BOOK II. 1703 Remonstrances of bishops and resolutions in Parliament weighed little, it seems, against the carelessness or corruption with which the Castle government trifled away the interests of Protestantism. The scattered sheep on the Kenmare river were of less importance than some vote which it was desirable to secure. The Lords Justices sent the Bishop word that Dean Richards must be instituted notwithstanding, and the Bishop could but leave on record his ineffectual protest. 'The Bishop of Limerick to Joshua Dawson, Esq. 'January 12, 1703. Sir, I received yours of the 5th instant this morning, acquainting me with their Excellencies' design of recommending Dean Richards for Mr. Palmer's livings, to which I can only answer that, since I have used my endeavours to prevent what has been at all times so much condemned, I mean exorbitant plurality of cures, for by the addition of these livings the Dean will have at least fourteen parishes-I am the less concerned only give me leave to make one observation, that, whereas you say his keeping an able curate will in effect answer the end as well as if those livings had been given to a resident incumbent, we find by experience the quite contrary; and if it were so, pluralities and non-residence would not be so much cried out against as they are. However, I submit to their Excellencies' wisdom, and am very thankful to them for their condescension in expressing their readiness in obliging me on some other occasion." 1 6 Correspondence of Secretary Dawson, 1702-3.' MSS. Dublin Castle The Irish Establishment has been reproached for its missionary failures. What chance had an institution so conditioned? With what spirit could the better kind of clergy go about their work, with the poison breath of the Castle thus blighting their endeavours? The Dean of Tralee had his promotion, and the last English service had been heard in the church of Kilmakilloge. The church itself lies a roofless ruin littered with skulls. The smelting colony melted away, till the few families that were left were carried off by French privateers, and the harbour and the bay became the recruiting depot for the Pretender, and a nest of pirates and smugglers. CHAP. I. 1703 BOOK 1697 SECTION IV. THE Parliament had commenced a policy of repression against the Catholic religion which could be justified only by a united and determined effort for the regeneration of the kingdom. The steps taken in this direction were so far singularly unpromising. The King was giving away among favourites the lands which should have been settled with Protestants. The Church was oppressing the Presbyterians, the Government was corrupting the Church. The High Churchmen, Peers, Bishops, and Commoners are now to be seen fostering secretly the common enemy in their terror of Whigs and Dissenters. In both kingdoms the history of these years is woven of insincerity. Irish faction was played off by the English Jacobites as a means of embarrassing the King; and the passions which bred the Assassination Plot, and were blown into fury by its failure, are to be traced working below the surface amidst the intrigues of Dublin politicians. The Irish Parliament reassembled in the summer of 1697. Capel, who had been a sound friend to the true Protestant interest, unhappily died in 1696. Porter succeeded to the government as Lord Justice, but died also in the same winter. Party feeling ran so high that neither the sword nor the great seal could be trusted in Irish hands; and De Ruvigny, Earl of Galway, with Paulet, Marquis of Winchester, were sent to the Castle. Methuen, an English barrister, who had been minister in Portugal, took Porter's place as Chancellor CHAP. I. 1697 The King had made up his mind to gratify what he supposed to be the wishes of his Protestant Irish subjects. They had clamoured against the leniency shown to Catholic offenders. He sent over a bill in which he relinquished for the Crown the power of reversing Irish outlawries, and he allowed a clause to be inserted, in the belief that it would be especially grateful, by which the estates of persons who had either been killed in rebellion, or had died in foreign service, were included in the forfeiture. As a yet greater sacrifice he had brought himself to consent, as a price for the confirmation of the Articles of Limerick, that the disputed clause should be withdrawn. When the session of 1697 opened, the Lords July 27, Justices were astonished to find that the position of Crown and Parliament was precisely reversed, that while five years before Protestant Ireland was in mutiny on account of the favour shown by the Crown to the Catholics, the House of Lords almost unanimously and a powerful party in the Commons were now inclining to protect the Catholics against the Crown. Mr. Stanley, Lord Galway's English secretary, in despair at the element in which he found himself, declared that he had fallen into the most eating, drinking, wrangling, quarrelsome country he ever saw; there was no keeping the peace among them." An Englishman accustomed to consistency had sufficient reason for finding himself bewildered. 1 Mr. Stanley to Dr. Smith, November 20, 1697.' Smith was Dean of St. Patrick's, but preferred to reside in England. Stanley's letters to him throw additional light on the manner in which Church matters were managed in Ireland. 6 Though you used to forget me,' he wrote, for a year together in the same town, I have been so careful of your commands at this distance, that I have got those of your favourites made chaplains to my Lord Lieutenant as you desired, Dr. Raymond, Mr. Forbes, 1697. BOOK 1697 เ In the Upper House the opposition was Episcopal and Jacobite. There is a greater inclination at present,' reported Lord Galway, 'to favour the Papists here than in England. The Bishops are great sticklers. The Bishops of Killaloe,' Killala,* and Derry are the leading men that govern the rest.' In the Commons, though the anti-Catholic feeling was vigorous, disgust and indignation at the abuses in the distribution of forfeitures made them look with suspicion on a proposal which would leave more lands for the Government to trifle away. Ireland had not been torn to pieces that fortunes might be made for Countesses of Orkney, and they determined to see their way more clearly before they committed themselves. When the Outlawries Bill was introduced in the Lower House, exception was taken that the interests of Protestants had not been provided for, who had purchased estates which fell under the act from their supposed owners, or had advanced money in mortgage on them, or were otherwise interested. The omission had been made, perhaps, intentionally by Jacobite influence in England, to ensure the rejection of the bill. The House passed it, but themselves sketched the heads of a supplemental bill to meet the difficulty, which was forwarded to London for approval. On similar grounds and Mr. Wade. I could not suc- scribbling. Send me your works as King, afterwards Archbishop of Dublin. 4 The Lords Justices to Secretary Vernon, August 31. MSS. Record Office. |