On receipt of this treaty, the marquis of Clanricard took effectual measures to prevent it taking effect. He reproved the deputies; sent his protest to the duke of Lorrain. A new treaty was attempted by the duke of York; but the affairs of Ireland were become desperate, and the duke of Lorrain declined his interference. From the dismal situation of the catholics at that time, it must be concluded, that a better or more justifiable project could not have been thought of. * They were then reduced to slavery and beggary, by the English rebels; many thousands of them murdered, and the rest deprived of their estates. So that the question will turn upon this, whether the catholics of Ireland, in this wretched situation, and in utter despair of ever seeing the monarchy restored, for the preservation of which they had suffered so much, were to be blamed for calling in a foreign prince of their own religion, who had a considerable army to support them, rather than submit to so infamous an usurper as Cromwell, or such a bloody and ignominious conventicle, as the rump-parliament! Many protestants, both dissenters and conformists, who have been conversant, in the history of those times, have freely confessed, that, considering the miserable condition the Irish were then in, they could not have thought of a braver or more virtuous attempt; by which they might have been instruments of restoring the lawful monarch, at least, to the recovery of England and Scotland, * Swift's Works. from those betrayers, and sellers, and murderers of his royal father." Ireton lived not to share in the plunder of this unfortunate country, but was carried off by the plague, which raged so dreadfully, as in one summer to carry off 17,000 persons in the city of Dublin alone. His death yielded no respite. Ludlow, his successor, prosecuted the war with savage barbarity. He relates, "that being on his march, an advanced party found two of the rebels; one of whom, says he, was killed by the guard before I came up; the other was saved, and being brought before me, I asked him, if he had a mind to be hanged? And he only answered, if you please. So insensibly stupid, adds he, were many of these poor creatures." Also, that he found some people retired within a hollow'rock "which was so thick that he thought it impossible to dig it down upon them, and therefore resolved to reduce them by smoak. After some of his men had spent most part of the day in endeavouring to smother those within by fire placed. placed at the mouth of the cave, they withdrew the fire; and the next morning supposing the Irish to be made incapable of resistance by the smoak, some of them crawled into the rock; but. one of the Irish, with a pistol, shot the first of his men, by which he found the smoak had not taken the designed effect; because though a great smoak went into the cavity of the rock, yet it came out again at other crevices; upon which he ordered those places to be closely stopped, and and another smoak to be made; and the fire was continued till about midnight; then taken away, that the place might be cool enough for his men to enter the next morning; at which time they went in armed with back, breast, and head-piece, found the man, who had fired the pistol, dead; and put about fifteen to the sword; but brought about four or five out alive, with priests' robes, a crucifix, chalice, and other furniture of that kind (but no arms.) Those, within, preserved themselves by laying their heads close to a waterfall, that ran through the rock. We found two rooms in the place, one of which was large enough to turn a pike."* The fate of the unfortunate persons brought out, 'tis not difficult to ascertain. Galway, the only town now in opposition to the regicides, was invested by Coote, in May, 1652, and almost immediately surrendered. The detached parties of the confederates, in succession, then endeavoured to obtain the best terms possible. Col. Fitzpatrick, O'Dwyer, Clanrickard, Muskerry, &c. capitulated; and forty thousand of the survivors were transported, "to fill all the armies of Europe with complaints of his (Cromwell's) cruelty, and admiration of their valour." In vain lord Muskerry endeavoured to obtain the free exercise of their religion. "We refused," says Ludlow, "to oblige ourselves to any thing in that particular; declaring only that it was neither the principle nor the practise of the authority which we served, to impose our way of *Ludlow's Memoirs. + Dalrymp. Mem. of Gt. Brit. vol. i. part ii. p. 267. worship upon any by violent means." There is something so notoriously false, and consequently so very impudent in this assertion, that one wonders it could be made use of by a man of Ludlow's rank; and much more that he should publish it in his memoirs. But a spirit of enthusiasm, of which no body was ever more fully possessed than this violent republican, covers all imperfections, and sanctifies or annihilates the grossest crimes. Was not one of the chief ends of the rebellion which they engaged in, after the king had given up his prerogative, and the liberties of the people were secured, to overthrow the church of England, and set up Presbyterianism in its room? Did they not suppress the liturgy in England and Ireland by force, turn out the clergy, establish their directory, and oblige every one to take the covenant in order to impose their own way of worship? In flat contradiction, to him therefore it must be said, that both the principles and the practice of the authority which he served were to impose their way of worship by violent means. Commissioners were now sent by the English regicides, to arrange the civil business. At their invitation, locust-swarms, of all sorts, and sexes, flocked from England, to inhabit a country, now depopulated, by pestilence, famine and the sword of these merciless ravagers. Ireland was surveyed. The best land rated at four shillings an acre, and some so low as a penny. The soldiers had VOL. III. * Warner. Civil Wars in Ire. 2 U "It their portions by lot. The adventurers had whole baronies given to them in gross. No men had so great shares as they who had been instruments to murder the king. What lands they deemed unprofitable were given gratis; which amounted to 605,670 acres. * Thus, except part of Connaught, was the whole kingdom divided between the soldiers and adventurers for money. cannot be imagined, in how easy a method, and with what peaceable formality, that whole great kingdom was taken from the just owners and proprietors, and divided among those who had no other right to it, but that they had power to keep it. In less than two years after lord Clanricard left Ireland, this new government seemed to be perfectly established; insomuch that there were many buildings erected for ornament, as well as use; orderly and regular plantations of trees, fences and enclosures raised throughout the kingdom; purchases made by one from the other, at very valuable rates; and jointures settled upon marriages; and all the conveyances and settlements executed, as in a kingdom at peace within itself, and where no doubt could be made of the validity of titles."+ The act of the 27th of Elizabeth, by procla mation from these regicide commissioners, was made of force in Ireland, and ordered to be most strictly put in execution. By it, "every Romish priest was deemed guilty of rebellion, and sentenced to be hanged until he was half dead; then * Carte's Ormond. + Life of Clarend. vol. ii. p. 177-8. |