XXVII.

CHAP. offered life, liberty, and eftate, on condition of his producing any material proof of his having received a commiflion from the king for his infurrection, he acknowleged the forgery which I have already related, and perfevered to, the last moment of his life in denying that he had ever been authorized by his Majefty. Declaring that he would not, by a calumny against the late king, augment the load which already oppreffed his conscience, he displayed in his last moments a spirit worthy of a better character.

1053.

Rebellion had no longer existence in Ireland, but its ghaftly effects were too long visible. The fword, famine, and its concomitant peftilence, had reduced great part of the iland to a state of dreary folitude, and fcarcely a house had remained undemolished Forfeiture except within the walls of towns. Forfeited lands were affigned for the payment of adventurers and arrears of the army; and courts were established at Dublin and Athlone for the determining of claims within a limited time, under the direction of Edmond Ludlow, Miles Corbet, John Jones, and John Weaver, who were united with Fleetwood in the civil administration, with the title of commiflioners of parliament. Connaught was referved entirely for the Irish, within which they were to be confined by the Shannon and a chain of garrifons. The adventurers accepted as a full fatisfaction the moiety of the forfeited lands in nine principal counties, and the other was referved for the foldiery, who had ferved fince the arrival of Cromwel in 1649. But for those troops, who had fought against the Irish before that period, though their condition

was

XXVII.

was much more diftressful, no provifion could be CHAP. obtained, except fome lands in Wicklow and the adjoining counties, not fufficient to discharge a fourth of their arrears, fince they were confidered as infected with a mixture of royalifts, and confequently not immaculately loyal to the republican cause or the purity of religion. A revenue was alfo ordered to be raised for difabled foldiers, and for the widows and orphans of those who had fallen in the public fervice. Except a part of the lands of bifhops, and of deans and chapters, granted to the university of Dublin, thefe, with the forfeited lands in the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Carlow, and Cork, remained unappropriated, and referved by parliament for future difpofal.

tions.

In the forming of thefe arrangements a change took Mifcellane place in the administration in confequence of a revo- ous tranfa lution in England, where Oliver Cromwel had forcib- 1654, ly diffolved the Long Parliament, and feized the fovereign power under the title of lord protector. In Ireland, where the news created pleasure in the army, but horror in fome others, a refolution was with difficulty procured, by a majority of one in the council of state, for the acknowlegement of his title by a proclamation. His fecond fon, Henry, fent into this country to examine into the ftate of affairs, and to establish his authority, found the commiffioners guilty of enormous frauds for their own emolument, the courts of judicature shamefully mismanaged, and the obftinate republicans unfit to be left entrusted with places of power. According to an inftrument of government compofed by the protector, VOL. II.

which

CHAP. which united the British ilands into one common_ XXVII. wealth, thirty members of a new parliament. were appointed to Ireland. By the advice of Ludlow, who had retired from the civil adminiftration, but ftill retained his command in the army, fheriffs were fo nominated, and matters in general fo managed, that, under the appearance of a free election, the perfons required by government were mostly chofen. The protector, difplacing the commiffioners, appointed Fleetwood lord-deputy for three years, and affigned him a new council. Among the inftructions given to this new administration was that of difpenfing with the order of the late parliament and council of ftate for the transportation of the Irish into Connaught. This indulgence to the Irish, fo confiftent with humanity, and neceffary to prevent the depopulation of the greater part of the kingdom, was matter of complaint to his enemies, the most formidable of whom was Ludlow, whofe regiment was difbanded to diminish his influence. To guard against the fomenters of difaffection, Cromwel, in a fpirit of arbitrary power, perhaps neceffary in the then existing state of affairs, commanded that the printer, the only one of the trade then fubfifting in Dublin, fhould not fuffer any publication to iffue from his prefs without its previous inspection and approbation by the clerk of the council.

Henry Cromwel's

Henry Cromwel, who had, after his infpection of adminiftra- Irish affairs, returned to England, was fent again in tion. to Ireland, first as a military officer, and afterwards as lord-deputy in Fleetwood's place; where he acted with such temper and ability, that his father declared

1655.

that

津

that himself might teceive inftructions from his fon. CHAP. Though the military officers were difcontented and XXVII. refractory; though the nation was exhausted, oppreffed, and unable to fupport fo great an army, while no fupplies were fent from England, and the revenue was drained by grants to particular creatufes of the protector; and though Ireland was fometimes totally neglected by the English government amid more weighty concerns; yet this deputy fo reconciled mens minds to the new government, that' while great discontents prevailed in England, addreffes were tranfmitted from the army and every county in Ireland, expreffing refolutions of adhering to the protector, against all who, from private animofity, fhould endeavour to throw the public again into combuftion. On the death of Oliver Cromwel, 1658. and the acceffion of his eldest fon Richard to the protectorship, who confirmed Henry in his government with the title of lord lieutenant, the fame affurances were renewed: but in confequence of new revolutions in England, by which Richard was depofed, Henry was ordered to refign, and the civil government to be configned to commiffioners, while the command of the military forces in this kingdom was committed to Ludlow. Dreading left the lord. 1659. lieutenant fhould avail himself of his power and pularity to retain his place by force, the commiffioners employed Sir Hardrefs Waller to furprize the castle of Dublin: but Henry, too generous to embroil the public for perfonal views, had determined to refign; and he retired to the Phoenix park, fo poor,

C 2

po.

royalifts.

CHAP. poor, from his difinterested administration, that XXVII. he could not immediately procure money to defray the expences of his voyage to his own country. Proceed- Since, from the unsettled ftate of affairs in Engings of the land, the restoration of monarchy was expected by 1959. men of reflexion, intrigues to fecond that defign were put in motion among the royalists of Ireland, of which defcription were most of the old English, many of the aboriginal Irish and of the Scots of Uliter, befide a confiderable number of protestant foldiery. The difaffection to the republic was encreafed among the laft by the fevere jealoufy of Ludlow and the commiffioners, who difmiffed from the military fervice lord Broghill, Sir Charles Coote, fome other fufpected perfons, and afterwards above two hundred officers, without trial or allegation of crime, and without recompence for their long and painful difcharge of duty. Ludlow was recalled to London, colonel John Jones, one of thofe who had fitten in judgment on the late king, was fent commander in his place; the commiffioners of parliament, following the tide of revolution in England, ftyled themfelves commiffioners of the commonwealth; and all feemed quietly to fubmit to their government, when, by the explosion of the plot formed by the royalists, the whole fabric of their policy was fhivered to pieces. The deep and circumfpect Broghill had early communicated his defigns to Coote, who, with many other men of influence, had entered into the fcheme. Lord Montgomery, Sir Theophilus Jones, Sir Oliver SaintGeorge, and others, feized the caftle of Dublin

by