Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A67872
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Fourteen papers
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1689
(1689)
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Wing B5794; ESTC R23746
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134,299
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83
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would compare its Condition with what it is now from the most thriving and flourishing Country of Europe from a place of the briskest Trade and best paid Rents in Christendom it is fallen in one Year and a half 's time to Ruine and Desoration in the most frequent Cities empty Houses and melancholy Countenances in the best Peopl'd Counties unmanur'd neglected Fields and Solitariness Such a one I say might justly exclaim Heu Quantum mutatus ab illo But it would be impertinent to insist any longer on this I must now prove That 't is the advantage of the very Natives themselves who have long been uneasie under the English Government and often endeavour'd to shake it off to be Rul'd and Guided by that Nation they hate so much They are beholding to us for reducing them from a state of Barbarity which left but little difference between them and Brutes We taught them to Live to Eat Drink and Lodge like humane Creatures if they esteem this any advantage and do not really prefer their Native Wildness to all the Benefits of Civil Society Trade Agriculture Merchandizing Learning c. and if the gentleness of the English Government could have had any influence on them they had no reason to be discontented at it They had the equal Protection of the Laws in relation to their Estates and Persons they bore but their just proportion in all Taxes and Cesses Their Lands improv'd in value by the means of their British Neighbours and their Rents were much better paid than formerly whil'st themselves were Masters of the whole Island They had a large connivance for the exercise of their Religion and were even allowed to hold a National Synod of their own Clergy in Dublin Anno 1666. The poor Natives were not oppressed when their severe Land-lords the Irish Gentry by their cruel Extortions Casherings Duties and Days Labour ruin'd them who as soon as the English Manners prevailed among them as they were introduced with difficulty enough there was need of the Authority of Acts of Parliament to constrain them for their own good lived plentifully and in convenient Houses had their share of the current Coyn and proportion of all other Necessaries to the life and well-being of Man which now they want insomuch that several of them have been heard to Curse my Lord Tyrconnel for to his Government they attribute their Misery and acknowledge they never liv'd so well as under the Direction of the English Rulers nor expected to do so again till they were restored to the Helm See the force of Truth which compels a consession of it even from the mouths of its Adversaries One may easily perceive by our Author's manner of arguing where the Shooe pinches he is really concern'd that Ireland is not altogether an independent Kingdom and in the hands of its own Natives he longs till the day when the English Yoak of Bondage shall be thrown off Of this he gives us broad hints when he tells us that England is the only Nation in the World that impedes their Trade That a man of English interest will never Club with them as he phrases it or Project any thing which may tend to their advantage that will be the least bar or prejudice to the Trade of England Now why a man of English interest unless he will allow none of that Nation to be an able and just Minister to his Prince should be partial to ruine one Kingdom to avoid the least inconveniency of the other contrary to the positive Commands of his King I cannot imagine For since it is the Governour 's Duty to Rule by Law and such Orders as he shall receive from His Majesty I know no grounds for our Author 's Arraigning the whole English Nation in saying That no one man among them of what Perswasion soever will be true either to the Laws or his Majesty's positive Orders which shall seem repugnant to the smallest Conveniencies of England This is a glory reserv'd only as it seemes for his Hero my Lord Tyrconnel The Imbargo upon the West-India Trade and the Prohibition of Irish Cattel are the two Instances given It were to be wished indeed for the good of that Kingdom that both were taken off and I question not but to see a day wherein it shall seem proper to the King and an English Parliament to Repeal those Laws a day wherein they will consider us as their own Flesh and Bloud a Colony of their Kindred and Relations and take care of our Advantages with as little grudging and repining I am sure they have the same and no stronger Reason as Cornwall does at Yorkshire There are instances in several Islands in the East-Indies as far distant as Ireland is from England that make up but one Kingdom and Govern'd by the same Laws but the Wisdom of England will not judge it time sitting to do this till we of Ireland be one Man's Children either in Reality or Affection we wish the latter and have made many steps and advances towards it if the Natives will not meet us half way we cannot help it let the Event lie at their own Doors But after all I see not how those Instances have any manner of relation to the English Chief Governours in Ireland they were neither the Causes Contrivers nor Promoters of those Acts. The King and an English Parliament did it without consulting them if they had 't is sorty to one My Lord of Ormond and the Council whose stake is so great in Ireland would have hindred it as much as possible Our Author's Argument proves indeed That 't is detrimental to Ireland to be a subordinate Kingdom to England and 't is plain 't is that he drives at let him disguise it as much as he will but the Conclusion he would prove cannot at all be deduced from it Shortly I expect he will speak plainer and in down-right terms propose That the two Kingdoms may be governed by different Kings Matters seem to grow ripe for such a â—… Proposition â—… Acts and not the subjection to an â—… â—… were the Grievances they would be so â—… British there as well as to the Natives but though we wish them Repealed we do not repine in the mean time if the British who are the most considerable Trading part of that Nation and consequently seel the ill effects of those Acts more sensibly can be contented why the Natives should not acquiesce in it unless it be for the forementioned Reasons I cannot see Our Author allows that there are different ways of obeying the King 't is a Point gained for us and proves there may be such a partiality exercised in executing His Majesty's Commands as may destroy the very intent of them and yet taking the matter strictly the King is obeyed but a good Minister will consider his Masters Intention and not make use of a word that may have a double sence to the ruine of a Kingdom nor of a latitude of power
If in a Country whose â—… was perfectly in the English hands so sudden an alteration was made that both the Courts of Judicature and Charters of their Corporations were taken from them without any fault of theirs have they not reason to complain and be affraid If those very Arms which are taken from them be put into the hands of their sworn Enemies and their just Debts paid after a new Method by beating or killing the Creditors when they demand their own Have they not reason to fear and desert the Kingdom If these and an hundred other things do not justifie the retreat of several of the British into England I know not what shall be adjudged a sufficient Reason This our Author would insinuate is caused by a sullen Combination as if the Gentry of a Nation could agree together to do a thing so contrary to their visible Interest as desert their Houses and Estates to the loss of one half of them meerly out of spite to the Government But because our Author is so good at his Narratives and would induce the World to believe that there was but two Regiments disbanded by his talking only of two and in another place speaking of some Officers that were Cashiered We shall hereafter give a faithful Account of the Proceedings in the business of Disbanding and in the mean time affirm That his whole Account of the Affair at Molingar is most unsincere The English Soldiers were given to understand that they were all to be turned out and the only Grace his Excellency did them was to declare before a long and tedious March That such as had a mind or had Settlements in that Country might better quit then than hereafter This is plainly shewn by the turning out afterwards all those English who then actually continued in the Service they were glad that any would quit voluntarily but those that did not and after a publick Tryal were willing to serve His Majesty they soon after turn'd out Thus the false gloss that our Author puts upon my Lord Tyrconnel's Speech is discover'd And I assure the Reader the Memoires I have by me are from such unquestionable hands and there are so many hundred living Witnesses to the truth of them that our Author will not have the Impudence to deny what may be prov'd before His Majesty if he require it I shall only take notice of the ill Application of our Author's Sea-Metaphor Though in stress of Weather the Owner is willing to make use of all hands that may be helpful towards the saving the Vessel yet he takes care to call for none whose practice it hath been to cut the Tacklings and to steer contrary to the Pilot's Directions he thinks such safer by far shut up under Hatches then set at liberty or employ'd to do mischief As for his supposition of 30000 men to be sent out of Ireland into Flanders I cannot tell what to make on 't Let them crack the Shell that hope to find a Kernel in it For my part I despair though the readiness of the English Soldiers of Ireland who at twenty four hours warning came into England to serve His Majesty in the time of Monmouth's Rebellion ought to have been remembered to their advantage and might serve to any unprejudic'd person as a Pattern of the Loyalty and good Inclinations of all the Protestants in that Kingdom if His Majesty had had occasion â—… them Whether the Parliament will Repeal â—… Test for those several weighty Reasons our Author says are fitter for Contemplation then Discourse tho methinks it would be pleasant to see a House of Commons sit like the Brethren at a silent Meeting is not my Province to determine As likewise Whether they will so much consider that â—… Reason the King will have it so for his Conscience and theirs may differ or what the Dissenters will do I cannot tell One thing I am sure â—… there will be no such Stumbling-block in the â—… of the King's desires when they meet as the present condition of Ireland they will be apt â—… His Majesty tells them they shall have their â—… shares in Employments when they have Repealed the Laws to say Look at Ireland see what is done there where the Spirit of Religion appears â—… fac'd and accordingly compute what may become of us when we have removed our own legal â—… Since they now leap over those Hedges what may we expect when they are quite taken away Poyning's Law is a great grievance to our Author and here in one word he discovers that 't is the dependance this Kingdom has on England he quarrel at 'T is fit the Reader should understand that Law enacted when Poynings was Lord Deputy make all the English Acts of Parliament of force in Ireland we are therefore so fond of that Law and cover so much to preserve our dependance on England that all the Arguments our Author can bring shall not induce us to part with it I will not reflect in the least on the Courage of the Irish I know there are several brave men among them but they have had the misfortune to fall under the Consideration of as our Author softens â—… but the plain sence is been beaten by a Warlike Nation and I question not unless they behave themselves modestly in their Prosperity they will again fall under the Consideration of the same Nation 't is better we should live in peace and quietness but the Choice is in their hands and if they had rather come under our Consideration again than avoid it let them look to the Consequence Another Advantage which may accrue to Ireland by a Native as Governour our Author â—… to be His personal knowledge of the Tories and their Harbourers and his being thereby better capacitated to suppress them Malicious People would be apt to infer from this Suggestion that his Excellency had occasion formerly to be familiarly acquainted with such sort of Cattle I have heard indeed that one of our bravest English Princes â—… the during the Extravagancies of his Youth â—… company with publick Robbers and often shar'd both in the Danger and Booty But as soon as the Death of his Father made way for his Succession to the Crown he made â—… of his former acquaintance of their Persons and â—… to the extirpating and dissolving the greatest knot of Highway-men that ever troubled England My Lord therefore in imitation of his great Prince no doubt will make use of his Experience that way to the same end and I really assent to the Author that no English Governor can be so fit to clear that Kingdom of Tories and that for the same reason he gives us There are two other Advantages remaining one is his Excellency's having already made different Parties in that Kingdom the Objects of his Love and Hatred let the Offences of the one or the Merits of the other be never so conspicuous Whether the British can draw any comfort from his Excellency's knowledge of