CHAP. XI. General De Rosen's cruelty before Derry considered. AFTER Derry had shut its gates* against king James, and several times refused to submit to his authority upon any conditions whatever, general de Rosen, a foreigner, was sent to besiege it; who made use, indeed, of a barbarous, though not unusual expedient to reduce it under king James's obedience. For, Finding that the town was in extreme want of provisions, he proposed to increase their distress, by adding to their number; for which purpose, he issued orders for a general driving of all the protestants, protected and unprotected (says Dr. King), within thirty miles round; who were brought to his camp, and placed before the walls of the town, in hopes that their friends within would receive them into it, rather than suffer them to remain in so perilous a situation. On account of this inhuman order of De Rosen,† Dr. King thought himself entitled to brand the whole Irish army under him, with the "Long before this, the people of Derry took out their pardon for shutting their gates against the earl of Antrim's regiment, which (adds my author) was a confession of some sort of guilt." Lesley's Answ. p. 93.-The protestants seized Derry the 7th or 8th of December 1688, and king James's army did not come to Drummore in the north till the 14th of March following.-Id. ib. p. 97, "Rosen represented to king James the ill consequences of clemency, as his protections were found in the pockets of several who were found in arms against his authority." Macph. Hist. vol i. p. 567.-" This wretched measure produced no effect on the townsmen (of Derry), they fired upon their friends from the wall, but no mischief was done. Rosen convinced of the folly of his expedient, or touched with a momentary pity, with drew the unhappy people after a few hours, and permitted them to return home. Some might have died of hunger and fatigue. The miseries, however, which followed this detestable measure have been greatly exaggera❤ ted, and king James himself has been unjustly blamed, James was alarmed at the intelligence, and offended at his general. He wrote to all his officers at their peril to pay no regard to the order: he sent his express commands to the mareschal himself to drop his unjust, as well as impolitic design, These people (says James) lived peaceably at home, they had either my protection or they relied upon my declaration. De Rosen's measure was inevitably to depopulate a country which I was resolved to defend. Besides, this precipitate aud unjust order furnished my enemies with an instance of my breach of faith in Ireland, which would contribute to ruin my interest in my other kingdoms."―Id. ib. decent appellation of "murderers," because,' "he did not 1 State of the Protestants, &c. "Had Dr. King (says Mr. Lesley) such a story as that of Glenco, to tell of any of king James officers in Ireland, O! what declamations we should have of the bloody Irish cut throats, massacres, &c.? And what use would he have made of their giving it under their hands, that what they did, was by the king's express command, and none punished for it ?" Ans. to King, p. 114. That shocking story of Glenco is thus briefly related by a late intelligent and unprejudiced writer. "A proclamation was published in autumn, 1691, which declared that all rebels who took the oaths to the govern◄ ment, before the first of January ensuing, should be pardoned. All the attainted chieftains of the Highlands, except M'Donald of Glenco, took the oaths before the time prefixed. Upon the last day of December, hê went to Fort-William, and desired the oaths to be tendered to him by the governor of the fortress, who, as he was not a civil magistrate, refused to administer them. M'Donald then went to Inverary, the county town, to take them; but by bad weather was prevented from reaching it, till the term prescribed by the proclamation was elapsed. The sheriff scrupled at first, but was prevailed upon at last to receive his allegiance. Advantage was taken of M'Donald's not having complied literally with the terms of the proclamation, and a warrant for proceeding to execution was procured from the king, which was signed above and below with his own hand. Sir John Dalrymple, the secretary, gave orders that the execution of it should be effectual, and without any previous warning. For this purpose, in the month of February, two companies went, not as enemies, but as friends, to take quarters in the valley of Glenco, where all the clan lived. To conceal the intention the better, the soldiers were of their own lineage, Highlanders of Argyle's regiment. They were all received | with the rude, but kind hospitality of the country. They continued in the valley near a fortnight, and then in the night time rose to butcher their hosts! Captain Campbell of Glenlyon, who was uncle to the wife of one of M'Donald's sons, and had supped and played cards with M'Donald's family the night before, commanded the party. Thirty-eight men were slain. The rest would have shared the same fate, had not the alarm been given by one of M'Donald's sons, who overheard one of the soldiers say to another, he liked not the work; he feared not to fight the M'Donalds in the field, but had scarcely courage to kill them in their sleep but that their officers were answerable for the deed, not they." This execution made the deeper impression, because the king would not permit any of those who were concerned in it to be punished, conscious that in their case his own was involved.”—Sir John Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. i. p, 213. Dub. ed. "As a mark of his own eagerness to save secretary Dalrymple, king William signed the warrant both above and below with his own hand. In the night lieutenant Lindsay, with a party of soldiers, called in a friendly remember to have met any thing like it in history." Had the doctor been a little more conversant with, or mindful of the history of his own country, he would have found, that in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and since also, many orders of equal, or greater cruelty had been issued, by some of the most celebrated English commanders of those times, in their several expeditions against the Irish. In the year 1602, lord deputy Mountjoy boasted in a letter to the English council, “that with his army, he had destroyed their corn, and caused a famine; that being the only sure way," adds he, "to reduce or root them out." And his secretary Morrisson, "thought the war was then no way so likely to be ended, as by a general famine. Which, as we have already seen, they did at last completely effect. In the list of sir William Cole's boasted exploits against the insurgents in 1641, we find, "that within a few months, he had starved and famished five thousand four hundred and fifty-seven of the Irish." And when the garrison of Limerick, which was besieged by Ireton in 1650, and like that of Derry, was in great want of provisions, had turned out 2 Morris. Hist. of Ireland, f. 115. 3 4 Borl. Hist. of the Irish Rebel. 3 Hist. of Irel. f. 68. manner at M'Donald's door; he was instantly admitted. M'Donald, as he was rising from his bed to receive his guest, was shot dead behind his back with two bullets; his wife had already put on her cloaths, but she was stripped naked by the soldiers, who tore the rings off her fingers with their teeth. The slaughter became general. To prevent the pity of the soldiers to their hosts, their quarters had been changed the night before; neither age nor infirmity was spared; some women in defending their children were killed: boys imploring mercy were shot by officers on whose knees they hung; in one place nine persons as they sat enjoying themselves at table, were shot dead by the soldiers. The assassins are even said to have made a sport of death. At Inveriggen, in Campbell's own quarters, nine men were first bound by the soldiers, then shot at intervals, one by one: several who fled to the mountains, perished by famine and the incle mency of the season; those who escaped owed their lives to a tempestuous night. Lieutenant-colonel Hamilton, who had the charge of the execu tion from Dalrymple, was on his march with four hundred nuen, to occupy all the passes, which led from the valley of Glenco; he was obliged to stop. by the severity of the weather, which proved the safety of the unfortunate tribe He entered the valley the next day; he laid all the houses in ashes, and carried away all the cattle and spoil, which were divided among the officers, and soldiers."-Macpherson's Hist. Dub. cd, vol. i. p. 628-9. several useless persons,s" that barbarous commander caused some of them to be executed, and the rest to be whipped back into the town." In September 1690, the lords justices of Ireland issued a proclamation, which actually produced a greater famine among the Irish, than that which De Rosen's driving was only intended to produce in the garrison of Derry. By that proclamation," the wives, children and families of all those who were in arms against king William, and of all those who had been killed in the same cause, and of all absentees, were ordered to quit all places under his majesty's obedience, upon pain of being treated as spies and enemies; by which means, great multitudes, especially of women and children, were driven into the Irish quarters, which hastened that famine that was afterwards among them." "But to speak impartially," says Mr. Lesley" on that occasion," is not the starving of a country, or province, as barbarous as starving a city? And was not crowding all the Irish, men, women, and children over the Shannon in this war, done on purpose to reduce them to famine? And it had that effect. Many of these wretches died, many women miscarried, and numbers were starved in that driving over the Shannon; insomuch that some of the protestant officers, who were employed in that expedition, expressed the greatest regret to see such lamentable spectacles, and were ashamed of their commissions; and those, who were thus driven, had king William's protections in their pockets." These historical facts were, it seems, unknown to the Doctor, when he made his charge. The celebrated Mr. Spencer, after having mentioned that lord depute Gray, (whose secretary he was) in carrying on the war against the Irish in Munster, in 1580, "had driven them to such an extremity of famine, that they digged dead carcasses out of the graves for food," was not ashamed to conclude in these shocking words, “therefore, by all means it must be assured, that after once entering into this course of reformation, there be afterwards no remorse, nor drawing back, for the sight of any such rueful objects as must thereupon follow, nor for compassion of their calamities; seeing that by no other means it is possible to cure them.”—State of Ire!, p.166. CHAP. XII. King James countermands De Rosen's order. I AM far from vindicating, or even meaning to extenuate the cruelty of De Rosen's order, from any former examples of the same kind; though many more than those I have mentioned, might be produced in the commanders of armies, on such occasions. "King James himself expressed the highest resentment of it, and put a stop to its execution on the first notice; and in his circular letters to the governors of towns* and to the officerst commanding in chief in the North, he Lesley, ubi supra. "Circular letter from king James forbidding to put De Rosen's pro clamation in execution :" "Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Whereas we are informed, that our field-marshal-general, the marquis de Rosen, hath sent orders to several places, requiring the relations of such as are now in rebellion against us in Derry, of what sex or age soever they be, to be delivered to him, and exposed by him, as he hath projected and declared in the said order; our will and pleasure is, that if any such order hath been sent to you from the said marshal, you positively refuse obedience thereto, and make it known to all our people, that such orders have been given entirely without our knowledge, and are positively contrary to our inclinations, which have always been to reclaim even the worst of our subjects by mercy, and inviolably preserve the assurances we have given, either by our royal declaration in general, or by any particular protections, to such as live peaceably under our government: we do therefore reiterate our orders to you, that you assure all our loving subjects of our real intentions in this matter, and you shall assure them that such as live peaceably in their stations, shall, without distinction, enjoy our protection, and so requiring your obedience to this our absolute will and pleasure, we bid you heartily farewell. Given at our court at Dublin-castle, this 3d day of June, 1689, and in the fifth year of our reign. By his majesty's command, MELFORT." † The Irish officers likewise, who were employed in De Rosen's driving, " executed these orders against their countrymen, (says sir John Dalrınple) weeping, and obeying; and many of them owned, that the cries they then heard rang for ever in their ears.”—Memoirs, part. ii. p. 40. Those very protestants whom De Rosen cruelly ordered to be thus driven before the walls of Derry, and whom king James immediately ordered to be discharged upon the first notice, " confess (says Mr. Lency) that lieutenant-general Hamilton (who was much against that driving, but De |