fubdued, the best part of that kingdom

was

(1) Ormonde's

I know not how we fhall get over thefe difficulties. And you must know, that, though no man oppofes the going into Ieland, yet many are in their hearts against it, and are glad to cherish any rubs. The Scotch faction is ftrong and bold, and have friends in this ftate. The Queen, I believe, will govern very much, and is full of defigns. They perfwade her to State papers, go with the King into Ireland (t).'-But all these &c. p. 25°. defigns proved abortive: for the parliament, understanding what had paffed in Ireland, appointed lieutenantgeneral Cromwell commander in chief of that kingdom. He had Ireton placed next in command under him, and great preparations were made for the war. In the mean time the fpirit, conjured up by Cromwell in the Levellers, began to be very trouble fome to the ftate, and incommodious to its affairs. They reproached thofe in power; they refufed obedience to the general; and would not go into Ireland. Fairfax and Cromwell fet themselves to reduce those men, and they did it fo effectually, that the service of Ireland was no farther hindered. Whilst Cromwell was making preparations for his voyage, lord O monde besieged Dublin; but Jones found foon an opportunity to give him a fpecimen of the valour of the English. For, with a very few forces, comparatively, he fell on the befiegers, killed 4000, took 2517 prifoners, together with a great quantity of arms and ftores. Ormonde foon after writ to Jones for a lift of the prifoners taken, to whom Jones laconically replied, My (4) Borlafe's lord, fince I routed your army, I cannot have the Hiftory of happiness to know where you are, that I may wait upon you (u).'Cromwell arrived at Dublin on the bellion, p. 15th of August, 1619, and on the 30th of the fame month took the field, befieged Drogheda, took it by ftorm, and put the garrifon to the fword. All this was done in the space of nine days, and a body of near 3000 men, fays Borlafe, were totally deftroyed and maffacred, with which, in refpe& of experience and

the execra

ble Irish re

222. Fol.

Lond. 1680.

was portioned out among the foldiers and ad

courage of the officers, and goodnefs and fidelity of the common men, the marquis would have been glad

to have found himself engaged in the field with the (x) Borlafe's enemy, though upon fome difadvantages (x).' The Hiftory, &c. flaughter used at Drogheda has been looked on by the P. 224. generality as very cruel and barbarous, and Cromwell has been reproached greatly on that account. And it must be confeffed, that orders iffued for putting to the fword, and giving no quarter, found very fhocking in the ears of the humane and benevolent. And it were to have been wished that such orders had never been given or executed by any general of rank and character. Though, if ever fuch treatment is juftifiable, it is in fuch a cafe as this, where the known difpofition and behaviour of the fufferers are remarkably barbarous, inhuman and cruel. Cromwell, in his letter to the speaker, dated Dublin, September 17, 1649, owns that he forbade to fpare any that were in arms in the town, and he thinks,' he fays, that they put to the fword a⚫bout 2000 men the first night they entered; that the next day one of the towers which had held out hav⚫ing fubmitted, their officers were knocked on the head, and every tenth man of the foldiers killed, and the reft shipped for the Barbadoes.-I am perfwaded,' adds he, that this is a righteous judgment of God ' upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands in fo much innocent blood, and that it will tend to prevent the effufion of blood for the future; which are the fatisfactory grounds to fuch actions, which, otherwife, cannot but work remorfe (y) Pailiaand regret (y).' This is faying the moft for the jufti- Hiftory, vol. fication of the fact. The name of Cromwell, and the xix, p. 204. execution at Drogheda, had fuch an effect indeed, that fuccefs almost conftantly attended him; infomuch that the far greater part of Ireland was reduced to the obedience of the commonwealth, before he returned to England, which was in May, 1650. After this

mentary

adventurers of the English nation: witness

the

the war was carried on by Ireton, whom Cromwell had conftituted his deputy, with like valour and fuccefs, til), in a little time, the great armies of the Catholics were difperfed, their towns taken, their leaders forced to fly, and the whole kingdom, in a manner, fubdued. Application was made for affiftance from abroad, particularly to the Duke of Lorrain, who promifed great things upon conditions very high; but little was done by him, or any one elfe: for the English arms were every where terrible, and he thought himfelf most out of danger who kept himself moft out of their reach. In a word, after fome time the Irish being wholly reduced, their lands were divided among the foldiers and adventurers, the murtherers of the English were exemplarily punished, and peace and tranquillity were given to a land ruined by the villany and barbarity of its inhabitants. How fully Ireland was reduced by the commonwealth and Cromwell, will appear from the following extracts from Clarendon. When the fuccefs of the parliament had totally fubdued the King's arms, and himself was fo inhumanly murdered, neither the. • forces in Deland, under the King's authority, nor the Irish, who had too late promifed to fubmit to it, could make any long refiftance; fo that Cromwell quickly difperfed them by his own expedition thither: and, by licenfing as many as defired it to tranfport as many from thence, for the fervice of the two crowns of France and Spain, as they would contract for, quickly made a difappearance of any army in that kingdom to oppofe his conquefts. And after the defeat of the King at Worcester, he feemed to all men to be in as quiet a poffeffion of Ireland as of England, and to be as much without enemies in the one as the other kingdom. Not only all the Irish nation (very few excepted) were found guilty of the rebellion, and fo to have forfeited all their eftates; but the Marquis of Ormonde, the Lord Inchiquin, and all

.

• the

the English Catholics, and whofoever had ferved the King, were declared to be under the fame guilt, and the lands feized upon for the benefit of the state.— The whole kingdom was admeasured; the accounts of the money paid by the adventurers within the time limited, and what was due to the army for their pay, 6 were stated; and fuch proportions of acres in the feveral provinces were affigned to the adventurers and officers and foldiers, as were agreeable to the act of parlia ment, by admeasurement.And that every body might with the more fecurity enjoy that which was affigned to him, they had found a way to have the ⚫ consent of many to their own undoing. They found the utter extirpation of the nation (which they had intended) to be in itself very difficult, and to carry in it fomewhat of horror, that made fome impreffion upon the ftone-hardness of their own hearts.They therefore found this expedient, which they 'called an act of grace. There was a large tract of land, even to the half of the province of Conaught, that was feparated from the reft by a long and large river, and which, by the plague and many maffacres, • remained almost defolate. Into this fpace and circuit of land they required all the Irish to retite by such a day under the penalty of death; and all who fhould after that time be found in any other part of the kingdom, man, woman, or child, fhould be killed by any body that met them. The land within this circuit, the moft barren in the kingdom, was, out of the grace and mercy of the conquerors, affigned to those of the nation, who were enclosed in such proportions as might, with great induftry, preferve their lives. And to thofe perfons, from whom they had taken great quantities of land in other provinces, they affigned the greater proportions within this precinct; fo that it fell to fome men's lot, efpecially when they ⚫ were accommodated with houses, to have a competent livelihood, though never to the fifth part of what had been taken from them in a much better province. And, that they might not be exalted with this merciful donative, it was a condition that accompanied

this their accommodation, that they fhould all give releafes of their former rights and titles to the land ⚫ that was taken from them, in confideration of what was now affigned to them; and fo they fhould for • ever bar themselves and their heirs from ever laying claim to their old inheritance.And, by this means, the plantation (as they called it) of Conaught was finifhed, and all the Irish nation inclofed within that circuit, the rest of Ireland being left to the English; fome to the old lords and juft proprietors, who, being all proteftants (for no Roman Catholic was admitted) had either never offended them, or had ferved them, or had made compofition for their delinquencies, by the benefit of fome articles; and fome to the adventurers and foldiers. And a good and great part (as I remember, the whole province of Tipperary) Cromwell had referved to himfelf, as a demefne (as he called it) for the ftate, and in which no adventurer or foldier fhould demand his lot to be affigned, and, no doubt, intended both the ftate and it for the making great his own family. It cannot be imagined in how eafy a method, and with what peaceable formality, this whole great kingdom was taken from the juft lords and proprietors, and divided and given among thofe, who had no other right to it, but that they had power to keep it, no men having fo great shares as they who had been inftruments to murder the King, and were not like, willingly, to part with it to his • fucceffor.—Ireland was the great capital, out of which all debts were paid, all fervices rewarded, and all acts of bounty performed. And, which is more wonderful, all this was done and fettled, within little C more than two years, to that degree of perfection, that there were many buildings raifed for beauty as well as ufe, orderly and regular plantations of trees, and fences and enclofures raifed throughout the kingdom, purchases made by one from the other at very valuable rates, and jointures made upon marriages, and all other conveyances and fettlements executed, 6 as in a kingdom of peace within itself, and where no • doubt