the great and little vulgar, are so ridiculous, so absurd, and so utterly improbable, that, at the present day, they would not impose on a gang of swine-herds. Previous to entering into the examination and detection of the miserable pretended conspiracy of 1641, which led to scenes of horror, desolation, and massacre of the Irish, that chill the blood in the veins, we shall present the reader with a few facts, to satisfy him that the fabrication of pretended plots was a regular trade, pursued upon a most extensive scale; was one of the levers by which the movements of the political machine were regulated; and that consistency, coherence, probability, or even possibility, were not necessary to ensure its success. We have already established the efficacy of this infamous system, in producing confiscation in Ireland; and how thousands were involved in ruin, and their posterity for ages consigned to poverty, by the dropping of a wretched catchpenny letter. We have shown, that after Tyrone, a nobleman of high grade and princely possessions among the Irish, had rendered important services to the state, and received a wound, fighting in its defence against his own countrymen, he was almost immediately charged with a conspiracy, on grounds the most frivolous and contemptible, merely from the lust of spoliating his immense estate; and that the same vile course was pursued with Shane O'Neal, whose estate was finally confiscated, after he was basely assassinated, at the instigation of the lord deputy, who publicly paid the assassin the price of his infamy, and thus stamped a brand of eternal infamy on his name, which all the cataracts of the Niagara could never efface.* The low herd of hardened wretches, who perjured themselves by swearing to those plots, as well as those of the higher orders, equally hardened, who suborned them for this execrable purpose,† felt no "compunctious visitings" of remorse, that torrents of blood were occasionally shed, through the means of their perjuries. "Their conscience, wide as hell,"295 suffered no nausea at the immolation of hosts of innocent victims on the bloody altars of their ambition, their avarice, and their vengeance. Many of the instruments used on those occasions, were the basest and most wicked of man *“On a signal given, the soldiers rushed in; butchered the wretched guests; and buried their weapons in O'Neal, The intelligence of his death was conveyed to the lord deputy by Piers, who sent his head to Dublin, and RECEIVED ONE THOUSAND MARKS AS HIS REWARD."'296 "Leaders so little scrupulous, as to endeavour, by encouraging perjury, subornation, lies, imposture, and even by shedding innocent blood, to gratify their own furious ambition."297 295 Shakspeare. 296 Leland, II. 286, 287. kind,*-wretches elaborated, in prisons, in stews, and other hot-beds and nurseries of villany, to the last degree of turpitude of which man is capable. Their stories were so contradictory, that the falsehood and perjury were manifest to the most cursory observer: but such was the general depravity and delusion of the times, and such the devouring thirst for the blood of the victims, that no profligacy in the witnesses, no contradiction, no improbability, no impossibility in the evidence, no degree of immaculate innocence in the objects of their rage and malice, could save them from destruction. Accusation and condemnation were, in almost every instance, synonimous terms. "Oates, the informer of this dreadful plot, was himself THE MOST INFAMOUS OF MANKIND. He was the son of an Anabaptist preacher, chaplain to colonel Pride; but having taken orders in the church, he had been settled in a small living by the duke of Norfolk. He had been indicted for perjury, and by some means had escaped. He was afterwards a chaplain on board the fleet, whence he had been dismissed, on complaint of some unnatural practices, not fit to be named."298 "Such bountiful encouragement brought forth new witnesses. William Bedlow, a man, if possible, more infamous than Oates, appeared next upon the stage. He was of very low birth; had been noticed for several cheats, and even thefts; had travelled over many parts of Europe, under borrowed names; and frequently passed himself for a man of quality, and had endeavoured, by a variety of lies and contrivances, to prey upon the ignorant and unwary.' 298 Hume, IV. 315. "299 299 Idem, 322. In those days, conspirators were accustomed, if we believe the depositions of some of the plotcontrivers, to stand in the open streets and highways, and converse about their conspiracies and treasons, as publicly and unreservedly as at present we convey to each other the intelligence of the price of stocks, the state of the weather, or any of those important nothings which form so large a portion of what is called conversation. This free and easy system was quite convenient to the informers, as it saved them much trouble in searching for evidence. On one occasion, the English House of Lords was alarmed by the important information given by an Italian, that he heard an Irishman, in the street, inform a certain Francisco, IN ITALIAN, that a plot was laid to kill some members of that House, particularly the earls of Northumberland, Essex, Holland, &c.* The House of Lords attach *“Jan. 11, 1641-2. This day, one Francis Moor, an Italian, gave in an information to the House of Lords, That yesterday he stood talking with an Irishman, who lives with the lord viscount Loftus, in the street, and overheard ONE BRIAN KELLY, AN IRISHMAN, servant to the earl of Arundel, SPEAK IN ITALIAN [!] to one Signior Francisco, an Italian, and say, That there was a plot laid to kill some lords of the Parliament; and in particular named the earl of Northumberland, the earl of Essex, the earl of Holland, the earl of Pembroke, and the earl of Leicester. "Hereupon, it is ordered, That the said Brian Kelly and Signior Francisco shall be forthwith apprehended, and attached by the gentleman usher attending this house, and brought as delinquents to the bar, and charged with the words; Kelly ed great importance to the affair, and summoned the parties to the bar: but it ended in smoke, after the purposes for which it had been fabricated were answered. The Irishman being so polite as to speak to his brother conspirator. in Italian, it is highly probable that the latter, not to be outdone in politeness, replied in Gælic or Irish. But, as the historian is silent on the subject, I would not be understood as committing myself, by any thing more than suggesting it as plausible,-leaving it to the better judgment of the reader to decide. But, of all the informers of those days, a certain 'Thomas Beal, a taylor, merited the palm. None of the confraternity could stand a comparison with him. He gave minute details of a plot, in which one hundred and eight persons had engaged to murder as many members of Parliament. The wages they were to receive for this pleasant and amusing business, were very moderate, particularly for the commons, who were not valued at more than twenty per cent. of the lords. The latter were to be paid for at the rate of ten pounds per man: but the poor members of the Lower House were valued at only forty shillings. The feats were to be performed as the members were coming down stairs from the denied that he ever spake any such words. Thereupon Moor was called in to confront him, and upon oath averred what he had formerly informed."300 300 Nalson, II. 843. |