It is far from our design to enter into an enquiry as to the origin of the ruinous Civil War that commenced in Ireland in 1641, to inculpate or to exculpate either parties; much less to proceed with an account of the movements of the armies, or the battles fought, or the defeats or victories gained on either sides. But it is not irrelevant to the matter in hands to speak of the various treaties concluded and agreed upon between the King's Agents or Commissioners on the one side, and the Commissioners of the Confederate Catholics on the other. These treaties had their origin from the distresses to which the King was reduced by his rebellious subjects in Scotland and England, and by their adherents and partizans, the puritanical party in the Irish Parliament. To rescue the King from the difficulties and perils with which he was surrounded, his friends saw nothing likely to be effectual but the pacification of his Irish Roman Catholic Subjects, who, though in arms in defence of their Religion and Lives, were strongly attached to Monarchial Government and to the person of his Majesty. For this purpose an instrument for a cessation of Arms, preparatory to a Treaty of Peace, was signed, 15th Sept. 1643, between the Marquis of Ormond on the part of the King, and the Commissioners of the Confederate Catholics. This cessation was shortly after violated by the Scots in Ulster, still acknowledging the King's authority, and again shortly after by the Scotch and English forces in the same province. Still the negociations for peace went on, and the Confederates sent supplies into England for the relief of his Majesty. The King's affairs assuming a worse appearance every day made him most anxious to have the Peace with his Irish Subjects brought to a speedy conclusion. But Ormond was in no such hurry. He, although pressed by his Majesty to conclude the treaty, retarded that measure, and the King seeing the necessity for

such a Peace, gave a secret Commission to the Earl of Glamorgan to negociate with the Catholics. Accordingly, Commissioners from the Confederates met his Lordship, the terms were soon agreed upon, as both parties were in earnest, and the Treaty was signed on the 25th of August,

1645.

By this Treaty the freedom of Religion, security for the possessions of their estates, and every other privilege enjoyed by any class of his Majesty's subjects were secured to them, and the King became pledged to have the intire ratified by Parliament. (See the Treaty at large in the subjoined DOCUMENTS, No. 4, Page 5.)

This Treaty, though carried on with great secrecy, was discovered, and created a terrible uproar against the King, by the Scotch and English Puritans; and his Majesty, who was then in the power of those Rebels, had the baseness to deny his own act, and Glamorgan was clapped into confinement, for signing the Treaty without having, as it was alleged, the Royal Authority.

Ormond, in the mean time, was also carrying on his negotiations, but shewed an unwillingness to agree to terms. At length, however, when much injury had been done to the Royal Cause by his delay, the Treaty was signed by him and the Commissioners of the Confederates, at Dublin, on the 28th March, 1646.

The terms contained in this Treaty were offered to Ormond two years before, and are nearly the same as those contained in the Treaty with Glamorgan. In both these Treaties the Catholics were to be exempt foom taking any Oath, other than the Oath of Allegiance, to qualify for any offices or situations in the State. Why Ormond did not sooner sign the agreement is not satisfac

torily accounted for. Some have attributed his delay to something like a treasonable design; but be it from what cause it may, his delay gave a deadly wound to the interests of his Master.(See this Treaty in subjoined DOCUMENTS, No. 5, Page 13.)

It will not be wondered at that the Catholic Party should insist upon the terms of these Treaties, when it is known, that the Puritans had sent Sir Charles Coote, and others of that party, to Oxford, to meet the King, and who there pretended that they were sent as Agents from the Protestants of Ireland; though nothing as yet has appeared, that shews they were any thing more than the agents of the party in Ireland, attached to the rebellious Parliament of England. But let their authority be what it may, the proposals they made to the King were such as required the vigilance and firmness of the Catholics to resist them. They proposed that the King would abate his quit rents for a time, to encourage and enable Protestants to replant the kingdom, and cause a good walled town to be built in every county of the kingdom for their security, no Papist being admitted to dwell therein........that the Penal Laws should continue in force, and be put in execution; that no body should execute the office of a Magistrate in any Corporation, or of a Sheriff or Justice of Peace in a County, nor any Lawyer be allowed to practise, without taking the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance........that there be a present dissolution of the assumed power of the Confederates ; that all legally indicted of treason, and other heinous crimes, might be proceeded against, outlawed, tried and adjudged according to law, and such as were or should be convicted or attainted for the same, might be punished accordingly; that the attainders had by outlawry for treason done in the rebellion, might be confirmed by Act of Parlia

ment, and traitors convicted and attainted, and their estates forfeited........ that Popery, and Popish Bishops, should be suppressed; that all Popish Priests should be banished out of Ireland; that no Popish Recusant should be allowed to sit or vote in Parliament; and that the King would take all forfeited estates into his own hands, and after making satisfaction to such as claimed by former Acts of Parliament, dispose of the rest to British and Protestants, to plant the same upon reasonable and honourable terms. These propositions, and several others that shew that these Puritan Agents had nothing less than the complete extirpation of the Catholics, may be seen at large in Borlase's History of the Irish Rebellion, folio, Dublin, 1743, page 193.

Upon these propositions, Mr. Carte, in his Life of the Duke of Ormond, makes the following remarks: "These propositions, for putting the Ro"man Catholicks of Ireland under greater hard

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ships than any they had ever complained of be"fore, incapacitating them from all offices whatever, disabling them from sitting in Parliament, "A PRIVILEGE WHICH THEY HAD AL"WAYS ENJOYED, and from which alone

they could expect any redress of future griev"ances, forfeiting all their estates, real and per❝sonal; and yet obliging them, when their all was "taken from them, to make impossible reparations "and satisfactions, for losses sustained and devas"tations committed in the war, suppressing their

religion, banishing all their clergy, and new "planting the kingdom, were evidently calculated "to hinder any peace at all, and certainly came "from some of the party of men, which first formed "the design of an extirpation of the Roman Ca"tholicks, and by publishing that design, made "the rebellion so general, as it proved at last."(Carte's Ormond, vol. 1, page 502.)

The validity of these treaties has been denied by the opponents of the Catholics. The first, on the ground that the King had denied his giving authority to conclude it, and the other on the ground that the authority he had given to Ormond, was withdrawn, by a letter which he was compelled to write while under restraint, by his rebellious Scotch and English subjects. That Glamorgan had authority from the King to execute his treaty with the Irish, is abundantly proved by a variety of Documents, to be found in Coxe's Hibernia Anglicana, Borlase's Irish Rebellion, Warner's Irish Rebellion, and Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormond-all Protestant writers, not one of whom can be so much as suspected of any partiality to the Roman Catholicks. That the treaty signed by Ormond was done by the King's authority, is proved by the King's letter to Ormond, granting him the authority, now of record in the Rolls Office, Dublin, where the Treaty itself is also enrolled, as well as Ormond's Warrant to the Chancellor for its enrollment, and the Chancellor's letter to the Clerk of the Enrollments, commanding him to have it entered. In addition to this, the Peace was publicly proclaimed by the Lord Lieutenant and Council in Dublin, the 13th July, 1646, and King Charles II; acknowledges it in his Declaration for the Settlement of this Kingdom, now parcel of the Statute Law of Ireland. (See subjoined DOCUMENTS; No. 8, and Borlase's Irish Rebellion, p. 208.)

This treaty with Ormond came to nothing in the end; for though the Confederates in general were determined to fulfil their parts, some of the Roman Catholic body were dissatisfied with the terms; of these were the famous Owen Roe O'Neill and the Pope's Nuncio, with some of the Catholic Clergy. The Puritan party in the King's army were also dissatisfied, and this disagreement gave Ormond an excuse for breaking off a Treaty that he had signed with unwillingness, and after many delays; which