BOOK I. 1661 They acquitted themselves with incomparable skill. The first session was a short one. The Act of Settlement was not yet ready; but, in congratulating the King on his return, the members made haste to show 'that they were none of the seditious rebellious rabble whom it had pleased the Almighty to suppress by the might of his power, but loyal subjects, preserved alive amidst the storms of persecution, who abhorred the rebellion and traitorous murder and parricide of his majesty's father of blessed memory.' In the eagerness of their loyalty they discovered that his majesty's title to the Irish throne did not descend from Henry the Second, but from times far more ancient, as by authentic evidence appeared.' They could not conceal 'the unspeakable joy' with which they welcomed the revival of the true worship of God' among them, and civil government re-established on the fundamental laws of the land; and, while it was necessary to enact that the proceedings in the courts of law which had passed under the name of the Protector should be held valid, they insisted, notwithstanding, that the Protectorate itself was 'a wicked, traitorous, and abominable usurpation."1 Ormond, raised for his services to a dukedom, restored to his estates, and with expectations of vast additions to them, as a reward for his exertions, came back the next year as viceroy. Parliament again met in April, 1662, and the great question was now ready for solution. The preamble of the Act of Settlement2 was a miracle of ingenuity. The Lord-Lieutenant was the same person whose defeat by Cromwell had rendered 1 Statutes of the Realm, Ireland: 13 Charles II. caps. 1 and 2. III. 1662 possible the confiscation which was now to be legal- CHAP. ized. Cromwell was to be disowned with execration; yet his work was to be defended, and the fruit of it secured; while Coote and Broghill and the rest were to be made to appear as if they had acted as subjects of a sovereign against whom they were openly in arms. After repeating the story of 1641, the murder of many thousand English subjects, the universal rebellion which ensued, and the establishment of an Irish government at Kilkenny independent of England, the act went on to say, 'that Almighty God had given his majesty, by and through his English Protestant subjects, absolute victory and conquest over the Irish Popish rebels and enemies, so as they, their lives, liberties, and estates, were at his majesty's disposition by the laws of the kingdom.' 'Compelled by necessity,' and 'to prevent the further desolation of the country,' 'certain of his subjects,' 'during his majesty's absence beyond the sea,' had enquired into the origin of the rebellion, had dispossessed the authors of it of their lands, and had sold or otherwise disposed of them to persons who, by money or immediate services, had contributed to the conquest; and these persons were the same who, having secured the power in their hands, had invited his majesty to come. home, and had yielded Ireland to his obedience. His majesty, after due consideration, had made known his pleasure; and the Parliament, having weighed the character of the insurrection, and the obvious intention of the promoters of it to eradicate the British inhabitants and the Protestant religion, having considered the blood and treasure which had been expended, and the unspeakable sufferings which had BOOK I. 1662 been undergone to reduce the kingdom to the obedience of the crown of England, declared themselves heartily gratified with the King's resolution. The rapines and massacres committed by the Irish and Popish rebels were not only well known to the present Parliament, but were notorious to the world.' The artifices which had been used for many years to murder witnesses, suppress evidence, and vitiate and embezzle such records and testimonies as, made against particular persons,' had failed nevertheless to suppress the truth; and the rebels, having thrown off their allegiance to the English crown, 'had become subdued and conquered enemies, and had justly forfeited their titles and estates.' The Parliament, therefore, concluded that all confiscations legitimately growing out of the insurrection ought to be held good. The lands of those who could prove that they had borne no part in it should be restored, and the adventurers or soldiers in possession of them should be compensated in some other district. A Court of Claims was established to examine each case in detail, and the innocent were allowed to hope that they should have speedy satisfaction.' The working of an act so vaguely worded depended wholly on the temper of the juries before whom the cases came. Innocence was a wide term. Guilt might mean anything, from mere knowledge of the intended rising-under which construction every Catholic landowner in Ireland would fall probably within the excluded list to active participation in massacre, and this could be traced to a comparatively insignificant number. The act was construed so favourably to the Catholic petitioners, that more of the soldiers and 1 Irish Act of Settlement: 14 & 15 Charles II. cap. 2. adventurers were removed than there was land elsewhere to compensate. A million acres cultivated, or capable of cultivation, remained undisposed of; and to these were to be added the allotments of the regicides, Ireton, Fleetwood, Ludlow and others, who had bought estates, or received grants of them to their families. But out of these lands half of Tipperary was given to the Duke of York. Ormond's vast domains had to be restored, with additions, as well as those of the loyal Protestants and of the Anglo-Irish peers and gentlemen who had been specially named by the King, and whose claims Parliament had allowed. Many settlers were thus ejected for whom no compensation could be found; a second act was found necessary to save the Protestant interest, and the tendency of the Court of Claims to decide in favour of the old owners became still more evident from the compromise to which the Protestant colonists found it necessary to submit. By the 17th and 18th of Charles II. cap. 3 (1665), the soldiers, adventu rers, and debenture holders consented to accept twothirds of their legitimate claims, and those already in possession, to part with a third of the land they held to secure an unchallenged tenure of all that remained. By this sacrifice sufficient was obtained to meet all demands that could fairly stand scrutiny; and, in return, to put an end to the uncertainty which must have otherwise hung over half the new holdings, the period within which Catholic claimants of estates must have proved their innocence was limited to the current year. Witnesses died off; particular things were forgotten; and innocence would be considered established unless proof of guilt was forthcoming. If the challenge might be postponed indefinitely, no CHAP. III. 1665 BOOK I. 1665 tenure at all under the Act of Settlement could be considered secure. There was a frank admission that the object of the second act was to defend the Protestant interest. So great had been the tendency of juries to favour the native Catholics that a clause was inserted directly ordering the act to be construed beneficially to the Protestants. The King, in return, 'that more old proprietors might be restored,' agreed to abandon debentures which had lapsed to the crown where part of the purchase-money had been left unpaid.' Thus, amidst confusion and heart-burning, the ownership of the land of Ireland became once more determined. According to the Down survey, made at Cromwell's order by Sir William Petty, the entire surface of the four provinces contained ten million five hundred thousand Irish acres. Of these a million and a half were bog, mountain, and lough. Another million and a half was coarse land, commonly called unprofitable. Of good land, arable and grass, there remained seven million five hundred thousand acres. The three million acres of wild country had been left wholly to the native Irish. Of the good land there had fallen under forfeiture from the rebellion, five million two hundred thousand acres, nearly all of which, before October, 1641, had been owned by Catholics. Two millions belonged to the Protestants planted by Elizabeth and James, who had been the objects of the massacres, and had recovered their lands under the Commonwealth. Three hundred thousand acres were the property of the Established Church, belonging either 2 121 Irish = 196 English. 1 Second Act of Settlement: 17 & 18 Charles II. cap. 2. |