who were brought to his camp, and placed before the walls of the town, in hopes that their friends within would receive them into it, rather than fuffer them to remain in fo perilous a situation. On account of this inhuman order of De Rofen, Dr. King thought himfelf entitled to brand the whole Irish army under him, with the decent appellation of "murderers," because,' "he • State of the Proteftants, &c. "Rofen reprefented to King James the ill confequences of his clemency, as his protections were found in the pockets of feveral who were found in arms against his authority." Macph. Hift. vol. i. p. 567. "This wretched measure produced no effect on the townsmen (of Derry), they fired upon their friends from the wall, but no mifchief was done. Rofen convinced of the folly of his expedient, or touched with a momentary pity, withdrew the unhappy people after a few hours, and permitted them to return home. Some might have died of hunger and fatigue. The miferies, however, which followed this deteftable measure have been greatly exaggerated, and King James himself has been unjustly blamed. James was alarmed at the intelligence, and offended at his general. He wrote to all his officers at their peril to pay no regard to the order: he fent his exprefs commands to the marefchal himfelf to drop his unjust, as well as impolitic defign. Thefe people (fays James) lived peaceably at home, they had either my protection or they relied upon my declaration. De Rofen's measure was inevitably to depopulate a country which I was refolved to defend. Befides, this precipitate and unjuft order furnished my enemies with an inftance of my breach of faith in Ireland, which would contribute to ruin my interest in my other kingdoms." Id. ib. "Had Dr. King (fays Mr. Lesley) such a story as that of Glenco, to tell of any of King James officers in Ireland, O! what declamations we fhould have of the bloody Irish cutthroats, maffacres, &c? And what ufe would he have made of their giving it under their hands, that what they did, was by the king's exprefs command, and none punished for it?" Anfw. to King, p. 114. That fhocking story of Glenco is thus briefly related by a late intelligent and unprejudiced writer. "A proclamation was published in autumn, 1691, which declared that all rebels who took the oaths to the government, before the firft of January enfuing, fhould be pardoned. All the attainted chieftains of the Highlands, except M'Donald of Glenco, took the oaths before the " he did not remember to have met any thing like it in history." Had the doctor been a little more converfant with, or mindful of the history of his own country, he would have found, that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and fince alfo, many orders of equal, or greater cruelty had been iffued, by fome of the most celebrated English commanders of those times, in their feveral expeditions against the Irish. In the year 1602, Lord Deputy Mountjoy boafted in a letter to the Englifh council," that with his army, he had destroyed 2 Morrif. Hift. of Ireland, f. 115. their the time prefixed. Upon the laft day of December, he went to Fort-William, and defired the oaths to be tendered to him by the governor of the fortrefs, who, as he was not a civil magiftrate, refused to administer them. M'Donald then went to Inverary, the country town, to take them; but by bad weather was prevented from reaching it, till the term prefcribed by the proclamation was elapfed. The sheriff fcrupled at first, but was prevailed upon at last to receive his allegiance. Advantage was taken of M'Donald's not having complied literally with the terms of the proclamation, and a warrant for proceeding to execution was procured from the king, which was figned both above and below with his own hand. Sir John Dalrymple, the fecretary, gave orders that the execution of it fhould be effectual, and without any previous warning. For this purpose, in the month of February, two companies went, not as enemies, but as friends, to take quarters in the valley of Glenco, where all the clan lived. To conceal the intention the better, the foldiers were of their own lineage, Highlanders of Argyle's regiment. They were all received with the rude, but kind hospitality of the country. They continued in the valley near a fortnight, and then in the night time rofe to butcher their hofts! Captain Campbell of Glenlyon, who was uncle to the wife of one of M'Donald's fons, and had fupped and played cards with McDonald's family the night before, commanded the party. Thirty-eight men were flain. The reft would have fhared the fame fate, had not the alarm been given by one of M'Donald's fons, who overheard one of the foldiers fay to another, "he liked not the work; he feared not to fight the M'Donalds in the field, but had scarcely courage to kill them in their sleep; but that their officers were anfwerable for the deed, not they." This execution made the deeper impreffion, because the king would not permit any of those who were concerned in it to be punished, confcious their corn, and caused a famine; that being the only fure way," adds he, " to reduce or root them out." And his fecretary Morriffon," " thought the war was then no way fo likely to be ended, as by a general famine. Which, as we have already feen, they did at last completely effect. In the lift of Sir William Cole's boafted exploits against the infurgents in 1641, we find,+ "that within a few months, he had starved and famished five thousand four hundred and fifty-feven of the Irish." And when the garrifon of Limerick, which was besieged by Ireton in 1650, and like that of Derry, was in great want of provifions, had turned out feveral 4 Borl. Hift. of the Irish Rebel. Hift. Irel. f. 68. conscious that in their cafe his own was involved." Sir John Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 213. Dub. ed. "As a mark of his own eagerness to fave Secretary Dalrymple, King William figned the warrant both above and below with his own hand. In the night Lieutenant Lindfay, with a party of foldiers, called in a friendly manner at M'Donald's door; he was inftantly admitted. M'Donald, as he was rifing from his bed to receive his gueft, was shot dead behind his back with two bullets; his wife had already put on her cloaths, but she was stripped naked by the foldiers, who tore the rings off her fingers with their teeth. The flaughter became general. To prevent the pity of the foldiers to their hofts, their quarters had been changed the night before; neither age nor infirmity was fpared; fome women in defending their children were killed; boys imploring mercy were fhot by officers on whofe knees they hung; in one place nine perfons as they fat enjoyingt hemfelves at table, were fhot dead by the foldiers. The affaffins are even said to have made a sport of death. At Inveriggen, in Campbell's own quarters, nine men were firft bound by the soldiers, then shot at intervals, one by one : feveral who fled to the mountains, perished by famine and the inclemency of the season; those who escaped owed their lives to a tempeftuous night. Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton, who had the charge of the execution from Dalrymple, was on his march with four hundred men, to occupy all the paffes, which led from the valley of Glenco; he was obliged to stop by the severity of the weather, which proved the fafety of the unfortunate tribe. He entered the valley the next day; he laid all the houses in ashes, and carried away all the cattle and fpoil, which were divided among the officers, and foldiers." Macpherson's Hift. Dub. ed. vol. i. p. 628-9. feveral useless perfons," "that barbarous commander caused fome of them to be executed, and the rest to be whipped back into the town." d 6 In September 1690, the lords juftices of Ireland iffued a proclamation, which actually produced a greater famine among the Irish, than that which De Rofen's driving was only intended to produce in the garrifonof Derry. By that proclamation," the wives, children and families of all thofe who were in arms against King William, and of all thofe who had been killed in the fame cause, and of all abfentees, were ordered to quit all places under his majesty's obedience, upon pain of being treated as fpies and enemies; by which means, great multitudes, especially of women and children, were driven into the Irish quarters, which haftened that famine that was afterwards among them." "But to speak impartially, " fays Mr. Lefley' on that occafion," is not the ftarving of a country, or province, as barbarous as ftarving a city? And was not crowding all the Irish, men, women, and children over the Shannon in this war, done on purpose to reduce them to famine? And it had that effect. Many of these wretches died, many women miscarried, and numbers were starved in that driving over the Shannon; infomuch that fome of the proteftant officers, who were employed in that expedition, expreffed the greatest regret to fee fuch lamentable spectacles, and were asham 6 Lesley, ubi fupra. s Ludlow's Memoirs. ed a The celebrated Mr. Spencer, after having mentioned that Lord Deputy Gray (whofe fecretary he was) in carrying on the war against the Irish in Munster, in 1580, " had driven them to fuch an extremity of famine, that they digged dead carcaffes out of the graves for food," was not afhamed to conclude in thefe fhocking words, "therefore, by all means it must be affured, that after once entering into this courfe of reformation, there be afterwards no remorfe, nor drawing back, for the fight of any fuch rueful objects as muft thereupon follow, nor for compaffion of their calamities; seeing that by no other means it is poffible to cure them." State of Irel. p. 166. ed of their commiffions; and thofe, who were thus driven, had King William's protections in their pockets." Thefe hiftorical facts were, it feems, unknown to the Doctor, when he made his charge. CHA P. XII. King James countermands De Rofen's order. I AM far from vindicating, or even meaning to extenuate the cruelty of De Rofen's order, from any former examples of the fame kind; though many more than those I have mentioned, might be produced in the commanders of armies, on fuch occafions.' "King James himself expreffed the highest refentment of it, and put a stop to its execution on the first notice; and in his circular letters to the governors of towns and a a "Circular letter from King James forbidding to put Dé Rofen's proclamation in execution:" "Trufty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Whereas we are informed, that our field marshal general, the Marquis De Rofen, hath fent orders to feveral places, requiring the relations. of fuch as are now in rebellion against us in Derry, of what fex or age foever they be, to be delivered to him, and exposed by him, as he hath projected and declared in the faid order; our will and pleasure is, that if any fuch order hath been fent to you from the faid marshal, you pofitively refufe obedience thereto, and make it known to all our people, that such orders have been given entirely without our knowledge, and are pofitively contrary to our inclinations, which have always been to reclaim even the worst of our fubjects by mercy, and inviolably preserve the affurances we have given, either by our royal declaration in general, or by any particular protections, to fuch as live peaceably under our government: we do therefore reiterate our orders to you, that you affure all our loving fubjects of our real intentions in this matter, and you fhall affure them that fuch as live peaceably in their stations, fhall, without diftinction, enjoy our protection, and fo requiring your obedience to this our abfolute will and |