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ficance, compared with the single fact of the horrible butchery at Drogheda.

Let any candid, fair, and honourable Englishman, therefore, lay his hand on his heart, and say, whether he can justify himself for censuring an Irishman for mourning over the melancholy story of his country's sufferings; vindicating her character; and attempting to remove the mountains of obloquy and abuse with which wicked men have overwhelmed her for centuries? The Englishman feels deeply for the honour of his country. Why condemn, why not rather applaud the same feeling in an Irishman? Has not an Irishman, like an Englishman,

"Senses, affections, passions? Is he not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as" an Englishman?" If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not" defend ourselves?

My requisitions on the reader are few and simple. I merely request a candid and patient hearing; that no inveterate prejudice may be allowed to operate against me; and that the "Vindicia Hibernica" may not be arraigned at the bar of criticism as if it were injudiciously offered to the world as a regular, systematic, finished work, to which it explicitly declines making any pretensions, but rather as a series of distinct and somewhat desultory chapters, tending to prove certain points, each insulated from the rest. To this view I request the. most particular attention; and that it may be constantly borne in mind, throughout the perusal of the work. I court and. defy the most rigorous scrutiny into my facts and inductions. Let no indulgence be shown to those on which there is the least doubt or uncertainty: let all be rejected, that do not carry with them irresistible conviction. If, in the ardent zeal I feel in what I deem the noblest of causes, I have occasionally over-rated the force of the evidence, and drawn conclusions which that evidence does not appear to warrant, on some particular points, and if my positions on those be rejected, I trust that this decision will not affect any of the others. Let each stand forth substantively by itself, and not bring on the downfall of its neighbour by its error, or support its neighbour's error by its truth.

Pecuniary considerations have had no place among the motives that led to this undertaking. This edition consists of only seven hundred and fifty copies, of which two hundred and fifty are intended to be gratuitously distributed to public libraries, reading rooms, and enlightened individuals; in order to afford the work a fair chance of perusal, and my calumniated country an opportunity of justification.

Philadelphia, March 6, 1819.

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

SINCE the appearance of the first edition of this work, it has undergone a complete revision. Having enlarged the size of the page, and greatly reduced that of the types, I have been enabled to make very copious additions to its contents, which are nearly doubled. The time it embraces is extended down to the present century, having introduced a view of the chief portions of the barbarous code for "preventing the growth of popery," which are still in operation.

I have, moreover, rendered the work far more methodical than in the former edition-dividing it into several distinct periods, as nearly as possible in chronological order.

I am very sensible, however, that although much improved in matter and manner, it remains considerably defective in the arrangement. Owing to inadvertence, some few repetitions occur, which I deeply regret. For these and any other imperfections that may appear in the work, I submit myself to the mercy of the critics, and shall not shrink from any castigation they may inflict. My chief attention having been directed to establish the grand positions laid down in page xi. by such authorities as would lay controversy on the subject at rest for ever, I have regarded all other considerations as quite secondary.

Should it be objected that I have occasionally employed stronger language than comports with the dignity of historical writing, I beg leave to reply, that to use a very measured style in treating of such horrible scenes of oppression, fraud, forgery, perjury, rapine, and massacre, as abound in the blood-stained annals of Ireland, requires more command of temper, than falls to the lot of Irishmen in general, when mourning over the heart-rending tale of their country's wrongs. He must be a mere stoic who could relate without reprobation the conflagrations, the desolation, and the ruthless mas sacres of the Greys, the Tichbournes, the Iretons, the Cootes, the St. Legers, and the Cromwells, who have successively laid Ireland waste. My chief regret is, that my talents are not equal to the magnitude of the undertaking-an undertaking no less worthy of the pen of a Robertson or a Gibbon, than those works on which they have employed their pens for the delight and instruction of mankind. But so far as in

defatigable industry can atone for deficiency of talents, nothing within my power has been left undone.*

Let me be allowed to avail myself of the words of the great Chaptal. "I have neglected nothing to procure correct information. I do not, however, pretend to publish a perfect work. All that I can pledge myself for, is that it emanates from honest intentions.

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In the compilation of history, at least on all disputed points, it appears an incumbent duty to refer with precision to the authorities from whence the materials are derived. A mere reference to the name of the author is not sufficient. Not only the page, but the particular edition, ought to be pointed out with precision. To this I have uniformly attended, except in Whitelock's memorials, for a reason explained in page xxiv.

The histories of Irish affairs are wonderfully deficient in this respect. I have now before me Clarendon's History of the Irish Rebellion, and Crawford's, Gordon's, Lawless's and Leland's histories of Ireland, and Warner's history of the rebellion. Not one of the four first contains a single reference, note, or illustration. Every thing depends upon the mere ipse dixit of the respective writers. Leland's history has a few references, but frequently not on the most disputed points. Moreover, half his references are merely to the title of the work, or the name of the writer, without stating the chapter or page, a mode of reference of little avail. Who will take the trouble of canvassing a volume of four or five hundred pages, to verify a passage, with no clue to guide him to the particular page or even chapter of the work, from whence it is said to be derived?

Warner's plan is still more unsatisfactory. At the head of each Book, he arranges the names of the authors, or the titles of the works, that furnish his materials. At the commencement of the first Book, for instance, he has-Clarendon, Castlehaven, Cox, Temple, Borlace, Harris, and Historical Memoirs,

Shall I be pardoned for stating the circumstance which led to the appearance of this volume? I had, for twenty years, contemplated the publication of such a work; but, from the pressure of other avocations, and the influence of a spirit of procrastination, had deferred it from year to year, and in all proba bility should never have completed it, had I not been stimulated to engage zealously in it, by the publication of Godwin's terror-inspiring novel, Mande. ville, which, grounded on Temple's miserable legends, has given them body and substance in the popular form of a novel. The indignation I felt at seeing the talents of this powerful writer enlisted in the service of fraud and imposture, and in disseminating vile fables among classes of society, who would otherwise escape the delusion by which the historians of the seventeenth century have led their unsuspecting readers captive, broke the chain by which I was spell bound, and goaded me to the completion of the work. Whether the occurrence was fortunate or otherwise, the world must judge.

without the least indication of what he has derived from any of them. Some of these writers are at daggers' points with others some of them are wholly unworthy of credit-and some entitled to implicit confidence. The reader, therefore, wholly uncertain on what authority any particular statement rests, must be unable to decide how far it is deserv ing of attention.

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Deeply anxious for the circulation of this work, not from any pecuniary motives, but from national feeling, I made every effort in my power to excite the co-operation of influential Irishmen, to whom, in almost every state in the union, I addressed circular letters. It would afford me great pleasure had it been in my power to testify to any zeal on the part of those to whom I thus addressed myself, and that their efforts had corresponded with the importance of a Vindication of their country's honour, or with my hopes or solicitations-solicitations to which I would not have condescended for any private object. But I am truly sorry to say, that except Dr. Macneven, the Rev. William Taylor, Mr. Coppinger, and two or three other gentlemen, the mass of the persons to whom I addressed myself, felt as indifferent on the subject, as if I had been writing on the history of Japan or China. To feeling for the character of their country, they appeared wholly insensible. I addressed bishops, priests, lawyers, merchants, and tradesmen-but in vain. Few of them condescended to favour me with a reply to my letters. In entire states, where I might reasonably have expected a hundred subscribers, there is not a single one. There are not thirty south of New York. In the article of books bearing on the subject, I was equally unsuccessful. From the Rev. Mr. Heyden, I received Geoghegan's History of Ireland-from Dr. Macneven, Pacata Hibernia-and from the Rev. Mr. Taylor three or four works. All the libraries of all the other Irishmen to whom I applied, were hermetically sealed against me.

The paging of some of the books which I have quoted, is so extremely incorrect, that I think it necessary to caution such of my readers as may be disposed to examine my authorities, not to be too hasty in condemning me should they occasionally find the paging not to correspond exactly. The two most remarkable works for such errors, are Rushworth's Collections, and Cox's History of Ireland, in both of which the same pages are frequently repeated. There is scarcely a volume of the first, wholly free from errors of this description. Some of them are of the most egregious kind.

The fourth volume of that work has the leaves from 552 to 565 paged only on one side; and from 401 to 440 are du

plicates. In the seventh volume, the paging runs 731, 232, 233, 334, 335, 336, 737. Various other errors occur.

In Cox's Ireland, the paging is entirely erroneous from 350 to 381. Some of the leaves are paged only on one side. Some pages occur twice, as 354, 355, 367, 368. In Cabala, likewise, some pages occur twice. Erroneous paging prevails in seve ral other works which I have used.

Of Ware's works I have used two different editions. One, a single volume folio, published in Dublin, 1705, contains some articles, particularly a tract styled "Gesta Hibernorum," which are omitted in the more recent edition, published in the same place, in two volumes, folio, anno 1764. From this tract I have made several extracts.

Philadelphia, Oct. 20, 1823.

Note 28 is to Nalson, II.

85 to Carte, I. 43.

129 to Davies, 87.

Errata in the References.

181 to Smith's Kerry, 238. 257 to Pacata Hibernia, 659.

258 to Pacata Hibernia, 645. 397 to Davies, 283.

406 to Carte, I. 25.

469 to Strafford, I. 274.

The reference in

Note 483 is to Leland, III. 35.

578 to Whitelock, 510.

616 to Carte II. 223.

633 to Whitelock, 49.

695 to Carte, III. 88.

778 to Whitelock, 51.
840 to Borlace, App. 133.
861 to Clarendon's Ireland, 218.

There are some other errors likewise in the references to Whitelock's Memorials and Baker's Chronicles. Of the former I used two different editions, one published in 1682, and the other in 1732. One of them has been unaccountably lost or mislaid, and hence has arisen a confusion in the references, which I tried to avoid, but in vain. To some of the pages of particular passages, I was wholly unable to refer. Of one point the reader may rest assured, that I have been as scrupulously exact as possible in my quotations, and that I feel persuaded there is not a material error in that respect in the work.

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