conceive they have any remains of reputation or modesty, are ashamed to appear.

"He hath sunk his fortune by endeavoring to ruin one kingdom; and hath raised it by going far in the ruin of another. His administration of Ireland was looked upon as a sufficient ground to impeach him, at least for high crimes and misdemeanors; yet he has gained by the government of that kingdom, under two years, five and forty thousand pounds, by the most favorable computation, half in the regular way, and half in the prudential.

"He is, says he, without the sense of shame or glory, as some men are without the sense of smelling, and therefore a good name to him is no more than a precious ointment would be to these."

Mercy.

MERCY is allied to religion-where the latter is, the former must ever be; and the kings of England, when they swear to be just, swear also to be merciful. Why did their counsellors, so careful of their consciences, never remind them of that coronation outh? On the contrary, we have found them ever exciting them to unrelenting cruelties, because they found their profit in those cruelties; and indeed amongst the crimes committed on the Irish by the English, none seem more odious than their mercy.

Morrisson (fol. 43) says, "that Lord Mountjoy never received any to mercy but such as had drawn

blood upon their fellow-rebels: thus M'Mahon and M'Artmoye offered to submit, but neither could be received without the other's head."-Was that religion ?

And in the pardon granted to Munster, by Sir George Carew, he says himself that priests and Romish clergy were excepted.-Was that reformation?

When Sir C. Wilmot took Lixnaw's Castle, he spared the priest's life only to get Lixnaw's child delivered into his hands.-Was that christian?

The English published a proclamation, inviting all well-affected Irish to an interview on the Rathmore, at Mulloughmarton, and promising that no harm was intended them, and engaging for their security, they came unsuspectingly, were surrounded by bodies of cavalry and infantry, and were put to the sword.Was that just ?

Lord Thomas Gray went over to London on full promise of a pardon, was arrested and executed.Lord Deputy Gray had orders to seize five of his uncles; he invited them to a banquet; they were seated with the treacherous appearance of hospitality, but immediately seized, sent prisoners to London, and executed.*-Was that good faith?

Queen Elizabeth, fearing, as she said herself, that the same reproach might be made to her as to Tiberius by Bato: "It is you! you! who have committed your flocks, not to shepherds, but wolves!" ordered Deputy Mountjoy to grant a general pardon in Mun

ster.

* Leland, vol. 2, p. 153.

But instead of that, the most horrid massacres took place; and in order thereto a final extermination of the people was attempted by burning their corn. And Mr. Morrisson says, that Sir Arthur Chichester, Sir Richard Morrisson, and other commanders, witnessed a most horrid spectacle of three children feeding on the flesh of their dead mother! with other facts even more shocking. And the Deputy and Council informed the Lords in England, by letter, that they were credibly informed, that in the space of three months, there had been above three thousand starved in Tyrone alone!*

Morrisson also says, "that no spectacle was more common in the ditches of towns, and especially in wasted countries, than to see multitudes of those poor people dead, with their mouths all coloured green, by eating nettles, docks, and all things they could rend above ground." It would appear, that the famine created by Lord Clive, and the English in India, was nothing so terrible as this.

It is curious to see how the English historians blind themselves upon these subjects. I do not merely speak of writers, such as Sir Richard Musgrave, whose absurdities defeat their own purpose. The Irish owe some obligation to the government that pays such historians to write against them. But it is incredible that a Scotch historian, liberal, enlightened, and learned, such as Laing, should not have shaken off such antiquated prejudices. And that he should

*Com. Journals, vol. 1.

at the same time that he accuses with becoming spirit, the cruelties and massacres committed by the English in his own country, be guilty of the inconsistency of justifying the same crimes when committed upon the Irish. He has drawn a picture of the massacres by the army of O'Neil, with all the glowing colours of a poet, and yet has neither cited time, place, or person. He has contradicted the most circumstantial, correct, and authentic Irish historians, upon no better authority than certain manuscripts in Trinity College, of all other things the most suspicious, as this university was endowed with the very confiscations that took place. These manuscripts are moreover the same from which Temple derived his information, when he says, "that hundreds of the ghosts of Protestants that were drowned by the rebels at Portnadown bridge, were seen in the river, bolt upright, and were heard to cry out for revenge on these rebels." "One of these ghosts," says he, "was seen with hands lifted up, and standing from the 29th of December, to the latter end of the following lent." One of these depositions was by Maxwell, bishop of Kilmore, whose credit is principally relied on. He has described the different postures and gestures of the ghosts, "as sometimes having been seen by day and night, walking upon the river; sometimes brandishing their naked swords; sometimes singing psalms, and at other times shrieking in a most fearful and hideous manner." He adds, "that he never so much as heard any man doubt the truth thereof;" but he was candid enough to say,

"he

obliged no man's faith, in regard he saw them not with his own eyes; otherwise he had as much _certainty as could morally be required of such matters."* Surely Mr. Laing does not also believe in ghosts? One word more, and I shall have wound up the history of the Popery code.

In the reign of George I. (A. D. 1723) heads of a bill were framed for explaining and amending the act to prevent the growth of Popery, into which was introduced a clause for the castration of all the Irish priests, and presented on the 15th of November, 1724, to the Lord-Lieutenant, by the commons, at the castle; who most earnestly requested his grace to recommend the same in the most effectual manner to his majesty, humbly hoping from his majesty's goodness, and his grace's zeal for his service, and the Protestant interest of the kingdom, that the same might be passed into a law.

It was said to have been owing to the interposition of Cardinal Fleury, and his interest with Mr. Walpole, that this bill which was transmited with such recommendation to England, was there thrown out. The duke of Grafton (Lord-Lieutenant) condoled with the Irish parliament upon the loss of their favorite bill, apologised for its rejection upon the ground that it was brought forward too late in the session ; and recommended a more vigorous execution of the laws against the growing evil.

I believe you will be now convinced, that the history of the Universe contains nothing more atrocious

* Borlase Hist. of the Irish Rebellion, Ap. fol. 392.