into outrage and Revenge they began an early Violence in the County of Meath before the precedeing February they had plunder'd the Protestants in Coâ—â—aught forced the Houses seâ—z'd the Arms and Horses and driven away the persons of the Protestants in Munster and in a word Universally through the Land accepted of Commissions and were train'd up in Military Discipline so that in December 1688 Thirty Nine New and Levy'd Regiments were added to the Standing Army and Fifty Thousand of the Rabble arm'd with Half-pikes and Skeins and obliged to it by command from the the Priests under the pain of Excommunication And so far were they from being hardly prevail'd upon to engage and declare that never Christians ingaged in a Crusade for conquering the Holy Land with so impatient a Zeal as the Couardly Irish â—â—â—ck'd to Dublin and adored 〈…〉 and strugled for Commissions exchanging their Friâ—ze Coats into Scarlet and Blew and jumping out of Brogues into Jackboots And in very truth as the difference was not so the Dispute ought not to be Concerning Obedience to a Natural Prince because those very persons who were robbed and plundered were in peaceable subjection to the same King to whom the Robbers professed an Allegiance But by this Person of Quality's Logick if we can hardly blame them for what they have done the whole World must blame us for what we have done It had been more ingenuous to say The English have been the first Aggressors and because King James did not seem to forsake Ireland but retained the Government there therefore King William is an Usurper and all that contributed either in purse or person for the Reduction of Ireland are Rebels and Traytors And whereas he slily insinuates that they were left to themselves for many Months and to the practices and persuasions of King James his Agents that no Power but King James 's appeared in Ireland and we in England were wholly taken up with setling our Government it is not to be doubted but this Argument was skrew'd in on purpose to reflect on the Government and to arraign the King and his Council of supine negligence in not applying an early and easie remedy at the beginning of those Distractions The third Consideration cannot be answer'd civilly It does not become a Person of Quality to obtrude upon the World so notorious a Falshood That these are the Ancient Inhabitants and Proprietors of the Countrey for howsoever among the Vulgar and meaner sort of the People there be many of the Ancient Irish Extraction yet it is manifest that few or none of the Lords and Gentlemen in that Kingdom are originally Irish but descended of English Blood As for instance Butler the Head of which Family the Illustrious House of Ormond have in all times been famous for their unshaken Fidelity to the English Crown and Interest Fitz-Gerald Burgh Fitz-Williams Fitz-Maurice Fitz-Patrick Talbot Preston Bermingham Plunket Sarsfield Nettervile Lutterel Bagnal Lucy Dillon and many more tho by the influence of their Religion many of them have long since degenerated into the barbarous Inclinations of the Native Irish So that if all the original Natives of Irish Extraction who are distinguish'd by Mac and O were restored to the Estates they enjoy'd in 1688. the Composition for two years value would be very inconsiderable But if a plenary Conquest repeated upon the extinction of several Rebellions a Possession for 500 years frequent for forfeitures a submission so the Laws a Recognition of the Title a derivation of their Parents for their Estates and a general incorporating of Families be not sufficient Arguments to intitle England to the Sovereignty of that Kingdom and to demonstrate that the English are the Proprietors of it what shall we say of the Race of King Pepin how injuriously has the King of Spain dealt with the Moors the Emperor with the Hunus the Northern Kings with the Goths and Vandals In a word The Ancient Inhabitants and Proprietors of that Countrey who are now in Arms against England are either of the mere Irish Race or of the English Stock If they are of the Irish Sort what Obligations can lie upon the King or Parliament of England to own their Propriety or Title who have by so many re-iterated Acts of Defection from their Allegiance forfeited all Pretensions to Mercy If they are of the other sort descended from the English I would fain know how they came by their Estates were they not granted to them by the Kings of England upon the Forfeitures of the Native Irish And if it were just and reasonable for their Ancestors to take the Estates of the poor harmless Irish only for a little Rebellion what hardship is it or what injustice to dispossess them who have relapsed into the same Crime I do think indeed that in time they may be reclaimed as the Author does hint but not by such Methods as he insinuates not by restoring them to their Lands and compounding for two years value but by imposing such a yoke upon them as they shall never be in a capacity to rebel again The Interrogatory How many Civil Protestant Families are there already in Ireland of mere Irish Extraction I answer in one word There is only one of any Quality or Title or at least three or four Families of one Name or Sept and that is of the O Bryens The fourth Consideration is That mens not submitting to a new Establish'd Government is not so heinous a Crime as the rebelling against a Government they were born under or to which they have submitted Supposing this Apothegm to be true what relation has this to the Case in hand The Author must not think with his Sophistry to impose upon our Reason so that we may not distinguish between a Government and a Governour If the Irish were not born under the Government of King William yet they were born under the Government of the King of England and submitted to it And by the Laws of that Land whosoever is de Facto possess'd of the Throne of England is ipso facto and also de Jure King of Ireland And though it is not strange that some differences and disorders should be upon a dissolution of a Government yet it is to be admir'd and with everlasting horror to be remembred that in full Peace and the uninterrupted Exercise of the Government the greatest differences and disorders happen'd in Ireland that ever were known in any Christian Kingdom Did not the Irish in the Reign of the late King James violate the Laws of the Nation and infringe the Act of Settlement They Arbitrarily divested the Officers of the Army because they were Protestants Cashier'd the Soldiers and with all the Circumstances of Scorn and Inhumanity stript them to their Shirts and exposed them to the necessity of Begging or Starving they reform'd the Privy-Council according to their own Cue they turn'd the Judges out of the Courts and the Justices of Peace out of the Commission and
Sore which after may Fester and destroy the Body For by a Composition the Irish will be enabled to joyn with the French upon the first fit occasion whereas by a Conquest they will be render'd uncapable to abet such an Attempt I grant that the Reduction of Ireland is of unexpressible importance to England and to the prosperity of the Confederates But let no Man think that to effect that there needs so mighty application I dare confidently say the King might at his pleasure remand the greatest part of his Army in Ireland to the pursuit of his foreign Wars and securely expect a speedy and plenary Conquest of that perfidious and ungrateful People by the Industry and Courage of the remainder being well seconded by the Protestants of that Kingdom well Arm'd which in all likelihood would not at this time be subject to a dispute had not the Violent Rains and approaching Winter intercepted the current of his Victory at Lymerick I shall now own the Objections which the Author hath rais'd and in the maintenance of them endeavour to enervate the force of his respective Answers First That Ireland is a subordinate Kingdom to England and must therefore comply with whatever we do The Respondent seems only to Nibble at this and granting or not denying Ireland to be subordinate to England he only snarls at the Consequence to comply with whatever we do But this Argumentation soon comes to nothing if we consider Ireland as a Member or Province of England It is granted by him That Ireland is subordinate to England tho what this has to do with the business of Mercy I do not apprehend but the Author denies the Inference that therefore Ireland must comply with England which he says is not true in all Cases and I say so too of which he gives an Instance for says he If England rebel must Ireland rebel too No surely But tho Ireland is not obliged to comply with England in all Cases yet that Kingdom stands obliged to comply in some The Author grants That what England did in these late Revolutions was upon grounds so righteous as were justifiable to all the World And it is in this Case tho not in every Case that Ireland ought to comply with England And it is strange that Ireland being a subordinate Conquer'd Kingdom should not be obliged to comply with the Conquering Nation in all such Matters as the Author acknowledgeth to be just and righteous Secondly The Irish will never be quiet The Author in his whole Pamphlet has not so stumbl'd upon Ingenuity as in his Answer to this Objection They must be quiet says he since they will not be in a condition to be otherwise which is as much as to say it is not any Principle of Loyalty Justice or Honesty that disposeth them to be quiet but plain Necessity since they have no strength or opportunity to be otherwise and if they could be otherwise they would not be quiet He that consults History and turns over the Chronicles of England and Ireland will fully agree with the Respondent and be convinced That since the first Conquest of that Land the Natives have been retain'd in obedience and quiet no longer than while they remain'd under an incapacity to be otherwise Witness more than a hundred Provincial Insurrections or Universal Rebellions in the space of 500 years since they first swore Fealty to the Crown of England Witness the causeless and unprovok'd Rebellion in 1641. when by a Barbarity transcending the most exquisite Villany of any Age or Countrey they most inhumanly murther'd their Neighbours Gossips and Fellow-subjects with whom they participated equally in the benefits of Peace the Protection of the Laws and a favourable Connivence to their Religion Witness their unparallell'd Insolence in the Reign of the Late King when it was not enough for them to displace the Magistrates to change the Civil List to turn out the Officers and disband the Soldiers only because they were Protestants and to fill many places with the very Persons attainted for their horrid Rebellion and Murthers in 1641. or their black Issue when it did not suffice to erect Popish Convents and publickly to celebrate Mass contrary to the Established Laws of the Land but having all in their hands they began to plunder and seize the Goods of the Protestants the meaner sort declaring that As the Lord Tyrconnel and other Great Men were possess'd of all Civil and Military Employments so it belonged to them to become Masters of the English and to possess their Estates and Goods Thirdly We cannot live with comfort intermixt with the Irish Tho by two dismal Experiments in 1641. and 1688. there is too sensible Reason to start that Objection yet the most impudent of the Irish cannot say that the behaviour of the English towards them has ever administred the least umbrage for such a Supposition The Objection is coyn'd by the Author but was never thought of by us We have liv'd with comfort among them and may do so again so they be not Masters or be too powerful for us But such an Inference as the Objector has rais'd could never proceed from the mouth of an Englishman or Protestant What could a French Jesuit say more than Truly we must then come away from them and leave them their Countrey by themselves That is in plain terms we must come away and not only leave them their own but our Estates also The Visor is now taken off and the Person of Quality hath palpably display'd himself What! must we come away from them out of weariness or fear because we cannot live in comfort with them must we by a shameful and unconstrain'd Retreat own their Title to that Countrey and proclaim our selves Intruders for so he intends by that Malicious Insinuation That we have thrust our selves in among them We are not Intruders we did not thrust our selves among them the first Entrance of the English into Ireland was upon a fair Invitation I have hardly patience to reflect on this most injurious Expression so contradictory to Truth and History It is now above 500 years since England hath made Ireland their Countrey by the dearest Acquisition in the World of inestimable Treasure and vast effusion of blood repeated and repurchased in every Age and Generation The Parliaments there have from time to time recognized their Submission and protested their Homage and Fealty to the Crown of England There is not a man in Ireland that has a Freehold in an Acre of Land but what he holds mediately or immediatly from the Crown There are very few of the Natural and Original Irish who have a Propriety in any Estate their Ancestors having in every Reign successively forfeited them by Treason and Rebellion The Owners of all or most of the Estates there are either the Ancient or Modern English and Scots of the first sort whereof tho many have degenerated into Irish manners and apostatized from the Religion yet they
cannot extinguish their Names or alienate their descent or deny the honour of their Consanguinity with the English Nation And now after all this after a plenary Conquest by the Sword and an Establishment by Law after a long Prescription and undisputed Possession for 500 years Shall that be call'd their Countrey Shall the English be affronted with the opprobrious Name of Intruders who thrust our selves in among them This indeed is too insolent and void not only of all Humanity as he is pleased to say on the other side but repugnant to Truth Honesty and Justice Fourthly Our Army must be rewarded out of their Lands If this had been Prophetically spoken as it is invidiously mentioned I should not have opposed my Prayers to the accomplishment If it pleases the King and Parliament so to dispose of the forfeited Estates I shall not grudge at the Exchange of the Proprietors But when I first cast my Eye on this Cavil I expected another application to be made by this Person of Quality so compassionate to the poor Irish and that is not that the Army should be rewarded out of their Lands but that they should be distributed among the poor Protestants of Ireland whose Loss and Damage by burning plundering and universal devastation is almost irreparable But the Author evidently appears partial and prejudicated in his tenderness to the poor Irish without any regard or sense of the utter ruine of the Protestants But why doth he make it such a wonder that our Army should be thus rewarded were not the English Armies thus rewarded in the last Settlement in the days of Queen Elizabeth and of all the preceding Kings of England since the Conquest Fifthly They called in the French which is never to be forgiven In the Answer to this Objection he becomes a perfect Advocate for the Irish Nation he supposeth that they did not call in the French or if they did that it was no Capital Crime to make use of Foreign Ayd for their own preservation To the declarative part I say they did call in the French for by their Ambassadors dispatch'd by Tyâ—connel in January 1688. they solemnly apply'd themselves to the French King for Ayd and Succor as they formerly did to the King of Spain and to the Duke of Lorain and importunately solicited King James to come among them who could no way descend to their protection but being accompanied by the French Nay the King in his Proclamation declares the same and the Author knows it as appears by his Quotation To the Argumentative part I shall only answer That if that Suggestion be allow'd there needs no Apology to be made for any intestine Rebellion and I have just reason to think that this Person of Quality held some Intelligence with the French Fleet last Summer and would not have opposed that Invasion but kindly made use of Foreign Aid In a word If the Irish liv'd in peace enjoy'd an equal benefit of the Laws and an undisturb'd possession of their Estates and Properties as is undeniable where then was their Hazard what needed any thing to be done for their Preservation what occasion was there for them to make use of Foreign Aid Sixthly There was a full pardon once granted to the Irish which they did not accept nor come in upon it I say so too and with the favour of the Respondent I do aver in contradiction to what he alledgeth that it was before King James was in Ireland and among them and in Power For the King's Proclamation bore date in February 1688. and the Indulgence of it expired about the 10th of April following but King James did not land in Ireland before the 11th of March. This Person makes bold to reflect upon the Conduct of the King in that after the Victory at the Boyn a full pardon was not granted or tollerable Conditions offer'd But if I be not as saucy in giving my sense of it I would say That though such an Act might have appear'd generous it would hardly have been interpreted prudent or seasonable And tho indeed it might have been a high Complement to our Roman-Catholick Allies if the King after so unexampled hazard of his person and the effusion of his Royal Blood had embraced his Enemies and caressed them for their opposition to his Government it had carry'd little kindness to his Friends and Protestant Confederates to receive his Enemies into mercy reaking with the blood and inrich'd with the Spoil of his martyr'd Subjects leaving them in a condition a hundred times worse than when he first appear'd for their Deliverance But if King James gave them leave to submit when he fled from them and they have since not submitted it only shews that they are an incorrigible Generation and that Rebellion is so rooted in them that they are utterly incurable And if they be grown desperate as well as obstinate let them take their Chance in the Event of War they first despoil'd the Protestants drove some into Exile and tyrannized over such as continu'd in subjection to them and if their nefarious Crimes be recompenced by stripping them of their Estates and throwing them into misery and beggery let them thank themselves they are the Authors of their own perdition And common Equity as well as the Common Law of the Land provides that every Aggressor or Trespasser shall make amends and satisfy the Damages of the Party on whom he committed the Trespass But though he maliciously and mutinously insinuates that we fight to get their Estates that our Allies are run down by the French that we in England lye under such Taxes as never were known that our severe Resolutions were against His Majesties merciful inclinations yet all serious and unprejudiced Men will understand that we fight to recover the Estates of the Protestants which the Irish in their late Parliament with so much precipitancy and injustice Condemned Attainting all persons of all Ages Degrees and Sexes present or absent dead or alive without Reason or Distinction and obliging Men to impossibilities to preserve their Lives and Fortunes All that Love and Favour the present Government will believe that our Allies are not run down by the French and will hope there is no danger of it Modest and well-principled Men will not Grumble or say We lye under such Taxes as never were known when the revolving of the Modern Histories of England and appealing to the Testimony of many living Men will plainly confute the Assertion by fresh Instances in the time of the late Usurpation and the late Reign of Charles the second And tho I will neither presume to be privy to the King's Inclinations or tax the severity of such Resolutions I may modestly and justly say That as no other Methods have hitherto been prosperous in Ireland so there does not appear any way more certainly conducing to the everlasting settlement of that Kingdom than to Confiscate the Estates of all who have wilfully appear'd in Arms against the Government of England and to transfer them into the hands of English Protestants Seventhly They have a perfect aversion and hatred to the English Government and will never submit In his Objection he would fain be taken for an Irish-man in his Answer to it he talks like an English-Papist For howsoever they may have accidentally an Aversion to the English Government because it comprehends a prejudice to their Religion in which they are above all Nations most superstitious yet they have ever own'd a satisfaction and complacency in their subjection to the English In the demonstration of which I do not so much rely on Publick Declarations and Acts of Parliament as on the suffrage of that People in their Contentment and Joy to live under English Landlords rather than to be enslav'd under their own Lords and Heads of Clans And suppose the Natural Irish who in Quality or Estate are no way considerable do retain a perfect Aversion and Hatred to the English Government it does not follow that those who are of English Blood and descended from the English tho differing in Religion should retain the same sentiments But what a snarling reflection is this That the English Croud into their Country and Grow upon them and Cut them out If that be still their Countrey because the Mercy of the Conquerors hath permitted some of the Natives to remain there England must renounce all Title and Propriety to Virginia New-England and to the Continent and Islands in America And tho the Irish had not Authority and Preferments it was not denied them quatenus Irish when any of them were qualified by embracing the Protestant Religion they were advanced and intrusted without distinction which being agreeable to the Laws and Usage of England it is easie to conjecture from what Quiver this Arrow came and that this Person of Quality projects an Indulgence to Popish Recusants in both Kingdoms at least it is a provocative to the Papists in England to take the first opportunity to Rebel since by the Laws of the Land they are render'd uncapable of Authority and Preferments The rest of the Paragraph is a nauseous Repetition of what he has before urged more than once by an ungrateful Impeachment of the Government as if their Proceedings were founded on Greediness and Avarice managed by Severity and Cruelty and representing them to disadvantage by an impertinent and odious Comparison with the Dealings of the French where by the way if the French King hath suffered the Estates of Protestants to go to the next of kin that are or will turn Papists May not the King of England by the same equity give the Estates of Papists to the next of kin that are or will turn Protestants But this being a Language fitter for the Cognizance of the King's-Bench and the Inquisition of a Jury I shall remit the Author to his deserved Fate hoping that in due time he may be discover'd FINIS