needful, to dispose of them out of hand, that they might be filled with such Irish protestants as had not been for the extirpation of the popish natives; which was the likeliest method to give satisfaction to both sides, and could not be justly excepted against by either.

83 He was sensible how much the king's pressing necessities disposed him to hearken to any overture or expedient that afforded hopes of relieving them; and that there wanted not persons ready for the advancement of their own private ends, to pretend that they were very powerful with the Irish, and could work mighty matters with them for his service. He apprehended great inconveniences would arise from these pretenders, who to achieve what they had confidently undertaken, would not scruple to promise the Irish such high conditions as might lessen the just esteem they ought to have of what his majesty might graciously incline or really propose to afford them. It would make them think they had a nearer and more easy way to their ends, than by the mediation of those in whom the king had placed his authority, and upon whom he depended for their being contained in obedience and made useful to his service. It would make them insist obstinately upon all the terms which such undertakers should suggest to them that his majesty was inclined, or would be forced to grant, however unreasonable in themselves, and however dangerous or prejudicial to his majesty's affairs: and when a necessitated denial or suspension came to dash their expectation, they would presently deem it to be the work of the governor, and thence entertain such prejudices against him as must of course render every thing that he should propound suspected and fruitless. He knew the Irish in their temper to be the pronest people in the world to this suspicion, and to a credulity in any man who came never so little countenanced, if he offered any thing to them that was pleasing to their hopes or agreeable to their wishes.

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These apprehensions of his were very reasonable, and already justified by fact, there having been some persons dabbling in that way, who had assured the Irish, that money given at court would be of more advantage to them than any they could give in Ireland; which had wrought upon them so, that they were dilatory in making the payments stipulated by the cessation, to the great prejudice of the king's service. But they were so abundantly warranted in every particular by after experience, that the wisest person who had lived through all the course of these troubles, and made the exactest and justest observations on all the passages thereof, could not have given his majesty better and more useful advice, than not to listen to such undertakers.

The marquis of Ormond was indeed entirely satisfied 485 that none of these men could do the king any service; and that there was nothing to be done in Ireland without the supreme council, who were resolved to defeat all the endeavours of particular men for his majesty's service. Thus they had prevented the levies of men, which lord Taafe, sir J. Dongan, and colonel Barry intended, and which the gentry of the pale, in consequence of sir J. Reade's negotiation, promised to make in order to serve against the English rebels. Thus they had used all possible endeavours to frustrate the like design in lord Inchiquin. Thus they refused the marquis of Antrim leave to raise the ten thousand men he had undertaken for the same service; and when their agents at Oxford were alarmed with a flying report of that lord's being made lieutenant general for the carrying over of that body of men, they immediately wrote over to the council to put a stop to that affair, whether it was with their allowance, or otherwise, signifying to them in the letter abovementioned, that they ought to employ all their care to prevent the coming over of any men from Ireland, until there was such a settlement made as they intended to rely on; and

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that it was the very thing which would give life to their affairs, that their men should not come from thence without their consent. The marquis of Ormond was in his judgment against those applications to them for assistance, because it elated them with the thoughts of its being necessary to the king's affairs, and emboldened them to ask unreasonable things in confidence of the merit of such assistance: at least he thought it his duty to advise his majesty, not hastily to grant them any thing that might be considerably to his detriment, in hopes of that condition; for if peace were once made, he could either get it into the bargain, or be able to do the business without them. Had this advice been followed, and no ear been given to undertakers of this kind, the ruin which befel the king's affairs in England, and the miseries which afterwards overwhelmed the Irish nation, might probably have been prevented.

The lord lieutenant however, notwithstanding all the disadvantages and difficulties under which he laboured, provided for the peace of the kingdom which remained in his majesty's obedience, and for preventing the Irish from renewing the war, much better than could be expected. The cessation was submitted to by all the Irish. party, and by the generality of the English. There were some disputes between them about the extent of their quarters, and some depredations committed on both sides, through the habit of rapine which the English soldiers, for want of pay and discipline, and the Irish by common practice, had contracted: but these were at last settled by commissioners without any further consequences, such as those of both parties, averse to any pacification, probably wished. All was quiet in Ireland, except in the county of Roscommon and some parts of Ulster. Rob. Newcomen and sir G. St. George, who commanded in the former of these countries, observed the cessation, and were well satisfied with the quarters assigned them.

Sir

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by the commissioners; but nothing would content captain Ormesby and those who commanded in Castle-Coote, and two or three other garrisons in that county. The Laggan forces about Derry and Donegal under sir W. and sir Robert Stewart; the old Scots under the lords of Ardes and Claneboyes, and sir James Montgomery, and all the English regiments in Ulster, readily submitted to it: nor did any body there oppose it, but Monroe with his forces, distinguished by the style of the New Scots. As soon as that general had received an authentic account of its being concluded, he fell upon the Irish peasants, who were getting their harvest in great security, as no longer thinking of an enemy, and made a slaughter among them: but thought fit to retire immediately afterwards to Carrickfergus, giving out that he would do nothing further in violation of it till he received directions for his conduct 486 from the state of Scotland and the parliament of England. He soon after received orders to break the cessation, and thereupon publicly declared his resolution of carrying on the war against the Irish. The king was not sorry at that declaration, because he hoped that it would prevent his being recalled home, and was persuaded that without the assistance of those forces in Ulster the Scots could not raise an army strong enough to make an invasion of the north of England.

This was the reason of the last instruction given to the marquis of Ormond, recommending to him, above all things else, to prevent the Scots drawing their army out of Ireland. All the commanders of that nation were supposed gainable by interest, and he was directed to try them in that way; but wanted means to offer them proper temptations. They had large arrears of pay due to them, and had no prospect of receiving those arrears, or of getting subsistence, but by means of the state of Scotland and parliament of England, whose orders, in case their demands were complied with, they resolved to ob

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The parliament had, on Sept. 25, 1643, taken the covenant with great solemnity, and afterwards passed an ordinance, ordering it to be taken by all persons throughout the kingdom. On Nov. 4 they despatched captain Owen O'Conally (the discoverer of the plot upon Dublin) with letters to all the British colonels in Ulster, recommending to them to take the covenant, and to carry on the war, assuring them of sufficient supplies for their maintenance, upon complying with those conditions. The London adventurers sent over an agent with letters at the same time, pressing the same things, and giving the like assurances.

These were very welcome to the officers of the Scotch army, who had lived much at their ease in Ireland, had been engaged in little service besides taking preys of cattle, and did not care to leave the country. They were very apprehensive of being recalled home, and sent over a messenger into Scotland to press the state for a present supply, and security for the rest of their arrears, protesting that otherwise they would not stir, nor let any part of the army go out of the kingdom. Monroe himself was not inclined to go, being on the point of a marriage with the widow of the late lord Ardes. The inhabitants of Down and Antrim petitioned the state, and the old Scotch officers of the Laggan forces wrote to the chancellor of Scotland, that the army might not be removed. The state was a good while irresolute what to do in the case; but onf Nov. 28, to give some satisfaction to their Ulster army, they resolved, in conjunction with the commissioners from the English parliament then at Edinburgh, that all their accounts should be made up and settled; that ten thousand suits of clothes and shoes, ten thousand boles (making fifteen thousand barrels) of oatmeal, three thousand muskets, one thousand five hundred pikes, five hund Letter of sir James Montgomery, Oct. 27, 1643. e H. 158, and G. 238. f G. 387.