XXX.

CHAP. and gracefulness of manners, destitute of any one ingredient of principle or virtue, but fortunately not obstinately persevering in pernicious plans, was succeeded by his brother the duke of York, under the name of James the second, a bigoted, obstinate, and intolerant papist, whose ultimate object was despotic power, and the exclusive establishment of his own mode of worship throughout his dominions. By a papist I mean one devoted without reserve to the papal authority, while the term Roman catholic may be understood in a less confined signification, as possibly doubting, or not admitting, in some points, the sovereign pontiff's jurisdiction.

James had soon an opportunity of gratifying his inhuman spirit, and taking preliminary steps for the accomplishment of his main design. James, duke of Monmouth, his illegitimate nephew, finding himself persecuted abroad by the influence of the new king, sought safety by a desperate attempt at home, where he was greatly beloved by the people; and, landing in the west of England with a few followers, was joined by some thousands, and claimed the crown as next heir to his father, the late king. He was defeated, taken prisoner, and executed. Numerous and horrid cruelties were, after the sup+ pression of this short-lived insurrection, committed through the country, first by military outrage, and afterwards under the forms of law; and the king was furnished early with an excuse to fill his armies with catholic officers and soldiers. He proceeded with such violence and precipitation in the forwarding of his plan, that the tory party of England, hitherto

the

the openly professed advocates of unlimited preroga- CHAP. tive in the sovereign, found themselves obliged, for xxx... 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.

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

.XXX.

CHAP. and their religion, and declared that they had been forbidden by their priests to take any other oath. On the remonstrance of Clarendon against these exclusive orders, Tyrconnel, with a meanness equal to his insolence, denied that he had issued them; but lord Roscommon convicted him to his face, declaring that he and other officers had received from him these commands in terms altogether explicit and peremptory.

Tyrconnel was however permitted to proceed unrestrained in his violences; and the king gave a positive refusal to Clarendon to repeat his former assurances for the maintenance of the acts of settlement by a proclamation. Many Romanists declared that in a few months not a protestant would be left in the army; and that the catholics, having obtained arms, would soon also obtain their lands. Some of the old proprietors cautioned the tenants against the payment of rent to English landlords, and some Romish clergy forbad the people to pay tythes to protestant incumbents. Tyrconnel, accompanied by Nagle, the ablest lawyer of the catholics, repaired to England to prevail on the king to invalidate at least, if not completely to annul, the acts of settlement: but the representations of some members of the privy council defeated the design for the present; and Nagle's abilities were chiefly employed in writing a treatise against these acts, styled a letter from Coventry. Clarendon, whose principle of absolute submission allowed him not to refuse the execution of any commands of the king, how much soever contrary to his conscience, but only to remonstrate,

and

XXX.

and to give as little offence and alarm as he could in CHAP. the execution, was accused, without regard to candour or veracity, of mal-administration. Though his defence was clear and satisfactory, he was judged not a fit instrument for the projects entertained, and his removal from the Irish government was consequently resolved.

1686.

By the recommendation of the earl of Sunder-Tyrconnel land, the king's prime minister, who thereby flat-lord deputy. tered his master's prejudices, the viceroyalty of Ireland was committed, with the title of lord-deputy, to Tyrconnel, who stipulated, for this favour, to pay Sunderland an annual pension out of the profits of his government. Every step of Tyrconnel's exaltation is truly said to have been gained by bribery and flattery, and enjoyed without temper, justice, or decency. Attached with violent zeal to the most slavish principles of submission to the pope, he was yet regardless of religion, profligate in manners, and profane in conversation. He was virulent in censure without the least attention to truth; precipitate in his councils; furious, implacable, and persevering in his resentments; vulgarly insolent to his superiors; to his inferiors brutally tyrannical. He had successively proposed to assassinate Oliver Cromwell and the duke of Ormond, but his want of spirit had proved a counterpoise to his want of principle. From such a governor, delegated by such a prince, oppression the most atrocious was naturally expected. Numbers of protestants who had before abandoned the kingdom, where their lives and properties were ex

༞་

posed

XXX.

CHAP. posed to the malice of the vilest of mankind; and now fifteen hundred families more, citizens of Dublin, accompanied lord Clarendon in his departure to England. The army was almost wholly formed of catholics; and the protestant officers, deprived, without the least compensation, of the commissions which they had purchased, withdrew to Holland to the prince of Orange, by whom they were protected and employed.

Tyrconnel's Instead of Sir Charles Porter, who, contrary to

arrange

ments.

expectation, had refused to be an instrument in illegal schemes, Sir Alexander Fitton was appointed chancellor, a man of infamous character convicted of forgery, but a favourite of the king by his having turned catholic. In the place of Sir William Domville, a protestant, long distinguished by his loyalty and abilities, Nagle, the Romish lawyer, was invested with the office of attorney general. Nugent and Rice were advanced to the station of chief judges; Irish catholics succeeded to the places which they had occupied; and only three protestants were suffered to remain on the benches, Keating and Worth, who were supposed implicitly obedient, and Lyndon, a person mean and insignificant. To fill the corporations with Romanists a compendious method was 1687. quickly assumed. The lord-deputy demanded without ceremony the surrendry of their charter from the citizens of Dublin, and, on their hesitation, furiously threatened them with the vengeance of his master. Their petition to the king, presented by their recorder, who was introduced by Ormond,

was