forgeries of Protestants, some of the most leading subjects of our history, trying to make a chasm, even where the most glaring evidence stands in the way, and to put out the light, in order that we may see the clearer!

53. Thus, for instance, servilely imitating the style and manner of the wretched, drawling, ignorant, Mac Geoghagan, he asserts that the conspiracy for which O'Nial and O'Donnel fled in 1607, was a sham plot, invented by Cecil! exactly as Higgons and the foreigninfluenced Irish writers pretend that the gunpowder treason was a sham of Cecil's also.*

And yet the reality of that plot rests, not only on the anonymous letter to Sir W. Usher, March 19, 1607, nor only on the testimony of Doctor Jones, nor only on the circumstantial narrative of Carleton, † nor only on the King and Council's letters of Jan. 24, 1607, and Nov. 20, 1608, nor only on Carte's account,

Higgon's view of Engl. Hist. Hague, 1727, p. 253. Burke of Ossory's Hibernia Dom. p. 613.

Thankful Remembr. p. 168.

nor only on the King's proclamation, dated Nov. 15, 1607, at a time when he wished to conciliate the Catholics, and when nothing short of absolute necessity compelled him to be severe; it rests upon the authority of the Catholic writers themselves, who lived at that time, of O'Sullivan, who was personally engaged in it,* of Lynch, whose authority no Irishman will reject.

Personally acquainted with Rich. Nugent, first Earl of Westmeath, Lynch relates that, after his long captivity in the tower of London, where he was born, and witnessed the death of his father Christopher, he invited

3 Desid. Curiosa p. 503-513. Cotton MS, Titus C. vii. Hist. Cathol. fol. 209, &c. agreeing in this with the Royal Proclamation, MS. in the Lambeth Library, No. 617, p. 96, dated Westminster, Nov. 15, anno 5to Jacobi I, Desiderata Curiosa Hibern. p. 508, and Ryves's Regimen, p. 54. + See this Address, part i, p. 149.

Archdale erroneously asserts, in his edition of Lodge's Irish Peerage, Dublin, 1789, v. 1, p. 235, that Christopher died in custody in the castle of Dublin, Sep. 5, or Oct. 1, 1602.- give the best authority, Lynch's Alithinol. Supplem. p. 185, and again p. 172 and 195.

"Nativitas quam in Carcere Richardus, Primus West

O'Nial and O'Donnel to his mother's castle of Maynooth in 1606, and having by his artless narrative, excited in their minds the flame that burned in his own, the result was a conspiracy, for which he was taken and condemned to die, whilst O'Nial and O'Donnel fled the Kingdom.-On the day before his intended execution, a rope being conveyed to him in a basket of oranges, by his servant John Evers, he contrived to descend from the keep of the castle of Dublin, into the arms of his friends, and, mounting his charger, reached the castle of Clochnachter in Cavan on the following day, Nov. 21, 1607, ---Sir R. Wingfield pursued him, rewards

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"mi Comes postea renunciatus, Christophori filius, nactus est, certum fuit futuræ illius in fide Catholica constantiæ præsagium. Hic Maynothæ, sub annum, 605, cum Tironia "Tirconalliæque Comitibus in colloquium venit, in quo sta 46 tutum est, omnium assensu, ut Religionem, imminentis rui næ periculo armis subtraherent; cujus consilii, cum alium sui ordinis conscium fecissent, cæpta in fumum abierunt, illo "susceptas molitiones ad senatum, Regium deferente." Alith Supplem, p. 186,

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were offered for his apprehension, proclamations were issued, and spies were employed; when, to the utter astonishment of the Court of England, he presented himself before the King, and laid at his feet a Memorial of the grievances and sufferings of his family, inflicted, not for any treason, but for resistance to the oppressions of his Ministers.

This boldness disarmed the hostility even of those malignant times; his youth and inexperience were supposed to have laid him open to the insidious policy of Tirone; he was restored to favour, to liberty, and to his estates; and though he invariably adhered to the Religion of his ancestors, he had a grant from the crown dated Sep. 27, 1641, of the Rectories, Parish Churches, and Chapels, of Mullach, Killikear, Kilmore, and eight others, with all the tithes, glebe lands, &c. in the County of Cavan. There are several such grants to the Irish Catholic Nobility and Gentry of that reign, which the Irish Bishops have, in their secret Synods, resolved to abolish, in defiance of the

most venerable Canons, of all equity, and of all law.

54. The conspiracy of 1606 was not therefore a sham plot, invented by Cecil, but as real as any fact in history*-and yet, to Harris's overwhelming question, why did O'Nial and O'Donnel fly? Curry answers, in the style of a whining schoolboy-" because they were "afraid!-because they were not expert at drawing up memorials!—because they were "in too desponding and necessitous a state to

See the Original Narrative of the Flight of the Earls, in the Cotton MS. Titus C. vii.

The manner of his death ought to be recorded as a warning. Having refused to join the Insurgents at the siege of Drogheda, in 1642, as stated in the first part of this Address, he was shot by them in an attempt to escape from his house at Clounin, in the course of that year. His plate and money to the amount of £1000 were seized, and his house and property to the amount of £20000 were destroyed, though, by the testimony of Lynch, he was the most popular man in Ireland! Lynch ibid. p. 86.

There are several inaccuracies in Archdale's edition of Lodge's Irish Peerage, one of which is, that this first Earl of Westmeath refused to join in rebellion with the Lords and Gentry of the Pale, in 1641. Nothing can be more false.I boldly assert that not one Gentleman of the Pale moved in arms in 1641, except against the Rebels.