on that assurance.* As to their religion," adds Mr. Lesley, "they did not complain, for king William was very gracious to them in that respect; but as to their persons, estates and liberties, they cried out heavily of breach of public faith, and great oppression." Mr. Lesley had before attempted to prove that these forfeiting Irish were not guilty of rebellion," how could they," 5 Id. ib. twenty-one persons had been outlawed by king William since the 13th of February, 1689 [the report made by the commissioners says, 13th Feb. 1688]; that all the lands belonging to forfeited persons, amounted to more than one million and sixty thousand acres ; that the most considerable grants were made to persons born in foreign countries, to Kepple, to Bentick, to Ginckle, and to Rouvigny: who had been all dignified with peerages, in one or other of the two kingdoms. That besides, a grant had passed the great seal, to Elizabeth Villiers, now countess of Orkney, a woman peculiarly favored by William, of all the private estates of the late king James, containing ninety-five thousand acres, worth twenty-five thousand nine hundred and ninety-five pounds a year: And that, upon the whole, the value of Irish forfeitures amounted to three millions, three hundred and nineteen thousand, nine hundred and forty-three pounds.”Macphers. Hist. of Gt. Brit. vol. ii. p. 161-2. There were not three thousand protestants named in the act of attainder, passed by king James in Ireland, 1689; and they were all quickly restored by king William: whereas the Roman catholics attainted by king William, lost all for ever, notwithstanding they were to be reinstated by the articles of Limerick.-See King's State of the Protest. p. 133. The above 1,060,792 acres, were worth per ann. 2,11,6231. 6s. Sd. total value 2,685,1301. 5s. 9d. (þesides the several denominations in the said counties, to which no number of acres can be added, by reason of the imperfection of the surveys); " which we humbly represent to your honors, as the gross value of the lands forfeited in Ireland, since Feb. 13th, 1688.”Rep. Commissioners ubi supra. * "The impatience of William's English adherents only served to confirm the Irish in their aversion to the new government. And by a shameful disregard, and almost perpetual violation of his protections, granted to the peasantry, they forced this order also to crowd to their old leaders, and to take arms for their security."-Lel. Hist. of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 574. The Irish "saw their religion on the point of being utterly extinguished, and their remains of property ready to be seized by strangers; no security in submission, no reliances on any promises of pardon." Lel. ubi supra, p. 576-At Chapel-Izod, "William was employed in receiving petitions, and redressing grievances, arising from the perpetual violations of his pro rections."d. ib. says he, "who adhered to king James, be made rebels to king William, before they had submitted to him? If you say he had a title to Ireland, by being king of England, because Ireland is an appendix to the crown of England; I answer, from the beginning it was not so; and the government of England being dissolved, as Dr. King says, by abdication, and returned back to the supposed original contract, or first right of man. kind, to erect government for their own convenience, of consequence the tye which England had upon Ireland was dissolved, and Ireland left, as well as England, in its supposed original freedom, to choose what government and governors they pleased; besides all this, Dr. King's principles freed them from king William; because of the presumptions they had to think, that the king intended to invade their property, lives, and religion." "The desertion (says Mr. Macpherson on this occasion) upon which the deprivation of James has been founded in England, had not existed in Ireland. The lord lieutenant had retained his allegiance. The government was uniformly continued under the name of the prince, from whom the servants of the crown had derived their commissions. James himself had, for more than seventeen months, exercised the royal function in Ireland; he was certainly de facto, if not de jure, king. The rebellion of the Irish must therefore be founded on the supposition, that their allegiance is transferable by the parliament of England. A speculative opinion can scarce justify the punishment of a great majority of the people. The Irish ought to have been considered as enemies, rather than rebels." "The kingdom of Ireland," says the same author" (Macpherson)," ever since its reduction in 1691, exhibited one continued scene of oppression, injustice, and public misery. The government of James, with all its disadvantages, his own bigotry, the insolence of the papists, combined with the fears of the protestants, were all more tolerable than the administration of William, ever since the surrender of Limerick. Coningsby and Porter, the lords justices, rendered themselves 6 Hist. Gr. Brit. vol. i. p. 622. 7 Id. vol. ii. p. 26. * An order of the lords justices Porter and Coningsby, to Samuel Booth, sq. high sheriff of the county of Kilkenny, dated 19th November, 1691, odious, by a series of fraud, cruelty and rapacity. They sold common justice for money; they screened the guilty, and op. pressed the innocent. To render their proceedings summary, to clothe their authority with more terror, and with most expedition to enrich themselves, they chose to exert their power in the military way. The corruption at the source extended itself to every channel of government; the subordinate magistrates, the justices of peace, as if all law was at an end, made their own will and pleasure the rule of their conduct. Presuming on their power in the country, they deprived, under colour of their authority, many persons of their effects; they dispos sessed many of their lands. Coningsby, created a baron by the same name, with his colleague Porter, continued in the government till the arrival of Sydney, on the 25th of August, 1693; in the intermediate time, they presided in the court of claims for adjusting the demands of those comprehended in the articles of Limerick; and the obvious road to their justice, was said to lie through their avarice." sets forth," that they were extremely surprised at the frequent complaints they received from all parts of the kingdom, notwithstanding their procla mation to the contrary, of the ill treatment of the Irish, who were in arms against their majesties, and have either submitted, and are under their majesties protection, or are included in the articles granted upon the surrender of some of their garrisons, or submission of their army. That this proceeding has so extremely terrified them with the apprehensions of the continuance of this sort of usage, that they found experimentally, some thousands who quitted the Irish army, and went home with a resolution not to go for France, are now come back again, and press earnestly to go thither, rather than stay here; where, contrary to the public faith, as well as against law and justice, they are robbed of their substance, and abused in their persons, &c."-From an attested MSS. Copy of that Order, communicated to me by Mr. James Laffan, of Kilkenny. King Willlam's army, in want of pay from the crown, raised money by military distress from the subject, to the incredible amount of two hundred thousand pounds. The stores left by king James in the kingdom, to the value, it was said, of eighty thousand pounds, were embezzled or applied to his own use by Coningsby. The lord lieutenant himself, and Ginckle, who had been created earl of Athlone, were accused of possessing themselves of almost all the forfeitures. But one of the most flagrant inroads upon the constitution, was depriving the citizens of Dublin of the right to choose their own magistrates.—Macphers. Hist. Gr. Brit. vol. ii. p. 28-9 CHAP. XIX. A short sketch of the cruelties inflicted on the Irish prisoners in this war; and also on those even under protection. MR. LESLEY, after having shewn, that the foregoing charge of breach of articles made by Dr. King against king James's officers, was groundless and wicked; has, by way of contract, produced several notorious and uncontroverted instances of the perfidy and cruelty of king William's officers, towards their Irish prisoners, in the course of this war. Out of these instances, I shall select the few following; and with them conclude this tedious and melancholy narrative of the state of the Irish at different periods, for the space of more than one hundred and fifty years. "When Drogheda surrendered to king William, after the defeat at the Boyne, the sick and wounded soldiers were, by the capitulations, to be taken care of, and to be sent with passes to their own army, as they recovered. But they were not only neglected, and might have starved but for the charity of some of their own poor countrymen, who sold their beds and cloaths to relieve them, but they were also kept as prisoners after they recovered, contrary to their articles." "Upon the surrender of Cork, the Irish army, though prisoners of war, were by the conditions to be well used. Notwithstanding which, even those protestants who were most zealous for king William, owned, that the Irish general* narrowly escaped being murdered by the inhabitants; that he had no justice done him, nor any satisfaction, upon his complaint to the English general; and that the garrison, after laying down their arms, were stripped; and marched to a marshy wet ground, where they were kept with guards four or five days; and not being sustained, were forced by hunger to eat dead General M'Carthy, of whom when colonel, lord Clarendon, lord lieutenant of Ireland, reported to the English ministry, "that he was a man of quality, and a soldier; and that he behaved himself extremely well, wherever he was quartered, with great easiness and moderation."-State Lett.vol. i. p. 45. His excellency soon after recommended him to the king to be made a major general.—Ib. p. 47. horses, that lay about them; and several of them died, for want even of that, when they were removed from thence. That they were afterwards so crouded in houses, jails, and churches, that they could not all lie down at once, and had nothing but the bare floor to lie upon; where the want of sustenance, and the lying in their own excrements, with dead carcasses lying whole weeks in the same place with them, caused such infection that they died in great numbers daily. The Roman catholics of Cork, though promised safety and protection, had, on this surrender, their goods seized, and themselves stripped and turned out of the town soon after." "In December 1690,3 one captain Lauder, of colonel Hale's regiment, being ordered with a lieutenant, ensign, and fifty men, to guard about two hundred of the Cork prisoners to Clonmell, as they fainted on the road with the above said bad usage, shot them to the number of sixteen, between Cork and Clonmell; and upon major Dorington's having demanded justice against this officer from general Ginckle, Lauder got a pardon for the murder, and was continued in his post." "King William's army,+ after being entire masters of Athlone,* killed in cold blood an hundred men in the castle, and 4 Id. ib. 3 Answ. to King. "Douglas, in his expedition to Athlone, marched as through an enemy's country, his men plundering, and even murdering, with impunity, in defiance of the royal proclamation, or the formal orders of their general. As he advanced, the Irish peasantry appeared, successively, in considerable bodies, to claim the benefit of king William's declaration; and were successively ensnared by assurance of protection, and exposed to all the violences of the soldiers."-Lel. Hist. of Irel. vol. iii. p. 576. "Douglas, in the mean time, pursued his destructive route to Athlone; his men plundered the country; they murdered many unfortunate wretches, who relied on the king's declaration; the peasantry came in numerous bodies to claim protection; but they were exposed to all the insolence, cruelty, and tyranny of a licentious army. Detested, abhorred and feared, Douglas sat down with his cruel followers before Athlone, he carried on his works with vigor; but he soon was forced to abandon the siege, The unfortunate persons who had declared for William upon his approach, found themselves obliged to attend him (in his retreat), to avoid the fury of their former friends, but they were robbed and plundered by those from whom they expected protection. Nothing but misery, distress, and even death were seen; the harvest was trodden down by the troops, the |