35

them, upon which a medium was proposed, that an equal number of both parties should be chosen. This appearing equitable, and liable to no inconvenience, when eight out of twelve were to concur in any resolution or order, before it could be of force, was assented to by all parties. This would indeed have obstructed all measures towards a peace, if lord Muskery and his friends had not, towards the end of the session, prevailed to have a new regulation made by the assembly with regard to the council. As 20 the members might several of them be absent on occasion, so that a sufficient number to sign an order might sometimes be wanting, it was proposed that there should be appointed some supernumeraries to supply the places of such as were absent. The assembly accordingly named a few at first, and went on to name others, till the very last moment of their sitting, so that at last forty-eight of these additional or occasional members were chosen, all of lord Muskery's partisans. The nuncio complained heavily of the bishop of Fern's suffering himself to be overreached in this regulation, which (as he said) made the Ormondists absolute masters of the council, well knowing that as soon as they had declared their measures those who opposed them would retire, and they should never want enough to vote with them. The resident council consisted of R. Belling, Pat. Brian, and Robert Devreux for Leinster, lord Athenry, sir Robuck Lynch, and sir Lucas Dillon for Connaught, the bishop of Clogher, Henry O'Neile, and Terence O'Reily for Ulster, and the bishop of Limerick, Dr. Fennel, and Gefferey Baron for Munster.

The agents appointed to go abroad judged it would be safest for them to go all together under a good convoy; but the nuncio would not be satisfied unless the Roman set out first. Thus Ferns and Pluncket sailed from Waterford on Feb. 10, but meeting with storms were forced to put back, and sailed again on the 17th, charged with par

ticular instructions from the nuncio, and with a joint petition from eight bishops, as well as letters from Owen O'Neile and the bishop of Clogher to the pope, entreating that he would make Rinuccini a cardinal. He was very ambitious of that dignity, and would have been promoted to it, if Dublin had been taken; which made his disappointment in that enterprise the more grievous to him. Muskery and Brown left the port of Waterford on the 11th, the day after the Roman agents, but were like them drove back by ill weather and contrary winds. The nuncio had taken care they should be tied down in their treaty with the queen and prince of Wales, by the same instructions as the others, and by another, which restrained them from inviting the prince over into Ireland, till all the articles of the peace were settled and received; thinking that the party for peace could execute none of their schemes without his highness's coming. This and the other instructions for insisting on Roman catholics being always governors of the kingdom and generals of the armies, and on the religious articles of the peace being published at the same time with the civil, and for using instances with the pope preferably to all others to accept the protectorship, were all added by the clergy to those which had been drawn by the council, with some others relating to the restitution of the old Irish to the planted lands in Ulster; which the council had the less reason to dispute about with an obstinate set of men at home, because the agents were resolved to make no use of them abroad, nor to insist on matters which they knew had been already, and ever would be rejected; and the insisting on which would have made all peace with their own prince impracticable, and immediately have subjected them to a foreign power, which was now the declared design of the clergy and the old Irish.

36

Antrim, having different views from his colleagues, would not go along with them, but sailed (seven days be

fore them) on Feb. 20 from Waterford, full of hopes of being made the Roman catholic lord lieutenant desired in the instructions. His own vanity, and the great opinion he entertained of his merit and services, the favour of Rinuccini and the Irish clergy, and the interest he proposed to make in the court of France by the credit of the nuncio at Paris to whom he was recommended, were the foundation of those hopes which his natural confidence and eager wishes advanced in a manner to an as- 21 surance of success. Muskery and Brown knew the man, and leaving him to his visions, resolved to take their own measures for the saving of their perishing country. They landed at St. Malo on March 14, and soon after waited upon the queen and prince at St. Germain, by whom they were favourably received. They brought with them and shewed some private instructions, signed by Taaffe and Preston, generals of the Munster and Leinster armies, and directing those agents to assure the queen and prince "that no power nor expectation of self-interest, should ever make them decline those principles of loyalty to their king which they had always professed, and should to their dying day continue unalterably in their minds and actions; that such was the condition, the strength, and affections of their armies, that they litle valued those that had a mind, if they had ability, to oppose them; and that all the well-affected persons in the kingdom were resolved to join with them, and contribute their lives and fortunes to compass the end they aimed at, which was the reestablishment of the king's authority in all his dominions; that though there was a party which endeavoured to traverse their measures and to introduce a foreign jurisdiction, yet the practices of that party were well known, and it would be in their power to destroy it, if they had but assurances of assistance and countenance from the queen and prince; that in their opinion, the

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only way to reduce Ireland and make it entirely obedient and useful to the king was, that the prince would be pleased to come over with a considerable proportion of money and arms, and with a resolution to condescend to the requests of his moderate and well-affected subjects; in which case they engaged to put under his command such a body of forces as would not only settle Ireland, but, with some assistance in England, be serviceable to regain his rights and interest in his other dominions; and that if the prince would neither come over nor send supplies, he would at least be pleased to direct them how to dispose of themselves, and his other subjects, who would willingly know no other obedience but what they owed to him."

37 These were the instructions which Muskery and Brown had most at heart. They were however obliged to join with Antrim in presenting to the queen on April 2 the other propositions given in charge to them all and dictated by the clergy. In these, waving all demands in point of religion, which they were not ready to make, till they heard from Rome, they desired "not only the benefit [of] all the concessions in temporal matters, contained in the articles of the late peace; but also that the act to be made for confirming the peace should pass in Ireland without being transmitted into England; that the clause about universities should have no other limitation than that about inns of court, or at least the regulations thereof should be known before the conclusion of the articles; that places in the civil government as well as in the martial should be conferred by special instances on the Roman catholics upon conclusion of the articles; that peers who had no estates in Ireland should purchase the estates specified in the article of the late peace about them, before they sat or voted in parliament; that plantations since Jac. I should be exempted from the cognisance of the

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council-board; that the clause in the act of oblivion for excepting special crimes should be omitted; that all who should not submit to the peace within forty days after it was proclaimed should be declared traitors; that all planted estates in Ulster, recovered from the parliamentarians, and in the hands of any of the Irish, whose ancestors formerly enjoyed them, should continue in the hands of the present possessors; that all others, whose ancestors 22 had been dispossessed by any plantation since Jac. 1 should be admitted in the next parliament, or in any other court to sue for the recovery of their estates; and that the estates of all such as should forfeit them by not submitting to the peace, should be restored to the descendants of those Irish who had enjoyed them before the plantation."

38

The queen received the propositions, and took time to consider what the king had formerly absolutely refused, and what she for that reason was already determined not to grant. She consulted the marquis of Ormond on this subject, and desired his opinion with regard, as well to these demands, as to what was necessary further to be done for the affairs of Ireland. He told her, that he thought "the answer to the Irish propositions should be so contrived, as to shew (to the greatest advantage that general terms could express) his majesty's gracious inclinations towards the settlement of that kingdom, upon such conditions in matters of religion and of civil concernment, as should satisfy all those who had any desires towards peace. But to give present particular answers, by way of concession to any of their propositions, (he conceived,) could be of no use; it being as uncertain whether they would satisfy or not, and full as uncertain (if they would) what advantage could come of it, till the issue of other negotiations appeared. On the contrary, those concessions would be subjected to the debates of their

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