lics, would afterwards join' in an attempt to reftore LETTER their religion to its ancient fplendour. The beginning of winter was fixed on for the commencement of this A.D. A CONCURRENCE of favourable circumstances feemed to have rendered the fuccefs of this undertaking in fallible. The Irish catholics difcovered fuch a propenfity to revoit, that it was not thought neceffary to truft he fecret o many perfons; and the appointed day drew nigh without any difcovery having been made to government. The earl of Leicester, whom the king had appointed lord-lieutenant, remained in London; and the two chief juftices, Sir William Parfons and Sir John Borlace, were men of flender abilities. The attempt upon the caftle of Dublin, however, was defeated by one O'Connolly, who betrayed the confpiracy to Parfons. More efcaped, Maguire was taken; and Mahone, another of the confpirators, alfo being feized, difcovered to the juftices the project of a general infurrection, and increafed the terror and confternation of the Protestants 10. BUT this intelligence, though it faved Dublin, was obtained too late to enable the government to prevent the intended rebellion. O'Neale and his confederates immediately took arms in Ulfter. They began with feizing the houses, cattle, and goods of the unwary 10. Sir John Temple's Irish Rebellion. Rushworth, vol. v, A. D. 1641. PART II. English and Scottish settlers, whoin they hated on account of rheir religion, and envied for their riches and profperity. After rapacity had fully exerted itfelf, cruelty began its operations: an univerfal maffacre commenced of the English Proteftants, now defencelefs, and paffively refigned to their inhuman foes, who exereised on them a degree of barbarity unequalled in the hiftory of any other nation, and at which credibility is ftartled. No age, no fex, no condition was fpared: the wife weeping over her murdered husband, and embracing her helpless children, was butchered with them, and even pierced by the fame ftroke; all the ties of blood, as well as thofe of fociety, were diffolved; and friends, relations, and companions, were hunted down by their kindred and connexions, and involved in one common ruin, by thofe whom they had formerly confidered as moft fincerely attached to their perfons, and who were most near and dear to them "'! The women, forgetting the character of their sex, emulated the men in the practice of every cruelty"; in comparison with many of which, death might be regarded as a light punishment, and even as a happy release from pain, roused by all the varieties of torture. AMIDST thefe frightful enormities, the facred name of religion refounded on every fide; not to arreft the fury of the murderers, but to enforce their blows, and to steel their hearts against every movement of natural or focial fympathy. The English Proteftants were marked out by the catholic priefts for flaughter, as heretics abhorred of God, and deteftable to all holy men 13. Perfidy, as well as cruelty, was accordingly represented as meritorious and if any where a number of Englishmen affembled together, in order to de 12. Rushworth, vol. v. Hume, chap. lv. 11. Temple ubi fup. fend V. fend themselves to the laft extremity, and to sweeten LETTER death at leaft by taking revenge on their deftroyers, they were disarmed by capitulations and promises of A.D. 1641. fafety, confirmed by the moft folemn oaths. But no fooner had they furrendered, than the rebels made them fhare the fame fate with the body of their unhappy countrymen and fellow Proteftants. Nor was this all. While death finished the fufferings of each unhappy victim, the bigotted affaffins, with joy and exultation, ftill echoed in his ears, that these dying agonies were but a prelude to torments infinite and eternal '4. SUCH were the barbarities, my dear Philip, by which Sir Phelim O'Neale and the Irish in Ulfter fignalized their rebellion. The English colonies there were totally annihilated; and, from Ulfter, the flames of rebellion suddenly spread over the other three provinces of Ireland, where the English had established fettlements. In thefe provinces, however, though death and flaughter were not uncommon, the Irish pretended to act with more moderation and humanity. But cruel, alas! was their humanity, and unfeeling their moderation. Not content with expelling the English planters from their houses, with defpoiling them of their property, seizing their poffeffions, and wafting their cultivated fields, they ftripped them of their very cloaths, and turned them out naked and defenceless, to all the severities of the feafon; while the heavens them. November. felves, as if joining in confpiracy against the unhappy fufferers, were armed with cold and tempeft, unufual to the climate, and executed what the merciless fword had left unfinished 's! Even the English of the Pale, who at first pretended to blame the infurrection, and 14. Temple, p. 94-188. Whitlocke, p. 47. Rushworth, vol. v. 15. Temple. A. D. 1641, PART II. to deteft the barbarity with which it was accompanied, in a little time, found the interefts of religion to prevail over their regard to their mother-country, and their allegiance to their fovereign; and joining the old Irish, rivalled them in every act of violence and cruelty against the English Proteftants 16. The number of perfons, who perished by all these barbarities, is computed at forty thousand; and the principal army of the rebels, amounting to twenty thousand men, yet thirsting for further flaughter and richer plunder, now threatened Dublin, where the miferable remnant of the English planters had taken refuge17. Pecember. THE king, while preparing to leave Edinburgh, as already obferved, had received, by a meffenger from the North of Ireland, an account of this dreadful infurrection, which ought to be held in perpetual abhorrence by every lover of humanity ". He immedi 16. Ibid. Both the English and Irish rebels conspired in one impofture, with which they induced many of their deluded countrymen; they pretended authority from the king and queen, but chiefly from the latter, for their infurrection; and they affirmed that the cause of their taking up arms was to vindicate royal prerogative, so shamefully invaded by the puritanical parliament. Rushworth, vol. v. 17. Whitlocke, p. 49. Hume, chap. iv. 18, Many attempts have been made to throw a veil over the enormities of the Irish malfacre. The natural love of independency, the ty ranny of the English government, and the rapacity of the English foldiery, have been pleaded as powerful motives for rebellion, and strong incentives to vengeance, in the breafts of the injured and oppressed natives; and much trouble has been taken to prove, That the horrors of religious hate, though provoked by perfecution, have been greatly exaggerated. But the vindictive and fanguinary disposition of the Irish catholics, in latter times, leave us no room to fuppofe that the defcrip tion of the cruelties of their bigotted and barbarous ancestors has been overcharged. The ftimulating caufes I have not concealed, nor have I concealed their effects. The general flaughter I have reduced as low even as Mr. Brooke, the author of the Trial of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, could wish; but truth forbids me to disguise the atrocious circumstances with which it was accompanied. ately V. ately communicated his intelligence to the Scottish LETTER parliament, hoping that the fame zeal, which had induced the Covenanters twice to run to arms, and af. A. D. 1645. femble troops in oppofition to the rights of their fovereign, would make them fly to the relief of their pro. teftant brethren in Ireland, now labouring under the cruel perfecutions of the catholics. But the zeal of the Scots, as is ufual among religious fects, was extremely feeble, when neither ftimulated by a fense of intereft, nor by apprehensions of danger. They, therefore, refolved to make an advantageous bargain for the fuccours they should send to Ireland; and as the English commons, with which they were already closely connected, could alone fulfil any article that might be agreed on, they fent commiffioners to London, to treat with that order in the state to which the fovereign authority was really transferred 19 THUS difappointed in his expectation of supplies from the Scots, and fenfible of his own inability to subdue the Irish rebels, Charles was obliged to have recourfe to the English parliament; to whofe care and wisdom, he imprudently declared, he was willing to commit the conduct and prosecution of the war. The commons, who poffeffed alone the power of fupply, and who had aggrandifed themselves by the difficulties and diftreffes of the crown, feemed to confider it as a peculiar happiness, that the rebellion in Ireland had fucceeded, at so critical a period, to the pacification of Scotland. They immediately laid hold of the expreffion, by which the king committed to them the care of that island and to this ufurpation, the boldeft they had yet made, Charles was obliged paffively to submit; both because of his utter inability to refift, and left he 19. Rushworth, vol. v. fhould |