pleafure. They had received their education, and imbibed their principles in foreign feminaries, particularly of France and Spain. Hence they returned to Ireland, bound folemnly to the Pope in an unlimited fubmiffion, without profeffion, or bond of allegiance to the king; full fraught with thofe abfurd and peftilent doctrines, which the moderate of their own communion profeffed to abominate; of the univerfal monarchy of the Pope, as well civil as fpiritual; of his authority to excommunicate and depofe Princes, to abfolve fubjects from their oaths of allegiance, and to difpenfe with every law of God and man; to fanctify rebellion and murder, and even to change the very nature and effential differences of vice and virtue. With this, and other impious trumpery of fchools and councils, they filled their fuperftitious votaries, contrary," fays Walfh, the Irish Francifcan," to the letter, fenfe and defign of the Gospel, the writings of the Apoftles, and the commentaries of their fucceffors, to the belief of the Chriftian church for ten ages, and moreover, to the cleareft dictates of Nature."

Ecclefiaftics of fuch a spirit and fuch principles were fuffered to erect a fpiritual jurifdiction in Ireland, exercifed under the papal authority, generally with connivance, fometimes under the protection of Popish magiftrates (for fuch men had in fome inftances been admitted to magiftracies, without taking the oath of fupremacy). But this jurifdiction was precarious, fubject to the restraint and animadverfion of the civil power; and therefore little fuited to the ideas of clerical authority formed in countries, where Popery was legally eftablished. The ftate connived at the private exercife of their religious rites and devotions. But their imaginations were forcibly impreffed with that pomp of religion, which they had seen in foreign countries. They had been witnesses of the grandeur of foreign Prelates, the reverence paid to all orders of their clergy, their noble endowments, and comfortable revenues. They were mortified at their own fituation, the difguife and fecrecy to which they were reduced, the fcanty and dependent fubfiftence, which they were impatient to exchange for the established income of the Proteftant clergy. Small as it was at this time, yet in their hands it might be confiderably improved by the fuperftition of the laity, and the terror of ecclefialtical cenfures.

It were fruitless and abfurd to attempt the gratification of their defires in any way, but that of arms and infurrection. In foreign countries they found numbers of their countrymen, the offspring or followers of rebel chieftains, who were careffed and employed. They had little difficulty in enflaming fuch men with the remembrance of their family grandeur, the brave efforts of their fathers in the cause of religion and liberty, (for fuch was the language obvious to be afed) their prefent ftate of depreffion, and the hopes of executing an effectual vengeance on their English oppreffors. By the affiitance of these their countrymen, or by the merit of being fufferers for religion, feveral of them gained accefs to minifters of state. To these they magnified the strength of the Irish Catholics, reprefented them as impatient to take arms for the faith, folicited fuccours for the pious undertaking, and fometimes received no unfavourable anfwers. Elevated by any marks of attention, and conceiving fanguine hopes

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from the flighteft intimations of favour and encouragement, they difpatched their emiffaries into Ireland, to practife with the old Irish. The old Irish, proud, querulous, violent, unemployed, difdaining every profeffion but that of arms, were easily roufed to any defperate attempt.'

While we do justice to the ability, in general with which Dr. Leland has traced the origin, progrefs, and confequences of the rebellion in Ireland, we are obliged to confefs that, in one refpect, we have been confiderably disappointed in the information we hoped for; and that is, with regard to the number of perfons who were killed in what is commonly called the Irish Maffacre. It is well known what different accounts bave been given of this matter, and how much it hath, of late years, been the fubject of difcuffion. Contemporary hiftorians have reprefented the multitudes of the Proteftants, who lost their lives by the cruelties of the rebels, to have been very great. The lift of the fufferers has probably been exaggerated. This is generally the cafe in the first relation of atrocious events, when the minds of men are thrown into an unusual agitation; when their imaginations are heated, and their paffions raised to the highest pitch of indignation and terror. On the other hand, thofe who have lately attempted to reduce the maffacred to a fmall number, feem to have gone too far on the oppofite fide. But however this may be, Dr. Leland's Readers had just ground to expect fome explicit information upon the fubject. It was of too great importance in our general history to be left wholly undetermined; yet it is impoffible to collect, in any degree, from the Doctor's narration, how many perfons might probably be destroyed in the Irish maffacre. He has, indeed, made an apology for his conduct in this refpect; but we cannot regard it as, in any degree, fatisfactory. It was the indifpenfable duty of a faithful hiftorian not to be filent upon fo material a point; and he might have difcharged his duty, without entering into party difputes. Those who read Dr. Leland's Hiftory of Ireland, ought not to be laid under a neceffity of recurring elsewhere, for inftruction in any important fact relative to that kingdom.

The fucceffron of various and interefting events, which intervened between the breaking out of the Irish rebellion and the restoration of King Charles the Second, is carried on, by our Author, in a masterly manner; and, would our limits permit, we could, with pleasure, refer to many paffages, which are worthy of peculiar attention. We obferve that the Doctor, through the whole of his narration, takes care to do full justice to the abilities, integrity, and actions of the Earl (afterwards Marquis and Duke) of Ormond. In his account of the tranfactions of the Earl of Glamorgan, he admits, and gives addi

ditional

tional proofs of the authenticity of the commiffion granted by King Charles the First to that nobleman; a matter which had been rendered fufficiently credible by Dr. Birch's inquiry, but which is now confirmed, beyond difpute, by the fecond volume of the Clarendon State Papers.

Our Readers will probably be entertained with the following laconic anfwer, from Jones, the Parliamentarian Governor of Dublin, to a letter of the Marquis of Ormond's, who, after having received a defeat, had written to Jones, to defire that he would fend a lift of the prifoners he had taken.

"My Lord,

"Since I routed your army, I cannot have the happiness to know where you are, that I may wait upon you.

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MICHAEL JONES."

The restoration of Charles the Second was an event of great expectation in every part of the English dominions. But in Ireland, after a defperate civil war of almoft nine years, various contentions of violent and embittered factions, and various revolutions of power and property, it naturally rouzed the hopes and fears of men, and kept their attention to the most interefting objects of this life, ftrained to a painful degree of anxiety. The old inhabitants, the new adventurers, Catholics, fanatics, every denomination of Proteftants, and every party of Romanifts, eyed each other with jealousy, with envy, with suspicion and averfion; impatient to be reftored to their ancient poffeffions, to be confirmed in their new acquifitions, to be pardoned for their delinquency, or to be rewarded for their fervices.

The complicated difficulties, arising from this ftate of persons and things, and the proceedings relative to the acts of fettlement and explanation, are fully and circumftantially described by our Author. The act of explanation, which did not pafs till the year 1665, fixed the general rights of the several interefts in Ireland, and eftablifhed a final and invariable rule for the fettlement of that kingdom.

Yet this, fays Dr Leland, was but the beginning of the great work of fettlement. The reft depended on the execution of the act, and the application of the rule to particular cafes. Five commiffioners were appointed, who, in all matters of difficulty, were to refort to the Lord Lieutenant and council. An infinite number of perplexed cafes produced perpetual applications to the ftate; and gave, for years, continual employment to the Duke of Ormond, in provid ing for the impartial execution of this act, and defeating the attempts of thofe who laboured to evade it, by procuring grants and letters from the King."

Scarcely had the act of Explanation paffed, when the English Commons feemed to envy that profperity of the fubjects of Ireland which the fettlement of that kingdom promifed; and, notwithstanding

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withflanding all the folicitude expreffed for the interefts of a new colony of their fellow-fubjects, refolved on a measure calculated at once to mortify and diftrefs them. In the parliament held at Oxford, in the year 1665, a bill was brought in for a perpetual prohibition of importing all cattle from Ireland, dead or alive, great or fmall, fat or lean. The violent and obftinate manner in which this affair was conducted, in the houses both of the Lords and Commons of England, is fet forth, by Dr. Leland, in ftrong and lively colours; and he hath added the fubfequent account of the effects of paffing the act.

The English nation foon felt the inconveniencies of an act, which wantonly put an end to an advantageous commerce. Difcerning men faw the happy confequences which it muft, in time, produce to Ireland. For the prefent, however, the Irish fubjects were caft into despair. All commerce was interrupted; war made it neceffary to guard against invafion; fubfidies were due, but no money could be found. Ormond thought it both neceffary and convenient to accept part of these fubfidies in provifions, confulting at once the King's fervice and the ease of his diftreffed fubjects. Nor was the King ill-difpofed to alleviate the prefent difficulties of IreJand. With the confent of his council, obtained not without fome reluctance, he, by an act of ftate, allowed a free trade from Ireland to all foreign countries, either at war or in peace with his Majesty. He permitted the Irish, at the fame time, to retaliate on the Scots, who, copying from England, had prohibited their cattle, corn, and beef. The importation of linen and woollen manufactures, stockings, gloves, and other commodities from Scotland was forbidden, as highly detrimental to the trade of Ireland.

The exportation of Irish wool was prohibited by law, except to England, by particular licence of the Chief Governor. Yet, in the order of council for free exportation, wool was not excepted. The Lords who had contended for the most unreasonable restraints on Ireland, and were declared enemies to Ormond, admitted in their debates, that wool fhould be included in the exportable articles: Such was their ignorance of the affairs of this kingdom, and fuch their inattention to the interefts of England. Ormond fufpected that fome fnare was laid, and fome pretence fought for a future accufation, fhould he take too great liberties in an affair fo delicate. Wool was not mentioned in the proclamation, nor would he confent to grant particular licences for exporting it. The Irish, forced by a neceffity, which breaks through all laws and reftraints, conveyed their wool by ftealth to foreign countries, and have experienced the advantages of this clandeftine commerce.

But the most effectual measure which the Irish fubjects could purfue to elude the violence of an oppreffive law, was that of applying themfelves to manufactures, and working up their own commodities; and in this they were countenanced and encouraged by the noble spi rit of their Chief Governor.

Men of abilities and knowledge in commerce were encouraged to fuggeft their schemes for promoting induftry, and preventing the neceffity of foreign importations. Sir Peter Pett prefented a memo

rial to the Duke of Ormond, for erecting a manufacture of woollen cloth, which might at least furnish a fufficient quantity for home confumption. He chiefly recommended the making fine worsted flockings, and Norwich ftuffs, which might not only keep money in the country, but be fo improved, as to bring confiderable fums from abroad. He offered to procure workmen from Norwich: the council of trade, lately established in Ireland, approved of his propofal; the Duke of Ormond encouraged it, and erected the manufacture at Clonmel, the capital of his county-palatine of Tipperary. To fupply the fcarcity of workmen, Grant (a man well known by his obfervations on the bills of mortality) was employed to procure five hundred Walloon Proteftant families from Canterbury to remove to Ireland At the fame time, Colonel Richard Lawrence, another ingenious projector, was encouraged to promote the bufinefs of combing wool, and making freezes. A manufacture of this kind was eftablished at Carrick, a town belonging to the Duke.

But of all fuch schemes of national improvement, that of a linen manufacture was most acceptable to Ormond. He poffeffed himfelf with the noble ambition of imitating the Earl of Strafford in the most honourable part of his conduct, and opening a fource of public wealth and profperity, which the troubles and diforders of Ireland had stopped. An act of parliament was paffed at Dublin to encourage the growth of flax and manufacture of linen. Ormond was at the charge of fending fkilful perfons to the Low Countries, to make obfervations on the flate of this trade, the manner of working, the way of whitening their thread, the regulations of their manufacture, and management of their grounds, and to contract with fome of their most experienced artists. He engaged Sir William Temple to fend to Ireland five hundred families from Brabant, skilled in manufacturing linen; others were procured from Rochelle and the lfle of Ré, from Jersey and the neighbouring parts of France. Convenient tenements were prepared for the artificers at Chapel-Izod, near Dublin, where cordage, fail-cloth, ticken, linen, and diaper were brought to a confiderable degree of perfection. Such cares reflect real honour on the Governor, who thus laboured to promote the hap piness of a nation, and should be recorded with pleasure and gratitude, however we may be captivated by the more glaring objects of history.'

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Our ingenious Author carries on, with equal ability and Spirit, through the remainder of the volume, the detail of Irish affairs, down to the final fettlement of the kingdom, in the year 1691. This is a very bufy and important period in the hiftory of Ireland, including the latter end of Charles the Second's reign, the whole of James the Second's, and several of the most material transactions which attended the Revolution. The events here related are highly momentous to Englishmen, as well as to Irifhmen; but for particulars, we refer to the work itself, which will afford ample fatisfaction.

Without pretending exactly to coincide with Dr. Leland, in all his views and reprefentations of things, we may venture to pronounce

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