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CHAP. Would have been enacted to the total ruin of all the old English families. In consequence of an address of the English parliament, the king, on his arrival in London, issued a proclamation, commanding the prosecution of all Irish rebels, and the undisturbed continuance of possession to adventurers and soldiers of such manors, houses, and lands, as they then held, until they should be legally evicted, or his Ma→ jesty, with the advice of parliament, should take further measures in these affairs. At the same time the Irish catholics were treated with severe strictness, prevented from assembling to represent their griev→ ances, and even from passing, on their ordinary business, from one province to another. For the settlement of the kingdom his Majesty was petitioned to summon an Irish parliament; but some previous ar→ rangements were necessary, and, as almost every party had either merits or positive stipulations to plead, the business was altogether arduous and perplexing. At length, on a calculation formed by Sir John Clotworthy, Sir Arthur Mervyn, and lord Broghill, now created earl of Orrery, that, beside the lands possessed by the soldiers, enough remained to compensate, or, as it was termed, to reprise, all the innocent or meritorious Irish, Charles published his famous declaration for the settlement of the kingdom,

Declara

tlement.

By this declaration the adventurers were to be contion of set- firmed in the lands possessed by them on the seventh of May 1659, according to acts made in the former reign, which they were to hold in free and common soccage; and all their deficiencies were to be satisfied

before

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before the ensuing month of May. With the excep- CHAP tion of ecclesiastical lands, and some other provisoes, the soldiers were confirmed in the lands allotted for their pay, which they were to hold by knight's service in capite. Officers, who had served before the June of 1649, were to receive immediate satisfaction of twelve shillings and six pence in the pound of their arrears by estates and other securities, and an equal dividend of whatever should afterward remain of these securities. Protestants, unless they had been in rebellion before the cessation, or had taken decrees for lands in Connaught or Clare, were to be restored to estates which had been given from them to soldiers or adventurers; and these adventurers or soldiers were to be reprised without being accountable for what were called the mesne profits. Innocent catholics were to be restored to their estates, although they had taken lands in Connaught; and the persons removed by their restoration were to be reprised. Catholics, who submitted, and adhered to the peace of sixteen hundred and forty-eight, were to remain bound by their own acts, if they staid at home, sued out decrees, and received lands in Connaught: but those, who had served abroad under the king's ensigns, and accepted no lands in Connaught, were to be restored to their ancient properties, after the reprisal of the soldiers and adventurers, then in possession, for their disbursements. Thirty-six of the Irish nobility and gentry were named as particularly restorable by royal favour, on the same terms with those who had served abroad. For Ormond and Inchiquin,

1

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CHAP. Inchiquin, restored to their estates by the English parliament, a provision was made, and for some others also, particularly Monk, now created duke of Albemarle, who received large grants of Irish forfeitures.

The persons ordered to be first restored were innocent protestants and catholics to whom no lands had been assigned in Connaught; next were the innocent who had taken decrees for such lands; next were the persons, dispossessed by the two former, to receive their reprisals and next were those Irish to be restored, who claimed the benefit of the peace of sixteen hundred and forty-eight, or had served abroad under the king's banners. If any lands should remain after the necessary reprisals, they were assigned for the satisfaction of those who had furnished arms, ammunition, or provisions, for the support of the war in Ireland previously to the year 1649. From all the estates thus settled, restored, or reprised, a small rent was reserved for the crown. As a free gift from the adventurers and soldiers, his Majesty graciously accepted half a year's rent from each of the two first years, to be applied to his own use, and that of those who had eminently suffered in his service. From all benefit of this declaration were excluded the persons concerned in the plot for the surprizal of the castle of Dublin in 1641, the judges of the late king, the men who signed his sentence, and the guard of halberdiers who assisted at his execution. As the king felt himself particularly interested to have the corporate towns represented exclusively by persons favour

able

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able to monarchical government, exceptions were CHAP. made for the reservation of lands and tenements belonging to such towns for the royal donation, and the reprisal of objectionable persons to whom they had been assigned. The declaration was transmitted to three new lords justices, Sir Maurice Eustace who was lord chancellor, the earl of Orrery, and Sir Charles Coote who was created earl of Montrath.

the

establish

This appointment of chief governors was imme-Religious diately followed by the triumph of episcopacy. The ment, king had assented to a request of the convention, that all impropriate and forfeited tythes and glebes, in his Majesty's disposal, should be granted to the clergy; and that all escheated lands, now exempt from payment of ecclesiastical dues, should be rendered liable to the same. Ministers of the presbyterian worship, some of whom, beside the Scottish clergy of Ulster, had gained possession of churches in Dublin and its neighbourhood, had petitioned the king for the establishment of their own sysstem; and a petition to the same purpose was promoted in the army. But Charles, by the advice of Ormond, the steady friend of the episcopal clergy, instead of trusting to the sense of a new parliament composed in great measure of puritans, filled immediately the four archbishoprics and twelve bishoprics with the most eminent of the clergy of Ireland. As their patents and consecration were delayed for some months, till a new great seal should be prepared, and as the delay was imputed by the enemies of episcopacy

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CHAP episcopacy to an irresolution or reluctance of the king, a second petition in favour of the presbyterians was drawn by the military officers, and signed by great numbers in various departments, civil and military. Coote and major Bury, who then administered the kingdom with the title of commissioners of government, agreed to suppress this petition, at the instance of Coote, who discovered in the style of the officers an aversion to monarchy: and in the administration of the new lords justices the consecration was performed with triumphal pomp to the great mortification of the many puritans, who had laboured with all their might against the episcopal establishment.

Discontents.

The declaration of settlement, however calculated for the advantage of all parties, was, except the soldiers and adventurers, little pleasing to any. The officers, termed at that time forty-nine men, who served before the year 1649, with the greatest hardship and danger against the greatest power of the Irish insurgents, and had, on account of their attachment to royalty, been ill treated by the republicans, were now allotted little more than half of their long due arrears, on securities deemed insufficient even for the portion assigned. Those Irish, who pleaded innocence or merit, complained, that to delay the restitution of their estates, till the present possessors should have been reprised, was unjust; that the commissioners, appointed to execute the declaration, were, by interest and habit of thinking, partial to the soldiers and adventurers; and that, in the instructions