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knowledge of those whom it toucheth. But as touching judgment and punishment of the neuters, we leave it to the ordinaries of every place respectively, so that the ordinaries themselves be not contrary to the judgment and opinion of this congregation; in which cause we commit power to the metropolitans or archbishops to proceed against such ordinaries, according to the common course of law, wherein they are to be very careful and speedy; and if the metropolitans be found herein careless or guilty, let them be liable to such punishment as is ordained by the holy canons, and let them be accused to the see apostolick.

"18th. We ordain a decree tnat all and every such as from the beginning of this present war, have invaded the possessions of goods as well moveable as unmoveable, spiritual or temporal of any catholick, whether Irish or English, or also of any Irish protestant being not adversary of this cause, and to detain any such goods, shall be excommunicated.

"20th. We will and declare all those that murther, dismember, or grievously strike, all thieves, unlawful spoilers, robbers of any goods, extorters, together with all such as favour, receive, or any ways assist them, to be excommunicated, and so to remain, until they completely amend, and satisfy no less than if they were namely proclaimed excommunicated, and for satisfaction of such crimes hitherto committed to be enjoined, we leave to the discretion of the ordinaries and confessors how to absolve them.

"21st. Tradesmen for making weapons, or powder brought into this country, or hereafter to be brought in, shall be free from all taxations or customs; as also all merchants as shall transport into this country such wares as are profitable for the catholick cause, as arms and powder, may lawfully traffick without paying any custom, for commodities brought out of this kingdom, or transported hither of that kind; and let this be proclaimed in all provinces, cities, and towns.

"22d. We think it convenient, that in the next national congregation, some be appointed out of the nobility and clergy, as ambassadors to be sent in the behalf of the whole kingdom, unto the kings of France and Spain, to the Emperor, and his Holiness, and those to be of the church prelates, or one of the nobility and a lawyer."

In addition to these resolutions, which present a fair view of the political opinions and general character of the party from whom they came, a further view is to be obtained of their more immediate and personal object, from certain propositions specified in an oath of association framed at this meeting, and designed to be taken by all confederates of their party. In this are stated as objects to be maintained by the swearer, that the Roman catholic religion was to be restored to its full splendour and lustre, as it was in the reign of Henry VII. That all penal and restrictive laws were to be annulled—and that "all primates, archbishops, bishops, ordinaries, deans, deans and chapters, archdeacons, chancellors, treasurers, chaunters, provosts, wardens of collegiate churches, prebendaries, and other dignitaries, parsons, vicars, and other pastors of the Roman catholick secular clergy, and their respective successors, shall, have, hold, and enjoy, all the churches and church-livings, in as large and ample manner, as the late protestant

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clergy respectively enjoyed the same on the 1st day of October, in the year of our Lord 1641; together with all the profits, emoluments, perquisites, liberties, and the rights to their respective sees and churches, belonging as well in all places, now in the possession of the confederate catholicks, as also in all other places that shall be recovered by the said confederate catholicks from the adverse party, within this kingdom, saving to the Roman catholick laity their rights, according to the law of the land."

The assembly of the lords and deputies from the counties was the immediate result of the arrangements made by the congregation of prelates; in conformity with the intent of their summoners they proceeded to pass resolutions to maintain the rights of the church of Rome. They adopted the common law of England and Irish statutes, so far as they were agreeable to their religion, and not contrary to Irish liberty; they confirmed the authority of the king, but declared against that of his Irish government. They then entered into arrangements for the government of the country by their own authority, for then each county was to have its council of twelve, which was to decide all civil causes and to nominate all public officers with the exception of sheriffs. From these councils there lay an appeal to the provincial council, composed of two deputies from each county, to sit four times in the year; and lastly, this council might be appealed from, to the supreme council of twenty-four, elected by the general assembly. This last, was to govern the country and conduct the war. It is only material here to add, that in the very first constitution there is to be discerned an important element of the strong party divisions among the confederates, which are presently to occupy our attention; in adopting the oath of association, which the clerical assembly had prepared for themselves and their party, they rejected the clause already quoted, by which the person swearing was bound not to consent to any peace, until the Roman catholic church should be reinstated in its full splendour. Instead of this, they were content to stipulate for the freedom of their worship. The disposition thus indicated, was quickly shown in the long-continued negotiation for peace and in the cessation, which was presently discussed and settled; but prevented from coming to a definitive settlement by the strenuous and successful manœuvres of the nuncio Rinuncini with the aid of Owen O'Neile.

We come now to Owen O'Neile. He was more indebted to his high reputation, obtained in a long course of foreign service, than to the claim of descent, for the anxious earnestness with which his coming had been sought and his arrival welcomed by his countrymen. In point of lineal pretension to the rank of the O'Neile, to which he for some time appeared to have pretended, his claim was more than balanced by that of Sir Phelim, whose descent, though not derived from the last possessor, was unadulterated by illegitimacy, which affects the line of Colonel Owen at three successive steps, from Con Boccagh to his father Art. While Sir Phelim derived from Owen the grandfather to the same Con Boccagh.

Con, created earl of Tyrone by Henry VII., had, as the reader knows, two sons-the notorious Shane already noticed,* and Matthew,

* Vol. I. p. 251.

a bastard, who was created baron of Dungannon and appointed his successor, but slain at the instigation of Shane. This Matthew left several illegitimate sons, of whom one died, leaving an illegitimate son of his own name, to whom Philip IV. of Spain gave his father's regiment and letters of legitimation, which, however, were to no purpose, sought to be confirmed at Rome. This therefore would seem to be the nearest claim to the representation of the baron of Dungannon. But this person had either too little activity or too much good sense, to prosecute a claim so likely to be productive of more buffets than acres; and died without any effort to regain the honours of his race. Another son of the baron of Dungannon, also illegitimate, had lived to transmit his name by the same questionable title to a son, Art O'Neile, who we are left to presume, broke the custom of the family by leaving a family of sons, born in wedlock; of these Owen was the youngest.

*

Owen served in the Spanish army and obtained early promotion. He was a person of very considerable experience and ability; well versed in the ways of men, brave, cautious, skilful in war, and possessing the manners and habits of a foreign gentleman. Having passed through all the subordinate ranks he was made a colonel, and obtained very distinguished reputation, by his successful defence of Arras, against the French in 1640.

After the violence of the first irregular outbreak was subdued, more by the separate efforts of individuals than by the councils or resources of the government, the insurrection began to subside as suddenly as it had commenced. There was no real strength, or with the exception of those who were the depositaries of a foreign design, no real inclination to continue a strife, of which the loss of life and perty had been so severely felt on either side.

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The state of the rebel chiefs in Ulster was at the point of desperation, when a fresh impulse was given to their hopes, by the news of the arrival of colonel Owen O'Neile, who in the middle of July, landed in Donegal, with arms and ammunition, and one hundred officers. The general effect thus produced was immediate and extensive, and the courage and hopes of the rebels were universally revived. This result was confirmed both by the conduct of Owen O'Neile, and the coincidence of other favourable circumstances; other formidable armaments and supplies, began to crowd in in rapid succession from foreign ports. Of these, two ships arrived in the harbour of Wexford with military stores, and colonel Thomas Preston followed with a ship of the line and two frigates, with a train of artillery, a company of engineers, and five hundred officers. Twelve other vessels soon after arrived with further stores, officers, and men, sent by Richelieu, and disciplined in continental war. The character and consistency of the rebel force, was thus at once raised to a military footing; while the English had deteriorated in an equal degree. The increasing dissensions between the king and parliament were on the point of breaking into war; the powers on either side were collecting into a state of anxious and watchful concentration; neither men nor money could be spared, nor was there a thought to be bestowed on Ireland farther than, as it

* Carte, L. 349.

might in any way be the excuse for preparation, or the pretext for levies. The Irish government, and the commanders, who had hitherto kept a superiority under all disadvantages in the field, had exhausted their efforts, and were quite unprepared for this fresh infusion of vigour in the rebel party. The rebels, besides being well supplied, commanded the channel, seized the supplies, and cut off the trade of Dublin and every other port within the reach of their cruisers.

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O'Neile had the double advantage of caution and decision, he wasted no time in inactivity, but at once advanced to take advantage of these favourable circumstances. He was "a man of clear head and good judgment, sober, moderate, silent, excellent in disguising his sentiments, and well versed in the arts and intrigues of courts.' On his arrival a meeting was held at Kinard, the castle of Sir Phelim, where he was unanimously declared their head by the rebel gentry of Ulster, a post soon confirmed by the council of Kilkenny. The first step he took was creditable to him, but must have been galling to the pride of Sir Phelim. He publicly declared his horror and detestation of the robberies and massacres, which till then had been the main conduct of the rebellion, and most of all of Sir Phelim. Colonel O'Neile told his sanguinary and brutal kinsman, that, he deserved to receive himself the cruelties he had inflicted; he burned the houses of several of the notorious murderers at Kinard, where Sir Phelim had collected a ruffian vicinity around his house, stained as it was by every detestable outrage against the laws of God and man. He next addressed himself to fortify Charlemont fort, against an expected siege. When describing the reduced condition of the government, and the destitution of the English of all present means of resistance, we should perhaps not have omitted to estimate the large force of general Monroe, who at the head of ten thousand Scots, occupied a strong position in Carrickfergus, and held the command of Ulster; but the reasons for this omission will presently appear. Monroe had his own objects independent of the settlement of Irish affairs, or he had his orders from those who had an opposite purpose; without this allowance his conduct was such as to betray no small incapacity for offensive warfare. He avoided all direct interference when it might have been of decisive avail, and contented himself with the seizure of such forts and castles as might be effected without any risk; and we cannot doubt that, the agreement by which they were thus put into possession of the strongest and most important province of this island, was altogether designed to circumvent and embarrass the king, to overrule any circumstances from which he might hope to derive an advantage, and to occupy the ground for the future designs of the parliamentary leaders. True to this convention, Monroe steadily resisted the demonstrations in favour of the royal cause, seized on the known adherents of the king, refused all aid to the government leaders, and let the rebels do as they pleased, so long as this course was compatible with his own safety and the designs of his real party, the parliamentarians of England.

In the month of August he was joined by lord Leven, with

* Carte.

the remainder of the stipulated army from Scotland. Lord Leven addressed a letter to O'Neile, in which he expressed his astonishment that one of his rank and respectable reputation, should have come to Ireland to support a cause so bad. O'Neile replied, that he had a better right to defend his own country, than his lordship to march into England against his king.

Lord Leven's exploits were limited to this effort of diplomacy, he returned to Scotland, having assured Monroe that he would be defeated if once O'Neile should get an army together. Before his departure he refused to permit the removal of the government stores from Carrickfergus. This act of opposition, with the continued inaction of the Scotch under Monroe, was perhaps correctly interpreted by the Irish when they assumed, that there was nothing to be apprehended from Monroe, with his ten thousand Scots and an equal force of English and Irish troops; he lay still, and suffered O'Neile to make all his arrangements, and to collect and discipline his army till the following spring. In the mean time the army under Monroe was not improving in its condition. The parliament, which merely designed to overawe the country and to hold it in occupation, were sparing in their supplies: the regiments of Stewart, Cole, &c., who had commanded in the king's name, were altogether excluded from the commission of parliament, and received no pay during that year, in which their nearly unsupported efforts had actually suppressed the rebellion. The rebels were better provided for by the continual supplies from abroad; on the 20th of October, two thousand muskets came from the pope to Wexford, of which five hundred were sent by the council of Kilkenny to O'Neile.

In this general state of things, the remainder of the year 1642 passed away. The rebels were obtaining strength in most quarters; and the English officers who have already appeared in many severe toils and brave achievements, were with their own unsupported and impoverished resources, maintaining a doubtful, but brave and skilful resistance, about the counties of the ancient pale. Efforts such as they made to obtain money, were met by promises which were not kept. The parliament which had no wish either to part with means or to end the rebellion, artfully directed applications to the king, which were brought forward by their own adherents, in the obvious hope of inducing him to waste his means on the rebellion, as well as to compromise himself on one side or the other. For the rebels had assumed the place of loyalists, and a little backwardness on the part of his majesty might be interpreted into a formidable accusation, while the contrary course must have the effect of involving him in fresh hostility, and a ruinous division of his resources. Of these incidents we shall have to bring forward large details.

Monroe lay still till the next May; but, finding his resources fast diminishing, and feeling himself pressed by approaching necessities, while the growth of a formidable enemy was beginning to control his motions, he was at length incited to effort. He had wasted and impoverished the country round Carrickfergus, and now hoped to obtain relief by the surprise of O'Neile; with this purpose he marched his army with fast and secret expedition into Armagh. Owen O'Neile

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