behind him, and then that he should call an assembly, (which they would otherwise do themselves, and which they were sure should be constituted, for the most part, of such men as would follow their dictates,) by which himself should be divested of that power, and the king deposed from any further dominion over them, when they could persuade any foreign prince to take them into his protection; which practice they quickly set on foot afterwards and for the further manifestation of their affection and loyalty to the king, which they cannot endure should yet be called in question, it is observable, that these men, who had so often contradicted and controlled the express acts of every assembly that had been convened since the beginning of the troubles, and now commanded the people, under pain of damnation, not to yield any obedience to the king's authority in his lieutenant, and declared, that they could not, with the safety of their conscience, consent to those propositions which he had lately made for the uniting the nation, in defence of the peace, so advantageous to their liberty and religion, and which the commissioners, trusted by and for the nation, thought so reasonable;-these men, I say, made no scruple of professing and declaring, that if an assembly, upon due consideration of their own state and condition, should find it the best way, for their safety and preservation, to make an agreement with the enemy, (the rebels of England, who had murdered their late sovereign with those inhuman circumstances, and who professed the extirpation of their religion and nation, and had massacred and reproachfully executed so many of their bishops and clergy in cold blood,) they would not hinder the people from compounding with them for the safety of their lives and estates: which being enough considered, we cannot enough wonder at the strange stupid resignation of their understandings who believed, or rather at their wonderful contempt of those under

standings which would be persuaded to believe, that this congregation had loyal purposes towards the king, or that they never intended to hinder assemblies, or to give law to the people, when they cancelled all the fundamental laws, broke through all the acts of their own assemblies, and forbad the people to pay any obedience to the king's lieutenant, who had only lawful power to govern over them. The more extravagant and unreasonable these proceedings were of the congregation and clergy, the more confident many honest and wise men were, that an assembly of the nation would regulate and control that illimited power, and utterly disavow all that they had done; and therefore they, who were exceedingly offended and enraged against the congregation, were as solicitous and importunate with the lord lieutenant to call an assembly; and though he had had too much experience of the nature and temper of that people, and of the transcendent power the clergy would still have over any assembly, (or at least over the people when the assembly had done what it could,) to hope for any good effects from it; and though he saw that he should thereby the more expose his own honour and (which he considered much more) the dignity of his master to new insolences; yet, since he resolved to leave the kingdom himself, and was only unresolved whether he would leave the king's authority behind him liable to the same indignities and affronts in the person of the marquis of Clanrickard which it had been subjected to in his own, and could have no kind of assurance that it should not, but by the professions and protestations of an assembly, he did resolve to call one, and issued out his letters to that purpose for their meeting upon the 15th day of November at Loghreagh; where they met accordingly; and the bishops, for removing, as they said, of any jealousies that any might apprehend of their proceedings, declared and protested, "that by their excom

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The lord lieutenant prepares to leave Ireland,

IRELAND,

munication and declaration at Jamestown in August last, they had no other aim than the preservation of the catholic religion and people; and that they did not purpose to make any usurpation on his majesty's authority or on the liberty of the people; confessing that it did not belong to their jurisdiction so to do:" with which protestation (so contrary to what they had done, and which in truth they had so often made, even at the time they did all things contrary to it) the assembly was satisfied; and did not so much as make another protestation, that the bishops had done that which they ought not to do, or exact a promise from them that they would not do the like in time to come. So that the lord lieutenant was resolved to look no more for satisfaction from them, nor to expose the king's authority further by leaving any deputy behind him, but prepared the best he could to depart the kingdom, a small frigate then attending for that service.

When the assembly understood this his resolution, and saw plainly that he was even ready to depart, his goods and many of his servants being on board, they sent four of the members of their house to him with an instrument in writing, in which they repeated the declaration and protestation made by the bishops mentioned before, upon consideration of which, and their professions to that purpose in the assembly, and of his excellency's letter dated the 16th of November last, recommending unto them, as the chief end for which the assembly was called, the removing of all divisions as the best way to their preservation, they said, that they, the lords spiritual and temporal, and gentry, met in that assembly, conceived that there was not a better foundation or ground for their union than the holding to and obeying his majesty's authority, to which they owed, and ought to pay all dutiful obedience: and they did thereby declare and protest, that their allegiance

to his majesty's authority was such, and so inherent to them, that they could not be withdrawn from the same; nor was there any power or authority in the lords spiritual or temporal, gentry or people, clergy or laity of the kingdom, that could alter, change, or take away his majesty's authority; they holding that to be the chief flower of the crown, and the support of the people's liberties, which they did thereby protest, declare, and avow, and that they did esteem the same, and the obedience thereunto, essentially, inviolably, and justly due from them, and the chiefest mean under God to uphold their union and preservation: and they said, they did unanimously beseech his excellency, in his great affection to the advancement of his majesty's service, and his hearty desires of the nation's preservation, to which they said he had relations of highest concernments in blood, alliance, and interest, to leave that authority with them, in some person faithful to his majesty and acceptable to the nation; to which person, when he should be made known unto them, they said they would not only afford all due obedience, but would also offer and propose the best ways and means that God would please to direct them to, for preservation of his majesty's rights and the people's interests and liberty, and for begetting ready obedience in all places and persons to his majesty's authority. 176 This address, though it carried with it a particular respect from the assembly to the lord lieutenant, and an acknowledgment of the faithful and hearty affections he had always had to advance his majesty's interest and service in that kingdom, contrary to the scandalous declaration of the congregation, gave not the marquis the least confidence that his majesty's authority could find more respect in the person of another than it had met with in him; therefore he writ to them by the same messengers, that he had sent authority to the lord marquis of Clanrickard to govern that his majesty's kingdom

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and people, provided that their declaration might be so far explained as to give the marquis of Clanrickard full satisfaction, that the expressions they made touching the obedience they owe and resolve to pay to his majesty's authority was meant the authority placed in his lordship, or any other governor deriving or holding his authority from his majesty; and that they esteem it not in the power of any person, congregation, or assembly whatsoever, to discharge or set the people free from obeying his lordship, or any other such governor, during the continuance of the said authority in him; without which, he said, he could not, in duty to his majesty, leave his authority, subject to be tossed to and fro at the uncertain fancy of any man or men, and that without any probability of saving the nation, which could be no otherwise effected than by the absolute cheerful obedience of the people [unto the authority] placed over them. And so, having directed the marquis of Clanrickard (who submitted to that charge out of pure obedience, and only that he might not decline a service which they would say would have preserved the nation) not to assume the charge except the assembly gave him full satisfaction in the particulars required by him, the lord lieutenant, about the middle of December, which was the end of the year 1650, by the new account, embarked himself in a small vessel for France, after he had refused to receive a pass from Ireton, who offered it; choosing rather to trust the seas and the wind, in that rough and boisterous season of the year, than to receive an obligation from the rebels: and so, after having been tossed at sea for the space of

weeks, and his other ship, in which were his servants and goods, and many other passengers, were perishing in the storm, himself landed in France.

If the end of this discourse were only to vindicate the marquis of Ormond from those loose reproaches and groundless calumnies with which those bold writers have