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kingdom. In regard of the first, he declared himself ready to release all his right to lands found by those offices, (except to such as lay in the counties of Kilkenny and Wicklow,) and to pass an act of limitation, as desired. He consented that the book of rates should be settled by an indifferent committee of parliament, and would take care that his Irish subjects should not be oppressed by the court of wards for the future, and was ready to redress any past oppression upon proof of its being done. For the other points of the council-table, and the votes of absentees, and persons not estated, he referred himself to his answers given formerly to the committees of parliament. Nor was there any great difficulty in agreeing, that the chief governor of the kingdom should be inhibited from making any purchase (other than by lease, for the provision of their houses) during the time of their government, which should not be continued longer than he should find it for the good of his people.

The other points were of a more tender nature, and it was scarce possible to give a satisfactory answer to the proposers, without at the same time giving offence to others. The independency of the kingdom was contended for by 507 the protestants of Ireland with as much zeal as by the Roman catholics; but the parliament of England very warmly opposed it. "The king thought it very proper to be referred to the debate and expostulation of both parliaments, and would take care to the utmost of his power that both should contain themselves within their proper limits, he being the head of both, and equally interested in the privileges of either. He knew not any incapacity upon the natives to purchase either lands or offices; but if there were, when all other things should be concluded, he would willingly consent to an act for removing it; and also to the erecting of an inn of court, university, or free schools." In this last case he made a proviso, "that they should be governed by such statutes and orders as he

should approve, and were agreeable to the custom of the kingdom;" and possibly by the erecting of such places under proper regulations, the convenience of the natives might have been consulted, and the evils of a foreign education (to which, for want thereof, they are necessitated) in some measure prevented. His majesty peremptorily "refused to declare the acts or ordinances passed in parliament since Aug. 7, 1641, to be void; but was ready to take care, that neither the proposers nor their party should receive any prejudice thereby, on account of the insurrection. He denied as positively to annul any indictments, attainders, or outlawries, legally taken and regularly prosecuted; but was ready to grant a general pardon to all persons, (except such as were proper to be excluded, who should be tried by the known laws of the land,) and to consent to such an act of oblivion as should be prepared and transmitted to him by the advice of his lord lieutenant and council, who were fittest to consider in what state debts were to be left, and particular actions and remedies to be waved; in which his majesty, for the peace of the kingdom, was content to release what concerned himself. As to the trained bands, he thought the proposition wanted to be explained, and some particular ways proposed for doing it; and then, upon due consideration of the safety of his protestant subjects, he would return an answer. As to a new parliament, he wished all matters might be agreed on, and ratified in the present; but as there were some doubts about the legality of its continuance since the lord deputy Wandesford's death, he was content to call a new one, upon condition that all particulars were previously agreed, and the acts to be passed first transmitted, according to custom (for he would by no means consent to the suspension of Poyning's act); the proposers giving his majesty security that there should be no attempt in that parliament to pass any other act than what was agreed

on, or to bring any other prejudice to any of his majesty's protestant subjects."

123 The main point still remained, viz. the repeal of the penal laws; and to this his majesty answered, "that as they had never been executed with rigour, so if his recusant subjects should, by returning to their duty and loyalty, merit his favour and protection, they should not for the future have cause to complain, that less moderation was used to them than had been in the most favourable times of queen Elizabeth and king James, provided they lived quietly and peaceably according to their allegiance; and such of them as manifested their duty and affection to his majesty should receive such marks of his favour, in offices and places of trust, as should plainly shew his good acceptance and regard of them."

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These answers, such as the king could give, came far short of the propositions. The Irish agents behaved themselves to his majesty with great show of modesty and duty; they confessed, "that as his majesty's affairs then stood, they believed he could not grant them more, and they hoped that their general assembly, when informed. of the truth of his majesty's condition, (which was un-508 known when their instructions were given,) might be persuaded to depart from some of their demands; but as for themselves, they had no authority at present to recede from any of them." The king dismissed them with a pathetic admonition, "to consider his circumstances and their own; that if upon those conditions, which were all he could grant without prejudice to himself, and which were sufficient for the security of their lives, estates, and exercise of their religion, they lost no time in returning to their duty, and assisting him to recover the rights and power of his crown, he should never forget the merit of such a service, and might think himself bound to gratify them in some particulars, not seasonable to be now granted; but if they should insist on others, which he

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could not in honour or conscience comply with, they would in the end have reason to repent this their senseless perverseness, when it would be too late, and when they found themselves under a power that would destroy them, and make them cease to be a nation." The agents, dismissed with this admonition, which after-experience shewed to be very just, departed for Ireland, and arrived at Waterford on June 23, in order to give an account of their commission to the general assembly, which was to meet on the 20th of the following month.

The king's council in England, possessed with a dread of the parliament, and declining to give their advice, or speak their sentiments in the affair, thought fit, to ease themselves of the burden and odium thereof, to lay it upon the marquis of Ormond, and to refer all further proceedings in the treaty of peace to his management, as best able to conduct it to the desired issue.

already involved in difficulties great enough to confound the best capacity, andy had too just reason to complain of this additional hardship. He found himself at Dublin ready to be devoured by want, almost hopeless of relief, blocked up at sea, encompassed with powerful armies, Scots and Irish, having no strength to oppose them but a very small, indigent, unsatisfied army, unfortified towns, unfaithful inhabitants for the most part, and upon the matter empty magazines and stores. He could not forbear on this occasion to represent his condition, and how hard it would be to find commissioners in Ireland, that would take upon them to conclude what his majesty, assisted by his council of England, and by selected men from the state of Ireland, found too much difficulty to adjust. He thought it could not escape consideration, that if the people of England (and of them, such as were most concerned in the good success of the king's affairs) had such a reluctance to a peace with the Irish, out of compassion

y See Collection of Letters, No. CCCXI.

to the sufferings of their countrymen, or a jealousy of the honour of the English nation, it could not possibly be expected that the English in Ireland, who for the most part had felt those outrages, which the others so much. pitied and resented, should be induced to acquiesce in a settlement, not held fit to be avowed in England, but concluded by a derived authority in Ireland; for which reason they would be more apt to question it, and venture to disobey it with the greater boldness. He judged himself the unfittest person alive to be intrusted with transacting this affair of the peace, because his conduct must. needs be more liable, than any others', to misconstruction, and his commands more likely to be disputed. A person who had no interest in the kingdom, nor any kindred amongst the Irish, might without offence allow them great favours, there being no possibility to asperse such a man of favouring them for any other reason than for his majesty's service, and the preservation of the kingdom. Whereas all his estate lay in Ireland, and he could not enjoy it without a peace; he had an infinite number of relations and friends among the Irish, and consequently 509 could scarce make them any concession, but what was capable of being imputed to his affection or partiality to those relations, nor take a step towards peace without being charged with too great a fondness for it, out of a view to his own particular interest. It was likewise probable that the Irish, notwithstanding these restraints he lay under, might expect greater favours from him than they would from a stranger, and finding him steady in refusing them, would be more apt to resent that refusal at his hands, and reproach him as a person who had no natural affection either to his relations or his country; which notion and resentment once entertained would defeat all his endeavours to bring them to compliance. He had for his majesty's service already gained the illwill of the English parliament and the Scotch nation,