to have some colour for all those aspersions they had cast on the
King, as if he had been in a correspondence with the Irish rebels, when
the worst tribe of them had been thus employed by him.--_Swift._ Lord
Clarendon differs from all this.

P. 41. _Burnet._ The Earl of Essex told me, that he had taken all the
pains he could to enquire into the original of the Irish massacre, but
could never see any reason to believe the King had any accession to
it.--_Swift._ And who but _a beast_ ever believed it?

P. 42. _Burnet,_ arguing with the Scots concerning the propriety of the
King's death, observes:--Drummond said, "Cromwell had plainly the better
of them at their own weapon."--_Swift._ And Burnet thought as Cromwell
did.

P. 46. _Burnet._ They [the army] will ever keep the Parliament in
subjection to them, and so keep up their own authority.--_Swift._ Weak.

Ibid. _Burnet._ Fairfax was much distracted in his mind, and changed
purposes often every day.--_Swift._ Fairfax had hardly common sense.

P. 49. _Burnet._ I will not enter farther into the military part: For I
remember an advice of Marshal Schomberg's, never to meddle in the
relation of military matters.--_Swift._ Very foolish advice, for
soldiers cannot write.

P. 50. _Burnet._ [Laud's] defence of himself, writ ... when he was in
the Tower, is a very mean performance. ... In most particulars he
excuses himself by this, that he was but one of many, who either in
council, star-chamber, or high commission voted illegal things. Now
though this was true, yet a chief minister, and one in high favour,
determines the rest so much, that they are generally little better than
machines acted by him. On other occasions he says, the thing was proved
but by one witness. Now, how strong soever this defence may be in law,
it is of no force in an appeal to the world; for if a thing is true, it
is no matter how full or how defective the proof is.--_Swift._ All this
is full of malice and ill judgement.

Ibid. _Burnet,_ speaking of the "Eikon Basilike," supposed to be written
by Charles the First, says:--There was in it a nobleness and justness of
thought with a greatness of style, that made it to be looked on as the
best writ book in the English language.--_Swift._ I think it a poor
treatise, and that the King did not write it.

P. 51. _Burnet._ Upon the King's death the Scots proclaimed his son
King, and sent over Sir George Wincam, _that married my great-aunt_, to
treat with