man put into the cask with iron spikes, and rolled to death; and the children roasted to death.before their parents, and the parents before their children.

Of all the writers on this subject, there is none deserving of more unqualified censure than Hume. He was under the influence of none of the dire passions that actuated some of the others. With a powerful mind and keen penetration, it was his duty to have examined carefully the credibility of his authorities; and it required a very cursory examination, indeed, of Temple's history, to be satisfied that to quote it was an ineffable disgrace. Yet, astonishing to tell, out of thirty-four references, in his account of the pretended massacre of 1641, there are no less than twenty-seven to Temple, only five to Rushworth, and one each to Nalson and Whitelock. How utterly unworthy this procedure was of the talents and reputation of Hume; how indelible a stain it attaches to his memory; and how far, as respects this individual case, he is reduced to a level with the common race of historians, may be readily conceived, from the extracts already given from Temple's history,* and from those which follow in the present chapter. A large portion of the most horrible passages, for which he quotes Temple's history, are grounded, in that wretched romance, on hear-say testimony; which

* Supra, 38, 41, 42.

is distinctly stated in the depositions, as will appear in the course of the present chapter, and which therefore could not have been unknown to Hume, and ought to have forbidden him to place the least dependence on their authority.

But his offence is not confined to the original use of those "tales of terror." No: a much higher and more inexpiable one remains behind.

Dr. John Curry published a work of most transcendent merit, of which the title is, " Historical Review of the Civil Wars of Ireland," in which he fully displayed the falsehood, and completely overthrew the narrative, of Temple. The peculiar characteristic of this work is, that every important fact it contains is supported by the most indisputable authority, not merely in the form of reference, but by exact quotation. It may be safely asserted, that a more valuable historical work was never published.* The author, in 1764, sent a copy of it to David Hume, then at Paris, with a request that he would give it a candid consideration, and correct the errors that he had committed, by his dependence on such a deceptious guide as Temple. To this letter he

* This review is earnestly recommended to the attention of the learned world. It is a perfect model of the manner in which history, on all disputed points, ought to be written. So luminous is Curry's style, so cogent his reasoning, and so indisputable his authorities, that the most inveterate prejudices must give way, on a candid perusal of the work.

sent an "evasive answer,' "* in which he declined committing himself by any promise; and never, in any subsequent edition, corrected a single error in this part of his work. On this conduct, there can, among upright men, be but one sentence pronounced; and that is, a most unqualified sentence of reprobation.

To travel through the loathsome details of the evidence by which the terrific descriptions of the massacre (as it is pompously styled) are supported, is as disgusting to the moral sense, as it would be to the olfactory nerve to travel through filthy shambles, where neglect, and consequent putrefaction, had trebled the natural noisomeness of the place. These details exhibit human nature in its most hideous forms. Nothing meets the mind's eye, but fraud, forgery, and perjury; and, to crown the whole, the immolation, under the mockery of justice, of those wretched victims

"I am here at such a distance from my authorities, that I cannot produce all the arguments which determined me to give the account you complain of, with regard to the Irish massacre. I only remember I sought truth, and thought I found it. The insurrection might be excused, as having liberty for its object. The violence also of the Puritanical Parliament, struck a just terror into all the Catholics. But the method of conducting the rebellion, if we must call it by that name, was certainly such, and you seem to own it, as deserved the highest blame, and was one of the most violent efforts of barbarism and bigotry united."430 D. H.

who had escaped the insatiate rage of Coote, Inchiquin, Orrery, Ireton, Cromwell, and their worthy followers.

Those who have attended courts of justice cannot have failed to observe the frightful frequency of perjury, so gross and so palpable, as not to escape the detection of the most superficial observer, often in cases of slight importance, and holding out, of course, little temptation to the perpetration of this dangerous crime. When, therefore, nearly the whole fee simple of a fertile island was at stake; when rapine made hasty strides in the confiscation of millions of acres ; when an estate of one, two, three, or four hundred thousand acres depended, as was often the lamentable case, on the oath of a single perjured witness; when no witness was too base, too profligate, too infamous,-no testimony too extravagant, too incredible, too impossible, to be admitted, to prove the guilt, confiscate the property, or sacrifice the life, of an Irishman; had the tales embraced in those depositions been all plausible and consistent; had each corroborated the others; had there not been the slightest contradiction between them, still every sound and unprejudiced mind would receive the accusations with large drawbacks and allowances; knowing well, that strong temptations to fraud and villany will readily overcome the scruples of the profligate and abandoned part of mankind; that greater

temptations to fraud, forgery, and perjury, never existed; that they were never more kindly received or encouraged; and also knowing, that, during periods of civil war, when all the vile passions of human nature are let loose from their usual restraints,-when party rage, national antipathies, and religious persecution, all combine their deleterious influence, to demoralize and brutalize mankind, every species of profligacy and turpitude is nursed as in a hotbed.

But how revolting is the fact, that a large portion of this evidence, as we have mentioned, and wish indelibly impressed on the reader's mind, is sworn to on hear-say; that it is generally deficient of probability, and in many cases even of possibility; that it carries on its face the most irrefragable proofs of its utter falsehood, of the perjury of the witnesses, and of the wickedness of the judges and others who took the depositions! Many of those depositions, as may be seen in Chapter II. relate to circumstances utterly impossible; as the shrieking of ghosts, standing upright in rivers, crying for revenge; naked bodies, struck at with drawn swords, proving invulnerable; grease adhering to the knives of murderers, in sufficient quantities to make candles; persons cut and hacked, and their bowels torn out, without shedding their blood, &c. &c.

We have already stated, that all the depositions taken, at various times and places, to establish the guilt of the Irish, have been collected toge