The Duke of Ormond befriends the Irish. IN the year 1679, when fo much innocent blood. was fhed in England, by means of the perjuries of Titus Oates, and his flagitious affociates, encouraged and patronised by the Earl of Shaftsbury,' "the peace and quietnefs of Ireland was a great disappoint Such was the people's abhorrence of popery at this time in England, and fo light and excufable in their opinion did a perfon's being a proteftant, render any other vice that a perfon might be guilty of," that when Nell Gwin (Charles II.'s mistress) was infulted in her coach at Oxford by the mob, who mistook her for the Duchefs of Portsmouth (another mistress of that king's, but a papift), fhe looked out of the window, and faid with her ufual good humour, Pray good people be civil, I am the proteftant w---e. And this laconic fpeech drew upon her the bleffings of the populace, who fuffered her to proceed without further moleftation." Graing. Biograph. Hist. vol. iv. p.. 189. note. "The notorious Titus Oates (fays the Rev. Mr. Grainger) was foon after the acceffion of (king) James, convicted of perjury, upon the evidence of fixty reputable witneffes, of whom nine were proteftants. He was fentenced to pay a fine of two thousand marks, to be ftripped of his canonical habit, to be whipt twice in three days by the common hangman, and to ftand in the pilory at Westminster-hall gate, and at the Royal Exchange; he was moreover to be pillored five times. every year, and to be imprifoned during life. The hangman performed his office with uncommon rigour. The best thing James ever did was punishing Oates for his perjury; and the greatest thing Oates ever did, was fupporting himself under the moft afflictive part of his punishment with the refolution and conftancy of a martyr. A penfion of four hundred pounds a year was conferred upon this mifcreant by king William. He was, for a clergyman, remarkably illiterate; it is well known. that he was the fon of an anabaptift; and he probably died in the communion in which he had been educated." Biographic. Hift. of Eng. vol. iv. p. 348. ment to that earl and his party; and they took all poffible methods to provoke and exafperate the people of that kingdom, already too much difcontented. For that end, they procured orders from the council of Ireland, to tranfmit severe bills against the Irish catholics in matter of religion, in hopes to drive them into a new rebellion. It was now propofed to, introduce the teft act, and all the English penal-laws, into Ireland; and that a proclamation fhould be forthwith iffued for encouraging all perfons, that could make any further difcoveries of the horrid popifh plot, to come in and declare the fame." The "Titus Oates (fays the fame Biographer) was restrained by no principle, human or divine, and like Judas would have done any thing for thirty fhillings; he was one of the most accomplished villains that we read of in hiflory; he had been chaplain on board the fleet, whence he was difmiffed for an unnatural crime, and was known to be guilty of perjury before he fet up the trade of witneffing; he was fuccessful in it beyond the most fanguine expectation: he was lodged at Whitehall, and had a penfion affigned him of 1200l. a year. The ara of Oates's plot was alfo the grand era of whig and tory." "Id. ib. p. 201-2. Some have concluded from the following pafiage in D'Avaux, that the Prince of Orange had a confiderable fhare in framing this most iniquitous plot: "I prcfume to declare," fays that count," that I have omitted nothing to difcover the combinations that the Prince of Orange has engaged in, with the most abandoned of the English. On the 21ft of September, 1679, I fent intelligence that Oates, who has fince that time been fo notorious; Freeman, of whom I have already spoken; and Du Moulin, a man of intrigue and an execrable villain; arrived together in Holland fome years paft, and that the Prince of Orange had been in grand conferences with them." D'Avaux, tom. i. p. 32. See MPherfon's Hift. of Great Britain, vol. i. p. 343. Certain it is, that after that prince became king of England, he attempted to have reverfed Oates's fentonce; but the commons refufed to gratify him in fo impious an act. That villain, however, was pardoned and penfioned by his majesty, as above-mentioned." On the first report of the popish plot, Peter Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, in a dangerous fit of the ftone, was imprifoned in the cattle. Orders were iflued, that all officers fhould repair to their respective garrifons; that popifh ecclefiaf tics r¢ " I The Duke of Ormond, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and luckily at that juncture in England, employed all his intereft with the king, to prevent the calling a parliament for these cruel purposes.* will venture," fays his grace in a letter to the Earl of Arran on that occafion, to tell you, without a cypher, that the reafon why the calling of a parliament in Ireland fticks, is the feverity of two bills tranfmitted against the papists; the one taking away the votes of peers, whilft they are papifts; and the other inflicting death upon a certain fort of popifh clergy, if found in Ireland; the one feeming unjuft, and the other cruel, and neither neceffary. For my part, I confefs, if I had been here when the expelling of the popish lords paffed, I fhould have voted against it in confcience and prudence; in confcience, because I know no reason why opinion fhould take away a man's birthright; or why his goods or lands may not be as well taken away; fince money mifapplied is, for the most part, a more dangerous thing in difaffected hands, than a word in his mouth. And I think no lefs of the other bill, for upon ferious and cool thoughts, I am against all fanguinary laws, in matters of religion, purely and properly fo called." a 2 Cart. Orm. vol. ii. fol. 535 66 It tics fhould depart from the kingdom, popifh feminaries and convents should be fuppreft. Informations quickly multiplied, and directions were received from England to feize Richard Talbot (afterwards Duke of Tyrconnel), Lord Mountgarret and his fon, and a colonel of the name of Peppard. Lord Mountgarret, reprefented as a dangerous confpirator, was of the age of eighty years, bed-ridden, and in a state of dotage; and, to the further difcredit of the evidences, no Colonel Peppard was known or could be found in Ireland:" Lel. Hift. of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 474 Previous to, and concomitant with, Oates's plot, the minds of the people were inflamed by fermons, pamphlets, &c. containing the groffeft and most abominable afperfions on the civil principles of Roman catholics. Thomas Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, eminently diftinguifhed himfelf on that occafion, in a book of one hundred and thirty-fix pages in quarto; which though 3 "It was a terrible flur upon the credit of the plot in England, that after it had made fuch an horrible noise in a nation, where there was fcarce one papist to an hundred proteftants, there fhould not, for a year, be found one witness from Ireland, to give information of any confpiracy of the like nature in that kingdom, where there were fifteen papifts to one proteftant. But the proclamation above-mentioned, which published according to the order fent from England, fupplied that defect. For upon the encouragement given in it, tories and other criminals, confined in jails, 3 Cart. Orm. vol. ii. fol. 535. was though clearly refuted by Peter Walsh, in a letter to his lordfhip, containing five hundred and ninety pages in octavo, yet is ftill made use of by all the libellers on that topic, as an inexhaustible fund of arguments againft allowing the rights of fubjects, in thefe kingdoms, to the profeffors of that religion; although their dutiful and loyal conduct affords the clearest refutation of these arguments. This Bishop of Lincoln was not unconscious of the injurious falfhoods he published at that juncture, against thofe inoffenfive people, as appeared by his own fubfequent trimming behaviour on different occafions. "His conduct," fays the Rev. Mr. Grainger, "for fome time, like that of other Calvinifts, appeared to be in direct oppofition to the church of Rome; but after James afcended the throne, he feemed to approach nearer to popery than he ever did before. He fent the king an addrefs of thanks for his declaration for liberty of conscience; and is said to have written reasons for the reading of that declaration (by the clergy in their churches); his compliances were much the fame after the revolution." Biograph. Hift. of Engl. vol. iv. p. 287. Anthony Wood informs us," that when Oates's plot broke out, September 1678, though he (Barlow) had been a seeming friend to papists, he became then a bitter enemy to them, and the Duke of York; but that when the duke was proclaimed king, he took all opportunities to exprefs his affection to him; and, among others, writ, as was faid, reafons for reading his majefty's declaration for liberty of confcience. But when the king withdrew himfelf into France, to avoid imminent danger, in 1688, he was one of thofe bishops that very readily voted, that he had abdicated his kingdom. He was efteemed by those that knew him well, to have been a thorough-paced Calvinift." Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 877. jails, pretended to have great difcoveries to make on that head, and obtained their liberty, and had money given them by the government of Ireland, to transport them to England for that purpofe; though these wretches knew nothing of the matter, till they were inftructed by Mr. Hethrington, Lord Shaftsbury's agent in managing and providing for them." It may not be unentertaining to the reader, to find here an exact defcription of these witneffes, left us by the lord lieutenant himfelf, after his return to Ireland, "At council," fays he," there is little more to do than to hear witneffes; fome come out of England, and fome producing themselves here, and all, I doubt, forfwearing themselves. Those that went out of Ireland with bad English, and worfe clothes, are returned well-bred gentlemen, well-caronated, periwigged, and cloathed. Brogues and leather ftraps are converted into fashionable fhoes and glittering buckles; which, next to the zeal tories, thieves, and friars have for the proteftant religion, is a main inducement to bring in fhoals of informers." They find it more honourable " Ib. vol. iii. "I dare not," fays his grace in another letter, "fay,. though it be manifeft, that most of our discoveries give more difcredit, than confirmation, to the plot. It is well that I am not like to be charged for a plotter or a papift." Carte's Orm. vol. ii. Append. · "There were too many proteftants then in Ireland," fays Mr. Carte," who wanted another rebellion, that they might increase their eftates by new forfeitures. And letters were perpetually fending into England, mifreprefenting the lord lieutenant's conduct, and the ftate of things in Ireland. The Earl of Anglesey gave the Duke of Ormond, a friendly advertisement of those misrepresentations and fuggeftions against his proceedings, made by one of the greatest perfons in the kingdom, transmitted to feveral perfons in London, and particularly to fome members of parliament and of the privy council." Orm. vol. ii. fol. 482. On the other hand, "fome perfons to whom the Duke of Ormond's moderation was not agreeable, imagining that he might be driven out of it by the danger of an affaffination, dropped . |