CHAP.

XII.

Closing of the gates of Londonderry.

The inhabitants were Protestants of Anglosaxon bl They were indeed not all of one country or of one churd but Englishmen and Scotchmen, Episcopalians and Prest terians, seem to have generally lived together in friendsh a friendship which is sufficiently explained by their comm antipathy to the Irish race and to the Popish religi During the rebellion of 1641, Londonderry had resolut held out against the native chieftains, and had been peatedly besieged in vain.* Since the Restoration the e had prospered. The Foyle, when the tide was high, brough up ships of large burden to the quay. The fisheries thr greatly. The nets, it was said, were sometimes so full the it was necessary to fling back multitudes of fish into th waves. The quantity of salmon caught annually was est mated at eleven hundred thousand pounds' weight.t

The people of Londonderry shared in the alarm which towards the close of the year 1688, was general among tl Protestants settled in Ireland. It was known that the abor ginal peasantry of the neighbourhood were laying in pik and knives. Priests had been haranguing in a style of which it must be owned, the Puritan part of the Anglosaxon colo had little right to complain, about the slaughter of the Am lekites, and the judgments which Saul had brought on hims by sparing one of the proscribed race. Rumours from vario quarters and anonymous letters in various hands agreed: naming the ninth of December as the day fixed for the exti pation of the strangers. While the minds of the citizen were agitated by these reports, news came that a regiment o twelve hundred Papists, commanded by a Papist, Alexand Macdonnell, Earl of Antrim, had received orders from th Lord Deputy to occupy Londonderry, and was already on th march from Coleraine. The consternation was extreme Some were for closing the gates and resisting; some for sulmitting; some for temporising. The corporation had, lik the other corporations of Ireland, been remodelled. T magistrates were men of low station and character. Amo them was only one person of Anglosaxon extraction; and b had turned Papist. In such rulers the inhabitants could pla no confidence. The Bishop, Ezekiel Hopkins, resolutely

The best account that I have seen of what passed in Londonderry during the war which began in 1641 is in Dr. Reid's History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

†The Interest of England in the Pre

servation of Ireland; 1689.

My authority for this unfavoura account of the corporation is an poem entitled the Londeriad. This traordinary work must have been wr very soon after the events to whic

adhered to the political doctrines which he had preached luring many years, and exhorted his flock to go patiently to the slaughter rather than incur the guilt of disobeying the Lord's Anointed.* Antrim was meanwhile drawing nearer and nearer. At length the citizens saw from the walls his troops arrayed on the opposite shore of the Foyle. There was then no bridge: but there was a ferry which kept up a constant communication between the two banks of the river; and by this ferry a detachment from Antrim's regiment crossed. The officers presented themselves at the gate, produced a warrant directed to the Mayor and Sheriffs, and demanded admittance and quarters for His Majesty's soldiers. Just at this moment thirteen young apprentices, most of whom appear, from their names, to have been of Scottish birth or descent, flew to the guard room, armed themselves, seized the keys of the city, rushed to the Ferry Gate, closed it in the face of the King's officers, and let down the portcullis. James Morison, a citizen more advanced in years, addressed the intruders from the top of the wall and advised them to be gone. They stood in consultation before the gate till they heard him cry, " Bring a great gun this way." They then thought it time to get beyond the range of shot. They retreated, reembarked, and rejoined their comrades on the other side of the river. The flame had already spread. The whole city was up. The other gates were secured. Sentinels paced the ramparts everywhere. The magazines were opened. Muskets and gunpowder were distributed. Messengers were sent, under cover of the following night, to the Protestant gentlemen of the neighbouring counties. The bishop expostulated in vain. It is indeed probable that the vehement and daring young Scotchmen who had taken the lead on this occasion had little respect for his office. One of them broke in on a discourse with which he interrupted the military preparations by exclaiming, "A good sermon, my lord; a very good sermon: but we have not time to hear it just now."+

CHAP.

XII.

CHAP.

XII.

Mountjoy

sent to

pacify Ulster.

The Protestants of the neighbourhood promptly obeyed the summons of Londonderry. Within forty eight hours, hundreds of horse and foot came by various roads to the city. Antrim, not thinking himself strong enough to risk an attack, or not disposed to take on himself the responsibility of commencing a civil war without further orders, retired with his troops to Coleraine.

It might have been expected that the resistance of Enniskillen and Londonderry would have irritated Tyrconnel into taking some desperate step. And in truth his savage and imperious temper was at first inflamed by the news almost to madness. But, after wreaking his rage, as usual, on his wig, he became somewhat calmer. Tidings of a very sobering nature had just reached him. The Prince of Orange was marching unopposed to London. Almost every county and every great town in England had declared for him. James, deserted by his ablest captains and by his nearest relatives, had sent commissioners to treat with the invaders, and had issued writs convoking a Parliament. While the result of the negotiations which were pending in England was uncertain, the Viceroy could not venture to take a bloody revenge on the refractory Protestants of Ireland. He therefore thought it expedient to affect for a time a clemency and moderation which were by no means congenial to his disposition. The task of quieting the Englishry of Ulster was entrusted to William Stewart, Viscount Mountjoy. Mountjoy, a brave soldier, an accomplished scholar, a zealous Protestant, and yet a zealous Tory, was one of the very few members of the Established Church who still held office in Ireland. He was Master of the Ordnance in that kingdom, and was colonel of a regiment in which an uncommonly large proportion of the Englishry had been suffered to remain. At Dublin he was the centre of a small circle of learned and ingenious men who had, under his presidency, formed themselves into a Royal Society, the image, on a small scale, of the Royal Society of London. In Ulster, with which he was peculiarly connected, his name was held in high honour by the colonists.* He

Derry, 1689; Mackenzie's Narrative of
the Siege of Londonderry, 1689; An
Apology for the failures charged on the
Reverend Mr. Walker's Account of the
late Siege of Derry, 1689; A Light to
the Blind. This last work, a manuscript
in the possession of Lord Fingal, is the

work of a zealous Roman Catholic and a
mortal enemy of England. Large ex-

tracts from it are among the Mackintosh MSS. The date in the titlepage is 1711.

As to Mountjoy's character and posttion, see Clarendon's letters from Ireland!, particularly that to Lord Dartmouth f Feb. 8., and that to Evelyn of Feb. 14. 1685. "Bon officier, et homme d'esprit," says Avaux.

hastened with his regiment to Londonderry, and was well received there. For it was known that, though he was firmly attached to hereditary monarchy, he was not less firmly attached to the reformed religion. The citizens readily permitted him to leave within their walls a small garrison exclusively composed of Protestants, under the command of his lieutenant colonel, Robert Lundy, who took the title of Governor.*

The news of Mountjoy's visit to Ulster was highly gratifying to the defenders of Enniskillen. Some gentlemen deputed by that town waited on him to request his good offices, but were disappointed by the reception which they found. "My advice to you is," he said, "to submit to the King's authority." "What, my Lord?" said one of the deputies; "Are we to sit still and let ourselves be butchered?" "The King," said Mountjoy, "will protect you." "If all that we hear be true," said the deputy, "His Majesty will find it hard enough to protect himself." The conference ended in this unsatisfactory manner. Enniskillen still kept its attitude of defiance; and Mountjoy returned to Dublin.+

By this time it had indeed become evident that James could not protect himself. It was known in Ireland that he had fled; that he had been stopped; that he had fled again; that the Prince of Orange had arrived at Westminster in triumph, had taken on himself the administration of the realm, and had issued letters summoning a Convention.

СНАР.

XII.

Those lords and gentlemen at whose request the Prince William had assumed the government, had earnestly entreated him opens a negotiation to take the state of Ireland into his immediate consideration; with Tyrand he had in reply assured them that he would do his best connel. to maintain the Protestant religion and the English interest in that kingdom. His enemies afterwards accused him of utterly disregarding this promise; nay, they alleged, that he purposely suffered Ireland to sink deeper and deeper in calamity. Halifax, they said, had, with cruel and perfidious ingenuity, devised this mode of placing the Convention. under a species of duress; and the trick had succeeded but too well. The vote which called William to the throne would not have passed so easily but for the extreme dangers

Blind.

Walker's Account; Light to the

VOL. II.

I. L

+ Mac Cormick's Further Impartial Account.

CHAP.
XII.

which threatened the state; and it was in consequence of hot
own dishonest inactivity that those dangers had become exp
treme. As this accusation rests on no proof, those whether
repeat it are at least bound to show that some course clearly
better than the course which William took was open to him; g
and this they will find a difficult task. If indeed he could,
within a few weeks after his arrival in London, have sent
great expedition to Ireland, that kingdom might perhaps th
after a short struggle, or without a struggle, have submitted
to his authority; and a long series of crimes and calamities
might have been averted. But the factious orators and in
pamphleteers, who, much at their ease, reproached him for t
not sending such an expedition, would have been perplexed if
they had been required to find the men, the ships, and the
funds. The English army had lately been arrayed against
him: part of it was still ill disposed towards him; and the I
whole was utterly disorganised. Of the army which he had i
brought from Holland not a regiment could be spared. He
had found the treasury empty and the pay of the navy in
arrear. He had no power to hypothecate any part of the li
public revenue. Those who lent him money lent it on no
security but his bare word. It was only by the patriotic
liberality of the merchants of London that he was enabled to r
defray the ordinary charges of government till the meeting
of the Convention. It is surely unjust to blame him for not
instantly fitting out, in such circumstances, an armament
sufficient to conquer a kingdom.

Perceiving that, till the government of England was settled, it would not be in his power to interfere effectually by arms in the affairs of Ireland, he determined to try what effect negotiation would produce. Those who judged after the event pronounced that he had not, on this occasion, shown his usual sagacity. He ought, they said, to have known that it was absurd to expect submission from Tyrconnel. Such however was not at the time the opinion of men who had the best means of information, and whose interest was a sufficient pledge for their sincerity. A great meeting of noblemen and gentlemen who had property in Ireland was held, during the interregnum, at the house of the Duke of Ormond in Saint James's Square. They advised the Prince

* Burnet, i. 807.; and the notes by Swift and Dartmouth. Tutchin, in the Observator, repeats this idle calumny.