Will late Posterity believe, that, in Favour of mercenary Adventurers, who advanced Money to provide for a desperate regicide Army; in Favour of the Officers of this same Army, whom their Ringleader Cromwell, seared as his Conscience was, indulged with no more than temporary Grants of the Estates belonging to the King's most faithful Subjects: Will Posterity, I say, believe, that, in special Favour of such Men, those identical Subjects, the bravest Advocates, as well as the most affectionate undeviating Friends of the Monarchy and Constitution, were for ever deprived of their Properties! To remunerate the others, the most inveterate and implacable Enemies of EITHER! Doing Good for Evil is a Divine Precept, and certainly includes a most sublime Moral; but rendering Evil for Good, is such a Principle as must carry Horror with it, among savage Nations!
The King of France's immediate Letter, on this Subject, to King Charles the Second, as it reflects Honour on the Memory of those illustrious Sufferers, I therefore take Leave to transcribe in this Place.
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His Most Christian Majesty's Letter to the King of Great Britain, in Favour of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland.
“Most High, Most Excellent, and Most Potent Prince, our dear and well-beloved Brother and Cousin! At the same Time that we have been told of your Majesty's great Goodness towards your Subjects, and the Precedent [pg 042] you have given of an extraordinary Clemency, in granting them your general Amnesty (some few only excepted, of those whom the Blood of their King, and that of his People, cry aloud to Heaven for Revenge against). We could not but let your Majesty know, that we were extremely surprized to hear, that the Catholicks of Ireland were excluded from that Act of Oblivion, and, by that Means, put into the Number of the most criminal! This News has so much the more excited our Compassion towards them, that we have been informed, that, in all the Changes which have hitherto happened in your Dominions, and in the almost general Defection of your Subjects, none stood more constant to their lawful Sovereign, even in the greatest Streights, than the Catholicks: So that, if they are now branded for their Religion, it may be said, for their Honour, that, in Times past, none could be found readier, or more cheerfully disposed, than they, to serve and assist their Prince; and that with so much Ardour, that their Zeal then for the Royal Family was reckoned a certain Mark of their true Religion. It is for that Reason that we now become their Intercessors to you: For, otherwise, had they failed in the Fidelity they owe you, instead of interceding for them, we would join with you in using them with all imaginable Rigour; and it would never come into our Thoughts to concern ourselves, as we do, for the Catholicks of Ireland; though we were obliged to it, by the last Treaty of Peace made with the Marquess of Ormond, and which was granted them by our Mediation. And, as we are well assured, [pg 043] that, since the Conclusion of that Peace, they have done Nothing which can be called a Failure of their Duty to you, we find ourselves under so much the greater Obligation to conjure you, to make good that Treaty to them, in that they religiously observed it on their Side, in all its Parts: And to beseech you not to suffer, that either the Hatred, which an immoderate Zeal swells some bigotted Sectaries with, nor the unlucky Spoils of these poor People, render criminal or miserable the most faithful of your Subjects; to whom their lawful King, as you are, is not the less dear, nor less respected, because of a different Belief from theirs. We propose Nothing to ourselves in this, nor ask any Thing, but what we daily practise (as you may know) towards those of our Subjects who are of the reformed Religion. And, as we have commanded the Sieur Marquis de Rouvigny to explain our Sentiments more amply on this Subject to you, be pleased to give him a favourable Audience: And, above all Things, be perswaded, that, in this Affair, we have no less your own true Interest in View, than what natural Reason and Equity requires; and that our sincere Friendship for you is the principal Motive of this Request. Dated at Paris, the 7th of September, 1660.”
The good King Charles, regardless of this important Solicitation, unattentive to the plain Suggestions of common Right, and unaccountably forgetful of all their past signal Services and inviolate Zeal; observed indeed that those faithful Irish Subjects had no Stock; consequently, that dispossessing the Adherents of Oliver, who, with [pg 044] the Land, had pirated the national Stock, would cause much Confusion. As for the former, he hoped some Settlement might in Time be found for them; (in Truth, I believe, for aught his Majesty in Reality concerned himself, this might have been in Terra Australis Incognita). Their Want of Stock is the less to be admired at, it being well known, that, with their Pay in foreign Service, chiefly expended to contribute all in their Power to the Royal Support, they even went so far as to sell their Plate, and valuable Moveables, to answer the same generous Purpose: But, when every known Acre in the Kingdom, that could be disposed of, was given away by Wholesale to the Duke of York, the Heir-apparent of the Crown, (partial Distribution!) to new-fangled Favourites, and the staunch old Enemies of Church and Crown; it was hoped some Lands might be yet discovered, to satisfy and compensate those Irish Worthies, who had Nothing left for their Support, beside an inalienable Sense of Honour and Loyalty, and a Character of invincible Fidelity (which all Nations admired and applauded). No such Discovery, however, was made, nor any relative to the Irish, under that Administration, but what tended to convince them, by the famous Act of Settlement, &c. of the extraordinary severe Peculiarity of their Fate! Yet, ordained to shew Posterity unprecedented Specimens of Loyalty and Zeal, they still adhered, with inflexible Constancy, to the Fortunes of King James the Second, not mindful of their Injuries by James the First, their unexampled Sufferings by the excessive harsh Measures of King Charles the First, his Ministers, and Deputies, or their unheard-of Treatment (I won't say Wrongs, it [pg 045] being a Maxim the King of England can do none) by King Charles II. Little Wonder, a House, constantly sapping it's own best Pillars, should at length fall.
King James the Second, constrained to abdicate the Throne of England, endeavoured the Preservation of this his Kingdom of Ireland, where his faithful Subjects, (a Remnant of the various and manifold Wastes of foregoing Reigns) considering the thousand Disadvantages they laboured under, made such a Stand as later Ages will look up to with Astonishment! A Parcel of Men, congregated in the utmost Hurry and Confusion, undisciplin'd, unarm'd, uncloathed, unpaid! Yet did those very Men, animated by the Example of their heroick Leaders, (I mean their immediate Lords and Countrymen) on the Plains of Aughrim, convince the best veteran Army that Day in Europe, superior in Numbers, excellently provided for in every Respect, and conducted by a Prince of singular Valour and Address, that Irishmen were deserving of more auspicious Stars.
Never was a more gallant Defence than they, after this, made in Limerick; where, although abandoned by the Prince, (whose Cause they had so remarkably espoused) and his auxiliary French, they obtained an honourable Capitulation from those in Commission under King William the Third, whose strict Observance thereof, to the End of his glorious Life, reflects, among many other his great Atchievements, deserved Honour on his Memory.
The distinguished Figure made by those Noblemen and Gentlemen, who, regardless of Property or Ease, followed the Destiny of that hard-fated Prince, King James the Second, [pg 046] (namely, the Lords Mount-Cashel, Tyrconnel, Clare and Lucan, the Dillons, Nugents, Rooths, Burkes, Lees, Fitz-Geralds, Cooks, Lacys, Browns, Wogans, Baggots, Sheridans, Creaghs, Plunkets, Barnewals, Neagles, Lallys, Mac Carthys, Mac Donnels, Mac Guires, Mac Namarras, Mac Mahons, Mac Gennis's, O Neils, O Connors, O Donnels, O Briens, O Dwyers, O Shaghnussys, O Mahonys, O Sullivans, O Kellys, O Ferralls, O Reillys, O Haras, O Hogans, O Byrnes, O Daes, &c. &c. &c. the military Annals of Germany, France, Spain, Flanders, Italy, Naples, and Russia), must bear ample and authentic Testimony of, to future Ages.
Those were they, of whom Dr. Mac en Crow gives the following concise, but just and happy Character.