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CHAPTER V.

State of Ireland, under James I. and Charles I. previous to 1641. Awful credulity or impos ture. Rancorous spirit of persecution. Sacrilegious burglary and robbery, by the archbishop, mayor, and recorder of Dublin.

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

PREVIOUS to entering on the discussion of the insurrection of 1641, it is highly proper to cast a glance on the state of the nation previous to that event.

In order to aggravate as much as possible the guilt of the Irish, in what is styled "the execrable rebellion of 1641," and more completely to expose them to detestation, almost every writer, who has either professedly treated this subject, or touched it incidentally, has drawn a most flattering picture of the peace, prosperity, and happiness of Ireland, for forty previous years. It requires no deep research to discover, that the motive is to inspire a belief, that the insurrection was as wanton and unprovoked in its origin, as they have endeavoured to make it appear barbarous and sanguinary in its progress.

In this object they have been crowned with success for the general impression is, that Ireland, during the reigns of James I. and his son Charles I. enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, to which she has been an utter stranger, from the day of the invasion by Henry II. when lust and faction laid the island prostrate at the feet of a foreign foe, to the present hour.

Sir John Temple first broached this deceptious tale. He states, that for forty years the two nations had lived together in peace, and been consolidated into one body, as one nation; that the Roman Catholics enjoyed the private exercise of their religious rites without molestation; and that none of the penalties of the laws against their religion were inflicted.*

"The two nations had now lived together forty years in peace, with great security and comfort, which had in a manner consolidated them into one body, knit and compacted together with all those bonds and ligatures of friendship, alliance, and consanguinity, as might make up a constant and perpetual union between them.

"Their priests, Jesuits, and friars, without any manner of restraint, had quietly settled themselves in all the chief towns, villages, noblemen's and private gentlemen's houses, throughout the kingdom: so as the private exercise of ALL THEIR RELIGIOUS RITES AND CEREMONIES was freely enjoyed by them, without any manner of disturbance, and not any of the laws put in execution, whereby heavy penalties were to be inflicted upon transgressors in that kind."

113 Temple, 15.

97113

This statement is copied and enlarged, by Clarendon,* Carte,† Warner, and Leland. They

*"Taxes, tallages, and contributions were things hardly known to them by their names. Whatsoever their land, labour, or industry produced was their own, being not only free from fear of having it taken from them by the king, upon any pretence whatsoever, without their own consent; but also secured against thieves and robbers, by due execution of good laws, that men might and did travel over all the parts of the kingdom, with great sums of money, unguarded and unconcealed.

"The whole nation enjoyed an undisturbed exercise of their religion: and even in Dublin, where the seat of the king's chief governor was, they went as publicly and uninterruptedly to their devotions, as he went to his. The bishops, priests, and all degrees and orders of secular and regular clergy, were known to be, and exercise their functions amongst them: and though there were some laws against them still in force, which necessity and the wisdom of former ages had caused to be enacted, to suppress those acts of treason and rebellion which the people frequently fell into, and the policy of present times kept unrepealed, to prevent the like distempers and designs, yet the edge of those laws was so totally rebated by the clemency and compassion of the king, that No MAN COULD SAY

HE HAD SUFFERED PREJUDICE OR DISTURBANCE ON AC

COUNT OF HIS RELIGION, which is another kind of indulgence than subjects professing a faith contrary to what is established by the law of the land, can boast of in any other kingdom of the world. In this blessed condition of peace and security, the English and Irish, the Protestants and Roman Catholics, lived mingled together in all the provinces of the kingdom, quietly trafficking with one another, during the whole happy reign of James: and from his death, every degree of their happiness was increased and improved under the government of his late majesty."119

"The kingdom had enjoyed a continued peace of near forty years, during which the ancient animosities between the Irish

119 Clarendon's I. 7, 8.

freely borrow not merely each other's sentiments, but their very phraseology. Lord Clarendon and Warner go much farther than the others; who, so far as religion is concerned in the question, only assert that the private exercise of it was permitted; whereas, lord Clarendon asserts, in the most unqualified manner, that the whole nation enjoyed an undisturbed exercise of their religion and even in Dublin, they went as publicly and as uninterruptedly to their devotions, as the king's chief governor himself to his. Warner borrows this sentiment from lord Clarendon, but qualifies it in a small degree. He says "they went, though not as publicly, yet as uninterruptedly, as the governor to their devotions."120

To this statement, the doctor makes, with Clarendon, this extraordinary addition; that "the edge of the laws against the Roman Catholics was so totally rebated by the lenity of the government, that not a single man could say that he had suffered any prejudice or disturbance for

and the English seemed to have been buried, and both nations cemented, and as it were consolidated together, by intermarriages, alliances, consanguinity, gossippings, and fosterings, (the two last being relations of great force and dearness among the Irish) and by a continued intercourse of acts of hospitality, service, and friendship: lands had been improved, traffic increased, and the kingdom in general raised to a more flourishing condition than it had ever known. THE ROMAN CATHOLICS ENJOYED THE QUIET EXERCISE OF THEIR RELIGION, IN A PRIVATE WAY."121

120 Warner, 2.

121 Carte, I. 153.

his religion." It is hoped that the reader will bear this averment strongly in memory, throughout the succeeding pages, as well as lord Clarendon's "undisturbed exercise:" and I shall be most miserably disappointed, if the facts to be laid before him do not impair, if not wholly destroy, his confidence in the noble as well as the reverend writer.

Neither Temple's nor Clarendon's histories furnish any contradiction of these sweeping statements; so that, though erroneous, they are not inconsistent with themselves. But the declarations of Carte, Warner, and Leland, are in the most direct hostility with facts adduced throughout their own works: and, however extraordinary it may appear, my principal, if not my sole reliance for their overwhelming refutation, shall be on these three writers themselves. This is another instance of a peculiar feature in Irish history, which I have already noticed, that the facts and inductions of the writers, even of those most celebrated, frequently destroy each other. Either the facts must be wholly unfounded, or the inductions unwarranted.

The happiness, of which we have read such glowing descriptions, may be regarded under various points of view. Passing over those of minor importance, I shall confine myself to the four principal,

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