Richard Cromwell confirmed his brother Henry in the government of Ireland by the new title of lord lieutenant.

A. D.

1658.

He summoned the members chosen for Ireland to this parliament: the republicans opposed the admission of thirty men known to be advocates for the ruling power; but the court, with difficulty, at length prevailed that they should sit and vote. The news of the dissolution of this parliament, and the intrigues of the royal party, was first brought to Ireland by sir Charles Coote. The lieutenant exerted himself with vigour to support the tottering power of his brother. On the restoration of the rump parliament he laboured to prevent the disorders which might arise from this sudden revolution. He issued a proclamation to preserve the peace; and, on consulting with his officers, sent agents to the council of state with proposals relative to the civil and military government of Ireland. They were referred to the parliament as it was called, who made some ordinances for the benefit of the adventurers and soldiers: and at the same time resolved that the government of Ireland should be again administered by commissioners, that Henry Cromwell should be recalled, and Ludlow appointed to command the forces of the commonwealth in that kingdom. The sentiments of Henry Cromwell were those of pa-sive obedience to the parliament, but the new commissioners, doubting his sincerity. expected opposition on his part, and prepared measures accordingly. They however were received without any obstacle into the castle, while Henry retired to a house in the Phoenix park, having administered the government with such disregard to his private interests, that he could not immediately

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immediately command so much money as would defray the expense of a voyage to England.

From the moment of the abdication of Richard Cromwell, the royalists of Ireland conceived the most sanguine hope of the king's speedy restoration. This happy event soon followed. Charles was informed of the favourable appearances which were manifested, and but for the great expectation which at that time was cherished of the success of Monk in England, would certainly have repaired to Ireland, whither he was earnestly invited by lord Broghill, sir Charles Coote, and others, who now espoused the cause of royalty. The body of the nation at length caught the flame of loyalty, and waited with impatience for the declaration of Breda. This was readily accepted; and king Charles II. was proclaimed with every manifestation of joy in all the great towns of Ireland. The situation of Ireland at the restora

A. D.

tion is more easily described than credit- 1660. ed: a people who had continued in arms staunch to the royal cause nearly three years longer than any other part of the British empire, reduced to two thirds of their population by their contests with the regicides, by massacres, famine, and pestilence, stripped of any armed force for defence or attack, expatriated at home, and divested of the remnants of their antient inheritances. Thus were these unfortunate wrecks of the native Irish, the devoted victims to their loyalty, penned up like hunted beasts in the devastated wilds of Conaught, hardly existing in the gregarian and proniscuous possession and cultivation of the soil, without the means of acquiring live or dead stock, ind wanting even the necessary utensils of husandry. Surely, if ever Ireland had a call of grati

tude

tude on the crown of England, it was at the restoration of Charles II.: yet the first legislators after the restoration was established confirmed the rebellious regicides in the wages of their sanguinary rebellion. Broghill, who was created earl of Orrery, and sir Charles Coote, created earl of Monmouth, were nominated lords justices of Ireland; and sir Maurice Eustace, an old and particular friend of Ormond, was appointed lord high chancellor. By the advice and management of these persons with Ormond was the whole settlement of the kingdom conducted. These persons were all known and determined enemies to! the Irish catholics, and their measures were such as might from that circumstance naturally be expected. They contrived to call a new parliament, in which it was enacted no member should be qualified to sit in the house of commons but such as had taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy; while the speaker of the house of lords (the archbishop of Armagh) proposed that all the members thereof should receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper from his grace's own hands. With the like view of preventing the Irish catholics from sending over agents to England to counteract the state commissioners who were soliciting the English parliament to except the Irish catholics out of the act of oblivion and general pardon, the convention at Dublin put in execution all the severe laws and ordinances made by the usurpers, by which the catholics were prevented from going from one province to another to transact their business, such as had the more considerable estates were impr soned, and all their letters to and from the capita were intercepted: the gentry were forbidden to meet, and were thereby deprived of the means

3

agreeing

agreeing upon agents to take care of their interests, and of an opportunity to represent their grievances at the foot of the throne. The reports of popish plots and conspiracies were resorted to for the purpose of alarming the English parliament into the measure of excluding the Irish catholics from the general pardon, and quieting possessions Ireland. Charles published a proclamation for apprehending and prosecuting all Irish rebels (a term then used as synonymous with Irish catholics), and commanding that adventurers, soldiers, and others, who were possessed of any lands, should not be disturbed in their possessions until legally evicted, or his majesty by advice of parliament should take further order therein.

All historians agree, that the most aggravated, extravagant, and unfounded reports against the Irish were brought to England, and there received with avidity, and circulated with every accumulation of inventive malice by incredible numbers of projectors, suitors, sufferers, claimants, solicitors, pretenders, and petitioners, who thronged the court, and looked to the Irish forfeitures as the sure fund for realising their various speculations. Such, however, was the effect of these manoeuvres and other means, that when the state commisioners from Ireland petitioned the parliament of England to exclude the Irish catholics from the general indemnity, the duke of Ormond opposed it, alleging that his majesty reserved the ognizance of that matter to himself, though it was notorious that the king had some days before n his speech informed the parliament, that he expected in relation to the Irish that they would have 1 care of his honour, and of the promise he had nade them. This promise, received from Breda through

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through the marquis of Ormond, stated explicitly, that he would perform all grants and concessions which he had either made them or promised them by that peace; and which, as he had new instances of their loyalty and affection to him, he should study rather to enlarge than diminish, or infringe in the least degree. Nevertheless the Irish catholics were excluded from the general indemnity, to their ruin, the exultation and triumph of their enemies, and the astonishment of all impartial men.

Ormond was now reinstated in the government of Ireland, and by him were framed and settled the king's declaration, the acts of settlement and explanation: by him were made out the lists of persons excepted by name, amounting to about five hundred, after the ruinous effects of the act of settlement. By him was recommended the court of claims, and under his influence were appointed the first members of it, whose interested partiality and corruption became too rank even for their patron to countenance. He then substituted men of real respectability to fill their places, but so stinted them in their time for investigating the claims of the dispossessed proprietors, that they were compelled to apply for further time to go through several thousand unheard claims, which Ormond opposed, and rejected a clause in the bill for the relief of these unheard claimants.

When the sympathy and justice of his royal master balanced between the claims of the English protestants and the Irish catholics, Ormond's efforts to bias the king in favour of the former could not fail to be successful. Conscious as he was of that monarch's disposition and secret wishes to fa vour the catholics, he did all he could to raise di

visions