tions, by the last of which he summoned a parliament to meet at Dublin on the seventh day of May; which did meet, and sat from that day to the twelfth of July, and then adjourned to the twelfth of November following.

After these acts the scene changed to open warfare. The reduction of the protestants in the north who had declared for William was the first object of the attention of James, who determined to march to Derry, and appear in person before their walls. The defenders of Derry and Enniskillen supported the cause of the revolutionists against James's forces till the arrival of an English army of forty thousand men under count Schomberg, which was afterwards commanded by William in person.

his

Ireland at this time, exhausted by unhappy wars, could not supply James with the money necessary for purposes, and among the acts of his short reign in that kingdom there was one which has fixed a peculiar odium upon his character. In defiance of law, reason, and humanity, he seized the tools and engines of one Moore, who by virtue of a patent of the late king en

joyed the right of a copper coinage in Ireland, and es‐ tablished a mint in Dublin and Limerick. Brass and copper of the basest kind, old cannon, broken bells, household utensils, were assiduously collected; and from every pound weight of such vile materials, valued at four-pence, pieces were coined and circulated to the amount of five pounds in nominal value. By the first proclamation they were made current in all payments to and from the king and the subjects of the realm, excepting the duties on importation of foreign goods, money lent in trust, or due by mortgages, bills, or bonds; and James promised, that when this money should be called in, he would receive it in all payments, or make full satisfaction in gold or silver. His soldiers were now paid in this coin, it was forced oa the protestant traders, the nominal value was raised by subsequent proclamations, the original restrictions were removed, and this base money was ordered to be received in all kinds of payments. As brass and copper grew scarce, it was made of still viler materials, of tin and pewter. It was obtruded on the protestants with many circumstances of insolence and cruelty. Old debts of one thousand pounds were discharged with old pieces of vile metal, amounting to thirty shil-

lings in intrinsic value. Attempts were made to purchase gold and silver at immoderate rates with the brass money but this was strictly forbidden on pain of death; and when protestants attempted to exonerate themselve of these heaps of coin by purchasing the sta ple commodities of the kingdom, James by proclamation set a rate on these commodities, demanding them at this rate, returning his brass on the proprietors, and with all the meanness of a trader exported them to France. It appeared indeed in the end, that James was the only gainer by this iniquitous project, and that in the final course of circulation his own party became possessed of the greatest part of this adulterated coin, just at the time when William had power to suppress it.

William arrived at Carrickfergus attended, by prince George of Denmark, the young duke of Ormond, and -others. His military genius prompted him, and the distracted state of England, together with the formidable preparations of France, obliged him, to a vigoTous prosecution of the war; and when some cautious councils were suggested by his officers, he rejected

them with indignation.

he, "to let grass grow

"I came not to Ireland," said ' under my feet."

Six days had elapsed from the time of William's landing, when James received the first intelligence that a prince, who he confidently believed must be detained in England by faction and discontent, was already on his march to meet him. To particularise the events of this civil war, would far exceed our proposed limits: the battle of the Boyne, which was fought on the first of July sixteen hundred and ninety, turned the scale of the kingdom: there William, although he commanded a considerable superiority of forces, attended to the duties of a vigilant, steady, and intrepid general: he shared the danger of his army, encouraging it by his presence and example, even after he had been wounded, and had been pressed by his officers to retire; whilst James stood at a secure distance, a quiet spectator of the contest for his crown; so fearful of his enemy, or so diffident of himself or his troops, that his chief concern and preparation before the battle were to secure his personal retreat. He fled with precipitancy to Dublin, and from thence to Waterford, where a frigate was ready to convey him back to

France; leaving the beaten relics of his army to make the best stand against the enemy, and procure from him the best terms their personal bravery would entitle them to. The Lish army under Tyrconnel and Sarsfield made a very vigorous resistance against a superior well disciplined army acting under the first general in Europe, until they surendered the town of Limerick, which was their last hold, on the third of October sixteen hundred and ninety-one, upon artieles which sufficiently proved the estimation in which king William held their valour and steadiness, even after the many advantages which he had gained over them. Thus terininated the final effort of the old Irish inhabitants for the recovery of the ancient power, and the slender relics of Irish possessions now became the subject of fresh confiscation. From the report made by the commissioners appointed by the parlia ment of England in sixteen hundred and ninety-eight, it appears that the Irish subjects outlawed for the rebellion of sixteen hundred and eighty-eight amounted to three thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight, and that their Irish possesions, as far as could be computed, were of the annual value of two hundred and eleven thousand six hundred and twenty-three pounds; comprising one million sixty thousand seven hundred and