a vote of the House of Commons, ten years after-· wards, fifteen hundred of the prisoners of that nation were sold or given away to the Guinea merchants, to work in the mines.*

NOTE II. ON CHAPTER IV.

B P. 96. A far worse state of things than existed at the period when the contest commenced.] It requires but little reflection or observation, to discover a considerable resemblance between the issue of this contest, and that of the late revolution in France; and that the leaders in both countries fell into exactly the same species of error, with results not very dissimilar. Had the Parliament of England stopped short at the point stated in the text, the liberties of that nation would have been placed, in 1642, on a far better and more secure foundation, than they acquired at the so-much-extolled revolution in 1688, when, on the abdication of the bigot James, they called in a foreign prince to rule them, with hardly any stipulation whatever in favour of liberty. And it is equally obvious, that had the French leaders rested content, when they gave the king a veto on the acts of

* September 20, 1651.

"Upon the desire of the Guinea merchants, fifteen hundred of the Scots prisoners were granted to them, and sent on shipboard, to be sent to Guinea, to work in the mines there."117

117 Whitelock, 485.

1

the legislature, similar to what exists in England or the United States, the nation and the world at large would have been prodigiously benefited: and an incalculable waste of human happiness and wealth, rivers of blood, and millions of lives, would have been spared. But, according to the wise aphorism of the ex-president Adams, "Every age will make 'experience for itself."

CHAPTER V.

State of Ireland, under James I. and Charles I. previous to 1641. Awful credulity or imposture. Rancorous spirit of persecution. Sacrilegious burglary and robbery, by the archbishop, mayor, and recorder of Dublin.

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”

PREVIOUS to entering on thé discussion of the insurrection of 1641, it is highly proper to cast a glance on the state of the nation previous to that event.

In order to aggravate as much as possible the guilt of the Irish, in what is styled “the execrable rebellion of 1641," and more completely to expose them to detestation, almost every writer, who has either professedly treated this subject, or touched it incidentally, has drawn a most flattering picture of the peace, prosperity, and happiness of Ireland, for forty previous years. It requires no deep research to discover, that the motive is to inspire a belief, that the insurrection was as wanton and unprovoked in its origin, as they have endeavoured to make it appear barbarous and sanguinary in its progress.

In this object they have been crowned with success for the general impression is, that Ireland, during the reigns of James I. and his son Charles I. enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, to which she has been an utter stranger, from the day of the invasion by Henry II. when lust and faction laid the island prostrate at the feet of a foreign foe, to the present hour.

Sir John Temple first broached this deceptious tale. He states, that for forty years the two nations had lived together in peace, and been consolidated into one body, as one nation; that the Roman Catholics enjoyed the private exercise of their religious rites without molestation; and that none of the penalties of the laws against their religion were inflicted.*

* "The two nations had now lived together forty years in peace, with great security and comfort, which had in a manner consolidated them into one body, knit and compacted together with all those bonds and ligatures of friendship, alliance, and consanguinity, as might make up a constant and perpetual union between them.

"Their priests, Jesuits, and friars, without any manner of restraint, had quietly settled themselves in all the chief towns, villages, noblemen's and private gentlemen's houses, throughout the kingdom: so as the private exercise of ALL THEIR RELIGIOUS RITES AND CEREMONIES was freely enjoyed by them, without any manner of disturbance, and not any of the laws put in execution, whereby heavy penalties were to be inflicted upon transgressors in that kind.'

118 Temple, 15.

99118

This statement is copied and enlarged, by Clarendon,* Carte,† Warner, and Leland. They

* "Taxes, tallages, and contributions were things hardly known to them by their names. Whatsoever their land, labour, or industry produced was their own, being not only free from fear of having it taken from them by the king, upon any pretence whatsoever, without their own consent; but also secured against thieves and robbers, by due execution of good laws, that men might and did travel over all the parts of the kingdom, with great sums of money, unguarded and unconcealed.

"The whole nation enjoyed an undisturbed exercise of their religion: and even in Dublin, where the seat of the king's chief governor was, they went as publicly and uninterruptedly to their devotions, as he went to his. The bishops, priests, and all degrees and orders of secular and regular clergy, were known to be, and exercise their functions amongst them: and though there were some laws against them still in force, which necessity and the wisdom of former ages had caused to be enacted, to suppress those acts of treason and rebellion which the people frequently fell into, and the policy of present times kept unrepealed, to prevent the like distempers and designs, yet the edge of those laws was so totally rebated by the clemency and compassion of the king, that NO MAN COULD SAY HE HAD SUFFERED PREJUDICE OR DISTURBANCE ON AC

COUNT OF HIS RELIGION, which is another kind of indulgence than subjects professing a faith contrary to what is established by the law of the land, can boast of in any other kingdom of the world. In this blessed condition of peace and security, the English and Irish, the Protestants and Roman Catholics, lived mingled together in all the provinces of the kingdom, quietly trafficking with one another, during the whole happy reign of James: and from his death, every degree of their happiness was increased and improved under the government of his late majesty."119

"The kingdom had enjoyed a continued peace of near forty years, during which the ancient animosities between the Irish

119 Clarendon's I. 7, 8.