make it an incredible Thing is so far from being impossible that it is very common of which there are so many Examples both ancient and modern that it is a wonder that Men who know any thing of History should overlook them Nero Caligula Domitian Maximinus Heliogabalus Commodus not only endeavoured but professed it and some of them were mightily concerned that it was not in their power to accomplish it No longer ago than the time of Philip the Second of Spain we have an Example of a Christian King no better than those Heathens Whoever reads the Story of his dealing with the Low Countries must confess that he design'd the utter Destruction of the Laws and Liberties of those People and that in particular he was resolved that not one Protestant should be left alive amongst them The same has been designed and effected in a great measure by the present French King against his Protestant Subjects and he must have a great share either of Impudence or Stupidity that can deny this Prince to have designed and purposely contrived that destruction and by the same Rule that a Man can be so wicked and barbarous as to design the destruction of a third or fourth part of his People he may design the destruction of the greatrr part if they will be such Fools as to suffer him to effect it SECT II. Shewing from the Obligations of his Religion that King James designed to destroy us IT is easie to demonstrate that every Roman Catholick King if he throughly understand his Religion and do in earnest believe the Principles of it is obliged if he be able to destroy his Protestant Subjects and that nothing can excuse him from doing it but want of power This is plain from the third Chapter of the fourth Lateran Council and from the Council of Constance in the Bull that confirms it read in the 45. Session if therefore a Popish King can persuade his Protestant Subjects to submit to him whilst he doth it he is obliged by his Principles to destroy them even when they are the greater part and Body of his Subjects Now King James was as is known to all the World a most zealous Roman Catholick and ingaged with that party of them that most zealously assert and practise this Doctrine of rooting out Hereticks He gave himself up intirely to the Conduct and guidance of Jesuits these were the Governors and Directors of his Conscience and he seemed to have no other Sentiments than such as they inspired into him If then these have prevailed with the French King whom some report to be a merciful Man in his own Nature and certainly a mighty Zealot for his Honor to break his most solemn established Laws violate his repeated Declarations and Oaths and in spite of all these to persecute and destroy his Protestant Subjects if the same have prevailed with the Duke of Savoy to do the like though as he is now convinced manifestly against his Interest nay almost to his own Destruction having lost thereby his best and most resolute and useful Subjects who would have served him most Cordially against France the Enemy he ought most to dread and which one day will swallow up his Dukedom if his Allies do not prevent it If lastly they have prevailed with the Emperor to involve himself in a War that has now lasted about twenty years and almost lost him his Empire rather than suffer a few Protestants to live quietly in Hungary Is not our late Kings being of the same Principles and under the Government of the same Directors of Conscience is not his fondness of France and his Alliance with it his affecting to imitate that King in every thing and above all his prosecuting the same if not worse methods towards the Protestants in Ireland that the King of France did with the Hugonots in his Dominions a clear and full proof of both Kings being in the same design to root out not only the Protestants of these Kingdoms but likewise of all Europe and that we must all have expected the same usage our Brethren met with in France Nor could our Kings Promises and Engagements be any greater assurances to us than those of the French King were to his Subjects It is observable that King James was more than ordinarily liberal in his Promises and Declarations of favour towards Protestants He boasted in a Declaration sent to England and dispersed by his Friends there dated May 8. 1689. at Dublin That his Protestant Subjects their Religion Priviledges and Properties were his especial care since he came into Ireland He often professed that he made no distinction between them and Roman Catholicks and both he here and his Party there did much extol his kind dealings with his Protestants in Ireland What those dealings truly were I shall have occasion to shew the representation of them made in England by him and his Party was no less false than his Promises were unsincere it being plain he had a reserve in them all It is a maxim as I take it in Law that if the King be deceived in his Grant though it pass the Great Seal yet it is void much more must all his verbal Promises be void if he be deceived in them Now if we consider who were the Directors of the Kings Conscience we ought not to wonder that he made no great scruple to evade them Doctor Cartwright one of his Instruments gives us a right notion of King James's Promises in his Sermon at Rippon where in effect he tells us that the Kings Promises are Donatives and ought not to be too strictly examined or urged and that we must leave his Majesty to explain his own meaning in them this Gloss pleased King James so well that he rewarded the Author with the Bishoprick of Chester though very unfit for that Character and shewed in all his actions that he meant to proceed accordingly and the humour run through the whole party whenever they were at a pinch and under a necessity of serving themselves by the assistance or credulity of Protestants they promised them fair and stuck at no terms with them but when their turn was served they would not allow us to mention their promise much less to challenge the performance 2. It plainly appeared that it was not in King James's power if he had been disposed himself to perform his promises to us The Priests told us that they would have our Churches and our Tyths and that the King had nothing to do with them and they were as good as their words nor could his Majesty upon trial hinder them One Mr. Moore preached before the King in Christs Church in the beginning of the year 1690. his Sermon gave great offence he told his Majesty that he did not do justice to the Church and Churchmen and amongst other things said that Kings ought to consult Clergymen in their temporal affairs the Clergy having a temporal as well as a spiritual right in the
consideration of their Friends whom their Enemies treated barbarously in their sight could prevail with them to give up themselves or their cause but by patience and resolution they wearied out their Enemies and instead of letting them make approaches to their Walls they enlarged their Out-works upon them and made them confess after a Siege of Fifteen Weeks that if the Walls of Derry had been made of Canvas they could not have taken it The same may be said of the People of Enniskillin who lived in a wild Country and untenable place surrounded with Enemies on every side and removed from almost all possibility of Succour being in the heart of Ireland yet they chose to run all Hazards and Extremities rather than trust their Faithless Enemies or contribute to the ruin of the Protestant Interest by yielding After almost all their Gentry of Estates or Note had left them or refused to joyn heartily with them they formed themselves into Parties and though in a manner without Arms and Ammunition yet by meer Resolution and Courage they worsted several Parties of the Enemy and almost naked recovered Arms and Ammunition out of their Hands and signalized themselves in many Engagements by which they not only saved themselves but likewise did considerable Service to the Protestants that were under the Power of King James for this Handful of Men by their frequent Incursions and carrying off Prisoners in every Engagement terrified even the Papists of Dublin into better Humour and more moderate Proceedings as to the Lives of Protestants that lived amongst them than perhaps they would otherwise have been inclined to They saw from this that their Game was not so sure as they imagined and the Prisoners taken by those of Enniskillin were Hostages for their Friends that lived in Dublin and the Humanity with which the Prisoners were used there was a Reproach on the Barbarity exercised by the other Party In short it appeared that it was neither Malice nor Factiousness that engaged them in Arms but meer Self-preservation and the Obligation of their Tenures and Plantations by which they were bound to keep Arms and Defend themselves and their Country from the power of the Popish Natives which were then Armed against them 13. But to return to the Lord Deputy's Proceedings in his new Levies in order to gain time and delude the Protestants he sent for the Lord Mountjoy out of the North after he had compounded the business of Derry and perswaded him to go with Chief Baron Rice to King James into France to represent to him the weakness of the Kingdom and the necessity to yield to the Time and wait a better opportunity to serve himself of his Irish Subjects The Lord Tyrconnel swore most solemnly that he was in earnest in this Message and that he knew the Court of France would oppose it with all their Power for said he that Court minds nothing but their own Interest and they would not care if Ireland were sunk to the Pit of Hell they are his own Words so they could give the Prince of Orange but Three Months diversion but he added if the King be perswaded to ruin his fastest Friends to do himself no Service only to gratify France he is neither so Merciful nor so Wise as I believe him to be If he recover England Ireland will fall to him in course but he can never expect to Conquer England by Ireland if he attempts it he ruins Ireland to do himself no kindness but rather to exasperate England the more against him and make his Restoration impossible and he intimated that if the King would not do it he would look on his Refusal to be forced on him by those in whose power he was and that he would think himself obliged to do it without his Consent 14. Every body told the Lord Mountjoy that this was all sham and trick and that the design was only to amuse the Protestants and get him who was the likeliest Man to head them out of the way But his Answer was that his going into France could have no influence on the Councils of England who were neither privy nor Parties to it and if they had a mind to reduce the Kingdom it was easy to do it without his Assistance that he must either go on this Message now the Deputy had put him upon it or enter into an actual War against him and against such as adhered to King Jame's Interest that he did not think it safe to do the latter having no order or encouragement from England but on the contrary all the Advice he received from thence was to be quiet and not to meddle that he was obliged to King James and neither Honour Conscience nor Gratitude would permit him in his present Circumstances to make a War on his own Authority against him whilst there was any possibility of doing the business without one Upon these considerations against the general Opinion of all the Protestants in Ireland he undertook the business and went away from Dublin about the Tenth of January 1688 having first had these general Concessions made him in behalf of the Protestants 1. That no more Commissions should be given out or new Men raised 2. That no more of the Army should be sent into the North 3. That none should be questioned for what was passed And 4. That no Private House should be garrison'd or disturb'd with Soldiers these he sent about with a Letter which will be found in the Appendix But he was no sooner gone but the Lord Deputy according to his usual Method of Falshood denyed these Concessions seemed mighty angry at the dispersing the Letter and refused to observe any of them The first News we heard from France was that the Lord Mountjoy was put into the Bastile which further exasperated the Protestants against King James and made them look on him as a Violater of Publick Faith to his Subjects As for the Lord Deputy this clearly ruined his Credit if ever he had any amongst them and they could never after be brought to give the least belief to what he said on the contrary they look'd on it as a sure sign that a thing was false if he earnestly affirmed it 15. But it was not yet in his power to master them he had not sufficiently Trained and Exercised his Men but as soon as he found that nothing was to be feared from England before the End of Summer and that he was assured King James would be with him soon he laid aside his Vizour and fell upon disarming them It was no difficult matter to do this for in the very beginning of King James's Reign the Protestant Militia had been dissolved and though they had bought their own Arms yet they were required to bring them into the Stores and they punctually obeyed the Order Such of the Protestant Army as remained in the Kingdom after their Cashiering were likewise without Arms being as I shewed before both disarmed and strip'd upon
that produced such Fatal Effects ought to be insisted upon or embraced If the King of France had not been too generous and too Christian a Prince were it not a sufficient Motive for him to reject the King in his Disgrace that upon those rotten Principles rejected his Alliance yet those and only those Principles will be made use of to perswade you there that you must not think of your own Restauration and Assurance at Home first but go into England to restore the Catholicks And if there be any other Adherents of the King 's there and that it will be time enough to think of your own Restauration after Which is the same as to say at Dooms-day For never a Catholick or other English will ever think or make a step nor suffer the King to make a step for your Restauration but leave you as you were hitherto and leave your Enemies over your Heads to crush you any time they please and cut you off Root and Branch as they now publickly declare And blame themselves they have not taken away your Lives along with your Estates long ago nor is there any Englishman Catholick or other of what Quality or Degree soever alive that will stick to sacrifice all Ireland for to save the least Interest of his own in England and would as willingly see all Ireland over inhabited by English of whatsoever Religion as by the Irish and yet by their fine Politicks they would perswade the Irish to come and save their Houses from burning whilst they leave their own on fire Which is no better than to look upon People as so many Fools when every body knows that Charity begins at Home that one's Charity for himself is the Rule and Measure of that he ought to have for his Neighbour diliges proximum tuum sicut teipsum Is it not a better and more Christian Politick for the King and all that are faithful unto him to restore first a whole Kingdom that stands out for him when all the rest failed to their Birth-right which they have been out of these Thirty Six Years only for being obstinately Loyal to his Father Brother and himself than to displease those who have been and are still Loyal and who can get any Condition they please from the Enemy to join with them by thus pleasing or trimming with those who never were or ever will be True or Faithful and when they are thus restored and no Enemies left in their Bowels that can do his Majesty or them any Harm then to go in a strong Body together with his Majesty into England join with all such that will prove Faithful and Loyal and so restore his Majesty to his Throne and each one to his right I would fain know from these trimming Politicks whether it be not securer and more honourable for the King to offer all fair Means and shew his Clemency to his People when he is in Condition to force them to what he pleases to exact of them than to be daily undervaluing himself by offering them all the fair Means imaginable which they slight and scorn because they seeing he has no Means to force them or do them Harm think he does all only out of fear and not by any sincere or true Affection And I would fain further know if it be not better and greater Policy for him to put the Kingdom of Ireland still so Loyal unto him upon the best and highest Foot both Ecclesiastical and Temporal he can contrive and yet granting it nothing but its natural Right and Due that it may be a Check upon the People of England who are ready every New-Moon to Rebel then to keep it still in a continual Slavery and full dependance on such perfidious and inconstant People and himself deprived of the support he can still have from thence against their Revolt I dare averr if Ireland were put upon such a foot by the King he shall never fear any Rebellion in England especially if Scotland be faithful to him and France a Friend all which can now be well contrived and concerted But when all is done I would fain yet know from those Politick Trimmers by what Law of God or Man Ecclesiastical or Politick they think Ireland is bound to be the Sacrifice and Victim of the Rebellion of England either for to hinder those turbulent People from Rebelling or for to Reconcile them to their Duty by giving them forsooth as Recompence the Estates of those unfortunate Catholicks and send themselves a begging I dare say no Catholick in England much less a Protestant who would so easily give his consent and advice that the Estates of the Irish Catholicks may serve as a Recompence for the English Rebels would willingly give a Plow-Land of his own Estate to Reconcile all the Rebels of England to their Duty if he were not afraid to lose his own whole Estate by the Rebellion and yet would advise to do to others what he would not have to be done to himself contrary to the great Rule and Maxim of Nature and Christianity Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris I would fain further know from this Politick Trimmer so large of other Peoples Goods and so sparing of his own if one Province in England had revolted against their King as the whole Kingdom does now and that the rest of the Provinces continued faithful would they think fit or prudent to give their Lands and Estates to those Rebels for laying down their Arms and go beg themselves Or would the King expect or desire it from them No sure but rather that they should take up Arms and joyn with His Majesty to reduce and punish such Rebels in lieu of recompencing them with the Loyal's Estates And is not that the case of the Irish Why do you not then judge alike Or if you do not look upon an Irish man as a Fool why will you have him do what you say is not fit for your self or other fellow-Subjects to do in like case And sure you must think him a Fool and after-wit as you use to say if he will be perswaded by your Trimming Politick to leave his own Estate to his Enemy and come to save yours who would but laugh at him the next day at the best for his folly If their great and long Vexations have not given the Irish better understanding and know how little regard all the English whatsoever have for them they deserve to be dealt with like Fools But who would think it were Prudent or Politick for the King to bring a great Body of Men out of Ireland into England or Scotland leaving behind him in Ireland a considerable strong Party of Phanaticks all Enemies whatever outward shew they make to the contrary to rise in Arms as soon as they see the King turn his Back to them and they get a supply from their fellow Rebels out of England which will not be wanting at any time and so cut the Throats
of all His Majesty's true Subjects in Ireland and shut himself up between two Potent Enemies in England and Ireland whereas by setting the Irish on a sure foot he always hath for a Refuge that Country which he will find to be far better than nothing and may be with time a means to come into England But Trimmers will tell him That it is no matter for His Majesty if he can gain the English Rebels by sacrificing Ireland to them who will inhabit it whether English or Irish nay I believe rather English and so make it an English Interest all along and he will be apt to believe it but it imports the Irish to look about them and consider if that be their Interest Add to all these considerations with many more and better you can think of an essential and indispensible one which is to please this King and Court of whom his Majesty now and you all depend solely and wholly by saving their Interest along with that of his Majesty and your own which cannot be done but by settling of Ireland upon the best and most advantageous foot that can be contrived with Reason and Justice 〈◊〉 it may be a Check upon England as Scotland formerly to keep it from Rebellion against their own Prince From trouble and Invasion upon France and a Tye upon the Kings of England hereafter to keep good Correspondence with France and keep Ireland in a flourishing happy condition and not to be Slaves to all the People and Scums of England If 48 or other were loath to press any such Conditions or Proposals on the King they may make use of the French Minister Count D'Avaux who is with him as a good Adviser and for to manage his Masters Interest I think it may be well and rationally proposed if by the King of France's means such an advantageous settlement may be procured for the Nation and that he would be as a Guarranty or Protection of it to give him as well for his assurance or Guarranty as for the payment of what he advances for the King and Country some Sea-ports in Ireland as you have hinted in your last This is what now comes into my head upon this Subject which M. B. does not neglect to insinuate and imprint as much as he can though not well in his health into the Heads and Hearts of the Ministers and People about Court Though 27 gave no Power or Credit to any body here to speak of Business but to his Son-in-Law L. W. in Cypher 110. but M. B. does it privately upon his own account and acquaintance with the People without thwarting him in any of his Ways But you know what one says tanquam potestatem habeâ—s carries more weight than what he says as a private man And therefore I think it were not amiss that 48. from himself or by the said French Ministers means may get order from 27 that 92 may be heard and Credited at Court as to the Concerns of 78 which to prevent and hinder some that would not have it put into 27's head as 't is thought to desire 92 to follow him as soon as he were well in his health along with 23 and before he saw himself to tell him so knowing he was sick gave orders to 18's fellow traveller whom I added to the Cypher thus 112 to tell him so which he has perform'd only by another Master Barry belonging to 34 for he never came himself to see him which I think was not prudently done of him setting civility aside for they may communicate one to another what may be best to do with 86 for the service of 78 and certainly without any vanity 92 knew better how to manage that interest with 86 than he or any of his profession there But I find some do suspect the sincerity of that Man for the Publick Interest I know not if they wrong him but one thing I know he does not like to see any of 64 or 65 have any hand in Business Of which I think I gave you once already a hint from 87 when he and 98 were there and I cannot tell but it may be he that might have given 27 that advice of drawing 92 from hence who desires not to be but where he may be most useful to his Religion King and Country and if any necessity may be of his Vote there he can send you a Procuration in blank if he be thought more useful or necessary here 'T is now high time I suppose you should ask me what is this great and solid settlement I would have for Ireland To which I answer That you and others there likely know best But that I may speak my own little sense on the matter I say I would have two or three of the Irish Nation to be still of the Kings Council and one of them Secretary of State for the Affairs of Ireland as Scotland has I would have some of their Nobility to be of the Bedchamber by reason both of Honour and Interest I would have all the Employments Civil and Military given to the Natives of the Country Unless the Country thought â—it to introduce some Strangers for better advantage and improvements I would have them restored to their Estates both Spiritual and Temporal usurped by the Cromwellians or under the Title of being Protestants yet with that Proviso for the Spiritual that a Competent Pension should be allowed to the Protestant Possessor during his Life for he can pretend no longer Lease of it or that he should give the Catholick Bishop or Incumbenâ— a competent Pension if it were thought fitter to let him enjoy his Possession during Life I would have the Commerce and Traffick settled with all the Advantage due to a 〈◊〉 Nation and Subjects of which the Merchants 〈◊〉 inform best without any other dependence on or relation to England but what Subjects ought to the King and Crown of which I would not derogate in the least but nothing to do with the Merchants and People of England no more than with those of France Spain and Holland But my Politick Trimmer will say this is of a dangerous consequence for England and for the King in relation to it for they will say the King intends to establish the same Government amongst them both in Spirituals and Temporals that he has in Ireland To which I answer in the first place That we are not here to manage or speak for the Interest of England which would not fail to speak and stand for it self Secondly I say That the Consequence from Ireland's Case to England's does not follow For in Ireland the Catholick Party is much more numerous and strong than the Protestant So that it is for the King's Interest there to favour them or at least do them Justice But in England where the number of Protestants and other Sectaries is by much the greater he can order things otherwise without any Contradiction for â—â—om the one to the other the Consequence does
to what he ought and this was a great Discouragement to Trading The Complaints of all People in general as well as of Merchants were great on the account of Exactions of the Officers of the Revenue who were grown up to a high degree of Exorbitance which with many other Abuses in the Kingdom proceeded from the long Disuse of Parliaments the inferior Officers being freed from that fear for twenty four years did forget that there were any to whom they were accountable besides their own Masters and therefore not only exacted upon and oppressed the Subjects but likewise treated them with insufferable Insolence while the Commissioners or Farmers strained and perverted the Laws for their own profit or to ingratiate themselves with the Courtiers on whose Favour they depended 6. There was a fourth thing that more peculiarly ruined the Protestant Trade and 't was thus the King's Revenue in Ireland was so considerable a part of each Man's Estate that most of the current Coin in the Kingdom came into the Treasury once in a year either for Hearth Money Crown Rents or some other Duties And the King having turned Protestants out of all profitable Employments and out of the Army and put in Papists his Revenue was paid out again to them and ought to have circulated indifferently amongst his Subjects as it used to do But so great was the Malice of these new Officers to Protestants that they combined amongst themselves to let them have as little of it as was possible and therefore where-ever they could lay it out with one of their own Religion they did it And very few Protestants ever received a Groat of their Money as the Citizens of Dublin can universally witness When they wanted Money they came to the Protestant Shops where they abused and affronted and terrified them if they refused to trust calling them Dogs Whigs Rebels and Traitors swearing with many Oaths that they would be revenged on them But if they had ready Money tho they had been formerly Customers to Protestants and in their Books they never came near them any more This Practice was so universal amongst them that even the Women learn'd it particularly the Lady Tyrconnel's Daughters for thus the Lady Ross and her Sister Dillon treated several Shopkeepers falling furiously upon them in the former Terms because their Servants refused to trust By the like rudeness the Exchange was intirely ruined neither Buyers nor Sellers being able to keep in it by reason of the Insolencies of the new Popish Officers who walked in it affronted and assaulted every Body or extorted their Goods from them for nothing the Shopkeepers not daring to refuse to trust them By this means the rich Shopkeepers were driven away and most of the considerable Shops shut up even in the principal Streets of the City long before we heard any News of the Prince of Orange As soon as the Earl of Tyrconnel came to the Government there was almost a Desolation in the Town and there were at least fourteen or fifteen Trades that had nothing to do the Government knew very well that this would be the Effect of their Proceedings and that the Trade Manufactures and Improvements of the Kingdom must cease if they went on at the Rate they did but they were so far from being concerned at it that they rather seemed well pleased with it 7. And to ruin our Trade intirely they suffered and connived at the Transportation of our Wool to France a thing so fatal to England as well as to Ireland that the Law has made it Felony to be punished with Death The new Mayor of Gallway Mr. Kyrovan was catched in the very Fact and the Delivery of a considerable Cargo sent by him into France was fully proved for which he ought to have been hanged but the Lord Deputy Tyrconnel notwithstanding all his Oaths and pretended Displeasure when the Mischief of it was laid before him quickly shewed this to be only a Copy of his Countenance for he not only granted him a Pardon and remitted his Forfeiture of about 10000 l. but as a further Mark of his Favour he continued him in his Mayoralty for another year Thus the Trade of the Kingdom was ruined and the Protestants who with vast Hazard and Charge carried it on had it left to their Choice whether they would stay here and starve or remove themselves to another Kingdom and I believe no Body will wonder if they had no great affection for a Government that designedly brought this hardship upon them 8. It must be acknowledged that King James did not only ruin the Protestant Trade but that he went a great way in destroying the Trade of the Roman Catholicks also It is well known that the Citizens of Gallway are the most considerable Roman Catholick Traders in Ireland many of whom had purchased Estates under the Acts of Settlement and Explanation and must therefore fall together with them They foresaw their own Ruin in the Repeal of thâ—se Acts and petitioned the Parliament that Consideration might be had of their Purchases and Improvements but this reasonable Request was denyed them those Acts were repealed and by their Repeal left the most considerable Roman Catholick Traders in Ireland without Estates or Credit to follow their Trade or to answer their Correspondents abroad I might add here the further steps made by King James towards ruining the Protestant Trade by his coining Brass Money by his lodging it in Protestants Hands seising their Stocks and Commodities whereby they were utterly disabled to trade whilst Papists were not only spared but had the Protestants Goods put into their Hand But these with the other Influences the Brass Money had to destroy us will be more proper when we come to consider the Invasions made on our Properties SECT VII VI. King James's destructive Proceedings against the Liberties of his Protestant Subjects 1. THere is no worldly thing more valuable to Man than Liberty Many prefer it to life and few can live long without it 'T is the Darling of our Laws and there is nothing of which they are more tender But the Protestants of Ireland from the very beginning of King James's Reign had their Liberties invaded and at last intirely destroyed 'T was observable that at his coming to the Crown he made no Proclamation for a general Pardon as has been usual with Kings neither did he pass any Act of Grace in his first Parliament which gave a fair opportunity to the Papists of Ireland to revenge themselves on their Protestant Neighbors No sooner had they gotten Judges and Juries that would believe them but they began a Trade of Swearing and ripping up what they pretended their Neighbors had said of His late Majesty whilst Duke of York some years before especially in time of the Popish Plot. The new Justices of the Peace were eager to exercise their Offices and therefore on the slightest occasion bound over and committed their Protestant Neighbors many times without any reason
whole Troop of Horse on Two or Three Protestant Inns for some Months together till they wearied them out of their Trade drove away their Guests and broke them Sometimes they would compound for a Sum of Mony to be gone and then immediately send another Party as bad as themselves to succeed them by which means they ruined all the little Towns about Dublin and broke the Inhabitants The very first thing they did after they had gotten into the Army was to set a rate on Diet on hay and on Oats not above of what it cost the Innkeeper a thing to which they had been Strangers before but it seemed tolerable in respect of the Free Quarters to which they pretended afterwards though in effect it came to the same thing for they went away and never paid a Farthing for Meat or Drink or any other conveniencies allowed them in their Quarters only some gave Bills which were never paid nay they were not content to have their Meat and Drink and Quarters free but they so ordered the matter that their Quarters were generally better to them than their Pay They commonly had Billets on Three or Four Houses apiece every one of which paid them a certain rate per Week one private Soldier bragg'd that he had Fifteen Quarters the rate paid out of them was according to the quality of the House and the Person that had the Billet the very least was 18 d. or 12 d. per Week and the allowance to the Officers was proportional The truth of this is notorious to all in Dublin and is demonstrable from the number of Publick Houses which were obliged to quarter Men compared with the number of Men quartered in them The Houses were double in number to the Soldiers and yet every House had one or Two Soldiers at the least some Three some Four quartered on them for which they paid Weekly and yet so unreasonable were these Creatures that this would not satisfie them but they would go up and down the Country Stealing and Plundering Meat and Drink and forcing the poor Protestants to bring forth their whole Stock of Provisions of which they used to eat what they pleased and then destroy the rest that the Damned Whigs that is in their constant Dialect the Protestants might not have the benefit of it It was in vain to grumble or complain instead of remedy they were sure to have the injury redoubled upon them If any ventured to prosecute a notorious Robbery committed by a Soldier their Officers appeared in the Court for them and openly threatned the Jury if they found them Guilty Thus Colonel Luttrel afterwards Governour of Dublin appeared at Killmainham and brought off his Soldiers who were guilty of a Robbery by threatning the Jury and telling them that it should be worse for them if they found his Men guilty that the King's Souldiers must not be discouraged and must be allowed when in want to take from those that had meaning the Protestants and by his Authority he saved them being not only an Officer but one of the Justices of the Sessions And in the very Council Allbaville publickly owned that the Protestants durst not complain except they had a mind to be Massacred I use his Words 7. The Priests and Fryars were no less oppressive than the Soldiers they Multiplied in Dublin to Three or Four Hundred at the least they were well Fed and well Cloathed there were not more Lusty Plump Fellows in the Town than they insomuch that they were remarkable for it and reckoning that they consumed but Twenty Pound apiece one with another which was the least they cost the Town Eight Thousand Pound per Annum which is near Four times more than all the Protestant Clergy in Town received they built about Fourteen Chappels and Convents in Dublin and set up Two Nunneries all which came to a great Sum and a great part of it came out of the Protestants Pockets for they were such experienced Beggars that none escaped them and so importunate that none durst refuse them if any did they must expect to be the next who were Robbed They must be content to be Accused and Committed either on some secret Whisper or false Accusation The Insolency of the Friars may be guessed at by their Carriage to the Lord Primate Boyle Two of them as I had before occasion to remark came to demand Mony of him and because he refused them they procured a Warrant from Sir Thomas Hacket to commit his Son in Law and Nephew but others were forced to buy their Peace by large Contributions to them SECT X. The Progress King James made in destroying the Personal Estates of Protestants after the Revolution in England 1. THus the case stood with the Protestants of Ireland long before the Revolution happened in England Their Rents and Receipts were stopt their Expences multiplied and many were driven from their Houses and Farms their Trade decayed and their Towns and Villages destroyed by Robberies and Free Quarters but as soon as the new Levies upon pretence of resisting the Prince of Orange were made the mischief became much more universal and intolerable whereas before only Inns and Publick Houses together with Brewers Bakers Butchers and Chandlers were obliged to quarter Soldiers this Burden was now extended to all Gentlemen of the best quality if Protestants none being exempted this happened soon after the Lord Mountjoys going to France though the Lord Deputy as I noted before did possitively engage to him to the contrary in his Articles these new Guests committed all manner of rudeness and insolencies in their Quarters and drove away as many of the Gentry and Citizens as could steal a Passage or procure a License to be gone by bribing the Secretary Sir William Domvile a Gentlemen of about 80 Years of Age who had been Attorny General near Thirty Years as has been said had his House filled with them they treated the Old Gentleman so rudely and barbarously that all concluded it hastened his Death Some Roman Catholicks that were not known to belong to the Army would come to the Houses of Protestants and agree with them for their best Rooms and suitable Attendance and when they were to go away and should have paid instead of Mony they would present a Billet and then triumph in the trick they had put on their Landlords There are in Dublin about Seven Thousand Houses and it was very rare that King James had Four Thousand of the Army in Town and yet they ordered it so that every House had more or less quartered upon it Some Gentlemen had Ten some Twenty nay some Thirty quartered on them if there was no other Room they turned the Master or Mistriss of the Family out of their own Beds and sent both them and their Lodgers to provide for themselves not only Soldiers were thus quartered but likewise all Gentlemen Priests Fryars and some Noblemen that came with King James from France together with their Servants and
Retinue All the Houses in Town were taken up with such Guests who were often treacherous Spies on their Hosts and reckoned themselves very kind if they did not procure them to be clapt up by a false Information The Story of one Gentleman is remarkable related to a good Family in England of his Name as he pretended which was Brown he lodged at one Mr. Brocks from whom he stole several things of value and sold them Mr. Brock found him out but he thought to have prevented the discovery by Swearing Treason against him which he did before Chief Justice Nugent but the Justice of the Peace who took the Examinations of the Theft having gotten some of the things into his custody traced them so clearly to the Thief that there was no denying it The Gentleman upon this to prevent further Prosecution was forced to certify under his Hand that he was prejured in what he had Sworn before the Lord Chief Justice How heavy these things fell on the Citizens may be conjectured from this the Rents of the City were considerable and many Gentlemens Estates consisted in them But now they thought themselves happy if their Tennants would stay in their Houses and keep them in Repair though they paid no Rents at all In the best inhabited Places of the Town where Houses about Two Years before yielded Sixty Pound apiece they were well contented if they got Ten Pound or the Ground-Rent but it was a chance if they got so much 2. Thus Estates both in City and Country were rendred Fruitless to Protestants but yet whilst the Cattle and the great Manufactories and Staple Commodities of the Kingdom were in their Hands whilst they had the Wool the Hides the Tallow and Butter which bring in all the Mony that is in the Kingdom all the former Arts would not have undone them and therefore some means must be used to get their Stocks from them it seemed not decent for the Government to Seize on them as they Seized on our Horses and Arms it was not thought fit to give a positive Order for doing it the truth is there was no need of it it was sufficient to connive at the new raised Men to have it effectually done the Priests had made every Man that came to Mass to get a Skean and half Pike at least and they whispered to the People that it was not for nothing that they were thus Armed They assured them that whatever Injury they did their Protestant Neighbours would be forgiven them only they advised them not to shed Blood Sometimes they went along to see it effectually done and sometimes they imposed it as a Pennance on such as came to them for Absolution to rob some of their Protestant Neighbours This may seem improbable but we have had credible Informations of it and it will not seem so unlikely if we consider that the Priests often led them out to these Plunders and stood by whilst they committed them that all these Robbers are absolved by them without restoring one Sheep which could not be if the Priests reckoned the taking and keeping them a Sin And lastly that some of the greatest of these Robberies were committed in Lent when they do their Pennances and eat no Flesh and therefore they could not be tempted at that time to Steal and Kill in order to eat For in some places they killed whole Flocks and left them dead on the Place These Robberies began in November 1688 and by the end of March next after they left hardly one Protestant in Ireland a Cow or Sheep Ireland has always been famous for its Pastures and the Riches of it has always consisted in Cattle of which many Gentlemen had vast Stocks for a Man to have Six Eight or Ten Thousand Sheep was very common some had more even to Twenty Thousand All these were gone in Three Months to the value of at least a Million of Mony which if rightly managed would with the Cows and Bullocks of which there were likewise great Herds have furnished an Army of an Hundred Thousand Men with Flesh enough for Three Years Those who took them from the Protestants destroyed them without consideration they killed them by Fifties and Sixties and threw them into Bog-pits they took off their Skins and left their Carcases to rot and made all the hovoâ—k of them imaginable 3. Nor was the Government at all displeased at this but on the contrary did plainly encourage them no Complaints made against them were minded none of them were punished or called to account for it and there happened two or three remarkable things that plainly discovered it to be their design that the Protestants should lose all For First when these Robberies began some Protestants got together overtook the Robbers rescued the Prey from them and killed some of them this being done in two or three places they were frightened and quiet for some time but the Lord Deputy saw that if this were suffered his design would not take and therefore ordered our Arms to be Seized this was the true motive of his taking away so suddenly the Arms of the Protestants These Arms he put into the Hands of those very Robbers whom the Protestants in the defence of their Cattle had beaten and wounded and whose Relations they had killed who now knowing that their Adversaries could make no further Resistence vowed Revenge and perfected what they had begun not leaving them a Beast and forcing them to flee for their Lives and then they plundered their Houses as well as their Cattle and left them nothing that could be found with them Nay so far did the Government Countenance them that they had suffered those Men who had thus defended their Cattle to be indicted and Bills were found against them who had killed some of those Robbers in the actual fact of Robbing to do which they are empowered and ought to have been rewarded by a particular Statute of Ireland 4. But Secondly it appears that the Robbing of the Protestants was designed by the Government from the Confession of Chief Justice Nugent who boasted of it as a piece of Policy and own'd that they could not have done their work without it and at the Assizes at Cork publickly called such Robbers necessary Evils and from the beginning he took care not to discourage them The forementioned Proclamation February 21 1686 acknowledges that the Robberies were occasioned by the carelessness and neglect of the Civil Magistrate And Thirdly That it was a meer design to ruin the Protestants is manifest from this that as soon as their Stocks were gone and those who took them began to rob their Papist Neighbours the Government put a stop to it and issued out a Commission to hang them which accordingly was executed at Wicklow and the Naas and several other Places and that it might be effectually executed they joined some Protestants in it which might as well have been done before and there is no reason that it was
same any thing in this or the said Act of Repeal to the contrary notwithstanding And it is further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all Letters Patents hereafter to be granted of any Offices or Lands whatsoever shall contain in the same Letters Patents a Clause requiring and compelling the said Patentees to cause the said Letters Patents to be enrolled in the Chancery of Ireland within a time therein to be limited and all Letters Patents wherein such Clause shall be omitted are hereby declared to be utterly void and of none effect Provided always that if your sacred Majesty at any time before the first Day of November next by Letters Patents under the Broad Seal of England if reâ—â—ding there or by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of Ireland during your Majesties abode here shall grant your gracious Pardon or Pardons to any one or more of the Persons herein before mentioned or intended to be attainted who shall return to their Duty and Loyalty that then and in such case such Person and Persons so pardoned shall be and is hereby excepted out of this present Act as if they had never been therein named or thereby intended to be attainted and shall be and are hereby acquitted and discharged from all Attainders Penalties and Forfeitures created or inflicted by this Act or the said Act of Repeal excepting such Share or Proportion of their real or personal Estate as your Majesty shall think fit to except or reserve from them any thing in this present Act or in the said Act of Repeal contained to the contrary notwithstanding Provided always that every such Pardon and Pardons be pursuant to a Warrant under your Majesties Privy Signet and Sign manual and that no one Letters Patents of Pardon shall contain above one Person and that all and every such Letters Patents of Pardon and Pardons shall be enrolled in the Rolls Office of your Majesties High Court of Chancery in this Kingdom at or before the last Day of the said Month of November or in Default thereof to be absolutely void and of none Effect any thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding Provided likewise that if any Person or Persons so pardoned shall at any time after the Date of the said Pardon join with or aid or assist any of your Majesties Enemies or with any Rebels in any of your Majesties Dominions and be thereof convict or attainted by any due Course of Law that then and in such Case they shall forfeit all the Benefit and Advantage of such Pardon and shall be again subject and liable to all the Penalties and Forfeitures inflicted on them and every of them by this or the said Act of Repeal as if such Pardon or Pardons had never been granted Provided always that nothing in this Act contained shall extend or be construed to extend to or vest in your Majesty any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments or other Interest of any ancient Proprietor who by the said Act of Repeal is to be restored to his ancient Estate but that all such Person and Persons and all their Right Title and Interest are and shall be saved and preserved according to the true Intent and Meaning of the said Act any thing in these Presents to the contrary notwithstanding Copia vera Richard Darling Cleric in Offic. M ri Rot. The Perswasions and Suggestions the Irish Catholicks make to his Majesty Supposed to be drawn up by Talbot titular Arch-bishop of Dublin and found in Col. Talbot's House July 1. 1671. 1. THAT the Rebellion in Anno 1641. was the Act of a few and out of fear of what was doing in England That they were provoked and driven to it by the English to get their Forfeitures That they were often willing to submit to the King and did it effectually Anno 1648 and held up his Interest against the Usurper who had murdered his Father till 1653. After which time they served his Majesty in Foreign Parts till his Restauration 2. That they acquiesce in his Majesty's Declaration of Novemb. 30. 1660. And are willing that the Adventurers and Souldiers should have what is therein promised them but what they and others have more may be resumed and disposed of as by the Declaration 3. They desire for what Lands intended to be restored them shall be continued to the Adventurers and Souldiers that they may have a Compensation in Money out of his Majesty's new Revenues of Quit-Rents payable by the Adventurers and Souldiers The Hearth Money and Excise being such Branches as were not in 1641 and hope that the one will ballance the other 4. They say That his Majesty has now no more need of an Army than before 1641 That the remainder of his Revenue will maintain now as well as then what Forces are necessary 5. They desire to be restored to Habitations and Freedom within Corporations 1. That the General Trade may advance 2. That Garisons and Cittadels may become useless 3. That they may serve his Majesty in Parliament for bettering his Revenue and crushing and securing the Seditious in all Places 6. They desire to be Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace c. for the Ends and Purposes aforesaid and to have the Power of the Civil and Ordinary Militia 7. They also desire to be form'd into a Militia and to be admitted to be of the standing Army 8. That their Religion is consonant to Monarchy and implicit Obedience That they themselves have actually serv'd his Majesty in Difficulties That they have no other way to advantage themselves than by a strict adherence to the King That they have no other Refuge whereas many of his Majesty's Subjects do lean hard another way 9. That the Roman Catholicks are six to one of all others that of the said one to six some are Atheists and Neuters who will profess the Roman Catholick Religion others devoutly given will affect the same course that the rest may have their Liberty of Conscience and may be corrected in case they abuse it 10. That the Roman Catholicks having the full Power of the Nation they can at all times spare his Majesty an Army of Sixty thousand Men there being Twelve hundred thousand Souls in Ireland and so consequently an Hundred and fifty thousand between sixteen and sixty Years old Which Forces if allowed to Trade shall have Shipping to transport themselves when his Majesty pleaseth 11. That they have a good Correspondence abroad for that great numbers of their Nation are Souldiers Priests and Merchants in esteem with several great Princes and their Ministers 12. That the Toleration of the Roman Catholicks in England being granted and the Insolence of the Hollanders taken down a Confederacy with France which can influence England as Scotland can also will together by God's Blessing make his Majesty's Monarchy Absolute and Real 13. That if any of the Irish cannot have their Lands in specie but Money in lieu as aforesaid some of them may transport themselves into America possibly
your Revenue to boot And tho no King can well avoid being impos'd on by his Servants I believe it in my Conscience that the present Managers of your Revenues in Ireland think it no Sin to rob a Popish King of his Due Hence it is that there is an universal Agreement and Combination betwixt the ..... Merchants ..... we will by way of Retaliation take care that no Catholick be admitted into the Civil This Combination makes your Letters for Civil Places the Reversion of Outlawries and for Catholicks being admitted free of Corporations so little regarded in Ireland by those that past for Tories here c. yet publickly espouse the whiggish Quarrel the other side the Water I beseech you Sir consider that however your Kingly Prudence may prevail with You to dissemble Your Resentments of the Non-compliance and Disobedience of Your stiff-neck'd English Protestant Subjects You ought to exert Your Regal Authority in Ireland a Kingdom more peculiarly Your own where ..... month before or at least not outlive Your Majesty a month for if that poor Nation be not made considerable during Your Reign his Lordship must not hope for the Favour my Lord Stafford had of being legally Murdered by a formal Trial but may well expect all Formality laid aside to be sacrificed to the unbridled Fury of the lawless Rabble and dissected into little Morsels as the De-Wits were in Holland And truly the Fanaticks threaten no less and it were to be wished they cried out upon more of Your Ministers than they do at present for You may take it for granted they will never speak well of Your real Friends ..... other will endeavour to marr and the Work will go on like that of Babel confusedly for want of good Intelligence among the Workmen Sir You are under God the great Architect that will with the Blessing of Jesus live to see the glorious Structure fully finish'd In order to which 't is requisite You lose no time in making Ireland intirely Your own that England and Scotland may follow You are gone too far if You do not go farther not to advance is to lose Ground Delays are dangerous and all the World allow Expedition and Resolution to ..... if this were once compassed France could no more hope upon a falling out with England to take advantage of the diversity of our Sects and what may spring thence Domestick Jars and Divisions Sir Notwithstanding the Doubts and Fears of Trimming Courtiers and some Cow-hearted Catholicks You may live long enough to undertake and crown this great Work with the Grace and Assistance of the same Almighty God that defeated the Rebels in the West and made them instrumental in settling You in Your Throne and that permitted this Country to be lately sprinkled with the Blood of Martyrs which must infallibly contribute to the Conversion of Souls in this Kingdom for the Blood of Martyrs is and ever was the fruitful Seed of the Church The Seed is sown in many parts of England and the Harvest will without doubt be great and plentiful but the Workmen too too few if You do not provide your self with Catholick Privy-Counsellors Ministers Judges Officers Civil and Military and Servants As to the Choice of which I will mind Your Majesty of the Advice given Moses by Jethro his Father-in-Law in the following words Provide out of all the People able Men such as fear God Men of Truth hating Covetousness When Your Counsellors and Ministers are thus qualified and not till then You may hope to do what becomes a James the Second And to furnish Your self with able Men You must follow Your Royal Father's Advice to the Prince of Wales that is With an equal Eye and impartial Hand distribute Favours and Rewards to all Men as You find them for their real Goodness both in Ability and Fidelity worthy and capable of them Such as fear God as the truly Wisest will advise You to the best Measure for promoting God's Glory Men of Truth will like Tyrconnel serve You faithfully without trimming tho with never so apparent Hazard to their Fortunes and Lives And Men hating Covetousness will not betray Your Interest be corrupted nor sell Places to such Undermanagers of Your Revenue as buying them for a Spill in gross will be sure to retail them at Your Cost a Practice much in use here and in Ireland at present where few or no Places can be had without Bribes by which means You are cheated in both Kingdoms of an Hundred thousand Pounds a Year in the opinion of understanding honest and indifferent Judges for no Man will give a Shilling surreptitiously for an Office but with a design to cheat You of Twenty To prevent which there is no Remedy but that of employing smart Men of known Integrity to be chosen without Favour or Affection that will be content with their respective Salleries and imploy their utmost Industry to improve not imbezel Your Revenues the Ornaments of Peace and Sinews of War SIR These Kingdoms are of Opinion Popery will break in upon them and it were a pity to disappoint them and when You take effectual Measures Your trimming Courtiers will unmask and come over nay half the Kingdom will be converted of it self What I have here presumed to write is the effect of my unfeigned Zeal for the Good of Religion and Your Majesties Interest which I hope will induce You to pardon a plain-dealing and loving Subject that daily beseeches God to bless Your Majesty and these Kingdoms with a long and prosperous Reign and with numerous long-liv'd Male Issues and to inspire You with wholsom Thoughts that may direct You to the performance of such Heroick Actions as may gain You immortal Fame in this World and eternal Glory in the next Lord Clarendon's Speech in Council on his leaving the Government of Ireland My Lords IT has been sometimes used to make Speeches upon these Occasions but I know my insufficiency for that Task and therefore shall trouble your Lordships with very few words In the first place my Lords I give your Lordships many thanks for the Civilities I have received from every one of you and for the great Assistance I have had from you in the discharge of my Duty here I know your Lordships can witness for me that I never desir'd your concurrence in any thing that was not for the King's Service I do again beg your Lordships to accept of my Thanks with this assurance that I shall give the King an account when I have the honour to kiss his Hand of your Lordships great readiness and diligence to advance his Service My Lord Deputy I shall not long detain your Lordship The King hath placed your Excellency in a very great Station has committed to your Care the Government of a great and flourishing Kingdom of a Dutiful Loyal and Obedient People It is extreamly to be lamented that there are such Feuds and Animosities among them which I hope your Excellency's Prudence with