word either in favour of or in opposition to the thing but desired it might be read which being done the Lord Bellasis in a storm of Passion inveigh'd bitterly against it saying that If such designs as those were encouraged they of England meaning the Catholicks had best in time to look out for some other Country and not stay to be a mad Sacrifice for Irish Rebels Powis according to the best of his understanding seconded and in short 't was so run down that neither Sunderland nor Peters durst attempt to speak a word in its vindication but only desired that those Gentlemen which brought over those Papers might be heard Bellasis was for committing them or commanding their immediate return but 't was at last thought reasonable to hear them so a day was appointed The noise of this and the success it had met with at Council-Board flew abroad with great Exclamations the Boys in the street running after the Coach where Rice and Nugent at any time were with Pottatoes stuck on sticks and crying Make room for the Irish Embassadors 'T was believed that some of the Popish Party did blow up the People that so the King might be sensible what mischief this would tend to The day came on for these Embassadors to be heard at Council-board where Rice made a Speech full of Policy and Artifice and answered the Objections made by the Lord Bellasis and Powis but when Nugent came to speak he kicked down all that Rice had done and Bellasis presently discovered the defect of his Irish understanding as he call'd it abusing him beyond the respect due to the place where the King was calling him Fool and Knave and Powis did the same They were not long in tearing this fine Project to pieces which when they had done Bellasis bid them make haste to the Fool their Master and bid him next Message he sent to employ Wiser Men and upon a more honest Errand Powis bid them tell him That the king had better use to make of his Catholick Subjects in England than to Sacrifice them for reprize to the Protestants of Ireland in lieu of their Estates there In short every one fell so violently upon them at the Board that the King remained silent and without any resolve or order broke up the Council and neither the Embassadors nor their Project appeared more upon the Stage but kissing the Kings Hand march'd off with great hast and precipitation for they were afraid that even the Roman Catholicks themselves would have affronted ' em This Miscarriage of Tyrconnell's gave fresh opportunity year 1688 to the Castlemanians to raise Objections against him setting forth what mischiess he had already done in that Kingdom that the Revenue was sunk to an incredible abatement and that in one year more there would not be left money enough in the Kingdom to discharge the Army and that this last Project of his would exasperate and frighten away those of the English which were left who being the dealing and industrious people of the Nation would put a final period to all Trade and Commerce in that wasted and depopulated Countrey But all these just and reasonable Allegations which matter of fact and the present ruinous and distracted Estate of that Kingdom did but too fully evince the truth or rather infallibility of though judiciously laid down before the King by sober and considering persons yet were they all to no purpose For though the King kept it private from most of his Council yet certain it is that he had promised the French King the disposal of that Government and Kingdom when things had attained to that growth as to be fit to bear it This jumped near to the time of the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and the Bishops Commitment to the Tower And as one had ruined England if the visible hand of Supream Providence had not signally and miraculously interpos'd by inspiring the Bishops with couragious and invincible resolutions in a just vindication of the Protestant Cause and Religion so the other had struck the fatal blow to the Laws and Fundamental Constitutions of Ireland if some Hushai's even amongst the Romish Faction had not turned the pernicious Counsels of these Achitophels into folly The expected success of the aforesaid Embassadors Negotiation which by one Party was dreaded by the other hop'd to prove answerable to its design made various impressions upon men in proportion to their different interests The English were apprehensive of no less a change than a total subversion of the Government and an unraveling of all the Laws made for the security of their Estates and Religion which the unhinging the Act of Settlement the sole occasion of this Solemn Embassy would at one blow compleat The Natives were imaginarily in actual possession Their apprehensions whereof were such as discovered all the outward signs and indications of so high a satisfaction as cannot be easily represented Joy and Triumph was in all their Actions and Discourses Fancy and Imagination wrought very powerfully and like Men in Bedlam who dream of nothing but Kingdoms and Empires they seem'd to shew as much Complacency and to be alike transported with the airy hopes of getting as if they had been already invested in their Estates But this Scene of Joy which had been represented with so much splendour and magnificence soon disappear'd and a Melancholy Prospect over-shadowed with a dark Cloud was quickly brought upon the Stage when they perceiv'd all their hopes blasted in the fruitless consequences of this great intrigue Parturiunt montes their high expectations soon descended to a low ebb and they were quickly under as great despondency by this suddain turn of the Spoke in the Wheel as they were before of satisfaction For as they are wont to put no bounds to their Ecstasies and transports in prosperous so neither do they limit their sorrow and despair upon adverse Contingencies An unequalness of mind and resolution very remarkable among the Irish who like the floating Euripus have no consistency in themselves but are carried up and down in their hopes and fears according as every petty accident does either invite or discourage But to return to Sheridon whose Trial Rice and Nugent's absence had retarded and the ill effects of whose Negotiation had so exalted him that he begun to vaunt over his Enemies openly exclaiming upon the Lord Deputy and withal adding That he would soon be removed from the Government and such advantage did he derive from this disgrace Tyrconnell met with in England that he held the Lord Deputy and his Judges at defiance and was now become so imperious that his braging and threatening the Evidence took off several And the truth is after that Rice returned from England they were in such despondency expecting every day a new Lord Lieutenant insomuch that one day Tyrconnell himself said publickly to some Officers at the Castle that though he had great assurance from the King that he should not be
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
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
which neither Souldier Adventurer nor Irish according to the first Declaration from Breda were concerned and yet it related to the first Souldiers that fought against the Irish which were now called Forty-nine Men these being King's-Men were not provided for in the Parliament and Usurper's time and how to make Provision for them now was the matter in Dispute Some Lands indeed there were that had not been set out to Souldiers and Adventurers which were allotted these Men but this Provision was not considerable and therefore the forfeited Corporations and Houses that were in them were hereunto annexed and to render 'em the more valuable a Clause was inserted in the Act That no Irish Papist in what manner soever he justified his innocency should enjoy any House within a Corporation except the Natives of Corke and Featherd This the Irish vehemently exclaimed against as barbarous and inhumane that to serve the conveniency of a particular Set of Men a Man must appear innocent in the Country and enjoy his Estate but be adjudged a Rebel in the City and upon that account be dispossessed of his Houses On the other hand the English complained That the Natives by an Illegal Arbitrary Court were made innocent though they were known to have been concerned in the Rebellion for that in truth 't was beyond all peradventure that not Ten of the Irish Papists were free from Rebellion and Murther The Duke of Ormond had a great Arrear due to him upon this Fund and after mutual Contests on either side the Affair was settled to the Satisfaction of the Protestants But in order to a firmer and more mature Establishment of things it was amongst other Consultations resolved in Council to send over the Lord Roberts for Ireland in Quality of the Lord Lieutenant as a Person whose indifferency as to the various and opposite interests of that Kingdom might bring forth a compleat and impartial settlement but his being an Englishman and not related to and so consequently not interessed in favour of the Irish occasioned the Duke of York whose Affection to the Natives of that Kingdom has appeared by too pregnant and demonstrative Proofs to work with the King his Brother to send over the Duke of Ormond whose Acquaintance with and year 1662 Relation to divers of the Irish Nobility and Gentry did rationally promise a more favourable regard to their Interests though what probability soever this Prospect had in it it finally turned to their disadvantage and that by the even steerage of the Duke of Ormond who though placed at the Helm in favour to the Irish yet so signally espoused the Interest of the English Protestants in all their just and legal demands that upon that very account he lost the favour of the Duke of York This management of things made the Popish Party very sensible of their mistake but to correct it in a very high measure they procured the removal of some of the Commissioners of the Court of Claims and got others put in exactly calculated for their present design The leading Man was one Rainsfoord who drove so furiously that complaints were made to the King. Talbot now Tyrconnel was at this time made principal Agent for the Irish Papists at Court and upon the account of solliciting for them had Sums of Money rais'd him by way of Tax upon all that passed the Court of Claims and in such cases wherein men had no Friends nor good Titles he bought their pretences and by Rainsfoord's means passed the Claim from all which illegal courses 't was visible to the English that they were in a lost condition which brought many of them under such apparent discouragements as to part with their Estates for a year or two's Purchace neither could any man make a measure of his Title so arbitrary were the Commissioners in their Proceedings And as the Irish insinuated themselves into the favour of Rainsfoord and the Commissioners of the Court of Claims or by the powerful sollicitation of their Agent at Court procur'd Recommendatory Letters from thence in the same proportion they pass'd their innocency not according to their demerit For what Complaints soever were made by the Irish of the Cruelty of Oliver's Court in criminating them yet some who prov'd their innocency there were decreed nocent by these Commissioners and where they had no pretence of taking away an Irish-man's Estate that was adjudg'd innocent in the Usurper's time in that case they obtain'd Proviso's in the Act of Settlement to deprive them of their Estates for Rebellion As for instance the Knight of Kerry who though a Papist yet always so faithfully adher'd to the English Interest and had been so great an instrument of divers of the Protestants preservation that for that reason he was by the Vsurper restored to his Estate his case was so notorious that the Parliament though their whole Fortunes depended upon the Act of Settlement refus'd passing the Act except that clause in prejudice to the Knight of Kerry was struck out notwithstanding that they were inform'd at the same time That if the Act was sent back and altered it should be to their disadvantage as indeed it prov'd however it was Corrected as to that Clause So much of this Act did so manifestly incline to favour the Irish as justly created Complaints by the English which seemingly to redress a new Act was prepared Entituled The Act of Explanation the consequence of which was That the Protestants were glad to sit down with the loss of one third and where the Irish had either been so notoriously criminal as that no Palliations could extenuate the blackness of their Rebellion or else were Men of that inconsiderable interest as render'd them incapable of passing their innocency in such cases their Estates were claim'd by other Irish whose interests at Court were more prevalent such were the Earls of Clanearthy Clanriccard Lord Costela Dillon Earl of Carlingfoord and many more who pass'd their Claims for twice more than ever they had before the Rebellion Pursuant to the Act passed for the payment of Quit-rent to the Crown for all Lands that were Seiz'd and Sequestred the English paid Quit-rent in many places where their Lands were scarce worth it but when the Court of Claims was over and the Parliament of Ireland Dissolv'd then the Irish that paid Quit-rent obtain'd Grants by means of the Duke of York who omitted no opportunities of testifying his good will to them not only to be remitted of their Quit-rent but of their Arrears also To this height had the Popish Design advanc'd it self at a Juncture when the English Interest seemed not only to carry the preeminence but even to have reach'd the Meridian of her Triumph at Court and though it was believed upon the King's Restauration there could not have been the twentieth part of Ireland gain'd from the English yet what with the thirds taken at one blow from the English and by Nominees and other Stratagems of State there was almost an
obtains leave to go for England year 1675 leaving the Lord Primate and the Lord Granard Justices Upon his arrival at Court he perceived the Game ran high for Popery and the best way to prevent it was not by downright opposition he therefore concludes upon a more prevailing method which was to make court to the Duke of York which he managed with so much art and so skilful an Address as indeed he was very capable of doing beyond their Conclave at Rome that notwithstanding it was resolved that he should depart yet was he kept so long in England till orders came from the Holy Fathers for his return to Ireland He had so far wound himself into the Duke's good-opinion of him that he thought him secure for their Party and as the first testimony of his Integrity he had Instructions from him to promote Sheridon and the Farmers which the Earl managed with such great wisdom as at once to please the Duke and yet to be serviceable to the Protestants of Ireland who had now been in a lost irrecoverable condition if his admirable Conduct had not prevented it And now this great Man returns for Ireland to year 1676 steer again in that Government threatened by approaching Tempests the Farmers also going over enter upon their business Sir W. P. became very notorious in declaring not only to employ Papists but that he would have the Priests collect the Hearth-money Some were apt to believe that this was done on purpose to get off but those who were most intimate with him speak quite otherwise and that the hopes of being created a Lord and a Privy Counsellor so transported him beyond all the bounds of moderation as induced him to take this violent course the more to ingratiate himself with the Duke but like the Ass in the Fable beat his Master down in imitation of the Spaniels fawning and though he was a man of great Learning and of a Mathematical Head and bred abroad yet so vehemently desirous of Riches as hurried him often into great Extravagancies The Earl of Essex being Landed in Ireland had a difficult Game to play he had 't is believed made fair Promises of being kind to the Irish and to stand by the Farmers to the first he gave good words and received them well at Court but the Farmers they began to model their Officers and if some speedy and effectual stop was not put to these Proceedings the whole Ports of the Kingdom would soon be in Papists hands which was like to prove a matter of most dangerous consequence To defeat this Intriegue required a more than ordinary presence of mind and a deep foresight which as this wise Earl was endowed with in a very high measure so did he signally shew it upon this occasion There was but one way to effect it and that was by raising scruples as to the value of the Farmers and their Securities but this he must not appear in but instructs some of his Confidents of the Council to act that part sor him and there was one who till this late Catastrophe was thought to be of great Integrity and Honour the Lord Granard he was bold and daring and a Mortal Enemy to Sir J. S. wherefore he moves at the Council-Board that inspection should be made into the Securities of these Farmers The Proposal was well accepted by the rest of the Council For indeed they were Men as Sir W. P. said truly of them viz. Farmers pick'd up in the Streets with this disadvantage that take the-first seven men you meet and they shall exceed these for every thing but cheating The Earl of Essex seemed to oppose the Council in this Vote put it off and acquainted the Farmers and also gave an account of it to the Duke whom he had now so far gain'd upon as to become a Confident But every day usher'd in new Complaints against the Farmers running away with the Money of the Kingdom c. which for some time the Earl seemed to decline but at last in appearance against the Grain agrees with the Council and sends over to the King the Objections against the Farmers which in short were so great that they were not to be trusted Whereupon Commissioners of inspection were set over them one was the Earl of Essex's Confident and these men attended to the motion of the Farmers with so vigilant an eye that nothing could be effected In this manner was this great and dangerous Plot carried on for several years by the Duke and his Minions most miraculously defeated by the unparallell'd Conduct of that Prudent Earl who so far out-vy'd the Romish Politicks as to cajole that party into an approbation of those Proceedings which proved fatally destructive of their design which so disheartened those two accomplices R and Sheridon that they flung up their Parts and returned to Court the last to attend his Master Coleman who happened to come in a fit time to succeed him in his Employment for not long after this the Popish Plot was brought upon the Stage in which Coleman was Prime Minister who being afterwards Executed and Sheridon speaking something in favour of his cause was apprehended and after some time was brought on his knees at the Bar of the House of Commons where he had impudence beyond humane shape to set forth in a flourishing Speech the greatness of his Family viz. that he was in the right Line of the Kings of Vlster anciently called O Sheridon that to his Father belonged a vast Estate which by the misfortune of War meaning the former Rebellion he was wrongfully put out of with abundance of the like impudent falshoods and most notorious untruths Whereas indeed his Father too honest a man for so base and so degenerate a Son was before the late Rebellion in the County of Caven taken in a poor Boy into a Bishop's House for a Turn-spit and the Bishop observing the Boy to be of a Docible Temper and capable of instruction and finding him educated a Papist charitably put him to School where he was taught his Grammar and was found to be so industrious a Proficient in School-learning as encouraged the good Bishop to Ordain him a Deacon in which capacity he continued under the Bishop till he died And when the Rebellion broke out so violently that few English were left in the Countrey yet this poor man remained with such as stayed and read Prayers among them till all were either Murthered or had deserted the place But he being a poor Old Man and having nothing to remove continued where he was the Irish suffering him to reside amongst them but by all their Importunities notwithstanding their great eagerness to make Converts compassing both Sea and Land to proselyte any to their Church could never prevail upon him to go to Mass This Man had three Sons which as well as those turbulent times would admit he educated Protestants and upon Oliver's reduction of Ireland he was so taken with the Character
of this poor man which was faithfully represented to him by the English of the North that he not only ordered a maintenance for himself but also for his three Sons whom he ordered to be maintained in the Colledge near Dublin where they all improved themselves to an eminent degree of Learning and parts This is an Impartial Account of Thomus Sheridon's Pedigree whose Sisters and other Relations were in Broges and Kerchiefs the Irish Garb for Women The Author saw them not many years ago in this condition and knowing this Story of Sheridon was heightened in his Curiosity of being the more inquisitive after it in the County where his Father was born and found that he was of the Scologues a Name which the Irish call Cotchers And none of his Kindred as the Irish affirm were ever better I should not have given the Reader the trouble of this Digression but that I deemed it not altogether unpleasant to him to represent the unparallell'd Impudence of this Man who could attempt to speak of his high Extraction before the House of Commons when the meanness of his Original and Descent was so universally known in most parts of the North of Ireland But to what degrees of extravagancy will not the Confidence of an Irish-man transport him And whither will not that audacious Arrogance with which the Natives of that Kingdom are most plentifully stock'd carry and invite them The ridiculous Genealogies which the Irish have framed of themselves as to their Heroical Ancestry Antiquity of their Nation their eminency for Literature and extraordinary Piety in former Ages are Fopperies not to be wondered at when in these days the Author by his own Experience can give an account of several of the Irish Gentry who have laid aside both their former Names and Relations and have created new ones to themselves which they pretend to be derived from a numerous train of Noble Progenitors though this be publickly known to be a Chimerical and Fictitious Invention But to return again to the Earl of Essex from whence this account of Sheridon has caus'd me to digress though his politick Carriage in the business of the aforesaid Farmers discovered a dextrous and prudent Government yet did it contract upon him the hatred of the Duke of York who from this time set up private designs against him which the Earl had constant intelligence of but at last was not able to withstand them the prejudice rising so high till the Duke obtained a resolve for his removal from the Government year 1677 The way to accomplish this was to find out a man that would lend the King Money and the Earl of Bridlington was pitched upon Talbot had by the Relation of a Brother of his Married into that Family some interest but was not looked upon as a fit person to break it to the Earl so another was found by the Earl of Orrery's means who had been disobliged by the Earl of Essex and by that way it was pursued But though the Earl of Bridlington might have had a mind to the Government yet would he part with no Mony and the King's necessities were the great inducement whereby to prevail upon him to remove Essex and Bridlington being unwilling to supply 'em no other pretence could be found out to work on the King. 'T was admired by all for what reasons the Earl of Bridlington should be thought on in regard that none but the Duke's Party were in the Intriegue But the Romish Faction well understood that although the Earl of Bridlington was not fit to carry on their main Design yet they knew him governable and were in hopes to put things upon him that might bring matters into a leading way for another they had in their Eye not fit here to be named But these things missing of their designed effect they were now at a full stop though no occasions were omitted of making dayly Objections against the Earl of Essex The Popish Conspiracy as has been already hinted in discoursing upon Sheridon advanced apace by Coleman and the Parliament began now to be apprehensive of the present proceedings and of the Alliance with France which they utterly disapproved of The L B was sent in quality of the King's Embassador to France and Sir Ellis Leaton his Secretary in Ireland accompany'd him but neither of 'em were judged fit to be trusted with the secret Designs For at that time there was a Design for the French to set up their Demands for the Irish to have the Articles made by King Charles the Second with the French King in their favour to be performed and the King of England was to admit the French to land Men under pretence of being got by private compact of the Irish The Earl of Tyrone Lord Brittas and others being to raise Men in Ireland in order to make a Diversion to the putting the Popish Plot in force in England But the whole of this was kept private from the King only so much of it as referred to the French King 's demanding the Promises made by him when in Exile in favour of the Irish The Duke undertook to qualifie the King if any discovery should be made of the Irish intended Insurrection but this was divulged by some of the Irish and the King hardly prevailed with not to believe it The L B was recall'd from France and sent to Nimeguen and Complaints were made by some Merchants against Sir Ellis Leaton who being questioned before the King and Council spoke very intemperately and among other words said He wonder'd how these Merchants durst presume to speak any thing against the greatest King in Europe as the French King was for which indecent Expression he was committed it being justly accounted great impudence for him to affirm in the presence of the King That there was any other King greater than himself The King and Council finding some cause to believe that there were Designs of introducing Popery in Ireland pitch'd upon the Duke of Ormond as the only Pilot for that Kingdom in a Storm and accordingly he was sent over The Duke of York did not then think it seasonable year 1677 to oppose it though he was conscious 't was fatal to his Design But however he wrought so powerfully with the King That orders were given to raise Men in Ireland under the Notion of Foreign Service They were all composed of the Natives of the Kingdom excepting some Protestant Officers fit to make Catholicks of The Duke year 1678 of Ormond would give them no Arms so they were Exercised with Sticks and in a little time the Plot in England was discovered and they all disbanded Upon which a discovery was made by the Irish of the Popish Conspiracy in Ireland and it was very remarkable that in the whole discovery not one Protestant appeared as an evidence against the Papists A pregnant instance of the great impartiality and equal demeanour of the English towards the Natives who altho' they were now presented
Lands said to be in the possession of divers of the English but in truth much more in that of the Irish Now to insure the Titles of the English from any future Discoveries as was pretended a Court of Grace was to be erected year 1683 where all that would had the opportunity of putting in their Claims and upon proving their possession and compounding with the Commissioners for payment of such a sum as they thought fit to impose on them they were to pass new Patents It was also given out that it was safe for all new Interests to pass that Court and that it would strengthen their Titles This Policy had its intended effect for many persons came in and considerable Sums of Money were paid But under what plausible pretext soever this Court was set up 't was soon perceived as a snare to the English For its design was to make a narrow inspection into all Mens Titles and thereby to discover what advantage might be derived from it For by the Act of Settlement all the forfeited Lands in Ireland were only invested in the King as a Royal Trustee for the use of the Soldiers and Adventurers and could be no way disposed of but according to the intent of that Act. Now whereas there were several Irish out of their Lands decreed them by the Act for want of Reprisals the King's Patent could not give any Land away but in pursuance to the intent of the Act. By which it appears that this Court was erected to prepare Pretences for the Irish when opportunity should invite and though all this was negotiated through the Duke's Interest yet none of that party appeared in it but the whole of it was transacted by the Dutchess of Portsmouth who had the Money got by Fines out of it Because there will be occasion in the farther discovery of this Treachery to name a principal Actor in the Catastrophe of Ireland I shall now nominate him that was the Abettor and Contriver of this mischief 't was one W. who sometime year W before bought a Judge's place in the Exchequer for Eight Hundred Pounds This Judge was found a fit Tool to make use of and being a Cunning ambo-dexter formed this Intriegue which had proved fatal to the Protestant Interest of Ireland if affairs had succeeded in the same Current they had now put them But I must not forget to add that to make this poison go down the more easie the Pill was gilded over Most of the Judges were made Commissioners and had part of the Fines the Lawyers and Attorneys got Money by the Court so that consequently all that were capable of understanding the Cheat were interessed as Parties in the Intriegue and by this means some of the Lawyers and Attorneys purchased Estates to the ruine of the former Possessors And 't is to be observed that in the several Designs of the Papists Protestants were the Tools whereby they acted by which they appeared to have nothing of Catholick in them And now to force men into this Tonnel another Oppression was impos'd upon the Subject and that was that no man should pass Patent for Fairs Markets Mannors c. without passing his Estate through this Court whereas by the Act of Settlement all persons had liberty for the improvement of the Countrey to pass Patent for them so that they were not within three Miles of one another Here you may perceive a most black design speciously represented as a fit occasion to lay hold on whereby to corroborate the English Interest though in truth nothing could more effectually weaken the Protestants Titles to their Estates and strengthen or improve those of the Irish and this not only managed but at first set up by a Protestant And indeed this gave a more plausible colour to it and made it the more easily gain belief with the English that the true Reasons of its erection were the same with those that were pretended because first advanced by one of their own Party A sad thing indeed that Englishmen and Protestants should by base and unworthy Compliances become such Servile Instruments to the advancement of the Popish Cause A Calamity which as it had made some steps before so did it improve to an infinite Progress when the late King James was in possession of the Throne In which time too many men who were reputed Protestants through a mean and pusillanimous Disposition were not seldom Co-adjutors with the Papists in such violent Proceedings as carried a direct opposition to the Laws and their Religion But to proceed where I left off The Duke of Ormond perceiving by the tendency of these Affairs that the Romish design was agitated with greater earnestness than ever with great difficulty obtains leave to go for England and pursuant to that comes over leaving his Son the Earl of Arran Lord Deputy Upon his Arrival at year 1683 Court he a second time attempts a Parliament but ineffectually upon which disappointment he returns again for Ireland with an heavy heart as he himself declared to a Great Man of that Kingdom He had Instructions to Regiment the Army and some other things that were Preparatives to what followed soon after But now the Fatal Stroke was come the Death of the King a Mystery not to be inquired into though one can hardly omit remarking that the Irish year 1684 Papists could for some time before fix upon the utmost Period of that Reign and the Duke was sent for in haste from Scotland three years before without any apparent reason for it besides that the King's permission was obtained with some difficulty From this time we may Commence the Date of the Irish greatness Fate now smil'd upon 'em and that which they had long expected with so much impatience and importunity which had cost them so much pains and had involved them in such great Perplexities That which had exposed them to so many dangers and been so frequently blasted with cross Accidents and various Disappointments was now fallen into their Lap. Now their long-look'd for day was come and their Game which had been play'd with so much difficulty and loss did now assure them of better success These Apprehensions so transported them with such pleasant Raptures as were eminently visible in all their actions especially in Publick Days of Rejoycing as the day of the King 's Proclaiming that of his Coronation the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales and the like in all which they demonstrated the most extravagant Symptoms of a Superlative Joy which they express'd in making of Bonfires Beating of Drums playing upon the Bag-pipes and other Musical Instruments in Drinking and Serenading in the night time forcing the English out of their Beds and breaking open their Doors and drinking Confusion to the Kings Enemies upon their Knees by which 't was plain that they understood the Protestants And all these unlawful Revellings oftentimes continued for two or three Nights and Days without intermission wherein such of the English
Government and that it would be no excuse to say they were their own Arms and not belonging to the Militia This frighted many and operated so powerfully that abundance delivered in their Arms bought with their own money The Protestants being thus disarmed Tyrconnel proceeds to destroying the Army and first begins with the Officers in the same method which was designed immediately before the Death of the King which was to displace all Officers that had been in the Parliament or Oliver's Army as also the Sons of any such This the Duke of Ormond had directions to proceed in when he came last from England but he made no Progress in it under pretence of gaining time to find them out for he foresaw it was to make room for Papists Tyrconnel for so we must call him for the future proceeds in his design and after turning out a great part of the Officers returns for England and carries along with him one Neagle a Cunning Irish Lawyer since Knighted by him Neagle's Business at London was to be engaged in their secret Consults for he was a man of great parts educated among the Jesuits and consequently very inveterate Upon their Arrival at London 't was some time e'er Neagle could gain admittance to kiss the King's hand but was constantly with Father Petre and the rest of that Furious Cabal The Queen was altogether for their Counsels but the King was not so forwardly inclined being every day set upon by all his Popish Lords not to proceed too fast in the revolution of Ireland for that would spoil the general interest of the Catholicks and upon the Lord Bellasis Powis and some others of that Factions understanding that Neagle was come over they were so transported with Rage that they would have him immediately sent out of London But whatever mischiefs he effected in private his Publick Transactions were of no great prejudice to the Protestants However to compleat in Retirement what he durst not attempt at Court and upon the Publick Stage 't was agreed in Council that he should set forth by way of a Letter to a Friend the great Oppression and Injustice of the Act of Settlement which he did under the pretence of a two hours waking in a Night at Coventry but was indeed two Weeks labour in London In this Letter he ran so high in his Invectives against King Charles the Second which nothing but a meer Tyger or Savage as himself would have done that he durst not own it to be his but in Ireland gave out that he would Arrest any Man in an Action of Ten Thousand Pound who should father it upon him But now a Consult was held the design of Tyrconnel's coming over and the Debate variously canvass'd as to a fit Person to send over for Ireland in quality of Lord Lieutenant Tyrconnel was mentioned with some tenderness as being a person very Obnoxious to the English and therefore 't was not thought seasonable till matters were come to a greater Maturity to bring him upon the Stage The Lord Bellasis was proposed but that was too bare-fac'd besides he was infirm at least to carry on their design with success and not altogether to disgust the English 't was resolved that Tyrconnel should return Lieutenant General of the Army and the Earl of Clarendon Lord Lieutenant In the mean time the Irish Papists in all parts of the Kingdom proceeded in their former Stratagems of Impeaching the Protestants for Plots c. but these were generally so ridiculously contrived and made up of such Palpable Contradictions and Incongruities that they served only to demonstrate the Protestants innocency and the Horrid Perjuries and Implacable Inveteracy of the Informers But seeing that these Impeachments were so unskilfully managed which yet were repeated upon every pretended occasion of disgust they had to an English-man as to miss of their Wicked and Diabolical intent then they applyed themselves to other Courses many went out Toryes and robb'd upon the High-way broke up Houses stole Cattle killed them in the Field and cut out the Tongues of Sheep alive with other innumerable Barbarities all acted upon the English which were so frightened and discouraged with these Tragedies that thousands deserted the Kingdom and came for England under as great Fears and Jealousies as if there had been an open Rebellion and Five Hundred together departed the Kingdom to Transport themselves to Virginia Carolina Pensilvania West-Indies and New England This was extream grateful to the Irish who set all their Engines at work so to disheâ—â—â—en and discourage the Protestants as to force them to leave the Kingdom Tyrconnel now drives with greater fury than before not only displacing the Officers of the Army but also turning out the Private Soldiers and to both prefers which of the Irish he thought fit his Will was his Law and his Actions purely Arbitrary none daring to question him for he brought over Blank Commissions Signed by the King for such as he was willing to put in This Part he acted in a most Insulting Barbarous manner causing poor Men that had no Cloaths on their Backs but Red Coats to be stript to their Shirts and so turned off and of all this he himself was an Inhumane Spectator He seiz'd the Horses of some Officers and Troopers giving Notes that amounted not to a fourth proportion of their just Values to others he gave nothing but ill words and vile reproaches In the midst of this Tragical Scene the Earl of Clarendon comes upon the Stage in the Capacity of Lord Lieutenant his Relation to the King added to the violent Proceedings then in Ireland so vigorously drove on by the Popish Party afforded but little hopes of any redress of these Evils to the Drooping Spirits of the Protestants who were by this time entered into a very Desponding and Dejected Condition But these Discouragements of the English were alleviated in a very high measure if not changed into Ecstasies and perfect Raptures of Joy when perceiving the Lord Lieutenant acting as a person of inviolable Integrity to the Protestants and the English Interest they looked upon him as a fit Man to stem the Torrent of the Popish Faction which had been so violent and impetuous and indeed his very first action gave no small proof of it which was to cherish and revive the broken hearts of the Protestants with those great Assurances his Master had given him of protecting the Protestant Interest and Religion which he good man could not disbelieve In pursuance of this he issued out Proclamations for bringing in of Torys and propos'd Rewards to such as should apprehend them He rid a Progress round the chiefest parts of the Kingdom to give life to the English but at the same time the Grandees of the Irish proceeded in their design animating their Vassals with hopes that he should soon be removed the Irish composing Barbarous Songs in praise of Tyrconnel and that his Heroick hand should destroy the English Church with Bloody and
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
himself briskly and with good Applause in this matter For notwithstanding that he was not only frequently sent to but threatned by Tyrconnel if he proceeded in it yet however he goes for London and there sollicits the Duke of Ormond to introduce him to the King where on his Knee he delivers the Petition with a submissive tender of all the City Charters at His Majesties Feet The King was already so prepossessed with the Partial Account that Tyrconnel had given of this Action with which he was so extreamly prejudiced that upon the first sight of Sir Richard Rieves he asked him if he had the Lord Deputy's leave to come with this Petition And that he had those in Ireland that understood the Law better than himself and so turn'd from him Sir Richard Rieves advised with the Duke of Ormond who told him That there was no hopes of succeeding in the Enterprize so was forced to go back for Dublin with a short but unpleasant return of the ineffectualness of this Negotiation But however the City was resolved to stand the Brunt and to stop the violent Tide if possible which now ran with so rapid a Current and in order thereunto they Fee'd four Counsels Their first Evasion whereby to procrastinate matters was by urging that the Sheriffs were interessed as Parties in the Writ the Charters being granted to Mayor Sheriffs and Commons and so could not properly make Returns to that Writ that came against themselves this was deem'd to be Law but nothing was to be accounted as such by Judges that broke through all Inclosures and stuck not to trample upon the known Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom if opposite to their Popish and Arbitrary designs So this return of the Sheriffs was over-ruled and a Fine imposed upon them if in four days they did not amend their Return which some though they would not have agreed to but 't was among themselves thought fit to do it and accordingly the Attorney General proceeded against them and took some advantage of their Pleadings which the Court gave judgment upon This afforded matter of Triumph and an universal excessive joy to the Irish which dispersed it self with a marvelous Celerity throughout the whole Kingdom but became on the contrary hand as much a Subject of Lamentation to the English Citizens who called themselves the Virgin City as having never been tainted with any action of Disloyalty or Rebellion in all the several Revolutions and Vicissitudes of that unfortunate Kingdom which though never since it was in the possession of the King 's of England continued forty years uninterruptedly without an Insurrection of the Natives yet was this City remarkably Loyal in all Changes and performed many signal acts of Bravery and Courage as their Records do amply testifie and of which not to name many others I cannot omit one very remarkable Instance which was That when the Lord Duke of Ormond received Orders by that Royal Martyr King Charles the First of ever Blessed and Immortal Memory to give up the Sword and Government to the Parliament they being at that time best able to suppress the Irish Rebels The Lord of Ormond in pursuance to this instruction delivered up the Sword and sent to the Mayor one William Smith ordering him to do the like but he to shew his Loyalty went to the Lord of Ormond accompanied with his Brethren the Aldermen and told his Lordship that he kept that Sword for the King that the City was the King's Chamber and he would deliver neither but into the hands of the King's Servants Upon which the Lord of Ormond took occasion to commend his Loyalty and told him He had the King's Commands to do it and for the Mayors greater satisfaction shewed him the King's Letter which when the Mayor read he observed there was order for the Lord of Ormond to give up the Government to the Parliaments Commissioners but not a word that the Mayor should do it which the Mayor taking notice of to the Lord of Ormond told him he would leave the Sword and Keys of the City with his Lordship to use as he pleased he being the King s Lieutenant and so he did and after took his leave This the City justly boasts of as never being engaged in any Rebellion nor ever actually under the Usurper's Government in any other manner than by the King 's Appointment and Command But to return to the Charters consonant to the Sentence against Dublin so was Judgment given against all the Charters of the Kingdom except against such as quietly surrendred as most did it being to no purpose to contend in the lesser and inferiour parts of the Kingdom after their GOLIAH of Dublin was slain I shall not impose upon the Reader 's Patience with giving him an account of what subtle arts of Address and Obsequious Contrivances were made use of to distinct Corporations to prevail with them to surrender This he will suppose that they were not remiss or unactive in if he considers that they dreaded nothing so much as that the Clamours and Outcries of so many Bodies of people which were to be sued and disobliged should reach the Ears of the Court and be made use of by the adverse Party to their disadvantage and therefore we may be sure that they endeavoured to silence them as much as they could For both Tyrconnel and his Voucher â—eagle had assured their Party that most of the Charters would quietly be surrendred by the people and that there was but one Corporation in the North of Ireland which they were afraid of this was Carrickfergus which they managed with a great deal of Policy in the following manner Ellis Secretary to Tyrconnel writes a wheedling Letter to the Mayor of that City insinuating how great an opinion the Lord Deputy had of his Loyalty with abundance of such impertinent stuff and that his Excellency would enlarge their Priviledges They were foolishly taken with this gilded Bait and so surrendred their Charter Upon this success Ellis was applauded as an excellent Instrument to delude the Protestants with and so he was which he improved by the frequent opportunities which were offered to him of drawing in honest men he having been many years in the Secretaries Office and a pretended Protestant though his Brother was a noted Champion for Rome but that was one of the Machinations of the Romish Conclave mightily practised in Ireland to disguise one part of their Family under the Protestant Education though they were as much Papists as the other that appeared to be openly such by a publick Profession A practice which the old English Families are rarely free from in that Kingdom But to come again to Ellis his Letters and Messages flew round the Kingdom and prevailed in many places but more out of a Sentiment That 't was to no purpose to contend than any Belief or Opinion they had either of his or his Masters assurances But however that was 't is certain that Ellis
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
accounted it to be if he stood not in his Majesty's favour The King gave him no other Answer but that he must return to the Lord Deputy and there justifie himself this he reckoned to be hard upon him but waiting upon the Lord Sunderland for some order to carry back upon which he grounded his Trial 't was thought fit to name the Chief Judges to hear and to report back the Matter to the King as they should find it With this order he returns for Ireland together with a Letter of Recommendation from Sunderland to the Lord Deputy praying his Lordship to take Compassion of the Poor Man who was sufficiently mortify'd by what he had already suffered in the loss of his Secretaries Place and that if his Excellency should pursue him farther to the losing of his Commissioners Place in the Customs he was a Ruined Man for that the King had declared if Matters alledged against him were proved he should never have any Employment in his Dominions and in the Close added That Acts of Clemency were suitable to persons of his Excellency's Quality and Station c. But matters were now come to too high a pitch and the breach was too wide ever to be patched up together again as it had been once already by Judge Daly's mediation betwixt them Sheridon or some in his stead had even in Dublin whilst this was transacting spoke contemptibly of the Lord Deputy in order to applaud Sheridon as a Triumphant Conquerour For so the Populace had cryed him up in Dublin and the Protestant Party in Ireland out of Enmity to Tyrconnel which it seems they thought to be the worse man of the two though in reality Sheridon as an Apostate was the greater Villain Upon Sheridon's Arrival at Dublin he repaired to the Castle with his Papers but was not admitted to the presence of the Lord Deputy He then goes to the Custom-house and there sits among his Brethren The next day the Lord Deputy advises with the Judges what to do with him for his Stomach could not digest his enjoying any Place in the Kingdom whilst he continued Chief Governour The Judges Counselled to appoint a Day of Hearing and in the mean time to suspend him from sitting in the Custom-House Sheridon had this order sent him upon which he came to the Castle and disputed his being suspended as if not in the Lord Deputy's Power This Demeanour was an Aggravation to his former and upon farther consulting with the Judges 't was agreed That since much of the proof of Sheridon's Bribery depended upon the Officers concerned in the Revenue 't would be absolutely necessary to heap as much Ignominy and Disgrace upon him in that Province as was possible which to effect the Commissioners of the Customs were sent for and ordered to write to all the Collectors of the Kingdom not to keep any correspondence with Sheridon in regard that he was suspended from acting in the Revenue A day being appointed for Sheridon to come to an Hearing he moved for more time which was readily granted for at this time another blow from Rome came against Tyrconnel which required his best Ministers to divert which was as follows The Earl of Castlemain had for some time been returned from his Embassy to the Pope but was Invested in no Preferment which he complained of to his Holiness which was seconded by Father Peters upon the receipt of whose Letters his Holiness writes over to his Nuncio to Address to the King in his behalf who was as ready to gratifie him in something as the other to embrace it but at present there was no vacancy But to supply that Father Peters takes opportunity to strike at Jeffreys the Lord Chancellor for tampering in the business of Magdalen-College in order to which he roundly acquaints the King That the most effectual course whereby to accomplish his design by establishing the Catholick Religion was to let his Prime Ministers and the World understand that no service they had or could do should protect them or be deemed of any account if they failed in the least Iota or minutest Circumstance relating to the Catholick Cause This Argument was so pursued with a constant uninterrupted vigour by the Nuncio and Father Peters that 't was brought to the Cabinet and upon the Seventeenth of December at NIght in this Year it was resolved That Jeffreys should be put out and that three of the Lords of the Treasury should be made Lords Commissioners of the Broad Seal and that Castlemain should be Lord Treasurer This Resolve continued not ten days but upon the suddain the Scene changed and Jeffreys fixed more firm than ever The true cause of this was never known but 't was observed that the Queen and Sunderland adhered to him This administred fresh cause of disgust to Castlemain and to the Church Party for now it began to appear that Affairs moved by the French Interest in opposition to that of Rome Such insuperable Difficulties had the Folly of that poor unfortunate King exposed him to His Zeal and Affection led him to adhere to Rome but his dependance was intirely built upon France The Church Cabal embraced the opportunity of the Lord Deputy's and Sheridon's Quarrelling wherein to recommend Castlemain as a fit person for the Government of Ireland representing to the full how injurious those Scandalous Impeachments of the Lord Deputy and Sheridon had been to and how much they had retarded the Progress of the Catholick Cause Farther urging that Tyrconnel had proceeded by too slow a motion and that he had effected nothing but the turning out of a few Soldiers and discourageing and frightening away the Industrious English who might many of them by Indulgence and Encouragement have been prevailed upon to espouse their Religion That Castlemain was a Man of great Parts and of a fine curious Head for the accomplishing of such a Work as the Reducing and Converting of Hereticks This was soon sent to Tyrconnel and by his Pensioner in London Communicated to Paris which the Deputy acquaints his two Grand States-men Rice and Neagle with who to dissipate this approaching Storm sit up Night and Day even to the hazard of Rice's Life who was an Infirm Man. Their whole Consult was as appeared afterwards what Apology to make for their small Proficiency in Proselyting Men to their Religion or at least in indearing them to the espousal of the Romish Cause and Interest and after many Essays the most Authentick was that whilst the English were Masters of their Lands they feared not the Government but as Satan answered in the Case of Job Touch them but in their Estates and they will either run into Treason or Conversion This being resolved upon Rice and Neagle were to draw up the substance of an Act which they did in that nature as gave in a manner the Lands of the whole Kingdom into the power of the King and although the Catholicks were to have but half of their Estates yet the
other part was to be under such Qualifications as that the King might dispose of it to such as he found to be obedient Sons This if the King would have pursued a Parliament they could have had when they pleased fitted for their turn all Corporations being already put into Popish hands and all the Sheriffs of the Counties being Papists would be sure not to make returns to their disadvantage This Consult being come to this ripeness 't was year 1688 concluded that Rice should go over as Plenipotentiary in negotiating this Affair which was mannaged with that privacy and reservedness that not one of the Council knew of it till the Warrant was signed for the Yatcht to carry him over But as soon as this became publick the Lord Chief Justice Nugent flew about like lightening to all his Friends to make an interest to go over with Rice which Neagle and Rice privately opposed for as one of them told the Author he was good for nothing but to spoil a business when nothing could prevail he pretended some affairs of his own and so obtained leave to go over and for the honour of the business was joined with Rice to present that which was publickly to be offered but was not in any part of the cret intriegue to render the undertaking more prosperous For the Deliverance of the Irish Nation they Embark'd upon St. Patrick's Day but considering the bad success they met with they might as well have put him out of their Kalendar as by a particular order from Rome they had formerly done St. Luke because upon that Holy-day the English had obtained a great Victory over them in the last Rebellion But to return to the Irish Embassadors for so they were called here in England over they came and after Rice had paid a Visit to the Jesuits of whose Society he was once a Novice and had been educated in their Colledge he made his first Court to the Lord Sunderland Father Peters he found not favourable to his design but the French Faction was his chief dependance to whom he had always a recourse in his private Consults without communicating any thing to his Colleague whom he kept in great ignorance of the private intriegue of Castlemain against the Lord Deputy 'T was Rice's chief business to possess the Conclave with a great opinion of the Lord Deputy's extraordinary Zeal for the promotion of the Catholick Cause and that he had made a much greater Progress in it before that time if the want of a Parliament and the continuance of the Act of Settlement had not retarded that design without which Rice alledged That 't was impossible to make Converts or to Proselyte any to their Party who thought themselves Masters of the Kingdom whilst they had the Laws on their side and made it their boast That the King durst not attempt to meddle with them So that as Affairs stood there seemed a more rational probability that the Roman Catholicks should condescend to the Protestants than they to the Roman Catholicks Thus was Rice very active and industrious in urging and propagating the intriegue which when it was fully comprehended by his Party Father Peters was with much difficulty influenced so far as to join in it though at first he could not be prevailed upon to hear of it For he was absolutely byass'd for Castlemain's interest and being no Politician but a perfect fury and of an Imperious Temper was wont to contemn every thing that was not his humour But this Project being a work of expedition in Ireland and in his own Style to Convert or Confound the Hereticks there he at last embraced it and when once he became interessed nothing must be done but by his direction and advice so 't was concluded upon that the Project should be laid open before Sunderland and that when he was made Master of it he and Father Peters would wait on the King with it And to oblige Sunderland's more chearful and hearty concurrence in this Affaiâ— he was to be made sensible what signal advantages would be derived to his Lordship from so great a Revolution in that Kingdom a matter which required no great art so to instil it into him as to make it intelligible But notwithstanding Father Peters adherence to this Project yet did he continue in his former Inclinations for removing Tyrconnel And 't was believed that happy difference among the several Romish Factions was the prime occasion of diverting this fatal blow design'd for Ireland The business was in the Closet fully discours'd to the King by none but Sunderland and Peters who with the liberty of a digression I must acquaint the Reader was not infallible in keeping Secrets The King was soon fully inclined to the thing but how to pass it at the Council Hic labor hoc opus est there lay the stress of the business for he was very apprehensive that such as were opposite to Tyrconnel's continuance in the Government of Ireland would be more violent against his being there with a Parliament too great for such a Man whom the Council had in contempt Peters thought he could easily remove that obstacle by introducing the Popes recommendation of Castlemain but over that the French King had laid his hand to whom the poor King was become a Vassal Amidst these difficulties 't was hard to form a resolution but however 't was agreed to that the two Judges should be publickly introduc'd to the King with their project for calling a Parliament in Ireland and to lay at his Majesty's feet the deplorable condition of his Catholick Subjects there occasioned by the palpable injustice and oppression of the Act of Settlement which was so notorious that the vety Protestants themselves were ashamed of it and would gladly part with enough to satisfie the Irish in case that they might have a good Act of Parliament to secure the rest All this was put in practice and they brought to Whitehall where the King received their Project in writing and told them he would advise with his Council about it Now 't was the constant method of King James in any thing of weight or importance to consider it first in the Cabal before 't was proposed at Council-Board yet this thing upon which entirely depended the Settlement or ruine of a Kingdom had not that Sanction but was carried immediately to the Council which was matter of admiration to many but supposed to be done for one of these two Reasons either that the King was conscious that those of the Cabinet would not suffer it to proceed any farther but was in hopes so to influence the Judges and other Tools he had at the Council-Board to vote for it Or else that he would shew his indifferency in the matter that so it might not be thought any private intrigue The King brought this project the first Council-day and in few words acquainted the Council with its importance and contents and by whom presented to him no man spoke a
to the Judges of Assize complaining against these insolent and irregular Proceedings of the Priests But alas it was not to be expected that these Catholick Judges would go and punish their Ghostly Fathers a very unnatural act in their Religion In short no Law would be found out to punish them all that could be gained and that very rarely was a civil admonition to them not to disturb the Protestant Clergy in their rights and the like and so were dismissed how plain soever the Matter of Fact was proved against them By this it seemed that those of the Clergy though not the most Couragious yet were the most Politick who dealt privately with the Priests and by fair words and considerable Largesses of Tythe-Corn c. prevail'd upon them to be quiet for the meek and filial regard of these Judges to their Worthy Fathers served but to make them the more insulting and imperious over the Ministers who still animated the Countrey against them and at last to that height that several of the Irish in many Parishes violently seized upon the Tythe-Corn c. and converted it to their own use neither suffering any other to buy it nor any Servant of the Ministers to come upon the Land to collect it But to leave this Affair of the Clergy and to joyn them and the Laity together if it happened that for money due by Bills under Hand and Seal or by clear and unquestionable Evidence Executions were obtain'd from the Judges against any of the Irish then had the Natives another refuge to shelter themselves under and to fly to that of an Irish Sheriff who would carefully decline all opportunities of taking the Party or if he could not avoid apprehending him then would either suffer him to make a voluntary escape or else an hundred two of Men should lie in the way and rescue him from the Gaol or if they wanted force the whole Countrey of the Irish would rise up and assist them if the Debt was due to an English Churle as they called them These things so encouraged the Irish that had Executions over them that they would come and hector those of the English to whom they owed the Money in the open street and with their Swords by their sides and Fire-Arms and Skeens in their Pockets the last a bloody large Knife with which they are wont to stab the English and not seldom one another with half a dozen or more lusty Rogues at their backs would come to their Doors and bid them publick defiance Thus were the English either deny'd justice against the Irish or if they obtain'd it from the Judges yet they were sure not to meet with it in the Sheriff and so have no other return of all their trouble but the contracting additional cost to their former Debt from one Assizes to another which was like to continue in infinitum and all to no purpose unless that of enhansing the charges far above the principal Debt and still be out of both On the contrary hand if an Irish-man had but any tolerable plea for a debt due from a Protestant a decree was presently granted and as for the Sheriffs execution of it 't was as swift as his implacable hatred could carry him and then be sure no failure was committed in the severe usage of the Debtor whether in relation to Body or Goods If the last then must three times value of the Debt be taken and apprais'd by Irish-men appointed for the purpose who the Reader may presume would not put too large an estimate upon them 't would fill a Volume to give the particular instances of such violent and irregular actions done to the Authors own knowledge But I proceed Now came by a Ship from Amsterdam bound to year 1688 Dublin with Letters from a Friend of Tyrconnel's to him which intimated that he writing nothing but his own Conjecture did imagin that the Prince of Orange had a design against England for none could otherwise guess what all those great preparations in Holland which they were so extream hot upon tended to Tyrconnell sent this Letter over to Sunderland who shew'd it to the King who made no other use of it than to deride Tyrconnel as appear'd from Sunderland's Writing to him and ridiculing his intelligence But every day usher'd in fresh suspicions the effect whereof was look'd upon as very strange as being a thing which was wish'd for both by Friends and Enemys The Irish to shew their ancient Vanity triumphed before the Victory They called the English Rebels by way of Prediction for they were sure that they would joyn with the Prince and as certain that they would be beaten and be served the same sawce that Monmouth and his Adherents had met with only that they now spoke more bloodily and in more Malicious and Butcherly expressions against the Prince of Orange Whose Head they would stick on a Pole and carry it round the Kingdom For near a Month this was only discoursed of but at last arrived King James's Proclamation and then the English began to consider what they should do The most considerable persons amongst them hastened to Dublin to see how things stood The Irish also flocked thither in such Multitudes that the City could not contain them yet the soberer and more prudent party were for sitting still and some for going over to England as being differently possessed with various fears and distractions and when the happy News arriv'd of the Prince's Landing they hung down their Heads like Bullrushes and were under the greatest desperation and despondency and on the contrary the English bore up as victors Tyrconnell courted them and made every day preparations for flight Yet the Term was then begun at Dublin and the Ld. C. J. Nugent than whom perhaps the Bench never bore a more Confident Ignorant Irish-man gave the Charge to the Grand Jury in which he applauded and extolled above the height of an Hyperbole the Magnanimous and Heroick Actions of the Great and Just King James and on the contrary cast the most vilifying Reproaches upon the Prince of Orange and charged them to make a diligent disquisition after any that were suspected to adhere to his interest with such opprobious expressions fit only for the Mouth of an Irish Vultur or Cannibal his conclusion was That now the States of Holland were weary of the Prince and that they had sent him over to be dress'd as Monmouth was but that was too good for him And that he doubted not before a Month passed to hear that they were hung up all over England in Bunches like Ropes of Onyons About this time as a Prelude to what has since year 1688 followed was one Swan a Gentleman near Dublin most barbarously Murthered by the Sheriff and a parcel of Irish Ruffins The pretence the Sheriff had was to take possession of some Land that an Irishman had recovered from the said Swan but with so little right that the Irish Judges in the Exchequer
People in the time of Divine Service in some places which struck them with such suddain apprehensions of immediate destruction that the Doors not allowing quick passage enough by reason of the Crowd abundance of persons made their escapes out of the Windows and in the greatest fright and disorder that can be represented the Men leaving their Hats and Perriwigs behind them some of them had their Cloaths torn to pieces others were trampled underfoot and the Women in a worse condition than the men And this disturbance did not only continue for this day but for several Sundays after the Protestants were in such a Consternation and terrour that all or most of them carried Fire Arms and other Weapons to Church with them and the very Ministes went armed into the Pulpit and Centinels stood at the Church doors all the while that they were in the Church But whether this which created so great a fear and uproar among the Protestants in all parts of the Kingdom were a real thing designed or whether by that discovery prevented I leave it to others to judge and determin but certain it is that never any thing which happened in the Kingdom no not all the occasions of fear which were given to the English in the daily Progress of Popery in the late King James's Reign or even that of Tyrconnel's coming to the Government made so great a fright among the Protestants as this From this time we may commence those unheard year 1688 of acts of rapin and spoil which the Irish began to exercise upon the English such unparallel'd Villanies of open Robbery and Violence as no History can equalize no time produce or scarce any Nation however so barbarous have been known to be guilty of at least never any that had the Culture of a Moral much less of a Christian Education or that were so far civilized as to be reduced to any sense of humanity or to submission to Law and Government 'T was a Principle long imbibed by the Natives of that Kingdom and which a continued practice had given some proof and demonstration of that 't was no crime to rob or steal from an English-man as being an Heretick and deem'd a publick enemy to their Religion as well as to their individual interests Though this principle was too notorious to be own'd and defended and in that respect is of a like cognation with too many of the Romish Church yet their actions evidenced the truth of it I mean not of the Principle it self but of their being of that Opinion For 't was plain that their forbearing to ravage and destroy the substance of the English when under the Protestant Government was to be attributed to a fear of the Laws or rather of the Penalties annexed to the breach of them which had hitherto in some measure curb'd and restrained them from violence and not to any Principle of Conscience or distributive Justice On the contrary they were so far from respecting it as a Crime to injure the English in what they could as is already touched upon that they look'd upon it as an act of merit Quo jure quâque injuriâ per fasque nefasque If they could contrive any way to prejudice them in their substance or Estates though by the most sinister and impious devices 't was a lessening of the Purgatory Flames if not a quite Extinguishing at least 't was a nearer step to Paradise But although this vile Maxim was industriously conceal'd amongst them and though at the bottom of their hearts did only break out now and then whilst they were kept under submission and obedience to the English and this for fear of an Human not any Divine Law yet when the face of things chang'd to their advantage in the Reign of the late King James and amongst many others the Laws against notorious Criminals and publick Malefactors if Irish men if not quite cancell'd were much dispensed with Then the Natives shewed themselves in their proper Colours and manfully apply'd themselves to rob and steal from the English which though it was a continued practice in all the aforesaid Reign yet never arriv'd to its maturity till this time Now all things were in confusion and the Reins of Government seemed to be let loose by reason of the present Distractions This therefore they looked upon to be their Harvest which they were resolved to make use of as industriously as they could and in order thereunto would go in great Crouds in the Night-time with Fire Arms and other Weapons and steal an hundred or two hundred Head of Cattle at once from an English-man This practice continued so long till many English Gentlemen and substantial Farmers who had several hundreds of Black Cattle and Sheep c. had not one left so that those who had lived in great Hospitality and Plenty had not now Bread to eat or any thing left to preserve them from starving This Calamity was almost Universal throughout the whole Kingdom though in some Counties more than in others and I have been told That in some County in the Province of Munster Eleven Thousand Cattle were stole by the Irish in nine days and that hardly one English Gentleman or Farmer i◠〈…〉 Countrey had above two or three Cows left and that for forty Miles together the Irish Cabbins were full of Beef stolen from the English which they did not so much as bestow Salt upon but hung it 〈…〉 â—â—oak and that it stunk and look'd as bad as any Carrion This I have by relatâ—â—◠〈◊〉 that County who are persons of very good Credit but not being an Eye-witness of it shall leave it to the Reader to judge only this is certain That an incredible havock was made by the Irish in all parts of the Kingdom But I leave these Cannibals to devour one another after consuming in this Barbarous and Impolitick manner the Cattle and Breed of the Countrey which in all probability will occasion a famine or very great scarcity in that miserable Kingdom 'T was exceeding strange and unaccountable to see the English possess'd with such various distractions upon the news of the intended Massacre already mentioned some running to the North of Ireland among the Scots others to the Isle of Mâ—n and abundance for England to shelter themselves when at the same time all that had any sense believed that Tyrconnel would be the first Man in the Government that would endeavour his Escape for most of his Goods of value were already pack'd up and some of his Treasure Ship'd In this posture they continued till January and then some of the Irish Lords moved to have him surrender the Sword and the whole Council board gave it for their opinion to which he only replied Would they have him throw it over the Wall for there was none to take it Thus unhappy was the delay which with too much reason may be feared to lie at the Door of Sir 〈…〉 â—here and his friend Keating in Ireland
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