against the king's facred perfon, whom they had horridly murdered in the fight of the fun, with all imaginable circumstances of contempt and defiance; and as much as in them lay, had rooted out monarchy itfelf, and overturned and deftroyed the whole government of church and state. And therefore they obferved, whatever punishment the Irish had merited for their former tranfgreffions, which they had fo long repented of and departed from, when they had arms and strong towns in their hands (which together with themselves, they put again under his majesty's protection), that furely this part of the English, who were poffeffed of their eftates, and had broken all their obligations to God and the king, could not deferve to be gratified with their ruin and total deftruction." "It was," I fay, "deemed unpardonable indiscretion in

the

He seems to have apologized for the above advice to the king, in the following paffage of his Life and Memoirs: "Whoever (fays he) confiders the temper and constitution of the army then on foot in that kingdom (Ireland), and the body of prefbyterians that had been disbanded, and remained still there in their habitations, together with the body of adventurers, all prefbyterians or anabaptifts; and at the fame time remembers the difpofition and general affection of the army in England, will not wonder that the king endeavoured, if it had been poffible, rather to please all, than by any unseasonable discovery of a refolution, how juft foever, to make any party defperate; there being none fo inconfiderable as not to have been able to do much mifchief." Vol. ii. p. 120.

"We feel to this day (fays Higgons) the difmal confequences of those councils, which were not more wicked than weak and impolitic. The estates of the Irish who had fought for the king, and followed his fortunes in exile, were confirmed to drummers and ferjeants, who had conducted his father to the fcaffold." Remarks on Burnet, p. 103-4.

"The treatment of the royal party at this time, will never find belief with pofterity: to be neglected was enough, but to fee the enemy triumph in their spoils, was more than nature could fupport. There are inftances of fome, who were admitted to the royal prefence and favour, without being totally free from the blood of the king; while they who had lavished their own in his defence, were fuffered to ftarve in the streets." Id. ib.

the Irish agents, to infift upon these and other well known topics; and not lefs fo, to give the most distant intimation of their humble hope," that when all his majesty's other fubjects were by his clemency restored to their own eftates, and were in full peace, mirth and joy, the Irish alone fhould not be exempt from all his majefty's grace, and left in tears, and mourning and lamentation; and be facrificed, without redemption, to the avarice and cruelty of those, who had not only fpoiled and oppreffed them, but had done all that was in their power, to destroy the king himself and his pofterity; and who now returned to their obedience, and fubmitted to his government, when they were not longer able to oppofe it."

1

To this juft and affecting state of the cafe, with refpect to both parties, the commiffioners from the council and parliament of Ireland, anfwered only by a falfe or exaggerated imputation of the crimes of particular perfons among the Irish, to the generality of that people; and by an impudent revival of former felf-refuted calumnies, which, though at this day, they are well known to be fuch, were then believed, or pretended to be believed, as fo many certain and unquestionable truths, by their corrupt, malicious, or ill-informed judges.

CHAP.

+ Clarendon's Life. s Id. ib.

CHA P. XX.

A court of claims appointed in Ireland.

THE king found,' that if he deferred fettling the government of Ireland, till a perfect adjustment of all particular interests could be made, it would be very long; he saw that there must be some examination taken there, before he could make his determination upon those particulars, which purely depended upon his own judgment; and fo he paffed that which is called the firft act of fettlement; and was perfuaded to commit the execution thereof to commiffioners, recommended to him by those who were most converfant in the affairs of that kingdom, though none, or very few of them, were known to his majesty."

2

These commiffioners conftituted what was commonly called the court of claims in Ireland," "but were very ill qualified for fuch a truft. They were for the moft part engaged, by their interefts, in the party of the adventurers and foldiers; very many of them were in poffeffion of those lands which others fued for before them; and they themselves bought broken titles, and pretences of other men, for inconfiderable fums of money, which they supported and made good by their own authority. Thus the judges themfelves were both parties and witneffes, in all caufes that were brought before them.” a

"Such fcandalous practices could not be fuffered to continue long.3 Thefe commiffioners were remov

'Clarendon's Life.

2 Id. vol. ii. p. 231. Cart. Orm. vol. ii. fol. 220.

3 Clarend. Life.

ed;

• Inftructions were fent to the new lords juftices, "to fend over the names of fit commiffioners to execute his majesty's declaration for the settlement of Ireland." Carte's Ormond, vol. ii. f. 212.

ed; and seven gentlemen, of very clear reputations, appointed in their room; fome of them lawyers in very much esteem; and others, perfons of very good extractions, excellent understandings, and above all fufpicion for their integrity, and generally reputed to be fuperior to any base temptation."

4

It was imagined, however, by the fame noble hiftorian whom I have hitherto cited, and who has honoured them with this very reputable character, that these new commiffioners decided fomewhat too partially in favour of the Irish on this occafion; that there was reason to believe, that the obfervation they had made of the bitterness and animofities from the English, both foldiers and adventurers, towards the whole Irish nation of what kind foever; the fcandalous proceedings of the first commiffioners, together with the very ill reputation many of the foldiers and adventurers had for extraordinary malice to the crown and to the royal family; and the notable barbarity they had exercised towards the Irifh, who without doubt, for many years, had undergone the most cruel oppreffions of all kinds that can be imagined (many thousands of them having been forced, without being covered under any house, to perish in the open fields for hunger); the infamous purchases that had been made by many perfons, who had compelled the Irish to fell their remainders, and lawful pretences, for very inconfiderable

And yet he strangely confeffes in the fame place," that many of the Irifh, who in truth never had been in rebellion, but notoriously served the king against the rebels, both in England and Ireland, and had never been put out of their eftates, now upon some flight evidence, by the interception of letters, or confeffion of meffengers, that they had had correfpondence with the rebels (though it was evident that even that correspondence had been perfunctory, and only to fecure them, that they might purfue his majesty's fervice), were condemned, and had their eftates taken from them, by the judgment of these commiffioners." Life, vol. ii. p. 233. He inftances in a long story of Lord Fitzwilliams, a Roman catholic lord, afterwards made Earl of Tyrconnel by Charles II. Ib. p. 233, &c.

inconfiderable fums of money; thefe," I fay, " and many other particulars of that kind, his lordship imagined, might probably difpofe thefe commiffioners to fuch a prejudice against many of the English, and to fuch a compaffion towards the Irifh, that they might be much inclined to favour their pretences and claims, and to believe, that the peace of the kingdom might be better provided for by their being fettled in the lands of which they had been formerly poffeffed, than by supporting the ill-gotten titles of thofe who had manifested all imaginable infidelity and malice against his majesty, whilft they had any power to oppose him." But certainly every candid perfon will allow, that men of such distinguished integrity and understanding, as his lordship admits these commiffioners to have been, were not likely to be biassed, even by the motives he has recited, to any unjustifiable partiality in favour of a people, with whom they had no manner of connection, and against whom, it is probable, they had imbibed some part at least of those unreasonable prejudices, which prevailed but too generally at that juncture of time."

С НА Р.

"On the first arrival of these commiffioners, fome attempts had been made to corrupt them against all pretences that should be made by the Irifh." Clar. Life, vol. ii. p. 231.

Thefe commiffioners restoring fome Irish, "raised so great a clamour, that the English refused to yield poffeffion upon their decrees, who, by an omiffion in the act of parliament, were not qualified with power enough to provide for the execution of their own fentences. The courts of law established in that kingdom would not, nor indeed could, give any assistance to the commiffioners. And the lord lieutenant and council, who had in the beginning, by their authority, put many into the poffeffion of the lands which had been decreed to them by the commiffioners, were now more tender and reserved in that multitude of decrees that had lately paffed; fo that the Irish were ufing their utmost endeavours, by force, to recover the poffeffion of those lands which the commiffioners had decreed to them; whilst the English were likewife, by force, refolved to defend what they had been fo long poffeffed of, notwithstanding the commiffioners determination. And the commiffioners were

fo