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"They were then reduced to flavery and beggary, by the English rebels; many thousands of them murdered, and the reft deprived of their eftates. So that the question will turn upon this, whether the catholics of Ireland, in this wretched fituation, and in utter despair of eyer feeing the monarchy restored, for the prefervation of which they had fuffered fo much, were to be blamed for calling in a foreign prince of their own religion, who had a confiderable army to fupport them, rather than fubmit to fo infamous an ufurper as Cromwell, or fuch a bloody and ignominious conventicle, as the rump-parliament! Many proteftants, both diffenters and conformifts, who have been converfant in the hiftory of thofe times, have freely confeffed, that, confidering the miferable condition the Irish were then in, they could not have thought of a braver or more virtuous attempt; by which they might have been inftruments of reftoring the lawful monarch, at leaft, to the recovery of England and Scotland, from thofe betrayers, and fellers, and murderers of his royal father."

And, indeed, his majesty's affairs were then fo abfolutely defperate, in every part of his dominions, that, after this treaty with the Duke of Lorrain was entirely broken off, the Marquis of Ormond himself, abhorrent as he always feemed to be, from any connection with the Irish catholics, and efpecially with their clergy, advised, that speedy recourfe might be had to their fupreme fpiritual head, the Pope himself, as the only vifible means of retrieving them; which he seemed to think might be happily effected by his Holiness's mediation and influence with the other catholic princes and states. "To come fhortly," fays he in a letter to the Marquis of Clanrickard on that occafion, " what I would be at, wherein you may be concerned, I conceive fome one must be found, that hath power, if not with all, yet with moft chriftian princes and ftates. Among the proteftants, there is none fuch;

4 Swift's Works.

5 Carte's Col. of Orm. Orig. Papers, vol. i. p. 461.

5 66 to

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and among the Roman catholics, it is vifible, that the Pope has moft of authority and perfuafion; and it fhall be, without fcruple, my advice, and that speedily, that fitting minifters may be fent, and apt inducements propofed, to him for his interpofition with all princes and ftates."-----Here the fentence is left abruptly broken off, with what view, if done defignedly, may be easily conjectured from the foregoing fragment.

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The Marquis of Clanrickard leaves Ireland, now entirely fubject to the English rebels.

THE affairs of the confederate catholics being now abfolutely irretrievable, the Marquis of Clanrickard,

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a Borlafe obferving how eafily and quickly (in a few months) the ufurpers got poffeffion of Ireland, adds, "fuch a winter's campaign, by fo inconfiderable a party, against fo confiderable a kingdom, was never read or heard of; confidering especially, that to the support of the Irish interefts from January, 1649, to January, 1650, there was raised 533,5641. 10s. 11d. besides meal, beeves, wheat, winter-quarters, king's customs, excise, and enemies eftates, if we may credit the relation of Mercurius Politicus." Reduct. of Irel. p. 256. Of fo little avail are the greatest supplies to the moft numerous army, when divifions among its members, and distrust of its principal leader, prevail

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in 1652, left Ireland, carrying with him the royal authority.' "And within a twelvemonth after, Mortogh O'Brien, the last of the Irish commanders, fubmitted to the parliament, on the ufual terms of transportation; by the favour of which," adds my author, "twenty-feven thousand men had been that year fent away. "Cromwell," fays a late historian,' “in order to get free of his enemies, did not fcruple to tranfport forty thousand Irish from their own country, to fill all the armies in Europe with complaints of his cruelty, and admiration of their own valour."

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This, together with the multitudes destroyed by the fword, during the war, and by famine and peftilence after it, caused a prodigious fcarcity of people in the kingdom. But to supply that defect, Fleetwood, deputy for the parliament, invited over feveral colonies

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3 Dalrymp. Mem. of Great Brit. vol. i. part 2. p. 267.
+ Borl. ubi fupra.

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"The Earl of Clanrickard, finding the Irish affairs in a defperate condition, with what forces he had left, retired into the town of Carrick, where, being encompaffed by our men on all fides, he fubmitted, and obtained liberty to transport himself with three thousand men, to any foreign country in friendship with the commonwealth, within the space of three months." Ludlow's Mem. vol. i. p. 418.

• Colonel Fitzpatrick was the firft (in 1652) who fubmitted (to the parliament's commiffioners in Ireland), on condition to be tranfported with his regiment, into the fervice of the king of Spain; which was a great blow to the Irifh confederacy, who were very defirous to treat in conjunction, hoping to obtain more favourable terms, in confideration of their numbers, infomuch that they published declarations against him, and the Irish clergy excommunicated him, and all those who joined him. Notwithstanding which Colonel O'Dwyer, commander in chief of the Irish in the counties of Waterford and Tipperary, followed his example." Id. ib. p. 403.

"The Irish that fubmitted were about three thoufand." Id. ib. p. 411.

"In the fummer of 1650, the plague fo exceedingly raged in Dublin, as 'tis reported there died thereof 17000 persons." Borl. Hift. of the Irish Rebel. f. 345.

from England; offering good conditions to fuch families as would fettle in Ireland; whereupon great numbers of all forts and fexes, flocked to that kingdom."

"It cannot be imagined,' in how eafy a method, and with what peaceable formality, that whole great kingdom was taken from the just owners and proprietors, and divided among those who had no other right to it, but that they had power to keep it. In lefs than two years after Lord Clanrickard left Ireland, this new government feemed to be perfectly established; infomuch that there were many buildings erected for ornament, as well as ufe; orderly and regular plantations of trees and fences, and enclosures raised throughout the kingdom; purchases made by one from the other, at very valuable rates; and jointures fettled upon marriages; and all the conveyances and fettlements executed, as in a kingdom at peace within itself, and where no doubt could be made of the validity of titles,"

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On the 26th of September, 1653, the English parliament declared, that the rebels in Ireland were subdued, and the rebellion ended; and thereupon proceeded to the distribution of their lands, in pursuance of the act of fubfcriptions 17° Caroli. "This being notified to the government of Ireland, Lord Broghill, afterwards Earl of Orrery, propofed at a council of war of all the chief commanders for the parliament, that the whole kingdom fhould be furveyed, and the number of acres taken, with the quality of them; and then, that all the foldiers fhould bring in their demands of arrears; and fo give every man, by lot, as many acres as fhould anfwer the value of his demand." "But a good and great part (fays Lord Clarendon),? as I remember, of the province of Munster (county of Tipperary), Cromwell had referved to himself, as a demefne, as he called it, for the state; and in which no adventurer or foldier fhould demand his lot to be affigned;

5 Life of Clarend. vol. ii. p. 117-8.

• Morrice's Life of Orrery.

Life, vol. ii. p. 117.

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