Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 19.djvu/84

72 much better for them to have gone in search of new establishments out of the known world, and made some settlement for themselves and their posterity in the antipodes?

As I was but a new comer among them, I have often blamed their men of chief distinction and sense, for having rejected the terms offered by the prince of Orange to my uncle Tyrconnel, in favour of the Irish catholicks in general, before the decisive battle of Aghrim; which (by the by) till the sudden fall of their general, was fought with more bravery on their side, than any battle has been, perhaps, for some centuries past, by any people under equal disadvantages. The prince was touched with the fate of a gallant nation, that had made itself a victim to French promises, and ran headlong to its ruin for the only purpose, in fact, of advancing the French conquests in the Netherlands, under the favour of that hopeless diversion in Ireland, which gave work enough to 40000 of the best troops of the grand alliance of Augsbourg. He longed to find himself at the head of the confederate army, with so strong a reinforcement. In this anxiety he offered the Irish catholicks the free exercise of their religion; half the churches of the kingdom; half the employments civil and military too, if they pleased, and even the moiety of their ancient properties. These proposals, though they were to have had an English act of parliament for their sanction, were refused with universal contempt. Yet the exiles, in the midst of their hard usage abroad, could not be brought to repent of their obstinacy. Whenever I pressed them upon the matter, their answer was generally to this purpose; "If England can break her publick faith, in regard of