CHAP. XVIII.

The affairs of Ireland brought before the English Council.

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ABOUT this time, a warm dispute was carrying on at London, between the agents for the late confederate catholics, and the commiffioners from the council and the two houses of the Irish parliament, in feveral memorials presented by them to the king, in justification of their respective claims, and pretenfions. "But the Irish agents pleaded their caufe under great difadvantages. The commiffioners from the council and parliament differed a little among themselves, about their private and personal interests; but they were all united in one unhappy extreme, that is, (fays Lord Clarendon, who was present in council during these disputes) in their implacable malice to the Irish; infomuch, that they concurred in their defire, that they might gain nothing by the king's return; but be kept with the fame rigour, and under the fame incapacity to do hurt, which they were then under. And though eradication was too foul a word to be uttered in the hearing of a christian prince, yet it was little lefs, or better, that they propofed, in other words, and hoped to obtain. Whereas the king thought that miserable people to be as worthy of his favour, as most of the other party, and that his honour, juftice, and policy, as far as they were unrestrained by laws and contracts, obliged him more to preserve them, at least as much as he could. And yet it can hardly be believed, how few men, in all other points very reasonable, and who were far from cruelty in their nature, cherished that inclination in the king; but thought it in him, and more in his brother, to proceed from other reasons than they published. Whilft others, who pretended to be only moved by chriftian charity and compaffion, were more cruel towards them, and made them more milerable by extorting great engagements from them for their, protection

⚫ Cart. Orm. vol. ii.

Clarend, Life, vol. ii. f. 129.

protection and interceffion; which being performed, would leave them in as forlorn a condition as they were found.

Befides thefe impediments to their fuccefs, from the malice of their enemies, the ignorance and prejudice of fome about the king, and the fraud and cruelty of others, these agents from the confederate catholics had another obstacle in their way, which was ftill more infurmountable; and that was the great poverty of those who sent them. "The new earls of Orrery and Montrath had taken care to raise privately among the adventurers and foldiers twenty or thirty thousand pounds, to be difpofed of properly, without any ac

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count,

3 Cart. Orm. vol. ii.

p. 200.

* And as much more publicly. For "the Irish commons, on the 4th of March, 1661, ordered, nem. con. thirty thousand pounds English to be raised throughout the kingdom, and prefented to his grace the Duke of Ormond, with a clause, that they intended not that prefent of theirs fhould be interpreted as an exclufion of his grace from any other juft favour his majesty might think fit to confer on him or his." Com. Jour. vol. i.

This order was procured by his grace's friend, the Earl of Orrery, then one of the lords juftices; for thus that earl wrote to his grace the day after it was paffed. "Yesterday the parliament met in this city; I had engaged the speaker, and much the most, if not all the members, that their motion for their humble prefent for your grace might be the very first business gone upon. It paffed without one negative." Orrery's State Lett. vol. i. p. 99.

The bill for granting thirty thousand pound to the Duke of Ormond, was read thrice in one day and paffed. See Com. Jour. vol. ii. f. 8.

The fame Orrery having acquainted Ormond, that the first act of fettlement was fent to England, adds, "all this kingdom looks upon your grace as their great patron, to whom they in a high degree owe thofe hopes, which his majesty's gracious declaration has given them." State Lett. p. 37. This declaration was the bafis and ground-work of the acts of fettlement. Again, he tells him, " your lordship's favour to this poor kingdom in haftening the bill of fettlement, is fo fignal and great, that I know not one man concerned in the good fettlement of this kingdom but muft, and does own himself your grace's fervant, for your eminent pains and care in that defired work." Ib. p. 90.

count, by way of recompence to such as should be ferviceable to what was called the English intereft. The Irish had no fuch fums to command; few friends about the court, and no means of procuring any. Those of the English council, before whom they were to plead their cause, were highly prejudiced and incensed against the whole nation, knew little of the conduct of particular perfons, who deferved favour; but were willing to involve every body, in the general guilt of the maffacre, as well as the rebellion.

The fufferings of the Irish fet forth by their agents before the king and council.

IN vain did the Irish agents urge," the great and long fufferings of their countrymen; the lofs of their eftates, for five or fix and twenty years, the wafting and spending of the whole nation in battles, and tranf portation of men into the parts beyond feas; whereof many had the honour to teftify their fidelity to the king by real fervices; many of them returned into England with him, and were still in his service; the great numbers of men, women, and children, that had been maffacred, or executed in cold blood after the king's government had been driven from them the multitudes that had been destroyed by famine, and the plague, these two heavy judgments having raged

;

over

Clarend. Life.

"About the year 1652 and 1653, (fays an eye-witness) the plague and famine had fo fwept away whole countries, that a man might travel twenty or thirty miles, and not see a living creature, either man, beast or bird, they being all dead, or had quitted thefe defolate places. Our foldiers (Cromwell's) would tell ftories of the places where they faw a fmoak, it was fo rare to see either fmoak by day, or fire or candle by night and when we did meet with two or three poor cabins,

over the kingdom for two or three years; and at last, as a perfecution unheard of, the tranfplanting of the fmall remainder of the nation into a corner of the province of Connaught, where yet much of the lands were taken from them, which had been affigned with all those formalities of law, which were in ufe and practice under that government."

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"In vain did they claim the benefit of the two treaties of peace, the one in (1646) the late king's time, and confirmed by him; the other (in 1648) confirmed by his majesty, who was prefent; by both which they alleged, they ftood indemnified for all acts done previously by them in the rebellion, and infisted upon their innocence fince that time; and that they had paid fo entire an obedience to his majesty's commands while he was beyond the feas, that they betook themselves to, and withdrew themselves from, the fervice of France or Spain, in fuch manner as his pleasure was they should do."

It was deemed ftrange indifcretion and folly in them, even by fome of the leaft prejudiced of their judges, to mention in that conjuncture,3 "the unworthiness

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cabins, none but very aged men and women and children (and those with the prophet might have complained, "we are become as a bottle in the fmoak, our skin is black like an oven, because of the terrible famine,") were found in them. I have seen those miserable creatures plucking ftinking carrion out of a ditch, black and rotten; and have been credibly informed, that they digged corpfes out of the grave to eat. But the moft tragical story I ever heard, was from an officer commanding a party of horse, who, hunting for tories (Irish) in a dark night, discovered a light, which they fuppofed to be a fire which the tories usually made in these waste countries to dress their provifions and warm themselves; but drawing near, they found it a ruined cabin, and besetting it round, fome did alight and peep in at the window, where they faw a great fire of wood, and a company of miferable old women and children fitting round about it, and betwixt them and the fire a dead corpfe lay broiling, which as the fire roafted they cut off collops and eat." Colonel Laurence's Intereft of Ireland, 2d part, p. 86, 87.

and incapacity of those, who for fo many years had poffeffed themselves of their eftates, and fought then a confirmation of their rebellious title from his majefty; or to infinuate, that their rebellion had been more infamous, and of greater magnitude than that of the Irish, who had rifen in arms to free themselves from the rigour and feverity that was exercised upon them, by some of the king's minifters, and for the liberty of their confciences, without having the least intention or thought of withdrawing themselves from his majesty's obedience, or declining his government;

whereas the others had carried on an odious rebellion

against

b Lord Clarendon's Life and Memoirs, from which these paffages are cited, is a pofthumous work, written by himself, but not published till within these few years past. In this place he seems to exhibit some symptoms of remorfe for that Machiavelian advice, which the Irish ever accused him of having given the king, while the fettlement of Ireland was under confideration, viz. "to provide for his enemies, who might otherwise be troublesome, and to overlook his friends, who would always ftick to him;" and this advice they ever confidered, as one of the principal caufes of their ruin. That his lordship did give his majefty fome fuch counsel, on that occafion, and that, after his difgrace, he was heartily forry for it, appears from the following certificate, which was lately printed in one of the public papers. Memorandum: The Rev. Mr. Cock of Durham, being at his kinfman's, Sir Ralph Cole, at Banfpeth-castle, about the time that Lord Chancellor Clarendon was difgraced, Sir Henry Brabant of Newcastle came thither, in his way from London, and told Sir Ralph and him this paffage. That he, Sir Henry Brabant, having been to wait on Lord Clarendon juft after his disgrace, his lordship, after telling him how kindly he took that piece of friendship, expreffed himself to this effect: That there were grievous things laid to his charge; but that he could bear up against all the reft, if his majefty would forgive him but one thing, which was, that he was the person who advised him to prefer his enemies, and neglect his friends; fince the principles of the latter would fecure them to him; adding, that he took that for the cause of his own ruin, and wifhed it might not occafion that of many others, and at laft the king's." This is teftified by H.. Bedford, who had it from the above Mr. Cock. London Chronicle, Decem. 2d, 1773.

He