case of any such act or endeavours, no persons should or ought to be led thereby, but that, for their disobedience on any such grounds, they were subject to the heavy censures and penalties of the laws of the land; but to this is added, (and let the violaters of solemn treaties attend to it), that this obedience was not intended to be paid to any person that should be appointed chief governor, who had joined in the covenant, or should violate the articles of peace." Upon this declaration, Lord Clanrickard was prevailed upon to accept the government, and Ormond departed for France.

We have thought it necessary to devote so much to the vindication of the Irish clergy against the interested slanders of a distinguished historian, to demonstrate that those men who have been so cruelly branded with the opprobrious names of factious and fanatical priests, have, in the instance before us, been the last and unconquerable refuge of their country's liberty and religion. We have endeavoured to condense that evidence which convicts the calumniator, and establishes the claims of injured innocence. The Irish were now headed by a man who enjoyed their confidence. The Marquis of Ormond brought along with him a number of distinguished protestant officers, who were at tached to his lordship; and the single circumstance of his successor being a catholic, most naturally caused a separation of the two religions in a more distinct manner than heretofore. It is impossible not to observe the reluctance with which the protestant portion of Ireland yielded even to that ne

cessity which bound them for some time together in the common cause of their king. The Lord Inchiquin embarked with Ormond. The conduct of the king and Ormond had so completely destroyed all confidence in any royal professions, that it is not to be wondered that the poor people of Ireland should seek refuge in the arms even of the parliamentarians, who now offered that toleration which was denied by their sovereign. Such a proposition, however reasonable in their present reduced state, was rejected by the majority of the Irish leaders; and the spirit of the country, not yet wholly extinguished, turned its attention towards the practicability of obtaining the interposition of some foreign power in this hour of their distress. They determined, therefore, that the bishop of Ferns, their most active partizan, should be sent to Brussels to solicit the Duke of Lorraine to take their nation and religion under his princely protection. So low were the hopes of the Marquis Clanrickard, that he could not affect any considerable opposition to the progress of the parliamentarians without the aid of a foreign power, that even he was inclined to listen to, and encou rage a negociation with the Duke of Lorraine; and Clanrickard, in his letter to the Marquis of Ormond, states his reason why such a treaty with the Duke of Lorraine would be attended with the greatest advantages to the royal cause. "But no sooner," writes Clanrickard, "had the Irish understood that the Duke of Lorraine's ambassador had arrived in Ireland, with offers of powerful assistance for the preservation of the catholic religion

and of his majesty's subjects' interest, than they took much comfort and encouragement thereby, hoping that the rebels' power might be exposed; and soon after the towns of Limerick and Galway, and all other places yet in his majesty's obedience, seemed more cheerfully than before to assist his majesty's authority in opposing the rebels." Upon this change in the temper of the people, Clanrickard gave his countenance to the immediate negociation of a treaty with the Duke of Lorraine.

Mr Leland is peculiarly angry at the anxiety manifested by the Irish people to court the protection and aid of a foreign power. Mr Leland, knowing the calamities and desperate situation to which the Irish people were now reduced, should have had the candour to admit, that to seek for such foreign aid as would possibly rescue them from their present distressing embarrassments, was the wisest and the honestest counsel which could have been suggested; and that such interference ought to be solicited at the hazard of the eternal interests of the monarch who had already abandoned them to their bitterest enemies. But the Irish did not go so far. They still held fast by that loyal principle which so much distinguished them; and even the treason of Charles to their country did not obliterate the impressions of an old veneration for his family.

The Marquis of Ormond would not only have recommended an alliance with the Duke of Lorraine, but he would advise that overtures should be made even to his holiness the pope, for that relief which

no protestant crowned head could now afford. "To come shortly," says he, in a letter to Clanrickard, "to what I would be at, wherein you may be concerned, I conceive some one must be found that hath power, if not with all, yet with most Christian princes and states. Among the protestants there is none such, and among the Roman catholics it is visible that the pope has the most of authority and persuasion; and it shall be, without scruple, my advice, and that speedily, that fitting ministers may be sent, and apt inducements proposed to him for his interposition with all the princes and states."

The terms of the treaty, as proposed by the Duke of Lorraine, were so extravagant, that Clanrickard preferred the alternative of his own unaided efforts in support of the royal cause. The negociation, however, continued until events in Ireland rendered any terms, however favourable, perfectly unavailing; the arms of the parliamentarians made a rapid progress, and almost every place of strength had submitted to their power. The treachery of an Irish officer, of the name of Fennell, opened the gates of Limerick to a merciless enemy, and the most prominent among the Irish in their zeal against the English, were sacrificed to the fury of the conquering army; Galway alone remained to the Irish. In this last refuge Clanrickard took shelter with the mutilated army. Ireton, the English general, one of the fanatical scourges of the Irish, fell a victim to disease, while besieging the town of Galway. The dreadful denunciations of

vengeance issued by the leaders of the parliamentary army, rendered it a question of prudence no longer to irritate a power which could not be suc cessfully opposed, and the inhabitants of Galway opened their gates to the enemy. Clanrickard flew to the north of Ireland, where he struggled to rally the scattered partizans of royalty. He at length took advantage of an offer made by the English general, who permitted him to depart from Ireland with the three thousand troops which remained of the royal army; and well may we say with Mr Leland, but not in the spirit of his application-that he retired from a country lost to his royal master by illiberal bigotry, frantic pride, the blindness of men intoxicated by an imaginary consequence-their senseless factions and incorrigible perverseness in contending against their own interest, and rejecting every measure necessary for their own security." Truly may it be written, that the desperate bigotry of Ormond, the unprincipled ambition of Charles, and the total want of a decided system of policy always directed to the candid support of the religious and civil liberties of the Irish, contributed in an eminent degree to the destruction of that king who might have ever found an inexhaustible resource in the gratitude and sensibility of the Irish heart.

The Marquis of Clanrickard thus abandoned Ireland to the fury of the English rebels; and thus, "in a few months," observes Borlase, "the usurpers got possession of such a country as Ireland with as much ease as if they had merely to conquer