them There may be several particular methods proposed for weakning that Interest and incapacitating them of being any further troublesome to England such as Banishing their Priests and Fryars taking care to have their Children or the greater part of them educated in the Principles of the Protestant Religion as the French do to have those of the Protestants in their Country brought up to Popery The prohibiting of Papists by Law to purchase any Lands or Freeholds in that Kingdom and so forth But if the Government of England would think convenient to have Parliaments more frequently call'd in Ireland than they usually have been especially in the Reign of King Charles II. who never called one from the time of the Settlement of that Country to the day of his Death which without dispute gave the Irish Papists great opportunities of growing upon us and being in a Condition of giving England such vigorous Opposition as they did in the late War whether his design in that omission was to give that People those opportunities or no I shall not determine but am confident that if Parliaments were frequently call'd there and the management of Affairs were in some measure left to their discretion there would be such prudent and effectual courses taken for suppressing the Natives of that Country as would for ever prevent their being mischievous or uneasie to England and 't is certain that there is nothing which the considering and cunning Men among them do dread more but have had in all former Reigns the Interest in the English Court to prevent it By this means of frequent Parliaments and allowing the freedom of Trade in some measure to the English of that Country it would in a few Years appear that Ireland is of greater advantage to the English than any thing they ever added to their Dominions of which the Kings of England would be very sensible by the vast Revenues that would accrue to them and this without prejudice to the Trade of England whose Commodities out-sell those of Ireland in all Foreign Markets and considering that the Traders of Ireland lie already under such Restrictions that 't is impossible they should ever injure England either in relation to its Manufactures at home or its Commerce abroad tho' there are some of that unsatiable Temper that they think whatever the poor English of Ireland do gain by their Industry and the blessing of God upon their Endeavours to be just so much lost out of their own Treasures Having said something of the Irish Natives in general I come now to their Commerce and manner of living and how far such a Law if enacted will affect them Tho' it is not to be doubted but that many more of the Ingenious sort of them are fallen into Trade in imitation of the English yet they are no farther concern'd in the Woollen Manufactures than in buying from the Protestant Tradesmen some small quantities of them for their own use and some perhaps to Transport by way of Merchandize into other Countries Nor are the Gentry or the better sort of them much addicted to the keeping of Flocks or raising Sheep for such of them as are possessed of any considerable quantities of Land especially if they be ancient Families think themselves above any business of that kind or at least never mind it but live after a careless and prodigal way pleasing themselves with a great company of Followers Servants and Tenants the last of which are in the nature of Villains to them and so that they have but a sufficient number of Sheep for their own use do not much care nor indeed understand how to propagate them Sometimes where their Women are extrordinary Housewives which is rare among 'em they make Frize and ordinary Linnen for the use of their Families this is all the Manufacture they are concern'd in and indeed is scarce worth mentioning But lest it should be imagined that the Generality of the Irish may be further concern'd in the Manufacture of that Kingdom 't will not be amiss to give an Account of their Commerce and manner of Living and there are two Degrees of them the first is a kind of People that call themselves Gentlemen and Old Proprietors and hope at one time or other to be restored to their ancient Estates and the Number of this kind of Men is very considerable for in the late War when they were by virtue of the Act of Repeal restored to their diminutive Estates there were many of them that could not claim above 12 some not above 10 and other 6 Acres of Land 50 or 60 Acres were large Fortunes among them for it was a Custom among most of the ancient Irish to make an equal dividend of whatever Lands they purchased among all their Sons which is the true reason that there are so many of those People in that Country and which next to their Priests and Fryars are the Persons that of the whole Irish Nation are most dangerous and vexatious to the English for they think themselves injured Persons being as they say unjustly dispossessed of their Estates those small Proprietors being excluded by the Act of Settlement passed in that Kingdom after the Wars of 41. They are generally careful to procure some kind of Learning for their Children whose Accomplishments are chiefly the speaking of Latin Writing tolerably well and Playing on the Harp they think themselves too much Gentlemen to put their Sons to Trades or breed them up to any thing that is Laborious which is what they never betake themselves to but sometimes walk about with their Snush-horns enquiring for News heretofore concerning the French King and his Successes against the Confederates but now I suppose their Enquiries will be concerning the Prince of Wales what kind of Spark he is like to prove and whether they may expect ever by his means to be restored to their Estates at other times they smoak Tobacco by their Fire sides or if the Weather be warm Sleep or Lowze themselves under the Hedges and spend the rest of their time after some lazy and fruitless manner but they are always in a readiness upon the least Commotion to joyn the Enemies of England and by the assistance of their Clergy do compel the poor ignorant Common-People to follow them to all the Mischiefs imaginable giving themselves the Titles of Colonels Captains and what other Officers they think convenient according to the Numbers they can assemble But it will now be convenient to give some short account of those other poor common Irish their Commerce and manner of Living They are a People of so tame and cowardly a Disposition that were they not actuated by their Gentry and Clergy and they were in never so great a Tumult did the English but appear to them with their Cudgels and Scourges only they would undoubtedly betake themselves to their several Labours and Employments which being considered it will appear how far they are concern'd in the Woollen Manufactures
which time Seventeen Kings and Two Queens governed successively in England for which Reasons they conclude that it must of necessity have cost the English Nation vast Numbers of Men and great Sums of Money to keep their Ground which they gained there from time to time and at length to bring that whole Kingdom under subjection to the Crown of England And running away with this as an undoubted Maxim and Truth they conclude That it had been much better for England that God had left Ireland out of the Book of the Creation or placed it in some distant Corner of the World But this Conclusion will fail of course when I shew the mistake of the foregoing Opinion which will be the easiest thing imaginable to do if they will allow their own Chronicles and the Writings of their most Authentic English Historians to be the Rule of our Belief concerning the manner and means of Ireland's being Conquered by England For which end I here intended to have inserted a brief Abstract of English History so far as it relates to Ireland from the Reign of King Henry II. to the Conclusion of the late War but I find this in a great measure done to my hand by one Mr. W. H. in his Book entitled Remarks on the Affairs and Trade of England and Ireland printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1691. to which I refer such as think it worth their while to be satisfied more at large And therefore I shall only desire those who think Ireland to have cost England so dear to consult the Histories which are written concerning that Kingdom by their own Authors and they will find that the first Number of Men sent over by Strongbow Earl of Chepstow and Pembroke under the Command of Fitz-Stephens and Fitz-Gerrald was but 400. which were followed soon after by Legross with 130. and in three Months after by Strongbow himself with 1200. more being in August 1170. the whole three Numbers amounting but to 1730. which was the Complement of the Army that by the Assistance of Mac Murragh King of Leinster and his Friends did not only recover that King's Dominions in Leinster but very much enlarge them and in effect made the Kings of England Lords of Ireland and all this was done at the private Expence of Strongbow and his Friends as the remaining Provinces of that Kingdom were most if not all of them subjected to the Crown of England at the Expence of particular Persons who notwithstanding were well rewarded for their Services by the grants of those vast Estates which were given them by the Kings of England and which many of their Successors enjoy to this Day 'T is true that King Henry III. in the Year 1172. landed there in Person with a Party which some say consisted of 4500. but others only of 500 Knights but had no occasion to make use of them for upon his arrival the Natives of the three Provinces of Leinster Munster and Connaught were so terrified that five of their Kings became tributary to him by which means he did not only cut off the Communication which France held with Ireland theretofore from whence they had considerable Succours whenever the English waged War against them but he had himself in four Years after a very considerable Subsidy out of that Kingdom His Successors also had frequently great Aids of Men Money and Provisions from thence which were great Assistances to the English in their several Wars against the French Scotch and Welch all which is owned by the most Authentic English Historians that have written upon this Subject And 't is certain that they make it plainly appear that the People of England from their first entrance into Ireland for 400 Years which reached to the middle of Queen Elizabeth's Reign were considerable gainers by that Kingdom and that there were greater Numbers of Men and more Money and Provisions sent from thence into England France c. in the several Kings Reigns that govern'd during those Years who were generally involved either in Civil Wars in the Heart of England or in Foreign Wars against the French Scotch or Welch than were sent out of England all that time towards the Reduction or Conquest of Ireland For tho' there were frequent Rebellions raised in Ireland before the Reign of Queen Elizabeth yet they were generally quash'd by the English of that Country and such of the Irish as adheâ—ed to them with very little Cost to England till that grand Rebellion which was raised by Tyrone and others who were set on and encouraged by the Pope who by his publick Bull excommunicated Queen Elizabeth and the Kingdom of England and were assisted with Men and Money by the Spaniard For till the Pope's Supremacy was invaded and Religion reformed most of the Irish except the Grandees of them that lost their Estates by Conquest at first or by Rebellion after they had submitted to the Crown of England with their particular Friends and Adherents most of the rest I say were well enough satisfied with the English Government under which they lived much more securely and happily than they did under their own Petty Kings who were daily Killing and Robbing and using all manner of Acts of Hostility towards each other But the Pope being disobliged the Quarrel ceased to be as formerly between English and Irish on account of Civil Interest and was taken up between Protestant and Papist on account of Religion for the English Papists joyned with the Irish as did some Irish Protestants with the English on the other hand and the Papists of both kinds became Enemies to the Crown of England by the instigation of their Priests and Friars as we must expect they will ever remain while those Incendiaries are suffered to continue amongst them And the Truth of the Matter is that the antient Irish being a poor dispirited and cowardly People that is the generality of them they would in all probability run with as much dread from the English as the Spartan Slaves did from their Masters to their several Imployments when they appeared with no Arms but Whips in their Hands were they not assisted and managed by the degenerate English Papists who are the most desperate and troublesome Enemies the Protestants have in that Nation For the Proof of which we need not look further back than the late Rebellion for the Chief among the very first that began about Christmas 1688. to drive away the Protestants Cattel in the Counties of Mayo and Galway in the Province of Connaught where the Rappareeing Trade began were of antient degenerate English Families such as the Jordans Stanfords Joyces Garvys and several others whose Predecessors were antiently transplanted thither from England And as for the Army which was raised there for the late King James it could never have been brought to be any way considerable had none joyned in it but the antient Irish We know that Tyrconnel and Sarsfield
who were the Two principal Commanders among them were both of English Families And 't is remarkable that most of those Families that were the chief Instruments in the Conquest of Ireland are this Day or at least were in the late War the most dangerous and perverse Enemies the English met with in that Kingdom and particularly the Burks or de Burgo's the Chief of which Name was so eminently serviceable in the Conquest of the Irish that the Estate which was granted him in consideration of that Service was thought sufficient to recommend an Heiress of that Family Elizabeth de Burgo to Lionel Duke of Clarence third Son to Edward III. King of England the yearly Rent thereof even in those Days being computed at 30000 Marks But in the late War that Family has been so far from being serviceable to England that I knew my self four Lords of the Name who were Colonels of Regiments by which we may imagine what a Number of this Family was in all other Posts in the Irish Army The Principal of those Lords Clanrickard a half-witted hot headed Zealot being to satisfy his foolish Ambition of being thought great made a kind of a Sham-Governour of the Town of Galway would have in one Day by the Advice of some of the malicious Inhabitants of that place sacrificed to his Rage and Folly the Lives of Sir Thomas Southwel and all his Party being between Two and Three Hundred Protestant Gentlemen which he certainly had done had he not been prevented by others who had the Sense to consider that they might very probably be called in a little time to a severe Account for so horrid and barbarous a Murder Another by his Title Galmoy was Colonel of Horse and spared no Protestant with whom he could find any manner of pretence to pick a Quarrel he was the first that I heard of who drew blood in the late War having hanged up Carleton and Dixy at a Sign Post in Belturbot without any manner of Tryal either by Martial or Common Law after which the Rabble cut off their Heads and kicked them through the Street as Foot-balls He also occasioned several other Gentlemen in the Queens County after they had made Terms for their Lives to be hanged and quartered at Maraburrough for which Reasons he has thought fit to Transport himself to France where he still remains The other two Lords of that Family were one of them taken Prisoner and the other kill'd at Aghrim Hugh Lacy was also one of those that in the Reign of Henry II. at his own expence Conquered the Kingdom of Meath which is a considerable part of Ireland And his Successors are most if not all of them bigotted Papists one of them I knew in the Year 1687. to be principal of the Dominican Fryars in the City of Limerick his Father had been a Colonel in the Rebellion of 1641. and was one that bore a great Sway in that Country at that time and tho' I do not know what Imployments the rest of that Family had yet I do not doubt but they were to the utmost of their power active and vigorous in carring on the late War And I may justly give the same Account of the Fitz-Stephens and a great many of the Fitz-Gerralds whose Ancestors Commanded the first Forces that Strongbow sent into Ireland tho' the chief of the latter be a Protestant and the first Earl of Ireland There are also several of the ancientest English Families who continue Papists and have undoubtedly been as deeply engaged in the War as their Neighbours But besides these particular Families there are in one part of that Kingdom a whole Generation of People called the Natives or the Birth of Galway as they style themselves who were reckoned before the late War to have been worth 30000 l. per annum in Lands in the Province of Connaught beside their Trade or Merchandize by which they purchased their Estates They consist of 14 Families which they call Tribes such as Lynch French Blake Kirwan Dean Skerret Bodkin Morris Athy c. the generality of which are so far from owning themselves to be Irish men that they care not for intermarrying nor to have any dealings with the ancient Irish more than the purchasing their Lands or receiving their ready Money for Wines and other Merchandize They were at first a Colony of Fisher-men and when they began to Trade to Sea and grew great and rich by that means were frequently molested and Plundered by the old Irish so that they were constrain'd to make their Application to King Edward VI. from whom they obtained a Charter with great Privileges and Immunities by which they were enabled yearly to choose their own Clergy-men in opposition to the Irish Arch Bishop of Tuam and were in short put thereby in a posture of defending themselves contrà gentem quandam feram barbaram Offlaherty which are the words of their Charter This Town in the Rebellion of 41. was one of the last in that Kingdom that surrendred to the Earl of Munrath upon very advantageous Articles as it did this last War to General Gynckhel In the Year 1688. the Mayor of that Town one Brown by name had a Commission for a Regiment sent him by Tyrconnel which was accordingly raised there and in the Neighbourhood There were also a great many of the Natives of that Town who were Field-Officers Captains and Subalterns in other Regiments in that Kingdom Now there is no doubt to be made but those Papist of English Extraction in conjunction with the Old Irish have been very injurious to the People of England and have put them to a vast Expence both of Men and Money as well in this late War as in that of Tyrone in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and that horrid Rebellion of Forty One in which according to the best Accounts we have above 200000 Protestants of all Sexes and Ages were barbarously murdered in cold Blood but this will not be sufficient to prove that the English have been loosers by Ireland and that it were better for them there were no such Country in the World For let us but consider the State of that Nation in the Reign of King Charles II. and the yearly Benefit which 't is apparent to the World England made of it and we shall find it demonstrable that 't is a mere vulgar Error either to think or say so For it is plain Matter of Fact that in the latter end of that King's Reign and the two or three first Years of the late King James's that they received Forty Thousand Pounds per annum which was or might have been transmitted to them into England out of the Revenues of Ireland and remained clear to them over and above the Charge of the whole Establishment of that Kingdom that is both of the Military and Civil List which amounted to 243663 l. Sterl to this we may add above 10000 l. a Year paid out of that Revenue in Pensions to
them and if I demonstrate that the English Party are like to be the only sufferers thereby I hope I shall gain my Point and that the Wisdom of England will not think convenient to do any thing that may be ruinous or prejudicial to that Interest First I shall begin with the Irish Papists as they consist of Popish English Families as well as of the ancient Natives of that Kingdom in which sense I desire to be understood all along when I mention the Irish I have already hinted how vexatious and troublesom they have been to England ever since the Reformation of Religion how vigorously they have at several times endeavour'd to cast off the English Yoak and how Bloody their Rebellions and Massacres have been And 't is certain that all such of them as have been dispossessed of their Estates especially since the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign were turn'd out of them by reason of their constant opposition to and uneasiness under the English Government with which 't is apparent they have believ'd their Interest to be wholly inconsistent or it cannot be imagined they would have made so many violent Efforts to extricate themselves from it I need not therefore give my self or those to whose hands these Papers shall come any further trouble by producing Arguments to prove the Dependance and Hopes of the Irish Papists to be very opposite to those of the English of that Country for if their Interests be so this must of course be allow'd And this they have in the late War evidently demonstrated to the World For when the Emperor the King of Spain and most of the other Roman Catholick Princes of Europe were in League with his Majesty of Great-Britain the Pope himself being rather a Friend than an Enemy and such of those Princes as did not assist us against France were all Neuters the Irish only with some small assistance from France maintain'd a brisk and vigorous War against us and did indeed make a stronger opposition to the Arms of England than we might imagine it were possible for them to do if we consider either the Condition in which they are now being unhorsed and disarm'd of all manner of Weapons of War or the Circumstances in which they were in any time since the Restoration of King Charles II. till the last part of his Reign when by the great Encouragements they had by the D. of York's means from the Court of England they began to seem formidable to the Protestants of Ireland So that I think I have made it evident that as they believe the Extirpation of the English out of that Country would be their greatest Interest and Advantage so they have chiefly depended upon the French and by them expected the accomplishment of that great Design Not that I will say that they have naturally a greater Affection for the French than any other Nation but because they have for some Years esteem'd the French King to be the most powerful and the most Ambitious Monarch of Europe of the Romish perswasion and consequently the most likely to attempt the Expulsion of the British out of that Country and as they fondly imagined to restore them to their pretended ancient Estates and Liberties which is the same reason that induced them to be so fond of the Spaniard in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth And notwithstanding that there have been all along the War considerable Numbers of those Irish Papists in the French service many of which remain there this very day and the Ruins of Demolished Towns and Fortresses in Ireland and the vast heaps of the Bones of Slaughtered Men which are to be seen in many parts of that Kingdom are but too Fresh and Sensible Monuments of their Villanies and cannot when we see them but make us Reflect upon their Behaviour towards us and remember how few years have passed since they were by downright Dint of Sword beaten into good Manners I say notwithstanding all these things I have been very well assured that long before the Conclusion of the Peace they have made application to the Emperor K. of Spain and other Roman Catholick Princes that they might Intercede for them to the K. of England as being poor Persecuted Catholicks because they are not left in a Posture of running into another Rebellion and Cutting of Throats at pleasure And to my certain knowledge they had September last their Agents or Plenipotentiaries as some stile them in Flanders and have the confidence to tell us that they were never so happy as under an English Government and that our present King has been gracious to them beyond expectation and so far they are in the right and speak Truth whether they believe it or no but they do also endeavour to make us believe that most of any Note among them having taken the Oath of Fidelity they are now true Friends to King William and the English Interest of Ireland and we know very well that Oaths have been ever such Sacred Tyes as they could not break through but have observ'd them as invfoiably as a certain Friend of theirs who was always Fam'd for being nicely just to his word did perform his repeated Oaths and Promises of Preserving the Church of England and Governing these Kingdoms according to the Laws then Established c. But to lay any stress upon their asseverations to this purpose is so grand a contradiction to Common Sense and Experience that reason can never admit it nor Mankind be so far Imposed upon as that they should expect the performance of any thing of this kind from them 't is altogether as reasonable to imagine that those Creatures which are called Tame Wolves when let loofe will abstain from their Prey and not fall upon the Flocks and Herds nor Foxes upon the Poultry t is as reasonable I say to believe this as that Irish Men in power will preserve and not endeavour to extirpate the Protestant Race out of that Country and for my part I shall scarce ever be convinced but that the Character is very applicable to them which Hippolitus gives his Hunts man of the Spartan Dogs Spartanos Genus est audax avidumque serae Nodo cautus propiore liga which according to my Interpretation is as follows That 't is a Turbulent ungovernable Generation greedy of Blood and never in good order but when tied up or close coupled If these be the People which the Parliament of England propose to keep in low circumstances they are very much in the right for that Generation never becomes Rich or Powerful but they grow Troublesome and Uneasie and are ready to joyn with any Popish Prince that will assist them against the English Nation who can never be too jealous or careful to prevent their being in a condition to repeat those Villanies which they have so often and so lately acted against the Protestants of that Kingdom and consequently of putting England to any further Charge or Trouble in the Reduction of
People of England whose Interests they esteem to be the same with their own and consequently they depend upon them as their constant Friends to whom they are to apply in all Emergencies as the Irish have done of late Years upon the French and the Scotch of Ireland upon their Friends in Scotland A sufficient Demonstration hereof we have had in the beginning of the late Revolution when there was scarce any one of the English of Ireland that fled hither for refuge till the Tyranny at home was over-past but could point to the Rock from whence he was hewn give an account of the Family from whence he or his Ancestors sprang and claim as Mr. Phillips observes in his Book call'd The Interest of England in the Preservation of Ireland a Father Brother or near Kinsman And accordingly we had not only a Charitable but a Generous Provision made for us each of us being enabled to live in some proportion to his Degree and Quality in his own Country till by their Treasure and their Blood mixed with ours they settled us again on our ancient Foundations restor'd us to our Religion Estates and Liberties and gave us our Judges as at the First and our Counsellors as at the beginning Which inestimable Blessings we received with Joy and Satisfaction with all imaginable Gratitude to God and the great Instruments by which he perfected our Liberty to the King and People of England for whom we are ready as one Man to hazard those Lives and Fortunes which it so lately cost them dear to secure to us For tho' I have had the opportunity of being acquainted with or at least knowing by their Character most of the considerable English Protestants of that Kingdom yet I have not heard of twenty Jacobites among them all and these too have learn'd to be so in England and if I mistake not do live here for the most part which they may do with greater ease and freedom than in Ireland where the very Papists dare not own themselves to be otherwise than Friends to King William and his Government For we have so lately experimented the Consequences of a Popish Government having smarted under those Evils which only threatned England or which we thank God were remov'd as soon as they began that we think it as unreasonable that one who resolves to live a Protestant should desire that a Popish Prince might Rule over him as that a Man should imploy a Wolf for his Shepherd or an Eagle to protect and secure a Dove-house But the World sure has had sufficient proofs that it is next to a meer Contradiction that the Protestant Religion should be cherished under the Wings of Popery Indeed should I see that come to pass I should think the Prophecy fulfilled one way which I never heard it applied before That the Lion should lie down with the Lamb and the sucking Child play on the hole of the Asp But we are so well convinced of the Incompatibleness of our Religion and Popery that in the whole House of Commons in Ireland when the Association was to be Signed there was but one Man or two at the most that so much as bogled at it and they too in spight of their squeamishness were obliged to do it under the penalty of being shamefully expell'd that Honourable Assembly And by this Rule we may judge of the whole Body of the English of that Nation And I would to God that all that call themselves Protestants and English Men were so firmly united in their Interests and Affections so sensible of the great and mighty Deliverance which has been wrought for them when they were at the very brink of Destruction and ready to be tumbled into an Abyss of Misery as the English of Ireland are there would be very few or no disaffected Persons in these Nations that should even wish evil to the present Government except the Papists whom notwithstanding the specious pretences they may make to us we must never depend upon as true and hearty Friends Nor can I imagine how it can be expected the English of that Country should be of another Disposition than that of which our sufferings have taught us to be for we cannot but reflect on the condition in which we were in the latter end of the year 1687. and the beginning of 88. when every stanch Protestant in that Nation upon condition we could be sure of such a Deliverer as God sent soon after to these Kingdoms would undoubtedly have cried out One half of my Goods I give to the War as Zaccheus did of his to the Poor when he found the Messiah But this did not serve our turn in Ireland and consequently I presume none will deny our sufferings there to have been much greater than the People of England but for the further proof or illustration hereof let us frame a comparison between the personal or corporal sufferings of those which serv'd in the Army in that Kingdom and abroad elsewhere and the losses which the People of England and the English of Ireland sustain'd in their Estates and Fortunes And First There were a great many of the Army whose Distempers were so easie that they were cured by Phlebotomy and the ordinary Medicines which are used in common cases with these I rank those also whose wounds which they received in the War were so favourable that they were brought to digestion cleansed and heal'd up by gentle means and applications tho' both the one and the other did perhaps lose great part of their Blood and Strength for a time yet they made no great matter of it but thought themselves happy Men that they escaped so And as these Men suffered in their Persons or Bodies so we say comparatively the People of England I mean such as were not Members of the Army did in respect of their Estates and Fortunes their Purses bled frequently and freely and they paid incredible Sums of Money towards the carrying on of the War But yet they liv'd quietly in their own Country and Houses preserved generally their main Stock and followed their lawful Callings and Affairs which if the English of Ireland could have done it had this day been a happy and flourishing Kingdom tho' an Object far below either the Envy or Jealousie of England Secondly Another kind of Sufferers which we have seen in the Army during the War are such as have sat quietly and patiently while their Limbs were amputated and which is more dreadful many of them cauterized or seared with hot Irons and all in hopes of preserving their maim'd and imperfect Carcasses that they might have a Being in the World and be able to go or halt about their Occasions even this being more eligible than utter Dissolution To these Mens Condition we may liken that of some few of the Protestants of Ireland that is in relation to their Worldly Substance viz. The Tradesmen Taylors Shoemakers Hatters c. which continued in Dublin and other Corporations in
that Kingdom tho' the Irish used these poor Men like Slaves and gave them but what they pleased for their Commodities or their Labour yet they did not take all from them but left them something to live upon because they could not want them Thirdly I can compare the Circumstances of the generality of the English of that Kingdom the Nobility Clergy Gentry and Commonalty with respect to their Estates and Fortunes to none more aptly than to those great numbers of Men that lost their Lives by those malignant Distempers that for some time raged in the Army and fell in Battle by the hands of their Enemies For I need not tell the World that our Enemies were our Masters that they dispossessed us of our Churches Estates and Houses and burnt many of the latter to the ground destroy'd the Improvements that we and our Fathers had been making ever since the former Settlement almost through the whole Country and made us as poor and miserable as they could And tho' thanks be to God that poor Church was not totally destroy'd yet she was reduced to so languishing a Condition that she lay panting for Life and gasping and had she not been powerfully and timely relieved must very soon have expired And yet that Nation has granted his Majesty as in Duty and Gratitude they are bound large Supplies considering their mean Circumstances towards the payment of the Army without repining or murmuring among any Degree of the English of the Country from the highest to the lowest and will undoubtedly with all chearfulness imaginable be always ready to do the like according to their abilities and the urgency of his Majesty's Occasions But to return from this Digression I must further say That if all that call themselves English-men were so intirely United as those of Ireland England would not be troubled with one kind of People who because they thought themselves Favourites in the late Kings Reign must needs be Enemies to the present nor with another sort who are generally for any Government but that which is actually in being In short setting aside that very small number which I have already mentioned a Man may converse with the Protestants of that Kingdom with as little danger of falling into the Company of that unaccountable People call'd Jacobites as he is in when he walks through the Fields and Meadows thereof of treading upon Snakes or Adders or any other poisonous Vermin For of all the Clergy of that Establish'd Church of Ireland I have not heard of above three or four of any note that were thought worthy of any Preferment in the Church who either out of a principle of Conscience or in hopes of great Preferments upon a Revolution which I suppose may be now despair'd of refused to take the Oaths to his present Majesty Nor was there one Fellow of the University of Dublin that turn'd Tail in the late Revolution on any consideration whatever or refused the Oaths when they were tendered to them Nor indeed a private Graduat or inferiour Scholar except two or three Irish Lubbers that plaid the Hypocrite some Years for a little Bread and Learning they indeed appeared in their proper Colours but their Names are not worth the Dimensions they would take up in Paper And thus are both the Clergy of that Church and their Congregations unalterably stanch and firm to the Government of England both in Church and State as it is by Law established to continue for ever in the hands of Protestant Princes And yet these are the only People whom the afore mentioned Law if it should be enacted is like severely to affect for setting aside those Persons of the first Quality that are above any thing of Trade the English Gentlemen of Estates and the Farmers of the Lands of those Noblemen and others have been all along the only considerable Flock masters of that Kingdom some of them before the late War were owners of 18000 others of 15000 some of 10000 some of 5000 and others of less numbers of Sheep according to their abilities and the quantities of Land which they held And I appeal to any one Man of Reputation in England that knew Ireland in the Year 1688 whether this be not a great Truth and whether in the Provinces of Leinster and Munster and the other Parts of that Kingdom where the English Plantations lay were not all the considerable Sheep-walks in that Nation And at this day the English there are owners of the greatest numbers of that kind of Cattle for as soon as they were settled in their Estates and Farms after the late War they endeavoured to fall into the same Stock And whether they do not for the most part supply this Kingdom with those parcels of Wooll that come from thence the English Merchants may soon inform themselves by their Factors in that Country and I could name the most considerable of those Sheep-masters here or elsewhere were there occasion for it As for the vulgar English of Ireland they are the only Woollen Manufacturers the Clothiers Weavers Dyers Woosted-Combers Hatters and of all other Trades which belong to this Manufacture in and throughout the whole Kingdom I am very well assured that there are within the City and Suburbs of Dublin above 12000 English Families of this kind of Tradesmen of which there are computed to be above 50000 in that Nation who were bred to these Callings and whose Genius leads them this particular way and to disable them from following those Trades and oblige them to earn their Bread by falling to work about Linnen Manufacture as I have heard some Men propose since I came to London who in their own Opinion were of no small reach in Matters of Trade nor in the Politicks neither would be as hard and impracticable as 't would be to oblige all the Taylors in London to turn Shoemakers or the Ribbon-Weavers to turn Clothiers There has indeed since the late War an attempt been made to set up a Linnen Manufacture in or near Dublin and some of the greatest Men of the Kingdom were concern'd in it who to encourage it laid in considerable Sums of Money but as I heard from them that better understand the matter it fell very short of what the Undertakers proposed by it in the beginning for the Northern People supply that Country at cheaper Rates than the other could well afford it Tho' 't is very probable that if the Parliament of Ireland give due Encouragement to such as shall engage in the Linnen Manufactures as we hear they intend to do the growing set of young People as well the English as others may betake themselves thereto and consequently in some time the Wollen Manufacturers Trade in that Kingdom may in a great measure fall of it self but to impose it upon the present Generation is altogether impracticable and must prove ruinous to them But these are Matters of Fact and the Proof of them depends upon Testimony wherefore I shall
only say further that both the Irish and they have so lately that we cannot yet forget it given us evident Demonstrations how they would deal with us if we lay at their Mercy and this they did at the same time with this only difference that the latter did their Work more effectually than the others the Irish did theirs in the time of VVar and Tyranny and were themselves and their pretended Act of Parliament soon kick'd out of doors But the Scotch taking the advantge of a time when England was not at leisure to take notice of their Proceedings ruin'd the Church of Scotland by a Law which is like to prove but too firm and lasting which leads me Thirdly To a third Consequence and one that I think doth necessarily and evidently follow from what has been now said and that is that if the High Court of Parliament should pass such a Law as afore-mentioned and either the Irish or Scotch become Masters of Ireland the Church which is now established there must inevitably be ruined which indeed is the main Consideration that engaged me in this Undertaking I heard the Question proposed since I came to London What the Church had to do with Trade or how a Law concerning the Woollen Manufacture could affect it as if the whole Body of the People were not of the Church nor the Clergy Members of the Commonwealth but their Interests were different and did not stand upon the same Basis with the establish'd English Laws of that Kingdom And I think it might as well have been ask'd What it concern'd the Church of England if the grand Fleet had been burnt by the French in the late War or the Church of Spain if the Galleons had been taken by Monsieur Ponty But because it may not be thought a good way to answer one Question by proposing others I shall in few words give a direct answer to it I have already shewn how far this Statute must affect the Laity of the established Church of Ireland and shall now endeavour to shew how far the Ecclesiasticks or the Church strictly so called must be concern'd in this matter Tho' methinks 't is needless to tell the World that if the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of that or any other Nation be reduced to a low Ebb of Fortune the Clergy must by necessary consequence bear a part in the common Sufferings except that part of the World where the Church hath engrossed all to herself and made the Country poor and miserable and it is not long since we have by fatal Experience found this to be true in Ireland But for greater Evidence sake I shall endeavour to shew the Methods by which that Church was ruined to that Degree that the Clergy who lived in those Parts of the Country where the Irish principally inhabited had for two Years before the War little more than the Name of Livings for they must either have set their Tythes c. to the Irish at what Rates they thought fit to offer or they would pay little or none in kind for the most expeditious means which the Clergy of that Kingdom had or indeed have now for the recovery of their dues is a Statute passed in England in the Twenty Seventh of Henry VIII which mentions Ireland as well as England and ordains that if any Person being cited in a Decimary Cause to the Ecclesiastical Court refused to appear that then two Justices of the Peace whereof one to be of the Quorum shall upon the Receipt of a Certificate under the Seal of that Court signifying his Contumacy issue their Warrant against the Party so offending and if he refuse to enter sufficient Security that he will appear at a prefix'd time and pay what by the said Court shall be adjudged against him that then he shall be committed to safe Custody till he make Satisfaction which Law was commonly put in execution in several Diocesses of that Kingdom and met with no opposition while Protestant Judges sat on the Bench but they were no sooner thrust out and Popish Judges appointed but that Practice was declared illegal and that Statute to be of no force in Ireland and several Justices of the Peace discarded for having issued their Warrants pursuant thereto By another Statute which was made in Ireland in the Three and Thirtieth Year of Henry VIII it is enacted That if the Party summoned for Detention or Substraction of Tythes shall enter his appearance in the Ecclesiastical Court and Sentence shall pass there against him that then two Justices of the Peace qualified as aforesaid shall at the request of the said Court imprison the said Offender without Bail or Main-prize till he fulfil the Sentence so pronounced against him But the intent of this Law was in those days easily deseated for the Irish throughout the Kingdom were advised by their Lawyers to take no notice of any Citations issued out of the Ecclesiastical Courts So that the only Method which then remained of proceeding against Offenders of that kind was to prosecute them to Excommunication and to take Writs de Excommunicat capient out of the High Court of Chancery which by reason of the great Charge of those Writs is not to be done but upon extraordinary occasions and where the matter contested is considerable however to prevent even this Practice as well as to obstruct the common Course of Justice in all Cases where a Protestant was concern'd against a Papist the Lord Chancellor Sir Charles Porter who was a true Friend to the establish'd Church and the English Interest was displaced to make room for a profess'd malicious Papist who utterly refused the Clergy the Benefit of the Law in cases of that kind and left the Laity of what Communion soever to pay their Ministers what they thought convenient so that 't is plain that if either the Irish or Scotch have that one Minister of Justice on their side that shall be no Friend to the establish'd Church but shall discountenance the Proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Courts he may himself singly go a great way towards the ruin of the Protestant Episcopal Clergy of that Nation And indeed it happened very well for them that those Writs were not granted them by that Popish Lord Chancellor for he by the Direction of the Lord Tyrconnel had made Irish High Sheriffs in most of the Counties of Ireland who would execute neither Writ nor Decree on any Papist either for Clergy-man or Lay-man I think likewise that I have laid down sufficient Reasons to make us believe that if the Scotch Presbyterians had the Estates of Ireland and consequently the Magistracy and Power in their Hands they would serve the Episcopal Clergy and such as should adhere to them after the same manner The Question therefore that remains is whether it be not probable that the Irish and they whose Interests seem now to be so opposite to each other might upon occasion of ruining the Episcopal Protestant Church should they