_Roderick O Connor_, King of _Ireland_, for his various and high State
Crimes, sought Sanctuary and Redress in the Court of _England_; where, in
the Absence of _Henry_, then in _Normandy_, diverse adventurous _Normans_,
_Flemings_, _Saxons_, and old _Britons_, (being themselves unsettled, and
unestablished) acceded to the Fate and Fortunes of _Dermod_, under the
Conduct of _Strongbow_, Earl of _Pembroke_; whose casual Success in
_Ireland_, against _Roderick_ (owing _more_ to the general Defection, at
that fatal Period, of the _Irish_ Chiefs against their lawful Sovereign,
than to any _superior Valour_ or Address of those Adventurers) induced
_Henry_ to a deliberate and grand Invasion of a Kingdom, to which he could
lay no Claim on the Score of Nature, Reason, or Right, and whither his
pretended Mission, on the Score of collecting St. _Peter_’s Dues, (which
St. _Peter_ himself never once thought of, or imagined) was as
_ridiculous_ as _groundless_. The _Summa Dies_, however, arrived: and the
People of _Ireland_, wearied out with intestine Strife, acknowledged
_Henry_ for their Sovereign Lord; and a grand Charter of Rights and
Covenants, mutual Protection and Allegiance, was entered into, anteriorly
to that of _England_. How well this Charter was _observed_ on the
_protective_ Side, the absolute Anarchy of near four Centuries, from its
original Date and Perfection, to the Reign of Queen _Elizabeth_,
demonstrates: A whole Nation, that sought Protection, and that _agreed_
for quiet, regular, and lawful Government, upon rationable Terms, deprived
of the Power of ordaining Laws for its own Security and Well-being, and
precluded (all to four or five great and favourite Families) from the
Benefits and Advantages accruing from those of that Kingdom, to which it
had voluntarily united itself; exposed, through such a Length of Time, to
arbitary Depredations, and unpunished, unredressed, uncensured Rapine,
_Quis talia sando temperet a Lachrymis_!
King _Henry_ called back into _England_, to lay the Storms raised by his
rebellious Sons, with whom and _Thomas Becket_, Archbishop of
_Canterbury_, he was so constantly embroiled to the End of his Life, that
he could little attend to the Settlement of the Affairs of this new
acquired Sovereignty.
_Richard_ the First, his immediate Successor, called away to the Holy Wars
against the _Saracens_, had as little Leisure as his Predecessor to
promote the Quiet, or Happiness of _Ireland_.
From the usurped Authority of King _John_, a continued Series of Papal
Animosity, Bloodshed, Calamities and Piracies, closed at last by Poison;
little beside political Disasters of all Sorts, could be expected.
_Henry_ the Third, through a Reign of Fifty-six Years, was continually
involved in Troubles and Hostilities, with his inflexible _English_
Barons.
_Edward_ the First, a great and warlike Prince, was, throughout his whole
Reign, engaged in the Reduction of the _Welch_ and _Scots_, and so intent
thereon, that he could turn his Thoughts to no other Object.
_Edward_ the Second, indeed, sent _Gaveston_ hither, more to screen him
from the implacable Resentments of the stubborn _English_ Nobility, than
to render any good Offices to the Inhabitants of this Country; who,
indiscriminately, (_Strongbownians_ as well as _Irish_) felt the Severity
of that insolent Favourite’s Measures.
_Richard_ the Second visited this Kingdom in Person, with the good
Intentions of establishing Peace, Order, and Harmony, in a valuable but
long neglected Estate: Yet his own adverse Fate, conspiring with that of
this Land, called him back, before he could carry his favourable
Resolutions into Execution, to defend his _English_ Dominions from the
hostile Attacks of _Henry_, Earl of _Hereford_, who, with the Duke of
_Norfolk_, Son to _John_ of _Gaunt_, had some Years before been banished
by _Richard_, to prevent a personal Combat: This King, worthy more
propitious Stars, long agitated and afflicted by the Turbulence and
irreconcilable Obstinacy of his _British_ Subjects, perished at last under
the impious Hands of Sir _Pierce_ of _Exton_, who, at the Head of eight
barbarous armed Assassins, rushed into his Chamber, and murdered him.
The Reign of _Henry_ the Fourth was short, tumultuous, and bloody; Deluges
of noble Blood having been shed by the bare Hands of the common
Executioner, to confirm a Throne acquired by abominable Crimes, and
Violence! And no sooner had these dreadful Storms begun to abate, than
_Henry_ was forced to depart from a Scene he had more adorned, (for he
was, without Question, a great and valiant Man) had not his Ambition
blindly hurried him beyond the Bounds of Justice and Nature.
_Henry_ the Fifth, his Son and Successor, and truly Inheritor of his
Ambition and warlike Genius, imagining himself aggrieved by the _Salique
Law_, which excluded his Great Great-Grandmother, _Isabel_, from the
Monarchy of _France_, turned his elevated Thoughts intirely to the
Conquest of that Kingdom: Wherein, by his own vast Merit in martial
Affairs, and the Co-operation of the Queen of _France_, (Consort of
_Charles_ the Sixth, then frantick,) and that of the Duke of _Burgundy_, a
great and powerful Prince, he so far succeeded, as, after his Marriage
with _Catharine de Valois_, Daughter of _Charles_ the Sixth, to be
crowned, and acknowledged King of _France_.
To this great and victorious Monarch succeeded _Henry_ the Sixth, who,
through a long, various, and constantly clouded Reign, seemed the very
Play of Fortune! This Day a King, the next a Prisoner! One Day acknowleged
by his Parliament, the next attainted! One Day a Conqueror, and the next a
Captive!
Fierce, frequent, and bloody, were the Conflicts between the Houses of
_York_ and _Lancaster_, the _White_ and _Red Roses_; the former
endeavouring to recover its Loss, the latter to maintain its usurped
Authority. In this dreadful Quarrel perished two hundred thousand of
private Soldiers; ten thousand of the Nobility, Gentry, and Persons of
Distinction; three Kings; and, at last, the entire Race of _Plantagenet_.
_Edward_ the Fourth soon fell, by his natural Intemperance, or rather by
the insatiable Cruelty of _Gloucester_; who had already sacrificed his
Brother _Clarence_, to pave his Way to the Throne. Nor better fared it
with _Edward_ the Fifth, who, by all the Arts of Seduction and Delusion,
which his unnatural Uncle and Guardian, _Richard_, practised on the Fears
and Weakness of the Queen Dowager; was, with his Brother the Duke of
_York_, conveyed with great Pomp to the Tower; where the bloody Tyrant,
aided by the Duke of _Buckingham_, soon sacrificed those young, innocent
and hopeful Princes to his wicked and boundless Ambition. But he soon
after lost his own flagitious Life, and a most cruelly-acquired Crown, on
the Plains of _Bosworth_.
To him succeeded _Henry_ the Seventh, and the first of the Race of
_Tudor_, a great, wise and valiant Prince, but rather too much inclined to
Rigour, and Avarice; Imperfections which extremely blemished his other
great Qualities.
In the tenth Year of this Reign, the Parliamentary Constitution of
_Ireland_ received a deeper Stab than had ever before, or since, been
inflicted thereon, by a Statute Law, commonly called _Poynin_’s Act; by
which a new, and, till that wretched Period, an unheard of Order, was
added to the three established Ranks of the State. By this Law, the
_English_ Privy-Council may impose a _Negative_ on the _free_ and
_unanimous_ Parliamentary Ordinances of the representative Body of the
Kingdom of _Ireland_; a manifest Injury to the Authority and Dignity of
Parliament; and an equal Diminution of the Royal Prerogative, that only
should include, and should alone exert, a Power so important.
In Times dark, tumultuated and dangerous, no Wonder extraordinary Laws
should pass: _Desperate Diseases_ require _desperate Remedies_: But when
the _Fever_ is removed, it certainly is a horrid Management to leave the
blistering Plaister _still sticking_ to the _recovered_ Patient’s Back.
The Distempers of this Nation were heavy, complicated and chronic; and
finally curable, only by the salutary all-healing Hands of our present
King, and present Parliament.
To _Henry_ the Seventh succeeded _Henry_ the Eighth, as consummate a
Tyrant, in every Sense, as ever swayed the _British_, or any other
Sceptre; whose whole Life was so continued a Scene of wanton Dissipation,
Lust, Cruelty, Rapine, Bloodshed and Sacrilege, that it must have been a
peculiar Happiness, to any Part of his Dominions, to have been _neglected_
or _forgotten_ by him: Nor could the two succeeding Reigns of _Edward_ the
Sixth, and Queen _Mary_, short, various, cloudy, and vastly agitated on
the Score of Religion, (which, in those two Reigns, took Faces almost
diametrically opposite,) afford this Kingdom much reflected Sunshine.
To those ensued that of Queen _Elizabeth_, a Princess of powerful
Abilities, who, truly intent on the Peace and Welfare of her Subjects,
caused her Laws to operate, and Justice to circulate in this Kingdom,
abandoned, as hath been observed, to a State almost of Anarchy, thro’ a
dismal Series of seventeen Reigns: But the Reformation in Religion, which
she established in _England_, and introduced in _Ireland_, much obviated
her Purposes for the latter Kingdom: For, the _Irish_, more tenacious of
their Altars, than of their Fire-places, could not easily reconcile
themselves to the Exchange of a Religion they deemed a _new one_, for
_that_ they had been in Possession of from the fourth, to the fifteenth
Century: Which produced a rebellious Defection, in a few of the principal
Chieftains of this Land, and gave Occasion to the greedy Provincial
Precedents, of trumping up _imaginary Rebellions_, to pave the Way to
_real Forfeitures_; thereby to aggrandize their own Houses; what some of
them effectually accomplished, to the Ruin and Extirpation of many honest
Families.
This great and illustrious Princess, (whose Reign had remained
untarnished, had it not been for the Death of the ill-fated Queen of
_Scotland_) was succeeded by _James_ the Sixth of _Scotland_, and the
first of the _Stuart_ Race that governed _England_: From this Prince,
descended of _Irish_ Kings, the People of _Ireland_ might have expected
many Favours and Immunities; wherein, however, they were miserably
disappointed: Which, with a Train of other Hardships and antiparental
Severities, (particularly his alienating, at _one Stroke_, six of the best
Counties in the Kingdom, on the _procured_ Testimony of an obscure
wretched Individual, one _Teige Lenane_,) is too sufficient and too
lasting a Proof of: _Heu! tot Conquesta Annorum, hauserit una Dies!_ The
Possession of at least twenty Centuries, of the great and good, the heroic
and hospitable _O Neils_, _O Donnels_, _Mac Guires_, _Mac Gennises_, _O
Reillys_, _O Cahanes_, &c. ravished away to gratify hungry Favourites, and
indigent Relatives! the six Counties, however, as the Law Term has it,
_escheated_. Had the _Highlands_ of _Scotland_, at that unhappy Period,
been more populated, probably six or eight Counties _more_ had been
procured to _escheat_, and there had been _a braa Clutch of bonny
Traitors_; the _O Connors_, _Mac Carthys_, _O Briens_, _O Donnels_, _O
Hares_, _O Malones_, &c. had been _all_ in the _same Bottom_ with the
Families above mentioned; especially, as they could not, according to
_James_ the First’s own Phrase, _look to the Pope, and row with him_.
To _James_ the 6th of _Scotland_, and first of _England_, succeeded
_Charles_ the First; who, notwithstanding his eminent Possession of all
the Virtues that adorn and illustrate human Nature, could neither divert
the adverse Fate of Subjects, or prevent his own.
The Disseisin of many honest Families in the County of _Kilkenny_, and
elsewhere, by the Earl of _Strafford_, on stale Pretences of _Non
Performance of Covenants_ on their Part; his Attempt of confiscating
twenty-five Parts in thirty of the whole Province of _Connaught_, on a
Claim of Descent, dormant 300 Years, and _originally ill founded_, with
the arbitrary Steps by him taken to the Accomplishment of this wasteful
Purpose; too clearly proved that Nobleman a second _Verres_. The cruel and
intoxicated Administration of the Rump Parliament; the insolent,
licentious, and riotous Controul of the military _Independents_; the
abject Tyranny of _Oliver Cromwell_, who prostrated Constitution, Church
and State, will always be recollected with the Contempt, Horror, and
Detestation of every good Subject.
The Calamities from 1641, to the happy Restoration of King _Charles_ the
Second, in 1660, being common to all good Subjects, were the more
tolerable, _ferre quam sortem patiuntur omnes, nemo recusat_: But now or
never, surely, might his ever loyal, ever faithful _Irish_ Subjects have,
with the most reasonable Assurance, hoped, if not for publick and lasting
Rewards, the common Wages of uncommon Fidelity; at least, for a
Restitution of what had been their own, through Ages immemorial.
Will late Posterity _believe_, that, in Favour of mercenary Adventurers,
who advanced Money to provide for a desperate regicide Army; in Favour of
the Officers of this same Army, whom their Ringleader _Cromwell_, seared
as his Conscience was, indulged with no more than _temporary_ Grants of
the Estates belonging to the King’s most faithful Subjects: Will
Posterity, I say, believe, that, in special Favour of such Men, those
_identical Subjects_, the bravest Advocates, as well as the most
affectionate undeviating Friends of the Monarchy and Constitution, were
_for ever_ deprived of their Properties! To remunerate the _others_, the
most _inveterate_ and _implacable_ Enemies of EITHER! _Doing Good for
Evil_ is a Divine Precept, and certainly includes a most sublime Moral;
but _rendering Evil for Good_, is such a Principle as must carry Horror
with it, among savage Nations!
The King of _France_’s immediate Letter, on this Subject, to King
_Charles_ the Second, as it reflects Honour on the Memory of those
illustrious Sufferers, I therefore take Leave to transcribe in this Place.
* * * * *
_His Most Christian Majesty’s Letter to the King of __Great Britain__, in
Favour of the __Roman Catholicks__ of __Ireland__._
“Most High, Most Excellent, and Most Potent Prince, our dear and
well-beloved Brother and Cousin! At the same Time that we have
been told of your Majesty’s great Goodness towards your Subjects,
and the Precedent you have given of an extraordinary Clemency, in
granting them your general Amnesty (some few only excepted, of
those whom the Blood of their King, and that of his People, cry
aloud to Heaven for Revenge against). We could not but let your
Majesty know, that we were extremely surprized to hear, that the
_Catholicks_ of _Ireland_ were _excluded_ from that Act of
Oblivion, and, by that Means, put into the Number of the _most
criminal_! This News has so much the more excited our Compassion
towards them, that we have been informed, that, in _all the
Changes_ which have hitherto happened in your Dominions, and in
the almost general _Defection of_ your Subjects, _none_ stood
_more constant_ to their lawful Sovereign, even in the greatest
Streights, than the _Catholicks_: So that, if they are now branded
for their Religion, it may be said, for their Honour, that, in
Times past, none could be found _readier_, or more _cheerfully
disposed_, than _they_, to serve and assist their Prince; and that
with so much _Ardour_, that their Zeal then for the Royal Family
was reckoned a certain Mark of their true Religion. It is for that
Reason that we now become their Intercessors to you: For,
otherwise, had they _failed_ in the Fidelity they owe you, instead
of interceding for them, we would join with you in using them with
all imaginable Rigour; and it would never come into our Thoughts
to concern ourselves, as we do, for the _Catholicks_ of _Ireland_;
though we _were obliged to it_, by the last Treaty of Peace made
with the Marquess of _Ormond_, and which was granted them by our
Mediation. And, as we are well assured, that, since the Conclusion
of that Peace, they have done Nothing which can be called a
_Failure of their Duty to you_, we find ourselves under so much
the greater Obligation to conjure you, to make good that Treaty to
them, in that they _religiously_ observed it on _their_ Side, in
all its Parts: And to beseech you not to suffer, that either the
Hatred, which an immoderate Zeal swells some bigotted Sectaries
with, nor the unlucky Spoils of these poor People, render criminal
or miserable the _most faithful_ of your Subjects; to whom their
lawful King, as you are, is not _the less dear_, nor _less
respected_, because of a _different Belief_ from _theirs_. We
propose Nothing to ourselves in this, nor ask any Thing, but what
we daily _practise_ (as you may know) towards those of our
Subjects who are of the _reformed Religion_. And, as we have
commanded the Sieur Marquis _de Rouvigny_ to explain our
Sentiments more amply on this Subject to you, be pleased to give
him a favourable Audience: And, above all Things, be perswaded,
that, in this Affair, we have no less your own _true Interest_ in
View, than what _natural Reason_ and _Equity_ requires; and that
our sincere Friendship for you is the principal Motive of this
Request. Dated at _Paris_, the 7th of _September_, 1660.”
The _good_ King _Charles_, regardless of this important Solicitation,
unattentive to the plain Suggestions of _common Right_, and unaccountably
forgetful of all their _past signal Services_ and inviolate Zeal; observed
indeed that those faithful _Irish_ Subjects had no Stock; consequently,
that dispossessing the Adherents of _Oliver_, who, with the Land, had
pirated the national Stock, would cause much Confusion. As for the
_former_, he hoped some Settlement might in Time be found for them; (in
Truth, I believe, for aught his Majesty in Reality concerned himself, this
might have been in _Terra Australis Incognita_). Their Want of Stock is
the less to be admired at, it being well known, that, with their Pay in
foreign Service, chiefly expended to contribute all in their Power to the
_Royal Support_, they even went so far as to sell their Plate, and
valuable Moveables, to answer the same _generous Purpose_: But, when every
known Acre in the Kingdom, that could be disposed of, was given away by
Wholesale to the Duke of _York_, the Heir-apparent of the Crown, (partial
Distribution!) to new-fangled Favourites, and the staunch old Enemies of
Church and Crown; it was hoped some Lands might be _yet_ discovered, to
satisfy and compensate those _Irish_ Worthies, who had Nothing left for
their Support, beside an inalienable Sense of Honour and Loyalty, and a
Character of invincible Fidelity (which all Nations admired and
applauded). No such Discovery, however, was made, nor any relative to the
_Irish_, under that Administration, but what tended to convince them, by
the famous Act of Settlement, _&c._ of the extraordinary severe
Peculiarity of their Fate! Yet, ordained to shew Posterity unprecedented
Specimens of Loyalty and Zeal, they still adhered, with inflexible
Constancy, to the Fortunes of King _James_ the Second, not mindful of
their Injuries by _James_ the First, their unexampled Sufferings by the
excessive harsh Measures of King _Charles_ the First, his Ministers, and
Deputies, or their unheard-of Treatment (I won’t say _Wrongs_, it being a
Maxim the King of _England_ can do none) by King _Charles_ II. Little
Wonder, a House, constantly sapping it’s own best Pillars, should at
length fall.
King _James_ the Second, constrained to abdicate the Throne of _England_,
endeavoured the Preservation of this his Kingdom of _Ireland_, where his
faithful Subjects, (a Remnant of the various and manifold Wastes of
foregoing Reigns) considering the thousand Disadvantages they laboured
under, made _such a Stand_ as later Ages will look up to with
Astonishment! A Parcel of Men, congregated in the utmost Hurry and
Confusion, undisciplin’d, unarm’d, uncloathed, unpaid! Yet did those very
Men, animated by the Example of their heroick Leaders, (I mean their
immediate Lords and Countrymen) on the Plains of _Aughrim_, convince the
best veteran Army that Day in _Europe_, superior in Numbers, excellently
provided for in every Respect, and conducted by a Prince of singular
Valour and Address, that _Irishmen_ were deserving of more auspicious
Stars.
Never was a more gallant Defence than they, after this, made in
_Limerick_; where, although abandoned by the Prince, (whose Cause they had
so remarkably espoused) and his auxiliary _French_, they obtained an
honourable CAPITULATION from those in Commission under King _William_ the
Third, whose strict _Observance_ thereof, to the End of his glorious Life,
reflects, among many other his great Atchievements, deserved Honour on his
Memory.
The distinguished Figure made by those Noblemen and Gentlemen, who,
regardless of _Property_ or _Ease_, followed the Destiny of that
hard-fated Prince, King _James_ the Second, (namely, the Lords
_Mount-Cashel_, _Tyrconnel_, _Clare_ and _Lucan_, the _Dillons_,
_Nugents_, _Rooths_, _Burkes_, _Lees_, _Fitz-Geralds_, _Cooks_, _Lacys_,
_Browns_, _Wogans_, _Baggots_, _Sheridans_, _Creaghs_, _Plunkets_,
_Barnewals_, _Neagles_, _Lallys_, _Mac Carthys_, _Mac Donnels_, _Mac
Guires_, _Mac Namarras_, _Mac Mahons_, _Mac Gennis’s_, _O Neils_, _O
Connors_, _O Donnels_, _O Briens_, _O Dwyers_, _O Shaghnussys_, _O
Mahonys_, _O Sullivans_, _O Kellys_, _O Ferralls_, _O Reillys_, _O Haras_,
_O Hogans_, _O Byrnes_, _O Daes_, &c. &c. &c. the military Annals of
_Germany_, _France_, _Spain_, _Flanders_, _Italy_, _Naples_, and
_Russia_), must bear ample and authentic Testimony of, to future Ages.
Those were they, of whom Dr. _Mac en Crow_ gives the following concise,
but just and happy Character.
_Genus acre Bello, Studiis Genus acre Minervæ, Devotumque mori pro
Rege, Fidêque tuendis._
Among those who followed the Fortunes of King _James_ the Second, were Sir
_Richard Neagle_, his Attorney-General, and Dr. _Moore_, Provost of
_Trinity-college_, near _Dublin_; two Gentlemen very justly distinguished
in their respective Spheres; the former, a Gentleman of unshaken
Integrity, and great Capacity in the Profession of the Laws; the latter,
of exemplary Piety, universal Learning, and fine Accomplishments. _Louis_
the Fourteenth, then King of _France_, protected those worthy deserving
Men, with singular Tenderness and Attention; and was instructed and guided
solely by Dr. _Moore_, in the restoring, establishing, and modelling the
University of _Paris_, at that gloomy Period! quite buried in perplexed,
unintelligible, peripatetic Philosophy, and disfigured with romantic
Legends, and Gothic Jingle! But, at the Doctor’s Appearance, Entities,
Quiddities, Sympathies, Antipathies, occult Qualities, substantial Forms,
metaphysical Degrees, Categories, and all this unideal wordy Stuff,
vanished; and were succeeded by a clear, concise Method of Reasoning, and
sound, useful, and experimental Philosophy. _Greek_, _Hebrew_, _Syriac_,
_Chaldaic_, and _Arabic_, were Languages _untaught_, _unknown_, in the
University of _Paris_, before Dr. _Moore_; for whom particularly, _Louis_
the Fourteenth founded, established, and endowed the Royal College, now
called _College du Cambray_: And how well our Doctor succeeded therein,
may be inferred from the Character and Writings of his Pupils and Hearers,
_Boileau_, _Fontinelle_, _Poréc_, _Montesquieu_, _Fleuri_, _Lauguet_, with
many others, and _Rollin_, his peculiar Favourite and immediate Successor,
_all_ great Genius’s, applauded Writers, and celebrated Wits. So that, as
_Ireland_ had the Honour of founding, it had also that of restoring and
reviving the great University of _Paris_, in the Persons of two of its
learned Natives.