longed, who "filled the ranks and fed the cannon" in the cause of their country, religion, and legitimate Sovereign, and whose gallantry procured that celebrated treaty, the nefarious violation of which has been perpetuated to, and is a primary cause of, the agitation of the present times, a minute research into the details of such a contest did not appear a matter of indifference, and was .ot felt to be a source of weariness, notwithstanding the great labour of transcription, as well as of study, attendant upon such an enquiry. And though he may be taxed with too much enthusiasm on the subject,

-for of merely interested motives he can scarcely be accused, as he does not live by writing, he thinks, that the execution of such a work as has been proposed ought to be looked upon in much the same light by his countrymen as by himself. Should this be their as well as his opinion, the portraits of Richard Talbot, Duke of Tyrconnell, and Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, will indeed be evidences of the spirit in which the work shall be written. But, to guard, as much as possible, against the influence of prejudice, and the charge of partiality, comparisons of the different accounts of every important transaction, by both domestic and foreign writers, shall be given in notes, minutely

specifying every authority, and stating, when any work is rare, in what library, and where in that library, it can be procured. The notes in this volume, modified, of course, to suit the calmer tone of a regular history,will convey a general idea of that portion of the writer's plan; his object being, by such notes, and appendixes, to make the work contain every thing worth knowing on the subject. Except where it may be necessary to pronounce his own opinion on any point, his narrative shall receive no colouring, unless what can be justified either by the testimony of official and contemporary, or of such statements as may appear to have been derived from official and contemporary, sources of information. Appropriate and decisive quotations, similar to those in the sketch of the siege of Athlone and battle of Aughrim,-given in this volume as rough specimens of the proposed narrative,-shall be introduced, as often as possible, into the text; the author having the greatest contempt for that impertinent obtrusion of dogmatizing vanity, called the

philosophy of history," or for any mode of writing history, but one based upon an honest, industrious search for, and a patient weaving together of, the best original testimonies on the subject; whose very words, as superior to any

C

others in point of credit, and as generally the most picturesque,-from the greater liveliness with which we will speak of what we have seen, than of what we have heard,-should constantly, but especially in the account of any important matter, be laid before a reader. From a book so written, on the only war deserving the appellation of national that can be said to have taken place between this country and England,* and one not of so remote a date as to be uninteresting now, since there are several persons in existence that might have conversed with those who actually lived at the time, and the present

By this is meant, the only war in which Ireland had any thing like a resident Sovereign, with a national government, and a united population, in contending against England-which, as contrasted with her other struggles, she had, or, allowing for the defection of Ulster, was nearest having, in James's time. The Irish, indeed, knew this well, and shewed that they knew it; if it were only by the spirit-stirring inscription, in large letters, on the great standard, which was kept flying at the top of the Castle, where the King was

"Now OR NEVER!

NOW AND FOR EVER!"

†The Duke of Wellington, for example, who was born in 1769, might not only have spoken to several persons contemporary with the Revolution, but to one who not only witnessed that but a still earlier, and not less remarkable contest, in this country. Thus, in 1773, Charles M'Findley, Esq. of the County Tipperary, died, aged 143 years; having been a Captain under Charles I, and having come over to Ireland, in 1649, with Cromwell; shortly after which he quitted the army. In March, 1774, died at Dungiven, County Londonderry, William Beatty,

liberal government, and its supporters, the people of Ireland, are only now effectually pulling down the Williamite oligarchy, that owed its ascendancy to the events of that period-from

Esq., who bore a pair of colours at the Boyne and Aughrim. In November, 1776, Alderman William Owagan, senior Alderman of Cork, died there, aged 93; having acted as a page to James II, in 1689, when the King was publicly entertained by that city, on his landing from France. In 1784, there were, in Armagh, a very old man, a beggar, and a still older beggarwoman, who are spoken of, by one who knew them both, as constant quarrellers about the Irtsh politics of the preceding century; the old man having marched, under King James, through Armagh, in 1689, in the Irish advance against Derry, and having been present, the following year, at the Boyne; and the old woman, who lived to 140, having been wife to a soldier who also fought there, but on William's side. In January, 1792, Thomas Wimms, who served at the siege of Londonderry, died in Tuam, at the age of 117. In May, 1794, a man, named Conolly, died, aged 118, near Edenderry, King's County, "who," says the account, "perfectly remembered the landing of King James and the Prince of Orange, the sieges of Derry and Limerick, the battles of the Boyne and Aughrim, and every other memorable occurrence of those times!" About the end of 1796, a gentleman, now between 60 and 70, (and a friend of the writer,) happening to stop on horseback with his father between Killmastulla and Bird Hill, in the County Tipperary, an extremely venerable old man came out of a cabbin to hold the horses, and being asked, how old he was? replied"Sir, I don't know; but, when I was very young, I served as a soldier in King James's army !" In fine, so late as the same year, 1796, the Recorder of Drogheda, who presented the address from that town to James II., in 1689, on his march against Marshal Schomberg, was still living; being certainly not less than between 130 and 140 years old. From private information, and the periodical publications of the last cen tury, several more instances of the kind could be given; but these will suffice.

such a book much benefit might be derived, through the instructive view it would give of the great amount of time, labour, blood, and money, that had to be expended, for the elevation of the tyranny of a faction, at the expense of the rights of a nation; through the notion it would convey, of how very different, in all human probability, would be the result of such another contest between the two islands, as certain manœuvres of the Sellis-Garth despot of Hanover, and his Williamite supporters, might have but recently occasioned; and, " above all, and before all," through the spectacle it would afford to the world, of a greater mass of low and shameless misrepresentation, directed against this country and its religion, by English and Anglo-Irish malignity, intolerance, and oppres sion, than the character, principles, and conduct of any one nation have, perhaps, ever met with, in history, from the writers of another. Yet, on such libellers alone, have we hitherto been left to depend for any history of the important war and revolution in question; a circumstance, as the writer of these remarks believes, not less conducive to the political degradation, than to the national dishonour, of his country-since, it it is, in a very great degree, through the grossly exaggerated descriptions of the conduct of