2 The marquis of Ormond, in a letter to the speaker of the English house of commons, after having made a kind of apology for sending him these petitions, acquaints him, "that, indeed what concerned these gentlemen's coming to him of their own accord, and the course that had been afterwards held with them, was very truly set forth; and that he had not heard of any hostile act that had been done by any of them." But then he immediately subjoins, what certainly was never intended for their service, viz. " and to enter into their hearts, and search what is there, is only peculiar to God. I am not able," adds he, "to judge whether any treason was hatched there or no." And with this invidious insinuation, " he submitted it to the wisdom of that great council (the English commons) to advise when and where, and to whom to distribute mercy for the most advantage of the present service." The principal drift of which service, he perfectly well knew, was by all manner of means, to attaint the persons, and confiscate the estates of all the catholic nobility and gentry of the kingdom.* 2 Carte's Orm. vol. iii. 1644, concerned in a treaty to yield up Drogheda to the English parliament; at least so far as amounted to a concealing, which in him (adds his lordship) considering the favors done him by his majesty, and the good offices by me, in my judgment is less pardonable than the contrivance and action of others less obliged."-Id. ib. fol. 370. * «The lords justices, who not only favored the designs of their friends in England, but expected to have their own services rewarded by a large portion of forfeitures, were resolved to discourage pacific dispositions. The gentlemen who were sent in custody to Dublin, (on surrendering themselves to Ormond) though men of respectable characters and families, engaged in no action with the rebels, some, sufferers by their rapine, averse to theif proceedings, known protectors of the English, were all indiscrimi nately denied access to the justices, closely imprisoned and threatened with the utmost severity."-Lel. Hist. of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 163. Mr. Carte informs us, "that he found in the earl of Ormond's notes written with his own hand, that in April, 1643, there was a letter read at the council board, from an intimate friend of sir William Parsons, who claimed a great merit to himself in getting some hundreds of gentlemen indicted; and the rather that he had laid out sums of money to procure witnesses to give evidence to a jury for finding these indictments.”—Orm. vol. i. fol. 423. CHAP. XXII. Barbarous orders of the lords justices and council to the earl of Ormond. WERE there any room to call in question the accounts hitherto given of these lords justices cruel and rapacious administration, their own public orders which were constantly and rigorously executed, would authenticate and confirm them, beyond all possibility of doubt. Out of these orders, I shall select two or three passages, for more would be shocking to the reader's humanity,) with reference to the ends all along pursued by them, which evidently were, first to compel such of the Irish as were still quiet, to rise in their own defence, and afterwards to seize on their persons and estates for having yielded to such compulsion. On the 23d of February, 1641, the earl of Ormond, when on his march towards the Boyne, received the following resolution of the lords justices and council." It is resolved, that it is fit, that his lordship do endeavor, with his majesty's forces, to wound, kill, slay, and destroy, by all the ways and means he may, all the said rebels* and their adherents and relievers; and burn, spoil, waste, consume, destroy and demolish all the places, towns and houses where the said rebels are or have been relieved or harbored, and all the corn or hay there; and to kill and destroy all men there inhabiting, able to bear arms."+ On the 9th of the following month, these lords justices and council, dispatched another order to the earl of Ormond, then marching into the pale, with an army of three thousand foot, and five hundred horse, to burn, spoil, and destroy the rebels of the pale, without excepting any. By this order, "those who offered to come in, were in no other manner to be taken in, than as prisoners, taken by the strength of his majesty's army; and if any of them should come to the army, the sol diers were to seize on them, before they had access to his lord. 1 Carte's Orm, vol. iii. • Irish and rebels were then synonimous terms. ↑ "Can any one think after this, (says Dr. Warner) that these lords justices had any reason to complain of the cruelties committed by the igno rant and savage Irish."-Hist. of the Irish Rebel, ship; and afterwards, they were to be denied access to his person."* In this manner, such of those unhappy noblemen and gentlemen as had been driven from Dublin by their lordships proclamation, on pain of death, had never offended the government, or were desirous to return to their duty, if in any respect they had offended, were delivered up, without distinc tion, to the mercy of soldiers, who thirsted after nothing more ardently than the blood of the Irish; and whom their lordships had before incensed, by all manner of ways, against the nation in general. Doctor Nalson assures us," that the severities of the provost-marshals, and the barbarism of the soldiers to the Irish, were then such, that he heard a relation of his own, who was a captain in that service, relate, that no manner of compassion or discrimination was shewn either to age or sex ; but that the little children were promiscuously sufferers with the guilty; and that if any, who had some grains of compassion, reprehended the soldiers for this unchristian inhumanity, they would scornfully reply, Why, nits will be lice, and so would dispatch them." "Of sir Charles Coote,3 provost-marshal of Ireland, it is said, that he would bid his Irish prisoners blow in his pis tol, and then would discharge it." "May 28th, 1642, the justices issued a general order to the commanders of all garrisons, not to presume to hold any correspondence or intercourse with any of the Irish or papists dwelling or residing in any place near or about their garrisons; or to give protection, immunity, or dispensation from spoil, burning, or other prosecution of war, to any of them; but to prosecute all such rebels, from place to place, with fire and sword, 2 Histor. Collect. 3 Leyburne's Mem. Pref. p. xxviii. 4 Cart. Orm. vol. i. "In the execution of these orders, the justices declare, that the soldiers slew all persons promiscuously, not sparing the women, and sometimes not the children."-Lel. Hist. of Irel. vol. iii. p. 172. + "Among the several acts of public service performed by a regiment of sir William Cole, consisting of five hundred foot, and a troop of horse, we find the following hideous article recorded by the historian Borlase, with particular satisfaction and triumph: "Starved and famished of the vulgar sort, whose goods were seized on by the regiment, seven thousand."-Lel, ib. according to former commands and proclamations. Such," says Mr. Carte on this occasion, "was the constant tenor of their orders, though they knew that the soldiers, in executing them, murdered all persons promiscuously, not sparing, as they themselves tell the commissioners for Irish affairs, in their letter of the 7th of June following, the women, and sometimes not children." Orders of the English parliament relative to Ireland. PREPARATORY to these destructive orders of the jus tices and council of Ireland, their partizans in the English parliament had procured a resolution to be passed,' on the 8th of December 1641, never to tolerate the catholic religion in that kingdom; and in February or March following, the same parliament voted the confiscation of two millions and a half of acres of arable, meadow and pasture land, when very few persons of landed property were concerned in the insurrection. On occasion of this resolution concerning religion, lord Clanrickard expostulated, with just and spirited resentment, in a letter to the earl of Essex; who, it was then thought, would have come over lord lieutenant, with orders to execute it." It is reported," says he," that the parliament hath resolved to make this a war of religion, that no toleration thereof is to be granted here; nor any pardons, but by consent of parliament; to send one thousand Scots into this kingdom, and yourself to come over lord lieutenant. If such be the resolutions of England, I should esteem it the greatest misfortune possible, to see you here upon such terms; but if you come over as becomes the person, honor, and gallant disposition of the earl of Essex, and not as the agent of persecution, it may produce much hap. 1 Hughes's Abridgment. Borl. Hist. of the Irish Rebel, • "It was resolved, upon solemn debate, on the 8th of December, 1641, by the lords and commons in the parliament of England, that they would never give consent to any toleration to the popish religion in Ire land, or any other his majesty's dominions. Which vote (adds my author) hath been since adjudged a main motive (by the insurgents) for making the war a cause of religion."-Borl. Irish Rebel. f. 52, piness to your own particular, and to this kingdom in general. And, if I may presume to speak my sense, it will not agree either with the honor or safety of England, to make use of such a power of Scots to destroy or over-run us here. My lord, recollect yourself, and draw together your best and bravest thoughts; consider that, by this violent proceeding, contrary to the religion of the whole kingdom, you will put us into desperation, and so hazard the destruction of many noble families." In consequence of the English vote, for the confiscation of two millions and a half of Irish acres," the lords justices,3 in a private letter to the speaker of the house of commons in EngHand, May 11th, 1642, without the rest of the council, besought the commons to assist them with a grant of some competent proportion of the rebels lands. Here," says Warner,* the reader will find a key, that unlocks the secret of their iniquitous proceedings; and here we find the motives to the orders they gave for receiving no submissions; for issuing no proclamation of pardon at first, as the parliament had suggested; and, in short, for all their backwardness in putting an end to the rebellion, of which several opportunities offered; and consequently for their sacrificing the peace and happiness of the country, and the lives of thousands of their fellow-subjects." "But some kind of zeal," says the king himself on this occasion, «counts all merciful moderation luke-warmness, and is not seldom more greedy to kill the bear for his skin, than for any harm he hath done'; the confiscation of men's estates being more beneficial, than the charity of saving their lives or reforming their errors.” 4 Hist. Irish Rebel. 5 Reliq. Sacr. Carolin. p. 85. |