"truft and duty." Soon after the act of resumption paffed, and the violence done to the king's feelings in giving the royal affent to it, made a deep impreffion on his mind and fpirits, from which he never rallied to the hour of his death. His majesty's extreme displeasure was expreffed in his fpeech to the commons, when they addreffed him in relation to the Irish forfeitures. "Gentlemen, I was not led by inclination, but thought myfelf obliged "in juftice to reward thofe, who had ferved well and particularly in the "reduction of Ireland out of the eftates forfeited to me by the rebellion "there, &c." Which anfwer, when the speaker reported it, the commons fo highly refented, that they refolved, "that whoever advised it, had used "his utmost endeavours to create a misunderstanding and jealoufy between "the king and his people." The foreness of King William on this occafion is fairly accounted for by the observation, that "whereas the late king, "who came over here a perfect ftranger to our laws and to our people, regardless of pofterity, wherein he was not likely to furvive, thought he "could no better ftrengthen a new title, than by purchafing friends at the expence of every thing, which it was in his power to part with."‡

The principal, if not the only obftacle, which William had experienced in establishing himself completely on the throne, was the refiftance of King James's Irish fubjects. They were the first and last in the field in support of the houfe of Stuart: and although feveral penal and fevere laws were paffed during his reign against the Roman Catholics of Ireland, yet it is but justice to allow, that the royal affent given to them by King William, imported no perfonal disposition in that monarch to harafs or perfecute his Catholic fubjects on the fcore of religion. He is generally panegyrized for his spirit of toleration, on account of the act paffed in the very first year of his reign, for eafing his Proteftant diffenting fubjects from the penalties of

*3 vol. Parl. Hift. p. 122.

Swift's Hift. of the Four last Years of Ann, p. 240.

The late Earl of Clare in his speech so often referred to, (p. 25) speaking of this difference between the two parliaments, tells us, "that the English colony (a term strongly marking that the "Irish parliament was not then the representative of the Irish nation) however fore they might have "felt under the sharp rebuke of their countrymen, were too fenfible of the dangers by which they "were furrounded and their inability to encounter them, to puth this political quarrel to a breach with the English parliament.

§ 1 G. and M. c. 18. An Act for exempting their Majefties Prote&ant Subjects diffenting from the Church of England, from the Penalties of certain Laws.

feveral

feveral laws, which then affected them in common with the Roman Catholics. This, however congenial with the feelings of King William, who was himfelf a Calvinift or Prefbyterian, had been previoufly arranged by the party that brought him over. It appears certain from Harris's admiffion and the conftant claims of the Irish Catholics, that William had made them a folemn promise to procure them fuch further fecurity from parliament in the particular of religion, as might prevent them from any future disturbance on that account. In this, however, they were miferably difappointed, not perhaps from that monarch's want of fincerity and favourable difpofition towards them, but from his inability to refift the violence of the party, to which he was compelled to yield, to the fore annoyance of his own feelings. Had William been better treated by his English fubjects, he would have appeared more amiable in their eyes: for in Holland, where his temper was not ruffled by disappointment and oppofition, he was unexceptionably tolerant and univerfally beloved.* The unexpected death of the Duke of Glocefter, the fon of the Princefs Ann, in his feventeenth year, and the death of the late King James about the fame time, gave rife to the act, by which the crown was fettled on the house of Hanover, which was the last act paffed in this reign;† this and the fubfequent act of abjuration fecured the . Proteftant fucceffion. William's health had for fome time been on the decline, but his diffolution was immediately brought on from a fall from his horse, by which his collar bone was fractured. He died in the fifty-second year of his age, and the thirteenth year of his reign.

*Two principal caufes however concurred againft his being beloved by the generality of his Irish subjects: the first was the enactment of feveral penal laws against the Roman Catholics: the fecond was his ready co-operation with the parliament of England to ruin the woollen trade of Ireland. "I fhall," said his majesty to the English commons on the 2nd of July, 1698, " do all that lies in me to difcourage the woollen manufacture in Ireland."

+ This act paffed on the 7th of June, 1701. 13 Gul. c. 6. It is entituled, An Act for the further Security of his Majefty's perfon and the fucceflion of the Crown in the Proteftant Line, and for extinguishing the hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales, and all other pretenders, and their open and fecret abettors. This important event made little fenfation in Ireland, as the whole body of Roman Catholics, from whom alone any oppofition to it could have been expected, were excluded from the parliament and every interference with public affairs.

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CHAPTER II.

OF THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.'

ANN, the daughter of James II. who fucceeded William, was the last of the line of Stuart that filled the British throne. The glory of the British arms under the Duke of Marlborough has thrown a glare over the hiftorical pages of this fovereign's reign, that has almost obliterated the melancholy effects of the spirit of party, which infected it throughout. In the meridian heat of Whiggifin and Toryifm nothing was done in moderation: and few of the tranfactions of that day have reached us in a form unwarped by the prejudices of the narrators. Throughout every part of the British empire, except Ireland, the constitutional rights of the subject ebbed and flowed with the alternate prevalence of thefe oppofite parties. The Irish nation was doomed to fuffer under every Stuart: and the ingratitude of this monarch to them may have contributed not flightly to prevent them from relapfing into their former attachment, when other parts of the British empire rofe in rebellion in their fupport. It ftrongly marks the folly and unreafonablenefs of coupling the caufe of Popery with that of the Pretender, that in the only part of the British empire, which generally fubmitted to the fpiritual power of the Pope, namely Ireland, an arm has not been raised in aid of the Stuarts, since the acceffion of the houfe of Hanover to the British throne.

The queen was alternately led down the ftream either by the Whigs or the Tories, as their respective parties gained the afcendancy in parliament: the whole political fyftem of her reign was a state of conteft, in which the party in power oppofed and thwarted their antagonifts by measures of extreme violence. This nearly equal conteft of the rival parties in England, kept not the fame equilibrium in Ireland. The great mafs of the people was forced or frightened out of any political interference with state affairs. The queen, who held her crown against the claims of her brother by the tenure of Proteftantifm, found herfelf forced to bury the attachments of natural affection under her zeal for the Church, and became forward in yielding to the cries of both parties in oppreffing the great body of

her

*

her Catholic fubjects of Ireland. No crimes, no new offences, no attempts against the government were laid to their charge: and a new code of unparalleled rigor was impofed upon this fuffering people. They had formerly been deprived of their inheritances, they were now prevented from ever again acquiring an inch of land in that kingdom: and they were fubjected to further penalties and difabilities for profefling the Roman Catholic religion. Nothing can more ftrongly difplay the abject and abandoned state of the body of the Irish Catholics at this period, than that no man in either houfe of parliament either dared or chofe to stand up in their favor to oppofe that act of refined and ingenious rigor for preventing the further growth of Popery. Some individuals of the houfe of commons, who could not altogether reconcile the act to their confciences, by the most difgraceful cafuiftry affected to clear themselves of refponfibility, by refigning their feats to others of a more pliant difpofition. Refignations on this fcore became fo frequent, that the house came to a refolution, "that the excufing of members at their own "requeft, from the fervice of the houfe, and thereupon iffuing out new writs "to elect other members to ferve in their places, was of dangerous confequence, and tended to the fubverfion of the conftitution of parliament.” And it was afterwards refolved unanimoufly, "that it might be the stand"ing order of the houfe, that no new writs for electing members of parlia"ment in place of members excufing themfelves from the fervice of the houfe, do iffue at the defire of fuch members, notwithstanding any former precedents to the contrary." So violent was the tide of prejudice against

66

* Without entering into a nauseating detail of this new penal code, fuffice it to remark with Mr. Burke, "That all the penal laws of that unparalleled code of oppreffion, which were made after "that laft event (the revolution) were manifeftly the effects of national hatred and fcorn towards "a conquered people, whom the victors delighted to trample upon and were not at all afraid to provoke." (Let. to Lang. p. 44.) And page 87, "You abhorred it, as I did, for its vicious perfection. For I must do it justice. It was a complete system full of coherence and confiftency : "well digefted and well compofed in all its parts. It was a machine of wife and elaborate con"trivance; and as well fitted for the oppreflion, impoverishment, and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity "of man."

+ These members inftead of oppofing what they condemned, like Pilate washed their hands before the people, in proof of their innocence. This prevaricating fyftem of debasement has been fince too frequently followed by the temporizing or venal feceffion of members who wanted the effrontery to fupport a particular measure, which they left to be carried by the votes of their lefs punctilious subftitutes.

the Catholics at this time in Ireland, that the British cabinet themselves dared not oppose the very rigor and feverity which they difapproved of. The paffing of this bill affords the most notable instance of Ireland's fuffering from the abject ftratagem of attempting by finifter and fecret means, what the honor and justice of the nation called upon the ministers to effect in an open and manly manner. The queen was at this time in alliance with the emperor, and upon the ftrength of it had interceded with him for certain indulgencies on behalf of his Proteftant fubjects: it appeared therefore an ill-judged moment to throw fuch an oppreffive load of perfecution upon fo large a body of men of his religious perfuafion within her ftates. Her minifters feared the party who had propofed the measure, amongst whom were many diffenters of great power and influence: they dared not openly to oppose it, but from the ungrateful duplicity of Stuart policy devised the following expedient. They fuperadded to the bill, already furcharged with cruelty, a claufe, by which all perfons in Ireland were rendered incapable of any employment under the crown, or of being magiftrates in any city, who should not, agreeably to the English Test Act, receive the sacrament according to the ufage of the Church of Ireland. To this it was prefumed the diffenters would not have fubmitted: and fo the bill would be loft. The bafe experiment failed, and this unintended feverity fell upon the Proteftant Diffenters and the Roman Catholics, not because they merited punishment, but because a timid and infincere miniftry had reforted to duplicity and deceit to fcreen them from it.*

When this act came into the house of commons loaded with all the feverity of intemperate if not factious zeal, and bending under fuch additional mass of rigor, as the British cabinet had heaped upon it for preventing its paffing, no oppofition whatever appears to have been raised against it in parliament: no divifion to have taken place on a fingle point in any stage of its progress through the houses. In as much as it was conceived by all perfons comprized in the articles of Limerick to be a direct violation of thofe articles, Lord Kingfland and Colonel Brown, with feveral other Roman Catholic gentlemen, petitioned to be heard by counsel against it, which was granted.

* Burnett fays, "It was hoped by those who got this clause added to the bill, that those in "Ireland who promoted it most, would now be the lefs fond of it, when it had fuch a weight hung "to it." Hiftory of his own Times, 2 vol. 214.

This was Lord Godolphin's miniftry.

After