customs, condemned and renounced by those very persons who then so greedily exacted the profits formerly annexed to them, which, it seems, they still deemed orthodox; great sums of money received by several bishops, for commutation of penance, which they converted to their own use; the lord deputy's punishing the natives by fine, imprisonment, mutilation of members, pillory, or otherwise arbitrarily, and without law; and making them forfeit their liberty, possessions and inheritance, merely for infringing an act of state or proclamation; the sentencing the subjects to death, by martial law, in times of profound peace; the issuing quo warrantos out of the king's-bench or exchequer, against boroughs that antiently, and recently sent burgesses to parliament; the censuring of jurors in the castle-chamber, that gave verdict according to their consciences, with mutilation of members, and other infamous punishments; the taking of the testimony of rebels, traitors, protected thieves, and other infamous persons, upon trials of men for their lives. And they particularly complained of the insecurity of their estates, by means of the enquiry into defective titles, which was still carried on with great rigor; humbly praying his majesty," that he would be graciously pleased to direct that bills might be drawn in the house of commons, and transmitted from the chief governor or gover nors, and privy-council of Ireland, to be passed as acts of that parliament, for the redress of these grievances, and for the security of their estates, as their respective cases, for their better assurance, should require." After what has been now related of the wretched condition of the Irish catholics, in this and the former reign,* who can * The catholic nobility and gentry of Ulster, in their address to his majesty, (Charles the 1st.) "with much grief express their sense of their general sufferings and pressures since the beginning of his late majesty's, his royal father's reign, being almost forty years, and the only time of continued peace they enjoyed these latter ages, in all which time, through the corruption of the governors, and state of the realm, though for redress of their grievances frequent suit had been made by them, yet that therein they could never obtain any part of their desires, but rather had endured a continual servitude than the freedom of subjects, being not permitted in all that space to enjoy their birthright, or the benefit of the fundamental laws of the realm, nor admitted to have property in their goods or lands, for that a tyrannical government had been continually exercised help wondering at Clarendon's strange partiality or ignorance, (which yet has been servilely copied by all succeeding histo rians) when he confidently asserts," that, at this very juncture of time, and for forty years before it, the state of these catholics affairs was as quiet and happy as they themselves could reasonably wish it; and that whatever land, labor, and industry produced, was their own; being free from fear of having it taken from them by the king, on any pretence whatsoever, without their own consent.” In compliance with the aforesaid remonstrance and petition of the commons, his majesty ordered the lords justices, Parsons and Borlase,3" to assure his good subjects of Ireland, that his princely promise, formerly passed unto them, (to redress these, and several other grievances) should be speedily performed; and to that end he required, that bills might be transmitted from their lordships and the council, for securing their estates, touching the limitation of his title not to extend above three-score years." CHAP. X. The remonstrance of grievances vindicated. IT has been of late objected, that this remonstrance of grievances, was not fairly and deliberately voted in the Irish parliament; but that, on the contrary, it was, " abruptly presented to the house,' not suffered to be spoken to, and passed in the midst of tumult and disorder." But this objection now appears to be nothing more than a partial and groundless surmise: for" some of the grievances mentioned in it,2 had been presented by parliament to the deputy, in June preceding, as found real and enormous, after many debates." And as for those lately added, viz. the " tremendous powers" of the high 2 Hist. of the Irish Rebel. 1 Leland's History of Ireland. 3 Com. Jour. vol. i. over them all that time, in a more strict and cruel manner than in Turkey or any other infidel country, though by the antient fundamental laws of the kingdom, no subjects in Europe can challenge more freedom or liberty." -Desid. Curios. Hibern, vol. ii. p. 90. commission-court, the denial of the promised graces, &c. it is notorious, that they had been long before complained of, as intolerable both in and out of parliament. It appears by the journals, that a grand committee was appointed to sit upon the grievances of the country, on the 12th of October, 1640; and that, on the 7th of the following month, an order was passed, that the particular matters expressed in the remonstrance in question, being thrice read, required present redress, and should be forthwith represented to the right honorable the lord deputy, by Mr. Speaker and the whole house." Another order was passed on the 9th," that Mr. Speaker, for the greater solemnity, should read the remonstrance twice, and that it should be afterwards presented to the lord deputy." On the 11th," a committee was appointed, consisting, among others, of the vice-treasurer, the master of the rolls, and the chancellor of the exchequer, to wait upon the deputy, to know when he would give his answer to the remonstrance." And on the 12th," a committee was again appointed, to attend his lordship for his answer;" which appears then to have been, "that the commons should confer with some of the lords of the privy-council, (not, as has been supposed, with the house of lords) concerning the nature of the grievances complained of." But to this conference, as being contrary to their privileges, the commons refused to consent;5" in regard that the contents of their remonstrance had been already voted in their house for grievances;" for which refusal, the deputy prorogued them on the same 12th of November. And thus it evidently appears, that this remonstrance, instead of being abruptly presented to the house, not suffered to be spoken to, and passed in the midst of tumult and disorder, was agitated, for several days, with due deliberation and regularity, and at length agreed to, after many readings and debates. 3 Com. Jour. vol. i, Lel. Hist. of Ireland. } 5 Ib. CHAP. XI. The immediate cause of the insurrection in 1641. HAD his majesty's commands before-mentioned to the lords justices, Parsons and Borlase, to pass the bills for securing the estates of the natives, and for confirming the other promised graces, been duly executed, or rather not positively disobeyed by their lordships, the dreadful insurrection of the following year, either would not at all have happened, or would have been quickly suppressed. Such, at least, was his majesty's opinion; as we find by his answer to a declaration of the English commons on that occasion; for there he tells them, "that if he had been obeyed in the Irish affairs, before he went to Scotland, there had been no Irish rebellion; or after it had begun, it would have been in a few months suppressed, if his directions had been observed: for if the king had been suffered to perform his engagements to the Irish agents, and had disposed of the discontented Irish army beyond sea, there is nothing more clear, than that there could have been no rebellion in Ireland, because they had wanted both pretence and means to have made one." At this time it was confidently reported in Ireland, that the Scottish army had threatened never to lay down their arms, till an uniformity of religion was established in the three kingdoms, and the catholic religion suppressed. "A letter," says Mr. Carte," was intercepted coming from Scotland, to one Freeman, of Antrim, giving an account, that a covenanting army was ready to come for Ireland, under the command of general Leslie, to extirpate the Roman catholics of Ulster, and leave the Scots sole possessors of that province; and that to this end, a resolution had been taken in their private meetings, and councils, to lay heavy fines upon such as would not appear at their kirk, for the first or second Sunday; and on failure the third, to hang, without mercy, all such as were obstinate, at their own doors." The whole body of the catholic nobility and gentry of Ireland declared in their remonstrance at Trim, which was de Reliq. Sac. Carolinæ, p. 273. 2 Cart, Orm. vol. i. fol. 1€9. livered in due form to his majesty's commissioners, in March 1642, that previous to the insurrection,3« certain dangerous and pernicious petitions, contrived by the advice and counsel of sir William Parsons, sir Adam Loftus, sir John Clothworthy, and sundry others of the malignant party in the city of Dublin, in the province of Ulster, and several other parts of the kingdom, directed to the commons house in England, were at public assizes and other public places made known and read to many persons of quality; which petitions contained matters destructive to the said catholic religion, lives and estates."* This dread of an extirpation, as appears from a multitude of depositions taken before Dr. Henry Jones, and other commis. sioners appointed by the lords justices, prevailed universally among the catholics of Ireland, and was insisted upon, as one of the principal reasons for their taking arms. The earl of Ormond, in his letters of January 27th, and February 26th, 1641, to sir William St. Leger, imputes the general revolt of the nation, then far advanced, to the publishing of such a design." "Some time before the rebellion broke out," says Mr. Carte," it was confidently reported, that sir John Clothworthy, who well knew the designs of the faction that governed the house of commons in England, had declared there in a speech, that the conversion of the papists in Ireland, was only to be effected by the bible in one hand and the sword in the other; and Mr. Pym gave out, that they would not leave a priest in Ireland. To the like effect sir William Parsons, out of a strange weakness, or detestable policy, positively asserted before many witnesses, at a public entertainment, that within a twelvemonth, no catholic should be seen in Ireland; he had sense enough to know the consequences that would naturally arise from such a declaration; which, however it might contribute to his own selfish views, he would hardly have ventured to make so openly, and without disguise, if it had not been agreeable to the politics and measures of the English faction, whose party he espoused, and whose directions were the general rule of his conduct."—Orm. vol, i. fol. 235. "It is evident," says Dr. Warner," from the lord justice's letter to the earl of Leicester, then lord lieutenant, that they hoped for an extirpation, not of the meer Irish only, but of all the old English families also, that were Roman catholics."-Hist. of the Irish Rebel. |