203 ' both kingdomes, and the king had made a cessation of armes with the lris!J rebells, and brought over the English armie, that had bene honor'd with so many successes against them, to serve him here; but God never blest his affaires after they came to him,' though indeed before their arrivall God had begun to tu roe the scale; for tbe citic of Gloucester stopping, by its faithfull and valliant resistance, the carrecre of the king's victories, after Bristoll and Exeter and all the west was lost, the king, disdaining to leave it behind him unvanquisht, sate downe before it, which employ'cl him and his whole annie, till the Earle' of Essex and his recruited armic, assisted with the London auxiliaries, came and reliev' cl it, and persued the king's armie to an engagement at Newbexry, where the parliament obtein'd a greate and bloody victory, and the king for ever lost that opertunity he lately had of marching up to London, and in probabillity of subduing the parliament. My lord Newcastle, by a like error, abou t the same time, setting downc before s The parliament. and the king seem to have been equa1ly injudicious in seeking resources from without. Rap in says u the Presbyterians seizerl the occasion which was "offered them of establish ing their system of unifOrmity, and that it increased the H number of the J{ing's friends;'' had he not, through partiality to his sect, withheld a part of the truth, he would have said that, in pursuit of their system of intolerance, they d1v ided the parliament and the friends of liberty, exasperated the army, and ll<tving forced them to try their strength ngaiust them, caused the subjugation of themselves, and the ruin of their whole cause and par,ty. So much for the league and covenant. The king, by seeking the assistance of the Iri sh in a manner so injurious to the true interest of England , blemished his own fame, hurt his cause, ruined his partizans in both countries, and iude.ed the Iri sh nation in general, which has ne,·er recovered from the depopulation which took place in consequence of tho.'ie c0nvulsions . This last fact has been controverted by one reviewer, the Critical; but would be ~ easy to establish by various arguments, one only is here adduced. The custom of emigrating and entering into the sen•ice of foreign powers, which the lrish began to do at that period, and have continued almost to the present day.
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