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possess themselves, by force, of the city of Philadelphia. What sentence would be pronounced on the commanders of the adverse armies, who, to punish submission to violence, which our citizens had not the means of preventing, should, after the expulsion of their enemies, order an indiscriminate slaughter of all those capable of bearing arms? Would they not deserve to expiate their guilt, by the most cruel torments that human ingenuity could devise? Yet this was precisely the spirit of the orders issued by the lords justices, who therefore merit to be ranked with the Neros, the Caligulas, the Domitians, and those other monsters, whose supreme delight was in the immolation of the human species.

This chapter being devoted merely to a review of the spirit with which the orders for war were issued on both sides, we reserve for a subsequent one a detail of the barbarous fidelity with which these horrible orders were carried into effect.

It must sicken every friend of mankind, to learn that the English Parliament was actuated by the same shocking spirit of extermination towards the Irish. It issued an ordinance, agreed upon after due deliberation, that "no quarter should be given to any Irishman or Papist born in Ireland," and that "they should be excepted out of all capitulations.”* This horrible decree, worthy

*"October 24, 1644.

"An ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, commanding that no officer or soldier, either by

of a pandemonium of fallen angels, Lucifer president, and Belzebub secretary, attaches an eternal blot on the escutcheons of the Hambdens, the Pyms, and the Essexes of that body, who, in their rancorous and remorseless hatred of Ireland and

sea or land, shall give any quarter to any Irishman, or to any Papist born in Ireland, which shall be taken in arms against the Parliament of England.

"The Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England do declare, that no quarter shall be given to any Irishman, nor to any Papist born in Ireland, which shall be taken in hostility against the Parliament, either upon the sea, or within this kingdom, or dominion of Wales: and therefore do order and ordain, that the lord general, lord admiral, and all other officers and commanders, both by sea and land, shall except all Irishmen, and all Papists born in Ireland, out of all capitulations, agreements, and compositions hereafter to be made with the enemy: and shall, upon the taking of every such Irishman or Papist born in Ireland as aforesaid, forthwith put every such person to death.

"And it is further ordered and ordained, that the lord general, lord admiral, and the committees of the several counties, do give speedy notice hereof, to all subordinate officers and commanders, by sea and land respectively; who are hereby required to use their utmost care and circumspection, that this ordinance be duly executed: and lastly, the Lords and Commons do declare, that every officer and commander by sea or land, that shall be remiss or negligent in observing the tenour of this ordinance, shall be reputed a favourer of the bloody rebellion of Ireland, and shall be liable to such condign punishment as the justice of both houses of Parliament shall inflict upon him."419

419 Rushworth, V. 729.*

* The reader is requested to observe that this volume is erroneously paged; page 729 occurring twice.

Irishmen, lost sight of every principle of humanity and justice, and of all the laws of civilized warfare.

The phraseology of this ordinance is very ambiguous, probably through design. It orders to be murdered,-for,

"Disguise it as we will,"

it is sheer, downright murder-it orders, we say, to be murdered, "all Irishmen and Papists born in Ireland." The sweeping command to murder "all Irishmen," rendered it wholly unnecessary to add, "all Papists born in Ireland," unless they wished the world to believe, that a "Papist born in Ireland" was a species of being different from an❝Irishman."

To cap the climax of this atrocious cruelty, and to guard against the goadings of

"The tyrant conscience,"

whereby their commanders might be tempted to yield to the dictates of

แ Mercy! the brightest diadem of empire!
Mercy, that does distinguish men from brutes,"

they denounced "condign punishment" against all such as should be "remiss or negligent" in carrying the ordinance into execution. They were to be stigmatized with the foulest stain that the vocabulary of reproach could at that day furnish; that is, "to be reputed favourers of the bloody rebellion of Ireland," and to be punished accordingly.

While such a barbarous and murderous decree imprints its inextinguishable and sanguinary stain on the records of that Parliament and party, it requires the most unblushing impudence and effrontery to continue the outrageous abuse of the Irish, for the pretended murders and massacres of 2 or 300,000 men, women, and children, out of a population not exceeding 225,000 in the aggregate!

The reader may perhaps flatter himself with the fond hope that these orders were not, nor intended to be, carried into operation. Let him

not

"Lay this flattering unction to his soul."

A few pages hence, he will find that the sanguinary rulers found sanguinary ruffians, to carry their sanguinary mandates into effect, in the true spirit of desolation in which they were conceived.

Far different was the spirit by which the calumniated Irish were actuated. They denounced the strongest sentence of excommunication not merely against murderers, but against thieves, spoilers, robbers, and extorters; as well as against all such as should favour, receive, or any way assist them; and, lest this denunciation should

*"Articles agreed upon, ordained and concluded, in the general congregation, held at Kilkenny, May, 1642.

"We declare [the present] war, openly Catholic, to be lawful and just; in which war, if some of the Catholics be found to proceed out of some particular and unjust title, covetousness,

prove ineffectual, they ordered their generals to punish offenders in the premises, under pain of interdiction.

These orders are signed by three archbishops, four bishops, and twenty-one other dignitaries of the church, of various degrees. They were enacted in a grand council, held in Kilkenny, in May, 1642. What a glorious, what an honourable contrast for Ireland, between the spirit they display, and that of the murderous ordinance of the Long Parliament, that no quarter should be given to any Irishman! or that of the lords jus

cruelty, revenge, or hatred, or any such unlawful, private intentions, we declare them therein grievously to sin, and therefore worthy to be punished and restrained with ecclesiastical censures, if (advised thereof) they do not amend.

"We will and declare all those that murder, dismember, or grievously strike; all thieves, unlawful spoilers, robbers of any goods, extorters; together with all such as favour, receive, or any ways assist them, to be excommunicated, and so to remain until they completely amend and satisfy, no less than if they were namely proclaimed excommunicated:

"We command all and every the generals, colonels, captains, and other officers of our Catholic army, to whom it appertaineth, that they severely punish all transgressors of our aforesaid command, touching murderers, maimers, strikers, thieves, and robbers; and if they fail therein, we command the parish priests, curates, or chaplains, respectively, to declare them interdicted; and that they shall be excommunicated, if they cause not due satisfaction to be made unto the commonwealth, and the party offended. And this the parish priests or chaplains shall observe, under pain of excommunication of sentence given ipso facto."420

420 Rushworth, V. 519, 520.

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