Thirdly From Orders about Garrisoning Mansion-Houses Sending the Protestant Owners to the Goal who must never have expected either their Houses or Lives if King James had prevailed ibid. Estates of Absentees disposed of and promised to Papists p. 162 20. Objection That King James did not know the Consequence of Repealing the Acts of Settlement ibid. Answer First King James understood them better than any and held ten thousand pounds a year by them when Duke of York ibid. Secondly King James would not hear the Protestants plead at the Bar against the Repeal p. 163 Thirdly Bishop of Meath in a Speech in the House set forth the ill Consequences at large ibid. Fourthly The Protestants opposed it from Point to Point ibid. Fifthly Protestants were resolved to use their utmost that the ill intents of their Adversaries might appear the more p. 164 Sixthly Lord chief Justice Keating's Paper given to King James in behalf of Purchasers rejected ibid. 21. Protestants lost more in Ireland than all that favour King James's Cause in England are worth p. 165 Sect. 13. Eighthly The danger into which King James brought the lives of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland ibid. 1. At King James's Coming no General Pardon though it had been his Interest in respect of England ibid. 2. Is not chargeable with particular Murders further than by arming such Men as would be guilty of them p. 166 3. The Governments Design upon our Lives ibid. First by feigned Plots and Protecting the Perjured Witnesses Instance in Spikes Case The Dumb Friar p. 167 Secondly By wresting Facts to Treason Nugent declar'd Protestants having Arms to be so p. 168 Thirdly By violating Articles Mr. Brown of Cork Town of Bandon Earl of Inchiquin Captain Boyle Sir Thomas Southwell and his Party Lord Mountjoy's Soldiers Fort of Culmore King James's approach to Derry Captain Dixy Kenaght Castle p. 169 170 Fourthly By violating Protections p. 171 Protestants of Down p. 171 Protestants brought before Derry by General Rosen Bishop of Meath applyed to King James about it King James excused Rosen p. 173 174 Captain Barton of Carrick Mac Cross p. 175 Fifthly By private Orders and Proclamations with the penalty of Death Several Instances p. 178 Sixthly By the Act of Attainder Abstract of it Archbishops 2 Duke 1 Temporal Lords 63 Ladies 22 Bishops 7 Knights 85 Clergymen 83 Esquires and Gentlemen 2182 2445 p. 179 180 Not equalled by the Proscription at Rome Great part Attainted on Common Fame p. 182 Observations on the Act ibid. 1. Leaves no room for the King to Pardon ibid. 2. The Act concealed Out of the Power of an English Parliament to Repeal it by the Act for cutting off Ireland from England p. 183 3. The hast in drawing it up ibid. 4. Many left out particularly the Collegians and how ibid. 5. Applications in behalf of Protestants made their Case worse p. 184 6. Allowing of time to prove Innocency a meer Collusion ibid. 1. None knew what time was given ibid. 2. None knew what they would call Innocency Instance Desmineer and Ginnery ibid. 3. The Embargo on this side would not let them know on the other side 4. The Embargo on the other side would not let them come hither 5. To have come would have been an unwise Venture p. 177 4. Objection That few Protestants lost their Lives p. 178 Answer 1. When it is known how many have perished they will not appear few ibid. 2. The Irish Papists would not venture at much Murthering till they were past an after Reckoning they feared such Cruelty would be revenged on Roman Catholicks in England ibid. 3. Protestants were cautious not to provoke them and were true to one another p. 179 4. We dont know what would have been done with Attainted Persons ibid. 5. Protestants if Obnoxious absconded or escaped ibid. 6. The Support of King James's Army depended on the Protestants p. 179 Scotch Officers that came here wondered to find how Protestants were used having heard so much the contrary at home p. 180 The same given out in England Pity but those who believed and forwarded it had been sent hither ibid. The Irish doing what they did in their Circumstances what would they have done if left to their swing ibid. Sect. 14. Ninthly The method King James took to destroy our Religion p. 181 1. The Attempts against our Lives and Fortunes no sudden thing but the result of a long Design for which Tirconnel had 20000 l. per annum ibid. 2. King James pretended Liberty of Conscience but not to be expected from a Roman Catholick ibid. 3. The Laws and Coronation Oath secured our Religion The Clergy had merited from King James by opposing the Exclusion and disobliged their People p. 182 4. At his coming to the Crown the Roman Catholicks declared that his Promises to the Church were not intended for Ireland p. 183 Sect. 15. First By taking away our Schools and Universities p. 184 1. Lord Tirconnell put the Schools contrary to Law into the hands of Papists ibid. 2. And would have put in Popish Fellows into the College ibid. 3. Stopt the College Pension of 388 l. per annum from Easter 1688. turned out the Fellows and Students seized on the Library and Furniture p 193 4. Forbid three of them on pain of Death not to meet together p. 194 5. King James did not fill up vacant Bishopricks and Livings in his Gift ibid. 6. And allowed nothing for supplying the Cures p. 195 7. All the Bishops and Livings in the Kingdom would soon have come into the Kings hands p. 196 8. This not the effect of our Constitution the same in Popish Countries Thirty five Bishopricks void in France in 1688. King James's Ungratefulness to the Protestant Clergy ibid. Sect. 16. Secondly By taking away the Maintenance of the Clergy p. 197 1. Book-Mony denyed by the Papists from King James's coming to the Crown ibid. 2. Priests put in for Tythes Hardly recovered by Protestants p. 198 3. An Act of their Parliament applied Papists Tythes to the Priests ibid. 4. And Protestants Tythes too when the Priests had the Benefices ibid. 5. The Priests forc'd into Possession of Glebes where there were any p. 199 6. Protestant Clergy little better for the Tythes left to them Protestants had little Tythings left Priests by Dragoons seized what there was never wanted Pretences ibid. 7. House-Mony in Corporations taken away by their Parliament Pleaded against before the House of Lords but in vain p. 200 8. The same took away Ulster Table of Tythes p. 201 9. Duties payable to the King out of Livings were exacted wholly from the Protestant Incumbents though they had nothing left to them of their Livings their Persons seized and sent to Goal ibid. Collonel Moore Clerk of the First Fruits imprisoned because he would not be severe against them p. 202 Sect. 17. Thirdly By taking away the Jurisdiction of the Protestant Church ibid. 1. The Churches Right by Prescription to Jurisdiction ibid. 2. Act
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
Neighbours Cities especially Dublin encreased exceedingly Gentlemens Seats were built or building every where and Parks Enclosures and other Ornaments were carefully promoted insomuch that many places of the Kingdom equalled the Improvements of England The Papists themselves where Rancour Pride or Laziness did not hinder them lived happily and a great many of them got considerable Estates either by Traffick by the Law or by other Arts and Industry 2. There was a free Liberty of Conscience by connivence tho not by the Law and the King's Revenue encreased proportionably to the Kingdom 's Advance in Wealth and was every day growing it amounted to more than three hundred thousand pounds per annum a Sum sufficient to defray all the Expence of the Crown and to return yearly a considerable Sum into England to which this Nation had formerly been a constant Expence If King James had minded either his own Interest or the Kingdoms he would not have interrupted this happy Condition But the Protestants found that neither this nor the Services of any towards him nor his own good Nature were Barrs sufficient to secure them from Destruction 2. It is certainly the Interest of all Kings to govern their Subjects with Justice and Equity if therefore they understood or would mind their true Interest no King would ruin any of his Subjects but it often happens that either Men are so weak that they do not understand their Interest or else so little at their own Command that some foolish Passion or Humour sways them more than all the Interest in the World and from these proceeds all the ill Government which has ruined so many Kingdoms Now King James was so bent on gaining an absolute Power over the Lives and Liberties of his Subjects and on introducing his Religion that he valued no Interest when it came in competition with those 3. Every Body that knew King James's Interest and the true Interest of his Kingdoms knew that it concerned him to keep fair with Protestants especially with that party who were most devoted to him and had set the Crown on his Head and this had been in the Opinion of thinking Men the most effectual way to inlarge his Power and introduce his Religion but because it did not suit with the Methods his bigotted Counsellors had proposed he took a Course directly contrary to his Interest and seemed to take a peculiar pleasure in affronting and oppressing those very Men whom in Interest he was most concerned to cherish and support His Proceeding thus in England was visibly the Cause of his Ruin he had left himself no Friend to stand by him when he stood in greatest need of them Upon his coming to Ireland the Protestants had entertained some favourable Hopes that he would have seen and been convinced of his Error and would now at last govern himself by other measures it was manifestly his Interest to have done so and nothing in probability could have allayed the Heats of England and Scotland so much as his Justice and Kindness to the Protestants of Ireland nor could any thing have had so much the Appearance of an Answer to those many and evident Arguments by which they demonstrated his destructive Designs against those Kingdoms as to have had it to say that in Ireland where it was in his Power he was far from doing what they surmised he intended to do in England or if he had ever any such intentions it was plain he had now altered them These things were laid before him by some that wish'd well to his Affairs and had more Prudence than his furious and bigotted Counsellors and sometimes they seemed to make Impressions on him but the Priests and needy Courtiers who had swallowed in their Imaginations the Spoils and Estates of the Protestants of England as well as of Ireland could not endure to hear of this They seemed mightily afraid lest he should be restored to his Throne by consent of his Protestant Subjects For if so said they we know it will be on so strict Conditions that we shall gain but little by it it will not be in his power to gratifie us And not only they but the Irish in general likewise endeavoured to make his Restitution by way of Articles or Peace impracticable and impossible A Design so extremely foolish that it is strange any should be found so sillily wicked as to promote it or that King James should be so imposed on as to hearken to it and yet it is certain he did at least at some times entertain it and was heard to express himself to one that pressed him to Moderation to Protestants on this account that he never expected to get into England but with Fire and Sword However his Counsellors were not so weak but they saw what disadvantage his dealing with the Protestants had on his Interest in England and therefore they took care to conceal it as much as possible they stopped all Intercourse as far as they could with England they had a party to cry up the mildness of King James's Government towards the Protestants to applaud the Ease the Plenty the Security in which they lived and to run down and discredit all Relations to the contrary that came from Ireland These endeavoured to perswade the World that there was no such thing as a Bill of Attainder or of Repeal no Act taking away the Preferments or Maintenance of the Clergy nor any Imprisonment or Plundering of Protestants no taking away of Goods by private Orders of the King or levying of Monies by Proclamations In short they did that which on all occasions is the Practice and indeed Support of Popery They endeavoured to face down plain matter of Fact with Forehead and Confidence and to perswade the World that all these were mere Forgeries of King James's Enemies As many as believed these Allegations of theirs and were persuaded by them that the Protestants of Ireland were well used by King James were inclined to favour him a certain sign that if they had been really well used by him it would have gotten him many Friends and perhaps reconciled some of his worst Enemies But the Design entertained by him and his Party required the Ruin of Protestants and of their Religion whereas his Interest required that it should not be believed that he designed either and therefore Care was taken to prosecute the Design with all eagerness and deny the Matter of Fact with all impudence and his Majesty took care to promote both for he ruined the Protestants of Ireland by his Acts of Parliament and by the other Methods we shall hereafter speak of and by his Proclamations sent privately into England to his Partisans there assured the World that the Protestant Religion and Interest were his special care and that he had secured them against their Enemies It was his Interest to have done as well as pretended this but the carrying on his Design was so much in his Thoughts that he chose to sacrifice his
imposed on but contributed nothing to relieve us as we found to our Costs and the Protestant Judges and Burgesses finding that they were made Cyphers and Properties of themselves declined at last to Act in their Stations 5. Next to Chancery is the Kings Bench where Subjects are tryed for their Lives and Fortunes upon this was set Mr. Thomas Nugent made afterwards Baron of Riverstown the Son of one who had been Earl of Westmeath but had lost his Honor and Estate for being an Actor in the late Rebellion begun in 1641. This Mr. Nugent who had never been taken notice of at the Bar but for a more than ordinary Brogue on his Tongue as they call it and ignorance in the Law was pitched on by King James to judg whether the Outlawries against his Father and his fellow Rebels should be reversed and whether the Settlement of Ireland founded on those Outlawries should stand good It was a Demonstration to us what the King intended when he assigned us such a Chief Justice and indeed the Gentleman did not fail to answer the expectation conceived of him He reversed the Outlawries as fast as they came before him notwithstanding a Statute made in point against it and in all the Causes that ever came before him wherein the Plaintiffs and Defendants were Papist and Protestant I could not learn from the most diligent Observer that ever he gave Sentence for the latter Nay it is Shrewdly suspected that he went sharer in some considerable Causes and not only appeared for them on the Bench but also secretly incouraged and fomented them Before him a Deed should be judged Forged or not Forged according as it served a Popish Interest And a Protestant needed no more to gain a Cause against another Protestant than to turn Papist which manifestly appear'd in Sir Gregory Birns Case who merely by turning Papist as is noted before in the midst of his Suit against Captain Robert Fitz Gerald got a Deed condemned of Forgery and recovered five or six hundred pounds per annum notwithstanding Mr. Daniel Birn his Father some years before for pretending it was Forged had been Sued in an Action of the Case and forced to pay two hundred pound damages and though there appeared in Court a Bond under Birns Hand obliging him to pay two hundred pound to the Witnesses in case they should prove Captain Fitz Geralds Deed to be Forged yet the proof was accepted But these were common things in this Court and the mischief had been much greater had not a Writ of Error lyen from his Court to the Kings Bench in England In one thing more he signalized himself it was by committing and prosecuting people for feigned Offences and Treasons and by countenancing and encouraging and after discovery protecting false Witnesses against Protestants Many were brought in danger of their Lives by his contrivances and when the accused were acquitted on Tryal by a palpable Demonstration that the Witnesses were Perjured he declared that they neither could nor should be Prosecuted for they only sware for the King and he believed the accused persons guilty though it could not be proved In short he shewed all the venom and rigour against them he could he was set up to destroy them and he went as far in it as his power could reach his weakness not his inclination hindred him from carrying it farther It is not imaginable by any that have not seen and heard him how furiously and partially he was bent against Protestants it may be guessed how he stood inclined to them by the great Hand he had in promoting the Bill of Attainder and the Bill to vest all Absentees Goods in the King whereby much the greater part of the Protestants of Ireland lost all their Estates Personal and Real of which we shall speak more hereafter He was assisted on the Bench by Sir Bryan ô Neal as puny Judg a weak Man that had nothing to recommend him but Venom and Zeal being otherwise disabled both in his Reason and Body Only he had the faculty to do what he was bid especially when it suited with his own inveteracy against Englishmen and Protestants This Character may seem rigid but as many as knew him will not think it exceeds 6. The next Court for business though not for Precedence is the Exchequer in which all Actions wherein the Kings Revenue or any other Mans Estate is concerned may be tryed From this Court no Writ of Error lies in England so they were free here from that Check which was so troublesom to them in other Courts Upon this consideration it was that the whole business of the Kingdom so far as it concerned them was brought into this Court though not so proper for it Here were brought all Actions of Trespasses and Ejectments concerning Estates all Quo Warranto's against Corporations and Scire Facias's about Offices and they thought themselves concerned to have an able Man and one throughly Cordial to their Interest for the Chief Judg in it for if he had wanted Sense or Law though willing as they found by Experience in some of the other Courts he might have been unable to serve them in all Cases They therefore fixed on Mr. Stephen Rice afterward Sir Stephen who had formerly been noted for a Rook and Gamester at the Inns of Court He was to give him his due a Man of the best Sense amongst them well enough versed in the Law but most signal for his inveteracy against the Protestant Interest and Settlement of Ireland having been often heard to say before he was a Judg that he would drive a Coach and Six Horses through the Act of Settlement upon which both depended And before that Act was Repealed in their pretended Parliament he declared on the Bench that it was against Natural Equity and could not oblige This Man did King James choose for Chief Baron and for the final determination of all the Suits that lay between Protestants and Papists either in Common-Law or Equity And it is no hard matter to conjecture what success the Protestants met with in their Suits before a Judg that declared as he did that they should have no favour but Summum jus that is the utmost rigour of the Law Immediately his Court was filled with Popish Plaintiffs every one that had a forged Deed or a false Witness met with Favour and Countenance from him and he knowing that they could not bring his Sentences into England to be re-examined there acted as a Man that feared no after Account or Reckoning It was some considerable time before he would allow a Writ of Error into the Exchequer Chamber though that was in effect to themselves and when it was allowed it was to little purpose before such Judges It was before him all the Charters of the Kingdom were damned and that in a Term or two in such a manner that proved him a Man of Dispatch though not of Justice If he had been left alone it was
came to be concluded not enduring to be present at the passing of that and some other Barbarous Acts against which they found their Votes signified nothing while they staid There were four more Protestants return'd of whose Behaviour I can give no account or how they came to be return'd The generality of the Houses consisted of the Sons and Descendents of the Forfeiting Persons in 1641. Men that had no Freeholds or Estates in the Kingdom but were purposely elected to make themselves Estates by taking them away from Protestants 15. Now whilst the power of making and repealing Laws was in such hands what Security could Protestants promise themselves from any Laws or what probability was there that any Laws already made in their Favour would be continued Especially if we consider further that this Parliament openly profess'd it self a Slave to the King's Will and he was look'd on as Factiously and Rebelliously inclin'd that would dare to move any thing after any Favorite in the House had affirm'd that it was contrary to the King's pleasure Several Bills were begun in the House of Commons one for erecting an Inns of Court another for repealing an Act commonly call'd Poinings Act which requires that all Acts should be perused by the King and Council of England before they be offered to be pass'd by the Parliament in Ireland but King James signified his Dissatisfaction to these Bills and for that reason they and several others were let fall tho the Irish had talk'd much and earnestly desir'd the Repeal of Poinings Act it being the greatest Sign and means of their Subjection to England There was a doubt made in the House concerning the Earl of Strafford whether he should be attainted for Estate and Life several moved in his behalf but it was carried against him upon this Evidence Colonel Simon Lutterell affirmed in the House That he had heard the King say some hard things of him The King's pleasure therefore was the Law to which we were to trust for our Lives and Fortunes our Enemies having entirely engross'd the power of making and repealing Laws and devolved it on the King's pleasure the very Protestant Lords and Bishops being denied their Priviledge of entering their Protestations against such Votes as they conceiv'd Destructive to the Kingdom The King told them That Protestations against Votes were only used in Rebellious times and with much ado they were allowed to enter their Dissent tho after that was allowed them the Clerk of the Parliament one Polewheele a Nephew of Chancellor Fitton 's shifted them off and did not enter their Dissent to some Votes tho often sollicited and press'd to do it according to the Orders of the House 16. When King James had labour'd as much as in him lay to get a Parliament that would repeal the Penal Laws and Test in England and open the Houses to Papists he found at last that the great Obstacle that rendered the Kingdom so averse to this was the general Fear and Apprehension that the Legislative Authority would be engross'd by them and turn'd against Protestants this was so obvious and reasonable a Surmise that he knew there was no hopes that the People would side with him against their present Majesties if something were not done to satisfie them and therefore to remove this fear he published his Proclamation dated Sept. 20. 1688. wherein he declares himself willing that Roman Catholicks should remain incapable to be Members of the House of Commons if the Protestants of England had reason to apprehend that Papists would engross the Legislative Authority in England and from the Example of Queen Mary's House of Commons to dread such Law givers how much more reason had the Protestants of Ireland to dread that power when entirely engrossed by their most inveterate Popish Enemies whose Interest as well as Religion oblig'd them to divest all those that profess'd the Reform'd Religion not only of the Favour but likewise of the Benefits of Law 17. They sate from the Seventh of May till the Twentieth of July following and in that short time entirely destroy'd the Settlement of Ireland and outed both the Protestant Clergy and Laity of their Freeholds and Inheritances It is not to be exspected I should give an account of all their Acts that which concerns this present Section is to shew how they destroy'd the Protestants real Estates 1. And that was first by an Act of Repeal whereby they took away the Acts of Settlement and Explanation by virtue of which as I have already shew'd two thirds of the Protestants of the Kingdom held their Estates that is all that which is call'd New Interest was lost by this Repeal there is no consideration had in it how any Man came to his Estate but tho he purchased it at ever so dear a rate he must lose it and it is to be restor'd without Exception to the Proprietor or his Descendent that had it before October 22. 1641. upon what account soever he lost it tho they themselves did not deny but many deserv'd to lose their Estates even Sir Phelim O Neal's Son the great Murtherer and Rebel was restor'd 2. In order to make a final Extirpation of Protestants they contrive and pass an Act of Attainder by which all Protestants whose Names they could find of all Ages Sexes and Degrees are attainted of High Treason and their Estates vested in the King the pretence of this Attainder was their being out of the Kingdom at the time of passing the Act as shall be shewn in the next Section 3. Least some should be forgotten of those that were absent and not put into the Bill of Attainder they contriv'd a general Clause in the Act of Repeal whereby the real Estates of all who Dwelt or staid in any place of the three Kingdoms which did not own King Jame's Power or corresponded with any such as they term Rebels or were any ways aiding abetting or assisting to them from the First day of August 1688. are declared to be forfeited and vested in his Majesty and that without any Office or Inquisition found thereof By which Clause almost every Protestant that could Write in the Kingdom had forfeited his Estate for the Packets went from London to Dublin and back again constantly from August to March 1688. and few had Friends in England or in the North but corresponded with them by Letters and every such Letter is made by this clause a Forfeiture of Estate They had intercepted and search'd every Packet that went or came the later part of this time and kept vast Heaps of Letters which were of no Consequence at all to the Government we wondered what the meaning of their doing so should be but by this Parliament we came to understand it for now these Letters were produced as Evidences in the House of Commons against those that appear'd in behalf of their absent Friends or oppos'd the attainting of such Protestants as they had some kindness for and they were
his Government over them 6. The Case of the Purchasers and Improvers in Ireland seem'd the hardest the Land forfeited by the Rebellion in 1641. was set out to those that had been Adventurers and Soldiers in that War and many of these had sold them at Twelve or Fifteen years Purchase the Purchasers had built fair Houses and Villages on them inclos'd Deer-Parks planted Orchards and Gardens and laid out vast Sums in these and other Improvements it seem'd hard to turn them out without consideration to try therefore whether any thing would make King James relent they endeavour'd to see what he would do for these poor Men how their Case was prest and represented to King James may be judged by a Paper given him by the Lord Granard and drawn up by the Chief Justice Keating with the Approbation of other Protestants 't is in the Appendix King James read it and made no other answer to it but That he would not do evil that good might come of it the meaning of which Words as then apply'd is not easily understood It has been a common Question put to the Gentlemen of Ireland by some that neither know them nor their Affairs What have you lost But sure whosoever knows the extent of Ireland and the value of Land in it will see that the Interest of the English Protestants ruined by King James since he came to the Crown is of greater value than the Estates of all that favour his Cause in England and Scotland and I suppose it would put them out of conceit with him or any other King that should take away but one half of their Estates from them SECT XIII Eighthly King James brought the Lives of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland into imminent danger 1. I Suppose from the former Sections it is sufficiently apparent what Invasions King James made on the Liberties and Fortunes of his Protestant Subjects there remained to them only their Lives and these as will appear from this Section were put in imminent danger by him many were lost and the rest escap'd with the greatest hazard When King James came into Ireland it was certainly his Interest to exercise his Clemency towards his Protestant Subjects and he knew it to be so and therefore in his Declaration which he sent privately into England he made large Professions of his tenderness towards them and boasted how much their safety had been his care every body expected a Proclamation for a General Pardon and Indemnity should have been sent before him and that â—e would have put an effectual stop to the illegal Prosecutions against their Lives and to the Robberies of their Fortunes that every where were going on at his coming but on the contrary he rather pusht on both and not content with the Laws that already were in force which Partial Judges and Juries wrâ—sted to destroy them he made new snares for them by Acts of his pretended Parliament and by several private declarations whereby not only he but his inferior Officers took on them to dispose of the Lives of Protestants 2. It is not reasonable to charge his Majesty with the private Murther committed on Men in their Houses which were many up and down the Kingdom several even in the City of Dublin Only thus far in some degree he may be thought responsible for them he knew very well with what barbarous Murthers the Papists of Ireland had been charg'd in the Rebellion of 1641 he knew what inveterate hatred they carried towards the Protestants and how many Tories and Robbers constantly disturbed the Peace of the Kingdom and yet without any necessity at all he threw himself upon these People he encouraged them he Armed them he gave Commissions even to those that had been Tories and guilty of Murthers and therefore cannot altogether be excused from the Irregularities committed by them especially when there was no search made after or Prosecution of the Murthers as it happened in the case of Colonel Murry of Westmeath Brother in law to my Lord Granard an old Gentleman who had serv'd King Charles the first and second and suffered considerably for his Loyalty he was way-laid and shot dead as he rode to his own House under King James's Protection and with some marks as he imagined of his Favour Yet no enquiry was made after it There were many such private Murthers but I do not think it necessary to insist on them I shall confine my self to such as are of a more publick Nature which gave us just reasons to fear that the Government had a design upon our Lives 3. Such were first encouraging Witnesses to swear us into feigned Plots and Conspiracies of these there were many set up in the Kingdom almost every County had one set up in it and many were put into Prison and indicted for high Treason as Captain Phillips and Mr. Bowen in the County oâ— Westmeath and several others in other places some of which I have before mentioned and when the perjuries of the Witnesses came to be plainly discovered they yet were encouraged and protected from any Legal prosecution Of this nature a Conspiracy was framing against one Mr. William Spike and if it had taken effect it would have reached to a great many more The contrivance was thus one Dennis Connor had a mind to a small Employment which Mr Spike held in the Castle he had petitioned for it but Spike by the Interest of my Lord Powis tho a Protestant kept his place being found diligent in it Connor resolv'd to try another experiment to get him removed he framed a Letter as from one in Inniskilling directed to Spike in which the writer thanks him for his Intelligence and refers to a method agreed on for seizing the Castle of Dublin on a certain Day The Letter to make the thing more credible abuses King James in very ill terms Connor drops this Letter in the Castle where Spike came every Day knowing that as soon as it was found Spike would be seized and then he might manage the Plot as he pleased but his Contrivance was spoiled for the Sentinel saw him drop the Paper and procured him immediately to be seized he was examined before the Chief Justice and I think before King James also why he wrote such a wicked Letter he said it was for the Kings service to remove Spike whom he believed to be a Rogue and who being a Protestant would betray the King Spike Prosecuted him in the Kings-Bench but after all that could be done the Jury brought Connor in not Guilty pretending that it did not appear that this was the very Letter dropt by Connor tho he had confest it before the King and the Lord Cheif Justice and tho it was proved and owned to be his hand and a rough draft of it found with him and the Sentinel swore he dropt a Letter which he delivered to the Officer and the Officer swore that was the Letter delivered by the Sentinel to him tho
a little time have unavoidably starv'd a Trades-man might expect to live by his Industry a Gentleman on his Credit in a peaceable Countrey or in War by listing themselves in any Army But in Ireland where Men neither were suffered to use their Industry nor batake themselves to Arms where they could neither enjoy the means of gaining a livelihood in Peace or War to what purpose should they stay to live at the best in Poverty Contempt and Slavery 5. As to the Clergy that left the Kingdom it is to be considered that most of those in the Countrey were robb'd and plunder'd and nothing left them to support themselves and families before they went away many were deserted by their People their Parishioners leaving them and getting to England or Scotland before them some Parishioners were so kind to their Ministers that they begg'd and entreated them to be gone which they were mov'd to do because they saw the spite and malice of their Enemies was more peculiarly bent against the Clergy and they imagined that their removing would a little allay the heat of those spiteful Men and that the Robbers would not so often visit the neighbourhood when the Minister was gone which in many places had the effect intended for the Robbers would come a great way to rob a Gentleman or Clergyman and would be sure to visit the poor peoples houses in their passages But when these were remov'd the obscurity of the meaner People did protect them from many violences Lastly many Clergymen were forc'd to remove because they had nothing left to live on their Parishioners were as poor as themselves and utterly unable to help them I do consess that there was no reason to complain of the Peoples backwardness to maintain the Clergy on the contrary they contributed to the utmost of their power and beyond it and made no distinction of Sects many Dissenters of all sorts except Quakers contributing liberally to this good end which ought to be remembred to their honour but after all in many places a whole Parish what with the ruin and desolation brought on the Kingdom and what with the removal of the Protestant Parishioners was not able to contribute 20 s. to maintain their Minister and meer necessity forced away these Ministers Against some others the Government had peculiar piques and exceptions those were in manifest hazard of their Lives and in fear every day of being seiz'd and brought to a Tryal on some feign'd Crime And several both of the Clergy and Laity were forc'd to fly on this account for their safety All these I look on to be justifiable reasons of Mens withdrawing If any went away on any other principles who were not in these or the like circumstances I shall leave them to the censure of the World but I believe very few will be found for whom either their publick or private circumstances may not justly apologize 6. It is not to be suppos'd that Men would have left their plentiful Estates and Settlements their well furnisht Houses and comfortable ways of living as most of these who went away did had they not been under the greatest fears and pressures Wives would not have left their Husbands nor Parents their Children Men of Estates and Fortunes would not have ventured their Lives in little Wherries and Boats to pass Seas famous for their Ship wracks if they could with any comfort or safety have stayed at home I know King James took care to have it suggested in England that all these left Ireland not out of any real fear or necessity but only with a disign to make him and his Government odious but sure they must think the Protestants of Ireland were very fond of a Collection in England that can imagine so many thousand people of all sorts and sexes should conspire together to ruine themselves and throw away all that they had in the World out of malice and only to bring an Odium on a Party that had done them no harm 7. Neither was it as some suggest a vain and pannick fear that possessed them that went away for that could not continue for a Year or Two but those that had lived under King James a Year and half were as earnest to get away as those that went at first and the longer they liv'd under him their fear and apprehensions increas'd the more on them being already ruined in their Fortunes and their Lives in daily and apparent hazard from military and illegal proceedings They liv'd amongst a People that daily robb'd plundered and affronted them that assaulted their Persons and threatned their Lives and wanted only the word to cut their Throats and sure 't was then time to withdraw from the danger at any rate and I am confident I speak the sence of the generality of those that stayed that if the Seas had been left open some few Months before his Majesty appear'd in the Field in Ireland far the greatest part I may venture to say almost all of those that had stayed till then would have gone away with their Lives only rather than have continued here longer Whoever knows the cruelty and malice of those with whom we had to deal will own these fears to be reasonable Yet for this we were condemned to death and forfeiture and the very Children barr'd of their rights against the known Laws and Customs of the Kingdom SECT II. A justification of those Protestants who staid in Ireland and lived in submission to King James's Government 1. NOt withstanding the great number of Protestants that fled to England yet many stay'd behind perhaps some may accuse their Prudence in venturing to stay under such circumstances but otherwise I think little can be objected against them however lest any should entertain any sinister thoughts of them 't will be necessary to say something in their behalf They were of Four sorts 1. the meaner People 2. Gentry of Estates 3. Such as had employments and 4. the Clergy 2. First as to the meaner People 't is to be considered that it was no easy thing to get away the freight of Ships and Lycences were at very high rates and sometimes not to be purchased at all Many of the Countrey People could not get to the Sea Ports they had little Money their riches were in their Stocks and these being plundered they were not able to raise so much money as would transport them and their Families and they generally came too late to the Ports A strict Embargo being laid on all Ships before they could get to the Sea side many of the Citizens of Dublin and other Sea Ports got off but were forc'd to leave their Shops and Concerns behind in the hands of their Relations and Dependents who were obliged to stay to take care of them Others thought it unreasonable to leave all they had to go to beg in a strange Countrey and having no body to trust with their Concerns resolv'd to hazard themselves together with them If these
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
at once inriched and civilized it would hardly be believed it were the same Spot of Earth Nay Over-flown and Moorish Grounds were reduced to the bettering of the Soyl and Air. The Purchasers who brought the Kingdom to this flourishing Condition fly to your Majesty for Succour offering not only their Estates and Fortunes but even their Lives to any Legal Trial within this your Majesties Kingdom being ready to submit their Persons and Estates to any established Judicature where if it shall be found that they enjoy any thing without Legal Title or done any thing that may forfeit what they have Purchased they will sit down and most willingly acquiesce in the Judgments But to have their Purchases made void their Lands and Improvements taken from them their Securities and Assurances for Money Lent declar'd Null and Void by a Law made ex post facto is what was never practised in any Kingdom or Countrey If the Bill now design'd to be made a Law had been attempted within two three four or five years after the Court for the execution of these Acts was ended the Purchasers would not have laid out their Estates in acquiring of Lands or in Building or Improving on them Thousands who had sold small Estates and Free-holds in England and brought the Price of them to Purchase or Plant here wou'd have stayed at home And your Majesties Revenue with that of the Nobility and Gentry had never come to the Height it did If your Majesty please to consider upon what Grounds and Assurances the Purchasers of Lands and Tenements in this Kingdom proceed you will soon conclude that never any proceeded upon securer Grounds The Acts of xvij and xviij of King Charles your Father of blessed Memory the First takes notice that there was a Rebellion begun in this Kingdom on the 23d of October 1641 And so doth a Bill once read in the House of Lords whoever looks into the Royal Martyrs Discourse upon that Occasion will see with what an abhorrence he laments it and that he had once thoughts of coming over in Person to suppress it Those Acts promise Satisfaction out of Forfeited Lands to such as would advance Money for reducing these disturbers of the publick Peace unto their Duty The Invitation was his late Majesties your Royal Brothers Letters from Breda some few weeks before his Restauration which hapned the 29th of May 1660 And within six Months after came forth his Majesties most Gracious Declaration for the Settlement of this Kingdom This may it please your Majesty is the Basis and Foundation of the Settlement and was some years after Enacted and made a Law by two several Acts of Parliament It is true that the Usurping Powers in the Year 1653. having by the permission of the Almighty as a just Judgment on us for our Sins prevailed here did dispose and set out the Estates of Catholicks unto Adventurers and Soldiers and in a year or two after transplanted out Catholick Free-holders for no other Reason but their being so in Connought where Lands were set out unto them under divers Qualifications which they and their Heirs or those deriving under them as Purchasers enjoy'd and still do enjoy under the Security of the before mentioned Acts of Parliament and Declaration His Majesties gracious Declaration of the 30th of November 1660. which I call the Foundation of the Settlement was before it was concluded on under the Consideration of that great Prince and the Lords of his Council of England where all Persons concerned for the Proprietors as well old as new were heard whoever reads will find the many Difficulties which he and his Council met with from the different and several Pretenders what Consideration was had and Care taken to reconcile the jarring Interests and to accommodate and settle as well as was possible the Mass and Body of Subjects here It was some years after before the Act for the Execution of his Majesties most Gracious Declaration became a Law It was neer two years upon the Anvil It was not a Law that past in few days or sub silentio It was first according to the then Course of passing Laws here framed by the Chief Governour and Council of this Kingdom by the Advice and with the Assistance of all the Judges and of his Majesties Council Learned in the Law and then transmitted into England to be further consider'd of by his Majesty and Lords of his Council there where the Counsel at Law and Agents of all Pretenders to the Propriety of Lands in this Kingdom were heard and that Act commonly called the Act of Settlement approved of and retransmitted under the Seal of England to receive the Royal Assent which it did after having passed both Houses of Parliament The Innocent Proprietors being restored pursuant to thiâ— Act and some Difficulties appearing as to the further execution of it Another Act passed commonly called the Act of Explanation which went the same Course and under the same Scrutiny It is confessed that though they are two Acts it was by the same Parliament who were chosen according to the ancient Course of Chusing Parliaments But if any miscarriage were in bringing that Parliament together or the procuring the aforesaid Acts of Parliament to pass which we can in no wise admit and the less for that your Majesties Revenue was granted and settled by the same Parliament and many good and wholsom Laws therein Enacted Yet it is manifest that nothing of that kind ought to affect the Plain and honest Purchaser who for great and valuable Considerations acquired Lands under the Security aforesaid and expended the remainder of his Means in Building Improving and Planting on them and that for the following Reasons First The Purchaser advising with his Counsel how to lay out or secure his Money that it may not lie dead not only to his but the publick detriment tells him that he is offer'd a Purchase of Lands in Fee or desired by his Neighbours to accommodate him with Money upon the Security of Judgment or Statute Staple and upon the enquiry into the Title he finds a good and Secure Estate as firm in Law as two Acts of Parliament in force in this Kingdom can make it and in many Cases Letters Patents upon a Commission of Grace for remedying of defective Titles he finds Possession both of many years gone along with this Title several descents past and possibly that the Lands have been purchased and passed through the hands of divers Purchasers He resorts to the Records where he meets with Fines and Common Recoveries the great Assurance known to the Laws of England Under which by the Blessing of God we live and tells him there is no scruple nor difficulty of Purchasing under this Title since he hath Security under two Acts of Parliament Certificates and Letters Patents Fines and Recoveries and that no Law of force in this Kingdom can stir much less shake this Title How is it possible to imagine that the
Universal or if it be Universal where it is yet tolerable and not so mischievous in the consequence as a Civil-War and I am apt to believe were meant no otherwise by the Authors Our Homilies press with great force the inconveniencies of such a War and the Author of Jovian designed his 11. Chap to shew that Resistance would be a greater mischief than Passive Obedience and tells us in the body of the Chapter that the inconvenience of Resisting the Sovereign would be of ten times worse consequence than it Which in the general is true as it relates to private injuries or the ordinary Male-Administration of Government but if it be applyed to the case of a Governour who designs the destruction of the Laws Lives and Liberties of his People and has gotten Ministers to execute his intention it is a manifest mistake and is confuted by Examples and Experience in all Ages If we look back into History we shall find the best the happiest most prosperous People most jealous of their Liberty and while they continued firm in their resolution of maintaining it against the encroachment of their Governours even with the hazzard of their lives they have continued great and happy but no sooner did they degenerate from this Zeal but they became contemptible and dwindled into nothing and at this day let us look into the whole world and we shall find every Nation happy and thriving at home and easie to their Neighbours abroad according as they have preserved themselves from slavery whereas all Countries under unlimitted Monarchies decay in their strength and improvements and though they may flourish for a little time by the ruin of their lesser Neighbours yet they at last unpeople their own Countries and seem to be permitted by God to come to that exorbitant power for their own ruin and for a plague to mankind And indeed the greatest mischief of a Civil-War is the danger of subjecting the State to the absolute power of some potent General as it happened in Rome Florence and in England in the late Civil-War for to lose even half the Subjects in a War is more tolerable than the loss of Liberty since if Liberty and good Laws be preserved an Age or two will repair the loss of Subjects and Improvements though they be ever so great but if Liberty be lost it is never to be retrieved but brings certain and infallible destruction as it did to Rome and has brought in a great measure to Florence and will to England if ever the Prerogative do swallow up the Liberties and Priviledges of the Subjects So far it is from truth that the allowing of Resistance in some cases of extremity has greater inconveniencies than absolute Subjection The Scriptures do indeed command Obedience without expressing any exception but cases of extream necessity may as reasonably be presumed to be excepted here as in the command for observation of the Sabbath which is as positive as any Command for Obedience to Governors Thou shalt do no manner of work saith the Commandment and yet it is acknowledged by all to contain a tacit exception for Works of necessity and Charity and whoever will consider the Commands for Obedience to Governours will find room in them for as reasonable an exception from that Obedience in cases of necessity as for servile works on the Sabbath day of which our Saviour himself approves it being as true that Governours were made for their Kingdoms as the Sabbath for Man 4. If then in some cases the mischiefs of tamely submitting to the tyranny and usurpation of a Governour may be worse and have more dangerous and mischievous consequences to the Common-Wealth than a War I suppose it ought to be granted that where this necessity is certain and apparent people may lawfully resist and defend themselves even by a War as being the lesser evil and then there needs no more to justifie the Protestants of Ireland for their deserting King James and accepting their Majesties protection than to shew I. That it is lawful for one Prince or State to interpose between another Prince and his Subjects who uses them cruelly or endeavours to enslave or destroy them and to rescue them from his hands even by a War if other means prove ineffectual and that it is lawful for the Subjects to accept of such interposition and protection if they can find no better way to preserve themselves II. That King James designed to destroy and utterly ruin the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subjects in general the English Interest in Ireland in particular and alter the very Frame and Constitution of the Government III. That he not only design'd but attempted it with great success and made a considerable progress in it IV. That there remained no other prospect or human possibility of avoiding this slavery and destruction designed against the Kingdom and Protestants of Ireland but by accepting of the Protection and submitting to the Government of their present Majesties If I make these particulars manifest beyond contradiction and if the very Consciences of Roman Catholicks cannot but own them to be true I do not see how they can condemn us for what we have done or what else they could have expected from us except they would have had us held up our Throats till they cut them which no man had reason to expect from a whole body of people and they least of all who designed to be actors in it CHAP. I. Shewing that it is lawful for one Prince to interpose between another Prince and his Subjects when he uses them cruelly or endeavours to enslave or destroy them 1. THIS Assertion has been made so clear in several Discourses of late that I shall not need insist much on it A few Arguments will be sufficient for this place 2. First therefore it may be lawful for one Prince to interpose between another Prince and his Subjects because he may have an Interest in that People and Government to defend which Interest he may lawfully concern himself and prevent their Ruin by a War Such an Interest is Consanguinity Community of Religion but more especially a Prospect of Succession in the Government for in that Case if the People be destroyed or weakened the Inheritance is the worse and he is injured in his hopes which often are very valuable The present Possessor who is only an Usufructuary or Tenant for Life by destroying the Inheritance gives a just provocation to him who is in Reversion to cross his design by opposing him by all means that are in his power and this Argument is the stronger if there be just reason to suspect that there are any unlawful means used to defeat him of his Succession which alone were sufficient to justifie their present Majesties Interposition between the late King and his Subjects 3. But secondly the same may be lawful if the Destruction of a People by their Prince be only a step and degree to the destruction of a
and the old petty Tyrants that claimed not only a Right to all his Tenant's Substance but likewise a power over his life 3. But many of the old Landlords lost their Estates by Outlawries and Attainders for their Rebellion in the year 1641 and for their murthering the Protestants at that time Many of them had sold their Estates and some had mortgaged them for more than their value two or three times to several persons a Practice very common in Ireland but it is observable that it is the humor of these People to count an Estate their own still tho they have sold it on the most valuable Considerations or have been turned out of it by the most regular Proceedings of Justice so that they reckon every Estate theirs that either they or their Ancestors had at any time in their possession no matter how many years ago And by their pretended Title and Gentility they have such an influence on the poor Tenants of their own Nation and Religion who live on those Lands that these Tenants look on them still tho out of possession of their Estates as a kind of Landlords maintain them after a fashion in Idleness and entertain them in their Coshering Manner These Vagabonds reckoned themselves great Gentlemen and that it would be a great Disparagement to them to betake themselves to any Calling Trade or Way of Industry and therefore either supported themselves by stealing and torying or oppressing the poor Farmers and exacting some kind of Maintenance either from their Clans and Septs or from those that lived on the Estates to which they pretended And these pretended Gentlemen together with the numerous Coshering Popish Clergy that lived much after the same manner were the two greatest Grievances of the Kingdom and more especially hindered its Settlement and Happiness The Laws of England were intolerable to them both nor could they subsist under them 4. As to the Popish Landlords who yet retained their Estates it put them out of all patience to find that the Bodough their Tenant so as they call the meaner sort of People should have equal Justice against them as well as against his Fellow Churl that a Landlord should be called to an account for killing or robbing his Tenant or ravishing his Daughter seemed to them an unreasonable Hardship It was insufferable to Men that had been used to no Law but their own Will to be levelled with the meanest in the Administration of Justice and every time they were crossed by a Tenant that would not patiently bear their Impositions they cursed in their Hearts the Laws of England and called to mind the glorious Days of their Ancestors who with a Word of their Mouths could hang or ruin which of their Dependents they pleased and had in themselves the power of Peace and War 5. This Humor in the Gentry of Ireland has from time to time been their Ruin and engaged them in frequent Rebellions being impatient of the Restraint the Laws of England put on their Power tho they enjoyed their Estates and they still watched an opportunity to restore themselves to their petty Tyrannies and were ready to buy the Reftitution of them at any rate The other sort of Gentlemen I mentioned as they called themselves who were outed of their Estates as well as of their Power by the same Laws hated them yet worse and their Clergy pushed them on with all the Arguments that ignorant Zeal or Interest could suggest insomuch that all sober Men as well as Protestants reckoned these the sworn Enemies of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and were assured that they would stick at no conditions to destroy them their Interest Inclination and Principles all concurring to engage them to do it 6. Now these very Men were the Officers and Instruments King James employed and trusted above all others He espoused their Interest from the time that he had thoughts of the Crown they were his Favourites and Confidents and to provide for them he turned his English and Protestant Subjects first out of the Army then out of their Civil Trusts and Employments and lastly out of their Fortunes and Estates He knew very well that the Tempers and Genius of those Men were at enmity to the Laws and fitted for that Constitution of Slavery under which he designed to bring the Kingdoms He found that none were more fawning to their Superiors than they nor did any flatter with more Meanness and Servility and according to the nature of such People none are more insolent and tyrannous to their Inferiors And this was the reason that they were so dear to King James and that he preferred and trusted them rather than his Protestant and English Subjects The Bargain between him and them was plainly this restore us to our former Power Estates and Religion and we will serve you as you please in your own way An Expression that King James and all his Creatures often used and were very fond of 7. These People found that the King 's Legal Power could never restore them to the condition at which they aimed that the Power and Station they desired was absolutely contrary to the Laws in being and that no Legal Parliament would ever alter the Laws and Constitution of the Kingdom to gratifie them No wonder therefore if they espoused and promoted an absolute and despotick Power in the King and if he and they concurred so heartily to introduce it To do them Justice they made no Secret of it but professed it publickly and on all occasions and accordingly practised it in their several Stations They reckoned and called every one a Whig and Rebel that talked of any other Law than the King's Pleasure They were liberal of their Curses and Imprecations on all occasions but they exceeded and became outrageous against any one that durst alledge that their Proceedings were against Law Damn your Laws was frequently their word it is the Kings pleasure it should be so we know no reason why our King should not be as absolute as the King of France and we will make him so before we have done Nay so extravagant were many of them that they would swear with repeated Or ths that all Protestants were Rebels because they would not be of the King's Religion An Expression I suppose they learned from the French Dragoons 8. Some would undertake to argue the Case with such as seemed more moderate amongst them and put them in mind of the possibility of the Change of the Government and that then the Argument would be good against themselves but they had not patience to hear any such thing mentioned And they generally swore with the most bloody Oaths and bitter Imprecations that they would never subject themselves to any King that was not of their own Religion and that they would lose the last drop of their Blood rather than part with the Sword and Power put into their Hands on any consideration whatsoever These were not the Discourses of one or
a hundred Charters or thereabouts upon such little Exceptions and pittiful Cavils that it must be the greatest affront to the understanding of Mankind to think to put such on them for Justice and the greatest profanation of the name of Law to endeavour to pass such Proceedings for Legal Admit that a Corporation which is an invisible Body in Law could do any thing to destroy its own being or that it were reasonable it should be divested of a particular Privilege which it has manifestly abused or when by alteration of Circumstances such a Privilegde becomes a Prejudice to the Publick as it sometimes happens Yet to Dissolve all the Corporations in a Kingdom without the least Reason or Pretence of abuse of Priviledge or Forfeiture to take advantage from the Ignorance of a Lawyer or the mistake of a Clerk nay to pretend these when really there is no such thing is such an abuse of the Kings Prerogative and the Law that it is enough to make the People oppressed by colour of them to hate both at least to wish the Administration of them in other Hands and this was clearly the Case of the Corporations in Ireland The City of Dublin was not allowed so much time to put in their Plea as was really sufficient to transcribe it as it ought to have been The Clerk mistakes the Date of one of their Charters they pray leave to mend it this is denyed them and the Chief Baron gives Judgment The same Term the Charter of Londonderry in which the City of London was so deeply concerned was condemned on a yet more frivolous Pretence upon which the Chief Baron gave Judgment against the Charter And upon the like wrangling Cavils were the rest dissolved except a few which were on Noblemens Estates Some of these Noblemen employed Roman Catholick Agents or Receivers who so managed their Estates for them as chiefly to encourage Papists and now became the Instruments to betray their Corporations Those Agents employed the Power and Interest they had amongst their Masters Tenants by Threats and Intrigues to procure Surrenders and by these means some few were influenced Thus one Potter a Papist employed as a Receiver by the Earl of Kildare betrayed his Lord and prevailed with Athy and some other Corporations on his Estate to Surrender 3. Whether they did not think fit to destroy the Charters upon their usual and trivial pretence of defective Pleading there they found out other Expedients without Tryal to destroy them And that was by granting a New Charter as in the Case of Bangor in the County of Down to such Men as the Attorney General thought fit who by the Sheriff should be put in Possession of the Government of the Town and then if the former Possessors thought themselves injured they might bring their Actions against the Intruders in the Tryal of which they had Reason to expect no more fairness than they found in the Proceedings against their Charters 4. This Contrivance of superseding a former Charter by granting a new one served to very good purpose There were many particular Charters granted to Corporations in the City of Dublin Such were the Corporations of Taylors Skinners Feltmakers c. where these refused to Surrender they got a few of the Trade to take out a new Charter by which Papists were constituted Masters and Wardens and as soon as they had taken it out they committed to Prison such of the ancient Members as would not submit to them 5. Every Body dreaded the Effects of these Proceedings the Gentry considered that they held their Estates by Patents from the King and the Title was no stronger than that of a Charter And if Men were outed of their Priviledges and Freedoms by such Tricks and Shaddows of Law they began to fear that one day or other the like might be found to void their Patents 6. As soon as the Corporations came to be supplied with new Charters it plainly appeared that no English or Protestant Freeman could expect a comfortable Life in Ireland for in the first place the Corporations were made absolute Slaves to the King's Will it being one Clause in all the new Charters that the King 's chief Governor should have power to turn out or put in whom he pleased without giving any Reason and without any Form of Legal Proceeding by which the Corporations were so much in the King's Power that he might with as much reason have named his Regiment of Guards a Free Parliament as the Burgesses return'd by such Elections The whole Kingdom had therefore reason to resent such Proceedings as being absolutely destructive to their Liberties but more especially the English Protestants for it plainly appeared in the second place that all this Regulation was more immediately designed for their Destruction The persons every where named for Aldermen and Burgesses in the new Charters being above two thirds Papists some few Protestants were kept in for form sake that they might not seem absolutely to discountenance them and to avoid discovering their Designs of turning them out of all but yet so few in comparison of the Papists that they were incapable of doing either good or hurt And when they saw that they must be insignificant they generally declined serving at all The Papists employed were commonly the most inveterate and exasperated persons against Protestants and their Interest that could be found Many of them never saw the Corporations for which they were named they were never concerned in Trade or Business many of them were named for several Corporations because they wanted Men qualified as they would have had them to make up the number of Aldermen or Burgesses Most of them were poor and mean and such whose very Names spake Barbarities 7. The Protestants foresaw very well what they were to expect from Corporations thus settled and a great many of the richest trading Citizens removed themselves and their Effects into England The Gentry likewise endeavoured to make Provisions for themselves there and such as could compass Money laid it out in England and fled after it to avoid the Storm they saw coming on Ireland The Truth is 't was intolerable to them to live under the Government of their Footmen and Servants which many must have done had they staid and they could not but dread a Parliament that should not only be Slaves to the King's Will who they saw was bent to settle Popery at any rate but which must consist of Members that they knew to be their inveterate and hereditary Enemies who would not stick to sacrifice the Liberties and Laws of the Kingdom to the King's Will so they might procure from him Revenge on the Protestants and turn them out of their Estates For what would they stick at that were so servile as to accept such precarious Charters They saw in this their own Ruin design'd and the Event has shewn that they were not mistaken perhaps no King in the World much less a King who had been obliged in
at all at least without any given in their Warrants it was time enough to invent some against the next Assizes There never wanted Evidence enough to accuse a Man the very Priests being forward to encourage such Perjuries as were to the prejudice of Protestants Of this there are several Instances on Record in the Courts of Justice where we find them sometimes swearing Falshoods themselves and sometimes encouraging others to do it Of which the Courts even in spite of all their partiality were satisfied I gave one Example before in Sir William Petty's Case There is another of Mr. Balfours in the County of Fermanagh where the false Affidavit of one Hultaghan a Priest had almost destroyed his Cause and lost him a considerable Estate 2. Upon this account Perjuries became so common that if a Tenant owed his Protestant Landlord his Rent he payed him by swearing him into a Plot or by fixing on him some Treasonable or Seditious Words If a Papist had any former Quarrel with his Protestant Neigbor or owed him Money he paid him in the same Coin Many were indicted by these Contrivances many found guilty and excessively fin'd some were imprisoned for their Fines not being able to satisfie the King who seised both their Bodies and Estates Hardly any County in Ireland was free from numerous Indictments of this kind and very few Country Gentlemen escaped being accused Great numbers were indicted and found guilty in the Counties of Wexford and Wicklow to the number at least of sixty the most considerable Gentlemen in the County of Meath were indicted but had better luck the Perjury of their Accusers being made so manifest that even a Popish Bench had not the confidence to countenance it nor a Popish Jury to find it Thus Mr. Meredith Mr. Parry Mr. Chetwin a Minister and several others escaped having discovered the very bottom of a wicked Contrivance to carry on a Trade of Swearing against all the Gentlemen in the Country but though they discovered it yet they durst not prosecute it by reason of some Priests being concerned in it and of the Discountenance of the Courts a great many in the County of Tipperary were likewise brought into Trouble but escaped the first time by a kind of Miracle one of the Jurors was so maliciously bent against them that he swore he would die before he would acquit them It happened to him according to his own desire he fell dead in the place whilst they were disputing about returning the Verdict which saved the Gentlemen for that time Yet this did not discourage their Prosecutors they caused them to be indicted anew and upon their second Tryal Justin Macarty afterwards made Lord Mountcashell by King James came into the Court threatened and hectored Sir John Mead who then sate as Judge for the Duke of Ormond it being within his Graces Palatinate because he would not direct the Jury to find them guilty but Sir John stood his Ground and declared that there was no sufficient Evidence against them upon which they were acquitted It vexed them that they could not bring their Popish Judges and Sheriffs into that County as they did into the rest of Ireland by reason that the nomination of them was in his Grace as Lord of the Regalities and therefore in their pretended Parliament they not only Attainted him but likewise by a particular Act dissolved his Principality Their First Plot against the Gentlemen of the County having miscarried they began a second and got Depositions against several but they were as unlucky in this as in the first They laid the Scheme of their Affairs so unskilfully that the Witnesses swore that the Gentlemen met to carry on their Plot at Nenagh a place above sixty Miles from Dublin on the same day that some of them had been examined before the Council Board on the first Informations This appearing to the Council by an entry made in their own Books quashed the Design against them and saved them a third time It would make a Volume to enumerate all the Particulars of this Nature 3. The new Mayors and Justices of the Peace were no less troublesome to Protestants in their Employments they made no scruple to send their Tokens and Warrants for Persons of the best Quality And wherever a Papist and Protestant had any difference there needed no more but a complaint to procure a Committal and to be sure it was done with all the indignity and affronting Circumstances imaginable Sir Thomas Hackett whilst Lord Mayor of Dublin did so many brutish and barbarous things of this nature that it were endless to recount them taking example from the Lord Tyrconnel who made him Mayor he treated every body with Oaths Curses ill Names and barbarous Language The Lord Primate Boyles Family could not escape his Warrants he or his Clerk as he afterwards pretended sent one for Mr. Francis Cuff and Mr. Jephson who lived in my Lords Family being his Son in Law and Nephew their Crime was refusing to Contribute to the maintenance of two begging Fryars one of them was one Magee a Debauchee and Renegado who had the impudence to have demanded it from my Lord Primate if he had been permitted access The Fryars vexed that they should be repulsed procured a Warrant for the two Gentlemen that refused them and attempted the Execution of it in my Lord Primates House with a Rabble of near two hundred Sir Thomas was not content to Execute his Authority within his own Precincts but extended it where the Mayors Power was never owned He sent his Warrant and committed the Officers of Christs Church Dublin to the Stocks because he fancied they did not make the Bells ring merrily enough for the Birth of the Prince of Wales It was in vain for the Officers to tell him that their Church and Persons were not subject to his Jurisdiction that if the Bells did not ring merrily enough as he alledged it was the Ringers fault not theirs That no body besides his Lordship could observe any such thing in their Ringing His brutish Passion would not give him leave to hearken to Reason but upon all occasions he proceeded in the same method which made every body that valued his Liberty get out of his Power and prevailed with a great many to leave their Estates and Concerns and Transport themselves and what Effects they could carry with them into England It was unsafe and uneasie living both in the City and in the Country and he reckoned himself happy that could get out of them at any rate 4. But when the Descent was made by his present Majesty into England things grew yet more troublesome The Protestants were every where Robbed and Plundered The new Commissioned Officers and their Souldiers under the new name of Rapperies committed many Outrages and Devastations on their Protestant Neighbours insomuch that they could not be safe in their Houses If any endeavoured to keep their Houses though merely to secure themselves from the
were first Robbed of all and then laid in Goal and that they had no way offended his Majesty or disturbed his Government and begged his favour in their behalf His Majesty heard him but made him no answer instead thereof he fell into discourse of another Affair with a Papist that chanced to be by and that with an Air more than ordinarily pleasant and unconcerned Indeed his Majesty had by one general Order and Proclamation dated July 26. 1689 confined all Protestants without distinction of Age or Sex to their Parishes and Cities though their Occasions were such that he very well knew that this alone without any more was a very great encroachment on their Liberty and a mighty inconveniency to their Affairs especially when it was continued without Reason or Limitation No body knew when this would be relaxed and it was Executed with great strictness till his present Majesties success put an end to it and to the Power that imposed it 8. But least these hardships and restraints should either be avoided by our flight or known in England where King James had a Party to cry up the mildness of his Government and face down the World that the Protestants lived easily and happily under him in Ireland a most strict Embargo was laid on all Ships and effectual care taken to destroy all Correspondence with our Friends there insomuch that to avoid a Goal great numbers of Gentlemen and other persons were forced to make their escapes in small Wherries and Fishing-Boats which before these times durst never venture out of the sight of the Shoar but it seemed more tolerable to every body that could compass it to cross the Irish Seas so famous for their boisterousness and Shipwracks in that hazardous manner than to continue under a Government where they could call nothing their own where it was in the power of any that pleased to deprive them of their Liberty where they durst not Travel three Miles for fear of incurring the severest penalties where they could not send a Letter to a Friend though in the next Town and about the most necessary Occasions and where tho never so cautious and innocent they were sure at last to be sent to a Goal A Government that thus encroached on our Liberties could not expect we should continue under it longer than we needs must and it had been unpardonable folly in us not to desire much more to refuse a deliverance especially from England which if Blood and Treasure or a Possession of five hundred years can give a right to a Country is justly intitled to the Government of Ireland And which if it had no other exception against King James's Government but his Carriage towards Ireland and his attempts to separate it from its dependence on England must be justified by all the World in their laying him aside as a Destroyer of his People and a disinheritor of the Crown of his Ancestors SECT VIII 7. The preparations made by the Earl of Tyrconnel to ruin the Estates and Fortunes of the Protestants by taking away their Arms. 1. 'T Is Property that makes Government necessary and the immediate end of Government is to preserve Property where therefore a Government instead of preserving intirely ruins the Property of the Subject that Government dissolves it self Now this was the State of the Protestants in Ireland the Government depriv'd them contrary to Law and Justice nay for the most part without so much as the pretence of a Crime of every thing to which persons can have a Property even of the necessaries of life Food and Rayment To lay this more fully before the Reader I will shew First That King James took away the Arms of Protestants Secondly That he took away their personal and Thirdly their real Estates 2. When his present Majesty made his descent into England King James had an Army of Papists in Ireland consisting of between 7 and 8000 of which near 4000 were sent over to him into England there remain'd then about 4000 behind scattered up and down the Kingdom which were but a handful to the Protestants there being Men and Arms enough in Dublin alone to have dealt with them When therefore the News came that K. J. had sent Commissioners to treat with the Prince of Orange it was propos'd by some to seize the Castle of Dublin where the Stores of Arms and Ammunition lay the possibility of this was demonstrated and the Success extreamly probable insomuch that the persons who offer'd to undertake it made no doubt of effecting it they considered that the Papists besides the 4000 of the Army were generally without Arms that those who were in Arms were raw and cowardly and might easily be supprest that to do it effectually there needed no more but to seize the Deputy Tyrconnel who had not then above 600 Men in the City to guard him and secure it that their hearts were generally sunk and they openly declar'd themselves to be desirous to lay down their Arms proposing to themselves no other Conditions but to return to the station in which they were when K. J. came to the Crown This was so universally talk'd of by themselves that if any one could have assured them of these terms there was no doubt but they would readily have comply'd and have left the Lord Tyrconnel to shift for himself nay it is probable the wiser sort amongst them would have bin glad that the Protestants had seiz'd him and he himself commanded some Protestants to signifie to their Friends in England that he was willing to part with the Sword on these terms so he might have leave to do it from K. J. But the Protestants had bin educated in such a mighty veneration to the very name of Authority and in so deep a sense of Loyalty that notwithstanding the many provocations given them and their fear of being serv'd as in 1641 the memory of which was still fresh to them they yet abhorr'd any thing that look'd like an Insurrection against the Government and generally condemn'd the design of medling with the Lord Deputy tho they knew he was no Legal Governour and uncapable by the Law of that Trust. Especially the Lord Mountjoy laboured for his safety and prevented the forementioned proposal of seizing him and the Castle with as much industry as if he himself had bin to perish in it The truth is it was an unanimous resolution of all the Protestants of the Kingdom that they would not be the Aggressors and they held steadily to their resolution None offered or attempted any thing till they saw the whole body of the Papists in Ireland forming themselves into Troops and Companies and these new rais'd Men permitted nay put under a necessity to rob and plunder for their subsistence They pitied the hard Fortune of K. J. and notwithstanding they were half ruin'd themselves when he came into the Kingdom yet if he had carried himself with any tolerable moderation towards them and his
designs to ruin them had not bin so apparent he might have prevail'd on them in a great measure But his behaviour was such as shall appear in the sequel of this discourse that it left no room for them to expect or hope for any safety under his Government of which such Protestants as had followed him from England were generally so sensible that many of them repented too late their having stuck to his interest and heartily wished themselves at home again openly professing that they could not have believ'd that he was such a Man or his designs such as they found them nay several of the English Papists that came from France with him abhorr'd his Proceedings and us'd to alledge that he not only hated the English Protestant but also the English Man The very Ambassador d'Avaux if he might be believ'd was dissatisfied with K. J's Measures and condemned them alledging that he had intirely given himself up to the conduct of the bigotted Irish Clergy and of Tyrconnel who in earnest was the only Minister he trusted and would effectually ruin him and the Kingdom Whatever the Ambassador thought it is certain he has discours'd in this manner and the event has answer'd the prediction 4. But to return to the Lord Tyrconnel's dealing with the Protestants When he found himself so very weak and so much in the power of the Protestants that nothing but their own Principles of Loyalty secur'd him against them he betook himself to his usual Arts that is of falshood of dissimulalation and of flattery which he practis'd with the deepest Oaths and Curses protesting that he would be rid of the Government very willingly so it might be with Honour that it was easie for him to ruin and destroy the Kingdom and make it not worth one groat but impossible to preserve it for his Master Every body wondred to find so great a Truth come so frankly out of the mouth of one they usually stil'd Lying Dick Talbot and who had bin known not without reason many years by that name Some believed that in earnest he intended to part with the Sword and perhaps if it had bin demanded before K. J. went into France it had not bin denied There wanted not several to second the same Truth to him with all earnestness and application both in writing and by word of mouth which the Deputy seem'd to approve all that he answered to their perswasions to surrender and save the Kingdom was that he could not do it with Honour till it was demanded and sometimes he ask'd them in Raillery if they would have him cast the Sword over the Castle-Walls What he desired the World should at that time believe concerning his intentions may be best collected by the Letters he procur'd to be written and sent into England I have in the Appendix given the Copy of one written by his Command and perused by him before it was sent it was from a Protestant of good sense and interest in the Kingdom to another in London Several were written by his order to the same purpose 'T is observable in this Letter in the Appendix 1st That the Lord Deputy owns the Robberies then committed but would have it believ'd that the members of the Army were not the Robbers which sufficiently shews the falshood of the Allegation whereby the Papists would excuse themselves as if they had not begun to Rob till the Protestant Associations were set on foot whereas those were some while after this Letter and occasion'd by the Robberies mentioned in it 2ly He would have it believ'd that the Papists fear'd a Massacre from the Protestants as much as the Protestants from the Papists which had no ground The Arms Forts Magazins c. being in the Papists hands and a vast number of Men every where enlisted by their new Officers it is true that the Priests did by order of their Grandees endeavour to spread such a Rumour to make their own people arm the faster which if it were at all credited by some few of them was look'd on as ridiculous by all others 3ly He would have the people in England believe that he and the Roman Catholicks were willing to give up the Sword and return to the Condition in which they were before the death of King Charles the Second This is plainly the main design of the Letter and some think he was sincere in it till the coming over of Coll. Richard Hamilton altered his Measures but that is not at all probable his actions all along signifying his resolution to destroy the Kingdom rather than part with his greatness However he made a shift to perswade some Protestants that he meant it their own earnest Desires that it might be so helping to impose on them amongst whom the Writer of this Letter happened to be one but was not singular many of good Sense being deceived as well as he Lastly it appears from the Letter that the Roman Catholicks as well as the Protestants were of opinion that the Kingdom must be ruined if not yielded up to the Prince of Orange And if so had not the Protestants in the North reason to do that which in the opinion of all could only save the Kingdom The case then stood thus with them if they joined with King James or sate still they were certainly undone if he perished they must perish with him if he conquered he would then be in a capacity to execute his destructive Intentions against them which he had entertained long before But if they joyned with their Present Majesties they were sure of Safety and Protection as long as England is able to Master Ireland which in probability will be for ever But whatever the Lord Tyrconnel profest of his being desirous to give up the Sword 't is certain he meant nothing less and the generality of Protestants believed that he only designed to gain time and delude them till he had gotten something like an Army to Master them and they had the more reason to believe it because whilst he profest the greatest Inclinations to Peace and Accommodation he was most intent on providing for War and gave out about Five Hundred Commissions of one sort or other in a day which yet he did in such a manner as to make the least Noise not passing them in the regular forms or entring them in the usual Offices but antedating them the more to delude and amuse the Protestants which put the Muster-Masters Office out of Order ever after most of these Commissions being never entred in it Nor was it ever able to furnish a perfect List of the very Field Officers as will appear from the List it self in the Appendix 5. These new made Officers were set on Foot partly on the first noise of the Prince of Orange's descent and partly in the beginning of December 1688 and were without Mony Estate or any other visible means to raise their Troops and Companies and to subsist so they term'd maintaining them
seized on most of the Churches in the Kingdom 4. The manner of their doing it was thus The Mayor or Governour in the Towns with the Priests went to the Churches sent for the Keys to the Sextons and if they were found forced them from them if not they broke open the Doors pull'd up the Seats and Reading Desk and having said Mass in them lookt upon them as their own and said the King himself had then nothing to do with them being consecrated places and to alienate them or give them back to Hereticks was Sacriledge In the Country the Militia Captains or Officers of the Army that chanced to be quartered in the several places performed the same part that the Mayors or Governors did in Corporations thus Christ's Church in Dublin was seized by Luttrel the Governour and about Twenty six Churches and Chappels in the Diocess of Dublin 5. Of this Protestants complained to King James as a great violation of his own Act for Liberty of Conscience in which it is expresly provided that they should have Liberty to meet in such Churches Chappels and other places as they shall have for that purpose they further represented to him That all the Churches of Ireland were in a manner ruined in the late War in 1641. That it was with great difficulty and cost that the Protestants had new built or repaired them That many were built by private Persons on their own Costs and that the Roman Catholicks had no Pretence or Title to them but his Majesty answered That they were seiz'd in his absence at the Camp without his knowledge or consent That nevertheless he was so much obliged to his Roman Catholick Clergy that he must not dispossess them that they alledged a Title to the Churches that they had seiz'd and if the Protestants thought their Title was better they must bring their Action and endeavour to recover their Possessions by Law 6. This Answer was what the Attorney General had suggested to him and the Reader will perceive that the whole was a piece of deceit that the pretence of the Churches being seiz'd whilst his Majesty was absent was a meer Collusion and that there could not be a more false Suggestion than that the Papists had any Right to the Churches or a more unjust thing than to put the Protestants on recovering a Possession by a Suit at Law which was gotten from them by so open violence but this was the Justice we lookt for and constantly met with from him and therefore there being no Remedy to be expected we were forced to acquiesce 7. Only to colour the matter a little and lest this should make too great a noise in England and Scotland where King James at this time had very encouraging hopes he issued out a Proclamation December 13. 1689. in which he acknowledges that the seizing of Churches was a violation of the Act for Liberty of Conscience yet doth not order any restitution only forbids them to seize any more They had in many places notice of this Proclamation before it came out and therefore were more diligent to get into the remaining Churches for they look't on the Proclamation as a confirmation of their Possessions which they had before the publishing of it and in some places the Popish Officers kept it from being published till they had done their Work the Protestants not being allowed to go out of their Parishes could not come by it till it pleas'd their Popish Neighbours to produce it and so it prov'd like other Proclamations of his Majesty in favour of his Protestant Subjects it was not published till the inconveniency it pretended to prevent was brought upon them and the mischief actually executed and it made their Enemies more hasty and diligent to do it than otherwise they would have been lest they should slip the time and lose the opportunity 8. But after all some were too late and the Protestants got sight of the Proclamation before their Churches were seiz'd but here the Priests put off their Vizors and acted bare-faced they told the People the King had nothing to do with them or their Churches that they were immediately under the Pope and that they would neither regard him nor his Proclamations or Laws made to the damage of Holy Church 9. The Protestants had a mind to make an Experiment how far this would go and whether the Priests or King would get the better in order therefore to make the Tryal they chose out some Instances in which the violence and injustice of turning them out of their Churches were most undenyable and laid their Case before His Majesty and his Council by their Petitions and that the Petitions might not be laid aside or lost as was the common Custom to deal with Petitions and Affidavits to which they were ashamed to return a flat denial they engaged some of the Privy Council to espouse their Cause and had the luck to gain several of the Popish Nobility to favour their Suits especially of such as had Estates in England and knew King James's true Interest and their own 10. The Petitions of Waterford and Wexford were the most favourably received and in spite of all the opposition that the Attorny General Nagle or the Sollicitor General one Butler who concern'd himself with singular impudence against the Petitions could make they obtained an Order for restitution of these two Churches the Wexford Petition sets forth the Loyalty of the Minister the peaceableness of the People their having contributed to the building of several Popish Chappels within and without the Walls of that Town and that the Roman Catholiks had no occasion for the Church the reasonableness of this Petition was so manifest that King James and his Council made an Order for the restitution of the Church but he now found how precariously he reign'd in Ireland notwithstanding their mighty professions of Loyalty and absolute Subjection upon all occasions and more particularly in their Act of Recognition for the Mayors and Officers refused to obey his Order 11. Upon which he was importuned by the Protestants with new Complaints but being ashamed to own his want of power to make good his former Order he referr'd the Waterford Petition to the then Governour of that place the Earl of Tyrone who reported that the Church of Waterford was a Place of strength and consequently not fit to be trusted into the Hands of Protestants and so all they obtain'd by their Petition Attendance and Charges was to have their Church turn'd into a Garrison instead of a Mass-house this pretence could not be made for the Church of Wexford it having no appearance of strength and therefore the Order for restoring it was renewed and the disobedient Mayor sent for and turn'd out for which the Popish Clergy made him ample satisfaction but notwithstanding that King James appear'd most zealous to have the Church restored and express'd himself with more passion than was usual that he would be obeyed and
to take us out of Jail to restore our Laws our Employments the free exercise of our Religion our Fortunes and Estates when we were unjustly depriv'd of them and 't was a very modest expectation in them and answerable to their other measures of Politicks to think a People harrass'd and stript and plundred and condemned by them to lose their Lives and Estates which was the Case of all those who fled from hence to England and in great measure of most of those that staid here should in the height of their smart and sufferings reject the kind offers of a Deliverer to depend on a Miracle yet they pretend this is what we ought to have done and because we did it not they rail at us in the most bitter Terms they call us Rebels and Traitors Villains and Atheists and load us with all the approbrious Names their Malice and Revenge can suggest But we cannot blame them to be angry the hungry Wolf if he could speak would curse and rail as heartily at the Shepherd that rescues the Lamb out of his Paws as they do at us or our Deliverer they had devour'd us in their Imaginations they had got the Civil and Military Sword into their Hands and engrost all Places of Trust and Profit these with the Legislative Power in the hands of our ancient and most malicious Enemies were more than enough to have destroy'd us but just when they should have divided the Spoil and concluded the fatal Tragedy the Prince of Orange his present Majesty interposeth and rescueth us this disappointment mads them beyond all bounds of patience and casts them into strange fits of railing and cursing Hell Damnation Confusion to him and his Royal Consort were continually in the Mouths of their Men Women and Children with these they used to entertain one another at their Tables and Debauches and endeavoured to force them by way of Healths on Protestants In short they spare no ill Name or Execration that impotent Rage could vent or invenom'd Rancour could suggest but when all is done in their quiet Intervals their Consciences cannot but acquit us and many of them made no scruple to confess That there was no medium but that either we or they must be undone and when that was the unavoidable choice that they according to their own confession had put on us I assure my self the World will not only excuse us but will think it was our Duty to have done what we did since they had left us no other visible way but this to avoid certain and apparent Destruction CHAP. V. A short Account of those Protestants who left the Kingdom and of those that staid and submitted to King James SECT I. Concerning those who went away 1. THE former Discourse I suppose is sufficient to justifie the Protestants of Ireland as to their submission to the Government of their present Majesties and to shew the Reasons for their earnest desiring and thankfully accepting of that Deliverance which Providence offered us by their means It remains only to speak a few words in particular of those that left the Kingdom and of those that staid and submitted to King James that they may understand the truth of each others Circumstances and not either of them unjustly censure the other 2. As to those that absented themselves out of the Kingdom it is certain that they offended against no Law in doing so it being lawful for any Subject to transport himself out of one part of the Dominions of England into another it is true that there is a Law or Custom that requires such as hold Offices from the King to take a Licence from the Chief Governour but the Penalty of this is no more than the forfeiture of their Offices and I find it disputed among the Lawyers whether it reach so far now few of those that went away compar'd with the whole number of them were Officers those that were generally took Licences of absence and at worst it was at their own Peril and it had been a great severity to have taken the forfeiture which was the sence of the whole Parliament of England in making an Act to exempt such from incurring any loss 3. But Secondly they had great reason to go out of the Kingdom because they foresaw that it would be the seat of Warr they saw 40 or 50 m Men put into Arms without any fund to maintain them they knew these to be their bitter and sworn Enemies they saw the course of Justice stopt against them and their Stocks and Cattle taken away before their faces several Gentlemen of the Country lost to the value of some 1000 l. before they stirr'd and to what purpose should they stay in a place where they certainly knew that all they had would be taken from them and their Lives expos'd to the fury of their Enemies Thirdly They had no reason to stay because they could not expect to do any good by their staying or to save the Kingdome the Papists had all the Forts and Magazins of the Kingdom in their hands they had all the Arms and publick Revenues they were in number Four or Five to one Protestant and they had the face of Authority on their side and then what could a scattered Multitude without Arms without Leaders and without Authority hope to do in their own defence by going into England they reckon'd themselves not only safe but likewise in a way of serving their Countrey 'T was from thence they expected Arms Ammunition and Commissions by the help of which they might put themselves in some capacity of rescuing their Estates and Friends they left behind which they lookt on as much better Service than to stay and perish with them 4. Fourthly the memory of the cruel usage and difficult times those met with who staid in Ireland in 1641. did frighten and terrifie all that reflected on them the number of those that were then massacred and starv'd was incredible and those that escap'd got away with such circumstances that the memory of what they had suffered was as ill as death if any will be but at the pains of reading over Sir John Temples account of the first half Year of the War or rather Massacre he will be satisfied that it was no unreasonable fear made so many Protestants withdraw out of the reach of such barbarities the same Men or their Sons that committed all those bloody murders and inhumanities were again arm'd in a much more formidable manner than they ever had been before and yet at that time they were able to maintain a War for Twelve Years and live by spoil and robbery and then what were the Children of those whose Parents had been murthered by them to expect but the same fate or at best a miserable Life in a desolate and spoild Country in which no wise Man would choose to live if he could help it indeed they could not expect to live long after all was taken from them but must in
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
the assistance of so wise a Council will disperse I must needs say both from my own Observation and the Information I have had from my Lords the Judges who often visit the whole Kingdom that there is a great readiness and willingness in all People to serve and obey the King I must here a little enlarge to your Excellency because I reckon my self bound to give the King an account of his Subjects and I would not willingly say any thing when I am at such a distance which I have not mentioned here The English in this Country have been aspersed with the Character of being generally Fanaticks which is a great Injury to them I must do them the justice to say that they are of the Church of England as appears by their Actions as well as Professions The Churches here are as much frequented and the Discipline of the Church as well observed as in England it self which is to be attributed to the Piety and Labour of my Lords the Bishops We of the Church of England can brag that when Rebellion overspread the three Kingdoms not one Orthodox Member of our Church was engaged against the Crown And in our late Disorders we can boast we were Opposers of the Bills of Exclusion and the Sense his Majesty has been graciously pleas'd to express of our Loyalty will never be forgotten by us I had the happiness to be born a Member of the Church of England and I hope God will give me the Grace to die one One thing the English of this Country have to glory in That of all his Majesty's Subjects they made the earliest Advances towards his Majesty's Restoration when the three Kingdoms were governed by Usurpers And after all the Endeavours of his Loyal Subjects in England seemed to be disappointed and there appeared no Hopes by the total defeating of Sir G. Booth the English then in this Kingdom offered to submit to his Majesty's Authority I do not say this my Lord to detract from his Majesty's R. C. Loyal Subjects many of whom I my self knew serv'd and suffered with him abroad but I speak it in justice to the others who did their Duty There is but one thing more I shall trouble your Excellency with I am sorry that I cannot say that I leave a full Treasure but I can say that I leave no Debts The Revenue is in good Order which must be owned to be due to the unwearied Industry and Diligence of the Commissioners The Army is intirely paid to Christmass day last and I have advanced a Month's Subsistence-money for January The Civil and Pensionary Lists are likewise cleared to Christmass I doubt not but your Excellency's Care will carry all things on in the same Method God Almighty bless the King and grant him long Life and I beseech God to prosper this excellent Country I received this Sword in Peace and I thank God by the King's Command I deliver it in Peace to your Excellency and I heartily wish you Joy of the Honour the King has done you A General Abstract of the Gross Produce of his Majesty's Revenue in Ireland in the three first Years of the Management beginning at Christmass 1682. ending Christmass 1685.  1683 1684 1685. Customs Inwards Impt. Excise 85844 17 2â…œ 91424 8 8â— â— 91117 13 65 â— Customs Outwards 32092 11 4½ 33425 15 2 29428 8 11½ Seizures and Fines 965 2 3½ 615 1 5â— â— 460 11 5¼ Prizage 1452 1693 1882 Inland Excise 68344 1 3â…œ 77580 3 7¼ 79169 4 4¾ Ale Licenses 8283 14 11â— 4 9538 4 46 8 99â—5 14 11â— â— Wine c. Licenses 2736 12 3114 10 2â— 2 3467 11 3¾ Quit Crown and Custodiam Rents 68699 9 7â…œ 68385 8 0¼ 68922 4 5â— 2 Hearth-Money 31041 31646 32953 12 00 Casual Revenue 820 3 3 1745 16 2 1564 16 11¼ Totals l. 300297 11 11â— 4 319168 7 9 318961 18 0â— 8 Arrears of each of the above-Years remaining uncollected at Christmass 1685. 7659 1 6â…œ 9799 9 8½ 34971 9 3â…ž Net Cash paid into the Treasury in the three Years above-mention'd over and besides the Charges of Management and Sallaries to the Officers of the Revenue in the said time 712972 17 2â…œ Cash remaining in the Collectors Hands at Christmass 1685 ready to be paid in 55655 10 3½ The Solvent Part of the above-mention'd Arrears which was actually levied and paid into the Treasury before Christmass 1688. 30000 00 00 Total Cash l. 798628 07 5â…ž Which at a Medium for three Years amounts for each Year to the Sum of 266209 00 00 Sheriffs for the Year 1687. Febr. 16. 1686. Counties Sheriffs Ardmagh Marcus Clarke Antrim Cormuck O. Neil Cavan Lucas Reily Clare John Mac. Nemara of Cratelagâ— Corke Nicholas Brown of Bantrey Catherlogh Sir Lawrence Esmond Dublin Thomas Warren Downe Valentine Russell Donnegall Charles Hamilton Fermanagh Cohonnagh Mac-Gwire Galway John Keâ—â— Esq Kildare John Wogan King's County Hewar Oxburgh Kilkenny John Grace Esq Kerry Donogh Mac-Gellicuddy Leitrim Alexander Mac-Donnel Lowth Patrick Bellew Limerick Edward Rice of Ballynitty Longford James Nugent Esq Meath Walter Nangle Esq Monoghan Sir John Flemming Mayo Dominick Browne Queen's County Edmond Morris Esq Roscomon John Dillon Esq Sligoe Henry Crafton of Longford Tyrone Terence Donelly Wexford Patrick Colclough Westmeath Thomas Nugent Wicklow Francis Meara Waterford John Nugent Londonderry Elected by the Charter Cipperary Appointed by the Duke of Ormond John Plunkett Lessee of Christ. Lord Baron of Dunsany Plantiff Philip Tuite and John Rawlins Defendants Sir Edward Tyrrell's Affidavit about packing of Juries WHereas there issued two several Venire Faciases at the Plantiff's Suit returnable to his Majesty's Court of Exchequer directed to Edward Tyrrell Esq then High Sheriff of the County of Meath the first Year of his now Majesty's Reign Now Sir Edward Tyrrell Baronet came this day before me and made Oath That one Mr. Plunket Brother to the said Lord of Dunsany came to Longwood to this Deponent's House and desired this Deponent to stand the Lord Dunsany's Friend and to give him a Jury that would do him Right and withal said this Deponent should have after the said Lord of Dunsany should be restored to the Possession of his Estate the sum of three or four hundred Pounds To which this Deponent answered He would do him Justice The said Mr. Plunket desired this Deponent to meet him at Mr. Nugent his Counsel's House where he would further discourse the Matter This Deponent did accordingly meet the said Thomas Plunket where several Proposals and Overtures were made all to no purpose This Deponent further deposeth That in some short time after the said Lord of Dunsany came to this Deponent's said House and after some Discourse he the said Dunsany desired this Deponent to befriend him against those that wronged him and kept him out of his Estate Whereupon this Deponent told the said Lord of Dunsany what offer his Brother made him The said Lord of Dunsany replying said His Brothers
Major Sir Michael Creagh Coll. John Power Lieu. Coll. Theobald Bourk Major Hâ—yward Oxbrough Coll. Edward Scot Lieu. Coll. Laurence Delahunty Major Dom. Browne Coll. ....... Lieu. Coll. Le Sir Mountyouge Major Owen Mac Carty Coll. James Dupuy Lieu. Coll. Terence O Brien Major John Barret Coll. Donogh Mac Callaghane L. Coll. ....... Major Charles O Brien Coll. ........ Lieu. Coll. William Saxby Major Daniel O Donnovane Coll. Fran. Napper Lieu. Coll. Sir Alphon. Mottit Major Lord Ireagh Coll. Brien Magennis 1st L. Coll. Francis Wahup 2d L. Coll. ........ Major Roger Mac Elligot Coll. Maurice Hussy Lieu. Coll. Edmund Fitz-gerald Major Edmund Reyley Coll. ......... Lieu. Coll. ........ Major Cuconnogh Mac Gwyre Coll. Alex. Mac Gwyre Lieu. Coll. Cornelius Mac Gwyre Major Walter Bourk Coll. ............ Lieu. Coll. ............ Major Felix O Neile Coll. ..... O Neile Lieu Coll. ........... Major Hugh Mac Mahon Coll. Owen Mac Mahon Lieu. Coll. Christopher Plunket Major Lord Inniskillin Coll. ............. Lieu. Coll. ............ Major Dennis Mac Gillicuddy Coll. ............ Lieu. Coll. ........... Major James Purcell Coll. ........... Lieu. Coll. ........... Major Lord Hunsdon Coll. Rob. Ingram 1st Lieu. Coll. John Gifford 2d Lieu. Coll. Francis Gyles Major Regiments sent to France viz. Collonels Lord Mounteashell Daniel O Bryen Richard Butler Robert Fielding N o 12. A Copy of the Letter dispers'd about the Massacre said to be design'd on the 9th of December 1688. Good my Lord December 3d. 1688. 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 murder Man Wife and Child and to spare none and I do desire your Lordship to take care of your self 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 Honour is to look to your self and to give other Noblemen warning 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 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 Mountgomery N o 13. Lord Mountjoy's Circular Letter on his going to France Gentlemen Dublin 10th January 1688. YOU had an Account how long I staid on the Way after I left you and the Reasons which made me since go forwards And whatever any Jealousies were at my first Arrival I am now satisfied at my coming and with God's Blessing I hope it will come to good to us all As soon as I saw my Lord Deputy he told me he designed to send me to the King jointly with my Lord Chief Baron Rice to lay before him the State of the Kingdom and to tell him That if he pleased he could Ruine it for him and make it a heap of Rubbish but it was impossible to preserve it and make it of use to him and therefore to desire leave to treat for it The Objections I made to this were Two My being not so well qualified as a Northern Roman Catholick whom in all likelyhood the King would sooner give Credit to And the improbability of being able to perswade the King who is now in the French Hands to a Thing so plainly against their Interest To the First of these I was answered what is not fit for me to repeat and the other is so well answered that all the most knowing Englishmen are satisfied with me and have desired me to undertake this Matter which I have done this Afternoon my Lord Deputy having first promised me on his Word and Honour to perform the Four Particulars in the within Paper Now because a Thing of this Nature cannot be done without being Censur'd by some who perhaps would be sorry to have their Wishes in quiet means and by others who think all that Statesmen do are Tricks and that there is no Sincerity amongst them I would have such to consider That it is more probable I and the most intelligent in this Place without whose Advice I do nothing should judge right of this than they who are at greater Distance and as it is not likely we should be Fooled so I hope they will not believe we design to betray them our selves and the Nation I am morally assured this must do our Work without Blood or the Misery of the Kingdom I am sure it is the Way proposed in England who depend so on it that no Forces are appointed to come hither and I am sure what I do is not only what will be approved of in England but what had its beginning from thence I do therefore conjure you to give your Friends and mine this Account and for the Love of God keep them from any Disorder or Mischief if any had such Design which I hope they had not and I am fully satisfied every Man will have his own Heart's Desire I will write to this Effect to some other Places and I desire you will let such in the Country as you think fit see this Let the People fall to their Labour and think themselves in less Danger than they believed c. N o 14. Judge Keating's Letter to Sir John Temple December 29th 1688. SIR I Had ere this acknowledged the Favour of your last and returned you my Thanks for your kind Advice relating to the small Concerns I had in England which I have now disposed of here but to deal freely with you the Distractions arising from the Great and Suddain Alterations in England and the pannick but I believe groundless Fears which hath possessed the Minds not only of the Weaker Sex and Sort but even of Men who would pass for Sober and Judicious hath render'd Matters with Us so uncertain that I profess seriously I know not what to write nor dare I yet give you any Account relating either to particular Persons or Places of the Kingdom scarcely of what I hear from the Remote Parts of this City since what we have at Night for certain Truth from those who pretend to be Eye or Ear Witnesses of what they relate we find before the next Days Exchange is over to be altogether False and Groundless The fear of a Massacre hath been mutual the Protestants remembring past Times and being alarm'd by a Letter neither directed to nor subscribed by any Person but drop'd at Cumber of which Copies were dispers'd throughout all Parts of the Kingdom were frighted to that degree that very many of them betook themselves to the Ards and other Places of Security in the North Some into Scotland and very many Families Embark'd from this Part for Chester Leverpoole Beaumaris and the next Adjacent Ports of England and Wales who you may easily conclude carried with them all the ready Money and Plate which they
Fitzgerald Esquires Bur. Trim. Captain Nicholas Cusack Walter Nangle Esquire Bur. of Navan Christoph. Cusack of Corballis Esquires Christ. Cusack of Ratholdran Esquires Bur. Athboy John Trinder Esquires Robert Longfield Esquires Duleek Kells Com. Monoghan Bryan Mac Mahon Esquires 9 th July 1689 Hugh Mac Mahon Esquires 9 th July 1689 Town of Monoghan Com. Fermanagh Enniskillen Queens County Sir Patrick Trant Knight Edmond Morris Esq Bur. Maryborough Peirce Bryan Esquires Thady Fitz Patrick Esquires Bur. Ballinkill Sir Gregory Bourne Baronet Oliver Grace Esquire Port Arlington Sir Henry Bond Baronet Sir Thomas Hacket Knight Com. Roscommon Charles Kelly Esquire John Bourk Bur. Roscommon John Dilton Esquires John Kelly Esquires Bur. Boyle John King Captain Terence Mac Dermot Alder. 6th May 1689. Tulske Com. Sligoe Henry Crofton Esquires Oliver O Gara Esquires Bur. Sligoe Terence Mac Donogh Esquires 8th May 1689. James French Esquires 8th May 1689. Com. Tipperary Nicholas Purcell of Loghmore Esquires James Butler of Grangebeg Esquires City of Cashell Dennis Kearney Aldermen James Hacket Aldermen Bur. Clonmell Nicholas White Aldermen John Bray Aldermen Bur. Fethard Sir John Everard Baronet James Tobin of Fethard Esq Bur. Thurles Bur. Tipperary Com. Tyrone Coll. Gordon O Neile Esquires Lewis Doe of Dungannon Esquires Bur. Dungannon Arthur O Neil of Ballygawly Esquires Patr. Donenlly of Dungannon Esquires Bur. Strabane Christopher Nugent of Dublin Esquire Dan. O Donelly of the same Gent. 8th May 89. Clogher Augher Com. Waterford John Power Esquires Math. Hore Esquires Bur. Dungarvan John Hore Esquires 7th May 89. Martin Hore Esquires 7th May 89. City of Waterford John Porter Esquires Nicholas Fitzgerald Esquires Bur. Lismore Tallow Com. Wexford Walter Butler of Munfine Patrick Colclogh of Moulnirry Bur. Wexford William Talbot Esquire Francis Rooth Merchant Bur. New Rosse Luke Dormer Esquires Richard Butler Esquires Bur. Bannow Francis Plowden Esq Commis of the Revenue Dr. Alexius Stafford Bur. Newborough Abraham Strange of Tobberduff Esq Richard Daley of Kilcorky Gent. Bur. Eniscorthy James Devereux of Carrigmenan Esquires Dudley Colclough of Mougâ—ery Esquires Arther Waddington Esq by a new Election Bur. Taghmon George Hore of Polhore Esquires Walter Hore of Harpers-town Esquires Bur. Cloghmyne Edward Sherlock of Dublin Esquire Nicholas White of New Rosse Merchant Bur. Arklow Fytherd Coll. James Porter Capt. Nicholas Stafford Com. Wicklow Richard Butler Esquires William Talbot Esquires Bur. Caryesfort Hugh Byrne Esquire Peice Archbold Esq Upon whose default of Appearance Barth Polewheele Bur. Wicklow Francis Toole Esquires Thomas Byrne Esquires Bur. Blesington James Eustace Esq Maurice Eustace Gent. Baltinglass Com. Westmeath The Honorable Coll. William Nugent The Honorable Coll. Henry Dillon Bur. and Mannor of Mullingar Garret Dillon Esq Prime Sergeant Edmond Nugent of Garlans-town Esq Bur. Athlone Edmond Malone of Ballynehown Esq Edmond Malone Esq Councellor at Law Bur. Kilbeggan Bryan Geoghegan of Donore Esquires Charles Geoghenan of Syenan Esquires Bur. Fore John Nugent of Donore Esq Christoph. Nugent of Dardis town Esq Com. Londonderry City Londonderry Bur. Colerane Bur. Lamavudy No. 22. An Address to King James in Behalf of the Purchasers under the Act of Settlement by Judge Keating THis humble Representation made unto your Sacred Majesty is in the Behalf of many Thousands of your Majesties dutiful and obedient Subjects of all Degrees Sexes and Ages The Design and Intention of it is to prevent the Ruine and Desolation which a Bill now under Consideration in order to be made a Law will bring upon them and their Families in case your Majesty doth not interpose and by your Moderation and Justice protect them so far as the known Laws of the Kingdom and Equity and good Conscience will warrant and require It is in the Behalf of Purchasers who for great and valuable Considerations have acquired Lands and Tenements in this Kingdon by laying out not only their Portions and Provisions made for them by their Parents but also the whole Product of all their own Industry and the Labour of their Youth together with what could be saved by a frugal Management in order to make some certain Provision for Old Age and their Families in Purchasing Lands and Tenements under the Security of divers Acts of Parliament Publick Declarations from the late King And all these accompanied with a Possession of Twenty five Years Divine Providence hath appointed us our Dwelling in an Island and consequently we must Trade or live in Penury and at the mercy of our Neighbours This necessitates a Transmutation of Possessions by Purchase from one hand to another of Mortgaging and Pledging Lands for great and Considerable Sums of Money by charging them with Judgments and indeed gives Name to one of the greatest Securities made use of in this Kingdom Statutes Merchant and of the Staple and very many especially Widows and Orphans have their whose Estates and Portions secured by Mortgages Bond of the Staple and Judgments Where or when shall a Man Purchase in this Kingdom Under what Title or on what Security shall he lay out his Money or secure the Portions he designs for his Children If he may not do it under divers Acts of Parliament the solemn and reiterated Declarations of his Prince and a quiet and uncontroverted Possession of Twenty Years together And this is the Case of thousands of Families who are Purchasers under the Acts of Settlement and Explanation It were a hard task to justifie those Acts in every Particular contained in them I will not undertake it but if it be consider'd that from 23. October 1641. until 29. May 1660. the time of his Majesties Restauration the Kingdom was upon the matter in one continued Storm That the alterations of Possessions was so universal and Properties so blended and mixt by Allotments and Dispositions made by the then Usurping Powers It may be well concluded that they must be somewhat more then Men that could or can frame a Law to take in every particular Case though it should have swoln to many Volumes and Laws which are to be of such universal Consequence as this was are to have a Regard to the Generality of a Kingdom or People though possibly some particular Person may have some hardship in his private Concern But if we may judge by general Laws by the produce and effect of them and at the same time have a Prospect to the Estate and Condition of this Kingdom from 1640. and as far backwards as you please until the time of his late Majesties happy Restauration and at the same time take into Consideration what the Kingdom became in few years after the Commission for the Execution of those Acts were at an end the Buildings and other Improvements the Trade and Commerce the vast Heads of Cattel and Flocks of Sheep equal to those of England together with great Sums of money brought over by our Fellow-Subjects of England who came to Purchase and Plant in this Kingdom The Manufactures set on foot in divers parts whereby the meanest Inhabitants were
Legislative Power should be made use of to void this Mans Estate who perhaps was never in this Kingdom until after these Acts were Enacted and became Laws it will be the like Case with all Persons who upon the Marriage of their Children and considerable Marriage Portions paid and receiv'd have procured Settlements for Jointured Portions and Remainders for their Children and Grand Children And all these are to be laid aside without any Consideration of Law or Equity in the Case of the Purchasers or any misdemeanor or offence committed by them Whereby vast Numbers of your Majesties dutiful Subjects the present Proprietors and their Lessees and in very many Cases Widows Orphans Merchants and Traders will be at one stroke outed and removed from the possessions of their Lands and Improvements which in many places are more in value than the Township whereon they are made This with submission without some fraud decelt or default of the Purchaser never was and it is hoped never will be done by a People or Nation professing Christianity Nor is it for the Honour Welfare or Advantage of the King or Kingdom to have it so done What will strangers and our fellow-subjects of England and Scotland say We sold our Estates in England transported us and our Families into Ireland to purchase improve and plant there We acquired Lands under as secure Titles as Acts of Parliament the greatest known Security could make them Our Conveyances both by Deeds and matters of Record are allowed good firm and unquestionable by any Law in force at the time of the Purchase We have had the possession 10 12 or 15 years and are grown old upon them We have clearly drawn our Effects from England and settled here not doubting but our Posterity may be so likewise We have purchased Annuities and Rent Charges out of Lands under the same Securities And now the Old Proprietors though many of them had Satisfaction in Connaught would fain have a new Law to dispossess us of our Estates and Improvements made as aforesaid It will not be believed that the chief of those who drew on this Design should in Parliament and elsewhere which ought to consist of the gravest wisest and wealthiest Free-holders of the Kingdom for such the Law presumes them make a noise with that good and wholsome advice Caveat emptor in this Case or can think that Caveat is proper here The Purchaser ought to be wary of any Flaw in the Title at the time of the Purchase made and purchases at his peril if any such there be But who is that Purchaser that must beware of a Law to be made 20 30 or 40 years after his Purchase or to destroy his Security for Money lent or Settlement upon Marriage this is not a desect in the Title but under favour is a President which no humane foresight can prevent and if once introduced no Purchaser could ever be safe the worst of Lotteries affording a securer way of dealing than Ireland would Can it be your Majesties Honour or Advantage to have thousands of Families ruined by such a Proceeding as this is What will become of our Credit and consequently of our Trade abroad Where will be the Reputation and publick Faith and Security of the Kingdom when Foreign Merchants shall know from their Correspondents here that they cannot comply with their Engagements to them their Estates Houses and Improvements both in Countrey and City which they had acquired for great and valuable Consideration and within the Securities of the Laws are taken from them by a Law made yesterday in case this Bill should pass So that in Effect we are not only contriving to break and ruine our own Trades and Merchants at home but even those in Foreign parts which will infallibly destroy your Majesties Revenue and sink that of every Subject Surely these Particulars and the Consequences of them are worth more then two or three days consideration which is as much as this Bill could have since the Parliament was not open'd till the 7th of this Month The very Report of what is designed by this Bill hath already from the most improved and improving Spot of Earth in Europe From stately Herds and Flocks From plenty of Money at 7 or 8 per Cent. whereby Trade and Industry were encouraged and all upon the Security of those Acts of Parliament From great and convenient Buildings newly erected in Cities and other Corporations to that degree that even the City of Dublin is ruined The passing of these Acts and the securities and quiet promised from them inlarged double what it was That the Shipping in divers Ports were 5 or 6 times more than ever was known before to the vast increase of your Majesties Revenue reduced to the saddest and most disconsolate condition of any Kingdom or Countrey in Europe Infinite numbers of the Inhabitants having transported themselves and Families with what remained unfixed in Purchases and Improvements and was portable of their Estates into other Kingdoms that very many of the Buildings both new and old in this City and in the very Heart and Trading Part of it are uninhabited and waste It is grievous to see as you pass through the City the Houses and Shops shut up The Herds and Flocks in the Countrey are utterly destroyed So that of necessity the Tenant must break throw up his Lease leave the Key under the Door and the Lands become waste and from hence will necessarily follow that the Farm-houses and Improvements must go to decay and Beef Tallow Hides Wooll and Butter from whence arise the Wealth of the Countrey will fail us What is become of the frequent Declarations made by the Earl of Clarendon and the Earl now Duke of Tyrconnel of your Majesties fix'd Resolutions never to lay aside the Acts of Settlement and Explanation Why did the Judges in their several Circuits declare in all places where they sate unto the Countries there assembled that your Majesty was resolved to preserve the Acts of Settlement and Explanation and that they were appointed by the then Chief Governour here to declare the same unto them from whence they took confidence to proceed in their Purchases and Improvements and with submission be it spoken if this Bill pass are deluded Shall Patents on the Commission of Grace signify nothing The Great Seal of England tells them they may proceed upon the publick Faith and here again they become Purchasers paying considerable Fines to the King to whom Rents were reserved where none were due before and many places the Rent increased as in case of Fairs and Markets granted together with the Lands on them Patents of Liberties of Free Warren and to enclose and empale for Park surely some consideration ought to be had of those whose money was paid on this account It would be farther considered That your Majesty before your access to the Crown had passed several Lands and Tenements in this Kingdom in Certificate and Patent pursuant to these Acts of
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
not hold for the Reasons aforesaid Thirdly There is no such thing as Restitution of Temporal Estates in England for they were wiser there than to lose their Estates though they would be free to consent or advise that others may so it is very free for the King to make any Settlement of any Spiritual or Temporal Estates there as he shall think fit notwithstanding any Settlement he makes in Ireland Now remains I think one Objection to solve which may give some Obstruction to this intended Settlement which is that of the Gown-men or others who made Purchases of some New Interests bona fide Must they lose 〈◊〉 Purchase and Money To which I answer That although it may be reply'd Caveat emptor especially to the Gown-men who knew best of all that horrid Act of Settlement or so called was most unjust and could by no true Law hold yet because they are Persons useful for the Common-wealth and acted bona fide seeing the Estate out of the Ancient Proprietors Hands by so many Publick Acts as it was not like ever to come to him again there ought an Expedient to be found for the like that they be not losers and that either they or the Ancient Proprietors may be recompensed one way or other rather than it should be an Obstacle to the common Good And so I have done with this matter which I leave and recommend to God and you This is all the advice I can now give upon this matter and the Observations I make by my Conversation and Acquaintance with the People this year past and I am sure I am not deceived in my Opinion of them in relatition to 78 nor in the reasons they will make use of to perswade you to neglect your own Interest to save theirs and I am no less certain 27 is all inclined that way So you are to look to your selves and whilst Sun shines to make your Hay Nune tempus acceptabile Nunc dies Salutis Dum ergo tempus habemus operemur bonum maxime ad domesticos fidei 92 if authoriz'd will make all this Court go in your way by shewing them it is their Interest of which he has laid some Foundations already There remains another Observation which is That a Benedictine English Monk called Price is gone thither with the King who pretends to play that we call here premier aâ—mosnier in England they call it Clerk of the Closet to the King which Father Peters had there And here it is always a Bishop Now the Bishop of Orleans whose Office is to assist the King at Mass and all other Ecclesiastical Functions as Chief when the Lord High Almoner is not present gives the orders and spiritual directions cum privilegio exceptionis in the King's Palace and Liberties of it Why should we in our Country have any in that place but one of our selves Let them take place in England and so why would not you have this place for your self there or get it for M. B. and exercise the Functions in his absence rather than a Stranger should have it before our face and laugh at us Now to other business you are to know your business in Rome is concluded upon and past all difficulties only remains the Expedition of the Bulls which you may ever move as you please The Expences whereof by Dr. Sleyn's great care and Sollicitation with the help of Cardinal Howard and means of Monsieur Casone Favorite to his Holiness are reduced to a hundred Roman Crowns though it cost Dr. Fuller for worse 170. notwithstanding all the Favours and Sollicitations which were many he could employ Dr. Sleyn this Seignior Cousin should be thanked by a Civil Letter to which I wrote one of which I here send you a Draught you No. 19. A List of all the Men of Note that came with King James out of France or that followed him after so far as could be Collected THe Duke of Berwick Mr. Fitz-James Grand Prior. Duke Powis Count D' Avaux Ambassador from France Earl of Dover Lord Henry Howard Lord Thomas Howard Lord Drummond Marquess D' Estrades Earl Melfort Lord Seaforth Bishop of Chester who died here and is buried in Christ Church Gourdon Bishop of Galway Hamilton Dean of Glasgow Sir Edward Herbert Sir John Sparrow Collonel Porter Mr. Pedle Monsieur Pontee Engineer Captain Stafford Captain Trevanyon Sea Capt. Sir Roger Strickland ditto Captain Arundel ditto Collonel Sarsfield Coll. Anthony Hamilton Coll. John Hamilton Coll. Symon Lutterel Coll. Henry Lutterel Coll. Ramsey killed at Derry Lord Abercorne Coll. Dorrington Major Thomas Arthur Lord Dungan Capt. Mac Donnel Sea Capt. Sir William Jennings Coll. Sotherland Sir Hen. Bond Receiver Gen. Mr. Collins Com. of the Reven Coll Clifford Coll. Parker Marshal de Rosene Lieutenant General Mamve killed at Derry Lieu. Gen. Pusignan kill'd there also Major General Leary Lord Trendraught Lord Buchan Major John Gourdon Lieutenant Coll. John Skelton Major John Ennis Major William Douglas Lieut. Coll. Hungate Major William Connock Sir Charles Carney Lieut. Coll. Alex. Mackenzy Major James Fountaine Major Teig Regan Lieut. Coll. Edward Scott Major Robert Frayne Major Symon O Hogherne Lieut. Coll. Bynns Coll. James Purcel Lieut. Coll. George Traps Major Robert Ingram Major Edmond Pendergast Major John Gifford Lord Hunsdon Coll. Lieutenant Collonel Francis Leonard Coll. Alexander Cannon went for Scotland Major Edmond Bourk Major James Dempsy Major Frederick Cunningham Coll. Robert Fielding Major Richard Hillersden Major Boepry Monsieur Boisâ—ean made Governour of Cork His Brother St. Martin Commissary of the Artillery killed at Cromp-Castle Sir Edward Vaudrey Sir Charles Murray Sir Robert Parker Chaplains viz. FAther Nich. Dunbar Father Dan. Mac Ayliffe Anthony Mac Gwyre Nicholas Trapps John Madden Austin Mathews Laurence Moore Father Edmond Reyly John de Gravell John Hologhan Father Richard Peirce Patr. Aghy Darby Daley Thady Croley Danniel Mac Carthy Chirurgeons viz. JOhn Brunton Thady Regan Jo. Baptista Monlebeck Charles Stapleton John James Aremore John Cassel Edmond Tully Nicholas Reynard Captains WIlliam Charters William Oliphant Robert Charters Peter Blare Thomas Brown Francis Creighton James Buchan Alexander Gourdon George Lattin Sir Alphonso Moiclo John Baptista du Moll John Mollins John Wynnel John Fortescue Robert London George Roberts Thomas Scott James Fitz Symons William Gibbons William Delaval Mau. Flynn Richard Scott Connor O Toghil Anthony Ryan Rupert Napier Terence O Brian Edmund Kendelan Henry Crofton Richard Anthony Edmund Nugent John Plunkett John Dungan Rowland Smyth Gowen Talbot Simon Barnwell John Broder John Cavenagh Edmund Stack Walter Hastings Edward Widdrington Samuel Arnold Robert Welsh David Rock Charles Booth Jornoe Robert Fielding Francis Gyles John Barnardy Anthony Power John Chaple Rowland Watson Thomas Arundel Robert Hacket Sir William Wallis Richard Burton Cornelius Mac Mahon Talbot Lassels Richard Bucker Charles Fox Anthony Vane Strickland Tyrwhit John Manback Francis Cullange John Lumendato Fran. Lappanse Bernardo Buskett Jos. Pamnett Captain Millio George Coney Chevalier Devalory Sir Samuel