ing the clamours of our bigotted historians, that Clarendon's account of the 40 years interval from the Tirone war, to 1641 inclusive, is accurate on the whole. Ireland had never before made such a rapid progress in the arts of peace; she had never had less provocation to rebel; and though six rebellions were, during that interval, fomented by foreign intriguers,* yet the Nobility, the Gentry, and the wellinformed Catholics, not only of the Pale, but of all Ireland, were perfectly tranquil, and so generally content, that the Catholic as well as the Protestant Members who assembled in the Parliament of 1640, voted a supply of four entire subsidies, and inserted in the Preamble to that Bill, a warm encomium on the King, "for the large and ample benefits they had "received, and still hoped to receive, by his

It is said that K. James declared in England, that he would never grant any toleration to Catholics, and that he entailed a curse on his posterity if they granted any. Carte's Orm. v. 1, p. 21. But I deny this assertion as repugnant to the whole tenor of his reign, and supported by no authority equivalent to that tenor.

"Commission of Grace, for remedy of defective

" titles."

They were not only unanimous in the grant of these subsidies, but when the King, in his letter of March 2, 1640, expressed his fear, that if the Scots did not submit quietly, he should have occasion for two subsidies more, they agreed as unanimously in a Declaration.—

"That if his Majesty shall be enforced to use his power to " vindicate his just authority, this House, for themselves and "the Commons of this Kingdom, will be ready with their

persons and estates, to the uttermost of their abilities, &c. "and they pray that this may be recorded as an ordinance of "Parliament, and that it may be published in Print for a

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testimony to all the world, and succeeding ages, that as this "kingdom hath the happiness to be governed by the best "of Kings, so they are desirous to give him just cause to "accompt of this people (the Irish) amongst the best of his "Subjects."

Amongst the Acts laid before this Parlia ment in June, and approved of by the King and Council in England, one was for the "Confirmation of Letters Patent, granted upon any Commissions of grace for the remedy of defective titles;" an Act of such importance to the Irish, so beneficent in its purview, so

rich in its consequences, that it was called the Golden Act, and was declared by the Lord Chancellor to be worth many millions of money, as it really was, to the Irish nation !

I am sensible that, at a subsequent period, this Parliament finessed with the King about the subsidies they themselves had granted; that they took advantage of his distress; that they affronted and vilified him, and degraded themselves, and levelled the independence of their Country, by laying their exaggerated complaints against Strafford before an English H. of Commons.-But no Irishman will thank them for this part of their conduct. It was the first application that an Irish ever made to an English Parliament; and it affords one detestable instance, out of a thousand, which could be alleged, to shew what the violence of party rage is, and how no consideration even of national liberty can restrain it, from sacraficing to its voracious appetite the best feelings and interests of humanity and truth. They condescended, in this instance, to become the tools of a prevailing faction in England; and

they prosecuted to death, and were chiefly: instrumental in spilling the blood of one of

the greatest, and one of the most loyal and honourable Men too, that the British Islands ever produced. But this is not the question before us.

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Whatever opinion may be entertained with respect to the proceedings against Strafford, there can be but one with respect to the lenity of the Government towards the Irish at this time. It was in fact the interest of the Crown, and of essential importance to the Commerce of England, that Ireland should be tranquil and prosperous; and I find that on May 3, 1641, the King, by the advice of his Council in England, wrote to the Lords Justices in

*See above p. 125, &c.---Through malice to Lord Strafford, they stabbed their own country to the heart-and not satisfied with his blood, they voted his Proclamations for the regulation of linen yarn, for the encouragement of which he had expended of his personal property £30,000, to be grievances! though no acts could be more beneficial.—

+ Even in 1616, James declared, in the Star-chamber, that "he could not persecute a Priest only for Religion sake; but "if he refuse to take the oath of allegiance, which is merely "civil, those that so refuse it, I leave them to the law."

Ireland, declaring his pleasure that "his Irish "Subjects should enjoy the benefits of all the "Graces, according to their true intent; "requiring them to be immediately settled; "and, for the greater expedition, ordering a "Bill to be forthwith transmitted to him for "enacting the fifty-first Grace, and in general "all the rest; particularly for securing the "estates, or reputed estates, of the inhabitants "of Connaght, Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary, "from all titles of the Crown, and for dis"charging the intended plantation, notwithstanding any offices there found, which

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were, by this Bill to be declared void." This dast Act alone was above £20,000 a year damage to the King in his Revenue.*

82. It is therefore impossible to ascribe the Rebellion of 1641, to the Catholic Gentry,†

* Carte's Orm. v. 1. p. 143.

"Some have supposed that the R. Catholic party in the "Irish Parliament of 1641, which was the most active party "in it, laid the plot for raising the insurrection which soon "after followed.—But I cannot find any just foundation for "this notion. Their most arbitrary proceedings were plainly