nting to the victorious armies. The Irish, in their wild
rage against the British planters, had laid waste the whole kingdom, and
were themselves totally unfit, from their habitual sloth and ignorance,
to raise any convenience of human life. During the course of six months,
no supplies had come from England, except the fourth part of one small
vessel's lading. Dublin, to save itself from starving, had been obliged
to send the greater part of its inhabitants to England. The army had
little ammunition, scarcely exceeding forty barrels of gunpowder; not
even shoes or clothes; and for want of food, the soldiers had been
obliged to eat their own horses. And though the distress of the Irish
was not much inferior,[*] besides that they were more hardened against
such extremities, it was but a melancholy reflection, that the two
nations, while they continued their furious animosities, should make
desolate that fertile island, which might serve to the subsistence and
happiness, of both.

The justices and council of Ireland had been engaged, chiefly by the
interest and authority of Ormond, to fall into an entire dependence
on the king. Parsons, Temple, Loftus, and Meredith, who favored the
opposite party, had been removed; and Charles had supplied their place
by others better affected to his service. A committee of the English
house of commons, which had been sent over to Ireland in order to
conduct the affairs of that kingdom, had been excluded the council,
in obedience to orders transmitted from the king.[**] And these were
reasons sufficient, besides the great difficulties under which they
themselves labored, why the parliament was unwilling to send supplies
to an army which, though engaged in a cause much favored by them, was
commanded by their declared enemies. They even intercepted some small
succors sent thither by the king.

The king, as he had neither money, arms, ammunition, nor provisions to
spare from his own urgent wants, resolved to embrace an expedient which
might at once relieve the necessities of the Irish Protestants, and
contribute to the advancement of his affairs in England. A truce with
the rebels, he thought, would enable his subjects in Ireland to provide
for their own support, and would procure him the assistance of the army
against the English parliament. But as a treaty with a people so odious
for their barbarities, and still more for their religion, might be
represented in invidious colors, and renew a