the openly professed advocates of unlimited preroga tive in the sovereign, found themselves obliged, for the preservation of their liberty and religion, to ac contrary to their own doctrine, and to unite with the whigs in an invitation of the Prince of Orange to assist them with his arms in the recovery of their trampled rights. James, who doubtless, if he had remained long enough unopposed, would have revived the horrors of the reign of Mary by religious persecution, fled to France on the revolt of his subjects, when the prince arrived with a small Dutch army in the year 1688; and that prince, the husband of Mary, the eldest daughter of James, was constituted king under the name of William the third.

CHAP.

XXX.

nistration.

I have anticipated a little in the transactions of New admi England, from which those of Ireland received their 1685. influence. Immediately, on the accession of James the second, Ormond was ordered, under pretence of his incapacity from age and infirmities, to resign the government to two lords justices, Forbes, earl of Grenard, and Byle, primate and chancellor. As these were protestants of approved fidelity, the former of the high-church party, the latter a protector of the puritans, no suspicion could with justice be entertained of their willing concurrence in destructive measures: Yet so intolerable was the menacing exultation and insolence of the catholics, and such the terrors of the protestants, that Gra nard intimated his wish to resign. But James thinking his service necessary on the present occasion, sent him a letter written with his own hand, in

CHAP. which he assured him that nothing should be done in XXX. Ireland prejudicial to the protestant interest. Assur

Violences of the ca

tholics.

ances of this nature were assiduously communicated by the justices; so that when attempts were made in England and Scotland, by Monmouth and his adherents, against the government of James, the protestants of Ireland universally declared their abhorrence of these attempts, and their resolution to support the reigning monarch. Conformably with these sentiments, the army of Ireland, composed of protestants, marched with alacrity to the north, ready to embark for Scotland, if necessary, to act against the earl of Argyle, who had raised there an insurrection in favour of Monmouth.

Vexatiously disappointed by this loyalty of the protestants, designing men among the catholics, who had fondly expected some commotion, fabricated stories of plots formed for insurrection and nocturnal massacre. The catholics abandoned their habitations in the night from this imaginary danger. Except some of the vulgar, who were deceived by malignant reports, this terror was wholly feigned to load the objects of their enmity with odium, and to justify future severities against them. Yet to allay the ferment, thus artificially raised, the justices found themselves obliged to issue a proclamation against night-mecting, a species of offence unknown to the party accused. The king soon began to display gradually his project. By a letter to the lords justices and council he required the disarming of the militia of Ireland, who were all protestants, under pretence that the contagion of Monmouth's rebellion

XXX.

rebellion was extensively diffused. The consternation CHAP. of these men, dreading to be exposed defenceless to a barbarous enemy, was augmented by the inteinperate triumph of their rivals, who threatened them with the vengeance of government, if they should in the least betray their rebellious designs, by retaining any arms, even of their own property. The justices, apprehensive of some commotion from despair, exerted themselves to persuade a cheerful compliance with the order, and were every where obeyed.

informers.

The apprehensions of the protestants had been Tories and too well founded. They were immediately infested by the robberies and atrocious cruelties of the savage banditti called tories. The evil was so manifest, great, and urgent, that the earl of Clarendon, appointed lord lieutenant, was empowered to restore some arms to persons most exposed and most fit to be trusted; but his caution prevented him from so speedy and alert an exercise of this power as the urgency of the case required. The unfortunate protestants became also a prey to another set of miscreants more detestable still. Numbers of informers suddenly appeared in various quarters, who tortured their inventions for plausible fictions of treason, or words imagined to have been spoken, years before, against the king when he was duke of York. The lord lieutenant saw clearly through the falsehood of these multiplied informations, by which so many innocent men were cruelly harrassed; yet he could not venture openly to discourage them, as the king retained an unprincely resentment of offences committed

CHAP. Committed against him before his accession, and as XXX. he affected a particular jealousy of the protestants

Violent proceedings,

of Ireland.

Clarendon had been commanded, on his assumpof the king. tion of the Irish government; to declare that his 1685. Majesty had no intention to alter the acts of settle

1686.

ment; but the catholics, without attempting as yet directly to subvert these acts, prepared a petition for the relief of those who had suffered by them, in which they requested a general reversal of the outlawries occasioned by the rebellion of the year sixteen hundred and forty-one. This petition, if granted in its full extent, must have been considered as the previous step to the utter subversion of all establishments of property. Preparatory to such an end might seem the arrangements now made. In place of primate Boyle, Sir Charles Porter was suddenly appointed chancellor, a man from whom implicit submission was expected, on account of his distress in pecuniary matters. In the place of three protestant judges, removed without the least objection to their conduct, were three Irish catholics raised to the bench, in utter contempt of the existing laws, Nugent, Daly, and Rice; the last not unexceptionable in character. These new judges, and some catholic lawyers, were admitted into the privy council; an honour so unusual to men of their rank, that Rice hesitated, and Nagle, an active lawyer, declined it, as interfering with his professional business. The revenues of the see of Cashel and other vacant sees were reserved for the maintenance of Romish bishops;

bishops; and all prelates of this profession were di- CHAP. rected to appear publicly in the habit of their order. The protestant clergy were interdicted from preaching on subjects of religious controversy; and in this particular their conduct was watched very strictly.

Talbot had been created earl of Tyrconnel, and, immediately on the suppression of Monmouth's rebellion, the king had been petitioned by the Romish clergy of Ireland to establish this earl in such authority, as might secure them in the exercise of their functions. But even the violent James thought the measure too violent to raise this new earl at that time to the office of chief governor. In the following year, however, he was sent with a power independent of the lord lieutenant, to command and regulate the army, and with particular orders for the admission of catholics to the freedom of corporations, and the offices of sheriffs and justices of the peace. Tyrconnel's instructions implied no more with respect to the army, than that all the king's subjects indiscriminately, without regard to religious profession, should be admitted to serve; yet this lord gave strict orders, that none but catholics should be admitted. Protestant officers and soldiers were, with circumstances of contumely and cruelty, dismissed; and their places filled exclusively with real papists, those who entertained the highest notion of the papal authority. The vulgar, in their surprizing ignorance, when they had taken the oath of fidelity, imagined that they had sworn to be faithful only to the pope

and