Thirdly From Orders about Garrisoning Mansion-Houses Sending the Protestant Owners to the Goal who must never have expected either their Houses or Lives if King James had prevailed ibid. Estates of Absentees disposed of and promised to Papists p. 162 20. Objection That King James did not know the Consequence of Repealing the Acts of Settlement ibid. Answer First King James understood them better than any and held ten thousand pounds a year by them when Duke of York ibid. Secondly King James would not hear the Protestants plead at the Bar against the Repeal p. 163 Thirdly Bishop of Meath in a Speech in the House set forth the ill Consequences at large ibid. Fourthly The Protestants opposed it from Point to Point ibid. Fifthly Protestants were resolved to use their utmost that the ill intents of their Adversaries might appear the more p. 164 Sixthly Lord chief Justice Keating's Paper given to King James in behalf of Purchasers rejected ibid. 21. Protestants lost more in Ireland than all that favour King James's Cause in England are worth p. 165 Sect. 13. Eighthly The danger into which King James brought the lives of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland ibid. 1. At King James's Coming no General Pardon though it had been his Interest in respect of England ibid. 2. Is not chargeable with particular Murders further than by arming such Men as would be guilty of them p. 166 3. The Governments Design upon our Lives ibid. First by feigned Plots and Protecting the Perjured Witnesses Instance in Spikes Case The Dumb Friar p. 167 Secondly By wresting Facts to Treason Nugent declar'd Protestants having Arms to be so p. 168 Thirdly By violating Articles Mr. Brown of Cork Town of Bandon Earl of Inchiquin Captain Boyle Sir Thomas Southwell and his Party Lord Mountjoy's Soldiers Fort of Culmore King James's approach to Derry Captain Dixy Kenaght Castle p. 169 170 Fourthly By violating Protections p. 171 Protestants of Down p. 171 Protestants brought before Derry by General Rosen Bishop of Meath applyed to King James about it King James excused Rosen p. 173 174 Captain Barton of Carrick Mac Cross p. 175 Fifthly By private Orders and Proclamations with the penalty of Death Several Instances p. 178 Sixthly By the Act of Attainder Abstract of it Archbishops 2 Duke 1 Temporal Lords 63 Ladies 22 Bishops 7 Knights 85 Clergymen 83 Esquires and Gentlemen 2182 2445 p. 179 180 Not equalled by the Proscription at Rome Great part Attainted on Common Fame p. 182 Observations on the Act ibid. 1. Leaves no room for the King to Pardon ibid. 2. The Act concealed Out of the Power of an English Parliament to Repeal it by the Act for cutting off Ireland from England p. 183 3. The hast in drawing it up ibid. 4. Many left out particularly the Collegians and how ibid. 5. Applications in behalf of Protestants made their Case worse p. 184 6. Allowing of time to prove Innocency a meer Collusion ibid. 1. None knew what time was given ibid. 2. None knew what they would call Innocency Instance Desmineer and Ginnery ibid. 3. The Embargo on this side would not let them know on the other side 4. The Embargo on the other side would not let them come hither 5. To have come would have been an unwise Venture p. 177 4. Objection That few Protestants lost their Lives p. 178 Answer 1. When it is known how many have perished they will not appear few ibid. 2. The Irish Papists would not venture at much Murthering till they were past an after Reckoning they feared such Cruelty would be revenged on Roman Catholicks in England ibid. 3. Protestants were cautious not to provoke them and were true to one another p. 179 4. We dont know what would have been done with Attainted Persons ibid. 5. Protestants if Obnoxious absconded or escaped ibid. 6. The Support of King James's Army depended on the Protestants p. 179 Scotch Officers that came here wondered to find how Protestants were used having heard so much the contrary at home p. 180 The same given out in England Pity but those who believed and forwarded it had been sent hither ibid. The Irish doing what they did in their Circumstances what would they have done if left to their swing ibid. Sect. 14. Ninthly The method King James took to destroy our Religion p. 181 1. The Attempts against our Lives and Fortunes no sudden thing but the result of a long Design for which Tirconnel had 20000 l. per annum ibid. 2. King James pretended Liberty of Conscience but not to be expected from a Roman Catholick ibid. 3. The Laws and Coronation Oath secured our Religion The Clergy had merited from King James by opposing the Exclusion and disobliged their People p. 182 4. At his coming to the Crown the Roman Catholicks declared that his Promises to the Church were not intended for Ireland p. 183 Sect. 15. First By taking away our Schools and Universities p. 184 1. Lord Tirconnell put the Schools contrary to Law into the hands of Papists ibid. 2. And would have put in Popish Fellows into the College ibid. 3. Stopt the College Pension of 388 l. per annum from Easter 1688. turned out the Fellows and Students seized on the Library and Furniture p 193 4. Forbid three of them on pain of Death not to meet together p. 194 5. King James did not fill up vacant Bishopricks and Livings in his Gift ibid. 6. And allowed nothing for supplying the Cures p. 195 7. All the Bishops and Livings in the Kingdom would soon have come into the Kings hands p. 196 8. This not the effect of our Constitution the same in Popish Countries Thirty five Bishopricks void in France in 1688. King James's Ungratefulness to the Protestant Clergy ibid. Sect. 16. Secondly By taking away the Maintenance of the Clergy p. 197 1. Book-Mony denyed by the Papists from King James's coming to the Crown ibid. 2. Priests put in for Tythes Hardly recovered by Protestants p. 198 3. An Act of their Parliament applied Papists Tythes to the Priests ibid. 4. And Protestants Tythes too when the Priests had the Benefices ibid. 5. The Priests forc'd into Possession of Glebes where there were any p. 199 6. Protestant Clergy little better for the Tythes left to them Protestants had little Tythings left Priests by Dragoons seized what there was never wanted Pretences ibid. 7. House-Mony in Corporations taken away by their Parliament Pleaded against before the House of Lords but in vain p. 200 8. The same took away Ulster Table of Tythes p. 201 9. Duties payable to the King out of Livings were exacted wholly from the Protestant Incumbents though they had nothing left to them of their Livings their Persons seized and sent to Goal ibid. Collonel Moore Clerk of the First Fruits imprisoned because he would not be severe against them p. 202 Sect. 17. Thirdly By taking away the Jurisdiction of the Protestant Church ibid. 1. The Churches Right by Prescription to Jurisdiction ibid. 2. Act
Neighbouring People In that Case there is all the Reason in the World that the Prince and People so threatened should prevent their own Ruin by timely interposing in behalf of their Neighbours and by forcing their King to desist from his Injustice and Violence against his own Subjects tho it cost a War to compass it if there appear no other means to do it And this is not only Charity to them but a point of Prudence which every Prince ows to himself Now if we consider the State of Europe at that time the growing Power of France and how much the late King was in the French Interests it will clearly appear that the Measures he took with his Subjects must have been fatal to all Europe especially to the Protestant Interest which he almost openly declared that he designed to destroy and therefore it concerned all Europe more especially Holland who lay nearer to Destruction to interpose in time and nip these Designs in the beginning which they and all Europe saw would have ended in their Destruction as soon as the Ruin of the Protestants in England and Ireland was accomplished and the present Confederacy shews this to be the general Sense of all the States and Princes in Europe as well of the Roman Catholicks as of the Protestants the Pope himself not excepted so that this which has been done to King James is not to be looked on as the single act of their present Majesties or of the People of England but of all Europe as the only means to oppose the intolerable Encroachments or the French King and his Faction 4. Thirdly the same is lawful by the common Rights of Humanity and Charity which are due to the distressed If I see a Man about to kill or destroy another tho I have no authority over either or concern with them yet Humanity obliges me to succour and rescue the oppressed and tho it be a Son that is thus wronged by his Father yet while the Father proceeds with Cruelty and apparent Injustice it alters not the Case or makes it any thing more unlawful for me to afford relief or for him to desire and accept it tho the Father should take it so ill as to engage me in a quarrel to the loss of his life Much more is it lawful for Princes to interpose with a Neighbor-Prince when they see him cruelly and injustly oppress his Subjects and there is much more reason for those Subjects to desire and accept of the kind Offers of such a Deliverer than for a Son to accept it against his Father 5. Fourthly God seems purposely to have divided the World into several Principalities and Dominions and ballanced them a mong themselves that there might be a Refuge for the oppressed and afflicted and that if one King should turn Tyrant or endeavour to destroy his People the others might interpose and stop his Hands and that the fear of being deserted by his Subjects in such a Quarrel might oblige every one to preserve their Love and Affection by Justice and good Government I have reason to believe that the Primitive Church and especially S. Cyprian was of this opinion for they give this Reason why the Church was not trusted to one but to many Bishops Saith S. Cyprian Therefore the Body of Bishops is numerous that if one be guilty of Heresie and dissipate the Flock the rest may interpose and rescue them out of his Hands And sure the Argument is as strong for the number of Temporal as of Spiritual Governors and the Necessity and Justice of their interposing with their Neighbor Princes when they attempt the Destruction of their People is as great as of a Bishops being chastised and restrained by his Fellow Bishops when he attempts to introduce Heresie 6. Fifthly This is agreeable to the Opinion of Christian Civilians and Casuists for which I desire the Reader may consult Grotius de Jure c. lib. 2. cap. 25. n. 8. where he tells us That if it were granted that Subjects might not take Arms lawfully even in the extremest necessity which yet saith he I see is doubted by those who professedly defend the Power of Kings it would not follow from thence but others might take Arms in their behalf This he proves from Reason and Authority and answers the Arguments brought against it See more to the same purpose lib. 2. cap. 20. S. 40. where he tells us That it is so much more honorable to avenge the Injuries done to another than to our selves by how much there is less danger that the sense of anothers pain should make us exceed in exacting such Revenge than of our own or byass our Judgment 7. Sixthly The same appears to be lawful from the Practice of Christian Princes who are celebrated in Histories for doing it this was the Case of Constantine the Great and the Cause of his Quarrel to Maxentius whom for his Tyranny over the Romans Constantine invaded and was received as their Deliverer when he had slain him The Cause of his invading Licinius his Brother in Law was of the like nature against whom he commenced a War for his persecuting the Christians and after he had overcome him he was received by the Christians in Licinius's room and celebrated by the Church and Historians of that time as a most holy and generous Champion in the Cause of Christ. When the King of Persia persecuted the Christians the same Prince threatened him with a War in case he did not desist and no doubt but he would have been as good as his word if the Persian King had not complyed We may observe the same to have been done in the Cause of the Orthodox against the Arrians by Constantine the Younger Son of Constantine the Great who threatened his elder Brother Constantius with a War if he did not desist from persecuting the Catholick Bishops and restore Athanasius to his Bishoprick of Alexandria that great and holy Man accepted of this Mediation and was restored by it which he would not have done if he had judged it unlawful The same was practised by King Pepin and Charles the Great against the Lombards and by all the Princes of Europe in favour of the Christians oppressed by the Turks in the holy War Queen Elizabeth did the same for Holland King James for the Prince Palatine and King Charles the First for Rochel and Bishop Laud who certainly understood the Principles of our Church encouraged both and it is one of the greatest Blemishes of the Reign of King Charles the Second that he suffered the French King to proceed so far in destroying his Protestant Subjects without interposing in their behalf which if he had effectually done he had either prevented it or got an opportunity of rendering his Reign glorious and his Kingdom faâ—e by a War which would in all probability have humbled that Monarch to the advantage of all Europe 8. I know nothing that can be objected against this except it
be the peculiar Obligation that lies on us from the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which tho it should be allowed lawful for a Foreign Prince to interpose would yet make it necessary for us to fight for our own Prince But to this I answer 1. That those Oaths were made by us to the King as Supreme Governor of these Kingdoms and while he continued such they did oblige us but by endeavouring to destroy us he as Grotius observes in that very Act abdicated the Government since an intention of Governing cannot consist with an intention of Destroying and therefore in all equity we are absolved from Oaths made to him as Governor That this may not seem a new Doctrine I would have the Reader observe that I only transcribe the Learned Falkner in his Christian Loyalty l. 1. c. 5. s. 2. n. 19. Such Attempts saith he of ruining do ipso facto include a disclaiming the governing those Persos as Subjects and consequently of being their Prince or King and then the Expression of our publick Declaration and Acknowledgment would still be secured that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King 9. But Secondly No Oath of Allegiance doth oblige any Subject to assist his Prince in an ill Cause If therefore a King should against the Rules of Justice attempt to destroy a Neighbor Nation his Subjects who were convinced of this ought not to fight for him in such a War and if they ought not to assist him to oppress Foreigners much less is it lawful for them to assist him to destroy themselves or to fight against a Prince who comes to rescue them from Destruction intended against them and if no Protestant Subject could lawfully fight for King James in his Quarrel against their present Majesties it is manifest that he himself had thereby voided that Branch of the Oath of Allegiance of fighting for him by making the matter of it unlawful he having brought the Nation into such a Condition that at the same time they defended his Person they must enable him to accomplish his destructive Designs against them which no Casuist will say they were obliged to do They therefore that urge us with the Obligation of the Oaths of Allegiance ought either to make it appear that it was lawful for us to fight for him in an ill Cause or else that it was not an ill Cause to help him to destroy his People Or Thirdly That he had no such Design against us none of which I have yet seen attempted in any Paper that has appeared in his Defence 10. But Thirdly As to us particularly in Ireland his late Majesty King James and his Parliament here by a formal Act did repeal and make void all former Acts that required the tendering or taking those Oaths and left not one legal standing Oath in force whereby we or any other Subjects besides Soldiers were obliged to profess Subjection to him therefore those Oaths being repealed and voided by the King 's own express Act how could he expect that we should look upon our selves to be bound or obliged by them And indeed we must conclude from his Majesties consenting to repeal them either that he designed to release us from the peculiar Obligation arising from them as too strict or else that he did not design to depend on our Oaths for our Loyalty and therefore laid them aside as of no force to oblige us either of which must proceed from an intention to destroy the ancient Government with which he was intrusted and can signifie nothing less than that he did not intend to rule us as his Predecessors did or to depend on those Obligations of Subjection which they judged proper for the Subjects of these Kingdoms to give their King and that as he did not intend to keep his Coronation Oath to us so he did not value our Oath of Allegiance to him having left none that we know of in this Kingdom which any Law obliges us to take CHAP. II. King James designed to destroy the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of his Subjects in general the English Interest in particular and so alter the very Frame and Constitution of the Government SECT I. Shewing the Possibility of a Kings designing the Destruction of his Subjects 1. I Have in the former Chapter shewed that it is lawful for a Prince to interpose between another Prince and his Subjects if he attempt to destroy them I promised in the second place to shew that the late King designed and endeavoured to destroy and utterly ruin the Protestant Religion and English Interest in Ireland and to alter the very Frame and Constitution of the Government This I look on as the most material point of our Apology and to need the most clear and full proof for Jealousies and Fears in such a Case ought not to pass for Arguments or be brought into competition with a certain and plain Duty that is with Obedience to lawful Governors The Arguments therefore brought by Subjects to prove their Governors Design to destroy them in those Interests to preserve which is the only Reason of Mens desiring or submitting to Government ought to be so plain and evident that the Conscience of Mankind cannot but see and be convinced of their Truth especially the generality of the Subjects themselves ought to be fully satisfied and acquiesce in them 2. I know 't is commonly objected Who shall be Judge And for this Reason alone some conclude it can never be lawful to make any opposition against a Governor or to side with a Deliverer that comes only to rescue miserable Subjects but I answer there are some Cases so plain that they need no Judge at all every Man must be left to judge for himself and for his Integrity he must be answerable to God and his own Conscience Matters of Fact are often of this Nature and I take this to be one of them for either the People must be left to judge of the Designs of their Governor by what they see and feel from him or else they must be obliged to a blind and absolute Submission without employing their understanding in the case And I dare appeal to all the World whether it be safer to leave it to the Judgments and Consciences of a whole Kingdom to determine concerning the Designs of their Governor or to leave it to the Will and Conscience of the King whether he will destroy them One of these is unavoidable and I am assured it is less probable that the Generality of a Kingdom will concur in a Mistake of this Nature and less mischievous if they should mistake than that a King by Weakness wicked Counsellors or false Principles should design to make his People Slaves subvert the ancient Government or destroy one part of his People whom he hates in favour of another 3. That a Prince may design to destroy his Subjects tho the Asserters of Absolute Passive Obedience would
imposed on but contributed nothing to relieve us as we found to our Costs and the Protestant Judges and Burgesses finding that they were made Cyphers and Properties of themselves declined at last to Act in their Stations 5. Next to Chancery is the Kings Bench where Subjects are tryed for their Lives and Fortunes upon this was set Mr. Thomas Nugent made afterwards Baron of Riverstown the Son of one who had been Earl of Westmeath but had lost his Honor and Estate for being an Actor in the late Rebellion begun in 1641. This Mr. Nugent who had never been taken notice of at the Bar but for a more than ordinary Brogue on his Tongue as they call it and ignorance in the Law was pitched on by King James to judg whether the Outlawries against his Father and his fellow Rebels should be reversed and whether the Settlement of Ireland founded on those Outlawries should stand good It was a Demonstration to us what the King intended when he assigned us such a Chief Justice and indeed the Gentleman did not fail to answer the expectation conceived of him He reversed the Outlawries as fast as they came before him notwithstanding a Statute made in point against it and in all the Causes that ever came before him wherein the Plaintiffs and Defendants were Papist and Protestant I could not learn from the most diligent Observer that ever he gave Sentence for the latter Nay it is Shrewdly suspected that he went sharer in some considerable Causes and not only appeared for them on the Bench but also secretly incouraged and fomented them Before him a Deed should be judged Forged or not Forged according as it served a Popish Interest And a Protestant needed no more to gain a Cause against another Protestant than to turn Papist which manifestly appear'd in Sir Gregory Birns Case who merely by turning Papist as is noted before in the midst of his Suit against Captain Robert Fitz Gerald got a Deed condemned of Forgery and recovered five or six hundred pounds per annum notwithstanding Mr. Daniel Birn his Father some years before for pretending it was Forged had been Sued in an Action of the Case and forced to pay two hundred pound damages and though there appeared in Court a Bond under Birns Hand obliging him to pay two hundred pound to the Witnesses in case they should prove Captain Fitz Geralds Deed to be Forged yet the proof was accepted But these were common things in this Court and the mischief had been much greater had not a Writ of Error lyen from his Court to the Kings Bench in England In one thing more he signalized himself it was by committing and prosecuting people for feigned Offences and Treasons and by countenancing and encouraging and after discovery protecting false Witnesses against Protestants Many were brought in danger of their Lives by his contrivances and when the accused were acquitted on Tryal by a palpable Demonstration that the Witnesses were Perjured he declared that they neither could nor should be Prosecuted for they only sware for the King and he believed the accused persons guilty though it could not be proved In short he shewed all the venom and rigour against them he could he was set up to destroy them and he went as far in it as his power could reach his weakness not his inclination hindred him from carrying it farther It is not imaginable by any that have not seen and heard him how furiously and partially he was bent against Protestants it may be guessed how he stood inclined to them by the great Hand he had in promoting the Bill of Attainder and the Bill to vest all Absentees Goods in the King whereby much the greater part of the Protestants of Ireland lost all their Estates Personal and Real of which we shall speak more hereafter He was assisted on the Bench by Sir Bryan ô Neal as puny Judg a weak Man that had nothing to recommend him but Venom and Zeal being otherwise disabled both in his Reason and Body Only he had the faculty to do what he was bid especially when it suited with his own inveteracy against Englishmen and Protestants This Character may seem rigid but as many as knew him will not think it exceeds 6. The next Court for business though not for Precedence is the Exchequer in which all Actions wherein the Kings Revenue or any other Mans Estate is concerned may be tryed From this Court no Writ of Error lies in England so they were free here from that Check which was so troublesom to them in other Courts Upon this consideration it was that the whole business of the Kingdom so far as it concerned them was brought into this Court though not so proper for it Here were brought all Actions of Trespasses and Ejectments concerning Estates all Quo Warranto's against Corporations and Scire Facias's about Offices and they thought themselves concerned to have an able Man and one throughly Cordial to their Interest for the Chief Judg in it for if he had wanted Sense or Law though willing as they found by Experience in some of the other Courts he might have been unable to serve them in all Cases They therefore fixed on Mr. Stephen Rice afterward Sir Stephen who had formerly been noted for a Rook and Gamester at the Inns of Court He was to give him his due a Man of the best Sense amongst them well enough versed in the Law but most signal for his inveteracy against the Protestant Interest and Settlement of Ireland having been often heard to say before he was a Judg that he would drive a Coach and Six Horses through the Act of Settlement upon which both depended And before that Act was Repealed in their pretended Parliament he declared on the Bench that it was against Natural Equity and could not oblige This Man did King James choose for Chief Baron and for the final determination of all the Suits that lay between Protestants and Papists either in Common-Law or Equity And it is no hard matter to conjecture what success the Protestants met with in their Suits before a Judg that declared as he did that they should have no favour but Summum jus that is the utmost rigour of the Law Immediately his Court was filled with Popish Plaintiffs every one that had a forged Deed or a false Witness met with Favour and Countenance from him and he knowing that they could not bring his Sentences into England to be re-examined there acted as a Man that feared no after Account or Reckoning It was some considerable time before he would allow a Writ of Error into the Exchequer Chamber though that was in effect to themselves and when it was allowed it was to little purpose before such Judges It was before him all the Charters of the Kingdom were damned and that in a Term or two in such a manner that proved him a Man of Dispatch though not of Justice If he had been left alone it was
really believed that in few years he would by some contrivance or other have given away most of the Protestants Estates in Ireland without troubling a Parliament to Attaint them which was a more compendious but not a more certain way to destroy them than the Methods he took It was he that without Hearing after he had Dissolved the Corporations by giving Sentence against their Charters declared void all the Leases of Lands or of Perquisites made by them though long before their Dissolution and on very good considerations and thereupon outed several Protestants of their Leases but it were endless to mention all the Oppressions and unjust proceedings of this Court it were in effect to transcribe the Records of it Let me only observe that the Chief Baron was assisted by Sir Henry Lynch as Second Baron who came indeed short of him in Parts but yielded nothing to him in Malice to the Protestant Religion and Interest 7. The Court of Common Pleas had little to do the business so far as concerned the Protestants and Papists was intirely carried out of it to the Kings Bench or Exchequer and therefore they permitted the Lord Chief Justice Keating still to sit in it but Pinioned with two of their own sort that if any thing should chance to come before him he might be out-voted by them The truth is they were jealous of this Court not only because a Protestant was Chief Justice in it but likewise because Judg Dally sat as puny Judg who though a Roman Catholick yet understood the Common-Law so well and behaved himself so impartially that they did not care to bring their Causes before him so much did they dread the prospect of Justice though before Judges that were of their own Party and Persuasion 8. The Circuits are an extention of the Courts whereby Justice is carried into the Country these were managed much at the same rate with the Courts and where the Sheriff and Judg were both Papists it is not difficult to guess what Justice Protestants must expect what packing of Juries there was amongst them and how deeply the Judges themselves were concerned in such Practices is evident to all that had any Concerns in the Country at that time 9. It will be requisite to say something of the Attourney General which King James made instead of Sir William Domvile whom he turned out after near thirty years supplying the place but he was a Protestant and would not consent to reverse the Popish Outlawries nor to the other Methods they took to destroy the Settlement of Ireland and therefore he was laid aside In his place King James substituted Mr. Richard Nagle whom he afterwards Knighted and made Secretary of State he was at first designed for a Clergy-Man and educated amongst the Jesuits but afterwards betook himself to the Study of the Law in which he arrived to a good Perfection and was employed by many Protestants so that he knew the weak part of most of their Titles Every Body knows how great a part the Attorney General has in the Administration of Justice it being his Office to prosecute and in his power to stop any Suit wherein the King is concerned How he used this Power will appear in one instance tho many may be given One Fitz Gerald of Tycrohan the Heir of a forfeiting Papist had a Suit for a great Estate against Sir William Petty it was tryed in the Exchequer before Chief Baron Rice and Fitz Gerald carried the Cause by the Perjury of two Friars and a Woman who swore a person to be dead in Spain and themselves to be present at his Burial upon whose Life Sir William's Title depended This person soon after appeared to be alive and is so still for ought we know and his being alive was so notorious and manifest that the Attorney General could not deny it Sir William's Counsel and Lawyers designed to indict the Friars and Woman for their Perjury but the Grand Jury refused to find the Bill and I was credibly informed that the Attorney General said that if they did not desist he would enter a Noli prosequi It is certain he refused to prosecute it and it was imputed to his Contrivance that they escaped By such means the Course of Justice was stopped to Protestants and the like Tenderness the Courts generally shewed to Perjurers when the Perjury served their Interest And sure the Protestants were in an ill case whose Lives and Fortunes lay at the Mercy of such Judges and Juries and they must conclude that nothing less than Destruction was designed for them by a King who put them under such Administrators of Justice The same Sir Richard Nagle was the Speaker of the House of Commons in their pretended Parliament and had the chief Hand in drawing up their Acts King James confided chiefly in him and the Acts of Repeal and Attainder were looked on as his Work in which his Malice and Jesuitical Principles prevailed so far that he was not content to out two Thirds of the Protestant Gentlemen of their Estates by the Act of Repeal by which all Estates acquired since 1641 were taken away and to attaint most of those that had old Estates by the Bill of Attainder But to make sure Work he put it out of the King's Power to pardon them therein betraying the King's Prerogative as the King himself told him when he discovered it to him Of which and of him we shall have occasion to give a further account hereafter 10. Into such Hands as we have been speaking of the Administration of Justice and of the Laws was put which were so far from preventing our Ruin that they were made the Means and Instruments thereof and it had been much better for us to have had no Laws at all and been left to our natural Defence than to be cheated into a necessity of Submission by Laws that were executed only to punish and not to defend us 11. It was common for some of those that served King James to come upon the Exchange and without any reason or provocation to fall upon Protestant Gentlemen if they looked a little more fashionable than other people and beat them One was thus beaten with a Cane severely before the Gentleman was aware he was advised for an Experiment to indict the Ruffian that used him thus to see what protection the Law would give us after they had taken away our Swords but the Grand Jury did not think it worth while to trouble the Courts with redressing the Grievances of Protestants and so would not find the Bill A Merchant in Thomas street Dublin found a Fellow that had broken into his Ware house and was conveying his Goods out at the Window to his Fellow Soldiers that stood in the Street to receive them he seised him and brought an Indictment against him for Felony but the Jury acquitted him and then he brought his Action against the Merchant for false Imprisonment and Slander and it cost a good Sum
they were taught to answer when their Rents were demanded that they had spent what they designed for their Landlords to fit themselves or their Sons for the King's Service and he was sure to be represented as disaffected that did not sit down with this Answer If any Landlord was so hardy as to Sue them they either got themselves inlisted in the Army or got a particular Protection against Arrests If any distrained they let their Cattle be taken to the Pound and then by Night they either stole or forced them from thence and when they had thus secretly recovered and conveyed them away they brought Actions against the Landlord that distrained as if he had imbezelled them in which case they were sure to meet with favour and countenance in the Courts Sometimes they avoided paying Rents by Swearing their Protestant Landlords into a Plot or by affixing Treasonable Words on them insomuch that hardly any Protestant durst distrain or even demand his Rent And for Two Years before the Revolution in England very few received any profit out of their Estates This stop of Receits for so long time obliged Gentlemen to live upon the main Stock and for want of their growing Rents which should have answered their Expences they were as low as possible in ready Mony when the late Troubles fell upon them and this made many of them on their Flight to England need Charity for their Subsistence 2. This hardship was the more heavy upon them by the necessity they lay under of leaving their Farms and setled manner of Living in the Country and of either repairing to Dublin or removing into England where nothing could be useful to them but ready Mony yet this was unavoidable for there was no living for them amongst a People that made no Conscience to pilfer or rob them of their Goods or to lay Snares for their Lives by false Oaths and suborned Evidence Neither did their repairing to Cities and Towns protect them but the same Persons that drove them from their Country Houses by their Robberies and Oppressions did afterwards indict and imprison them for leaving them of which I have given an Example in the Appendix Some indeed notwithstanding all the hard usage they met with ventured to stay on their concerns in the Country but were at last burnt out of their Houses and forced to follow their Nighbours A House within Four Miles of Dublin was Burnt and several Women and Children Murthered in it at the very beginning of Modelling the Army Thus Mr. Thomas Corker's House in the County of Meath by Navan was Burnt as supposed by the Popish Parish Priest who after he had done this injury to the Gentleman gave out that Mr. Corker had burnt his own House to make the Roman Catholicks odious Mr. Henry Gonnes a Ministers House in Connaught was likewise Burnt because they could not otherwise prevait with him to leave the Country And many others were served in the same way and their Families Murthered or else were put to a vast Charge to guard their Houses against these Cut-throats and Robbers Even about Dublin hardly any Gentleman's House escaped without being Robbed or at least several times attempted and if any were caught in the Fact they easily got a Pardon for it 3. Add to this in the Third Place that though of a good while the Protestants got nothing out of their Estates yet they were put to vast Charges to defend them for the Papists having gotten Judges Juries and Sheriffs of their own brought in their Counterfeit Deeds and false Claims in great numbers and either in forma Pauperum or by the favour of the Courts carried on their Suits with little Expences and when worsted in them as sometimes in spite of the most manifest partiality they were there was nothing to be recovered of them whereas the Protestants were forced to row against the Stream and to struggle with all the expensive delays and tricks the Courts could put on them If at any time they were found tardy in the least circumstance or form of Law though no advantage used formerly to be made of such Mistakes yet they were sure to pay severely for it every body who has been concerned in Law business knows the difference of these cases as to expences and the consequence was that Protestants were forced to part with a considerable share of their ready Mony to recover or defend their Estates which when in their Possession yielded them nothing 4. They met with the same measure from the Treasury as from their Tenants where any Salary Pension or Payment was due to any of them from the King they either did not get it at all or if by importunity and interest they did get any thing it was with such Expences Bribes to Courtiers and Delays that they lost the benefit of it But where any thing was due from them it was exacted with all the rigour imaginable and the most strict punctilio's observed to bring them under Fines and Forfeitures The Chief Baron Rice could not contain himself on the Bench but on occasion of a Protestant Lawyers pressing somewhat importunately for his Client that he might have Justice he answered he should have Justice but as I said before that it should be Summum Jus. Nay such discouragement and discountenance was given to the Protestant Lawyers that many of the most celebrated Counsellors forsook their Practice and the Kingdom and such as staid could hardly come in for a share of the Fees expended by their former Protestant Clients for it was enough to destroy a Cause to have them appear at the Bar for it The consequence of which was that the Protestants were forced to employ their Enemies for Counsel and give them their Mony too often to betray their Cause at least they could not expect Lawyers that wished so ill to it and them in their Hearts would be earnest to carry it for them 5. In Cities and Corporate Towns the Townsmen were put to great Charges to defend their Charters and when Judgment was given against them they were put to another Charge to take them out anew and to purchase their Freedoms It is true some few Papists generally joined to take out the new Charter but when it was taken out they forced the Protestants to pay for it at what rate they pleased or obliged them to leave the Town The Attorny General got some Thousands for his share and every petty Officer and Head of a Country Borrough enrich'd himself with some part of the Protestants spoil on this account 6. The next means used to impoverish them was that of Free Quarters by which they extorted from the Inn-keepers vast Sums of Mony It was a hardship in time of Peace to be obliged to entertain such rude nasty Guests as the private Soldiers generally were and to endure the insolencies of their Officers who practised several Arts with a design to destroy their Quarters Sometimes they would quarter a