lives, and eftates of the Catholics of Ireland. The Scotch covenanting army published the like refolutions, and the Irish believed them earnest in their declarations that they would extirpate all the Catholics from the province of Ulfter, and enforce the covenant by the rope and the fword. Under thefe menaces and alarm, fome few of the northern Catholics affociated and armed in self-defence against thofe whom they confidered enemies to God and their king. Some private views will always on fuch occafions be mingled with the common caufe. Lord Clanricarde, who had just arrived from England at this juncture, faid, however that "* none appeared in this detef "table confpiracy, or entered into action, but the remains of the ancient “Irish rebels in the north, and some of the planted county of Leitrim." But. how did the king himself speak of this rebellion? "The commotions," fays his majefty, "in Ireland were fo fudden and fo violent, that it was hard at first either to discern the rife, or apply a remedy to that precipitant rebellion. Indeed that fea of blood, which hath there "been cruelly and barbarously shed, is enough to drown any man in eternal infamy and mifery, whom God fhall find the malicious author or inftigator "of its effufion." It is not difficult to decypher, that the royal apologist meant to lay this rebellion to the account of the Puritan party of that day, charging them with thinking, "they cannot do well but in evil times, nor "fo cunningly, as in laying the odium of thefe events on others, wherewith "themselves are most pleased, and whereof they have been not the least oc"cafion. And certainly it is thought by many wife men, that the prepofterous rigor and unreasonable severity, which fome men carried before "them in England, was not the least incentive that kindled and blew up "those horrid flames, the sparks of discontent, which wanted not predisposed "fewel for rebellion in Ireland: where defpair being added to their former "difcontents, and the fear of utter extirpation to their wonted oppreffions, "it was easy to provoke to an open rebellion a people prone enough to break "out to all exorbitant violence, both by fome principles of their religion, “and the natural defires of liberty; both to exempt themselves from their prefent restraints, and to prevent thofe after-rigors wherewith they faw "themselves apparently threatened by the covetous zeal and uncharitable fury of fome men, who think it a great argument of the truth of their reli 66. gion, to endure no other than their own."' *Clan. Mem. 63. † Einar Baginn. p. 50. 51, &c. "I would ་ "I would to God no man had been lefs affected with Ireland's fad estate "than myself. I offered to go myself in perfon upon that expedition*: but "fome men were either afraid I fhould have any one kingdom quieted, or "loath they were to shoot at any mark lefs than myself: or that any should "have the glory of my deftruction but themfelves. destruction but themselves. Had my many offers "been accepted, I am confident neither the ruin would have been fo great, nor the calamity fo long, nor the remedy fo defperate." "But fome kind of zeal counts all merciful moderation, lukewarmness, " and had rather be cruel than counted cold; and is not feldom more greedy "to kill the bear for his skin, than for any harm he hath done: the confif"cation of men's eftates being more beneficial, than the charity of faving "their lives, or reforming their errors." And, "I believe it will at last ap pear, that they, who first began to embroil my other kingdoms, are in great part guilty, if not of the first letting out, yet of the not timely ftopping "thofe horrid effuffions of blood in Ireland." So fpoke the king even from the partial accounts tranfmitted to him by his own favorites, who were generally enemies to Ireland. It is not to be diffembled, that in an affair of fuch diverfified moment, a vaft variety of causes must have co-operated to produce the effects, which fo deeply affected the ftate. We are affured by different authors, that many were excited to rebellion by the fuccefs of the Scotch covenanters, who, by their irruption into England, had obtained the fum of 200,000l. to induce them to return quietly into their own country; others, from the dread of the menaces of the covenanting army in Ireland, that they would extirpate every priest and Papift out of the nation: that fome of them embarked in it from zeal to their own, and others from abhorrence of the reformed religion under all its different forms and denominations; that all the Puritans, and moft other defcriptions of Proteftants, feized with that turbulent and reftlefs fpirit, which then agitated England, closely followed its examples by oppofing all royal authority whatever: that numbers of the old Milefian Irish feized upon this moment of confufion and weakness in the English cabinet, to revive and enforce their ancient claims to the kingdom, which they still confidered as ufurped by the English, and withholden from them by no other * Sir E. Walker fays (Hift. Difc. 231) that this proposal was ill taken by the commons, as fear. ing the rebels might submit to his majesty, and so become his in oppofition to their designs. right or title than of force: that no inconfiderable portion of the nation was ftimulated into infurrection by their clergy who had been educated abroad in hopes of procuring a civil establishment of the Catholic religion, and other foreign emiffaries from courts, whofe politics prompted them to weaken the power of the British empire by the internal diffentions of its fubjects in a word, that numberless individuals, bereft of their poffeffions by plantations and forfeitures, perfecuted for the exercise of their religious duties, or prevented from any useful or permanent occupation by the effects or abuse of the penal laws, or the indolence of their own difpofitions, compofed a formidable body of malcontents, who fought redress, preferment or exiftence in the confufion of commotion and turbulence. Thefe various motives probably operated upon the individuals: but the main fource of the evil lay in the existence of real grievances, which formed a plaufible rallying point to all. And it is inconteftible, that such at this time was the prevalence of the Puritan party in Ireland, fuch their arrogance, ferocity and power, fuch their avowed hatred to the Catholics, and fuch their still diffembled but active enmity to royalty, that the most serious apprehenfions of an immediate general maffacre or extermination of the whole body of the Catholics were generally entertained throughout the kingdom.* There prevailed at this time * This amongst many other documents appears by a remonftrance presented at that time by the northern nobility and gentry to the king, which is to be seen in Def. Cur. Hyb. 2 vol. 80, and contains the following paffage. "There was a petition framed by the Puritans of this kingdom of Ire"land, fubfcribed by the hands of many hundreds of them, and preferred to the house of commons "of the new parliament of England, for fuppreffing our religion and us the profeffors thereof refiding " within this kingdom of Ireland: which as we are credibly informed, was condefcended unto by "both houfes of parliament, there, and undertaken to be accomplished to their full defires, and "that without the privity or allowance of your majesty." And Dr. Anderson in his Royal Genealogies, p. 786, fays, "That the native Irish being well informed as they thought (in 1641) that "they now muft either turn Proteftant or depart the kingdom, or be hanged at their own door: they "betook to arms in their own defence, especially in Ulfter, where the fix counties had been for"feited." About this fame time a very ftrong and difpaffionate remonftrance from Cavan, faid to have been drawn up by bishop Bedel, was prefented to the lords juftices: and Burnet in his life of Bishop Bedel owns, that this remonftrance gives the beft colors to their proceedings of any of their papers he had ever feen: (Vid. App. No. XXII.) "The northern plantations, fays Leland (3 Vol. "89) could not but be offenfive to the old Irish: and thofe among them that fubmitted and ac"cepted their portions of land, complained that in many inftances they had been scandalously de"frauded. The revival of obfolete claims to the crown, haraffing of proprietors by fictions of law, difpoffeffing time a conviction that the armed force in Ireland* was, generally, hoftile to the king, and that the English parliament had either by conceffion or ufurpation, acquired the government of the kingdom of Ireland. All the remonftrances of the Catholics expreffed their loyalty to his majesty, and tenders of service against his enemies; for fuch from that time they confidered the covenanters, and all those who supported or adhered to them: and their complaints generally ran against the harshness, arrogance, and injustice of their immediate governors. 66 On the 23d of October, 1641, the lords juftices iffued a proclamation, by which they declared, "that a discovery had been made of a most difloyal and deteftable confpiracy, intended by fome evil affected Irish Papists, univerfally throughout the kingdom." Whether this misreprefentation of the univerfality of the confpiracy arofe from malice or defign, certain it is, that the lords and gentlemen of the Pale immediately reprefented in a petition to the lords juftices and council, that they and other innocent perfons might feem to be involved as Catholics in the general terms of the proclamation; whereupon on the 29th of the fame month, they fent forth an explanatory proclamation, declaring, that by the words ໄ Irish Papifts they intended only fuch of the old Mere Irish in the pro"vince of Ulfter as had plotted, contrived, and been actors in that treason, - difpoffeffing them by fraud and circumvention, and all the various artifices of interested agents "and minifters, were naturally irritating. And the public discontents must have been further ** enflamed, by the infincerity of Charles in evading the confirmation of his graces; the infolence "of Strafford in openly refufing it, together with the nature and manner of his proceedings with "the proprietors of Connaught." * I speak not of that armed force of 8000 men, which had been raised by Lord Strafford to be led into Scotland, and which was disbanded in June 1641, without any inconvenience or diforder in the nation at that time. Carte Orm. 1 vol. p.134. The 1000 Protestants of this body were fent back to their old corps, from whence they had been drafted. Of the loyalty and zeal of this corps, Strafford has left us the following eulogies. State Letters, 2 vol." It is hardly to be be"lieved what forwardness there is in thefe people to ferve in this expedition (against the Scots) "Certainly they will fell themselves to the laft farthing before they deny any thing which can be afked of them in order to that." And in another letter he tells the king, "they are all on fire "to serve his majesty." + With reference to this idea, Dr. Warner said (Hift. of Reb. p.5.) : "So that he might fur"<ther teftify his refolutions to make his Irish subjects easy under his government, in the beginning "of May he appointed the Earl of Leicester, and not the English parliament, as Ludlow fays, lord lieutenant of that kingdom." " and "and others that adhered to them; and none of the old English of the "Pale or other parts of the kingdom."* Here I wish to draw an impervious veil over every scene of blood and horror which defiled the actors, as well as over the imaginary fictions and exaggerations which have difgraced most of our historical relations of these tranfactions.† Suffice it to fay, that there appears to have been no preconcerted fyftem or preparation * It is devoutly to be wifhed, that one injunction of this latter proclamation had been attended to; for by it the lords juftices enjoined all his majesty's fubjects, whether Proteftants or Papifts, to forbear upbraiding matter of religion on this occafion. †There are no bounds to the exaggerations of our hiftorians, as to the number of Proteftants said to have been maffacred by the Irish in this rebellion. Sir John Temple says, that 150,000 Proteftants were massacred in cold blood, in the two first months of the rebellion. Sir William Petty coolly calculates 30,000 British were killed, out of war, in the first year of this infurrection. And Lord Clarendon laments, that in the first two or three days of it, 40 or 50,000 of them were deftroyed. Dr. Warner, though very adverse to the Irish, confeffes, that he could only collect from pofitive evidence and report for the first two years, that 4028 were killed, and that 8000 died of ill ufage; which he says was corroborated by a letter in the council book, at Dublin, written on the 5th of May, 1652, from the parliamentary commiflioners in Ireland to the English parliament: which, in order to excite the parliament to greater severity or at least less lenity towards the Irith, tells them, that it then appeared, that befides 848 families, there were killed, hanged, and burnt, 6062. In justice, however, to Lord Clarendon, it must be mentioned, that he admits one fact that contradicts moft of our authors, and is contrary to the generally received notion, that this rebellion first broke out by a general massacre of all the Proteftants that could be found, in cold blood. "About the beginning of November (fays he), 1641, the English and Scotch forces in Carrickfergus, murthered, in one night, all the inhabitants of the island Gee (commonly called "Mac Gee), to the number of above 3000 men, women, and children, all innocent perfons, in a time when none of the Catholicks of that country were in arms or rebellion. Note that this was the first maffacre committed in Ireland, of either fide." Clar. Hift. Rev. of the Affairs of Ireland, p. 329. This pathetic lamentation of Clarendon, which he muft have known to be false, is to be placed to the account of his zeal for the good caufe, and to be confidered as one of the pious ejaculations of a fore frightened and irritated mind, which he completely falfifies when he returns to the duty of an hiftorian. For how could 40,000 or 50,000 Protestants have been masfacred within the two or three first days of the rebellion, which began on the 23d of October, when he tells us, that the 3000 Irish Papists maffacred by the Proteftants in the enfuing month, was the first maffacre of either fide. His lordship alfo gives this teftimony of the Irish suffering without retaliation in Munfter: "In Decy's county, the neighbouring English garrifons of the county of "Cork, after burning and pillaging all that county, they murthered above 300 perfons, men, wo"men and children, before any rebellion began in Munfter, and led 100 labourers prisoners to Caperquine, where being tried, by couples were caft into the river, and made fport to fee them " drowned. Observe that this county is not charged with any murther to be committed on Pro"teftants." Ibid. p. 396. |