3. The power and privileges of Parliament.
Speaking of Lord Maguire’s statement, Carte, Book iii., § II., says, “It carries with it an intrinsic evidence sufficient to merit belief, and hath accordingly been universally allowed to be a just and faithful account of that affair.” We may therefore, I think, rest satisfied that this statement contains an authentic account of the objects that the conspirators had in view, and the method by which they proposed to accomplish them. So far as it relates to the matter in hand it is to this effect:—Roger O’More approached Lord Maguire, and after representing in general the many grievances of the natives, especially the old Irish, who upon several plantations were turned out of their ancestors’ estates, and the favourable opportunity which the insurrection of the Scots and the disturbances in England afforded the gentry of Ireland to free the nation from like grievances in future, to get good conditions for themselves, and to regain the whole, or at least good part of their ancestors’ possessions, obtained from Maguire an oath of secrecy, and then disclosed to him the project for an insurrection, urging it as the only method of recovering his lordship’s vast estates and the power of his ancestors, and as being absolutely necessary for maintaining the Catholic religion which undoubtedly, he said, the Parliament of England resolved to suppress. Here, then, we have plainly stated the objects the conspirators had in view, namely, the restoration of the lands which had been ‘planted,’ and the preservation of the Catholic religion, which was threatened with extinction. It will be observed that in the design thus disclosed there is no mention of erecting Ireland into an independent kingdom, the establishment of Catholic ascendancy, or the extermination of persons of the English race or of the Protestant faith. So far from the last-mentioned being one of the objects in view, “there was,” says Maguire, “a fear of the Scots conceived, that they would presumably oppose themselves, and that would make the matter more difficult; to avoid which danger it was resolved not to meddle with them or anything belonging to them, and to demean ourselves toward them as if they were of us, which we thought would pacify them; and if the Scots would not accept that offer, we were in good hope to cause a stir in Scotland that might divert them from us.”