your Revenue to boot And tho no King can well avoid being impos'd on by his Servants I believe it in my Conscience that the present Managers of your Revenues in Ireland think it no Sin to rob a Popish King of his Due Hence it is that there is an universal Agreement and Combination betwixt the ..... Merchants ..... we will by way of Retaliation take care that no Catholick be admitted into the Civil This Combination makes your Letters for Civil Places the Reversion of Outlawries and for Catholicks being admitted free of Corporations so little regarded in Ireland by those that past for Tories here c. yet publickly espouse the whiggish Quarrel the other side the Water I beseech you Sir consider that however your Kingly Prudence may prevail with You to dissemble Your Resentments of the Non-compliance and Disobedience of Your stiff-neck'd English Protestant Subjects You ought to exert Your Regal Authority in Ireland a Kingdom more peculiarly Your own where ..... month before or at least not outlive Your Majesty a month for if that poor Nation be not made considerable during Your Reign his Lordship must not hope for the Favour my Lord Stafford had of being legally Murdered by a formal Trial but may well expect all Formality laid aside to be sacrificed to the unbridled Fury of the lawless Rabble and dissected into little Morsels as the De-Wits were in Holland And truly the Fanaticks threaten no less and it were to be wished they cried out upon more of Your Ministers than they do at present for You may take it for granted they will never speak well of Your real Friends ..... other will endeavour to marr and the Work will go on like that of Babel confusedly for want of good Intelligence among the Workmen Sir You are under God the great Architect that will with the Blessing of Jesus live to see the glorious Structure fully finish'd In order to which 't is requisite You lose no time in making Ireland intirely Your own that England and Scotland may follow You are gone too far if You do not go farther not to advance is to lose Ground Delays are dangerous and all the World allow Expedition and Resolution to ..... if this were once compassed France could no more hope upon a falling out with England to take advantage of the diversity of our Sects and what may spring thence Domestick Jars and Divisions Sir Notwithstanding the Doubts and Fears of Trimming Courtiers and some Cow-hearted Catholicks You may live long enough to undertake and crown this great Work with the Grace and Assistance of the same Almighty God that defeated the Rebels in the West and made them instrumental in settling You in Your Throne and that permitted this Country to be lately sprinkled with the Blood of Martyrs which must infallibly contribute to the Conversion of Souls in this Kingdom for the Blood of Martyrs is and ever was the fruitful Seed of the Church The Seed is sown in many parts of England and the Harvest will without doubt be great and plentiful but the Workmen too too few if You do not provide your self with Catholick Privy-Counsellors Ministers Judges Officers Civil and Military and Servants As to the Choice of which I will mind Your Majesty of the Advice given Moses by Jethro his Father-in-Law in the following words Provide out of all the People able Men such as fear God Men of Truth hating Covetousness When Your Counsellors and Ministers are thus qualified and not till then You may hope to do what becomes a James the Second And to furnish Your self with able Men You must follow Your Royal Father's Advice to the Prince of Wales that is With an equal Eye and impartial Hand distribute Favours and Rewards to all Men as You find them for their real Goodness both in Ability and Fidelity worthy and capable of them Such as fear God as the truly Wisest will advise You to the best Measure for promoting God's Glory Men of Truth will like Tyrconnel serve You faithfully without trimming tho with never so apparent Hazard to their Fortunes and Lives And Men hating Covetousness will not betray Your Interest be corrupted nor sell Places to such Undermanagers of Your Revenue as buying them for a Spill in gross will be sure to retail them at Your Cost a Practice much in use here and in Ireland at present where few or no Places can be had without Bribes by which means You are cheated in both Kingdoms of an Hundred thousand Pounds a Year in the opinion of understanding honest and indifferent Judges for no Man will give a Shilling surreptitiously for an Office but with a design to cheat You of Twenty To prevent which there is no Remedy but that of employing smart Men of known Integrity to be chosen without Favour or Affection that will be content with their respective Salleries and imploy their utmost Industry to improve not imbezel Your Revenues the Ornaments of Peace and Sinews of War SIR These Kingdoms are of Opinion Popery will break in upon them and it were a pity to disappoint them and when You take effectual Measures Your trimming Courtiers will unmask and come over nay half the Kingdom will be converted of it self What I have here presumed to write is the effect of my unfeigned Zeal for the Good of Religion and Your Majesties Interest which I hope will induce You to pardon a plain-dealing and loving Subject that daily beseeches God to bless Your Majesty and these Kingdoms with a long and prosperous Reign and with numerous long-liv'd Male Issues and to inspire You with wholsom Thoughts that may direct You to the performance of such Heroick Actions as may gain You immortal Fame in this World and eternal Glory in the next Lord Clarendon's Speech in Council on his leaving the Government of Ireland My Lords IT has been sometimes used to make Speeches upon these Occasions but I know my insufficiency for that Task and therefore shall trouble your Lordships with very few words In the first place my Lords I give your Lordships many thanks for the Civilities I have received from every one of you and for the great Assistance I have had from you in the discharge of my Duty here I know your Lordships can witness for me that I never desir'd your concurrence in any thing that was not for the King's Service I do again beg your Lordships to accept of my Thanks with this assurance that I shall give the King an account when I have the honour to kiss his Hand of your Lordships great readiness and diligence to advance his Service My Lord Deputy I shall not long detain your Lordship The King hath placed your Excellency in a very great Station has committed to your Care the Government of a great and flourishing Kingdom of a Dutiful Loyal and Obedient People It is extreamly to be lamented that there are such Feuds and Animosities among them which I hope your Excellency's Prudence with
Settlement and that you made Leases of them on which many and great Improvements have been made It is likewise true that your Majesty sold and exchanged some small proportions of the same Lands and received in Money Twelve Years Purchase some of which your Majesty conveyed by Fines and other assurances in Law and though your Majesty may if it seem meet unto you part with all that Estate yet it is humbly conceived it ought to be with reservation to the Lessees and those few Purchasers as it was done by Mary Queen of England who though zealous in the highest degree to the Religion she professed and that she restored such part of Lands belonging unto Monasteries as remained in her hands undisposed did nevertheless permit the Grantees and Purchasers quietly and peaceably to retain such part of them as they were possessed of by Grant or Purchase and which for ought appearing is enjoyed by them and those deriving under them to this day though she came to the Crown within few years after Passing the Act for Dissolving Monasteries For if no consideration be had of them your Majesty gives away the Term of Years and Improvements from your Lessees and the Land from him to whom your Majesty sold it without restoring the Purchase mony than which no case can be harder and without your Roy-Assent neither of these can be done For the Objections commonly made against the Acts of Settlement and Explanation which are usually that many Innocents were never heard and that there was not time sufficient for hearing of them but how this should affect those who purchased after the Acts passed and Certificates and Letters Patents passed on them is not demonstrable from any Rule of Law or Equity The person designing to Purchase inquires whether the Title of the Land or Tenement to be Sold be good in Law and Equity and being assured in that he forbears further Inquiry being assured that never any Purchaser in Possession having Law and Equity on his side was dispossessed by any person whatsoever upon ground of Equity and the Purchaser here hath the Law with him by the Acts of Settlement and the Equity by the payment of his Money It is to be wished that if Widows Orphans or any other persons have fallen under hardship by the general settlement of the Kingdom that some way may be devised to make them reparation but the way prescribed by this Bill is to Rob the Innocent Purchasers Creditors and Orphans of their Estates to do it contrary to the Publick Faith Laws of the Land and Precept of Holy Writ which forbids doing of Evil that good may come thereof It s manifest by what has been said that if this Bill proceed as is now contrived that all the Protestants in the Kingdom are undoubtedly and without reserve ruined since the Rapparees that is the Armed multitude have taken away all their moveable Estates and this Design is to take away all the Lands and Tenements purchased by them The thriving Catholicks who were Purchasers as most of the Province of Connaught are are likewise to be turned out of their Estates and Possessions and their own and the improvements of those who hold under them utterly lost As to the Politick part which these great Statesmen who drive on this Bill make mention of that will be worthy of consideration It s said that this will unite your Majesties Subjects in this Kingdom That is too gross to pass since the first mentioning thereof hath it not made a division and a breach betwixt them nay where there was none before and doth it not grow daily wider It was never heard that Accommodation between parties that were all in contest could stand unless the terms were continued for if what was given to one of the Parties be taken away it makes the whole Award void and of none effect and admitting the Old Proprietor had right it is not enough except he have it against the Purchaser And if the Design be what is pretended to restore this Kingdom to the Peace and Plenty which it flourished in some years since to unite your Majesties Subjects whereby they may be enabled according to their Duty and Allegiance to restore your Majesty to the exercise of your Royal Dignity in all your Kingdoms this can never be effected except all pretenders recede in some degree from the full of their pretensions for the accommodation of the whole and the publick quiet and safety Would it not be an unreasonable thing in a Cargo where divers Merchants are concerned and have Goods and Merchandizes in a Storm to throw out by consent the Goods of any one Merchant though in the bottom of the Hold and hardest to come by for the safety of all concerned without satisfaction given him by a contribution from those who had the advantage of it or if it could be done or had time for it were it not much more just that the loss should be equally divided amongst them by throwing out a just proportion from all concerned than to single out one part of the people and by their ruine to advance the other This is not in my judgment the readiest way of uniting them Sufferance to make one step more and Quaere Whether the Catholick Purchasers now to be turned out of Possession will join heartily with those that enter upon them Farewel Trade and Commerce where Acts of Parliament shall be made to destroy securities that were good when made Farewell all Improvements in Ireland where no man shall ever know what Estate he hath if the foundation of the general settlement should now be overturned I cannot foresee what the consequences may be of having it published and made known in your Majesties other Kingdoms and Dominions and elsewhere where the Protestant Religion is professed that such a Proposal as this in relation to such of your Protestant Subjects as have made no defection hath been prepared for your Majesties Consideration in order to be passed into a Law and this when they were secure of the Laws of the Land not so much as Common Equity to question the Title by which they held That nevertheless use should be made of the Legislative power to Enact a new Law after so many assurances given them to the contrary and after so many years quiet possession to turn them out of their Estates altogether It is much to be feared that those who first advised this method of Proceedings have considered their own particular advantage and that of their Friends and Relations without the least thoughts of your Majesties Service for surely this can never be thought so nor the way to settle this Kingdom whereby it may be serviceable to your Majesty nor can it be imagined but that men thus despoiled will as often as Parliaments shall be called make application for Redress and Repeal as in the Case of the Spencers to Repeal a Repeal and they and their Posterity will be always solliciting your Majesty and your
be the peculiar Obligation that lies on us from the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which tho it should be allowed lawful for a Foreign Prince to interpose would yet make it necessary for us to fight for our own Prince But to this I answer 1. That those Oaths were made by us to the King as Supreme Governor of these Kingdoms and while he continued such they did oblige us but by endeavouring to destroy us he as Grotius observes in that very Act abdicated the Government since an intention of Governing cannot consist with an intention of Destroying and therefore in all equity we are absolved from Oaths made to him as Governor That this may not seem a new Doctrine I would have the Reader observe that I only transcribe the Learned Falkner in his Christian Loyalty l. 1. c. 5. s. 2. n. 19. Such Attempts saith he of ruining do ipso facto include a disclaiming the governing those Persos as Subjects and consequently of being their Prince or King and then the Expression of our publick Declaration and Acknowledgment would still be secured that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King 9. But Secondly No Oath of Allegiance doth oblige any Subject to assist his Prince in an ill Cause If therefore a King should against the Rules of Justice attempt to destroy a Neighbor Nation his Subjects who were convinced of this ought not to fight for him in such a War and if they ought not to assist him to oppress Foreigners much less is it lawful for them to assist him to destroy themselves or to fight against a Prince who comes to rescue them from Destruction intended against them and if no Protestant Subject could lawfully fight for King James in his Quarrel against their present Majesties it is manifest that he himself had thereby voided that Branch of the Oath of Allegiance of fighting for him by making the matter of it unlawful he having brought the Nation into such a Condition that at the same time they defended his Person they must enable him to accomplish his destructive Designs against them which no Casuist will say they were obliged to do They therefore that urge us with the Obligation of the Oaths of Allegiance ought either to make it appear that it was lawful for us to fight for him in an ill Cause or else that it was not an ill Cause to help him to destroy his People Or Thirdly That he had no such Design against us none of which I have yet seen attempted in any Paper that has appeared in his Defence 10. But Thirdly As to us particularly in Ireland his late Majesty King James and his Parliament here by a formal Act did repeal and make void all former Acts that required the tendering or taking those Oaths and left not one legal standing Oath in force whereby we or any other Subjects besides Soldiers were obliged to profess Subjection to him therefore those Oaths being repealed and voided by the King 's own express Act how could he expect that we should look upon our selves to be bound or obliged by them And indeed we must conclude from his Majesties consenting to repeal them either that he designed to release us from the peculiar Obligation arising from them as too strict or else that he did not design to depend on our Oaths for our Loyalty and therefore laid them aside as of no force to oblige us either of which must proceed from an intention to destroy the ancient Government with which he was intrusted and can signifie nothing less than that he did not intend to rule us as his Predecessors did or to depend on those Obligations of Subjection which they judged proper for the Subjects of these Kingdoms to give their King and that as he did not intend to keep his Coronation Oath to us so he did not value our Oath of Allegiance to him having left none that we know of in this Kingdom which any Law obliges us to take CHAP. II. King James designed to destroy the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of his Subjects in general the English Interest in particular and so alter the very Frame and Constitution of the Government SECT I. Shewing the Possibility of a Kings designing the Destruction of his Subjects 1. I Have in the former Chapter shewed that it is lawful for a Prince to interpose between another Prince and his Subjects if he attempt to destroy them I promised in the second place to shew that the late King designed and endeavoured to destroy and utterly ruin the Protestant Religion and English Interest in Ireland and to alter the very Frame and Constitution of the Government This I look on as the most material point of our Apology and to need the most clear and full proof for Jealousies and Fears in such a Case ought not to pass for Arguments or be brought into competition with a certain and plain Duty that is with Obedience to lawful Governors The Arguments therefore brought by Subjects to prove their Governors Design to destroy them in those Interests to preserve which is the only Reason of Mens desiring or submitting to Government ought to be so plain and evident that the Conscience of Mankind cannot but see and be convinced of their Truth especially the generality of the Subjects themselves ought to be fully satisfied and acquiesce in them 2. I know 't is commonly objected Who shall be Judge And for this Reason alone some conclude it can never be lawful to make any opposition against a Governor or to side with a Deliverer that comes only to rescue miserable Subjects but I answer there are some Cases so plain that they need no Judge at all every Man must be left to judge for himself and for his Integrity he must be answerable to God and his own Conscience Matters of Fact are often of this Nature and I take this to be one of them for either the People must be left to judge of the Designs of their Governor by what they see and feel from him or else they must be obliged to a blind and absolute Submission without employing their understanding in the case And I dare appeal to all the World whether it be safer to leave it to the Judgments and Consciences of a whole Kingdom to determine concerning the Designs of their Governor or to leave it to the Will and Conscience of the King whether he will destroy them One of these is unavoidable and I am assured it is less probable that the Generality of a Kingdom will concur in a Mistake of this Nature and less mischievous if they should mistake than that a King by Weakness wicked Counsellors or false Principles should design to make his People Slaves subvert the ancient Government or destroy one part of his People whom he hates in favour of another 3. That a Prince may design to destroy his Subjects tho the Asserters of Absolute Passive Obedience would
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
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
Collection that no body ever askt their opinion of it much less had they given any certificate concerning it and that they could give no censure of it having neither read it or the Sermons out of which it is pretended to be taken This discovery would have daâ—ht any other out of Countenance but Mr. Yalden went on his way and became every Day more and more abusive till he and his Abhorrences were routed together His work was to magnifie the Party that adhered to King James in England to represent their present Majesties interest as sinking to blackâ—n and abuse all Protestants and to vent his Spite in a more peculiar manner against the Clergy whom he endeavoured to redicule and make odious to the Government and if possible to sow dissention between them and their People We have reason to thank God that he had no success but yet the Countenance he and his Papers met with from the Government his Abhorrences being Licensed either by Sir Richard Nagle or Albâ—ville Setretaries of State plainly discover what inclinations they had towards the Protestant Religion and Clergy 6. And now upon the whole I suppose it is manifest by what has been said in this and the former Section that King James not only designed to destroy us but also made a considerable progress in it and 't would have been inexcusable ingratitude to God and to their present Majesties if we should have refused to close heartily with a Government that rescued us from so great misery and apparent danger nor can any reasonable Man blame those amongst us that desired or assisted in this deliverance and to their utmost power laboured to procure it 7. If a Christian Army should go at this time into Greece to redeem the Christians there from the slavery of the Turks I would enquire of any indifferent Casuist whether it were lawful for the oppressed Grecians to accept of that deliverance and to join heartily with and recognize their Redeemers and I am well assured there is not one argument could be produced to justifie such a defection in them but it may be urged with greater force in our vindication The usage we have met with being full as inhumane as any thing they suffer and with this aggravation that every Act of violence exercised against us is likewise against the Laws and against the nature and Constitution of our Government whereas their Laws vest their Emperour with an absolute power and they have no other title to any thing but his will every Act therefore of oppression from our King was so much more intolerable and provoking to us than the like from the Grand Signior is to his Subjects as an illegal violence is more insupportable than a legal CHAP. IV. That there remain'd no other Prospect or human Possibility of avoiding this Slavery and Destruction design'd against the Kingdom and Protestants of Ireland but by accepting of the Protection and submitting to the Government of their present Majesties 1. BY the foregoing part of this Discourse it appears that we had nothing left us to oppose to the Invasions made on our Liberties Properties Lives and Religion That neither the Laws nor the King's Protections and Articles or Declarations in our favour That neither particular Services and Merits towards the Royal Interest nor King James's natural Compassion and merciful Disposition nor lastly his own Interest in protecting and preserving us could secure us but that notwithstanding all these we were brought to the very brink of Destruction There remain'd therefore no other prospect or possibility for us to avoid this Destruction but his present Majesties interposing on our behalf as he had done for England A Providence of which we so little dreamt and which was so strange so unexpected and so effectual that we cannot but believe something extraordinary in it and that he was rais'd up by God to be a Deliverer to us and the Protestant Cause 2. An unreasonable request it had been now to the Protestants of this Nation in this condition to which they were brought to have desir'd them to have sat still and not made use of that opportunity which God put into their Hands to rescue themselves and their Country from Slavery and Ruine And yet this is it our Adversaries would have had us declin'd been contented with what they had brought upon us and expected some new Miracle in our Deliverance 3. For when the Protestants here complain'd of the Pressures under which they lay their Popish Acquaintance used to tell them that they ought to be patient that Christ had endur'd more whilst on Earth and that they ought not to trouble themselves about their Sufferings or Deliverance but leave all to Providence and see what God would do for them and took it very ill that they or those whom they had driven from hence should endeavour to do any thing for themselves It is true Sermons of Patience and Submission to the Will of God were very proper and necessary in our Circumstances but then they were most improper in the Mouths of our Enemies who brought and continu'd those Injuries and Sufferings on us contrary to Law and Justice under which they endeavoured to perswade us to be patient and from which they would not allow us to seek relief and whilst they continu'd their Oppressions their advising us to depend solely on a new Providence for our Deliverance was the same reproach and scoff that the Apostate Julian put on the Primitive Christians whose Petitions for Justice he put off by telling them Their Master advis'd them to be patient and pronounc'd them blessed when persecuted And yet we did exactly follow this advice though given in railery and did not make the least step to right our selves by force till God's Providence appear'd signally for these Kingdoms in raising them up a Deliverer and putting the Crown on their Majesties Heads 4. And now what Reason have we thankfully to embrace and to bless God for the kind Offers of a Prince who out of a publick Spirit generously ventured himself and all that he had to save the Protestant Religion the Interest of Europe and these Kingdoms in particular from the united Designs of France and King James to enslave and ruin them It is true God could have wrought a Miracle for us when nothing else would have saved us but we should have had little reason to expect it if we had rejected this contrivance of Providence that seem'd next to miraculous I am sure some things are recorded in History as Miracles which were not accompanied with such extraordinary Circumstances as our Delivery We neither had nor have in our utmost view another chance besides this to preserve us from Slavery Misery and Ruine and our Enemies would have had more reason to applaud their Wit than the World allows them if they could have perswaded us to reject this and to trust to a new Miracle We had only in our prospect this one thing to save our Lives
same any thing in this or the said Act of Repeal to the contrary notwithstanding And it is further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all Letters Patents hereafter to be granted of any Offices or Lands whatsoever shall contain in the same Letters Patents a Clause requiring and compelling the said Patentees to cause the said Letters Patents to be enrolled in the Chancery of Ireland within a time therein to be limited and all Letters Patents wherein such Clause shall be omitted are hereby declared to be utterly void and of none effect Provided always that if your sacred Majesty at any time before the first Day of November next by Letters Patents under the Broad Seal of England if reâ—â—ding there or by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of Ireland during your Majesties abode here shall grant your gracious Pardon or Pardons to any one or more of the Persons herein before mentioned or intended to be attainted who shall return to their Duty and Loyalty that then and in such case such Person and Persons so pardoned shall be and is hereby excepted out of this present Act as if they had never been therein named or thereby intended to be attainted and shall be and are hereby acquitted and discharged from all Attainders Penalties and Forfeitures created or inflicted by this Act or the said Act of Repeal excepting such Share or Proportion of their real or personal Estate as your Majesty shall think fit to except or reserve from them any thing in this present Act or in the said Act of Repeal contained to the contrary notwithstanding Provided always that every such Pardon and Pardons be pursuant to a Warrant under your Majesties Privy Signet and Sign manual and that no one Letters Patents of Pardon shall contain above one Person and that all and every such Letters Patents of Pardon and Pardons shall be enrolled in the Rolls Office of your Majesties High Court of Chancery in this Kingdom at or before the last Day of the said Month of November or in Default thereof to be absolutely void and of none Effect any thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding Provided likewise that if any Person or Persons so pardoned shall at any time after the Date of the said Pardon join with or aid or assist any of your Majesties Enemies or with any Rebels in any of your Majesties Dominions and be thereof convict or attainted by any due Course of Law that then and in such Case they shall forfeit all the Benefit and Advantage of such Pardon and shall be again subject and liable to all the Penalties and Forfeitures inflicted on them and every of them by this or the said Act of Repeal as if such Pardon or Pardons had never been granted Provided always that nothing in this Act contained shall extend or be construed to extend to or vest in your Majesty any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments or other Interest of any ancient Proprietor who by the said Act of Repeal is to be restored to his ancient Estate but that all such Person and Persons and all their Right Title and Interest are and shall be saved and preserved according to the true Intent and Meaning of the said Act any thing in these Presents to the contrary notwithstanding Copia vera Richard Darling Cleric in Offic. M ri Rot. The Perswasions and Suggestions the Irish Catholicks make to his Majesty Supposed to be drawn up by Talbot titular Arch-bishop of Dublin and found in Col. Talbot's House July 1. 1671. 1. THAT the Rebellion in Anno 1641. was the Act of a few and out of fear of what was doing in England That they were provoked and driven to it by the English to get their Forfeitures That they were often willing to submit to the King and did it effectually Anno 1648 and held up his Interest against the Usurper who had murdered his Father till 1653. After which time they served his Majesty in Foreign Parts till his Restauration 2. That they acquiesce in his Majesty's Declaration of Novemb. 30. 1660. And are willing that the Adventurers and Souldiers should have what is therein promised them but what they and others have more may be resumed and disposed of as by the Declaration 3. They desire for what Lands intended to be restored them shall be continued to the Adventurers and Souldiers that they may have a Compensation in Money out of his Majesty's new Revenues of Quit-Rents payable by the Adventurers and Souldiers The Hearth Money and Excise being such Branches as were not in 1641 and hope that the one will ballance the other 4. They say That his Majesty has now no more need of an Army than before 1641 That the remainder of his Revenue will maintain now as well as then what Forces are necessary 5. They desire to be restored to Habitations and Freedom within Corporations 1. That the General Trade may advance 2. That Garisons and Cittadels may become useless 3. That they may serve his Majesty in Parliament for bettering his Revenue and crushing and securing the Seditious in all Places 6. They desire to be Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace c. for the Ends and Purposes aforesaid and to have the Power of the Civil and Ordinary Militia 7. They also desire to be form'd into a Militia and to be admitted to be of the standing Army 8. That their Religion is consonant to Monarchy and implicit Obedience That they themselves have actually serv'd his Majesty in Difficulties That they have no other way to advantage themselves than by a strict adherence to the King That they have no other Refuge whereas many of his Majesty's Subjects do lean hard another way 9. That the Roman Catholicks are six to one of all others that of the said one to six some are Atheists and Neuters who will profess the Roman Catholick Religion others devoutly given will affect the same course that the rest may have their Liberty of Conscience and may be corrected in case they abuse it 10. That the Roman Catholicks having the full Power of the Nation they can at all times spare his Majesty an Army of Sixty thousand Men there being Twelve hundred thousand Souls in Ireland and so consequently an Hundred and fifty thousand between sixteen and sixty Years old Which Forces if allowed to Trade shall have Shipping to transport themselves when his Majesty pleaseth 11. That they have a good Correspondence abroad for that great numbers of their Nation are Souldiers Priests and Merchants in esteem with several great Princes and their Ministers 12. That the Toleration of the Roman Catholicks in England being granted and the Insolence of the Hollanders taken down a Confederacy with France which can influence England as Scotland can also will together by God's Blessing make his Majesty's Monarchy Absolute and Real 13. That if any of the Irish cannot have their Lands in specie but Money in lieu as aforesaid some of them may transport themselves into America possibly
Let this be Printed Nottingham White-Hall Octob. 15. 1691. THE STATE OF THE PROTESTANTS OF IRELAND Under the late King James's Government IN WHICH Their Carriage towards him is justified and the absolute Necessity of their endeavouring to be freed from his Government and of submitting to their present Majesties is demonstrated LONDON Printed for Robert Clavell at the Peacock at the West-end of St. Paul's 1691. HEADS of the DISCOURSE The INTRODUCTION Containing an Explication of the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and stating the true Notion and Latitude of it page 1 N. 1. That a King who designs to destroy a People abdicates the Government of them ib. 2. The Assertors of Passive Obedience own this but alledge the Case is not to be put p. 2 3. The Arguments of Passive Obedience from Reason and Scripture reach only Cases where the Mischief is particular or tolerable p. 3 4. A War not always a greater Evil than Suffering p. 5 5. The Division of the whole Discourse into four parts ib. Chap. 1. That it is lawful for one Prince to interpose between another Prince and his Subjects when he uses them cruelly p. 6 N. 1. This Point already cleared by several ib. 2. 1. Argument One Prince may have an Interest in the People and Government of another Prince ib. 3. 2. Argument That tho Destruction of a People by their Prince may only be a step to the Destruction of his Neighbours ib. 4. 3. Argument Charity and Humanity oblige every one who is able to succour the oppressed p. 7 5. 4. Argument God seems for this Reason to have divided the World into several Principalities ib. 6. 5. Argument From the Authority of Christian Casuists p. 8 7. 6. From the Practice of Christian Princes Constantine the Great Constantine his Son King Pepin the Holy War c. ib. 8. The Objection from the Oath of Allegiance c. answered from Falkner p. 9 9. From it not being lawful to assist any Prince in an ill Cause p. 10 10. From King Jame's abolishing those Oaths here in Ireland ib. Chap. 2. King James designed to destroy the Protestant Religion p. 12 Sect. 1. The possibility of a King 's designing the Destruction of his Subjects ib. N. 1. That it is necessary the Princes Design should be very evident to justifie the Opposition of his Subjects ib. 2. An Answer to the Objection who shall be Judge ib. 3. Example of Princes that have had such Designs against their Subjects p. 13 Sect. 2. Shewing from the Obligations of his Religion that King James designed to destroy Protestant Subjects p. 14 N. 1. Proved from the Councils of Lateran and Constance from King James's Zeal Confessors and Allies ib. 2. That no Promises of the Prince nor Laws of the Land can secure Protestant Subjects p. 16 Account of Jerome of Prague's safe Conduct p. 17 Sect. 3. King James's Design to ruin his Protestant Subjects proved from the Profession of that whole Party that were most privy to his Councils who privately warned their Protestant Friends of it ib. Sect. 4. The same destructive Designs proved from the Officers employed by him p. 19 N. 1. The Ground of the different Interests of Ireland Account of the Rebellion in 1641 ib. 2. The Subjects Security is that the Officers employed by the King are responsible for what they do amiss p. 20 3. The Officers employed by King James not only not responsible but fitted to destroy us upon account of the five Qualifications following p. 21 Sect. 5. Upon Account of their being Men generally of no Fortune p. 22 N. 1. King James employed such in the Army and Civil Offices and such were his Favourites p. 22 2. He employed such in Corporations p. 23 3. Men of Estates that followed him out of England had little Interest with him ib. 4. The Reason of this that they might not stick at illegal Commands p. 24 Sect. 6. Upon Account of their Insufficiency for their Emploments ib. N. 1. The Roman Catholicks generally insufficient for Business by their long Disuse ib. 2. The Inconveniences of this in the Courts and City p. 25 3. In the Country p. 26 4. Those employed were incapable of Improvement p. 27 Sect. 7. Upon account of their loose Principles and want of Moral Honesty ib. N. 1. Knavery Robbery or Forgery no Bar to Preferments in King James his Army or Employments ib. 2. The lewdest Converts favour'd p. 29 3. All of them very uncharitable and void of Compassion to Hereticks p. 30 4. Many Perjuries amongst them ib. Sect. 8. Upon Account of their Genius and Inclination to destroy the Laws c. p. 31 N. 1. The ancient Condition of the Tenants and Landlords of Ireland ib. 2. The Landlords that did not forfeit their Estates 1641 retained the Genius of their Ancestors p. 32 3. The Humour and Way of Living of such as formerly forfeited or had sold their Estates ibid. 4. The English Laws were intolerable to the old Landlords that retain'd their Estates p. 33 5. Much more to those that had lost them and most of all to the Popish Clergy ibid. 6. King James employed and trusted those most whose Interest and Temper made them greatest Enemies to the Laws p. 34 by the Laws in employing Soldiers ibid. 8. Secondly That Protestants would not serve his turn Answer This only shews what he designed against us p. 57 9. Thirdly That such Levies were necessary in the Kings Circumstances Answer The Papists had brought that necessity The raising and modeling this Army a plain instance of King James's design to destroy us ibid. Sect. 3. Secondly King James's dealing with the Courts of Judicature p. 58 1. Justice in the Hands of â—it Persons the support of a Kingdom King James put it into the most unfit Hands being such as were bent to destroy the Protestants and English Interest ibid. 2. Chancery Primate Boyle and Sir Charles Porter removed Fitton put in His Character His Inclination and Behaviour towards Protestants and great partiality to them ibid. 3. Masters of Chancery of the same sort p. 60 4. On the other Benches one Protestant Judg kept in for a Colour without Power The like done by Burgesses in Corporations p. 61 5. Kings Bench Nugent's Character great Partiality Instance in Captain Fitz Gerald anâ— Sir Gregory Birn Nugent's great hand in the Bill of Attainder c. Sir Bryan ô Neal's Character p. 61 62 6. Excâ—equer Sir Stephen Rice's Character His Inveteracy to Protestants and enmity to the Act of Settlement p. 63 7. Common Pleas little to do Keating's and Daley's Characters p. 64 8. Circuits Alike ill for Protestants Instance Tirrell's Affidavit ibid. 9. Attorney General Sir Richard Nagle his Character and Partiality Instance in Fitz Gerald and Sir William Petty Speaker of the House of Commons drew up the Acts of Repeal and Attainder and betrayed the Kings Prerogative p. 65 66 10. Administration of the Laws turned to the Protestants ruin p. 66 11. Instances in
Universal or if it be Universal where it is yet tolerable and not so mischievous in the consequence as a Civil-War and I am apt to believe were meant no otherwise by the Authors Our Homilies press with great force the inconveniencies of such a War and the Author of Jovian designed his 11. Chap to shew that Resistance would be a greater mischief than Passive Obedience and tells us in the body of the Chapter that the inconvenience of Resisting the Sovereign would be of ten times worse consequence than it Which in the general is true as it relates to private injuries or the ordinary Male-Administration of Government but if it be applyed to the case of a Governour who designs the destruction of the Laws Lives and Liberties of his People and has gotten Ministers to execute his intention it is a manifest mistake and is confuted by Examples and Experience in all Ages If we look back into History we shall find the best the happiest most prosperous People most jealous of their Liberty and while they continued firm in their resolution of maintaining it against the encroachment of their Governours even with the hazzard of their lives they have continued great and happy but no sooner did they degenerate from this Zeal but they became contemptible and dwindled into nothing and at this day let us look into the whole world and we shall find every Nation happy and thriving at home and easie to their Neighbours abroad according as they have preserved themselves from slavery whereas all Countries under unlimitted Monarchies decay in their strength and improvements and though they may flourish for a little time by the ruin of their lesser Neighbours yet they at last unpeople their own Countries and seem to be permitted by God to come to that exorbitant power for their own ruin and for a plague to mankind And indeed the greatest mischief of a Civil-War is the danger of subjecting the State to the absolute power of some potent General as it happened in Rome Florence and in England in the late Civil-War for to lose even half the Subjects in a War is more tolerable than the loss of Liberty since if Liberty and good Laws be preserved an Age or two will repair the loss of Subjects and Improvements though they be ever so great but if Liberty be lost it is never to be retrieved but brings certain and infallible destruction as it did to Rome and has brought in a great measure to Florence and will to England if ever the Prerogative do swallow up the Liberties and Priviledges of the Subjects So far it is from truth that the allowing of Resistance in some cases of extremity has greater inconveniencies than absolute Subjection The Scriptures do indeed command Obedience without expressing any exception but cases of extream necessity may as reasonably be presumed to be excepted here as in the command for observation of the Sabbath which is as positive as any Command for Obedience to Governors Thou shalt do no manner of work saith the Commandment and yet it is acknowledged by all to contain a tacit exception for Works of necessity and Charity and whoever will consider the Commands for Obedience to Governours will find room in them for as reasonable an exception from that Obedience in cases of necessity as for servile works on the Sabbath day of which our Saviour himself approves it being as true that Governours were made for their Kingdoms as the Sabbath for Man 4. If then in some cases the mischiefs of tamely submitting to the tyranny and usurpation of a Governour may be worse and have more dangerous and mischievous consequences to the Common-Wealth than a War I suppose it ought to be granted that where this necessity is certain and apparent people may lawfully resist and defend themselves even by a War as being the lesser evil and then there needs no more to justifie the Protestants of Ireland for their deserting King James and accepting their Majesties protection than to shew I. That it is lawful for one Prince or State to interpose between another Prince and his Subjects who uses them cruelly or endeavours to enslave or destroy them and to rescue them from his hands even by a War if other means prove ineffectual and that it is lawful for the Subjects to accept of such interposition and protection if they can find no better way to preserve themselves II. That King James designed to destroy and utterly ruin the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subjects in general the English Interest in Ireland in particular and alter the very Frame and Constitution of the Government III. That he not only design'd but attempted it with great success and made a considerable progress in it IV. That there remained no other prospect or human possibility of avoiding this slavery and destruction designed against the Kingdom and Protestants of Ireland but by accepting of the Protection and submitting to the Government of their present Majesties If I make these particulars manifest beyond contradiction and if the very Consciences of Roman Catholicks cannot but own them to be true I do not see how they can condemn us for what we have done or what else they could have expected from us except they would have had us held up our Throats till they cut them which no man had reason to expect from a whole body of people and they least of all who designed to be actors in it CHAP. I. Shewing that it is lawful for one Prince to interpose between another Prince and his Subjects when he uses them cruelly or endeavours to enslave or destroy them 1. THIS Assertion has been made so clear in several Discourses of late that I shall not need insist much on it A few Arguments will be sufficient for this place 2. First therefore it may be lawful for one Prince to interpose between another Prince and his Subjects because he may have an Interest in that People and Government to defend which Interest he may lawfully concern himself and prevent their Ruin by a War Such an Interest is Consanguinity Community of Religion but more especially a Prospect of Succession in the Government for in that Case if the People be destroyed or weakened the Inheritance is the worse and he is injured in his hopes which often are very valuable The present Possessor who is only an Usufructuary or Tenant for Life by destroying the Inheritance gives a just provocation to him who is in Reversion to cross his design by opposing him by all means that are in his power and this Argument is the stronger if there be just reason to suspect that there are any unlawful means used to defeat him of his Succession which alone were sufficient to justifie their present Majesties Interposition between the late King and his Subjects 3. But secondly the same may be lawful if the Destruction of a People by their Prince be only a step and degree to the destruction of a
make it an incredible Thing is so far from being impossible that it is very common of which there are so many Examples both ancient and modern that it is a wonder that Men who know any thing of History should overlook them Nero Caligula Domitian Maximinus Heliogabalus Commodus not only endeavoured but professed it and some of them were mightily concerned that it was not in their power to accomplish it No longer ago than the time of Philip the Second of Spain we have an Example of a Christian King no better than those Heathens Whoever reads the Story of his dealing with the Low Countries must confess that he design'd the utter Destruction of the Laws and Liberties of those People and that in particular he was resolved that not one Protestant should be left alive amongst them The same has been designed and effected in a great measure by the present French King against his Protestant Subjects and he must have a great share either of Impudence or Stupidity that can deny this Prince to have designed and purposely contrived that destruction and by the same Rule that a Man can be so wicked and barbarous as to design the destruction of a third or fourth part of his People he may design the destruction of the greatrr part if they will be such Fools as to suffer him to effect it SECT II. Shewing from the Obligations of his Religion that King James designed to destroy us IT is easie to demonstrate that every Roman Catholick King if he throughly understand his Religion and do in earnest believe the Principles of it is obliged if he be able to destroy his Protestant Subjects and that nothing can excuse him from doing it but want of power This is plain from the third Chapter of the fourth Lateran Council and from the Council of Constance in the Bull that confirms it read in the 45. Session if therefore a Popish King can persuade his Protestant Subjects to submit to him whilst he doth it he is obliged by his Principles to destroy them even when they are the greater part and Body of his Subjects Now King James was as is known to all the World a most zealous Roman Catholick and ingaged with that party of them that most zealously assert and practise this Doctrine of rooting out Hereticks He gave himself up intirely to the Conduct and guidance of Jesuits these were the Governors and Directors of his Conscience and he seemed to have no other Sentiments than such as they inspired into him If then these have prevailed with the French King whom some report to be a merciful Man in his own Nature and certainly a mighty Zealot for his Honor to break his most solemn established Laws violate his repeated Declarations and Oaths and in spite of all these to persecute and destroy his Protestant Subjects if the same have prevailed with the Duke of Savoy to do the like though as he is now convinced manifestly against his Interest nay almost to his own Destruction having lost thereby his best and most resolute and useful Subjects who would have served him most Cordially against France the Enemy he ought most to dread and which one day will swallow up his Dukedom if his Allies do not prevent it If lastly they have prevailed with the Emperor to involve himself in a War that has now lasted about twenty years and almost lost him his Empire rather than suffer a few Protestants to live quietly in Hungary Is not our late Kings being of the same Principles and under the Government of the same Directors of Conscience is not his fondness of France and his Alliance with it his affecting to imitate that King in every thing and above all his prosecuting the same if not worse methods towards the Protestants in Ireland that the King of France did with the Hugonots in his Dominions a clear and full proof of both Kings being in the same design to root out not only the Protestants of these Kingdoms but likewise of all Europe and that we must all have expected the same usage our Brethren met with in France Nor could our Kings Promises and Engagements be any greater assurances to us than those of the French King were to his Subjects It is observable that King James was more than ordinarily liberal in his Promises and Declarations of favour towards Protestants He boasted in a Declaration sent to England and dispersed by his Friends there dated May 8. 1689. at Dublin That his Protestant Subjects their Religion Priviledges and Properties were his especial care since he came into Ireland He often professed that he made no distinction between them and Roman Catholicks and both he here and his Party there did much extol his kind dealings with his Protestants in Ireland What those dealings truly were I shall have occasion to shew the representation of them made in England by him and his Party was no less false than his Promises were unsincere it being plain he had a reserve in them all It is a maxim as I take it in Law that if the King be deceived in his Grant though it pass the Great Seal yet it is void much more must all his verbal Promises be void if he be deceived in them Now if we consider who were the Directors of the Kings Conscience we ought not to wonder that he made no great scruple to evade them Doctor Cartwright one of his Instruments gives us a right notion of King James's Promises in his Sermon at Rippon where in effect he tells us that the Kings Promises are Donatives and ought not to be too strictly examined or urged and that we must leave his Majesty to explain his own meaning in them this Gloss pleased King James so well that he rewarded the Author with the Bishoprick of Chester though very unfit for that Character and shewed in all his actions that he meant to proceed accordingly and the humour run through the whole party whenever they were at a pinch and under a necessity of serving themselves by the assistance or credulity of Protestants they promised them fair and stuck at no terms with them but when their turn was served they would not allow us to mention their promise much less to challenge the performance 2. It plainly appeared that it was not in King James's power if he had been disposed himself to perform his promises to us The Priests told us that they would have our Churches and our Tyths and that the King had nothing to do with them and they were as good as their words nor could his Majesty upon trial hinder them One Mr. Moore preached before the King in Christs Church in the beginning of the year 1690. his Sermon gave great offence he told his Majesty that he did not do justice to the Church and Churchmen and amongst other things said that Kings ought to consult Clergymen in their temporal affairs the Clergy having a temporal as well as a spiritual right in the
Neighbours Cities especially Dublin encreased exceedingly Gentlemens Seats were built or building every where and Parks Enclosures and other Ornaments were carefully promoted insomuch that many places of the Kingdom equalled the Improvements of England The Papists themselves where Rancour Pride or Laziness did not hinder them lived happily and a great many of them got considerable Estates either by Traffick by the Law or by other Arts and Industry 2. There was a free Liberty of Conscience by connivence tho not by the Law and the King's Revenue encreased proportionably to the Kingdom 's Advance in Wealth and was every day growing it amounted to more than three hundred thousand pounds per annum a Sum sufficient to defray all the Expence of the Crown and to return yearly a considerable Sum into England to which this Nation had formerly been a constant Expence If King James had minded either his own Interest or the Kingdoms he would not have interrupted this happy Condition But the Protestants found that neither this nor the Services of any towards him nor his own good Nature were Barrs sufficient to secure them from Destruction 2. It is certainly the Interest of all Kings to govern their Subjects with Justice and Equity if therefore they understood or would mind their true Interest no King would ruin any of his Subjects but it often happens that either Men are so weak that they do not understand their Interest or else so little at their own Command that some foolish Passion or Humour sways them more than all the Interest in the World and from these proceeds all the ill Government which has ruined so many Kingdoms Now King James was so bent on gaining an absolute Power over the Lives and Liberties of his Subjects and on introducing his Religion that he valued no Interest when it came in competition with those 3. Every Body that knew King James's Interest and the true Interest of his Kingdoms knew that it concerned him to keep fair with Protestants especially with that party who were most devoted to him and had set the Crown on his Head and this had been in the Opinion of thinking Men the most effectual way to inlarge his Power and introduce his Religion but because it did not suit with the Methods his bigotted Counsellors had proposed he took a Course directly contrary to his Interest and seemed to take a peculiar pleasure in affronting and oppressing those very Men whom in Interest he was most concerned to cherish and support His Proceeding thus in England was visibly the Cause of his Ruin he had left himself no Friend to stand by him when he stood in greatest need of them Upon his coming to Ireland the Protestants had entertained some favourable Hopes that he would have seen and been convinced of his Error and would now at last govern himself by other measures it was manifestly his Interest to have done so and nothing in probability could have allayed the Heats of England and Scotland so much as his Justice and Kindness to the Protestants of Ireland nor could any thing have had so much the Appearance of an Answer to those many and evident Arguments by which they demonstrated his destructive Designs against those Kingdoms as to have had it to say that in Ireland where it was in his Power he was far from doing what they surmised he intended to do in England or if he had ever any such intentions it was plain he had now altered them These things were laid before him by some that wish'd well to his Affairs and had more Prudence than his furious and bigotted Counsellors and sometimes they seemed to make Impressions on him but the Priests and needy Courtiers who had swallowed in their Imaginations the Spoils and Estates of the Protestants of England as well as of Ireland could not endure to hear of this They seemed mightily afraid lest he should be restored to his Throne by consent of his Protestant Subjects For if so said they we know it will be on so strict Conditions that we shall gain but little by it it will not be in his power to gratifie us And not only they but the Irish in general likewise endeavoured to make his Restitution by way of Articles or Peace impracticable and impossible A Design so extremely foolish that it is strange any should be found so sillily wicked as to promote it or that King James should be so imposed on as to hearken to it and yet it is certain he did at least at some times entertain it and was heard to express himself to one that pressed him to Moderation to Protestants on this account that he never expected to get into England but with Fire and Sword However his Counsellors were not so weak but they saw what disadvantage his dealing with the Protestants had on his Interest in England and therefore they took care to conceal it as much as possible they stopped all Intercourse as far as they could with England they had a party to cry up the mildness of King James's Government towards the Protestants to applaud the Ease the Plenty the Security in which they lived and to run down and discredit all Relations to the contrary that came from Ireland These endeavoured to perswade the World that there was no such thing as a Bill of Attainder or of Repeal no Act taking away the Preferments or Maintenance of the Clergy nor any Imprisonment or Plundering of Protestants no taking away of Goods by private Orders of the King or levying of Monies by Proclamations In short they did that which on all occasions is the Practice and indeed Support of Popery They endeavoured to face down plain matter of Fact with Forehead and Confidence and to perswade the World that all these were mere Forgeries of King James's Enemies As many as believed these Allegations of theirs and were persuaded by them that the Protestants of Ireland were well used by King James were inclined to favour him a certain sign that if they had been really well used by him it would have gotten him many Friends and perhaps reconciled some of his worst Enemies But the Design entertained by him and his Party required the Ruin of Protestants and of their Religion whereas his Interest required that it should not be believed that he designed either and therefore Care was taken to prosecute the Design with all eagerness and deny the Matter of Fact with all impudence and his Majesty took care to promote both for he ruined the Protestants of Ireland by his Acts of Parliament and by the other Methods we shall hereafter speak of and by his Proclamations sent privately into England to his Partisans there assured the World that the Protestant Religion and Interest were his special care and that he had secured them against their Enemies It was his Interest to have done as well as pretended this but the carrying on his Design was so much in his Thoughts that he chose to sacrifice his
Interest to it 4. And no wonder if it be true what is reported of him that he resolved to die a Martyr rather than not settle his Religion and that he had rather die the next day that Design being compassed than live fifty years without effecting it All which sufficiently explains that which seemed a Riddle to many how King James should be so very hard on his Protestant Subjects when his Interest required that he should treat them with all imaginable kindness especially in the present Circumstances of his Affairs whilst in Ireland The Reasons of his acting contrary to his Interest in so palpable an instance were either from the Persuasions of his ill Counsellors who assured him that they would so order the Matter that what he did in Ireland should not be heard of or not be believed in England or else from a settled Resolution not to mind any Interest which came in competition with his grand Designs of advancing Popery and the Slavery of the Nations To effect which it is manifest he was content to be a Vassal to France for whosoever calls in a potent Neighbour to his assistance must reckon that will be the consequence if he get the better by his Means of which the Irish themselves were sensible when they saw the French Succors landed and the Protestants could not but conclude that King James was so intent upon destroying them that so he compassed that Design he cared not if he enslaved himself and the Kingdoms 5. Nor had the Services of any towards him more influence on him than his own Interest Never had any Prince fairer Opportunities to distinguish his Friends from his Enemies than King James the struggle he had to get to the Crown was so long and the issue so doubtful that there was no Temptation for any one to dissemble his Thoughts towards him and never had Subjects a fairer opportunity to serve and merit from a Prince Now his Carriage to those that then proved his Friends who against their own Interest and against the Endeavours of the most powerful and most diffused Faction that ever appeared in a Kingdom set the Crown on his Head is a plain demonstration of what force Merit or Service were with him towards altering his private Designs No sooner did it appear that those who were against the Exclusion designed to preserve the Kingdom as well as the Succession but he abandoned them and not only laid them aside but further exposed them to the revenge of those very Men that they had provoked by espousing his Quarrel It is no news to any how King James cast off his fastest Friends when he saw that they would not proceed after his Measures to destroy the Liberty and Religion of their Country and took into his Bosom and Council those that had been his most bitter Enemies when he perceived that they would assist him in that Design Which is a plain demonstration that he had no regard to Services or Merit further than they tended to enslave the Nations and destroy the settled Religion But no Protestant that had any value for his God his Conscience or Country could pretend to this Merit and therefore in the King's Opinion he could do nothing that his Majesty would count a Service King James had no desire to be served by Protestants as was manifest by his turning many out for no other reason but because they would not change their Religion By preferring Papists to all Places of Trust and Profit tho not so deserving or well qualified for them as those that possessed them By his declaring that he would have all that did eat his Bread of his own Religion If therefore he employed any it was for a colour either to cover his Partiality or because he could not find a Papist fit for their Places or because he believed that in time he might gain them to be of his Religion or lastly because he had some odious Work to do which he thought he could the better excuse if he could get a Protestant to do it where these Reasons ceased he never employed any But it is observable where he did employ them tho their places were considerable yet they never had the Interest with him or power proper to their place but were mere Cyphers in it Thus he made Sir Edward Herbert Chancellor of England and caused a Seal to be cut for him but he never allowed him that Interest with him or had that regard for him in Councils that his place required The puny Papist Judges had more influence on the King and could make bolder with him than he he was not admitted to the Secret of Affairs at all and at the publick Councils he was set below Fitton Chancellor of Ireland and several others whom I am informed whilst employed as Chancellor of England and in his Masters presence he ought to have preceded But generally Protestants were only admitted to inferior places and for the most part with a Companion and they had only the Name their Companions must do all and they durst not contradict them and tho they were intitled to rise according as Vacancies fell yet some inconsiderable Papist was sure to get the start of them and to be put over their Heads so that it was never in their power to serve the King considerably or merit at his Hands If they did chance to do any thing signal yet their Enemies had so much the advantage of King James's Ear that they were sure to be misrepresented and what those said having the dead Weight of Religion to help it did generally with him outweigh the Protestants Service Of this Sir Charles Murry is an Instance he followed King James through France to Ireland and all along appeared zealous for his Service Yet because he professed himself a Protestant upon his landing at Kinsale some that had an ill will to him prevailed with the King to clap him up a Prisoner in the Fort of Kinsale where he lay without being able to learn any Reason for his Confinement from the twelfth of March 168â— â— till toward the end of the following Summer and then they had occasion for him to help to order their Camp and fortifie Ardee which procured him his Liberty tho he never could have the satisfaction to learn either his Crime or his Accuser My Lord Forbess Son to the Earl of Granard is another remarkable Instance When the pretended Parliament sate in Dublin both Houses were informed that my Lord Forbess adhered to King James's Interest in England and that he was a Prisoner in the Tower upon that account his Friends thought it proper to improve this occasion with the King and the Parliament to save my Lord's Estate at Mollingar which he holds under the Act of Settlement And this seemed the more feasible because the Lands did if not all yet for the most part formerly belong not to private persons but to a Corporation But all the Interest could be made did not
the common Offices of Humanity This Chancellor Fitton declared on the Bench This the King's Favourites and Attendants suggested publickly to him at his times of Eating at his Couchee and Levee and upon all occasions However it was it is evident by the effect that King James in great measure completed the Ruin of the Protestants and English Interest in this Kingdom which will plainly appear 1. In his dealing with the Army 2. With the Courts of Judicature 3. With the Privy Council and Offices 4. With Corporations 5. With Trade and the trading People of the Nation 6. With our Liberties 7. With our Fortunes 8. With the Lives of his Protestant Subjects And 9. With their Religion SECT II. I. King James's Dealing with the Army of Ireland in order to destroy the Protestants and English Interest 1. THE Army of Ireland which King James found at his coming to the Crown consisted of about seven thousand as Loyal Men and as Cordial to the King's Service as any could be both Officers and Soldiers had been inured to it for many years They looked on him as their Master and Father intirely depending on him and expecting nothing from any Body else When Monmouth's and Argile's Rebellion called for their assistance to suppress them no People in the World could shew more Chearfulness or Forwardness than they did and it is observable that no one Man in Ireland was ever found to be conscious or consenting to those Rebellions the Protestants of all sorts shewed great Horror and Detestation of them and were discernably melancholy till the Rebels were suppressed Most of the Officers of this Army had been so zealous to serve the King that they had by his permission and encouragement bought their Employments many of them had laid out their whole Fortunes and contracted Debts to purchase a Command yet no sooner was King James settled in his Throne but he began to turn out some of the Officers that had been most zealous for his Service and had deserved best of him merely because they had been counted firm to the Protestant Religion and English Interest The first who were made Examples to the rest were the Lord Shannon Captain Robert Fitz-Gerald Captain Richard Coote and Sir Oliver S. George The three first were Earls Sons who either in their own persons or by their Fathers and Relations had been signally active in restoring King Charles the Second and the Royal Family to their just Rights 1660 so had Sir Oliver S. George and they were all of them without any other Exception but their Zeal for their Religion and the English Interest in Ireland But the common Saying was that King James would regard no Man for any Service done to him his Father or Brother but only for future Service that he expected from them and since he could fot expect that these Gentlemen should assist him to destroy the Protestant Religion or the Liberties of his Subjects which was the Service he then expected he took their Troops from them and gave them to persons of mean or broken Fortunes who must do any thing to keep them some of them unqualified by Law It is fit their Names should be known that the Reader may the better observe what kind of Change the King began with when he substituted Captain Kerney if I remember right one of the Ruffians Captain Anderson a person of no Fortune Captain Sheldon a professed Papist and Captain Graham in the places of the Lord Shannon Captain Fitz-Gerald Captain Coote and Sir Oliver S. George 2. But to convince the World that no Consideration was to be had of Loyalty or Merit except a Man were a Papist The Duke of Ormond was sent for abruptly and devested of the Government with such Circumstances that did no ways correspond with the Service he had rendered the Crown in general and King James in particular Immediately the modelling of the Army was put into the Hands of Collonel Richard Talbott a person more hated than any other Man by the Protestants and who had been named by Oates in his Narrative for this very Employment When therefore the Protestants saw him put into it many who believed nothing of a Plot before gave credit now to his Narrative and the common Saying was that if Oates was an ill Evidence he was certainly a good Prophet Collonel Talbott afterwards Earl of Tyrconnell knew the Necessity of having the Army fitted to his purpose it being the Engine he depended on for destroying the Religion Liberty and Laws of the Kingdom and therefore set about it with all expedition and prosecuted it in such a manner as might be expected from a Man of his insolent temper He exercised at the same time so much Falshood and Barbarity that if the Army had not been the best principled with Loyalty and Obedience of any in the World they would have 〈◊〉 or at least dispatched him In the Morning he would take an Officer into his Closet and with all the Oaths Curses and Damnations that were never wanting to him he would profess Friendship and Kindness to him and promise him the continuance of his Commission and yet in the Afternoon cashier him with all the contempt he could heap on him nay perhaps while he was thus caressing him he had actually given away his Commission The Officers of Ireland then cashiered and their Acquaintance can vouch the truth of this in many instances As for the Soldiers and Troopers his way with them was to march them from their usual Quarters to some distant place where he thought they were least known where they would be put to greatest Hardships and there he stripped them the Foot of their Cloaths for which they had payed and the Troopers of their Horses Boots and Furniture bought with their own Money and set them to walk barefooted one hundred or one hundred and fifty Miles to their Homes or Friends if they had any Sometimes he would promise them something for their Horses but then he told them that they must come to Dublin for it if any came to demand the small pittance promised them for their Horses or Arrears of Pay he contrived it so that they should be obliged to wait till they had spent twice as much as they expected and most of them after all got nothing By this means two or three hundred Protestant Gentlemen who had laid out all or a good part of their Fortunes and contracted Debts on Commissions were not left worth any thing but were turned out without reason or any consideration and sive or six thousand Soldiers sent a begging a hardship perhaps never put on any Army before without any provocation against whom there was no other Exception but that they were English Men and Protestants and King James by substituting Irish Men and Papists in their places contrary to the Laws and to the very Design of keeping a standing Army in Ireland clearly demonstrated that he had no regard to the Laws or to the
Judicature in such a method as tended to destroy the Protestant English Interest of Ireland 1. THE support and happiness of a Kingdom consists chiefly in the equal and impartial Administration of Justice and that depends on the choice of fit and duly qualified Persons for filling the Courts and Executing the Laws but King James made choice of such Persons for these Offices as were so far from answering the intent of their Places that they made it their business to destroy the Protestant Interest and the Laws that preserve the Liberty of the Subject in general by those Laws no Man was capable of being a Judg who had not taken the Oath of Supremacy The Judges he found on the Bench had taken it but yet some of them were known to be rather too favourable to Papists and considering the influence King James had in his Brothers time in disposing of Offices it is not to be imagined that he would suffer any Man to sit as a Judge who had not been favourably represented unto him in that Point though we must own he was mistaken in some of them hence it came that Protestants did frequently complain of the Favour and Countenance their Adversaries found in the Courts of Justice even in King Charles II. time But when King James came to the Crown moderate nay favourable Judges would not do the Work he designed He found it necessary to Employ the most Zealous of his Party those who both by Interest and Inclination were most deeply ingaged to destroy the Protestant English Interest and accordingly such were picked out and set on all the Benches 2. The Chancery is the great and highest Court wherein the great Frauds and other matters belonging to Trusts and Equity are determined and neither the Lord Primate Boyle who had managed that Court about twenty years nor Sir Charles Porter who succeeded him could answer the Kings intention but Sir Alexander Fitton of whom I have already given some account a Person detected of Forgery not only at Westminster and Chester but likewise Fined by the House of Lords in Parliament must be brought out of Goal and set on the highest Court of the Kingdom to keep the Kings Conscience though he wanted Law and natural Capacity as well as Honesty and Courage to discharge such a Trust and had no other quality to recommend him besides his being a Convert Papist that is a Renegado to his Religion and his Country but the mystery of this was easily found out The Papists of Ireland had gone a great way to retrieve the Estates they had forfeited by the Rebellion 1641 by counterfeit Settlements Forgeries and Perjuries and to do their business in a great measure there needed no more than to find a Judg that would be favourable to and countenance such proceedings and where could they find a more favourable Judg than one who was notoriously involved in the same guilt and who probably in some Cases did not esteem such Arts unlawful but besides this there is requisite to a Chancellor a peculiar quickness of Parts and Dexterity to penetrate into the contrivances of Cheats and Forgeries for which Sir Alexander Fittons natural slowness and heaviness incapacitated him but this very defect together with his Zeal for Popery fitted him to execute the Kings design as effectually as any that could have been found He could not understand the merit of a Cause of any difficulty and therefore never failed to give Sentence according to his inclination having no other Rule to lead him and how he was inclined towards Protestants appeared from his Declarations on all occations against them he did not stick on a Hearing to declare that they were all Rogues and that amongst forty thousand there was not one who was not a Traitor a Rebel and a Villain for this Reason he would not allow the Guardianship of a Child to the Protestant Mother but gave it against the positive words of the Law to the Popish Relations for this Reason he refused to hear so much as a demurrer in the Popish Dean of Christs Church Mr. Staffords Case For this Cause he over-ruled both the common Rules of Practice of the Courts and the Laws of the Land declaring in open Court that the Chancery was above all Laws that no Law could bound his Conscience and he acted accordingly in many Cases where Protestants were concerned After hearing a Cause between one of them and a Papist he would often declare that he would consult a Divine before he gave a Decree that is he would have the Opinion of a Popish Priest his Chaplain Educated in Spain and furnished with Destinctions to satisfie his Conscience how far he should do Justice to Protestants many Papists came and made Affidavits of being in Possession when they never were and got Injunctions and Orders without any more ado to quiet their Possessions But a Protestant though never so palpably disturbed could not procure any Order but was sent to the Common-Law to recover his Possession by a Popish Jury returned by a Popish Sheriff before a Popish Judg that is he must expect Law from Judges and Officers that Sate and Acted in defiance of Law If at any time the Chancellor was forced to grant an Injunction or Decree it was with all the difficulties and delays that could be and often the thing was lost and destroyed before the Order came for recovering it 3. The Administration of Justice and Equity is the great end of Government and it is as good nay better to be without Governours than to have Governors under whom Men cannot reasonably hope for these We see from the choice of a Chancellor what care King Iames took for the Administration of Equity to Protestants To help the matter he added as Assistants to the Chancellor Mr. Stafford a Popish Priest for one Master of the Chancery and Felix ô Neal Son of Turlogh ô Neal the great Rebel in 1641 and Massacrer of the Protestants for another To these generally the Causes between Protestants and Papists were referred and upon their Report the Chancellor past his Orders and Decrees 4. The Courts of Common-Law were put into the same method and great care taken to fill them with Judges who might be ingaged in a profest enmity to the Protestant Interest In Ireland there are only three Judges on a Bench and it was thought fit for a colour till things were Riper to keep one Protestant on every Bench but whilst there were two Votes to one the Protestant Judg could neither do Right to Protestants or retard a Sentence to be given in the favour of a Papist This mock method of seeming to trust Protestants they took likewise in naming Burgesses and Aldermen for Corporations they generally put some few into their New Charters to serve for a pretence of impartiallity and yet to signifie nothing this Method of continuing some few Protestants in Courts and Corporations serving only to silence and exasperate us to be thus
of Money to compound the Matter This Trick was very common and at last no Protestant tho he had ever so good Evidence against a Papist durst prosecute him for he was sure to be acquitted and then the Prosecutor was liable to the Revenge of an Action of the Case and the Damages that a Popish Jury pleased to give against him 12. There is an Act of Parliament 10 Henrici 7. cap. 12. That forbids keeping Guns or Ordnance without License from the Lord Lieutenant or Deputy The Design of it was to prevent the Irish from fortifying themselves in their little Castles whereby at that time they created the Government great Trouble and raised daily Rebellions But the Lord Chief Justice Nugent interpreted this to the disarming of all Protestants and because there chanced to be a Sword and Case of Pistols found September 6 1689 in some outward by place in Christs Church Dublin one Wolf the Subverger was committed to Newgate indicted and found guilty and had good luck to escape with his Life the Chief Justice declaring it was Treason tho Wolf was only indicted for a Misdemeanour 13. But had the Laws been in never so good Hands it could not have secured us from Destruction when the King who designed that Destruction against us pretended to be above all Laws and made no Scruple to dispense with them every Law in these Kingdoms is really a Compact between the King and People wherein by mutual consent they agree on a Rule by which he is to govern and according to which they oblige themselves to pay him Obedience But there is no general Rule but in some Cases it may prove inconvenient it is therefore agreed by all that in Cases of sudden and unforeseen Necessity there is no Law but may be dispensed with but then first it is observable that this Necessity must be so visible and apparent that all reasonable Men may see and be satisfied that it is not pretended and where the Necessity has been thus real no Man can shew that either the People or Parliament ever quarrelled with a King for using a dispensing Power 14. Secondly It must be observed that this Power of Dispensing in Cases of Necessity is mutual and belongs to the People as well as the King it being as lawful for a Subject in Cases of Necessity to dispense with his Obedience to a Law nay with his Allegiance to his King as for a King to dispense with the Execution of a Law or the exacting Obedience and this mutual power of dispensing with the Laws which are publick Compacts in Cases of Necessity is tacitly understood in them as well as in all other Covenants Doctor Sanderson proves this Power of Dispensing to belong to the People as well as to the Prince in his tenth Praelection N. 21. and he gives an Example in N. 22. The Case is thus The Conspirators after the Gunpowder Treason was discovered fled into Warwickshire and made an Insurrection the Sheriff raises the Posse Comitatus against them they fled from thence into Worcestershire where by the Law the Sheriffs of Warwick could not follow them but the Sheriff dispensed with the Law Judging saith he as he ought to have done That if he would perform right the Office of a good Subject the Observation of the Law in that Case of Necessity was very unseasonable and he ought to obey the Supreme Law which is the Safety of his Country The Sheriff did accordingly and was highly commended by King James the First for it There might be many Examples of this kind given in which the People are allowed to dispense even with their Allegiance in case of Necessity It is against the Allegiance of a Subject to own the Power of an Usurper to bear Arms to judge of Life and Death or administer Justice between Man and Man by his Commission and yet Dr. Sanderson determines it to be the Duty of a good Man to do all these if required by an Usurper Praelect 5. N. 19. and accordingly we find Judge Hales acted under the worst of Usurpers Oliver Cromwell and executed the Office of a Judge as may be seen in his Life 15. Thirdly 'T is the most wicked as well as hazardous thing that a King or People can do to pretend a necessity for dispensing with those publick Compacts when the pretence is not real for the publick Faith is hereby violated the party unconsulted is abused a just reason of Distrust raised between the King and People and they of the two that assume to themselves this power of dispensing upon a pretended not real necessity in Cases of great Moment to the Kingdom are in a fair way to lay a real necessity on the other party to dispense with their part of the Compact that is to say if the King will pretend a Necessity where there is none for his not governing by Laws in Cases that concern the common safety of the Kingdom he gives a shrewd Temptation and a justifiable Colour to his People to dispense with their Submission and Allegiance to him And it is full as good a Reason for a Peoples taking Arms to defend themselves against illegal Violence to alledge that they were necessitated to do so to prevent the Ruin and Destruction of them and their Posterity as it is for a King to alledge that he uses illegal Officers and Force to preserve himself and his Kingdoms And if the Allegation be real I do not see why it should not justifie the one as well as the other tho the one be against the Oath of Allegiance and the other against the Coronation Oath Cases of extreme Necessity being tacitly excepted in both Kings therefore that take on themselves to dispense with Laws without the consent either tacit or express of their People give an ill Precedent against themselves and must blame themselves if their People taught by them return it upon them 16. 'T is plain the Officers employed by King James in Ireland both Civil and Military were unqualified and uncapable by Law of those Employments If Lord Tirconnell for instance claimed Subjection of us by the Laws I do not see why he should expect the People to be better Observers of the Laws than he was Suppose that it was against the Law for them to resist him it was likewise against the Laws that he should command them if he dispensed in one Case they only dispensed in the other and in this Case it was as lawful for the one to dispense as the other I suppose the only Reason in a settled Government why one Man can claim our Submission and not another is because the known Laws give the one and not another the power of commanding but the Laws as well as the Interest of this Kingdom said positively that the Earl of Tirconnell and Men of his Character and Religion should not have any Office Civil or Military and therefore those Protestants that stood on their Defence against him
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-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
again into our communion at his death and that with such remarkable circumstances of repentance and sorrow that King James heard of it and blam'd his Physician Dr. Constable for his neglect in not giving notice to the Priest 7. They endeavoured to bring the Ministers of Dublin under all the Contempt they could and at last put on them the drudgery that belonged to the Office of Constables and Deputy Aldermen it belonged to those Officers on all occasions to return the names of the several Inhabitants and Inmates of their Wards the Government desired to know the names of Protestants in each Parish and their numbers and they took them several times but Colonel Lutterel the Governour of Dublin would not be satisfied till the Ministers went about in Person and returned every Man his respective Parishioners names it was in vain for them to plead the unreasonableness of this imposition they aleadged the pains the charges and the meanness of the thing which was done more effectually already than could be done by them by the proper Officers but all in vain they must comply or go to Jail This return made by the Ministers was of no real use to the Government for they had an exact account given about a Fortnight before by their own Officers and took another about a Week after the design therefore was either to lay a Snare for the Ministers or else to render them contemptible to their People but instead of doing that it only incensed the People against their unreasonable Governours who thus affronted their Clergy SECT XX. 6. King James and his Party endeavoured to destroy the Protestant Religion by misrepresenting the Persons and Principles of Protestants 1. THe violences used to out us of our Churches and to discourage our Clergy had no great success in making Converts but there was another way set on foot which did seduce some and it was by making a Monster of the Protestant Religion and Protestants insomuch that young People who liv'd remote from Conversation and had not opportunity to inform themselves of the Truth conceiv'd strange Ideas of both by the insinuation of the Priests 2. It was one of the first steps of the Reformation to renounce the usurped power of the Pope and to restore to the Crown the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which originally belongs to the Civil Magistrate that is the power of punishing Offenders with the Temporal Sword whatever their Crime be whether Ecclesiastical or Civil Now the Priests represented this Doctrine after a strange manner they perswaded those that would lend them their attention that the Protestants believed all Spiritual power to be in the King that he could Consecrate whom he pleas'd Bishops set up what Religion he had a mind to and oblige all his Subjects to be of his Faith and they railed most grievously at the Protestants for not turning Papists in complyance to their King calling them Traitors and perjur'd Persons from their own Principles 3. 'T was another Principle amongst Protestants that private Men should not take up the Sword or resist the King upon any pretence such resistance being against Law by which no more was understood than that Subjects should according to the Laws and Gospel behave themselves peaceably and submissively towards their Superiors and not upon any pretence of private injury or wrong done to them in particular enter into Conspiracie and Combinations against their Governours but by it was never intended to give up the Constitution of the Government or to part with the Liberties and Priviledges of the Kingdom yet the Priests would needs perswade the World that by this Principle the Protestants were obliged to part with all at the King's command that he might use them if he pleased as the Grand Signior or the French King use their Subjects and their Lives their Liberties and Estates were all at his Mercy and they Devils and Traitors and Perjur'd Villains I use their words if they demur'd at his Command There was hardly any Principle peculiar to the reform'd Religion but they thus misrepresented it 4. Nor did the persons of Protestants escape better than their Principles They loaded them with the most odious Calumnies and Misrepresentations they aleadged that the Protestants had no Religion at all that they only pretended to it but were Atheists and Traitors in their Hearts they were more especially malicious against the Clergy King James himself contributing to it as appear'd on this occasion two young Gentlemen Brothers to the Earl of Salisbury followed King James out of France they profest themselves Protestants and associated with such the Bishops of Meath and Limerick had an Eye on the Gentlemen and endeavoured to secure them against any attempts which might be made to pervert them but King James called the young Men to him forbad them the company of Protestants nay even of one Mr. C ham a Gentleman that came over with them but above all he forbad them conversing with the Bishops and Clergy-men for said he they are all false to me and will pervert you to disloyalty and Treason this was the common saying of them all even of the Chancellour on the Bench and tho they would on occasion magnifie the loyalty of some of the Protestant Clergy in England and Scotland yet at other times they would profess that they believed them all treacherous and would never trust any of them 5. In order to abuse the Protestants and especially the Clergy they set up one Yalden a Convert Councellor at Law to write a weekly Paper which he called an Abhorrence in which he endeavoured to rake together all the little Stories that might reflect on Protestants and all the arguments his Wit could furnish him with for his Cause he made it his business to invent false stories and lies concerning the Clergy and began with Dr. King and Dr. Foy He had published a Collection of passages out of the Bishop of Ely's Sermon and some Sixteen others for Passive Obedience whether this was his own work or only as I have been informed a Peice compos'd by some others which he assumed to himself I cannot say but it met with very slender reception in Ireland and lay on the Booksellers hand To vent it therefore as some thought or rather to abuse the Clergy he published an Advertisement in his Abhorrence declaring that Dr. King and Dr. Foy had approv'd this Book by their Certificate under their hand by this he thought to intrap them for either they as he imagined must have let this pass and then the Protestants must think them if not ill at least very imprudent Men or else they must disown it and then he knew how to improve their refuting his calumny so as to render them odious to the Government and the Papists did a little please themselves with the contrivance But Dr. Foy and Dr. King found means without concerning themselves much in the matter to let all Dublin know that they never read Mr. Yalden's
of them 9. Secondly It was not safe for any Officer that was not forcibly turn'd out to refuse to act if he had either voluntarily resign'd his Place or refused to officiate in it he must have expected to be treated with more severe usage than other People as one peculiarly disaffected Some therefore were forc'd to keep even in the Army in their own defence but these were so few that there need not much be said for them I do not remember above three that had Commissions in the Army who were desirous to leave it and those were kept in only for a pretence of Impartiality and for such as acted as Justices of Peace they were often serviceable to Protestants in freeing them from Oppressions and Injuries Those few Protestants that took Commissions of Oyer and Terminer did it on a Publick Account and always acted for the Benefit of Protestants 3. Protestants by keeping in Employments though never so insignificant found means and opportunities of serving their distressed and oppressed Friends and they seldom fail'd to improve these means to the best advantage the poor People that stay'd in Ireland were sensible of this and often wisht that more had stay'd on this account and truely if they had by the advantage of their Address and Understanding above the Papists who generally were ignorant of business they might probably have done much good and have gained farther time for the poor People from their destruction 10. However I do not intend to justifie all that was done by Protestant Officers if any of them advanced abetted or concurr'd in an ill thing let them suffer for it but I humbly conceive the Protestants of Ireland that staid here and saw and observed every Man's behaviour and were the only sufferers by the ill management of any Officer whatever his Station was may be safely trusted to give a Character of each I own that it is not reasonable that a Certificate under a few hands should be accepted as a Vindication of any Man for an Officer might have serv'd and oblig'd a few who cannot in gratitude refuse to certifie for him and yet have done mischief enough to others but on the other hand is it reasonable that secret whispers or surmises especially of such as were absent and strangers to their behaviour should undo or misrepresent any Man and therefore I think if any dispute should arise concerning such Matters a fair and legal hearing in publick were the most equal way and is all the favour that generally any Protestant Gentleman who staid and officiated under King James needs desire They are so few that this would not be any great trouble and their Honesty and Prudence generally so notorious that it would not be any blemish to them nor were they guilty of any servile or mean Compliances or paid any other deference than what was due to a Government under whose Power God's Providence had placed them and which by unseasonable opposition they would only have exasperated to their own destruction 11. Fourthly As to the Clergy that staid it were an injustice to them to make any Apology for them they staid in pure sense and conscience of their Duty and minded it so effectually that their Labours were acceptable and useful to their People in many respects and I doubt not but will be approv'd by all good Men they foresaw what use Papists would make of empty Churches and deserted Congregations and that the Priests would not be wanting to perswade the People that they were no true Pastors that deserted them in time of danger they were acquainted with the Artifices us'd to draw Protestants from their Religion and that the present juncture would afford new Temptations which the Seducers would not fail to press with all possible advantage it required therefore all their Skill and Industry to arm their People against these Instruments of Seduction and keep them steady to their Principles under such mighty Temptations and we owe it to the Prudence Industry and Courage of the Clergy that remain'd next to God's goodness that so few were prevail'd with to change their Religion notwithstanding that they saw they must be ruined if they stood firm whereas if they comply'd they would not be only safe but sharers likewise in the Booty 'T is true many of them suffered by their staying and lay under great difficulties but it pleas'd God to support and deliver them and if they had perished it had been with this comfort that it was in their Office and in their Masters Work The Conclusion 1. AND here I do solemnly protest that no private disatisfaction that no ill will to King James's Person nor prejudice against any Body has moved me to say what I have said but that I might vindicate our selves by speaking truth in a matter that so nearly concern'd us both in our Temporal and Eternal Interest And I must likewise protest before God who will judge between us and our Enemies in this Point that I have not aggravated the Calamities we have suffered nor misrepresented the Proceedings against us out of favour or affection to a Party but have rather told things nakedly and in general than insisted on such Particulars as might seem to serve no other purpose but to make our Adversaries odious 2. It were much to be wished and in due time it is hoped that Commissions may be issued by the proper Authority into the several Counties to enquire of the treatment the Protestants underwent and the damages they suffered and I am well assured that if this be done and an Account be taken on Oath from the Eye Witnesses and Sufferers the matter will appear with a much worse Face than it is here represented and where one Story may happen undesignedly to be aggravated twenty worse will be to be added to supply it There is not a more necessary or effectual Means can be taken for clearing the Protestants in this Kingdom or justifying the State in their proceeding against the Irish and we are ready and willing to stand or fall in the Censure of the World by this Plea according as on proof of Particulars by sufficient Evidence the Truth shall appear 3. Upon the whole the Irish may justly blame themselves and their Idol the Earl of Tirconnel as King James may them both for whatever they have or shall suffer in the issue of this Matter since it is apparent that the necessity was brought about by them that either they or we must be ruin'd King James if the Earl of Tirconnel may be believed chang'd his Religion on His Sollicitations for he often brag'd that he was the King's Converter He preferr'd the gratifying this Favourites Ambition to the affections of his Protestant Subjects in England and Ireland He left England and came into Ireland on his invitation and he brought ruin and desolation on the Kingdom especially on his Protestant Subjects in prosecution of the measures laid down by him yet so far was he in love with
were Masters of Nor was it a difficult Matter for them so to do the Consternation being so great and so suddain that even the Officers of the Port either out of Commiseration to the departing Crowd of Women and Children or being amaz'd at the suddainness of the Fright neglected to do their Duty whereby this City and the Adjacent Parts are almost drained dry as to Cash and Plate which is manifest from Guineas being sold at 12 d. per piece over and above the usual Rate On the other Hand the Roman Catholicks were very many of them under equal Fears and indeed all of them except the Army who by their Calling are exempt from or at least from owning it pretend equal Dread from the Protestants who as they alledg'd far exceeded them in the Northern Parts and were extraordinarily well Arm'd and Hors'd but their greatest Apprehensions arise from a constant and uncontradicted Assurance which Private Letters by every Pacquet brought hither that the Duke of Ormond with a considerable Army and many experienc'd Officers was to Land forthwith in Munster And in this Condition now stands this poor Kingdom the Contending Parties being equally afraid or at least pretending to be so of each other which cannot but beget great Anxiety and Sorrow in the Mind of every good Man who hath the least Concern for his King or his Country In the interim the Lord Deputy intrusted by his Majesty with the Government of this Kingdom and keeping it entire in its Obedience to all his Commands doth daily grant Commissions to raise and procure Arms and Ammunition for great Numbers of Men In doing whereof considering the great Trust reposed in him no Man of Honour or moral Honesty can truly blame him But at the same time he takes all Opportunities both Private and Publick to declare That whenever his Majesty shall signifie his Royal Will and Pleasure for disbanding the Army that now is or hereafter shall be raised upon the Commissions now issuing or shall give direction for any other Alteration in the Government he will without one Day 's hesitation himself and those of his Relations and other Dependents in the Army whom you know to be very Numerous give an exact Obedience And if any should be so Fool-hardy as to scruple or make the least delay of doing so they shall in a few Days be taught and compelled to do their Duty I must likewise tell you That in this Conjuncture of Affairs the Thieves and Robbers are not only become more Numerous but likewise much more Insolent and instead of small Thefts do now drive away by Force whole Herds and sometimes when overtaken deny to restore the Prey This in many Places and especially in the North-west is done by the Cottiers and Idlers in the Country but father'd generally on the Army of which I have now an Instance before me from Ballenglass All this I know you have had repeated to you from divers Hands however I thought my self obliged in the Station which I hold to give you this summary Account of our present Condition which God knows is very bad and in all humane probability if we take not up more Charity than as yet we have for each other will receive sharp Corrosives and bitter Potions to bring us even to the hopes of living though in great Penury and Want Nor can we expect in Case that any Resistance shall be made by the Roman Catholicks here that we shall see any End thereof until the Buildings Plantations and other Improvements of Thirty Years Expence and Industry be utterly wasted and the Kingdom brought to the last degree of Poverty and Confusion and from the most improved and improving Spot of Ground in Europe as you saw it Six Years since become a meer Acheldama and upon the matter totally desart For Armies when once raised must be maintained by the Publick or will maintain themselves Nor can Military Discipline be expected where the Soldier hath not his Wages and whether that can be had out of the publick Treasury here I referr to you who have weighed the Revenue of the Kingdom when at the best even to a Drachm But after all this I am confident and assured That the Government of England will and must at length take place here against all Opposition whatsoever It hath cost England too much Blood and Treasure to be parted with but if it should come to a Contest of that kind the Victors I fear will have little to bragg of and will find in the Conclusion nothing but Ruins and Rubbish not to be repaired in another Age. Nor will the People thereafter reckon of any Security or Stability in this Kingdom so as to apply themselves to the repair of them but expecting such periodical Earthquakes here will provide themselves of Retreats in England and Scotland as many have of late and daily do Your Patience is I fear by this at an End when you begin to enquire with your self To what purpose it is that I have given you all this Trouble I must confess your Enquiry is not without Reason but however to you whose Friendship I have always found and valued my self much on it I do without difficulty declare what hath induced me hereunto The wonderful Alterations which a Month's Time hath produced in England in regard to the Protestant Religion and the Universality of it the little Blood that hath been spilt in so great a Change the few Acts of Hostility and little disquiet which has as yet appear'd has almost perswaded me That this Unfortunate Kingdom may by the Interposition of moderate Men be restored to the same Estate of Religion and Property that it rejoyced in Seven Years since with an addition of further Security for the preservation of both if more be requisite considering the many Acts of Parliament still in Force in this Kingdom It cannot be imagined Sir but there are very many who having either lost their Estates upon the Forfeitures of 1641. or by their Profuseness and Prodigality spent what they were restored to would willingly see the Kingdom once more in Confusion and Blood designing by Licentiousness and Rapine to supply their Extravagancies There want not on the other Hand some who conceive That the Court of Claims has contrary to the Settlement taken from them their Possessions without Reprisals and very many who being put by their Employments and Commands wish for a Time to expostulate with those who are possessed of them But all these in my humble Opinion ought to give way to the publick Quiet and Settlement of a whole Nation ready to fall into Ruine I am verily perswaded That with a little good Management the generality of the Roman Catholicks and indeed of the whole Kingdom would be very glad to be put into the same Condition in all respects as they were Six Years since and desire no more than an Assurance it should not be made worse And if there be Faith to be found in Man