mittee as statutes enacted by all the branches of the legislature. In the mean time, the king went to pay a visit to his subjects in Scotland.

In the midst of these troubles, the papists of Ireland fancied they had found an opportunity of throwing off the English yoke. There was a gentleman called Roger More, who, though of a narrow fortune, was descended from a very ancient Irish family, and was very much celebrated among his countrymen for his valour and capacity. This man first formed the project of expelling the English, and asserting the independence of his native country. The occasion was favourable; the English, warmly engaged in domestic animosities, were unable to attend to a distant insurrection; and those of that nation who resided among them, were too feeble to resist. Struck with these motives, sir Phelim O'Neale entered into a conspiracy; lord Macguire came into his designs; and, soon after, all the chiefs of the native Irish promised their concurrence.

Their plan was laid accordingly, which was, that sir Phelim O'Neale, and the other conspirators, should all begin an insurrection on one day throughout the provinces, and should destroy all the English, while lord Macguire and Roger More should surprise the castle of Dublin. They had fixed on the approach of winter for this revolt; the day was appointed, every thing in readiness, the secret profoundly kept, and the conspirators promised themselves a certainty of success. earl of Leicester, who had been appointed lord lieutenant, was then in London. Sir William Parsons, and sir John Borlase, the two lords justices, were men of mean intellects; and, without attending to the interests of their country, indulged themselves in the most profound tranquillity on the brink of ruin.

The

The very day before the intended seizure of the

castle of Dublin, the plot was discovered by one O'Conolly, an Irishman, but a protestant, to the justices, who fled to the castle, and alarmed all the protestant inhabitants of the city to prepare for their defence. Macguire was taken, but More escaped; and new informations being every hour added to those already received, the project of a general insurrection was no longer a secret.

But though the citizens of Dublin had just time enough to save themselves from danger, the protestants, dispersed over the different parts of the country, were taken unprepared. O'Neale and his confederates had already taken arms in Ulster. The Irish, every where intermingled with the English, needed but a hint from their leaders and priests to massacre a people whom they hated for their religion, and envied for their riches and prosperity. The insurrections of a civilised people are usually marked with very little cruelty; but the revolt of a savage nation generally aims at extermination. The Irish accordingly resolved to cut off all the protestants of the kingdom at a stroke; so that neither age, sex, nor condition, received any pity. In such indiscriminate slaughter, neither former benefits, nor alliances, nor authority, were any protection: numberless were the instances of friends murdering their intimates, relations their kinsmen, and servants their masters. vain did flight save from the first assault; destruction, which had an extensive spread, met the hunted victims at every turn. Not only death but studied cruelties were inflicted on the unhappy sufferers; the very avarice of the revolters could not restrain their thirst for blood, and they burned the inhabitants in their own houses, to increase their punishment. Several hundreds were driven upon a bridge, and thence obliged, by these barbarians, to leap into the water, where they were drowned.

In

The English colonies were totally annihilated in the open country of Ulster; but in the other provinces the rebels pretended to act with great humanity. The protestants were driven there from their houses, to meet the severity of the weather, without food or raiment; and numbers of them perished with the cold, which happened at that time to be peculiarly severe. By some computations, those who perished by all these cruelties are made to amount to a hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand; but, by a moderate computation, they could not have been less than forty thousand.

In the mean time, the English Pale, as it was called, consisting of the old English catholics who had first come over, joining with the native Irish, a large army was formed, amounting to above twenty thousand men, which threatened a total extermination of the English power in that island. The king was in Scotland when he received the first account of this rebellion: and though he did all in his power to induce his subjects there to lend assistance to the protestant cause, he found them totally averse to sending any succours into Ireland. Their aim was to oblige the parliament of England with what succours they could spare, and not to obey the injunctions of their sovereign. They went still farther, and had the assurance to impute a part of these dreadful massacres to the king's own contrivance. In fact, the rebels of Ireland did not fail to show a royal patent, authorising their attempts; and it is said that sir Phelim O'Neale, having found a royal patent in the house of lord Caulfield, whom he had murdered, tore off the seal, and affixed it to a commission which he had forged for himself.

However this be, the king took all the precautions in his power to show his utter detestation of these bloody proceedings; and being sensible of his own inability

to suppress the rebellion, he had once more recourse to his English parliament, and craved their assistance for a supply. But here he found no hopes of assistance; many insinuations were thrown out, that he had himself fomented this rebellion, and no money could be spared for the extinction of distant dangers when they pretended that the kingdom was threatened with greater at home. It was now that the republican spirit began to appear without any disguise in the present parliament; and that party, instead of attacking the faults of the king, resolved to destroy monarchy. They had seen a republican system of government lately established in Holland, and attended with very noble effects; they began therefore to wish for a similar system at home; and many productions of the press at that time sketched out the form. It would be unjust to deny these men the praise of being guided by honest motives; but it would be unwise not to say also, that they were swayed by wrong ones. In the comparison between a republic and a limited monarchy, the balance entirely inclines to the latter, since a real republic never yet existed, except in speculation; and that liberty which demagogues promise to their followers, is generally only sought after for themselves. The aim in general of popular leaders is rather to depress the great than exalt the humble; and, in such governments, the lower ranks of people are too commonly the most abject slaves. In a republic, the number of tyrants are capable of supporting each other in their injustice; while in a monarchy there is one object, who, if he offends, is easily punishable, and ought to be brought to justice.

The leaders of the opposition began their operations by a resolution to attack episcopacy, which was one of the strongest bulwarks of the royal power; but previously framed a remonstrance, in which they summed

up all their former grievances. These they ascribed to a regular system of tyranny in the king, and asserted that they amounted to a total subversion of the constitution. This, when drawn up by a tumultuous majority of the house, they ordered to be printed and published, without being carried up, as is usual in such cases, to the house of peers, for their assent and approbation. The commons, having thus endeavoured to render the king's administration universally odious, began upon the hierarchy. Their first measure was, by their own single authority, to suspend all the laws which had been made for the observance of public worship. They particularly forbade bowing at the name of Jesus. They complained of the king's filling five vacant bishoprics; and considered it as an insult upon them, that he should complete and strengthen an order which they were resolved to abolish. They accused thirteen bishops of high treason, for enacting canons without the consent of parliament; and endeavoured to prevail upon the house of peers to exclude all the prelates from their seats and votes in that august assembly. But, notwithstanding all their efforts, the lords refused their concurrence to this law, and to all such as any way tended to the farther limitation of royal authority. The majority of the peers adhered to the king; and plainly foresaw the depression of the nobility as a necessary consequence of the popular usurpations on the crown. The commons murmured at their refusal, mixed threats with their indignation, and began, for the first time, to insinuate that the business of the state could be carried on without them.

In order to intimidate the lords into their measures, the populace were let loose to insult and threaten them. Multitudes of people flocked every day towards Westminster, and insulted the prelates and such lords as