the happy consequences which it must, in time, produce to Ireland. For the present, however, the Irish subjects were cast into despair."

Ireland, thus reduced to the extremity of distress; struggling with adversity, like the crew of a shipwrecked vessel on a desert island, found some relief from the chiefest planner and author of its ruin. Ormond, having reached the summit of his ambition, being created duke of Ormond, count palatine of Tipperary, with all royalties therein, and lord lieutenant of Ireland, was interested, more than any man, to give value to a soil, of which he occupied such vast scopes. Historical justice requires, that whatever good he did might be related, as well as the injuries he did.

"All commerce was now interrupted, an. 1667; war made it necessary to guard against invasion; subsidies were due, but no money could be found. Ormond thought it both necessary and convenient to accept part of these subsidies in provisions, consulting at once the king's service and the ease of his distressed subjects. Nor was the king ill-disposed to alleviate the present difficulties of Ireland. With the consent of his council, obtained not without some reluctance, he, by an act of state, allowed a free trade from Ireland to all foreign countries, either at war or in peace with his majesty. He permitted the Irish at the same time, to retaliate on the Scots, who, copying from England, had prohibited their cattle, corn, and beef. The importation of linen and woollen ma

nufactures, stockings, gloves, and other commodities from Scotland was forbidden, as highly detrimental to the trade of Ireland.

"The exportation of Irish wool was prohibited by law, except to England by particular licence of the chief governour. Yet, in the order of council for free importation, wool was not excepted. The lords who had contended for the most unreasonable restraints on Ireland, and were declared enemies to Ormond, admitted in their debates, that wool should be included in the exportable articles. Such was their ignorance of the affairs of this kingdom, and such their inattention to the interests of England. Ormond suspected that some snare was laid, and some pretence sought for a future accusation, should he take too great liberties in an affair so delicate. Wool was not mentioned in the proclamation, nor would he consent to grant particular licences for exporting it. The Irish, forced by a necessity, which breaks through all laws and restraints, conveyed their wool by stealth to foreign countries, and have experienced the advantages of this clandestine commerce.

"But the most effectual measure which the Irish subjects could pursue to elude the violence of an oppressive law, was that of applying themselves to manufactures, and working up their own commodities; and in this they were countenanced and encouraged by the noble spirit of their chief governour.

"Men of abilities and knowledge in commerce were encouraged to suggest their schemes for

promoting industry, and preventing the necessity of foreign importations. Sir Peter Pett presented a memorial to the duke of Ormond, for erecting a manufacture of woollen cloth, which might at least furnish a sufficient quantity for home consumption. He chiefly recommended the making fine worsted stockings, and Norwich stuffs, which might not only keep money in the country, but be so improved, as to bring considerable sums from abroad. He offered to procure workmen from Norwich: the council of trade, lately established in Ireland, approved of his proposal; the duke of Ormond encouraged it, and erected the manufacture at Clonmel, the capital of his county-palatine of Tipperary. To supply the scarcity of workmen, Grant (a man well known by his observations on the bills of mortality) was employed to procure five hundred Walloon protestant families from Canterbury to remove to Ireland. At the same time, colonel Richard Lawrence, another ingenious projector, was encouraged to promote the business of combing wool, and making frizes. A manufacture of this kind was established at Carrick, a town belonging to the duke.

"But of all such schemes of national improvement, that of a linen manufacture was most acceptable to Ormond. He possessed himself with the noble ambition of imitating the earl of Strafford in the most honourable part of his conduct, and opening a source of public wealth and prosperity, which the troubles and disorders of Ireland had stopped. An act of parliament was

passed at Dublin to encourage the growth of flax and manufacture of linen. Ormond was at the charge of sending skilful persons to the Low Countries, to make observations on the state of this trade, the manner of working, the way of whitening their thread, the regulations of their manufacture, and management of their grounds, and to contract with some of their most experienced artists. He engaged Sir William Temple to send to Ireland five hundred families from Brabant, skilled in manufacturing linen; others were procured from Rochelle and the isle of Rè, from Jersey and the neighbouring parts of France. Convenient tenements were prepared for the artificers at Chapel-Izod, near Dublin, where cordage, sail-cloth, ticken, linen, and diaper, were brought to a considerable degree of perfection. Such cares reflect real honour on the governour, who thus laboured to promote the happiness of the nation, and should be recorded with pleasure and gratitude, however we may be captivated by the more glaring objects of history."*

The torpedo of this indolent reign was sometimes roused by the struggles of a faction to exclude the duke of York from the succession. Their greatest effort was Oates's plot, planned and conducted by Shaftsbury, of which Titus Oates was the able and infamous instrument. The unprincipled and infamous machinery of false witnesses, perjuries, alarm and public delusion, employed on that occasion, belongs more properly to the history of England. However,

Leland.

as this country feels more or less the effects of all convulsions there, the plotters endeavoured to extend their operations to Ireland. A little reflection made it appear absurd, that a popish plot should be confined to England, where there was but one papist for fifty protestants; and that nothing about it should be heard from Ireland, where there were as many catholics for one protestant. The plotters, therefore, resolved to procure auxiliaries from Ireland; "men," as Ormond said, "who thought better to live as king's evidence, than by cow-stealing, with bad English, and worse cloaths; who, as they wanted honesty to swear truly, wanted wit to swear probably." The duke of Ormond, in possession of a princely, or rather regal fortune, and having no further interest in the disturbance of his country, used all his credit and influence to counteteract the fraud; and was so successful, that only one illustrious victim fell, archbishop Plunket: the account of which, to steer clear of partiality, is taken from Leland.

"Oliver Plunket, the popish archbishop of Armagh, succeeded Reily in this station; and, during the government of lord Essex, lived quietly in Ireland, recommending a peaceable submission to government, and expressing his abhorrence of all political intrigues. He even exerted his spiritual authority to restrain the turbulent temper of Peter Talbot, and to confine him within the duties of his profession. But some of the inferiors of his clergy, men of lewd lives and brutal manners, were provoked by his cen