of this poor man which was faithfully represented to him by the English of the North that he not only ordered a maintenance for himself but also for his three Sons whom he ordered to be maintained in the Colledge near Dublin where they all improved themselves to an eminent degree of Learning and parts This is an Impartial Account of Thomus Sheridon's Pedigree whose Sisters and other Relations were in Broges and Kerchiefs the Irish Garb for Women The Author saw them not many years ago in this condition and knowing this Story of Sheridon was heightened in his Curiosity of being the more inquisitive after it in the County where his Father was born and found that he was of the Scologues a Name which the Irish call Cotchers And none of his Kindred as the Irish affirm were ever better I should not have given the Reader the trouble of this Digression but that I deemed it not altogether unpleasant to him to represent the unparallell'd Impudence of this Man who could attempt to speak of his high Extraction before the House of Commons when the meanness of his Original and Descent was so universally known in most parts of the North of Ireland But to what degrees of extravagancy will not the Confidence of an Irish-man transport him And whither will not that audacious Arrogance with which the Natives of that Kingdom are most plentifully stock'd carry and invite them The ridiculous Genealogies which the Irish have framed of themselves as to their Heroical Ancestry Antiquity of their Nation their eminency for Literature and extraordinary Piety in former Ages are Fopperies not to be wondered at when in these days the Author by his own Experience can give an account of several of the Irish Gentry who have laid aside both their former Names and Relations and have created new ones to themselves which they pretend to be derived from a numerous train of Noble Progenitors though this be publickly known to be a Chimerical and Fictitious Invention But to return again to the Earl of Essex from whence this account of Sheridon has caus'd me to digress though his politick Carriage in the business of the aforesaid Farmers discovered a dextrous and prudent Government yet did it contract upon him the hatred of the Duke of York who from this time set up private designs against him which the Earl had constant intelligence of but at last was not able to withstand them the prejudice rising so high till the Duke obtained a resolve for his removal from the Government year 1677 The way to accomplish this was to find out a man that would lend the King Money and the Earl of Bridlington was pitched upon Talbot had by the Relation of a Brother of his Married into that Family some interest but was not looked upon as a fit person to break it to the Earl so another was found by the Earl of Orrery's means who had been disobliged by the Earl of Essex and by that way it was pursued But though the Earl of Bridlington might have had a mind to the Government yet would he part with no Mony and the King's necessities were the great inducement whereby to prevail upon him to remove Essex and Bridlington being unwilling to supply 'em no other pretence could be found out to work on the King. 'T was admired by all for what reasons the Earl of Bridlington should be thought on in regard that none but the Duke's Party were in the Intriegue But the Romish Faction well understood that although the Earl of Bridlington was not fit to carry on their main Design yet they knew him governable and were in hopes to put things upon him that might bring matters into a leading way for another they had in their Eye not fit here to be named But these things missing of their designed effect they were now at a full stop though no occasions were omitted of making dayly Objections against the Earl of Essex The Popish Conspiracy as has been already hinted in discoursing upon Sheridon advanced apace by Coleman and the Parliament began now to be apprehensive of the present proceedings and of the Alliance with France which they utterly disapproved of The L B was sent in quality of the King's Embassador to France and Sir Ellis Leaton his Secretary in Ireland accompany'd him but neither of 'em were judged fit to be trusted with the secret Designs For at that time there was a Design for the French to set up their Demands for the Irish to have the Articles made by King Charles the Second with the French King in their favour to be performed and the King of England was to admit the French to land Men under pretence of being got by private compact of the Irish The Earl of Tyrone Lord Brittas and others being to raise Men in Ireland in order to make a Diversion to the putting the Popish Plot in force in England But the whole of this was kept private from the King only so much of it as referred to the French King 's demanding the Promises made by him when in Exile in favour of the Irish The Duke undertook to qualifie the King if any discovery should be made of the Irish intended Insurrection but this was divulged by some of the Irish and the King hardly prevailed with not to believe it The L B was recall'd from France and sent to Nimeguen and Complaints were made by some Merchants against Sir Ellis Leaton who being questioned before the King and Council spoke very intemperately and among other words said He wonder'd how these Merchants durst presume to speak any thing against the greatest King in Europe as the French King was for which indecent Expression he was committed it being justly accounted great impudence for him to affirm in the presence of the King That there was any other King greater than himself The King and Council finding some cause to believe that there were Designs of introducing Popery in Ireland pitch'd upon the Duke of Ormond as the only Pilot for that Kingdom in a Storm and accordingly he was sent over The Duke of York did not then think it seasonable year 1677 to oppose it though he was conscious 't was fatal to his Design But however he wrought so powerfully with the King That orders were given to raise Men in Ireland under the Notion of Foreign Service They were all composed of the Natives of the Kingdom excepting some Protestant Officers fit to make Catholicks of The Duke year 1678 of Ormond would give them no Arms so they were Exercised with Sticks and in a little time the Plot in England was discovered and they all disbanded Upon which a discovery was made by the Irish of the Popish Conspiracy in Ireland and it was very remarkable that in the whole discovery not one Protestant appeared as an evidence against the Papists A pregnant instance of the great impartiality and equal demeanour of the English towards the Natives who altho' they were now presented
with Child of a Son. This they were so certain of that they would lay you Twenty Guineas to one or any other Wager in proportion to that from the highest to the lowest amongst them This confidence was much wondered at by the English and judged to be very unreasonable if not built upon some private Grounds and Inducements which I leave the Reader to guess at which some amongst them were certainly acquainted with whose Discourses among the rest created in them a belief of some extraordinary design then in agitation Otherwise they would never have been so forward in proposing such extravagant Wagers which when the English enquir'd the reason of they attributed their great assurance to the Prayers of their Infallible Church which were daily offered to God upon this account and would undoubtedly meet with a suitable return But it appeared plain enough that though this was generally ascribed as the true cause of their great confidence yet that they had other Latent Reasons which were not fit to be discovered But to leave this and proceed to other Matters year 1688 The Judges of Assize even Daly that was the justest man amongst them and who in the first Circuit he went did good service in hanging of his Countreymen did now this Summer-Circuit favour all Criminals and having Sheriffs of their own packed such Juries as neither Murther nor Felony if committed upon Protestants was adjudg'd to be a Crime and where Matters were so apparent that they could not possibly but find them the utmost extremity us'd was Burning in the Hand 'T was said that the Lord Deputy had particular Commands from King James in this matter for these Reasons First They Hanged none but Catholicks For 't is scarce known in an Age which bespeaks the great honesty and integrity of the ordinary sort of Protestants that any English-man turns a Tory or is guilty of Theft In the second place 't was thought the best way to destroy the Protestants and 't was observ'd that none were rob'd but Incorrigible English Fanaticks as they called them and those were deemed to be such that were so inflexible to all their blandishing arts of perswasion and alluring enticements as there remained no hopes of their Conversion Whereas in all parts of Ireland there were too too many Laodicean and Temporising Protestants who being related to the old stock of the Kingdom could easily shelter themselves under the covert and protection of the Irish Gentry and Grandees and these luke-warm Indifferents were those which the English were most afraid of The Judges pursued their Instructions to the utmost and now that notorious principle which the Church of Rome is ashamed to own but daily practises That no Faith is to be kept with and give me leave to add nor justice given to Hereticks was signally demonstrated at this juncture For now tho' both Laity and Clergy lay every day more and more under additional grievances yet 't was apparent that there was no hopes of any redress The Laity had not only great arrears of Rent due to them but still more and more old pretences were reviv'd by the Irish of Debts due to them ten or twenty years ago which they now sued for as pretending that they could have no justice in the Protestant Government which was the reason they had retarded prosecuting so long in order to which they wanted not Knights of the Post who for the value of Six-pence in drink would make as many false Affidavits against the English as they pleased The Clergy made their complaint to the Judges the year before as I have hinted to you already as to the obstinacy of the Countrey in the non payment of their small dues and receiv'd no redress but now the evils were grown upon them to an higher pitch The Priests were now become so confident in their hopes of establishing Popery that they could no longer contain from shewing their inveterate malice against the Protestant Clergy against whom they endeavour'd to prepossess their people at Mass over whom they have an unlimitted and Arbitrary power with all imaginable prejudice and contempt The Priests now suggested to them that by the same reason that they detained the lesser from they might also refuse the paying the greater Tyths to the Ministers as Corn Hay c. They told them that they saw by their own experience they had been discouraged in their pursuit after the first and after all their endeavours could get no redress and now that the Catholicks had liberty of their Religion they saw not why they should not deny them the last For the Law would not give these to them more than the former Of right they told them that all the Tythes belonged to them as their proper due and tho' by the oppression and injustice of the Protestant Government they had been kept out of them so long to their apparent prejudice and disadvantage yet now things were in another posture They had now a Catholick King and Catholick Magistrates of their own who would not take their dues from them but rather invest them in them and therefore charged the people under pain of Excommunication and the severest Anathemas not to pay any manner of Tythes to the Protestant Ministers The vulgar Irish were so much over-awed with these arts of terrour from their Priests whose Sentence in any thing they reverence with an equal fear and alike profound veneration as if pronounced by the Pope in the Infallible Chair that none would come to the Protestant Clergy to take Tythes of them unless these dreadful Imprecations which if incurr'd they believ'd themselves to be certainly damn'd were taken off By this means the great Tythes were like to lie upon the Ministers hands a great inconveniency in most parts of Ireland where their Parishes being of a vast circumference and full of Bogs and Mountainous places 't would be difficult if not impossible almost to gather their Tythes in kind at least without having one half of them embezel'd and stole by the Irish This puts the Clergy upon a necessity either of setting out their Tythes in small proportions or else they must lose them and in those Countrys where the Irish are most numerous the vulgar sort were wont to take the Tythe which the Priests now prohibiting under the aforesaid Penalties would as they were sensible be an unspeakable loss and mischief to the Ministers for the reasons already mentioned which was what they studiously aim'd at and were desirous to improve as high as they could These malicious practices of the Priests put the Protestant Clergy to great inconveniencies in the disposal of their Tyths especially in such Countrys where the Irish were most numerous Most were forced to descend to an accommodation with the Priests bestowing a considerable proportion of Tythes upon themselves which was what they drove at to suffer the ordinary Irish to come and buy the rest Some that would not be abus'd at that rate made their Applications
these Infamous Wretches whose Mercies are Cruelty to Tyrconnel's first steps in the Government as Lord Deputy in relation to which I shall now usher in at once the removing of the Judges though some of them were turned out before Tyrconnel came to the Sword As Sir Standish Harston Baronet one of the Barons of the Exchequer Sir Richard Reynolds Baronet one of the Judges of the King's-Bench and Johnson one of the Judges of the Common-Pleas The Consult was in London before Tyrconnel came to the Government whether the Judges should not be turned out before the Earl of Clarendon was removed to represent him odious to the People if he complyed or disobedient to the King if he seemed unwilling in the matter as they believed he would For they observed that he and the Lord Chancellor Porter began to startle at the Commands from England before they received any account of their removal and Porter publickly declared That he came not over to serve a turn nor would act any thing against his Conscience and as a Testimony of this he found at his return to London that he could not without some difficulty obtain the favour of kissing the King's hand but at length gaining admittance he humbly asked the King What he had done that he was so used For it had been a considerable expence to him to remove his Family To which the King replyed That 't was his own fault which was an expression not very unintelligible Porter went several times after to Court and stood in the King's Eye but he never vouchsafed to speak to him or to take the least notice of him But to come to the Judges it was not thought safe to turn them all out nor any more of them till the Government was in a hand that was Catholick For some of the Council I mean the Cabal were afraid of proceeding in their design too fast especially Powis who urged a slow Progress as accounting it most safe and this made him not be confided in as to their secret and blacker Designs though in his Lady they reposed an intire Confidence as being thought the greatest Politician among them and were not a little ambitious that the Earl of Shaftsbury in the Popish Plot had given her that Character This Debate concerning the Judges was long and often some were for making a clear riddance and to have the Reformation begin in the Courts of Judicature They having already the Military part of the Government in their hands might with greater Facility secure the Civil But the moderate Party prevailed and one in a Court to colour the actions of the rest must be left But that which stuck with them was that Sir William Davis Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench must not be moved for two Reasons The First was That he had been of the Duke's Party in the time of the Popish Plot behaving himself so loyal that he had been sent over if Dissolving the Parliament had not preserved him but this was the least part of his Strength The Second therefore and most prevalent Inducement was his Marriage with the Countess of Clancarthy whose Son had Married the Earl of Sunderland's Daughter and Sunderland was to be denied nothing Besides Sir William Davis was a Diseased infirm man given over for some years and to expedite his Journey for another World for he was a thoughtful man his Brother Judge Nugent the first Popish Judge that was put in pass'd Patent for Sir William Davis's place of Lord Chief Justice in reversion a sad Presage in those times where men must die when and how their Adversaries pleased This being resolved the choice was soon made Lord Chief Baron Hen makes way also for Rice and in Rice's room Sir Linch succeeds in the Common-Pleas In the High Court of Chancery was placed Sir Alexander Fitton a man notorious on Record so exempts me from the pains of giving the Reader a Character of him in this place but little regard was to be had to the man so long as he was fitted to that interest which was then promoting it being very remarkable That of what Perswasion soever they were which they employed at this time they chose men of the most branded Reputations and whose Principles were such as could brave Conscience The three Protestant Judges had their several Capacities and Inclinations for their Service the Lord Chief Justice Davis I speak not of for he was decreed to die and did soon after but the three Standards for the Cause were the Lord Chief Justice Keating for the Common-Pleas Lyndon for the King's-Bench and Baron Worth for the Exchequer The Lord Chief Justice Keating had always been a Servant of the Duke of Yorks was a Native of the place as the Irish call them his Family for many Ages there and Naturalized into Irish he was somewhat accounted to be Popishly inclined and therefore that Party thought themselves sure of him but he was a person of more sense than to pursue the Chace with greater expedition than safety He was rich and single and small hopes would not spur him on to an indiscreet forwardness however as to the main they questioned not his Affection to the Cause Lyndon though in his affection no friend to the Irish Government yet lay under the powerful temptation of a numerous Family and his not abounding in Riches made him the more Passive though he behaved himself the best of the three and when it laid in his power shewed himself an English-man Baron W was the Man they most depended upon and he was so well known that year W 't was in vain to pretend indifferency nor did he but was the first man in the Exchequer where there was more business than in all the Courts besides that struck the fatal blow in all Causes where the English were concerned as in the Sequel will appear in the Charters and private Causes of the English that came before him The Courts being thus setled the next thing year 1687 to be performed was calling in the Charters and here Tyrconnel endeavoured to proceed in the same method that the Lords Justices had done before in perswading the City to deliver up their Arms. But one art in State-Policy could not easily be imposed twice in a year and the English had a fresh Impression upon their Memories by what plausible perswasive Rhetorick they had been cajoled out of their Arms and now to have a like Delusion pass upon them in depriving them of their Laws was a colour not natural enough to deceive them a second time However this was the method of the proceeding Tyrconnel during the Lord Clarendon's Government had procured the King's Letter that all Roman Catholicks should be admitted into the freedom of all the Corporations of the Kingdom which Letter was artfully contrived with a great deal of sweetness and of endearing expressions as that it proceeded from his Majesty's great care of the general good of the Kingdom and was graciously designed by
other part was to be under such Qualifications as that the King might dispose of it to such as he found to be obedient Sons This if the King would have pursued a Parliament they could have had when they pleased fitted for their turn all Corporations being already put into Popish hands and all the Sheriffs of the Counties being Papists would be sure not to make returns to their disadvantage This Consult being come to this ripeness 't was year 1688 concluded that Rice should go over as Plenipotentiary in negotiating this Affair which was mannaged with that privacy and reservedness that not one of the Council knew of it till the Warrant was signed for the Yatcht to carry him over But as soon as this became publick the Lord Chief Justice Nugent flew about like lightening to all his Friends to make an interest to go over with Rice which Neagle and Rice privately opposed for as one of them told the Author he was good for nothing but to spoil a business when nothing could prevail he pretended some affairs of his own and so obtained leave to go over and for the honour of the business was joined with Rice to present that which was publickly to be offered but was not in any part of the cret intriegue to render the undertaking more prosperous For the Deliverance of the Irish Nation they Embark'd upon St. Patrick's Day but considering the bad success they met with they might as well have put him out of their Kalendar as by a particular order from Rome they had formerly done St. Luke because upon that Holy-day the English had obtained a great Victory over them in the last Rebellion But to return to the Irish Embassadors for so they were called here in England over they came and after Rice had paid a Visit to the Jesuits of whose Society he was once a Novice and had been educated in their Colledge he made his first Court to the Lord Sunderland Father Peters he found not favourable to his design but the French Faction was his chief dependance to whom he had always a recourse in his private Consults without communicating any thing to his Colleague whom he kept in great ignorance of the private intriegue of Castlemain against the Lord Deputy 'T was Rice's chief business to possess the Conclave with a great opinion of the Lord Deputy's extraordinary Zeal for the promotion of the Catholick Cause and that he had made a much greater Progress in it before that time if the want of a Parliament and the continuance of the Act of Settlement had not retarded that design without which Rice alledged That 't was impossible to make Converts or to Proselyte any to their Party who thought themselves Masters of the Kingdom whilst they had the Laws on their side and made it their boast That the King durst not attempt to meddle with them So that as Affairs stood there seemed a more rational probability that the Roman Catholicks should condescend to the Protestants than they to the Roman Catholicks Thus was Rice very active and industrious in urging and propagating the intriegue which when it was fully comprehended by his Party Father Peters was with much difficulty influenced so far as to join in it though at first he could not be prevailed upon to hear of it For he was absolutely byass'd for Castlemain's interest and being no Politician but a perfect fury and of an Imperious Temper was wont to contemn every thing that was not his humour But this Project being a work of expedition in Ireland and in his own Style to Convert or Confound the Hereticks there he at last embraced it and when once he became interessed nothing must be done but by his direction and advice so 't was concluded upon that the Project should be laid open before Sunderland and that when he was made Master of it he and Father Peters would wait on the King with it And to oblige Sunderland's more chearful and hearty concurrence in this Affaiâ— he was to be made sensible what signal advantages would be derived to his Lordship from so great a Revolution in that Kingdom a matter which required no great art so to instil it into him as to make it intelligible But notwithstanding Father Peters adherence to this Project yet did he continue in his former Inclinations for removing Tyrconnel And 't was believed that happy difference among the several Romish Factions was the prime occasion of diverting this fatal blow design'd for Ireland The business was in the Closet fully discours'd to the King by none but Sunderland and Peters who with the liberty of a digression I must acquaint the Reader was not infallible in keeping Secrets The King was soon fully inclined to the thing but how to pass it at the Council Hic labor hoc opus est there lay the stress of the business for he was very apprehensive that such as were opposite to Tyrconnel's continuance in the Government of Ireland would be more violent against his being there with a Parliament too great for such a Man whom the Council had in contempt Peters thought he could easily remove that obstacle by introducing the Popes recommendation of Castlemain but over that the French King had laid his hand to whom the poor King was become a Vassal Amidst these difficulties 't was hard to form a resolution but however 't was agreed to that the two Judges should be publickly introduc'd to the King with their project for calling a Parliament in Ireland and to lay at his Majesty's feet the deplorable condition of his Catholick Subjects there occasioned by the palpable injustice and oppression of the Act of Settlement which was so notorious that the vety Protestants themselves were ashamed of it and would gladly part with enough to satisfie the Irish in case that they might have a good Act of Parliament to secure the rest All this was put in practice and they brought to Whitehall where the King received their Project in writing and told them he would advise with his Council about it Now 't was the constant method of King James in any thing of weight or importance to consider it first in the Cabal before 't was proposed at Council-Board yet this thing upon which entirely depended the Settlement or ruine of a Kingdom had not that Sanction but was carried immediately to the Council which was matter of admiration to many but supposed to be done for one of these two Reasons either that the King was conscious that those of the Cabinet would not suffer it to proceed any farther but was in hopes so to influence the Judges and other Tools he had at the Council-Board to vote for it Or else that he would shew his indifferency in the matter that so it might not be thought any private intrigue The King brought this project the first Council-day and in few words acquainted the Council with its importance and contents and by whom presented to him no man spoke a
word either in favour of or in opposition to the thing but desired it might be read which being done the Lord Bellasis in a storm of Passion inveigh'd bitterly against it saying that If such designs as those were encouraged they of England meaning the Catholicks had best in time to look out for some other Country and not stay to be a mad Sacrifice for Irish Rebels Powis according to the best of his understanding seconded and in short 't was so run down that neither Sunderland nor Peters durst attempt to speak a word in its vindication but only desired that those Gentlemen which brought over those Papers might be heard Bellasis was for committing them or commanding their immediate return but 't was at last thought reasonable to hear them so a day was appointed The noise of this and the success it had met with at Council-Board flew abroad with great Exclamations the Boys in the street running after the Coach where Rice and Nugent at any time were with Pottatoes stuck on sticks and crying Make room for the Irish Embassadors 'T was believed that some of the Popish Party did blow up the People that so the King might be sensible what mischief this would tend to The day came on for these Embassadors to be heard at Council-board where Rice made a Speech full of Policy and Artifice and answered the Objections made by the Lord Bellasis and Powis but when Nugent came to speak he kicked down all that Rice had done and Bellasis presently discovered the defect of his Irish understanding as he call'd it abusing him beyond the respect due to the place where the King was calling him Fool and Knave and Powis did the same They were not long in tearing this fine Project to pieces which when they had done Bellasis bid them make haste to the Fool their Master and bid him next Message he sent to employ Wiser Men and upon a more honest Errand Powis bid them tell him That the king had better use to make of his Catholick Subjects in England than to Sacrifice them for reprize to the Protestants of Ireland in lieu of their Estates there In short every one fell so violently upon them at the Board that the King remained silent and without any resolve or order broke up the Council and neither the Embassadors nor their Project appeared more upon the Stage but kissing the Kings Hand march'd off with great hast and precipitation for they were afraid that even the Roman Catholicks themselves would have affronted ' em This Miscarriage of Tyrconnell's gave fresh opportunity year 1688 to the Castlemanians to raise Objections against him setting forth what mischiess he had already done in that Kingdom that the Revenue was sunk to an incredible abatement and that in one year more there would not be left money enough in the Kingdom to discharge the Army and that this last Project of his would exasperate and frighten away those of the English which were left who being the dealing and industrious people of the Nation would put a final period to all Trade and Commerce in that wasted and depopulated Countrey But all these just and reasonable Allegations which matter of fact and the present ruinous and distracted Estate of that Kingdom did but too fully evince the truth or rather infallibility of though judiciously laid down before the King by sober and considering persons yet were they all to no purpose For though the King kept it private from most of his Council yet certain it is that he had promised the French King the disposal of that Government and Kingdom when things had attained to that growth as to be fit to bear it This jumped near to the time of the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and the Bishops Commitment to the Tower And as one had ruined England if the visible hand of Supream Providence had not signally and miraculously interpos'd by inspiring the Bishops with couragious and invincible resolutions in a just vindication of the Protestant Cause and Religion so the other had struck the fatal blow to the Laws and Fundamental Constitutions of Ireland if some Hushai's even amongst the Romish Faction had not turned the pernicious Counsels of these Achitophels into folly The expected success of the aforesaid Embassadors Negotiation which by one Party was dreaded by the other hop'd to prove answerable to its design made various impressions upon men in proportion to their different interests The English were apprehensive of no less a change than a total subversion of the Government and an unraveling of all the Laws made for the security of their Estates and Religion which the unhinging the Act of Settlement the sole occasion of this Solemn Embassy would at one blow compleat The Natives were imaginarily in actual possession Their apprehensions whereof were such as discovered all the outward signs and indications of so high a satisfaction as cannot be easily represented Joy and Triumph was in all their Actions and Discourses Fancy and Imagination wrought very powerfully and like Men in Bedlam who dream of nothing but Kingdoms and Empires they seem'd to shew as much Complacency and to be alike transported with the airy hopes of getting as if they had been already invested in their Estates But this Scene of Joy which had been represented with so much splendour and magnificence soon disappear'd and a Melancholy Prospect over-shadowed with a dark Cloud was quickly brought upon the Stage when they perceiv'd all their hopes blasted in the fruitless consequences of this great intrigue Parturiunt montes their high expectations soon descended to a low ebb and they were quickly under as great despondency by this suddain turn of the Spoke in the Wheel as they were before of satisfaction For as they are wont to put no bounds to their Ecstasies and transports in prosperous so neither do they limit their sorrow and despair upon adverse Contingencies An unequalness of mind and resolution very remarkable among the Irish who like the floating Euripus have no consistency in themselves but are carried up and down in their hopes and fears according as every petty accident does either invite or discourage But to return to Sheridon whose Trial Rice and Nugent's absence had retarded and the ill effects of whose Negotiation had so exalted him that he begun to vaunt over his Enemies openly exclaiming upon the Lord Deputy and withal adding That he would soon be removed from the Government and such advantage did he derive from this disgrace Tyrconnell met with in England that he held the Lord Deputy and his Judges at defiance and was now become so imperious that his braging and threatening the Evidence took off several And the truth is after that Rice returned from England they were in such despondency expecting every day a new Lord Lieutenant insomuch that one day Tyrconnell himself said publickly to some Officers at the Castle that though he had great assurance from the King that he should not be
removed yet now he heard that he should and wish'd that he had given Five Thousand Pounds to have known it a Month sooner which expression was much wondered at Sheridon now comes upon his Tryal having four year 1688 Counsels all Protestants or at least who pretended to be such for two of them have since by their actions given cause of suspicion viz. Whiched and Donohan two intire Friends the first now with King James in Ireland and employed a Judge of Oyer and Terminer to try Protestants for their Rebellion Donohan is here and makes as fair a shew for King William as his Brother Whiched for King James but had the misfortune of being discovered to procure a Pass for his Brothers Son that was here employed by King James and one of his Converts who 't is said has since returned hither from Ireland with Intelligence from King James Two as good Protestants as Brethren but both in Iniquity One acts by a Commission from King James against those of his own Church and Profession and not only so but interprets that to be Rebellion which was grounded upon no other design than an absolute preservation of their Lives from the bloody Massacres of the Irish who having robb'd and pillaged them of their substance at the next step would have broke into their Houses and have cut their Throats from which they were bound by the Law of Nature and consequently by that of Religion to which the last carries no opposition but is derived from it as its prime and original foundation to defend themselves But is it possible for any one that stiles himself a Protestant so shamefully to temporize and prevaricate as against the Laws of Nature and Humanity thus as it were to prey upon his own kind The other promotes King James's interest though not publickly and upon the open stage yet by private and secret machinations though at the same time he seems a zealous adherer to the present Government An Hypocrisie which I pray may be as much beyond a Parallel as t is without excuse But I come to Sheridon The Charge that was brought against him was for selling of Placâ— and receiving extravagant Fees in his Office. To prove which there were Witnesses of all sorts brought from all parts of the Kingdom to which Sheridon and his Counsel made defence only by criminating the Evidence or making them interessed as Parties that swore to get money if they could fix it upon him The chief Evidence produc'd against him was a Priest that he had employed to bring in Grist to his Mill. This Priest he brought Evidence to prove he was a Man of a lewd and infamous Character guilty of several vile actions as of Bastardy c. Much time was consumed in hearing impertinent stuff not worth my filling Paper with or the trouble of the Reader 's perusal but in the end he was dismist of his Employments and so went off the Stage the worst of men had he not left an Ellis behind him a Miscreant of all Shapes that hath since been the Engine of Murthers and Rapins in that Countrey But now comes into Ireland one Captain Bridges year 1688 who rid Post to bring the happy News of the Birth of the supposed Prince of Wales For which he received the Honour of Knighthood by the Name of Sir Matthew Bridges What Tongue can express or man describe the extravagancy of those Joys which possessed the Irish at the arrival of this News Their former apprehensions of the shortness of their triumph by reason of King James's declension in Age and the prospect of a Protestant Successor had extreamly imbittered their greatest Comforts and caus'd an intermixture of hopes and fears But now that they had got a Young Prince that would become a Patron to the Holy Church this soon dissipated all their troubles They now considered that their Religion would be perpetuated to future Ages and that upon this fund they might not only extirpate Heresie but so establish the Holy Catholick Religion as to remain to all Posterity For now in the Scripture Phrase which they usurpingly monopolize and improperly apply to themselves The Gates of Hell was never like to prevail against their Church These were such sweet Reflections as they never before had a perfect relish of and which such narrow Breasts and earthy Souls were not capable to contain or to contemplate upon without making a violent eruption into all the outward demonstrations of an inconceivable satisfaction 'T would require a Volume to describe the particularities of those various Scenes of Joy which they shew'd upon this occasion Let this suffice That no Arts of Extravagancy were omitted whereby to represent their boundless Complacencies This News gave them so victorious an ascendant over the English that they were now become the scorn and contempt of those individual persons who had been their Slaves and Vassals insomuch that the meanest Labourer would now upon the least provocation threaten to hang his Master One pleasant instant to this purpose I cannot omit the Author being an Ear-witness of it A Labourer came to his Master very soberly and told him he owed him a Cow and bid him give it him presently the Gentleman laughed at him for he owed him not a Penney upon which the Fellow growing angry the Gentleman called him Rascal and offered to beat him but the Servant was not only too quick but too strong for the Master whom he was very fairly about to Cudgel but Company interposing diverted him from his intention But the Jest still remains which he spake in Irish but being interpreted runs in English thus You English Churse with an Oath by his Maker and St. Patrick I will Hang thee with these hands as well as ever thou waste Hanged in thy life But the poor Gentleman was afraid that he would have given him such an Hanging as is never used but once The News of the Bishops being committed to the Tower came some few days before that of the Prince of Wales's Birth either of which gave them abundantly more joy than they could possibly bear but being united put them into strange Convulsions Their Passions were now outragious having both these at once upon their hearts and now that they must vent themselves 't was a most difficult thing to restrain their hands from cutting of throats it being natural to them in their drink and reveling Debaucheries for want of Enemies to stab one another and contrary to other Brutes for they deserve no better Name they are most mischievous when best pleased Then is revived an old Quarrel of the Grandfathers commenced an hundred years ago and the revenge must be executed if any of the Clan as they call them be in the Company Before I take leave of our supposed Prince of Wales's Birth I must not omit to acquaint the Reader of the universal confidence of all the Irish in the Kingdom that the Queen as soon as 't was said she had Conceiv'd was