Philip Wilson

“ Clarendon to Rochester, March 14th, 1686. "Never a Catholic or other English will ever think or make a step, nor suffer the King to make a step for your Restoration; nor is there any Englishman, Catholic or other, of what quality or degree soever, that will stick to sacrifice all Ireland for to save the least interest of his own in England, and would as willingly see all Ireland over inhabited by English, of whatsoever religion, as by the Irish." ”

“ For seven years Ormond governed Ireland with prudence, with humanity, and, if the great crime of the Act of Settlement can be condoned, with some approach to justice. Firmly attached by interest and by principle to the English connection and to the Protestant faith, he steadily upheld the new distribution of property and the political supremacy of the Anglican Church; but he never showed the smallest inclination towards those more rigorous measures against the Catholics which the majority of the colonists were disposed to demand ”

“ With this end in view he framed an elaborate and comprehensive scheme, designed at once to quiet the apprehensions of the Protestant colonists and to redress the grievances of the native Irish. The Englishry, he maintained, "had at least a gambler's right to their estates"; the existing land settlement must be preserved inviolate, and, in the interest of the connection, English immigration into Ireland must be steadily encouraged. ”

“ If we may accept the estimate of the foremost statistician of that age, the total population of Ireland in the reign of Charles the Second amounted to about 1,100,000. [37] At least 800,000 of these, descended, some of them from the aboriginal Celts, some of them from the earliest English colonists, professed the Roman Catholic religion and were contemptuously classed together as "Irishry." The remaining 300,000 were Protestant colonists, for the most part recently settled in the country. ”

“ The civil power was thus entirely in the hands of the Protestant caste. Their monopoly of the military power was not less absolute. A standing army of some 6,000 men, to which Roman Catholics were very seldom if ever admitted, and a Protestant militia of about four times that number, served to protect the Government and the Cromwellian landowners against the hostility of the aboriginal population. [62]
The great majority of the Irish people were thus excluded from all direct share in the government of their country. ”

“ The Lord Chief Justice of Ireland urged the claims of the adventurers with an ardour scarcely suited to the dignity of his office [6] : Sir Nicholas Plunket, an Irish lawyer of eminence, pleaded the cause of his countrymen: after six months of wrangling, bribery and vacillation the Government dictated a compromise in the interest of the Cromwellians.
The declaration which the King published in November, 1660, [7] confirmed to the adventurers all lands granted to them under the Act of 1642 [8] in return for money advanced to carry on the Irish war. ”

“ With a few exceptions the adventurers and soldiers were suffered to retain their estates. The engagements of 1648 were definitely and finally repudiated; but Irishmen who had had no hand in the rebellion were allowed to hope for restitution. As, however, "the rapines and massacres committed by the Irish and Popish rebels were not only well known to the present Parliament, but were notorious to the world" the first principle of criminal justice was reversed, and the accused were called upon to prove their innocence. ”

“ For no man was to be restored as an innocent Papist who, at or before the cessation on September 15, 1643, was of the rebels' party, or enjoyed his estate, real or personal, in the rebels' quarters, or who had entered into the Roman Catholic confederacy before the peace of 1646. ”

“ In another letter, dated two days later, the same prelate again refers in terms of the warmest gratitude to the tolerant policy of the Government. "We experience in this kingdom, Holy Father, the benign influence of the King of England in favour of the Catholics, so that all enjoy great liberty and ease. Ecclesiastics may be publicly known, and are permitted to exercise their functions without any impediment. Our Viceroy is a man of great moderation and equity." [46] In the same year Archbishop Talbot celebrated Mass with great pomp in Dublin with the full approbation of the Government. ”

“ It was, he urged, a monstrous absurdity "that men born in England, who have lands granted to them by the King for service done in Ireland to the Crown of England, when they have occasion to reside or negociate in England, should, by their countrymen, kindred and friends there, be debarred to bring with them out of Ireland food whereupon to live ”

“ Wiser far than most of those who in more recent times have advocated a similar measure, he instinctively perceived that a union of the legislatures would be useless or mischievous unless it were accompanied by a union of the nations. ”

“ He was now "sensible of that mistake." "It appeared that one interest or the other must suffer"; and Charles, not altogether unnaturally "thought it most for the good of the kingdom, advantage of the Crown, and security of his Government," to conciliate the stronger and wealthier party at the expense of the poorer and weaker. "A contrary conduct," the same writer very justly observes, "would have been matter of discontent to the Parliament of England." [15]
The constitution of the Irish Parliament and of the Irish Executive materially facilitated this design. ”

“ Protestant officers, who had served against the Irish in the early years of the war, but who, having continued faithful to the royal cause, had received no lands from the Protector, were also to be provided for; and the municipal corporations, about a hundred in number, were set aside for their benefit. These arrangements disposed of four-fifths of the island; and the claims of the Irish had yet to be considered. "Innocent Papists," the declaration continued, were to be restored to their estates, compensation being promised to the actual occupants ”

“ According to a letter subscribed by eighteen Catholic clergymen and published by the same writer, "immediately [upon the Restoration] the persecution in this kingdom ceased by his Majesty's express commands." [44] Four years later, Lord Berkeley of Stratton being then Lord Lieutenant, Archbishop Plunket wrote to Rome in a similar spirit. "The Viceroy of this kingdom," says the Archbishop, "shows himself favourable to the Catholics, not only in consequence of his natural mildness of disposition, but still more on account of his being acquainted with the benign intentions of his Majesty." ”

“ No law as yet excluded Catholics from the House of Commons, but to the single parliament elected during this reign only one Catholic was returned. [54] The corporations, whose political importance it would scarcely be possible to exaggerate, had, before the Great Rebellion, been largely Catholic [55] ; Cromwell had made them exclusively Protestant; and a special provision had been introduced into the Act of Settlement to perpetuate this arrangement. ”

“ To that party the titular Archbishop of Dublin, a prelate whose factious and turbulent conduct had given offence to more moderate members of his own communion, [100] was of all men the most obnoxious. The earliest informations had spoken only of a conspiracy in England; but, had such a conspiracy existed, it could scarcely have failed to find supporters in a country where the Catholics were a numerous, and, in spite of their recent misfortunes, a still powerful body. Dr. Talbot was accordingly singled out by the informers ”

“ The plot was detected and a few of the more prominent conspirators executed; but the Government was now thoroughly alarmed, and judged it prudent to make some further concessions to the Protestant party. A Bill was introduced, and carried with little opposition, "explaining" the previous Act in the Protestant interest. [29] The Cromwellians surrendered one-third of their estates to create a fund for reprisals; twenty persons, whose claims could scarcely be overlooked, were restored at once by special favour ”

“ By this Act every clergyman celebrating any religious service other than that legally established, every layman assisting at such service or contributing to the support of such clergyman, and every person, lay or clerical, reflecting on the liturgy of the Established Church, was rendered liable to penalties which amounted, on a third conviction, to confiscation of property and perpetual imprisonment. ”

“ The compromise which was thus effected proved satisfactory to neither of the contending interests. An Irish writer complains, not assuredly without reason, that by "an act of accumulative injustice the worst of traitors and the vilest of republican rebels were most prodigally rewarded; loyal subjects condemned unheard and stript of their very birthright; a vast multitude of poor widows and orphans sent a-begging ”

“ King (III, 2, *1) estimates the army at 7,000. According to Carte (II., 480) : "There was no soldier ever admitted into the army till he had taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy." But the exclusion does not appear to have been absolute, for the same writer elsewhere tells us that Richard Talbot obtained a commission by the special favour of the Duke of York, and that "none, or very few, Roman Catholics besides himself were trusted in any military service." (II., 234.) ↑ Walsh had published a Letter desiring a just and merciful regard for the Roman Catholics of Ireland. ”

“ Two I shall only mention: the first is that they dare not rebel if all the towns be against them; or, if they should rebel and have none of these, they will soon feel the punishment of their sin. The second is that, while the corporations are Protestant, the House of Commons will still be such." Orrery to Ormond, 26th February, 1662. ↑ "A clause was inserted in the Act that no Irish Papist, in what manner soever he justified his innocency, should enjoy any house within a corporation. This the Irish vehemently exclaimed against." Secret Consults. ↑ Carte, II., 240. ↑ Carte, II., 242. ”

“ The Papists and Anabaptists stood in several places to be chosen, yet but one of each sort was actually chosen." Orrery to Ormond, May 8th, 1661. ↑ "There are four lords whose names are Butler that are rebels. I pray God the fifth, who, I fear, is too courteous and favourable to his countrymen, may never affect their religion, or covertly countenance, or other ways violate the trust reposed in him." ”

“ The numerous contemporary pamphlets relating to the plot both in England and Ireland are interesting, as showing the rumours current at the time, but are wholly untrustworthy as regards matters of fact. ↑ "A most venerable and religious man," Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, I., 220. "A wise and sober man," Burnett, 331. ↑ Burnet, 1. c. ↑ Ibid. See the report of Plunket's trial in the State Trials, and his last speech in Reilly's Ireland's Case Briefly Stated. ↑ See Charles's letter to Ormond, Oct. 19th, 1684, in Carte's Appendix. ”

“ Avaux (Correspondence) and Hamilton (Mémoires de Grammont) are very favourable; Berwick (Mémoires) did not think much of Tyrconnell's military capacity, but speaks highly of his prudence, integrity, and moderation. ↑ Carte, II., 378, 411. ↑ Secret Consults; Oldmixon's Memoirs of Ireland, p. 8; Carte, II., 413. ↑ Cox, Hibernia Anglicana. The last article runs: "Several Popish clergy, since the return of the Duke of Ormond hither, have exercised their jurisdictions, to the great grief of the remonstrants ”

“ In England this dispensatory power was abolished by a later Act, 5 Eliz., c. 1; but this did not extend to Ireland. Compare Macaulay, chap. 6, and King, II., 9, *1. ↑ 10 Henry VII., cap. 4, ↑ In the next reign, on the. appointment of two Catholic judges, Clarendon, then Lord Lieutenant, wrote to Rochester (20th April, 1686) : "This is the first time that any man ever sat as a judge without taking the oath of supremacy since it was first enacted ”