CHAPTER XV.

The insurrection in 1641. Was there a general conspiracy of the Irish, in that year, to murder the Protestants?

THE decision of this question is attended with far more difficulty than any of those which we have heretofore presented to the view of the reader. The nature of the case does not admit of the same kind of evidence as we have been enabled to produce, and which, we flatter ourselves, has been found irresistible.

But the tale of this conspiracy has been so universally credited; so large a portion of the possessors of confiscated property in Ireland have been interested in affording it support and countenance; so much art and talent have been, for a hundred and seventy years, employed in giving it an air of plausibility; there is so much difficulty in proving a negative in any case, more particularly in the present one, which is naturally, and has been moreover artfully, involved in mystery; and it is so extremely arduous an undertaking, to operate upon the public mind, when imbued with inveterate prejudices, that we regard the task as Herculean, and should have

abandoned it as impracticable, but that the narrative itself is replete with so many incredible and incongruous circumstances, as to carry strong internal evidence of fraud.

In order to give the story fair play, and to enable the reader to form a correct opinion on the subject, with all the evidence before him, we shall give the whole account of the discovery of the plot, as it stands in Temple's History of the Irish Rebellion, the authority almost solely relied on by all the other writers on the subject. We add some slight extracts from Borlase, containing a few additional particulars.

To simplify the examination, we have divided the whole into short sentences, each containing perfect sense, so as to oblige the reader to pause and reflect, as he proceeds.

This point being the main one we have in view in this work, we earnestly invoke the reader's calm and candid consideration of it. We hope that, laying aside all preconceived opinions on the subject, he will revolve it in his mind, as if it were wholly new, and he had now, for the first time in his life, to form a decision on it. We are aware that there are too many to whom a compliance with this request is impossible: and indeed a large proportion of mankind can never command independence of mind enough even to examine the evidence that militates with their early, and, of course, inveterate, prejudices; far less to reject those prejudices. We are therefore

persuaded, there are thousands who would as soon doubt any of the demonstrations of Euclid, or the existence of the solar system, as the existence of the universality of the plot of "the execrable rebellion of 1641."

To this contracted class we do not address ourselves with them we have no fellowship : "Even though one were to rise from the dead," he would not remove their incredulity. Let them hug the chains of their bigoted prejudice. We appeal to that respectable description of readers, whose minds are open to conviction, and who are at all times ready to yield to the force of evidence, how strongly soever it may militate against those opinions that have " grown with their growth." The favourable decision of one such reader, with a clear head and sound heart, would outweigh the disapprobation of a whole army of the slaves of prejudice.

Extracts from Temple's History of the Irish Rebellion.*

1. "Sir William Cole, upon the very first apprehensions of something that he conceived to be hatching among the Irish, did write a letter to the lords justices and council, dated the 11th of October, 1641,

2. Wherein he gave them notice of the great resort made to Sir Phelim O'Neal, in the county of Tyrone, as also to the house of the lord Macguire, in the county of Fermanagh, and that by several suspected persons, fit instruments for mischief;

* The reader will please to observe, that these extracts are taken verbatim from the original work; and, unless where otherwise distinctly marked, form an unbroken consecutive series.

3. "As also that the said lord Macguire had of late made several journies into the Pale and other places, and had spent his time much in writing letters and sending despatches abroad. 4. "These letters were received by the lords justices and council;

5. "And they, in answer to them, required him to be very vigilant and industrious to find out what should be the occasion of these several meetings, and speedily to advertise them thereof, or of any other particular that he conceived might tend to the public service of the state.”335

1. "They [the lords justices] had not any certain notice of the general conspiracy of the Irish, until the 22d of October, in the very evening before the day appointed for the surprise of the castle of Dublin.

2. "The conspirators being, many of them, arrived within the city, and having that day met at the Lion tavern, in Copper alley, and there turning the drawer out of the room, ordered their affairs together, drunk healths upon their knees to the happy success of the next morning's work.

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Owen O'Conally, a gentleman of a mere Irish family, but one that had long lived among the English, and been trained up in the true Protestant religion, came unto the lord justice Parsons, ABOUT NINE O'CLOCK THAT EVENING!!

4. "And made him a broken relation of a great conspiracy for the seizing upon his majesty's castle of Dublin. ̧

5. "He gave him the names of some of the chief conspirators! assured him that they were come up expressly to the town for the same purpose, and that next morning they would undoubtedly attempt, and surely effect it, if their design were not speedily prevented;

6. And that he had understood all this from Hugh MacMahon, one of the chief conspirators, who was then in town, and came up but the very same afternoon, for the execution of the plot ;

7. “And with whom indeed he had been drinking somewhat liberally; and as the truth is, did then make such a broken rela

tion of a matter that seemed so incredible in itself, as that his lordship gave very little belief to it at first!

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8. In regard it came from an obscure person, and one, as he conceived, somewhat distempered at that time.

9. "But howsoever, the lord Parsons gave him order to go again to Mac-Mahon!!! and get out of him as much certainty of the plot!!! with as many particular circumstances, as he could!!! straitly charging him to return back unto him the same evening!!!

10. "And in the mean time, having by strict commands given to the constable of the castle, taken order to have the gates thereof well guarded, as also with the mayor and sheriff's of the city to have strong watches set upon all parts of the same, and to make stay of all strangers,

11. "He went privately!! about ten of the clock that night, to the lord Borlace's house without the town, and there acquainted him with what he understood from O'Conally.

12. "They sent for such of the council as they knew then to be in the town.

13. "But there came only unto them that night sir Thomas Rotheram and sir Robert Meredith, chancellour of the exchequer: with these they fell into consultation what was fit to be done!!!! attending the return of O'Conally.

14. "And finding that he staid somewhat longer than the time prefixed, they sent out in search after him;

15. And found him seized on by the watch, and so he had been carried away to prison, and the discovery that night disappointed,

16. "Had not one of the lord Parsons' servants, expressly sent, amongst others, to walk the streets, and attend the motion of the said O'Conally, come in, and rescued him, and brought him to the lord Borlace's house.

17. "O'Conally having somewhat recovered himself from his distemper, occasioned partly, as he said himself, by the horror of the plot revealed to him, partly by his too liberal drinking with Mac-Mahon, that he might the more easily get away from him, (he beginning much to suspect and fear his discovery of the plot,)