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But the commiffioners from Ireland, fearing that if the Irish were included in the general pardon, they would be of course restored to their eftates (of which, by the bounty of the late ufurpers, these commiffioners and their adherents, were then actually in poffeffion),3 petitioned both houfes, that they might be excluded by an exprefs claufe, to be inferted in the act. And upon a motion being made in the house of peers, that this petition fhould be rejected, and the Irish included in the general indemnity, the Duke of Ormond oppofed it, alleging that," his majefty had referved the cognizance of that matter to himfelf;" though it was notorious, that his majesty in his speech to parliament, but a few days before, had acquainted them, "that he expected (in relation to his engagement with that people) they would have a care of his honour, and of the promise he had made them." Excluded howe

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+ Sale and Settlement of Ireland.

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* What duplicity, when we reflect, that Ormond in his decla ration, published on the conclufion of the peace of 1648; after having charged the English rebels with putting him under the neceflity of concluding it, has these words:" this we mention not as thereby in the leaft degree to invalidate any of the conceffions made unto this people; but on the contrary, to render them in every point the more facred and inviolable, by how much the neceffity on his majesty's part for the granting thereof is greater, and the fubmiffion on their parts, to his majesty's authority, in fuch his great neceffity, more opportune and seasonable." Cart. Orm. vol. ii. f. 52.

I fhall have frequent occafion to quote this tract (Sale and Set. of Irel.). It was commonly called the Conventry-letter, because it was dated from Coventry. It was written by Mr. Nangle, attorney general in Ireland in 1685. The Earl of Clarendon, when lord lieutenant of Ireland, often mentions it in his letters to England, as a piece much taken notice of. I have receiyed (fays he, in one of them) a copy of a letter written by Mr., Nangle, to the Earl of Tyrconnel, from Coventry; 'tis a notable letter." State Lett. vol. i. p. 156. Elsewhere, he fays, "I gave my Lord Chief Justice Keating a copy of Mr. Nangle's letter, and defired his thoughts upon it." Ib. His excellency mentions Mr. Nangle in several of his letters, as "a perfon of undoubted abilities, and integrity in his profeffion...

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ver they were, to the astonishment of all honest men ; who now perceived, what powerful inftruments their enemies made ufe of, to accomplish their wicked purposes.

CHA P. XVI.

Ormond's reafons for his oppofition to the Irish confidered.

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THE Duke of Ormond assigned two reasons, in excufe for his ungenerous conduct in this particular. First he said, if he had not opposed the motion for including the Irish in the general pardon, others undoubtedly would; who, by exaggerating their former mifconduct, would have excited rather the parliament's indignation against, than commiferation for their cafe." But this reafon has no manner of force. although the English had heard nothing of the infurrection in Ireland, but what gave them horror, and poffeffed them with the worst opinion of the whole Irish nation, yet his grace could have easily fet them right, as to that matter for," befides," as Mr. Carte confeffes," his being a witnefs of every man's behaviour during the troubles, he was well acquainted with all the circumstances of their cafe; he knew what early attempts the moft confiderable of their nobility and gentry made to return to their duty; the difficulties they had to struggle with in that work; the perseverance with which they purfued their defign, till they had accomplished it; and the zeal with which, in the late king's distress, they had embraced the peace of 1648." All this, I fay, his grace could have eafily made known to their lordships, in cafe of the supposed exaggeration of their misconduct, and would have been bound in honour and juftice to do fo; whereas, by his oppofition to the motion for including them in the general

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Walsh's Letter to the Bishop of Ferns, p. 24.

2 Carte's Orm. vol. ii,

general pardon, he gave occafion to their lordships to confider them, as the most criminal of all his majesty's fubjects in that respect, and as meriting peculiar and exemplary punishment.

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His fecond reason was still weaker than the first, and is refuted by his own experience. He pretended, "that he did not think, that the proteftant peers, or commons of Ireland, or even the very catholic Irish, would be concluded by, or content with an act of the English parliament," viz. An act granting their pardon, and thereby putting them in a capacity to be reftored to their eftates! His grace could not, feriously, have meant, that either the protestant peers or commons, or the catholic Irifh, would have deemed an act of the English parliament infufficient for the purpose of their restitution; because it was notorious that he himself was reftored to his lands in Ireland, by' an act of the English parliament; and particularly, that one Blackwell was difpoffeffed of his grace's large eftate at Killcafh, in virtue of it."

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3 Walsh, ubi fupra.

+ Cart. Orm. vol. ii. f. 398. s Id. ib. vol. ii. f. 392.

2. The parliament of England had reftored the Marquis of Ormond to his eftate; in confequence of which feveral adventurers readily refigned their poffeffion; but for the due execution. of the act in all parts of Ireland; the king's letters were neceffary." Cart. Orm. vol. ii. f. 218.

"There was an act of parliament paffed (in England) with the consent of all parties, that he (Ormond) fhould be presently reftored to all his eftate (in Ireland), which was done with the more ease, because the greatest part of it (for his wife's land had been before affigned to her in Cromwell's time, or rather in his fon Harry's) lay within that province (Munfter), which Cromwell out of his hufbandry, had reserved for himself, exempt from all title or pretence of adventurer, or foldier. What other part of his eftate either the one or the other was poffeffed of, they very willingly yielded it up to the marquis, in hope of having recompence made them in other lands." Clarend. Life, vol. ii. p. 197.

CHA P. XVII.

The Earl of Orrery abufes the king's confidence, with refpect to the fettlement of Ireland.

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IS majesty's declaration before-mentioned, for the fettlement of Ireland," (which comprehended every foot of land in the kingdom) ordained, that about five hundred Irish gentlemen therein named, who had faithfully ferved him abroad, fhould be restored to their eftates; but not until land of equal value was found, to

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In order to enhance the merits, and confequently the rewards, of those said to be in the English interest, the first act of fettlement fets forth in the preamble," that the Irish rebels were conquered by his majesty's proteftant fubjects, in his abfence." These Irish rebels, when they were conquered, fought under, the command of the Marquis of Ormond, his majesty's lord lieutenant of Ireland, and afterwards under the command of the Lord Marquis of Clanrickard, his majefty's lord deputy of that kingdom. And thofe proteftant fubjects who conquered them, were Cromwell, Ireton, Axtel, Hewetson, Jones, Broghill, Coote, &c. who, indeed, vigorously pursued these Irish rebels, because they conftantly denied the authority of the pretended commonwealth, and unalterably adhered to the inte refts of Charles Stewart (as these his majesty's protestant subjects were, in that time of conqueft, always wont to call him); it was in confequence of this act, which establishes it as a fundamental law, that the Irish rebels were conquered by the English proteftant fubjects, that commiffioners were appointed by his majesty to decide the claims of the Irish, in pursuance thereof." Sale and fettlement of Ireland.

b The claim of the adventurers was founded on an English act of parliament 17° Caroli, by which all thofe who had lent money towards carrying on the war against the Irifh, fhould upon their being fubdued have a certain portion of their forfeited eftates conveyed to them. By the fame act it was provided, that the money fo lent should not be applied to any other ufe but that of the Irish war. Yet, "fcarce was there one hundred thousand pounds thus raised, when the fame parliament, contrary to its own act and engagement, caufed it to be laid out for the fetting

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reprize the Cromwellian adventurers and foldiers, who then had poffeffion of them. It also ordained, that fuch of the Irish as had never infringed the articles of the peace, concluded between the Marquis of Ormond and them in 1648, fhould be restored upon the fame conditions. But the king had already difpofed of fo great a part of the kingdom in gifts to the English and Irish favourites (fome of whom had been acceffaries in his father's murder), that the order for reprisals was abfolutely impracticable; on which account the adventurers and foldiers ftill continued their ufurped poffeffion; 66 although many of them, in refpect of their notorious and opprobrious actions against the crown, throughout their whole employment, and of their expreffing even after his majesty's return, how little they were fatisfied with the revolution, were univerfally. odious, both in England and Ireland,"

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Clarend. Life.

forth their army under the command of the Earl of Effex, then ready for its march, against the king at Nottingham." Borl. Hift. of the Irish Rebel. f. 121.

The foldiers, who were to be reprized with lands of equal value, had constantly fought for the ufurpers against the king; and were thus to be rewarded for that fervice. "They were, (fays Mr. Carte) for the most part, anabaptists, independents, and levellers." Orm. vol. ii.

Although the king himself had confeffed in his declaration, which was to be the foundation of these acts of fettlement, "that the eftates and poffeffions, which the adventurers and foldiers did then enjoy, if they were examined by the strict letter of the law, would prove very defective, and invalid, being no ways pursuant to thofe acts of parliament upon which they are pretended to be founded." See that Declaration.

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"If (fays Ormond on this occafion) the adventurers and foldiers must be satisfied to the extent of what they suppose intended for them by the declaration; and if all that accepted and conftantly adhered to the peace (of 1648) must be restored, as the fame declaration feems also to intend, there must be new discoveries made of a new Ireland; for the old will never ferve to fatisfy these engagements." Cart. Orm. vol. iii. f. 340.

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