beating and injuring Protestants ibid. 12. In disarming them p. 67 13. The Dispensing Power of more mischief still than ill Administration First Only to be allowed in Cases of Necessity ibid. 14. Secondly In such Cases the People have as much right to it as the King Instance in the Sheriff of Warwickshire from Dr. Sanderson p. 68 15. Thirdly The wickedness either in King or People in pretending Necessity where there is none p. 69 16. King James's employing Popish Officers was such a Dispensation ibid. 17. And no Necessity for it unless such as was Criminal p. 70 18. King James dispensed with all when it was against Protestants p. 71 Sect. 4. Thirdly King James's dealing with Civil Offices and the Privy Council p. 72 1. Several outed notwithstanding Patents ibid. 2. Act of Parliament for voyding Patents Irish hereby made Keepâ—rs of Records which before they had corrupted when they could get to them p. 73 3. Revenue Officers changed for Roman Catholicks though to the Prejudice of the Revenue p. 74 4. Sheriffs and Justices of Peace from the Scum of the People ibid. 5. Privy-Councellors all in effect Papists p. 76 Sect. 5. Fourthly King James's dealing with Corporations p. 77 1. The Peoples security in these Kingdoms is the choice of Representatives in Parliament To preserve this Papists excluded from Corporations in Ireland Protestants had made great Concessions to the King by their New Rules for Corporations The King not satisfied with this but would have all p. 77 78 2. Rice and Nagle's managing of Quo Warranto's a horrid Abuse of the Kings Prerogative and the Law p. 78 79 3. Other methods of destroying Charters p. 80 4. Particular Corporations in Dublin how ordered ibid. 5. Voyding Charters led to voyding Parents for Estates ibid. 6. Corporations by the New Charters made absolute Slaves to the Kings Will. First by Consequence no free Parliament could be Returned Secondly Protestants could not serve in the Corporations p. 80 81 7. Protestants hereby driven from the Kingdom ibid. Sect. 6. Fifthly King James's Destruction of the Trade p. 82 1. Trade to be destroyed that the King might have his Will of his Subjects Poor People willing to serve for little in an Army as in France ibid. 2. In order to ruin the Protestants who were the chief Traders Driven hereby out of the Kingdom p. 83 3. This ruined a great many that depended on them ibid. 4. The Irish in employ who had the ready Mony gave it only to Papist Tradesmen p. 84 5. Exactions of the Revenue-Officers great discouragement to Merchants and Traders p. 85 6. Protestant Shoopkeepers quitted for fear of being forced to Trust ibid. 7. Transportation of Wooll connived at by Lord Tirconnell to ruin our woollen Trade p. 86 8. Roman Catholick principal Traders ruined also by King James by the Act of Repeal p. 87 Sect. 7. Sixthly King James's Destruction of our Liberty p. 88 1. No general Pardon at King James's Accession to the Crown Protestants hereby questioned for things in the Popish Plot on false Evidences ibid. 2. Protestants sworn into Plots and seditious Words Instance 1. In County Meath 2. In County Tipperary p. 88 89 3. New Magistrates in Corporations plagued Protestants p. 90 4. New Levies and Rapparee's imprisoned those that resisted their Robberies Instance in Mr. Brice of Wicklow Maxwel and Levis Queens County Sir Laurence Parsons p. 91 5. General imprisonment of Protestants from Midsummer 1689. to Christmas No Habeas Corpus's allowed Protestants of Drogheda barbarously used at the Siege and of the County of Cork by imprisonments p. 92 93 6. Hard Usage of Protestants in Prisons Powder placed to blow them up Leak's Evidence against the Prisoners in Dublin defeated by an Accident p. 93 7. K. James aware of all the ill Treatment of Protestants informed at large by the Bishop of Limrick All Protestants confined by his Proclamation to their Parishes p. 94 8. Arts to conceal this in England Intollerable staying in Ireland Necessary to close in with King William p. 95 Sect. 8. Seventhly King James's destruction of our Estates 1. By disarming the Protestants by Lord Tirconnell p. 97 1. Government dissolved that does not preserve Property ibid. 2. The Irish very low at the Prince of Oranges's Invasion Would easily have been brought to submit Protestants able to have mastered them Lord Mountjoy opposed seizing Tirconnell p. 97 98 3. Protestants resolved not to be the Aggressors were inclined to submit to King James till they found his destructive designs Monsieur d' Avaux complained of the Measures put on King James by Tirconnell p. 98 99 4. Tirconnell's Arts and Lyes to gain time pretending to be ready to submit to King William till he form'd his new Levies Lord Chief Justice Keatings Letters and Observations on it p. 99 5. New Levies necessary to be subsisted on Plunder This gave credit to the Letter to Lord Mount Alexander Decemb. 6. 1688. p. 101 6. And made Derry shut its Gates against the Earl of Antrims Regiment p. 102 7. Obliged to do thus by their Foundation p. 103 8. Provoked to it by the unjust taking away their Charter p. 104 9. This made also the Enniskiliners refuse two Companies sent by Lord Tirconnell and the Northern Gentlemen to enter into an Association for their own defence ibid. 10. Lord Tirconnell hastened to run them into blood before King James's coming p. 106 11. Justification of their declaring for their present Majesties ibid. 12. Their defence of themselves of great benefit to the Protestant Cause and almost miraculous p. 107 13. Lord Tirconnell's Lyes and Wheedles to Lord Mountjoy to send him to France p. 109 14. Lord Mountjoy's Reasons to accept it Articles granted to him by Tirconnell for the Protestants not kept p. 110 15. Lord Tirconnell proceeds to disarm the Protestants Manner of doing it and taking away their Horses A perfect Dragooning p. 111 16. Proclamation issued after it had been done by verbal Orders p. 113 17. The Arms for the most part embezled by the Soldiers who took them This had like to have occasioned a worse Dragooning prevented by the Bishop of Meath p. 113 114 18. The manner of taking up and embezling Horses p. 114 19. Miserable condition of the Protestants being disarmed amongst their Irish Enemies Protestants had the highest Legal Property in their Arms. The Government by taking them away must design their ruin p. 115 20. No Reason for disarming us but to make us a Prey p. 116 21. It was necessary in King James's Circumstances but the Necessity occasioned by his own fault ibid. Sect. 9. Secondly Lord Tirconnell's Attempts on the Protestants Personal Fortunes p. 117 1. Which he destroyed by encouraging Popish Tenants against their Protestant Landlords and swearing them into Plots Gentlemen forced to live for some time before the Turn on their Stocks p. 117 118 2. Forced into England with little ready Mony Many burnt out of their Houses in the Country Many robbed and some murthered
and intended more if their Power had continued 11. The Deputy-Mayor of Dublin Edmund Reily issued out an Order dated Sept. 27. 1689. for regulating the Rates of Provisions Country Goods and Manufactories to be sold in the City of Dublin in which he took care to set a very low Rate on such Goods as were then most in the hands of Protestants the Rate at which he ordered them to be sold was not one half of what they generally yielded When therefore any Papist had a mind to put off his Brass Mony he went to some Protestant Neighbor whom he knew to have a quantity of these Goods offered him the Mayor's Rate in Brass and carried away the Goods by Force This was practised even by the Lady Tyrconnel and several of their Grandees But the case was otherwise with Papists they sold at what Rate they pleased not minding the Proclamation of which Alderman Reily who issued it was an Instance He had a quantity of Salt in his hands and sold it at excessive Rates above what he compelled Protestants to part with theirs Complaint was made against him and he was indicted at the Tholsel which is the City Court that very Term in which the Proclamation came out upon the Traverse the Petty-Jury found him guilty and the Court Fin'd him in an 100 l. but all this was only a Blind for the Sheriffs set him at Liberty on his Parole after he was committed to them He brought his Writ of Error returnable into the King's-Bench but the Record was never remov'd nor the Fine levied And the Consequence was that neither he nor any Papist took notice of the Order and yet kept it in its full Force against Protestants 12. They saw therefore that it was resolved to leave them nothing that was easily to be found for Sir Thomas Hacket had made a Proposal to Seize Feather-Beds and other Furniture of Houses alledging that they would be good Commodities in France upon which the Protestants thought it the best way to exchange what Brass Mony they had into Silver and Gold and gave 2 l. 10 s. 3 l. 4 l. and at last 5 l. for a Guiney but even so 't was thought too beneficial for them and to stop it they procured a Proclamation dated June 15. 1690. whereby it is made Death to give above 1 l. 18 s. for a Guiney or for a Louis d'Or above 1 l. 10 s. c. The Papists needed not fear a Proclamation or the Penalty of it they had Interest enough to avoid it and therefore still bought up Gold at what rate they pleased but if any Protestant had been found Transgressing he must have expected the utmost Severity 13. And thus the case stood when His Majesty's Victory at the Boyn delivered us and let any one judge whether we had reason to be pleased with the Success and gratefully receive him that came to restore to us not only our Goods and Fortunes but the very Necessaries of Life and what Obligations we could have of Fidelity or Allegiance to King James who treated us plainly as Prisoners of War and as Enemies not Subjects and by designing and endeavoring our Ruin declared in effect he would govern us no longer but more expresly at his going away freely allowed us to shift for our selves and advised those about him both at the Boyn when he quitted the Field and the next Morning in Council at the Castle of Dublin to make the best Terms they could and quietly submit to the Conqueror who he said was a Merciful Prince SECT XII King James destroyed the Real as well as the Personal Estates of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland 1. THere remains yet to be spoken of a third part of the Property belonging to Protestants I mean their Real Estates and care was effectually taken to divest them of these as well as of their Personal Fortunes Their Estates of Inheritance were either acquir'd before the Year 1641. and were call'd Old Interest or else since that time and pass'd by the name of New Interest The greater part of Estates belonging to Protestants were of this last sort and they stood on this ground The Papists of Ireland as I have noted before had raised a most Horrid Rebellion against the King and Barbarously Murthered some Hundred Thousands of Protestants in Cold Blood in 1641. for which most of their Gentry were indicted and outlawed by due course of Law and consequently their Estates forfeited The English after a War of twelve Years reduced them with vast Expence of Blood and Treasure and according to an Act of Parliament past 17 Car. I. at Westminster the forfeited Estates were to be disposed of When King Charles II. was restored he restored many of the Papists and after two years Deliberation and the full hearing of all Parties before himself and Council in England he pass'd an Act in a Parliament held at Dublin commonly call'd The Act of Settlement whereby a general Settlement was made of the Kingdom and Commissioners appointed to hear and determine every Man's Claim After this upon some Doubts that arose another Act pass'd 17 Car. II. commonly call'd The Act of Explanation which made a further and final Settlement Every Protestant made his Claim before the Commissioners of Claims and was forced to prosecute it at vast Expences After this he got a Certificate from those Commissioners of what appear'd to belong to him for Arrears or Debentures and having retrenched a third of what was actually set out to him and in his Possession and paid one Years full improv'd value of what remain'd every Man pass'd a Patent for it a certain considerable yearly Rent called Quit-rent being reserved to the King out of every Acre these two Acts of Parliament at Dublin with that and other Acts at Westminster together with a Certificate from the Court of Claims and Letters Patents from the King pursuant to the Certificate from the Commissioners made up the Title which two thirds of the Protestants in Ireland had to their Estates Those Papists that had forfeited in 1641. were commonly known by the Name of Old Proprietors who notwithstanding their Outlawries and Forfeitures and the Acts of Parliament that were against them still kept up a kind of Claim to their forfeited Estates they were still suggesting new Scruples and Doubts and either disturbing the Protestant Possessors with Suits in which by Letters from Court they obtained Favour from some of the Judges or else threatning them with an after-reckoning The Protestants earnestly desired a New Parliament which might settle things beyond any Doubt and cut the Papists off from their Hopes and Expectations but King James when Duke of York had so great Interest with his Brother King Charles II. that he kept off a Parliament against all the Sollicitations that could be made for it for Twenty four Years to the no small Damage of the Kingdom on other accounts as well as this and he so encouraged those forfeiting Proprietors and
came to be concluded not enduring to be present at the passing of that and some other Barbarous Acts against which they found their Votes signified nothing while they staid There were four more Protestants return'd of whose Behaviour I can give no account or how they came to be return'd The generality of the Houses consisted of the Sons and Descendents of the Forfeiting Persons in 1641. Men that had no Freeholds or Estates in the Kingdom but were purposely elected to make themselves Estates by taking them away from Protestants 15. Now whilst the power of making and repealing Laws was in such hands what Security could Protestants promise themselves from any Laws or what probability was there that any Laws already made in their Favour would be continued Especially if we consider further that this Parliament openly profess'd it self a Slave to the King's Will and he was look'd on as Factiously and Rebelliously inclin'd that would dare to move any thing after any Favorite in the House had affirm'd that it was contrary to the King's pleasure Several Bills were begun in the House of Commons one for erecting an Inns of Court another for repealing an Act commonly call'd Poinings Act which requires that all Acts should be perused by the King and Council of England before they be offered to be pass'd by the Parliament in Ireland but King James signified his Dissatisfaction to these Bills and for that reason they and several others were let fall tho the Irish had talk'd much and earnestly desir'd the Repeal of Poinings Act it being the greatest Sign and means of their Subjection to England There was a doubt made in the House concerning the Earl of Strafford whether he should be attainted for Estate and Life several moved in his behalf but it was carried against him upon this Evidence Colonel Simon Lutterell affirmed in the House That he had heard the King say some hard things of him The King's pleasure therefore was the Law to which we were to trust for our Lives and Fortunes our Enemies having entirely engross'd the power of making and repealing Laws and devolved it on the King's pleasure the very Protestant Lords and Bishops being denied their Priviledge of entering their Protestations against such Votes as they conceiv'd Destructive to the Kingdom The King told them That Protestations against Votes were only used in Rebellious times and with much ado they were allowed to enter their Dissent tho after that was allowed them the Clerk of the Parliament one Polewheele a Nephew of Chancellor Fitton 's shifted them off and did not enter their Dissent to some Votes tho often sollicited and press'd to do it according to the Orders of the House 16. When King James had labour'd as much as in him lay to get a Parliament that would repeal the Penal Laws and Test in England and open the Houses to Papists he found at last that the great Obstacle that rendered the Kingdom so averse to this was the general Fear and Apprehension that the Legislative Authority would be engross'd by them and turn'd against Protestants this was so obvious and reasonable a Surmise that he knew there was no hopes that the People would side with him against their present Majesties if something were not done to satisfie them and therefore to remove this fear he published his Proclamation dated Sept. 20. 1688. wherein he declares himself willing that Roman Catholicks should remain incapable to be Members of the House of Commons if the Protestants of England had reason to apprehend that Papists would engross the Legislative Authority in England and from the Example of Queen Mary's House of Commons to dread such Law givers how much more reason had the Protestants of Ireland to dread that power when entirely engrossed by their most inveterate Popish Enemies whose Interest as well as Religion oblig'd them to divest all those that profess'd the Reform'd Religion not only of the Favour but likewise of the Benefits of Law 17. They sate from the Seventh of May till the Twentieth of July following and in that short time entirely destroy'd the Settlement of Ireland and outed both the Protestant Clergy and Laity of their Freeholds and Inheritances It is not to be exspected I should give an account of all their Acts that which concerns this present Section is to shew how they destroy'd the Protestants real Estates 1. And that was first by an Act of Repeal whereby they took away the Acts of Settlement and Explanation by virtue of which as I have already shew'd two thirds of the Protestants of the Kingdom held their Estates that is all that which is call'd New Interest was lost by this Repeal there is no consideration had in it how any Man came to his Estate but tho he purchased it at ever so dear a rate he must lose it and it is to be restor'd without Exception to the Proprietor or his Descendent that had it before October 22. 1641. upon what account soever he lost it tho they themselves did not deny but many deserv'd to lose their Estates even Sir Phelim O Neal's Son the great Murtherer and Rebel was restor'd 2. In order to make a final Extirpation of Protestants they contrive and pass an Act of Attainder by which all Protestants whose Names they could find of all Ages Sexes and Degrees are attainted of High Treason and their Estates vested in the King the pretence of this Attainder was their being out of the Kingdom at the time of passing the Act as shall be shewn in the next Section 3. Least some should be forgotten of those that were absent and not put into the Bill of Attainder they contriv'd a general Clause in the Act of Repeal whereby the real Estates of all who Dwelt or staid in any place of the three Kingdoms which did not own King Jame's Power or corresponded with any such as they term Rebels or were any ways aiding abetting or assisting to them from the First day of August 1688. are declared to be forfeited and vested in his Majesty and that without any Office or Inquisition found thereof By which Clause almost every Protestant that could Write in the Kingdom had forfeited his Estate for the Packets went from London to Dublin and back again constantly from August to March 1688. and few had Friends in England or in the North but corresponded with them by Letters and every such Letter is made by this clause a Forfeiture of Estate They had intercepted and search'd every Packet that went or came the later part of this time and kept vast Heaps of Letters which were of no Consequence at all to the Government we wondered what the meaning of their doing so should be but by this Parliament we came to understand it for now these Letters were produced as Evidences in the House of Commons against those that appear'd in behalf of their absent Friends or oppos'd the attainting of such Protestants as they had some kindness for and they were
this but rather than depend on the Faith of King James or his Party chose to suffer the utmost Extremity The Breach of Articles by my Lord Galmoy to Mr. Dixey a Young Gentleman Son to the Dean of Kilmore and Mr. Charlton was yet more barbarous the Lord Galmoy went down in March 168 to the County of Cavan and surpriz'd these two Gentlemen he had a Party of the Army with him and took up his Quarters at Belturbet His two Prisoners were to be exchanged for one Captain Mac Gwire then Prisoner at Crum a small Castle and the only place that stood out against King James in that County the owner of the Castle was one Captain Creighton who permitted Captain Mac Gwire to go to Belturbet on his parol to be a true Prisoner Mac Gwire so negotiated the matter that he return'd with a Summons and proposals as well for Inniskilling as the Castle of Crum and he suppos'd them not averse to a Surrender on good terms but the Lord Galmoy immagined that these Proposals would make the People of Crum secure and therefore that very Night without waiting for any answer he march'd to the Castle before they were aware and had almost surpriz'd them but the resolution of those within prevented the success of his perfidious design and forc'd him back without being able to do any other mischeif than the venting his Anger on his two Prisoners whom after his return to Belturbet he contrary to his Faith and Engagement hang'd on a Sign-Post and suffer'd their Bodies to lie unburied and be barbarously abused This was Captain Mac Gwires own account of the matter the consequence of which falshood was that those People would never hear of any terms afterwards and upon trial found much more safety in their Arms than in the Promises of King James or of any of his Party having baffled and cut off several considerable Bodies of his Forces sent against them and taken many and considerable prisoners whom yet they used with all Humanity as it were to reproach the barbarous and perfidious usage which their Prisoners met with but it was avowed and profest by the generality of King James's Men that they did not look on themselves to be obliged to treat the Rebels of the North as they call'd them as fair Enemies but as Traitors and infamous Persons whom they might destroy at any rate In the County of Longford some Protestants got into the Castle of Kenaught belonging to Sir Thomas Newcomen his Lady and those with her surrendred it on Articles January 13. 1689 to Brigadier Nugent slain afterwards by the Inniskillin Men at Cavan one of the Articles was for the Goods belonging to those in the House and their Friends notwithstanding which Nugent seiz'd and took away several parcels of Goods and several that were in the House as soon as they came out were plundered and stript naked Another Article was that the House of Kenaught should not be Burnt nor Injured notwithstanding which it was burnt to the Ground by Colonel Cohannaught Mac Gwire In short it was observ'd that amongst all the Articles into which King James or his Officers entred they never kept any to Protestants 5 A fifth Invasion on our Lives was that both King James and his inferiour Officers took on them to dispose of them by private Orders and Proclamations the penalty of violating which was often present Death thus the Proclamation that required us to bring in our Arms was on the Penalty of being left to the discretion of the Soldiers which was to expose our Lives and Fortunes to the Mercy of our greatest Enemies By a Proclamation dated July 20th 1689 all Protestants are required to bring in their Swords and other Arms on penalty of being dealt with as Rebels and Traitors The Proclamation dated June 15. 1690 forbad any to change a Guiney c. for more than 36 s. in Brass under pain of death and Colonel Lutterel published a Declaration forbidding more than five Protestants to assemble together or to be out of their Lodgings after Ten of the Clock at Night on the same Penalty the Declaration was of his own Penning and to gratifie the Curious I have put it in the Appendix the order to the Ministers to number the Protestants was likewise Penned by him and in it he declared that every one who did not enter in their Names by a certain Day should be treated as a Spy or Enemy nay sometimes he took on him to make Death the penalty of his verbal orders without a Declaration published Thus he commanded the Fellows and Scholars of the Colledge of Dublin upon pain of Death not to meet together or converse above Two or Three at a time and he would needs hang Mr. Piercy the Merchant as I shewed before without any notice given for saying that he was unwilling to part with his Goods In April 1690. The Quarter-Sessions for the County of Dublin were held at Kilmainham near Dublin Colonel Lutterel Governour of Dublin was on the Bench and in a Speech declared that King James wanted Wheat and other Grain for his Horses and that he had given the Countrey Farmers Three Weeks to bring in their Corn and had waited for their complyance during that time that he resolv'd to wait further til the Saturday after and if they did not bring it in by that time he would compel them that it was the King's will they should do it and he the King's Servant who would see his Masters Commands Executed and with a grear Oath swore he would hang that Man before his own Door that did not obey and bring in his Corn according to order Of this Speech the whole Bench and Country were Witnesses May the 7. 1690. the Lord Mayor thought fit to reinforce a former Proclamation about the rate of Goods in the Market but Colonel Lutterell did not think the Mayors Order sufficient and therefore published an Order of his own by beat of Drum declaring that whoever transgrest the Lord Mayors Order either by buying or selling should be hanged before their own doors About the same time Brigadier Sarsfield Published an Order requiring all Protestants on the borders to leave their Houses and retire Ten Miles from the Frontiers on pain of Death These were the Laws King James's Council and Ministers prescribed us by their Proclamations and Orders and these were the Acts of his Generals and Governours whom he made Guardians of the Lives and Fortunes of Protestants and yet they all came short of the inhumanity of his Parliament 6. It has been usual in Parliaments to attaint notorious Rebels and Traitors who were too strong for the Law or who being kill'd in their Rebellion could not be tryed or condemned by the ordinary course of it and when one or two in a King's Reign were thus attainted upon the most evident Proof and notoriety of the Fact it was counted a great matter even in the late Irish Rebellion none were attainted
assistance rather more than on the Roman Catholicks now they knew very well that Murther is so hateful a thing that if they once fell a Massacring it would shock many of their Friends in England and Scotland from whom they expected great matters and therefore they thought it their interest to be as tender of Lives as they could and even the Priests when they encouraged them to Rob their Protestant Neighbours charg'd them not to kill them assuring them that every thing else would be forgiven them 3. The Protestants were extreamly cautious not to give the least offence they walked so warily and prudently that it was hardly possible to find any occasion against them and they were so true to one another and conversed so little with any of King James's Party that it was as difficult to fix any thing on them or to get any Information against them though several designs were laid against them and several false Witnesses produc'd as has been shewn yet their Stories still destroyed themselves by their Improbabilities inconsistency and the notorious infamy of the Witnesses 4. We had no experiment of what would have been done with the attainted Absentees for none of them run the hazard of a Tryal but we are sure no good could have been done them for they could neither have been pardoned for Estate nor Life and the best they could have expected was to have been sent to some other Kingdom as Sir Thomas Southwell was sent to Scotland for there could have been no living for them in Ireland 5. When any Protestant found himself obnoxious to the Government or but fancyed they had any thing to object against him he got out of the Kingdom or made his escape to the North as well as he could and in the mean time absconded many escaped hanging by these means which otherwise in all probability had been executed Lastly It was so much the Interest of King James in his Circumstances to have been kind to the Protestanâ—s of Ireland that we might rather have expected to have been courted than ill used by him the whole support and maintenance of his Army in Ireland depended on them they clothed fed armed and quartered them which they could not avoid doing with any safety to themselves or indeed possibility of living and the Officers of the Army were so sensible of this that when it was propos'd to turn all the Protestants out of the City of Dublin one of them answered that whenever they were turned out the Army must go with them for they could not be furnished with what they wanted by others And as it was King James's Interest to use them well upon the account of their being necessary to him in Ireland so his Affairs in England and Scotland did more particularly require it and he was forced to employ his Emissaries there to give it out that he did so Sir Daniel Mac Daniel who came out of the Isles of Scotland to Dublin in Winter 1689. and several Gentlemen of the Highlands with him declared that their Ministers in the Pulpit had assured them that the Protestants in Ireland lived under King James in the greatest freedom quiet and security both as to their Properties and Religion and that if their Countrymen knew the truth of the matter as they then found it here they would never fight one stroak for him and they seemed to stand amazed at what they saw and could hardly believe their own Eyes It is certain that King James had the like Instruments in England as I have noted before who forced down the World in Coffee-Houses and publick places that the Protestants in Ireland lived easie and happy under his Government however this shews how much it was really his Interest to have given his Protestant Subjects here no just cause of complaint and that it must proceed from a strange eagerness to destroy them that King James and his Party ventured in their Circumstances to go so far in it as they did their own imminent danger disswaded them from severity and their Interest manifestly obliged them to mildness and if notwithstanding these they condemned near Three thousand of the most Eminent Gentlemen Citizens Clergymen and Nobility of the Kingdom to death and loss of Estates we may easily guess what they would have done when their fear and interest were removed and they left to the swing of their own natural Inclinations and the tendency of their Principles Whosoever considers all Circumstances will conclude that no less was designed by them than the execution of the third Chapter of the Lateran Council the utter extirpation of the Hereticks of these Kingdoms SECT XIV Ninthly Shewing King James's Methods for destroying the Protestant Religion 1. THE design against the Lives and Fortunes of the Protestants is so apparent from the execution thereof especially by the Acts of the late pretended Parliament that they themselves can hardly deny it nay some were apt to glory in it and to let us know that it was not a late design taken up since the revolt of England as they call it from King James they thought fit to settle on the Duke of Tirconnel above 20 m. Pounds per Annum in value out of the Estates of some Protestant Gentlemen attainted by them as aforesaid in consideration of his signal Service of Twenty Years which he spent in contriving this Work and bringing it to pass as one of their most eminent Members exprest it in his Speech in Parliament and the particular Act which vests this Estate in him shews 2. But it may be thought that King James was more tender in the matter of Religion and that he who gloried so much in his resolution to settle Liberty of Conscience wherever he had Power as he told his pretended Parliament and set forth almost in every Proclamation would never have made any open Invasion on the Consciences of his Protestant Subjects But they found by experience that a Papist whatever he professes is but an ill Guardian of Liberty of Conscience and that the same Religion that obliged the King of Spain to set up an Inquisition could not long endure the King of England to maintain Liberty If indeed King James had prevailed with Italy or Spain to have tolerated the open exercise of the Protestant Religion it had been I believe a convincing Argument to England to have granted Roman Catholicks Liberty in these Dominions but whilst the Inquisition is kept up to the height in those Countries and worse than an Inquisition in France against the publick Edicts and Laws of the Kingdom and against the solemn Oath and Faith of the King it is too gross to go about to perswade us that we might expect a free exercise of our Religion any other way than the Protestants enjoy it in France that is under the Discipline of Dragoons after the Papists had gotten the Arms the Offices the Estates and Courts of Judicature into their Hands 3. The Protestant Religion and
and Corn belong'd to Protestants by these and other such Contrivances from the year 1686. till King James's Power was put to an end by the Victory at the Boyn hardly any Protestant enjoy'd any Tythes in the Country all which was represented to the Government but to no purpose 7. In Corporate Towns and Cities there was a peculiar Provision made for Ministers by Act of Parliament in King Charles the Second's time by which Act the Houses in those Places were to be valued by Commissioners at a moderate value and the Lord Lieutenant or chief Governour for the time being did assign a certain Proportion for the Ministers maintenance not greater than the Twentieth part of the yearly value return'd by the Commissioners That therefore the City Protestant Clergy might not be in a better condition than those in the Country an Act was past in their pretended Parliament to take away this altogether the Clergy of Dublin desir'd to be heard concerning this Act at the Bar of the House of Lords before it past and their Council were admitted to speak to it who shew'd the unreasonableness and unjustice of it so evidently and insisted so boldly on King James's Promise to the Protestant Clergy at his first arrival in this Kingdom when he gave them the greatest assurances of maintaining them in their Rights and Priviledges and further bid them if aggriev'd in any thing to make their Complaints immediately to him and engaged to see them redrest that he seemed to be satisfied and the House of Lords with him yet the design to ruin them was so fixt that without offering any thing by way of Answer to the Reasons urged against it the Act past and thereby left the Clergy of the Cities and Corporate Towns without any pretence to a maintenance except they could get it from the voluntary Contributions of their People nay so malicious were they against the Protestant Clergy that they cut off the Arrears due to them as well as the growing Rent having left no means to recover them as appear'd upon Tryal at the Council-board afterward when some of the Clergy petitioned for relief therein 8. Upon the Plantation of Ulster 1625. there was a Table of Tythes agreed on by the King and Council and the Planters to whom the Grants were made by the King obliged to pay Tythes according to that Table the pretended Parliament took away this Table also for no other Reason that we could learn but because most of the Inhabitants of Ulster were Protestants and consequently the Protestant Clergy would pretend to them 9. The Livings of Ireland were valued by Commissions in Henry the Eight and Queen Elizabeths time and paid First Fruits and Twentieth Parts according to that valuation other Livings were held in Farm from the Crown and paid yearly a considerable reserved Rent commonly call'd Crown Rents others appertain'd to the Lord Lieutenant and other Officers of State and paid a certain rate of Corn for their use commonly call'd Port Corn. Now all these Payments were exacted from the Protestant Clergy notwithstanding the greatest part of their Tythes were taken from them The remaining part where any remained was seiz'd in many Places by the Commissioners of the Revenue and a Custodiam granted of it for the King's use for the payment of the Duties which accru'd out of the whole and not one Farthing allow'd for the Incumbent or the Curate nay in some Places they seiz'd the Incumbents Person and laid him in Jail till he paid these Duties though at the same time they had seiz'd his Livings and found that they were not sufficient to answer what they exacted and because the Clerk of the First Fruits Leiutenant Colonel Roger Moore being a Protestant himself would not be severe with the Clergy and seize their Livings and Persons to force them to pay what he knew they were not in a capacity to do they found pretence to seize his Person and sent him with Three Files of Musquetiers Prisoner to the Castle of Dublin where he and two Gentlemen more lay in a cold nasty Garret for some Months By these Contrivances the few Benefices yet in the hands of the Protestants instead of a support became a burthen to them and they were forced to cast themselves for a maintenance on the kindness of their People who were themselves undone and beggar'd SECT XVII 3. King James took away the Jurisdiction of the Church from Protestants 1. IT is impossible any society should subsist without a power of rewarding and punishing its Members now Christ left no other power to his Church but what is purely Spiritual nor can the Governours of the Church any other way punish their Refractory Subjects but by refusing them the Benefits of their society the Administration of the Word and Sacraments and the other Spiritual Offices annexed by Christ to the Ministerial Function But Kings and Estates have become Nursing Fathers to the Church and lent their Temporal power to second her Spiritual Censures The Jurisdiction therefore of the Clergy so far as it has any Temporal effect on the Bodies or Estates of Men is intirely derived from the Favour of States and Princes and acknowledged to be so in the Oath of Supremacy However this is now become a right of the Clergy by ancient Laws through all Christendom and to take it away after so long continuance must needs be a great blow to Religion and of worse Consequence than if the Church had never possessed it yet this was actually done by King James to the Protestant Clergy and is a plain sign that he intended to destroy their Religion when he depriv'd them of their support 2. For first he past an Act of Parliament whereby he exempted all that dissented from our Chruch from the Jurisdiction thereof and a Man needed no more to free him from all punishment for his Misdemeanors though only cognizable and punishable in the Ecclesiastical Courts than to profess himself a Dissenter or that it was against his Conscience to submit to the Jurisdiction of our Church nay at the first the Act was so drawn and past the House of Commons that no Protestant Bishop could pretend to any Jurisdiction even over his own Clergy but that and several other passages in the Commons Bills were so little pleasing to some who understood the King's Interest that Sir Edward Herbert was employed by King James to amend the Act for the House of Lords which he did in the form it is now in nothing of the Commons Bill being left in it but the word Whereas tho after all it effectually destroyed the Jurisdiction of the Church 3. But second in most places there was no Protestant Bishop left and consequently the Popish Bishop was to succeed to the Jurisdiction they being by another Act invested in Bishopricks as soon as they could procure King Jame's Certificate under his privy Signet that they were Archbishops or Bishops all incapacities by reason of their religion by any Statute
p. 118 119 3. Protestants impoverished by vexatious Law Suits p. 119 4. By Delays and the Treachery of Popish Council p. 120 5. By defending their Charters and being forced to take out new ones ibid. 6. By free Quarters Inkeepers and Houskeepers ruined p. 121 7. By the burden of Priests and Fryars p. 122 Sect. 10. Thirdly King James's own Attempts on the same p. 123 1. Quartering on private Houses contrary to the Articles to Lord Mountjoy Most Soldiers had many Quarters Mischievous in their Quarters Instance in Brown who robbed his Landlord and swore Treason against him p. 123 124 2. Plundering and killing the Protestants Stock Vast numbers destroyed and stolen p. 125 3. Irish encouraged to do so no Redress upon Complaints p 126 4. Nugent avowed it Rapparees Necessary Evils Stop put to this Trade when they began to rob one another p. 127 Sect. 11. Fourthly King James's further Methods to compleat the ruin of the Protestants Personal Fortunes p. 128 1. Taking away Absentees Goods Bill for it in Parliament ibid. Methods to drain those that staid of their ready Mony p. 129 1. By Licences for Ships to go for England ibid. 2. By pretended Liberty of Transporting Goods p. 130 3. Licences for Persons to go for England ibid. 4. By Protections granted and voided ibid. 5. By seizing Mony and Plate upon Informations ibid. 6. Boiselot's Dragooning of Cork ibid. 7. Act for the Subsidy at 20000 l. per Month on Lands ibid. 2. Second Subsidy of 20000 l. per Month on Personal Estates ibid. Debates in Council about this and Manner of ordering it ibid. 3. Tax for the Militia p. 132 4. Tax for fortifying the Avenues of Dublin ibid. 5. Tax for quartering Soldiers call'd Bed-Mony p. 133 6. Brass Mony Illegal Void the necessity of Parliaments ibid. Of what Metal and how much coined viz. 965375 l. in one year p. 134 Forced to be taken in all Payments ibid. Fitton forced it on Trustees for Orphans p. 135 7. Lutterell forced it on pain of Death by the Provost-Martial ibid. On Smith Leeson Bennet Widow Chapman her barbarous usage ibid. Papists not forced to receive it from Protestants p 136 8. Seizing of Protestants Wooll Hides Tallow p. 137 Peircy to have bin hanged for saying he was not willing to part with them p. 138 Protestants not permitted to Export them Their Imports seized ibid. 9. Seizing of Corn and Mault The Treason of having Bisket Giles Meigh p. 139 Difficult for Protestants to get Corn or Bread this before Harvest would have forced out all their Silver ibid. 10. Seizing Wool as soon as shorn p. 140 Searching Houses for Copper and Brass for the Mint and taking private Accompts of what else the Protestants had in in their Houses ibid. 11. Lord Mayors rating of Merchant Goods Forced on the Protestants but disregarded by the Papists instance in the very Lord Mayor himself ibid. 12. Proclamation to Rate Silver and Gold in Exchange for Brass on pain of death p. 141 13. Inference from the whole ibid. Sect. 12. Fifthly King James's destruction of the Protestants Real Estates p. 142 1. Explication of old and new Interest and account of the Acts of Settlement and of the Tenure by which the Protestants held their Estates ibid. The Papists outed of their Estates by the late Rebellion still kept up a claim to them and made Jointures and Settlements of them which were confirmed in King James's Parliament p. 143 2. King James at his first coming to the Crown gave out he would preserve the Acts of Settlement Lord Clarendon Lord Chancellor Porter and the Judges in Circuit directed to declare it ibid. The Papists knew it was only colour p. 144 Nagle's Coventry Letter first openly broke the matter October 26. 1686. ibid. Tirconnell at his coming Governour leaves it out of the Proclamation ibid. Nugent and Rice sent to England to concert the methods of Repealing it but concealed for the present their success p. 145 At their return prepared for a Parliament ibid. For which Matters had been fitted by the Quo Warranto's and reversal of Outlawries against the Irish Peers ibid. 3. Papists had not patience to wait for their Estates till a Parliament but went to work by counterfeit Deeds and by old Injunctions of the Court of Claims p. 146 4. Matters ripe for a Parliament but put off till the Parliament which was to sit in England November 1688. should take off the Penal Laws c. p. 147 5. at King James's arrival in Ireland it was against his Interest to call a Parliament First because of loss of time the Kingdom not reduced ibid. 6. Secondly which was King James's Allegation for not calling one in England this reflected on his sincerity p. 148 7. Thirdly It was the way to disoblige all that were inclined to him in England and Scotland ibid. 8. Fourthly It disobliged a great many of the Irish themselves ibid. 9. Fifthly It rendered all not under his power desperate p. 149 10. Against all Reason and Interest he called one being resolved to Dye a Martyr or Establish Popery ibid. 11. This Parliament fitted for our ruin both in respect of the King and of both Houses ibid. 13. Method of filling the House of Lords with Popish Peers Only four or five Protestant Temporal and four Spiritual Lords ibid. Several Acts past not by consent of these last though it be pretended in their Preambles p. 150 14. House of Commons how filled Manner of Electing Members Only two Protestants that could be called such in it p. 151 15. The whole House a slave to the Kings Will. No Protestations allowed p. 153 16. How much Reason we as well as England had to dread Papists in a Parliament p. 154 17. First Account of the Act of Repeal ibid. Secondly Of the Act of Attainder p. 155 Thirdly Clause in it of holding Correspondence since Aug. 1. 1688. ibid. Fourthly Clause of cutting off Remainders p. 156 Fifthly No Protestant might hope to be reprized by the Act of Repeal ibid. Sixthly Clause in the Act of Attainder against the Kings Pardoning which was the Reason this Act was kept so secret Copy procured by Mr. Coghlan Upon account of Sir Thomas Southwell's Pardon Sollicited by Lord Seaforth King James in a Passion with Sir Richard Nagle for betraying his Prerogative by this Clause against Pardoning p. 157 158 159 18. Observations First King James could not dispense when the Irish pleased ibid. Secondly Near three thousand Protestants condemned for not coming in by a day and yet the Act never published but kept secret ibid. Thirdly Folly of attainted Persons to think of ever being Pardoned if King James be restored since it is not in his power p. 160 Fourthly Papists got into their Estates before the time set in the Act of Repeal ibid. 19. Means how the Papists got Possessions p. 161 First Popish Tenants attorn'd to their old Popish Landlords ibid. Secondly Advantages taken of Clauses in the Act of Repeal ibid.
two hot headed Fellows amongst them but they universally talked at this rate And it was the common and encouraging Speech of the Earl of Tyrconnel from the very beginning of his Government and particularly when he took leave of several Privy Councellors and Officers at his going to wait on King James at Chester August 1687 I have put the Sword into your Hands And then in his usual Stile prayed God to damn them all if ever they parted with it again 9. 'T is further to be remembred that their Predecessors were so eager and earnest to recover this Power over their Vassals and to establish their Religion that they attempted to gain their Designs by that bloody Rebellion and Massacre in the year 1641. An Attempt no less desperate and unlikely to succeed than wicked and when their own Power appeared insufficient to gain their ends their supreme Council at Killkenny sent Commissioners with Instructions to offer up the Kingdom and themselves to the Pope the King of Spain or any other Foreign Popish Prince that would accept the Offer This was very well known to King James he was at the Council-Board when the original Instructions signed by order of the Supreme Council that then managed the Affairs of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland were produced before King Charles II and his Council in England in the year 1662 empowering their Agents to this effect and he might very well conclude that they who were willing to submit themselves to a Foreign Power to be rid of the Laws of England would heartily join with him to destroy them 10. Whosoever will consider Circumstances and lay things together will be apt to believe what is averred by some that King James before he declared his Religion had a desire and resolution to destroy the Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms and make himself absolute if ever he came to the Crown after the manner of France and that the great motive of declaring himself a Roman Catholick at first wàs to make sure of that Party there are several things that rightly weighed will make this probable 1. If we consider that no Party amongst us was likely to be so wicked as to have bought his favour by joining with him in such a design except the Papists 2. Amongst Papists he chose out those and preferred them which he thought would be most Cordial to him and serve him most effectually in that design There can be no other reason given why he should be fonder of the Irish than the English Papists but that he thought the one more likely to go through with him than the other The English Papists are as Zealous in their Religion as the Irish and generally more honest Men yet the King rather chose to Cherish and Employ the latter The only imaginable Reason of his doing so was because the English were not so ready to give up the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom to the Prerogative as the Irish and since King James's kindness was distributed according to the readiness he found in Men to betray their Country rather than according to their Zeal for their Religion have we not reason to conclude the first to be the true motive of his kindness rather than the latter 3. Those Protestants or pretended Protestants that cordially and heartily espoused this design and served him effectually to oppress and ruin their fellow Subjects kept his favour pretty well and were Employed by him notwithstanding their being reputed Protestants a certain sign that the Reason he discharged Protestants from their Trusts and Offices was chiefly because he thought they would not serve him as he expressed it without reserve or contribute heartily to inslave themselves and their Posterity 4. He often declared and more especially in his Act for Liberty of Conscience made in his Parliament in Ireland that it was his constant Resolution that there should be no other Test or distinction amongst his Subjects but that of Loyalty by which all knew that he meant an absolute submission in every thing to his Will for he accounted every body disloyal that disputed or demurred at any of his Commands 5. As soon as the Irish began to dispute his Orders and stand on the Laws he took it heinously from them and they lost much of his favour he spake hardly of them and wished at any rate to be rid of them when the House of Commons crost some proposal of his he was very much out of humor and declared that all Commons were the same as he found by them when they quarrelled with the Earl of Melford his Secretary of State he complained that they used him basely and unkindly and that he never would have come amongst them if he had thought that they would not let him choose his own Servants when they would not suffer him to Dispense with their Act of Attainder or Pardon any Attained in it with a non obstante he is said to have fallen into so violent a Passion that his Nose fell a bleeding He was very angry with some of his Council when they demurred at his Levying twenty thousand pounds per month without Act of Parliament and said he could do nothing if he could not do that From whence we see that he reckoned all his Power nothing except he could impose Taxes as the King of France doth and that this lay at the bottom of all his Designs Nay it was commonly reported by the Roman Catholicks that King James boasted and pleased himself mightily that he had made himself Absolute which none of his Predecessors could do and had a more numerous Army than any of them and consequently was a more glorious King If then his chiefest design was to oppress our Laws and Liberties no body can doubt but he had Instruments whose Genius and Temper inclined them to assist him as long as they were like to go sharers with him in the Purchase SECT IX V. The Officers employed by King James were most of them unqualified by Law and consequently fit Instruments to destroy the Laws 1. MEN may live very comfortably in a Nation and yet be excluded from the Power or Government of it therefore it is no injustice to exclude a certain Rank of Men that want such Qualifications as may give the Common-Wealth confidence in them from intermedling in the Government Of this Nature we have had Laws in all Countries in the World and whatever be pretended they are very often both just and necessary nor is it reasonable that the King should have a power to dispense with such since they are often made on purpose to secure the Common-Wealth against his encroachments Of this Nature are our Laws that disable Papists from all Employments Civil and Military by an Act of Parliament made in the Reign of Henry VIII no Man is to Execute any Employment till he has taken the Oath of Supremacy This is repeated and confirmed by another in the second of Elizabeth And here it is
did worse that is betrayed it by their Compliance whilst yet they profest it Many who would not be guilty of such servility were turned out even from the mean Employments of a High or Petty Constable of a Goalour or Turn-Key of all which it were easie to give Examples but the thing being Universal makes that unnecessary Even these mean Employments were now counted too good for Protestants and all this contrary to the express Letter of the Law which admitted none but such as would take the Oath of Supremacy to any Office but they took a peculiar Pleasure to act in contempt and despite of the Laws and it seemed to them a kind of Conquest to turn a Man out of his Employment Office or Freehold contrary to Law In the mean time it was a melancholy thing for Protestants to live under such illegal Officers and have their Lives Estates and Liberties at the mercy of Sheriffs Justices and Juries some of whose Fathers or nearest Relations they had either hanged for Thieving Robbery and Murthering or killed in the very Act of Torying 5. I reckon as a fourth sort of Officers in the Kingdom such as were of the privy-Privy-Council which in Ireland is a great part of the Constitution and has considerable Privileges and Power annexed to it Regularly no Act of Parliament can pass in Ireland till the chief Governor and Privy-Council do first certifie the Causes and Reasons of it It was therefore no less than necessary that King James should model this to his mind and he quickly ordered it so that the Papists made the majority in it and whereas before it was a Refuge and Sanctuary to the oppressed it now became a most effectual Instrument to strengthen the Popish Interest and give Reputation to their Proceedings We may guess what kind of Government King James designed when he was attended with such a Council and yet it is certain even some of these who were Protestants would have been turned out if they had not absented themselves and declined appearing at the Board but whether they appeared or no was of no consideration since it is plain they could do Protestants little service SECT V. Fourthly King James's ordering Corporations was an effectual means to destroy his Protestant Subjects and to alter the very Nature of the Government 1. WOever knows the Constitution of England and Ireland must observe that the Subjects have no other security for their Liberties Properties and Lives except the Interest they have of choosing their own Representatives in Parliament This is the only Barrier they have against the Encroachments of their Governor Take it away and they are as absolute Slaves to the Kings Will and as miserable as the Peasants in France Whoever therefore goes about to deprive them of this Right utterly destroys the very Constitution and Foundation of the Government Now the Protestants of Ireland finding the necessity of securing this right in their own Hands to preserve the Kingdom in Prosperity and Peace had procured many Corporations to be Founded and built many considerable Corporate Towns at their own Cost and Charges They thought it reasonable to keep these in their own Hands as being the Foundation of the Legislative power and therefore secluded Papists as Enemies to the English Interest in Ireland from Freedom and Votes in them by the very Foundation and Rules of planting them This Caution they extended by a Law to all other Corporations in the Kingdom excluding Papists likewise from them which they justly did if we remember that these Papists had forfeited their Right in them by their Rebellion in 1641 and by their having turned those Towns where they had Interest into Nests of Traitors against the King and into places of Refuge for the Murtherers of the English insomuch that it cost England some Millions to reduce them again into Obedience witness Killkenny Waterford Galway Lymerick and every other place where they had power to do it Add to this that generally the trading industrious Men of the Kingdom were Protestants who had built most of the Corporate Towns above thirty at once in King James the First 's time and a great part of the Freeholds of the Kingdom did also belong to Men of the same Religion insomuch that if a fair Election had been allowed in probability no Papist could have carryed it in any one County of Ireland All which considered it was but reasonable that the Protestants that had by so much Blood and Treasure brought the Kingdom into subjection to the Laws of England and planted it in such a manner as to render it worth the Governing by the King should be secured of their Representatives in Parliament especially when out of their great Loyalty and Confidence in the Kings kind intention to them they by some new Rules had condescended that none should Officiate as Majors Portrieves Magistrates or Sheriffs in the chief Towns till approved by the Kings chief Governor for the time being Their yielding this to the King was a sufficient security one would have thought to the Royal Interest A great diminution of their Liberties and such as never was yielded before to any King but this would not serve King James to be Absolute he must have the intire Disposition of them and the Power to put in and turn out whom he pleased without troubling the Formalities of Law To bring them therefore to this it was resolved to Dissolve them all Tyrconnel knew that the Protestants would never give up their Charters without being compelled by Law and therefore he endeavoured to prevail with them to admit Papists to Freedom and Offices in them that by their means he might have them surrendred but the Resolution of Sir John Knox then Lord Mayor of Dublin and of the then Table of Aldermen spoiled that Design and forced the King to bring Quo Warranto's against them since they would not easily consent to destroy themselves 2. The Chief Baron Rice and the Attorney General Nagle were employed as the fittest Instruments to carry on this Work To prevent Writs of Error into England all these Quo Warranto's were brought in the Exchequer and in about two Terms Judgments were entred against most Charters Whereas if either Equity or Law had been regarded longer time ought to have been allowed in matters of such Consequence for the Defendants to draw up their Plea than the Chief Baron took to dispatch the whole Cause and seize their Franchises Attorney General Nagle plaid all the little Tricks that could be thought of and had an ordinary Attorney brought such Demurrers or Pleadings into Court in a common Cause as he did in this most weighty Affair of the Kingdom he would have received a publick Rebuke and been struck out of the Roll for his Knavery or ignorance After all there was not one Corporation found to have Forfeited by a Legal Tryal neither was any Crime or Cause of forfeiture objected against them yet the Chief Baron gave Judgment against
Purchases and Settlements This was the Bishop of Meath's Case whose Father purchased an Estate in 1636. and both he and the Bishop had continued in Peaceable Possession of it ever since yet he was now outed of it by an old Injunction from the Court of Claims granted on a pretended Deed of Settlement made for Portions to the Daughters of the Man that had sold it to the Bishop's Father This Deed ought to have been proved at Common-Law before he should have been disturbed but the Popish Sheriff of the County of Meath one Nangle executed the Injunction on the Bishop and two other Protestants without any such Formality some Papists were as deeply concern'd as they as holding part of the same Estate but the Sheriff durst not or would not execute the Injunction on their part though he did it on that part which was in the Hands of Protestants at this rate many Protestants were outed of their Estates and the old Proprietors having gotten Possession put the Suit and Proof on Protestants to recover them near a hundred English Gentlemen lost considerable Estates in less than a Year and the Papists were in hopes to do their work by their False Oaths Forged Deeds Corrupt Judges and Partial Juries No one Suit that I could learn having been determin'd against them in either the King's-Bench or Exchequer 4. But this was not the way design'd by the Grandees they saw it was like to be Tedious Expensive and must have been in many cases Insuccessful and therefore they were intent on a Parliament and they had in less than nine Months fitted all things for it So that we should infallibly have had one next Winter if the Closeted Parliament design'd to sit at Westminster in November 1688. had succeeded and the News of the Prince of Orange's intended Descent into England had not diverted them but it was not judged convenient to proceed farther in Ireland till the Penal Laws and Test were removed in England 5. After King James's deserting England and getting into France which mightily rejoyced them their great Care was to get him into their own Hands and they easily prevailed on him to come into Ireland where he landed at Kinsale March 12. 1688. and made his entry into Dublin on Palm-Sunday March 24. Upon his coming into Dublin every Body was intent to see what he would do in relation to the Affairs of Ireland it was manifestly against his Interest to call a Parliament and much more unseasonable to pass such Acts in it as he knew the Papists expected For First The Kingdom was not intirely in Obedience to him London-derry Enniskillin and a great part of the North being then unreduced which gave occasion to many even of his own Party to ridicule him and his Councils who so contrary to his Interest had call'd a Parliament to spend their time in wrangling about Settling the Kingdom and disposing Estates before they had reduced it But had they instead of Passing such Acts as made them Odious to all Good Men applied themselves to the Siege of Derry it is like it had been reduced before the Succors came and then all Ireland had been their own and no Body can tell what might have been the Consequence of it 6. Secondly It a little reflected on King James's Sincerity who in his Answer to the Petition of the Lords for a Parliament in England presented Nov. 17. 1688. gave it as one Reason why he could not comply because it was impossible whilst part of the Kingdom was in the Enemies Hands to have a Free Parliament The same Impossibility lay on him against holding a Parliament in Ireland at his coming to Dublin if that had been the True Reason and his not acting uniformly to it plainly discover'd That the True Reason why he would not hold a Parliament in England and yet held one in Ireland under the same Circumstances was not the pretended Impossibility but because the English Parliament would have secured the Liberties and Religion of the Kingdom whereas he was sure the Irish Parliament would Subvert them 7. Thirdly His Compliance with all the most Extravagant Proposals of the Papists in Ireland was unavoidable if he call'd a Parliament and to comply with them was to do so palpable and inexcusable Injustice to the Protestants and English Interest of Ireland that he could not expect but that he should lose the Hearts of those Protestants in England and Scotland who were indifferent or well affected to him before as soon as they were fully inform'd of what he had done in Ireland and to lose their Assistance was to lose the fairest Hopes he could have of recovering his Crown 8. Fourthly By holding a Parliament he manifesty weakened his Forces in Ireland for the Papists whom he was to restore to their Estates were most of them poor insignificant People not able or capable to do him Service for the Richer sort of Papists were either disoblig'd by it being losers as well as the Protestants or else under a necessity to neglect the King's Service and spend their time to make Interest to secure themselves of Reprizals for what they lost by the Parliament 9. Fifthly He strengthened and united his Enemies by rendering all the Protestants that were not under his Power Desperate and by convincing the rest of the Necessity of joyning with them as fast as they could since no other Choice was left them but either to do this or to be ruined 10. All these Reasons lay before the King against calling a Parliament and made it manifestly unseasonable to do it now however bent to comply with the long and earnest Sollicitations of the Irish as we see in Nagles Coventry Letter and the two Papers in the Appendix But contrary to all the Rules of Interest and true Policy he was resolv'd to gratifie them for which we were able to give no other reason but the Resolution ascribed to him in the Liege Letter either to dye a Martyr or to establish Popery and therefore he issued out a Proclamation for a Parliament to sit May 7. 1688. at Dublin The Proclamation was dated March 25. the next day after he came to Dublin but was not published till April 2. it was said to be antedated four days but of that I can say nothing 11. Every Body foresaw what a kind of Parliament this would be and what was like to be done in it Our Constitution lodges the Legislative Power in the King Lords and Commons and each of these is a Check on the other that if any one of them attempt a thing prejudicial to the Kingdom the other may oppose and stop it but our Enemies had made all these for their purpose and therefore no Law could signifie any thing to oppose them it being in their power to remove any Law when they pleased by repealing it The King was their own both inclined of himself and easie to be prevail'd on by them to do what they would have him So
that we could promise our selves no help from his Negative Vote 13. The House of Lords if regularly assembled had consisted for the most part of Protestants and might have been a Check to the King's Intentions of taking away our Laws in a legal Method there being if we reckon the Bishops about Ninety Protestant Lords to Forty five Papists taking in the new Creations and attainted Lords But first to remove this Obstacle care had been taken to reverse the Outlawries of the Popish Lords in order to capacitate them to sit in the House 2. New Creations were made Sir Alexander Fitton the Chancellor was made Baron of Gosworth Thomas Nugent the Chief Justice Baron of Riverston Justin M'Carty Viscount Mountcashell Sir Valentine Brown Viscount Kenmare A List was made of more to be call'd into the House if there were occasion 3. They had several Popish Titular Bishops in the Kingdom and it was not doubted but if necessity required those would be call'd by Writs into the House 4. It was easie to call the eldest Sons of Noble-men into the Parliament by Writ which would not augment the Nobility and yet fill the House But there were already sufficient to over-vote the Protestants for there remain'd of about Sixty nine Protestant Temporal Lords only four or five in Ireland to sit in the House and of Twenty two Spiritual Lords only seven left in the Kingdom of which Dr. Michael Boyle Arch-bishop of Ardmah Dr. Hugh Gore Bishop of Waterford Dr. Roan Bishop of Killalâ—o were excused on the account of Age and Sickness The other four were Dr. Anthony Dopping Bishop of Meath Dr. Thomas Otway Bishop of Ossory Dr. Simon Digby Bishop of Lymerick and Dr. Edward Wettenhall Bishop of Cork and Ross these were oblig'd to appear upon their Writs directed to them and King James was forced sometimes to make use of them to moderate by way of Counterpoise the Madness of his own Party when their Votes displeas'd him But in the general they protested against most of the Acts and entered their Dissent It is observable that all these Acts of this pretended Parliament are said to be by the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whereas not one Spiritual Lord consented to many of them but on the contrary unanimously protested against them and at passing the Act of Attainder of which more hereafter they were not so much as present They complain'd of this but were refus'd redress and the express mention of their consent continued Of Thirty seven Papist Lords there appear'd besides the new created Lords Twenty four at times of which Fifteen were under Attainders by Indictments and Outlawries two or three were under Age and there remain'd only Six or Seven capable of Sitting and Acting Chancellor Fitton now Baron of Gosworth was Speaker of the House of Lords King James was present constantly in the House and directed them not only in their Debates but likewise in their Forms and Ceremonies hardly one in either House having ever sate in a Parliament before 14. The House of Commons makes the Third Estate in Parliament and 't is by them that the People have a more immediate Interest in the Legislative Power the Members of this House being such as are return'd by the Peoples Free Election which is look'd on as the Fundamental Security of the Lives Liberties and Properties of the Subject These Members of the House of Commons are elected either by the Free-holders of Counties or the Free-men of Corporations And I have already shew'd how King James wrested these out of the Hands of Protestants and put them into Popish Hands in the new Constitution of Corporations by which the Free-men and Free-holders of Cities or Boroughs to whom the Election of Burgesses originally belongs are excluded and the Election put into the Hands of a small number of Men named by the King and removable at his pleasure The Protestant Free-holders if they had been in the Kingdom were much more than the Papist Free-holders but now being gone tho many Counties could not make a Jury as appear'd at the intended Tryal of Mr. Price and other Protestants at Wicklow who could not be tried for want of Free-holders yet notwithstanding the Paucity of these they made a shift to return Knights of the Shire The common way of Election was thus The Earl of Tyrconnel together with the Writ for Election commonly sent a Letter recommending the Persons he design'd should be chosen the Sheriff or Mayor being his Creature on receipt of this call'd so many of the Free-holders of a County or Burgesses of a Corporation together as he thought fit and without any noise made the return It was easie to do this in Boroughs because by their new Charters the Electors were not above Twelve or Thirteen and in the greatest Cities but 24 and commonly not half of these on the place The Method of the Sheriffs proceeding was the same the number of Popish Freeholders being very small sometimes not a Dozen in a County it was easie to give notice to them to appear so that the Protestants either did not know of the Election or durst not appear at it By these means the pretended Parliament consisted of the most Bigotted Papists and of such as were most deeply Interested to destroy the Protestant Religion and Protestants of Ireland One Gerrard Dillon Serjeant at Law a most furious Papist was Recorder of Dublin and he stood to be chosen one of the Burgesses for the City but could not prevail because he had purchased a considerable Estate under the Act of Settlement and they fear'd lest this might engage him to defend it Several Corporations had no Representatives either because they were in the Enemies hands or else because the Persons named by the Charter for Electors were so far remote that they could not come in such Numbers as to secure the Elections for Papists against the few Protestants that were left still in the Charters and who lived generally on the place I have mark'd the Boroughs and Counties that had no Representatives in number about Twenty nine few Protestants could be prevail'd with to stand tho they might have been chosen because they foresaw no possibility of doing good and thought it unsafe to sit in a Parliament which they judged in their Conscience Illegal and purposely design'd for Mischief to them and their Religion however it was thought convenient that some should be in it to observe how things went and with much perswasion and Intreaty Sir John Mead and Mr. Joseph Coghlan Counsellors at Law were prevail'd on to stand for the University of Dublin the University must chuse and it could not stand with their Honor to chuse Papists and therefore they pitch'd on these two Gentlemen who were hardly brought to accept of it as thinking it Scandalous to be in so ill Company and they could not prevail with themselves to sit out the whole Session but withdrew before the Act of Attainder
but by the legal course of Juries But King James and his Parliament intended to do the work of Protestants speedily and effectually and not to wait the slow methods of proceeding at the Common Law They resolv'd therefore on a Bill of Attainder and in order to it every Member of the House of Commons return'd the Names of such Protestant Gentlemen as liv'd near him or in the County or Burrough for which he serv'd and if he was a stranger to it he sent into the County or Place for information they were in great haste and many escaped them on the other hand some that were actually in King James's Service and fighting for him at Derry of which Cornet Edmund Keating Nephew to my Lord Chief Justice Keating was one were return'd as absent and attainted in the Act. When they had made a Collection of Names they cast them into several Forms and attainted them under several Qualifications and accordingly allow'd them time to come in and put themselves on Tryal the Qualifications and Numbers were as follow 1. Persons Attainted of Rebellion who had time given them till till the Tenth of August to surrender themselves and be tryed provided they were in the Kingdom and amenable to the Law at the time of making the Act otherwise were absolutely Attainted One Archbishop One Duke Fourteen Earls Seventeen Viscounts and one Viscountess Two Bishops Twelve Barons Twenty six Baronets Twenty two Knights Fifty six Clergymen Eleven hundred fifty three Esquires Gentlemen c. 2. Persons who were absentees before the Fifth of Novem. 1688 not returning according to the Proclamation of the Twenty fifth of March attainted if they do not appear by the First of September 1689. One Lord. Seven Knights Eight Clergymen Sixty five Esquires Gentlemen c. 3. Persons who were Absentees before the Fifth of November 1688. not returning according to the Proclamation of the Twenty fifth of March attainted if they do not appear by the First day of October 1689. One Archbishop One Earl One Viscount Five Bishops Seven Baronets Eight Knights Nineteen Clergymen Four hunder'd thirteen Esquires Gentlemen c. 4. Persons usually resident in England who are to signifie their Loyalty in case the King goes there the First of October 1689. and on His Majesties Certificate to the Chief Governour here they to be discharged otherwise to stand attainted One Earl Fifteen Viscounts and Lords Fourteen Knights Four hunder'd ninety two Esquires Gentlemen c. 5. Absentees by reason of sickness and noneage on proving their Loyalty before the last day of the first Term after their return to be acquitted and restor'd in the mean time their Estates Real and Personal are vested in His Majesty One Earl Seven Countesses One Viscountess Thirteen Ladies One Baronet Fifty nine Gentlemen and Gentlewomen 6. They vest all Lands c. belonging to Minors Ladies Gentlewomen in the King till they return and then upon Proof of their Loyalty and Faithfulness to King James they are allow'd to sue for their Estates before the Commissioners for executing the Acts of Repeal and Attainder if sitting or in the High Court of Chancery or Court of Exchequer and upon a Decree obtain'd for them there the Sheriffs are to put them in possession of so much as by the Decree of one of those Courts shall be adjudged them The Clauses in the Act are so many and so considerable that it never having been printed intire I thought it convenient to put it into the Appendix Perhaps it was never equall'd in any Nation since the time of the Proscription in Rome and not then neither for here is more than half as many Condemned in the small Kingdom of Ireland as was at that time proscribed in the greatest part of the then known World yet that was esteemed an unparallel'd Cruelty When Sir Richard Nagle Speaker of the House of Commons presented the Bill to King James for his Royal Assent he told him that many were attainted in that Act by the House of Commons upon such Evidence as fully satisfied the House the rest of them were attainted he said upon common Fame A Speech so very brutish that I can hardly perswade my self that I shall gain credit to the Relation but it is certainly true the Houses of Lords and Commons of their pretended Parliament are Witnesses of it and let the World judge what security Protestants could have of their Lives when so considerable a Lawyer as Sir Richard Nagle declares in so solemn an occasion and King James with his Parliament approves that common Fame is a sufficient Evidence to deprive without hearing so many of the Gentry Nobility and Clergy of their Lives and Fortunes without possibility of pardon and not not only cut off them but their Children and Posterity likewise By a particular Clause from advantages of which the former Laws of the Kingdom would not have deprived them though their Fathers had been found guilty of the worst of Treasons in particular Tryals 7. I shall only add a few Observations on this Act and leave the Reader to make others as he shall find occasion 1. Then this Act leaves no room for the King to pardon after the last day of November 1689. if the Pardon be not Enroll'd before that time the Act declares it absolutely void and null 2. The Act was conceal'd and no Protestant for any Money permitted to see it much less take a Copy of it till the time limited for Pardons was past at least Four Months So that the State of the Persons here attainted is desperate and irrecoverable except an Irish Popish Parliament will relieve them for King James took care to put it out of the power of any English Parliament as well as out of his own Power to help them by consenting to another Act of this pretended Parliament Intituled An Act declaring that the Parliaments of England cannot bind Ireland and against Writs of Errors and Repeals out of Ireland into England 3. It is observable with what hast and confusion this Act was drawn up and past perhaps no man ever heard of such a crude imperfect thing so ill digested and compos'd past on the World for a Law We find the same Person brought in under different Qualifications in one Place he is expresly allow'd till the First of October to come and submit to Tryalâ— and yet in another Place he is attainted if he do not come in by the First of September many are attainted by wrong Names many have their Christian Names left out and many whose Names and Sirnames are both put in are not distinguished by any Character whereby they may be known from others of the same Names 4. Many considerable Persons are left out which certainly had been put in if they could have gotten their Names which is a further proof of their hast and confusion in passing the Bill It is observable the Provost Fellowâ— and Scholars of the Colledge by Dublin are all omitted the Reason was
Successors to give them relief in a Case of so great moment and general concern as this is As for the general Reprizal mentioned to be made them out of the Rebels Estate which must not be conceived to give any colour to this manner of proceeding and ought to be equal to the Estate which the Proprietors shall be outed of that will be very uncertain for it must be known who the Rebels are and what their Lands amount to since it may be probably concluded that there are many of your Subjects now in England no way concerned in the Rebellion and would have ere this attended your Majesty here if they had not been hindred from coming by duress and Imbargo and many other legal and justifiable excuses too long for this present Paper and withal that where any of them are seised of any new Estates so much must be restored to the old Proprietors and what is also subject to their Settlements and other Incumbrances After all this it is in the power of your Majesty to prevent the total ruine of so many of your Subjects as have been Purchasers and Improvers in this Kingdom by prescribing more moderate ways than depriving them of the whole of what they have legally and industriously acquired and that Committees of both Houses may hear and enquire whether any medium may be found out betwixt the Extreams for the accommodating as near as may be the Purchaser and the old Proprietor so that if there because of Complaint it may not arise from a total disappointment of either Party This is a little of what may be said on this occasion but the hast of those who drew on this Bill will allow no further time at present It is proposed that his Majesty will hear Council on this occasion No. 23. The Lord Bishop of Meath's Speech in Parliament June the 4th 1689. Spoken on the Bill of Repeal of the Act of Settlement My Lords YOur Lordships have now under yoâ—â— Consideration a Bill of great Weight and Importance for the future Prosperity or Ruine of the King and Kingdom depends upon it A Bill that unsettles a former Foundation upon which this Kingdom 's Peace and Flourishing was superstructed and Designs to erect another in its stead the Success whereof is dubious and uncertain I shall therefore humbly crave your Leave to represent my Thoughts candidly and impartially upon it And that so much the rather because I am here summoned by the Kings Writ to give his Majesty my best Advice for his own Service and the good of the Nation My Lords In every Law two things are to be consider'd First that it be just and doth no Man wrong Secondly and that it be pro bono publico And I am humbly of Opinion that this Bill is faulty in both these Respects and therefore ought not to pass this House It is unjust to turn men out of their Possessions and Estates without any Fault or Demerit To deprive Widows of their Jointures and Children of their Portions when they have done nothing to forfeit them But the Injustice will rise much higher if we consider it with a respect to Purchasers who have laid out all their Substance upon Estates deriv'd under the Acts that are now design'd to be Repeal'd What have they done to make them Delinquents except it be the laying out their Money on the Publick Faith of the Nation declared in two Acts of Parliament and on the Publick Faith of his Majesties Royal Brother expressed in his Letters Patents Their Case is yet harder If we consider the great Improvements they have made upon their Purchases which by this Bill they are like to lose without any Reprizal for them And if it be reasonable to restore the Old Proprietors to their Estates 't is enough for them to enjoy them in the same plight and condition that they left them But I see no Reason why they should have them in a better Condition or enjoy the Benefit of other mens Labours and Expences to the utter ruine of them and their Families Here Mercy should take place as well as Justice for the Purchasers are the Objects of them both Two things I am sensible may be reply'd to this and I am willing to consider them both First That if it be unjust to turn them out It is as unjust not to restore the Old Proprietor who hath been so long kept out of his Estate Secondly That there is no injury done to the present Possessor because he is to be repriz'd for his Losses As to the first of these I shall not at present meddle with the Reasons why they lost their Estates nor touch upon the Grounds and Occasions of their forfeiting their Interests in them being sensible that neither the time nor the place will admit a Discourse of this nature I shall therefore take it for granted that they were unjustly put out that it is just and reasonable that they should be restored but then it must be granted that it is unjust to turn out the present Purchaser and Possessor What then is to be done in this Case where the Justice or the Injury is alike on both sides If we restore the Old Proprietor we injure the present Possessor if we do do not we injure the Old Proprietor My Lords It is my humble Opinion which I submit to your Lordships better Judgments that we are to consider in this Case who hath most Justice on his side and incline the Ballance that way If it lies on the Old Proprietors side let him have it If not let the present Possessor enjoy it Now it appears to me that the Purchaser hath more Justice on his side than the Old Proprietor For he has both Law and Equity on his side he hath the Law on his side by two Acts of Parliament and the Kings Letters Patents and he hath the Equity by his Purchase Money whereas the Proprietor hath the Law against him and nothing but Equity to pretend to And I hope your Lordships will never think it reasonable to relieve a bare Equitable Right against a Purchaser that hath both Law and Equity If you do I am confident it is the first President of this kind As for the Reprizals I hear the Name of them in the Bill but I find nothing agreeable to the nature of them There are certain Conditions agreed on all hands to make up the Nature of a Reprizal None of which are like to be observed or kept here I shall name some of them and leave it to your Lordships Consideration how far they are like to be performed with the present Purchasers It is necessary to a Reprizal that it be as good at least if not in some respects better than the thing I am to part with That I my self be Judge whether it be better or worse That I keep what I have till I am reprized If my Neighbour comes to me and tells me that he hath a mind to my Horse