The earl of Castlehaven's memoirs Author:James Touchet Castlehaven Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: wherever they are believed, an Irishman can pass for no other than a monster in nature. 'Tjs true, the Irish insurrection can never be justified; and had they... more » alone been concerned in such crimes, it were very reasonable and just (if prudence as well as charity did not oblige us to forget and forgive) to have them exposed to the world, and set forth in the blackest colours: but when their neighbour-nations were at least equally criminal, 'tis no more equity in any man to rail against them in particular, than it is prudence in a magistrate to shut tip only one house when the plague is Universal, I must aver, I little expect to have any occasion, this time of the day, to speak or write any thing on this subject, when I hoped all was forgiven, and happily buried in oblivion. But finding myself mentioned afresh, not without some new aggravations, by these worthy authors of slander and lies, as having had a part in the Irish rebellion; though, lest they should do me some justice, they are'not pleased to tell how I have been used before I was brought to it, nor how I carried myself while of that party, nor yet what I have since done to expiate my offence, by serving with all possible zeal and chapter{Section 4fidelity the late and present king, ever since the peace there concluded in 1646; I find myself under a necessity to say something in my own defence, setting forth the truth of my story in as brief and plain a method as possible, to obviate the false and malicious calumnies of these forging scribblers. But before I go farther, I must desire the reader to make some difference between the first beginners of the rebellion, and those that afterwards carried on the war under the title of The confederate Catholics of Ireland. And to shew what grounds there is for this distinct...« less