E him to that way of thinking, by inserting the paffage at large, wherein they are contained. "On the 15th of November," fays that well informed writer," the rebels, after a fortnight's siege, reduced the castle of Lurgan; Sir William Bromlow, after a ftout defence, furrendering it on the terms of marching out with his family and goods: but fuch was the unworthy difpofition of the rebels, that they kept him, his lady, and children, prifoners; rifled his houfe, plundered, stripped, and killed most of his fervants; and treated all the townsmen in the fame manner. This,' adds he, "was the first breach of faith, which the rebels were guilty of in these parts (there was then no other infurrection in any of the other parts of Ireland) in regard of articles of capitulation; for when Mr. Conway, on November the 5th, furrendered his castle of Bally-aghie, in the county of Derry, to them, they kept the terms for which he stipulated, and allowed him to march out with his men, and to carry away trunks with plate and money in them. Whether," proceeds Mr. Carte," the flaughter made by a party from Carrickfergus, in the territory of Magee, a long narrow ifland, in which it is affirmed, that near three thousand harmless Irish, men, women and children, were cruelly maffacred, happened before the furrender of Lurgan, is hard to be determined; the relations published of facts, in thofe times, being very indistinct, and uncertain, with regard to the time they were committed; though it is confidently afferted, that the faid maffacre happened in this month of November.' Let us now try these different accounts by the only fure teft of dates and facts. It is confeffed on all hands, that the chiefs of the infurgents, through fear of the Scots in Ulfter, 16 (" who," as the Earl of Clanrickard informs us, "were forty thousand well armed men, when the rebellion commenced;" at the fame. time, that the rebels were at least, by half lefs numerous, and furnifhed with few better weapons than, "ftaves, fcythes, and pitchforks,") published a pro 15 Cart. Orm. vol. i. 18. clamation, 16 Ib. vol. iii. fol. 77. clamation, " forbidding their followers, on pain of death, to molest any of the Scottish nation, in body or goods." Temple acknowledges, that this proclamation," "was for a time obferved ;" and from Mr. Wallbank's report, already mentioned to the house of commons, of the conftant fuccefs of his majesty's forces in defeating the infurgents in different parts of Ulfter, from the 23d of October to the 16th of November following, we may reasonable fuppofe, that it was at least observed till that day; for it is furely in the highest degree improbable, that these chiefs would, at any time before, have wantonly provoked the refentment of fo formidable a body of men, by any cruel outrage or hoftile act. But it is unquestionably evident, that the Scots in Ulfter did fome remarkable execution on the Irish, feveral days before the 15th of November, the day on which Lurgan was furrendered. For Sir William Parfons, in a letter from Dublin, of the 13th of that month, to the Earl of Clanrickard, acquaints him, as with a welcome piece of news,20" that the Scots did hold the northern Irish hard to it, having killed some of them." And Sir William St. Leger,d grudging, as it were, the Scots the honour of that action, told the Earl of Ormond, on the 14th, "that had it pleased God that his lordship had been there with his hundred horse, and himself to wait upon him, the Scots fhould never have had the honour to put fuch an obligation on Ireland." e 19 Hift. Irish Rebel. 20 Cart. Orm. vol. iii. From This gentleman, who was lord prefident of Munster, feems to have been very well qualified for acquiring fuch honour. For Lord Upper Offory, in a letter to the Earl of Ormond about this time, informs him, " that he was so cruel and mercilefs, that he caused men and women to be most execrably executed; and that he ordered, among others, a woman great with child to be ript up, from whose womb three babes were taken out, through every of whofe bodies, his foldiers thrust their weapons; which act (adds his lordíhip) puts many into a fort of "defperation." Cart. Orm. vol. iii. fol. 51. In the course of the lord juftices letters to the Earl of Clan rickard, CE'S From hence, I think, may fairly be deduced the only reafon, why the behaviour of the infurgents to Sir William Bromlow, on the 15th of November, was fo very different from that which they had before fhewn to Mr. Conway, on the 5th of the fame month, viz. because the maffacre in queftion was perpetrated on their innocent unoffending people, in that interval of time; which, no doubt, provoked them to the above-mentioned breach of articles at the furrender of Lurgan, and to feveral other acts of injuftice and cruelty in the profecution of this war. The deduction now made is fo agreeable to dates and facts, that I am furprised to find this first breach of articles by the infurgents, afcribed to any other caufe; especially to one, which appears manifeftly repugnant to both. This caufe, we are informed, was the repulse, defeat, and flaughter of a confiderable body of the rebels at the fiege of Lisburn, by a Scottish garrison stationed there; for thus the before-cited history relates the immediate effects, which that difafter produced in these rebels. "But fuch fuccefs (of 20 Lel. Hift. Irel. vol. iii. rickard, from October 26th, 1641, to the 5th of the following month, there is no mention made of any murders having been committed by the infurgents on the English. But in the postscript of the letter of the 5th of November, they exprefsly fay, "we have intelligence that five thousand Scots have rifen in arms against the rebels, and those Scots lie now at Newry, where they have flain many of the rebels." Clanrick. Mem. fol. 11. Engl. ed. Lord Clanrickard in his account of the progrefs of this infurrection in Connaught, to January 18th 1641, mentions not a fyllable of murders committed by the infurgents, but of spoils, preys, and the like. In his letter of the 20th of that month to the Earl of Effex, he fays, " an archbishop, bishop, and many of the clergy, are in the town of Galway inclined to go for England by fea, for fear of the people, not fo much for religion, as their great extortions upon them; this being a time to be mindful of former injuries; and, to speak the truth, I believe the greediness of fome of them, and reports out of England, hath drawn much prejudice on the other English inhabitants of this kingdom. It is now told me they make orders among themselves, to relieve and preserve English tradesmen." Mem. Engl. ed. fol. 59. (of the Scots) was attended with confequences truly horrible; the Irish incenfed at refiftance, carried on their hoftilities without faith or humanity. Lurgan was furrendered by Sir William Bromlow, on terms of fecurity to the inhabitants, and permiffion of marching out with his family, goods and retinue; but all was instantly seized, and the whole town given up to plunder." Thus have we a caufe plaufibly affigned, which did not exist until many days after its fuppofed effect was produced. For the defeat and flaughter of the rebels at Lisburn, or, as it was then called, Lifnegarvy, did not happen, according to Borlafe, till the 28th of November;" but Lurgan, as we have feen, was furrendered to them, on the 15th of that month, thirteen days before. Let us now fee upon what grounds this maffacre in Ifland-Magee is transferred, from November 1641, to the beginning of January following. One would expect to find an affertion fo fingular fupported by fome folid, or at leaft plaufible proof; but instead of meeting with any fuch, in the place before quoted from this hiftory, we are only there directed to look out for it (where certainly it never can be found) in the collection of original manufcript depofitions, now in the poffeffion of the univerfity of Dublin. But we fhall prefently demonftrate the infufficiency, not to fay futility, of proofs drawn from these depofitions. And, in truth, if they were to be admitted as proofs, or evidence in any degree, there is hardly any thing fo incredible or abfurd, that might not with equal reafon, be obtruded upon us for genuine hiftory." Every fuggeftion of phrenzy and melancholy; miraculous escapes from death, vifions of fpirits chaunting hymns; ghofts rifing. from rivers, brandifhing fwords, and fhrieking revenge," 21 Hift. of the Irish Rebel, fol. 57. 22 Lel. Hift. of Irel. "Any one (fays Mr. Carte) who has ever read the examinations and depofitions here referred to, which were generally given upon hearfay, and contradicting one another, would think it very hard upon the Irifh, to have all thofe without diftinction, to be admitted as evidence." Orm. vol. ii. fol. 263. venge," would have a juft and rational title to our belief, having all of them received the fanction of thefe vouchers. CHA P. IV. The original depofitions now in the poffeffion of the univerfity of Dublin confidered. I Shall now briefly confider the nature of that evidence which has hitherto induced fo many people, learned and unlearned, to give, or at least feem to give, credit to thofe horrible relations of murders, and massacres, which have been imputed to thefe infurgents. Evidence that, in itself, is fo manifeftly futile, contradictory, or falfe, that I am perfuaded every person of common fenfe would be afhamed to produce the like, upon any ordinary occafion. 1 The evidence I mean, is that huge collection of manufcript depofitions (confifting of thirty-two folio volumes) which are faid to have been fworn, on the fubject of the outrages and depredations committed by the infurgents, in this war, and are now in the poffeffion of the university of Dublin.. From this enormous heap of malignity and nonfenfe, Temple and Borlafe have felected a a I have already given a fhort sketch of Temple's character as an historian, from Dr. Nalfon; the following is that given to Dr. Borlafe's history of the Irish rebellion, by the fame impartial writer." As for Dr. Borlafe, (fays he) befides the nearness of his relation to one of the lords juftices, and his being openly and avowedly a favourite of the faction, and the men and actors of thofe times; he is an author of fuch strange inconfiftency, that his book is rather a paradox than a history; and it must needs be fo; for I know not by what accident the copy of the manuscript written by the Right Hon. the Earl of Clarendon, happening to fall into his hands, he has very unartfully blended it with his own rough and unpolifhed heap of matter, fo that his book looks like a curious embroidery fown with coarse thread upon a piece of fack web; and truly had he no other crime but that of a plagiary, it is fuch a fort of theft to fteal the child of another's brain, |