Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... INTRODUCTION. LTHOUGH full or regular narrative is not attempted /- in the present work, I trust that something has been done towards elucidating the history of a period "about which men wrote as desperately as they fought." In answer to those who may be disposed to ask why such a publication should now be attempted, I wish to say here that the following papers have no other object than to lay bare the groundless nature of the charges which for centuries, and down even to the present hour, have been employed to create disunion, and foster animosities among different sections of the inhabitants of Ireland. There was, perhaps, no national movement known to history which could more readily have been composed than the Irish Insurrection of 1641--Rebellion, except in the technical sense, it was not. And never was the action of an entire people so elaborately, so disingenuously, misrepresented. It was, perhaps, of the fitness of things, that the subjects who had themselves taken up arms against their legitimate Sovereign should the most affect wonder, or indignation, that, at the same time, the Catholic people of Ireland should find any cause for complaint. That a people so treated before, and especially during, the Civil War, should be wholly crimeless, were contrary to all experience of Mankind. The Insurrection of 1641 did not differ so much from the great movements for redress of long-standing grievances as to be altogether blameless. There were many crimes committed which must be deplored and condemned. On the other hand, the alleged "Massacre "--the Massacre of Milton, Temple, Borlase, May, Rushworth, Cox, Harris, Carlyle, and Froude--is a stupendous falsehood, even on the showing of the very documents upon which the charge is, ...
