printed, it was never published; for their lordships, finding Limerick reduced to the condition of capitulating, smothered the proclamation, and hastened to the camp, that they might hold the Irish to as hard terms as the king's affairs would permit-this they effected, and although (says Mr Harris) they deserved the thanks of every protestant in Ireland, yet a party soon sprung up that inveighed loudly against these articles. The designing men of this party quarrelled with them only because their expectations were disappointed of raising large fortunes out of the forfeitures. Those designing men to whom Mr Harris, the biographer of William, alludes, are exactly similar to the orangemen of our day, who will not be satisfied with less than a monopoly of the constitution, and all the advantages which those who are brought under its shelter must necessarily enjoy. But the wisdom of the conduct adopted by the English general, and to which the English monarch gave his most hearty assent, is best shewn by a statement of the events which occurred soon after those articles we have recited were signed by all the parties. Macpherson, in his history of England, thus writes: when restored to the full and unconditional possession of the constitution, shall only be recovering the rights of which they were basely plundered; which they purchased by their blood, and for the enjoyment of which, they at length agreed to lay down their arms. The unconditional repeal of the penal laws against the catholics, would be no more than the faithful fulfilment of that contract, which King William, of « immortal memory," most basely violated. "The Irish having obtained such good terms with such facility, imbibed an opinion that they might have extorted conditions still more favourable from an enemy so exhausted. The arrival of the French fleet, two days after the capitulation, with arms, stores, provisions, and ammunition, confirmed them in their sentiments on this subject. But that circumstance, in conjunction with many other obvious reasons, justified William for putting an end to the war. Many millions had already been expended in the reduction of Ireland. The army, though victorious in the field, were exhausted with fatigue-winter was approaching-the siege of Limerick must in all probability have been raised; a second disappointment before that place would have been equal to defeat. The spirits of the Irish would rise, and the French, encouraged by their success, would have aided their allies with effect." Notwithstanding the solemnity with which the articles of Limerick were signed, and notwithstanding the miserable alternative which it is obvious William had to make choice of, (either the granting to the Irish the rights for which they had so bravely fought, or if, refusing these, the miserable prolongation of a contest in which William might have lost this valuable portion of his empire,) in the face of such considerations, the minister of the gospel, the bishop of Meath, felt it his duty to recommend, with christian and evangelic mildness, the immediate violation of the articles which had been granted to the barbarous Irish. This pious divine, this herald of peace to mankind, was not attended to at present. Policy, if not justice, or dered him to be silent; and with pleasure we re cord, that his infamous doctrines were opposed, in the true spirit of a christian minister, by Dr Mor, ton, the bishop of Kildare. When the fears of monopoly subsided, when the Irish catholic was disarmed, the English adventurer and the Irish task-master commenced their sacred work of plunder. All the obligations of truth, jus tice, honour, and humanity vanished, and no sound was heard but the yells of intolerance and the cries of brave and suffering innocence. No wonder that the Irish heart should swell with indignation when going over those dismal scenes of cowardly oppres sion and rapacious profligacy. No wonder that a long period of mild and parental government should be required to obliterate from the memory of Irishmen, the record of such odious and vulgar treachery. The Roman conqueror left to the countries he conquered, their laws, their religion, and their rights. He did not break faith with the vanquished, and thus proclaim war against humanity. His policy was as generous as wise; it facilitated the march of his armies, and taught mankind to believe, that the Roman conquests were not incompatible either with their security or their happiness. The great champions of English freedom, will hereafter be found the busy forgers of Ireland's chains; the panders to the religious as well as national prejudices of their countrymen; the encouragers of the worst species of tyranny, the tyranny of a few over the many, and the injudicious and short-sighted ex tinguishers of the genius and industry of our country. The great Englishmen who contributed to the completion of that proud edifice of human liberty, of which England can now boast, were the most remorseless tyrants in Ireland. Their ingenuity was directed to prolong the tortures of their victim, and to demonstrate to the world, how inferior the pagan tyrants of antiquity were to the modern tyrants of our christian age. The reader will commence the following reigns with a heavy and afflicted heart, because he has to witness each day exceeding the other in the magnitude of human depravity, and the men, whom the English historian holds up to his admiration, the active and fanatical instruments of unexampled oppression and misery. He will see how much more cruel is the avarice of monopoly than the sword of the conqueror. He will see the confiscator of his country, shrouded in the garb of religion, seeking whom he may devour, his rapacity increasing with his impunity, and his oppressions multiplying with the weakness of his victim. He will see the miserable people thus abused, insulted with the praises of the free constitution under which they were living; and, while their wounds were still fresh from the lash of intolerance, it will be no uncommon spectacle to behold their executioners crying out for new tortures and new penalties. What enlightened reader, who has read the history of Ireland from the reformation, who has followed her sufferings through the sanguinary period of Elizabeth, James, and Crom well, who has observed the dreadful revolutions of her property and devastation of the inhabitants, will hesitate to say, that it was the duty of Irishmen to stand by James II. with the same zeal with which Englishmen opposed him? He was the friend of their religious and civil liberty. England was his enemy, because he tolerated the religion of Ireland. It was not for Ireland to consider his motives or his ultimate objects; they might have been despotic, he might have sought the extinction of British freedom through the medium of Irish liberty; yet, still it was the obvious line of Ireland's duty to act as she did; to defend her rights and her religion against a nation which so long laboured to destroy both. The bravery with which they fought the battle, should be the best recommendation of the people of Ireland, to an enlightened monarch of the British empire; it demonstrates the advan tage of that policy which gives to a nation such a cause as is worth their defending. The strength of those deductions from the facts we have been recording, do not require support from any opinion, however eminent or distinguished. They are selfevident truths, which flash on every honest unsophisticated understanding; yet, it will not be considered any breach of historical correctness, to introduce here, the sentiments of perhaps the most illustrious and able senator that ever adorned the British senate, whose philosophic eloquence has left to succeeding times the most profound and enlightened political lessons of instruction. Our great countryman, Edmund Burke, in a letter to |