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NOTE II. ON CHAPTER II.

B P. 35. Ravenous thirst for the blood of the natives.] However shocking and incredible it may appear, it is established, by the concurring testimony of Clarendon, Carte, Warner, Leland, and nearly all the other writers on that period of Irish history, that the predominant party in Ireland cherished, for a considerable time, the bloodthirsty and barbarous project of an utter extirpation of the Catholics, and the establishment of new plantations all over the kingdom. To the attainment of this nefarious object, all their measures were invariably directed: nor did they abandon it from its inhumanity, but from finding it utterly impracticable.

"The favourite object of the Irish governors, and the English parliament, was the utter extermination of all the Catholic inhabitants of Ireland! Their estates were already marked out, and allotted to their conquerors; so that they and their posterity were consigned to inevitable ruin.""

"It is evident from their [the lords justices] last letter to the lieutenant, that they hoped for an extirpation, not of the mere Irish only, but of all the old English families that were Roman Catholics."52

"Whatever were the professions of the chief governors, the only danger they really apprehended, was that of a too speedy suppression of the rebels. The futility of their pretences and affected fears was instantly discovered."53

"The justices seem to have taken proper measures to exasperate the natives against the English transplanted thither, as if they were so secure of baffling the rebels when they pleased, that they wished that they might go on unchecked for a while,

51 Leland, III. 192. 52 Warner, 176. 53 Leland, III. 185.

that the forfeited lands might be the more, and the nation attain to peace only by the vastness of the desolation; and of all this, their own management, give too many and too observable intimations."54

"Parsons and Borlase did, by their authority, command many things, which did not only exasperate, but render the Irish desperate, as will appear by several of their own letters, and public acts of state; and that, in the first eruption of the rebellion, they had a greater eye to the forfeitures of the rebels' estates, than to use such means as might, by the hopes of pardon, induce the better sort of the nobility, gentry, and freeholders to hear reason, and to come in and submit themselves to his majesty's mercy, though they had express directions. from the king and the two houses so to do: and it is no less notorious, that Sir John Temple, in writing his history, was bound by confederacy to assert the proceedings of the then lords justices."55

"The parliament party, who had heaped so many reproaches and calumnies upon the king, for his clemency to the Irish, who had grounded their own authority and strength upon such foundations as were inconsistent with any toleration of the Roman Catholic religion, and even with any humanity to the Irish nation, and more especially to those of the old native extraction, the whole race whereof they had upon the matter sworn to extirpate?'

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"To say nothing of what was done by that Parliament, relating to affairs here which had an affinity to those of Ireland, the House of Commons passed a vote, that no toleration of the Romish religion should be allowed in Ireland; and that the House of Lords should be desired to join with them, in addressing the king to make a public declaration to that effect. This might serve their own ends perhaps, but was surely very unseasonable with regard to Ireland, where nothing could so much promote the cause of the rebellion, as to have it thought a mere war of religion: this violence of the Parliament gave too much credit to the reports that were continually flying about, of a design of EXTIRPATING the Roman Catholics."

54 Clarendon's I. Preface.
56 Clarendon's I. 115.

55 Nalson, II. 7.
57 Warner, 133.7

"If it be more needful to dispose of places out of hand, and that it may stand with his majesty's pleasure to fill some of them with Irish that are Protestants, and that have not been for the extirpation of the Papist natives, it will much satisfy both, and cannot justly be excepted against."58

“Mr. Brent landed lately here, and hath brought with him such letters as have somewhat changed the face of this government from what it was, when the Parliament pamphlets were received as oracles, their commands obeyed as laws, and extirpation preached for Gospel."9

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Though extirpation both of nation and religion be not named, yet I conceive it is contrived almost in every proposition; and the consideration thereof confirms me in a full belief of the malicious practices of the Cootes and Ormsbyes, in the county of Roscommon."60

"The term of extirpation is worn out here, and the intention not acknowledged to me by the prime authors therein, with whom I have been plain after my blunt way."61

"The reason of their [the justices] advice is founded upon their darling scheme of an extirpation of the old English proprietars, und a general plantation of the whole kingdom with a new colony for this is the meaning of what they allege, to show it to be "unsafe for his majesty, and destructive to the kingdom, to grant the petitioners' request; as being altogether inconsistent with the means of raising a considerable revenue for his crown, of settling religion and civility in the kingdom; and of establishing a firm and lasting peace, to the honour of his majesty, the safety of his royal posterity, and the comfort of all his faithful subjects."62

"By precipitate votes, the two Houses, confiscating all their lands, and making sale of them, cast the whole nation into such a general despair, that if there were any loyal or innocent among them, (which, we may justly fear, were very few) they were forced to take party with those, whom very probably they might abhor."63

58 Carte, III. 226.
61 Idem, 155.

59 Idem, 169.

62 Carte, I. 391.

60 Idem, 311. 63 Warwick, 200.

These difficulties and considerations were of little weight. with the lords justices; who, having got a thin House of Commons to their mind, of persons devoted to their interest and measures, resolved to improve the opportunity offered, and to get such acts passed, as might distress the king, exasperate the bulk of the nation, spread the rebellion, and so promote their darling scheme of extinguishing the old proprietors, and making a new plantation of the kingdom.'

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"Such considerations as these were not agreeable to the views of the lords justices, who had set their hearts on the extirpation, not merely of the mere Irish, but likewise of all the old English families that were Roman Catholics, and the making of a new plantation all over the kingdom; in which they could not fail to have a principal share; so all their reasonings, upon all occasions, were calculated and intended to promote that their favourite scheme.

"This scheme would have been destroyed, if the rebels in general had submitted, upon the late proclamation; there was a general disposition in those of the Pale, and offers made by the chiefs of them to submit: and nothing was so likely to stop the effects of that disposition, as to treat those, who had actually submitted, in such a manner as to show the rest, that they should receive no favours upon such submission, nor any benefit by his majesty's proclamation. Hence all the gentlemen, who surrendered themselves, were, without being admitted to the presence of the justices, committed to the castle of Dublin; preparations were made for their trial, and designs published of their being prosecuted with the utmost severity. But as the prisoners had never appeared in the field, nor been concerned in any warlike action, there was a want of proper facts wherewith to charge them, and of sufficient witnesses to prove those facts. To supply both these defects, the lords justices had recourse to the rack, a detestable expedient, invented to extort from unhappy prisoners, in the anguish of their pain, or in the terror of the tortures prepared for them, such confessions as those who have the management of that accursed instrument, have a mind to put into their mouths; and therefore

64 Carte, I. 330.

justly abhorred by all lovers of liberty, and forbidden by the laws of England."65

"These measures served their own scheme of an extirpation, by racking those gentlemen, whose treatment could not fail of deterring every body from venturing themselves into their power for the future."66

"These propositions, for putting the Roman Catholics of Ireland under greater hardships than any they had ever complained of before, incapacitating them from all offices whatever, disabling them from sitting in Parliament, (a privilege which they had always enjoyed, and from which alone they could. expect any redress of future grievances) forfeiting all their estates, real and personal, and yet obliging them, when their all was taken from them, to make impossible reparations and satisfactions for losses sustained, and devastations committed, in the war; suppressing their religion, banishing all their clergy, and new planting the kingdom, were evidently calculated to hinder any peace at all; and certainly came from some of that party of men which first formed the design of an extirpation of the Roman Catholics, and, by publishing that design, made the rebellion so general as it proved at last. They all breathed the same spirit ; and though extirpation both of nation and religion was not expressly mentioned, yet it seemed to be contrived effectually in all the propositions. They appeared so monstrous and unreasonable, that it was thought they could proceed from nothing but an high degree of madness or malice."67

"There is too much reason to think, that, as the lords justices really wished the rebellion to spread, and more gentlemen of estates to be involved in it, that the forfeitures might be the greater, and a general plantation be carried on by a new set of English Protestants all over the kingdom, to the ruin and expulsion of all the old English and natives that were Roman Catholics; so, to promote what they wished, they gave out speeches upon occasions, insinuating such a design, and that in a short time there would not be a Roman Catholic left in the whole kingdom. It is no small confirmation of this notion, 67 Idem, 502.

65 Carte, I. 293.

66 Idem, 301.

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