their homage to him who thereupon came and performed the same accordingly which was don in the year after our Saviour's nativitie 579 and this prove's a claim at least made by the Kings of great Britain to the Island of Ireland as part of their dominions Afterwards as is known to all men of anie reading the Saxons and Angles out of Germanie invaded great Britain and by manie contests in Arms and bloudie Battels obteined the Dominion thereof dividing it into several Kingdoms amongst themselvs which continued for manie years In all which times the Irish Inhabitants took more Libertie to root themselvs in their barbarous usurpation and tyrannie for wee cannot finde that then before or since they established anie certain Government either regal or otherwise neither are there extant anie authentick memories of anie certain or passable Laws ordeined by them for the regulating of anie Christian people yet soon after the Saxon's Heptarchie was reduced into an Entire Monarchie It is manifest by good Historie and Record that Edgar King of great Britain then and now called England not unmindful of that Kingdom 's ancient right and interest in Ireland labored and obteined another reducement and had the possession of most of that continent as appear's by the Books of that excellent writer Judg Cook extracted out of Records of the Tower Afterwards when the Danes obteined the Rule and power in great Britain they so little forgot the ancient and just challenge to Ireland as that they sent thither good numbers of men who gained large footing in several places of the best parts of the Island of whom there yet remain manie visible Monuments as their intrenchments and Fortifications to this daie called Danes Mounts or Rathes in Irish Lisses and round slender high Towers yet called Danes Steeples or Danes Towers yea the best and largest Suburbs about Dublin is yet called Ostmantown which term the Saxons gave to the Danes as Easterlings and doubtless it is their then access and som former incursions made by them as aforesaid which left manie of them there fixed who were the ancestors to the now pretended original Nation as pretended to bee given to them by God and Nature Afterwards the Norman William the Conqueror became possessed of the Dominions of England it is universally known what business hee had aswel to settle that so gained Land as to content his Allies and parties brought with him and to preserv what hee left behind him in France to which retrospect hee was enforced by manie disturbances and attempts neither is it unknown how unwarrantably his three next successors came to the Crown in England and against what counterworkings and heart-burnings they held Regencie there besides their distractions in their affairs and from their neighbors of France beeing not free from incumbrances of Scots and Welsh whereby all judicious men may conclude that none of them could safely embrace the restitution of Ireland howsoever it concerned them But assoon as one lineal descent had setled the Crown of England upon King Henry the second who was great Granchilde of the said William the Norman and who is recorded to bee the most powerful English Monarch both in England and France since the Normans coming in That King applied to the Pope for his consent to regain his said Land of Ireland who consenting thereunto to the end it might bee brought into orderly Government as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Hee yet suspended all action thither for som years beeing interrupted by his affairs in France and the disobedient combinations of his sons But after an occasion hapning by the invocation of one of the Irish pettie Kings hee permitted manie of his Subjects of England and Wales to pass thither who by their valor possessed themselvs of a good part of that Island Then in the year 1172 did that King with a competent Armie repair thither in person and resumed into his hands his ancient right of Dominion and interest there without much bloudshed and was therein confirmed by the absolute and free submissions of all the pettie Kings and other Rulers aswel Ecclesiastical as Temporal and by all others then of anie value there which they delivered unto him under their Seals There did hee also receiv the Homage Fealtie Allegiance and subjection of all those pettie usurping Princes and others as his Liege Subjects There did hee hold a great Council or general Assmblie of all the Prime inhabitants of that Island at Lismore which they called a Parlament and gave them the English Laws Vbi Leges Angliae ab omnibus sunt gratanter receptae juratoriâ cautioone praestitâ confirmatae There did hee send his Mandats to the Archbishops Bishops and Clergie of Ireland to assemble in a Synod at Cashel wherein Cbristianus Bishop of Lismore was President in which Synod that King's entrance actions and atchievments there were declared to bee lawful and it was there also concluded that it was most meet that as Ireland by God's appointment had recovered a lawful Lord and King from England so also they should from thence receiv a better from of living they also then established that all Divine Offices of holy Church should from thenceforth bee handled in all parts of Ireland according as the Church of England did observ them In that Synod also they made divers other Canons concerning the Church-Government there which Acts were ratified by the Regal Autoritie of the same Henrie the second To the same purposes another general Synod was soon after held at Armagh in Vlster where the same things and others for right ordering of that Government were resolved and agreed upon There was also placed Hugh Lacie Justice of Ireland for the Government of that Land wherein that Land then seemed to bee formally setled in a peaceable subject condition to England as it ought to bee Thus may the Querist and all others see that that Land and supposed original Nation did not continue manie hundreds or thousands of years nor was enjoied till these times without anie others laying claim to have right to the same It may bee demanded though standing thus how might King Henrie the second seiz all that Land into his own hands and grant it to adventurers as after hee did To this the answer is easie For in a short time after that King and the greatest part of his Army withdrew into England Then did all those pettie Kings Rulers and men of value and the other Inhabitants falsly and traiterously join in a Confederacie and action to extirpate and expuls all the English and Welsh then left there and did cast aside their dutie and obedience to England and the good order and Laws so freely and lately entertained by them breaking all Faith and Allegiance to him to whom they had formerly sworn it they murthered as manie as they could take at advantage and at last besieged Dublin and other Towns intending to destroie all the English But the valor of those men left there and the
vigilance of that King to reliev them did stoutly beat them off and frustrated their unchristian intention Then that King finding them so embarked in their former rudeness and barbarisme as there was no faith or dutie to bee exspected from them and that they could not sit down in anie civil societie Hee by advice of his Council confiscated all their Estates and adjudged and declared the Irish generally to bee enemies and aliens in which condition they continued long after as is manifest by the Records and Statute-Laws of those times And then hee set his Subjects of England and Wales at full Libertie to win what they could in that Land towards the reducement thereof to his just Subjection for better accomplishment whereof hee made chois of ten special persons of qualitie and power in his other Dominions to whom by grant of inheritance hee divided the Lands of that whole Island who drawing together their several Alies friends and other adventurers they by that King's countenance and assistance so bestirred themselvs as within few years they became Masters and possessors of the whole Island and so continued quietly possessed for almost one hundred years without anie offence to England forcing the perfidious Irish who were then few in number after manie conflicts with them into Mountains Bogs and boggie woods there to wander up and down with the remain of their Cattel not daring to bee seen or to graze in anie of the more habitable parts where the English had footing special Statute-Laws prohibiting the same Laws also were made that upon pain of fellonie no Merchant or other liege person should trade with the Irish in market or otherwise It was also made fellonie to succor anie of the Irish enemies from the time of the foresaid division forward was that Island onely called the King's Land of Ireland till the reign of King Henrie the eighth as appear's by Acts of Parlament and all Records mentioning the same The division hee made was as followeth viz. To Richard Earl of Pembroke of Strigil called Strongbow he regranted the Kingdom or Territories of Leimster surrendred to him by the said Earl Richard whose it was pretended to bee in right of his wife sole daughter and heir of the last nominal or tributarie King thereof except Dublin and som lands thereunto lying part whereof is yet called the King's Land and beeing divided into Mannors the Free-holders paie chief rents into the Exchequer to this daie and except som maritim Towns Castles and som lands about them which hee reserved to himself To Bobert Fitz-Stephens and Myles Cogan hee granted the Territories called the Kingdom of Cork the Citie of Cork and som lands thereunto lying reserved as aforesaid excepted the heir of Cogan is yet possessor of som of those lands To Phillip le Bruce the Territories called the Kingdom of Limerick with donation of Bishopricks and Abbeies except the Citie of Limerick and a Cantred of Land adjoining reserved as aforesaid To Sr Hugh de Lacie Justice or as som write Custos of Ireland the territories called the Kingdom of Meath then of far greater extent then the name Meath now import's To Sr John de Coursie all Vlster which beeing a large continent was quietly possessed by him and his English tenements manie years After his death without heirs it was granted to Hugh Lacie who held it till forfeited then was it granted by King Edward the first to Walter de Burgo from whom it descended to William de Burgo And after those Lands and Signories were by Edward the fourth adjoined to the Demesne and Crown-Lands of England To William Fitz-Adelme de Burgo all Connaght except a small part for life given to Rotherick formerly nominal King thereof after whose death that Land also was by King Henrie the third granted to Richard de Burgo heir to William except the Cantreds of Roscomon Randon and two or three other Cantreds neer Athlon All which were after granted by succeeding Kings to other English onely Roscomon remained in the Crown till Queen Elizabeth granted the same to one Mr Malby This whole Countrie came after to the Crown by the marriage of Lionel Duke of Clarence son to King Edward the third with the Daughter and heir of de Burgo To Sr Thomas Clare of the stock of the Earl of Glocester all Ghomond now the Countie of Clare which was confirmed to the same Familie by grant from King Edward the first to Robert le Poer all the Countie of Waterford except the Citie and cantred about it the chief of the Familie of which Poers is now a Baron to Otho de Grandison all Tipperarie Afterwards King John having intelligence that the English began to bee at variance amongst themselvs by reason that the Laws were not so spread and administred as they should bee made a voiage in person thither with a competent force for his honor and safetie and then did hee divide the whole Land into Counties as they for the most part stand at this daie though Connaght and Vlster since are much subdivided hee carried over with him divers learned men for civil and ecclesiastical Notion hee ordered and established the Courts of Justice as in England viz. the Chancerie the Kings Bench Common Pleas and Exchequer and other Ecclesiastical Judicatures and setled competent Judges in them hee appointed Justices Itinerant and all other Officers for Law and execution of Justice and four tearms in the year to bee kept as in England by which the people became subject to Law the Irish beeing still held as enemies and Aliens were better governed lived in peace and great prosperitie manie years save what ruptures it endured by their own dissentions as hereafter appeareth So as by what is above specified it appear's the English were made lawfully inheritable and became possessed of the whole continent wheresoever they could finde places anie waie fit for habitation And to prove their possessions as well as their grants besides that in all the ancient Records taking cognizance of all the habitable parts of that Land in which those English are named you shall finde no Juries upon Inquiries or trial of anie causes whatsoever Capital Criminal or common where is mentioned anie Irish name but all English All their Officers and Ministers of Justice beeing the same and beside several Statute-Laws do assert their universal possession It is undeniably evident that generally all the now Freeholders of several great continents in that Island are English either descendents or deriving from those first adventurers or by ancient grants from the Crown upon their forfeitures though the truth is manie of their laborers underfarmers and tennants which they call Churls are and still were Irish the territories and Countries which those English and som of late settlement did and do possess are viz. in the Countie of Down the Countries of little Ards the Duffrey Lecale Mourn the Newrie and several other places of lesser note all the Countie of Lowth the whole Countie of Dublin
uncertainely and falsly grounded are worthie of no answer at all having all along the plain marks of insoliditie and sedition upon them yet to satisfie the doubts of such judicious and upright men as onely desire to know the truth and com not with a minde pre-occupate and suborned by injurious principles I shall indeavor to lay open the Querist's errors and delirements resolve the Queres hee makes and discover the truth in the things hee most harp's upon for his advantage and becaus I conceiv the Jesuit's first Quere though not in plain words yet implicitely by insinuation intend's principally Ireland and the pretended interest of the Irish as hee in som of them after expresseth And although also my short and weak wings are farr deficient to soar so high a pitch as to cite all or neer the sum of all authentick Authors and Records manifesting the proprietie right and interest of the Land of Ireland to be originally in the British yet becaus those of the Nation of England already led away with the aërie and vain pretenses of the Irish and who never yet scrutinized the English interest may bee undeceived made sensible of their former errors possessed with the English right bee acquainted with the iterated rebellions of the Irish in manie ages the often reducing and bringing them to subjection by the British or English and with other things by these Queres made disputable I shall freely contribute my Talent to this so necessarie work and first set down the Queres in order and then answer them severally AN ANSWER TO THE Irish Queres The first Quere WHether the Land or inheritance that a Nation hath for som hundreds or thousands of yeers enjoyed and possessed without any others laying claim to have a more special right to the same bee not their special right which God and nature hath given them The first Answer IN this first Quere the Querist desire 's to have it inferred and also granted that the Irish Inhabitants as they now stand in opposition to England are an entire Nation and that they were the first and sole Proprietors of Ireland as given unto them by God and nature whereas in truth they are a people composed partly of the old Britains the first Inhabitants thereof partly of Scythians and Gothes sent thither out of Biscaie in Spain partly of Danes and other Easterlings som sent in by the Kings of Britain and others intruding themselvs and principallly of English sent thither by the Kings of England in several ages as in the ensuing discours shall appear so as the fraud and fallacie of this first Quere being cleerly laid open strike's farr to the answering of all the rest And first to say somthing of the soil and Island now called Ireland which by several ancient writers hath been rendred by several other names signifying for the most part that it is a Western part of Britain which the very name now given unto it by the Irish viz. Eirin signifying a western Countrie doth much demonstrate and besides at this day a part of Mounster in Ireland is called Hiermoun in English West-Mounster which shew the name Eirin to bee derived from Hier which is west as appear's plainly by Mr Cambden a faithful relater of the best antiquities extant the ancient Geographer writeth in these words of Islands for greatness the Indian Taprobane is prime and principal next after it Britain and in third degree another British Island called Hibernia that is Ireland whereupon Ptolomie in his writings of Geographie call's it in plain words Britannia parva the old Geographers called it the Britains Island Strabo called the Inhabitants Britains Diodorus Siculus termed Irin a part of Britain and Aristotle in his book de mundo Cap. 3. hath these words as they stand translated viz. Ibi sunt Insulae quae quantitate maximae habentur numero verò duae sunt Britanicae dicuntur Albion Hibernia By all which it fall's cleer that by the most ancient and authentick writers the Island of Ireland was ever taken and accounted a British Island only belonging to great Britain neither is it found in any approved Writer or Record that ever any King or Potentate claimed right or interest in the soil or Land of that Island save only the Kings of great Britain in right of their Kingdom now called England which in several ages they have not failed to doe by reducing and subduing the unjust rebellion and usurpation of those unrulie Inhabitants and if you look into Monuments or Records of later time you shall never finde it called a Kingdom or a Realm till in the reign of Henrie the 8. when by Act of Parlament it was made and styled a Kingdom and that King declared and confessed King thereof unanimously agreed by all the Inhabitants of that Island But that by all Acts of Parlament in that Land and other Records it was alwaies till then for 400 yeers or thereabouts called the King's land of Ireland and by several Acts of Parlament viz. one Act in the twentie eighth yeer of that King Henry the 8 reign Cap. 2. That Land is declared to be appending and belonging to England And by another Act there made in that King's reign the said Island is declared to be a Member appending and rightfully belonging to England and united to the same and in severall other Acts there the same in substance is asserted and ordained and all this agreed and assented unto by the very Ancestors of those now in Arms there against England and the Governors thereof and yet by this Querist it is esteemed to bee an Original entire Nation distinct from any Conqueror yea such as hee scruple 's to have them call'd Rebels Thus having given you the opinion and report of the ancient and som modern proofs of the denomination and full relation of that Island to Great Britain it will bee requisite that by the like ancient and modern evidence the just right and proprietie of the English to that Land and to the dominion thereof and to the naturall subjection of all the Inhabitants thereof to England bee also manifested and avowed the better to let the world see the Querist's fraud and subtiltie in this general vast Quere and indeed throughout all the rest of his abusive Queres and insinuations Mr Cambden that faithfull searcher into Antiquities affirmeth that most of the best approved and knowing Writers out of Antiquities do determin that the first known Inhabitants of Ireland were Britains sent thither by the Kings of Great Britain of which opinion he conclude's himself to bee but that they could not send sufficient Inhabitants to replenish such a Continent and that by a great mortalitie happening among them they were much diminished and you may perceiv by a Statute made in Ireland in the 11. yeer of Queen Elizabeth that Gormond by som Writers called Gorgund Son to Belin King of Great Britain was Lord of Biscaie in Spain as his posteritie long after him
several Kings transmitting great numbers of them to assist in the warrs of France Scotland and Wales in several times In the former part of the reign of King Henrie the sixth Ireland continued In the same posture the English beeing now put to their defence in all parts but the greatest and most remarkable decaie and ruine of the prosperitie and possession of the English in Ireland began in the later end of the reign of King Henrie the sixt and in the beginning of King Edward the fourth For after the middle of the reign of King Henrie the sixt Richard Duke of York beginning to whisper his right to the Crown more audibly then before hee was soon after sent into Ireland Lievtenant which was somtimes usual as a removal of such as were dangerous or pretended trouble There hee had given him much regal autoritie more then might bee consonant to right reason had they well considered the place or the consequences hee was continued there nine or ten years by himself and his Deputies himself making starts into England which as it was handled amplified his power in Ireland hee had power to dispose the King's revenues as hee thought fit hee had power to grant and let the King's Lands in Ireland to place and displace officers and to wage what men hee thought good This Lord esteemed there a person of high blood having an eie more upon events in England then the reducement of Ireland applied himself for the most part towards his own pretentions hee entertained both parties English and Irish in a plausible waie travelling in his secret thoughts to fasten parties to him against the time hee might have use of them Hee tolerated the Irish to hold what they had formerly intruded unto not sparing favors where hee observed reason to oblige and they regarding somwhat his high birth a thing they seem most to adore were by those means held more quiet then in former times hee conteined the English by courtesie and fair entreatie and by bestowing of imploiments so as hee found great adherence by waie of personal affection hee made som journies into England always accompanied with som of the Gentrie of Ireland to propagate and ripen confederacie In England hee endured the changes of war At last hee was forced into Ireland where hee gather's more strength and hearing that Warwick and Salisburie had taken the King hee com's over attended with good numbers of the English Lords and others and som of the Irish Hee obtein's his ends in Parlament The Queen flie's into Scotland and coming back the Duke of York meet 's her at Wakefield where hee was slain and manie of those of Ireland with him the Earl of Ormond on the other side beeing a professor to the hous of Lancaster passed into England about the same time with manie of the English and som Irish the Earl of March encounter 's him and others at Mortimer's Cross in Wales there is Ormond and the rest defeated and manie of Ireland slain So as what by the companies which at times passed over with the Duke of York and what by such as voluntarily led themselvs into England on both sides during those combustions great consumptions of those of Ireland could not but bee the consequent especially the Gentrie and best men Hereupon did the Irish on all sides exspatiate and fasten upon the English possessions where they could reach and indeed in short time so dilated themselvs as they for the time forced the English into their strengths and into narrow rooms they confirmed themselvs in their formerly erected and usurped Captainships which before the reign of King Henrie the eight were far to manie and most of them so continued till the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth therein exercising an absolute tyrannical power over all inferiors aswell all such English as hazarded to continue amongst them as the Irish And here may the Querist and all others take full view of the progress foot-steps and means of the Irish incroachments upon the English possessions though it is true that in after times manie of the English became repossessed of much of their antient Lands except in Vlster and Connaght in which Provinces manie of the old English are now as barbarous as the meer Irish hardly to bee distinguished yet by what is above written it grow's more lucid and cleer that the Inhabitants of that Island who now stand in arms against England who in several successions setled them there are not such an entire nation fixed there by God and Nature free from anie other power and challenge as the Querist propound's them and where the entiretie of such a Nation footed there as is pretended is to bee found as things are before discovered will require a verie wearisom scrutinie and at last satisfie no understanding man Nay it is avouched by several good writers and may bee truly asserted in the experience of such as well understand Ireland that setting aside the first Inhabitants from Britain and other Nations inserted there by the permission of the Britains and such as had power in Britain and such as of themselvs intruded before the entrance of King Henrie the second promiscuously laced amongst them who all now pass under the Notion and style of the old Irish the verie English sent in thither by King Henrie the second and other Kings succeeding him before King James and who at the beginning of this Rebellion were really stated and vested in Lands in that Island though not in numbers and bodies of men becaus most of the Churls and laborers as aforesaid were Irish nor perhaps in quantities and extents of Lands yet in true value and command over others did far exceed and were far more estimable and powerful in that Island then those denominated the old Irish besides the the great towns which as is above said are wholly in a manner English for consider their present composure of persons and affairs even after this late horrid and inhumane eradication of the new English and protestants First Their Nobilitie now in rebellion are all old English except a verie few which were and yet are both weak in power and strength Their supream Council as they call it and other Provincial and Countie Councils and their general Assemblie are for the most part old English most of the best Commanders in the war are of the same most of their hors and manie of their foot who have been most daring in the Rebellion are of the same the whole frame of their new-Modelled-Government was at first digested and is ever since countenanced and enlivened by the old English they seem in their constitutions to put themselvs for the most part in waie of policie at present into the frame of the English Laws becaus they well know how uncertain and barbarous their supposed Irish Laws were though verie manie of them rather desire the old Irish Tyrannie and rude exorbitancie And were it not that the old English were and still are
of war aswel as former And then why may not befal to those Inhabitants of Ireland which challenge the Land to bee given them by God and Nature that which hath betided other Nations by the secret counsels of that God in whose hands the Inhabitants of the earth are tossed as a ball Did not Eneas by conquest of the Latines settle his posteritie in Italie did not the Franks by invasion and conquests take possession of Gallia now their native habitation was not Britain in France surprized by the power of the English Saxons and from them denominated continuing in their possession to this daie Did not the Huns becom Masters of Pannonia now of them called Hungarie And to conclude is not Conquest an universal title throughout the world Is not that Jus gentium quod ubique valet And if this Jus Belli stand for a Plea for them why may not wee then saie as the Civillians fully resoly the lawfulness and proprietie of things gotten by war in this known Maxime Ea quae ab hostibus capiuntur jure gentium statim fiunt capientium I cannot omit som material instances and so conclude the Answer to this Quere whereby the present acting power of a Conqueror is allowed and approved in an usurper by the Lord Jesus Christ who was born under an usurping power to teach us as a judicious Commentator observ's Indicat deinde ipsâ nativitate se non pellere magistratum ordinarium adventu suo imò approbare who besides his universal title to all the world had an indubitable title and claim to the temporal Kingdom of the Jews then under the Romane usurping power Witness that antient Manuscript Michael Nauclerus de Monarchia divina ex libro vaticano yet did so far submit unto the title of Conquest and his intrusion that hee the lawful heir was contented to becom a Subject in his own Land Eodem tempore quo muâ—ti Tyranni occupabant though all power was his and hee that little stone foretold that hee should bee cut out of the Mountain c. yet hee neither smite's them with tongue Dan. 2.45 nor opposeth them by practice but practically useth and teacheth obedience by paying tribute yea becom's an Advocate for Cesar's interest Give unto Cesar that which is Cesar's and in a word was so far from exclaiming against that Romane though usurping autoritie that hee looking up to Heaven affirm's the invader's powers to bee of God and therefore afterwards submit's to an unjust Sentence of death whose steps the holie Apostle following and filled with the Spirit of the same Christ the onely blessed potentate doth in express terms without exclusion Rom. 13. v. 2 3 4 5 6 7. enjoin submission to all sorts of powers c. Hee saie's not they have no title they came in by Conquest they are thievs Robbers but honor's them with the title of lawful Magistrates and command's the conquered Subject upon pain of damnation to afford obedience unto them as the Ministers of God using these words that all powers that bee are of God And for the later part of this Quere viz Whether it bee not altogether as unjust to take our neighbor's Lands and Liberties from them as our neighbor's goods from our own Nation Iâ— is answered that although the Irish have verie long usurped the possession of the Lands and Liberties of the English in Ireland beeing the Lands and Liberties in the neighboring Countrie which the Querist meaneth and which of right and from antiquitie and so until this daie do truly and justly belong to the Engliish as in the first Quere is resolved Yet neither when this present Rebellion brake out in Ireland nor of a number of yeers before were anie Lands or Liberties unjustly taken held or deteined from anie the Rebels of Ireland And hee can pretend to nothing but dull ignorance that know's it not to have been still consistent with the Laws and Customs aswel of England as of other civil Nations of the world to seiz and take the goods and liberties of such neighbors of their own Nation as would not stoop to obedience but Rebel against the known Laws of anie Land where they lived especially wilful Law-breakers such as should first begin and attempt depredations and surprising of the goods and estates of the obedient parties the like Laws beeing for such contemners and Rebels also in such cases to lose their lives The seventh Quere WHether God at the last daie will not call men to an account even for those things which they are unaccountable for here as great Conquerors are The seventh Answer GOd at the last daie will justifie all men that zealously execute the work of his own righteous justice and that are instrumental in the propagation of his truth and glorie as the English now are and as I am confident they will persist in Ireland their own Countrie against and upon the wicked Inhabitants thereof the Irish Rebels who for their abominations as I may boldly saie stink in the nostrils of the Lord and of all his servants and must at last without doubt bee brought to an account for all their ungrateful inhumane bloodie and barbarous actions wherein the hand of the Lord is most visible unto us having alreadie brought manie to the sword destroied som by famine but far more by pestilence and other waies of his Justice and now those whose persons as yet met not with those Judgments and proudly triumphed over and stood upon the necks of the deplorable This at large appear's by the examinations taken at Dublin upon oath and infinitely distressed English do like dust before the winde flie from the faces of our English Protestant souldiers not daring to justifie the least of their acts or undertakings but for refuge flie to Mountains woods bogs and other obscure and unaccessible places cursing now the first plotters contrivers and beginners of their Rebellion and hellish designs And doth not the Querist think that manie of these bloud-suckers in this world and the rest in the world to com shall meet with condign punishment suitable to their demerits The eighth Quere WHether the condition of the conquered bee not Ireland and the condition of the Conquerors bee not England and Ireland unjustly tearmed Rebels and their caus just and England a thieving usurping Tyrannie and their caus altogether unjust beeing against God and Nature and therein such as no judicious conscientious man can assist or bid God speed The eighth Answer THe condition of the conquered is not Ireland beeing as aforesaid not a distinct nation and people but the greatest part of them consisting of English or those from thence extracted And the several Conquests of them but reducements to legal and civil obedience to the just and proper right and interest of England Nor can the condition of the Conquerors of them bee as over an absolute Nation therefore the Inhabitants of Ireland now in arms against the just rights and proprietie of England are properly