An Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of James I. and Charles I. and of the Lives of Oliver Cromwell and Charles II (2)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1814. Excerpt: ... of zeal for the king, and hatred of the parIrish Roman catholicks in the province of Ulster, and shortly after in other provinces and parts of the kingdom, tumultuously assembled together, put themselves in arms, seized upon the towns, castles, and houses belonging to the protestants, which by their force they could possess themselves of; and with most barbarous circumstances of cruelty, within the space of less than ten days, murthered an incredible number of protestants, men, women, and children, promiscuously, without distinction of age or sex, of any who were within reach of their power. They who escaped best, were robbed of all they had, to their very shirts, and so turned naked, to endure the sharpness of the season; and by that means, and for want of relief, many thousands of them perished by hunger and colcl v Various are the accounts given us of the numbers that perished in this barbarous massacre. Mr. Hume observes, "That, by some computations, those who perished by all those cruelties, are made to amount to a hundred and fifty, or two hundred thousand men: by the most moderate, and probably the most reasonable account, they must have been near forty thousandb." It were to be wished Mr. Hume had told us where this moderate, reasonable account is to be found: for my own part, I have sought for it in vain. Those who, one would think, should have been best informed, make a very different calculation. Milton, in the second edition of his Iconoclastes, has the following passage: "The rebellion and horrid massacre of English protestants in Ireland, to the number of 154,000 in the province of Ulster only, by their own computation; which added liaraent, and the manner of Charles's beto the other three, makes up the total sum of that slaughter, in all li...