XXVIII. fiaftical. Having laid their doubts and objections CHAP. before Ormond in a petition concerning the bill of fettlement, and having received an affurance from him that every thing fhould be explained and amended according to their wishes, by the difcretionary power entrusted to the chief governor and council, or by new acts if neceffary, they at length, without one diffenting voice, paffed this famous act, by which an invariable rule was finally fixed for the settlement of the kingdom, and the general regulation of the rights claimed by the feveral interefts of its occupants. Great obftacles had arifen to the arrangements neceffary for this general fettlement from various causes, especially the diminution of the fund for reprifals by profufe grants of the king, particularly to his brother, the duke of York, on whom he had conferred all the eftates of the regicides. Of a fimilar nature were fome provifos in the act of explanation, particularly one by which the marquis of Antrim was reinftated in his property, by special favour of the king, through the intereft of the queen mother, after a full conviction of his treasonable practices against his Majefty, and his own acknowledgment of his guilt, with a petition to the royal mercy. After the completion of the act, many evafions were attempted in its execution by the procuring of grants and letters from the king, which, with a multitude of perplexed cafes, gave perpetual employment XXVIII. CHAP. ployment for many years to Ormond, to whom, as lord lieutenant, affifted by the privy council, the five commiffioners, appointed to execute the ftatute, were ordered to refort for advice in all affairs of doubt and difficulty. CHAP. CHA P. XXIX. Act prohibiting the importation of Irish cattle into Commercial affairs Remonftrance-Anti-remonftrants -Alarms of the proteftants- -Catholic petition--Address of the English parliament—Administration of Effex Conduct of Ormond-Attempt of Blood-Restoration of Ormond to the lord lieutenancy- -Popish plot Defective evidences- Oliver Plunket Steadiness and caution of Ormond-Death of Offory Change of measures-Fluctuation-Death of Charles the fecond. act. Non-im WHEN, by the acts of fettlement and explana- CHAP. tion, tranquility feemed established, and a firm XXIX. foundation laid for profperity in future, the new English colony of Ireland felt immediately the bad portation effects of national jealousy, narrow, impolitic, and 1666. abfurd, fo often difplayed by the English parliament, and foon afterward the ftill more baleful confequences of plans formed by unprincipled ftatesmen for the establishment of defpotifm on the bafis of From several caufes obviously obfervable, popery. particularly CHAP. particularly religious perfecution which had driven XXXI. thousands of induftrious puritans to Holland and America, the rents of England had fuffered a diminution to the annual amount of near two hundred thousand pounds. The views of some courtiers, who wished to diftrefs the duke of Ormond in his government, and the vulgar inclination of many to difplay the fuperiority of the English over the Irish nation by oppreffive exertions of authority, confpired to reprefent this decrease to have been occafioned by the importation of Irish cattle; though the whole annual value of the cattle imported fell far fhort of the deficiency of rents; and though far greater numbers had been imported, before the civil wars of England, without the appearance of any fuch deficiency. So early as the year 1663 a temporary act had been paffed in England to prohibit the importation of any fat cattle after the first of July in every year; and in a parliament held at Oxford in 1665 a bill was prepared for the total prohibition of Irish cattle of every defcription from the English markets. The bill was oppofed by arguments drawn from natural justice; from the rights of Englishmen, to which the English colony in Ireland was entitled; the misery to which the people of Ireland must be reduced by its operation; the bad confequences of driving the Irish into the neceffity of trading with other countries; the detriment to the trade of England, whofe manufactures the Irish, deprived of their chief branch of commerce, would be no longer able to purchase; the failure of revenue in Ireland by XXIX. by the poverty thus occafioned, and the confequent CHAP. infecurity of the kingdom from the non-payment of the army. Reasoning was altogether vain. To fome gentlemen of Ireland, who appeared for their country, a copy of the bill was denied. It paffed the house of commons by a fmall majority, but the parliament was prorogued before it received the fanction of the lords. It was refumed however with still more violence in the next feffion, and debated among the peers with a fcandalous indecorum. In the preamble to the bill the commons had declared the importation a nuisance ; inftead of which the words detriment and mischief were propofed in the upper houfe to be inferted as an amendment. Ashley, who afterwards became earl of Shaftesbury, with affected moderation recommended the terms felony or premunire; to which the chancellor, lord Clarendon, replied that the importation might as reafonably be pronounced adultery. At the moment when the English parliament was committing an outrage on reafon as well as equity, the duke of Buckingham exclaimed that "none could oppose the bill but fuch as had Irish eftates or Irish understandings." Receiving a challenge for this national infult from the gallant lord Offory, Buckingham, instead of fighting, complained to the house; and Offory was for a short time committed to the tower. As the king had involved himself in war with the Dutch and with France, and could obtain no fupply without the paffing of the bill, he found himself obliged to give it his sanction, though VOL. II. E he |