one thousand six hundred eighty nine be produced to your chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom and enrolled in your Majesties High Court of Chancery the same shall be a sufficient Discharge and Acquittal to such of the Persons last before-named and every of them respectively whose Loyalty and Fidelity your Majesty will be pleased to certify in manner as afore-said And be it further enacted That in the mean time and until such Return and Acquittal all the Lands Tenements and Hereditaments within this Kingdom belonging to all and every Absentee and Absentees or other Person to be attainted as aforesaid shall be and are hereby vested in your Majesties your Heirs and Successors as from the first Day of August last past And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that all and every such Person and Persons as by any the foregoing Clauses is are or shall be respectively attainted shall as from the first Day of August one thousand six hundred eighty eight forfeit unto your Majesty your Heirs and Successors all such Mannors Lands Tenements and Hereditaments and all Right Title-Service Chiefery Use Trust Condition Fee Rent-Charge Right of Redemption of Mortgages Right of Entries Right of Action or any other Interest of what nature or kind soever either in Law or Equity of in or unto any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments within this Kingdom belonging or appertaining to such Person or Persons so as aforesaid attainted or to be attainted in his or their own Right or to any other in Trust for him or them on the said first Day of August one thousand six hundred eighty eight or at any time since and all the said Lands Tenements and Hereditaments so as aforesaid forfeited unto and vested in your Majesty your Heirs and Successors hereby are and shall be vested in your Majesty your Heirs and Successors whether such Person or Persons were seized thereof in Fee absolute or conditional or in Tayl or for Life or Lives and that freed and freely discharged off and from all Estates Tayl and for Life and from all Reversions and Remainders for Life for Years or in Fee absolute or conditional or in Tayl or to any Person or Persons whatsoever such Remainder as by one Act or Statute of this present Parliament intituled An Act for repealing the Acts of Settlement an Explanation Resolution of Doubts and all Grants Patents and Certificates pursuant to them or any of them or by this present Act are saved and preserved always excepted and fore-prized Provided always that the Nocency or Forfeiture of any Tenant in Dower Tenant by the Courtesy Jointress for Life or other Tenant for Life or Lives in actual Possession shall not extend to bar forfeit make void or discharge any Reversion or Reversions vested in any Person or Persons not ingaged in the Usurpation or Rebellion aforesaid such Reversion and Reversions being immediately depending or expectant upon the particular Estate of such Tenant in Dower Tenant by the Courtesy Joyntress for Life or other Tenant for Life or Lives any thing in the said Act of Repeal or in this present Act to the contrary notwithstanding Provided always and be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that nothing in this present Act contained shall any way extend or be construed to extend to forfeit or vest in your Majesties your Heirs or Successors any Remainder or Remainders for valuable Considerations limited or settled by any Settlement or Conveyance made for such valuable Considerations either of Marriage or Marriage-Portion or other valuable Consideration whatsoever upon any Estate for Life or Lives to any Person or Persons not concerned in the Usurpation or Rebellion aforesaid such Remainder or Remainders as are limited or settled by any Conveyance wherein there is any Power for revoking and altering all or any the Use or Uses therein limited and also such Remainder and Remainders as are limited upon any Settlement or Conveyance of any Lands Tenements and Hereditaments commonly called Plantation-Lands and all Lands Tenements and Hereditaments held or enjoyed under such Grants from the Crown or Grants upon the Commission or Commissions of Grace for Remedy of defective Titles either in the Reign of King James the first or King Charles the first in which several Grants respectively there are Provisoes or Covenants for raising or keeping any number of Men or Arms for the King's Majesty against Rebels and Enemies or for raising of Men for his Majesties Service for Expedition of War always excepted and foreprized All which Remainders limited by such Conveyances wherein there is a Power of Revocation for so much of the Lands Uses and Estates therein limited as the said Power doth or shall extend unto and all such Remainders as are derived or limited for or under such Interest made of Plantation-Lands or other Lands held as aforesaid under such Grants from the Crown and all and every other Remainder and Remainders Reversion and Reversions not herein mentioned to be saved and preserved shall by the Authority of this present Parliament be deemed construed and adjudged void debarred and discharged to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever against your Majesty your Heirs and Successors and your and their Grantees or Assignees and the said Lands Tenements and Hereditamens belonging to such Rebels as aforesaid shall be vested in your Majesty your Heirs and Successors freed and discharged of the said Remainder and Remainders and every of them And to the end the Reversions and Remainders saved and preserved by this Act may appear with all convenient Speed Be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the respective Persons intituled to such Remainders and Reversions do within sixty Days next after the first sitting of the Commissioners for executing the said Act of Repeal and this present Act exhibit their Claims before the said Commissioners and make out their Titles to such Remainder or Remainders so as to procure their Adjudication and Certificate for the same or the Adjudication and Certificate of some three or more of them And further That all Remainders for which such Adjucations and Certificates shall not be procured at or before One hundred and twenty Days after the first sitting of the said Commissioners shall be void and for ever barred and excluded any thing in this Act or other Matter to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding All which Lands Tenements and Hereditaments mentioned as aforesaid to be forfeited unto and vested in your Majesty by any the Clauses aforesaid are hereby declared to be so forfeited unto and vested in your Majesty without any Office or Inquisition thereof found or to be found and the same to be to the Uses Intents and Purposes in the said Act of Repeal and in this present Act mentioned and expressed And whereas several Persons hereafter named viz. Lyonel Earl of Orrery Mrs. ..... Trapps Ann Vicecountess Dowager of Dungannon Robert Boyl Esq Catherine Woodcock Alice Countess Dowager of Drogheda Alice Countess Dowager of Mountroth Isabella Countess
or to a Field of mine that lies convenient for him I tell him that I have no mind to part with them He offers me Money for them I tell him that I will not sell them He tires me out with Importunities and at length I consent to part with them in exchange for some other things as good as they But I tell him withall that I my self will be Judge whether they are so or not since it is at his importunity and to please him that I part with them And besides that I am resolv'd to be possessed of the Equivolent at the same time that I part with my own there being no reason why I should dance attendance after him and wait his leisure for my Reprizal My Lords If these be the true Conditions of Reprizals as I presume they are I am confident that not one of them is like to be observed in the intended Reprizals not the first of them For by the Petitions that have been before your Lordships and by an additional Clause in your Lordships Alterations wherein you have saved all Remainders expectant on Estates for Lives most of the Reprizable Persons must Part with an Inheritance to them and their Heirs and get only in Lieu of it an Estate for Life which will determine with the Life of the forfeiting Persons So here is not Equal Value Worth and Purchase Not the Second For the Parties themselves are not made the Judges but the Commissioners And I dare say that if they were made the Judges there is not one of them that are to be turn'd out that will part with their present Possessions or that judge the Reprizal to bear any proportion with the Estates they are to quit Not the Third For by the Commons Bill they are to be turn'd out immediatly and wait for a Reprizal afterwards and all the Favour they can obtain from your Lordships is only to have a competent time for their removal which may be long or short as the Commissioners please but out they must go at the discretion of the Commissioners and wait their leisure for a Reprizal This is the first Objection against this Bill The next is that it is not for the Publick Good either for the King or the Kingdom or the People in it It is not for the good of the King who is the Vital Head of this great Body and that whether we respect his Majesties Honour or his Profit It is not for his Majesties Honour to consent to the Ruining of so many Innocent Loyal Persons as must unavoidably perish if this Bill doth pass It is not for his Honour to rescind those just Acts of his Royal Father and Brother the Act for Adventurers passed in England and the Declaration and Acts of Settlement and Explanation which if I am not misinform'd were five years upon the Anvil and at last not pass'd till all Parties were fully heard It is not for his Majesties Honour to break his word with his People nor violate so many repeated Promises as he hath made that he would not Consent to the Repeal of them And as it is not for his Honour so it is not for his Profit or Advantage it will neither preserve him in the Kingdom that he enjoys nor restore him to those that he has unhappily lost His Profit in this Kingdom must arise out of a Constant Payment of his Revenue both Ordinary and Extraordinary And who is able to pay His Revenue or support the Dignity of his Crown if this Bill passeth into a Law The Protestants are not able the Rapparees have Plundered them of all their Substance and here is a Bill to take away their Estates and consequently they will have nothing left to pay the Publick Taxes of the Nation And as for the Romanists they will be in as ill a Condition as the Protestants The Old Proprietor comes Poor and Hungry into his Estate and can pay nothing till his Tenants raise it and the present Possessor loseth the Benefit of his Purchases and Improvements and who then is able to supply the Necessities of His Majesty Besides this in many parts of the Kingdom the Land is hardly able to pay the Kings Quit-Rent by reason of the Universal Depredations that Reign every where and can it be imagin'd but that things will grow far worse when the ablest Catholick Merchants and the most Wealthy Purchasers of that Communion are ruin'd and undone And as it is not for the Kings Profit in this Kingdom so it is to the utter Ruine of his Interest in the Kingdoms that he has lost Will the Protestants in England and Scotland join heartily in restoring him to his Crown when they understand how their Brethren here are used No My Lords They will rather bend and unite all their Forces to hinder his Restitution when they consider that the mischief is like to come home to their own Doors and that what is a doing here is but a Model of what they must suffer if he be restored Will they trust his Word in England when he breaks it in Ireland or rely on his Promises to them when he doth not keep them to his Subjects here This my Lords will abate their Affections for him and gain him more Enemies there than he can have Friends here It is not for the good of the Kingdom and that if we consider it in reference to Trade Wealth Improvements Husbandry It will ruine the Kingdom in point of Trade Divine Providence hath placed us in an Island where we must Trade or want many conveniences of Life and can we expect that the Trade of this Nation will increase in our hands when we find it sunk so low by the removal of the Protestant Merchants effects out of the Kingdom and for those Catholick Merchants that carry it on in some measure can we believe that they will be able to carry it on when we are ruining their Stocks by taking away their Estates and Improvements from them Nay we shall not only ruine our own Traders at home but break their Correspondents abroad whose effects are in their hands We have passed a Bill in this House for the Inviting Strangers to Settle and Trade among us but it is worth considering whether the Course we are now taking will not hinder the Nation of the intended benefit of that Bill for if Foreign Merchants come among us what Security have they but the Publick Faith of the Nation and it is not probable that Strangers will rely upon it when they observe that it is so ill kept towards our own people If Trade decays the Wealth of the Nation must perish with it for they live and die together Wealth cannot subsist without Trade or without security for Debt And who will ever lend Money or Purchase or Improve in this Kingdom after this when the Money that hath been lent and the Purchases made from Persons deriving their Estates under two Acts of Parliament many years
prevail all that could be obtained was a Clause implying that the Commissioners that should be appointed to execute the Act should set him out a Reprizal under the same Limitations under which he held the Town and Lands of Mollingar which as one of the House of Commons expressed it was a Mouthful of Moonshine So little regard was had to the Services or Merits of Protestants 6. And they had no reason to expect it should be otherwise for there was no regard had to the most considerable Papists where their Interest interfered with the general Design It was resolved to destroy the Act of Settlement the Foundation of the English and Protestant Interest in Ireland This brought along with it Destruction to many Papists that held Estates under it which they had purchased since the year 1662 as well as to Protestants Those Papists were very numerous and more wealthy than the rest especially in Connaught and they were likewise very zealous for King James and many of them in his actual Service and venturing their Lives for him at the time of passing the Act of Repeal yet this did not hinder him from giving away their Estates by that Act to the old Proprietors In short if serving King James truly and faithfully even to their own prejudice whilst it was for his Advantage and his Circumstances needed their Service could have merited his Favour most Protestants had supererogated but all this passed for nothing with him he would be served his own way that is he would have Protestants been active to destroy their Properties Liberty and Religion he would have had them lend their Hands to tie the Chains of Slavery for them and their Posterity to which they had already contributed too far to oblige his Humor both before and after his coming to the Crown against the common Interest of the Kingdom Nothing less than the same blind Obedience would serve him in the State which his Clergy require in the Church which we would not by any means pay him and therefore it was in vain for us to think of preserving our selves by any Merit or Service we could render him he did not think any thing a Protestant could do with a good Conscience to be a Service And if we did all was required yet there never wanted persons about his Majesty who had Malice enough towards us and Interest enough with him to misrepresent our most meritorious Actions 8. Nor was the good Nature and merciful Disposition of King James any greater Security to the Protestants of Ireland than their own Merits towards him There are 't is true Kings in the World that have an absolute Power over the Lives and Liberties of their Subjects and yet govern them with such Justice and Mercy that they suffer very little inconveniency by it but the Examples of this kind are so very rare that it is ill trusting any one with such a Power King James's Partizans made it their Business to represent their Master as the most merciful and justest Prince in the World and then they railed at us that grudged to lay our own and our Posterities Lives and Liberties at his Feet Perhaps if he alone had been to have had the Disposal of them and would have followed his natural Inclinations we should not so much have feared to have trusted him but whilst he had such Ministers about him and embraced a Religion of such Principles as he professed we had no Reason to depend much on his natural Clemency or Inclination for these were sufficient to corrupt the best natured Man in the World 9. No doubt but Charles the Fifth of Germany was of as compassionate and generous a Nature as any Man yet that did not keep him from making havock of his Subjects on account of Religion besides all his Wars and Bloodshed to suppress the Reformation he destroyed by way of legal Process fifty thousand in the Inquisition a Barbarity I believe hardly equalled by Nero Francis the First of France was a Prince equal to any in Generosity and Nobleness of Nature and yet he made no less Havock and Destruction in his Dominions on the same Account The present French King is a Demonstration that neither Love of Glory nor of Interest neither Greatness of Mind nor Goodness of Nature are Antidotes against the Force of Romish Principles or can restrain the Prince that has throughly imbibed them from Blood and Persecution otherwise he would never have made himself infamous by such horrid Cruelties as he has committed on his Protestant Subjects or brought an indelible Blot on a Reign which he would fain have represented to be more glorious than any of his Predecessors It is not necessary that what has been said should bring in question the good Nature or merciful Temper of King James tho we confess we were unwilling to trust it too far We had before our Thoughts the Proceedings in the West of England where we saw his Clemency did not interpose but suffered more to be prosecuted tryed condemned and executed for that one Rebellion and yet it was not so considerable as many others than perhaps had suffered in that manner for many of the Rebellions since the Conquest We found that he consented to attaint above two thousand five hundred of the most considerable persons of this Kingdom and that his good Nature might not be a Temptation to pardon them he put it out of his power to do it by the same Act. After his coming into Ireland very few Pardon 's passed the Great Seal perhaps not three nor had many so much as the promise of a Pardon given them tho very many needed and desired it Many of the Country People who were not of the Army were brought up Prisoners they pleaded that they were not concerned in the Wars that they lived in their Houses and on their Farms and submitted only to the stronger without engaging in the Cause but all to no purpose they were used worse than the Soldiers who were Prisoners and suffered to starve in Jails if the Charity of their Fellow Protestants had not relieved them Many who were wronged and oppressed petitioned his Majesty for Redress but their Petitions were rejected at best mislaid and the Petitioners were so far from obtaining any Answer that they often could never hear what became of their Petitions 10. The chief Counsellors of the King were the Popish Clergy and the Descendents of such as had shed the Blood of so many Protestants in the year 1641 who then ruined and destroyed the Kingdom and made it a heap of Rubbish and a Slaughter-House and whilst he hearkened to the Suggestions and Councils of such it was not possible for him to exert his good Nature and Clemency towards us It was the continual Business of these Counsellors to incense the King against us to represent us as People unworthy of any Favour Humanity or Justice that we were all Rogues Villains and Traitors and not fit to be allowed
really believed that in few years he would by some contrivance or other have given away most of the Protestants Estates in Ireland without troubling a Parliament to Attaint them which was a more compendious but not a more certain way to destroy them than the Methods he took It was he that without Hearing after he had Dissolved the Corporations by giving Sentence against their Charters declared void all the Leases of Lands or of Perquisites made by them though long before their Dissolution and on very good considerations and thereupon outed several Protestants of their Leases but it were endless to mention all the Oppressions and unjust proceedings of this Court it were in effect to transcribe the Records of it Let me only observe that the Chief Baron was assisted by Sir Henry Lynch as Second Baron who came indeed short of him in Parts but yielded nothing to him in Malice to the Protestant Religion and Interest 7. The Court of Common Pleas had little to do the business so far as concerned the Protestants and Papists was intirely carried out of it to the Kings Bench or Exchequer and therefore they permitted the Lord Chief Justice Keating still to sit in it but Pinioned with two of their own sort that if any thing should chance to come before him he might be out-voted by them The truth is they were jealous of this Court not only because a Protestant was Chief Justice in it but likewise because Judg Dally sat as puny Judg who though a Roman Catholick yet understood the Common-Law so well and behaved himself so impartially that they did not care to bring their Causes before him so much did they dread the prospect of Justice though before Judges that were of their own Party and Persuasion 8. The Circuits are an extention of the Courts whereby Justice is carried into the Country these were managed much at the same rate with the Courts and where the Sheriff and Judg were both Papists it is not difficult to guess what Justice Protestants must expect what packing of Juries there was amongst them and how deeply the Judges themselves were concerned in such Practices is evident to all that had any Concerns in the Country at that time 9. It will be requisite to say something of the Attourney General which King James made instead of Sir William Domvile whom he turned out after near thirty years supplying the place but he was a Protestant and would not consent to reverse the Popish Outlawries nor to the other Methods they took to destroy the Settlement of Ireland and therefore he was laid aside In his place King James substituted Mr. Richard Nagle whom he afterwards Knighted and made Secretary of State he was at first designed for a Clergy-Man and educated amongst the Jesuits but afterwards betook himself to the Study of the Law in which he arrived to a good Perfection and was employed by many Protestants so that he knew the weak part of most of their Titles Every Body knows how great a part the Attorney General has in the Administration of Justice it being his Office to prosecute and in his power to stop any Suit wherein the King is concerned How he used this Power will appear in one instance tho many may be given One Fitz Gerald of Tycrohan the Heir of a forfeiting Papist had a Suit for a great Estate against Sir William Petty it was tryed in the Exchequer before Chief Baron Rice and Fitz Gerald carried the Cause by the Perjury of two Friars and a Woman who swore a person to be dead in Spain and themselves to be present at his Burial upon whose Life Sir William's Title depended This person soon after appeared to be alive and is so still for ought we know and his being alive was so notorious and manifest that the Attorney General could not deny it Sir William's Counsel and Lawyers designed to indict the Friars and Woman for their Perjury but the Grand Jury refused to find the Bill and I was credibly informed that the Attorney General said that if they did not desist he would enter a Noli prosequi It is certain he refused to prosecute it and it was imputed to his Contrivance that they escaped By such means the Course of Justice was stopped to Protestants and the like Tenderness the Courts generally shewed to Perjurers when the Perjury served their Interest And sure the Protestants were in an ill case whose Lives and Fortunes lay at the Mercy of such Judges and Juries and they must conclude that nothing less than Destruction was designed for them by a King who put them under such Administrators of Justice The same Sir Richard Nagle was the Speaker of the House of Commons in their pretended Parliament and had the chief Hand in drawing up their Acts King James confided chiefly in him and the Acts of Repeal and Attainder were looked on as his Work in which his Malice and Jesuitical Principles prevailed so far that he was not content to out two Thirds of the Protestant Gentlemen of their Estates by the Act of Repeal by which all Estates acquired since 1641 were taken away and to attaint most of those that had old Estates by the Bill of Attainder But to make sure Work he put it out of the King's Power to pardon them therein betraying the King's Prerogative as the King himself told him when he discovered it to him Of which and of him we shall have occasion to give a further account hereafter 10. Into such Hands as we have been speaking of the Administration of Justice and of the Laws was put which were so far from preventing our Ruin that they were made the Means and Instruments thereof and it had been much better for us to have had no Laws at all and been left to our natural Defence than to be cheated into a necessity of Submission by Laws that were executed only to punish and not to defend us 11. It was common for some of those that served King James to come upon the Exchange and without any reason or provocation to fall upon Protestant Gentlemen if they looked a little more fashionable than other people and beat them One was thus beaten with a Cane severely before the Gentleman was aware he was advised for an Experiment to indict the Ruffian that used him thus to see what protection the Law would give us after they had taken away our Swords but the Grand Jury did not think it worth while to trouble the Courts with redressing the Grievances of Protestants and so would not find the Bill A Merchant in Thomas street Dublin found a Fellow that had broken into his Ware house and was conveying his Goods out at the Window to his Fellow Soldiers that stood in the Street to receive them he seised him and brought an Indictment against him for Felony but the Jury acquitted him and then he brought his Action against the Merchant for false Imprisonment and Slander and it cost a good Sum
for Three Months from the First of January a thing impossible without allowing them to Steal and Plunder It was this struck so much terror into Protestants and made them so jealous and apprehensive of Danger that they fled into England in great numbers especially when they found that the New Raised Men as they surmised began to make havock of all things It was this gave Credit to a Letter dated December the Third 1688 sent to the Lord Mount Alexander whether true or counterfeit I cannot determine intimating a design to Destroy the Protestants on Sunday the Ninth of the same Month which Letter was spread over the whole Kingdom The People of Derry had beside this several Letters and Intimations of Mischief designed against them and against the Protestants of Ireland And though that directed to the Lord Mount Alexander may not seem of great weight yet whoever considers the circumstances of the Protestants of Ireland at that time will acknowledge that it was not to be despised In the Year 1641 the Seizing of Dublin by the Lord Mac Guire was prevented by as improbable a discovery as this Letter while the Protestants in the rest of the Kingdom were Massacred through the incredulity of some who could not be perswaded to give ear to such intimations of the Design as were brought before them In England the Gun-powder Treason was revealed and the destruction of the Three Kingdoms prevented by a Letter as insignificant as that directed to the Lord Mount Alexander About the very time intimated in the Letter for the Massacre a new raised Regiment belonging to the Earl of Antrim appeared before the Town without the King's Livery without any Officers of Note or the least warning given by the Earl of their coming lastly without any Arms besides Skeans Clubs and such other Weapons as Kearnes and Tories used 6. The People of the Town were frightened at the Sight and refused them entrance into the City this was the First rub or provocation the Lord Deputy met with it was a meer accident and proceeded from his own Ignorance or Negligence who had left that Garrison the only one of any considerable strength in Ulster where most Protestants lived without one Soldier to Guard it and then sent such a pack of Ruffians to take Possession of it many of whose Captains and Officers were well known to the Citizens having lain long in their Jails for Thefts and Robberies When therefore such a Body of Men came to demand entrance at the very time that they expected a Massacre what could they imagin but that these Men came to execute it and who could blame them for shutting their Gates They were well assured that these were Men fit for such an Execution and that they were ready on command to do it and perhaps would not stay for an Order The Lord Deputy bethought himself too late of his Error but could never retrieve it though by means of the Lord Mountjoy he did all in it that was possible having brought the City to accept of a Pardon and receive a Garrison of Soldiers but then it was such a Garrison as they were able to Master and no more by the Articles were to be admitted into it before the ensuing March. 7. We ought to remember the reason of Building Londonderry and 't is plain from its Charter granted by King James the First that it was Founded to be a Shelter and Refuge for Protestants against the Insurrections and Massacres of the Natives who were known always to design and be ready to execute their malice on their Conquerors To keep them therefore in awe and secure the Plantation was the Design of Building the City it was upon this condition and by these Covenants the Proprietors of the City held their Estates and the Inhabitants had been false to the very design and end of their Foundation if they had given up the City with the keeping of which they were intrusted into the Hands of those very men against whom by the Charter it was designed to be a Security and Bulwark At this rate the Lord Deputy might give away any mans Estate and have bestowed it on his greatest Enemy and that with much less injury to the Publick The People therefore of Londonderry had good reason to refuse to deliver their City to the Kearnes and Tories of Ulster though inlisted under the Earl of Antrim by a Commission from a pretended Lord Deputy these were excluded by their very Charter and by the design of Building the Place from possessing it much less had they reason to deliver it to a parcel of men of whose Commission they knew nothing and whose Errand they had reason to believe was to cut their Throats 8. 'T is to be considered that Londonderry was under a further provocation to lay hold on the first opportunity to do themselves Justice and that was the wicked and illegal Invasion made on their Charter Liberties Priviledges and Estates by a most unjust and oppressive Sentence given by an unqualified Lord Chief Baron on a Quo Warranto for which there was not the least pretence in the World as may appear to any one that will be at the pains to view the Proceedings in Court By this Sentence grounded on a foolish nicety objected to the Plea the whole English Interest and Plantations in that County were ruined and the whole Designs of them destroyed and perverted and therefore it was not to be wondered if they took the first opportunity to save themselves from imminent Destruction They concluded that a Government who on a nicety could take away their Charter their Priviledges their Estates and subvert the design of Building their City might as easily and unavoidably find another nicety to take away what remained together with their Lives and therefore they cannot be much blamed if they had been under no other Temptation but this that they were willing to withdraw themselves from a Government whom they durst not trust and which took all advantages against them to destroy them 9. The shutting up of Derry against the Earl of Antrim's Regiment was all that was done by any Protestant in Ireland in opposition to the Government till King James deserted England except what was done at Enniskillin where the People were under the same circumstances with those of Derry having about the same time refused to quarter two Companies sent to them by the Lord Deputy They were not so much as summoned by him nor did they enter into any Act of Hostility or Association or offend any till assaulted being content to stand on their Guard against such as they knew to be Mortal Enemies to the English Interest to subdue whom they were planted in that wild and fast Country But as soon as the News of King James's deserting the Government came into Ireland all Protestants look'd on themselves as obliged to take care of their own Preservation and finding that continual Robberies and Plunderings were committed by such
that we could promise our selves no help from his Negative Vote 13. The House of Lords if regularly assembled had consisted for the most part of Protestants and might have been a Check to the King's Intentions of taking away our Laws in a legal Method there being if we reckon the Bishops about Ninety Protestant Lords to Forty five Papists taking in the new Creations and attainted Lords But first to remove this Obstacle care had been taken to reverse the Outlawries of the Popish Lords in order to capacitate them to sit in the House 2. New Creations were made Sir Alexander Fitton the Chancellor was made Baron of Gosworth Thomas Nugent the Chief Justice Baron of Riverston Justin M'Carty Viscount Mountcashell Sir Valentine Brown Viscount Kenmare A List was made of more to be call'd into the House if there were occasion 3. They had several Popish Titular Bishops in the Kingdom and it was not doubted but if necessity required those would be call'd by Writs into the House 4. It was easie to call the eldest Sons of Noble-men into the Parliament by Writ which would not augment the Nobility and yet fill the House But there were already sufficient to over-vote the Protestants for there remain'd of about Sixty nine Protestant Temporal Lords only four or five in Ireland to sit in the House and of Twenty two Spiritual Lords only seven left in the Kingdom of which Dr. Michael Boyle Arch-bishop of Ardmah Dr. Hugh Gore Bishop of Waterford Dr. Roan Bishop of Killalâ—o were excused on the account of Age and Sickness The other four were Dr. Anthony Dopping Bishop of Meath Dr. Thomas Otway Bishop of Ossory Dr. Simon Digby Bishop of Lymerick and Dr. Edward Wettenhall Bishop of Cork and Ross these were oblig'd to appear upon their Writs directed to them and King James was forced sometimes to make use of them to moderate by way of Counterpoise the Madness of his own Party when their Votes displeas'd him But in the general they protested against most of the Acts and entered their Dissent It is observable that all these Acts of this pretended Parliament are said to be by the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whereas not one Spiritual Lord consented to many of them but on the contrary unanimously protested against them and at passing the Act of Attainder of which more hereafter they were not so much as present They complain'd of this but were refus'd redress and the express mention of their consent continued Of Thirty seven Papist Lords there appear'd besides the new created Lords Twenty four at times of which Fifteen were under Attainders by Indictments and Outlawries two or three were under Age and there remain'd only Six or Seven capable of Sitting and Acting Chancellor Fitton now Baron of Gosworth was Speaker of the House of Lords King James was present constantly in the House and directed them not only in their Debates but likewise in their Forms and Ceremonies hardly one in either House having ever sate in a Parliament before 14. The House of Commons makes the Third Estate in Parliament and 't is by them that the People have a more immediate Interest in the Legislative Power the Members of this House being such as are return'd by the Peoples Free Election which is look'd on as the Fundamental Security of the Lives Liberties and Properties of the Subject These Members of the House of Commons are elected either by the Free-holders of Counties or the Free-men of Corporations And I have already shew'd how King James wrested these out of the Hands of Protestants and put them into Popish Hands in the new Constitution of Corporations by which the Free-men and Free-holders of Cities or Boroughs to whom the Election of Burgesses originally belongs are excluded and the Election put into the Hands of a small number of Men named by the King and removable at his pleasure The Protestant Free-holders if they had been in the Kingdom were much more than the Papist Free-holders but now being gone tho many Counties could not make a Jury as appear'd at the intended Tryal of Mr. Price and other Protestants at Wicklow who could not be tried for want of Free-holders yet notwithstanding the Paucity of these they made a shift to return Knights of the Shire The common way of Election was thus The Earl of Tyrconnel together with the Writ for Election commonly sent a Letter recommending the Persons he design'd should be chosen the Sheriff or Mayor being his Creature on receipt of this call'd so many of the Free-holders of a County or Burgesses of a Corporation together as he thought fit and without any noise made the return It was easie to do this in Boroughs because by their new Charters the Electors were not above Twelve or Thirteen and in the greatest Cities but 24 and commonly not half of these on the place The Method of the Sheriffs proceeding was the same the number of Popish Freeholders being very small sometimes not a Dozen in a County it was easie to give notice to them to appear so that the Protestants either did not know of the Election or durst not appear at it By these means the pretended Parliament consisted of the most Bigotted Papists and of such as were most deeply Interested to destroy the Protestant Religion and Protestants of Ireland One Gerrard Dillon Serjeant at Law a most furious Papist was Recorder of Dublin and he stood to be chosen one of the Burgesses for the City but could not prevail because he had purchased a considerable Estate under the Act of Settlement and they fear'd lest this might engage him to defend it Several Corporations had no Representatives either because they were in the Enemies hands or else because the Persons named by the Charter for Electors were so far remote that they could not come in such Numbers as to secure the Elections for Papists against the few Protestants that were left still in the Charters and who lived generally on the place I have mark'd the Boroughs and Counties that had no Representatives in number about Twenty nine few Protestants could be prevail'd with to stand tho they might have been chosen because they foresaw no possibility of doing good and thought it unsafe to sit in a Parliament which they judged in their Conscience Illegal and purposely design'd for Mischief to them and their Religion however it was thought convenient that some should be in it to observe how things went and with much perswasion and Intreaty Sir John Mead and Mr. Joseph Coghlan Counsellors at Law were prevail'd on to stand for the University of Dublin the University must chuse and it could not stand with their Honor to chuse Papists and therefore they pitch'd on these two Gentlemen who were hardly brought to accept of it as thinking it Scandalous to be in so ill Company and they could not prevail with themselves to sit out the whole Session but withdrew before the Act of Attainder
came to be concluded not enduring to be present at the passing of that and some other Barbarous Acts against which they found their Votes signified nothing while they staid There were four more Protestants return'd of whose Behaviour I can give no account or how they came to be return'd The generality of the Houses consisted of the Sons and Descendents of the Forfeiting Persons in 1641. Men that had no Freeholds or Estates in the Kingdom but were purposely elected to make themselves Estates by taking them away from Protestants 15. Now whilst the power of making and repealing Laws was in such hands what Security could Protestants promise themselves from any Laws or what probability was there that any Laws already made in their Favour would be continued Especially if we consider further that this Parliament openly profess'd it self a Slave to the King's Will and he was look'd on as Factiously and Rebelliously inclin'd that would dare to move any thing after any Favorite in the House had affirm'd that it was contrary to the King's pleasure Several Bills were begun in the House of Commons one for erecting an Inns of Court another for repealing an Act commonly call'd Poinings Act which requires that all Acts should be perused by the King and Council of England before they be offered to be pass'd by the Parliament in Ireland but King James signified his Dissatisfaction to these Bills and for that reason they and several others were let fall tho the Irish had talk'd much and earnestly desir'd the Repeal of Poinings Act it being the greatest Sign and means of their Subjection to England There was a doubt made in the House concerning the Earl of Strafford whether he should be attainted for Estate and Life several moved in his behalf but it was carried against him upon this Evidence Colonel Simon Lutterell affirmed in the House That he had heard the King say some hard things of him The King's pleasure therefore was the Law to which we were to trust for our Lives and Fortunes our Enemies having entirely engross'd the power of making and repealing Laws and devolved it on the King's pleasure the very Protestant Lords and Bishops being denied their Priviledge of entering their Protestations against such Votes as they conceiv'd Destructive to the Kingdom The King told them That Protestations against Votes were only used in Rebellious times and with much ado they were allowed to enter their Dissent tho after that was allowed them the Clerk of the Parliament one Polewheele a Nephew of Chancellor Fitton 's shifted them off and did not enter their Dissent to some Votes tho often sollicited and press'd to do it according to the Orders of the House 16. When King James had labour'd as much as in him lay to get a Parliament that would repeal the Penal Laws and Test in England and open the Houses to Papists he found at last that the great Obstacle that rendered the Kingdom so averse to this was the general Fear and Apprehension that the Legislative Authority would be engross'd by them and turn'd against Protestants this was so obvious and reasonable a Surmise that he knew there was no hopes that the People would side with him against their present Majesties if something were not done to satisfie them and therefore to remove this fear he published his Proclamation dated Sept. 20. 1688. wherein he declares himself willing that Roman Catholicks should remain incapable to be Members of the House of Commons if the Protestants of England had reason to apprehend that Papists would engross the Legislative Authority in England and from the Example of Queen Mary's House of Commons to dread such Law givers how much more reason had the Protestants of Ireland to dread that power when entirely engrossed by their most inveterate Popish Enemies whose Interest as well as Religion oblig'd them to divest all those that profess'd the Reform'd Religion not only of the Favour but likewise of the Benefits of Law 17. They sate from the Seventh of May till the Twentieth of July following and in that short time entirely destroy'd the Settlement of Ireland and outed both the Protestant Clergy and Laity of their Freeholds and Inheritances It is not to be exspected I should give an account of all their Acts that which concerns this present Section is to shew how they destroy'd the Protestants real Estates 1. And that was first by an Act of Repeal whereby they took away the Acts of Settlement and Explanation by virtue of which as I have already shew'd two thirds of the Protestants of the Kingdom held their Estates that is all that which is call'd New Interest was lost by this Repeal there is no consideration had in it how any Man came to his Estate but tho he purchased it at ever so dear a rate he must lose it and it is to be restor'd without Exception to the Proprietor or his Descendent that had it before October 22. 1641. upon what account soever he lost it tho they themselves did not deny but many deserv'd to lose their Estates even Sir Phelim O Neal's Son the great Murtherer and Rebel was restor'd 2. In order to make a final Extirpation of Protestants they contrive and pass an Act of Attainder by which all Protestants whose Names they could find of all Ages Sexes and Degrees are attainted of High Treason and their Estates vested in the King the pretence of this Attainder was their being out of the Kingdom at the time of passing the Act as shall be shewn in the next Section 3. Least some should be forgotten of those that were absent and not put into the Bill of Attainder they contriv'd a general Clause in the Act of Repeal whereby the real Estates of all who Dwelt or staid in any place of the three Kingdoms which did not own King Jame's Power or corresponded with any such as they term Rebels or were any ways aiding abetting or assisting to them from the First day of August 1688. are declared to be forfeited and vested in his Majesty and that without any Office or Inquisition found thereof By which Clause almost every Protestant that could Write in the Kingdom had forfeited his Estate for the Packets went from London to Dublin and back again constantly from August to March 1688. and few had Friends in England or in the North but corresponded with them by Letters and every such Letter is made by this clause a Forfeiture of Estate They had intercepted and search'd every Packet that went or came the later part of this time and kept vast Heaps of Letters which were of no Consequence at all to the Government we wondered what the meaning of their doing so should be but by this Parliament we came to understand it for now these Letters were produced as Evidences in the House of Commons against those that appear'd in behalf of their absent Friends or oppos'd the attainting of such Protestants as they had some kindness for and they were
not believe him till he shewed the Copy which much surpriz'd Sir Richard he began to enquire how his Lordship came by it and intimated that the Keepers of the Rolls were Treacherous in letting any one see it much more in letting a Copy of it go abroad His Lordship with good reason express'd his Admiration that an Act of Parliament should be made a Secret and the Laws upon the Observation of which the Lives and Fortunes of so many Men depended should be conceal'd with so much care from them At last the Attorny told him That he himself would draw up a Warrant for Sir Thomas Southwell's Pardon that should do his Business and get the King to Sign it But the Earl refused to accept his offer unless his Lawyer might first peruse it which being granted the Lawyer upon perusal found it to be such as would not hold in Law and intended only to delude him The Earl made new Application to King James and Sir Richard being sent for the King ask'd him why he did not prepare a Fiant for Sir Thomas Southwell's Pardon according to the Warrant sent to him He answered That his Majesty could not grant such a Pardon That his Majesty was only a Trustee for Forfeited Estates and could not Dispense with the Act that by an express Clause in it all Pardons that should be granted were declar'd void The King in some Passion told him That he hoped they did not intend to retrench his Prerogative Sir Richard replied That his Majesty had read the Act before he pass'd it The King answered He had betray'd him that he depended on him for drawing the Act and if he had drawn it so that there was no room for Dispensing and Pardoning he had been false to him or words to that effect Thus the Matter ended and Sir Thomas went into Scotland with my Lord Seaforth without being able to obtain his Pardon for Estate or Life the Act voiding any Pardon granted to any attainted by it after Nov. 1. 1689. or not enrolled before the last day of that Month. 18. And now I doubt not but the Reader from this Story which is literally true will observe first the Juggling of the Popish Lawyers with King James and will pity a Prince who gave himself up to such False and Double-dealing Counsellors when an Act of Parliament is made against a Papist then it is no less than Treason to question the King 's Pardoning and Dispensing Power but when an Act bears hard on a Protestant and the King has a mind to ease him then the King has no power to Dispense he cannot grant a Pardon tho he earnestly desire it From whence we may see that the Dispensing Power was only set up to shelter Papists from the Law and ruin Protestants and that Papists in their Hearts are as much against it as Protestants 2. We may observe what fair Justice was design'd for Protestants a Law was made to turn near 3000 out of their Estates and to take away their Lives if they did not come in against a certain day and yet the Law that subjected them to this Penalty was made a Secret and they not suffer'd to know one word of it till the time allow'd them to come in was past at least three Months but there was an Intrigue in this they knew they had a Party in England who were to face down the World that there were no such Acts made a Party that were to represent it as a Sham and Contrivance of King James's Enemies to make him Odious and the great Argument they were to urge to prove it must be to alledge Where is the Act Why doth it not appear If there were any such Act would not the People that came so often from Ireland and tell such Frightful Stories have brought it with them This is the part the Favourers of King James were to act in England and Scotland and this is the reason the Act was so long kept Secret 3. We may observe the Folly of those Men who were attainted in this Act themselves and yet Flatter themselves with the hopes of living Happily and enjoying their Estates nay and getting Preferment under K. James when restor'd to his Kingdoms these Men do not consider that this Act would be restor'd together with him and that then it is not in his power to do this for them that if they expect any such thing they must be oblig'd to an Irish Popish Parliament for it and he is much a Stranger to Ireland that knows not what Mercy an English-man and a Protestant is to exspect from them especially when they can give him nothing but what is taken from one of themselves Till therefore the Papists of Ireland become so good natur'd as to give away by their own voluntary act their Estates of which they were in actual Possession to Protestants it is the greatest Folly in the World for any Protestant to think of enjoying any Estate in Ireland 4. For 't is observable that the Protestants Estates were not only given away by this Act of Attainder but the Papists were likewise in Possession of them by the following means The Act of Repeal was to be executed by Commissioners appointed by the King who were to determine the Claims of the Proprietors or Heirs to the Proprietors of the respective Estates October 22. 1641. and give Injunctions to the Sheriff to put them in Possession In the mean time the Protestants were to keep their Possessions till the First of May 1690. and to pay Rent to the Popish Proprietors The same Commissioners were to set out Reprizals to reprizable Persons But notwithstanding this no such Commissioners ever sate the Protestants were generally outed and the Papists possess'd both of their old Estates and likewise of the Estates of Protestants they compass'd this by several Stratagems 19. Wherever the Protestants had set their Lands to Papist Tenants those Tenants forsook their Protestant Landlords and became Tenants to the pretended Popish Proprietors Several Protestants complained in Chancery of this as contrary to the Act which allowed them to keep Possession till May 1690. which not being yet come nor any Commissioners being yet appointed to execute the Act they mov'd for an Injunction to quite their Possessions but the Chancellor answer'd That this did not concern Landlords that set their Lands but only such as occupied Farms themselves and that the Parliament had granted that indulgence to them only that they might have time to dispose of their Stocks which not being their Case who had Tenants they must go to Common Law and try their Titles by this means most of the old Popish Proprietors got into their Estates Nay they not only outed the Landlords of their Estates but even the Protestant Tenants of their Leases made in consideration of a valuable reserv'd Rent though this was positively against the intent of the Act which confirm'd such Leases and only gave the reserved Rent to the restor'd Proprietor 2.
his Government over them 6. The Case of the Purchasers and Improvers in Ireland seem'd the hardest the Land forfeited by the Rebellion in 1641. was set out to those that had been Adventurers and Soldiers in that War and many of these had sold them at Twelve or Fifteen years Purchase the Purchasers had built fair Houses and Villages on them inclos'd Deer-Parks planted Orchards and Gardens and laid out vast Sums in these and other Improvements it seem'd hard to turn them out without consideration to try therefore whether any thing would make King James relent they endeavour'd to see what he would do for these poor Men how their Case was prest and represented to King James may be judged by a Paper given him by the Lord Granard and drawn up by the Chief Justice Keating with the Approbation of other Protestants 't is in the Appendix King James read it and made no other answer to it but That he would not do evil that good might come of it the meaning of which Words as then apply'd is not easily understood It has been a common Question put to the Gentlemen of Ireland by some that neither know them nor their Affairs What have you lost But sure whosoever knows the extent of Ireland and the value of Land in it will see that the Interest of the English Protestants ruined by King James since he came to the Crown is of greater value than the Estates of all that favour his Cause in England and Scotland and I suppose it would put them out of conceit with him or any other King that should take away but one half of their Estates from them SECT XIII Eighthly King James brought the Lives of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland into imminent danger 1. I Suppose from the former Sections it is sufficiently apparent what Invasions King James made on the Liberties and Fortunes of his Protestant Subjects there remained to them only their Lives and these as will appear from this Section were put in imminent danger by him many were lost and the rest escap'd with the greatest hazard When King James came into Ireland it was certainly his Interest to exercise his Clemency towards his Protestant Subjects and he knew it to be so and therefore in his Declaration which he sent privately into England he made large Professions of his tenderness towards them and boasted how much their safety had been his care every body expected a Proclamation for a General Pardon and Indemnity should have been sent before him and that â—e would have put an effectual stop to the illegal Prosecutions against their Lives and to the Robberies of their Fortunes that every where were going on at his coming but on the contrary he rather pusht on both and not content with the Laws that already were in force which Partial Judges and Juries wrâ—sted to destroy them he made new snares for them by Acts of his pretended Parliament and by several private declarations whereby not only he but his inferior Officers took on them to dispose of the Lives of Protestants 2. It is not reasonable to charge his Majesty with the private Murther committed on Men in their Houses which were many up and down the Kingdom several even in the City of Dublin Only thus far in some degree he may be thought responsible for them he knew very well with what barbarous Murthers the Papists of Ireland had been charg'd in the Rebellion of 1641 he knew what inveterate hatred they carried towards the Protestants and how many Tories and Robbers constantly disturbed the Peace of the Kingdom and yet without any necessity at all he threw himself upon these People he encouraged them he Armed them he gave Commissions even to those that had been Tories and guilty of Murthers and therefore cannot altogether be excused from the Irregularities committed by them especially when there was no search made after or Prosecution of the Murthers as it happened in the case of Colonel Murry of Westmeath Brother in law to my Lord Granard an old Gentleman who had serv'd King Charles the first and second and suffered considerably for his Loyalty he was way-laid and shot dead as he rode to his own House under King James's Protection and with some marks as he imagined of his Favour Yet no enquiry was made after it There were many such private Murthers but I do not think it necessary to insist on them I shall confine my self to such as are of a more publick Nature which gave us just reasons to fear that the Government had a design upon our Lives 3. Such were first encouraging Witnesses to swear us into feigned Plots and Conspiracies of these there were many set up in the Kingdom almost every County had one set up in it and many were put into Prison and indicted for high Treason as Captain Phillips and Mr. Bowen in the County oâ— Westmeath and several others in other places some of which I have before mentioned and when the perjuries of the Witnesses came to be plainly discovered they yet were encouraged and protected from any Legal prosecution Of this nature a Conspiracy was framing against one Mr. William Spike and if it had taken effect it would have reached to a great many more The contrivance was thus one Dennis Connor had a mind to a small Employment which Mr Spike held in the Castle he had petitioned for it but Spike by the Interest of my Lord Powis tho a Protestant kept his place being found diligent in it Connor resolv'd to try another experiment to get him removed he framed a Letter as from one in Inniskilling directed to Spike in which the writer thanks him for his Intelligence and refers to a method agreed on for seizing the Castle of Dublin on a certain Day The Letter to make the thing more credible abuses King James in very ill terms Connor drops this Letter in the Castle where Spike came every Day knowing that as soon as it was found Spike would be seized and then he might manage the Plot as he pleased but his Contrivance was spoiled for the Sentinel saw him drop the Paper and procured him immediately to be seized he was examined before the Chief Justice and I think before King James also why he wrote such a wicked Letter he said it was for the Kings service to remove Spike whom he believed to be a Rogue and who being a Protestant would betray the King Spike Prosecuted him in the Kings-Bench but after all that could be done the Jury brought Connor in not Guilty pretending that it did not appear that this was the very Letter dropt by Connor tho he had confest it before the King and the Lord Cheif Justice and tho it was proved and owned to be his hand and a rough draft of it found with him and the Sentinel swore he dropt a Letter which he delivered to the Officer and the Officer swore that was the Letter delivered by the Sentinel to him tho
common defence but were met in the way by a small Party of King James his Dragoons to whom they surrendred themselves on Articles of Safety and Liberty Notwithstanding which they were robb'd and made Prisoners and tho many of them had plentiful Estates yet these were seized by King James's Commissioners and nothing allowed them to preserve their Lives except the charitable Contributions of their fellow Protestants from several parts of the Kingdom They were brought to Tryal before Judge Martin who perswaded them to plead guilty assuring them of the Kings Mercy who was just then landed They were over perswaded by him tho they had not been guilty of any overt Act that could be construed Treason or proved against them as their Lawyers informed them The Judge as soon as he had prevailed with them to confess themselves guilty past Sentence of Death on them and with much ado and a Sum of Money they procured a Reprieve which they were forced to renew from time to time They continued under the Sentence of death in close Imprisonment being removed from Jail to Jail till the general Deliverance by his Majesty's Victory all which time they were not only in a starving condition but likewise had once a Summons sent them either in jest or earnest to prepare for Execution by the Earl of Clanrickard who came to Gallway about the beginning of November 1689. and sent them word that they must prepare for death on the sixth of the same Month for it was his Majesty's pleasure that they should then be executed and accordingly the Sheriff appear'd with all necessary Preparation for their Execution on the day appointed There was indeed no such Order but his Lordship being a new Convert thought it allowable to put this Jest on them as a Testimony of his Zeal against Hereticks and there was no other reason but this given why he put so many Gentlemen into that terrible fright But all Protestants who heard it were very ill pleased that the Lives of so many of them should be thought a proper Subject for a Jest and no notice taken of those who made it and considering the Solemnity and Circumstances with which he carried on this Jest the very Roman Catholicks judged it unseasonable 4. The Protestants had reason to fear their Lives when they saw that they were in the Hands of such as not only broke all Articles and Conditions with them but likewise violated the Kings Protections granted to poor innocent People that had no ways offended him This was the case of many in the County of Down tho they had Protections granted them and lived quietly yet not only their Goods were taken from them but likewise their Wives and Daughters were ravished by the Soldiers They were most sensible and impatient of this Injury and yet proceeded no further than to complain of it to the chief Officers and to demand redress from them The Answer they had was That these Robbers and Ravishers had no Authority from the King for what they did and therefore they advised the Complainants to fall on them and oppose them if they made any further attempts on the Country The poor People were satisfied with the answer and resolv'd to do as they were directed and accordingly fell upon the next Party of Soldiers they found plundering and committing Outrages on the Country People and they killed some of them This instead of being approved as they were made to believe it would be was counted a Rebellion and immediately Major Gen. Bohan was sent among them with a Party who massacred about Five or six hundred of them in cold Blood for several days together Many of those who were killed were poor old impotent People many were killed at their Work and while they were busie about their own Affairs and suspected no such matter King James was so far from resenting the barbarous usage of these poor People that he rail'd on this occasion against Protestants in general representing them as false and perfidious for said he many were killed with my Protestions in their Pockets not considering the Reflection was on his own Party against whom his Protection as appear'd by his own Confession was no Security And when Men were thus slaughtered with his Approbation notwithstanding his Protections in their Pockets it was but reasonable for such as survived to think of some other way of protecting their Lives If he had design'd in earnest to have secured his Subjects Lives or to prevent their destruction he would have made Examples of those who robb'd or kill'd such as had been at the Charges of taking out Four or Five Protections and yet were never the safer or securer of their Fortunes or Lives The violation of Protections in the County of Derry and Donnegall was yet more barbarous and satisfied all Protestants that they ought not to expect any Security of their Lives whilst under the power of such Men. The noise of the Siege of Derry has fill'd the World and such an Account is given of it as supersedes my insisting on it The City is neither well scituated nor well fortified it has no More about it nor Counterscarp and the Bastions are so small that they are not capable of so many men as are requisite to defend the Curtains against a vigorous Attack and so ill placed that their Guns do hardly clear it Yet the whole strength of King James's Army assisted with his French Engineers could never come so near it as to dismount one Cannon on the Walls or make a Breach in them this proceeded from the Cowardize of the Besiegers who according to the nature of Cowards stuck at no Cruelty to gain their purpose They considered that the besieged had many Relations in the neighbouring Country and that they had a general kindness for all the Inhabitants thereabout being if not their Relations and Acquaintance at least their Countrymen and Protestants The Besiegers therefore hop'd to take advantage of this tenderness and good Nature of the besieged to reduce the Town and in order to it made use of this Stratagem which I think was of their own Invention for I do not remember to have met any thing like it in History nor do I believe it was ever practis'd by any Nation unless the French have used it in their late Wars Thus it was General Rosen issued out Orders to bring together all the Protestants Men Women and Children protected and not protected and to set thâ—â— before the Walls there to receive the shot of the Besieged whilst the Besiegers made their Approaches under their Covert and in the mean time to starve and famish them if their Friends in the Town would not out of compassion to them yield up themselves and City into the Hands of these Murtherers The Dragoons and Soldiers executed this Order with the utmost rigour they first stript and then drove the whole Country for Thirty Miles about before them not sparing Nurses with their sucking Children
this Mr. Coghlan served as one of the Burgesses for the Colledge the House of Commons requir'd him to come into the House for he had withdrawn himself from it as we observed before at the passing this Act and to give in the Names of the absent Members of the Colledge that they might be put into the Bill he demurr'd at first but was over-rul'd then upon Consultation with Doctor Acton the Vice Provost he moved the House to send for the Colledge Buttler alledging that he had the Buttery Book wherein the Names of the Collegians were in order and without this he could not get them the House hereupon ordered a Serjeant at Arms to be sent for the Butler but he on Mr. Coghlans intimation absconded for some days The House was in haste to pass the Bill and by this means the Collegians escaped an Attainder 5. It was observable that any Application made in behalf of Absentees by their Friends who staid or were in the House constantly made their Condition worse The Application of Mr. Henry Temple in behalf of his Brother Sir John Temple removed him upwards into the first Rank of Attainted Persons the like Petition had the same effect as as to Mr. Richard Warburton and so upon several others The Papists did this to rid themselves of trouble and importunity and to let the Protestants know that all their endeavours for themselves and Friends should do them no Service and that their ruin was absolutely resolved on 6. That their allowing Persons a certain time to come in and submit to Tryal to prove their Innocency was a meer nothing for they very well knew that it was impossible any body should certainly know what time was given each man to come in and it had been a foolish venture for such as were absent to come into a Place where for ought they knew they were already condemned and should be immediately hang'd without a Tryal 2. No body knew what they could call Innocency perhaps writing to or petitioning any one that had King William's Commission nay conversing with such might be reckoned corresponding with Rebels and sufficient Evidence of their Guilt and indeed Judge Nugent had in a manner determin'd this Case for he interpreted one Mr. Desminiers answering a Bill of Exchange for Sir Thomas Southwell who was Prisoner at Galloway a corresponding with Rebels and committed him to Jail for it he likewise put one Mr. Ginnery in Jail for High Treason because being Agent for the Prisoners at Galloway to procure them a Reprieve and other Affairs he received Letters from them though Mr. Ginnery's Father and Brother were amongst them 3. When this pretended Parliament past this Act they were very well aware that the Embargo here was so exceedingly strict that from the time of passing the Act till the First of October nay of November following which was the longest time allowed any one to come in not one Ship or Boat was suffered to pass from hence into England so that it was absolutely impossible the Persons concern'd in this Law should have had any knowledge of it before they were Condemned by it to the loss of Life and Estate beyond the power of the King to Pardon them 4. King James and his Parliament knew perfectly well that the Embargo was so strict on the other side that if the Gentlemen could have had Information yet it was impossible for them to have gotten out of England to tender themselves to Justice within the time wherein the Act required they should do it on no less Penalty than the irrecoverable Forfeiture of Life and Estate which is a plain demonstration that the allowing time for the Attainted Persons to come in and prove their Innocency was a meer colour and had nothing of sincerity in it since they themselves that made the Law were fully informed and satisfied that this was an impossible condition 5. Suppose it had been possible yet it had been a very unwise part for such Protestants as were safe in England to have left it and to have come into Ireland a ruinous Kingdom the actual seat of a War where all the goods and moveables they had left behind them were Imbezell'd by Robbers or by those that had seiz'd them for King James and their real Estates given away to such as were Descendents of their Fathers Murtherers or at least had been in that Rebellion where they must abide a Tryal before Judges and Juryes of profest Enemies whether their Lives should be their own and after all if acquitted could have no other prospect of supporting themselves but Begging amongst a People that had reduced them to this condition These considerations were of such weight with all People that they who were absent were so far from thinking of a return that on the contrary Men of the best Estates who had stayed here wished themselves away and many were content to leave all and venture their Lives in little Boats to the Mercy of the Seas in the depth of Winter reckoning any thing safer and easier than to stay under a Government which had effectually destroyed all the Measures of right and wrong and Condemned so many Gentlemen to the loss of all without allowing them either the favour of being Tryed or so much as Heard 4. I know it will be objected that very few Protestants lost their Lives in Ireland under King James notwithstanding all the severe Proclamations and Laws and the apprehensions under which they lay of danger But to this I answer First that when a full enquiry comes to be made concerning those that were Kill'd by the Soldiers Murthered in their Houses Executed by Martial Law Starv'd and Famish'd in Jails and that Perished by other Violences the number will not be so small as is imagined 2. It is to be considered that the Irish Papists lay under the strictest obligations not to begin Acts of Cruelty for the Murthers they had committed in the last Rebellion were chiefly objected against them they were sensible they had gained nothing by them and that the Cruelty exercised in them was the thing that especially rendred them Odious and lost them their Estates and therefore they thought it the best way not to be too forward in the like practises till they were sure not to be call'd to an after-reckoning They further considered that many of their own Friends were Prisoners in the North and that if they began with Examples of Cruelty on the Protestants who were in their Power their Friends must expect the like from the Enemy in whose Hands they were 'T was this made them dismiss the Poor People they had resolv'd to starve before Derry And they were made believe that not only the Prisoners would Suffer but that the Cruelties they exercised on the Protestants would be Revenged on all the Roman Catholicks in England This was given out by some who understood King James's true interest and that he depended on some Protestants in England for succour and
assistance rather more than on the Roman Catholicks now they knew very well that Murther is so hateful a thing that if they once fell a Massacring it would shock many of their Friends in England and Scotland from whom they expected great matters and therefore they thought it their interest to be as tender of Lives as they could and even the Priests when they encouraged them to Rob their Protestant Neighbours charg'd them not to kill them assuring them that every thing else would be forgiven them 3. The Protestants were extreamly cautious not to give the least offence they walked so warily and prudently that it was hardly possible to find any occasion against them and they were so true to one another and conversed so little with any of King James's Party that it was as difficult to fix any thing on them or to get any Information against them though several designs were laid against them and several false Witnesses produc'd as has been shewn yet their Stories still destroyed themselves by their Improbabilities inconsistency and the notorious infamy of the Witnesses 4. We had no experiment of what would have been done with the attainted Absentees for none of them run the hazard of a Tryal but we are sure no good could have been done them for they could neither have been pardoned for Estate nor Life and the best they could have expected was to have been sent to some other Kingdom as Sir Thomas Southwell was sent to Scotland for there could have been no living for them in Ireland 5. When any Protestant found himself obnoxious to the Government or but fancyed they had any thing to object against him he got out of the Kingdom or made his escape to the North as well as he could and in the mean time absconded many escaped hanging by these means which otherwise in all probability had been executed Lastly It was so much the Interest of King James in his Circumstances to have been kind to the Protestanâ—s of Ireland that we might rather have expected to have been courted than ill used by him the whole support and maintenance of his Army in Ireland depended on them they clothed fed armed and quartered them which they could not avoid doing with any safety to themselves or indeed possibility of living and the Officers of the Army were so sensible of this that when it was propos'd to turn all the Protestants out of the City of Dublin one of them answered that whenever they were turned out the Army must go with them for they could not be furnished with what they wanted by others And as it was King James's Interest to use them well upon the account of their being necessary to him in Ireland so his Affairs in England and Scotland did more particularly require it and he was forced to employ his Emissaries there to give it out that he did so Sir Daniel Mac Daniel who came out of the Isles of Scotland to Dublin in Winter 1689. and several Gentlemen of the Highlands with him declared that their Ministers in the Pulpit had assured them that the Protestants in Ireland lived under King James in the greatest freedom quiet and security both as to their Properties and Religion and that if their Countrymen knew the truth of the matter as they then found it here they would never fight one stroak for him and they seemed to stand amazed at what they saw and could hardly believe their own Eyes It is certain that King James had the like Instruments in England as I have noted before who forced down the World in Coffee-Houses and publick places that the Protestants in Ireland lived easie and happy under his Government however this shews how much it was really his Interest to have given his Protestant Subjects here no just cause of complaint and that it must proceed from a strange eagerness to destroy them that King James and his Party ventured in their Circumstances to go so far in it as they did their own imminent danger disswaded them from severity and their Interest manifestly obliged them to mildness and if notwithstanding these they condemned near Three thousand of the most Eminent Gentlemen Citizens Clergymen and Nobility of the Kingdom to death and loss of Estates we may easily guess what they would have done when their fear and interest were removed and they left to the swing of their own natural Inclinations and the tendency of their Principles Whosoever considers all Circumstances will conclude that no less was designed by them than the execution of the third Chapter of the Lateran Council the utter extirpation of the Hereticks of these Kingdoms SECT XIV Ninthly Shewing King James's Methods for destroying the Protestant Religion 1. THE design against the Lives and Fortunes of the Protestants is so apparent from the execution thereof especially by the Acts of the late pretended Parliament that they themselves can hardly deny it nay some were apt to glory in it and to let us know that it was not a late design taken up since the revolt of England as they call it from King James they thought fit to settle on the Duke of Tirconnel above 20 m. Pounds per Annum in value out of the Estates of some Protestant Gentlemen attainted by them as aforesaid in consideration of his signal Service of Twenty Years which he spent in contriving this Work and bringing it to pass as one of their most eminent Members exprest it in his Speech in Parliament and the particular Act which vests this Estate in him shews 2. But it may be thought that King James was more tender in the matter of Religion and that he who gloried so much in his resolution to settle Liberty of Conscience wherever he had Power as he told his pretended Parliament and set forth almost in every Proclamation would never have made any open Invasion on the Consciences of his Protestant Subjects But they found by experience that a Papist whatever he professes is but an ill Guardian of Liberty of Conscience and that the same Religion that obliged the King of Spain to set up an Inquisition could not long endure the King of England to maintain Liberty If indeed King James had prevailed with Italy or Spain to have tolerated the open exercise of the Protestant Religion it had been I believe a convincing Argument to England to have granted Roman Catholicks Liberty in these Dominions but whilst the Inquisition is kept up to the height in those Countries and worse than an Inquisition in France against the publick Edicts and Laws of the Kingdom and against the solemn Oath and Faith of the King it is too gross to go about to perswade us that we might expect a free exercise of our Religion any other way than the Protestants enjoy it in France that is under the Discipline of Dragoons after the Papists had gotten the Arms the Offices the Estates and Courts of Judicature into their Hands 3. The Protestant Religion and
to take us out of Jail to restore our Laws our Employments the free exercise of our Religion our Fortunes and Estates when we were unjustly depriv'd of them and 't was a very modest expectation in them and answerable to their other measures of Politicks to think a People harrass'd and stript and plundred and condemned by them to lose their Lives and Estates which was the Case of all those who fled from hence to England and in great measure of most of those that staid here should in the height of their smart and sufferings reject the kind offers of a Deliverer to depend on a Miracle yet they pretend this is what we ought to have done and because we did it not they rail at us in the most bitter Terms they call us Rebels and Traitors Villains and Atheists and load us with all the approbrious Names their Malice and Revenge can suggest But we cannot blame them to be angry the hungry Wolf if he could speak would curse and rail as heartily at the Shepherd that rescues the Lamb out of his Paws as they do at us or our Deliverer they had devour'd us in their Imaginations they had got the Civil and Military Sword into their Hands and engrost all Places of Trust and Profit these with the Legislative Power in the hands of our ancient and most malicious Enemies were more than enough to have destroy'd us but just when they should have divided the Spoil and concluded the fatal Tragedy the Prince of Orange his present Majesty interposeth and rescueth us this disappointment mads them beyond all bounds of patience and casts them into strange fits of railing and cursing Hell Damnation Confusion to him and his Royal Consort were continually in the Mouths of their Men Women and Children with these they used to entertain one another at their Tables and Debauches and endeavoured to force them by way of Healths on Protestants In short they spare no ill Name or Execration that impotent Rage could vent or invenom'd Rancour could suggest but when all is done in their quiet Intervals their Consciences cannot but acquit us and many of them made no scruple to confess That there was no medium but that either we or they must be undone and when that was the unavoidable choice that they according to their own confession had put on us I assure my self the World will not only excuse us but will think it was our Duty to have done what we did since they had left us no other visible way but this to avoid certain and apparent Destruction CHAP. V. A short Account of those Protestants who left the Kingdom and of those that staid and submitted to King James SECT I. Concerning those who went away 1. THE former Discourse I suppose is sufficient to justifie the Protestants of Ireland as to their submission to the Government of their present Majesties and to shew the Reasons for their earnest desiring and thankfully accepting of that Deliverance which Providence offered us by their means It remains only to speak a few words in particular of those that left the Kingdom and of those that staid and submitted to King James that they may understand the truth of each others Circumstances and not either of them unjustly censure the other 2. As to those that absented themselves out of the Kingdom it is certain that they offended against no Law in doing so it being lawful for any Subject to transport himself out of one part of the Dominions of England into another it is true that there is a Law or Custom that requires such as hold Offices from the King to take a Licence from the Chief Governour but the Penalty of this is no more than the forfeiture of their Offices and I find it disputed among the Lawyers whether it reach so far now few of those that went away compar'd with the whole number of them were Officers those that were generally took Licences of absence and at worst it was at their own Peril and it had been a great severity to have taken the forfeiture which was the sence of the whole Parliament of England in making an Act to exempt such from incurring any loss 3. But Secondly they had great reason to go out of the Kingdom because they foresaw that it would be the seat of Warr they saw 40 or 50 m Men put into Arms without any fund to maintain them they knew these to be their bitter and sworn Enemies they saw the course of Justice stopt against them and their Stocks and Cattle taken away before their faces several Gentlemen of the Country lost to the value of some 1000 l. before they stirr'd and to what purpose should they stay in a place where they certainly knew that all they had would be taken from them and their Lives expos'd to the fury of their Enemies Thirdly They had no reason to stay because they could not expect to do any good by their staying or to save the Kingdome the Papists had all the Forts and Magazins of the Kingdom in their hands they had all the Arms and publick Revenues they were in number Four or Five to one Protestant and they had the face of Authority on their side and then what could a scattered Multitude without Arms without Leaders and without Authority hope to do in their own defence by going into England they reckon'd themselves not only safe but likewise in a way of serving their Countrey 'T was from thence they expected Arms Ammunition and Commissions by the help of which they might put themselves in some capacity of rescuing their Estates and Friends they left behind which they lookt on as much better Service than to stay and perish with them 4. Fourthly the memory of the cruel usage and difficult times those met with who staid in Ireland in 1641. did frighten and terrifie all that reflected on them the number of those that were then massacred and starv'd was incredible and those that escap'd got away with such circumstances that the memory of what they had suffered was as ill as death if any will be but at the pains of reading over Sir John Temples account of the first half Year of the War or rather Massacre he will be satisfied that it was no unreasonable fear made so many Protestants withdraw out of the reach of such barbarities the same Men or their Sons that committed all those bloody murders and inhumanities were again arm'd in a much more formidable manner than they ever had been before and yet at that time they were able to maintain a War for Twelve Years and live by spoil and robbery and then what were the Children of those whose Parents had been murthered by them to expect but the same fate or at best a miserable Life in a desolate and spoild Country in which no wise Man would choose to live if he could help it indeed they could not expect to live long after all was taken from them but must in
a little time have unavoidably starv'd a Trades-man might expect to live by his Industry a Gentleman on his Credit in a peaceable Countrey or in War by listing themselves in any Army But in Ireland where Men neither were suffered to use their Industry nor batake themselves to Arms where they could neither enjoy the means of gaining a livelihood in Peace or War to what purpose should they stay to live at the best in Poverty Contempt and Slavery 5. As to the Clergy that left the Kingdom it is to be considered that most of those in the Countrey were robb'd and plunder'd and nothing left them to support themselves and families before they went away many were deserted by their People their Parishioners leaving them and getting to England or Scotland before them some Parishioners were so kind to their Ministers that they begg'd and entreated them to be gone which they were mov'd to do because they saw the spite and malice of their Enemies was more peculiarly bent against the Clergy and they imagined that their removing would a little allay the heat of those spiteful Men and that the Robbers would not so often visit the neighbourhood when the Minister was gone which in many places had the effect intended for the Robbers would come a great way to rob a Gentleman or Clergyman and would be sure to visit the poor peoples houses in their passages But when these were remov'd the obscurity of the meaner People did protect them from many violences Lastly many Clergymen were forc'd to remove because they had nothing left to live on their Parishioners were as poor as themselves and utterly unable to help them I do consess that there was no reason to complain of the Peoples backwardness to maintain the Clergy on the contrary they contributed to the utmost of their power and beyond it and made no distinction of Sects many Dissenters of all sorts except Quakers contributing liberally to this good end which ought to be remembred to their honour but after all in many places a whole Parish what with the ruin and desolation brought on the Kingdom and what with the removal of the Protestant Parishioners was not able to contribute 20 s. to maintain their Minister and meer necessity forced away these Ministers Against some others the Government had peculiar piques and exceptions those were in manifest hazard of their Lives and in fear every day of being seiz'd and brought to a Tryal on some feign'd Crime And several both of the Clergy and Laity were forc'd to fly on this account for their safety All these I look on to be justifiable reasons of Mens withdrawing If any went away on any other principles who were not in these or the like circumstances I shall leave them to the censure of the World but I believe very few will be found for whom either their publick or private circumstances may not justly apologize 6. It is not to be suppos'd that Men would have left their plentiful Estates and Settlements their well furnisht Houses and comfortable ways of living as most of these who went away did had they not been under the greatest fears and pressures Wives would not have left their Husbands nor Parents their Children Men of Estates and Fortunes would not have ventured their Lives in little Wherries and Boats to pass Seas famous for their Ship wracks if they could with any comfort or safety have stayed at home I know King James took care to have it suggested in England that all these left Ireland not out of any real fear or necessity but only with a disign to make him and his Government odious but sure they must think the Protestants of Ireland were very fond of a Collection in England that can imagine so many thousand people of all sorts and sexes should conspire together to ruine themselves and throw away all that they had in the World out of malice and only to bring an Odium on a Party that had done them no harm 7. Neither was it as some suggest a vain and pannick fear that possessed them that went away for that could not continue for a Year or Two but those that had lived under King James a Year and half were as earnest to get away as those that went at first and the longer they liv'd under him their fear and apprehensions increas'd the more on them being already ruined in their Fortunes and their Lives in daily and apparent hazard from military and illegal proceedings They liv'd amongst a People that daily robb'd plundered and affronted them that assaulted their Persons and threatned their Lives and wanted only the word to cut their Throats and sure 't was then time to withdraw from the danger at any rate and I am confident I speak the sence of the generality of those that stayed that if the Seas had been left open some few Months before his Majesty appear'd in the Field in Ireland far the greatest part I may venture to say almost all of those that had stayed till then would have gone away with their Lives only rather than have continued here longer Whoever knows the cruelty and malice of those with whom we had to deal will own these fears to be reasonable Yet for this we were condemned to death and forfeiture and the very Children barr'd of their rights against the known Laws and Customs of the Kingdom SECT II. A justification of those Protestants who staid in Ireland and lived in submission to King James's Government 1. NOt withstanding the great number of Protestants that fled to England yet many stay'd behind perhaps some may accuse their Prudence in venturing to stay under such circumstances but otherwise I think little can be objected against them however lest any should entertain any sinister thoughts of them 't will be necessary to say something in their behalf They were of Four sorts 1. the meaner People 2. Gentry of Estates 3. Such as had employments and 4. the Clergy 2. First as to the meaner People 't is to be considered that it was no easy thing to get away the freight of Ships and Lycences were at very high rates and sometimes not to be purchased at all Many of the Countrey People could not get to the Sea Ports they had little Money their riches were in their Stocks and these being plundered they were not able to raise so much money as would transport them and their Families and they generally came too late to the Ports A strict Embargo being laid on all Ships before they could get to the Sea side many of the Citizens of Dublin and other Sea Ports got off but were forc'd to leave their Shops and Concerns behind in the hands of their Relations and Dependents who were obliged to stay to take care of them Others thought it unreasonable to leave all they had to go to beg in a strange Countrey and having no body to trust with their Concerns resolv'd to hazard themselves together with them If these
Bodies Politick or Corporate to whom such Certificate shall be given shall during the Space of six Months next insuing the Date thereof diligently prosecute the having and obtaining Letters Patents accordingly but shall thereof be delayed and hindered by the Neglect of any Officer or Officers that then and in such Case the several and respective Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate to whom and in whose behalf such Certificate shall be given or granted shall hold and enjoy the several Mesâ—uages Mannors Lands Tenements and Hereditaments in the several and respective Certificates mentioned and allotted according to such Estate and under such Rent as are therein mentioned as fully and amply to all Intents and Purposes as if Letters Patents thereof had been granted and perfected according to the Directions in the said former Act any thing in this or the said former Act or any other Law Statute or Usage to the contrary notwithstanding And whereas by the Hardships and Oppressions introduced by the said Acts of Settlement and Explanation some ancient Proprietors who would have been restorable by the said Act of Repeal have been necessitated to accept of Leases for Life Lives or Years or Gifts in Tayl or other Conveyances of their own respective Estates and have contracted to pay some Rents Duties or other Reservations out of such their ancient Estates by which Acceptance of Leases or Gifts before-mentioned and by the said Agreements to pay Rents Duties or Reservations for the same the said ancient Proprietors may be barred or stopp'd and concluded from the Benefit of Restitution intended for ancient Proprietors by the said Act of Repeal Be it therefore enacted That the Acceptance of any such Lease or Leases Gift or Gifts in Tayl or any Agreement or Agreements upon any such Account for Payment of Rents Duties or any other Reservation for such their respective ancient Estate or Estates shall be no way prejudicial or binding or conclusive to any such ancient Proprietor or to his or their Heirs Executors or Administrators who have not actually by some legal ways or means released his or their Right to his or their said ancient Estates unto their said Leassors or Donors any thing herein or in the said Act of Repeal to the contrary notwithstanding Whereas some or most of the Lands to be given in Reprizals have not been surveyed by the Surveys commonly called the Down-Survey or Strafford-Survey and that a certain way is necessary to be prescribed for ascertaining the Quit-Rents now made payable thereout Be it therefore enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the Commissioners for the Execution of the said Act of Repeal or any three of them shall and may be impowered to ascertain such Quantities payable out of such Lands so to be given in Reprize and to that Purpose to issue Commissions for Valuations or Surveâ—s as they shall think fit and that such Surveys shall be made according to the Rules and Methods used for the Down-Survey wherein the unprofitable is to be thrown in with the profitable and where the Lands appear barren or the Quit-Rents by the said Act of Repeal proper or fit to be reduced it shall and may be lawful for them to reduce the same in which Case such reduced or reserved Quit-Rents shall be and is hereby the only Quit-Rent payable out of the said Lands if such Quit-Rents be more than the Crown-Rents before this Act payable out of the said Lands But in case the ancient Crown-Rent be more the greater Rent shall be the Rent reserved thereout Provided yet likewise that the Commissioners for the Execution of the said Act of Repeal or in Default of them the Barons of their Majesties Court of Exchequer within five Years after the first sitting of the Commissioners for the Execution of the said Act shall be and are hereby impowered to reduce the Quit-Rents by the said Act due and payable out of Lands by the said Act of Repeal to be restored or formerly restored to the former Proprietors thereof where the Lands are barren or of so small Value that the Quit-Rent doth amount to the fourth part of the Value of the Lands and may be Discouragement to the Plantation of the said Lands and that such ascertaining or abating of Quit-Rents under the Hands and Seals of the said Commissioners or Barons respectively shall be as good and effectual as if the same had been enacted by these Presents any thing herein or in the said Acts of Repeal contained to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further enacted That the Commissioners to be appointed for setling forth Reprizals pursuant to the said Act of Repeal or any three of them shall out of the Stock of Reprizals therein and in this present Act or in either of them mentioned set forth and allot Reprizals to such Person and Persons as by Virtue of this present Act are appointed to be reprized and shall and may also execute such other parts of this Act as are to be executed by Commissioners And whereas divers Lands Tenements and Hereditaments forfeited unto and vested in your Majesty are or may be found to be liable to divers Debts or other entire Payments saved by this Act and for levying and receiving the same the Person or Persons intitled thereunto might charge any part of the Lands Tenements or Hereditaments originally liable to the said Debts or Payments with more than a just Proportion thereof whereby some of the Persons to whom part of the said Lands Tenements or Hereditaments shall be allotted or granted in Reprizal may be overcharged in such Part or Proportion of the said Lands Tenements or Hereditaments as shall be so to him or them granted or allotted which may occasion great Prejudice and Loss to some of the said reprizable Persons if due Course be not taken for apportioning the said Debts and Payments For Remedy whereof Be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the Commissioners for Execution of the said Act of Repeal and this present Act or any three or more of them be and are hereby impowered and required equally to apportion such Debts and Payments as shall appear to them to be chargeable upon or levyable out of any Lands Tenements and Hereditaments to be set forth for Reprizals as aforesaid and to ascertain what Proportion of such Debts or Payments each and every Proportion of the Lands Tenements and Hereditaments which were originally liable thereunto and which shall be separately set forth for Reprizals as aforesaid shall remain liable to pay or discharge and the respective Grantees and every of them and their respective Proportions of the said Lands Tenements and Hereditaments to them allotted for Reprizals shall not be liable to any more of the said Debts or Payments than by the said Apportionment shall be appointed and directed which Proportion of the said Debts or Payments is to be inserted in the Certificate to be granted of the Lands liable thereunto if the Person or Persons obtaining such Certificate shall desire the
of all His Majesty's true Subjects in Ireland and shut himself up between two Potent Enemies in England and Ireland whereas by setting the Irish on a sure foot he always hath for a Refuge that Country which he will find to be far better than nothing and may be with time a means to come into England But Trimmers will tell him That it is no matter for His Majesty if he can gain the English Rebels by sacrificing Ireland to them who will inhabit it whether English or Irish nay I believe rather English and so make it an English Interest all along and he will be apt to believe it but it imports the Irish to look about them and consider if that be their Interest Add to all these considerations with many more and better you can think of an essential and indispensible one which is to please this King and Court of whom his Majesty now and you all depend solely and wholly by saving their Interest along with that of his Majesty and your own which cannot be done but by settling of Ireland upon the best and most advantageous foot that can be contrived with Reason and Justice 〈◊〉 it may be a Check upon England as Scotland formerly to keep it from Rebellion against their own Prince From trouble and Invasion upon France and a Tye upon the Kings of England hereafter to keep good Correspondence with France and keep Ireland in a flourishing happy condition and not to be Slaves to all the People and Scums of England If 48 or other were loath to press any such Conditions or Proposals on the King they may make use of the French Minister Count D'Avaux who is with him as a good Adviser and for to manage his Masters Interest I think it may be well and rationally proposed if by the King of France's means such an advantageous settlement may be procured for the Nation and that he would be as a Guarranty or Protection of it to give him as well for his assurance or Guarranty as for the payment of what he advances for the King and Country some Sea-ports in Ireland as you have hinted in your last This is what now comes into my head upon this Subject which M. B. does not neglect to insinuate and imprint as much as he can though not well in his health into the Heads and Hearts of the Ministers and People about Court Though 27 gave no Power or Credit to any body here to speak of Business but to his Son-in-Law L. W. in Cypher 110. but M. B. does it privately upon his own account and acquaintance with the People without thwarting him in any of his Ways But you know what one says tanquam potestatem habeâ—s carries more weight than what he says as a private man And therefore I think it were not amiss that 48. from himself or by the said French Ministers means may get order from 27 that 92 may be heard and Credited at Court as to the Concerns of 78 which to prevent and hinder some that would not have it put into 27's head as 't is thought to desire 92 to follow him as soon as he were well in his health along with 23 and before he saw himself to tell him so knowing he was sick gave orders to 18's fellow traveller whom I added to the Cypher thus 112 to tell him so which he has perform'd only by another Master Barry belonging to 34 for he never came himself to see him which I think was not prudently done of him setting civility aside for they may communicate one to another what may be best to do with 86 for the service of 78 and certainly without any vanity 92 knew better how to manage that interest with 86 than he or any of his profession there But I find some do suspect the sincerity of that Man for the Publick Interest I know not if they wrong him but one thing I know he does not like to see any of 64 or 65 have any hand in Business Of which I think I gave you once already a hint from 87 when he and 98 were there and I cannot tell but it may be he that might have given 27 that advice of drawing 92 from hence who desires not to be but where he may be most useful to his Religion King and Country and if any necessity may be of his Vote there he can send you a Procuration in blank if he be thought more useful or necessary here 'T is now high time I suppose you should ask me what is this great and solid settlement I would have for Ireland To which I answer That you and others there likely know best But that I may speak my own little sense on the matter I say I would have two or three of the Irish Nation to be still of the Kings Council and one of them Secretary of State for the Affairs of Ireland as Scotland has I would have some of their Nobility to be of the Bedchamber by reason both of Honour and Interest I would have all the Employments Civil and Military given to the Natives of the Country Unless the Country thought â—it to introduce some Strangers for better advantage and improvements I would have them restored to their Estates both Spiritual and Temporal usurped by the Cromwellians or under the Title of being Protestants yet with that Proviso for the Spiritual that a Competent Pension should be allowed to the Protestant Possessor during his Life for he can pretend no longer Lease of it or that he should give the Catholick Bishop or Incumbenâ— a competent Pension if it were thought fitter to let him enjoy his Possession during Life I would have the Commerce and Traffick settled with all the Advantage due to a 〈◊〉 Nation and Subjects of which the Merchants 〈◊〉 inform best without any other dependence on or relation to England but what Subjects ought to the King and Crown of which I would not derogate in the least but nothing to do with the Merchants and People of England no more than with those of France Spain and Holland But my Politick Trimmer will say this is of a dangerous consequence for England and for the King in relation to it for they will say the King intends to establish the same Government amongst them both in Spirituals and Temporals that he has in Ireland To which I answer in the first place That we are not here to manage or speak for the Interest of England which would not fail to speak and stand for it self Secondly I say That the Consequence from Ireland's Case to England's does not follow For in Ireland the Catholick Party is much more numerous and strong than the Protestant So that it is for the King's Interest there to favour them or at least do them Justice But in England where the number of Protestants and other Sectaries is by much the greater he can order things otherwise without any Contradiction for â—â—om the one to the other the Consequence does
at once inriched and civilized it would hardly be believed it were the same Spot of Earth Nay Over-flown and Moorish Grounds were reduced to the bettering of the Soyl and Air. The Purchasers who brought the Kingdom to this flourishing Condition fly to your Majesty for Succour offering not only their Estates and Fortunes but even their Lives to any Legal Trial within this your Majesties Kingdom being ready to submit their Persons and Estates to any established Judicature where if it shall be found that they enjoy any thing without Legal Title or done any thing that may forfeit what they have Purchased they will sit down and most willingly acquiesce in the Judgments But to have their Purchases made void their Lands and Improvements taken from them their Securities and Assurances for Money Lent declar'd Null and Void by a Law made ex post facto is what was never practised in any Kingdom or Countrey If the Bill now design'd to be made a Law had been attempted within two three four or five years after the Court for the execution of these Acts was ended the Purchasers would not have laid out their Estates in acquiring of Lands or in Building or Improving on them Thousands who had sold small Estates and Free-holds in England and brought the Price of them to Purchase or Plant here wou'd have stayed at home And your Majesties Revenue with that of the Nobility and Gentry had never come to the Height it did If your Majesty please to consider upon what Grounds and Assurances the Purchasers of Lands and Tenements in this Kingdom proceed you will soon conclude that never any proceeded upon securer Grounds The Acts of xvij and xviij of King Charles your Father of blessed Memory the First takes notice that there was a Rebellion begun in this Kingdom on the 23d of October 1641 And so doth a Bill once read in the House of Lords whoever looks into the Royal Martyrs Discourse upon that Occasion will see with what an abhorrence he laments it and that he had once thoughts of coming over in Person to suppress it Those Acts promise Satisfaction out of Forfeited Lands to such as would advance Money for reducing these disturbers of the publick Peace unto their Duty The Invitation was his late Majesties your Royal Brothers Letters from Breda some few weeks before his Restauration which hapned the 29th of May 1660 And within six Months after came forth his Majesties most Gracious Declaration for the Settlement of this Kingdom This may it please your Majesty is the Basis and Foundation of the Settlement and was some years after Enacted and made a Law by two several Acts of Parliament It is true that the Usurping Powers in the Year 1653. having by the permission of the Almighty as a just Judgment on us for our Sins prevailed here did dispose and set out the Estates of Catholicks unto Adventurers and Soldiers and in a year or two after transplanted out Catholick Free-holders for no other Reason but their being so in Connought where Lands were set out unto them under divers Qualifications which they and their Heirs or those deriving under them as Purchasers enjoy'd and still do enjoy under the Security of the before mentioned Acts of Parliament and Declaration His Majesties gracious Declaration of the 30th of November 1660. which I call the Foundation of the Settlement was before it was concluded on under the Consideration of that great Prince and the Lords of his Council of England where all Persons concerned for the Proprietors as well old as new were heard whoever reads will find the many Difficulties which he and his Council met with from the different and several Pretenders what Consideration was had and Care taken to reconcile the jarring Interests and to accommodate and settle as well as was possible the Mass and Body of Subjects here It was some years after before the Act for the Execution of his Majesties most Gracious Declaration became a Law It was neer two years upon the Anvil It was not a Law that past in few days or sub silentio It was first according to the then Course of passing Laws here framed by the Chief Governour and Council of this Kingdom by the Advice and with the Assistance of all the Judges and of his Majesties Council Learned in the Law and then transmitted into England to be further consider'd of by his Majesty and Lords of his Council there where the Counsel at Law and Agents of all Pretenders to the Propriety of Lands in this Kingdom were heard and that Act commonly called the Act of Settlement approved of and retransmitted under the Seal of England to receive the Royal Assent which it did after having passed both Houses of Parliament The Innocent Proprietors being restored pursuant to thiâ— Act and some Difficulties appearing as to the further execution of it Another Act passed commonly called the Act of Explanation which went the same Course and under the same Scrutiny It is confessed that though they are two Acts it was by the same Parliament who were chosen according to the ancient Course of Chusing Parliaments But if any miscarriage were in bringing that Parliament together or the procuring the aforesaid Acts of Parliament to pass which we can in no wise admit and the less for that your Majesties Revenue was granted and settled by the same Parliament and many good and wholsom Laws therein Enacted Yet it is manifest that nothing of that kind ought to affect the Plain and honest Purchaser who for great and valuable Considerations acquired Lands under the Security aforesaid and expended the remainder of his Means in Building Improving and Planting on them and that for the following Reasons First The Purchaser advising with his Counsel how to lay out or secure his Money that it may not lie dead not only to his but the publick detriment tells him that he is offer'd a Purchase of Lands in Fee or desired by his Neighbours to accommodate him with Money upon the Security of Judgment or Statute Staple and upon the enquiry into the Title he finds a good and Secure Estate as firm in Law as two Acts of Parliament in force in this Kingdom can make it and in many Cases Letters Patents upon a Commission of Grace for remedying of defective Titles he finds Possession both of many years gone along with this Title several descents past and possibly that the Lands have been purchased and passed through the hands of divers Purchasers He resorts to the Records where he meets with Fines and Common Recoveries the great Assurance known to the Laws of England Under which by the Blessing of God we live and tells him there is no scruple nor difficulty of Purchasing under this Title since he hath Security under two Acts of Parliament Certificates and Letters Patents Fines and Recoveries and that no Law of force in this Kingdom can stir much less shake this Title How is it possible to imagine that the