to Kilkenny to aid in the formation of a government for the country. One of their first acts was the framing of a deed of association, afterwards adopted by "The General Assembly of the Confederate Catholics of Ireland," of which the following is a copy :

“I, A.B., do in the presence of Almighty God, and all the saints and angels in heaven, promise, vow, swear, and protest to maintain and defend, as far as I may, with my life, power, and estate, the public and free exercise of the true Roman Catholic religion, against all persons that shall oppose the same. I further swear that I will bear faith and allegiance to our sovereign lord King Charles, his heirs and successors; and that I will defend him and them, as far as I may, with my life, power, and estate, against all such persons as shall attempt anything against their royal persons, honors, estates, and dignities; and against all such as shall directly or indirectly endeavour to suppress their royal prerogatives, or do any act or acts contrary to the regal government; as also the power and privileges of parliament, the lawful rights and privileges of the subjects, and every person that makes this vow, oath, and protestation, in whatever he shall do in the lawful pursuance of the same. And to my power, as far as I may, I will oppose, and by all ways and means endeavour to bring to condign punishment, even to the loss of life, liberty, and estate, all such as shall either by force, practice, councells, plots, conspiracies, or otherwise, attempt anything to the contrary of any article, clause, or anything in this present vow, oath, or protestation, contained. So help me God."*

Mr. Froude and numerous other writers assert that the Irish, above everything else, sought at this time to shake off their connection with England. Nothing

* Borlase: History of the Irish Rebellion, fol. 74.

can be wider of the truth, till near the end of the war, when they were brought to the verge of utter ruin by Cromwell; then, indeed, they were willing, in their despair, to have recourse to any saviour who could stand between them and impending destruction. Let the reader learn from Mr. Prendergast's Cromwellian Settlement what reason the prostrated Irish Roman Catholics had to dread that destruction. The uniform language of the Irish towards Charles, for the first eight or nine years of the war, was that of subjects devotedly loyal. The Puritans of the Long Parliament, indeed, often rivalled them in professions; but these were shameful and false lip-homage. The Irish confirmed the truth of their professions to a King who had cruelly wronged them. At the time of the cessation of hostilities in 1643, the Catholic Confederates presented £30,000 to Charles, a large sum considering their poverty-half of which, because of their poverty, they stipulated should be contributed in cattle. The truce enabled Ormond to send over to Chester 3,500 men in aid of the King; and at the same time Inchiquin sent over some regiments under Lord Dungarvan, which took part in the siege of Gloucester.*

In August, 1644, they provided vessels to transport 2,000 men to join Montrose in the Highlands of Scotland. The men had been raised, indeed, and equipped by Lord Antrim; but the Confederate government

*Wright's History of Ireland, vol. ii., pp. 1, 2.

approved of the important aid intended for the royal cause, and the transports were furnished by them.

Again, at the time of the peace in 1646, the Catholic Confederates undertook to send into England 10,000 men under the Earl of Glamorgan, in support of Charles; but which, owing to circumstances over which they had no control, were not sent. They engaged to send 6,000 men by the 1st of April, and 4,000 more by the 1st of May. But on the 5th of that month Charles surrendered himself to the Scots, with whom he remained a prisoner till they sold him to similar imprisonment to the Parliament-in which condition he remained, with the exception of a few hours after his escape from Hampton Court, till his fetters were struck off by the hand of death. After his surrender to the Scots all aid from Ireland was impossible.

The Nuncio Rinuccini, a witness above suspicion in this matter, writing in cipher to Cardinal Pamphili,

says:

"Your Eminence will see that the first clause of the oath taken in this Assembly is fealty to the King, and this all the bishops took without hesitation. This point is so warmly insisted upon by everyone, the clergy included, that a Nuncio could not in any wise oppose it without giving rise to a suspicion that his object here was not simply that of his embassy; which the ill-affected have frequently, even without this reason, insinuated in my case. Therefore I took care from the first in nowise to oppose their professions of loyalty, and as I found the proposal still pending for sending 10,000 soldiers to the King, I put in a few words to urge them to do

so; saying that they should uphold and assist the King, prove themselves good subjects," etc.*

Language of perfectly similar import is frequently used by the Nuncio in his confidential communications to the court of Rome in earlier letters.

The supreme governing and legislative body was constituted on the model of the British Parliament. There was a sort of House of Lords, and a House of Commons elected by the towns and counties, by whom an executive was created, consisting of twenty-four members appointed by the legislative body, and styled the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholics of Ireland. Persons were appointed in the counties like justices of the peace, to decide minor cases, from whom an appeal lay to bodies constituted for similar purposes, empowered to deal with more important cases for the provinces, and from whom an appeal lay to the Supreme Council. Till its vitals were disordered and disorganised by the insane dissensions of the various factions, the proceedings of this Parliament will compare favourably with those of any other assembly convened under similar circumstances.

"They began," says Cooke Taylor, "with sanctioning the war which had been undertaken 'against sectaries and Puritans, for the defence of the Catholic religion, the prerogative of the King, the honour and safety of the Queen and royal issue, the preservation of the rights and liberties of Irishmen,

* The Embassy in Ireland of Monsignor G. B. Rinuccini: Miss Annie Hutton's translation, p. 259.

and the lives and fortunes of the Confederates,' as just and necessary. They declare that no order of the King, whom they very properly regarded as an unwilling instrument in the hands of their enemies, should be obeyed, until they were certified by their own agents of his real intentions. They directed that an oath of association should be taken by all the members of the confederacy, and that no distinction should be made between the Old and New Irish. They denounce the heaviest censures of the church on those who remain neutral in the contest; and prohibit, under pain of excommunication, any injury to a Protestant who was not an adversary to their cause. They direct that exact registers should be kept of all murders and cruelties committed by the Puritans, in the several provinces, but prohibit retaliation under the severest penalties. They ordain that provincial assemblies, composed of laity and clergy, should be formed for local government, but that the chief authority should be lodged with a national council, to which the others should be subordinate. There were some other regulations of minor importance; but the above articles contain the substance of the ordinances published by the Catholic clergy; and we can discover in them no trace of the bigotry and persecuting spirit vulgarly attributed to that much-calumniated body."

Soon after the truce agreed upon by Ormond and the Confederate Catholics in 1643, two deputations waited upon Charles in Oxford-one representing the views and demands of the Confederates, the other those of the Protestants of Dublin. The contrast between the requirements of the two deputations is both curious and instructive. The Catholics claimed the freedom of their religion, and the repeal of the Penal Laws, the

* Civil Wars of Ireland, vol. i., p. 286. Edinburgh: 1831.