taking the contrary part and his Lordship escaping soon after the Rebellion to Dublin only with the Kings Troop which he Commanded and some Servants that attended him The Earl of Leicester Lord Lieutenant as he was upon his Journey for Ireland was discharged that Imployment to make way for the Marquess of Ormond to succeed him who had an unlimitted Commission sent him sole to examine the pretended Grievances of the Irish and for making a Cessation with the Rebels which he did and was after made Lord Lieutenant and concluded the two first Peaces before-mentioned I have heard Sir Philip Percival a very worthy Person and of a fair Estate being asked why he would by his Certificates of Defect of Stores give countenance and furtherance to a Cessation which he knew could only advantage the Rebels and be ruinous to the English Answer The Stores were really wasted upon unprofitable fruitless Marches and then his Certificates being required he durst not as an Officer refuse them though he was aware of the use would be made of them To shew your Lordship how the Cessation operated laying aside at present the question of the warrantableness on necessity thereof and that the two first Peaces were against Law and several Acts of Parliament in both Kingdoms and upon that and other accounts the validity thereof I must take another opportunity when I may discourse things more fully with your Lordship I can now only briefly tell your Lordship that all the Proceedings of the Rebels in Arms and all their Demands were Treason That the English and Protestants had the Laws on their side which the Irish by combination and force did break and designed wholly to subvert That the Irish tollerated no Protestants in their Quarters though that Religion were the only legal Establishment but seized and forfeited all their Estates whilst the Protestants afforded the measure and benefit of the Laws to the Irish and Papists even to those who had been in Rebellion whensoever they came in or submitted It is not then to be wondred at that the chief and most of the English Nobility in Ireland and the generality of English Scotch and Irish Protestants of all qualities and degrees sooner or later opposed both the Cessation and Peaces as destructive to them and derogatory to the Crown in which number we find the Earls of Kildare Thomond Cork Barrimore Drogheda Donnagall Claubrasill Mount Alexander c. The Viscounts of Valentia Conoway Ranelagh Kinnelmeky Shannon c. Barons or Lords Elsmond Juchequin Blaney Broghill c. But it were endless to name all and of no use to your Lordship who know this as well as I. By this it appears how ungratefully the Irish did requite the Marquess of Ormond for his unwillingness that the whole Irish Nation should ruin themselves by their persisting in Rebellion And now whether it was their vain confidence to carry the day or what else occasioned it they lost the opportunity of deliverance which the Marquess of Ormond being related to so many of them by Blood and Alliance had compassionately designed for them though with great hardship and damage to the English And whatever grounds the Marquess of Ormond had for the Cessation and Peaces by which he could have got nothing but would have incurred manifest loss which it chiefly concerns himself to vouch that in the eye of the World he may stand clear as a true English Man and faithful Subject It is apparent that now by the Forfeiture and Punishment of the Irish his Lordship and Family are the greatest gainers of the Kingdom and have added to their Inheritances vast scopes of Land and a Revenue three times greater than what his Paternal Estate was before the Rebellion and most of his increase is out of their Estates who adheared to the Peaces or served under his Majesties Ensigns abroad which shews that whatsoever of Compassion or Natural Affection or otherwise might incline him to make those Peaces he is in Judgment and Conscience against them and so hath since appeared and hath advantage by their laying aside The like may be said of the Duke of York the Earl of Arlington Lord Lanesborough and others who have great Estates of the Irish freely given them upon the same foundation So that 't is to be hoped whether the Bills already come over to confirm the forfeited Rebels Estates to English and Protestants will do the work or no That his Grace or whosoever shall succeed him in the Lieutenancy will in time transmit such Bills as shall do that work effectually and unite and strengthen his Majesties Protestant Subjects to oppose and break the further Designs of that Rebellious Generation which they will never keep free from so long as they acknowledge and obey a Forreign Head I shall make no reflection at this time upon the Peace called Glamorgan's Peace but what your Lordship gives occasion for by mentioning it viz. That it was the most destructive of all to the English and Protestants but suited best with the Confederate Design of establishing the Romish Idolatry which your Lordship in your Oath of Association engaged as deep in as any excepting the first foundation laid in Blood a fit basis for a Faction only supported by Fraud and Cruelty One passage in your Lordships Memoires I cannot but take notice of for your Honour as an English Man That when the Marques of Ormond in his extremity between the Nuncio party and the Parliament of England asked your Lordship with which of his Enemies he should treat You answered That you were confident he had resolved that before there being no question in the case when it was no question with your Lordship I wonder how it came to be one with his Lordship but the success of your Council was happy and founded upon solid grounds of Reason Your Lordship sees I can but glance at particulars in this Letter and being by so noble a Pens ingaging in justification of a Quarrel which casts reflection upon all that took contrary part to the Irish of which number I was one contrary to my first intention upon the matter necessitated in vindication of as just a cause as ever was managed under the Sun to hasten out the last part of the general History of Ireland first Wherein I shall so impartially make relation beyond all possibility of contradiction that I doubt not your Lordship will reflect with remorse upon what you have done and written wherein I differ from you and the World will know exactly the truth of that sad story I shall in the mean time only as in an abstract ser these things before you and upon the whole matter in answer to your Lordships specious justification and for your present mortification let you know that by Judgment of the King and his Privy Councils and Parliaments in both Kingdoms You are involved in the guilt of Treason and under forfeiture of all you have and as a friend yet advise you to get his
not but the Trumpet was quickly dispatched with some slight Answer which coming to your knowledge you repaired to Kilkenny whither the Council was returned and on information finding what you had heard to be true you sent for Sir Bobert Talbot Sir Richard Barnwall Collonel Walter Bagnal and such others as were in the Town well affected and leading Men of the Assembly though not of the Council Now being in your Lodging you acquainted them with what you had understood and that if they would stick to you you would endeavour to give it a turn You all agreed on the way which was to go to the Council then sitting to take notice of the Kings offer and their return and to mind them that the consideration and resolutions concerning Peace and War the general Assembly referved to themselves only and therefore to require that they would send immediately a Trumpet of their own with a Letter to the Marquess of Ormond giving him to understand they had issued a Summons for a general Assembly in order to acknowledge the Kings gracious Favour in naming him his Commissioner to hear your Aggrievances and redress them This you put in execution and gained your point without much resistance The Marquess of Ormond being thus brought into a Treaty the Confederate Commissioners met at Seginstowne near the Nasse as his Excellency had appointed in order to a Cessation of Arms. At which time all Parties laboured to get into possession of what they could Collonel Monk after made Duke of Albermarle march'd into the County of Wicklow to take in the Harvest and possess some Castles Your Lordship being then commanded by the Council to go against him and having Rendevouz'd your Troops consisting of about 3000 Horse and Foot at Ballynekill in the County of Catherlagh notice was brought you that Collonel Monk was marched away in all haste to the assistance of the Lord Moor then facing Owen Roe Oneal near Portlester You finding your self now to have nothing to do thought it worth the while to endeavour taking in Dullerstown Tully Lacagh and all other Castles in the County of Kildare between the Rivers of the Barrow and Liffe which you did leaving Garrisons in them This done you repast past the Barrow at Monaster-Evan marched into Leix and took three or four small places But as you were going on had Advice from the Commissioners at Seginstowne that they had on the 15th of September 1643 concluded a Cessation of Arms with the Marquess of Ormond to which you submited As your Lordship did also to the two Peaces of 1646 1648 both sutable and of the same strain and though both were of advantage only to the Irish and highly dishonourable to the Crown of England and destructive to the English and Protestants yet both were broken and set at naught by the Irish themselves a just Judgment of God against them whose hands were full of Blood and there being no hopes that such untempered Morter could cement them and the Posterity left alive of murdered Parents Brothers Sisters and other Relations or that ever the English could live out of danger and free of Massacres for the future without exemplary punishment of the Murderers and Rebels and bringing them by forfeitures and otherwise to an absolute subjection to the Laws and keeping them in that state as it is now hoped they are and will be by the watchful Eye of Government I shall now as briefly as I can take the liberty to give your Lordship impartial Remarks upon what your Lordship hath written in justification of the Rebels or tending to caluminate his Majesties Government or English and Pretestant Subjects reserving a fuller account thereof to a fitter occasion In the first place Seeing your Lordships Memoires dedicated to the King I cannot but take notice how dangerous a thing it is and of how bad consequence it may prove especially in this case and juncture to misinform his Majesty not that I do suspect or tax your Lordship of design to abuse the King for I do charitably believe as your Lordship affirms upon your word that they do not contain a lie or mistake to your knowledge yet I must positively aver and it is my part to make it good that the Relation wants the most material and pregnant Truths in the principal part thereof and of most consequence to the Publick as I doubt not your Lordship will believe and confess upon such glances as I shall make upon particulars as I go over them But before I proceed it will import the giving clear light to an affair which contrary interests have so much endeavoured to perplex to observe the state that unhappy Kingdom of Ireland was in at the Eruption of that satal Rebellion A Parliament sitting the year before in Ireland both Houses taking notice of some Grievances growing upon them and the want of some good New Laws for advancing the Prosperity and good Government of that Kingdom did send chosen Agents or Commissioners both Lords and Commons of most esteem amongst them to attend his Majesty in England for redress of such Grievances and procuring such new Grants and Graces as they were directed to move for from a Gracious King His Majesty received them favourably and with good dispatch they returned for Ireland fully satisfied and loaden with all the Graces and Bounties good Subjects could hope to receive upon such an Address to their Prince and what needed Confirmation in Parliament was to be done when the Parliament should meet at the day to which it was Prorogued The People of Ireland were never better pleased then with the gracious Returns his Majesty had made by their Commissioners That Kingdom never enjoyed a more prosound and more like to be lasting Peace and Prosperity Commerce and Trade both at home and abroad never flourished more barbarous Customs were never more entirely subdued and abrogated there never was more Unity Friendship and good Agreement amongst all sorts and degrees except in the standing root of miscnief the difference in Religions then at this time nor more mutual Confidence I can say being that time there the Sheep and the Goats lived quietly together and there was that intire trust in one another as to all Matters Civil and Temporal that I remember very well the Summer before the Rebellion The Titular Bishop of Fernes coming his Visitation into the County of Wexford where I then dwelt at the request of a Popish Priest I lent most of my Silver Plate to entertain the said Bishop with and had it honestly restored In this serene and happy state was that Kingdom every one sitting under his own Vine and Fig-tree in peace and in the abundance of all things when whether surfeiting of Quiet and Plenty or by the just Judgment of God upon a sinful and superstitious Nation or that the said Committees having staid in England till they saw symptoms of a misunderstanding between his Majesty and his two Houses af Parliament in England and
Majesties Pardon if the Acts of Parliaments have not precluded you for it s more than I know if all your Lordships active Services in Ireland be not yet liable to the utmost penalties and Severities of the Law So far are they from being fit to be offered as entertainment to his Majesty by an Epistle Dedicatory as your Lordship hath done I find your Lordship in several places reflects upon those who broke the first Peace and call it unparallell'd breach of Faith punished by heavy Judgments from Heaven and yet this was the Confederates own Act. But as if the breach of the Oath of Allegiance by the Irish and their treacherous and bloody defection from the Crown of England were a Peccadillo your Lordship hardly takes notice of it but repines at the forfeiture of Estates grounded thereupon though God and Man agreed in that Vengeance and Punishment And let this Rebellion be compared to all before it there will not appear since the English Title to Ireland so just and clear grounds of forfeiture and extirpating a Nation as have done upon this but the King hath mingled Mercy with Justice and though by a Providence from Heaven to the English the Marquesses of Ormond and Clanrickard his Majestles chief Governors incouraged the Irish to keep up a War against the English wherein they were so much hardened to their ruin that they were at length intirely subdued without condition to any save for life and left to be as miserable as they had made others in all other respects yet multitudes of them have been restored and must yet own their Lives and Estates to the Clemency of the King and the mildness of the English Government which they had cast off and put themselves under a Forreign Yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear The Wisdom of God thus punishing one sin of theirs with another till they are scarce a People and the English and Protestant interest never more flourishing in that Kingdom Insomuch that it would be now the greatest folly imaginable in the Government of England and Ireland ever to suffer the Papists to grow capable of raising such a Rebellion again which they will certainly do when able Bigottery and sottish Ignorance both of Priests and People in Religion being the growing root of mischief there Upon the whole since the Cobweb excuses your Lordship hath made cannot cover the Blood that hath been shed or bring quiet to the Consciences of any that had hand therein and since your Lordship so well knows the Temper and Constitution of the Irish by your long continuance and interest among them I cannot but yet hope and therefore do with the most friendly adjurations beseech your Lordship herein that the zeal which you yet seem to have for the King his Laws and the English Government will incline you to let him know the truth you cannot be ignorant of that they are a Nation never to be trusted till reformed that so his Majesty and his English Subjects may run no more hazards of suffering by confidence in them or regard to their Crocodile Tears and groundless Complaints by which they have deceived the English in all times And that by your Repentance imitating your Ghostly Father Peter Walsh his Advice to his Countrey Men for Repentance and change of Principles your Lordship may give another instance to the World that Allegiance and the Religion you profess may dwell in the same Breast then which nothing can more conduce to divert the Irish from future Attempts of Rebellion My Lord I find many Queries fit to be made on your Memoires and many other particulars a Redire therein but you will perhaps think I have done too much already I shall therefore reserve these to another opportunity and here close in the wonted manner with the assurance of my being saving in the Irish Confederacy and Matter of Religion My Lord Your Lordships Affectionate Friend and Servant Postscript THis Letter was written as appears in August 1680 presently after the Earl of CASTLE-HAVEN had Published his Memoires with a Dedication only to the King but since his Lordships Receipt of this Letter he was it seems convinced of the necessity of writing the Epistle to the Reader in Condemnation of the Irish Rebellion which his Lordship hath since caused to be Printed with the said Memoires FINIS