disguised countenance of an innocent country damsel, who depends wholly on the pure ornaments of beneficent Nature. This being undeniably the case on topics, where no temptation to deception exists, how dreadful must be the falsehood and delusion in cases like the present, where, as we have already stated, and now repeat, ambition, avarice, malice, bigotry, national hatred, and all the other dire passions that assimilate men to demons, are goaded into activity.

The difficulty, stated in the last chapter, of procuring evidence to invalidate O'Conally's legend, was very considerable; but not só formidable, by any means, as we have to encounter in the present one. We are not, however, discouraged: we trust to the force of truth; to the obvious falsehood in these statements; and, above all, to the candour of an enlightened age.

i

In all other cases, but that of the history of Ireland, to convict a witness of gross, palpable, and notorious falsehood, would be sufficient to invalidate the whole of his evidence: but such has been the wayward fate of that nation, that the most gross and manifest forgeries, which carry their own condemnation with them, are received by the world as though they were

"Confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ." Or, when some are found too monstrous to be admitted, their falsehood and absurdity do not impair the credulity in the rest of the tales depending on the same authority.

The materials for Irish statistics, at that early period, are rare; a deficiency which involves this subject in considerable difficulty. Had we ample and correct tables of the population of Ireland, our task would be comparatively easy; and we could put down all those tales, with as much ease as we have stamped the seal of flagrant falsehood on so many impostures as we have already investigated.

But we avail ourselves of a sound rule, that we must employ the best evidence that the nature and circumstances of the case will admit; and, fortunately, we have some data, of authority very far from contemptible, on which to reason, in the present instance; which will shed the light of truth on this intricate question, and dispel the dense clouds with which it has been environed by fraud and imposture.

.

Sir William Petty, the ancestor of the Lansdowne family, laid the foundation of a princely fortune, by the depredations perpetrated on the Irish, after the insurrection of 1641. Of course, he had no temptation to swerve from the truth in their favour: on the contrary, it was his interest, equally with the other possessors of the estates of the plundered Irish, to exaggerate their real crimes, and to lend the countenance of his reputation to their pretended ones. Hence his testimony, on this ground, and as a cotemporary, cannot, so far as it tends to exonerate those upon whose ruin he raised his immense estate,

be excepted against by the enemies of the Irish. We will therefore freely cite him in the case: and the reader will at once perceive to what an extent delusion has been carried, on this subject.

He states the aggregate of the Protestants who perished in eleven years, to have been 112,000;1o7 of whom "two-thirds were cut off by war, plague, and famine." It is obvious to the meanest capacity, if, of 112,000, the whole number that fell in that space of time, two-thirds were cut off by war, plague, and famine, that those who fell out of war, in eleven years, were only 37,000! We hope to prove, that even this statement, so comparatively moderate, is extravagantly beyond the truth. But, admitting it to be correct, what a wonderful difference between 37,000 in eleven years, and the hundreds of thousands in a few months, that make such an appalling figure in the various "tales of terror," imposture, and perjury, so feelingly narrated by Temple, Borlase, Clarendon, May, Baker, Frankland, Rapin, Leland, and all their coadjutors! Does not the credit of their tales, when thus brought to the test of the talisman of truth, disappear, and,

"Like the baseless fabric of a vision,

Leave not a trace behind?"

Here a remarkable trait, which, as we have stated, characterises Irish history beyond that of any other, displays itself. The writers are not

407 Petty, 18.

merely at variance with each other, but with themselves and there is as much discrepancy between different portions of each history, as between that history and truth. We have seen Carte, Leland, Clarendon, and Warner, convict Carte, Leland, Clarendon, and Warner, of most egregious errors, to use no harsher term: and the reader must have perceived, that our sole reliance, for refutation of their mis-statements, has been almost altogether on themselves.

In like manner, we shall satisfactorily prove, that Sir William Petty confutes himself, beyond the power of redemption.

"Mark how a plain tale shall put him down."

He bequeathed to posterity some statistical tables, which throw considerable light on this subject. They are very meagre, it is true; but, meagre as they are, we believe there are no others ; at all events, we know of none: and must therefore avail ourselves of them.

He informs us, that the population of Ireland, in 1641, was 1,466,000 ;* and that the relative proportion of the Protestants to the Catholics, was as two to eleven:† of course, it follows,

"This shows there were, in 1641, 1,466,000 people."408 "The proportion was as 2 to 11."409

We for the present admit this proportion; as, however exaggerated the number of the Protestants may be, it does not affect the point at issue. But, from various circumstances, we doubt whether there was one Protestant to eleven Roman Catholics.

408 Petty, 18.

409 Ibid.

that the population was thus divided:-about 1,241,000 Roman Catholics, and 225,000 Protestants.

From this conclusion there is no appeal. The whole number of Protestants in the island could not have exceeded 225,000. The supplies of people from England and Scotland, until after the final defeat, capture, condemnation, and death of Charles I. were inconsiderable: and surely there does not exist a single man that can believe, that out of 225,000, there could have been 112,000 destroyed, and the residue been able to baffle and defeat the insurgents, who comprised the great mass of the nation. will therefore, we trust, be allowed, as an irresistible conclusion, that Sir William Petty's calculation, although so far more moderate than any of the "tales of terror" we have quoted at the commencement of this chapter, is most extravagantly over-rated, probably trebled or quadrupled; and must, of absolute necessity, be false.

It

This being the case with the lowest of the calculations, what astonishment must be excited by Burton's 300,000, in a few months; Temple's 300,000, in less than two years; May's 200,000, in one month; Warwick's 100,000, in one week ;or Rapin's 40,000, in a few days! Surely there is not, in the history of the world, any parallel case of such gross, palpable, shocking, and abominable deception. Can language be found strong or bold enough to mark the dishonour of those