consequences of the Lord Tirconnell's administration, which the most of any one thing brought on the misfortunes of hist Master." The number of Irish Protestants who took refuge in England during Tirconnell's reign of terror was very great. An English contemporary 2 accepted the estimate that 40,000 families had fled from Ireland into England. All such estimates must be at the best very inexact, but the magnitude of this number shows the impression made upon the mind of some by the vastness of the exodus. At the time that the Irish refugees appeared in England, there were in London and the other towns of that country at least 30,000 French Protestants who had been driven out of their country by the persecution following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.3 The presence of so many thousands, exiled from two neighbouring kingdoms for their religion, must have hardened many hearts against James, and disposed them in favour of the Prince of Orange. The misgovernment of Tirconnell, the action of the Irish Government in 1689 and the war which ensued gave birth to evils which were not limited to one generation. They were the immediate causes of the Penal laws respecting property and status, which were enacted in the reign of William and Anne, and continued during the following reigns, until a sense of security relaxed their severity. These laws were passed by men, who, having the experience of two universal rebellions within a period of forty years, believed they were necessary to protect their lives, their possessions and their religion. They 1 Leslie, Answer, p. 188. 2 "Character of the Protestants of Ireland, etc.," London, 1689. "Report of the English House of Commons, 13th February, 1691." Mazure makes the number 50,000; Michelet puts it at 80,000. were intended to reduce the Roman Catholics by slow degrees to political insignificance, and to break down their power of again rebelling or of giving assistance to a foreign invader; but no property was taken by them from that body, nor did any Protestant ever gain an acre of ground by them. It is interesting to compare these laws, which have been the subject of so much declamation without a reference to the causes which produced them, with the proceedings of Tirconnell and the action of the Roman Catholic Parliament of 1689. Within the short space of five years vast numbers of the Protestants were compelled to fly the country after having witnessed the destruction of their property. The Parliament which Tirconnell had called into existence condemned to death upwards of 2,300 of the Protestant nobility, clergy, gentry and traders unless they surrendered themselves to their enemies, and at one blow deprived their community of millions of acres without any compensation, even for the vast improvements effected by the proprietors. How great those improvements were we learn from King James himself.1 "The great improvements had so enhanced the value of most estates as would allow the old proprietors a share of equal income to what their ancestors lost, and yet leave a competency for the purchasers who might reasonably be allowed the benefit of their own labours."2 1 Clarke, Life of James II., ii., p. 358. 2 Of Tirconnell's misgovernment and the persecution of the Protestants Mr. Lecky and his school make no mention, thus passing over in silence events which largely influenced the subsequent history of the kingdom. 160 CHAPTER IX. JAMES II. IN IRELAND. ONE of the results of James's flight from England, and his attachment to the French King, was to bring Ireland within the sphere of European politics, and of the great political and religious conflict which then divided the continent. At this time the predominance of France and the ambition of Louis XIV. threatened the balance of power in Europe and the existence of the reformed religion. A great offensive and defensive Alliance of the continental States, both Catholic and Protestant, was formed to withstand the common danger. One of the aims of the Alliance was to detach England from France, but the supremacy of Louis was necessary to James to enable him to carry out his projects for the establishment of his own arbitrary power and the advancement of his religion against the opposition of his subjects. James had been requested to co-operate with the allied Powers, and his declining to do so lost him the sympathy of the Pope and of the Catholic Sovereigns, the Emperor and the King of Spain. Fortunately for the Prince of Orange, Louis, anxious to anticipate the efforts of the Confederates, poured his forces into Germany, and left the Prince at liberty to prosecute his expedition. The first consequence of William's obtaining the crown of England was to add the military resources of that kingdom to those See the Emperor's letter to James, dated the 9th of April, 1689 (Clarke, Life of James II., ii., p. 324). of the Alliance. To make a diversion, and to occupy William's attention at home, James was despatched into Ireland, and was furnished by the French king with officers to discipline his troops, and with a sum of money to support his first endeavours. James landed at Kinsale on the 12th of March, 1689, and on the 14th proceeded to Cork, from which town he rode to Dublin, which he reached on the 24th. The next morning he called a Council, and having erased from its list the names of Lord Granard and Chief Justice Keating, and inserted those of D'Avaux, Powis, Berwick and others of his adherents, he ordered five proclamations to be issued :(1) For raising the value of the currency; (2) summoning a Parliament for the 7th of May following; (3) requiring all who had left the kingdom to return with assurance of protection; (4) commending his Roman Catholic subjects for having armed themselves, yet "whereas it had encouraged some certain robberies," ordering all who were not in the army to lay up their weapons; (5) encouraging the carriage of provisions to the army in the North, and forbidding his soldiers and officers from seizing any without payment. James's whole reign in England had been a contest between arbitrary power and Parliamentary government. The national opposition to his plans compelled him to fly to France. He was now about to find a similar resistance to the new policy, which Louis had induced him to adopt with regard to his Irish subjects. That policy was to conciliate the Protestants and to defer his project of repealing the Acts of Settlement until he had recovered his authority over the three kingdoms. For the present, no difference was to be made between the Protestants and Roman Catholics, and all obedient subjects were to be left in possession of the property which they held. D'Avaux, the 11 VOL. I. 2 French ambassador, who was sent with James, was instructed to use his influence with him in reconciling the Roman Catholics and Protestants with each other, and in preventing him from making any difference in their treatment. In August, 1687, James and Tirconnell had met at Chester, and there it had been agreed between them to proceed at once with the repeal of the Acts of Settlement and the confiscation of the estates of the Protestants. But when this resolution was adopted, James was still King, and his position seemed to be secure. Subsequent events had taught him the wisdom of the disingenuous policy recommended by Louis. It would have pleased his party in England, and lessened the opposition of the Irish Protestants. The repeal of the Acts of Settlement was viewed with disfavour by the vast majority of his English supporters, who regarded such a measure as a separation of Ireland from England. James was well aware that nothing would strengthen the hands of his English and Scotch friends, and allay the suspicions entertained of him, so much as justice and kindness to the Irish Protestants. Such a line of conduct would have been a complete answer to his enemies, if he could have shown that in Ireland, where he was supported by the majority, he had not only abstained from ill-treating the Protestants, but had protected them. James saw that his interest demanded the conciliation of the Protestants, and that a policy of amnesty and mildness would increase the chances of his restoration in England. When he arrived in Ireland, his aim was to recover his British dominions either by means of a peaceful recall or by an invasion. Ireland was regarded by him merely as a stepping-stone to that end. Hence it was that he had so readily adopted the advice of Louis, contrary 1 Ranke, History of England, iv., p. 535. |