such their avowed hatred to the Catholics, and such their still dissembled, but active enmity to royalty, that the most serious apprehensions of an immediate general massacre or extermination of the whole body of the Catholics were generally entertained throughout the kingdom *."

In page 141, he says, "Thus at last was the whole body of the Irish Catholics, nobility and gentry, compelled, for self-preservation, to unite in a regular system of defence; which, to this day is, most, unwarrantably and unjustly, styled, an odious and unnatural rebellion."

The judicious author of these Strictures justly observes, "Now a stronger proof of the weakness of the Puritans cannot be produced than the historical fact, that they were obliged to form a coalition in Parliament with the Catholic party; and to join hand-in-hand with them, in measures of opposition to government, and their struggles apse King's Prerogative." He quotes the following passage from Leland, whose credit Mr. Plowden admits, by frequently quot ing him: The Catholic Lords, and those Protestant Lords infected with the puritanic spirit, also joined in their measures of opposition + to Lord Strafford's administration.' And Leland says, b. v. p. 74,

་

But the coalition of Puritan and Popish partizans was made for no other purpose, nor can their party be suspected of any other design, but that of seizing the advantage of the confusions in England .'

When the rebellion broke out, the Irish Papists proceeded to exterminate Protestants of every description; and yet in their manifesto, which they soon after published, they say, that they are ready to yield up at his Majesty's command all those forts and places which they had seized, when a course should be, taken to secure them, and the Protestants of the kingdom, his only true and obedient subjects, against the faltious and seditious Puritans. Leland, b. v. p. 122.

The author of these Strictures observes, "when therefore this writer asserts (p. 135) that such at this time was the prevalence of the Puritan party in Ireland; such their arrogance, ferocity, and power; such their avowed hatred to the Catholics (their parliamentary, associates), and such their still dissembled but active enmity to royalty, that the most serious apprehensions were entertained of an

Mr. Plowden's inconsistency on this point is very glaring; for in page 120, he says, that the Catholics were in the proportion of 100 to one Protestant. The Puritans formed but a small portion of the Protestants; how then could the Catholics have any apprehensions of an immediate general massacre, to be perpetrated by the Puritans?

They continued to do so till the eve of the rebellion.

Mr. Plowden says in page 131, The Puritans dreaded the loyalty more than the religion of the Catholics; but by persecuting them on the score of religion, they attacked their means of supporting the royal cause, and associated all other Protestants with them, whilst they could thus mask their batteries against the throne..

immediate

inmediate general massacre or extermination of the whole body of the Catholics, his work becomes an absurd and mischievous romance, and not an history." As to their fears and apprehensions, the Earl of Orrery, who took an active part in support of the constitution, during that dreadful rebellion, observes, in his very excellent answer to Peter Walsh's scandalous letter; "The Irish Papists, in their former and latter apologies for the horridest of rebellions, have not to this very day (within any of his Majesty's dominions) even pretended publicly any other cause for their rapines, murders, massacres, and treasons, but what resolves itself into fears and jealousies. And if their passions be the same, it is to be feared their wills are not altered. And if their wills be the same, nothing under God can prevent the effects, but want of strength."

We give the following extract from this very excellent writer, in which he shews the real cause of this dreadful rebellion.

The clergy,' says Leland, by whose influence these violent proceed. ings were directed, were, by their numbers and their principles, justly alarming to Government. They swarmed into the kingdom from foreign seminaries, where they had imbibed the most abject and pestilent opinions of the papal authority. Seculars and regulars alike had bound themselves by a solemn oath to defend the papacy against the whole world, to labour for the augmentation of its power and privileges, to execute its mandates, and to prosecute heresies. The whole body acted in dangerous concert, under the direction of the Pope, and subject to the orders of the congre gation de pagaganda fide, lately erected at Rome; and many of them, by their education in the seminaries of Spain, were peculiarly devoted to the interests of that monarch: habituated to regard the insurrections of the old Irish, in the reign of Elizabeth, as the most generous exertions of patriotism, and taught to detest the power which quelled the spirit, and established a dominion on the ruins of the ancient dignity and pre-eminence of their countrymen.'

"But, as this picture has been copied by a Protestant divine, I refer my readers to the original, namely, the Narrative (throughout) of Walsh, the Irish Franciscan Friar, who was present in Ireland at the time these transactions took place.

"I have already remarked, that Mr. Plowden's mode of writing history is rather a novel one; and my observation is confirmed, by the manner in which he has compiled his history of this memorable reign: for he begins by informing his readers, in a note to p. 113, that they. must give very little, if any credit, to all the reputable historians of that remarkable epoch of Irish history, on account of their party prejudices; that Dr. Warner only can be trusted, whose book is very scarce in Ireland; and therefore, although it contradicts every one of Mr. Plowden's favourite positions, yet his Irish readers have his full permission to consult it, on account of its scarcity.

"The works of Lord Castlehaven, one of the members of the Supreme (rebel) Catholic Council of Kilkenny, and who commanded the rebel Leinster horse, under the rebel General Preston; those of the titular Bishop of Ferns, who, in his book, styles the massacre of 1641, "sanctum

et

et justissimum bellum;" and the writings of Messrs. Peter Walsh the Franciscan, Geoghegan, O'Connor, and Currie, they have Mr. Plowden's permission to place their confidence in; particularly as some of them agree with him, that the Irish massacre and rebellion of 1641 was provoked by the oppressions of the government of Lord Strafford.

"Mr. Plowden having removed out of his way all impediments to historical misrepresentation, by thus interdicting any reference to Sir J. Temple, Doctor Borlace, Clarendon, Carte, and Sir Richard Cox, proceeds to establish three positions. First, that the cruel and wanton rebellion of the year 1641, was provoked by the rigour of Lord Strafford's administration; secondly, that the Catholics of that day were zealous loyalists, fighting for King Charles, his crown, and dignity; and, thirdly, that the Protestants of Ireland commenced the first mas.

sacre.

"As to the first position-Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, commenced his administration in 1632, on the reinoval of Lord Faulkland; at the beginning of the year 1641, he lost his head for his attachment to his unfortunate master. That Strafford was a harsh, rigorous and imperious governor, I freely admit; but that his administration, however odious to the Catholic and Puritanic parties, was highly beneficial to the interests of Ireland, I have abundant authorities to produce, and, first, Leland thus describes his government: But, however individuals were aggrieved by his conduct, the natives, who had never known a strict and scrupulous administration of English law, cleared from every thing arbitrary and oppressive, were abundantly consoled by the advantages derived from the administration of Lord Strafford. The army, which had long proved an odious and intolerable burden to the inhabitants, yet scarcely of essential service to the crown, was well disciplined, duly paid, and preserved in good condition, inoffensive to the peaceable subjects, and formidable to the enemies of government. The revenue was unincumbered, and a large sum lay ready in the Exchequer to answer any sudden emergency. The ecclesiastical establishment was protected, the revenues of the church im. proved, and abler and more reputable teachers provided for the people, The Scottish Puritans (who inhabited the North) were indeed sometimes offended at the indulgence shewn to the Recusants; but, in the present state of the kingdom, where far the greater number of the inhabitants, and those possessed of power and CONSEQUENCE, were of the Romish communion, the most obvious maxims of policy forhad any rigorous execution of the penal statutes. It was sufficient to confine Recusants to a less public and offensive exercise of religion, so as to preserve the authority of govern. ment, without provoking violent and dangerous discontents. Peace, order, obedience, and industry, distinguished the present period from that of any former administration. The value of lands was increased, commerce extended, the customs amounted to almost four times their former sum, the commodities exported from Ireland were twice as much in value as the foreign merchandize imported, and shipping was found to have increased an hundred fold-such were the benefits derived from Lord Wentworth's administration, however in many instances unpopular, odious and oppres. sive. Doctor Leland quotes no authority for this representation of the benefits which Ireland derived from the government of Strafford; and as this excellent history, so often quoted by Mr. Plowden, when it condemns

the

the errors of Irish governments, is nevertheless interdicted as an authority for the leading events of this reign, I was obliged to seek for a confirmation of the truth of these facts in another work; accordingly, in Rushworth (that writer so partial to the parliamentarians), in his fourth volume, from page 120 to 247, inclusive, I find the fullest confirmation of this statement; and among the other obligations which Ireland owes to this great victim to popular frenzy, is the introduction of her linen manufacture, which Lord Wentworth first established in that country, in place of the woollen, which, if it had been extended, would have caused eternal jealousies between the two countries: and which linen manufacture he gave thirty thousand pounds out of his own pocket to promote. When this great man (whose absence Dr. Warner thinks was the cause of the rebellion, because he was too vigilant, too brave, and too high spirited not to have crushed it in its birth,' p. 17) was called over to England, and afterwards impeached, and beheaded, immediately the Catholic and Puritanic parties in Parliament, which had been awed by his firmness, and controuled by his vigour, obtained a complete ascendancy in that assembly. Those patriots, like their successors of a later date, immediately produced their budget of grievances. They had obtained a decided majo rity by displacing all Stratford's friends: for we are informed by Rushworth, that to have been neglected or ill-treated by Strafford, was now considered as the highest merit, and the most effectual recommendation to honours and employments.

"I find also in the Irish Commons' Journals of 1741, that after the impeachment and execution of this Earl, the Irish Parliament pronounced the High Commission Court (or Castle Chamber, as it was called), a great and universal grievance; that they limited the execution of martial law, even in times of war and rebellion; that they pronounced some equit. able demands of the Protestant clergy grievances; that they attacked the College of Dublin, particularly that bye-law which excluded non-confor. mists from preferment. I find that, upon a conference between the two houses relative to the constitutional rights of the Irish nation, Patrick Darcy, a leading Catholic member, was appointed Prolocutor on the occasion: and that they condemned all the powers assumed by Lord Strafford, which they termed illegal practices introduced by him.' I also find that this House of Commons disbanded that large Irish army which he had raised; and that they refused to allow the King to permit them to enlist in a foreign service, but suffered them to be disbanded in Ireland-ready instruments for rebellion. And, finally, I find by the Irish Commons' Journals of the same year, that a solemn determination as to the rights of Irish subjects, was drawn up by the two houses of parliament, and forwarded to the Committee of Irish Agents in London, to be laid before the King for his ratification: and that these agents having returned to Ireland in August 1641, with a full confirmation from Charles of all these popular bills, graces, and concessions, the parliament was prorogued.

"And no doubt we may suppose, that the members retired to their country seats to receive the congratulations of their constituents, and to witness the effusions of popular gratitude, for these important concessions from the crown.

"At the close of this session, the Catholic party in parliament (one of the most leading members of which was the Lord Maguire, who, in

the

the rebellion of this year, was to have commanded the attack upon the Castle of Dublin), and their coadjutors, the Puritanic party, had ob. tained from Charles such an ample redress of Irish grievances, as left the factious without any reasonable pretence for discontent; and which gave the most sincere satisfaction to those dupes of the latter party, who flattered themselves, that the rights which they had asserted would give general contentment, and ensure the tranquillity of the kingdom.

"Upon the twenty.third of October following (not three months after the prorogation) the horrible massacre and rebellion of 1641 took place.

"I am as willing as Mr. Plowden, though possibly our motives may be different, to draw a veil over the horrors of that disgraceful period, the traditions of the cruclties of which (in some measure revived by recent events), do not fail to operate, after the lapse of more than a cen tury and a half, upon the Protestant mind in Ireland. I think it now of little importance to ascertain whether, as according to Sir J. Temple, 154,000 men, women, and children, in Ulster alone; or, as according to Dr. Warner, 4020 only were massacred, and 8000 starved in the two first months of this rebellion: perhaps the truth may lie between. The barbarity and authenticity of the fact is equally undenied.

"Let us now proceed to discover, from the confessions of the parties implicated (since Mr. Plowden has interdicted all reference to the histo rians of credit), what was the cause and the object of this bloggy conspi

racy.

"Out of their own mouths we have this admission, that its object was to extirpate the English nation, and the Protestant religion, out of their country; and that it was fomented by religious bigotry, and nourished by the rooted aversion of the native Catholic Irish to the English descendants.

From the Examination of Doctor Jones,' a manuscript, now preserved in Trinity College, in the City of Dublin, we learn, that early in the month of October, before the rebellion broke out, a very considerable meeting of the principal Romish ecclesiastics, and some of the leaders of the conspiracy, was held in the County of Westmeath, at the Great Abbey of Multifarnam; where, amongst other subjects of debate, one great question was, what they should do with the English and Irish Pro. testants, as soon as they should be in their power? Some were for expelling them as the Spaniards had the Moors; others objected to this policy, on the grounds, that if the English were expelled, they would return, with tenfoid vengeance, from England, against them.--At length it was resolved, that a general massacre was the only sure and safe mode of getting rid of the English and the Protestants; and it was resolved upon. Such is the account which Dr. Jones, when a prisoner among the rebels, received from a Franciscan friar of this assembly, of which he acknowledged he was a member, and that he took his share in the deli, berations. What then becomes of Mr. Plowden's remark?—

the

That there was no preconcerted system or preparation for a rising on part of the Irish, when their most virulent libeller, Sir John Temple, admits that these rebels, at their first rising, had only pitchforks, staves, and scythes.'

"What, does it follow, because the manufacture of pikes was not then

in