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E OLDE BOOKE SHOPPE, BATH.-NEW
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No. 307, will be published on SATURDAY, JULY 15.

Contents.

1. The FALL of the MONARCHY of CHARLES I.

2. ITALIAN LITERATURE of the RENAISSANCE.

3. Mr. MATTHEW ARNOLD on WORDSWORTH and BYRON.

4. FANNY KEMBLE'S RECORDS of HER LIFE.

5. CHINESE and BABYLONIAN LITERATURE.

6. NATURAL SCENERY.

7. STATE and PROSPECTS of AGRICULTURE.

8. MEDIEVAL HYMNS.

9. OXFORD REMINISCENCES.

10. The PARALYSIS of GOVERNMENT.

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TALES, &c., BY POPULAR WRITERS.

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LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 8, 1882.

A SERIES OF EIGHT ANONYMOUS AND CON-

FIDENTIAL LETTERS TO JAMES II. AND HIS

QUEEN ABOUT THE STATE OF IRELAND.

(Continued from p. 4.)

The copy of a Letter sent to the King the third of

Octob. 1686.

May it please your Matie,-The Gracious declaration

you were often pleas'd to make that you resolvd to putt

Ireld in a flourishing condition emboldens me offer my

wel-meaning opinion to remove the many objections

that may be made to a thorow alteration of the governmt

there

Tis wel known that whoever is an enemie to Monarchy

and Popery can be no friend to Ireland, that the Fanatics
of that Country are a cunning close rich people linkd to-
gether by a comon interest and diffident of the titles
they have to their present possessions and therefore wil
leave no stone unturnd to hinder the effect of y' Maties
good intentions for that poor nation, in order to which
tis probable they may with their wonted cuning and
malice insinuate to their advocates and by them to your
Marie the inconvenience and danger of lodging any great
trust or power in the hands of an eternaly clamorous
discontented nation so prone to relaps into rebellions,
least they might in case of a protestant successor en-
devor to assert their Religion & liberty & shake off the
English governmt either by trumping up a government
of their own or sideing with the French King who en-
couraged by that nations being discontented endeavord
som 8 or 9 yeares ago to kindle a Rebellion in it, that it
canot be safe irritating the pretended Protestants of

Ireland whose quarrel the protestants of England and
Scotland wil espouse, which suggestions duely weighd
wil at best prove but a very il grounded opinion which
shud not take place of demonstrative truths, for I appeal
that in any sort I mean to Justifie rebellion which in my
to any impartial observer of transactions in Ireland (not
conscience I hold not Justificable from any pretext
spiritual or temporal) if any conquerd Country cud be
more interruptedly loyal than it continued since its first
submission to the Crown of England til the unhappy re-
formation which with the Diversity of opinions opend a
gap for intestin broils not onely in Ireland but in al other
Kingdoms & places where Luther and Calvins heresies
crept in and yet no Country cud have had more resistles
provocations than it had from the Unequal usage of
Ministers occassiond by their thirst after Estates which
the Natives cud not wel avoyd forfeiting, while the
avarice of Provincial Presidents, governors and other
subordinat officers prompted them upon al occasions to
improve the most venial trespasses the Estated Irish cud
be guilty of into the most heynous of Crimes
Hen 8 and Q Eliz reigns the Irish might with as much
And as to the insurrections of that Country in King

justice as any Country that ever suffer'd on the score of

Religion alleage many sharp persecutions, if not for

wholly excuseing at least for alleviating their guilt and

were I ever so desireous I cud not offer anything that

may better excuse their takeing up Arms without Com-

mission in 41 than what your royal father says on their

behalf in his Eikon Basilike and in his answers to the

votes of no Address where personating one of his subjects

he delivers his impartial sentiments of that rebellion as

follows.

I can prove if the King had bin obey'd in the Irish

affayres ere he went last into Scotland there had bin no
Irish rebellion & after it was begun it had bin in few
months suppressd if his directions had bin observd for if
the King had bin sufferd to perform his engagements to
the Irish Agents and had dispos'd of the discontented
Irish Army beyond Sea (according to his contracts with
the French & Spanish Ambassadors) there is nothing
more plain than that there had bin no rebellion in Irela

Nor is this the onely instance of that Countries being
exasperated & forcd to its several combinations & insur-
rections by the severe usage and unjust practices of
Councell" and Ministers driveing their own ends without
any regard to the Justice, mercy, clemency and modera-
tion wherewith the several sovereigns of England woud
have had that governmt carried on

Hence it was that about ye year 1204 John Courcey
of English blood, and in the yeares 1210 the Lacys of
English Blood, also rebell'd and about the year 1341 the
English Colonies in that Kingdom Calld a parleamt of
themselvs and writ to the King they woud not endure
the insolencys of his ministers whence a man may guess
at the hardship and oppression the natives might have
groan'd under in those days while even the English
Colonies that conquerd that Country for the Kings of
England were governd with Iron rods. This I gather
from a violent protestant Author Fynes Morison secretary
to Charles Blount the then La Mountjoy (who in Q Eliz
time was Deputy of Ireland) which Morison in his History
of that Country page 12 & 14 gives also an account that
the Earl of Tyrone was forcd to his 18 yeares rebellion by
a forgerie of rebellious practices layd to his charge by
Sr Henry Bagnol Kt Marshal of Ireld but was afterwards
encouragd in it by the King of Spaine who abetted &
fed his and the Earl of Tyrconnells rebellion with pro-
mises of auxiliaries and religious arguments advancd
rather for his own interest than Gods glorie and the pre-
tended good of religion, and upon their flying to Spaine
was glad to receive and cherish discontented men of

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their rank & interest in Ireland to be made tooles of upon a falling out with England which consideration made him from time to time confer the pageantry of the empty titles of Earles of Tyrone and Tyrconnel upon the poor pretenders of those families that have hitherto assumed them rather to supply their want of bread at home than with any rebellious design.

For I thank God the Eyes of our Country are at length open'd and tho the generality of the Irish might not have brookd their submission to the Kings of England with cheerfulness and a general Content til your royal Grandfathers reign, yet since his acces to the Crown that whole nation reckons it the Greatest Glorie it can without vanity boast of, and the greatest comfort and amends for al its past troubles & misfortunes to itself providentialy hapy under the protection of Monarchs linealy descended from the ancient Kings of Ireland and by consequence undoubtedly intitled to that Kingdom not onely by Conquest but inherent birthright So that since K Jameses reign there has bin no rebellion in Ireland but that of 41 which as it was begun and forcd upon them by their own defence against the Presbiterians who aimd at an intire extirpation of Monarchy and popery, it continu'd 22 months when upon Knowledge of your royal fathers pleasure the Irish Catholics returnd to their duty by a cessation which was enlargd from time to time til a peace was solemnly concluded at Kilkenny in the year 48 at which time ye Confederate Catholics had a good army in the field and more than three parts of the Kingdom in their own hands in so much that they were courted by the Parleament of England and sollicited by som neighboring potentates yet all these allurem's notwithstanding they Consented to yield up al to the Duke of Ormond and espouse his Matles quarrel when his power was most at an Ebb & when by ingageing in his assistance they drew on their country al the united strength of the succesful Rebels of England & Scotland & consequently exposd themselves & their posterity to inevitable ruin rejecting al the advantagious Conditions offerd them by the Usurper and at the Cost of their lives obstinatly defend ing the towns and forts in their power, nay when his Mate had sent them express orders to yield to the times and make the best condition they cud for their own preservation the Irish Armie in the North tho far inferior in number fought Cromwels forces headed by Coot at Leterkenny where the flower of al the Ulster nobility were either cutt off in the field or cruelly murder'd after quarters given them and yet their being Papists and Macs and O's canceld the merit of their sufferings, for the King in the opinion of som great men that made it their work to obstruct the late Kings Justice which he graciously intended to extend to the posterity of those that sacrificd their lives for their Prince And yet some Councell" do not think it safe to repose a general trust at this time of day in a Nation that provd so loyal at home and abroad when monarchy was sinking

But why do not these oposers of the good of Ireland consider that the Irish cud never yet upon any revolution be charg'd by the bitterest of their enemies with any intentions, declarations or Actions tending to the shakeing of monarchical government as most agreeable to their constitutions & the principles of their religion? Why do not they reflect that there have bin more rebellious attempts & actual rebellions in England and Scotland since the restauration than have bin in Ireland since its first total submission to the Crown of England? Yet the generality of the English & Scotch would certainly count it a hardship not to be trusted after al. None can deny but the Irish since the King was restor'd have had more reason to be discontented than either the English or the Scotch but nothing cud prevaile with any of 'em to embark in the late rebellion that struck so

imediatly at the very root of Monarchy and the cutting of your Royal Matles line, in which al ye several rights and titles of the Irish Scotch Pictish Norman Saxon and British Kings are so miraculously concentr'd that those 3 Kingdoms formerly so divided and distracted in themselves are now three in one, wanting nothing to compleat the Union but Unity in religion that might joyn the heads hearts & hands of the 3 nations to make your Male the most potent King upon Earth. But the comon and selfsame individual Enemies of Monarchy poperie & of Irish Men wil use all possible arguments to prevent this Union in religion by preventing the most infalible meanes leading thereunto which in the opinion of al indifferent Judges is that of beginning the work in Ireland

I know som whose hearts may be divided 'twixt their love to monarchy and aversion to Popery, may object that putting the Irish in places of great trust woud very much interfere with a received politic rule of state, That Conquer'd Kingdoms are to be preserv'd by the same meanes they are conquer'd by, the power of the sword, wherewith the Conquerors not the Conquered are to be intrusted; which objection is easilie solv'd for as I hinted at before since King Jameses reign we do not look on ourselves as a Conquer'à Nation,-Under Kings of old Irish Extraction, but admitting us to be so, al sound politicians must be of opiron, but when a Conquest is once compleat the best eanes to preserve it is to cherish the inhabitants, encourage Men of Learning, vertue & parts, prefer the Nobility, favour and maintain Religion as the most powerful Cement of Christian Society and in short so interess the natives in the Princes government that they may not without danger of changing better for worse side with any against him. Where the Contrary is practiced it breeds bad humors & discontent and putts men upon combining against those they count they persecutors and opressors, which Catholics tho never 80 much persecuted & opressed are not allow'd to do by the principles of their religion, for nothing aws men more than fear, and of al feares that of God, grounded in true religion is of most authority with Christian subjects, who are apt to embrace Good or harm as their Consciences dictate to them; But the Fanatics & Sectaries are of a quite Contrary Disposition being so much of the nature of the serpent that the more they are warm'd with their Princes favor the more they spitt the Venom of Rebellion

As to the inconvenience that is feard might ensue upon irritating the Protestants of Ireland, they canot be more irritated than they are already nor restraind from a rebellion by any meanes so effectual as a Catholic Armie And as to the imaginarie danger of the Irish sideing soon or late with the French King against their Natural Sovereign the surmise is so ridiculous that it scarce deserves an answer for the Irish canot be reasonably suposd to hate themselvs and their posterity so much as to contribut to their becoming Slaves to a King of France from whom strangers need not in reason hope for better usage than he extends to his own Subjects among whom the very Nobility live infinitly less happy than farmers under the English governmt the best temper'd in the world. So that I dare pawn my life there is not a man in his wits in Ireland but would choos rather to live under Q Eliz (whom the Catholics of that Kingdom never lookd on as their lawful Sovereign) at the very highest persecution (which they ever reckon'd the greatest of griev ances) than under the French governmt the most universaly abhorr'd in Europ except that of the Turc

Sr Haveing already pressd to much on yr Maties patience I wil conclude with wi your royal Father remarks in his Eikon Basilike that when offerd going into Ireland a

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