cially, men of property, were firmly attached to English connexion, notwithstanding their discontents at the measures of government. Most of the protestants were, at that time, infected with the puritannic plague, bitter enemies both to the catholics and the king; and it was unfortunate for both, that the government of the kingdom was at that time in their hands. As the best part of the landed property was possessed by catholics of English descent, it was a prime object with the puritan parliament, and their creatures, the justices, to implicate them in rebellion; which, difficult as it was, they found means to accomplish. "For on the 7th of December, "a party of horse and foot being sent by the justices, into the neighbourhood of Dublin, in quest of some robbers, came to the village of Santry, where they murdered some innocent husbandmen (whose heads they brought into the city in triumph), on pretence that they had harboured and relieved the rebels, who had made inroads and committed depredations in these parts. Hard, indeed, was the case of the country people at that time, when not being able to hinder parties of robbers and rebels, from breaking into their houses and taking refreshments there, this should be deemed a treasonable act, and sufficient to authorize a mas sacre. "The next morning complaint being made to the government of this outrage, no redress was obtained. Whereupon some gentlemen of qua * Carte, Temple, Borlase. lity and others, inhabitants of that part of the country, being justly alarmed at these proceedings, and mindful of the report of Coote's barbarous proposal at the council-board, forsook their houses and prepared for their defence. For this massacre following so soon after "the executions and murders which Sir Charles Coote had ordered in the county of Wicklow; his being made governor of Dublin for that service; and the catholics of that city being all disarmed the day before the lords of the pale were invited to a conference there, confirmed their belief of the truth of the report, that a general massacre of those of their religion was intended."* "Wherefore these gentlemen assembled together on the ninth of December, at Swords, a village distant from Dublin about six miles; and on the tenth, the justices issued their warrant, "commanding them to separate on sight of it; and that nine of the principal persons so assembled should appear before them at the couucilboard, by ten of the clock the next morning, to shew the cause of their assembling together in that manner." To this warrant they returned an answer on the same day, to the following effect: "that they were constrained to meet there, for the safety of their lives, which they conceived to be in no small danger, having been forced to forsake their dwellings on the last Tuesday at night, by the rising out of horse troops and foot companies, who, on the said night killed four *Carte's Ormond. catholics, for no other reason but because they bore the name of that religion; and that they had been before put into many fears, by certain intelligence given them of unexpected attempts against their lives, before they ran the hazard thereof; which was the only motive that hindered them from manifesting that obedience, which they knew to be due to their lordships' commands." "The justices seeming to comply with these gentlemen's ardent desire above-mentioned, issued a manifesto, dated the fourteenth of December, but not published till the fifteenth; wherein they allowed them the space of two days, viz. until the seventeenth of that month, for their appearing before them in Dublin; and in order to induce them to appear then, "they gave them the word of the state, that they might safely and securely repair thither, without danger of any trouble or stay whatsoever. And yet, on the same fifteenth of that month, they detached a party of horse and foot to Clontarf, under the command of Sir Charles Coote, with orders "to fall upon and cut off" the inhabitants, and burn the houses of that village, which belonged to Mr. King, one of those gentlemen assembled at Swords, to whom, by name, the public faith had been given. "These orders were excellently well executed;"* though it is confessed that "no op * "Sixteen of the poor towns-people were killed by Sir Charles Coote's soldiers, on that occasion. In the same week fifty-six men, 'women and children, being frighted at what was done at Clontarf, took boats and went to sea, to shun VOL. III. F position was made." "Sir Charles Coote, who by the lords justices special designation, was appointed to go on this expedition, as the fittest person to execute their orders, and one who best knew their minds, at this time pillaged and burned houses, corn, and other goods belonging to Mr. King, to the value of four thousand pounds; which was but a sorry encouragement to him, says Mr. Carte, " to accept their invitation to Dublin, and gave just grounds of apprehending, at least, some danger of trouble; from which danger the manifesto pretended to secure him, as well as the rest that were assembled at Swords."* An order from both houses of parliament, dated November 30th, directing them to grant his majesty's pardon to all those who, within a convenient time, would return to their obedience, was an obstacle they soon found means to overcome; agreeably, in all likelihood, to private instructions from the leaders of the anti-royalist faction. For, however they might, as they generally did, disregard the orders of his majesty, they durst not, without private encouragement from that quarter, openly disobey the orders of the commons, possessed of the plenitude of power. They continued their own proclamation, so limited, in time, persons and circumstances, as to the fury of a party of soldiers come out of Dublin, under the command of colonel Crafford; but being pursued by the soldiers in other boats, were overtaken and thrown overboard.-Collect. of Massac. committed on the Irish. *Carte's Ormond. be fitter to prevent than invite submission. For, first, it precluded freeholders from all hope of pardon; "because," says lord Castlehaven, they had estates to lose;" and the poorer Irish, who alone had been guilty of depredations and damages, were to be pardoned only on such terms as they could not comply with; "for their pardon," says Temple, "was to be granted only on condition of restoring the goods and chattels taken from the British;" which, as the same writer confesses, it was not possible for them to do. Besides, this order, instead of being general, as intended by the order of both houses, extended only to four counties, Meath, Westmeath, Louth and Longford; in two of which counties no body of insurgents had as yet appeared. The time for coming in being limited for ten days, circumstanced as the nation then was, it was scarce possible for great numbers to fulfil the object held out on so short a notice. His majesty's proclamation, of January the first, 1642, granting pardon to all insurgents on submission, they frustrated likewise, by secreting the copies thereof to such a degree, that the lords and gentlemen of the Pale, who lay nearest Dublin, could not get a sight of one of them. "Nay, instead of pursuing such pacific and conciliating measures, they, on the first of February following, commanded out the earl of Ormond, with a powerful army, on an expedition to the county of Kildare; where, "pursuant to his orders, he burnt Newcastle and Lyons, and gave up Naas to his soldiers to plunder; having sent out parties to burg |