"This account," adds the doctor, "is corroborated “by a letter, which I copied out of the council book

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"there will hardly be found one in ten a protestant; which "then makes the number of protestants not to be yet above "two hundred thousand in all; and out of these, at least a quarter "being deducted for the Scotch colonies, the English of the "reformed faith will scarce now amount to a hundred and "fifty thousand; whereas formerly, before the banishments, "transplantation, and infinite slaughters of the Irish, the popish party was exceedingly more numerous than this proportion, and the other religious less; for, during the "last thirty years, (by reason of the wonderful prey,) there "came more planters out of England hither, than God "knows in how many ages before: so that upon the whole I "dare affirm, that there could not be in Ireland one hundred "and twenty thousand English protestants, when the rebellion "broke out.

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:

"In the last place, let us consider, (as the aforesaid author "also has it,) that the most bloody executions were made in "Ulster; a quarter (as every body knows,) where the Old "Irish had not only their chiefest power and strength, but "where the Scotch also were, for the most part, all seated; 66 SO that our countrymen had there comparatively few plantations but had they been as thick here as in other places (and herein there was no proportion) their number "could not then have exceeded twenty four thousand inhabitants, "there being five provinces in this kingdom. Yet in all the 66 printed narrations, we find that many were protected from the "present fury of the rebels in London, Derry, Coleraine, and Ennis"killing, (for these were in the hands of the English, as Sanderson "tells us) that droves came daily to Dublin partly by flight, and "partly by permission, and that many more got safe to other places แ of refuge. In short then, after well reflecting on the premises, "who can imagine that three thousand English protestants were "here destroyed, which is a pretty difference, from three "hundred thousand, the usual computation, as I said; for as to

" at Dublin, written on the 5th of May 1652, ten

years after the beginning of the rebellion, from "the parliament commissioners in Ireland, to the "English parliament. After exciting the parlia"ment to further severity against the Irish,--as being afraid that their behaviour, towards that "people, might never sufficiently avenge their "murders and massacres; and, lest the parliament "might shortly be in pursuance of a speedy settle"ment of the kingdom, and thereby some tender "conclusions be adopted,-the commissioners tell "them, that, besides 849 families, there were killed, hanged, and burned, 6.062."

4. We should also mention,-that the whole body of the catholic nobility and gentry did, by their agents at Oxford, in 1643, petition the king, that "all "murders committed on both sides, in that way, "might be examined in a future parliament, and the "actors of them exempted out of all the acts of "indemnity and oblivion: but that the protestant agents, then also attending the king at Oxford, "refused to assent to the proposal *."

5. Finally, we beg leave to state, in a few words, what is said by the apologists of the Irish catholics, to palliate this lamentable event.-They first observe, that, during the successive reigns of Elizabeth, James the first, and Charles the first, the spiritual and

"the slaughter done elsewhere, it was not comparable to what "happened in this province, as all writers unanimously "agree."

Walsh's History of the Irish Remonstrance, App. p. 54.

temporal grievances of the Irish catholics were very great, were always on the increase, and were of a nature to agitate the human feelings in the highest degree, and to stimulate them to the greatest excesses. They next assert, from unquestionable evidence, that the insurrection on the 23d of October 1641, was confined to the province of Ulster ; that, though this day is assigned for the commencement of the general massacre, the insurrection was confined, during the two following months, to that province; that, during the whole of those months, few murders, if any, were committed; that sir William Parsons and sir John Borlase, the lords justices, to whom the government of the kingdom was, at this time, committed, instead of endeavour ing to repress, artfully strove to goad the whole catholic body into rebellion; that, after the insurrection had spread, a fanatic and enthusiastic soldiery, on one hand, and a savage and exasperated rabble on the other, promiscuously plundered and murdered English protestants and Irish catholics; that the number of the catholic victims of these barbarities far exceeded that of the protestant; that the massacre began with a murder committed by Scottish puritans, of a multitude of unoffending Irish catholics in the island of Maggee; and that, throughout the whole of the massacre, there were found in every part of Ireland, both catholic priests and catholic laymen, who exerted themselves, frequently at the risk of their lives, to save the protestants from the destruction with which they were threatened.

Such is the catholic representation: --Those, who wish for full information on the subject, should attentively peruse the protestant historians, Leland and Warner; and the catholic apologist Dr. Curry, whose Historical and Critical Review we have frequently cited, and the Trial of the Roman-catholics, by Henry Brooke, esq. 1767, 8vo.—a work, which we have frequently consulted. A serious and impartial comparison of these works, will, we think, convince every candid mind, that, in the charges, to which the conduct of the catholics on this lamentable event may be thought to have justly exposed them, there has been some invention, and great exaggeration.-At all events, the sins even of the vilest actors in them, should not be visited on their tenth generation.

LXXX. 8.

The Confederacy of the Irish Catholics in 1642.

We must now reverse the medal,-and consider the conduct of the lords justices, towards the catholics, at this dreadful time. "The arbitrary

power," says Dr. Warner, "exercised by them; "-their illegal exertion of it, by bringing people "to the rack, to draw confessions from them;-their "sending out so many parties from Dublin and "other garrisons, to kill and destroy the rebels, in "which, care was seldom taken to distinguish,— "and men, women and children were promiscu

ously slain ;-but above all, the martial law exe"cuted by sir Charles Coote;-and the burning

"of the pale for seventeen miles in length, and twenty-five in breadth, by the earl of Ormond ;these measures not only exasperated the rebels " and induced them to commit the like or greater "cruelties; but they terrified the nobility and gentry from all thoughts of submission, and con"vinced them, that there was no room to hope for

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pardon, nor any means of safety left them, but the "sword." Leland*, observes, that "the favourite object, both of the Irish government and English parliament, was the utter extermination of all the "catholic inhabitants of Ireland.. Their estates were already marked out, and allotted to the conquerors, "so that they and their posterity were consigned to "inevitable ruin." It is not to be wondered that a great body of nobility, gentry, and proprietors, thus circumstanced, should unite, for self-preservation, in a regular system of defence..

They accordingly confederated :-In the month of May 1642, the leaders of them assembled at Kilkenny, and formed a general council, for the conduct of their measures, on a plan of a parliament of two houses :-the upper, composed of the prelates and temporal peers; the lower, of two delegates sent by the counties and cities. They accepted, for the rule of government, the common law of England, and the statutes of Ireland, so far as they were not repugnant to catholic faith, and to the liberties of the Irish nation. The oath of association was," I swear, before Almighty God, "his angels and saints, that I will defend the liberty of the catholic, apostolic and Roman faith, * Vol. iii. p. 166.