ment to that earl and his party; and they took all poffible methods to provoke and exafperate the people of that kingdom, already too much difcontented. For that end, they procured orders from the council of Ireland, to tranfmit severe bills against the Irish catholics in matter of religion, in hopes to drive them into a new rebellion. It was now propofed to introduce the test act, and all the English penal-laws, into Ireland; and that a proclamation fhould be forthwith iffued for encouraging all perfons, that could make any further discoveries of the horrid popish plot, to come in and declare the fame."

C

The

"Titus Oates (fays the fame Biographer) was reftrained by no principle, human or divine, and like Judas would have done any thing for thirty fhillings; he was one of the most accomplished villains that we read of in hiftory; he had been chaplain on board the fleet, whence he was difmified for an unnatural crime, and was known to be guilty of perjury before he fet up the trade of witneffing; he was fuccessful in it beyond the most fanguine expectation: he was lodged at Whitehall, and had a penfion affigned him of 1200l. a year. The era of Oates's plot was alfo the grand æra of whig and tory." Id. ib. p. 201-2.

Some have concluded from the following paffage in D'Avaux, that the Prince of Orange had a confiderable fhare in framing this moft iniquitous plot: "I prefume to declare," fays that count, "that I have omitted nothing to discover the combinations that the Prince of Orange has engaged in, with the most abandoned of the English. On the 21ft of September, 1679,I fent intelligence that Oates, who has fince that time been fonotorious; Freeman, of whom I have already spoken; and; Du Moulin, a man of intrigue and an execrable villain; arrived together in Holland fome years paft, and that the Prince of Orange had been in grand conferences with them." D'Avaux, tom. I. p. 32. See M'Pherfon's Hift. of Great Britain, vol. i. p. 343. Certain it is, that after that prince became king of England, he attempted to have reversed Oates's sentence; but the commons refused to gratify him in so impious an act. That villain, however, was pardoned and pensioned by his majesty, as above-mentioned.

On the first report of the popish plot, " Peter Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, in a dangerous fit of the ftone, was imprisoned in the caftle. Orders were iffued, that all officers fhould repair to their respective garrifons; that popish ecclefiaf

tics

" I

The Duke of Ormond, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and luckily at that juncture in England, employed all his intereft with the king, to prevent the calling a parliament for these cruel purposes." will venture," fays his grace in a letter to the Earl of Arran on that occafion," to tell you, without a cypher, that the reason why the calling of a parliament in Ireland flicks, is the feverity of two bills tranfmitted against the papifts; the one taking away the votes of peers, whilft they are papifts; and the other inflicting death upon a certain fort of popish clergy, if found in Ireland; the one feeming unjust, and the other cruel, and neither neceffary. For my part, I confess, if I had been here when the expelling of the popish lords paffed, I fhould have voted against it in confcience and prudence; in confcience, because I know no reason why opinion fhould take away a man's birthright; or why his goods or lands may not be as well taken away; fince money mifapplied is, for the most part, a more dangerous thing in difaffected hands, than a word in his mouth. And I think no less of the other bill, for upon ferious and cool thoughts, I am against all fanguinary laws, in matters of religion, purely and properly fo called." a

2 Cart. Orm. yol. ii. fol. 535.

" Its

tics should depart from the kingdom, popish feminaries and convents fhould be fuppreft. Informations quickly multiplied, and directions were received from England to seize Richard Talbot (afterwards Duke of Tyrconnel), Lord Mountgarret and his fon, and a colonel of the name of Peppard. Lord Mountgarret, represented as a dangerous confpirator, was of the age of eighty years, bed-ridden, and in a state of dotage; and, to the further difcredit of the evidences, no Colonel Peppard was known or could be found in Ireland." Lel. Hift. of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 474.

Previous to, and concomitant with, Oates's plot, the minds of the people were inflamed by fermons, pamphlets, &c. containing the groffeft and most abominable afperfions on the civil principles of Roman catholics. Thomas Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, eminently distinguished himself on that occafion, in a book of one hundred and thirty-fix pages in quarto; which

though

3

"It was a terrible flur upon the credit of the plot in England, that after it had made fuch an horrible noise in a nation, where there was scarce one papist to an hundred proteftants, there fhould not, for a year, be found one witness from Ireland, to give information of any confpiracy of the like nature in that kingdom, where there were fifteen papifts to one protestant. But the proclamation above-mentioned, which was publifhed according to the order fent from England, supplied that defect. For upon the encouragement given in it, tories and other criminals, confined in jails,

3 Cart. Orm. vol. ii. fol. 535.

though clearly refuted by Peter Walsh, in a letter to his lordfhip, containing five hundred and ninety pages in octavo, yet is ftill made use of by all the libellers on that topic, as an inexhauftible fund of arguments against allowing the rights of fubjects, in these kingdoms, to the profeffors of that religion; although their dutiful and loyal conduct affords the clearest refutation of these arguments. This Bishop of Lincoln was not unconfcious of the injurious falfhoods he published at. that juncture, against those inoffenfive people, as appeared by his own fubfequent trimming behaviour on different occafions. "His conduct," fays the Rev. Mr. Grainger, "for fome time, like that of other Calvinifts, appeared to be in direct oppofition to the church of Rome; but after James afcended the throne, he feemed to approach nearer to popery than he ever did before. He fent the king an addrefs of thanks for his declaration for liberty of confcience; and is faid to have written reasons for the reading of that declaration (by the clergy in their churches); his compliances were much the fame after the revolution." Biograph. Hift. of Engl. vol. iv. p. 287.

Anthony Wood informs us," that when Oates's plot broke out, September 1678, though he (Barlow) had been a seeming friend to papifts, he became then a bitter enemy to them, and the Duke of York; but that when the duke was proclaimed king, he took all opportunities to exprefs his affection to him; and, among others, writ, as was faid, reasons for reading his majefty's declaration for liberty of confcience. But when the king withdrew himfelf into France, to avoid imminent danger, in 1688, he was one of those bishops that very readily voted, that he had abdicated his kingdom. He was esteemed by those that knew him well, to have been a thorough-paced Calvinist." Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 877

jails, pretended to have great discoveries to make on that head, and obtained their liberty, and had money given them by the government of Ireland, to transport them to England for that purpose; though these wretches knew nothing of the matter, till they were inftructed by Mr. Hethrington, Lord Shaftsbury's agent in managing and providing for them."

It may not be unentertaining to the reader, to find here an exact defcription of these witneffes, left us by the lord lieutenant himself, after his return to Ireland. "At council," fays he," there is little more to do than to hear witneffes; fome come out of England, and fome producing themfelves here, and all, I doubt, forfwearing themfelves. Thofe that went out of Ireland with bad English, and worse clothes, are returned well-bred gentlemen, well-caronated, periwigged, and cloathed. Brogues and leather ftraps are converted into fashionable fhoes and glittering buckles which, next to the zeal tories, thieves, and friars have for the protestant religion, is a main inducement to bring in fhoals of informers. They find it more honourable

;

2 Ib. vol. iii.

. "I dare not," fays his grace in another letter, "fay, though it be manifeft, that most of our discoveries give more difcredit, than confirmation, to the plot. It is well that I am not like to be charged for a plotter or a papift." Carte's Orm. vol. ii. Append.

"There were too many proteftants then in Ireland," fays Mr. Carte," who wanted another rebellion, that they might increase their eftates by new forfeitures. And letters were perpetually fending into England, misrepresenting the lord lieutenant's conduct, and the state of things in Ireland. The Earl of Anglesey gave the Duke of Ormond, a friendly advertisement of thofe mifrepresentations and fuggeftions against his proceedings, made by one of the greatest persons in the kingdom, tranfmitted to feveral perfons in London, and particularly to some members of parliament and of the privy council." Orm. vol. ii. fol. 482.

On the other hand, "fome perfons to whom the Duke of Ormond's moderation was not agreeable, imagining that he might be driven out of it by the danger of an affaffination,

dropped

honourable and fafe, to be the king's evidence, than a cow-stealer, though that be their actual profeffion; but as they have not the honesty to swear truly, to fwear truly, they want

the wit to fwear probably.'

5

Jones, Bifhop of Meath, who was both the procurer and examiner of these witnesses in Ireland, had been scout-master general to Oliver Cromwell's army.

Yet, upon the bare teftimony of the above mentioned notorious mifcreants, feveral of the Irish nobility, clergy and gentry, were at that juncture, either thrown into jails or forced to quit the kingdom. Primate Plunkett (as Bishop Burnet informs us, on the report of the Earl of Effex, who had been lord lieutenant of Ireland, and knew him perfonally), "was a wife and fober man, fond of living quietly and in due fubjection to the government, without engaging in intrigues of ftate;" yet he was brought over to England, and condemned, and executed at Tyburn, on the accufation of these fuborned witnesses. But

6

5 Cart. Orm. vol. ii. fol. 498.

• Hist. of his own Times, vol. i. f. 230.

dropped letters in the streets of Dublin, infinuating a confpiracy formed for murdering his grace; and feveral pretended to give an account of what they had heard, or fufpected of fuch a defign. Divers examinations were taken, and the duke could not well tell at first what to think of the matter; as it seemed to agree with what was mentioned in general by Oates and Dugdale, whofe depofitions it was calculated to countenance. But he had too much firmness of mind to be moved by fuch dark and inexplicable informations as were given, to alter a conduct founded on fo much reafon, as what he had hitherto obferved." Id. ib. vol. ii. f. 481.

f

Alluding to two friars that informed against the titular Primate Plunkett.

"Plunkett," fays Burnet," was at this time brought to his trial. Some lewd Irish priests, and others of that nation, hearing that England was then difpofed to hearken to good fwearers, thought themselves well qualified for the employment; fo they came over to fwear, that there was a great plot in Ireland. The witnesses were brutal and profligate men, yet the Earl of Shaftsbury cherished them much; they were examined by par

liament