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lently well, and pertinently to the occasion.

The army

was under a severe discipline; not an oath was to be heard throughout the whole camp, the soldiers spending their leisure hours in reading their bibles, in singing psalms, and religious conferences.

Almost all Ireland was in the hands of the royalists and Roman catholics, except Dublin and Londonderry; the former of these places had been lately besieged by the duke of Ormond with twenty thousand men, but the garrison being recruited with three regiments from England, the governor colonel James, surprised the besiegers, and after a vigorous sally, stormed their camp, and routed the whole which dispersed itself into Drogheda, and other fortified places. CROMWELL upon his arrival, was received with the acclamations of a vast concourse of people, to whom he addressed himself from a rising ground, with hat in hand, in a soldier-like manner, telling them "he was come to cut down and destroy the barbarous and blood. thirsty Irish, with all their adherents; but that all who

army,

* Dr. Grey controverts Mr. Neal's account of the number of the duke of Ormond's army, on the authority of lord Clarendon and Mr. Carte: the former says, that Jones sallied out with a body of 6000 foot and 1900 horse, and that the army encamped at Rathmines was not so strong in horse and foot: the latter, that Jones's forces amounted to only 4000 foot and 1200 horse, which was a body nearly equal to the whole Irish army, if it had been all engaged. These authorities are set against Mr. Neal. On the other hand, Whitlocke informs us that, previously to this defeat, letters from Ireland represented the duke of Ormond as approaching Dublin with 12000 foot and 2400 horse; and letters from Chester reported him 40,000 strong before Dublin. Ludlow says, that his forces were double in number to those of Jones. Borlase says, that Jones with very few forces, comparatively, fell on the besiegers, killed 4000, and took 2517 prisoners. The plunder of the field, we are told, was so rich, that the camp was like a fair, presenting for sale cloth, silk, and all manner of clothes. The parliament settled 1000l. per annum in land on Jones, for his services. Whitlocke's Memoirs, p. 393, 401, 404. Ludlow's Memoirs, p. 101, 4to. ed. And Harris's Life of Cromwell, p. 228. Ed.

§ Dr. Grey spends here more than ten pages in detailing, from lord Clarendon, various acts of oppression, cruelty, and murder, perpetrated by individuals of Cromwell's army; to shew that they were not less barbarous and bloodthirsty than the inhuman wretches concerned in the Irish massacre. Such deeds, undoubtedly, shock humanity; and ought to shock every party. But the guilt lieth originally at the door of those who were the first aggressors; whose conduct furnished the precedent, and provoked retaliation. Ed.

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were for the protestant religion, and the liberties of their country, should find suitable encouragement from the parliament of England and himself, in proportion to their merits." Having refreshed his forces he marched directly to Drogheda, which was garrisoned with 2500 foot and 300 horse, and was therefore thought capable of holding out a month; but the general neglecting the common forms of approach, battered the walls with his cannon, and having made two accessible breaches,like an impetuous conqueror, entered the town in person at the head of colonel Ewer's regiment of foot, and put all the garrison to the sword.From thence he marched to Wexford, which he took likewise by storm, and after the example of Drogheda, put the garrison to the sword; the general declaring, that he would sacrifice all the Irish papists to the ghosts of the English protestants whom they had massacred in cold blood. The conquest of these places struck such a terror into the rest, that they surrendered upon the first summons; the name of Cromwell carrying victory on its wings before himself appeared, the whole country was reduced by the middle of May, except Limerick, Galway, and one or two other places, which Ireton took the following summer. Lord Inchequin deserted the remains of the royal army, and Ormond fled into France. Lieutenant-general Cromwell being called home to march against the Scots, arrived at London about the middle of May, and was received by the parliament and city with distinguished respect and honor, as a soldier who had gained more laurels, and done more

Great reproach, on this account, has fallen on the name of Cromwell. He reconciled himself to the execution of such severe orders, for putting to the sword and giving no quarter, by considering them as necessary to prevent the effusion of blood for the future, and as the instrument of the righteous judgment of God upon those barbarous wretches who had imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood. If ever such measures are justifiable, "it is in such a case as this," observes Dr. Harris, "where the known disposition and behavior of the sufferers are remarkably barbarous, inhuman, and cruel." Such horror, we are told, had the barbarities committed by the Irish, in the beginning of the rebellion and during the course of the war, impressed on every English breast, that even the humane and gentle Fairfax expressed in warm and severe terms his disapprobation at granting them quarter. Har ris's Life of Cromwell, p. 229, and Macaulay's History of England, vol. v. p. 15, note, 8vo. ed. Ed.

wonders in nine months, than any age or history could parallel.

It is a remarkable account the lieutenant-general gives in one of his letters, of the behavior of the army after their arrival in Ireland; "their diligence, courage, and behavior is such, (says he) through the providence of God, and strict care of the chief officers, that never men did obey orders more cheerfully, nor go upon duty more courageously. Never did greater harmony and resolution appear to prosecute this cause of God, than in this army. Such a consent of heart and hands; such a sympathy of affections, not only in carnal but in spiritual bonds, which tie faster than chains of adamant! I have often observed a wonderful consent of the officers and soldiers upon the grounds of doing service to God, and how miraculously they have succeeded. The mind of man being satisfied, and fixed on God, and that his undertaking is for God's glory, it gives the greatest courage to those men, and prosperity to their actions."*

To put the affairs of Ireland together: the roman catholics charged the ill success of their affairs upon the duke of Ormond, and sent him word, "that they were determined not to submit any longer to his commands, it not being fit that a catholic army should be under the direction of a protestant general; but that if he would depart the kingdom, they would undertake of themselves to drive Ireton out of Dublin." After this they offered the kingdom to the duke of Lorrain, a bigotted papist, who was wise enough to decline the offer, and then quarrelling among themselves they were soon driven out of all the strong holds of the kingdom, and forced to submit to the mercy of the conqueror. All who had borne arms in the late insurrection, were shipped away into France, Spain, or Flanders, never to return on pain of death. Those who had a hand in murdering the protestants at the time of the massacre, were brought from several parts of the country, and • Whitlocke, p. 434.

Dr. Grey insinuates here a reflection on Mr. Neal's veraeity; by remarking that he produces no authority for the assertion. But that Ireland was offered to the guardianship of the duke of Lorrain has been since mentioned, as an incontrovertible fact, by Dr. Harris and Mrs, Macaulay. Ed.

after conviction upon a fair trial, were executed. The rest of the natives, who were called Tories, were shut up in the most inland counties, and their lands given pa.ly in payment to the soldiers who settled there, and the rest to the first adventurers. Lord Clarendon relates it thus: Near one hundred thousand of them were transported into foreign parts, for the service of the kings of France and Spain; double that number were consumed by the plague, famine, and other severities exercised upon them in their own country; the remainder were by Cromwell transplanted into the most inland, barren, desolate, and mountainous part of the province of Connaught, and it was lawful for any man to kill any of the Irish, that were found out of the bounds appointed them within that circuit. Such a proportion of land was allotted to every man, as the protector thought competent for them; upon which they were to give formal releases of all their titles to their lands in any other provinces; if they refused to give such releases, they were still deprived, and left to starve within the limits prescribed them; out of which they durst not withdraw; so that very few refused to sign those releases, or other acts which were demanded. It was a considerable time before these Irish could raise any thing out of their lands to support their lives; but necessity was the spring of industry." Thus they lived under all the infamy of a conquered nation till the restoration of King Charles II. a just judgment of God for their barbarous and unheard-of cruelties to the Irish protestants!

To return to England: the body of the presbyterians acted in concert with the Scots, for restoring the king's family upon the foot of the covenant; several of their ministers carried on a private correspondence with the chiefs of that nation, and instead of taking the engagement to the present powers, called them usurpers, and declined praying for them in their churches; they also declared against a general toleration, for which the army and parliament contended.

When lieutenant-general Cromwell was embarking for Ireland, he sent letters to the parliament, recommending

Carrington's Life of Cromwell, p. 155. Clarendon, p. 153.

the removal of all the penal laws relating to religion; upon which the house ordered a committee to make report concerning a method for the ease of tender consciences, and an act to be brought in to appoint commissioners in every county, for the approbation of able and well-qualified persons to be made ministers, who cannot comply with the present ordinance for ordination of ministers.*

Aug. 16, General Fairfax and his council of officers presented a petition to the same purpose, praying "that all penal statutes formerly made, and ordinances lately made, whereby many conscientious people were molested, and the propagation of the gospel hindered, might be removed. Not that they desired this liberty should extend to the setting up popery, or the late hierarchy; or to the countenancing any sort of immorality or profaneness; for they earnestly desired, that drunkenness, swearing, uncleanness, and all acts of profaneness, might be vigorous. ly prosecuted in all persons whatsoever." The house promised to take the petition into speedy consideration, and after some time passed it into a law.

But to bring the presbyterian clergy to the test, the engagement which had been appointed to be taken by all civil and military officers within a limited time, on pain of forfeiting their places, was now required to be sworn and subscribed by all ministers, heads of colleges and halls, fellows of houses, graduates, and all officers in the universities; and by the masters, fellows, school-masters, and scholars of Eaton college, Westminster, and Winchester schools; no minister was to be admitted to any ecclesiastical living, no clergyman to sit as member of the assembly of divines, nor be capable of enjoying any preferment in the church, unless he qualified himself by taking the engagement within six months, publicly in the face of the congregation.t

Nov. 9, it was referred to a committee, to consider how the engagement might be subscribed by all the people of the nation of eighteen years of age and upwards. Pursuant to which a bill was brought in, and passed, Jan. 2, to debar all who should refuse to take and subscribe it, Walker, p. 146.

Whitlocke, p. 105.

VOL. IV.

Ibid. p. 404.

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