small evidene, or even presumption, was thought sufficient to condemn men for rapparees; and what sport they made to hang up poor Irish people by dozens, almost without pains to examine them; they hardly thought them human kind." In Dean Story's list of persons who died in this war, there are,7 "of rapparees killed by the army or militia, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight; of rapparees killed and hanged by the soldiers, without any ceremony, one hundred and twentytwo."

CHAP. IX.

A conspiracy of the Protestants of Dublin against the govern

ment.

DR. KING must have entertained a very mean opinion of his readers understanding, if he expected to be believed when he said, "that the government of Ireland, during Tyrconnel's administration, purposed to ruin the trade of both protestants and papists, in order to make king James absolute and despotic; and that, for the same end, it had formed a scheme to hang up one half of the protestants, and starve the other."* These notions are so perfectly burlesque, that they do not deserve a serious answer; and yet the doctor has so gravely set about proving the latter assertion, from the circumstance of disarming the protestants of Dublin, on the 24th of February, 1688, and

7 Sir John Dalrymple, ubi supra.

1 State of the Protestants, p. 71-4.

of bread, made that a pretence for stripping and robbing many of the Irish, who had taken protections; which infamous practice enforced those people to go out upon their keeping, and turn rapparces; which raised numbers of enemies (to king William), who otherwise would have remained quiet."Harris's king William, f. 290.

He is guilty of still greater extravagance in saying, " that the protestants could not but conclude, that king James was so intent upon destroying them, that so he compassed that design, he cared not if he enslaved himself and the kingdoms." State of the Protestants, p. 59.—In another place he says, "it must be acknowledged, that king James not only ruined the protestant trade, but went a great way in destroying the trade of the Roman catholics also."-Ib. p. 74.

on the 20th of July, 1689, that, I hope, I shall be excused for taking some notice of it.

As for the first disarming," this author himself knew (and probably at that time avowed), that the necessity of it was very great and urgent; as Derry had before,* on the 7th of Decem ber, 1688, shut its gates against the king's army; and as the Enniskilleners had marched, attacked and defeated a party of his majesty's forces. He knew, that the protestant gentlemen in Ulster, had sent a deputation to the prince of Orange, De cember the 8th, 1688; that they had received commissions from him (and they actually proclaimed him in the beginning of March following) that, by reason of a villainous forged letter‡ found in Cumber, setting forth that the papists intended to

2 Lesley's Answ. p. 77. 86.

"By an order of the Irish commons, December 7th, 1695, the lord lieutenant was acquainted, that it was the unanimous opinion of that house, that the late rebellion in this kingdom could not be thought to have begun before the 10th of April, 1689, being the time given by his majesty's (king William's) declaration to the Irish to lay down their arms. But that it should seem more reasonable to have its first beginning from the time duke Schomberg landed with his army in the kingdom, August 13th following; that till duke Schomberg's landing, the late king James's authority was submitted to, almost through the whole kingdom; and that what was taken from the protestants, before that time, was disowned by the late king James, as may appear by several proclamations declaring, that whoever should plunder any protestant, should be answerable for the same, and undergo the penalties of the law." Com. Journ. vol. ii. f. 801.-Not till August 13th, 1689, duke Schomberg landed at Bangor, in the north of Ireland, with about 10,000 men. Which then of the two parties in arms so long before that time, ought to be deemed rebels.

"The inhabitants of the town of Bandon, in February, 1688, disarmed the garrison of Bandon, and seized upon the town for king William's service." Com. Jour. vol. ii. f. 876.-For which service the Irish commons, in 1697, agreed, that " a sum of two thousand five hundred pounds should be levied for these inhabitants of Bandon, by the high constables, on the province of Munster."-Id. ib. f. 897.

These Enniskilleners were merciless enemies. At the battle of Limiskea, they "defeated and pursued the Irish with great slaughter, granting quarter to none but officers. About two thousand fell by the weapons of an enemy transported by zeal and resentment, above five hundred plunged into lake Earne, and but one of the multitude escaped."-Lel. Hist. of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 534.

December the 9th, 1688; "which was a contrivance designed to engage the earl of M, who till then was deaf to all arguments for enter

massacre all the protestants, the whole north of Ireland appear. ed of a sudden in one blaze, though the protestants then were so far from having any reason to fear the poor Irish there, as they pretended they did fear them, that they had them panting under their feet, in as much submission as ever a hawk had a lark."

Dr. King himself confesses, that before king James left Eng. land, the protestants of Dublin had entered into a plot to seize: the lord deputy with the castle*, where the stores and ammuni

3 State of the Protestants, p. 82.

ing into the association in Ulster."-Lesleys Answer, p. 79.

The like villainous artifice was used to make king James's army desert him at the camp on Honslow-heath. Colonel Langston, and other superior officers affirming privately, with vollies of oaths, to the rest," that king James would turn out all the protestant officers and soldiers in his army, and have none but Roman catholics; that he had entered into a close league with France to have all the protestants throats cut in England and Scotland: and that, as soon as his army was modelled to his purpose, he would set up a mass in every church in England and Scotland; and he that was not a thorough papist, should be hanged, quartered, or burnt,” Macpherson's Hist. of Gt. Brit. vol. iii. p. 286.

Dr. King pretends, that this villainous forged letter was directed to lord Mount-Alexander (p. 186): but chief justice Keating expressly says, "that it was neither directed to, nor subscribed by any person;" he adds, "that copies of it were dispersed throughout all parts of the kingdom : that the protestants were frightened to that degree by it, that many of them betook themselves to the Ards, and other places of security in the north; some into Scotland; and very many families embarked for England and Wales, carrying with them all the ready money and plate they had. The consternation being so great, that even the officers of the port, either out of commisseration to the departing crouds of women and children, or being amazed at the suddenness of the fright, neglected to do their duty; whereby Dublin and the adjacent places, were drained dry of their cash and plate."-See Appendix to King's State of the Protestants.

"That letter caused the protestants of the north to meditate the design of rising against the government."-Lel. Hist. of Irel. vol iii. p. 513.

"When the news (says he) came to Ireland, that king James had sent commissioners to treat with the prince of Orange, it was proposed by some to seize the castle of Dublin. The success was extremely probable; considering that the papists, besides the four thousand of the army, were generally without arms; and that those who were in arms were raw and cowardly. To do it effectually, there needed no more than to seize the deputy Tyrconnel, &c.."-King's State of the Protest. p. 83.

"Dr. King wrote to an Irish protestant bishop then in London, that it

tion lay; "he knew, that these protestants (and himself among the rest) had a private understanding and connection with the northern rebels, as they were then called; that when they were disarmed, February 24th, 1688, all the protestants, generally, in Ulster, Munster, and Connaught, and in all Ireland, except Dublin and other parts of Leinster (which the lord deputy kept in awe with what forces he had), were then actually in arms, in opposition to the government, and had entered into associations* to carry on their war. And he has even owned,s “that king James's army was but an handful to the protestants, there being even after the disarming, men and arms enough in Dublin says he to have dealt with them." And yet this impartial writer has represented the government's disarming the protestants, at such a critical juucture, as nothing less than a design to massacre them.

4 Lesley, ubi supra. & p. 189. 5 King, ib. P. 82.

was in almost every protestant's power in Ireland to hang the rest; yet that they were so true to one another, that they did not discover it." Lesley's Answ. p. 106.

་

"We are told (says Mr. Lesley) in the faithful History of the Northern Affairs in Ireland, p. 7. (written by a protestant), that they began to arm and engage themselves in associations, about September 1688, two months before the prince of Orange landed in England.' p. 77. And when the happy tidings of the prince's landing (in England), says Mr. Boyse, had reached our ears, some non-conformist ministers and gentlemen of note, were employed to get some gentleman or other sent over from Dublin to the prince.”—Answ. to King, p. 77.

Long hefore king James's abdication was determined in the convention in England, which was in February 1688, the protestants in the north of Ireland were in arms. Ib. p. 75.-And on the 8th of December preceding that determination, a deputation was sent by the gentlemen and others of that province to the prince of Orange, with an offer of their service; (Ib. p. 77.) although king James did not go out of England till December the 23d in that year. Ib. p. 73.-It is notorious, that upon the 11th of February 1688 (before the descent of king James's army into the north), some of colonel Cormick O'Neil's troop of dragoons were killed by the protestant forces at Tuam upon Loughneagh, in endeavoring that way to escape the northern associators, and get to their quarters.-Lesley's Answ. p. 86. And many other hostile acts were committed by the protestants in Ulster, before the descent of that army.-Ib. p. 89-90.

SP

CHAP. X.

The disarming of the protestants further considered.

AS for the second disarming of the protestants, on the 20th of July, 1689,1 « it was in the very heat of the war, between king James and the northern associators, when Kirk had come from England, and was riding with his ships in Loughfoil, for the relief of Derry; which, with the before-mentioned conspiracy of the protestants of Dublin, to seize the lord deputy and castle, will surely justify the suspicion which the government entertained of these protestants, from the beginning."

With respect to the scheme of starving one half the protestants of Dublin, which Dr. King has imputed to king James, Mr. Lesley observes, "that the hanging two of his Irish soldiers before a protestant baker's door, for stealing two loaves not worth a shilling; and the leaving them to hang there fortyeight hours (which Dr. Gorge testifies) to terrify others, did not look like starving the protestants of Dublin; but rather like feeding them, by letting them have bakers of their own, and protecting them in that manner." And as for that king's design of hanging the other half of the protestants, Mr. Lesley also observes, "that in all the time the protestants of Dublin were in king James's power, viz. in summer 1689, he did not hang one of them, though some of them deserved it by the law then, as Dr. King could witness."

1 Lesley, ubi supra. 2 Ubi supra. See Dr. Gorge's Lett. Append.

"I am told (says Mr. Lesley) that Dr. King owed it to king James's mercy that he now lives: was he not (adds he) accused of holding correspondence with, and giving intelligence to the rebels, as they were then called, both in England and the north of Ireland? did he not give frequent intelligence to Schomberg by one Sherman, and keep constant correspondence with Mr. Tollet and others in London? A bloody-minded tyrant (such as King represents James) would have found another punishment for it than a short imprisonment. King James had once so good an opinion of this author, that he had him frequently in private and trusted him in his affairs, till at last he found him out."-- Answ, p. 105-6.