The state of the Protestants of Ireland under the late King James's government in which their carriage towards him is justified, and the absolute necessity of their endeavouring to be freed from his government, and of submitting to their present Majesties is demonstrated.

SECT. VII. VI. King James's destructive Proceedings against the Liberties of his Protestant Subjects.

1. THere is no worldly thing more valuable to Man than Liberty. Many prefer it to life; and few can live long without it. 'Tis the Darling of our Laws, and there is nothing of which they are more tender. But the Protestants of Ireland from the very beginning of King James's Reign, had their Li∣berties invaded, and at last intirely destroyed. 'Twas observ∣able, that at his coming to the Crown he made no Proclamation for a general Pardon, as has been usual with Kings; neither did he pass any Act of Grace in his first▪ Parliament, which gave a fair opportunity to the Papists of Ireland to revenge themselves on their Protestant Neighbors. No sooner had they gotten Judges and Juries that would believe them, but they began a Trade of Swearing, and ripping up what they pretended their Neighbors had said of His late Majesty, whilst Duke of York some years before, especially in time of the Popish Plot. The new Justices of the Peace were eager to exercise their Offices, and therefore on the slightest occasion, bound over and com∣mitted their Protestant Neighbors, many times without any rea∣son at all; at least, without any given in their Warrants: it was time enough to invent some against the next Assizes. There never wanted Evidence enough to accuse a Man; the very Priests being forward to encourage such Perjuries, as were to the preju∣dice of Protestants. Of this there are several Instances on Re∣cord in the Courts of Justice; where we find them sometimes swearing Falshoods themselves, and sometimes encouraging o∣thers to do it. Of which the Courts, even in spite of all their partiality, were satisfied. I gave one Example before in Sir Wil∣liam Petty's Case. There is another of Mr. Balfours in the County of Fermanagh, where the false Affidavit of one Hultaghan a Priest, had almost destroyed his Cause, and lost him a con∣siderable Estate.

2. Upon this account Perjuries became so common, that if a Tenant owed his Protestant Landlord his Rent, he payed

him by swearing him into a Plot, or by fixing on him some Treasonable or Seditious Words. If a Papist had any former Quarrel with his Protestant Neigbor, or owed him Money, he paid him in the same Coin. Many were indicted by these Con∣trivances; many found guilty, and excessively fin'd; some were imprisoned for their Fines, not being able to satisfie the King, who seised both their Bodies and Estates▪ Hardly any County in Ireland was free from numerous Indictments of this kind, and very few Country Gentlemen escaped being accused. Great numbers were indicted and found guilty in the Counties of Wexford and Wicklow, to the number at least of sixty, the most considerable Gentlemen in the County of Meath were indicted, but had better luck; the Perjury of their Accusers being made so manifest, that even a Popish Bench had not the confi∣dence to countenance it, nor a Popish Jury to find it. Thus Mr. Meredith, Mr. Parry, Mr. Chetwin a Minister, and se∣veral others, escaped; having discovered the very bottom of a wicked Contrivance to carry on a Trade of Swearing against all the Gentlemen in the Country; but though they disco∣vered it, yet they durst not prosecute it, by reason of some Priests being concerned in it, and of the Discountenance of the Courts; a great many in the County of Tipperary, were like∣wise brought into Trouble, but escaped the first time by a kind of Miracle; one of the Jurors was so maliciously bent against them, that he swore he would die before he would acquit them: It happened to him according to his own desire, he fell dead in the place, whilst they were disputing about returning the Verdict, which saved the Gentlemen for that time. Yet this did not discourage their Prosecutors, they caused them to be indicted anew, and upon their second Tryal Justin Macarty (afterwards made Lord Mountcashell by King James) came into the Court▪ threatened and hectored Sir John Mead, who then sate as Judge for the Duke of Ormond (it being within his Graces Palatinate) because he would not direct the Jury to find them guilty; but Sir John stood his Ground, and declared, that there was no sufficient Evidence against them; upon which they were ac∣quitted. It vexed them, that they could not bring their Po∣pish Judges and Sheriffs into that County, as they did into the

rest of Ireland, by reason that the nomination of them was in his Grace, as Lord of the Regalities; and therefore in their pre∣tended Parliament they not only Attainted him, but likewise, by a particular Act, dissolved his Principality. Their First Plot against the Gentlemen of the County having miscarried, they began a second, and got Depositions against several; but they were as unlucky in this as in the first. They laid the Scheme of their Affairs so unskilfully, that the Witnesses swore that the Gentle∣men met to carry on their Plot at Nenagh, a place above sixty Miles from Dublin, on the same day that some of them had been examined before the Council Board on the first Informations. This appearing to the Council by an entry made in their own Books, quashed the Design against them, and saved them a third time. It would make a Volume to enumerate all the Particulars of this Nature.

3. The new Mayors and Justices of the Peace were no less troublesome to Protestants in their Employments; they made no scruple to send their Tokens and Warrants for Persons of the best Quality. And wherever a Papist and Protestant had any difference, there needed no more but a complaint to pro∣cure a Committal, and to be sure it was done with all the indig∣nity and affronting Circumstances imaginable. Sir Thomas Hackett, whilst Lord Mayor of Dublin, did so many brutish and barbarous things of this nature, that it were endless to re∣count them; taking example from the Lord Tyrconnel, who made him Mayor, he treated every body with Oaths, Curses, ill Names, and barbarous Language. The Lord Primate Boyles Family could not escape his Warrants; he (or his Clerk, as he afterwards pretended) sent one for Mr. Francis Cuff, and Mr. Jephson, who lived in my Lords Family, being his Son in Law and Nephew: their Crime was, refusing to Contribute to the maintenance of two begging Fryars; one of them was one Magee, a Debauchee and Renegado, who had the impu∣dence to have demanded it from my Lord Primate if he had been permitted access. The Fryars vexed that they should be repulsed, procured a Warrant for the two Gentlemen that re∣fused them, and attempted the Execution of it in my Lord

Primates House, with a Rabble of near two hundred. Sir Thomas was not content to Execute his Authority within his own Precincts, but extended it where the Mayors Power was never owned. He sent his Warrant and committed the Officers of Christs Church, Dublin, to the Stocks, because he fancied they did not make the Bells ring merrily enough for the Birth of the Prince of Wales. It was in vain for the Officers to tell him, that their Church and Persons were not subject to his Juris∣diction; that if the Bells did not ring merrily enough as he al∣ledged, it was the Ringers fault, not theirs. That no body, besides his Lordship, could observe any such thing in their Ringing. His brutish Passion would not give him leave to hearken to Reason; but upon all occasions he proceeded in the same method; which made every body, that valued his Li∣berty, get out of his Power; and prevailed with a great ma∣ny to leave their Estates and Concerns, and Transport them∣selves, and what Effects they could carry with them into England. It was unsafe and uneasie living both in the City and in the Country, and he reckoned himself happy that could get out of them at any rate.

4. But when the Descent was made by his present Majesty into England, things grew yet more troublesome. The Pro∣testants were every where Robbed and Plundered. The new Commissioned Officers and their Souldiers, under the new name of Rapperies, committed many Outrages and Devastations on their Protestant Neighbours; insomuch that they could not be safe in their Houses. If any endeavoured to keep their Houses, though merely to secure themselves from the Robbers and To∣ries, immediately they were Besieged; and though they Sur∣rendred themselves as soon as Summoned, having no design to resist Authority, and put themselves into the Hands of King James's Officers, upon promise of Freedom, nay on Articles, yet afterward they were imprisoned and prosecuted, as Mr. Price of Wicklow. Some of them Condemned and Exe∣cuted; which happened to Mr. Maxwel and one Lewis, in the Queens County. They thought it not safe to Execute some till the War was over, and therefore only kept them in Prison. So Sir Laurence Parsons, and many others were served.

5. At last it came to a general Seizure, and almost all the Protestant Gentlemen, without Reason or pretence of Reason, without so much as a Warrant, or Form of Law, were put in Goals under the custody of mean and barbarous Guards. Whose very Captains had had no better Education than that of Foot∣men or Cowherds; who exercised what understanding they had, to invent new methods of vexing their Prisoners. This general Confinement continued with most, from the middle of Summer 1689, till Winter; and with some, till his Majesties Victory at the Boyne set them all at Liberty: during all which time, no Reason or Ground of their Committal was given; nor were Habeas Corpus's allowed them, though earnestly sol∣licited. One indeed was allowed to Mr. Thomas King, a Mi∣nister, which being the only one that took place, it may be proper to give the Reader an account of the Case. The Rea∣son of his Committal was really a Quarrel picked designedly with him by an Officer of the Guards, because he refused to admit one Ambrose, the Popish Quarter-Master of the City, for a Godfather to a Protestant Child, whom he Christened: in Revenge whereof, the Officer intruded into his Company whilst at Meat, as was common with them, and would needs oblige him to drink Confussion and Damnation to the Prince of Orange; which he modestly declining, and alledging that it was unfit for a Christian, much more for a Clergy-man, to drink Damnation to any: the Officer hurried him away to Newgate by his own Authority, and after lying there till the Term, his Habeas Corpus was allowed him. Upon the Return made by the Goalour, the Court was so vexed at it, that they fined the Goalour for making such a Return, but in earnest be∣cause he made any, for that was the contrivance they had to keep People in Goal: and after all he was still kept a Prisoner notwithstanding his Habeas Corpus, till most were bailed; and then upon Bail of five thousand pound he was permitted to go out: under which Bail he continued as all the rest did, under the like sums, till the general Deliverance. After his; no more Habeas Corpus's were allowed. Most of the Prisoners towards the depth of Winter were indeed bailed, and continued so

from Term to Term, till the news of his present Majesties ar∣rival, and then all were confined anew, notwithstanding their Bail, with some that had not been confined before. At the hour when the last of King James's Forces were leaving Dub∣lin, they were ordered to carry away four hundred Prisoners along with them; but the Officers were too much afraid of a Pursuit, and too busie in carrying off their own Baggage, to embarrass themselves with Prisoners; and therefore for a little Gold dismissed them. How the Protestants of Drogheda, who were all made Prisoners, were used, whilst the Town was surrounded, is not to be forgotten. They carried them to the Mount where they expected the Canon would play, tyed them together and set them to receive the Shot, if the Town had been Attacked: but their Hearts failed them who were to De∣fend it, and so it pleased God to preserve the poor Protestants, they being delivered, together with the Town, to his Majesty, upon Summons and Articles. The Protestants of Cork, and other Towns, were yet worse used; they were carried from their own Homes to some remote Castles, and there kept with∣out Conveniencies till many of them perished. There were some very barbarous Circumstances in their Sufferings, which I must leave to the Persons themselves to relate, having not yet had full Information.

6. During their Confinement, the Prisoners were kept very strictly, their Servants, Children, and Wives, were often de∣barred from seeing them; or when admitted, not suffered to speak to them, but in presence of the Soldiers. In Dublin, when they had filled the Goals, the Hospitals, the College, and other places of Confinement, they at last imprisoned the Citizens in Churches. They were crowded into stinking, nasty, unhealthy Rooms, sometimes twenty, sometimes forty in a Room. At the College, and at a House called White Friars, where there were many Prisoners, they put Barrels of Powder under them, threatning to blow them up if they should be prest, and not able to keep the Places. Collonel Luttrell, Go∣vernor of Dublin, denyed indeed that this was done by his Order; but▪ yet when he was informed of it by Sir John Davis,

then a Prisoner and Witness of it, he commended the Discreti∣on of the Officer that did it. This Confinement did not only fall on Gentlemen, but also on the Clergy, nay on the meanest Citizens. Whoever pleased, had a power to Commit Prote∣stants; and if at any time they asked by what Authority they were committed, those that committed them made no other answer than that they committed them, let them get out as they could. Some few Gentlemen were indeed committed by C. J. Nugents Warrant, upon a kind of Affidavit made by one Leak, whom most of them had never seen: several of these, by ex∣press Orders of the Lord Chief Justice, were sent to Newgate, and committed in the Common Goal, in the same Room with Thieves and Common Rogues, though Gentlemen of the best Quality in the Kingdom: and so hasty was his Lordship in it, that he did it before he knew some of their names; which he was forced afterward to send for, and learn from themselves. A Bill was prepared against them, and offered to the Grand Jury; but Leak was unwittingly clapt up, by one of them∣selves, for a former Robbery, at the time he should have given Evidence, and so the Gentlemen escaped being tryed. The Confinement was yet more severe and uneasie in the Country; the Gentlemen being at such distances from their own Homes, that they could hardly be supplyed with Necessaries.

7. It may be thought that these things were unknown to King James, and therefore are not to be imputed to him: but it is certain, that if he did not Contrive and and Order them, he yet consented to them; neither did he seem to have the least re∣sentment or pity for their Sufferings; as appeared from his Carriage to the Bishop of Lymerick. His Lordship, by his Majesties Command, on a particular Service waited often on him; he took one of those Opportunities that seemed most favourable, to lay before his Majesty the manifold hardships which were put on the Clergy, and the Protestants in general, of his Diocess. He represented to him how they were first Robbed of all, and then laid in Goal; and that they had no way offended his Majesty, or disturbed his Government; and begged his favour in their behalf. His Majesty heard him, but

made him no answer; instead thereof, he fell into discourse of another Affair, with a Papist that chanced to be by, and that with an Air more than ordinarily pleasant and uncon∣cerned. Indeed his Majesty had by one general Order and Proclamation, dated July 26. 1689, confined all Protestants, without distinction of Age or Sex, to their Parishes and Cities, though their Occasions were such that he very well knew that this alone, without any more, was a very great encroach∣ment on their Liberty, and a mighty inconveniency to their Affairs; especially when it was continued without Reason or Limitation. No body knew when this would be relaxed; and it was Executed with great strictness, till his present Majesties success put an end to it, and to the Power that imposed it.

8. But least these hardships and restraints should either be avoided by our flight, or known in England, where King James had a Party to cry up the mildness of his Government, and face down the World that the Protestants lived easily and happily under him in Ireland, a most strict Embargo was laid on all Ships, and effectual care taken to destroy all Correspon∣dence with our Friends there: insomuch that to avoid a Goal, great numbers of Gentlemen and other persons were forced to make their escapes in small Wherries and Fishing-Boats, which before these times durst never venture out of the sight of the Shoar: but it seemed more tolerable, to every body that could compass it, to cross the Irish Seas, so famous for their boi∣sterousness and Shipwracks, in that hazardous manner, than to continue under a Government where they could call nothing their own; where it was in the power of any that pleased, to deprive them of their Liberty; where they durst not Travel three Miles for fear of incurring the severest penalties; where they could not send a Letter to a Friend, though in the next Town, and about the most necessary Occasions; and where, tho never so cautious and innocent, they were sure at last to be sent to a Goal. A Government that thus encroached on our Liberties, could not expect we should continue under it longer than we needs must; and it had been unpardonable folly

in us not to desire, much more to refuse a deliverance, espe∣cially from England: which if Blood and Treasure, or a Posses∣sion of five hundred years can give a right to a Country, is justly intitled to the Government of Ireland. And which, if it had no other exception against King James's Government, but his Carriage towards Ireland, and his attempts to separate it from its dependence on England, must be justified by all the World, in their laying him aside, as a Destroyer of his People, and a disinheritor of the Crown of his Ancestors.