. I look not so much to the crimes which were perpetrated on this occasion, as to the principles which. gave birth to them, and to the public avowal of those principles, even in our own times! An Irishman disdains to inquire how many murders were committed, how much blood was spilled? The pollution of his native Island by the spilling of one drop of innocent blood, excites his indignation; his blood freezes, and he turns away with disgust, and horror, from every Incendiary who would attempt to justify or to palliate one Massacre by the commission of another. But when he finds that the infamous Rebellion of 1641 was planned in the dark, by those who claim an exclusive right to judge and decide in secret Synods, on all matters 5th of October, at Lochross, where the attack was settled for the 23d, Carte, v. 1. p. 165, &c. Sir Fr. Willoughby's nar rative in his own hand, in the Sterne MS. already quoted, No. iii. p. 424. The first Proclamation against them is dated Oct. 30. The Commission to Lord Gormonstown, and the other Catholic Lords, to act against the Rebels, is dated Nov. 2. The Declaration of the Lords and Commons, Nov. 17.-This is not Castabala evidence. touching faith and discipline, by men who taught that a Papal excommunication, however unjust, must be obeyed, and that this was the grand lever of the whole Rebellion, and of all the perjuries, and violations of public faith, which have marked their characters with such indelible disgrace, he thinks it a duty which he owes to his Country, after having read so much of its history, as I have, to state fairly who those Incendiaries were, by whose persuasions the Rabble were stimulated to such unparalleled atrocities! 58. Freret charges these atrocities on the intolerant Spirit of the Catholic Religion.* Bergier answers, that Religion had nothing to do in the matter, and was only the pretext.† Rousseau acknowledges that all the wars called "C'est a la Religion Catholique qu'on doit les horreurs "de la S. Barthelemi, et l'affreux massacre d' Irelande." `Frerét, Examen Critique des Apol. de la Religion Chret.-The same objection is repeated in Voltaire's Traite sur la Tolerance, Diction. Philosophique, &c. Essais sur l' Hist. &c. + Bergier Certitude de la Relig. Paris, 1767, part, 2. p. 109, &c. &c. R Religious, have taken their rise in Courts, amid the cabals of intriguers, and the grimaces of hypocrites; and I answer briefly, that the Irish Massacre is not to be imputed either to the Religion, or to the Character of Irishmen, who abhor and abominate its memory, but to the Intrigues of the foreign-influenced, and to the principles which they profess. Not above one dozen of those thousands who were stimulated to the Massacres of 1641, knew the extent of the design in which they were embarked, until the 22d of October. "The design, says Carte, was confided only to "the old Irish, and not communicated to "above half a score of those, till almost the very moment of execution.”† 59. The Chiefs were Ebher Mac Mahon Bishop of Clogher, Father Crelly, who took the Newry, a Friar who went by the name of Cristoir Ultach, and who appears from my MSS. to have been Christopher Dunlevy, Toole * Rousseau's Letter to Beaumont. Lond. 1763. p. 44. O'Connally, who was R. O'More's Chaplain, Sir Phelim O'Nial, and six of the Chiefs of Ulster, who depended on their Vassals to follow them, as they said, to the gates of hell!. It was only when their unfortunate followers had stained their fingers with blood, and, having levelled the barriers of morality, and been taught that it was now too late to desert their Colours, for that no faith could be reposed in them by the government, that they plunged headlong into every barbarity; hardening their hearts against that natural reverence which Irishmen feel for old age; and steeling their nature against that Gallantry which, even at the worst crisis of their last rebellion, they manifested for the Sex. It is a fact, as certain as any in history, that they were taught to expect impunity only from extirpation !→ 60. Fearing that their men might dispersè, and throw themselves on the King's mercy, the Leaders resolved, that all should be equally guilty; that they should embark in wickedness beyond redemption; that an Island hitherto famed for generosity and piety, should become a scene of tumult and Massacre, at which Humanity startles, Patriotism shudders, and Christianity forbids us to find a name ! The order for an indiscriminate Massacre was issued from Sir Phelim O'Nial's camp, on the 30th of October, 1641, and Ebher Mac Mahon's Manifesto appeared soon after! Irishmen! repress your feelings-The Sun himself is sometimes eclipsed in the heavens; and the brightest sky is often dimmed and darkened by a passing cloud.--Our ancestors have been guilty of a formidable crime; and that too at a time of profound peace, great good will on the part of the King's Government, and when the Graces had been conferred! But yet-I contend that this was not a national crime. It was contrived by a few foreign-influenced Incendiaries. The Mass of our population, misled by artifice, were governed not by Christian and Canonical Rules, but by Druidical and well-worshipping excommunications, and miracles, by which they were |