resentment against the government, for not having divided the fpoil of the whole nation among them, that they entered into two dangerous confpiracies on that account; first, in 1662," to surprise the castle of Dublin, and afterwards in 1665, for a more defperate purpofe. For, at this latter period, there was a general defign concerted in England, Ireland and Scotland, to rise at one time, and to set up the long parliament, of which above forty members were engaged. Measures had been taken to gather together the disbanded foldiers of the old Cromwellian army; and Ludlow was to be general in chief. They were to rife all in one night, and to fpare none that would not join in the defign; which was to pull down the king, with the house of lords; and, insteads of bifhops, to fet up a fober, and painful ministry." In thefe confpiracies feveral prefbyterian minifters, and feven members of the Irish parliament, were found to be engaged. The prisons of Dublin were crowded with thefe minifters; and the members of parliament were ignominiously expelled.

5

Lord

3 Orrery's State Lett. vol. i. p. 225.4 Cart. Orm. vol. ii. 5 Com. Jour. vol. i. 6 Carte ubi fupra.

b The Duke of Ormond, in order to quiet the fears of these rebellious fectaries, in a letter to the fpeaker of the Irish commons, March 9th, 1662, very pertinently reminds them, "that the fupport and fecurity of a true proteftant English intereft, was the earnest defire of his majesty, and the affiduous endeavour of him his fervant, would clearly appear, when it should be confidered, how the council and parliament were composed; and withal if it be remembered of whom the army confifted who were in judicature in the king's courts; who were appointed by his majefty for executing the act of fettlement, and who were in magiftracy in the towns and counties; in which trufts, adds he, is founded the fecurity, interefts, and preference of a people." Com. Jour. vol. ii. f. 299. These were almost to a man, either notorious promoters or fecret abettors of the late ufurpation and regicide.

d;

Vaft fums of money (fays Lord Orrery) were levied for the carrying on this confpiracy, and they had corrupted the most part of the foldiers that were in any freeholds; these freeholds they were to furprize, and to put all that oppofed them to the fword." State Lett. vol. i. p. 225-6.

Lord Orrery, from whom this account is mostly taken, has confeffed a truth on this occafion, which he certainly. never intended fhould be made public. In a private letter to the Duke of Ormond, he tells him,

that he had brought over Captain Taylor, one of the leaders in this latter confpiracy, to make confeffions to him; and that he had, as well as he could, laid open to him, the inexpreffible mercy of his majefty to that vile party he had engaged himself with; not only in pardoning to them their past crimes, but also giving them the lands of many who had ferved under his royal enfigns abroad, to pay the arrears which had been contracted against his service at home." Such, in those days, were confeffedly the rewards of loyalty, and the punishment of rebellion in Ireland!

CHA P. XXVI.

The Duke of Ormond apologizes for the favour he had fhewn to the Cromwellian party in Ireland.

THE Duke of Ormond's strange partiality* in favour of the partizans of the late ufurpers, to the ruin of fo many thousands of his majesty's loyal, innocent, and meriting fubjects, is thus more ftrangely accounted

7 State Let. vol. i. p. 226.

for

a A remarkable inftance of this partiality we find in one of his grace's letters to John Walsh, Efq; one of his commiffioners. "You know," fays he, "what my inftructions have been to my commiffioners and fervants: to give up, even whilft I might legally do otherwise, whatever I was poffeffed of, which was but fet out to adventurers or foldiers, though they had not cleared their title in the court of claims." Cart. Orm. vol. ii. Append. fol. 34.

This partiality will appear still more ftrange, when it is con fidered," that his grace was the first of that family of the Butlers, that was educated a proteftant; that his mother Lady Thurles, his brothers, fifters, and all his relations continuing

Roman

for by himself. Having, in his fpeech to parliament on paffing the first act of fettlement, given a moft odious and fhocking defcription of these ufurpers, as "murderers of his majefty's father, and ufurpers of his inheritance; whofe endeavours were inceffant to destroy his perfon, and to blaft his fame; who drove him into exile, and all the afflicting circumftances of that miserable state of a king.' He thought fit in a fubfequent speech to the fame parliament, on paffing the explanatory act, to observe, "that it might feem liable to fome objection, that whilft he declaimed against the proceedings of these men, he yet undertook to see them ratified." After which, he ludicroufly, and as if he were fporting with the deftruction of a whole people, adds, " to this I fhall only for the present say, that unjust persons may fometimes do juftice; and for inftance, I will affure you, that Ireton, at Limerick, caused fome, to be hanged that deserved it almost as well as himfelf."

Thus, according to the Duke of Ormond's cafuistry, Ireton's fuppofed merit in hanging up fome catholics at Limerick (obnoxious perhaps to his grace, though

VOL. II.

K

Borl. Hift. of the Irish Rebel.

otherwife

Roman catholics, ftill remained in the Irish quarters during the late infurrection; and fuch of them as were able to bear arms, as Lord Muskerry, Colonel Fitzpatrick, his brother-inlaw, his brother Colonel Butler of Kilcafh, and Colonel George Mathews, and others his relations, as the Lord Mountgarret, Dunboyne, and divers other lords and gentlemen of his name and family, were generals or commanders of lower quality in the army of the confederates." See Earl of Anglefea's Let. to the Earl of Castlehaven, p. 62.

This regicide, "with his own hand, wrote that precept which was fent out under the hands and feals of the others, on the 8th of January 1648, for proclaiming their court for trying his majefty, to be held in the painted chamber on the 10th of the fame month." Trial of the Regicides, p. 10.

"He was once determined to destroy all the inhabitants, men, women and children of a whole barony in Ireland." Morrice's Life of Orrery, p. 33.

otherwise good subjects ), entitled that regicide's vile adherents to be legally invested with the estates and properties, of fo many thousands of the innocent and loyal natives; and that too in breach of articles, by which his grace had folemnly engaged to see these natives reftored.

But

The chief of thofe executed at Limerick by Ireton's order, were the titular Bishop of Emely, Major General Purcell, Sir Geoffry Baron, Sir Geoffry Gallway, and the mayor of that city. Thefe Ireton caufed to be put to death, in revenge for their noble perfeverance in defending that city, though infected with the plague, for his majesty. "Ireton had fent in articles of furrender, in which he infifted that about seventeen of the principal perfons of the place, who were ftill for holding it out, fhould be excepted (from mercy). But these made so strong a party, that the treaty was broke up, without any agreement. But the town being afterwards furrendered (by the treachery of Colonel Fennel), the Bishop of Emely, Major General Purcell, &c. were taken in the Peft-house, where they were hid." Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 370, &c. Ireton himfelf, a few days after he had taken Limerick, caught the infection, and died of it there. Ludlow, from whom the above is cited, was one of the judges of that court-martial, which condemned these gentle

men.

The very words of the 2d article of the furrender of Limerick are, "But whereas through the practice of fome perfons, more eminent and active than the reft, the generality of the people (of that city) were partly deluded and deceived, by keeping them in vain expectations of relief from one time to another; and partly overawed and enforced by their power to concur, and contribute thus long to the obftinate holding out of the place: therefore the perfons hereafter named, which are Major General Hugo O'Neil the governor, Major General Purcell, Sir Geoffry Gallway, Lieutenant Colonel Lacy, Captain George Wolfe, Captain Lieutenant Sexton, the Bishop of Emely, John Quillan, a Dominican Friar, Capt. Laurence Welfh, a Prieft, Francis Wolfe, a Francifcan Friar, Philip O'Dwyer, á priest, Alderman Dominick Fanning, Alderman Thomas Stretch, Alderman Jordan Roche, Edward Roche, burgefs, Sir Richard Everard, Dr. Higgen, Maurice Baggot of Baggot'stown, and Jeffery Baron, being as aforefaid the principal appearing in fuch practices in this fiege and the holding out fo long, fhall be exempted from any benefit of this article or any article enfuing; and fuch of them as can be found within the garrison fhall be rendered up at mercy, upon the furrender of

the

But leaving this frivolous apology to the contempt it deferves, let us now fee, if we cannot affign more probable causes of this partiality, from the conftant tenour of his grace's conduct, during the whole time of the preceding war, and for many years after his majesty's restoration.

CHA P. XXVII.

The probable motives of the Duke of Ormond's past and prefent conduct, with respect to the Irish.

..

Two grants' were made to the Marquis of Or

mond by the king, foon after the breaking out of the war in 1641; one was the vesting in him all the fecurities and mortgages upon his eftate, formerly made, and belonging to fuch perfons as were, or had been, in the infurrection. The other, was that of the lands held under him, and forfeited to him for breach of conditions. This grant was confirmed by a claufe in the first act of fettlement, and the estates thus granted contained a prodigious quantity of land, which had been granted to gentlemen upon fee-farm, or quitrents, and military tenures; by which they were obligK 2 ed

Cart. Orm. vol. ii. f. 306.

a

the city; and any fuch perfon or perfons as fhall be found to hide or conceal any of the faid excepted perfons, or be privy to their concealment or attempt of escape, and not discover to the best of their endeavour to prevent the fame, fhall be underftood to have forfeited the benefit of these articles to themselves." Borl. Irish Rebel. f. 359-60.

"Colonel Fennel," fays Lord Caftlehaven, " having cowardly or treacheroufly left the defence of the pafs at Killaloe, fled into Limerick with all his party; where, upon the rendition of the town, which happened not long after, Ireton, with more than his ordinary juftice, hanged him." Mem. p. 128.

a It is affirmed that he got as many gentlemen's eftates, upon the pretence of a grant of enjoying all lands that he could prove (by witneffes) to have paid him any chiefry, as were worth at leaft 150,000l.", Unkind Defert. &c. p. 166.