The main defign of the infurgents not general or premeditated. IN N order to fet this tragical part of the history of Ireland in a true light, it is neceffary to diftinguish two infurrections, differing not fo much in their caufes as their times. The firft is that mentioned in the lord juftices proclamation of the 29th October, 1641, of fome of the mere old Irish only in the province of Ulfter. The other is that general defection, which happened some months after, in the other provinces; and was occafioned by a continuation and increase of those grievances and oppreffions, which had produced the first. We will begin with the infurrection in Ulfter, which Sir John Temple,' and his numerous copiers, a History of the Irish Rebel. This gentleman published his Hiftory of the Irish Rebel copiers, have represented as an horrible enterprise, long before concerted and refolved upon, by the generality of the catholics of Ireland. But in this particular, and in truth in moft others, that writer has fufficiently confuted himself; for he informs us, that feveral of the chiefs of these Ulfter infurgents, inftead of providing men, arms and other requifites for the execution of fuch a defign, did on the contrary, but a fhort time before their rising, take fuch measures as had a manifest tendency to prevent its fuccefs. For he tells us," "that Sir Phelim O'Neil, and many others of the prime Hift. of the Irish Rebel. p. 14. 2 lion in the year 1646, by the direction of the parliament-party, which then prevailed, and to which, tho' long before in actual rebellion, he was always attached. The falfehoods it contains are fo glaring and numerous, that even the government, in the year 1674, feems to have been offended at, and himfelf afhamed of, the re-publication of it. This we gather from a letter of Capel Earl of Effex, then lord lieutenant of Ireland, to Mr. Secretary Coventry, of that date, wherein we find these words: "I am to acknowledge yours of the 22d of December, in which you mention a book that was newly published, concerning the cruelties committed in Ireland, at the beginning of the late war. Upon further enquiry I find Sir J. Temple, mafter of the rolls here (Ireland), author of that book, was, this laft year, fent to by several stationers of London, to have his confent to the printing thereof; but he affures me, that he utterly denied it, and whoever printed it, did it without his knowledge. Thus much I thought fit to add to what I formerly faid upon this occafion, that I might do this gentleman right, in cafe it were fufpected, he had any share in publishing this new edition." State Let. Dub. ed. p. 2. His lordfhip was at this time foliciting a grant of three (he would have it five) hundred pounds a year, on the forfeited eftates, for Sir John Temple, which he at laft obtained, (fee thefe letters); and the miniftry feems to have made this re-publication of his hiftory an objection, which his lordship thus endeavours to remove. "The difficulty which Moore found to prevail on the Ulfter-Irish (to rife), fhews there was no long-meditated scheme of rebellion even among them." "Roger Moore's ancestors, in the reign of Mary, had been expelled from their princely poffeffions by violence and fraud; and prime leaders in this rebellion, did, not long before it broke out, turn their Irish tenants off their lands, even to starve upon the mountains; while they took in English, who were able to give them much greater rents, and more certainly pay the fame." He has alfo informed us," that these rebels, at their first rising out, had not many better weapons than ftaves, fcythes and pitchforks ;" an indication furely, rather of a fudden unpremeditated eruption and tumult, than of any fettled fcheme of confpiracy or rebellion. с Nay, fome weeks after their first rifing, fuch of thefe infurgents as appeared to the Earl of Ormond, feemed to him," rather to be a tumultuous rabble, than any thing like a difciplined army ;" and his lordfhip was of opinion, that there were as many arms, within a few, in the hands of fix hundred of the king's forces, as there were among all the rebels then in the kingdom." -5 6 But what puts this matter beyond all difpute is, "that the army of eight thoufand foot, and one thoufand horfe (feven-eighths of which were Roman catholics) that had been raised, two years before, by the Earl of Strafford, was, in June 1641, entirely diffolved, without any inconvenience or disorder in the nation at that time." "The complaints of grievances made by the Roman catholic members," fays Mr. Carte," "in the Irish 4 Carte's Ormond, vol. iii. 3 İb. p. 79. 6 Ib. vol. i. house and their sept haraffed and almost extirpated by military executions. His own indigence, and the mortifying view of what he called his rightful inheritance, poffeffed by ftrangers, rioting in the spoils of his family," fpirited him up to this rebellion. See Lel. Hift. of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 93. "Lord Macguire, in his confeffion, avers, that it was, in May 1641, that he first heard the motion, from Sir James Dillon, of taking the caftle of Dublin." See Borl. Hift. of the Irish Rebel. fol. 34. "The firft infurgents (in Ulfter), though without arms or ammunition, got poffeffion of moft part of the kingdom." Borl. Irish Rebel. fol. 251. 8.66 houfe of commons, in fummer 1641, have been infisted upon, as a proof of their intention to raise a rebellion at that juncture: but, by all the obfervations I have been able to make, I do not find that there was any formed defign of the body of the Roman catholic party in that parliament, for an affair of that nature. The compiler of the Nuncio's memoirs," adds the fame author, (a fair writer, whatever his principles were, and who, on all occafions, feems to be well acquainted with his fubject, and to write what he believed to be true,) fays, "that the English-Irish of four hundred years ftanding, especially thofe of the English pale, were extremely averfe to the rebellion, and offered their service very fincerely to the state against the rebels; remembering their own origin, and chufing to adhere to the English government, which they were apprehenfive would be thrown off by the natives." To which reafon he adds another, drawn from the nature of their eftates, a confiderable part of which was churchlands, which, he fays, they were afraid of lofing, if the old Irish got the power of the nation into their hands." CHA P. II. The firft caufes of the infurrection of 1641 in Ulfter. MEN, whofe minds are exafperated by the remembrance of former injuries (which was peculiarly the cafe of the Ulfter gentry, on account of the feizure a • Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 256. Nunc. Mem. p. 392. of a❝ The native Irish being well informed, as they thought (in 1641), that they now muft either turn proteftants, or depart the kingdom, or be hanged at their own doors; they betook to arms in their own defence, especially in Ulfter, where the fix counties had been forfeited." Dr. Anderfon's Royal Genealogies, p. 786. "No of the fix counties before-mentioned) are often fuddenly provoked to commit acts of violence, by a flight or inadequate caufe; but the immediate incentive to the infurrection of these northerns was far from being fuch; it was nothing lefs, than a well-grounded fear of an intended extirpation of their religion or perfons. The petitions already mentioned, which were calculated for that end, feem principally to have been levelled at them; and probably received moft furtherance from their malevolent neighbours, the puritan Scots. Nor will this in the least seem strange, if it be considered, that the diffenters in that province were audacious enough, about the fame time, to address a petition to the English house of commons,' figned by many thoufands in the county of Down, Tirone and others, against episcopacy, and the established religion itself." 66 See Pryn's Antipathy to Bishops, part ii. p. 369. In "No great difficulty was apprehended in gaining the leaders of the Ulfter Irish, who had been fo feverely chastised by the arms of Elizabeth, and fo grievously defpoiled by the plantations of James." Lel. Hift. of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 95. In the humble remonstrance of the northern nobility and gentry to the king, there is the following paffage: "There was a petition framed by the puritans of this kingdom of Ireland, fubfcribed by the hands of many hundreds of them, and preferred to the house of commons of the now 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 condescended unto by both houses of parliament there, and undertaken to be accomplished to their full defires, and that without the privity or allowance of your majefty." Defid. Curiosa Hib. vol. ii. p. 86. • Extract of the examination of Dr. Robert Maxwell, afterwards bishop of Kilmore: And further depofeth, that he, this deponent, asked many, both their (the rebels) commanders and friars, what chiefly moved them to take up arms? They faid, why may not we as well, and better, fight for religion, which is the fubstance, than the Scots did for ceremonies, which are but shadows? and that Lord Strafford's government was intolerable. The deponent answered, that that government, how infupport able |