PART II. LETTER LETTER V. GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND, from the Execution of STRAFFORD, to the Beginning of the Grand Rebellion, in 1642. WHEN Charles arrived in Scotland, he found his fubjects of that kingdom highly elated with the A.D. 1641. fuccefs of their military expedition. Befides the large pay voted them for lying in good quarters at Newcastle, as long as the popular leaders had occafion for them, the English parliament had conferred on them a present of three hundred thousand pounds for their brotherly affifiance'. They were declared, in the articles of pacification, to have been ever good subjects; and their hoftile irruptions were approved of, as enterprizes calculated, and intended for his majesty's honour and advantage! Nay, in order to carry yet farther the triumph over their fovereign, these articles, containing terms fo ignominious to him, were ordered by a parliamentary vote, to be read in all churches, on a day of thanksgiving appointed for the national pacification". PEOPLE in fuch a humour, were not likely to be fatisfied with trifling conceffions. The Scottish parliament began with abolishing the Lords of Articles; who, from their conftitution, were fuppofed to be entirely devoted to the court, and without whose consent no motion could be made 3: a circumftance peculiarly grievous in the Scottish parliament, where the peers and commons formed only one houfe. A law for triennial parliaments was likewife paffed; and it was ordained, that the laft act of every parliament should ap1. Nalfon, vol. i. 3. Burnet, Mem. 2. Rushworth, vol. v. V. point the time and place for holding the parliament LETTER next enfuing. So far all perhaps was laudable; but fubjects who ufurp on the authority of their prince, A.D. 1641. never know where to draw the line. In their rage for redreffing grievances, they invade the moft effential branches of royal prerogative. The king was in a manner dethroned in Scotland, by an article, which declared, That no member of the privy council (in whofe hands, during the king's abfence, the whole administration was vefted), no officer of ftate, none of the judges, fhould be appointed but by the advice and approbation of parliament'. To all these encroachments Charles quietly fubmit. ted, in order to fatisfy his Scottish fubjects, and was preparing to return to England in hopes of completing a fimilar plan of pacification, when he received intelligence, that a bloody rebellion had broke out in Ireland, accompanied with circumftances of cruelty and devaftation which fill the foul with horror. On every fide furrounded by melancholy incidents and humiliating demands, nature and fortune, no less than faction and fanaticifm, feemed to have confpired the ruin of this unhappy prince. THE Conduct of James I. in regard to the affairs of Ireland, as we have already had occafion to fee, was truly political, and the fame plan of adminiftration was purfued by his fon Charles; namely, to reconcile the turbulent natives to the authority of law, by the regular diftribution of justice, and to cure them of that floth and barbarism to which they had ever been addicted, by introducing arts and induftry among them. For thefe falutary purposes, and alfo to fecure the dominion of Ireland to the crown of England, great num 4. Burnet's Mem, of the House of Hamilton. VOL. III. 5. Ibid.. PART II. A. D. 1641. bers of British subjects had been carried over to that ifland, and large colonies planted in different parts of it; so that, after a peace of near forty years, the inveterate quarrels between the two nations not only feemed to be obliterated, but the country every where wore a lefs favage face. To the tranquillity, as well as the prosperity of Ireland, the vigorous government of the earl of Strafford had contributed not a little. During his adminiftration agriculture had made great advances, by means of the English and Scottish plantations; the fhipping of the kingdom had been doubled; the cuftoms tripled upon the fame rates; and manufactures introduced and promoted. But foon after that minifter fell a victim to popular fury, though dignified with the forms of jus. tice, affairs began to wear a very different aspect in Ireland, and Charles found the parliament of that kingdom as high in its pretenfions as thofe of England and Scotland, and as ready to rife in its encroachments in proportion to his conceffions. The court of High-commiffion was voted to be a grievance; martial law was abolished; the jurifdiction of the council annihilated, and proclamations and acts of state declared of no authority 7. THE English fettlers, who were the chief movers of thefe measures, did not perceive in their rage for liberty, the danger of weakening the authority of government, in a country where the Proteftants fcarce formed the fixth part of the inhabitants, and where twothirds of the natives were ftill in a ftate of wild barbarity. The opportunity, however, thus afforded them, 6. Warwick, p. 115. Rushworth, vol. iv. Nalfon, vol. ii. Strafford may he said to have given a beginning to the Linen Manufa&ure in Ireland, now become the great ftaple of the kingdom. 5. Id. ibid. 1. V. اله did not escape the difcernment of the old Irifh. They LETTER obferved with pleasure every impolitic step, and determined on a general revolt, in order to free their coun- A. D. 1641. try from the dominion of foreigners, and their religion from the infults of profane heretics. In this refolution they were encouraged by a gentleman, named Roger More, distinguished among them by his valour and abilities; and who, by going from chieftain to chieftain, roused up every latent principle of difcon tent. MORE maintained a clofe correfpondence with lord Maguire and Sir Phelim O'Neale, the moft powerful of the old Irish chieftains; and he took every opportunity of representing to his countrymen, that the king's au thority, in Britain, was reduced to so low an ebb, that he could not poffibly exert himself with any vigour, in maintaining the English dominion over Ireland: that the catholics in the Irish houfe of commons, affifted by the Proteftants, had fo diminished the royal prerogative, and the power of the lord-lieutenant, as would much facilitate the conducting of any confpiracy that should be formed; that the Scots in having fo fuccessfully thrown off dependence on the crown of England, and taken the government into their own hands, had fet an example to the Irish, who had much greater grievances to complain of; that the English planters, who had expelled them from their ancient poffeffions, were but a handful in comparison of the original inhabitants; that they lived in the most supine fecurity, interfperfed with their numerous enemies, and trufting to the protection of a small army, which was itself scattered in inconfiderable divifions throughout the whole kingdom; that a body of eight thousand men, raised and difciplined by government, in order to fupprefs the rebellion in Scotland, were now thrown Y 2 loofe, A. D. 1641. PART II. loose, and ready for any daring or desperate enter prize; that although the catholics had hitherto, from the moderation of their indulgent prince, enjoyed in fome measure the exercise of their religion, they muft expect that the government would thenceforth be conducted by other maxims and other principles; that the puritanical party in parliament having, at last, subdued the fovereign, would doubtless extend their ambitious views and fanatical politics to Ireland, as foon as they had confolidated their authority, and make the catholics in that kingdom feel the fame furious perfecution to which their brethren in England were already expofed; that a people, taking arms to rescue their native country from the dominion of foreign invaders, could at no time be confidered as rebels; and much lefs could the Irifh be regarded as fuch during the prefent diforders, when royal authority, to which alone they could owe any obedience, was in a manner ufurped by a fet of defperate heretics, from whom they could expect no favour or indulgence, but might apprehend every violence and feverity 9. INFLUENCED by thefe confiderations, all the heads of the native Irish engaged in the conspiracy; and it was not doubted but the old British planters, or the English of the Pale, as they were called, being all catho 8. The English commons entertained the greatest apprehensions on account of this army, the officers of which were Proteftants, but the private men Catholics: and never ceafed foliciting the king, till he agreed to break it. Nor would they confent to his augmenting the standing árny to five thousand men ; a number which he judged necessary to retain Ireland in obedience. Nay, they even fruftrated an agreement, which he had made with the Spanish ambassador, to have the disbanded troops transported into Flanders, and enlisted in his master's fervice: Charles thinking it dangerous, that eight thousand men accustomed to idienefs, and trained to the use of arms, fhould be difpersed among a people fo turbulent and predatory, as the Irish. Clarendon, vol. i. Rushworth, vol. v. Dugdale, p. 57. 9. Sir John Temple's Irifa Rebellion. |