number of men to the siege of Drogheda, was so harshly used by them that he attempted to escape to Dublin. On his way he was attacked by a strong body of rebels who robbed him, stripped his wife and her attendant in a shameful manner, and so maltreated the old earl that he died shortly afterwards. His house and property were also destroyed to the value of twenty thousand pounds.1 When we find that the whole spiritual and temporal authority which then existed in Ireland was made use of to coerce all men into rebellion, and that the only choice given was revolt or ruin, we may well wonder that even "the very few" mentioned by Father Walsh were able to resist the pressure. The existence of the rule, which excluded from innocence those who had quietly enjoyed their estates in the rebels' quarters, is to be ascribed to the action of the bishops and of the Supreme Council of the Confederates, which made it almost impossible for a Roman Catholic to adhere to his allegiance. The rule was long debated in the English Privy Council before it was inserted in the Act of Settlement. "But," as we are informed by the AttorneyGeneral, "the reason which prevailed for the inserting of it was this that the rebellion was almost twenty years before the passing of the Act; and the Irish having murdered all the English or driven them away, it was not possible to find a witness against some persons in the whole barony. And it being certain no man could live quietly among the Irish who did not comply with them, the very enjoying an estate in those quarters was left in the Act as a mark of delinquency ".2

When at the end of the rebellion the adventurers and soldiers received possession of the lands allotted to

1 Archdall's Peerage, i., p. 240 and note; O'Conor, Hist. Address, ii., p. 229.

2 Report of Sir Heneage Finch, Attorney-General, made in Council on February 1, 1670-1 (Carte, Appendix).

them under the Parliamentary settlement, Ireland was a desert. But the new proprietors set to work with a will, aided by the farmers and peasants who remained in their homes, and were employed as tenants or servants. The adventurers and soldiers speedily effected a change in the face of the country. Houses were erected, plantations of trees made, seats were built and parks enclosed. The new owners were easy landlords, and their tenants, remembering the ravages of the war, could not but compare their present security with their former misery. "The farmers," says Mr. Prendergast, "found their condition improved under the Cromwellians 1." Nothing is farther from the truth," wrote Archdeacon Lynch in his reply to a book published by another Roman Catholic before the Restoration of Charles II., "than the statement that the lower orders of the Irish desire the re-establishment of the Confederation. For now the farmers of that country conduct themselves with an insolent petulance they never showed before; as the Parliamentary Governors, though they have not entirely freed them from impositions and taxes, have yet greatly lightened their burdens. Whence it is, that revelling in abundance they have become saucy, and, like men wholly devoted to the acquisition of wealth, prefer, by many degrees, their present to their former condition". The rapid advance of the country in prosperity made a deep impression even upon the enemies: of the Puritans. "It cannot be imagined," says Lord Clarendon," in how easy a method and with what peaceable formality this whole great kingdom was taken from the just lords and proprietors, and divided and given amongst those who had no other right to it but

1 Cromwellian Settlement, p. 347.

2 Alethinologia, i., p. 136. The archdeacon makes use of the word plebem, not populum.

that they had power to keep it. . . . And which is more wonderful, all this was done and settled within little more than two years to that degree of perfection, that there were many buildings raised for beauty as well as use, orderly and regular plantations of trees, and raising fences, and enclosures throughout the kingdom, purchases made by one from the other at very valuable rates, and jointures made upon marriages, and all other conveyances and settlements executed as in a kingdom at peace within itself, and where no doubt could be made of the validity of titles." When the Parliamentary settlement had been accomplished, Ireland was incorporated with Great Britain and the first Legislative Union was effected.1

1 The three kingdoms were represented in the Parliaments of 1654 and 1656; a third united Parliament was called by Richard Cromwell, in November, 1658.

131

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ACTS OF SETTLEMENT. FIRST PERIOD OF THE REIGN OF JAMES II.

AT the commencement of the reign of Charles II., the three provinces of Leinster, Munster and Ulster were in the possession of the adventurers, the soldiers, the Protestants who had not fought against the Parliamentary forces, or who had compounded for their delinquency, and of the few Roman Catholics who had not engaged in the rebellion. The title of the two last-mentioned classes could not be assailed, but the adventurers and soldiers stood in a very different position. The adventurers, who had advanced their money on the faith of English statutes to which the late King had given his assent, knew well that chicanery is always forthcoming at the call of injustice, and the soldiers had nothing to rely on but a Parliamentary title. They therefore united and determined to submit their interests to the King, for whose restoration they had declared earlier than the Royalists in England. On the 30th of November, 1660, Charles issued his declaration for the settlement of Ireland and the satisfaction of the several claimants. This declaration was the foundation of the Act of Settlement. The first clauses of the declaration, which were inserted in the Act, confirmed the adventurers and soldiers, with certain exceptions, in the lands of which they were possessed on the 7th of May, 1659. After securing the adventurers and soldiers, the Act proceeded to make provision for those Roman Catholics who should be found innocent of the

rebellion and for other classes of claimants, if lands should be found for them. But as its possessions had been restored to the Church, and enormous grants made to the Duke of York, Ormond, Monk, and others, it was soon found that the claims far exceeded the means of satisfying them. The only hope of arriving at peace lay in voluntary defalcations from the interests of those whose rights had been already secured. The adventurers and soldiers were willing to make a sacrifice in order to obtain an undisturbed title. Negotiations took place between them and the representatives of the dispossessed Roman Catholic proprietors, and a settlement was effected which ought to have been considered final by all parties. This was the origin of the Explanatory Act which was passed in 1665. That the above is an accurate account of the Explanatory Act is shown by the history of it which the highest authority, namely the man who drew it has left us. "Now, the beginning and progress of the Explanatory Act was thus: The stock of reprisals being deficient, and so no hopes for such Irish as were to be restored after reprisals, a bill was sent over to retrench from adventurers and soldiers a sixth part to enlarge the stock of reprisals. The Irish complained of this as too little, alleging that the false admeasurements and concealments with which they could charge the English would come to much more. Thereupon the English entered into a treaty with those who undertook to act for the Irish here, and they were persons of eminent rank among the Irish. Upon this treaty it was concluded that the English should be first satisfied with 1,800,000 acres of profitable land, and the Irish should have all the rest. And, upon this foundation, I was commanded to draw a bill, and did so. As soon as it was finished, the Irish

1 Heneage Finch, afterwards the great Lord Nottingham, who laid the foundation of our modern Equity system.