ment on that affurance. As to their religion," adds Mr. Lesley, they did not complain, for king William was very gracious to them in that refpect; but as to their perfons, eftates and liberties, they cried out heavily of breach of public faith, and great oppreffion."

Mr. Lefley had before attempted to prove that these forfeiting Irish were not guilty of rebellion," how could they," fays he, "who adhered to king James, be made rebels to king William, before they had submitted to him? If you fay he had a title to Ireland, by being king of England, becaufe Ireland is an appendix to the crown of England; I anfwer, from the beginning it was not fo; and the government of England being diffolved, as Dr. King fays, by abdication, O 2 and s Id. ib.

year: And that, upon the whole, the value of Irish forfeitures amounted to three millions, three hundred and nineteen thoufand, nine hundred and forty-three pounds." Macphers. Hist. of Gt. Brit. vol. ii. p. 161-2.

There were not three thousand proteftants named in the act of attainder, paffed by king James in Ireland, 1689; and they were all quickly restored by king William: whereas the Roman catholics attainted by king William, loft all for ever, notwithstanding they were to be reinftated by the articles of Limerick. See King's State of the Proteft. p. 133.

The above 1,060,792 acres, were worth per ann. 2,11,6231. 6s. 3d. total value 2,685,130l. 5s. 9d. (befides the several denominations in the faid counties, to which no number of acres can be added, by reafon of the imperfection of the furveys); "which we humbly reprefent to your honours, as the grofs value of the lands forfeited in Ireland, fince February 13th, 1688." Rep. Commiffioners ubi fupra.

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"The impatience of William's English adherents only served to confirm the Irish in their averfion to the new government. And by a fhameful difregard, and almost perpetual violation of his protections, granted to the peasantry, they forced this order alfo to croud to their old leaders, and to take arms for their fecurity." Lel. Hift. of Irel. vol. iii. p. 574.

The Irish" faw their religion on the point of being utterly extinguished, and their remains of property ready to be seized by strangers; no fecurity in fubmiffion, no reliances on any promises of pardon." Lel. ubi fupra, p. 576. At Chapel-Izod, "William was employed in receiving petitions and redreffing grievances, arifing from the perpetual violations of his protections." Id. ib.

1

and returned back to the fuppofed original contract, or first right of mankind, to erect government for their own convenience, of confequence the tye which England had upon Ireland was diffolved, and Ireland left, as well as England, in its fuppofed original freedom, to choose what government and governors they pleafed; befides all this, Dr. King's principles freed them from king William; because of the prefumptions they had to think, that king intended to invade their property, lives, and religion."

"The desertion (fays Mr. Macpherson on this occafion) upon which the deprivation of James has been founded in England, had not existed in Ireland. The lord lieutenant had retained his allegiance. The government was uniformly continued under the name of the prince, from whom the fervants of the crown had derived their commiffions. James himself had, for more than feventeen months, exercifed the royal function in Ireland; he was certainly de facto, if not de jure, king. The rebellion of the Irish must therefore be founded on the fuppofition, that their allegiance is transferable by the parliament of England. A fpeculative opinion can fcarce juftify the punishment of a great majority of the people. The Irish ought to have been confidered as enemies, rather than rebels."

"The kingdom of Ireland," fays the fame author (Macpherson), "ever fince its reduction in 1691, exhibited one continued fcene of oppreffion, injustice, and public mifery. The government of James, with all its difadvantages, his own bigotry, the infolence of the papifts, combined with the fears of the protestants, were all more tolerable than the adminiftration of William, ever fince the furrender of Limerick. Coningsby and Porter," the lords juftices, rendered themfelves

Hift. Gr. Brit. vol. i. p. 622. 7 Id. vol. ii. p. 26.

An order of the lords juftices Porter and Coningsby, to Samuel Booth, Efq; high fheriff of the county of Kilkenny, dated 19th November, 1691, fets forth," that they were extremely furprized at the frequent complaints they received from all parts of the kingdom, notwithstanding their proclamation to the contrary, of the ill treatment of the Irish, who were in

arms

felves odious, by a series of fraud, cruelty and rapacity. They fold common juftice for money; they fcreened the guilty, and oppreffed the innocent. To render their proceedings fummary, to clothe their authority with more terror, and with moft expedition to enrich themselves, they chofe to exert their power in the military way. The corruption at the fource extended itself to every channel of government; the fubordinate magiftrates, the juftices of peace, as if all law was at an end, made their own will and pleasure the rule of their conduct. Prefuming on their power in the country, they deprived, under colour of their authority, many perfons of their effects; they difpoffeffed many of their lands. Coningsby, created a baron by the fame name, with his colleague Porter, continued in the government till the arrival of Sydney, on the 25th of Auguft, 1693; in the intermediate time, they prefided in the court of claims for adjusting the demands of thofe comprehended in the articles of Limerick; and the obvious road to their justice, was faid to lie through their avarice."

СНАР.

arms against their majefties, and have either fubmitted, and are under their majefties protection, or are included in the articles granted upon the furrender of fome of their garrifons, or fubmission of their army. That this proceeding has fo extremely terrified them with the apprehenfions of the continuance of this fort of ufage, that they found experimentally, fome thousands who quitted the Irish ariny, and went home with a refolution not to go for France, are now come back again, and prefs earnestly to go thither, rather than ftay here; where, contrary to the public faith, as well as againft law and juftice, they are robbed of their substance, and abused in their perfons, &c." From an attested MSS. Copy of that Order, communicated to me by Mr. James Laffan of Kilkenny.

King William's army, in want of pay from the crown, raifed money by military diftrefs from the fubject, to the incredible amount of two hundred thousand pounds. The ftores left by king James in the kingdom, to the value, it was faid, of eighty thousand pounds, were embezzled or applied to his own ufe by Coningsby. The Jord lieutenant himfelf, and Ginckle, who had been created Earl of Athlone, were accufed of poffeffing themselves of almost all the forfeitures. But one of the most flagrant inroads upon the conftitution, was depriving the

citizens

CHA P. XIX.

A fhort Sketch of the cruelties inflicted on the Irish prifoners in this war; and alfo on thofe even under protection.

MR. Lesley, after having shewn, that the foregoing

charge of breach of articles made by Dr. King against king James's officers, was groundlefs and wicked; has, by way of contraft, produced feveral notorious and uncontroverted inftances of the perfidy and cruelty of king William's officers, towards their Irifh prifoners, in the course of this war. Out of thefe inftances, I shall select the few following; and with them conclude this tedious and melancholy narrative of the state of the Irish at different periods, for the space of more than one hundred and fifty years.

"When' Drogheda furrendered to king William, after the defeat at the Boyne, the fick and wounded foldiers were, by the capitulations, to be taken care of, and to be fent with paffes to their own army, as they recovered. But they were not only neglected, and might have starved but for the charity of fome of their own poor countrymen, who fold their beds and cloaths to relieve them, but they were alfo kept as prifoners after they recovered, contrary to their ar

ticles."

2

"Upon the furrender of Cork, the Irish army, though prifoners of war, were by the conditions to be well ufed. Notwithstanding which, even thofe protef tants who were most zealous for king William, owned, that the Irish General narrowly efcaped being murdered

2 Id. ib.

by

Anfw. to King. citizens of Dublin of the right to choose their own magiftrates. Macphers. Hift. Gr. Brit. vol. ii. p. 28, 9.

General M'Carthy, of whom when colonel, Lord Clarendon, lord lieutenant of Ireland, reported to the English ministry, "that he was a man of quality, and a foldier; and that

he

by the inhabitants; that he had no justice done him, nor any fatisfaction, upon his complaint to the Englifh General; and that the garrifon, after laying down their arms, were ftripped; and marched to a marshy wet ground, where they were kept with guards four or five days; and not being fuftained, were forced by hunger to eat dead horfes, that lay about them; and feveral of them died, for want even of that, when they were removed from thence. That they were afterwards fo crouded in houfes, jails, and churches, that they could not all lie down at once, and had nothing but the bare floor to lie upon; where the want of fuftenance, and the lying in their own excrements, with dead carcaffes lying whole weeks in the fame place with them, caufed fuch infection that they died in great numbers daily. The Roman catholics of Cork, though promised fafety and protection, had, on this furrender, their goods feized, and themselves ftripped and turned out of the town foon after."

"In December 1690,' one Captain Lauder, of Colonel Hale's regiment, being ordered with a lieutenant, enfign and fifty men, to guard about two hundred of the Cork prifoners to Clonmell, as they fainted on the road with the above faid bad ufage, fhot them to the number of fixteen, between Cork and Clonmell; and upon Major Dorington's having demanded justice against this officer from General Ginckle, Lauder got a pardon for the murder, and was continued in his poft."

"King William's army,+ after being entire mafters of Athlone, killed in cold blood an hundred men in the

he behaved himself extremely well, wherever he was quartered, with great eafinefs and moderation." State Let. vol. i. p. 45. His excellency foon after recommended him to the king to be made a major general. Ib. p. 47.

b

"Douglas, in his expedition to Athlone, marched as through an enemy's country, his men plundering, and even murdering, with impunity, in defiance of the royal proclama