A.D. 1667-8. Lord Con way's letter to Lord Ashley. This state of things rendered some of the most considerate men in Ireland very apprehensive for the public; especially as they saw that the native Irish were ready to throw themselves under the government of France. Nay, the Irish had actually sent, about this time, to France an offer to deliver up their country into the hands of the French, upon condition of being assisted with arms, money, and officers. The Duke of Ormond, lord lieutenant, was ignorant of the state of the treasury, and had been kept so; for he had frequently said, "he was in wardship under the vice-treasurer." This, Lord Conway's friend, the author of the observations on the accounts, says, he had often heard the duke declare. The observations are too long to be inserted in this place; but the following letter, which Lord Conway sent with them, is so material that it ought not to be omitted. "MY LORD, "IN transmitting these papers to your lordship, which are to give you information upon those I had the honour to receive from you, I am obliged, in the first place, to make my apology for the neglect which seems to lie upon me in the prosecution of your commands; but if your lordship please to remember what you enjoined me, parti cularly to send them by a private hand, who met with many delays which the post would have escaped, and that they went from me the 10th of December last, I hope your lordship will excuse me, as well as the noble author of these observations, who despatched them in two days. I doubt not but, as to the substance, your lordship will find them solid, rational, and very satisfactory, though he passes over those smaller things I formerly observed to you, because the payments in the accounts are not made explicit. Your lordship may expect them, and much more to follow. I should have begged your lordship to digest every particular of these observations, and give yourself the trouble of comparing them with the accounts, but that I know your quickness of parts will comprehend that at first sight which others cannot do without labour and pains, nor with it neither; and it is with these as with other mathematical demonstrations, that every line and angle is to be observed, to make up a demonstration. "My assurance of your lordship's public and generous spirit gives me confidence that you will interest yourself in this affair, both upon account of the king's service, and for the preservation of the protestants in Ireland; who, we fear, A. D. 1667-8. A. D. 1667-8. are designed to be ruined, and that there is more intended than a private gain. I wish this may be carried on, without doing a particular prejudice to any man. We are now in Ireland full of apprehensions of the French, and find cause to believe, that, to divert our assistance from their enemies, they are creating trouble for us both in Ireland and Scotland. I cannot, with conveniency, wait on your lordship till April next; but if I knew that my being there would be serviceable to you, it would hasten me very much. "I humbly beg to receive a line from your lordship, to be assured of your receipt of these papers; and my next request is, that you would not show them to any man: for, though they are not under the author's own hand, yet there are some words which are easy to be discerned by those who know him; and I am sure he would not entrust them to any man but your lordship. I wish I had better occasion to serve your lordship, that I might with zeal and fidelity obtain the title I am most ambitious to bear, of, Lord Ashley was zealous for the preservation of Ireland. A great reformation was soon made in the government; the arrears of the army were ordered immediately to be paid; another lord lieutenant (Lord Roberts) was appointed; and a new establishment was soon sent thither, with express orders that no part of the revenue should be applied to other uses than what were expressed in the instructions drawn up at home. By these regulations, and by this speedy and critical inquiry, the protestant interest in Ireland, and very probably that nation itself, were preserved. A. D. 1667-8. Reforma tion of the government of Ireland. on Lord letter. The letter from Lord Conway confirms what Remarks has been said with regard to the popish interest Conway's at court, and the secret workings of that faction in all the dominions of Great Britain; and shows that it had long been working before there was any public appearance of it. It confirms what has been mentioned with respect to France, and her views of embroiling and amusing the court of England, that she might be more at liberty to pursue her conquests in the Netherlands. It coincides with the advice in Lyonne's memorial, and proves how extensively France had laid her projects, and how indefatigable she was in the pursuit of them. It shows, also, that Lord A. D. 1667-8. Lord Ash ley's manner of advising the king. Ashley was esteemed by those who were most acquainted with his actions, and were, therefore, the best judges of his conduct, to be a true and active friend to the protestant and English interest, and a strenuous enemy to the schemes and power of France. Among other methods which Lord Ashley took to draw the king off from his attachment to France, and to keep him steady in the true interest of England, were his constant endeavours to make him acquainted with the state of the nation and the disposition of the people. Though he laid before him his thoughts on all public affairs with great freedom, yet he did it with a becoming respect. He did not deliver his advice in that magisterial way which had been objected to Lord Clarendon, but with that insinuating address which could not but be appreciated by a man who was (as Lord Shaftesbury has said in a character of him) the best bred of the age.79 The following excellent paper is a proof that 79 That Charles affected an esteem for Shaftesbury is doubtless true; but, in fact, he merely dreaded him as an opponent, and wished to make him one of the tools of his projected French alliance. While he was yet apparently in high favour, Charles told Colbert, that "le chancelier étoit le plus foible et le plus méchant de tous les hommes." |
