ll those calumnies with
which he had been loaded, it was necessary to proceed with great caution
in conducting that measure. A remonstrance from the army was made to the
Irish council, representing their intolerable necessities, and craving
permission to leave the kingdom: and if that were refused, "We must have
recourse," they said, "to that first and primary law with which God has
endowed all men; we mean the law of nature, which teaches every creature
to preserve itself."[***]

* Rush. vol. vi. p. 555.

** Rush. vol. vi. p 530. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 167.

*** Rush. vol. vi. p. 537.

Memorials both to the king and parliament were transmitted by the
justices and council, in which then wants and dangers are strongly set
forth;[*] and though the general expressions in these memorials might
perhaps be suspected of exaggeration, yet from the particular facts
mentioned, from the confession of the English parliament itself,[**]
and from the very nature of things, it is apparent that the Irish
Protestants were reduced to great extremities;[***] and it became
prudent in the king, if not absolutely necessary, to embrace some
expedient which might secure them for a time from the ruin and misery
with which they were threatened.

Accordingly the king gave orders[****] to Ormond and the justices to
conclude, for a year, a cessation of arms with the council of Kilkenny,
by whom the Irish were governed, and to leave both sides in possession
of their present advantages. The parliament, whose business it was to
find fault with every measure adopted by the opposite party, and who
would not lose so fair an opportunity of reproaching the king with his
favor to the Irish Papists, exclaimed loudly against this cessation.
Among other reasons, they insisted upon the divine vengeance, which
England might justly dread for tolerating anti-Christian idolatry,
on pretence of civil contracts and political agreements.[v] Religion,
though every day employed as the engine of their own ambitious purposes,
was supposed too sacred to be yielded up to the temporal interests or
safety of kingdoms.

* Rush. vol. vi. p. 538.

** Rush, vol. vi. p. 540.

*** See further, Carte's Ormond, (vol. iii. No. 113, 127,
128, 129 134, 136, 141, 144, 149, 158, 159.) All these
papers put it past doubt, that the necessities of the
English army in Ireland were extreme. See further, Rush.
vol. vi. p. 537. and Dug