embracing the Enemies of England as their Patrons in imitation of the vile and ungrateful Carriage of the Samaritans to the Jews whom they owned as Brethren when they were in Prosperity and stood in need of their assistance and protection but disclaim'd all kind of relation or affinity to them when they were distrest by other Nations and so either called for their Relief or else supposing that the Enemies of the Jews would proceed against them as their Friends and Confederates resolved to untwist all the Bonds of their Alliance and to side with the common Adversary when it appeared to be for their Interest so to do And something parallel to this is also the demeanour of the Irish toward the Spaniard who in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth were their Catholick Guardians from whom they boastingly derived their original Extraction and Descent Now the Spaniards are their Paltroons and the French their Deity and so as Catholick as they pretend would not stick to make court to the Turk were he in a capacity to invade England and to offer them assistance The premises of this Discourse seem very copious as to the asserting a necessity of extraordinary acts to take off the fears that by the experience of former Precedents may reasonably be judg'd to attend that Kingdom and to give encouragement for new as well as for old Inhabitants Now there seems nothing possible to secure that Kingdom but the extirpation of two Setts of Men among them such as are invested in the greatest Command and Authority over their Bodies and the Priests and Clergy who have so absolute a Government over their Souls For these are the men that have been the great Instruments and Incendiaries of all their Rebellions that have as well forwarded as headed the easie Multitude and without whose Instigation the Populace would have submissively acquiesced under and never appear'd against the British And if our long experience of former Times and Revolutions be deem'd a competent Testimony in this case With what greater shew of Reason have we now cause to be afraid of the time to come especially if we consider the present juncture and Constitution of Affairs For now the French have found the way into that Kingdom and are throughly acquainted with the Interest Situation Strength or rather Weakness of it are entituled to a proportion in it by vertue of the pretended Right of the late King James and in order to that have Livery and Seisin given them This ministers just occasion of fear that they will give frequent Alarums to that Kingdom which never had before a foreign Enemy in the bowels of it the Spaniards seeing but the edges and out-skirts of it whereas the French industriously pry into every corner upon the favour of him that delights in the destruction of these Kingdoms which to facilitate or rather to the utmost of his power compleat gives up the distressed innocent Protestants of Ireland into the barbarous hands of the French King whose Success and Dexterity though not Inclination is greater in the Butchering Hereticks as the good and great King James calls the Protestants of these Kingdoms Now if the common Herd of the Irish be separated from their prime Leaders and from their Wolves in Sheeps clothing there will be none left to blow up the Coal of Treason or Sedition among them or any to head or animate them in it And the progress of a few years of careful Instruction from our Protestant Clergy in the Rudiments and first Draughts of our Profession will initiate them into the more safe Religion and easie Government of the British Besides if the French have no Confederates left in that Kingdom to give them a favourable reception as in this case they would not there would be no great reason to fear them neither would they dare to attempt the Country without that dependence If it should be thought hard usage to dispossess the Irish-men it may be answered that there are Fields of Mercy for the King to extend and this desired for the preservation of the Protestant Interest is but a small Enclosure not one as I said before of Twenty Thousand nor was there ever greater Criminals up to the Elbows in Protestant Blood in the Rebellion of Forty One the very same individual men that are engaged in this found guilty and once Condemned for that and how their Estates after forfeiture were torn from the British Protestants is no secret to the World. Nor is it unknown that upon their Restauration in the year One Thousand Six Hundred and Sixty two above Sixty Thousand Protestants were drove out to seek their Bread and scattered through the World This was nothing But to banish less than an Hundred must be great Cruelty though men twice guilty of Blood and Treason and those whose Estates they are in present possession of stained with neither This is a Compendious as well as an easie way to remove the fears of future Rebellions and gives good assurance for the time to come that the Commonalty will be united as one people with the British when they have neither Lord nor Priest to follow And when they have no Instructers to bear up the credit of their old Superstition they will of course become Proselytes to the Protestant Communion for the people are naturally zealous of their erroneous Traditions instill'd into them by their Priests and are of a Credulous Disposition which shews that the Authors of these being once removed the effects will soon cease and the people for want of their own will naturally resolve themselves into the Reformed Religion We know that 't is a common principle of Mankind to have some Religion or other and then most ignorant and barbarous parts of the Universe adore the most Contemptible Beings rather than be divested of a Deity which mis-application of their Worship cannot be thought an Argument that there is no God as some Atheistically dispute but on the contrary presupposes his Existence to be engraven in such legible Characters in the minds of men which so powerfully inclines them to so firm an assent to that infallible truth as to believe every thing to be a God rather than that there is none at all They can easily from a continued Chain and Concatenation of Subordinate Causes collect one prime and Metaphysical one and tho' they do not understand its Nature they question not its Existence Thus the Academicks and Peripateticks Epicureans and Stoicks in Cicero ransack'd the great variety of Nature some making Fire some water some the Four Elements some Nature it self to be a God but notwithstanding these mis-apprehensions concerning the true Object of Divine Worship few or none questioned a Supream and Independent Being the great Creator of that admirable Fabrick of the World of so orderly an Harmony and Contexture in all its parts as sufficiently denotes the infinite Wisdom and Soveraign Power of that Grand Architect who made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in
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
home when they are at their Devotion and lie at their mercy as now they must be own'd to do Besides the bringing in the common People by their Lords is to make them own their Deliverance to them and consequently to be under a stricter and more indispensable obligation of homage and subjection to them than formerly which I presume would be a thing neither honourable nor safe The ordinary People have no inclination to travailing no not so much as removing from one Province to another Let them but enjoy the conveniency of returning to their Cabins and of living quietly under the protection and security of the English Laws and Government and they will account to have made a very good and advantagious exchange Thus having in general terms described the present constitution and circumstances of the Irish I shall now descend to particulars and first look back into their ancient forms and modes of Government before the arrival of the English in that Kingdom which nearly resembled that of the Arabs though not so regular for their chief regard was to the Power and Force of him that govern'd not to the Right of Succession it was enough if he were of the same Family whether Brother or Son. Elder or Younger and in proportion to these wild Maxims they enjoyed their Estates He that was accounted the most Warlike or more truly speaking most barbarous the rest of the Family submitted to him This Savage Custom prevailed upon them till the coming of the English whose presence among them gave some check to it yet could never be extirpated till the English Laws and Government were established in their Country which to this day notwithstanding their present Usurpation they cannot but acknowledge to be an Happy Conquest but though the advantages of it be great to themselves yet there are many of them so unreasonably prepossest in favour of their former Confusion or rather in prejudice to their present Change because done by the English as to wish again for their Onions and Garlick of Aegypt and to anathematize the best Reform'd amongst them for introducing the English Customes and Restraints upon a Free People as they accounted themselves when indeed they were but Slaves to their own Brutality and Lust I shall not stuff Paper with what our Chronicles and Histories of Ireland relate as to the Title and Interest of England to that Kingdom nor repeat the Treasure of Blood and Coin it has cost to preserve it under the English Government but shall only observe to the Reader that it never continu'd so long without a Deluge of Blood as in the late Calm and peaceable Interval since the War of Forty One which was not ended till Fifty Three nor the Kingdom setled till Sixty Three So that by a proper computation it was not perfectly quiet in the possession of the British Protestants above Twenty Two years for we must commence the date of our Troubles in that Kingdom from the Late King 's ascending the Throne This is then but a short Rest of Twenty two years for that desolate Kingdom tired with the long fatigues of a constant War and almost all its British Veins quite emptied of Protestant Blood and yet the longest and most profitable that ever the English enjoy'd there much of which is attributed to the Conquest of Cromwell who thought it a diminution to his Honour to condescend to any terms with so base an Enemy and had not the Interest of their Patron the late King prevailed in the Settlement of that Nation but lest them in the same condition they were found in at the Restauration of King CHARLES the Second Ireland had been in the greatest Tranquillity of any of the three Kingdoms and consequently an entire Interest for our Deliverer His present Majesty It is now a matter deserving our consideration Whether that Kingdom as it remains in the Irish and French hands whether by both or either united it can be reasonably suppos'd to with stand His Majesty's Forces and Subjects in that Kingdom In order to which first reflect upon the Irish as to their Commanders and secondly as to their Troops First As to their Commanders Notwithstanding that they boast of some few Colonels and inferiour Officers yet they cannot nominate one Man that ever actually did or can Command a Field Their great Captain Justin Mac Carthy might be as good in a Cellar as any General in Europe but in a Field as the King of Denmark said of him when he was sent to him his Army must not be commanded by Glass-Eyes Their Offiâ—ers being thus mean their Troops are next to be considered and they perchance in the general are the most abject wretches in the world taken by force from the Spade and Cabin who by Blows and continual Instruction were brought to handle their Arms but not one in ten can fire a Musquet without shut eyes and a trembling hand I speak not this at randome or by hear-say but upon good grounds 'T is true their Horse are better but yet we have had a demonstration of their behaviour and all their actions in the North. This being a true Character of their own Force their dependence must be upon the French Auxiliaries to supply these Defects but how that suits with the Irish Interest and Design is not difficult to imagine The Irish Gentry for I must say that the common People desire not War with the English put themselves upon this Rebellion not so much out of a Loyal Adherence to their King as to be free Lords of the Soil and are now under no predominancy if they are capable by their own strength to continue their Deliverance otherwise they had better be under the English mild Government than the French Arbitrary Power whose cruel Tyranny to his native Subjects affords no Invitation or Encouragement to others to put themselves under it By this short Enquiry it seems plain That the present posture of Affairs in Ireland are not in so good a disposition as to entitle those wretched People to demand terms but rather to throw themselves upon and acquiesce in the King's Mercy and that to descend to Capitulations with them much more to give their Leaders Pardon is to encourage and revive a running Enemy If then it be granted That they are not in a capacity to oppose the Arms of England and that one Fourth of the Kingdom is already in the actual possession of the Protestants the best of the Irish Forces lost and that many of them living have laid down their Arms. This being premised the next thing to be considered is What Motives there are for giving Pardon to their Chief Commanders and those which are insisted upon are two The first is That by giving a General Pardon the Kingdom will be the sooner gain'd The second That a Pardon will preserve the Towns and Cities which the Irish will burn if made desperate To the first of these I shall return a two sold Answer First That
upon this Nation besides the apparent hazard of multiplying the like charge and trouble by being expos'd to the same Work in a few years again for as long as their Grandees enjoy their Estates they will influence the populace so as to have them at their beck for any design which they will not be wanting to promote against the Government Seventhly A General Pardon will be the only Instrument of preserving all the Irish in the Kingdom and for the reasons already mentioned of diminishing the English which will make it a perfect Irish Colony who are wonderfully productive of their Breed and must therefore necessarily be kept in Obedience by a powerful Army which will be very expensive to the CROWN for that it is the English Trade and Consumption that made the Revenue of Ireland which sinking to a low ebb must be supplied out of England These Reasons being allowed to be of force against granting of a General Pardon to the Irish I will in the next place offer what seems an Expedient in this Affair whereby the Irish may not be made desperate nor yet the losing Protestants irrecoverably ruined but that both the one and the other may be rendered useful to the King and Kingdom and yet even the Irish not excluded from his Majesty's mercy I cannot undertake so much as a regular computation of the Numbers of the Irish but know in one County where the Protestants were numbered 700 the Papists amounted to 7000. And tho' other Counties of that Kingdom are better planted with British yet at the lowest and most moderate reckoning there is above five Irish for one British Now if of so many Millions for it is not to be supposed that one Irish Papist in that Kingdom is or indeed can be free both as a Native and as of that Communion as not being admitted to Mass or Confession a prohibition from either of which they believe to be Damnable that joins not in the Extirpation of Hereticks an Hundred should be excepted from Pardon could this reasonably be interpreted an Act of Severity or a design to extirpate a People Do we find in any Story such a Decimation Pardon me that I use the word so improperly for here is not one of Twenty Thousand taken off if such moderate Justice can be excused to the Protestants it can deserve no less then Adoration from the Papists nor could such a Miraculous Mercy proceed from any Monarch or Religion but ours Notwithstanding all which 't is matter of admiration to see the Shimeis of our Age the Family of Saul throw up the Dust of their Cloven Feet and scurrilously call our David a Man of Blood though to this day he has not suffered one drop to be spilt but in his Royal Will carefully imitates the exemplary goodness of his Blessed Master who in the discharge of his Embassy into this lower World affirms That the design of his Negotiation was not to destroy but to preserve the Lives of Men And even in the Pardon proposed the Exception is under Eighty and though all of them so notoriously immersed in Blood and Rapin that the very Cannibals would deem them quite divested of Humanity yet His Majesty leaves a Door of Mercy wherein for them to enter if they will but testifie by their Actions that they strive to merit an Admission But when this does justly silence the Enemies of God and the King as it reasonably ought to do yet they will still impertinently object That though the Lives of these men may be so wrapt up by their own behaviour as to render them capable of meriting their preservation yet their Estates must be sacrificed to the Resentments of the present Government and to make their Seditious noise carry some sound of truth they sum up their Estates by Multiplication and that to thrice as much as they really amount to But why do not these Iusticiaries who express so great a care and sollicitude for the Irish give us an account of what the British have been deprived of which is so great that all the Irish Papists Estates of that Kingdom were they to be sold could not make satisfaction for one Moiety which they have robbed the Protestants of in their Personal Substance But I hear some of them say by an equal Parity of Reason that the British desire satisfaction out of Irish-mens Estates Merchants may expect reparation for their losses at Sea out of Prizes taken by the King's Ships This Argument may well be thought to proceed from men of Abdicated sense as well as Interest For pray wherein consists the Parallel Merchants venture themselves with the expectation of divers Accidents and Contingencies and accordingly lay their designs of profit in a form proportionable to their hazards And to shew the Consideration the Government has for them and what relief they are to expect upon a loss at Sea the Parliament provided in the Statute for Subsidies of Tunnage and Poundage that in such Cases they should receive back the Customs they paid Now though it be impossible to run the Comparison yet the Gentlemen of Ireland I durst be Guarantee for will thankfully acknowledge the like satisfaction Give them but as much as they have paid in Quit rent Taxes Harth-money Customs and Excise since they were put into a Legal Possession of that Kingdom by King Charles the Second and they will desire no more I confess these Pot-guns of the Jacobites are not worth answering yet I cannot forbear mentioning one thing more Who are they that commit Robberies at Sea if Pirates and especially of the King's Subjects are they treated like Enemies of War And will they be established in a quiet and peaceable possession of what they have robbed from their fellow-Subjects The case is the same in Ireland Our fellow-Subjects for so they were entitled before this Rebellion set upon their quiet and innocent Neighbours and seized violently upon their whole substance How equal the Parallel then is of losing Ships at Sea by a Foreign Enemy and such Robbers at home a Child may judge But to come to that I propose as an Expedient to answer the thing designed viz. a quick and easie Conquest of Ireland In the pursuit of this Topick the Question that will arise from it will be whether pardoning the Commonalty in general and excepting some few of the Grandees or pardoning the chief men with the Commonalty under the same Qualifications will most contribute to the safe and effectual reduction of that Kingdom I shall espouse the first of these by asserting That pardoning the Commonalty and excepting some of their greatest men will soonest prevail and that for these three Reasons First Pardoning the Commonalty and excepting some of their chiefest men will encourage the Populace to submit upon that very assurance and consequently upon their own bottom without any dependance upon the Heads of their Clans which of how contemptible a consideration soever it may appear to some is certainly a matter
of the greatest moment in the Reduction of that Kingdom For 't is as well the assiduous contrivance as common interest of the Irish Grandees to keep the Commonalty under the Circumstances of a constant dependence upon them endeavouring to possess them with an opinion that 't is by their means and upon their account only that the others obtain terms and security by which politick influence upon the ordinary sort in the closing of one Rebellion they lay a foundation for and so not only give Birth but add Fuel to another For the Heads of Clans as well by themselves as by the co operating instigation of their Priests carefully instil into the Ignorant Multitude that let them make an insurrection when they please they can incur no danger for at the utmost extremity of things they are and must ever be the Grand Instruments of their Preservation Let them be never so deeply involved in Blood and Rapin yet that their power and interest is such as must necessarily bring them off They are the Tall Cedars that can at any time defend the lower Shrubs and what need they fear since they are under so strong a Guard and Protection whose Persons are so formidable as well as inviolable to the English as always to shield them from harm But if this deluded Mobile see that the King has no regard to their Leaders but on the contrary excludes the greatest of them from Pardon this will demonstrate to them that 't is his Royal Mercy not the interest of their Lords that must preserve them This will remove the opinion of their dependance upon their Lords and consequently oblige them to suitable apprehensions of His Majesty's Clemency to them by which means deriving their preservation from the Crown they will wholly depend upon it whereas they never were yet separated from the interest of their Clans but in those few years of Cromwel's Government the good effect whereof those who were Eye-witnesses of it in Ireland and now living can give a description when most of the Commonalty went to Church and Doors with a Wooden Latch were as secure as an Iron Grate in the Reign of King Charles the Second Secondly Pardoning the Commonalty without any dependence upon their Commanders being extended as a matter of meer Grace and Princely favour to them will possess those poor people with apprehensions of the good Inclinations of the English towards them which will induce them to a ready submission They as most barbarous People are generally of Diffident and Timorous Natures and 't is with some difficulty that they can be prevailed upon to believe that their Crimes shall be forgiven This I suppose may proceed from the fierceness and cruelty of their own Dispositions as not looking for those unexpected returns of kindness from such whom they have testified so Implacable an Aversion and Prejudice against Now whilst they crowd under their Leaders they are fostered up in that Opinion which the way prescribed of reducing them will take them off and make them sensible that the Protestants look not on them as the Authors but the forced Instruments of this Rebellion which when they are made apprehensive of will soon divert the stream from its former Current and their private Soldiers will fly from their marked out Commanders as from a Plague or publick Contagion Now that this is no Novel Notion their very practice in former Rebellions does fully evince when the Father to save his own would betray his Sons Life which was the usual method throughout the whole Kingdom Neither is it in the power of their Priests how Arbitrary soever in the exercise of their Function to govern or restrain them longer than whilst their own Party can protect them their Secular carrying so great a Predominancy over their Spiritual Interest as makes them inseparable Slaves to their Cow and Pottato-Garden and he only commands them that is Lord of the Soil without any regard to Proximity of Blood or Ancient Property But to proceed to my Third Reason That pardoning the Commons is the ready way to put a period to the Rebellion Our Laws as well as Reason acquaint us That the King 's General Pardon is no security to any private man for personal actions for any Robberies or Mischiefs done to the Protestants Now all the waste and havock committed in Ireland was done by the Commonalty though by private orders and instructions of their Leaders and to their greatest profit These men will be told by their Lawyers That this Pardon is but a snare to bring them in and that private Actions which will be commenced against them will rot them in Gaol But the General Pardon excepting so many men of Estates and in express words declaring that they shall be converted to a restitution of what the Protestants have lost this will quiet and allay the fears of the Commonalty that they shall be free from Actions and Suits at Law by the satisfaction the Estates of their Commanders will make If these Reasons be allowed sufficient for the confirmation of what they are alledged the next thing that falls under our present Consideration is What Settlement will most effectually conduce for the speedy planting of that Kingdom for that there is too apparent Reasons to fear that the greatest part of the Farmers and Traders are now incapacitated and consequently can be of little use or benefit till something be raised to put them in stock so that it must necessarily be a new People that must bring that upon the Wheel for it is not visible how the late English or British Interest can make it more Now to invite both His Majesties Subjects as well as Foreigners of the Reformed Religion into that Kingdom these things offer to their encouragement First To take off the Umbrage and Fears of new Rebellions And to give a rational prospect and assurance of advantage to such as shall come there for the future For the First to remove the fears which men are generally possess'd with of Insurrections in that Kingdom there needs a retrospection into that Government since its first Conquest by the British and then see the success it had which useful Animadversion will naturally lead men to a consideration of what misfortunes and miscarriages it has since been incident to and to what in a more especial manner it has been of late obnoxious it being a received Maxim as well in the Body Politick as Natural that the most secure way of applying a wholesome Remedy is first to make a right discovery of the Disease The Deportment of the English in their first Government of Ireland was managed with abundance of Candour and Generosity of Temper by all means and ways imaginable indulging a Savage People over-run with rudeness and barbarity and seeing that they were then united in the Principles of one Religion it might be conjectured no artful undertaking or task of extream difficulty to reduce them to an entire obedience to the Civil Government
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
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
Lives than that of natural Death And in proportion to this With what vast incredible multitudes of men may we reasonably compute would these Kingdoms have abounded and consequently how rich and invincible Secondly How would it contribute to the eternal Fame and immortalize the Memory of our Gracious and Victorious King to all Posterity that under his most Auspicious Reign such an happy Model and frame of Government should be established as none of his Predecessors could ever attain unto Which would verifie that of our great and miraculous Deliverer which was said of David And he shall be as the light of the morning when the Sun ariseth Thirdly This would infinitely augment their Majesties Revenue as to which that Ireland may be made considerable is apparent from the several Gradations already made in that Kingdom In all the Kings and Queens Reigns precedent to Queen Elizabeth we hear of nothing but of sending Money into that Kingdom In her Reign there was something raised in the Kingdom conducing to its support which was in proportion to the Forfeitures and Abatements of the Irish Interest for that nothing improved the Receipts but the lessening of them which made room for more industrious people In the Reign of King James the First there was a farther Enlargement and Encouragement given to the British Protestants and accordingly the Revenue encreased from thirty five thousand pounds to fifty King Charles the First made some addition to the British Settlement and by the encouragement of Grants to strengthen defective Titles advanc'd the Revenue to eighty thousand pounds and so incredibly did that Country grow and improve under the hands and industrious management of the British that where Money was formerly in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth debased twenty pound per Cent beyond the intrinsick value of Sterling it came to that pass that Gold became a Burthen to the Kingdom and men in their Bargains made exceptions of it in Payment but the bloody Massacre in Forty One soon put an end to that Flood of Prosperity In the Reign of King Charles the Second upon his Restauration the Protestants lay under some discouragements occasioned from their Fears of a Rising from the indulgence given to the Natives procured by the Interest of the late King James then Duke of York whose Darlings and especial Favourites they were by means of whose interessed regard for them many by his powerful sollicitations to his Brother were restored to their Estates that were Capital in their Crimes This gave just occasion of Jealousie to the British Protestants that most of their Enemies would meet with the like success and during this Inundation the Revenue of Customs and In-land Excise dwindled to less than 70000 pounds per Annum But upon the King 's better information of the settlement of Ireland great Encouragements were revived to the Protestants and then in one year commencing in 1664 the Customes and import Excise that upon an exact account made the precedent year but 34000 pounds clear made 86000 So great an alteration did the promised security of the Protestant Interest effect in that Kingdom And in the same proportion did the In-land Excise advance from 36000 to 80000 pounds and from that time forward until the Accession of the late King to the Throne did the Revenue rise and amount to 140000 in the Import Duty and above 100000 pounds in the In-land Excise But from the Reign of the late King it daily declined a plain Demonstration that the Revenue of Ireland like the Army of the Israelites prevailed no longer than the hand of Moses was lift up in favour of them Now by the same rule of proportion that the Intradoe of Ireland flourisheth with the growth and increase of the Protestants may his present Majesty expect the Augmentation of his Revenue as that Kingdom shall be established in the hands of the British and were it proper in this Discourse to descend to Particulars it would be no difficult province to evince how possible it is for that Kingdom to be improved to double the value it ever yet made to the Crown I have now come to a period of my design and having given a true and I hope Impartial Account of the Nature Temper and Constitution of that hitherto unhappy Kingdom together with a description of the proper Causes of those dismal Revolutions and Vicissitudes which have attended the fortune of its English Inhabitants I shall in few words Apologize for this Narrative which I do believe to be the sense of the British Protestants whose lot is fallen in that Akeldama We do not then presume to anticipate the King's unlimited Clemency to all his Subjects or desire that it should be wholly engrossed by such as are Protestants much less to offer Reasons for the utter extirpation of the Natives but rather wish their Reformation than Confusion and to the end that they may become our Brethren as well in Religion as Temporal Interest do humbly offer these Remarks by which we presume it doth evidently appear that without the total remove of their Pestilent Deluders the Priests and extirpating the most considerable of their Leaders and men of Estates that Kingdom can never be established upon the firm basis of a durable and lasting peace but on the contrary be exposed to greater danger and distress than it has ever been subject to since the Conquest For besides the Foreign pretensions that were never so plausible as now the English will not be encouraged to plant so readily there as they have formerly done by which the Irish will soon fill the Kingdom and by their Prodigious increase in their numbers will improve proportionably in their strength which with assistance from the French will render them as well invincible in their own thoughts as really more formidable than ever to the British and so bring this rising Phoenix to ashes out of which it can never be expected to revive But all our hopes under the Divine disposer of all things here below are wrapt up in His present Majesty's great Wisdom and Conduct in which without the least reluctance we chearfully and most humbly acquiesce and agreeably to the Title and patient submission of our Mephivosheth make our devout and hearty Prayers for the Long and Happy Reign of their Majesties For we were all but Dead Men when the Lord our King came for our Deliverance and if it be his Will let the Ziba's of that Kingdom take all so that we may live in Peace under the benign influence of his Government who hath saved us from the Jaws of that Roman Beast which was open to devour not only us but these Nations and hath so seasonably preserved us from sinking into an Abyss of Destruction at a time when there seemed none to help or to deliver And now that powerful and all wise Providence which has so eminently appeared in the preservation of this great Instrument and Protector of the Reformed Religion give him a wise and understanding Heart to govern this People whom he hath sent to save in such a Miraculous and extraordinary manner And bless their Majesties with a Long Peaceable and Prosperous Reign in this World and Crown them with Eternal Glory and Immortality in the next Amen FINIS
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
which kept the English so much in subjection and was so great a discouragement unto them that hardly any attempted to declare for the Prince till February whereas most of the Rapin and Devastation was committed before This compendious description of Affairs will I presume be deem'd sufficient to satisfie all judicious and impartial men that without the least provocation or plausible pretence of Right the Irish Papists have acted the late Massacres Burnings and other publick Mischiefs and Calamities upon the Protestants of Ireland which if they had been mutual and reciprocal injuries though they that were in a good Cause would have been Sufferers for their Loyalty and Service to the King yet on the other hand there might have been room for the King's Mercy But where the inveteracy of a malicious Antagonist discharged it self in whole Vollies upon a quiet and inoffensive People without any other inducement than that of a bare Surmise that they were inwardly affected to King William seems as irrational and unjustifiable an Argument for those violent Outrages committed thereupon as 't is haply without Precedent if duly reflected upon in all its circumstances and respects that men so habituated to Rebellion and profess'd Enemies to the Protestant Interest and Religion should have a Pardon vouchsafed unto them I now proceed to shew That a Pardon to the Irish cannot properly be interpreted an effect of Mercy but in reality the contrary To illustrate this to you I think it reasonable to affirm That that cannot be accounted an effect of Mercy which is extended to such Criminals as have invaded and usurped the Rights and Properties of others which is consequent to my first Position That Mercy is to be confin'd within the Boundaries of common Right and if this were not so such as live most obedient to the Government could expect no Security from it which would be a Practice as disagreeable to the first Institution of Government in the World as 't is contrary to Nature and the common Reason of Mankind Besides by this means no Government could long subsist because it must necessarily encourage such men as openly violate and contemn its Injunctions and by consequence such as most trample upon must possess the places of Judicature and the greatest Offenders become prime Ministers of State. But to encounter this Argument more closely 'T is a Maxim receiv'd among Princes To manage with a steady and equal hand in Affairs of State and in consequence hereunto a general Pardon is reckon'd to be a mutual Good. But in pursuance to this I presume it will be granted that such as have adher'd to the Interest of King William and consequently have upon all occasions demonstrated their Zeal and Sincerity for the Protestant Cause and Religion may reasonably put in as just a claim to his Mercy as such who have declared their Enmity to both The Justice and Equality of this matter being thus considered it is not to be suppos'd that he who came to rescue our selves and the Reformed Religion from the violent Intrusion of Romish Idolatry and Slavery would transfer our Possessions to those whose Injustice he came to punish and suppress This seems to be an Act of greater severity than was that precipitate and hasty judgment of David to Mephibosheth Let Ziba and thou divide for in this case the Irish are in possession of the whole and are so far from making any Overtures or shewing any Indication of their Submission that they have not so much as the Argument of that unworthy Sycophant on their sides meeting the King on the way Nay so far have they deviated from the least of that Respect which is even owing to a Christian that in their common Discourses they cursed the very name of the Prince of Orange as the Off-spring of that man who was so fatal to the Romish Church in the Netherlands which they feared was an ominous presage of his Posterity's being so to theâ— And if their inveterate malice against the British Protestants in Ireland was capable of any addition they augmented it for the Affection which was visibly discernable in them to his now Sacred Majesty whose Person and Government the Irish Papists have in so great an Abhorrence and do with the most impious Anathemaes so inhumanly execrate and revile that we may justly account their malice not inferiour to that of the Jews to our Saviour in scourging his Effigies as a meritorious Act in their Devotion But I would not be understood in this place as if the Tenour of thâ—s Discourse were design'd to restrain the Fountain of the KING'S Mercy but if the Current be diverted from its proper Channel by turning it from his Enclosures into the Common methinks there is a reasonable subject of Complaint against those whose Avarice and too-interested a Regard to their private advantage in prejudice to the publick welfare not perhaps of one but of three Nations carry them beyond the bounds both of Reason and common Equity We have had the most cogent and evincing demonstrations That the Royal Affections of His Majesty are graciously inclin'd to us by that wonderful Condescention shewn to his Irish Protestant Subjects in that he permits nay commands them to speak and since he is thus mercifully pleased to hear them represent their Grievances the effects of their faithful adherence to the Cause he owns they presume to request no more than this Not to be debarr'd from the benefits of His Grace and Favour to them They claim nothing of what in Justice belongs to their Adversaries but desire their own not the Possessions of others but a Restitution of their proper Right and this not to extend to Losses in War which those who outwardly seem to espouse but secretly endeavour to undermine our true Interest would insinuate but for Robberies and other outragious Acts of Violence committed in time of Peace and these of so notorious a nature that had even their own Popish Government and King been in any capacity of asserting but part of the Laws the Offenders would at least in some degree have been constrained to make Restitution Nor do the Protestants of Ireland desire the Blood of any the Principles of whose Religion as well as natural Clemency being such as permits them not to repay their Adversaries in their own Coin but to chuse rather to leave them to God and the King's Justice That which they would pray and intreat for is only that which might be a means of preserving those who have escaped the Irish Cruelty as to their Lives though not in their Estates Namely 〈◊〉 Reparation for their substance taken from them without which they must inevitably perish being in a worse condition than were the Egyptians when they told Joseph that they had nothing left but their Bodies and Lands whereas these poor Protestants who are now most humble Supplicants to His Majesty were never invested in the latter their whole substance consisting in Personal Estates which they were