and intended more if their Power had continued 11. The Deputy-Mayor of Dublin Edmund Reily issued out an Order dated Sept. 27. 1689. for regulating the Rates of Provisions Country Goods and Manufactories to be sold in the City of Dublin in which he took care to set a very low Rate on such Goods as were then most in the hands of Protestants the Rate at which he ordered them to be sold was not one half of what they generally yielded When therefore any Papist had a mind to put off his Brass Mony he went to some Protestant Neighbor whom he knew to have a quantity of these Goods offered him the Mayor's Rate in Brass and carried away the Goods by Force This was practised even by the Lady Tyrconnel and several of their Grandees But the case was otherwise with Papists they sold at what Rate they pleased not minding the Proclamation of which Alderman Reily who issued it was an Instance He had a quantity of Salt in his hands and sold it at excessive Rates above what he compelled Protestants to part with theirs Complaint was made against him and he was indicted at the Tholsel which is the City Court that very Term in which the Proclamation came out upon the Traverse the Petty-Jury found him guilty and the Court Fin'd him in an 100 l. but all this was only a Blind for the Sheriffs set him at Liberty on his Parole after he was committed to them He brought his Writ of Error returnable into the King's-Bench but the Record was never remov'd nor the Fine levied And the Consequence was that neither he nor any Papist took notice of the Order and yet kept it in its full Force against Protestants 12. They saw therefore that it was resolved to leave them nothing that was easily to be found for Sir Thomas Hacket had made a Proposal to Seize Feather-Beds and other Furniture of Houses alledging that they would be good Commodities in France upon which the Protestants thought it the best way to exchange what Brass Mony they had into Silver and Gold and gave 2 l. 10 s. 3 l. 4 l. and at last 5 l. for a Guiney but even so 't was thought too beneficial for them and to stop it they procured a Proclamation dated June 15. 1690. whereby it is made Death to give above 1 l. 18 s. for a Guiney or for a Louis d'Or above 1 l. 10 s. c. The Papists needed not fear a Proclamation or the Penalty of it they had Interest enough to avoid it and therefore still bought up Gold at what rate they pleased but if any Protestant had been found Transgressing he must have expected the utmost Severity 13. And thus the case stood when His Majesty's Victory at the Boyn delivered us and let any one judge whether we had reason to be pleased with the Success and gratefully receive him that came to restore to us not only our Goods and Fortunes but the very Necessaries of Life and what Obligations we could have of Fidelity or Allegiance to King James who treated us plainly as Prisoners of War and as Enemies not Subjects and by designing and endeavoring our Ruin declared in effect he would govern us no longer but more expresly at his going away freely allowed us to shift for our selves and advised those about him both at the Boyn when he quitted the Field and the next Morning in Council at the Castle of Dublin to make the best Terms they could and quietly submit to the Conqueror who he said was a Merciful Prince SECT XII King James destroyed the Real as well as the Personal Estates of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland 1. THere remains yet to be spoken of a third part of the Property belonging to Protestants I mean their Real Estates and care was effectually taken to divest them of these as well as of their Personal Fortunes Their Estates of Inheritance were either acquir'd before the Year 1641. and were call'd Old Interest or else since that time and pass'd by the name of New Interest The greater part of Estates belonging to Protestants were of this last sort and they stood on this ground The Papists of Ireland as I have noted before had raised a most Horrid Rebellion against the King and Barbarously Murthered some Hundred Thousands of Protestants in Cold Blood in 1641. for which most of their Gentry were indicted and outlawed by due course of Law and consequently their Estates forfeited The English after a War of twelve Years reduced them with vast Expence of Blood and Treasure and according to an Act of Parliament past 17 Car. I. at Westminster the forfeited Estates were to be disposed of When King Charles II. was restored he restored many of the Papists and after two years Deliberation and the full hearing of all Parties before himself and Council in England he pass'd an Act in a Parliament held at Dublin commonly call'd The Act of Settlement whereby a general Settlement was made of the Kingdom and Commissioners appointed to hear and determine every Man's Claim After this upon some Doubts that arose another Act pass'd 17 Car. II. commonly call'd The Act of Explanation which made a further and final Settlement Every Protestant made his Claim before the Commissioners of Claims and was forced to prosecute it at vast Expences After this he got a Certificate from those Commissioners of what appear'd to belong to him for Arrears or Debentures and having retrenched a third of what was actually set out to him and in his Possession and paid one Years full improv'd value of what remain'd every Man pass'd a Patent for it a certain considerable yearly Rent called Quit-rent being reserved to the King out of every Acre these two Acts of Parliament at Dublin with that and other Acts at Westminster together with a Certificate from the Court of Claims and Letters Patents from the King pursuant to the Certificate from the Commissioners made up the Title which two thirds of the Protestants in Ireland had to their Estates Those Papists that had forfeited in 1641. were commonly known by the Name of Old Proprietors who notwithstanding their Outlawries and Forfeitures and the Acts of Parliament that were against them still kept up a kind of Claim to their forfeited Estates they were still suggesting new Scruples and Doubts and either disturbing the Protestant Possessors with Suits in which by Letters from Court they obtained Favour from some of the Judges or else threatning them with an after-reckoning The Protestants earnestly desired a New Parliament which might settle things beyond any Doubt and cut the Papists off from their Hopes and Expectations but King James when Duke of York had so great Interest with his Brother King Charles II. that he kept off a Parliament against all the Sollicitations that could be made for it for Twenty four Years to the no small Damage of the Kingdom on other accounts as well as this and he so encouraged those forfeiting Proprietors and
Kingdom but Kings had nothing to do with the managing of spiritual affairs but were to obey the Orders of the Church It is true King James highly resented this and the Preacher was banished or voluntarily withdrew from Court but in this he spake the general sense of the Clergy indeed of the Roman Church to which the King had given himself up and must be forced to submit to it at last The Kings Promises therefore or his Laws could signifie nothing towards the securing us except he could get the Roman Church to join in them and become a party to them for whilst the Governours of that Church challenge the whole management of spiritual things and King James owned their power so far that he consented to abolish the Oath of Supremacy that denies it for him to promise safety and liberty to Hereticks and make Laws about the worship of God and Liberty of Conscience is clearly according to their Doctrine to give away what is not his own and dispose the rights of another without consulting the party interessed and according to all Casuists such promises are void they that speak most favourably of the Council of Constance which is supposed to determine that no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks make this Apology for the Council The Emperor Sigismond granted without consulting the Council a safe conduct to Jerome of Prague the Council condemned him for Heresie and ordered him to be burnt the Emperor interpos'd to justifie his safe conduct but the Council answered that he was not obliged to make it good to the Heretick because it was not in the Emperor to grant a safe conduct to secure a Man against the Justice of the Council without consulting it this is the most favourable representation I have met with of this matter and even thus it is a sufficient caution for all Protestants not to trust Kings or Princes of the Roman Communion in matters that relate to the Church or Religion without the express consent of that Church or Religion without the express consent of that Church if they do it is at their own peril and they cannot blame those Princes when they fail in their Promises for they had sufficient warning not to trust them since they engage for a thing that according to their own confession is not in their power but is avowedly the right of another SECT III. The same proved from the Professions of that whole party who were most privy to King James's Counsels THE second Argument whence it appears that the King designed utterly to destroy and ruin his Protestant Subjects in Ireland is from the Oaths Professions and Affirmations of those who were his Confidents and Instruments used by him to bring it to pass From the very beginning of the French Persecution the Papists of Ireland began to shew their fondness of that Monarch and as their love to him commenced with that Persecution so it increased in proportion to his barbarity and they could never speak of it without Passion and Transport but after his late Majesty came to the Crown they openly declared that they liked no Government but that of France that they would make the King as absolute here as that King was there they affirmed both publickly and privately with many Oaths that they would in a short time have our Estates and Churches that if they suffered us to live they would make us hewers of wood and drawers of water that Ireland must be a Catholick Country whatever it cost and as for the English they would make them as poor devils as when they came first into Ireland and they assured us that this was no rash surmise of their own but that it was premeditated and resolved and that we should quickly find it by the effects of which they were so confident though we could not believe them that some of the most serious amongst them advised their Protestant Friends in private with all earnestness to change their Religion for said they you will be forced to do it at length and if you delay but a little time it will be too late and perhaps you may not be accepted for no Protestant must expect to injoy any thing in this Kingdom and we resolve to reduce all things to the state they were in under Henry VII before Poinings Act. In answer to this we told them that the Laws were on our side and the King had promised to Govern according to Law and to protect our Church and Liberties but they laught at our Credulity pisht at the Laws as mere Trifles and unanimously declared that the Kings Promises to maintain the Government in Church and State were intended only for England and were not meant to reach us and withal intimated that the same would be done in England though not so soon for the truth of all which I may refer my self to almost as many Protestants as were then in Ireland there being few but were Witnesses of such Discourses and the Kings Conduct towards us was such as left no room for us to doubt but that these People knew his mind and that all his Promises and Declarations in our favour were perfectly coppied from the French Kings Declarations to preserve the Edict of Nants and of as little Sincerity and that notwithstanding these he had as fully determined our ruin as that King had resolved the voiding the Edict of Nants when he made his solemn Declarations to the contrary SECT IV. The same destructive designs against his Subjects proved from the qualifications of the Officers employed by King James 1. THIS destructive design appears in the third place from the persons he Employed in all Offices of Trust or Power It is well known to the World and to many thousands yet alive that in the year 1641. there was a most bloody Massacre committed in this Kingdom on the Protestants by their Neighbours the Papists in which some hundred thousands perished and that not one Protestant whom they spared escaped without being robbed and plundered of all he had if not stripped and turned out naked to the extremities of Cold and a desolate Country and to such a degree of madness they proceeded that they destroyed the Houses Buildings Churches and Improvements of the Kingdom out of their malice and inveteracy to the Protestants the Founders of them but these Barbarians at last were by the Protestants subdued and brought to submit to mercy after which Conquest the Conquerors in the year 1660. joined indeed were more forward than the People of England in bringing home King Charles II. and generously gave up themselves together with the Kingdom of Ireland without Articles or Conditions into his hands The King in recompence of so signal a Service and to reprise the Conquerors for their Blood Treasure and Losses gave them back a part of what they had given him but withal restored the Conquered under certain qualifications to another part of the forfeited Lands who though restored by the Kings mere
consideration of their Friends whom their Enemies treated barbarously in their sight could prevail with them to give up themselves or their cause but by patience and resolution they wearied out their Enemies and instead of letting them make approaches to their Walls they enlarged their Out-works upon them and made them confess after a Siege of Fifteen Weeks that if the Walls of Derry had been made of Canvas they could not have taken it The same may be said of the People of Enniskillin who lived in a wild Country and untenable place surrounded with Enemies on every side and removed from almost all possibility of Succour being in the heart of Ireland yet they chose to run all Hazards and Extremities rather than trust their Faithless Enemies or contribute to the ruin of the Protestant Interest by yielding After almost all their Gentry of Estates or Note had left them or refused to joyn heartily with them they formed themselves into Parties and though in a manner without Arms and Ammunition yet by meer Resolution and Courage they worsted several Parties of the Enemy and almost naked recovered Arms and Ammunition out of their Hands and signalized themselves in many Engagements by which they not only saved themselves but likewise did considerable Service to the Protestants that were under the Power of King James for this Handful of Men by their frequent Incursions and carrying off Prisoners in every Engagement terrified even the Papists of Dublin into better Humour and more moderate Proceedings as to the Lives of Protestants that lived amongst them than perhaps they would otherwise have been inclined to They saw from this that their Game was not so sure as they imagined and the Prisoners taken by those of Enniskillin were Hostages for their Friends that lived in Dublin and the Humanity with which the Prisoners were used there was a Reproach on the Barbarity exercised by the other Party In short it appeared that it was neither Malice nor Factiousness that engaged them in Arms but meer Self-preservation and the Obligation of their Tenures and Plantations by which they were bound to keep Arms and Defend themselves and their Country from the power of the Popish Natives which were then Armed against them 13. But to return to the Lord Deputy's Proceedings in his new Levies in order to gain time and delude the Protestants he sent for the Lord Mountjoy out of the North after he had compounded the business of Derry and perswaded him to go with Chief Baron Rice to King James into France to represent to him the weakness of the Kingdom and the necessity to yield to the Time and wait a better opportunity to serve himself of his Irish Subjects The Lord Tyrconnel swore most solemnly that he was in earnest in this Message and that he knew the Court of France would oppose it with all their Power for said he that Court minds nothing but their own Interest and they would not care if Ireland were sunk to the Pit of Hell they are his own Words so they could give the Prince of Orange but Three Months diversion but he added if the King be perswaded to ruin his fastest Friends to do himself no Service only to gratify France he is neither so Merciful nor so Wise as I believe him to be If he recover England Ireland will fall to him in course but he can never expect to Conquer England by Ireland if he attempts it he ruins Ireland to do himself no kindness but rather to exasperate England the more against him and make his Restoration impossible and he intimated that if the King would not do it he would look on his Refusal to be forced on him by those in whose power he was and that he would think himself obliged to do it without his Consent 14. Every body told the Lord Mountjoy that this was all sham and trick and that the design was only to amuse the Protestants and get him who was the likeliest Man to head them out of the way But his Answer was that his going into France could have no influence on the Councils of England who were neither privy nor Parties to it and if they had a mind to reduce the Kingdom it was easy to do it without his Assistance that he must either go on this Message now the Deputy had put him upon it or enter into an actual War against him and against such as adhered to King Jame's Interest that he did not think it safe to do the latter having no order or encouragement from England but on the contrary all the Advice he received from thence was to be quiet and not to meddle that he was obliged to King James and neither Honour Conscience nor Gratitude would permit him in his present Circumstances to make a War on his own Authority against him whilst there was any possibility of doing the business without one Upon these considerations against the general Opinion of all the Protestants in Ireland he undertook the business and went away from Dublin about the Tenth of January 1688 having first had these general Concessions made him in behalf of the Protestants 1. That no more Commissions should be given out or new Men raised 2. That no more of the Army should be sent into the North 3. That none should be questioned for what was passed And 4. That no Private House should be garrison'd or disturb'd with Soldiers these he sent about with a Letter which will be found in the Appendix But he was no sooner gone but the Lord Deputy according to his usual Method of Falshood denyed these Concessions seemed mighty angry at the dispersing the Letter and refused to observe any of them The first News we heard from France was that the Lord Mountjoy was put into the Bastile which further exasperated the Protestants against King James and made them look on him as a Violater of Publick Faith to his Subjects As for the Lord Deputy this clearly ruined his Credit if ever he had any amongst them and they could never after be brought to give the least belief to what he said on the contrary they look'd on it as a sure sign that a thing was false if he earnestly affirmed it 15. But it was not yet in his power to master them he had not sufficiently Trained and Exercised his Men but as soon as he found that nothing was to be feared from England before the End of Summer and that he was assured King James would be with him soon he laid aside his Vizour and fell upon disarming them It was no difficult matter to do this for in the very beginning of King James's Reign the Protestant Militia had been dissolved and though they had bought their own Arms yet they were required to bring them into the Stores and they punctually obeyed the Order Such of the Protestant Army as remained in the Kingdom after their Cashiering were likewise without Arms being as I shewed before both disarmed and strip'd upon
came to be concluded not enduring to be present at the passing of that and some other Barbarous Acts against which they found their Votes signified nothing while they staid There were four more Protestants return'd of whose Behaviour I can give no account or how they came to be return'd The generality of the Houses consisted of the Sons and Descendents of the Forfeiting Persons in 1641. Men that had no Freeholds or Estates in the Kingdom but were purposely elected to make themselves Estates by taking them away from Protestants 15. Now whilst the power of making and repealing Laws was in such hands what Security could Protestants promise themselves from any Laws or what probability was there that any Laws already made in their Favour would be continued Especially if we consider further that this Parliament openly profess'd it self a Slave to the King's Will and he was look'd on as Factiously and Rebelliously inclin'd that would dare to move any thing after any Favorite in the House had affirm'd that it was contrary to the King's pleasure Several Bills were begun in the House of Commons one for erecting an Inns of Court another for repealing an Act commonly call'd Poinings Act which requires that all Acts should be perused by the King and Council of England before they be offered to be pass'd by the Parliament in Ireland but King James signified his Dissatisfaction to these Bills and for that reason they and several others were let fall tho the Irish had talk'd much and earnestly desir'd the Repeal of Poinings Act it being the greatest Sign and means of their Subjection to England There was a doubt made in the House concerning the Earl of Strafford whether he should be attainted for Estate and Life several moved in his behalf but it was carried against him upon this Evidence Colonel Simon Lutterell affirmed in the House That he had heard the King say some hard things of him The King's pleasure therefore was the Law to which we were to trust for our Lives and Fortunes our Enemies having entirely engross'd the power of making and repealing Laws and devolved it on the King's pleasure the very Protestant Lords and Bishops being denied their Priviledge of entering their Protestations against such Votes as they conceiv'd Destructive to the Kingdom The King told them That Protestations against Votes were only used in Rebellious times and with much ado they were allowed to enter their Dissent tho after that was allowed them the Clerk of the Parliament one Polewheele a Nephew of Chancellor Fitton 's shifted them off and did not enter their Dissent to some Votes tho often sollicited and press'd to do it according to the Orders of the House 16. When King James had labour'd as much as in him lay to get a Parliament that would repeal the Penal Laws and Test in England and open the Houses to Papists he found at last that the great Obstacle that rendered the Kingdom so averse to this was the general Fear and Apprehension that the Legislative Authority would be engross'd by them and turn'd against Protestants this was so obvious and reasonable a Surmise that he knew there was no hopes that the People would side with him against their present Majesties if something were not done to satisfie them and therefore to remove this fear he published his Proclamation dated Sept. 20. 1688. wherein he declares himself willing that Roman Catholicks should remain incapable to be Members of the House of Commons if the Protestants of England had reason to apprehend that Papists would engross the Legislative Authority in England and from the Example of Queen Mary's House of Commons to dread such Law givers how much more reason had the Protestants of Ireland to dread that power when entirely engrossed by their most inveterate Popish Enemies whose Interest as well as Religion oblig'd them to divest all those that profess'd the Reform'd Religion not only of the Favour but likewise of the Benefits of Law 17. They sate from the Seventh of May till the Twentieth of July following and in that short time entirely destroy'd the Settlement of Ireland and outed both the Protestant Clergy and Laity of their Freeholds and Inheritances It is not to be exspected I should give an account of all their Acts that which concerns this present Section is to shew how they destroy'd the Protestants real Estates 1. And that was first by an Act of Repeal whereby they took away the Acts of Settlement and Explanation by virtue of which as I have already shew'd two thirds of the Protestants of the Kingdom held their Estates that is all that which is call'd New Interest was lost by this Repeal there is no consideration had in it how any Man came to his Estate but tho he purchased it at ever so dear a rate he must lose it and it is to be restor'd without Exception to the Proprietor or his Descendent that had it before October 22. 1641. upon what account soever he lost it tho they themselves did not deny but many deserv'd to lose their Estates even Sir Phelim O Neal's Son the great Murtherer and Rebel was restor'd 2. In order to make a final Extirpation of Protestants they contrive and pass an Act of Attainder by which all Protestants whose Names they could find of all Ages Sexes and Degrees are attainted of High Treason and their Estates vested in the King the pretence of this Attainder was their being out of the Kingdom at the time of passing the Act as shall be shewn in the next Section 3. Least some should be forgotten of those that were absent and not put into the Bill of Attainder they contriv'd a general Clause in the Act of Repeal whereby the real Estates of all who Dwelt or staid in any place of the three Kingdoms which did not own King Jame's Power or corresponded with any such as they term Rebels or were any ways aiding abetting or assisting to them from the First day of August 1688. are declared to be forfeited and vested in his Majesty and that without any Office or Inquisition found thereof By which Clause almost every Protestant that could Write in the Kingdom had forfeited his Estate for the Packets went from London to Dublin and back again constantly from August to March 1688. and few had Friends in England or in the North but corresponded with them by Letters and every such Letter is made by this clause a Forfeiture of Estate They had intercepted and search'd every Packet that went or came the later part of this time and kept vast Heaps of Letters which were of no Consequence at all to the Government we wondered what the meaning of their doing so should be but by this Parliament we came to understand it for now these Letters were produced as Evidences in the House of Commons against those that appear'd in behalf of their absent Friends or oppos'd the attainting of such Protestants as they had some kindness for and they were
your Revenue to boot And tho no King can well avoid being impos'd on by his Servants I believe it in my Conscience that the present Managers of your Revenues in Ireland think it no Sin to rob a Popish King of his Due Hence it is that there is an universal Agreement and Combination betwixt the ..... Merchants ..... we will by way of Retaliation take care that no Catholick be admitted into the Civil This Combination makes your Letters for Civil Places the Reversion of Outlawries and for Catholicks being admitted free of Corporations so little regarded in Ireland by those that past for Tories here c. yet publickly espouse the whiggish Quarrel the other side the Water I beseech you Sir consider that however your Kingly Prudence may prevail with You to dissemble Your Resentments of the Non-compliance and Disobedience of Your stiff-neck'd English Protestant Subjects You ought to exert Your Regal Authority in Ireland a Kingdom more peculiarly Your own where ..... month before or at least not outlive Your Majesty a month for if that poor Nation be not made considerable during Your Reign his Lordship must not hope for the Favour my Lord Stafford had of being legally Murdered by a formal Trial but may well expect all Formality laid aside to be sacrificed to the unbridled Fury of the lawless Rabble and dissected into little Morsels as the De-Wits were in Holland And truly the Fanaticks threaten no less and it were to be wished they cried out upon more of Your Ministers than they do at present for You may take it for granted they will never speak well of Your real Friends ..... other will endeavour to marr and the Work will go on like that of Babel confusedly for want of good Intelligence among the Workmen Sir You are under God the great Architect that will with the Blessing of Jesus live to see the glorious Structure fully finish'd In order to which 't is requisite You lose no time in making Ireland intirely Your own that England and Scotland may follow You are gone too far if You do not go farther not to advance is to lose Ground Delays are dangerous and all the World allow Expedition and Resolution to ..... if this were once compassed France could no more hope upon a falling out with England to take advantage of the diversity of our Sects and what may spring thence Domestick Jars and Divisions Sir Notwithstanding the Doubts and Fears of Trimming Courtiers and some Cow-hearted Catholicks You may live long enough to undertake and crown this great Work with the Grace and Assistance of the same Almighty God that defeated the Rebels in the West and made them instrumental in settling You in Your Throne and that permitted this Country to be lately sprinkled with the Blood of Martyrs which must infallibly contribute to the Conversion of Souls in this Kingdom for the Blood of Martyrs is and ever was the fruitful Seed of the Church The Seed is sown in many parts of England and the Harvest will without doubt be great and plentiful but the Workmen too too few if You do not provide your self with Catholick Privy-Counsellors Ministers Judges Officers Civil and Military and Servants As to the Choice of which I will mind Your Majesty of the Advice given Moses by Jethro his Father-in-Law in the following words Provide out of all the People able Men such as fear God Men of Truth hating Covetousness When Your Counsellors and Ministers are thus qualified and not till then You may hope to do what becomes a James the Second And to furnish Your self with able Men You must follow Your Royal Father's Advice to the Prince of Wales that is With an equal Eye and impartial Hand distribute Favours and Rewards to all Men as You find them for their real Goodness both in Ability and Fidelity worthy and capable of them Such as fear God as the truly Wisest will advise You to the best Measure for promoting God's Glory Men of Truth will like Tyrconnel serve You faithfully without trimming tho with never so apparent Hazard to their Fortunes and Lives And Men hating Covetousness will not betray Your Interest be corrupted nor sell Places to such Undermanagers of Your Revenue as buying them for a Spill in gross will be sure to retail them at Your Cost a Practice much in use here and in Ireland at present where few or no Places can be had without Bribes by which means You are cheated in both Kingdoms of an Hundred thousand Pounds a Year in the opinion of understanding honest and indifferent Judges for no Man will give a Shilling surreptitiously for an Office but with a design to cheat You of Twenty To prevent which there is no Remedy but that of employing smart Men of known Integrity to be chosen without Favour or Affection that will be content with their respective Salleries and imploy their utmost Industry to improve not imbezel Your Revenues the Ornaments of Peace and Sinews of War SIR These Kingdoms are of Opinion Popery will break in upon them and it were a pity to disappoint them and when You take effectual Measures Your trimming Courtiers will unmask and come over nay half the Kingdom will be converted of it self What I have here presumed to write is the effect of my unfeigned Zeal for the Good of Religion and Your Majesties Interest which I hope will induce You to pardon a plain-dealing and loving Subject that daily beseeches God to bless Your Majesty and these Kingdoms with a long and prosperous Reign and with numerous long-liv'd Male Issues and to inspire You with wholsom Thoughts that may direct You to the performance of such Heroick Actions as may gain You immortal Fame in this World and eternal Glory in the next Lord Clarendon's Speech in Council on his leaving the Government of Ireland My Lords IT has been sometimes used to make Speeches upon these Occasions but I know my insufficiency for that Task and therefore shall trouble your Lordships with very few words In the first place my Lords I give your Lordships many thanks for the Civilities I have received from every one of you and for the great Assistance I have had from you in the discharge of my Duty here I know your Lordships can witness for me that I never desir'd your concurrence in any thing that was not for the King's Service I do again beg your Lordships to accept of my Thanks with this assurance that I shall give the King an account when I have the honour to kiss his Hand of your Lordships great readiness and diligence to advance his Service My Lord Deputy I shall not long detain your Lordship The King hath placed your Excellency in a very great Station has committed to your Care the Government of a great and flourishing Kingdom of a Dutiful Loyal and Obedient People It is extreamly to be lamented that there are such Feuds and Animosities among them which I hope your Excellency's Prudence with
that produced such Fatal Effects ought to be insisted upon or embraced If the King of France had not been too generous and too Christian a Prince were it not a sufficient Motive for him to reject the King in his Disgrace that upon those rotten Principles rejected his Alliance yet those and only those Principles will be made use of to perswade you there that you must not think of your own Restauration and Assurance at Home first but go into England to restore the Catholicks And if there be any other Adherents of the King 's there and that it will be time enough to think of your own Restauration after Which is the same as to say at Dooms-day For never a Catholick or other English will ever think or make a step nor suffer the King to make a step for your Restauration but leave you as you were hitherto and leave your Enemies over your Heads to crush you any time they please and cut you off Root and Branch as they now publickly declare And blame themselves they have not taken away your Lives along with your Estates long ago nor is there any Englishman Catholick or other of what Quality or Degree soever alive that will stick to sacrifice all Ireland for to save the least Interest of his own in England and would as willingly see all Ireland over inhabited by English of whatsoever Religion as by the Irish and yet by their fine Politicks they would perswade the Irish to come and save their Houses from burning whilst they leave their own on fire Which is no better than to look upon People as so many Fools when every body knows that Charity begins at Home that one's Charity for himself is the Rule and Measure of that he ought to have for his Neighbour diliges proximum tuum sicut teipsum Is it not a better and more Christian Politick for the King and all that are faithful unto him to restore first a whole Kingdom that stands out for him when all the rest failed to their Birth-right which they have been out of these Thirty Six Years only for being obstinately Loyal to his Father Brother and himself than to displease those who have been and are still Loyal and who can get any Condition they please from the Enemy to join with them by thus pleasing or trimming with those who never were or ever will be True or Faithful and when they are thus restored and no Enemies left in their Bowels that can do his Majesty or them any Harm then to go in a strong Body together with his Majesty into England join with all such that will prove Faithful and Loyal and so restore his Majesty to his Throne and each one to his right I would fain know from these trimming Politicks whether it be not securer and more honourable for the King to offer all fair Means and shew his Clemency to his People when he is in Condition to force them to what he pleases to exact of them than to be daily undervaluing himself by offering them all the fair Means imaginable which they slight and scorn because they seeing he has no Means to force them or do them Harm think he does all only out of fear and not by any sincere or true Affection And I would fain further know if it be not better and greater Policy for him to put the Kingdom of Ireland still so Loyal unto him upon the best and highest Foot both Ecclesiastical and Temporal he can contrive and yet granting it nothing but its natural Right and Due that it may be a Check upon the People of England who are ready every New-Moon to Rebel then to keep it still in a continual Slavery and full dependance on such perfidious and inconstant People and himself deprived of the support he can still have from thence against their Revolt I dare averr if Ireland were put upon such a foot by the King he shall never fear any Rebellion in England especially if Scotland be faithful to him and France a Friend all which can now be well contrived and concerted But when all is done I would fain yet know from those Politick Trimmers by what Law of God or Man Ecclesiastical or Politick they think Ireland is bound to be the Sacrifice and Victim of the Rebellion of England either for to hinder those turbulent People from Rebelling or for to Reconcile them to their Duty by giving them forsooth as Recompence the Estates of those unfortunate Catholicks and send themselves a begging I dare say no Catholick in England much less a Protestant who would so easily give his consent and advice that the Estates of the Irish Catholicks may serve as a Recompence for the English Rebels would willingly give a Plow-Land of his own Estate to Reconcile all the Rebels of England to their Duty if he were not afraid to lose his own whole Estate by the Rebellion and yet would advise to do to others what he would not have to be done to himself contrary to the great Rule and Maxim of Nature and Christianity Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris I would fain further know from this Politick Trimmer so large of other Peoples Goods and so sparing of his own if one Province in England had revolted against their King as the whole Kingdom does now and that the rest of the Provinces continued faithful would they think fit or prudent to give their Lands and Estates to those Rebels for laying down their Arms and go beg themselves Or would the King expect or desire it from them No sure but rather that they should take up Arms and joyn with His Majesty to reduce and punish such Rebels in lieu of recompencing them with the Loyal's Estates And is not that the case of the Irish Why do you not then judge alike Or if you do not look upon an Irish man as a Fool why will you have him do what you say is not fit for your self or other fellow-Subjects to do in like case And sure you must think him a Fool and after-wit as you use to say if he will be perswaded by your Trimming Politick to leave his own Estate to his Enemy and come to save yours who would but laugh at him the next day at the best for his folly If their great and long Vexations have not given the Irish better understanding and know how little regard all the English whatsoever have for them they deserve to be dealt with like Fools But who would think it were Prudent or Politick for the King to bring a great Body of Men out of Ireland into England or Scotland leaving behind him in Ireland a considerable strong Party of Phanaticks all Enemies whatever outward shew they make to the contrary to rise in Arms as soon as they see the King turn his Back to them and they get a supply from their fellow Rebels out of England which will not be wanting at any time and so cut the Throats
at once inriched and civilized it would hardly be believed it were the same Spot of Earth Nay Over-flown and Moorish Grounds were reduced to the bettering of the Soyl and Air. The Purchasers who brought the Kingdom to this flourishing Condition fly to your Majesty for Succour offering not only their Estates and Fortunes but even their Lives to any Legal Trial within this your Majesties Kingdom being ready to submit their Persons and Estates to any established Judicature where if it shall be found that they enjoy any thing without Legal Title or done any thing that may forfeit what they have Purchased they will sit down and most willingly acquiesce in the Judgments But to have their Purchases made void their Lands and Improvements taken from them their Securities and Assurances for Money Lent declar'd Null and Void by a Law made ex post facto is what was never practised in any Kingdom or Countrey If the Bill now design'd to be made a Law had been attempted within two three four or five years after the Court for the execution of these Acts was ended the Purchasers would not have laid out their Estates in acquiring of Lands or in Building or Improving on them Thousands who had sold small Estates and Free-holds in England and brought the Price of them to Purchase or Plant here wou'd have stayed at home And your Majesties Revenue with that of the Nobility and Gentry had never come to the Height it did If your Majesty please to consider upon what Grounds and Assurances the Purchasers of Lands and Tenements in this Kingdom proceed you will soon conclude that never any proceeded upon securer Grounds The Acts of xvij and xviij of King Charles your Father of blessed Memory the First takes notice that there was a Rebellion begun in this Kingdom on the 23d of October 1641 And so doth a Bill once read in the House of Lords whoever looks into the Royal Martyrs Discourse upon that Occasion will see with what an abhorrence he laments it and that he had once thoughts of coming over in Person to suppress it Those Acts promise Satisfaction out of Forfeited Lands to such as would advance Money for reducing these disturbers of the publick Peace unto their Duty The Invitation was his late Majesties your Royal Brothers Letters from Breda some few weeks before his Restauration which hapned the 29th of May 1660 And within six Months after came forth his Majesties most Gracious Declaration for the Settlement of this Kingdom This may it please your Majesty is the Basis and Foundation of the Settlement and was some years after Enacted and made a Law by two several Acts of Parliament It is true that the Usurping Powers in the Year 1653. having by the permission of the Almighty as a just Judgment on us for our Sins prevailed here did dispose and set out the Estates of Catholicks unto Adventurers and Soldiers and in a year or two after transplanted out Catholick Free-holders for no other Reason but their being so in Connought where Lands were set out unto them under divers Qualifications which they and their Heirs or those deriving under them as Purchasers enjoy'd and still do enjoy under the Security of the before mentioned Acts of Parliament and Declaration His Majesties gracious Declaration of the 30th of November 1660. which I call the Foundation of the Settlement was before it was concluded on under the Consideration of that great Prince and the Lords of his Council of England where all Persons concerned for the Proprietors as well old as new were heard whoever reads will find the many Difficulties which he and his Council met with from the different and several Pretenders what Consideration was had and Care taken to reconcile the jarring Interests and to accommodate and settle as well as was possible the Mass and Body of Subjects here It was some years after before the Act for the Execution of his Majesties most Gracious Declaration became a Law It was neer two years upon the Anvil It was not a Law that past in few days or sub silentio It was first according to the then Course of passing Laws here framed by the Chief Governour and Council of this Kingdom by the Advice and with the Assistance of all the Judges and of his Majesties Council Learned in the Law and then transmitted into England to be further consider'd of by his Majesty and Lords of his Council there where the Counsel at Law and Agents of all Pretenders to the Propriety of Lands in this Kingdom were heard and that Act commonly called the Act of Settlement approved of and retransmitted under the Seal of England to receive the Royal Assent which it did after having passed both Houses of Parliament The Innocent Proprietors being restored pursuant to thiâ— Act and some Difficulties appearing as to the further execution of it Another Act passed commonly called the Act of Explanation which went the same Course and under the same Scrutiny It is confessed that though they are two Acts it was by the same Parliament who were chosen according to the ancient Course of Chusing Parliaments But if any miscarriage were in bringing that Parliament together or the procuring the aforesaid Acts of Parliament to pass which we can in no wise admit and the less for that your Majesties Revenue was granted and settled by the same Parliament and many good and wholsom Laws therein Enacted Yet it is manifest that nothing of that kind ought to affect the Plain and honest Purchaser who for great and valuable Considerations acquired Lands under the Security aforesaid and expended the remainder of his Means in Building Improving and Planting on them and that for the following Reasons First The Purchaser advising with his Counsel how to lay out or secure his Money that it may not lie dead not only to his but the publick detriment tells him that he is offer'd a Purchase of Lands in Fee or desired by his Neighbours to accommodate him with Money upon the Security of Judgment or Statute Staple and upon the enquiry into the Title he finds a good and Secure Estate as firm in Law as two Acts of Parliament in force in this Kingdom can make it and in many Cases Letters Patents upon a Commission of Grace for remedying of defective Titles he finds Possession both of many years gone along with this Title several descents past and possibly that the Lands have been purchased and passed through the hands of divers Purchasers He resorts to the Records where he meets with Fines and Common Recoveries the great Assurance known to the Laws of England Under which by the Blessing of God we live and tells him there is no scruple nor difficulty of Purchasing under this Title since he hath Security under two Acts of Parliament Certificates and Letters Patents Fines and Recoveries and that no Law of force in this Kingdom can stir much less shake this Title How is it possible to imagine that the