can establish, beyond contradiction, the absolute and unqualified perjury of so many of the witnesses, who swear positively to impossibilities, or to tales of "what this body heard another body say,"434 and, above all, when such a man as Sir William Petty boasted that he "had witnesses that would swear through a three-inch board,' we are warranted in rejecting even that small portion of the evidence which wears a plausible appearance; for it would be extraordinary, if none of the jurers could tell a consistent story. per Those who have felt an interest in the support of fraud and imposture; whose blind prejudices rendered them insensible to the forgeries and perjuries on which Temple's history is grounded; or, to give their conduct a more favourable construction, who perhaps had never examined his book, have endeavoured to secure it a reputation and currency of which it is utterly unworthy. The most remarkable instances are William, bishop of Derry, about a century since, and a certain Francis Maseres, of the Inner Temple, of recent date. The former introduces Temple, in a strain of encomium suitable for a Livy or a Tacitus. "This great man," says he, "carries his story no further than the landing of Sir Simon Harcourt."435 We shall soon hold "this great man" *"Sir William Petty bragged, that he had got witnesses who would have sworn through a three-inch board to evict the duke."456 434 Warner, 146. 435 Derry, 55. 436 Carte, II. 393. up to the unqualified scorn of every liberal mind, and place in its proper light the fraud or the folly of the lord bishop of Derry. Maseres, who has recently republished "May's History of the Long Parliament," pronounces the most extravagant encomiums on Temple,* the "authenticity" of whose "excellent history of the Irish rebellion," is, he says, "above all suspicion." We would fondly hope, for the sake of their own reputation, that neither the bishop of Derry nor Mr. Maseres had read Temple's history, but had taken its character on trust; for it may be safely averred, that no man who has read it, or even those disgusting specimens which are here exhibited, can give the least credit to it, unless he be blind and deaf to the most common rules *"Our loss on this occasion may be in some degree repaired, with respect to the state of Ireland during those two years, or at least during the first part of them, by having recourse to the excellent History of the Irish Rebellion and Massacre, in October, 1641, written by Sir John Temple, who was master of the rolls in Ireland, and a member of the king's Privy Council in Dublin, at the very time of its breaking out, and took a zealous and active part in the measures that were immediately employed for the preservation of that important city. This account of that horrid event is universally allowed to be perfectly true and authentick!! and is indeed made up, in a great degree, of the depositions of several persons who were eye-witnesses! of the various assaults, murders, and robberies of the poor Protestants, by their perfidious Popish neighbours, with whom they had been living in the most friendly and unsuspecting familiarity for almost forty years. Its authenticity is therefore, above all suspicion ! ! !"437 437 May, xiii. of evidence; and no man who has so read it, will pretend to believe it, unless he means to delude and deceive. These strong assertions require equally strong support: no other would bear us out, or warrant the use of them. We trust we shall satisfy the most fastidious reader, that, however pointed our reprobation of Temple's history, it is very far from over-strained. It will be an eternal subject of astonishment, how it has happened, that a lying legend, which carried a load of perjury sufficient "to sink a seventy-four," was ever able to support itself, and was not, with its wretched author, "Damned to everlasting" infamy. No reason would be sufficient, short of what we have already stated; that the confiscation of 10,000,000 acres of the soil of Ireland, projected by the London adventurers, sanctioned by the Long Parliament,* and in a great measure carried into effect by Oliver Cromwell, depended for its justification on this history, which interested so many thousands in the support of it, that, had it been incomparably more fabulous than it really is, their influence, particularly as they have, ever since its first appearance, been the dominant party in Ireland, would have rescued it from the noisome pool of shame, disgrace, and oblivion, into which it would otherwise have been precipitated. * Supra, 64, 65. I. Hearsay evidence. The reader will find, in the annexed notes,* full and complete corroboration of all our allega "The examination of dame Butler, who, being duly sworn, deposeth that "She was credibly informed by Dorothy Renals, who had been several times an eye-witness of these lamentable spectacles, that she had seen to the number of five and thirty English going to execution; and that she had seen them when they were executed, their bodies exposed to devouring ravens, and not afforded so much as burial. "And this deponent saith, That Sir Edward Butler did credibly inform her, that James Butler, of Finyhinch, had hanged and put to death all the English that were at Goran and Wells, and all thereabouts!!! "Jane Jones, servant to the deponent, did see the English formerly specified going to their execution; and, as she conceived, they were about the number of thirty-five; and was told by Elizabeth Home, that there were forty gone to execution. Jurat. Sept. 7, 1642. ANNE BUTLER.' 99438 "Thomas Fleetwood, late curate of Killbeggan, in the county of Westmeath, deposeth, That he hath heard from the mouths of the rebels themselves of great cruelties acted by them. And, for one instance, that they stabbed the mother, one Jane Addis by name, and left her little sucking child, not a quarter old, by the corpse, and then they put the breast of its dead mother into its mouth, and bid it suck, English bastard,' and so left it there to perish. Jurat. March 22, 1642."439 "Richard Bourk, bachelor in divinity, of the county of Fermanagh, deposeth, That he heard, and verily believeth, the burning and killing of one hundred, at least, in the castle of Tullah, and that the same was done after fair quarter promised. Jurat. July 12, 1643,"440 438 Temple, 116, 117. 439 Idem, 107. 440 Idem, 84. tions. They speak their own condemnation, and shed confusion and disgrace on those who have "William Parkinson, of Castle-Cumber, in the county Kilkenny, gent. deposeth, That by the credible report, both of English and some Irish, who affirmed they were eye-witnesses of a bloody murder committed near Kilfeal, in the Queen's county, upon an Englishman, his wife, four or five children, and a maid, all which were hanged, by the command of Sir Morgan Cavanagh and Robert Harpool, and afterwards put all in one hole, the youngest child being not fully dead, put out the hand, and cried Mammy, Mammy, when without mercy they buried him alive. Jurat. February 11, 1642."441 "Owen Frankland, of the city of Dublin, deposeth, That Michael Garray told this deponent, that there was a Scotchman, who being driven by the rebels out of Newry, and knocked on the head by the Irish, recovered himself, and came again into the town naked, whereupon the rebels carried him and his wife out of the town, cut him all to pieces, and with a skein ripped his wife's belly, so as a child dropped out of her womb. Jurat. July 23, 1642.' 99442 "Alexander Creighton, of Glaslough, in the county of Monaghan, gent. deposeth, That he heard it credibly reported among the rebels aforesaid, at Glaslough, that Hugh Mac O'Degan, a priest, had done a most meritorious act, in drawing betwixt forty and fifty English and Scotch, in the parish of Gonally, in the county of Fermanagh, to reconciliation with the church of Rome; and, after giving them the sacrament, demanded of them whether Christ's body was really in the sacrament or no? and they said, Yea. And that he demanded further, Whether they held the pope to be supreme head of the church? They likewise answered, He was. And that thereupon he presently told them, They were in good faith, and for fear they should fall from it, and turn heretics, he and the rest that were with him cut all their throats. Jurat. March 1, 1642."44 441 Temple, 87. 442 Idem, 89. 443 Idem, 100. |