public enemy; and I presume you cannot but as well remember, who ridiculed, scorned, and contemned all motions of that kind, and who affirmed, and that openly, that the Protestants of this province, ought rather to be treated as enemies than friends, and that the best of them had either basely complied with King James and his party, or cowardly left and deserted their countrey, that the goods and stocks of the Protestant inhabitants, once seized by the enemy, were forfeited, and ought not to be restored, but given as encou ragement to the soldiers; that all Papists ought to be plundered, and none protected; that the restoration of civil government was a diminution of the power of the general and the army, and that all the Protestants, inhabitants of this province, were false to the present government, and ought not to be trusted with places of trust or power, that as their persons were not to be trusted, so their oaths and complaints were neither to be believed nor redressed; that so an easier and a safer approach might be made to invade the little left them by the Irish.

That all endeavours of the settlement of a public revenue were designs to oppress the army; that free quartering was the least retaliation that the Protestants could give for being restored to their former estates; that religion is but canting, and debauchery the necessary character of soldiers. If to these you add the pressing of horses at pleasure, quartering at pleasure, robbing and plundering at pleasure, denying the people bread or seed of their own corn, though the general by his publick proclamation requires both, and some openly and publickly contemning and scorning the said proclamation; whereby multitudes of families are already reduced to want of bread, and left only to beg, or steal, or starve. These being the practices, and these the principles, and both as well known to you as to me, can it be wondered that the oppressed Protestants here should report us worse than the Irish, or can it be wondered that God should pursue us with his dreadful judgments who have so provoked him with our daring sins?. Or can we rationally expect God should fight for us, while we thus fight against him? We may as well expect grapes from thorns, and figs from thistles, as success to a Protestant cause from such hands. Can we expect Sodom to destroy Babylon, or Debauchery to destroy Popery? Our enemie fights with the principle of a mistaken conscience against us, we against the conviction of our own principles against them. What I have learned of the enemie's principles and practices since I left you, I shall here inform you, and reduce what I have to say to these two general heads :

I. The frequent discourse of their king.

II. His public declarations and proclamations for the well government of his army.

I. As to his private discourse.

1. He expresseth great zeal and passionate affection to his English subjects, in so much that both French and Irish often say of him, as he did of King David, that he loves his enemies and hates his friends.

2. He is heard often to desire his officers, that in their engagement with the English, they should be treated as mistaken subjects, and not as obstinate rebels.

3. He is heard often to declare, that since he rightly understood Christianity, he ever asserted Christian liberty, as well in his past prosperity, as his present adversity.

4. That all perswasions in matters of religion, who have most charity and least of severity, are most agreeable to Christianity.

5. He is often heard to complain, that he ever observed, an aptitude and propensity in persons of power to persecute such as differ from them.

6. That this natural aptitude to persecute ought to be restrained by wholesome and effectual laws.

7. That this persecuting spirit influencing the greater number of all perswasions, especially persons in power, is the only cause of his majesty's present sufferings.

8. He is passionately kind to all deserters, and chearfully receives and soon prefers them.

9. He pretending his sufferings to be thus on the account of conscience, seems not to doubt, but God will find some unexpected means, for his restauration in 1690 as he did in 1660.

10. He is heard frequently to declare against the dragooning persecution of France, and the barbarous and inhumane murders committed on the Protestants of this kingdom in the year 1641, as passionately, and perhaps as sincerely as the Scribes and Pharisees did against their forefathers for persecuting the prophets. To these I think fit to add the particulars of his majesty's publick declarations, which are ordered to be read once every two months in the head of every troop and company in his whole army, and to be fixed up in all the boroughs and market towns in this kingdom.

1. His majesty is pleased earnestly to recommend the performance of public and private duties to God, to all under his command, and particularly recommends to the Roman Catholics of his army frequent confessions, and strict observation of Sundays and holydays.

2. He publickly declares what subsistance he allowes to every horse, dragoon, and every private soldier in his army, and what is reserved in the pay-master's hands for the accoutrements and the hospital.

3. He avoids and forbids as unnecessary, the charge of all agents, and commands the majors of every regiment to do that work, and to save the charge.

4. He strictly requires the private soldier out of the said subsistance duly and truly to pay his quarters.

5. In case they shall want their subsistance, they are then required every week to give their respective landlords a note under their hands, which shall be received by the receiver general, as so much money out of any branch of his majesty's revenue.

6. His majesty forbids all straggling of private soldiers from their garrisons without their officers pass; and requires all officers, either military or civil, to apprehend such soldiers having no pass, and to send them to their colours, to receive punishment according to their demerits.

7. His majesty by the same proclamation, forbids all plundering on any pretence whatsoever, under pain of death without mercy.

8. He requires both officers and soldiers under the pain of his high displeasure to demean and behave themselves civilly and respectfully in their respective quarters; and to assist and not obstruct the civil magistrates in the execution of their respective trusts, especially the officers concerned in and about his majesty's

revenue.

9. He forbids all officers and soldiers to quarter themselves on any of his majesty's subjects, without having a billet or ticket under the hand of the constable or other civil officer of the place.

10. He strictly forbids pressing any country-man's horse on any pretence whatsoever without having his majesty, his captain general, his lord lieutenant, or deputy lieutenant's license for so do. ing; and then allows them to press the said horse but one day's journey, and to see that the horse be returned as well as when received; and particularly forbids the pressing any horse belonging to any plough.

11. His majesty in the same proclamation, enjoynes severe penalties on all forestallers or obstructers of provision going to either camp or market.

Lastly. The respective penalties enjoined in the said proclamation, are severely and impartially executed on the respective of. fenders. My family tells me that the week before they left Dublin, there were two private soldiers executed before a Protestant baker's door, for stealing two loaves not worth a shilling. And a fortnight before, a lieutenant and ensign were publicly executed at a place, where on pretence of the king's service, they pressed a horse going with provisions to Dublin market; two others were condemned and expected daily to be executed for the like offence; these severe examples confirming the penalties of these public declarations, contribute so much to the quiet of the countrey, that were it not for the countrey Raparees and Tories, theirs 'tis thought would be much quieter than ours. Some of our foreigners are very uneasie to us; had not the prudence of a discreet major prevented it, last Sunday was seven night had been a bloody day be

tween some of the Danish foot and Collonel Langton's regiment of horse. The truth is too many of the English, as well as Danes and French, are highly oppressive to the poor countrey; whereas our enemy have reduced themselves to that order, that they exercise violence on none, but the proprietors of such as they know to be absent, or, as they phrase it, in rebellion against them, whose stock, goods and estates are seized, and set by the civil government, and the proceed applied for and towards the charge of the war. And for their better direction in their seizures, it's reported and believed, that they have copies of the particulars of the Protestants' passes given into the committee of the late House of Commons at Westminster.

The enemies' great work is to secure Dublin this summer, they fearing an attack before they could get forage for their horse; and willing to hasten that supply, they long since ordered all the deer in the Parks of the Phoenix and Raffernham to be destroyed, and cattel to be removed from Dublin to get the more earlier grass for their horse; of which by many letters, I gave that early notice, that I fear we may pay too dear for the delay; they have seized all the arms and serviceable horses they can find within their reach, the Irish having their religion and national principle supported on the pretence of law, and the presence of the king; and all so openly owned by France, make them more united and unanimously resolved than in any of their former wars. Their doctrine of passive obedience and liberty of conscience gives them too great help of Protestant hands; we have not a known Papist with us, they have hundreds of deluded Protestants with them. I am credibly told, that they have a small boat, which they send weekly to Wales to supply them with news from England; they spare for no charge to get spies and intelligence from our quarters; they report they have daily deserters, and could have more, did they not presume they may be more serviceable to them by continuing with us. They openly declare, that our army consists most of their deserters, and that it was success made them leave them, and that the same motive will bring them back again. They told the number and the time of the Danes landing, and foretell that we shall soon repent their coming among us; they report, that laying aside the Protestant hands of this country, and the other fore-mentioned principles, were arrows taken out of their quivers; they tell us that our king cannot be here till June, and that they shall be ready a month sooner to receive him. They report his army to be thirty thousand, with vast stores of arms and ammunition and provision; the Londonderry and Eneskillen forces, with the recruits of this countrey, are more dreadful to them than all our foreign forces. They are resolved on a defensive war, and in case they have their promised supplies, they seem not to doubt but to keep Dublin this summer; their great difficulty is, what to do with the great number of Pro

testants among them; they have many proposals under consideration, but as yet they came to no resolution. The king is much averse to all severity, yet clearly sees he can make no impression of loyalty on them. The enemy (as my wife and family, which have got leave lately to come to me from Dublin, tell me), report with more confidence than, I hope, truth, that we have many Monks in our army, many Sandwiches in our fleet, and many Shaftsburys in our councils; and that they laid those variety of engines both in England, Scotland, and Ireland, that they seem not to doubt but that they shall have as many invitations for their return in England in 1690, as they had in 1660; and that this summer they shall be able to get eighty thousand men into the field, and find money for their constant pay.

Being so united as they are, and carrying on the war with so great concurrence of their church, and having France for an additional support, I do no ways wonder but that they may have as many men; but how to procure them constant pay, was somewhat my trouble to know. By their establishment, I find, besides accoutrements and hospital, that the pay of a foot soldier is but 4d. a trooper as much over as a dragoon is short of 12d. per diem; so that seventy thousand foot will amount to 456000!. per annum; and ten thousand horse, at 12d. per diem, amounts to above 182,000l. making in the whole 638,0004 and if one fourth more is added for general officers, train of artillery, contingencies, &c. the whole amounts to 797,000l. How this sum may be raised out of only three provinces of this country, seems to be the great doubt. By comparing several accounts I have received from spies, I find the heads of their revenue to be as followeth :

1. I find the late parliament of Ireland granted their king a subsidy of 20,000 per mensem, charged on stock and lands.

2. The enemy finding us possessed of one province since the passing that act; and finding much of the other three provinces made waste by their order; and that by the frequent returns of their brass and pewter money, a great inland trade is increased, they have, by public proclamation, ordered 20,000l. more to be assessed on the trading part of the nation, according to their respective trades; both which are presumed cannot yield less than 30,000l. per mensem de claro, which is per annum 360,000%.

3. They have bought on the king's account all the wool, at fs. per stone, tallow at 157. per tun, beef, tallow, hides, &c. which they intend to send for France to buy arms and ammunition, &c. which they esteem may be worth at least 200,000%. the wool licence at 4d. per stone, to transport it only for England, was usually worth to the chief governors 4 or 5000l. per annum.

4. It is reported, they have agreed with persons who are obliged to coin them this year 150,000l. brass and pewter money.