to this Kingdom if regard were had in the next Settlement to the British Protestants that have their Dependence in that Country And not to trouble the Reader with what he may see put forth by a more accurate Pen in that ingenious Discourse of the Interest of England in the preservation of Ireland I shall only name some few things by him omitted and first shew That Ireland might be made a Nursery for Seamen to England which upon too frequent experience is found to be so much wanting that upon every Marine War the Merchants Ships are forc'd to stay at home for want of Men to supply them so that it may be said though a Paradox that by employing the hands of War we destroy the Sinews of it Money by our Embargoes upon Trade Now since England justly challenges the Priority in Trade and will by no means admit Ireland to touch the forbidden Fruit their Navigation this is the way not only to keep them from transgressing but also at the same time to employ them in being Fosterers to use their own Language to your Navigation and that is by keeping them imployed in Fishings That Island seeming to be set in the Sea as a Bait for the Inhabitants of the Deep and might very well imploy Twenty thousand in that Service which besides the immense Treasure the product of their Labours would bring to England this other signal advantage would accrew from it viz. The having so many men at a call and in actual readiness for the Service of England since they will never be engag'd in Voyages abroad And as Ireland may be a Nursery for Seamen so is it a Forrest out of which the wooden yet invincible Walls of England may be repaired the Timber of Ireland being in some respects and for divers uses more proper for building Ships than the freer and clean Oak of England Nor must we end here but as we have begun with the Timber for Shipping and brought them on the Stocks so must not leave them until flown from their Nests with their Wings spread at Sea it being practicable to build rigg and even from the Vane at the Topmast-head to the Bolt in the Keel to set out a Ship to Sea from Ireland I have seen one of two hundred Tunn so fitted excepting the Sails which might easily be had if encouragement were given Iron is not wanting in that Kingdom Flax for white Occum there is in great abundance as also Hemp for Cordage which is made there And as before I mentioned the encrease of Seamen so in this I might urge the addition of Ship-Carpenters I might enumerate even to a Volume the particular instances wherein Ireland may be of use to England but I shall name for all but two more that of Iron and the Linnen Manufactory both of which drain out of England more than all the foreign Commodities imported into it besides This without a serious consideration of the Assertion seems an extravagant Notion I must therefore before I pass from it give some Reasons for my opinion which be pleas'd to take in the following particulars First The Consumption of Linnen is of greater value than Silks or any foreign Manufactory for not the poorest Beggar at the Door but bears a proportion in that Commodity Secondly The Importation of Linnen admits of no Improvement nor Exportation to any part of the World but our own Plantations but Silks I mean raw Grogreen Yarn Cypress Cotton and many foreign Commodities are in England improved and manufactured so that upon Exportation they fetch into the Kingdom a great part of what was taken out by the Importation as is found by experience The East-India Trade doth notwithstanding the Gold and Silver carried thither for purchasing Commodities that after brought home by Exportation bring in more ready Money than was sent out for their purchace Linnen and Iron are the Commodities I mean those of Swedeland and the East Sea which take from us the least of our Native Commodities and by that means draw away so much Money that the Computation being made has been found to be the loss of England in some Millions by that Trade of Linnen c. of France I presume by these few Instances already nam'd it will be allowed That Linnen and Iron carry away the greatest part of the Coin and Treasure of the Kingdom for Bills of Exchange are the same thing and allowed so by men of Commerce Now if Ireland be capable of such a management as to furnish the same Commodities this will save the loss of so much Treasure as yearly goes out of England into foreign parts to purchase them Experience is an undeniable Evidence in this case and that which may be done in part is not difficult to effect in the whole There was in the year before Tyrconnel's accession to the Government of Ireland transported out of that Kingdom of Iron-pots Bar-Iron c. to the value of more then Twenty Thousand pounds and the Linnen Manufactory was in so hopeful a Progress that of it a very considerable value was shipped into England and afforded cheaper than it can possibly be brought from any parts of the World. Now if all that has been discours'd upon this Subject be apparently practicable and that so vast an improvement may be made of Ireland for the advantage of England and that nothing hath been such an insuperable Obstacle and Impediment unto it as the great Indulgence given to the Irish and consequently the fresh instances of Rebellion in that Kingdom as deriv'd from the former It seems then extreamly rational to remove those publick Discouragements by laying a Foundation of future Safety and of a firm and lasting Peace in that Kingdom which would invite Inhabitants thither that might secure that Nation to the CROWN of ENGLAND with less Cost and greater Returns for that Charge now expended upon it I shall close this Discourse with a succinct account of what advantage such a Settlement would bring to His present Majesty and his Successors which I shall endeavour to shew in the following particulars First As to the encrease of Subjects We find that King David who was a man after God's own Heart ambition'd nothing beyond the numbers of his People and it had not been his Sin but Glory to have encreased them but his fault consisted in this viz. The numbring of them of which God had made a solemn Promise to the Patriarch Abraham That they should be as the Stars in Heaven that cannot be numbred So said the Angel Look and see if thou canst count them This may be inverted in the Story of Ireland where the numbers slain are harder to be reckoned than are those of the living But if there was thought to be near Two millions of Souls in Ireland at the beginning of this last Ravage we may reasonably account it possible for there to have been five times that number if Acts of Violence had not put a period to more mens
Mephibosheth and Ziba OR THE APPEAL OF THE Protestants of Ireland TO THE KING CONCERNING The Settlement of that KINGDOM 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. in Sympos ex Hesiod By the Author of the Mantle Thrown off Or The Irish-man Dissected LICENS'D August the 30 th 1689. LONDON Printed for R. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIX THE PREFACE TO THE READER IF we compare our present with all the Circumstances of our late unhappy condition by descending to a considerate recollection of those desperate Attempts of Arbitrary Government to violate our Religion and the Laws and to enslave these Kingdoms by a Despotick Invasion upon our just Rights and Properties we must either account it the signal effects of a wonderful Providence or else make our Ingratitude as great a Miracle as was that of our Deliverance And as we chiefly owe all to that Divine hand who by his over-ruling influence disposes of Sublunary Affairs by turning them which way soever he pleases so must we subordinately to him ascribe the present Settlement to his Instrument and the Restorer of our Peace his now Sacred Majesty Now as all good men here must needs express the happiness and Tranquillity they enjoy by acknowledgments of this nature so it may be presumed that his Protestant Subjects of Ireland are not wanting in a right sense of that affectionate tenderness and regard for their interest and present condition which his Majesty has graciously vouchsafed such evincing Demonstrations of For if the greatness of any danger does justly require a proportionable estimate upon the Means conducing to a Deliverance from it then consequently the British Protestants of Ireland are by so much their more obliged unto higher Testimonies of Gratitude for his Majesty's Princely Endeavours to re-instate them in their Religion Laws Liberties and Possessions than were those of England by how much all these were in a greater measure infringed and now actually and totally violated But as this is a truth which by more than bare Arguments of presumption I fully perswade my self that no Protestant of that Kingdom is so insensible of as to dispute whatever some unreasonable Male Contents and Factious Ill-spirited men fondly attempt to do that are Inhabitants of this yet seeing His Majesty has expressed so much condescention as to vouchsafe liberty to such of them as are in London to offer their Reasons in the framing up of a Proclamation of Pardon to the Irish Rebels it might justly be accounted a betraying as well of their Majesties as of their own interest not to endeavour by lawful methods a just preservation of both I know it will be difficult for them to avoid a censorious imputation of partiality and prejudice especially by such as are in the bottom disaffected to them or rather in the main to the Protestant Cause how zealously soever they assume the outward shape of it To this sort of men the most Candid and Indifferent representation of the present Insurrection of Ireland will be looked upon with an evil Eye and under stood as an effect of Self-Interest Others there are that may misinterpret their Proceedings not out of a General Disaffection to the British Protestants but because at this distance it is impossible for them how intelligent soever in matters of State and Government to be throughly acquainted with the Humour and Genius of the Native Irish of which none I presume can be such Competent Judges as those who have been long conversant in the Country and have had the Opportunities of inspecting into all their Affairs and to observe how their begotted Zeal their insuperable Cruelty and aversion to the English their Natural Inconstancy and Perfidiousness in the breach of Faith and the most Sacred and solemn Obligations which they can possibly lie under or be engaged in raised and fomented partly by the vileness of their Tempers but chiefly by the instigation of their Priests who are the publick Incendiaries of that Kingdom and whilst the people are governed by their Arbitrary influence over them it must happen of course that such implacable Enemies to the Reformed Religion will possess their blind and slavish Votaries with a like antipathy both against it and its Professors By which 't is plain that if they were well inclined yet lies it not in their power to be true to the English the Infallible Dictates of their Priests superseding all other Considerations with them Not to enumerate their other Qualities I shall only add their Dexterous Obsequiousness under the Protestant which has been no small Delusion and mischief to the too Credulous English and their insupportable Tyranny and Insolence under their own Government We usually say that Experience is the best School-master and that an Ocular and Practical is preferrable to a remote and speculative knowledge which being a Maxim Non solum dato sed concesso as well granted as allowed on all hands it must needs follow that the Protestant Nobility and Gentry of Ireland are most capable of understanding its proper constitution and of proposing such Expedients as my produce the most durable as well as equal settlement of that Kingdom I say equal settlement because though their Sufferings have been such as may in Justice demand a Retribution from the Invaders of their lawful Possessions yet on the other hand do the Principles of their Religion as well as natural Clemency and Compassion which their Enemies even in the late Reign could not but acknowledge how far soever they were from imitating them restrain them from thoughts of Blood and from a mutual exercise and return of the like measures of Severity which have been shewn to them their Profession not allowing them any such Latitude as to do evil that good may come of it seeing that the Apostle has thought fit to pass Sentence upon that unlawful Practice so common in and peculiar to the Church of Rome by that plain Asseveration that their Damnation is just But though both their Religion and their Natures carry a powerfull propension in them to acts of Mercy yet neither I suppose will debar them from recovering of their own by having justice done upon such as have violently rent it from them nor will yet hinder them from taking such justifiable but effectual courses as may incapacitate their Adversaries to commit the like for the future And besides the common equity we may draw the reasonableness of the first of these from the pungent necessity which the English are reduced to through the Rapin and Outrages of the Irish especially such whose substance consisted chiefly in Personal Estates for which if they should have no compensation from their injurers such by consequence must notwithstanding the reduction of that Kingdom remain in a miserable and distressed who liv'd formerly in a very opulent and comfortable condition And then as to others who have real Estates to return to tho' they have likewise incurred great losses in their Stock c. yet I
minds against any thing that bears the Stamp of English that whenever by their Rebellion they wrested the Reins of Government from them their implacable rage did not only extend to their innocent persons but to every Vegetative and Inanimate Substance that bore but the Characters of their Improvement And to me it seems an unparallel'd instance of an irreconcileable inveteracy thus to destroy the flourishing effects of the English Industry when no other way remain'd of executing their inhumane fury tho' at the same time they thereby defac'd the beauty and ornaments of their Country and consequently acted diametrically contrary to their own true Interest But alas this aversion was so deeply rooted by the aforesaid Artifices consisting in the Education of their Parents and Instructions of their Priests that no acts of Clemency or Indulgence were ever found capable to prevail with them to adhere faithfully to the Government and Crown of England no not the highest Titles of Honour or Dignity not their Matrimonial Alliances with the English not the largest Priviledges or Immunities from the Crown not the greatest places of Trust or most weighty Employments in the State not the highest opportunities of Advantage or of secular profit and in fine not any Encouragements which were either in the power of the English to bestow or of them to accept could induce them to extinguish that Hatred in their Breasts which upon all inviting occasions they executed upon the Protestants trampling upon all their Obligations and Civilities by a most horrid Ingratitude and an insolent Contempt and that Humanity which in the very Breast of a Cannibal would claim some Power seem'd so quite eras'd out of their Hearts in all their outrages towards the English as if their Cruelties had quite unmann'd them and as it were sunk their erect into a savage Shape of Wolves and Tygers Indeed the gratifying of their Lusts was oftentimes of that prevalence with their Grandees that to answer their importunity they were necessitated to enter into Marriage with English Families in whose beauty and humour though 't was impossible for them not to manifest very great Complacency yet were not their Amours to the Children sufficient to restrain their Barbarity from the Parents an instance as unnatural to others as peculiar to these Monsters and should I undertake to enumerate the Tragedies committed by them upon such whose near Relations they had taken to their own Beds all Mankind must needs consider their unequal'd inhumanity with horror and amazement But I refer the Reader to the History of Ireland where he may meet with an abundant variety of places to this purpose together with those various Tragick Scenes of such bloody Massacres and impious Assassinations as no Story can parallel for the matter nor Satan himself contrive more Butcherly Arts in the manner of their execution But I shall not insist longer upon these things which are but too lively imprinted in the Memories of the Irish Protestant Sufferers but rather proceed to my present design which is to shew That Pardon and Lenity to them however it carries the face of Mercy is yet in reality the contrary And in the second place That it will not attain the end design'd the more easie reduction of that Kingdom In relation to the first of these it is to be consider'd That Mercy in its true and genuine importance is a Work of Deliverance and Preservation and wheresoever it is vouchsafed a chief regard is to be had to the Security of Men's Rights and Interests Now 't is plain That pardoning of the Irish cannot be capable of any such Interpretation unless it be granted That the British of Ireland have been Usurpers of their Rights 'T is but too apparent That the present Insurrection of Ireland has wasted and destroyed the whole Kingdom That thousands of the English have either become Sacrifices to the Rage and Cruelty of the Natives or else have perish'd by Famine or other Disasters If then it be demanded Who were the Agents of this publick Mischief and Calamity Was not all of it transacted by the Irish That is a Truth which admits of no dispute But if it be again ask'd Were not the Natives irritated thereunto by provocations receiv'd from the English This indeed may be controverted by some who are Foreigners to the State of that Kingdom and therefore I think it fit to return an Answer to that Objection by taking a short Survey of the late Condition of Ireland immediately before this universal Devastation committed by the Papists Tyrconnel was seated at the Helm a bitter and implacable Enemy to the British Protestants The Militia all compos'd of English had for a considerable time before been disarmed The standing Army made up of English Souldiery disbanded and Irish both Officers and private Souldiers preferr'd to their places The Corporations divested of their old Charters and then new modell'd by turning out the Protestants and placing Natives of the Kingdom in the Magistracy and Government of them Papists made Judges put into the Commission of the Peace constituted Sheriffs Coroners Constables c. throughout the whole Kingdom The Protestant Clergy disturbed in their Ministry and the discharge of their sacred Function Many of the poorer sort of Protestants practis'd upon by various Arts of the Popish Priests and thereby seduc'd from their Religion and turn'd Papists The Houses of the Sick invaded both by Seculars and Regulars who would violently shut the Protestants doors against their own Ministers and by a Thousand impious contrivances and unheard-of Machinations so menace and terrifie them with the thoughts of Damnation to those of their Religion as forced them in the agonies of Death to renounce the Principles of their Faith or at least the Priests pretended that they did so and that they came off Conquerors the known and apparent refusal of many notwiâ—hstanding This transient Prospect of Affairs does sufficiently discover to us That the Irish were under no hard or severe circumstances from the Protestants and far from standing in awe of them who now that the course of things was so manifestly inverted were become their Masters instead of that of their Slaves and Vassals But perhaps it may be urged That the Protestants were for espousing the Interest of King William then Prince of Orange And indeed 't was reasonably to be supposed that all persons who had any valuable regard for their Religion or to the retrieving of the Laws and Constitutions of the Land were strongly inclined to favour and assist in so good and advantagious a Design But then alas the English were in no capacity of putting their good Wishes in execution They had been disarm'd and thereby divested of all ability whereby to make any considerable defence or to provide for their Security Besides they were under a strict Guard from their Enemies who had all the power and strength of the Kingdom in their hands and kept a vigilant and an attentive eye upon all their actions
who stood so unanimously well affected to that of the Ecclesiastical But it was afterwards found a Work of a far different nature and much harder to effect to reform the Errors and Innovations introduced into their Church than to propagate Christianity where it was never established before the Irish hating in religious matters what came from the English Clergy and so inveterate they were against their Reformers that they would anathematize all such as seem'd inclined to favour them giving it in strict Charge to their Children never to imitate the Customs and Manners of the English which to create the greater abhorrence against as well as to demonstrate their implacable rancour would agreeably to their more early nurture and education of their Off-spring put the first Food into their Mouths with the point of a Sword a true Hieroglyphick of their savage Cruelty as well as their expressions were a denotation of their great Barbarity which they used upon that occasion Wishing that they might never die but with a Sword in their hands in the midst of their enemies This Barbarism the English Government thought to eradicate by reducing them to the more easie Discipline of Civility and that to be done by the gentle methods of Kindness and a favourable Indulgence to their Lords and the Heads of Clans making them Presents giving them a legal power over their Followers and Tenants thereby to wean and alienate them from that Arbitrary Violence which they had usurp'd before all which like Honey in a vitiated Stomach turned to Choler and they became the greater Enemies to good Laws and Constitutions by having the opportunity put into their hands of converting them from a regular administration to vile and enormous Abuses To this the English Government superadded that powerful Tye of Marriage that so uniting in Blood might be an Introduction to English Humanity and Civility but all this was like Corn sown upon Thorns choaked up by the natural brutality of that ungrateful People insomuch that they could not be brought to any part of conformity no not in their Garments to English Fashions until by Statute-Laws they were compelled to decency Such an invincible detestation they bore to the Manners and Customs of the British which recalls to my mind a passage I was in part an eye-witness of A Gentleman of the Irish marrying one of Lynster whose Education there being something refined by conversing with the English and coming to his own House according to the Custom of the Country all his Tenants and Clans brought in Beefs Muttons c. in a great abundance and the Lady finding more than could be spent while 't was fresh ordered to have some of it powdered up which these People hearing of renounced their Lord and Lady as invaders of their ancient Priviledges and Liberties which as they affirm'd were never violated before in that House where 't was never known that Flesh was salted but on the Trencher I must intreat the Reader 's Pardon for this digression and return to the still-mistaken tenderness of the English Government which was so very indulgent that though the Irish were never twenty years quiet and scarce half so long till King James the First yet did the Kings and Queens of England not only vouchsafe Pardon but likewise heapt Creations of great Honour and Dignity upon those who in the general acceptation were irreconcileable Enemies both to It and Them. I will not stand to enumerate particulars but rather referr the Reader to the several Authors that have writ of that Kingdom and shall only give a succinct account of some passages of the Rebellion of Forty One too deeply imprinted in the Memories of Men ever to be eras'd or forgotten which if Sir John Davis that writ so excellently of the Defects of the Kings of England in the Civil Policy in the Government of Ireland had lived to be a Spectator of he would have enlarged that admirable Discourse in which he prophetically lamented what we have by two Rebellions since fatally found true In the Rebellion of Forty One their barbarous and inhumane Massacres demonstrated to the World the cruel design of the Irish quite to extirpate and destroy the whole Race and Progeny of the British which in their former Insurrections they had in some measure spared but were resolved to correct that Errour in this which they looked upon themselves to have been guilty of in former Rebellions and as a demonstration of their carefulness in the execution of so damnable a Design there was not found Five of the Roman Catholicks innocent though they cannot but acknowledge but that even in the time of Cromwel's Government they had fair Trials and no Articles entred into with them but were most inviolably and punctually observ'd even to the Priviledges of a little Town call'd Featherd where until the Restauration of King Charles the Second the Irish not only enjoyed their Estates but had the keeping of their Town chose their own Officers c. But in all the Promises or Articles made with the Irish Cromwel observed one standing Rule never to give a Pardon for Estate to any of their Grandees nor grant terms for Priests to remain in the Kingdom Had the Monarchs of England acted by the same measures before that I mean since the Reformation there had been no such National Revolution in that Kingdom as the vast multitudes of the Protestant Exiles in this give but too lamentable a proof of and consequently there had been no occasion for this Discourse for by that means the Irish could never have been capable of making an Insurrection and so could not have come under such Circumstances as to require a Pardon for their Security not to relate the wonderful good effect which Seven years continuance of that Government met with in that Kingdom which was That most of the Common People went to Church and some of the discreetest of their men of Estates began to hearken with great attention to Discourses made upon the Fopperies and absurd Innovations of Popery The Country flourished to a vast degree grew rich and populous to a Miracle and had the same Settlement been confirm'd in which it lay under at the Restauration of King Charles the Second there had been no possibility left for the effecting of those fatal Mischiefs which have prevail'd with so irresistible a force in that poor Kingdom But his Mercy to this perfidious People was upon its first vouchsafing feared to be an ominous presage of Cruelty to the British Protestants And we have now but too fatal experience of the truth of what even at that time it portended By what has been insisted upon it seems sufficiently plain That the Success attending the Indulgence of the English Government to the Irish has alwaies been to enable and animate them to fresh Rebellions in which their inveterate Genius has fully shewn That they were never wanting upon the least inviting opportunity alwaies with open Arms and as ready Hearts
who were so favourable in their Constructions of them although Hereticks as not to exclude them from the aforesaid possibility but on the contrary the Donatists like the Church of Rome confined Salvation to themselves and denied it to the Orthodox But I shall not insist longer upon these Points referring the Inquisitive Reader for his more ample satisfaction to Archbishop Laud's Book against Fisher the Jesuit and to the Learned Dean of St. Paul's his Vindication of the said Book But though the brevity designed hinders me from protracting this Discourse upon this Subject yet not from making a necessary Apology for what I have said already Some may perhaps be so Censorious as to suppose the foregoing Arguments to be designed by the Author as a Model or Platform for others to imitate or transcribe in the reduction of the Irish Papists to our Church and therefore to take off that imputation I think fit in my own defence to make the following Asseveration That my sole intention in it proceeded from a pure Zeal to the Reformed Religion and a desire to shew how easie it might be to work upon the Vulgar Romanists by these or the like Motives if their Priests were once removed from them This as it would certainly be a very great happiness to the Nation in general by making it of one interest by being of one Religion so would it be an act of Transcendent Charity to the Souls of these poor Wretches who are miserably seduced by the Impious Delusions of their Priests and with all good men ought to be the principal inducement of prohibiting them a free exercise of their innovated and depraved Superstition which cannot be effectually accomplished without expelling their Priests out of the Kingdom And if the British could be so happy as to live to reap the benefit of the reduction of the Irish to their Church it might reasonably be hoped that this present would put a period to all future Rebellions in that Kingdom To which I may add a Passage of a Country Fellow who passing through the Rubbidge of London after the Fire and seeing a Crowd of people came up to them and enquired what was the matter some answered that they were waiting for the Committee to settle the Foundations and one said they had resolved the Buildings should be on the old Foundation to which the Countrey Fellow with an Oath replyed It had been as good then that London had never been burnt I leave others to make the Application and shall only say with Lamentation that what that poor Fellow spoke ignorantly is verified of the Protestants of Ireland who have no other Expectations to bear up their Spirits in this Deluge of misery now violently descended upon them but that as the Blood of the Martyrs in the Primitive Church increased their Numbers so this may lay a Foundation by shewing the indispensable necessity of putting the Irish past the hopes of repeating the like Tragedy and that nothing but such a method can possibly repair the Ruines of that Kingdom I have hitherto been shewing the Miseries and Calamities that have attended the British Plantations by the frequent Rebellions of the Irish And then the Justice of making some Reparation at this time to the Protestants out of the Estates of some of the most notorious Leaders of this Rebellion And have also shewn the great advantage such Justice would derive upon that Kingdom at this time in new planting it I am in the next Remarks to observe how much it imports England to improve this opportunity which the Enemies of their publick Peace and Tranquillity have put into their hands and this is a subject of so copious a nature as might claim a Treatise by it self but my design being to awaken not direct the Wisdom and Conduct of England I shall only remind them of the Charge and Expence of English Blood that poor distressed Kingdom has already cost and then lay before them the Advantage that would accrew to England if Ireland was once reinstated and settled in Protestant hands That the loss of Men is the greatest misfortune and severest punishment that can arrive to and be inflicted upon a Nation is confirmed by the Judgment of an infallible Author For when the Prophet was sent to David to offer three things to his choice not one of them consisted in depriving him of Treasure Herds or Possessions but every punishment was the loss of Men. It is not possible to give an exact account of the numbers that Caldron of England as Ireland may be truly call'd has swallowed up in five hundred years but according to the best computation that can be made there has been by War Famine and Murders of the British more than Twenty Hundred Thousand Souls By the several accounts in History of the Supplies sent from England in the Rebellions there the computation is made too large here to mention the particulars but may reasonably be believed if we recount the several Rebellions in Five hundred years when there was never Twenty years free and in the last where some account was taken it was found to exceed Two Hundred Thousand and that after not Twenty years of perfect Peace for although the Kingdom was for the greatest part quiet during the Reign of King James and some of that of King Charles the First yet some places of it were constantly involv'd in Trouble It would hardly be believ'd in Story since there is no precedent That a Kingdom so frequently conquer'd and so horribly outragious in their Rebellions and inhumane Massacres should still be put into the hands of the Rebels that are implacable in their hatred to their Conquerors but it has rather been an Infatuation than Mercy in the English to retain such Serpents in their Bosoms which nothing can excuse but that it is a Judgment of God to blind the Eyes of his People in this matter that so these Philistines may be left to punish the Sins of these Nations who have reason to repent for their past Omissions and to pray that they may never more be incident to the same Errour and Miscarriage lest the Message of the Prophet Ahab be ours Because thou hast let go out of thy hand c. After the loss of that which comprehends it 't will appear vain to mention the Treasure this Kingdom has buried there but it is an additional aggravation to our other Misfortunes and had half of it been expended in other Adventures it might have been return'd with greater advantage than the whole Kingdom of Ireland has hitherto been worth Not but that it is obvious to every eye that Europe cannot shew such a spot of Ground that may deserve the Motto Trajan gave to his Money in reference to Dacia which applying to this fertile Island we may thus express Hiberniae Abundantia Having thus hinted at the Losses which England has sustain'd by Indulgence given to the Irish I now come to discuss those Advantages which would accrue