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Star-chamber, and the presence of the lord deputy."-Another cause, in which religion was concerned, was the perfidy of the protestant governors, in cajoling the Irish parliament to grant subsidies to the king, and, after obtaining the money, withholding from the people the promised benefits stipulated in return. It must here be observed that the Irish parliament consisted mostly of catholic noblemen and gentlemen, and as the refractory disposition of the protestant parliament of Englanc prevented the king from succeeding in gaining the necessary supplies from the puritan members, he had recourse to his Irish catholic subjects, and the readiness with which they complied with his demands will be best related by the insertion of the following letter from the Privy Counsellors, members of the Irish house of commons, to secretary Windebank, in 1639, taken from lord Strafford's State Letters, vol. 2, fol. 397:

toleration to which they had been strangers, since the era of gelical liberty;" but the clamours of the puritan party, noticed in my last, compelled this prince to recal his indulgent deputy, Lord Falkland, and entrust the administration of the kindom to two lords justices, namely, viscount Ely and the earl of Cork. Of these two protestant statesmen, Leland, the Irish histo rian, says, They, without waiting for the king's instructions, fell at once with great severity on the recusants, and soon extended the most rigorons execution of the penal laws to every part of the kingdom.These merciful deputies were succeeded by the earl of Strafford, then lord Wentworth, who took upon him the charge of government in 1633, and held it until a short period of his death, which happened by decapitation on the 12th of May, 1641. The transactions of this governor are thus spoken of by Mr. W. Parnell, in his Historical Apology for the Irish Catholics. "Another material cause of the rebellion, (says Mr. P.) which had no connec- stances which occurred therein to our tion with religion, was lord Straf-view, who have the honour to serve his ford's resumption of the plan for confiscating the province of Connaught. The unfortunate landed proprietors had already twice purchased their titles from the crown, yet Strafford did not hesitate to outrage every feeling of humanity, and every rule of justice, by subverting them a third time. This transaction may not perhaps be the most infamous that ever occurred, but certainly the most infamous act of oppression that was ever perpetrated by a plea of law, under the sanction of juries. It is uncomfortable to dwell on so abominable an outrage, it is sufficient to observe, that it was in part carried by violence by fined the last parliament towards enabling ing the sheriffs, imprisoning jurors, and fining them to the amount of £4000 each, by the terrors of the

"SIR,-The happy resolution, this liament, and the observable circumday taken in the commons house of par

majesty as his privy council here; and who, as members of the house of commons, were present, and co-operating in that resolution; have rendered to us the apprehension of the entire affecsuch inward joy and contentment, in tions and great loyalty of this people, abundantly testified thereby, as esteem it our duties to hasten the glad advertisement thereof to his sacred majesty.

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"After the proposal of such acts of grace and advantage to the subject, as we conceived most fit to lead, in order to the propounding of the subsidies, six subsidies were demanded for his mas jesty: whereupon divers members of the house spake thereunto; some of the natives declaring that, as six were grant

for the occasions of this crown, and the king to pay the debts contracted for the better settlement of the reve nues: so, at this time, six or more, are

fit to be given; it being apparent, that | the peace and safety of the kingdom are become so nearly concerned.

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Some also of the natives shewing divers precedents in ancient times, and, among these, some whereby the king, by a mandate from himself alone, without a parliament, caused monies and goods to be taken in Ireland, from merchants and others, towards defray. ing the charges of his. expeditions against the Scots, for the defence of his kingdom; and those having enlarged themselves in that point, mentioned the abundant piety and clemency of his majesty, in being so indulgent to his subjects, as to decline that example of his progenitors, and to require aid of his subjects in a parliamentary way; some of them said, that his majesty should have a 'fee simple of subsidies in their estates on like occasions, for the honour of his person, and safety of his kingdoms: it was fit to be done, though it were leaving themselves nothing besides hose and doublet. Some of them with much earnestness, after forward expressions of readiness towards advancing the business, con cluded, that, as his majesty is the best of kings, so this people should strive to be ranked among the best of subjects.

Thus, every of them seeming, in a manner, to contend one with another, who should shew most affection and forwardness to comply with his majesty's occasions, and all of them expressing, even with passion, how much they abhor and detest the Scotch covenanters, and how readily every man's hand ought to be laid to his sword, to assist the king in reducing of them by force to the obedience and loyalty of subjects; they desired that themselves and others of this nation might have the honour to be employed in this expedition, and declared, with very great demonstration of cheerful affections, that their hearts contained mines of sub sidies for his majesty; that twenty subsidies, if their abilities were equal with their desires, were too little to be given to so sacred a majesty, from whose princely clemency, by the ministration of the lords lieutenant, so many

and so gracious favours are continually

derived unto them.

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In the end, considering the present condition of the kingdom, and how

ORTHOD. JOUR. VOL. Y.

unable they are, without too much pressure to them to advance more at this time; they humbly besought that, by the lord lieutenant's interposition to his majesty, four subsidies might be accepted from them at this time; yet, with declaration made by them, with as much demonstration of loyally as ever nation or people expressed towards a king, that, if more than these four should be requisite, and the occasions of the war continue, they will be ready to grant more, and to lay down their persons, lives and estates, at his majesty's feet, to further his royal design for cor rection of the disordered factions in Scotland, and reducing them to a right understanding of themselves, and for the defence and safety of his majesty's kingdoms and people. And they earnestly desired us, of the council then present, that immediately after the rising of the house, we would represent this from the house to the lord lieute nant; which they did with general aca clamations and signs of joy and contentment, even to the throwing up of their hats, and lifting up their hands.

"The question being then put, for the granting of four subsidies, with such a declaration to be made besides the act of subsidies; it was unanimous. ly assented to by the whole house; there being found therein not one nega tive voice: which we mention for the glory of his majesty, that hath so good and loyal subjects, and for the honour and government of this nation.

"And because no words are able fully to set forth the cheerfulness, wherewith this people did, in this par ticular, manifest their sense of his majesty's occasions, their desire to further his majesty's royal intentions, and their intire affections to the honour of his person; and all with most lively expressions of their duty and loyalty towards him; we of his council could have wished, if it had been possible, that his majesty had been in his own Person an eye witness of this day's carhave heen of far more value in his royal riage, which we humbly conceive would estimation, than twenty subsidies."

These demonstrations of sincere

loyalty were accompanied with a remonstrance of real grievances, among which the persecutions they had suffered on account of their religion

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PROTESTANTS, AND NOT CATHOLICS,
THE PROMOTERS OF THE MASSACRE.

were not the least; and they soli- | Carte) as appears from a multitude cited the enactment of certain laws, of depositions taken before Dr. H. for the security of toleration, pro-Jones, and other commissioners, perty, and justice. The king ac- prevailed universally among the recepted the grants, and promised bels, and was chiefly insisted upon that these laws should be assented to; by them as one of the principal reabut the puritan faction, alarmed at sonings of their taking arms.". the unshaken fidelity of the catho- Enough has been said to prove, that lics to the throne, by the basest and so far from the Irish people living in most treacherous arts, contrived to a state of peace previous to their risrender the designs of the monarch ing, they were smarting under the abortive, and to foment what they basest persecutions, and every encalled a popish rebellion. At the gine was set to work by their mercihead of this detestable party were less enemies to infuriate their minds, the two lords-chief-justices, Borlase and urge them to deeds of vengeand Parsons, who succeeded lord ance. Thus instigated and alarmed Strafford, and revived the persecu- for the safety of their lives as well tions against the catholics with un- as their consciences, some few of the relenting cruelty, disseminating, at catholics in the north did take themthe same time, throughout the king- selves to arms, and committed viodom, the different petitions present-lences, at all times to be deplored, ed by their faction to the English but not to the extent asserted by the parliament, calling for the extirpa- writers before quoted. tion of the popish religion, and the lives and estates of the professors thereof. The intolerant and disgraceful terms of the Scotch covenant, entered into by the puritans of that country,and afterwards assented to by their brethren in England, have been before stated; to alarm the Irish people, as to the designs of the covenanters, it is stated in Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormond, that "a letter was intercepted coming from Scotland to one Freeman, of Antrim, giving an account that a covenanting army was ready to come for Ireland, under the command of general Lesley, to extirpate the roman catholics of Ulster, and leave the Scots sole possessors of that province; and that to this end, a resolution had been taken in their private meetings and councils, to lay heavy fines upon such as would not appear at their kirks, for the first and second Sunday; and on failure the third, TO HANG, without mercy, all such as were obstinate AT THEIR OWN DOORS. This notion, (adds Mr

Notwithstanding the unqualified assertions of Rapin, Echard, and other writers, that the insurrection was sudden, general, surprising, and prodigious, and that nothing less was intended than cutting the throats of all the English protestants throughout the whole kingdom, it is a fact, incontestibly proved by unimpeachable testimony, that the rising was at first confined to the province of Ulster, and that few or no English protestants were destroyed at its commencement, or during its continuancé. It is a farther fact, that upon intelligence being received of the commotion, the greater part of the catholic nobility and gentry proferred their services to quell the insurrection, yet their offer was not only rejected, but they were themselves soon obliged to stand upon their own defence against the cruel villanies of the two puritan chiefjustices, one of whom, Parsons, had declared at a public entertain

til his majesty should think fit to determine the same;" but, in order to prevent these bills from passing into laws, the lords-justices caused that parliament to be adjourned for three months against the declared wish of its members, and that too but a few days before the arrival of the deputies from England with the royal assent; nor would they permit proclamation to be made, although urgently solicited so to do, of the gracious intentions of the sovereign to remove every subject of complaint. On the contrary, they were determined to drive the catholics, who were looked upon by them already as rebels, by the most cruel measures, into a state of insurrection. Accordingly we find in Carte's Collection of Letters the following order from these lordsjustices and the privy council to the earl of Ormonde, then lieutenantgeneral of the army, dated at the castle of Dublin, 23d of February, 1641:-

ment, that "within a twelvemonth, signed to inevitable ruin." And no catholic should be seen in Ire-, well did these mercenaries play their land." That I may not be accused of parts. The Irish parliament having dealing in vague assertions in refut- sent deputies over to England to obing the vile falsehoods advanced by tain the consent of the king to some the before-quoted historians, I shall bills which had been passed by the confine myself to authenticated do- two houses for the removal of grievcuments, which are the best tests in ances, his majesty expressly comfavour of a legitimate cause. In the manded the lords-justices by letter first place, however, let the reader" to suffer that parliament to sit unbear in mind, that for a considerable time previous to the actual rising of the Irish people, which is stated to have happened on the 23d of October, 1641, the puritan leaders in the English parliament, those staunch strugglers for liberty of conscience, had been at variance with Charles, principally on account of the lenity shewn to his catholic subjects, and they had, by the most infamous intrigues, perverted the public mind, inflaming it to a degree of phrenzy at the supposed bloody principles of popery, notwithstanding they were constantly assailing the monarch with remonstrances to induce him to spill the blood of innocent catholics. During their contentions with the sovereign, they could not be ignorant of the faithful and steady loyalty of the Irish catholics to him, although a protestant, and therefore they were determined to have their revenge. Iustigated by this diabolical spirit, the faction kept up a correspondence with the puritan lord justices, Parson and Borlase, who, accordingly, by their own authority, commanded many things contrary to the express direction of the king, for the purpose not only to exasperate the Irish catholics, but to render them desperate." The favourite object both of the Irish government and the English parliament," says Leland, was the utter extirmination of all the catholic inhabitants of Ireland. Their estates were already marked out, and allotted to the conquerors; so that they and their posterity were con

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"It is resolved, that it is fit that his lordship do endeavour with his majesty's said forces to wound, kill, 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 and harboured, and all the and hay there, and KILL and DESTROY ALL THE MEN there inhabiting ABLE TO BEAR ARMS."

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On the 3d of March following, as

we find from the same Collection, the said lord-justices issued further orders to the earl of Ormonde, directing him to march with 3000 foot and 500 horse" to such places between the Boyne and the sea as his lordship should think fit; and burn and destroy the rebels of the pale, WITHOUT EXCEPTING OF ANY. That those, who should offer to come in, should be in no other manner taken in than as PRISONERS taken by the power and strength of his majesty's army. That, if any of them came to the army, it should be the SOLDIERS, that seized on them, before they had access to his lordship; and that they should be denied access to his person. That no difference should be made between the noblemen that were rebels and other rebels; but that their houses and goods should be dealt with as those of other rebels."-How these orders were executed may be gathered from Dr. Nalson, a protestant divine, who, in his Historical Collec tions, assures us, that "the severities of the provost-marshals, and the barbarism of the SOLDIERS to the Irish, were 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 shewed 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 heaven! are these the men, or, I should rather say, barbarians, to reproach papists with cruelty? Are these the noble strugglers for liberty of conscience? Are these the deeds of their ancestors so extolled by modern reformers and biblical bigots, as worthy of imitation?

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Mr. Cobbett and Mr. Ralib, and all

their clamourous and deluded associates, may declaim against the Bourbons, and the jesuits, and the inquisition, but let them produce an instance of such cold-blooded perfidy and inhumanity on the part of the catholic rulers of a nation towards the protestant inhabitants, indisputably verified as the above facts, before they again launch out in groundless accusations against the blood-thirsty propensities of papists. Let the former remember, that he can be no friend to liberty of conscience who would restrain his neighbour in the exercise of it by despotic power; and let the biblical bigot, who is ever and anon quoting scripture, reflect on our Saviour's admonition to the elders who denounced the adultress woman-let him that is without sin cast the first stone at her.

Goaded by these and "numberless other acts of perfidiousness and barbarity," can we think it "surprising" that the Irish were in the end roused to commit reprisals on their inhuman persecutors? Is it not rather a matter of surprise that they bore the nefarious practices of their despotic rulers with such patience and forbearance? Would protestants have been so quiet under catholic governors? Did the German lutherans or the French calvinists display such patient suffering underCharles V.or the Bourbons, as the Irish catholics under puritan intolerance? Had, in fact, the puritans in Scotland and England a twentieth part of the grievances to complain of against Charles and his ministers, which the Irish catholics had against them? See what Dr. Warner, who was by no means desirous of favouring the Irish, says of the rebellion: "The arbitrary power exercised by these lord justices; their illegal exertion of it by bringing people to the rack to draw confessions from them; their send

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