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manner before-mentioned, sentence of death was pronounced against him. But even then they did not cease to tempt him; for at the very place of execution, and after he had mounted the ladder, Ludlow sent him an offer of his life and estate, if he would then accuse his majesty of having given him that commission. But he calmly answered, "I thank the lieutenant-general for his intended mercy; but I declare, good people, before God and his angels, and all you that hear me, that I never had any commission from the king,* for what I have done, in levying and prosecuting this war." More of his speech, says dean Ker, who was present at both his trial and execu tion, "I could not hear, the guards beating off those that stood near the place of execution."

Dr. Sheridan, the deprived bishop of Kilmore, told Mr. Carte, May 20th, 1711, that he was present at the execution of sir Phelim O'Nial, in Ireland, for being the chief actor in the Irish massacre; and that colonel Hewson coming towards the ladder, sir Phelim made his public acknowledgments to him in a grateful manner, for the civil treatment he had met with during the whole course of his imprisonment; and only wished that his life had been taken from him in a more honorable manner. To, this colonel Hewson answered, that he might save his life if he pleased, only by declaring at that moment to the people, that his first taking arms was by virtue of a commission under the broad seal of king Charles the first: but sir Phelim replied, that he would not save his life by so base a lye, by doing so great an injury to that prince. "Tis true, he said, that he might the better persuade the people to come unto him, he took off an old seal from an old deed, and clapt it to a commission that he had forged, and so persuaded the people that what he did was by the king's authority, but he never really had any commission from the king. This, adds Mr. Carte, the bishop told me he heard him say."7 Sir Phelim O'Nial is never mentioned in any history of this

6 Nalson's Historic. Collect.

7 Macpherson's Hist. Great Britain, vol. iii. p. 280..

* “Lord Macguire, also, who was privy to all the transactions of the insurgents, denied it to the last (in 1644), with more sense of conscience, (saith his majesty in his answer to the parliament's two last papers coneerning Ireland,) than they who examined him expected."-Borl. Irish Rebel. fol. 45,

insurrection, but as a monster of cruelty, perfidy, and rebellion. I mean not to represent him as quite innocent in any of these respects; but I am inclined to think that these charges have been greatly aggravated in his particular; (for, says Mr. Carte, " he had not the character of being an ill-natured man ;") as we find, they have certainly been, with regard to his associates in this war. At his trial he fervently declared, "that divers outrages committed by his officers and soldiers, though contrary to his intention, pressed his conscience very much."* And indeed, his whole conduct on this melancholy occasion, seems to ascertain the sincerity of that declaration. In this charitable light I am apt to consider that unfortunate gentleman, with respect to his past life; but when I compare his behavior in this last scene of it, with that of his judges, I am at a loss to determine, which should be deemed greatest, the heroism of the former, or the villainy of the latter."+

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"He declared, that his conscience was already oppressed by the out rages of his followers, and that he could not add to the severity of his present feelings by an unjust calumny of the king. Even at his execution, he was again tempted, and returned the answer above-mentioned aloud:" -Lel. Hist. of Irel. vol. iii. p. 395.

"He is generally accused of having given orders for the killing lord Caulfield, on seizing his castle of Charlemont; but he was on the contrary, so highly provoked at that villainy, committed by some of his brutal followers, that in February, 1642, having discovered six of the murderers, he ordered them to be first hanged, and afterwards beheaded." -MS3. Irish Journals written by his chaplain.

He appears to have been apprehended by lord Charlemont's successor, who applied to the house of commons, in 1662, for a reward for taking him,"consideration being had of the great sufferings of the lord Caulfield and his family, and of the great service by him performed in apprehending sir Phelim O'Nial, and bringing him to justice, as also regard being had to a reward promised by the lords justices in the time of his late majesty, to such persons as should bring the head of the said sir Phelim." (£1000)-Borl. fol. 84.

"Resolved, it should be reported to the house as their opinion, that the said lord Caulfield, who brought the said sir Phelim to justice, shall be considered for that his service, out of the money intended to be raised by bill."-Com. Jour. vol. ii. fol. 22.

* Notwithstanding the confessed truth of the above relation of the trial and execution of sir Phelim O'Nial, a late learned historian censures Mr. Carte, as rather uncharitable for saying, that they would have pardoned

CHAP. IV.

Henry Cromwell's administration in Ireland.

HAD Henry Cromwell, second son to Oliver Cromwell, been placed earlier in the government of Ireland; or when he was so placed, had he been suffered to follow the bent of his own humane disposition, the Irish of that period would have had much fewer and less grievous causes of complaint than were then given them; for to this favorable* representation and influence it was entirely owing, that the protector's coun and rewarded him, if he had been profligate enough to have falsely accused the late king." And he even asserts on this occasion, that sir Phelim "was not tempted to accuse the king: and that his pardon was not promised on any such condition, but that he was to purchase it by producing a material and authentic proof of his guilt."-Lel. Hist. of Irel. vol. ii. p. 395. Now I cannot comprehend, what, or whose guilt is here to be understood. Sir Phelim O'Nial had already confessed himself guilty of the insurrection, but still denied that the king had given him a commission for commencing it. It is not to be supposed that they would have pardoned and rewarded him, for producing a material and authentic proof of that guilt, which he had already confessed; it therefore remains, that they wanted him to confess, and produce proof of the king's guilt, which he could not do, because no such commission had been granted. And it is sufficiently evident, from all the circumstances of his trial and execution, that had he been profligate enough to yield to their importunity, by producing any proof, however immaterial and unauthentic, or even by simply avowing that calumny in any public manner, it would have gone very far towards contenting them. Dean Ker, who was present, testifies expressly, "that on the second day of his trial, some of the judges told him, that if he could produce any material proof, that he had such a commission from Charles Stewart (for so they called his late majesty,) to declare and prove it, betore sentence of death was passed against him, and that the said sir Phelim should be restored to his estate and liberty."-See Nals. Collect, Cart. Orm.

"Doctor William Sheridan, formerly bishop of Kildare," says Mr. Carte," and the late Mr. Locke, a very worthy man, and member of parliament, were present at the same time; and have, to many gentlemen now living, confirmed the truth of dean Ker's relation.”—Life of Orm vol. ii,

* "The assessments which the Irish paid were above a fourth as much as those of all England and Wales; which he told his father, in one of his letters, was ten times more than in due proportion they ought to be; and that they paid incomparably more other charges, owing to the devastations in the civil war, than any other of the three nations."-Warn. Irish Rebel. p. 567.

cil did not add new grievances, and oppressions, to those they already suffered. His letters in Thurloe's collection shew his abilities and skill in governing. As chancellor of Trinity College, he took that seminary into his particular care and patronage, instituting anew all the literary exercises, together with the long neglected degrees in arts, and the several professorships; and presented the college with primate Usher's noble library, which he had purchased with his own money. He was easy of access, and affable to all; often entertaining at his table, even sequestered persons, and remitting to them one half of those large sums with which they were taxed for their loyalty. Far from being maddened with the enthusiasm of themes, he restored religion to some sort of decency; gave back some churches, which were occupied by the ana baptists, to the former incumbents; and even had a new-born child of his own publicly baptized in the cathedral of Dublin, a ceremony not seen there of a long time before."

Had he been endowed with fortitude equal to his justice and benevolence, his government would have been signalized by an act, that would have made some atonement for his father's usurpation, and parricide. He once promised to declare for the king; the city of Dublin had undertaken to stand by him, and the lord of Ards engaged to draw twenty thousand men together in the North, in support of that design; but, upon the receipt of letters from England, the very next day after he had made the promise, his spirits failed him. The king's friend's in Dublin justly complained on that occasion," that no commissions had been sent them, nor any persons appointed to command them in such an attempt. If these precautions had been used, they could have easily, at that juncture, seized upon the castle."

Of his integrity and disinterestedness, he gave many signal proofs, during his administration; but none so signal, or indeed so unprecedented, as that which appeared at the conclu sion of it. "For upon his recall from Ireland, although he had held the government of that Lingdom four years, he was not master of money enough, after all, to carry him back to 1 Bate's Elenchus Motuum Nuperor, in Anglia, part ii. p. 57. Sir Ed. Hyde's Lett. to the marquis of Orm. Cart. Coll, vel. ii. p. 242.

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England; and was, therefore, under the necessity to crave some from thence for that purpose."

What pity it was, that such a man as this, should be placed at the head of a nation, without any other power but merely that of executing designs planned for its destruction in another kingdom! To enforce ordinances, by which those who dared to profess the religion of their consciences, or had not manifested their constant good affections to the usurpation; and also the constant good affections of those ancestors from whom any estates descended to them, and had not already proved the same, and obtained judgment thereof, were adjudged rebel convicts, attainted of high treason, and to have forfeited all their honors, estates and preferments. With what regret must such a chief governor have beheld those numerous rapines, and murders, that were daily committed by his soldiers on that

5 Hughes's Abridgment, p. 33.

In those days, the name of Irishman and rebel was thought to signify the same thing. For whenever the Cromwellians met any of the poor country people abroad, or discovered them lurking from their fury in dens and caverns, they killed them on the spot, if some unusual or whimsical circumstance did not happen to save them. Thus Ludlow tells us, "that being on his march, an advanced party found two of the rebels; one of whom, says he, was killed by the guard before I came up; the other was saved, and being brought before me, I asked him, if he had a mind to be hanged? And he only answered, if you please. So insensibly stupid, adds he, were many of these poor creatures." Mem. vol. i.—At another time he tells us, he found some poor people retired within a hollow rock; "which," he says, "was so thick that he thought it impossible to dig it down upon them, and therefore resolved to reduce them by smoak. After some of his men had spent most part of the day in endeavoring to smother those within by fire placed at the mouth of the cave, they withdrew the fire; and the next morning supposing the Irish to be made incapable of resistance by the smoak, some of them crawled into the rock; but one of the Irish, with a pistol, shot the first of his men, by which he found the smoak had not taken the designed effect; because though a great smoak went into the cavity of the rock, yet it came out again at other crevices; upon which he ordered those places to be closely stopped, and another smoak to be made; and the fire was continued till about midnight; then taken away, that the place might be cool enough for his men to enter the next morning; at which time they went in armed with back, breast, and head-piece, found the man, who had fired the pistol, dead; and put about fifteen to the sword; but brought four or five cut alive, with priests' robes, a crucifix, chalice, and other furniture of that kind (but no

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