CHAP. XX.

A court of claims appointed in Ireland.

THE king found,' that if he deferred fettling the government of Ireland, till a perfect adjustment of all particular interests could be made, it would be very long; he faw that there must be fome examination taken there, before he could make his determination upon thofe particulars, which purely depended upon his own judgment; and fo he paffed that which is called the first act of fettlement; and was perfuaded to commit the execution thereof to commiffioners, recommended to him by those who were moft converfant in the affairs of that kingdom, though none, or very few of them, were known to his majesty.'

Thefe commiffioners conftituted what was commonly called the court of claims in Ireland," but were very ill qualified for fuch a trust. They were for the moft part engaged, by their interefts, in the party of the adventurers and foldiers; very many of them were in poffeffion of thofe lands which others fued for before them; and they themselves bought broken titles, and pretences of other men, for inconfiderable fums of money, which they fupported and made good by their own authority. Thus the judges themfelves were both parties and witneffes, in all caufes that were brought before them.”

"Such fcandalous practices could not be fuffered to continue long. Thefe commiffioners were remov

ed;

'Clarendon's Life.

2 Id. vol. ii. p. 231. Cart. Orm. vol. ii. fol. 220.

3 Clarend. Life.

• Inftructions were sent to the new lords juftices, cc to fend over the names of fit commiffioners to execute his majesty's declaration for the fettlement of Ireland." Carte's Ormond, vol. ii. f. 212.

ed; and feven gentlemen, of very clear reputations, appointed in their room; fome of them lawyers in very much esteem; and others, perfons of very good extractions, excellent understandings, and above all fufpicion for their integrity, and generally reputed to be fuperior to any base temptation."

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It was imagined, however, by the fame noble hiftorian whom I have hitherto cited, and who has honoured them with this very reputable character, that thefe new commiffioners decided fomewhat too parti ally in favour of the Irish on this occafion; that there was reafon to believe, that the observation they had made of the bitterness and animofities from the English, both foldiers and adventurers, towards the whole Irish nation of what kind foever; the fcandalous proceedings of the firft commiffioners, together with the very ill reputation many of the foldiers and adventurers had for extraordinary malice to the crown and to the royal family; and the notable barbarity they had exercised towards the Irish, who without doubt, for many years, had undergone the most cruel oppreffions of all kinds that can be imagined (many thousands of them having been forced, without being covered under any house, to perish in the open fields for hunger); the infamous purchases that had been made by many perfons, who had compelled the Irish to fell their remainders, and lawful pretences, for very inconfiderable

b And yet he strangely confeffes in the fame place," that many of the Irish, who in truth never had been in rebellion, but notoriously ferved the king against the rebels, both in England and Ireland, and had never been put out of their eftates, now upon fome flight evidence, by the interception of letters, or confeffion of meffengers, that they had had correfpondence with the rebels (though it was evident that even that correfpondence had been perfunctory, and only to secure them, that they might purfue his majesty's fervice), were condemned, and had their eftates taken from them, by the judgment of these commiffion ers" Life, vol. ii. p. 233. He inftances in a long ftory of Lord Fitzwilliams, a Roman catholic lord, afterwards made Earl of Tyrconnel by Charles II. Ib. p. 233, &c.

inconfiderable fums of money; thefe," I fay," and many other particulars of that kind, his lordship imagined, might probably difpofe these commiflioners to fuch a prejudice against many of the English, and to fuch a compaffion towards the Irish, that they might be much inclined to favour their pretences and claims, and to believe, that the peace of the kingdom might be better provided for by their being fettled in the lands of which they had been formerly poffeffed, than by fupporting the ill-gotten titles of thofe who had manifested all imaginable infidelity and malice against his majesty, whilft they had any power to oppose him." But certainly every candid perfon will allow, that men of fuch diftinguifhed integrity and understanding, as his lordship admits thefe commiffioners to have been, were not likely to be biaffed, even by the motives he has recited, to any unjustifiable partiality in favour of a people, with whom they had no manner of connection, and against whom, it is probable, they had imbibed fome part at least of those unreasonable prejudices, which prevailed but too generally at that juncture of time."

CHAP.

"On the first arrival of these commiffioners, fome attempts had been made to corrupt them against all pretences that should be made by the Irifh." Clar. Life, vol. ii. p. 231.

These commiffioners reftoring fome Irish," raised so great a clamour, that the English refused to yield poffeffion upon their decrees, who, by an omiffion in the act of parliament, were not qualified with power enough to provide for the execution of their own sentences. The courts of law established in that kingdom would not, nor indeed could, give any affistance to the commiffioners. And the lord lieutenant and council, who had in the beginning, by their authority, put many into the poffeffion of the lands which had been decreed to them by the commiffioners, were now more tender and reserved in that multitude of decrees that had lately paffed; fo that the Irish were ufing their utmoft endeavours, by force, to recover the poffeffion of those lands which the commiffioners had decreed to them; whilst the English were likewife, by force, refolved to defend what they had been fo long poffeffed of, notwithstanding the commiffioners determination. And the commiflioners were

fo

CHA P. XXI.

The conditions of the innocency or nocency of the

claimants.

BUT although the commiffioners of the court of claims were thus happily changed, the rigorous conditions of the innocency or nocency of the claimants, that had been firft refolved upon, were ftill continued. According to thefe conditions, to prove a perfon in, nocent,' it was not enough to fhew, that he had never taken arms in the late infurrection, or entered into any treaty or affociation with those who had; no: for if fuch a perfon chanced but to dwell, however inof, VOL. II. fenfively,

I

• Sale and Settlement of Ireland. Cart, Orm, vol. ii.

fo far troubled and diffatisfied with thefe proceedings, that they declared they would proceed no farther in the execution of their commission, until they could receive his majesty's farther pleafure; and that they might more effectually receive it, they defired leave from the king that they might attend his royal perfon; and there being at the fame time feveral complaints made against them to his majesty, and appeals to him from their decrees, he gave the commiffioners leave to return; and at the fame time all the other interests sent their deputies, to folicit their rights; in the profecution whereof, after much time fpent, the Duke of Ormond was called from Ireland to court; at which time a third bill was tranfmitted from the Irish parlia ment (the black bill), additional and fupplemental to the other two, and to reverfe many of the decrees made by the commiffioners." Clarend. Life, vol. ii. p. 329.

"The king," fays Lord Clarendon himself," was very tender of the reputation of his commiffioners, who had been always esteemed men of great probity and unquestionable repu tation; and though he could not refufe to receive complaints, yet he gave thofe who complained no farther countenance, than to give the others opportunity to vindicate themselves. Nor did there appear the leaft evidence to question the fincerity of their proceeding, or to make them liable to any reasonable sufpicion of corruption; and the complaints were ftill prosecuted by those who had that taken from them, which they defired to keep for themselves." Ib. p. 231.

fensively, in any of the places occupied by the infurgents, he was to be judged nocent.

This was furely a very hard condition; "for abundance of Roman catholics," as Mr. Carte obferves," "well-affected to the king, and very averfe to the rebellion of their countrymen, lived quietly in their own houses, within the quarters of the rebels; who out of reverence to their virtues, or favour to their religion, allowed them to do fo; fuch of them as had offered to take fhelter in Dublin, were by the lords juftices banished thence on pain of death by public proclamation, and ordered to retire to their own houfes in the country, where they could not help falling under the power of the rebels; and if thefe fuffered them to live there in quiet, an equitable man, who confiders the circumftances of thofe times, and the condition of all countries that are in a state of war, will hardly fee any iniquity in the receiving that mercy, or in the unavoidable neceflity they were under of living in their own houfes, as fhould bring upon those perfons the forfeiture of their estates."

But of all the marks of nocency established on this occafion, that of having taken the engagement to Cromwell, was the most extraordinary; for that engagement was primarily contrived, during the ufurpation, by those very perfons, who, after the king's return, had acquired authority and influence enough to have the modelling and impofing of these rigid conditions. From whence refulted this very fhocking injuftice and abfurdity, peculiar, certainly, to the policy of these times,' that the original framers and promoters of that engagement, who had themfelves voluntarily taken and figned it, and had compelled others to take it, were not only held innocent, but rewarded with great honours, and employments of the highest authority in the state; while those who abhorred it, when it was forced upon them, and never took it but at the laft extremity,

Orm. vol. ii.

Sale and Settlement, &c.

The new Earls of Orrery and Montrath.