Government and that it would be no excuse to say they were their own Arms and not belonging to the Militia This frighted many and operated so powerfully that abundance delivered in their Arms bought with their own money The Protestants being thus disarmed Tyrconnel proceeds to destroying the Army and first begins with the Officers in the same method which was designed immediately before the Death of the King which was to displace all Officers that had been in the Parliament or Oliver's Army as also the Sons of any such This the Duke of Ormond had directions to proceed in when he came last from England but he made no Progress in it under pretence of gaining time to find them out for he foresaw it was to make room for Papists Tyrconnel for so we must call him for the future proceeds in his design and after turning out a great part of the Officers returns for England and carries along with him one Neagle a Cunning Irish Lawyer since Knighted by him Neagle's Business at London was to be engaged in their secret Consults for he was a man of great parts educated among the Jesuits and consequently very inveterate Upon their Arrival at London 't was some time e'er Neagle could gain admittance to kiss the King's hand but was constantly with Father Petre and the rest of that Furious Cabal The Queen was altogether for their Counsels but the King was not so forwardly inclined being every day set upon by all his Popish Lords not to proceed too fast in the revolution of Ireland for that would spoil the general interest of the Catholicks and upon the Lord Bellasis Powis and some others of that Factions understanding that Neagle was come over they were so transported with Rage that they would have him immediately sent out of London But whatever mischiefs he effected in private his Publick Transactions were of no great prejudice to the Protestants However to compleat in Retirement what he durst not attempt at Court and upon the Publick Stage 't was agreed in Council that he should set forth by way of a Letter to a Friend the great Oppression and Injustice of the Act of Settlement which he did under the pretence of a two hours waking in a Night at Coventry but was indeed two Weeks labour in London In this Letter he ran so high in his Invectives against King Charles the Second which nothing but a meer Tyger or Savage as himself would have done that he durst not own it to be his but in Ireland gave out that he would Arrest any Man in an Action of Ten Thousand Pound who should father it upon him But now a Consult was held the design of Tyrconnel's coming over and the Debate variously canvass'd as to a fit Person to send over for Ireland in quality of Lord Lieutenant Tyrconnel was mentioned with some tenderness as being a person very Obnoxious to the English and therefore 't was not thought seasonable till matters were come to a greater Maturity to bring him upon the Stage The Lord Bellasis was proposed but that was too bare-fac'd besides he was infirm at least to carry on their design with success and not altogether to disgust the English 't was resolved that Tyrconnel should return Lieutenant General of the Army and the Earl of Clarendon Lord Lieutenant In the mean time the Irish Papists in all parts of the Kingdom proceeded in their former Stratagems of Impeaching the Protestants for Plots c. but these were generally so ridiculously contrived and made up of such Palpable Contradictions and Incongruities that they served only to demonstrate the Protestants innocency and the Horrid Perjuries and Implacable Inveteracy of the Informers But seeing that these Impeachments were so unskilfully managed which yet were repeated upon every pretended occasion of disgust they had to an English-man as to miss of their Wicked and Diabolical intent then they applyed themselves to other Courses many went out Toryes and robb'd upon the High-way broke up Houses stole Cattle killed them in the Field and cut out the Tongues of Sheep alive with other innumerable Barbarities all acted upon the English which were so frightened and discouraged with these Tragedies that thousands deserted the Kingdom and came for England under as great Fears and Jealousies as if there had been an open Rebellion and Five Hundred together departed the Kingdom to Transport themselves to Virginia Carolina Pensilvania West-Indies and New England This was extream grateful to the Irish who set all their Engines at work so to disheâ—â—â—en and discourage the Protestants as to force them to leave the Kingdom Tyrconnel now drives with greater fury than before not only displacing the Officers of the Army but also turning out the Private Soldiers and to both prefers which of the Irish he thought fit his Will was his Law and his Actions purely Arbitrary none daring to question him for he brought over Blank Commissions Signed by the King for such as he was willing to put in This Part he acted in a most Insulting Barbarous manner causing poor Men that had no Cloaths on their Backs but Red Coats to be stript to their Shirts and so turned off and of all this he himself was an Inhumane Spectator He seiz'd the Horses of some Officers and Troopers giving Notes that amounted not to a fourth proportion of their just Values to others he gave nothing but ill words and vile reproaches In the midst of this Tragical Scene the Earl of Clarendon comes upon the Stage in the Capacity of Lord Lieutenant his Relation to the King added to the violent Proceedings then in Ireland so vigorously drove on by the Popish Party afforded but little hopes of any redress of these Evils to the Drooping Spirits of the Protestants who were by this time entered into a very Desponding and Dejected Condition But these Discouragements of the English were alleviated in a very high measure if not changed into Ecstasies and perfect Raptures of Joy when perceiving the Lord Lieutenant acting as a person of inviolable Integrity to the Protestants and the English Interest they looked upon him as a fit Man to stem the Torrent of the Popish Faction which had been so violent and impetuous and indeed his very first action gave no small proof of it which was to cherish and revive the broken hearts of the Protestants with those great Assurances his Master had given him of protecting the Protestant Interest and Religion which he good man could not disbelieve In pursuance of this he issued out Proclamations for bringing in of Torys and propos'd Rewards to such as should apprehend them He rid a Progress round the chiefest parts of the Kingdom to give life to the English but at the same time the Grandees of the Irish proceeded in their design animating their Vassals with hopes that he should soon be removed the Irish composing Barbarous Songs in praise of Tyrconnel and that his Heroick hand should destroy the English Church with Bloody and
acquired a fair Reputation among the Popish Party for his success in these Arts of Delusion and Treachery and they in their Secret Cabals did not a little magnifie and applaud their Politicks which they thought they so amused the English with laughing at the Credulity of the Heretick Dogs for so their Grandees in their private Meetings would frequently call them Having thus obtained their wish as to the surrendry of the Charters the next work was to agree upon a Model for the men This debate was strongly canvassed several ways and that which chiefly puzled them and even put 'em almost to a Non-plus was that the King would have nothing of this transacted at Court for fear of meeting with opposition there This Exigency of not being suffered to receive advice from England exposed them to great Difficulties for they were utter Strangers to the Laws and Government of Corporations as indeed they were to all matters of Government having been conversant in nothing but Secret Plots and Private Contrivances how to unhinge and discompose all Governments and as an aggravation of their misfortune except Rice Daly and Neagle there was not a man of them in the Privy Council that had common sense if you will believe themselves for Rice and Daly would often complain that nothing could pass at the Council-Board that concerned the Publick but their Countrymen must first ask Teig If that would not spoil his Pottatoe-Garden Necessity at last supply'd the place of Invention and a method was agreed upon which reduced Corporations to perfect Slavery and this in all the Circumstances of that affair was their prime and ultimate aim For as to matter of Trade or improving of the Nation these were Speculations of too Metaphysical a nature for men of their size and former way of Education as was demonstrated in the first Proclamation issued forth by Tyrconnel and his Council to break an Act of Parliament in taking off the duty of Iron and admitting it so into the Kingdom whereby they might encourage Merchants to bring in Pieces of Eight from Spain and so hasty they were to have the honour of this admirable contrivance that without asking the King's leave which is always done before any Proclamation relating to the Revenue Pass They put it in execution but as soon as 't was heard of in England a Proclamation came from the King forbidding this wise act made by these great States-men And so ill this presumptuous folly of theirs was interpreted That the Lord Bellasis swore in Council that That Fellow in Ireland was Fool and Mad-man year 1687 enough to ruine ten Kingdoms Father Petres corrected him severely for this foul miscarriage and writ to him That if he acted not with greater Caution the King could not possibly preserve him in that Government These Documents and severe Reprimands of the Ghostly Father were so religiously observed by him that for the future he would proceed in nothing but ball out at the Council-Board and call them Fools and Blockheads if they spake any thing that was contradicted by the English Privy-Council Their great Confident was the Lord Chief Justice Keating who knowing that he had an Ascendant over them as to Parts was so imperious and insulting that sometimes he was taken to task but had wit enough to submit yet often was very uneasie to them But however he in publick and W. in private for he was not of the Privy-Council directed them in the management of the affair of the Charters And when they had got the shape and model of them presented by these Temporizing Painters who drew to the life according to the Popish fancy then they proceeded to an Election of the men to name in their Charters and here they begged pardon of their Advisers and would be their own Directors 'T was their Rule to have in the great Cities who were most English one third Protestants and two thirds Papists but then these that they called Protestants were Quakers or other Enthusiasticks and two or three in a Charter of such Protestants as either their considerable Estates or loose Principles would secure to their Party by that means leaving not a man of true Value or Courage in any Corporation in the Kingdom and although they took in Lords and Gentlemen out of the Countrey into all their Corporations yet could they not compleat them without additional numbers of Scandalous and Contemptible men In one Corporation in the North the first Magistrate of the Town was a Man that had been burnt in the Hand Here you see by what impious Arts and fraudulent Machinations the several Corporations were cheated and trapanned out of their Charters most of them wheedled and grosly imposed upon by a Wolf in Sheeps Cloathing Secretary Ellis who stuck not to make great Promises of enlarging their Priviledges and the like though he knew nothing to be more destructive of the Protestant Interest and Religion of which he owned himself a Professor And as his wearing of a Protestant Mask contributed very much to the success of this intrigue so did the same Vizard put on by Keating and W. not a little facilitate the Model of the new Charters of which they contrived the Plat-form and then 't was easie for the Popish Faction to super-struct upon it the palpableness of whose design was in nothing more fully evident than in putting in of all manner of Fanatical Enthusiasts into their new Charters under the notion of Protestants For 't was evident that some of these were as irreconcileable Enemies to the Protestant Church as they were Friends to and Confederates with the Romish As for instance The Quakers concerning which ridiculous Profession Who is or can be ignorant that 't was derived from the Jesuits Who knows not that these have sharpened their Weapons at the Romish Forge and that their prime Leaders whatever they otherwise pretend to do inwardly own Ignatius Loyola as their Founder These were therefore too much their own Creatures to be neglected by them as not only appears by their former Principles if those monstrous Absurdities they maintain may be reckoned to be such but also by their present Practices as their vindicating the late King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience though it manifestly tended to the introduction of Popery and their zealous espousing of his interest at this day do fully shew But amidst all the new arts of modelling the Corporations neither their Brethren the Quakers nor other of their Adherents could give them such effectual assistance but that often they were put to their shifts and necessitated to elect men of the blackest Characters and most infamous Reputations as appears from their choosing a Magistrate that had been burnt in the Hand Here was admirable justice indeed to be expected where he who had not only held up his hand but been punished in so scandalous a manner at the Bar was now to sit upon the Bench. But as the Popish Party were put to these Difficulties of getting
two Men that rais'd their fortunes in the last Settlement and were making provision for the same Work again and 't is remarkable that 〈…〉 Brother to these here is as 't is said the most active among the Irish at this day and Sir 〈…〉 Houses the only Sacred place from violence in Dublin But of this Intrigue more may be expected and time will shew since the Honourable House of Commons have taken that matter into their prudent Consideration The deplorable Effects and Consequences attending the wrong measures taken for the reduction of that Kingdom are perhaps if duly reflected upon in all their Circumstances more doleful than the Massacre and Rebellion there in Forty One tho' 't is much less considered and it seems a Work becoming the great Council of this Nation to bring the Authors of it to condign punishment But to return to the last debate betwixt Tyrconnel and his Council They were all of them in amaze and in great confusion What to do they knew not all of them were unanimous in their Resolutions to submit except the Lord Chief Justice Nugent and the Lord Chief Baron Rice The Priests put off their Wolves cloathing and in most parts of the Kingdom turn'd Sparks with their Swords by their sides and Perriwigs upon their Heads In this Month the Irish assembled together in great Bodies by the name of Raperees armed with Slâ—eens and Half Pikes and what Robberies they left unacted upon the English in the Relation aforementioned those they now compleated killing their Cattle and robbing and pillaging their Houses Now their new Levies were Mustering every day and their Priests exercising the fresh rais'd Soldiers and Hamilton's Arrival from England put them upon new resolutions which necessitated the English to fortifie themselves and to associate together for their ownpreservation against which Proclamations were issued out in the North and at London-derry and then followed the same in other parts of the Kingdom commanding them home to their respective Dwellings and that such as did not immediately observe the Proclamation should be proceeded against by the Attorney General as Traytors This Proclamation was signed by several Protestants of the Privy-Council which was fatal to the English in regard that it possessed many of them with a belief that there was not so much danger as they were afraid of and others it put in fears of the Law. So that upon the whole matter they were diverted from any thoughts of making their defence and so were dispersed and scattered up and down and by that means became an easie Prey to the Irish Every day brought in new hopes and fears so that some got together again of the English near Kilkenny and the Queens County who were soon dispersed Still the Lord Deputy and Council remained in suspence what to resolve upon when upon a suddain they came to a conclusion whâ—â—h might quiet the Irish Lords that were for submission to the Prince and Government of England The Project was this That two Men should be pitched upon and sent over to the late King James in France only to set forth the impossibility of their holding out against England and then they were sure to obtain permission to make terms and so might surrender But this was a Jesuitical Stratagem contrived by Rice and Neagle and as one of them brag'd since carry'd on without the privity of any but the Lord Deputy and themselves For they were afraid of the Cowardly Temper of the rest whose inclinations were favourable enough to the Cause but wanted Courage and Resolution The Scheme being thus laid 't was moved at Conncil and took with general Applause Rice and the Lord Mountjoy were pitched upon to be sent and in the conclusion of this Affair at Council-Board the Lord Chief Justice Keating believing now that their hopes of King James were over thought to begin with the first to shew his Zeal and Affection to the Protestant Cause and in order to that moved that since they were resolved on this method that his Excellency would put a stop to the raising Men which was agreed to but not in the least observed Mountjoy and Rice proceed in their Negotiation year 1688 and take Shipping at Waterford but before they arrived at Paris the French Engineer Landed at Corke and from thence rid with all expedition for Dublin Then the face of things looked with a far different prospect to what they had done before and those little hopes which had supported the English till this time did now evaporate into nothing which put them upon a necessity of associating together and of getting into Castles and the best places of strength they had for the defence and preservation of their Lives In Connaught the Lord Kingstone behaved himself like the Son of so Noble a Father whose hand the Irish had felt in the former Rebellion In the North Sir Arthur Royden did the like but a fate attended him that he could not divert In Munster the English were thought to be more considerable than in any part of Ireland both for Horse and Foot of the latter more than three thousand and numbers of brave Gentlemen of gallant Courage and resolution and of will enough to back it to have drove the Irish out of that Province and to have march'd through the Kingdom Cork Bandon Kingsale and Youghall being offered to be delivered into their hands which was so openly and indiscreetly managed that it became the publick discourse for a Month together in every Coffee house in Dublin At this time there were not seven hundred old Soldiers in the whole County of Corke which forc'd Justin Mac Carthy to write daily to Tyrconnel that he could not hold out without a speedy supply of Men which yet Tyrconnel could not spare for he was afraid of an insurrection in the North and 't was believ'd in Dublin that if they in Munster had done any thing all parts of Ireland had been secure in the English hands except Lynster for that Tyrconnell could have spared none of his own Forces from himself and the new raised men then knew not the right from the left if same be true The fault lay but in two Men but that being publick time will shew it and my work here is to relate nothing but what there is good authority for Matters were now reduced to that extremity year 1688 that no course remained to preserve the English but that of making their escape for they were disarmed in one day throughout the Kingdom and that order executed with so much rigour that few persons of whatsoever quality were permitted to wear their Swords In the Corporations they shut up the Gates and suffered none to pass in or out without searching them strictly for arms and when they came to search in their Houses under pretence that the English had conceal'd their Arms they sometimes seiz'd upon what Plate or Money they could meet with during this hurly-burly which lasted for several days together
A Full and Impartial Account Of all the SECRET CONSULTS Negotiations Stratagems and Intriegues OF THE Romish Party IN IRELAND From 1660 to this present Year 1689. For the Settlement of Popery in that Kingdom LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard M DC LXXX IX TO THE READER TO Preface to the ensuing Pamphlet will I am sensible be attributed to a vain humour of the Age rather than to more important Considerations But however that may be the Apprehension of some yet the more Judicious will I doubt not be of another Opinion when they perceive a whole Series of the most profound Policies and Designs drawn with that rudeness and disproportion as equally requires their Candour as well as my Apology Indeed to give an exact pourtraicture of this Intriegue which in all its circumstances appears very extraordinary and surprizing would require Apelles his favourable chance or at least a more Artificial Representation than must be expected in the following Discourse All that I can pretend to is an Impartial Account of the Matter of Fact and that being chiefly aimed at will with sober Men be in some sort at least interpreted A Dispensation for the want of exteriour Ornament or however that may prove I deem'd it much more serviceable to the Publick to present the Reader with this rough draught rather than conceal that which with what imperfection soever 't is managed must needs be useful to all Protestants and especially at this Juncture For here the Reader has an Account of the first steps that were made in Ireland for the Introduction of Popery into that Kingdom together with a Description of what obstacles and repulses this Design met with how 't was still carried on notwithstanding its frequent Interruptions and Discouragements and by what private Cabals and after what secret Machinations Here is represented the admirable diligence of an indefatigable Romish Genius for the promotion of the Catholick Cause which in several periods of State and vicissitudes of that Government still kept its design on foot sometimes retreating a few paces backward when they found it necessary and at others not only retrieving that disadvantage but continuing a greater Progress when they met with occasions favourable to their Design which at last they carefully improved to that ripeness wherein it now stands and to which it has attained by an unparallel'd Violation of the Laws and Constitutions of the Realm by the most violent and unjust Proceedings in the Reign of the late King James of which you have an ample and copious Relation in the following Sheets Full and Impartial Account Of all the SECRET CONSULTS Negotiations Stratagems and Intriegues OF THE Romish Party in Ireland from 1660 to this present Year 1689. for the Settlement of Popery in that Kingdom c. WHEN the natural Consequent of our late intestine Differences had in a short time produced so many various Scenes of Government till by a circular Motion we center'd in our first Model and so like Pythagoras his transmigration of Souls were metamorphosed into so many differing Shapes till at last in the Year One thousand six hundred and sixty we became animated with our first Dispositions to Monarchy by the Restoration of King Charles the Second then it was that several Disputes arose which were Debated before the King and Council concerning the Settlement of Ireland the Lord of Santry Lord Chief Justice of Ireland a Man equally eminent for Law as well as Loyalty in an excellent and learned Speech represented to the Board the horrid Rebellion of Ireland together with those Barbarous and Inhumane Massacres which he had been an eye Witness of In Opposition to which Sir Nicholas Plunkett a Man also very skilful in the Law but a Knight of the Pope's making and one that had acted his part in all the Rebellion of Ireland assumed the Defence of the Natives of that Kingdom but as his Cause was too apparently bad to be maintained with any tolerable Success so was his Understanding in the Law inferiour to the Lord Chief Justice Santry's who carried the Debate with great Applause in the Opinion of all that heard it and had his Advice been accordingly pursued 't was thought few of the Irish would have got their Estates and at that time if by mistake the Lord of Ormond and Lord Anglesey had not joined with the Court-Party 't was believed that what the Lord Santry urged as Law must have prevailed in point of Right for in those days the Interest of the Duke of York which afterwards grew to a mighty height as you will perceive by the Sequel was not so powerful as to have prevented it That which he chiefly insisted upon as to matter of Law was That 't was most agreeable to the Law of the Land as well as most equal for the Subject to be Tried by the Common Law where they would meet with a fair and indifferent Tryal by Juries of their Neighbours and in this case could have no wrong done them but that the Court of Claims was like the Usurper's High-Court of Justice Arbitrary and Unlimited This touch'd the Irish to the quick for they being conscious of their Guilt most of 'em Indicted and Outlawed for Treason despaired upon their Trial at the Bar to make any considerable Defence The Government of Ireland was first put into year 1660 the hands of Lords Justices which were Sir Maurice Eustace Lord Chancellor the Earl of Mountrath and the Earl of Orrery the first a Lawyer the latter Men that had signally behaved themselves against the Irish during the whole Rebellion Under the Government of these Men a Parliament was called in the City of Dublin and the Convention which sat upon the King's Restoration dissolved The first thing they proceeded upon were the Bills sent them from England for by the Law of Ireland Intituled Poyning's Act the Parliament of Ireland can read no Bill in their House which proceeds not by these Steps First The Chief Governour and Council of Ireland draw up a Bill and send it over to the King and Council in England who either approve or correct it as they think convenient and so in the second place return it back to the Chief Governor and Council and these send it to the House of Commons who have only a Negative Voice and can neither alter nor amend a word of it This by way of Digression which differing so much from the Practice of the Parliament of England induced me not to think it altogether unpleasant or unnecessary to present the Reader with this brief Account of it But to return to the Parliament the variety of interests in that Kingdom gave birth to several Disputes among them for the accommodating whereof it was thought necessary at Court to send over a Lord Lieutenant for about this time a great Controversie arose among all Parties which was founded upon this occasion A new interest was set on foot in
of Families which flocked over from Dublin to the Isle of Man and other places Indeed I cannot recal to mind the great Consternation the dismal Apprehensions and Panick Fears which possess'd the hearts of all Protestants at this juâ—cture without reviving like Aeneas his repetition of the Trojan Miseries to the Carthaginian Queen those deep impressions of sorrow those Infandos dolores under which I was then almost sunk and overwhelmed Now every thing discovered a gloomy and Melancholy prospect and seemed to be attended with so many Discouragements that many that had Patentee Employments obtained Licence from the Lord Lieutenant under the Broad-Seal to come away and all that lay in his Excellency's power for the help and assistance of the Protestants he zealously performed It was interpreted by many as a signal Act of Providence propitious to the English that the Winds continued for some time contrary after that this furious Zealot for the Cause as impatient as a Wild Bull in a Net was come to the Sea-side which disappointment did not a little discompose him whose prejudice and ambition equally inspired him with eagerness to supplant his Predecessor whom he had looked upon as his Corrival in the Government This favourable delay was religiously respected by many as a certain warning or admonition from God to his people to fly from those heavy Judgments which had been long imminent but now in an actual readiness to descend upon that Poor Distressed Kingdom But he whose Arrival was dreaded every moment as the most fatal misery that could fall upon the Nation at last after being thus retarded to the unspeakable terrour of the Protestants Landed at Dublin And the Lord Clarendon who had a particular favour conferred upon him to continue for one Week in the Government after Tyrconnel's Landing at his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Dublin's Palace resigned the Sword to Tyrconnel with an admirable Speech to him setting forth his exact observance of the Commands of the King his Master and faithful discharging of that great trust which had been committed to him and concluding with his Impartial Administration of Justice to all Partys in these or the like words addressed to Tyrconnel That as he had kept an equal hand of Justice to the Roman Catholicks so he hoped his Lordship would to the Protestants Never was a Sword washed with so many Tears as this a most doleful presage of its being so in blood It would surpass the Art of Rhetorick to set forth the dreadful Reflections which the poor afflicted Protestants made upon this Ominous Revolution No Oratour could find words to express the fatal Calamities which were now derived from the consequence of this change it presaged the worst of evils and seemed to carry in all its parts the most dismal Characters of an Irreversible Extirpation of the Protestant Interest and Religion Most of the English were possessed with the daily fears of a general Massacre to be suddainly put in Execution and that in a most inhuman manner and this produced the strangest Convulsions in the minds of men that a most exquisite grief could be capable of Others were more temperate in their sorrows and were of opinion that notwithstanding Popery was the Scene which must be acted yet they were in hopes by some more plausible way than that of downright murthering They considered that the last Rebellion had heaped so much Infamy upon the Irish and had justly rendered them such Barbarous and Inhumane Savages to the whole Christian World that to obliterate that deserved reproach they would now take some milder course which though it might have something more of Humanity in it would yet be as effectual to the design the utter Subversion of the Protestant Interest and Religion In fine Quot homines tot sententiae their Sentiments were as various as their Fears But however all concurred in this That Popery was the Game that must not only be Played but win too whatever Arts were used to obtain the upshot The Lord Clarendon before he surrendered the Government was very curious to inform himself of the Constitution and Condition of Ireland and at his going over carried with him Copies of Records Surveys c. of that Kingdom and among other things it is said that he desired the Lord Chief Justice Keating now in Rebellion in Ireland and one of the fatal instruments for the ruine of that Kingdom to give him his opinion in Writing both as to the Legality and Justice of the Act of Settlement as also to answer those Objections which had been made against it by Neagle all which he amply performed and which my Lord Clarendon upon his Arrival at Court shewed to the King who sent the Copy over to Tyrconnel who spared not to reproach Keating for this action which Keating at first disowned but the matter being too plain to admit of an absolute denial at length began to make the best Excuse he could My Lord Clarendon being shipped for England now does the open and full Triumph of the Irish ambitiously shew it self in this advantagious light in all its grandeur and magnificence The dejected condition of the English made their Victory more glorious 'T was now impossible for the Natives to forbear insulting over the English at an insupportable rate as if they had been actually their Slaves bound to the Wheels of their Chariots That sober thought of Sesostris when he had his Coach drawn by four Kings was not a reflection to be entertained by them at this juncture The Day was now their own and Post mortem nulla voluptas they failed not to use it as extravagantly whilst they enjoyed it What Affronts and Indignities were now cast upon the English How barbarously Hector'd and Insulted over by these Huffing Rhodomontadoes How injured and oppressed by publick acts of notorious injustice How abused as to their good Names reviled as to their Religion and reproached as Englishmen and Protestants Called Fanatick Dogs and Damn'd Hereticks is so publickly known as requires not much pains to describe Those of the Protestants who had been the most obliging to the Irish were sure to meet with the most ungrateful returns and if they had been so charitable as to relieve them in their necessities as the English a merciful and too easie natured a People had frequently done they would now in requital seize upon what they had by open force or else set others of their own Creatures to do it If any of the English had lent Money to them or bargained for Goods and Commodities of the Countrey whereby the Irish were become their Debtors their usual payment especially if they were in necessity and afraid that Executions would be obtained against their persons or substance was repairing to the next Irish Justice of the Peace and swearing of High-Treason against their Creditors though oftentimes in kindness to them they had been forborn with a year or two from discharging the Debt But I pass from speaking any more of
himself briskly and with good Applause in this matter For notwithstanding that he was not only frequently sent to but threatned by Tyrconnel if he proceeded in it yet however he goes for London and there sollicits the Duke of Ormond to introduce him to the King where on his Knee he delivers the Petition with a submissive tender of all the City Charters at His Majesties Feet The King was already so prepossessed with the Partial Account that Tyrconnel had given of this Action with which he was so extreamly prejudiced that upon the first sight of Sir Richard Rieves he asked him if he had the Lord Deputy's leave to come with this Petition And that he had those in Ireland that understood the Law better than himself and so turn'd from him Sir Richard Rieves advised with the Duke of Ormond who told him That there was no hopes of succeeding in the Enterprize so was forced to go back for Dublin with a short but unpleasant return of the ineffectualness of this Negotiation But however the City was resolved to stand the Brunt and to stop the violent Tide if possible which now ran with so rapid a Current and in order thereunto they Fee'd four Counsels Their first Evasion whereby to procrastinate matters was by urging that the Sheriffs were interessed as Parties in the Writ the Charters being granted to Mayor Sheriffs and Commons and so could not properly make Returns to that Writ that came against themselves this was deem'd to be Law but nothing was to be accounted as such by Judges that broke through all Inclosures and stuck not to trample upon the known Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom if opposite to their Popish and Arbitrary designs So this return of the Sheriffs was over-ruled and a Fine imposed upon them if in four days they did not amend their Return which some though they would not have agreed to but 't was among themselves thought fit to do it and accordingly the Attorney General proceeded against them and took some advantage of their Pleadings which the Court gave judgment upon This afforded matter of Triumph and an universal excessive joy to the Irish which dispersed it self with a marvelous Celerity throughout the whole Kingdom but became on the contrary hand as much a Subject of Lamentation to the English Citizens who called themselves the Virgin City as having never been tainted with any action of Disloyalty or Rebellion in all the several Revolutions and Vicissitudes of that unfortunate Kingdom which though never since it was in the possession of the King 's of England continued forty years uninterruptedly without an Insurrection of the Natives yet was this City remarkably Loyal in all Changes and performed many signal acts of Bravery and Courage as their Records do amply testifie and of which not to name many others I cannot omit one very remarkable Instance which was That when the Lord Duke of Ormond received Orders by that Royal Martyr King Charles the First of ever Blessed and Immortal Memory to give up the Sword and Government to the Parliament they being at that time best able to suppress the Irish Rebels The Lord of Ormond in pursuance to this instruction delivered up the Sword and sent to the Mayor one William Smith ordering him to do the like but he to shew his Loyalty went to the Lord of Ormond accompanied with his Brethren the Aldermen and told his Lordship that he kept that Sword for the King that the City was the King's Chamber and he would deliver neither but into the hands of the King's Servants Upon which the Lord of Ormond took occasion to commend his Loyalty and told him He had the King's Commands to do it and for the Mayors greater satisfaction shewed him the King's Letter which when the Mayor read he observed there was order for the Lord of Ormond to give up the Government to the Parliaments Commissioners but not a word that the Mayor should do it which the Mayor taking notice of to the Lord of Ormond told him he would leave the Sword and Keys of the City with his Lordship to use as he pleased he being the King s Lieutenant and so he did and after took his leave This the City justly boasts of as never being engaged in any Rebellion nor ever actually under the Usurper's Government in any other manner than by the King 's Appointment and Command But to return to the Charters consonant to the Sentence against Dublin so was Judgment given against all the Charters of the Kingdom except against such as quietly surrendred as most did it being to no purpose to contend in the lesser and inferiour parts of the Kingdom after their GOLIAH of Dublin was slain I shall not impose upon the Reader 's Patience with giving him an account of what subtle arts of Address and Obsequious Contrivances were made use of to distinct Corporations to prevail with them to surrender This he will suppose that they were not remiss or unactive in if he considers that they dreaded nothing so much as that the Clamours and Outcries of so many Bodies of people which were to be sued and disobliged should reach the Ears of the Court and be made use of by the adverse Party to their disadvantage and therefore we may be sure that they endeavoured to silence them as much as they could For both Tyrconnel and his Voucher â—eagle had assured their Party that most of the Charters would quietly be surrendred by the people and that there was but one Corporation in the North of Ireland which they were afraid of this was Carrickfergus which they managed with a great deal of Policy in the following manner Ellis Secretary to Tyrconnel writes a wheedling Letter to the Mayor of that City insinuating how great an opinion the Lord Deputy had of his Loyalty with abundance of such impertinent stuff and that his Excellency would enlarge their Priviledges They were foolishly taken with this gilded Bait and so surrendred their Charter Upon this success Ellis was applauded as an excellent Instrument to delude the Protestants with and so he was which he improved by the frequent opportunities which were offered to him of drawing in honest men he having been many years in the Secretaries Office and a pretended Protestant though his Brother was a noted Champion for Rome but that was one of the Machinations of the Romish Conclave mightily practised in Ireland to disguise one part of their Family under the Protestant Education though they were as much Papists as the other that appeared to be openly such by a publick Profession A practice which the old English Families are rarely free from in that Kingdom But to come again to Ellis his Letters and Messages flew round the Kingdom and prevailed in many places but more out of a Sentiment That 't was to no purpose to contend than any Belief or Opinion they had either of his or his Masters assurances But however that was 't is certain that Ellis
He had then a Troop of Horse given him which he soon made of his own Breed for before their inlisting they were the greatest Vagrants of the Countrey which with himself now ravaged in the Countrey in an horrible and most inhumane manner Forcing Women Maiming of Men Pulling down of Houses and all other Extravagancies which he and his Hellish Tribe could invent I already assumed before I entered upon this Man's Character to give a remarkable Instance of the violence offered to the English for their just and legal Prosecution of Notorious Irish Criminals and Malefactors which I shall now set before you in two remarkable Passages relating to this Earl which were publickly transacted at the Bar. One was of a poor Butcher at a Town near Corke who refusing Clancarthy's Men an Horse they violently seized him by force and would never return him to the Owner which the Man making Complaint of to the Judges of Assize in presence of the Earl The Judges ordered satisfaction to be made to the Man for his Horse which the Earl promised to see performed But as soon as the Judges were departed the Countrey he takes some of his Troopers along with him and goes to the Man's House and told him that he was come to give him satisfaction for his Horse Whereupon he forces him out of his House and ordering the vile Instruments his Troopers to get a Blanket and upon a Pavement before the Poor Man's Door stood as a most Barbarous and Inhumane Spectator whilst they tossed him in a Blanket ever and anon letting him fall upon the Stones till they broke him as if upon the Wheel all to pieces and so left him dead The other Passage relating to this fine Spark was of a Man that had offended him at a place called Clonmell him he first had beaten with Sticks and then hung up by the hair of the Head he was taken down alive but what became of him after was not known The Accomplices of this Tragedy his Villanous Troopers were brought to the Bar and Tried for the Murther and notwithstanding that this horrid Action was done in the sight of an hundred Men yet were they quitted and the Earl never Tried He to this day proceeds in these boundless Inhumanities which perhaps may be an occasion of great sorrow and trouble to his Mother But to return to the Judges which we left upon their Circuits Little Justice was administred by them to the English but in such extraordinary Occurrences where the Irish were so notoriousoy culpable as would accuse them of most gross partiality to have passed Sentence in their favour But in all things that had but the least shadow of Justice or of seeming equity and reasonableness in it they were sure to carry it and this was acted in pursuance to one of Tyrconnel's Instructions from Court which was That the Judges should be directed in their Circuits to undermine and enervate the Protestant Interest which indeed they did so effectually that no English-man could either get in Rents or be secure of what they had formerly received For there being a Statute in Ireland which we have not in our English Laws for Trials by Civil Bills as they call them which in the nature of Chancery is such an Arbitrary way of proceeding as gives the Judges of the Kingdom opportunities which too many of them it 's said have made ill use of By this Arbitrary Method of proceeding the Irish had now hit upon an expeditious way whereby to ruine the English For 't was no more but with a Twelvepenny Process flung at any Man's Door and a false Affidavit made which the Irish can as easily digest as the most common Action they do and so an Execution was obtained directed to an Irish Sheriff for a pretended Debt of Twenty Years standing it being very common for an Irish Tenant to sue and bring a Fellow to swear that in such a Year his Landlord distrained Cattle of Twenty or Thirty Pounds value and had them appraised at the half proportion of what they were worth This was sufficient to obtain an Execution for the relief of the poor distressed Catholicks a practice become as universal against as destructive to the English insomuch that in the North of Ireland there was not one man in five of the ordinary British that were not ruined and had they continued these Courses but few Years longer together with their exorbitant Proceedings against the English in their Mannor Sheriffs and the like Inferiour Courts where such barbarous Injustices and publick Oppressions and Violences were acted as never till then were heard of among Christians these without other means might have wholly reduced the Kingdom into Irish hands For as by their Civil Bills at the Assizes and by their notorious Perjuries in the Inferiour Courts they destroyed the smaller men so by Ejectments in the higher Courts they took away mens Estates in Fee It being observed That never one Cause came before them upon a Trial for Land but the Judgment was constantly given in favour of the Irish Complaints were continually made at Court of these irregular Proceedings and Writs of Errour were brought from England but generally the same Judgments were confirmed in this Kingdom the Judges here being most of the same Stamp Sheridon about this time began to be discovered year 1687 by Tyrconnel to sell places of all sorts both Ecclesiastical Civil and Military He was not only Principal Secretary of State but also one of the Commissioners of the Customs So that whenever he met with a conveniency of making an advantagious bargain for a place in the Custome-house he would pretend to the Commissioners That 't was my Lord Deputy's Request to have such a Person employed This by degrees increased so much upon the Commissioners that Dickison one of the Commissioners writ over to the Lords of the Treasury that they were so burthened and oppressed with Irish Officers recommended by the Lord Deputy that he was afraid that the Revenue would be lost by ill management Upon this my Lord Deputy was ordered not to recommend a man nor any ways to intermeddle in the Revenue The Commissioners also issued forth their Orders posted up at the Custom-house Door That all Persons who had Petitioned for Employments in the Customs or Revenue should return to their respective Abodes for that there would be no Employments disposed of This Bustle created various Disputes betwixt Tyrconnel and Sheridon and from this time forward Sheridon contrived to undermine Tyrconnel His first Stratagem was to prepossess the Romish Clergy against him which to accomplish he contracts an intimate Acquaintance with Tyrconnel's Chaplain that most frequently officiated This Fellow picks up what he could of Tyrconnel's contempt of the Mass and Prayers One particular Charge was That when the Army was in the Camp at the Currah of Kildare Tyrconnel being at play in his Tent the Priest came to him to know if his Excellency would go to Mass