notably improved upon it, as to affirm," that on the 23d of October aforesaid, an universal defection and general revolt broke out; wherein, not only all the mere Irish, but almost all the old English, that adhered to the church of Rome, were totally involved." And Mr. Hume, in a warm fit of declamation, confidently asserts,3 ,3" that from Ulster, the flames of this rebellion diffused themselves, in an instant, over the three other provinces."

The above-mentioned proclamation gave a just alarm to the catholic nobility and gentry of the kingdom; who knew themselves to be perfectly innocent, and entirely unconscious, of any such conspiracy. The earl of Clanrickard, who had arrived in Ireland some short time before, tells us, that he+ "was at first, on a sudden surprised with the fatal news of a desperate rebellion in the North, and a rumor of a general combination and conspiracy all over the kingdom. But we begin," adds his lordship, " to recover our wits, scared away by the first reports; and do discern, that none appears in this detestable conspiracy, or enters into action, but the remains of the antient Irish rebels in the North, and some of the planted county of Leitrim."*

2 Temple's History of the Irish Rebellion.

edition, vol. iv. p. 15.

3 Hist, of England, Dublin 4 Memoirs, Engl. ed. fol. 63.

with the usurpers of the parliamentarian faction, and by them impowered as commissioner to impose upon the protestant subjects of Ireland that traizorous, disloyal, and solemn league and covenant, which was a direct oath of confederacy not only against, but purposely to ruin and destroy the king, the church and the loyal party; I cannot observe his book to be printed at London in 1646, by public allowance, a time when no books were licensed but such as made court to the prevailing faction of the usurpers, or which might be helpful to support their calumnies against his majesty, especially as to the Irish rebellion, without too just a suspicion of his integrity."-Introduction to the second vol, of his Historic Collec.

* The northern plantations (says Dr. Leland) could not but be offensive to the old Irish; and those among them that submitted, and accepted their portion of lands, complained that in many instances they had been scandalously defrauded. The revival of obsolete claims of the crown, harassing of proprietors by fictions of law, dispossessing them by fraud and circumvention, and all the various artifices of interested agents, and ministers, were natural y irritating. And the public discontents must have been further inflamed by the insincerity of Charles, in evading the confirmation of his graces; the insolence of Stratford in openly refusing it

In two or three days after the issuing of this proclamation, the lords and gentlemen of the pale,s« doubting," says Temple," that by those general words of Irish papists, they might seem to be involved," preferred a petition to the lords justices and council, in behalf of themselves, and other old English of the kingdom; whereupon the justices, on the 29th of the same month, thought fit to send forth another proclamation, in which they declared and published, to all his majesty's good subjects, that by the words "Irish papists" they in tended only such of the old mere Irish, in the province of Ulster, as had plotted, contrived, and been actors in that treason, and others that adhered to them; and none of the old English of the pale, or other parts of the kingdom.”

And although their lordships, in this proclamation of the 29th of October, did ❝ enjoin all his majesty's subjects, whether protestants or papists, to forbear upbraiding matter of religion on this occasion; yet certain it is, that all our adverse historians, preachers, and libellers, from that time to the present, seem to have thought themselves indispensably obliged, not only to upbraid matter of religion as the chief incentive to this insurrection, but also to represent the insurrection itself as universal all over the kingdom, on the first day or two after its eruption.*

These, and other misrepresentations, were no sooner devised, than transmitted to the earl of Leicester, lord lieute nant in England; where they acquired still greater and more.

together with the nature and manner of his proceedings with the proprietors of Connaught.”—Hist. of Irel. vol. iii. p. 89.

• The account left us by sir John Temple, an interested contemporary writer, of the first rise, progress, and mischiefs of this insurrection, which all subsequent writers on the subject have servilely copied, is horribly fraught with notorious untruth and calumny, "The defection,” says he, "was universal, and the revolt general; wherein not only all the mere Irish, but almost all the old English, that adhered to the church of Rome, were totally involved. It was," adds he," so execrable in itself, so odious to God, and the whole world, that no age, no kingdom, no people can parallel the horrid cruelty and abominable murders that were then committed upon the protestant British inhabitants throughout the land, of what age, of what quality or condition soever they were."-Hist. of Irish Rebellion,

extensive credit. Never, indeed, were fiction and calumny introduced to public notice with more pomp and dignity than they seem to have been upon that occasion.

"For The earl of Leicester, having received intelligence of this insurrection by the lords justices letter of the 25th of October, 1641, repaired, on the first of the following month, to the house of commons then sitting; whither he was accompanied by the lord keeper of the great seal of England, the lord privy seal, the lord high chamberlain, the lord admiral, earl March, lord chamberlain, earl of Bath, earl of Dorset, earl of Holland, earl of Berkshire, lord viscount Say and Seal, Lord Goring, and lord Wilmot, in grand procession; when his excellency communicated the papers and letters, sent by the lords justices, and told them that he had information of shedding much blood of the protestants in Ireland, and that some of the rebels confessed, that all the protestants were to be cut off; and that they were not to leave any British men, women, or children alive: that the time for putting this bloody design in execution, was upon Saturday the 23d of October, a day dedicated to St. Ignatius,t the founder of the jesuits; and in short, that their design was to kill the lords justices and all the king's privy-council. The like information was given by the lord keeper, and other lords, and in the same solemn manner, to the house of lords.

The falsehood of this representation, with respect to the design of these insurgents, is so very notorious, that even a writer otherwise highly prejudiced against them, could not pass over uncensured. "Both the lord keeper in the house of lords, and the lord lieutenant in the house of commons," says Dr. Warner,s" did exceed the informations that had been given,

7 Warner's Irish Rebel. from Rushworth's collection.
8 Hist. of the Irish Rebellion.

*The truth of this relation is the more to be depended upon, as Rushworth wrote under the influence of such as could not bear the truth if against them. "Rushworth's compilation was carried on under the eye, and submitted to the correction of Cromwell; hence it is, that he has omitted whatever could give offence, and inserted whatever he thought would be agreeable to his patron."-Grainger's Hist. Biograph. vol. iv. p. 65.

This, like many other circumstances of this pompous tale, is a wellknown falsehood: for St. Ignatius's festival is kept on the 31st of July.

either in the letters, or in the examinations transmitted over. No historian," adds he," hath taken notice of this falsifica. tion; and yet one cannot believe that it was owing in both these lords to accident or mistake. The lord keeper hath said, that the rebels had committed divers murders; and the lord lieutenant, besides affirming that they had information of shedding much blood of the protestants there, added moreover, that the design of the rebels was to kill the lords justices, and all the king's privy-council; whereas neither in the letters, nor the examinations, is there a single word of any murder being committed; nor was there the least thought among the conspirators, for any thing that appears, of killing, particularly the lords justices and the king's privy council. And the council in their letters, after having given an account of several robberies, burning of houses and villages, and seizing some forts and castles, expressly say, and this though too much, is all that we yet hear is done by them."*

It is worthy of notice, that about this time, viz. before the end of October, 1641, Temple himself confesses," that the rebels had got possession of all the towns, forts, castles, and gentlemen's houses within the counties of Tyrone, Donegal, Fermanagh, Armagh, Cavan, Londonderry, Monaghan, and half the county of Down; except the cities of Londonderry and Colerain, the town and castle of Enniskillen, and some other places and castles. And that besides the above-mentioned, these rebels had taken a multitude of other castles, houses of strength, towns and villages, all abundantly peopled with British inhabitants." Yet in none of those places does it appear, from Temple's account, that any massacre or murder was committed by the insurgents within that space of time.+

9 History of the Irish Rebellion, p. 34.

« Whatever cruelties (says doctor Warner) are to be charged upon the Irish in the prosecution of their undertaking, yet their first intention, we see, went no further than to strip the English and the protestants of their power and possessions, and unless forced to it by opposition, not to shed any blood."-Hist. of the Irish Rebel. p. 47. See p. 28.

+ The true reason that these places were so easily taken by the insurgents, is thus set forth in the remonstrance of the lords and gentry of the pale. "Your majesty's old standing army here, which was appointed to keep the garrison-towns of this land, and in your forts and castles here,

There is but little wonder, that so shocking a calumny, thus solemnly delivered, by persons of honor, to an august assembly, should make a general and lasting impression on a credulous and prejudiced people; but the reader will please to reflect, that if so many persons of the first quality, living at a distance from the danger and mischiefs of this insurrection, and therefore, influenced by fear or revenge, could, for their own evil purposes,*. circulate such horrid falsehoods concerning it, how little stress ought to be laid on the evidence, or testimonies of some of the meanest of the adverse party at home, who were either exasperated by the injuries they themselves had suffered, or scared out of their wits by the shocking stories they had heard of those committed on others, when they were called upon to give such evidence. And yet, the testimony of persons so prejudiced, and otherwise unduly influenced, is the principal, if not the only foundation, on which the belief of the Irish massacre has hitherto rested, and has so generally, not to say uncontrovertably, prevailed.

which receives yearly large entertainment from your highness, hath been hitherto an army in name only, and not in substance, and was not visible in them towns and forts, through the neglect and corruption of your governors and state here, whereby the army of Ulster did surprize most of the forts and castles in that province without resistance, and expelled thence most of the British inhabitants."-Desid. Curios. Hibern, vol. ii. p. 106.

• "The Irish rebellion," says sir Edward Walker, " did fortify the designs in England, which then wanted matter to work upon. The parliament raised money for this war, and employed it in their own; and scandalized his majesty, as not zealous in the suppression of it: though to shew his odium of this rebellion, he proposed the going thither himself to suppress it but his proposal was ill taken by the commons, as fearing the rebels might submit to his majesty, and so become his, in opposition to their designs."-Histor. Discours. fol. 231.