honourable and safe, to be the king's evidence, than a cow-ftealer, though that be their actual profeffion; buť as they have not the honefty to fwear truly, they want the wit to fwear probably.

Jones, Bishop of Meath, who was both the procurer and examiner of thefe witneffes in Ireland, had been scout-mafter general to Oliver Cromwell's army.

Yet, upon the bare teftimony of the above mentioned notorious mifcreants, feveral of the Irish nobility, clergy and gentry, were at that juncture, either thrown into jails or forced to quit the kingdom. Primate Plunkett (as Bishop Burnet informs us, on the report of the Earl of Effex, who had been lord lieutenant of Ireland, and knew him perfonally), was a wife and fober man, fond of living quietly and in due fubjection to the government, without engaging in intrigues of ftate;" yet he was brought over to England, and condemned, and executed at Tyburn, on the accufation of thefe fuborned witneffes. But

6

s Cart. Orm. vol. ii. fol. 498.

Hift. of his own Times, vol. i. f. 230.

dropped letters in the streets of Dublin, infinuating a confpiracy formed for murdering his grace; and feveral pretended to give an account of what they had heard, or fufpected of fuch a defign. Divers examinations were taken, and the duke could not well tell at first what to think of the matter; as it seemed to agree with what was mentioned in general by Oates and Dugdale, whofe depofitions it was calculated to countenance. But he had too much firmness of mind to be moved by fuch dark and inexplicable informations as were given, to alter a conduct founded on fo much reafon, as what he had hitherto obferved." Id. ib. vol. ii. f. 481.

Alluding to two friars that informed against the titular Primate Plunkett.

"Plunkett," fays Burnet," was at this time brought to his trial. Some lewd Irish priests, and others of that nation, hearing that England was then difpofed to hearken to good fwearers, thought themselves well qualified for the employment; fo they came over to fwear, that there was a great plot in Ireland. The witneftes were brutal and profligate men, yet the Earl of Shaftsbury cherished them much; they were examined by par

liament

But the Duke of Ormond," by his great refolution and activity, put a stop to this fpreading mischief, not without expofing himself to the danger of being reprefented by the faction in England, as a plotter or a papift, on that account.

ΑΝ

liament at Westminster, yet what they faid was believed. Some of these priests had been cenfured by him for their lewdness. Plunkett had nothing to fay in his defence, but to deny all; fo he was condemned, and fuffered very decently, expreffing himself in many particulars as became a bishop; he died denying every thing that had been fworn against him." Hift. of his own Times, vol. i. f. 230.

His grace in one of his letters to England on this occafion, fays, "Here is one Owen Murphy authorised to search for, and carry over witneffes, I fuppofe to give evidence against Oliver Plunkett (the primate.) He has been as far as the county of Tipperary, and brought thence about a dozen people, not like to say any thing material as to Plunkett." Cart. Orm. vol. ii. App.

His grace was urged to imprison all the principal Roman catholics of Ireland at this juncture; but he refused to do it, "because," as he faid, "it could not be known, how many might be thus driven to defperate courfes." "It was well

known," adds my author, "how much the imprisonments, and other severities of Sir William Parsons, had contributed to hurry numbers into the laft rebellion; and neither the duke, nor the privy council, deemed it prudent to make another experiment whether the fame measures might not be attended with the fame effects." Lel. Hift. of Irel. vol. iii. p. 547.

Archbishop King's State of the protestants of Ireland under king James II. confidered.

MANY

ANY and foul are the mifrepresentations of Irish catholics, exhibited in Archbishop King's ftate of the proteftants of Ireland under King James II.; and although Mr. Lefley, a learned contemporary protef tant divine, has demonftratively proved moft of his charges to be either abfolutely falfe, or greatly exaggerated (without any defence or reply from his grace, or his friends), yet the archbishop's book has paffed, with applaufe, through feveral editions fince Mr. Lefley's decease, and is generally quoted as of unqueftionable authority, by all writers, foreign and domef tic, who have fince treated of that part of Irish history; while Mr. Lefley's refutation of it is hardly any where to be met with, having been fuppreffed by

authority

authority in the first edition of it; and it, was then fo far ftifled in its birth, that it has never fince been reprinted.

Inftead of taking pains to extol Mr. Lefley's character for veracity, or to depreciate that of Dr. King for the want of it, I fhall make ufe of no other argument, for either purpose, but such as will naturally arife from the plain and certain evidence of facts, alleged and vouched by the former, but never difproved, nor fo much as contradicted, by the latter.

"No man," fays Mr. Lefley,' was, or could be, an higher affertor of paffive obedience, than Dr. King had been all his life-time. Even at the beginning of the revolution, he told a perfon of honour, from whose mouth I had it," that if the Prince of Orange

a It will, probably, be objected to this writer's testimony, that he was a non-juror. But to this objection I fhall only anfwer in the words of Bishop Burnet, on a fimilar occafion. "I never," fays that prelate," think the worfe of men for their different fentiments in fuch matters; I am fure I am bound to think much better of them for adhering strictly to the dictates of their confciences, when it is fo much to their lofs, and when to facred a thing as an oath is in the cafe. I wish all who had the fame perfuafions, had acted with the same strictnefs and tenderness." See Defence of the Bp. of Worcester's Vindic. of the Church of Engl. p. 63.

Dr. Swift's teftimony of this writer's merits, in his preface to Bishop Burnet's Introduction to his Hiftory of the Reformation, is worthy of notice. "Without doubt," fays he, "Mr. Lefley is unhappily mifled in his politics; but he has given the world fuch a proof of his foundness in religion, as many a bishop ought to be proud of. I never faw the gentleman in my life: I know he is the fon of a great and excellent prelate, who, upon feveral accounts, was one of the moft extraordinary men of his age. I verily believe, that he acted from a miltaken confcience (in refufing to fwear allegiance to king William), and therefore I diftinguifh between the principles and the perfon. However, it is fome mortification to me, when I fee an avowed non-juror contribute more to the confounding of popery, than could ever be done by an hundred thoufand fuch introductions." Swift's Works, Dubl. edit. vol. vi. p. 118-19.

Orange came over for the crown, he prayed God might blast his defigns." In a letter to a perfon of undoubted credit, in the year 1686, he said, "the principle of non-refiftance, was a fteady principle of loyalty that it was intolerable for the members of any ftate, to flee to foreign fuccours, on pretence that their own governors had made laws against reafon, conscience, and justice; yet this is one of his principal arguments, in the book above-mentioned, for juftifying the revolution." "What I have above-written," adds Lefley, "I have from the perfon to whom he wrote it, and if he defires it, his letters fhall be produced." But it does not appear that he ever did defire it.

By fuch feigned affurances of loyalty, which he had often given to king James, after his arrival in Ireland, "that king had once fo good an opinion of him,' that he had him frequently in private, and trufted him in his affairs; until at laft, he found he was holding correfpondence with his enemies in England, and in the north of Ireland, and he, thereupon, imprisoned him. But his old friend, Chief Juftice Herbert, was fo far mistaken in him, that he vouched for him at the council-table, with fo much zeal as to fay, that he was as loyal a man (to king James) as any that fat at the board; which did retrieve the doctor from fome inconveniences, and continued him for fome time longer in king James's good opinion.”

* Lefl. Anf. p. 106.

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