as any thing in widening the breach be that pretext. It appears that Sir Phelim O'Neale chiefly, and he only at first, promoted that imposture. 8. "O'Neale himself confessed the imposture on his tryal, and at his execution. 9. "It is ridiculous to mention the justification which Charles II. gave to the marquis of Antrim, as if he had acted by his father's commission. Antrim had no hand in the first rebellion and massacre. He joined not the rebels till two years after, and he performed important services to the king, in sending over a body of men to Montrose." Thus have I given the reasons alleged by the friends. of Charles, to prove he had no hand in the Irish rebellion. The impartiality of history requires a representation of the arguments alleged against him, on this head, by his adversaries. The reader will remember, that I am no ways answerable for the conclusiveness of the one side or the other. 1. It is affirmed, that the king was ever friendly to the Irish papists. Milton, who alleges many proofs of it, may be consulted by the inquisitive reader. I will add one or two, which I suppose fell. not within his knowledge. The earl of Antrim, in a letter to lord Wentworth, dated York-house, July 17, 1638, has the following passage: "The marquis [of Hamilton] informs me, that the lord of Lorne, who possesses part of my predecessors lands (being the nearest parts of Scotland to Ireland), is providing men and arms with all the power he has, which he says and gives out is to encounter me. This man is my enemy, and what his intentions are I do not know; but I thought, upon "History of Great Britain, vol. I. p. 304. in the note. Prose Works, vol. I. p. 445. ⚫ Milton's "The this intelligence, to move the king for arms for his majestie's service, and the better defence of my country.” This, I suppose, he did, and his request was complied with by his majesty. For in a letter from Wentworth to the king, dated Dublin, 28th July, 1638, we have the following passage. earl of Antrim shall be observed, as your majesty hath directed. I wish his performance may answer the expectation it seems is had of him. For me, that must in all particulars unloose my heart towards all other respects, as oft as I am honoured to be heard by my gracious master, I neither hope much of his parts, of his power, or of his affections. His lordship lately writ to me to be furnished of arms, and that the magazine for them might be kept at Coleraine. Communicate this with the council here I durst not; for I am sure they would never advise such a strength to be intrusted with a grandchild of the earl of Tyrone : and for myself, I hold it unsafe any store of arms should lye so near the great Scotish plantations in those parts; lest, if their countrymen grow troublesome, and they partake of the contagion, they might chance to borrow those weapons of his lordship for a longer time, and another purpose, than his lordship would find cause to thank them for. They are shrewd children, not won much by courtship, especially from a Roman catholick. I beseech your majestie's further directions in this particular, which shall be obeyed b." It appears indeed, that Wentworth had no good opinion of Antrim's designs; for in a letter, written to his majesty the 11th of August following, speaking of some troops newly raised, he says, "If the earl of Antrim hear of the raising of these troops, your majesty will have him a suitor for one; but I beseech you he a Strafforde's Letters, vol. II. p. 184. See also a passage from lord Wentworth in the note 55. Id. p. 187. may not be admitted, as a thing that would be displeasTM ing to all the English on this side: his religion, nor yet his descent (being the grand-child and son of your majesty knows whom), sort not well with it; and I am upon very probable reason for believing, that in the way of pretending service, but doing nothing for your majesty, he attentively watcheth to do something for his own fortune and power, for which hereafter to thank himself far more than your majesty "." The king was far enough from being moved by these representations from his purposes of kindness to Antrim; for in a letter, written from Woodstock the 30th of the same month, to the lord deputy, he expresses himself as follows:-" There rests nothing but the particular of the earl of Antrim to answer, whose professions have been so free and noble at this time, that (as I have promised) indeed he deserves to be recommended to you; which at his coming over to you, I wish you to take notice of to him. But to have the command of a magazine of arms, I leave to you and the council there to judge how far ye will trust any one in that kind, of his profession in religion. To conclude this, I would have you favour and countenance him as much as any one of his profession in religion '.' In a letter, written the 25th of Jan. following, his majesty tells the lord deputy, "That he should be glad if he could find some way to furnish the earl of Antrim with arms, though he be a Roman catholick; for he may be of much use to me at this time, to shake loose upon the earl of Argyle "." Lord Wentworth again and again represented the earl as poor, unexperienced, incapable of conducting any important affair, and withal mischievously bent. But his orders from the king were express, and there was no farther room for refusing him. "If it be pos * Strafforde's Letters, vol. II. p. 204. Id. p. 211. . Id. p. 275. sible," says the king in another letter, written Ap. 11, 1639, to the lord deputy, "it is most fit that Antrim be set upon Argyle, and I shall no ways despair of the success, so that you lead the design, whereof I find him most desirous. Therefore I desire you not to shun it, but to assist him all you can in it." "Upon the receipt of his majestie's letter, lord Antrim sent to the O'Neales, O'Haras, the O'Lurgans, (if I mistake not that name," says lord Wentworth), "the Mac Gennises, the Mac Guyres, the Mac Mahons, the Mac Donnels, (as many Oes and Macs as would startle a whole. council-board on this side to hear of) and all his other friends, requiring them, in his majestie's name, to meet him with their forces; so as this business now is become no secret, but the common discourse both of his lordship and the whole kingdom "." Lord Wentworth still continued to represent the folly of his undertakings, and the danger of trusting him with power. At length his majesty ordered secretary Windebank to write him word, "That his reasons against the work itself, in the way he [Antrim] proposed it, and the dangerous consequences it must necessarily produce, are very solid and unanswerable: nevertheless," adds he, "his majesty will not have the earl discouraged, but rather heartened as much as may be; and likes your lordships advice in the end of your dispatch very well, that the designs may rest till the next spring; and in the mean time so carried, as neither the earl be discouraged, nor set at liberty from his undertaking, but that such use may be made of him as may be for the advantage of his majestie's. service." But farther, the favour in which the Irish catholics were with the king, appears from an extravagant grant made by him to the earl of St. Alban's and Clanricard: Strafforde's Letters, vol. II. p. 318. b Id. p. 300. 66 a grant of divers lands and tenements of a large extent and value, containing a great part of the county of Galway, where the people, besides their idleness and want of manufactures, were in a manner wholly Popish and Irish, not a Protestant or Englishman of note in the whole county, extreamly addicted in their affections to Spain, and accommodated with fit harbours to comply with them." The lord deputy and council drew up a very strong remonstrance against the carrying it into execution; in which, among many other things, it is observed, that "It hath been the constant endeavour of this state [the Irish] to break the dependences which great lords draw to themselves, of followers, tenants, and neighbours, and make the subject to hold immediately of the crown, and not to be liable to the distresses of great lords; which course, if it be useful in other parts of this kingdom, is most necessary here. For partly by reason of this earl's large patents, and many tenures on him thereby granted; partly by his commission of presidency in that county, which makes him little less or other than a count palatine; and partly by the power which the popish clergy have with the people there; this state hath found very little obedience in any thing wherein that earl and clergy have not been pleased to concur, and in future times the 'danger thereof may be sooner felt than prevented, as by some examples in our neighbour kingdom we may easily foresee "." But his majesty's pleasure was to have the grant passed, notwithstanding all that could be alleged; though, in the opinion of the lord deputy, "he had much better have given him one hundred thousand pounds out of his coffers in ready money." 3. It is alleged that Charles's good affections to the rebels is manifest, from the tenderness with which he always spoke of and treated them. There was no pro * Strafforde's Letters, vol. II. p. 366. b Id. p. 367. C * Id. p. 425. |