repaired the fortifications, gave it a garrison of two thousand men, and named as governor Sir Arthur Aston. Cromwell disdained a siege; he battered the wall for two days till he had made a sufficient breach: his men were repulsed in two assaults, but Noll' himself led the third, all in the same day, and the town was gained (10 Sept. 1649.) Quarter had been promised to all those who should lay down their arms; a promise observed till resistance was at an end. But the moment the city was completely reduced, Cromwell resolved by one effectual execution to terrify the whole Irish party. He issued his orders that the garrison should be put to the sword. The governor and all his officers were massacred without mercy. For five days this hideous execution was continued with every circumstance of horror. Thirty persons only remained unslaughtered, and these were instantly transported as slaves to Barbadoes.

The

This terrible policy had the intended effect. Trim, Dundalk, Carlingford, Newry, Lisburn, Belfast, surrendered immediately. Wexford resisted; it obtained from Ormond a garrison of two thousand Roman Catholics; and Cromwell sat down before it (1st Oct., 1649). As soon as the batteries began to play, Stafford, a Roman Catholic, governor of the castle, betrayed the place; and the Cromwellites proceeded to put to the sword all who were found in arms. Ross then surrendered. fort of Duncannon, commanded by Wogan, held out against Ireton, and compelled him to raise the siege. Ormond retired before Cromwell, and interrupted the siege of Waterford. But the chief garrisons in Munster declared for the parliament, afforded Oliver quarters, and taking the field in February (1650), he invested Kilkenny. A plague thinned the garrison, which bravely resisted, and surrendered at last upon honourable terms (28th March). Clonmel detained him two months, and when it was taken he embarked for England (29th May). Lord Roche, and the Romish

bishop of Ross, raised some troops for the relief of Clonmel, but were defeated at Macroom (10th May), by Lord Broghill.

Ireton was left the parliamentarian general in Ireland. Owen O'Neill about this time died." Preston surrendered Waterford: Naas, Athy, Maryborough, Castledermot, Carlow, and the fort of Duncannon, were reduced. Ormond quitted the country (Dec., 1650) by a vessel from Galway, leaving Lord Clanrickarde to fill the ambiguous position which he abandoned. For the real bond of union among the insurgents had ever been religion: the priestly party regarded loyalty to a Protestant as 6 an idol of Dagon,' and desired to establish the papal power and their own by inviting the duke of Lorraine, or some foreign prince, to be their king. The gentry shared none of these schemes; but the bishops and priests declared Lorraine protector of the nation, and excommunicated Clanrickarde. Excommunications, however, could not stop the Cromwellite army. Sir Charles Coote took Athlone (1651), the passages over the Shannon were opened, and Ireton commenced the siege of Limerick, from which the people excluded Clanrickarde. Lord Muskerry, alarmed at the danger of Limerick, advanced with a strong party to its relief. Ireton detached Lord Broghill to cover the siege, and at Knocknaclashy he compelled Muskerry to retire with loss. Some sallies kept alive the defence of the city, but the mayor, careless of excommunication, inclined to capitulate, and one Fennel, seizing two gates, made terms with the enemy (29th Oct., 1651). Ireton now used his more efficacious methods with excommunicators and partisans of the nuncio Rinuccini. O'Brien, the Romish bishop of Emly, Wolfe, a friar who had caballed against Ormond, some magistrates, and Fennel himself, were executed. During the siege, the city had lost about five thousand persons, mostly by sickness and infectious disorder, which soon afterwards laid in his grave Ireton himself

(26th Nov., 1651). Galway still remained in the hands of the rebels, but the unmanageable infatuation of the priestly party rendered the efforts of Clanrickarde useless; Preston, the governor, fled by sea from the impending danger, and the place submitted (12th May, 1652). Clanrickarde kept up a little war for some time longer, but the enemy were too strong for him, and surrendering (16th March, 1653), he was carried to England, and not long afterwards died in London.

Armed rebellion having been suppressed, Cromwell instituted in the first place a High Court of Justice, to try all persons implicated in the murders committed in the year of massacre. Sir Phelim O'Neill, Lord Mayo, Colonel Bagnal, and altogether about two hundred, were found guilty and executed. Sir Phelim was

dragged to justice by the son of that Lord Caulfield he had shamefully slain; and in the hour of extremity constantly declared that his pretended commission from the king had been a forgery.

Then followed a new confiscation; one half of the lands forfeited by rebellion was devoted to the compensation of the soldiers of the Cromwellite army, who had served since the Protector's landing in 1649; the other half belonged to those adventurers who had advanced money for the war. The natives must confine themselves, under the severest penalties, to Connaught only. Courts sat for adjudication of claims, and with all that was granted away, four counties remained unappropriated. When Cromwell called a parliament to do his bidding, he proceeded on the plan of union for the three kingdoms, and gave thirty members to Ireland; thus he anticipated the wisest measures of his successors. His deputy, Henry Cromwell, established his authority by winning the hearts of the people; reconciled them to his father's interests, and proved, as Oliver said, a governor from whom he himself might learn!' When Richard's protectorate ended, Henry had not money enough at command to convey him to England.

Ireland declared for the Restoration several months before England was ripe. Lord Broghill and Sir Charles Coote led the way. The royalists, Lord Montgomery, Sir Oliver St. George, and others, having assembled at Dublin, on pretence of petitioning, possessed themselves, by a sudden and desperate effort, of the castle of Dublin (Jan. 1660), seized Colonel John Jones, one of the regicides, and other zealous republicans, and delared for a free parliament. Sir Charles Coote, anxious to ingratiate himself, seized Galway, and the royalists of other quarters possessed themselves of Youghall, Clonmel, Carlow, Limerick, and Drogheda. Ludlow, one of the most resolute of the republicans, attempted, but in vain, to incite the garrisons on behalf of the officers of the army who had seized the government in London. Sir Hardress Waller possessed himself of the castle of Dublin, where the royalists besieged him, and, after five days, sent him prisoner to England.

THE reign of Charles II. contains no stirring events. Ormond, amidst the clash of parties, had access to the royal closet, as the honest friend of Protestant government, and, while the Papists or Presbyterians demanded their several immunities, he prevailed on the king to fill up the vacant bishoprics with the most eminent of the clergy. This excellent servant of the crown himself recovered his estates, obtained by a vote of parliament £30,000, was raised to a dukedom, and made lord-lieutenant. Lord Broghill was created earl of Orrery; and Sir Charles Coote, earl of Montrath.

The difficulty of the hour lay in distributing the property of Ireland. Many of the Irish had never disclaimed their allegiance, nor joined in offering the kingdom to the Pope or the duke of Lorraine: they claimed to reprise, or recover, the estates Cromwell had taken away; and tribunals were established to try the question of their innocency or nocency. A new interest also arose of soldiers who had served before Cromwell's landing, called forty-nine men, and expecting compensation for their arrears. Besides these were nominees, special objects of the royal favour, and ensign-men, who had served abroad. There were not lands enough to satisfy these, along with the adventurers and Cromwellite soldiers. In the rage of discontent, some plots were formed which came to nothing, and, in order to determine as much as possible in so difficult a case, a royal declaration (1660), followed by an act of settlement (1661), and an act of explanation (1665), arranged certain terms of com