The

ingenuous insinuations of the historians of the popular party, that he acted in precise and rigid conformity with the conduct of his entire political life. Loyal to the king, he was more loyal to the protestant party in Ireland, and when their affairs became desperate by the want of all protection, and the complete ascendancy of the nuncio's party; when the peace was rejected and a war of extermination declared, on the very principle of exacting the entire demolition of all the stays and defences of his own church; the marquess knew his duty, and chose his part. The one last hope for Ireland, (according to the views of the marquess,) lay in the timely interposition of the parliament of England. It did not require all the sagacity of the marquess to perceive that any other earthly prospect for his party of deliverance from entire and rapid ruin, was but nominal. The king could do nothing to save himself the protestant power in Ireland had dilapidated in a wasting war of six long years; and all who were not engaged in the business of murder and plunder, were the helpless victims of the folly, cupidity and fanaticism of those who were. nuncio and his party possessed the kingdom, they not only rejected the peace but made a most unwarrantable use of a treaty to attempt the seizure of the marquess himself, and were actually engaged in discussing the terms on which the kingdom was to be delivered into the hands of the pope. Connected with this consideration is a very strong argument stated by the marquess himself, in a memorial presented shortly after to the king at Hampton court; in this document of which the great length prevents us from inserting it entire, the marquess says "a third reason was, upon consideration of the interest of your majesty's crown; wherein it appeared in some clearness to us, that if the places we held for your majestie were put into the hands of the two houses of parliament, they would revert to your majestie, when either by treaty or otherwise, you would recover your rights in England; and that in all probability without expense of treasure or blood. But if they were given, or lost to the confederates, it was to us very evident, that they would never be recovered to us by treaty, your majestie's known pious resolution, and their exorbitant expectations in point of religion considered; nor by conquest, but after a long and changeable war, wherein, how far they might be assisted by any foreign prince that would believe his affairs advanced or secured, by keeping your majestie busied at home, fell likewise into consideration." The marquess convened the protestant party and proposed to them, that he should act in conformity with the directions given by the king, in contemplation of such an occasion, "that if it were possible for the marquess to keep Dublin, and the other garrisons under the same entire obedience to his majesty, they were then in, it would be acceptable to his majesty; but if there were or should be, a necessity of giving them up to any other power, he should rather put them into the hands of the English than of the Irish."* Such was now under the circumstances here mentioned, the decision of the marquess; it was approved by his entire party and received the full sanction of the parliament of Ireland, called together soon after. Their declaration is indeed too express and solemn to be omitted here; it is as follows:

*Borlase. Cox.

"We the lords and commons assembled in parliament in our whole body do present ourselves before your lordship, acknowledging with great sense and feeling your lordship's singular goodness to us the protestant party, and those who have faithfully and constantly adhered unto them, who have been preserved to this day (under God) by excellency's providence and pious care, which hath not been done without a vast expense out of your own estate, as also the hazarding of your person in great and dangerous difficulties. And when your lordship found yourself (with the strength remaining with you) to be too weak to resist an insolent, (and upon all advantages) a perfidious and bloody enemy, rather than we should perish, you have in your care transferred us to their hands, that are both able and willing to preserve us; and that, not by a bare casting us off, but complying so far

you

with us, that have not denied our desires of hostages, and amongst them one of your most dear sons. All which being such a free earnest of your excellency's love to our religion, nation, and both our houses, do incite us here to come unto you, with hearts filled with your love, and tongues declaring how much we are obliged unto your excellency, professing our resolutions are with all real service (to the utmost of our power) to manifest the sincerity of this our acknowledgment and affections to you, and to perpetuate to posterity the memory of your excellency's merits, and our thankfulness, we have appointed this instrument to be entered in both houses, and under the hands of both speakers to be presented to your lordship.

17° die Martii, 1646, Intrant per VALL SAVAGE, Dep. Cl. Parl.

Int. 17° Martii, 1646, per

RI BOLTON, Chanc.

MAURICE EUSTACE, Speaker."

PHILL FORNELEY, Cl. Dom. Com.

The answer of the marquess to this address is remarkable for its dignified simplicity, and will be read by every unprejudiced reader as the just exposition of his sentiments.

"My Lords and Gentlemen,-What you have now read and delivered hath much surprised me, and contains matter of higher obligation laid upon me by you than thus suddenly to be answered; yet I may not suffer you to depart hence without saying somewhat unto you; and first I assure you, that this acknowledgment of yours is unto me a jewel of very great value, which I shall lay up amongst my choicest treasures, it being not only a full confutation of those calumnies that have been cast upon my actions during the time that I have had the honour to serve his majesty here, but likewise an antidote against the virulency and poison of those tongues and pens, that I am well assured, will busily set on work to traduce and blast the integrity of my present proceedings for your preservation. And now, my lords and gentlemen, since this may perhaps be the last time, that I shall have the honour to speak to you from this place; and since, that next to the words of a dying man (those of one ready to banish himself from his country for the good of it) challenge credit, give me leave before God and

you, here to protest, that in all the time I have had the honour to serve the king my master, I never received any commands from him, but such as speak him a wise, pious, protestant prince; zealous of the religion he professeth, the welfare of his subjects, and industrious to promote and settle peace and tranquillity in all his kingdoms; and I shall beseech you to look no otherwise upon me, than upon a ready instrument set on to work by the king's wisdom and goodness for your preservation; wherein if I have discharged myself to his approbation and yours, it will be the greatest satisfaction and comfort, I shall take with me, wherever it shall please God to direct my steps; and now that I may dismiss you, I beseech God long, long to preserve my gracious master, and to restore peace and rest to this afflicted church and kingdom."

The inhabitants of Dublin were zealous for the conclusion of a treaty which was to place them under competent protection, and had, upon the first arrival of the commissioners in the former year, considerably embarrassed the marquess by their urgency. They were on this second treaty no less decided in the expression of their wishes. The marquess wrote therefore in the beginning of the year, (Feb. 6th, 1647,) to the parliamentary commissioners, offering to deliver up his command and garrisons to such persons as the parliament should appoint to receive them, upon the conditions which they had lately offered." The negotiation seems to have in some degree influenced the confederates at Kilkenny, who, to prevent it from being concluded, held out offers of an accommodation, but proposed terms utterly inconsistent with their ever being entertained by the marquess: they proposed a junction of force, retaining to themselves the full command of their own armies, independent of the lord-lieutenant: they insisted on full possession of the church and ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the protestant quarters, together with possession of the towns and garrisons. These conditions were not however put into writing, and were rejected at once by the marquess. Soon after they made a second proposal, founded on the same basis, offering to assist the marquess against the parliament, but adding, that they should insist on the propositions lately voted in the assembly: this letter was only signed by four bishops, and four other members of the nuncio's party. The treaty with the parliament was with some delays and difficulties unnecessary to mention, carried to its conclusion.

Having discharged his duty to Ireland, by a treaty of which the principal condition was, that the protestants were to be protected in their estates and persons, as well as all recusants who had not assisted the rebels: the next consideration was the discharge of his duty to the king: with this view the marquess added some further conditions, by which he was to be empowered to take with him such leaders as should be willing to follow his fortunes, with 5000 foot and 500 horse. This was agreed to by the commissioners, and also by the lords, but afterwards rejected by a vote of the commons. On this condition the marquess had offered to relinquish £10,000 of the sum laid out by him for the garrisons, and for which he had demanded a partial reimbursement. This latter demand of the marquess has also been seized as a

matter of scandal by the party historians; and of all the base and unconscionable sacrifices of truth and common sense for the purpose of historical misrepresentation we can recollect, it is the most impudent. It was but a few weeks before the conclusion of the treaty with the parliamentary commissioners, that the marquess, who had spent every penny he could obtain in the maintenance of the garrison, was compelled to borrow so small a sum as sixty pounds to relieve the garrison at Wicklow. When he had first proposed to treat with the parliament, at the time when O'Neile and Preston had marched to Lucan on their way to Dublin, with 14,000 men, he borrowed large sums, with a promise of payment before he should quit the government: this engagement was public, the accounts were audited by Sir James Ware, they were also examined by public commissioners, who certified that the sums disbursed amounted to £13,877 13s. 4d. The same council represented to the marquess, that he was entitled to demand the much larger sums which he had previously spent on the war, together with the pay and salary due to his appointments, of which he had never received any thing; and some compensation for the large arrears of rent due on his estate, so long in the hands of the rebels. The marquess however disclaimed all merely personal considerations, and only insisted on the sums necessary for the liquidation of the public debt.

The marquess was deceived by the promises of parliament; he was compelled to leave the marchioness in Dublin, to receive and pay a sum of £3000, which was to have been paid on the spot, and for which his creditors were most clamorous. The commissioners put him off with unaccepted bills, telling him that he should not be the sufferer by their not being accepted, and asking him to trust to the faith and honour of parliament. But a considerable sum of this money was never paid. The whole treaty was marked by the hard overreaching and peremptory temper of the parliamentary party, and brought to a conclusion on the 28th September, 1647, when the marquess embarked on board of a frigate, commanded by captain Matthew Wood, and landed in Bristol a few days after.

From this he went to the king, who was then a prisoner at Hampton court, and in a strong and clear memorial stated the entire history of the previous events which had decided his own conduct: a statement yet affording the most authentic history of the facts to which it refers, and confirmed by all authoritative statements of the opposite party which were given by contemporary writers. After remaining for some months in England, the activity of the marquess in his continued efforts to repair the fallen fortunes of the king, and to reorganize his broken and scattered party, made him the subject of considerable suspicion and watchfulness to the parliament leaders. His creditors were also beginning to be more urgent, and, it was evident that this circumstance could be used by his political enemies to put him into confinement in the most ready and unquestionable way. He soon received information that a warrant had been sent out for his arrest: on receiving this intelligence he crossed the country to Hastings, and sailed for France. Having landed at Dieppe, he proceeded to Paris, and there he waited upon queen Henrietta. Among other slight

occurrences at this time, it is mentioned that when he visited the countess of Glamorgan, to whom he had formerly been a suitor before his marriage with his cousin, she resenting his supposed interference to prevent the earl of Glamorgan from being made governor of Ireland, met him with an air of offended dignity, and when, according to the fashion of the time, the marquess approached to kiss her cheek, she turned haughtily away, on which he made a respectful bow and said calmly—" really madam, this would have troubled me eighteen years ago."

The more moderate of the confederates were alarmed by the departure of the marquess from Ireland: they now for the first time began to see the tremendous oversight they had committed in their opposition to the royal party, and in their perfidious and blind hostility to his lieutenant. Among the various motives by which they had been actuated, ambition, party feeling, and religious zeal, they had omitted to perceive, that their interests were inextricably bound up in those of the king that there was nothing between them and the irresistible power and the relentless will of the English parliament but the resistance which it had experienced or had reason to apprehend from the loyalists. These being subdued, and the parliamentary authority settled into some form of civil organization, it was to be apprehended upon no distant or difficult grounds, that a well-appointed and overpowering force would be directed to crush together the wretched hordes of marauders, by the courtesy of history alone called armies,— which infested the country, and cowed each other. The first report of the treaty of the marquess communicated an electric sense of this to the better portion of the confederates, and many were the efforts made to detain him when it was too late. Sir R. Talbot, Beling, and Preston, endeavoured by an application through lord Digby, to prevail upon him to remain a little longer, but the time was then past. The mere report of the parliamentary troops being admitted into Dublin was enough to disperse the congregated banners of Preston and O'Neile at Lucan.

On the departure of the marquess the condition of anarchy to which the country was reduced continued to increase. The parliamentary leaders had not yet matured their plans at home, and had no leisure to turn their attention upon the affairs of Ireland: it seemed enough to occupy the government, and preserve matters from taking any turn hostile to their interests. The small means which they applied for this purpose were sufficient; without allaying the desperate confusion of the country, they infused additional division, and by various successes weakened the authority of some, and gained the alliance of others. Under these circumstances, we do not feel it necessary to go into any detail of the events which occurred in the short interval of this first absence of the marquess: the main particulars belong to other memoirs in which they have already met sufficient notice. Jones held Dublin for the parliament: his coarse and stern manners offended the citizens, who compared his reserve with the accessible and universal courtesy of the marquess, of whom it was commonly remarked, that it was more easy for the humblest citizen to reach him in his closet, than to approach Jones in the public street. O'Neile terrified all