remember to have met any thing like it in history," Had the doctor been a little more conversant with, or mindful of the history of his own country, he would have found, that in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and since also, many orders of equal, or greater cruelty had been issued, by some of the most celebrated English commanders of those times, in their several expeditions against the Irish. In the year 1602, lord deputy Mountjoy boasted in a letter to the English council,«that with his army, he had destroyed their corn, and caused a famine; that being the only sure way," adds he, "to reduce or root them out." And his secretary Morrisson,3 "thought the war was then no way so likely to be ended, as by a general famine. Which, as we have already seen, they did at last completely effect. In the list of sir William Cole's boasted exploits against the insurgents in 1641, we find," that within a few months, he had starved and famished five thousand four hundred and fifty-seven of the Irish." And when the garrison of Limerick, which was besieged by Ireton in 1650, and like that of Derry, was in great want of provisions, had turned out 2 Morris. Hist. of Ireland, f. 115.

4 Borl. Hist. of the Irish Rebel.

3 Hist. of Irel. f. 68. manner at M'Donald's door; he was instantly admitted. M'Donald, as he was rising from his bed to receive his guest, was shot dead behind his back with two bullets; his wife had already put on her cloaths, but she was stripped naked by the soldiers, who tore the rings off her fingers with their teeth. The slaughter became general. To prevent the pity of the soldiers to their hosts, their quarters. had been changed the night before; neither age nor infirmity was spared; some women in defending their children were killed: boys imploring mercy were shot by officers on whose knees they hung; in one place nine persons as they sat enjoying themselves at table, were shot dead by the soldiers. The assassins are even said to have made a sport of death. At Inveriggen, in Campbell's own quarters, nine men were first bound by the soldiers, then shot at intervals, one by one: several who fled to the mountains, perished by famine and the incle mency of the season; those who escaped owed their lives to a tempestuous night. Lieutenant-colonel Hamilton, who had the charge of the execu tion from Dalrymple, was on his march with four hundred men, to occupy all the passes, which led from the valley of Glenco; he was obliged to stop by the severity of the weather, which proved the safety of the unfortunate tribe He entered the valley the next day; he laid all the houses in ashes, and carried away all the cattle and spoil, which were divided among the officers, and soldiers,”—Macpherson's Hist. Dub,. ed. vot, i. p. 628-9.

several useless persons,s" that barbarous commander caused some of them to be executed, and the rest to be whipped back into the town."*

In September 1690, the lords justices of Ireland issued a proclamation, which actually produced a greater famine among the Irish, than that which De Rosen's driving was only intended to produce in the garrison of Derry. By that procla mation, "the wives, children and families of all those who were in arms against king William, and of all those who had been killed in the same cause, and of all absentees, were ordered to quit all places under his majesty's obedience, upon pain of being treated as spies and enemies; by which means, great multitudes, especially of women and children, were driven into the Irish quarters, which hastened that famine that was afterwards among them."

"But to speak impartially," says Mr. Lesley on that occasion," is not the starving of a country, or province, as barbarous as starving a city? And was not crowding all the Irish, men, women, and children over the Shannon in this war, done on purpose to reduce them to famine? And it had that effect. Many of these wretches died, many women miscarried, and numbers were starved in that driving over the Shannon; insomuch that some of the protestant officers, who were employed in that expedition, expressed the greatest regret to see such lamentable spectacles, and were ashamed of their commissions; and those, who were thus driven, had king William's protec tions in their pockets." These historical facts were, it seems, unknown to the Doctor, when he made his charge.

The celebrated Mr. Spencer, after having mentioned that lord deputy Gray, (whose secretary he was) in carrying on the war against the Irish in Munster, in 1580, "had driven them to such an extremity of famine, that they digged dead carcasses out of the graves for food," was not ashamed to conclude in these shocking words, "therefore, by all means it must be assured, that after once entering into this course of reformation, there be afterwards no remorse, nor drawing back, for the sight of any such rueful objects as must thereupon follow, nor for compassion of their calamities; seeing that by no other means it is possible to cure them.”—State of Irel, p. 166.

CHAP. XII.

King James countermands De Rosen's order.

I AM far from vindicating, or even meaning to extenuate the cruelty of De Rosen's order, from any former examples of the same kind; though many more than those I have mentioned, might be produced in the commanders of armies, on such occasions.1 60 King James himself expressed the highest resentment of it, and put a stop to its execution on the first notice; and in his circular letters to the governors of towns* and to the officerst commanding in chief in the North, he

1 Lesley, ubi supra.

"Circular letter. from king James forbidding to put De Rosen's proclamation in execution:"

"Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Whereas we are informed, that our field-marshal-general, the marquis de Rosen, hath sent orders to several places, requiring the relations of such as are now in rebellion against us in Derry, of what sex or age soever they be, to be delivered to him, and exposed by him, as he hath projected and declared in the said order; our will and pleasure is, that if any such order hath been sent to you from the said marshal, you positively refuse obedience thereto, and make it known to all our people, that such orders have been given entirely without our knowledge, and are positively contrary to our inclinations, which have always been to reclaim even the worst of our subjects by mercy, and inviolably preserve the assurances we have given, either by our royal declaration in general, or by any particular protections, to such as live peaceably under our government: we do therefore reiterate our orders to you, that you assure all our loving subjects of our real intentions in this matter, and you shall assure them that such as live peaceably in their stations, shall, without distinction, enjoy our protection, and so requiring your obedience to this our absolute will and pleasure, we bid you heartily farewell. Given at our court at Dublin-castle, this 3d day of June, 1689, and in the fifth year of our reign.

+ The Irish officers likewise, who were employed in De Rosen's driving, "executed these orders against their countrymen, (says sir John Dalrmple) weeping, and obeying; and many of them owned, that the cries they then heard rang for ever in their cars.”—Memoirs, part. ii. p. 40.

Those very protestants whom De Rosen cruelly ordered to be thus driven before the walls of Derry, and whom king James immediately ordered to be discharged upon the first notice, " confess (says Mr. Lesley) that lieutenant-general Hamilton (who was much against that driving, but De

commanded them by no means to obey it; and accordingly, that order was not executed in most parts of that province. This, adds Mr. Lesley, I had from the officers, to whom these orders were sent, and from several protestants who have seen them, and can produce them." Mr. Lesley also3 appeals to the earl of Granard,* then living, "whether the same day, that the news of this order of De Rosen's came to Dublin, his lordship did not tell king James of it, and whether his majesty did not answer, that he was grieved for it, that he had sent immediate orders to discharge it, and that none but a barbarous Muscovite (for such, it seems, De Rosen was,) could have thought of so cruel a contrivance."

As this charge against De Rosen has been frequently introduced in anniversary sermons on rebellion, plots and massacres, 'tis but just to give the following extracts from the authentic papers of Mr. Macpherson, and leave the reader to judge of that general's conduct.

4 DE ROSEN's order.

Camp before Londonderry, July 1st, 1689. "The rebels of Londonderry augmenting every day in their obstinacy, which can no longer be endured, I have re

Rosen commanded) ordered meal and other provisions to be distributed among the poor people."-Answ. to King, p. 186.

"It would be inhuman to the memory of the unhappy, to impute the disgrace of this action to king James. He revoked the order as soon as he heard of it, because his own sufferings had probably taught him to feel for those of others."-Dalrymple's Mem. part ii. p. 41.

"The French fleet which carried king James into Ireland, took some English merchantmen while his majesty was aboard, and some of the mas ters were brought before king James, who expecting nothing but death, fell down upon their knees begging their lives, which brought tears into the king's eyes, and he not only restored them their ships with all their ef fects, but ordered two frigates to attend them and see them safe through all the French fleet!"-Lesley's Answ. p. 150.

This earl was accounted very " zealous for the protestant interest; his lady was a presbyterian, and he had constantly received five hundred pounds a year from king Charles the second, to be distributed among the presbyterian clergy in the North of Ireland, even when he permitted a cruel persecution of their brethren in England."-Harris's K. William, f. 105. Note.

"At Derry the resistance of the rebels continuing, they made several

solved to gather together all the rebels of this country, and to conduct them to camp, and afterwards to drive them under the walls of the town that they may starve. You are to give them no more subsistence than will be barely necessary to support them this length from the places they shall be taken. And as I have certain information that a considerable number of the rebels of Londonderry and of this district, especially their wives and children, have retired to Belfast and the neighboring places; and as the hardiness of their husbands deserves the severest chastisements, I write this letter to acquaint you, that you are instantly to make an exact research in Belfast and its neighborhood, after such subjects as are rebellious to the will of the king, whether men, women, boys or girls, without exception, and whether they are protected or unprotected, and to arrest them and collect them together, that they may be conducted by a detachment to this camp, and driven under the walls of Londonderry, where they shall be allowed to starve in sight of the rebels within the town, unless they chuse to open their ports to them, which they shall be at liberty to do, if they are disposed to pity them. Do not fail to exert yourself to the utmost in executing these orders punctually, and without delay, and at the risk of being personally answerable to me for your diligence; and you are to be particularly careful, that none of the rebels, whether men or boys, women or girls, or infants, of whatever age, shall pass the river and escape the way of Charlemont, to save themselves from the wretchedness to which they are to be reduced.

"You are to intimate to the inhabitants of Port Patrick the orders you have received, and to declare to them, that they shall assuredly be treated with the same rigour, unless they remain quiet. I recommend to you to give the greatest attention to the execution of these orders.

sallies, killing many general officers and other officers, at length pressed with want of provisions, the garrison proposed a surrender on conditions (which they had so often insidiously done before during the siege, at one time to the king in person). This was construed by De Rosen into a mere feint to gain time (which is evident). The besieged continued to fire and drove the Irish from two entrenchments, which they had taken the day before. The mareschal incensed at this unexpected resistance, adopted the