continued feeling in favour of Ireland. Her governors (in general mere birds of passage) obey every wind of prejudice which blows from the shores of an avaricious and envious nation.

The honourable efforts now made by Ormond to promote the manufactures and commerce of Ireland, soon excited the apprehensions of English jealousy, and the virulence of party combined with the national feeling to injure Ormond in the estimation and confidence of his sovereign. He was soon recalled from the administration, to which he was succeeded by Lord Roberts, who, in 1670, gave way to Lord Berkley.

The administration of this nobleman opened a new scene in Ireland. That portion of the community which had so long and so unjustly suffered under the malignant suspicions of an ascendant sect, suddenly became the favourites of those who were once the instruments of their persecution. The celebrated cabal, which were so near overturning the liberty of England, suggested to Charles the good policy of altering his mode of governing Ireland. They recommended his peculiar patronage of that religion and its members, who had already displayed so ardent a zeal in behalf of monarchy, and who struggled so fruitlessly to resist the tide of fanaticism which rushed from the fountain of English puritanism. The real views of the present councillors of Charles were to raise him and themselves on the ruins of England's freedom; to extinguish the spirit of that parliament which was maintaining so splendid a contest with Charles, and which had

succeeded in extorting from that unprincipled monarch the most powerful bulwarks of human liberty. For this purpose they recommended the most cordial alliance with the French sovereign; and the ministers of Charles, Clarendon, Buckingham, and others, stooped even to the degrading service of being the hired advocates of this French 'connection. The menaces of the popular leaders alarmed the fears of the monarch, and the devotion of his brother to the Catholic religion co-operating with the specious policy of being independent of parliamentary aid, prompted him to encourage a foreign connection, which might have terminated in the establishment of an unlimited monarchy.Such were the plans of the king, and the designs of his ministers, when Lord Berkley, as lord lieutenant of Ireland, thought proper to manifest a peculiar partiality for the long depressed Irish Catholics. The poor people of Ireland, so long chained down by the violent hand of intolerance, feeling the fetters somewhat loosened, naturally gave full expression to their joy, and full swing to their partial triumph. The Catholic clergy participated in the general satisfaction, and have most grievously offended the ascendancy pride of Mr Leland. He has been pleased to say, that on this occasion they endeavoured to establish doctrines which they had a hundred times abjured, and that the intemperance of their joy forced them into the assertion of religious principles which must have offended the power from which they were then ob taining some relaxation of the fury of penal law.

It was a strange spectacle, and one which must have excited suspicion in the bosoms of observing Irishmen, to see the monarch who had so lately sacrificed them to the rapacity and violence of his most inveterate enemies, and his present advisers, who were most forward in the yell of persecution against the Catholics-it must have excited surprise to see such men suddenly revolutionizing the political power of Ireland-creating Catholic aldermen, Catholic Sheriffs, Catholic corporations, and (as Mr Leland most benevolently, and in the true spirit of Christian kindness, says) offending, by such "impious confidence in papists," (as he is pleased to call the Catholics) the tender and loyal consciences of the protestants of Ireland. Such a revolution, and so unexpected, and coming from such a source, must have excited the suspicions of the reflecting Catholic; and though he embraced the hand which gave him even a temporary relief, he could not but have doubted the sincerity of the motive which suggested the protection; nor could he flatter himself with a long duration of the indulgence he experienced. So alarming a change roused the fears of all those adventurers who so lately thought themselves securely settled in their ill acquired properties. Another revolution was expected, and a renewal of all those sanguinary scenes which desolated Ireland, was revived in the imagination even of the boldest and least credulous among the colonists. A sensation so tremendous immediately found its way to England; and the hot-headed advocates of despotic power struck to the universal sentiment

of indignation which issued from all quarters of the country. They removed Lord Berkley from his Irish administration, and endeavoured to conciliate the power which they could not trample on. Charles would have tolerated the Irish catholic to enslave the English protestant, and conquering the latter, he would then put his foot on the neck of the former. This was his policy, and the policy of his brother. The effort, however, was ruinous to the poor devoted catholic. It exposed him to the experimentalizing malice of an English parliament. The latter, in 1675, again threw down the catholics to the earth, banished their priests, and gave marked encouragement to the ascendancy of the English protestant interest. The Earl of Essex was now Lord Lieutenant; his administration was not remarkable for any occurrence worthy of record.

Charles was obliged once more to have recourse to the artful Ormond, who is again appointed chief governor of Ireland. Mr Leland has the following interesting account of the first interview of Charles with Ormond, after a considerable interval of apparent displeasure. "It was now several years since the king had spoken to Ormond in any confidential manner, except when Shaftesbury was declared Lord Chancellor. On this occasion Charles ventured to take him apart and to ask his opinion of this measure. Your majesty,' said the duke, hath acted very prudently in committing the seals to Lord Shaftesbury, provided you know how to get them from him again.' After this short conference, the king relapsed into his former coldness. For almost

a year he never deigned to speak to the Duke, who, from his return to England, every day attended at the court. At length, in the month of April, 1677, Ormond was surprised by a message from the king that he would sup with him. Their interview was easy and cheerful, without any explanation or any discussion of past transactions. On parting, Charles signified his intentions of again employing him in Ireland. The next morning he saw the Duke at a distance, advancing to pay his usual duty. der comes Ormond,' said Charles; I have done all in my power to disoblige him, and to make him as discontented as others, but he will be loyal in spite of me; I must even employ him again, and he is the fittest person to govern Ireland."" From this time he was designed to succeed Essex in the Irish administration.

"Yon

character of Or

acquitted himself

The object of the King and Duke of York, in the appointment of Ormond in 1677, was to counteract the growing influence of Monmouth, the natural son of Charles, who was now anxiously looked up to by a powerful faction in England, as the fittest successor to the throne. Such was the royal homage to the talents and mond. It will be found that he with firmness and good sense in the performance of his high duties. No man was more anxiously interested in preventing a renewal of those dreadful calamities which had visited Ireland. Sufficient blood had flowed for Ormond; he had acquired splendid revenues, and he now studied to preserve them. We therefore find him exercising all his