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insurrection of 1641: and, in truth, the whole legend fades into insignificance, compared with the single fact of the butchery at Drogheda.

Let any candid, fair, and honourable Englishman, therefore, lay his hand on his heart, and say whether he can justify himself for censuring an Irishman for mourning over the melancholy story of his country's sufferings; for vindicating her character; and for attempting to remove the mountains of obloquy and abuse with which wicked men have overwhelmed her for centuries? The Englishman feels deeply for the honour of his country. Why should he condemn, why should he not rather applaud, the same feeling in an Irishman? Has not an Irishman, like an Englishman,

“Senses, affections, passions? Is he not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as" an Englishman? "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not" defend ourselves?

'My requisitions on the reader are few and simple. I merely request a candid and patient hearing; that no inveterate prejudice may be allowed to operate against me; and that the "Vindicia Hibernica" may not be arraigned at the bar of criticism as if it were injudiciously offered to the world as a regular, systematic, finished work, to which it explicitly declines making

any pretensions,-but rather as a series of distinct and somewhat desultory chapters, tending to prove certain points, each insulated from the rest. To this view I request the most particular attention; and that it may be constantly borne in mind, throughout the perusal of the work. I court and defy the most rigorous scrutiny into my facts and inductions. Let no mercy be shown to those on which there is the least doubt or uncertainty: let all be rejected, that do not carry with them irresistible conviction. If, in the ardent zeal I feel in what I deem the noblest of causes, I have occasionally over-rated the force of the evidence, and drawn conclusions which that evidence does not appear to warrant, on some particular points, and if my positions on those be rejected, I trust that this decision will not affect any of the others. Let each stand forth substantively by itself, and not bring on the downfal of its neighbour by its error, or support its neighbour's error by its truth.

Pecuniary considerations have had no place among the motives that led to this undertaking. This edition consists of only seven hundred and fifty copies, of which two hundred and fifty are intended to be gratuitously distributed to public libraries, reading-rooms, and enlightened individuals; in order to afford the work a fair chance of perusal, and my calumniated country an opportunity of justification. While that number

lasts, any library company, sending an order for a copy, shall be supplied, without expense. Agents shall be appointed, to distribute the books, on this plan, in Boston, New York, Baltimore, &c.

P. S. One passage of this work will justify a further trespass on the reader's attention.

In page 31, I have quoted Milton, as stating that there were above 600,000 Protestants massacred in Ireland, during the insurrection of 1641 :

"The rebellion and horrid massacre of English Protestants in Ireland, to the amount of 154,000 in the province of Ulster only, by their own computation; which, added to the other three, makes up the total sum of that slaughter, in all likelihood, four times as great."

This extract is taken from his "Iconoclastes," second edition, page 49. There are, however, in the Philadelphia library, two editions of Milton's works complete, dated 1738 and 1753, in both of which the latter part of the passage, in italics, is omitted.

This discrepancy requires explanation. I have taken the citation of Milton from "Harris's Historical Account of the Lives and Writings of James I. and Charles I."* in these words:

"Milton, in the second edition of his Iconoclastes, has the following passage: 'The rebellion and horrid massacre,'" &c. verbatim, as before.

* Vol. II. p. 391, London, 1814.

We are therefore reduced to this dilemma :— either Milton stated the falsehood, as above quoted, or Harris was guilty of a base fraud and literary forgery: but, as he was a man of respectable character, and as, moreover, his work, which is of modern date, has passed the ordeal of criticism in England, the latter supposition cannot be admitted. The only conclusion that follows, is, that the passage is fairly quoted by Harris; and that Milton, ashamed of the monstrous and extravagant legend, to which he had lent the sanction of his name, struck it out, after the second edition of his work. This recantation extenuates the crime, but by no means does away the original guilt of the criminal.

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