ireland cherished, for a considerable time, the bloodthirsty and barbarous project of an utter extirpation of the Catholics, and the es- tablishment of new plantations all over the king- dom. To the attainment of this nefarious object, all their measures were invariably directed : nor did they abandon it from its inhumanity, but from finding it utterly impracticable. " The favourite object of the Irish governors, and the Eng- lish parliament, was the utter extermination of all the Catholic inhabitants of Ireland ! Their estates were already marked out, and allotted to their conquerors ; so that they and their poste- rity were consigned to inevitable ruin." 4 * " It is evident from their [the lords justices] last letter to the lieutenant, that they hoped for an extirpation, not of the mere Irish only, but of all the old English families that were Roman Catholics." 53 ' " Whatever were the professions of the chief governors, the only danger they really apprehended, was that of a too speedy suppression of the rebels. The futility of their pre- tences and affected fears was instantly discovered." 43 " The justices seem to have taken proper measures to exas- perate the natives against the English transplanted thither, as if they were so secure of baffling the rebels when they pleased, that they wished that they might go on unchecked for a while, n Leland, III. 192. S2 Warner, 176. Leland, III. 185. THIRST OF BLOOD. 59 that the forfeited lands might be the more, and the nation attain to peace only by the vastness of the desolation ; and of all this, their own management, give too many and too observable in- timations." 54 " Parsons and Borlase did, by their authority, command many things, which did not only exasperate, but render the Irish desperate, as will appear by several of their own letters, and public acts of state ; and that, in the first eruption of the rebellion, they had a greater eye to the forfeitures of the rebels' 1 estates, than to use such means as might, by the hopes of par- don, induce the better sort of the nobility, gentry, and free- holders to hear reason, and to come in and submit themselves to his majesty's mercy, though they had express directions from the king and the two houses so to do : and it is no less notorious, that Sir John Temple, in writing his history, was bound by confederacy to assert the proceedings of the then lords justices."" " The parliament party, who had heaped so many re- proaches and calumnies upon the king, for his clemency to the Irish, who had grounded their own authority and strength up- on such foundations as were inconsistent with any toleration of the Roman Catholic religion, and even -with any humanity to the Irish nation, and more especially to those of the old na- tive extraction, the -whole race -whereof they had upon the mat- ter sworn to extirpate"* 6 " To say nothing of what was done by that Parliament, re- lating to affairs here which had an affinity to those of Ireland, the House of Commons passed a vote, that no toleration of the Romish religion should be allowed in Ireland; and that the House of Lords should be desired to join with them, in ad- dressing the king to make a public declaration to that effect. This might serve their own ends perhaps, but was surely very unseasonable with regard to Ireland, where nothing could so much promote the cause of the rebellion, as to have it thought a mere war of religion : this violence of the Parliament gave too much credit to the reports that were continually flying about, of a design of EXTIRPATING the Roman Catholics." w Clarendon's I. Preface. ss Nalson, II. 7. 58 Clarendon's I. 115. " Warner, 133. * 60 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. " If it be more needful to dispose of places out of hand, and that it may stand with his majesty's pleasure to fill some of them with Irish that are Protestants, and that have not been for the extirpation of the Papist natives, it will much satisfy both, and cannot justly be excepted against."* 8 u Mr. Brent landed lately here, and hath brought with him such letters as have somewhat changed the face of this go- vernment from what it was, when the Parliament pamphlets were received as oracles, their commands obeyed as laws, and extirpation preached for Gospel"* 9 " Though extirpation both of nation and religion be not named, yet I conceive it is contrived almost in every proposi- tion; and the consideration thereof confirms me in a full belief of the malicious practices of the Cootes and Ormsbyes, in the county of Roscommon." 60 ttf The term of extirpation is worn out here, and the intention not acknowledged to me by the prime authors therein, with whom I have been plain after my blunt way." 61 " The reason of their [the justices] advice is founded upon their darling scheme of an extirpation of the old English pro- prietors, and a general plantation of the whole kingdom with a new colony ; for this is the meaning of what they allege, to show it to be " unsafe for his majesty, and destructive to the kingdom, to grant the petitioners' request ; as being altogether inconsistent with the means of raising a considerable revenue for his crown, of settling religion and civility in the kingdom ; and of establishing a firm and lasting peace, to the honour of his majesty, the safety of his royal posterity, and the comfort of all his faithful subjects." 62 " By precipitate votes, the two Houses, confiscating all their lands, and making sale of them, cast the whole nation into such a general despair, that if there were any loyal or innocent among them, (which, we may justly fear, were very few) they were forced to take party with those^ whom very probably they might abhor." 63 58 Carte, III. 226. 59 Idem, 169. 60 Idem, 311. 61 Idem, 155. 63 Carte, I. 391. M Warwick, 200. THIRST OF BLOOD. 61 These difficulties and considerations were of little weight with the lords justices ; who, having got a thin House of Commons to their mind, of persons devoted to their interest and measures, resolved to improve the opportunity offered, and to get such acts passed, as might distress the king, exas- perate the bulk of the nation, spread the rebellion, and so pro- mote their darling scheme of extinguishing the old proprietors, and making a new plantation of the kingdom"** " Such considerations as these were not agreeable to the views of the lords justices, who had set their hearts on the ex- tirpation, not merely of the mere Irish, but likewise of all the old English families that were Roman Catholics, and the mak- ing of a new plantation all over the kingdom ; in which they could not fail to have a principal share ; so all their reasonings, upon all occasions, were calculated and intended to promote that their favourite scheme. " This scheme would have been destroyed, if the rebels in general had submitted, upon the late proclamation ; there was a general disposition in those of the Pale, and offers made by the chiefs of them to submit : and nothing was so likely to stop the effects of that disposition, as to treat those, who had actually submitted, in such a manner as to show the rest, that they should receive no favours upon such submission, nor any benefit by his majesty's proclamation. Hence all the gentle- men, who surrendered themselves, were, without being admitted to the presence of the justices, committed to the castle of Dublin; preparations were made for their trial, and designs published of their being prosecuted with the utmost severity. But as the prisoners had never appeared in the field, nor been con- cerned in any warlike action, there was a want of proper facts wherewith to charge them, and of sufficient witnesses to prove those facts. To supply both these defects, the lords justices had recourse to the rack, a detestable expedient, invented to extort from unhappy prisoners, in the anguish of their pain, or in the terror of the tortures prepared for them, such conle's- sions as those who have the management of that accursed in- strument, have a mind to put into their mouths ; and therefore 64 Carte, I. 330. 62 VINDICOS HIBERNICJE. justly abhorred by all lovers of liberty, and forbidden by the laws of England." 65 " These measures served their own scheme of an extir- pation, by racking those gentlemen, whose treatment could not fail of deterring every body from venturing themselves into their power for the future." 66 "These propositions, for putting the Roman Catholics of Ireland under, greater hardships than any they had ever com- plained of before, incapacitating them from all offices whatever, disabling them from sitting in Parliament, (a privilege which they had always enjoyed, and from which alone they could expect any redress of future grievances) forfeiting all their es- tates, real and personal, and yet obliging them, when their all, was taken from them, to make impossible reparations and sa- tisfactions for losses sustained, and devastations committed, in the war; suppressing their religion, banishing all their cler- gy, and nerv planting- the kingdom, were evidently calculated to hinder any peace at all ; and certainly came from some of that party of men which first formed the design of an extirpa- tion of the Roman Catholics, and, by publishing that design, made the rebellion so general as it proved at last. They all breathed the same spirit; and though extirpation both of nation and religion was not expressly mentioned, yet it seemed to be contrived effectually in all the propositions. They appeared so monstrous and unreasonable, that it was thought they could proceed from nothing but an high degree of madness or malice." 67 " There is too much reason to think, that, as the lords jus- tices really wished the rebellion to spread, and more gentlemen of estates to be involved in it, that the forfeitures might be the greater, and a general plantation be carried on by a new set of English Protestants all over the kingdom, to the ruin and ex- pulsion of all the old English and natives that were Roman Catholics ; so, to promote what they wished, they gave out speeches upon occasions, insinuating such a design, and that in a short time there would not be a Roman Catholic left in the whole kingdom. It is no small confirmation of this notion, 65 Carte, I. 293. 66 Idem, 301. 67 Idem, 502. WHOLESALE CONFISCATION. 63 that the earl of Ormond, in his letters of January 27th, and February 25th, 1641-2, to Sir W. St. Leger, imputes the general revolt of the nation, then far advanced, to the pub- lishing of such a design ; and when a person of his great mo- desty and temper, the most averse in his nature to speak his sentiments of what he could not but condemn in others, and who, when obliged to do so, does it always in the gentlest ex- pression, is drawn to express such an opinion, the case must be very notorious. I do not find that the copies of these let- ters are preserved : but the original of Sir W. St. Leger's, in answer to them, sufficiently shows it to be his lordship's opi- nion ; for, after acknowledging the receipt of these two letters, he useth these words, The undue promulgation of that severe determination, to extirpate the Irish and Papacy out of this kingdom, your lordship rightly apprehends to be too unseason- ably published? NOTE III. ON CHAPTER II. c P. 35. Thirst for the estates.'] Identified with the sanguinary project of "exterminating" the devoted Roman Catholics, the existence of which is fully proved in the preceding note, was that of confiscating the whole of their estates, for the aggrandizement of their sworn enemies. The evidences adduced in support of the exterminat- ing scheme, might suffice to establish that of confiscation. But I wish to " make assurance dou- bly sure" and shah 1 therefore submit a document, which cannot fail to satisfy the reader, that I have not over-rated the extravagant and rapaci- ous thirst that prevailed with the predominant party in England and Ireland, for the possessions of the Irish Catholics. The insurrection begaa 68 Carte, I. 263. 64 VINDICUE HIBERNICJE. in Ulster, on the 23d of October, 1641, and did not spread into the other provinces for several weeks : nor was it in any degree general, till late in December. Even at that period, there were very large portions of the country, particularly in Connaught and Munster, which were wholly free from rebellion, notwithstanding the efforts of the lords justices to goad them into it. Yet so early as the 16th of February, 1642, (that is, about two months afterwards) a company of adventurers was formed in London, who calculated on the forfeiture of the whole island, except what belonged to the Protestants. This extravagant project is fortunately recorded, at full length, in the Jour- nals of the English House of Commons. These adventurers presented an address to Parliament, stating, that when "the work of reducing the kingdom of Ireland" was " finished," there would be " of confiscated lands, such as go under the name of profitable lands," no less than " TEN MILLIONS OF ACRES ! !" According to Sir William Petty's calculation, there were but two-thirds of the surface of Ireland, which were called "profitable lands " the remaining third consisting of " highways, loughs, impassable bogs, rocks, shrubs, and coarse land." 69 As the whole contents of Ireland are only about nineteen millions of acres, it is clear, that nothing short of a general extirpation of the natives, and as general a confiscation of 69 Petty, 1. CONFISCATION. 65 their estates, was contemplated ; for, deducting the " unprofitable lands," and the possessions of the Protestants, there would not remain above ten millions of acres.* This measure was adopted February 1, 1641-2. * Proposition made by divers gentlemen, citizens , and other 's, for the speedy and effectual reducing of the kingdom of Ire- land. 1st. They do compute, that less than a million of money will not perfect that work. 2nd. They do conceive, that the work being finished, there will be in that kingdom, of confiscated lands, such as go under the name of profitable lands, ten millions of acres, English measure. 3d. That two millions and a half of those acres, to be equal- ly taken out of the four provinces, will sufficiently satisfy those that shall advance this million of money. 4th. That the two millions and a half of acres may be di- vided amongst them after this proportion, viz. For each adventure of 200/. a thousand acres in Ulster. 300/. a thousand acres in Connaught. 450/. a thousand acres in Munster. 6007. a thousand acres in Leinster. All English measure, Consisting of meadow, arable and profitable pasture; the bogs, woods, and barren mountains, being cast in, over and above. These two millions and a half of acres to be holden in free and common socage of the king, as of his castle of Dublin. 5th. That out of these two millions and a half of acres, a constant rent shall be reserved to the crown of England, after this proportion, viz. Out of each acre thereof in Ulster, 1 d. Connaught, 1 ob. Munster, - 2 qrs. Leinster, - 3 d. Whereby his majesty's revenue, out of those lands, will be 9 66 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. from principles of Machiavelian policy, to drive the Catholics to desperation, by shutting the door against all hopes of retreat. Tyrants and con- querors, leading devastating armies in their train, have often grasped at millions of acres: but, throughout the wide range of the history of pri- vate spoil, there is no paraUel case, except, per- haps, in Hindostan, during the last hundred years. Ten millions of acres to be forfeited ! What an appalling idea this inspires of the deplorable state of the victims, and the inhumanity of those who offered them up as holocausts on the altars of rapine and bigotry ! The English Parliament readily acquiesced in the proposal; and immediately passed an act,* for the purpose of carrying it into effect. But, as they probably felt ashamed to recognize the extravagant grasp at " ten millions of acres," they much improved, besides the advantage that he will have, by the coming to his hands of all other the lands of the rebels and their personal estates, without any charge to his majesty. 70 * " Whereas, divers worthy and well affected persons, per- ceiving that many millions of acres of the rebels' lands of that kingdom, which go under the name of profitable lands, will bte confiscate and to be disposed of, and that in that case two mil- lions and a half of those acres, to be equally taken out of the four provinces of that kingdom, may be allotted for the satis- faction of such persons as shall disburse any sums of money, for the reducing of the rebels there, which would effectually accomplish the same, have made these propositions ensuing," Sec. &c. as before. 71 70 Journals, II. 435. 71 May, 307. CONFISCATION. 67 made a slight variation in the phraseology, and substituted many millions." NOTE IV. ON CHAPTER II. D P. 35. The Courcys, the Fitzstephenses, the Fitzgeralds.'] Many of the descendants of the early English settlers, being possessed of exorbi- tant wealth and immense territories, held out to the needy and rapacious deputies, who were sent to rule Ireland, stronger temptations to plunder than the aboriginals ; and hence they frequently experienced more dire oppression and cruelty than the latter. One very simple and very common mode of driving these great lords into what was called re- bellion, but what was merely affording the de- puties a pretence for making war, and commit- ting depredations on them, was to summon them, in an arbitrary manner, to appear before those rulers, or in parliament, where they had every prospect of being seized, and, under false pre- tences, thrown into prison, perhaps hanged or beheaded by martial law :* or, if they were deter- red from appearing, they were proclaimed as contumacious traitors, and " the dogs of war" let loose on them. There are numberless cases of * " Richard Bourke, called the Usule of Ireland, was at Castell ne Kelly hanged by martial law, information being there given, that he was confederate with the rebels, and under pre- text of dutiful obedience, and visitation of the governor, in- tended to betray him and his company ." m 72 Perrot, 95. 68 VINDICLK HIBERNICJE. this kind on record, of which, when I resume the subject, in a subsequent part of this work, I shall give some of the most striking. I confine myself, for the present, to a few, of which the chief is that of the earl of Desmond, whose large estates held out temptations to the rapacity of Ralph De Ufford, lord justice, who administered the gp- vernment, under Edward III. To this earl a summons was sent to attend parliament, with which he declined compliance. On this sole, this miserable pretext, the lord jus- tice immediately raised an army,* and, meeting with no resistance, seized all his vast possessions, * " This UfFort, lord justice, on pain of forfeiture of all his lands, commanded the earl of Desmond to make his personal appearance at a parliament which he called to be holden at Dublin, there to begin the seventh of June; and, because the earl refused to come, according to the summons, he raised the king's standard, and, -with an army, marched into Munster, and there seized the earl's possessions into the king's hands, let- ting them forth to farm, for an annual rent, unto other persons. And, whilst he yet remained in Munster, he devised ways how to have the earl of Desmond apprehended ; which being brought to pass, he afterwards delivered him upon mainprise of these sureties, whose names ensue: William De Burgh, earl of Ulster; James Butler, earl of Ormond; Richard Tute, Nicholas Verdon, Morice Rochford, Eustace Le Powre, Ge- rald De Rochford, John Fitzrobert Powre, Robert Barrie, Maurice Fitzgerald, John Wellesly, Walter Le Fant, Richard Rokelly, Henry Traherne, Roger Powre, John Lenfant, Roger Powre, Matthew Fitzhenrie, Richard Wallers, Edmond Burgh, son to the earl of Ulster, knights ; David Barrie, William Fitz- gerald, Foulke De Fraxinus, Robert Fitzmaurice, Henry Fitzberklie, John Fitzgeorge De Roch, Thomas De Lees De Burgh ; these (as ye have heard) were bound for the earl. CONFISCATION. 69 and slaughtered his principal followers. He soon found means to seize the earl himself, and bound no less than twenty-seven of the nobility and gentry as sureties for his good behaviour. He afterwards summoned the earl before him, who, " finding his severity, thought it dangerous to appear, according to the condition of the re- cognizance, and therefore it was escheated into the exchequer." 73 Ufford rapaciously availed himself of this opportunity, and seized the estates of twenty-three of " the mainpernors" according to Hooker, or of eighteen, according to Cox.* Besides these acts of oppression, " he caused the earl of Kildare to be arrested, and committed to the castle of Dublin ;" 74 indicted and imprison- ed many others ; annulled a number of charters ; and " proceeded every way so roundly and se- verely, as the nobility, which were wont to suffer no controulment, did much distaste him." 75 This case affords a proof how little dependence can be placed on the accounts given of Irish affairs by English writers : for, of this odious oppres- sor, who was a mere Verres, and, according to And because he made default, "the lord justice verily took the advantage of the mainpernors, four of them only excepted, the two earls and two knights." 78 * " Though the noblemen, and some of the knights, made a shift to get rid of this matter, yet eighteen of the knights lost their estates, and rvere utterly ruined thereby" 73 Cox, 121. 74 Davies, 153. 75 Ibid. 76 Hollinshed, VI. 255. " Cox, 121. 70 VINDICkE IIIUKKMC.t . Hollinshed, "was very rigorous, and, through persuasion (as was said) of his wife, more extreme and covetous than he otherwise would have been," 78 Sir John Davies says, " in troth, he was a singular good justicer." 79 Hollinshed does not pretend to deny his severity and rigour, but charges it wholly to the account of his wife, who was " bent to prick him forward unto sharp deal- ings, and rigorous proceedings." 30 And further, "His lady, it would appear, was verily but a miserable woman, procuring him to EXTORTION AND BRIBERY."" A very novel and extraordinary trait, truly, in the character of " a good justicer !" The case of another earl of Desmond, two hundred and fifty years later, is still more lament- able. Henry Sydney, the lord deputy, thirsting after his immense possessions, and desirous of driving him into rebellion, seized him, under the most flimsy pretexts, and carried him in duress, in an extensive circuit he made through the country. The earl finally effected an escape ; and was peremptorily cited to appear before the earl, and to surrender his strongest fortresses. The ignominious treatment he had experienced, and the imminent danger he had escaped, deter- red him from confiding his person into the de- puty's hands. He was accordingly proclaimed a traitor, and his territories laid waste, with the 78 Hollinshed, VI. 255. 79 Davies, 154. 90 Hollinshed, VI. 255. 81 Idem, 256. CONFISCATION. 71 most Vandalic rage, as shall be stated in the next note. The injustice with which he was treated, will appear palpable, from two of the items of the proclamation, by one of which he was charged with seeking for foreign and domestic aid ;* and, by another, at the same time, with destroying his castles, and burning his towns,f " to the intent her majesty's forces and subjects should not be suc- coured nor refreshed." / It is difficult to decide whether the wickedness or absurdity of these accusations is the greater. If he intended to enter into rebellion, it would have been the quintessence of madness to destroy his castles. The one effectually destroys the other. It does not fall within my present view, to enter into detail on the progress of this war. Suffice it to say, that the earl was reduced to a most deplorable state of wretchedness ; finally assassinated in a filthy cabin; and his estate, which consisted of five hundred and seventy-four * " That he daily looketh for a further aid, and a new supply of foreigners, and daily soliciteth the chief men of the Irish counties to join with him in this, his most execrable and re- bellious enterprise." 83 f " That he hath not only refused to deliver up doctor San- ders and the Spaniards, which do daily accompany him ; but hath broken down his castles, burned his towns, and desolated his countries aforehand, to the intent her majesty's forces and subjects shall not be succoured nor refreshed." 83 32 Hooker, apud Hollinshed, 424. 83 Ibid. 72 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. thousand six hundred and twenty-eight acres, partly seized by government, and partly parcelled out among the British officers,* who had been instrumental in goading him into resistance. When such were the temptations to civil war, and such the rewards for the desolation perpe- * " The earl of Desmond and his accomplices had forfeited a vast estate, amounting in all to 574,628 acres of land. The earl himself had a prodigious revenue, for these times ; and perhaps greater than any other subject in her majesty's domi- nions." 84 Of this immense estate, portions were bestowed on the fol- lowing undertakers : Co. Waterford, Sir Christopher Hutton Co. Cork and Waterford, Sir W. Raleigh Co. Kerry, Sir Edward Denny Ib. Sir William Harbart Ib. Charles Harbart Ib. John Holly Ib. Capt. Jenkin Conway Ib. John Champion Cork, Sir Warham Saint Lesser Ib. Hugh Caff Ib. Sir Thomas Norris Ib. Arthur Robins Ib. Arthur Hide, Ib. Francis Butcher and Hugh Wirth Ib. Thomas Say Ib. Arthur Hyde, Ib. Edmund Spencer Cork and Waterford, Richard Beacon Limerick, Sir William Courtney Ib. Francis Birkly, Esq. Ib. Robert Anslow Acres. 10,910 12,OOO 6,OOO 13,276 3,768 4,422 526 1,434 6,000 6,000 6,OOO 1,800 5,574 24,OOO 3,778 11,766 3,028 6,OOO 1O,500 7,250 2,599 Cox, 392. 206,631 OPPRESSION. 73 trated, it cannot surprise us, that Ireland was a constant theatre of rapine, conflagration, and de- vastation. Sometimes the parents of the ill-fated vic- tims, thus hunted down, were seized, and thrown into dungeons, as accomplices of the crimes, real or pretended, of their children. The case of Sir Walter De La Hide and his lady is a striking one. They were, on account of the rebellion of their son, imprisoned and crueUy treated. The lady was basely tampered with, and threatened with the rack,* in order to induce her to accuse her hus- 206,631 Limerick, Richard and Alex. Fitton 3,026 Ib. Edmund Mamvaring, Esq. 3,747 Ib. Waterford, Inverary, Sir Edward Fitton 11,515 Ib. Wm. Trenchard, Esq. 12,OOO Ib. George Thornton, Esq. - 1,500 Ib. Sir George Bourcher, 12,880 Ib. Henry Billingsley, Esq. - 11,800 Inverary, Thomas, Earl of Ormond - -^.^--(l? 3,000 259,499 85 * " Sir Walter De La Hide, knight, and his wife, the lady Gennet Eustace, were apprehended, and brought as prisoners, by master Brabson, vice-treasurer, from their town of Moi- clare, to the castle of Dublin, because their son and heir, James De La Hide, -was the only brewer of all this rebellion ; who, as the governor suspected, was set on by his mother. The knight and his wife, lying in duress for the space of twelve months, were at several times examined, and notwithstanding all pre- sumptions and surmises that could be gathered, they -were in the end found guiltless of their son his folly. But the lady 85 Cox, 393. 10 74 VINDICLE HIBERNIC^E. band ! and finally, worn down with savage treat- ment, she died in prison, of a broken heart. But the rage and malice of her persecutor followed her even after death. He, for a time, denied her corpse interment, declaring, that the carcase of the mother of such a traitor ought rather to be thrown out on a dung-hill, for ravens and dogs, than to have Christian burial. NOTE V. ON CHAPTER II. E P. 36. Remorseless cruelty. ~] The barbarity with which the English deputies pursued the natives, the depredations they perpetrated, and the havoc they made of the human species, will stand a fair comparison with the desolation per- was had in examination apart, and enticed by means to charge her husband -with her son his rebellion, who, being not won thereto, with all the means that could be wrought, -was menaced to be put to death, or TO BE RACK'T, and so with extremity to be compelled, whereas with gentleness she could not be allured to acknowledge these apparent treasons, that neither her hus- band nor she could, without great show of impudence, deny. " The gentlewoman, -with these continual storms heart-bro- ken, deceased in the castle : from thence her body was removed unto the gray friars, with the deputy his commandment, that it should not be interred, until his pleasure were further known; adding withal, that the carcase of one who was the mother of so arrant an arch-traitor, ought rather to be cast out on a dunghill, to be carrion for ravens and dogs to gnaw upon, than to be laid in any Christian grave. The corpse lying four or five days in this plight, at the request of the lady Gennet Golding, wife to Sir John White, the governor licensed that it should be bu- ried." 86 86 Hooker, apud Hollinshed, VI. 302. DESOLATION. 75 petrated by any of the destroyers of mankind, in any age or nation. The conflagration of all the towns and villages, as far as their power extend- ed, the waste of every thing that could minister to the sustenance of human life,* and the indis- * " The next dale following being the twelfe of March, the lord justice and the earle divided their armie into two several companies by two ensigns and three together, the lord justice taking the one side, and the other taking the other side of Slewlougher, and so they searched the -woods, burned the towne, and killed that date about foure hundred men, and re- turned the same night -with all the cat tell which they found that day. " And the said lords, being not satisfied -with this dale's service, they did likewise the next daie divide themselves, spoiled and consumed the whole countrie until it -was night." 81 " They passed over the same into Conilo, where the lord justice and the earl of Ormond divided their companies, and as they marched, they burned and destroyed the country ; and they both that night encamped within one mile at Kilcolman." 68 " Great were the .services which these garrisons performed : for Sir Richard Pierce and captain George Flower, with their troopes, left neither corn nor home, nor house unburnt, between Kinsale and Ross. Captain Roger Harvie, who had with him his brother, captain Gawen Harvie, captain Francis Slingsbie, captain William Stafford, with their companies of the Lord Barry and the treasurer, with the President's horse, did the like between Ross and Bantry." 89 " Immediately, and within an hour after this proclamation, the countess of Desmond came to the camp j but the camp was before dislodged from the town, and all his country forth- rvith consumed with Jire, and nothing was spared thatjire and sword could consume"* 87 Hollinshed, VI. 43O. 88 Ibid. 89 Pacata Hibernia, 645. 90 Hollinshed, VI. 424. 76 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. criminate slaughter of man, woman, and child,* are recorded by themselves, if not as acts of he- roism and glory, at least as mere matters of course. " Some were slain of the lord governor's men, though not so many, amongst whom captain Zouches trumpeter was one ; which so grieved the lord general, that he commanded all the houses, towns, and villages, in that country, and about Le- finnen, which in any way did belong to the earl of Desmond, or of any of his friends and followers, to be burned and spoiled. " Hereupon Sir Charles, with the English regiments, over- ran all Beare and Bantry, destroying all that they could jind meet for the relief of men, so as that country was wholly wasted."** ^ * " And as they went, they drove the whole country before them unto the ventrie, and by that means they preyed and took all the cattle in the country, to the number of eight thousand kine, besides horses, garrons, sheep, and goats, and all such people as they met, they did without mercy put to the sword ; by these means, the whole country having no cattle nor kine left, they were driven to such extremities, that for want of victuals they were either to die and perish for famine, or to die under the sword." 93 " The soldiers, likewise, in the camp, were so hot upon the spur, and sd eager upon tlv? vile rebels, that that day they spared neither man, woman, nor child, but all was committed to the sword" 94 " The next morning being the fourth of January, 1602, Sir Charles coming to seek the enemy in their camp, he entered into their quarter without resistance, where he found nothing but hurt and sick men, whose pains and lives by the soldiers were both determined"'* 5 91 Hollinshed, VI. 425. 92 Pacata Hibernia, 659. 63 Hollinshed, 427. 94 Idem, 430. 95 Pacata Hibernia, 659. DESOLATION. 77 And, from the scenes recorded by Hooker, Spencer, and Cox, ihrnay be said, without exag- geration, that Ireland, for a long period, was lite- rally a great human slaughter-house, where the natives were hunted down and butchered like so many wild beasts, and where many of the rulers appeared under as hideous an aspect as was ever displayed in any country, or at any period. Should this declaration appear to the reader too highly coloured, he has only to read the annexed proofs, to remove all his doubts. The wanton and wicked destruction of the fruits of the earth, expressly ordered and carried into effect to produce famine, was as fatal to the Irish, as the havoc made of the human species in the field of battle, or on the defenceless of both sexes and every age, throughout their caverns and hiding-places, where they were remorselessly pursued. It fulfilled the intentions of the' victors, and created a most deplorable famine, whereby scenes of misery were produced, of which the examples are rare.* The natives were driven, " Captain Francis Slingsby, with five hundred foot, burned, preyed, and destroyed Owny O'Mulrian's country, and did the like to East Clanwilliam, Arloghwood's, and Muskeykwick, and KILLED EVERY SOUL HE FOUND THERE." 96 * " They performed that service effectually, and brought the rebels to so low a condition, that they scnv three children eating the entrails of their dead mother, upon whose flesh they had fed twenty days, and roasted it by a slow fire ; and it was a 9<5 .Cox, 434. 78 VINDICLE HIBERNIC^E. as Hooker states, not only to eat horses, dogs, and dead carrion, but human flesh, and even to take carcasses from their graves.* It is a fact manifest, that some older people had been in that starving con- dition, that they murdered and eat children, for a long time together, and were at last discovered and executed for that barbarity. In short, the famine of Jerusalem did net exceed that amongst the rebels of Ireland" 9 '' * " And as for the great companies of soldiers, gallowglas- ses, kerne, and the common people, who followed this rebellion, the numbers of them are infinite,, whose bloods the earth drank up, and whose carcasses the fowls of the air and the ravening beasts of the field did consume and devour. After this followed an extreme famine : and such whom the sword did not destroy, the same did consume and eat out ; very few or none remaining alive, excepting such as were fled over into England : and yet the store in the towns was far spent, and they in distress, al- beit nothing like in comparison to them who lived at large ; for they were not only driven to eat horses, dogs, and dead car- rions ; but also did devour the carcasses of dead men, whereof there be sundry examples ; namely, one in the county of Cork, where, -when a malefactor was executed to death, and his body left upon the gallows, certain poor people secretly came, took him down, and did eat him; likewise in the bay of Smeereweeke, or St. Marieweeke, the place which was first seasoned with this rebellion, there happened a ship to be there lost, through foul weather, and all the men being drowned, were there cast on land. " The common people, who had a long time lived on lim- pets, orewads, and such shell-fish as they could find, and which were now spent ; as soon as they saw these bodies, they took them up, and most greedily did eat and devoure them : and not long after, death and famine did eat and consume them. The land itselfe, which before those wars was populous, well inha- bited, and rich in all the good blessings of God, being plente- 97 Cox, 449. DESOLATION. 79 worthy of observation, that Spencer coolly and deliberately proposed a plan for reducing the country, by the introduction of a new famine, which would force the natives " to devour one an- other"* and renew the horrible scenes that had ous of corne, full of cattell, well stored with fish and sundrie other good commodities, is now become -waste and barren, yielding no fruits, the pastures no cattell, the fields no corne, the aire no birds, the seas (though full of fish) yet to them yielding nothing. Finallie, every waie the curse of God was so great, and the land so barren both of man and beast, that whosoever did travell from the one end to the other of all Munster, even from Waterford to the head of Smeerweeke, which is about six score miles, he -would not meet ante man, woman, or child, saving in townes and cities ; nor yet see anie beast, but the very wolves, the foxes, and other like ravening beasts ; many of them laie dead, being famished, and the re- sidue gone elsewhere." 98 * " The end will (I assure me) bee very short, and much sooner than it can be in so great a trouble, as it seemeth hoped for, although there should none of them fall by the sword, nor bee slain by the souldiour ; yet thus being kept from manu- rance, and their cattle from running abroad, by this hard re- straint they would quietly consume themselves, and devour e one another ; the proofe whereof I saw sufficiently in these late warres of Munster ; for notwithstanding' that the same -was a most rich and plentiful countrey, full of corn and cattle, that you would have thought they should have been able to stand long, yet in one yeare and a halfe they were brought to such -wretchednesse, as that any stony heart -would have rued the same. Out of every corner of the -woods and glynnes they came creeping forth upon their handes, for their legges could not beare them ; they looked like anatomies of death ; they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves ; they did eate the dead carrions, happy -where they could find them, yea, and one an- 98 Hollinshed, VI. 459. 80 VINDICL2E HIBERNIC^E. taken place during, and subsequent to, the hosti- lities against the earl of Desmond and his adhe- rents, of which he draws such a hideous picture as makes the hair stand on end. There is no- thing in the horrors of the French revolution, to exceed the calamitous events of this war of exter- mination. NOTE VI. ON CHAPTER II. F P. 36. Better suited incarnate demons."] To palliate those enormities, of which the pre- ceding notes afford some slight specimens, and to prove that the Irish were undeserving of any other fate than what they suffered, the English writers have exhausted the powers of language, in their reprobation and reproaches of the nation. From their accounts, it would appear that they "were among the worst of the human species,* other soone after, insomuch as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves ; and if they found a plot of water-cresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time ; yet not able long to continue therewithall ; that in short space there were none almost left, ana a most popu- lous and plentiful country SUDDAINLY LEFT VOYDE OF MAN AND BEAST." 99 * " And here you may see the nature and disposition of this wicked, effrenated, barbarous, and unfaithful nation, who (as Cambrensis writeth of them) they are a wicked and perverse generation, constant in that they be always inconstant, faithful in that they be always unfaithful, trusty in that they be always 99 Spencer, 165. CALUMNY. 81 and combined together nearly all the bad quali- ties of all other nations. Among the most treacherous and untrusty. They do nothing but imagine mis- chief, and have no delight in any good thing. They are always working wickedness against the good, and such as be quiet in the land. Their mouths are full of unrighteousness, and their tongues speak nothing but curses. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their hands imbrued in the blood of innocents. The ways of peace they know not, and in the paths of righteousness they walk not. God is not known in their land ; neither is his name called rightly upon among them : their queen and sovereign they obey not ; and her government they allow not : but as much as in them lieth, do resist her imperial crown and dignity. It was not much above a year past, that captain Gil- bert with the sword so persecuted them, and in justice so exe- cuted them, that then they in all humbleness submitted them- selves, craved pardon, and swore to be for ever true and obe- dient ; for such a perverse nature they are of, that they will be no longer honest and obedient, than that they cannot be suf- fered to be rebels. Such is their stubbornness and pride, that with a continual fear it must be bridled ; and such is the hard- ness of their hearts, that with the rod it must still be chastised and subdued j for no longer fear, no longer obedience ; and no longer than they be ruled with severity, no longer will they be dutiful and in subjection ; but will 5e, as they were before, false, truce-breakers, and traitorous. Being not much unlike to mercury, called quicksilver, which let it by art be ne'er so much altered and transposed, yea and with fire consumed to ashes j yet let it but rest awhile untouched, nor meddled with, it will return again to its own nature, and be the same as it was at the first : and even so, daily experience teacheth it to be true, in these people. For -withdraw the sword, and for- bear correction, deal with them in courtesie, and intreat them gently, if they can take any advantage, they will surely skip out; and as the dog to his vomit, and the sow to the dirt and 11 82 V1ND1CIJE II1BERNICJE. f rancorous and envenomed of those calumniators, Giraldus Cambrensis and Hooker claim a distin- guished place. puddle, they will return to their old and former insolence, re- bellion, and disobedience." 101 101 Hooker, apud Hollinshed, VI. 369. CHAPTER III. Subject continued. Subornation. One thousand bills of indictment found in two days. Confis- cation on a large scale. " Wo to them that devise iniquity, because it is in the power of their hand ; and they covet fields, and take them by violence ; and houses, and take them away : so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heri- tage." Micah ii. 1, 2. I DO not pretend that all the depositions carry their own condemnation indelibly stamped on their foreheads, like those quoted in the pre- ceding chapter. No : it would be very extraor- dinary indeed, if, among the army of perjurers, who were suborned for the purpose of swearing away the lives of the pre-condemned Irish, there were none who could frame a consistent story. But there is so much of undeniable fraud, and falsehood, and perjury established in the evi- dence, as to discredit the whole. He who swears that a man was "cw, and hacked, and his entrails taken out, without bleeding" 102 must be a perjurer : but it does not thence follow, that he would have been other than a perjurer, had he omitted the miraculous part of the story. 102 Temple, 88. 84 V1NDICI& HIBERNIC&. I said, " suborned for the purpose of swearing away the lives of the Irish." This is not a rhe- torical flourish, calculated to delude or to deceive the reader. It is a melancholy and heart-rending truth, that such was the depraved and deplorable state of the morality of the administration in Ire- land, that money was lavished to purchase evi- dence for the nefarious purpose above stated. And so barefacedly and profligately was this trade of corruption carried on, so totally lost were the privy council to all sense of principle and decency, and so well was their character esta- blished on this point, that one of the agents em- ployed in the business of subornation, actually applied to them, in their public capacity, for the wages of his iniquity. This single fact, establish- ed on the unimpeachable evidence of the duke of Ormond,* would of itself be sufficient to induce * " Indictments had been found against them" [Lord Dunsa- ny, Sir John Netterville, and other noblemen and gentlemen of high standing] " and ABOVE A THOUSAND OTHERS, by a grand jury, IN THE SPACE OF TWO DAYS. There was certainly too much hurry in the finding of these indictments, (of which above three thousand were upon record) to allow time for the exami- nation of each particular case, and they were too generally found upon very slight evidence. The Roman Catholics com- plained that there were strange practices used with the jurors, menaces to some^ promises of rewards, AND PARTS OF THE FORFEITED ESTATES ', and though great numbers of the indict- ed persons might be really guilty, there was too much reason given to suspect the evidence. I am the more inclined to sus- pect there was a good deal of corruption and iniquity in the methods of gaining the indictments^ because I find a very re- SUBORNATION. 85 the world, in any other history than that of Ire- land, to reject the whole of the evidence, even if it extended to one hundred folio volumes, instead of thirty-two, which are swelled to this immode- rate extent, by silly tales of what "this body heard another body say." 103 But the history of Ireland is an exception to all the general rules on the subject of history. The allegations against the Irish have been so often reiterated, so deep- rooted has been the hatred excited against the nation, and so deplorable has been the credulity of the world on this topic, that a fabulous tale, resting wholly on such incongruities and absurdi- ties as we have seen, has been adopted, without investigation, by nine-tenths of those who have written on English or Irish affairs : and there are in this country, as well as in England, many, even among those who pride themselves on the extent of their reading, who are so far duped as to give as implicit credit to the story of the hundred and fifty-four thousand murdered in Ulster alone in markable memorandum made by the marquis of Ormond, in his own writing, of a passage in the Council, on April 23, 1643. There was then a letter read at the Board, from a person who claimed a great merit to himself, in getting some hundreds of gentlemen indicted, and the rather for that he had laid out sums of money to procure witnesses to give evidence to a jury, for the finding those indictments. This was an intimate friend of Sir William Parsons, and might very well know that such methods would be approved by him." 104 103 Warner, 146. 104 Carte, I. 423. 86 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. three months, as to the account of the revolution of 1688, or the accession of the Hanoverian fa- mily to the throne of England. I trust the reader will well weigh, and ponder on, the naked detail contained in the preceding note, which exhibits a scene of atrocity unparal- leled in the history of fraud, forgery, and perjury. What a stupendous, what a sickening fact is the finding of one thousand bills of indictment in two days ! And, be it observed, these bills were prin- cipally against the wealthy classes, the " noble- men, gentlemen, and freeholders." 105 These were the men whom it was worth while to indict, men whose estates would recompense the trou- ble, pay for the subornation of hired witnesses, and sate the avarice of the prime movers of the business. Above one thousand bills of indictment in two days ! Suppose the jury sat twelve hours in each day, from six in the morning till six in the even- ing, without obeying any of the calls of hunger, it was at the rate of forty-two bills in an hour, or two every three minutes. Well may Carte observe, that they did not " allow time for the examination of each particular case." This is a most feeble mode of stating the affair, which he ought to have stigmatized in terms of the strong- est reprobation. He might have said, and with perfect truth, that they did not " allow time to 105 Carte, I. 454. SUBORNATION. 87 read the bills, and little more than was necessary to sign them." They must have been huddled over en masse, barely reading the titles, mark- ing them true bills, (how true, heaven knows) and annexing the names of the jurors. And these bills of indictment (who can read the fact without shuddering?) decided on the lives and fortunes of the principal of the " nobili- ty, gentry, and freeholders" of Ireland, of whom, on these, and indictments equally just and honour- able, " two thousand were prosecuted to outlawry by Sir Philip Percival, clerk of the crown," 106 and their estates confiscated. Will it be deemed extravagant, to assert that the annals of the world can produce no similar circumstance, and that never was rampant and profligate injustice so completely triumphant ? This was the time, when, in those halls nick- named courts of justice, " the benches," (to use the strong and energetic language of the duke of Ormond, in his speech to the Irish Parliament) - were crowded or oppressed with the throng and wicked-height of those who ought rather to have stood manacled at the bar." 107 How deplo- rable the case of a noble nation, exposed to the " tender mercies" of such juries and such judges ! I intended to have closed this chapter with the above paragraph ; but it appears that some fur- ther reflections are demanded on the subject. It 100 Carte, I. 454. 107 Borlase, App. 84. 88 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. \ may not be improper, indeed it appears indis- pensable, to consider what is the nature of a bill of indictment, what are the duties of a grand jury who are to decide on it, and what are its conse- quences ? Answers to these inquiries will bring the subject so fully before the reader, as to awaken him to the true character of the proce- dure which has occupied the chief place in this chapter. According to Jacob's Law Dictionary, "An in- dictment is an inquisition taken and made by twelve men at the least, who are thereunto sworn, whereby they find and present that such a person, of such a place, in such a county, and of such a degree, hath committed such a treason, felony, trespass, or other offence, against the peace of the king, his crown, and dignity." 108 The accusation is delivered to the grand jury, who are SWORN to determine on the probable guilt or innocence of the party accused, according to the evidence brought by the proper officer to support the charge. Could the jury, who thus found trrcKhousand bills of indictment in two days, have heard the evidence ? Certainly not. Did they not there- fore violate their oaths ? Yes. What were they then ? Perjurers. Was not the blood of every man, whom then- perjury led to the scaffold, on their heads ? Indubitably. 108 Jacob, III. 401. MARTIAL LAW. 89 Were not the judges under oath to administer justice correctly ? When they received such bills, were they not likewise perjured ? Was not the blood of the victims equally to be laid to their charge? Most assuredly. In ordinary cases, the perjuries of grand juries, however flagitious, are of no great importance, but as respects their own guilt, provided the tra- verse juries be upright and independent. "Not so in that horrible age of perjury. There was hardly any traverse jury used : for the dread of the rack, and the exercise of martial law,* had so terrified the Roman Catholics, that they did not dare to venture into Dublin,f which was a complete den of murder. * " The prisons of that city [Dublin] were now filled with prisoners : and, as the government increased in strength, were likely to be more crowded every day. It was troublesome, chargeable, and inconvenient to keep them, because of the con- sumption which it occasioned of victuals ; which were already grown very scarce, and their numbers might prove dangerous, for which reason the lords justices resolved to thin them. It was difficult, or rather impossible, for want of freeholders, to find juries in the proper counties where the crimes were acted ; so that there was no bringing these persons to a legal trial. In this necessity, it was determined to cause a considerable num- ber of them to be executed by martial law." 109 f " It was certainly a miserable spectacle, to see every day numbers of people executed by martial law, at the discretion, or rather caprice, of Sir Charles Coote, a hot-headed and bloody man, and as such accounted even by the English and Protes- tants. Yet this was the man whom the lords justices picked 109 Carte, I. 278. 12 90 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. This inference further follows, from the strong and unequivocal circumstance, that of three thou- sand persons indicted, as above stated, by Sir Phi- lip Percival, there were two-thirds who did not appear, and were prosecuted to outlawry in then- absence.* Thus, for those two thousand men, there was no more use of a traverse jury than if no such body ever existed. Would that I had the tongue of a Demosthenes, or a Curran, or a Henry, or the pen of a Burke or a Dickinson, to spread this truth before an astounded world, that, on this species of evidence, one foul, bloated mass of fraud and perjury, rests the thousand-times-told story of " the execrable Irish Rebellion." The man who, knowing theSe out to entrust with a commission of martial law, to put to death rebels and traitors, that is, all such as he should deem to be so ; which he performed with delight, and a wanton kind of cruelty : and yet, all this while, the justices sat in council ; and the judges, in the usual season, sat in their respective courts, spectators of, and countenancing, so extravagant a tri- bunal as Sir Charles Coote's, and so illegal an execution of justice." 110 * " Whatever difficulties there were in the case, the lords justices were equal to them all ; and carried on the prosecution with great vigour, causing indictments to be preferred not only against open and declared rebels, but also against others -who were barely suspected: and, as there was nobody to make de- fence, nor any great delicacy used, either in the choice of the jury, or in the character and credit of the -witnesses, and one witness sufficed, such indictments were readily found. mn 110 Castlehaven, apud Carte, I. 279. 1U Carte, I, MANDEVILLE, MTJNCHAUSEN, AND TEMPLE. 91 things, gives credit to the fable, ought to be con- fined for life to the edifying perusal of the voy- ages and travels of Sir John Mandeville, of Baron Munchausen, and their illustrious compeer, Sir John Temple. CHAPTER IV. Three civil wars. Different degrees of provoca- tion. Different results. " Dat veniam corvis ; vexat censura columbas." 112 HE must be a superficial reader or observer, who requires to be informed how very different the reception the world affords to, how different the rewards and punishments it bestows on, acts absolutely similar. Instances occur daily, in pub- lic and private life : and among the extraordinary circumstances of the economy of human affairs, this is the most difficult to account for, or to re- concile to our ideas of eternal justice. The three kingdoms subject to the crown of England, were the theatres of civil war, almost cotemporaneously. The consequences' to the actors during their existence, and to their fame with posterity, were as different as light and darkness. Those who had every possible justifi- cation, on whom had been perpetrated almost every species of outrage, paid the heaviest forfeit in fortune and in cotemporaneous and posthu- mous fame : whilst those whose grievances were comparatively insignificant, attained, living and dead, the highest honours, and many of them 112 Juvenal. THREE CIVIL. WARS. 93 aggrandized themselves to the full extent of their utmost wishes. This is not exactly as it should be : and though it is almost too late to correct the prevalent errors on the subject, to wash away the foul stains which avarice, religious bigotry, and national rancour, impressed on the sufferers, and though I may not therefore fully succeed, yet the attempt to effect these great objects can hardly be otherwise than useful. Charles I. a bigot and a despot by education, wickedly endeavoured to force a new religion on the Scotch. In this, he only followed the exam- ples of his predecessors, Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, who had successively either forced or persuaded their servile parliaments four times, in the course of about thirty years, to change the established religion. Let it be observed, however, that the new religion was not the antipodes of the old one, as had been the. case with the changes of Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth. The new religion bore many kindred features of the old : in points of doctrine they were nearly sisters, although there was the most marked difference in the church government. But I repeat, the difference be- tween the religion that Edward, Mary, and Eli- zabeth found " by law established" and that they " established by law" was incalculably greater than between the religion of Scotland at the ac- cession of Charles I. and the religion he attempt- ed to force on his subjects. 94 V1ND1CIJL HJBERNICJE. An important consideration must not be passed over here. The Scotch laboured under hardly any other grievance than the contemplated inno- vation in their religion : their persons and pro- perty were sacred. They resisted the despotic and wicked inter- ference between them and their God : they were in the right : their cause was good. It is not given by the living God to any of the sons of men to force the religious worship of his fellow- men ; and the attempt to change their religious opinions, is as transcendently absurd as would be the effort to " change the hue of the dusky Ethi- op." Brutal force, as has been long since ob- served, may coerce men into apparent conformity ; but it never made a convert yet, and never will: it is fated to produce only martyrs or hypocrites. The evil destiny of Charles induced him to raise forces to subdue the refractory Scotch. They obeyed the first law of human nature, the law of self-preservation. They raised forces to defend themselves ; and finally triumphed over the aggressor, and extorted from him a grant of every demand they chose to make. He was to- tally foiled ; and retired from the contest, over- whelmed with shame and disgrace. What has been the result, as respects the Scotch ? They were honoured during their lives ; were rewarded by the English Parliament with three hundred thousand pounds, and twenty-five thousand pounds monthly, for "their brotherly THREE CIVIL. WARS. 95 assistance ;" A and now stand in history as men who embarked in a holy cause, and were resolved to die or be free. In 1642, a civil war took place in England, on various grounds, into the detail of which it is ir- relevant to my present purpose to enter. That Charles I. was, in the first fifteen years of his reign, an arbitrary despot, that the proceedings in the Star-Chamber Court were equally tyrannical and cruel, that the fines in that court were op- pressive, the punishments frequently most barbar- ous, the exactions of ship-money, tonnage, and poundage, illegal and unjust; and that they requir- ed and justified resistance, none but a cringing slave, deserving of the despot's lash, will deny. But it is impossible to read the history of -that dark and disastrous period, with calmness and candour, without being convinced that all the substantial grievances of the nation were removed, and am- ply-adequate mounds established to guard against a recurrence of them, before a single soldier was raised, a single drop of blood shed, or a single step taken towards civil war or rebellion. In no country whatever was liberty more adequately secured, than it was by the laws enacted from the commencement of the Long Parliament, in No- vember, 1640, till February, 1642. With every demand of Parliament during that period, Charles complied ; sometimes, it is true, very reluctantly, and with an ill grace. But, till then' claim of the power over the militia, he had refused them no- thing. 96 VINDICIJE The English, nevertheless, took up arms. Civil war spread its horrors over the nation, with its hideous train of demoralization and devastation. Torrents of blood were shed ; conflagration, rape, rapine, and murder, prowled at large ; the foun- dations of society were shaken : and the melan- choly result was, to place the sceptre in the hand, and the crown on the head, of Cromwell, an un- principled, canting hypocrite; and, after his death, to establish passive obedience and non-resistance, by an odious positive law, under one of the most licentious and profligate monarchs that ever dis- graced the throne of England. And thus the leaders of that large, powerful, and respectable party that struggled for the liberties of the Eng- lish nation, actually paved the way for a far worse state of things than existed at the period when the contest commenced. 3 To their intemperate violence, imprudence, and deficiency of political foresight, their country owed all its sufferings under the scandalous reign of Charles II. the very worst of the despicable race of the Stuarts. Had they stopped short, when they drew the teeth, and pared the nails, of despotism, when they traced the strong line of demarcation be- tween tyranny on one side, and anarchy on the other, they would have deserved eternal re- membrance, and have conferred lasting and in- estimable blessings on their country. And their improvidence places at then* door, all the havoc and ruin, the demoralization, and destruction, of HARD FATE OF IRELAND. 97 a seven years' war, the failure of a noble expe- riment in favour of the rights of human nature, as well as the triumph they afforded to the friends of absolute power, by the odious abuse of liberty. These stains can never be washed away. What has been the result as to the actors on this stage ? They are to this day regarded with the highest veneration, by the most enlightened part of man- kind. Their follies, their vices, their crimes, are buried in eternal oblivion. Their resistance to lawless tyranny has immortalized them. The Irish, at the same period, suffered almost every species of the most grinding, odious, and revolting despotism that can be conceived. They were subjected to heavy penalties, for worship- ping God according to the dictates of their con- sciences, or for not attending #n a worship which they were taught to execrate ; they were robbed of their estates by high-handed and flagitious tyranny and fraud ; they were subject to martial law, with aH its horrors, in time of profound peace ; their juries were ruinously fined, and mutilated in their persons, for not finding ver- dicts against the plainest dictates of justice ; their churches were demolished, or rapaciously seized by their oppressors ; their children were torn from their natural guardians, and transferred to the care of worthless strangers, who squandered their estates, and brought them up in habits of licentiousness : in a word, it is difficult to conr 13 98 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. ceive of any species of oppression which they did not endure. They were goaded into insurrection. And if ever resistance of lawless outrage and tyranny were loudly and imperiously called for, if ever the standard of freedom claimed the sympathies of mankind, the Irish standard had an indisputable title to it. And what has been the result ? Their most illustrious families were reduced to beggary; their estates, to the amount of millions of acres, were confiscated ; above half a million of the na- tives were slaughtered, banished, or perished by famine and the plague,* the consequence of the ruthless and savage ferocity with which they were pursued by their enemies ; and they were covered with obloquy and abuse, during their lives ; their memory has been detested ; and the crimes false- ly alleged against them, have been visited upon their descendants to the fourth and fifth genera- tion, in the odious form of the vile code of laws, " to prevent the growth of Popery." The reader is requested to suspend his opinion on the subject of this statement, which is proba- bly diametrically opposite to the opinions he has entertained from his youth. Ample proofs will be developed, in the chapters which immediately follow the present one. The most rigid scrutiny * " About 504,000 of the Irish perished, and were wasted by the sword, plague, famine, hardship, and banishment, be- tween the 23d of October, 1641, and the same day, 1652." 113 113 Petty, 18^ IRELAND AND AMERICA. 99 is earnestly invited ; and assent is deprecated, and will be rejected, if the testimony be not decisive and overwhelming. On the subject of the monstrous, absurd, im- probable, and impossible legends of the massacre by the Irish, I have already slightly touched, and shall reserve for future chapters a more full de- tection of them. I now confine myself to the sim- ple circumstance of the insurrection itself, strip- ped of all its horrors, real or pretended. And I dare aver, that if ever, from the creation of the world, there was a holy, sacred insurrection, an insurrection warranted by every law, divine or human, this was pre-eminently so. Further : if the leaders of the Irish insurgents, who attempted to shake off the tyranny of England, were traitors and rebels, then were William Tell, Maurice, Prince of Orange, Pym, Hambden, and Sydney, traitors and rebels. One step further : if these Irishmen were traitors and rebels, Randolph, Henry, Hancock, Adams, Dickinson, Livingston, Lee, Rutledge, Clinton, and Washington himself, were traitors and rebels ; and not merely traitors and rebels, but traitors and rebels of the most atrocious kind ; as the difference between the grievances that Washington and his illustrious compeers rose to redress, and those under which Ireland groaned, is very nearly as great as that between the liberty and happiness of an American citizen, and the abject state of the subjects of Turkish despotism. Indeed, if the Irish insurgents 1 , 100 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. were traitors and rebels, then every man, in every age and country, who ever dared to raise his arm against oppression, was a traitor and a rebel. This is strong language, which will doubtless be in direct hostility with the prejudices of a large portion of my readers. From then* prejudices, I appeal to their reason and candour ; and if the decision be made by these respectable arbiters, 1 feel no doubt about the issue. For, to confine myself to the American revolution, will any man, not lost to decency or common sense, dare to commit himself, by comparing the grievances of America with those of Ireland? a two-penny tax on tea, with the court of wards, the Star- Chamber, the high commission court, the flagiti- ous plunder of the whole province of Ulster, the attempt to confiscate the whole province of Con- naught, the seizure of their churches, the banish- ment of their priests, the persecution of their re- ligion, the restriction of their trade, the execution of martial law, in a word, the endless detail of the most grievous oppression on record ? If then the despotic and lawless imposition of a paltry tax on tea, warranted the subject in drawing the sword, and commencing a civil war, surely it is not as- suming much, to say that the oppressions of Ireland warranted it far more. Indeed, it may be averred, and the decision submitted to any bar of enlightened men in Christendom, that were all the oppressions suffered by the American pro- vinces, from the first landing of the pilgrims to BROTHERLY ASSISTANCE. 101 the declaration of independence, aggregated into one solid mass, and all the oppressions of Eng- land, under the Stuarts, thrown in to swell the amount, they would not equal. the grievances suffered by the Irish, during the reigns of James I. and Charles I. And it is, moreover, hardly pos- sible to find, in the history of Ireland, from the invasion of Henry II. till the Union, any five consecutive years, in which the Irish had not greater ground for insurrection and resistance to the English government, than England could plead in 1688, or America in 1775 or 1776. H NOTE I. ON CHAPTER IV. A P. 95. Brotherly assistance.] This very extraordinary fact has attracted the attention of few readers of English history. The money paid to the Scotch on this occasion, is generally con- founded with the arrears paid them about five years afterwards, when they delivered Charles I. into the hands of the Parliament, after he had fled to then 1 camp before Newark, on the final downfal of his affairs. This is a very great error : for, on the 2 1st of May, 1641, a resolution was passed in the English House of Commons, which explicitly voted this sum to the Scotch, under 102 VINDICUE HIBERNICJE. the very remarkable title of " brotherly assis- tance-"* ..oi^CjU^ Thus that very Parliament which so rancorous- ly pursued the.Irislvto their utter ruin, and to the scaffold, for resistance to tyranny, lavished the wealth of their constituents on the Scotch, for similar resistance, without a tenth part of the provocation. If this do not warrant the motto of the crows and the pigeons, at the head of this chapter, it is truly wonderful. A singular circumstance occurred, on taking the vote for the " brotherly assistance." Mr. Jer- vase Hollis, in a debate on the best and speediest means of their payment, having said, " that he knew no better or fitter than by English arms to expel them the kingdom," was called to the bar, and expelled the house. 114 Times soon changed. The Scotch, then such favourites, fell into disgrace in a few years. By *May 21, 1641. " Resolved, &c. That the whole arrear of 120,0007. be pre- sently paid to the Scots, out of which the due debts of the counties are to be deducted; and for the brotherly assistance o/300,000/. it shall be settled and secured by the kingdom to them." 115 " As a testimony of their brotherly affections, the two Houses had frankly undertaken to give them a gratuity of three hundred thousand pounds, over and above the twenty- five thousand pounds the month, during the time their stay should be necessary." 116 114 Frankland, 900. 115 Nalson, II. 255. 116 Clarendon's E. I. 266. ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 103 a vote of the House of Commons, ten years after- wards, fifteen hundred of the prisoners of that nation were sold or given away to the Guinea merchants, to work in the mines.* NOTE II. ON CHAPTER IV. B P. 96. Ji far worse slate of things than ex- isted at the period when the contest commenced.'] It requires but little reflection or observation, to discover a considerable resemblance between the issue of this contest, and that of the late re- volution in France ; and that the leaders in both countries fell into exactly the same species of error, with results not very dissimilar. Had the Parliament of England stopped short at the point stated in the text, the liberties of that nation would have been placed, in 1642, on a far better and more secure foundation, than they acquired at the so-much-extolled revolu- tion in 1688, when, on the abdication of the bigot James, they called in a foreign prince to rule them, with hardly any stipulation what- ever in favour of liberty. And it is equally ob- vious, that had the French leaders rested content, when they gave the king a veto on the acts of * September 20, 1651. " Upon the desire of the Guinea merchants, fifteen hundred of the Scots prisoners were granted to them, and sent on ship- hoard, to be sent to Guinea, to work in the mines there." 117 117 Whitelock, 485. 104 VINDTCLK HIBERNICJE. the legislature, similar to what exists in England or the United States, the nation and the world at large would have been prodigiously benefited : and an incalculable waste of human happiness and wealth, rivers of blood, and millions of lives, would have been spared. But, according to the wise aphorism of the ex-president Adams, " Every age will make 'experience for itself." ( 105 ) CHAPTER V. State of Ireland, under James, I. and Charles I. previous to 1641. Awful credulity or impos- ture. Rancorous spirit of persecution. Sacri- legious burglary and robbery, by the archbishop, mayor, and recorder of Dublin. " Quis custodiet ipsos custodes ?" PREVIOUS to entering on the discussion of the insurrection of l$4l, it is highly proper to cast a glance on the state of the nation previous to that event. In order to aggravate as much as possible the guilt of the Irish, in what is styled " the execrable rebellion of 1641," and more completely to ex- pose them to detestation, almost every writer, who has either professedly treated this subject, or touched it incidentally, has drawn a most flat- tering picture of the peace, prosperity, and hap- piness of Ireland, for forty previous years. It requires no deep research to discover, that the motive is to inspire a belief, that the insurrection was as wanton and unprovoked in its origin, as they have endeavoured to make it appear bar- barous and sanguinary in its progress. 14 106 VINDIGLE HIBERNICJE. In this object they have been crowned with success : for the general impression is, that Ire- land, during the reigns of James I. and his son Charles I. enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, to which she has been an utter stranger, from the day of the invasion by Henry II. when lust and faction laid the island prostrate at the feet of a foreign foe, to the present hour. Sir John Temple first broached this deceptious tale. He states, that for forty years the two na- tions had lived together in peace, and been con- solidated into one body, as one nation ; that the Roman Catholics enjoyed the private exercise of their religious rites without molestation ; and that none of the penalties of the laws against their re- ligion were inflicted.* * " The two nations had now lived together forty years ii\ peace, with great security and comfort, which had in a manner consolidated them into one body, knit and compacted together with all those bonds and ligatures of friendship, alliance, and consanguinity, as might make up a constant and perpetual union between them. " Their priests, Jesuits, and friars, without any manner of restraint^ had quietly settled themselves in all the chief towns, villages, noblemen's and private gentlemen's houses, through- out the kingdom: so as the private exercise of ALL. THEIR RELIGIOUS RITES AND CEREMONIES was freely enjoyed by them, without any manner of disturbance, and not any of the laws put in execution, whereby heavy penalties were to be inflicted upon transgressors in that kind." 118 118 Temple, 15. DECEPTIOUS PORTRAIT. 107 This statement is copied and enlarged, by Clarendon,* Carte,f Warner, and Leland. They * " Taxes, tallages, and contributions were things hardly known to them by their names. Whatsoever their land, labour, or industry produced was their own, being not only free from fear of having it taken from them by the king, upon any pre- tence whatsoever, without their own consent ; but also secured against thieves and robbers, by due execution of good laws, that men might and did travel over all the parts of the king- dom, with great sums of money, unguarded and unconcealed. " The whole nation enjoyed an undisturbed exercise of their religion : and even in Dublin, where the seat of the king's chief governor was, they went as publicly and uninterruptedly to their devotions, as he went to his. The bishops, priests, and all degrees and orders of secular and regular clergy, were known to be, and exercise their functions amongst them : and though there were some laws against them still in force, which necessity and the wisdom of former ages had caused to be enacted, to suppress those acts of treason and rebellion which the people frequently fell into, and the policy of present times kept unrepealed, to prevent the like distempers and designs, yet the edge of those laws was so totally rebated by the cle- mency and compassion of the king, that NO MAN COULD SAY HE HAD SUFFERED PREJUDICE OR DISTURBANCE ON AC- COUNT OF HIS RELIGION, which is another kind of indulgence than subjects professing a faith contrary to what is established by the law of the land, can boast of in any other kingdom of the world. In this blessed condition of peace and security, the English and Irish, the Protestants and Roman Catholics, lived mingled together in all the provinces of the kingdom, quietly trafficking with one another, during the whole happy reign of James : and from his death, every degree of their happiness was increased and improved under the government of his late majesty." 119 f " The kingdom had enjoyed a continued peace of near forty years, during which the ancient animosities between the Irish 119 Clarendon's I. 7, 8. 108 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. freely borrow not merely each other's sentiments, but their very phraseology. Lord Clarendon and Warner go much farther than the others ; who, so far as religion is concerned in the question, only assert that the private exercise of it was permitted; whereas, lord Clarendon asserts, in the most unqualified manner, that the whole na- tion enjoyed an undisturbed exercise of their reli- gion : and even in Dublin, they went as publicly and as uninterruptedly to their devotions, as the king's chief governor himself to his. Warner bor- rows this sentiment from lord Clarendon, but qualifies it in a small degree. He says " they went, though not as publicly, yet as uninterrupt- edly, as the governor to their devotions" To this statement, the doctor makes, with Clarendon, this extraordinary addition ; that " the edge of the laws against the Roman Catholics was so totally rebated by the lenity of the go- vernment, that not a single man could say that he had suffered any prejudice or disturbance for and the English seemed to have been buried, and both nations cemented, and as it were consolidated together, by intermar- riages, alliances, consanguinity, gossippings, and festerings, (the two last being relations of great force and dearness among the Irish) and by a continued intercourse of acts of hospitality, service, and friendship : lands had been improved, traffic in- creased, and the kingdom in general raised to a more flourish- ing condition than it had ever known. THE ROMAN CATHO- LICS ENJOYED THE QJJIET EXERCISE OF THEIR RELIGION, IN A PRIVATE WAY." 121 120 Warner, 2. ul Carte, I. 153. MANIFEST INCONSISTENCY. 109 his religion." 122 It is hoped that the reader will bear this averment strongly in memory, through- out the succeeding pages, as well as lord Claren- don's "undisturbed exercise :" and I shall be most miserably disappointed, if the facts to be laid be- fore him do not impair, if not wholly destroy, his confidence in the noble as well as the reverend writer. Neither Temple's nor Clarendon's histories furnish any contradiction of these sweeping statements ; so that, though erroneous, they are not inconsistent with themselves. But the declarations of Carte, Warner, and Leland, are in the most direct hostility with facts adduced throughout their own works : and, however ex- traordinary it may appear, my principal, if not my sole reliance for then* overwhelming refuta- tion, shall be on these three writers themselves. This is another instance of a peculiar feature in Irish history, which I have already noticed, that the facts and inductions of the writers, even of those, i most celebrated, frequently destroy each other. Either the facts must be wholly unfounded, or the inductions unwarranted. The happiness, of which we have read such glowing descriptions, may be regarded under va- rious points of view. Passing over those of minor importance, I shall confine myself to the four principal, 122 Warner, 2. I 10 V1NDICL*: H1BERNIC. 1 . Freedom in the exercise of their religion. 2. Security of person. 3. Security of property. And 4. A fair representation in Parliament. If the Irish enjoyed these solid advantages, when the insurrection commenced, then they deserved all the horrors inflicted on them, in the varied shapes of confiscation, proscription, pesti- lence, famine, and indiscriminate slaughter : and the writers whom I have quoted are justified completely in their assertions. But if they were, as I hope to prove, persecuted for the exercise of their religion, insecure in their persons, despoiled of their property, and mocked with a corrupt, packed, prostitute parliament ; then are the statements of this host of authorities destitute of credibility : and they will in this instance, as in so many others, stand convicted of carelessness, credulity, or imposture. Their assertions, though propped up by the imposing titles of their noble and reverend authors, will, or, were they sup- ported by the whole house of peers, including the bench of bishops, would, have no weight with men of independent minds, among whom, it is hoped, this work will find many readers. I shall examine these items separately ; and commence with a view of the state of religious freedom in Ireland. I undertake to prove, I. That the law imposing penalties on persons refusing to take the oath of supremacy, or not GRIEVANCES DETAILED. Ill attending service in a Protestant church on Sun- days, was rigorously enforced. II. That juries, who would not find hills of in- dictment against Roman Catholics for this non- attendance, were brought before the Star-Chamber for the offence, as it was termed, and subjected to the injustice and severity of that odious tri- bunal. III. That the heirs of Roman Catholics were torn from the protection of their natural guar- dians, and delivered to strangers, frequently worthless and profligate, who neglected their education, suffered them to grow up in abandon- ed and dissolute habits, and depredated on their property. IV. That the Roman Catholics suffered a num- ber of most grievous and oppressive disqualifica- tions, in consequence of their adherence to their religion. V. That the Roman Catholic clergy were banished the kingdom by proclamation. VI. That, in the exercise of their religious worship, they were assailed by a band of soldiers, by order of the lord deputy, their altars sacri- legiously destroyed, and their church property feloniously purloined. VII. That their chapels were rapaciously seized by the government, and one of them razed to the ground, in the city of Dublin, as a punishment for their attendance on public worship. 112 YINDICLE IIIBERNICJE. POINTS I. $ II. To prove these points, 1 refer first to Leland. who states, that " when bills of indictment were presented against recusants, and were not found by the grand juries, those grand juries were cited to appear in the Star-Chamber, and punished."* The good doctor informs us, with great gra- vity, and an appearance of astonishment, that this severity " only increased the clamour." It is truly wonderful, and displays, beyond ah 1 ques- tion, the very refractory temper of the Irish, that they should have c; clamoured" against such a mild exercise of the prerogative, as punishing grand juries, with the ordinary clemency of the Star- Chamber Court T A for the heinous offence of not finding bills of indictment against persons refus- ing to take the oath of supremacy, or attending on a species of worship contrary to their con- sciences ! The doctor further informs us, that the deputy, Oliver St. John, being actuated by peculiar zeal against Popery, or perhaps provoked by the in- solence of the recusant party, "proceeded to a * " The rich, when PRESENTED AS RECUSANTS, enjoyed too much of favour from their countrymen, for any jury to find a verdict against them ; and when jurors who found verdicts, in direct opposition to the clearest evidence, were called to the star-chamber^ (or castle-chamber, as it is sometimes called) the severity only served to increase the clamour " u3 123 Leland, II. 516. PERSECUTION. 113 vigorous execution of the penal statutes against them."* We are left to conjecture what was the species of insolence that thus led this amiable first ma- gistrate to the " vigorous execution" of these mild statutes. It was, perhaps, that they had the au- dacity to celebrate divine worship openly, or were guilty of some other crime, equally atrocious. But it is unimportant to our present purpose to inquire into the cause. All I desire to establish, is, that these penal statutes were " vigorously exe- cuted," in order to disprove the allegation that the Roman Catholics had for forty years " the undisturbed exercise of their religion" or even "fully enjoyed the private exercise of it" But I do not, although I might, rely wholly on Leland. To support the reverend divine, I appeal to Carte, who informs us that Oliver St. John " caused pre- sentments to be made, in different parts of the kingdom, of such as neglected coming to church on Sundays" 12 * It is not difficult to calculate what a harvest of penalties was reaped by petti- fogging magistrates, and by the pimps, spies, and detestable race of informers, from these "present- * " Whether provoked by the insolence of the recusant party, or that his nature and principles disposed him to treat them with less lenity than they had for some time experienced, HE SOON PROCEEDED TO A VIGOROUS EXECUTION OF THE PENAL STATUTES." 125 334 Carte, I. 34. 5 Leland, II. 540. 15 114 V1NDICLE HIBERNICJE. merits in different parts of the kingdom," or what scenes of depredation were perpetrated on those Catholics, of whom Clarendon and Warner have been misguided enough to state, that " no man could say he had suffered prejudice or disturbance on account of his religion ///" Chichester's administration commenced with an extreme degree of severity. He ha he hints that all is not exactly as it should be. 308 Leland, II. 545. 209 Idem, 512. 21 Idem, 545. UNDISGUISED RAPINE. 189 " In the pursuit of this favourite object, he had sometimes recourse to claims, which the old natives deemed unjust. The seizure of those lands, whose possessors had medi- tated rebellion, and fled from the sentence of the law, produced little clamour or murmuring. But when he recurred to the concessions made by Henry II. to invalidate TITLES DERIVED FROM A POSSESSION OF SOME CEN- TURIES, the apparent severity had its full effect on those who were not acquainted with the refinements of law, and not prepossessed in favour of such refinements, when employed to divest them of their ancient property." 811 To this sentence, the reader's attention is spe- cially invited. When Leland informs us, that the natives deemed the king's claims unjust, it is fair to infer, that he himself believed them just, or at least that there was reason to doubt on the subject. But what was the nature of those claims ? They are stated by Leland himself, at the close of the sentence. They were grounded on con- cessions four hundred years old. Yet of those claims, which, if universally admitted, would for- feit nearly the whole globe, this candid and im- partial writer simply informs his abused reader, that "the old natives" [were so unreasonable, that they] " deemed them unjust" The interpolated parenthesis in this sentence is, I think, by no means forced or strained. It is the natural form in which the phraseology presents itself to the mind's eye. The term " apparent severity" would be ap- propriately applied to the rigorous exaction of a 211 Leland, II. 545. 190 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. fine fairly incurred, to the unrelenting infliction of the fuU measure of punishment for crimes committed, or to the confiscation of property duly forfeited ; but it is a miserable departure from historical justice, to apply it, as in the present in- stance, to an act of absolute regal robbery ; for the dispossession of persons whose families had undisputed possession for centuries, on such grounds as Leland states, is undoubted robbery. AVhat would be said of the historian who should descant on the " apparent severity" of Black- beard or Morgan, the pirates, in their attacks on the defenceless inhabitants of Lima or Cuzco, or the " apparent severity" of William III. in the massacre of Glenco, or the persecution and ruin of the ill-fated Scotch colony at Darien ? Before the poor plundered people were ex- pelled from their homes and farms, and turned adrift on the world, they made a legal effort to prove the wickedness and injustice of the pro- cedure ; " to maintain," in the language of Sir John Davies, " that they had estates of inheri- tance in their possessions, which their chief could not forfeit." Sir John, the attorney-general, pleaded against their claims ; and has fortunately left on record his speech on the subject,* which A u The inhabitants of this country do border upon the Eng- lish Pale, where they have many acquaintances and alliances ; by means whereof they have learned to talk of a freehold and estates of inheritance, which the poor natives of Fermanagh and Tyrconnel could not speak of; although these men had no LEGAL CHICANE. 191 exhibits a most extraordinary specimen of chi- cane and quibble, that would have better become other nor better estate than they ; that is, only a scambling and transitory possession, at the pleasure of the chief of every sept. " When the proclamation was published touching their re- moval (which was done in the public Sessions-House, the lord deputy and commissioners being present) a lawyer of the Pale, retained by them, did endeavour to maintain that they had estates of inheritance in their possessions, which their chief lords could not forfeit ; and therefore, in their name, desired two things : first, that they might be admitted to traverse the offices which had been found of those lands ; secondly, that they might have the benefit of a proclamation made about five years since, whereby the persons, lands, and goods, of all his majesty's subjects, were taken into his royal protection. " To this the king's attorney, being commanded by the lord deputy, made answer : That he was glad that this occa- sion was offered, of declaring and setting forth his majesty's just title, as well for his majesty's honour (who, BEING THE MOST JUST PRINCE LIVING, WOULD NOT DISPOSSESS THE MEANEST OF HIS SUBJECTS WRONGFULLY, TO GAIN MANY SUCH KINGDOMS) as for the satisfaction of the natives them- selves, and of all the world; for his majesty's right, it shall appear, said he, that his majesty may and ought to dispose of these lands, in such manner as he hath done, and is about to do, in law, in conscience, and in honour. " In law ; whether the case be to be ruled by our law of England, which is in force, or by their own Brehon law, which is abolished, and adjudged no law, but a lewd custom. " It is our rule in our law, that the king is lord paramount of all the land in the kingdom, and that all his subjects hold their possessions of him, mediate or. immediate. " It is another rule of our law, that where the tenant's estate doth fail and determine, the lord, of whom the land is holden, may enter and dispose thereof at his pleasure. u Then those lands in the county of Cavan which was O'Rilie's country, are all holden of the king : and because the 192 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. an Old Bailey pettifogging attorney, than such a high and responsible officer of the crown. He captainship or chiefrey of CVRilie is abolished by act of Par- liament, by stat. 2. of Elizabeth ; and also because two of the chief lords elected by the country have been lately slain in rebellion, (which is an attainder in law) these lands are holden immediately of his majesty. " If then the king's majesty be immediate chief lord of these lands, let us see what estates the tenants or possessors have, by the rules of the common law of England. " Either they have an estate of inheritance or a lesser estate : a lesser estate they do not claim ; or if they did, they ought to show the creation thereof, which they cannot do. " If they have an estate of inheritance, their lands ought to descend to a certain heir ; but neither their chiefries nor their tenancies ever descend to a certain heir ; therefore they have no estate of inheritance. . " Their chiefries were ever carried in a course of tannistry, to the eldest and strongest of the sept, who held the same during life, if he were not ejected by a stronger. " This estate of the chieftain or tannist hath been lately ad- judged no estate in law, but only a transitory and scambling possession. " Their inferior tenancies did run in another course, like the old gavelkind in Wales, where the bastards had their por- tions, as well as the legitimate ; which portion they held not in perpetuity, but the chief of the sept did once in two or three years shuffle and change their possessions, by new par- titions and divisions ; which made their estates so uncertain, as that, by opinion of all the judges in this kingdom, this pre- tended custom of gavelkind is adjudged and declared void in law. "And as these men had no certain estates of inheritance, so did they never till now claim any such estate, nor conceive that their lawful heirs should inherit the land which they pos- sessed ; which is manifest by two arguments. " 1. They never esteemed lawful matrimony, to the end that they might have lawful heirs. LEGAL CHICANE. 193 sought to convince them, that "his majesty was the most just prince living, and would not " 2. They never did build any houses, nor plant orchards or gardens, nor take any care of their posterities. " If these men had no estates in law, either in their mean chiefries or in their inferior tenancies, it followeth, that if fas majesty, who is the undoubted lord paramount, do seize and. dispose these lands, they can make no title against his majesty or his patentees, and consequently cannot be admitted to tra- verse any office of those lands ; for without shewing a title, no men can be admitted to traverse an office. " Thus then it appears, that as -well by the Irish custom as the law of England, his majesty may, at his pleasure, seize those lands, and dispose thereof. The only scruple which remains, consists in this point : whether the king may, in con- science or honour remove the ancient tenants, and bring ia strangers among them. " Truly his majesty may not only take this course lawfully, but is bound in conscience so to do. " For, being the undoubted rightful king of this realm, so as the people and land are committed by the Divine Majesty to his charge and government, his majesty is bound in con- science to use all lawful and just courses to reduce his people from barbarism to civility : the neglect whereof heretofore hath been laid as an imputation upon the crown of England. Now civility cannot possibly be planted among them" [without plundering them of their estates] " but by this mixed plantation of civil men, which likewise could not be without removal and transplantation of some of the natives, and settling their pos- sessions in a course of common law ; for if themselves were suffered to. possess the whole country, as their septs have done for many hundreds of years past, they would never, to the end of the world, build houses, make townships or villages, or manure or improve the land as it ought to be; therefore it stands neither with Christian policy nor conscience, to suffer so good and fruitful a country to lie waste like a wilderness, when his majesty may lawfully" [reduce the right owners to beggary, 25 194 VINDZCLE HIBERNICJE. dispossess the meanest of his subjects wrongfully, to gain many such kingdoms." This was a very and] " dispose it to such persons as will make a civil planta- tion thereupon. " Again, his majesty may take this course IN CON- SCIENCE ; because it tendeth to the good of the inhabitants many ways ; for half their lands doth now lie waste ; by rea- son whereof that which is inhabited is not improved to half the value : but when the undertakers are planted among them, (there being place and scope enough both for. them and for the natives,)" [yet a large portion of them were transported to the wild wastes in Connaught and Munster,] " and that all the land shall be fully stocked and manured, Jive hundred acres will be of better value than Jive thousand are now. Besides, where before their estates were altogether uncertain and tran- sitory, so as their heirs did never inherit, they shall now have certain estates of inheritance, the portion allotted unto them, which they and their children after them, shall enjoy with security. " Lastly, this transplantation of the natives is made by his majesty, rather like a father than like a lord or monarch. The. Romans transplanted whole nations out of Germany into France ; the Spaniards lately removed all the Moors out of Grenada into Barbary, without providing them any new seats there : -when the English Pale was first planted, all the natives were clearly expelled, so as not one Irish family had so much- as an acre of freehold, in all the Jive counties of the Pale: and now, within these four years past, the Graemes were removed from the borders of Scotland to this kingdom, and had not one foot of land allotted to them here : but these natives of Cavan have competent portions of land assigned to them, many of them in the same barony where they dwelt before ; and such as are removed are planted in the same county, so as his ma- jesty doth in this imitate the skilful husbandman, who doth remove his fruit trees, not with a purpose to extirpate and de- stroy them, but that they may bring better and sweeter fruit after the transplantation."* 111 212 Davies, 276. LEGAL CHICANE. handsome and suitable exordium to a discourse intended to justify the dispossession of probably an hundred and fifty thousand subjects, great and mean together. As a proper corollary to this, he declared, that " his majesty not only might, but absolutely ought to dispose of the lands as he had done, in law, in conscience, and in ho- nour," although a gross violation of law, con- science, and honour. He gravely urged, that they had . " no certain estates of inheritance," t which, he says, " is manifest by two arguments," the cogency of which cannot fail to strike the reader with some force. The first is, That " they never esteemed lawful matrimony, to the end they might have lawful heirs ;" And the second, That " they never did build any house*, nor plant orchards or gardens, nor tote any care of their posterities" Who can read such n^erable chicanery, with- out ineffable disgrat at the impudence, and ab- horrence of the fraud and imposture, that at- tempted to justify the spoliation of possessions, many of which had descended from father to son for perhaps five hundred or a thousand years, because the owners did not " esteem lawful ma- trimony" nor "plant orchards or gardens, nor build any houses?" and this covered over with the holy mantle of " law, conscience, and Jionour?" Not satisfied with this reasoning, he undertook to prove, that the plantation was absolutely 196 V1NDICLK HIBERNICJE. for the good of the natives; for that by this Agrarian hocus pocus, five hundred acres thence- forward would produce more than five thousand had previously done. It followed, of course, that the man who was plundered of four thousand five hundred acres out of five thousand, was actually, according to this logic, a gainer by the robbery ! He closes his discourse by asserting, that the transplantation of the natives was made " more like a father, than like a lord or monarch." In proof of this position, he displays great learning on the transplantation of nations by the Romans, the Spaniards, and the English themselves, in former times ; and states, that when the English Pale was first planted, the natives were so wholly expelie^ that " not one Irish family had so much as an acre of freehold in all the Jive counties." This argument ou^t to have removed all doubts from the minds of the i^h ; as it proved that the English had, from time immemorial, a prescrip- tive right to seize then- lands, and not leave them so much as " one. acre of freehold," if they judged proper ; and, of course, that James I. did prove himself " a father," when he refrained from avail- ing himself of his rights to their full extent. The whole of the argument, if such miserable quibble*} and trash can be called argument, is to be found in the preceding note, which is par- ticularly recommended to the attention of the reader. I have given it in extenso, that he may IRRESISTIBLE LOGIC. 197 have a fair sample of the " law, conscience, and honour," displayed towards the "savage Irish," during the millenium of forty years, when, ac- cording to Clarendon, "whatsoever their land, labour, or industry produced, was their own, being free from fear of having it taken from them by the king, on any pretence whatsoever." It is extraordinary that the Boeotian dulness of the Irish rendered them incapable of compre- hending the cogency of Sir John Davies's reason- ing: it was too elegant and refined for their uncultivated minds. The poor idiots could not conceive why they should be stripped of their estates, because an anonymous and nonsensical letter had been dropped in the Privy Council Chamber. The lord deputy, however, had stronger argu- ment than Sir John, to which they were forced to submit : " The natives seemed not unsatisfied in reason, though they remained in their passions discontented, being much, grieved to leave their possessions to strangers, which they had so long after their manner enjoyed ; howbeit, MY LORD DEPUTY DID SO MIX THREATS WITH ENTREATY, PRECIBUSOJJE MINAS RE- GALITER ADDIT, as they promised to give way to the under- takers, if the sheriff, by warrant of the commissioners, did put them in possession." 213 He judiciously " mixed threats with entreaties, precibusque minas regaliter addit" that is, in the true polite Tyburn style, persuasion on the 213 Davies, 284. 198 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. tongue, and the pistol in hand. Whatever diffi- culty there might be in yielding to the one, was removed by the application of the other. There is no mode of conviction so powerful. Make a low bow, with entreaties, and add threats, pro- perly supported, in case of refusal. He must have been a most stubborn disputant, that could resist the conviction arising from the overwhelming arguments of the deputy, with an army at his command, the power of proclaiming martial law at pleasure, and the executioner ready at hand, to support his reasoning with a rope. Neither Demosthenes, Cicero, Burke, Pitt, nor Fox, could withstand such logic. It were endless to recapitulate the odious features of this " magnificent project" With one more, I shall close the catalogue of oppression. The adjustment of the rent, payable by the different descriptions of persons to whom these lands were allotted, affords a striking instance of gross partiality and injustice. The undertakers, who had the choicest portions of the soil, were to pay to the crown a rent of six shillings and eight-pence, for every sixty acres ; the servitors, ten shillings ; and the natives, who were plun- dered of their paternal estates, and reduced from the enviable condition of independent freeholders to that of tenants, were to pay thirteen shillings and four-pence. 314 That is to say, the despoiled 314 Hibernica, 125, 128, 129. EXTREME PARTIALITY. 199 owners of the soil were to pay exactly twice as much rent for inferior lands, as the despoilers paid for the superior : and, to add to the iniquity, the undertakers and servitors were to pay no rent till the third year, being rent-free for two years ; whereas the natives were to pay the second year, being rent-free only one year. 200 VINDICLE HIBERNICJK. CHAPTER VIII. The Egyptians spoiled once more. Regal rapine, in the King's and Queen's counties, Leitrim, Longford, and Westmeath. Three hundred and eighty-Jive thousand acres forfeited, for the charitable purpose of civilizing the natives. JAMES'S predominating passion for plunder and plantation had been tolerably satisfied with the spoliation of Ulster, where, by a princely exercise of law, honour, and conscience, he had involved in ruin the once proud owners of princely estates, raised to rank and fortune many of the lowest orders of society, and, in a word, changed the whole face of the country. He for a while rested from his labours : but the devour- ing lust of plunder and plantation returned ; and, being too imperiously craving to be resisted, he resolved to gratify it. Encouraged by the facility with which he had effected his spoliations in Ulster, he displayed himself, on this occasion, in the bold character of a public depredator, scorn- ing disguise or artifice. It was thought unne- cessary to hire letter-droppers, or false witnesses, to swear to plots or conspiracies. Without any of the tricks played off by his predecessors, or SPOLIATION . ON A LARGE SCALE. 201 by himself, in the province of Ulster, he plun- dered his subjects, in King's and Queen's coun- ties, Leitrim, Longford, and Westmeath, of estates to the amount of three hundred and eighty-five thousand acres. Thus this vain, sot- tish, contemptible, and rapacious monarch, in a time of profound peace, at two successive opera- tions, seized about a twentieth pail of the whole island; five hundred thousand acres in Ulster, and three hundred and eighty-five thousand in Leinster : and it is more than probable, that, had his inglorious career continued as long as that of some of his successors, he would have seized every acre of the island, belonging to the Ro- man Catholics; for, after his depredations in Leinster were completed, he was seriously occu- pied in preparations for the plantation of Con- naught,* when death humanely rescued his Irish subjects from the merciless gripe of the canting, hypocritical oppressor, who had, throughout his reign, plundered them as " a father, not as a monarch" and, according to the sovereign dic- tates of " law, honour, and conscience" reduced them to beggary here, for " the good of their souls hereafter." * " The project recommended to the king was nothing less than that of establishing an extensive plantation in Connaught, SIMILAR TO THAT OF ULSTER; and, in his rage for reforma- tion, IT WAS MOST FAVOURA-BLY RECEIVED." 215 215 Leland, II. 558. 26 202 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. But, as it was only " spoiling the Egyptians," to borrow a phrase from Rob Roy, it is passed over by Leland, Carte, and Hume, not merely as an innocent, but as a necessary measure ; nay, it appears from their statements as entitled to applause. Leland informs us, that those counties, " by their situation and circumstances, required parti- cular regulation." And what was the "particular regulation" which they required ? It was simply, that all the rights of property, held sacred among the most barbarous nations, the Moors and Al- gerines, should be basely invaded by a wretched monarch, who, as I have already hinted, has been fraudulently ranked among the civilizers and benefactors of mankind : " Naturally strong, and difficult of access, they afforded, in the very heart of the island, a safe retreat and shelter to the old inhabitants, who were tenacious of their barbarous cus- toms, nestling in their filthy cottages in winter, in summer wandering with their cattle over the mountains. Through these districts, the Irish insurgents had usually passed from Connaught or Ulster, to annoy the Pale. They had served for a passage to Tyrone and his forces into Munster, and a retreat in his inglorious flight from Kinsale. In time of peace, they were the safe receptacles of robbers, where they defied the ministers of justice ; and, surrounded with woods, bogs, and mountains, lived in a sort of independence, and contemp- tuous resistance to the law. To reduce these savages to order and subjection" [that is, reader, those savages, than whom, according to Sir John Davies and Edward Coke, NO PEOPLE UNDER THE SUN LOVED JUSTICE BETTER; and who were MORE FEARFUL TO OFFEND THE LAW THAN THE ENGLISH] " inquisitions were held to examine the king's title to the whole MISERABLE SOPHISTRY. 203 or any part of their lands. It was found, that some of them had been anciently possessed by English settlers, who, in the disorders of the kingdom, had been expelled by the old na- tives, and which were therefore vested in the crown, as the lands of absentees ; others appeared to have been forfeited by rebellion: So that James deemed himself entitled to make a distribution of THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY- FIVE THOUSAND ACRES in these counties, to such proprietors, and in such proportions, as might promote the general welfare and security, the extension of commerce, and the civility of the natives. The large portions re-granted to the ancient proprietors, on permanent tenures, reconciled many to this new scheme of plantation." 216 Language hardly affords terms of contempt and disgust, adequate to brand the writer, who can cant and whine, in extenuation of such atrocious spoliation. If the natives " nestled in filthy cot- tages," it proceeded from the oppression of the wretched government under which they groaned, and which, in the lapse of ages, hardly ever adopted a single measure dictated by sound or magnanimous policy, or calculated to claim the respect or gratitude of its Irish subjects. In the same hacknied strain, Carte cants on the subject of this immense depredation : " The peace of the kingdom was very precarious, whilst those countries remained in a sort of independence on the state, and its inhabitants lived in a contempt of its laws. The king saw it necessary to reduce them into the same order and subjection''' [that is, the same state of beggary and ruin in which he had involved the people of the six counties in Ul- ster] " as the rest of the kingdom : and therefore, by a special commission, in 1614, had empowered the lord deputy Chiches- 216 Leland, II. 539. 204 VINDICDE HIBERNICJE. ter and others to take a view of the countries," [and so ascer- tain how much he might seize] " and inquire into the title which the crown had to them, or any part thereof; the estate, number, and condition of the inhabitants ; the chiefries, claims, customs, and rents of the present lords ; and the best way of reducing and settling them." 817 *> I have given these statements at length, that the reader may have a full view of the grounds on which the depredation took place, and may decide on its propriety or justice, and on the merits of the writers from whom the accounts are taken. The flimsy pretext, that " the peace of the country was precarious," and that " these counties were receptacles of robbers," will not stand a moment's examination. Fraud and ra- pine never wanted a pretext of extenuation or justification. The fable of the wolf and the lamb affords a proper type of this course of proceeding. If those counties were receptacles of robbers, the proper corrective was to open assizes, and ) employ courts, sheriffs, and executioners ; not to rob the people of their lands, and turn them out on the highway, to retaliate on the unwary passenger the depredations they suffered from those whose office imposed on them the duty of protection. The admission of such a paltry defence of so base a system of rapine and plunder, reflects indelible disgrace on Leland and Carte, and ought 317 Carte, I. 23. SPOLIATION. 205 to consign their histories to utter oblivion. Had they the slightest knowledge of their duty, or did they pay attention to its discharge, they would have marked the act with the brand of infamy and reprobation, 'which it had so richly earned. There was not a subject in his dominions, whose estate the rapacious monarch might not have ^ seized, under some pretence or other, as valid ; nor, in fact, is there an estate under the star- spangled canopy of heaven, which might not be seized with equal justice, and equal regard to " law, honour, and conscience. 11 In the " famous northern plantation, so honour- able to king James," according to the very accu- rate Leland, we have seen that the natives were despoiled of the paltry modicum of the soil, which the rapacity of the monarch had allotted them, to support a miserable existence. As might be expected, the Leinster adventurers, in order to keep their Ulster friends in countenance^ followed their captivating example, and defrauded the natives to precisely the same extent. This verifies the old Latin adage, " Ad regis exemplum totus componitur orbis." " In the county of Longford, the natives in general had scarce a third part of their former possessions, either in number of acres or in value of profitable ground, allotted them. The arts of admeasurement were well understood in those days ; and, as the king had directed a certain quantity of unprofitable ground, bog, wood, and mountain, to be thrown into the seve- ral proportions of profitable land allotted to British and natives, 206 VINDICLE HIBERNICJL. a great latitude of judgment was left to the commissioners, which some of them knnu how to make use of for their ad- vantage. " Hence several persons "were turned out of large estates of profitable land, and had only a small pittance, less than a fourth part, assigned them for it, in barren ground." 218 " In the small county of Longford, we find that twenty-jive of one sept ivere all deprived of their estates, without the least compensation, or any means of subsistence allotted them" 219 We may form a tolerably accurate idea of the frightful extent to which the spirit of rapine was earned, from the specimen here exhibited. What a hideous specimen ! Proprietors expelled from their large paternal estates, in rich vallies and " profitable lands," and receiving " a fourth part of the amount in barren ground." Let us bring the matter home to an American reader. Sup- pose a descendant of William Penn, settled on the rich lands in Lancaster, Chester, or Delaware counties, and owning one thousand acres, worth one hundred and fifty dollars per acre, expelled from thence, because he " built no houses, nor planted orchards or gardens " banished to some of the barren lands of Northumberland or Ly- coming, with two hundred and fifty acres, hardly worth one dollar per acre ; thus receiving, in lord Clarendon's millenium, " that blessed condi- tion of peace and security," two hundred and fifty dollars, as an equivalent for an hundred and fifty thousand. This is a very fair view of the equitable doctrine of equivalents, as studied and 218 Carte, I. 23. 219 Leland, II. 546. CLARENDON'S VERACITY TESTED. 207 ' carried into practice by those upright agents of the pious James, who, to use the words of Leland, were employed " to reduce those savages to order and subjection." But the case of those wretched people, placed on the " barren lands," and with an equivalent of one-fourth of the number of acres whereof they were plundered, was not, it appears, the most grievous that occurred. We see, that of one single sept, or family, twenty-five were turned adrift, " without the least compensation, or any means of subsistence allotted them."" How many twenty-fives, how many hundreds, were thus turned out, it is impossible to conceive. But it is not presuming very far, to suppose, as the one side was destitute of defence, and the other of every sense of honour and justice, that the cases were numerous ; and that there were hun- dreds, perhaps thousands, who were driven out of house and home, and turned loose on societv, * 7 "without any means of subsistence allotted them ;" and this, let me repeat, (it can never be too often repeated) during a period, in which, with the most unblushing falsehood, Clarendon has dared to impose on a betrayed and deluded world, the monstrous assertion, that " whatever their land, labour, or industry produced, was their own, being free from fear of having it taken from them by the king, upon any pretence what- ever, without their own consent." 208 VINDICIJi HIBERNICJE. When the monarch of three powerful king- doms, who ought to be a pattern of honour, honesty, and justice, and, as Sir John Davies de- clared, to have scorned to " dispossess the mean- est of his subjects wrongfully" becomes a com- mon depredator on their estates, and acts the part of the ravening wolf, instead of that of the vigilant shepherd, it is not wonderful that such portion of those subjects as form a privileged cast, should prey upon and devour the others. This has ever been, and ever will be, the result, in all analogous cases. CHAPTER IX. Projected spoliation of Connaught. Jury fined eighty thousand pounds sterling, for not per- juring themselves by a false -verdict. Historical obliquity. THE project formed by the pious James, of an extensive plantation in Connaught, for the purpose of spoiling the Egyptians, those wretches who " did not esteem lawful matrimony," who " built no houses, and planted no orchards nor gardens," was, as shown in the preceding chap- ter, defeated by death, who snatched him away, in the midst of his career, to render an account, in another world, before the omniscient Judge of mankind, of his rapine and depredation in this. But, alas ! the respite thus afforded to the western , province of Ireland, was of short duration. Dur- ing the succeeding reign, the nefarious project was revived, by the arrogant, rapacious, and vin- dictive Wentworth, who meditated nothing less, according to Leland, than the subversion of the title of every estate in the province.* * " His project was nothing less than to subvert the title to every estate in every part of Connaught, and to establish a new plantation through this whole province ; a project, which, 27 210 VINDIC02 HIBERNICJE. For this stupendous scheme, Wentworth was peculiarly fitted. He possessed great energy of character, and talents of a high order ; but was withheld by no sense of shame, no tie of honour, no regard to equity, and no " compunctious visit- ings of conscience." He completely filled Sal- lust's character of Catiline : " Alien! appetens, sui profusus." Thus fortified with every requisite of head and heart to qualify him for a remorseless oppressor, he undertook to carry this project into execu- when first proposed, in the late reign, was received with hor- ror and amazement, but which suited the undismayed and enterprising genius of lord Wentworth. For this he had opposed the confirmation of the royal graces, transmitted to lord Faulkland, and taken to himself the odium of so flagrant a violation of the royal promise. The parliament was at an end j and the deputy at leisure to execute a scheme, which, as it was offensive and alarming, required a cautious and delibe- rate procedure. Old records of state, and the memorials of ancient monasteries, were ransacked, to ascertain the king's original title to Connaught. It was soon discovered, that in the grant of Henry the Third to Richard De Burgo, five can- treds ivere reserved to the crown, adjacent to the castle of Athlone ; that THIS GRANT INCLUDED THE WHOLE REMAINDER OF THE PROVINCE, which was now alleged to have been forfeited by Aedn O'Connor, the Irish provincial chieftain ; that the lands and lordship of De Burgo, descended lineally to Edward the Fourth; and were confirmed to the crown by a statute of Henry the Se- venth. The ingenuity of court lawyers was employed to invalidate all patents granted to the possessors of these lands, from the reign of queen Elizabeth." 220 220 Leland, II. 35. AN OUTLINE OF WENTWORTH. lion, and would have infallibly succeeded, but for the convulsions in Scotland arid England, which called him to aid his master, in whose cause he lost a head which his career in Ireland had indu- bitably forfeited. Few men have performed a distinguished part in society, whose history is so contradictorily narrated. A correct account of, him is stih 1 a desideratum. Clarendon, Nalson, Carte, Hume, and all the long train of monarchical writers, whine and lament over his grave, as if he had been a mirror of virtue, a Phocion, an Aristi- des, a Socrates, a De Witt, or a Washington ; and as if he had been offered up, an immaculate victim, to popular rage. But those who take a correct view of his career, must acknowledge that he was a bloated mass of almost every spe- cies of vice and crime of which a public officer is capable. Candour, however, calls for the acknowledg- ment that the proceedings against him, in the trial of the impeachment, were in many respects informal and irregular ; and that he was offered up, by the republican party in the Long Parlia- ment, full as much to appease their resentment at his apostacy from their cause, and to allay their fears of his talents and influence, as for his crimes, atrocious as they were. But, whatever may have been the informality of the course pursued, few public functionaries have ever been brought to the block, whose fate was more com- 212 V1ND1CIJE HIBERNICJE. pietely sanctioned by the claims of substantial justice. No man ever had much less reason to complain of informality : for whoever compares the proceedings on his trial, with those on the trial of lord Mountnorris, will be satisfied that there was as much difference between them, as between the court of Herod or Pontius Pilate, and that of Trajan or Antoninus. The proceed- ings of the court held on lord Mountnorris were of the most murderous character. It is not extravagant to aver, that the aggre- gate crimes of hundreds of men, who have been offered up on gibbets, as victims to offended Justice, for depredations on property, would not equal the guilt of one single act of Wentworth, the fine imposed on the sheriff and grand jury of Galway : the naked fact of which case is, that the jurors, probably twenty in number, were each fined four thousand pounds, or eighty thousand pounds sterling, equal, according to the present value of money, to about two hundred thousand pounds, or nearly nine hundred thousand dollars, because they resisted the depredations of this modern Aristides, and refused to find a title in the crown, grounded on the invasion of Henry II. or on claims arising immediately from that source. The sheriff was fined a thousand pounds, for returning such a jury. More of this anon. Here an apology is due to the reader. This statement is somewhat out of its place, in point of time. Let us return to the progress of Went- VICE-REGAL LOGIC. 213 worth ; who began his career with the county of Roscommon,* where he made a frothy address, in which he canted on the honour and equity of his royal master, and the benevolence of his views towards his good subjects of Connaught. But the jet of it was the comfortable information, that his majesty was indifferent whether they found for him or not ; conveying thereby a clear idea that he would adopt some other mode of attaining his right ; the "path of which lay so open and plain before him." He gave them to under- stand, that if they consulted their own true in- terest, they would find for the crown, as they * " Wentworth, at the head of the commissioners of planta- tion, proceeded to the western province. The inhabitants of the county of Leitrim had already acknowledged the king's title to their lands, and submitted to a plantation. It was now deemed expedient to begin with those of Roscommon. The commission was opened in this county ; the evidences of the king's title produced, examined, and submitted to a jury, formed of the principal inhabitants, purposely (as the lord deputy expressed it) that ' they might answer the king a round fine in the castle-chamber, in case they should prevaricate.'' They were told by Wentworth, that his majesty's intention, in establishing- his undoubted title, was to make them a rich and civil people ; that he purposed not to deprive them of their iust possessions, but to invest them with a considerable part of his own ; that he needed not their interposition, to vindi- cate his right, which might be established by the usual course of law, upon an information of intrusion ; but that he wished his people to share with him in the honour and profit of the glorious and excellent -work he was now to execute ; to his majesty it was indifferent, whether their verdict should ac- knowledge or deny his title." 221 221 Leland, III. 36. 214 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. would then have better terms than " if they were passionately resolved to go over all bounds to their own wills." 222 One part of this address has escaped much observation heretofore, which nevertheless de- serves the most pointed attention.' It would afford room for a commentary of a vohime on the hideous oppression and rapacity of the Irish government : " To manifest his majesty's justice and honour, I thought fit to let them know," says the satrap, " that it was his majes- ty's gracious pleasure, that any mail's counsel should be fully and willingly heard, in defence of their respective rights ; be- ing A FAVOUR NEVER BEFORE AFFORDED TO ANY, UPON TAKING THESE KIND OF INQJJISITIONS." 223 Here a pause, a solemn pause, is necessary. A government, whose paramount duty is to pro- tect the persons and property of its subjects, pursues for centuries a piratical system of legal warfare on their property ; it advances claims to estates, one, two, three, or four hundred years old ; it hangs fines and imprisonment over the heads of the jurors ; it bribes the judges ; and let it be deeply engraven on the mind of every man of candour, that, for above four hundred years, the men whose estates it sought to spoliate, were never, till the time of Wentworth, allowed the favour of " being heard, by counsel, in defence of their respective rights!" Tripoli, Algiers, and Morocco might be safely defied to produce a parallel. 222 Stratford, I. 442. 223 Ibid. ADMIRABLE PROOFS OP PROPERTY. 215 The reader cannot be surprised that the jurors of Roscommon, under these circumstances, found for the crown. Nothing less could have been expected : " The presence and interposition of a lord deputy, whose character and temper were fitted to operate on men's passions, had probably their full effect on this occasion. The king's title was found, without scruple or hesitation ; and the verdict attended with a petition for an equitable treatment of present proprietors, and a due provision for the church." 224 The example of Roscommon had a decided influence on the counties of Mayo and Sligo, where the king's title was found, without diffi- culty. Galway remained. All the arts of the deputy were in vain. The jury refused to find the MUs ; and, as already stated, were enormously fined and imprisoned.* ' * " The jury of the county of Galway was summoned to meet at Portumna, on Aug. 13, 1635, and consisted of the principal gentlemen of the, county. The king's title to all the lands in it, except such as belonged to the church, or had been granted out by the patents of his predecessors, WAS PROVED BY THE CONQUEST OF KING HENRY II. and the grant he made of it to Roderic, lord of Connaught ; by the grant of Henry III. to Richard De Burgo, of twenty-five cantreds, out of thirty, whereof the whole consists, upon a rent of three hundred marks for the first five years, and of five hundred for ever afterwards ; and by the payment of this rent into the exchequer, and the allowances thereof in the sheriff's accompt from time to time ; by the descent of King Edward IV. from Lionel, duke of Clarence, and the heiress of De Burgo ; and 224 Leland, III. 37. 216 VINDICLE IIIBERNICJE. It is painful to find, that every step we take in these investigations, affords additional evidence of the prejudice, the sinister views, or the inca- pacity of the writers of Irish history. Leland by the vesting of their lands in the crown, by the statute of 10. Henry VII. c. 15. " The jury, however, UPON PRETENCE THAT THE ACQUI- SITION OF HENRY II. WAS NOT A CONQUEST, but a submis- sion of the inhabitants ; that the grant to Roderic was barely a composition, whereby the king had only the dominion, but not the property of the lands, though the rent paid sufficiently proved the latter ; that, in tracing the descent to Edward IV. proof had not been made of Lionel duke of Clarence's posses- sion ; and that the statute of Henry VII. related to tenures rather than to lands, though no man could be proved to have any land there in property at that time, thought fit to find against the king's title, (though no grant was produced from the crown to any ancestor of the possessors, and WHERE NO BODY ELSE HAS A RIGHT, THE KING'S TITLE MUST BE GOOD;) and when called upon to declare in whom the freehold was vested, (if not in the crown) they refused to do so. The lord deputy highly resented this proceeding ; and, conceiving it would be of ill example to the rest of the kingdom, and would retard, if not defeat, the execution of his project, caused the jurors to be prosecuted, for a combination with the sheriff who empannelled them, to defeat the king of his right. They were tried on the 27th of May, 1636, FINED FOUR THOU- SAND POUNDS A MAN, SENTENCED TO IM- PRISONMENT TILL IT WAS PAID, AND TO AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT, UPON THEIR KNEES, IN COURT AND AT THE ASSIZES, OF THEIR OF- FENCE, in refusing to find -what they ought to have found, upon the evidence produced, and which their neighbours had actually found upon the same." 225 225 Carte, I. 82. HISTORICAL OBLIQUITY. 217 narrates, without the slightest censure, this Con- naught spoliation, unsupported by letter-dropping, conspiracy, rebellion, or any accusation of not building houses or planting orchards. Of all the various instances of the obliquity of Carte's history, there is none more extraordinary than the view he gives of this hideous affair. He absolutely defends the proceedings of Strafford ; and unqualifiedly censures the jury, who, " on the evidence produced, ought to have found," he says, " as their neighbours had found." Among his accusations of the jury, the first is, their grounding their refusal of finding a title to the province, on " THE PRETENCE," as this prejudiced historian says, " that the subjection of the coun- try under Henry II. was a submission, not a con- quest." In what a state of delirium must the mind of the man be, who could be so far lost to a sense of reason or justice, as to style this sound and irrefragable plea " a pretence" or to coun- tenance any claims resting on such untenable ground ! That in a country, which for centuries had been despoiled on pretexts as iniquitous, such claims should be advanced by a depredator of the character of Wentworth, is not wonderful : but that an historian, writing, a century after- wards, with all the facts before him, on which to form a correct estimate, should for a moment admit that the titles to estates, held in the same families for ages, should be affected by the ques- 28 218 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. lion of the conquest or submission of the country, is inexpressibly astonishing. The invasion of Henry took place in 1172 ; and the spoliation of Connaught was projected in 1636, that is, four hundred and sixty-four years afterwards. Of what consequence could it have been to the proprietors of estates, what was the character of the pro- ceedings of Henry, whether he received a sub- mission, or made a conquest ? Suppose it a submission : does it thence follow, that Charles I. had a right to an acre, or even a perch, of an estate that had descended from heir to heir, for the intermediate four centuries and a half? Sup- pose it invasion : does that enhance the strength of the claim ? Had every man, woman, and child in the whole nation been subdued by, and sworn allegiance to, Henry II. or, to give the argument its utmost force, Henry V. VI. VII. or VIII. could that warrant a jury in finding a title in the crown to the whole of the soil ; or justify the imposition of a fine of eighty thousand pounds sterling on the jury, for not finding such title ? Could any thing but the most rampant spirit of rapine ever lay a claim on such wretched ground, or any thing but the most dire insanity or obli- quity of mind ever undertake the palliation of the vile deed ? We have already stated, that the project mis- carried ; not through the honour or justice of the monarch or his agents, but through the intestine REGAL AND JUDICIAL ROBBERY. 219 troubles at home, which gave them much more serious and finally fatal employment than plun- dering the inhabitants of Connaught. We have asserted, that the judges were bribed. This is recorded by Wentworth's own hand. To ensure the assistance of the court, he advised the king to bestow on the lord chief justice and the chief baron, four shillings in the pound, from the first yearly rent raised out of the depredated estates, in order to interest them in promoting the rapine. The "royal martyr" worthy of such a representative, gave, and the judges, wor- thy of such a monarch and such a deputy, re- ceived, the wages of their prostitution. Well might Shakspeare exclaim, " Thieves for their robbery have authority, When judges steal themselves." The brilje had the desired effect : for Went- worth says, " I have found it, upon observation, to be the best given that ever was ; for that by these me,ans they attend that busi- ness with as much care and diligence as if it had been their own private ; and that every four shillings, once paid, would better his majesty'' s revenue four pounds" 3 ** Who can read this odious detail, without standing aghast with horror ? A king conspires with his vicegerent, to despoil his defenceless subjects ; and, to ensure success in their flagitious undertaking, they tender a manifest bribe to the judges who are to decide the cause. The amount 225 Stratford, I. 442. 220 VIND1CIJE HIBERNICJE. of this bribe depends on the extent of the depre- dation. They agree to share among them the spoils ; which are divided into five parts, four of which fall to the share of the king and deputy, the master plunderers ; and the fifth to their agents and accomplices, the judges. And yet this king is by bigoted royalists reverenced as an English Marcus Aurelius, the exemplar of every royal virtue ! But the hardened and iniquitous Wentworth was not satisfied with corrupting the judges. He paid equal attention to the jurors, of whom he sought out two kinds ; one poor and needy, who might easily be bribed, "fit men to serve on juries^ who would gwe furtherance to the king's title;" and the other veiy wealthy, whom he might plunder, by heavy fines, if they prevaricated, as he called it. In the latter case, he would have, to use his own words, " persons of such means as might answer to the king in a round fine, in the Castle-Chamber ;* because the fear of that * " So general and lasting were the terrors arising from these severe proceedings of the deputy, that, in 1637, the whole body of the gentry of the county of Galway offered to make a surrender of their estates to the crown ; and for that purpose sent a letter of attorney to the earl of Clanrickard, then at London, signed by one hundred and twenty-five persons of the best quality in the county. ' At the same time, the still imprisoned sheriff and jurors, instead of seeking redress, pe- titioned, but in vain, for pardon, offering to acknowledge the deputy's justice and their own errors of judgment, upon con- 226 Strafford, I. 339. HIGH-HANDED OPPRESSION. 221 fine would be apter to produce the desired effect in such persons, than in others who had little or nothing to lose." 227 The villany of this scheme of depredation far exceeded that practised in former times. Some attention had been till now paid to letters patent, duly authenticated from the crown. These were generally regarded as affording proofs of good titles ; and rescued the possessors from the ruin inflicted on their neighbours. But the chief part of the lands, proposed to be spoliated by Went- worth, being fenced round with patents, he found dition only that they and the rest might be put upon the same footing with the other planted counties ; for in these cases, the general rule was, that a fourth part of their land should be taken from the natives, with an increase of rent upon the re- mainder ; but the county of Galway, on account of its former refractoriness, was planted at a double rate ; so that they lost half.' " Wentworth was so far from being satisfied with this sub- missive petition and offer, that he insisted upon a public ac- knowledgment from these jurors, of their having committed not only an error in judgment, but even actual perjury, in the ver- dict they had given -, which being refused by them, he, be- sides planting their country at the rate before mentioned, pro- cured an order from the king, that their agents in London should be sent prisoners to Dublin, to be tried before himself in the castle-chamber, for having dared to patronise their cause. These severities, however, raised no small apprehen- sions in some that were about the king, and even the king himself, lest they might disaffect the people of Ireland, and dispose them to call over the Irish regiments from Flanders to their assistance." 228 327 Strafford, I. 442. * 8 Curry, I. 157. 222 VINDICLK HIBERNIO^E. that his project Would be defeated, and he be deprived of his prey, if he admitted the validity of letters patent. He therefore determined to reject them; and so utterly regardless was he of even the slightest appearance of honour or honesty, that he assigns, as a justification of the extensiveness of his spoliation, the very reason that should have been a shield to rescue the sufferers from his merciless gripe : " In former plantations in Ireland, all men claiming by letters patents had the full benefit of them, either in enjoying the lands granted them, or other lands equivalent thereunto, whether their letters patent were valid or invalid. And in- deed, in those plantations, that favour might better be yielded, where the lands claimed by letters patent were not in any great or considerable proportion, than here, where ALMOST ALL THE LANDS FALLING UNDER PLANTATION ARE GRANT- fcD, OR MENTIONED TO BE GRANTED, BY LETTERS PATENT." 229 229 Strafford, II. 139. ' te. ( 223 ) CHAPTER X. Wide-spread scene of private spoliation. Needy projectors and rapacious courtiers. Defective titles. IN the last chapters, we have exhibited the unbridled spirit of rapine and plunder, by which the Irish were despoiled by then* government, during the grand millenium of lord Clarendon and Dr. Warner. But, execrable as were those proceedings, and profligate and abandoned as were the rulers by whom they were perpetrated, the sufferings and spoliations experienced by the Irish, from indivi- dual rapacity,* far exceeded them, in the wide * " Ireland had long been a prey to projectors and greedy courtiers, who procured grants of concealed lands ; and, by setting up the king's title, forced the right owners of them, to avoid the plague and expense of a litigation, to compound with them on -what terms they pleased. It was high time to put a stop to so scandalous a traffic, which reflected dishonour upon the crown, alienated the minds of the people from the govern- ment, and raised CONTINUAL CLAMOURS AND UNEASINESS IN EVERY PART OF THE KINGDOM. Many proprietors of lands could derive no title from the crown; the letters patents of others were insufficient in law, defective, doubtful, or not plain enough to prevent dispute. Commissions had been granted, from time to time, to remedy these defects, and compositions 224 VINDIC1JE HIBERNICJE. scope they embraced, which was the whole ex- tent of the kingdom. made with the commissioners. But, as these commissions were afterwards either renewed or recalled, and new ones is- sued out, it was questioned whether, by such later commis- sions, the said former commissions, and the compositions grounded thereupon, were not revoked, countermanded, and annulled. " Besides, the commissions themselves might possibly be defective, uncertain, or not extend to give the commissioners as much power and authority as they exercised in making com- positions, or passing letters patents to the subject, who, pre- suming every thing to be rightly done, by persons duly au- thorized, and his own possession to be fully assured to him, found himself mistaken in the end. For if either the commis- sions, or the king's letters upon which they were grounded, were lost, or not enrolled and recorded ; if the lands and tenements granted, or intended to be granted, in the letters patents, were mis-named, mis-recited, or not named and recited therein ; if offices and inquisitions had not been found, for proof of the king's title, before the making of such grants or letters patents ; or if there were any defect in such offices and inquisitions ; if there were any omission of sufficient and special non ob- stantes of particular statutes, that ought to have been men- tioned in the letters patents ; if there were any mistake or omission in the recital of leases upon the premises, or of some part thereof, whether of record or no ; if there were any lack of certainty, miscasting, or mis-rating of the true yearly value and rates of such lands and tenements, or of some part thereof, or of the yearly rents out of the premises, or some part thereof mentioned in the letters patents ; if there were any mistake in the apportioning or dividing the said rents, or the tenures of any of the land ; if the premises, or any part thereof, were in such grants estimated at a less, or even at a greater value than in truth they were ; if the towns, villages, places, baronies, hundreds, or counties, where the lands and tenements so granted lay, chanced to be misnamed ; if the natures, kinds, sorts, qualities or quantities of such lands and tenements, or A PICTURE OP GOOD GOVERNMENT. 225 This is perfectly natural ; and what might have been inferred from the proceedings of the rulers, even were history silent on the subject. The experience of the world proves, that severe laws and good government frequently fail to repress fraud and violence, even when corporal punish- ments and penalties are held out in terrorem, to awe the offenders. But, we repeat, when a government assumes the aspect of the plunderer, and sets the alluring example of spoliation ; when it violates, in the most profligate manner, the rights of property, held by regular descent, for ages ; when, with sacrilegious hand, it tears down all the barriers erected by law, honour, honesty, and justice ; but, more particularly than all the rest, when it divides a nation into two casts, and prostrates one, tied neck and heels, at the feet of the other, as the Helots were at the feet of the Spartans, the native Irish, previous of any part thereof, were not truly set forth and named j or if, in grants to corporations and bodies politic, whether spiritual or temporal, the right style, by which they were denominated and distinguished, was not used : in all these, and MANY OTHER CASES, the letters patents were liable to be disputed and set aside. This rendered all possessions very precarious ; and there were Jew gentlemen in the kingdom, but had been, some time or other, questioned for their title, or disturbed in the enjoyment of their estates. The inconveniences whereof were very visible, in the discouragement of husbandry (few persons caring to improve lands which they cannot call their own) and in the general dissatisfaction of the people." 230 230 Carte, I. 60. 29 226 VINDICIJE HIBEQNICJE. to the reformation, at those of the successive swarms of needy English adventurers, who mi- grated thither for the purpose of repairing their shattered fortunes, and. subsequent to the re- formation, the Roman Catholics at the feet of the miserable oligarchy styling itself " the Pro- testant ascendency ;" ,what can be the result of such a state of things, but that the favoured cast will be base, corrupt, unjust, and tyrannical ; and violate, as they generally may with impunity, every law of God and man, to the oppression of the degraded cast? and that the latter forlorn description will be abject, timid, crouching, and forced to submit to every indignity, insult, and depredation,* or, if they resist, be crushed, with added weight, to their previous sufferings. * Among the grievances which are so pathetically enume- rated in the Remonstrance of the Catholics of Ireland, agreed upon, March 17, 1642, the following is applicable to the sub- ject of the present chapter, and is confirmed by the preceding extract from Leland : " The procuring of false inquisitions upon feigned titles of their estates, against many hundred years 1 possession, and no traverse or petition of right admitted there- unto, and jurors, denying to find such offices, were censured even to public infamy and ruin of their estates ; the finding thereof being against their consciences and their evidences : and nothing must stand against such offices taken of great and considerable parts of the kingdom, but letters patents under the great seal : and if letters patents were produced, (as in most cases they were) none must be allowed valid, nor yet sought to be legally avoided : so that of late times, by the un- derhand working of Sir William Parsons, knight, now one of the lords justices here, and the arbitrary illegal power of the two impeached judges in Parliament, and others drawn in by RAPACIOUS PROJECTORS. 227 Such was the hideous picture exhibited in Ireland, during that period, which the world, deluded by dishonest writers, of great but unde- served celebrity, has been universally led to regard as " a blessed condition of peace and security" The great extent of the last chapters precludes the necessity of being prolix with the present one. I shall therefore be as brief as possible, and reduce it within narrow bounds. The land was covered with hosts of pimps, spies, and informers, whose eternal employment was finding flaws in the titles of gentlemen's estates, and, if possible, ejecting them, in which they were constantly countenanced by govern- ment ; or, if they failed in this part of the project, forcing them to ruinous compositions. " Needy projectors and rapacious courtiers still continued the scandalous traffic of pleading the king's title against the possessors of estates , of seizing their lands, or forcing them to grievous compositions"* 31 We have asserted that this system of rapine was more oppressive than that of James. A moment's reflection will satisfy every reader on this point. That miserable king only spoliated a twentieth part of the island ; whereas the their advice and council, one hundred and fifty letters patents were avoided in one morning; which course continued until all the patents of the kingdom, to a few, were by them and their associates declarsd void." 232 231 Leland, III. 15. ^ Carte, III. 137. 228 V1NDICIJE HIBERNICJE. informers harassed, tricked, and preyed upon the inhabitants of the remaining nineteen-twentieths. In the preceding note, page 225, Carte expressly informs us, that " there were few gentlemen in the kingdom, who had not been, some time or other, questioned for their title, or disturbed in the possession of their estates." " They who were too poor or too spiritless to engage in distant adventures, courted fortune in Ireland. Under pre- tence of improving the king's revenue in a country where it was far less than the charge of government, they obtained commissions of inquiry into defective titles, and grants of con- cealed lands and rents belonging to the crown ; the great benefit of which was generally to accrue to the projector, whilst the king had but an inconsiderable proportion of the concealment, or a small advance of rent. DISCOVERERS WERE EVERY WHERE BUSILY EMPLOYED IN FINDING OUT FLAWS IN MEN'S TITLES TO THEIR ESTATES. The old pipe-rolls were searched, to find the original rents with which they had been charged. The patent rolls, in the tower of London, were ransacked for the ancient grants. No means of industry, or DEVICES, were left untried, to force the possessors to accept of nerv grants, at an advanced rent. In general, men were either conscious of the defects in their titles, or alarmed at the trouble and expense of a contest with the crown, or fearful of the issue of such a con- test, at a time, and in a country, where the prerogative was highly strained, and strenuously supported by the judges. These inquiries, therefore, commonly ended in a new compo- sition, made at as cheap a rate, and as easy an advance of rent, as the possessors could obtain."^ 33 Can the history of the world produce, in a state of peace, such a hideous order of things as is here detailed ? An entire nation divided into two classes, plunderers and plundered, spies 233 Ltland, II. 549. SPIES, PIMPS, AND INFORMERS. 229 and informers, and victims of their malice and avarice ! What scenes of distress and wretched- ness, what instances of rapine, what fraud, what trick, what chicane, what forgery, what perjury, must have taken place in such a state of society, when the baleful race of informers and " disco- verers were every where busily employed in finding out flaws in men's titles to their estates!" And this in lord Clarendon's millenium ! that "blessed condition of peace and security," when " whatsoever their land, labour, or industry pro- duced, was their own !" Fastidious readers will murmur at the constant repetition of the development of the falsehood of lord Clarendon, which occurs in this work. But what is to be done in such a case ? If fraud, falsehood, and imposture, every step we take, cross our path, must we pass them over un- noticed, from deference to that fastidiousness, which, while it submits cheerfully to the eternal repetition of falsehood, affects to be shocked at the repetition of its detection ? ( 230 ) CHAPTER XI. Slanders of the Irish character. Honourable tes- timonials. Baron Finglass. Sir Edward Coke. Sir John Dames. Highland missionaries to civi- lize the Irish. Project of Irish plantations in England and Scotland. TO palliate, or even to justify, these spoliations, the Irish of that era are represented as rude, barbarous, savage, and intolerant of law and or- der. Were this statement correct, it would by no means justify the proceedings which we have here detailed. There is no law, human or divine, which warrants a civilized man in seizing the possessions of him who is, or whom he pretends to be, uncivilized. Any law that would have warranted James, in his conduct to his Ulster and Leinster subjects, warranted Cortes, Pizarro, and Almagro, in their lawless devastations in Mexico and Peru. Indeed the Spaniards may be more readily defended than James. The wretched Mexicans and Peruvians had no claim on the protection of their invaders : they were despoiled by a host of armed banditti, after a regular warfare. But the ill-fated Irish were plundered and made a prey of by a prince whose paramount duty was, not only not to depredate ENCOMIASTIC CHARACTER. 231 on them himself, but to protect them from the depredations of others. But here we meet the slanderers, who give such hideous accounts of the Irish, on the very threshold ; and are able to stamp on their fore- heads the seal of falsehood in the most legible characters. The evidence we produce is such as no man living will dare dispute. It is not de- rived from O'Sullivan, O'Connor, O'Halloran, or Curry. To these writers, objections of partiality would be made, by those prejudiced men who delight in every thing, however gross, however unjust, that defames or destroys the Irish charac- ter. We appeal to Patrick Finglass, Esq. chief baron of the exchequer, under Henry VIII. to Coke, the author of the Institutes, and to that John Davies, king James's attorney-general m Ireland, who brought the accusation against the inhabitants of Ulster, of " not building houses nor planting orchards" to prove that they had no lands of inheritance. Baron Finglass places the Irish character on far higher ground than that of the English, so far as respects submission to law and justice : " It is a great abusion and reproach, that the laws and sta- tuts made in this lond are not observed ne kept, after the making of theme, eight days ; which matter is oone of the dis- tractions of Englishmen of this lond : and divers Irishmen doth observe and kepe such larvs and statuts, which they make upon hills in their country, firm and stable^ without breaking them for any favour or re-ward"* 234 Hibernica, 101. 232 VINDICUE H1BERNICJE. Edward Coke delivers his opinion of the Irish, in a high and encomiastic style of commendation: " I have been informed by many of those that have had judicial places there, and [know] partly of my own knowledge, that THERE IS NO NATION OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD THAT ARE GREATER LOVERS OF JUS- TICE than they are ; which virtue must of course be accompa- nied by many others ," 235 In portraying the Irish character, Sir John Davies has displayed more talent and candour than are to be found in his forensic development of the rights of inheritance. " They will gladly continue in this condition of subjects, without defection, or adhering to any other lord or king, as long as they may be protected and justly governed, -without oppression on the one side, or impunity on the other. For THERE IS NO PEOPLE UNDER THE SUN THAT DOTH LOVE EQUAL AND INDIFFERENT JUS- TICE BETTER THAN THE IRISH; or -will rest better satisjied with the execution thereof, although it be against themselves ; so that they may have the protection and benefit of the law, -when upon just cause they do desire z^." 23 , 6 " I dare affirm, that in the space of five years last past, there have not been found so many malefactors worthy of death, in all the six circuits of this realm, which is now di- vided into thirty-two shires at large, as in one circuit of six shires, namely, the western circuit in England. For the truth is, that, in time of peace, THE IRISH ARE MORE FEARFUL TO OFFEND THE LAW THAN THE ENGLISH, or any other nation rvhatsoever" 237 Yet this is the nation which the miserable herd of scribblers who have undertaken its history, have stigmatized as barbarous, savage, and wild : 235 Coke, IV. 349. 236 Davies, 213. 237 Idem, 200. AN IRISH PLANTATION IN ENGLAND. 233 and who were to be civilized by plantations of the polished and refined Highlanders, for whom their countryman James despoiled the Irish of their estates. The idea of bringing the wild and savage Highlanders into Ireland, to tame and civilize a nation, of which the agent of their despoiler bore this exalted testimony, tiiat " no people under the sun did love equal and indiffer- ent justice better," is almost as romantic as it would be to bring a party of the refined inhabi- tants of the Alleghany mountains, to teach our beaux and belles to dance cotillions and minuets. The character drawn by these writers, is true or false. But it cannot be false : for no rational man could for a moment suppose that these three great public officers of the crown of Eng- land could conspire in uttering falsehoods to flatter the Irish, the Helots of England : and if it be true, as it must be, then is it clear that it would have been full as correct and as wise, perhaps more so, to make a plantation of Irish in Scot- land or England, to civilize those nations, as to introduce the Scotch or English into Ireland, for the same benevolent purpose. These nations, at that period, carried on their border wars with a ruthless and infernal ferocity, barbarity, and de- solation, that will stand a comparison with the so-much-detested ravages of the Huns, Goths, and Vandals. Fire and sword cleared their path of every thing, animate or inanimate, that fell in their way. Neither age, sex, nor condition 30 234 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. escaped. To remove all doubt on the subject, I submit a specimen of a five days' inroad into Scot- land, by the earl of Sussex, about thirty years previous to the famous northern plantation. " A Note of a Journey into Twiddle, by the earl of Sussex, her majesties lieutenant in the north, begun the 17th of April, '1570, and ending the 22dofthe same. " The 17th of April, 1570, the earl of Sussex and the lord Hunsdon, governor of Berwick, with all the garrisons and power of the east marches, came to Warke, and entered into Tividale, in Scotland, the 18th, at the break of day, and burnt all the castles and towns as they went, until they came to the castle of Moss, standing in a strong marsh, and belonging to the lord of Fernhurst, which they burnt and razed, and so burnt the country until they came to Craling. " The same day, Sir John Foster, with all the garrisons and force of the middle marches, entered into Tividale and Expesgate Head, sixteen miles from Warke, and so burnt all the country, until they came to a strong castle, in the posses- sion of the mother of lord Fernhurst, which he burnt and razed; and so burnt all the other castles and towns, until he came to Craling, where both companies met, and so went up the river of Tivit, and burnt and threw down all the castles and towns upon the river, until they came to Jedworth, where they lodged this day. " The 19th, the army was divided into two parts, whereof the one did pass the river of Tivit, and burnt and razed the castle of Fernhurst, Hunthill, and Bederoll, and passed on to Minte : and the other part of the army burnt in like sort on the other side of the river Tivit, until he came to Hawick. " The 20th, the army went to Branshaw, the lord of Buck- lough's house, which was wholly overthrown with powder ; and then divided and burnt, on the north of the river of Tivit, more into the inland, all the castles and towns in that country. " The 21st, the army was divided, and one part went to the river of Bowbeat, and burnt all on both sides of that river, and the other part went to the river of Caile, and burnt all on both BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL. 235 sides of this river ; ALL WHICH TIME THERE WAS NEVER ANY SHOW OF RESISTANCE. " And it is conceived by such as know the enemy's part of Tividale, that there are razed, overthrown, and burnt, in this journey, ABOVE FIFTY STRONG CASTLES AND PILES, AND ABOVE THREE HUNDRED VIL- LAGES." 238 It may be fairly questioned, whether a band of demons, escaped from the regions of Lucifer, could, with their wonted activity, in five days, have perpetrated more devastation than my lord Sussex and his garrisons had the pleasure of ac- complishing, upon the unresisting Scotchmen, in that space of time. The merit is enhanced ten- fold, by the circumstance that it was executed on an unresisting enemy ; and this forms the proud- est wreath of the laurel crown that entwined the brow of the mighty hero ! He ran no risk of his own precious life, nor of those of his merciful and heroic followers. To spare the lives of his soldiers, is the first duty of a general. That no- thing in human form ever exceeded the horrors of this exploit, within the time it occupied, cannot be doubted. Fifty castles and three hundred "vil- lages consumed in five days! Illustrious achieve- ment ! Attila or Genghis Khan might have stu- died the art of desolation to advantage, under my lord Sussex. With what propriety or decency writers belonging to that nation dare to stigma- tize the cotemporaneous Irish as savages and 238 Cabala, 174. 236 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. barbarians, let the world judge. And be it ob- served, that my lord Scroope made as pleasant an inroad beyond the borders, in a different di- rection, at the same time ; and equally signalized his humanity, and his taste for bonfires.* With similar exploits of this polished and humane na- tion, to which Ireland stands so much indebted for her civilization, we could fill a dozen chapters for the edification of the reader : but we presume it can hardly be necessary. Let us, however, without offence, offer a gentle hint to English- men, and more especially to their writers, that whenever the subject of savages and barbarians is started, it would not be improper to bear in mind the homely, but instructive proverb, "Men of glass, throw no stones." To this lesson, hardly one of them ever pays due attention. * " The Rode of the lord Scroope, warden of the west marches of England, into Scotland. " Who, the ITth of April, at ten of the clock at night, with three thousand horse and foot, came to Ellesingham, on the Wednesday at night, and burned that town in the morning, being from Carlisle twenty miles. On Thursday, he burned besides Hoddam, the Maymes, the town, and all the houses, which is the lord Herryes' ; that day they burned Trayletrow, which is the lord Maxwell's ; they burned the town of Rey- well, which is the lord Copland's and the lord Homeyne's. They burned the house of Copewell, and the demesne of the lord Copland's. They burned the town ofBlackshievc, which is the lord Maxwell's ; item, the town of Sherrington, of the same : item, the town of Lowzwood, of the same lord's." 339 239 Cabala, 175. BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL. 237 The barbarity of English warfare, about that period, was very impartially dealt out to other nations besides the Scotch and Irish, who had no particular preference. The French* and Spaniards! were under equal obligations. , * "Twenty days together did the lord Talbot, withjlre and sword, pass through Picardy and Artois, destroying all that stood in his way, and so returneth UNENCOUNTERED." 240 f The English, in their invasion of Spain, in the year 1566, committed such scenes of havoc and destruction, as would have become a horde of Scythians. " The town [Cadiz] they burnt, saving only the churches. The walls they battered, and towers demolished. The island itself they burned, razed, and spoiled, LAYING ALL WASTE BEFORE THEM, and leaving 1 the rubbish to declare the ruins -which the English had made"** 1 The army " coming to Vigo, found every street fenced with a strong barricado, and but only one man in the town ; the inhabitants making towards Bayon, as fast as they could drive. Then WAS BOTH THE TOWN, AND ALL THE COUNTRY FOR SEVEN MILES COMPASS, SET ON A FLAME." 248 This was the polished, refined, and humane nation, that was to civilize the Irish, whom Leland veraciously styles " savages :" but, so far as respected warfare, the English were themselves plunged in the most savage barbarism, as a perusal of their own writers will fully evince. 240 Daniel, II. 140. 241 Speed, 1198. * Idem, 1191. ( 238 ) CHAPTER XII. Representation in Parliament. Fraud, -venality, and corruption of the executive, legislative, and judiciary. Rotten boroughs. Record of infamy, on the Journals of the House of Commons. WE have fully established the non-existence of lord Clarendon's golden age, under three great aspects, freedom of religion, security of person, and security of property. We have proved it as fraudulent and false, as fraud and falsehood ever conspired to make any portrait. The fourth general head remains, a fair representation in Parliament. To this we invite the reader's at- tention. Under a free and independent Parliament, Ireland could not possibly have suffered the tithe of the oppressions of which the reader has had an indistinct bird's-eye view ; but which, at full length, would fill folio volumes. There have been countries as much oppressed as Ireland ; and tyrants as fell, and as fierce, and as rapacious as the deputies that swayed the sceptre there. But we know of no part of Europe that has experienced, for the same length of time, that is, for six hundred years, so grinding and hideous a despotism. PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 239 In a Parliament correctly constituted, the in- terests of the representatives would have been so completely identified with those of their con- stituents, that it would have been impossible to have subjected the exercise of the national reli- gion to pains and penalties, at the will, as we have already said, of a paltry minority of two-thir- teenths of the nation, at most ; or to have en- acted any of those barbarous statutes which ren- dered the legislation of Ireland, for centuries, an object of abhorrence and detestation. We shall consider the subject of representation under four different heads : I. The periods of the meeting of Parliament ; II. The modes of election ; III. The manner of framing laws ; and IV. The freedom of debate. And it cannot fail to appear, that, in this re- spect, Ireland was as flagrantly oppressed, as we have seen under the preceding heads. I. Periods of Meeting. From the twenty-ninth year of Elizabeth, anno 1587, to the fifteenth of Charles I. anno 1639, embracing a period of fifty-two years, there were but two Parliaments held in Ireland ; one in 1613, under James I. ; and the other in 1634-5, under Charles I. 243 Thus were the powers of legislation wholly suspended, in one instance, for twenty-six, and in another for twenty-one 243 Mountmorres, II. 175. 240 VINDICIE HIBERNIC.E. yeai*s. The legislative functions, in the mean time, were usurped and abused by the executive officers, who passed acts of state, which had all the efficacy of acts of Parliament, and were enforced by fine and imprisonment, as we have already shown. From 1666 to 1692, there was another inter- mission of Parliaments in Ireland.* It thus appears, that out of a period of a little more than a century, there were above seventy years in which no Parliament was held. If, however, regard be had to the mode in which the elections for the Lower House were conducted, as shall be shown presently ; to the kind of men who were returned ; and to the complexion of a large por- tion of the laws they enacted, the intermission can hardly be considered as an evil. But to be freed from the abomination of a corrupt legisla- ture, affords no proof of the non-existence of the enormous injustice resulting from the depriva- tion, for so long a period, of a fair and honest representation. II. Modes of the election of members of the House of Commons. On the original adjustment of representation in a legislative or deliberative body, it is fair to presume, on every principle of honour and ho- * u The fatal dissolution [took place] the 7th of August, 1666. This event was emphatically fatal, because it did not legally assemble, from this latter period, in Ireland, till 1692 " 244 244 Mountmorres, II. 176. LEPROSY OF IRISH REPRESENTATION. 241 nesty, that there ought to be a reasonable pro- portion observed between the constituents and their representatives. If a town with three thou- sand inhabitants has two representatives, one with six thousand ought to have four. These proportions, however, will be materially changed by time. One place will rise into consequence from a state of obscurity, and another sink from a state of eminence to obscurity; and justice requires that the representation should be occa- sionally modified accordingly. But so many persons are interested in the support of abuses, and those who are thus interested act so much in concert, that reformation is at all times ex- tremely difficult : and we believe that in no coun- try but the United States, and perhaps France, in some of the scores of constitutions which "fretted their short hour on the stage," during the French revolution, has there ever been provision made for periodical regulation of representation by census. Hence the borough system in England has gradually become the scourge of that nation, and the astonishment and disgust of the rest of the world. But the representation in Ireland had, in its origin, all the leprosy and ulceration which time has introduced, in a succession of ages, into that of England. To expose its hideous deformity naked to the eye of the reader, and to convince him that in every part of the government of that beloved, but thrice-wretched country, Ireland, 31 242 VINDICI^E HIBERNICJE. where I first drew my breath, and whose awful fate wrings my heart with distress, while I feebly sketch its wrongs, there was a systematic outrage on every principle of honour, honesty, and jus- tice, I shall give him a view of the mode in which the elections were managed in three Par- liaments : the two first in 1560 and 1568, under the " Virgin Queen," (lucus a non lucendo) and the third in 1613, under the wise, unassuming, profound, and thrice-puissant prince, James L the mirror and quintessence of perfection. In the first Parliament held under Elizabeth, the base means resorted to, for the purpose of securing a majority, were of a unique character, without previous precedent, or subsequent exam- ple. Writs were issued to only ten of the nine- teen counties then under the British government; and thus the remaining nine were disfranchised. The Parliament was composed of seventy-six members, of whom fifty-six were for towns and boroughs where the royal authority predo- minated :* the remaining twenty were for the * " In the House of Commons, we find representatives sum- moned for ten counties only. The rest, which made up the number seventy-six, were citizens and burgesses of those towns in which the royal authority was predominant. It is therefore little wonder, that, in spite of clamour and opposi- tion, in a session of a few weeks, the whole ecclesiastical sys- tem of queen Mary was entirely reversed by a series of sta- tutes, conformable to those already enacted in the English Parliament.' ;24S 245 Leland, II. 272. FLAGITIOUS ABUSES. 243 counties of Dublin, Meath, Westmeath, Louth, Kildare, Catherlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Tippe- rary, and Wexford. Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Cavan, Clare, Antrim, Ardee, Down, and King's and Queen's counties, containing probably half of the entire population of the kingdom, were wholly unrepresented, and of course disfranchised. It was in this Parliament, and by such vile fraud, that the oppressive penal code against the Roman Catholics was enacted. On this atrocious affair, it would be superfluous to comment. Lives there a man, with a spark of honour or justice in his composition, however hostile to Ireland or Irishmen, however bigotedly devoted to England, that will not pronounce it infamous ? In the Parliament held in 1568, the election was conducted with most manifest injustice. To pass over minor enormities, and condense the frauds into the narrowest compass possible, we shall confine ourselves to three species of flagrant crimes : I. Many persons were returned for places not incorporated, and which of course had no right to representation ; II. In several of the places entitled to send representatives, the sheriffs and mayors returned themselves ; III. A swarm of Englishmen were returned for places which some of them knew not, and of 244 VINDICLE HIBERNICJt. which none of them were residents, although re- sidence was, by law, an essential requisite in a representative. In consequence of these frauds, the adminis- tration had a considerable majority ; and elected Mr. Stanihurst, recorder of Dublin, their speaker, although Sir Christopher Barnwell had a large majority of the votes of the real members, those who were duly elected. For a considerable time, the latter disputed the validity of the votes of the intruding impostors, which gave rise to the utmost disorder, and contests that would have better suited with a bear-garden than a Parlia- ment.* Hooker, one of the impudent intruders, has left on record the most circumstantial account of the affair that is to be found ; and, as the leader of the usurpers, endeavours to throw the whole guilt of the dishonourable proceeding on the members duly returned.! But it is impossible * " And in this matter they showed themselves very for- ward, and so unquiet that it was more like a bear-baiting of disorderly persons, than a Parliament of wise and grave men." 246 " Their dealings then were altogether disordered, being more like a bear-baiting of loose persons, than an assembly of wise and grave men in parliament." 247 f " The next day following, being Friday, the lower house met ; and, contrary to the order of that house, and duty of that company, instead of unity, there began a disunion ; and for concord, discord was received. For all, or the most part 246 Hollinshed, VI. 344. ' Idem, 345. A PLAIN ANALOGY. 245 to read even his account, varnished as it is with false glosses, without being satisfied that the crime rested on him and his accomplices. As well might a band of ruffians or burglars, forcing themselves into a man's house, with a view to robbery or murder, charge the owner, who en- deavoured to save himself, his family and pro- perty, with the crime of the affray, and its con- sequences, if bloodshed ensued, as a riotous rab- ble of strangers, who, in violation not merely of honour and justice, but of the express law of the land, had polluted the sanctuary of legislation by a forcible entry, could make the legal representa- tives of the nation responsible for their crime. of the knights and burgesses of the English Pale, especially they who dwelled within the counties of Meath and Dublin, who, seeing a great number of Englishmen to have place in that house, began to except against that assembly as not good, nor warranted by law. Their avantparler was Sir Christopher Barnwell, knight; who being somewhat learned, his credit was so much the more, and by them thought meetest and worthy to have been the speaker of that house : and he, being the spokesman, alleged three special causes, why he and his complices would not yield their consents. " The first was, because that there were certain burgesses returned for sundry towns which were not corporate, and had no voice in the Parliament. " The second was, that certain sheriffs, and certain mayors of towns corporate, had returned themselves. " The third and chiefest was, that a number of Englishmen were returned to be burgesses of such towns and corporations as which some of them never knew, and none at all were residing and dwelling in the same, according as by the law is required." 248 Hollinshed, VI. 342. 24(5 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. Tlie business of the legislature being impeded by these furious contests, it was agreed to refer the matter in dispute to the judges. This afforded but a miserable chance of redress for the Irish nation, as these functionaries were removable at the pleasure of the crown, and of course sub- servient to its views. However, the profligacy of the proceedings was fully established ; for the judges, corrupt and biassed as they were, admit- ted the existence of the three enormous species of offence alleged by the minority.* They de- cided that two of the classes of usurpers should be expelled the Parliament, I. Those who were returned for towns not incorporated ; II. Those magistrates who had returned them- selves. But they profligately gave their opinion, that those who were returned for towns where they * The judges, having " discoursed and conferred of this matter, returned their answers ; that concerning the first and second exceptions, that the burgesses returned from towns not corporate, and for such sheriffs, mayors, and sovereigns, as have returned themselves, shall be dismissed out of the same ; but as for such others as the sheriffs and mayors had return- ed, they should remain, and the penalty to rest upon the she- riff's for their -wrong returns" " The same was so stomached, that the placing of the Eng- lishmen, to be knights and burgesses, could not be digested, as did appear in the sequel of that assembly, where every bill furthered by the English gentlemen, was stopped and hindered by them." 250 249 Hollinshed, VI. 348. 25 Ibid. PROSTITUTION OF THE BENCH. 247 did not reside, should retain their seats ; and that the penalty of the false, illegal returns should be paid by the sheriffs. The third class being more numerous than the other two, and being secured in their usurpa- tion by this iniquitous decision, the government still possessed a majority ; and was of course enabled to carry whatever measures it thought proper ; and thus a few needy and dependent Englishmen, who probably had not an acre of land in the island, were virtually its legislators. Let us, however, do lord Clarendon the justice to state, that this dishonourable affair occurred pre- vious to his millenium. His mistakes and false- hoods are sufficiently numerous, without unjustly increasing them. What a shameful prostitution of the dignity of the bench ! What an unanswerable proof that venality *and corruption had spread throughout every department of the state, poisoned all the sources of justice, and that all were leagued in the grand work of oppressing the wretched Irish ! A law, founded in reason, common sense, justice, and honesty, declared that every borough, or town, or city, should be represented by a resident, who would know its situation, feel its wants, plead its cause, rise with its prosperity, and sink with its fall. A horde of hungry Eng- lishmen, in violation of the law, are returned to represent places they never saw: a profligate Parliament applies to a prostitute bench, to de- 248 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. cide the question whether a remedy shall be applied to this illegal proceeding : it decides that these intruders and usurpers shall maintain their seats, but that those who returned them shall pay the penalty of the infraction of the law ! What a mockery ! Suppose a fine of one hun- dred thousand pounds were laid on those officers, which would go into the treasury, suppose they were imprisoned for life, suppose they were hanged, drawn, and quartered; what compen- sation would be afforded to the towns robbed of then- representation, or to the nation cheated with such a fraudulent legislature ? These proceedings, and the opinion of the judges, afford an ample field for consideration. They exhibit another feature of the hideous op- pression which their rulers exercised over the ill-fated Irish. I have already more than once endeavoured to force these subjects on the minds of American readers, by applying the cases on this side of the Atlantic. Let us suppose that the sheriff of Philadelphia city, instead of allowing the citizens to vote for two members of congress, were to elect himself and his deputy ; that Frank- ford, and Bustleton, and Holmesburg, and Ches- ter, and Darby, and Marcus Hook, and Point- no-Point were to send each two members to congress ; and, finally, that a host of newly- arrived citizens of Kentucky should be chosen to represent some of our towns or counties, which they had never seen. This " blessed condition of FLAGRANT INJUSTICE. 249 peace and security" would make the " swords of our citizens leap from their scabbards," to avail myself of the heroics of my countryman Burke. In the Parliament held anno 1613, under James T. the proceedings were at least as flagiti- ous. The whole number of boroughs represent- ed, previous to that period, was thirty ; but for this Parliament, in order to secure an overwhelm- ing majority, there were forty new boroughs created, every one. of them in places where the government had decided influence, and nearly the whole in shabby, contemptible hamlets,* which had not the least claim to a representation.! The chief part of these boroughs were incorporated previous to issuing the writs foi; the election; but with a most hardened and profligate disre- gard of even the forms of justice, many of them * "A number of new boroughs, most of them inconsiderable, and many of them too poor to afford wages to their representa- tives, must be entirely influenced by the government, and must return its immediate creatures and dependents. Such an accession of power could not fail to encourage the administra- tion to act without reserve, and pursue the dictates of its pas- sions and resentments." 351 f The petition of the lords to king James, states the existence of " a fearful suspicion, that the project of erecting so many corporations in places that can scantly pass the rank of the poorest villages in the poorest country in Christendom, do tend to nought else, at this time, but that, by the voices of a few, selected for the purpose, extreme penal laws should be imposed upon your subjects here." 258 251 Leland, II. 519. 252 Idem, 521. 32 250 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. were incorporated after the writs had been is- sued.* Sir John Davies feebly attempts to pal- liate this outrage on justice ;f but with pretty much the same success as attended his elaborate vindication of the Ulster spoliation. But, abandoned as was this system, it did not comprise one-half of the injustice or wickedness of the election. The same course was pursued as in the preceding Parliament. Many non-resi- dent Englishmen were returned ; some of the judges returned themselves ; and a number of wretched outlaws completed the list of the mem- bers of that House of Commons which attainted Tyrone and Tyrconnel. * " The deputy continued to increase the new boroughs to the number of forty y of which several were not incorporated, until the writs for summoning a Parliament had already Issued."** f " His majesty hath most graciously and justly created divers new boroughs, in sundry parts of the kingdom." 254 " Certainly the number of these new boroughs, compared with the counties that never had any burgesses before this time, doth carry a less proportion than the ancient boroughs, compared with the number of the ancient counties ; for in those twelve or thirteen old shires, there are thirty cities and boroughs, at least, which send citizens and burgesses to the Parliament. Whereas, for seventeen counties at large, being more than half the shires of this kingdom, which had not one borough in them before this new erection, his majesty hath now lately erected BUT FORTY NEW BOROUGHS, or thereabouts, which, in the judgment of all indifferent men, must needs seem reasonable, just, and honourable." 255 253 Leland, II. 522. 254 Davies, 3O4. 255 Idem, 306. FLAGRANT INJUSTICE. 251 To heighten the wickedness of the proceed- ings, in imitation of the vile example set under the "Virgin Queen," no writs were issued to sundry ancient boroughs, which, from their popu- lation and cliarters, were entitled to representa- tives.* Notwithstanding all these shameless and aban- doned frauds, the administration had not a large majority. Their usurping minions and parasites were only an hundred and twenty-five, and the opposition party were an hundred and one : there were six absent members, whose politics are not known.f It is easy to conceive what a de- cided majority the recusants would have had, but for the profligate disregard of every semblance of honour and justice, which, during the election, had governed the proceedings of the enemies of Irish happiness and prosperity. In consequence of those enormous abuses, the real representatives of the nation were out-num- bered ; and this motley majority forced Sir John * " It was asserted by them, in support of their opposition, that the sheriffs had sent no -writs to several of the boroughs ; thatyrom others, the returns -would not be received; that most of the patents and charters of the new boroughs were dated af- ter the commissions for the writs -were issued. 256 f " Two hundred and thirty-two members had been re- turned : six were absent. Of the remainder, one hundred and twenty-five were Protestants ; and one hundred and one formed the recusant party." 257 256 Crawford, I. 346. 2i7 Leland, II. 523. 252 VINDICIJE HIBERNIC.E. Davies into the chair, as speaker, although Sir John Everard had a great majority of the legal votes. The real representatives of the people made a struggle as ardent, but as ineffectual, as had taken place in 1568. They were baffled by the address, overcome by the power, and compelled to yield to the wicked views, of a most profligate govern- ment : and the true state of the proceedings is recorded in the Journals, in the following resolu- tion, which is an open and undisguised confession of the infamy of the majority, and of the admi- nistration by whom they were supported : " Nov. 19, 1613, It was resolved by the house of commons, That whereas some persons have been unduly elected, some being judges, some for not being estated in their boroughs^ some for being OUTLAWED, excommunicated; and lastly, for being returned for places -whose charters were not valid; it was resolved not to question them for the present, in order to pre- vent stopping public business ; but this resolution was not to be drawn into precedent." 258 " On the 24th November, 1614, the order of the last session was renewed, verbatim, relative to postponing inquiries into the returns of members, &c. who were disqualified, as judges, as being outlawed, &c. or returned for places which had no charters." 2 * 9 The lords and commons, seeing their rights thus daringly trampled under foot, the law of the land shamefully violated, and the legislation of the nation virtually thrown into the hands of a greedy and devouring horde of strangers, sent 258 Mountmorres, I. 169. 259 Idem, 173. FLAGRANT INJUSTICE. 253 commissioners to the court of king James, to petition him for redress : but they were treated with insult and outrage. Two of them were, under some frivolous pretence, thrown into pri- son,* for alleged insolence of conduct ; the case was referred to the British Privy Council ;f and they were dismissed with an impertinent, frothy, bombastic speech from the royal pedant, full of verbiage that would have disgraced a school-boy. The discussion of such wickedness cannot fail to be to the last degree painful to the reader, as it is to the writer. It harasses and tears the feelings with violence. What a hideous prostitution of every thing honest, fair, just, or correct, it would be, were the governors of New York and Penn- sylvania, for the purpose of overwhelming the vote of the capitals of these two states, to incor- porate, in the one instance, Chesnuthill and Log- town, and, in the other, Bergen and Flatbush, and allow each of these places an equal number * " It seemed no auspicious incident to the Irish agents, that Talbot and Luttrel, for some late or present insolence of conduct, -were committed prisoners, one to the tower, the other to the fleet." 260 f " In flagrant violation of the rights of the Irish Parlia- ment, he referred the final determination of it to the English Privy Council. Their decision was, that several of the re- turns were illegal." 261 " The members returned from those boroughs which were created AFTER THE WRITS HAD BEEN ALREADY ISSUED, were, for the present, declared incapable of sitting." 262 260 Leland, II. 529. M1 Crawford, I. 346. 268 Leland, II. 531. 254 VlNDlCIjE HIBERNICJE. of representatives with the respective capitals, thus enabling Chesnuthill and Logtown, by a majority of two to one, to outvote Philadelphia, and making the same distribution in New York ! There is something so wicked in this pro- cedure, such a mockery of even the slightest shadow of justice, that it excites loathing and abhorrence. The idea of elevating the political balance, and throwing Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Galway into one scale, and Glassnevin, the Black-rock, Clontarf, Dunleary, and Donnybrook, or any places equally insignificant, into the other, and suffering those five hamlets, with perhaps an hundred inhabitants, to outnumber the votes of four great cities, and of course to make laws to bind the estates of the natives, and subject them to pains and penalties for the worship of God, is inexpressibly wicked. This was, however, the precise state of the representation of Ireland, during lord Clarendon's millenium, and from the time of the Conquest, as it has been styled. III. House of Lords. Against the corruption and profligacy of the House of Commons, the House of Lords might have afforded some security : but here the wicked arts of the government triumphed, and equally trampled under foot every principle of honour, honesty, and justice. In every potion, calculated to heal the wounds or alleviate the distresses of Ireland, there was always infused a deleterious FREEDOM OP DEBATE. 255 drug, whose admixture transformed it into poison. To secure a majority in the Upper House, Irish titles were granted to English no- blemen, destitute of a single acre of land in Ire- land.* v They never appeared in Parliament ; but confided their proxies to the minions of the government, three, four, or five to one peer : " Twenty-nine proxies were entered^ four and five to one lord; which was a scheme of lord Strafford's. But this abuse was soon afterwards corrected, by a standing order, that rib more than two should be given to one lord." 263 Thus six of these men of straw, not owning together a single farm, could out-vote the duke of Ormond, and the earls of Kildare, Castlehaven, Clanrickarde, and Fingal, who, united, possessed probably above a million ! IV. Freedom of Debate. But all these wise and salutary precautions to guard against the "insolence of the recusants" were not deemed sufficient. If the members at any time dared to use the privilege of debate so as to offend the deputy or Privy Council, there were ready and adequate means of bringing them to their senses. There were very conve- * " The principal grievances were concerning proxies for those peers who had no estates in Ireland" &c. 264 " The subsequent order contains a representation to his .majesty, that peers not estated in Ireland should not be allowed to vote." 265 263 Mountmorres, I. 321. 264 Idem, 344. 265 Idem, 343. 256 VINDICUE HIBERNICJE. nient apartments in the jail, for their accommo- dation ; and a few weeks' solitary confinement was an excellent specific for teaching them politeness : u The same day, [Nov. 4, 1634] the lord deputy Went- worth communicated an act of council, for CONFINING AND IMPRISONING SIR JOHN DUNGAN AND CAPTAIN CHARLES PRICE, FOR WORDS SPOKEN IN PARLIAMENT !" 266 On another occasion, a member of the House of Commons, who had a seat in the Privy Coun- cil, and who dared to vote against the dictum of the bashaw Wentworth, was punished by being expelled from the Council-Board. This whole- some and "apparent severity" was admirably calculated, in terrorem, for any other members who might venture to take the same course : Sir Piers Crosby, " in the second session of the late Par- liament, ventured to oppose some measures of administration. The deputy reprimanded and accused him of a violation of his oath, in voting against bills to which he had assented in Council, and concurred in transmitting them. Crosby was sequestered from the Council-Board. He complained of the severity, by petition. He desired license to repair to England. IT WAS REFUSED." 26 * The reader will probably be startled at the fact of the refusal of license to repair to England. But such was the real state of the case. No man in public employment could leave the kingdom, even to repair to the court of the British mo- narch, without license obtained from his deputy, 266 Mountmorres, II. 1O. * 67 Leland, III. 39. PRO-CONSULAR DESPOTISM. 257 which was never granted to characters obnoxious to him, who might seek an opportunity to expose his misdeeds. The case of Sir Piers is strong and striking. His standing in society was high ;,as he was a soldier of distinguished merit, and had acquired great reputation in the expedition to the coast of France, where he had been the principal means of preserving the English army in their retreat. 268 His sole offence, as above stated, was voting against an act proposed by the Privy Council. If the merits of such a man could not secure him from the degradation inflicted merely for the independent discharge of his duty as a member of the legislature, it is easy to conceive the slavish and abject state in which those members were generally held, who had no such claims to atten- tion as belonged to the knight. His removal from the Privy Council Board took place by the express direction of the king, on the representa- tion of Wentworth.* This is a strong instance, in addition to those already given, of the fixed determination of the " royal martyr" to uphold his worthy representa- tive, in all his flagitious proceedings. He thereby rendered himself amenable, in the eye of the Eternal and Just God, for all the long course of * " On the representations of Wentworth, his majesty di- rected him to be removed from the Privy Council"* Leland, III. 39. Ibid. 33 258 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. oppression, injustice, fraud, rapine, and violence, perpetrated by his minister, who, in his persecu- tion of lord Mountnorris, lord Ely, lord St. Al- bans, Piers Crosby, and others, as well as in his Connaught spoliation, violated every rule of honour, justice, and humanity. Charles not only did not discountenance any even of his worst proceedings, but absolutely encouraged him in them. After all his enormities were perpetrated. Wentworth went to London, presented himself at court, and entered into a full detail of the whole course of conduct he had pursued. The unfeel- ing monarch expressed the most decided appro- bation : " His majesty interrupted me, and said this was no severi- ty ; wished me to go on in that way ; for if I served him otherways, I should not serve him as he expected from me. " His majesty was pleased to express his approbation of all I had done ; and their lordships to advise I should go on in a work so well begun ; and that it must be acknowledged that the best service had been done this crown in Ireland. So I kneeled down, and kissed the king's hand, and the council rose.' 1270 The tyranny of the deputy, and the slavery of the legislature, were observable in every part of their proceedings. Not to exhaust the patience of the reader, we shall close with one more in- stance. Wentworth had, by the most outrageous injustice, succeeded in carrying the election, in Dublin, in favour of the recorder of the city, one Cateline, who, the deputy was determined, should 270 Carte, III. 11. PRO-CONSULAR DESPOTISM. 259 be chosen speaker of the House of Commons. Understanding that tne members of that House contemplated choosing some other person, the insolent satrap was quite exasperated ; and des- patched the chancellor to them, with a mandate menacing his displeasure, if they should choose as speaker any other than the person "recom- mended by his majesty's Privy Council," which, at all events, would be utterly in vain, as " the conclusion must be according to his majesty's good will and pleasure."* His arbitrary power, imperious temper, and unrelenting disposition, were too well known, and the awe felt for him was too great, to admit of hesitation. His sove- reign will and pleasure were therefore as com- pletely the law in this instance, as the dictum of the emperor of Morocco in his capital. * " And as I understood there was a muttering among them of rejecting him, and choosing some other for themselves, I called the lord chancellor to me, and directed him to require them forthwith to assemble themselves in their house, and to choose their speaker, who was to be presented to me by nine o'clock the next morning ; telling them it was not -worth their contention, and that it would be taken as an ill presage of some waywardness or frowardness of mind, if they should go about to deny such for their speaker, as should be recom- mended by his majesty'' s Privy Council; or to struggle in a business wherein the conclusion of it must be according to his majesty's goodrvill and pleasure, whether they will or no. So they departed ; and before dinner, without any noise or oppo- sition at all, they chose the recorder for their speaker." 271 271 Strafford, apud Curry, I. 127. 260 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. V. Mode of framing laws. In this respect, as in every other in which we have viewed the case of unfortunate Ireland, her situation was to the last degree slavish, and the tyranny of England intolerable. In a venal and corrupt Parliament, packed in the same manner as those three Parliaments, held in the reigns of Elizabeth and James, which we have mentioned, Sir Edward Poynings, then de- puty, had a law passed which wholly destroyed the legislative power in, Ireland; reduced her Parliament nearly to a level with a bed of justice in France; limited its operations to the mere enregisterment or rejection of edicts ; and left it but a bare negative power of rejecting,* not of proposing, any law.f * " A set of statutes were enacted, in the 10th Henry VII. (Sir Edward Poynings being then lord deputy, from whence they were called Poynings' laws) which restrained the power, as well of the deputy, as of the Parliament : and in time there was nothing left to the Parliament of Ireland, but a bare negative, or power of rejecting, NOT OF PROPOS- ING, ANY LAW.' 1272 f " This day [August 2, 1634] was remarkable for a dispute between the lords and the lord deputy, about the framing of acts ; which right, by Poynings' law, he contended, was in himself and the council only ; and Parliament had only poiver to prefer a petition to them for that purpose : and lord Straf- ford entered a memorable protest, upon this occasion, in the Journals." 273 272 Jacobs, III. 534. 273 Mountmorres, I. 323. TYRANNY OF FREE GOVERNMENTS. 261 By another law, passed during the administra- tion of the same satrap, all the laws previously existing in England, were, at one stroke, made of force within the kingdom of Ireland.* And, subsequently to this period, Ireland, with- out a single representative in the British Parlia- ment, was always subject to the operation of all the British statutes, in which she " was specially named or included under general words." 274 If the experience of the world did not afford numberless instances to prove, that those nations, which are the most jealous assertors of their own liberties, are the most consummate tyrants over subordinate nations, it would be matter of aston- ishment that England, which, at various periods of her history, had lavished so much blood and treasure, in defence of her own rights and free- dom, should have so uniformly violated every principle, not merely of liberty, but of justice, in her treatment of, and displayed such wanton tyranny towards, Ireland. The case of these two nations affords a most felicitous illustration of the judicious and profound remark of Hume, that it may be regarded as " a fixed maxim," that w though free governments have been commonly the most happy for those who partake of their * " It was enacted, by another of Poynings' laws, that all acts of Parliament, before that time made in Eingland, should be of force within the kingdom of Ireland.'" 275 274 Jacobs, III. 534. 27J Ibid. 262 VINDICUE HIBERNICJE. freedom; yet ARE THEY THE MOST RUIN- OUS AND OPPRESSIVE TO THEIR PRO- VINCES." 276 From Parliaments constituted in the manner we have detailed, few measures were to be hoped for, but what were fraught with destruction to the happiness of Ireland. Majorities were gene- rally secured in both houses, whose interests were in direct hostility with the best interests of the nation : and, in consequence, a large portion of their legislation has been an almost invariable tissue of outrage upon every principle of political economy, honour, honesty, and good faith. " The mere Irish were not only accounted aliens, but ene- mies, and altogether out of the protection of the law ; so as IT WAS NO CAPITAL OFFENCE TO KILL THEM." 277 " Our law did neither protect his [the Irishman's] life, nor revenge his death." 2 " As long as they were out of the protection of the law, so as EVERY ENGLISHMAN MIGHT OPPRESS, SPOIL, AND KILL THEM, WITHOUT CONTROUL, how was it possible they could be other than outlaws and enemies of the crown of ^England? If the king would not admit them to the condition of subjects, how could they learn to obey him as their sovereign ? When they might not converse or commerce with any civil man, nor enter into any town or city, without peril of their lives, whither should they fly but into the woods and mountains, and there live in a wild and barbarous manner ?' 1379 Of the barbarous code of laws which disgraced the Irish Statute-Book, we shall notice a few. 276 Hume's Essays, I. 47. 277 Davies, 82. 278 Idem, 84, 2 Idem, 90. DECAPITATION WITHOUT TRIAL. 263 By one law, marriage or fosterage with the natives was made treason.* a law tending to render eternal the hostility, and spread wide the devastation and horrors of warfare, between the aboriginals and the English colonists, a law, in a word, of the most dire and baleful tendency. By a law made in the reign of Edward IV. it was enacted, that any Englishman, meeting an Irishman robbing, or going to rob, or coming from robbing, unless he had an Englishman in his company, might kill him, and cut off his head, WITHOUT TRIAL ;f and, on bringing the head to * " By divers heavy penalties, the English were forbidden to marry, to foster, to make gossips with the Irish, or to have any commerce in their markets or fairs : nay, there was a law made, no longer since than the 28th Henry VIII. that the English should not marry with any person of Irish blood, though he had gotten a charter of denization, unless he had done both homage and fealty to the king in the chancery, and were also bound by recognizance, with sureties, to continue a loyal subject. Whereby it is manifest, that such as had the government of Ireland, under the crown of England, did in- tend to make A PERPETUAL SEPARATION AND ENMITY between the English and the Irish, pretending, no doubt, that THE ENGLISH SHOULD, IN THE END, ROOT OUT THE IRISH." 280 f " It shall be lawful to all manner of men that find any thieves robbing by day or by night, or going or coining to rob or steal, in or out, going or coming, having no faithful man of good name and fame in their company, in English appareJ, upon any of the liege people of the king, to take and kill them, and TO CUT OFF THEIR HEADS, -without ami impear/i- 280 Davies, 86. 264 VINDICLE UIBERNICJE: the portrief of the town, he was further author- ized to levy " with his own hands," and those of his aiders in the murder, two pence for every plough land, one penny for every half plough land, as well as for every house and property worth forty shillings. This act did not merely legalize murder, but offered a premium for it ; any Englishman might, at his pleasure, cut off the head of an Irishman, and declare that he was going to rob, or coming from robbing: which assertions it was impossible to disprove ; and a man, going to, or coming from, church, might be murdered, on pretence that he was going to rob, or coming from robbing. The murderer could then levy contributions on the barony, as a remuneration for the slaughter ; and, consider* ing the deadly hostility between the two nations, and the slight importance attached to the life of an Irishman, it is far from improbable that hun- dreds of them were thus decapitated ; and that the business of chopping off heads was made as ment of our sovereign lord the king, his heirs, officers, or mi- nisters, or of any others. " And it shall be lawful to the bringer of the said head, and his aiders to the same, for to distrain and levy by their own hands, of every man having one plough land in the barony where the said thief was taken, two pence ; and of every man having half a plough land, one penny ; and of every man hav- ing one house, and goods to the value of forty shillings, one penny ; and of every other cottier, having one house and smoke, one half-penny." 281 281 Statutes, 21. IMPARTIAL JUSTICE. 265 regular a trade, and as profitable a means of subsistence, as in some countries is the employ- ment of shooting wolves or bears. By another law, any man found within the Pale, with the beard on the upper lip, which was the Irish custom, might be seized, with his goods, as an Irish enemy, and ransomed as such.* By another, every man was rendered liable for the offences committed by his son.f By another, five of the best men of every stirpe were obliged to deliver up all of their sur- name charged with offences, or to ansrverfor the offences themselves. Of course, when criminals escaped, their namesakes, how innocent soever, underwent the penalty of their offences.J * " No manner of man, that will be taken for an Englishman, shall have no beard" [these two negatives are in the statute] " above his mouth ; that is to say, shall have no hair upon his upper lip ; so that the said upper lip shall be once at least shaven every fortnight ; or of equal growth with the nether lip. And if any man be found among the English contrary here- unto, then it shall be lawful to every man to take them and their goods as Irish enemies, and to ransom them as such." 282 | " Every man shall answer for the offence and ill-doing of his son, as he himself that did the trespass, offence, &c. ought to do." 283 ^ " Five persons of the best of every stirpe or nation of the Irishry, and in the countries that be not yet shire grounds, and till they be shire grounds, shall be bound to bring in, to be justified by law, all idle persons of their surname which shall be charged with any offence ; or else satisfy, of their own proper goods, the hurts by them committed to the parties 232 Statutes, 5. 383 Idem, 14. 34 266 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. We shall close with a short notice of the preamble of an act, which assumes, as the ground of its enaction, such miserable legends as display a disregard of even the slightest ap- pearance of common honesty. Their wicked- ness stares us in the face, with the most mere- tricious audacity. The act was passed by the Parliament held in the eleventh year of the reign of Elizabeth, which was called expressly for the purpose of attainting the person, and confis- cating the immense estate, of Shane O'Neal, who, as we have seen in page 179, was "rooted out, on the complaint of the nobility:" The preamble enters into an elaborate attempt to prove that the whole island, and all its inhabitants, were the property of the kings of England ! a most won- derful proof of the fidelity with which the Irish nation was represented in that corrupt and venal legislature. That England or Englishmen should advance such claims, on the fabulous histories of Gurmonds, and Belans, and munificent donations of an island not their own, is not very surprising : but what indignation must it excite, to have those claims recorded among the statutes enacted in the metropolis of Ireland, and by men pretending to be representatives of that kingdom ! The proofs grieved; and also yield to the queen's majesty, her heirs and successors, such fines, as by the lord deputy, governor or governors and council of this realm, shall be assessed for their 284 Statutes, 229. AN INDISPUTABLE TITLE. 267 offered would excite our merriment, did not profound astonishment at their injustice stifle the propensity to ridicule. The two principal grounds were, that the pro- genitors of the Irish, who migrated from Spain, lived in a province called Biscan, " whereof Bayon was a member ;" that king Gurmond, son to the noble king Belan, king of Great Britain, was lord of Bayon ; and, as the " Virgin Queen" was a lineal descendant of king Gurmond, " THEREFORE," most wonderful logic ! " the Irishmen should be the king of England his people, and Ireland his land !" But, not relying wholly on this strong title to the kingdom and the people, and lest there should be sceptics who would dare dispute the point, they adduce another proof, so powerful as to silence the controversy to the end of time. This corroboration rests on the incontrovertible fact, that as Heremon and Heberus were leading their followers from Spain, they met with the said renowned hero, king Gurmond, at the islands of the Orcades, which were then in the route from Spain to Ireland ; but they are now removed a few leagues out of the course. On this knotty point of geography, it is not necessary to dilate : we therefore return to the mighty mo- narch Gurmond. This illustrious hero, whose fame has spread throughout the habitable globe, was returning. 268 V1NDICDE HIBERNICJE. crowned with laurels, from a great victory ob- tained in Denmark. The Milesian chiefs, wearied out with their tedious pilgrimage, and panting after an asylum, where they might repose from their labours, made an humble supplication to the conqueror, to grant them some place to the west, wherein to settle themselves. This puissant prince, a mirror of humanity and be- nignity, had compassion on the wanderers ; most graciously made them a present of the Emerald Isle, with ah 1 its appurtenances ; and moreover kindly furnished guides, to direct them in their voyage thither. And therefore "they should and ought to be the king of England his men." The migration of the Milesians to Ireland, is stated by O'Connor, one of the most learned antiquarians of the last century, to have taken place eleven hundred years before the Christian era : the act for the attainder of O'Neale was passed in 1583. Thus the claim was quite a recent one, not quite twenty-seven hundred years old! The reader may perhaps imagine, that, to change the scene, we have taken a flight into the regions of fancy ; and that all we have stated, respecting Gurmond, and Belan, and Biscan, and the Orcades, and Heberus, and Heremon, and the great victory in Denmark, and the magnifi- cent present of Ireland, is mere rhodomontade. AN INDISPUTABLE TITLE. 269 But the annexed extract* from the preface to the act for the attainder of Shane O'Neal, will * Extract from " An Act for the attainder of Shane O'Neile, and the extinguishment of the name of G 1 Neile, and the enti- tling of the >ueerfs majesty, her heirs, and successours, tv the country of Tyrone, and other countries and territories in Ulster. " And now, most deere sovereign ladie, least that any man which list not to seeke and learn the truth, might be ledd eyther of his owne fantasticall imagination, or by the sinister suggestion of others, to think that the sterne or lyne of the Oneyles should or ought, by prioritie of title, to hold and possess anie part of the dominion or territories of Ulster be- fore your majestic, your heyres, and successours, we, your grace's said faithfull and obedient subjects, for avoyding of all such scruple, doubt, and erroneous conceit, doe intend here (pardon first craved of your majestic for our tedious boldness) to disclose unto your highness your auncient and sundry strong authentique tytles, conveyed farr beyonde the said lynage of the Oneyles and all other of the Irishrie to the dignitie, state, title and possesion of this your realm of Ireland. " And therefore it may like your most excellent majestic to be advertized, that the auncient chronicles of this realm, writ- ten both in the Latine, English, and Irish tongues, alledged sundry auncient ty ties for the kings of England to this land of Ireland. And first, that at the beginning, afore the comming of Irishmen into the said land, they were dwelling in a pro- vince of Spain, the which is called Biscan, whereof Bayon -was a member, and the chief citie. And that, at the said Irishmen's comming into Ireland, one king Gurmond, sonne to the noble king Belan, king of Great Britaine, which now is called Eng- land, ivas lord of Bayon, as many of his successours were to the time of king Henry the second, first conqueror of this realm: and THEREFORE THE IRISHMEN SHOULD BE THE KING OF ENGLAND HIS PEOPLE, AND IRELAND HIS LAND!! u Another title is, that at the same time that Irishmen came out of Biscay, as exhiled persons, in sixty ships, they met with 270 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. remove all doubt on the subject, and convince him we have been as sober and serious as John Bunyan, when writing the Pilgrim's Progress. the same king Gurmond upon the sea, at the ysles of Orcades, then comming from Denmark with great victory. Their captains, called Heberus and Heremon, went to this king, and him tolde the cause of their comming out of Biscay, and him prayed, with great instance, that he would graunt unto them, that they might inhabit some land in the west. The king at the last, by advise of the councel, granted them Ireland to inhabite, and assigned unto them guides for the sea, to bring them thither: and THEREFORE THEY SHOULD AND OUGHT TO BE THE KING OF ENGLAND'S MEN ! ! " Another title is, as the clerke Geraldus Cambrensis wri- teth at large the historic of the conquest of Ireland by king Henry the second, your famous progenitor, how Dermot Mac Morch, prince of Leinster, which is the first part of Ireland, being a tyrant or tyrants, banished, Avent over the sea into Normandie, in the parts of France, to the said king Henry ; and him besely besought of succour, which he obtained, and thereupon became liege man to the said king Henry, through which he brought power of Englishmen into the land, and married his daughter, named Eve, at Waterford, to Sir Rich- ard Fitz-Gilbert, earle of Stranguile in Wales, and to him granted the reversion of Leinster, with the said Eve his daughter. And after that the said earle granted to the said king Henry the citie of Dublin, with certain cantreds of lands next to Dublin, and all the haven towns of Leinster, to have the rest to him in quiet with his grace's favour. " Another title is, that in the year of our Lord God one thousand one hundred sixtie-two, the aforesaid king Henry- landed at the citie of Waterford, within the realm of Ireland, and there came to him Dermot, king of Corke, which is of the nation of the M'Carties, and of his own proper will became liege, tributarie for him and his kingdom, and upon that made his oath and gave his hostages to the king. Then the king roade to Cashell, and there came to him Donalde, king of AN INDISPUTABLE TITLE. 271 Should this work travel to the continent of Europe, it may produce serious consequences to Limerick, which is of the nation of the O'Brienes, and be- came his liege, as the other did. Then came to him Donald, king of Ossorie, Mac-Shaglin, king of Ophaly, and all the princes of the south of Ireland, and became his liege men, as aforesaid. Then went the said king Henry to Dublin, and there came to him O'Kernill, king of Uriel, O'Rowcke, king of Meth, and Rotherick, king of all Irishmen of the land, and of Connaught, with all the princes, and men of value of the land; and became liege subjects, and tributaries, by great oathes for them, their kingdoms and lordships to the said king Henry ; and that of their own good wills, as it should seem ; for that the chronicles make no mention of any rvarre or chi- valrie done by the said king, all the time that he was in Ireland. " And in the year of our Lord God, a thousand, a hundred, four score and five, he gave the land of Ireland to his young- est sonne, John by name, about which time the said John came in person into Ireland, and held the same land. " Another title is, that all the clergie of this realm assem- bled at Armagh, at the time of the Conquest, upon the com- ming over of Englishmen, our forefathers ; and there it was decreed and deemed by them, that through the sin of the people of the land, by the sentence of God, the mischief of the Conquest them befell. " Another title is, that at the first comming and being of king Richard the second in Ireland, at the citie of Dublin, and other places of the land, there came unto him, with their own good wills, O'Neyle, captain of the Irishmen of Ulster, O'Breene, of Thomond, O'Conner of Connaught, Arthur Mac Morchie, captain of Irishmen in Leinster, and all captains of Irishmen of Ireland, and became liege men to the said king Richard, and to him did homage and fealty ; and for the more greater suertie bound themselves in great summes of money, by divers instruments, in case' they did not truly keep and hold their allegiance in the forme aforesaid : and therefore, sayeth this clerke, that from the beginning of his time, which 272 VINDICIJE HIBERNIC.E. the peace and independence of the United States. Many Swedes, and some of the subjects of the sublime and puissant princes of Germany have made considerable settlements in Pennsylvania. And these great potentates, following the exam- ple of the successors of Gurmond, may be tempt- ed to lay claim to a large portion, perhaps the whole, of the state. But, alas ! the evil may ex- tend further. Certain Knickerbockerites settled New Amsterdam formerly. And therefore the puissant king of Holland may, on the same grounds, claim large sections of New York. It is, moreover, shrewdly suspected, that some of the citizens of the powerful and extensive repub- lic of Ragusa, settled themselves among the pil- grims of New England. The Yankees may there- fore look out sharp for squalls. was about three hundred and four score years past, GOOD is THE KING OF ENGLAND'S TITLE AND RIGHT TO THE LAND AND LORDSHIP OF IRELAND." 285 28S Statutes, 231. PRIVILEGES OF PARLIAMENT. 273 Sometimes, notwithstanding all the various lines of circumvallation by which the vice-regal authority was fenced round, and the fraud, cor- ruption, and venality, by which the proceedings of the legislature were managed, measures were carried there offensive to his high mightiness, the deputy for the time being. But such was the prudence and foresight of the administration of that happy kingdom, that there was an adequate remedy provided even for this disorder. It was very simple, and of easy application ; being merely to tear out the leaves of the Journals, containing the obnoxious matter, in due form, and with a proper exhibit of proconsular dignity: " On the 29th of November, 164O, the following very ex- traordinary memorandum appears in the Journals : " Memo. By virtue of his majesty's letters, we, the lord deputy, have, at the council-board, had two orders of the House of Commons, in presence of divers, of the late members, torn out of the Journals. These orders related to presenting ways and rates to be observed in taking the growing subsidies." 280 380 Mountmorres, II. 40. ( 274 ) CHAPTER XIII. ; An act of most gracious, general, and free par- don" with only fifty classes of exceptions, each averaging four or five species; that is, " a gene- ral par do7i," with about two hundred exceptions. " Et voila justement comme on ecrit 1'histoire." Voltaire. AMONG the multifarious frauds respecting Ireland, with which the world has been deluded, one of the most palpable remains to be noticed. It is universally believed, on the uniform declarations of probably all the Anglo-Hibernian writers, that an act of general amnesty, for all offences whatsoever, was passed by the Irish Parliament, in the session which commenced anno 1613. " The session concluded with an act of oblivion and general pardon." " An act of general pardon and oblivion was made, in con- firmation of the royal edict." 288 " They passed an act of general indemnity for late crimes, with an exception of Tyrone, Tyrconnel, and O'Dogherty." 289 " An act of general amnesty and pardon was made, in con- firmation of the royal edict." 290 " An act of general oblivion and indemnity was passed." 291 " All minds being quieted by a general indemnity r ." 292 287 Carte, I. 22. 288 Leland, II. 535. 289 Davies, xxv. 290 Gordon, I. 327. W1 Crawford, I. 347. Hume, III. 3O8. A NEWLY-INVENTED GENERAL PARDON ! A perusal of these passages, and of all the wri- ters we have ever examined on the subject, has led the world to give credit to James and his Irish Parliament for an exuberant stock of cle- mency. It has appeared that their motto, and the benignant rule of their conduct, had been Shakspeare's divine commendation of heaven- born mercy : " The quality of mercy," &c. It is supposed that this act of "general and free pardon" effaced all crimes and misdemeanors of every description ; was the harbinger of an universal jubilee throughout the kingdom ; and, from the hour of its promulgation, produced a general clearance of the prisons of all their tenants, by whatsoever tenure they had been held there. But, alas ! in Ireland, words bore an im- port different from what they had in any other country : and " an act of general pardon" in that ill-fated nation, was, in truth and in fact, an act of universal proscription : for in that Parliament and king, towards Ireland, " There was no more mercy, than milk in a male tiger." 293 This assertion will appear ambiguous : but the ambiguity shall be soon removed. The act in question bears, it is true, in the Statute-Book, the fraudulent title of "an act for the king's majestie's most gracious, general, and free par- 293 Shakspeare. 276 VINDICIJE HIBERNIC-E. V don:'* This is as clear and explicit as language could render it ; and, as the act itself is in black- * Extracts from "An Act for the king*s majesties most gracious, GENERAL, AND FREE PARDON ! ! !" The king's majestic, most graciously considering the good will and faithful hearts of his most loving subjects, which as at all times, so at this present especially, they having with most dutiful affection showed themselves towards his high- ness ; and understanding that the same his loving subjects have many and sundry wayes, by the laws and statutes of this reahn, fallen into the danger of diverse great penalties and forfeytures, is, of his princely and merciful disposition, most graciously inclined, by his liberal and free pardon, to discharge some part of those great paynes, forfeytures and penalties wherewith his said subjects stand now burdened and charged ; trusting they will be thereby the rather moved and induced, from henceforth, more carefully to observe his highness's laws and statutes, and to continue in their loyal and due obedience to his majestic ; and therefore his majestic is well pleased and contented, that it be enacted by the authority of this present Parliament, in manner and form following, (that is to say) That all and every the said subjects, as well spiritual as tem- poral of this his highness's realm of Ireland, the heyres, suc- cessors, executors, and administrators of them, and every of them, and all and singular bodies corporate, cities, shires, boroughs, hundreds, baronies, townes, villages, hamlets, and tythings, and every of them, and the successor and successors of every of them, shall be, by the authority of this present Parliament, acquitted, pardoned, and released, and discharged against the king's majestic, his heyres and successors, and every of them, of all manner of treasons, felonies, offences, contempts, trespasses, entries, -wrongs, deceipts, misdemean- ours, forfeytures, penalties, and summs of many, paynes of death, paynes corporal and pecuniarie, and generally of all other things, causes, quarrels, suites, judgments and executions, in this present Act hereafter not excepted nor foreprized. A NEWLY-INVENTED GENERAL PARDON ! ! 277 letter, obsolete orthography, and very long, it is probable that those writers never examined be- 1. " Except and alwayes foreprized out of this general and free pardon, all and all manner of high treasons, and other offences committed or done by any person or persons against the king's majestic, and all conspiracies and confede- racies, trayterously had, committed, or done, by any person or persons, against the king's majestie's royal person ; and all manner of levying warre and all rebellions and insurrections whatsoever had, made, or committed, or done at any time sithence the beginning of his majesty's raigne. 2. "And also excepted all and every manner of treasons com- mitted or done, by any person or persons in the parts beyond the seas, or in any other place out of the king's dominions, sithence the beginning of his majestie's raigne ; and also all suites, punishments, executions, paynes of death, forfeitures, and penalties, for, or by reason or occasion of any of the trea- sons and offences before rehearsed. 3. "And also excepted out of this pardon all offences of forg- ing and false counterfeyting the king's majestic his great or privy scale, sign manual, or privy signet, or any of the monies current within this realm ; and also all offences of unlawfull diminishing of any the said monies, by any wayes or means whatsoever, contrary to the laws and statutes of this realm at any time sithence the beginning of his majestie's raigne ; and also all misprisions and concealments of any the high treasons aforesaid, and also all abetting, aiding, comforting or procuring of the same offences, or any of the said treasons committed or done sithence the beginning of his majestie's raigne. 4. " And also excepted out of this pardon, all manner of vo- luntary murders, petit treasons, and wilfull poisonings, done or committed by any person or persons sithence the beginning of his majestie's raigne, and all and every the accessaries to the said offences, or any of them, before the said offences commit- ted. 5. "And also excepted and foreprised out of this general par- don all and every offence of piracy, and robbery done upon the seas, sithence the beginning of his majestie's raigne. 278 VINDICIJE HIBEftNICJE. yond the title, or, at all events, beyond the pre- amble, which carries the same delusive promise 6. "And also excepted out of this pardon all burglaries com- mitted or done in any dwelling house or houses, and all acces- saries to any the said burglaries, before the said burglaries committed, within one year before the beginning of this pre- sent session of Parliament. 7. " And also excepted all robberies done upon, or to any man's or woman's person in the high-way, or elsewhere, and all and singular accessaries of, or to any such robberies be- fore the said robbery, committed within one year before the first day of this present session of Parliament. 8. " And also excepted the felonious stealing of any horse, gelding, garron, or mare, and all accessaries thereunto, before the same felony committed, and all judgments and executions of and for the same, within one year next before the beginning of this present session of Parliament. 9. " And also, all ivilfull burnings of any dwelling house or houses, or any barn or barns, wherein any corn was, commit- ted or done at any time sithence the beginning of his majes- tie's raigne. 10. " And also excepted all rapes and carnal ravishments of women, and also ravishments and wilfull taking away or marry- ing any maide, widdowe, or damosel, against her will, or with- out the assent or agreement of her parents, or such as then had her in custodie, committed or done within one year before the beginning of this present session of Parliament. And also all offences of ayding, comforting, procuring or abetting of any such ravishment, wilfull taking away or marrying, had, com- mitted or done. 11." And also excepted out of this pardon all persons now attainted or outlawed, of or for any treason, petit treason, mur- der, wilfull poysoning, burglary, or robbery, and all execu- tions of and for the same. 12. " And also excepted all offences of invocations, conjura- tions, witchcraft, sorteri.es, inchantments and charms, and all offences of procuring, abetting, or comforting of the same, and all persons now attainted and convicted of any of the said of- A NEWLY-INVENTED GENERAL, PARDON ! ! 279 of clemency : but, with Shakspeare, we may well exclaim, " Oh ! what a goodly outside falsehood hath !" fences, at any time sithence the beginning of his majestie's raigne. 1 3. " And also excepted all and every manner or taking from the king's majestic, of any the goods or chattels, or the issues, rents, revenues or profits of any manners, lands, tene- ments, and hereditaments, which were of any traytor, murder- er, felon, clerke or clerkes attainted, or fugitives, or of any of them. 14. " And also excepted all goods and chattels, in any wise forfeited to the king's majestic by treason, petit treason, mur- der,' or felony, heretofore committed or done. 15. " And also excepted all offences of or in making, writ- ing, printing, or publishing, or in consenting to the making, writing, printing, or publishing, of any false, seditious, or slaunderous book or books, libell or libells, in any wise against the king's majestic, or the present government of this realme, in cases either ecclesiasticall or temporall, or against any per- son or persons whatsoever. 16. " And also excepted out of this pardon all intrusions, had, or made, or done by any person or persons, in or upon any of the manners, lands, tenements, or other hereditaments of our said sovereign lord the king ; and all wastes done, com- mitted or suffered upon any such lands, tenements, or heredit- aments, and the wrongfull taking of any the rents, issues, and profits of the same manners, lands, tenements, or heredita- ments, of our said sovereign lord the king, at any time sithence the beginning of his majestie's raigne. And also all suites, accounts and impetitions, of and for the same. 17. " And also excepted out of this pardon all alienations of any lands, tenements or hereditaments, without license, and all fines, issues and profits, that may or ought to grow or come to the king's majestic, by reason of any such alienations, with- out license, at any time sithence the beginning of his majestie's raigne. 280 VIND1CIJE HIBERNICJE. And never was there more " falsehood" under a " goodly outside," than in this instance. For, in 18. " And also excepted out of this pardon, all wastes com- mitted or done, in any of the king's wards' lands, or in the wards' lands of any of the king's counties ; and also all and every fine or fines, for the single and double value of the mar- riage or marriages of all and every ward or wards, at any time heretofore grown to the king's majestic, sithence the beginning of his majestie's raigne. 19. "And also excepted concealed wards, and the lands of such wards concealed, and all liveries and primer seisins and ousterlemains, that ought to be had, done or sued for the same, sithence the beginning of his majestie's raigne. 20. " And also excepted out of this general pardon all ra- vishments and wrongfull taking or withholding any the king's ward or wards, lands or rents, and profits of the same, at any- time coming or growing to the king's hands, sithence the be- ginning of his majestie's raigne ; and every thing that by rea- son of any such ward or wards' lands, and for default of suing or prosecuting, of any livery for any such wards' lands ought to come or to be to the king's majestic, and which as yet is not discharged. 21. "And also excepted all jlnes that shoulder ought to grow to the king's majestic, of any his widdows that have mar- ried without license, sithence the beginning of his majestie's raigne. 22. " And also excepted and foreprised out of this pardon, all such persons as, the last day of this present session of Par- liament, be in prison, within the castle of Dublin, or in the prison of Marshalsie, or otherwise restrained of liberty by ex- press commandment of the lord deputy, or by the command- ment or directions of any his majestie's privy council. 23. " And also excepted out of this pardon all and every such person and persons which at any time sithence the begin- ning of the king's majestie's raigne, have fed out of this realm of Ireland, or any other the king's dominions, for any offence of high treason, petit treason, or misprision of treason. A NEWLY-INVENTED GENERAL PARDON ! ! 281 the body of this " act of general and free pardon," there are no less than FIFTY CLASSES OF EXCEP- 24. " And also excepted all such persons as be gone or fled out of this realm, for any cause contrarie to the laws and sta- tutes of this realm, without the king's majestie's license. 25. " And also excepted all such persons as have obtained and had license to depart this realm, for certain time, and now do abide out of this realm, without any lawful excuse, after the time of their licenses expired. 26. " And also excepted out of this pardon all and every concealments or wrongfull detainments of any custom or sub- sidie due to the king's majestic, sithence the beginning of his majestie's raigne, and all corruptions and misdemeanours of any officer or minister of or concerning any custom or subsi- die, and all accompts, impetitions and suites to be had, made or done for the same. 27. "And also excepted all and singular accompts of all and every collector and collectors of any subsidie, custom, impo- sition, composition or other thing ; and all accompts of every other person whatsoever that ought to be accomptant to the king's highness, and the heirs, executors, and administrators of every such person that ought to accompt for all things touching only the same accompts ; and all and singular arrear- ages of accompts, and all untrue accompts, and all petitions, charges, and seisures, suites, demaunds, and executions which may or can be had, of or for any accompts or any arrearages of the same. 28. " And also excepted all titles and actions of quare im- pedit, and all homages, reliefe and reliefes, 'heriots, rents, ser- vices, rent charges, rent seeks, and the arrearages of the same, not done or paid to the king's highness. 29. " And also excepted all conditions and covenants, and all penalties, titles and forfeytures of condition or conditions, covenant or covenants, accrued or grown to the king's ma- jestic, by reason of the breach and not performing of any cove- nants or conditions. 36 282 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. TIONS, embracing almost every conceivable crime of which the Statute-Book takes cognizance ; and 30. " And also excepted all summs of money granted by the king's majestic, or any his noble progenitors ; and all conceal- ments, fraudes and offences by which his majesty hath been deceived or not truly answered of or for the same. 31. " And also excepted out of this pardon all debtes which were or be due to our soveraign lord the king, or to the most noble queen Elizabeth, of famous memorie, or to any person or persons for or to any of their uses, by any condemnation, recognizance, obligation or otherwise, other than such debts as are due upon any obligation or recognizance forfeyted before the first day of this present session of Parliament ; for not ap- pearance in any court or other place whatsoever" ; or for not keeping of the peace, or not being of good behaviour, which debts growen and accrued upon these cases, by this free par- don be and shall be freely pardoned and discharged. 32. " And also excepted and foreprized out of this pardon all and singular penalties, forfeytures and summs of money , being due, and accrued to our soveraign lord the king, by reason of any act, statute, or statutes : which forfeytures, pe- nalties and summs of money be converted into the nature of debts, by any judgment, order or decree, or by the agreement of the offendovlr or offenders, sithence the beginning of the raigne of the late queen Elizabeth. 33. " And also excepted all forfeytures of leases and estates or interests of any lands, tenements or hereditaments, holden of our soveraign lord the king's majestic by knight service, or in socage, in capite, or otherwise by knight service made in one or several assurances or leases for any term or terms of years, whereupon the old and accustomed rent or more is not reserved. 34. " And also excepted all first fruits at this present being due to be paid to his majestic, by force of any act or statute or otherwise. 35. "And also excepted all penalties and forfeytures whereof there is any verdict in any suit given or past for the king's majestic. A NEWLY-INVENTED GENERAL. PARDON ! ! 283 which, for the purpose of adding one more to the various proofs we have already adduced, of the 36. " And also excepted all forfeitures and other penalties and profits now due, accrued and growen, or which shall or may be due, accrued or growing to the king's majestic, by reason of any offence, misdeameanour, contempt, or act or deed, suffered, had, committed, or done, contrary to any a'ct, statute or statutes, or contrary to the common laws of this realm, and whereof or for the which any action, bill, plaint or information, at any time within eight years next before the last day of this present session of Parliament, hath been or shall be exhibited, commenced or sued in the courts of Castle Chamber or in any the king's majestie's courts at Dublin, and now is, or the said last day of this session of Parliament, shall be there depending, and remaining to be prosecuted, or whereof the king's majestic, by his bill assigned, hath heretofore made any gift or assignment to any person or persons. 37. " And also excepted out of this general and free pardon all offences, contempts, disorders, covins, frauds, deceipts and misdemeanours -whatsoever, heretofore committed or done by any person or persons, and whereof or for the which any suit, by bill, plaint or information, at any time within four years next before the last day of this present session of Parlia- ment, is or shall be commenced or exhibited in the court of Castle Chamber, and shall be there the same last day of this session of Parliament depending, or whereupon any sentence or decree is given or entered. 38. " And also excepted out of this pardon all offences of perjuries and subornations of witnesses, and offences of forg- ing and counterfeiting of any false deeds, escriptes or writ- ings ; and all procuring and counselling of any such counter- feiting or forging to be had or made. 39. " And also excepted out of this pardon all offences of incest, adultery, fornication and simony, and all such usury for which any interest hath been received or taken since the first day of this present session of Parliament ; and all misdemean- ours and disturbances committed or made in any church or chappel, in the time of common prayer, preaching or divine 284 VINDICLK HIBERNICA. fidelity of Irish historians, are enumerated in the annexed note. service there used, to the disturbance thereof; and all outlaw- ries and prosecutions upon the same. 40. " And also excepted all offences whereby any person may be charged with the penalty and danger of premunire, and of the which offence or offences any person standeth already indicted, or otherwise lawfully condemned or convicted. 41. " And also excepted all dilapidations for which any suit is, or before the end of this session of Parliament shall be, depending. 42. " And also excepted all offences in taking away, imbey- selling or purloyning any the king's majestie's goods, money, chattels, jewels, armour, munition, ordinance, or other habili- ments of warre. 43. " And also excepted out of this pardon all manner of extortions whatsoever. 44. " And also excepted all covins, frauds, deceipts and other disorders and misdemeanours whatsoever, heretofore committed or done by any steward of his majestie's mannours or courts, under sheriffe, or by any officer or minister in any of his highness' courts, in or by reason or colour of any of their offices or places, or any their deputys or clerkes ; and all offences of ayding, comforting, assisting or procuring of any under sheriffe or any such officer, minister, or clerke, in con- tinuing, doing or executing any such extortion, exaction, covin, fraud, deceipt, disorder or misdemeanour. 45. " And also excepted out of this pardon all issues, fines and amercements being totted, levied or received by any she- riffe, under sheriffe, bayliffe, minister or other officer, to or for the king's majestie's use or behoofe, before the last day of this present session of Parliament ; and all issues, fines and amerciaments affered, taxed, estreated or entered severally or particularly, touching or concerning any one person or more persons joyntly or severally, above the sum of six pounds. 46. " And also excepted all issues, fines and amerciaments affered, taxed, set or entered severally or particularly in any court of record at Dublin, at any time sithence the feast of A NEWLY-INVENTED GENERAL PARDON ! ! 285 The extracts from this act are longer, perhaps, than are consistent with the nature of this work : Saint Bartholomew last past ; and yet nevertheless all other fines, as well finis pro licentio concordandi, as other set, taxed, estreated or entered afore the said feast of Saint Bartholomew ; and also all issues and amerciaments as well real as others, within any liberties or without, being set, taxed, estreated or entered afore the said feast of Saint Bartholomew, and which severally or particularly extend to or under the summ of six pounds, and not above, whether they be estreated or not es- treated, or whether they be turned into debt or not turned into debt, and not being totted, levied or recovered by any sheriflfe, under sheriffe, minister or other officer, to or for the king's majestie's use or behoof, before the last day of this present ses- sion of Parliament, shall be freely, clearly and plainly pardoned and discharged against the king's majestic, his heyres and successours for ever, by force of this present act of free par- don ; and yet nevertheless, all estreats of such fines, issues and amerciaments as be now pardoned by this act, and be already estreated forth of the court of exchequer, and be remaining in the hand of the sheriffe, under sheriffe and bayliffe for collect- ing of the same fines, issues and amerciaments, shall, upon the return of the same estreats, be orderly charged and delivered by scrowls into the office of the pipe in the court of exche- quer, as heretofore hath been accustomed, to the intent that thereupon order may be taken that his majesty may be truly answered in all fines, issues and amerciaments not by this act pardoned, and which any sheriffe, under sheriffe, bayliffe or other officer or minister hath received or ought to answer for by force or colour of any such estreat, processe or precept to him or them made for the levying thereof: and yet notwith- standing all and every sheriffe and sheriffes and other ac- comptants, upon his or their petition or petitions, to be made for the allowance of any such fines, issues and amerciaments as, by this act pardoned, shall have all and every such his and their petition allowed in his or their accompt and accompts, without paying any fee or reward to any officer, clerk or other 286 V1NDICUE HIBERNICJE. but we trust they will be excused ; as no abridg- ment could do justice to the subject, or to the grand object we have in view, which is to open the eyes of every reader, who is not wilfully blind, to the undeviating fraud, falsehood, and minister, for the making, entering or allowing of any such pe- tition, any usage or custome to the contrary notwithstanding. 47. " And also excepted out of this pardon all goods, chat- tels, debts, actions and suites already forfeited, or whereof any right or title is accrued and growen to the king's majestic by reason of any outlawry, and whereof the king's majestic, by his highness's letters patent, hath, before'the last day of this present session of Parliament, made any grant, covenant or proviso to any person or persons. 48. " And also excepted out of this pardon all such persona as be and remain still attainted or condemned, and not already pardoned, of or for any rebellion or levying of warre, or of or for any conspiracy of any rebellion or levying of warre, within this realm, or in any other the king's dominions. 49. " And also excepted all false forging and counterfeiting of any untrue certificates. 50. " And also excepted all false forging and counterfeiting of any commission or commissions to inquire of any lands, tenements or hereditaments : or return of any commission" or commissions obtained or gotten of any court or courts to in- quire of any lands, tenements or other things whatsoever; and all and all manner of falsifying of any particular, or of any bill or bills signed by his majestic after the ingrossing thereof, and before the passing of the same unto the great seal. 51. " Provided also, and be it enacted by the authority of this present Parliament, that this act of general pardon shall not in any wise extend to any person outlawed upon any writ of capias ad satisfaciendum, until such time as the person so outlawed shall satisfie, or otherwise agree with the party at whose suit the same person was so outlawed or condemned." 294 294 Statutes, 327. HISTORICAL, ACCURACY. 287 imposture, that run through the whole body of the Anglo-Hibernian histories of Ireland, as pen- ned by those writers who have pandered to the passions, the prejudices, and the grinding tyranny of " the Protestant ascendency," and contaminated and corrupted the history of Ireland to an extent unequalled in that of any other portion of the terraqueous globe. This object we feel proudly confident we have accomplished, with such of our readers as have brought to the perusal of this work, a mind disposed to hail the appearance of holy Truth, in whatsoever form she may appear. We hope the reader will bear in remem- brance the deceptious statement of this act, as he peruses some of the subsequent chapters, in which, from the nature of the subjects, the detec- tion of imposture is rendered difficult, and, in fact, would be impossible, if the stupidity of the projectors were not on a par with their wicked- ness. Had their ingenuity amounted to a twen- tieth part of their fraud, they might have con- trived tales so plausible as to bid defiance to detection : but fortunately their fabrications are compacted together with so much grossness and incoherence, that it requires but moderate abili- ties to expose them, in all their naked deformity, to the contempt and loathing of every liberal mind. Had those tales, however, been devised with talents equal to the wickedness of the con- trivers, and furnished no internal evidence to 288 VlNDlCLiE HIBERNICJE. condemn them, even in that case they would merit rejection ; as we have established, in the historians who narrate them, a total disregard of truth, and the strongest and most palpable facts, in every instance which admitted of producing evidence. This act of " gracious, general, and free pardon," would, if it stood alone, be suffi- cient to decide the question. It is recorded in the Statute-Book ; open to the inspection of all the writers who have treated on it ; and detection, like the well-known " sword of Damocles," hung over the head of imposture or sophistication. Yet, notwithstanding all these strong circum- stances, we see that its real character is as diametrically opposite to the views given of it, as the pitchy darkness of the lowest regions of Erebus to the starry canopy of heaven. And will not every man of mind ask, what depen- dence, in points involved in doubt, obscurity, or mystery, such as plots and conspiracies, can be placed on writers who poison the pure streams of history, in such plain cases as this, and so many others which we have exhibited to the reader ? CHAPTER XIV, The age of forgery, plots, and perjury. IN every age of the world, some peculiar folly or wickedness has prevailed, which distinguished it from those which preceded, as well as from those which followed, with nearly as much accu- racy as the varied features of the face distinguish one man from another. Were we called upon to fix the peculiar feature of the seventeenth century, in the wide range of the British dominions, we should, without hesita- tion, pronounce it to have been the age of for- gery, perjury, and fabricated plots, contrived for the purpose of overwhelming the innocent in ruin, and enriching malefactors with their spoils.' It is hardly credible, at the present day, when those dire passions that actuated so large a por- tion of the community in England and Ireland, during that period, have wholly subsided, and are now almost inconceivable, what a number of these contrivances were employed ; how regularly they succeeded each other ; what mischievous consequences they produced ; and yet how exces- sively stupid the most of them were. Many of them, which were devoured with greedy ears by t37f 290 VINDICUE HIBERNIC.K. the great and little vulgar, are so ridiculous, so absurd, and so utterly improbable, that, at the present day, they would not impose on a gang of swine-herds. Previous to entering into the examination and detection of the miserable pretended conspiracy of 1641, which led to scenes of horror, desola- tion, and massacre of the Irish, that chill the blood in the veins, we shall present the reader with a few facts, to satisfy him that the fabrication of pretended plots was a regular trade, pursued upon a most extensive scale ; was one of the levers by which the movements of the political machine were regulated ; and that consistency, coherence, probability, or even possibility, were not necessary to ensure its success. We have already established the efficacy of this infamous system, in producing confiscation in Ireland ; and how thousands were involved in ruin, and their posterity for ages consigned to poverty, by the dropping of a wretched catch- penny letter. We have shown, that after Tyrone, a nobleman of high grade and princely posses- sions among the Irish, had rendered important services to the state, and received a wound, fighting in its defence against his own country- men, he was almost immediately charged with a conspiracy, on grounds the most frivolous and contemptible, merely from the lust of spoliating his immense estate ; and that the same vile course was pursued with Shane O'Neal, whose estate THE AGE OF PLOTS AND PERJURY. 291 was finally confiscated, after he was basely assas- sinated, at the instigation of the lord deputy, who publicly paid the assassin the price of his infamy, and thus stamped a brand of eternal infamy on his name, which all the cataracts of the Niagara could never efface.* The low herd of hardened wretches, who per- jured themselves by swearing to those plots, as well as those of the higher orders, equally har- dened, who suborned them for this execrable purpose,f felt no " compunctious visitings" of remorse, that torrents of blood were occasionally shed, through the means of their perjuries. " Their conscience, wide as hell,' 1295 suffered no nausea at the immolation of hosts of innocent victims on the bloody altars of their ambition, their avarice, and their vengeance. Many of the instruments used on those occa- sions, were the basest and most wicked of ma'n- * " On a signal given, the soldiers rushed in ; butchered the wretched guests ; and buried their weapons in O'Neal. The intelligence of his death was conveyed to the lord deputy by Piers, who sent his head to Dublin, .and RECEIVED ONE THOUSAND MARKS AS HIS REWARD." 298 f " Leaders so little scrupulous, as to endeavour, by encou- raging perjury, subornation, lies, imposture, and even by shedding' innocent blood^ to gratify their own furious ambi- tion." 297 295 Shakspeare. 296 Leland, II. 286, 28 7. 297 Hume, IV. 331. 292 VIND1CLK HIBERNICJK. kind,* wretches elaborated, in prisons, in stews, and other hot-beds and nurseries of villany, to the last degree of turpitude of which man is capable. Their stories were so contradictory, that the falsehood and perjury were manifest to the most cursory observer : but such was the general depravity and delusion of the times, and such the devouring thirst for the blood of the victims, that no profligacy in the witnesses, no contradiction, no improbability, no impossibility in the evidence, no degree of immaculate inno- cence in the objects of their rage and malice, couM save them from destruction. Accusation and condemnation were, in almost every instance, synonimous terms. * " Gates, the informer of this dreadful plot, was himself THE MOST INFAMOUS OF MANKIND. He was the son of an Anabaptist preacher, chaplain to colonel Pride ; but having taken orders in the church, he had been settled in a small living by the duke of Norfolk. He had been indicted for perjury, and by some means had escaped. He was after- wards a chaplain on board the fleet, whence he had been dis- missed, on complaint of some unnatural practices, not fit to be named." 298 " Such bountiful encouragement brought forth new wit- nesses. William Bedlow, a man, if possible, more infamous than Oates, appeared next upon the stage. He was of very low birth ; had been noticed for several cheats, and even thefts; had travelled over many parts of Europe, under borrowed names ; and frequently passed himself for a man of quality, and had endeavoured, by a variety of lies and contrivances, to prey upon the ignorant and unwary"* 99 298 Hume, IV. 315. 299 Idem, 322. THE AGE OF PLOTS AND PERJURY. 293 In those days, conspirators were accustomed, if we believe the depositions of some of the plot- contrivers, to stand in the open streets and high- ways, and converse about their conspiracies and treasons, as publicly and unreservedly as at pre- sent we convey to each other the intelligence of the price of stocks, the state of the weather, or any of those important nothings which form so large a portion of what is called conversation. This free and easy system was quite convenient to the informers, as it saved them much trouble in searching for evidence. On one occasion, the English House of Lords was alarmed by the important information given by an Italian, that he heard an Irishman, in the street, inform a certain Francisco, IN ITALIAN, that a plot was laid to kill some members of that House, particularly the earls of Northumberland, Essex, Holland, jc.* The House of Lords attach- * " Jan. 11, 1641-2. This day, one Francis Moor, an Italian, gave in an information to the House of Lords, That yesterday he stood talking with an Irishman, who lives with the lord viscount Loftus, in the street, and overheard ONE BRIAN KELLY, AN IRISHMAN, servant to the earl of Arundel, SPEAK IN ITALIAN [!] to one Signior Francisco, an Italian, and say, That there was a plot laid to kill some lords of the Parliament ; and in particular named the earl of Northumberland, the earl of Essex, the earl of Holland, the earl of Pembroke, and the earl of Leicester. " Hereupon, it is ordered, That the said Brian Kelly and Signior Francisco shall be forthwith apprehended, and attach- ed by the gentleman usher attending this house, and brought as delinquents to the bar, and charged with the words ; Kelly 294 VINDICO; HIBERNICA;. ed great importance to the affair, and summoned the parties to the bar : but it ended in smoke, after the purposes for which it had been fabri- cated were answered. The Irishman being so polite as to speak to his brother conspirator in Italian, it is highly probable that the latter, not to be outdone in politeness, replied in Gaelic or Irish. But, as the historian is silent on the subject, I would not be understood as committing myself, by any thing more than suggesting it as plausible, leaving it to the better judgment of the reader to decide. But, of all the informers of those days, a cer- tain Thomas Beal, a taylor, merited the palm. None of the confraternity could stand a compari- son with him. He gave minute details of a plot, in which one hundred and eight persons had engaged to murder as many members of Parlia- ment. The wages they were to receive for this pleasant and amusing business, were very mode- rate, particularly for the commons, who were not valued at more than twenty per cent, of the lords. The latter were to be paid for at the rate of ten pounds per man : but the poor members of the Lower House were valued at only forty shillings. The feats were to be performed as the members were coming down stairs from the denied that he ever spake any such words. Thereupon Moor was called in to confront him, and upon oath averred what he had formerly informed." 300 300 Nalson, II. 843. THE AGE OF PLOTS AND PERJURY. 295 Parliament House, or taking their coaches, or going into their lodgings.* * " House of Lords, Nov. 15, 1641. Thomas Beal, a taylor, dwelling in White-Cross street, was called in, and made a relation of the whole plot, with all the circumstances, which were as follows : " That this day, at twelve of the clock, he went into the fields, near the Pot-house : and walking over a private bank, he heard some talking, but did not see them at first ; but find- ing them by the voice, he coming within hearing of them, un- derstood they talked of state affairs : and going nearer them, he heard one of them say, that it was a wicked thing, that the last plot did not take ; but if this goes on, as is in hand and intended, they shall all be made. Heard them say, that there were an hundred and eight men appointed, to kill an hundred and eight members of the Parliament, every one his man ; some were lords, and others were to be members of the House of Commons, all Puritans ; and the sacrament was to be ad- ministered to the hundred and eight men, for performing of this ; and those that killed the lords were to have ten pounds, and those that killed the members of the House of Commons, forty shillings. That Gorges, being the thirty-seventh man, had taken the sacrament on Saturday, to kill one of the House of Commons, and had received forty shillings. That one Phillips coming to London on Sunday night late, was charged to be at my lord's chamber, where was only my lord, father Jones, and father Andrews : he also had his charge, and five more with him, he being the hundred and eighth man, and the last, as he thought. " That Phillips had been iu Warwickshire and Bucking- hamshire, with letters ; and that he delivered letters to Mr. Sheldon, who gave him his dinner, and a piece for his pains, charging him to make haste to London again, and giving him letters to deliver to my lord. " That Dick Jones was appointed to kill that rascally Puri- tan Pym ; and that four tradesmen were to kill the Puritan citizens which were Parliament men. 296 VIND1CJJE HIBERNIC.&. This plot, which highly alarmed both lords and commons, is one of those which, as we have " That on the same day, being the 18th of this month, when the city shall be in a tumult, there shall be risings in six seve- ral parts of this land, by the Papists ; viz. in Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Buckinghamshire, Lancashire, and two other places which he remembers not. " That those that were to kill the lords were brave gallants in their scarlet coats, and had received every man ten pounds a-piece ; and when that was gone, they might come and fetch more. " That this was to be done either coming- down stairs, or taking their coaches, or entering into their lodgings, or any other way, as they should see opportunity. u That although all were not killed, yet the tumult would be so great, that it would prevent sending to Ireland, and that was father Andrews his wit, to prevent sending thither ; be- cause if they prevailed there, they should not have cause to fear here." 301 " Nov. 16, 1641. The lords and commons 'assembled in Parliament, having received informations of dangerous de- signs and practices, by priests and Jesuits, and ill-affected persons, to disturb the peace of this state, and the proceedings of Parliament, and to attempt upon the persons of many of the members of both Houses ; and well know that there is no way to prevent the mischief which the malice of such men may suddenly bring upon the realm, to the utter subversion of our religion, laws, and liberties, but by putting the kingdom into a posture of defence, and so to be ready, upon all occa- sions, to oppose force to force." 302 " The commons acquainted their lordships, that they have discovered some things further concerning the plot which was related by Beal ; for, upon examination, they are informed, that there are two such priests as father Jones and father Andrews ; Jones, they understand, is here in town, at the earl 101 Nalson, II. 646. 302 Idem, 649. THE AGE OF PLOTS AND PERJURY. 297 stated, would now hardly impose upon a gang of swine-herds. The idea of a large body of " brave gallants" not, as Sir John Falstaff says, " in Kendal green" but " in scarlet coats" for the purpose of rendering themselves conspicuous, engaged to poignard an equal number of mem- bers of Parliament coming out of the house, or going into their carriages, the major part for only forty shillings a head, would form an admirable episode in Baron Munchausen. But, absurd and ridiculous as it was, the " greedy maw" of public delusion and prejudice cheerfully swallowed it, as suitable refection for its devouring appetite. A plot for which Sir Henry Beddingfield was apprehended, is more absurd and nonsensical than Beal's, though not so much detailed. It is difficult to conjecture what it means, from the deposition* of the informer who communicated of Worcester's house ; and Andrews is described to be near fifty years of age, and uses to come much to Sir Basil Brook's house. " The House of Commons further thinks fit, that a declara- tion be made, that whosoever of the hundred and eight men, designed to do this mischief, shall come in and discover the same, both Houses will be humble suitors to the king that they may be pardoned, and they shall be well rewarded." 303 * " William Shales, sergeant of the foot company under the command of Sir Arthur Loftus, knight, saith, That about the latter end of April last, he being then in Norfolk, in Oxbo- rough Hall, in the house of Sir Henry Beddingfield, the said Sir Henry, hearing that this examinant was lately come out of Ireland, sent for him into his garden, whither when he came, 303 Nalson, II. 649. 38 298 VINDICIJE HIBERNIC-E. the important information. We state it merely to show the ridiculous grounds on which these fabrications rested. A plot was fabricated, of which the pretended object was to kill Charles II. Lord Castlemain he found the said Sir Henry walking with one Poole, (whom this examinant supposeth was a priest) and saith, that as soon as he came into the said garden, the said Sir Henry asked him whether he knew how the state of Ireland then stood ? To which the examinant said, that he thought that all things were quiet and at peace there. Why (quoth Sir Henry) doth the army then do nothing ? To which the examinant replied, That they carried themselves quietly, and that any man might walk in Ireland with a thousand pounds, and a wand only in his hand. He saith also, that the said Sir Henry told him, That he was about to take a house in Kilkenny, of one of the But- lers, for that there was no safety in England for any of his religion ; and asked of the examinant, whether there were any good hawking thereabouts ? To which the examinant said that there was. Then the said Sir Henry said, That now his mind was altered, and that he meant to stay in England; and added, That he did believe, that before Christmas day next, there should be seen such combustions in England and Ireland, as the like were never seen before ; and thereupon cursed the Scots as the authors of these troubles. WILLIAM SHALES. Jurat. Coram nobis. JAMES W'ARE, ROBERT MEREDITH. " Whereupon it was ordered, That Sir Henry Beddingfield should be sent for in safe custody by the gentleman usher of the House ; and none permitted to speak with him, but in the presence of the messenger ; and that his study should be seal- ed up by the two next justices of the peace, till the further pleasure of the House be known." 304 304 Nalson, II. 661. THE AGE OF PLOTS AND PERJURY. 299 was among the parties accused. 305 The details were of the most absurd and incredible character. On the trial, the principal evidence was one Dangerfield, a most profligate and worthless vil- lain.* There were sixteen records of convictions produced in court, to prove that he was not a competent witness. 306 He had been convicted of felony, had broken prison, been outlawed, brand- ed in the hand,f been four times convicted of forging the coin, once as a common cheat, been each time put in the pillory, and been guilty of almost every species of crime : but such was the abandoned character of the court, so completely * " The nation had gotten so much into the vein of credulity, and every necessitous villain was so much incited by the suc- cess of Oates and Bedlow, that even during the prorogation the people were not allowed to remain in tranquillity. There was one Dangerfield, a fellow who had been burned in the hand for crimes, transported, whipped, pilloried four times, fined for cheats, outlawed for felony, convicted of coining, exposed to all the public infamy which the laws could inflict on the basest and most shameful enormities. The credulity of the people, and the humour of the times, enabled even this man to be- come a person of consequence." 307 f On this trial, a ludicrous opinion was given by the judges of the Common Pleas, who were consulted by lord Raymond, whether a pardon, which had been granted to Dangerfield, rendered his evidence admissible. " They say," states lord Raymond, " that if he had been convicted of felony, and not burnt in the hand, the pardon would not have set him upright : but being convicted and burnt in the hand, they suppose he is a witness." 30 * 305 State Trials, VII. 1067 306 Idem, 1084, 1102-3. 307 Hume, IV. 349. 308 State Trials, VII. 1090. 300 VINDICLE HIBERNICB. poisoned were the streams of justice, and so violent was the rage against the accused, that these solid objections were all over-ruled, and his evidence received as if he had been the most immaculate character in the nation. In a virulent and fabulous book, published under the title of "Memoirs of Ireland, from the Restoration to the present time," which con- tains almost as many lies as sentences, there is a curious account of one of those wonderful plots. It is quite an original ; and deserves to be brought to light once more, out of compliment to the talents of the fabricator who could devise, and to the sagacity of the stupid public which could digest, such a tale. It states, that a massacre of the Protestants in Ireland was intended, anno 1670 : preparatory to which, " the priests ordered their congregations at mass," to fix " over their doors a cross made of straw." This cross was to be a mark to the assassins not to molest the inhabitants, " when the bloody massacre was to be perpetrated." All " the men, women, and children" in the houses devoid of the straw cross, " God save the mark !" were " to be butchered, and the houses burned." This is very amusing, truly ; and a mere matter of course. But the enigmatical part of the plot remains. The crosses " were so little," that " the Protestants took no notice of them" by day- light, although the cut-throats, to whom they THE AGE OF PLOTS AND PERJURY. 30 i were to afford directions, were to be governed by them at night, as that time alone was fit for such deeds of blood. And, although the direc- tions had been given from the altar, throughout the kingdom, " the matter was carried with so much secrecy" that " the priests themselves" were ignorant of what was meant, and " believed that it was designed to bless the people's houses." And this miserable fabrication was credited ; ex- cited a vast deal of alarm among " the Protes- tant ascendency ;" and afforded a pretext for the further oppression and persecution of the, Roman Catholics : " The priests, by directions from their superiors, ordered their several congregations, at mass, that, at such a time, every Roman Catholic should fix over their doors A CROSS MADE OF STRAW. The people were curious to understand the rea- son of this order ; but the matter zvas carried with so much secrecy, that the priests themselves, it is believed, knew no more than that it was designed to bless the people's houses. This was generally performed : and, at the same time, vast multitudes of priests came from beyond sea ; who, as appears by the sequel, were better acquainted with the bottom of this black and damnable intrigue, than generally the poor ignorant priests of Ireland were, to whom the hellish conclave at Rome did not think fit to communicate a matter of this private and great importance. The plot was formed after the ensuing manner. This signal of the cross was to distinguish the Pa- fists from the Protestants, when THE BLOODY MASSA- CRE WAS TO BE PERPETRATED. Where no cross was found on the door, all within the house, men, women, and children, were to be butchered, on a certain day, and their houses burnt. Intimation of this design being given to the magis- tracy, search was made ; and crosses accordingly found at 302 V1NDICUE IllllHKNICJL. most of the Papists 1 doors in the province of Munster. They were so little, that the Protestants took no notice of them. The priest, who discovered the plot first, ran away, and was no more heard of." 309 The pretences of plots and conspiracies were constantly employed, throughout the century.* The public mind was kept in unceasing fermen- tation ;f which was excited to the highest degree, when any object of Irish oppression or degrada- tion was to be accomplished, and the excitement was always proportioned to the magnitude of that * "It was thought politic to have recourse to one [a sham plot] in the present exigence. For this purpose a committee was appointed to inquire into informations against the Irish, and the danger of the kingdom from them. Informations of one sort or other will never be wanting, when it is the interest of men in power to encourage them : and they are sure to be received with favour, and stv allowed without examination, however tri- fling, ridiculous, and improbable." 310 f " They revived the rumours of new plots and conspiracies ; received informations of many dark designs and suspicious proceedings of the Irish ; alarmed the government with the danger of public commotions ; and, though all their industry could produce no material discoveries, yet it served their purpose of loading an obnoxious party with additional odium, at a time when they were to contend with them for estates and settlements." 311 " Reports [were] spread by these agents and their creatures, as if the Irish Roman Catholics were ready to raise a new rebellion in that country. This was a thing impossible to be conceived by any body that knew the real state and miserable condition of those people at this time in Ireland." 312 3C9 Memoirs of Ireland, 15. 31 Carte, II. 223. '" Leland, IV. 125. 3I2 Carte, II. 205. THE AGE OF PLOTS AND PERJURY. 303 object.* In no instance did this system fail of complete success. * " The house, to throw an odium upon that nation, and pre- judice them in the opinion of the world, as well as of his ma- jesty, before whom their all lay at stake, would needs infer a formed design of an insurrection. But the whole kingdom knew they were in no condition to rebel, nor was it likely they should attempt it at a time, when they were suing for grace and favour from his majesty. Sir M. Eustace, the lord chan- cellor, a man of great virtue and integrity, who wished well to a true loyal English interest, and not to a pretended one of disaffected and unconformable upstarts, was persuaded of the injustice, as well as the design of this charge against the Irish; and, to discover what ground there was for it, directed the judges in their circuits to cause the matter to be inquired into by the grand juries of the several counties through which they passed. The finding of those juries was alike in all places ; there being a great calm every -where, no preparation for a rising, nor so much as a rumour of any new troubles. Nothing could be more frivolous and void of proof, than the paper which the commons drew up on this subject." 313 " These proceedings insinuating the design of a new rebel- lion, were founded upon very slight grounds ; but there are certain subjects of so odious or unpopular a nature, that few men dare, in public assemblies, offer to stem the torrent, and speak their minds about them with freedom. Of this nature was every motion, expressing a distrust of the Papists, and loading them with rebellious designs ; so that though the let- ters ivhich served as a foundation to their votes, rvere a mere contrivance and PALPABLE FORGERY, nobody (except the lord Strabane) seems to have expressed their dissatisfaction as to the proof and truth of them, or to have made any attempt to vindicate the Papists from a charge so weakly supported, and so very improbable in the present situation of the kingdom." 314 313 Carte, II. 231. 3H Idem, 238. 304 VINDICUE HIBERNICJE. For a full detail of this hideous state of things, which Leland appropriately styles " THE MELANCHOLY PROGRESS OF PERJURY AND SUBORNATION," 313 the reader is referred to that writer, 316 and to the Life of the duke of Ormond. 317 In the year 1681, there was a wonderful alarm excited in England, on the subject of an intended insurrection and massacre in Ireland.* The most terrific accounts were transmitted from the latter to the former kingdom ; and warrants were issued for apprehending the supposed conspirators : but this, like so many other of the similar contri- vances, already noticed, manifested as much folly as fraud. The four leaders of this tremendous conspiracy, for whom those warrants were issued, were, Richard Talbot, lord Mountgarret and his son, and a colonel Peppard. 318 Talbot was appre- hended ; and, being examined, there was nothing discovered that could warrant holding him in custody : 319 of lord Mountgarret's son, no further * " January 6th, 1681. Resolved, by the lords spiritual and temporal, in Parliament assembled, that they do declare, that they are fully satisfied, that there now is, and for divers years last past hath been, a horrid and treasonable plot contrived and carried on by those of the Popish religion in Ireland, for massacremg the English, and subverting the Protestant reli- gion, and the ancient established government of that king- dom ; to which their lordships desire the concurrence of this house." 320 315 Leland, IV. 193. 31fl Idem, 188-193. 317 Carte, II. 516, 517. 318 Leland, IV. 185. 319 Ibid. 32 Memoirs of Ireland, 25. THE AGE OF PLOTS AND PERJURY. 305 mention is made by Leland or Carte : and, to throw the affair into complete ridicule, and dis- play its wickedness and folly, there was no such person to be found as colonel Peppard ; and lord Mountgarret, who was represented as so ex- tremely dangerous, and so active a conspirator, was " of the age of fourscore years, bed-ridden, and in a state of dotage ;" 321 most admirable qua- lities for a conspirator ! A considerable portion of the apparatus of this plot business consisted in the framing anonymous letters on the plan that succeeded so well against the earls Tyrone and Tyrconnel. 322 They were sometimes sent to gentlemen's houses,* some- times dropped in the streets, and were always full of throat-cutting, conflagrations, rapes, and * " To the worshipful and my much honoured friend Orlando Bridgman, Esq. a burgess of Parliament, at his chamber in the Inner Temple, present. " Sir, " We are your friends ; these are to advise you to look to yourself, and to advise others of my lord Strafford's friends to take heed, lest they be included in the common calamity : our advice is, to be gone, to pretend business, till the great hubbub be past ; withdraw, lest you suffer -with the Puritans : we intreat you to send away the inclosed letter to Mr. Ander- ton, inclosed to some trusty friend, that it may be carried safely, without suspicion, for it concerns the common safety. So desire your friends in Co vent- Garden. " January 4th, 1641-2." 323 321 Leland, IV. 185. 322 Supra, 168. 323 Nalson, II. 836. 39 306 V1NDICIJE HIBERNICJE. rapine. They never failed of exciting great alarms, and were always brought forward to serve some particular purpose of the moment. Few sessions of the Irish Parliament took place, which were not marked by some of those pre- tended plots. We presume that we have adduced evidence enough of them, and of the execrable spirit by which they were engendered. We shall, however, as the point to be established is of vital importance, annex a few more instances, the first of which is taken from the " Memoirs of Ireland, from the Restoration,"* and slightly referred * " Their just and terrible apprehensions were increased by a letter, dated the third of December, 1688, sent to the earl of Mount- Alexander, intimating a design of destroying the Pro- testants on the Sunday following. This letter was spread over the kingdom ; and one cannot conceive the horrible fright it put them all into. The contents of it were as follow : 324 " A Copy of the Letter dispersed about the Massacre, said to be designed on the 9th of December, 1688. Decemb. 3, 1688. " Good my lord, " I have written to let you know, that all our Irishmen through Ireland are sworn, that on the 9th day of this month, being Sunday next, they are to fall on, to kill and murther man, "wife, and child, and to spare none; and I desire your lordship to take care of yourself, and all others that are adjudged by our men to be heads ; for whoever of them can kill any of you, is to have a captain's place. So my desire to your ho- nour is to look to yourself, and to give other noblemen warn- ing, and go not out at night or day without a good guard with you ; and let no Irishman come near you, whatever he be. This is all from him, who is your friend and father's friend, 324 Memoirs, 87. THE AGE OF PLOTS AND PERJURY. 307 to above, in page 168. With these we shall conclude this slight sketch of the odious history of letter-dropping,* forgery, and perjury. One serious reflection here forces itself on the mind. How awful and deplorable must have and will be, though I dare not be known as yet, for fear of my life. " Direct this with care and haste " To my lord Montgomery. 325 *' His lordship sent this letter to Dublin, with several co- pies of it ; and copies of it were also sent to all parts of the kingdom. It arrived at Dublin on Friday, and THE DAY OF SLAUGHTER WAS TO BE TWO DAYS AFTER; the terror of which was so great amongst the English, that about three thousand souls got away on the Saturday. There happened to be a great many ships in the harbour at that time, and they were all so crammed, that the passengers were in danger of being stifled." 326 * " There was dropped in the streets a declaration of the Catholics of Ireland, framed upon presumption that the design had been effected, and to the like purpose as is before remem- bered. 327 " The more violent attempted to drive die duke of Ormond from his course of moderate measures, by alarming him with fears of assassination. Letters were dropped in Dublin, inti- mating a design of this nature, and several pretended to give an account of what they heard or suspected of this design." 33 * " It had been a common artifice, just after the king's restora- tion, TO DROP SUGH LETTERS IN THE STREETS AND HIGHWAYS, IN ORDER TO RENDER THE IRISH ODIOUS." 329 325 Memoirs, 87, King, 338. 326 Memoirs, 87. 327 Whitelock, 47. 328 Carte, II. 481. 329 Idem, 239. 308 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. been the situation of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, forming the great mass of the nation, when their happiness, their security, nay, their liberties and their lives, lay at the mercy of any miscreant that could fabricate such letters as that sent to lord Mount-Alexander, which, according to the account of the virulent writer of the " History of Ireland, from the Restoration to the present time," set the whole kingdom in a flame! And let it be borne in mind, that every such letter, every rumour of a conspiracy, was intend- ed to introduce, and did produce, some act to violate the rights, or depredate on the property, of those persecuted religionists. We have asserted, that the witnesses were guilty of the most manifest perjury. Let us add, that the English judiciary, although so extrava- gantly eulogized, was then in so deplorable a state, so lost were the judges to every sense of honour and rectitude, and so sealed was the fate of the miserable men brought not to trial, but condemnation, that the evidence of perjurers was received, in capital cases, and was allowed to hurry the victims to the gallows, " With all their sins and imperfections on their heads." The reader is requested to ponder on the following statement ; and if he do not feel a holy horror at such monstrous injustice, then ought he to put this book in the fire, as unworthy of a man of his mind, and, for the rest of his life, feast THE AGE OF PLOTS AND PERJURY. 309 on the garbage of history to be found in Temple and Borlase, par nobile fratrum. Seven priests were indicted together at the Old Bailey, in the year 1679, for treason, in exercising their sacerdotal functions in England, contrary to the statute, which declared this a capital offence. The principal evidence against them was one Bedlow, who was, according to the testimony of Hume, 330 a nefarious villain, of the most blasted character, whose evidence should not have been taken against a notorious felon. On the trial of L. Anderson, the first of the number, Bedlow was detected, in open court, in a most manifest and flagrant perjury. He had sworn that Anderson was the son of a gentleman in Oxfordshire, and that HE KNEW HIM AND HIS FATHER WELL. The lord chief baron, who happened to be then in court, was acquaint- ed with the accused, who immediately appealed to him, to prove that he was the son of a gentle- man in Lincolnshire; which the baron accordingly testified. The case-hardened Bedlow, no ways abashed, stated that he had his information, as to the place of Anderson's birth, FROM MY LORD PRIVY-SEAL'S NEPHEW ; notwithstanding the atro- cious villain had, a few minutes before, positively sworn that he knew him well.* * "Bedlow. He is a priest and an Englishman, if his mo- ther was honest, and he honestly born : for he is Mr. Ander- son's son, of OXFORDSHIRE, a gentleman of two or three 330 Supra, 292. 310 V1NDICL& HIBERNICJt. / This manifest perjury, for which, had not the chief justice been almost as wicked as the inform- er, Bedlow ought to have been immediately in- dicted, brought to the bar, tried, sentenced, and cropped, was disregarded. His evidence was received during the remainder of Anderson's trial, and against most of the rest of the unfor- tunate men, who were all found guilty, on the testimony of Bedlow, and other wretches, equally profligate : and, although the State Trials make no mention of the final result, as to their fate, we have reason, from the temper of the times, to presume that they were hanged. thousand pounds a year; I KNOW HIM AND HIS FA- THER VERY WELL. "Anderson. My lord, could I but apprehend that I lay under so great a guilt, as to have been acquainted with so great a rogue as this fellow w, I would have been my own execu- tioner, and not have expected my sentence at this bar. " L. C. J. Do you know him well ? "Bedlow. Very well, both him and his father. His father is an Oxfordshire gentleman. "Anderson. Now I think I shall prove the rogue perjured. Is my lord chief baron in the court ? " Court. Yes, he is. " Anderson. Why then my father has the honour of being well known to his lordship, who knows this to be false. " L. C. Baron. No, no, Mr. Bedlow : he is a gentleman *s son of quality in LINCOLNSHIRE. " L. C. J. You are mistaken, you are mistaken; his father is a LINCOLNSHIRE gentleman. " Anderson. And yet this rogue is upon his oath ; but in- deed all his life is full of such mistakes. "Bedlow. I don't know. My lord Privij-SeaFs nepheiv told me so ! ! .'" Ml 331 State Trials, VII. 839. THE AGE OF PLOTS AND PERJURY. 311 Who can read this statement without horror ? Who can regard otherwise than as a mere slaughter-house, a court of justice, where, on the trial of a number of men for their lives; merely for the worship of the Living God, the judge acts the part of the public accuser ;* where the witnesses for the accused are almost torn to pieces by the mob ;f and where the evidence is unhesitatingly received, of a wretch whose perjury is as clear as the noon-day sun ; who is caught flagrante delicto ; and whose confession of the hideous crime is made in open court, a wretch on whom " Sin, death, and hell had set their marks." 332 The reader may inquire, why these facts are here adduced, as few of them occurred in Ireland, * " The chief justice gave sanction to all the narrow pre- judices and bigoted fury of the populace. Instead of being counsel for the prisoners, as his office required, HE PLEADED THE CAUSE AGAINST THEM; browbeat their witnesses; and on every occasion represented their guilt as certain and uncon- troverted." 333 | " When verdict was given against the prisoner, the spec- tators expressed their savage joy, by loud acclamations. The witnesses, on approaching the court, were almost torn in pieces by the rabble. One, in particular, was bruised to such a de- gree as to put his life in danger : and another, a woman, de- clared that, unless the court could afford her protection, she durst not give evidence. But as the judges could" [would, more properly] " go no farther than promise to punish such as should do her any injury, the prisoner himself had the huma- nity to wave her testimony." 334 332 Shakspeare. 333 Hume, IV. 329. 334 Idem, 342. 312 VINDICIJi HIBEKNICJE. and most of them were not cotemporaneous with the events we develop ? He shall be satisfied. We wish, as we have stated at the commence- ment of this chapter, to establish, beyond the power of controversy, the prevailing spirit of the age, in fostering and rewarding perjury, for- gery, and the fabrication of pretended plots, not only during, but previous and subsequent to, the period most particularly included in these inves- tigations ; in order to prepare the reader for" a candid discussion of the pretended plot of 1641, the existence of which is so universally credited, that it requires a most extraordinary degree of liberality, even to suspend the operation of, and much more to eradicate, the inveterate prejudices that prevail on the subject. CHAPTER XV. The insurrection in 1641. Was there a general conspiracy of the Irish, in that year, to murder the Protestants ? THE decision of this question is attended with far more difficulty than any of those which we have heretofore presented to the view of the reader. The nature of the case does not admit of the same kind of evidence as we have been enabled to produce, and which, we flatter our- selves, has been found irresistible. But the tale of this conspiracy has been so universally credited ; so large a portion of the possessors of confiscated property in Ireland have been interested in affording it support and countenance ; so much art and talent have been, for a hundred and seventy years, employed in giving it an air of plausibility ; there is so much difficulty in proving a negative in any case, more particularly in the present one, which is natural- ly, and has been moreover artfully, involved in mystery ; and it is so extremely arduous an un- dertaking, to operate upon the public mind, when imbued with inveterate prejudices, that we regard the task as Herculean, and should have 40 814 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. abandoned it as impracticable, but that the nar- rative itself is replete with so many incredible and incongruous circumstances, as to carry strong internal evidence of fraud. In order to give the story fair play, and to enable the reader to form a correct opinion on the subject, with all the evidence before him, we shall give the whole account of the discovery of the plot, as it stands in Temple's History of the Irish Rebellion, the authority almost solely re- lied on by all the other writers on the subject. We add some slight extracts from Borlase, con- taining a few additional particulars. To simplify the examination, we have divided the whole into short sentences, each containing perfect sense, so as to oblige the reader to pause and reflect, as he proceeds. This point being the main one we have in view in this work, we earnestly invoke the read- er's calm and candid consideration of it. We hope that, laying aside all preconceived opinions on the subject, he will revolve it in his mind, as if it were wholly new, and he had now, for the first time in his life, to form a decision on it. We are aware that there are too many to whom a compliance with this request is impossible : and indeed a large proportion of mankind can never command independence of mind enough even to examine the evidence that militates with their early, and, of course, inveterate, prejudices ; far less to reject those prejudices. We are therefore A MARVELLOUS TOUGH STORY. 315 persuaded, there are thousands who would as soon doubt any of the demonstrations of Euclid, or the existence of the solar system, as the ex- istence of the universality of the plot of " the execrable rebellion of 1641." To this contracted class we do not address ourselves : with them we have no fellowship : " Even though one were to rise from the dead," he would not remove their incredulity. Let them hug the chains of their bigoted prejudice. We appeal to that respectable description of readers, whose minds are open to conviction, and who are at all times ready to yield to the force of evidence, how strongly soever it may militate against those opinions that have " grown with their growth." The favourable decision of one such reader, with a clear head and sound heart, would outweigh the disapprobation of a whole army of the slaves of prejudice. Extracts from Temple's Ifistory of the Irish Rebellion.* 1. " Sir William Cole, upon the very first apprehensions of something that he conceived to be hatching among the Irish, did write a letter to the lords justices and council, dated the llth of October, 1641, 2. " Wherein he gave them notice of the great resort made to Sir Phelim O'Neal, in the county of Tyrone, as also to the house of the lord Macguire, in the county of Fermanagh, and that by several suspected persons, fit instruments for mischief; * The reader will please to observe, that these extracts are taken verbatim from the original work ; and, unless where otherwise distinctly marked, form an unbroken consecutive series. 316 VINDICIJE HIBERNIC-E. 3. " As also that the said lord Macguire had of late made several journies into the Pale and other places, and had spent his time much in writing letters and sending despatches abroad. 4. " These letters were received by the lords justices and council ; 5. " And they, in answer to them, required him to be very vigilant and industrious to find out what should be the occa- sion of these several meetings, and speedily to advertise them thereof, or of any other particular that he conceived might tend to the public service of the state." 335 1. " They [the lords justices] had not any certain notice of the general conspiracy of the Irish, until the 22d of October, in the very evening before the day appointed for the surprise of the castle of Dublin. 2. " The conspirators being, many of them, arrived within the city, and having that day met at the Lion tavern, in Cop- per alley, and there turning the drawer out of the room, order- ed their affairs together, drunk healths upon their knees to the happy success of the next morning's work. 3. " Owen O'Conally, a gentleman of a mere Irish family, but one that had long lived among the English, and been train- ed up in the true Protestant religion, came unto the lord jus- tice Parsons, ABOUT NINE O'CLOCK THAT EVENING ! ! 4. " And made him a broken relation of a great conspiracy for the seizing upon his majesty's castle of DuBlin. 5. " He gave him the names of some of the chief conspira- tors ! assured him that they were come up expressly to the town for the same purpose, and that next morning they would undoubtedly attempt, and surely effect it, if their design were not speedily prevented ; 6. " And that he had understood all this from Hugh Mac- Mahon, one of the chief conspirators, who was then in town, and came up but the very same afternoon, for the execution of the plot ; 7. " And with whom indeed he had been drinking somewhat liberally; and as the truth is, did then make such a broken rela- 335 Temple, 18. A MARVELLOUS TOUGH STORY. 317 tion of a matter that seemed so incredible in itself \ as that his lordship gave very little belief to it at first! 8. " In regard it came from an obscure person, and one, aa he conceived, somewhat distempered at that time. 9. " But howsoever, the lord Parsons gave him order to go again to Mac-Mahonl ! ! and get out of him as much certainty of the plot! !! with as many particular circumstances, as he could ! ! ! straitly charging him to return back unto him the same evening ! ! ! 10. " And in the mean time, having by strict commands giv- en to the constable of the castle, taken order to have the gates thereof well guarded, as also with the mayor and sheriff's of the city to have strong watches set upon all parts of the same, and to make stay of all strangers, 11. " He went privately ! ! about ten of the dock that night, to the lord Borlace's house without the town, and there ac- quainted him with what he understood from O'Conally. 12. " They sent for such of the council as they knew then to be in the town. 13. " But there came only unto them that night sir Thomas Rotheram and sir Robert Meredith, chancellour of the exche- quer : with these they fell into consultation what was fit to be done! ! ! ! attending the return of O'Conally. 14. " And finding that he staid somewhat longer than the time prefixed, they sent out in search after him ; 15. " And found him seized on by the watch, and so he had been carried away to prison, and the discovery that night dis- appointed, 16. "Had not one of the lord Parsons' servants, expressly sent, amongst others, to walk the streets, and attend the mo- tion of the said O'Conally, come in, and rescued him, and brought him to the lord Borlace's house. 17. " O'Conally having somewhat recovered himself from his distemper, occasioned partly, as he said himself, by the horror of the plot revealed to him, partly by his too liberal drinking with Mac-Mahon, that he might the more easily get away from him, (he beginning much to suspect and fear his discovery of the plot,) 318 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. 18. " Confirmed what he had formerly related, and added these farther particulars set down in his examination, as fol- loweth : 336 The Examination of Owen O'Conally, gentleman, taken be- fore us, whose names ensue, October 22, 1641. " Who, being duly sworn and examined, saith : 1. " That he being at Monimore, in the county of London- derry on Tuesday last! he received a letter from colonel Hugh Oge Mac-Mahon, desiring him to come to Conaught, in the county of Monaghan, and to be with him on Wednesday or Thursday last ! 2. " Whereupon he, this examinate, came to Conaught, on Wednesday night last ; 3. " And finding the said Hugh come to Dublin, followed him hither ; 4. " He came hither about six of the clock this evening- ! 5. " And forthwith went to the lodging of the said Hugh, to the house near the Boat, in Oxmantown ; 6. " And there he found the same Hugh, and came with the said Hugh into the town, near the Pillory, to the lodging of the lord Macguire ; 7. " Where they found not the lord within ; and there they drank a cup of beer ; 8. " And then went back again to the said Hugh his lodging; 9. " He saith, that at the lord Macguire his lodging, the said Hugh told him that there were and would be this night great numbers of noblemen, and gentlemen of the Irish Pa- pists, from all the parts of the kingdom, in this town; 10. " Who with himself had determined to take the castle of Dublin, and possess themselves of all his majesty's ammu- nition there, to-morrow morning, being Saturday ; 11. "And that they intended first to batter the chimnies of the said town : and if the city would not yield, then to batter down the houses ; 12. " And so to cut off all the Protestants that would not join with them ! 330 Temple, 19. A MARVELLOUS TOUGH STORY. 319 13." He further saith, that the said Hugh then told him, that the Irish had prepared men in all parts of the kingdom, to destroy all the English inhabiting there, to-morrow morn- ing, by ten of the clock ! 1 14. " And that in all the sea-ports, and other towns in the kingdom, all the Protestants should be killed this night! ! and that all the posts that could be, could not prevent it ; 15. " And further saith, that he moved the said Hugh to forbear executing of that business, and to discover it to the state, for the saving of his own estate ; 16. " Who said he could not help it ; but said, that they did owe their allegiance to the king, and would pay him all his rights : but that they did this for the tyrannical government was over them, and to imitate Scotland, who got a privilege by that course ; 17. " And he further saith, that when he was with the said Hugh, in his lodging the second time, the said Hugh swore, that he should not go out of his lodging that night, but told him that he should go with him the next morning to the castle : and said, if this matter were discovered, some body should die for it ; 18. " Whereupon this examinate feigned some necessity for his easement, went down out of the chamber, and left his sword in pawn : and the said Hugh sent his man down with him, and when this examinate came down into the yard, and finding an opportunity, he, this examinate, leaped over a -wall and two pales ! ! ! and* so came to the lord justice Parsons. " October 22, 1641. WILLIAM PARSONS. THOMAS ROTHERAM. ROBERT MEREDITH. OWEN O'CONALLY.' 1337 19. " Hereupon the lords took present order to have a watch privately set upon the lodging of Mac-Mahon, as also upon the lord Macguire ! ! ! ! ! 20. " And so they sat up all that night in consultation ! ! ? having far stronger presumptions upon this latter examination taken, than any ways at first they could entertain. 337 Temple, 20. 820 VINDICLE HIBERNIC^E. 21. " The lords justices, upon a further consideration, there being come unto them early next morning! several others of the privy council, sent before day, and seized upon Mac-Mahon % then with his servant in his own lodging. 22. " They at first made some little resistance with their drawn swords ; but, finding themselves overmastered, present- ly yielded. 23. " And so they were brought before the lords justices and council, still sitting at the lord Borlace's house. 24. " Where, upon examination, he did without much diffi- culty confess the plot, resolutely telling them, that on that very day, all the forts and strong places in Ireland would be taken ! ! 25. " That he, with the lord Macguire, Hugh Birn, captain Brian O'Neil, and several other Irish gentlemen, were come up expressly to surprise the castle of Dublin. 26. " That twenty men out of each county in the kingdom ! ! ! were to be here to join with them. 27. " That all the lords and gentlemen in the kingdom, that "were Papists, were engaged in this plot ! ! ! 28. " That what was that day to be done in other parts of the country, was so far advanced by that time, as it was impos- sible for the wit of man to prevent it ! 29. " And withal told them, that it was true they had him in their power, and might use him how they pleased ; but he was sure he should be revenged." 338 1. Extract from " The lords chief justices' letter to the lord lieutenant, October 25th, 1641, sent by Owen O'Conally, the first discoverer. " May it please your lordship, 2. " On Friday, the 22d of this month, after nine o'clock at night, this bearer, Owen O'Conally, SERVANT TO SIR JOHN CLOTWORTHY, KNIGHT, came to me, the lord justice Parsons, to my house, 3. " And in great secresie (as indeed the cause did re- quire) discovered unto me a most wicked and damnable con- spiracy, plotted, contrived, and intended to be also acted by some evil-affected Irish Papists here. 338 Temple, 21. A MARVELLOUS TOUGH STORY. 321 4. " The plot was on the then next morning, Saturday, the 23d of October, being St. Ignatius's day, about nine of the clock! to surprize his majestie's castle of Dublin, his majestie's chief strength of this kingdom ; wherein also is the principal maga- zine of his majestie's arms and munition. 5. " And it was agreed, it seems, among them, that at the same hour, all other his majestie's forts and magazines of arms and munition in this kingdom ! ! should be surprized by others of those conspirators : 6. " And further, that all the Protestants and English throughout the -whole kingdom, that would not join with them, should be cut off! ! and so those Papists should then become possessed of the government and kingdom at the same instant. 7. " As soon as I had that intelligence, I then immediately repaired to the lord justice Borlace ; and thereupon -we in- stantly assembled the council. 8. "And having sate all that night!!! also all the next day, the 23d of October, in regard of the short time left us for the consultation of so great and weighty a matter, although it was not possible for us, upon so few hours' warning, to pre- vent those other great mischiefs which were to be acted, even at the same hour and at so great a distance, in all the other parts of the kingdom. 9. " Yet such was our industry therein, having caused the castle to be that night strengthened with armed men, and the city guarded, as the wicked councils of those evil persons, by the great mercy of God to us, became defeated, so as they were not able to act that part of their treachery, which indeed was principal, 10. " And which, if they could have effected, would have rendered the rest of their purposes the more easy. 11. " Having so secured the castle, we forthwith laid about for the apprehension of as many of the offenders as we could, many of them having come to this city but that night, intend- ing, it seems, the next morning, to act their parts in those treacherous and bloody crimes. 12. "The first man apprehended was one Hugh Mac-Ma- hon, Esq. (grandson to the traitor Tyrone) a gentleman of good fortune in the county of Monaghan, who, with others, 41 322 VINDICIJE HIBERNIOK. WAS TAKEN THAT MORNING in Dublin, having, at the time of their apprehension, offered a little resistance with their swords drawn ; but finding those we employed against them more in number, and better armed, yielded. 13. " He, upon examination before us, at first denied all; but in the end, when he saw we laid it home to him, he confessed enough to destroy himself, and impeach some others, as by a copy of his examinations herewith sent, may appear to your lordship. 14. " We then committed him till we might have further time to examine him again, our time being become more need- ful to be employed in action for securing this place, than examining. This Mac-Mahon had been abroad, and served the king of Spain as a lieutenant-colonel. 15. " Upon conference with him and others! ! ! and calling to mind a letter we received the iveek before from Sir William Cole ! ! ! a copy whereof we send your lordship here inclosed, we gathered, that the lord Macguire was to be an actor in surprizing the castle of Dublin ! ! ! ! ! 16. " Wherefore we held it necessary to secure him imme- diately, thereby also to startle and deter the rest, when they found him laid fast " 339 Extracts from Eorlace's "History of the Execrable Irish Rebellion." 1. " In the interim, the lord Parsons, (being touched with the relation,) repaired, about ten of the clock at night, to the lord Borlace, at Chichester house, without the town, 2. " And disclosed to him what O'Conally had imparted ; which made so sensible an impression on his colleague, as (the discoverer being let go) he grew infinitely concerned thereat, having none to punish, if the story should prove false, or means to learn more, were it true. 3. " In the disturbance of which perplexity, Owen O'Con- ally comes (or, as others write, was brought) Avhere the lords justices were then met; sensible that his discovery was not 339 Temple, 28. A MARVELLOUS TOUGH STORY. 323 thoroughly believed, professing that whatever he had acquaint- ed the lord Parsons with (touching the conspiracy) was true : 4. " And could he but repose himself, (the effects of drink being still upon him) he should discover more. 5. " Whereupon he had the conveniency of a bed." 3 * 6. " In the interim, the lords justices summoned as many of the council as they could give notice to, to their assistance that night at Chichester house. 7. " Sir Thomas Rotheram, and Sir Robert Meredith, chan- cellor of the exchequer, came immediately to them. 8. " They then with all diligence secured the gates of the city, with such as they could most confide in, and strengthen- ed the warders of the castle, (which were a few inconsiderable men,) with their foot guard, usually attending their persons, charging the mayor and his brethren to be -watchful of all per- sons that should -walk the streets that night! ! /" 341 9. " Hugh Oge Mac-Mahon, Esqr. grandson by his mother to the traitor Tir-Owen, a gentleman of good fortune in the county of Monaghan, who had served as a lieutenant-colonel in the king of Spain's quarters, was, after some little resistance, apprehended before day in his own lodgings, over the water, near the Inns, and brought to Chichester house ; 10. " Where, upon examination, he did, without much dif- ficulty, confess the plot, resolutely telling them, That ON THAT VERY DAY, (it was now about five in the morning, the 23d of Oct. 1641///J that all the forts and strong places in Ireland would be taken," &c. &c. 342 11. " Before Mac-Mahon was apprehended, O'Conally, having on his repose recovered himself, had his examination taken, in these words :" 343 [as before.] 340 Borlace, 20. 341 Ibid. 342 Ibid. 343 Ibid. ! 324 VINDICLE HIBERNICJK. N ANALYSIS OF THE FOREGOING LEGEND. I. A Roman Catholic colonel is engaged in a plot, the object of which is to massacre all the Protestants in the kingdom, except those who would join in murdering their brethren. II. This colonel, in want of a confederate, sends about fifty miles to O'Conally, a Protestant, to reveal to him this project. III. O'Conally, who, in order to attach impor- tance to his testimony, in some of the statements is styled " a gentleman," is, in fact and in truth, merely a servant to Sir John Clotworthy, one of the most envenomed enemies of the Roman Ca- tholics, and, of course, a very suitable person to be entrusted with such a secret, and very worthy to be sent for to a place distant fifty miles. IV. O'Conally receives the letter on Tuesday, the 19th of October, at what hour is not known, say nine o'clock ; and, wholly ignorant of the nature of the affair which leads to the invitation, makes all his preparations at once, and com- mences his journey, we will suppose, about noon the same day. V. He arrives, on Wednesday night, the 20th, at Conaught, after a journey of about fifty miles : and be it observed, en passant, that a journey of fifty miles, at that period, was as arduous an undertaking, and required full as much prepara- tion, as a journey of two hundred miles at present. ANALYSIS OF A LEGENDARY TALE. 325 VI. Colonel Mac-Mahon, who had given him the option of coming on Wednesday OR Thurs- day, so far broke his engagement, that he had started, on Wednesday, for Dublin, previous to O'Conally's arrival, which took place on the night of that day. VII. O'Conally, nothing discouraged by the breach of engagement on the part of the colonel, follows him to Dublin. VIII. He arrives in that city on the memorable Friday, the 22d of October, at six o'clock in the evening, ONE HOUR AFTER SUNSET. IX. Monimore, where O'Conally received the friendly invitation to the throat-cutting party, appears, by Pinkerton's map, to be about ninety- three miles in a direct line from Dublin, and was probably a hundred and ten, or a hundred and twenty, by the usual circuitous windings of the road, we will suppose only a hundred and ten. X. Conaught, in Monaghan, is not to be found on any map. Its distance from the extreme points cannot therefore be ascertained ; and, be- ing left to range in the fields of conjecture, we will venture to suppose it was nearly mid-way, or fifty miles. XI. The climate of Ireland is very moist. Rains are generally abundant, particularly in autumn. Of course, the roads at that season were very probably mini, and difficult to travel. fj tS fc/ 326 VINDICLffi HIBERNICJK. XII. It thus appears, that O'Conally has per- formed a journey of about fifty miles in a day and a half; that is, from mid-day on Tuesday, to Wednesday night ; and a hundred and ten in three days and a half, at a season of the year, when THE SUN ROSE ABOUT SEVEN, AND SET ABOUT FIVE ; and this exploit was accomplished at a time when there were no diligences, or post-coaches, or post-chaises, or steam-boats, to ensure expedition; and when, moreover, the roads were, as we have stated, in all probability in very bad order. XIII. Nothing discouraged by the fatigue of his journey of a hundred and ten miles, nor by his previous disappointment, nor by the darkness of the evening, he commences a search for the lodgings of an entire stranger. And let it not be forgotten, that on this night the moon was invi- sible,* a circumstance admirably calculated to aid his researches ! * Extract of a Letter from the Vice-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania. "January 6, 1819. " Dear Sir, " I find that it was New Moon, at Dublin, at about two o'clock in the morning of the 24th of October, 1641, O. S. Consequently the moon must have been invisible on the whole night of the 22d-23d of that month. " Yours, &c. " R. M. PATTERSON. " MR. M. CAREY." ANALYSIS OF A LEGENDARY TALE. 327 XIV. Instinct is a most valuable quality, and supplies the want of the most important senses : and the "servant" or "gentleman" aided by instinct, discovered, in the suburbs, the lodgings of the colonel; as Sir John Falstaff, " by instinct" discovered the mad-cap prince of Wales. XV. Although the colonel was engaged in " a good plot, and full of expectation," to explode on Saturday, at ten o'clock, A. M. O'Conally finds him alone at or about six o'clock on Friday even- ing, in the suburbs, and appears to have seen none of his brother conspirators until nine, at which time O'Conally left him. XVI. The colonel takes him to the lodgings of a brother conspirator " into town" at the distance, probably, of a mile or two. XVII. This conspirator not being at home, the colonel, after having taken a drink of beer with his new friend, freely communicates " that there were and would be, this night, great numbers of noblemen and gentlemen of the Irish, from all parts of the kingdom," whose object was " to cut off all the Protestants that would not join them" 3 * 4 ' XVIII. And they then went back to " the said Hugh his lodgings," in the suburbs, "near Ox- mantown," where O'Conally drank himself beastly drunk. XIX. O'Conally, notwithstanding this tempo- rary derangement in his pericranium, and that 344 Temple, 20, 328 VINDICLt HIBKRNICJE. he was, two hours afterwards, unable to relate a consistent story, was alert enough to " leap over a wall," and afterwards " over two pales," which was a very remarkable exploit, for a man who had poured out so many libations to Bacchus. " I have seen drunkards do more than this in sport." 34 * XX. He found his way, " by instinct," probably, to Sir William Parsons, into the town, to whom he communicated the whole affair. XXI. Here let us observe, by way of a paren- thesis, that this very Sir William had received information of a plot, several days before, from Sir William Cole, "upon the very first apprehen- sion of something that he conceived to be hatching among the Irish." 346 XXII. And further, that this lord justice had written to Sir William Cole, " to be very vigilant in inquiring into the occasion of those meet- ings ;" 347 whereby it appears that he had suspi- cions of a conspiracy. XXIII. Notwithstanding this information, Sir William Parsons, who was jealous of some plot "hatching among the Irish;" who, of course, ought to be on the qui vive, and to take alarm on the slightest intimation of any scheme of that kind ; receiving this " broken relation of a matter so incredible in itself," his lordship "gave very little belief to it at first, in regard it came from an obscure person, and one, as he conceived, somewhat distempered at that time." 348 315 Shakspeare. 346 Temple, 18. M7 Ibid. 348 Ibid. ANALYSIS OF A LEGENDARY TALE. 329 XXIV. " His lordship," with most wonderful sagacity, " hearing this broken relation" of a plot, to explode in about twelve or thirteen hours, for the purpose of cutting the throats of all the Pro- testants, and his own very valuable throat among the rest, sends the informer ! ! between nine and ten at night ! ! with " order to go again to Mac- Mahon, and get out of him as much certainty of the plot as he could ! ! !" 349 XXV. This informer, being so drunk, as we have stated, that, in an hour or two afterwards, he was unable to make a deposition, without let- ting " sleep, with her leaden and batty wings, creep over him," was therefore a most admirable spy to make further discoveries! !! XXVI. After sending O'Conally to Mac-Mahon's lodgings, with strict orders w to return back unto him the same evening," Sir William went "pri- vately, at about ten of the clock that night, to lord Borlase's house, WITHOUT THE TOWN," 350 whereas O'Conally was directed to come to him at his house WITHIN THE TOWN. XXVII. " They sent for such of the council as they knew then to be IN THE TOWN," to lord Borlase's house, " WITHOUT THE TOWN." 351 XXVIII. There they fell into deep consultation " what was fit to be done, attending the return of O'Conally." 352 349 Temple, 19. 35 Ibid. 3J1 Ibid. 3SS Ibid. 42 330 VINDICLE XXIX. They then sent in search of him, and found that he had been taken by the watch, and rescued by the servants of Sir William Parsons, " who had been sent, amongst others, to walk the streets, and attend his motions." 3 " XXX. " Sensible that his discovery was not thoroughly believed, he professed that whatever he had acquainted the lord Parsons with, was true ; and could he but repose himself, (the ef- fects of drink being still upon him) he should discover more." 354 XXXI. " Whereupon, he had the conveniency of a bed." 355 XXXII. " Having (on his repose) recovered himself" he gave in his deposition. XXXIII. This is dated the 22d, and of course must have been made before twelve o'clock. XXXIV. This deposition gave a full detail of a most murderous plot, whereby "all the Pro- testants and English, throughout the whole king- dom, were to be cut off the next morning" XXXV. Possessed of this deposition, which required the most decisive measures of preven- tion, it becomes a serious question, what did the lords justices do ? On this point the whole merits of the question might be rested : and indeed the investigation of any other might be wholly omitted. The answer to the above question is, " They took present order to have a watch pri- 353 Temple, 19. 3S1 Borlace, 20. 35S Ibid. ANALYSIS OF A LEGENDARY TALE. 331 catety set upon the lodgings of Mac-Mahon, as also upon the lord Macguire !!!" XXXVI. In a plain, simple case, in which a school-boy of ten years old- could have at once pointed out the course to be pursued, they spend no less than five precious hours " in consultation" and in devising ways and means for the public safety, notwithstanding that the sword, not of Damocles, but of Mac-Mahon and his bloody- minded associates, hung over them. " They sate up all that night in consultation," "having far stronger presumptions, upon the latter examina- tion taken, than any ways at first they could entertain." 356 XXXVII. The result of their long and painful consultation, from twelve o'clock at night till five in the morning, was, that at that late hour, they at length adopted the resolution of apprehending Mac-Mahon ! ! ! ! ! ! XXXVIII. The lords justices had received the names of some of the principal conspirators from O'Conally, and, among the rest, of lord Macguire; had privately set a watch, on Friday night, at his lodgings : they must of course have known that he was equally implicated with Mac-Mahon, and equally demanded the exercise of their vigilance ; and yet they did not think of arresting him, until after the seizure of the latter, and " a conference with him and others, and calling to mind a letter 356 Temple, 21. 332 VINDICLE HIBERNIC*. received the week before from Sir William Cole" they " gathered" that he " was to be an actor in surprising the castle of Dublin." 357 XXXIX. Owen O'Conally swears, that in all parts of the kingdom, " all the English inhabit- ing there," are to be destroyed " to-morrow morning " but, in the very next sentence, he swears, " that all the Protestants, in all the sea- ports and other towns in the kingdom, should be killed this night" It is not easy to conceive, how, after they were "all killed'" on Friday night, they could be " all destroyed" on Saturday morn- ing. XL. O'Conally's deposition states, that the massacre is to begin at ten o'clock on the 23d ; to be general in all the parts of the kingdom ; that all the English inhabitants are to be cut off; and that all the posts that could be, could not prevent it. As this is the cardinal point in the affair, on which the whole turns, if it can be proved to be so unequivocally false and ground- less, as to be utterly destitute of even the shadow of truth, then is the entire story a fabrication, and O'Conally a perjurer. XLI. That this explosion did not take place ; and that, of course, there could not possibly have been a general conspiracy, we have superabun- dant testimony, as will appear in the subsequent paragraphs. 357 Temple, 28. ANALYSIS OF A LEGENDARY TALE. 333 XLII. We will first premise, that, as the arrest of Mac-Mali on and Macguire, in consequence of the pretended discovery of the sham plot, took place on the 23d of October, at five o'clock in the morning, just five hours before the time fixed for commencing the massacre, that circumstance could not have prevented an explosion in any other part of the kingdom, except in a very small portion of the circumjacent vicinity. XLIII. Yet on Monday, the 25th of October, the lords justices wrote an elaborate and detailed account of the proceedings of the insurgents in the north of Ireland, with a prolix statement of various outrages, not only without the least hint or surmise, but even an utter exclusion of every idea, of murder or shedding of blood.* * In the despatch above referred to, dated October 25th, the lords justices, after having given an account of sundry out- rages perpetrated by the insurgents in Ulster, without a word respecting bloodshed, add, u And this, though too much, is all that we yet hear is done by them." 359 This sentence, and the declaration in the* proclamation of the 29th, that the insurrection was confined to " such of the mere old Irish in the province of Ulster, as have plotted, contrived, and been actors in this treason, and others who adhere to them," set the broad seal of condemnation and flagrant falsehood on the murderous part of O'Conally's deposition; and it is unnecessary to add, that when the main point of a story is proven to be false, the whole may be pronounced to be " Lies, like the father that begets them , " Gross as a mountain." 359 358 Temple, 30. 359 Shakspeare. 334 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. XLIV. And further, we invoke the most earnest attention of the reader to this all-important fact: Notwithstanding the pretended generality of the plot, the lords justices, by public proclamation, on the 29th of October, declared, that the insur- rection was confined to " the mere old Irish of the province of Ulster, and others who adhered to them ;" and that they were well assured of the fidelity of the old English of the Pale, and of the other parts of the kingdom.* XLV. These two strong facts prove that such parts of O'ConaUy's deposition as relate to the general extent of the conspiracy, and the plot to " cut off all the Protestants throughout the king- dom," are wholly false, and that he of course was an abandoned perjurer ; and would decide the question on these vital points, beyond appeal or controversy. But much stronger evidence * Extract from 'a Proclamation by the Lords Justices of Ireland, dated October 29, 1641. * " We do hereby declare and publish, to all his majes- tie's good subjects in this kingdom, that by the words * Irish Papists,' we intended only such of the old mere Irish in the province of Ulster, as have plotted, contrived, and been actors in this treason, and others who adhere to them ; " And that we do not any way intend or mean thereby any of the old English of the Pale, nor of any other parts of this kingdom : "WE BEING WELL ASSURED OF THEIR FIDELITY TO THE CROWN, and having experience of the good affections of their ancestors in former times of danger and rebellion." 360 360 Temple, 34. ANALYSIS OF A LEGENDARY TALE. 335 remains behind, derived from Temple, Borlase, Carte, Leland, and Warner, to which we now invite the attention of the reader. XLVI. Munster continued tranquil for six weeks, although, according to the testimony of Warner, it contained but one troop of horse :* and of course, when defended by such an insignificant force, had there been any reality in the plot, the Irish could and would have totally overwhelmed their oppressors.! * " In the province of Munster, of which Sir William St. Leger was lord president, the English were very numerous, and ready to assemble in a body to preserve the peace of the country. But they were utterly destitute of arms : and all the solicitations made by Sir William, which were strong and numerous, could not persuade the lords justices and council to spare him any. He was a brave old soldier, of great experi- ence and ability ; and did every thing that it was possible for a man to do with one troop of horse, -which -was all his guard for the whole province; a guard scarcely sufficient to repress the insolence of robbers, in a time of profound peace, much less in a time of such general spoil and disturbance. But, with the assistance of the noblemen and gentry of the province, it continued quiet for above six weeks ! ! ! Indeed, no man of quality, or gentleman of English blood, either Papist or Pro- testant, had as yet joined the rebels." 361 f There is a discrepancy between Temple and Borlase as to the time when the insurrection commenced in Munster ; the former dating it " the beginning," and the latter " the midst," of December. This does not, however, affect the disproof of O'Conally's deposition, which, in either case, is notoriously false. 41 The flame having marched through Ulster and Leinster, it discovers its fury, about the beginning- of December^ 1641, in 361 Warner, 130. , 336 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. XL VII. Connaught was in the same state for six weeks, principally owing to the influence of lord Clanrickarde, a Roman Catholic.* Munster, which province till that time (by the moderation of the state) had stifled its rage, then expressing its consent with the other provinces." 362 " The whole province of Munster, about the midst of this month of December, BEGAN to declare themselves in open re- bellion." 363 " In Munster, Sir William St. Leger, the lord president, a soldier of activity and experience, and possessed even with an inveteracy against the Irish, could not obtain arms or soldiers sufficient for a time of peace, much lessor a juncture of dis- traction and disorder. Yet the strength of the English Pro- testants, and the loyalty of the Irish gentry, as yet preserved this province from any material disorder.' 1 '' 36 * * " The lord Ranelagh was president of Connaught : and all that province, except a few pillagers in the county of Sligo, had, owing in a great measure to the forward zeal and activity of lord Clanrickarde, though a Roman Catholic, till this time continued quiet." 365 ".The infection of the Pale having spread in the remoter parts, about the middle of .December, the whole province of Connaught in a manner revolted, the county of Galway, of which lord Clanrickarde was governor, excepted." 386 " The peace and security of Connaught were equally ne- glected by the chief governors, although the English power was inconsiderable in this province, and the Irish natives kept in continual alarm for twenty-five years, by the prospect of a general plantation, which, though suspended, had not been formally relinquished. Tet here, too, the good affections of the principal inhabitants stemmed the torrent of rebellion." 3 *' 7 362 Borlace, 49. 363 Temple, 155. 364 Leland, III. 158. 365 Warner, 157. 366 Idem, 158. 367 Leland, III. 158. ANALYSIS OF A LEGENDARY TALE. 337 XL VIII. Leinster was likewise tranquil, except some outrages of small importance, until the beginning of December ; as the summons to the lords of the Pale to come to Dublin, to consult on the affairs of state, was dated the 3d of that month, at which time there was no appearance of serious disturbance ; and the butchery at San- try, by the sanguinary and merciless ruffian, Sir Charles Coote,* which was obviously intended to provoke, and actually led to, the insurrection in that province, took place on the 7th. XLIX. And further, we have the testimony of Warner and Carte,f that the insurrection was for * " The town being left at his [Sir Charles Coote's] mercy, to which he appears to be a stranger, he put to death several persons, -without distinction of age or sex !!! in revenge of the several spoils committed on the English in those parts." 368 " In revenge of their depredations, he [Sir Charles Coote] committed such unprovoked, such ruthless, and indiscriminate carnage in the town, as rivalled the utmost extravagancies of the Northerns." 369 " The town being left to his [Sir Charles Coote's] mercy, he, in revenge of the spoils committed upon the English, put, zvithout distinction of sex! !! several persons to death." 370 f " Had the lords justices and council acquitted themselves like men of probity and understanding, there was time enough given them to suppress an insurrection -which for six -weeks was confined almost to the province of Ulster, without any chief that was so considerable as Sir Phelim O'Neal." 371 "No one nobleman of the kingdom, nor any estated gentleman of English race, engaged in the rebellion, or joined with the rebels in action, till the month of December ; for as to those 368 Warner, 135. 369 Leland, III. 168. 370 Carte, I. 242. 371 Warner, 130. 43 338 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. about six weeks confined almost wholly to the province of Ulster. L. That the original views of the insurgents did not comprehend a general massacre, or even single murders, we have further testimony, clear and decisive, derived from Temple, Warner, and Leland, which, independent of all other proof, would be sufficient to settle this question for ever, and utterly overwhelm O'Conally's perjured legend.* LI. Moreover, if there had been a plot for a general insurrection, and such a massacre gentlemen of the county of Louth, who submitted to them be- fore, being unable to defend themselves or to make resistance, they had not yet appeared in action. The rebellion till then had been carried on by the mere Irish, and CONFINED TO ULSTER, to some few counties in Leinster, and that of Leitrim, in Connaught." 372 * " Their first intention went no farther than to strip the Eng- lish and the Protestants of their power and possessions ; and, unless forced to it by opposition, not to shed any blood." 373 " It was resolved" by the insurgents " not to kill any, but where of necessity they should be forced thereunto by opposi- tion." 374 " Resistance produced some bloodshed : and, in some in- stances, private revenge, religious hatred, and the suspicion of some valuable concealment, enraged the triumphant rebels to insolence, cruelty, and murder. So far, however, was the ORIGINAL SCHEME of the conspiracy" [mark well these words : the original scheme of the conspiracy] " at first pursued, that few fell by the sword, except in open war and assault" 315 372 Carte, I. 243. 373 Warner, 47. 374 Temple, 65, 37S Leland, III. 137. ANALYSIS OF A LEGENDARY TALE. 339 as O'Conally swore to, there would have been some evidence produced from some of the con- spirators : but notwithstanding the lords justices had recourse to the execrable aid of the rack, and put Mac-Mahon and others to the torture,* there is not, in the examinations of the former, a single word to corroborate the cut-throat part of O'Co- nally's deposition. The examinations of \the rest were never published. LIL There is not to be found in Temple, nor Borlase, nor Carte, nor Warner, nor Leland, nor Clarendon, nor, as far as we have seen, in Rushworth, the examination of a single person engaged in a conspiracy which was said to extend throughout the whole kingdom, except those of Mac-Mahon and lord Macguire ! That of the latter was not taken till March, 1642. * " The first person PUT TO THE RACK, was Mac-Mahon ; whom the reader must remember to have been taken on O'Co- nally's information, when the conspiracy was discovered. I copied his examination from the bishop of Clogher's MSS. in the College Library : and on that examination, he had nothing but hearsay evidence to give ; which amounts only to his hav- ing been told that lord Macguire, Sir P. O'Neil, and Philip O'Reilly, were the chief conspirators ; that all the chief Pa- pists in Parliament last summer, knew and approved of the rebellion ; that the committee then employed in England would procure an order from the king to proceed in their rebellious courses ; that he was told, last October, that the king had giv- en a commision to seize all the garrisons and strong holds; but he doth not say, he ever saw such a commission. 1 ' 3 378 Warner, 176. 340 VINDICLE HIBERNICA,. Perhaps the preceding analysis of this misera- ble legend might supersede the necessity of add- ing any thing further on the subject. But its great importance, and the deep solicitude we feel to dispel the thick mists with which prejudice and fraud have overspread it, induce us to place it in a new form, and bring it more home to the mind of the reader. The reasons for adopting this measure will probably so far satisfy the read- er, as to preclude the necessity of an apology. QUERIES. Is there a man in the world who can seriously believe : I. That a Catholic COLONEL, engaged in a plot to murder the Protestants, would send fifty miles for a Protestant, SERVANT to a Protestant gentle- man, an inveterate enemy to the Roman Catho- lics, as an accomplice ? II. That a journey of a hundred and ten or a hundred and twenty miles could be performed in three days and a half, the sun rising at seven, and setting at frve, at a season of the year when the rains, then usually prevalent, must have rendered the roads almost impassable ; and by a man who knew nothing of the business which led to the summons he had received, and who, of course, had no temptation to make any extraordinary exertion ? WAS NOT O'CONALLY A PERJURER ? 341 III. That a stranger, arriving in the suburbs of a city an hour after sun-set, and fatigued with a long journey, should, without any aid from the moon, immediately find out the lodgings of an- other stranger, who had arrived the same after- noon ? IV. That Sir William Parsons, who had, at nine in the evening, received intelligence of a plot, to explode at ten the next morning, and the names of some of the principal conspirators, should be so misguided, as to send back the drunken informer, " to get out of Mac-Mahon as much certainty of the plot as he could," instead of immediately apprehending the conspirators ? V. That when the informer returned to the lords justices, he would be allowed to go to bed, before taking his examination ? VI. That when he had slept himself sober, and made circumstantial deposition of such alarming particulars, the privy council would have been such idiots as to take no other precaution than merely " to have a watch set privately upon the lodgings of Mac-Mahon, and also upon lord Mac- guire," as if they had been plotting to rob orch- ards or hen-roosts, to bar out a school-master, break lamps in a midnight frolic, or attack the watchmen, instead of plotting to seize the castle, subvert the government, and cut the throats of one or two hundred thousand people ? VII. That a privy or even a common council of the wise men of Gotham would not. under such 342 VIND1CIJE HIBERNICJE. circumstances, have instantly apprehended the conspirators, instead of " sitting all night in coun- cil," upon one of the simplest points ever dis- cussed, and which could have been decided in five minutes, as well as in five hours, five weeks, or five years ; on which the most prompt and decisive measures were imperiously necessary ; and at. a moment when, if there were any truth in the statement of O'Conally, the salvation or destruction of the state might depend on a single hour ? VIII. That having taken the precaution, on Friday night, of " setting a watch privately upon the lodgings of lord Macguire," thereby establish- ing their belief that he was an accomplice in the plot, they would not have arrested him at the same time they arrested Mac-Mahon, but waited till conference with the latter and others, and calling to mind Sir William Cole's letter, which led them to " gather that the lord Macguire was to be an actor in surprizing the castle of Dublin ?" IX. That a conspiracy, which was to explode throughout the whole kingdom on the 23d of October, should be arrested in Leinster, Con- naught, and Munster, by the detection of it, in Dublin, a few hours before the appointed time ? X. That if it had been intended to murder all the Protestants throughout the kingdom, who would not join the conspirators, there would have been no intelligence of a single murder on the 25th, or that, on the 29th, the lords justices WAS NOT O'CONALLY A PERJURER? 343 should explicitly declare, that the insurrection was " confined to the mere old Irish in the pro- vince of Ulster, and others who had joined them?" XI. That though the lords justices had recourse to the execrable expedient of putting Mac-Mahon and others to the rack, they should not have extorted a word from any of them, to support the charge of murderous intentions, if any con- spiracy had existed, for "cutting off all the Pro- testants and English throughout the kingdom ?" XII. That if there were a general conspiracy, and of course a large assemblage of people in Dublin, for the purpose of seizing the castle on the 23d, the lords justices would not have been able, on the morning of that day, to apprehend more than two of the leaders and a few common servants ? XIII. And finally, whether, the deposition of O'Conally being incontrovertibly established as false, and he of course perjured, in the two vital points, I. The universality of the plot, and II. The determination to massacre all who would not join in it, There can be any credit whatever attached to the remainder of his testimony ? And whether it does not necessarily follow, that the whole was a manifest fraud and imposture, designed to provoke insurrection, and lead to its usual and inevitable result. confiscation ? 344 VIND1CLZE IIIBEHNICJt. Before the reader decides on answers to these queries, it is hoped he will bear in mind the strong facts adduced in Chapter XIV. to prove that the seventeenth century was, in the fullest sense of the word, the age of perjury, forgery, and fabricated plots. He will there see, that in London, at that period, the boasted courts of justice were, as we have said, mere slaughter- houses, where the depositions of men, stained and covered over with crimes of the most atro- cious nature, as the leopard is covered with spots, were received, in cases where the lives of inno- cent men were at stake, and were finally immo- lated. He will likewise behold the horrible fact, that the testimony of a man whose perjury was detected in open court, and there confessed by him- self, was afterwards received, and was the means of consigning innocent persons to the ignomi- nious death of the gallows. Let him also bear in mind, that forged plots, supported by perjury, and occasionally by the stupid and clumsy contrivance of letter-dropping,* had been one of the steady and uniform machines of the government ofr Ireland, from the invasion to that period ; and had produced the forfeiture of 'millions of acres. And further, let it not be forgotten, that all the writers, Clarendon, Carte, Warner, Leland, Gor- don, fyc. agree, that the grand object of the lords justices was, in the beginning, to extend the * Supra, 168. WAS NOT O'CONALLY A PERJURER? 345 flames of civil war ; and, when the insurrection had by these means become general, to prevent a cessation of hostilities, for the purpose of pro- ducing extensive confiscations. This point being of primary importance, we shall devote a short chapter to it, immediately succeeding the present one. With all these strong facts taken into view, we then invite a decision; and entertain no doubt of a favourable verdict. On this subject we stand committed, in the face of ah 1 the enlightened men in Christen- dom ; and have no hesitation in pledging our- selves, that if any independent and upright judge or lawyer of any court in France, Germany, Eng- land. Scotland, Ireland, or the United States, will pronounce affirmative answers to the above que- ries, so as to imply a belief in the reality of the conspiracy, as deposed to by the " Protestant gentleman," alias " servant" we will cheerfully consent to have this book burned by the hands of the common hangman, and will suppress it ourselves. 44 ( 346 ) CHAPTER XVI. The lords justices alarmed at the prospect of peace. Corroboration of their guilt. Success- ful in their endeavours to prolong and extend the horrors of war. Execrable policy of the English Parliament. THE tenor of the narrative of the origin of the insurrection in 1641, as detailed in the pre- ceding chapter, hears such strong internal evi- dence of fraud and imposture, as can hardly fail to convince every man of candour, that it was a concerted and nefarious plan, for the purpose of goading the Irish into insurrection, and con- tinuing the system of spoliation, of which the history of Ireland presents to the harrowed feel- ings of the reader one unbroken series. This evidence derives important corroboration from the subsequent conduct of the rulers of the country, which of itself would be sufficient to convict them, even had the story been so well concocted as to wear a plausible aspect. This conduct we now expose to the consideration and abhorrence of the reader. GUILT OF LORDS JUSTICES. 347 As a preliminary, we presume it will hardly be denied, that those who are opposed to a resto- ration of peace ; who use every effort to extend the horrors of war ; who expect to profit hy that extension ; and who devour the anticipated pro- fits, may, without any unreasonable jealousy, be suspected, unless there be strong reasons to the contrary, of having been instrumental in the com- mencement of war. But where, in addition to these circumstances, there appear, as in this in- stance, in their own narrative, manifest fraud and deception, then we have that strong degree of presumptive evidence of which alone the nature of the case admits. We undertake, therefore, to prove, by testi- mony the most irrefragable : I. That the lords justices left nothing undone to extend the flames of civil war, and to involve in the confiscation attendant on it all the estated men in the kingdom ;* * " It is certain that the lords justices, not only by their words and actions, expressed their unwillingness to stop the growth of the rebellion (as appeareth undeniably in their re- fusing the offers which both the earl of Ormond and the Par- liament of Ireland made to suppress it) but showed also a desire to increase the distempers of the nation, and rvere often heard to wish, that the number were greater of such as became criminal" 31 ' 1 " The marquis of Ormond detested the violent and destruc- tive counsels and measures of the lords justices, which had spread the rebellion; were ruinous to his majesty's affairs ; and likely to effect the utter desolation of his country" 5 377 Carte, I. 259. 378 Idem, 338. 348 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. II. That they, and their friends in England, took infinite pains to defeat every attempt for the restoration of peace, or even a cessation of hos- tilities, on any terms whatever ; and were, there- fore, with the rage of demons, determined on a war of extermination ; and " An Irish parliament sat for three days in Dublin. By ex- pelling the members actually in rebellion, and by excluding those who refused to take the oath of supremacy, they were reduced to an inconsiderable number. Yet they breathed the utmost fury against the Romish party ; declared for a rigor- ous execution of the penal statutes ; and urged, both to the king and English Parliament, the necessity of new and severe laws against recusants. The English parliament echoed these sen- timents. The bills were prepared for transmission, and the utmost vengeance denounced against Popery ; as if their sole purpose -were to exasperate the insurgents to the utmost, or as if they had been already completely reduced." 379 " To involve as many as possible in the guilt of rebellion was part of the plan adopted by the party of the lords justices, whose great object was an extensive forfeiture of lands. Their agents were indefatigable in the procuring of indictments, not only against open rebels, but also those whose conduct was at all capable of being brought into question. Against the gen- try of the Pale was principally directed the rage of their pro- secution." 380 " It is too evident, that as the supine carelessness of some did encourage the Irish to rebel, so there were others in power, who were so taken up with the contemplation of forfeitures, that they rather increased the fuel, than took care to suppress the flame." 381 ' 379 Leland, III. 197. 38 Gordon, I. 403. 381 Nalson, II. 629. GUILT OF LORDS JUSTICES. 349 III. That they devoured in idea the estates of those whom they goaded into insurrection.* The evidence produced in the second chapter, page 58 to 62, might be deemed sufficient for the purpose. It is copious, conclusive, and irresist- ible. But more than ordinary pains, and a greater host of testimony than usual, are necessary for a writer who enters the lists against inveterate opinions, long regarded as incontrovertible, and cherished under the invigorating and congenial * " The lords justices, in a private letter of their own to the speaker, exclusive of the rest of the council, besought the Com- mons to assist them with a grant of some competent proportion of the rebels' lands ! Here the reader will find the key that unlocks the whole secret of their iniquitous practices ; and here he will find the motives to the orders they gave for receiving no submissions ; for issuing no proclamations of pardon at first, as the Parliament had suggested ; and in short for all their back- wardness in putting an end to the rebellion, of which several opportunities offered j and consequently for their sacrificing the peace and happiness of their country, and the lives of thousands of their fellow subjects." 382 " Extensive forfeitures -were the favourite object of the chief governors and their friends. The Commons of England had very early petitioned that the king would not alienate any of the escheated lands, that might accrue to the crown from the rebellion in Ireland : and they had lately proceeded in a scheme for raising money from the lands thus expected to es- cheate. A bill was framed for repaying those who should ad- vance certain sums, for suppressing of the rebels, (as was pretended,) by vesting them with proportional estates in Ire- land, on terms highly advantageous to a new English planta- tion. It evidently tended to exasperate the malcontents, and to make all accommodation desperate : but it was not on this ac- count less acceptable to the popular leaders." 383 332 Warner, 199. 333 Leland, III. 186, 187. 350 V1NDICI.E HIBERNICJE. influence of bigotry, selfishness, and strong pre- judice. We therefore proceed to produce facts, to establish these important positions. A proclamation, of an ambiguous character, was published in January, 1642, which appeared to promise pardon to such of the insurgents as laid down their arms, and submitted themselves to the government. Numbers of the lords of the Pale, who had been reluctantly goaded into the war by the brutal ferocity of Sir Charles Coote, acting under the desolating orders of the lords justices, gladly availed themselves of this invita- tion ; laid down their arms } surrendered to the duke of Ormond ; claimed his protection ; and flattered themselves with the fond, but alas ! de- lusive hope of being restored to peace and safety. Had they been received with the indulgence and forgiveness the proclamation appeared to offer, their example would have been generally, if not universally, followed, and the horrors of war brought to an early close ; or if any number .re- jected the proffered mercy, they could have been readily crushed. The lords justices were as dreadfully alarmed as a fell tiger, whose prey has nearly escaped his ravenous jaws. All their hopes of plunder were likely to be defeated, and their golden harvest of confiscation to be snatched out of their hands, at the moment when they regarded it secure be- yond the power of fate. They adopted a most daring and profligate measure, which relieved GUILT OF LORDS JUSTICES. 351 them from a result that would have defeated all their schemes, but which blasts their character for ever, and exposes them to infamy and abhor- rence. They ordered Ormond to admit of no more submissions ; to receive those that offered to surrender themselves, merely as prisoners of and, in order to avoid the danger of * " They who had not engaged in actual hostilities, they who were only accused of harbouring, or paying contributions to the rebels, crowded to the earl of Ormond, and claimed the ad- vantage of the royal proclamation. The lords justices, who not only favoured the designs of their friends in England, but expected to have their own services rewarded by a large portion of forfeitures, resolved to discourage these pacific dispositions. Ormond was directed to make no distinction between noble- men and other rebels ; to receive those who should surrender only as prisoners of war ; and to contrive that they should be seized by the soldiers, without admitting them to his presence. They who were sent, in custody, to Dublin, though men of respectable characters, and families engaged in no action with the rebels, some, sufferers by their rapine, averse to their pro- ceedings, known protectors of the English, were all indiscrimi- nately denied access to the justices ; closely imprisoned ; and threatened with the utmest severity of the law." 384 " A cessation was recommended by Clanricarde, as a means of giving them some leisure to reflect on their precipitate con- duct ; to recall them to their allegiance ; and to prevent the de- solation of the kingdom: but the chief governors were actuated by different motives. They severely condemned the protection granted to Galway : their orders were express and perempto- ry, that the earl should RECEIVE NO MORE SUBMISSIONS : every commander of every garrison was ordered not to pre- sume to hold any correspondence with the Irish, or Papists ; to give no protections; but to prosecute all rebels and their har- bour ers withjire and sword." 385 384 Leland, III. 188. 385 Idem, 198. 352 VINU1C1/E H1BERNICJE. being forced to pardon any of the repentant in- surgents, who might induce the duke to pledge his honour for their safety, they directed him to contrive, as far as practicable, that they should be seized by the soldiers, and thus debarred of access to his person. These orders were given to all their other officers, and produced the hor- rible effects the wretched miscreants intended, to prolong and extend the horrors of war, and mul- tiply confiscations to their utmost wish. They had subsequently instructions from the Parliament of England to issue a proclamation, offering a pardon, on certain conditions, to such as would submit to their authority, and abandon the cause of the insurgents. With these instruc- tions, they did not comply; and assigned the futile reason, that their former proclamation had been unavailing, although they had themselves, by their sinister policy, rendered it nugatory.* * " In another instance, the conduct of these wretchecLgover- nors was still more suspicious. The parliament of England had recommended the offer of a general pardon to such rebels as should submit within a certain time, to be limited by the lords justices. No proclamation was published, no pardon offered, in consequence of these instructions. To palliate this omission, they pleaded the inefficacy of their former procla- mations : the first of which only called on the king's sub- jects to abandon the rebels, without any positive assurance of mercy : the other offered a pardon, not to the rebels of Ulster, where the insurrection chiefly raged, but to those of Longford and Louth, Meath, and Westmeath. In the two last counties no body of rebels had appeared. And if any outrages or in- surrections were to be suppressed, the lords justices contrived GUILT OF LORDS JUSTICES. 853 A cessation of hostilities had been an object ardently desired by the king, and by the leaders of the Irish insurgents : by the former, in the hope of deriving aid from his forces in Ireland, towards subduing the armies of the Parliament ; and by the latter, to be restored once more to the blessings of peace. The bigotry of Charles, and the sinister policy of Ormond, procrastinated this desirable event, and aided the views of the lords justices and their party, who had thrown every possible difficulty in the way of an accommoda- tion. It was, nevertheless, at length concluded, in despite of all the obstacles that folly and wick- edness had devised. It is at this time hardly credible, but it is sacredly true, that this act, at which all good men must have rejoiced ; which did not compromit an iota of the honour, interest, to defeat the effect of their pardon, by exceptions and conditions. All freeholders of these four counties; all who had shed blood in any action ; all who were in prison for spoil or robbery, were expressly excluded from mtrcy. To others, it was ten- dered on condition of their submitting within ten days after the proclamation, and restoring all the property they had seized, which had quickly been dispersed through various hands. Such a proclamation was evidently absurd and insi- dious. A pardon offered in the name of the English parlia- ment, must have had greater influence than any act of an Irish ministry, despised and suspected by the body of the nation. But the chief governours and their creatures were confident of support, and experienced in the art of converting forfeitures to their nvn advantage." 386 Leland, III. 16O. 45 354 VINDICIJE HIBERNIC2E. or advantage of the ruling powers in either Eng- land or Ireland ; and which took place at a time when the Irish had manifestly the advantage over their enemies, in point of military force and re- sources, excited as much uproar, horror, and^in- dignation, in both islands, as if it had totally over- thrown the existing order of things, extirpated the Protestant religion, and given a complete ascen- dency to the Roman Catholics.* It affords a most important addition to the various proofs we have * " The heads of that faction, who, by their measures, direc- tions, and creatures, had used as much skill and industry to im- prove and continue the rebellion, as ever the first conspirators did to begin it, were enraged to see a stop put to the further effusion of blood, and a foundation laid for a pacification, which would defeat their schemes of extirpation. " They protested against all peace with the rebels, without re- gard to the terms of any ; which must have entailed a perpe- tual war on the kingdom of Ireland, till the nation itself was in a manner extirpated." 387 " In the northern province, the Scottish general, Monroe, disclaimed the cessation. And though, when he had first slaughtered some unoffending Irish peasants, he consented to wait the orders of the state of Scotland, or Parliament of Eng- land, before he should proceed to further acts of hostility, yet he soon received instructions to carry on the war, without re- gard to the king's chief governor." 388 " The rebellion had been suppressed without any of their assistance, were it not for their violent measures and threats of extirpation, which terrifying and making the nobility and gentry of English race desperate, hurried them in spite of their animosity against the Old Irish, into an insurrection. For the like detestable purposes, they had starved the war all the time 387 Carte, I. 453. 388 Leland, III. 250. HORRIBLE THIRST OF BLOOD. 355 already given,* of the insatiable and ravenous thirst of the blood and estates of the Irish, by which the rulers of the two countries were at that time devoured.f The English Parliament passed strong and decisive resolutions^ and entered a most solemn protestation, against the cessation, distinguished by the strongest marks of the san- guinary, fanatical, bigoted, and intolerant spirit of the age, which is so loudly extolled for its libe- rality and illumination. In this wretched per- it was carrying on in Ireland, and were angry that a stop was put to it for a time by the cessation" 31 * 9 f " The great body of Covenanters in Ulster despised the whole negotiation; the Parliamentarians of Munster opposed any peace ruith the Irish. These reformers, in the fulness of their zeal, could be contented only with the extirpation of Popery, and the rebellious Irish race." 390 Sept. 20, 1643. " It was resolved, upon the question, that this house doth hold that a present cessation of arms rvith the rebels in Ireland is destructive to the Protestant refig-ion, dis- honourable to the English nation, prejudicial to the interests of all the three kingdoms, and therefore do declare they neither do nor can consent or approve of any treaty of a cessation with the rebels, pretended to be begun by the king's commission." 391 Dec. 30, 1643. " Ordered, that the adventurers of this house for lands in Ireland, and the body of adventurers in London, do meet at the Grocers' Hall, on Thursday, in the afternoon, at two of the clock, and take into their serious consideration, by what -ways and means the British army in Ulster, opposing the cessation, may be maintained and encouraged to proceed in pro- secution of that -war of Ireland against the rebels" 3 1 s 89 Carte, I. 463. 39 Leland, III. 331, 391 Journals, III. 248. 392 Idem, 353. * Supra, 58. 356 VINDICIJE HIBERNICjE. formance, replete with sophistry and declama- tion, they have the hardihood, we had almost said the blasphemy, to assert, " in the face of high heaven," that "# cessation of arms" would, by a suspension of religious persecution, "pro- voke the wrath of a jealous God!"* Well may we exclaim, " Why sleep the thunders of heaven ?" when wicked men, perpetrating the worst of crimes, varnish them over with such miserable imposture, to delude and deceive mankind ! Ne- ver did the mind of man conceive, or pen or tongue express, a more abominable or execrable idea than is here unblushingly advanced : for if there be any thing peculiarly calculated " to pro- voke the wrath of a jealous God," it must be, not "a cessation" of the progress of slaughter * " The Lords and Commons have reason to declare against this plot and design of a cessation of arms !! ! as being treat- ed and carried on without their advice ; so also because of the great prejudice which will thereby redound to the Protestant religion, and the encouragement and advancement which it will give to the practice of Popery, when these rebellious Pa- pists shall, by this agreement, continue and set up with more freedom their idolatrous worship, their Popish superstitions, an4 Romish abominations in all the places of their command, to the dishonouring of God, the grieving of all true Protestant hearts, the violation of the laws of the crown of England, and to the provoking of the wrath of a jealous God; as if both kingdoms had not smarted enough already, for this sin of too much conniving at, and tolerating of antichristian idolatry, under pretexts of civil contracts and politick agreements." 393 393 Rushworth, V. 353. HORRIBLE THIRST OF BLOOD. 357 and desolation, but the wanton waste and destruc- tion of man, made to his own image and likeness. " One to destroy is murder by the law, And swords uplifted keep the wretch in awe ; To murder thousands takes a glorious name, War's sacred art, and strews the road to fame." Let us add a most singular and disgraceful fact ; that, by this cessation, which afforded the only chance of retrieving his affairs, Charles lost some of his most devoted followers, whose rancorous and murderous spirit of hostility to- wards the Irish Roman Catholics, outweighed even their ardent attachment to their monarch, and their idolatrous veneration for the old re- gime.* This conduct merits serious consideration. A devouring civil war rages through a country, and renders it a fit abode for devils incarnate ; merce- nary soldiers spread havoc and desolation around; nothing, sacred or profane, escapes their rage ; the altars are sprinkled with the blood of human victims ; Humanity turns aside from the hideous and loathsome scenes, and finds it not wonderful that " it repented the Lord that he had made man upon the earth." How infuriate then must be the * " Several of the king's adherents ascribed the cessation to the counsels of the queen and her favourites. Some regarded it as a contradiction to those solemn protestations, which Charles had frequently made against Popery ; and declared, that after this fatal discovery of his real sentiments ^ they could ri r j longer continue to support his cause! ! !" 39 * 394 Leland, III. 245. 358 VINDICIJE HIBERNIC.E. passions of those who shudder at the delightful idea of sheathing the sword ; and who, for the sake of plundering the devoted objects of their vengeance, seek to carry on an interminable war of extermination ! for this must have been the obvious and inevitable end of those who opposed a cessation of hostilities. There is probably no crime in the long bead-roll of human wicked- ness, more atrocious than the prolongation, un- necessarily, of war, and particularly of civil war. And yet of this heinous offence many men were guilty, whose names rank high in English history; but whose ambition, avarice, and rage against the Irish, steeled them against the tender cries of lacerated humanity, which loudly pleaded to stay the progress of the devouring sword, and restore the reign of blessed peace and tranquillity. " Remember him, the villain, righteous heaven, In thy great day of vengeance ! Blast the traitor And his pernicious counsels, who, for wealth, For pow'r, the pride of greatness, or revenge, Would keep his native land in civil wars; When murders, rapes, and massacres prevail; When churches, palaces, and cities blaze, And desolation covers all the land." 3 ' 5 A petition of " the divines of the assembly," delivered to Parliament, July 19, 1643, contains the following extraordinary and extravagant de- claration, which the petitioners must have known to be utterly destitute of even the shadow of foundation. It is grounded on, and nearly ver- 395 Rowe. FLAGRANT FALSEHOOD. 359 batim with, the deposition of the fabulist, Dean Maxwell :* " In this rebellion, so barbarous and bloqdy, 154,000 Pro- testants, men, women, and children, were massacred in that kingdom, between the 23d of October, when the rebellion broke forth, and the 1st of March following; by the computation of the priests themselves, who were present, and principal actors in these tragedies, and who were directed by some chief rebels of Ireland to make this computation, lest they should be re- ported to be more bloody than in truth there was cause. All which appears by the examination of arch-deacon Maxwell, who lived a long time a prisoner with Sir Phelim O'Neil's mother, and was there when this computation was brought 'in.'" "396 To give currency to this wretched, absurd, and notorious imposture, the English House of Com- mons, with an utter disregard of truth and cha- racter, ordered it to be read by the ministers of every parish within the kingdom, in their several churches and chapels ;f thus making the temples of the Living God the instruments of poisoning the minds of his worshippers, by the propagation of flagrant falsehood. f July 25, 1643. " It is this day ordered by the House of Commons, that the ministers of every parish within the king- dom shall read this declaration in their several churches and chapels, on the next fast-day after the same shall come to their hands, after the ending of the first sermon, and before the be- ginning of the next." 397 * Supra, 55. 336 Rushworth, V. 355. 397 Idem, 356. ( 36 . ) CHAPTER XVII. Was there a massacre of the Protestants in Ireland in 1641 ? " Fortiter calumniare : aliquid adhaerebit." HAVING, as we hope and trust, satisfactorily disposed of the question of the pretended con- spiracy, in 1641, for a general massacre of ." such of the Protestants as would not join" the mur- derers, we now proceed to investigate and com- bat the legendary tales of the immense numbers which, in the miserable romances, honoured with the prostituted titles of histories of the Irish re- bellion in 1641, are stated to have been massa- cred by the Irish : and we feel confident that we shall satisfy the reader, that they are entitled to exactly the same degree of credit as lord Claren- don's millenium, which has figured to so much advantage in our preceding chapters. In order to proceed correctly in the investiga- tion, our first step will be. to ascertain the exact state of the allegations which we mean to dis- prove. We will therefore let the parties narrate their own tales. If they should fail to impose on the reader of the present day, they have no TALES OP TERROR. 361 merit in the failure : as they spared no pains to delude and deceive the world, and hitherto, un- fortunately, have been but too successful : " It would be almost endless to give a particular account of all the detestable cruelties acted by these incarnate devils up- on the innocent English, of whom they destroyed near 300,000 in a few months ///" 39 " The depopulations in this province of Munster do well near equal those of the whole kingdom ! ! /" 3 " " There being, since the rebellion first broke out, unto the time of the cessation made Sept. 15, 1643, which was not full two years after, above 300,000 British and Protestants cruelly murdered in cold blood, destroyed some other way, or expelled out of their habitations, according to the strictest conjecture and computation of those who seemed best to understand the numbers of English planted in Ireland, besides those few which fell in the heat of fight during the war." 400 " The day appointed for executing this bloody design was the 23d of October, on which day they were to rise all over the island. The design was really executed, as projected : and it is said, on that and the following days above forty thousand English Protestants were massacred by the Irish! ! !"* l " Above 154,000 Protestants were massacred in that king- dom from the 23d October to the 1st March following." 402 " By some computations, those who perished by all these cruelties are supposed to be 150 or 200,000. By the most moderate, and probably the most reasonable account, they are made to amount to forty thousand ! if this extenuation itself be not, as is usual in such cases, somewhat exaggerated!"* " The innocent Protestants were upon a sudden disseized of their estates ; and the persons of above 200,000 men, wo- men, and children were murdered, many of them with exqui- site and unheard of tortures, within the space of one month!!!"* * 399 Burton, 37. 3W Temple, 103. Idem, 6. 401 Rapin, IX. 340. Idem, 343. * Hume, III. 545. 404 May, 81. Frankland, 903. Baker, 532. 46 362 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. " A general insurrection of the Irish spread itself over the whole country, in such an inhuman and barbarous manner, that there were forty or fifty thousand of the English Pro- testants murdered, before they suspected themselves to be in any danger, or could provide for their defence, by drawing together into towns or strong houses." 404 " Though they were prevented of surprising Dublin, by a mere accident, yet through the country, it has been thought, that in one -week they massacred very near one hundred thou- sand persons, men, women, and children! ! T 406 That " Saul slew his thousands, and David his tens of thousands,'' was, in " olden time," sung by the women of Israel. Every Philistine was magnified into ten ; every ten into a hundred ; and every hundred into a thousand. But the amplifying powers of the Jewish women fade into insignificance, when compared with those of the Anglo-Hibernian writers. Every Englishman that fell in battle, or otherwise, was murdered. Every man was magnified into a hundred; every ten into a thousand ; and every hundred into ten thousand. Such a spirit of exaggeration has prevailed, in a greater or less degree, in all ages. Even in common occurrences, hardly calculated to excite any interest, we find, every day of our lives, that the statements of current events are so highly coloured, as to differ full as much from the reality, as the countenance of a mere- tricious courtezan, who has exhausted her stores of carmine and white-lead, differs from the un- 405 Clarendon's E. II. 40 Warwick, 199. WAYWARD FATE OF IRELAND. 363 disguised countenance of an innocent country damsel, who depends wholly on the pure orna- ments of beneficent Nature. This being undeni-' ably the case on topics, where no temptation to deception exists, how dreadful must be the false- hood and delusion in cases like the present, where, as we have already stated, and now repeat, ambition, avarice, malice, bigotry, national hatred, and all the other dire passions that assimilate men to demons, are goaded into activity. The difficulty, stated in the last chapter, of procuring evidence to invalidate O'Conally's le- gend, was very considerable ; but not so formi- dable, by any means, as we have to encounter in the present one. We are not, however, discou- raged: we trust to the force of truth; to the obvious falsehood in these statements ; and, above all, to the candour of an enlightened age. In all other cases, but that of the history of Ireland, to convict a witness of gross, palpable, and notorious falsehood, would be sufficient to invalidate the whole of his evidence : but such has been the wayward fate of that nation, that the most gross and manifest forgeries, which carry their own condemnation with them, are received by the world as though they were " Confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ." Or, when some are found too monstrous to be admitted, their falsehood and absurdity do not impair the credulity in the rest of the tales de- pending on the same authority. 364 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. The materials for Irish statistics, at that early period, are rare ; a deficiency which involves this subject in considerable difficulty. Had we ample and correct tables of the population of Ireland, our task would be comparatively easy ; and we could put down all those tales, with as much ease as we have stamped the seal of flagrant falsehood on so many impostures as we have already inves- tigated. But we avail ourselves of a sound rule, that we must employ the best evidence that the nature and circumstances of the case will admit ; and, fortunately, we have some data, of authority very far from contemptible, on which to reason, in the present instance ; which will shed the light of truth on this intricate question, and dispel the dense clouds with which it has been environed by fraud and imposture. Sir William Petty, the ancestor of the Lans- downe family, laid the foundation of a princely fortune, by the depredations perpetrated on the Irish, after the insurrection of 1641. Of course, he had no temptation to swerve from the truth in their favour : on the contrary, it was his in- terest, equally with the other possessors of the estates of the plundered Irish, to exaggerate their real crimes, and to lend the countenance of his reputation to their pretended ones. Hence his testimony, on this ground, and as a cotempo- rary, cannot, so far as it tends to exonerate those upon whose ruin he raised his immense estate, A FAIR VIEW. 365 be excepted against by the enemies of the Irish. We will therefore freely cite him in the case : and the reader will at once perceive to what an extent delusion has been carried, on this subject. He states the aggregate of the Protestants who perished in eleven years, to have been 11 2,0 00 ; 40T of whom " two-thirds were cut off by war, plague, and famine." It is obvious to the meanest capa- city, if, of 112,000, the whole number that fell in that space of time, two-thirds were cut off by war, plague, and famine, that those who fell out of war, in eleven years, were only 37,000 ! We hope to prove, that even this statement, so com- paratively moderate, is extravagantly beyond the truth. But, admitting it to be correct, what a wonderful difference between 37,000 in eleven years, and the hundreds of thousands in a few months, that make such an appalling figure in the various "tales of terror," imposture, and perjury, so feelingly narrated by Temple, Borlase, Clarendon, May, Baker, Frankland, Rapin, Le- land, and all their coadjutors ! Does not the credit of their tales, when thus brought to the test of the talisman of truth, disappear, and, u Like the baseless fabric of a vision, Leave not a trace behind ?" Here a remarkable trait, which, as we have stated, characterises Irish history beyond that of any other, displays itself. The writers are not 407 Petty, 18. 366 VINDICLE HIBERNIC*. merely at variance with each other, but with themselves : and there is as much discrepancy between different portions of each history, as between that history and truth. We have seen Carte, Leland, Clarendon, and Warner, convict Carte, Leland, Clarendon, and Warner, of most egregious errors, to use no harsher term : and the reader must have perceived, that our sole reliance, for refutation of their mis-statements, has been almost altogether on themselves. In like manner, we shah 1 satisfactorily prove, that Sir William Petty confutes himself, beyond the power of redemption. " Mark how a plain tale shall put him down." He bequeathed to posterity some statistical tables, which throw considerable light on this subject. They are very meagre, it is true ; but, meagre as they are, we believe there are no others ; at all events, we know of none : and must therefore avail ourselves of them. He informs us, that the population of Ireland, in 1641, was 1,466,000 ;* and that the relative proportion of the Protestants to the Catholics, was as two to eleven :f of course, it follows, * " This shows there were, in 1641, 1,466,000 people." 408 f u The proportion was as 2 to II." 409 We for the present admit this proportion ; as, however exaggerated the number of the Protestants may be, it does not affect the point at issue. But, from various circumstances, we doubt whether there was one Protestant to eleven Roman Catholics. 408 Petty, 18. . 409 Ibid. TALES OP TERROR. 367 that the population was thus divided: about 1,241,000 Roman Catholics, and 225,000 Pro- testants. From this conclusion there is no appeal. The whole number of Protestants in the island could not have exceeded 225,000. The supplies of people from England and Scotland, until after the final defeat, capture, condemnation, and death of Charles I. were inconsiderable : and surely there does not exist a single man that can believe, that out of 225,000, there could have been 112,000 destroyed, and the residue been able to baffle and defeat the insurgents, who comprised the great mass of the nation. It will therefore, we trust, be allowed, as an irre- sistible conclusion, that Sir William Petty's cal- culation, although so far more moderate than any of the " tales of terror" we have quoted at the commencement of this chapter, is most extrava- gantly over-rated, probably trebled or quadru- pled ; and must, of absolute necessity, be false. This being the case with the lowest of the calculations, what astonishment must be excited by Burton's 300,000, in a few months ; Temple's 300,000, in less than two years ; May's 200,000, in one month ; Warwick's 100,000, in one week ; or Rapin's 40,000, in a few days ! Surely there is not, in the history of the world, any parallel case of such gross, palpable, shocking, and abomi- nable deception. Can language be found strong or bold enough to mark the dishonour of those 368 V1NDICIJE HIBERNICJE. who knowingly propagated such falsehood, or the folly or neglect of those who adopted and gave it currency ? Their names ought to be held up. as " a hissing and reproach," to deter others from following in their foul and loathsome track of calumny and deception. On Milton's 626,000 we have already slightly touched.* We shall therefore now pass him over, and notice some of the other writers. We have fully established, that in three of the provinces, there was not only no massacre, but no insurrection, for five or six weeks : of course, during that period, warfare of every description was confined to Ulster, where the Protestants were by no means so numerous as elsewhere. But, admitting that they were equally divided in the four provinces, then the number in Ulster was not quite 60,000 ;f and they possessed seve- ral walled towns, had considerable forces, and not merely defended themselves against the at- tacks of the insurgents, but frequently vanquish- ed them. It is therefore certain that the num- bers that fell, in any way, must have been very inconsiderable, compared with the bloated and ^ - -*'' i . f Carte, as will appear at the close of this chapter, estimates the Protestants in Ulster at about double .60,000, although he rates the whole number in Ireland at only 220,000. His as- sumption is obviously incorrect ; but, as it cannot possibly affect any of our conclusions, we deem it unnecessary to go into an examination of its errors. * Supra, 20. IMPOSTURE DETECTED. 369 extravagant statements whereby the world has been deceived on this subject. Yet Thomas May, secretary to the Long Par- liament, who published a history of that Parlia- ment, about six years after the commencement of the insurrection, had the inexpressible wicked- ness or folly, or both, to state, as we have seen, that there were " 200,000 men, women, and chil- dren murdered, within the space of one month"* It cannot be necessary to go into detail, to refute this statement. A single glance at the preceding facts, the aggregate of the Protestant population of the country, and the limited range of warfare during the entire " month" that May takes into view, will satisfy the reader how utterly regardless this writer was of even the slightest semblance of truth. It is remarkable that Baker and Frankland, in their annals, copy the statement of May, without the variation of a word. We shah 1 furnish another case, more barefaced and profligate, if possible, than May's. When the cessation was agreed upon, there was, as already stated, a most furious outcry raised on the subject, throughout the three kingdoms ; and the army in Munster, in a remonstrance against it, hazarded the daring falsehood, that the " depopulations" of Munster nearly " equalled those of ah 1 the rest of the kingdom ;"f although it was even then pre- * May, ubi supra. f Temple, 103, 47 370 VINDICIJE HIBERNIOK. tended, that there had been 154,000 massacred in Ulster ; to which let the reader add what this army might choose to set down for Leinster and Connaught, which would probably be at least 25,000 for each ; thus allowing above 200,000 for the rest of the kingdom, and the same num- ber for Munster ! ! ! or 400,000 for the whole, out of 225,000 ! ! ! ! One more case shall close this odious detail. We have seen, even by the account of the lords justices themselves, that, on the 29th of October, six days after the commencement of the insur- rection, it was confined to " the mere old Irish in the province of Ulster, and others who ad- hered to them."* We have likewise seen, from Temple, Leland, and Warner, that at the com- mencement, the insurgents so far adhered to " the original scheme of the conspiracy" that, " at first, few fell by the swordrf except in open war and assault :" and yet Sir Philip Warwick gives us to understand, tfiat in one week there were 100,000 massacred, than which, we may venture to assert, a more consummate and atrocious falsehood never was ushered into the world, for the purposes of deception. Sir Philip is wholly inexcusable ; as his work was not published during the convul- sions of that period, when there might have been some difficulty in divesting himself of the influ- ence of the raging passions which then convulsed the political elements. It did not appear until * Supra, 334. f Leland, ubi supra. IMPOSTURE DETECTED. 371 after the restoration, of which it narrates the occurrences. With what ineffable disgust and abhorrence, then, must every ingenuous mind revolt at such loathsome frauds and impositions ! On the subject of the pretended massacre, some of the observations of Carte are judicious and unanswerable ; and would be sufficient, indepen- dent of the other evidence we have produced, to put down forever those miserable legends about so many hundreds of thousands of the Protestants cut off in a few weeks, or months, or years, and to stamp on the foreheads of their authors the broad seal of imposture. He states, that the ex- travagant numbers, asserted to be massacred, were " more than there were of English, at that time, in all Ireland.'"* 10 " Sir William Petty," he adds, " computes the British, in- cluding therein both English and Scotch, to be, before the re- bellion, as 2 to 1 1 of the Irish , at -which rate, there were about 220,000 British in the whole kingdom ! Now it is certain, that the great body of the English was settled in Munster and Leinster, -where very few murders were committed; and that in Ulster, which was the dismal scene of the massacre, there were above 100,000 Scots, who, before the general plantation of it, had settled in great numbers in the counties of Down and Antrim : and new shoals of them had come over, upon the plantation of the six escheated counties : and they were so very powerful therein, that the Irish, either out of fear of their numbers, or some other politic reason, spared those of that nation, making proclamation, on pain of death, that no Scots- man should be molested in body, goods, or lands, whilst they raged with so much fury against the English." 411 410 Carte, I. 17T. <" Ibid. 372 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. To these facts, he adds the following reflec- tions : " It cannot therefore reasonably be presumed, that there were at most more than 20,OOO English souls, of all ages and sexes, in Ulster at that time : and of these, as appears by the lords justices' letter, there were several thousands got safe to Dublin; besides 6,OOO women and children, which captain Mervyn saved in Fermanagh ; and others that got safe to Derry, Colerain, and Carrickfergus, and went from these and other parts into England." 412 ,, It is obvious, that it is impossible to reconcile the latter part of this quotation with the rest ; a case, as we have repeatedly stated, that incessantly occurs in Irish histories. The author informs us, on rational grounds, that there were " not more than 20,000 English in Ulster;" that "several thousands got safe to Dublin;" that " 6,000 women and children were saved in Fermanagh;" and that " others got safe to Derry, Colerain, and Carrick- fergus." These all-important and conclusive facts he connects with a statement of " the extreme cru- elty with which the insurgents raged against the English," and with a notice of a " dismal scene of the massacre" the subjects of which massacre are not very easily found, and, at all events, could not have been very numerous : for, let us add toge- ther " several thousands," and " 6,000," and the others" who " got safe" into the specified towns, where there were numerous garrisons ; where, of course, in a time of violence and commotion, the *v Carte, I. 177. IMPOSTURE DETECTED. 373 inhabitants of the circumjacent country would naturally seek refuge; and where, it is not extrava- gant to suppose, that "the others," who thus "got safe," might have amounted to some thousands : let us then deduct the aggregate from 20,000, the total number of English, and we shall find a slen- der remainder. But the plain fact is, that the writers on this subject are so haunted by the idea of a massacre, that although it rests on the sandy foundation of forgery and perjury, as shall be fully proved in the sequel, and although many of their own statements, in the most unequivocal manner, give it the lie direct, their minds cannot be di- vested of the terrific object. These passages from Carte furnish a strong case in point. The most ardent friend of Ireland could not desire a much more complete proof of the fallacy of the ac- counts of the pretended massacre, than is here given by this author himself, who, nevertheless, wonderful to tell ! appears to resist the evidence of his own facts, and to be blind to the obvious inference to which they inevitably lead. We have already borne strong testimony to the general correctness of the intentions of Fer- dinando Warner, a clergyman of the church of England, as displayed throughout his " History of the Rebellion and Civil War of Ireland," with the remarkable exception of the state of that country, previous to 1641, in which he has fallen into the most egregious errors. He appears to have been the only writer who has gone into any 374 V1NDICLK HIBERNICJE. elaborate investigation of the legendary tales of the pretended massacre ; and his views of the subject well deserve the most serious attention of the reader. After stating the uncertainty of the accounts, and the consequent difficulty of making an exact estimate, he pronounces a strong and unequivocal sentence of condemnation on the Munchausen tales we are combating ; and avers, that " It is easy enough to demonstrate the falsehood of the rela- tion of every Protestant historian of this rebellion." 413 He proceeds to render a satisfactory account of the grounds on which this statement rests : " To any one who considers how thinly Ireland was at that time peopled by Protestants, and the province of Ulster parti- cularly, -where -was the chief scene of the massacre, THOSE RELATIONS UPON THE FACE OF THEM APPEAR INCREDI- BLE." 414 He then enters into an elaborate detail, in con- firmation of this opinion, which the reader will find in Chapter I. page 20, and which reduces the number "murdered" to 4,028; and, let it not be forgotten, nearly one-half of even this number rests wholly on " report! 7" He adds, it is true, nearly double that number, who fell victims to ill-usage : thus making an ag- gregate of about 12,000. But even in this number he himself does not believe : for he closes with a strong and decisive condemnation of the state- 413 Warner, 296. 4 Ibid. IMPOSTURE DETECTED. 375 ment, in the following remarkable view of the subject : " If we should allow that the cruelties of the Irish, out of war, extended to these numbers, which, CONSIDERING THE NATURE OF SEVERAL OF THE DEPOSITIONS, / think in my conscience we cannot, yet, to be impartial, we must allow tVat there is no pretence for laying a greater number to their charge." 415 Thus we close this subject with stating, that these hundreds of thousands are reduced by Carte to 20,000, less " several thousands," and " 6,000 women and children," and "others;" and by Warner to about 12,000, a large portion of which, " in his conscience," he cannot allow ! Would it not be an insult to the reader, to offer another word, to prove the utter falsehood of all the ter- rific statements given of the subject, whereby the world has been so long and so grossly deceived ? 415 Warner, 296. (376 ) CHAPTER XVIII. #' View of the spirit of the hostile parties in Ireland. Murderous and never-enough-to-be-execrated orders of the lords justices, and of the Long Parliament. Illustrious contrast on the part of the Irish. BEFORE we enter on the investigation of the horrible and unparalleled cruelties alleged to have been perpetrated by the Irish in this civil war, we regard it as a duty to present a view of the spirit manifested in the orders given to the command- ing generals on both sides, which will shed im- portant light on this interesting subject ; and add still further corroboration to the various proofs we have already adduced, of the unprecedented deceptions practised upon, and the erroneous impressions entertained by, the world at large, respecting Irish affairs. He must be a mere sciolist in history, who requires to be informed, that the most rigorous military discipline has too frequently, in every age, been utterly inadequate fully to restrain the ferocious and sanguinary spirit of mercenary armies, which, accustomed to scenes of blood and desolation, are too prone to be steeled CHEERING CONTRAST. 377 against the calls of humanity. It is well known, moreover, that civil wars are almost always sig- nalized by incomparably more ruthless barbarity than wars between hostile nations. But, if the wisest regulations, to restrain military violence, be always found difficult, and too often impos- sible, to be carried into effect, even in well-regu- lated armies, how frightful must be the result, when murder and desolation are not merely tole- rated, but absolutely commanded; when the rulers " Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war ;" when military outrage is excited, by orders to slaughter the unoffending ; and when the incapa- city to resist the violence of one party, is made a pretext for murder by the other ! It will astonish the reader to learn, that the tenants of the regions below do not differ more from the purest cherub or seraph that the mind of man can conceive, than the fiend-like spirit of the orders promulgated by the lords justices, from those issued by the leaders of the Irish. None of those destroyers of mankind, wlio " Wade thro' seas of blood, And walk o'er mountains of slaughtered bodies ;" 41're,i! I and then, when they were thus rendered accomplice* 'It, they were deprived of that life they endeavoured to .-.iase at so hor- rid a price. Childremvere boiled to deatl ,? cauldrons. Some wretches rvere flayed alive. Others were stoned to death. Others had their eyes plucked out ; their ears, no,:e, cheeks, and hands cut off'; and thus rendered spectacles to satiate the malice of their enemies. Some were buried up to the chin, and there left to perish by degrees. One Protestant minister was put into a cask, lined with iron spikes, and then rolled up and down till he was dead! ! ! Parents were roasted to death before their children, and children before their parents ! ! ,'" 428 To establish the falsehood of these hideous portraits of cruelty, a few lines might suffice. Those lines would carry conviction. It would be enough to state the simple fact, that the ori- ginals were drawn by the miserable and abandon- ed falsifiers, who have so long deluded the world with a belief that there were 100,000 persons massacred in one week, 200,000 in a month, 428 Macauley, III. 71, 72. 390 VINDICLE HIBERNIC-K. and 300,000 in two years ; (whereas Sir William Petty, as we have stated, makes the whole num- ber that fell in eleven years, by war, plague, famine, and massacre, 112,000, which we have proved extravagantly over-rated ; and Warner, who had no partiality for the Roman Catholics, and who took more pains to investigate the sub- ject than any other writer, either of the seven- teenth or eighteenth century, reduces the number killed out of war to 4,028 ; with which Carte's account appears to correspond ;) who have re- corded, that a general insurrection and massacre took place throughout the kingdom, on the 23d of October, 1641, whereas three-fourths of it were, for entire weeks afterwards, in a state of perfect tranquillity ; who have also recor.d- ed the falsehood, that Ireland enjoyed a sort of millenium for forty years previous to the insurrection, whereas she suffered, during that period, every species of the most revolting tyran- ny ; in a word, whom we have, in every page of our work, convicted of a total disregard of truth. All these stories were dictated by the same spirit of imposture ; penned by the same writers ; rest, of course, on the same authority ; and the false- hood of those we have discussed being unanswer- ably proved, the residue must share the same sentence of condemnation. This, we trust, would be sufficient. Those convicted of fraud and falsehood, in so many points, where, as we have already stated, detec- TEMPLE'S CONFESSION or GUILT. 391 tion trod so closely on their heels, are utterly undeserving of credit, in any case; but more particularly in those wherein the difficulty of de- tection invites the fraudulent to falsehood and forgery. But of this plea we scorn to avail ourselves. We shall enter into a full examination of the evidence on which these legends rest ; and feel confident that it will excite astonishment, how, even in times of the grossest delusion, they could have ever gained the slightest credence. Temple, of all the writers whom we have quoted, is the only original author. His book is one unvaried tissue of fables, of which he was himself so much and so justly ashamed, that he endeavoured to suppress it ; and actually refused permission to the booksellers of London to print a second edition.* But it was in vain : it too much * Extract of a Letter from the Earl of Essex, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, to Mr. Secretary Coventry. " Dublin Castle, Jan. 6, 1674-5. " I am to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 22d of December, wherein you mention a book that was newly pub- lished, concerning the cruelties committed in Ireland, at the beginning of the late war. Upon further inquiry, I find Sir J. Temple, master of the rolls here, author of that book, was this last year sent to by several stationers of London, to have his consent to the printing thereof. But he assures me that he utterly denied it ; and whoever printed it, did it without his knowledge. Thus much I thought fit to add to what I formerly said upon this occasion, that I might do this gentleman right, in case it was suspected he had any share in publishing this nerv edition."* 29 429 Essex, 2. 392 VINDICIJE HIBERNIOK. flattered the existing prejudices, too much fa- voured the views of those who unjustly possessed the estates of which the Irish were plundered, to hope that it would be allowed to sink into ob- livion. The remaining writers are mere copyists ; and not only derive their facts, with occasional am- plifications, from Temple, but borrow his very language. We shall notice four of them ; Bor- lase, Carte, Macauley, and Hume. Borlase's history was published in 1688 ; and is a most wretched and despicable compilation. In one point, however, he has shown a consider- able degree of art, in avoiding an impolitic step, which Temple took, and which utterly destroyed the credibility of his history. The latter, to give support to his fabulous narrative, annexes the depositions on which it is grounded ; and which bear the most indisputable marks of fraud and perjury, as has been proved in Chapter II. and shall be more fully displayed in the present one, whereby it will appear, that nothing but folly and wickedness could have devised, nothing but the grossest delusion have credited them. Bor- lase has stated the number of pretended murders in gross, but wholly omitted the depositions, and given merely the names of the witnesses, whereby his readers have no means of ascertaining the rottenness of the foundation on which they rest. Carte's account affords a most striking display of the infatuation that prevails on this topic. The ASTONISHING INCONSISTENCY. 393 4 reader, in page 371, will find that he states, that the English were principally settled in Leinster and Munster ; that there were few murders com- mitted in those provinces; that the insurgents spared the Scotch, who composed the great mass of the Protestant population of Ulster ; that there were not in that province more than 20,000 Eng- lish ; that of this number, " several thousands" escaped to Dublin ; that "6,000 were saved in Fermanagh;'* that "others," not improbably thousands, found an asylum in three fortified towns : and yet This same historian, in the -very same page, and at the distance of a few lines, Pathetically and feelingly informs his readers, that RIVERS OF BLOOD WERE SHED ! ! And MASSACRES PERPETRATED, WHICH IT WOULD BE SHOCKING TO HUMANITY TO REPEAT ! ! While we are stating these particulars, we feel mixed sensations of astonishment and indigna- tion, which the reader may conceive, but which language cannot express. We are lost in the mass of reflections excited by this stupendous delirium of the human mind. It affords another instance of the gross and glaring contradictions so con- stantly found between the different parts of the same history of Irish affairs. It is an extraordi- nary fatality, from which even the very few whose intentions appear correct have not escaped. We 50 394 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. have frequently had occasion to call the reader's attention to it ; and are persuaded, there is not elsewhere any parallel to be found. We have met with various cases, in which, after the his- torian has given a series of strong, bold, deci- sive facts, calculated to excite admiration of the endowments, sympathy for the sufferings, and eager wishes for the success, of that oppressed, and, we had almost said, heaven-abandoned na- tion, he is led to draw inferences not merely unwarranted by his facts, but in direct hostility with them. Of this wonderful contradiction be- tween fact and induction, there are probably in Warner fifty, and in Leland a hundred instances : but there is none more remarkable than this of Carte. It would be like a search after the phi- losopher's stone ; the genial climate and verdure of Italy in Iceland : free government in Turkey ; or ease and opulence in the wretched cabins of the Irish peasantry ; to go in quest of those " rivers of blood" or those " massacres" so " shocking to humanity," out of the remnant of his 20,000 English, after the " several thousands" whom he rescued from the skein or the stiletto of the Irish assassins. Mrs. Macauley has outdone the other painters of those imaginary scenes. More than half of her detail appears to be the production of her own invention ; as there is nothing in Temple or Rushworth, or any other writer we have seen, to warrant it ; particularly the story of the clergy- HUME RESTING ON TEMPLE. 395 man put into the cask with iron spikes, and rolled to death ; and the children roasted to death be- fore their parents, and the parents before their children. Of all the writers on this subject, there is none deserving of more unqualified censure than Hume. He was under the influence of none of the dire passions that actuated some of the others. With a powerful mind and keen penetration, it was his duty to have examined carefully the credibility of his authorities ; and it required a very cursory examination, indeed, of Temple's history, to be satisfied that to quote it was an ineffable disgrace. Yet, astonishing to tell, out of thirty-four references, in his account of the pretended massacre of 1641, there are no less than twenty-seven to Temple, only five to Rush- worth, and one each to Nalson and Whitelock. How utterly unworthy this procedure was of the talents and reputation of Hume ; how indelible a stain it attaches to his memory ; and how far, as respects this individual case, he is reduced to a level with the common race of historians, may be readily conceived, from the extracts already given from Temple's history,* and from those which follow in the present chapter. A large portion of the most horrible passages, for which he quotes Temple's history, are grounded, in that wretched romance, on hear-say testimony ; which * Supra, 38, 41, 42. 396 VINDICLE HIBERNIC.K. is distinctly stated in the depositions, as will ap- pear in the course of the present chapter, and which therefore could not have been unknown to Hume, and ought to have forbidden him to place the least dependence on their authority. But his offence is not confined to the original use of those " tales of terror." No : a much higher and more inexpiable one remains behind. Dr. John Curry published a work of most transcendent merit, of which the title is, " Histo- rical Review of the Civil Wars of Ireland," in which he fully displayed the falsehood, and com- pletely overthrew the narrative, of Temple. The peculiar characteristic of this work is, that every important fact it contains is supported by the most indisputable authority, not merely in the form of reference, but by exact quotation. It may be safely asserted, that a more valuable his- torical work was never published.* The author, in 1764, sent a copy of it to David Hume, then at Paris, with a request that he would give it a candid consideration, and correct the errors that he had committed, by his dependence on such a deceptious guide as Temple. To this letter he * This review is earnestly recommended to the attention of the learned world. It is a perfect model of the manner in which history, on all disputed points, ought to be written. So luminous is Curry's style, so cogent his reasoning, and so in- disputable his authorities, that the most inveterate prejudices must give way, on a candid perusal of the work. GROSS IMPOSTURE. 397 sent an " evasive answer"* in which he declined committing himself by any promise ; and never, in any subsequent edition, corrected a single error in this part of his work. On this conduct, there can, among upright men, be but one sen- tence pronounced ; and that is, a most unqualified sentence of reprobation. To travel through the loathsome details of the evidence by which the terrific descriptions of the massacre (as it is pompously styled) are support- ed, is as disgusting to the moral sense, as it would be to the olfactory nerve to travel through filthy shambles, where neglect, and consequent putre- faction, had trebled the natural noisomeness of the place. These details exhibit human nature in its most hideous forms. Nothing meets the mind's eye, but fraud, forgery, and perjury ; and, to crown the whole, the immolation, under the mockery of justice, of those wretched victims * " I am here at such a distance from my authorities, that I cannot produce all the arguments which determined me to give the account you complain of, with regard to the Irish massacre. I only remember I sought truth, and thought I found it. The insurrection might be excused, as having liber- ty for its object. The violence also of the Puritanical Parlia- ment, struck a just terror into all the Catholics. But the me- thod of conducting the rebellion, if we must call it by that name, was certainly such, and you seem to own it, as deserv- ed the highest blame, and was one of the most violent efforts of barbarism and bigotry unitedV' 430 D. H. 430 Curry, 1.215. 398 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. who had escaped the insatiate rage of Coote, Inchiquin, Orrery, Ireton, Cromwell, and their worthy followers. Those who have attended courts of justice cannot have failed to observe the frightful fre- quency of perjury, so gross and so palpable, as not to escape the detection of the most superfi- cial observer, often in cases of slight importance, and holding out, of course, little temptation to the perpetration of this dangerous crime. When, therefore, nearly the whole fee simple of a fertile island was at stake ; when rapine made hasty strides in the confiscation of millions of acres ; when an estate of one, two, three, or four hun- dred thousand acres depended, as was often the lamentable case, on the oath of a single perjured witness ; when no witness was too base, too prof- ligate, too infamous, no testimony too extrava- gant, too incredible, too impossible, to be admit- ted, to prove the guilt, confiscate the property, or sacrifice the life, of an Irishman ; had the tales embraced in those depositions been all plau- sible and consistent ; had each corroborated the others ; had there not been the slightest contra- diction between them, still every sound and un- prejudiced mind would receive the accusations with large drawbacks and allowances ; knowing well, that strong temptations to fraud and villany will readily overcome the scruples of the profli- gate and abandoned part of mankind; that greater GROSS IMPOSTURE. 399 temptations to fraud, forgery, and perjury, never existed ; that they were never more kindly re- ceived or encouraged ; and also knowing, that, during periods of civil war, when all the vile passions of human nature are let loose from their usual restraints, when party rage, national anti- pathies, and religious persecution, all combine their deleterious influence, to demoralize and brutalize mankind, every species of profligacy and turpitude is nursed as in a hotbed. But how revolting is the fact, that a large portion of this evidence, as we have mentioned, and wish indelibly impressed on the reader's mind, is sworn to on hear-say ; that it is gene- rally deficient of probability, and in many cases even of possibility ; that it carries on its face the most irrefragable proofs of its utter falsehood, of the perjury of the witnesses, and of the wick- edness of the judges and others who took the depositions ! Many of those depositions, as may be seen in Chapter II. relate to circumstances utterly impossible ; as the shrieking of ghosts, standing upright in rivers, crying for revenge; naked bodies, struck at with drawn swords, prov- ing invulnerable ; grease adhering to the knives of murderers, in sufficient quantities to make candles ; persons cut and hacked, and their bow- els torn out, without shedding their blood, c. $c. We have already stated, that all the depositions taken, at various times and places, to establish the guilt of the Irish, have been collected toge- 400 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. ther, and bound up in thirty-two volumes, which are paged, indexed, and preserved with care ; and that from these Sir John Temple made a selection of those best calculated to answer his purpose. We may fairly presume, that, in form- ing his anthologia, he culled the sweetest flowers, and that those that remain are inferior to those he selected. Of the latter, we shall give such specimens, as cannot fail to excite the astonish- ment and horror of every man whose conscience is not seared with the hot iron of inextinguishable hatred to Ireland and Irishmen. It may be a matter of surprise, why the tales were not dressed in better form ; why, since plausible stories cost the inventors as little ta- lents or trouble as incredible ones, they did not frame consistent narratives, which would stand the test of examination, and not carry their own condemnation with them. The answer is ob- vious. The taste of the purchasers regulates the manufacture of every article ; and the object be- ing to bear down a nation hated for the injustice it had suffered, envied for the property it pos- sessed, and devoted to destruction by religious bigotry and the spirit of rapine and plunder, the more terrible the tales, the more acceptable. The supernatural power of witches, and the apparition of ghosts, were as firmly believed, in those days of ignorance, as the existence and justice of the solemn league and covenant. Apparitions were therefore caUed in, as a necessary part of the WONDERFUL TRAVELLING. 40 i machinery, to prop the evidence of the horrify- ing massacre, and wonderfully heightened its ef- fect. Millions of acres of land, and hundreds of lives, were sacrificed, to appease the manes of those, whose screaming, shrieking ghosts were, for months together, invoking vengeance on their murderers, at Portnedown bridge. The depositions quoted by Temple, and which form the basis of his history, may be fairly divided into four classes : I. Those which rest wholly on hearsay ; II. Those that assert things contrary to the order of nature ; as the appearance of ghosts ; III. Those which are so manifestly improbable, as to preclude the assent of rational beings ; IV. Those which are drawn up without any internal evidence of their falsehood. That the two first classes are to be rejected, without a moment's hesitation, no man will dare deny. That they ever were admitted, and that such men as Carte, Warner, Leland, and Hume, should have made them the basis on which they erected their legendary tales, will be matter of eternal astonishment. The third class merits the same fate. We will give two instances, in illustration. May and Tem- ple both state, that many of the English were so " surbated" by the fatigues of their flight from the murderous rebels, that they crawled into Dublin on their knees ! To a person unacquaint- ed with the geography of Ireland, it might appear 51 402 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. that these miserable fugitives, who were so " sur- bated,"* had travelled two or three thousand miles over sands or rocks, or both ; and worn out not only their shoes and stockings, but their feet. He could not conceive that the most distant point of the north, from Dublin, was not a hundred and fifty miles ; that the average distance of the chief seats of the insurrection was only about ninety ; and the roads neither sandy nor stony. But when he is duly enlightened on these very abstruse points, and has reflected that a man not goaded on by apprehension of skeins or daggers, could with ease walk one hundred miles in five or six days ; that with such powerful stimuli, he would probably travel them in three or four ; that it is not usual, in three or four, or even in five or six days' travelling, to wear out either shoes or stockings ; that even if the shoes or stockings were worn out, it requires a far greater extent of travelling to wear out the feet ; and that there is no instance on record, of a man preferring to travel on his knees instead of his feet, especially when fleeing from assassins : when he has duly weighed these considerations, and various others that must arise in his mind, he will conclude, that no man would have ever devised such a * " Some, over-wearied with long travel, and so surbated as they came creeping on their knees I" 431 " Some, tired with travel, and so surbated that they came into the city creeping on their knees /" 432 431 Temple, 55. 432 May, 86. MIRACULOUS SELF-DENIAL. 403 wretched story, but an abandoned impostor ; and that none would give credit to it, but those whose folly was exactly commensurate with the fraud of the narrator. A large portion of the falsehoods that so uni- versally abound in Irish history, display, as we have had frequent occasion to remark, an equal degree of stupidity and wickedness, This is a strong case in point. The idea of people flying from the skeins and daggers of assassins, and so " surbated" by a journey of fifty or a hundred miles, as to be obliged to creep or crawl on their knees, is so absurd, so ridiculous, so farcical, so improbable, as to excite contempt ; and would itself, if it stood single, be almost sufficient to destroy the credit of any historian, who could seriously attempt to impose such a romance on the world. We shall be pardoned for glancing at another case of the testimony of this class. Temple in- forms us, that some of those " surbated" fugitives, who were " almost naked" refused to cover them- selves with clothes which were offerepl them ; that they "would not stir to fetch themselves food, though they knew where it stood ready for them;" and that " they lay in their own dung."* Com- * " Those of better quality, who could not frame themselves to be common beggars, crept into private places : and some of them, that had not private friends to relieve them, even wasted silently away, and so died without noise. I have known some of them that lay almost naked, and having clothes sent, laid 404 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. ment on such legends would be insulting to the understanding of the reader. We presume that every account of this description is nearly on a level with the story of the ghosts that were perch- ed in the river, screaming for revenge, from Christmas till the end of lent ;* and is entitled to the same unqualified rejection. The fourth class alone is entitled to any con- sideration : and even that stands a fair chance of being involved in the same condemnation. Per- jury was the order of the day : witnesses were suborned to shed innocent blood :f and where we them by, refusing to put them on ! ! ! Others that -would not stir to fetch themselves food, though they knew where it stood ready for them!! ! But they continued to lie nastily in their filthy rags, and even THEIR OWN DUNG! ! not taking care to have any thing clean, handsome, or comfortable about them : and so even worn out with the misery of the journey, and cruel usage, having their spirits spent, their bodies wast- ed, and their senses failing, lay here pitifully languishing ; and soon after they had recovered this town, very many of them died, leaving their bodies as monuments of the most inhuman cruelties used towards them. The greatest part of the women and children, thus barbarously expelled out of their habitations, perished in the city of Dublin : and so great numbers of them were brought to their graves, as all the church-yards within the -whole town were of too narrow a compass to contain."* 33 f The reader is requested to turn to the duke of Ormond's statement of the application to the Privy Council for the wages of prostitution ',\ that is, payment for money expended for hifing those witnesses whose '''feet were swift to shed innocent blood;' 1 '' and, above all, to the horrible fact of a jury finding one thousand bills of indictment in two days.$ * Supra, 42. 433 Temple, 55. \ Supra, 85. Supra, 84. GREAT CAPACITY OF WITNESSES. 405 can establish, beyond contradiction, the absolute and unqualified perjury of so many of the wit- nesses, who swear positively to impossibilities, or to tales of " what this body heard another body say" 434 and, above all, when such a man as Sir William Petty boasted that he " had witnesses that would swear through a three-inch board,"* we are warranted in rejecting even that small portion of the evidence which wears a plausible appearance ; for it would be extraordinary, if none of the per- jurers could tell a consistent story. Those who have felt an interest in the support of fraud and imposture ; whose blind prejudices rendered them insensible to the forgeries and perjuries on which Temple's history is grounded; or, to give their conduct a more favourable con- struction, who perhaps had never examined his book, have endeavoured to secure it a reputation and currency of which it is utterly unworthy. The most remarkable instances are William, bishop of Derry, about a century since, and a certain Francis Maseres, of the Inner Temple, of recent date. The former introduces Temple, in a strain of encomium suitable for a Livy or a Tacitus. " This great man" says he, " carries his story no further than the landing of Sir Simon Har- court." 435 We shall soon hold " this great man" * " Sir William Petty bragged, that he had got witnesses who would have sworn through a three-inch board to evict the duke." 436 434 Warner, 146. 435 Derry, 55. Carte, II. 393. 406 VINDICLK HIBERNIOfc. up to the unqualified scorn of every liberal mind, and place in its proper light the fraud or the folly of the lord bishop of Derry. Maseres, who has recently republished " May's History of the Long Parliament," pronounces the most extravagant encomiums on Temple,* the " authenticity" of whose excellent history of the Irish rebellion," is, he says, " above all suspicion." We would fondly hope, for the sake of their own reputation, that neither the bishop of Derry nor Mr. Maseres had read Temple's history, but had taken its character on trust ; for it may be safely averred, that no man who has read it, or even those disgusting specimens which are here exhibited, can give the least credit to it, unless he be blind and deaf to the most common rules * " Our loss on this occasion may be in some degree repair- ed, with respect to the state of Ireland during those two years, or at least during the first part of them, by having recourse to the excellent History of the Irish Rebellion and Massacre, in October, 1641, written by Sir John Temple, who was mas- ter of the rolls in Ireland, and a member of the king's Privy Council in Dublin, at the very time of its breaking out, and took a zealous and active part in the measures that were immediately employed for the preservation of that important city. This account of that horrid event is universally allowed to be perfectly true and authentick ! ! and is indeed made up, in a great degree, of the depositions of several persons who were 'eye-witnesses! of the various assaults, murders, and robberies of the poor Protestants, by their perfidious Popish neighbours, with whom they had been living in the most friendly and unsuspecting familiarity for almost forty years. Its authenticity is therefore above all suspicion !! /" 437 437 May, xiii. WHOLESALE CONFISCATION. 407 of evidence; and no man who has so read it, will pretend to believe it, unless he means to delude and deceive. These strong assertions require equally strong support : no other would bear us out, or warrant the use of them. We trust we shall satisfy the most fastidious reader, that, however pointed our reprobation of Temple's history, it is very far from over-strained. It will be an eternal subject of astonishment, how it has happened, that a lying legend, which carried a load of perjury sufficient " to sink a seventy-four," was ever able to sup- port itself, and was not, with its wretched author, " Damned to everlasting" infamy. No reason would be sufficient, short of what we have already stated ; that the confiscation of 10,000,000 acres of the soil of Ireland, projected by the London adventurers, sanctioned by the Long Parliament,* and in a great measure car- ried into effect by Oliver Cromwell, depended for its justification on this history, which interested so many thousands in the support of it, that, had it been incomparably more fabidous than it really is, their influence, particularly as they have, ever since its first appearance, been the dominant party in Ireland, would have rescued it from the noi- some pool of shame, disgrace, and oblivion, fnto which it would otherwise have been precipitated. * Supra, 64, 65. 408 VINDICLK HIBERNICJE. I. Hearsay evidence. The reader will find, in the annexed notes,* full and complete corroboration of all our allega- * " The examination of dame Butler, who, being duly sworn, deposeth that " She -was credibly informed by Dorothy Renals, who had been several times an eye-witness of these lamentable specta- cles, that she had seen to the number of five and thirty English going to execution ; and that she had seen them when they were executed, their bodies exposed to devouring ravens, and not afforded so much as burial. " And this deponent saith, That Sir Edward Butler did cre- dibly inform her, that James Butler, of Finyhinch, had hanged and put to death all the English that were at Goran and Wells, and all thereabouts ! I ! " Jane Jones, servant to the deponent, did see the English formerly specified going to their execution ; and, as she con- ceived, they were about the number of thirty-five ; and was told by Elizabeth Home, that there were forty gone to execu- tion. Jurat. Sept. 7, 1642. ANNE BuiLER." 438 " Thomas Fleetwood, late curate of Killbeggan, in the county of Westmeath, deposeth, That he hath heard from the mouths of the rebels themselves of great cruelties acted by them. And, for one instance, that they stabbed the mother, one Jane Addis by name, and left her little sucking child, not a quarter old, by the corpse, and then they put the breast of its dead mother into its mouth, and bid it ' suck, English bastard,' and so left it there to perish. Jurat. March 22, 1642." 439 " Richard Bourk, bachelor in divinity, of the county of Fer- managh, deposeth, That he heard, and verily believeth, the burning and killing of one hundred, at least, in the castle of Tullah, and that the same was done after fair quarter promis- ed. Jurat. July 12, 1643." 440 438 Temple, 116, 11 7. Idem, 107. ^ Idem, 84. HEARSAY EVIDENCE. 409 tions. They speak their own condemnation, and shed confusion and disgrace on those who have " William Parkinson, of Castle-Cumber, in the county Kil- kenny, gent, deposeth, That by the credible report, both of English and some Irish, who affirmed they were eye-witnesses of a bloody murder committed near Kilfeal, in the Queen's county, upon an Englishman, his wife, four or five children, and a maid, all which were hanged, by the -command of Sir Morgan Cavanagh and Robert Harpool, and afterwards put all in one hole, the youngest child being not fully dead, put out the hand, and cried Mammy, Mammy, when without mercy they buried him alive. Jurat. February 11, 1642." 441 " Owen Frankland, of the city of Dublin, deposeth, That Michael Garray told this deponent, that there was a Scotch- man, who being driven by the rebels out of Newry, and knocked on the head by the Irish, recovered himself, and came again into the town naked, whereupon the rebels carried him and his wife out of the town, cut him aH to pieces, and with a skein ripped his wife's belly, so as a child dropped out of her womb. Jurat. July 23, 1642." 44 * " Alexander Creighton, of Glaslough, in the county of Monaghan, gent, deposeth, That he heard it credibly reported among the rebels aforesaid, at Glaslough, that Hugh Mac O'Dcgan, a priest, had done a most meritorious act, in draw- ing betwixt forty and fifty English and Scotch, in the parish of Gonally, in the county of Fermanagh, to reconciliation with the church of Rome ; and, after giving them the sacrament, demanded of them whether Christ's body was really in, the sacrament or no ? and they said, Yea. And that he demanded further, Whether they held the pope to be supreme head of the church ? They likewise answered, He was. And that thereupon he presently told them, They were in good faith, and for fear they should fall from it, and turn heretics, he and the rest that were with him cut all their throats. Jurat. March 1, 1642." 443 441 Temple, 87. < 42 Idem, 89. * 3 Idem, 10O. 52 410 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE.-* employed them. There does not live a man, who has the slightest regard to his reputation, " Richard Bourke, bachelor of divinity, deposeth, that he was informed, that Mr. Lodge, archdeacon of Killalow, being Juried about six years since, and divers other ministers' bones were digged out of their graves as patrons of heresy, by di- rection of the titular bishop of Killalow ; and Robert Jones, a minister, was not admitted Christian burial, by direction of some Popish priests. Jurat. July 12, 1643." 444 " James, of Hacketstown, in the county of Catherlogh, de- poseth, That an Irish gentleman told him and others, that he had turned an English woman away, who was his servant, and had a child, and that before the poor woman and child were gone half a mile, divers Irish women slew them with stones. Jurat. April 21, 1643." 445 " John Clerck, of Knockback, gentleman, deposeth, That he heard credib'ly from Mr. Lightbourne, minister of the Naas, that the rebels shot a parish clerk, near Kildare, through his thighs, and afterwards digged a deep hole in the ground, wherein they set him upright on his feet, and filled up the hole in the earth, leaving out only his head, in which state they left the poor wounded man, till he pined, languished, and so died. Jurat. October 24, 1643." 446 " Katherine, the relict of William Coke, of the county of Armagh, deposeth, That many of her neighbours, who had been prisoners among the rebels, said and affirmed, that divers of the rebels would confess, brag- and boast, how they took an English Protestant, one Robert Wilkinson, at Kilmore, and held his feet in the fire until they burned him to death; and the said Robert Wilkinson's own son was present, and a prisoner, when that cruelty was exercised on his father. Jurat. Febru- ary 24, 1643." 447 " Dennis Kelly, of the county of Meath, deposeth, That Garret Tallon, of Cruisetown, in the said county, gentleman, 444 Temple, 95. 44S Idem, 93. 446 Ibid. 417 Ibid. HEARSAY EVIDENCE. 411 that will dare to justify or palliate the use of such materials-of fraud. In common cases, they ^ is commonly reported, hired two men to kill Anne Hage- ly, wife to Edward Tallon, his son, a Papist, and at that time absent from home ; and the said two men did, in a most bloody manner, with skeins, kill the saicl Anne Hagely, and her daugh- ter, and her daughter's two children, because they would not consent to go to mass ; and after, they would not permit them to be buried in a church or church-yard, but the four were buried in a ditch. Jurat. August 23, 1643." 448 " The examination of Joseph Wheeler, of Stancarty, in the county of Kilkenny, Esqr. ; Elizabeth, the relict of William Gilbert, of captain Ridgway's company ', Rebecca Hill, the relict of Thomas Hill, late lieutenant to the said captain Ridg- way ; Thomas Lewis, late of Kilkenny, gent. ; and Patrick Maxwell, of the Graig, in the same county, gent, sworn and examined, depose and say, " That they have credibly heard and believed, that Florence Fitz-Patrick having enticed a rich merchant of Mountwrath to his the said Fitz-Patrick's house, to bring thither his goods, which he promised should be safely protected and safely re- delivered : he the said Florence Fitz-Patrick possessing those goods, afterwards caused the said merchant and his wife to be hanged ; and they have credibly heard, that the said Flo- rence Fitz-Patrick also hanged lieutenant Keiss and his son, one Hughes, a school-master, and divers other Protestants." 449 " The examination of Jane, the wife of Thomas Stewart, late of the town and county of Kilkenny, merchant, sworn and examined before his majesty's commissioners, in that behalf authorized, deposeth and saith : " All the men, women, and children of the British that then could be found within the same town (saving this deponent, who rvas so sick that she could not stir) were summoned to go into the gaol, and as many as could be met with, all were carried and put into the gaol, where, about twelve o'clock in the night, they were stripped stark naked, and after most of them 448 Temple, 92. 449 Idem, 1 1 7. 412 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. might be allowed to pass without comment, which would then be wholly superfluous : but in were most cruelly and barbarously murdered with swords, axes, and skeins, and particularly by two butchers, named James Buts and Robert Buts, of Sligo, who murdered many of them; wherein also were actors, Charles O'Connor, the friar, and Hugh O'Connor aforenamed, brother to the said Teigue O'Connor, Kedagh O'Hart, labourer, Richard Walsh and Thomas Walsh, the one the jailor, the other a butcher, and divers others whom she cannot name : and saith, that above thirty of the British which were so put into the gaol, were then and there murdered : besides Robert Gumble, then pro- vost of the said town of Sligo, Edward Nusham, and Edward Mercer, who were wounded and left for dead amongst the rest, and Joe Stewart, this deponent's son, which four being the next day found alive, yet all besmeared with blood, were spared to live. All which particulars the deponent -was credi- bly told by those that escaped, and by her Irish servants and others of the town : and saith, that some of the women so murdered being big with child (by their wounds received) the very arms and legs of the children in their wombs appeared, and wert thrust out ; and one woman, viz. Isabel Beard, being in the house of the friars, and hearing the lamentable cry that was made, ran into the street, and was pursued by one of the friar's men unto the river, where she was barbarously mur- dered, and found the next day, with the child's feet appearing and thrust out of her wounds in her sides : and further saith, that on the said sixth day of January, there were murdered in the streets of the town of Sligo, these British Protestants fol- lowing, viz. William Shiels and John Shiels, his son, William Mapwell and Robert Akin : and the deponent further saith, (as she was credibly informed by the persons before named} that the inhuman rebels, after their murders committed in the said gaol, laid and placed some of the dead bodies of the naked murdered men upon the naked bodies of the women, in a most immodest posture, not fit for chaste ears to hear : in which posture they continued to be seen the next morning by those Irish of the town that came into the said goal, who were de- lighted in those bloody murders and uncivil actions ; and that HEARSAY EVIDENCE. 41 3 the present extraordinary and unparalleled one, more than usual care is necessary, to probe the they of the Irish, that came to bury them, stood up to the mid- leg in the blood and brains of those that were so murdered! ! f who were carried out, and cast into a pit digged for that pur- pose, in the garden of Mr. Ricrofts, minister of Sligo." 450 " John Birne, late of Dongannon, in the county Tyrone, deposeth, That he heard some of the native Irish, that were somewhat more merciful than the rest, complain that two young cow-boys, within the parish of Tullah, had at several times murdered and drowned thirty-six women and children. Jurat. January 12, 1643." 451 " William Lucas, of the city of Kilkenny, deposeth, That although he lived in the town till about five or six weeks past, in which time he is assured divers murders and cruel acts were committed, yet he durst not go abroad to see any of them; but he doth confidently believe, that the rebels having brought seven Protestants' heads, whereof one was the head of Mr. Bingham, a minister, they did then and there, as triumphs of their victories, set them upon the market-cross, on a market day ; and that the rebels slashed, stabbed, and mangled those heads ; put a gag, or carrot, in the said Mr. Bingham's mouth ; slit up his cheeks to his ears, laying a leaf of a Bible before him, and bid him preach, for his mouth was wide enough; and after they had solaced themselves, threw those heads into a hole, in St. James's Green. Jurat. August 16, 1643." 45 * " Christian Stanhaw, the relict of Henry Stanhaw, late of the county of Armagh, Esquire, deposeth, that a woman that formerly lived near Laugale, absolutely informed this deponent, that the rebels enforced a great number of Protestants, men, women, and children, into a house which they set on fire, pur- posely to burn them ; as they did ; and still as any of them of- fered to come out, to shun the fire, the wicked rebels, $vith sithes, which they had in their hands, cut them in pieces, and cast them into the fire, and burned them with the rest. Jurat. July 23, 1642." 453 450 Temple, 108. 451 Idem, 97. 452 Idem, 97. " 3 Idem, 94. 414 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. ulcerated wound, and heal the disordered state of the public mind, on the most stupendous sys- " John Montgomery, of the county of Monaghan, sworn and examined, saith, That one Brian Mac Erony, ringleader of the rebels in the county of Fermanagh, killed ensign Floyd, Robert Worcnum, and four of their servants, one of which they having wounded, though not to death, they buried quick. As also, that he was credibly informed, that the daughter-in- law of one Foard, in the parish of Clownish, being delivered of a child in the fields, the rebels, who had formerly killed her husband and father, killed her and two of her children, and suffered the dogs to eat up and devour her new-born child. Jurat. June 26, 1642," 4S4 " John Stubs, of the county of Longford, gentleman, depo- seth, That he heard, by some of the sheriff" 's men, that Henry Mead and his wife, John Bigel, William Stell, and Daniel Stubs, the deponent's brother, were put to death by Lysach Farrol's and Oli Fitz-gerrald's men, who hanged them upon a windmill, and, when they were half dead, they cut them to pieces with their skeins. Jurat. Nov. 21, 1641." 455 " Charity Chappel, late wife to Richard Chappel, esquire, of the town and county of Armagh, deposeth, That, as she hath credibly heard, the rebels murdered great numbers of Protest- ants, and that many children were seen murdered in vaults and cellars, whither they fled to hide themselves. Jurat. Ju- ly 2, 1642." 456 Extract from the Deposition of John Carmick. " Twenty-two castles were seized upon, and the church of Monah, with eighteen Protestants burnt in it : seven hundred and sixty-four Protestants were destroyed in that county ; and I did hear that there were about 152,000, that they had de- stroyed in that province of Ulster, in the first four months of the rebellion. JOHN CARMicK. 1 ' 457 454 Temple, 89. 455 Idem, 90. 455 Idem, 90. 457 Idem, 225. HEARSAY EVIDENCE. 415 tern of imposture that the world has ever seen. We shall therefore analyze two of those deposi- tions, the most remarkable of the whole. Of all the witnesses who have sworn to the large collection of legendary tales, on the subject of the pretended massacre and cruelties of the Irish, there is none on whom so much reliance has been placed as dean Robert Maxwell, after- wards bishop of Kilmore. His clerical character appeared calculated to produce, and did inspire confidence. His testimony is therefore a fair subject of discussion. If it pass the ordeal of investigation, and come out pure and perfectly admissible, it will afford a favourable augury for the rest : but if it be abandoned as utterly inde- fensible, without possibility of appeal, then its " Thomas Green, in the parish of Dumcaes, in the county Armagh, yeoman, and Elizabeth his wife, sworn and examin- ed, saith, That the deponent, Thomas Green, hardly escaped away with his life ; but that the other deponent and six chil- dren were left all amongst the rebels, and so stripped of their clothes, and hunger-starved, that five of the children died ; and she, this deponent, being put to beg amongst the merciless rebels, was at length rescued from them by the Scottish army: she further saith, that the rebels did drown, in a bog, seven- teen men, women, and children, at one time, within the said parish ; and she is verily persuaded that the rebels, at several times and places within the county of Armagh, drowned above four thousand Protestants, enforcing the sons and daughters of these vert/ aged people, who were not able to go themselves, to take them out of their beds and houses, and carry them to drowning, especially in the river of Toll, in the parish of Log- hall. Jurat. November 10, 1643." 458 458 Temple, 91. 416 VINDICIJE HIBERNIC-E. condemnation involves that of the elaborate pro- ductions of all his fellow-labourers. Indeed we should be willing to rest the merits of the case on this individual deposition ; and hope to prove that a more crude, wild, extravagant, and ridiculous farrago of absurdity and falsehood was never offered to the " greedy maw" of public credulity and Gullibility. The specimens we have already given, on the subject of the ghosts,* and the gross contradiction respecting the number of 154,000 massacred,! would be enough to prove that he had " Laid perjury on his soul." But we deem it by no means improper to offer to the consideration of the reader, another col- lection of extracts^ from the evidence of this J Extracts from the Deposition of Dean Robert Maxwell, sworn to, August 22, 1642. " Deponent saith, That the rebels themselves told him, this deponent, that they murdered nine hundred fifty-four in one morning, in the county of Antrim ; and that, besides them, they supposed they killed above eleven or twelve hundred more in that county : they told him hkervise, that colonel Brian O'Neil killed about a thousand in the county of Dowlf^besides three hundred killed near Killeleigh, and many hundreds, both before and after, in both those counties. 459 " That he heard Sir Phelim likewise report, that he killed six hundred English at Garvagh, in the county of Derry ; and that he had left neither man, woman nor child alive in the ba- rony of Wunterlong, in the county of Tyrone, and betwixt Armagh and the Newry, in the several plantations and lands * Supra, 46. f Supra, 45. 459 Temple, 113. Borlace, App. 135. HEARSAY EVIDENCE. 417 reverend divine, to satisfy the most incredulous readers, what a miserable support can be afforded to the tale of the massacre, by such a voucher. The dean swears, with great gravity, in one part of his deposition, that " there were upwards of Sir Archibald Atcheson, John Hamilton, Esq. the lord Caul- field, and the lord Mountnorris : and saith also, that there were above two thousand of the British murdered for the most part in their own houses, whereof he was informed by a Scots- man, who was in those parts with Sir Phelim, and saw their houses filled with their dead bodies. In the Glenwood, to- wards Dromore, there were slaughtered, as the rebels told the deponent, upwards of twelve thousand in all, who were all killed in their flight to the county of Down. The number of the people drowned at the bridge of Portnedown are diversely reported, according as men staid amongst the rebels. This deponent, who staid as long as any, and had better intelligence than most of the English amongst them, and best reason to know the truth, saith, There were f by their own report} one hundred and ninety drowned with Mr. Fullerton ; at another time, they threw one hundred and forty over the said bridge ; at another time, thirty-six or thirty-seven ; and so continued drowning more or fewer, for seven or eight weeks, so as the fewest which can be supposed there to have perished, must needs be above one thousand, besides as many more drowned between that bridge and the great lough of Montjoy, besides those that perished by the sword, fire, and famine, in Coubra- sil, and the English plantations adjacent; which, in regard there escaped not three hundred out of all these quarters, must needs amount to many thousands. 460 " And further saith, that he knew one boy, that dwelt near unto himself, and not exceeding fourteen years of age, who killed, at Kinnard, in one night, fifteen able strong men with his skein, they being disarmed, and most of their feet in the t. Another, not above twelve years of age, killed two 480 Temple, 113. Borlace, 135. 53 418 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. of 12,000 slain in the Glenwood, as the rebels told this deponent;" there were " 954 murdered in one morning, as the rebels themselves told him;" there were, moreover, " above 2,000 mur- dered in their own houses, as he was informed by a Scotsman;" and Sir Phelim O'Neil had zvomen, at the siege of Augher. A woman, tenant to the depo- nent, killed seven men and -women of her English fellorv -tenants in one morning; and it was very usual, in all parts, for their Children to murder the Protestants' children; and sometimes with lath swords, heavy and well sharpened, they would venture upon men and women of riper years, cruelties not to be believed, if there were not so many eye-witnesses of them." 461 " And further saith, That the rebels would send their chil- dren abroad in great troops, and especially near unto Kinnard, armed with long wattles and whips, who would therewith beat dead men's bodies about their privy members, until they beat or rather thrashed them off; then would return in great joy to their parents, who received them for such service as it were in triumph." 462 " Further, this deponent saith, That it was usual sport with one Mac-Mahon, captain of the castle and town of Monaghan, (as the said Mac-Mahon confessed before Mr. Hugh Echline and many others) to take a wooden prick or broach, and thrust it up into the fundament of an English or Scotchman, and then after drive him about the room with a joint stool, until, through extreme pain, he either fainted, or gave content to the specta- tors by some notable skips and frisks ; which rare invention he offered to put in practice at the same time, and in the same place where he boasted thereof, but that the said Mr. Echline prevailed with him to omit it, as sufficiently (without any fur- ther demonstration) believing the excellency of the sport." 465 461 Borlace, App. 136. 4fi2 Temple, 113. 463 Borlace, App. 138. REBEL COCKS AND DOGS. 419 " left neither man, woman, nor child alive, from Armagh to Newry, as he heard Sir Phelim him- self report." The inhumanity of the Irish to the English beasts, according to the dean, was really shocking. They used to cut collops off their backs, and then let them loose in the woods, till, O miraculous ! they roared the flesh off their backs! This fit of roaring would sometimes last for two or three days together !* But the most marvellous part of the story is, that the dogs and cocks became traitors ! and appear to have entered into a league with the rebels ! ! For, during " the three first days of the rebellion," they neither crowed nor barked, to alarm their masters, " not even when the rebels came by night, in great multitudes, to rob and murder them ! ! !"f * " At the siege of Augher, they would not kill any English beast, and then eat it ; but they cut collops out of them, being alive ; letting them roar till they had no more flesh upon their backs, so that sometimes a beast would live two or three days together in that torment." 464 f " And the deponent further saith, That the first three days and nights of this present rebellion, viz. October 23, 24, and 25, it rvas generally observed, that no cock crew, or any dog was heard to bark, no not when the rebels came in great multitudes unto the Protestants'' houses by night to rob and murder them; and about three or four nights before the six and fifty persons were taken out of the deponent's house and drowned, and amongst those the deponent's brother, lieutenant James Maxwell, in the dark of the moon, about one of the 464 Temple, 112. Borlace, 133. 420 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. Who can wade through such a miserable mass of folly and fraud, without bitterly exclaiming, " How God and good men hate so foul a liar J" 465 Stratford's deposition* is exactly of the same character as Maxwell's ; and is so distinctly and clock at night, a light was observed, in manner of a long pillar , to shine for a long -way through the air, and refracted upon the north gabel of the house. It gave so great a light, about an hour together, that divers of the watch read both letters and books of a very small character thereby. The former the de- ponent knoweth to be most true, both by his own experience, and the general observation of as many as the deponent met with in the county Armagh. The latter was seen by all those of the deponent's family, and besides by many of his Irish guard. " ROBERT MAXWELL. " Deposed, August 22, 1642. " JOHN WATSON, " WILLIAM ALDRicn." 466 * " Captain Anthony Stratford deposeth and saith, that " These Protestant ministers following, about the beginning of the present rebellion, were murdered in the counties of Ty- rone and Armagh, viz. Mr. John Mathew, Mr. Blythe, Mr. Hastings, Mr. Smith, Mr. Darragh, Mr. Birge, and eight more, whose names this deponent hath forgotten, by the rebels, none of which would the rebels permit to be buried ; the names of such as murdered, this examinant knoweth not ; his cause of knowledge of the said murders is, that some of his, this de- ponent 1 s servants, who were among the rebels, did give him the relation ! ! ! and he verily believeth them ; and besides, this deponent heard the same confessed and averred by many of the rebels themselves, and by some of those Protestants that had escaped : and that he this deponent was a prisoner among the rebels, at Castlecaufteld, near the place of those murders, WHERE HE CONTINUED FOURTEEN MONTHS ! And further 463 Shakspeare. * 66 Borlace, App. 136, 137. HEARSAY EVIDENCB. 421 legibly stamped with the broad seal of perjury, that even the most superficial observer cannot mistake its character. saith, that in Dungannon, in the county of Tyrone, or near thereunto, the rebels murdered three hundred and sixteen Protestants ; and between Charlemont and Dungannon, above four hundred ; that there were murdered and drowned at and in the river of Benburb, the Black water, between the counties of Armagh and Tyrone, two hundred and six Protestants ; and Patrick Mac-Crew, of Dungannon, aforesaid, murdered thirty-one in one morning; and trvo young- rebels, John Beg- Brian and Harry, murdered in the said county of Tyrone, one hundred and forty poor women and children that could make no resistance : and that the wife of Brien Kelly, of Loghall, in the county of Armagh, (one of the rebels' captains,) did -with her own hands murder forty-five. And deponent further saith, that 6ne Thomas King, sometimes sergeant to the late lord Caufield's company (which this deponent commanded) he be- ing forced to serve under the rebels, and was one of the pro- vost marshals, gave the deponent a list of every householder's name so murdered, and the number of the persons so murder- ed ; which list this deponent durst not keep : At Portnedown there were drowned at several times about three hundred and eight, who were sent away by about forty, or such like num- bers at once, with convoys, and there drowned : There was a lough near Loghall aforesaid, where were drowned above two hundred, of which this deponent was informed by several persons, and particularly by the wife of doctor Hodges, and two of her sons, who were present and designed for the like end : but by God's mercy, that gave them favour in the eyes of some of the rebels, they escaped ; and the said Mrs. Hodges and her sons gave the deponent a list of the names of many of those that were so drowned, which the deponent durst not keep; and saith that the said doctor Hodges was employed by Sir Phelim O'Neil to make powder ; but he failing of his under- taking, was first half hanged, then cut down, and kept prison- er three months, and then murdered with forty-four more, within a quarter of a mile of Charlemont aforesaid, they being 422 VIND1C02 HIBERNICJE. The insurrection began on the 23d of October, 1641. The deposition of this man was taken on by Tirlogh O'Neil, brother to Sir Phelim, sent to Dungannon, prisoners, and in the way murdered. This deponent was show- ed the pit where they were all cast in. " At a mill pond in the parish of Kilamen, in the county of Tyrone, there were drowned in one day three hundred, and in the same parish there were murdered of English and Scot- tish twelve hundred, as this deponent was informed by Mr. Birge, the late minister of the said parish* who certified the same under his hand, -which note the deponent durst not keep : the said Mr. Birge was murdered three months after : all which murders were in the first breaking out of the rebellion, but the particular times this deponent cannot remember, neither the persons by whom they were committed. This deponent was credibly informed by the said sergeant and others of this depo- nents servants (who kept company with the rebels,) and saw the same, that many young children were cut into quarters and gobbets by the rebels, and that eighteen Scottish infants were hanged on a clothier's tenterhook, and that they murder- ed a young fat Scottish man, and made candles of his grease ; they took another Scottish man and ripped up his belly, that they might come to his small guts, the one end whereof they tied to a tree, and made him go round until he had drawn them all out of his body ; they then saying, that they would try whether a dog's or a Scotchman's guts rvere the longer. " ANTHONY STRATFORD. " Deposed, March 9, 1643, before us, " HENRY JONES, " HENRY BRERETON." 467 * The wonderful density of the population of this parish, where fifteen hundred persons were murdered, might excite doubts, but for the circumstance, that this important fact was " certified by Mr. Birge^ under his own hand." It is much to be regretted that the deponent " durst not keep 1 '' this valu- able document, which was worthy of being preserved in the archives of Ireland. 467 Temple, 110. HEARSAY EVIDENCE. 423 the 9th of March, 1643 ; that is, above sixteen months from the time when it commenced. By his own account, he was for fourteen months a prisoner!! He does not state when he was first confined ; but we will suppose one month after the first date, and that he was released one month before the second. Yet he swears positively to va- rious circumstances, which he pretends occurred, in different parts of the province, during his im- prisonment, with as much confidence as if he had been an eye-witness of the whole ; and so shame- less was the villain, so profligate were the wretch- ed magistrates who took his deposition, so aban- doned was the spirit of the age, that he, without scruple, avowed his perjury, by stating the sources of his information, which were as various as the different items of his testimony. In one case, " some of his servants, who were among the rebels, did give him the information;" in another, " Tho- mas King did give him a list of the householders so murdered;" in another, "the wife of Dr. Hodges and her two sons gave him a list" in another, the murder of fifteen hundred in one parish is " cer- tified by Mr. Birge, under his own hand;" and in this manner, he proceeds throughout the whole deposition. We now close the first class of the testimony, on which the wretched legend of the Irish mas- sacre rests. We trust the reader will agree that it fully realizes Warner's description, and is no- thing more than a collection of " idle, silly tales."' 424 V1NDICI)E HIBERNIC*. of " what this body heard another body say."*** One man swears, that he " heard, and verily be- lieveth;" another, that he " heard it credibly re- ported among the rebels themselves ;" a third, that " an Irish gentleman told him and others ;" a fourth, that " he was informed ;" and a fifth, that " woman absolutely informed this deponent;" and similar ribald nonsense, to which nothing but the spirit of fraud, falsehood, perjury, and rapine, that predominated among the rulers of Ireland at that period, could have given currency ; and which would not, at present, be admitted as evi- dence, by the most paltry, pettifogging justice of the peace, against the lowest wretch in the com- munity. Is there a man, not lost to every sense of ho- nour and justice, who can read this account with- out horror, amazement, indignation, and regret ? horror at the atrocious wickedness of the host of perjurers, who were thus made the instruments to plunder the property and sacrifice the lives of the ill-fated Irish ; amazement at the Boeotian and superlative stupidity of those who committed themselves by perjuries open to the detection of the most superficial observer ; indignation at the base imposture, or gross neglect, which has led so many subsequent writers, particularly Hume, to poison the pure streams of history, by recourse to such a pestilential source as this vile, this ribald story ; and profound regret, if he 468 Warner, 146. A MIRACLE. 425 have hitherto, as is most probable, been deluded into a belief in one of the most wicked, base, and unfounded romances ever palmed on a deceived world, in the shape of history. Of the second class of depositions, those which assert things contrary to the known laws of na- ture, we have given so many examples, pages 41 to 46, that we deem it wholly unnecessary to disgrace our work with any further instances ; except one extravagant tale, contained in the deposition of dean Maxwell, which we omitted in its proper place. This reverend perjurer swore, that the dead bodies of murdered English- men lay unburied, and would not sometimes begin to stink and infect the air, until four or free weeks after the murders committed! He that can swal- low this story, must be endowed with faith enough to receive, as genuine history, the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, Gulliver's Travels, and the Seven Champions of Christendom. " And further this deponent saith, That the rebels having exposed the murdered bodies of the British so long unto the public view and censure, that they began to stink and infect the air, which commonly (being a thing very strange) -would not sometimes happen till four or Jive -weeks after the murders committed! !!! they usually permitted some of their bodies to be removed and cast into ditches. 1 ' 469 We shall now proceed to a cursory examina- tion of the third class, which, though not resting 469 Borlace, App. 138. 54 426 VINDICUE HIBERNIC.E. on hearsay, or not absolutely impossible, are yet so utterly improbable, as to be unworthy of belief. One of the witnesses swears, that she and her six children had nothing to eat for three weeks, while they lay in a cave, but two old calfskins, which they beat with stones, and ate them hair and all!* Another, seventy-five years old, swears that she was stripped seven times in one day, by the rebels, as she was proceeding to Dublin.! Another swears, that all the nobles in the king- dom, that were Papists, had a hand in the plot. It is too obvious to require illustration, that even if this were a fact, it was hardly possible for any man to be so well assured of it, as to be able safely to take this sweeping oath. But, setting * " Mary Barlow deposeth, That her husband being by the rebels hanged before her face, she and six children were strip- ped stark naked, and turned out a begging in the frost and snow, by means whereof they were almost starved, having' nothing to eat in three -weeks, -while they lay in a cave, but two old calf skins, which they beat with stones, and so ate them hair and all, her children crying out unto her, rather to go out, and be killed by the rebels, than to starve there." 470 f " Margaret Fermeny, in the county of Fermanagh, depos- eth, that the rebels bound her and her husband's hands behind them, to make them confess their money, and dragged them up and down in a rope, and cut his throat in her own sight with a skein, having first knocked him down and stripped him; and that being an aged woman, seventy-five years old, as she came up afterwards to Dublin, she was stripped by the Irish seven times in one day." 471 470 Temple, 90. 471 Idem, 88. ANOTHER MIRACLE. 427 this consideration wholly aside, the perjury is proved by the simple fact, that the earl of Clan- rickarde, and other Catholic noblemen, were not only wholly unconcerned in the insurrection, but absolutely fought against their countrymen.* Another swears, that two and twenty widows were stripped stark naked, and driven out into the woods, where they remained in that condi- tion from Tuesday till Saturday, and the snow unmelted lay long on some of their skins /f * " Patrick O'Brien, of the parish of Galloom, in the county of Fermanagh, affirmeth, upon oath, That all the nobles in the kingdom,that -were Papists, had a hand in this plot, as well as the lord Macguire, Hugh Oge, and Mac-Mahown ; that they expected aid out of Spain, by Owen Roe O'Neal ; and that co- lonel Plunket, one of those that was to be an actor in the sur- prise of the castle of Dublin, told him that he knew of this plot eight years since ; and that within these three years, he hath been more fully acquainted with it." 47 * f " Magdalen Redman, late of the Dowris, in King's county, widow, being sworn and examined, deposeth and saith, that she, this deponent, and divers other Protestants, her neigh- bours, and amongst the rest twenty-two widows, after they were all robbed, were also stripped, stark naked, and then co- vering themselves in a house with straw, the rebels then and there lighted the straw with fire, and threw amongst them, on purpose to burn them ; where they had been burned or smo- thered, but that some of the rebels more pitiful than the rest, commanded these cruel rebels to forbear, so as they escaped : yet the rebels kept and drove them naked into the ivild -woods, from Tuesday until Saturday, in frost and snow, so as the snow unmelted, lay long upon some of their skins ! ! ! and some of their children died in their arms." 473 472 Temple, 61. < 73 Idem, 8 1 , 428 VINDICIJE HIBERNICyE. It were endless to recapitulate the miserable tales with which Temple's history is tilled : they are as nauseating by their absurdity, as shocking by their falsehood. A few more shah 1 close the subject. This writer very gravely informs us, that the day previous to the breaking out of the rebellion, the priests in many places "gave the people a dismiss at mass, with the liberty to go and take possession of the Englishmen's lands, and to strip, rob, and despoil them of all their goods and cattle ;"* That the Irish were determined, as soon as they had rooted out the English from Ireland, to go to England, and not leave the memorial of the English name under heaven !"f * " Whereas the priests did long before, in their public de- votions at mass, pray for a blessing upon a great design they had then in hand ; so now, as I have heard, they did in many places, the very day before the breaking out of this rebellion, give the people a dismiss at mass, with free liberty to go out, and take possession of all their lands, which they pretended were unjustly detained from them by the English ; as also to strip, rob, and despoil them of all their goods and cattle." 474 f " The friars exhorted the people with tears to spare none of the English ; that the Irish were resolved to destroy them out of the kingdom ; that they would devour, as their very word was, the seed of the English out of Ireland ; and thai when they had rid them there, they -would go over into England, and not leave the memorial of the English name under heaven! ! /" 47S 474 Temple, 79. 47S Idem, 78. STUPID FALSEHOODS. 429 That the Irish killed English cows and sheep, merely because they were English ;* That some of those that fled from Ireland, to seek refuge in England, were so tossed about by storms, that they could not reach any port in the latter island in three months ;f That the Irish intended to have heavy penalties imposed on those who should speak English $ * " The Irish in many places killed English cows and sheep, merely because they were English ; in some places they cut of their legs, or took a piece out of their buttocks, and so let them remain, still alive. The Lord Montgarret, Mr. Edward But- ler, the Baron of Logmouth, went with their forces into Mun- ster, about the beginning of the rising of the Irish there, and while they remained about Callen and Mallow, they consum- ed no less than fifty thousand, others say an hundred thousand English sheep, besides a great abundance of English cattle : and such as they could not eat, yet they killed and left in great multitudes, stinking, to the great annoyance of the country. This testified by Henry Champart, in his examination taken before Sir Robert Meredith, knight."* 76 f " That which heightened the calamity of the poor English was their flight in the winter, in such a dismal, stormy, tem- pestuous season, as in the memory of man had never been observed formerly to continue so long together. Yet the ter- ror of the rebels incomparably prevailing beyond the rage of the sea, most of those who could provide themselves of ship- ping, though at never so excessive rates, deserted the city : and such was the violence of the winds, such continuing impe- tuous storms, as several barques were cast away. Some, in three months after their going from hence, could recover no port in England!"* 7 ' 1 \ " Some of the Irish could not endure the very sound of that language, but would have penalties inflicted on them that spake English." 478 476 Temple, 77. 477 Idem, 57. Idem, 77. 430 VINDICIJE HIBERNIC^. That they would not leave an English man or woman alive in the kingdom ; no, not so much as an English beast, or any of the breed of them;* That in the beginning of the insurrection, the English had such confidence in the Irish, that they delivered their goods to them for safe keep- ing, and even dug up such of their best things as they had hidden under ground, to deposit in their custody ;f That many thousands died in two days, in the town of Colerain ; a place not containing, proba- bly, five hundred people ;f That children were compelled to be the execu- tioners of their parents ; wives to help to hang their husbands ; and mothers to cast their chil- dren into the water $ * " Richard Claybrook deposeth, That he heard Luke Toole say, that they would not leave an Englishman or English wo- man in the kingdom ; that they would riot leave an English beast alive, or any of the breed of them."* f " So confident were the English of their good dealing at first, as many delivered their goods by retail unto them ; gave them particular inventories of all they had ; nay, digged up such of their best things as they had hidden under ground, to deposit in their custody." 480 \ " James Redfern deposeth, That in the town of Colerain, since the rebellion began, there died of robbed and stripped people, that fled thither for succour, many hundreds, besides those of the town that anciently dwelt there : and that the mor- tality there was such and so great, as many thousands died there in two days." 481 " Children were enforced to carry their aged parents to the places designed for their slaughter ; nay, some children 479 Temple, 96. 48 Idem, 80. 481 Idem, 81. STUPID FALSEHOODS. 431 That the destruction of the Christians, in any of the heathen persecutions, in any one kingdom, was not greater, in many years, than the de- struction of the English by the Irish, in the space of two months!!* That the Irish used to twist withes about the heads of the English, till the blood sprang out of the crowns of their heads !f That a murderer's wife found much fault with her husband's soldiers, for not bringing home the grease of a woman whom they had slain, for the purpose of making candles ;J compelled most unnaturally to be the executioners of their own parents ; wives to help to hang their husbands ; and mothers to cast their own children into the water." 482 * " If we shall take a survey of the primitive times, and look into the sufferings of the first Christians that suffered un- der the tyranny and cruel persecution of those heathenish emperors, we shall not certainly find any one kingdom, though of a far larger continent, where there were more Christians suffered, or more unparalleled cruelties were acted in many years upon them, than were in Ireland, within the space of two months, after the breaking out of this rebellion." 483 f " Some they would take and writh wyths about their heads, till the blood sprang out of the crown of their heads." 484 \ " Elizabeth Baskervile deposeth, That she heard the wife of Florence Fitz-Patrick,Jlnd much fault with her husband** s soldiers, because they did not bring along with them the grease of Mrs. Nicholson, whom they had slain, for her to make can- dles withal. Jurat. April 26, 1643." 485 482 Temple, 91, 483 Idem, 100. 484 Idem, 106. , 485 Idem, 92. 432 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. That the English were such dupes, that they lent their weapons to the Irish.* The following extract from Temple's history, with the depositions on which it is grounded, may serve to amuse the reader, and will throw additional light on the mode in which that ro- mance was compiled : " How grievous and insupportable must it needs be to a true Christian soul, to hear a base villain boast, that his hands were so weary with killing and knocking down Protestants into a bog, that he could not lift his arms up to his head?\ or others to say, that they had killed so many Englishmen, that the grease or fat which remained on their swords or skeins might have made an Irish candle f^. or to consider that two young cow-boys should have it, in their power to murder thirty-six Protestants . ? " 486 The instances of mental obliquity exhibited by the Anglo-Hibernian writers, which we have * " In several places, the Irish came, under divers pretences, and borrowed such weapons as the English had in their houses; and no sooner got them into their hands, but they turned them out of their own doors : as they did at Glaslough, in the coun- ty of Monaghan. The high sheriff there being an Irishman and a Papist, pretending that he took their arms to secure them against the violence of such of the Irish as he understood to be in arms in the next county." 487 | " Eleanor Fullerton, the relict of William Fullerton, late parson, of Lougall, deposeth, That in lent, 1641, a young roguing cow-boy gave out and affirmed, in this deponent's hearing, that his hands -were so weary in killing and knocking down Protestants into a bog-pit, that he could hardly lift his arms to his head. Jurat. Sept. 16, 1642." 488 \ " Elizabeth Champion, late wife of Arthur Champion, in the county of Fermanagh, esquire, saith, That she heard the rebels say, that they had killed so many Englishmen, that the 486 Temple, 96. 487 Idem, 37. 488 Idem, 96. LAKES AND RIVERS OP BLOOD. 433 heretofore noticed, are numerous and extraordi- nary. A new one here presents itself. The spirit of lying and imposture which per- vades those depositions, would naturally induce a sane mind to reject them wholly, as undeserving of any attention. But, by a most perverted pro- cess of reasoning, Leland ascribes these awful stories to the terrors excited by the horrible cru- elties perpetrated by the Irish, which, he sup- poses, preyed on the imaginations of the English, and terrified them with the idea of lakes and rivers of blood, fyc. ^c. " They who escaped the utmost fury of the rebels, languish- ed in miseries horrible to be described. Their imaginations were overpowered and disordered by the recollections of torture and butchery. In their distraction," [let us say, rather, in the depraved and loathsome state of the public mind] " every tale of horror "was eagerly received, and every suggestion of frenzy and melancholy believed implicitly. Miraculous escapes from death, miraculous judgments on murderers, lakes and rivers of blood, marks of slaughter indelible by every human effort, vi- sions of spirits chaunting hymns, ghosts rising from the rivers and shrieking out revenge; these and such like fancies were received and propagated as incontestible." 489 It is difficult to conceive of a stronger proof of the blindest prejudice than is here exhibited by Leland. Whoever has travelled through the wretched legends which disgrace and dishonour grease or fat which remained on their swords and skeins, might well serve to make an Irish candle. Jurat. April 14, 1642." 490 489 Leland, III. 147. 49 Temple, 9f. 55 434 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. the preceding pages, will at once perceive that the object with the perjurers who wrote them, was to render their tales as terrific and horrible as they could, for the purpose of aggravating the abhorrence, and ensuring the ruin, of the op- pressed and despoiled Irish. They were quite certain, that in the prevailing spirit of the times, no improbability or impossibility would be a bar to their currency. This is so plain and palpable, that it requires only to skim the surface, to per- ceive it. Instead, therefore, of believing, with Leland, that a man who coolly comes forward, and swears to " lakes and rivers of blood," and " visions of spirits chaunting hymns," acts under the influence of a disordered imagination, in con- sequence of the horrors he has witnessed, we are warranted, nay constrained to believe, that the whole is the creation not of a disordered, but a corrupted and lying imagination. Indeed, we are perfectly satisfied, that there is not one of our readers, who will allow his understanding free operation, but will find it impossible to believe that those terror-inspiring stories could have ever proceeded from any other source than the prince of darkness, the father of lies. We feel that confidence which truth and a good cause inspire, that we have convinced every can- did reader, that the ground we have taken is per- fectly sound and unassailable ; and therefore we might here dismiss this branch of our subject : but we cannot resist the temptation to add one * V -Si A COGENT PACT. 435 further proof of the magnitude of the errors that have prevailed on the subject of the universality of the insurrection. This proof rests on autho- rity which the enemies of Ireland will not dare dispute. Sir William Petty states, that before the insur- rection there were 3,000 estated Roman Catholics in Ireland ; and that, by judicial investigations in the court of claims, held in 1663, it appeared that there were not more than 400 of them* engaged^ in the glorious but unfortunate struggteToTlrish liberty, which, even by the friends and partisans of the English revolution in 1688, the American in 1776, and the French in 1789, is so very erro- neously and inconsistently styled a rebellion.! And let it be observed, that, notwithstanding the very small proportion of the estated Catholics who were implicated in the insurrection, we have established the fact, that every effort had been used by the lords justices to goad the whole nation into resistance, for the purpose of con- fiscating the ten millions of acres of the soil, which they and their friends in England had already devoured in imagination. * " The number of landed Papists, or freeholders, before the wars, was about 3,000, whereof, as appears by 800 judgments of the court of claims, which sat anno 1663, upon the inno- cence and effects of the Irish, there ivere not above one-seventh part, or 400, guilty of the rebellion" 1 \ See the reflections on this topic, supra, page 92. 491 Petty, 23. 436 VINDIC03 HIBERNICJL. We shall now dismiss Temple, with a few con- cluding remarks. We have asserted that he was a cheat and an impostor. We proceed to the proof. I. He who swears positively to that for which he has not the evidence of his senses ; in other words, to what he has on the information of others ; or to things contrary to the known laws of nature ; is, in the most unqualified sense, an abandoned perjurer. II. An historian who rests his narrative on manifest perjuries, is a cheat and an impostor, unworthy of credit. III. The mass of the depositions on which Temple relies to support his history, are mere hearsay, and many of them contrary to the known and immutable laws of nature ; and, con- sequently, the witnesses were a host of absolute perjurers. IV. Therefore Temple was a cheat and an impostor. Q. E. D. ( 437 ) CHAPTER XX. Barbarous system of warfare pursued by the Irish government. Indiscriminate murder and mas- sacre of the Irish, men, women, and children. St. Leger, Monroe, Coote, Hamilton, Grenville, Ireton, and Cromwell, bathed in blood. Five days' butchery in Drogheda. Detestable hypo- crisy of Cromwell. A medal and gold chain awarded to a noyadist. Extermination of man and beast, for twenty-eight miles! !! u Thou hypocrite ! Cast out first the beam that is in thine own eye, and then thou shaft see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye." 492 WE have now thoroughly exposed the abo- minable legends, respecting the pretended Irish massacre, that have so long passed current with the world. They owe their origin to one of the 'most despicable of the scribblers who have surreptiously gained a rank among the honour- able class of historians ; but have been since un- worthily bolstered up by names of the highest celebrity. We trust we have succeeded in de- monstrating that the terrific story rests wholly 492 Luke vi. 42. 438 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. on falsehood and perjury of the very grossest kind. We proceed to examine the system of warfare pursued by the Irish government ; and to ascer- tain with what propriety or justice it could com- plain of murder and massacre, had the insur- gents been really guilty of the crimes alleged against them. We pledge ourselves to prove, that a more murderous system of warfare never prevailed, in any age or any country ; that many of their commanders were as merciless^ and as bloodthirsty as Attila or Genghis Khan ; and that some of the scenes of slaughter were so horrible, particularly, as will appear in the sequel, at Cash- el, Drogheda, and Wexford, that they never were and never could be exceeded, and have been rarely equalled. In the long catalogue of human follies, there is none more unaccountable, more ludicrous, or more universal, than that of censuring in others those vices and crimes to which we are ourselves most prone. Who has not heard elaborate de- clamations against intemperance, from drunkards; against lust, from debauchees ; against meanness and avarice, from misers ? There is not a nation in the world, that has not a variety of terse pas- sages on this extraordinary propensity. " Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes ? Quis cesium terris non misceat, et mare ccelo, Si fur displiceat Verri, homicida Miloni, HORRIBLE SYSTEM OF WARFARE. 439 Clddius accuse! msechos, Catilina Cethegum j In tabulam Syllae si dicant discipuli tres ?"# 493 The era embraced in our discussions affords a most striking illustration of this view of human nature. While the " Starry welkin has rung" with the hoarse din of horrible massacres said to have been perpetrated by the Irish, it will appear, as clear as the noon-day sun, that the Irish rulers, in giving these statements, were drawing their own picture: and that the poet's " Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur,"f was never more appropriate than to those rulers and their agents. The leading features of the warfare carried on by the forces of the Irish government, were, I. The Irish, unarmed and wholly defenceless, were frequently massacred and drowned, without mercy. From this fate, neither priests, women, nor children, were exempted ; t * " All must hear, the while, The Gracchi rail at faction, with a smile. Who would not swear, by ev'ry awful name, If Milo murder, Verres theft should blame ; Clodius pursue adulterers to the bar, Caius tax Catiline with civil war ; Or Sylla's pupils, aping ev'ry deed, Against his tables of proscription plead." 494 f " Change but the name, of thee the tale is told." 195 493 Juvenal, II. 25. 494 Gifford, 41. m Francis. 440 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. II. Men who had been overcome in battle; thrown down their arms ; made no further re- sistance ; and begged for quarter ; were butchered by hundreds, and sometimes by thousands. III. And, to crown ah 1 , after surrender made, and quarter promised, the faith pledged to the Irish was often perfidiously violated, and they were butchered in cold blood. It was our intention to have classed the various facts, in support of these several allegations, ex- actly under their respective heads : but, as many of the instances of atrocity which we have col- lected, exemplify more than one of our posi- tions; and as others, though of equal force, can- not properly be classed under any of them, we are not able to carry that plan fully into effect. We shall, however, adhere to it as closely as in our power. But we are convinced, that their effect on the reader's mind will depend, not on their classification, but on their magnitude, im- portance, and authenticity. If, weighed in the balance of truth, they be found wanting in these essential particulars, no accuracy of arrangement can save them from condemnation. But if -they stand a scrutiny on those grand points^ their de- ficiency in any of the minor ones will not be regarded as of material consequence. In this investigation, we voluntarily subject ourselves to a disadvantage, of which we are A NEW CASE. 441 persuaded, the world has hitherto afforded no pre- cedent. We had provided a large body of authen- tic testimony, from Clanrickarde, Castlehaven, Walsh, Curry, and other writers on the Irish side of the question, of which we proposed to avail ourselves. But, being determined to remove all possible ground for cavil, we have laid the whole aside ; and shall rely solely on two species of authorities, which must overwhelm all opposition, and settle this question eternally. The first is, the despatches and documents of the sanguinary ruffians who perpetrated the murders ; and the second, the statements of the Anglo-Hibernian historians. We thus place ourselves in the predicament of a man who has a process at law, and has prepared ample documents to establish his claims ; but, finding his antagonist's documents so strong and so powerful against their owner, as to render his own unnecessary, he throws them into the fire : and, so far as respects the contents of this chapter, one of the most important in our work, we care not if every page, written in defence of the Irish, were committed to the flames. Should we, to use the legal phraseology, make out our case under these circumstances, as we trust we sfiall, it will afford the strongest proof that can be desired or conceived, of the intrinsic goodness of the cause, and of the extent of the delusion that has prevailed on the subject. We are well aware of the immense advantages we forego 56 442 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. by this course ; but we forego them cheerfully, and have no more doubt of the result, than we have that the sun, which is now setting in the western horizon, will rise again, resplendent, in all its majesty and glory, to illumine a grateful and admiring world. Those, however, who wish to peruse a list of the murders and massacres perpetrated on the Irish, as recorded by the writers of that nation, are referred to the Appendix to Clarendon's " History of the Irish Rebellion," where there is a large collection to be found, with due detail of time and place. Resting wholly on plain matter of fact, we are unfortunately debarred of the rhetorical flourishes of " lakes and rivers of blood" " spirits chaunting hymns" "ghosts rising from the rivers, and shrieking out revenge" and all those other " tales of horror" and "suggestions of frenzy " which decorate the pages of the long train of historians, from Temple to Leland, who have exhausted the powers of eloquence in embellishing the legends of " the execrable Irish rebellion" But we feel full confidence, that our u Round unvarnish'd tale" will "put them down" in the estimation of every upright and candid reader. After these preliminary observations, we enter on the proof of the important positions we have laid down, respecting the system of warfare pur- MURDER AND MASSACRE. 448 sued by the forces of the Irish government. The first branch of No. I. is, " The Irish, unarmed and wholly defenceless, were frequently massacred and drowned, without mercy." Behold our proofs. " Monroe advanced with his army into the county of Cavan, from whence he sent parties into Westmeath and Longford, which burnt the country, and put to the sword all the country people they met." 496 " Sir Charles Coote, immediately after his inhuman execu- tions and promiscuous murders of people in Wicklow, was made governor of Dublin." 497 " As soon as Monroe had received an account of the cessa- tion being concluded, he fell upon the Irish peasants, -who were getting in their harvest in great security, as no longer think- ing of an enemy, and made a slaughter among them." 4 * " They put to the sword thirty Irish, taken by them in that vessel at Padstow." 49 * " After a little dispute, the Parliament's ship boarded the Dunkirker, and put all the Irish in her to the sword, and took the rest prisoners." 500 " The garrison was sent away under convoy : but, by the disorderliness of an unpaid soldiery, they were almost all of them plundered and murdered" 501 " They hanged above fifty of the Irish, according to the lord general his orders." 508 " Captain Barrow took O'Ronie's island, in Ireland, and put eighty there to the sword" 503 Douglas " marched as through an enemy's country, his men plundering and even murdering with impunity ," 504 495 Carte, I. 495. 497 Idem, 259. 498 Idem, 485. 499 Whitelock, 202. so Idem, 204. 50 Warner, 271* 502 Whitelock, 505. 5W Idem, 531, 504 Leland, IV. 307. 444 VINDICLE HIBERNICA:. Lord Broghill, "on the 21st August, 1642, took the castle of Ardmore, in the county of Waterford, being yielded on discretion. The women and children were spared ; but the men, a hundred and forty in number, were put to the sword."* " Sir Frederick Hamilton entered the town of Sligo, and burnt it, freed many Protestants, and slew in the streets three hundred Irish:' 506 " Colonel Sydenham, major Sydenham, and other forces, hastened thither, put them to flight, and pursued them almost to Wareham, slew twelve, and took sixty horses and a hun- dred and sixty prisoners, whereof eight being natural Irish, seven of them were immediately hanged, and the other spared, for doing execution on his fellows." 507 " St. Leger was informed of another robbery committed on the cattle of his brother-in-law, which he revenged in a very cruel and indiscriminate manner, killing near twenty people, some of them entirely innocent: and when one of his captains, who had killed nine or ten inoffensive people, destroyed their houses, and drove away their cattle, was complained of to him, instead of punishing, he seemed to approve those outrages." 508 " Some Walloons, whom the soldiers took for Irishmen, were put to the sword." 509 *' Inchiquin commits great destruction, as far as he dares venture, about Dublin and Tredah, by burning and driving away of their cattle, and hangs all he can meet with, going to the lord lieutenant." 510 " At the taking of Caermarthen, by captain Swanley, many Irish rebels were thrown into the sea" sn The second branch of No. I. is, " From this fate [of massacre] priests, women, and children, were not exempted." Our last chapter contained the bloodthirsty orders of the lords justices and Privy Council, to 505 Rushworth, V. 515. 506 Ibid. *" Idem, 686. 508 Warner, 155. * Whitelock, 332. " Idem, 410. 511 Idem, 83. MURDER OF PRIESTS, WOMEN, #J CHILDREN. 445 murder "all the males able to bear arms, in places where the rebels were harboured." We now proceed to prove, that these barbarous or- ders were fully carried into operation. Leland and Warner inform us, that, "in the execution of these orders, the soldiers slew all persons promiscuously."* They state this on the authority of the lords justices themselves, whose testimony must be regarded as indisputable. But was not this the consequence the mis- creants calculated on producing? Could they have reasonably expected any other ? When the devouring sword is invited from its scabbard by public authority, for the indiscriminate slaughter of " men able to bear arms" will not the expiring and bed-rid wretch be despatched to the other world, as a man " able to bear arms ?" Will his cassock protect the priest ? her bonnet or shawl the pity-inspiring female ? or its cradle and tender cries the helpless infant ? No : he must be a mere novice in human nature and human affairs, who entertains a doubt on the subject. " Monroe put sixty men, EIGHTEEN WOMEN, and two priests to death, in the Newry."* 12 " The lord president of Munster, St. Leger, is so cruel and merciless, that he causes honest men and women to be most exe- crably executed, and amongst the rest, caused a woman great * " The soldiers, in executing their orders, murdered all per- sons that came in their way promiscuously, NOT SPARING THE WOMEN, AND SOMETIMES NOT THE CHILDREN." 513 512 Leland, III. 201. 513 Leland, III. 198. Warner, 194. 446 VINDICLE HIBERNICJE. with child to be ript up, and three babes to be taken out of her womb, and then thrust every of the babes with weapons through their little bodies. This act of the lord president hath set many in a sort of desperation." Lord of Upper Ossory's Letter to the Earl of Ormond. 514 " Sir Theophilus Jones had taken a castle, put some men to the sword, and thirteen priests, having with them two thousand pounds." 515 " Their friars and priests -were knocked on the %ead promis- cuously with the others, who were in arms." 516 " Letters from Ireland, that the Lord Inchiquin relieved some garrisons of the English in Tipperary, entered Carricke and fortified a pass to make good his retreat, blew open the gate of Cullen by a petard, entered the town, took two castles by assault, and put three hundred soldiers to the sword, and some women, notwithstanding order to the contrary." 517 " Sir William Parsons hath by late letters advised the go- vernor to the burning of Corn, and to put man, woman, and child to the sword; and Sir Adam Loftus hath written in the same strain." 51 * Our second position is, II. "Men who had been overcome in battle; thrown down their arms ; made no further re- sistance ; and begged for quarter ; were butchered by hundreds, and sometimes by thousands." + " A neighbouring bog tempted the Irish foot to retire thi- ther for refuge, while their horse marched off with very little loss, and unmolested. The bog was too small to afford them protection. Jones surrounded it with his horse, whilst his foot entered it, and attacked the Irish, who threw down their arms, and begged for quarter. Above three thousand of them were put to the sword" 519 514 Carte, III. 51. 515 Whitelock, 502. 516 Idem, 412. 517 Idem, 296. 518 Ormond, II. 35O. 519 Carte, II. 5. NO QUARTER TO IRISHMEN ! 447 "They defeated and pursued them with great slaughter, granting quarters to none but officers. About two thousand fell by the weapons of an enemy transported by zeal and re- sentment, about Jive hundred plunged into lake Erne, and but one of all the multitude escaped." 530 "As no quarter was given, except to colonel Richard Butler, son to the lord Ikerin (who was the last man of the Irish army that retired) few prisoners were made"* 21 " The left, commanded by Mac-Allisdrum, consisting of brave northern Irish, stood their ground; but were at last forced to yield to the conquerors ; their commander giving up his sword to colonel Purden. But lord Inchiquin having, be- fore the battle, ordered that no quarter should be given to the enemy, the brave Mac-Allisdrum and most of his men were put to the sword in cold blood"* 331 " Lieutenant colonel Sanderson, at the same time, and Sir Francis Hamilton coming in the nick of time with his troop, they had all execution upon them for five miles." 533 " Colonel Mathews, at Dromore, getting together a body of two hundred men, attacked five hundred of the rebels ; and, having killed three hundred of them without the loss of a man, the next day he pursued the rest, who had hid themselves about in the bushes, and, starting them like hares out of their formes , killed a hundred and fifty more." 5 ' 24 " The lord Inchiquin took Pilborne castle by storm, and put all in it but eight to the sword." 525 " His men had the pursuit of the rebels seven miles, three several ways, as long as the day lasted, and in the flight and pursuit, rvere slam of the rebels about four thousand." 536 " The rebels were pursued without mercy; and, in their flight, spread a general consternation through all their adhe- rents." 527 520 Leland, IV. 256. * Smith II. 142. 522 Idem, 162. 523 Rushworth, VI. 239. s24 Warner, 113. 525 Whitelock, 225. 52fi Idem, 283. 527 Leland, III. 201. 448 VINDICLZE HIBERNICJE. " In the battle, and a bloody pursuit of three miles , 7,000 of the Irish were slain. The unrelenting fury of the victors appeared in the number of their prisoners, which amounted only to 450." 528 Our third position is, III. "After surrender made, and quarter pro- mised, the faith pledged to the Irish was perfi- diously violated, and they were butchered in cold Wood."* " The army, I am sure, was not eight thousand effective men ; and of them it is certain there were not above six hun- dred killed ; and the most of them th^t "were killed were but- chered after they had laid doivn their arms, and had been almost an hour prisoners, and divers of them murdered after they were brought within the works of Dublin ," 529 The bishop of Clogher " having detached colonel Swiney with a strong party, to make an attempt upon Castledoe, in the county Donegal, he ventured, contrary to the advice of the most experienced officers, with 3,000 men, to fight Sir Charles Coote, with near double his number, at Letterkenny. Major general O'Cahan, many of his principal officers,' and fifteen hundred common soldiers, were killed on the spot ; and the colonels Henry' Roe, and Phelim M^Tuol CfNeile^ Hugh Macguire, Hugh Mac-Mahon, and others, slain after quarter given." 550 We cannot allow ourselves to doubt, for a moment, that we have fully established our posi- tions on the most impregnable ground. Limiting * A most striking instance, in proof of this accusation, is afforded by the slaughter at Drogheda ; of which an account will be found at the close of this chapter. 528 Leland, IV. 342. Ormond, II. 396. 530 Carte, 11.113. MASSACRE. 449 ourselves, as we have done, to the accounts of the perpetrators of the murders, and their histo- rians, it is matter of astonishment, that we have been able to adduce such strong evidence. But it is a peculiar feature in this history, that the criminals narrate their crimes, with as little cere- mony as if they claimed glory from them. A few circumstances, of peculiar atrocity, which add strong corrobo ration to the testimony, are re- served for the close of this chapter. The pretences on which the Irish were slaugh- tered, were, in many instances, of the most frivo- lous and contemptible character : but it is a trite observation, that those who are wicked enough to perpetrate crimes, are never without a plea to justify, or at least to palliate, their guilt. Sir S. Harcourt besieged a castle in the vicinity of Dub- lin, where, venturing too near, he was shot. The barbarian besiegers, when they took the castle, to" revenge the death of their general, slaughtered every man, woman, and child it contained.* Robins, 459. 63 498 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. conviction that public instruction and virtue, igno- rance and vice, grow to maturity together. But the Irish Parliament doomed live-sixths of the nation, to which it was given as a curse, to per- petual and invincible ignorance ! To brutalize and barbarize those Helots, to plunge them into the abysses of Cimmerian darkness, they were, at one stroke, cut off from education. The law punished the man who " Taught the young idea how to shoot," who assisted to remove that brutal ignorance which prepares the mind for every species of vice and crime, as severely as the man who robbed altars, burned houses, or murdered his father or mother ! This never-enough-to-be-execrated code was far worse than Draco's, which is " Damn'd to everlasting fame." Draco, barbarous and cruel as he was, in his san- guinary code, which punished all crimes with death, has never been accused of punishing any thing but crimes. But the worse than Draconian Irish legislature denounced banishment, and, in case of return, death, against any Catholic guilty of the offence of teaching school ; instructing children in learning, in a private house ; or offi- ciating as usher to a Protestant school-master!* * " If any Papist shall publicly teach school, or instruct youth in learning in any private house, or shall be entertained to in~ struct youth, as usher or assistant to any Protestant school- master, he shall be esteemed a Popish regular clergyman, and DEPART ! YE CURSED ! 499 The eternal laws of humanity, imprinted on our hearts by our great Creator, command sympa- thy for our suffering fellow creatures, and, when in our power, the extension of relief to their miseries. The rudest savages are not insensible to the sway of this universal and sovereign law. They share their slender pittance with the dis- tressed and suffering stranger. Christ Jesus him- self, in the most emphatical language he ever used, in " words that burn," denounces " ever- lasting fire" against those who refuse obedience to this law : 'V-l'Ifc- \htQi-iLt '>i r i " Depart from me, ye Cursed ! into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels ! for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me not in ; naked, and ye clothed me not ; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not." This divine lesson the impious and barbarous Irish legislature, with a wicked hypocrisy, which enhanced the atrocity of the deed, trampled under foot, under pretence of propagating, in its utmost purity, the religion of that Jesus Christ, of whose precepts and maxims their laws were an undevi- ating violation. By those laws, if Francis Xavier, Fleury, Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Fenelon, Massillon, cardinal Pole, archbishop Carroll, bishop Cheve- reux, Mr. Matignon, Mr. Harding, Mr. Fleming, or Mr. Grsessel, were in Ireland, and " hungry, and prosecuted as such, and shall incur such penalties and forfei- tures as any Popish regular convict is liable unto" 5 ' 31 591 Robins, 612. 500 VINDICLE HIBERNICJK. thirsty, and naked, and sick, and in prison," at the last gasp of existence, for want of the common necessaries of life, the man who three times ad- ministered relief, would be robbed of his entire estate, real and personal, as a reward for his cha- nty !* Can the vocabulary of execration afford terms of reproach adequate to brand the turpitude of such a system, and of its vile authors ? Throughout the whole habitable globe, even among the most barbarous of the human race, respect and reverence for parents have been uni- versally inculcated, except in devoted Ireland. The fifth command of the decalogue explicitly orders, " Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." This is "the first command with a promise of reward" for its observance ; but no punishment is annexed to the violation. Deuteronomy, how- ever, goes further, and pronounces a curse on those who even slight their parents : " Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or mother." And Jesus Christ, the light of whose Gospel the * " Any person that shall, from the first of May, knowingly conceal or entertain any such archbishop, bishops, &c. hereby required to depart out of this kingdom, or that after the said day shall come into this kingdom, shall, for the first offence, forfeit trventy pounds ; for the second, double that sum; and if he offend the third time, shall forfeit all his lands and tenements of freehold or inheritance during his life; and also all his goods and chattels !! .'"" ** Robins, 452. ROB YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER. 501 Irish legislators pretended to spread, renewed and enforced the command, u Honour thy father and thy mother." 593 But what was the dictate of the hideous code " to prevent the growth of Popery ?" Did it support or countenance the observance of this holy law of Moses and of Jesus Christ ? No : it said, in lan- guage fit for pirates and robbers, Forswear your religion, and then you have legal sanction to plunder your father and mother, and bring their gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.* In return for all their cares, their solicitudes, their pains, their affection, strip them of that property which ought to support your brothers and sisters. This was the unequivocal spirit of Irish legislation, on the subject of filial duty. When any child or children of any Roman Ca- tholic, other than the eldest son, whose case was provided for before, conformed to the Protestant religion, the father was obliged to give in, upon oath, to the court of chancery, a statement of the real and bona fide value of all his estate, real and personal ; and make such provision for the pre- * "The eldest son, so conforming, immediately acquires, and in the life time of his father, the permanent part, what our law calls the reversion and inheritance of the estate, and he dis- charges it by retrospect ; and annuls every sort of voluntary settlement made by the father ever so long before his conver- sion. This he may sell or dispose of immediately, and alienate it from the family for ever." 5 * 4 593 Matth. xix. 19. #* Burke, V. 187. 502 VINDICIJE HIBERNICJE. sent and future maintenance of the conforming child or children, as the court might order. 595 Of this code of laws, it may be fairly averred, that, had all the penitentiaries in Europe been ransacked, to form a legislature for Ireland, had Cartouche and his gang taken possession of the Parliament-house, they could not have devised a more rapacious or cruel system. There is hardly a code in the world, that does not afford some instances of unjust and immoral laws, enacted in moments of delusion or faction. But this; is the only one universally and undevi- atingly profligate and depraved, of which every provision and paragraph violated some law of God or man, and the plainest dictates of eternal justice, and which legalized robbery, and punish- ed with death acts of humanity, teaching schools, the celebration of marriage, c. fyc. The professed object of the hypocritical tyrants who framed this " ferocious system," as Burke ap- propriately styles it, was to rescue the objects of its rapacity from the darkness of Popish idolatry. But they might worship Jupiter Ammon, Juno, Venus, Mars, Bacchus, and Apollo, with the Ro- mans ; the sun, with the Guebres ; or Apis, with the Egyptians ; they might even disbelieve in God altogether.* Provided they forswore transub- stantiation and the Pope's authority, they became pure and immaculate ; their property and persons * See Burke's view of the subject, supra, vii. 595 Robins, 459. THE MOTE AND THE BEAM. 503 were secure ; and, under the forms and ceremo- nies of the law of the land, they then acquired a right to rob and plunder the blind idolatrous Papists whom they had abandoned. Whoever has travelled through these pages, and duly considered the villany of those statutes, and of the legislators by whom they were enacted; the horrible scenes of oppression, fraud, and mur- der, which they could not fail to produce ; the universal demoralization that must have followed their operation, cannot fail to agree with Tillot- son, that, so far as respected the devoted island whose fate we deplore, it were " Better there we're no revealed religion, and that human nature were left to the conduct of its own principles and incli- nations, which are much more mild and merciful, much more for the peace and happiness of human society, than to be actu- ated by a religion that inspires men with so vile a Jury, and prompts them to commit such outrages.' 1 '' 596 Tillotson applied this strong position to other parts of Christendom ; but shut his eyes to the wickedness, the profligacy, and the immorality of the code in force in his native country;* so much easier is it to take the mote out of our neighbour's eye, than the beam out of our own. * We have now, however, in this enlightened country, bigoted clergymen, who cant, and whine, and turn up the whites of their eyes, deploring * The English laws on this subject were as wicked and cruel as the Iribh. 596 Tillotson, ill. 19. 504 V1NDICIJE IIIBERNIC.&. and reviling the persecuting spirit of Madrid, and Lisbon, and Paris, and Rome, and Goa ; but, like Tillotson, deaf, and blind, and dumb, to the atro- cious system of persecution for ages in operation in England and Ireland. If they attend to the maxim of Jesus Christ, " Let him that is without sin cast the first stone," they will lay an eternal embargo on their tongues, upon this odious, this detestable subject. Sat verbum. Here we close : and ask the reader, to what- ever nation, religion, party, or faction, he may belong, whether there ever existed a much more horrible system of tyranny ? And whether resis- tance to it, in any of its stages, whatever might have been the result, would not have deserved a nobler name than the odious one of Rebellion? " Rebellion ! foul, dishonouring word, Whose wrongful blight so oft has stain' d The holiest cause that tongue or sword Of mortal ever lost or gain'd. How many a spirit, born to bless, Has sunk beneath that withering name, Whom but a day's, an hour's success Had wafted to eternal fame ! As exhalations, when they burst From the warm earth, if chill'd at first, If check'd in soaring from the plain, Darken to fogs and sink again ; But, if they once triumphant spread Their wings above the mountain-head, Become enthron'd in upper air, And turn to sun-bright glories there !" Lalla Rookh* THE END. INDEX. ACKNOWLEDGMENT of Parliamentary infamy, 252. Act of indemnity and free pardon, 274. Acts of charity, punished with forfeiture, 499. Age of forgery and perjury, 289. Amboyna, massacre at, remarks upon, xxix. Andre, case of, misunderstood, 31. Anniversary sermons, inflammatory purposes of, 28. Antichrist, definition of, 480. Antichrist at Madrid, Lisbon, and Goa, 480. Antichrist in Geneva, London, Scotland, Holland, and Ireland, 481. Archbishop of Dublin, free examination of his conduct, 146. Archbishops, bishops, vicars-general, &c. liable to be hanged, if they returned to Ireland, 488. Barrymore, lord, cruelty of, 467. Beale, the tailor, pretended plot of, 294. Bedingfield, Henry, pretended plot of, 297. Bedlow, William, a most infamous villain, 292. Bingham, captain, statement of, 23, 32. Bigotry, religious, wonderful prevalence of, 48. Bloody breakfast, 467. Boroughs, forty new ones created at once, 249. Bunker's Hill, battle of, discrepancy respecting, 31. Burnet, bishop, testimony of, respecting court of wards, 121. Carleton, bishop of Chichester, sorry tale of, 174. Carte, fraudulent statement of, 107. Carte, gross inconsistency of, 109, 110, 393. Carte, obliquity of, 217. Carte, imbecile views of, 124, 131, 203. Casliel, slaughter in cathedral of, 465. Castlemain, lord, accused of a plot, 298. Cessation with the Irish, reprobated by the ruling party, 353. 64 INDEX. Cessation, resolution of English Parliament against, 355. Charles I. base perfidy and ingratitude of, 134, 135, 139, 148, 149. Civil wars, three, 92. Civil war in England, causes and consequences of, 95. Civil war in Scotland, causes and consequences of, 93. Civil war in Ireland, provocation to, and ruinous consequences of, 97. Clarendon, fraudulent statements of, 107, 137. Clergy, Irish, banishment of, 125. Cobler of Aggavvam, murderous exhortations of, 473. Collusion, base, of Charles I. and lord Falkland, 143. Comparison between the provocation of Ireland in 1641. and that of America in 1776, 99. Confiscation of Irish estates, the grand object of the governments of England and Ireland, 63, 64, 65. Confiscation, the primary object of the lords justices, 349. Consequences of the civil wars in England and France, nearly similar, 103. Conspiracies, forged, a source of confiscation, 27, 177, 178, 179, et passim. Coote, Sir Charles, a sanguinary ruffian, 337. Coote, Charles, absurd testimony of, 47. Courts of justice in Ireland, prostituted state of, 87. Cox, Richard, murders and robberies of, 468. Crosby, Piers, hard case of, 256. Cromwell, Oliver, murderous cruelty and base hypocrisy of, 459, 460. Cruelty, remorseless, of the Irish government, 74. Curry, Dr. his view of the flight of Tyrone and Tyrconnel, 173. Curry's history, excellence of. xviii. Curse against traitors, from Lalla Rookh, 476. Danger-field, a notorious villain and perjurer, 299. Davies, Sir John, base quibbles and chicanery of, 190, 191. Dead bodies, after six weeks, rising out of the water, en masse, 38, 39, 40. Dead bodies, eaten by the starving Irish, 78. Dead bodies, free from putrefaction for four or five weeks, 425. Debate, freedom of, grossly violated, 255. De La Hide, Walter, cruel persecution of, 73. Desmond, earl, horrible persecution of, 68, 70. INDEX. Desmond estates, confiscation of, 72. Desolation, perpetrated in Scotland, by the earl of Essex, 234. Desolation, perpetrated in France and Spain, by the English, 237. Devastation and desolation, perpetrated on the Irish, 75, 76, 77. Divines of the assembly, atrocious calumny of, 359. Drogheda, massacre at, 460. Education, forbidden in Ireland, under pain of death, 498. English by descent, as cruelly persecuted in Ireland as the abori- ginals, 67. English title to Ireland, twenty -six hundred years old, 268. Estated Catholics, only four hundred in the insurrection, 435. Evidence, hearsay, 399, 408, 409, 414. Exaggeration and falsehood, hideous instances of, 362. Falsehood, detected, 367. Famine, produced by the devastation and desolation of the Irish government forces, 78, 79. Father and mother, robbery of, encouraged by law, 500. Fines, ruinous, exacted, 116. Forgeries, manifest, received as solid proofs, 27. Fosterage and marriage made treason, 263. France, conquest of, how effected, 475. Frauds and falsehoods, respecting the state of Ireland, detailed by Clarendon, Carte, and Leland, 107. Frauds, in representation under Elizabeth, 242, 243 ; under James I. 249. Ghosts screaming for revenge, 42, 43. Grenville, Richard, a ferocious ruffian, 457. Gurmond, bestows Ireland on Heber, 268. Historians of Irish affairs, vile views of, 35. Historical writing, difficulties of, 17, 32, 24 ; perversion of, 18. Horse thieves excited and protected by law, 486. House of Lords, corrupt management of, 254. Hume, disgraceful and dishonourable conduct of, 395. Hume, striking error and mis-statement of, 186. Inconsistency, gross, of Carte, Warner, and Leland, 109, 110. Indemnity and free pardon, fraudulent act of, 274. Indictment, bills of, one thousand found in two days, 84, 86. Indictment, definition of, 88. Insurrection of 1641, discussed, 313. INDEX. Intolerance, various instances of, 49. Ireland, a great human slaughter-house, 77. Ireland, state of, previous to 1641, 105, 111. Ireton, a bloodthirsty ruffian, 464, 465. Irish history, deplorable ignorance of, x. Irish history, extravagantly falsified, 19. Irish history, peculiar feature of, 19. Irish history, writers of, contradict each other, xix. Irish nation, victims of a detestable policy, 35, 36. Irish, utter extirpation of, a favourite project in England and Ireland, 58, 59, 60, 61. Irish, horrible sufferings of, 77. Irish, detestable calumnies of, 80. Irish insurrection of 1641, perfectly justifiable in the eyes of God and man, 98. Irish, grievous oppressions of, 111, 112. Irish, disqualifications of, 122, 123. Irish Catholics, petition of, to Charles I. 142. Irish, depredations on, 205, 206, 207. Irish character, strong testimonies in favour of, xix. 231, 232, 233_ Irish legislation, specimen of, 262, 263. Irish, half a million of, destroyed in the insurrection of 1641, 98, 469. Irish oligarchy, picture of, 476. James I. base ingratitude of, 117. James I. hideous rapacity and plunder of, 180, 184, 185, 200, 201. James I. shameful partiality and injustice of, 253. Judges and jurors, perjured, 88, 89. Judges, Irish, profligate conduct of, 246, 247. Judges, horrible malignity of, 310, 311, Juries, unjustly constituted, 490. Jurors, ruinously fined, 152; pilloried and mutilated, 159. Justice, courts of, mere slaughter-houses, 311. Law for chopping off the heads of the Irish, 263. Lawless's history of Ireland, notice of, xxvii. Legends, long list of, 426, 427. Leland, gross inconsistency of, 109, 110, 115. Lelanrl, gross errors of, 187, 188, 189, 294, 202, Leland, obliquity of, 132, 433. Leland, ridiculous absurdity of, 117. INDEX. Letter-dropping, an instrument of government, to justify confis- cation, 169, 305. Little Belt and President, rencontre between, 24. Loftus, lord, hard case of, 159. Long Parliament and Charles I. errors of, xxvii. Lords justices alarmed at the prospect of peace, 346. Lords justices, execrable policy of, 346, 350. Ludlow, barbarity of, 451. Macauley, Mrs. incredible tales of, 394. Man, hacked to pieces without bleeding, 41. Marriage and fosterage made treason, 263. Marriages, most wickedly annulled, 495. Martial law, execution of, 89. Massacre, pretended, of 1641, extravagant portraits of, 386. Massacre, pretended plot of, 300. Massacre of the Protestants, in 1641, inquiry into the, 360, 371, 372, 375. Maxwell, Robert, a most notorious perjurer, 44 ; gross contradic- tions of, 44, 416. May, Thomas, gross falsehoods of, 369. Millions of acres, projected confiscation of, 65. Milton, shameful exaggeration and falsehood of, 29, 31, 47, xxxiv. Monroe, a ferocious ruffian, 456. Montross, cruel career of, 471. Mountnorris, lord, shocking treatment of, 160, 161. Mountnorris, lady, affecting letter of, 162. Murderous orders of the lords justices, 378. Murderous ordinance of the English Parliament, 380. Murders and massacre, legendary tales of, 386, 387. will be lice:" nits and lice killed together, 463. No quarters given to the Irish, 447. Noyade of the Irish rewarded by a gold medal, 456. Parliament, English, sanguinary spirit of, 356. Parliamentary representation in Ireland, 238, 239, 249, 252. Parsons and Borlase, rapacity of, 59. Penalty, for harbouring father or mother, 56. Perjury and subornation, melancholy progress of, 304. Perjury, most atrocious case of, 309. Perjury, the basis of nearly all the histories of the insurrection of 1641, 37. INDEX. ^* \ Petty, Sir William, his account of the war of 1641, 435. Plot, pretended, to kill the earl of Northumberland, &c. 293. Plots and conspiracies, forged, 293, 303. Points established in this work, xiv. Popery laws, description of, 478. Popery laws, d system of rapine, x. Poynings' law, view of, 260. President and Little Belt, rencontre between, 23. Priests, Catholic, liable to be hanged, if they returned to Ireland, 483, 484. Priests, liable to be hanged for celebrating marriage, 485. Priests hang themselves, in their own defence, 138. Proclamation, for the banishment of the Irish clergy, 126. Protestant ascendency, pernicious views of, 30. Proxies, shameful abuse of, 255. Queries, on the subject of Temple's legendary tales, 340. Rebellion, frequent injustice of the term, 504. Recusants, persecution of, 112, 113. Robbery, flagrant, encouraged by law, 487, 488, 489, 490, 492. Rodgers, commodore, statement of, 24, 32. . Royal martyr, conduct of, 139, 148. Rupert, prince, decision and energy of, 453. Sacrilegious burglary and robbery of the archbishop and mayor of Dublin, 129. 'Savage fury of mobs, 311. Scotch, brotherly assistance of, rewarded, 101. Scotch prisoners, sent to the mines in Guinea, 103. Security of person in Ireland, 151, 212. Spencer, Edmund, his execrable project to produce famine, 79. Spirit of warfare on both sides, in Ireland, 376, 383. Spoliation, private, 223. Spoiling the Egyptians, 179, 180, 181, 182, 200. Star-Chamber Court, verdict of lord Suffolk in, 145. St. John, Oliver, persecutes the recusants, 112. St. Leger, a ferocious ruffian, 458. Strafford, a most unfeeling tyrant, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 159, 209, 210. , Stratford, Anthony, perjuries of, 420. Subornation of perjury, 84, 291. Suppressio veri of the English Parliament, 472. INDEX. Temple, Sir John, a legendist of the first order, 36. Temple's statement of the pretended conspiracy, 315. Temple's legendary tales, analysis of, 324. Temple, ashamed of his legend, endeavours to suppress it, 391. Temple's legend, attempts to bolster up, 405. Temple, a cheat and impostor, 436. Thirst, ravenous, of the blood of the Irish, 58. Tichbourne, Henry, destroys man, woman, and child, for sixteen miles, 458. Toleration, disclaimed as an abomination, 48. Travelling on the knees, to escape from assassins, 402. Tyrone and Tyrconnel, flight of, 171. Ulster, piratical spoliation of, 167. Usher, archbishop, miserable bigotry and intolerance of, 14Q. Wards, court of, oppression of, 119, 120, 121. Wards, sold to the best bidder, 120. Warfare, barbarous system of, pursued by the Irish government, 437, 443. Warner, Ferdinando, the most impartial of the English historians of Irish affairs, 19. Warwick, Sir Philip, gross falsehood of, 370. Westminster Confession of Faith, the standard of religious per- fection, 49. ERRATA. Page 71, line 16, for destroys, read invalidates. K 7^ iQ^ f or annexed, read prefixed. " 98, '* 24, for opinions, read prejudices. " 100, " 16, for *A whole, read six counties of the. " 110, " 7, for deserved, read J life,) oecanum* the appearance of a Kupo-dbuittlanl, because distressed, ]H>i>itl. It cannot fail to be satisfactory to state the expenses for the support of the government of Pennsylvania, in 1824, with a po- pulation of about 1 ,300,000 souls, one-eleventh of the population of Great Britain, (14,379,677.) Senate Dollars 23,509 House of Representatives 59,962 Executive Department 10,261 Judiciary - 62,648 Treasury 4,679 Accountant 3,406 Land Office 5,199 Surveyor-General's Office 4.294. Contingent Expenses 5,405 Dollars 179,363 Equal to about 14 cents, or7i<3. sterling, per head. This observation does not extend to the owners of large bodies of uncultivated lands, upon whom the payment of road and county taxes for unproductive property falU very harlly. C A view of the expenditure of the government of the United States for one year, showing how cheaply a great nation may be governed, cannot be uninteresting to those who contemplate a removal to, or feel an interest in, this country. * Expenses of the Government of the United States, for the Year 1824 : Congress Executive Departn)ent,indudingtheMint, Surveying Department, Public Build- ings, &c Judiciary Government of the Territories of the United States Miscellaneous Diplomatic Department Military Department, including Fortifi- cations, Arming the Militia, &c Naval Department Interest of Public Debt Redemption of Do Revolutionary Pensions Claims of our citizens on Spain, paid by Government in Exchange for Florida, worth 40,000,000 dollars Dollars. 603,758 496,452 06,442 26,632 818,775 108,898 4,002,654 2,904.581 5,301,104 11,267,289 1,267,600 .. 134,164 110,32? 46,548 5,918 181,950 24,199 889,478 645.462 1,178,023 2,503.842. 281,688 4,891,368 = 1,086,970 Total 31,898,533 7,088,562 SUMMARY. Legislative, Executive, Judiciary, Mi- Dollars. . litary, and Xaval Establishments, &c. 9,171,152 = 2,038,038 Redemption and Interest of Public Debt 16,568,393 = 3,681,865 Revolutionary Pensions and Spanish Claims 6,158,968 = 1,368,659 Total 31,898,538 7,088,562 It thus appears, that deducting the revolutionary pensions, the purchase of Florida, the interest of the public debt, and the pay- ment of part of it, the government of the United States is carried on at an expense of 75 cents, or about 3s. 4^d. sterling per head, being little more than one-third of the araonnt of the poor rates in England. RELIGION. There is, I believe, no part of Europe in which religious liberty is to be found as it prevails here. In this point the United States stand proudly pre-eminent over most of the nations of the eastern hemi- sphere, from the period when Christianity was there taken under the protection of Government to the present time. Almost every- where in Europe there is a national religion, which is supported by the Government, and domineers over all others from the fol- lowers of which it levies contributions for the support of its clergy. In some countries, the professors of religions different from the established one, are excluded from important offices, however great their talents or merits. 15 Our citizens are free as air to worship God in whatever form or riiode they please. Religion interposes no bar or disqualification as regards civil rights. The Jew, the Roman Catholic, the most rigid Calvinist, the Protestant Episcopalian, the Paedo Baptist, the Anti-peedo Baptist, the Socinian, the Swedenborgian, all, all stand on the same ground, in the public eye;* and the charities and en- joyments of social life are never interrupted by differences of re- ligion, how great soever they may be. That this state of religious liberty has a benign effect, cannot be doubted, as there is no country in Europe which contains more truly religious persons than the United States, in proportion to the population. So far as regards religion, there is no such word in the American language as " toleration." This disgraceful word, in the English, French, and other buropean languages, means, that a miserable worm, who worships God in one particular form, permits hi fellow worm to do the same and does not subject him to tines and forfeitures impale him on a stake suspend him on a gibbet or light faggots to burn him to death, as the forefathers of almost all Christian denominations, Catholics, Protestants, and Presby- terians, did in days past ! Connected with this subject, is the support of the clergy : and here how transcendant American superiority ! Our happy citizens are not obliged to devote to a pampered establishment a tenth part of the produce of the soil, besides supporting the clergy of their own particular denomination. The man, therefore, who raises five thousand bushels of wheat, is not compelled, as in Great Britain ami Ireland, to give five hundred to a clergyman over whose ap- pointment he has had no control, and whose religion he perhaps abhors. In nearly all the states the support of the cli rgy is wholly vo- luntary. In cities and towns, and sometimes in villages, the rents of pews generally afford a sufficient income for the purpose. In Massachusets, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, the citizens are subjected to a small annual tax for the maintenance of Christian worship but they have the right to select the clergymen to whom it shall bo paid. There is not the shadow, from Maine to Florida, of a religious establishment connected with the Govern- ment. POLITICAL PRIVILEGES. This is an important feature in the character of the country. In the states of Pennsylvania and New York, every citizen paying tax of any kind, is entitled to the right of suffrage as fully and as completely as the owner of a million of acres or the possessor of the wealth of Croesus and all offices of honour and emolument, " except the presidency of the United States, (which is the only In one or two of the states the exclusion of Roman Catholics from public offices, enacted in times of intolerance and hipotry, remains in the constitutions. But there U no doubt, that whenever those constitutions are Milmiitted to conventions for rerision. this foul stain will be obliterated. IS one that requires that the occupant be a native citizen, or have- been a citizen at the time of the adoption of the existing form of government, 1787,) are as fully open to a naturalized as to a na- tive citizen. Many highly important offices in different states, and under the general government, are filled by the former. The fol- lowing are the terms on which citizenship may be acquired by foreigners : five years uninterrupted residence in the United States, and one year in the state where it is applied for a declaration on oath or affirmation, three years before the application, of a bona Jide intention to become a citizen, and of a determination to sup- port the constitution of the United States, with a renunciation of allegiance to all foreign powers. The number of votes presented in the city of Philadelphia for members of the legislature is about 8,000. The whole number of votes given for governor of the state at the last election in 1823, was 154>, 147, or more than one-ninth of the whole popu- lation. CRIMINAL CODE. Human life has its proper value in the United States not so in Europe. In Pennsylvania there is but one capital crime murder in the first degree. The severity of the criminal code has been gradually mitigating from year to year in most of the states. In some the mitigation has been slow ; in others, rapid and important. But the progress of public opinion affords a sure pledge that at no distant day the criminal corle of all the states will be purified from the wanton waste' of humaii life engrafted on our systems by an imitation of the codes of Europe. , FIRE-ARMS AND GAME-LAWS. While in parts of Europe the qualifications for the free use of fire-arms are so rigorous, and the expense of a license to keep them so <;reat, that nineteen-twentieths of the population are wholly de- barred from the possession of those weapons, lest they should use them to rescue themselves from oppression; every man in this country, in however low or humble a rank in society, may pur- chase and keep as many as he may judge proper and can pay for. And so far as regards game, the possessor of millions has no pri- vilege beyond that which is enjoyed by one of our humblest citi- zens. Having pointed out a few of the prominent features in the moral and political character of the United States, I proceed to consider the descriptions of persons to whom it holds out advantages and inducements to emigrate from their native countries, and also those to whom emigration for the purpose of settlement here, would be disadvantageous. AGRICULTURISTS. The greatest evil in the United States is the excess of the agri- 17 cultural population,* which is at least 30 per cent, more than is necessary to furnish the foreign and domestic markets, limited as the former are by the wise policy of the buropean nations, which protect their own agriculturists, and never admit our bread stuffs, but when in danger of famine, or of such a scarcity as will so far enhance the price of those necessaries of life, as to oppress and distress the poorer classes of society. The mischievous effects of this unwise distribution of our popu- lation were not felt during the wars of the French Revolution, nor for a year or two afterwards, while the European markets were open to our bread stuffs, which commanded extravagant prices. But since those markets were closed in the fall of 1817,f the operation of this undue proportion of agriculturists has been highly pernicious. The export of flour in 1817 : was 1,488,198 barrels, amounting to 17,751,375 dollars. Whereas in 1822, 1823, and 1824-, the export was only 2 581,359 barrels amounting to 15, 724,829 dollars ; or an average of 860,4-53 barrels, and 5,241,609 dollars. The export, of 1825, was 813,906 barrels, amounting to only 4-, 212,127 dollars. From this view, it is evident that the policy of our Govern- ment has a withering influence on the agriculture of the United States. All the markets of the world, wherein the produce of our soil is received, are almost constantly glutted with our great staples,, bread stuffs, cotton, and tobacco, the prices of which are therefore greatly depressed, to the injury of our farmers, and The population of the United States in the year 1820, when the last census was taken, was arranged as follows : Heads ofFamiliet. Per Cent. Engaged in agriculture 2,079,363 83 in manufactures and the mechanic arts, 349,643 14 in commerce, including shopkeepers "I generally J 72,558 2,501,564 100 The whole of the population at that period was 9,614,415, and was thus distributed : Engaged in agriculture 8,022,319 83 in manufactures and the mechanic arts ' 1,351,622 14 in commerce and shopkeeping 280,474 3 9,654,415 100 The total number of familiei in Great Britain in 1821, was 2,931,083 Of which were engaged in agriculture 978,656 in manufactures -.. 924,432 in trade and commerce 15,507 all other descriptions 612,488 S.931.083 Thus, while in Great Britain one-third part of the population suffices for agriculture, and feeds the whole, there are, in this country, 83 per cent, engaged in that pursuit, the whole amount of whose exports in the year 1824, was only 43,884,844 dollars, produced by about 10,000,000 people; and, excluding tobacco, cotton, and rice, (produced by about 1,500,000 persons,) the whole of the exports of the remaining 8,500,000 agriculturists, was only 15,198,895 dollars! Whereas the export from Great Britain in 1S25, of the mere article of cotton yarn, produced probably by 150,000 persons, was 3,135, 406, equal to 14,199,732 dollars ! What stupendous facts ! t The British ports were opened for the reception of our flour In November, 1818, and c.int.lniircl open until February, 1819. 18 the too frequent ruin of our merchants.* Against this destructive policy, Alexander Hamilton,-}- one of the greatest practical politi- cal economists that ever lived, Dr. Franklin, j and Thomas Jeffer- son, $ two of our greatest statesmen, have borne the most decided testimony, but in vain. Every attempt to introduce a sounder policy is resisted with as much zeal and ardour as if the change were fraught with destruction and, strange to tell, by those who are the greatest sufferers by the present system ! It may seem extraordinary that I believe, nevertheless, that certain descriptions of farmers might advantageously immigrate * The consequence of this pernicious state of things, is, that in three cases out of four, the greater the quantity of our leading staples we export, the less in proportion they produce. This general result of glutted markets, occasionally, it is true, controlled and counteracted by circumstances, was two hundred years since discerned, and as far as practicable, guarded against by the sagacious policy of the Dutch, in the case of spices. They limited the cultivation within bounds calculated to guard against a ruinous dimi- nution of price ; and, when the crops were too abundant, went the extraordinary length of destroying the surplus quantity. Whereas the unvarying tendency of our policy has been, by converting the domestic customers of our farmers into rivals, to increase pro- duction, even while our foreign markets, as in the case of grain, were diminishing. A view of the quantity and amount of cotton aud flour exported in different years, will shed strong light on this doctrine. COTTON. Ib. 1819 Exported 87,997,045 1820 127,860,152 1821 121,893,405 1822 144,675,09^ 1823 173,723,270 1824 142,389,683 FLOUR. Dollars. 21,081,069 22,308,607 20.157,484 24,035,058 20,445,520 21,947,401 Barrels. Dollars. 1819 Exported 750,660 Proceeds 6,005,280 180 1,117,036 5,296,664 1821 1,056,119 4,298,043 1882 827,865 5,103.280 1823 756.702 4,962.373 1824 996,792 5,759,176 1825 813,906 4,212,127 The early ssttlers in Maryland and Virginia, finding the foreign markets ruinously glut- ted with their great staple, tobacco, adopted the Dutch policy, and passed aets suspending: the culture for a limited time. " No remedy had been found for the low price of the staple (of Virginia) which had been so long and so feelingly deplored." " To enhance, if possible, the price of a commo- dity, on which the existence of the colony depended, the Astembly prohibited the growth of tobacco for a limited time." " The same inconvenience being at length probably felt in Maryland, a law was passed in 1666, to enforce a similar project." Chalmers's Annals, p. 314. f " If Europe will not take from us the products of our soil, upon terms consistent with or interest, the natural remedy is to contract, as fast as possible, our wants of her." Alexan- der Hamilton's Report on Manufactures, p. 40. $ < Foreign luxuries, and needless manufactures, imported and used in a nation, inereaie the people of the nation that furnishes them, and diminish the people of the nation that *? than.' franklin's Works, vol. 4, p. 189. " Where a nation imposes high duties on our productions, or prohibits them altogether, it may be proper for us to do the same with theirs first burdening or excluding those productions which they bring hern in competition tuith our own of the lame kind: selecting next such manu- factures as we take from them in greatest quantity, and which at the same time we could thesoone.it furnish to ourselves, or obtain from other countries; imposing on them duties light at first, hut heavier and heavier afterwards, as other channels of supply open." Jefferson's Report on the Privileges and Restrictions of the Commerce of the United State* in Foreign rountrftt. 19 into the United States. It is, however, the fact, as I shall en- deavour to make appear. A few skilful farmers, without any capital, but possessed of good characters, and bringing with them such recommendations as would insure confidence, might derive great advantage from immi- gration into the United States. Such men in Great Britain and Ireland can scarcely hope to emerge beyond the situation of day labourers, at the rate of 8s. 6d.9s. or 10s.* per week, and have no prospect for sickness, or old age, but the poor-house :f whereas in the neighbourhood of our cities, persons of this description can readily procure contracts for the cultivation of farms from 4-0 to 80 or 100 acres on the shares, on the following plan. The owner of the land furnishes half the seed, the implements, and oxen; the farmer half the seed and labour. The proceeds are equally divided between them; and though the farmer's share is moderate, still the situation of tile emigrant would be greatly improved, and by steady industry and economy he might make handsome savings, and finally become an independent landholder. Another class of farmers would find immigration into the United States highly advantageous. I mean those possessed of small capi- tals, say from 300 to 750 pounds sterling. What with rent, ex- cise, tithes, and taxes, (poor rates are added in England,) such men can barely subsist in Great Britain and Ireland. .Let me state iheir prospects in the United States. Good farms with valuable improvements, a dwelling-house, barn, and spring house on each, may be purchased at 20 or 30 miles from Philadelphia, for 30 or 40 dollars per acre. J At a greater distance from Philadelphia, say 4>0 or 50 miles* lands, with extensive improvements, may be purchased for 20 dol- lars per acre. In the interior of Pennsylvania and New York* * It appears by a recent publication, " A History and Review of the late Session of the British Parliament," that the wages of country labourers in Dorsetshire are only 7s. per week, equal to one dollar and fifty-six cants. t From a late Morning Herald the following statement is taken of the wages and ex- penditure of an English labouring agriculturist: Earnings of a labourer in agriculture, at 9s per week, per annum 23 8 Clothes for self and family- Fuel Candles, soap, salt, &c Brad for a family of six penwiis. at 6*. per week, per annum 28 12 Th balance is made up by the contributions of the overseers of, the poor. t From the books of a Philadelphia agent for the sale of real estate, the following ex- tracts are taken -.-^1 44 acres, in Bucks' County, 32 miles from Philadelphia, with a large dwelling-house, stables, waggon house, &c. at 32 dollars per acre 100 acres, 33 miles from Philadelphia, with a stone d* elling-house, stone kitchen, barn, &c. for 4000 dollars. '. 108 acres, 30 miles from Philadelphia, with a stone dwelling-house, barn. &c. &c. 4000 dollars. These, it Is to be observed, are the prices Hslted from which probably a considefable abatement would be made. ao uncleared lands, contiguous to navigable streams, may be pur- chased for two, three, and four dollars. The expense of clearing is about ten or eleven dollars per acre and I am assured, on re- spectable authority, that the first crop ot wheat after clearing, will generally pay that expense. These lands hold out powerful encouragement to industrious and enterprising emigrants. The great progress of the woollen manufacture renders the raising of sheep a lucrative business for farmers. The internal improve- ments in canals and roads, effected and contemplated in both those states, will secure extraordinary advantages to sellers con- tiguous to these means of communication. To farmers with large and industrious families, these sections of the country hold out every temptation as they may carry on cultivation extensively with little hired labour.* New lands, belonging to the United States, may be had in the western states anil territories ibr 125 cents, or 5s. 7d. sterling per acre, in perpetuity. Thus, for a fourth part of the mere tithe per acre, paid in many parts of Great Britain and Ireland, lands may be purchased in fee-simple. This appears to offer strong temptation ; as complete independence may be secured at so very easy a rate. But I am much inclined to believe that few English, Irish, Scotch, or German farmers are well calculated to struggle with the difficulties in those remote quarters, where the popula- tion is so thinly scattered, and where the settlers are in some de- gree debarred from markets for their produce. The following are the prices of stock in and near Philadelphia. Good working horses from 50 to 90 dollars. Cows from 15 to2 dollars. Fresh cows, with their calves, from 25 to 30 dollars. Oxen in a lean state, sell for three and a half to four dollars per cwt. fattened, four and a half to five dollars. In order to enable farmers to form an idea of what they have a right to expect by settling in this country, I will state the prices, in the Philadelphia markets, of various articles, some of which they will have to sel', and others to purchase, as extracted from the latest prices current.f to i depr in the luiuuic auu taatui 11 ami-co, mi.iini 1'iuuia.vi/ vtii.;i unless under particular advantages of soil and location. f To facilitate the conversion of those prices into sterling money, I annex an exchange table. Id sterling is equal at par teabout Cents. 1.85 3 70 12d Cents, sterling is equal at par to about 20.35 . . ., '...... 02 22 5.55 13d 24 5 740 t 25. . 925 14d 25.92 11 11 ' 27.76 1 96 >>7d , 50. 14 80 f 75. , T^ g 16 Ro Md 100. s } 10d ... . 18.50 4 21 11 00 a 11 50 10 00 a 11 00 2 25 a 2 50 3 75 a 4 25- 9 a 10 - 8 a 10 - 15 a 164 8 a 11 1O a 124 12 a 164 11 a 17 40 a 1 on 30 a 35- 284 ff 29 35 a 37 50 a 60- 8 a 11 84 a 10 8 a 10 45 a 60 30 a 32 f/L* '$ Mess Beef, ditto Coffee, ditto ditto Brown shirting | wide, per yard Ditto ditto | do. do .. Satinets, i Muscovado Sugar, 2d and 3rd quality i Country Tallow per Ib .'. .'. Wool, Merino, clean '. ENGINEERS. For a few perfectly competent engineers, this country affords very great encouragement. There is hardly a state in the Union in which canals and rail-roads are not either commenced or contemplated. ..' MINERS AND MINERALOGISTS. For scientific persons of these descriptions, there is great scope in the United States. There is probably no country richer in every species of mines and minerals ; and a very small propor- tion of these boundless treasures has been explored. LABOURERS. There is scarcely any limit to the number of labourers, who are now, and probably will be for twenty years to come, wanted in this country. The spirit of internal improvement, in canals, rail-roads, and turnpikes, is wide awake in every part of the Union ; and creates a great demand for that class, of which the number of native citizens bears no proportion to the demand. The Irish labourers are found uncommonly hardy and active, and for years have done a large portion of the work on canals and turnpikes. Their wages are about seventy-five cents per day, or four dollars and a half per week. Their board, which includes meat every day, and often twice a day, costs about two dollars, leaving a balance of about two dollars and a half, or 11s. 3d. sterling, which is far more than the whole of their earnings in their own country. A statement of the price of provisions will show the comfort which this class of our citizens may enjoy. In the Philadelphia market at this time, beef costs ten cents per pound mutton five cents veal six to eight cents a pair of large fowls thirty-seven to fifty rents a turkey from fifty to seventy-five cents bread, per Ib. 3 cents. The wages of country labourers are high from 7/5 to TOO dol- lars per annum, exclusive of comfortable board and lodging. CLERKS AND SHOPKEEPERS. 3d To these classes the United States hold out no temp*9n. There is at all times a superabundance of them, far mo*dJ'. can find employment. il> THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS. The ridiculous pride of too many of our citizens, whiclvr$vo't- at the idea of apprenticing their sons to trades, crowds th&ls- the protection which has been found necessary to bring. Jbhei the flourishing state in .which they appear in England, Sam France, many parts of Germany, and other countries in ivwrr and that therefore a lamentable destruction took place amongrira- nufacturers in 1817, 18, 19, and 20, whereby probably three-) dred millions of dollars* were sacrificed by the destructionbojr;!' establishments, and the consequent depreciation of real n r generally throughout the Union, to say nothing of the anrr from that period; yet the native energies of our citizen overcome the difficulties interposed in their way and m:: manufactures, particularly the cotton and woollen, are dalliuMt k ing deeper root. But unfortunately, in consequence of th?*^ .1 numbers crowding into them, for want of adequate avenues >r * This sum will excite surprise and incredulity ; but it is far below the amount of the r*l loss to the nation. The eottonand woollen establishments, erected at enormouse expen**.' depreciated in value from 75 to 80 per cent, on the average throughout the L'nio; real estate generally at least 33 per cent. The estimate of that species of property itirt' - sylvania In 1815, made by assessors sworn to the faithful performance of their duty, 316,633,889 dollars, whereas in 1819 it was estimated by the assessors at a depree; one-third, or about 210,000,000 dollars. The depreciation in other states was gener in the same proportion. 23 the ei 'oyment of time, talents, capital, and industry, they bid fair t .; overdone, and at no distant day. On a full view of the subj' and the most deliberate reflection, I feel satisfied, there- fore, c it while the present policy of our government continues, there . little temptation for manufacturers generally to remove to this co jntry.* They are created fast enough here. Hovever, there is a considerable opening for mechanics of almost; jvery description, carpenters, masons, smiths, plasterers, &c. '.id should the government ever adequately consult the inten ^ of agriculture, .and take decisive measures to make a domestL- market for the raw materials and provisions of our far- mers, by proper encouragement to manufactures, there will be abunuant room in the United States for all the manufacturers and farmers that Europe can spare. The policy of this course is so plain id clear, that it can scarcely be doubted that it will be adop.-i at no distant day. Jou. ueymen's wages in Philadelphia vary from one dollar to a dollar 'ad a half per day. Probably one dollar and an eighth, or 5'. sterling, is about the average. It r".y be laid down as a general rule, with few exceptions, that : -a ;al, industrious journeymen, unencumbered with families, may save so much of their wages, as, in a few years, to be ena- ble ti commence business on their own account on a moderate scale. The exceptions to this rule are exclusively confined to trades or occupations that require large establishments ; and even in thesj the object is generally attainable ultimately only requir- ing i~ Conger period of industry and economy. I believe 1 am perftvtiy warranted in saying that one-half, or certainly one-third at !' of all the master mechanics and manufacturers in the Uni jd States, many of whom are now worth 20, 30, 40, or 50,0 collars, were originally journeymen. This is among the most ?' picious features in the character of American society. Let ne add, that there is probably not a single person in Phila- delphia or New York, beyond the condition of a mere pauper, who c ninot afford to eat flesh meat at least once a day and that a * I sawyer or common porter, steadily employed, might, by f ,ality, save from fifty to one hundred dollars per annum. L. , r, there were 4000 hand looms employed in Philadelphia and the neighbour- hood, i in consequence of glutted markets, the weaver* were obliged to dispose of their ,,(.> ofactures at ruinous sacrifices. The consequence is, that one-half, some say three-, ui' ha of them, have abandoned the business in despair and distress. Numbers of them hu returned to Europe and others devoted themselves to labouring work. miNTED BY E. SMITH AND CO. LIVERPOOL. ' . L 006 670 392 7 A 001 436 882 3