"from ruin, now that the Catholic forces under "Preston and O'Nial were predominant;"*

nor was it a matter less worthy of serious consideration, that nothing short of imperious necessity of self defence could, after an exterminating war of five hundred years, have engaged such a numerous and respectable body of AngloIrish, as well as of Native Irish Nobility to coalesce, to recur to arms, to confederate in a common cause, to take the oath of United Irishmen, † and now, when their power was predominant, to forget mutual injuries, and combine so unanimously in a Petition to the Throne !

*Carte ib. p. 392. Leland ib. p. 379, 380.

+ The Synod of Kilkenny, held on the 10th of May, 1642, enjoins, that all former distinctions betwixt old and new Irish, shall be consigned to eternal oblivion, and that all shall be united by an oath of Association. They excommunicate all Catholics who should refuse to take it; as well as all who should invade the possessions of any Catholic, or of any Irish Protestant, who was not an avowed adversary to the Common Cause. They order that exact registers be kept of all cruelties; curse all Catholics who are guilty of inhumanities; ordain that Provincial Councils shall be composed of Clergy and Laity; and that a general National Council be immediately formed to which all others shall be subordinate.

10. He therefore issued a Commission, under the great seal, directed to the D. of Ormond and others, and dated January 11, 1642-3, empowering them to receive from the Catholics a written statement of their grievances, to be transmitted to him.-This Commission reached Dublin Jan. 30; but from the virulent opposition of the Puritannical Justices, from the wavering indecision of Ormond, and the indignant spirit of the Irish, by whom the imputation of Rebellion was retorted with just disdain, it failed of effect.*

In the Safe-conduct granted to the Confederate Commissioners to meet Ormond at Drogheda, they are charged with being Actors or Abettors in an odious Rebellion.—An answer was instantly returned, in the first violence of pride, which may be seen in Carte's Letters, vol. 3. No. cxxxii. It is impossible to read it without recognizing the feelings of concious innocence and Irish indignation.-In fact, the charge of Rebellion was a singular one on the part of Regicides! Clodius accusat machos, Catalina Cethegum.-The Confederates express their just surprize, that a Royal Commission, founded on their application of August 1642, should be concealed until February, 1643!

There is a confusion of dates to be guarded against, owing to the negligence of some modern writers. Plowden dates the King's first Commission to treat with the Confederates, Jan. 14, 1642; (p. 141,) and the subsequent meeting of the Com

11. Irritated, but yet anxious for an understanding with the King against their.common enemy, the Confederates now drew up that energetic exposition of their grievances, so well known by the title of the Remonstrance of Trim; a magnanimous Appeal to Charles's feelings as a Prince, to his understanding as a Man, and to his religion as a Christian; an Appeal, the argumentative part of which never was refuted, and never will, concluding with an offer of ten thousand men for the support of the monarchy, on condition of redress.

This Loyal Remonstrance was translated into Irish for the use of the people, and derived an unusual degree of religious solemnity, from being dated on S. Patrick's day.*

missioners at Castlemartin, June 23, 1642; and yet he makes Ormond refer, in that meeting, to the King's letter of the 2d of July, 1643! See his Historical Review, p. 144.

Lord Taafe, one of Ormond's Commissioners at Kilkenny, states the signature of the agreement for a Cessation, to have occurred on the 26th of May, 1643, in a letter written to Ormond that very day, as does Colonel Barry in his letter written the next day, and Carte Orm. p. 435.

It underwent a severe scrutiny in the Irish House of Com

I will not stop to inquire what Charles, pressed on all sides by his enemies, felt when he read this Address; when he considered that it was not dictated by fear, for the Catholics were then absolute Masters of the Kingdom,* but tendered to him from strong principles of religious allegiance to the throne.

mons in 1644, from the 8th to the 12th of April, when all the Catholic Members had been expelled; and, notwitstanding the acrimony which then prevailed, and the eagerness to disprove every fact on which it was founded, it was dismissed, without any motion of censure, or any denial, or extenuation of any one of the grievances it contains! Append. to Com. Journals.

* These are the words of Carte in his Ormond, vol. 1. p. 496. The Irish army was commanded chiefly by Owen Roe O'Nial, and General Preston, brother to Lord Gormonstown.-The former had served with reputation in the Spanish, and Imperial armies. His defence of Arras in 1640, against the French, gained the admiration of his enemies.-On his arrival in Ireland, in 1641, with one hundred officers, and a considerable supply of arms and ammunition, being chosen Leader of the Northern Confederacy, he began by expressing his detestation of the cruelties committed by his kinsman Sir Felim; he dismissed all English prisoners, escorting them to Dundalk; he set fire to the houses of those who were guilty of massacres; and declared that he would join with the English rather than suffer such proceedingsto escape unrevenged.--He thus introduced rigid disipline, says Leland, and Preston soon followed him from France in a ship of war, attended by 2 frigates, and 6 vessels

12. I pass over the intrigues of Cabinets, the factions of Sects, the designs of the Puritans, the views of Ormond, and I proceed to facts.

Influenced by the style of this National Remonstrance, the King considered that the Irish had repeatedly solicited to be heard; that they had employed the mediation of Castlehaven without effect; that Lord Clanricard had warmly recommended their propositions to the State; and "it can scarcely be doubted, says "Leland, but from these repeated overtures, he "derived some hopes of composing the Dissen"sions of Ireland."*

He therefore now issued a second Commission, enforced by private letters to Ormond,

laden with ordnance for battery. Twelve other vessels followed from different ports of France, with a number of Irish Veterans discharged by Richlieu.-Under the auspices of these two Generals, the Confederates of Kilkenny had a guard of five hundred foot, and two hundred horse; they" became Musters, as "Carte states, of all the great towns and counties of the "kingdom, and had the greatest part of the elections for par"liament absolutely in their hands." Carte's Orm. vol. 1. p. 317.

* Leland Hist. of Ireland, 4to. vol. 3. p. 192.