In vain, we fear, may Ireland anticipate the blessings which flow to a nation from the enjoyment of equal rights; whose laws are administered by those who are interested in the impartial dispensation of justice; whose elevation and whose fortune go hand in hand with the honour and character of their country. No doubt, the convention which assembled in Kilkenny, in October 1642, and which comprised all that was dignified and spirited in the land, frequently flattered itself with the realization of so glorious a scene. Where the genius of Ireland stood untrammelled and unrestrained by the quibble of the placeman and the pensioner; where the Irish mind was buoyed up on the swelling sea of public freedom, and every heart and every hand were devoted to the establishment of equal laws and equal rights; where the eloquent found a subject commensurate with their powers, and the poet and orator enjoyed a perpetual theme of panegyric and glory-in such an assembly, the Irishman might indulge in all the visions of independence. Such contemplations made him equal to great and glorious enterprizes; they rendered the dangers of the struggle in which he was engaged as trifling, when compared with the object for which he was contending; and, like the armour of the warrior, covered and protected him against the power of his enemy. This celebrated convention, which gave so much hope to Ireland, and excited so much fear among her enemies, consisted of two houses, the one composed of tempo

ral peers and prelates, the other of representatives deputed by the counties and cities.

The views of this assembly were strictly regulated by principles of the most unshaken attachment to the house of Stuart. Their declaration was candid, clear, and unequivocal; they claimed protection against injustice, and toleration for their religion; they took up arms as much in the defence of the royal prerogative as of their own liberties, and vindicated the constitutional claims of their sovereign, with as much zeal as they pleaded for their own rights. Though they thus adhered to the king, they denounced his Irish representatives. The direction of the confederacy was entrusted to a council composed of twenty-four persons, selected from the general convention. They were denominated the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholics of Ireland. They had the uncontrouled direction of the civil and military power of the country; and for their honour and security, a guard was assigned, consisting of five hundred foot. and two hundred horse. The Irish convention then proceeded to the appointment of their generals, and to the distribution of their powers. Owen O'Neal was appointed to the command of the Ulster army, Preston to Leinster, Garret Barry to Munster, and Colonel John Burke to Connaught; they dispatched ambassadors to all the foreign countries, soliciting their aid and co-operation. Having thus prepared for war, they determined to demonstrate their anxiety for peace, by a respectful representation of the grievances by which they

were oppressed, and which they alleged were the ground-work of the formidable confederacy which they had now effected.

About this period, the differences between Charles and his parliament had increased to the utmost extent, and the Irish of the pale were divided into a royal and parliamentary faction. The Earl of Ormond and the army declared for the king; and the lords justices and their friends, who had imbibed all the prejudice, the malignity, and puritannical bigotry of the English parliament, co-operated in all the views of Charles's enemies. The civil war of England was now declared, and the animosity of the justices and the king's Irish general, the Earl of Ormond, promised an easy victory to the Irish confederacy. The present distresses of the sove, reign pointed out the policy and expediency of paying immediate and respectful attention to the prayers of his Irish subjects. Pressed by an inveterate bigotry in his own country, which no concession could conciliate, he was advised by his friends to repose confidence in the fidelity of Ireland, to listen to her complaints, and protect his feelings. When we consider the formidable attitude of the Irish at this moment, we cannot but admire the kind forbearance which would sheath the Irish sword, and court a termination of hostilities. Balancing the rising power of English enemies against the possible aid which he might receive from his Irish subjects, and taking into consideration the awful consequences of driving a whole people to the desperat extremity of renouncing their allegiance to their

sovereign, he issued a commission to the Marquis of Ormond, and five Irish noblemen of the pale, to hold an immediate communication with the Irish confederacy, to receive and transmit their propositions of conciliation and peace. The lords jus tices left no expedient untried to defeat the royal views, and perpetuate a conflict, which might terminate in the submission of the king to the wishes of his enemies.

The English parliament, under the controul of the most furious fanaticism, thirsting for the annihilation of every adherent to the Catholic faith, armed the lords justices, Parsons and Borlase, with unlimited powers. The latter implicitly followed up the wishes of their patrons, and issued forth their orders of extermination. "It was resolved," says Borlase in his history of the Irish rebellion, "upon solemn debate, on the 8th of December, 1641, by the lords and commons of England, that they would never give consent to any toleration to the Popish religion in Ireland, or any other of his Majesty's dominions, which vote hath been since adjudged a main motive by the Irish, for making the war a cause of rebellion." This dreadful denunciation of the English parliament was faithfully followed up by the lords justices. With such ran, corous enemies, the unfortunate Charles had to contend in all his difficulties. The negociations between his Majesty's commissioners and the deputies of the confederacy, were frequently interrupted by the malignant suggestions of the lords justices. The king, under his peculiar circumstances, could not

yield to his disposition to conciliate the Irish. When he negociated with their leaders, he was compelled to the adoption of such language as was calculated to wound the pride and spirit of the Irish. The latter were reproached with the title of rebels; and the moment which was selected to heal the wounds of the country, was also chosen to induce the acknowledgment of a crime which the Irish leaders always repelled with indignation. They pertinaciously refused to negociate in any other character than that of men constitutionally demanding their rights; and such were the embarrassments of the king, that he was obliged to accede to the pretensions of his Irish subjects. Four of the king's commissioners met the agents of the Irish at Trim. Here the latter presented their remonstrance of grievances and their petition for redress. They strongly pleaded their loyalty and their services; the intolerance of the present governors, Parsons and Borlase; and their sufferings under the most. torturing oppression. They set forth the denunciations of their malignant and fanatical enemy, the English parliament; and their apprehensions that nothing short of the extermination of their religion, its professors and followers, would appease the vengeance of its bigotry. They prayed their sovereign to convene a new parliament, in which the Irish might enjoy a fair and impartial representation; where they might deliberate without controul, and from which those who professed the religion of the country should not be excluded. It is remarkable that the Irish agents also prayed his majesty to sus