Soldier added That he was willing to fight against the Men of the Glen but it was base to murder them But to all this was answered All the blame be on such as gave the Orders we are free being bound to obey our Officers Upon hearing of these words the young Gentlemen retired as quickly and quietly as they could towards the House to inform their Father of what they had heard but as they came nigh to it they perceived it surrounded and heard Guns discharged and the People shrieking whereupon being unarm'd and totally unable to rescue their Father they preserved their own Lives in hopes yet to serve their King and Country and see Justice done upon those Hell-Hounds treacherous Murtherers the Shame of their Country and Disgrace of Mankind I must not forget to tell you That there were two of these Officers who had given their Paroll of Honour to Mac-jan who refused to be concerned in that Brutal Tragedy for which they were sent Prisoners to Glasco where if they remain not still I am sure they were some Weeks ago Thus Sir in obedience to your Commands I have sent you such Account as I could get of that monstrous and most inhuman Massacre of the Laird of Glenco and others of his Clan You desire some Proofs of the truth of the Story for you say there are many in England who cannot believe such a thing could be done and publick Justice not executed upon the Ruffians For they take it for granted that no such Order could be given by the Government and you say they will never believe it without a downright Demonstration Sir As to the Government I will not meddle with it or whether these Officers who murdered Glenco had such Orders as they pretended from the Government the Government knows that best and how to vindicate their own Honour and punish the Murtherers who pretended their Authority and still stand upon it But as to the Matter of Fact of the Murther of Glenco you may depend upon it as certain and undeniable It would be thought as strange a thing in Scotland for any Man to doubt of it as of the death of my Lord Dundee or with you that the Duke of Monmouth lost his Head But to put you out of all doubt you will e'er long have my Lord Argyle's Regiment with you in London and there you may speak with Glenlyon himself with Drummond and the rest of the Actors in that dismal Tragedy and on my Life there is never a one of them will deny it to you for they know that it is notoriously known all over Scotland and it is an Admiration to us that there should be any one in England who makes the least doubt of it Nay Glenlyon is so far from denying it that he brags of it and justifies the Action publickly He said in the Royal Coffee-House in Edinburgh that he would do it again nay That he would stab any Man in Scotland or in England without asking the Cause if the King gave him Orders and that it was every good Subject's duty so to do and I am credibly inform'd that Glenlyon and the rest of them have address'd themselves to the Council for a Reward for their good Service in destroying Glenco pursuant to their Orders There is enough of this mournful Subject If what I have said satisfy you not you may have what farther Proof and in what manner you please to ask it Sir Your humble Servant c. N. B. That the Gentleman to whom this Letter was sent did on Thursday June 30. 1692. when the Lord Argyle 's Regiment was quartered as Brentford go thither and had this Story of the Massacre of Glenco from the very Men who were the Actors in it Glenlyon and Drummond were both there The Highlander who told him the Story expressing Guilt which was visible in Glenlyon said Glenco hangs about Glenlyon Night and Day and you may see him in his Face I am told likewise that Sir John Lowther refused to accept of the Place of Lord Advocate of Scotland unless he might have liberty to prosecute Glenlyon and the rest of the Murtherers of Glenco which not being granted James Stuart who was ferfeited for Treason by K. C. 2. and since Knighted by K. W. has now the Place Gallienus Redivivus OR Murther Will Out c. THE fore-going Account of the Barbarous Massacre of Glenco was Printed in the year 1692. in the Answer to Dr. King's Book of the State of the Protestants in Ireland And all the Reception it met with among many here in England was That it was a Jacobite Story on purpose to Reflect upon the Government and that there was no such thing But this is now Confuted by the Proceedings of the Parliament in Scotland this Summer Session 1695. Wherein they have Voted the Killing of the Glenco-men to be a Murthrr and yet have Acquitted Sir Thomas Levingston and Collonel Hill who gave the Orders for Killing of them Why Because their Orders were but pursuant to the Instructions they had from Court Where will this Lodge the Murther The Design it is well enough known is to put it upon Sir John Dalrymple commonly call'd Maister of Stair one of the Secretaries for Scotland because he is not so Fiery a Presbyterian as the other Secretary James Johnston who hath it by Inheritance to love Crown and Mitre alike and to have a just Reward for it But Dalrymple is only a Libertine or Latitudinarian One of the Modern No-Religion who are indifferent to All so they be troubled with none Therefore he cares not whether Episcopacy or Presbytery or what else is set up provided the People be easy with it NOW it being known to all the World That the Pretence of the Inclinations of the People in Scotland which was made the Ground-work for abolishing Episcopacy and setting up Presbytery there was a meer Sham contriv'd by this Johnston and the BIGOT Presbyterian Party in Scotland who were all put in Power in the beginning of this Revolution and set on the Barbarous Rabbling of the Episcopal Clergy in the West of Scotland that they might Cry out The Inclinations of the People were against Episcopacy And having by these and other Arts which are fully related in Print Pack'd and then surpriz'd the first Convention or meeting of Estates to Abolish Episcopacy They dare not have a New Parliament * See Quercla Temporum p. 8 and 9. as in England but keep on the same Convention only Changing the Name into that of a Parliament to this day Because no Free Parliament can be had in Scotland which would not the first day spue out Presbytery and Re-Establish their much more belov'd Episcopacy And the People shewing great Un-easiness under their present Establishment which hath been trick'd and forc'd upon them All the Craft and Violence of the Regnant Presbytery assisted by Acts of Parliament and all the Countenance of the Government having not yet been able to Oust
the Episcopal Clergy in the North and other parts of Scotland or prevail with the People to admit of or almost give Civil Treatment to the Presbyterian Ministers sent to them tho' Establish'd by Law The Presbyterian Interest standing there upon so slender a bottom their Juncto think it not safe to have a Man of Dalrymple's Latitude in Religion in so eminent a Post and near their King lest he should follow the Inclinations of the People in GOOD EARNEST and Call a New Parliament there which would ruine all their Measures Therefore ways and means must be used to Remove him and leave Johnston and the Presbyterian Faction in the sole Possession of the Court. At length this of Glenco was pitch'd upon which was so Odious They knew their King durst not own it And therefore they would throw it upon Dalrymple who was Secretary and attended when the Instructions were sent for that Bloody Murther And thereby too They would seem to take off the Odium from their King This was their pretence and they had proof enough against Dalrymple But how that Clear'd his Master will be seen THEY produced Nine Letters of Dalrymple's of which I have Copies concerning the Massacre of Glenco And I shall have occasion to mention them hereafter I will now set down their several Dates and Directions and quote them to save Repetition only by their Number Letter i. ii iii. c. The two first are directed to Lieutenant Collonel Hamilton and bear Date on the 1st and the other the 3d. Decemb. 1691. the 4 next are to Sir Thomas Levingston of these several Dates 7 9 11 and 16 of January 1691 2 Then follow two more to Collonel Hill of the 16th and 30th of the same Month And lastly one of the 30th Ditto to Sir Thomas Levingston It seems very strange that K. W. would suffer these Letters to be expos'd to the Parliament in Scotland being most of them wrote by his Order enlarging upon and enforcing the Execution of Instructions sent with them for the Massacre of Glenco c. and the Regard which his Dear Presbyterians and his Favourite Johnston in particular had to his Honour was very slender when to compass their Ends they load him so fouly that they might load Dalrymple too Johnston says No But that he foreseeing because some say of his own Contriving that the Parliament who are most of them his Creatures to their Honour be it spoken would fall upon the business of Glenco and that they must be at least seemingly Gratified in it otherwise that it might obstruct the Money-Bills did therefore advise his Master to send down a Commission to men of his own choosing to enquire into the Affair of Glenco but withal to give secret Instructions to his Commissioner to keep up the said Commission unless the Parliament should enter upon that business And if they did then to produce the said Commission to shew his Majesty's Innocence by his Care to have it Examined and withal it would take the Examination of it out of the hands of Parliament Committees who might not manage so dextrously as those of his own naming THINGS being thus stated and the necessary Orders given it is vilely suspected that Johnston procured the Matter to be 〈◊〉 in Parliament whereby at once to get rid of his Rival Secretary and Root up the interest of any who had but an indifferency towards Episcopacy at Court though to the utter Shipwrack of his Master's Honour to be Recorded for all Posterities as if it were inseperable from some Constitutions to betray those they serve even tho' they wish them well and must stand and fall with them For considering the inflence Johnston had in that Parliament and that they have never yet oppos'd his Will in any thing and that he has been able to suppress the least Murmur or Hint that looked towards Glenco when the Fact was New Committed and the Horror of it fresh and Bleeding and now for three years after I say It is not supposed by men who understand that Parliament that it could have been brought upon the Stage when it was almost dead and forgotten if the hand of Joab had not been in it but let him look to that I have only to add as a Completion of the fore-going Narative that I can from unquestionable Vouchers give the Reader an Account of the Orders from Court to Sir Thomas Levingston and Collonel Hill which are not in the Letter that goes before and when the Reader is told that Hamilton whose Order to Duncanson is inserted had his Order from Levingston and Collonel Hill Then he has the whole thread viz. W. R's Order to Levinston and Hill Levingston and Hill to Hamilton Hamilton to Duncanson and Dunson to Glenlyon who was the Butcher and subscrib'd by Himself And to shew how pleasing a thing Mercy was to them and with what reluctancy they Prosecuted those who had not taken the Oaths he says in the same Letter Just now Argyle tells me That Glenco hath not taken the Oaths at which I Rejoyce It 's a great work of Charity to be exact in Rooting out that Damnable Sect. And to shew how great this Charity was and whence it proceeded The Wise Secretary Blurts out these words I have no great kindness for Keppoch nor Glenco and it 's well these People are in mercy Well indeed They were in merciful hands Who can say they ought not to Die for whom such a Secretary hath no CREAT Kindness But who are they must die ALL ALL Man Woman and Child Massacre the Men and Drive the Women and Children to Perish more cruelly in the Mountains To which purpose that extreme Cold Season was chosen for the Execution a Letter i. The Winter is the only Season says the Secretary in which we are sure the High-Landers cannot escape us nor carry their Wives Bairns and Cattle to the Mountains b Letter ii It 's the only time that they cannot Escape you for Human Constitution cannot endure to be long out of Houses This is the proper Season to maul them in the cold long Nights This was express'd with the Gusto of a Vulture in expectation of a Glorious Massacre And then how easy it would be c Letter iv I expect says he you will find little Resistance but from the season And then what thorough work they would make d Letter iii. To destroy entirely the Country of Lochaber Lochells Lauds Keppoch's Glengaries Appin and Glenco Here was a plentiful Feast provided It was a Ravishing Prospect BUT O how these Lyons were Enraged when any of their desired Prey was delivered out of their Jaws It was in a mournful strain the Secretary tells the sad News e Letter iv We have an Account says he that Lochart and Mac-naghton Appin and Glenco took the benefit of the Indemnity at Inverary and Keppoch and others at Inverness But after this when Argyle told him that Glenco had not taken the
by the Parliament's making GALLIENVS's Instructions sufficient to Justify Verianus in his Execution of them Whereby they justify the whole Murder and bring it upon their own Heads and upon the Heads of their Children For if Gallienus had no Power by Law to send such Instructions they could be no Justification to Verianus But now That Parliament has Voted that such Instructions are a Justification of Verianus and therefore they have yielded that Gallienus has by Law a Power to send such Instructions And that they ought to be Obey'd And then Lord have mercy upon us NOR has our Parliament in England been behind that of Scotland in Sacrificing our Laws Lives and Liberties to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power and that not only to Orders Sign'd by Gallienus himself but by Verianus of his own head Making us Double Distill'd Vassals Slaves of Slaves AND the instance which among many others I have to give of this Exceeds even that of Glenco in its having less Pretence and acted with the greater face of Authority and Solemnity I mean the Prodigious unprecedented Manner of the Murther of Gaffney in Ireland by the Command of the Lord Coningsby For which he was impeach'd before the House of Commons in England by Protestants of Ireland Gentlemen of Quality and Estates and of Publick and generous Spirits whose noble Resentment to see their Laws so vilely trampled under foot by those whom they had Invited thither to protect them brought them hither in Person to demand Justice from our House of Commons against Coningsby who was one of their Members And that there could be nothing of Revenge in the Case in behalf of the Person who was Murther'd it 's notorious that Gaffney being a poor Fellow a Servant to Sweetman hereafter mention'd and wholly unknown I believe to every one of the Gentlemen who prosecuted Coningsby Besides He was a Roman Catholick and one of the Native Irish upon both of which Accounts he could have the less share of Interest with the British and Irish Protestants who were then not wholly come out of a most bloody War against them for Limerick as yet held out And therefore these worthy Patriots who came over from Ireland hither to prosecute Coningsby could have no other Incitement but Love of their Country and the Preservation of the Laws But the Return they had after a long and Expensive Attendance as it was Mortifying to themselves and sadly Instructive to others will remain an Instance of Arbitrary Government not to be equall'd in former Ages nor easily credible to the future The Story one would think should not need being told in England because it was brought upon the Stage before the House of Commons and is in their Printed Votes YET all that is not it seems sufficient to Publish it at this time not one in twenty of some sort of People that I meet with having ever heard of it or have forgot it And as I have told of the Story of Glenco they call it a Jacobite Invention and will hear no more of it I will therefore present the Reader with the very Words of the Article concerning Gaffney which with several others of other Instances of High Arbitrary Government was exhibited by the Earl of Ballimont and other Protestants of Ireland against the Lords Justices of Ireland viz. The said Lord Coningsby and Sir Charles Porter both Members of the House of Commons in England before the House of Commons in the Winter Session 1693. The Article concerning Gaffney is the 4th and follows in these Words That the Lords Jussices did in Council by word of mouth Order one Gaffney to be Hanged without Tryal the Courts of Justice being then open and who was at that time an Evidence against one Sweetman for the murther of Collonel Foulk's soldiers But the said Sweetman giving all his real Estate to the value of about 200 l. per Annum to Mr. Culliford besides the sum of about 500 l. to Mr. Fielding the said Lords Justices Secretary for being his Bayl was never prosecuted for the said murtheâ— and the said Gaffney was immediately Executed according to the said verbal Order NOW the Reader must know that every Tittle of the said Charge was proved fully and past all Contradiction Captain Fitz-Gerald who is a Member of the Privy Council in Ireland Declared that he was then sitting at the Board and that the Council were not advised with at all in it That Sweetman's Estate valued at 3000 l. was offer'd to him Captain Fitz Gerald on Condition that he would make interest to save Sweetmas's Life That Lord Coningsby who gave the Orders for Executing of Gaffney was in so great hast to have him dispatch'd out of the way for he was an Evidence against Sweetman That he ordered a Provo instead of any Legal Officer to be Call'd into the Council-Chamber where Gaffney was Examin'd And after having asked Gaffney three or four Questions and that he positively denied his having any Accession to the said Murther Commanded the Provo to take him out and hang him up IMMEDIATELY And the Provo making Answer That it would take some time to make a Gallows Coningsby answered sharply Hang him upon the Carriage of a Gun which was done IMMEDIATELY OF all this Coningsby could not deny One Word before the House of Commons And all he said in his own Vindication was That if he had not hang'd Gaffney so he could not have hang'd him at all Which was true For there was no Evidence against him and therefore they would give him no Tryal But why must Gaffney then be Hang'd Because forsooth Some Officers in the Army would have some body Hanged for the Murther of Foulk's Soldiers And Sweetman in whose Backside the Soldiers were buried and their Coats found in his House had given 500 l. to the Lords Justices Secretary and his Estate to another man in Power but Gaffney was a Poor Rogue and had nothing to give and therefore it was fit he should be hang'd And Hang'd as he was or not at all As CONINGSBY honestly but Impudently Confessed BUT now comes the Astonishing Wonder After all these things so plainly Proved and Confess'd that the House of Commons could not frame any manner of excuse for Coningsby but were forc'd to Vote the Execution of Gaffney without Tryal to be Arbitrary and Illegal Yet that considering the state of Affairs They did not think fit to ground an Impeachment against the Lord Coningsby for the same This is in the Printed Votes of the 29th of January 1693. And it is an Original What! Vote a Man guilty and yet that he shall not be prosecuted Why pray Because of the state of Affairs This is very general And such a pretence will never be wanting But what was this State of Affairs at that time It was in the Winter 1690 When all Ireland except only Limerick was in the Obedience of K. W. when the Courts of Justice were open as in the bovesaid Article
against Coningsby is express'd and the Lords Justices and Council sitting in Peace and Grandeur in Dublin And what was it then cou'd or ought to have hindered giving that Poor Fellow a fair Tryal Other Criminals were then Tryed in the usual form and why not Gaffney How came the State of Affairs to reach him more than any other Unless you will say that it did reach to many others For it is expess'd in the Printed Address of the Lords Presented to K. W. 9 March 1692. That not only Gaffney but several others were Executed without any Tryal whatsoever And that there were Exorbitant Abuses great Mismanagement and many Arbitrary and Illegal Proceedings there within these four Years last past as well since the determination of the War as before which includes the whole Government since the Revolution as well dureing the Administration of Gallienus in Person while he was there as of his several Verianus's in his Absence One of whom did in Almanzor strain set up the High Prerogative and Hector their Parliament in a manner unknown to former Ages And without Precedent from any Lawful King that ever sat upon the English Throne in that Kingdom Which they have given us an Account of in Print to try whether there was so much of the Spirit of English Liberty left in an English Parliament as to Vindicate their own Privileges in that Breach which was made upon them thro' the sides of the Parliament in Ireland a Province of their own and may be reckoned a branch of the English Empire But all in Vain They had drunk so deep in the Cup of Slavery at Home that they could take no notice of it Abroad They have stopt their Ears close against all Charmers upon that Subject Charm they never so wisely They Call their Slavery Liberty And where then is the Remedy Thus poor Ireland was left without all hopes of Redress to feed upon the Melancholy Reflection that their Liberties have been much more notoriously violated by their Deliverers than by all the instances which were so much as alledg'd against their Lawful King And thence to learn for the future how much Rebellion is a worse Remedy than the Disease of Tyranny even when it is not made a pretence and that it always Ends in a Heavier Tyranny Because there must go more Force to keep under New Acquisitions than Old Hereditary Rights And if all the Sacred Bonds of Natural Allegiance Fortified with the Religious Sanction of Oaths and Taught and Inculcated upon Us from our Infancy as a Condition indispensable to our Salvation if all this and all the Honour and Reputation which the World has justly affixed to Loyalty with the Horror and eternal Stain upon the Name and Memory of Traytors and Rebels and all the Terrors of the Laws against Treason If none I say Nor all of these Considerations have weight enough to keep us in our Obedience to those whom God and the Constitution of our Country have plac'd over Us by a Divine as well as a Legal Right How should an Vsurper secure our Duty who has none of these Tyes on his side but All and every One of them against Him How should How can He do it but by Corrupting our Representatives in Parliament so as to pass all his Arbitrary Designs upon Us in their Names and when that fails him by open Force How otherwise as any one of them ever yet secured himself Have we forgot our late Deliverers in Forty One Will no Experience serve to make us Wise No. Not when the time of our Destruction is come We shall then as the Jews did before their Final Destruction by the Romans we do now as they did then Obstinately Refuse all Offers of Mercy for our Rebellion and continue to provoke a Power which we know too strong for Us and which we Confess must without a Miracle be our Ruine Yet we run on trusting only to our Dispair And we have not only Delivered up our Money and our Lives without Account but what used to be Dearer to English Men The Honour of England Of which take this short Instance instead of many more THE House of Lords made and printed an Address dated the 18th of February 1692. Wherein They mind their King of the Capitulation made in the Year 1678 by which it was agreed That the English Commander and Officer in every Degree is to Command any other Confederate Officer of the same Rank except those of Crowned Heads without any regard to the Date of their respective Commissions And that the contrary Practice in this last War was to the Diminution of the Honour that belongeth to the Crown of England and to the general Dissatisfaction of his Majesty's Subjects And desire That the Chief Commander of the English Forces under his Majesty should be a Subject born in his Majesty's Dominions That no Foreigner should be of the Board of Ordnance or Keeper of the Stores in the Tower of London That for the Encouragement of the English there should not be so many strangers Employ'd in the Office of the Ordnance That there hath been many Abuses under Pretence of Pressing Men for the Fleet And therefore They humbly Advice That the Offenders should be immediately Cashiered and Prosecuted with the utmost Rigour of the Law HIS Gracious Answer was That He would consider of it And we may suppose That he is considering of it still For he hath not perform'd one word of it But on the Contrary to shew the regard he has for all the Peers of England and for the Honour of England He has acted quite contrary to this Address more since than before For not only Abroad in Flanders and in Savoy are the English every where under Foreign Commanders in Chief But to use them as they deserve He has now this last time made a Foreigner Scomberge Commander in Chief of all the Forces left in England Let the Lords Address again They would if they were English Men Or if he were an Hereditary King But some will bear more Insults from a Mistress than a Wife And a King of our own making Costs us more than Twenty of God's sending We think our selves bound to Acquiesce in our own Act and Deed If any of the Cursed and Rebel Parliaments could have found a Gaffney or Glenco against King Charles the 1st or any of his Sons what a Noise would they have made How had all the World been filled with Apologies and Remonstrances What a Dismal Idea would have been Raised of Tyranny and Arbitrary Government In the former Reigns how was the Nation Alarm'd with what was Whispered and not Whispered or ever so much as thought of in the King's Bed-Chamber in his Closet Of Secret Leagues and Private Assassinations of Men that Murther'd themselves where there was not the least Umbrage or Colour of Pretence How Industrious was it spread and imbib'd by the Mob of this Nation That King Charles the 2d and the Earl of Essex were both Murthered by the Procurement of one they had a mind to Blacken And Forty Protestant Witnesses of the Greatest Quality and Reputation were not sufficient to make them believe a P. of Wales Tho' not one Man or Woman in the Nation ever Depos'd any thing to the Contrary Nor was there any other Argument against it besides a few Drunken Songs But that was enough because it was against a Lawful King And on the other hand tho' they see their Fellow Subjects Gaffney'd and Glenco'd before their Faces Tho' it be Printed in the Gazetts and Publick Votes of the House of Commons and that the House of Lords Print their Addresses contrary to their usual Custom on purpose to let the Nation see Yet they will not see No. All this is not NOW sufficient to imprint it one half hour in their Memories after Reading of the Publick Papers They neglect it They forget it as not concerning them Non Persuadebis etiamsi Persuaseris is their Resolution And Quos Perdere vult Jupiter Dementat I wish may not be their Fate BUT to bring our Story to an End There is One Noble Stroke of of Secretary Johnston's behind Whereby he thinks he has wiped his Master clean from all Imputation of the Massacre of Glenco And that is He has perswaded Lieutenant Collonel Hamilton whose Order to Duncanson is in the foresaid Natrative to Abscond for some time and then to slip over to K. W. in Flanders which he has done This shews as if he were more Guilty than the rest He is made the Scape-goal and all this Sin laid upon his Head But if Hill gave his Orders to his Lieutenant Collonel Hamilton which he Avers in his Order to Duncanson Why was it more Criminal in Hamilton to hand down his Collonel's Orders to the next Subaltern AND why must Glen-Lyon and the others who actually Committed that Horrid Massacre and are now in their Respective Commands in Flanders Why should these be Excused O! No! They are not excused for as in the Gazette 18th July 1695. The Parliament in Scotland has made a fierce Vote against them viz. That his Majesty be Address'd to send them home to be prosecuted for the same Or Not As his Majesty shall think fit OR NOT This is as Civil as Heart could wish And whether this Address was sent or Not whether it was trusted to Secretary Johnston to send it or Not is all One For instead of sending them Home to be Tryed Hamilton is sent to them And in Justice we are to suppose that Due Care will be taken That in this Campaign They shall either be Killed Taken or Desert And then if we had them again How we would Hang the Rogues BUT our English Parliament was much more Complaysant to their Verianus's they did not put them to the trouble so much as of a Sham Absconding for a little time No nor of suffering the least Disgrace for their more Solemn and Judicial Murther But Commanded them to take their Places again in their Senate-House Thus doing them Honour for their Noble Breach of our Laws And signifying to the Nation what Qualifications are Expected in those whom they Choose to Represent them and in whose hands they have Deposited the Absolute and Vn-Accountable Disposal of their Estates Lives and Liberties At least it is so understood And the Silence of the People in this Case is taken for Consent FINIS