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
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
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
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
a Pardon to the Chief Lords and Men of Estates will not affect the Army for that few of them are consider'd there as Souldiers in regard that other men subordinate to them are the Commanders and Leaders in the Army so that pardoning them secures not the men of action who lie under such circumstances as a general Pardon will not free them from Secondly A Pardon for all Crimes and Misdemeanours relating to the Crown will be no Security to the private Souldiers Captains Lieutenants c. my Reason is For that all the Robberies and Spoils done to the English were committed by such though at the secret instigation and encouragement of their Great ones Now the English cannot prefer an Action at Law against any but these private men and if thereby they become obliged as in Justice they ought to make restitution of what they have made a violent Seizure from the other that must certainly bring on their inevitable Ruin which will make it as equal to them to die in the Field as in a Gaol And now as to the second Motive That a General Pardon will prevent Burning and other Devastations I answer That it will have the quite contrary effect and consequently be an occasion of more Mischief which I undertake to demonstrate from the following reasons First It is an unalterable Maxim rivetted amongst â—em as well by the Principles of their Religion as natural genius and common Custom to do as much Mischief as they possibly can to the Protestants and as soon as they receive an account of this Pardon will be very industrious to leave what marks they can of their inveterate Fury and 't is possible for them to effect this in a days time throughout the Kingdom and yet keep within the compass of their Pardon Secondly This General Pardon will not prevent Burning and other destructive Arts of the English Plantations but rather promote them for that their Lords being reinvested in their Estates will consider That if the English Houses and Improvements be destroyed their Estates will be the sooner inhabited for that the English coming in poor will have nothing to build or improve their Estates so that in course the Irish Lands must be first Peopl'd For these reasons it seems evident That a General Pardon will not have the effect propos'd neither as to the more expeditious reduction of that Kingdom nor for the preventing of the Ruin and Devastation feared from the Irish The next consideration in order to the former is What Mischiefs will attend a General Pardon and how it will affect the English or British Interest which shall be laid down in these seven following particulars First It will be an encouragement to the Irish to commit the same Outrages again and will animate them to an embracing of the first opportunity which they have now more reason to expect to prove favourable to them than formerly since that the French are engaged with them in one bottom and are link'd together in a general Interest as being as 't is said by vertue of the late Compact entituled to a share in the Kingdom Now if at any time the French should be at leisure by concluding of a Peace with his Enemies abroad he may at pleasure pour an Army into Ireland where the Natives there will be in a readiness to give them a kind reception and that without hardly exposing themselves to any hazard in regard that they will suppose that they will be no Losers by it Since a Pardon attends their greatest Outrages the worst that can ensue will be only to bring them in and to secure them from committing more Secondly It will enrich the Irish and impoverish the English who at a moderate computation may be deem'd to have lost in Personal Estates Money Goods and Cattel to a greater value than the Land of the whole Kingdom amounts to all which is in the possession of the Irish which as it renders the Protestants of little use in defence of the Kingdom so on the other side it strengthens the hands of the Irish and makes them formidable and very capable of raising disturbances in it Money commands Men and Men command Kingdoms and the Irish were never since the Conquest Masters of more if they pass unquestioned with the Personal Estates of the British Protestants Thirdly It will be the irresistible Ruin of the Protestants of that Kingdom seeing that all the Tenants are despoiled of their Stocks so that a Tenant having no Cattel to put upon his Land can consequently pay no Rent nor be capable of living in the Kingdom A Calamity better indeed exprest with Tears than Ink and 't is no small addition to so lamentable a subject to see some Thousands that twelve months ago and less lived perhaps as plentifully as any People of Europe at this day Wandring Beggars and some perishing in the Fields for want of Sustenance as they must inevitably do if Ireland were in the English hands tomorrow upon the Conditions of a General Pardon to the Natives Great I had almost said infinite numbers there are that in November last lost personal Estates to the value of Thousands not having now Clothes to their Backs nor Bread to eat They are now scattered through this Kingdom some relieved by the Benevolence of their Relations others by the publick Charity of the Kingdom and by reason of the distance of their abode are the less remarkable but when once they meet together in the same place from whence they were expell'd by Irish Robberies and the like acts of an inhumane violence it may reasonably be said of them as of the Prophet's dry Bones Can these live and his return will be the proper answer Thou Lord knowest For should they have no Reprize on the Irish Estates they must inevitably perish at the very doors of their Enemies Fourthly As this will ruin all men of Personal Estates so will it also have the same effect upon those of Real For their Tenants being lost their Lands must of Course lie waste and even quite depopulated For the Landlords of Ireland were as well stripped of their Personal Estates as their Tenants and generally came for England with as small a Provision for their Subsistence in it so that in their return they will not have a Penny to buy Stock nor a Bed to lie upon Fifthly As it destroys all the Protestants that have or had an Interest in the Kingdom so it for ever deterrs any new Planters It can never be forgotten That in the midst of Peace a Nation was destroyed in a day and the Authors indemnified that did it Who will adventure themselves in such a Country or at least attempt to go to a place that lies at the mercy and devotion of Savages and is not protected by its Friends Sixthly A General Pardon will make it a perpetual Charge to England as well as place it beyond a possibility of its reimbursing the expence its reduction will now contract
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
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
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