" and

inconfiderable fums of money; thefe," I fay, many other particulars of that kind, his lordfhip imagined, might probably difpofe these commiffioners to fuch a prejudice against many of the English, and to fuch a compaffion towards the Irish, 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 fupporting the ill-gotten titles of thofe who had manifested all imaginable infidelity and malice against his majefty, whilft they had any power to oppose him." But certainly every candid perfon will allow, that men of fuch diftinguished integrity and understanding, as his lordship admits thefe commiffioners to have been, were not likely to be biaffed, 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 fome part at least of those unreasonable prejudices, which prevailed but too generally at that juncture of time.“

CHAP.

"On the firft 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 reftoring fome Irish, "raifed fo great a clamour, that the English refufed 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 affiftance 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 utmoft endeavours, by force, to recover the poffeffion of thofe lands which the commiffioners had decreed to them; whilft 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

CHAP.

XXI.

The conditions of the innocency or nocency of the

claimants.

BUT although the commiffioners of the court of claims were thus happily changed, the rigorous conditions of the innocency or nocency of the claimants, that had been first resolved upon, were ftill continued. According to these conditions, to prove a perfon innocent,' it was not enough to fhew, that he had never taken arms in the late infurrection, or entered into any treaty or affociation with those who had; no: for if fuch a perfon chanced but to dwell, however inofVOL. II. fenfively,

I

• Sale and Settlement of Ireland. Cart. Orm. vol. ii.

fo far troubled and diffatisfied with these proceedings, that they declared they would proceed no farther in the execution of their commission, until they could receive his majesty's farther pleasure; and that they might more effectually receive it, they defired leave from the king that they might attend his royal perfon; and there being at the fame time feveral complaints made against them to his majesty, and appeals to him from their decrees, he gave the commiffioners leave to return; and at the same time all the other interests sent their deputies, to folicit their rights; in the profecution whereof, after much time spent, the Duke of Ormond was called from Ireland to court; at which time a third bill was tranfmitted from the Irish parlia ment (the black bill), additional and fupplemental to the other two, and to reverse many of the decrees made by the commiffioners." Clarend. Life, vol. ii. p. 329.

"The king," fays Lord Clarendon himself, " was very tender of the reputation of his commiffioners, who had been always esteemed men of great probity and unquestionable repu tation; and though he could not refuse to receive complaints, yet he gave those who complained no farther countenance, than to give the others opportunity to vindicate themselves. Nor did there appear the leaft evidence to question the fincerity of their proceeding, or to make them liable to any reasonable sufpicion of corruption; and the complaints were still profecuted by those who had that taken from them, which they defired to keep for themselves." Ib. p. 231.

fenfively, in any of the places occupied by the infurgents, he was to be judged nocent.

This was furely a very hard condition; " for abundance of Roman catholics," as Mr. Carte obferves,' "well-affected to the king, and very averfe to the rebellion of their countrymen, lived quietly in their own houses, within the quarters of the rebels; who out of reverence to their virtues, or favour to their religion, allowed them to do fo; fuch of them as had offered to take fhelter in Dublin, were by the lords justices banished thence on pain of death by public proclamation, and ordered to retire to their own houfes in the country, where they could not help falling under the power of the rebels; and if these fuffered them to live there in quiet, an equitable man, who confiders the circumstances of thofe times, and the condition of all countries that are in a state of war, will hardly fee any iniquity in the receiving that mercy, or in the unavoidable neceffity they were under of living in their own houfes, as fhould bring upon those perfons the forfeiture of their eftates."

But of all the marks of nocéncy established on this occafion, that of having taken the engagement to Cromwell, was the most extraordinary; for that engage. ment was primarily contrived, during the ufurpation, by thofe very perfons," who, after the king's return, had acquired authority and influence enough to have the modelling and impofing of thefe rigid conditions. From whence refulted this very fhocking injuftice and abfurdity, peculiar, certainly, to the policy of these times, that the original framers and promoters of that engagement, who had themfelves voluntarily taken and signed it, and had compelled others to take it, were not only held innocent, but rewarded with great honours, and employments of the highest authority in the ftate; while thofe who abhorred it, when it was forced upon them, and never took it but at the last extremity,

3

2 Orm. vol. ii.

3 Sale and Settlement, &c.

The new Earls of Orrery and Montrath.

extremity, and to avoid a violent and fhameful death," were condemned as nocent, not only to the lofs of their estates, but also to the mortification of feeing them bestowed upon the very authors and imposers of that engagement.

CHA P. XXII.

The time limited for holding thefe courts found too short, and not fuffered to be enlarged.

THE time limited for holding the court of claims was a twelvemonth; but it fat only" from February to Auguft following; during which space, the claims of near a thousand innocents were heard, whereof half were declared innocent, notwithstanding the many difficulties they had to encounter, as well from the rigorous conditions before-mentioned, as from a fwarm of corrupt witnesses that were daily employed against them. For the fuborning of witneffes at these trials was fo frequent and barefaced, that their perjuries were fometimes proved in open court,' by the testimony of honourable perfons, who happened accidentally to be prefent. Sir William Petty boasted,

when he had evicted the Duke of Ormond out of fome lands before this court, that he had gotten witneffes, that would have fworn through a three-inched board."

1 Cart. Orm. vol. ii.

I 2

2 Id. ib. f. 393.

The

b"This engagement was, during the ufurpation, forced upon the Irish in so violent and barbarous a manner, that those who refused it, were not only excluded from all benefit of the laws, but were also in imminent danger of their lives from the public orders given to Cromwell's foldiers to allow quarters to no perfon, whom they should meet in their way, that could not produce a certificate of his having taken it; orders which were cruelly executed, even on poor peasants, when through ignorance or forgetfulness, they had left their certificates behind them." Sale and Settlement of Ireland.

* Sir William Petty was accufed, in the court of claims, of fuborning

The time limited for the trial of innocents being expired,' Sir Richard Rainsford, one of the commiffioners, and a man of great probity, thought it reasonable to fue for more time, in order to try the claims of those who could not be heard within the period above-mentioned, and who certainly, had as much right to demand the restitution of their eftates, until they were heard and found nocent, as those who had undergone their trials, and been adjudged innocent. "But thefe,+

fays Mr. Carte, were left to be ruined, merely for want of that common justice of being heard, which is by all nations allowed to the worst of malefactors. The Duke of Ormond," adds he, "did not think it proper to infert a claufe in the bill, in the draught of which he was obliged to have the concurrence of the council, for relief of these unheard innocents." The duke himself seemed confcious of the injustice of this omiffion; for in a letter to the Earl of Clarendon on that occafion, he fays," "if you look upon the compofition of this council, and parliament, you will not think it probable, that the fettlement of Ireland can be made with

3 Sale and Settlement.

s Cart. Orm. vol. iii.

+ Ubi fupra.

fuborning witnesses against Lord Barnwell and thirty-five Irish proprietors but took care to have his caufe brought before his friends in the Irish commons, then fitting, which confifted moftly of men of his own ftamp, Cromwellian officers and adventurers, who acquitted him of the charge, on a fuppofition that the profecution was malicious, and intended "to blemish and difable fuch teftimonies as fhould be brought into that court (of claims) against rebels, and particularly against the thirty-five Irish proprietors above-mentioned." See Com. Journ. vol. ii. f. 281. & alibi.

bOf four thoufand claims of innocents, entered in that court of claims, the commiffioners had not, time to hear above fix hundred, by the 22d of Auguft, when their commiffion ended." Life of Ormond, vol. ii. f. 297.

The Irish commons in their addrefs to the queen (Anne) in 1709, declare, "that the title of more than half the eftates then belonging to the protestants, depended on the forfeitures in the two laft rebellions" (in 1641 and 1688.) Com. Jour. vol. iii. f. 643.