King. State of the Protestants in Ireland, under the late King James's Government. By Archbishop King. 8vo. London, 1692. Leland. History of Ireland, from the Invasion to the Present Time. By T. Leland. 4 vols. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1774. Ludlow. Memoirs of Edward Ludlow, Esqr. 3 vols. 8vo. Vevay, 1698. May. History of the Parliament of England, which began November 3, 1640. By Thomas May. 4to. London, 1812. Memoirs. Memoirs of the History of Ireland, from the Restoration. 8vo. London, 1774. Mountmorres. History of the Principal Transactions of the Irish Parliament. By Lord Mountmorres. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1792. Macauley. History of England. By Catharine Macauley. 9 vols. 4to. London, 1766. Nalson. Collection of the Affairs of State. 2 vols. folio. London, 1682. Ormond. Collection of Original Papers and Letters belonging to the Ormond Family. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1737. Orrery. Collection of the State Letters of the first Earl of Orrery. 2 vols. 8vo. Dublin, 1743. Paulding. United States and England. Philadelphia, 1816. Pacata Hibernia. History of the War in Ireland. By Sir George Carew. 3 vols. 4to. Dublin, 1810. Plowden. Historical View of the State of Ireland, from the Invasion to the Union. 6 vols. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1805. Petty. Political Anatomy of Ireland. By William Petty. 12mo. Lond. 1691. Parliamentary History. Parliamentary or Constitutional History of England. 24 vols. 8vo. London, 1762. Pickering. Statutes at Large, from Magna Charta to the End of the Eleventh Parliament of Great Britain. By Darby Pickering. London, 1762. Perrot. Government of Ireland under Sir John Perrot. 12mo. London, 1626. Robbins. An Exact Abridgment of all the Irish Statutes. 4to. Dublin, 1736. Rushworth. Historical Collection of Private Passages of State. 8 vols. folio. London. Rapin. History of England. By Mr. Rapin. 21 vols. 8vo. London, 1760. Statutes. Collection of all the Statutes now in Use. Folio. Dublin, 1678. Spencer. View of the State of Ireland. By Edmund Spencer. Dublin, 1809, Strafford State Letters of the Earl of Strafford. Speed. History of Great Britain. London, 1611. State Trials. Cobbet's Complete Collection of State Trials, 1809. Smith. Ancient and present State of the City and County of Cork. By Charles Smith. 2 vols. 8vo. Dublin, 1774. Sydney Papers. Letters and Memorials of State, in the Reigns of Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, King James, &c. commonly called Sydney Papers. 2 vols. folio. London, 1746. Temple. The Irish Rebellion. By Sir John Temple. Dublin, 1724. Thurloe. Collection of State Papers, from 1638 to the Restoration. 7 vols. folio. London, 1742. Tichbourne. Letter of Sir Henry Tichbourne to his Lady, of the Siege of Tredagh. Appended to Temple's History. Dublin, 1724. Warner. History of the Rebellion and Civil War of Ireland. By Ferdinando Warner. 4to. London, 1768. Whitelock. Memorials of English Affairs. Folio. London, 1682. Warwick. Memoirs of the Reign of King Charles I. By Sir Philip Warwick. 8vo. London, 1703. Ware. Antiquities and History of Ireland. By Sir James Ware. Folio. London, 1705. This work I could not procure, and have quoted it at second-hand from Dr. Curry. Having two vacant pages here, I have judged it would be acceptable to the reader to present him with some bold views of the subject embraced in the last chapter of this vindication, taken from high authority: I mean the conduct of the Protestant ascendency, and the character and tendency of the execrable code "to prevent the growth of Popery." "Ithink I can hardly overrate the malignity of the principles of the Protestant ascendency, as they affect Ireland."* "No country, I believe, since the world began, suffered so much on account of religion." "We found the people heretics and idolaters; we have, by way of improving their condition, rendered them slaves and beggars. They remain in all the misfortune of their old errors, and all the superadded misery of their recent punishment." 'They divided the nation into two distinct parties, without common interest, sympathy, or connexion. One of these bodies was to possess all the franchises, all the property, all the eduThe other was to be composed of drawers of water and cutters of turf for them."§ cation. Every measure was pleasing and popular, just in proportion as it tended to harass and ruin a set of people who were looked upon as enemies to God and man; and indeed as a race of bigoted savages, who were a disgrace to human nature itself."|| The code against the Roman Catholics "was a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance; and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man."¶ "To render men patient under a deprivation of all the rights of human nature, every thing which could give them a knowledge or feeling of those rights was rationally forbidden. To render humanity fit to be insulted, it was fit that it should be degraded."** * Burke, V. 232. § Idem, III. 452. ** Idem, 438. + Idem, 213. + Idem, 211. ¶ Idem, 495. "These rebellions were not produced by toleration, but by persecution; they arose not from just and mild government, but from the most unparalleled oppression."* "Let three millions of people but abandon all that they and their ancestors have been taught to believe sacred, and forswear it publicly, in terms the most degrading, scurrilous, and indecent, for men of integrity and virtue, and to abuse the whole of their former lives, and to slander the education they have received, and nothing more is required of them. There is no system of folly, or impiety, or blasphemy, or atheism, into which they may not throw themselves, and which they may not profess openly and as a system, consistently with the enjoyment of all the privileges of a free citizen in the happiest constitution in the world."t "No condescension was excessive which could purchase for the Protestants of Ireland the uncontrolled indulgence of their hatred. They did not hesitate to fall, like Sampson, beneath the temple, provided the same ruin might become fatal to their adversaries: nor, in the warmth of zeal against Popery, did they recollect that the freedom and commerce, which, with so much solicitude, they rejected, might not perhaps appear equally unacceptable to their children. After having hazarded the possession of every object that can make life precious, to avoid the probability of slavery, they shaped for themselves a bondage which the most hardy tyrant could scarcely venture to propose; and resigned, by an "awful interdict," every intercourse with the rest of mankind, whilst, in the narrow compass which remained, they might wanton in the unconstrained enjoyment of revenge. Content to convert their country into one vast prison, if they could find within its bosom a dungeon still more hideous for their unhappy captives." * Burke, V. 220. + Idem, 242. + Review of some Interesting Periods of Irish History, 36. PREFACE. TO most readers it will probably appear extraordinary, and a work of supererogation, that, in a country and an age so remote from the scene and the era of the events which are discussed in this vindication, it should be deemed either proper or necessary to investigate the subjects it embraces. The reasons are powerful, and fully justify the undertaking. The history of Ireland, as stated and proved in the body of this work, is almost one solid mass of falsehood and imposture, erected, particularly during the seventeenth century, on the basis of fraud and perjury ;-fraud and perjury so obvious, so stupid, and so flagitious, that, to the most superficial observer, it must be a subject of inexpressible astonishment how it ever gained currency. Nevertheless, from such foul and polluted sources alone, the knowledge of Irish history is derived by nine-tenths of those who have condescended to study it: and, though it may appear extravagant, it is nevertheless a serious truth, that a large portion even of those who pride themselves on their literary acquirements, are almost as ignorant of the affairs of Ireland, from the twelfth to the eighteenth century, as they are of those of the Arabians or Japanese. They are, in fact, in a worse state. With respect to the history of the Arabians and Japanese, they are barely ignorant: but, with respect to Ireland, almost all they know is wholly untrue. They give full faith and confidence to some of the most extravagant and romantic stories that ever were ushered on the world, to delude and deceive mankind, under the prostituted name of histories. The terrific tales that are recorded of the events of the civil war of 1641, have sowed, and still continue to sow, a copious seed of the most vulgar and rancorous prejudices in the mind of man against his fellow man, which have sprouted forth with most pernicious luxuriance, and soured in his breast the sweet milk of human kindness towards those with whom he is in daily habits of association. These prejudices are too generally prevalent in the British dominions. In Ireland, they have produced the most baleful consequences, and still afford some sort of countenance to the continuance of the remnant of an odious code of laws, by which, as appears in Chapter XXI. of this work,* rapine, cruelty, and demoralization have been legally systematized, *Page 473. |