during the troubles, he was well acquainted with all the circumstances of their case: he knew better than any other man the early attempts which the most considerable of their nobility and gentry made to return to their duty; the difficulties they had to struggle with in that walk; the perseverance with which they pursued their design, till they had accomplished it, and the zeal with which, in the king's distress, they had embraced the peace of 1648." Though Ormond could have borne such an attestation, yet he had some sound special reasons for a contrary conduct. Were the catholics of Ireland vindicated by him, he could not perhaps calculate on the possession of the vast estates of which he plundered them; he might, by striking to the avaricious fanaticism of the Cromwellians, reasonably calculate on the confirmation and extension of that property which so copiously flowed into his lap from the wounds of Ireland; he therefore joined in the general calumny, and as we will hereafter see, was the immediate instrument of the remorseless persecution of the Irish clergy.

Charles now proceeded to establish the settlement of the kingdom of Ireland, and as he consulted his old enemies, when to include the catholics in the proclamation of pardon was the question, so do we find him now in council with the chief plunderers of the Irish, when the question arises of adjusting the claims and settling the property of his loyal Irish subjects. What the result would be to Ireland may easily be anticipated, when Lord Broghill, Sir John Clotworthy, and Sir Arthur

Mervin, were the distributors of justice. We may quickly conclude what would be the measure of mercy or equity to the ill-fated catholic. Under the direction of such heads and such hearts, the royal declaration for the settlement of Ireland was framed and published. We shall not disgust the reader by the painful recital: it is sufficient to say, that ingratitude of the blackest feature, and hypocrisy of the most impudent character, distinguished every article of the royal document. Irishmen are. industriously sacrificed to the aggrandizement of the very hands which shed the blood of Charles' father. The London adventurers who advanced their money on the mortgage of Irish misfortune, have precedency of the men who shared in all the royal sufferings, and supported the king under all his afflictions. Thus were the great majority of the Irish people robbed by the royal order, and exposed to the contemptuous pity of the regicides of England. Ormond, however, during this solemn mockery of justice, took good care of himself. He procured his restoration to the Irish estates by an. act of the English parliament: he and Lord Inchiquin were specially protected. A provision was made, in the royal declaration, for the settlement of Ireland, for thirty-six of the Irish nobility to be restored to their properties on the same terms with those who served his Majesty when on the continent. That this declaration of Charles for the settlement of Ireland should have excited indignation and revenge in every Irish bosom, is not to be wondered at. That the poor worn-out soldier, who

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had shed his blood, and sacrificed his property in defence of his monarch, should be seen shedding tears over that infamous ingratitude which thus abandoned him and his children to his enemies, will be admitted by every man who knows the human heart, to be a likely and a probable scene in this melancholy period of Ireland's sufferings. Every eye was turned to that meeting of the Irish parliament which was to confirm or to reject this ' act of royal turpitude. It was supposed that some sparks of honour might still be found in either house of legislature, which might be kindled by discussion into a generous flame; and that at least the old peerage of Ireland would not suffer their venerated names and their noble blood to be trampled on by the voracious reptiles which crept into parliament, and which we may say rose into existence, from the miseries of Irishmen. The Earl of Kildare, with other Irish peers, did come forward in the Lords, and did assert the superior claims of the Irish to royal protection. The mushroom products of calamity shrunk into their native insignificance: the earl! pointed out the gross injustice of the royal declaration; the infamous violation of public and private faith he appealed to the widows and the orphans who crowded the streets of Dublin, and whose claims' the royal declaration must extinguish, in evidence of the cruelty on which the king had grounded his declaration. Constituted as the Irish parliament then was, such an opposition, however supported by truth and sound reasoning, must be feeble and impotent. The bill of settlement, in confirmation

of the royal declaration which we have already described, was at length prepared, passed, and presented to the lords justices; it was transmitted by those lords commissioned by the council, while each house of parliament nominated their agents to attend the king and council in England, and to solicit the immediate passing of the bill. London was now the great theatre on which the property and comfort of Irishmen were about to be decided. Their last appeal was to be made to the king; and those were to be found in Ireland, who still credu lously thought that the royal eye would have recognized and gratefully acknowledged the wounds which covered his humble petitioners for mercy, in this their last effort for the common sustenance of their children. Mr Leland is displeased at the demeanour of the Irish before the royal tribunal, They had not the folly to repose confidence in Or mond, who had so often deceived them; they would not solicit him to be their advocate; again, they were so imprudent as to rest their claims to royal protection on their justice and their truth. They would not adopt the more dexterous and skilful policy of Ormond, who recommended submission, and the acknowledgment of crimes. The Irish felt that they were innocent; that they were not only innocent of offence to his majesty, but that the monarch was their debtor; and that they then appeared before him not so much to enjoy the protection of his royal mercy, as to demand the debt which was due to their services. They therefore selected Colonel Richard Talbot to be their advo

cate, and they inade the justice of their claim the foundation of their case. No doubt these were feeble bulwarks to defend them against the heavy fire of corruption which poured on them from the overflowing coffers of the Cromwellian plunderers of their property. Mr Carte, in his Life of Ormond, makes mention of a few circumstances which helped to blunt the vulgar weapons wielded by the advocates of the impoverished Irish. "The new

Earls of Orrery and Montrath had taken care to raise privately among the adventurers and soldiers, L.20,000 or L.30,000, to be disposed of properly, without any account, by way of recompense to such as should be serviceable to what was called the English interests." The Irish had no such sums to command, few friends about the court, and no means of procuring any. Those of the English council before whom they were to plead their cause, were highly prejudiced and incensed against the whole nation; knew little of the conduct of particular persons who deserved favour, but were willing to involve every body in the general guilt of the massacre as well as the rebellion." The Irish nation should not have been so destitute of council; gratitude should have presided on the royal tribunal, and the tears of Ireland should have been dried by the royal hand. If Charles had been a grateful king, or, rather, had he possessed the feelings of a man, he would have been the minister of consolation to the unpro tected Irishman. He should have said, "You who remembered me in my adversity, I will not