CHAPTER VI.

The Acts of Settlement and Explanation.

THE great business of the Irish parliament was the formation of an act for the settlement of the kingdom pursuant to the king's declaration. In the House of Commons it was resolved to adhere strictly to the terms of that instrument, which had been worded so as to exclude almost all the Irish; but the lords would by no means concur in such a determination. They naturally sympathized with the ancient gentry of the land, and felt indignant at seeing their properties usurped by men of low extraction, by whose vulgarity they were disgusted, by whose presumption they were subjected to annoyance and insult. At the head of those who determined to do something for the old proprietors stood the Earl of Kildare, a nobleman possessing the old undaunted spirit of the Geraldines-strong in hereditary power and historic name-fortified by extensive connexions-and supported by Ormond, now a duke, whose proxy he held. The principal object to which the attention of this party was directed was the enlargement of the fund for reprisals. It was found that the commissioners had been guilty of the most scandalous practices in granting these; that they had rejected the claims of those whom the king had nominated, and those who served under his ensigns abroad and shared the calamities of his exile, under pretence that there was no means of reprising the present possessors; and that they had clandestinely granted the lands allotted for reprisals to their particular friends. The lords insisted on a clause for the revocation of these fraudulent grants.

Another and more important clause tended greatly to diminish the claims of the adventurers. The English parliament, not content with their lavish distribution of the lands of Ireland by the 17th of Charles I.,* acted on what they called the Doubling Ordinance. This document declared that whoever advanced one-fourth more than his original adventure should have the whole doubled on account, and receive lands as if the double sum had been actually paid; and that, if the adventurer refused to advance this fourth, any other person, on paying it, should reap the same advantage on repaying the adventurer the sum he had originally advanced! Sir John Clotworthy, who had been lately created Lord Massarene, was a prime agent in procuring the enactment of this ordinance. He had, at the time, purchased up the shares of several adventurers; and he now zealously contended that the king was bound by the terms of the agreement. Kildare replied that this ordinance could not be considered of the same validity as an act of parliament; that the money raised in obedience to it had been used to pay the English army then fighting against the king: and that it was absurd to require the sacrifice of at least one hundred and fifty thousand acres, for which no consideration whatever had been received. In spite of Massarene's opposition, Kildare's clause, enacting that the adventurers should be satisfied only for the money advanced, and no more, was carried. The heads of the bill were at length finally determined. A copy was laid before the lords-justices, and by them transmitted to England: whither went also commissioners from both houses of parliament, and accredited agents, to plead the cause of the Irish Catholics.

London became now the scene of the intrigues by which the fate of Irish property was to be decided.

See the commencement of this volume.

The adventurers and soldiers raised a considerable sum of money to bribe the English council; and the Irish House of Commons had secured the favour of the Duke of Ormond by voting him a present of thirty thousand pounds. A stronger ground of hope was the favour of the English people, now fully awakened to the importance of the contest, and more prejudiced than ever against the Irish and the papists by the mass of calumnies which, through the means of their numerous friends and relatives, the Cromwellians zealously circulated throughout England. The Irish had neither money nor friends; nor did they atone for this deficiency by patience or prudence. Ormond, anxious to secure an interest with all parties, judiciously advised them to assume an humble tone, to appeal to the king's mercy, and to win favour by promises of future submissive behaviour. The Irish suspected the duke's sincerity, and so far were perfectly right; but they rejected his advice and spurned his assistance, in which they were decidedly wrong. With the fatality that marked all their measures, they chose as their patron Richard Talbot, afterward Earl of Tyrconnel, who had been a companion of the king in exile, and was a personal friend of the Duke of York, but who on this occasion greatly overrated his own influence and that of his patron. The Irish rested their claims upon right and justice. They contrasted their unshaken loyalty with the conduct of those who had brought their monarch to a scaffold; and boldly claimed the fulfilment of the articles of peace that had been established in 1648. This demand was utterly inconsistent with the scheme of establishing an English interest in Ireland, of which Charles declared himself the patron; and the Irish rightly attributing this determination to the Duke of Ormond sent Talbot to remonstrate with him on the subject Talbot expostulated more like a soldier than a statesman. He challenged the duke to single combat.

Ormond had no inclination to fight; he therefore complained to the council. Talbot was instantly committed to the Tower, and only released on making humble submission.

This was a bad omen for the Irish, and might have shown them the danger of urging their claims with offensive vehemence. But they still persevered, and thus displeased Charles, who looked upon every concession made to them as an act of free grace and favour, and offended the privy council, many of whom were personally concerned in waging war against the late king. In the mean time, the popular clamour against the Irish was increased by every artifice that avarice and malignity could devise; and as the English happened just then to labour under one of their periodical fits of insanity, they were easily made the dupes of designing men. Tales the most absurd were invented and believed-calumnies not merely improbable, but physically impossible, were not found too gross for public credulity. The lie refuted to-day was simply repeated on the morrow, and met general credence: again it was proved false, and again as regularly proclaimed as a fact. Charles had formed his determination from the very beginning, and had only protracted the discussion in the hope of finding some reasonable pretext for dismissing the Irish claimants. The Cromwellians saw his difficulties, and chance supplied them with the means of extrication. One of the agents appointed by the Irish was Sir Nicholas Plunket, who had taken an active part in the ruinous conferences at Jamestown, and whose name was actually signed to the tender of the crown of Ireland to the pope. A draft of this document, how obtained Heaven only knows, was procured by the Cromwellian agents, and laid before the council. Charles affected indignation and surprise to perfection. An order was made that no further petitions should be received from the Irish, who had been already fully heard; VOL. II.-G

and Sir Nicholas Plunket was forbidden to appear in his majesty's presence. The bill, including the severe qualifications of innocency, received the royal sanction, and soon after passed both houses of the Irish parliament.

The public history of this important transaction is not very intelligible. It is difficult to discover the reasons that induced the king to prefer the enemies of the royal authority to those who had been the most zealous friends of himself and his family. The dread of a new civil war, from the excited feelings of the English people, will scarcely account for the readiness with which he consented to the arrangement, though it certainly was a very influential motive; and the scheme of establishing an English interest in Ireland, could have little charms for a monarch whose entire reign showed an utter disregard of the interests of the nations that were cursed by such a ruler. We do not possess any secret memoirs of the early part of this disgraceful reign; and the private documents that have been collected are so filled with notorious falsehoods, that we cannot place confidence in a single statement that they contain. Indolence, and an anxiety to put an end to perplexing contests, was probably the principal cause of his precipitate decision.*

Besides confirming and extending the declaration and instructions, and providing for the appointment of commissioners to hear and decide claims, the act provided for the restoration of all church lands, and the estates of Trinity College. Power was given to the commissioners, during seven years, to plant Protestant colonies on lands not restored; and they were granted full authority to erect another college, to be of the University of Dublin, to be called by

Some of the Protestant historians gravely assign as the cause, and the justification of the king's robbery and ingratitude, that," being a Protestant king, he could not trust papist subjects;" and many years have not elapsed since such an argument would have been deemed. conclusive. But, unfortunately for this reasoning, Charles was at the time secretly a papist himself.