of Families which flocked over from Dublin to the Isle of Man and other places Indeed I cannot recal to mind the great Consternation the dismal Apprehensions and Panick Fears which possess'd the hearts of all Protestants at this juâ—cture without reviving like Aeneas his repetition of the Trojan Miseries to the Carthaginian Queen those deep impressions of sorrow those Infandos dolores under which I was then almost sunk and overwhelmed Now every thing discovered a gloomy and Melancholy prospect and seemed to be attended with so many Discouragements that many that had Patentee Employments obtained Licence from the Lord Lieutenant under the Broad-Seal to come away and all that lay in his Excellency's power for the help and assistance of the Protestants he zealously performed It was interpreted by many as a signal Act of Providence propitious to the English that the Winds continued for some time contrary after that this furious Zealot for the Cause as impatient as a Wild Bull in a Net was come to the Sea-side which disappointment did not a little discompose him whose prejudice and ambition equally inspired him with eagerness to supplant his Predecessor whom he had looked upon as his Corrival in the Government This favourable delay was religiously respected by many as a certain warning or admonition from God to his people to fly from those heavy Judgments which had been long imminent but now in an actual readiness to descend upon that Poor Distressed Kingdom But he whose Arrival was dreaded every moment as the most fatal misery that could fall upon the Nation at last after being thus retarded to the unspeakable terrour of the Protestants Landed at Dublin And the Lord Clarendon who had a particular favour conferred upon him to continue for one Week in the Government after Tyrconnel's Landing at his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Dublin's Palace resigned the Sword to Tyrconnel with an admirable Speech to him setting forth his exact observance of the Commands of the King his Master and faithful discharging of that great trust which had been committed to him and concluding with his Impartial Administration of Justice to all Partys in these or the like words addressed to Tyrconnel That as he had kept an equal hand of Justice to the Roman Catholicks so he hoped his Lordship would to the Protestants Never was a Sword washed with so many Tears as this a most doleful presage of its being so in blood It would surpass the Art of Rhetorick to set forth the dreadful Reflections which the poor afflicted Protestants made upon this Ominous Revolution No Oratour could find words to express the fatal Calamities which were now derived from the consequence of this change it presaged the worst of evils and seemed to carry in all its parts the most dismal Characters of an Irreversible Extirpation of the Protestant Interest and Religion Most of the English were possessed with the daily fears of a general Massacre to be suddainly put in Execution and that in a most inhuman manner and this produced the strangest Convulsions in the minds of men that a most exquisite grief could be capable of Others were more temperate in their sorrows and were of opinion that notwithstanding Popery was the Scene which must be acted yet they were in hopes by some more plausible way than that of downright murthering They considered that the last Rebellion had heaped so much Infamy upon the Irish and had justly rendered them such Barbarous and Inhumane Savages to the whole Christian World that to obliterate that deserved reproach they would now take some milder course which though it might have something more of Humanity in it would yet be as effectual to the design the utter Subversion of the Protestant Interest and Religion In fine Quot homines tot sententiae their Sentiments were as various as their Fears But however all concurred in this That Popery was the Game that must not only be Played but win too whatever Arts were used to obtain the upshot The Lord Clarendon before he surrendered the Government was very curious to inform himself of the Constitution and Condition of Ireland and at his going over carried with him Copies of Records Surveys c. of that Kingdom and among other things it is said that he desired the Lord Chief Justice Keating now in Rebellion in Ireland and one of the fatal instruments for the ruine of that Kingdom to give him his opinion in Writing both as to the Legality and Justice of the Act of Settlement as also to answer those Objections which had been made against it by Neagle all which he amply performed and which my Lord Clarendon upon his Arrival at Court shewed to the King who sent the Copy over to Tyrconnel who spared not to reproach Keating for this action which Keating at first disowned but the matter being too plain to admit of an absolute denial at length began to make the best Excuse he could My Lord Clarendon being shipped for England now does the open and full Triumph of the Irish ambitiously shew it self in this advantagious light in all its grandeur and magnificence The dejected condition of the English made their Victory more glorious 'T was now impossible for the Natives to forbear insulting over the English at an insupportable rate as if they had been actually their Slaves bound to the Wheels of their Chariots That sober thought of Sesostris when he had his Coach drawn by four Kings was not a reflection to be entertained by them at this juncture The Day was now their own and Post mortem nulla voluptas they failed not to use it as extravagantly whilst they enjoyed it What Affronts and Indignities were now cast upon the English How barbarously Hector'd and Insulted over by these Huffing Rhodomontadoes How injured and oppressed by publick acts of notorious injustice How abused as to their good Names reviled as to their Religion and reproached as Englishmen and Protestants Called Fanatick Dogs and Damn'd Hereticks is so publickly known as requires not much pains to describe Those of the Protestants who had been the most obliging to the Irish were sure to meet with the most ungrateful returns and if they had been so charitable as to relieve them in their necessities as the English a merciful and too easie natured a People had frequently done they would now in requital seize upon what they had by open force or else set others of their own Creatures to do it If any of the English had lent Money to them or bargained for Goods and Commodities of the Countrey whereby the Irish were become their Debtors their usual payment especially if they were in necessity and afraid that Executions would be obtained against their persons or substance was repairing to the next Irish Justice of the Peace and swearing of High-Treason against their Creditors though oftentimes in kindness to them they had been forborn with a year or two from discharging the Debt But I pass from speaking any more of
him for the encouragement of Trade and the uniting of the Affections of his Subjects and in order to put this in execution the City of Dublin was to lead the way and to be the Precedent to the whole Kingdom And therefore in pursuance to the tenour of the aforesaid Letter the Lord Mayor calls a General Assembly wherein the Kings Letter was read upon which the City made their humble Address to the Lord Lieutenant and Council setting forth that they found the City by Act of Parliament bound up and the if they should act according to the Letter they incurred a Forfeiture of their Charters and therefore humbly prayed the Lord Lieutenant and Council to lay their Condition at his Majesty's Feet who they did humbly conceive was mis-informed in this matter This retarded the freedom of the Papists for some time but another Mayor one Castleton who is still in Dublin succeeding he passed the Irish Freemen and in consequence to this the same was done in the whole Kingdom This was laid with ingenuity enough for promoting the Irish design yet received not its hoped for effect which was by this means to procure freedom for so many of the Irish in every Corporation as by the Majority of their Suffrages might out-vote the English in the Election of Popish Magistrates which upon Tyrconnel's Accession to the Government might facilitate the surrendring the Charters and so render the Kingdom as they stiled it entirely Catholick But this device how speciously soever contrived did not reach the end of its Projectors For notwithstanding the great Endeavours and active Industry of the Irish yet most of the Corporations out-ballanced them in the number of Protestants Tyrconnel perceiving himself frustrated of his expectation by the numerous Party of the English has an immediate recourse to the way before-mentioned of the Lords Justices and to put this in practice sends for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and there acquaints them that he had in charge from his Master the King to tell them as being the chief City of the Kingdom and unto which as such he intended the greatest Marks of his Favour that it was his pleasure to call in all the Charters of the Kingdom not with design to take away any thing from them but to enlarge their Priviledges by which act of bounty and favour he might the more endear them unto him He farther told them that his Majesty expected their ready compliance so as that their chearful surrendry of their Charter might become examplary to the rest of the Kingdom The Lord Mayor returned the answer usual in such cases which was that he would call an Assembly and move it to them and the next day he accordingly did so acquainting them with what the Lord Deputy had given him in charge The Assembly was not long upon their Resolves but the manner of delivering them afforded the greatest matter of debate the result whereof was this That the Lord Mayor Recorder and Aldermen should wait upon his Excellency and acquaint his Lordship that as the City had ever been exemplary in their Loyalty and faithful Obedience to the Kings and Queens of England so they should ever continue in the same and therefore humbly conceived it to be their Duty to lay at his Majesty's feet the great Services they had done the Crown under the Grants and Immunities of One Hundred and Chirty Charters they had then in their Treasury from his Majesties Royal Ancestors and they humbly prayed his Excellency to favour them in a kind representation of their condition to his Majesty which they hoped would prevail with his Majesty for the continuance of their Ancient Government under so many Gracious Grants and Charters Upon the making of this return there was present the King's Attorney and Sollicitor The first being a most Virulent and Inveterate Papist nothing of friendship was expected from him but the latter was not doubted yet contrary to expectation argued stifly against the City The Lord Deputy as extravagantly mad to meet with this return which so absolutely thwarted his design fell into a great fit of violent Passion and in a raging Tempest told them That this was the continuance of their former Rebellion that they had turned out all the Loyal Snbjects in the last War of Ireland and that they would do so now were it in their power And it was because they so lately disputed the King's Commands for admitting Catholick Free-men that caused his Majesty to call in their Charters and in the close of this furious Speech advised the Lord Mayor to call the Assembly again and obey the King or it would be worse for them Wherefore the Lord Mayor humbly besought his Excellency to signifie his pleasure to the Assembly by a Letter under his hand alledging that they would not regard a Verbal Repetition of it which they had been already acquainted with as also urging that it had been the constant practice of the Chief Governour to send their Letter upon occasions of publick business to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons And if his Excellency would please to follow this usual method he would act as in duty bound in obedience to it To which the Sollicitor General replyed that there was no necessity of any such Formality but 't was sufficient if his Excellency signify'd his Commands by word of Mouth in which they ought to acquiesce Upon this the Lord Mayor called another Assembly and great Debates arose how to demean themselves in this nice Criticism of Affairs But as to the surrendry of their Charter 't was what they unanimously resolved against After some Dispute as to the manner of Addressing the Lord Deputy in this case 't was at last resolved and concluded That the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons should make their Application to his Excellency with Reasons why they could not surrender their Charter and to pray his Excellency to allow them time to Petition the King not doubting but His Majesty would be graciously pleased to take into his Princely Consideration as well their Exemplary Loyalty as Eminent Sufferings for His Royal Father of Blessed Memory Upon which they produced a Letter from King Charles the First dated at Oxford which contained great Acknowledgments of their great Loyalty and Faithfulness to him which he gave them high assurances of being eminently rewarded if it pleased the Divine Providence to restore him to his Crown and its just Rights and Prerogatives The aforesaid Representatives of the City also prayed Tyrconnel to represent their condition favourably to His Majesty but he answered them roughly and according to his former Austerity told them That on the contrary he would Write against them and in the interim according to the Directions he brought over with him from England a Quo Warranto issued forth against the City Who called another Common Council and there agreed upon a Petition to the King and sent over with it their Recorder Sir Richard Rieves who behaved year 1687
with various opportunities of destroying those whom they knew to be their implacable Adversaries yet declin'd all Informations against them a practice as peculiar to those of the Protestant Communion as different from the Indirect Principles and barbarous proceedings of that of the Church of Rome as has been but too manifest in those horrid Perjuries and notoriously false Accusations which the Irish have been palpably convinced of in their daily Impeachments of the English in the Reign of the late King James as will appear in the Sequel of this Discourse But notwithstanding that 't is so universal a practice of the Irish to swear such of the English as they bear prejudice to out of their Lives and Estates if possible or at least so vigorously endeavour it as to stick at no Affidavit how inconsistent soever with truth or but a rational probability yet were the English more just than to transcribe so base an Example or to propose that impious Maxim of the Romish Church Of doing Evil that Good may come of it as a Rule of their Imitation which the Apostle St. Paul has so plainly pronounced Damnation unto And indeed if we descend to an impartial enquiry after the opposite Principles of the Two Churches in this case we shall no longer wonder at the great integrity of the English nor at that barbarous Violation in the other Party of a Rite of the greatest Solemnity and most Sacred Institution which all Christians ought to account an Oath to be and which the whole Christian Church expect that lame and corrupt part of it which we call the Romish does upon its being administred under legal and requisite circumstances justly reckon as indissolluble But what if the other Christian Churches which are but a vile Rabble of Hereticks and Schismaticks though if dividing Christendom into five parts they make up more than three can pretend to no dispensing power in this case yet what cannot tâ—e Vicar of Christ do in Cathedrâ who has the Keys of Heaven at his Girdle and can lock and unlock as he pleases according to our Saviour's Commission which he will needs have limited to his Person as his Vicarial Prerogative but unlimited in its Authority whatsoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whatsoever sins ye retain they are retained But to leave this despotiek power of Absolution in the Chair of Infallibility which God be thanked we are neither ambitious of nor do pretend to it will not be unreasonable to consider that whatever complaints were made by the Irish as to their severe usage in the Popish Conspiracy of which they make many tedious harangues 't was plain that if there was any such 't was acted by those of their own Party and such as professed their own Religion who were indeed the fittest Agents for so black an Intriegue there being none of the English any way interessed in it Neither can I omit mentioning the great Integrity and Justice of the Duke of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant in his unbyassed and equal management of this Affair For though prejudice and partiality might have prepossess'd some Men and have served to awaken their resentments against the Irish at such a Juncture as this yet did he carry himself with so single an eye and observed so steady and even a course that 't was difficult to perceive the least deflection in him upon either hand 't is true indeed the Law had its due course but this was owing to the Evidence which those of their own Party and Religion made against their Associates in the Conspiracy and therefore if any irregularity was committed it cannot justly be charged upon the Duke or his Subordinate Ministers by whom the whole was managed with an equal Moderation and indifferency But I pass from these Reflections upon the Carriage of the Duke of Ormond and the Protestants to a Discourse of Affairs relating to the Plot in Ireland upon the discovery whereof Orders came from England to disarm the Papists year 1678 but they received such timely notice of the Design by their Creatures at Court that there was not found two hundred Arms in all Ireland the Irish having a contrivance of concealing their Arms by thrusting them into Boggs filling the Barrels of their Guns with Butter which suffers them not to take any harm and as for the Locks they can easily hide them The Lord Brittas and others made their Escape for France but the Earl of Tyrone was taken and committed to the Gate-house Sheridon was seized in London but nothing could be proved against him Talbot now Tyrconnel was confined a Prisoner in the Castle of Dublin together with his Brother the Titular Archbishop where he dyed The Duke of York went for Flanders which made the Irish even to despair and made one of their Lords to declare with a great Oath That He believed Iesus Christ was a Protestant for that nothing they could do did prosper The Duke of Ormond was extreamly sollicitous to settle the Militia in Ireland and ordered their watching equal with the Army And now notwiâ—hstanding the publick fears of the Popish Conspiracy in England and Ireland yet was the English Interest in Ireland of greater value than ever grounded upon a general Opinion of the English that the Plots of the Irish were now so fully unravell'd that the King would extend no favour to them for the future The Duke of York goes for Scotland and with him the Second Coleman Thomas Sheridon who still profess'd himself a Protestant though his Actions at this time gave a sufficient Demonstration to the contrary For from Scotland he writ over private Encouragements to the Popish Party in Ireland and put them in some hopes But the English were not apprehensive of any danger improving their Estates and the Trade of the Kingdom more than ever and never esteeming themselves more happy than at this juncture as being quietly seated under the Care and Influence of the Duke of Ormond's Government who now endeavours to have a Parliament called in Ireland and succeeded so far as to obtain a Grant in pursuance whereof a Bill drawn by the Lord Lieutenant and Council is sent over to the King but the Duke of York's interest interceding obstructed any farther Progress who came with all expedition from Scotland to put a stop to that design which the Irish were so confident of before it was done that they stuck not to affirm that they were well assured there would be no Parliament whilst King Charles lived and would frequently discourse with that liberty and boldness as if the Duke of York had been actually Seated in the Throne upon a Presumption that he would arrive speedily to it Ireland had now continued for two or three years in great Tranquillity and Quiet when upon a suddain a Stratagem was set on foot lain as deep as Hell and yet seemingly for the advantage of the English which take as follows In the Settlement of Ireland there were overplus and concealed
these Infamous Wretches whose Mercies are Cruelty to Tyrconnel's first steps in the Government as Lord Deputy in relation to which I shall now usher in at once the removing of the Judges though some of them were turned out before Tyrconnel came to the Sword As Sir Standish Harston Baronet one of the Barons of the Exchequer Sir Richard Reynolds Baronet one of the Judges of the King's-Bench and Johnson one of the Judges of the Common-Pleas The Consult was in London before Tyrconnel came to the Government whether the Judges should not be turned out before the Earl of Clarendon was removed to represent him odious to the People if he complyed or disobedient to the King if he seemed unwilling in the matter as they believed he would For they observed that he and the Lord Chancellor Porter began to startle at the Commands from England before they received any account of their removal and Porter publickly declared That he came not over to serve a turn nor would act any thing against his Conscience and as a Testimony of this he found at his return to London that he could not without some difficulty obtain the favour of kissing the King's hand but at length gaining admittance he humbly asked the King What he had done that he was so used For it had been a considerable expence to him to remove his Family To which the King replyed That 't was his own fault which was an expression not very unintelligible Porter went several times after to Court and stood in the King's Eye but he never vouchsafed to speak to him or to take the least notice of him But to come to the Judges it was not thought safe to turn them all out nor any more of them till the Government was in a hand that was Catholick For some of the Council I mean the Cabal were afraid of proceeding in their design too fast especially Powis who urged a slow Progress as accounting it most safe and this made him not be confided in as to their secret and blacker Designs though in his Lady they reposed an intire Confidence as being thought the greatest Politician among them and were not a little ambitious that the Earl of Shaftsbury in the Popish Plot had given her that Character This Debate concerning the Judges was long and often some were for making a clear riddance and to have the Reformation begin in the Courts of Judicature They having already the Military part of the Government in their hands might with greater Facility secure the Civil But the moderate Party prevailed and one in a Court to colour the actions of the rest must be left But that which stuck with them was that Sir William Davis Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench must not be moved for two Reasons The First was That he had been of the Duke's Party in the time of the Popish Plot behaving himself so loyal that he had been sent over if Dissolving the Parliament had not preserved him but this was the least part of his Strength The Second therefore and most prevalent Inducement was his Marriage with the Countess of Clancarthy whose Son had Married the Earl of Sunderland's Daughter and Sunderland was to be denied nothing Besides Sir William Davis was a Diseased infirm man given over for some years and to expedite his Journey for another World for he was a thoughtful man his Brother Judge Nugent the first Popish Judge that was put in pass'd Patent for Sir William Davis's place of Lord Chief Justice in reversion a sad Presage in those times where men must die when and how their Adversaries pleased This being resolved the choice was soon made Lord Chief Baron Hen makes way also for Rice and in Rice's room Sir Linch succeeds in the Common-Pleas In the High Court of Chancery was placed Sir Alexander Fitton a man notorious on Record so exempts me from the pains of giving the Reader a Character of him in this place but little regard was to be had to the man so long as he was fitted to that interest which was then promoting it being very remarkable That of what Perswasion soever they were which they employed at this time they chose men of the most branded Reputations and whose Principles were such as could brave Conscience The three Protestant Judges had their several Capacities and Inclinations for their Service the Lord Chief Justice Davis I speak not of for he was decreed to die and did soon after but the three Standards for the Cause were the Lord Chief Justice Keating for the Common-Pleas Lyndon for the King's-Bench and Baron Worth for the Exchequer The Lord Chief Justice Keating had always been a Servant of the Duke of Yorks was a Native of the place as the Irish call them his Family for many Ages there and Naturalized into Irish he was somewhat accounted to be Popishly inclined and therefore that Party thought themselves sure of him but he was a person of more sense than to pursue the Chace with greater expedition than safety He was rich and single and small hopes would not spur him on to an indiscreet forwardness however as to the main they questioned not his Affection to the Cause Lyndon though in his affection no friend to the Irish Government yet lay under the powerful temptation of a numerous Family and his not abounding in Riches made him the more Passive though he behaved himself the best of the three and when it laid in his power shewed himself an English-man Baron W was the Man they most depended upon and he was so well known that year W 't was in vain to pretend indifferency nor did he but was the first man in the Exchequer where there was more business than in all the Courts besides that struck the fatal blow in all Causes where the English were concerned as in the Sequel will appear in the Charters and private Causes of the English that came before him The Courts being thus setled the next thing year 1687 to be performed was calling in the Charters and here Tyrconnel endeavoured to proceed in the same method that the Lords Justices had done before in perswading the City to deliver up their Arms. But one art in State-Policy could not easily be imposed twice in a year and the English had a fresh Impression upon their Memories by what plausible perswasive Rhetorick they had been cajoled out of their Arms and now to have a like Delusion pass upon them in depriving them of their Laws was a colour not natural enough to deceive them a second time However this was the method of the proceeding Tyrconnel during the Lord Clarendon's Government had procured the King's Letter that all Roman Catholicks should be admitted into the freedom of all the Corporations of the Kingdom which Letter was artfully contrived with a great deal of sweetness and of endearing expressions as that it proceeded from his Majesty's great care of the general good of the Kingdom and was graciously designed by
a Demonstration indeed that 't was palpably unjust refused to grant the Injunction however their Tool Worth did it and the cry is That the Blood of that Man lies at his door But the Sheriff exceeded the Tenour of his Warrant for he had nothing to do with the House nor Land it stood upon Swan therefore kept his House and the Sheriff coming to take possession Swan looked out of the Window and desired him to call a Jury of that Neighbourhood and if they found that Land or House in his order from the Exchequer he would give quiet possession but otherwise he would not open his Doors for he was very sure the Sheriff had no order to come there Upon this without any offer of Swan more than keeping his Door shut the Sheriff having his Men ready a number of them together discharged a Volley of Shot at him as he stood in his Window and shot him in several places they broke open his Doors and finding him wallowing in Blood and groaning upon the Floor they took him up and flung him out of Doors Some more Compassionate than the rest carried him into a Cabin where he had so much strength as to ask for Drink In his House there was of several sorts enough but those Inhumane Butchers would not give the Dying Man a drop who died there in the place This Horrible Tragedy I thought fit not to omit the relation of though by way of Digression as being but the introductory part of too many of the like Barbarities repeated since Every day by all ways Expresses came to Tyrconnell which gave him no good account of Affairs which made him give Commissions to any that would accept of them and that he might have the more custom without a penny of Fees to the Secretary For many of them that had Commissions pawned them for their Lodgings at their going out of Town not having a Penny to carry them along but pawning their very Cloaths off their Backs as they Travelled The English and some of the best of themselves laughed at this Poppet-play for no man believed that 't was designed for more than a shew and that Tyrconnel did it to make good his Word of being able to raise an Army of an Hundred Thousand Men at a Months notice Every day brought an additional account of the Prince of Orange's success which put the Grandees into so great a terrour and consternation that those who at first had expressed a great deal of alacrity and forwardness amongst them in raising of Men began now to decline and by degrees more and more to draw back Then the Lord Deputy sent to the Judges and the Lord Chief Justice Nugent to shew his valour undertook to raise a Regiment and so others pretended to do but it came to nothing The Irish were in greater trouble and confusion than before the English braving it in City and Country every day expecting to have an English Lord Lieutenant over it being the unanimous opinion of all the Protestants that the Irish Lords would have contended who should be the first Man to make their submission but no relief coming to the English as was expected some began to draw for England when an unexpected Catastrophe had like to have swallowed all up 'T was the Earl of Mount Alexander's receiving of a Letter giving him an account That upon the Ninth of that Instant December all year 1688 the Protestants of Ireland were to be cut off This Letter he sends with several Copies to Dublin and to all parts of the Kingdom it arrived at Dublin but on Friday and the Sunday following was to be the day of Slaughter This suddain alarum struck such a fear upon the English that upon the Saturday there got away about Three Thousand Souls There happened to be abundance of Ships in the Harbour at that time but were so crammed that many were in danger of being stifled The Run of these people happened to be so suddain and in the middle of the Night that it resembled the flight of the Jews out of Egypt and the Irish were as desirous to have them gone for some of them were in as great a terrour as the other The Guards kept their Post in a Maze and the Draw-bridge of the Castle was drawn up thus they stood upon their Guard till Morning and when Tyrconnel understood what the matter was he first sent the Earl of Roscommon and the Earl of Longford to Ringsend this being Sunday Morning to perswade the People to stay and ordered the Yatcht to sail after them that were gone and to fetch them back but neither of his Orders succeeded And the same day sent to some of the most Considerable Persons and Citizens of Dublin that were Protestants making great Protestations and Oaths of his utter abhorrence of the pretended design of Massacring the English begging them to perswade their Friends not to stir 'T was by all his actions at this juncture sufficiently apparent that he had then no thoughts of standing out notwithstanding that he gave Commissions to every one that would accept of them For he now made great Court to the English desiring several of them to testifie how just and equal he had always been in his Government to the Protestants This was a condescention to the English which carried no proportion with the imperiousness of his former carriage to them and was accordingly interpreted as an effect of inevitable necessity and of that great Consternation of which such eminent Characters were plainly legible in all the Circumstances of his Deportment for he now discovered as much awe and dread of the success of the Prince of Orange's Arms as upon the first News of his Arrival he had done of disdain and contempt Every Action he did had deep Marks of his Fears engraven upon it and all his Discourses expressed his disordered and evil apprehensions of the present tendency of Affairs But as Matters were in this great hurry and confusion at the Castle so is it not easie to set forth the strange Effects and Consequences which attended that suddain alarum in the City of an intended Universal Massacre There you might see Thousands of People deserting their Houses and all their Substance in the World and running to the Ships with scarce any Cloaths upon their Backs Never was seen such a Consternation as at this time Never such a Confusion and Distraction All the Bloody Massacres in the former Rebellion were now reflected upon under the most ghastly and dismal Representations and those Scenes of barbarity and cruelty seem'd to threaten the same or worse usage which produc'd the greatest horrour and amazement grief and despair that humane nature could be capable of This facal News which had so terrify'd the Protestants of Dublin as if the dissolution of all things had been at hand arrived not to several parts of the Kingdom till the very day 't was to be put in execution which being Sunday was brought to the
two Men that rais'd their fortunes in the last Settlement and were making provision for the same Work again and 't is remarkable that 〈…〉 Brother to these here is as 't is said the most active among the Irish at this day and Sir 〈…〉 Houses the only Sacred place from violence in Dublin But of this Intrigue more may be expected and time will shew since the Honourable House of Commons have taken that matter into their prudent Consideration The deplorable Effects and Consequences attending the wrong measures taken for the reduction of that Kingdom are perhaps if duly reflected upon in all their Circumstances more doleful than the Massacre and Rebellion there in Forty One tho' 't is much less considered and it seems a Work becoming the great Council of this Nation to bring the Authors of it to condign punishment But to return to the last debate betwixt Tyrconnel and his Council They were all of them in amaze and in great confusion What to do they knew not all of them were unanimous in their Resolutions to submit except the Lord Chief Justice Nugent and the Lord Chief Baron Rice The Priests put off their Wolves cloathing and in most parts of the Kingdom turn'd Sparks with their Swords by their sides and Perriwigs upon their Heads In this Month the Irish assembled together in great Bodies by the name of Raperees armed with Slâ—eens and Half Pikes and what Robberies they left unacted upon the English in the Relation aforementioned those they now compleated killing their Cattle and robbing and pillaging their Houses Now their new Levies were Mustering every day and their Priests exercising the fresh rais'd Soldiers and Hamilton's Arrival from England put them upon new resolutions which necessitated the English to fortifie themselves and to associate together for their ownpreservation against which Proclamations were issued out in the North and at London-derry and then followed the same in other parts of the Kingdom commanding them home to their respective Dwellings and that such as did not immediately observe the Proclamation should be proceeded against by the Attorney General as Traytors This Proclamation was signed by several Protestants of the Privy-Council which was fatal to the English in regard that it possessed many of them with a belief that there was not so much danger as they were afraid of and others it put in fears of the Law. So that upon the whole matter they were diverted from any thoughts of making their defence and so were dispersed and scattered up and down and by that means became an easie Prey to the Irish Every day brought in new hopes and fears so that some got together again of the English near Kilkenny and the Queens County who were soon dispersed Still the Lord Deputy and Council remained in suspence what to resolve upon when upon a suddain they came to a conclusion whâ—â—h might quiet the Irish Lords that were for submission to the Prince and Government of England The Project was this That two Men should be pitched upon and sent over to the late King James in France only to set forth the impossibility of their holding out against England and then they were sure to obtain permission to make terms and so might surrender But this was a Jesuitical Stratagem contrived by Rice and Neagle and as one of them brag'd since carry'd on without the privity of any but the Lord Deputy and themselves For they were afraid of the Cowardly Temper of the rest whose inclinations were favourable enough to the Cause but wanted Courage and Resolution The Scheme being thus laid 't was moved at Conncil and took with general Applause Rice and the Lord Mountjoy were pitched upon to be sent and in the conclusion of this Affair at Council-Board the Lord Chief Justice Keating believing now that their hopes of King James were over thought to begin with the first to shew his Zeal and Affection to the Protestant Cause and in order to that moved that since they were resolved on this method that his Excellency would put a stop to the raising Men which was agreed to but not in the least observed Mountjoy and Rice proceed in their Negotiation year 1688 and take Shipping at Waterford but before they arrived at Paris the French Engineer Landed at Corke and from thence rid with all expedition for Dublin Then the face of things looked with a far different prospect to what they had done before and those little hopes which had supported the English till this time did now evaporate into nothing which put them upon a necessity of associating together and of getting into Castles and the best places of strength they had for the defence and preservation of their Lives In Connaught the Lord Kingstone behaved himself like the Son of so Noble a Father whose hand the Irish had felt in the former Rebellion In the North Sir Arthur Royden did the like but a fate attended him that he could not divert In Munster the English were thought to be more considerable than in any part of Ireland both for Horse and Foot of the latter more than three thousand and numbers of brave Gentlemen of gallant Courage and resolution and of will enough to back it to have drove the Irish out of that Province and to have march'd through the Kingdom Cork Bandon Kingsale and Youghall being offered to be delivered into their hands which was so openly and indiscreetly managed that it became the publick discourse for a Month together in every Coffee house in Dublin At this time there were not seven hundred old Soldiers in the whole County of Corke which forc'd Justin Mac Carthy to write daily to Tyrconnel that he could not hold out without a speedy supply of Men which yet Tyrconnel could not spare for he was afraid of an insurrection in the North and 't was believ'd in Dublin that if they in Munster had done any thing all parts of Ireland had been secure in the English hands except Lynster for that Tyrconnell could have spared none of his own Forces from himself and the new raised men then knew not the right from the left if same be true The fault lay but in two Men but that being publick time will shew it and my work here is to relate nothing but what there is good authority for Matters were now reduced to that extremity year 1688 that no course remained to preserve the English but that of making their escape for they were disarmed in one day throughout the Kingdom and that order executed with so much rigour that few persons of whatsoever quality were permitted to wear their Swords In the Corporations they shut up the Gates and suffered none to pass in or out without searching them strictly for arms and when they came to search in their Houses under pretence that the English had conceal'd their Arms they sometimes seiz'd upon what Plate or Money they could meet with during this hurly-burly which lasted for several days together
A Full and Impartial Account Of all the SECRET CONSULTS Negotiations Stratagems and Intriegues OF THE Romish Party IN IRELAND From 1660 to this present Year 1689. For the Settlement of Popery in that Kingdom LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard M DC LXXX IX TO THE READER TO Preface to the ensuing Pamphlet will I am sensible be attributed to a vain humour of the Age rather than to more important Considerations But however that may be the Apprehension of some yet the more Judicious will I doubt not be of another Opinion when they perceive a whole Series of the most profound Policies and Designs drawn with that rudeness and disproportion as equally requires their Candour as well as my Apology Indeed to give an exact pourtraicture of this Intriegue which in all its circumstances appears very extraordinary and surprizing would require Apelles his favourable chance or at least a more Artificial Representation than must be expected in the following Discourse All that I can pretend to is an Impartial Account of the Matter of Fact and that being chiefly aimed at will with sober Men be in some sort at least interpreted A Dispensation for the want of exteriour Ornament or however that may prove I deem'd it much more serviceable to the Publick to present the Reader with this rough draught rather than conceal that which with what imperfection soever 't is managed must needs be useful to all Protestants and especially at this Juncture For here the Reader has an Account of the first steps that were made in Ireland for the Introduction of Popery into that Kingdom together with a Description of what obstacles and repulses this Design met with how 't was still carried on notwithstanding its frequent Interruptions and Discouragements and by what private Cabals and after what secret Machinations Here is represented the admirable diligence of an indefatigable Romish Genius for the promotion of the Catholick Cause which in several periods of State and vicissitudes of that Government still kept its design on foot sometimes retreating a few paces backward when they found it necessary and at others not only retrieving that disadvantage but continuing a greater Progress when they met with occasions favourable to their Design which at last they carefully improved to that ripeness wherein it now stands and to which it has attained by an unparallel'd Violation of the Laws and Constitutions of the Realm by the most violent and unjust Proceedings in the Reign of the late King James of which you have an ample and copious Relation in the following Sheets Full and Impartial Account Of all the SECRET CONSULTS Negotiations Stratagems and Intriegues OF THE Romish Party in Ireland from 1660 to this present Year 1689. for the Settlement of Popery in that Kingdom c. WHEN the natural Consequent of our late intestine Differences had in a short time produced so many various Scenes of Government till by a circular Motion we center'd in our first Model and so like Pythagoras his transmigration of Souls were metamorphosed into so many differing Shapes till at last in the Year One thousand six hundred and sixty we became animated with our first Dispositions to Monarchy by the Restoration of King Charles the Second then it was that several Disputes arose which were Debated before the King and Council concerning the Settlement of Ireland the Lord of Santry Lord Chief Justice of Ireland a Man equally eminent for Law as well as Loyalty in an excellent and learned Speech represented to the Board the horrid Rebellion of Ireland together with those Barbarous and Inhumane Massacres which he had been an eye Witness of In Opposition to which Sir Nicholas Plunkett a Man also very skilful in the Law but a Knight of the Pope's making and one that had acted his part in all the Rebellion of Ireland assumed the Defence of the Natives of that Kingdom but as his Cause was too apparently bad to be maintained with any tolerable Success so was his Understanding in the Law inferiour to the Lord Chief Justice Santry's who carried the Debate with great Applause in the Opinion of all that heard it and had his Advice been accordingly pursued 't was thought few of the Irish would have got their Estates and at that time if by mistake the Lord of Ormond and Lord Anglesey had not joined with the Court-Party 't was believed that what the Lord Santry urged as Law must have prevailed in point of Right for in those days the Interest of the Duke of York which afterwards grew to a mighty height as you will perceive by the Sequel was not so powerful as to have prevented it That which he chiefly insisted upon as to matter of Law was That 't was most agreeable to the Law of the Land as well as most equal for the Subject to be Tried by the Common Law where they would meet with a fair and indifferent Tryal by Juries of their Neighbours and in this case could have no wrong done them but that the Court of Claims was like the Usurper's High-Court of Justice Arbitrary and Unlimited This touch'd the Irish to the quick for they being conscious of their Guilt most of 'em Indicted and Outlawed for Treason despaired upon their Trial at the Bar to make any considerable Defence The Government of Ireland was first put into year 1660 the hands of Lords Justices which were Sir Maurice Eustace Lord Chancellor the Earl of Mountrath and the Earl of Orrery the first a Lawyer the latter Men that had signally behaved themselves against the Irish during the whole Rebellion Under the Government of these Men a Parliament was called in the City of Dublin and the Convention which sat upon the King's Restoration dissolved The first thing they proceeded upon were the Bills sent them from England for by the Law of Ireland Intituled Poyning's Act the Parliament of Ireland can read no Bill in their House which proceeds not by these Steps First The Chief Governour and Council of Ireland draw up a Bill and send it over to the King and Council in England who either approve or correct it as they think convenient and so in the second place return it back to the Chief Governor and Council and these send it to the House of Commons who have only a Negative Voice and can neither alter nor amend a word of it This by way of Digression which differing so much from the Practice of the Parliament of England induced me not to think it altogether unpleasant or unnecessary to present the Reader with this brief Account of it But to return to the Parliament the variety of interests in that Kingdom gave birth to several Disputes among them for the accommodating whereof it was thought necessary at Court to send over a Lord Lieutenant for about this time a great Controversie arose among all Parties which was founded upon this occasion A new interest was set on foot in
as refus'd to joyn with them to that extravagant height were accounted Persons disaffected to the Government called Fanatick and Oliverian Dogs with the like Expressions of Calumny and Reproach But this was not all the most judicious of them were now so animated in their hopes that 't was impossible for them to bear them any longer with moderation or to contain themselves from the most violent Outrages and from instigating the Rabble to steal from and rob the English which at first was looked upon as the most Expeditious Contrivance whereby to expel them the Kingdom The Duke of Ormond foresaw what was now past remedy and told a Friend of his that nothing could now preserve the English but a precipitateness of the Irish For said he let my Countreymen alone and they will spoil their own business And so indeed they had in any time but this when it might be said according to our Saviour's Prediction That the time was come when they that destroyed the Protestants thought they did God service King James and his former but now more especial Favourites the Irish were now equally furious in their course and seemed to contend the one in his Commands the other in their forward Obedience which should exceed in their joynt design of extirpating Heresie The Duke year 1684 of Ormond was called over but before his departure laboured with an Indefatigable diligence to establish matters on such a foundation so as that it might not be easie for them to create a present change without a manifest violation and infringement of the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom The new Hospital a stately Fabrick near Dublin erected for poor Soldiers would he foresaw be made a Nest for Hornets which to prevent as well as possible he sate several days with the Council and Judges in private in the Castle and there made all the provision that could be for it against the imminent storm One remarkable Passage I must not omit to mention which demonstrates the great spirit of that excellent person At the aforesaid Hospital he appointed a Dinner for all the Officers of the Hospital and the Officers of the Army then in Dublin which being over he took a large Glass of Wine in his hand bid them fill it to the brim then stood up and called to all the Company Look here Gentlemen they say at Court I am now become an Old Doating Fool you see my Hand doth not shake nor does my Heart fail nor doubt but I will make some of them see their Mistake and so drank the Kings Health But upon his Arrival at Court found that King James's Bigotted Opinion would carry him to the most violent actions a dismal apprehension whereof as is believed at length broke his heart for though he was of a great Age yet was he of such health of Body and cheerfulness of mind that in course of nature he might have lived Twenty Years longer as his Mother did 'T was plain that the Irish could fasten no Calumnies upon him when the first thing they reproached him with was Cheating the Army in building the Hospital and that Robinson the Architect had inriched himself by it when indeed not to lessen any thing of his due Character Robinson shewed the parts of an Excellent Artist in the Contrivance and of an Honest Man in the Charge as men of Value and Experience in Building affirm Upon the Duke of Ormond's removal the Government year 1685 was put into the hands of the Lord Primate and the Lord Granard in the Quality of Lords Justices The Irish fell immediately to their old trade of making Plots but with this difference That whereas they had formerly been the Actors themselves they now placed them upon the English which they daily impeached of designs against the King and the Government The Grandees had the confidence to appear in Vindication of such Evidence as was given against the English though it was altogether as unreasonable as untrue and press'd the Lords Justices for Orders of Council to empower Irish Papists and Mongrel Protestants to examine them and to commit if they saw cause without Bail any person impeached This Arbitrary Power the Lords Justices and Council would not agree to yet were so hectored and insulted upon by them that they issued out Orders of Council to examin and commit but always they were directed to Protestants which wearied the Irish of that Stratagem One thing has been omitted which was that before the Duke of Ormond left the Government an Order came for regulating the Council which he left for the Justices to do and most of the English that were active of the Privy Council were turned out but as yet no Irish Papists put in The Irish Lords and Gentry repaired in great numbers to Dublin and as well Gentry as Commonalty of the Natives in all places reproached the Protestants and their Religion with all the Calumnies and Impious Reflections that the rankest Satyrists could invent At Leslip seven Miles from Dublin the Lord Clanriccard Sir Valentine Browne now created a Viscount by the late King James Colonel Moore and some others upon their Knees drank Confusion to all Protestants and their Religion This was taken notice of and the wiser sort of their Party blamed these Men for their forwardness as judging it could not be safe to go on so fast but to stifle the noise of it such as were Eye-witnesses of the Fact and threatened for not Pledging the Health were seized with Warrants and menac'd with having their Throats cut and the like terrifying Arts if they denied not the thing Sir Standish Harston one of the Barons of the Exchequer was threatened to be eased of his Employment if he took not off his Son-in-Law who reported the matter These daily repeated Insolences of the Irish made the Lords Justices weary of their Government and one of them the Lord Granard writ to England to be dismist But in a Consult of the Papists it was resolved to represent him as a Man fit to be kept in for that his interest was very prevalent in the North among the Scots and had for many years in King Charles's Reign been a Pensioner and had Five Hundred Pounds per Annum given him to distribute among the Presbyterian Clergy of which Perswasion his Lady was For the aforesaid Considerations and besides that he was a Popular Man in the Army 't was judged convenient to retain him in the Government For which end King James writ him a Letter with his own hand with great Promises and assurance that nothing should be acted prejudicial to the Protestant Interest which at that time this Lord was accounted to be zealous for however he has now prevaricated Monmouth's Rebellion soon broke out and year 1685 some were apt to believe that Granard was in suspence who to declare for but the Lord Primate was a person of firm and inviolable Loyalty and his unalterable steadiness hindered the other from deserting These two
persons by their united Interests one for the Church the other for the Dissenters kept things in a quiet posture in Ireland and were so Cajol'd by King James as made them not only of opinion but perswaded others to be so too that the King would never expose himself to the hazard of preferring Papists in that Kingdom where the English and Scots were so unanimous against 'em And besides that they were so well furnished with Arms as having the Arms of the Militia so lately setled in their hands But the Popish Party grew bold and insolent and every day afforded but too convincing occasions of new fears to the Protestants Monmouth's Discomfiture gave liberty to the Irish more than ever to contrive Plots and to fasten them upon the Protestants which put the whole Kingdom into a Ferment for the Irish pretended that the Protestants assembled together in great numbers in the night and to gain the more credit to these Hellish Inventions the Vulgar Irish were instructed to leave their Houses and to hide every Night in their Bogs upon a pretence of fear that the English would come in the Night and cut their Throats a Practice as notorious in the Church of Rome as unheard of among Protestants and which there could not be the least Ground or Foundation for at this juncture For besides that in most parts of the Kingdom the Irish were infinitely more numerous than the English nay in some an hundred Families for one I suppose I speak much short of the true account which shewed the impossibility of putting any such thing in execution had it been ever intended and must needs be accounted an absurd and ridiculous contrivance to any man of common sense So were the Irish though conscious to themselves of their own Bloody Actions in the former Rebellion well enough assured that the English never imagined much less would attempt any such thing They were convinced as well by their Practices which had been but too favourable and indulgent to the Natives in the former Reign as by the Principles of their Religion that they were not men of Blood nay and would frequently confess that they were never known to be addicted to Cruelty and Murther to Barbarous Massacres and Inhumane Assassinations which they could not excuse some of themselves from And indeed whoever considers the difference betwixt the Reformed and Romish Church in this respect must needs acknowledge a most strange opposition betwixt them To see the Ancient Practices of the Heathen Emperors so drawn to the life nay out-done by the present Romish Faction is to some a Demonstration that the Persecuting Spirit which reigned with so much predominancy in the Infant days of Christianity is now strongly revived in this degenerate Church which is apparently in this and other Principles upon her Retrograde motion to Ancient Gentilism And upon the other hand whoever considers that Spirit of Peace and Meekness of Mercifulness and an Universal Charity which governs with so absolute an Empire in the minds of those who have duly embraced our Profession must needs own That our English carries that true Badge and Characteristick Evidence of Christianity for which the Primitive Church was justly accounted so illustrious But not to dwell any longer upon this Reflection with what malice and injustice soever the English were represented as Night-Walkers and designing to murther the Irish yet were Examinations of these Impeachments taken by Justices of the Peace calculated for the purpose and these were sent to the Lords Justices and Council and although the Accusations were notoriously false and irrational as has been already shewn yet for not being prosecuted with that open partiality and rigour which these envious implacable Spirits were impatient for Complaints were made to the King by the Irish and he to gratifie their malice sent private instructions with a Reprimand to the Lords Justices about this affair Upon which a Proclamation was issued forth forbidding all Night-Meetings c. though the Lords Justices and Council well knew there was no such thing This Artifice of the Irish was but in order to make way for greater mischief by preparing Evidences to bring the most considerable of the English into Plots Their first onset was with one Moor of Clonmel who was Indicted for High-Treason before Sir John Mead in the Palatinate of Tipperary This Moor was a person of a vast Estate which made them bend their whole force against him Now to countenance the design Tyrconnel and Justin Mac Carthy came to Clonmel to the Trial and in the Publick Court assum'd to reproach the Judge and the Jury Mac Carthy calling him Fanatick and he and Talbot aspersing him and the Duke of Ormond for employing such a Rogue with other Calumnies in such Language as was only fit for such Blood-hounds to express Notwithstanding Moore and some others that were impeached were quitted But such an extravagantly partial account was sent over to the Court of that action that the King questioned the Duke of Ormond how he came to employ such a Fanatick to which the Duke replied he did it in duty to his Majesty as believing he could not entrust a better man than one of his Majesties Servants for so he was when Duke of York being then his Attorney General in Ireland Tyrconnel then began to model the Army but year 1685 the introductory part first to be performed was to get in all the Arms from the Protestants and this design was varnished over in as fair Colours as the Ground would bear But however its direct tendency was plainly obvious and visible to every Eye The King and Council writ over to the Lords Justices and Council that there was reason to believe that the Rebellion of Monmouth had been of that spreading Contagion as to infect many and delude more It was not therefore safe for the Kingdom to have the Arms of the Militia dispersed abroad but they would be in a greater readiness for the Militia and their own defence to have them deposited in the several Stores of each County Upon which instructions a Proclamation issued forth and to make it take the better effect the Lord Primate first began with the City of Dublin and sending for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen makes an Elegant Speech to them magnifying their unshaken Loyalty in the worst of times and withal adding that their ready Obedience and prevalent example would be of great service to the King and Kingdom And in the close of his Speech tells them that they expected their compliance in bringing in their Arms which should be always ready for their Service The City were sensible of their condition but knew likewise that 't was to no purpose to dispute as to their obedience so brought in their Arms. The Countrey pursu'd this Precedent and to render the design more effectual the Irish gave out That if any Arms were reserved in the Protestants hands such would be interpreted as persons disaffected to the King and
acquired a fair Reputation among the Popish Party for his success in these Arts of Delusion and Treachery and they in their Secret Cabals did not a little magnifie and applaud their Politicks which they thought they so amused the English with laughing at the Credulity of the Heretick Dogs for so their Grandees in their private Meetings would frequently call them Having thus obtained their wish as to the surrendry of the Charters the next work was to agree upon a Model for the men This debate was strongly canvassed several ways and that which chiefly puzled them and even put 'em almost to a Non-plus was that the King would have nothing of this transacted at Court for fear of meeting with opposition there This Exigency of not being suffered to receive advice from England exposed them to great Difficulties for they were utter Strangers to the Laws and Government of Corporations as indeed they were to all matters of Government having been conversant in nothing but Secret Plots and Private Contrivances how to unhinge and discompose all Governments and as an aggravation of their misfortune except Rice Daly and Neagle there was not a man of them in the Privy Council that had common sense if you will believe themselves for Rice and Daly would often complain that nothing could pass at the Council-Board that concerned the Publick but their Countrymen must first ask Teig If that would not spoil his Pottatoe-Garden Necessity at last supply'd the place of Invention and a method was agreed upon which reduced Corporations to perfect Slavery and this in all the Circumstances of that affair was their prime and ultimate aim For as to matter of Trade or improving of the Nation these were Speculations of too Metaphysical a nature for men of their size and former way of Education as was demonstrated in the first Proclamation issued forth by Tyrconnel and his Council to break an Act of Parliament in taking off the duty of Iron and admitting it so into the Kingdom whereby they might encourage Merchants to bring in Pieces of Eight from Spain and so hasty they were to have the honour of this admirable contrivance that without asking the King's leave which is always done before any Proclamation relating to the Revenue Pass They put it in execution but as soon as 't was heard of in England a Proclamation came from the King forbidding this wise act made by these great States-men And so ill this presumptuous folly of theirs was interpreted That the Lord Bellasis swore in Council that That Fellow in Ireland was Fool and Mad-man year 1687 enough to ruine ten Kingdoms Father Petres corrected him severely for this foul miscarriage and writ to him That if he acted not with greater Caution the King could not possibly preserve him in that Government These Documents and severe Reprimands of the Ghostly Father were so religiously observed by him that for the future he would proceed in nothing but ball out at the Council-Board and call them Fools and Blockheads if they spake any thing that was contradicted by the English Privy-Council Their great Confident was the Lord Chief Justice Keating who knowing that he had an Ascendant over them as to Parts was so imperious and insulting that sometimes he was taken to task but had wit enough to submit yet often was very uneasie to them But however he in publick and W. in private for he was not of the Privy-Council directed them in the management of the affair of the Charters And when they had got the shape and model of them presented by these Temporizing Painters who drew to the life according to the Popish fancy then they proceeded to an Election of the men to name in their Charters and here they begged pardon of their Advisers and would be their own Directors 'T was their Rule to have in the great Cities who were most English one third Protestants and two thirds Papists but then these that they called Protestants were Quakers or other Enthusiasticks and two or three in a Charter of such Protestants as either their considerable Estates or loose Principles would secure to their Party by that means leaving not a man of true Value or Courage in any Corporation in the Kingdom and although they took in Lords and Gentlemen out of the Countrey into all their Corporations yet could they not compleat them without additional numbers of Scandalous and Contemptible men In one Corporation in the North the first Magistrate of the Town was a Man that had been burnt in the Hand Here you see by what impious Arts and fraudulent Machinations the several Corporations were cheated and trapanned out of their Charters most of them wheedled and grosly imposed upon by a Wolf in Sheeps Cloathing Secretary Ellis who stuck not to make great Promises of enlarging their Priviledges and the like though he knew nothing to be more destructive of the Protestant Interest and Religion of which he owned himself a Professor And as his wearing of a Protestant Mask contributed very much to the success of this intrigue so did the same Vizard put on by Keating and W. not a little facilitate the Model of the new Charters of which they contrived the Plat-form and then 't was easie for the Popish Faction to super-struct upon it the palpableness of whose design was in nothing more fully evident than in putting in of all manner of Fanatical Enthusiasts into their new Charters under the notion of Protestants For 't was evident that some of these were as irreconcileable Enemies to the Protestant Church as they were Friends to and Confederates with the Romish As for instance The Quakers concerning which ridiculous Profession Who is or can be ignorant that 't was derived from the Jesuits Who knows not that these have sharpened their Weapons at the Romish Forge and that their prime Leaders whatever they otherwise pretend to do inwardly own Ignatius Loyola as their Founder These were therefore too much their own Creatures to be neglected by them as not only appears by their former Principles if those monstrous Absurdities they maintain may be reckoned to be such but also by their present Practices as their vindicating the late King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience though it manifestly tended to the introduction of Popery and their zealous espousing of his interest at this day do fully shew But amidst all the new arts of modelling the Corporations neither their Brethren the Quakers nor other of their Adherents could give them such effectual assistance but that often they were put to their shifts and necessitated to elect men of the blackest Characters and most infamous Reputations as appears from their choosing a Magistrate that had been burnt in the Hand Here was admirable justice indeed to be expected where he who had not only held up his hand but been punished in so scandalous a manner at the Bar was now to sit upon the Bench. But as the Popish Party were put to these Difficulties of getting
He had then a Troop of Horse given him which he soon made of his own Breed for before their inlisting they were the greatest Vagrants of the Countrey which with himself now ravaged in the Countrey in an horrible and most inhumane manner Forcing Women Maiming of Men Pulling down of Houses and all other Extravagancies which he and his Hellish Tribe could invent I already assumed before I entered upon this Man's Character to give a remarkable Instance of the violence offered to the English for their just and legal Prosecution of Notorious Irish Criminals and Malefactors which I shall now set before you in two remarkable Passages relating to this Earl which were publickly transacted at the Bar. One was of a poor Butcher at a Town near Corke who refusing Clancarthy's Men an Horse they violently seized him by force and would never return him to the Owner which the Man making Complaint of to the Judges of Assize in presence of the Earl The Judges ordered satisfaction to be made to the Man for his Horse which the Earl promised to see performed But as soon as the Judges were departed the Countrey he takes some of his Troopers along with him and goes to the Man's House and told him that he was come to give him satisfaction for his Horse Whereupon he forces him out of his House and ordering the vile Instruments his Troopers to get a Blanket and upon a Pavement before the Poor Man's Door stood as a most Barbarous and Inhumane Spectator whilst they tossed him in a Blanket ever and anon letting him fall upon the Stones till they broke him as if upon the Wheel all to pieces and so left him dead The other Passage relating to this fine Spark was of a Man that had offended him at a place called Clonmell him he first had beaten with Sticks and then hung up by the hair of the Head he was taken down alive but what became of him after was not known The Accomplices of this Tragedy his Villanous Troopers were brought to the Bar and Tried for the Murther and notwithstanding that this horrid Action was done in the sight of an hundred Men yet were they quitted and the Earl never Tried He to this day proceeds in these boundless Inhumanities which perhaps may be an occasion of great sorrow and trouble to his Mother But to return to the Judges which we left upon their Circuits Little Justice was administred by them to the English but in such extraordinary Occurrences where the Irish were so notoriousoy culpable as would accuse them of most gross partiality to have passed Sentence in their favour But in all things that had but the least shadow of Justice or of seeming equity and reasonableness in it they were sure to carry it and this was acted in pursuance to one of Tyrconnel's Instructions from Court which was That the Judges should be directed in their Circuits to undermine and enervate the Protestant Interest which indeed they did so effectually that no English-man could either get in Rents or be secure of what they had formerly received For there being a Statute in Ireland which we have not in our English Laws for Trials by Civil Bills as they call them which in the nature of Chancery is such an Arbitrary way of proceeding as gives the Judges of the Kingdom opportunities which too many of them it 's said have made ill use of By this Arbitrary Method of proceeding the Irish had now hit upon an expeditious way whereby to ruine the English For 't was no more but with a Twelvepenny Process flung at any Man's Door and a false Affidavit made which the Irish can as easily digest as the most common Action they do and so an Execution was obtained directed to an Irish Sheriff for a pretended Debt of Twenty Years standing it being very common for an Irish Tenant to sue and bring a Fellow to swear that in such a Year his Landlord distrained Cattle of Twenty or Thirty Pounds value and had them appraised at the half proportion of what they were worth This was sufficient to obtain an Execution for the relief of the poor distressed Catholicks a practice become as universal against as destructive to the English insomuch that in the North of Ireland there was not one man in five of the ordinary British that were not ruined and had they continued these Courses but few Years longer together with their exorbitant Proceedings against the English in their Mannor Sheriffs and the like Inferiour Courts where such barbarous Injustices and publick Oppressions and Violences were acted as never till then were heard of among Christians these without other means might have wholly reduced the Kingdom into Irish hands For as by their Civil Bills at the Assizes and by their notorious Perjuries in the Inferiour Courts they destroyed the smaller men so by Ejectments in the higher Courts they took away mens Estates in Fee It being observed That never one Cause came before them upon a Trial for Land but the Judgment was constantly given in favour of the Irish Complaints were continually made at Court of these irregular Proceedings and Writs of Errour were brought from England but generally the same Judgments were confirmed in this Kingdom the Judges here being most of the same Stamp Sheridon about this time began to be discovered year 1687 by Tyrconnel to sell places of all sorts both Ecclesiastical Civil and Military He was not only Principal Secretary of State but also one of the Commissioners of the Customs So that whenever he met with a conveniency of making an advantagious bargain for a place in the Custome-house he would pretend to the Commissioners That 't was my Lord Deputy's Request to have such a Person employed This by degrees increased so much upon the Commissioners that Dickison one of the Commissioners writ over to the Lords of the Treasury that they were so burthened and oppressed with Irish Officers recommended by the Lord Deputy that he was afraid that the Revenue would be lost by ill management Upon this my Lord Deputy was ordered not to recommend a man nor any ways to intermeddle in the Revenue The Commissioners also issued forth their Orders posted up at the Custom-house Door That all Persons who had Petitioned for Employments in the Customs or Revenue should return to their respective Abodes for that there would be no Employments disposed of This Bustle created various Disputes betwixt Tyrconnel and Sheridon and from this time forward Sheridon contrived to undermine Tyrconnel His first Stratagem was to prepossess the Romish Clergy against him which to accomplish he contracts an intimate Acquaintance with Tyrconnel's Chaplain that most frequently officiated This Fellow picks up what he could of Tyrconnel's contempt of the Mass and Prayers One particular Charge was That when the Army was in the Camp at the Currah of Kildare Tyrconnel being at play in his Tent the Priest came to him to know if his Excellency would go to Mass
who replyed No he would send naming some body by him to stand in his place and that would do as well Of this Sheridon being a Bigotted Zealot gives an account to Father Petres whose Niece Sheridon had Married by which means he obtained an interest and freedom with the Jesuit and not with him only but with all the Irish Clergy especially with the Titular Primate of Armagh who being an Vlster man as Sheridon was had no kindness for Tyrconnel who was of the Pale a sort of old English degenerated into Irish but had in no esteem by the Natives of the Province of Vlster The aforesaid Titular Primate then contracted an intimate Familiarity and Acquaintance with his Cousin Sheridon as he called him and they with the before-mentioned Priest formed Articles against Tyrconnel which having compleated and Sheridon disposed of his Affairs prays leave of the Lord Deputy to go for England pretending some private business of his own to dispatch there But Tyrconnel being jealous that he designed some prejudice to himself would not give him permission to go upon which Sheridon writes to a Cousin of his to London to take out a Licence from the King which Father Peters look'd upon as strange and sent him word back That the King would enquire the reason why he had it not from the Lord Deputy This could not be transacted with that secrecy at Court but that Tyrconnel had some intelligence of it which exigency drove him to have recourse to his two Grand Counsellors at a dead lift Rice and Neagle who advised him to take no notice nor shew any outward Symptoms of discontent against Sheridon but rather attend some opportunity whereby to intangle him in a snare which soon offered it being fatile baculum invenire c. no difficult matter to find out Treachery and Perfidiousness enough in an Irish-man whereof to accuse him They observed that the Lord Deputy's Domestick Chaplain was intimately conversant with Sheridon and another Priest that was or called himself Cousin to him To countermine these Intriegues the Lord Deputy appoints a third Priest a Confident of his own to fall into an intimate familiarity with his Brethren who seemed inclined to unite his endeavours with theirs if they had any intentions of impeaching Tyrconnel The Priest managed this Affair with so much skill and dexterity verifying the vulgar saying of Setting a Thief to catch a Thief that he soon wound himself into a strict League of Amity with them and so seemingly interessed in all their Affairs that they no longer questioned his espousing their Party and to delude them the more artificially pretended to find out new matter of accusation against Tyrconnel which he did so effectually that against the Post-day he brought his Charge against the Lord Deputy in writing under his own hand which Sheridon in his sight sealed up with a great many more in a Pacquet and directed it to his Cousin in London This being done the Priest takes leave of Sheridon and gives notice immediately to Rice the chief Baron who doubted not to trapan him upon this favourable occasion Sheridon as usually makes up the Lord Deputy's Pacquets sending all to the Post with instructions for the Pacquet immediately to go to Sea. Rice and Neagle remained in the Lord Deputy's Closet and at twelve of the Clock at Night a Messenger was sent on Board the Pacquet-Boat to fetch off the Male which being opened Sheridon's Pacquet was taken out directed to his Cousin which discovered the whole Intriegue and among the rest the Irish Primate's concern in the design Sheridon's Pacquet was sealed up and put into the Male except one Letter which was taken out directed to a certain person in London full of vehement Exclamations against the Lord Deputy and giving an account of many of his Articles which he designed to impeach him of Rice and Neagle advised the Lord Deputy to write to the Lord Sunderland which he accordingly did setting forth Sheridon's Briberies and other Sinister Practices not taking any notice of Sheridon's contrivance against himself All this was done when Sheridon was asleep and not suspicious of any design against him which the better to disguise Tyrconnel still carried himself to him with the same unconcernedness as formerly At this time happened the death of the Bishop of Clogher in order to which Commissioners were appointed for setting and disposing of the Revenue of that Bishoprick 'T was adjacent to Sheridon's Countrey who had abundance of Cousins especially upon such an occasion as this some of which he endeavoured to prefer in that Employment thereby hoping to have fished out something for himself but the Lord Chief Baron was now though he knew it not become his formidable opposite and there was one of the Commissioners of the Customs Dickison by name that was a person as well of great experience as of integrity and honesty who kept a vigilant eye upon Sheridon for though he had a great hand over and much influenced the rest of the Commissioners yet could he never prevail upon Dickison Now arrives the return of his Pacquet to his Cousin in London but with no good account of his Affairs The reason of which ill success was Sunderland's acquainting Father Peters with the complaints that were made against him by the Lord Deputy and thereupon shewed him his Letter from Tyrconnel That Letter which was taken out of the Pacquet in Dublin was not missed by Sheridon's Cousin in London who only writ back to him That he had delivered his several Letters as directed and no more 'T was now time for the Lord Deputy to break publickly with Sheridon and in order to it sends for him into his Closet there being present with him the Earl of Lymerick the Lord Chief Justice Nugent the Lord Chief Baron Rice Judge Daly and some others The Lord Deputy demanded of Sheridon Whether or no he had written any thing against him to London Sheridon who wanted not Confidence or rather Impudence with which his Countreymen do universally abound to an immense proportion and degree answered That he had not but that he had heard that his Excellency had writ against him which so enraged the Lord Deputy who is a great Furioso and can prescribe no limits to his Passion that he could not contain from calling him Traytour Cheat Rogue c. and pulling out Sheridon's Letter asked him if that was not his hand which for the present put him into great disorder and confusion but after some recollection he assumed to justifie himself and to enter into a Capitulation with the Lord Deputy at which Tyrconnel rose in excess of fury to kick him so he was turned out Tyrconnel and his Party were in long consideration how to proceed in this nice Conjuncture of Affairs They dreaded not Sheridon's interest or Impeachments so much as this opportunity of awakening his Excellency's Enemies at Court After various Debates 't was at last resolved That Daly should take Sheridon to Task
with Child of a Son. This they were so certain of that they would lay you Twenty Guineas to one or any other Wager in proportion to that from the highest to the lowest amongst them This confidence was much wondered at by the English and judged to be very unreasonable if not built upon some private Grounds and Inducements which I leave the Reader to guess at which some amongst them were certainly acquainted with whose Discourses among the rest created in them a belief of some extraordinary design then in agitation Otherwise they would never have been so forward in proposing such extravagant Wagers which when the English enquir'd the reason of they attributed their great assurance to the Prayers of their Infallible Church which were daily offered to God upon this account and would undoubtedly meet with a suitable return But it appeared plain enough that though this was generally ascribed as the true cause of their great confidence yet that they had other Latent Reasons which were not fit to be discovered But to leave this and proceed to other Matters year 1688 The Judges of Assize even Daly that was the justest man amongst them and who in the first Circuit he went did good service in hanging of his Countreymen did now this Summer-Circuit favour all Criminals and having Sheriffs of their own packed such Juries as neither Murther nor Felony if committed upon Protestants was adjudg'd to be a Crime and where Matters were so apparent that they could not possibly but find them the utmost extremity us'd was Burning in the Hand 'T was said that the Lord Deputy had particular Commands from King James in this matter for these Reasons First They Hanged none but Catholicks For 't is scarce known in an Age which bespeaks the great honesty and integrity of the ordinary sort of Protestants that any English-man turns a Tory or is guilty of Theft In the second place 't was thought the best way to destroy the Protestants and 't was observ'd that none were rob'd but Incorrigible English Fanaticks as they called them and those were deemed to be such that were so inflexible to all their blandishing arts of perswasion and alluring enticements as there remained no hopes of their Conversion Whereas in all parts of Ireland there were too too many Laodicean and Temporising Protestants who being related to the old stock of the Kingdom could easily shelter themselves under the covert and protection of the Irish Gentry and Grandees and these luke-warm Indifferents were those which the English were most afraid of The Judges pursued their Instructions to the utmost and now that notorious principle which the Church of Rome is ashamed to own but daily practises That no Faith is to be kept with and give me leave to add nor justice given to Hereticks was signally demonstrated at this juncture For now tho' both Laity and Clergy lay every day more and more under additional grievances yet 't was apparent that there was no hopes of any redress The Laity had not only great arrears of Rent due to them but still more and more old pretences were reviv'd by the Irish of Debts due to them ten or twenty years ago which they now sued for as pretending that they could have no justice in the Protestant Government which was the reason they had retarded prosecuting so long in order to which they wanted not Knights of the Post who for the value of Six-pence in drink would make as many false Affidavits against the English as they pleased The Clergy made their complaint to the Judges the year before as I have hinted to you already as to the obstinacy of the Countrey in the non payment of their small dues and receiv'd no redress but now the evils were grown upon them to an higher pitch The Priests were now become so confident in their hopes of establishing Popery that they could no longer contain from shewing their inveterate malice against the Protestant Clergy against whom they endeavour'd to prepossess their people at Mass over whom they have an unlimitted and Arbitrary power with all imaginable prejudice and contempt The Priests now suggested to them that by the same reason that they detained the lesser from they might also refuse the paying the greater Tyths to the Ministers as Corn Hay c. They told them that they saw by their own experience they had been discouraged in their pursuit after the first and after all their endeavours could get no redress and now that the Catholicks had liberty of their Religion they saw not why they should not deny them the last For the Law would not give these to them more than the former Of right they told them that all the Tythes belonged to them as their proper due and tho' by the oppression and injustice of the Protestant Government they had been kept out of them so long to their apparent prejudice and disadvantage yet now things were in another posture They had now a Catholick King and Catholick Magistrates of their own who would not take their dues from them but rather invest them in them and therefore charged the people under pain of Excommunication and the severest Anathemas not to pay any manner of Tythes to the Protestant Ministers The vulgar Irish were so much over-awed with these arts of terrour from their Priests whose Sentence in any thing they reverence with an equal fear and alike profound veneration as if pronounced by the Pope in the Infallible Chair that none would come to the Protestant Clergy to take Tythes of them unless these dreadful Imprecations which if incurr'd they believ'd themselves to be certainly damn'd were taken off By this means the great Tythes were like to lie upon the Ministers hands a great inconveniency in most parts of Ireland where their Parishes being of a vast circumference and full of Bogs and Mountainous places 't would be difficult if not impossible almost to gather their Tythes in kind at least without having one half of them embezel'd and stole by the Irish This puts the Clergy upon a necessity either of setting out their Tythes in small proportions or else they must lose them and in those Countrys where the Irish are most numerous the vulgar sort were wont to take the Tythe which the Priests now prohibiting under the aforesaid Penalties would as they were sensible be an unspeakable loss and mischief to the Ministers for the reasons already mentioned which was what they studiously aim'd at and were desirous to improve as high as they could These malicious practices of the Priests put the Protestant Clergy to great inconveniencies in the disposal of their Tyths especially in such Countrys where the Irish were most numerous Most were forced to descend to an accommodation with the Priests bestowing a considerable proportion of Tythes upon themselves which was what they drove at to suffer the ordinary Irish to come and buy the rest Some that would not be abus'd at that rate made their Applications