Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/22

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
ANNESLEY
13

rebellion in Ireland in the lightest colours possible, as if it had been at the commencement far from being universal, and at last was rendered so by the measures pursued by those whose duty it was to suppress the insurrection. The Earl of Anglesey having received these memoirs from the author, thought fit to write some animadversions upon them in a letter to the Earl of Castlehaven, wherein he delivered his opinion freely in respect to the Duke of Ormond and his government in Ireland. The Duke expostulated with the lord privy seal on the subject, to which the Earl replied. In 1682, when the succession produced a considerable degree of agitation, the Earl presented a very extraordinary remonstrance to the King; it was very warm and loyal, yet it was far from being well received. This memorial was entitled, "The account of Arthur Earl of Anglesey, lord privy seal, to your most excellent Majesty, of the true state of your Majesty's governments and kingdoms," April 27, 1682. In one part whereof he says, "The fatal cause of all our mischiefs present or apprehended, and which may cause a fire which may burn and consume us to the very foundations, is the unhappy perversion of the Duke of York (the next heir to the crown), in one point of religion; which naturally raises jealousy of the power, designs, and practices of the old enemies of our religion and liberties, and undermines and emasculates the courage and constancy even of those and their posterity who have been as faithful to, and suffered as much for the crown as any the most pleased and contented in our impending miseries can pretend to have done." He concludes with these words: "Though your majesty is in your own person above the reach of the law, and sovereign of all your people, yet the law is your master and instructor how to govern; and your subjects assure themselves you will never attempt the enervating that law by which you are king, and which you have not only by frequent declarations, but by a solemn oath upon your throne, been obliged, in a most glorious presence of your people, to the main-