commanded them by no means to obey it; and accordingly, that order was not executed in most parts of that province. This, adds Mr. Lesley, I had from the officers, to whom these orders were sent, and from several protestants who have seen them, and can produce them." Mr. Lesley also3 appeals to the earl of Granard,* then living," whether the same day, that the news of this order of De Rosen's came to Dublin, his lordship did not tell king James of it, and whether his majesty did not answer, that he was grieved for it, that he had sent immediate orders to discharge it, and that none but a barbarous Muscovite (for such, it seems, De Rosen was,) could have thought of so cruel a contrivance."

As this charge against De Rosen has been frequently introduced in anniversary sermons on rebellion, plots and massacres, 'tis but just to give the following extracts from the authentic papers of Mr. Macpherson, and leave the reader to judge of that general's conduct.

4 DE ROSEN's order.

Camp before Londonderry, July 1st, 1689. "The rebels of Londonderry augmenting every day in their obstinacy, which can no longer be endured, I have re

2 Lesley, ubi supra.

3 fb. p. 100.

+ Macphers. Orig, Pap. p. 203-4-5.

Rosen commanded) ordered meal and other provisions to be distributed among the poor people."-Answ. to King, p. 186.

"It would be inhuman to the memory of the unhappy, to impute the disgrace of this action to king James. He revoked the order as soon as he heard of it, because his own sufferings had probably taught him to feel for those of others."-Dalrymple's Mem. part ii. p. 41.

"The French fleet which carried king James into treland, took some English merchantmen while his majesty was aboard, and some of the masters were brought before king James, who expecting nothing but death, fell down upon their knees begging their lives, which brought tears into the king's eye, and he not only restored them their ships with all their effects, but ordered two frigates to attend them and see them safe through all the French fleet."-Lesley's Answ. p. 150.

This earl was accounted very "zealous for the protestant interest; his lady was a presbyterian, and he had constantly received five hundred pounds a year from king Charles the second, to be distributed among the presbyterian clergy in the North of Ireland, even when he permitted a cruel persecution of their brethren in England."-Harris's K. William, f. 105. Note.

"At Derry the resistance of the rebels continuing, they made several

solved to gather together all the rebels of this country, and to conduct them to camp, and afterwards to drive them under the walls of the town that they may starve. You are to give them no more subsistence than will be barely necessary to support them this length from the places they shall be taken. And as I have certain information that a considerable number of the rebels of Londonderry and of this district, especially their wives and children, have retired to Belfast and the neighboring places; and as the hardiness of their husbands deserves the severest chastisements, I write this letter to acquaint you, that you are instantly to make an exact research in Belfast and its neighborhood, after such subjects as are rebellious to the will of the king, whether men, women, boys or girls, without exception, and whether they are protected or unprotected, and to arrest them and collect them together, that they may be conducted by a detachment to this camp, and driven under the walls of Londonderry, where they shall be allowed to starve in sight of the rebels within the town, unless they chuse to open their ports to them, which they shall be at liberty to do, if they are disposed to pity them. Do not fail to exert yourself to the utmost in executing these orders punctually, and without delay, and at the risk of being personally answerable to me for your diligence; and you are to be particularly careful, that none of the rebels, whether men or boys, women or girls, or infants, of whatever age, shall pass the river and escape the way of Charlemont, to save themselves from the wretchedness to which they are to be reduced.

"You are to intimate to the inhabitants of Port Patrick the orders you have received, and to declare to them, that they shall assuredly be treated with the same rigour, unless they remain quiet. I recommend to you to give the greatest attention to the execution of these orders.

I am, &c.

DE ROSEN."

sallies, killing many general officers and other officers, at length pressed with want of provisions, the garrison proposed a surrender on conditions (which they had so often insidiously done before during the siege, at one time to the king in person). This was construed by De Rosen into a mere feint to gain time (which is evident). The besieged continued to fire and drove the Irish from two entrenchments, which they had taken the day before. The mareschal incensed at this unexpected resistance, adopted the

De Rosen had however, before his master's (the king's) orders could reach him, assembled above four thousand men, women and children, which he caused to be driven to the walls; but so little effect had this proceeding towards persuading the town to surrender, that they fired upon them from the walls ("happily none were killed"), which Monsieur De Rosen perceiving, drew them off, and sent them to their homes again."*

expedient above-mentioned.”—Macphers. Hist. Gr. Brit. vol. i. f. 566, and Orig. Pap. passim.

"It appears from another letter of the same date (camp before Londonderry, 5th July, 1689) that he (De Rosen) had by that time received from the king an answer to his letter of June 30th, and his majesty's order, forbidding him to put his project in execution. He presumes to blame James for his clemency, and attempts to justify his own conduct.

"SIRE,

"I have received the letter which your majesty did me the honor to write to me the 3d instant, by which I see that your majesty is always full of benevolence towards the rebels of this kingdom: their own conviction of this encourages them in insolence, to which they are carried every day, and in the hopes that your majesty will have compassion upon them in the distresses to which they may be reduced; yet the troops are ruined, and the rebels will receive relief, which will oblige your majesty to abandon every thing. I imagined that I might have induced them to surrender, by threatening them as I have done, but that has produced no effect. It is true, I have not put my project in execution, and that perhaps is the reason why we are not yet further advanced; for I have presented before their gates but a small number of their accomplices, to try if that would make any impressions on them; but they had the cruelty to fire upon them, and to refuse them every kind of assistance, for which reason I sent them back to their habitations, after having made them comprehend the difference between your majesty's clemency and the cruel treatment of their own party.

"You see, Sire, the condition your troops are in. I leave your majesty to judge, if an honest man, who has a high sense of honor, can continue to command them without great anxiety, when your enemies are particularly attentive to furnish your rebellious subjects with excellent arms. I doubt not but we shall see them march against us soon, with protections in their pockets, and arms in their hands, which happened frequently already, and happens every day."

DE ROSEN.

"The marshal De Rosen appears to have been a diligent and active officer: but those who served under him were unacquainted with discipline, and either James himself was inattentive to the service, or his

After all, the garrison of Londonderry was, it seems, resolved not to be behind-hand in cruelty with De Rosen himself. For they erected gibbets, and had determined to hang some Irish gentlemen, who were prisoners in the town,* had not De Rosen's order been so soon countermanded. And some add, that they even threatened to eat them after they were hanged;" which, from the extreme want of food, which they then labored under, seems not to be very improbable,

CHAP. XIII.

The protestants of Ireland were not deprived of their churches by king James, as Dr. King sets forth.

KING James, when in Ireland, was not actuated by that intemperate zeal for the re-establishment of the catholic religion, which he had before, on some occasions discovered in England; probably because he had experienced the unhappy

5 Har. King William, f. 105. Note.

örders were never properly executed.”—Macpherson's Orig. Pap. vol. i. p. 210.

Among these were "lord viscount Netterville, sir Garret Aylmer, major Rowcommen, and a great many others of lesser note, taken at the first engagement; and in the last, captain Butler, son to the lord Mountgarret, one of the great M'Donalds, a captain, and captain M'Donogh, and many others too long to name.”—Walker's Lett. Macphers. vol. iii, p. 202. Note,

†The true cause and motive of king James's endeavors to re-establish the Roman catholic religion in England, seems not so much to have any bigotted attachment to that religion (as is commonly thought) as, "his sufficiently knowing, that he could never be in entire safety, till the catholic religion was established in England, in such a manner as not to be ruined or destroyed." These were his own words in a private conference with Barillon, the French ambassador. And whoever considers his recent and alarming remembrance of his father's murder, and of his brother's incessant troubles during his whole reign, which were both caused principally by those very men who were the greatest enemies of that religion, and who imprudently called themselves the only true protestants; will abate somewhat of their wonder at these his endeavors to give some esta blishment to his Roman catholic subjects.-See Sir John Dalrymp. Mem, vol. iii. p. 37.

effects of it in the latter kingdom. Even when he sent the earl of Clarendon lord lieutenant of Ireland, one of his instructions to him was, "to consult the archbishop of Canterbury in all the religious affairs of that kingdom." And Dr. King confesses," that when he was there in person, he turned out the popish mayor of Wexford, for not restoring a church of which the protestants of that city had been dispossessed; and that he expressed himself with more passion on that occasion than was usual to him." This was a fact so notoriously true, that the Doctor was ashamed to deny or conceal it; but he was not ashamed to affirm and publish what was as notoriously untrue, viz.3" that in the diocese of Dublin alone, twenty-six churches and chapels were by him taken from the protestants; and that his majesty could not, or rather would not, prevent the demolishing, defacing, or seizing of nine churches out of ten."

King James had published a proclamation, December 13th, 1689, against meddling with any of the protestant churches in Ireland, as a violation of the act of liberty of conscience. But "his promises to protect the protestants of that kingdom," says Dr. King, "were mere pretences; the popish priests having taken possession of most of the churches there, by his private permission."+

Mr. Lesley treats this whole accusation, as a notorious un1 Clarend. State Lett. vol. i. p. 50.

3 State of the Protest. &c. p. 177.

2 Ubi supra. 4 Ib. p. 174. * That king James entertained no malicious designs against protestants, merely as such, appears from the following passage. "About the year 1687, the French protestants came in great numbers into England, to shelter themselves from the persecution that raged in their own country. They were received with great tenderness by the people, and with great kindness by the king, who granted them briefs for their relief, and gave them considerable sums out of his privy purse, which was looked upon as an artifice by some, but highly commended by more impartial persons."Continuation of Baker's Chron. f. 741.

† King James was hardly ever noted for duplicity of conduct; this cannot be said of his competitor for the crown. The prince of Orange in a letter to the emperor, acquainting him with his intended expedition into England, says, "I assure your imperial majesty, by this letter, that whatever reports may have been spread, and notwithstanding those which may be spread for the future, I have not the least intention to do any hurt to his Britannic majesty, or to those who have a right to pretend to the suc