"If it be more needful to dispose of places out of hand, and that it may stand with his majesty's pleasure to fill some of them with Irish that are Protestants, and that have not been for the extirpation of the Papist natives, it will much satisfy both, and cannot justly be excepted against."58 "Mr. Brent landed lately here, and hath brought with him such letters as have somewhat changed the face of this government from what it was, when the Parliament pamphlets were received as oracles, their commands obeyed as laws, and extirpation preached for Gospel."59 "Though extirpation both of nation and religion be not named, yet I conceive it is contrived almost in every proposition; and the consideration thereof confirms me in a full belief of the malicious practices of the Cootes and Ormsbyes, in the county of Roscommon." 9760 "The term of extirpation is worn out here, and the intention not acknowledged to me by the prime authors therein, with whom I have been plain after my blunt way."61 "The reason of their [the justices] advice is founded upon their darling scheme of an extirpation of the old English proprietors, and a general plantation of the whole kingdom with a new colony; for this is the meaning of what they allege, to show it to be "unsafe for his majesty, and destructive to the kingdom, to grant the petitioners' request; as being altogether inconsistent with the means of raising a considerable revenue for his crown, of settling religion and civility in the kingdom; and of establishing a firm and lasting peace, to the honour of his majesty, the safety of his royal posterity, and the comfort of all his faithful subjects."" "By precipitate votes, the two Houses, confiscating all their lands, and making sale of them, cast the whole nation into such a general despair, that if there were any loyal or innocent among them, (which, we may justly fear, were very few) they were forced to take party with those, whom very probably they might abhor."63 58 Carte, III. 226. 59 Idem, 169. 62 Carte, I. 391. 60 Idem, 311. 63 Warwick, 200. These difficulties and considerations were of little weight with the lords justices; who, having got a thin House of Commons to their mind, of persons devoted to their interest and measures, resolved to improve the opportunity offered, and to get such acts passed, as might distress the king, exasperate the bulk of the nation, spread the rebellion, and so promote their darling scheme of extinguishing the old proprietors, and making a new plantation of the kingdom."64 "Such considerations as these were not agreeable to the views of the lords justices, who had set their hearts on the extirpation, not merely of the mere Irish, but likewise of all the old English families that were Roman Catholics, and the making of a new plantation all over the kingdom; in which they could not fail to have a principal share; so all their reasonings, upon all occasions, were calculated and intended to promote that their favourite scheme. "This scheme would have been destroyed, if the rebels in general had submitted, upon the late proclamation; there was a general disposition in those of the Pale, and offers made by the chiefs of them to submit: and nothing was so likely to stop the effects of that disposition, as to treat those, who had actually submitted, in such a manner as to show the rest, that they should receive no favours upon such submission, nor any benefit by his majesty's proclamation. Hence all the gentlemen, who surrendered themselves, were, without being admitted to the presence of the justices, committed to the castle of Dublin; preparations were made for their trial, and designs published of their being prosecuted with the utmost severity. But as the prisoners had never appeared in the field, nor been concerned in any warlike action, there was a want of proper facts wherewith to charge them, and of sufficient witnesses to prove those facts. To supply both these defects, the lords justices had recourse to the rack, a detestable expedient, invented to extort from unhappy prisoners, in the anguish of their pain, or in the terror of the tortures prepared for them, such confessions as those who have the management of that accursed instrument, have a mind to put into their mouths; and therefore 64 Carte, I. 330. justly abhorred by all lovers of liberty, and forbidden by the laws of England."65 "These measures served their own scheme of an extirpation, by racking those gentlemen, whose treatment could not fail of deterring every body from venturing themselves into for the future." power their 9966 "These propositions, for putting the Roman Catholics of Ireland under greater hardships than any they had ever complained of before, incapacitating them from all offices whatever, disabling them from sitting in Parliament, (a privilege which they had always enjoyed, and from which alone they could expect any redress of future grievances) forfeiting all their estates, real and personal, and yet obliging them, when their all was taken from them, to make impossible reparations and satisfactions for losses sustained, and devastations committed, in the war; suppressing their religion, banishing all their clergy, and new planting the kingdom, were evidently calculated to hinder any peace at all; and certainly came from some of that party of men which first formed the design of an extirpation of the Roman Catholics, and, by publishing that design, made the rebellion so general as it proved at last. They all breathed the same spirit; and though extirpation both of nation and religion was not expressly mentioned, yet it seemed to be contrived effectually in all the propositions. They appeared so monstrous and unreasonable, that it was thought they could proceed from nothing but an high degree of madness or malice.' 9967 "There is too much reason to think, that, as the lords justices really wished the rebellion to spread, and more gentlemen of estates to be involved in it, that the forfeitures might be the greater, and a general plantation be carried on by a new set of English Protestants all over the kingdom, to the ruin and expulsion of all the old English and natives that were Roman Catholics; so, to promote what they wished, they gave out speeches upon occasions, insinuating such a design, and that in a short time there would not be a Roman Catholic left in the whole kingdom. It is no small confirmation of this notion, 67 Idem, 502.. 65 Carte, I. 293. 66 Idem, 301. that the earl of Ormond, in his letters of January 27th, and February 25th, 1641-2, to Sir W. St. Leger, imputes the general revolt of the nation, then far advanced, to the publishing of such a design; and when a person of his great modesty and temper, the most averse in his nature to speak his sentiments of what he could not but condemn in others, and who, when obliged to do so, does it always in the gentlest expression, is drawn to express such an opinion, the case must be very notorious. I do not find that the copies of these letters are preserved: but the original of Sir W. St. Leger's, in answer to them, sufficiently shows it to be his lordship's opinion; for, after acknowledging the receipt of these two letters, he useth these words, The undue promulgation of that severe determination, to extirpate the Irish and Papacy out of this kingdom, your lordship rightly apprehends to be too unseasonably published."68 с NOTE III. ON CHAPTER II. P. 35. Thirst for the estates.] Identified with the sanguinary project of "exterminating" the devoted Roman Catholics, the existence of which is fully proved in the preceding note, was that of confiscating the whole of their estates, for the aggrandizement of their sworn enemies. The evidences adduced in support of the exterminating scheme, might suffice to establish that of confiscation. But I wish to "make assurance doubly sure," and shall therefore submit a document, which cannot fail to satisfy the reader, that I have not over-rated the extravagant and rapacious thirst that prevailed with the predominant party in England and Ireland, for the possessions of the Irish Catholics. The insurrection began in Ulster, on the 23d of October, 1641, and did not spread into the other provinces for several weeks nor was it in any degree general, till late in December. Even at that period, there were very large portions of the country, particularly in Connaught and Munster, which were wholly free from rebellion, notwithstanding the efforts of the lords justices to goad them into it. Yet so early as the 16th of February, 1642, (that is, about two months afterwards) a company of adventurers was formed in London, who calculated on the forfeiture of the whole island, except what belonged to the Protestants. This extravagant project is fortunately recorded, at full length, in the Journals of the English House of Commons. These adventurers presented an address to Parliament, stating, that when "the work of reducing the kingdom of Ireland" was "finished," there would be "of confiscated lands, such as go under the name of profitable lands," no less than "TEN MILLIONS OF ACRES!!" According to Sir William Petty's calculation, there were but two-thirds of the surface of Ireland, which were called "profitable lands;" the remaining third consisting of "highways, loughs, impassable bogs, rocks, shrubs, and coarse land."69 As the whole contents of Ireland are only about nineteen millions of acres, it is clear, that nothing short of a general extirpation of the natives, and as general a confiscation of 69 Petty, 1. |