in a circular letter, which they fent to all the cities and corporations of their party, exhorting them to receive and obey the peace now concluded; which was in fubftance that which had been made in 1646, but rejected by a former affembly."

b

The lord lieutenant, in a letter to Lord Digby, January the 22d, after telling him, that the peace was concluded, adds, "I must say for this people," that I have obferved in them, great readinefs to comply with what I was able give them; and a very great fense of the king's fad condition." And in another letter, of the fame date, to the Prince of Wales, he takes notice" of the very eminent loyalty of the affembly, which was not," fays he,'" fhaken by the fuccefs, which God hath permitted to the monstrous rebellion in England; nor by the mischievous practices of the no lefs malicious rebels in Ireland."

After the figning of the articles, his excellency made a fpeech to the affembly, wherein he congratulated them, not only on the fcore of what they had already obtained by that peace, in point of freedom of worship, abatement of penalties, and other advantages; but alfo on the hopes of further indulgence and favour in all these respects, according to their future merits." For he told them," that, befides the provifion made against their remotest fears of the feverities of certain (penal)

2 Ib. vol. iii. f. 600. 3 Id. ib. f. 601.

4 Ib. vol. iii.

In that letter they obferved to the people, " that although in their thoughts and occafions, during thefe féven years wars, they had ftill the fame loyalty, which now made them comply with his majesty in his greatest neceffity, and had often publicly fworn it, yet they lay under the fufpicion of many men; but that by the prefent agreement, all blemish of that kind was taken away. That, as for their religion, they had received good fatisfaction for the being and fafety of it; that by the temporal articles, their lives, liberties, and eftates were provided for; fo as now," added they, "you have a clear quarrel, without the leaft colour of fufpicion; for you fight purely against fectaries and rebels, for God and Cæfar; and under those banners, you may well hope for victory." Enquiry into the Share, &c. p. 267.

(penal) laws; and befides many other freedoms and bounties conveyed to them, and their pofterity, by these articles; there was a door, and that a large one, not left, but purposely fet open, to give them entrance to whatever of honour or other advantage they could reasonably wish." And yet, about the fame time that his lordship made this public and folemn declaration to the affembly, he, in a private letter to Sir Charles Coote, a parliamentarian rebel," averred with much confi. dence,' (they are his own words) that the advantages, which the Romish profeffors were fupposed to have, in religion or authority, by that peace, were no other but pledges for his majesty's confirmation of the other conceffions, and that they were to determine therewith;" as in truth they did.

b

CHA P. IV.

The happy effects of this peace. Ormond's defeat at

Rathmines. Cromwell's arrival Ireland.

I

THERE was, for fome time, great union and harmony between the English and Irish forces, now joined under the Marquis of Ormond's command. His excellency in a letter to the king, June 28th, 1649, acquainted him, "that the ground of his greatest confidence of future fuccefs was their present cordial conjunction against the rebels, their former difaffection to each other appearing, then, only in an emulation rather of advantage than hinderance, to his majesty's

5 Cart. Orm. vol. ii. fol. 52.

Id. Carte's Orig. Papers, vol. ii. p. 387.

Yet the king himself, in a letter to the Marquis of Ormond, March 9th, 1648, told him on this occafion," that he had lately received from Lord Byron the articles of the peace, which he had made in Ireland, together with a copy of his letter to him; that he was extremely fatisfied with both, and would confirm, wholly and entirely, all that was contained in the articles." Cart. Collect. of Orig. Papers, vol. ii. p. 363.

majesty's service." a To this union it was certainly owing, that their first operations were extremely fuccessful; for in the fpace of a few months, they became masters of Sligo, Drogheda, Dundalk, Waterford, Trim, Newry, and in fhort of all the strong holds and towns in the kingdom, except Londonderry and Dublin. Towards this latter city, therefore, his excellency marched the combined armies; hoping to repair the mischiefs he had done by his late furrender of it to the English rebels, and to reduce it once more under his majesty's obedience. His excellency's exceffive confidence in these united forces, though now in want of almost every neceffary for his enterprise on Dublin, is one of the fuppofed caufes of his fatal difappointment in that attempt. That this confidence was indeed exceffive, appears by his letter of July 18th, to the king, from his camp at Finglas; for there he tells him, "that which only threatens any rub to our fuccefs, is our wants, which have been, and are fuch, that foldiers have actually starved by their arms, and many of lefs conftancy, have run home: many of the foot are weak; yet I defpair not to be able to keep them together, and strong enough to reduce Dublin, if good fupplies of all forts come not speedily to relieve it. I am confident, I can perfuade one half of this army to starve outright; and I fhall venture far upon it, rather than give off a game, fo fair on our fide, and fo hard to be recovered if given over.'

But while his excellency was thus fecurely making preparations for that enterprise at Rathmines, a place

a

2 Carte's Orig. Pap. vol. ii. p. 389.

three

* And yet Borlafe confidently afferts, from Clarendon, "that from the first hour of the peace (of 1648) thefe English and Irish had not been without that prejudice towards each other, as gave the marquis much trouble; and that they were rather incorporated by their obedience and fubmiffion to the authority and pleasure of their chief commanders, than united by the fame inclinations and affections to any public end." Hift. of the Irish Rebel. f. 287.

66

b

three miles from Dublin, his whole army was furprifed and routed, by Michael Jones, governor of that city for the parliament, on the 2d of Auguft, 1649. Jones, according to the Marquis of Ormond's account, flew fix hundred in that engagement; fome upon the fpot, and in the purfuit; but the greatest part after they had lain down their arms, upon promife of quarter, and had been, for almost an hour, prifoners; and divers of them were murdered, after they were brought within the works of Dublin." This fudden and unaccountable defeat at Rathmines, renewed, in the Irish, all their former fufpicions, that his excellency had ftill fome private understanding with the English rebels; and these fufpicious were increafed, by the conftant ill fuccefs of all his fubfequent undertakings against their partizans in Ireland. To these misfortunes was foon after added a general panic, occafioned by the unparalleled cruelties of Oliver Cromwell, who landed at Dublin,+ on the 15th of that month, with eight thoufand foot, and four thoufand horse, two hundred thoufand pounds in money, and a vast quantity of ammunition, and all kind of neceffaries for war. "With thefe forces, he on

3 Cart. Orig. Pap. vol. ii. p. 397.

the

+ Carte's Orm. vol. ii. f. 83.

b"Fifteen hundred private foldiers, and three hundred officers, were made prifoners; about fix hundred flain; many of thefe, to the difgrace of the conquerors, when they had accepted quarter, and laid down their arms." Lel. Hift. of Irel vol. iii. p. 346.

"Soon after this defeat," fays Borlafe," Jones was writ to by his excellency, to have a lift of the prifoners he had taken. from him to whom it was replied, "My lord, fince I routed your army, I cannot have the happiness to know where you are, that I may wait upon you. Michael Jones." Irish Rebel.

fol. 280.

d Borlafe informs us, "that this defeat at Rathmines altered the refult of councils at court, till then very ftrong for his majefty's repair into Ireland, the Scots having given ill proof of their integrity and faith. And certainly," adds he, "the Irish were, at that time, fo difpofed, as properly they would have fubmitted to his majefty, whatever afterwards might have been the refult of their compliance." Hift. Ir. Reb. f. 280.

the 3d of September, befieged and took Drogheda by ftorm. And although all his officers and foldiers,' had promised quarter to fuch of the garrifon, as would lay down their arms; and performed it, as long as any place held out, which encouraged others to yield; yet when they once had got all in their power, Cromwell, being told by Jones that he had now the flower of the Irish army in his hands, gave orders that no quarter fhould be given; fo that many of his foldiers were forced to kill their prifoners." f

The Marquis of Ormond, in a letter to Lord Byron on this occafion, fays," that Cromwell exceeded even himself, for any thing he had ever heard of, in breach of faith and bloody inhumanity; and that the cruelties exercised there, for five days after the town was taken, would make as many feveral pictures of inhumanity, as are to be found in the book of martyrs, or the relation of Amboyna." In this carnage, out of

three thousand, he left only about thirty persons alive; and these he fent to Barbadoes.

CHAP.

5 Carte's Orm. vol. ii. fol. 44. Lel. Hift. vol. iii. p. 350. • Cart. Collect. of Orig. Pap. vol. ii.

"Cromwell marched from Dublin to Drogheda, on the 30th of August, 1649, with an army of nine or ten thousand men." Borl. Irish Rebel. f. 282.

"Cromwell, they fay, made his foldiers believe, that the Irish ought to be dealt with as the Canaanites in Joshua's time." Dr. Anderson's Royal Genealogies, p. 786.

f" The brave governor Sir Arthur Afton, Sir Edmund Verney, the Colonels Warren, Fleming and Byrne, were killed in cold blood; and indeed all the officers, except fome few of the least confideration, that escaped by miracle." Carte's Orm. vol. ii. fol. 84.

And yet, in the Journals of the Irish Commons, an. 1697, we find recorded, "the very great and fignal services done by this Lieutenant General Jones, in reducing Ireland to the obedience of England" i. e. to the rebel parliament of England. Com. Journ. vol. ii. f. 864.