This trick of fabricating plots, and dropping letters to betray them, had been long in use, and was continued through the entire century.* It

* This trick was successfully carried into operation, during the administration of the marquis of Ormond, after the restoration, and excited such an alarm in the public mind, and such a terror and abhorrence of the Roman Catholics, that they were completely defeated in their attempts to procure redress of their grievances, or restoration of the property of which they had been despoiled. For this express purpose it was devised.t

"The Papists (under his government) were in no apprehensions of extirpation or other violent measures, the dread of which had hurried them into the late rebellion. This moderation of the lord lieutenant was not agreeable to some persons, who possibly imagining that he might be driven out of it by the danger of assassination, dropped letters in the streets of Dublin, intimating a conspiracy formed for murdering his grace; and several pretended to give an account of what they had heard or suspected of such a design."178

"A letter addressed by an unknown person to lord Mount Alexander, in the county of Down, warned him of a general massacre intended by the Irish. The style was mean and vulgar; nor was the information on that account less plausible. It was confident and circumstantial; and pointed out Sunday, the ninth day of December, as the precise time when this bloody design was to be executed, without distinction of sex, age, or condition. The like intelligence was conveyed to some other gentlemen of the northern province : and whether these letters were the contrivance of artifice, or the effect of credulity, their influence was wonderful."179

178 Carte, II. 481.

179 Leland, IV. 229.

forms an important feature in the history of the oppressions of the Irish, as it was a potent and infallible instrument to crush and destroy them. It therefore requires a particular discussion, which it is my intention to bestow on it, in a future part of this work.

Let it suffice, so far as respects the present question, that means were used to terrify the earls, who, in consequence, fled the kingdom.

In this flight there is something mysterious, which, at this distance of time and place, and in the wretched state of Irish history, it is impossible to develop. The earls might have been guilty, and have fled through consciousness of their crimes but it is to the last degree unlikely; for, as Leland observes, "It seems extraordinary, that the northerns, who were still smarting under the chastisement they had received in the late rebellion, whose consequence and influence were considerably diminished, and who were very lately reconciled to government, should precipitately involve themselves in the guilt of a new rebellion."180 And it will not be denied, that, if they were guilty, there would have been some evidence to substantiate their guilt, which never was produced for it is hardly within possibility, that a plot of so great magnitude as was pretended, should have existed, without affording such evidence. James I. finding the clamour that was

180 Leland, II. 498.

excited in Europe, by the merciless spoliations and depredations practised in Ulster, issued a proclamation, in which he lavished the most scurrilous abuse on the earls, utterly destitute of truth. He charged them, among other things, with regarding "murder as no fault, marriage of no use, nor any man worthy to be esteemed valiant, that did not glory in rapine or oppression."181 This tirade is as excessively gross and unseemly, as it is wholly destitute of truth, and is a disgrace to the memory of the royal pedant. There never was a period in Ireland, that could justify this Billingsgate attack.

Dr. Leland, assuming that the earls published no vindication of themselves, seems disposed to infer from thence, that their silence arose from the consciousness of their guilt, which made them acquiesce in the justice of their fate. But there is no satisfactory proof of this silence: for the non-appearance of such a vindication, above an hundred and thirty years afterwards, in the time of Leland, is by no means to be admitted as a proof, or even a presumption, that it was not published; and far less will it warrant the inference that the doctor is willing to draw from it. Rapin states, that they "gave out that the outrages committed on the Catholics had induced them to leave their country. 9182 He does not state in what form they "gave out" this defence: 182 Rapin, VIII. 69.

181 Leland, II. 500

whether orally or in a written vindication. The latter, however, is the more probable course. But we have no proof that this was the reason they "gave out" for their flight: it rests on the single declaration of Rapin; and the various instances we have seen of the characteristic infidelity and illiberality of the historians of Irish affairs, in plain and simple points, impose on us an imperious duty to receive their accounts with great circumspection, in cases involved in difficulty or uncertainty.

On this question, the reasoning of Dr. Curry is so strong and conclusive, that there needs no apology for laying it before the reader :

“The king himself was so apprehensive that this affair of the earls might blemish' (as he expresses it, in a proclamation on that occasion) 'the reputation of that friendship which ought to be mutually observed between him and other princes, that he thought it not amiss to publish some such matter, by way of proclamation, as might better clear men's judgments concerning the same.' At the same time solemnly promising 'that it should appear to the world as clear as the sun, by evident proof, that the only ground of these earls' departure, was the private knowledge and inward terror of their own guiltiness.' But neither in that proclamation, nor in any other authentic instrument, nor in any manner whatever, did his majesty deign, ever after, to enlighten the world, even with the least glimpse of evident proof, that such was the only motive of these earls' departure.' And I shall leave it to the decision of every candid reader, whether the non-performance of his majesty's solemn promise be not a better negative proof of the nullity and fiction of this conspiracy of the earls, than the bare non-appearance of a memorial in their vindication can be deemed of its reality."183

183 Curry, I. 86.

An account of the discovery of the conspiracy, entirely different from the foregoing, has been published: for the trick of the letter was found to be too gross, and had been worn threadbare. It is stated by Carleton, bishop of Chichester, that the earl of Tyrone having possessed himself of some lands belonging to the bishop of Meath, the latter applied to O'Cahan, one of the conspirators, for information on the subject of those lands, which he promised to furnish. The bishop accordingly brought him to Dublin, to give testimony on the subject. Process was issued against the earl, ordering him to appear in that city, to answer the bishop of Derry's claim,* but without

*“Tyrone, understanding the bishop sought to recover the lands of the bishopric, told the bishop thus much,‘My lord, you have two or three bishoprics, and yet you are not content with them you seek the lands of my earldom.' 'My lord,' quoth the bishop, 'your earldom is swoln so big with the lands of the church, that it will burst, if it be not vented.'

"The bishop, intending in a lawful course to recover the lands lost, found that there was no man could give him better light and knowledge of those things than O'Cane, who had been great with Tyrone; and to make use of him was a matter of difficulty: yet some means being used to him, he came of his own accord to the bishop, and told him that he could help him to the knowledge of that which he sought: but he was afraid of Tyrone. Nay,' said the bishop, I will not trust you; for I know that one bottle of aqua vitæ will draw you from me to Tyrone.'

"Whereupon he took a book, and laid it on his head, saying, ‘Ter luiro, ter luiro,' which, my lord of Meath said, (who told me this story) is one of the greatest kind of affirming a truth which the Irish have: and after this ceremony performed, they keep their promise.