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of Cambridge, at his majesty's special instance, being succeeded in them all by the duke of Monmouth. The earl of Danby, the lord treasurer, was now the chief minister, and declared himself a patron of the church of England. All Romish priests that were the king's subjects had orders to depart the realm, without exempting even such as officiated for the queen and foreign ambassadors in their chapels. All Roman catholics whatever were forbid the court; and the laws being put in execution against other nonconformists, conventicles were suppressed. This was to put the parliament into good humour, and to prepare matters for the opening of the session, which was to begin in April. The king, apprehensive that it might prove a troublesome one, desired earnestly that the duke 451 of Ormond would come over, and caused Mr. secretary Coventry to write to him on the subject. The Norwich frigate was ordered to fetch him from Waterford, and he came to London in April.

The change in the ministry had made none in his grace's situation at court: he still continued out of all appearance of favour. This occasioned his drawing up that long and excellent narrative of his comportment in his majesty's service, to vindicate his administration (particularly of the revenue) from the aspersions of lord Ranelagh, who had from Christmas 1670 undertaken to manage all the revenue of Ireland in a more advantageous manner to the king than it had ever been before. As this contains a clear account of the condition and management of that revenue during the time that the duke of Ormond was lord lieutenant, and is a full refutation of the insinuations, rather than charges, that had been artfully made use of by his enemies to prejudice the king against him, I have inserted it in the Appendix, No. XCII. He had taken the resolution of returning back to Ireland in August, and was preparing for that journey in order to secure a considerable concern of his

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own, which lay at stake, when his majesty sent for him to have his assistance in council. This obliged him to put off his journey, and leave his affairs in Ireland in more uncertainty than was convenient for him; but he submitted in obedience to the king's commands; otherwise he would hardly have been flattered into a stay by any arguments of his friends relating to the public. The business in which his advice was required was the composing of a new establishment for Ireland, and the letting of new farms of the revenue. The duke could not imagine for what reason he was now admitted to be present, after so long a dispensation with him in the Irish affairs, from which he had for some years been industriously excluded. He attended at the consideration of the several proposals made by different persons on those subjects, in hopes that the best offer and the best tenants would be at last accepted, and the revenue disposed of to the best and most proper uses. That made by Mr. George Pitt and his partners was in the duke's opinion the most advantageous of any to his majesty; and the debates on this subject gave occasion to the dispute with Ranelagh, who had made another proposal for farming the revenue.

Richard Jones, now viscount (and afterwards earl of) Ranelagh, was a man of good parts, great wit, and very little religion; had an head turned for projects, and was formed for intrigue, artful, insinuating, and designing, craving and greedy of money, yet at the same time profuse and lavish. His mother, a daughter of the first earl of Cork, had the same genius or taste for intrigue, and set up for a politician. She had assemblies of this set of men several nights in every week at her house, in which they used to consider of measures and lay schemes to put some men into places and dispossess others. Her son the lord Ranelagh had early obligations to the duke of Ormond, whose friendly and powerful interposition

made up the differences between him and his father. The duke had taken him into his particular protection, and made him chancellor of the exchequer upon the death of sir Robert Meredith, procured an addition to his salary, and got him made a privy counsellor. Ranelagh, in all his letters from the time that his grace left Ireland in 1668 to the end of Oct. 1670, gave the highest encomiums of his administration, and professed the greatest zeal for his service, and the deepest sense of the favours he had received, that could be expected from the most grateful mind, or from the fastest friend, as I see by his own letters within that period of time. But coming to England at the latter end of 1670, he soon struck in with the duke of Buckingham and his cabal; and taking advantage of a paper styled The state of his majesty's revenue, being an estimate of the growing and annual 452 charge in Ireland, and of the debts due to the crown, made by the vice-treasurer at a distance from his books and papers, when he could not ascertain either, he made a contract with the king, whereby, in consideration of the revenue being assigned to him and his partners, he engaged to defray the expenses of the civil and military lists, and other charges of the crown in that kingdom. This contract was called Lord Ranelagh's Undertaking, and being founded on an estimate, where both the debt and revenue of the crown were lessened, and the charge of the government magnified above what they really were, it was vastly to his lordship's advantage; at the same time that by defalcations, to which he claimed a right, his majesty, who thought he had thereby provided in a certain way for the charge of that kingdom, (which was then also much reduced,) found his revenue as much loaded with debt, and his army worse paid [than] ever. The creditors of the crown complained of disappointments, and the people were horribly oppressed, fined, and prosecuted for payments, of which they produced exche

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quer acquittances, and charged with excessive sums, which vastly exceeded their usual payments, and which, though laid upon them by the arbitrary will and pleasure of the undertakers, they were forced to pay to prevent their immediate ruin.

The sufferings of the people were so very grievous, and the clamours against the undertakers so universal throughout the kingdom, that the duke of Ormond thought himself obliged to represent them to his majesty, and to shew the fallacies of the undertaking, which had been exceedingly to his loss in the revenue, and very prejudicial to his affairs. Lord Ranelagh had on Oct. 9 presented a petition to the council, praying an allowance of certain sums to the amount of 114,041l. 138. 81d.; and his grace had, by a particular which he had drawn up, shewed, that if those and all other demands of his were allowed, he would still be indebted to the king 98,2227. 128. 11d.; whereas his lordship pretended that he had overpaid what he had received. This occasioned a long verbal discourse, which Ranelagh made to the board on Oct. 27, wherein he took the liberty of saying, that for ten years before his undertaking, the revenue of Ireland had been exceedingly mismanaged; and this he repeated frequently in very aggravating terms. The duke of Ormond conceiving himself reflected on, complained of it on Nov. 3 to the king in council, and desired Ranelagh might be required to explain his meaning, and justify the charge, if levelled at his administration. Ranelagh was ordered to attend at the board on the 12th, when he appeared; and being told by the lord keeper that he was called in to give an account of some expressions in his late discourse, which seemed to reflect upon the duke of Ormond, the following dialogue ensued, which, because it is the most natural, the shortest, and the liveliest manner of representing it, I have chose to

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relate it in the very words wherein it passed, the king being present:

Lord Ranelagh. My purpose was not to reflect upon my lord of Ormond or anybody else; but to give his majesty a state of his affairs as they stood before my undertaking. Duke of Ormond. But your lordship was pleased to name often the word mismanagement; and if that related to the time that I governed, it must reflect upon me, and I am willing to give your lordship all manner of provocation to speak plain in that particular. R. I named nobody, but the things themselves will lead to the persons. I am content what I said be referred to a committee for examination. For if I said your majesty's affairs were mismanaged, it was true, and it plainly so appeared to your majesty by what I said; and I say again, that the management was as bad as possibly could be. D. O. Sir, I am of opinion with that noble lord, that the things themselves will find out the persons; 453 and I also join issue with him in the expedient of a committee, and pray your majesty that matters be transacted in writing, that what is alleged on either side may be more liable to this examination. For I think long accounts use not to be stated by an oration; and that in such a discourse, when well studied and long thought on, there may as well be conveyed in it a libel as a vindication. R. My lord, I think short speeches may contain as much libel in them as long ones. D. O. But, sir, I desire to hear it laid to my charge that I mismanaged your affairs. That is the thing still insinuated, though not said; and therefore I must challenge the proof of that mismanagement, or charge the informer with untruth. R. Sir, I thought this had not been a place for such expressions; and I shall here find myself at some disadvantage. The king. No, no-untruth

that D. O. Sir, I said untruth; and there is no man whatever who exceeds me not in quality to whom I will not say the same, till his proofs do shew the contrary. My lord was pleased to say he named no man: but by many experiences of his lordship's dealings towards me, I have sufficient motives that keep me from imagining he meant anybody else. And yet I presume to think, that for the time of my management there, I can shew your majesty as fair accounts as any man whatsoever. And