CHAP. this treaty; yet were there many, who, having ftrictly, LXV. at the hazard of their lives, adhered to it, feemed on that account well entitled to reap the fruits of their loyalty. 1658. Cromwel, having without diftinction expelled all the native Irish from the three provinces of Munfter, Leinster, and Ulfter, had confined them to Connaught and the county of Clare; and among thofe who had thus been attainted, were many whose innocence was altogether unqueitionable. Several protestants likewise, and Ormond among the reft, had all along opposed the Irish rebellion; yet having afterwards embraced the king's caufe against the parliament, they were all of them attainted by Cromwel. And there were many officers, who had, from the commencement of the infurrection, served in Ireland, and who, because they would not defert the king, had been refused all their arrears by the English Commonwealth. To all these unhappy fufferers fome juftice feemed to be due: But the difficulty was to find the means of redreffing fuch great and extenfive iniquities. Almost all the valuable parts of Ireland had been measured out and divided, either to the adventurers, who had lent money to the parliament for the fuppreffion of the Irish rebellion, or to the foldiers, who had received and in lieu of their arrears. Thele could not be difpoffeffed, because they were the most powerful and only armed part of Ireland; because it was requifite to favour them, in order to fupport the proteftant and English intereft in that kingdom; and because they had generally, with a seeming zeal and alacrity, concurred in the king's restoration. The king, therefore, iffued a proclamation, in which he promised to maintain their fettlement, and at the same time engaged to give redress to the innocent fufferers. There was a large quantity of land as yet undivided in Ireland; and from this and fome other funds, it was thought poffible for the king to fulfil both these engage ments. A COURT of claims was erected, confifting altogether of English commiffioners, who had no connection with any of the parties, into which Ireland was divided. Before these were laid four thousand claims of persons defiring reftitution on account of their innocence; and the commiffioners had found leisure to examine only fix hundred. It already appeared, that, if all thefe were to be reftored, restored, the funds, whence the adventurers and foldiers CHA P. muft get reprisals, would fall fhort of giving them any LXV. tolerable fatisfaction. A great alarm and anxiety feized all ranks of men: the hopes and fears of every party 1668. were excited: Thefe eagerly grafped at recovering their parental inheritance: Thofe were refolute to maintain their new acquifitions. THE duke of Ormond was created lord-lieutenant; being the only perfon, whofe prudence and juftice could compofe fuch jarring interefts. A parliament was affembled at Dublin; and as the lower house was almost entirely chofen by the foldiers and adventurers, who ftill kept poffeffion, it was extremely favourable to that intereft. The house of peers fhewed greater impartiality. AN infurrection was projected, together with a furprizal of the castle of Dublin, by fome of the disbanded foldiers; but this defign was happily defeated by the vigilance of Ormond. Some of the criminals were pu nished. Blood, the most desperate of them, efcaped into England. BUT affairs could not long remain in the confufion and uncertainty into which they were fallen. All parties feemed willing to abate fomewhat of their pretenfions, in order to attain fome ftability; and Ormond interpofed his authority to that purpose. The foldiers and adventurers agreed to relinquith a fourth of their poffeffions; and as they had purchased their lands at very low prices, they had reason to think themselves favoured by this compofition. All thofe forfeited on account of their adhering to the king, were restored; and fome of the innocent Irish. It was a hard fituation, that a man was obliged to prove himself innocent, in order to recover poffeffion of the estate, which he and his ancestors had ever enjoyed But the hardship was augmented, by the difficult. conditions annexed to this proof. If the perfon had ever lived in the quarters of the rebels, he was not admitted to plead his innocence; and he was, for that reafon alone, fuppofed to have been a rebel. The heinous guilt of the Irish nation made men overlook the more readily any iniquity, which might fall on individuals; and it was confidered, that, though it be always the intereft of all good government to prevent injuftice, it is not always poffible to remedy it, after it has had a long courfe, and has been attended with great fucceffes. IRELAND CHAP. IRELAND began to attain a state of fome compofure, LXV. when it was disturbed by a violent act, paffed by the Engwith parliament, which prohibited the importation of 1668. Irish cattle into England X. Ormond remonstrated ftrongly against this law. He faid, that the present trade, Carried on between England and Ireland, was extremely to the advantage of the former kingdom, which received. n'y provifions, or rude materials, in return for every fpecies of manufacture: That if the cattle of Ireland were prohibited, the inhabitants of that Ifland had no cther commodity, by which they could pay England for their importations, and must have recourfe to other nations for a fupply: That the induftrious inhabitants of England, if deprived of Irish provifions, which made living cheap, would be obliged to augment the price of Jabour, and thereby render their manufactures too dear to be exported to foreign markets: That the indolent inhabitants of Ireland, finding provifions fall almoft to nothing, would never be induced to labour, but would perpetuate to all generations their native floth and barbarifm: That by cutting off almost entirely the trade between the kingdoms, all the natural bands of union were diffolved, and nothing remained to keep the Irish in their duty but force and violence: And that by reducing that kingdom to extreme poverty, it would be even rendered incapable of maintaining that military power, by which, during its well-grounded difcontents, it must neceffarily be retained in fubjection. THE king was fo convinced of the juftnefs of thefe reafons, that he ufed all his intereft to oppose the bill; and he openly declared, that he could not give his affent to it with a fafe confcience. But the commons were reflute in their purpof, Some of the rents of England had fallen of late years, which had been afcribed entirely to the importation of Irish cattle. Several intrigues had contributed to inflame that prejudice, particularly those of Buckingham and Ashley, who were defirous of giving Ormond difturbance in his government: And the spirit of tyranny, of which nations are as fufceptible as individuals, had animated the English extremely to exert their fuperiority over their dependent ftate. No affair X In 1665. could LXV. 1668. could be conducted with greater violence than this was by CHA P. the commons. They even went fo far in the preamble of the bill as to declare the importation of Irish cattle to be a nuisance. By this expreffion, they gave fcope to their passion, and at the fame time barred the king's prerogative, by which he might think himself entitled to difpense with a law, so full of injustice and bad policy. The lords expunged the word; but as the king was fenfible, that no fupply would be given by the commons, unless they were gratified in their prejudices, he was obliged both to employ his intereft with the peers for making the bill pass, and to give the royal affent to it. He could not, however, forbear expreffing his difpleasure at the jealoufy entertained against him, and at the intention which the commons discovered of retrenching his prerogative. THIS law brought great diftrefs for fome time upon the Irish; but it has occafioned their applying with greater industry to manufactures, and has proved in the iffue heneficial to that kingdom, СНАР. СНАР. LXVI. A parliament- -The cabal-Their characters-Their Confternation of the Dutch-Prince of Orange ment INCE the reftoration, England had attained a fitu SINCE ation, which had never been experienced in any for mer period of her government, and which feemed the 1668. only one, that could fully enfure, at once, her tranquillity and her liberty: The king was in continual want of fupply from the parliament; and he feemed willing to accommodate himself to that dependent fituation. Instead of reviving thofe claims of prerogative, fo ftrenuously infifted on by his predeceffors, Charles had ftrictly confined himfeif within the limits of law, and had courted, by every art of popularity, the affections of his fubje&ts. Even the severities, however blameable, which he had exercised against non-conformists, are to be confidered as expedients, by which he ftrove to ingratiate himself with that party, which predominated in parliament; but notwithstanding thefe promifing appearances, there were many circumstances, which kept the government from refting fteadily on that bottom, on which it was placed. The crown having loft almost all its antient demefnes, relied entirely on voluntary grants of the people; and the commons, not fully accustomed to this new fituation, were not yet difpofed to fupply, with fufficient liberality, the neceffities of the crown. They imitated too ftricily the example of their predeceffors in a rigid frugality of public money; and neither fufficiently confidered the indigent condition of their prince, nor the general state of Europe; where every nation, by its encreafe both of magnificence |