counties, viz. Meath, Westmeath, Louth and Longford, “ in two of which counties, no body of insurgents had yet appeared." And the time allowed for their coming in, being stinted to ten days, it was hardly possible, as the nation was then cir cumstanced, for half the persons concerned to receive even notice of the proclamation, much less to surrender themselves on so short a warning.

In like manner, when his majesty afterwards sent these jus tices his proclamation of January 1st, 1641, granting a general pardon to these insurgents, upon their submission; they se creted the copies of it to such a degree, that the lords and gentlemen of the pale, who lay nearest Dublin, could not get a sight of one of them." Nay, instead of pursuing such pacific and conciliating measures, they, on the 1st of February following, commanded out the earl of Ormond, with a powerful army, on an expedition to the county of Kildare; where, "pursuant to his orders," says Mr. Carte," he burnt Newcastle and Lyons, and gave up Naas to his soldiers to plunder; having sent out parties to burn Castle-Martin, Kilcullen-bridge, and in short, all the country for seventeen miles in length, and twenty-five in breadth."*

6 Carte's Orm. vol. i. " Id. ib. fol. 296.

8 Ib.

* About the beginning of February 1641, "the prisons of Dublin were so filled with prisoners, that the lords justices, on account of the scarcity of victuals, thought it necessary to thin them; but as it was difficult, or rather impossible, for want of freeholders, to find juries of the proper counties where the crimes were acted, so there was no bringing these criminals to a legal trial. In this necessity it was determined, to cause a considerable number of them to be executed by martial law. Men of estates were exempted from the rigor of that law, in order to preserve the king's escheats upon legal attainders, so that these executions fell entirely upon the poorer sort, and such as had no freeholds; particularly upon the Romish priests, whose execution would exasperate the Irish to the highest degree: and yet these lords justices pretended, in the postcript of their letter to the lord lieutenant, January 20th 1741, that they had juries to find indictments for the counties of Meath, Wicklow, and Kildare; for the two first of which, as well as for that of Dublin, within two days af terwards, bills of high treason were found against all the lords and prime gentlemen, as also against three hundred persons of quality and estate in the county of Kildare, among whom were the old countess of Kildare, sir Nicholas White, his son captain Nicholas White, and others, who had never joined the rebels, so much expedition was used in this affair.”Cart. Orm. vol. i. fol. 278.

The earl of Ormond was more implicitly obedient to these lords justices' orders, than became either a true lover of his country, or a faithful subject of his king. He was not insensible of their lordships criminal connection with the prevailing faction in the English parliament; nor of the flagrant iniquity of many of these orders; for although, while they remained in the government, he « protested to sir Henry Vane," who was one of the leaders of that faction, "upon the faith of an honest man, that he loved and honored their persons," yet, upon the disgrace of sir William Parsons, he confessed to lord Clanrickard, who, he knew, detested them," that during their administration, the parliament's pamphlets were received as oracles, its commands obeyed as laws, and extirpation preached for gospel."

The lords of the pale made no opposition to any of those parties that were detached to make the above-mentioned general dévastation. But it affected lord Gormanstown, the principal mover of their union, to such a degree, that he died not long after of grief; and the rest of the lords of the pale, grown desperate, laid aside all thoughts of pardon or treaty; and joined all their forces for the support of the common cause; in which many others who had as yet stood out soon joined, fearing that they should at last be involved in the others' fate, since a total extirpation was intended."+

9 Cart. Orm. vol. iii. fol. 43.

to Id. ib. fol. 170. 11 Id. ib. vol. i. fol. 303.

Sir William Parsons was then a prisoner by his majesty's express command. The charge against him was debated in a full council, thirteen members besides the lords justices, and the marquis of Ormond being president. Even lord Borlase, his late colleague, voted for securing his per son.-Carte's Orm. vol. iii. fol. 449.

"The arbitrary power exercised by these lords justices, (says Dr. Warner) their illegal exertion of it by bringing people to the rack to draw confessions from them; their sending out so many parties from Dublin and other garrisons to kill and destroy the rebels, in which care was seldom taken to distinguish, and men, women and children were promis cuously slain; but above all the martial law executed by sir Charles Coote, and the burning of the pale for seventeen miles in length and twenty-five in breadth, by the earl of Ormond; these measures not only exasperated the rebels and induced them to commit the like or greater cruelties, but they terrified the nobility and gentry from all thoughts of

CHAP. XVII.

Lords justices orders concerning Roman catholic priests.

IN this expedition to the county of Kildare," the soldiers found one Mr. Higgins, a priest,' at Naas, who might if he pleased have easily fled, if he apprehended any danger in the stay. When he was brought before the earl of Ormond, he voluntarily confessed that he was a papist, and that his residence was in the town, from whence he refused to fly away, with those that were guilty, because he not only knew himself very innecent, but believed that he could not be without ample testimony of it; having by his sole charity and power, preserved very many of the English from the rage and fury of the Irish; and therefore he only besought his lordship to preserve him from the violence and fury of the soldiers: and put him securely into, Dublin to be tried for any crime; which the earl promised to do, and performed it; though with so much hazard, that when it was spread abroad among the soldiers that he was a papist, the officer in whose custody he was intrusted was assaulted by them; and it was as much as the earl could do to compose the mutiny. When his lordship came to Dublin, he informed the lords justices of the prisoner he had brought with him, and of the good testimony he had received of his peaceable carriage; and of the pains he had taken to restrain those with whom he had credit, from entering into rebellion; and of many charitable offices he had performed; all of which there wanted not evidence enough, there being many then in Dublin, who owed their lives and whatever of their fortunes was left, purely to him. Within a few days after, when the earl did not suspect the poor man's being in danger, he heard that sir Charles Coote,

1 Clarendon. Borl. Hist. of the Irish Rebel.

submission, and convinced them that there was no room to hope for pardon, nor any means of safety left them but in the sword."-Hist. of the Irish Rebel. p. 183.

"The favorite object both of the Irish government and English parliament, was the utter extermination of all the catholic inhabitants of Ireland. Their estates were already marked out, and allotted to their conquerors; so that they and their posterity were consigned to inevitable ruin," Lel. Hist. of Irel. vol. iii.

166,

who was provost-marshal-general, had taken him out of prison, and caused him to be put to death in the morning, before, or as soon as it was light; of which barbarity the earl complained to the lords justices; but was so far from bringing the other to be questioned, that he found himself upon some disadvantage, for thinking the proceeding to be other than it ought to have been."*

"It was certainly a miserable spectacle" as lord Castlehaven observes in his manuscript vindication of his memoirs "to see every day numbers of people executed by martial law, at the discretion or rather caprice of sir Charles Coote, an hot-heated and bloody man, and as such accounted even by the English and protestants. Yet this was the man, whom the lords justices picked out to entrust with a commission of martial law, to put to death rebels or traitors, that is (continues his lordship) all such as he should deem to be so; which he performed with delight and a wanton kind of cruelty; and yet all this while the justices sat in council, and the judges in the usual seasons sat in their respective courts, spectators of, and countenancing so extravagant a tribunal as sir Charles Coote's, and so illegal an execution of justice."

The earl of Ormond, though lieutenant-general of his majesty's army, had it not, it seems, in his power to save the lives of any popish priests however innocent or meriting,whom he should happen to meet with in his march. For soon after,3“ his lordship having promised the countess of Westmeath to preserve her chaplain, Mr. White, whom he found at her house, from the fury of the soldiers while he remained there; the poor man having on some occasion left it the next day, was taken abroad

2 Carte's Ormond, vol. i.

3 Clarend. Hist. of the Irish Rebel.

* Mr. Carte observes, "that the hanging of this man (deserving in many respects, and exceptionable in none but that of his religion) by martial law, by sir Charles Coote's authority, without a particular warrant from the state, seems perfectly well calculated to justify the fears which the lords of the pale pretended to have of trusting themselves in a place whereof that gentleman was governor."-Life of Orm. vol. i. f. 280.

Doctor Borlase, in order to excuse this barbarous act of sir Charles Coote, alleges," that if he had not done it, his provost marshal's commission would have been violated, and that he might have been brought to answer his contempt at a council of war."-History of the Irish Rebel. p.324.

by them and brought to the earl, whom he reminded of the protection he had promised him the night before; but he was only answered, that if he had stayed in the house he was in, this would not have befallen him; and that it was then out of his power to preserve him, himself being bound to pursue those orders which the lords justices had given him. Nevertheless” continues Clarendon," he did endeavor to have saved him, at least till he might be brought to Dublin; but the whole army, possessed with a bitter spirit against the Romish clergy, mutinied upon it; and in the end compelled his lordship to leave him unto that justice which they were authorised to execute, and so put him to death."

The cause of the insurrection in Munster.

IT was in the middle of December, 1641,' before any gentleman, in the province of Munster, appeared to favor the insurrection. Many of them had shewn themselves zealous to oppose it, and tendered their service to that end. Lord Mus. kerry, who had married a sister of the earl of Ormond's, offered to raise a thousand men at his own charge; and if the state could not supply them with arms, he was ready to raise money by a mortgage of his estate to buy them, if when the service was ended he might keep the arms or be reimbursed what they cost him; nor did any signs of uneasiness or disaffection ap pear among the gentry, till sir William St. Leger,* lord president of that province, came to Clonmell; which was on the 1st of that month. There had been a few days before some robberies committed in the county of Tipperary, by a rabble of the vulgar sort, and a parcel of idle young fellows of the baronies

1 Carte's Ormond, vol. i.

Sir William St. Leger himself informs us, that on the 8th of Novem. ber, 1641, every thing was perfectly quiet in that province, for in a letter of that date to the earl of Ormond, he says, "these lines serve to no other purpose than to give your lordship a confident assurance that if it should please God any commotion should rise in this part, of which, I thank God, `as yet there is no manner of appearance, I should seriously endeavor to do your noble, sweet lady, your mother and my sweet god-son, as much service as possibly in me lay.”—Carte's Orm, vol. iii. fol. 38.