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heretofore noticed, are numerous and extraordinary. A new one here presents itself.

The spirit of lying and imposture which pervades those depositions, would naturally induce a sane mind to reject them wholly, as undeserving of any attention. But, by a most perverted process of reasoning, Leland ascribes these awful stories to the terrors excited by the horrible cruelties perpetrated by the Irish, which, he supposes, preyed on the imaginations of the English, and terrified them with the idea of lakes and rivers of blood, &c. &c.

66 They who escaped the utmost fury of the rebels, languished in miseries horrible to be described. Their imaginations were overpowered and disordered by the recollections of torture and butchery. In their distraction," [let us say, rather, in the depraved and loathsome state of the public mind] "every tale of horror was eagerly received, and every suggestion of frenzy and melancholy believed implicitly. Miraculous escapes from death, miraculous judgments on murderers, lakes and rivers of blood, marks of slaughter indelible by every human effort, visions of spirits chaunting hymns, ghosts rising from the rivers and shrieking out revenge; these and such like fancies were received and propagated as incontestible."489

It is difficult to conceive of a stronger proof of the blindest prejudice than is here exhibited by Leland. Whoever has travelled through the wretched legends which disgrace and dishonour

grease or fat which remained on their swords and skeins, might well serve to make an Irish candle. Jurat. April 14, 1642."490

489 Leland, III. 147.

490 Temple, 97.

the preceding pages, will at once perceive that the object with the perjurers who wrote them, was to render their tales as terrific and horrible as they could, for the purpose of aggravating the abhorrence, and ensuring the ruin, of the oppressed and despoiled Irish. They were quite certain, that in the prevailing spirit of the times, no improbability or impossibility would be a bar to their currency. This is so plain and palpable, that it requires only to skim the surface, to perceive it. Instead, therefore, of believing, with Leland, that a man who coolly comes forward, and swears to "lakes and rivers of blood," and "visions of spirits chaunting hymns," acts under the influence of a disordered imagination, in consequence of the horrors he has witnessed, we are warranted, nay constrained to believe, that the whole is the creation not of a disordered, but a corrupted and lying imagination. Indeed, we are perfectly satisfied, that there is not one of our readers, who will allow his understanding free operation, but will find it impossible to believe that those terror-inspiring stories could have ever proceeded from any other source than the prince of darkness, the father of lies.

We feel that confidence which truth and a good cause inspire, that we have convinced every candid reader, that the ground we have taken is perfectly sound and unassailable; and therefore we might here dismiss this branch of our subject : but we cannot resist the temptation to add one

further proof of the magnitude of the errors that have prevailed on the subject of the universality of the insurrection. This proof rests on authority which the enemies of Ireland will not dare dispute:

Sir William Petty states, that before the insurrection there were 3,000 estated Roman Catholics in Ireland; and that, by judicial investigations in the court of claims, held in 1663, it appeared that there were not more than 400 of them* engaged in the glorious but unfortunate struggle for Irish liberty, which, even by the friends and partisans of the English revolution in 1688, the American tel in 1776, and the French in 1789, is so very erroneously and inconsistently styled a rebellion.† And let it be observed, that, notwithstanding the very small proportion of the estated Catholics who were implicated in the insurrection, we have established the fact, that every effort had been used by the lords justices to goad the whole nation into resistance, for the purpose of confiscating the ten millions of acres of the soil, which they and their friends in England had already devoured in imagination.

"The number of landed Papists, or freeholders, before the wars, was about 3,000, whereof, as appears by 800 judgments of the court of claims, which sat anno 1663, upon the innocence and effects of the Irish, there were not above one-seventh part, or 400, guilty of the rebellion."491

+ See the reflections on this topic, supra, page 92.

491 Petty, 23.

We shall now dismiss Temple, with a few concluding remarks. We have asserted that he was a cheat and an impostor. We proceed to the proof.

I. He who swears positively to that for which he has not the evidence of his senses; in other words, to what he has on the information of others; or to things contrary to the known laws of nature; is, in the most unqualified sense, an abandoned perjurer.

II. An historian who rests his narrative on - manifest perjuries, is a cheat and an impostor, unworthy of credit.

III. The mass of the depositions on which Temple relies to support his history, are mere hearsay, and many of them contrary to the known and immutable laws of nature; and, consequently, the witnesses were a host of absolute perjurers.

IV. Therefore Temple was a cheat and an impostor. Q. E. D.

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CHAPTER XX.

Barbarous system of warfare pursued by the Irish government. Indiscriminate murder and massacre of the Irish, men, women, and children. St. Leger, Monroe, Coote, Hamilton, Grenville, Ireton, and Cromwell, bathed in blood. Five days' butchery in Drogheda. Detestable hypocrisy of Cromwell. A medal and gold chain awarded to a noyadist. Extermination of man and beast, for twenty-eight miles!!!

"Thou hypocrite! Cast out first the beam that is in thine eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye."

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11492

WE have now thoroughly exposed the abominable legends, respecting the pretended Irish massacre, that have so long passed current with the world. They owe their origin to one of the most despicable of the scribblers who have surreptiously gained a rank among the honourable class of historians; but have been since unworthily bolstered up by names of the highest celebrity. We trust we have succeeded in demonstrating that the terrific story rests wholly

492 Luke vi. 42.

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