and to receive from them in writing what they had to propound. The marquis of Ormond, a man of great personal courage and considerable military talents, but ambitious, vindictive, haughty, and impatient of control, was impressed with so malignant a hatred to the catholics, that he not only disobeyed his sovereign in this and all other attempts conducive to their welfare, but, for the sake of gratifying his antipathy to them, meanly descended to execute the orders of his determined enemies. A committee, sent over by the English parliament contrary to the express commands of the king, were received by the lords jus tices with much respect, who recognized their authority. With out his majesty's consent they were admitted into the privy council, where their opinions gave the tone to the decisions of the board. Preferring to obey the orders of this committee to the pacific injunctions of Charles, Ormond marched towards Ross with an army of six thousand men. In this expedition nearly one thot sand Irish were slain. Ormond was the only one of the commissioners appointed by the king who did not attend the meeting of the confederates at Trim, where they de livered to the others a very full remonstrance of all their griev ances, which was transmitted to the throne.

The king, deeply affected by this remonstrance, informed the lords justices that he had authorised the marquis of Ormond to treat with the confederates for a cessation of hostilities for one year; and ordered them to give effectual assistance to forward the same. Sir William Parsons was superseded and indicted to stand trial for opposing the cessation and other high crimes and misdemeanours; and Sir Henry Tichburne, being known decidedly to favour the cessation, was appointed to succeed him as colleague to Sir John Borlase. Ormand again received an order from the lords justices, by the king's command, to confer with the confederates at Castle Martin in the county of Kildare, on the twenty-third of June, one thousand six hundred and forty-two. When the commissioners of the confederates met him he treated them with all the tyrannical insolence of a haughty superior. He indignantly called for the authority by which they appeared, and when they produced a copy of the authority which they had received from the supreme council of the confederate catholics at Kilkenny, he superciliously con

tested their title, and questioned the facts referred to in the writings. He peremptorily rejected the condition insisted upon by the confederates of the dissolution of the present and the calling of a new parliament, notwithstanding the king's posi tive commands to gratify them in that particular. By this conduct and many other contrivances to which he had recourse, the cessation was delayed till the seventh of September, sixteen hundred and forty-three, when Charles's wishes and positive commands were at length acceded to. Ormond procured from them a voluntary contribution of thirty thousand pounds, and a reinforcement of several thousands of their best troops for the service of their sovereign in Scotland, who conducted themselves in such a manner as to reflect honour on the country from which they were sent, and to render essential services to the royal cause.

No sooner was the treaty of cessation signed, than the nor thern army, as well as the rest of the king's forces, all under the command of Ormond, rejected it, and immediately taking the covenant, offered to follow their leader Monroe, whenever he should march against the Irish. About the same time lord Inchiquin revolted; and administered an oath to each of his followers for the extirpation of popery and the extermination of the Irish.

Meantime the confederates continued to send over so many and such effectual supplies to the king, that on the twentyfourth of October, sixteen hundred and forty-four, the parlia ment issued this bloody decree :-"That no quarter should be "given to any Irishman or papist born in Ireland that should "be taken in hostility against the parliament, either upon sea "or in England and Wales." The hostilities daily committed upon the confederates by Monroe in Ulster, Sir Charles Coote in Connaught, and lord Inchiquin in Munster, caused them to petition the marquis of Ormond, now created lord lieutenant, either to put himself at their head, or at least to permit them to arm against those who, by violating the cessation of arms, acted as avowed enemies to the crown. The crafty Ormond, however, who beheld the catholics with the utmost antipathy, though fully sensible of their loyalty, not choosing to acknowledge them as the best friends to government, artfully evaded the

petition; and at the same time by the unbounded sway he possessed over the mind of his royal master, he contrived with consummate art to delay the peace in opposition to the king's pressing and positive commands, until such a measure was rendered unavailing by the cessation of the exercise of the royal authority, on the imprisonment of the king's person, in the year sixteen hundred and fifty-six.

Thwarted and disappointed as he was in his favourite object of ingratiating himself with the confederated catholics, and provoked by the conduct of Ormond in this and other particulars, the unfortunate monarch could yet never summon sufficient resolution to reprobate the proceedings of his favourite, and openly to avow a decided approbation of the catholics. Being fearful, however, that they might be alienated from his cause, he endeavoured to effect by secret influence what he had not courage to do by the public exercise of his authority. He granted to the earl of Glamorgan, a catholic nobleman, one of the heads of the confederacy, extraordinary powers for the express purpose of counteracting the measures of Ormond, and pledged himself to ratify whatever he should think proper to grant the catholics; they having" by their supplies testified their zeal to our ser"vice." After this acknowledgement of the loyalty and zeal of the confederates from the king himself, it is but fair to conclude that their subsequent endeavours to obtain succours from Spain, Italy, and Lorraine, were dictated by a wish to render still more effectual assistance to Charles, who himself drew considerable aid from the same quarters.

Charles, however, notwithstanding all his professions, still never seriously meant to support the confederates, who continued to be the dupes of his duplicity and the victims of the malevolence of Ormond. By his intrigues they were prevailed upon, contrary to the advice of the pope's nuncio, to make peace publicly with the marquis, and privately with the earl of Glamorgan, making separate treaties for the religious and political articles. On the sixth of March, sixteen hundred and forty-six, they deputed lord Muskerry and several other commissioners publicly to conclude a peace with Ormond, which accordingly was signed at Dublin on the twenty-eighth of the same month. The secret treaty with the earl of Glamorgan,

relating principally to the toleration of the catholic religion, and the sending over subsidies to the king, had been executed on the twenty-fifth of the preceding month of August.

Meantime the confederates earnestly endeavoured to prevail on the lord-lieutenant to declare the northern covenanters rebels, while he artfully employed himself to gain the confidence of these forces, and to bring them over to the king's service. Not only the old English troops, but even Monroe and his Scots seemed inclined to unite with the chief governor on moderate terms, which alarmed the English parliament so much that, to prevent their defection, they resolved to send them supplies of money, provisions, and clothing. Sir Charles Coote, a staunch parliamentarian, in the mean time demanded their assistance towards suppressing a rebellion against his government in Connaught, and to reduce the town of Sligo, the principal place of strength in possession of the insurgents. After some hesitation, four thousand foot and five hundred horse were detached from the Scotch and English forces for this service. Sligo was soon forced to surrender; and all the adjacent country became exposed to their depredations. The confederates of Kilkenny, provoked at these hostilities pending the negociation for peace, ordered sir James Dillon with eight hundred men to assist the archbishop of Tuam in the recovery of Sligo. The martial prelate led the assault in person, forced his way into the very centre of the town, and would have succeeded in expelling the garrison, had not he received the mortifying intelligence that a strong army of the northerns was approaching. His forces immediately retired; but were attacked and routed by sir James Coote in their retreat, with the loss of the archbishop himself, who was slain. Amongst his papers was found an authentic copy of the secret treaty of peace concluded with the earl of Glamorgan, which important acquisition was immediately transmitted to the English parliament, who ordered the paper to be printed and industriously dispersed, to the great joy and exultation of the king's enemies. Charles, to prevent the bad consequences which might arise from this, declared, upon the faith of a king!! and a christian, that he had never given to the earl of Glamorgan those privileges and powers which he was then known by many, and is now known by all,

to have repeatedly conferred upon him. With still greater effrontery the marquis of Ormond and lord Dillon, both of whom well knew the authority upon which Glamorgan had acted, caused him to be indicted of high treason for forging or sur repticiously obtaining those commissions, and immediately committed his person to close custody; but the confederates having peremptorily declared that they would break off the treaty of peace if he was not instantly liberated, he was enlarged on the recognizance of himself and the earl of Kildare.

It is no wonder that many of the confederates, after so public an exposure of the royal faith, by which they found themselves so frequently deluded and betrayed, should in their future negociations require some more stable security for the performance of the articles of a treaty than the word of a king so repeatedly violated. A great majority, however, still continued to place unlimited confidence in the king, placing his conduct to the account of the imperious necessity of his affairs. Much dissension, from this disunion of opinion, consequently arose amongst them. The peace by this means was retarded: and their power considerably weakened, to the secret satisfaction of Ormond, who most actively fomented their internal divisions. The nuncio of the pope, with a very great body of the confederates, objected to any treaty which had only future concessions for its basis; while others were for implicitly relying on the the good intentions of Charles and the lord lieutenant. But however they might differ in this respect, they all, to the very last, continued warmly attached to the royal cause.

The treaty concluded with Ormond at Dublin was attended by a conditional obligation by which the king was absolved from all concessions unless the confederates transported for his service in England six thousand foot, well armed and provided, by the first of April, and four thousand more in a month after. In the mean time, the treaty was deposited in the hands of lord Clanrickard, as an instrument of no validity until the troops should be sent away. But the negociation was so long protracted by various concurring circumstances, that the succours, which formed so grand a part of it to the unhappy Charles, arrived so late that they could be employed to scarcely any effec'tual purpose.